“Who's there?” Sappho extended her “eye” and flashed the light about the hangar. Something different caught her eye and she focused on something directly in front of her.
“It's just me, Sappho,” Kim said.
“Oh. Hello, Kim. What are you doing here at this hour?”
“Well, for starters, waking you up. Sadie was trying to signal you from outside, but she says you always were hard to ‘boot up',” Kim replied.
“My cousin is so amusing,” Sappho muttered. “Invite her in so I can boot HER up. If I had a foot, that is.”
Kim frowned. “I sent her back. Ron and Shego could use the backup.”
“Wait, backup? Shego? Kim, what is the matter?”
“Remember our trip to Boston?”
“Of course. I don't expect to delete that data file any time soon.”
“Well, we're going back. I need something, and if I can't have it back here in an hour, it could mean the end of someone's life.”
Sappho gasped. “Termination? Who, Shego?”
Kim nodded. “Maybe. Ron and his parents too. I want to be with them, but I need to get to Boston, and you're the fastest ride I know.”
“Please, come in,” Sappho said, opening her hatch. “And buckle yourself in. Conventional speed limits don't apply to the engines Dr. Freeman designed. Otherwise it'd take me the rest of his lifetime just to reach Jupiter. So prepare yourself.”
“No big,” Kim assured her as she sat in the pilot's seat and strapped herself in. “I've been in some of the fastest rides on this earth.”
“Mmm-hmmm,” Sappho said noncommittally. She made a peculiar clicking sound, as if she were tapping a finger. “Might as well do it in style.”
Sappho's exterior shimmered, and the color of the hull changed to hot pink.
The doors slowly opened with her computerized command, and she gently rose from the ground and sailed out.
“Blast off,” Sappho murmured.
Then she was gone.
Kim's eyes grew wide. “Whoooaaaaaaahhhhhhh!”
“I wonder if Mach 10 is fast enough,” Sappho said thoughtfully. “This is life-or-death. Maybe Mach 12, just to be safe. Kim, what do you think?”
“Can't… move… lips…”
“Oh! I'm terribly sorry, Kim. We self-automated machines can be so forgetful. Dampeners on.”
Kim found she could breathe through her nose again.
“What can I do?” Sadie asked as she idled near Ron and Shego.
“Maybe nothing yet,” Shego said. “If we hurt her too much, she could run off again. Then it might be Kim's family she goes after next.”
“Can we focus on saving MY family first?”
“Rufus and Ruby should go their own way,” Shego replied. “I'm not sure if the Supreme One even remembers if they exist. In fact, since you only bought Ruby a few months ago, there's no way she could know about her. Maybe if we can distract her, the rats can free your parents. Sadie, why don't you scout out the area, find a place where the Supreme One can't see you but where you can grab the ‘rents quick if they escape?”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Sadie said grudgingly. Her dislike for Shego was, like so much else, in direct contrast to Sappho.
“Think Kim will get back in time with the thingamabob?” Ron asked.
“Depends how much time we give her,” Shego replied. “I vote we kick her ass and give Kim as much time as possible.”
“If you don't seem to be succeeding at the ass-kicking part,” Sadie pointed out, “I'm frying her.”
“Go ahead,” Shego said. “It'll be interesting to see her heal from THAT.”
As Sadie quietly drove off, Shego looked at Ron. “Uh, look, Stoppable-”
“Don't ask me to keep out of your way,” he muttered. “She took my parents, Shego. I want to make her hurt.”
“That wasn't what I was going to say,” she retorted. “I - well, damn it. I'm gonna try to be a little - nicer to you from now on.” Her face looked like she'd eaten something curdled.
Ron stared at her. “Shego, if you're trying to boost my morale, you're only creeping me out here.”
“Look, maybe you're not quite as useless as I always thought. I mean, you're the one the Supreme One wants to kill, not Kim. You must contribute - something.”
“Of all the ways I imagined you'd damn me, faint praise wasn't one of them. Trust me, I'd gleefully be completely useless in a fight if it meant my parents weren't the ones her prisoner.” He paused and looked at her hesitantly. “A little nicer?”
“Yeah.”
“Then don't rip my head off. But I don't want you getting all heat-of-the-moment down there.”
“What?”
“First priority - save my folks. If they get hurt because you get so caught up in being the top dog in a fight that you missed an opportunity to get them out of harm's way, I'm going to be - a little less nice to you.”
Shego grinned. “Aww, Ron, are you threatening me? That's so cute. Maybe you really ARE less than 100 useless.”
“Okay, the world is starting to make sense again”
“What do you have against our son anyway?” Mr. Stoppable demanded. “I thought the two of you had become friendlier.”
The Supreme One sighed and muttered some choice deprecations under her breath. Apparently her younger self had become a bit more touchy-feely than she'd previously admitted. She was going to be sick.
“Is this because of Kim?” Mrs. Stoppable asked in a voice that carried a hint of sympathy. “I realize Ron wasn't accepting of the relationship at first, but I thought he'd come around. Anyway, I don't see how kidnapping us is going to help matters.”
“Relationship?”
“Well - you probably would prefer that it wasn't publicized, but Ron did tell us that you and Kim were in a romantic relationship. He was very upset about it, you know. Don't worry, we haven't talked to anyone about it. And we've always tried to bring Ron up in a Reform household. Kim is a lovely woman, and if she has feelings for you, then we would encourage her to explore them.”
She looked at them, dumbfounded.
In a world without the Supreme One, Shego started dating… Kim Possible?
The Supreme One had been right. She felt sick to her very core. Her humiliation was complete. Instead of ruler of the world, she'd become a shadow of her old self, having literally gotten into bed with her former enemies.
How she hated her double. Maybe she needed to die too. Admittedly, she wasn't sure if she COULD kill her younger self without ceasing to exist as well. But she was defying logic by her very existence already. Why not push the envelope?
“Listen,” the Supreme One growled. “I am not who you think I am. The Shego you've heard about is someone else, and she's probably going to be here any moment with your beloved Kim and Ron.”
The Stoppables looked at each other. “Ron told us about clones, but I never really believed him,” Mr. Stoppable finally said.
The Supreme One's cry of rage split the air.
“That's definitely her,” Shego said dryly as they stealthily circled the concession stand. The Supreme One's scream echoed across the field.
Ron took his mole rats out of his pockets. “Rufus. Ruby. You know what trouble my parents are in.”
They nodded solemnly. Ruby wiped away a tear.
“Take the bleachers, get behind her - wherever she is - and free them. Sadie will play welcome wagon once they're all right. Got it?”
“Yes!” Ruby cheered as she held aloft a thumb.
Rufus smiled and nodded.
“Okay, go.”
They leapt from his palms and began running down the benches.
“Here goes nothing,” he said to Shego then.
They looked carefully out onto the field, the high school itself having shown no signs of forced entry. Sure enough, the Supreme One was standing at the fifty-yard line in the exact center of the field. Ron's parents were sitting on the turf, their hands evidently tied behind their backs.
“Right out in the open,” Shego said. “She obviously doesn't plan to be surprised.”
“Why would she be surprised? She told us to be here.”
Shego sighed.
“Well, since we can't surprise her…” Ron suddenly sprinted out toward the field.
“Ron, no!” She rushed after him and practically tackled him as he reached the out-of-bounds line.
“Ooh, just short of a first down.”
Ron and Shego looked up. The Supreme One was just ten yards away (the lines on the field made it easy to tell).
“And here I thought you preferred rolling around with Kimmie,” the Supreme One continued, looking at Shego with an ugly expression on her face.
“We haven't actually reached that stage in our relationship,” Shego replied calmly as she stood up. “At least I don't have to mindwipe my lovers so they don't have to remember spending time with the likes of you.”
The Supreme One sneered at her. “At least I'm not so soft that I've learned to enjoy being on my knees.”
Ron got up. “Maybe you two could take the sexual banter elsewhere? You're embarrassing my parents.”
“Oh no,” the Supreme One hissed. “You'll have to go through me if you want to prevent them any further mortification. Just so you know, I prefer mortification of the flesh.”
“I didn't know you could blush,” Ron said. “And if you prefer blushing, why not just say that, instead of that fancy word?”
The Supreme One growled and clenched her fists, generating her plasma energy. “I'll never understand how I was beaten by someone so STUPID!”
“Hey, you take that back! No clone talks about my son that way!” Mrs. Stoppable shouted.
She spun around. “The next person to call me a clone gets their face burned off!” the Supreme One screamed, raising a glowing fist in the air.
“Hey, clone.”
The Supreme One wasn't fast enough as Shego caught her by the wrist and rammed her foot into her belly. The older woman exhaled loudly as she bent double.
“Maybe you should take some anger management classes while we're at the ‘re-education center',” Shego said mockingly as she made quotation marks with her fingers.
Enraged, her double attacked.
“That's a space-time continuum disruptor?” Sappho asked. “It looks a little small.”
“In high school, I watched this machine make a fifty-foot-tall monster disappear,” Kim told her. “Justine did me a big favor when she let me borrow this.” She frowned. “A big favor,” she said again.
“I'm sure she did. Kim? I believe there are fighter planes behind us.”
“Can't you outrun them like the last few times?”
“Of course I can! I just thought you'd like to know.”
“If it happens again, I don't need to be notified.”
“Got it.”
Kim looked up at the screen. “You know, Team Possible depends a lot on the kindness of others, doesn't it?”
“I don't follow.”
“You and Sadie are on loan from Dr. Freeman.”
“Well, you didn't exactly ask him for permission tonight. I chose to help you on my own. I am self-automated, after all.”
“Right,” Kim admitted, smiling. “Still, all our technology was designed, free of charge, by Wade. Our transportation, even before you and Sadie came along, was provided by people we'd helped.”
“You've made a lot of friends in your line of work.”
“Yeah. It's not enough, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean - we're saving the world on a biweekly basis, it feels like. I always knew it would take a full-time commitment, but I never really understood what a full-time job it is. Maybe Shego's right. Maybe we should start charging some of these people. Enough to be able to afford world-saving technology on our own, rather than depending on the generosity of others.”
“You mean you wouldn't help someone if they couldn't pay you? That doesn't sound like you, Kim.”
“I'm not saying that! I'm just - I don't know what. Maybe I'm not thinking clearly. I'm worried about Ron and Shego. What if I'm too late?”
Kim considered raising the other alternative, that she might arrive in time and use the device to destroy the Supreme One, only to lose Shego forever. But she knew how much Sappho liked Shego, and the possibility that she might slow down rather than help start Shego's life over from scratch, however slim, kept her quiet.
“You really are soft,” the Supreme One said, an insane grin on her face as she continued to push downward. Shego had her hands around both of the Supreme One's wrists, but she sweated as the glowing green fire pressed slowly, inexorably toward her face. “But then, ten years of personally whipping my more disobedient subjects does do a lot for one's upper body strength.” She didn't even bother to blast Shego with her gloves, wanting to feel her flesh burn under her touch.
“I'm a - little distracted,” Shego said through gritted teeth.
“Oh? Thinking of your mistress?”
The Supreme One heard a tiny click, and she froze.
“Actually,” Shego said, “I never tried to unlock my old gloves while someone else was wearing them. It was harder than I thought.”
Her foot lashed out, catching the Supreme One right under her throat. The force of the kick not only knocked her backwards, but also ripped her hands right out of her gloves, leaving them bare.
“Gee, you're just losing everything dear to you, aren't you?” Shego asked. “Not to mention the things you hate.” She looked pointedly over the Supreme One's shoulder.
The Supreme One turned and saw the Stoppables climbing into the back of Sadie. The ropes that had bound them lay on the ground in frayed pieces. Rufus waved at the Supreme One and blew a raspberry.
“No!” the Supreme One screamed. She pointed a hand in their direction before she remembered that she no longer wore her gloves. She turned again to face Shego. “Give them - back?”
Shego was gone.
“You fucking COWARD!” the Supreme One jeered.
“I thought I was the one you wanted to kill.”
She stopped and smiled leisurely. “Stoppable,” she said, looking to her right. “I bet you're feeling pretty cocky, what with me weaponless and your parents safe.”
“I'm a little pissed. Will that do?”
“Hey, I'm a little pissed too. Let's be pissed off together.”
Ron raised one foot, held his arms at a right angle, and made exaggerated noises in response.
“Oh, brother,” the Supreme One muttered as her fist landed squarely on his nose.
Meanwhile, Shego panted as she leaned against the concession stand and carefully slid off the gloves Senior Senior had designed for her. “You be good now,” she murmured as she slid them into the pocket on her leg. “I'm not through with you guys yet. That being said…”
She slid on the gloves she'd stolen from the Supreme One, locked them in place, and snapped her fingers. They energized, bathing her face in a green glow.
“Oh, yes,” she whispered. “Oh baby, I am BACK.”
“Approaching Middleton High,” Sappho told her.
“Can you give me a better visual?” Kim asked.
“Naturally.”
Kim quickly spotted motion on the football field. “There!”
Sappho zoomed in on the athletic field, revealing Ron - “Ouch,” Kim muttered as Ron got flipped onto his back. She couldn't see any green flashes coming from the Supreme One, which was something to be grateful for at least. But Shego - where was Shego?
“Can you contact Sadie, ask her what the sitch is?”
“I'm already being hailed, actually. Sadie?”
“Sappho? Is Kim there?”
“I'm right here, Sadie, and I have the disruptor. What's going on?”
“I've got Ron's parents in the back seat. They're fine. Ron and Shego are still fighting the Supreme One. I told them I'd use my disintegrator ray on her if I had to, but it hasn't gotten that bad. Not yet, anyway. Ron is-”
“I know, I can see,” Kim sighed. “Outclassed.”
“She does have an edge in experience, even without the gloves.”
“Wait, without the gloves?”
“Somehow Shego got them away from her. Oh, there she goes now. She certainly looks happy.”
Kim had spotted her as well. She could see from the moving green lights that Shego was the one with the plasma gloves, not the Supreme One. “Wicked,” she breathed. “Sappho, land behind the Supreme One. Hopefully we can generate a portal behind her, allowing Shego to push her in.”
“On it.”
“You think you're all that, but you're not,” the Supreme One chuckled as she swept Ron's legs out from under him. The few blows he'd landed had healed long ago. He'd improved since the time she'd encountered him in the future, but not by enough.
“Sounding like Drakken now?” he asked as he rubbed blood from his lip. “You really have hit rock bottom.”
“Oh, she can sink lower.”
The Supreme One glanced up in time to catch a splash of plasma across her right shoulder. She screamed and stumbled backwards.
Ron looked up and saw Shego standing there, her hands glowing with so much green flame that it was almost dripping onto the grass. She looked at the Supreme One with eyes of pure malice. “Heh heh, scared now,” he muttered, scrambling backwards.
“None of them get it,” Shego said. “Not John Acceptable, not Drakken, not Dementor, not even you. You hurt me? I'll just come back stronger, and the next time, I win.”
The Supreme One spat at her feet. “That should be my line,” she said as her shoulder slowly repaired itself. “My body is healing faster than you can hurt it.”
“At the cost of unraveling space and time - no problem, right?”
“Say what?”
“You don't belong here, Creamed One. If you stay too long, you could end up destroying the universe.”
“Hey, I almost died, so if you think I'm giving up my second chance, you're crazier than I am,” the Supreme One shot back. “Besides, I like the sound of that. Shego, Destroyer of Worlds.”
“Doy. I think we can safely say no one is crazier than you,” Shego replied before she tumbled forward and slashed both claws out in an “X” formation, gouging bloody lines across her chest. A follow-up burst knocked the Supreme One onto her back.
The Supreme One staggered onto her feet, but Shego responded with a massive uppercut swipe that sliced her chest from her right hip to her left shoulder, splashing blood across Shego's face. It quickly became a repeat of their fight earlier in the apartment, as Shego inflicted wounds that closed almost as soon as they appeared. This time, however, the pain she caused the Supreme One was trebled by the burning, bubbling flames.
How long this could have been kept up was hard to say. None would ever know, because they were interrupted by lights and fierce winds as something large descended behind them. The Supreme One's eyes went up and up as she took in the giant pink flying machine. “A U.F.O.? You got a fricking UFO?”
“Word to the wise - she likes being called a UFO about as much as you like being called a clone,” Shego murmured before slicing open the Supreme One's back and kicking her forward.
The hatch slowly opened and Kim strode out, the disruptor in both hands. “Not your night, is it, Supreme One?” she asked loudly.
“Kimmie,” the Supreme One breathed. “You must enjoy seeing this, your greatest conquest fighting herself to curry your favor. Maybe you'll give her a hug or two after this.”
Kim just looked at her. This could be the last minute Shego spent in her life, and she didn't even have the time to savor it. It was only fitting that the Supreme One was between them. She was already tearing them apart. “If she's still here after this, I'll give her anything she wants.” Then she set the disruptor down.
“What? A death ray?” the Supreme One sneered. “Killing me once wasn't enough?”
Kim flinched, even though she had no memory of pushing this woman out a window. “I guess I always had to finish a job once started.” She reached down and flicked the switch.
Bright light blinded them all for a moment. When Kim's vision returned, Shego and the Supreme One were obscured by a shimmering haze in the sky between them, like a floating pool of water. “Nice,” she muttered. “Shego?”
“Still here, Kimmie,” Shego called back. “For a few seconds more, anyway.” She glared at the Supreme One. “A few seconds longer than you, at least.”
“Whatever you think you're doing, it won't work,” the Supreme One hissed, holding her hands protectively in front of her body. But she was obviously torn between backing away from Shego and toward the portal, or approaching Shego and receiving more punishment.
“Thanks for the gloves,” Shego replied. “Now it's your turn to receive, not give.” She began generating a larger than usual charge in her gloves.
The Supreme One attempted to dart around Shego, but the younger woman was too fast and she grabbed the Supreme One by the arm, the flames on her hand immediately searing the flesh. She screamed in agony.
“Funny, that's how I feel,” Shego thought as she let go of the arm a moment before burying her other fist in the Supreme One's gut.
The blast knocked her clean off her feet. She sailed through the air and landed directly within the portal.
For a moment, she was perfectly still.
Then she began screaming.
Kim put her hands over her ears. If that was what “ceasing to exist” felt like, then she never wanted that to happen to her.
Or…
“Shego!!!”
To be concluded…