Already, I'm having to do a surprising amount of research on ancient Egypt for this story. I did my best, but please forgive any blatant inaccuracies.

This is also the first chapter with some of Le Paraodx's POV. About damn time, I think.

Chapter 3: Shopping

Sly and Le Paradox were already feeling much more optimistic than they had before. At the time, it seemed like the bandit attack had been the culmination of all their bad luck, but it had ended up providing two enormous benefits for them:

One, they had camels now. With the sand cats beaten, it didn't take long to convince (or in Le Paradox's case, coerce) the riding animals into helping them. Better yet, they seemed to know exactly how to get to town so they didn't even have to provide any direction to them.

Two, the bandits had been carrying gold. A lot of gold. As a pair of professional thieves, it would have been silly for them to not take advantage of such an opportunity. In addition to the brown sack that contained their hopes of returning to the present, they now had a smaller white sack, filled with enough gold to buy them everything they needed. And that was good, because they needed a lot.

"First things first," Sly said as he gripped the reins of his camel. "We need some disguises. We stick out like a sore thumb in our usual outfits."

"We're a skunk and a raccoon in the middle of ancient Egypt," Le Paradox replied, riding in front of him as Sly still wouldn't let him take the rear. "We're going to stick out no matter what."

"True, but the less attention we draw to ourselves, the better. Besides, don't you think it's worth it just to wear something a little more comfortable?"

Le Paradox tugged at his collar, groaning from the intense heat. "…You may be right," he begrudgingly admitted. "But I will decide what I wear!"

"Yeah, like I was really gonna do your clothes shopping for you," Sly deadpanned.

"And after that, we will get my tools," Le Paradox said, in a tone that sounded more like an order than a request. "Then we'll find a place to stay while I get us out of this mess."

"Yes sir," Sly replied, really starting to miss his actual team right now. They were the ones he was supposed to be making plans with, not this jerk. He couldn't imagine what they must have been going through right now without him.

Hang on guys, I'll make it back to you. Somehow.

It only took about an hour after that conversation for the duo and their goods to finally reach a town. It was a relatively small place, consisting of stone buildings, tall columns, and most importantly, a marketplace. Had either of them been able to read ancient Egyptian, they would have known that the town was named Hebbu.

Despite their agreement that they focus on getting disguises first, that plan went right out the window as soon as they saw a merchant selling jugs of water. They hadn't realized just how thirsty they really were until they found themselves practically throwing gold into the merchant's face and chugging down a pair of those jugs. The half-empty jugs then joined the rest of their supplies. They could have easily combined the contents into one jug, but that would require drinking from the same water, which neither of them was willing to do.

Only once their thirst was finally quenched did they go about looking for new clothes. There wasn't a large variety of styles at the shop they found, but that only meant they wouldn't have to worry about getting anything that would stand out too much. Sly split up from Le Paradox to do his own shopping, though still kept a close eye on him in the off-chance that he try to run off. As soon as he found a perfect set of clothing, he was led into a small tent to try it on.

Sly changed into his latest disguise and looked himself over in a nearby mirror. He had chosen to go shirtless to deal with the heat, but now wore a striped blue and gold Shendyt, a men's skirt that extended down to the knees and was belted at the waist. He had replaced his cap with a simple headcloth, bearing the same color scheme as the Shendyt, and adorned gold bands on his wrists and ankles. Lastly, he wore a pair of light sandals on his grey-furred feet.

Only now did he realize that he looked strikingly familiar. What do you know, I'm the spitting image of Slytunkhamen Cooper. Guess I still have my ancestors on the brain.

He found his mind's subconscious choice of clothing more than appropriate and made the purchase. That did leave him with the question of what to do with his old clothes though. For now, he simply stuffed them in the money bag. Maybe that would keep Le Paradox from trying to steal it.

The skunk had long since gotten changed himself and tapped his foot impatiently by the doorway. He was also dressed in a Shendyt, but one that was mostly black with white trims, matching his natural fur coloration. He hadn't bothered with a headcloth (or perhaps just couldn't fit one over that ridiculous fop of hair on his head) and his only other clothing was a white sleeveless shirt.

He looked at Sly's own outfit with disdain. "I'm glad to see you've decided to dress so lightly."

"Okay, the gold bands might have been a bit much," Sly admitted bashfully. "But we still have a good amount of cash left. Let's go find those tools."

"…We might have overestimated their selection a tad."

The two thieves stared blankly at the tools being sold. Le Paradox chuckled humorlessly. "Yes, time travel has a way of making you take things for granted, doesn't it?"

There were no wrenches on sale. No pliers, no screwdrivers, no wire cutters. These were ancient times, and all they had to work with were ancient tools. The jackel manning the stand noticed their obvious displeasure, though not their words. "What, do you think you can find a better deal elsewhere? I'd like to see you try," he said indignantly.

He was quite right. This was going to be the best they could get. Le Paradox eventually settled for a knife and mallet, both made of a primitive iron. He also bought a chisel, under the reasoning that he could use it as a makeshift screwdriver if need be. They were fortunate to be in an Egypt that was advanced enough to provide those options instead of tools made from flint and copper, but they didn't exactly see it that way.

"Be honest," Sly said as they left the stand. "Do you really think you can fix the time machine with those?"

Le Paradox was too downtrodden for any snippy comebacks. "I don't know. I think I might be able to, but it's definitely going to take a lot longer."

"I was afraid of that," Sly sighed. His stomach growled and he thought of a way to at least make them feel better. "Hey, you wanna get a bite to eat?"

"You expect me to eat this peasant's feed?!" Le Paradox yelled, looking down distastefully at the food in front of them as they sat on the outskirts of the town. It was really just a few loaves of bread and some dates, nothing most people would find offensive. Then again, most people weren't skunks with a massive entitlement complex.

"Hey, if you don't want it, feel free to starve yourself. But that'll make it pretty hard to repair the time machine, don't you think?" Cooper asked in that infuriatingly nonchalant way of his, mouth stuffed full of bread.

Le Paradox growled at him, but grabbed a loaf of bread anyway. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something very off with Cooper lately. He seemed...too friendly. Sure, he refused to trust him and he was prone to making verbal jabs at his expense, but he was still acting far too civil towards someone who had tried to erase his family line from history. He himself still felt a passionate hatred towards the entire Cooper clan, so how could the raccoon be so calm about all this?

Those that were more familiar with Sly Cooper would know that he was generally not a vindictive person. While he could certainly hold a grudge and be unwilling to work with others, such as his tenuous alliance with the Panda King, he wouldn't go out of his way to hurt someone for something as petty as revenge. He just wasn't that kind of person.

This however, was not the conclusion Le Paradox had reached.

He must be plotting to steal the time machine for himself and ditch me here! Yes, that must be it. This is all just a ploy to make me lower my guard. Well, I'm not going to let that happen!

Le Paradox was already planning to do the exact same thing of course, so what he felt couldn't exactly be called betrayal. If anything, it was more like a feeling of resentment towards Cooper for daring to plot against him. Whatever the feeling was, he fully intended to beat him to the punch.

While glaring at Cooper's innocently scheming face, he caught a glimpse of the "tool set" he had bought and inwardly sighed.

If I can even GET that far…