"I hate swamps" I muttered under my breath, as I followed Sly from branch to branch. When we came a to a stop, Sly took his time taking out the keys from his bag.

"What's not to like about swamps?" Sly chuckled as he went ahead in unlocking all the locks.

"If I pushed you down into that water, you would be okay with it?" I looked at him to see if he was really Sly or a ghost who had taken possession of Sly's body.

"Point taken, but don't think that I wouldn't try to take you with me." He shrugged with a smirk before jumping down. I followed.

We both landed on the lid of the cauldron before the pressure from below pushed us off. I felt myself fall away from Sly, so I grabbed onto his cane, as it was the closest thing I could reach. He pulled me up towards him and grabbed me by the waist. We were face to face, and I must have made a face because he couldn't help but laugh. As we landed on a some sort of tooth, we were greeted by Mz Ruby.

"Mmm. I could feel that Cooper vibe coming, and a little bit of Lorian aura. Most distastefully bad juju." She seemed to be bouncing to her own beat. I wasn't really sure what she was saying.

"Yeah, well you give me the creeps too, lady. Cooking up an army of ghosts isn't a very neighbourly pastime" I said, looking around the "mouth" we were in.

"Oh, Marie. I see your mouth moving but all I hear is blah, blah, blah. Well if jaws need to flap, then let them flap. See you two in the next world." It sent a shiver down my spine when she said my name, but when she was taunting us from where she was we had no choice but to continue. Sly then let go of me before going on ahead.

Teeth were chomping down and it was causing the place to shake and tremble. Everything was wet, drenched in mucous, and was probably poisonous. I almost couldn't land some jumps, but I did eventually made it to Sly. Mz Ruby had already teleported to elsewhere.

"Come back here! You can't run away forever!" Sly called out to her.

"Quite true, quite true, Why don't have my servants Chumley and Chump escort you over here." How kind.

"What's the catch?"

"Oh, not much. Just a little game I like to play with all my annoying guests, I want to see how well you pay attention."

"What do you mean?" I was becoming more and more impatient. She talks so slow I've been itching to just swim over and get things over with. But as I've observed before, it would probably kill me quicker than I could imagine.

"Well I'll unleash my mighty mojo magic upon you. If you repeat what I do, you'll dodge it just fine. If not, you'll get zapped" and her laughter boomed all througout the room.

"A little voodoo simon says, eh?" Sly looked at me, " Sounds easy enough." I gave him a look, hoping he understood what he just said.

Just then her "servants" came up to us, one in front of the other. Sly went on the one at the front, deciding that it would be safer for me behind him. I was reluctant, as I thought why couldn't they escort us side by side, but I obeyed. From behind I couldn't really tell what was going on with Mz Ruby, I was just following what Sly did. My mind wandered off onto the topic of Katarina. She's a dancer too, huh? Would what I was doing now be considered dancing? When and how did my brother get himself involved with music and dancing? Nothing felt right. I lost track of what Sly was doing when I was almost hit by some mojo magic. It felt ridiculous to call it that. I quickly regained my balance as Sly jumped off first, getting one hit in, and I followed from above to land another.

Mz Ruby had teleported again. I was panting, as I was still a bit off from almost missing the beat. Sly turned towards me.

"Are you okay? What's the matter?" he reached for my arm and I nodded.

"I just got lost in thought, sorry"

"Here? Of all times?" Sly wasn't exactly angry, more anxious or worried. He looked like he was still looking for the right words to say, but didn't really think there was before I knew it I was pulled into a hug. It felt nice and warm, but also felt like the wrong time for this. I pushed him off, but when I looked up he looked almost hurt. I was confused. Why was he getting so worked up about this now?

"Sly, now is not the time" I pulled him by the are to turn around to look at the impatient Mz Ruby. He snuck a glance back at me, before he jumped on ahead to the point Mz Ruby set up for him, and I waited for him to move to the next until I could follow. It seemed like the beat was only getting faster. As we got closer, everything was pretty much the same as the last. She teleported again, her laughter echoing all around us. Sly looked at me, this time looking torn. Something was still bothering him.

"Marie, I think I'm going to go for this one alone. I'll come back for you after, I just don't want to risk you falling"

"What? I won't fall, why are you worried about that now?" I've been right behind him during every heist for the Thievius Raccoonus, I'm not going to back out.

"Just please-"

"I've been following you this whole time, it's no different now-"

"I'm worried about you! It's different now because I can't stop worrying about you!" Sly had raised his voice in a way he's never done with anyone in the gang before. I shrunk back a bit, not used to this change in attitude. He soon realized it too.

Sly had always been someone I could depend on back at the orphanage. Not like the others weren't like that, but Sly always seemed to be there. He was there for me when my brother disappeared, and I wanted to return the favor. I've never been able to, nothing I've done was comparable to his support. Could it be said that he was like a brother? No, I don't think you could call it that. A best friend didn't fit quite well as it did with Bentley and Murray. We always called each other family, but I still don't know how to explain what Sly is to me. Regardless, I didn't want him to go through it all alone. I think somewhere in him, he was facing this same conflict.

He looked back at Mz Ruby, then up at the ceiling and he saw a mosquito coming his way. He turned to me one last time before the mosquito came around. I stared back at him, noticing some sort of resolve in his eyes.

"I'm coming back for you. Just sit back and watch the show, okay?" He tried to crack a smile, he reached for my arm, his hand tracing down it until he found my hand. He leaned in and kissed my forehead before making a running start to jump onto the mosquito's back. I was dumbfounded and frozen. My heart was beating faster than I could act,as it took a hot minute for me I realize that the mojo magic could still reach me. I hid behind a nearby rock and listened in on the beat until it was over.

I was following every beat Mz Ruby had coming for us. I wanted to say that I had no doubt in my mind that we would be just fine, but with the fact that I couldn't exactly turn back to check on Marie, I was a bit nervous. I know she gets tired of this kind of stuff from me and now she's just used to it, but I don't think I'd know what I'd do if she got hurt and I couldn't do anything to prevent it.

At first the rhythm was quite slow, which was bearable. But as we were nearing Mz Ruby, I could hear Marie yelp, almost missing the beat. My heart started racing, and I jumped off and swung at Mz Ruby. When I saw Marie jump over me to land another strike, my heartbeat slowed down a little, glad that she had recovered quick enough to strike. However Mz Ruby had escaped to another platform higher up and further away. I turned to see Marie trying to catch her breath.

"Are you okay? What's the matter?" She said she was lost in her own train of thought, and I was so confused how this one girl could give me so much anxiety. We were in the middle of Mz Ruby's little game which could mean life or death for both of us. Then I realized something was bothering her, and my guess was that it was probably her brother.

In the weeks up to this heist, she kept quiet in her room. In the dead of the night we could hear her pace around the safe-house, making tea, washing the cup, and returning to her room, as well as to her silent routine. I had peeked at her sitting at the table with her cup in hand one night. I think she'd been crying through muffled sniffles and her rush to wipe face every now and then. I looked at the girl in front of me now. She was tired and lost. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to run her back to the van so I could deal with all this myself, but I knew she'd hate that.

I pulled her into a hug, hoping she'd understand that I knew what she was stuck on. Damn it, I was so frustrated that we couldn't do anything about it at the moment. I could only think of the worst possible scenario, but then she pushed me off. Her eyebrows furrowed, she was confused. She then turned me around to remind me what we were here for, and I realized we could only move forward from here. I looked back at her, and she was more determined than ever. Trusting her for the moment, I went ahead.

We had landed another couple hits on Mz Ruby, but she was further away with no direct path. I looked down before turning to Marie. I couldn't risk it. If she got sidetracked and fell here, I don't think I'll be able to catch her. The only way across was to wait for an escort. I took the time to convince Marie to let me go ahead.

"What? I won't fall, why are you worried about that now?"

"Just please-"

"I've been following you this whole time, it's no different now-"

"I'm worried about you! It's different now because I can't stop worrying about you!" I had raised my voice a little too much, Marie flinched. Everything in me wanted to just focus on her, but I knew that Mz Ruby's little game wouldn't let me do that. I looked back up at the roof of the mouth, seeing a mosquito coming my way. I turned back to look at Marie. She was a bit hurt by the tone of my voice, and the look on her face told me she was just as worried about me as I was for her. But I don't want to finish this just to see her go back to the safe-house and not talk at all. I decided I'd go ahead, get this thing over with, and head back to Paris and hunt her brother down. Okay, that seems a little harsh, but in my defense he abandoned her to pursue a wealthy lifestyle. So maybe a little smack may be what he needs.

"I'm coming back for you. Just sit back and watch the show, okay?" I gently took her arm, tracing my hand down to hold hers. I pulled her in to kiss her forehead, just before the mosquito came around. I then jumped without hesitation as it was still moving.

The beat was faster than it was ever before. I repeated everything Mz Ruby wanted me to follow, much to her disliking. She tried changing the rhythm to catch me off guard, but it never worked. I'm getting this done now. I had flipped off the mosquito, swinging my cane down onto Mz Ruby for a final blow.

When I stood up from where I was, I could see Mz Ruby tumble down at Sly's feet.

"You've certainly got some rhythm, raccoon. But it won't help you none if you're fixing to go after the Panda King. He's tough with a capital T. If you go poking around his stronghold in China, you're likely to get poked back."

"Yeah, well if he's anything like the rest of you, I think we'll manage."

It wasn't long until he came back, as he promised. With a smiled, he presented the chapter on Slytunkhamen and his invisibility technique. I was glad that he came back, so much so that I couldn't help but hug him. I knew I didn't really have much to worry about with Sly taking the field on his own, but I just felt relieved. I felt him hug back.

Once again, sirens went off in the distance, and it was our cue to get back to the van and make our getaway.

weewoo -Mirai Akemi