What Kim saw as she peered down through the grate in the ventilation shaft confirmed the greater part of her fears. Drakken was in a frenzy of packing. Obviously he expected her arrival, and he was determined to be gone before she got there. Shego was following his orders silently and efficiently. Whether that meant she'd been chipped, it was hard to say. The Shego of yesteryear would have harassed Drakken with a barrage of sarcasm while she worked, so she certainly could have been chipped.
On the other hand, she didn't SEE a red square on Shego's forehead, and anyway Shego might still have been too upset to indulge in her usual snide remarks… Kim closed her eyes. It might almost be better if Shego HAD been chipped. If she was working for Drakken of her own free will, feeling driven to it by Kim's rejection, it would make the heroine feel that much worse.
“KP,” Ron hissed behind her. “What are you waiting for?”
“Just trying to understand what's going on,” she said. She felt for the phase disruptor in her pocket. If Shego's mind was under Drakken's control, Kim was sure that Shego was screaming on the inside. She would use the device at her earliest opportunity, freeing the thief and her fiery, passionate personality from Drakken's domination. “Let's do this, Ron.”
“Booyah, Kim.”
“And don't forget those oscillators,” Drakken was saying to Shego. “You have no idea how much oscillating goes into deathtraps. If I'd only known, I would have paid more attention in oscillating class…”
A smash drew his attention and his eyes upward as the ventilation cover banged against the ceiling and Kim Possible descended. The buffoon sidekick was right behind her. “Kim Possible!” he shrieked. “You think you're all that and on time, but you're not!”
“Sorry if I'm arriving early, Drakken, but the movers will be keeping your deposit today,” Kim said.
“You're not early, you're late!” Drakken whined. “Shego told me you knew my coordinates. I thought you'd be here hours ago, but no! Shego, how can I lay an effective ambush if my nerve breaks because Kim Possible arrives four hours late?”
“Is that a rhetorical question, Dr. Drakken?” Shego asked vacantly.
“No, my good - servant,” he said, suddenly casting a triumphant glance Kim's way. “No answer is required. Instead, dispose of Kim Possible!”
“Yes, Dr. Drakken!”
Kim's heart lurched. She'd never seen Shego with the chip, but from what Ron had described to her years ago, this was the behavior of someone under Drakken's control. “My fault,” she thought dismally, opening the flap on her pants pocket and reaching for the portable silicon phase disruptor. “She must be angrier with me than ever…”
“You see, Kim Possible,” Drakken went on smugly as Shego began coming towards her, “you cannot defeat Shego this time, nor can you rescue her.”
“I'll be the judge of that,” Kim said, pulling the disruptor out and pointing it at Shego.
Drakken's eyes widened in horror. “A portable silicon… no! NOW you're too early! I haven't given everything away yet!”
Kim ignored him. Obviously he knew he'd lost. She pushed the button.
A translucent glowing beam shot out of the disruptor and flew at Shego, caressing the side of her neck as it curled around and attacked the chip at the nape. Shego's idiot smile vanished as her back arched and her arms were thrown back. “Errrnnghhh…”
“You can't, you can't, shut it off, shutitoff, shutitoff!” Drakken screamed as he ran at her.
Ron dove past Kim and tackled Drakken around the waist. The two tumbled across the floor and collided with a table. It rocked, and several of Drakken's precious oscillators fell off and smashed on the floor.
“Those were several hundred dollars apiece!” Drakken whined.
“Ron?” Kim called out, a trace of concern in her voice. “Did it take this long when you unchipped me?”
Ron looked back and saw Shego spinning about, contorting herself painfully, her body spasming as the phase disruptor beam continued to flow. “Uh, no! It only took a couple seconds!”
“You fools!” Drakken snarled. “I've had six years to think about this. Don't you think I might have upgraded it?!”
Kim felt a sudden surge of dread. “Upgrade? Ron, let him up! Shego - she's in pain!”
“She should be!” Drakken retorted. “You've just killed her, Kim Possible!”
Kim gasped and dropped the disruptor. It hit the floor and shattered. The beam stopped, but Shego's affliction continued unabated.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Ron demanded, shaking Drakken by the coat.'
“It's been permanently fused to her spinal cord,” Drakken explained. “Any attempts to remove it - ESPECIALLY with a silicon phase disruptor - will only result in her death! I TRIED to tell Possible that, but she turned it on before I could finish!”
Shego lost her footing and collapsed, going into convulsions. “Hmmrrhh - ullllgggaaa!!!”
“SHEGO!” Kim cried out, running to her. But the other woman was moving too erratically for Kim to hold her. “You've got to hold on!”
By now the chip was severely malfunctioning. It had lost the ability to tell if the person speaking to her was her master or not, so it simply compelled Shego to obey anyone's orders. Her hand clutched at the air, trying to literally hold on to something, anything. “Drrrkrrrn…” she slurred.
“At this point she's receiving a massive electrical charge up and down her spinal cord,” Drakken said grimly. “Permanent paralysis below the neck will result, followed by total shutdown of brain functions when oxygen stops reaching it.”
“No, no!” Kim screamed, tears running down her face. Shego couldn't die because of her! She wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for Kim! Oh God, maybe Mrs. Acceptable wasn't a one-time thing. Why was she killing everything she touched?! “Shego, it's Kimmie, it's Pumpkin, speak to me, say something!”
“K-k-k-k-” Shego's head twitched uncontrollably as her body bounced up and down, like her heart was trying to force itself out of her own body. “H-h-h-h-llllllp - “
“Ron!” Kim said helplessly. Her gaze focused on Drakken. “Drakken, you fix her right now, or I'm going to make you wish you were never born!”
Drakken saw she meant it, and he began trembling. “What am I supposed to do? Like I really thought you would do this to her!”
“YOU did this to her!” Ron shot back, shaking him hard again.
“No, Ron,” Kim whispered, looking down at Shego. “I did this. It's his fault, but I - I've killed her. And I just wanted to say I was sorry…”
As if her words had a magical effect, Shego's spasms stopped, and her head lolled to the side.
Kim froze. Was she dead? Was this the permanent paralysis Drakken mentioned? “Shego?”
“… Kimmie… “
“Oh God, Shego!” Kimmie wept, taking Shego's hand. It was cold and unresponsive.
Shego's eyes slowly focused on Kim's. Her lips moved imperceptibly. “Why… why couldn't you go on… hating me?”
“Hate you?! No, no, Shego, I never hated you,” Kim said despairingly. “I was wrong, I was a fool, I treated you like dirt. Shego, the things you said last night - I realized I feel them too. I came here to save you, not…”
“Even death… better'n being - “
“Shego, don't try to speak!” Kim said, shushing her. She tucked her arms under Shego's body and started lifting her.
“Kim, what are you doing?”
“Ron, raise Sappho on the Kimmunicator and tell her Shego's been critically injured. We need to get her to a hospital at maximum speed!”
“Ha, Kim Possible! You'll never get her to a doctor in time!” Drakken crowed.
“I've got a spacecraft on standby that was built for speeds meant for interstellar travel, Drakken,” she said icily as she took a step back, holding Shego in her arms. “I can be in Middleton before your face starts to swell.”
“Eh, swell?”
“You're coming too. And I'll need a distraction while I'm on the ship.” Not wasting any more time on him, she spun and rushed for the lair entrance.
Drakken looked at Ron. “Eep.”
To be continued…