It must be difficult to be caught between their rules and mine. Their rules offer a confusing tangle of morality, whereas mine are so.

Very.

Simple.

"I suppose I should begin by asking how much you know."

Jing said the words carefully, studying the woman in front of her and trying desperately to find reasons to trust her – or to not. She had said she wanted to help Sly, but the panda had learned the hard lesson that what one wanted to do and what one was able to do were two very different things. It was just a single night ago that her own father's confession and revelations had reaffirmed that lesson, and her heart ached as she remembered the way he had begged her forgiveness for failing both of them.

She shook her head with a pursing of her lips. This was no time to be distracted by any of that; not when there was someone here who could still be a threat to her family.

"I know that Sly had been working with – for the Fiendish Five before I met him." The slip of the stranger's tongue had been corrected without Jing even having to glare at her for it. The panda hoped it was a good sign. "I know that there's something he's stealing from each of them. Something they took from him…I think?"

Jing waited a moment longer, seeing how the inspector seemed to be collecting her thoughts. Sure enough, she continued with a pinched brow.

"And…I know now that they were the ones who murdered his parents, and then kidnapped him afterwards. I hadn't been certain of that until what you just told me."

"All of those things are correct," the younger girl said, slow and thoughtful while she determined how to explain a lifetime of hurt within a short window of time. "And that was everything I knew, nothing more, until very recently as well. But there is so much more to this story, and I am still uncertain to tell you the rest."

Inspector Fox gave her a sharp, upset look. "I already told you I need to know if I'm going to help both of you. Do you still think I'm lying?"

"No. Your conviction convinced me. It is just…" Her eyes drifted towards the dusty dresser, to the other picture frames which also contained cherished snapshots of her time with Sly. "It is not really my story to tell. I am trying to reassure myself that I am not betraying my brother by sharing these things with someone without his permission."

So much had already been done without his consent by so many people. She hated the idea that she would be another, but she saw no other way to help him. If this woman was truly able to do what she claimed, then it was more than Jing had ever done.

She took a deep breath and then took the plunge.

"The Fiendish Five invaded Sly's home and killed his family eleven years ago, and decided to let him live because they believed his skills as a Cooper would be useful when he was older." She watched the fox shift her weight across from her, no doubt as to prepare herself for what they both knew was going to be a long and terrible story. "There were two other things that the Fiendish Five stole that night – the Cooper cane, and a special book called the Thievius Raccoonus.

"According to my father, the Thievius Raccoonus is a book containing notes from many people in the Cooper bloodline. It was passed on to each new generation to teach them the ways of thieving. He told me that the Fiendish Five used the knowledge they had gained from that book to great effect even in the modern age. It was split into five equal sections for each member of the group to use as they saw fit when working separately. The Cooper cane was kept in this stronghold, and they gave it back to Sly when he began officially working for them. The book, he was not allowed to see in any capacity, and they taunted him with that fact quite frequently."

Jing stopped. Inhaled again, deep and slow, and continued.

"My father brought him to live with us so that he could grow up relatively safely until he was old enough to work for the Fiendish Five. He was with us for five years, primarily as my personal servant and playmate. I am amazed, now, that Sly did not harbor hatred for me as he did my father and the others who irreparably altered the course of his life. I do not know if it was because I was so young, or because he had no one else, or for a different reason, but he decided to trust me. We learned to love each other as we grew together – first as friends, then as siblings. But in all that time, he only mentioned the book and the cane once to me, and did not seem interested in them compared to his bigger goal of escaping the fate that loomed ahead of him."

Inspector Fox frowned, a question clearly on the tip of her tongue, but she remained silent. It was a small relief, because Jing was starting to realize that if she stopped talking, she might not be able to start again. Already, her hands were beginning to tremble as bittersweet memories rose with her recounting.

"When he finally found the courage to tell me about the monstrosities that had been committed against him, I did not believe him at first. I knew he was working for us against his will, but I thought he was telling falsehoods because he was so angry at his own circumstances and wanted someone to blame. I could not imagine my own father partaking in such horrors. We had a terrible falling out and did not speak to each other for quite some time. I imagine I still would have remained stubbornly ignorant if not for what happened after that, on the anniversary of his arrival to this place."

Jing paused again, not to find words that evaded her but to stop her body from betraying her with a shudder. It had been years since she had seen her father's cohorts in person, but even the memories were strong enough to flood her heart with fear and fury.

"I suppose I should explain a few things about my father, first," she said when at last she continued. "For most of my life, he would spend long periods of time away on 'business', as he called it. Sometimes it would be weeks, sometimes it would be months, but never more than a few consecutively. He was always very careful to leave me in the dark about the nature of it, and he never brought strangers here. When Sly came to live with us, my father stayed home for that entire first year, and I was overjoyed. I know now that it was to ensure that Sly wouldn't hurt me or find a way to leave, but I was too young to understand or even care about the reasons behind his extended stay. Then, at the end of that cycle, he informed me that he would be entertaining guests for a weekend and that I was not to leave my room the entire time.

"You see, the Fiendish Five would meet once a year as a single group to exchange information and discuss business, among other things. The locations they chose always alternated between one of their personal hideouts; I do not know if my father's stronghold was one of them before I was born, but I know that he refused to let them visit afterwards. I also do not know what reasons he gave them to refuse his home. Most of them did not know of my existence for many years, except for their leader."

She bit her lip. Clasped her shaking fingers together in an attempt to calm them. Did not look up to meet Inspector Fox's intense gaze.

"After Sly joined us, those annual meetings always took place here. I was ordered to shut myself in my room and never show my face until I was told my father's 'guests' had left. Sly…was not given the same luxury. He was forced to join them for every meeting during that timeframe, acting as their only waitstaff. I do not know if the intent of this was to ensure his obedience or to slowly integrate him into the world that they were planning to force him into, but he was always stressed and distant for weeks after they had all left. He refused to speak of what went on except to reiterate that they were the ones responsible for his parents' deaths, and that he was afraid they would finally decide for him to face the same fate. Sheltered as I was, I still could not wrap my mind around the belief that my father had anything to do with such things, but the change in routine and Sly's behavior made my unease grow with every passing year.

"I desperately wanted to believe in my father's innocence, but I also desperately wanted to help my dearest friend. I began looking for ways to help Sly escape as we grew older. I naively thought that if he left, he would be able to build his own life away from those wicked people, that things here would return to the 'normal' that I had known before, and I would not have to face any uncomfortable truths about my father. We started planning together; he taught me how to be quieter when I moved, as well as…other tricks, and I in turn used that knowledge to further our plans. I visited places he could not, learned the schedules of staff and guards alike, and searched for the easiest, safest path for him to get out. I asked my aunt to take me outside as much as possible, and I committed the layout of this entire place to memory."

Jing closed her eyes.

"There was always one roadblock that we faced no matter what we tried, however, and it was that my father always had eyes on Sly. When he was home, it was his own eyes, and when he was out on business, it was those of his security which was always doubled for as long as he was away. We could never find a safe time for Sly to sneak out without bringing attention to himself – except for that single weekend every year when the Fiendish Five came to call. Security was lax because my father did not want to imply that he distrusted them, and he himself was too busy with them to watch Sly. It always seemed too dangerous for us to try at such a time, however, because of these powerful people present. The leader, in particular, was one who Sly was terrified of crossing. So, we planned and bided our time, hoping to find a different opening."

She opened her eyes and finally looked at Inspector Fox again. Her voice was steady with resignation to tell the truth to its very end, as her father had a night and an eternity past.

"The choice was made for us anyway, six years ago, on one of the annual visits. And the fact that it failed was all my fault."

The Panda King opened the door of his daughter's room to what had now become a standard sight – Sly Cooper, son of his former enemy, curled against Jing's side under the strange shelter they had made out of spare sheets and blankets. He blinked, taking in the sight of bedding messily draped over furniture that turned the entire room into a mismatched tent, before turning his attention to the two children who had disappeared from sight of the door as soon as it had opened.

"No one is home today!" His daughter called, gentle even in her scolding. "Come back another day!"

"An exception will have to be made today," he said, squatting in front of the entrance of the fort to peer inside. "You know why I am here. I cannot leave this room by myself."

Both raccoon and panda huddled further away from him; the latter did the best she could to shield the former from his sight. She was nearly Cooper's size, now, King noticed wistfully. Within the year she would be taller and then someday perhaps catch up even to her father. So much time and growth slipping out of his reach like sand between his fingers.

"Please do not make things harder than they need to be, children," he chided softly. He waited without reaching inwards, knowing that patience was the best course to take at times like this. Forcing Sly Cooper out against his will often made him cagey and flighty, which put King in a bad mood to have to deal with; neither of which they could afford tonight.

His daughter looked crestfallen as her friend slowly uncurled himself from behind her and began to crawl out into the open side of the room. The child's bushy tail was flicking in agitation as he got to his feet in front of King, betraying the blank expression already sliding into place on his face.

"It will be a short meeting tonight," the fireworks master promised both of them, placing a heavy hand on Cooper's shoulder as he began to lead him out into the hall. "My guests arrived later than expected today, and plan to retire early. You will be able to return soon."

The raccoon didn't say anything. He simply threw a glance over his shoulder at Jing before the door slid closed to separate them, then shuffled along obediently when King prompted him forward. There were no more words exchanged as they walked – a tentative acknowledgement of each other had formed between them over mutual love of Jing, but the crime lord knew that some wounds scarred too deep for real reconciliation. Sly Cooper no longer looked at him with hatred whenever they interacted. Just wariness and tired resignation.

That did not extend to the rest of the Fiendish Five.

They were all waiting in the large conference room that King had long ago built for this exact purpose, and barely spared the panda or his young partner a glance before returning to their food and hushed conversations with each other. Mz. Ruby and Sir Raleigh seemed to be having a quiet argument about the logistics of their next heist, Muggshot was spearing chicken on the ends of his chopsticks between great gulps of alcohol, and Clockwerk watched it all from his place at the head of the long table without engaging in either meal or speech.

The Panda King gave the boy a nudge towards the large food cart that had been placed against one wall, waiting until he was situated beside it with a drink pitcher in hand before taking his own place at the owl's right side. He was very careful to stop paying any attention to the young Cooper and instead tuned into his cohorts' heated debate.

"We don't have that kind of reach," Raleigh hissed at Ruby across the table. His tongue slipped out of his mouth in irritation, more reminiscent of a reptile than the amphibian he was. "If I wanted to become a shipping baron, I would have learned trains instead of ships. This idea is asinine."

"You just ain't thinking big enough," the alligator shot back, picking up pieces of her meal and swallowing them whole without a single press of her jaw. "Ships have plenty of reach. We can easily form an agreement with the folks that have land on lockdown. Twice as much power with a simple business venture!"

"Dealing in spice is beneath us! I am not stooping to the level of such low-brow, brain-dead scum that are just as often doped up on their own product as they are selling it!"

"I dunno, it sounds like a pretty good deal ta me," Muggshot finally chimed in. King watched a bead of alcohol slide down his chin and drip onto his plate with a single pull of his mouth. "What's not to like about more money and more power and all that? I ain't above anything that gives us more of that."

Raleigh snapped his fingers and held his empty wine glass out to the side. Sly was there in an instant to refill it, and the frog sipped at it again without even glancing in his direction. "Of course, you would think that we should do it. Trust a dog to chase the next easy target like he chases his own tail."

"Say that again and it'll be your legs on my plate next!"

King looked over at Clockwerk, who was idly tapping his foot against the floor in thought as he considered the points being made on either side. Whatever the leader's opinion was, he kept it to himself, leaving the rest of the group to squabble without coming to an immediate resolution. Eventually, the idea was shelved for tomorrow's fuller discussion, and everyone turned their full attention to their meals. It was clear they all were tired from travel and this evening meeting was only a formality until they could retire for the night.

Out of the corner of his eye, the fireworks master watched Sly Cooper stand silently against the wall as far away from the table and its inhabitants as possible. The stress around the edges of his mask betrayed his carefully-neutral posture every time one of the Five snapped for him to refill their drinks, or clean a spill, or retrieve more food from the cart. It was a yearly routine that he had learned to form himself into, and King resolved to himself to ask the head chef to make the kit's favorite food in the morning as a subtle recognition of his obedience.

Of course, it was at that exact moment that the routine was disrupted and everything subsequently fell apart.

Clockwerk, who always kept his eyes trained on Sly for as long as the boy was present, had never called him over. Not once in the five years that they had done this annual performance had he ever addressed the raccoon in any way, shape or form except to stare at him with that cold gaze that he had only ever reserved for Conner Cooper. Tonight had been shaping up to be that way as well, right up until the owl suddenly lifted a claw and crooked it towards the child.

All activity stopped. No one uttered a word nor continued to eat as they watched their leader command the boy to approach him without a sound. Sly's fur puffed up within a single blink, but he didn't dare disobey. Slowly, he began to shuffle forwards towards the owl, still silent even in his terror.

When they were about a meter apart, Clockwerk turned his talon around in a gesture to stop, and the kit froze. With a calculating tilt of his head, the ancient bird leaned forward until he was so close to the trembling child that one wayward movement from either one would make them touch. The raised claw lifted Sly's head by his chin.

"He has grown more than usual since last we were here."

The Panda King removed all traces of emotion from his entire being. It was never a good omen when the owl spoke without outside prompt. "He is thirteen now, as of this morning."

Clockwerk let out a low, metallic hum. The raccoon remained deathly still under the touch of that talon.

"Damn. Has it really been that long already?" Muggshot asked, really looking the young Cooper over for the first time in the entire meeting. "Dunno how you could tell, boss. He still looks like a scrawny little runt ta me."

"Everyone looks like a runt next to you, Tony," Mz. Ruby said, watching the interaction between Clockwerk and Cooper as raptly as King was. It was impossible to read her, as always. "But Clockwerk is right; our little kit has definitely had a growth spurt or two. He hit puberty yet, King?"

"He is in the process, yes." The panda did not like the sudden gleam in their leader's eyes. Neither did Sly, who was starting to tremble under the weight of it. "…But I can assure you that he is not ready to join us just yet."

Four heads turned to look at him, Sly included. Even Clockwerk tilted his gaze sideways towards his right-hand. The question burning in that gaze felt more like a challenge than anything else.

Convince me that he's not ready, it said. Give me your best excuse, and we shall see if I find it good enough.

"It is true that he is growing faster than usual, but that growth has come at a price." King's words were slow and steady, and he was careful to keep his eyes on the ancient bird and no one else. "He has been clumsier as he has struggled to coordinate his longer limbs. Last week he dropped a stack of plates and shattered most of them."

That was only half true – plates had indeed been shattered, but it had been from a cook's carelessness as she ran into the boy. In fact, if Cooper hadn't been the one holding them, they would have lost the entire stack. He had caught many before they could hit the ground.

The only person here who could call out his lie appeared to be wishing he could turn invisible instead. The raccoon's eyes were squeezed shut; head tilted almost up to the ceiling by the claw at his neck.

"Once Cooper has adjusted to the changes in his body, he will be ready," King promised. He hesitated only a moment before pushing his luck. "I am certain that will be the case by our rendezvous next year."

Clockwerk narrowed his eyes, and for several agonizing seconds, it seemed as though he could see through the panda's indifferent façade straight into his heart. Just when King feared that he would be called out for his weakness, the bird removed his talon from under Sly's chin and returned to his previous posture at the head of the table.

"Very well. I trust your judgement in this matter, King. If you believe Cooper is not yet ready, then we will wait." Those burning yellow eyes turned back to the boy who appeared afraid to retreat. "But no more than a year. We do not want him to think he does not have a debt to repay for the courtesy of sparing his life."

His giant wings nestled in closer to his body, a sign of relaxation, and the raccoon took it as a safe dismissal to finally back away to the wall. His fur was still standing on end down to his tail and he was clearly struggling to maintain his blank expression in the aftermath of the heart-stopping scrutiny. The Panda King turned back to his food, as did everyone else after a few more beats of silence.

They all retired soon after that. He did not dare give Sly Cooper a single glance for the rest of that time.

Jing looked up at the knock on her door, right before a servant slid it open and gently pushed Sly back into her room. He stumbled forward with an unsteadiness she had never seen before, his face pale under his fur and his hands gripping his elbows so tightly that she was afraid he was hurting himself.

"Sly?" She stood up and rushed over to him, terrified that he had finally been harmed by those scary strangers like he had always feared. "What is wrong? Are you injured?"

When she touched his shoulders, he flinched as if hit and gave a sharp, shaky inhale. "No. I'm okay. I'm okay."

The trembling of his body under her fingers said otherwise. Carefully, the panda led him over to their blanket fort and steadied him as he slowly sank to his knees to enter it. He was still hunched in on himself and she wondered if there was an injury there.

"Please don't lie, xiǎo gē," she pleaded, starting to gently pull his arms out so she could make sure he wasn't hiding anything he shouldn't be. "I want to help you, but I cannot do that if you lie."

The raccoon grimaced, eyes squeezing shut for a long moment. When he finally opened them again to look at her, his shoulders drooped in resignation.

"I'm not hurt, I promise. But you can't help me with this, Jing. It's – they're going to – I'm running out of time."

She frowned, not understanding his meaning. Sly's grimace grew deeper and he looked down at the bedding beneath them.

"They're starting to talk about taking me away," he murmured. "They think I'll be old enough to join them. To…work for them. Your dad convinced them to wait a little longer, but it's…it's still going to happen soon. Within the year, they said."

Jing's breath hitched in her throat. "That is…why would they do such a thing? You do not like them, and they do not like you. I don't understand."

"It doesn't matter that they don't like me. They think I owe them for letting me live." The raccoon wrapped his arms around his knees and drew them up to his chest. "They're going to make me do horrible things for them, and if I refuse, or I mess up, then they'll just – they'll –"

He swallowed. She did not ask for clarification.

"I don't know what to do." His confession came out as a whisper as he buried his face into his knees. "There's no way for me to escape this place, no matter how much we try. They're going to take me away. I'll be trapped like this until I die."

The panda felt tears welling up in her eyes and blinked them away before they could fall. Crying wouldn't help her friend when he was already in despair. She wracked her mind, desperately trying to think of how to help him in the face of such a terrible fate.

A plan came – one that they had always considered impossible, but now seemed like his only option.

"…Not if you leave tonight," she whispered back, as if afraid that saying it out loud would bring her father to the door. "We could do it tonight."

Sly lifted his head to stare at her, looking shocked by the very idea. There were stains on his cheek fur. "I thought – that's too dangerous, Jing. For both of us. We can't risk –"

"It is very dangerous," the girl admitted, "but what other choice do we have? It is the only time that my father lets his guard down, but if we wait until next year, it is very likely they will simply come and take you immediately. They will expect you to run in your last few days here, but not right now. And – and I am willing to take the risk for you, Sly."

He swallowed, seemingly torn by her reason versus his terror of being caught escaping with all of the scary guests visiting. Eventually, the realization that his fate would be unchangeable within a year if he did not take the leap now finally won out, because he gave a shaky nod. She did not smile as they crawled out of their fort together, for there was no reason to; this was not a victory until he had gotten away forever.

The raccoon stood behind her as she carefully opened her door and peeked her head out. A staff member was waiting at attention, as she knew would be the case. Someone was always there to retrieve things for her during these times to ensure she had no reason to leave the safety of her room.

"Excuse me?" She asked him in a timid voice, making her eyes big and pleading like what she knew worked with her father. "Can you please find me something to eat?"

The servant nodded and walked off, leaving the hall blessedly empty. Jing felt Sly wriggle forward under her arm to listen for the man's retreating footsteps and anyone who might be incoming. When he confirmed it was safe, they both crept out and tiptoed off.

At every corner they came across, they would both stop short of it so that the raccoon could make sure there was no one ahead. They made slow but steady progress this way – waiting out distant sound, hiding wherever they could to avoid approaching staff, and keeping their senses sharp for signs of the Panda King's guests.

The entrance at the base of the fortress was the only official way in and out, and it was always watched over carefully by a dozen armed men. With the Fiendish Five present, however, that number had been dropped to four. All were still alert and attentive, which would normally make slipping through impossible.

But Jing had another ace up her sleeve; one she had discovered just a few short weeks ago on one of her outings. A series of vents ran through the entire statue to heat it during the coldest months. Most were only connected to two or three rooms at most, and did not have an external exit. There was a single place, however, that did do such a thing – she had watched a group of guards standing under it as they smoked, letting the smog drift up and through the small opening to the outside. It was small and very high up, and Jing didn't know exactly where it led out, but it was the only option they had.

All four men were standing just inside the entrance and staring outwards. No one thought to look behind them, because there was no reason to. Even so, the panda was as careful as she could be with every step she took, following Sly's exact path as he crept to the single vent that would be his way out.

When they reached the wall it sat in, they shared a glance and came to the same conclusion. Jing was still a little shorter than the raccoon, but she had filled out considerably in other ways and could easily carry him. She did so now, helping him scramble up her back and onto her shoulders where he stretched his arms in an effort to grab the vent's grating. It wasn't quite enough; he was still a few centimeters short.

Gingerly, hyper-aware of the guards right around the corner, the panda grabbed Sly's ankles and began to lift him higher. He wobbled at first, which made her wobble, which nearly toppled them, but then he found his balance and corrected himself before disaster struck. His fingers found the vent and he pulled out the makeshift lockpicks he had created out of a few of her hairpins, starting to pick at each individual screw in the grating.

All too soon and yet an eternity later, he was able to remove the cover and carefully opened it. With a single glance downward to give her warning, the raccoon crouched and jumped out of her hold and into the vent. His lower body wriggled wildly as he fought to pull himself inside the rest of the way. The entire time, Jing wrung her hands and listened for oncoming footsteps, terrified that they had made too much noise and would be found out.

But no one came, and Sly made it into the vent. She watched as he turned around to close the cover behind him – impossibly small in an already small space – and gave a shaky smile when he pressed his palm against the grate in a silent goodbye. He disappeared out of sight, completely silent as he headed towards the outside.

And that was that.

Jing headed back the way she'd came, trying to be mindful of every trick Sly had used to sense others and avoid detection. The elation that she'd just helped her best friend escape his prison was overwhelming. It overrode all the other messy emotions she was still avoiding about her father and the entire situation, and she couldn't help beaming with pride at what she had just accomplished.

She was just turning into the hall where her room was when a different kind of thought occurred to her.

When her father and his guests realized that Sly was gone – hopefully not until tomorrow, when he'd have plenty of time to run away – they would be searching everywhere for him. Her father would be furious with her if he learned that she had helped, and he would probably not let her outside again for weeks after the guests left. Going outside was her favorite thing in the world; she couldn't bear the idea of losing her best friend for probably forever and then immediately being trapped in the fortress until her father's wrath finally subsided.

Everyone was supposed to be asleep by now. Surely it wouldn't hurt to visit one of the big windows before she returned to her room. One last glimpse of the mountain before she was in trouble for the rest of her life.

Mind made up, Jing turned the opposite corner and headed instead for the observatory at the top of the statue. It didn't take very long to get there as she found she didn't have to avoid anyone the entire time; these halls were strangely empty of both guards and staff, even for this time of night. Instead of unnerving her, however, it only made her certain that fate was smiling down on her and wanted her to reach her destination.

When she finally crept into one of the two rooms that made up the observatory, the panda ran straight for the giant windows at the other end, where she pressed her nose up against the cold glass so that she could stare down at her father's territory. It was always active down there no matter the hour, and she could see tiny people moving under the glow of spotlights. It was like watching ants, and the thought made her giggle.

A sudden, strange feeling went down the back of her neck. A foreboding sense of danger, as though she were being watched, and Jing turned around with her heart pounding in her chest; afraid that her father had caught her where she was not supposed to be. When she looked, though, there was nothing in the doorway, and no one else in the shadowed room.

Still feeling uneasy, she slowly looked back out the window, past the lights and buildings to the dark mountain beyond. She couldn't see Sly from here no matter how hard she squinted, which she supposed was the point. He needed to be very sneaky indeed if he was going to escape. She wondered if he had made it past the outer wall to the trees yet.

It hit her, then, that she would probably never see him again. He would run away and never come back, and he'd finally be able to live his own life, but that meant he would no longer be in hers. Tears grew in her eyes and fought to fall past her eyelashes. She kept them trapped because she was supposed to be mature, and to cry over someone leaving would be incredibly selfish.

"Oh, Sly," she whispered, leaning her cheek against the window, "I hope you're safe out there."

"I believe we both share that sentiment."

Jing gasped and whirled around as a great shadow fell over her from above. She looked up, and up, and up, until her eyes met those of a burning, terrible yellow. The person – no, the thing – standing in front of her was so tall that its head nearly brushed the high ceiling. Its body looked like nothing she'd ever seen before, all metal and shiny and so, so big. She shrank back, pressed to the glass, and had never felt so small in her life.

The thing tilted its head. "You are Jing King."

"I…" the girl swallowed. "How – how d-do you know that?"

"I know many things. Despite what your father may think, his home is not as secure as it could be. I have known about you for quite a few years." The thing let out a sound that Jing thought could be a laugh, before it leaned down towards her until its frightful eyes were all she could see. "What I don't know, however, is why you seem to think that Sly Cooper is currently outside. Would you care to tell me what I'm missing?"

Jing trembled under the weight of the monster staring her down. She opened her mouth, not knowing what to even say, and found that her voice had fled from her entirely.

"How curious. I had expected my associate's child to resemble him, but it appears that only extends to the physical. Since you seem to have lost your courage, perhaps someone else can return it."

The thing lifted its head and opened its beak, letting out a screech that had Jing throwing her arms over her ears in pain. It was loud and metallic and so very ghastly, and for a moment the panda wondered if this thing cornering her was actually an evil spirit. Nothing could make a sound like that – nothing could exist like that – and be of the living.

Within minutes, several pairs of feet came running up into the observatory. The girl couldn't see them because of the thing blocking her sight of the rest of the room, but she could hear her father's labored breathing among the rest.

"What's goin' on, boss?" A gruff voice called out, sounding the least winded out of all of them. "I ain't ever heard you screamin' like that before."

Jing was so focused on the thing's eyes that she did not see the giant clawed foot until it clamped around her shoulders. The grip was cold and firm yet somehow gentle, as if it knew exactly how to hold the panda without hurting her. She was pulled away from the window to stand next to the monster, where she saw the rest of the guests that came here every year, all out of breath and looking confused and irritated.

And her father among them, who had just gone very, very still.

"Cooper may no longer be in the fortress," the monster announced. It was speaking to everyone but was staring at her father. "I found this child wishing him well as she was looking out at Kunlun."

The Panda King took a halting step forward with his eyes locked on the talon around Jing's shoulders. "I can send for someone to find him. He was locked in his room for the evening. He should still be there."

Jing held her breath, shocked by her father's small lie. Sly never slept in his own room when these people visited; he stayed with her until long after they left, when the nightmares finally stopped. She didn't understand why the older panda wouldn't tell them the truth, but she did not dare challenge it in front of the monster.

"It would be much easier to simply ask her, wouldn't it?" The thing sounded like it was about to make the laughing sound again, but the girl didn't know what was so funny. "Unfortunately, I have already tried, and she will not tell me what she knows. I think one of you would have better luck."

Her father took another step forward, steadier this time, but she could see the fear in his eyes even though his face was very stern and angry. The people behind him were watching, and something about them was almost as scary as the monster.

"Jing," her father started, very quiet with a tone she'd never heard from him, "Tell me why you are out of your room, and where Sly is."

She stared up at him, feeling eyes on her from everywhere and suddenly afraid in a way she'd never experienced before. These were the ones who had hurt her best friend; who he was so scared of that he had risked the harsh mountain at night just to get away. If she told them the truth, then they would hurt him again.

Jing didn't answer.

"Daughter," the Panda King said, even quieter than before, and he kneeled in front of her to put his hands on her shoulders, in the space between where the giant claws sat and her bare neck. "You must tell me. It is the most important thing I will ever ask of you."

Jing didn't know if the way she was shaking was from her own body or her father's hands. He looked at her as though it would be the last time that they'd ever see each other. She felt the talons squeeze very lightly against her skin as if to encourage her instead of scare her.

"I…I'm scared, father," she whispered, hoping that the monster could not hear her. "What is going to happen if I tell you?"

"Everything is going to be alright." One hand reached up to cup her cheek, and this time she knew for sure that it was him who was trembling so terribly. "Please, qiān jīn. Do this for me, and I will take care of things."

The girl stared at him. He looked as afraid as she felt, but there was also the promise of safety in his gaze. He would fix things, surely. He would protect her, and Sly, and not let these people harm them.

She trusted her father. She had to. She still believed he was different.

"I helped him leave the fortress," Jing said, not looking away from him even as the claws around her shifted at the confession. "He wanted to leave, so I helped him. He is not going to come back."

The talons squeezed, so sudden and painful that the young panda cried out, before releasing her entirely and pushing her into her father's waiting arms. She pressed her face against his shoulder as he enveloped her as completely as he could.

"I suggest you take your daughter back to her room and then return here immediately, Panda King." The monster's voice was icy with fury. "We have a very short window of time to fix this mistake, and I will not let the sentimentality of others ruin that."

Jing's panicked breathing hitched as her father picked her up for the first time in years. He held one hand to the back of her head to keep her face tucked away as he left the observatory, but she could still hear one of the others jeering at their backs.

"This is what happens when you show mercy to children, King! Even the bloody waif knew to exploit you for it!"

The Panda King did not respond, nor did he say anything to his daughter as he hurried away. He did not put her down all the way back to her room, and she could feel the haste of his wide, quick strides. When they finally arrived, he set her carefully down just inside the doorway, looked her up and down very briefly for injury from the monster's claws – her arms were bruised beneath her fur, but the skin had not been broken anywhere – and then shut the door without another word. She didn't even have the chance to say anything before she heard the clink of him locking her in from the outside, and then he was gone.

Jing stood there, stunned by everything that had just happened and struggling to process it. She shivered, still feeling the touch of that freezing metal, and then shivered again as she realized Sly had to face the monster every single year.

The monster.

It had been so angry over what she'd done. Her father was very strong, but he had seemed so scared, and she was suddenly unsure whether he would be able to win if they fought each other. If the panda won, then Sly would be safe, but if the monster won, then what would happen?

The chill was still in her body and her heart was practically in her throat, but Jing forced shaking hands up to her hair, where several tiny pins had been stuck just out of sight. She had promised her brother that she would help him escape, and she had to make sure she didn't break that promise even if she didn't know how. She would just have to take things one step at a time.

Growing up with someone like Sly meant that she had learned things. He had taught her how to get herself out of trouble, and no one had ever suspected that Jing could do any of the things that he could. It had worked to their advantage before; it would work for her now.

A locked door was child's play to the sister of a thief.

The Panda King returned to the observatory with the speed of a runner and the dread of a man on death row. The Fiendish Five were waiting for him at the window, which had been swung wide open in his absence to let in the cold evening wind. None of them said a word to him, although it was clear that they all wanted to, and instead looked towards their leader, who was perched on the windowsill to stare out at the mountain.

"It seems you've lost Cooper."

King tensed as Clockwerk swiveled his head around to look at him without ever moving the rest of his body.

"I have not lost him," he said, watching him carefully. "He has escaped."

"Is it not the same thing? You took responsibility for him, and he has fled from under your care. Of course," the owl turned his head back towards the open air, voice dangerously unreadable, "if you truly want to argue semantics, it was your daughter who caused this."

King closed his mouth and glared at his leader's back. His fingers twitched at his side, wishing desperately to reach for the fireworks stashed under his belt, but he did not dare turn on the ancient bird even if he were not outnumbered by his colleagues.

"Should we continue this argument, or would you prefer to rectify the mistake you've let happen?"

"…Let us move on," the panda replied through gritted teeth. "Allow me to contact my men down below. They will find the boy within the hour; there is no way he has left my territory yet."

Clockwerk didn't immediately respond. He had leaned forward to study the compound, and the windowsill creaked under his weight. When he finally spoke, it was razor sharp with triumph.

"No need." His wings began to unfold from his body. "I have already found him."

The owl launched off of his perch and into the air, leaving the rest of the Five to rush to the open window to watch. King tracked his movement with a terrible sense of foreboding.

"How much you wanna bet he's gonna kill the kid?" Muggshot said as he elbowed Mz. Ruby in the ribs, making her scowl at him.

"It would be a waste of time if he does," she growled. "All of us thinkin' of things for him to do when he finally joins us and then it doesn't matter in the end. I might as well bring him back as a zombie to get some use out of him."

Clockwerk was making lazy circles in the air, high above any of the buildings. It went silent for a few moments as they watched their leader hunt. Cooper wouldn't know he had been found until the owl was already bearing down on him, and by then it would be too late.

"You've made yourself look like a fool, you know," Raleigh hissed at King. "Giving us some bollocks speech about the waif not being ready while he's slipping out from under your nose. If I had been the one raising him, this never would have happened."

"If you had raised him, he would cower at the slightest raised hand." The panda gave him a frigid look, aware that now was a dangerous time to throw barbs but needing to turn his anger at a target. "He would have been useless in our line of work."

The frog's lips curled up into an awful smile. "Better than him being dead, right?"

Before King could respond, Clockwerk finally dived. Everyone fell into a hush. The bird disappeared farther out than expected, somewhere just inside the northern wall of the compound. When he came up again, he was clutching something small and struggling between his talons. Clockwerk rose into the sky, higher and higher until he was nearly eye-level with the fortress.

Then he dropped his cargo.

The cry that rang out across the air was young and terrified. King watched in horror as Cooper went plummeting. He was too far away to see his face, but it did not take any imagination to picture it; Clockwerk had employed this technique many times with many enemies. It was one of his favorites for the disorientation and torment it caused.

Just as it looked like the boy was going to hit one of the temple roofs, the owl swooped down and plucked him right out of the sky. Cooper went silent again, but they could all see the way he kicked and flailed in the iron hold. Clockwerk lifted his prisoner high into the air a second time.

King closed his eyes before he could see the second drop. It did nothing to tune out the second scream.

When ancient bird caught Cooper again, he dropped down out of sight, right where he'd first dove after the raccoon in the midst of his escape attempt. The Five shared confused looks, unsure of why he hadn't just returned to the fortress now that his fun was seemingly over. Just as Mz. Ruby began to lift her hands in an effort to contact their leader telepathically, a sound stopped her instantly and made King's blood turn to ice.

It was not a shriek. It was not even a scream. It could only be described as a wail that tore across the compound, so loud that the panda's employees all stopped in their tracks below to look for the source of it. It went on and on and on, rising in pitch and agony in an impossible climb.

And then it cut off in a chilling finality, leaving the world silent with horror in its aftermath.

Clockwerk lifted into the air for the third and final time, heading towards the observatory with a limp body in his claws. The Five did not speak another word until he landed and laid the bloody form of Cooper onto the floor among them.

King was no stranger to the atrocities committed against children. He had killed many in his efforts to build a ruthless reputation, and never once had he flinched away from it – not even after the birth of his little girl. But there was a stark difference between cruelty with a purpose and cruelty for sport, and he had never found satisfaction in torture even to his enemies.

The sight that gripped him now – this child with wide, unseeing eyes and blood leaking from his mouth, his chest torn from one shoulder to opposite hip by three colossal, hideous slashes – was not one he would wish on his worst.

"If you want Cooper to survive, I suggest he get medical attention," Clockwerk said, emotionless, as he stalked off without another glance at either his motionless team or the motionless boy. His bloodied talons left a red trail across the floor all the way to his exit.

It was Muggshot who picked the boy up, the gentlest they had ever seen him act, and began to carry him out of the room. "King, you gotta first aid kit somewhere around here?"

"I – have an infirmary," he stumbled on the words only once before finding his steel again. "I will take you there."

They walked out as a group, each silent for very different reasons. Well, perhaps not all that different – the bulldog had a pensive pinch to his brows that mirrored King's own face – but he did not assume mercy from any of them. What had happened tonight was a natural consequence of crossing the owl, no matter how gruesome it was, and they had known those consequences for as long as they'd been a team.

The Panda King's personal medical staff was exceptionally trained and exceptionally loyal. They did not panic at the arrival of Cooper bleeding out in Muggshot's arms, nor did they ask questions as they found him a bed and began working to save his life. The canine was directed elsewhere to wash the blood off his body, and the remaining members of the Five were ushered out of the infirmary to give the team space to work.

"Raleigh."

Clockwerk's voice from down the hall startled all of them; they had not seen him there among the shadows. He extended a claw still covered in red towards the frog.

"Come with me. We need to talk."

Raleigh didn't question it or even hesitate. He hopped off after his leader, throwing a single sneer over his shoulder at King as a final reminder of his utter disdain over the situation. They both disappeared out of sight, leaving the panda alone with Mz. Ruby.

"You really fucked this one up, cher," she told him. It was matter-of-fact, with no inflection in her voice to betray her real thoughts. "You'll be lucky if he lets you join a job within the next year."

"I am well aware."

"Cooper ain't gonna be able to hide behind you after this."

"He will not."

The alligator squinted at him. Just as she was hard to read, so now was he. Eventually she sighed and gave up on the scrutiny with a shrug. "Well, here's hopin' you don't get kicked off the team entirely. You're the only one worth good company, far as I'm concerned."

He stared down the opposite hall in the direction of the observatory and didn't respond. Truth be told, the possibility had already crossed his mind. It would not be a blessing if the Five decided to cut ties – either he would be killed for the knowledge he carried out of fear of betrayal, or they would take something precious from him to keep him in line for the rest of his days. He did not need to put much thought into what that would be.

"Never seen Tony so shaken up," Mz. Ruby changed the subject, seemingly callous to his inner turmoil. "Didn't think he still had a heart inside that big muscled –"

The way she suddenly cut herself off caught his attention, right before the sound of tiny, rushed footsteps appeared and the door behind him slid open. He turned around just in time to catch the tail end of his daughter's nightgown as she disappeared into the infirmary.

"Mā de!" He swore, hurrying in after her while Mz. Ruby remained motionless in the hall. "Jing! Do not go in there!"

But it was too late. He stopped in the doorway at the sight of her, frozen, standing at the foot of Cooper's bed. The boy had been bandaged thoroughly, but blood was already seeping in through his dressings and he was laying slack and unconscious, dead to the world around him.

"Sly!" His daughter sobbed, falling to her knees at the end of the bed. Her hands hovered over the raccoon without touching him, and that restraint was the only reason he did not immediately remove her. "I'm so sorry, Sly! I'm so sorry!"

"Jing."

She cried harder at King's voice, shaking her head furiously against a request he had not even asked yet. "No! I won't leave him! You cannot make me!"

The older panda hesitated. He glanced backwards once, where his colleague stood with her back to him – standing guard in an unspoken agreement until he solved the problem he had found himself in.

"Jing, you must leave him be." He tried again, careful to keep his tone calm in the face of her despair. "He needs rest if he is to recover."

She shook her head a second time and looked up at him. "What happened? What did they do to him?"

King could not find an easy answer. He remained silent. It was the wrong thing to do when she shakily got to her feet to face him fully with her hands balled into fists.

"Tell me, Father!" The girl cried. Anger began seeping into the grief. "What did that monster do? Why didn't you stop them? Why – why are you so calm?!"

"You would not understand." It was all he could say in the face of her accusations. Nothing would quell her furious judgement in this state. She would not believe him even with the truth. "Please, return to your room where you will be safe. I will let you know when he wakes."

Jing glared at him with more venom than he had thought her capable of holding. She trembled head to toe in rage; a startling mirror image of the boy he used to be, who had once directed that poison at the nobles who had looked down on him. He drew a breath, shaken by the comparison, but before he could explain that it had been to save her life, she was already running past him out of the room.

He followed her out to the hallway and watched her flee in the direction of her room, hoping that she would come to realize the reasons for his actions on her own. Beside him, Mz. Ruby clicked her tongue in a way that could mean either disapproval or sympathy.

"She's gonna remember this night for the rest of her life," the mystic warned as he stared after his daughter but did not follow. "Them childhood scars last forever."

King shook his head. "Not her. She is different from us. Loving and forgiving."

"Here's hopin', cause otherwise you're just perpetuatin' that cycle all over again. Same as it ever was."

He hoped desperately that she was wrong, but he found that he did not have much faith. There had never been a prediction by Mz. Ruby, supernatural or not, that had not turned out exactly as she promised.

Sly Cooper remained bedridden for two weeks. He woke up sporadically and only for minutes at a time, and his health wavered on the brink more than once as the medical team did everything in their power to stabilize him.

Within that time, Mz. Ruby and Muggshot returned to their respective territories to further their criminal exploits while waiting for further news. Raleigh remained both a constant guest of King and a constant visitor of Cooper. Clockwerk came and went periodically – never once checking in on the raccoon but always keen to hear updates of his condition.

Near the end of the second week, when the boy's injury-induced fever broke and it was clear he would pull through, the owl disappeared for four days and returned with a large, unusual safe, which he placed in one of the observatory rooms – along with a single slip of paper holding the code to it, which he gave to King with no explanation except to keep the code well-protected and to never open the safe. The panda took it without complaint or question, painfully aware of the precarious state of his leader's trust in him.

When Sly began to awaken for longer periods of time, cognizant of his surroundings, Clockwerk cornered the Panda King outside the infirmary with the Cooper cane in his talons. How he had found it when King had never shared the knowledge of where it was hidden in the fortress was another thing he dared not ask about.

"Once Cooper is able to move on his own again, Sir Raleigh will take him with him when he leaves. Cooper will work for us from now on. You will tell him this yourself."

The owl paused, waiting for potential protest. King supplied none.

"Make no mistake, Panda King; this was fated to happen eventually. If not to you, then to any of the others. It may yet happen again. The Coopers have always had such a troublesome habit of crawling their way out of what they deserve." His eyes were warm like molten lava as he held the cane up to study it. "But in the end, fate always catches up to them. It will be no different for this one."

The fireworks master did not say a word. Clockwerk was never finished with his musings when one first expected it.

"I must admit, the only part of all of this that caught me by surprise was you. I knew of your child from the day she was born, but I had assumed it would not affect the way you handled yourself. You certainly had me fooled for longer than I would like to admit. I suppose that is just as much on me as it is on you. I know the trappings of empathy on the average man, and I did not look hard enough for the signs in you. That being said…"

He loomed over the panda, all pretenses of a non-threat gone in an instant.

"If you ever jeopardize the plan I have in place for the very last Cooper, I will burn down your precious fireworks factory from within until you have nothing left. I will ruin your criminal reputation so thoroughly that even the pettiest of thieves will scoff at the idea of working with you. I will destroy everything you built in a fraction of the time it took for you to make it. And then, at the very end, I will tear your precious daughter limb from limb while you are helpless to stop me."

The Panda King held perfectly still under his leader's promise. He did not shake. He did not even breathe. All that existed was Clockwerk and the horror that was his very existence.

"Do we have an understanding, Panda King?"

"…Yes," he said, thinking of a bloody mess of fur that was not gray but instead black and white. "Yes, we do."

"Excellent." The owl backed off and pointed the cane towards the infirmary door. "Let us visit our disobedient child, then, shall we? I believe we have kept him waiting long enough."

King entered the room with Clockwerk right behind him, feeling just as much a hostage as the boy sitting in bed. Sly's eyes widened straight out of tiredness the instant he saw the ancient bird, and he began to tremble. The blanket around his lap he clutched high against his bandaged chest as if it could shield him from further harm.

"Sly Cooper," the panda began slowly, feeling rather than seeing his leader settle in a corner of the room to watch. "The doctors have told me that you are recovering well, and are no longer at risk of death. They estimate that you will be able to leave this place within another week."

The raccoon's gaze remained locked on Clockwerk. There was no indication he had even heard the words spoken to him.

"Sly," he said, harsher than intended, but it finally pulled the child's attention towards him. "Once that milestone is reached, you will no longer live here in Kunlun. Sir Raleigh will take you for the foreseeable future."

"Take me…?" Sly whispered, hoarse and confused and clearly struggling to connect the dots in the midst of his pain and fear. His eyes darted back and forth between King and Clockwerk; the former saw the exact moment realization set in.

"W-Wait. King, wait," he pleaded, sounding every bit his age instead of the front he often put up. "I can't – I'm not ready!"

"He will wait until you are well enough to travel."

"That's not what I meant! You know it's not what I meant!"

The panda did not close his eyes in his attempt to block out the stressed pleading in the other's voice. He remained the perfect representation of stoicism. There was nothing else he could be under the watchful eye of the ancient thing in the room.

"Rules have been established in anticipation of this change," he finally continued when he was certain his voice wouldn't waver. "You will follow every order given to you by all of us. You will not attempt to sabotage our work in any way. If you are ever questioned by outside forces, you will not share any details about us. If you are separated from us for any reason, you will endeavor to return to us immediately so we do not think you have tried to escape again."

"No…no, no, I can't do this! Please tell them I'm not ready yet!"

Sly was so beside himself with fear that he seemed to have forgotten Clockwerk's presence entirely as he begged for more time When he made a move as if to climb out of bed, King lunged forward and pressed his hand flat against the raccoon's collar bone with his thumb sitting just above his bandages.

The boy froze. There were tears in his eyes.

"It is not up to me anymore!" The Panda King's voice rumbled through the room, loud and angry. "You did a terribly stupid thing and must face the consequences. We have all decided that if you are so ready to risk your life to flee, you are also ready to work for us."

Sly was actively crying now. He searched King's face – the man who had spared him from death, who had trusted him with his own child, who he had finally, finally started to trust on some level even if it was clear he would never fully forgive him.

He looked at him, searching for any kind of compassion.

And found none.

The raccoon slumped back against the bed, and the panda removed his hand. It was obvious to both of them that the fight had left him. The reality of his situation had fully set in.

"You will stay here and recover," King said as he stood up to leave. "And next week, you will be a member of the Fiendish Five."

Sly looked away as the man headed for the door. He didn't turn his head even when he stopped in the doorway. The panda wanted to apologize for everything he'd done. Everything he didn't do. He wanted to promise that Jing would see him one last time before he left, even if that was a promise that he wouldn't be able to keep.

He wanted to say many things, but he didn't dare in the presence of his leader. Instead, he walked out of the infirmary with all the steadiness of the heartless crime lord that Sly would now see him as.

Clockwerk did not come out with him. He remained in the room for quite some time afterwards, and when he finally left as well, the Cooper cane was no longer with him.

"If he escapes again, he will return to try to steal back the Thievius Raccoonus from each of us. I have already informed the rest of the Fiendish Five about this. It is a courtesy that I am telling you now." His eyes burned as he stared at King. "If he is caught by us or arrested in the meantime, that will be considered failure, and we will kill him for it."

"And…if he succeeds?"

Clockwerk was not capable of smiling. But somehow, looking at him now, the panda could tell that he was.

"He won't. I have already ensured that."

With the finality of that statement in place, the owl walked off, leaving King with a deep-seated uneasiness that he would never be able to expel.

Just over a week later, as predicted, Sly was considered healthy enough for travel. He swayed on his feet, leaning heavily on his father's cane just to remain upright, but it did not concern Raleigh in the slightest as he stood beside him and said his goodbyes to the fireworks master.

"Oh, don't look so glum!" The frog jeered, pinching the boy's cheek in a mockery of affection. "I'm not taking you to your death. Only a lifetime of servitude! Think of it as switching custody with a new guardian!"

Sly flinched under the touch and tried to pull away, but Raleigh kept hold of him with a snarl. The raccoon looked up at King one last time; one last plea for him to change his fate before everything changed forever.

The Panda King felt cold yellow eyes on him from afar, and turned his back instead.

He regretted it six months later, when he was finally allowed to work with Sly again and saw a dark bruise ringing his masked face. He regretted it the year afterwards, as the begging in the raccoon's eyes slowly changed to a burning, constant hatred towards him. He regretted it for every mission where the boy was forced to do more heinous crimes under colleagues who were either indifferent or gleeful about it.

He regretted it all the way to the news of Muggshot's arrest, where the first spark of hope ignited for the young Cooper in a long time. And then he regretted it again, not long after that, sitting on the floor of his daughter's room as he told her every shameful detail of the last six years and his part in cultivating it.

Most of them had come from broken lives, falling into the criminal world because it was the only place that accepted them for everything that they were. But Sly Cooper's life had been broken by them and then shattered completely when he was forced into that dark world against his will, playing a game he could not win, all on the whims of a creature who saw him as nothing more than the name that he carried.

And no matter the circumstances behind it, the Panda King would carry that regret for the rest of his life.

A/N: HAPPY EARLY NEW YEAR

In celebration, how about the biggest chapter in the entire fic? Hopefully it was worth the wait! I've been waiting ages to reach this point, almost more excited for it than the reveal chapter. Lots of things finally understood, and perhaps a few more lingering questions...

Now that the holidays are over, I should be back into a weekly posting schedule (knock on wood). Only six chapters left!