Rei Cooper: Legacy Of Thieves

Epilogue

Kenji:

Two weeks after coma

Driven mad by the sight of his sister, whom he was supposed to protect from harm, Kenji did his best to drive off the depression with a few heists, but he just didn't understand the fun of stealing from anyone. Bryce gave him a stolen violin and he put it back on the pedestal he stole it from. He was beginning to feel like a failure. And it all led to here, the last place he needed to be. The edge of a rooftop. He was ready, and all it would take to end it was a simple step. He looked at the edge, was he ready?

"Kenji, back away from the ledge." Michel said behind him. He had heard that a raccoon was trying to jump, he had rushed here. "Why would you want to jump?"

"I've failed her... I failed to keep stealing to keep up the appearance of a living Cooper." His foot now dangled over the edge.

"So what? What's worth dying before she even wakes up? You don't have it in you Kenji." He said.

"Why are you called Fox, you aren't related to my mother. I don't recognize you from... that time." Kenji said, still standing on the roof.

Michel was taken aback. He had expected this question, but he hadn't expected it right now. His answer was ready, of course, but wouldn't people hear them? It was a risk he took anyway.

"You're right, I'm not part of your family, but I've always admired your Mother. It's funny how stupid your own name sounds... when you can make a new one for yourself." Michel mused. "My real name is Michel Rechin, I just figured... that maybe I could be someone else, and be respected. I never knew that it would lead to such hard training, after all, it was just a name. However, the fact that Carmelita Fox had caught Sly Cooper had carried more weight than I thought it did. She had even allowed him to apply for Interpol, and he was a great cop too. I thought that maybe people would respect the name and not look too closely. The Rechins were earmarked for treason and insubordination. I wouldn't have made it into Interpol if it wasn't for your Mother, or at least what she did." He finished, feeling the weight of the secret fading.

"Why didn't you tell Rei?" Kenji asked, now sitting on the ledge.

"Because I never saw the need to." He replied.

"I can't stay here, I need to leave..." He said, suddenly standing up and facing the drop below.

"You can get help dealing with this sort of thing." Michel said, he was so close! Why was he trying to jump now?

"Will it make Rei wake up?" Kenji mournfully said.

"She will want you there, and you can be there for her... even if it is in an institute. Don't leave her here because her mind is somewhere else." Michel was now behind Kenji, and he offered him his hand.

Kenji just looked at it for a long time, thinking what would happen if he jumped. Would Rei really be mad at him for leaving her alone? He took the hand, and walked back down from the edge.

"I'll keep your secret, but you have to keep mine from Rei." Kenji said.

"Well, while I can't lift the charges of attempted suicide, I can say you were under duress." He said thoughtfully.

"Oh just arrest me and get it over with." Kenji smiled.

Bryce:

One month after coma

He was in the lab. Again. The mousey mechanic had stayed with Rei during the day, as per her letter, and worked on a major project during the night. The caretaker of Happy Campers Orphanage, Mrs. Waizutatoru, walked in, but I think that her true name should be told, as she had been hiding behind her husband's now gone shadow for almost ten years. Her name was Penelope Waizutatoru. Rei had always assumed her dead, or just missing, but the truth was easier, she had been living in an apartment in New York City since the orphanage shut down. She was almost fifty five today.

"Why are you working on Bentley's old project? He turned it off for a reason." She twisted the ring on her finger.

"I know, but if I could just twist the matrix fluctuator and fix it so that the quantum dilator will tune with it..." Bryce murmured. Mrs. Waizutatoru put her hand on the shoulder of her son, silently trying to convince him that it wasn't worth the sleep loss.

"Son..." She started, but was interrupted by a loud snore. She couldn't help but laugh

Bryce had finally fallen asleep. Mrs. Waizutatoru couldn't help but find her son so much like her husband. It was too sad to think about how she had come in and simply knocked Bentley down, with her strength, it was remarkable that she hadn't busted the door down. Bryce's dreams were quite simple and lacked the sadness of his mother's. It was Rei waking up, and telling him that he was stupid to have believed her dead, no matter what. He needed her to wake up.

What he needed was her happy sarcastic attitude. He missed the only other friend he had. These days Murph was busy trying into professional art, both by stealing and making it. Kenji had been committed, but Bryce was never going to stop keeping his promise to Rei. He stole something every night, taking good care to make himself look like the outline of Rei. Bryce always wondered if she could hear him, asking for her to come back. Was she stuck inside her own head? Unable to leave, but unable to come back?

When the next morning rolled around, he began his routine again, entering the room where Rei slept and was cared for. The doctors said it would be good for her to wake up in a safe environment -that and Bryce had threatened to steal all of the other patients blankets and TVs. She looked so peaceful, which was always strange to see, considering she was always thinking up mischievous plots... or getting out of them.

"Please just wake up... if you could just see what happened since-" He stopped himself. "when you fell asleep."

Mrs. Waizutatoru was outside the door,. She felt like she had failed Sly and Rei at the same time, allowing her to get hurt like this. She sighed and left, her son none the wiser to her absence.

"I've got to go now, I'm, planning for something big, but later. I have to get the blueprints for a project and edit it so there won't be foul ups. Maybe you can help when you wake up..." He suddenly left, feeling angry and confused at himself for becoming mad at a vanquished enemy.

He sighed and went back to work, time was the only thing that mattered to him, and the fact the he had so much of it without Rei. He had started this project to try and go back in time and save Rei, but he didn't know that she would only be awake very soon.

But for now, Bryce went to go write to Kenji, he had heard Michel was working on dropping the charges on him and was wondering how he was doing in his new life was going along. Bryce was wondering why Michel had suddenly turned over a new leaf on the Gang. He soon shook his head, disregarding it because he had already asked, and had gotten no answer from Kenji.

Michel:

One month and a week after coma

Arrests were up on criminals, and Michel was the holder of the top arrests in his unit. He was also quite bored, there was the occasional robbery pulled off by Murph and Bryce, but he didn't know about them, and he now sat in his office, thinking about they could have moved Rei. One day there, and the next gone. I mean, how the hell do you move a person in a coma. He could use a challenge.

A call came in on his phone, and he answered it.

"Hello?" He said, still bouncing the ball against the wall in his office.

"There have been reports of raccoon sightings in west china. Sir... do you think it's her?" Said the Interpol officer on the other side.

Somehow a grin crept on Michel's face, he ceased his ball bouncing and thought about this for a moment, then, with a slight chuckle, he responded with...

"On my way."