Kim crept through the metal beams as silently as she could. As sensitive as the mission was, it wouldn't do her any good if she was caught right as the starting gate. She looked around, glad that the spectacle of lights that covered the tower was somehow perfectly suited to helping her look for guards while preventing any guards from seeing her by chance.

'I'll have to thank the director later' she thought as a smirk found its way onto her face. It wasn't often that anyone gave her a boost on one of her missions, especially one that had risks as big as this one.

The Jade Flame wasn't usually as flashy as this when is came to taking things or people hostage. There was usually at least a hint of subtlety in everything she did, whether it was kidnapping a prince of an unknown country to tip a vote in the UN or cornering the market on coffee in Africa to force the nearby diamond smugglers to follow her lead; each plan was both outrageous and genius at the same time. It was no wonder that many compared her to Moriarty.

Of course, there would be no Moriarty if there wasn't a Sherlock Holmes to counter his—or, in this case, her—moves. And that's where Kim came in. Even the Flame had admitted that her schemes would never be fun without her rival there to outwit.

Kim crawled across the top of the beam, only taking a moment to glance out at the glowing horizon and buildings surrounding her. Once this was over she was definitely going to hit some of the shops before heading back to base. Maybe she could even go to the most beautiful avenue in the world and get some souvenirs. Nothing would drive Secretary Rockwaller crazier than knowing that some 'carrot-topped second rate spy' had managed to catch the newest fashion trend faster than she did.

She had almost made it to the highest level the elevator reached by climbing the hard way (the elevator had been trapped to explode; only an amateur would fall for it). Suddenly, she stopped and smelled the air more closely.

'Flowers?' Kim thought before she sensed something fast coming up from behind. She instinctively threw herself to the side and almost over the edge of the beam. An instant later, something long and green shot into the metal right where she had been. The redhead activated the light on her headgear and turned it towards whatever had come at her.

She took a small step towards it and squinted. "Is that a…vine…?" Her eyes widened as the leafy appendage withdrew from the metal and disappeared into the shadows. "Which means—" She didn't finish her statement before she began to flip, tumble, and roll around on the structure, almost like she was performing an intricate dance. Only the most astute observer would be able to notice the lightning-fast bits of green that the spy miraculously dodged or the nicks and dents in the beams that followed her wake.

After about a minute of doing nothing but dodging, Kim was cornered into the elevator shaft by a half dozen vines that all danced around her, white and pink flowers facing her as if watching her for any wrong movement.

"I had wondered when I would see you next," the redhead said, a Cheshire cat grin on her face.

"You knew?" From her left, in the unsuspecting corner of the tower a figure stepped out to greet her. He appeared to be a few years younger than Kim with short, jet-black hair, barely rustling in the wind. The wire-rim glasses that he wore and his light blue skin were barely visible in the low light conditions. But Kim knew that the glasses helped to magnify his tiny near-black eyes and cover up a scar just under his left eye.

"How could I not?" Kim shrugged nonchalantly, acting as if her life wasn't on the line at the moment. "You are the only person I know that can make plants look dangerous." She looked him up and down as he walked a few steps closer to her and into the search lights, a confident smile on his face. "Looks like someone stopped eating all those muffins and actually started working out."

The man chuckled and looked down at himself. "You can do anything when you have something to focus on." His formerly slightly pudgy figure was now buffer, with muscles actually visible under his blue lab coat. His heavy black boots and black gloves replaced his white counterparts and looked to be more suited for demanding laboratory work…or for a fairly rough climb.

Kim allowed herself a real smile before she took on a sly smirk. She had to try to get some form of information out of him before anything happened. It was no coincidence he was here, and even extremely less likely that he was here to be friendly. Not that she could really blame him after the last time she'd seen him... "So what are you doing here? This is a bit far away from any sort of lab that I know of."

The blue man tutted and waved a finger at her. "Ahahah! You aren't in any position to ask about why I'm here."

Kim blinked. "Yeah I am."

The man scowled. "No you aren't!"

"Am too."

"Am not!"

"I am too."

"Grrr…NO YOU AREN'T!" the blue man yelled, stamping his foot in frustration.

"Yes I am." Kim waved at the vines. "Don't you know any villain etiquette? When you have your opponent cornered, you're supposed to tell them your grand plan." If there was one thing that she remembered about him, it was his strange attempt to stick to the pop definitions of what made a villain and hero.

"You aren't my opponent," he responded quickly before slapping a hand over his mouth, his eyes wide with shock. "…drat. I didn't mean to say that." Why was it that he always had trouble keeping his mouth shut?

"Oh really?" Kim watched the vines out of the corners of her eyes and noted that they seemed to waver with even the slightest loss of his confidence. Her focus returned to the noob villain as she asked "Then what is this big parade for? You would've known that sending that message in the Flame's style and causing a big mess like this would catch my attention."

"Well…" he paused, unsure of what to say. He had been told to draw the attention of the police, but he couldn't help but to catch the attention of his former partner as well. The need to rub into her face about how worthwhile he was to someone else was just too much to pass up. And it wasn't like his new boss had explicitly told him not to!

"You wanted to see me again," she said assuredly, nodding while keeping an eye on his vines.

He blanched and growled. "I most certainly did not do this just to catch your attention, miss 'I-can-do-anything'! Why would I want to see you again?" Crossing his arms defiantly, he added "Maybe if just to rub in your face how much better off I am now and how much my new boss wants me around."

Kim chuckled to herself. He never could resist being able to rub something in another's face. "You did too." She took a quick look at the vines. Nope. It hadn't been her imagination. They were withdrawing just a tad. It was enough for her to infer things and give her something to work with. He had started out strong, but he still didn't have the small things covered yet and it showed. "Why make such a big scene if you didn't want to catch my attention? Hm?"

The man remained silent but looked petulant. He probably didn't even notice that his vines were backing off.

"You wanted me to come here and see all this. See what you were capable of." She stepped away from the elevator shaft, hesitating for only a moment to see if her former junior partner did anything threatening. Seeing no change, she continued walking across the beam, slowly making her way over to him. "I know you. You've always wanted to prove yourself to everyone. Isn't that why you wanted to be one of the good guys in the first place, to prove to the world how amazing you are?"

She paused as he replied. "It wasn't like the world gave me any chances," he said bitterly, looking down at the ground. Kim took another step toward him and was just a few steps away when he suddenly shot his head up and snarled "And neither did you!" His plants shot to attention and the spy found herself surrounded, the vines circling her in warning.

"You know that isn't true," Kim said, frowning. While it was more to try and get him to listen to her denials, she couldn't help but to feel a twinge deep in her heart at his words. She hadn't been THAT mean, had she? "I was just trying to toughen you up for the real work that you would be doing." A sad smile crossed her face. "You can't give your opponent any room to wriggle out from. You can't show pity, you can't 'just talk things through'…" the spy winced as she walked into the bright lights coming from below and another step towards her former partner.

The young man's face fell as he listened to his former superior. Deep down, he knew that she was right… But the more spiteful and angry parts of him wanted revenge. Even more than that, his kinder, more emotional side wanted her to forgive him and ask him to come back with her.

As pathetic as it was, he knew that all she needed to do was to say that she wanted him working with her. He was that smitten, as much as he hated it. It was like going through high school all over again and all of the inevitable rejections. But his pride wouldn't let him just tell her that. After all, if he just told her how would he know that she actually wanted him back?

In an attempt to ignore the swirl of emotions, the former agent spat "So why bother even talking to me?"

This half-hearted attempt to shift her attention worked somewhat. Kim had noticed his emotional barrage but was also distracted by the truth in his words. Why wasn't she treating him as a hostile agent? He had been attacking her, he'd abandoned their unit without a second look back, there wasn't any remorse for his own shortcomings; if anything, he should be apologizing to them for his poor performance! Yet here she was, within the danger zone. Trusting her life to his whim. Even with her agility she'd be hard-pressed to get away without damage.

The redhead focused on the ex-junior agent again and just looked at him. It was hard to believe that such an insecure young man could actually be any sort of danger to her. And, to her surprised, he seemed to be a bit taller than she remembered, now being just a tad taller than she was. He was blushing fiercely and wasn't even bothering to look at her. He was probably waiting for her to make the first move.

She didn't see any sort of villain, Kim realized. He was just a wannabe, a child deep down that just wanted to be noticed. He didn't belong out here in the danger zone. She didn't want him out here in danger. He was so innocent and naïve…she didn't want him to lose that.

Right then, Kim swore to bring him back to HQ safe and sound, no matter what.

"Drew? Look at me," she said slowly, taking time to make sure he was completely focused on her face. Once his head shot up, his bright purple face on hers, her heart gave a sort of twang and melted. She held her arms out to him, a beckoning look on her face. "Give me a hug."

The young man barely took a second to process the request before he launched himself into his former superior's embrace, barely holding back a torrent of tears. She actually wanted him to hug her! She'd told him to and even held her arms out. That showed she at least cared, didn't it? In spite of his inner protesting, he found himself feeling like a small misbehaving child that simply wanted to be forgiven for a spat of rebellion.

Kim held him tightly in her arms, making sure that he wouldn't notice that she was pulling something out of her wristband. She sighed into his hair as she prepped her knockout dart. Just a simple matter of knocking him out. For his own safety. Everyone below might think he was doing something wrong –which she was most certainly ignoring for now. She didn't want him injured in any way.

She ignored that painful twitch that said that he might not forgive her for doing this to him.

Preparing to send him into a peacefully ignorant sleep, Kim couldn't help but to ask. "Would you come back with me to HQ? I promise that things will be different." She gripped the dart harder. "Really, they will be."

The blue man smiled, his heart beating erratically at the sudden request. That was all he had wanted to hears. He said "Ye—"

And suddenly he was torn from Kim's arms as a torrent of green fire came to life and spread all around the redheaded agent.

'Dammit!' the redhead cursed silently as she looked around for her former—no, not former, current—junior agent while on full alert. She'd been so stupid! The only way that he would have ever risked using the Jade Flame's name was if he had had her actual permission or, at least, was working with her…!

The whirr of a jet engine snapped Kim out of her thoughts and she whirled to face her rival. Sure enough, her agent was sitting in the grips of a claw attached to a small jet aircraft. The green and black camouflage pattern gave away who the pilot was even if the flames didn't make it obvious enough.

"Why hello there Jade," Kim said with a feral grin, trying to ignore the slight whimpering of her trapped partner.She didn't even seem to realize that he had morphed from her enemy to her partner needing aide as she continued, "Nice of you to crash in on the party. Too bad you weren't invited."

The cockpit snapped open to reveal her long-time nemesis. "Hey there Cupcake," the green woman snipped back cheekily. "I see you've met my new little dork of a partner. And the hostess shouldn't have to worry about invites. If you weren't such a social leper, you might actually know that!" The mob mistress shifted her attention down to her so-called ally and added, "You know, you're lucky that a noobie like you has such potential, Drakken. Otherwise I would've just left you for this hag to finish off."

Kim narrowed her eyes and tightened her fists, barely aware enough to avoid stabbing herself with her own dart. "This coming from a woman who's probably old enough to be my mother?"

Instead of getting angry, Jade just laughed. "Oh, aren't we just full of fighting words tonight." She narrowed her eyes behind her tinted goggles and asked, "So you and Drakken know each other, eh? Tell me, what exactly were you planning to do with that dart in your hand? I don't think it's there for any sort of social convenience…"

The blue man's jaw dropped as he caught sight of the small dart in Kim's hand before she could slide it back into her wrist mount. "You…you were gonna…" his face suddenly went from surprised shock to the most disturbingly malevolent glare Kim could ever remember seeing "YOU WERE GOING TO DRUG ME?" He started to struggle against the claws that held him, roaring like a caged animal. The fury that radiated off of him made Kim take an unconscious step back in case he did break free.

"Can't have you doing that, Sport," the criminal mastermind said as she pushed a button on the jet plane's console. The arm slowly retracted itself into the jet with the young man still struggling in its grasp. Kim knew she should have been doing something, but found that she couldn't move with him glaring at her with such unrestrained hatred. It dug into her for some reason she couldn't, or wouldn't, recognize, and she couldn't remove her gaze from his. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, her partner disappeared into the belly of the plane.

Even after he was out of her view, she still found herself to be paralyzed from shock. His attitude had done a complete 180 when he saw that she was prepared to knock him out with a dart. Surely he understood that it would have been for his own good, wouldn't he? But it was obvious that he had felt was also obvious to her that her own heart was rebelling against her own thoughts on the matter, and she shook her head to clear it, to concentrate fully upon her enemy.

"Ouch." The Jade Flame shook her head in mock sympathy and looked condescendingly down at her opponent while smirking in vicious delight. "I guess you just can't count on your friends like the old days, huh? I have to admit, you seemed to almost have him at the end. But you just had to follow the stupid book."

Kim's gaze sharpened as she looked up at the other woman, drawing herself slowly into a fighting pose. "You were watching us?" she growled, barely holding herself from attacking her rival to give her a well-deserved thrashing.

Jade's smile turned positively wicked. "But of course." Kim's fist tightened; the dart crumpled into a pile of leaking, useless metal with a sharp end, which she quickly snapped off with her thumb. The other woman noticed and chuckled. "You're touchy today. Is it that time of the month?"

The spy said nothing. She simply opened her hand enough to drop the now-useless dart. Seeing that her taunting was having no effect save for making the other woman angrier and more focused, the green and black bodysuit-clad woman decided to simply cut to the chase and really make her favorite opponent's blood boil.

"I guess you really liked this kid, huh?"

Kim bristled but still said nothing.

Jade scoffed and shook her head. "Oh please Princess. Spare me the plausible deniability angle." The green woman quickly glanced at her control panel and shut off an alert telling her that something was trying to break through the jet hull. Damn that kid was strong when he was angry! "I know you. I can tell when you hate something or if you're actually stressed by something I've said or done. Found it pretty hilarious when you got all self-righteous when I went after that scientist convention."

The villain switched her jet into auto-hover so she didn't have to focus on keeping it steady as she continued grinding the other woman's gears. "So give me some credit when I'm trying to tell you something, okay? And I'm telling you that you like this kid. You, the emotionless puppet agent, actually showed a bit of caring. Which, by my measure, means that you've gotta really like this guy."

Jade continued, purposely pretending to be ignorant of her opponent's ever-reddening face and gritted teeth. "That means that I absolutely have to have him." She couldn't help but to give a small laugh at Kim's face falling for a second before resuming a cool, collected mask of a professional agent. "Looks like that got to you. Resorting to your goody two-shoe training to try not to strangle me. Hit a nice little nerve then, huh?"

"I really had been a touch afraid that I would have to kill him while I was watching you two being all emotional. He looked ready to do just about anything with that little hug you gave him. You seemed to forget that the emotional ones are usually also the damaged and paranoid ones," she said. "Taking out that dart was probably the worst thing you could've done short of kneeing him in the 'nads."

"What do you plan on doing to him?" Kim finally decided that she had to say something, figuring that ignoring the terrorist's barbs would help to dispel her strange theories.

"Why Kimmie, I thought you'd never ask!" the green woman said grandly. "It's simple: you want him, I have him. What better thing to do than to make him mine and use him against you?"

The agent managed to hide the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat and calmly said, "Fine. You can go ahead and keep him. He's a traitor anyway; he might just turn on you as well! Cowards do have a tendency to run when things get tough." Bluffing her into thinking that he didn't matter could work. She might be increasing her partner's chances of dying, but it was better than what Jade was planning on doing.

"Oh, strike two! Don't you know that I like to record my battles? I'm sure that Drakken'll love to hear that little speech."

The criminal mastermind looked at her console's warning lights and swore to herself. It looked like she was going to have to get out of there soon. The little twerp had managed to get through the protected inner sections of the jet and was working through the outer shell. "Sorry Princess, but the bell's ringing and it looks like I'm coming out ahead this round. You should have realized that this was a set-up from the get-go. What in the world would I want in Paris?"

This was just some sort of test? Kim's eyes widened in realization. But of course, how else would her opponent test her new lackey's loyalties? Pitting him against his partner would have ensured that either he would prove himself to be on her side or that Jade could eliminate two birds with one stone.

'Except now she'll just keep him as a prisoner to torment me' she thought bitterly 'if not somehow enslaving him to her side'

In Kim's younger days, she might have charged at the jet, confident in her ability to do anything and get out of the fight intact. Looking at the situation now without her teenage sense of invincibility and knowledge of her opponent and the odds, she knew that there was almost no way of stopping Jade. Not without getting burned, or worse, dying. She felt resigned in watching as the cockpit of the jet closed and her long-time nemesis flew off into the night.

"This is going to be a lot of paperwork," Kim said aloud bitterly, ignoring the sudden sharp pain in her chest that she immediately attributed to stress.

He couldn't believe it. He just couldn't believe that she had just bluffed like him that. Completely used his feelings to try and bring him in quietly with no effort on her part.

Then again, why should he be surprised? Using an untrained target's emotions against them was part of the training to be an agent. And he clearly became an emotional wreck faster than even he would've guessed. He shouldn't be surprised at all. After all, Kim is their top agent. She would have realized that targeting his emotions could take him down faster than a fight.

"I promise things will be different," the blue man spat sarcastically to no one. He simply let the words echo around the fairly small compartment he had been shoved in, letting the words roll around him. "I'm so gullible…"

When he was first forced into the jet by the grappling hand, he had done everything he could to get loose. He'd sprouted numerous vines to tear at the mechanisms, somehow forced the 'fingers' open with his own strength, and even managed to do a few things that he hadn't thought himself capable even in his wildest dreams.

Of course, by that point he had gone slightly out of his mind with rage. The former agent couldn't remember much, but from the way the compartment was shredded with pipes snapped clean in half and various sheets of metal laying in heaps, torn into like a rabid animal was let out in the area, he was pretty sure that he had taken out almost everything in the jet's interior storage area.

That swung his train of thought back to his new employer.

The young man winced as he thought of all the excruciating ways that her former 'failed' agents had died. It was scary how creative she could be when she was feeling malevolent. Some had even been made into lessons at the academy on effective torture methods.

She most certainly had to consider this some sort of failure. There was no way that he could deny that hug. Even though Kim had been faking it, he certainly hadn't been. And he was sure that the Flame knew that he didn't have any sort of acting skills.

Which meant he was doomed.

He couldn't even resist if he wanted to; his outburst earlier had completely drained him. He doubted that he could even stand up, let alone fight off a woman that could shoot fire from her hands! Or was it plasma? Never really could tell the difference…

His heart dropped in his chest when he felt the jet descend and roughly bump against the ground, coming to a halt in a matter of moments. Here it was. The end. He had always figured that he'd go out in a blaze. He'd just figured it'd be a blaze of glory and not at a villain/boss that was paying him back for his failure and shame.

He had been such a fool…

Jade entered the back compartment through the reinforced steel door that was triple sealed to make sure that whatever was in the back stayed in the back unless she wanted it up with her. At the end of the trip back to base, her jet was having massive failures all across the board and she had actually been afraid that it wouldn't make it all the way back.

While she was annoyed at Drakken for his failure with the test, she was more impressed than anything. More than a few times she had managed to trap that bratty so-called super agent in this compartment and she had never managed to cause nearly as much damage as the wuss had.

Taking a look at it now, she was actually surprised that her jet hadn't failed mid-flight. She was sure she saw part of the outer paneling laying in the metal carnage and there were chunks of wire mish-mashed into the loose scraps. No wonder she'd lost auto-pilot and had trouble steering. Now she almost felt bad for killing the guy that had designed her jet. Almost.

After she had finished surveying the extensive damage, she looked around for the man of the hour. There was no way that guy wasn't exhausted from this and she wanted to interrogate him—the unfun way—about why he hadn't exactly been truthful about what he was capable of.

"Yoo-hoo. Anybody home?" Annoyed at the lack of response, she activated the overhead lights—or, at least, what was left of them. The few that weren't already on the floor flickered on and flashed crazily.

Idiot probably damaged the electrical system too. She was fairly certain her tech geeks could retrieve the incriminating data she had collected on Possible even if the systems were damaged. Even if they couldn't, she was positive she could use the redhead's actions to sway the blue skinned dork to her side. There was still enough light for her to see him crumpled up in the corner, his back against the wall.

"Hey." Jade walked over to the prone form of her comrade and lightly kicked his foot. "You. Get up. I wanna talk with you and it certainly isn't about flower arrangements." When he still didn't reply she kicked him a bit harder in the shin. "HEY! I said get up!"

It wasn't too often that someone completely ignored her and the frustration was starting to grate on her nerves.

Gritting her teeth, she grunted, "I said GET UP!" and shot him with some of her unique plasma blasts. He gasped painfully in response but said nothing. A bit of stray plasma lit a pile of insulation on fire and gave her a better light to see him in.

The green woman took a closer look at her partner and tsked. His hair, while usually disheveled, was horribly messed and hung limply on his head. It was caked with sweat and a bit of blood. That stupid 'battle lab coat' he'd insisted on getting was torn to shreds. It was actually a surprise that there was enough left to keep him decent. Those nerdy glasses that he usually wore were missing, though that wasn't much of a surprise. She probably wouldn't have even been able to find their twisted remains with how messed up her poor jet was now.

She was definitely going to have to see the rear compartment footage later. At least, if it was still capable of being viewed.

It was a shame she couldn't just confront him about it now, but it was clear that he was completely out of it. He'd probably be unconscious for the next few days. That at least gave her time to gather extra information about him. There may be something that he'd managed to hide from even GJ and her extra resources. Then again, she had depended almost entirely on her opponent's reports in the GJ database to get a measure on him.

Clearly her Kimmie was starting to miss her usual mark with numbskulls and their hidden abilities. Otherwise she wouldn't have listed this guy in the sub-par category.

Jade picked the slightly singed man up from the corner and threw him over her shoulder, carrying him unceremoniously out of the wreck of a jet. There was no way she was going to risk this leaking out to people. There would be little to no connection in her organization about the new recruit and the destruction her jet suffered. Because if others knew, it was likely that GJ would hear about it through the grapevine.

She didn't want that happening. Not yet, anyway. A smile graced her face that didn't quite reach her eyes. Oh yes, when they finally realized the prize they let through their hands, she wanted it to be too late.

She wasn't about to let this pretty little prize go.

And to think, she'd merely let him in and gave him this job to mess with Kim's head…

A/N:

I know, it's a bit strange. There is only one other kinda-Drakkim AU in existence that I know of and it was recently posted. Hilariously, we both brainstormed the idea at the same time without talking with each other about it. I started writing first, but the other person finished before I did. But mine's longer and a one-shot. Kinda.

Testing something. I seem to have a problem with multi-chapter stories, so trying to see if I can write a series of connected one-shots instead. If not, then hey, at least this can stand on its own. If I continue, it'll be a flip-flop between Drakkim and D/S. Though if you know me, you'll know how it'll probably end up.

Drew/Drakken is in his early 20s, Kim is in her late 20s, and Shego (Jade Flame, if you couldn't figure it out you silly, silly people) is in her mid-to-late 30s. Christmas cake, anyone?

In my defense, I started writing this (it was supposed to be a drabble!) before I posted the poll!

Thanks to kgs-wy for the nifty-awesome beta he did on the story. Thanks for rolling with it!