Mind, body, and Soul

Rufus

As Rufus climbed up the thin piping, intent on reaching the walkway above, he desperately tried to ignore the sounds of fighting and cries of pain that echoed below. He had to stay focused on the goal of reaching Kara Fang and taking the tubes that his owner had desperately needed.

Ron’s scream of pain made the mole rat shudder and yearned to glance down, to ensure his owner was okay, but he had to keep his eyes on where his claws gripped the thin cable. The thing was smooth and if he lost concentration it would be a very long fall for such a small person such as him. Sighing, Rufus swallowed the worry he felt for Ron and gripped the smooth plastic with his claws, pulling himself up another few inches.

As he reached the support beams, Rufus gazed at the metal walkway above his head and judged its distance. With a grunt, the mole rat leapt onto the underside of the mesh that made up the walkway’s surface, his claws poking through the tiny hexagonal gaps in-between the metal. As he clattered quietly along to reach the edge and haul himself onto the upper side, Rufus risked a glance down to judge the situation.

Ron was down, bleeding badly and Rufus felt his stomach lurch at the sight of his master incapacitated. Thankfully, he could also see Yori kneeling next to him. Though the ninja was crying quietly, she was nonetheless binding the badly bleeding wound on his arm and protecting him from any further shots from Kara.

Shego on the other hand was in bad shape. Though the mole rat had little love for the green woman. The fact that Kim had admitted she cared for her, as well as the fact that the values Ron believed in had also been transferred to Rufus, meant that he was as worried about her as he was over his owner. As he reached the edge of the walkway and hauled himself over, Shego’s scream of agony had him glancing back down.

To his horror, Rufus watched as Shego writhed and jerked helplessly on the concrete floor, and he swallowed, taking in the damaged and smoking Roncon lying next to her. He had sat on Ron’s shoulder, had heard the warnings that Jim and Tim had given, and knew as Shego suddenly snapped as taut as a bowstring and screamed once more, Servus was chaotically rerouting the thief’s brain.

Uh oh… gotta hurry! The mole rat thought, scampering along the walkway towards the red suited woman. Gotta save Kim, Ron… everyone!

Kara Fang loomed in front of him, half covered in shadow. Kneeling once more on one knee, her rifle clutched tightly, the Blood Jade leader watched with a bright smile and a murmur of what Rufus took to be pleasure as Shego choked and writhed on the floor.

“So, it seems Servus was damaged too badly to take control of you, Shego. Ah well, it seems I will be forced to watch you suffer… watch you tremble and plead as pain and agonies swamp you. You will die knowing that I have Kim, that she is trapped and mine to do with as I please.” Kara sighed and stroked her rifle. ”It is all I could have hoped for in the circumstances.”

Glaring at her, Rufus glanced around and spying a control box clamped to the walkway guide rail, darted across to it and clambered up. As he did so, the anger he felt bubbling inside his tiny form triggered the sleeping monkey power he also was embued with. Unseen by his target, the mole rat’s body began to glow.

“Ah, Doctor Possible.” Kara’s smooth and delighted tone made Rufus glance down in horror. Below, he watched as Kim’s mother ran across to the convulsing Shego and began to perform CPR. “Save your daughter’s lover and risk yourself. How… noble to offer so much. Much like you did with my sister. Well, Doctor, this is not going to have such a happy ending.”

As Kara raised the rifle and began to take aim, Rufus swung his tiny arms and let the claws inside his paws slide into place. The flicker of monkey power grew brighter and the mole rat bared his teeth.Case inside the pocket… gotta get red tube and Servy box too!

“Goodbye Doctor…” Kara whispered, her finger tightening on the trigger.

“Booyahhaaagghhh!” Rufus screamed, jumping onto the top of the rifle, knocking Kara’s aim off and sending the rifle round screaming harmlessly into the distance.

“Wha-“ Kara managed, eyes widening in shocked horror as something greyish in colour and with white teeth launched itself at her face. Screaming, Kara fell backwards, the Servus controller falling onto the walkway, swiftly followed by her rifle. However, the rifle was far longer and it caught the walkway at an angle, bouncing over the edge. As it fell towards the floor of the lair, the leather strap Kara used to carry it across her back snagged on one of the support beams for the walkway, and it swung helplessly. Kara was not aware of her rifle’s dangerous position, as she was forced to deal with the mole rat.

Rufus slashed at Kara’s face with his sharp claws, monkey power adding both weight and speed to each attack. As the assassin flailed at him desperately, the mole rat snarled and his long white teeth sank into her nose. Kara screamed in agony, and she gripped Rufus tightly with both hands, yanking at him desperately.

Letting go of her nose, Rufus clawed at the hands clutching him. As the sharp claws sank into the flesh of her hand, drawing yet more blood, Kara swore and dropped the mole rat as quickly as she could. Blood dripped off her nose and spattered her catsuit as the Jade leader scrabbled violently backwards as Rufus fell onto her chest, his hindpaws digging into the smooth fabric of Kara’s suit.

“What the hell are you!” Kara managed, hissing in pain as her nose throbbed, scrabbling for the dagger she always kept sheathed on her belt.

Rufus ignored her, his paws darting into the gap where Kara had left her suit unzipped, and scrabbled around inside until his paws gripped the smooth plastic box Ron and Kim’s mother needed. As he tugged it free, Kara blinked in shock and drew the dagger.

“No! That’s mine you freakish creature.” The oriental woman reached out to try and grasp the mole rat, but Rufus danced backwards, kicking her hand in a Tai Sheng Pek Kwar move that had Kara swearing and yanking it away. Her other hand slashed the dagger in Rufus’s direction, but the mole rat used the strong plastic case as a shield, the sharp blade skittering along it harmlessly.

Can’t get the other tube! Rufus thought desperately. As Kara reared up and he felt his hind paws slipping on the red fabric of her suit, he came to a decision. Gotta help Shego! Just need t’eh Servy box!

As Rufus jumped off her, Kara fell forwards, trying to stab him with the dagger and retrieve the plastic box. “Give it to me! I will not be defeated by furry vermin!”

“Not furry!” Rufus squeaked at her, dancing out of the way of the sharp blade as it scraped along the metal walkway. As he kicked the Servus controller towards the edge, he grinned up at Kara’s bleeding and disbelieving face. “Nekked Mole rat!”

“Stop!” Kara managed, watching in horror as the controller bounced along in front of Rufus with a clatter. As she lunged out again with the blade, Rufus blew a raspberry in her direction and kicked the controller over the edge. The Jade leader howled in disbelief. “No!”

“Rufus! Buddy!” Ron’s voice called to him below and the mole rat sighed in relief as glanced down and saw the blond teen, his arm bound in reddening cloth, holding out his hands. “Jump dude!”

Gripping the box tightly, Rufus glared as Kara scrabbled onto her belly, lunging with her daggerless hand, trying to catch him. She was far too late and the rodent landed with a gentle thud into safe hands.

Clutching the box, Rufus sighed. “Safe!”

“Yeah, but no time to talk!” Ron told him, bending down to pick up the, miraculously unharmed, Servus controller. The controls were easy to understand and Ron pressed the command button as Kim flipped herself upright. “Kim, stop.”

The redhead paused and then slumped backwards, eyes like glass. Inside, Kim cheered. “Good work Ron, I’m not going to hurt anyone else… thank god!”

Carefully, Ron slid the control into a pocket of his suit, before dashing across to where Doctor Possible lay clutching Shego. As he arrived and held out the plastic box, the redheaded Doctor sighed in relief.

“One down. Now, what about Kim’s?” She asked, her lip trembling.

“Sorry…” Rufus whispered, turning away from her hopeful gaze. “Got one… Shego.”

Biting her lip, Kim’s mother stared at her motionless daughter who lay on her back, staring blankly at the sky. “Oh, oh no. Kara still has Kim’s?” Rufus nodded and the Doctor blinked back tears. “Well… it doesn’t matter. I have to save Shego. Ron, give me the vials and go and get one of the hypodermic injectors.

“I’m gone!”

“No!” Kara’s voice echoed and all eyes slid upwards to see the Jade leader clutching the side, eyes wide with rage and fear. “I will not let you inject Shego, Doctor!”

The sudden thud of shuriken embedding themselves in the concrete next to her had Kara ducking and rolling sideways, her hands seeking a rifle that was no longer there. Snarling, she glanced around for it, and finally spied the weapon dangling underneath the walkway. As Yori, Jasmine, Brianna and Hirotaka all threw more of the deadly stars in her direction, Kara wrapped her legs around the supports of the barrier around the edge and swung upside-down, her fingers reaching for the rifle.

Ignoring the commotion, Doctor Possible grabbed the strange metal device that Ron carried carefully back across the room to her, and with the practised motions of an ER doctor, snapped the metal vial into the rear and the green vial into the side. There was a quiet hiss and the device flashed a green light.

Quickly, Doctor Possible reached down with the device and moved to press it next to the green woman’s neck. Experienced fingers slid along the skin and pressed gently, until she could feel the area where the spine met the back of Shego’s skull.

“Naahhh!” Shego managed, glaring up at Kim’s mother and flapping a hand as much as she could. As Doctor Possible stroked her hair and murmured reassurances, Shego shook her head. “Kmmmn!”

“No!” Kim whispered, gazing out of paralysed eyes. She felt her heart lurch at the expression in Shego’s eyes, and was helpless to react, trapped as she was. “You never cared about anyone more than yourself, Shego! Don’t start now!”

“Shego… I’m sorry.” Doctor Possible moved forwards again, but Shego jerked her head away.

“Sorry for what? Mom… just cure Shego!” Kim stared in disbelief as Shego jerked her bleeding and writhing form away from the device, the green woman’s emerald eyes gazing at her with panic and need. Struggling to shake her body’s head, Kim hissed in frustration. “Forget me right now, you’re dying and need this! I’ll be okay!”

“Nahhh!” Shego managed, cursing inwardly as her own body refused to respond.

“Shego, stop this! Listen to me! I can’t use your codes to free Kim! It doesn’t work that way!” Doctor Possible gripped her neck, pressed the tip to the joining point between Shego’s skull and spine, and pulled the trigger.

With a click and hissing sound of gas, the injector shot the fluid directly into the thief’s spine. Shego jerked violently as it flooded her system and her body began to shake uncontrollably. She managed to turn her head with jerks of semi controlled muscles and stared with accusation at the woman who had released her body from the grip of Servus.

Gazing into the angry emerald eyes, Kim’s mother sighed. “I know what you were trying, but the codes are different. If I’d injected Kim with yours, nothing would have happened.” The emerald eyes softened slightly. “We both care about her, Shego… that was one of hardest things I have ever had to do.”

Inside Shego’s body, the charged fluid coursed around her system, easily diffusing through her tissues at an incomprehensible rate. As it flooded around the nanites, the combined protein marker and amino acid key slid into place on receptors built into their bodies. Responding to the hardware based response, every single nanite the fluid met began to shut down, and their fellows inside Shego’s tissues all rapidly followed suit. Without interference from the malfunctioning system, Shego’s body came under her control once more.

Free, her heart rate slowed to its normal pattern and she found she could breath slowly and easily once more. Her damaged leg muscles relaxed, sliding away from where they had agonisingly held her and Shego slowly raised a hand to wipe the sweat that had trickled across her brow. She licked her lips, and moaned in relief.

“Damn, if that wasn’t painful! Thanks Dr P.”

Blinking at the nickname, Kim’s mother gently sat her up, and watched with worry as Shego coughed, the hand that came up flecked with blood. Staring at it, Shego seemed unconcerned and her emerald gaze slid up to where Kara lunged for her swinging rifle, and then slid across to where Kim lay on her back, immobile apart from the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest.

Next to her, less than a metre away, lay the hissing remains of the Roncom, sparking and useless. Shego wanted to curse. The device could have helped Kim, but no longer. That narrowed her options… and her eyes flicked around, seeking Kara.

A muffled curse from above made Shego glance up, and her eyes narrowed to icy slits as she took in the grunting woman hanging half over the walkway. Shego watched as Kara reached for her rifle, and grinned with cruel amusement as her fingers scraped the leather and then slipped off.

I’ve got time to get what I need… after all, I want Kara to appreciate the effort she put in so that I’ve lose any mercy for her.

Groaning at the effort, Shego pulled herself across to where Kim lay, waving off any assistance that the two people behind her tried to give. As she reached the young woman, Shego forced herself up onto her knees, and gently scooped the redhead into her arms. The move cost her pain, thanks to what she knew had to be a broken rib, but she ignored it. Kim, her Kim, was far more important.

As sweat prickled her brow, she gently stroked away a single lock of red hair that had fallen across Kim’s face. Underneath, covered in sweat and streaked in bruises, scratches and dirt, the soft face of the woman she had hated, respected, and come to love gazed back with empty eyes.

Sighing, Shego gently leaned Kim into her lap for a second and, wincing slightly as she bent down, tugged the green and black gloves off Kim’s fingers. Sliding them into place on her battered suit, the gloves locked into place with a gentle click. Shego nodded with satisfaction and, gritting her teeth, picked Kim up once more. Holding the redhead tightly, the thief cradled her for a second time.

“Sorry, but I need them more than you do Kimmie. I need them because I’ve screwed up. I’ve screwed up badly, haven’t I Pumpkin.” Shego whispered, her eyes fixing once more on Kara’s swinging frame. “I should have been stronger when I faced Kara all those years ago, I should have put her down. But I’m gonna fix that now.”

“I don’t want her death on your hands!” Kim cried out the words, watched as Shego gently stroked her hair, the emerald gaze still soft. “I know what you’re thinking, because we’re both so alike! Don’t make me love a murderer!”

The green woman smiled, the expression making it almost a grimace. “I’m going to try and be a hero one last time, and it’ll be for you.”

“A hero doesn’t kill!” Kim’s cry became a scream of worry. “She doesn’t matter to me! You do, Shego! I know you! If you do it, it’ll destroy you! Don’t kill her!”

Shego’s face chilled into a cold rage and white teeth slid into view as black lips drew back into a snarl. Placing Kim down gently, eyes never leaving the cursing woman above them, Shego held out her hands to Ron and Doctor Possible.

“Help me stand up… I’ve got payback to dish out, and Kimmie’s codes to obtain.”

“Shego, no.” Doctor Possible refused to let the cool emerald stare frighten her as Shego turned to gaze at her. “Listen to me. You’re an amazingly strong and resilient woman, thanks to whatever happened to your genetic structure when the meteor hit. But you’re not invulnerable!”

“I know. But I don’t need to be to take Kara Fang on one last ride.” Shego’s face glimmered with cruel intent as she watched Kara make a grab for the rifle once more and miss. “She’s not a close quarters fighter, she’s a markswoman at heart. Oh, and also a coward. So, I say again. Help me stand!”

Sharing glances, Doctor Possible and Ron gripped the green woman and pulled, hauling Shego to her feet.

Watching Shego from her position on the floor, Kim felt something tear inside her. “Don’t kill her… please. You’re not a murderer Shego!”

Shego flipped her hair and the cold steel slid into her eyes once again as she stared up at the straining figure of the Jade leader.

“Time to kick some Jade ass!”

---

Kara

Kara lunged at the swinging rifle one final time, a snarl of concentration escaping her lips. Her gloved fingers slid along the leather strap that held the rifle in place on the walkway support and she hissed with effort, pushing muscle and bone to breaking point, as she snagged the leading edge. The rifle dropped a few inches and the assassin licked her lips, ignoring the zip of shuriken around her. As the weapon fell completely from the walkway girder, Kara’s hand tightened on the strap running across her hand and held on for dear life. With a groan of strained leather on metal, the rifle swung in mid air, gripped tightly by its owner, who grinned in triumph.

As Kara swung upwards, a move taught to her by Shia, her free hand gripped the walkway tightly and she hauled herself over the edge, muscles rippling slightly underneath the catsuit. It had paid her, she saw with grudging admittance, to listen to Shia’s comments about her physical fitness these past years. If it had not been for her sister badgering her to keep exercising, to improve on what basic Jade training gave her, she would never have been able to save her rifle.

How ironic. Despite my sister’s betrayal, it is her training and her intent to push me to excel that has saved me. I wonder how that would make her feel? Knowing that she helped the woman who killed her?

Grinning with satisfaction, the Jade leader turned to the lab below, intent on taking as many lives as she could.

The sudden blast of plasma smacking into the concrete next to her head, followed by a second green ball slagging one of the guard-rail supports, had Kara staring in horrified disbelief at the woman decked in green and black below her.

“No… no!” Though something icy trembled down her spine as Shego grinned triumphantly at her, hands dripping green plasma, Kara’s mouth drew back into a snarl. “You can’t be free… I won’t let you be free! I won’t let you live!”

Stepping back, Kara swung her rifle around, only for Shego to fire another plasma bolt that had her cursing and rolling to one side. “I won’t let you win again! Not when I am so close to having everything I wanted! Including you, broken and beaten before me and-“

“Yadda, yadda!” Shego snorted, eyes blazing. “Kara, do you really think I give a flying fuck what you want to happen to me?”

More plasma spattered around her and Kara snarled. With all of her Jade forces incapacitated, and a rapidly approaching Global Justice, the Jade leader realised that her revenge would have to wait. Eyes blazing with hatred, Kara grinned insanely at Shego’s approaching form, barely dodging a second plasma ball as it shot past her, the flickering edge screaming close enough to singe a few strands of hair from her ponytail.

“I see that you have won this round after all, you green skinned bitch!” The smile darkened, and became cruel. “Still, it will make my eventual triumph all the sweeter in the end. I’ll see you again, Shego. Very soon!”

“You’re going nowhere!” Shego’s voice was rough, and she coughed for a second, light red saliva splattering the ground, before firing another set of plasma balls towards the walkway. “Give me Kimmie’s stuff!”

“Oh no. Kim’s mine and she will stay mine!” Kara laughed loudly, and then clapped a hand across her mouth to stifle the sniggers that followed.

With Shego’s escape from Servus, the loss of every single Jade resource she had, and her own sister’s betrayal, it finally happened. Kara’s iron will against her own inherent madness, already weakening through time, cruelty to others and finally having Shego so close, snapped.

Inside, the beast reared its head and roared for blood. It was only the faint whispers of Kara’s will that held her near rational judgement. Kara’s sniggers turned psychopathically high pitched and she ducked another green ball of plasma, watching as it burst against the concrete wall behind her.

Her gleaming crazed eyes fixed on Shego with hatred. “You know, I have learned one thing from Drakken, Shego.” More laughter clawed at her throat. “Would you like to know what it is?”

“If it’s that my plasma really hurts when I fire it into him? I promise you ain’t’ seen nothing yet!”

“No, the thing I have learned from Drakken is that tactical running away is nothing to be ashamed of!” More laughter escaped her, and even Shego exchanged a perplexed glance with Ron and Yori.

O-kay. Kara has finally gone off the deep end. The thief thought to herself, watching the assassin laughing uncontrollably.

Finally, Kara settled down and the laughter rapidly descended into a hiss. “So, remember this, Shego! As you cradle your precious Kimmie, your little Pumpkin tonight, I’ll always be out there somewhere! Watching… waiting, and when you finally let down your guard, I will be there ready to take Kimmie’s life from you! After all, I did say I loved the sight of red on green…”

“Bitch! Fucking bitch!”

As Shego limped forwards, Kara turned and began to run along the catwalk towards the door at the far end. Shego responded by firing more plasma balls in her direction, but her aim was sent wild by another bout of agonised coughing, coughing that ended with the green woman holding her hand up to her mouth and shaking with terrible pain.

All Shego could do was watch as Kara turned, bowed, and then giggled insanely at her, before dashing through the doorway which sealed with a thud of hydraulics.

“Fuck it!” Shego managed to choke out, staring at both the door and the palm of her hand. As Ron and Doctor Possible ran up to her, she forced the hand she had coughed into behind her back, away from the two of them. “Stoppable, you planned this attack so you have an idea of the layout! Where’s that lead? Tell me!”

“It leads to-“ Ron began, only for Doctor Possible to interrupt with a gasp of horror.

“Shego, let me see your hand!”

“I’m fine.” Shego told her gruffly, turning to block the view. “Where does the damn door lead?”

Doctor Possible ignored her question and with reflexes that showed she was the mother of Kim Possible, snagged the hand Shego tried to hide. Pulling it into the light, the redhead paled. Covering Shego’s hand was a fine slick coating of blood, vividly red blood, and she knew it was arterial. The doctor looked up and Shego avoided her gaze. “ You’ve punctured a lung, haven’t you! And an artery by the looks of it!”

“It’s nothing, I can barely feel it.” Shego muttered, lying badly as she winced. “I’ve got enough adrenaline left to deal with Kara. And save Kim. Listen Doc-“

“You should have told me you were this badly injured!” Kim’s mother ignored her, a strange anger on her face. “My daughters lover has a punctured lung that she’s trying to hide from everyone! You shouldn’t even be standing up! Go lie down this instant while Ronald tries to call Global Justice for help!”

“No!” Shego snapped, the harsh tone triggering another coughing fit that spattered a fine red mist onto the concrete. “I have to do this!”

Ron placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking her slightly and Shego stared into his blue eyes, dreading the compassion she saw there. “Shego, listen-“

He never had time to react as Shego pushed Doctor Possible hard so that the redhead fell onto her rear with a shocked gasp, and then slammed him into a support pillar hard enough to have the teen coughing as the air shot out of his lungs. She leaned in close, her green eyes snakelike slits, ignoring Yori and her Yamanouchi colleagues running towards them.

“Stoppable, I think you’ve forgotten who you’re dealing with! I’m Shego, remember? Evil villainess, regardless of what’s been going on in my personal life, right? At the moment, I’m really pissed off, and when I’m pissed off I’m a very, very, nasty person! I have a core of dark in me that you really, really don’t want to meet!”

She leaned closer, teeth bared. “ Any time you’ve seen me angry before? Child’s play to how dark I can really be when I put my mind to it! Now, I won’t waste more time on either of you! Stop trying to help me, and just tell me where that fucking door leads!”

“The main fusion reactor that powers this place, the upper walkway! This one, on the ground floor leads to the same place, but a lower level. That’s what Mara said anyway.” Ron felt Shego’s razor sharp gloves loosen their grip and he sighed, looking at her cautious face.

“It’s a circular vault like chasm bored out of solid rock. The reactor’s in the middle, and has two walkways that connect it to the edges. Mara thinks that they lead inside too, so the reactor can be inspected and serviced. The reactor itself drops for a good fifteen stories down and five up from this level… and she thinks there may be a coolant system at the bottom that feeds into a natural underground lake surrounding it.”

He paused, watched as Shego took it all in, formed a mental picture. “You’re really going to go after her aren’t you? Even like this…”

“She hurt me and Kimmie! Damn right I’m going after her!” Shego stepped back, cautious as he nodded, resigned. “Besides, she has the cure, and I want it back! So don’t try to stop me, Stoppable. ”

“I’m not going to try and stop you.” Ron told her gently. “Because you’re right about the cure.”

“Ron! Shego’s badly wounded!” Kim’s mother stared at her daughter’s best friend in shock. “You… we can’t let her go after that psychopath like this! She’ll be killed!”

If we tried, Doc, I don’t think we’d succeed. Any of us! Hell, I doubt we’d be conscious when Shego here walked out.” As Shego nodded every so slightly, Ron shook his head. “What about taking Yori or myself… or any of the ninjas here? We can-“

“I work alone. Teams always piss me off and slow me down!”

Exasperated, Ron backed away, staring into the emerald eyes as they gazed back. “Look, I know that you’re only being… trying to be civil to me because of… KP, but… just be careful, okay?”

“Stoppable, how long have I fought Pump… Kim? And how many times have you caught me unawares?” As Ron opened his mouth and then blinked in realisation, Shego nodded and a flicker of a smile ghosted around her lips.

It was suddenly cut off by a quick bout of coughing from the green woman that had Kim’s mother shifting slightly, only to be held back by Yori’s gentle grip. As it subsided, Shego ignored the red spatter. “Exactly. I’m always careful! Now, move out of my way!”

“Shego San?” The green woman rolled her eyes and glanced back, her gloves curling into raised claws, as if to defend from an attack or an attempt to ‘save her from herself’. Instead, Shego blinked as Jasmine kneeled and held out Shia’s blood stained Jade Katana.

“Shia would want you to have this. Though it was created to serve the Jade, it is more a part of her than them. It has dishonoured her enough I feel. If you really do intend to take Kara’s life, then do so with a Shia’s blade. The only thing we ask is that you destroy it afterwards. Break the oath she swore to them by shattering the blade that was formed by the ritual that sealed it. Please?”

Shego blinked and then shrugged, taking the red stained weapon in one hand. “Yeah fine… a weapon’s a weapon in my book. Though it’s still more of this honour crap! Do you guys get the jollies with this stuff or what?”

As they all watched her go, Shia’s blade tucked into her catsuit’s belt, Doctor Possible was the first to break the silence.

“She has a punctured lung and I let her go. I never liked her before; not sure I do now. But… she’s doing this for my daughter, she’s in love with my daughter! And I let her go with an injury like that. I let her go to meet that horrible woman and fight her, possibly kill her or be killed!” The redhead ran a hand across her face, biting her lip. “What kind of a Doctor am I? Worse, what kind of a mother? Kim’ll never forgive me when this is over.”

“Doc, you couldn’t have done anything to stop her. I’ve known Shego, well watched her fight Kim anyway, for years. When she’s determined to do something, you’d best stay out of her way. Actually, it kind of reminds me of someone else we know.” Ron sighed. “I hope she’s okay… Boy, what a change in a week! I actually care about Shego getting hurt. Next I’ll find I don’t like Bueno Nacho.”

“Whaa?” The squeak of Rufus had Ron glancing down and his eyes widened at the look of horror on the mole rat’s face. “NoBeuno Nacho?”

---

Kara

She’ll come! She’ll come! Kara’s mind screamed at her, laughed at her, taunted at her, as the dark haired woman skipped madly down the corridor. I have what she needs, and she’ll come! And when she does, we’ll see what kind of damage I can do!

Kara ran along the sealed corridor that led to the reactor core and onto the upper fusion inspection walkway. Her unhinged laughter bounced around the corridor as she ran, betraying her mental state to the world. Pausing in front of a huge blast door, she glanced back and then grinned. “So many options open now! Nothing matters but her! But what to do? Kill her and escape. Taunt her, kill her, and escape. Taunt her, cause her agony, and then kill her!”

There was another set of options, but Kara’s ranting chaotic mind decided that it would decide what to do when it came to it. Pausing, she blinked and tried to focus, the mist of insanity lifting as she beat it back. She had to stay calm, rational… as much as she could. A wrong step now and any hope of destroying the green demon from her past would be lost!She’ll come from the lower gangway… no time left to climb after me. Shego knows that I’ll be long gone if she tries now. Kara reached up with both hands and pulled at thick metal handle set into the wall. With a hiss, the massive blast door slid upwards revealing the huge chamber beyond and Kara dashed through. I must be ready… another chance to strike, another chance to kill her! Maybe this time I will be lucky. No, not luck… planning. I must remember the plan I created for even this outcome! I prepared for this, prepared for everything! With the device Drakken had in storage, Shego’s powers will be useless against me, and with that advantage gone, she will die by my hands!

Grinning, Kara glanced down at the belt around her waist and pressed a button. She expected something impressive to happen, thanks to Drakken’sranting about the belt she now possessed. Instead, the belt let out a tiny beep and displayed a message.

Warning: This device has a capacitor system that requires a five-minute charge- Systems operation in 4:58:32

Staring in disbelief, the Jade leader prodded the belt and her eyes narrowed in annoyance. “Charge up period? What charge up period? Drakken you fool! You said nothing about the need to let this charge!

Growling, Kara clenched her hands and forced the beast to settle. No matter… no matter, I shall just have to be careful until it is ready! It was, after all, only anther precaution in case Shego found me before I could fire my little Servus gift into her. I shall not miss her though… not this time!

---

Shego

Two stories down, Shego leaned against the wall of the corridor she had forced herself to run along and coughed violently. Her head bowed down, allowing the red tinged phlegm to drip freely from her mouth. As the last specks of red hit the floor, Shego growled and began to run along the corridor once again, ignoring the stabs of pain her broken rib gave her in return for the movement.

As she increased her pace, the dull stabbing suddenly became white hot and violent. Shego paused, sucking her breath in slowly to prevent a scream leaving her. She blinked, clearing her vision of the grey swirling mist around the edges.

“Goddamn it! I’m not giving up!” She hissed the words and moved off again, slower this time. She found it easier to ignore the pain as it returned to the dull stabbing sensation once more. “Focus! You’ve been injured worse than this!” She scowled down the corridor and gritted her teeth. “Okay, maybe not when you were conscious, but you’ve had worse… and stop talking to yourself too! Doy! Focus damn it! Focus for Kimmie!”

For the past five corridors, each and every single blast door had been sealed, the locking mechanisms overridden somehow. Shego glared at each one as she passed it, the sense that this was a trap growing more and more urgent in her mind. After all, not even including stopping the shadow from her past, Kara had the perfect bait to use against her.

Got to focus! I can’t trust that Kimmie’s do-gooder pals and her parent’s think tank will come up with a cure. Hell, the thing they came up with to freed me from Servus almost fried my brain in the process! The one in Kimmie’s head is far more advanced, thanks to Drakken and Doctor P. I mean, her own daughter, and she couldn’t help it! Goddamn compliance chips! I hate fucking mind control!

Shego glanced ahead and noticed a huge bulkhead door rapidly approaching from the distance as she ran towards it. I need the cure first and foremost. No kicking Kara’s ass until I have it safely in my ankle pouch! Once I’ve got it, it’ll be open hunting season on Fang!

Stopping in front of the vast door, the thief cast a trained eye quickly across the mechanism and tugged on the obvious lever set into the wall alongside it. With a hiss of hydraulics and groaning metal, the door ground open. Anyone aiming a shot through the opening doorway would have been surprised to find an empty corridor devoid of a green woman.

Coast’s clear, but I’ve got to stay focused. Shego thought, springing from her hiding position at the thin section of wall that joined the runners the bulkhead moved along. As she stepped into the vast, dark, cavern beyond, her booted feet clanging on the metallic walkway, and her occasional coughs echoing into the distance, Shego stared up at the humming, glowing tower of metal and piping in front of her.

Well, Dr D certainly put all his remaining funds into this lair, I suppose selling off as much of Bueno Nacho’s supply network as he could to other people really did pay! The bastard!”

Inside the huge cavern circular walkways, above and below, span around the edge like a spider’s web. Stairs at all four compass points allowed easy movement between levels. In the centre of the open space, the ten metre wide bulk of the reactor span slowly, the core doing its job with a deep throaty roar, generating the charged plasma that powered the lair itself.

Walking up to, and then alongside, the tiny viewing window that allowed her to see the plasma, one of many built into the huge doughnut shaped super-magnets, Shego could see the yellow plasma core. Superheated ionised gas, similar but different to the strange version she created, fought against the magnetic bottle keeping it contained.

Shego had to admit she was impressed. The whole thing, despite being the creation of a dweeb in Shego’s opinion, was pretty amazing for Drakken, despite her growing hatred for the blue man.

“Now, why couldn’t he have done this before?” Shego murmured, her eyes staring up at the huge device in front of her. “We’d have had no power problems using something like this, and it would have been one less bill for him to panic about. Mind you, if he could design a fusion reactor, why the hell did he mess around with lasers and other stupid stuff? Why not make one huge fusion based bomb to threaten everyone with?”

“We both know the reason for that, Shego.” A familiar and loathed voice echoed around her and Shego spun, hands bursting into flames. Her movement made the voice giggle slightly, only for it to echo out again, coolly controlled. “Drakken San is… a child when it comes to true malevolence. In fact, Servus is possibly his only truly cruel and effective creation. Still, what he lacks in volume, he makes up for in quality.”Too scattered and echoing to track… Gonna have to do this the hard way.

“As much as I enjoy analysing a dweeb, Kara, I want a little word with you…” Shego moved cautiously along the walkway, eyes scanning everywhere. “Oh, and before you start laughing like a circus clown? I know this is a trap.”

“Yes, I thought you might. Do I care that you know? Not really…”

Kara, crouched in the shadows on a walkway one storey above Shego, rifle carefully aimed between the green woman’s eyes, thumbed off the safety. Despite everyone looking for her, the added worry of shooting herself in the foot with Servus made sure the safety had been on.

“All of this, even my plans to take Kim Possible as an Assassin have been to one personal goal, though I will not deny that I did become side-tracked slightly.”

“Your goal was to kill me.” Shego snorted, turning sideways to glance behind her as she continued to walk along the gangway. “Heard it all before, Kara and from better villains than you.”

“Not kill you, not right away. Punish would be a better term. After all, I did find owning you a great pleasure, much to my surprise. Watching you do as I say, enduring punishment after punishment and then asking for more at the end. It was quite intoxicating.”

“I’ll bet.” Shego hissed the words, unable to make her tone light at the memory of all she had to endure at Kara’s hands.

“Intoxicating and foolish. I should have killed you after a day at the most, but I found myself wanting more of your subservience to me. However, maybe you can see it from my point of view. I had you, Kim Possible was going to be mine because I had you, and I thought everything was satisfactorily concluded.”

“Uh huh, this is fascinating.” Shego murmured, her body senses tingling slightly, making her pause and angle an eye upwards and as far right as she could. “You screwed up, like you did with me and The Fox. You took Kimmie, just as stupidly too, and never realised how many people would fight to get her back.”

“Yes! I should have left with just you!” Kara hissed, ignoring the sweat that trickled down her forehead. “You were what I wanted! Kim Possible and taking America into our power? That was just the means I used to convince the Jade to allow me to go! With you, and you alone, I could have erased the council and taken control. I would have owned the Jade and power… respect! But most of all, I would have had you in my control! Your life at my very will, you green skinned bitch! You are all I ever wanted… because I wanted to watch you suffer as I did!”

“Man, I never realised that you had such a fear of rejection. If I’d known how bad my thorough ass kicking hurt your feelings, I’d have bought you a cake to kiss and make up.” Shego kept her tone light, but her entire skill at stealth, and even a few tricks she had learned while fighting Kim, focused on the upper walkway. She’s there… somewhere.

“You have no idea what I endured!” The roar of anger, of animal rage, from Kara’s voice echoed around the tower and Shego tracked it, narrowing the location further. Kara felt spittle trickle down her chin, and she wiped it away, her chest heaving. “When I failed to take The Fox’s tuition, you shamed me to the Jade. When I tried to take honour by erasing her, you stopped me. That added to the Jade’s displeasure.”

“I would have thought it was you, a trusted student sent to learn, trying to wipe Marie out that made them unhappy. I know it pissed me off…” Shego tilted her head. Keep on talking…

“Yes. My… anger at her was a misjudgement on my part. But you were the cause of the misjudgement! I could not believe that The Fox was willing to take a conflicted hero over someone from one of the most secretive crime syndicates on earth!” Kara’s smile turned cruel as Shego finally slid away from anything that could give her cover. “But I paid for it. It took years of enduring punishments, abuse, humiliation, especially at the hands of their master torturer, to make the stain you helped create wash away. I decided after all I had been forced to take, all because of you, that I would have to cleanse myself in your blood to even the scales.”

“A Yin for Yang thing, right?” Shego paused as she felt her chest shudder, the partially collapsed lung quivering. Gritting her teeth, Shego fought to control the urge to cough. “Have you ever thought of something different to killing me?”

“Owning you was fun! But, I think I will have to kill you after all…”

“Was I that boring?” Shego managed, shifting uncomfortably. Focus, Shego…

“Oh no! I just find it unlikely that you would let me re-inject you with Servus and besides, all the samples of it are in the lab, apart from the one I have in my pocket. I will need that to show the Jade what I have accomplished and prevent them from killing me.” Kara ignored a sweat droplet as it spilled down her cheek. “All of this has left me a little upset. A little… what is the American term? Ah, ‘crazy’ right now. However I think it a little far fetched to believe that you would willingly be mine again.”

“Just a little…” Shego swallowed desperately, but the itching grew worse and her chest heaved. “Oh, and Kara? Crazy is what we call people who wear their underpants on their head…”

Or try to date their nemesis… Shego added quietly to herself, the urge to cough unbearable.

”Not a cold psycho bitch who can’t handle the fact I whipped her ass because she tried to kill my mentor! That we call a psycho… and usually they end up locked in a small cell with rubber walls.”

“I see. But I do not think that describes me very well.”

“Oh, yeah… I agree. There’s no word to describe what you are, Ms Looney Tunes! I think you could fill an entire book yourself.”

The scathing tone of Shego’s insult snapped Kara’s mind from the need to trade insults with someone she hated to the bone and her eyes focused down the scope of her rifle once more.

“Well, as much as I enjoyed this brief chat, Shego.” Kara’s voice went cold, deadly. “I think I must tell you something.”

“Whh… what?” Shego managed, her body shaking, the urge to cough undeniable.

Focus! If you cough, you’re going to wind up dead!

“I used this conversation to lure you into the perfect position to strike.” Kara smiled, and her finger caressed the trigger, squeezing it. “No more chances or enslaving technology. This shot… is truly deadly, I promise. Goodbye, Shego!”

As the high velocity dart, laden with a slow acting neurotoxin, shot out of Kara’s rifle and sped towards the green woman, it finally happened.

Shego coughed.

Driven by an age-old reaction to irritation, the muscles of her body reacted to the automatic firing of her nervous system. The thief felt her head snap down in order to expel the irritation towards the ground, as well as shifting her centre of gravity to stop her from falling over. While she coughed a fine red mist once again, the droplets spattering the metal of the walkway, Kara’s hypersonic dart shot past the space where Shego’s head had been and then bounced off the walkway guide rail to ping into the darkness.

Move… move! Looking up, Shego’s mind replayed the direction the screaming round had come from, reversing the trajectory until her eyes hit a section of the upper walkway that was obscured by one of the huge metal girders supporting the central reactor. Shego rolled, spitting as much bloody phlegm from her mouth as possible, and her hands burst into flame as she grinned. Okay Kara… time to play pin the plasma on the psycho!

Twin balls of green energy shot from Shego’s gloved hands and screamed upward to where the girder and walkway intersected. As they burst into the metal walkway itself, making the metal glow a cherry red, Shego was rewarded with a screamed curse in Japanese. Kara’s form rolled sideways, away from the superheated metal and Shego snarled as her tormentors eyes locked with her own emerald gaze.

“You will pay for that! Honourless bitch!”

Unable to help herself, Shego laughed in disbelief. “You’re a fine example to talk about honour! Your mother, father, Marie and your sister… I doubt they’d see any honour in anything you’ve done.”

“You dare insult me? I will kill you!” Kara snapped, struggling to rise.

Shego merely slid to her feet and shot more plasma in the oriental woman’s direction, forcing Kara to roll to her feet and dash along the walkway. As she ran, Shego matched her along the lower walkway, firing blasts of plasma from her hands and desperately ignoring the warning pinches she felt from her broken rib.

As Kara reached one of the stairwells set into the side of the huge interior of the tower, she swung her rifle around violently and aimed with barely a glance. More hypersonic darts shot out, and Shego let her own instincts take over, too late to think rationally. Rolling to the side, the first dart hit the walkway close to her right boot, bouncing off into the distance. The second managed to graze the green woman’s shoulder, mercifully only slicing the fabric of her checked catsuit.

Shego, cursing violently as her injured rib screamed white-hot pain into her brain at the roll, cocked her fingers like a gun and concentrated. Her power flickered around her fingers and then, moulded by her skill, a far smaller and more concentrated ball of energy shot towards the figure of Kara. It impacted against the woman’s rifle, the Jade leader just managing to impose it between herself and Shego’s attack in the nick of time. The energy cut into the body of the gun, breaching the carefully rifled barrel, and then sank into it, melting the metal in an instant. As her rifle let out a volatile hiss, followed by a burst of acrid smoke, Kara quickly dropped it.

A second much larger ball of energy careened towards the oriental woman, and as she turned and saw it, Kara ran for the stairway. As the ball slammed into the metal walkway, scattering flaming energy like a grenade, Kara rolled forwards and let out a cry of pain as she bounced and thudded her way down the unforgiving steps. Landing in a heap at the bottom, the Jade Mistress snarled and forced herself to her feet, ignoring the cuts and bruises she had received on the way down.

Shego’s laughter, cruel, rough, and slightly choked, echoed around the fusion chamber. “God, I really, really hoped that hurt!”

Kara glared across at the green woman as Shego smiled grimly, her hands flickering with flame. She hissed. “You think you can beat me? Me! How dare you destroy my rifle… it was special to me! You will pay for that, for everything!” Kara screamed the words now, spittle dripping down her chin. “Nothing is too much to pay for watching you die! Nothing! I will have my revenge!”

“A one time offer, Kara.” Shego growled, ignoring her rant. As the assassin stared at her, hands convulsing, Shego took a step forwards and the glowing aura around her right hand flickered and died. “Kimmie’s codes and the disarming fluid. Give them to me!”

Kara stared at her, almost trying to see if she was joking. The hard gaze in Shego’s emerald pupils made her blink and she laughed, the jagged edge holding pure insanity. “You… you actually expect me to give them to you? For what reason would I give you something that would take the awful suffering I want you to feel, away? My freedom?”

Shego did not laugh, did not return a sarcastic retort. Now, as Kara stood in front of her, she battled her own dark core. Something deep inside her begged to be let lose upon the woman, to rend her limb from limb. Better, to take Kara to the peak of agony she had managed to force Shego to experience.

The darker side of Shego wanted to cut Kara! Break her bones! Cause her suffering so intense it would swamp every pore! Before finally using her plasma to slowly burn Kara to death and hear her begging descend into screams that would grow louder and louder…

No… Shego thought, blinking and trying not to vomit at her own thoughts. She knew she had always had a darker side, had felt it time and time again back in her Team Go days. Times when, fighting ruthless enemies, part of her always wanted to be just as ruthless in return.

As her mother had always been towards her…

The memory of her mother made Shego flinch, unseen to Kara, and the green woman forced the darkness as far away as it would go. I’m not my mother! Mother would do that if she could, but not me! I’m not her!

But, a tiny part of the dark side of Shego’s soul argued, the woman in front of her could not be allowed to live. Was that justice? True justice? Didn’t the world deserve to have one less monster like Kara living in it? Wasn’t Kara’s death, a leader in one of most powerful criminal organisations ever created, protecting the world? Wouldn’t it be helping people?

Never comfortable with her own moral compass, Shego bit her lip. What would Kim do? What would Marie do?

She knew.

“No. I want Kimmie’s codes for a quick death. That’s it. That’s all I’m willing to offer. If you try to fuck with me any further, I’ll… I’ll,” the darkness laughed and Shego felt it’s amusement trickle into her. Something angry forced its way to the surface. “I’ll cut your heart out slowly with… with a god damned coffee stirrer!”

“You think you can threaten me?” Kara’s face twisted into a crazed smile. “Especially when I have something you need right here?” She tapped the pocket where the two vials that could free Kim from Servus nestled quietly, letting the caps slide into view for a second. “Do you have any idea what I could do to these if I wanted to?”

The sight of them made Shego’s heart pound, and the hand that lay by her side flickered and suddenly glowed a brighter shade of green. Fixated, Shego licked her lips. “Give those to me right now!”

“No…” Kara, watching Shego’s gaze lock onto the precious vials of liquid, smiled, and her right hand slid behind her back. “A quick death really doesn’t appeal to me. Now, if you were to let me go…”

“So you could plot and plan and finally work out a foolproof way of taking me and Pumpkin out?” Shego’s eyes snapped upwards to lock with Kara’s dark chocolate ones. “How long have we known each other you crazy bitch? Come on! Was I ever thatstupid or gullible?”

“Well, I knew you’d be gullible enough to stare right where I wanted you to.” Kara whispered.

As Shego’s eyes widened and she darted forwards, Kara’s right hand swung out and upward. The Glock pistol, now nestling in her hand from holster on her back, fired with a loud snap. The round screamed upwards and buried itself into Shego’s left shoulder, spinning the thief around to land with an agonised scream on her right side.

Though sweat poured down her forehead, the bullet wound feeling like fire inside her shoulder and her broken rib and partially collapsed lung clawing at her mind, Shego knew Kara would try to capitalise on her advantage.

Mustering just enough concentration, Shego managed to hurl a ball of plasma at the advancing Jade leader, forcing Kara to scramble back.

As the green woman fired more plasma in her direction, Kara scrambled towards the stairs and shot down them, laughing. “Yet more blood to balance the scales between us! Hey, Shego?”

Clutching her bleeding shoulder, Shego hissed. “Tricky bitch! I forgot that about you. But I won’t make the same mistake again!”

“If you want to take these precious little vials from me, you’re going to have to do better than that!” Kara called, glancing up at the obscured figure. “Mind you, that little display of your powers almost destroyed them. Are you sure you’re trying to save Kim? Or when that particular distraction has been taken away, do you seek revenge as much as I do? I’d love to find out, but I have a mini sub to escape in. I will see you again though... count on it.”

Turning, Kara ran down the stairs, towards her freedom, carrying the key to the hold Servus had on Kim. Shego groaned. She had to get those vials!

Come on! Get up! Move that green butt of yours into action! Kimmie’s counting on you, don’t you dare let her down when she saved your life! Get up!

Teeth chattering with pain, Shego examined the bullet wound carefully and after a gentle inspection realised that it wasn’t life threatening. However, she knew that the loss of blood was a problem. A problem she could, however, solve.

You’ve done this before… you can do it again.

Gritting her teeth in preparation, her right hand burst into flame, this time carefully controlled so it released heat. She moved her forefinger out, straightening it, and swallowed despite herself as she held it next to the bleeding, circular, wound.

Come on! You’re a hardass, always have been. Do it… you can do this!

Closing her eyes, Shego forced her finger into the wound as far as it would go. The world shattered into pieces as the sensation of a red-hot poker being rammed into her became the centre of everything she could feel. Teeth grinding and breath escaping in desperate pants, Shego tried to ignore the hissing sound she could hear coming from the wound, and fought the urge to vomit as the smell of her own flesh cooking reached her nose.

After a few more seconds, the green woman yanked her finger free, collapsing back onto the walkway and fighting tears. Taking a deep breath, Shego let lose a collection of swear words that even the most hardened sailor would have had to look up, before running out of breath. As the burning in her shoulder lessened to a sensation slightly less than being impaled on something red hot, Shego forced herself upright.

“Okay… I am not having a good day and now I’m really pissed!” Sliding Shia’s Katana free from the scabbard she had rammed into her belt, Shego forced the point against the walkway and hauled herself upright. “Had worse than this before and still kicked ass… Nice try Kara… nice try.”

Realising she was talking to herself once again, Shego rolled her eyes in disgust and gently rolled her shoulder. The pain flared again, but the cauterised flesh remained mobile and sensitive to her movements, and the wound failed to bleed again. Nodding with satisfaction, Shego gently ran her fingers along the area where her rib had been broken. She hissed as the pain flared slightly, but choked back a scream.

I’m combat impaired, but not enough for Kara to stop me. Kim would have field day if it were her I was fighting.

Walking to the edge of the walkway, Shego glanced cautiously over and her eyes widened. There, pressing controls at a computer console sitting on a walkway roughly halfway up the length of the reactor stood Kara Fang. If Shego had been uninjured, she would have just dropped down to the same level, using the walkways as stepping points on the way. As it was, the green woman snarled and walked as quickly as she could to the stairs, before descending them as fast as her injured body allowed.

---

Kara

Staring at the console in front of her, one ear cocked for the sound of Shego’s boots on the metal catwalk, Kara pressed the intelligent control system and watched as menus and other various commands to control the reactor flicked past underneath her fingers.

The actual computer system that controlled the reactor sat behind her on an outcrop of solid stone that stretched into the huge space. A slightly circular curve had been built into its construction, so that it lay flush against the rock wall. A walkway of steel lead away from the outcrop, towards the reactor and this was where the console that Kara typed at was placed.

Put there for convenience of use, she had decided to use it instead of the main computer as it meant Shego would have to come to her, instead of being able to jump her.

What did Drakken San say? How do I access the sub? Kara glanced up for a second, staring at the huge door set into the reactor’s surface. Usually used to allow internal maintenance when the reactor itself was shut down, Drakken had retrofitted this part of the device with a second function. I have to switch the system over so that the reactor vents the ionised reactant in the core, and then… oh, what was it? Kara cursed in Japanese once more. Ah, yes… the door will open and the ladder used for the coolant system’s maintenance will extend. I climb down, follow the emergency coolant pipe, and the sub should be sitting there, waiting for me!

Sighing in annoyance, Kara began to press the soft membrane, entering the access code that Drakken had given her, muttering angrily to herself. “Why not just have a direct access to the submarine!”

The sound of feet landing with a clatter behind her made Kara jump slightly, but she continued pressing the pad. After all, the belt around her waist announced it was fully charged while she was running down the stairs. The knowledge made the beast inside her playful.

“Because Drakken never really thinks things through.” Shego replied, flexing her injured shoulder with a hiss. “All of this is probably designed to stop one teenage hero from getting to him before he can escape. The nerd she employs? He can pretty much track anything, but this reactor is good cover for a submarine’ energy signature.”

“Ah, I see…” The panel chimed as Kara entered the last digit and a rumble echoed around the tower, coming from the core of the reactor.

“Venting system activated- Stand by for access.” The computer’s female voice echoed around the tower, but both women ignored it, and stared at each other with loathing.

“Nowhere to run, Kara.” Shego told her bluntly and her hands ignited with a snap. “For the last time, give me the vials!”

Kara shook her head. “They are my insurance, Shego. They stop you from trying to attack me now that you know I have them right here.” Kara patted her heart. “It adds flavour to my evading of the law… and yourself. You know that I will hunt you when I do escape, and yet you need these so badly. It is wonderful to watch…”

The huge door behind Kara began to slide open slowly and with a snap, a magnetic shield engaged, holding back the intense maelstrom of plasma behind it. As Shego took a step forwards, only to have Kara wave a finger at her, making the green woman pause, the roaring plasma began to ripple.

“Restriction systems activated. Shunting plasma to redirection piping and away from primary energy conversion systems.” With a flash, the maelstrom behind the magnetic shield was forced into four flickering columns by other magnetic bottles, so that the energy flowed into ducting that recycled it into the upper section of the core. “Internal temperature at standard. No signs of inner or outer core cooling. System stable.”

With a hiss, a walkway extended from underneath the door that Kara stood in front of, locking itself into a slot on the opposite side. At the same time, silvery rungs extended out of the wall next to the walkway, quickly followed by guide rails.

“Access to emergency escape sub ready.” The computer announced in its dulcet tones. “Prompt for user. Do you wish a verbal rundown of submarine prepping?”

“Yes.” Kara told it, winking at Shego. “Not long now, Shego… what will you do?”

“Kara, don’t push me.” Shego took another step forwards, but paused as the Jade assassin slid the vials out her pocket and bounced them gently in her palm. Growling, Shego watched in horror, eventually blurting. “Stop that!”

“Such a tiny thing really.” Kara tilted the vial and held it up to the light, watching the liquid roll from one end to another. “Only a few millilitres of liquid… it seems so insignificant. But you need it, need it to save your precious little Princess from a fate worse than death. And I do mean worse, Shego. After all…you know how it feels to be like that for days on end. Imagine how Princess will feel after months and months.” Kara grinned, and for a brief moment, seemed to be remembering something. “I wonder, the look on your face when you were freed. It must have been terrible!”

Shego blinked back the memories, forced herself to remain in the here and now. “Yeah, which is why I’d really like to show you how much I appreciated it.”

A sudden humming snap echoed like a gunshot, and both women flinched slightly. The computer spoke once more. “Main inspection hatchway magnetic safety shield offline. Report on escape submarine available. Do you wish rundown?”

“Yes.” Kara told the computer, backing away from Shego and stepping into the core of the fusion reactor. Shego kept her distance but followed her, trying to find an opening where she could fire her plasma at the gloating woman and retrieve the vials she needed before ending Kara’s life in a vicious and as bloody way she could think of.

“Main engines running at full capacity. Current speed of vehicle reported to be twenty-five knots, depth fifty metres. Distance from docking station now one hundred and twenty metres. Life support running at normal capacity and-“

“WHAT?” Kara screamed, glancing around as her face paled. “What do you mean it’s moving!”

“Submarine was undocked from mooring station approximately fifteen minutes ago by D. Drakken. Escape plan alpha code entered into computer console. Escape plan alpha 2 entered by Kara Fang one minute and twenty three seconds ago.”

“No… NO!” Kara spat the words, her rage overcoming her rational side and causing her to curse and hiss promises of revenge. The hand holding her gun waved violently in the air, but Shego’s eyes remained fixed on the vials, praying that Kara wouldn’t lose her grip. Finally, Kara simmered down to the usual quiet rage that Shego found so familiar. “How dare he take the submarine! I am Jade, I am the first to escape! I would have been free! Free to do everything I had planned! Curse him! Damn him!”

“Well, I learned that way early in his employ. For Drakken, there’s nobody more important than him and if you don’t keep up with his whimpering ass, you get left behind.” Shego’s cruelly amused voice caused Kara’s head snap round and her eyes narrow with bloody vengeance. “But you see, this leaves someone with a big problem. There’s nowhere to run this time… and the only exit now is through me.”

Shego stepped forwards, hands glowing brightly. “So, I’m through pissing around! Give… me… the… god… dammed… VIALS!”

Kara’s eyes narrowed, the pupils thinning to a slit, almost like a snake. And as Shego began to stride towards her, as much as her injured body would allow, Kara began to shake with the hatred she kept so tightly bottled. Her treatment of Shego when she was her pet had been nothing, nothing compared to the hatred she felt now.

Not again! Not her! Not her! She thinks she’s won! But I won’t let her have what she wants! Not this time! Bitch… Green skinned whore of a BITCH! You want to save your precious Kimmie, like you saved Marie? Well not this time… this time you can see your precious Kim Possible remain a prisoner, Shego! I will not let you be happy, you deserve to suffer! Every cursed day you take a breath I want you to feel pain! Agony!

“You want these so badly Shego?” Kara’s voice hissed the words and Shego paled as some part of her realised what was about to happen. Biting back the pain, Shego began to run as fast as she could, her hands blazing. As her feet slammed over the lip of the inspection hatch, she let a ball of plasma scream towards the insanely grinning woman, intent on it making Kara stagger so she could jump and wrestle the vials away from her.

Kara did not duck, or move out of the way as Shego’s green plasma screamed across the short distance. The reason why was made terribly clear to the thief as the glowing ball ricocheted off a field of glowing red energy.

More blasts that followed the first met the same fate, reflected and scattered harmlessly as Kara grinned. Shego knew where that field had come from.

The memory of Ron- or Zarpox as he had preferred to be known- laughing as her plasma had shot off the same shield, making her stare in disbelief, trickled into the back of her mind.

Without her plasma powers to even the injuries she had… even with her conditioning and martial arts, taking Kara out was looking suddenly very dicey. Though she was nowhere near as proficient in marital arts as her sister, Kara was trained.

As Shego stared into her gloating eyes the green woman realised that Kara knew it too… Horror etched itself into Shego’s face as she realised that with the shield up, herself injured, and with Kara’s basic, yet competent training, they were evenly matched.

It was horror that erupted into terror as Kara’s grin became triumphantly cruel and the assassin threw the larger of the two vials into the air. “Here they are…”

Shego skidded to a halt, adrenaline shooting into every pore of her body as she twisted to try and intercept the vial as it shot past her. The pain from her punctured lung, broken rib and cauterised shoulder was forgotten as her boots scrabbled and then found purchase against the metal of the walkway and she managed a few steps towards the spinning shape.

Steps that came too late.

“Kimmie…” Shego whispered, emerald eyes wide, as the vials hit one of the magnetic bottles that contained the roaring plasma from the reactor. Designed to contain the plasma from escaping, the field yielded to the exterior impact and a small portion of the superheated particles escaped, vaporising the vial instantly.

Helpless, Shego could only stare at the smoke that remained, while Kara’s gloating laughter echoed around the reactor core. Inside her, the green women felt something she had never even known was there break, and black rage oozed from the wound. Shego turned, eyes wide, and stared at the laughing woman who had made her life hell for weeks. One word rose of her lips and Shego asked it.

“Why?”

Kara’s laughter vanished as quickly as it had arrived, and she turned, a wry smile flickering around her lips. Shrugging, Kara gazed at Shego with eyes that betrayed her own dark nature and taunted the green woman by waving the smaller vial.

“You know why. I want to destroy you… and it seems Kim is the best way to do it!”

The dark rage, something that Shego had known she possessed, even vented a few times in her life, gripped her with red-hot talons. For the first time in her life, Shego felt her vision cloud as red fog drifted across her vision. Without a word, the green woman launched herself at Kara, plasma powers forgotten.

A scream of rage escaped the thief as Shego’s body impacted against Kara’s and her hand wrapped around and held onto the red vial in Kara’s hand until her knuckles went white. Kara bucked, her waist slamming into Shego’s broken rib. The fresh flash of pain was lost on the villain and like a wild animal she clawed at Kara with both hands, trying to erase the image of the person who had caused her so much pain.

Kara fought back, her own breath escaping in hot wet pants, and she managed to catch Shego a blow across the face with the butt of her gun. Shego tasted blood, a bright bruise forming on her green skin. While the thief spat the blood from the side of her mouth, snarling and hissing incomprehensible words, Kara slammed the butt of her gun once more into Shego’s body.

This time, the hard metal impacted with her cauterised shoulder and Shego screamed in agony as white-hot sparks of pain slammed into her. As Shego’s hand spasmed, the Jade assassin ripped the red vial free from her grasp, before fighting to free herself from the green woman’s body.

Sweating and whimpering despite herself, Shego lunged, grabbing Kara by legs and pulling her back. She ignored the burning pain in her shoulder, the screaming agony of it, and yanked Kara back a few feet. “Bitch!”

Rolling, Kara gripped Shego as she landed fully on top of her, fingers extended once more to try and claw at the oriental woman’s face. Growling, Kara fought violently, her fists slamming into Shego’s body as much as the green woman punched her in return. As she fought, Kara concentrated on forcing her left hand down to the belt that protected her from Shego’s plasma attacks. As it touched the steel and leather, she ran a finger along to the controls that turned it on, and twisted a switch.

The energy shield flickered into existence, and Shego’s body went rigid as ripples of red energy coursed over her skin. The thief let out a scream of agony and rolled to one side on the walkway, her muscles jerking helplessly.

Breaking free, Kara rolled to her feet, and grinned at the shivering dark haired woman, who gazed at her with growing fury. “Yes I know, Shego. It hurts does it not? Drakken was kind enough to… ah, upgrade the protection this offers me. A useful anti-personnel charge. Impressed?”

Shego couldn’t answer, her teeth chattering as she waited for the energy to dissipate. Grinning, Kara ran towards the hatchway of the reactor and freedom. As a feral roar suddenly echoed behind her, her fingers slid down to the scabbard on the belt and she drew the dagger quickly, glancing backwards.

Turning, the assassin barely managed to brace herself as a green and black body slammed into her again. Razor sharp talons clawed across her skin, slicing it and making it bleed. The hand that gripped the dagger shot out, while the other sought to press the button that would shock Shego. The thief, however, was faster.

Kara swore in a feral growl as Shego’s free hand gripped hers and crushed it tightly. The dagger in her other hand met her sister’s Katana with a metallic screech and skittered down it harmlessly. She felt a knee slam into her solar plexus and coughing, Kara fell to the ground.

“Bitch!” Green hands gripped her dark hair and yanked it, causing Kara’s head to smack into the metal walkway with a fleshy thud. Blinking back stars, she heard the Shego’s sobbing, and rage filled voice in her ear. “Evil, lying manipulative bitch! I’ll kill you, you hear me! I’m going to kill you Kara!”

Kara felt herself flipped onto her back and suddenly straddled by terribly strong thighs. Dark hair, matted with sweat, trickled over her face and Kara, staring up into the wild emerald eyes of Shego’s face, grinned. “So you’ve finally learned that it’s not hard to find the rage to kill.”

“She was mine! Mine! You took her away! You stole her and raped her mind!” Her sister’s Katana was slammed against her neck. Almost breaking the skin, but not quite. Shego snarled and Kara felt spittle spray her face. “I hate you, hate you! I want to make you suffer, as she has… as I have! You… you… FUCK!”

Her adrenaline wearing off, Shego blinked as the red mist slowly faded and she found herself staring into Kara’sanimalistic eyes. Glancing down, her eyes widened at the sight of her gloved hand tightly holding Shia’s blade. The razor edge so tightly pressed to Kara’s throat that she could feel each pulse of the insane woman’s heart.

The darkness inside her was in frenzy now. The urge to kill Kara so strong that Shego felt light-headed. As she ignored the warning stab of pain coming from her chest, ignored the metallic coppery flavour dancing around inside her mouth at the position she lay in, the green woman tilted her head.

“What to do, Kara? What would fit for everything you’ve done to Kimmie and me? A nice, quick, and clean death? A snap of the neck that you’ll never feel or long, bloody, and painful?” The feral smile curled round Shego’s lips. “What shall I choose?”

“Whatever happened to the hero?” Kara taunted the thief, ignoring the question. “What happened to Marie’s good little girl who wouldn’t kill? Who was so conflicted at first about stealing, and then realised that she could have everything she wanted… but not at the cost of another’s life?”

“She met you, watched you try to slaughter her mentor, and lost what little innocence and mercy she had left trying to protect her!” Shego replied and to her shock, tears threatened to fall.

“I wonder what Kim would say if she saw us like this?” Kara whispered, only to swallow slightly as the blade at her throat pressed tighter. Shego leaned closer, face ugly.

“I’m not my Pumpkin! I’m not like Kimmie, you bitch! I was never a hero and right now I have very little compassion left inside me. Thanks to all the torture, the pain, the suffering, you caused, I really have none for you! As for not killing you? You took my Princess away! And for that I want you to die painfully, Kara! Consider it my payment!”

“You want to revenge yourself and Kim San by butchering me, yes?” Kara’s grin was crazed once again, the dark beast Kara had allowed to consume her was let loose to talk directly to Shego’s darker side. “Revenge for everything I’ve done… an eye for an eye!”

“Hell yes!” Shego hissed. “I want you to pay, to suffer… to die long and slow!”

“Then maybe my time with you has not been a total waste after all.” Kara’s smile became vicious. “You want to kill me, feel my blood on your hands, bathe in it if you could. Maybe we’re more alike than I thought. After all, you did almost kill me all those years ago. Would have, without Marie tugging on your arm, whispering all those little pleading whimpers into your ear, reminding you of you own pathetic promise!”

“Shut up!”

Shego’s eyes snapped up to meet Kara’s, a look of horrified realisation trickling into them as the Jade leader nodded, her expression gloating.

“Why, Shego? I am so impressed, so very proud of you!” The assassin smiled triumphantly. “Deep down, you really are a killer after all. Just… like… me!”

“I… I’m nothing like you!” Shego countered, trying not to stammer as her rage cooled and her own morals, few though they were, trickled back. What was she doing! She didn’t kill… Had sworn not to become… her. “I’m not a psychopath!”I’m not my mother! I won’t be her!

“I beg to differ.” Kara whispered, grinning as much as the blade at her throat would allow. Shego narrowed her eyes. “I hoped to watch you die before I abandoned this lair. You intend to kill me before helping your precious little red haired girl. In essence, what is the difference? Either way, no matter what you choose, I have won!“Shego, you’re many things, but not a killer! That’s the difference between you and Fang. You’re not a monster!” Kim’s words slid into her head, cool and calming. “She doesn’t matter to me! You do, Shego! I know you! If you do it, it’ll destroy you! Don’t kill her!”

“You tortured me, Kimmie… her mother. You’re a sick bitch and putting you down would be a mercy killing! It’d be the right thing to do… the right thing!” Shego forced the words out of her mouth, but they left a bitter taste.

“If I left you to the courts, to… justice, you’d get free! The Jade would free you, and then nobody would be safe! You’d hunt Kim and me forever… and it would take one time, just one for you to be lucky. I… I can’t let that happen!”

“So you’ll side-step the system and kill me, leave out justice, a fair trial, and the humane,” Kara spat the words, “alternative of jail. I am proud of you finally realising that there is nothing difficult in taking a life. You just need the will to do it!”

“It’s not the same!” Shego managed, swallowing back vomit that clawed at her throat. “We’re not the same!”

“You want to kill me. I want to kill you. For protection, vengeance… most of all for revenge. Yes, it is the same.” Laughing, Kara leaned forwards into the blade and Shego watched in horror as a bead of blood spilled down the razor edge.

“My god… you… you want me to.” Shego whispered. “Why?”

“If I have to die, then I would hope it would be by your hand… because the rage let loose would destroy you! Consume you as it did me!” Kara grinned. “Regardless, imagine how strong you would become! After all the pain and suffering I’ve caused you, imagine how good it would feel to end my existence! To know that Kimmie is safe because you have erased the threat I pose! No more looking over your shoulder, knowing I’m out there… somewhere. No longer, all thanks to you!

“I…I…” Shego trembled. It made so much sense, terrible sense to her. She could almost taste it. Revenge, and doing the right thing. All by killing Kara, someone nobody would weep for.

Kara giggled. “And when you’ve done it once, it becomes so easy! I found that out, and so will you! Imagine how quickly you could rule Middleton by just killing anyone in your way!”

“No…” Shego whispered. “I… I don’t want that.”

Kara grinned, her eyes sliding to the red stain that had for the past few minutes been seeping from Shego’s waist. Ah, injured badly… I wonder when?

“I’m so proud of you Shego.” She pushed once more, smiled and to Shego’s shock licked the tiny red beads off the metal. The thief felt sick, but Kara grinned. “It takes a lot of suffering to understand the power of pain. Unleashing the darkness that you have inside. Well done!”

“I’M NOT YOU!” Shego screamed the words into Kara’s face. “I won’t let that part of me, the suffering and torment at the hands of my mother, destroy me! I made myself! I am who I am… and… and I’m not going to kill you!”

“Oh?”

“Y… yeah.” Shego eased the pressure on the Katana and watched as Kara stared at her with almost… disappointment. “I… I’ve never killed, and I won’t start now! No matter how much you fucking deserve it! You… you’re going to jail! I’ll just have to be happy with the thought of you frightened of your turn in the showers, huddled on a cold thin mattress, curled at night next to a great big hairy woman who made you her bitch.”

“How… honourable” Kara sneered and, rearing up to Shego’s shock, punched the area where the red liquid seemed to be coming from.

Shego’s already pale face went white, drained of all colour and she fell back, away from Kara’s body as a scream of true agony clawed at her throat. While Shego writhed, sucking in painful gasps of air, Kara rolled to her feet and grabbed her sister’s katana that Shego had dropped. As the green woman rolled onto her back, chest heaving as blood trickled from her mouth and she coughed jerkily, it was Kara’s turn to straddle her.

“Oh my… such a nasty injury. A… collapsed lung, yes? Impressive that you have managed to function for so long.” The Jade leader’s eyes widened with almost feral lust as she pressed the blade of Shia’s Katana against Shego’s neck. “My turn… and I won’t hesitate, Shego. I told you how much I love the sight of red on green, but I love the warmth of someone’s blood spilling across my hands even more. It is… ah, a psychopathic urging in me that I love to satisfy!”

Groaning, Shego shivered as Kara pressed the wound gently with her free hand, smiling as the thief’s eyes widened in pain and Shego hissed. Shuddering slightly, Kara’s fingers trailed lazily upwards, her gaze filled with a pleasure that made Shego flinch.

“I told you. To understand the power pain can give you, you have to endure so much of it!” Kara sighed and Shego stared in disbelief as she gently ran her hands over her own body, exploring the injuries Shego had caused, gritting her teeth, and then sighing with pleasure. “Sometimes, you have to savour such sensations… let them carry you along, not swamp you. You can learn so… much, when your body shows you its limits. I think that occasionally we can only truly feel alive when we are in pain. Sometimes, it is the only way I can feel alive.”

Shego stared at her in disbelief, blinked as Kara shifted and smiled as the thief gasped painfully. “Kara, you really, really need help!”

“No… I don’t.” Leaning down, pressing the Katana tightly against Shego’s throat, Kara’s eyes gleamed. “I’m sure your long, slow, agonising, death will make me feel alive, Shego.”

“Yeah?” Gritting her teeth against the pain, Shego grinned. “You feel alive when you feel pain? Well, today’s your lucky day!”

Though the shield belt protected Kara from Shego’s plasma, even deflected it at distance, the device could do nothing to dissipate the kinetic impact as the green woman slammed her hands against Kara’s waist and forced as much plasma power as possible into them.

The flash of green was followed by a swift scream as Kara flew through the air, landing on her back and tumbling through the open inspection hatch to land with a crack against the control panel. The Katana she held bounced against the walkway, as did the gun gripped in her other hand.

Disorientated, Kara pulled the trigger and the round that shot from the barrel screamed into the massive control computer at the back of the walkway. Sparks hissed into the air and acrid smoke poured from the panel the bullet had ripped into. Inside, the delicate technology that kept the system balanced was crippled. A blaring alarm shirked into the vast chamber, and the sound of the magnetic shield on the door snapping into existence resonated and mingled in the huge space.

“Warning!” The female computer announced in a slurred voice. “Feedback in primary control system… unable to override! Evacuate inspection area! Repeat! Evacuate inspection area! Emergency magnetic containment in place, all personnel evacuate the central core! Fifteen seconds to restriction shunt system failure. Please activate emergency override!”

Shego, coughing more blood from her mouth, heard a sizzling noise and glanced around. As she noticed the four columns of plasma shudder and expand slightly, face already white from the pain, the only sign of her sudden horror was the sight of her mouth dropping open.

“Oh shit…”

Continued in Chapter 20