A/N: Oh thank Mother Grub that hellish GIGAPAUSE is finally over, and that I managed to borrow my pawsome grandmother's computer. As a thank you both to those of you who were waiting patiently for this and to whatever higher powers helped me finish that project on time, and also helped me find a way to finish this chapter, you get a relatively lengthy chapter! Amusez-vous! (and I am SO sorry I've been gone for like six months. I feel like I've turned into a Huss...)

(and omg my self imposed word minimum was 3,000 words, but I managed 4,346. so very very very very very happy right now!)

Chapter 6: Going After A Psychotic Wife-Beater

So, after fixing up the van - and by fixing up, I mean tuning up - I managed to convince the kid to tell me his name. It took some serious work, let me tell you, but after some time he finally caved and told me.

"Atlas." He muttered, blushing a bit, "Atlas Makara."

My heart stopped. He was named Atlas. Atlas was my all time favorite name ever. Oh. My. Gods. Yes.

"Atlas Makara, huh?" I said smoothly, "Got a nice ring to it."

He smiled somewhat shyly at me. "Most people laugh." He admitted, "Because of Greek mythology's Atlas... Some people I used to know called me 'strong boy' as an insult because, as you can see, I'm built like a twig."

I chuckled, "That's exactly why I like your name - if I went to college I'd major in Greek mythology."

His smile got a little brighter.

"So, whaddaya say we go after your psycho step-dad and teach him a lesson?" I asked.

He took a breath and grinned, "Let's do it, Ringtail."

I grinned right back.

••••••••••••

"So let me get this straight - you're going off, with a guy you just met, to go after his psycho step dad whom he says put him up to attacking you?" Lindsey gave me a quizzical look.

"Yeah."

"And you're not even gonna try and find out if he's lying?"

"Nope."

"Are you nuts?!"

"Quite possibly."

"Why are you blindly trusting this kid?"

"Because nobody could fake the fear in his eyes when he said he couldn't tell me who put him up to attacking me."

Lindsey sighed, "Have you considered a lie detector test?"

"No good," I immediately replied, "He has an abnormally fast heartbeat so everything would register as a lie."

She tilted her head to the side.

"I've taken his pulse on multiple occasions when he wasn't paying attention and was completely relaxed and it was still faster than a normal person's heart rate." I grinned sheepishly, "That and, uh, the second he told me his name I managed to hack into his medical records."

She laughed. "Okay, okay, you've got this. You've got this."

"Damn right I do. Why would you doubt my judgement?"

She glanced at Rajan and back to me pointedly. I scowled at her.

I kept my voice low so no one but her would hear it, "Well if you hadn't flipped the fuck out, I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have happened."

She grimaced, "Okay, point taken. My fault. I can understand that and to be honest I have to agree."

"Not entirely your fault," I disagreed, "His too for being such a total noob and flipping the fuck out with you."

She smiled a little, "Fine, fine. I trust your judgement. Go track down that psychotic wife-beater."

I grinned, "Good and okay." I started to leave, "C'mon, Atlas! We're off to beat the shit outa your step dad."

He laughed, "We? I couldn't punch my way out of a wet paper sack!"

But he followed me anyway.

••••••••••••

"So, any particular talents you've got?" I asked when we stopped for the night. He lived a ways outside of Paris and I didn't feel like pulling the usual hideout moving speeds, "Cuz obviously you're not a fighter."

He blushed, and my heart stopped again. Gods he was adorable.

Am I...? I was relatively sure I was.

"Well, I... uh, I'm an acrobatics expert..." He said, embarrassed.

"That's useful." I noted.

"For you, maybe. It doesn't do me any good."

I hummed. "Maybe it might," I mused.

I didn't clarify and instead turned over to sleep. He asked me what I meant but I evened out my breathing and pretended to have already fallen asleep.

"Oh, come on Sophie, nobody falls asleep that fast!" He complained. When I didn't reply, "Sophie?"

I tried to slow my pulse down too, just in case, and just laid there. He grumbled something and came over to me.

Fingertips pressed to my neck carefully, stayed there for a moment, then were gone. He sighed.

"Christ, she falls asleep fast." A kiss was pressed to my temple, "Night, Soph."

My heart stopped completely, but he was already across the van and curling up. Oh come on, you barely met him three days ago! What the fuck is wrong with you? My brain snapped at my heart.

He seems to be just as messed up! My heart argued back.

Guys, shut the fuck up, I thought to myself, we can deal with this tomorrow.

And just like that, I fell asleep.

••••••••••••

I didn't mention Atlas's kissing me on the forehead the next morning. Obviously he had done so because he thought I was asleep, and I wasn't going to fuck that up. I invited him to sit up front with me when he didn't leave his seat the next morning, even when I climbed over the front seat and into the driver's seat.

"You sure?" He asked.

"Of course. I mean, why wouldn't I let you sit up here?"

He smiled a little and climbed over the seat too. "You're a lot nicer than my step dad said you were."

"More than likely," I said as I started the van, glancing over with a wry smile, "He got his information on me from Keaton."

"Keaton?" He asked.

"I have reason to believe he's your step dad's boss." I replied, "He's a fox. He tends to be a bit of a dick, and he's just the kind of person who would set a kid on me to keep me on my toes."

"Why do you keep calling me a kid?" He asked, "I can't be that much younger than you!"

I smiled and glanced over again, "I don't mean to sound condescending." I said, "And I apologize if I do. But I don't mean it like you're a five year old or something. I mean it like you're pretty much innocent when it comes to stuff like attacking people. You're too nice, if you will."

He tilted his head to the side, looking ever so slightly annoyed, "Oh, and you're like 90 by those standards, right?"

I kept my eyes glued to the road, "Atlas, my first real mission consisted of me running around Rajan I's hideout, collecting his loot, and murdering his guards. And Keaton? I was pretty sure I killed him a year ago. But apparently, he's good at playing dead."

Atlas was staring at me and I knew it. I didn't look over, I couldn't bare to see the look on his face knowing that I had murdered so many people. There was utter silence for a while.

"Sophie?" He eventually asked.

I swallowed, "Yeah?"

"Do you think that bothers me?" He asked.

I looked over really quick. He was staring at the road too.

"Because it doesn't." He said, "It's nothing I've never heard about. Nothing none of my 'friends' didn't do at some point."

I smiled bitterly, "Well, at least you're not sheltered, like I was." I said, then furrowed my brows. "Wait, where did that come from?"

He looked at me and tilted his head to the side, "What do you mean, 'where did that come from'?"

Still confused, I replied, "I was raised in an orphanage - I was never sheltered. I don't know why I said that..." I shook my head in order to clear it, "Sorry, I do that a lot." I said, looking at him, "I have huge holes in my memory, and sometimes I get really confused about things."

He nodded, "Yeah, Dodger said something about you being amnesiac."

I gave him a firm nod, "It's not as bad anymore, I remember most of it, but now it's eating through the last couple of years' memories, and there are bits missing. Places where I know something happened, but I can't remember it. Brief flashes of a voice I can't remember, a woman in white that I can't put a face or name to - I think maybe I might have gone a little insane for a while."

He laughed, "Only for a little while?" He asked, "Sorry, but you don't seem entirely sane now either!"

I had to smile, "Yeah, I suppose I don't. But then again, I've never been very good at sounding sane."

The tension was quickly evaporating between us. He looked over at me, seemingly considering something. I glanced over, then back at the road.

"I..." Atlas began, "I think that doing this might get you killed." He said solemnly.

I looked sharply over at him, "What do you mean?"

"Dodger is really strong, and he's killed a lot of people who tried to stop him..."

"Thanks for your concern, Atlas, but... I beat Keaton to near death a year ago, when I was depressed, scrawny, and hadn't eaten a proper meal in months. I wasn't anywhere near full strength." I looked over as kindly as I could, "Believe me, he can't kill me. Injure me? Most likely. But kill me? No way in hell."

He didn't seem reassured.

••••••••••••

We pulled up before his home an hour or so later, and he still looked worried.

"Hey." I said.

He looked over, his expression sad.

"I'll be okay." I told him, "I promise."

The worry in his eyes lessened some, but not entirely, and he nodded.

His house was huge. It wasn't just a mansion, it was a mansion damn near the size of a castle.

We got out after parking a block or so away and stalked up to the front gates. I quickly caught sight of the first camera and pulled a small gadget out of my pocket. I clicked the button, and all the power in the large mansion went out. Atlas looked astonished and confused.

"It's a massive electric shock. It short circuits the closest source of electricity." I explained, grabbing a grappling hook from my bag and managing through experience and luck to catch a good enough spot that it held tight. I motioned him up after testing it, "You first, just in case it gives out - I can catch you."

He nodded and started up. To my intense relief, it held until he got all the way to the top. I climbed up after him. I stood up when I got on top of the wall and looked down. It was a safe drop for me, but he probably didn't do much parkour or anything like that and probably didn't know how to land without breaking his legs. The apprehensive expression on his face was a tell tale sign.

"I'll jump first. I'll catch you - just jump horizontally, okay?"

He nodded. I jumped. I landed with my usual grace - being a thief does have it's advantages you know - and turned up to look at him. He closed his eyes and leapt after me. I caught him easily, setting him down on his own two feet with a grin.

"All righty, let's go!"

I led him over to a window, murmuring that walking in through the front door would be stupid, and very carefully made my way in. He followed in my footsteps exactly, stepping only where I stepped and nowhere else. He was a fast learner.

"Dodger typically hides out on the top floor," Atlas whispered, "It's really hard to get up there without alerting the guards." He glanced at me, looking me up and down critically, "But I think if anybody could get up there undetected it's you."

I smiled, "Well thank you."

He managed a weak and shaky smile in response. I paused and pulled him into a closet nearby. He seemed confused and a bit flustered. I braced myself before taking a deep breath and saying, "Okay, I'm going to teach you something." He tilted his head to the side and I continued, "This is something nobody who isn't a Cooper should know, but you'll need it if you're going to follow me."

His eyes widened, "What? You're teaching me a family secret?"

"Only one," I said, glancing about and making sure the door was closed tight, "Invisibility." Before he could reply I went on, "Now, hopefully I won't need to teach you to move while invisible - that takes a lot longer to teach."

He slowly nodded. "Okay. What do I do?"

••••••••••••

After teaching Atlas what to do, I found he really was a very quick learner. He needed to be reminded only once how to do the trick. It made me proud to realize this.

"Okay, Atlas, come on!"

He nodded and followed me out of the closet. He followed my lead brilliantly - no doubt he'd learned at an early age to follow orders. I was highly doubting the possibility of this 'Dodger' guy being your average beefy dumbass. If Keaton had him in his employ he was probably extremely intelligent.

Now, I'm no dumbass either. If Dodger was as smart as I thought... I knew he was probably lying in wait for us - he was a criminal after all. It would only make sense for him to be expecting me to break in and try to knock his ass down a few pegs or kill him.

As a criminal myself, I knew that always expecting someone to be after you - especially after you humiliate them or try to whack them - was like third grade math. You should just know. The very fact that Ritchie and Keaton had already taught me that lesson on two seperate occasions was highly embarrassing and a stain on the Cooper legacy - I should never have let my guard down on either occasion.

I shook my head in an attempt to clear it and kept going. I had to keep focused. I set the majority of my mind on the task at hand, then absently began planning. I'll admit, I'm not Lindsey, and I definitely can't come up with a plan like hers, but I'm a natural born strategist. If I don't have a plan I can improvise.

Now, if Dodger was as strong as Atlas said he was, no matter how smart he'd likely prefer the tank strategy. He would probably be smart about his up close and personal attacks, but he would still be slow moving to compensate for being a heavy hitter. That would mean I had a speed advantage over him - especially since I had the Slow move and a lot of practice with it on my side. I would probably be extremely physically outmatched, but I could hit him hit him more often than he could hit me, especially if I was using the Slow move. Not to mention I had my invisibility and my other special moves to help me through the fight.

Atlas would be a great asset. No doubt he knew how Dodger fought and could give me tips for avoiding his attacks.

In my musing, I failed to realize I'd already led us to the fifth floor without us being spotted. I was a better thief than I thought.

"How many floors does this place have?" I asked the lynx behind me.

"Nine." He replied, "...Most people don't make it past the third floor and we're on the fifth... You're good."

"So I've been told." I replied with a wry smile.

I set forth again. We were making pretty good time, which under normal circumstances would be great. But technically I didn't have a plan. Which was definitely not good. The plan I did have basically consisted of "Don't slow down, don't get brutally murdered".

My thoughts returned to fighting Dodger. I might as well get as up to date on my target as possible...

"Hey, Atlas?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"Dodger." I stated bluntly, "How does he fight?"

He was quiet for a second, "Well, he's a bit of a tank. He's not your usual tank, though. All of his attacks are carefully planned. He's super smart - in fact he's an ex-military strategist. He... Probably already knows we're here..." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Oh, I don't doubt that." I said with a frown. "There's been a suspicious lack of guard activity - so either they've planned an ambush themselves or he wants a free shot at me. Not to mention how easy navigating these floors has been. I haven't seen a single guard since we passed the entrance on the first floor... But when I was driving past I saw about twenty on each floor."

He furrowed his eyebrows, "That is weird. I hadn't even noticed. But there are usually a lot of guards pretty much everywhere."

I nodded stiffly, "I thought so."

He sounded worried when he spoke up again, "What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna do the best I can."

I could only hope that my best would be anywhere near good enough to keep me alive. If he was an ex-military strategist, there was no way my hastily thrown together plan could ever match his most likely very carefully and thoroughly thought out plan. But hopefully I would survive... I mean, who eould help Atlas if I bit the dust? Never mind the fact that I may or may not have been developing a crush on him already, he just seemed so nice and friendly and not fit for a life spent running from someone like this Dodger guy. He'd never survive it. But if I was helping him, even from afar or inderectly, he stood a much better chance. And if he stood a better chance with me helping indirectly, he stood the best chance with me and the team protecting him, but at the same time he'd be helping us. Acrobatics are incredibly useful to a band of thieves.

"Well, that's all you cani do..." Atlas hummed with a nod. "Let's go."

I nodded in reply, and we started off again. We continued to the sixth, then seventh floor without incident. On the eighth, I noticed Atlas was trembling. I stopped, worried. He was crying a bit, as well.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked.

"Y-yeah. I just... I'm scared of him. He used to b-be..." He trailed off and I understood almost immediately.

"All the more reason for me to kick his ass..." I muttered darkly, then louder and more reassuring, "It's okay, Atlas. He'll never lay a finger on you again, I promise. If I have to... I'll kill him."

Atlas smiled slightly, "That... That actually makes me feel better, Sophie. It really does."

I smiled back, "Then let's go!"

"Not so fast."

It was a guard. The first we'd seen. I cursed under my breath and turned invisible. Atlas followed suit. I held my breath, praying he'd think we snuck away. It worked like a charm.

"I had them, Sir." He said into a walkie talkie, "But Cooper taught him that damn invisibility trick. They ran."

/Oh if only you knew.../

I waited until he turned around and the unsheathed my knife as I became visible again. I made toward him and wrapped an arm around his neck, putting the much larger man in a chokehold with ease. Seconds later he was hanging limp in my arms. I scowled and decided on something. The lights were flickering back on, meaning the cameras would be on soon. I stabbed the guard in the neck and then dipped my index finger in the blood.

"This'll be gruesome." I warned Atlas, "At least if you're easily grossed out by blood."

Understanding dawned on him, and something akin to disgust crossed his face, "Are you really gonna...?"

I nodded. I dropped the guard and walked to the closest wall.

'Dodger,' I wrote in my neatest all capital handwriting, 'Youre next jackass. ¤SC'

Atlas just sort of watched with a 'wtf'/'holy shit' expression with just the barest hints of interest. I was beginning to realize he wad just as fucked up as I was - and I liked that.

The next thing I did was drag the guard's corpse under the writing. After a second I slit his throat completely and tilted his head so it rested in the wall and the slice was obvious. Atlas spoke up.

"This'll sound weird, but maybe you should gouge his eyes out - just to really send the message."

"That's kinda creepy." I said, "But... I like the way you think, Atlas."

I spent a few seconds doing so, then stood and wiped my hand on the wall as I walked past the body, neatly underlining my message and continuing for a ways down the hall. Atlas followed, and when I booked it to the last staircase in the house, he was one step behind me.

••••••••••••

Dodger POV

The cameras were finally coming back online after that little Cooper brat knocked out the house's power. She was just as much of a nuisance as Keaton had told me she was. And clever too, according to Fafner. Speaking of whom... he had abruptly cut off contact after reporting. I decided I should check on him, now that the cameras were all functional.

I tapped the button for the cameras on the eighth floor. What I saw shocked and horrified me.

Not only had that Cooper brat killed Fafner - there was no doubt in my mind that she had done it, Atlas had never been capable of murder - but she had gouged out his eyes and written a message in his blood.

"You're next..." I murmured, horrified and, to be honest, scared.

This girl was far more brutal than Keaton had suggested. More brutal than I ever would have guessed. This girl had to be a hardened criminal and there's almost never a way to be a criminal without getting used to bloodshed. No way at all. It's borderline impossible.

And now this little psychotic raccoon was after me? This couldn't turn out well. Not at all...

••••••••••••

Sophie POV

We were mere feet away from Dodger's little office on the 9th floor, and I was reflecting on my murder of that guard. I didn't regret killing him, not at all, but I did have to wonder - did he have a family? What was his name? How old was he? What had he dreamed of before becoming a guard for Dodger? I voiced only one of those questions.

"Hey, Atlas?"

"Yeah?"

"That guard. What was his name?"

He thought for a moment. "I think that it was... Fafner. Why?"

"Just curious." I replied with a shrug, "I always get curious when I only have to kill one person. I rarely get answers though."

Atlas nodded then glanced at the door, "Shall we?"

"Sure."

We crept to the door and I pressed my ear to it to listen. All I could hear was muttering and the rustling of paper. I looked at Atlas.

"We knock, move away from the door, and then turn invisible. You should bolt for here the first chance you get and see if he has any info that me and the gang could use to take Keaton down... For good this time." I whispered.

He nodded, then whispered, "Maybe I oughta move now - I'm not as quiet as you."

I gave him a thumbs up and waited until he disappeared to knock on the door. The mutterings stopped and someone moved toward the door. I turned invisible on the spot and moved a couple feet away.

I held my breath when the doors opened. Here was my first peek at Dodger... And damn was he impressive. He was a tall Siberian Huskie, with cold blue eyes and a lot of fluffy white and black fur. I couldn't help briefly thinking he was adorable.

He peeked out of the office cautiously. When he saw no one he took a single step out and looked around. I moved around behind him and somehow managed to perch on top of the small doors without making a sound. I released the trick and crossed my legs.

"I said you were next." He turned sharply and stared at me and I continued, "And yet you answer the door... Are you stupid?"

"No," He said calmly, "I simply came to the conclusion that I would put up a fight."

I grinned, "Oh, will you now?" I cocked an eyebrow and turned invisible again. I brushed past him and then grabbed the back of his shirt, tossing him across the room. Atlas appeared then and bolted at considerable speeds toward Dodger's office. He escaped being seen by pure chance, and luckily enough for him he managed to make no noise until he slammed the doors behind him.

"What the -?!" Dodger didn't get a chance to finish his sentence, because a second later I was upon him.

I had the upper hand so far in this fight, but I knew the second he gained his bearings I'd be mincemeat. But that was okay. I already had a plan in place in the event of him gaining the upper hand. Even if it meant resorting to even more dirty tricks than usual, I was going to win this fight. And if I had to, I was going to kill Dodger.

I was going to win. By any means necessary.