Okay, there were some last minute dialogue changes to this chapter, but I think I'm done editing it. For now. You finally get your reunion, at least!

"Okay, Sly. The security system is down. You're all clear!"

"Great!" Sly grinned, pushing himself to the edge of the ledge. "I'm going in!"

It was phenomenal being back with his friends and doing this. He couldn't believe he'd been without it so long. He still hurt, of course, suspected he always would after what had happened, but his friends went a long way toward helping him out.

That, and the adrenaline and knowledge that he was continuing his family's legacy.

Speaking of which.

He threw himself into the skylight, feeling the small winch slow his descent to a manageable level until he hovered just in front of the dagger.

Swinging himself forward just slightly, he closed his hand around the ancient sheath. Slipping a calling card out of his belt, he made the switch effortlessly.

Then, of course, the door swung open.

"What the-"

"Freeze, Cooper."

Sly chuckled nervously, not taking his eyes off the gun, "Inspector Garter. Funny meeting you here."

Narrowing his eyes, the cougar stalked forward, "Not particularly, but why don't we head on back to the station? I'm sure you and Carmelita will have plenty of laughs."

The raccoon winced, then smiled, thumbing the winch control on his belt, "Sorry, I gotta to take a rain check."

"All units, Cooper is escaping via the roof! Repeat, all units-"

"Good evening, this is Sly Cooper. I'd like to request a ride."

"Cute, Sly."

It took twenty hours to get to Paris. Twenty. Hours. Longest train ride ever. On the upside, trains were the one thing that didn't give me motion sickness, go figure.

On the other upside, I had my iPod, so I spent a large portion of the trip staring out the window and dozing in a sort of meditative coma.

I reached Paris at about eleven at night, so I felt a strange mixture of dead and oddly energetic. Rubbing the side of my face that had been plastered against the window and was therefore numb, I swung my backpack up onto my shoulders and stuck my iPod in my pocket so I could depart with the few other passengers still on the train.

My first stop, I presumed, was the Safehouse. There were two Safehouses in Paris, the one that served as a home base and living quarters for the game most of the time, and the one that they used when they were pulling a job in Paris and didn't want to lead the cops back to their main hideout. After a few minutes of thought, I headed for the second one.

I immediately regretted that and all the other choices I'd made in my life when I opened the door and had my eyes assaulted by neon strobes lights and what was probably a disco ball.

There was only one explanation for this.

"Dimitri!" I shouted over the music, "Turn it down!"

I'm surprised he actually heard me, but then again he was probably intimately aware what his music sounded like by now and could tell when someone was making an attempt to yell over it.

"What do this Dimitri's eyes see? A white washed past-jumper?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Hard. "Hello, Dimitri. Where is everyone?"

"They split! They been gone since their job last night. Vanished right out from under those coppers, no one even knows they can jive on the temporal highway!"

It took me a second to translate that, "They already left?!" I felt my heart sink.

Dimitri nodded, "But the little turtle dude, he left something for you in the upstairs."

My heart climbed all the way up from my stomach to settle in my throat, "Bentley knew I was coming?"

"Little dude is genius, we always knew that."

I laughed, "Thanks, Dimitri. But why are you here?"

"Dimitri is looking after that dirt-old Cooper book. Too risky to go back in time with the cracker boxes."

"... right. I'm gonna go check out what Bentley left me."

"Stylin'."

I took the stairs two at a time. I'd only been in the lesser Paris Safehouse once, back when I first met the gang. The room I currently stood in was one in which I distinctly remembered deciding Bentley maybe wasn't so bad.

The desk that he'd been using at the time was now empty but for a simple box with a white envelope taped to the top.

I plucked the envelope from the box before I could chicken out. It simply had my name written on it in Bentley's distinctive handwriting. I opened it up and took out the letter.

Dear Kaia,

If you're reading this, then thank you for coming. I wasn't sure you would. I hoped you might, but I didn't want to force it.

I'm sorry we couldn't wait longer for you, but time is of the essence. The first entry in the Thievius Raccoonus to disappear was that of Rioichi Cooper. I believe you're familiar with him, having read the Thievius Raccoonus yourself. So our proposed destination is seventeenth century Japan.

In order to get there, we have to steal an ancient dagger belonging to the time period. Interpol has been suspiciously quiet lately, so this will probably get a little hairy and we'll have to depart immediately.

If that's the case, inside this box is a belt with a device implanted in it that is locked onto the van's temporal location. Once you put it on it will activate. There will be a three minute delay before it transports you to wherever in space-time the van is, within a few hundred yards. Be sure to have everything you need on hand before the device activates.

I hope to see you soon.

-Bentley

Good old Bentley, always believing the best of people.

I opened the box, peering warily inside. There was a belt inside, simple grey leather but for the four green stones imbedded in it and the technical-looking buckle. It looked more like a fashion statement than a time travel device. But then again, Bentley had bugged places with actual bugs, this was hardly his strangest moment.

Taking a moment to be thankful I was actually wearing jeans and, thus, had belt loops, I put the belt on. It buzzed slightly and a light on the front flashed.

I took a deep breath. No going back now.

I had to fight back an edge of hysterical laughter as I adjusted my backpack. I couldn't believe I was doing this again.

One thing was for sure, though. They definitely weren't getting rid of me this time.

The belt buzzed again, then gave a sharp, sudden jerk, and the Safehouse disappeared.

The Time Vortex is blue.

Who knew?

It only lasted a few seconds, but as I shot through the vortex, I felt like I was flying. It wasn't hot or cold or anything, it just was. It seemed like there were images I was flashing past, but it's probably a good thing I couldn't process them all, I might have lost my mind from the overload.

Then it was over and I was sprawling across a-

A dock?

I shook my head against the disorientation and looked around.

I was on a dock by a water wheel. A spray of cold water from the nearby waterfall hit my face and I whipped my head around trying to see everything at once.

Feudal Japan was beautiful, the sky was clearer than I'd ever seen it, various trees shed leaves of a variety of colors, a brilliant full moon showed overhead, making the night clear as noon.

There was one distinct problem, though. I couldn't see the van.

But Bentley's letter had said 'within a few hundred yards', hadn't it? Maybe it was behind one of the nearby buildings...

I'd just started down a path between two of the buildings, making for the one with a large panda sign over it by passing under an arch when-

A heavy weight landed on my back, shoving me to the ground and forcing the breath from my lungs. I tried to push myself up, get more room to breathe, but I suddenly found myself with a shuriken at my throat.

"I would be still, if I were you," a heavily accented voice warned.

I froze, swallowing and feeling the sharp metal star prick my skin, but otherwise not moving an inch.

"You are not one of El Jefe's guards," the deep voice mused, "But you carry the tools of the future with you. Identify yourself, trespasser."

This guy knew about time travel? Who-

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a striped tail. Could it be...?

"Are you Rioichi Cooper?" I asked quietly.

The pressure on my neck increased, "How do you know that name?"

"My name's Kaia, Kaia Jenks. I'm a friend of Sly and Bentley and Murray."

"They have not mentioned you."

Of course not, that would be far too easy. "They weren't sure I'd be coming."

There was a contemplative pause, "How do you know of me?"

Oh crap, this was a test, wasn't it? "I read your entry in the Thievius Raccoonus. You invented the ninja spire jump and Sly is your number one fan."

I wanted to punch myself in the face for that last comment because it had left my mouth without my consent, but Rioichi gave a surprised chuckle and let me up, allowing me to finally turn to look at him.

And I just about fainted, because Rioichi was clearly a hybrid. Despite his raccoon-like physique and markings, his fur was a deep brick red that made me think of red pandas.

But this guy was Sly's ancestor. How- What was going on here?

Not seeming to notice my internal panic, Rioichi looked me over. "You seem to speak truthfully, but if you lie you will not have the speed to escape."

I was pretty sure if I opened my mouth the sound I would emit would be some sort of high-pitched noise of strangulation, so I just kept my mouth shut and nodded.

Rioichi led the way around the side of the building, to a tunnel hidden by vines underneath the street and the river that, by the look of it, passed directly under where I'd landed.

He hooked the vines and drew them out of the way with his cane (his cane, his bamboo cane, this was either the Twilight Zone or Heaven and I couldn't tell which), motioning me to go first. It sounds like a gentlemanly gestured, but I was ninety-eight percent sure it was only so he could stab me with the katana strapped to his back if I tried anything.

Still, he was Sly's ancestor and a ninja, so I had to assume he had some kind of honor code or something. Hopefully.

I took a deep breath and walked into the Safehouse, stepping carefully on the stones to avoid soaking my shoes in the water that moved around them.

Sketchy entrance aside, the interior of the passage revealed a large room that looked like a normal Safehouse, aside from the fact that the van was in the corner as opposed to stashed somewhere outside that the guards would miraculously overlook. Also, there was a ping-pong table in the back for some reason.

The main focus of the room, though, was the large, circular table that seemed to following Bentley wherever he went. The turtle himself was at his laptop, clearly in the middle of some sort of planning. Sly and Murray were both leaning back in their chairs.

While Murray had pretty clearly dozed off, Sly was just looking up at the ceiling, clearly zoned out, a peaceful expression on his face.

When he looked over at our entrance though, that look vanished and was replaced by... well, something I'd never really seen before. It was blank, like the sheer amount of stuff actually going on inside his head was completely shorting out his ability to emote. It looked like he was going to fall out of his chair.

His sudden tension made Bentley look up, spot me, and grin, "Nice of you to join us!"

I shrugged, taking a few steps farther in, "Well, according to, oh, everyone I know, I just needed some time to get over myself. Besides, you can't get rid of me that easily."

"Clearly."

The speech seemed to break the spell Sly was under. He hurriedly stepped around the table, nearly tripping over his own feet, which was my first indication something was off.

In seconds he was in front of me, his expression unchanged, though there was something... desperate in his eyes. He lifted a hand and let it hover between us before, retracting it like I was going to bite him.

There was something wrong here. He hadn't said a word and he was moving so carefully.

I tilted my head to the side, narrowing my eyes at him, "Sly, what-hey!" I rubbed the shoulder he'd just jabbed with his fingers, "What was that for?!"

His mouth was slightly agape and, yeah, something was really wrong, he hadn't said a word and he always had a smart response to anything. I was actually starting to get worried. Something about his expression was... really vulnerable.

I opened my mouth to say... something, I hadn't quite figured it out yet, but before I could say or do anything, he took one final step forward, wrapping one arm around my shoulders to yank me into his chest while his other came up and rested on the back of my head.

All of which was really weird and something I would have called him out on if it weren't for the fact that I could now feel him shaking. He was trembling, head to toe, his face buried in my hair as he practically folded himself around me.

Now I was starting to get scared, "Sly?" I hesitantly wrapped my arms around his back, looking over his shoulder at Bentley, who looked just as confused and worried as I felt, "You're scaring me, what's wrong?"

He took in a deep, shuddering breath before letting it out. "You're alive... I... I thought..." he whispered, voice cracking.

Oh.

Oh...

Oh my God...

"Are you really here?" he breathed, sounding terrified, but resigned, almost expecting a negative answer.

I wrapped my arms far more tightly around him, squeezing as hard as I could to let him know that I was real, solid, not going to disappear.

Of course something was wrong, I was such an idiot, such a complete and utter moron, of course he wouldn't leave me like that, this was Sly. Oh my gosh, he had to have been in hell.

"It's okay," I said into his shoulder, running one hand up and down his back as he shook and holding onto him as tightly as I possibly could with the other, "I'm here, I'm real. I didn't know, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry."

Bentley looked horrified and I knew he'd heard. I jerked my head toward the door and he quickly hurried Rioichi and Murray out, muttering about a job.

And then we were alone and Sly hadn't budged an inch and I was eighty percent sure he was actually crying, which was horrifying because I had never seen Sly cry before.

"I'm okay," I continued to assure him, "I'm always okay, I'm the Queen of Okay. Actually, no, that's a terrible title, forget that title."

He let out a watery laugh, which only made me feel slightly better, and pulled back. And, yup, his eyes were wet, but he was smiling. He had his hands on my shoulders and squeezed them gently. "I can't believe you're here."

"I told you, you can't get rid of me."

"Promise?"

I rolled my eyes good-naturedly and plucked his hands from my shoulders, dragging him further into the Safehouse, "Come on, we clearly have some confusion to clear up."

So I made coffee and we talked.

It was hilariously surreal.

We were both sitting at the table, with me sitting sideways to it, as slouched as I could possibly get in my chair with my feet up on Sly's lap, him with his feet up on the table so we formed a sort of triangle of gravity-defiance and poor ideas.

In between me poking him in the stomach with my toes and him threatening to hold me down and tickle me until I passed out, we both somehow managed to get our stories told.

"Well, to be fair," I said after finding out he'd thought I was dead because Dr. M had told him as much, "The only reason I'm not dead is because Kristian jumped in after me."

"So he is useful for something other than shooting at me."

"Shocking, I know. And here I was thinking you'd just seen your chance to run off into the sunset with Carmelita and took it."

Sly shook his head, "Nah. I mean, I flirted with her to keep up appearances, but I think she could tell something was wrong. Before I knew it, we were just... friends."

I bit the inside of my lip, "And that was... okay?"

"Yeah. It turned out to be pretty great, actually." He said with a soft smile.

"So!" I stretched out, twisting my right leg to pop my knee, "Are we still in the planning stages or does everyone already have a job to do that I can take a nap during?"

Sly gave me an amused eyebrow-raise, "You just drank three cups of coffee."

"Yeah and I've also been awake for the past thirty-two hours because no one in their right mind can sleep on a train."

Shaking his head at me, he gestured over his shoulder, "You can use my sleeping bag, we'll dig yours out later, I'm pretty sure it's crammed under all the new tech Bentley installed in the van."

"Awesome," You wouldn't think someone could trick out a sleeping bag, but Sly totally had. I was pretty sure he'd sewn a few extra layers of padding to the bottom, but could prove nothing. I took great joy in burrowing into it and not just because it smelled like coffee and wood polish and Sly, shut up.

"Are you going to kill us if we wake you up?"

"There is a distinct possibility."

I fell asleep to Sly's soft chuckles and a feeling of stability I hadn't had in a long time.

Bentley stalled as long as he possibly could before returning to the Safehouse with Murray (Rioichi had gone to his sushi shop to properly store the massive amounts of fish that they'd gathered).

As soon as they walked in, Sly put a finger to his lips and pointed to where Kaia was curled up in his sleeping bag, dead to the world.

Nodding, Murray tiptoed over to work on the arcade game while Bentley wheeled himself over to Sly.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, wringing his hands, "I didn't know you thought... I should have said-"

"Bentley," Sly interrupted, a dazed smile on his face, "you have no idea how happy I am right now."

The turtle gave his friend a long, hard look. It was true, Sly looked better than he had since... since they were all on the pirate ship together, making their way to Kaine island.

"Good."

A groan came from over where Sly's sleeping bag was, "Well, that was fun while it lasted."

Amused, Sly turned to look at Kaia as she pulled herself out of the bag, "You got a couple of hours at least."

"Yes, that totally makes up for not sleeping for two days," Standing up appeared to be too much effort, so Kaia crawled over to where Murray was working on the arcade game and flopped down, using his rotund stomach as a pillow, "Hi, Murray."

"Hi, Kaia!" Murray probably would have hugged her if not for the fact that it looked like his hand was stuck in the arcade machine, "I'm glad you made it!"

"Me too, big guy."

Bentley nearly jumped when he noticed Rioichi had entered the hideout while they'd been talking. "That was fast."

Rioichi gave him an unimpressed look, "Speed is no matter for a ninja master."

Finally standing, Kaia stretched, "Okay, so what have I missed?"

"Pages of the Thievius Raccoonus disappearing, warlords time travelling, breaking Rioichi out of jail, and the reclaiming of a sushi restaurant." Bentley said succinctly.

"Fun. When can I get in the field?" Kaia talked right over Sly when he started to make a noise of protest, pointing at him, "No. I'm getting fieldwork. I'm not letting you wrap me in bubble wrap and leave me in the Safehouse."

Sly growled low in his throat before turning to Rioichi and gesturing to Kaia, "Do you happen to know of a tower I can lock her in?"

"Leaving me in Japan is also out of the question."

"Kaia can go with Rioichi and Murray to the geisha house."

"Wha- geisha house!?"

"Yes, we're disguising Murray as Madame Geisha in order to get information from El Jefe, the warlord I mentioned earlier."

Blinking, Kaia rubbed at her heard, "Everything makes so much less sense when you miss the slideshows."

"If you think that doesn't make sense," Sly motioned Kaia over so he could stage-whisper in her ear, "Bentley retired his projector."

"No!" she gasped, "Blasphemy!"

Bentley groaned, "My life was so much more peaceful when you two weren't in the same room."

"You love us, admit it."

"There's one problem," Kaia said, picking at her jeans, "Ritsuka packed my bag for me and didn't put any of my job clothes in it. I can't exactly run around doing jobs in jeans."

Sly, triumphant, looked like he was about to say something, but Rioichi spoke before he could. "I believe I can help with that."

Four pairs of eyes stared at him incredulously.

The gang is back together, so now we finally get to get started on the game proper! As always, check out the blog if you want and I'll see you all here same time in two weeks!