Well, it has been a while hasn't it? Apologies, I've been focusing a lot on Star Fox lately, after I updated this last time and only got a few reviews, compared to how many I was getting on my other things, I just kinda figured people didn't care about the story too much anymore. It also didn't help that I just didn't have a lot of ideas for it, and Star Fox was kinda dominating my thoughts, but, I'm back, and I'm here with another chapter for you all, before I leave you to it, it might push the T rating a bit, but I've seen worse in the T area, so, if any of you have issue with it, let me know and I'll fix it.

Other wise, enjoy!

/-/ Sly Cooper: Betrayal of the Heart /-/ Chapter 4: We all make choices/-/

When Carmelita opened the door to the room that she had first found the gang in, she was greeted with the sight of Sly bent over the back of Bentley's wheelchair, looking at his laptop, while Murray sat in the corner munching on a bag of cookies. Conversation stopped when she walked in, but she still heard a few things.

"So you're sure-" Sly looked up and locked eyes with her, his hat was hanging on a hook next to the door, and he had a small scruff of hair poking up as they stared at each other. "Carmelita I thought you might be up there all night. Did you make a decision?"

Carmelita sighed softly and glanced at the ground, she stayed that way for a minute before she shook her head. "Dios Mio, I have Cooper." She glanced back up at Sly. "I'm staying, for now." She held up two fingers, the calling card held in between them. "But this, not in a million years, and if you try to suggest it again, I'll prove that I don't need a shock pistol to knock you for a loop." she flicked the card at him and he flinched as it actually hit him square in the nose and gave him a small paper cut. Carmelita turned around and left the room with out another word, slamming the door behind her.

Sly rubbed his nose as Bentley shook his head. "Well that went-"

Sly cut him off, "As well as could be expected actually. If she had just come in and said she wanted to help with our next heist I would have been suspicious. Carmelita doesn't give in to things she doesn't like easily."

Murray spoke up. "Right now, it sounds like she doesn't like you."

Sly sighed as he turned back to Bentley's screen. "Maybe, but I have hopes that she'll come around." Sly paused and shrugged. "You know, in a few years."

Bentley coughed into his hand. "Right, anyway Sly, if we could get back on topic." Sly nodded and Bentley continued where he had left off. "I've been following the Thief Net news a lot more closely lately. Seeing if I can find out anymore information about who was targeting you."

Sly glanced at his friend. "We were lucky that you even managed to find out where they had set up base right?"

Bentley nodded ."Right, and since then, I've been digging around in Thief Net trying to find out any information that I could about them. So far I've come up empty, and that worries me."

Sly straightened and stretched. "Whys that bud?"

Bentley started typing away on his keyboard again. "Because, since we trashed their hideout and took out that guy who claimed to be their leader, there should have been some information out there on them, people looking through the wreckage and such, arrest warrants, things like that."

Sly jumped up and balanced on the small hook above the door, he glanced down at his friend. "I'm sensing a 'but' coming up."

Bentley nodded. "But, there's nothing, not on the base, not on the members, not even on the guy you beat down. The only reason I can think of is because somebody is out there suppressing it. Deleting the information as it appears, changing stories, stuff like that."

Sly blinked "You know I'm not heavy into tech Bentley, how hard would it be to remove something from Thief Net?"

Bentley shrugged "If you're the person who put it up in the first place, easy as clicking delete. If you're somebody trying to hide information, almost impossible. Whoever this is, their good, maybe even as good as me." Bentley paused. "Possibly even better."

Sly exchanged a glance with Murray, they had never found somebody better at hacking then Bentley, Penelope came close, but...

Sly asked the obvious question "Is there anyway for you to track this guy, who ever he is?"

Bentley shook his head. "As it stand right now, no. I need to be online when hes editing a file to be able to track him, and even then I need to be watching the file as well. I'm working on a program that will help me narrow down target files and then I'll just spend time watching the various IP's that can be used to access the clou-"

Sly held up a hand. "I get it buddy." he paused. "I think, So for now, we do nothing?"

Bentley sighed and rolled away from his laptop. "As much as I hate to say it, yes. That's all we can do at this point, that and keep an eye out for strange news."

Sly sighed and dropped down from the hook. "Well, at least Carmelita is here now, she'll stay safe under our watch while we try to figure this out." Sly cracked his neck. "Right now though, its night, and I'm feeling up for a run, I'll be back in the morning." He reached out and grabbed his hat from the peg on the wall and slipped it over his head, giving a two finger wave to Bentley and Murray as he opened the door.

Sly drifted out into the hallway, moving through the darkened hallways with the ease of someone who lived there for a few years, and just knew where everything was. He stopped by his room to grab his cane, the golden tip sparkling in some moonlight that was sneaking in through his cracked shade. He gave the cane a quick twirl in his hand as he closed the door and headed back down the hallway, he only made it a few doors though before he stopped and tapped lightly on one of the doors with his cane. He perked his ear and waited a moment to see if Carmelita would respond.

When she didn't, he just shrugged and continued on his way out, heading for the roof where he led Carmelita earlier. As he stepped out into the night air, he stopped and inhaled, stalling for a moment to just take in the city lights before him. He grinned and decided that his destination tonight would be the Eiffel tower. Starting into a run, Sly launched himself off the roof of his hideout and extended his cane, catching a power cable that ran across the deserted street and sliding down until he was over the roof of the next building. He slid his hook off the wire and dropped through the air, tucking into a roll as he hit the rooftop and coming to a stop with his arms out like a performer.

He shook his head as he continued running, leaping up to grab a drain pipe and using that to gain access to another buildings rooftop. He kept up his rapid pace for almost half an hour, touching upon all of his skills as he ran. Sliding along the lip of one building, only to spire jump across another wire before crawling through a suspended pipe hanging over the roof of another building. He was almost to the tower when he stopped.

His ear twitched as the distant sound of sirens reached his ears, he paused and reached over his back, sliding his cane into its holster. Sly was quiet for a moment before he spoke out loud. "Let's see, I haven't broken into to anything yet, and those are a lot of sirens..." Sly reached into his pouch on his leg and pulled out an ear piece, sticking it into his ear and pressing his finger against it to open the line to Bentley. "Hey Bentley, do any police reports mention break ins tonight?"

"Give me one second to check, lets see...Ah! Yeah, there is actually, that new museum the went up near the outskirts of the city. Not a lot of reports have been filled out yet, but apparently what ever is happening is a big deal. Do you want us to meet up with you?"

Sly shook his head as he faced the direction of the sirens and the new museum that just opened last month. "No thanks bud, its still way to hot for you guys to be here, I'll just poke around real quick and see if I can figure out what happened." Sly paused and frowned. "But stand by just in case."

"You think this might involve that other gang?"

Sly was silent for a moment. "Yeah. Somebody making a big show at one of the museum in Paris? You know its a message. Any of the other thieves in this city wouldn't make so much noise about it. Its either somebody new, and trying to make a name for themselves, or..."

"I see where you going with that, I'll have Murray get the van ready and we'll be ready to move out if you need us. Are you sure you're going to be okay going in alone?"

Sly smiled and glanced behind him at a small stack of boxes. "I'll be fine Bentley. I'll let you know if I find anything." Sly reached over his back for his cane and pulled it into his hands, he grinned and spun it about. "So, are you coming?" he called out as he turned to face the crates. He waited for a moment, still spinning the cane until Carmelita stepped around the side of the crates and frowned at him. Sly's smile grew bigger as he walked towards her. "You know, for a second there I thought I had almost lost you back at the pipe."

Carmelita scoffed. "You did, I saw you leap over to the next building and cut across a few alleyways to catch up to you." she glanced towards the sounds of the sirens before locking gazes with him again. "You aren't mad I followed you? I mean, I know where your hideout is now. I could take that information to Interpol and use it to get my job back."

Sly stopped spinning his cane and jammed it into the roof, leaning his weight on it and cupping his chin with his hands as he stared at Carmelita. "You could do that, but you're not."

Carmelita crossed her arms and stared at him. "How do you know that?"

Sly just kept grinning. "Because, you're curious.." he paused. "Plus, you would have left earlier if you were going to do something like that. Even then, its not a big deal, we would be gone by the time you got there with the rest of Interpol, we're ready to leave at a moments notice."

Carmelita frowned. "What if you're lying, you're pretty good at that."

Sly put a hand over his heart. "You wound me." he straightened and picked his cane up, laying it on his shoulder. "But you're right, I could be lying, of course, you don't know that, so you're not going to risk it."

Carmelita scoffed and broke eye contact, he was right, and it annoyed her. She was curious, that small part of her that wanted to forgive the raccoon for everything he had done, it wanted to know just what he was like when he wasn't out on a heist. She sighed and gestured towards the sirens. "I'm not going to help you break into the museum."

Sly just shook his head as he headed for the edge of the roof. "Technically, its not breaking in if the police have it opened to investigate, now is it? Besides, its not like I'm going to take anything." With that he leaped off the edge of the roof and made his way towards the sirens.

Carmelita shook her head as she walked to the edge of the roof and looked down, following his path with her eyes. "I hate that in a twisted sort of way, that almost made sense." She sighed "I'd better follow him and make sure he doesn't actually take anything." with that she leaped off the roof top as well, following after Sly.

When she caught up to Sly he was looking in through one of the sunlight's that dotted the roof of the museum. He looked up as she walked towards him, his face was serious as he waved her over and pointed down at the glass. "Tell me what you see." he said quietly as he took a step to the side to make room for her.

Carmelita looked down in the glass, narrowing her eyes when she saw that the police were huddled around two piles of clothes on the ground, she felt her eyes widen slightly when she realized what the clothes were covering. She looked back up at Sly. "Who would do something like that?!" she demanded quietly.

Sly shook his head. "I don't know, but I don't like it anymore then you do." He glanced over his shoulder, before running his gaze across the rest of the roof top. "I don't like it." He frowned as he glanced back down through the glass. He straightened suddenly and pointed towards the edge of the roof. "I don't like this," He repeated. He looked around the roof again, feeling the fur on the back of his neck stand up. "It's too hot to try anything right now, I'll come back later." He paused and shook his head. "Plus, I don't want to go in there until they have a chance to clean it up a bit." he made for the edge of the roof. "Come on."

Carmelita frowned as she took one last look to commit the picture to her memory before she followed Sly, who was already sliding down a thin wire towards a lower building across the street. She eyed the wire with distrust before she took a few steps back from the edge and ran forward, flinging her self off the edge and out into the open air. She tucked herself into a ball as she flew through the air, landing roughly on her shoulder and rolling across the top of the other roof. She came to a stop and pushed herself off the ground, she looked up to see Sly holding out his hand. "Nice jump, Three for style, but you lost points for not sticking your landing."

Carmelita shook her head as she stood up on her own and brushed her sleeves off. "We can't all surf across wires Cooper."

Sly shrugged and started heading back towards the hideout. "It's never to late to learn, and its not that hard, it really is just a matter of the right shoes and balance." He glanced over at Carmelita, looking down at her boots. "I'm sure you have a pair of boots somewhere that you could use."

Carmelita raised an eyebrow as she started walking as well, following Sly. "What about all that Master Thief stuff that you're always toting about with that book of yours?"

Sly glanced at her as she caught up to him and matched his pace. "That? Technically anybody who is a Master Thief could do those moves. It takes a lot of practice though." he grinned to himself. "I bet you could do it if you put your mind to it though." he started laughing softly only to let out a small grunt of pain as Carmelita slugged him hard across his shoulder. "What was that for?"

Carmelita pointed a finger at him. "I told you not to mention me becoming a thief at all."

Sly rubbed his now sore shoulder. "What's wrong with you learning stuff like that? As long as you don't use it right? Besides, its not like I would force you to go on heists with me."

Carmelita went silent for a moment as they walked, her focus only turning to her surroundings when they had to move to another rooftop. Eventually they reached the hideout and Sly stopped in front of the rooftop door that led down into the building. "Look, all I'm saying is, you're going to need something to do, might as well train, keep in shape, so that way, when you decide what you want to do with your life, you'll be ready."

Carmelita reached for the door. "I told you, I'm staying."

Sly raised an eyebrow at her as he placed a hand on the door to stop her from opening it. "Are you telling me that you're okay with sitting around with us doing nothing while we're out and about for the rest of your life?" Carmelita stared at him for a long moment before he sighed. "It's just a choice, that's all." He moved his hand down to the door and pulled it open before Carmelita could. "Just think about it."

Carmelita followed Sly in, thinking hard about his offer. When they reached her room he opened that door for her as well. She walked in and turned to face him as she made to close the door. "We all have choices to make, right?" Sly paused and nodded. Carmelita sighed. "I guess that..." she stopped and sighed again, before she shook her head "Never mind"

Sly raised an eyebrow at her. "You can tell me, I promise you won't hurt my feelings."

Carmelita shook her head and reached out to close the door. "Go to bed Cooper." She said softly as she closed the door. Sly stared at her door for a few more seconds before he moved down the hallway towards his room. Back in her room Carmelita leaned up against the door and sighed. She scoffed as she eyed her bed, before she moved towards the bed and laid down on top of it. Her mind still thinking about just what her life had become. As she started to drift off, she mumbled the last thought on her mind. "We all make choices..."

Loraine sighed softly as she brought her car to a stop in front of the museum. She hated these late night calls, but she realized that ever since Carmelita had resigned a month ago, she was going to end up with more of them. Who better to take over the extra load then the person who was training under the great Inspector Fox? At least that's what the Brass up top had thought.

Newly promoted Inspector Loraine Monroe covered her mouth as she yawned and opened her car door, pushing the door open with her foot. She slid out of the car, but stopped to duck back in and grab her coffee before she closed and locked the door. Normally she couldn't stand coffee, but it was a habit that she picked up while training under Carmelita, who more often then not, had to be up most of the night chasing after thieves.

"If only you had managed to catch Sly Cooper..." She muttered softly to herself in her light voice as she walked towards the officers standing next to the flashing lights of the police cars.

Her thigh high black boots clacked loudly as she walked across the pavement. Her pants, a dark blue stretched down to cover most of the boots, but would leave her ankles exposed if she removed the boots. Her shirt was a pale white that was mostly covered up by the brown vest that she wore, that was part of her uniform with her golden inspectors badge hanging above her right breast. Her long blond hair swayed gently as she walked, the pony tail reaching down to her lower back. Her tail waved through the air behind her in time with her hips, the blond fur standing out starkly against the night air and her mostly dark outfit. Hanging from her left hip was a holster holding a cherry red shock pistol, on her right hip was another holster with a few tools hanging from various loops.

The vixen came to a stop in front of one of the officers and took a sip of her coffee before she spoke. "Inspector Monroe, one of you called for me?" she frowned and glanced down at the digital watch on her wrist. "At four in the morning?" she finished with a cross note as she stared down the junior officer with her crystal amethyst eyes.

The stout husky nodded. "Yes Ma'am, we responded to a call here around two thirty this morning, we discovered that the museum had been broken into and several things taken, the MO seems to match one of your cases, so after we finished cleaning up, we called you."

Loraine raised one of her thin eyebrows at the officer. "You touched my crime scene?"

The officer next to the husky spoke up, "Yes Ma'am, you see, it was a bit of a mess in there, somebody didn't care for the lives of the security guards." As if on cue another officer came out, gagging before pointing his muzzle into a row of bushes that lined the steps that led up to the museum. Loraine and the officers were silent for a moment before the other officer spoke up again. "What my partner means by clean up, is that we covered up the guards out of respect." He glanced over his shoulder at the sick officer again, "Apparently we missed one though."

Loraine was quiet for a moment. "That bad?" the officers nodded and she sighed. "I hate to break it to you boys, but you need a different department, this seems like something homicide would be covering."

The husky reached into his pocket. "They're coming later, but we found this inside, where one of the missing pieces was, and we thought you might be interested in it." The officer pulled out a small paper card and handed it to Loraine. She took the paper and flipped it over, staring at the picture inked in on the other side.

She ran her thumb across the image of the burning bird rising out of a pile of what looked like ashes. "A phoenix?" she muttered quietly as she pulled out a small evidence baggie out of her pocket and dropped the calling card into it. She focused back on the officers, suddenly interested. "How long do I have until Homicide gets here?"

The junior officer shrugged "An hour, maybe."

Loraine nodded and made her way up the steps, "Let me know when they get here." with that she entered the museum and moved through the hallways until she reached one of the main areas where a large abstract piece was on display from some long ago dead artist. Laying in front of it, almost as if they had been posed were the covered forms of the night security guards

Loraine moved over to one of the shrouds and lifted the sheet, her eyes taking a quick look at what was underneath it before she swallowed hard and dropped the sheet. She reached for her hip and pulled loose her flashlight, turning the beam on and directing the light around the room. The lights had been turned on inside the museum, but sometimes that little bit of extra light could help her spot things she might otherwise miss.

She narrowed her eyes as she caught a small glint of light that flashed at her from underneath a display case. She leaned down and reached down to her hip again, this time pulling out a small pair of tweezers. She reached underneath the case and grabbed the small piece of metal that had caught her eye. She lifted it up before her and angled it several times in the light. "No hint of gold." she said softly before she lowered the flashlight to grab an evidence bag to tuck the scrap of metal into. She glanced around at the cases that were all open and missing their pieces, each one with one of those cards placed upon it.

"Just what happened here?" she asked herself as she continued her investigation, but aside from the small sliver of metal, the rest of her search turned up nothing, and she eventually turned the scene over to the homicide officers that showed up. As she walked down the steps of the museum, she was stopped by the junior officer from before.

"So, was it Sly Cooper?" he asked quietly, as he walked with her back to her car.

Loraine shook her head. "I doubt it, not his style, but he could have changed for all I know. I'm going to check in with somebody who knows more then me before I confirm that though." she glanced at the husky, "Hopefully I can find whoever did this, and put them away." with that she opened her car door and slid into the seat, starting the engine and closing the door in one motion. She pulled away from the museum, and headed for downtown Paris, hoping that her source was still awake.

A scarce twenty minutes later found Loraine standing outside a large apartment building. Her eyes narrowed at the apartment at the top, its lights darkened, and its balcony doors closed. She reached down to the keypad and punched in the room number, buzzing the apartment at the top once again. She crossed her arms as she waited for an answer, when none came after a minute, she instead punched the button for the landlord.

This time though, when nobody answered, she kept pressing it, she had been doing this for almost a full minute when the front door opened and grumpy looking male lynx stepped out, armed with a baseball bat.

"Now, take you're grubby fingers off that button before I smash them int-" he cut off his threat as he saw Loraine standing at the bottom of the stairs, the fingers of her left hand drumming on the hilt of her shock pistol, while she tapped on her badge with her other hand. "-Ah..." he paused and focused on her badge. "Inspector, what can I do for you?" he asked, his tone quickly dropping to respectful, if still a bit harsh.

Loraine started up the stairs, "Yeah, you can tell me why the buzzer for apartment 6C isn't working."

The landlord frowned as she came to a stop in front of him. "What are you talking about, the buzzer works fine, it woke me didn't it?" He paused and rubbed his chin, causing the fur to stand up. "Wait, 6C, that's where the big fancy Inspector lived."

Loraine raised an eyebrow. "Lived?"

The Lynx continued on. "Carman Fox or something like that."

Loraine took a deep breath to help keep her cool. "Yes, that's right, Carmelita Fox, she was an Inspector for Interpol, like me, and what do you mean by she lived?"

The lynx shrugged. "Not much else to say now is there? Lived, as in used to. I woke up yesterday morning and found an email saying that she was moving out, and that she had deposited the late rent from the past month, as well as an early leaving bonus. I went up to check, and sure enough the apartment was cleared out, it was like nobody had ever lived there."

Loraine frowned. "Do you know where she went?"

The lynx scoffed. "My concern for her went so far as making sure she paid me, which she did, after that, all I care about is getting it rented again." Loraine's frown deepened and she narrowed her eyes at the Lynx. "Uh...sorry I can't be of any help Inspector, really, I don't have any other information for you."

Loraine sighed and reached into her vest, pulling out a business card and handing it to the Lynx. "I understand, its early, and I'm sure you want to get some sleep. Just forward me the email that Carmelita sent and we can both call it a night."

The lynx nodded and took the card, Loraine turned and walked down the steps to her car, her mind wondering on just what Carmelita was up to.

As she got into her car and drove off, she was too focused on her own thoughts to noticed the bobcat who was watching her from the shade of an alleyway across the street.

The bobcat was colored a dark brown that helped him blend into the darkness of the alleyway. He was dressed in khaki pants and a black t-shirt that revealed his muscled body. Across his waist was a belt with a long thin sword hanging from a set of loops on his lower back. One of his ears was missing a chunk, and the other had two golden bits pierced through the upper peaks. His face was heavily scarred and helped lend his already imposing figure an extra edge. From his mouth dangled a lit cigarette, it glowed as he took another pull on the filter. His coal black eyes narrowed as Loraine drove by the alleyway, but he did nothing except lean out of the shadows to watch her drive off into the night.

He scoffed and and drew on the cigarette, before he exhaled a small cloud of smoke and spit the almost spent bud into the sewer grate on the street. He turned around and walked into the alleyway, ducking into a small car that waited at the other end. The tiger in his passenger seat shook his head and spoke up as the bobcat started the engine.

"Really Leo, what's important about her that we had to follow her all this time?"

Leo glanced at Jackson before he pulled out into the empty street. "Because, shes the one who's looking into the museum."

Jackson sighed "Yes, the museum, why did you go and do that again?"

Leo just grinned. "To send a message, that there's a new gang to be worried about out here."

Jackson was quiet for a moment. "You do know there we're trying to avoid attention right now right? We can't make out move yet until everything is ready."

Leo waved a large paw at him. "Relax will ya? Its not like I told that Cooper bloke that we were still out there. Besides, a little fear and mystery go a long way, and anyway she might be useful later."

Jackson rolled down the window as Leo lit another cigarette. "With Sly Cooper, I don't want to take any chances." He glanced at Leo. "What use could that Inspector serve us anyway?"

Leo's grin turned feral. "You remember that vixen that Cooper picked up? Right after that Inspector left the museum, she came here."

Jackson raised an eyebrow "So?"

Leo glanced at his boss. "So, that's where the vixen used to live."

Jackson closed his eyes as he thought, he opened them as Leo pulled into their hideout. "I'll admit, the possibilities are interesting, if not at the very least entertaining." he opened his door and got out, looking at Leo over the top of the car. "But what if she becomes a problem?"

Leo patted the side of the van that he had fixed earlier before reached for the hilt of his sword. "I'll take care of her, don't you worry about it."

Jackson smiled as he walked into the building. "When you go after someone, I never do, after all, I learned my sword skills from the best."

Leo glanced around the garage one last time before he killed the lights and followed his former student into the hideout.

Well? How was it? I made it a little bit longer then my previous chapters to make up for the long wait on the update. Speaking of, I'm already a few pages into the next chapter, and I have a general idea of what I want to have happen too, so yay progress and stuff. I promise to try and not let this story fall to the wayside again though. Just sometimes I need to take a break from things, step back and think about things.

Don't forget, that if you see any mistakes, to mention those in reviews, or if you just enjoyed the story, feedback is always welcome.

Oh reviews! Guest Reviews!

MM: I'm glad you think I have talent, and as for being a writer, that would be cool, but I doubt it, I'm not that good.

Anyway, that should be all, remember, take some time to fill out that little box below : D

Peace,

- Emile