“Great, so what do we do?” Ron moaned, as he looked around the cell he and the others were trapped in.
“We’re still sticking with my original plan. We’re going to get Shego and now Dr. McCoy out of here and take down every last one of these walking toasters once and for all,” Kim said, a new sense of determination filling her voice.
“That outcome is unlikely,” the Bebe guard spoke up.
Kim forgot about her modesty and walked up to the shimmering blue wall of light that made up the force field keeping them all inside the cell. She could feel the electricity dancing off the field near her face but it paled in comparison to the electricity that crackled in her eyes as she stared down the robot.
“You want to tell me why that’s unlikely?” she challenged.
“You are our prisoners. You have no weapons. You have no plan,” the Bebe replied insistently.
“That’s true,” Kim admitted as she hung her head. She slowly raised it again, a smirk on her lips and a devious twinkle in her eye that matched any of Shego’s looks. “And doesn’t that just terrify you?”
The Bebe looked at her with a cold, emotionless stare for several seconds before it finally spun back around on its heel to continue its guard duty. Kim allowed herself a quick smirk at her perceived before she turned around as well and started to scan the cell for anything that would help them escape.
“Wow KP that was…uh…you sure being around Shego all the time isn’t effecting you?” Ron asked, slightly worried.
“Maybe, but I gotta admit sometimes that attitude helps,” Kim remarked as she continued to survey the area.
“I guess so,” Ron muttered as he cast a glance back to the Bebe bot. “So what exactly is your plan for getting out of here?”
“Well…I haven’t quite figured that part out yet,” she admitted then looked over her shoulder at him. “But when I do, it’ll be real impressive.”
Shego screamed as another contraction wrecked her body. It felt like someone was trying to rip her in two and when she really thought about it that was almost exactly what was happening. Of course those moments of clarity were few and far between thanks not only to the pain of labor but also the overwhelming frustration of being captured. When the contractions passed and her strength returned, she still tried to escape but to no avail. It didn’t help matter that after each contraction felt weaker and weaker. Once she finally delivered Shin she was definitely going to need a nap for a few hours. But first she needed to get out of here. She was determined not to let her baby be born in the presence of a bunch of emotionless robots. If she wanted that, she could have just stayed with her family.
The moment of levity the joke brought her was quickly shunted by a stinging sensation in her left arm. She looked over to find one of the Bebes injecting some kind of liquid into her through a syringe
“What is that?! What are you doing?!” she demanded, sounding almost panicked.
“That is exactly what I would like to know. What are you doing to her?” a new voice asked.
Shego, as well as the Bebes, looked towards the source of the voice to find the Queen Bebe stepping into the room almost casually striding up to Shego’s side. The former thief growled at the mechanical woman and wished even more that she could break free so she could throttle her.
“She has recently entered the first stages of labor,” the Bebe holding the syringe addressed her Queen. “I was merely administering a serum that should help accelerate the process.”
“Excellent,” the Queen spoke approvingly. “You have done well my subject.”
“Thank you your majesty,” the Bebe replied with a slight bow.
The Queen nodded to her then looked down menacingly at the captive Shego.
“Well it seems your usefulness to us it almost up. Soon we will have our prize and you…well if you have any faith I suggest you start prying to whatever god you believe in.”
“Oh I believe in something alright,” Shego remarked in a voice dripping with venom. “I believe I’m going to get out of here and when I do I’m going to make a killing selling your parts for scrap.”
“Also so bold and defiant,” the Queen spoke softly as she ran a hand through Shego’s hair, causing her to flinch. “I almost appreciate that. However, I can not afford defiance from anyone, so I would watch my tongue if I were you. We still have the option of simply cutting the baby out of you. I’m allowing you to live this long so that you might experience what I’ve been told is the ‘joy of child birth’.”
“Oh yeah it’s a real joy alright.”
The Queen smiled evilly at that. “Precisely. I have a feeling that this is inflicting more pain on you than I ever could.”
With that, she turned and walked towards the door. As it slid open, she paused at the doorway and looked over her shoulder at her subjects.
“Let me know the second the baby is born,” she commanded.
“And what shall we do with her?” one of the Bebes asked, pointing to Shego.
“That’s easy enough. Kill her.”
In another part of the Hive, removed from the drama surrounding Kim and Shego, the Kimmunicator, Kim’s super suit and a now smashed EMP gun all sat amid extra panels and circuit boards in a small storage closet. The still darkness of the room was interrupted when the Kimmunicator’s screen switched on and Wade found himself looking at the small square it projected on the closet’s ceiling.
“Kim? Ron? Anyone?” he asked desperately.
When he didn’t receive an answer he quickly switched the deceive over to remote controlled and a small set of wings popped out of it’s sides before it hovered into the air. He positioned it so he could a look at the table it had been laying on and upon seeing Kim’s discarded super suit his emotions ranged from embarrassed to concerned in seconds.
“This isn’t good,” he said to himself.
He maneuvered the Kimmunicator around the closet to get his bearings and smiled when he found the access panel to the door. He hovered the device over to it and a quick scan gave him the code to open the door. Once in the main corridor he turned the Kimmunicator back and forth to check for any sign of the Bebes, letting out a sigh of relief when there wasn’t one.
Looks like the coast is clear, he thought. And I could probably fly the Kimmunicator just under their radar so they wouldn’t notice it. But even if I did find Kim, what use could I be with just this? There’s got to be something else I can do.
He sat in silence for several seconds as he tried to come up with some kind of plan. Unfortunately, even with flying the Kimmunicator, there was only so much he could do from behind his computer at home. These were the only few times he wished he was actually out there with Kim and Ron. If he was there with them, he might be able to get a better idea of what they’re up against. Some kind of layout to the new editions to the building the Bebes made. At the very least he could hack into their systems.
“Wait that’s it!” he exclaimed as he snapped his fingers.
He moved the Kimmunicator back into the closet and hid it out of sight. Now he just had to wait and hope that a suddenly open closet door would aroused as much suspicion in a robot as it would a person. Surely enough, only a minute or so later a Bebe noticed the open door and walked in to investigate. As it scanned the area for anything unusual, Wade kept the Kimmunicator hovering above the doorframe just out of it’s line of site. For now. He hope it would keep going unnoticed until he was ready to make his move. He had to be quick about it if this plan was going to work. He typed away as quickly and quietly as he could and right as the Bebe was about to turn to leave, he struck. The Kimmunicator flew onto the robot’s back and locked onto whatever circuits it could find there. Right as the Bebe extended its hands to remove the offending device, a powerful electrical surge went through it, shutting all its systems down in a matter of seconds. It stood motionless for a moment then powered back up and slowly raised its head. It looked side-to-side then flexed its fingers and arms as if it was getting use to its own body.
“Alright, phase one completely,” Wade mused as his home monitor showed the Bebe was seeing. “Now to find Kim and try to help her get out of here.”
He typed a few more sequences and was soon able to access everything in the Bebe’s memory banks. The first thing he did was located were the holding cell where Kim and the others were being held then picked up their discarded equipment before heading out to free them.
“Just hold tight guys, I’m coming,” he muttered.
Back in the holding cell, Dr. McCoy was beginning to question his decision about hiring the supposedly “undefeatable” Team Possible. Not only had they been captured and stripped of all their gear, and in Kim’s case just stripped, but now their great hope for escape was the blonde boy’s little pet.
“I can’t believe our chance for escape depends on a rodent,” he scoffed.
“Hey!” Rufus protested from his place on the floor.
“Dude he’s a naked mole rat. And he’s done things like this plenty of times before, haven’t you buddy?” Ron encouraged his second best friend.
“Uh huh, uh huh,” said naked mole rat agreed vigorously then went back to sniffing around for something he could use.
“Yeah that’s great, but has he found something useful for right now?” Dr. McCoy asked, feeling more frustrated by the minute.
Ron looked down expectantly at Rufus who could only give him an apologizing look back as he shook his head sadly.
“Sorry,” he squeaked.
“Aw it’s OK, you did your best,” Ron reassured him. “We’ll find some other way out of here.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“Because that’s what we do Dr. McCoy. We find ways out of impossible situations,” Kim remarked from her place against the far wall, a hint of annoyance crawling into her voice as well.
“Well you’ve done a bang up job of it so far,” the scientist retorted as he started to turn towards her.
“Stop! No peeking, remember?” she scolded.
He stopped mid turn with an irritated sigh and turned back around, making sure to cover the side of his face with his hand as he did so.
“I wasn’t trying to peek. God, the last thing I need at this point is to be labeled a pedophile.”
“I’m seventeen!” Kim shouted back, feeling somewhat offended.
“That’s still young enough to get me in trouble with the police, and again I just don’t need that added on to all the Frankenstein references I’m going to hear.”
“Yes, I’m so sorry for all the bad things you have to endure,” Kim muttered venomously.
Dr. McCoy was about to make another snide remark but stopped when he noticed both Ron and Rufus giving him colder glares than anything from their captors. He looked between the two, then sighed when Kim’s statement repeated itself in his head and he realized what an incredibly selfish jackass he was being. He started to turn around to apologize to her, but stopped when he remembered her rule.
“I’m sorry,” he said, feeling a bit odd at not looking at her while saying it. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I thought I was helping the world not dooming it.”
Kim closed her eyes then took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly to calm myself down before speaking.
“It’s not your fault,” she replied. “You couldn’t have known the Bebes were going to take your chip and use it for their new queen. I don’t think any of us could have known that. And I’m sorry for snapping at you. I’m just worried about Shego and Shin is all. And I honestly have no idea how to get out of here.”
“Well maybe we could-” Ron started.
“What are you doing?” the voice of their guard called out.
Ron clamped his hands over his mouth, afraid the Bebe might have over heard him. He, along with Kim, Rufus, and Dr. McCoy, looked towards the robot to see it wasn’t adding any of them but rather another Bebe that was walking up to the cell. What immediately caught their attention but this new one was that is was wearing Ron’s mission belt around its waist while Kim’s super suit was slumped over its right shoulder. Kim and Ron looked at each other to see either of them had a clue as to what was going on, but when they both shrugged in confusion they went back to watching the two robots.
“I am here for the shift change,” the new Bebe spoke.
“Negative. There are no shift changes,” the first Bebe replied. “Again, what are you doing here? And why do you have the prisoner’s weapons.”
“Alright, I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way,” the second Bebe replied, it’s voice suddenly changing.
Before the guard Bebe could act, the new one raised its left fist and extended it through the other robot’s head, crushing its face in. Sparks flew out of the hole as the body twitched violently for a few seconds before falling to the ground in a heap. The new Bebe retracted its hand, dropping a few stray pieces of circuit boards, before walking up to the panel for the cell and quickly deactivating the force field. Kim and Ron quickly tensed up and readied themselves for awhile while Dr. McCoy snuck back into one of the far corners of the room.
“Relax guys, it’s me,” the Bebe said in a very familiar voice.
“Wade?!” the two teen heros cried out.
“Yep.”
“But…how?” Kim asked, stepping forward a bit.
In response, the Bebe turned around to reveal the Kimmunicator stuck to it’s back and Wade’s face smiling back at them. He gave them a quick wave from the view screen before turning the Bebe back around to face them again.
“Here, thought you guys might need these,” he said, holding out Kim’s suit and Ron’s belt.
Kim quickly grabbed the suit and nearly tripped over herself getting it back on. When the zipper reached the top of the suit’s turtle neck she let out a sigh of relief.
“Finally!” she breathed. “You have no idea how embarrassing that was.”
“I have some idea,” Ron replied as he snapped his belt in place and Rufus jumped back into his pocket.
“I thought you didn’t get embarrassed?” Kim teased with a playful smirk.
“Now you know why I said ‘some idea’.”
Kim allowed her smile to widen as she snapped her own belt back in place and with it some sense of finally being back in control of the sitch. The feeling didn’t last long, however, when she reached into the holster and pulled out bits and pieces of…something.
“Wade, what is this?” she addressed the Wade controlled Bebe.
“What’s left of the EMP gun,” he replied. “Sorry Kim, I guess they figured it was the most dangerous thing you had so they smashed it.”
“Great,” she sighed, letting the pieces fall to the floor. “I guess we’ll just have to think of another way to stop them.” She looked over at the robot again and finally seemed to click as to what exactly having it with them meant. “Wade, how long can you control that Bebe?”
“I’m not sure. They’re system’s pretty complicated and it’s already trying to fight me back,” he replied.
“So then you can’t control it indefinitely?”
The Bebe shook it’s head and Kim snapped her fingers in irritation.
“Well I guess that rules out using it as part of our escape plan,” she muttered.
“I was able to download all their schematics for the building while I was here,” Wade mentioned off handedly.
Kim’s smile returned. “Wade you stadium rock.”
“I know.”
Kim walked around to the back of the robot and started reached for the Kimmunicator but stopped half way.
“If I remove the Kimmunicator will the Bebe come back online?” she asked.
Wade looked at her a uncertainly.
“Yeah, but I honestly can’t say how long it’ll take. It might be a few minutes or it could happen right away,” he explained.
“Then I guess I’ll just have to do this fast.”
With that Kim reached down and yanked off the Kimmunicator the jumped up and perform a perfectly spin kick that knocked the Bebe’s head off her shoulders in one swift move. The headless body staggered a bit and tried to walk before, but only got about an inch before collapsing onto the floor. Kim brushed the hair out of her face with a satisfied smirk then looked down Kimmunicator.
“OK Wade, tell me where they’ve got Shego,” she ordered in a voice that told him he had better know now.
Wade swallowed nervously before hitting a few keys, replacing his image with one of the building’s new floor plan.
“You are here,” his voice explained as a red dot appeared to indicate her presence. “Shego is here.” A green dot then appeared on the other side of the map.
Kim studied the map for a moment and was at least grateful for the fact that the room they’re holding Shego in was on the same floor was the cell she and the others had just occupied. Now the only question was how to get from here to there without running into a mess of Bebes.
“Does the suit still have enough power to run at super speed?” she asked.
“It should be good for a couple more times.”
“And if I keep this map up it should still work even if I’m moving at hyper-speed?”
“Yeah,” Wade drew out, beginning to understand what she was getting out. “Kim you’re not going to-”
“Yep,” she hastily replied before switching off the audio. She then turned to Ron and Dr. McCoy. “Alright boys, hold on tight, we’re going for a ride.”
Before either of them could offer a protest, Kim pressed the button that activated the suit’s super speed ability. Once again the world lost it’s focus as Kim entered the space Wade had dubbed “hypertime”. She picked up Ron and Dr. McCoy then after a scan of the map made a bee line for where they were holding Shego. Thankfully she encountered very little resistance save for two Bebes that tried to block off the corridor to the holding room, but they were quickly taken care of by a double spin kick that knocked off both their heads. When Kim arrived at her destination she set down her two passengers then clicked off the belt to return to normal time.
“Oh man, did we hit some turbulence back there?” Ron asked, as he held his head and tried to fight off the dizzy feeling he had.
“It was nothing,” Kim brushed off as she stepped towards the door.
She studied the keypad on the right side of the door for a moment and realized there were probably thousands, perhaps millions, of combinations mixed in it and it would take even Wade awhile to figure it out. Certainly much longer than they had. Though she supposed he could hack directly into the locking mechanism itself, that could also take time. No, there was only one sure fire method she wanted to use right now. She took a step back from the door and with a feral scream brought her right foot up and kicked the door with all her, and the suit’s, strength. A loud “clang” resonated through out the hallway as the door fell into the room. The three Bebes inside all turned towards Kim and glared at her.
“Well they definitely know we’re here now,” Dr. McCoy muttered.
Kim ignored his statement and ran into the room in full charge. She performed an amazing jump kick that knocked the heads off one of the Bebes, but then was quickly ensnared by the other twos’ extended hands. She grunted as she struggled to move a hand down to the suit’s belt and once she did she pressed another button along it that released a powerful electric shock. The Bebes shuddered violently as the shock caused several sparks and mini explosion to break out along their bodies before they finally powered down and collapsed, releasing Kim as they did so. Once they did, Kim took a few deep breaths before turning her attention to the captive Shego.
“Are you alright?” she asked, leaning over the older woman a bit.
“Oh yeah, I’m just prefect. Before you barged in the Bebes and I were having a nice discussion about Shin’s future,” Shego remarked in a mock sweet voice. Her face suddenly grew very dark as she glared at Kim for asking the dumbest question in the world. “Of course I’m not alright! I’m tied to a table and I’ve been poked and prodded by machines! How would you feel?!”
“Alright, alright, I’m sorry. I was just worried,” Kim relented as she backed off.
“You can worry about me after we get the hell out of here.”
“Right,” she nodded.
She then stepped over to the restraint holding down Shego’s right arm and grabbed onto the inside as much as she could then pulled with all her might. She and the metal both groaned under the strain, but after she put a foot up for greater support the metal finally gave way and the restraint broke in half with a loud snap. Kim let out a small squeak of surprise as the sudden break caused her to fell hard onto the metal floor and once she picked herself up she noticed Shego had already ignited her free hand then started to smash the remaining restraints. She pulled herself up into a sitting position as Kim quickly ran over to her to help her off the table. Before Shego could protest the help, she suddenly grasped Kim’s right hand and began to squeeze hard as she let out a terrible scream.
“Shego!” Kim shouted in concern. “What is it?! Are you alright?”
“It’s…Shin,” Shego grunted through the pained.
Kim’s eyes widened in horror. “Oh God, did they to something to her?”
Shego let out another scream before answering. “They…pumped me full of…something. Said it was suppose to speed up the labor process and it damn sure seems to be working.”
“Then you’re-”
“Yes! Very yes!”
“We’ve got to get you out of here!” Kim shouted as she helped Shego off the table and started walking towards the door.
“Wait,” Shego breathed, the contraction finally having passed.
“We don’t have time to wait.”
“What about the Bebes?”
That stopped Kim dead in her tracks. She knew that this point they had to be alerted to not only her escape but also her rescue of Shego. Still she was fairly certain she could that with the suit she could handle them at least long enough for them all to get out. But deep down, she know that wasn’t question Shego was asking. What she really meant was, “Who was going to stop the Bebes?” Kim choked back a few uncertain feelings as she tried to continue saving Shego.
“We’ll…we’ll get someone else to handle them. I’m sure GJ has a few tricks up their sleeves that could take them out,” she said, trying to convince herself as much as Shego.
“Passing the job off to someone else? That doesn’t sound like you,” Shego goaded.
“This is…different.”
“How?”
“Because…because…” she struggled to find the words.
“Because of me? Because of her?” Shego asked, holding her stomach.
Kim lowered her head, almost shamefully. “Yeah.”
“And that’s exactly why you need to stop that metal bitch right here and now. Who knows how long it’ll take GJ to get their crap together and get a team down here. By that point it might already be too late. Right now, you’re the only one that can stop her and you know it!”
“But…but I have to get you out of here,” Kim pleaded desperately.
“No!” Shego snapped, grabbing the collar of the redhead’s suit and pulling her close to her face. “You have to go save the world.”
Kim wanted to protest. She wanted to say something that would shoot down Shego’s argument. Something that proved her place was at the pale women’s side as she gave birth to their daughter. But she couldn’t. Because again she knew that deep down she was right. She was Kim Possible and had a world to save. She closed her eyes and took a moment to get everything right in her head. Family Kim would have to wait til later. Right now Shego, Ron, Dr. McCoy, the whole world needed Mission Kim. She slowly reopened her eyes and Shego could see the fire in them that the redhead usually had on a mission had returned.
“There’s my girl,” she whispered with a smile.
Kim nodded then leaned forward and gave Shego a quick kiss.
“Thank you,” she said softly. She then turned her attention to Ron. “Ron, take the Kimmunicator and get her and Dr. McCoy out of here.”
“Me?” Ron asked, looking uneasily at Shego.
“Yes, you. I know you can do this. And if you can’t do it for Shego at least do it for me,” she requested then placed a hand on his wrist as her look softened a bit. “Please.”
One look into her eyes and any resistance Ron had to the idea was gone. Kim wasn’t quite giving him the Puppy Dog Pout, but he could still see that same pleading look in her eyes behind all the bravado. It was that look that ensured Ron would never say no to her and he damn sure wouldn’t let her down.
“Alright,” he replied with a nod.
“Thank you,” Kim said as she handed over the Kimmunicator.
“Wait. Aren’t you going to need this to get back to the Queen’s thrown room?” he asked as he looked at the device.
“Oh don’t worry I think I can find my way back there,” she remarked as her finger hung over the button to activate the super speed.
“Once second,” Shego spoke up.
“What?”
Shego stepped forward and looked Kim right in the eyes. “That metal bitch kidnapped me, pumped me full of some drug and threatened to harvest our daughter for some sort of experiment. Even if I can’t be there myself to do it, I just want to make sure you that give her a few good ones for me and Shin.”
Kim’s free hand balled up into a fist as her eye narrowed dangerously.
“Oh, I intend to,” she said menacingly before pressing the button and disappearing.
Shego stared at the spot the girl had been standing in and a soft smile spread across her face.
“Gotta love her,” she muttered.
“Yeah,” Ron breathed in agreement.
Shego cocked an eyebrow at him and he shook his head as he realized what he said. He chuckled nervously before quickly changing the subject.
“So how do we get out of here?”
“I don’t know. You’ve got Kim’s fancy walkie talkie why don’t you ask Nerdlinger?” Shego suggested.
“Oh right,” Ron replied with his usual goofy grin as he flipped on the Kimmunicator. “Hey Wade.”
“What’s up Ron?” Wade asked.
“Too much to tell right now. I just need to know if you know any way we can get out of here without being caught by all the Bebe bots.”
“Well,” the young genius started as he typed away on his keyboard. “I was able to find the frequency their optic sensors are working on and I should be able to make the Kimmunicator put out that same frequency to cancel it out. That should effectively make them blind to you. But only in sight if you make a sound they’ll probably just adjust frequencies and come after you.”
“And if that happens?”
“Then you better have an outstanding Plan B,” Shego remarked.
When Kim arrived at The Queen’s throne room she found it surprisingly empty. At least, empty of any potential Bebe guards. The only other “person” in the room was The Queen herself, sitting on her throne and staring smugly at Kim.
“You’re late. I expected you here five minutes ago,” the metal woman mocked.
Kim gasped at not only the casualness of the remark but also it’s deeper meaning.
“How did you…?” she wondered.
“Have you forgotten already? The Bebe’s run off a hive mind and I am their queen. Therefore I am the Hive. I know everything that happens within these walls. I know you would come here just as I know your friends are trying to escape.” She rose to her feet and gently walked down the small steps. “And make no mistake, they will not escape. This is one situation where you will not win.”
“We’ll just see about that,” Kim muttered.
She gave the super seep button a quick tap for just a short burst of acceleration to close the gap between her and The Queen. She deactivated it when she was only mire inches away then swung her foot at the robot’s head in hopes of ending the fight quickly. Unfortunately, The Queen brought her left arm up in time to block the attack. Kim stared in surprise as her foot rested against the metal forearm, not so much as a dent put into it.
“Please,” The Queen muttered before quickly grabbed the front of Kim’s suit and threw her into the far wall. “Did you really think I wouldn’t have studied up on you and your fighting techniques?”
Before Kim could even try to think of an answer, or even pick herself up off the floor, The Queen appeared above and delivered a vicious kick to her stomach that sent her flying up into the robot’s waiting hand. Again she was tossed across the room like a rag doll and skidding to a stop near the door after hitting the floor hard. The redhead coughed as she slowly picked herself up, thankful to Wade that the super suit took most of the damage. Even so she could still feel the hits over her body and was sure there were going to be more than a few bruises there tomorrow. It didn’t matter though, she had to stop this creature here and now, for the sake of her daughter and the rest of the world. It was that thought that forced her back up to her feet.
“Are you still trying to fight?” The Queen asked as she dropped a few strands of Kim’s hair that had come out with the last throw. “You should release by now that it’s useless.”
“Not if you’ve got something to fight for,” Kim replied as she took a fighting stance. “And I’ve got plenty.”
“You humans, so caught up in your arrogance.”
The Queen then disappeared from view, but Kim was quick enough to press the acceleration button on her belt that she not only caught up to her but blocked the fist coming for her face. She twisted The Queen’s arm down then delivered her own right hook to the robot’s face before jumping up and kicking her in the stomach with both feet, knocking her back. The Queen stood up and glared at Kim before jumping forward to renew her attack. Kim dodged at first then began to block and counterattack as the fight grew personal.
“I told you before you cannot win this!” The Queen shouted as she brought a fist down, only to have it avoided. “We are the next evolutionary step. You merely represent the fossils of another time desperately trying to fight the inevitable.”
“Let me ask you something,” Kim retorted as she dodged another fist and lashed out with a kick. “Why is it you high and mighty types always talk about ‘delaying the inevitable’? How do you know what’s inevitable just because your full of yourself?”
“Look around you!” the robot shot back, striking with a kick of her own to Kim’s mid section. “Did I lie when I told you technology already rules your lives? No! As mankind continues to grow so does it’s technology until finally that technology replaces mankind. My subjects and I are merely here to accelerate that process.” She threw another punch which connected to Kim’s jaw and sent her flying to the ground. “Your place, if you truly still have one, is in a museum. An exhibit to be gawked at in confusion at how such a privative people could ever rule this planet.”
She picked up Kim by her hair then struck a sharp blow to the control center on the super suit’s belt, cracking it. Kim’s body faded back into normal time followed quickly by The Queen. She yanked the girl’s head back to look at her face with a sadistic smirk.
“There now, no more running,” she whispered before throwing the teen hero aside again.
Kim groaned as her body rolled along the floor before stopping face down. She simply lay there, staring down at the floor. It was a hard and unforgiving as her current opponent and had just as much give as her. No matter how many blows she struck or attacks she dodged it seemed The Queen was always there to give more. And just like her subjects she was never going to tire, but Kim could feel her body already giving out on her despite that suit’s help. She just wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold out, especially since one of her biggest advantages was just lost to her. As she heard the soft clanging of The Queen’s metal footsteps coming closer to her she thought that this just might be that one opponent she couldn’t defeat. God help the rest of the world if she was right.
Elsewhere in the Hive, Ron, Shego, and Dr. McCoy had actually made quite a bit of progress in getting out of the structure. It was actually an impressive feat given that a rather lanky teenage boy and a not quite in shape scientist had to practically carry a nine month pregnant woman who could give birth at any moment. They made sure to keep talking and noise to a minimum, as per Wade’s instructions, and took special care in not accidentally bumping into one of the Bebes. They had almost made it to that floor’s exit when Shego suddenly doubled over and started to groan.
“What’s wrong?” Ron whispered.
“I’m having another contraction,” Shego grunted.
“Well…stop it!”
“Not much of a choice here,” she growled before she let out a loud scream as pain tore through her body.
The Bebes all turned their heads in the direction of the sudden scream and were puzzled to find nothing there.
“Visual sensors not detecting a source for sound disruption. Malfunction?” a Bebe asked.
“No, visual frequency disruption. Switch frequencies,” another answered.
A low hum could be heard as the robots optic sensors were simultaneously reset to overcome the frequency Wade had been using to mask the group’s presence. Once they did a mass chant of “Intruder alert” spread throughout the Bebes as they slowly began to close in on the three.
“I think they’ve spotted us,” Ron said apprehensively.
“Ya think?!” Shego and Dr. McCoy shot back.
“Here, watch after her,” Ron ordered McCoy as he unhooked himself from Shego’s arm and stepped forward.
“What’s he doing?” Dr. McCoy asked.
“Probably getting ready to fail miserably,” Shego muttered before she let out another scream.
Ron had to ignore his own sense to scream and go running for the hills as the feminine robots started to surround him. Usually he wouldn’t consider that as a bad thing, but since these robots were bent on either capturing or killing him, he really didn’t think it’d end up the way is usually does the scifi fantasies. There was also the little fact that they were after Shego and her baby and he had made a promise to Kim to keep them safe. It was a promise he intended to keep, not matter what happened. He crouched slightly into a fighting stance and prepared himself for…something.
OK monkey powers, now would be a real good time to kick in, he chided his hidden powers.
Just then he felt something flow through him. It was like an adrenaline rush only stronger and much more controlled. There was no panic in it, only the comforting feeling that things would work out for the best. He took a moment to revel in it before springing forward and attacking the nearest Bebe with a powerful kick to its stomach, collapsing the metal exterior and leaving a gap hole in its wake. The robot stumbled back and stared at the wound in confusion then looked back at Ron right when he delivered an open palm strike to it’s chin that succeeded in dislocating the head from the neck. The wires stayed intact, however, so the Bebe merely stumbled around and flailed its arms as it searched for its target. Ron used the confusion to his advantage by grabbing one of the arms and flipping the robot over his shoulder and into another Bebe, sending them both crashing to the ground.
The next few moments seemed to blur together as Ron launched full force into his attack and began to punch, kick, and slam any of the Bebes that dared get near him, Shego or Dr. McCoy. While to the two observing it seemed like he was almost a master at hand-to-hand fighting and strategy he was really just relying on his instincts to guide him through. He had no time to think or plan, he just went with what felt right and for the most part it seemed to be working. When his foot came down on the last Bebe’s face and crush it in, his daze finally passed and he let out a loud sigh while appearing like he was about pass out.
“There, I think that’s all of them,” he muttered hastily.
It was at this point that Rufus finally poked his head out of Ron’s pocket after feeling the strange moments his human friend made. He let out a small gasp and stared slack jawed at the pile of parts at Ron’s feet. It was a sentiment shared by Dr. McCoy and especially Shego.
“Wow,” she breathed. “Stoppable that was…impressive.”
“Thanks. Mystical Monkey Powers. They come and go,” he explained as he walked over and placed her arm over his shoulder again.
“Speaking of going, that’s probably what we should do before more of them show up,” Dr. McCoy advised.
Ron nodded in agreement, but before he could even take a step forward another wave Bebes appeared in the room. He groaned in annoyance and started to move for another attack when Shego pulled back from the two and ignited her fists. Before Ron could offer up a protest, she let out a feral scream and swung her arms forward, unleashing a massive wave of green and black plasma energy that nearly vaporized the Bebe battalion in front of them.
“I didn’t know you could do that,” Ron remarked.
“Me neither,” Shego revealed before slipping a bit.
In an instant Ron was at her side and propping her up. Despite herself, and the situation, she smile at him.
“Didn’t know you cared so much,” she remarked.
“I don’t really. This is for KP,” he countered.
“That’s what I meant. You’re putting yourself through a lot just to keep a promise to her. She’s lucky to have a friend like you.”
Ron was completely taken aback by the unexpected compliment and really didn’t know how to respond to that. Fortunately, Dr. McCoy did have something to add.
“Can we please save the warm, fuzzy moment until after we’ve gotten away from the killer robots?” the scientist pleaded.
“Uh, right,” Ron said then reached into his pocket and pulled out the Kimmunicator. “Wade, we got a problem.”
“What’s up Ron?” Wade asked hurriedly.
“Your invisible field thingie was busted and now we got some Bebes on our back. What can we do?”
“What level are you on?”
“I don’t know…the metal one!”
“That doesn’t really help. Hold on,” Wade requested then typed something into this keyboard. “OK I’ve got you. Doesn’t look like you can make it to an exit from there, but there is a storage closest five feet to your right so go there.”
“Why would robots need a storage closest?” Ron wondered aloud.
“Does it really matter at this point?!” Shego screamed.
“I guess not. Let’s go.”
With that, the three made their way over to the closest door as quickly as they could, thankfully avoiding another run-in with anymore Bebes. When the door closed behind them, Ron turned on the lights before pulling out the Kimmunicator again.
“OK Wade, we’re in, now what?” he asked.
“Stay put until I can think of a way to get you out of there,” the super genius replied.
“That’s…not much of a plan.”
“Best I could come up with,” he replied with a shrug. “Oh and hold the Kimmunicator up to the control on the door.”
Ron cocked an eyebrow in confusion but did as he was told anyway. A small beam shot out of the Kimmunicator and passed over the door controls.
“Alright, I’ve locked the Bebes out so they won’t be able to use the panel to open the door. Unfortunately-”
Wade’s explanation was cut short by a loud banging on the door.
“That doesn’t stop them from trying to break the door down?” Ron guessed hastily.
“Yep.”
“So what do we do?”
“Do you still have that EMP device?” Dr. McCoy asked after he helped Shego sit down against the wall.
“Um…yeah,” Ron answered as he started searching his pockets. “It’s somewhere around here. I almost got it. Uh…here!” He pulled out a translucent yellow plastic ball. “Oh wait that’s Rufus’ exercise ball.”
“Here,” Rufus squeaked, holding up the device from his usual pocket.
“Oh thanks buddy,” the blonde boy remarked as he took the device and handed it to the scientist. “So now what?”
“Let me see that other thing, uh…whatever you call it,” Dr. McCoy request as he snapped his fingers and pointed at the Kimmunicator.
“It’s called the ‘Kimmunicator’,” Ron corrected him.
“Fine, whatever, just let me see it.”
Ron gave him an irritated look for his tone, but handed over the Kimmunicator nonetheless. Dr. McCoy took it and held the view screen over the piece of the EMP gun.
“Can this thing still work?” he asked.
Wade instinctively leaned forward in his chair a bit before he realized he could just use the zoom button to get a better look. After he did, he rubbed his chin in thought as he looked over the remains of the device.
“Looks like it. It’ll take some hot wiring and won’t have that big a range but yeah it should work,” he explained.
“Good. Then bring up the schematics and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I work with things more complicated than this all the time. I just need to see what goes where so I can fix it as much as I can.”
“Alright,” Wade said with a shrug then transmitted the information.
Dr. McCoy looked over the schematics for a moment then went about fixing the EMP module as best he could. He let out a few muffled curses as the few wires that still worked shocked him a bit while the others simply refused to cooperate. As he worked on that, Ron pressed his back against the door, more out of instinct than necessity. He knew that the door slid open rather than swinging and that really his less than impressive bulk wouldn’t add much more strength to it, but he just felt that it was something he could do in this situation. Even if that meant screaming every time one of the Bebes’ punched rocked his body along with the door. For her part, Shego merely sat against the wall and stared at her two “heroes” with a complete lack of confidence. All she could really do was sit there and hope that her baby wasn’t going to be born in a storage closest, which at this point looked to be a losing battle. She just hoped Kim would be able to pull one of her last minute miracles and show up at the last minute to get her out of here and into a hospital. Though again, she wasn’t holding out much hope.
Be honest with yourself Shego, if that was going to happen she’d already be here, she chided herself mentally.
“There I got it!” Dr. McCoy shouted enthusiastically.
“Then how come it’s not doing anything?” Shego retorted.
“I got it to work, I still need to turn it on,” he explained.
“Then what are you waiting for?!” Ron screamed.
“Alright, alright.”
With that, the scientist reached into the remains of the EMP device and twisted a small bundle of wires. Though unseen by the naked eye, a rippling wave of energy shot out from the device, knocking out all the electronic equipment around them, including the lights. The three sat quietly in the darkness listened to the sounds of several large metal objects clacking against the metal floor as they fell. The noise lasted for several seconds, indicating that the wave affected at least most of the level they were on. It was only when it finally stopped and remained quiet for nearly a minute that one of them finally spoke up.
“So…is that is?” Ron asked.
“I think so. Sounds like it knocked most of them out,” Dr. McCoy replied.
“But what if more come up here?”
“Then they’ll be knocked out too. The effect is going to last for a few minutes.”
“Define ‘a few’,” Shego demanded.
Though she couldn’t see it through the pitch blackness, he gave her an irritated look.
“A few. More than a little not as much as a lot,” he responded condescendingly.
“How many minutes is that?” she asked bitterly.
“I don’t know! Maybe ten or fifteen maybe only one. Look you should be happy the thing worked at all!”
“Guys, guys! This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Ron spoke up. “We need to work on getting out of here.”
“I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but Stoppable’s right. We gotta get out of here while we can,” Shego agreed.
“Well it would help if we could actually see where we’re going,” Dr. McCoy pointed out.
“Oh, I got that,” Ron said.
The other two then heard a bit of fumbling around, followed by an excited “Aha!” then a loud “pop” sound before the room was suddenly filled with light. They all clamped their eyes shut due to the seemingly blinding light, and after a few blinking tries their eyes finally adjusted to where Shego and Dr. McCoy could see Ron still standing by the door and holding something that looked like a yellow wand.
“A glow stick?” Shego asked with an arched eyebrow.
“Not exactly it. It’s like those things cave explorers use only they last longer and are brighter,” Ron explained as he set it on a nearby shelf.
“Obviously,” she remarked, holding up a hand to try and block some of the light out. “Let me guess, Wade tweaked it.”
“Yep.”
“Great.”
“Well now that we can finally see, let’s just get out of here,” Dr. McCoy suggested as he moved over to the control panel and pressed the “Open” button.
Unfortunately, nothing happened.
“Oh no. No, no, no, no,” he muttered in a panic as he mashed the button repeatedly.
“What? What is it?” Ron asked walking over to him.
“The EM pulse also knocked out the control to the door!” he shouted in annoyance as he hit the door with this fist. “You are a piece of junk!”
“Oh man, so we’re stuck in here until that thing wears off?!” Ron cried.
“Yes. And when it does, we’ll be able to leave but then we’ll be back to being surrounded by dozens of killer robots.”
“We’ve got a bigger problem,” Shego croaked out as she clutched her stomach.
“What?! What could possibly top this?!” Dr. McCoy demanded.
“I think that serum they gave me is really starting to kick in. I’m having this baby now.”
Ron and Dr. McCoy gave each other panic stricken looks before looking back at Shego.
“Yeah, that’ll do it,” Ron quipped.
Shego’s reply was merely to scream as a new, stronger contraction ripped through her body. Ripped was exactly what it felt like too and the prospect that something was about to tear its way out of her loins wasn’t making her feel any better. Especially given the fact that she had no drugs to dull the pain and the only two people present weren’t exactly trained for this kind of thing.
“Well…do something!” she cried out.
“Yeah! Come on, you’re a doctor, right?” Ron asked Dr. McCoy.
“I’m not that kind of doctor!” he shot back.
“But you can still help in some way, right?”
“I guess, but again I’m not experience nor trained for this kind of thing.”
“Well neither am I!”
“Will you two just shut up and get over here?!” Shego screamed.
The two looked at each other again before nearly tripping over themselves as they rushed to her side, Ron going to her left and Dr. McCoy to her right.
“OK so what do we do?” Ron asked.
“Well this going to sound really crass but…we have to take off her pants,” Dr. McCoy replied.
“Right I’m on it,” the teen hero said before he started leaned forward only to be quickly stopped by a tuck on his shirt by Shego.
“Oh no! You are staying up here!” she growled, yanking him back towards her. “Doc, can I trust you to be professional about this?”
“About as professional as I can be given the fact that this is not what I should be doing,” the scientist replied as he took his position.
He first slipped her shoes off then carefully, albeit fumbling a bit, undid the button and zipper to her pants then slid them off her. He then instructed her to bend her knees up, while trying not to seem too uncomfortable, grabbed hold of them and gentle spread them out so that the baby would have enough room to be delivered. At least that was the idea, whether or not this would actually work he still wasn’t sure.
“Okay, um…push,” he requested in an uncertain tone.
Shego did as she was told, using just about every muscle in her body to push forward and almost immediately let out a near deafening scream. The pain of the contractions were nothing to the actual act of giving birth. She recalled the many talks with Ann where the elder Possible described it as pushing out a bowling ball and now she could fully appreciate that analogy. Though it felt more like pushing out a bowling ball with bared wire wrapped around it. She used the breathing techniques she learned in all those baby birthing classes Kim dragged her to. At the time she thought they’re just ridiculous and a waste of time, but now she was very thankful for them. Of course she would more thankful for a crap load of pain killers right about now.
Joy of child birth my ass! she thought irritably.
“Come on Shego, you can do it. Just, you know…push,” Ron encouraged.
“Yeah! Push! Push!” Rufus added, making pushing motions with his fore paws.
“Will you two just shut up?!” she screeched. “Doc, how’s it looking down there? Please give me good news.”
“Well I’m really not the one to ask about this kinda of stuff, but…I’m assuming it’s good. Though again I can’t make any guesses as to how long this will take. I’ve heard that sometimes it can take hours,” Dr. McCoy explained.
“Hours?!”
“That’s no big. I’ve seen you tear through sheets of metal like they’re nothing,” Ron spoke up.
“Yeah, but I wasn’t the sheet of metal!”
She clamped her eyes shut and laid her head against the wall as she started another round of pushing. As she screamed, she unknowingly reached out and grabbed Ron’s hand and squeezed it as hard as she could. This of course caused the blond teenager to scream with her.
“My hand!” he cried out. “It hurts so much!”
“How do you think I feel?!” Shego growled before letting loose with another scream.
The minutes seemed to be like hours as the process continued on in that way. Lapses of labored breathing between all the screaming and pushing. Shego had no real time frame but if the process could take hours like Dr. McCoy had suggested, she almost wished she’d let the Bebes cut Shin out of her. Of course that would also meant never getting to see her daughter at all, and she’d be damned if she let that happen. Much as she hated to admit it, Stoppable was right, she just needed to find her strength and get through it. She gave another hard pushed and just prayed that it wouldn’t be much longer.
“Huh. Well ready for some good news?” Dr. McCoy asked, a bit ironically.
“More than anything,” Shego gasped.
“The head’s starting to crown. Which base on what I’ve heard and read means that it shouldn’t take much longer.”
“Thank God!”
“Actually I think you can thank the Bebes for that. Whatever was in that serum they gave you must have really worked.”
“Whatever, let’s just get this over with.”
Shego took another set of deep, steady breaths as she prepared herself for the final push. This was going to be the end of it one way or another. With one last breath she started to push again, squeezing Ron’s hand tight again and causing him to join with her in screaming once more. Their screaming continued on for several more minutes until it was finally joined by a high pitched cry. As the recognition of what that sound meant sank in, Shego quieted herself and let go of Ron’s hand, letting him finally caress the wounded appendage of he let out one last pained squeak. Shego forced her eyes open and looked down at the rather slimy looking thing Dr. McCoy was holding in his hands. She also noticed the cord still connecting her to the baby.
“Wha…?” she started to ask.
“Yeah we need to find something to cut the umbilical cord,” he said.
“You don’t have a pair of scissors with you?” Ron asked.
“No I don’t have a pair of scissors with me. Do you have a pair of scissors with you?”
Ron placed his hand on his chin in thought before casting an expecting look up at Rufus. When the little mole rat saw that look and figured out what his human friend meant by it, he let out a disgusted squeal.
“No, no! Ewww!” he protested as he shook his head vigorously.
“Well it was worth a shot,” Ron shrugged.
At this point Shego let out a frustrated growl as she quickly leaned forward and cut the cord herself with a quick swipe from a plasma charged fist. The other three looked at each other after having witnessed this very unusual method of cord cutting, but then shrugged and went about checking on the still crying baby. Dr. McCoy carefully slipped of his doctor’s coat and wrapped the tiny girl up in it to keep her warm and wipe off as much of the amniotic fluid as he could. When that was done he hand her over to Shego who accepted her as gently as possible.
“Okay, I really need to go wash my hands now,” the somewhat phased scientist muttered to myself.
Shego ignored his ranting and focused solely on the tiny bundle in her arms. Despite her reservations about what kind of mother she would make, it seemed that Shin herself accepted her as she had stopped crying the second she was placed in the woman’s hands. A small smile spread across Shego’s face as she looked down at the chubby, and still mucky, face peaking out through the white fabric. Although the light Ron had provided cast a bit of a yellow glow over everyone, she could tell that Shin shared the same pale skin as her. Unfortunately, that meant she’d probably face the same problem Shego had when she first went out in public with her new look. But unlike her, Shin would actually have a family that was understanding and would help her get through it. Together, she and Kim could-
“Kim,” Shego whispered, the severity of the situation suddenly returning to her. “Kim hasn’t come back yet. She’s still in trouble. We’ve-I’ve got to go get her.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! You’re not in any shape to go anywhere,” Ron protested.
“Maybe not, but that’s never stopped me before,” Shego replied as she struggled to pull her pants back on.
“The kid’s right you shouldn’t be moving around. You just gave birth. Besides, they door’s still not working,” Dr. McCoy pointed out.
“Oh I can take care of that,” she stated as she slowly pulled herself up.
Disregarding her shoes, Shego walked up to the sealed steel door and after carefully shifting Shin in her right arm, held up her left hand and charged it with her as much as her plasma power as she could. It actually felt good to fully power up after all those months of limiting herself and she took a moment to revel in the feeling. But a moment as all she could afford. She brought her hand down with all her strength she could muster and sliced through the door’s locking mechanism. She then forced it open with a slight growl and stared out at the horde of deactivated Bebe’s in front of her. She fired a plasma blast at the one directly in front of her and took great pleasure in watching it explode into hundreds of tiny shards and gears. Whether it was adrenaline racing through her or just pure hatred for the mechanical bitches that ruined her daughter’s birth, she wasn’t sure but she knew she had the strength to go find Kim and get them both out of this hell hole. Unfortunately, the group with her didn’t share that view.
“Shego, you can’t do this!” Ron protested again as he stood tall behind her.
“Stoppable, I appreciate that you want to keep your promise to Kim. Hell I even appreciate your help just now. But this is something I have to do,” she told him, not even bothering to look back at him. “And I know protecting me is something you feel like you have to as well, but it’s not. I can handle myself. Now if you want something you should do that would be finding the Bebe assembly line and shutting it down for good. But honestly right now I really don’t care what you do, I just know what I have to do.”
With that, she began walking down the corridor they had come from. Although she had talked a good game and almost convinced Ron that she was perfectly fine, he could see the slight limp and slow pace in her walk. He knew that it really wouldn’t take much to catch up to her and force her out of here but he also knew that she’d use whatever strength she had to fight him all the way. As much as he hated to admit it and as much as he hated to feel like he was letting down Kim, he knew she was right. So he simply let her walk off and hope that everything was going to turn out of the best.
“So…what do we do now?” Dr. McCoy asked.
“Exactly what she said. Find the Bebe line and shut it down,” Ron said in a determined voice.
“Well…do you know which direction to go in?”
“Nope.”
“Do you know what we’re going to do when we get there?”
“Nope.”
“Oh,” the doctor mused as he watched Ron walk away, Rufus scampering closely behind him. “I’m going to die.”
Despite that sentiment, and his better judgment, he still followed after them.
Kim barely listened to Ron as he tried to explain why he failed is Driver’s ED test, her own failure still weighing heavily on her mind.
“I can’t believe I choked! Check the motto, ‘I can do anything’,” she stated in an incredulous tone.
“Yeah including fail,” Ron counter.
Kim’s eyes snapped open just in time for her to barely avoid The Queen’s boot barreling down on her. As she rolled out of the way then sprung into a fighting stance, she couldn’t help but wonder why that memory popped into her head now.
“Yeah, including fail,” the Ron in her memory repeated.
Shut up! she chided herself mentally. Yeah, maybe I can fail sometimes, but notthis time! I won’t fail them! I won’t!
Re-energized by her convictions, Kim launched herself at The Queen and delivered a vicious left hook to the robot’s jaw then followed it up with an uppercut to her chin then a high kick to her abdomen , knocking her back. She went to press her advantage further, but was stopped when The Queen caught her by the throat. She broke the hold by smashing her feet into her opponent’s face and continued to move forward, administering a series of left/right combos over as much of The Queen’s body as she could. Unfortunately, they seemed to have little effect on her metallic skin and she was quickly able to deflect Kim with a palm strike to the teen hero’s chest. The redhead fell to the floor in ragged coughs as she tried to regain her breath.
“Are you still trying to win?” The Queen asked as she swaggered over to the fallen Kim. “I don’t know whether to applaud your persistence or curse your stupidity.”
“I’d enjoy yourself while you can, because soon enough you’re going to be nothing by spare parts,” Kim threatened in a low voice.
“You still don’t understand the situation you are in. There is no winning for you. No way other than-”
The Queen stopped when a strange feeling jolted through her body. It was the feeling of dozens of her loyal subjects suddenly deactivating. The unexpected shut down of that much of the Hive was enough of a shock for her to completely ignore Kim as she tried to recover. Kim took full advantage of this distraction struck out hard with a right fist to The Queen’s jaw. She made sure to keep her advantage this time and not give the android even an inch. That called for a drastic change in her fighting style. There were no more fancy jumps or twists or dodges and blocks. Nothing that called back to her cheerleader roots or even the sixteen different styles of Kung-Fu she knew. There was nothing pretty or elaborate about her fighting method now. She was simply landing as many punches as she could on the Queen’s face, pouring her anger and rage into everyone as she did so. She didn’t care that she was starting to feel the hits herself through the suit. She didn’t care that it was wearing her out faster than she would have liked. She didn’t even care that it most likely mad her look insane. All she cared about right now as making this creature pay for all she had done to her and her family.
“This is for Ron!” Kim shouted as she landed another punch. “This is Dr. McCoy!” Another punch. “This is for Shego!” And another. “This is for Shin!”
This time the punch was hard enough to not only snap The Queen’s head back, but also knocked her crown off her head. It landed with a loud “clang” against the metal floor and skidded to a stop near her thrown. Though Kim found a bit of satisfaction in that act, she still wasn’t finished.
“This is for me!” she cried out, bringing a fist down knocking the robot’s head forward a bit. She then brought both her hands up over her head and curled them together. “And this is for the world!”
Her swing connected with such a force that it not only knocked The Queen to the floor, but also caused her to dent it a bit with her face. Kim stood there and breathed heavily as she waited to see if her opponent was going to get up again. After several seconds of no movement, she felt confident that she had finally beaten The Queen and started to walk out of the thrown room. She stopped dead in her tracks and her heart nearly froze when she heard the sound of metal scraping against metal combined with whirling gears.
“You…will pay for that,” The Queen growled as she looked up at Kim through strands of her now covering her face.
Kim simply stood there in utter shock, her mind unable process what was happening at the moment. She was ripped out of her trance by a violent punch from The Queen that sent her spiraling to the floor. When she regained her senses, her hand went to her jaw to examine the damage. Nothing felt broken, but she was sure the wound would start to swell soon and if she received another hit like that then it would break her jaw. She had no time to worry about that, however, as her opponent quickly followed up that last attack by appearing before her and kicking her in the chest and sending her flying once again. This time Kim was able to catching herself midair and landed safely, but still collapsed when a sharp pain when through her.
Okay if that kick didn’t break any ribs then it definitely cracked a few, she thought as she tried to fight back the pain.
“And yet you still try to fight,” The Queen remarked in an exasperated tone. “I must admit your stubborn refusal to die is greatly irritating me.”
Kim couldn’t help but smirk at that remark, even if it did hurt. “Yeah I have that effect on people.”
“I hope you find that bit of defiance amusing. It’ll be your last.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“Because Dr. McCoy told me about the failsafe he installed in the personality chip. As much as you may want to, you can’t kill me right now.”
Much to Kim’s surprise and great disappointment, a bemused smile appeared on The Queen’s face.
“Ah yes, that little bit of an annoyance. While it is true that program is keeping me from killing you, at the moment, is says nothing about maiming you within an inch of your life.”
Kim’s expression fell even farther as the implications of the statement set in. She was already tired and injured as it was, but the tone in The Queen’s voice promised that the real fight, or rather torture was just beginning. She tried to take a deep breath, but it was cut short by the sharp pain from her injured ribs. She pushed it back, however, and did her best to psych herself up for the next round. She just had to remember wasn’t just doing this for herself, but the entire world and, more closely, Shego and Shin. She had to win this fight to make sure her daughter would grow up in a safe world. Hell, that she would grow up at all. It was that thought that forced her to take another fighting stance.
“Bring,” she taunted.
And “bring” is exactly what The Queen did, launching quickly into a volley of punches and kicks that put Kim on the defensive right away. She blocked and ducked as many of the attacks as she could, but still more than she could have liked connected. To make matters worse, she barely landed any hits herself and once again those that she did land barely seemed to do anything. Her injuries and rapidly fading strength were working against her and causing her to become sloppy. She really wasn’t sure how long the fight had been going on, but it was much longer than she wanted it to. She had to find someway to turn the fight to her advantage and quick, otherwise she wasn’t sure if she was going to make it back from this mission or not. She gathered up enough energy to try for another roundhouse kick, but The Queen caught her leg and tossed her over her head. In what felt like the hundredth time in the last few minutes, Kim found herself flying through the air and laying hard against the metal floor. She tried to pull herself up but only succeeded in getting three inches above the floor before collapsing again.
I…I can’t do it, she admitted to herself, sounded defeated even in her internal voice. I don’t have anything left. For once…I can’t win. Then this is it. This is the mission I don’t come back from. Tears started to well in her eyes as she thought of those she’d leave behind. Mom, Dad, Ron, Shego, Shin, everyone. I’m so sorry for letting you down. Just…please forgive me.
She closed her eyes at the end of her mental apology and vaguely listened to the menacing sounds of The Queen stepping closer to her. Although she acknowledged the fact that she was most likely about to die, she still didn’t accept it. She didn’t want to die, not yet. Not without seeing her daughter first. But what else could she do? Her body was completely tapped out.
“Bullshit!” a familiar voice screamed from inside her.
She forcibly opened her eyes, or at least she thought she did, and found Shego standing before. The pale green woman stood out like a spotlight in her bright green and black outfit against the total darkness that seemed to surround her. Kim noticed she looked different somehow and it actually took her a moment to realize that not only was Shego back in her old outfit, but also not pregnant anymore.
“Wha?” she asked, her voice sounding tired and distant.
“I said it’s bullshit you can’t fight anymore,” the thin Shego repeated. “And you know that! You’re just making up an excuse because she’s tougher than anyone you ever faced before.”
“Exactly. She’s even tougher than you and I was barely able to hold my own when we fought.”
“Yeah right. Princess, you more than held your own against me. And you know why? Because you weren’t afraid to push yourself to the limits. To go that extra mile when you needed to.”
“I’ve gone that extra mile and more! I’m tapped out. I just can’t do it.”
“That’s quitter talk. And one thing I know about Kim Possible is that she is no quitter. Now get your ass up and finish off this metal bitch so you can get back to me and our daughter. She’s waiting to meet you.”
Kim’s eye opened for real at that last statement. She wasn’t sure if that was a hallucination brought on by her injuries and fatigue or if it was her own subconscious using Shego’s image to push her to fight more, but she knew it was right. She wasn’t a quitter. She never had been before and she didn’t intend to start now. With a new found strength rushing through her, she forced herself up into a kneeling position right as The Queen moved over her.
“Do you remember that talk we had about the failsafe?” the metallic woman asked. “Well…I think I just cracked it. So now I can finally put you out of my misery. It’s over.”
Kim breathed heavily through her cracked ribs as she stared up at her and slowly wove her fingers together.
“NEVER!” she screamed, bolting upwards and delivering a blow to The Queen’s chin so powerful that it sent her flying into the air a good five feet.
She landed with a loud crash against the floor, pieces of both it and her shattering as she did so. Her body bounce once before it came to a complete stop and her optics powered down. Kim took a half step back before collapsing into a heap once again, supporting herself with her right arm and left knee. She let out a few pained coughs as her breathing and the action caught up with her, but still felt a great deal of satisfaction at that hit. More so than the last one.
And just like the last time, her victory was short lived when she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye and watched as The Queen sprang into a sitting position.
“Oh come on!” groaned as she tried to stand once more.
She received assistance when The Queen used her super speed to appear before her, grab her by the throat and slowly lift her into the air. The redhead let out a few raspy gurgles as the hand clamped tight around her windpipe. She tried desperately to swing her feet up to kick The Queen’s face again, but they refused to work. Instead all she could do was watch helplessly as The Queen brought up her left hand and called on her sonic weapon.
“I believe the frequency I have this set to will liquify your brain within your skull and cause it to pour out your nose and ears,” she said threateningly. “I shall take immense pleasure in watching that.”
Kim let out a choked scream as the sound waves bombarded her brain and did in fact cause her great pain. It felt as if her brain were thrown into a blender set to “whip”. In fact she was positive she could feel a few of her brain cells popping. It was certainly a slow and agonizing pain that she was certain The Queen would make last as long as she could.
Which is why it came as a great surprise to her when it stopped after only a minute. Through her tear filled eyes she could see the robotic leader staring almost blankly at her with a surprised expression on her face. She then dropped Kim as if her arm had stopped working and slowly forced herself to turn around. When she did, Kim could see exactly why she looked so out of it: there was a large, smoking hole in the back of her head. It wasn’t just any smoke, however, it had a distinctive green coloring to it that Kim knew anywhere. She peaked over her shoulder to where The Queen was now staring and saw Shego standing by the door with her left hand outstretched while her right held some kind of white bundle close to her chest.
“It’s a girl. Incase you’re wondering,” Shego informed the now broken robot, nodding to the bundle in her hand.
The Queen tried to walk forward but her felt gave out from under her and she simply fell to the floor. As her systems began to rapidly shut down, her own fail safe program quickly cut in.
Warning! Warning! Critical damage incurred! Memory transfer now initiating!
The internal message was the last thing The Queen ever saw or heard.
In the outside world, her body was completely forgotten as the two new lovers stared at each other from across the room. Upon seeing Shego, and what she could only assume was Shin, found a new burst of strength and pulled herself up before limping over to them as quickly as she could.
“Hey Princess, miss me?” Shego asked in a nonchalant manner.
Kim merely smirked in response.
Elsewhere in The Hive, Ron and Dr. McCoy’s plans to stop the Bebe Assembly Line were quickly ruined when a group of Bebes abducted them at high speed and took them to another jail cell within the structure. This time they were watched very closely as the Bebes seemed to talk about what they should do with them. After countless, agonizing minutes they seemed to make a decision.
“You have been judged to be a significant threat against The Hive and our Queen. Therefore only one action can be taken,” one of the Bebes spoke.
“You let bygones be bygones and let us go?” Ron asked.
“No,” another Bebe responded.
“Well it was worth a shot. So…what are you going to do with us?”
“Exterminate!”
The adjective quickly turned into a rally cry as the Bebe chanted it as they moved in closer.
“OK, that’s creepy,” Ron remarked as he and Dr. McCoy moved to the back of the cell.
Their captors slowly moved in on them and prepared to carry out their self assigned order when they all suddenly stopped. The two humans looked at each other in surprise then watched as the robots started to fall over, apparently shut down.
“So…not that’s I’m not thankful, but what the heck just happened?” Ron asked to no one in particular.
“They just…turned off,” Dr. McCoy observed. “Maybe it was some kind of protocol for if then The Queen was ever destroyed. Sort of a backlash from the connection of the hive mind.”
“Then wouldn’t that mean that KP did it and stopped The Queen.”
“I guess that could have happened.”
“Well then alright KP! Booyah!” the blond cheer, throwing his hand in the air victoriously.
“Don’t get too cheerful. We still need to find our way back to her and shut down this place for good.”
“Dude, why you gotta kill my good mood?”
Kim looked down at the wrapped up lab coat Shego was holding in her arms and saw a tiny, pale green face staring back at her.
“Is that?” she started to ask.
“Yep, Shin Possible. Born in this dump just a few minutes ago,” Shego replied with strange since of pride.
“So then Ron didn’t get you out?”
“Hey don’t blame him, we ran into some trouble.”
Kim only half listened, her attention drawn mostly to the small girl in Shego’s hands. She started to reach out for her, but stopped herself halfway.
“Can I…?”
“Yeah of course, she’s your kid too,” Shego replied as she started to hold Shin out. She then stopped and noticed her legs suddenly felt weak. “Actually I think you better take her.”
“Why, what’s wrong?” Kim asked, panic surging through her.
“Just take the baby!”
The redhead did as she was told and took Shin just as Shego fell to the floor.
“Shego?!” she cried out, her panic growing when she didn’t receive an answer. “Shego?! SHEGO!”
The next hour and a half all seemed to happen within a blur. Soon after Shego collapsed, Ron found Kim and was greeted by an earful of manic yelling and commands. This led to him giving her a fully working Kimmunicator and quick call to Wade helped shut down the assembly line as well as call Global Justice in for clean up. Dr. McCoy offered to stay behind and wait for them while also making sure every piece of equipment and robot was switched off. Kim gave him a hurried thanks as she ordered Ron to bring Shego to the car then sped off to the Midtown hospital.
They were greeted by a full medical staff ready and waiting for them, again thanks to Wade. Kim watched almost helplessly as Shego and Shin were carried away from her to separate parts of the hospital with reassurances that both would be fine. Before she knew it, she was standing alone in the bright, sterile hallway, much like she had been left alone in The Queen’s thrown room. Though there were plenty hospital staff nearby asking her how she was doing, she didn’t seem to notice them and just kept staring blankly at the spot where her partner and daughter had just been.
“KP?” a familiar voice finally broke through.
It took her a second to recognize the voice as belonging to Ron and on instinct she spun around and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face into his shoulder as she finally broke down and started to cry. He was of course startled by this outburst as first, but quickly recovered and wrapped his arms around her in a warm and inviting hug. He then did the only thing he knew what to do in this situation; comfort her.
“Shhhh. It’ll be OK KP, just you wait and see,” he whispered. “The doc’s here are top notch and they’ll make sure those two are better in no time.”
She said nothing in reply, she only continued to cry on his shoulder as he gently rubbed her back. There was a tense silence between them as he finally brought himself to say what he knew he had to say.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise. I didn’t get them out in time.”
This provoked a reaction as Kim pulled back and stared at him as if he had insulted her family. The reaction only grew when she saw the shame in his eyes. A tiny smile spread across her injured face as she placed a hand on his cheek.
“Don’t,” she told him. “Don’t punish yourself of that. You kept them safe, that’s all that’s important. And I don’t know how I can even begin to make it up to you for that. But…maybe this is a start,” she leaned forward again and tightened the hug just a bit. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“Well…that’s definitely a good start,” Ron said with a smile of his own as he returned the embrace.
Their tender moment was quickly broken up by a loud, piercing whistle that caused them to jump a bit. Though still in each other’s arms they turned their heads towards the source of the sound to find a doctor with brown curly hair and a name badge reading “Dr. Perry Cox” walking up to them.
“I really hate to break up this incredibly sappy moment but I feel I must remind you that some of our patients, and at least one of our surgical staff, have diabetes and this,” he made a wild hand gesture to them, “could cause them to go into shock.”
Thoroughly humiliated, and completely annoyed, the two teen heroes pulled away from each other and straightened out their clothes as they looked at the rather rude doctor.
“That’s better,” Dr. Cox remarked. “Now then, Red, I hear you were part of that circus that came through here a little bit ago and looking at you now I can see you need to get a little patched up yourself.”
“It’s no big. I’m fine. Really,” Kim lied. And not very well.
Dr. Cox let out an irritated sigh that let them know he had heard that far too often.
“You know, I’ve been a doctor for much longer than I care to admit and yet I’m still amazed when people are dragged in here by their loved ones and claim there’s nothing wrong with them,” he remarked.
“This is nothing I haven’t dealt with before. I can handle it,” Kim insisted.
“Right and I told myself I could handle being around my ex-wife, but here I am not only remarried to her but also with a two year old son and another on the way, which means I’m gonna have to stay with her for a very, very, veee-rrry, long time and deal with all her insane behavior until the day I die. Which, honestly will probably be from a stroke after having to deal with everything here and then coming home to her. And before you ask the point of all this is that we don’t always know what’s best for us, so if ya will, follow me.”
“Look, I know my own body,” the redhead stated again, this time more determined.
“And I know the body too, and judging from what I see here, I’m guessing you have received a pretty bad blow to the jaw recently as well as several cuts and bruises, unless of course those red spots all over that white suit of yours is some kind of new fashion statement and with the trends nowadays who the hell knows? I also tell by the way you’re moving there that you probably nursing a few cracked or even broken ribs.”
Kim simply stared at him in amazement.
“Yeah, I’m just that good,” Dr. Cox replied. “Now let’s go.”
Feeling defeated for the second time that day, Kim followed him into one of the empty rooms where he began to treat her wounds as well as share his rather…unique outlook on life. She zoned in and out through most of his ranting and used most of her remaining energy to think about how Shego and Shin were doing. She hoped Shego’s collapse was do just to the exhaustion of giving birth and not something more serious. In that vein, she also hoped that being born like that didn’t have any adverse effects on Shin. She knew she would find out sooner or later but she’d much rather it be sooner than later. Like right now soon.
“…and those are my 101 reasons why marriage is probably one of the worst things man has ever come up with. Right there below boy bands and the expression ‘My bad’,” Dr. Cox finished up and it was only then that Kim realized she was back in the main part of the hospital.
“Well that’s um…great Dr. Cox but if you’ll excuse me I think I want to go check on Shego,” she said, moving away from him as quickly as she could.
“Yes, but all means, go see her. See her before you get tired of looking at her and just want to scratch your own eyes out. And don’t think it won’t happen,” he warned.
Kim shook her head in disbelief and a bit of amusement as she walked up to where Ron seemed to be wrapped up in a discussion with another one of the doctors, this one younger than Dr. Cox with black spiked hair and dressed in blue scrubs.
“…and that’s the point where Dr. Acula leans over the patient and says, ‘I have my own way of taking your blood pressure’,” the doctor finished explaining as he adopted a fake Romanian accent.
Ron stared at him like a deer in highlights.
“Dude that is one of the most terrifying movies I’ve ever heard of. I’d totally go see that!” he said enthusiastically.
“I knew people would like it!”
“Uh, Ron? Can I talk to you for a second?” Kim asked politely.
“Oh sure thing KP,” he replied before turning back to the doctor. “Dude, stay right there we gotta talk about this some more later.”
The doctor pointed his finger at him in a “You got it” gesture before walking off to do his rounds. Ron then turned his full attention to Kim.
“So what’s up?” he asked.
“I wanted to ask you the same thing. Do you know what’s happened with Shego and Shin?” she asked in return.
“Well they just brought Shego into one of the rooms and they said to let her rest for now. They say they still want to look Shin over just to make sure everything’s fine. Oh and the rest of your family as well as Monique are here, but they’re currently getting snacks in the cafeteria while waiting on you,” he summed up.
“That’s good,” she said with a sigh. “I guess I should go eat with them while I wait to hear something about Shego.”
Ron nodded and turned to lead her towards the cafeteria when someone called out to them.
“Kim! Ron!”
They turned and were surprised at who was walking up to greet them.
“Jen? Dave?” Kim asked in confusion.
“Yep,” Jen greeted happily as she stopped in front of the two.
Kim took a second to look her over and was actually relieved to find that the girl wasn’t in her mission gear. Instead she had on a black T-shirt with the slogan “I Heart Anime” across her chest with the word “heart” replaced with the heart symbol and a pair of jeans and sneakers. Dave seemed to be dressed more or less the same as before only with a dark green T-shirt under his jacket instead of a red one. Though she knew it was incredibly rude, she couldn’t help by stare that the pair in total confusion.
“What are you two doing here?” she asked, hoping it didn’t sound accusatory as it came out.
“Came to see the baby,” Jen replied.
“How did-?”
Dave tapped the side of his head. “Vision. While still a bit painful it was nice to see one that didn’t have some dying in it.”
“Wait, you got a vision about Shin being born? And you didn’t tell me?!” Kim growled, her anger rising a bit.
“Look I can’t turn it on and off like a light switch! It just came to me earlier today and we drove down here to see if we could help. Obviously, we’re a bit late.”
“And we’re very sorry for that,” Jen spoke up. “You know that if we could have been there we would have.”
Kim sighed. “Yeah, I know, I know. Sorry it’s just been a very, very busy day.”
“I’m sure,” Jen remarked then looked Kim up and down. “So…I gotta ask, what’s with the suit?”
“It’s a high tech battle suit that Wade invented. Has all sorts of gadgets and stuff built into it.”
“Really?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh and here she goes again,” Dave groaned. “Hey I don’t suppose there’s any chance Monique is with you, is there?”
“She’s in the café. You want me to take you there?” Ron offered.
“Yes. Very much so.”
As the two sidekicks walked away, Kim couldn’t help but raise her own eyebrow in question to Dave’s request and looked back to Jen for the answer.
“Apparently they’ve been talking over IM since the first time we were down here,” the brunette answered the unasked question.
“Talking how?”
“I don’t know, and I probably don’t want to know. I’m just glad someone from my team could find time for a social life.”
Kim was about to say something in response when one of the nurses interrupted her.
“Ms. Possible? They say it’s OK for you to see Ms…Shego now,” she said politely.
“We’ll talk about this later,” she said before excusing herself.
Kim followed the nurse down one of the hallways to one of the dozens of similar looking rooms. The big difference for her though was that this room contained the sleeping form of her new lover and mother to her child. She stood in the doorway, afraid to actually go in for fear of disturbing the peaceful looking Shego. After everything they had been hrough, from the drama today to everything from the past nine months, it was nice to see that she could still look so content when she was asleep. Kim really hated the idea of breaking her from her slumber, but she also realized her own need to sit down quickly catching up to her. She tried to sneak into the room, but the combination of the freshly cleaned floor along with her own fatigue caused her to bump against the door which made it produce a very audible thud against the wall.
Shego groaned as she was brought out of her slumber and cracked her eyes open to look at the source of the noise. What she saw was Kim standing in the doorway with the brighter hallway lights enhancing the whiteness of her battle suit and almost creating a perfect outline of her. A small, tired smile tugged at her lips at the image.
“Has my angel come to visit me?” she joked.
“I don’t think angels hurt this much,” Kim replied as she walked into the room. “Or are this tired.”
She emphasized that last point by practically falling down in the chair next to the head of Shego’s bed.
“Hey don’t talk to me about tired, you’re not the one that had to push a human being out of you,” Shego remarked.
“And you’re the not the one that had to go five rounds with a supped up toaster with delusions of grandeur,” the redhead countered.
They looked at each other for a second before smiles broke out over both their faces and they shared a small laugh. When they recovered Kim reached out and grabbed Shego’s hand, being careful not to pull the IV out.
“Seriously, how are you feeling?” she asked, any hint of joking gone.
“I’m fine just a bit tired,” Shego replied. “Docs say the strain of the birth and the combination of using my powers all kinda caught up to me at once.”
“But they say you’re going to be OK?”
“Yes.”
“And what about Shin?”
“Still running tests.”
Kim leaned back in the chair with a sullen expression on her face. She didn’t like the idea that they’re still doing tests on her daughter and just hoped it wasn’t a sign that something was wrong. Before she could get too far into her own reprieve, however, she felt a strong squeeze on her hand and looked up at Shego, who was giving her a reassuring smile.
“Hey come on, don’t put on that face,” she pleaded.
“Sorry, I just can’t help it. I mean with everything that’s happened and they way she was conceived, I just can’t help by worry that something might be wrong with her,” Kim replied.
“And if there is we’ll handle it. We’re pretty good at handling the unexpected.”
“That’s true,” the cheerleader said with a sigh. “Which brings me to my other concern. This isn’t the first time someone’s tried to get to Shin and with the kind of life I-we lead I’m just afraid someone might come looking for her again now that she’s born.”
“And if they do we’ll kick their asses so bad they wish they never thought of that idea,” Shego countered.
“Maybe. But how can you be so sure we’ll get there all the time? And really what kind of life will that be for her if her moms are constantly running off the save people? How often will we get to see her? How will we provide for her?”
“Then quit.”
Kim snapped her head towards her with an astonished expression on her face. Shego just answered back with a satisfied grin.
“See? Can’t do it, huh?” she goaded.
“Well…I…” Kim stammered.
“Don’t feed me any B.S. Kimmie, I saw that look on your face when I suggested you quit. You can’t do it because you’re not that type of person. You have to go out there and help others no matter the risks. To be honest it’s one of the things I’ve admired about you for awhile. Even before all this.”
“You mean, back when you worked for Drakken?” Kim asked, still confused.
“Yeah, don’t ask me why. I guess some part of my from my hero days identified with that, wishing I could have been the selfless.” She sighed. “But I guess that’s one of those uniquely Kim things. Which is fine. Like I said, it’s one of those traits I admire in you and now one of the reasons I love you.”
Kim smiled down at her and despite all the pain running through her body, leaned forward and gave Shego soft kiss. At least, it started out that way at first, but it quickly grew into something more passionate as the relief of them being OK washed over both of them. It was brought to a screeching halt, however, by a knock on the door. Kim nearly jumped back into her seat as the both looked to see Dr. Anderson standing there, holding Shin in his arms.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” he said. “Just thought you might like to hold your baby now that we’re done with her and got her all cleaned up.”
“Oh course I do! Bring her over here doc,” Shego ordered as she sat up in the bed slightly.
Dr. Anderson walked over to the bed and carefully handed the woman her child. He smiled a bit at how she and Kim both brightened up just by seeing her.
“Well I’m sure you three want to be alone so I’m gonna go try to corral all your family and friends that showed up,” he said before showing himself out.
The two new parents barely acknowledged his presence as they stared at the new life in Shego’s hands. Now properly cleaned up and in better lighting they could tell that Shin had indeed inherited Shego’s pale green skin and if the peach fuzz covering her head was any indication she also inherited her black hair. Kim found a little bit of hope in the small patch of red fuzz near the front of her head.
“Well, looks like part of my genetics got through after all,” she tried to joke, but still ended up sounding more relieved than anything.
“Hey not a lot of your appearance may have gotten through but I’m sure they’ll be plenty of your attitude in her,” Shego reassured her.
“I hope so. Certainly wouldn’t want her to have your attitude.”
“And what’s wrong with my attitude?”
“Do you really have that much time?”
Shego huffed. “Just for that I might not let you hold her.”
“Oh come on, I was just kidding!” Kim pleaded.
Shego tried to keep up her firm appearance, but it quickly gave way to about of mischievous laughter.
“Yeah, so was I. Here,” she said, holding the baby out to Kim.
The redhead carefully took her and leaned back into the chair and stared down at her daughter. Her daughter. There was still a part of her that found that odd even when holding Shin in her hands.
“It was a long, hard road to get here, but it was all worth it,” she whispered.
“Got that right,” Shego added.
“And now that you’re finally here, I’m going to live up to that promise I made awhile back,” Kim said to the sleeping Shin.
“What promise is that?”
The redhead looked back at the woman in the bed. She debated whether or not to tell her, knowing that her ego was fragile and that she didn’t like the idea of being weak or having to be looked after. But then seeing the amount of compassion she had in her eyes for now just Shin but Kim herself, she figured it might not be that bad to tell her after all.
“I made a promise that I would protect you two,” she admitted.
Shego stared at her for a moment then smirked.
“Well hope you won’t mind if I burrow that one from you.”
“Not at all Shego. Not at all.”
Kim looked down at Shin again. She was the miracle baby that not only provided a new form of birth but also did the unthinkable and brought two former enemies together in a bond that very few others could share or understand. It was a new beginning for all of them and not matter what live threw at them, she was sure they could see it through together; as a family.
The End…for now.
Author's Note: Well first off all let me apologize for the rather long wait for this chapter and I hope it was will worth it. As you can see I definitely put more into this one then I did the other ones so the wait wasn't for nothing. You may have noticed the little “for now” tag on the “The End” there and that was done for two reasons. 1) is because there will be a short epilogue added here in a bit to bring the fic to a full close and 2) if you've checked my profile on FF.N you'll notice a list of other stories I plan to write to continue of this idea. Now I can't say how long this will take to get out but I do plan on working on them sometime in the future. Got big plans on expanding this universe and hope you'll all stick around for the ride. Bare in mind there will be a few more OCs because…well I just like coming up with them.
Speaking of OCs, you may notice Jen and Dave return in this for just a bit and while I admit it is a bit cheap I just really wanted to bring them back. Originally they had a longer scene but since this was just about to hit the 40 page mark, which is did, I decided to trim that up a little bit. Actually it helps a bit because I had a fun little ficlet running around in my head with Jen and Kim that would take place almost immediately after the end of this chapter so I'll put in those missing scenes in that. Hopefully that won't take too long.
Now as I said this is long enough already so I'll end my notes here and wax poetic on the journey that was this fic in the epilogue. I'll just leave you with this little tidbit; Kim's last line in the last chapter and in the first scene of this one come from the new Doctor Who series in the second to last ep of the first season where he's getting ready to face down the Dalek fleets. That's why it sound familiar to some of you. Now, the real question is can you find all the other homages and nods to other things in this chapter? Good luck!