Well, let me just say that I was beyond amazed by the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the last chapter and appreciate it greatly.

It other news, this is the other chapter you've all been waiting for. It's super long because I wanted to end it in a particular place, so one of the next two chapters is probably going to be shorter than normal, but it averages out in the end. Enjoy!

After living with the Cooper gang for a while, you, by necessity, pick up certain reflexes.

Which was why, upon opening the door to the Safehouse and seeing a flaming ping pong ball sailing toward my head, I hit the deck automatically. Looking over, I saw that Sly had done the same, and looking forward, I spotted Galleth holding a ping pong paddle and one of Bentley's robo arms tossing a paddle out of sight in an attempt to appear innocent, and had the answer to a question I didn't even need to ask.

"My sincerest apologies!" Galleth said, bounding over as Sly and I picked ourselves up.

"The candles provide great mood lighting," Sly said wryly, "but maybe there shouldn't be one on the ping pong table."

"Sadly, this isn't the first time I've seen this happen." At the weird looks directed my way, I elaborated, "One of the intramurals in my first year of college was table tennis. Kurt and Millie decided they wanted to be a team and practiced all the time. Stuff happened."

Sly snorted and Galleth smiled the smile of someone who has no idea what is being spoken of, but wants to join in the joviality. After a moment, his grin fell and he scratched at the back of his neck, "Ah, I've spoken to Bentley and it appears I owe you an apology, Lady Kaia."

I raised an eyebrow at the 'Lady', but at least he was using my name, "Apology accepted."

"If everyone's done," Bentley said, wheeling back from the ping pong table and over to the round table, "I have a presentation to explain our next course of action."

"Did you figure out who the Black Knight is?" I asked, dropping into a chair.

He grimaced, "No. But I figure if we make him mad enough, he'll reveal himself. So, to that end, we're going to need to hit the Black Knight where it hurts, and that means taking out his production facilities he's set up in the village shops. First up, Murray, you'll need to visit the tavern." Murray looked excited for all of half a second before Bentley continued, "Sorry, big guy, no time for snacks. The tavern has been converted into a fuel production facility for those robotic guards. Get in there and do what you do best- tear the place apart!"

"Why don't I ever get the 'destroying stuff' gigs?" I stacked my feet on top of each other, "It would be an awesome stress relief."

"You destroy enough things entirely on your own," Bentley replied dryly. "Next, Sly, you'll need to revisit the shoemaker's. We're going to shut down the machines fabricating those ginormous parts! Last, but certainly not least, Galleth, you'll need to infiltrate the bakery. My instrument readings show it's the main power source for the other production facilities. You're the only one who can reach the second floor, where I believe you'll find a generator. There's no time to waste, so let's get going!"

I raised a hand, "And Kaia will be?"

Bentley tossed a headset at me, "Helping me coordinate. We're going to have to do this as in synch as possible, so they don't have time to either notice what we're up to or repair any one shop. I'm going to have to hack remotely sometimes, and you need to keep an eye on things while I do."

A laptop was passed my way and I shrugged before putting on the headset and booting it up. I waved as the others assembled to leave, "Have fun, don't get killed or captured and put into the circus."

"You needn't worry," Galleth said with grim drama, "it shall be avoided at all cost."

"Would you come save us if we did?" Sly asked with a smirk.

I smirked right back, "That would depend on whether or not you were in the dunking booth."

"You're cruel."

"Girl's gotta get her kicks somewhere."

"Do they have a dunking booth?" Kristian asked idly, "Because I'm on board with this plan."

"Come on, guys!" Murray pounded his fists, "Let's go smash stuff!"

"Coming, big guy." Sly threw a salute our way and followed the hippo out the door, with Galleth close on his heels.

"We march!"

"How is it that this is how you all act all the time," Kristian asked as he, Bentley, and I were finally left along in the Safehouse, "and yet no one's been able to arrest you and make it stick?"

"Because everyone who's trying to arrest and incarcerate us finds us charming," Bentley deadpanned.

I thought for a moment. "Bentley, out of all of us you're the only one who has never been captured and/or arrested."

"Like I said. Charming."

Kristian snorted, stretching out, "We'll see about that when we get back to the present."

"No offense Kristian, but I'm pretty sure Bentley could charm your car into locking the front doors, unlocking the back ones, and driving around the city nonstop for three days with a toothpick and whatever was left of the handcuffs once he got out of them."

Bentley looked pleased, "A slight exaggeration, but mostly accurate." He checked the map on his laptop, "Murray, you need to get to the tavern. For this one I think you can go right through the front door."

"You mean... punch through the door?" Murray asked eagerly.

Bentley looked pained, "I meant... walk? Actually."

"Oh... well, I like to have options."

Things went quite smoothly after that. An odd thing I'd noticed was that when more of the team was out in the field there tended to be fewer catastrophic coincidences. Correlation didn't necessarily equal causation, but I couldn't help indulging the thought as I directed Galleth and Bentley remotely hacked the machine fabricating the robot parts.

Then, of course, alarms started blaring at Galleth's end and a ton of warning began popping up on my laptop's monitor and it blew my correlation/causation theory out of the water.

"Galleth, I don't mean to rush you, but you need to get out of there. Because it's going to explode in a few seconds."

"Fear not, I have already begun my descent!"

"You know, I've gone back to wondering how any of you are even still alive," Kristian said, picking at his claws.

"If you can't say anything nice, we'll put you on patching that leak in the roof."

"Which one? There's over a dozen."

"Exactly." I noticed Bentley had rolled back from the table slightly and was checking the equipment on his chair, "Going somewhere?"

"Sly spotted the Black Knight on his way back. He's tailing him until I can get there, I want to find out what he's up to."

Kristian sat up straighter, "Need backup?"

Bentley shook his head, "No, but if you'd bring Murray and Galleth back, that would be good. Murray got wind of a pie-eating contest of all things at the circus and they're en route."

Rolling his eyes, Kristian stood, grabbing for his coat, "Of course they are."

"Anyone need me for anything? No?"

"We need you to hold the fort," Bentley said with an eye roll of his own, "try not to burn it down."

"I wasn't the one throwing flaming ping pong balls around!"

Sly was the first one back to the Safehouse. I could only assume that was because Murray was adamant about the pie-eating contest.

"Hey," he came in and took his half off, shaking excess water free from it.

"Is it raining more?" I asked, taking in his damp appearance.

Wringing the water from his hat, he grimaced, "No, but I had to stick to the rooftops to avoid the Black Knight and there's less shelter from the rain there, unless you're in the shadow of the clock tower."

"Well," I said, going over to the van to grab a towel. I'd synthesized a good amount earlier, since I'd changed out of my wet clothes as soon as I was alone in the Safehouse, "You're rocking the damp and disheveled look."

"I rock every look," Sly said with a grin, taking the towel I held out.

"I don't know," I crossed my arms with a smile as he tried to tousle his hair dry, "That purple coat thing in Venice didn't really work for you."

"Are you sure that wasn't just the fake beak?"

"It might have been the accent."

He snorted and reached out, hooking our fingers together, "Everyone always hates on the accent."

I twisted my hands so our palms pressed against each other, "You do kinda sound like someone doing a really bad Mario impression."

"You and Bentley. Always with the jealously."

"Yes, jealousy, of course." Noticing that Murray, Galleth, and, presumably, Kristian were nearly back at the Safehouse, I squeezed Sly's hand and let go, returning to my post at the table.

We hadn't necessarily agreed to not tell the others that we were giving the not-so-platonic thing a go, but what we did agree on was that it didn't seem like a good time to bring it up. And besides, it would have felt a little... weird and forced to make an announcement when we were really still testing the waters.

What was weird was how... not weird it was. It just seemed like it had been the natural next step all along. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"How you doing Bentley?" I asked as Kristian, Murray, and Galleth returned, the latter two looking like scolded children.

"Keeping tabs on the Black Knight. He mentioned something called 'Operation Overlord'."

"Well, that sounds stereotypically evil and also really bad," Sly said, draping himself across the back of my chair.

"Yes, I've noticed. I- what!?" Bentley seemed to have heard something, "My plans... I caused all this? Penelope... Oh, Penelope, please be alright!"

"Wait, Bentley, what?"

"No time, I have to hack." The turtle signed off. I stared blankly at the computer, making impotent noises of rage in the back of my throat and experiencing dawning revelation that this was what Bentley felt like all the time.

"What's going on?" Kristian asked coming over.

Sly was frowning, "Bentley said something about his plans being the cause of everything. Didn't you two think they'd been stolen, Jinx?"

"Well, we thought it was a possibility, yeah. And Penelope being missing reeks of foul play."

Frowning, Kristian asked, "Penelope, she's that RC specialist from Holland. Bentley's girlfriend?"

"Yeah," Murray chimed in, "Bentley came to find us after she went missing and the Thievius Raccoonus started acting weird."

Galleth had a manic light in his eyes. "A damsel in distress?" he asked excitedly. I was starting to think he had some kind of obsession with heroic tales. That would explain why he asked that like he'd just received a wonderful gift.

I shook my head, "Unlikely."

"This is the same girl who disguised herself as the Black Baron?" Kristian prodded.

"Yes, why?"

Bentley's voice came over the speakers, "Guys... I... I..."

He sounded stunned and horrified and every possible warning went off in my head, "Bentley? What's wrong?"

"The Black Knight... Penelope... this is all my fault!"

Sly bodily leaned over me, flattening his hand on the table next to the laptop and speaking with the tone I forever associated with China, when Bentley had been out of his depth and Tsao had attacked us directly, "Bentley, calm down. What happened, what about Penelope?"

"She's the Black Knight! I... I saw her get out of the armor, she's working for Le Paradox, she stole my time machine plans, I- everything was a lie. I- I think I'm going to be sick."

My heart dropped to the floor and I opened my mouth but nothing came out. I looked over at Sly and found him looking at me with the exact same expression of shock and horror I knew was on my face.

"Bentley, where are y-"

"I have to go."

The speakers went dead.

Bentley came back to the Safehouse, but he didn't talk to anyone. He just boosted himself up to one of the upper branches of the large tree the Safehouse was built into, crawled inside his shell, and didn't come out.

Sly and Murray both tried to talk to him, but it didn't do any good. Eventually, Murray just taped a drawing of the gang to the front of his shell and they both left him alone.

I knew the benefits to a good sulk and also didn't think I could possibly say anything that would help, so I just crawled up to the branches over Bentley's head and lashed them together to keep the rain out of his shell.

"Kaia?"

"Yeah?" I answered the binocucom quietly, climbing my way down.

"Galleth and I are meeting on top of the clocktower. We can't wait for Bentley, we have to take Penelope down."

I got the feeling Sly also didn't want to force Bentley to face Penelope until the turtle was ready, which made sense. "Got it. I'll meet you there."

Kristian came out of the Safehouse just as I signed off, "Are you going after her?"

"We're going to come up with a plan," I answered, checking my belt and cinching the straps on my backpack tighter. "Why, you want a shot at her?"

He looked up at Bentley's tree branch, "Yes, but I think I'll be more useful here, in case Bentley needs something. Let me know if you need me, though."

"Definitely."

The top of the clocktower was the highest point outside the castle walls. Fortunately, it was pretty easy to get to, there was a rope that led right to it.

"We need to take Penelope down," I heard Sly say as I got near the top, "but how? Man, we need Bentley back."

Heaving myself onto the roof, I watched Sly pace as Galleth stood nearby, looking contemplative. "We'll think of something," I said, standing. "We have to."

"I am still a bit bewildered that the Black Knight was a friend of yours," Galleth admitted.

"Yeah. So are we."

A dark look came over Sly's face as he turned away, "Yeah, well, obviously she's no friend of ours now."

I couldn't help remembering Neyla, and that the last time Sly'd been betrayed he'd also been nearly killed, then arrested and subjected to psychological torture. It made me grit my teeth, clench my fists, and have to breathe deliberately to keep myself from shouting.

The anger was important. If I could continue to be angry on behalf of Sly, Bentley, the gang, myself, over being betrayed, it would keep the sadness at bay. Because Bentley, he'd been so sorely used. And I'd considered Penelope a friend. Everything just... made it hard to concentrate.

"In the face of such treachery, there is but one option!" Galleth declared, sprinting to the other side of the roof and raising his lance as if to challenge the entire castle in front of him, "We storm the castle and smash this villain!"

I snorted and even Sly seemed amused as he made his way over. "Okay, slow down, Turbo," he said, clapping a hand on his ancestor's shoulder. "How are we going to get inside the castle?"

"That," Galleth declared, before seeming to lose momentum, "I know not. However, I do know how we may create some exceedingly useful explosive devices. You and I must part ways. I will gather fire bulbs, while you must procure a bottle of Merlin's Magic Powder."

"Um, while it's awesome that you know how to make bombs off the top of your head," I said warily, "Merlin's Magic Powder definitely sounds like some kind of hallucinogen. What are we going to do, poison her water supply?"

"Certainly not!" Galleth said, offended, "That would be a loathsome, cowardly act!"

"Of course." Sly placated, "And where would I get this?"

"Why, at the carnival, of course!" the knight gestured to the lights and tents near the Safehouse, "I hope your archery skills are satisfactory."

Sly smirked, like he just knew shooting stuff all over town had to pay off at some point, "Oh, I think I'm up to snuff."

Then, to my eternal surprise, Galleth rounded on me, "And while we undertake our tasks, you must find us a way into the castle!"

I blinked at him, then checked over my shoulder to make sure he wasn't talking to someone else, "Uh, me?"

"Indeed! I have noticed that you often assist our knowledgeable friend in his endeavors. Certainly you are up to the task!"

"He's right," Sly nodded decisively. "You're our backup and you work more closely with Bentley than any of us."

Right. Okay. Time to pull my weight. I took a deep breath and nodded.

"Then the die is cast! Fare thee well!" Galleth shouted before vaulting off the roof.

"Maybe he's had some of Merlin's Magic Powder," I muttered under my breath, watching him pelt away, totally unfazed by the drop. I was pretty close to taming my fear of heights, but only in situations where I had total control of how to get up and down. A thirty foot drop was not something I could fathom doing.

"I'll certainly be interested in seeing what the stuff is," Sly said, looking out toward the carnival.

I took a moment to look him over. He seemed normal, but tense, like he was prepared to strike at any moment, "You okay?"

He shook his head, "I'll be better once we get Penelope behind bars."

Taking in the low level simmer of anger under his features, I decided not to push. "Okay. Good luck at the carnival, Robin Hood."

That made him grin, "Oh, I'm sure it'll be just fine, Jinx."

I grinned as he took off toward the circus, then turned to the castle. Alright. Time to be Bentley.

Being Bentley is a severely underrated job and he should demand more benefits.

After examining the castle from every angle, I determined that the outer wall was impenetrable, unless Galleth's bombs had the kick of C4. The outer wall had a gate that seemed to be constantly open, but it was almost certainly being watched. It was unclimbable too. It was on a rocky island surrounded by water and built on a sheer cliff face.

Getting inside was easy if we went through the gate, but there was still the inner wall to contend with. Heck, before we could even get to the inner wall, we had to get across the moat. That was out of the question, with Sly and Galleth being unable to swim. The only way across was the draw bridge.

As much as instincts and common sense warred against going in through what was practically the front door, there didn't seem to be another way. The drawbridge controls, at least, were located at the base of the thing. If Sly could shoot a rope across, he and Galleth would be able to plant the devices to free the bridge, then get back across the moat safely to detonate.

I took some photos and hoped against hope that Penelope didn't have cameras or something pointed toward the gate. Even if she did, she knew how our heists worked and hopefully she would just think I was taking some recon photos for Bentley, not that we were actually wise to her.

Swallowing against the anger and sadness in my throat, I slipped away, back toward the Safehouse. I'd played the logs from Bentley's binocucom once it became clear he wouldn't talk to us. He had the binocucoms set up to record constantly, just in case something happened to one of us on a job and he needed the data.

From the sounds of things, Penelope had hoped to lure Bentley away from the gang and, if that didn't work, she wanted to eliminate the gang so she could have Bentley anyway. She'd been playing us all along. That made explained why she'd laid the flirting on so thick with Sly back in China, though. If she'd been trying to drive a wedge between him and Bentley via jealousy...

I buried a hand in my hair and took some deep breaths, pacing the length of the river while I tried to get myself under control. I couldn't go back to the Safehouse like this.

It hadn't worked, I held onto that fact. The whole encounter with Dr. M had made Bentley more loyal to the gang than ever. But I couldn't help questioning everything that had happened since... was their entire relationship a lie? Was she just trying to get at him for his brains? Or did she genuinely like him?

Either way, it made my heart ache for how sorely Bentley had been used.

"Jinx?"

I whipped around and saw Sly walking my way, a corked bottle held loosely in one hand. I gestured toward it, "I see you got the magic powder."

He held it aloft, "'Guaranteed to cure despair, curl your hair, and answer your prayers', apparently."

"Sounds like some pretty potent stuff."

He shrugged, then pinned me with his eyes, "What's going on?"

Turning my binocucom over in my hands, I answered, "I think I have a plan-"

"Not what I meant."

Looking up at him, I saw that he wasn't going to let me change the subject without a fight. I sighed and put my binocucom away, "I just... want to fix things for Bentley. I know I can't, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to. I mean, just imagining what he has to be feeling right now. I've just barely started to understand what mutual affection feels like, to have it for a year and then find out it was all a lie, the person you shared your life with was a facade, it just... it hurts to think about."

Wordlessly, Sly held out his arms. I hesitated for less than a second before ducking into his hold, because that was allowed, I could do that now and it wasn't weird. Like always, it made me feel better, like the solidity of him cleared away the excess emotion keeping me from rational thought.

"That's why we're going after her," he said, and his voice was dangerous, telling at the anger that was always there, under the surface, that he usually kept tamped down but was now using to his advantage. "We're going to make sure she gets what she deserves."

"I know," I sighed, stepping back, but keeping a loose hold of his free hand, "I just wish we could undo it."

"Me too." He gave my hand a squeeze, then asked, "So what's your plan?"

This, I could talk about. I pulled out my binocucom with a small, vengeful grin, "I call it 'Operation: Mousetrap'."

Considering our plan was basically 'get inside the castle and wing it', things went pretty okay. Well, in the grand scheme of plans, at least. Since I was counting the ones that ended in capture or incarceration, it could be said that Operation: Mousetrap went better than expected.

Murray blew the gate, we all ran inside as quickly as possible, hoping to still be able to take advantage of the element of surprise, but when we got in the Black Knight was standing just... right there.

Galleth, of course, was ecstatic about the chance for a rematch. "I'll sally forth and smash that mechanical monstrosity!" he shouted, sprinting forward, lance held aloft, even as Sly shouted at him to wait.

Penelope was expecting it, of course. She'd fought Galleth once, that gave her an enormous advantage. She caught the cane aimed at her armor, wrenched it out of Galleth's hands, handed it off to a rat trooper, and threw the knight back at us like so much dead weight.

Murray and I leapt in opposite directions to avoid being bowled over by Galleth and didn't really have time to do much else before I noticed the gates starting to shake... and the fact that Sly was standing directly underneath one.

Lunging forward, I shoved Sly as hard as I could, then leaned back, just in time for the gate to crash down between us.

"I think I felt the wind of that," he grimaced, looking up at the gate. "Thanks."

Galleth crashed against the gate next to me, throwing out an arm, "She is making her escape!"

Penelope was backing her armor into some kind of contraption that closed up around her... and didn't look like any sort of vehicle.

"I don't think so..." Sly said, apparently having noticed the same thing I did.

"It looks like a... helmet."

Sly managed to sprint across half the courtyard before the giant suit of armor started to rise from the ground. It loomed over him, glowing red, but... he didn't run.

"What is he doing?" I asked aloud, curling my hands around the gate bars.

Then Sly launched himself into the air, strung a rope to the robot using his bow and arrow, and proceeded to fire nonstop into the exposed joint until the armor fell off.

"Is he seriously taking down a giant attack robot with a bow and arrow and some rope?" I asked Murray.

"Yeah! It's awesome!"

"Indeed! A valiant improvisation!"

"No one at home would ever believe me if I told them about this," I said breathlessly, watching one of the robot's massive arms crash to the ground.

"Aye," Galleth replied, beaming, "But that is what makes it the best sort of tale."

And I was agreeing with him, right up until the armless death machine crushed the wooden tower Sly was standing on. Murray and Galleth started shouting and I looked around for a way to get out from the gates and go help.

"Here, hold this," I shoved my backpack into Galleth's arms, "I think I can squeeze under the gate."

It was a tight fit, but since the spikes on the bottom of the gate didn't actually go into the stone of the ground, there were a few more inches of room that allowed me to slip under. Galleth passed me my backpack and I went running toward the wreckage of the robot.

Sly was actually pretty easy to find, given he was still wearing that green tunic. He was conscious and didn't actually seem hurt, which pacified the part of me that was having trouble remembering to breathe.

I skidded up to him and knelt, "You okay?"

"My leg's pinned," he said, twisting and wincing, "I don't think it's broken, but I can't get it out. I don't suppose you have an industrial strength saw in the grab bag of yours?"

"Fresh out." And, yeah, Sly didn't have any wiggle room at all. "Maybe I can-"

"Oh, that's just precious."

My head snapped up. It looked like while the big suit of armor had been destroyed, the Black Knight armor was still perfectly functional. And Penelope was using it to stalk toward us.

"Do you have any idea what that suit was worth? It was one of a kind!"

"Oh come on. You made it, didn't you?" My hand went for my baton as the mouse got closer, "I'm sure you'll cope. Make a mark two or something. Or maybe take up a less destructive hobby. I hear knitting is relaxing."

"Kaia, get out of here," Sly hissed.

"No, shut up."

Penelope sneered, "I'm after Cooper, but I have no problem going through you."

As she reared back to strike, I whipped out my baton. The baton itself couldn't actually do much damage, not to her armor, not when Galleth's lance had failed. But Bentley had built a pretty powerful taser into it after our encounter with Octavio in Venice. The only reason I was hesitating to use it was that the rain meant I'd probably get zapped too and that armor Penelope was wearing was mostly metal and I had no idea what the voltage of the taser would do to the electronics already in the armor. I wanted her stopped, but I didn't want her dead.

"That's enough, Penelope!"

Speak of the turtle...

Penelope froze at the sound of Bentley's voice which was... interesting to me. We all looked toward the direction it came from and saw the turtle in a mech of his own, standing atop a roof just outside the castle wall.

"You heard me!"

"Bentley!" Penelope turned away from us, thank God, "Your suit... is that my... my Moat Monster?"

"Yeah, what's left of it," Bentley scoffed. "The design was... adequate. I made some adjustments."

Penelope huffed, "It was just a prototype anyway."

Bentley came over, "Why'd you do it, Penelope? You owe me that much, at least."

"Why? For you, of course! I had to make you see how things could be." She sounded sincere, at least... I didn't know why I was rooting for her to actually care. I guess I just thought Bentley deserved better than to have simply been a pawn.

"I'm not going to be one of the bad guys, Penelope," Bentley said.

Yeah, this whole conversation was probably going to end badly. I whirled back to face Sly, jamming my baton between the stone and the fallen robot in an attempt to get some leverage.

"Ha! 'Bad guys'. That's kind of funny Bentley, seeing as you work for a thief." Penelope gestured to Sly, but, thankfully, didn't make a move to squash him again. "But you know the most valuable thing Sly ever stole? Your potential! Together we could change the world, but you're still chasing after honor for chump change! When are you gonna wake up?"

"So you sold out to Le Paradox for the money?!"

"When this is all over," I panted under my breath, trying and failing to get Sly just an inch of extra room, "I'm going to write down everything that has happened to us, change the names and settings, and sell it to a TV channel as a soap opera."

"I want producer credit," Sly grunted, having managed to twist onto his back to use his other leg to brace against the robot as he tried to pull free.

"No!" Penelope shouted, frustrated, "You're not listening! He's just a means to an end!"

"Wow. And I thought you were smart." Whoa, Bentley wasn't pulling his punches. "Do you really think he's just going to let you go? He owns you now. You're his puppet... and when you've served your purpose, he's going to cut your strings."

"I'm nobody's puppet. Too bad I can't say the same for you! I'm sorry, Bentley. But I guess it's time to make this breakup official!"

"Penelope, wait! We don't have to do it like this!"

"Oh, I think we do! It's time to cut some strings, for good!"

The air filled with the sound of straining mechanics and metallic impacts. Also, trash talk. Very, very geeky trash talk. It was kind of worrying and also kind of hilarious.

My hands slipped on the metal surface of the robot and I almost fell over, "I don't think we're going to be able to move this."

"Keep trying," Sly gritted, and I was starting to wonder if he was actually doing damage to his leg while trying to get it free, "we need to help Bentley."

"Bentley is fine."

I jumped about a foot in the air when Kristian seemed to spawn from the ether on Sly's other side. He must have headed to the castle when Bentley did.

"He can take her," The cougar nodded to where each mech had grabbed onto the other with one hand and were wailing on each other with the other hand. "Just sit tight."

There was a calm assurance in the way he spoke that made me sit back on my heels and sigh, looking down at Sly to wryly ask, "I don't think most breakups get the closure of beating the crap out of each other with giant robots. Is that healthy? Work out the issues?"

"Well," Sly said, trying to catch his breath, "One of them is an amoral megalomaniac and the other is a genius master criminal. What do you think?"

"Mmm, probably no."

There was a crash as Penelope's mech went flying back. The dazed mouse was left to lie in the now-useless armor's cockpit while Bentley came over to us. He easily lifted the robot off Sly's leg with the mech and helped him up.

"Thanks, Bentley." Glancing over at what was left of the Black Knight, the raccoon offered, "Look, I'm sorry about Penelope."

"No, Sly, I'm sorry." Bentley said guiltily, "I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you guys the whole time."

"It's okay," Sly insisted. "She fooled us all, pal."

"You got here in time," I agreed. "That's what matters."

"I guess. But that's no excuse for me not being there. I lost sight of my true friends. That won't happen again," Bentley promised.

"Uh, guys!" Murray called from the gate. "We're still kinda trapped."

"Huh, looks like they need some help getting out of there," Sly mused, throwing Bentley a look, "Know anyone who could swing that?"

Pretending to think, Bentley answered, "Hmmm, I do know this one guy, but he's probably busy, so I guess I'll have to do it."

"It's good to have you back, Bentley."

"Man," I said to Kristian, watching them both walk over to the gates to extract the rest of the gang, "Bentley came out of that breakup better than anyone I've ever seen."

The Inspector hummed, straightening his coat. "I think he faced some personal demons. Now, if you'll excuse me," he pulled a pair of handcuffs from a pocket and glanced vindictively over at Penelope, "I have an arrest to make."

Kristian, Bentley, and Murray took Penelope to the future immediately, before she could come up with a way to escape. Sly, Galleth, and I stayed behind to do what Bentley called 'Timeline Clean-Up'. Basically, we just systematically removed all future technology so it wouldn't be discovered, analyzed, and create a paradox. That meant pretty much the entirety of the castle had to go. Also, I had to spend two hours hunting down the flaming ping pong ball that had flown out of the Safehouse.

I returned, charred and mangled plastic held aloft in victory, to find the others had returned and everyone was sitting back and watching the hologram of Dimitri gesticulate wildly, screaming about sand storms and camel spit.

Sliding into the chair next to Sly, I asked under my breath, "What's happening?"

Not looking away from the spectacle, Sly answered, "I'm not entirely sure, but I think he's saying one of my ancestors from Arabia or Egypt is who we need to visit next."

"Thank you," Bentley shouted over the still ranting Dimitri, "for the information, we'll take it from here!" He unplugged the communication crystal and sighed heavily. "Well, now we have to figure out how to get to Ancient Arabia. I don't know if we have any artifacts from that time period."

"I think I can help with that," Kristian said. Standing, he checked his pockets, the pockets of his suit jacket, then, finally, the pockets of his coat. Coming up with what looked like a coin, he flicked it to Bentley. "That's one of the antiquities that was reported stolen. I pocketed it when I was in the museum, as evidence."

"This," Bentley said, looking over the coin, "might work! Sly, what do you think?"

Accepting the coin when it was passed to him, Sly turned it over in his hands, "I'd say it's from about the year one thousand... give or take. Sounds like Salim al Kupar's time."

Standing up, I made my way over to the replicator to get a soda, "I'm noticing a pattern. Wet and cold, hot and dry, snowy and cold, hot and dry, wet and cold... see where I'm going?"

"It's hard to miss," Sly said with a grin. "At least we get a full range, though."

"As true as that is, with all the bouncing between humid and dry, someone's going to start getting nosebleeds." I drummed my fingers, watching the lights on the replicator as it worked.

"Is that someone going to be you?"

"I haven't gotten a nosebleed in years," I scoffed, cracking the top on my soda. "I'm just saying we need to be aware of what effect all this travelling is going to have on us. When I went to summer camp as a kid, it was the last thing I was expecting."

Bentley nodded, "That's a good point. If anyone starts feeling off, they need to speak up sooner rather than later."

"Most stuff is just common sense," I said, returning to my seat at the table. "Stay hydrated, be aware of sun exposure, that sort of thing."

"I'm still focused on the whole 'summer camp' thing," Sly said with a grin, redirecting the conversation to more lighthearted ground. "I just can't picture you playing nice with other kids. Are there pictures?"

I smiled sweetly, "None that you're ever going to see."

Bentley rolled his eyes, even as he started programming information about our destination into his laptop and, by extension, the van, "Listening to you two, if I didn't know better, I'd think you'd been a couple for months instead of less than forty-eight hours."

His timing was perfect. My first sip of soda went right out my nose and Sly's chair pitched backward from where he'd been balancing on the back two legs, sending him straight to the floor.

"What?" Kristian demanded, over my hacking and wheezing.

"You did that on purpose," I accused Bentley, voice rasping in my throat.

Murray was bouncing in place, "Really!? Guys, that's awesome!"

"My most heartfelt congratulations!" Galleth proclaimed, lifting his lance in salute.

Sly pulled himself up from the floor to gape at his best friend, "How did you...?"

Bentley rolled his eyes again, but had a private, smug smile on his face, "Please, I've known you two for years. You honestly didn't think I'd be able to tell?"

Kristian ran a hand down his face. "I'm never going to be able to look your parents in the eye again," he told me through his palm.

"If you ever have that conversation with them," I said, blowing my nose into the tissue, "please record it, so I can laugh forever."

"Well," Sly stood, straightening his shirt and gathering the shards of his dignity, "now that that's out in the open, I can do this." Then, without preamble, he ignored his overturned chair completely and dropped into my lap.

I wheezed at the sudden increase in weight and shoved at him, "Get off! You're heavy!"

"Are you trying to tell me something?"

"I'm telling you that you're six feet tall, probably ninety percent muscle, and very, very heavy!"

"I feel bad for Salim already." Kristian crossed his arms, directing his gaze heavenward and probably praying for patience.

Bentley nodded sagely, "Well, at least it won't be boring."

And with England concluded, we're off to the last full level! Buckle in, guys, we're in the homestretch!