And the day after the mission, Kim was in miraculous and full remission. No one could understand it. And Shego had learned her lesson. Lee was not like Drakken. Lee was Serious Evil. Drakken had been… harmless. Shego had fun with Drakken. Fun! Well, you wanted Real Evil, Shego. Youwanted it! Wentlooking for it!You got it. Happy? You stupid, stupidbitch!
By the time Shego had finished her story, they were parked in an apartment complex. The usual modern, 2-story affair, the kind that went on for acres and acres, identically, like the surface of a giant brain.
Kim and Ron sat there stunned. Shego just closed her eyes and waited for the storm she knew was coming.
But instead, Kim said, “You came to see me. I remember.” A green/black shape in the corner, Kim had barely been able to make it out. But of course, she hadn’t been able to speak. So she silently prayed, prayed that Shego would light her green fire and burn a hole through her chest.
“A few times”, Shego admitted. “Stoppable, you saw me once, I think”.
For Ron, Kim’s cancer had been the worst time of his life. He was there all day, every day, for a month. It had spread fast. At first, he’d cried his eyes out, half a dozen times a day, but eventually they’d just dried up, replaced by dread and emptiness. Replaced by the sound of the respirator. Some days, the only sound he heard was the damned respirator, all day long. Ron grew to hate it. And then, the worst. Kim had written a note to him one day, that said simply “Unplug it.”
And oh, God, how he’d wanted to. The look of pleading in Kim’s eyes, just to end that… he’d wanted to with all his heart and mind. And so he stood there, day after day, looking at the machine, unable to look at her…
And unable to do it.
When a tearful Dr. Possible burst into the room with news of the miraculous remission, Ron – inwardly, outwardly, and utterly – collapsed.
KPKPKPKPKPKPKPKPKP
“Yes”, Ron said weakly. “I saw.”
After a painful moment of silence, Ron asked, “What else?” It was like being burned at the stake. Just get it all over with at once, please.
Oh, the hell…, Shego thought. “Your little… I mean, Rufus. And… Kim’s… father…”
“No!”, Kim cried, a look of terror on her face. To have “bad things” happen to yourself was one thing, but when they happened to someone you loved…
“No! That was an accident. At the rocket-fuel plant! It couldn’t have had anything to do with… “, she trailed off, panting, paralyzed, “… could it?”
Shego’s voice trembled, “Kim… I’m -”.
“NO! NO! You… YOU killed… Dad!”, Kim screamed. “YOU BITCH!” Kim frantically opened the car door and scrambled out, then she froze, and turned towards Shego once more, “YOU BITCH!”, she cried again, at the top of her lungs. With that, Kim began to run down the length of the endless maze of the apartment parking-lot. Didn’t matter which way she went, as long as it was away.
Shego thought she had prepared herself for this. She was wrong. Kim’s words, and her hateful glare… hateful, cut like a knife. She showed no outward sign, but inwardly, something died.
Ron and Shego sat there for awhile in silence.