She rubbed her jaw as her fingers danced over the keyboard, almost in a blur as she put the finishing touches on her weekly report. Silently she hoped that the report would help push for the larger budget Global Justice needed. Everywhere her agency was stretched thin, trying to control the problems that had once been handled by a private party.
The woman shook hear head as she thought of the young teenager who had gladly given her life to help others. The girl who asked for favors instead of money. She needed that girl back. Kim…
She rubbed her temples, trying to clear her mind. There was no brining Kim back. No body to find, no way to even honor a person as great as her. She pushed the regret aside, stuffing it away with her pain, anger, sorrow and guilt into the back of her mind and locking it tightly away. There would be no mourning for the dead. It would do her no good.
The earpiece on her desk crackled as someone began speaking; quickly she slipped it on, adjusting the thin microphone to its place next to her lips.
“-repeat, we have…intruder. Female. Light skin, green and…suit. She’s heading toward-” The voice went silent with a gurgle, the sound of a body hitting the ground echoing over the earpiece before silence spread over the radio.
Another voice picked up on the radios, “Intruder spotted. God…fast. Can’t seem to pin her down….Oh god…no…no-” The voice was cut off mid-cry by the sound of a body impacting something hard.
Betty slid open a drawer on her left with one hand, pulling a matte black .45 from the drawer, ejecting the magazine and checking the rounds inside before slapping it back into the well. She pulled the slide back, the first round slipping into the chamber with a click.
Just let the sneaky bitch try and get the drop on her now.
Where was she anyway? She reached up her free hand to the earpiece, adjusting the volume slightly.
Something sharp dug into the side of her neck causing her to wince. “Let me guess. You figured that the big bad glowing wolf had come huffing and puffing to your door, and that you and your little piggies had to try to do me in?”
“You attacked first.” Betty slowly lowered the pistol onto the desk, sliding it away from her hand.
“Actually I just told them I had to see you, and they decided to get trigger happy. I broke a few bones, knocked a couple out, but don’t worry. I didn’t kill any of your little piggies.” The voice was a low whisper next to Betty’s ear.
“And what does a criminal want with me?” Betty hissed as she spoke, not enjoying the position she was in, much less the woman she was dealing with.
The sharp point dug deeper into her neck, “I’d be careful, pirate woman. I'm the one with a talon on your neck. Now I’m not a violent woman by nature, I’m more the fun-loving teasing sort, but I could slip and have a very messy accident. Now can I let you go, sit down with you and have a civilized conversation, or do we need to keep going back and forth all day? Well, Patchy? What will it be?”
“Alright. We can talk.” Betty sighed, her shoulders slumping. For the first time in her career she was agreeing to talk to a villain on their terms.
The talon slowly released its pressure from her neck, the pale woman stepping from out behind Betty, her hips wiggling as she slowly walked around the desk.
Betty’s hand leaped to the pistol, her mind trusting that she was fast enough with her draw to end it quickly. She pointed the gun and started to squeeze the trigger, stopping as she realized that the end of the gun was now liquid metal. Metal that was dripping from a glowing green hand clenched around the end of the pistol.
Betty’s could feel her cool exterior melting as for the first time in her life she felt completely and utterly screwed.
Shego let go of the pistol’s molten barrel, shaking the cooling slag from her hand before extinguishing her glow completely. Calmly she lowered herself into the single chair that sat in front of the woman’s desk. “Alright pirate lady, let’s try this again from the beginning. I’m Shego, the pain in your, and almost everyone’s, sides. But you already knew that. I know a little about you too. Betty Director, you lost your eye in a car accident that killed both of your parents, similarly injured your brother, and also took his hand. Unable to become a police officer you managed to work your way into the hearts and minds of the government and started Global Justice, which has flourished into the task force of the United States, doing all their dirty work, as well as handling the more extreme criminals in the world. Such as me.”
Betty slowly lowered what remained of her pistol onto her desk, not noticing the smell of scorched wood as the hot metal charred the once pristine desktop. “Now that we have the introductions out of the way, what do you want from me?”
Shego crossed her legs, interlacing her fingers in her lap, “Now that I have your attention, I want to end this. All of it. No more warrants, no more hiding, no more manhunts. I’m done. I’m cashing in my chips and going home. All I want is enough left over to live on. You can keep everything else.”
“And what makes you think that you have enough to buy off everyone in the world?” Betty could feel her confidence growing again as her position became stronger.
Shego leaned forward and grabbed a scrap of paper and a pen from the desk, scribbling a number on it before slipping the paper across the desk towards Betty, “It’s a low-ball estimate, but that’s pretty close to what I have in my rainy day fund.”
Betty looked at the slip once, then twice. “But this is in the trillions! How can you have that much? How is it possible for anyone to have that much money?”
“I saved up, played the stock market a little, using my talent and skill to increase the worth of my stocks. Not to mention the money I’ve made keeping organizations like Global Justice off of people’s backs, among other things. Girls like us can make a lot of money, if we’re smart enough.”
Betty stared at the slip of paper, swallowing slowly. It was a lot of money. Enough to easily help her with the budget problems that followed in the wake of Kim’s death.
Her mind began to calculate odds, weighing scenarios to estimate the possibilities, as she had been doing all her life. She couldn’t predict the future, but she could come pretty close to guessing it, and the future was looking bright indeed.
“What kind of house did you say you wanted?”
Shego looked around her new home: a small apartment complete with dark green furniture and matching carpet. It wasn’t much, but it was all she wanted. There was no need to have more than a home that she could call her own. She slumped onto her couch, thanking the powers above for the peace she now. The peace that she needed.
She had everything now….So why did it feel like everything important was still missing?
“So you’re the one she’s been watching.” The voice was smooth, almost like velvet, with a slight hint of German in it.
Shego bolted up to see a young blonde man standing near the end of her coffee table, hands clasped behind his back. Her eyes quickly looked him over, judging his worth as a fighter. Thin build, dark slacks, a white shirt and a pretty-boy face. Her mind quickly wrote him off as just unusual, if not stupid for entering her home uninvited. She sat up, glaring darkly at him. “Who are you? And why are you in my house?”
“Ah, my name is Faust, and I am sorry to interrupt you. But you see, I’ve been trying to find someone. Someone who’s been watching you for some time now. I believe you know her. Red hair, olive eyes, light complexion with a hint of freckles…”
She ground her teeth as she slid to her feet, “How do you know Kim? And why are you saying she’s watching me? She died almost a year ago!”
“Kim. So that was her name. You’re wrong. She is very much alive, well…in a manner of speaking that is.”
Shego’s hand was around the man’s throat in an instant, her teeth bared as her talons pressed against his pale skin, “What did you say?”
“My, you are a curious creature. Such anger and hatred boiling inside of you, but with a slight hint of loss, like you want something but you don’t understand what it is. What kind of beast are you exactly?” The man’s face was calm, his eyes searching her face with curiosity.
Shego growled, showing her teeth as her face tightened with anger, her arm lifting and throwing the man. His body seemed to slow in the air, his back hitting the wall with a soft thump. Her hands ignited immediately, the heat rippling off of them as she lost all self control. Her forearms else burst into flame, the glow rippling up to the elbows as her eyes narrowed at him. “I am not an animal.”
She lunged, her glowing talons raking through the air only to pass through where he had just been. She let out a cry of anger and attacked again, only to strike at thin air once more. She stopped, breathing heavily and with sweat running down her face. She rarely ever used her glow like this because of the strain it put on her.
“You are a strange one. I’ve never seen a demon or beast such as you in my five centuries on this planet. It actually saddens me that I’ve already chosen a bride, though…” He stopped and shook his head, “No, that won’t do. I’ll be watching you. She’s bound to show up sooner or later.” He made a slight bow and watched Shego slump over, the last of her strength fading away.
(Be careful about letting sentences trail on too long. If you have three or four or more commas in a sentence, it's a good bet that one of them is a good place to split that sentence into two. Generally, that will make the words flow more naturally)
Shego bolted upright in a cold sweat, panting heavily.
What the fuck was that? Another dream?
She shook her head slowly trying to clear the cobwebs from her mind. She could remember a flash of blonde, but what had happened? Her pale body slid off the couch, bare feet leading her across the carpeted floor for only a foot before her legs gave out, dropping her on her face.
Everything started to blur together as she fought to stand.
Was this what death was like?
“Shego. Come on Shego, wake up…”
Her eyes opened to a brightly lit room, and she quickly pulled her covers over her head. “Hego, this better be good.”
“We’ve got a…problem.”
Something told her that it wasn’t the usual sort of problem that would just go away if she went to bed. “I swear to God, criminals need to start working banker hours.” She sat up with the covers still over her head, not wanting to deal with the bright lights. With a large sigh she threw back the covers and slipped out of bed, to a loud protest from Hego.
“Can you please start sleeping with some clothes on?” He looked away, staring at her bedroom door.
“Oh grow up, Hego. We’ve been over this. I get too hot to sleep with clothes on. I can barely use that blanket. So what’s the problem now?”
Her brother mumbled something that she couldn’t quite make out.
“Come again?” She grabbed a green and black cat suit from her closet and slipping it on, resolving to cut back on the cheesecake as she felt the tightness around her backside. The last thing see needed was a fat ass.
“It’s Mantis. She’s released a tape saying that she’ll turn herself in…but only if you beat her…”
Shego froze as Hego spoke, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling. The boot she was holding fell to the floor. “Mantis?”
Hego nodded, “I know you two were, well, close before she switched sides, but I know you can beat her.”
Shego slowly grabbed her boot and slipped it on, “You just better hope I don’t kill her.” Neither of them spoke as she finished getting ready, strapping a small pouch to her ankle. “So where is she?”
Hego spoke in a sigh, “Downtown, near the office district… Shego…?”
“Yeah?” She paused near the door, hand on the knob.
“Be careful.”
“Doy,” And with that she was gone.
It didn’t take her long to find Mantis; the woman was standing in the open dressed in a bright green jumpsuit. Shego walked up, eying the woman’s skin tight outfit. “A bit nipply out?”
“Just a titty bit.”
“Breast we finish this quickly then,” Shego smirked as she spoke, her body shifting lower as her hands ignited.
“Alright, but no motorboat noises this time.” The other woman put her hands up, readying herself, the serrated blades on her forearms reflecting the lights from the streets below.
“You never did tell me why you split the hero biz…”
The other woman shrugged, “I chose to live for myself, and someone took it the wrong way. It seems everyone thinks in terms of straight good and evil. I’m not either though. I just want to be free.”
“Being free means almost killing your girlfriend then?”
The other woman looked hurt by the statement, “I didn’t mean for you to be there…I was just desperate to get away. I sent you flowers and a card to make up for it.”
Shego frowned, “You never understood that I didn’t want things. I’m not that kind of girl.” She lunged as spoke, her glowing hand grazing the other woman’s cheek.
“You’re holding back.”
“So are you.”
They backed away from each other, side stepping in a slow circle. Shego spun low, her foot narrowly missing its chance to hook the other woman’s leg. Mantis struck back, her foot connecting with the back of Shego’s head. “Quit holding back, glow bug.”
“Don’t call me that.” Shego lunged, wrapping her arms around the other’s woman’s middle, letting her glow extinguish as they collapsed on the roof.
“Reminds me of our first date.” Mantis brought her arms down, the serrated blades running across Shego’s back. She hissed in pain, her back arching as blood trickled from the wounds. Twin arms grabbed her shoulders and pulled her close, their lips meeting and locking together as passion overcame them both.
They rolled over, Shego hissing as the rough surface of the roof ground against her freshly wounded back, her talons raking across the other woman’s shoulders. They stopped as a serrated blade pressed against Shego’s throat. “I’m sorry sweetie. I…I can’t do this anymore.”
Mantis pulled away from Shego, tears running down her cheeks from beneath her emerald goggles. “I need to be free, and if I stay with you…I can’t be. I’m sorry sweetie…but I can’t have it both ways. Not with the lives we lead….”
Shego slowly climbed to her feet confused by the sudden rejection, “I could retire…we could escape all of this…” She held out her hand, slowly walking towards the other woman, “Come on Emily, please?”
The other woman slipped her hand into Shego’s slowly, stepping closer, before twisting, her elbow colliding with the pale woman’s stomach. Shego twisted, using her forehead against the other woman’s, before slamming a glowing hand into the woman’s midsection.
For a moment Shego could see the other woman smile before two arms wrapped around the pale woman pulling her close, her glowing fist burning into the other woman’s torso, before being engulfed by it completely.
The air was filled with the smell of burning flesh as Mantis whispered gently into Shego’s ear.
“Thank you…”
Shego bolted up from where she was lying on the floor, one of her hands glowing. She silently extinguished it, sitting upright.
Emily…. An old wound inside reopened as the woman’s face flashed through her mind. She’d killed the woman she loved. A woman that just wanted to be free of all the responsibilities that the world put on her shoulders. A woman who wanted to be free to be what she really was.
Her shoulders trembled as the pain seized her, clutching her chest and making it hard to breathe. Slowly, tears began to fall like rain onto the carpet below.
What kind of monster kills someone she loves?
A/N: And thus I end another chapter with tormenting Shego. And the wheels turns as we get another step closer to the end of the story. But that won’t be for a while still.
Next Chapter: Shego gets an unexpected letter, and pays another visit to Kim.