Kim lazily sat on the black and green couch, flipping through the television channels. If she thought about it, she would've found it strange that her wings weren't really bothering her right now. But she wasn't thinking about it. Instead, she was thinking about camera crews. Apparently, the police hadn't been the only one present at their little fight. It was breaking news everywhere. Words such as ‘apocalypse', ‘end times', ‘Revelations’ and ‘rapture’ were everywhere. Jesus got mentioned once or twice as well. Several networks seemed to be filled with glee that the world was coming to an end.
Shego entered the room, carrying two cups. Kim gratefully turned the television off.
“Here,” said Shego, placing a cup on the table in front of Kim.
“Thanks,” said Kim. She took a sip. It turned out to be hot tea.
“What were you watching?” said Shego, sitting down in a chair.
“Nothing much,” said Kim. “Just people prattling about stuff they don't understand.”
Shego gave her a long look. “Right.”
“So, you wanted to talk?” said Kim.
“Yeah, wait here for a sec.” She put her own cup on the table and left the room for a moment. When she came back, she was holding a book with a black cover. “Take a look at this,” she said, flinging it onto the table.
Kim put her own cup down and took the book. She opened it at random, glanced at it and then shut it quickly before flinging it away. She turned her head and closed her eyes, but it was no good. She could still see the words burn on the inside of her eyelids.
Human language, when it came right down to it, came from monkeys wanting to tell other monkeys where the fruit was. But the book hadn't been written in such a language. This was a language that wanted to communicate how best to inflict as much pain as possible without killing the slave. Even a word like ‘the’ seethed with malignity.
“Pretty bad, ain't it?” said Shego.
Kim just nodded.
“It's a demonic language,” she continued calmly, sitting down in her chair again. “No human could read it.”
“Good for them,” said Kim, opening her eyes again and taking a deep breath.
“Yeah,” said Shego distantly. “Anyway, the thing is it's turning me into a demon and I'm not happy with that.”
“Why not?” said Kim. “You're a lot more powerful now than you were before.”
“Come on, Princess, I thought you knew me better than that,” said Shego. “How's your tea by the way?”
Kim gave her a confused look. “What?”
“How's your tea?”
“I dunno. Hot.”
“How hot?” Shego asked. “Pleasently hot? Scorching hot?”
“Just… hot. Why are you asking all of this?”
“How's the taste? Nice? Filthy?”
“Shego, what are you getting at?”
Shego rolled her eyes. “I thought you'd be smarter. Alright Princess, do me a favour and take another sip of your tea. Tell me how it tastes.”
Kim raised an eyebrow, but took another sip of her tea anyway.
It was hot.
“It… doesn't really taste of anything.”
“Of course it does,” said Shego. “But the problem is, you don't taste anything because you're part angel. And I don't taste anything because I'm part demon. I'm cursed and you're blessed, but we're both damned. Because it won't stop, you see. Our souls will twist and turn until all humanity is gone. And then I won't be able to enjoy the feeling of silk or the taste of strawberries or appreciate the beauty of a sunrise or anything. Hell, I won't even be able to get fucked into happy unconsciousness any more.”
“I did not need to hear that, Shego,” said Kim.
“Sorry,” said a grinning Shego. “That must have been the demon talking.”
“No it wasn't.”
“Anyways, I'm not looking forward to an existence. I want a life, dammit, and I think so do you.”
Kim looked at her for a while. “Alright,” she said. “I'll help you find a way to restore your humanity.”
Shego frowned. “Thanks,” she said.
When first meeting Robin, people always made one out of two assumptions. The first one was that she was a man with a rather femine build. The other one was that he was a woman with the mannerism of a man. Robin never made any comments about her gender, although he enjoyed watching the inevitable confusion. She was the CEO of a small, but reasonably succesful company. He hadn't really set out to become a CEO, hadn't really set out to become anything, but she enjoyed the work and, as he was always said, it was something to do while you waited. And if anyone asked what she was waiting for, he would simply smile and answer with ‘whatever life throws at me next’.
Currently she was going through some reports from Accounting when the phone rang. He glared at it for a moment for interupting her, but picked it up all the same.
“Robin here. Oh, hey J. How're you these days? Can't complain. So where're you at this time? Middleton? Sounds American. No, I'm not prejudiced. OK, fine, so I am prejudiced. I never said I was perfect. So what's the news? Oh, you're kidding, right? Come on, please tell me you're kidding? OK, OK, I hear you. I can't believe you told me, though, considering. Yeah, I'll be right over, I mean, how can I not? OK, see you there. Bye.”
Robin hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair. She looked up at the ceiling, a ponderous look on his face. It seemed she would need to clear his agenda for the foreseeable future. She just hoped he wouldn't need to clear out her agenda forever.