Mind, body, and Soul

Go City- Law Courts- The past.

The cameras flashed in her eyes, hundreds of reporters gathered around the young green woman who had been defending herself in the scandal of the year as she stood on the huge steps that lead to the vast wooden doors of Go City’s courthouse and justice department. The flashes also reflected off the statues behind the young green woman. Five figures. Four of them males, the other female, and two letters, a G and an O.

“Ms Shego! Ms Shego! How does it feel to be vindicated?” A reporter ran up to the young woman, clothed in her signature tight fitting cat suit, and shoved a microphone into her face. “Tell the world how you feel!”

Shego glared at him, her emerald eyes blazing and she snarled. “Get that damn microphone out of my face before I shove it-“

“My client has nothing to say at this time… Other that she and her brothers are delighted that the government and the law courts had seen fit to let this come to trial. A trial, whose jury of good men and women realise she has done nothing wrong. The deaths of those poor people in the lift, was a tragic accident that my client was fighting Deton Hater to prevent. She did not have a hand in their deaths, nor was she involved or responsible for their situation. She was unable to save them, a tragic occurrence. However, she did see Justice was served by rendering him unable to use his arms and unconscious for the police.”

Shego growled silently, her instincts sensing the tension and hunting mentality of the crowd.

Yeah, that’s the truth… now watch these fuckwits rip it to shreds!

“Ms Shego, rumours from channel 19 suggest you were enjoying yourself while fighting Deton Hater. That you laughed and teased him. Is this true?”

“No comment.”

“That you never bothered to grab the remote to the explosive until it was too late!”

Fuck you! I tried, but he was too quick… he knew which one of us to challenge. He knew my fighting style.

“No comment.”

“Did you forget about the people trapped down there?”

No… I was too slow, too slow! I wanted to help them, damn you!

“No comment.”

“Ms Shego, is this not just a cover up to prevent a so called heroine going to jail because she was sloppy? Because she became more interested in combat than saving lives? What happened to the five relatives, who suddenly fell silent when, initially, they wished to see you go to full trial?

Shego felt her hands tighten inside her gloves. “No… fucking… comment!”

“Do you not think it strange that while the law was willing to send you to court, all opposition has been dismissed? Will the people of Go City let this injustice go unpunished?”

“I…”

Her lawyer, her brother’s lawyer that they had forced her to take on, held up a hand.

“If that is all, my client has to return to Go Towers, where she will once again take up the mantle of saving lives. So, if you will excuse us?”

Shego felt him take her hand, before she violently pulled it out of his grasp and made her way towards the white police car sitting at the bottom of the steps. She knew it was waiting to take her to the airstrip where the Go jet lay waiting, but even so, the sight of it made her cringe inwardly.

I could have gone somewhere else… somewhere I’d be treated like an animal!

As she approached the door, it clicked open and a huge familiar male figure stepped out. Clad in a suit identical to hers apart from the colour and slightly baggier fit, Shego glowered at her brother.

“Nice to see you care, Hego. Nice to see you pick me up! Considering I was alone in that courtroom! Nice of you all to give a fuck!”

“Sis, not now!” Hego glared at her, but waved towards the cameras. “But if you really must know, Mego and the Wego twins did want to come here. They wanted to sit with you and bear the brunt of it. I stopped them… I don’t want any of this bad press rubbing on them any more than it needs to.”

“So why are you here?” Shego snapped, ignoring the reporters who rushed towards them, microphones held out. “Wanna grab some glory and support from your dear sister now that she’s been found innocent?”

Hego sighed. “Not now, Sis.” He turned away from her, towards the flashing cameras.

“Mr Hego! Mr Hego… How does it feel to have your sister back?”

“Excellent. I always knew this court and fine land would see her proclaimed innocent of all charges. My sister is a hero, she saves lives, she does not take them.”

“What about the rumours of her enjoying the fight so much that she forgot to stop the remote from being detonated?”

“All untrue… as has been found in the court.”

“What about you, Sir? Why were none of the Go Team present at this hearing?”

Hego smiled and raised a hand. “We have to protect the city, do we not? I knew that Shego would be found innocent, as did my brothers. We did not see the need to come here, as we knew our sister would soon be back at the Go Towers with us.”

You fucking liar! You wanted to stay back because your precious Team Go could have been smeared with bad press, Brother! You care about that team more than me or Mego or the twins now. Let’s be a family together… You lying bastard!

Shego glowered as the thoughts ran through her head, hot and vicious. Outwardly, she quietly pulled the door open to the police car.

The sudden splat of a rotten tomato landing on her back made her pause, the door clicking shut once more. She felt the cold pith trickle down her spine through the suit fabric and could feel and hear Hego suddenly go silent. The reporters around them stilled in horrified apprehension.

“Murderer!” a female voice screamed, as another rotten tomato exploded messily against Shego’s shoulder. “You killed my husband! You let him die! The blood of all those people is on your hands!”

The whole street had gone silent now, everyone looking at the tiny raging blond woman and the target of her hatred. A green woman in a black and green checked cat suit, now dripping with fermented fruit. Another tomato flew threw the air and smacked into Shego’s face. Everyone, even her brother, held his or her breath as the green woman rocked gently from the impact.

Slowly, Shego reached up a gloved hand and gently wiped the pith from her face, her emerald eyes impassive. Flicking the remains of the peel onto the floor, she looked towards the red-faced woman, a woman with dark shadows, shadows Shego remembered well as a teenager, under her eyes. Without blinking, the green woman sighed and held up a single gloved hand.

“I’m sorry… I wasn’t fast enough.” She watched, as the young blond woman’s face trembled. The anger giving way to shock and pain. “I will never forget that… I will never forget how slow I was that day.”

Quietly, she opened the door once more and slid into the seat. If the handle of the car glowed bright green for a second and steamed as she let it go, it was nothing anyone noticed.

Inside, the mirrored glass hiding her from view, Shego’s head fell into her hands and she struggled to repress the anger and guilt that coursed inside her.

Not my fault! I tried to save them… I tried so hard! But I failed them, their lovers… their kids! Damn it! I never asked for any of this crap! I’m not a hero! I don’t WANT to be a hero!Shego’s anger spiked and the leather seat inside the car began to smoke slightly. How can those bastards out there say I didn’t do enough or that I was too busy enjoying myself to pay attention to the innocents. Where they there? Did they feel Hater’s fists smashing into their muscles and organs? Did he laugh as he hurt them? Did they have to find a gap in his pattern of attack and use it to counter? Did they have to listen to the frightened screams as he blew the elevator cable?

The memory of herself firing streams of plasma to try and weld the car’s disabled brakes to the shaft, forced to watch as it vanished into the dark, her power failing her for the first time, assaulted her.

Did they have to accept that they’d failed? No! How dare they judge me! I did my best to stop him, to save them… it wasn’t my fault!

The door to the car clicked open quietly a second time and the huge bulk of her brother slid onto the seat next to her. They sat in silence for a few minutes, until the car was hurtling towards Go airport.

“Well, considering everything… that went rather well.” Hego glanced across at Shego and he raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t it?”

“I managed to stay out of jail if that’s what you mean.” Shego muttered, glaring at her brother. “No thanks to you.”

As the car shot along the street, she turned her attention to the people outside and watched as many of them pointed at her picture in the paper and some ripped at it with fingers, while others just sadly shook their head. “I can’t believe these people sometimes. Look at them, anyone would think I’m the bad girl.” She glanced back to her silent brother. “I’m on pages two, three, four and five! Deton Hater got a tiny column on page fifteen! He’s the one responsible for all of this!”

“Is he?” Hego turned and stared at her, eyes cold. “Sis, I’ve been watching the recordings of you and Hater fighting. Why the hell didn’t you go for the remote to the cable bomb? Too busy trading insults and blows? Having too much fun beating another person up? Just like last time.”

Shego stared at Hego and felt her insides burn. “Those three robbers were bullies from our school! What was I supposed to feel when I got to pay them back for everything they did to me? Legally?”

“You’re supposed to do the job!” Hego snapped. “A hero is supposed to put all personal reasons aside and do what he or she has to! A hero is not supposed keep jamming one of the robbers heads into the top of a slushie machine and punch them each time she pulls them out!”

Shego felt the same dark curl of pleasure at the memory. He had been her worst nightmare at school… always able to kick her right where it was always the most painful. Well, when she had pulled his bleeding, blue ice stained face from the hopper of the machine, watched him gasp for breath and shiver in fear, she hadn’t felt frightened any more. She had felt confident.

“Sis!” Hego snapped, making her blink. “Listen to me! Why didn’t you grab the detonator?”

Shego sat back. Because, you idiot, it was strapped to his wrist! If I’d pulled it off, two wires underneath the damn thing would have broken… and then what happened to those poor bastards would have happened anyway! ” She watched as her brother blinked. “Yeah, Hego… I still know more than you about technology, and I know what I saw. The only way to stop them dying, was what I was trying to do… disable Hater before he could trigger the bomb! Besides, nobody is congratulating me for stopping him setting off a nukeon the skyscraper…. Oh no!”

“All in a days work.” Hego countered, making Shego glower. “You have to remember now. Everything you do affects us as well as you! You can’t keep punching people and indulging in pointless violence!”

“What?” Shego’s hands trembled and she fought to keep her plasma in check. “What the hell do you mean ‘pointless violence’?”

“You should have waited for us to reach you!” Hego snapped. “Team Go is that, a team! It’s not ‘Shego and the rest when they catch up’!”

“If you lot can’t keep up, what am I supposed to do?” Shego rolled her eyes. “Is it my fault that I managed to snag the leg of Deton Haters helicopter? Without your help, Mr ‘Just another donut!’”

“I was busy fighting the last four or five of his guards, if you recall.” Hego ignored the jibe about his weight and predilection for sweet foods. “I know Mego and Wego were right behind me. If you’d waited…”

“What, another four or five seconds? So Hater could lift off and leave us all on that roof with no idea where the bomb was?” Shego sneered at Hego’s angry expression. “It was thanks to me, brother, that we managed to stop him nuking the Jarred tower!”

“And in the process of you going it alone, fifteen people died!” Hego snapped at her, his own anger spiking. Why does she always think she knows best? I’m older than she is!“If you hadn’t gone off alone, if you’d waited for us to catch up, we still might have been able to track Hater to the skyscraper! Those poor people in the lift would have been saved. I could have used my strength to hold the rope!”

“I’m not listening to this crap! He blew the cable near the car, you’d never have grabbed it in time, I’d never have found out about the nuke, thousands of people would have died!” Shego snapped, and turned away. “Let’s just get to the Go Jet so I can go home, take a shower, and get a meal! After spending the entire day in court, I need all of the above!”

The rest of the trip was carried out in silence. Brother and sister sitting away from each other, both staring out the window, both fuming with anger.

As the multicoloured shape of the Go Jet slid into view, Shego sighed at the thought of eight or so minutes in the air. She adored the feeling of freedom when she flew. The knowledge that she could go anywhere, do anything, and no earthly boundary could stop her.Maybe I can fly the long way around… cheer myself up and-

“No wasting time in the air either!” Hego muttered into the car’s cabin. “I’m tired, after fielding all the angry calls from the dead people’s relatives and papers.”

Shego scowled at Hego as he guessed what she was thinking. “And whose fault is that? Hotline to the mayor’s office. Please! Whose stupid idea was that? Eh?”

“It worked well for the Fearless Ferret.” Hego sniffed, hurt. “It works for Team Go… When members of it don’t let people-“

“Shut up, Hego!” Shego hissed. “Ticking me off when we’re about to fly in the jet ain’t a good idea. Especially as I’m the only qualified pilot in this group. To be honest, the way I’m feeling right now? Popping the cockpit and accidentally hitting ‘eject’ when we’re over Go bay is looking more and more likely!”

Hego glared at her, but his mouth slid shut.

The flight to Go Towers was uneventful, apart from some turbulence over the bay due to a storm on the horizon. Shego, watching the dark rolling cloud and flashes inside it, felt that it suited her mood to a tee.

For the first time in her life, she was tempted to use her power against Hego, her own brother… the arrogant stuck up ass!

Always his rules, his plan, his ideas! Yet who came up with a way to make enough money to pay for all of this? Me. Who designed our jump suits? Me. Who came up with the Jet? Me… Who thought, and still thinks, that a giant comunications screen in our briefing room, which just happens to have a live, un-secure, internet web page link, is a stupid idea? Me. Does Hego listen to me?

“No.” Shego whispered staring out at the clouds as the jet landed gently on its platform and then descended slowly into the tower.

As she jumped out of the cockpit, her booted feet smacking into the concrete, Mego and the twins ran up to her.

“Sis!” Mego, thin and gangly as always, grabbed her tightly, and even Shego, angry and sullen, felt a tiny flicker of a smile on her face. “Thank god! We wanted to come, but-“

“Hego wouldn’t let us… he said-“

“That it would upset us if-“

“You were put in jail.” The twins finished for each other.

Shego stared at each of them in turn and stilled the hand that, to her surprise, had been reassuringly rubbing Mego’s shoulder. “I’m fine. Okay? I’m tired and a little angry, both with Hego and myself. But I’m fine. They dropped the charges, I’m clean.”

“Well, good.” Mego grinned. “Seems my own rep’s not going to be tarnished by yours then. So, I can go clubbing as Mego tonight, and nobody’s going to insult me over my sister.”

Shego shook her head. Same old Mego… Always keeping one eye on himself. But at least he cared enough to hug me. More than Hego did.

“No, Mego, nobody’s going to insult or taunt you about me. Well, other than the normal jealous people.” Shego moved off towards the main chamber, the direction Hego had gone with one angry look. She glanced back, and failed as her wicked sense of humour prodded her. “Of course, they’ll just go back to what they normally do. Insult you about your dancing.”

“Hey!” Mego complained. “Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to be nice to you!”

Shego grinned and her hand reached out to cuff the back of his head gently. “Because I’m your sister. Doy!”

As she walked into the main planning room, Shego paused as her brother glanced up from the table, where she noticed all the papers that Go city produced were laid out. The headlines were about her, and none were flattering.

Shego scowled. “I’m taking a shower, okay?”

Hego nodded and returned his attention to the papers. “Look, I know we don’t see eye to eye right now, but you’ll need to come in here at about… six. Okay?”

Shego frowned, her black lips thinning. “Why?”

“Just come here, okay?” Hego refused to look up and Shego frowned.What the hell’s going on?“Enjoy your shower… The fridge’s fully restocked.”

“Fine…” the green skinned heroine stalked off towards the direction of her quarters in the tower, while behind her, unseen, Hego’s head fell into his hands.

“What have I done? She’s going to be so pissed off!”

---

Middleton Hospital- The Present.

“What did he do? I mean, what had he done?” Kim leaned forwards and gently shook the green thief, who sat on the bed, lost in memory. “Shego?”

“What did he do?” Shego blinked and focused on the redhead. For a second, their eyes locked, and it almost seemed to Kim as though Shego drew strength from her. “Oh, he’d made a little… deal. He told me that… He thought I hadn’t heard his whisper, but I had. Worried me. But yeah, he’d made a deal”

Kim blinked. “What kind of deal?”

Shego flipped the page, but her eyes never focused on the flowing text. She didn’t need to.

“He made a special kind… and that was the final straw, on a whole host of things that had already happened.” Shego once again focused on Kim and her eyes softened. “I’ll get to what happened in court later, it makes more sense this way… I promise.”

Kim nodded. For the past ten minutes, she’d been enraptured by Shego’s soft, dryly sarcastic tone as the villainess drifted in the past. “Tell me however you want.”

“Well, here’s what happened.” Shego closed her eyes. “Let’s see… I’d just-“

---

Go Towers- The past

It was amazing to her what a good steaming shower and a hot meal could do.

Shego smiled, glad to be out of the hot and sweaty courtroom. That was one of the few things she had been insistent about when the five of them had designed the Go Towers. Climate control, in all rooms and corridors. It was a godsend.

Dressed in her signature cat suit, she thought of her jump suit as a cat suit because it was cut ever so slightly more tightly than her brothers, though she would never tell them that, Shego strode into the planning room, cheerful and refreshed.

“Yo! Where is everyone?” She looked around, her smile fading slightly when Hego appeared from the kitchen. “Hego…”

“Hey, Sis. Mego’s gone out clubbing and the twins went to catch a movie.” Hego smiled, and to Shego it seemed forced. “So, just the two of us.”

“Great, as if today didn’t bone enough, I have to sit here with you. Maybe Ishould go out.” Shego rolled her eyes and sat in her chair, glancing around. “Hey, where’s my nail file?”

“Mego took it.” Hego sat next to her, a steaming cup of coffee in his hand. To her surprise, the mug was trembling. “You know he’s almost as vain as you.”

“I am not vain!” Shego sniffed, trying to push the dread she felt at Hego’s expression away. “My nails, my razor sharp and super strong nails, thanks to the comet doing something to my bone structure, are a lethal weapon. I’ll kick his butt when I get it back.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you will. Violence is your answer to everything.” Hego sighed, his eyes shut, and missed Shego’s silent flinch as the barb struck home. “Look, we need to talk before this goes too far.”

“What?” Shego frowned. “Hego, what the hell is going on? You’re behaving even weirder than usual.”

“I…” Hego’s eyes widened as the main viewer suddenly flickered into life. “No…not yet!”

Shego looked up and to her surprise, the mayor, along with people she recognised as the female chief of police, the judge who had overseen her trial and the two lawyers who had pleaded for and against her during it, all stood in the mayors office.What the…

“Hego, Shego. Glad to see you two are here. I see she took it well.” The mayor smiled. “Nice to see you’re being sensible about this, Ms Shego. Considering what happened a few days ago, we want to make sure the public is happy that their heroes are treated as such, while keeping the relatives of those who died quiet. Thank you for assisting with this. I want you to know this will not affect any of our opinions of you as a hero. Oh and it’s not going on for more than three months, okay?”

Shego felt something punch her gut. Not once, but twice. The mayor looked almost frightened. She glanced over at Hego and realised his face had gone pale.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Shego’s emerald eyes slid to the main viewer. “Agreed to what? What the hell are you all doing there?”

The mayor’s face fell and her blue eyes slid to Hego. “You haven’t told her. Have you?”

“Not yet.” Hego whispered. “I… she had to have a shower and a meal. I wanted her as calm as possible for this.”

Shego felt something cold squeeze her heart. “What the fuckare you talking about? Stop talking about me as though I’m nothere!”

“Someone tell her!” The chief of police strode forwards. Her brown eyes were upset, which surprised Shego as the two of them had never seen eye to eye.

Too violent, you’re dangerous! I won’t have this sort of crap spilling onto the streets! Just watch yourself, cause flaming hands or not, you cross me, I’ll kick your ass myself!

Now, looking at her pale and upset face, Shego blinked. Whatever was going on, didn’t settle well with her one time enemy in the business of ‘good’.

“This crap is wrong, I still say it’s wrong. She tried to save them and you lot want to-“

“Ms Shego.” The prosecuting lawyer smiled an oily, toothy, smile that made her back shiver, as he interrupted the woman in her chief of police blue. “As per the agreement that we, the justice department of Go city and your brother, representing both you and Team Go, have come to. We expect you, here and now, to carry out your end of the legislation that was formulated.”

“What? What is this?” Shego slid to her feet and backed away from the table. Her brother looked up at her, misery on his face. “Hego, you… you… What have you done?”

“Sorry, sis. I had to. They were going to threaten Team Go. I couldn’t let that happen.” Hego slid to his feet, holding out his hands in peace. “Look, it’s nothing bad, I promise. It’s just… well-“

“By the power invested in me as Mayor of Go city, and with the agreement of your brother, the justice department and the prosecuting and defending attorneys, we have come to the following agreement.” The Mayor’s eyes were glassy as she spoke, and Shego felt her finger’s tremble with fear that she had not felt since her mother had been alive. “Shego, you are hereby required, for no less thanone year,to-“

“I’m notgoing to jail!” Shego snapped, her hands bursting into flame, making Hego wince and the people on TV flinch. To her shock, the police chief and mayor hung their heads slightly, the chief of police miming ‘sorry’ to her. Backing away further, until her head hit the wall, Shego stared at them all. “I’m not! I didn’t do anything!”

“As per our agreement,” The lawyer continued smoothly. “You are hereby required to wear a restraint bracelet for the next year. It will chart your position in Go City and you are hereby ordered not to leave Go tower unless so ordered by your brother, for missions, or a duly represented member of the Justice department. Once you have shown, by performing this, by showing that you are in control of your violent tendencies, you will be released, the record of this deleted form all storage mediums and forgotten. If this is done, the relatives of those who died will not insist on the trial being performed, Team Go paying a reparation of six million dollars, and your incarceration in a high security jail cell for a maximum term of six months.”

The world swam in front of Shego’s eyes, the edges of her vision greying as she fought to stay conscious. No… no! Not jail! Not punishment! I haven’t done anything! I tried to save them!

“Shego?” The Mayor looked almost sheet white. “Hego! Do something! She’s going to faint!”

Hego ran up to his sister, who swayed and stared up at him with dull emerald eyes. “You did this to me… you. After all we’ve been through as brother and sister… you did this to me…”

Hego swallowed. “They were going to destroy our dream.”

“Your dream, not mine!” Shego whispered, the pain smothering the anger inside her heart while she stared at her brother. “You used to… tried to protect me, as much as you could, when mother used to-“

“Shego, stop it… please!” Hego reached out to her, only to close his eyes as she pulled away.

“Don’t touch me!” Shego staggered across to the table, and fell into her chair. “I can’t believe this, I’m dreaming! The one time I fail to save people, who were already dead if I hadn’t been there, and… and… this happens to me. If I hadn’t… I… I… You have no idea how it makes me feel to know they died because I wasn’t quick enough! You all make me sick!”

The mayor, chief of police and even the lawyers and judge, shuffled uncomfortably. The prosecuting lawyer sighed. “Regardless of my own feelings on the matter, it must be done.”

Swallowing, Hego slid a hand into his own belt pouch and pulled a tiny silver bracelet from it. He held it out in front of his sister, fixing a rigid smile on his face. “I had them make this specially for you. It’s tiny, see? Nothing visible or incriminating. No lights or sensors… all hidden inside the metal and powered by a trilithium battery. I even had them inlay it with some green filigree, lovely isn’t it.”

Shego stared at it, her pale face draining of blood,

Trapped… a cage with no bars. Like my family, before all of this…

To the Mayor, it was as if she could see through the pale white skin, could almost see the creamy sheen of Shego’s skull and the muscles of her face. The skin so pale from shock… She swallowed.

“Shego, listen. This had to be done. We couldn’t risk a scandal! The relatives of some of those people who died were outraged. They saw you fighting with Hater on TV, saw you become obsessed with beating him, not savage their loved ones. It could set the media alight!”

“I… I… if I hadn’t fought him as hard as I did, then he’d have set off the detonator and they would all have died anyway!” Shego turned to Hego. “Tell them!”

“We should get on with this.” Hego muttered, unable to look her in the eye. “Sis, please.”

“What if I don’t want to wear it?” Shego muttered, her hands sliding under the table. “What if I won’t let you put that dammed thing on me!”

“Then you go to jail.” The judge replied calmly. “Not even you can fight off the whole of Go police force. Shego, listen to your brother and the mayor. There is no stigma to this. You’re helping your brothers and us by keeping the relatives happy. You’re saving us all over again and-”

“Shut up! Shut up!” Shego slapped her hands over her ears and closed her eyes. The pain inside her pounded against her rib cage. She wanted to scream, to fire her plasma across the room and destroy the viewscreen. “Stop it! I don’t want to do this!”

“Sis.” Hego waited quietly for her to look up. “If you don’t, Team Go is over. We can’t pay that much money, we’ll go bust. Mego and Wego will be homeless and alone. Please… do it for them.”

“You bastard.” Shego whispered, the anger bubbling for the first time past the lake of agony. “You used family to get what you wanted then, and you try to use it now?”

“It’s the truth.” Hego insisted. “Shego, put it on, please!”

Closing her eyes, Shego trembled and her heart thundered in her chest. The world around her faded.

You owe them nothing! All the good you’ve done… the people you’ve saved! Property, money, jewels… You’ve done everything they wanted and now this… Punishment for trying to do what you never wanted to do in the first place. Fuck them! Fuck them all! Just leave! Leave and follow your own dreams! Leave and let Hego try to keep this all running without you! Leave and-

“Put it on, and hurry the fuck up! Because if you take more than a second… I’m going to throw up…” Shego whispered, her mind reeling in shock at her words, at her acceptance of a sightless prison for her brothers safety, for Team Go’s survival. “So help me, Hego… you and I are going to… to. I have no idea what I’m going to do…”

Hego swallowed, trembling at the tone in Shego’s voice. Dead… her voice is totally dead, in every way.

As the pale wrist of her right-hand slid out, Hego gently clipped the bracelet around it and the lock snicked shut. “Done… it’s automatically set to come on.”

“Right…” The Mayor swallowed. “Shego, listen to me, we just wanted to say thanks for this, and also to congratulate your brother for stopping that Nuke. I know you became obsessed with fighting Deton Hater, but at least cool heads were there to-“

A blast of plasma blew the screen into tiny smoking shards, ending the transmission in a fiery explosion and drenching the room in smoke. The single quiet sob of agony that trembled from the smoke made Hego pause in terror. As the smoke cleared, the hand that had fired the plasma slid into view and trembled as it swung towards Hego’s face.

“Do you have any idea what this means?” Shego’s voice trickled over Hego. “Do you realise what they’ve done to me? This bracelet is going to rape my freedom from me slowly. And as for you… what did she mean, you disarmed the nuke? Dear… fucking… brother?”

“Sis.” Hego swallowed. “Listen to me.”

“I’m trapped. Trapped again. Like I was at home. I’m being punished for nothing… nothing! And this is all your fault!” Shego looked up at him, the smoke clearing. Clearing to show emerald eyes that blazed with a bitter rage so hot, it made them glow “All your fault!”

Hego clenched his teeth, his own anger spiking. “What did I say? I told you that to keep fighting the way you did would end up hurting you, hurting us! That going off alone without us would end up damaging Team Go! Well, congratulations… you’ve done it!”

“Me? I did nothing!” Shego hissed the words and sprang out of the chair she sat in, fingers raking huge furrows in the fabric. “You did this… you arranged this! You signed my life away to them! I’m trapped and this… this thing will be with me now for a year, Hego… a year! They’ll know where I am, what I’m doing twenty-four seven! I can’t even go out, without your or their permission! This is taking away my freedom and my privacy. Technological rape!”

“Only for a year.”

“Only… only! Doy, my brother is a tosser!” Shego glared at Hego. “Not that I give a shit, but could you also explain to me how ‘you’ suddenly disarmed the nuke?”

“Having you being the one that did it would have made Team Go look bad. An angry, sharp mouthed, violent member, attempting to disarm a nuclear bomb? Not good! Besides, as I said… I’m the leader, therefore I should disarm the bomb. This way, it makes us look good!”

The green woman stared at her brother in total disbelief. My god… He’s stolen everything I value in the name of being a hero.

“You have sold me out! On all fronts! I’m caged and you took the glory for what I did! Like you always do! Aviarius, Destructo, Serpera… all of them! You took the glory for all of them and it was me who did all the work! Now, now that fifteen people died because I was alone, too slow and unable to stop them from dying, you take the glory from the Nuke!” Shego felt her anger blend with the sickness in her stomach and she heaved slightly, coughing and stumbling. “You utter, utter bastard! Bastard!”

“I did this all for you!” Hego snapped, his right eye twitching with venom. “This way, you stay out of jail and Team Go remains clean. I look a powerful and competent leader, with a competent team and we rake in the cash! I stopped your fuck up from destroying something I’ve worked so hard to create, Sister!”

Shego ran up to him suddenly, and before Hego could do anything, her fist, so tightly clenched the knuckles were white, not green, smashed into his jaw. He felt his body leave the ground, Shego putting all her muscle energy and weight into the impact. The echo of bone on bone bounced off the walls. The force drove him across the room, to land with a crack against the opposite wall.

Heaving in distressed rage, Shego’s breath rasped through her body… uneven and ragged.

“You’ve dammed me to save your own desire! Trapped me in my own hell for months! You set up the court to get me off by signing a deal with those bastards that makes the devil look an amateur! This is one of my worst nightmares come true… I’m not free!” Shego screamed at him, the rage burning the pain of Hego’s betrayal away and forging the bitter need to hurt him, to get revenge. “And all because you couldn’t keep up! Your fat ass couldn’t run as fast as me!”

Hego slid to his feet, unsteady, his own glow igniting around his hands to ward her off. “What the fuck are you talking about? You stay with the team, Sister! That’s what you do! I’m the leader of our group! Me!” Hego growled. “You always undermine me! Always! I’m the leader! You do as I say!”

“Fuck you!” Shego snapped, kicking the table next to her so violently, it slid along the floor. “You’re the one who voted himself the leader, not me, or Wego, or the twins. But you forgot who helped create this from your childish dream! You wanna know who made this become a possibility for you, Hego? Me!”

“Bullshit!”

Shego smiled, viciously. “You know it’s the truth. You came up with the idea. Hego’s biiiiiiig plans. But Shego, little Shego came up with how to do it! Our brand name, our image, our ways of making money… everything! But there’s a big difference between you and me. I may have come up with the way to do this, but I don’t want fame…” Hego snorted. “No, I don’t… I wanted to be left alone. But not you… you like this! You found your dream, to make us all superheroes! To use the damn curse the meteor gave each of us to make you, and I do mean you, famous.”

“It’s not about the fame!” Hego snapped. His own hand punched into the concrete wall next to him, leaving a neat hole. “It’s about saving lives!”

“It’s about your own huge ego! Hego!” Shego began to pace, ignoring her brother. “You wanted this, Team Go! This is your dream, your vision. Not mine! You wanted to be seen, to be noticed, ever since mom and dad died! You’ve always wanted people to pay attention to you, to worship you. It’s the same now as it was in school!”

Hego bristled. “You just say that because nobody likes a loner, Sis! Especially you, cause you’re so acid tongued and reclusive. I’m your brother and you still keep almost everything to yourself. Maybe if you loosened up a little… actually made an effort to be friendly.”

“Oh, screw you! I know you, Hego, I know how you really feel… but I’ve kept my mouth shut! Watching you love every second of this… of playing the hero! You love the attention everyone in Go City gives you! You love being able to order us around as you’re the one who leads us into battle!”

“I…”

“So, now that something threatens your little comfy world, you rush to sign a deal that saves it, but screws me over!” Shego’s voice lashed out. “Screws your own flesh and blood sister, over!”

“I haven’t screwed you over!” Hego snapped, stepping forwards, his eyes wide. “You want the truth? I thought it would do you some good, being punished! Maybe teach you that you can’t keep doing what you want. That fighting everyone we come across is not what we should be doing.”

“I don’t fight everyone!” Shego hissed. “They attack me! They’re villains, and they attack me! What am I supposed to do? Invite them to talk over tea?”

“You rise to their bait really easily! You let them get under your skin so that the least little thing is an excuse for you to go in there, and bloody your fists.” Hego glowered and unable to help himself, something dark inside raged. “You let your temper rule your life! You like violence and to cause pain! Just… like… Mom!”

Shego blinked, and the sight of her stumbling back, terror and hurt on her face unlike any he had seen before, snapped Hego back to reality. What the hell did I say that for? She’s nothing like… oh no! His glow vanished and he stepped forwards. Too late… far too late to rescue anything.

Inside his sister, something precious, something she loved deeply, snapped… never to be repaired.

“Sis, I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that, I promise! I… You’re not-“

“You think I’m like Mom.” Shego whispered, her green eyes flickering with emotions so deep, they consumed her. “You think I like to beat people… beat them until they fall unconscious? You think I’d keep beating someone until his or her face is a pulped mass? You think I could let rage consume me like it consumed her? Take away my sanity, my reason? You think I’d beat a helpless child? You think I could kill? You think I’m insane! You know nothing!”

Oh shit… What have I done? What the hell have I done?

“Sis.”

“I’m not mom! I’m not! I don’t hurt innocent people! I won’t hurt kids! I won’t! I only fight when I have to… when I have to! I know I have a temper, I do enjoy fighting when it happens… the challenge of combat… but I never start them… do I?” Shego fell over, her mind reeling in terror, and suddenly vomited. She choked as her body heaved her last meal from her raw stomach. “No… No… not her… I’m not her! I can’t be her… I won’t be her!”

Hego ran up to her, desperate to heal, to soothe, to comfort, but she scrabbled away from him, hands bursting into flame and pitting the floor. Her own brother had destroyed her trust in him, in Team Go and in her family.

“Don’t touch me! Leave me alone! Just get the hell away from me, Hego! You bastard! Bastard! I hate you, you hear me? I hate you!”

Helpless and feeling ice form in his belly, Hego watched his only sister, one of only three people alive in his family, scramble away from him. He could only watch as she fell against the ladder that led to the roof access point for the Jet’s hydraulic hanger doors and gripped them with unsteady hands, hauling herself up them as fast as she could. He watched as she vanished from view, knowing that up there was where she went to think… to be alone.

Hego, leader of team Go, her brother, her betrayer, slid to the floor, buried his head in his hands and a sob echoed around the room, mingling with his pained whisper.

“What have I done?”

---

Middleton hospital- The present

Shego stared out of the window, her emerald eyes empty. The rolling scenery, ignored. The warm sunlight that streamed though the glass, unfelt.

Kim watched her quietly her own eyes full of compassion. She knew that what Shego had told her had been told to nobody else. She could just tell by the way the green thief’s voice had spiked with emotion, the way Shego had restlessly risen and walked across to the window, stared out of it. What Kim had heard, had been the real Shego, stripped of everything but who she was inside, her soul in a way.

“So, Pumpkin. Shocked?” Shego whispered the words, and Kim closed her eyes at the amused, sad tone. “How’s that grab you. Your equal in the villainy world, me, was screwed over, up and by, her own brother. Her own brother… her family. How’s that grab you?”

Kim tried to imagine her own mother or father taking away her freedom, by trapping her with a… a collar. She knew that to Shego, it hadn’t mattered that the bracelet was a prison with no bars, because she had seen it for what it was… a prison.

“How does it grab me? Shego… I… I…” Kim closed her eyes. “No wonder you left and became a thief.”

“Oh, I didn’t. At least, not right away.” Shego turned back, and stared at Kim.

Why am I telling her all this? I’ve told nobody my past… what happened to me, since The Fox herself asked me and she’s probably the only one apart from Hego who knows. Hell, even Mego and the Wego twins don’t know why I ‘fell’ as Hego put it. The bastard!

Shego watched as Kim slid to her feet and gently poured two glasses of water, her own eyes watching Shego’s oddly calm expression with worry. The thief shook her head slightly. I trust her, I trust her that much it seems. God, I am so fucked up! It’s almost funny, a villain spilling her guts to a hero, confessing her sins… Funny, if it wasn’t me doing it.

“I stayed.” Shego finished, accepting the glass of water gently, and trying to ignore the look of shock on her nemesis’s face. Unable to, she tilted her head. “Why does that shock you so much?”

“Shego… I know you. All our years of fighting, you get to know someone.” Kim swallowed water. “I just… I never saw you staying with them once Hego did that to you.”

Shego sighed and a faint smile slid onto her face. She’s so young… So few commitments.

”Hego had betrayed me, yes. I couldn’t forgive him for that. But, I had the others to think of. Mego and Wego needed me… or so I thought. So, to keep Team Go alive, I wore the bracelet, stayed in the tower unless I was called upon to be a… hah! A hero. And…” She trailed off, lost in the past once more. “And as my anger and feelings of betrayal grew…. I began to slowly fall apart.”

Kim wanted to say something, anything, to comfort Shego. Hesitant, she reached out and gently placed a hand on the green woman’s shoulder. Shego flinched, her muscles tightening at the contact and she glanced over, her emerald eyes unreadable. Kim braced herself to be pushed away, only to blink in surprise as she felt Shego’s muscles relax suddenly, from tension, to a smooth suppleness. She swallowed.

“How long did you…”

“Oh, three months. Almost.” Shego closed her eyes, and gently pushed herself into Kim’s hand, hoping the redhead wouldn’t notice how much she wanted to feel her hand. What followed this unpleasant part of her past cheered her, the memories pleasant. “But then, just as I couldn’t take much more, it happened… I met her.”

Kim blinked. Shego’s tone had suddenly slipped from a weary sounding pain, to one of amusement and genuine affection. “Met who?”

Shego turned, and her emerald eyes sparkled, her full black lips curled in a teasing smile. “The woman who corrupted me. The woman who told me that I was looking down the wrong path, Pumpkin. The woman… who made me what I am.”

A sudden knock at the door made the two women jump slightly and Kim glanced up at Shego. The older woman smiled, winked and peered over the redhead’s shoulder. The nurse probably.

“I’ve got my towels, thanks!”

“Shena…is Kim in there with you?” Dr Possible’s voice, muffled by the glass, asked quietly.

“Dr Possible?” Shego sighed and gently pushed Kim back slightly. The redheaded heroine flushed, realising how close they had come together. “Yeah, she is. Wanna come in?”

The door clicked open quietly and Shego nodded at Kim’s mother as she walked in, lab coat flapping around her legs. Dr Possible nodded and held her arms out to her daughter. Kim smiled and walked into them, sighing as her mother hugged her tightly. Shego turned to the window, trying to find interest in the view outside, while a tiny part of her, deep inside, caused her pain.

“Sorry I had to leave you.” Dr Possible rubbed her daughter’s shoulders.One thing I do like about her growing up, she doesn’t back away when I want to hug her. “Problems with my neuro-surgery schedule. It was going to clash with Shena’s blood tests. But, it seems that’s not going to be a problem anymore.”

Kim looked up at her mothers blue eyes, curious. “Why?”

“Shena has been released.” Dr Possible grinned as Kim smiled and Shego turned to stare at her. “The latest X-rays came back. You’re going to have a limp for some time, my dear. The bone is still thickening. But, considering all your other vitals from the tests came back okay, we can release you from hospital.”

“Cool.” Shego stood for a second, and then worked up the will to look Kim’s mother in the eye. “Thanks… for everything.”

Dr Possible blinked and a smile slid onto her lips. “You’re welcome, Shena. Welcome for everything. Now, Kim, you’ll need to call Mara and come have her pick you up. Oh and before I forget, drop by Ron’s house and ask his mother if you can pick up Shego’s bag would you? You can stay in the guest room until we-”

“Excuse me?” Shego emerald eyes slid across to Kim. “What he hell do you mean ‘I can stay in the guest room’? We’re enemies… I can’t stay with you!”

Okay… lame excuse, considering what’s been going on. But I’ll be dammed if ‘I find the idea of spending time with your family uncomfortable.’ will ever get past my lips.

Kim sighed. “Not any more. How can we be?” She glanced at her mother and then turned to Shego, pleading with her eyes. “How can we be? Please, you need somewhere to stay, somewhere safe while we stop Fang.”

“I… I can’t. A villain, that’s me, can’t stay at a hero’s house… that’s you, Pumpkin. It’s just not done. My credibility as a thief, let alone a evil sidekick will-“

“I’m your doctor.” Kim’s mother crossed her arms and a cool expression slid over her face. “You may be discharged, but you are still healing. I’m not letting you out of my sight until I know you’re fully recovered. That means you’re coming home with me and my daughter. End of discussion!”

Shego bristled. “You’re not my moth-“

Dr Possible glowered as only a Doctor could, and Shego flinched under her stare. After a few seconds, She looked down at the floor, beaten, as she had been the last time Kim’s mother had treated her.

“Fine… my life is already screwed! Why not screw it up further?”

“Good. Now, while you wait for Mara to arrive. Why don’t you two go down to the café?” Dr Possible smiled. “You can get some… real food. Now, if you two will excuse me, I have discharge papers to write, lies to formulate to cover who you really are, and my usual round with patients. I’ll say this, my life has certainly got more interesting since I’ve taken an interest in my daughters life.”

As Dr Possible walked out, Kim glanced over at Shego and noticed the thief was nibbling her lower lip slightly and glowering at her mothers back. Kim sighed.

“Sorry.”

Shego blinked and turned to her, equal apology in her eyes. “Well, to coin your phrase, no big. Now, considering that this morning, my breakfast comprised of toast, so hard I almost cracked my teeth, a coffee and a sandwich sounds good.” She paused and Kim blinked as her cheeks darkened slightly. “Especially with you…”

Kim grinned, touched. “Okay… but you have to promise me something.”

Shego’s eyes narrowed and her emerald gaze became wary. “What?”

“You keep telling the story… please?”

Shego smiled. “Sure, Pumpkin. Why not… But you’re buying, Kimmie.”

A few minutes later, Shego and Kim sat opposite each other in Middleton Hospitals café, two steaming cups of coffee in front of them. Shego, tucking into the sandwich that she’d chosen, sighed with pleasure.

“Two days of hell… over! Finally, real food! Food that doesn’t bend! Kimmie, you are a life saver after all!”

Kim muffled a laugh. Damn, Shego’s got a cool sense of humour. Why haven’t I noticed before?

Sipping her coffee, Kim tilted her head and after a few exasperated minutes leaned forwards. “Well?”

Shego looked up, and her chewing slowed. Her emerald gaze gleamed and she swallowed. “You’re that desperate to know?”

Kim pretended to ponder the question, and then grinned. “To coin one of ‘your’ favourites. Well, Doy!”

Shrugging, Shego grinned and sipped her own coffee before leaning back. “Fine… Now, where was I? Oh yeah. The day I met her… the woman who made me what I am today.”

“A villains sidekick?” Kim asked, blinking as Shego laughed, the sound warm and throaty. “Okay… not that then.”

“No. That came far later… when I wanted to, well… I’ll explain it later.” Shego took another bite of sandwich. “No, what I’m talking about here is when I met the woman who would offer me the path I follow now. The path of the thief.”

“Oh.” Kim blinked as Shego swallowed and sipped coffee, almost challenging the young woman to think of a valid way she could have met someone like that. “I suppose she met you in a bar or something… and offered you a job?”

“Oh, no… that’s not how we met at all, Kimmie.” Shego smirked. “Just like you and me, just like how we met, I met her in the same way. I met The Fox…when I tried to bust her ass for stealing!”

---

Go City Museum- The James Barra ‘Diamond’s of the world’ collection- The past

The huge cavernous main gallery of Go Museum gleamed in the soft silver glow of the moonlight that trickled in through the skylights in the roof. The moonlight shone on the huge pedestal in the centre of the room, surrounded by laser beams that glowed a gentle red, and on the glass case that sat on top of it.

Inside, the Vintara jungle mine diamond gleamed in the moonlight, sparkling with lustre and putting the lesser diamonds, protected in smaller glass cases around the walls, to shame. It was the jewel in the collection, bought by the owner of the Go City bank, and was protected as such.

Indeed, it demanded such protection, that one part of its security paced the hall, green and black cat suit shining in the moonlight. The figure ignored the gleaming jewel in the centre of the room, ignored the lustre and the gleam of millions of dollars of diamonds. Suddenly the silence of the hall was broken.

“God damn Hego, telling me what to do, after what he’s done to me!” Shego paced the museum hallway, weaving between the pillars and ranting to herself. “Three months of lying to the twins and Mego, the two faced bastard… Forced to smile in agreement at his two faced, lying, arrogant comments about me. ‘Taking it easy after my court appearance!’ Jesus! ‘Wanting to be alone to think about what I’d done.’ The bastard!”

Shego kicked the closest pillar and swore. She had tolerated the punishment given to her, for nothing more than trying to help people. Three months of staring at the tiny bracelet that sat quietly on her wrist. That monitored her actual heartbeat, her vitals… her whereabouts. A prison, a prison without bars… his fault, Hego’s fault!

Three months of sitting in her room, alone. Of sitting in Go tower, watching as Mego and Wego were lied to by their brother, about everything! Watched as they enjoyed themselves, free to do as they pleased. Yes, she sat there, and because she loved the three who had never lied to her, because she knew that they had bought into Hego’s dream, she kept her mouth shut. She did it for them and for Team Go.

But that didn’t mean she could forgive.

“Bastard!” Shego screamed into the hallway. “Lying, stupid, two faced… arghh!”

Shego glanced around, unable to hold back any longer and she snarled in the darkness. Here, alone, she could finally vent without anyone hearing. Taking a deep breath, she let out three months of rage in a scream that echoed around the empty hallway and down the corridors that spilled off it.

Heaving with exertion, Shego collapsed in the middle of the Museum, sobs escaping her crumpled form. Even this, this mission in the museum, was part of her punishment. The Mayor had called and asked, no… told her, to do this. As part of her ‘rehabilitation’ she would guard a collection that already had such amazing security, there was almost no chance of her facing anyone who wanted to steal anything. No chance of meeting a villain. She would be alone, for the whole night… alone.

Curled on the floor, Shego stared at the bracelet that remained wrapped around her wrist. She wished she could just melt the damn thing. Hego had told the truth about it being made of silver, whoop de do. The bracelet was made out of pure jewlers silver. Normal everyday silver, that she could melt to vapour in seconds. But, if she did that, the sensors in it would go dead and the Go police would arrest her in minutes.

No matter how pretty it is, it’s a prison. Plain and simple. I’m a prisoner, and I did nothing wrong. Nothing!

She lay there and stared at the bracelet. At the betrayal. Felt her heart pound softly, as ice burned in her stomach.

How long can I keep this up? Every time I see Hego, I want to pound his face in. It’s got to the point that I feel sick even being in the same room with him. Maybe I should just quit… quit Team Go and leave once this damn thing comes off. I never wanted to be a super hero anyway, I wanted to be left alone!

A sudden thud above her, echoing quietly around the empty hall, made Shego look up and her emerald eyes widened in shock.

What the… it can’t be! There’s a laser network on the roof! Cameras, both thermal and EHS based. Nobody could make their way through…

The thud was replaced by the quiet scrape of glass being subjected to a high powered drill and Shego slid to her feet, ducking behind a pillar. In the darkness, a snarl played over her lips, dark and cruel.

Good, I could use some tension relief! She paused suddenly, realising that her anger… her hatred towards Hego was affecting her judgement. Hego’s words came back to haunt her.

“You’re just like Mom…”

Okay… I’ll show him. I’ll offer this thief a chance. Surrender and be handed over to the cops… or resist and be pounded into unconsciousness. Hell, the way I’m feeling tonight can’t say fairer than that.

The quiet crack of the pane giving way made Shego look up, a determined expression on her face. Her eyes gleamed in the moonlight as she watched the shadowy figure attach some type of clamp, which silently pulled the circle of glass upwards, leaving a human sized hole.

Wow… that was slick. Kinda… cool actually.

Shego blinked as the figure appeared at the edge of the hole and crouched. It was too dark to see what it was doing, but as she watched the figure shift, a quiet hiss reached her. Shego blinked, wondering what the noise was, until the laser grid that guarded the skylight flickered into view.

Oh… I see. Use some sort of spray to drift in front of the laser beams. Neat… wonder how this guy’ll get past it though, as-

Shego’s thoughts trailed off as the figure held out a gun of some kind. At least, she assumed it was a gun. A gentle ‘thunk’ echoed into the hall and Shego and blinked as one of the laser beams shut off. She glanced round, eyes wide, as the alarm remained silent.

What the… that broke the beam! Why didn’t the alarm system and lockdown go off? Who is this guy? She blinked as another thud caused another laser beam to shut down, followed by another and another. Eventually the grid that guarded the area around the hole, bored in the glass, had been disabled. Okay… so the grids down. Now what smart guy?

She did not have long to wait. Standing, the figure shuffled closer to the lip of the skylight and then, to Shego’s shock, stretched her hands out into a diving position and fell forwards. As the figure fell towards the floor, Shego noticed the thin black rope that shot out behind it.

Oh… oh! Doy! Look at this guy! So cool! Anyone who could do that was, in Shego’s eyes, worthy of her respect. Watch out, or you’ll hit the beams over the diamo-

Before the thief hit the floor, the gun swung out once more and with another thud of release, a grapple, matt black in colour, shot out and buried itself in the wall, halting the thief’s descent. Hanging for a second, illuminated by the moonlight, Shego stared, emerald eyes widening in disbelief.

The thief wore a skin tight, glossy black latex cat suit, complete with gloves, soft boots and a hood. A mask, covered in sensors and equipment, obscured the face, but bright blue eyes gleamed with excitement. However, it was the shape of the figure that made Shego blink in surprise. The cat suit bulged, holding an obviously female cleavage in place, along with a pair of feminine thighs. Shego shivered, fighting an odd curling sensation in her stomach, as the thief’s stomach muscles bulged under the tight material.

It’s a woman… My god, she’s amazing! Despite herself, despite her orders to guard the jewel, Shego watched totally fascinated. A smile slid onto lips that hadn’t turned upwards in months. Okay… If you get the diamond, I’ll give you two chances to surrender and I won’t beat you to a pulp if you refuse, I’ll just arrest you. You deserve that much, damn impressive skill.

Hanging from two tiny threads of rope or wire, the female thief flipped in mid-air, the harness around her muscular waist rotating between the points that the rope extended from. Facing the glass case, her curvy body hovering over it, the thief reached up to her head and gently pulled a ring of dull gleaming metal that had been sitting on her head. Shego frowned, only to blink as the thief pulled on the circle gently, watching in satisfaction, as it expanded with soft clicks until it was just large enough to fit round the case. As the ring let out a gentle hum and a soft blue light rippled around above and below it, the thief nodded and gently dropped it around the case.

To Shego’s surprise, the ring also did not set off an alarm as it slid through the security lasers. Instead, the laser beams around the device seemed to shimmer and lose focus in the glowing blue light. She scratched her head, wondering in fascination how such a device could possibly work. The tap of soft boots on glass, however, made her look up and smile. Her stealthy little friend had stepped onto the glass case, and now crouched like a cat, peering through the material at her goal. Shego, lost in admiration and not caring for how close the thief had come to her goal, noticed a motif on the back of the black suit.

There, outlined in dark red, was the shape of a fox’s face, a tail curling round it to form a circle. Her memory prodded her, she had seen that symbol before… at Go Towers. But here and now, the name of the thief she was facing was lost to her. Shrugging, Shego grinned in the dark.

Well, again. Kudos points to you, girl. You beat the security system. Well done. Now, all you have to do is somehow crack the glass, without the conductive polymer mesh riddled through it setting off the alarm, and the diamond would be yours for the taking. Come on, I wanna see you outwit this.

Shego did not have long to wait. Hands gently tapped the case, and then reached up to a shoulder pocket. After a few seconds of rummaging, the gloved hand came back, holding a small flat disk. With the brisk, quiet motions of someone who had trained with this, the thief laid it gently onto the top of the glass and twisted a tiny control. With a hiss, the pad released something onto the glass that made it smoke.

Chemical etching? She’s using chemical etching to stop the vibrations of a drill from breaking the glass and setting off the… the… wait, it’s only drilled a hole… now what?

The figure carefully removed the pad and fumbled in another pocket. Shego watched, absorbed, as a small pencil shaped object was pushed into the small hole and then gently manoeuvred around so that the end lay against one side of the case. A quiet click reached Shego’s ears and she could only stare as the surface of the glass the woman stood on sparked for a second and then dulled.

What the hell? Some sort of feedback device? Insert it inside the case, where the polymer mesh is? So you can do what? Oh… oh! Shego shook her head, impressed. You sent some sort of pulse through the network, didn’t you? Designed to short out the mesh, but fuse the tiny receivers along the edge of the glass… so that they think the glass surface is still in one piece. Leaves you free to cut a hole in the case and remove the diamond. Well, it would… if there wasn’t one more thing to get past.

“Nice night.” Shego’s voice echoed around the room. “Isn’t it.”

The female thief looked up in shock as Shego wandered around from her hiding place behind the dark pillar. Crouched on the glass case, she reached for the gun strapped to her thigh. Before she could do anything, however, Shego’s hands burst into flame and the green hero waved a single finger.

“Ah, ah! I was watching from back there. Saw you do your whole set of tricks. Don’t spoil it by making me see you as a common murderer. Besides, I’ll melt that thing before you can draw it. Come on!”

Pausing, the thief shrugged and to Shego’s surprise, the blue eyes gleamed with pleasure. Suddenly, the black suited female spoke. The soft feminine voice was amused, dry and, to Shego’s shock, French.

“Ah, Cherie, a challenge at last I see. Bon. It is good to know that one of the Team Go members is worthy of my time at least.” One of the blue eyes winked. “As for my, weapon? It is… how you say? A tool… specially designed. It is not a gun.”

“Really, then what is it?” Shego asked, amusement trickling into her voice. “Come on… and make it good.”

“I told you. It is a tool for me to use. If you would only let me show it to you, I know you would be impressed. It is not designed to fire bullets, for I am not a murderer. It is designed to fire my devices and I was only reaching for it so that I could fire a disabling dart into you. Oui? But now I know who I am up against, that may have been a bad idea.” The thief sighed. “Shego… I would have to go up against Shego… merde! And yet… how deliciously challenging…”

“You know who I am?” Shego blinked as the hooded head nodded, but kept her hands held out, the plasma swirling around them. “Who am I then?”

The thief laughed. “Oh, mon dieu. You are Shego, of the Team Go. You have, in the past few years, along with your brothers, been responsible for assisting the police in keeping the criminal and super criminals of Go City in check. You recently were involved in one such mission that ended up with you in court.” The thief tilted her head. “But, you were found not guilty as those who had brought the case against you revoked it. You are known to be short tempered, acid tongued and fiercely combative when pushed.”

Shego shook her head. “Impressive, gotta admit that. I’m impressed with what you know. But you forgot to add ‘Damn sexy.’ to that list.”

The thief laughed again, lightly, and Shego grinned in response. “Merci. I do my best to find out about those I may run into in my line of work. Though I will admit you are something of an enigma to me.”

Shego, amused beyond all reason by this skilled woman, grinned. “Oh, why?”

The thief’s eyes twinkled. “No… no I do not think so. Not unless you win.”

Shego frowned and her hands glowed brighter. “If you’re thinking of fighting me…”

“Oh, no!” The woman laughed, her rich French accent rolling the sound around the hall with soft undertones. “I would not dream of fighting you, Shego. I respect you too much.”

Shego paused, surprised. “What? How the hell can you respect me? I’m your enemy!”

“No… no you are not. I do not have enemies. You are simply my opponent in this little game. Who wins, will be decided by skill. The prize will be… this.” To Shego’s shock, the thief pulled the diamond, that had been sitting in the case a second ago, from behind her back, and she smiled. “You were too busy, Oui, talking to me that you failed not notice what I was doing behind my back.”

Shego growled. “Put it back! Not that I really give a toss about the diamond itself, but if I let you get away with that… then I’ll-“ She broke off, angry with herself, with her brother for putting her in this situation. To her shock, she found she liked this woman.

The thief frowned. “Then what? You do not wish to play my game?”

“It’s not a game!” Shego snapped. “Stealing it not a game!”

It is for me, Shego.” Resolved, the diamond was slipped into a bag on the thief’s pouch and she grinned as Shego took a step forward, hands blazing. “Ah, so you do wish to play…”

“No! Come down from there, don’t make me fight you! Please!” Shego almost pleaded. “Look, give me the diamond and I’ll let you go! Okay? It was cool to watch you foil everything they arrogantly said would stop the diamond being stolen. Just… just give me the damn thing and leave!”

The thief smiled. “No… and no I don’t want you to let me go. I want you to do something I will admire you for even more.” A subtle movement behind her back was again unnoticed by the green skinned hero. A tiny metal ball palmed into a hand.

“What?” Shego asked, dreading the answer.

“Chase me!” The thief whispered, her hand throwing a tiny metal ball into the air. It sparked and then exploded, casting a flash of white light so intense that Shego fell back, covering her eyes as she fought the purple spots that obscured her view.

“Damn!” She swore, blinking in time to see the woman’s form zip upwards and land on the lip of the skylight. Shego looked up, blinking back tears as her eyes fought to recover and she held up a glowing hand, only to lower it again, slowly. “Damn… damn. I can’t!”

The female thief hauled herself up onto the roof and looked down. “Cheri, you’d better hurry. I will not wait for you to find your way up here and-“ She broke off in surprise as Shego crouched, watched as muscles in the green woman’s thighs bunched tightly, and then she pounced towards the wall, hands and feet exploding into green flame. As Shego landed on the wall, her hands and feet punching holes through it and she started to climb, the thief whispered in awe. “Mon Dieu… even more amazing than I thought.”

Shego climbed as fast as she could, swearing under her breath at the damage she must be doing. Never hear the end of this… but I’ve got to stop her getting away! Reaching the skylights, Shego reached out a hand and blew a hole through he glass and then, as the alarms sounded around the museum, the titanium bars that slammed across the opening. To her surprise, she smiled, her eyes gleaming. She found she was enjoying herself.

Flipping her own athletic body over the lip of the roof, she glanced around. There, wiggling on the ground, was the end of another black rope. Looking up, she saw the black form of the female thief climbing up it as fast as she could. Grinning, Shego leapt for the rope, and gripped it with gloved hands, as her feet made contact with the wall. The thief was making for the top section of the museum, but Shego didn’t care why, absorbed in the sheer exhilaration of the chase. Oh, you are so mine!

As the thief slid over the top of the roof, Shego swore and quickened her pace. Her eyes widened at the sound of amused laughter and as Shego pulled herself over the lip of the roof, the woman she had chased crouched in front of her on the other side of the roof, applauding. Shego glowered and her voice echoed across the roof. “You cheeky bitch.”

“Oh come now, you enjoyed our little chase. But, I’m afraid our game is not over. However, you have deserved us to finally meet face to face.”

The thief reached up and Shego blinked as the mask was gently removed and the latex hood pulled back. Dark red hair spilled out behind the thief, long, thick and bound into a ponytail. Shego felt her stomach curl again, the odd feeling almost pleasant. She looked up, and almost sighed at the smooth blue eyes that were set into a soft, yet foxy, and intelligent face. The face curled into a smile. “Hello, Shego. I am the Fox.”

Shego blinked. The Fox… oh wow! I’ve been chasing The Fox!

“You… I’ve heard about you! The thief that’s been stealing before I was even part of Team Go! You managed to infiltrate fort Knox! Although they denied it, rumours were you stole fifteen gold bars! I’d see you as my hero in life, you’re so free! But I can’t… cause you’re a villain.” Shego smiled, blinking as The Fox grinned back. “So, really fifteen bars?”

“Twenty, actually, Mon Chere. Back then, I was so determined to make a name for myself.” The Fox grinned and her head hair flicked about in the breeze. “Now I do it for fun, for the challenge… for myself. And you… you accepted my challenge?”

“Well, I’ll admit I chased you for the fun of it, if you really want to know.” Shego grinned. “And what was that about it not being over yet?”

“Ah, Oui.” The Fox grinned. “You still have to catch me, and that you will find hard to do. I have a little surprise waiting for me. Especially when I considered that stealing this very diamond would mean I would meet, Team Go. I am pleased it was you, for you interest me the most… I find you, most fascinating.”

“Gee, thanks.” Shego responded, dryly. “Didn’t know anyone cared about me in the villain community.”

“You would be surprised. However, for all I have collected, I am puzzled by you.” The blue eyes softened. “Tell me, if it is not too personal a question. Why do you do what you have chosen to do?”

“What?” Shego’s smile faded and she frowned, trying to ignore the way the French thief’s question had mirrored many of her own in the past few months. “Well, I’m a hero. Stopping the bad guys and saving the innocent is what I chose to do.”

“Commendable, but that still does not explain why you chose to become one.” The thief remained crouched on the edge of the roof, but now all amusement had left her tone and Shego stared. “Especially when I cannot help but wonder, why someone of your incredible skill would be here, in this museum, at this time of night. It is not… how shall we say, where you would find the type of villainy that you usually combat. Oui?”

“I’m here because I was told to come here.” Shego felt her voice heat, the rage that fought to escape about her trapped situation, leaking into it. “Why I became a hero… well, what else would I have done? Besides, I did it for my brothers, we wanted to help people.”

“Ah, I see. You chose to look upon the meteor that hit your home and killed your parents as a gift rather than a curse. I see. So, it was a mutual choice between all of you then? To take up lives of self sacrifice and little privacy?”

Why am I still standing here, letting her ask me such personal questions? Shego asked herself. Why am I letting her stand gently on thatplinth and ponder my choice? How does she know I’ve been asking myself the same things?

“None of your business!” Shego told her brusquely. “Now, come down from there.”

“Ah, not so mutual after all. I see.” The Fox stood up on the side of the roof and lightly jumped down, making Shego back away slightly. “Maybe you did not wish to become a hero… I wonder. With your personality and what happened to you, I can only wonder if you wished to be left alone at first. I wonder if this life is the path you should seek?”

“You know nothing about me!” Shego snapped. All amusement gone as the woman in front of her began to ask questions that truly mimicked Shego’s own. “Nothing!”

“Oui? I know about a frightened teenager who was given powers above anyone’s understanding. I know that you were separated as children for a while. I also know, though do not ask how I came by such information, about the military’s attempt to take you into their own hands.”

“Stop it!” Shego snapped, hands blazing even as the foxy face turned towards her, a look of compassion sliding into the eyes. How do you know so much? Why do you care!

“I know why you really enjoy fighting those who would threaten you, your brothers and the innocents of Go City. It has nothing to do with ego, or honour or fame.” The Fox watched Shego shake slightly. “No… nor has it to do with justice or morality. You have little care for any of that, do you not?”

“I’m not interested in what you think!” Shego glared at her, trying to ignore the doubt that crawled inside her stomach. Why am I a hero? I told Hego all those years ago I didn’t want to be one. “We’re too different for you to understand me! You’re a thief, I’m a hero… we’re from different sides!”

“Yes, and yet I do think I have come to know you… The truth of the matter is that I confess to being fascinated by you. ” The woman sighed. “Mon dieu, I just lied to myself and for what reason. Shego, Mon Cherie, you remind me of myself. I was never a hero, but I had the same conflict that I can see in your eyes. You really do remind me of myself. Oui?”

“Shut up!” Shego bit her lip and held up her glowing hands. “Stop talking and surrender to me!”

The Fox paused in her walking, surprised at the young pale green woman, and then her eyesfocusedon the bracelet that slid into view from under Shego’s sleeve. The thief’s eyes widened in shock, her experienced eyes taking in tiny details and flaws that showed it’s true purpose. Looking up, she felt her sympathy bloom for the conflicted woman.

“Why did they imprison you this way?” The Fox asked the question quietly, and closed her eyes as Shego reeled as if she had been slapped.

“Wha… what?” Shego shook her arm desperately, hiding the bracelet from view. “What are you talking abou-“

“Come, tell me the truth. The bracelet on your arm, it is a tracking bracelet, designed for those released early from prison. Why are you wearing such a… oh, oh, Cheri.” The Fox tilted her head and her blue eyes were liquid. “The court case never ended in court did it? They made a deal… not with you, I doubt you would wear such a thing, but with… oh my. Not a relation?”

“Shut up…” Shego whispered, trembling. “You don’t know why I had to wear it. What was at stake!”

“No, I do not. But was it worth losing your freedom? Tell me the truth.”

“No!” Shego screamed the word and leapt towards the Fox, anger and rage at her predicament blinding her. The Fox’s eyes widened, a mix of sympathy and worry blending in their deep depths. She ducked under a blazing hand, her ponytail whipping by accident into Shego’s face. The green hero felt the impact of the hair, caught the scent of cinnamon, and staggered backwards. Tears filled her eyes and she fought to keep control. “You don’t know why! I can’t tell you why! I don’t know you!”

“You do… though you do not know my past.” The Fox carefully walked around the conflicted woman. “I know that your freedom is vital to you as mine is to me. Why, I do not know. Do I care why? No. But I know that that thing on your wrist, whatever the reason you wore it, is destroying you. You must take it off, it would be a tragedy if it destroyed you!”

“Why do you care!” Shego screamed, the foundations of her world shaking. Why had her own brother, a hero betrayed her? And now a villain, a thief was showing sympathy. It made no sense… it made… Shego collapsed against the stonework, tears in her eyes. “I can’t take it off. If I do, I go to jail and Team Go is finished. You understand me? I have to do this! For the twins, for Mego… for the bastard who did this to me, Hego! I haven’t got a choice!”

The fox crouched next to her. “You have a choice, because you are you! Leave them! Become free!”

“If I did that, what the hell would I do for money? Nobody wants to employ a green freak like me!” Shego shook her head. “I can’t do it… I can’t leave them anyway! I have commitments, I can’t leave them, no matter what Hego did! I have to! I have to stop you, even though I don’t want to, because if you take that diamond, how will it reflect on them? On me?”

“If you were betrayed, then you were wronged. You owe them little, if anything at all. I do not know what happened, all I see is that you, someone who so reminds me of myself, falling apart, Oui?” The Fox reached into her belt, sighing and staring at the diamond that gleamed in her palm. “Here, you have won… I have no heart to steal this from you now. You obviously have more need of it than I andI have already made my point anyway… I stole it from their precious security.”

“You’re letting me win!” Shego muttered, embarrassed by the way she had just crumpled in front of a total stranger, a villain… someone who she was supposed to stop. “Damn it. I’m not a charity case! I could still kick your ass and take you in!”

“You could, but you will not I think.” The Fox stood, turning her head as the sound of sirens approached. She turned back to the green woman who sat glaring at her and pursed her lips. “This is not the life you wanted, all those years ago when the meteor struck. Answer me, yes or no!”

Shego stared at the look of judgement in The Fox’s eyes and she licked her lips. “I dunno why I’m even telling you this… but yeah I wanted to do something else. I never wanted to be a hero!”

“Bon. Then because you won the game… because you gave me more than I asked for about your life. Because I see myself in your emerald eyes, before I was saved in the way I know, Ioffer you a gift.” The Fox crouched next to Shego, and both women ignored the million pounds worth of diamond that rolled around under their feet. “I offer you a chance to find your real purpose in life. Be it good, evil or in-between. I give you the chance to follow the path I do… the path of the free thief.”

The Fox held out a tiny sliver of card to Shego, and the green woman took it automatically. On the front, sat the same logo as The Fox’s cat suit, only this time, printed in neat italic writing, was ‘The Fox.’ Shego looked up and blinked at the sight of the female thief standing on the edge of the building, shrugging on a backpack.

“Wait… wait a damn minute! Why/ why offer me this?” Shego slid to her feet, only to stop as The Fox smiled gently at her. “Please… wait. Don’t go…”

“Find me, Cheri. Find me and we shall talk about what you really want in life.” The backpack trembled and wings shot from the sides. Shego blinked as the jetpack, hidden under the fabric, sprang to life. “You know where I am from? My accent tells you, Oui?”

Shego nodded, unable to speak.

“Good. Then I shall tell you now, that my accent is really, truthfully the country where I reside. The card… that has the phone number you will need to call for me to help you. I will give you a clue to finding it before I leave.” The fox grinned. “This is a test, Shego, to see if you have it in you, to follow the path I offer. Work it out, and I shall teach you what I know. Now, the clue… the card works as my eyes do. Farewell!”

The jetpack ignited with a roar and Shego stared, her hands resting gently by her sides, as The Fox, a woman who had been more understanding that Hego had ever been in her short time with her, vanished into the night. Bending down, Shego picked up the diamond that had been in The Fox’s grasp and she stared at it quietly, even as the door to the roof slammed open and armed police spilled out. Hego walked onto the roof behind them and strode up to his sister.

“I can’t give you a simple mission, even like this, without something happening.” He tried to keep his tone light, but Shego glanced up, her eyes darkening to bitter anger. Swallowing, Hego glanced around. “She got away then.”

“Yeah… and no, I’m not talking about it.” Shego looked around and handed the diamond to one of the cops. “Take me home… I want to go home, right now!”

Later, as Shego sat alone in her quarters in Go Tower, she stared in determination at the tiny sliver of white card that turned gently in her hands.

What to do… what to do. Do I go? Do I forsake Wego and the twins to follow my own dreams, whatever they may turn out to be? How can I go… what will happen to Team Go? Do I care? Shego glanced around at the green walls of her room, and realised that unlike the others, she had no clippings or photos of her greatest heroic deeds. Her walls were bare, except for some of her private photos and things she deemed vital to her. I’m not a hero… I never was. But… how can I leave them?

A sudden knock at the door made Shego flinch and she looked up. “Yeah?”

“Sis… I just want you to know that the Mayor called. She says it’s not your fault that the thief managed to get away, and at least the diamond is safe.” Shego bared her teeth in the dark at Hego’s voice. “The manager of the bank congratulated you too… he’ s sent us a rather hefty pay check. What do you want me to do with it? It’s in your name.”

Shego closed her eyes. I can’t do this anymore. She’s right… I’m slowly destroying myself… who I am. Hego wants to be the one to run Team Go? He can… I just… I have to get away! But, maybe I can soften the blow to the others before I leave. Before I try to save myself.

“Hego, I want you to divide it into two. Half to go to Mego and half to the twins. Okay? Can you do that without betraying me?” Shego bit off the last word, and the voice behind the door softened.

“Yeah… I can.” A silence echoed into her room for a second, and then Hego’s voice quietly spoke again. “Sis, please… forgive me. I know I keep asking, but one day… maybe you will?”

“I doubt it… just fuck off and leave me alone, Hego.” Shego turned her attention to the card once more… staring at it for answers, the sound of sad footsteps, echoing into the distance, unnoticed.

Come on… think… think! This works ‘the same way her eyes do’. What does that mean? Look at it like The Fox would. She’s a thief… she looks for inner meanings in everything she does or sees. So, what does she mean by that clue? She’s The Fox… the Fox. Shego closed her eyes, trying to remember everything she could about the animal. Suddenly, she blinked and her eyes opened wide. “A fox! Fox’s eyes reflect light! The card… got to hold it up to something bright.

Shego slid off her bed and walked over to the desk that sat at the end of the room. As she clicked on the lamp, she held the card gently under the beam and pored her eyes over the surface. Nothing appeared, even as she tilted it left and right… and Shego swore in disappointment.

Damn! I thought I had it! Disgusted, Shego threw the white card onto her desk, and sat back in the chair that sat next to the desk. The dark green leather creaked as she rocked backwards and forwards, struggling to control her anger at not being right.

As she rocked, however, a single strand of moonlight flicked across the card’s surface and Shego blinked as her emerald gaze noticed a single number flicker into transparent life. She leaned forwards, her fingers quickly sliding across the card’s surface and she tilted it towards the moonlight that streamed through her window. As the soft silver light played across the surface, Shego grinned and pumped a fist in triumph. There, sliding into life as the moonlight trickled over them, were the numbers of a telephone.

Oh, sneaky… foxes only come out at night. Damn she's smart.

Shego scribbled the number down and raised her eyebrows. A mobile number… interesting. Now, what do I do? What do I choose? She looked around the room, nibbling her lip as her emotions conflicted. This is it… stay or go. If I stay… I wait until this damn bracelet is off, and then go back to being a hero. Working with one person I can’t trust anymore and a system of law I don’t believe in. Or… or I try to find The Fox and see what she offers. But what does she offer me? What does she want to do to me?

“You remind me of myself… before I was saved the same way.” The Fox’s voice echoed in her head. Soft and sympathetic… but also non-judgmental. Shego closed her eyes for a second and then took a deep breath. When they opened once more, her emerald gaze was determined.

“I have to know… I have to see where my own life takes me. Follow my own… dream.” Shego nodded to herself as she whispered and gazed down at the picture on the desk, her eyes softening at Mego and the Twins, before hardening at the sight of Hego. “I’m sorry… I really am… but I can’t do this anymore.”

Turning, Shego began to pack as quickly as she could. Clothes first, clearing out her wardrobe of everything she considered hers, including her cat suits. Then she quickly emptied her bathroom of every cosmetic she could find. Finally, as she finished stripping the walls of her few objects and pictures she considered precious to her, she sighed and zipped the suitcase closed. Her life as a Go member was ending.

“As of now… I resign as a team Go member.” She muttered, gently placing a note on the desk. “I hope that I can find what I’m looking for with her…”

As she stood one final time. Stood as a hero, not a thief. Shego’s right arm erupted into bright green flame. With a hiss of melting metal, the bracelet that had dammed her to a life of imprisonment, that had sat as a sign of her own brothers betrayal, melted. The silver and green molten metal dripping harmlessly on the floor as Shego directed her power to protect her skin.

Grinning in the dark, imagining the terrible alarms that must be going off in Go City, Shego walked out of her quarters and headed to the hanger. Headed to her jet, and freedom.

“I am Shego of Team Go… no more. Now, I’m just Shego.”

---

Middleton Hospital- The present.

Kim sat back, her mouth dry from it being open for so long and her green eyes were wide. “Woah…and you say you suck at story telling.”

Shego smiled teasingly and toyed with her empty coffee cup. “Woah indeed, Pumpkin. So, don’t tell me you never thought about why I fell to the darkness?”

Kim shook her head. “I always wondered, sure. But I thought you had wanted to be evil all along. But… maybe you’re not.” She looked up to see the pale green woman staring intently at her. “Maybe you’re not a bad girl.”

“Oh, I am…” Shego grinned as Kim flushed. “I am, Pumpkin. Believe me when I tell you there’s nobody badder than Moi. But did I intend, in the beginning, to end up being Drakken’s assistant? Nah.”

Kim frowned. Could have fooled me. “So, did The Fox train you to be a thief? And what about Fang? When does she enter the picture… and how did you meet Drak-“ She broke off as Shego held up a single finger and winked.

“That’s a much longer set of stories, Princess. Best told in my diary. Why else do you think I threw the thing at you? If you really want to know about me, about why I’m the only one who manages to fight you to a standstill and… now that I’ve kissed you, wants you so badly I won’t take no as an answer. Read it and find out about the real me. If you dare of course.”

Kim, flushing at the ‘want you badly’ comment, opened her mouth, only for her Kimmunicator to bleep softly. “Damn.”

Shego sighed. “I agree completely. I’m beginning to think that thing would look better as a melted lump of plastic.” A smirk appeared on her face and, to Kim’s shock her hands glowed softly as she cradled the coffee cup. “Wanna?”

“Stop it! People will see!” Kim hissed, earning herself an evil grin from the woman opposite her. “Besides, it’s Mara, so stop it!”

“Okay… okay.” Shego grinned. “Maybe when we’re alone I can let you punish me, and that’ll help you decide to be mine. Ever think about me being helpless and at your mercy, Tiger?”

Kim swallowed, trying to force the images of Shego writhing as Kim ‘tortured’ her from her mind. She looked down and groaned at the digital face on her screen. Something Wade had also forgotten to tell her, and that she had found out for herself, was that Mara had a face. But it was only visible on the Kimmunicator and the dash panel. Now, Mara’s digital female face stared up at her, and she was annoyed.

“Mara… what’s up?”

“Well, apart from your mother calling you for the past hour or so on the tannoy… which has gone unanswered and worried her a lot. I have now been sitting in the hospital carpark for nearly twenty minutes. So, when are you and ‘Miss Gordon’ coming out here so I can drive you two home?”

Kim swallowed. “Oh… sorry. Um, we both got caught up in some… history.” Shego smiled and slid to her feet. “Looks like we’ll be out right away. Um, we’ve just got to go up and get Sheg… I mean Shena’s stuff.”

Shego sighed. “Kimmie, what stuff? I arrived here buck-naked. Well, you did bring my diary.” She shook her head as the teenager flushed once more. “Come on, let’s not keep mommy waiting with my discharge papers. Besides, when we get to your house, you can make me a coffee.”

Kim blinked and slid the Kimmunicator away, even as Mara sighed wearily over the speaker.

“So not!” She retorted as they both walked out of the café and towards reception.

---

Drakken’s Lab- 5PM

“Um, Ms Fang?” Kara Fang looked up from the report on cocaine smuggling in her sectors of Japan and tilted her head. Drakken, standing in the doorway of the room she had taken over as her home office, shuffled uncomfortably. “You wanted a report?”

“Oh. Yes.” Kara sighed and motioned to a chair next to her desk. “Please, Doctor, tell me that the communications system will be up soon.”

Drakken swallowed. Uh oh.“Um, no. By my estimates that I have worked out with Carl, the communications system will take at least two days more to fix. The main waveform core was damaged and-“

Kara swore viciously in Japanese, making Drakken flinch. “This is unacceptable, Doctor! The more time we waste, the more likely it is that Kim Possible will find us!”

Drakken nodded. “I understand that, but what the hell an I going to do about it?” Leaning back in the chair, he steeled himself. “I can’t wave some sort of magical wand and fix it. Technology takes time to repair!”

“Time we no longer have.” Kara slid from her desk and growled. “I have had enough of waiting! Tell me, the remote controls, they will activate the Servussystem?”

Drakken’s eyes widened. “You’ve got to be kidding. If Shego sees anyone coming near her with one of those, she’ll pound them into unconsciousness before they get in range and-“

“Yes, yes… and Kim Possible will stand right by her side. Enough!” Drakken swallowed as Kara walked up to a door next to her desk and opened it, walking inside. “I have decided to take a personal hand in this once again. As you are so all pathetically useless when it comes to solving this inconvenience, I shall do it for you!”

Blinking, Drakken slid to his feet. “You can’t be serious! You’re going to try and control Shego using the remote? You’ll never get close enough!”

Kara smiled as she changed clothes. “You doubt me far too much, Doctor. I wantShego to be mine! And I always get what I wish. By fair means or foul. Now… please be helpful and go and fetch me one of the remote control systems. I have to see if you’re brilliant technology really will control her.”

As Drakken walked quickly from her office, Kara stretched, naked, in her changing room. Her hands gently reached out to pick up the dark red cat suit once more and she slid it on, sighing at its tight embrace. She felt far more dangerous when she wore it and that pleased her.

As she slowly ran the zip up her body, her fingers reached across to the belt that lay on a small table and she flipped open one of the pockets. Reaching in, Kara removed a tiny communications system and flicked it on.

“Master Quia, this is Kara Fang. Tell me, is our little diversion ready to go at a moments notice?”

As she finished zipping up her cat suit and started to bind her dark hair into a ponytail, Kara heard the old Dojo master’s voice hiss back to her over the tiny speaker.

“Yes, Mistress. We are ready… why?”

Kara grinned. “I have grown tired of waiting. I want Shego back and Dr Possible as a house guest. It is time that I take a hand in this myself. I want that distraction ready to go the moment I arrive at the Possible Household. I will tell you when.”

Quia remained silent for a second, and then his voice hissed quietly over the comm. “Yes, Mistress Fang, it will be done.”

Kara nodded and slid on her knee length boots. Yes it will. I want Shego back, and mine!

“Yes Mistress… we are ready.”

“Good. Tell the hanger staff I want a hoverpod, with cloak, available right away!”

“Yes, Mistress Fang. I shall tell them at once.” Quia paused. “And may I say… good hunting?”

“You may… and I hope it will be. Fang out.” Kara clicked the comm once and then hit another set of buttons. She waited as, once again, a mobile number was dialled. When the comm clicked softly, Kara nodded. “Shia, is that you?”

“Yes, Mistress.” Shia’s voice replied softly. “I was just about to call you. Shego and Kim Possible have just left Middleton hospital in her car. They are heading, so I am to believe by the conversation that I overheard, to her house. Shego has been invited by Dr Possible to stay.”

“Oh, so delicious. The sheep invite the wolf to stay. How wonderfully ironic.” Kara grinned and walked out of her wardrobe and into her office. She perched herself on the edge of her desk and closed her eyes. “Good, I was about to call you myself. I have decided to take a personal hand in this.”

Shia, discreetly cradling her phone, blinked. “I beg my Mistresses pardon, what did you say?”

“I said, sister, that I am taking a personal hand in this. If Possible San and Shego are on their way to her house, so much the better. I have grown weary of waiting and I want Shego and Dr Possible in my grasp.”

“You… will be taking… Has the communications system been fixed?” Shia swallowed. “It has not been repaired, has it. You intend to use one of the hand held units!”

“Yes I do… and as it seems that Shego and Kim are on their way to her house, that leaves you with one objective, Sister. I want a comm call the moment Dr Possible leaves Middleton Hospital! Do you hear me?”

Shia closed her eyes. Not the mother… Please, Kara stop this insanity!

“Yes, Mistress. I shall let you know.”

Kara nodded. “Good, I’ll go and prepare to welcome my obedient little green assassin home. Fang out.”

Tucking the comm back into her pocket, Kara smiled. Oh, I cannot wait to be the one who steals Shego’s freedom with a single click of a button! And as for Dr Possible… I can’t wait to meet the woman who birthed Kim Possible. I am sure she has excellent physical limits of endurance. I can’t wait to plot them!

The click of her office door sliding open, make the Japanese woman glance over. Drakken, frowning with worry, stood in the doorway, a tiny plastic device in one hand.

“Ah, Doctor. Is that it?” Kara slid off her desk as Drakken nodded and strode over, examining the small device intently. “What is its range?”

“Ten metres, no more or less. If you want to be assured the system will activate with no screw ups, six metres.” Drakken swallowed. “Please, Ms Fang. Don’t do this… Shego is dangerous, take it from someone who knows her!”

“I know her as well, Doctor and relax, please.” Kara tucked the remote into her belt and grinned. “I do not intend to just walk up to her. I will use stealth, and Shego will be mine with little effort.”

Drakken stared at the young Japanese woman and sighed. “Look, just be careful. Okay? I’ve come to see you as someone I consider valuable to me. You exposed Shego’s betrayal and have been very nice. I just don’t want to see you hurt.”

He adores me secretly. He wants my body, though he is uncertain of how he feels. The fool!

Kara smiled. “Thank you for the concern, Doctor, but I am quite prepared and capable of dealing with Shego. Now, if you will excuse me.” Kara breezed past him, her dark hair whipping behind her and her blood red cat suit slipping like oil over her curves. “I have a little Assassin to fetch.”

---

Kim Possible Household- 7PM.

“And this is the bathroom. Your bedroom is down the hallway, here.” Kim pushed open the door to her parent’s guestroom and waved a hand. “Not green, sorry… but I hope it’ll do, until you can find your own place, and Mom decides to let you go.”

Shego tilted her head around the doorway and smiled at the clean white walls and linen of what was to be her room. “Looks fine. At least I won’t clash with anything. I mean, me and purple sheets? Not something you want to see.”

To her surprise, Kim sniggered and Shego turned, grinning. The redhead held up a hand, stifling her laughter and her ex-nemesis crossed her arms in amusement.

“Sorry, sorry.”

“That’s okay, Pumpkin.” Shego winked and then sighed, looking up and down the corridor. “Shame though.”

“Eh?” Kim blinked. “What about?”

“My room. It’s not yours, and it’s quite a way away. So, no tiptoeing to see me in the night, okay?” Shego winked, and part of her gleefully sniggered at the red blush that appeared brightly on Kim’s skin. “You’re going to have to fight that blush, Pumpkin. Otherwise, I may think you want more than the friendship you keep insisting is all you desire.”

Kim sighed. “I told you. I don’t know how I feel. Please… give me-“

“Time.” Shego finished, her eyes becoming serious. “I will, but I meant what I said to you earlier today.”

“And that was?” Kim asked, her breath tightening in her chest at the sight of Shego’s serious expression. As the green thief leaned towards her, she felt herself begin to tremble. “Shego?”

“You’re mine, Pumpkin. You just haven’t worked it out yet. I protect and love that which I consider mine, so you’re mine. Never forget that!”

Kim blinked. “I’m not something that can be owned, Shego. You have to work to gain my friendship and… more. You’ve made a good start. Just… take it slow, okay?”

“I hate taking things slow and-“ The chime of the Kimmunicator made Shego glower. “Tell Nerdlinger we’re busy!”

“No.” Kim whispered, shaking at how suddenly intense their proximity had become. She could almost feel the need radiating off Shego’s green skin. Fumbling, Kim pulled the Kimmunicator from her pocket. “You have to accept that this is what I do, who I am. Would you do to me, what your brothers did to you.”

Shego’s emerald eyes flickered, and then softened. “No… no. Go ahead, Pumpkin.”

“Progress.” Kim murmured, and flicked on the Kimmunicator. “Go Wade!”

“Kim… you’re not going to believe this… but the catalytic cracking plant at your dad’s workplace has just gone… crazy!” Wade typed furiously. “Your dad’s there now, along with your brothers. It was that ‘See your father at work’ day.”

“The Tweebs?” Kim leaned forwards, suddenly worried, and missed the gentle pressure of Shego’s hand on her shoulder. “Did they do that? Are they or dad hurt?”

“No… they’re all fine. But you’ve got to get there as soon as you can. Hydrogen gas is building up and for some reason the emergency venting and shutdown system is offline. Your dad’s at a loss to explain it!”

“Okay…” Kim glanced across to Shego, who shrugged. “Okay! I’m on my way. Tell dad and the Tweebs not to worry. I’ll be there as soon as I can!”

“Okay, Kim.” Wade’s voice echoed into the corridor as Kim flicked off the Kimmunicator and slid it into her pocket. She gazed at the calm green thief, and sighed.

“I have to go.” She looked up, nibbling her lip and to her surprise, Shego nodded.

“Yeah, you do. Go on, save the world and your dad.” Shego smiled. “And if the ‘Tweebs’ are the two tiny Possible’s who got Drakken’s first mind control chip off me, then I owe them one. So, go save their butts, okay?”

Kim nodded and moved towards the stairs, only to pause and look back at Shego with conflicted feelings. “You know… this is going to take some getting used to… us. Even as friends.”

Shego grinned. “Nah, Pumpkin. Look, just see it as business as normal. Only this time, when I kick your ass, it’ll be in the gym and we’ll be sparring for fun or training.”

Kim thought for a second and then nodded. “Yeah… though I'd kick your ass!” She turned and ran down the stairs, but her voice floated up. “Oh! Before I go. That bag, with your suits and stuff in it! The one we picked up on the way here. It’s in my room!”

Shego shook her head in amusement as the front door banged shut. How my life has changed in four days… want to know what chaos theory is? Well, welcome to my life!

As the strange jet whining roar of Mara, a car that Shego had found annoyingly similar to Dr Freeman's other creations, disappeared up the driveway, she found herself alone in the Possible house.

Well, Hi Shego… Come on in. We’re sorry we’re all busy doing other stuff, but feel free to limp around and have a pry. After all, you’ve gazed at Kimmie sleeping enough to wonder what she has hidden in her drawers, and you’ve studied the blueprints of this house enough to walk around it with your eyes shut. So, why not pry?

Sniffing, Shego wandered along the corridor and pushed the door to Kim’s room gently open. Her eyes took in the soft, muted colours, somehow suiting the redheaded heroine who had stolen her heart, and she nodded in approval. Her eyes flicked over the messy bed sheets, not yet tidied up and she sighed.

“Got to explain to you, Pumpkin, that I like a neat house. We shall be having words.”

As she moved to put a foot over the threshold of Kim’s personal space, Shego, to her own surprise, paused. She glanced around, wondering why a feeling of excitement trickled into her as her hospital slippers quietly walked into soft carpet. Well, here we are… territory of the Kimmius Possibalis.

Smiling, Shego wandered along the room, tapping the telescope, that to her surprise was well oiled and obviously not for show, and then examining the books on Kim’s shelves.

Well, well. James Bond, what a surprise… Eve Dallas… a couple of sci-fi novels and loads of romance. Interesting mix, Kimmie. Wonder what that means about you. Oh, and an interesting mix of non fiction too… Tai Bo… Karate, Kickboxing, Ninjitsu. Mmm, no wonder you and I spar well. Oh, and… what the… Brain surgery through the ages? That’s got to be her mothers! What the hell does she want with that?

Shaking her head, Shego turned to the drawers along the second wall and she paused, almost shivering with anticipation. Oh man… this should be fun. Uncharted territory here we come! Kimmie’s underwear… Now, naughty or nice? I bet… naughty! She’s got a dark streak, no matter how much she hides it!

As she moved towards the drawers however, her eye caught the bag sitting on Kim’s bed and she paused.My suits… God, I’ve missed the feel of that fabric. Maybe I can hold off just long enough to put one on.

Shego walked across to the bag and gently unzipped it. There, under the pictures of Kim and the tiny viewer for the security disks, lay her signature green and black checked cat suits, and three sets of boots. Pulling one out, Shego hugged it like a child. Hello sweeties, have you missed mommy?

As Shego smiled and gently unzipped the suit to put it on, a sudden rap at Kim’s bedroom window made her look up in shock. Her eyes narrowed as the small plinth outside was empty and she walked quietly across to the glass, her hands dropping the cat suit and bursting into green flame.

As she reached the glass and looked out, she frowned. Nothing… maybe I should.

A sudden flicker caught her eyes and she pulled the catch at the side of the window up, sliding the glass sideways as it came free. Ignoring the fact she still wore the hospital dressing gown, Shego jumped onto the roof, muttering a curse as her half-healed leg twinged with pain.

Hands blazing, Shego glanced around and then turned as a slate fell from the roof above her. She looked up, her eyes widened in shock and she stepped back.

“You!”

There was a quiet click.

---

Possible Household- twenty minutes later.

Dr Possible parked her car and quietly opened the door. She was, to put it bluntly, exhausted. Eight hours of being a doctor in such a busy hospital as Middleton’s, and then add the fact that she was its only resident Neuro Surgeon, and you had one tired person.

Still, home now. Thank goodness. Pulling herself from the car, Dr Possible stretched and walked across to the front door of her house. Yawning, she slid the key into the lock and gently pushed the door open as she did so.

Inside, it was quiet. Odd, I thought Kimmie and Shego were here.

Dr Possible frowned, her blue eyes narrowing and she ran a hand through her own long red hair. “Kimmie? Shego? Anyone home? Hello?”

“Yes, Dr Possible. I am in the kitchen.” Shego’s deep and throaty voice echoed down the corridor. “I have been waiting for you.”

“Oh, right.” Dr Possible closed the front door gently and wandered across the hallway and into the kitchen.

Sitting at the kitchen table, dressed in her usual green and black cat suit, sat Shego. The woman’s green eyes looked up calmly and she smiled, no… beamed at her. “Hello, Doctor!”

“Oh, hello.” Dr Possible glanced around. “Where’s Kim?”

“Your daughter has gone to prevent a fire at your husbands place of work, Doctor Possible. As I understand it, your two sons are also present at that location. It is some sort of trip arranged by the school.”

Kim’s mother frowned. What’s with the emotionless delivery? She’s not usually like that… is she?

Dr Possible shrugged. How was she supposed to know how Shego usually acted.

“Okay… I hope they’ll be okay. Still Kimmie’s there now and there’s nothing she can’t do or control.” Her mother sighed. “So, just you and me then, until they come back.”

“Yes, Dr Possible. I am looking forward to it.” Shego nodded, jerkily, and Kim’s mother blinked.

“Okay…” She sighed again. Just tired… that’s what it is. “I suppose I should get dinner on.”

“Yes… though I suggest you may find it far easier to arrange pizza.” Shego blinked, once. “It would be more prudent to do so, as the local pizza parlour has boxes capable of keeping pizza hot for an hour or more. That is prudent planning.”

“Yeah… maybe you’re right.” Dr Possible shook her head. Tiredness! “So, what do you want on your Pizza?”

“I do not know… I do not usually consume Pizza. It is fattening and I have often resisted the urge to consume it.” Shego slid to her feet. “Though I do like pepperoni and olives. I do not like anchovies.”

“Right. One pepperoni and olive pizza for you… Jonathan will have bacon on his… as for the twins, I’ll get them their usual and the same for Kimmie and myself.”

Dr Possible wandered out of the kitchen, muttering as she headed for the lounge and the phone. Shego, blinking, once. Turned her head slowly, scanning the kitchen. As her dull emerald eyes focused on a heavy aluminium maglight sitting on the fridge, she blinked again.

In the lounge, Dr Possible sighed as she dialled the number for the pizza parlour. “Shego, could you do me a favour and put the kettle on? I know you’re a guest and it’s not something you’d usually do for anyone, but please… I’ve had a hard day and I want some coffee.”

The green thief’s voice echoed into the lounge. “Yes, Dr Possible.”

“Thanks!” Kim’s mother called and then blinked as the phone clicked. “Oh, hello… I’d like to order please.”

The sudden plunging of the lounge, of the entire house into darkness made Dr Possible cry out and drop the phone. She stood, blinking in the darkness and staggered across the room to where the light switch was. As she flicked it uselessly, Dr Possible sighed and began to feel for the doorway.

“Shego… hello?”

“Yes, Dr Possible?”

“The fuses have blown. Can you see a maglight in the kitchen? I keep it on top of the fridge.” Dr Possible managed to find the door to the lounge and pulled it open. “Wow… it’s so dark.”

“There is no moon, Dr Possible. Too much cloud cover. Where are the fuses to the house?”

“Oh, I know… get the maglight while I try and find my way there. The fuse box is just under the stairs, okay?”

“Yes Dr Possible.”

As Kim’s mother groped futiley in the dark, she sighed. “Damn…” As she reached the small door that opened onto the fuse box for the house, she kneeled down and glanced around. “Shego, I managed to find my way here… now, all I need is the maglight so we can see what we’re doing.”

“Yes, Dr Possible. I am right behind you.”

“Oh good… hand me the mag… guhhh!”

The sound of a heavy metal torch hitting human flesh echoed in the hallway and the sound of a female body hitting the floor blended with it. Shego calmly held the heavy torch in one gloved hand and pushed the door to the fuse box open. Her hand reached across to the fuse she had forced to trip, by dropping the toaster into the sink, and flicked it on. With a hum, the lights to the Possible household flickered back on.

Dr Possible lay at Shego’s booted feet, her dark red blood spilling down her temple and onto the carpet of the hallway. Shego regarded her impassively and carefully dropped the maglight on the floor.

However, as she gently kneeled down to haul Dr Possible onto her shoulders, she blinked in surprise as Kim’s mother groaned. Dr Possible’s hands clawed gently at the carpet, and she opened her eyes, gasping in agony as Shego turned her over. Focusing on the frighteningly passive face, Dr Possible whimpered.

“Shego? Wh… what have you done?” She managed, fighting the lure of unconsciousness. “Why?”

“I have been ordered by Kara Fang to capture you. It is nothing personal, Doctor. Indeed, I do not wish to do this. However, I have been ordered to perform this action and this is what I shall do.” Shego intoned the words calmly and Dr Possible blinked in sudden fear and realisation.

“Oh, no… the mind control chip! You were worried one was on you! Oh no! Shego… I’m sorry, so sorry.”

“Regret is pointless, Doctor. Shego has been ordered to capture Dr Possible. Unconscious.”

“What? N… no! Kimmie Help m-” Dr Possible managed, before a gloved hand gently touched her forehead and a spark of green plasma flashed around the fingers. Kim’s mother struggled for a few seconds, whimpering in agony, until her eyes glazed over and she fell into unconsciousness, her temporal lobe disrupted by Shego’s powers.

As she gazed at Kim’s mother, Shego blinked and removed one glove, gently placing it next to the maglight coated in Dr Possible’s blood.

“Mission complete.” Shego announced calmly, sliding to her feet. “Mistress Fang will see you now, Doctor!”