You'll tell yourself anything you have to, to pretend that you're still the one in control.

Inspector Fox double-checked the straps of her bullet-proof vest. Took a deep breath, waited a minute. Made sure her shock pistol was fully loaded. Waited another minute.

She was standing in the snow in front of a large armored truck, trying not to show impatience as she waited for the rest of her team to finish getting ready. They had made their way to the Kunlun Mountains that morning and had spent the entire day traveling deep into the range. Night was falling now, casting a shadow over their brief pit stop for food while the weather was still mild and the roads were still smooth. There were twelve officers joining her on her mission to storm the Panda King's territory, but while she appreciated the extra help and firepower – as well as the fact that over half of them were fluent in Mandarin; a language the fox knew next to nothing of – she couldn't help but wince at how far their voices seemed to carry over the wind and how unconcerned they seemed to be about how long their break had taken.

Carmelita would never, ever claim anyone in Interpol was anything less than perfectly competent, but did they have to be so slow and…and loud? She could have probably gone up the mountain and back without them even noticing by now.

Eventually, they had put everything away and were finally loading up into the back of the truck, and Inspector Fox climbed into the passenger side as the driver started the engine and they were finally moving again. She turned around in her seat to survey her team, pushing aside her irritation over the wasted time as they all gave her their full attention.

"Alright, team, this is it. We're going in as quickly and quietly as possible, and we're going to come back with an apprehended criminal." She paused, mulling over the patterns she had encountered at each of the other Fives' hideouts. "Remember, the goal is taking down the Panda King and halting his immediate operation – there will be plenty of time to do a thorough sweep of the mountain for his men over the next few days after we've captured him. He's still our first priority, and we're not letting him get away for anything."

A dozen heads nodded in sync to her speech, and she turned back around to stare down the oncoming road. Her ears twitched backwards as the officers began to talk amongst themselves again. Most were in a good mood, speaking animatedly or cracking jokes or taking bets on who would be the one to put the handcuffs on the crime lord. A month ago, Carmelita would have rolled her eyes at it all with a hidden smile on her face, pretending that the anticipation of an oncoming raid was not also boosting her with excited energy.

Now, it was taking more willpower than she cared to admit not to snap at them to be quiet despite the fact they were in a moving vehicle.

All that she could really do was keep her eyes forward and wait until something else happened, and she was not particularly good at that. Any tentative plans she made about how to take down King were interspersed with the traitorous question of whether Sly Cooper would be found with him – helping him, fighting him, stealing from him. The thought of having to confront him surrounded by her team sent her stomach rolling in apprehension, terrified once again of being outed for her role in aiding and abetting the thief, but she knew there couldn't be any second-guessing the choice to bring them with her. The fireworks forger was no doubt going to avoid capture by any means necessary, and she was going to need all the manpower she could get to protect herself and successfully finish her mission. If one raccoon stood between her and completing this case, then she was going to have to suck it up and deal with it like the inspector she was.

The higher up into the mountain they drove, the more nature seemed to dominate the area. The road became bumpy and uneven, scattered trees grew into a sparse wood and then into a denser forest. That wasn't to say that all traces of manmade life had disappeared, though – they could sometimes make out crumbling walls, old shrines, and even a distant tiny town or two through the thickening snow. Just when Carmelita was starting to think it might take a week or longer to catch even a whiff of King's hideout, they turned a corner on a hilltop and came across a truly awful sight: an entire part of the inner mountain had been carved into to create a giant stone panda, clearly made in the fireworks forger's image.

Several of the officers muttered in surprise and disgust at the blatant disregard for being caught, and the fox was inclined to agree with them even as she kept her own thoughts silent. It was truly heinous how much the criminal had been able to get away with up here in plain sight, and no one had ever bothered to even hint to Interpol that the man they had been after for so long was in such an obvious place.

Disrespectful, but at least now it made their immediate jobs a little easier. The driver altered their course and made a beeline for it.

The road grew steeper, narrower, and started curving along cliffsides the closer the truck got to that egotistical eyesore. Everyone could feel how slick the icy ground was even with how careful the driver was being, and it was making the whole team nervous as they were forced to turn their ascent into a snail's crawl for safety's sake. It felt like an omen much like when Inspector Fox had made her way across the treacherous, stormy sea towards the Isle of Wrath.

She immediately halted that train of thought, painfully aware that there wasn't much to occupy her mind while they were moving so slowly. Instead, almost resigned to the fact now that she was going to think about the raccoon to some degree, she redirected it to that day at Interpol HQ when she'd finally had her breakthrough on the Fiendish Five case.

Barkley had been visibly impressed with her confident assertion that the Panda King was in Kunlun, and had begun, well, barking orders to his associates to get together all the resources she could ever need or want for her new trip. He hadn't asked how she'd made her discovery, completely trusting her intuition after so much success, and she had refused to let the now-familiar guilt overwhelm her joy of it.

Right before she had taken off for China with her team in tow, Winthorp had approached her with Conner Cooper's casefile in his arms.

"I'm going to keep looking into this," he had promised her before she could say a single thing. "I'll let you know as soon as I find out what was on that missing report, or at least where it went."

The fox didn't know how long it would be before he found an answer, but she had been grateful for the diligence and had told him as much. It was one less mystery to solve in this awful, tangled mess that her case had become.

She wondered if he was working on it right now, whatever time it was in Paris at the moment. She hoped he was losing less sleep over it than she was over everything else.

Eventually, a change in scenery drew her attention – a small village nestled between towering hills, just a few kilometers to their left. From this distance, she could see a few lights flickering out of windows, which was a nice change of pace after so many miles of darkness.

As if reading her mind, something suddenly lit up the dark sky.

Carmelita and the rest of her group watched in shock as a gorgeous firework came shooting out of a distant point in the mountain, illuminating a dozen tall buildings tucked away at the foot of the Panda King's godawful statue hideout for a single moment before its glow was too far away and they disappeared in the night again. The firework left a brilliant, almost bloody red trail in its wake as it weaved and circled straight towards –

The village.

Bewilderment turned to horror as they could do nothing but watch the firework strike the hills above the town, hitting with such deadly precision that it loosened great swathes of snow that came tumbling down in fatal force. Houses and streets were buried within seconds.

The Interpol team gaped for all of a single shared moment before springing into action. The driver swerved the vehicle off the road and straight for the buried village while everyone in the back hurriedly grabbed packaged blankets and first aid kits and anything they could use as shovels. Carmelita's heart pounded in her chest, in shock at the sinking realization that they had just witnessed the Panda King decimate an entire town for no apparent reason.

The truck came to an abrupt stop in front of the nearest buried building and they all swarmed out, minds on autopilot as they took in the sight before them.

It was downright horrific.

Destruction and devastation everywhere they could see – Inspector Fox directed her men to act without orders because every direction they could see held people buried or digging or injured or already dead, and there was no time to do anything else. She had to swallow a pit of nausea as she sprinted further up the road and came across a body that had been crushed by a car upturned by snow, and instead narrowed in on signs of life.

There – someone else trapped but alive in another car. The fox dashed over and began scraping snow away from the windows as the person stuck inside pounded desperately against them. The moment she could see their terrified eyes, she made a motion for them to back away and then smashed her boot against the glass, shattering it in one solid move. They crawled out carefully with her help, followed by a young child no taller than her hip, and Carmelita wished she could erase the blank, distant look in their eyes.

She pointed back the way she'd come where the truck was still running where it sat, miming wrapping herself in a blanket and hoping they understood what was being conveyed before she rushed off towards the next disaster with adrenaline pumping in her veins.

It went like that for time she could not track; pulling someone out of snow, or wood, or metal, checking them over quickly for injury, then directing them back towards the safety of the Interpol vehicle with a mix of miming, simple English, and the few Mandarin words she knew that mostly involved "sorry" and "I'm police". The fox did not feel the crunch of ice under her feet or the snow in her hair or the sweat on her back all making her shiver. All she knew was focus, focus, focus on saving lives, surrounded by grisly deaths that she was forced to stay numb to just to keep it from paralyzing her.

The town had not been particularly large, but it felt like an eternity had passed by the time she and her team had gone through the entire area before returning to the truck to check on the survivors and do a head count. The interpreters helped confirm who was accounted for, alive or dead, and who was still missing, and half the team stayed to help handle injuries while the rest broke off for another sweep through the ruined streets and buildings.

By the end of things, they had saved maybe two-thirds of the people living there, and the air was thick with grief and despair as the final missing person was found; suffocated under snow at the top of the hill. Inspector Fox only sat down once the survivors had all been attended to, and suddenly the freezing cold hit her all at once. They had saved as many as they had because they had been right there to help, and it was still an immeasurable loss. Horrified exhaustion weighed down her shoulders as she was forced to survey everyone sobbing and holding each other under shock blankets, huddled together in and around the back of the truck.

One of her men sat down next to her, looking just as harrowed as she felt. "Jesus Christ…what kind of monster is this man?"

"One we're going to stop before he can hurt anyone else," she said quietly, feeling familiar fury bubbling up her chest and making her hand twitch towards her pistol. "We're within walking distance to that fortress; I'm going to leave the truck and most of the team here to tend to these people, and take four others the rest of the way."

The other officer shot her a glance, but there was no trepidation in his gaze. The only worry he seemed to have was for the team's overall safety, and not that she would abandon them or lose sight of their target like she had in the past. With a firm nod, he turned to their squadron.

"I need at least one person who speaks Mandarin to go with Inspector Fox, and the rest to stay here," he called out to them. "She's taking four of you further up the mountain. Either pick amongst yourselves who is staying or going, or leave it up to her. ETA, Inspector?"

"Five minutes. We're not wasting any more time."

"You heard her!"

The officers began hurrying amongst themselves, passing equipment off and survivors to each other so that they could join their leader on her trek. She watched the display of comradery and function with a detached thankfulness. There was no room for pride tonight – not until the Panda King was no longer a threat.

As soon as they'd split themselves up, the smaller team waited for her new orders. Carmelita took a deep breath and looked up towards the distant temples.

"If we encounter any other civilians, we're directing them back down here," she announced, "but we are not stopping for anything. We're going to keep going until that son of a bitch is apprehended. Who's with me?"

A cacophony of growls was her answer. No one was joking anymore; all the excited energy had been sucked clean away by tragedy, leaving only solemn anger and determination in its wake. The inspector nodded, took a deep breath to steady her nerves, and began to march with a quarter of her team on her heels.

The farther away from the decimated town and makeshift refuge camp they went, the quieter it grew on the mountainside. Everyone's shoes crunched against snow, marked with the occasional shift or grunt or cough, but no one spoke a single word as the fox lead them all deeper into the Panda King's territory. They stopped once, if only to make sure they were going the right way, but otherwise kept up a steady, speedy pace.

When they came to the large wall separating the heart of the criminal's operation from the rest of the mountain, Carmelita wasted no time. She and two others rammed through the locked wooden door like a collective battering ram, and came through shooting at the handful of guards who were waiting on the other side. None of her men were even grazed as they took all the goons down, and after securing everyone, they continued on without barely a pause.

Not far past the gate, they began seeing towering shrines, temples, and other buildings, and Carmelita knew they had found the fireworks factory responsible for King's immeasurable firepower. Everything had been built to match traditional Chinese architecture, but she wasn't entirely surprised by this; the Panda King was known for his pride in his country's history almost as much as he was known for his fireworks and his ruthlessness. It made sense that the place he had called home for years – decades, even – had been built to represent that pride on every level.

Flashlights bobbed up and down almost frantically up and down one of the towers down the road. She wondered whether the massacre on the mountain was what had gotten them all so worked up, or if they had seen the tiny Interpol hit force coming their way.

"We'll sweep through each building as we come to them," she announced when her team looked at her for guidance. "We have no guarantee that the Panda King isn't in them, and the more of his support we take down until we find him, the better."

Four intense faces stared back at her, all in agreement.

They began creeping along as stealthily as they could. It was surprisingly easy to catch singular guards unaware and knock them unconscious before they could even think of sounding an alarm, and Carmelita was grateful for the silver lining in the nightmare this night had become. At one point, downing a particularly young-looking monkey, the inspector paused a moment to study her face and wondered if she had lived in the village that was no longer standing. If she had any friends or family there.

If she even knew what had happened, or if she had gone along with the carnage without so much as a blink.

Without dwelling on it any further, Inspector Fox moved on, leading her men into the closest building. From there, it was almost methodical how they began clearing each floor one by one, dropping goons and removing alarms as the team worked their way up the giant temple. The one they'd chosen first appeared to be used as a barracks as well as a training ground, which made it all the easier to catch distracted and sleeping men off guard without any issue.

Somewhere around the fifth floor, a hidden intercom speaker came to life, and the Panda King's deep, booming voice reverberated through everything. It was enough to make the fox and her team come to a halt and duck into an empty room to listen.

"Attention, valued employees." He sounded solemn and sad. "It has come to my attention that a thief is loose somewhere inside the fireworks production facility."

Carmelita's heart leapt into her throat. She very nearly missed the firework forger's next words because of it.

"Please do your part to pitch in by killing this intruder on sight, and inform me as soon as you do. Thank you, that is all."

None of them immediately moved when it ended; her team, no doubt, were waiting to make sure things were safe, but she was struggling just to remain grounded. A town buried alive, survivors to look after, a criminal overlord still at large – and now, confirmation that Sly was here somewhere, too.

There was a gentle tap to the inspector's shoulder, making her jump and turn to look at her tiny team. They were all staring at her with concern, and she realized that she had started to shake just the tiniest amount.

"Keep going," she whispered somehow, despite her whole body seemingly out to betray her. Everyone obeyed without a single question, and she was very grateful for it.

They reached the top floor without encountering more than a handful of guards after that, and the fox stepped out onto a balcony to scope out their next location and try to regain her composure. To their left was another, similarly-shaped temple; to their right was a shorter building that looked much more industrial in nature – no doubt one of fireworks facilities that King had mentioned. Ahead, overseeing everything with cold dead eyes, was his great stone fortress.

Carmelita glared at it, using her wrath as a beacon to keep herself grounded on what was most important. She could hear her team mumbling among themselves, sounding as agitated as she was but for very different reasons.

"Did you hear how he sounded in his announcement?" One growled. "He was more upset about someone stealing his stuff than all the people he just murdered."

"Absolutely monstrous," another joined in. "I've heard about how soulless the Fiendish Five are, but to see it in person…"

"Inspector?" Asked a third. "Are you alright?"

"I'm – I'll be fine," she ground out. "Just. A lot to process at once."

They all muttered their agreement, and she wished she could say in full honesty that the upheaval in her head was one-hundred-percent from the same thing as it was for them. Just the fact that it wasn't was making her even more distraught.

And of course, it was at that moment that the universe chose to mock her even further.

The shorter building to their right promptly exploded.

"What the fuck?!" Someone cried out as the roof burst into flames; a blazing, destructive fireball cascaded up and outward like a mushroom cloud as stones cracked and wood splintered and smoke poured out of every window. A whine like a boiling kettle split the air, and the officers could only gape for the second time that night as dozens of tiny fireworks came flying out of the cavernous hole at the top of the factory, adding their own miniature, colorful explosions into the mix of the first.

Guards screamed for water and extinguishers while they ran around the outside of the burning building like panicked ants. An alarm had started wailing somewhere in the middle of the fireworks going off that was only growing audible now that they were dying down, and the enormous fire was not hampered at all by the falling snow.

And as Inspector Fox stared at all the chaos, trying to wrap her mind around what had happened – what was still happening – she saw something else. In the great shadows cast by the even greater flames, illuminated like a specter caught in the flash of a camera, she saw a small, lithe figure leap through an open window and hit the ground running in the opposite direction of the frenzied guards. Between the dark and the snow and the overwhelming fire, it was impossible to make out most details.

But she saw the ringed tail. And that was all she needed.

"Ma'am? Ma'am!" One of her officers yelled, startling her out of whatever world she had just entered. "What do we do?"

There was enough time to make a single decision, and only if she made it now. Carmelita didn't even hesitate. She couldn't allow herself to.

"Use this distraction to sweep the area!" She barked, climbing onto the railing of the balcony and gauging the distance to the next roof beneath her. "Take out as many of King's men as you can! We're getting that criminal and we're getting him tonight!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

The simultaneous response, without any mistrust or question about her own actions, would have – should have snapped her out of her single-minded focus. It was the first time her fellow officers had ever given her the respect of her title and her talents. And perhaps some part of her registered it, on a subconscious level.

But the rest of her had already thrown herself off the balcony.

Inspector Fox landed on iced roof tiles and kept the momentum of her fall to keep skidding towards the next drop. She hit snowy ground in a roll that jarred her teeth and rattled her skull, but she didn't stop moving. Sly was nearly out of her line of sight and she'd be damned if she ever let that happen again. She got to her feet and sprinted after him for all she was worth.

Down the road, between buildings, slipping in and out of sight of guards with barely a break in pace, Carmelita never relented in her chase after the raccoon even as he finally began to slow down. She saw him scale a drain pipe less than a block away and found her own rooftop to climb onto, pulling her pistol out of its holster and disengaging the safety.

She pointed her weapon.

Their eyes met.

"Freeze, Cooper."

A/N: I was sick all week and this chapter fought me every step of the way to add insult to injury. But we made it to a Sunday post somehow, and I'm taking that as a victory. Screw you, chapter.

Anyway, yay for Carm being at ground zero for one of the most horrific moments from the first game! At least her and her team's presence saved lives...I really went back and forth on whether I'd include the Panda King's arguably most monstrous on-screen action in this arc, considering he's been a little preoccupied with a bigger, raccoon-shaped problem. I decided to keep it in the end because for all that he's a very fascinating and complex character, King still did a LOT of inexcusable things both in this AU and in canon, and I didn't want to gloss over that part of him. His reasoning for doing it here might be a little bit different than in the games, though...

As of this point, there will be 31 chapters in total including the prologue. Yes, we are officially less than ten chapters away from the end of this fic now. Really didn't feel like we'd make it even this far! I was blown away by the well-wishes from everyone after I came back, and I want you all to know that it means so much more than you realize. I never expected so much feedback or support for this tiny fandom; it's honestly really humbling. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me this far and continue to do so. You all make this story worth writing!