Published May 6, 2023

Takes place throughout season 4 episodes 7-8

"Deliverance"

There was no "Team Carmen" without Carmen Sandiego. She was the one who had brought Player, Ivy, Zack, and Shadowsan together. Without her, their paths would never have crossed. She was the one who had united this unlikely team. And when V.I.L.E. captured Carmen, it looked as though the team might fall apart.

It was almost like someone had died, except that Carmen kept showing up from time to time. She was like a ghost, haunting them, appearing on the periphery of their lives as they continued to follow V.I.L.E.'s activities.

It was hard to stay in the warehouse in Carmen's absence. Without her levelheadedness, it was hard to keep the peace, and without her confidence and determination, it was hard to find the will to carry on business as usual.

Player kept monitoring V.I.L.E. chatter and looking into possible leads. It was good that his parents had resumed homeschooling, because his focus and aptitude began to suffer. He doubted he would have been able to keep up in a regular school at a time like this, with his best friend gone.

Shadowsan spent most of his time traveling alone, looking for clues.

Like Carmen, Shadowsan had thought he would never return to V.I.L.E. Island after his defection. There had been no reason to do so, particularly after discovering that the school had been abandoned and demolished. But it seemed the only place that might afford some clues as to V.I.L.E's new location.

He had never been the nostalgic sort, but going back there was a strange experience. It brought back memories of how Carmen had been as a child, giggling and playing on the beach. She had always been too innocent to fit in with such a monstrous organization.

An old doubt resurfaced in his mind: Perhaps he never should have brought her there. Perhaps he should have left her at the nearest orphanage and hoped that her mother would find her.

Shadowsan's anxiety and sense of guilt made him poor company—which was really saying something, considering how introverted he already was. So although they continued to live in the same home base, Ivy and Zack were mostly left to their own devices.

For a while, the two siblings were listless and bordering on depressed. Zack tried to distract himself with movies, but even those were not as fun. Occasionally, he had nightmares about Carmen and V.I.L.E. He and Ivy had had some close brushes with death on other missions, but seeing Carmen the way she was now, and almost dying because of her, was far more disturbing to his psyche.

For lack of anything better to do, Ivy suggested that they finally do they had been putting off: they returned to Boston, paid off Sharkhead Eddie, and retrieved their old racecar, Lydia. Having a vehicle to work on gave Ivy something to do with her time, and the prospect of racing again in the future gave them both a goal to work toward.

Ivy started going to church and reading the Bible more often. With Player and Shadowsan doing everything possible to track Carmen down, prayer was the only other useful thing she could think to do. The siblings usually made it to Mass on Sundays, but now she started going on weekdays too. Sometimes, when she was particularly downcast, she just went to the nearest church—Catholic or otherwise—to pray.

She read the parables of the shepherd's lost sheep, the woman's lost coin, and the father's lost son. The sheep story reminded her of Carmen's old code name, Black Sheep. She tried to convince herself that Carmen could—and would—also come home.

One evening, Zack found Ivy in her room with the lights off, kneeling in front of a lit candle and a small image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, holding a rosary in one hand and a prayer book in the other.

"Hey. Where'd you get those?" he asked, surprised and curious.

Ivy cracked a sad smile. "Found a Hispanic church with a gift shop." She passed him the booklet. "It's got all these prayers and novenas you can do for special requests. I figured it might help Carmen."

"Cool. Can I join?"

"Sure. I'm on the last decade. You remember how the prayers go, right?"

Zack sat on the floor next to her and nudged her playfully. "Uh, as my Confirmation sponsor, I think you were supposed to teach me."

"Exactly. It's time to test how much you learned."

They both took a breath and were about to start, but then Zack interrupted, "Saint Anthony is the one who helps you find lost things, right?"

Ivy nodded. "Yeah. He's in the book too."

"Then maybe he can help us find Carm."

"I hope so." She held up the rosary to find the right bead. "Saint Anthony, pray with us. Our Father …"

The prayers were ones they had memorized as children, but the words took on a different meaning when holding a specific intention. "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Carmen had held out against temptation for such a long time, but now she was being manipulated into doing what she had always resisted. Instead of being a channel of peace, like in the prayer of St. Francis in the book, she had become a channel of evil.

Ivy had to fight back tears as she mentally added their own petition. Please, let Carmen be okay. Please, deliver her from V.I.L.E.

Author's Note: Sorry for the long absence! I'll try to have the next chapter up quickly, and I have several more I hope to post later this year.