Deep Down

Chapter V / In An Itty Bitty Pool

After allowing plenty of time to bolster their strength and spirits with rest, Kim decided to explore the stone ‘forest’ and ponder the issue of the underground lake. Shego was asleep, so Kim left her in as safe a location as could be found and walked towards the shore.

As she did, she examined her surroundings; the stalagmites and stalactites seemed normal, though she really had no idea what she as seeing; the crystal formations were something totally different in her experience. Whatever the mineral was, it’s crystalline matrix caused it to form small, semi-transparent wafers, stacked several inches high. The wafers snapped apart easily, and a small cut on her finger proved to Kim how sharp the edges were. The wafers were in the shape of little isosceles triangles, each one almost the size of a playing card. Kim carefully held a wafer on the palm of her hand, testing its weight.

Struck with sudden inspiration, Kim threw the wafer at a stalagmite several yards away. Upon leaving her hand, the wafer flew straight and true, taking a chip out of the rocky protrusion.

Walking over to collect and examine the wafer confirmed that it was not damaged. With a satisfied grin, Kim began to collect more of the crystal wafers. Now they had weapons!

“Nice shot. Do you have any more of those?”

Kim turned to see Shego walking towards her. The taller woman was only dressed from the waist down, her breasts swaying slightly as she moved. Kim forced herself to not become distracted by the sight.

“Plenty. I wanted to take some when we cross the lake. We have no idea what’s in there.” Shego nodded her approval and moved closer to the edge of the water.

“How do we plan to cross, exactly? On your board?”

“Yes, using one of the thinner formations of stone to either punt ourselves across, or as a paddle if it’s deep, which is likely.”

Shego starred at the lake. Kim knew that her wife’s sharp mind was assessing the dangers they might face and the vulnerability of their position. Shego acknowledged that they had no choice but to continue to move forward.

“Too bad there isn’t any breeze down here. We could use our clothes to make a sail.” Shego looked down at her bare chest. “We could have used my bra, if I had worn one. I mean, after all…”

“Don’t say it!” Kim chose to take the bait, if only for a distraction.

“Mine are still bigger than yours, anyway.”

“Oh, no you didn’t!”

Kim ran at Shego and tackled her, though it wasn’t really a tackle at all. While Kim appreciated the levity that her mate could bring into this otherwise dire situation, she knew that Shego’s attempt at humor was a distraction.

Even in the dim glow, Shego looked awful; the most obvious change was how she was moving. Kim had known Olympic gymnasts and ballet dancers that were less graceful, but now Shego was practically staggering. It was far too dark to be sure, but Kim suspected that the former villain was more pale than usual.

Taking care to collect their few possessions, the women carried the rocket board down to the lake. Essentially a surfboard, the ‘Moon Doggie’ remained afloat under their combined weight. Shego had agreed to ride in front and watch for hazards while Kim used a makeshift paddle to get them moving.

Since there was nothing on the shore that was exactly ‘paddle-shaped’, Kim searched until she found a crystalline formation that could be broken away from its base. The heavy, axe-like extension was hardly suitable, but it would have to suffice, and other than the improvised paddle dipping into and out of the water, there was no sound. They found themselves unwilling to speak, as if breaking the silence would provoke forces unseen.

Though Shego normally had as much, if not more, upper body strength than Kim, the pale woman was too weak to make more than a token attempt at her turn to row. This made her sullen, so she rode at the front of the board with her legs drawn up against her chest and her arms locked around them.

After several hours of gliding across the surface, they began to wonder if they had made a critical mistake; there seemed to be no end in sight, in as little sight as was allowed them. At the end of their second day on the water, sleeping in shifts so as to keep moving, the women sat down to discuss their options, including turning back.

Needless to say, space on the ‘Moon Donnie’ was at a premium. Shego was lying on her back and looking towards the glowing cavern roof far above them. Kim stood on the board, straddling the other woman; with Shego taking full advantage to make any comment she could to provoke her young wife.

“You know, you might be more comfortable if you slipped out of those wet clothes.”

“And into a dry martini? You watch too many movies.”

“You would know. I seem to recall many a make-out session during an action flick.” Shego reached up and caressed Kim’s inner thighs.

“Cut it out, you’ll make me lose my balance.”

Kim lifted the crystal paddle from the water, using it to playfully tap the crown of Shego’s head as she switched sides.

The ‘Moon Doggie’ rocked slightly.

“Careful there, Pumpkin. You’ll tip us over.” Shego fell into a light doze. Kim had become adept at controlling the their motion and stability in the water over the last two days, and she looked around them into the watery void.

“Shego, I don’t think…”

The raft heaved as the water suddenly churned beneath them. Kim dropped to her knees, shielding her wife, while Shego clutched the raft and searched the darkness for the cause of the violent motion; neither woman could see a thing.

A column of gelatinous flesh reared up over their heads, so black that it could have been spawned from the darkness itself. Down in the stygian depths, many forms of life had learned to adapt to a world without light. Whatever the original design of the creature had been, it held no resemblance to anything alive today that lived above ground.

At first a shapeless pillar, the thing rose up from the water to a height of several yards before Kim could see a crown of tentacles grow out from the top, like the branches of a slimy, wet tree. These tentacles were thinner than the main trunk, but quickly grew to a length of seven feet or more.

Kim was shocked to recognize this hideous creature. She had seen one several years before while back in Middleton High School, albeit under a microscope. This beast, or its remote ancestors, must have been hydrae, common enough in lakes and ponds, but never as massive as this.

“Shego, hold on!”

The entire mass began to writhe and twist, like a windmill caught in a hurricane. It lashed down at the helpless women and the apex of main trunk split to form a gapping maw. Without conscious thought, Kim took a handful of the crystal wafers from her pocket and hurled them at the beast. At such close proximity, all hit the target.

They hit and sank into the dark mass with no effect. Did this thing even have normal organs?

“Shego, find the ignition stirrup on the board! Don’t hit the switch ‘til I give the word!”

In answering, Shego simply let out a scream. This shocked Kim almost as much as the horror she was fighting against because Shego never screamed. Sure, in passion, in battle, at telemarketers, but never out of fear. This steeled Kim for what she knew might be a hopeless fight. She would not let this horror end their journey after they had traveled this far.

It wanted food. What it got was a heavy, crystalline paddle in the mouth.

Kim hadn’t waited for the beast to strike. Making certain that Shego was securely hanging onto the board, Kim raised the axe-like paddle and took a swing that would have made Babe Ruth proud. The paddle cut right into the black flesh, meeting little resistance. Kim wondered if the creature had any rigid support structure at all, but she had little time to ponder the question.

Having a form that was designed to grab, hold and feed, the ‘mega-hydrae’ wasn’t used to food that fought back. It heaved away from the board and brought all of its tentacles forward. Carefully avoiding any motion that could capsize their tiny craft, Kim was severely hampered in her options for defense. In essence, fighting this creature wasn’t unlike fighting a nest of large snakes. Surely, Kim thought, I’ve done that at some point.

As unexpected at the attack had been, and as frightening as the creature was, Kim was gaining confidence that she could hold it off; at least until they could find a way to escape the situation.

“Kim! Watch out!”

The unfortunate truth was that even ‘the girl who could do anything’ just couldn’t keep her eyes on over a half-dozen writhing pseudo-pods in such faint light. Kim was able to slice away two of them before one made contact with her shoulder, and then another hit her on the back. She felt a numbness spreading outward from the points of contact. She could still stand, but her limbs were feeling as if they were encased in lead. She knew that she had been stung, poisoned with some sort of venom.

Already finding it difficult to remain standing, let alone swing her makeshift weapon, Kim raised the paddle above her head in a vain attempt to ward off further strikes and protect Shego. All around them the water began to heave and churn as more of the nightmarish creatures rose from the black water.

She barely felt the pair of hands reach up and pull her down onto the board.

Shego had been living her own private nightmare; losing strength and hope, the former villain was caught in a fog of despair. Slightly feverish but not quite hallucinating, her condition was making it difficult to stay focused on her surroundings. The attack roused her, but she found herself unable to take action, not even to assist her beloved Kimmie.

Strength failing, Shego was able to grasp a spark of lucidity when adrenaline coursed through her veins. She had heard Kim say something about the ignition control for the rocket board and she looked down past herself towards the aft end and yes, she could just see the ignition stirrup in the faint glow. Her foot could reach it easily, but she remembers her angel telling her to wait for something.

Of all the people in the world, there was only one other person that Shego trusted; if Kim told her to wait, she would wait. But then she saw the hellish monstrosity hit Kim with it’s tentacles, saw her Princess drop to her knees and attempt to use her body as a shield in the hope of saving them.

Shego’s mind was clear enough to know that they’d heard this song before.

With a supreme effort, Shego grabbed Kim and pulled the younger woman down. She kicked at the ignition and heard the cough of the engine. The watery cavern lit up like the Fourth of July from the rocket flame and the board was thrust forward, away from the attacking beasts. One last glance back gave Shego a last view of the mega-hydrae that had stung Kim.

The bastard appeared to be on fire.

The ‘Moon Doggie’ was rapidly picking up speed; soon it was skipping across the surface in the same general direction that they’d been pointed already. Holding tight to Kim, Shego, rolled over and looked ahead. There was little to see and nothing that they could have done about it.

They were both unconscious when the engine of the ‘Moon Doggie’ sputtered and died. They could not know that they were floating less than twenty yards from a different shore, nor were they aware of the many pairs of eyes that watched their approach with suspicion.

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Chapter VI / In The Hall Of The Mountain King

Kim stirred, the morning sun gently touching her eyelids. The faint musk of her body filled her nose, not an unpleasant smell, and she briefly reveled in that twilight between wakefulness and sleep. She listened for the children but heard nothing. Maybe they were still asleep, or playing quietly in their room.

Someday she would indulge herself in the fantasy of sleeping all day, but not today. It must be almost time for her morning run so she needed to wake the girls. Kim rolled over to swing her legs over the edge of their king-sized bed. The bed was actually larger than king-sized, special ordered by Shego for their Homeric sex-play.

Kim rolled over. The soft bed became stone.

The dawn’s early light didn’t get any brighter.

The dream ended and Kim Possible found herself in a tight, rocky den. She was lying on a mat of cloth, dense and tough but soft to the touch, like felt, and it was impossible to tell if the mat was woven or made of hide. What light there was came from a small portal, a rough-hewn doorway into the cramped space she now occupied. It was the same glow that had illuminated their journey for weeks.

This reminded her of Shego, and Kim made ready to use the doorway and face whatever dangers lay beyond. Giving herself a quick inspection, she reviewed what she could of recent events. She remembered the fight on the lake, and the mega-hydrae stinging her. Things started to get fuzzy at that point, but she also recalled hearing Shego’s voice. There was nothing after that, not until the pleasant half-dream from a minute ago.

She was wearing the same clothes hat she’d worn for weeks, and they were still clean from the washing she’d given them before they took to the water. Upon closer inspection her outfit had some degree of care; it appeared to have been patched in several places, stitched with what looked like twine.

Something itched above the small of her back and at her right shoulder blade. Reaching under her clothes, Kim was appalled to find something like wads of dried oatmeal adhering to those areas. Peeling the caked substance away from her skin, Kim also discovered small welts under the stuff; they were mildly sore and itched, not much more than a minor bee sting.

In the modern world of advanced medicine into which Kim had been born and raised, by a mother who was a lauded and accomplished brain surgeon, using a poultice to draw out poison was almost a lost science.

Crawling through the doorway, Kim left the cubbyhole and faced the unknown.

Several shocking points of interest presented themselves to Kim Possible at that moment. First was the cavern she was standing in. There was a large body of water a few dozen yards away at the bottom of a slight decline, making it likely that they had finally reached the opposite shore. The fact that Kim could even see the water from this far away meant that the light here was as strong as they had encountered so far.

Second were the stone huts. Much of the ground level of this stone gallery was covered with tiny structures, each one assemble from stones piled together though she could see one or two made from broken stalagmites, forming a crude lean-to.

Third were the inhabitants. The part of Kim’s psyche that was keeping her from screaming explained to her that it was only logical that there be inhabitants, simply because of the existence of stone huts. ‘So not the drama’, it said.

Standing before Kim and facing her stoically were scores of tiny humanoids. They were not more than two feet tall and wrapped in dark rags, much like the woven mat that she had been sleeping on. Between rents in the filthy material could be seen grimy pale skin and piercing black eyes. Like beads of onyx, the eyes were the only things that were alive and bright about the little creatures, and they were all looking at Kim.

These were the ‘Trogs’ that Shego had been fighting at the Middleton armory so many days ago. Kim was puzzled at how quiet and still they were; there didn’t seem to be anything dangerous about them now. In fact, they were all just standing there, as if waiting for something.

“Um… Hi!”

The ‘Trogs’ didn’t move. Kim would have thought they were carved from stone if she didn’t hear an occasional breath. By now fear and apprehension had given way to curiosity, and that was losing ground to anxiety and worry about Shego. Kim didn’t have a solid plan of action, but she would not allow this new development to slow her down.

She picked up her foot and took a tentative step forward, then another. Gaining confidence, she edged up to the little men. They really were unearthly in appearance, even if she didn’t feel threatened. When Kim reached the edge of the crown, she noticed something else about them… how badly they smelled.

It made her eyes water just standing next to them; it was a throat-clogging stench that made her a little nauseous. Whether the stink was coming from the little creatures themselves, or the vile wrappings they were covered with, Kim could not tell.

Without preamble, Kim heard sounds echoing from deep in the crowd. As she stared into the pale light, she saw movement.

From several yards away, someone was moving through the crowd. This new figure was moving quickly and with determined strides, the other little men silently moved out of it’s way, parting like the proverbial Red Sea.

The newcomer was a giant compared to the other ‘Trogs’. Kim didn’t feel any more threatened because this ‘giant’ simply stood a head taller than the rest, being closer to three feet in height. The newcomer moved with a commanding presence and the others cleared a path for him that led right up to Kim’s feet.

When the newcomer finally stood before Kim, she noted the differences between this creature and it’s smaller counterparts. First, there was the greater height, even if it was only three feet tall. Second, thought it was dressed in the same tattered fashion, it was the only creature to act with any sort of motivation. In Kim’s book that would make him a Leader, at least until she came across something better.

Thirdly, he was armed… sort of. Kim was slightly shocked to note that this ‘Trog’ was missing his left arm.

There was only the barest suggestion of a shoulder, but no limb at all. She could only guess at the accident or attack that caused such a wound, not to mention the will to live that this being possessed to survive it.

Held in the crook of his right arm, however, Kim saw that he was carrying an odd weapon. It was much taller than he was, maybe six or seven long, and might have been a spear except that the broad blade at the end had no point. The blade was flat at the end and slightly cupped: it was as if a kitchen spatula had been stuck on the end of a pole. It reminded Kim of a garden spade.

The being stood before Kim; he was as filthy and stinky as the rest, but he was not silent.

“Glesh. N’yung glesh.” The wrappings about his head completely obscured his mouth, as was the case for the rest of the ‘Trogs’ present. Regardless, Kim could hear him clearly. His voice was strong and confident, but that didn’t compensate for it not being English.

“Hello? My name is Kim Possible.”

The Leader cocked his head, and then shook it in a very humanlike gesture, never taking his eyes off Kim. Under the dirty layers of cloth there was the suggestion of a mouth and very jagged and oversized teeth.

“Voot rinto, glesh.” The words came at her more slowly than before, more deliberate. Was he hoping that Kim could be made to understand him? Even Latin and French classes hadn’t prepared her for this.

“Please tell me, where is my… where is Shego? What have you done with Shego?” Kim had almost said ’my wife’ just now, but guessed that this distinction might be lost on the little man.

As she had been asking these questions, Kim had been raising her hand above her head and also to tug downwards on her own hair; it was an obtuse attempt to visually depict Shego’s taller height and longer hair.

With a nod of comprehension, the one-armed Leader turned and walked quickly away from Kim, deeper into the gloom in the opposite direction of the lake. While the language barrier seemed impassable with these guys, the Leader seemed to understand Kim’s hand signals well enough.

The crown of little ‘Trogs’ silently cleared a new path for them and Kim had to jog to catch up; the little fellow sure moved fast on those tiny legs. After several paces, the two of them broke through the crowd and were moving off on their own. The rest of the ‘Trogs’ were not following. As they moved further away from the ‘Trog’ settlement, Kim began to wonder if the cavern didn’t look brighter somehow. Before long, she was certain that there was some other source of light exerting its influence over the darkness.

Though they had been moving across an open area of the cavern, Kim noticed that their destination appeared to be a partially collapsed wall where the rocky ceiling met the ground beneath their feet. The wall seemed shattered, possibly the result of subsidence from ancient times. It was from between these enormous boulders that a strong light was visible.

Raising her hand to protect her weakened eyes against the glare, Kim noticed that they were about to encounter some strangers. Several of the smaller ‘Trogs’ were clustered nearby and had apparently assembled a small encampment in the vicinity of the mysterious light, for what reason, Kim could not guess.

Then, Kim saw Shego. She was seated on a mat placed atop a smoother section of the floor, the area softer because the ground beneath them was sandy rather than hard rock. Another mat of the same fibrous material was being used as a shield to protect both the pale woman and the ‘Trogs’ from the glare.

Shego appeared to be conscious and was talking animatedly to the little men standing around her. Kim could not contain herself further. She out paced her guide and ran to Shego.

“Oh, baby. Are you all right?”

Shego’s head tilted up to look Kim full in the face, her mouth parted in a huge grin.

“Hey, Princess! Glad you’re home. Did I forget a play date? Whose birthday is it?” Shego’s voice was overloud and her movements exaggerated, as if she were drunk or drugged.

“Kim, look… I guess that I forgot to be home for this. I’m sorry, and I’ll make it up to you and the kids. But… really, if you’re going to have Kasy & Sheki’s little friends over to play, you should have given the girls a bath. They’re both pretty ripe.”

Kim kept moving closer, kneeling down beside the seated form. Shego certainly appeared healthier and more lucid, but she wasn’t making sense. As she moved closer, Kim was shocked to see that Shego was actually cradling two of the filthy little ‘Trogs’, holding one firmly under each arm and they were struggling vainly for release, much to Shego’s delight.

“Shego, do you know where you are?”

That question didn’t immediately register with Shego. She was too busy tickling her ‘captives’ under their chins. Shego let go of one ‘Trog’ and used both arms to lift the other. Upon release, the first little man ran past Kim to stand behind the Leader, and cowered near him for protection.

Shego lifted the backside of the other ‘Trog’ to her face and sniffed.

“I think Kasy has a poopie diaper.” The ‘Trog’ made no sound, but hung there in Shego’s hands with a look of helpless indignation.

Kim reached over and accepted the ‘Trog’ from Shego. When she set him down on his feet, he joined his cohort in safety behind their Leader. The Leader directed gestures and grunts at them and they subsided into obedience.

“Shego, do you know where you are?”

“Doy! You should know. You planted all the flowers back here.” Shego looked around at what she apparently envisioned as their backyard.

“It’s getting pretty dark, it might rain.” Other than an unexplained lack of clarity, Shego seemed fine, and Kim was able to breathe easier for it.

“Baby, I’ll take are of the girls. You stay here and rest.”

“Thanks, Kimmie.” Shego stifled a yawn. “Call me for dinner.” With that, she promptly fell asleep.

A sudden waft of stink alerted Kim that the Leader had sidled up beside her. She looked down to see that he was holding something out to her. Taking it, Kim lifted it closer to her face and noticed with disgust that it was apparently some sort of foodstuff. It was pasty and smelled of fish.

Gaining Kim’s attention with a wave of his hand, the Leader pointed to Shego first, then at himself. He took a few staggering steps, then fell over. The entire pantomime was so ridiculous that Kim had to fight against laughter, but the point was being made quite well. Then the Leader took the fish paste back from Kim, pretended to take a bite by raising it to the wrappings around his face, though Kim never actually saw his mouth, and then sprang to his feet and thumped himself vigorously on the chest.

Kim interpreted this to mean that they could tell that Shego was ill, they fed her something with medicinal properties and she was recovering or was at least better off than before, even if she was still a bit disoriented.

Kim leaned down to her sleeping lover and pointed at Shego’s head, then raised both hand with palms upwards in a questioning gesture.

How long will she like this?

In a reply that was shockingly human, the Leader held out his only arm with the palm of his own hand up and shrugged.

No way to tell.

Kim sighed and stood upright. For now Shego was as safe here in the care of the ‘Trogs’ as she would be anywhere.

Glancing around for more details about these mysterious little men, Kim was reminded of the bright light pouring from between the collapsed boulders at the near end of the cavern. Turning around to find the exact source, she started to move in that direction. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she really should leave Shego alone, when she noticed that her guide had already walked around her and was apparently moving in the direction of the light himself.

Using his trowel-spear to prompt her to follow, he walked towards a jagged cleft in the cavern wall. The cleft was a deep, horizontal crack that created a narrow passage out of the main gallery. By the time they had reached the passage, the light was almost blinding to Kim’s eyes.

The little man stood off to one side of the jagged opening and set his weapon aside. In a display of skillful dexterity using his single arm, he tore away a length of his wrapping and held it out to Kim. Before she could think of a way to ask her question, he placed his hand over his eyes and pointed his weapon into the passage.

Loath to have the smelly rag touching her skin, let alone her face, Kim still did as he had indicated. Having become accustomed to the dim glow of the bioluminescent fungus for weeks, Kim would have been totally blind in this raging source of light; the cloth would act as protection, much like a pair of goggles.

Leaving her guide behind, Kim entered the passage.

It was just as quiet here as it was in the main cavern, but somehow the light made every breath and every scuff of her feet sound a hundred times louder. After what as only about twenty feet or so, the passage became much too narrow for Kim to follow. The walls closed in a seam that even the smallest ‘Trog’ could not fit through.

Looking around, it was a few seconds before Kim realized that the source of the light was over her head. After spending weeks being stuck underground and traversing mile of caves and tunnels, Kim had simply lost the habit of looking up. And when she did…

“HAH!”

Kim raised her arm and danced in a circle; that was all the room she had to move in the rock. She cried and laughed and yelled for joy, and then she cried some more.

At a countless distance above her at the top of a natural chimney in the earth, penetrated unknown ages ago by whatever forces shattered the cavern walls, was a thin ray of sunlight.

Momentarily spent of energy, Kim sank down to her knees and thanked the powers that be that they had finally made it this far. They were not saved yet, but her heart was now fully stocked with hope. Shego was going to live. They were both going to hold their daughters again.

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Chapter VII / And The Man At The Back Said ‘Everyone Attack’…

When she left the ‘lightfall’ and walked out of the passage back into the main cavern, Kim was unpleasantly reminded of just how DARK this underground world was. Her guide was waiting for her and seemed to have anticipated this; he took he hand and carefully lead her back to the ‘Trog’ compound while Kim’s eyesight acclimated to the dim glow once again.

Letting her eyes drink in what little ambient light existed, Kim again took note of some details of the compound. The ‘Trogs’ didn’t seem to have mastered the use of fire; she’d seen no cooking fires or any flame since she had awakened. They apparently caught and ate fish, some weird species of blind cave fish from the lake, and she could see plenty of drying racks between the tiny stone huts. There also seemed to be small plots of mushrooms in the same variety she had eaten in the tunnels.

Each and every ‘Trog’ was armed with a battle spade; several were sparing against each other in mock combat, while others were using them to work their meager plots of cultivated earth.

The Leader led her back to where Shego lay, and Kim stopped to confirm that her sleeping lover was still safe. Now that she had located a way to the surface, Kim racked her brain to think of how to get back up there. The only real choice she could see was to climb. But how could she carry Shego all that long way?

Nuts, if only it were as easy to go up as it had been for me to get down…

“That’s it!”

Kim took off at a run, leaving her startled guide behind her. She had an excellent sense of direction and over the past few weeks she had learned to adapt that skill down here in a world of almost total darkness. She was soon able to find the alcove where she had been allowed to recuperate from her own injuries. There, leaning a few feet from the door, was the only remaining piece of equipment to survive this long.

Kim took the ‘Moon Doggie’ and set it down near a shallow pool. The fungus tended to grow better in the vicinity of water and here she would have the best light to examine the rocket engine.

Because of her having succumbed to the hydrae venom, Kim knew that her memory of events out on the lake were incomplete. She didn’t remember the rocket board firing up and certainly not reaching this shore and the ‘Trog’ compound. Therefore, Kim had replaced memory with certain assumptions; one assumption was that the ‘Moon Doggie’ had been activated somehow and then carried them over the water until it had run out of fuel.

Upon closer inspection, Kim was heartened to see that she was not correct about all things; there was still a miniscule amount of fuel left in the board’s tank. She prayed that it would be enough to propel the two of them up the ‘lightfall’ to the surface. Sure, it was a very dangerous prospect, but nothing was impossible for a Possible.

Her guide had long since caught up with her and had been standing at a respectful distance while she examined the board. Kim only noticed him when several ‘Trogs’ ran over to interrupt his observations. After a hurried conference of clicks, buzzes and grunts, the Leader ordered them away and they returned from whence they’d come. The Leader glanced at Kim and then back at him retreating minions, then seemed to make a decision.

Again motioning to Kim that she should follow him, the Leader led her away down yet another path through the compound. Once they left the relevant comfort of the huts, Kim saw that they were heading toward a rather barren and desolate area of the cavern that made the compound seem like Eden by comparison.

Here the stone floor was very uneven and Kim could see loose rubble everywhere and she scanned the cavern roof for signs of a cave-in. The Leader tapped the butt of his battle spade to get her attention; once he had it, he pointed to a spot on the stone floor a few yards away.

What Kim saw was a pit, approximately ten feet in diameter. The pit wasn’t open, however; it had apparently been choked with boulders and other loose rocks, but it apparently wasn’t sealed enough for the dozens of surrounding ‘Trogs’ to relax their vigilance.

That’s when she also noticed the weapons from the armory.

In a rough perimeter around the blocked pit, there were several cases of mortars, grenades, shoulder-mounted rocket launchers and mines. This was the ‘Trogs’ hoard of stolen munitions, apparently the haul of several raids. There were also weapons of the style conceived by the ‘Trogs’ themselves; battle spades and the razor sharp crystalline wafers could be seen in abundance, as well as several mottled gourds that she hadn’t seen before.

Kim lifted one of the gourds and looked it over carefully. She apparently wasn’t being as careful as her guide would have liked, because he rapped his weapon on the stones at his feet and took it from her.

“I’m sorry.” Kim’s verbal apology was automatic but, rather than being angry, the Leader gave her a demonstration of its use.

Singling out a smaller ‘Trog’ to act as a test subject, the Leader lobbed a gourd at the hapless creature. The aim was perfect and the gourd made impact, bursting in a thick cloud of vapor and the little ’Trog’ dropped like a sack of potatoes. Kim was horrified.

“No! Why did…? How could you…?”

The Leader raised his hand for her attention, his odd weapon at his side. With the immediate assistance of several other ‘Trogs’, the hapless creature was revived and on his feet again in no time.

With dawning realization, Kim knew that this must have been the weapon used on the soldiers at the Middleton Armory; they had been rendered unconscious, but revived quickly and with no after-effects. Looking around her, Kim noticed thousands of gourd-grenades. She shuddered to think of what these tiny creatures were prepared to face in combat.

Kim’s trained eye evaluated the defense perimeter and the level of weaponry available. Though she had no clue what the ‘Trogs’ were on guard against, she was convinced that they felt it to be a substantial threat. She faced the ‘Trog’ Leader and made a sweeping gesture that encompassed the entire area. She then made the same non-verbal attempt to ask a single question.

Why?

Again the little man seemed to be making a decision. Then he spun on one heel and walked away from the danger zone, Kim hurrying to keep pace.

Once they had returned to the center of the compound, the Leader led Kim to a pile of woven baskets, crudely made from what looked like root fibers. Inside one of the baskets were several flat pieces of slate. On each of these were drawings and what might have been text, which Kim had no hope of reading, but that didn’t stop the Leader from handing them out to her one at a time.

One slate may have been a map of he region; if so, the cave system it depicted was far vaster than anything Kim and Shego could have guessed at.

Another was a scene of compound life, with ‘Trogs’ fishing and building huts.

One was of enormous, subterranean earthworks. Now Kim saw the value of these battle spades; they were designed to cut right into the earth and heave away both dirt and stone alike, as well as combat.

The next image took some thought to interpret. It showed a pyramid made of ‘Trogs’ with one very large figure at the top. If the drawings were to scale, it must have been nearly human sized. Below it were two smaller ones, more like her guide, the Leader, in height. Finally, at the next and subsequent levels, were ‘Trogs’ of the size that Kim had seen the most of.

Kim pointed to the little creatures on the sate, then at several of the live beings working all around them. The Leader nodded enthusiastically, then he reached out with his sole hand and pointed to one of the two slightly larger ones. He thumped his chest and then repeated the motion. Point… thump…

Clearly, that represented his level in the ‘Trog’ hierarchy. Kim’s only question now was about the largest figure. She pointed to it, and then made a show of looking about the compound.

The ‘Trog’ did not immediately respond to her inquiry. His first action was to lay his weapon down and kneel before it. He then made a series of hand movements that looked oddly incomplete, until Kim realized that a one-armed being could only perform one half of such a ritual. Then, leaving his weapon where it lay, the Leader stood up and pointed to Kim.

“Me? What about me?”

The little man looked at Kim with softness in his eyes. He moved closer to her, oblivious to how Kim was forcing herself not to retch from his terrible odor. He gently reached out and touched her abdomen. Like a thunderbolt, his meaning was clear.

“This…” Kim pointed back to the largest figure, “is a female? This is your… queen? Then you are a… king?”

The ‘Trog’ removed his hand and performed the same incomplete ritual as before.

Waiting for him to stop, Kim again pantomimed a question.

Where?

His only reply was to take the last tablet from her. Setting the tablet on the earth floor, he grabbed a nearby pebble and gouged a diagonal line across the piece of slate. Having thus scored the stone, he raised the shaft of his weapon and brought it down, efficiently cracking the tablet into two pieces.

One half of the image depicted the queen, one king, and many of the lesser ‘Trogs’. This piece he set as far from where they were standing as he could reach. Then he took the remaining half, the one with one king and a smaller number of the drones, and set it down closer to their feet. Kim thought she could see the story he was telling her.

“And what is right here? What are you waiting for?” She used her fist to pound a tattoo onto the rocky floor.

Nodding his approval at her ability to grasp his story, the Leader took one last piece of slate from the basket and set it before them. Kim had to lift the tablet and squint hard to make out the image in the dim glow of the cavern. She turned it this way and that, attempting to make sense of the carved slate.

When comprehension came, Kim felt sick to her stomach. She had finally noticed the tiny figures in the beast’s jaws… and trampled under its clawed feet… and being shredded by its talons.

“Oh, shit…”

Kim and Shego lived in the ‘Trogs’ encampment for about four days, by her best estimation; time was still subjective in this sunless world, and was only measured by work and sleep. Kim had performed much of the former and little of the latter. She still didn’t feel fully prepared for what she had planned.

In that time, between seeing to Shego’s health and comfort and also offering some assistance to the ‘Trogs’, Kim had been making repairs and modifications to the ‘Moon Doggie’. These repairs consisted of making sure that there was indeed some fuel remaining in the storage canister, of which there was very little, as well as disengaging the throttle. While Kim had friends and associates, and enemies, more capable than she at rocket mechanics, she was always a fast learner and not afraid to do her best.

Her plan was to use the rocket board to propel Shego and herself straight up the walls of the natural chimney of the ‘lightfall’ and up to the surface. As she worked, Kim smirked ruefully at how many bad points there were to her plan.

One, there would be no control of the velocity since there was only enough fuel for a single, prolonged burst. Two, there would be little protection for Shego because she would be secured to the board by lengths of wrapping obtained from the ‘Trogs’. Three, there would be even less protection for Kim because she would have to remain free enough to cut Shego loose before they flew too high after reaching the surface… or if they ran out of thrust and started to fall back.

Kim had moved her base of operations to just beyond the opening to the passage to the chimney. She needed the light for more than just her work on the board; Shego had reacted well to the dietary ministrations of the ‘Trogs’ but was still very weak. Right now Shego was propped up against the rocks with her back exposed to the light, keeping it out of her eyes but hopefully giving her the benefits of its power.

Shego was sleeping most of the time. She would waken for a few minutes, sometimes for as much as an hour, but rarely as long as that. When awake, she was still confused as to where she was. They would talk about events that were replaying themselves in Shego’s mind, often resulting in shared laughter and tears.

Eventually Kim felt that she was ready, and that the time had come for their escape. She approached Shego and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

“Wake up, sleeping beauty.” Kim brushed stray hair from her wife’s face.

“Mm, I like that…”

“Baby, it’s time to go. I need to carry you. Tell me if this hurts.”

Kim gently lifted her spouse in her arms, just as Shego had once carried her across the threshold of their home when they first moved in. The taller woman was as light as a feather. Kim had lifted Shego before, both in battle, in rescue and in passion, but never did the natural born warrior feel so vulnerable.

Shego didn’t say another word until Kim leaned her up against the ‘Moon Doggie’ and began to lash her down. Shego roused herself and looked down at the bindings.

“No…”

“What, baby? Is this too tight?”

“You’re not leaving me are you?” Tears were flowing down pale cheeks.

“Never, sweetheart. We’re going home.” Kim embraced her bride tightly.

“I… I had a dream that you sent me away, told me… to leave and…”

“We’re going home. We’re going to see the girls and our house and get you patched up. You and I are both leaving together.”

Shego made as if to return Kim’s embrace, but her arms were already bound.

“I do want to see the girls. If it weren’t for the three of you I would have killed myself long ago…”

Seeing and hearing Shego in this condition was making Kim heartsick.

“I just want to see my babies again…!” Shego’s voice rose to almost a howl.

Kim clung to Shego’s bound form like a second skin, cradling the pale woman’s head in her hands and clamping her lips against Shego’s mouth in such a fervent kiss as to make further hysterics impossible. Kim needed a distraction to keep Shego from panicking.

“Baby, what is it that we sing at bedtime?”

Shego had begun fighting against her bindings, but the question made her pause.

“You… you want me to sing that now? Don’t you want me to put on the ‘Betty Boop’ costume first?”

Kim choked on a laugh; Shego’s face was so serious. It was through a heartfelt grin that Kim explained what she meant.

“No, baby, what we sing for the girls.”

‘The itsy bitsy spider went up the waterspout,

Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.

Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain,

And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.’

Since her hands were too securely bound to make the finger-thumb motions, Shego sang and Kim made the motions with her own hands. Kim loved to hear Shego sing; the woman’s voice was so clear and strong, even now. Their heads were touching by the time the song was finished.

“Princess, please take me home to our babies.”

“You got it. I’ll be right back.”

There was nothing to keep them here except a desire to say goodbye to her protector, the Leader of the ‘Trogs’. Shego was calmed now, tightly bound to the ‘Moon Doggie’ and leaning against the inner wall of the passage. The ‘lightfall’ was directly overhead and maybe she would benefit from it’s meager down pour of sunlight.

Kim quickly made her way back towards the encampment and she was almost halfway there when she felt the ground shudder beneath her feet. In the distance, she heard a blast, not from anything incendiary or explosive, but rather from an enormous impact that she could feel in the ground under her feet. She ran the rest of the way to the defensive perimeter and skidded to a halt when she got there.

It was a scene of devastation. The pit as no longer choked with boulders; they had been flung up and outwards in every direction. There were ‘Trogs’ laying everywhere, some apparently wounded, many probably dead. Kim felt a pang of sadness and grief in her chest. While they were just a little too alien to fall under the ‘cuddly’ category, she had grown fond the little creatures during her short time with them; they were relatively harmless and had treated Kim and Shego very well.

And had saved their lives. Kim took off at a run towards the center of Hell.

Without warning, one of the many boulders reared up in front of her. The beast was as dark and vague as the gloom surrounding it. It towered over Kim and bellowed in rage.

Several back flips later, Kim stopped and looked back at where she’d been standing.

Brief impressions flashed across her straining eyes; hulking and bear-like, but bereft of hair or fur. Bloated flesh was caked with grime and dust from the murky tunnels that spawned it. It had no eyes; instead the nostrils were enormous craters that covered most of its face and the monster’s ears, the outer folds of which were so convoluted as to mimic the appearance of an exposed brain, were repulsive.

The scream tore from her throat without restraint. The beast was a walking horror, a thousand monster-under-the-bed nightmares rolled into one.

It had sensed her passing and had risen to attack. Having narrowly escaped, Kim watched the beast search for her, twisting this way and that, apparently homing-in on her scream. The horror opened a maw that was more a wound than a mouth and there were no lips, just long spiky teeth projected randomly from shredded gums, blood smearing the teeth as the creature chewed on its own lolling tongue.

The thing grunted deep in its chest, a subsonic growl that Kim could feel in her own stomach. She wondered if the behemoth was confused, if maybe she could use the advantage to escape.

Except that the grunt was a signal.

Moving as silently as an avalanche on trunk-like legs, several other beasts came up from behind the first, joining it. She wasn’t able to count them all in the gloom, but she could sense that they were making a blind appraisal of her, and apparently found her appetizing. The first creature shifted forward and…

… and was struck with over a thousand flying crystalline wafers, as sharp as razors and as true as love’s first kiss.

The beast clawed at its wounded hide with jagged talons, ripping deep lacerations in its own flesh as a result. Its howl split the air of the cavern and Kim risked a quick backwards glance to see whence came her salvation.

More ‘Trogs’ than Kim could count were charging in her direction, all of them led by the ‘Trog’ she had come to think of as the Leader, each and every one of them was brandishing a battle spade like his own. The vast bulk of the tiny horde surged around her on both sides, but Kim barely had time to duck as she saw the Leader run right up to her, use his sole arm to ram his weapon blade-first into the rocky cavern floor, and vault over her head. He landed, still running, on the ground before her and continued his charge towards the waiting behemoths.

Kim had no breath at that moment to call a warning. She fully expected the tiny warriors to break and shatter upon the monstrous invaders like a wave on breakers. The beasts had sensed the oncoming attack and had hunkered down to better greet the defenders with their slavering jaws.

To a ‘man’, once they reached a point only a few feet away from certain death, each ‘Trog’ duplicated the maneuver performed moments ago by their Leader. Planting the blades of their weapons into the ground, the running figures literally vaulted up and forward through the air onto the towering monsters. It was at this point that Kim bore witness to one of the most vicious battles in her young life.

The ‘Trogs’, using their weapons to gain purchase on the beasts by stabbing into the putrescent flesh, climbing up the vile creatures and if they were living mountains and beginning to dig.

They were digging into the monsters themselves.

Bloody gibbets flew in every direction and the beasts were hampered by the fact that the defenders were clinging to their own hide; to attack the ‘Trogs’ was to further damage themselves. Not that the attack was one-sided; Kim saw many ‘Trogs’ perish such as was depicted in the slat tablet shown to her.

She watched in fascination and horror. The ‘Trogs’ fought silently, the only sounds they made were of blades tunneling into flesh, or of their broken bodies striking the rocks.

The Leader was no less capable for the loss of his arm. True, he had to use the weapon as a climbing aid more than did his subordinates, but he made his way straight to the crown of the first beast’s head and went right to work. His weapon struck down, down into the skull of the living nightmare, heaving aside bone and tissue alike, until he reached his goal. The beast went rigid, claws flung outward as if hit by a bolt of lightning, and then it toppled.

With barely enough time to run out of the way, dozens of ‘Trogs’ scattered from the falling corpse. The Leader stood on the back of his vanquished foe and made a half-turn to inspect Kim where she sat stunned from the ferocity of the attack. As he looked towards her, Kim saw that another beast was fast approaching its fallen kindred. The Leader did not see this and the beast raised its talons to rend the little man.

Without conscious thought, Kim was on her feet and moving, only slowing down long enough to grab two of the battle spades from the fallen bodies of her tiny saviors.

She drew her arm back and let fly with the first weapon; her target was one of the flaring nostrils of the lumbering doom and her aim was true. Distracted by the intense pain, the beast lowered its defenses as Kim launched herself at the beast.

But her energy and intentions exceeded the grasp of her strength; although not infirm, the prolonged entrapment beneath the earth had sapped her resources greatly. She fell short of the mark and rolled to the feet of the second beast, but was able to recover quickly, using her unexpected position to stab upward into its filthy underbelly.

Its lack of sight did not prevent it from knowing exactly where Kim was. Opening the enormous wound in its face that it used as a mouth, the beast lunged downwards. There it met Kim’s weapon, which had been aimed directly at the rapidly descending head. The flat blade sunk deep into the massive skull, splattering her with yuck in the process.

Not wanting to lose her only weapon, Kim found herself hauled to her feet when the bellowing creature reared upright and started to fall backwards. Within seconds, she lay across the chest of her first kill in this netherworld battlefield.

The sounds of death were all around her, but Kim noticed very little of it. All that she could think of was the death at the end of her weapon, death that she had brought to this creature. The world had gone numb for her, and the gentle tapping on her shoulder was startling.

It was the Leader. He had moved close and was pulling her away from the huge dead thing. Kim let herself be led away from the battle and as her senses returned to her, she noticed that the fighting between invader and defender had spread across nearly the entire cavern floor. She and her guide skirted the melees, but they often stopped to assist a handful of diminutive ‘Trogs’ that had lost the upper hand.

They met their foes head on, Kim hitting low and the Leader hitting high. Kim noticed that she was becoming rapidly proficient in he ‘climb and dig’ maneuver.

Her guide eventually brought her to the passage of the ‘lightfall’.

Once there, he gave her a gentle push, away from himself and away from the death that raged behind them in the darkness. The battle was not that far behind them however, and Kim felt as if she had indeed done her best to repay the ‘Trogs’ to some extent for their help.

Taking a knee, Kim lowered herself to eye level with the Leader. He was filthy, covered in tattered blood-soaked rags of hide, and smelled like loose bowels. His black eyes were piercing in their intensity and what skin she could see through his wrappings was pinkish gray.

Kim threw her arms around the little man in gratitude. She started to cry with the realization that if she left now, he and his minions were likely going to die, but that if she didn’t, it was one more second for Shego to be left down here at the mercy of the hideous atackers.

As if sensing her indecision, the Leader gave her a firm shove onto her backside. He used his weapon to point towards her way home, and then turned away. He strode to the battle, which was rapidly moving closer, without pause or a glance back at her.

Keeping a firm grip on the weapon she’d salvaged from her last fight, Kim ran the short distance to the passage. She still had the strip of cloth that she’d used as protection for her light-sensitive eyes from the last time she’d been here and she lifted this from around her neck and entered the narrow cleft in the rock wall.

There was Shego, still propped in the pale sunlight right where Kim had left her less than an hour before. In her reclining pose, albeit lashed to a rocket-powered surfboard, Shego looked just like she’d fallen asleep while sunbathing. Kim wedged the shaft of her weapon into the bindings around Shego; she would need it to cut her wife free when they gained the surface. Kim was going to wrap her arms and legs around the board with all her might, keeping a secure grip on their only means of escape while also providing Shego with additional protection from the rocks. Kim moved to the board.

The beast must have hit the passage so hard as to hopelessly wedge its body into the tight space. That was the only possible way that it could have driven its body so deep into the narrow confines of the crevice. It was likely trapped there and would have died, but in doing so it had brought its teeth within striking distance of Kim and Shego.

The beast roared at them, slaver and gore spitting from its hideous maw. Kim clung to the board and desperately felt for the throttle with her foot, praying that she could at least launch Shego to safety before the ravenous monster could rend either of them to bits.

The blast was deafening in the enclosed space and the green discharge of plasma was visible even through Kim’s closed eyelids. When she opened her eyes, she saw the blackened stump where the beasts head had been, smoke still curling from the cooked tissues. Kim also saw a familiar arm wearing the tattered remains of a green and black uniform.

“Princess… can we go home now?” Shego asked, weakly.

Kim secured Shego’s arms again from where her wife had extricated her arm and gripped the board with everything she had left in her.

“Your wish is my command. One express elevator to Heaven, going up.”

Shego closed her eyes and smiled.

“I knew that sticking with you would get me to Heaven some day.”

One kiss later, Kim found the throttle and the board fired.

---

Chapter VIII / Heading For The Light

Having jumped from airplanes, fallen from cliffs and being thrown through the air, Kim was more than a little used to being propelled at high rates of speed with little or no control.

She had to admit that this took the cake.

The remaining fuel from the ‘Moon Doggie’ was shooting them up the walls of this natural chimney like a bullet through the barrel of a gun. It was fortunate that there was a slight incline or else Kim’s back would have been battered and torn by the rock walls. As it was, she would still have some interesting bruises… if they survived.

What had been a faint pinprick of light above them was growing in size and brightness. Shego had lost consciousness shortly after take-off; apparently her limited exposure to the faintest rays of sunlight had been enough to jump start her power, but the effort of generating a plasma blast had been too much for her.

The actual flight time could be counted in seconds, but it seemed like an eternity as they lifted towards safety, riding a column of flame.

Almost without warning, the world suddenly exploded in light. Kim was prepared for this and gave a tug on the trowel-spear, causing a critical knot in the bindings to be severed and they fell away from the board. Blind and fighting to keep her wits, Kim kicked their bodies away from the board, letting it continue its wayward flight.

They, on the other hand, were falling back to earth. Kim’s only hop was to have pushed them clear of the open end of the earthen chimney.

The breath was driven from her lungs as she hit the ground and rolled a few times, Kim’s slender body still wrapped around Shego’s like a protective shield. When she came to a stop, she still had a firm grip on Shego, but was face down on something soft and yielding and several heartbeats elapsed before she realized that it was grass.

Being trapped underground had forced her senses had become tuned to the limits of her environment; light, or the lack thereof, was the most obvious. Kim still wore the protective wrapping around her head that shielded her eyes against the glare or the ‘lightfall’, and now it was protecting her from the naked sunshine. Kim had also grown used to the echoes and the oppressive stillness and now her ears were being assaulted by the openness of her new surroundings, and she had no protection against that.

But then she heard a bird. And then she heard a voice.

“They’re here! Up here!”

Kim had never let go of her wife’s hand. She crawled closer and embraced the older woman’s still form and sobbed.

“We’re home… we’re home.”

Kim heard and felt movement all around them and quickly realized that they were found that they were surrounded on all sides. Strange hands touched her, but they were gentle and careful in their manner.

“Kimberly, it’s Will. Please stay still while we look you over for injuries.” It was Global Justice and these field agents were apparently part of the medical division.

“Don’t try to move. Let us take a look at you ad check for fractures. You two landed pretty hard just now.” His voice was not unkindly, but it was firm and boded no argument. There were hands all over her now and she guessed that his was the one wrapped around her own.

Funny, Kim thought, didn’t this adventure start with a hard landing?

“Shego… see to her first… I feel alright…”

“We’ll be the judges of that. And don’t worry about Shego; she has her own little fan club right now.”

“Will… Agent Du. I’m OK, really. I can stand on my own feet.” The medical technicians confirmed that Kim suffered no broken bones and that there was no indication of any internal injuries. She was gently helped to her feet and guided back towards Shego.

Everyone present was surprised to see Kim using a long spear to help give support to her tired legs. It was an odd thing, looking very much like a weapon, having a sharp spade at the end. Nonsense, Kim Possible never used weapons!

The glare from the sun was still painful through the wrappings, but Kim knew that this would quickly improve as her eyes became stronger again. She spoke to the med-techs administering to the unconscious Shego, giving them her observations from the past few weeks on her wife’s deteriorating condition. Although Kim could not see it, the med-techs listened carefully and nodded their understanding, quickly altering the method of their treatment and making plans for getting Shego moved to a Global Justice medical facility for care.

“Kimberly, please let me take you to the ambulance.”

“I won’t leave her. Please let me ride with her to the hospital.”

“Of course. I wouldn’t have thought to do otherwise. The med-techs will be bringing Shego along momentarily. They are just fitting her with an IV.”

“Kimberly… Kim, there will eventually be a briefing to record the details of your rescue operation, and also to update our security forces on the source of the subterranean threat. Not to mention finding out how the two of you managed to survive down there for so long.” Apparently sounding too cold and analytical to his own ears, Will softened his tone.

“Believe it or not, what I am attempting to tell you is that everyone back at ‘GJ’ Headquarters is immensely proud of you. We had no idea that what we intended to be a simple rescue would turn into something like you and Shego must have experienced.”

Knowing that this was Will’s best effort to be comforting, Kim reached out gave him a one-armed hug.

“No big.”

Kim laughed at herself; old habits never really die, do they? Even after a time of living the life of a homemaker, she was able to fall right back into her role of heroine.

In the act of laughing, Kim caught a scent that was wrong… somehow. She turned in an involuntary motion towards the clustered med-techs. What were they doing to Shego that smelled so bad? Fighting against the searing pain, Kim raised the ‘Trog’ binding from around her eyes to see what was going on.

Squinting through the glare, Kim saw…

… one of the subterranean beasts dragging its fetid bulk up from the jagged hole that was the opening of the chimney.

… med-techs being swatted aside like flies without making a sound.

… talons like scythes reaching for the inert body of Shego, lifting her, raising her towards its slavering maw.

The events were happening so fast and so silently that no one else would have noticed the attack in time to save Shego. Will gasped in shock, but only because his gaze had followed that of Kim, attempting to discern what was apparently bothering her. Will drew his standard issue firearm, but didn’t fire for fear of hitting Shego. Although Kim could not see them, there was a contingent of ‘GJ’ assault agents just a few yards away, armed with both light and heavy armaments. This threat could probably be neutralized with one blast of a stinger missile, but only at the cost of Shego’s life.

In no more than the span of a heartbeat, Kim was in motion. Eyes streaming with tears, but only from pain and not from panic, she used her battle spade to vault over the fallen med-techs and landed right on the shoulders of the creature.

The beast was small, much smaller than the ones Kim had fought against such a short time ago. How it could have climbed the chimney so fast was a mystery, but only its lesser bulk could have permitted it to fit inside.

Kim began to attack the creature with a ferocity that caused it to shriek with anger and pain. Will Du was horrified at the sound; it was if a steam engine was tearing itself apart. Even more amazing was that he could clearly hear Kim screaming down at the beast over the cacophony of its bellowing.

“DON’T… YOU… TOUCH… HER… YOU… DAMN… FILTHY…SON…OF… A… BITCH…”

Each word was punctuated with a blow from the spade of her weapon. Over fifty battle-hardened warriors and medical personnel, each having served their country to fight against evil in all its forms, watched in stunned silence as a 110-lb. woman barely in her twenties beat a raving monstrosity down into a hole in the ground.

One particular blow caused gouts of blood to spurt from one of the beast’s massive nostrils. The creature suddenly began lowering itself back into the earth; it had apparently had enough.

Kim leaped away from the nightmare and rolled across the ground. She located Shego where the tall woman had been dropped and quickly dragged her mate to a safe distance. This was Will had desperately been waiting for; he had not been idle during the pitched attack and finally issued the orders that had been fighting to get around his clenched teeth.

“Close that hole!”

Agent Du spoke and fifteen rocket-propelled grenades responded. Once the dust cleared, there was nothing left of the chimney opening.

The next several hours were a whirlwind of activity, with Kim and Shego in the center of it. The satellite tracking equipment of Global Justice had exceeded all expectations, monitoring the progress of the two women ever since Kim had gone down into the pit to rescue Shego. ‘GJ’ had used seismic charts and cave maps to plot a likely point of egress, but at the last stage were forced to wait. When the signals had remained in a fixed location for a few days, ‘GJ’ had searched the area for caves and had found many.

The problem was which one, if any, the girls might use to reach the surface. When the ‘Moon Doggie’ had shot from one particularly unlikely looking hole, the rescue team was as surprised as anyone. But they got to work immediately.

The medical staff of Global Justice had made quite a study of Shego’s abnormal genetic structure during her tenure with them as an independent operative. They quickly confirmed Kim’s assessment of extreme vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and also diagnosed a minor infection that was only a concern because of her weakened state.

Shego had lost some weight, as had Kim, making the both look worse than they really were.

Shego remained unconscious for two days before showing signs of awakening. The doctors assured Kim that this was mostly a natural reaction to Shego over-exerting herself with that final plasma blast down in the cavern. The ministrations of the ‘Trogs’ had apparently worked wonders.

Kim remained at the hospital for treatment, but had been prepared to demand a bed in Shego’s regardless. Her own health was much better that that of her partner, even if she was also a little under nourished. Both women had been absolutely covered with grime, taxing the hospital staff’s abilities to clean them up. Once their shredded uniforms were peeled away and the layers of caked earth scoured off, Kim and her doctors were given a mild surprise.

In the prolonged absence of exposure to the ultraviolet light from the sun, Kim’s skin had become bleached to a pale white color; other than missing the faint green undertones, she could have been Shego’s sister, not wife and lover. A few simple tests were evidence enough that she would regain her normal coloring after a few days in the sun.

When Kim’s eyesight had become strong enough and she could withstand normal light levels without protection, she would sneak into the bathroom late at night and inspect her new appearance in the mirror. As bizarre as it seemed, she gained pleasure from seeing this added resemblance to her twin daughters, as short lived and artificial as it was.

There were many visitors, but Kim met with them in a nearby conference room so as not to disturb Shego. One of the first was Dr. Director, who personally conducted the briefing of Kim’s encounter with the ‘Trogs’. It took quite a bit of convincing to make the administrator accept that these little creatures were no longer, and in fact never had been, a threat. They were only protecting themselves from the invading monsters.

Dr. Director also gave Kim hearty congratulations, although she was much better at it than Agent Du. The woman wasn’t able to stay long, but surprised Kim by given the younger woman a bear hug and tender kiss on the forehead.

“You handled yourself admirably by any standard.”

Kim shrugged in her loose-fitting gown and robe.

“Fortune favors the well-prepared. We were able to make the best use of the resources we had.”

“Very true, but there was something that you needed most and we couldn’t give it to you. It’s called hope. You had to make your own.” Dr. Director stood to leave; Kim’s family was due to arrive within a few minutes and she didn’t want to mix the two halves of the slender redhead’s world right now.

“Kim, you have always been one of the most successful ‘Indie’ operatives that Global Justice had.” Director caught herself, visibly regretting the word. “Excuse me; that Global Justice has… but do you understand why the distance between you and the agency has grown?”

Kim nodded. She had barely noticed the use of the word ‘had’ and wondered why it didn’t hurt like it would have just a few weeks ago.

“Yes, I’ve chosen another life. I needed time to recover and you’ve given me the rest of my life to find my way in the world. I can never thank you enough for that.”

“Surely you realize that I’m not simply referring to that dreadful ‘Havok’ incident? You owe us nothing except to be a parent to that family that you’ve created.”

The militant woman signed; this was a more touchy feely that she was comfortable with.

“Would you believe me if I told you that you have become a part of what ‘GJ’ was established to protect? Can you accept that your friends and family just want you kept safe from harm? It is we that owe you for everything.”

Kim had a flash back to a particular morning in the kitchen of a house she’d not seen in a long time. She remembered the feeling of emptiness she’d had. But she was sure that she didn’t feel that way now. Why not? Kim would have to think about this for a while.

“It’s been a long time since that day when I took your combat training evaluation back at the ‘GJ’ facility in town. I know how things have changed with me since then, but if I were to return to Global Justice for some college level courses, would the original curriculum still be available to me?”

“Absolutely.”

“And if I ever asked to be considered for training as a Probationary Agent, would you take me?”

“Most certainly, yes.”

“How about if I wished to remain an ‘Indie’? Would I still be able to work with ‘GJ’ from time to time?”

“We would call you or ‘beep’ you if we wanted to reach you.”

Kim smiled.

“And if I never wanted to personally fight crime or save the world again, what then?”

“You would still receive birthday and holiday cards from me and be welcome to attend the Global Justice annual open house and bake sale on the first Saturday of every June.”

“Let me get my family business back in order after this little ‘sitch and I’ll let you know.” Her smile of gratitude was genuine. “Thank you.”

Dr. Director snapped to attention.

“Well, now, can’t stand around here all day. I must submit your report to the Board of Inquiry for review. I suspect that they will huff and puff over it for a spell but will eventually let the matter rest. If these ‘Trogs’ as you call them are truly of no further threat, then there is no longer a cause for concern.”

The woman walked to the door of the conference room and paused before leaving. Due to her eye patch, she had to make almost a full turn before meeting Kim’s grateful smile.

“I must also see to the overhaul and refit of the ‘Moon Doggie’. I understand that you put it to good use and that it was of benefit to you. I hope to make use of it again myself soon for, um, more recreational purposes.”

With that, she left. Kim’s family arrived moments later and she met them in the hallway so as not to disturb Shego; the warrior was still unconscious, but expected to awake at any time.

Kim had made contact with her family within minutes of rescue, but hadn’t seen any of them yet, so Dr. Mr. and Dr. Mrs. Possible brought both of Kim’s daughters to the hospital, as well as Kim’s brothers, also twins, so that everyone could see how well the redhead had recovered.

Kasy and Sheki were not happy about their mother’s new skin tone.

“See, I look just like you and Mom now!”

“Mommy pink!” Sheki demanded, as if she could command an instant change.

“I will be soon, baby. This is just for a while.”

“PINK!” A tantrum had to be avoided, and quickly.

“Mommy pink soon?” asked Kasy. Sheki held Kim’s hand. “Real soon?”

“I promise, I’ll be pink again, real soon.” This elicited many kisses from the tiny girls.

In the hallway there were hugs and tears and Kim thought her brothers would crack her ribs they held her so tight. Fighting as they had over the years, as siblings often do, there was only love in the Possible family; a love had expanded to include Shego as well.

The little girls were led into the hospital room only after they had promised to be quiet. Shego had been making signs of waking up for the last hour and Kim wanted their daughters present when it happened.

Shego drifted on a black sea, with no land in sight and no light whatsoever. Her mind was rebuilding itself as her body had been, and her diminished resources were almost restored. First light and then sound entered her awareness. She was on a soft bed and there was very little light, the room kept in shadow; there was enough light, however, to see the two small miracles sitting beside her.

“Hey… who’s got a smooch for Mom?” It was weak and slurred, but crystal clear to those who could listen with their heart, as well as their ears.

Being very intelligent and well behaved children, and understanding that their Mommies had been ‘sick’, Kasy and Sheki gently snuggled with Shego and dozed with her on the narrow bed.

Shego relished this moment with two of the reasons she had to keep on living. She searched the dim room for the third miracle in her life, her other reason to live.

“Princess…”

Kim moved closer and took Shego’s hand.

“…”

Kim leaned in closer.

“I didn’t hear you, baby.”

“Thank you…”

The Epilog That Would Not Die

Kim spent most of her free time at the hospital for a few days but eventually home life called; the girls needed their Mother and Kim needed to be back at home. The medical staff, both civilian and those from ‘GJ’ eventually agreed that Shego could leave in another day. Shego was an active woman, used to regular exercise; this enforced inactivity was driving her nuts. She wanted nothing more than to get out of this damn room and damn bed and back to her home with Kim and the girls.

She found it odd that she missed the flowers Kim had planted in the yard. Bored and fidgety as she was, she still heard the door quietly open.

Although her eyesight was now at full strength, it was late and the hospital had dimmed the lights in the corridors so as not to disturb sleeping patients. Shego’s room was also kept dimly lit, so the identity of the newcomer wasn’t immediately obvious. Shego contemplated pretending to sleep so as to avoid unwelcome conversation, but then she noticed who it was.

The red air was pulled up in a bun, leaving only a few loose strands to fall over the tight collar of the white lab coat. A pair of large reading glasses was helping their wearer to fill out data on a medical form attached to a clipboard. The slight form stood at the bottom of Shego’s bed, focusing its attention on the form and tapping the erasure of a pencil against her teeth.

“Hi, Dr. Mrs. P.”

Even in the darkened room, the profile was familiar and welcome. Anne Possible was a renowned brain surgeon and while Shego’s malady was neither serious anymore nor in Anne’s field of expertise, Kim had obtained the clearance necessary to allow the physician access to Shego and her records. Since the events from a year ago, Anne had become much closer to Shego.

“So, will I be able to dance the tango again?”

Shego wondered why her visitor was so quiet. The red haired women glanced up at Shego, and then back to the clipboard.

“Hmmm…” The sigh sounded doubtful.

Wondering what was going on, Shego started to raise herself up to a sitting position when her visitor set down the board and lifted the bed sheets from Shego’s legs.

“What…”

Shego never finished he sentence because Dr. Mrs. Possible was climbing onto the foot of the bed and had covered herself with the sheet.

“Whoa… whoa! I, uh…” Shego felt the weight of the woman crawling up the bed towards her. Shock restrained her from leaping from the bed or taking action.

Dressed only in a hospital smock, the contact between their bodies was making Shego crazy. She was further stunned to realize that, at some point, her sudden bed mate was crawling up Shego’s body within her smock!

“Ghaa!”

If the pale woman had still been attached to a life monitoring system, the nurses’ station would have sounded like a Las Vegas casino by now. In a few seconds, when Shego was certain that the pounding of her heart must be audible from the entire building, the silent visitor reached Shego’s face. Their eyes met and the red haired woman claimed Shego’s mouth with her own.

Shego was too shocked for words, but then…

Then the fierce embrace was returned, with long pale limbs encircling the shorter woman’s body. They twisted this way and that, several times coming very close to falling from the narrow bed. Shego felt a careful touch there… and there… and even a few bites, but nothing that would leave serious marks.

Eventually they broke the passionate embrace.

“The doctor,” panted Kim Possible, “is in.”

Shego laughed for the first time in what seemed an eternity, even before their latest adventure together.

“That… was amazing… and a little weird. I do not deserve you, Princess.”

Kim sat up on the bed and began to repair her disguise. She made a show of primping and arranging her outfit, like a move star leaving the make up table.

“So not the drama. I used my mother’s identity badge to get in.”

“You mean you stole it?” Shego’s jaw became slack. “You stole it!” Shego threw her arm over her eyes in mock sorrow. “My evil influence has corrupted the woman I love beyond redemption!”

Kim giggled and kissed Shego on the cheek.

“I came to help you pack your stuff. Then I’ll stay the night. The girls are with Monique tonight and they only let me leave when I promised that I was bringing their Mom back with me. The front desk will have questions about how I got in here without signing in, but I can handle anything.”

Shego was watching her wife as she spoke, and now had some words of her own to share.

“Kim, what I said a moment ago was true. I really don’t deserve you.”

Kim started to reply, but was silenced by a pale hand gently covering her mouth.

“For years my life was filled with hate; hate for Drakken, for my family, for the people I stole from, and hate for you. But now I know that the hate was for myself.”

Tears begged to flow from Kim’s eyes. She let them.

“Then here I am with a family of my own; someone who I’m very proud to call my wife and someone who bore the only children that I might ever have. I know that sometimes you feel trapped at home, and no one would blame you. Blame me because I was the one that trapped you.”

Kim would stay silent no longer. “If this is a time for honesty, ‘trapped’ might be a little too strong a word for it.”

“Maybe, Kimmie, but do you remember that morning in the kitchen? I said that I would lock you away in an ivory tower? Please understand that the only reason I say such things is because there is nothing more valuable to me than you.” The tall, raven-haired woman was also crying freely. Tears do not hurt if they are out of love.

“When I get out of this room tomorrow, I am your slave for life. Your wish is my command. Do you want the Sun? Do you want the Stars? Say the word and they’re yours. Or maybe a small island nation; then I could make you a Princess for real.”

“How about the Moon? I’ll take that.”

From the way that her mate grabbed her, Kim wondered why everyone wanted to break her ribs.

“You’ve got it. And if you ever decide to take over the world, I’ve got your back.”

“You are silly. Let’s get some sleep.”

There was some sleep that night, but not much. They could both tell that all wounds were healed nicely. They were both ready to return to the world above ground.

A month elapsed since Kim and Shego had their adventures in the underworld; home life had returned to normal and routines were reestablished. There was once tiny bit of mystery when Shego said that she had to disappear for a day. Kim wondered if it was some clandestine ‘GJ’ business, but Shego was home the next morning and didn’t seem the worse for wear.

Kim had debated a ‘Welcome Home’ party for Shego, just as Kim’s family had debated having one for Kim and Shego themselves. The only concern was the ‘Shego Factor’; Shego was well known for being antisocial, but she surprised everyone by making her own suggestion that a party would be nice. She was very specific about the exact date that the party should be held.

Family and friends stopped by, including several Global Justice agents, and everyone had fun. The party ended in the late afternoon, but only because everyone had thoroughly enjoyed themselves and all were feeling tired and happy for the first time in many weeks. Kim and Shego cleaned up what little mess remained in the back yard and tucked their daughters in to bed.

There were always a few chaises set up in the back yard when the weather was decent and since there were still a few hours of daylight left, the women were determined to enjoy every last ray of sunshine.

“The perfect end to a perfect day, right baby?”

“Not perfect yet, Pumpkin.”

“You having something more planned for this evening?”

“I seem to recall an offer to chase me around the sack. Still game?” Shego didn’t move from the chaise, but her hand reached over to stroke Kim’s thigh.

Once inside, they each took turns proving that their stamina levels were back up to full strength. Later that night, long after the sun had set and the moon had risen, Shego lifted the sleeping form of her young bride from their shared bed. She gently carried Kim outside and set her down.

“Kimmie, wake up.”

Kim stirred, only slightly startled at finding herself outside. If Shego was with her, how bad could things be? Kim shivered in the night air, but Shego quickly wrapped a robe around her shoulders.

“What’s the sitch?”

“Here… this is for you.”

Shego turned Kim’s head until she could see a dark framework standing in the middle of their backyard. It was about nine feet tall and had a large tubular extrusion pointed at the night sky.

“A telescope?”

“Not exactly. I have to return that to the observatory tomorrow. Go look through it.”

Kim got to her feet and padded over to the device. It certainly was a telescope, a very large and powerful one. As she lowered her eye to the eyepiece, she could already see that it was pointed at the full moon. The familiar cratered surface of Earth’s only satellite was very clear in the lens.

“Remember when you asked for the moon? Here it is; it’s yours.”

Kim looked back at where Shego stood.

“Thanks, I’ll take it.”

“No I mean it. It’s yours.”

Shego walked over and checked the settings on the digital tracking motor. Then she turned the magnification up to its highest level.

“Look at the north rim of the Plato crater, right above the Sea of Rains.”

Confused, Kim looked again.

“What am I…oh… oh, no…SHEGO, you DIDN’T!”

“Guilty as charged.”

“How?”

“Do you remember a plan to threaten the world by firing a laser at the Moon and reflecting it back to Earth y means of a series of parabolic mirrors? Well… it just so happens that I know where there is stashed another one of those lasers.”

“Someone will see! Someone’s going to notice eventually”

“Let them.”

Kim looked again, wondering even now if her eyes were playing tricks on her.

There on the surface of the moon, carved in letters miles high that were still almost invisible except to those who knew where to look, were written the words…

KIM + SHEGO

There was silence once again in the sunless world beneath the surface.

The battle was over and hundreds of his children had perished so that the hive would be safe. He had been badly wounded, and pondered the cost of his victory.

It was the way of things.

When the Queen chose her suitors from the best of the warrior class, the two Kings would fight to the death for the right to be Sire. When the Leader had lost that duel so many years ago, he lost more than his arm; he had lost his genetic immortality.

Then the beasts came, ravaging thousands of his kindred and slaughtering warrior and drone alike. The Queen was in jeopardy and the hive faced extinction.

Less then a King but more than a General, the Leader had been permitted to contribute to the breeding of more warriors, the offspring of an unprecedented union between he and the Queen. In all of the recorded history of their hidden kind, there had never been a union other than between the Queen and the Sire… until now.

Left behind to guard the way of the retreating hive, the Leader and his children built a not-hive, an outpost to watch for the marauders and kill them if they followed. And they waited. They learned to raid the dwellings of the surface beings. These creatures of the light were very adept at making tools that could kill.

Then came the two not-Queens.

They had been weak and close to death, but so much like a Queen as to make his blood burn at the thought of abandoning them to the fates. Once made healthy, the one fought alongside him like ten warriors. He felt sorrow to see them leave, but glad in his heart to have helped them. There was a moment of dread when the Leader saw two beasts follow the not-Queens in pursuit, but then he saw the larger one die, its head blasted into fragments. There was little hope that the smaller beast would be of much danger, even as he watched it climb after them.

Now he was tired. The few children that survived helped him and their siblings to follow the ancient path towards the hive.

The Leader stopped. He had become aware of a change in the air of the tunnel. Something welcome, something desired…

He could smell the hive and it was close. Standing away from the offspring that had been assisting him, he began walking forward using only his battle spade as support. The rest, bolstered by his determination, followed closely behind. The future lay ahead of them and they would soon be in the loving arms of their Queen.

The End.

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Author’s Note: This is a rewritten version of what was my very first KimShego story. Written before I had any desire to continue writing, I found myself creating a broader and more elaborate storyline, all branching out from this tale in both directions. As my skills and technique ‘improved’, the old story just didn’t fit anymore. So I cleaned it up and added a few special touches, but didn’t mess with either the original theme or the original plot, which I admit to being quite proud of. I was very hard on Kim in ‘TSBF’ and I felt that she needed a little boost to her confidence. I hope that you will read and review and let me know how you feel this compares to the original. Thanx!