Kim could tell that she was in an unfamiliar bed without looking. The mattress was too hard and thin. The smell was wrong for the bedroom too. The pillow was not right. Nothing was right and she did not even have to open her eyes to tell. When she finally did open her eyes, she saw that she was in a hospital room, complete with an IV in her arm.
“What the hell?” Kim muttered in a weak voice. Her body matched her tone in feeling at the moment, along with aching in a way that she had never experienced before. She guessed that she was still sick, but so sick that she needed to be the hospital? It did not seem right. Shego had been taking such great care of her, she thought. Wait, where was Shego? “Shego?” the redhead called in feeble tone.
“Kimmie-cub, you’re awake,” her mother said and she stepped into view. Her husband and the twins were there too, but the twins had fallen asleep in their chairs in the waiting area and so James was watching them. The boys wanted to be around for when Kim woke up because they were genuinely worried about their sister if she was so ill that she was in the hospital. The doctors Possible were debating on if they should tell Ron or not because they did not want to worry him, but they had conceded that Ron was practically a brother to Kim and should know about it. They were not sure what they should do, though. They really did not want to alarm the emotional blonde.
“Mom…where’s Shego?” Kim asked, sounding weak and concerned. She wanted to know what happened to her green-skinned mate.
“She’s not here right now. How do you feel, Kimmie?” the neurosurgeon inquired, making sure to sound normal. She did not want to alarm her daughter by sounding as worried as she was. After all, Kim had never been sick a day in her life and now she was in the hospital with some mysterious illness, so Ann and their family could not help fretting over Kim’s condition.
“Still sick…” the younger redhead groaned. She felt like a ship landed on her after falling out of the sky and then was rubbed back and forth over her a few dozen times. Everything ached, even her eyelashes.
“That you are,” her mother confirmed.
“Am I in the hospital?” Kim asked, even though she knew the answer to that. She still wanted to know, though.
“Yes, you are.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re sick,” Ann pointed out the obvious. It was not just that Kim was sick, though. There was something seriously wrong with the younger redhead to the point where her family was scared for her; Shego was right there with them. That was why they did not know if they should tell Ron or not; they did not want him to share in the misery all around.
“Right…” the younger redhead muttered. It made sense. “But, I was sick before and I didn’t need to be in the hospital for it,” she pointed out, not that she knew the conditions necessary for people to be admitted in the hospital. After all, it was her first time ever being sick.
“You didn’t pass out before,” her mother replied.
“Pass out?”
“You passed out. Shego found you on the floor in your bathroom, you weren’t breathing very well, and we had to rush you here,” Ann explained.
The slender doctor could still hear Shego’s panicked voice over the phone telling her that Kim was lying unconscious in the apartment and it was hard to tell if Kim was breathing. Shego had been so alarmed that the first call she had made were to Kim’s parents instead of for an ambulance. The doctors Possible had been the ones to call for help while also trying to keep Shego calm on the phone.
“Where is Shego? How come she’s not here with me?” the younger redhead inquired curiously.
“She was here not too long ago, but she ran off to go talk to Doctor Director. She did fill us in something that might be important, though,” Ann commented.
“What?” Kim asked with a confused expression on her face.
“She said you told her that the dragon isn’t inside of you anymore,” Ann reported.
“No…it disappeared a few days ago on a mission…I think anyway. You think that has something to do with me getting sick?” Kim asked curiously. She did not really see the connection because she had felt fine when she first noticed that the dragon was gone.
“Maybe. We’re not sure about that. The doctors are all trying to see what illness you might have. Shego thought that the dragon might have something to do with it and a few of us agree with her,” Ann answered. She had to agree with Shego’s logic of something that had been inside of Kim all of her life, was suddenly gone, and now Kim was very ill for the first time in her life had to be related. The doctors in the hospital were checking for every illness under the sun just in case, though.
“But, I didn’t feel any different when I figured out the dragon was gone. I’ve even still got all of my powers,” Kim said and she struggled to lift up her right hand. Once she had her hand up, she ignited her flame-like power. The orange flames swirled around her hand as always and then she groaned, almost as if she was pained. Sweat formed on her forehead rather quickly and she winced. The power went out and she lost consciousness.
Ann sighed and rubbed her forehead. There were so many problems suddenly. Kim was sick when she never got sick before. The dragon was possibly gone and might possibly have something to do with Kim’s illness. If that was the case, what did that even mean? How could they even get the dragon back if it was gone and it had something do with Kim’s illness? What if Kim got worse before they even figured out what was wrong with her? So many problems.
“You mean to tell me that you haven’t been on top of this since the moment that she told you!” Shego hollered at the head of GJ. She just wanted to rip the damned eye-patch-wearing woman’s regular eye out.
Doctor Director and the cranky green agent were in her office. Shego had burst in ranting about the dragon being gone and Kim being in the hospital; both things Doctor Director knew of course. The pale woman got extremely upset when Doctor Director acknowledged that she was aware that the dragon was missing, but had not thought too much of it since Kim had not made such a big deal about it.
“Shego, calm down,” Doctor Director urged the raven-haired woman. The last thing they needed was to have a showdown, especially at such an important time.
“How the hell can I calm down! She’s in the hospital! What if she…” Shego choked back that question. No, there was no way in hell that she was even going to think that. She was not going to lose her princess.
“Okay, the dragon is gone and we think that’s why she’s in the hospital?” Doctor Director guessed.
“Why don’t you go flip that eye-patch up to give yourself a better view of reality, doc! She’s never even been injured to the point where she needed to go to the hospital, but now the dragon’s gone and she’s sick to the point that she’s in the hospital, you think there might be a little connection?” Shego screamed in frustration. Oh, god, she hated Betty Director with a passion! If things continued as they were, she was going to use her plasma full force against the infuriating leader.
“I will flip the eye patch up and go inspect Kim myself. Maybe the dragon eye could help us out,” Doctor Director offered. She might be able to see what the problem was with the use of her dragon eye.
“Then move your ass already!” Shego commanded in a heated tone. Damn it, why did she not just say that in the first place?
Doctor Director decided not to argue because she knew that there was not going to be any other way to deal with Shego other than appeasing her because of what Kim was to Shego. Kim was the first person to care about Shego beyond her mercenary skills. Kim had risked her neck twice for Shego without even thinking, not even considering that she was putting herself at risk. All Kim had known at the time was that Shego needed her and she went. Kim brought Shego something that no other human being could ever think to offer too, which was a feeling of safety; it was something that neither of them acknowledged because of who Shego was, but they knew it was there.
There was also something underlying it all that Doctor Director refused to bring up. She was worried about Kim beyond the fact that Kim was her agent. She wanted to know what was wrong with the young redhead too. She wanted to help out in any way that she possibly could and at the moment, she could lend them her dragon eye to hopefully figure out why Kim needed hospitalization.
The pair took off toward the hospital. Kim was out still when they arrived. Ann was still in the room and explained that Kim had passed out when she used her powers. Doctor Director removed her eye patch immediately and inspected Kim’s still, pale form. She was not sure what she was looking for, especially since she still did not have a total clue as to what the dragon was, so she was not sure if her dragon eye would be able to spot anything helpful.
“Well?” Shego pressed, practically growling at the boss.
“How about shut up and wait?” Doctor Director snapped. It was not like she could flip a switch in her head to get the dragon eye to show her exactly what she wanted to see.
“How about I melt your face off?” Shego countered while holding up a plasma-charged hand.
“Shego, don’t use your powers in a hospital like that,” Ann scolded the green-skinned woman. She took Shego’s arm and held it gently to hopefully calm Shego down.
The pale woman glanced at Ann with a frown on her face, but she did power down. She turned her attention back to Doctor Director. The brown-haired woman was staring intensely at Kim. She looked confused, which she was. She could not really understand what she was seeing and she still did not know what she was looking for.
“Well?” Shego demanded once again.
“Okay, from what I can tell, the energy in Kim’s body just is not moving anymore. Usually, you have a flow of energy through out your body that I can see clearly with the dragon eye, but there is no flow within Kim. I have no clue what could stop the energy flowing around the body, except for death, but as you might imagine, it’s affecting her whole body. There’s also like a strange fog I’m seeing. I never saw it before in a person, but I think it might be the eye’s way of telling me the dragon was here, but isn’t now,” Doctor Director informed them as she put her eye patch back on.
“No, doy! Tell me something I don’t know, like how to help!” Shego pointed out.
“Well, not shouting would be a good start,” the leader remarked with a bit of an attitude herself. It was not like she thought better when someone was screaming at her.
“What are we going to do, Betty?” Ann inquired with anxiety in her voice. The urgency of the situation made her throw formality to the wind. She wanted them to figure out how to help Kim, especially since the doctors around the hospital were not offering anything.
“I think Shego’s right. We need to find that dragon. The dragon and Kim are possibly codependent on each other. We don’t know much about the dragon and we really don’t know its affect on Kim, but perhaps rather than just living inside of her and trying to take over when she gets too angry, it might actually circulate her energy in a way that allows her to get the best use of it and now with the dragon gone, her body doesn’t know what to do because it never had to do it,” Doctor Director answered.
“Sounds like mojo to me,” Shego commented. That theory had the ring of “crack-science” in her opinion and she would rather hear some real science at the moment.
“Do you want to help Kim or not?” Doctor Director huffed. She knew how the body worked and she felt like her theory was sound since she could see energy flows and there was none of that going on in Kim.
“Do you even have to ask?” Shego countered. What had she been hollering about all day? Of course she wanted to help Kim. Kim was her life.
“Then shut up and come on,” Doctor Director replied.
“To where?”
“What the hell does it matter as long as it’s going to help Kim?” the brown-haired woman riposted, annoyed. She figured that she just needed to get Shego out of the hospital because she was not doing well in the supposed-to-be peaceful setting.
Shego snorted; if she could have, she probably would have breathed fire out of her nose with that. She followed Doctor Director out of the room and out of the hospital altogether. Ann hoped that they figured out what to do soon because Kim seemed to be getting worse with every passing minute.
Kim was starting to sweat, even though her skin was getting colder, not that she was awake to complain about either. She did grimace every now and than as if she was in pain, but she did not wake up to let anyone know. Her family watched over her and hoped that she at least regained consciousness. They also finally contacted Ron, letting him know the situation. He rushed over to the hospital to wait with them; Yori did not accompany him because she had been called out on an emergency mission earlier.
“What the hell are we doing back here?” Shego demanded to know as she and the boss returned to Doctor Director’s office.
“Research. We have to figure out where and how she lost the dragon. Now, she probably had it at the beginning of her last mission, but somewhere while she was distracted with all of the fighting, something might have happened,” Doctor Director explained as she threw herself into her chair.
“How are you going to spot the moment she lost the damn thing?” the pale woman inquired.
Doctor Director just gave Shego a look as if calling the green-skinned agent a moron. Shego shrugged, conceding the silent battle; it was a stupid question. She decided to take a seat and just let Doctor Director work.
The brown-haired woman cued up the video from Kim’s last mission and watched it much more carefully than the last time. She also watched it without her eye-patch covering her dragon eye. There had to be something that happened during that mission and she just had to spot it. She hoped that it did not take too long or she was going to have a headache to remember for days to come because she had no intention of covering her dragon eye until she saw what happened.
Shego sat back quietly, surprisingly enough. She watched the video feed too, which was showing on a screen on the wall. They both focused intensely on the video, hoping to spot some anomaly.
“Hold the hell up…” Doctor Director muttered as they got toward the end of the mission.
“What happened?” Shego asked curiously.
“Do you see like a red mist?” Doctor Director inquired as she paused the video at the point where Kim had ran into the room to get Dementor. It seemed that she had run through a force-field.
“Red mist?” the pale woman echoed while leaning in for a closer look.
“Right here. Do you see it?” Doctor Director asked while getting up and circling what she was talking about with her index finger. They were looking at the picture from Ron’s point of view, so she could see Kim’s back and there seemed to be a crimson mist drifting out from her shoulders.
Shego squinted and then seemed shocked. “I do see it.”
“That’s the damn dragon!” Doctor Director said in disbelief as she played the video a bit more and the mist took shape to her eye. She could see the dragon’s face and it was caught in the force-field. “Dementor stole the dragon,” she realized, sounding utterly shocked.
“Tell me where to find him,” Shego stated in a dangerous tone. She was going to get that dragon back come Hell or high water. And she was going to try to make sure that she snapped Dementor’s neck while doing it.
“Shego—” The leader only got the chance to say the name before she was cut off completely.
“Don’t try to tell me I’m not going after him because I am!” Shego practically roared. She did not want to hear anything from the boss beyond where the hell Dementor was and she would take it from there.
“You’re way too emotional,” Doctor Director pointed out. She could not send the emerald-eyed agent out in such a state. It would not do anyone any good if Shego went out completely outraged and there was a chance that she might lose sight of the mission.
“Of course I’m emotional! Kimmie’s lying in a hospital bed looking like death! Now, tell me where the hell I can find that midget bastard!” Shego ordered.
“I’m not putting you on this assignment if you’re going to be this emotional. I need a rational, clear thinking agent out in the field,” the brown-haired woman pointed out.
“No, you’re going to send me because you know as well as anybody else, that when you find out where he is, I’m going to find out too and I’m going to go after him with or without your permission. So, just tell me where to find him and let’s save ourselves some trouble,” Shego countered in a menacingly calm tone.
“No, I’m not going to send you unless you calm the hell down. It’s that simple. This isn’t about just finding Dementor and beating him bloody. This is about retrieving the dragon and Dementor to find out what he’s planning to do with the dragon. So, like I said, I’m not sending you unless you calm down and think straight,” Doctor Director riposted.
Shego took a deep breath to try to calm herself down. As much as she hated to admit it, but Doctor Director was right. The mission was more than kicking Dementor’s ass; in fact, that was secondary to the mission. They needed to get that dragon back before Kim got any worse. What the hell did Dementor know about the dragon anyway?
“Oy, Amy, if you don’t know what you’re doing, why don’t you move and let a REAL scientist handle it?” Dementor screamed at his unwanted partner in crime, DNAmy.
They were hidden away in a lab underground. They were trying to stay off the GJ radar until they could get everything together. Once everything was the way that they needed it to be, there would be no need to stay off the radar. They would take everything that they ever wanted when everything was done.
“Oh, will you stop screaming, you lil meanie,” Amy replied, actually sounding a bit annoyed with the short male. He had done nothing more than scream his head off for no reason since he came in with that dragon almost a week ago. It was enough to chip away at even her cheerful demeanor.
Dementor just huffed and went to go busy himself by working on some weapons. DNAmy was studying the strange entity that Dementor had brought her. It seemed more like a mist than a biological, flesh-and-blood creature. She did not understand how it used to be inside of a girl. Yes, she was looking at the dragon.
The dragon was being held in a containment field that was the size of a medium fish tank. It was a deep scarlet mist or smoke for the most part, manifesting a face every few seconds, but nothing more. It was floated around the box that it was trapped in, as if it was looking for a way out, which it had been doing since Dementor captured it in the small prison.
It was Amy’s job to figure out the dragon now that they had it. She was not doing the job fast enough for Dementor. He had captured the thing so easily he felt that she should be able to break down its biological makeup just as quickly and keep everything rolling along. He did not seem to get that it was not that easy. The dragon was something beyond her. It seemed to be something beyond science and she was not totally sure if she was going to be able to replicate such a thing.
Yes, the plan called for DNAmy to copy the dragon. She thought that it would be no problem until she saw that she was not dealing with a solid entity, but more like a ghost. But, she was going to press on because there was no way that she was going to let her part of the plan be the holdup. Besides, she had not met an animal that she could not figure out yet genetically speaking. She would figure the dragon out and then she would clone it.
Next time: Shego shows up to break up the little party that Dementor and DNAmy seem to be holding.