Chapter 22: Tijd
The battle was amazingly short-lived. Each guard seemed to be programmed to know everyone abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. First, they took down Penelope and the Guru by shooting them in the back. Bentley was harder to take down, but all that the cyborgs needed to do was to get him out of the wheelchair. Murray and Panda King proved to be the most difficult. It was only a matter of time until both of them were taken. They were out numbered against guards that never tired and they had to try to protect the van, and all of their fallen friends. The cyborgs dragged the unconscious forms of the Cooper Gang and the conscious Bentley away.
"Guys?" Sly said, distraught as the Cooper Gang was shoved into the cells surrounding him and Carmelita.
Carmelita looked around frantically. "Where's Cami and Sam?" She asked sharply.
"Safe." Bentley said, pushing himself upright. The rest of the Cooper Gang pushed themselves up and nodded their confirmation.
"Good." Carmelita said, calming down.
"I wouldn't be so sure." A voice that was both vaguely familiar and filled with cold venom. Something that had haunted Sly's nightmares since he was eight years old stepped into the light.
"No. It can't be." Sly breathed.
"It's impossible." Carmelita said in shock. "You're dead. I killed you. I crushed the hate chip myself."
"Clockwerk." Sly breathed. Then Sly got a better look at the thing. "Wait, no you're not Clockwerk. Who are you?"
The figure was not a giant metal owl, but a giant metal penguin. "I am Tijd." The voice was metallic and cold.
"What are you?" Carmelita asked. "Why do you look like Clockwerk?"
"Clockwerk was merely an experiment." Tijd said. "Do you really think I would test my method of immortality on myself when it could fail and I could die?"
"What?" Bentley asked breathlessly.
Tijd looked at him with emotionless eyes. "You believed that Clockwerk was the mind behind the immortality? How could he have done the surgery to himself? Replace his internal organs with machinery? Clockwerk needed an ally and I was that ally."
"Why?" Sly asked with disbelief.
"I needed to make sure my recipe for immortality worked before I tried it on myself. Clockwerk was willing to try, so I did with the understanding that he would perform the procedure on me should it succeed. It worked, so we parted ways." Tijd said nonchalant.
"What have you been doing all these years?" Penelope asked surprised.
"While Clockwerk was planning his revenge on the Cooper Clan, I was making my criminal empire." Tijd said flatly.
"'Criminal empire'?" Panda King asked.
"Of course, every criminal answers to me whether they know it or not, except for two groups: Clockwerk and the Cooper Clan." Tijd said matter-of-factly.
"I never worked for you." Panda King said with a raised eyebrow.
"Actually, you did, until you joined Clockwerk's Fiendish Five. All those places you attacked and destroyed were the places I ordered you to destroy." Tijd had no emotion in his voice.
Panda King looked at him with disbelief. "That is not possible."
"Is it?" Tijd asked. "Four villages underneath the mountains were you were had police safehouses and top secret files that contained information on me and my empire. Six people's houses you destroyed were trying to get out of my grasp." Tijd then began reading off names that were unfamiliar to everyone in the room, but Panda King.
"Those were…those were…" Panda King started.
"The people who scorned you. The ones you destroyed. I told you, I control everything. You worked for me." Tijd said in a final sort of way. "Since you killed Clockwerk, only the Cooper Gang was outside my control."
"What of Neyla?" Bentley asked, studying Tijd.
"Something went wrong with her, she got too greedy. Arpeggio was supposed to get the immortality because he was easy to manipulate. Once Neyla took the Clockwerk frame and killed Arpeggio, I had to intervene. The only reason you won against her was because I allowed it." Tijd said emotionlessly.
"What about my legs?" Bentley asked with a guarded expression.
"Ah, yes. I had intended to kill you to destroy the Cooper Gang, but Murray saved your life. It, however, broke his spirit. I had thought that I had succeeded, but you convinced your little friend to come back. That attempt failed, but this time my plan shall work." Tijd said with certainty.
"You're responsible for making me loose my legs?" Bentley said in a very controlled whisper. No one had ever seen Bentley this angry before, not even Sly or Murray.
"Yes." Tijd looked at Bentley with his cold, orange eyes.
"Clockwerk used his hate of the Cooper Clan to fuel his immortality. What do you use?" Sly asked. Sly looked at Tijd with a guarded, calculating expression.
Tijd made a noise that sounded similar to a small laugh. "What Clockwerk didn't know was that if he succeeded in killing the Cooper Clan, he would have had nothing to hate and would have died. You ask me what is keeping me alive? It is my hatred for everything good, Sly Cooper. I hate every form of happiness. I enjoy destroying it, and every time I destroy it. I make someone else hate, and that hatred, along with my own, keeps me alive. I will never die." Tijd's robotic eyes seemed to have some form of sick enjoyment.
"You said 'my plan shall work', what plan?" Penelope interjected to get Tijd's attention from Bentley.
"You shall chose whether you will work for me or not." Tijd's voice was cold and low.
"And if we say no?" Carmelita asked, crossing her arms. "What happens then?"
"I will kill you." Tijd said simply. "Panda King, Bentley, Penelope, and Dimitri will die regardless, however the rest of you can choose."
"What if that threat has no hold over us?" Sly asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, I kill you in front of them." Tijd stepped aside and two cyborg guards walked forward holding the unconscious forms of Cami and Sam.
"Interesting sort of symmetry, Sly Cooper? Clockwerk killed your father and mother in front of you and I will kill you and Carmelita in front of them, unless you do agree to work for me." Tijd had a sick sense of humor.
Both Sly and Carmelita looked at him with pure hate. Bentley and Murray did as well.
"I'll give you some time to decide." Tijd turned to leave.
"If you intend to kill the turtle, mouse, and I, why wait?" Panda King inquired.
Tijd didn't even bother turning around. "I only want to have to get the blood cleaned off the walls once." The cyborg guards holding Cami and Sam started to follow Tijd out.
"No." Carmelita said forcefully. "Leave Sam and Cami here."
Tijd turned around and met Carmelita's eyes. "I'll leave one of them here. Your pick."
Carmelita glared at him. She couldn't pick between her children, no mother could. Sly glared at him as well. They said nothing.
"No? Can't choose? Then I will." Tijd looked at Cami and Sam. "This one," Tijd pointed at Sam, "is the older one. He's always looking after his little sister. He's also more careful than his sister. However, he's does have some recklessness. She, on the other hand, is much more reckless in everything but heights. Funny, a Cooper who is acrophobic." Tijd paused as Sam groaned and shifted his weight.
"Leave the boy." Tijd said. He left. The cyborg holding Cami followed him. The cyborg holding Sam threw Sam into a cell and locked the door.
"Urgh." Sam rubbed his head and pushed himself up. "What happened? What did I miss? Oh, crud." Sam looked at the cells. "We got caught."
"Yes." Bentley said.
"Where's Cami?" Sam asked, looking around.
"Sam, let me explain." Sly said.