A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter! :D

Snake stared up nervously at the back entrance of his childhood home. Even from this distance, he felt dwarfed by its presence.

He and the rest of the gang, along with Macho, were staring at the back entrance a few hundred feet off the property in the woods. The back deck and swimming pool where his parents hosted countless parties as he watched from his bedroom window, the garden his mother tended to in the summer, even the playground he and Ivy would play on as children that had been worn down by time; all of it, achingly, painfully familiar. The last time he had seen any of it, he was sneaking out in the middle of the night with a suitcase and five hundred dollars in cash to meet up with Ace in the Townsville dump.

"Damn dude, you lived here?" Arturo asked, interrupting his inner thoughts. "You weren't lying when you said your parents were loaded."

"Quiet," Ace hissed. "You want us to get caught?"

"Sorry Ace."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Macho asked his son. He looked visibly nervous as he stared up at the mansion. "Maybe I should handle this-"

"No way Papi, I'm good at this stuff," Arturo said. "And no offense, but you're too big to pull it off."

"Give your boy some credit, old man," Ace sneered at him. "While you were rottin' away in a jail cell he's done this hundreds of times."

Macho glared at him. "Call me old man one more time-"

"We don't have time for this," Snake hissed. He turned toward Arturo. "You ready?"

"I was born ready," he grinned. "Man, it's been ages since I've done this."

"So, you know what to do?"

"Sneak in through the back, get down to the basement and cut the power. Then give the signal once I'm done."

"Right," Snake said. "That should shut the cameras off. Then, we'll follow you there and finish the rest." He turned to face the rest of the cohort.

"My parents are heavy sleepers, but we still need to be careful. If you hear any footsteps, just run, no matter what. If any of us get caught, we're all screwed."

"Don't worry man, we'll be in and out. Compared to robbing the Townsville Museum, this'll be nothing," He turned toward his father who was giving him a worried look. "I'll be fine, Papi."

"Be careful," he reached over and pulled him into a hug. Ace stared at them with an unreadable expression.

"C'mon, let's go! It's freezin' out here. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get the hell out of here and get the cash."

Arturo pulled himself out of the embrace, and made his way toward the mansion. Snake and the others watched anxiously as he picked the lock and headed inside.

"I should've gone in with him," Macho mused.

"He'll be fine," Ace said. "You worry too much."

"He's my son, of course I worry about him," Macho snapped. "I wish you worried a little more."

"You think I don't care about him?" Ace asked, turning to look at him.

"I don't think you care about anyone but yourself."

"When I first met Arturo, he was a shakin' cryin' eleven year old boy who could barely say two words in English," he glared. "I knew he wouldn't last long in that hellhole of a place if someone didn't show him what's what. I saved your son's damn life. If it wasn't for me, those older kids would've eaten him alive."

At this, Macho finally turned to look Ace in the eye, his eyes full of pain and rage. "He never should've been there in the first place."

"Well I wasn't the one that put him there," Ace pointed out. He stalked towards Macho.

"Guys, now is not the time to get into this-"

"Maybe not that time, but what about all the others? You telling me that you never had anything to do with the muggings? The robberies?"

"When you live on the streets, you do what you have to in order to survive," Ace snapped. He and Macho were inches away from each other now. "I'd think you of all people would understand that, mister 'I sold cocaine and killed people to feed my family.'"

"Guys-"

"I never killed anybody!" Macho nearly shouted. "It was that bastard Diego!"

"Oh, so you were just there because you were, what? Providing refreshments?"

"Guys!"

"Duh, hi Arturo!" Billy waved toward the house. The others stopped and turned toward where he was looking.

Right outside the door, the smallest member of the gang was waving them on.

"Come on, we can't afford to lose any time," Snake made his way toward the house. "You guys can continue biting each other's heads off once we get home."

"That glorified closest is no home," Macho muttered as he and the others followed Snake. "I haven't been home in ten years."

Ivy looked out the window of her hotel room, staring at the skyline of Townsville, police sirens ringing outside and going every which way.

She had turned off her laptop hours ago; it was too depressing to see news article after news article talking about this robbery and that murder and this shooting over and over, each one decrying the downfall of the Powerpuff Girls and blaming everyone from Mojo Jojo to Professor Utonium to a random teenage boy Snake's friend used to work with to the girls themselves.

But most of all, what she hated the most was seeing everyone gossip about her and her family.

On every single forum she followed, all she saw was post after post of the events that had happened in the last week. The Townsville Daily was filled with people talking about the prison break in; how crime had exploded when a good portion of the prisoners were able to escape before the guards woke up and were able to stop them, about the resurgence of the Gangreen Gang, and a bit about her brother and his connection to Ingleberry Industries. On Tech Talk, it was even worse.

"In one afternoon, she effectively ruined her life," one commenter said about her. "She gave up her cushy job that Daddy got for her, caused a boycott, and for what? Her lowlife brother who she hasn't seen in years, right after he put two innocent people in the hospital and put a bunch of rapists and murderers back on the streets. She's a goddamned idiot if there ever was one."

"So you think she was lying about Charles Ingleberry?" another commenter asked.

"Probably," they answered. "But even if she's not, who cares? Snake is clearly a piece of shit and she should've cut her losses. Talking about whatever abuse that may or may not have happened in the past isn't going to help him. She was probably just mad that Daddy didn't give her an extra bonus this year. I hope she never gets a dime from him again."

Well, they're definitely going to get their wish, she thought to herself as she poured another glass of cheap wine. She stared at her old apartment building on the other side of town as she waited for the alcohol to dull her senses.

She went over her current situation in her head; she had enough saved to last her for a while, though every night she spent in this hotel room made that amount less and less. She'd have to find another place to live, and soon. Somewhere cheap enough that would give her a decent amount of time to find another job and get everything sorted out.

"I'd be lucky to find a job at Best Buy at this point," she said bitterly to herself. She swirled what was left of the wine in her glass around and around, making a small whirlpool. Just as it was starting to take effect, she heard her ringtone on the nightstand by the bed.

Sighing, she pulled herself up and walked over to retrieve it, assuming it was one of her coworkers calling her to ask her what the hell she was thinking. When she looked at her Caller ID, she was surprised to see who it was.

"Cassie?" she asked. Cassie Newbrook, a shy, young intern she was training at the company, who barely ever said more than two words to her that didn't relate to work. Of all the people at Ingleberry Industries, she would be the last one she'd expect to call her.

"Hi Ms. Ingleberry," she said nervously. "I saw you on TV, talking about Mr. Ingleberry and, um, I just wanted to know; did you mean it when you said you were quitting?"

"I did," Ivy said. "If you're worried about your internship, I'm sure you'll be assigned to someone else-"

"Actually, I'm leaving Ingleberry Industries too. Well, I will be soon."

Ivy blinked in surprise. "Why?" She asked. "That internship will look amazing on your application. Why would you give that up?"

"Why did you give up your job?" she asked wryly. "I didn't work for Mr. Ingleberry for long, but for the time I did, I quickly discovered he was… well, he wasn't good to me. Or some of the others."

Ivy froze. "What did he do?"

"Let's just say I've shed more than a few tears for this job," she said.

"Cassie…" Ivy trailed off, unable to respond. "Do you know what you're going to do?"

"Well, that's actually why I called you," she said. "A few of the higher ups are thinking of starting their own company, and they asked me to join them once everything gets set up. They wanted to know if you'd like to join us."

Ivy blinked in surprise. "Who else is leaving?"

"Other than me? Adam, Lizzie, Brian, Angela, and Caroline. As of right now."

"I thought half of those people hated me," Ivy mused. "Why do they want me in their company?"

"I don't think they hated you, but they didn't trust you," Cassie said. "You were the CEO's daughter, and, well, with how your father is…"

Ivy nodded in understanding, despite the fact that she knew Cassie couldn't see her.

"The point is, it's, well, a bit hard to get close to the daughter of your boss who you can't trust, and who got the job of your dreams because of who her father was. But you've always been really nice to me, and now that you've cut ties with him, I think you'd make a much better boss than Mr. Ingleberry."

"Being a better boss than Charles Ingleberry is certainly some high praise," Ivy quipped. "I'll think it over," she said. "First, I need to get some personal things taken care of. Then we can set up a meeting with everyone and see where it goes."

"I'll let them know," Cassie said. "And Ms. Ingleberry?"

"Yes?"

"Please take care of yourself. It was bad having Mr. Ingleberry for a boss, I can't imagine having him as a father."

Ivy sat there stunned after Cassie hung up. Someone was on her side. Multiple people were on her side.

She rotated the idea in her mind. Her own company, or at least one she'd play a large part in helping to build. Completely separate from her father and all the baggage that came with it.

She looked back over towards the night sky. The stars shined brighter than they had in years.

After the gang made their way inside, Snake turned toward Arturo. "You got the flashlight?"

Wordlessly, he turned it over towards him. Out of everyone else in the gang, Snake had the best night vision, but even still, he needed to lead the others. He turned it on the lowest possible setting.

"I cut the power just like you told me," Arturo said. "We should be safe."

"Good," Snake said. "Come on, I'll show you guys where the safe is."

As he led the others through the house, he bit back the bittersweet memories that plagued him with every room they passed. The kitchen, where his mother and Ivy would spend the weekends cooking the most delicious meals he had ever eaten in his life, when he was allowed to eat at all. His mother would sometimes sneak him an extra cookie or two behind his father's back if he had done particularly well on a test. The living room, where his father would entertain his business associates, his mother her dinner parties, and his sister her slumber parties. From the thin streak of light that allowed him to see, he could tell it was still decorated with the same teal curtains of his childhood his mother referred to as a 'pop of color' in the otherwise stark white room.

He stopped for a moment when he passed the door that led to his childhood bedroom. He could still see the outline of where his parents painted over the time he spray painted his and Ace's names on the door. Up until that point, he had never seen his father so angry.

"Is that where the safe is?" Arturo asked behind him.

"No," Snake said, as he walked towards the door. "It's my old bedroom."

The room itself looked as if no one had touched it in years. His old Spiderman comforter was replaced with a generic gray one, the walls that were once covered with old posters of his favorite cartoon and comic book characters had been torn down, and the shelves that were once filled with academic awards and trophies were bare. He ran a finger over the top shelf only to see it was covered in dust.

"What the hell are you doing?! This ain't no time to take a walk down memory lane!" Ace hissed in the hallway. "Come on, if we get caught because of you I swear to god-"

"I'm coming!" he hissed back. "I just-"

He stopped when something caught the light of the flashlight from under the bed. Without thinking, he walked towards it and pulled it out.

"A scrapbook?" he said to himself. He flipped through it and saw picture after picture of him and his family in his early childhood.

"Snake!"

"The safe is in his office down the opposite hall," he pointed in the general direction. "There's a giant painting of a phoenix behind his desk; it's under that. Just take it down and you'll see it. Dad always used to keep the combination taped underneath his desk since he could never remember it. I'll catch up with you guys in a minute."

Ace looked as if he wanted to argue, but thought better of it. "Whatever," he said. "Just give me the damn flashlight."

Snake tossed it to him, and turned back to the scrapbook as the others walked away. It was harder to see now, though not impossible.

He flipped to the next page and stopped when he saw one that he had never seen before: One of him and his family after his birth.

His mother, only a few years older than he was now, sat in a hospital bed with a green skinned baby in her arms, grinning ear to ear. Sitting at the foot of the bed was a preschool aged Ivy in a white t-shirt and overall dress, looking at the baby with such wonder one would think she found the eighth wonder of the world. His father was noticeably absent.

Next to it was a note written in his mother's hand:

The birth of my son, Sanford Dickens Ingleberry, February 13th. The best Valentine's Day gift I've ever been given and that I'll ever get.

The day I told your father you were in my belly, he promised to give you the world. When the doctor told us you were a boy, he cried for the first and only time since I met him. I can't wait to see the man you'll grow up to be, sweet boy. I just know you'll make us proud.

Tears pricked at his eyes, threatening to spill onto the page and cause the decades old ink to bleed. He closed the scrapbook and dried his eyes with the back of his hand.

Ace was right, this was a bad idea. It was time to go.

Putting the scrapbook back where he found it, he stood up and walked out of his childhood bedroom for the last time.

As he started walking toward the basement, he felt a hand grab his wrist and slam him against the wall, and cold metal against his neck.

"What the hell are you doing in my house?" his father pressed a knife into his flesh.

"Snake's been in there a while, hasn't he?" Arturo asked.

He and Billy held open the trash bag as Ace and Macho filled it with cash. The safe was almost empty now, and the bag was nearly filled to the brim.

"He's probably still lookin' at that damn book," Ace hissed. "I swear, if he doesn't get his ass over here soon-"

"Come on, cut him some slack, man. You know how his dad was. Being here probably brings up a lot of old stuff, you know?"

"Yeah, and his "old stuff" is going to buy us all one way tickets to the Townsville Prison," Ace handed Arturo the bag, as well as one of the flashlights. "We got enough cash. Take this and head on out. I'll meet you back at the apartment with Snake."

"Are you sure man?" Arturo asked. "We can wait for you-"

"Come on, Mijo, he's right," Macho took the bag from his son, causing Ace to raise an eyebrow.

"That's the first time you've ever agreed with me, old man."

Macho smiled. "It's the first time you said something that made sense."

"And I assume that you have enough respect for your son that you won't, I don't know, take the cash and leave me and Snake hangin?"

"Ace man, not cool," Arturo frowned at him in the dark.

"You'd assume correctly," Macho said. "As long as you come back without getting yourself caught."

"I don't plan to," he said.

As the three walked out and made their way toward the back door, Ace headed toward Snake's direction, his gun hidden in his back pocket.

"I asked you a question, boy," his father hissed. "What do you think you're doing in my house?"

Snake froze, wincing at the cut of the blade. There have been many moments in his life where he felt afraid of his father, but this was the first time he feared for his life.

"W… W-We… I mean, I just-"

"We?" His father asked. "You're gangster friends are here too, aren't they?" He forced the knife in further, and Snake let out a cry of pain. "Where are they?"

"Dad, pleassse," Snake hissed. "I'll goesss, I'll leavesss and you'll never ssseess me again-"

"Did you come here to hurt me? Your mother? Take some petty revenge for whatever slight you think I committed against you?" His father narrowed his eyes. "Did Ivy have something to do with this?"

"No!" Snake cried. "It'sss me! Only me, I ssswear-"

"I don't believe that for a second. You never would've had the balls to come here by yourself," his father shook his head. "No, your gangster buddies are here too. Tell me where they are."

"Dad-"

"Tell me where they are!" he shouted. "Or I swear to god I'll-"

"You'll do, what, exactly?"

Both father and son turned to look at Ace, staring back at them, gun out and pointing towards Snake's father.

"Go ahead, old man. Tell me what you plan to do."

Snake's father opened and closed his mouth several times in shock, making him look vaguely like a fish. He held up his hands in surrender, releasing Snake out of his grip, and dropped the knife on the ground.

"My wife is upstairs," he said. "If I scream she'll call the police. Then you and Sanford and whoever else is in my house will spend the rest of their lives in prison. I know people who will make sure of that."

"In that case, why shouldn't I just kill you right here and now?" Ace asked, pointing the gun at his head. "It won't make a difference to me.

For perhaps the first time in his life, Snake saw fear in his father's eyes. His heart raced as he looked towards the gun.

"Ace, stop it!" Snake cried. "Let's just get out of here, okay? We'll find some other way to pay Mojo off."

"Oh, we already got the money," Ace grinned, not taking his eyes off of Snake's father. "Everythin' in that old safe of yours is ours now. Finders keepers and all that."

"You son of a bitch!" Snake's father yelled, seemingly snapped out of his frozen state. He stormed toward Ace. "If you think I'm letting you leave this house with my money, you got another thing coming."

"I don't think you know how this works old man, so let me fill you in," Ace smirked as he pointed the gun at Snake's father's legs, causing him to back up. "The guy with the gun makes the threats, not the guy gettin' robbed. So unless you want me to shoot out your kneecaps I'd recommend you turn around, go back upstairs, and tell that little wife of yours that you didn't see nothin. Then you can go back to bed, and all of this will be over. Otherwise I'm gonna have to take drastic action here. For your wife too if she snitches."

"Sharon!" Snake's father screamed. "Call the police! Sanford and his friends are holding me at gunpoint-"

A deafening bang ran through the house as Ace fired the gun. Before Snake could even register what had happened, his father was screaming, collapsed on the floor and holding his bleeding foot.

"Ace!" Snake screamed. "What the fuck did you just do?!"

"Oh god!" his father yelled. "Call 911! Sharon, for god's sake get down here! The bastard shot me!"

"That was a warning shot," Ace said. "If you dare even whisper our name to the cops, I'll come back and finish the job."

"Dad," Snake said softly, reaching out to his father. "Are you okay-"

"Get the fuck away from me!" he pushed Snake away, forcing himself back on his feet. He limped over, making a trail of blood behind him. "I'll make sure you pay dearly for this boy, you can count on that. If I ever see you or your friends again I'll kill you all myself."

Snake looked helplessly at his bleeding father and enraged friend. Deciding his father was a lost cause, he grabbed Ace's arm and pulled him toward the door.

"C'mon Ace, we gotta go. We don't have much time before the cops show up."

Ace kept his gun aimed at his father, and for a second Snake was worried that Ace would 'finish the job' right there and then. To his relief, Ace lowered the weapon and followed him out.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Snake turned on Ace as soon as they were far enough away from the property. "Why do you even have that thing with you? You could've killed somebody!"

"He was holdin' a knife to your throat! What the hell else was I supposed to do?"

"I don't know, not shoot my father?" Snake hissed. "What if he loses his ability to walk or something because of what you did?"

"It will be the least he deserves," Ace walked toward him and gave him a devilish grin that he knew he used whenever he was trying to charm someone. "Come on, you can't tell me you never once thought about shootin' that bastard."

"Thinking about something and actually doing it are two very different things," Snake pushed Ace away. "You know if we're ever caught, we're going to be in even more deep shit."

Ace moved closer. "So let's never get caught then."

"I promised Ivy no one will get hurt," Snake said, moving away. "Once she hears about this, she'll never want to talk to me again."

"Didn't she already tell you to never call her again?" He moved closer still, that stupid grin still on his face. Snake stayed in place, his arms crossed.

He snorted. "Why do I even bother with you? It's not like you have a family you have to worry about despising you. You've always just done whatever you wanted, consequences be damned."

At this, the smirk fell and Ace's eyes grew dark. "You're right, I don't have no family," Ace said. "Not since I was ten years old and watched my ma die in front of my eyes. I thought you and the gang were my family, but maybe I was wrong." He shoved the gun back into his pocket and started walking back towards their hideout. "If this is the thanks I get for savin' your life, maybe next time I won't bother."

"Ace, I didn't mean it like that-"

"Whatever, it don't matter anyway. Let's head back before Macho runs off with all my money."

Snake reached out for him, only to be shrugged off. Wordlessly, he trailed behind him for the rest of the walk.

PPGGuy06: Charles definitely is a man with a multitude of issues. I'd be surprised if anyone likes him tbh

Anon: Ace is an always has been a manipulative bastard lol. I don't think it's all an act, but he definitely knows how to use his honest feelings to make people behave in a certain way. And yeah, Macho is probably the best father we've seen yet. Snake's is a nasty piece of work, and we don't know much about the other dads (or, parents in general) yet.

GGG Fan: Yeah, Snake always gave me jealous vibes lol. But when you think about it from his perspective, it makes sense he'd be wary of Arturo at first. He was always the unfavorite with his parents until they abandoned him completely, and now his only friend has made a new friend he gets along with super well and he's worried he's about to get replaced. It would be hard not to get a little jealous imo.

But yeah, Macho is highly critical of the gang, especially Ace. I think it's a mix of him projecting his own guilt over what happened to Arturo and the rest of his family along with some genuine wariness over Ace's influence over his son.

Thanks again to everyone who reviewed last chapter! Feel free to tell me what you think!