Chapter 1: Chapter 1
In Mortal Fear of Legal Retribution, I attach the following Copyright Notice:
All characters and likenesses (and directly quoted dialogue) of Kim Possible and those associated with the show are owned, lock stock and barrel, by the Disney Conglomerate. They are used here without permission and without intention of profit exploitation. Please don't sue me. I'll be your best friend?
Release Notes:
Ok, I threatened to do this. So here it is. My first, and only, KIGO story.
It's a one-shot, completely separate from my SecretShame Saga/Universe, and obviously fairly removed from the original Disney series due to sexuality (hence the Mature rating).
When I heard they were going to do an episode where Kim loses her memory whilst fighting Drakken and Shego, I got particularly excited. I had hoped they would explore a bad girl relationship between Pumpkin and The Green Meanie now that Kim couldn't remember that she "hated" Shego, or that she was a good guy for that matter. And we all know Shego would jump at the chance of "corrupting" her arch nemesis (of course, it wouldn't have been in any kind of sexual way... after all, it IS Disney). BUT… they focused on the impact with the Ron/Kim relationship, which was the obvious thing to do, and the safest. They just don't have any more time in the season to devote to the Kim/Shego thing beyond what they already did in "Stop Team Go". Still, I did like how they used the premise as an excuse for Kim to figure out that she loves Ron, which is pretty cool, though it would have been even cooler for me under a more emotionally dire situation.
So… to make a long story short, this is how I would have liked the events in "Clean Slate" to have gone… only rated M. Like a "reimagination" type thing. It starts out as an almost direct word-for-word transcription (beginning at the hospital) and then deviates into another direction. I'm obviously expanding and taking a sharp turn from the family-friendly Disney ideal; but what the hell. It's FanFic.
Love,
The Author
(Not So) Clean Slate
Kim Possible was a senior at Middleton High School. She was the captain of the cheerleading squad. She was a straight A student. She dated the football star running back. She was a well-rounded, polite and courteous young woman with a great deal going for her. Very soon now, she would be graduating high school and moving on to post-secondary. There was not a single avenue that wasn't wide open for the beautiful young woman. She could go anywhere she wanted in life. In fact, it was a commonly held belief that Kim Possible could, quite literally, do anything.
Which is why, Kimberly Anne Possible was also an internationally renowned superhero.
She had crossed the world a dozen times over. Averting disasters and battling bizarre super villains along with their equally-bizarre schemes for global domination. With her trusty sidekick, the comically inept Ron Stoppable, an ever expanding array of high-tech gadgetry, the ever-present assistance of the child-genius, Wade Load, and her incredible abilities, both physical and intellectual, Kim Possible was a name that struck fear into the hearts of even the most accomplished of criminals.
But the reason that Kim Possible was so beloved by her friends and family was not because she saved the world more times then they cared to think about. It was not because she was young, pretty and popular. It wasn't because she had an excellent work ethic and a bright future.
It was because of days like this day.
She walked through the pristine hallways of the Middleton Medical Centre, straight shoulder-length hair, a vibrant orange-red, swaying with her steps. Her blue T-shirt and navy slacks hugged her powerful athletic frame, lithe and graceful in its motions. Her face was young and beautiful, practically glowing. Bright green eyes, the color of jade in the sunlight, read the hanging sign that directed her further down the hall.
Keeping pace beside her in his trademark red jersey and baggy cargo pants was the beaming Ron Stoppable. As usual, he bobbed his blond head around excitedly, always finding good humour no matter where he was.
"Man, this is gonna be saa-weet!" He cried out. Always louder than he needed to be. "I can't wait to see those kids' faces! Nothing like a visit from the ol' Ronster to get those smiles growing!"
"Remember," Kim tried to calm him down. "We're here to cheer. But not too much cheer."
"Kim." He explained patiently. "Laughter is the best medicine. Unless, you know, you have an acute case of the giggles. Then the cure is worse than the condition."
She smiled slightly at that. She was glad that he loved doing this. Visiting the kids at her mom's hospital was important to her, and it made her feel good knowing that she could share it with her best friend and boyfriend. Even if he did get a little carried away sometimes.
"All right," Kim came to a halt in front of a pair of double-swinging doors. "Then it's time for Team Possible's greatest mission yet."
"Did you bring the laser lipstick?" Ron asked seriously. She gave him a sarcastic look. "Hey, I just think it'd be a hoot, is all."
They pushed the double-doors wide and stepped into the children's ward. Almost instantly a collective cheer was raised, all the kids rising from their beds.
"Rufus!"
On cue, Ron's side pocket popped open and a small pink creature emerged to wave enthusiastically at the cheering children.
"Ho ho, allright!" Came the barely distinguishable vocalizations from the naked mole rat as he greeted his adoring public.
Ron turned and looked at Kim with a crooked smile. "Nice to see that our reputation as superheros precedes us."
Kim could only grin back at him.
Unfortunately for Kim Possible, an unpleasant side effect of being a famous teen superhero was the less-than-amicable people she often found invading her life. And at that particular moment, two of the worst were no more than thirty feet away, inside the very hospital.
Around an isolated corner a blue face leaned to nervously glance down the hallway. His left eye twitched involuntarily, partially due to the nasty scar that was dug into his cheek just below it. He carefully watched as a single nurse passed by, not even bothering to glance up from the tray she was carrying. His eyes narrowed and he raised a small stack of cue cards in his tiny gloved hands to read carefully. Satisfied with what he found there, he smiled deviously and stepped out from behind the corner.
Dressed in a long, dark blue coat with his greasy black hair pulled into its typical ponytail, Dr Drakken tiptoed along the corridor, chuckling evilly. He had every reason to creep along, after all. He was an easily recognized figure in Middleton, if not, the world. People trembled at the very mention of his name, stood in awe of his evil genius and bowed before the awful consequences of his monumental vision. Or… at least, in his own mind. So distracted, in fact, was Drakken by his own machinations that he didn't even notice the woman standing right in front of him until he practically bumped into her.
She stood there, gloved hands on her shapely hips, staring at the frozen man with dark emerald eyes. Her skin was an exotic pale green, smooth and silken. She was dressed head to toe in a green and black catsuit that slid along her toned body like water over a river stone. Draped down her back was a luxurious mane of rich black that waved all the way to the swell of her backside. Her black lips were turned in an unimpressed frown and a single narrow eyebrow rose towards her scalp.
Drakken's own eyes widened in surprise. Then he straightened irritably and scowled at the woman. He raised the deck of cue cards, pointing angrily at the top that he had just carefully read.
"This card says sneaky!"
"Alright," came the sarcastic response, even as she rolled her eyes and continued walking, "so I'm sneaky." Drakken fell in behind Shego, his hired mercenary, already reading the next card on the deck.
"Next," he recited carefully, "we break into the lab, steal the MRM, and remember my foolproof plan, and then… we bowl with the henchmen!" Drakken froze. "No, wait…" He looked closely at the card he had just read. "Arghh, bowling's tomorrow! These cards are out of order!"
Shego spun around and slapped the deck out of his hand, sending Drakken's entire list flying into the air. He shrieked effeminately and dove to the ground, desperately trying to gather his thoughts.
"Forget the cards." She groaned, already endlessly annoyed with Drakken's pathetic need to map out his every action with 'memory cards'. "Here's the lab." She opened the door and yanked him through by the back of his coat.
Inside the small research laboratory, a variety of expensive-looking equipment sat nestled neatly on several shelves. On the wall some important-looking certificates and diplomas hung prevalently. All of them had the name Dr. Darren Leggfoot printed on them, the resident scientist who had been working in this lab for the past five years, doing experiments in memory and amnesia; precisely what Drakken needed assistance with. Shego, a professional thief, glided across the vinyl floor to the large worktable with hardly a moment's hesitation. There, sitting placidly, was a dome-shaped helmet covered in wires, hoses and other technological marvels. Dr. Leggfoot's piece de resistance: the Memory Recovery Machine. Guaranteed to recover any lost memory inside the user's head, in this case; the 'perfect foolproof plan' for total world domination that Drakken had dreamed up the night before… but then promptly forgotten the moment he woke up. She snatched up the machine and turned back to Drakken, a satisfied smile on her face.
"Ok, I got the MRM." She immediately frowned again, seeing him flipping through his jumbled list of cards.
"Now…now…" he squinted at his own terrible handwriting, "we… um…"
"We steal it! Use it!" Shego shoved the device at him. "Make sure this wasn't a total waster of my time."
"I lost my place again…" he furiously shuffled through the deck, reading for the next step. "Um… ah! Use it!" Drakken stood triumphantly, seemingly back on track. He grabbed the MRM from the unimpressed Shego. "In a moment, I will recall my most evil, most insidious foolproof plan! The world will be mine!" He raised the helmet above his head and laughed maniacally.
Behind him, the door to the lab opened.
"Hey!" Said the conservative-looking man in white lab coat and tie who entered the room. "What are you doing? Who are you?"
Drakken spun around and smiled deviously, recognizing the man as Dr. Leggfoot himself. "An interested party who's about to take your research to a new level!"
Leggfoot adjusted his glasses angrily and reached for the nearby wall phone. He dialed three numbers and then spoke briskly into the receiver.
"Hello? Security…argh!" He was cut off as a focused blast of green plasma shot past him and blew the phone right off the wall. He turned back to see the green woman standing to the side, her gloved hands engulfed in a strange glowing green power that danced and leapt. She gave him a cold smile.
Drakken looked at his deck in annoyance. "I didn't have a card for that."
Unbeknownst to the teens visiting in the children's ward, little more than a wall of plaster and metal separated them from the crime currently in progress. They were, instead, focused on entertaining the young residents of the Middleton Medical Centre, something that Ron Stoppable and Rufus were quite adept in.
"Just be careful," Kim winced at the clowning pair. "Don't break anything."
"Relax," the blonde teen waved away her concerns with a charming smile. "Rufus is a professional." On the floor, the naked mole rat had seated himself into a quickly-constructed, over-sized slingshot using surgical rubber tubing. The hyper-stretched material was tied to one end of a hospital bed while Ron casually held the other end under his foot. The tiny daredevil placed an equally tiny safety helmet on his bald head and gave Ron the thumbs-up.
Ron, ever the showman, raised his arms for a moment of silent concentration, which only elicited loud whispers of excitement from the carefully watching children. With a simple flourish, he raised his foot.
Rufus shot like a screaming little arrow across the room, every young face following the path of his flight with smiling glee into a pre-placed box of cotton balls. Out of the box he bounced, like a miniature trampoline, to arc back through the room. He landed spectacularly on the edge of the nearest hospital bed, much to the delight of the young girl who occupied it. The entire room erupted into a high-pitched cheer. Rufus rose his tiny arms into the air and shouted with all his little might.
"Taa daa!"
Then the wall exploded.
The children cried out in surprise and fear, cowering back into their respective beds. Both Ron and Kim jerked involuntarily at the sound, though years of dealing with apocalyptic-level danger had dulled the shock value. Ron looked at his partner, not even bothering to glance behind him to where the explosion emanated from.
"Did Rufus do that?" He asked, sheepishly.
"No!" Kim exclaimed in surprise, instantly recognizing the source through the hole in the wall. There, a familiar green-clad figure was subduing a man in a lab coat. "Shego!"
Dr. Drakken spun around in shock, suddenly noticing the massive hole for the first time. "Kim Possible?! What are you… arrgh! Nevermind!" He quickly took his customary ranting pose. "You're too late! Soon world domination will be within my grasp… err…" He paused awkwardly. Then of all things, he raised a small card to his face and stiffly read aloud. Ron and Kim exchanged odd looks. "Once I use the MRM to help me remember my plan…"
"Uh…" Ron cut him off. "Why is he reading off a card?"
"Yeah," Shego sighed as she locked the doctor's arm behind his back. "Note-guide-cheat-sheet thing."
"Why wasn't I told that was acceptable?" The teen boy moaned to Kim, who never took her eyes off the green-skinned woman.
"What?" Shego snorted. "You need a reminder to lose your pants?"
"Hey! That's not fair!" The blonde boy stiffened indignantly, grabbing at his baggy khakis. "They're just… a little loose is all!"
Shego shook her head with disdain and locked eyes with the grim-faced Kim Possible. "Why do you always pick such losers, Kimmie?"
"Shut up, Shego." Kim snapped at her longtime nemesis. "At least I have someone who cares about me. What do you have?"
Shego flinched at that and her face darkened. Kim instantly regretted the venom in her words. She didn't even talk like that to Bonnie Rockwaller, her high school rival and all-around unpleasant person. But then again, why did she care? The woman had just insulted her boyfriend, after all, and was undoubtedly in the process of aiding in yet another world-domination scheme. Shego was her single greatest foe, no matter what Drakken said about himself. Kim had nothing but hate for the woman.
"Yes, enough talk, Shego!" Drakken raised the helmet overhead. "Now it is time to… um…" He lifted the cards in his hand to quickly shuffle through. "Ah, yes… Destroy Kim Possible!"
"With pleasure." Shego hissed, her eyes narrowing. She threw the doctor in the labcoat aside as though he were a sack of flower.
Kim's reaction was instantaneous, honed from years of cheerleading as well as an equal number of years combating a multitude of bizarre opponents, she vaulted through the hole and came upon the green woman with cold determination. She had been trained in various martial arts since middle school and was more than a match for practically any foe she came upon.
But this was no regular foe. This was Shego. The only person she had met who was every bit as skilled as her. The only one whose determination rivaled her own. She was never distracted by her own eccentricity, like so many other supervillains. She never gave a quarter or fell victim to ideas of 'proper villain behavior'. All she had was a swirling rage, the source of which Kim could not begin to guess, nor did she care to. All it was, was the single weakness the cheerleader had to exploit.
Oh yes… and she could fire blasts of green plasma from her hands. That kinda sucked too.
Shego swung out with her leg in a roundhouse kick that would have sent Kim practically through the wall. But the redhead was much too fast and simply bobbed backwards, kicking back in response. Shego, however, came out of her spin and caught the foot inches from her head, twisting it as she went. Kim went with the twist, flipping herself around and pulling out of Shego's grip before she could compensate for the sudden shift in direction. They faced off, eye to eye. Had anyone been caught between those gazes, they would have frozen solid.
What came next was a dizzying barrage of jabs and blocks. Each woman offering her fair share of powerful swings, only to be effectively blocked and countered by the other. High and low they went, side to side. Both seeking an opening, both giving none. Their forearms would connect, then their shins. Someone would dodge a fist and another would stop a thrusting knee with her downturned palms. To anyone watching, it was not a fight. When you think of a fight you think of a messy, painful event. A truckstop brawl or a mindless competition of punches. This was a dance. A violent, beautiful dance.
Acting as a surreal parallel to the harmony that was Kim and Shego in battle, was the bumbling antics of Ron and Drakken.
The megalomaniac recoiled in surprise as the blond teen bounded towards him. Reaching to grab the MRM. He pulled it towards himself. Drakken pulled it right back.
"Give it!" Ron demanded to the blue man.
"No, you give it!" Drakken barked back.
Back and forth they wrestled over the helmet, arguing like children over the last cookie in the jar. The contest quickly escalated, and the two pulled at the MRM even harder, trying to dislodge the other's grip on it.
"Hand it over you pantless buffoon!" Drakken scowled.
"Right after you get a haircut, you ponytailed dork!" Ron shot back.
The helmet popped out of their hands and leap into the air. Both reached for it, grasping as it rolled between their fingers. Drakken cursed. Ron moaned. Suddenly, it bounced sideways out of their hands. The MRM dropped to the floor with an unceremonious thud. Everyone stopped and stared at the fallen machine. It lay there in two pieces.
"I didn't do it! He broke it!" Ron whined to Kim, who stood cautiously aside from the unimpressed Shego.
"It's not broken." Drakken scoffed at the young man as he snatched up the machine. "The battery came out. See?"
"That's not a battery." Piped up the doctor, rising to his feet and adjusting his lab coat. "It's a para-pulsar powercell!"
"Phff!" Drakken hastily pushed the powercell back into place. "Tomateo, Tomato! Ha!" The helmet began to shake. "Fixed it!"
"No!" The doctor cried out as the shaking grew more violent. "You didn't you…"
"W-what's going on?" Drakken whimpered uneasily as the MRM practically danced in his tiny hands. A high pitched keen began to emanate from the device. It grew steadily louder.
Kim understood instantly what needed to be done. Without a moment's concern for her own safety she dashed across the room and tore the helmet from Drakken's shuddering hands. She sprinted for the open window, already preparing to hurl it before it detonated.
"Careful!" The doctor cried out unnecessarily. "It's going to…"
It exploded in Kim's hands.
Shego reflexively recoiled from the blast, which wasn't nearly as powerful as she had expected. That didn't mean that the princess hadn't been effectively splattered. Shego looked back through the clearing smoke with the idea of her arch-nemesis' demise causing mixed feelings. Everyone in the room wore varying degrees of amazement as they saw Kim Possible standing in place, seemingly unharmed. The remains of the MRM sparked and fizzled in her unmoving hands.
"Kim?" Ron immediately blurted out and rushed over to his girlfriend. "You alright?"
She turned and stared at him, a look of absolute confusion on her youthful face.
"Kim?" She asked. "Kim what?"
It was the buffoon's turn to look confused, and Shego didn't blame him. What game was that cheerleader playing?
"Possible." Ron said carefully. "Kim Possible. You're Kim Possible."
Kim blinked repeatedly. "That is… me?." She looked at him carefully. "What are you?"
The buffoon jerked back at that. Shego almost laughed out loud at his pained expression.
"Oh no." Dr Leggfoot pushed forward to examine the cheerleader's blank expression. "Her memory has been erased!" Shego looked at the man in genuine surprise.
"What?" Ron shrieked. "How?" Not far behind him, Drakken stood looking as though he had been caught knocking a baseball through the neighbor's window.
"With the para-pulsar powercell in backwards," Leggfoot shot a accusatory look at the megalomaniac, "the MRM reversed the process. She has…" he paused to remove his glasses dramatically, "complete amnesia!"
Drakken sniffed and crossed his arms. "Easy to place blame when you weren't the one having to fix it."
"So…" Shego piped up, all faces turning to regard her. "Kimmie's forgotten everything?" She stepped up to the redhead and studied her carefully. The teen's bright green eyes watched her without apprehension. She even smiled at Shego, a naïve and welcoming upturning of the lips. Shego found her own black lips tilting into a returned smirk that looked anything but naïve. "Like… how to fight crime?" She leaned forward, their faces mere inches apart, to stare directly into Kim's inexperienced eyes with a cruel look of her own. She was close enough to smell the subtle fragrance of the young woman's hair. "I'd say it's a good day."
"Ha!" Drakken cackled, as if suddenly understanding the significance of the situation. He leapt over to the open window and turned to address the entire room. "So long, Kim Possible! You used to think you were all that, but you don't remember the all that-ness that you used to think… that… you were…then, but not now…" he trailed off miserably. Shego gave him a withering look and the "evil genius" turned and hopped out the window with a disgusted scowl.
"Later, pumpkin." Shego grinned at the smiling redhead as she moved towards the window, her mind already rolling with possibilities. "We'll catch up later."
"We'll catch… later." Kim replied distantly, obviously not understanding the dire promise in her words. Shego couldn't help but chuckle at the beauty of it all.
"Yeah. Later." She leapt lithely through the window, already planning her crime spree.
There was nothing.
Drifting across consciousness like a cloud across a flat horizon. No end in sight and no beginning. An ocean without a single wave or ripple disturbing its glassy surface. The vast uncharted depth that was hinted below was a dark mystery. But nothing could puncture that surface. Nothing could agitate that barrier between unplumbed recollection and the blissful emptiness of the horizon.
There was nothing.
And yet, there was something. An unexplained understanding that came from nowhere. There was a chair, for sitting. That was what it was for. That knowledge was available. The chair was in a kitchen. A kitchen was where one ate. There was food in the kitchen, as well as people.
People. All around. That was what they were. They could walk and talk. They could smile and frown. There was a great deal that people could do. People could think. And with that realization came another. Perhaps one was a person too? Of course. If one could talk, one could walk, and one could think. One had to be a person.
Words were being spoken. And one understood them.
"We're lucky she still remembers how to speak." Said the voice. It was a woman's voice. Yes. A woman. She was a woman. The woman looked at her carefully and lifted something that blinded one's eyes with light.
Eyes. Light. Yes. Bright light.
A mouth opened and spoke, as it had done before, and words came from an unknown voice. A voice that came from inside one. The voice of one.
"Ohh… light… bright…" Said the voice. Hands reached to take the light from the woman. They were the hands of one. One could use hands to do many things.
"Isn't there anything we can do?" Another voice spoke. The voice of the boy that had spoken before. Yes, he was a boy. Different then a girl. Girl. One's hands drifted down over one's body with sudden realization. One was a girl.
"I don't know, Ronald." Yet another, deeper, voice said. The man. He stood beside the woman. He sounded… sad? "I just don't know. Honey? What do you think?"
"I've talked with Dr. Leggfoot." The woman said. She had red hair. "He believes her memories are intact, but the connections to them have been damaged. It may be a matter of relearning them. But once she does, they should come back easily."
"Relearn?" The boy sounded, confused. He was wearing red, but his hair wasn't. "What does that mean? She'll be back to normal, right? Good as new?"
"It may not be a quick process, Ron" The woman was wearing a labcoat. A white labcoat. Like that other man. She remembered another man with glasses had looked at her. A doctor. "She seems to have retained language and a basic understanding of the world around her. Simple things like common-sense and general knowledge will return first. But her personality and life-specific memories could take time."
"Time?" The boy paced around the kitchen. He was not as old as the man. They were different ages. Time. One understood the passage of time. "Like, how much time?"
"Don't worry, Ronald." Said the older man in the tie, yes it was a tie. "We're going to beat this. Remember: nothing's impossible for a Possible!"
One continued to think and to comprehend. Understanding was slowly wrapping around her, like a familiar blanket. But understanding from where? She could not comprehend before. Before did not exist. Yet… it had to. Time passed. People grew. She had grown. But from where?
Who was she?
It took a moment for one to realize that the people were talking to her. They looked at her with expectation and… concern. Yes. They were concerned about her.
"Kim?" The woman with the red hair and lab coat said. "Do you understand?"
"Kim." One repeated the word. The name. It was a name. They had said it before when talking to one. Talking about one. "Kim is… my name?" She asked carefully.
"Yes, dear." The woman smiled at her, and then at the man wearing the tie next to her. He smiled back. Their eyes looked… wet? "That is your name."
Two days of chaos. Two days of mayhem. For forty eight hours Shego had ransacked the larger metropolitan area of Middleton. Banks, jewelry stores, the Institute of Science and Technology, and any number of the many super-secret government facilities that dotted the area. Nothing of exceptional value was outside her grasp, whether it be money, diamonds, experimental high technology or classified information.
She hadn't even been back to Drakken's lair since leaving the Middleton hospital. Instead she had dived straight into a crime spree the likes of which the oft exciting area of Middleton had rarely experienced before. No one could touch the master thief. Between her daunting skills of stealth and breaking and entering, her overwhelming martial abilities and her incredible super powers, the police could do nothing. She was beyond them, they knew. She was a problem they needed a superhero to deal with.
But Middleton was missing its resident superhero.
Inside an abandoned warehouse in the industrial park of Lowerton, Shego allowed herself a brief moment of rest. She was growing obviously fatigued from the rob-a-thon that she had started at the onset of Kimmie's amnesia. Shego was no fool. She understood that her arch nemesis wouldn't be out of commission forever. Amnesia was rarely a permanent affliction, and there was no telling when the teen superhero would suddenly remember how to thwart her. She was going to take advantage while she could.
But as Shego sat there on the cool concrete floor leaning against the hovercraft she had "borrowed" from Drakken, surrounded by millions and millions of dollars worth of loot, she felt somewhat unfulfilled. She sighed and closed her emerald eyes, propping her head against the flying car's smooth surface. Her hair felt greasy. God she needed a shower. She had been wearing the same catsuit since the day before and it felt sticky against her skin. She pulled off her clawed gloves and dropped them to the floor. Then she reached up to her neck and popped open the collar, allowing her to unzip the suit halfway down her chest. She groaned as the pressure of the constricting garment released and relaxed a little bit more. She needed to steal some new clothes.
She stayed unmoving except for the casual rise and fall of her ribcage. She drifted along the edge of sleep, fatigue creeping upon her like stalking death. Her mind wandered, as it often did on the rim of unconsciousness. She wondered what she should steal next to fill this gnawing void that had appeared in her chest. There was just so much and she was only one person, as marvelous as she was. Some capers required a partner to pull off. But Shego hated partners. She could barely work with Drakken. What idiocy was he up to now, she wondered. Probably writing reminder notes to himself on his forehead. She hadn't checked with him since the hospital.
She thought about Kim. That precious little princess. Always thinking she was better than her. With the perfect family, the perfect friends, her perfect little life. What did she have now? Nothing. While Shego could have anything she wanted. Anything.
Shego abruptly realized she was no longer relaxed, but held her glowing fists clenched at her sides. She released the power with a sigh. Even now, that stupid girl was ruining her day. Why did that goody-two-shoes always get her so damned worked up? And she didn't even know who she was.
Shego's eyes shot open. She didn't know who she was. Her lips started to curl as a devious idea entered the green woman's head. An idea that would kill two birds with one stone. One of those birds being the inflated ego of a certain green-eyed redhead.
In two days, Kim Possible had managed to actively respond to her name. It still sounded odd to her. As if it were someone else's name. Even stranger had been looking into the mirror for the first time and seeing her face. It had been a stranger's face when she first caught glimpse, then she gradually began to accept it as her own. She was a young woman, 18 years old. According to her parents.
Her parents. Dr. James Possible and Dr. Karen Possible. They were still strangers. But she had seen them more then anyone as far back as she could remember, which was… the day before yesterday. Them and the two twins; Jim and Tim. Her brothers. They were always nice, playing games with her like 'dress up'. That always made her parents upset and they would make the boys take the kitchen implements off her head.
The other boy that she sometimes saw was Rob. Or no… that wasn't his name. Something like that. He would come over and visit before and after school and tell her things. Sometimes the things he told her didn't make any sense. Sometimes he would talk about people that she didn't know, as if she should. She just smiled and nodded and that seemed to make him happy. Kim didn't get to go to school yet. She couldn't even remember ever going to school.
But Kim knew things. She knew how to read. She knew how to talk. She knew how to dress herself and brush her hair. She understood what things did. Like that the refrigerator kept food cold or that the vacuum cleaner sucked the dirt off the carpet. And more things came all the time. The man… her father, would spend hours showing her things like photographs and television shows. Sometimes they helped, sometimes they just made her more confused.
Everyone was telling her who she was. She remembered them telling her. But she did not remember being that person they described to her. If they asked her, trying to test her, who she was. She could always easily regurgitate what they had explained to her not a few hours ago. That was the good thing about having only two days of memories to recall from.
Kim's world was the house, which she explored to the inch. Her parent's seemed to think that was a good sign. But Kim felt a need to expand her world, to understand who and what she was. They wouldn't let her leave the house yet. When she wasn't being brain fed information from her father, Kim sat staring out the window, trying to find purchase on the wall between herself and who she was supposed to be.
"Kim?" Came the voice of her mother. She recognized it, but it didn't sound familiar. "You have a visitor."
Kim turned back from the window. Standing in the doorway with her mother was Rob. He stepped into the bedroom, a toothy grin splitting his freckled face. It was her bedroom. These were her things. That was a closet full of her clothes.
"Hey, KP." Rob said cheerily. "How are you doing?"
"Ok, I guess." Kim replied honestly. She had no reason to lie to anyone. "Things are starting to make sense, bit by bit. But it's frustrating not knowing who I am." She turned back to look out the window. "I just want to know again."
"I want to you know, too Kim." Rob came up next to her. She looked up at his brown eyes, which looked pained. She couldn't begin to grasp why. "There is a lot I'd like to tell you, but…" he hesitated. "I don't know if it's the right time, yet. You're mom says…"
"We have to take it easy." Kim quoted the woman with an angry sigh. "Yeah. I've heard it before. It's about all I've ever heard."
"Kim…" Rob pleaded. "Don't be that way. We all know…"
"Yeah." She cut him off. "You guys all know. Could you leave me alone, Rob. I just need to be by myself right now."
The silence was long and painful.
"My name is Ron." He said quietly. Kim winced. She turned to say something in the vein of an apology. But the door was already closing behind the blonde-haired teen. She watched the door for a long moment. She wondered if the person she had been was a total bitch
She sat there in silence, feeling like a novel full of empty pages. She couldn't even say that she was going crazy, because she didn't know what it felt like to be sane.
She stood up and walked to her closet. She flipped through the various outfits that hung there. Did she have good taste? What was her taste? She pulled a long sleeve, button-up shirt with a flowery white and blue pattern. Was this her favorite shirt? She walked over to the full-length mirror beside her closet door and held up the shirt in front of her. The fabric was soft and supple. She laid the garment down and pulled the baggy t shirt she had randomly selected that morning over her head.
A shirtless young woman stared back at her. She ran her hands over her shoulders and across her breasts. Did she even remember what it meant to be a woman? She couldn't be sure. She reached down and pushed the grey sweatpants over her hips, letting them drop to the floor. A white sports bra and white bikini underwear. She had chosen them because they were colorless. Like she felt. Off they came too, dropping in the pile of discarded clothing. She stared at her naked form, trying to see it as her own.
She ran hands along the lines of her body, turning left and right to see herself from different angles. She was lean and toned. Was she an athlete? Did she play sports? She reached up and touched her long red hair. Her other hand dropped to touch the hair down below. At least she was a natural redhead.
The flowery long-sleeved shirt was lifted up off the floor. She pushed her arms into its sleeves, one at a time. Carefully, she buttoned up the front of the shirt until it covered her breasts. The ends of the sleeves hung loose on her arms, flopping around like a straight-jacket and the tail of the shirt draped down to her knees. No. This shirt couldn't be her favorite. She looked like she was wearing a tent.
Kim unbuttoned the tent-shirt, leaving it hanging on her shoulders and walked back to the closet. Again she flipped through the garments, looking for something to latch on to.
She came across a small black dress.
Carefully pulling the dress out, she inspected it. There was nothing else like this in the wardrobe. It was different. It was special. The tent-shirt was casually pushed off her shoulders and deposited on the floor. Reverently, Kim stepped into the dark cloth and pulled it up over her naked self. She pulled the spaghetti straps over her shoulders and reached behind to tug the tiny zipper from the small of her back to between her shoulder blades. The fabric clung to her body like a second skin, its pressure almost comforting. Was that an old memory? Did she feel comfortable in this dress?
Kim stood before the mirror and stared at the young woman on the other side. Bright green eyes, bright youthful face, smooth skin that ran along a fit female frame. The little black dress accentuated her natural curves, cupping her small breasts and hugging her bottom. From below the short skirt ran her long, smooth legs, muscled and shaped. She was beautiful, she decided. Was that strange? Thinking you were beautiful? Was it only because she didn't feel connected with that reflection in the mirror that she could come to that decision? She had no reason to be modest that she knew of. Perhaps she was a self-conscious person. Perhaps if she remembered who she was, she would think herself ugly.
The dress held no memory for Kim, but she didn't take it off. It was special. She could tell.
The Possible residence was a beautifully designed house, built into the rustic landscape of one of Middleton's more upscale neighborhoods. Its flying curves gave it an almost weightless look, seemingly modern yet grounded in the reality of its environment. The sight of it made Shego scowl all the more at the cheerleader who lived within its walls.
"Spoiled rich kid with her spoiled rich kid parents." She grumbled at no one.
It was no issue for the skilled thief to hop the tiny fence, scale the wall and creep along the rooftop undetected. Truth be told, she would have almost welcomed the attention. Let them see how safe their precious little superhero was from the likes of her. She could have taken Kimmie out at any time, if she had wanted to. But Shego didn't deal with people that way, not if she could help it. She was nobody's murderer. Besides… there were much worst things she could do.
The thief was silent as a breeze through the grass. She passed along to where she knew Kim's room was, having been there before in other sitches she'd rather forget about. Dropping low on all fours, she crawled up to the edge of the roof and peered over. There was the window to the cheerleader's room. A quick glance around showed that there were no watching eyes, then she swung herself around and over the lip.
With a barely audible creek, her weight settled onto the next step down. She shimmied up to the exterior wall and carefully leaned towards the window, trying to see if anyone was in the room.
She saw Kim, standing alone in front of her mirror. She was wearing a tiny black dress.
Shego found herself frozen in place. Her eyes traced up the back of the young woman's smooth legs to where they disappeared under the edge of her skirt. Her tight backside was perfectly accentuated by the hugging material. Up along the small of her back and her gorgeous shoulders her gaze continued to that brilliantly red hair that seemed to glow in the sunlight.
Shego jerked suddenly as Kim turned her head away from the mirror, breaking the bizarre spell. The young woman walked directly to the window itself and Shego had a moment of irrational panic at the thought of facing her arch foe like this. Why was this any different than the hundreds of times they had faced off in the field? She forced the fear away, though a strange knot stayed tangled in her gut that she couldn't drive away.
Kim came up to the window and froze suddenly, seeing someone there. Shego expected her to call out for help, but instead she stood there blankly, their eyes locked. The young woman simply looked, confused. Shego smiled pleasantly, this was going to work out better than she expected.
Shego waved at the staring teen and moved herself further into view. She continued her friendly smile and knocked softly on the window. Kim continued to watch her, bewilderment plain on her face. Then she reached forward and opened the window.
"Hi, pumpkin!" Shego greeted pleasantly. "How's the ol' grey matter doing?"
Kim stared at her carefully. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"
"Ah yes," Shego nodded knowingly. "Still don't remember, do ya? Well, that's ok." She started climbing through the window. "We can still hang out like old times."
"Old times?" Kim stepped back, not in fear but to give the green woman room. "We… hang out together?"
"Oh yeah." Shego chimed. "We're like this." She crossed her fingers. "Two peas in a pod, you could say. Always getting into trouble, you and I." She crossed the room and plopped down on the bed.
"Trouble?" Kim watched Shego in puzzlement. "We would get into trouble?"
"Oh yeah." She waved her hand in the air. "All the time. The fun times we would have, let me tell you…"
Kim stood unmoving, obviously trying to digest all of this. Shego just smiled and leaned back across the bed, enjoying the comfort it promised her. She found her eyes drifting back over the young woman's body in appraisal.
"What's your name?" Kim finally said. "If you don't mind me asking?"
Shego suppressed a wince. Now was the gamble. She didn't know if the Possibles had told the amnesiac about her yet. But there was no point lying. She wouldn't give her the satisfaction of a fake name.
"Shego." She said clearly. "My name is Shego."
"Shego…" Kim tested the name. Shego held her breath, waiting for a sudden spark that would set the teen off. But it never came. "I… I'm afraid I can't remember you."
"Aww…" Shego leaned up again. "Don't worry about it, pumpkin. I just thought I'd come around and see how you're doing. Maybe take you out for some fun."
She couldn't have hoped for a better reaction. The redhead's eyes widened and she gripped her hands excitedly. "You'd take me outside?"
"Sure thing, Kimmie." Shego hoped her smile didn't look too devious. Then her eyebrows furrowed as she considered Kim's excitement. "Why? Don't they let you go outside?"
"No." The redhead slumped her shoulders. "Everyone says I can't handle it. They say it's too soon."
Shego grew furious with the idea of keeping Kimmie caged up. She was a warrior, just like her. The most tenacious woman she had ever met, besides of course herself. It was a waste and a crime worse than anything Shego had ever done to deny freedom to such a beautiful creature. Much to her own surprise, she felt an angry righteousness welling up, nearly supplanting her original goal of simple revenge. Shego shook her head. Revenge. That was why she was here.
"Well, to hell with them!" Shego hopped up off the bed. "I'm taking you out on the town. And we are going to have some fun."
For the first time since Shego had snuck into the room, the young woman smiled. Her bright eyes practically sparkled with excitement. Seeing her there, in that little black dress, wearing an expression of innocent anticipation did something strange to Shego. She practically squirmed under the look. What was with her?
"All right." Shego shook off the feeling. Business. Back to business. "Let's go. Um…" She looked at the door, starting to wonder when someone would come back. "Out the window."
"The window?" Kim cocked her head.
"Yeah." Shego smiled serenely. "We always go out the window. That's why I came that way. It's… tradition."
"Ok…" Kim accepted with a shrug. Shego was enjoying the ridiculous gullibility.
"But..." The green woman paused to consider the beautiful young woman. She turned and looked at her own greasy reflection. She winced. "I need to take a shower first."
Kim considered the sudden change in events. She waited in her room, as Shego had instructed, while the green woman had snuck out into the hallway. She was so excited to get out of the house into the world that she had hardly considered anything else.
Like, for example, that the woman's skin was pale green.
Kim couldn't honestly say, one way or another, if green skin was normal. She couldn't even remember what normal really was. She thought she had gained an idea over the last two days, but things continued to confuse her. This Shego was as much a stranger to her as anyone. She couldn't logically argue that she was more or less trustworthy than anyone else she had met in the last 48 hours. Kim simply didn't have the experience to make judgments in trust.
Neither did she see any reason that climbing through a window or sneaking through the hallway to have a shower couldn't be considered perfectly normal to her.
What she did feel for certain was that she needed to leave the house and experience other things. She desperately needed to expand her world. And so far, this Shego woman was the only one who agreed with that. Maybe they were best friends or something. That would make sense. Best friends who helped each other.
Kim paced around the room, growing more excited by the second. She didn't know what to bring. What did she wear when the two of them went out? Shego seemed to be wearing a tight green and black jumpsuit or something. Was that a uniform? Kim didn't have anything like that at all in her wardrobe. She decided she would grab a handful of clothes, just in case. She found a backpack in her closet, already full of a bunch of styling equipment and stuff. She quickly threw some different shirts and pants in with them and zipped the bag up. She grabbed a pair of black shoes that seemed to fit comfortably.
Kim plopped down next to the bag on her bed and waited. Very quickly, however, she was pacing about the room again.
Shego felt an amusing thrill, sneaking under the Possible's very noses, if only to use their bathroom. She quickly wrapped her head in a towel and used a second to dry her naked body. She felt infinitely better, now that she had washed her hair. She still had to squeeze into the same catsuit that she had been wearing since the day before, but she could deal with that until she got some new clothes. Wearing the second towel around her torso, she pulled the first off her head and looked for a blow dryer. She was not going out without doing something to her hair, especially next to that teen and her seemingly perfect mane.
She found one under the sink. She smiled as she inspected it, making sure it wasn't one of the crime fighter's grapple hook-firing models. That would be an embarrassing way to get her head blown off. Shego plugged the corded device into the wall and set to the task as quickly as she dared.
Then there was a knock at the door.
Shego froze. The hairdryer kept running.
"Kimmie?" Came the muffled voice of Mrs. Dr Possible. "Are you in there?"
Shego's mind raced. She was naked in the Possible's bathroom. Not an impressive advantage. She winced and opened her mouth.
"Yeah?" She tried to emulate the cheerleader's higher voice.
There was a long pause. Shego was certain she had been caught.
"Alright. Everything ok? Do you need help?"
Shego let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. "No." Her fake voice squeaked overtop of the running hairdryer. "Um… no big."
"Ok, sweetheart. Supper will be in fifteen minutes." Another stretch of silence. Shego hoped Kim's mother had left.
The green woman dressed herself hurriedly. She had maybe ten minutes to get Kim and get out before anyone noticed her missing. With professional care, she cracked the door open. No one. Her head peaked out and looked the opposite direction down the hall. Still no one. She could hear the sounds of dishes being placed downstairs and the family chatter as they prepared for supper. Quick and smooth as a panther, Shego loped down the hall and through the closed door to Kim's room. She closed it carefully behind her and turned to look at the waiting girl. Shego scowled at the tiny black dress.
"Why are you still wearing that?"
Kim looked awkward. She lifted a backpack. "I didn't know what I was supposed to wear, so I…"
"Forget it." Shego stepped up to the younger woman and led her to the window. "We've got to go, now."
"Alright, alright." Kim said, reaching the open window. There, she hesitated.
"What's the holdup?" Shego groaned, irritably. Someone could come calling the teen at any moment. The redhead turned and locked her apprehensive green eyes with Shego's. The angry demand she was about to express died in her throat under that trusting gaze.
"I'm scared, Shego."
Shego felt a painful stab in her heart. Before she could even think about it, she responded sincerely.
"I won't let anything happen to you, Kimmie."
Still the redhead hesitated, looking into her face. But she must have read something in Shego's voice, or perhaps her expression, because she smiled brightly. Without another word, the young woman turned and crawled out the window, dragging her backpack with her.
Shego held back for the briefest of moments. She was glad that she was a convincing enough liar to satisfy her arch foe. That is what she told herself it was: a lie. A lie for vengeance against her superior-minded enemy. With a quick glance to the bedroom door, Shego slithered through the window behind Kim Possible.
Jim and Tim Possible stomped up the stairs in tandem, both twins wearing matching unimpressed scowls.
"Why do we have to go get her?" Jim said.
"It's not like she's deaf, too." Tim finished the thought without missing a beat. "She can hear it just fine when dad calls her."
"It's not fair. She goes and loses her memory…"
"… and gets to be spoiled."
Both brothers sighed and shared a knowing look. The kind of knowing that only identical twins could have.
"Hicka bikca boo?" Tim asked.
"Hoo-sha." Jim replied.
The tweebs (as they were known to their sister before she got her brain fried) came up to Kim's room and knocked on the door.
"Hey, sis!"
"Supper time! Come on!"
A long silence.
The twins looked at each other and frowned.
"Kim! You listening?"
"You remember how to eat, right?"
Another long silence from the room. The twins both grew concerned, reading off each other without even looking. Tim reached for the doorknob. In the past, they had gotten in a great deal of trouble from their older sister for simply going near her room. But she may need help with something. Besides… it wasn't like she could even remember why to be angry with the two of them.
Nevertheless, the door crept open slowly. Both of the boys' heads carefully leaned in, deathly afraid of catching their sister in the act of changing or something equally grotesque.
"Kim?" They both asked at the same time. They saw that the room was empty. No sign of their sister.
But the window was wide open, the curtains waving eerily in the breeze.
The twins slowly rotated their heads to look directly at one another. Then they turned as a pair and shouted down the hallway.
"Moooom!"
(to be continued)