Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and story elements of the Sly Cooper franchise. All credit goes to Sucker Punch and Sanzaru Games. This story is for entertainment purposes only.

oooooooooooooo

With the final member of the Fiendish Five being all that was left for the Cooper Gang to pursue, Arpeggio immediately called forth his Bengal tiger protégée to discuss final instruction on her current assignments. At that same time, Arpeggio had ensured his aerial base of operations moved over Russia's border patrol, so that once Clockwerk was disposed of, the Klaww Gang would swoop in to harvest what benefits remained.

"By the way, you did make sure that Penelope girl was returned to Holland, yes," Arpeggio himself inquired on a different topic, as he sipped from a glass of champagne.

"Yes, Arpeggio," Neyla answered, internally hating how her mentor kept a lengthy checklist to ensure there were no loose ends. "I did so right after the Contessa's 'therapy session' with the littl' mouse."

"Perfect," the British parrot replied with some levity in his voice. "You may leave to finish your surveillance work on Cooper."

Neyla let out a sigh of relief as she was finally free to return to keeping a watchful eye on her friends and began leaving the personal observation deck just as the Contessa walked past her to speak with Arpeggio for a different, private conversation. Seeing the spider's appearance, Neyla recalled how cold, or rather, colder than usual, the Contessa had been lately to both Sly and his lifelong friends in their post-job psych evaluations, and decided eavesdropping would ensure better understanding on whatever the Klaww Gang's official membership were planning.

"One final push and Clockwerk will be defeated," Neyla heard the corrupt warden say to Arpeggio.

"Indeed," the parrot remarked before adding, "and then, he himself will be ours to do with as we please."

"Provided that Inspector Fox is not able to round up the pieces and get them in Interpol's hands," the black widow noted irately. "I overheard Chief Barkley allowing her to go after Clockwerk, and if she lays first claim to the remains, well, there's only so much I can do without exposing myself prematurely."

"That is a problem indeed," Neyla heard Arpeggio say with a sigh. "I suppose we should better hope that Cooper and his band can accomplish things quicker before Miss Fox's arrival."

"Speaking of the Cooper Gang," began the Contessa, "how much longer do we have to play the role of dutiful mentors to them? I am tired of playing a role that I have long despised. At least the prison I manage gives me a steady investment return. Plus, I grow weary of that raccoon's pitiful morality."

"It won't be long before we can finally cut ties with them," answered Arpeggio, much to Neyla's shock and dismay. "Especially Cooper. I will allow that he is the best at what he does, but I need minions that aren't bound to such trivial and frivolous things as a moral code."

"I want this to be perfectly clear, Arpeggio," Neyla heard the Contessa begin in a venomous tone, "I hated every minute teaching those children. Every minute! I do not see why you had me teach those brats."

"It's quite simple, my dear," Neyla heard Arpeggio reply in a calm demeanor, "you have the extraordinary capacity to keep your emotions in check. Hiring tutors for them would've cost us quite a bit of money. Not to mention, risk exposing ourselves before we were ready to strike."

"I will admit that Bentley, Penelope, Neyla, and even the Le Paradox boy each showed promise," the Contessa relented before her tone became acidic once more. "But the next time you have me teach children again, I will put you in one of my webs and use you for one of my experiments."

The British parrot chuckled in amusement as he replied with an evil smirk, "You're welcome to try and inevitably fail. But alas, Neyla will be the only protégée I will need at this time."

Having heard all she needed to hear, Neyla walked away, saying to herself softly, yet angrily, "If you have no more need for Sly, Bentley, and Murray, then I'll gut you from the inside."

oooooooooooooo

The Cold Heart of Hate (The Setup)

From notes of Sly Cooper: "We were on our way to the Krakarov Volcano in Russia. While looking over what little information I had on the final member of the Fiendish Five, I began to notice something. In the four parts of the Thievius Raccoonus recovered so far, several of the pictures depict a shadowy owl-like figure, which looks very similar to the police images of the mysterious Clockwerk. Is this a strange coincidence or is there something I'm missing?

I tried to get in touch with Arpeggio on the off chance he knew anything, but all I got from him, and, surprisingly enough, Neyla, was absolute silence for a change. Is Clockwerk aware of our sponsors, or have our sponsors decided we are no longer needed or wanted? What's worse, I don't know what that means for Neyla."

oooooooooooooo

The approach for Neyla was different than when she infiltrated the other four strongholds belonging to Clockwerk's allies. Instead of going ahead of Sly and the others, she decided that it was best to follow behind them since Carmelita had ordered her to stay remain in France.

The vixen was not happy when the tigress escaped from her "watchful sight," as the vixen put it in her post-action report. Neyla justified that her "solo scouting" was meant to prelude signaling the calvary's arrival once enough of the Panda King's defenses and staff were weakened enough, adding that she couldn't have effectively scouted the area if Carmelita was watching her every movement, like she tried to do back in Mesa City. On the bright side, Chief Barkley let Neyla off with only a disciplinary notice as her first infraction on her otherwise distinct record, despite Carmelita's protest for more serious action.

Once out of sight, Neyla just rolled her eyes and snorted at the whole thing. While Interpol had nice perks here and there, she was better suited to sharing a life of crime with her boyfriend. However, Neyla forcefully put those thoughts aside in place of her more professional role in observing her favorite trio made their way towards Clockwerk.

With an exasperated sigh, Neyla pulled out the phone she used for Klaww Gang business and called the boss, still hating every minute dealing with a birdbrain obsessed with flawlessness. As the Cooper Van sat at the starting point, Neyla contacted Arpeggio, saying, "Arpeggio, it's Neyla calling. I'm following the Cooper Gang's van. That's right."

Rolling her eyes in annoyance as the Klaww Gang leader asked to once more, for the last time, detail Sly's stake in this, Neyla answered with forced calm, "There's only one set of pages from Cooper's thieving book. Most likely in Clockwerk's possession. Sly and his crew are reliable. They've proven themselves against the others Clockwerk surrounds himself. They'll do it again here. They know to leave the bird alone for you."

Soon enough, Arpeggio asked a sensitive question that left a vein popping on Neyla's forehead and angrily replying with, "What the blaze? That's private! You don't need to know what I'm doing afterwards."

Hanging up the phone, Neyla was left scowling as she thought, 'Good grief, can't a girl get her well-deserved privacy and bedroom talk altogether away from prying eyes and ears?'

oooooooooooooo

Unaware that his girlfriend was speaking to their Klaww Gang boss, Sly took a deep breath and exhaled as "A Hazardous Path," as was dubbed by Bentley, lay before the Van. Armed with a new turret that was built by Murray and Bentley and protected with a golden energy field from his golden lucky charm, the raccoon thief eyed the large doors that had a resemblance to their final foe staring down at them.

"Alright guys let's make one final check before we get this job underway," Bentley promptly informed Murray and Sly over the binocucom.

"I'm ready to go on my end," replied Murray.

"I'm ready here as well," added Sly as he eyed the face on the metal doors. "Let's get rid of Clockwerk, and then we can move on with our lives."

"Huh," Bentley commented. "I'm surprised that you didn't mention anything about physical coitus in your future just then."

"Bentley, just why," Murray demanded as Sly and even Bentley felt embarrassed by what the turtle just said. Shaking his noggin to get that thought out of his mind, the hippo then called out, "Anyway, Sly, the road to Clockwerk's fortress is blocked. Shoot that lock out for me, would ya pal?"

"You got it, buddy," Sly said affirmatively. While aiming the turret on his target, he then said into his binocucom, "You there, Sexy Tigress?"

"Of course, I am, lover boy," Neyla confirmed for the first time in a long while. "I'm right behind you boys, in fact, and I'll keep up, no problem. By the way, Bentley, make another comment like that ever again, and I'll tell Penelope what exactly you look up online."

"Shutting up," was all Bentley could say while Sly shot the lock.

After passing through Clockwerk's security door, Murray saw the first set of obstacles in their way. Murray then chimed in on the binocucom and said, "Whoa! Check out all those mines! Think you can blow them away and clear a safe path for us?"

The raccoon thief went to work methodically clearing the mines that were in their way. After eliminating the mines in the Cooper Van's path, Sly could hear some distant moaning coming from the left side. He looked and saw a truck with Interpol lettering on the side of it. Within the wrecked remains were a wounded gazelle and rhino.

"Hope she's happy with the job we did," the rhino officer said, weakly to his partner.

"Uh… Inspector Fox owes us a few rounds after this," replied the gazelle in an Indian accent officer. "We did provide her with her the distraction she needed to slip in to Clockwerk's fortress."

"Keep pressing forward, big guy," Neyla instructed Murray. "I'll call med evac for them."

"Got it, Neyla," acknowledged Murray.

"Bingo!" exclaimed Bentley over the binocucom as Sly could see a giant tower made to look like an owl. "My scanners indicate that Clockwerk is holed up in that owl-shaped tower!"

"Interpol, this Constable Neyla calling," Sly heard the she-tiger reporting, "I've got a couple wounded Interpol officers who need medical attention immediately. I'll continue my way up to the fortress to provide Inspector Fox with assistance in apprehending Clockwerk."

"Roger that, Constable," someone with an Eastern European accent acknowledged.

"With that out of the way," said Sly as a silver cloud was charging towards them, "we can proceed towards Clockwerk."

"Uh, Sly," exclaimed Murray over the binocucom. "We've got hostile robo-falcons at twelve o'clock, old buddy!"

At that instant, a swarm of robotic falcons appeared to attack the Van, forcing Murray to slow down, so Sly would properly aim at those robots. One of the mechanical birds came close to knocking down one of Sly's protective barriers had the raccoon thief not aimed and shot it down in time. Once all destroyed, Murray began to slightly increase his speed so they could proceed further. But as that happened, a series of blasts struck a string of huge boulders to try and crush them as they were coming closer.

"That's no tower," Bentley cried over the binocucom, "it's a giant death ray! Sly, take out those rocks, or we're in trouble."

Getting the idea upon seeing the massive boulders themselves, Sly fired on any that were sent to the Van with each boulder struck decreasing its size. Unfortunately, just because the boulders were getting smaller didn't mean that they wouldn't cause some damage to the team van once hit. The raccoon thief gritted his teeth as he kept blasting the boulders, ensuring the debris would only harmlessly bounce off the protective golden field.

"The robo-falcons are back," Murray cried as another round of robotic birds came to attack the Cooper Gang's only mode of transportation.

Reacting to the kamikaze attack, the raccoon was able to destroy three of the robotic falcons until finally clearing them all out. Sly then noticed that two more sets of mines lay in their path, and he was quick to clear them out before the Van got close enough for the mines' sensors to activate and prime for detonation. Meanwhile, the owl-faced death ray tower targeted another set of massive boulders to try and squash the Van and its occupants, forcing Sly to blast them away before another flock of falcon robots made their move.

"We're getting swarmed," Murray cried out in panic, prompting Sly to shift his focus on destroying the robotic birds, allowing a stray boulder to strike the golden protective field and deprive Sly a precious lucky charm that he was hoping to save for the final stretch towards Clockwerk.

"Damn it," snarled Sly as he cleared away the last of the robotic birds.

Relieved at the lack of hostiles, Murray came on the binocucom and said, "Nice shooting, Sly! Looks like we're in the clear."

Sly then looked at the cave entrance marked with a green holographic marker, and said nervously, "Uh, Murray? That cave doesn't look tall enough for the turret to make it all the way through!"

Sadly, Sly's concern came too late as the hippo hadn't heard him and the former had to duck back into the Van as their turret was shorn off its top. With the turret gone, the Cooper Van would now be vulnerable if Clockwerk decided to send more opponents to assault them.

oooooooooooooo

To get into the control room, "Burning Rubber" was now required. Murray apologized to Sly midway during the drive, even though Sly himself, while not lacking in forgiveness, was currently too irritated to voice it. Nonetheless, the trio continued into the cave system to reach their goal as Bentley explained, "We've got to get through that security door on the far side of the cavern. The only way to unlock it is to analyze at least 60 of those hanging computers."

"Would have been easy to get at them if Murray hadn't thrashed our new turret," exclaimed Sly.

"Let it go, Sly," protested the pink hippo.

"Hold on, you guys," began Bentley. "It won't be a problem. I can hack the computer's connection couplings, so they'll fall to the ground. Then Murray will have to run over them with the Van."

"Okay," Sly said with a nod and then turned to his other friend, "and Murray, remember to use our new battering ram by hitting the horn if anyone tries to keep you from those computers."

A mischievous smirk then appeared on Murray's face as he asked, "You're gonna have to remind me, Bentley. Do I use the circle button or the square button for our new battering ram?"

Sly couldn't help but laugh as Murray got in the fun and earned a frustrated answer from Bentley, "When you two learn that we're not in a game?! We don't have time for jokes right now!"

"Oh, come now, ol' chum," chimed Neyla as she was trying to keep herself from laughing. "You need to loosen up a littl' bit."

"I'll 'loosen up' once Clockwerk's been defeated," replied Bentley after he had finished his hack and felt the Van jerking into the arena.

Shortly then, Bentley noticed that big blobs of lava were surfacing and coming after the computers that were starting to fall on the arena floor. Recognizing the fire slugs as they were, he then informed Murray, "Okay, pal, there are only 119 computers up there and these fire slugs seem intent on getting to them before us. As soon as we get to number 60, we're moving onward!"

"You're going into 'Dale Eaglehart mode,' big guy?" Sly asked Murray.

"Nah Sly," answered Murray as he smashed into his third computer while the fire slugs had already managed to gain the upper hand and had twice as many. "'Dale Eaglehart mode' is for when I'm racing. This is more of my 'Ahmed Hassan mode.' That guy's an artist when it comes to the demolition derby."

"Well, you need to pick up the pace, Murray," urged Bentley as he was keeping score between Murray and the fire slugs. "The fire slugs already have smashed nine more computers then you."

Becoming fierce, the pink hippo bashed as many of the fire slugs back into the lava and made progress in collecting more computers than the latter, As Murray collected his 35th computer, however, the fire slugs increased in number in coming after Murray in record time.

"Oh, boy," cried Bentley as Muray obtained his 40th computer. "Seems like these fire slugs are getting desperate to win. You really need to pick it up, Murray!"

Prompted by Bentley's urging, Murray was energized enough to exclaim, "Boom! Ka-pow! Fear my burning wrath, you puny mortals!"

oooooooooooooo

Meanwhile, onboard Arpeggio's blimp, the parrot machinist and his fellow Klaww Gang members, all fully informed of the unofficial connection between their organization and the Cooper Gang, were listening intently via the latter group's binocucoms on their efforts to takedown Clockwerk, when they incredulously heard Sly Cooper's skittish glutton of a getaway driver becoming a force of nature all of a sudden.

"Where did that come from," Jean Bison asked on that last topic in a moment of mounting respect. "Sounds like he's personified that demolition derby driver of the Doom Digger, eh. Now that boy's got a taste for destruction."

"No, that would be Ahmed Hassan," Rajan corrected the red furred bison. "I know that line anywhere. Plus," he chuckled before adding, "I sponsor Hassan as well."

"Regardless of whom the hippo is role playing as," the Contessa interjected with rolling eyes, "it is pleasing to see such," she made a chuckle before concluding, "destructive thoughts being channeled at the task in front of him."

After hearing that Murray had collected a total of 60 computers, the Klaww Gang members then heard Bentley on the team's binocucom saying, "Nice driving, Murray! Now we have enough data to get past the security doors and straight to the control room of Clockwerk's death ray tower." He made a quick laugh before saying, "I think it's time for some Cooper thieving and sabotage, don't ya think, Sly?"

"Two hurdles have been cleared by the Cooper boys, eh," Jean Bison commented.

"It is a shame that Dmitri could not provide derby fight action reaction," chimed in a male purple skinned iguana.

oooooooooooooo

Once the Van had cleared the open door, Sly then proceeded to enter the next area, which held an island that had a tiled floor and was littered with spotlights, and the raccoon noticed that there were three metallic statues that reminded him of the seemingly harmless globes back at Raleigh's fortress. Even with time on his side, the grey furred raccoon was eager to finish the final job once and for all.

But before he could begin his approach, Bentley came on the binocucom. "Careful, Sly," he said urgently, "those tiles are booby-trapped. You better get out of there."

While Bentley issued his warning, Sly scanned the area and noticed a familiar vixen trapped in a force field. "Hold on," he said in shock. "That's Carmelita! She looks trapped."

"Serves that cop right," Bentley said nonchalantly as he glared at the image of Carmelita being trapped. "She's been dogging us from the start."

"What," the raccoon thief uttered in disbelief on what he was hearing from one of his best friends.

"Yeah, that's a Contessa-level of cold, Bentley," Murray commented just as creeped out.

The turtle, at least, had enough gracefulness to get flustered as he explained, "I don't see her as a personal enemy or anything, guys, I was just saying that it's kind of poetic for her to underestimate Clockwerk or something."

Sly shook his head in the negative, replying, "We've got to free her."

Bentley immediately had mental red flags flying as he responded alarmingly, "I don't want her dead either, Sly, but Clockwerk probably stuck her there to trap you!"

Neyla had come on the binocucom as she chimed in, "Listen to Bentley, love. She's not worth it."

"Listen to your girlfriend, Sly," interjected Bentley. "It's not being cruel, it's being pragmatic."

Sly quickly countered back to the two with, "But if I don't do anything, Carmelita is doomed," he then allowed a chuckle as he added, "And let's be honest, stealing just won't be any fun without her."

"Seeing her flustered after a getaway has been fun," relented Neyla.

"Sly, this ridiculous raccoon logic of yours sends shivers up my shell," Bentley said as he shook his head in defeat, and hoped this wouldn't come back to bite them all from either Arpeggio or Clockwerk, "but if you're determined to go through with this, that barrel will undoubtedly help," he then released an amused snort as he added, "though I have no idea how you'll get up there."

Sly eyed the barrel that Bentley showed him and replied, "Dude, a spire jump here and a rail slide there," he then chuckled back, "I've done this a million times by now."

The raccoon thief then put away his binocucom and said, "Time to pull off 'A Daring Rescue.' "

He then made his way to the barrel that was hovering over the large pool of lava in order to cross the booby-trapped path. The spire points that Sly needed to jump over emitted beams of electricity, blocking his path and forcing the raccoon thief to wait until the beams dissipated. Once then, Sly spire jumped on the point before having to rail slide over to a pipe that he had to climb before latching onto a hook with his cane and launching himself to the next spire point.

Once he had jumped on to the spire point, Sly crossed the booby-trapped floor and reached the ramp to lower it down for him before going after the barrel he needed to reach. On his way, the grey furred raccoon smashed a couple of computers, a stationary dart gun and chairs to collect much needed coins he desperately needed to form a new lucky charm.

"Sorry to say this, pal," Bentley said reluctantly, "but I don't think you're gonna get anywhere near the number of coins you need to replace the lucky charm you lost on the way here."

"Damn it," snarled Sly as he got in the barrel and made his way to the nearby island that was floating over the lava. "Not even halfway there?"

"Sorry, Sly, but nope," Bentley answered as he shook his head.

"Son of a bitch," Sly growled under his breath.

Putting the unlucky thoughts aside, Sly concentrated on how to cross the floating island. Sly studied the pattern of the searchlights and figured out how he was going to avoid them. Once he had studied enough, Sly made his move in evading the first searchlight, but accidentally set his first foot on the rigged tiles, prompting two dart guns at the end of the island opening fire on him. Thankfully, the darts hit the barrel only and not Sly or the glowing blue field that protected him.

"I've really got to hurry and cross this bridge," Sly said to himself, wondering how much punishment the barrel could take before it broke.

At last, the career thief had crossed the rigged tile island, after having to sacrifice stealth for speed by allowing the alarm to go off and losing his last remaining shield to the dart guns. After smashing both the alarms and the dart guns, the door to Carmelita and his remaining objectives opened up.

Unexpectedly, the doors behind and in front of him instantaneously closed. Sly tried to bang on both, but to no avail. Meanwhile, the vixen was surprised to see her own quarry in front of her. She had hoped that Interpol would send a rescue team for her, regardless of Neyla accompanying them or not.

"Sly Cooper," exclaimed Carmelita, narrowing her eyes at the American. "I should have known you were involved in this."

Sly sighed and shook his head as he calmly said, "You got me wrong, Ms. Fox. I'm here to rescue you."

Before long, a greenish cloud of gas began to come out of vents and caused the unprepared raccoon and fox to fall to the ground as an owl-like figure appeared on the computers surrounding them as a sinister voice came to life and laughed triumphantly. "You sentimental fool! Empathy has always been the downfall of the Cooper clan."

Bentley then came on the binocucom, saying, "I knew this was a trap."

Neyla snarled on the binocucom herself. "Bullocks! I'm coming down to get him out of there!"

Bentley shook his head at a frenzied rate, exclaiming, "If you're here to observe for Arpeggio, you need to stay out of sight and continue to observe! You'll get spotted by Inspector Fox otherwise!"

"I don't care anymore," Neyla protested.

"I promise I'll get him out of there with some fast and furious hacking," Bentley responded in assurance, quieting Neyla.

oooooooooooooo

Back at the Van, Bentley had gotten things ready for his hack into Clockwerk's systems. The genius reptile had labeled this part as "Bentley Comes Through," even though he expected himself to become someone's dinner if his efforts failed.

Bentley sighed as his game controller came to life, saying, "Haven't had to do this in a while. Switch over to my gaming controller is complete."

Neyla became upset as she let out a fierce tiger growl. "Seriously, Bentley?!"

Gulping in terror, the turtle nervously explained, "It's okay, I'll use my left analog stick to steer, and my right analog stick to unleash my hacker code. The green data packets in the systems need to be destroyed if I'm gonna get at the yellow security code."

Murray didn't restrain a laugh at that, commenting, "Too bad Sly's unconscious to hear you make a video game out of your rescue attempt, pal."

Grumbling to himself in defeat, Bentley looked at the computer screen and noticed a yellow disk-like object, encased in a large circular encasement, before attacking the security network straight on. Once the first pack was collected, Bentley moved on to attack the second level of security, which led to him seeing a digital falcon approaching his hacking avatar.

"Uh-oh," Bentley exclaimed softly to himself. "Looks like I triggered one of Clockwerk's security algorithms. Stay sharp, Bentley!"

Working fast, Bentley eventually collected his fourth security code and exclaimed, "Level three!"

"Hurry up, Bentley," Neyla shouted at the turtle from her own binocucom. "The gas is starting to get concentrated."

"Level four," shouted Bentley as he acquired his seventh code, getting much closer as a result.

Achieving the final yellow security code, the security falcons yielded and disappeared. Letting out a sigh of relief, Bentley then exclaimed, "I'm the best! No code can stand before me!"

"Yes, we bloody well know you're the best," Neyla replied calmly before letting her temper boil up to the surface. "Now turn the damned gas off!"

"Alright, alright," Bentley replied with sweat beading down his head. "I just hope Sly will keep her happy once we get out of here."

oooooooooooooo

Back in the chamber, Sly had regained consciousness, stood back up, and took a moment to catch his breath before he smashed the base that held the Interpol inspector prisoner. Once free from her confinement, Carmelita then blasted the sealed door and pressed forward out into the open, incidentally allowing some coins to appear for Sly to collect. Behind the raccoon, the door he entered beforehand opened for Neyla to get in and grab him for a hard, possessive, yet relieving, kiss.

"Wow," Sly said once they broke the mouth contact. "I love you too."

"I was scared that I was going to lose the love of my life," Neyla admitted, burying her face in his chest.

"I'm still alive, aren't I," Sly replied, internally enjoying the moment.

"All the same," began Neyla as she pulled away from Sly and revealed a much-needed item for Sly, "you're certainly going to be needing this to keep you safe until the final showdown."

"Thanks," said Sly, graciously receiving the blue lucky charm. "Are you sure that you don't need it?"

"I'm well-prepared as is," answered Neyla, pointing to another blue lucky charm that was on her backpack. "Now get going. You know how Ol' Ironsides and the old bird are."

The raccoon thief sighed and gave a slight nod in agreement. He and his pals had no desire for the Contessa's hypnotherapy if they dillydallied. Instead, Sly pushed onward where Carmelita was sure to be expecting him.

oooooooooooooo

After exiting the gas chamber, Sly saw the inspector with her arms crossed and looking impatient. Putting thoughts of his Arpeggio-given objective aside for the moment, the raccoon knew that getting to Clockwerk meant that "A Temporary Truce" had to be made with the hot-blooded vixen.

"I don't get it, Cooper," began Carmelita, as she looked at Sly. "I've hunted you for years, tried to throw you behind bars. But when you get a chance to leave me in a cage, you set me free. Why?"

Sly shook his head as he replied calmly, "Carmelita, we may be on opposite sides of the law, but you're not my enemy. If anything, I appreciate you keeping me on my toes. But the homicidal robotic owl that built this death ray and nearly gassed us to death has got to go!"

Carmelita could understand Sly's logic. Clockwerk was on Interpol's Most Wanted for several good reasons. Even worse, he was clearly tougher to get than his arrested cohorts.

"I see your point," she conceded. "Alright, until Clockwerk and his evil schemes are destroyed, I suggest we work together."

Sly smiled as he playfully commented, "This should be good!"

Both Carmelita and Sly were caught by surprise, however, as a robo-falcon snatched Sly's cane and began to fly off before being intercepted by Carmelita as she shot it down, leaving the cane itself near the established green holographic marker.

"Huh, what," Sly asked in bewilderment. "I need that cane! It's been in my family for generations!"

"Don't worry, ringtail," Carmelita assured him. "I'll cover you while you're getting it back. If you can, make your way to the top of the death ray. I stashed my jetpack there before Clockwerk nabbed me."

Sly then asked out of concern for more people than just the fox's, "You'll be okay while I'm gone?"

Carmelita quickly countered back with, "This truce is only temporary. Once Clockwerk's beaten, I'll give you a 10-second head start."

After leaving a respectful smile in her direction, Sly then spire jumped and rail slid down to his starting point, leaving Carmelita with a rare smile to herself. "Heh, he actually is a good kid," she said to no one in particular before scoffing in annoyance. "Too full of himself for his own good, though."

oooooooooooooo

As Sly was making his run, a certain she-tiger was watching the scene from afar and had listened to Carmelita's comments. After a moment of silence, she finally let out a chuckle and said, "For once we agree on something."

Seeing Sly head for his cane, Neyla observed the destruction that the good, if incredibly hot-tempered, law officer had wrought on Clockwerk's structure. At least twenty-five fire slugs suffered from the electrical burns that Carmelita's shock pistol fired as she covered Sly in that time. The robo-falcons didn't fare any better as twelve of them were short circuited before becoming molten heaps of slag.

"Guess it's a good thing Interpol has her," Neyla admitted as she observed her boyfriend get his heirloom back.

"Nice job, raccoon," Neyla heard Carmelita say to herself.

oooooooooooooo

Getting his cane back, Sly gazed at the massive monstrosity of a tower in front of him. The sight of the owl's face left him angry and disgusted. But Sly knew that he had a job to finish, and he could finally reconcile with his past. The death ray and Clockwerk himself were his only obstacles moving forward to the "Sinking Peril" between him and Carmelita's jet pack.

Sly contacted Bentley through the binocucom and as they spotted their objective, the brilliant turtle said, "There's Carmelita's jet pack right where she said it would be. Just so you know, the magnatronic support field for the death ray got destroyed as you were making a run for your cane. In other words, hurry before this whole thing falls apart!"

"I'm on it," replied Sly, putting his binocucom away and rail sliding down to his starting position.

True to Bentley's observation, the structure of the death ray began to sink into the molten lava below. The raccoon thief then spire jumped on to a wire and began his climb up the tower. Before he could advance, an electrical field came to life and then dissipated after a few seconds.

"It's sinking fast," Bentley urged Sly. "Climb, Sly! Climb!"

Using hooks to cross the rising pool of lava, Sly rope walked on another wire after a second electrical field dissipated and allowed him progress further. With Bentley monitoring Sly's progress, via a drone, he came on the binocucom, urgently saying, "Smash through those gears with your cane. You've got to keep moving!"

Sly complied and used his cane to smash the gears that were in his path as the fiery molten liquid continued to rise in pursuit of him. Clearing another electrical field blocking his path, Sly leapt and slid upward to keep ahead of the lava. As he cleared the slick wire, a piece of the tower collapsed to create a platform for him to stand on before climbing once again. Sly took only another minute and a half to make his way to Carmelita's jet pack.

Once Sly reached his prize, the lava had stopped rising and settled down, giving Sly enough time to strap himself to the jet pack and prepare for takeoff.

"Are you watching me, Neyla," Sly asked in the binocucom.

"I am, love," answered the tigress. "Try to stay alive."

oooooooooooooo

The time had finally come for what Sly would surely call "A Strange Reunion." But before he could obtain his victory, Bentley came on the binocucom and said, "Okay, that jetpack is easy to fly. Use the left stick to ascend and descend. Use the right stick to move to the right and to the left. To fire the missiles, squeeze both triggers."

Sly did as Bentley instructed him to do. He ascended, descended, moved to the right, moved to the left and fired a small salvo of missiles from the jet pack. With the quick tutorial out of the way, a gigantic enemy appeared over the death ray's remains as Bentley cried out, "Sly, behind you!"

The raccoon thief turned around to face the head of the Fiendish Five, Clockwerk. The silvery, fully mechanical avian looked a lot different from the police photos that Interpol had of him, but at that moment, Sly was more interested in completing his vendetta once and for all.

Clockwerk himself studied the surviving Cooper as he noticed that he was not at all like any of his forebears, from his late father to the earlier Slytenkhamen the Second. In the days of Ancient Egypt, both Clockwerk and the latter them were competitors until the reigning pharaoh recruited them to keep his officials honest and loyal. In time, Slytenkhamen and the future Clockwerk grew as allies and friends before the love of a princess came between them. Pushing aside those old memories, the robotic owl had a past to bury once and for all.

"Sly Cooper," he began to say, "you have escaped my gas chamber and destroyed my death ray. Remarkable. You Coopers always find a way to beat me!"

Sly raised an eyebrow in confusion as he repeated, "'Always?' So that was you in the background of all those old pictures in the Thievius Raccoonus. How old are you?"

oooooooooooooo

"Perfection has no age," Neyla heard Clockwerk respond to her lover's question.

"What do you mean, you old bird," Neyla muttered as she maintained her distance from the battlefield.

"What, you're immortal," Neyla heard Sly retort questionably to Clockwerk, which she kept an ear on.

"Revenge is the prime ingredient in the fountain of youth," Clockwerk said as he began his explanation. "I've kept myself alive for hundreds of years with a steady diet of jealousy and hate, awaiting the day when I would finally eclipse your family's thieving reputation."

"So, what," Neyla overheard Carmelita on the Interpol band out of confusion. "He just finds some idiot with a grudge against Ringtail's family and sucks the life out of them just so he can keep going. Seriously? What an idiot."

Neyla had to admit, Carmelita might have been on to something with her remark. It did seem plausible since there were even modern-day people who used black magic. But the inquiry would have to wait as the fox reported to the raccoon, "Sly, my missiles don't hurt him, but seem to create holes in his armor. Shoot into the gaps I create!"

The tigress then watched as the fight began between her boyfriend and Clockwerk. The fight started with the robotic owl firing off a salvo of dark purple orbs at Sly, only for him to dodge them and have to hear Clockwerk brag about his intellect and skills. As much as Neyla wanted to barge in and say something, she heard Sly doing that for her. "If you're smarter and have more experience than me, or any of my ancestors, how come you're always getting beaten?"

"They were lucky to defeat me," shot back Clockwerk. "Nothing more."

The violet furred tigress couldn't believe what she heard as she shook her head, thinking, 'That is a bull shit answer, Clockwerk.'

oooooooooooooo

After shooting Clockwerk down, Bentley came on and said with joy, "Nice shooting, Sly, you got him!"

Unfortunately for all involved, the celebration came a bit premature as the robotic owl resurfaced from the lava and his talons were replaced with boosters, allowing him to hover.

"Wow," exclaimed Bentley. "That's one tough owl."

Sly looked at Clockwerk and was confused as he asked, "I don't get it. You're so familiar with my family, you must have known my father had a son. If you hated the Coopers so much, why did you let me live when you stole the Thievius Raccoonus?"

Despite himself, Clockwerk admitted in his own thoughts that the raccoon hovering before him was quite talented and could've been his own pawn in another life. Nonetheless, Clockwerk confidently answered the young Cooper with the truth. "Because I wanted to show the world that without your precious book, the Cooper line was nothing."

"Ah, well, there's where you're wrong," replied Sly with a smile on his face. "The Thievius Raccoonus doesn't create great thieves, it takes great thieves to create the Thievius Raccoonus!"

"Enough, Sly Cooper," Clockwerk shouted in anger at the display of nonsense. "It ends here. I'll finish you like I finished your father. Then the Cooper line will be erased, and the only master thief will be Clockwerk!"

The second phase of the fight began as Clockwerk fired off electrical rings, forcing Sly to guide the jet pack towards the center of the ring until he was safe from getting shocked. Carmelita still kept up her end by creating gaps for Sly to inflict damage on the oversized owl. The fierce fight raged on until Sly finally shot Clockwerk down into the lava once again.

Bentley then announced, "Now's your only chance, Sly! You've got to get to his head and destroy it before his auto-reconstruct circuitry kicks in!"

"You've got this, love," added Neyla.

Heading towards Clockwerk's head, Sly heard him mumbling as he made his way to finish off the robotic bird. A few things that the raccoon thief heard were mentions of flowers while the rest was technical stuff that was more Bentley's gig. A dark purple electrical orb then suddenly contacted his blue protective shield from the lucky charm that Neyla gave him.

With his only protection gone, Sly evaded the remaining dark purple orbs and slipped past the yellow security beams detecting his approach. Finally reaching his destination, Sly then eyed his foe for what he hoped would be the last time. The raccoon thief had been through so much suffering because of the robotic owl and now it was time for Clockwerk to play the piper.

"This is for my parents and any other Cooper that died because of your jealousy," Sly said in an acidic tone before dismantling the owl with his cane.

"Cooper," Clockwerk snarled as he was being torn apart by the unrelenting raccoon thief. "You will never be rid of me! Clockwerk is superior!"

After what seemed like a lifetime, Sly landed the final blow to his nemesis. Exhausted, but standing strong, he then quipped, "A pile of scrap metal is superior to nothing."

oooooooooooooo

From the notes of Sly Cooper: "It took some tricky maneuvering, but I managed to snatch that last piece of the Thievius Raccoonus from Clockwerk's claw. I had taken down each member of the Fiendish Five: Raleigh, Muggshot, Mz. Ruby, the Panda King... and finally Clockwerk. I'd beaten them all one by one and reclaimed my birthright.

"Of course, there was no way I could have gotten here without the help of my pals. I know this hasn't been easy for them, but they stuck with me through it all.

"Murray. Boy, it took a lot of guts for him to get out in the field with me. I know he was scared, but he's got more heart than anyone I've ever known. And something tells me, he's stronger than all of us.

"Thank goodness for Bentley. Without his expertise, I'd have never found my way off that rooftop in Paris.

"And Neyla. It's kind of hard to pinpoint when we first fell in love, but I know where her true loyalties lie, and that's fine with me.

"A guy couldn't ask for a better gang of friends.

"Who could ever forget the lovely Carmelita? Looks like we're not going to be friends anymore, though. Now that Clockwerk's death ray is out of commission, we're back to playing cops and robbers. I thought for sure she was going to slap the handcuffs on me right then and there. But instead, she was true to her word and gave me that 10-second head start.

"And as we counted down, I sorta gave her a distraction hug that gave me the opportunity to handcuff her to the railing.

"I felt bad leaving her stranded on that giant rock, but I knew it wouldn't be long before we'd see each other again.

"As for me, once the gang and I made it to Istanbul, Neyla and I finally went crazy with each other."

Neyla's Personal Entry: "With the Fiendish Five rendered history, I had to play smart with Carmelita still handcuffed to the railing. Arpeggio wanted the rust bucket's parts for 'limitless reasons' as he put it, but the collection of Clockwerk's remains had to wait for now.

"The ol' bird didn't take the news well, but even he knows it would be smarter to wait for a better opportunity in the future and he was placated when I offered to collect any data that Interpol would collect from studying the pieces themselves.

"I figured that Ol' Ironsides wanted to supervise the collection and transportation of those knickknacks herself, so I left before she noticed me and made my way back to Paris just in time for Barkley to assign me my first solo case.

"As luck would have it, I was going to Istanbul, where a certain trio were heading also. As they say in America, let the good times roll."

oooooooooooooo

Author's note: And with that, Sly 1 is finished and we can move on to Sly 2: Band of Thieves. But before we do that, there will be an interlude chapter in between. I'm going to take a bit of a break before moving into Band of Thieves so can focus on a couple other fics I'm writing. I should have the interlude chapter out, hopefully, by mid-January. I hope you've enjoyed the first section of the Sly Cooper retelling and I hope that you'll stay with us. Special thanks to Awareness Bringer for their help with this fic as well.