“I still can't believe it.”
Kim & Shego were in one of the forty-eight thousand bedrooms of the mansion. Kim was sitting on the bed with her knees up, her arms around her legs. Shego was lying flat on her back, with one foot dangling off the side of the bed.
“Believe what?” Shego asked Kim.
“That Wade turned.”
“Ugh, will you get over that trip? He turned, Kimmie. Just face it. And by now, he's shown that he's clearly beyond being under any of that mind control stuff Cyborg said Brother Blood uses.”
“Yeah, I know - but… Still--” Kim hugged her legs tighter. “You didn't get to know Wade the way I knew him until like six months before all of this started to go down, Shegee. Think if - think about how all of your brothers must've felt when you turned.”
Shego's eyes flew wide open as Kim's point slammed into her. She’d never considered how her brothers had to have felt when she turned evil. And now they were dead. She’d missed the chance to apologize…
Kim continued. “Someone you'd known for ages - trusted, loved… who always helped, no matter if they could or not - and then one day, they're no longer looking in the mirror with you, but they're on the other side of the mirror, trying to smash through it & choke you to death.”
“Nice way to avoid the cliché metaphor,” Shego smirked, quickly returning her head back to the position it was in before so Kim wouldn’t see the stunned look in them her point had inflicted upon them.
“Ron's tic for weird quotes kinda rubs off. But – you know what I mean…right?” asked Kim.
Shego rolled over. Kim was shaking terribly - on the verge of quaking, even. Shego slowly pulled Kim's hands away from her legs, then she slowly picked up and straightened out Kim's shaking legs. She laid Kim's legs flat on the bed, then crawled on top of Kim. She lifted Kim's chin up and brushed Kim's hair out of her eyes. As her own eyes started to cloud with tears – from the mutual memories of pain they shared in of losing their families - she looked right into Kim's eyes.
It was dead silence for what seemed like ages while both women's eyes wavered with tears.
Shego’s dam broke first. “…Yes!” she wailed tearfully. It was all that was needed. Instantly, both women broke down, crying with each other the spillway of tears that had been jammed shut while they had been trapped inside The Cage. They hugged each other tightly, drawing themselves nearer to the warmth of the other. Then, a little surprisingly, Shego locked Kim into a deep kiss. Despite the suddenness, Kim accepted the kiss eagerly, without any hesitation whatsoever. After the kiss ended, Kim drew Shego's head closer to her.
“Kimmie…” Shego was still a bit tearful. “I promise you now - I will not allow myself to turn back to evil…” She grabbed Kim's hand and the both of them squeezed their grip as tightly as they possibly could. They locked into another kiss.
“And I promise you, Shegee-” Kim was still a bit tearful too after the new kiss ended. “-I will not allow myself to let you turn back…” She smiled through her tears. “You know what I mean…right?” Kim ran her fingers through Shego's hair, smiling through her tears again. “I love you too damned much, bitch.”
Shego smiled through the tears beginning to dry on her face. She looked at the clock, then returned her gaze to Kim. “I think we need a bit more time to rest and recover. What do you think, Kimmie?”
Kim smiled, her tears also drying. She pulled Shego closer to her and locked the woman into another deep kiss as the clouds grew darker and darker outside.
It was morning over the mansion - but the sky looked exactly like it had the evening before.
Inside the mansion, Ron had noticed this non-change. “So it's 8 am. Where's the, like -- sun?” he asked Senior, who was guiding him to the sparring room so they could remove a few un-safely placed items before everyone ran in there to start their workouts.
“This mansion seems to lie directly on the convergence of the four cities.” Senior looked out the window, pointing out Middleton, the Titans’ city, Go City, and Steel City on the horizon. He sighed, heavily. “It has been long forever dark here due to all of the smoke from the fires.”
“Oh, lovely - so the sun's got emphysema. Well THAT'S wonderful news!” Ron stopped, noticing that Senior was laughing at him. “What?”
“Oh, nothing, Mr. Stoppable - I am just admiring the way you have with words. As your enemy, I guess I never took the time to appreciate the unique talent for forming sentences that you possess,” said Senior.
“You know what?” Ron grinned. “I think the same goes for me. You're an okay dude, Senior.”
Shego's eyes opened from the best sleep she’d ever had - looking straight into Kim's already awake ones. The two were under a bedsheet. Their clothes seemed to be in a pile on the floor by the edge of the bed. Shego knew the both of them wished they could just lie like this against each other forever, with nothing but the warmth of their bodies and the love that ran deep through their blood for each other.
Kim smirked. “Looks like we finally got around to finishing what we were gonna finish that night after Brick Flagg's party.”
Shego’s quizzical face faded as she quickly remembered the earlier events of the night their whole nightmare had kicked off. “Y'know, I'd forgotten all about that…”
Kim grinned. “Ready to do some sparring, then?”
Shego sneered.
“JUNIOR! You are an adult now! Are you going to get up yourself, or do you still need me to drag you out of bed?” Senior yelled up to the floor of rooms where he knew his son had taken refuge for the night.
“Men still need beauty sleep, Father!” came Junior’s voice. Senior smacked his head in frustration.
The mansion’s sparring room was huge. The entire room was covered with padding - even the ceiling. Kim & Shego stood in the middle of the room, Robin on the other side of them. The rest of the Titans, Ron & Rufus, and the Seniors watched from the side.
“C'mon, boy.” Shego shifted her stance while goading. “Two women versus you.”
Robin grinned, and planted his feet. “I can take you.”
“Why do I have to spar against you?” Drakken complained.
“Would you rather spar against Aviarius?” Brother Blood asked him.
“Well - yes - he was easier than you.”
“IT'S SPAR TIME!” Ron cried.
Robin ran at Kim & Shego, going for a sliding kick as they met - but the women somersaulted over him beautifully. Landing, the women nodded at each other, then split apart as they ran back towards him.
Drakken drew a bo staff and attempted to clothesline Blood--
Kim & Shego effortlessly grabbed ahold of the ends of Robin's bo staff and rolled backwards on the ground, throwing Robin forward.
Drakken lost his grip on the bo staff and went flying – but instead of slamming into the padding, he flipped in the air, and kicked off the wall, vaulting right into a twisting backflip that carried him over Blood's astonished back--
Both women went to the mat as Robin grabbed their shoulders, pulling them down as he stuck his landing perfectly.
“Ooh - I'm getting the hang of this!” Drakken gloated - at which point Blood swung his foot out and tripped him.
Robin slammed onto his back. Kim & Shego got up, satisfied. They picked Robin up, shaking his hand.
“Nice moves, boy,” Shego told him.
Robin blushed just a tad of a smidgen. “Thanks. Those were some beautiful flips you two did. Looks like I should take up cheerleading. I could learn a lot.”
Beast Boy erupted into laughter upon hearing Robin’s compliment.
“Hey!” Kim shouted to the guffawing green boy. “There are male cheerleaders in this world, you know! And they’re very highly respected, too! Though, they might not be in this world…” she added solemnly.
Blood picked Drakken up. “Nice, Dr. D. - nice… I'd say you're almost in condition to fight them now.”
“Really?” asked Drakken. “Yes! Oh, I can hardly wait for this! Kim Possible and Shego will be in for the biggest shock of their lives!” he laughed maniacally.
In the dining hall of the mansion, everyone was enjoying a delicious lunch at the dining table.
Junior finished slurping up his soup - making Senior smack his head again in frustration - then put the bowl down, wiping his face with his napkin. Senior looked please to see him using some etiquette.
“Ok, so we're gonna take out Aviarius - but how the hell are we gonna stop those armies all over the world?” Beast Boy asked.
“Remember the decapitated body of the clone of Terra they dumped for us to see while we were in The Cage?” Kim asked, knowing full well the appetites that might be lost due to the question.
“EWW! I am eating my lunch here, dammit!” Junior squealed.
Senior sighed “And so are the rest of us, Junior. But this may very well be the last chance you all get to discuss strategy before you begin the assault on Aviarius.”
“Right.” Kim continued. “Anyway, since we only saw one body of a clone, we can assume the cloning machine they used broke and they still haven't been able to fix it. Otherwise, there would probably be forty billion of us doing the stomping around the globe instead of all our wonderful villain friends.”
“Soooo, what you're saying is we not only grab Shego's powers, but find the cloning machine and jack that, too?” Ron asked.
“It would sound that way to me, yes.” Starfire spread on some mustard, then ripped her teeth into the delicious meal she was consuming at quite a voracious pace, despite her use of proper etiquette.
“I'd probably be able to fix the machine before the retaliation they'll no doubt unleash on us if this Aviarius plan goes down without a hitch or glitch,” Cyborg spoke up.
“And then what?” asked Raven.
Shego looked at Kim, then back at everyone else, a grin on her face. “We clone ourselves a small army.”
“Why a small army?” Ron was quite confused. “Why not a big one?”
“Because don't need an Empire, Ron.” Kim’s voice was certain. “A small group with a few victories will more than likely spark some support for a resistance movement amongst civilians.”
“Sooo, you're saying we're about to be become international terrorists, then?” asked Beast Boy.
“B,” Cyborg reminded him, “We've been international terrorists since we fell into that damned time warp.”
“Oh yeah…”
“Though I find the prospect of many copies of me thrilling,” Junior spoke up, “Where would we hide them all while we are still in the process of cloning them?”
Senior was surprised. “Junior! That was a fantastic query!”
“Why thank you, Father,” Junior replied with a grin.
“This mansion is more than large enough,”said Robin. “As long as we lock up all the doors.”
That struck Shego the wrong way. “In other words, we'll use the mansion as another cage until we unleash them.” She muttered it just loud enough for everyone to hear. Robin said nothing further, but a quick glance around showed Shego her point had clearly been made.
Junior spoke up again – still chewing the bite he’d just taken. “My only other concern is:” He swallowed. “How are we going to feed a mansion full of clones?”
“Ah! Another excellent question, my son!” Senior was impressed once again.
“Father, please, stop it - you know my moisturizer won't work as effectively if you keep making me blush like this!” Junior thanked his father.
“Ron and Shegee love to cook - so we could probably convince a few of their clones,” Kim noted. Shego looked over. She couldn’t believe Kim had just told everyone that. Oh, well, it was probably for the better….And, it was true, she did secretly love to cook…
Ron, trying to keep Rufus from jumping out of his pocket onto the table, looked up. “And, uh - Rufus wants to know how we would be able to tell the clones of us apart from the real, uh -- us…ses.”
“We'll think of something.” Robin stood up, having finished eating. Everybody else also stood up, all of them apparently finished eating, too.
“Right now,” said Kim, her gaze falling on Shego, “Our priority is letting that chicken Aviarius know that family heirlooms are supposed to stay within the family.”
Shego growled. “Yeah - let's go sauce his barbeque.” She smacked her head as Kim giggled. “I did not just say that…”
Eyes opened in complete darkness, providing a harsh contrast.
“Thus it begins…” said Wade.
END ACT THREE