Shego fell backwards heavily as the impact blossomed across her chest.
It's funny.
She never thought dying would hurt so badly.
“SHEGO!”
She winced at the sharp screech near her ear. A welcome voice, but she could have lowered her voice a bit. Shego had just taken a major hit on her behalf, after all.
Around them, noise swirled in an insane maelstrom. Voices, crying, fighting, all of it blurred together into so much white noise. Unbidden, a cough erupted from her throat, violently wrenching her body around the impalement through her chest. A shuddering breath bubbled from her mouth as she tried to still the agony tearing through her. Blood flecked foam filled the back of her throat and she absently noted that the slimy feel might have been cool had she not been gravely wounded.
From the fact that her breath was coming with extreme difficulty, she was fairly certain the molded steel hadn't missed her lung. Combined with that was the rather large hole in her chest the steel shank had forged. She was damn sure that if she tried to take a deep breath, a stray piece of fragmented bone would shift just far enough to pierce her heart.
And then there was the sharp pinch to her arm.
“Ow…not so…hard.”
She squinted painfully up at the tear-stained face hovering above her.
“Oh, thank God. Hold on, sweetie, just hold on. They're on their way, you'll be just fine.”
Red rimmed green eyes looked next to Shego's head and she knew what kind of view Kim was most likely seeing. She could feel more blood leeching from her with every second. The puddle beneath her back had most likely already soaked all through her clothes and into her hair.
“You'll be just fine.” The sob that almost broke through Kim's voice was enough to seal the finality in Shego's mind.
She knew.
Kim's warm hand was wrapped around her clammy one, her grip almost painfully tight.
“Prin…cess…nev…” She swallowed against the bile and bloody foam that filled her throat. “Never…hated…”
Understanding dawned and Kim shook her head. “No…don't talk like that. You're going to be fine.”
“Don't…lie.”
The pain ripping through her was rather insistent. Distracting from the single most important moment of her life.
“No, you're going to be ok, you have to be ok!”
“'m…s'ry…”
The last thing she was concious of was the pain. So much pain. Her eyes rolled back in her head as her life trickled out onto the unforgiving concrete of the floor.
Then all she knew was the warm smile of a phantom Kim, her own mental construct of the redhead, holding out a hand in welcome.
- end -