Welcome back, my loyal readers! I know it's been a very long time, but I've been busy. If any of you have seen my deviant art account, you saw that I recently finished a needlepointed basket… it was very involved, and I couldn't do much other creative stuff while I was focused so hard on it. But… now, it's finished, and I can get back to some other stuff (the next big project is my Otakon cosplay ^_^).

I'd also like to welcome those of you who found this story by way of the new "crossovers" section of ff (dot) net. So cool that they developed that categorization for us!

This chapter has been a very long time in the making… not just because I've been doing other things, but there's a section in here that I wrote way back when the story was getting started. It's finally here, and I'm glad I didn't have to change it too much from the way it was originally written.

Anyway… without further ado:

Chapter 12: The Heist and Its Aftermath

Inspector Nakamori screamed into his walkie-talkie. "Okay men! You know the drill!"

The policemen gave a resounding battle cry, and ran downstairs from the roof to join the rest of the team near the room where the tiara was being displayed. All of them, Nakamori included, were too riled up to notice that there was an extra man among their ranks. It took them a minute and a half to get there, and after another minute of them standing around staring at each other, one of the men put a voice to what they were all thinking. "It's been three minutes already. Where is he?"

After ten more seconds, the display case began to fill with the same pink smoke as had been used on the roof. The officers panicked when it started seeping out around the edges of the box, and into the room. They ran towards it from all sides as the air gradually became opaque.

In the confusion of them trying to figure out who was who, KID knelt down and opened a panel in the side of the podium that the case sat on. He flipped a lever inside which lowered the stand to hide it within the base. When the tiara was within reach, he put his hand in and pulled the item out, and then quickly flipped the switch to re-raise the stand. The smoke stopped flowing as he shut the panel, and it began to dissipate while he moved in the direction where he remembered that the entrance to the room was.

The thief looked down at his stopwatch – there were only two minutes left. He cursed to himself about how long it had taken to lower and raise the display stand. It would be harder to get out than it had been to get in, but luckily he had taken out a little insurance for just such a situation. 'Be seeing you,' he thought as he ran from the room.

When he reached the first set of guards blocking his route, he stopped. "KID escaped into the vent ducts," he told them, pretending that he was trying to catch his breath. "Let's circle around and set up a blockade." He waited to make sure they were following his suggestion, and then ran off in the opposite direction, towards the men's room. On the way, he opened his phone and sent a simple text message: 'I didn't make it in time.'

Ed and Conan were making small talk during the intervening eight minutes that KID was running around inside the museum. They looked back out the window as the final seconds ticked down. The crowd started counting with the clock. When time was up, all the lights went out again. This time, only one spotlight shone onto the roof – the one from Inspector Nakamori's helicopter.

The light swept across the top of the building, and eventually came to rest on the figure of a man dressed all in white, complete with cape and top hat. His audience erupted into cheers again.

"No way. He really did it," Conan said, more than asked.

"It sure looks that way."

The man saluted the crowd, ran to the back of the roof, and jumped off, out of everyone's line of sight. A few seconds later, a white hang glider was seen rising up from behind the building. The crowd cheered again, and then began to disperse.

"Thanks, Jii-san, you saved me again," KID muttered as he made his escape from the scene of the crime. He rode his glider to the top of a building a block and a half away from where the action was in the process of dying down.

Conan pushed the door open and stepped out onto the roof, followed closely by Edward. They proceeded a little farther before the detective opened his mouth. "Come on out, KID-san. We saw you come up here."

The gentleman thief walked out from behind the HVAC unit. "Good evening, tantei-kun. I should have known we'd cross paths. Who's your friend?"

Conan grinned and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"I know you well enough to know you don't do anything without a reason…"

Edward watched the exchange intently, amazed at how casually the two were conversing with each other.

"Your quest piqued my curiosity a while back," Conan explained, "so I decided to look into it. The stone you're looking for is called Pandora, right?" The thief nodded. "However, in my search, I discovered that that's not its only name."

Edward's eyes widened, immediately understanding what was going on. "WHAT? When did you plan on sharing this vital piece of information with me?"

Conan turned his head to face his companion. "You told me how you felt about it, so I didn't think you'd come if I had told you," he replied, not quite answering the question.

"What's the catch?"

The two boys shifted their focus back to the task at hand. "Say that again?"

"There's always a catch. Nakamori-keibu saw where I was headed, so if I don't leave soon I'll have to deal with him again… and you know how much of a hassle that is."

Conan's grin widened. "You're already caught. I want to know the truth about you. You give me that information, or else we won't help you find Pandora. Choose wisely, because my friend is prepared to show you a couple tricks of his own." Edward held up a piece of chalk.

KID laughed. "What will you do with that, draw my picture?" He turned his head. "Be sure to get my good side!"

"Last chance," Conan warned, "unless you want to learn first-hand why he knows about the stone. Which is more important to you, your secret or your quarry?"

"Those men…" the thief muttered, almost breaking his poker face. "Fine, you win. How 'bout I come by your place tomorrow?"

"I don't think I trust you enough yet to let you set foot in my home."

"Oh, so that's how it is? Lunch at the cafe downstairs from Mouri-san's apartment - that's my final offer."

"No tricks or disguises…"

"Aw, you're no fun," KID replied mockingly.

"How will I recognize you?"

"The only two times I've appeared to you as the same person… the hair was different, but that's my real face." He pulled a hidden lever, and his hang glider expanded again beneath his cape. "See you later, tantei-kun," he called out before jumping off the roof of the unfinished building and disappearing into the night.

Edward and Conan descended to the street.

"What the hell is wrong with you," the alchemist asked.

"You mean to tell me you're not the least bit interested?"

"That's right," he said, sounding more confident in his answer than he actually felt. The truth was that he knew he couldn't avoid it, no matter how angry it made him. He just had to string it out a little longer, so it didn't look like he was giving in too easily.

"Well, keep thinking about it. If you change your mind, you know where the meeting is tomorrow. I've also invited Hattori, so it should prove to be interesting. In the mean time, I'm gonna try to figure out who he is."

They walked in silence the rest of the way. As they approached their neighborhood, Conan turned to go back to the Mouris' apartment and Ed continued on to Dr Agasa's house.

The following morning, Conan skipped class to meet Heiji at the train station. Ai looked pointedly at Edward when the group of Detective Boys noticed that their leader was conspicuously missing. Ed made his best attempt to avoid her glances, until at lunch time he couldn't ignore her any more. The pair moved off to a secluded section of the playground.

"He went to meet the thief, didn't he?"

"Yeah, that's what he said last night."

"Why didn't you go with him?"

"You know the answer to that question. I…" He stopped abruptly when he felt eyes on his back. He turned around to see Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi watching them around the corner of a piece of playground equipment. He gave them a fake smile. "What's up guys?"

"You know where Conan-kun is, don't you?" Ayumi always concerned herself with the best interests of the boy she thought she would someday marry. Genta and Mitsuhiko crossed their arms, more concerned about his whereabouts than the tone she put into the question.

Edward discovered he had as much trouble denying her information, as the other boys had. "He had a very important meeting today. I'm thinking I might go join him… you'll cover for me with the teacher, right?" Ai rolled her eyes at how blunt the alchemist was being with the other kids.

"Why can't we go too?"

Ed finally realized how dangerous the waters were that he was treading in. Conan and Ai had told him how sneaky the Detective Boys were, when it came to sticking their noses into places where they didn't really belong. He chose his words carefully, trying to draw on their sense of duty. "Even though the meeting is important, it's more important for you guys to stay here and go back to class. Not only that, but it would look really suspicious for all six of us to suddenly disappear from the school grounds."

She visibly considered the statement. After half a minute or so, Ed walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Ayumi-chan… I know you're worried about him. I'm gonna go make sure he's okay."

That finally got to her. She nodded. As the three Detective Boys walked back out to the playground proper, Ed and Ai could hear Genta complaining that he had been hoping to go on an adventure.

"So you decided to go," Ai said. "What changed?"

"Surprisingly… nothing. I've only known you guys for a few months, but he somehow already knows me better than I know myself. It's my duty as a State Alchemist to help you guys, and it's my duty to Al and myself to continue my research until I find a solution to our problem. If this is the path laid out for me, I have to see where it leads."

"Good luck. Let me know what happens."

"You're not coming?"

"You said it yourself - it'd look suspicious for too many of us to disappear from school grounds. Anyway, if I'm here, I can keep an eye on those three and make sure they don't try to follow you."

"Thank you," Ed said with a nod and a weak grin.

Across town, a certain high school student was preparing an escape plan from his campus as well. When the lunch bell rang, he collected his notebooks and bag, and snuck away to his shoe locker. He almost had both outdoors shoes on and tied, when his thoughts were interrupted.

"Going somewhere, Kuroba-kun?"

Kaito knew that people had a hard time trusting him, and that the best way to get them off his back was just to tell the truth. "As it happens, I'm off to a meeting, Hakuba-kun."

Hakuba Saguru stepped out from behind a row of lockers. "A meeting you have to sneak out of school to go to?"

The thief continued to the door. "Yes."

"With who?"

He sighed heavily. "With the kid, okay?"

"The kid? You mean Edogawa Conan-kun?" The wheels started turning in his head, and he smirked. "I can't imagine what business you have with him… I'm coming." He went to his own locker and started changing his shoes.

"WHAT?!? NO!! You can't come! This is between him and me." Kaito tried to get away before Saguru was finished, but somehow the detective outmaneuvered him.

"Sorry, Kuroba-kun, but you've officially piqued my curiosity. Shall we go?"

Kaito had already resigned himself to the fact that his secret would be revealed to his rival Kudo Shinichi. He sighed again and pushed the door open. At least this one already suspected something about the truth of the situation. "After you…"

End Chapter 12

A/N: Um… I have nothing to say. That's weird… See you next time!