“Did we wake you?” Kim asked as Dr. Director opened the door.
“No, no, I've developed unusual sleep rhythms since I adopted Thomas,” Director replied, yawning. “I was already up. Wade said you had a problem?”
“He says you're the go-to girl for temporal mechanics,” Kim said.
“Ah,” the doctor said, opening the door wider. “Why don't you and the others come in?”
“How is Thomas, anyway?” Kim asked as she crossed the threshold.
Dr. Director chuckled. “Hard at work. Or play. It could be interpreted as either.”
Kim raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”
Shego followed close behind. “She'd better be an expert at this,” she muttered. “I'd like at least one of us to know what I'm talking about.”
“Hey, I never saw ‘temporal mechanics’ in the list of vocational classes offered in high school,” Ron shot back. He stopped. “Uh, why's the baby in the microwave?”
The three of them looked at the living room. There was a microwave on the floor. The back had been removed and there were small metal parts everywhere. A little pair of legs was sticking out of it.
“That's just Thomas,” Dr. Director said, seeming completely unconcerned.
“I hope you don't let the social worker see that,” Kim said.
“Please, sometimes it's the only way to quiet him.”
“What?”
“Well, as you might remember, Dr. Acceptable gave her son cybernetic implants when he was still a baby,” Dr. Director said, frowning. “Part of her plan to use him as the living brain of her giant robot.”
Kim remembered, of course. She'd seen it for herself, seen the little boy in the spherical head of the giant machine like some tiny pianist at the keyboard. Monique had pulled him to safety before the robot plunged to the bottom of the caverns below the Acceptables’ lair.
Just like Kim had plunged, before Shego saved her. And Dr. Acceptable. No one saved her. Kim had killed -
Kim closed her eyes. “Yes, I remember,” she murmured.
Dr. Director nodded. “Well, we can't remove the implants. Too dangerous, according to the doctors, including your mother. Since they haven't harmed him yet, we're adopting a wait-and-see policy. Until then, Thomas displays a remarkable aptitude for computers and other machines. Over a three-day period he built a computer better than the ones I used at Global Justice,” she said. “Using my old computer, the television set, and a toaster.”
“Maybe you should get him a few Erector sets,” Kim observed.
“Probably,” she agreed dryly.
“Dude, he dismantled the TV? What was he thinking?” Ron gasped.
“Don't worry, Ronald,” Dr. Director said. “I think he's building a new one, now that he's realized his last invention meant no more Teletubbies. Of course, now we'll need a new microwave. And a hair dryer.”
“This is all fascinating, Dr. Director,” Kim said, and there was in fact something compelling about a toddler building a television set from spare parts. “But we've got a big problem on our hands, and Shego saysit's from a future that doesn't exist.”
“Really?” Dr. Director asked. “What is it?”
“Me,” Shego mumbled.
“Hmm,” the doctor said. “Interesting. You know, I didn't intend to get involved in temporal mechanics. Not until I found myself traveling through time during a mission when I was a rookie GJ agent.”
“How did that happen?” Kim asked.
“My brother,” Dr. Director said.
“Figures.”
“Anyway, I ended up saving Queen Elizabeth.”
“The Second?”
“The First, actually. Spanish agents. Very dangerous. That's how I lost my eye. The medical facilities of the time weren't exactly up to the challenge of repairing the damage. When I eventually returned, however, I was the only GJ agent with a confirmed trip into the past, so my superiors strongly hinted I become their resident expert on the subject. So you've been visited by your future self, Shego?”
“Sort of,” Shego muttered.
“Did she mention how she managed to travel into the past?”
“Had something to do with a Time Monkey.”
Ron shuddered.
“The Tempus Simia?” Dr. Director asked, her eye narrowing instantly.
Shego looked at her. “Yeah, I think she called it that.”
“Very interesting. I found references to such an artifact in my studies. Allegedly the Tempus Simia was broken into two halves that could only be reactivated when brought to a specific location at a specific time. If she has the Tempus Simia - and I assume she's an enemy?”
“Definitely,” Shego said. “But she doesn't have it. According to her it was destroyed in the future.”
“Maybe you should give me a synopsis of what this future-Shego told you.”
Shego sighed.
“I still don't get it,” Ron said fifteen minutes later. “Except for the Norway part. Only a very evil person would send me to Norway.”
“What IS it with you and Norway?” Kim asked him. “We've never even BEEN there!”
“Echoes,” Dr. Director said quietly.
“What?”
“There are documented cases where the present was altered, then restored, through the use of time travel,” Dr. Director explained. “People whose lives were affected reported having strong feelings on certain subjects without knowing why. Ron, even though the world Shego described was unmade, a part of your subconscious remembers moving to Norway. Obviously you didn't like it very much, which is why you have this dislike for all things Norweigan.”
“Oh. Huh?”
“It's not important,” Kim said wryly. “Dr. Director, what do you think happened?”
She looked at Kim. “I'm not sure. When the Tempus Simia was destroyed in the future, all the lives it touched should have been returned to the way they were before it was used. There should NOT be this second Shego running loose. Technically she no longer exists. I'm more concerned with what Shego has told me about her gloves, though.”
“My gloves?” Shego asked, mystified, as she looked at her hands.
“Not those, your old ones. You said your future claimed to have given them to you in the past?”
Shego nodded.
“Then how come that hasn't changed like everything else?” Dr. Director said. “How come you still got those gloves when you were younger?”
“I - don't know.”
“Well, there are two possibilities. One is that she lied,” Dr. Director told them. “Which is certainly plausible. She needed you to trust her, Shego. What better way than to claim she's responsible for the very things that helped make you the woman you are today?”
Shego and Kim looked at each other. “She didn't seem to be lying,” Shego said. “But she was a homicidal bitch. She'd do anything to get what she wanted.”
“I hope she was,” Dr. Director said.
“Why?”
“Look, her continued presence in our time is a very big problem,” Dr. Director said.
“Ya think?” Shego asked.
“This isn't about one woman trying to kill you and regain her former glory, Shego,” Dr. Director explained. “Although that is the immediate concern, yes. But her very existence creates a major paradox. How can she be here, if the events that made her the person she is never happened? The longer she remains here, the more likely it is that her presence will have a growing distortive effect on the space-time continuum.”
“A what?” Ron asked.
“She could unravel time as we know it.”
“Great,” Kim sighed.
“All right, so that's bad,” Ron said. “But we're going to stop her anyway, right? So what's so bad about one more reason?”
“What's bad is that you can't just throw her in jail or something,” Dr. Director said. “She cannot be allowed to remain in our time.”
Kim swallowed. “You mean we have to kill her?”
“I'm not sure you can,” Dr. Director told Kim. “From what you've said about Shego's new ability to heal her wounds, it sounds like she's unwittingly draining energy from the space-time fabric itself. She's like a virus, and she must be removed from our world entirely. The problem with that is I don't know how.”
“What if we sent her somewhere else?” Kim asked.
“How?”
“With a space-time continuum disruptor?”
Dr. Director slowly nodded. “That could work. By casting her through a portal created by the disruptor, the energies in the portal could counteract the ripple effect caused by the destruction of the Tempus Simia, which evidently caused this mess in the first place. Do you know where we can find one?”
“Oh, I know someone who owes me a favor or two,” Kim said.
“Good. I'd suggest getting it as soon as possible.” She paused. “There is one other problem, however.”
“Of course,” Kim muttered. “What?”
“Well… if the plan succeeds and future-Shego ceases to exist like the rest of her world, then it should also undo any lingering effects of the Tempus Simia.”
“So?”
“So what if she wasn't lying about the gloves?” Dr. Director asked softly.
Kim looked confused. “I don't get it, what?”
“Shego,” Dr. Director said, leaning toward her, “if this woman created your gloves and gave them to you, then what do you think will happen when she's finally gone?”
Shego stared at her. “You're saying my past is going to change.”
“Essentially, yes.”
“I'll never get the gloves. I won't get my first big job as an evil sidekick. I'll never work for Drakken… I'll never meet Kim.”
Kim's mouth fell open. “What?”
Shego turned to look at Kim. “I couldn't find work as a henchman until I got the gloves, Kim. I was just some girl with a few moves. The gloves made me dangerous. They helped make my reputation. Without them - our paths will never cross. You won't just lose me. You'll never even know me.”
Then she got up and stormed out the front door.
Kim couldn't believe it. “That's not what you meant. Right?”
Dr. Director shook her head. “I'm sorry, Kim. But unless this woman was lying about giving Shego her gloves, the only way to save the universe could make Shego just another figment of your subconscious.”
Kim sat there for a moment. Then she ran after Shego.
Ron just looked at Dr. Director. “So, this thing I have with meatcakes?”
“You've probably never even eaten one.”
“Freaky.”
“Sappho,” Shego said as Kim came onto the front porch of Dr. Director's home.
“What?”
“You've got to take Sappho and get that disruptor thingy ASAP. You know where to get one?”
Kim rubbed the back of her head. “Remember Justine?”
“The girl in Boston?”
“She built one for a high-school project. And it worked, too. She sent a prehistoric dinosaur into another world.”
Shego chuckled. “Gee. I'd hate to be living there.” Then she looked away. “She called me with Monique's phone earlier tonight. All we need to do is call her back, lure her into a meeting, and zap her with this disruptor.”
“And you're not bothered by what might happen?” Kim asked.
“We're just dating,” Shego said. “It's not like either of us are losing the loves of our life. And I was going to make it big whether I got the gloves or not. It'll just take me a few years-”
Kim put her hand on Shego's arm, and the other woman started. “Shego, I don't know which is worse - the fact that I might stop knowing you, or the fact that if I do, I won't even remember losing you.”
“What's wrong with that?” Shego asked. “We don't even have to feel sad. Not that I'd be sad, of course.”
Kim pulled back. “That remark would really hurt if I didn't know you were lying through your teeth.”
Shego actually flinched. She turned away angrily. “I'm even more sick and tired of life getting in our way than I am of being chased from my apartment.”
“You think I enjoy this? So why do you always take it out on me?”
“Excuse me? You pushed me away on Senior's island. You rejected me at the football field. You were the one hanging out with Mankey. I had a good fucking reason to be mad at you.”
“You're right, I did. So who's pushing who away this time, Shego?” Kim asked.
Shego stopped, her mouth open. She grumbled something as she looked down.
“What?”
“Echoes,” she mumbled.
“I can't hear what you're-”
“Echoes! She said we'll feel echoes of this life. Do you think it'll be really bad - feeling like there's something missing, and never knowing what it is?” Shego asked.
Kim drew near and slipped her arms around Shego's waist. “You always meant excitement to me.”
“And I could always count on you - to be a pain in my ass, but still,” Shego said.
Kim chuckled weakly. “So what does that make you, my darker half?”
“I guess so. I'm just so much badness that your body couldn't hold it all.” Shego leaned back into Kim.
“I don't know about that,” Kim murmured.
“Oh?”
“According to this woman, I killed her. Threw her out a window at the top of the tallest tower. And I was only sixteen. I guess Dr. Acceptable wasn't a fluke,” Kim said softly.
“Kim, that world was never supposed to exist,” Shego told her. “I think everyone did things they would normally never do. Like…” She growled. “Damn it.”
“What?”
“If we manage to make it through this, I'm going to have to be nicer to Stoppable,” Shego groaned.
Kim laughed. “Oh, really? Why is that? You know, if you're nicer to him, you might make his head explode.”
“That would be something at least,” Shego agreed. “See, according to my evil twin, Ron is the reason she was defeated in the future. If it hadn't been for him, it would be THIS world that never existed, not hers.”
“That's true,” Kim realized.
“Not only that, but the only reason they even managed to work the Time Monkey in the first place was because you and Ron were split up. Even my double realized what a team you made. She sent Ron off to Europe, and suddenly you couldn't win. I've always said that you didn't need him. I thought he was just-”
“Buffoon?”
“Buffoon,” Shego agreed. “And now I find out that, but for the grace of Ron Stoppable, you and I never would have happened.” She closed her eyes. “I might even have to thank him later.”
“You might have your chance sooner than you think.”
Kim and Shego jumped. “Dr. Director!” Kim gasped as she separated from Shego.
“Ron got a phone call,” Dr. Director said. “You'd better get in here.”
“Ron?” Kim asked as they re-entered the house.
Ron was sitting mutely on the couch. Rufus was clutching his waist. He looked up at Kim, his cell phone hanging limply from one hand. “That was her,” he said. “She has my parents.”
“What?!” Kim and Shego both shouted.
“She kidnapped them. If we don't meet her at the re-education center in one hour, she's killing them both.” Ron looked at them. “What the hell is a re-education center, anyway?”
“Give me that,” Shego snapped, grabbing the phone. She hit the redial and held the phone to her ear.
“I said one hour, and that's-”
“Forget what year this is?” Shego asked, sneering at her own voice ringing in her ear. “There IS no re-education center in Middleton.”
“… it used to be the high school, I think.”
“Fine. You die in an hour, bitch.” Shego hung up. “High school.”
“Figures,” Ron said. “It always goes back to high school.”
Kim looked equally angry. “Sadie will take me to Sappho. I'll go to Boston as soon as possible.”
“Why you?” Shego asked. “Sappho likes me more.”
“Justine is more likely to let me borrow the disruptor at this hour,” Kim said. “You and Ron have to get to the high school, save his parents, and stall the Supreme One until I can return. Maybe, with Sappho's supercharged engines built for space travel, I can be gone and back in an hour.”
“Guess we don't have much time left together, huh?” Shego said.
Kim smiled sadly. “Nowhere near enough. Ron, trust Shego. It'll be all right.”
Ron nodded. “Right. KP - I can't lose my folks.”
“Calm down, Stoppable,” Shego said. “We'll save them, and then we'll kick her ass for laying her hands on them.”
“Yeah,” Ron said. His eyes burned. “Yeah.”
To be continued…