//------------------------------//
// Band: Hatred Reborn 
// Story: Sly Cooper: Family of Thieves 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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As all of them sat there, inside the Northern Light Battery, the gang couldn't believe that the focus of all their schemes and heists since Cairo, the Clockwerk parts, had been stolen from them in one form or another and were now gathered in a single place for a single sinister purpose. Bentley, daring to use his computer for a moment, found out that they were heading east across the Atlantic Ocean, as stowaways on the giant airborne fortress that Arpeggio had created, and made sure that Secretary Sen knew where they were going. Despite the fact that time was short the gang made sure to study up  on their unknowing host, where they discovered that Arpeggio attended a prestigious boarding school, where he excelled in all subjects, but at the same time he never managed to keep up with the other boys physically. They found out that his wings, due to their small size, were useless for flight, which made him furious at his feeble body and caused him to focus his powerful mind to start searching for a cure, in the works of the Italian Renaissance masters as it turned out. Bentley was sure that the notebooks of those masters provided the springboard for this sinister young genius, and that it wasn't long before the Klaww Gang took him on as their chief inventor.

It was clear to them that Arpeggio's talents must have been at work repurposing all the Clockwerk parts for the various criminal schemes of his cohorts, and now this mastermind was in possession of all the parts, meaning that it was only a matter of time before he put them all back together... to which the gang decided that they weren't going to let that happen, as they were sure that the moment the parts were united Clockwerk would awaken from his slumber.

When the battery finally stopped moving, and they waited for a few moments to be sure that none of Arpeggio's guards were in the area, Sly carefully moved towards the top of the battery and opened the lid, where he glanced at the area around them and beckoned for the others to follow him. As they soon discovered the battery rested in the middle section of the large fortress that was Arpeggio's blimp, though once they were all outside the empty silo they headed towards the backside of the ship, where they might be able to find a place to hide and make their safe house. Bentley was able to find another Northern Light Battery, the one that Arpeggio must have been replacing with the one they had been riding in, and found that it was large enough for all of them, again with a round table of sorts for them, and they moved into it without delay, as they could see Arpeggio's guards patrolling the area near them. Once they got situated in their new safe house, which was even worse than the one they had in Jean Bison's lumber camp, Bentley set up some of his tools and instruments so he could get a good understanding of what was going on.

A few minutes later Bentley said that he had an idea of where the parts might be located, though as Sly turned to leave he found that Carmelita, Gilda, Derpy, and Diz were coming with him, because if he found where the parts were resting he'd need assistance in dealing with the security. This time around he didn't tell the others to stay back, rather the five of them moved out from their new safe house and headed into the area of the fortress that was around them, where they noticed that some of Arpeggio's guards were using stilts to stand taller than they had been without them. While both Sly and Carmelita ran over the walkways that happened to be in front of them, and snuck around the guards that they encountered, Derpy, Gilda, and Diz surveyed the entire flying fortress and collected the bottles that were scattered all over the place, not that they cared about the safe since they were more worried about what Arpeggio was doing. It took them some time to make their way around the flying fortress, since there were some spotlights, guards, and large fans that they had to avoid, but eventually the five of them gathered near what had to be one of the generators for the blimp, one of four if they were seeing things right... and, despite everything they had seen on the way here, they were staring at one of the actual blimps that were flying close to the fortress the battery had been placed on.

Once all five of them were in position, and they were sure that none of the guards had seen them as they made their way to this area, they reached into their packs and pulled out their binocucoms, as they were sure that Bentley had something to tell them before they started taking pictures of the area.

"My instruments have picked up large magnetic fields radiating from inside that blimp." Bentley said, having them zoom in on the same blimp that they had been looking at before they pulled out their binocucoms, meaning he had found something out, "If Arpeggio's already started re-assembling Clockwerk that's where you'll find him."

"Sounds good," Sly replied, though he knew that they were all nervous, because the last time that four of them had seen Clockwerk whole was when they fought him above the Krack-Karov Volcano, where Diz hadn't been since he joined the gang a few days later, "We're on our way."

"Don't waste any time here Sly, get to the blimp and take some recon photos." Bentley stated, indicating that he needed them to find out what was going on in there and not stay outside the blimp, even though they'd be able to give him information on the blimp if someone stayed outside the blimp, "To build a plan we need to know how close they are to reviving Clockwerk."

"Relax Bentley." Carmelita said, knowing that Bentley was as nervous as they were, and he wasn't even heading into the area that the magnetic fields were coming from, but she was eager to bring a close to this adventure so she could find and lock Neyla away for her crimes, "We've got it under control."

The moment the five of them put their binocucoms away both Sly and Carmelita climbed the nearby rope and used their paragliders to reach the wing of the blimp they were heading to, where Derpy, Gilda, and Diz flew over when the way was open, before they climbed up the pipe that was outside the blimp and used the grate to head inside... though when they emerged from the vent, however, all five of them stopped in their tracks when they noticed what was in front of them, even as Sly opened a link to Bentley.

"I... I had no idea they could re-assemble Clockwerk so fast!" Bentley exclaimed, as he took in the fact that Arpeggio was able to piece together the parts of the ancient owl that Neyla had stolen from the transport and added in the ones she had taken from their van, as Clockwerk was whole once more.

"Calm down Bentley... he might be in one piece but he doesn't appear to be, you know, 'alive'." Derpy said, though at the same time she touched the eye the owl had destroyed once more, remembering the battle with ease, before she lowered her hand and looked down at what was in front of them at the moment, "Let's stick to the format here, how about some recon photos?"

"You're right, we need to be informed to create a plan of action." Bentley replied, to which they heard him sigh as calmed himself down, though not a few seconds later he was ready to give them some targets to snap some pictures of before they got out of there, "Try to get a shot of Clockwerk's head, a mech egg and one of those spinning magnetic inducers... they seem important to the process. But stay away from the guards... if you get detected we won't have time for a second chance."

The five of them carefully dropped down into the area and separated from each other, as while Gilda, Derpy, and Diz stayed in the air, and got some pictures of the four magnetic inducers that were spinning around the chamber, Sly and Carmelita snapped a picture of the eggs, which were apparently radioactive in some manner, and Clockwerk's head, where Sly was able to determine that he was inanimate at the moment. That was followed by Gilda snapping a picture of both Arpeggio and Neyla, who were at the front of the blimp, to which the five of them, including Bentley, determined that they were definitely in league with each other.

"It seems that we were right in our earlier thoughts," Carmelita commented, making sure that she and the others were in an area where the guards wouldn't hear them talking, which was in the same area that they had entered through, but at the same time she locked her eyes on the metallic owl in front of them, "Neyla and Arpeggio are trying to put together Clockwerk, why we still have no idea, and they are dangerously close to realizing that goal... Bentley, is there anything we can do to stop this from happening?"

"Well... those magnetic inducers seem to be holding the parts together." Bentley stated, showing that, in the brief amount of time he had studied the pictures before Carmelita had spoken up, though right now Sly was happy to have his quick thinking on their side, "If you reversed their polarity it should pull Clockwerk apart. Unfortunately, the inducer speed control station is locked down tight. Pickpocket keys from the four patrolling guards to get at it. Then... you'll need to manually reverse the polarity of each inducer deck at the top of their rotation."

"Consider it done." Sly replied, because with five of them in the area they could easily get all of the keys and then reverse the control stations, to which the group got moving, because the more time they wasted the more in danger they were of Clockwerk waking up.

What happened next was that Sly, Carmelita, Gilda, and Derpy each stole a key from one of the four guards that were in the area, though once they had their key they moved into position and waited for one of the magnetic inducers to be in place so they could reverse the polarity. Diz, on the other hand, stayed near where Arpeggio and Neyla were standing, so she could tell them whether or not their enemies were coming out to see Clockwerk once more, but fortunately neither of them were interested in coming out here at the moment. Once the keys were used on the control terminal, and the polarity was reversed, the four magnets slowed down to the point where they could be jumped onto, to which Gilda and Derpy watched as both Sly and Carmelita jumped up to the magnetic inducers and tapped the controls that they found on each one of them to reverse the polarity. The moment that Sly tapped the controls on the last one, however, the various parts of Clockwerk actually snapped together, locking them into place before their eyes, and the ropes that were keeping the body hanging in the air snapped, causing the metallic owl to fall to the floor and smash everything around it.

Before the group could do anything, especially when they realized that they had screwed up majorly, the door opened and both Neyla and Arpeggio started to approach Clockwerk's body... though as the group touched down in front of them, hidden from sight and hearing by the quick magic that Diz had crafted, Sly could have sworn that one of the eyes opened for a brief moment before closing again.

"What's all this then?" Arpeggio exclaimed, where he expected to find his guards patrolling the area and keeping the Clockwerk parts safe, but then he noticed that the parts had been locked together and glanced up at the magnets that were moving around the chamber, "The magnets have been reversed?!? But? By Jove, it seems to have locked the Clockwerk parts into place! Excellent!"

"Not so fast Arpeggio." Sly stated, to which he and the others materialized in front of Arpeggio and Neyla, who were surprised by their sudden arrival, though even as that happened Sly could tell that Neyla had been expecting them to show up at some point.

"Of course this would be the doing of your gang." Neyla said, to which she crossed her arms for a moment, as this only confirmed something that she said time and time again when she was dealing with them, even if they were a little late to stop their plans, "You really can't stay away from Clockwerk, can't you?" 

"Ah, Mr. Cooper. No doubt you and your companions believed a reversal would pull the old bird apart, eh?" Arpeggio spoke up, his voice revealing that he was beyond pleased that this had happened, as it meant that his ultimate plan could be put into action at long last, "But it seems to have the opposite effect. I'm truly grateful... when fully powered up I'll join myself to its circuits and be born anew."

"I thought you wanted to revive Clockwerk for some scheme to take over Paris." Diz stated, as that was the same conclusion that the gang had come up with, as Arpeggio could awaken Clockwerk and have him fulfill a dream of his before allowing the ancient owl to live once more, to do whatever he desired.

"Immortality! Immortality is what I seek." Arpeggio replied, though when he heard Diz's words he realized that some of them must have overheard his conversation with Bison, back when he was still in Nunavut Bay a few days ago, "The other Klaww Gang members were much too short-sighted. They were happy using the Clockwerk parts to drive their various trivial schemes. But not me. No, I saw them for what they truly were... the keys to life eternal!"

"So you had Neyla tell us about the Klaww Gang back in Cairo and then waited while we stole the parts from your cohorts," Carmelita said, her mind piecing together what they were learning and what they had thought about before they all came aboard this blimp, while at the same time understanding that Arpeggio had made a single mistake, "and, at the same time, you made sure not to arouse any suspicion with them that you were behind their parts being taken."

"You make it sound easy Cooper." Neyla said, once more calling Carmelita by the gang name, knowing full well that it annoyed her since she wasn't apart of Sly's family like everyone else was, not yet anyway, "I had to carry your pathetic gang through that first set of heists..."

"Excuse me?" Sly interrupted, feeling offended that Neyla thought that she had assisted them to the point where his gang's reputation would mean nothing, like they were novices that needed the help of experts, "Back when we were taking on Dimitri, when you handed us that key, Bentley was already figuring out a way inside, so we didn't actually need your help getting into the area that the disco ball was in. We also didn't need your help at the ball, despite the fact that you nearly blew your own cover in the process, and we would have recovered the half of Clockwerk's Heart that you led us to, as Rajan would have picked it up before leaving. You didn't carry us through anything, Neyla, you just offered a helping hand and we took it since the information was too good to pass up."

"Ah! But acquiring all the parts was only half the equation." Arpeggio said, returning them to the main topic of their conversation, as he was willing to indulge them for a few moments before he claimed what was his, "Think Cooper... what kept Clockwerk alive for thousands of years?"

"That's easy," Sly replied, to which he turned around for a moment and glanced at the head that was near him, as he knew that the soul inside the machinery was listening as he waited for his opportunity to strike, before he turned back towards Arpeggio and Neyla, "Clockwerk was fueled by his hatred for our family."

"Splendid, that's right! Hatred!" Arpeggio said, excitement appearing on his face, showing that he was pleased that they understood Clockwerk as well as he did, even though he was the one who wasn't aware of what was going on at the moment, "Putting his gears and wires together was child's play compared with accumulating that much hatred... especially when the only missing part is his Hate Chip. Fortunately I was able to build a replica of the actual chip and installed it after the parts were scattered among the other members of the Klaww Gang. And please, don't even bother saying that I can't make people hate, because my meticulous mind has already found a way to do just that. As your hippopotamus friend will attest, spice consumption makes you both angry and susceptible to hypnosis. The Contessa, hypnotist extraordinaire, devised a way to command people through the use of flashing lights. I've created this blimp to be a massive transmitter of those precise light frequencies. The only problem I faced was finding a suitable source of light waves."

"Oh my god... the Northern Lights!" Carmelita said, as now everything that they had heard back in Jean Bison's cabin made so much more sense, while at the same time she was happy that one of their binocucoms was turned on so Bentley could record all this for Secretary Sen, "You've been collecting Northern Light Energy so you could hypnotize everyone beneath the blimp. You're not on your way to Paris to take it over... you're going to Paris to unleash a hypnotic light show of hate. That's... outlandishly cruel."

"Cruel, perhaps, but necessary to give Clockwerk his spark of immortality!" Arpeggio stated, his tone revealing that he was growing tired of talking and revealing his plans, not that there was anything the Cooper Gang could do to stop his plans at the moment, "Ah... well, my new body awaits me. Be a dear, Neyla, and keep them covered. Ta-ta!"

"And what do you think Clockwerk will do when he finds an intruder in his body?" Sly asked, as that seemed to be the one thing that Arpeggio never considered, the possibility that part of Clockwerk had survived the battle at the volcano and had been lying in wait the entire time.

"Do you honestly believe that the old bird is still around, after you broke him?" Neyla asked, to which both she and Arpeggio chuckled for a moment, showing that neither one of them seemed to care what the gang thought and that they were unaware of what they had just done.

"Why don't you ask him yourself." Sly said, though at the same time he started to move out of the way and the others, not sure what he was doing, did so as well, but that was when everyone watched as Clockwerk's mouth closed and his eyes snapped open.

That was followed by the familiar sound of Clockwerk's laughter as he regained control of his metallic body, to which he started to rise before their very eyes as he made sure that everything was as he remembered, save for the inadequate replacement for his Hate Chip, which meant he'd have to stick around this ship for some time to restore his body to what it had been before his defeat.

I LIVE! Clockwerk declared, where Sly and the others moved to one side, because where their opponent was concerned he would either attack the gang, since the majority of them were Coopers, or he might attack Arpeggio and Neyla, for trying to use his body for their own purposes, before he stared down at the people around him, Sly Cooper, even when trying to stop my resurrection, you and your family did the only thing I would expect from the Cooper Clan... you allowed my body to be reassembled and let my soul live once more.

"Clockwerk." Sly said, knowing how dangerous the ancient owl could be, even when he was weakened in the matter than he was, and he didn't like their chances at the moment, not when both Arpeggio and Neyla were staring at him like they were going to beat him and insert themselves into the body, "We were trying to stop them from taking possession of your body, even if it meant pulling your parts away from each other, though it seems we failed in that rega..."

"Mr. Clockwerk, may I say that I am a fan of your work." Arpeggio spoke up, causing the ancient owl to turn his head towards him, where Sly and the others noticed that Clockwerk was studying the bird for a moment, while at the same time Neyla seemed to be moving into position for something, "Surely you can tell me the secret behind how you forged this immortal body of yours?"

No. Clockwerk said, answering the question instantly, though Sly was expecting that sort of answer and thought that Arpeggio was stupid for even asking such a thing, especially since the ancient owl was likely going to be very angry at the small bird for trying to use his body in such a way, My body was designed for one thing and one thing only, and that's getting my revenge on the Cooper Clan, thus proving that I, Clockwerk, am the ONLY Master Thief in the world! Fools like you would never understand the complexity of what I had to go through to create a lasting body, one that would survive decades, centuries, even millennia, just so I could have my revenge... though you will pay the price for your plans and attempted defilement of my body.

Arpeggio, not realizing that there was the possibility that Clockwerk would strike at them, barely had time to move before Clockwerk grabbed onto the top of his mobile walking device with his beak, causing Sly and the others to rapidly get out of the way as he hurled the device at one of the support beams for the blimp, denting it while damaging the device in the process. Neyla, taking the opportunity that was presented to her, rushed behind the ancient owl and used the small circular pump that she found over there, launching herself into the air as she readied her whip, intending to attack Clockwerk before he did anything else and open a weakness so she could take the body for herself. Clockwerk, on the other hand, sensed the attack was coming and swung his left wing towards her, smacking her with the full force of his powerful wing and knocked her into another one of the support beams, before she crumbled to the floor and simply laid there for a few moments without moving at all. Once that was done Clockwerk glared at Sly and the others, as if challenging them for a moment, before he flapped his wings and took off, where he tore his way through the front of the blimp and escaped from the area that Arpeggio had put his parts in.

Carmelita, knowing that Sly and the others wanted to take out Clockwerk before he escaped, walked over to where Neyla was and pressed her fingers against her neck, finding that the person that had tried to destroy her life was only unconscious at the moment. As such she picked Neyla up and placed her near the walkway that she and Arpeggio had walked down when they heard the sounds of Clockwerk's body hitting the floor, where she pulled out the pair of handcuffs she had been keeping on her, in case something like this happened, and gladly cuffed Neyla to the structure on her left. As that happened the others made sure that Arpeggio was alright as well, though it appeared that he was unconscious as well and, just like Neyla, happened to be bleeding from where their bodies hit something, though in Arpeggio's case it was the device he used to walk around in. The moment the five of them were sure that neither of them were going anywhere, when they woke up anyway, they headed towards the opening that Clockwerk had flown through and headed outside the blimp, where Gilda and Derpy carried Sly and Carmelita while Diz kept an eye out for their enemy.

Things had gone from bad to worse, that much they all knew, and Secretary Sen was going to want to know what Arpeggio and Neyla had been planning... as well as the fact that they were going to do everything in their power to bring about Clockwerk's end once more, and maybe this time ensure that he stays dead.