The music was pounding, harsh and fast, like rage in a brass box or a seizure made of lightning. Only the padding of the headphones kept them from bouncing on the head of the teenaged girl who wore them, her long black hair adding meager protection against the decibels and the hearing damage that she would surely feel when she grew older.
Sheki flipped a few pages in her annotated copy of the Mark Twain novel and found the quote that she had been searching for, making notes for her school assignment while the lead singer in her ears sounded as if he were hoping to vomit his last meal onto his microphone. The music on the compact disc was new and popular among all of her friends, but that wasn’t the reason that she had purchased it. She always found it better to study when she listened to ‘Squish Kitten’. Tapping her stylus against her teeth in time with the rhythm, Sheki was oblivious to the similar activities of her twin sister, standing across the bedroom in front of a large blank easel.
Kasy had been staring at the ‘dreaded white canvas’ for over an hour, creating and destroying masterpiece after masterpiece in her mind but not being fully satisfied with any of them. She also wore headphones, but these were miniature ear buds that were all but invisible beneath her shoulder length mop of flaming red hair. The tiny speakers were playing a track from one of her mother’s old albums by the ‘O Boyz’, considered horribly dated and tank-retro by most standards, but the light beat and soft tones helped her relax in a way orchestrated to let the images in her mind coalesce and flow from her drawing tools onto the canvas before her.
The young girl took a deep breath and closed her eyes, turning herself all the way around until she was facing the easel again. She raised her pencil like a rapier and opened her eyes, letting it scratch its way across the surface. Within minutes she had half of a woodland scene sketched and waiting to be painted.
Neither girl was able to remain focused on their respective subjects for very long.
There was a computer screen mounted against one wall, used as often for entertainment as it was used to accessing the ‘Omninet’ for data; the screen flared to life and began to flash in alternating patterns of red and green. While certainly it was not the proper time of year for this color combination to be appropriately festive, the lightshow had a more important significance for the teenaged girls.
No sooner did they notice the flashing screen than they dropped what they were doing and hurried to their closet.
“How long?”
“Twenty, thirty seconds, tops!”
Changing out of their casual after-school clothing and into sleek, black outfits that looked well suited for a commando raid, the girls wasted no time in their preparations before running out of the bedroom and leaping down the stairs. Kasy grabbed the railing and flipped through the air over the dining room table to land silently on her feet in the hall, her sister Sheki opting to roll and slide after reaching the floor and jumping up into a fighting stance right beside Kasy.
“Hey, girls… whoa, what are you two supposed to be?”
“Oh, my, I do believe that there are some ninjas in this house!”
They were in the immediate path of their parents, who had been moving speedily towards the front door. The red and green lightshow was an alert to the girls that their parents had received an emergency call from Global Justice, and that the adults were about to leave for a mission.
Kim Possible and her wife Shego were attired in their own mission garb, each outfit the culmination of years of experience in the field and after facing countless dangers and adventures, some of which had seen them pitted against each other.
Kim’s black shirt was no longer cropped short to expose her midriff, but only for fear of the perception that she was attempting to deny her age. At the ripe old age of 30, she was still at the peak of her physical prowess but modesty and maturity behooved her to wear something a little less revealing. As for her looks, Shego was still hoping to rip Kim’s clothes off each and every time they returned home. Shego’s green and black outfit was still as sleek and sexy as ever, as was she whether she was wearing it or not, as Kim frequently reminded her.
Kasy peeled back the tight black hood that protected most of her face and was designed to keep her hair covered and out of her eyes.
“These are our mission uniforms!”
“Yeah! We’re ready to ride along with you on missions!”
Sheki kept her hood on, mostly because her longer hair was harder to tuck back underneath the protective cowl. The twins looked at their parents with eager excitement in their eyes, the slightly older and taller of the adults moving closer.
“Kimmie, look at these outfits. These look really good!” Shego looked from one daughter to the other, finally pin-pointing on Kasy. “You designed these?”
“Yes, Ma’am! They’re waterproof and thermally insulating and shockproof…”
“And the Kevlar weave makes them like chain mail!” Sheki pirouetted to show off how well the uniforms fit.
At the ripe old age of thirteen, the twins were showing all the signs of having inherited Kim’s body type; their figures were still boyish and this pleased Shego to no end. Shego suspected that the girls would be upset if their Momma used her plasma to fry any boys that came knocking on the door when they eventually began to look more like her Princess.
“Very well done, girls! You can show them to us later when we get home.” Kim couldn’t have been more proud, even if time was of the essence.
“Oh, you both look so cute, I could eat you up!” Shego grabbed a girl in each arm and lifted them to her face, smothering them with kisses. Kim stood back and grinned at the disgust each girl displayed at being treated like infants.
“Momma, let go!”
“Shego, we really do have to get going.” Kim waited until her offspring could at least touch their feet to the floor before speaking to them.
“Girls, we’ve explained before that you are both too young to join us; you’re training has progressed very, very well and we’re both proud of you, but…” Kim became a little stern and she adopted her ‘motherly’ expression. “You are not ready for some of the dangers that are out there.”
“Yes we are!”
“You were our age when you started fighting bad guys!”
“Yeah! We can kick serious buttage! You’ve said so yourself!”
“Please, can we go with you? Please? Please-please-please-please?”
“GIRLS!”
Shego was always the one able to raise her voice before Kim could when discipline was required, even though she wasn’t the least bit angry with her daughters right now.
“Mommy’s right; you’re not ready. When we come home, we’ll all sit down and relax over some nice, hot ‘cocoa-moo’ and talk about the future of Team Possible, Ok?”
This tanked! They trained day after day and had stopped fights at school and had even saved folks more than once when the need arose and they had been present. But now they were being excluded from the family legacy! Sheki ripped the cowl away from her head in frustration.
“It’s not fair, you never let us do anything on our own!”
“Now, Sheki, that’s not…”
Kasy stood by her sister in solidarity against the united front of the old farts.
“Yeah! What’s the point of training all the time if we aren’t allowed to do anything with it?”
“But you have; why just last week, that fire…”
“It’s just NOT FAIR!”
The teens were in a righteous fit of pique and their anger was fuel for louder volume and harder glares, their words being chosen to pick and stab at their parents like any child would who felt unfairly slighted. Kim felt herself becoming frustrated, but she didn’t want her daughters to see it in her face.
“We’ll do what your Momma suggested, we’ll sit down later and have…”
“You never had training! You answered an accidental message on your website!”
“Kasy Ann, please mind your tone. There was more to the sitch than that, I…”
“You were just a cheerleader! We’ve studied a dozen different styles of martial arts and all sorts of armed and unarmed combat… you just knew how to do back flips!”
Shego’s patience was wearing thin; Kim was right, they really did need to get moving and she didn’t like the tone she was hearing, not one bit. Even if the girls were built like Kimmie, they were wired like both of their mothers, stubborn and assertive, and there was just enough of Shego in them to let the rage grow and grow.
“Now you two just simmer down and…”
It didn’t matter exactly who said it, and truth be told neither the adults nor even the girls themselves could be sure who’s voice spoke first; furious and raised in anger, they sounded identical, as were the thoughts that prompted what happened next.
“And besides…”
“You can’t even do this…!”
The girls stood together before the older redhead and held out their gloved hands, which flared bright with green plasma, coruscating up their arms as if it were alive. It’s light shone and reflected in four sets of emerald eyes, glowing like St. Elmo’s fire.
Shining like an accusation.
Shego’s breath caught in her throat and she was momentarily struck dumb, staring at her children in shock, wondering how they could be so hurtful and cruel. It had been a long-standing vow that Shego would never do anything to make her angel feel less capable because of her lack of supernormal abilities, and certainly nothing that would make her think that she was less of a mother, especially since there was so little of Kim’s genetics that were blatantly apparent in their twin daughters.
It was Kim alone who had carried them to term and delivered them healthy and happy into this world. There was more than enough of their Mommy in them, maybe more than there was of Shego under the skin, but Kim often felt like an outsider among her own children. And now their own children had thrown it in their Mommy’s face. Eventually she found her voice, her body shaking with rage and fists clenched in anger.
“How DARE you!” She advanced on them.
“No, Shego, stop.”
Kim’s voice was soft, but it stopped Shego as if she had placed a slender hand on the green and black clad woman’s chest. Shego looked to her younger wife, saw the hurt in her expression and heard the pain in her voice, and she also heard the unspoken request. The tall, pale woman backed away and walked out of the front door without another word or glance to her daughters.
Kim wasn’t ready to follow her just yet.
“You two will go to your rooms stay there until we return.”
Her face was dead and her words flat; it was the last thing she said before walking past them and out the door. There was no motion or sound from the girls for several seconds before their breathing slowed down and they turned to look at each other.
“Crap.”
They shambled back up to their room and divested themselves of their uniforms, now seeming so ridiculous and vain now that they felt so terrible. Kasy and Sheki deeply loved their parents and were well aware of how deeply their Mommy was hurt by the insinuation of weakness. The girls had let their disappointment get the better of them and had become angry with her, and that had made them want to hurt her, a plan that had worked all too well. They shrugged back into their knock-about clothes and tried to stay mad, but failed.
Out in the driveway, Shego sat in the car and waited for Kim. It would be a short drive to the heliport where transportation should already be waiting for them. Kim got in the passenger seat and crossed her arms over her chest; never a good sign as far as Shego was concerned.
“Kimmie, they didn’t mean it.”
“Yes they did.” Kim sighed and adjusted her seat so that it reclined farther back.
“I’m going to close my eyes and meditate for a while; you know, clear my mind for the mission.”
“Sure, Princess, I understand.” Shego set her mouth in a grim line and drove away from the house, neither woman noticing the brief flash of blue light that came from the backyard.
The canvas sat unfinished against the wall and the stylus marked a place in a notebook as the twin girls sat on the floor of their bedroom and leaned against each other. Even their music would bring them no solace and the room was only half lit, becoming darker as the evening sun set lower in the sky.
“We really screwed up, didn’t we?”
“Yeah…” Sheki sniffled.
“Stop that, or you’ll have us both crying.”
“Sorry.”
Sheki reached towards her single bed and pulled a photo album out from underneath. Kasy heard the noise of the album being opened and craned her neck to see what was happening, watched her sister open the familiar book, its covers decorated with incomplete patters formed of dried macaroni and colorful yarn.
Kasy turned full around and both girls flipped page after page in silence, the old photographs and newspaper clippings plating a silent movie that only a true fan or a close relative would understand; the life and times of Kim Possible, from youth to adulthood.
“She was so pretty.” Sheki was looking down at an image taken from an old high school yearbook; still a teenager in the picture, their Mommy wearing her old cheerleader outfit.
“Was? She still is!”
“Yes, I know that! Doy!”
“There she is with Uncle Ron and wittle… little Rufus.”
“Yeah… he was the greatest.”
“Here’s one with Aunt Bonnie.”
“Don’t forget, Cousin Alex will be twelve next month.”
“I’ll paint him a little picture from the two of us.”
“That’s a good idea…”
They eventually came to the old police photo from when their Momma was arrested once out of maybe two dozen times.
“This one was on the inside of Mommy’s locker door.”
“Momma looks so mean!”
“Yeah, but remember what she told us? That she was already starting to look forward to the battles with Mommy by then?” Kasy sighed.
“Mommy never needed plasma.” One slender hand was raised and briefly flared with green light. The twins watched as the emission faltered and went out of its own accord.
“No, never…”
“We really, really screwed up, huh?”
“Yeah… hey, do you smell something?”
Kasy sniffed the air and looked to her sibling.
“I do… like something’s burning!”
The girls stood as one and ran back to the stairs, wondering if the house were on fire, or if an enemy were attacking, or both. Down the stairs and into the dining room and into the kitchen they ran, doing their best to be prepared for anything.
“Greetings!”
Except for this.
An unexpected visitor was standing in the middle of their kitchen, little more than twelve inches tall and wearing only a dark blue harness. Other than this, the being seemed to be naked; its rough bare flesh was pink and there were tufts of stiff whiskers poking out from beside a tiny nose. The beady eyes were small and black but clear and they sparkled in the fluorescent lighting. It appeared to be regarding them with respect and there was a hint of a smile behind a pair of oversized teeth.
After the startling discovery of this mysterious visitor, the girls remembered the training that they had been flaunting in the face of their parents just minutes ago; they quickly adopted fighting stances and prepared to stave off this threat.
“Who are you…?”
“And what are you doing here?”
The creature appraised their battle readiness and nodded with satisfaction; it hadn’t moved otherwise and had both hands clasped behind its back. While the creature was very short, it was also very broad and carried lots of well developed muscles on its stocky frame.
“Well, I was going to bake some cookies, and have just turned on the oven.” The little creature had an amazingly deep voice for someone so small. “You really should clean your oven more often; I’m afraid that something has dripped onto the element and made a little bit of a smell.”
It cleared its throat and coughed.
Kasy’s eyes widened in recognition; she had seen something very much like this being in the very photo album they’d just been looking at, albeit smaller and not nearly as buff.
“Hey, it’s…”
“Yeah, it looks just like…”
“Almost exactly like…”
They regained their focus and spoke the name together.
“Rufus!”
The creature nodded, a look of pride crossing its features.
“You may call me Rufus 3000.”
Kasy allowed her posture to relax slightly.
“But, Rufus died years ago!”
“Yeah, like, he was the oldest known naked mole rat on record, or something!”
The pink creature bowed low.
“I am well acquainted with the ancient records.”
“So where did you come from?”
“I am from the future.”
“From the year 3000?”
“No, a lot sooner than that, but still the future. I am one of 3000 genetically enhanced descendants of the original Rufus.” The creature bowed its head in reverence.
“Long may his spirit guide my race.”
The girls had dropped their fighting stances by now and were more bemused at this strange visitor than anything else. Sheki leaned closer to her sister and whispered out of the corner of her mouth.
“What do you think it wants?”
“Why, I’m here to see you two, of course!”
They stiffened, the shock at knowing that they were the reason for the visitation being stronger than the visitation itself.
“What do you want from us?”
The small creature moved for the first time since they had entered the kitchen; it walked along the cabinets and cooking appliances and inspected the general layout of the room. Then it suddenly turned and pointed a tiny finger at Sheki.
“You! I need the largest mixing bowl that you have!”
The other arm shot out, homing in on Kasy.
“You, assemble these ingredients!” He held out a list that was printed on an odd sort of film or parchment.
Without hesitation the deep, rich commanding voice prompted them into action, running this way and that to fulfill their appointed tasks, all the while Rufus 3000 searched the drawers for the proper size of mixing spoon and measuring cups. In just a few seconds, each and every item that was required sat on the countertop, with the buff naked mole rat inspecting them carefully. The girls stood and panted, their hearts beating rapidly in their chests from the exertion of their search, and the creature let them take the next few minutes to catch their breath as it measured and poured and stirred.
When enough time had passed and the job was nearing completion, the visitor spoke.
“For the record, I happen to be a ‘he’.” Rufus 3000 continued to mix the ingredients in the bowl and muttered to himself. “Not that it matters ever since we developed asexual reproduction.”
“Uh, Ok.”
“Now help me get this mixture out onto the baking sheet.”
As if dazed, each girl accepted the task of spooning balls of cookie dough onto the slightly greased metal tray. Rufus 3000 took the tray from them and walked across the kitchen to the oven, where he asked Kasy to set the tray inside and asked Sheki to set the timer to twenty minutes.
Now that everything was finished except for the waiting, it was time for the real reason for his visit.
“Girls, please take a chair, will you?” The voice was less commanding, more calming of tone this time. “I need to tell you why I am here.”
Looking to each other for answers but finding none, they moved three chairs towards the center of the room.
“Kasy, Sheki… I have been sent here from the future as a representative of my race. My intent is to show you one possible future that must not be allowed to happen.”
He turned momentarily to make certain that the oven was set to the correct temperature before continuing.
“The records tell of ‘The Beloved KP’ and ‘The Mighty Shego’ and of how much they were a part of the life of ‘Rufus Prime’. Your own lives are chronicled to a great extend, but…” He raised a tiny paw when he saw that both girls were preparing questions about their own futures.
“I will not discuss those matters here tonight.” He jumped down from his chair and paced around them, forcing them to turn in their seats to follow him.
“Had I not interceded, events would have occurred tonight that would have created a temporal nexus, a focal point from which several possible time lines branch forward. I arrived here just as your parents were leaving; if I had not, even now you would have been dressed once again in your newly designed mission outfits and halfway to the heliport where you would have hidden aboard the same hover ship that was to carry them.”
“It was a stall.”
Kasy looked to her sister in puzzlement.
“Huh?”
“He kept us here making cookies so that we would miss the chance to hitch a ride with them, right? Think about it; his being here was weird enough, but now it’s too late anyway!” Sheki wasn’t sure if she should feel angry or pleased with herself for figuring this out.
“Well done. You are correct; my arrival distracted you and I delayed you further by keeping you busy.” Rufus 3000 nodded with satisfaction.
Kasy was shaking her head.
“But Mommy told us to stay in our rooms. We weren’t going to go anywhere.”
He looked hard into her green eyes.
“You were looking at the scrap book, yes?”
Both girls admitted that they were.
“In less than five minutes you would have convinced yourselves that you WERE ready for missions and been back in your uniforms and out the door with your hover boards.” He passed the oven on his circuit around the room and peeked inside.
“I’ve watched it time and time again on the chrono-viewer.”
“But we’re still here; we didn’t leave. You saw to that.” Kasy built up to her question. “So why are you still here?”
He turned to face them again, like a general addressing his troops.
“Because tonight was just one of many chances to allow the unspeakable to become reality. That is why I must show you what you need to see, so that you will be able to do as I ask… as I beg, honestly and of your own free will.”
Reaching into a pouch sewn into the seam of his harness, Rufus 3000 withdrew a deep blue jewel; gemlike in the way that it carried an inner radiance.
“Please follow me outside.”
He strode out through the patio door and the girls were close behind him.
Heading out into the yard, he looked around as if to get his bearings, Rufus 3000 came to a stop several yards away from the house.
“Do not be alarmed at what is about to happen!”
He took hold of the jewel and gave it a hard turn; there was a silent pressure wave and the very air behind him shimmered and rippled.
A scintillating field of blue energy blossomed.
“Oh, it’s just a time portal.”
The pink creature was confused.
“What do you mean, ‘just a time portal’?”
“Well, Grandpa designed one once.”
“Yeah, it worked for a few seconds and then blew every fuse in Grandpa’s house.”
“Grandma was really mad!” The girls giggled at the memory.
“Oh… well, please step through the portal and mind your knees and elbows.”
They had to step over the lower edge of the temporal aperture, a feeling of intense cold washed over them as they broke the plane and passed out of this year and into another. The yard was gone, replaced by a grid work of inlayed paving stones. The house was gone, a huge metal edifice rearing over their heads like a tower. They looked up and up and followed its climb all the way up into the dreary clouds overhead. They realized that while it had been nighttime back home, it was roughly mid-afternoon here.
Back home? This was still their home, right?
“One thing that I must explain first.” The naked mole rat was making fine adjustments to the jewel. “I’ve adjusted our own chronological resonance signatures to be slightly out of phase.”
The girls gave him a blank look.
“We won’t exactly be here, if you understand what I mean.”
“I got nothing.”
“Me neither.”
Rufus 3000 sighed.
“While the people and events around us will be wholly rooted in this time, which by the way is approximately fifteen years from when we started, the three of us will be living in the gap between now and… now.”
“…”
“No one will be able to see us.”
“Oh! Why didn’t you just say so?”
“Yeah, we’re not stupid, you know!”
“Yeah, doy!”
The rodent kept his mouth closed and walked past them, reflecting that no, they were not stupid, but they just had no concept of the applications of time travel. He turned back and motioned for them to follow him back towards the massive building that now stood where their home once did.
“This is the fortress of the Supreme One. The first step in understanding the severity of the situation is to let you see exactly what has become of your parents.”
Rufus 3000 paused in his exposition, fishing around in his harness and removing a small metal cylinder. He looked at the girls carefully, examining the surfaces of their exposed skin.
“You don’t feel any itchiness since we arrived, do you?”
“No.”
“Uh, uh.”
“That is good.” He showed them the cylinder. “If you feel any irritation, please let me know and you can rub a little of this unguent on the area; it will stop the effect of ‘time cooties’.”
“’Time cooties?’”
“Ewww!”
“Again, do not be alarmed. They are rare and harmless, but they do itch.” He gestured at the little container. “But only use it sparingly; it is an extremely powerful curative and will heal even the worst injuries almost instantly.”
He led them closer to the massive building. Examining it again, the twins noticed that the exterior bristled with sensor arrays and antennas and with plenty of turrets that might have housed all sorts of weapons.
“What happened to our parents? Did they change much?”
The little creature glanced back at Sheki and nodded.
“To use your vernacular, ‘Doy’.” The three walked around the building, getting a better look at the other fortress-like structures built around the base of it. The rest of the houses on their street were all gone, replaced by more towers and barracks and unidentifiable machinery. Rufus 3000 kept speaking as they walked towards what appeared to be an entry point into the building.
“Eighty-two percent of the time that you followed after your mothers and attempted to assist them with this particular mission, both of you are either killed or terminally wounded. Seventeen percent of the time, one of you is killed and the other crippled for life.”
Eager for any justification that they were ready for the adventures they dreamed of, Kasy prompted her sister to point out the remaining one percent instance.
“Oh, well, yes, one percent of the time you both survive… but one or both of your mothers dies while saving you.”
“… oh…”
“Yes, ‘oh’. Now please let me finish.” He cleared his throat.
“In the days after your deaths, blaming themselves and each other, your parents became bitter and crazed with grief. You were the whole reason for them to live, beyond the boundless love that they felt for each other. You two were the personification that, no matter what doubts they or others had of their relationship together, it was right and pure and good.”
The doorway loomed before them. Rufus 3000 paused to examine the locking mechanism and stepped back, looking at the girls expectantly.
“Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Aren’t you going to pick the lock, or should I ring the bell?”
Kasy stepped forward.
“I got this one.” Her nimble artists fingers focused on the mechanical parts of the lock, occasionally using a concentrated spark of plasma to short-circuit the electronics. After a few moments they heard a buzz and a click and the door opened to admit them.
Sheki grinned at her sibling and the girls exchanged a high-five.
“Hick-bicka-boo!”
“Hoosha!”
“That reminds me; if you ever encounter others of my race, please refrain from saying those words or making any other references to ‘The Tweebs’. There is a schism among the elders of my kind regarding the belief that they were good and the belief that they were evil.” He shook his head in disgust. “The jury is still out, as one might say, on that matter.”
Walking through the open doorway, they met the first people they had seen since arriving in this future time. More than a dozen huge men, outfitted in uniforms of a distinctive color combination, stood on the stairs inside the doorway, each aiming an unknown but menacing weapon in their direction.
A voice came from a loudspeaker set in a nearby control panel.
“Security Team, report! Why is the main ingress open?”
One of the uniformed men touched his fingers to a device clipped to his lapel.
“Unknown, sir. It could be a malfunction; I’ll have the techs fix it immediately!”
“See that you do… she is NOT in a good mood today.”
The huge men, looking like soldiers breed for war, glanced at each other and shivered with fear. They quickly moved to shut and secure the door while the twins and Rufus 3000 nimbly stepped aside and stayed close to the wall.
“You see? We are not fully integrated into their time stream, so we are safe.”
They walked up the stairs. Sheki was having a bit of difficulty understanding how so much could have changed, regardless of the cause.
“But what is really happening here?”
“Yeah, and who is this ‘Supreme One’?”
“And how can so much have changed just because of us?”
“What you fail to grasp is the power of the individual! Your parents each have formidable strengths and fantastically powerful wills; the inner might and determination of one person can chance the world if they are given the chance. Together, and as force for good, Kim and Shego have no equal. But with your deaths, they let their fear and sorrow take control of their lives.”
Footsteps echoed between the stone and metal walls, even this flat sound giving some semblance of life to this place of dread.
“In this particular timeline, you both were killed but your bodies were never found. Your mothers came to believe that you had been kidnapped as part of some elaborate scheme of one of their several enemies.”
“Is that what happened?” Kasy and Sheki looked like something out of a tale by the Brothers Grimm; they huddled against each other and held each other tight, almost afraid to break the contact.
“No, an explosion vaporized you both, but your parents had no way to know that. They searched all over the globe and fought against many agencies of crime and terrorism, but of course they never found you.”
They had reached the top of the flight of stairs and were standing at the entry to a gallery filled with machinery and equipment, all of it designed to bring about destruction and pain in one form or another.
“This is actually one of the tamer potential futures that I brought you to; at least the horror that occurs here is for a reason… to locate you. There are other futures where the horrors are performed for their own sake.” He frowned. “Please observe what happens next and see what has been wrought by their inner demons.”
The girls were puzzled by this vague statement and were about to ask for more of an explanation when they heard another door open in an opposite wall and a small knot of people entered the gallery.
The Supreme One walked as if she were the lord and master of all she surveyed, which in truth she was. The entire city and outlying township that had once been called Middleton had been expanded and built up until Upperton and Lowerton and all of the surrounding rural areas were merged into one enormous system of factories and laboratories and armories, all with one purpose.
Her immensely long hair was full and lustrous, with only a few bands of gray to mar its color, and it bobbed and twisted with her every step and with every turn of her head as she gave commands to those who followed her. She wore a uniform of similar color and design as the rest of her soldiers, obviously being the pattern for her entire retinue, but she also wore a long and flowing cape that covered her shoulders and came almost to the ground at her feet. Behind her at a subservient distance walked several of her Honor Guard, experienced killers and masters of destruction in their own right.
“And I am telling you, Major Domo…” The Supreme One was apparently continuing a conversation that started on the other side of the door. “That the dignitaries are to be advised that I will continue to target their major population centers until one of them can tell me the location of my daughters!” She spun on her heel and glared up at the aide de camp with her burning green eyes.
The black man was very tall and powerfully built, but he actually took a step back under the gaze of his mistress. His voice was deeper, more deep and rich than that of he twins naked mole rat companion.
“It will be done, Supreme One!”
“So it had better. They have been lax in their searches of late; I may have to fire a warhead into one of their cities as an incentive to the rest.” She looked off into space as she considered her options.
“Obliterate Madrid, it’s particularly beautiful this time of the year and there will be lots of tourists.”
“It will be done!”
“Oh, yes, that reminds me… have the prisoner brought forward!”
Two of the Guard walked quickly to her from the rear of the group. They were each supporting the limp form of a woman, haggard and bloody, between their massive arms. The woman wore the filthy and torn remnants of a dark blue uniform; she had unkempt auburn hair and might have been considered attractive once, but her ratty hair barely covered a long-healed injury that had ruined her right eye.
“Now is as good a time as any to deal with your treachery!”
The prisoner lifted her head and looked to the Supreme One with her one good eye.
“You can kill me if you want… but… the resistance will survive and… one day they shall bring your evil… crashing down…” This was enough to exhaust the woman and her head fell back down. The Supreme One smirked and moved closer to the prisoner.
“One thing is for certain; you won’t live to see it. In fact…”
She reached down and grabbed a handful of auburn hair with her left hand, roughly lifting the head of the insensate woman, while her right hand moved to the left side of the prisoner’s face.
“You’ll never see anything again…”
The right hand of the Supreme One cupped itself over the rheumy and bloodshot, but otherwise healthy, left eye of the prisoner, flaring to life with the intense heat of a plasma field. Green death radiated from the hand and seared the flesh and tissues of the woman’s face so deeply that the smell was strong enough to make the Honor Guard nauseous.
The Supreme One was gratified to learn that the prisoner wasn’t totally exhausted; she had enough strength left in her to howl with agony. When the woman’s face was a charred ruin, the Supreme One let her drop to the floor and moved off so that her Guards could drag the body away.
“Take her to the slave quadrant of the city and drop heavy objects on her head until she stops breathing.”
“It will be done!”
Across the large chamber and huddled in terror against the wall, Kasy and Sheki watched something that wasn’t just unspeakable, it should not have been possible. While their youth could excuse them from never having seen such atrocities as this before, they were intelligent and well educated and knew that such things did occur in the world both past and present. Knowing was one thing and seeing was another, but what they were bearing witness to now was something else entirely.
As the group moved further into the chamber, they passed beneath a harsh light source, leaving no doubt as to the identity of the greatest living evil in this bleak future.
The girls from a world fifteen years in the past did their best not to scream.
The woman known as the Supreme One was lithe and slender and fair skinned, with only a few lines on her face to mark the passage of time. The hard set of her features and her grim countenance were carved far deeper than fifteen years could account for. While not very tall, she carried with her a might and power that dwarfed those hulking soldiers that obeyed her slightest whim, and the cut of her blue and white uniform with its bright blue cape gave her the look of a goddess of the ancients.
The Supreme One lifted her artificial right hand and inspected the mechanism that was fused to the end of her wrist; there were bits of burnt skin and hair stuck to the metal surface and wedged between some of the interlocking segments. She flexed the metal fingers to loosen what pieces of flesh that she could and ignited her plasma field once again to let the rest slowly burn off.
There was a new voice from across the chamber.
“Let us pray for the soul of that poor woman, as she will soon pass on to a better place than this.”
The woman once known as the name Kimberly Ann Possible turned to look upon the new arrival.
The speaker had entered from behind the group, using the doorway from which they had first entered the gallery. Taller than the Supreme One but dressed in a long white shroud that covered its body entirely, the figure walked closer to the guards. The voice had been feminine but there was nothing womanly about how it moved or the shape under the shroud. It moved… wrong.
The shape was only a few feet away from the Supreme One when a member of the Honor Guard stepped up and barred the way.
“Keep back! Do not dare to… Aahh!”
The man fell, writhing in agony from the plasma burn that Kim gave him across his back, slicing deeply with her talons of her right hand even as the plasma cauterized the wound.
“I believe that you are new to my guards, so you may live.”
“Thank… thank you for my unworthy life, Supreme One!”
She didn’t have to give any further orders regarding the man; he was lifted and hauled away by another guard that had made a similar mistake once.
“Forgiveness is truly the path to righteousness.”
“SHUT UP!”
Kim turned back to the shrouded figure, its back bent oddly and one leg dragging as it moved even closer. Kim reached out and grabbed the white cloth from the head of the figure and ripped it away. At first it was difficult for Kasy and Sheki to discern the appearance of the newcomer; the skin and hair underneath the shroud were both as white as the cloth itself. The hair was cut short, trimmed down almost to the scalp, while the pale skin had the faintest of greenish undertones where the harsh light struck it.
The pale skin was also covered with livid scars, some of the older ones drawn and scabbed over while several others were red and inflamed and obviously infected. As more of the cloth fell away, it became clear that other injuries had once been inflicted upon this person; the face was asymmetrical and distorted as if bones had been broken badly and not properly set. One pale green arm was crooked at an odd angle, as was a leg; this accounted for the limp that hindered the labored movements of the sickly creature.
The woman once known as Shego looked at her wife with an expression of fervor that bordered on madness.
“Show me your mercy, Supreme One!”
With a sigh, Kim reached out and used the metal talon of her artificial hand to draw one ragged laceration across a pale cheek. Red blood welled and the emerald eyes rolled back in the pale face with ecstasy.
“Praise to the Supreme One!” Pale arms were held outstretched in supplication and Shego was apparently waiting for more of her wife’s attentions. Kim was not in the mood today and she glanced at one of her guards.
“Beat her until she bleeds, and when your arms get tired let her beat herself.” There was sneer of contempt. “It’s what she wants.”
“Yes, Supreme One!”
Rufus 3000 knew that his charges had seen enough, more than enough. The girls were wrapped in each other’s arms and were doing all that they could to block the sights and sounds that assaulted them from the gallery. Knowing that they were still safe from harm and could not be detected in any way, he used his jewel to open another time portal and reconfigured it’s energy field to encompass the girls; they were in no condition to stand and walk through it right at that moment.
The nightmare of the future world faded around them and they were once again in their own time, albeit in the front yard of their home now; they were in the exact spot that they had been sitting when they made the return journey through time after having walked that short distance.
Rufus 3000 used his prodigious strength to help the girls to their feet and he took them by the hand. They were silent and shaking as he led them into their own house, bringing them into the living room and depositing them on the couch. They sat there silently as he walked back to the kitchen and removed his cookies from the oven, carefully turning the appliance off and placing the used cookware in the sink, filling it with soapy water before he returned to them.
He gently set a plate of warm cookies on Kasy’s lap and waited.
After just a few minutes the girls noticed the wholesome smell and looked down, each taking a cookie and nibbling on it for comfort more than anything else. Sheki was the first to find her voice.
“So… um… is that what’s going to happen?”
“No child.” He hopped up onto the couch and sat between them. “That won’t happen now. In fact, one might almost say that it never will happen.”
“But we saw it!”
“What you saw was the severed end of a timeline that can never come to pass, and it won’t if you have been listening to me and promise to listen to your mothers.”
“But how could they both change so much?”
“Terrible grief and sorrow can do much to a broken mind, even that.” He lifted the plate and waited until each girl had accepted a second cookie.
“How did Mommy lose her hand?”
“She received an injury during a mission; it was not that serious but she left it untreated and it became gangrenous. After it was amputated she had her engineers graft a robotic hand onto her arm, a hand that also housed a miniature plasma generator.”
He set the plate of cookies down on a coffee table.
“Believe me when I tell you that you will be ready one day, and that your training and courage will you capable of standing alongside your parents when they embark on adventures… but you are not ready yet.”
Still seeing both hurt and doubt in their emerald eyes, Rufus 3000 continued.
“Their love is strong, but not strong enough to stand losing either of you.” He reached out and caressed the girls on the cheek with a gentle paw. “I beg you, in the name of the Progenitor, take what I say to heart and listen to your mothers; they are excellent judges of your abilities and will know when you are ready.”
They must have finally been convinced that the naked mole rat spoke the truth; they agreed and promised on the memory of Rufus that they would do exactly what was asked of them. Kasy Ann and Sheki Go Possible never broke that promise, and the unspeakable never did come to pass.
Together they left the house and walked with their guide out onto the back porch, the stars above sparkling clear and bright.
“Um, Rufus 3000…?”
“Yes, child?”
“What’s with the cookies?”
“Mmm.” Sheki did her best to second the question around a mouthful of cookie.
“Well, it’s not easy to explain the temporal mathematics, but each time a Rufus returns to the past, we must ensure that we do not engage in any activity that could disrupt the time stream, thereby causing the Rufus to be prematurely retracted back to our own time. The best activity that we have found that causes the least amount of disruption to the chronometric flow is baking cookies.”
He tasted a piece of his own handiwork.
“Not bad… maybe a little too much nutmeg. And I think that you’ll agree that a cookie helps, yes?”
Moving well away from them so that they might not once again be caught within the time portal, their benefactor from the future prepared to return to his home. He paused before he reactivated the blue jewel and removed something from his harness pouch. He tossed it to Kasy, who grabbed it deftly from the air.
“You’ll want to keep this.”
“Eww! Do we have ‘time cooties’?”
The creature laughed his deep, rich laugh.
“No, but they do exist. Rather, I suspect that you might find it useful in another way… it has amazing curative properties for all manner of wounds.” He twisted the blue device and a round portal appeared in midair before him.
“Be well and remember… not too much nutmeg!”
He vanished just as a pair of headlights illuminated the back fence of the yard. The girls looked at each other as they realized that their mothers were apparently home early from their mission. They ran back into the house just as Kim was walking through the front door; she saw them coming and her brow furrowed.
“Girls, it’s late and I told you… HEY!”
Running all the way, the girls hit their Mommy at full speed, almost knocking Kim off her feet. They hugged her and kissed her face and wept with joy, all the while still trying to speak around the sobs.
“Mommy, we’re so…”
“…glad that you’re home, we…”
“… missed you so much and…”
“… we’re really, REALLY…”
“… REALLY sorry! We didn’t…”
“… mean it, really we didn’t!”
In an effort not to be pulled to the floor from their combined weight, Kim had steered them towards the couch; when they were close enough she let them collapse onto it, allowing the girls to wrap even more of themselves around her body. During the course of the evening Kim’s anger had subsided and she had already planned the discussion that she would have with the twins when she returned home, but while she had hoped they would be apologetic for their behavior, she was a little overwhelmed.
“Girls, hey, it’s alright.”
“… really, really, really sorry!”
“Calm down, you’ll make yourselves sick!”
“Are you Ok there, Princess?”
The three members of the Possible clan looked to where Shego was just entering the house. She had been curious to see how their daughters would act when the two of them had completed their mission, but since they were home early, Shego didn’t know what to expect. The twins looked at each other and both gave Kim one more kiss before they launched themselves away from the couch and ran to their Momma.
“No, girls! Don’t you… GHAA!”
And so history repeated itself, this time with the girls climbing all over Shego. The tall woman barely made it to the couch where Kim was laughing. Together the women held the sobbing girls as they continued to apologize.
“OK!” Kim raised her voice just enough to get their attention. “Let’s settle down here and act rationally. Shego, that means you, too.”
Shego was getting all teary eyed and trying not to cry along with her girls.
“I can see that someone here decided to make cookies so lets fix some of that ‘cocoa-moo’ that we mentioned earlier and talk awhile, Ok?”
The others agreed and the next several minutes were invested in the girls mixing and heating the chocolate milk while Kim left to change out of their own mission clothes and into something more comfortable before bed. Shego hung around in the kitchen and watched the girls and waited for her to return. When they were all together, it was time for a talk.
Kasy and Sheki were overjoyed to see their mothers again, their real mothers and not some sideshow mirror distortion of everything that they’d come to represent. Now that things were back to normal and all was as it should be, they were becoming morose again and sat at the kitchen table looking like they would resume crying. Shego stood against the counter and enjoyed a cookie; she would remain silent until Kimmie had her say.
Then it would be her turn.
Kimmie was wearing an old white T-shirt with a pink heart in the center when she came downstairs, and a loose pair of shorts. She heard a low growl as she passed her wife, a sure sign of no sleep for the next few hours. Kim rolled her eyes but otherwise didn’t acknowledge the bestial compliment. She joined her daughters and took a quick sip of the hot beverage before speaking, an action that caused both children to freeze when they caught a glimpse of their Mommy’s right hand.
There was a piece of gauze wrapped loosely around her palm.
“Mom, what happened to your hand?”
Kim stared at them and then down at her impromptu bandage.
“Oh, well, I got a little cut tonight… but that’s not important, we…”
“Kasy!”
“I’m on it like a big dog!”
Kasy pulled the small cylinder from her pocket and twisted it open; Sheki gently took her Mommy by the wrist and peeled away the gauze as Kim and Shego watched in stunned amazement. The older pair exchanged a quick glance as Sheki dabbed at the wound, deep but already cleaned at least once before, and Kasy carefully applied a small quantity of pink salve to the edges of the cut.
“Girls, what…?”
“Wait a second, please?”
Kim was looking from one tender face to the other when a tingling sensation in her hand made her look down; the cut was gone, only the bloody gauze on the table to mark that anyone had ever been hurt.
“Do you plan to tell me what that was all about?”
“Tomorrow, please, Mommy?”
“Yeah, please?”
Kim looked again to Shego, who shrugged, not having any more of a clue than her red headed wife.
“Ok, we’ll discuss this miracle of medicine tomorrow; with tomorrow being Saturday, I expect that we could all do with a good night’s sleep.”
“Tough luck for you, Princess.”
“Shego!”
Kim returned her attention to her daughters, seeing that they were still waiting for the hammer to fall. No longer feeling the personal hurt of their earlier words, Kim’s only intend now was to ensure they would not place themselves in harms way.
“Girls, your Momma and I know how badly that you want to work with us on missions, and how much you want to have adventures of your own. Believe me, you will. You’re smart and tough and we both want you to be better than we ever were.” She saw that they were very receptive so she continued. “But you are not ready yet. You are still a little too impulsive and that can get someone hurt, or worse.”
She reached out and stroked their hair, Sheki’s deep black tresses and Kasy’s unruly mop. Kim got a better look at her fully healed hand as she reached for a cookie.
“I’ll make you this promise; starting next week your Momma and I will begin to focus on a few key points for survival in combat, not fighting or defense because you are both excellent fighters, but more for counter intelligence and stealth.”
“We’re going to make you watch Public Service Film number 42: ‘How not to be seen’.”
“Shego, you are so not helping!”
Kim knew that Shego was helping because their daughters each cracked a smile at the ‘Monty Python’ reference. Kim did want to make her point, but not at the expense of hurting her daughters’ feelings like her own feelings had been hurt; no parent should ever be vindictive.
“This way we can have you join us in ways that offer support, and maybe even backup after awhile. Do you understand that we just don’t want to see either of you hurt?” She felt herself beginning to tear up also. “I couldn’t stand for that to happen.”
“We understand, Mom.”
“We promise to do what you say.”
Shego moved forward, believing that Kimmie had covered all of the ground that she needed to tonight, and placed a strong hand on the slender redhead’s shoulder.
“Pumpkin, you’re tired and we could all stand to call it a night.” There was a gently squeeze on the shoulder as a promise of things to come. “So how about you go on and lock up the house and get yourself ready for bed while the girls and I put the cookies away, hmm?”
Kimmie nodded and stood, moving close to embrace her children and plant a solid goodnight kiss on their pale green cheeks. She narrowly escaped a pinch from Shego as she walked out of the kitchen. The girls looked up and saw that part two of the discussion was about to commence.
Shego reached out and turned Kim’s chair around, sitting in it backwards and leaning forward over the back.
“You saw that cut on her hand, right?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Uh, huh.”
“The mission we got called out for was a trap; we drove to the heliport to catch a ride to what we thought was a raid by Dr. Dementor out on the coast. The report of the raid was called in to Global Justice in good faith, but there as no raid and the hover ship was rigged to explode upon take off. We would never have known if Mommy hadn’t seen a suspicious character messing around with the landing gear.”
Shego took a cookie off of the plate and tasted it; just a little too much nutmeg but she would never hurt the girl’s feelings by telling them so.
“Your Mommy used her own hand to deflect a knife blow so that she could take that saboteur down and then diffused that bomb all by herself. She’d told me to warn the crew to evacuate the other passengers and clear the landing field.” She held their gaze with her own. “That woman is the bravest soul that I’ve ever met. Your Mommy often says that she can do anything, most of the time she’s just being funny, but I know that it’s the truth.”
She sighed, tired and ready to join her spouse but wanting to leave her children with something meaningful.
“Who is the biggest bad-ass around here?”
“You are, Momma.” Sheki smirked.
“And who is the only person to ever beat the biggest bad-ass around here?”
“Mommy is.”
“Correct; and she never needed the help of any damn plasma. And who is it that the three of us agree is the most important person in the world?”
“Mommy.” Both girls spoke at once.
“Damn right. Give me your hands, we’re going to swear on something, Ok?’
Shego set her elbow on the table and raised her hand; her daughters were puzzled but confident that their Momma knew what she was doing. The pale warrior ignited her plasma and held her raised hand open, Kasy and Sheki quickly understanding what she wanted them to do. They each ignited their own plasma fields and joined hands over the kitchen table.
“Swear to me that you will always protect her and never, NEVER think that she’s less of a hero just because she has no super powers; that is what makes her more of a hero than anyone else I know.”
The girls nodded and willingly swore that oath.
“We swear on the memory of little Rufus.”
Shego blinked; that was a very strange thing to swear on but it seemed oddly appropriate.
“Good, then get your bubble butts to bed.”
Kasy and Sheki rose and walked around their mother, passing her to either side. They had just left her field of vision when they struck. Shego was ready for them.
She jumped up and spun around, catching her children in the act of attempting to ‘gang hug’ their Momma. Shego took hold of them and turned them away so that she could give each of them a one-handed tickle from behind, making the girls shriek with delight. Then they each got a smooch and were hustled off to bed.
Moments later, she opened the bedroom door and walked in to find her young wife already waiting for her.
“Do you think that we were too hard on them?”
“Nah, they seemed to know that they were out of line. More to the point, they must have realized exactly what was at stake.” She leant down and kissed the redhead.
“You are a wonderful mother, did you know that?”
Kimmie was grateful for the compliment, but her smile turned into a pout.
“I heard tickling, and you didn’t invite me!”
“Oh, you didn’t miss anything, Princess.” Shego noticed the flimsy negligee that Kimmie was wearing. “I hope that you didn’t pay much for that.”
“Huh, uh; I got it on sale!”
Shego divested herself of her mission clothes and slowly turned around, cracking her knuckles loudly.
“Nope, not…”
RIP
“… a blessed…”
SHREAD
“… thing.”
TEAR
“Giggle!”
Centuries from now but less than a block down the street, Rufus 3000 quickly turned off the chrono-viewer when he heard one of his compatriots walk up behind him. He knew that he shouldn’t be intruding on the privacy of the great heroes of his race like this, and certainly didn’t want to be caught at spying on them during a moment of intimacy, even if it was one of many that occurred each week.
Rufus 1576 approached with a tray of nachos, setting it down at the workstation so that they both could share.
“I was looking over your report; excellent job, excellent. But, I admit to being just a little bit disappointed in the girls.”
“Oh? Why?”
“Well, it was nothing major, and certainly doesn’t reflect too badly on them, but did you notice that they never once thanked you for your intervention?”
Rufus 3000 glanced down at his computer terminal and scanned the vast list of successful missions completed by Kasy Ann and Sheki Go Possible, both together and singly, once they had matured enough to have adventures of their own.
He took a huge mouthful of nachos, savoring the flavor of the hot cheese.
“They did, sir. They did.”
The End.
Author’s Note: The title makes reference to Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 and also Roger Zelazny's short story ‘A Rose for Ecclesiastes’; cookies, time, you do the math. I made up the name ‘Squish Kitten’ myself, and while I really don’t like cats, it sounds pretty gross, even to me. Doesn’t it sound like a black-death-thrash-metal band? Anyone here can use that name for their band as long as they give me a mention! Again, the idea for this story was given to me by one of our own, but they did ask not to be identified. Sorry if this was a little dark at times, but I think I made my point: not to add too much nutmeg.