Disclaimer: I don't own anyone besides my characters; War Hawk, Tigress, Golden Arrow, and a few assorted others. You can probably figure out who.

Dying

By shegal92

"Tomorrow is not a promise, it is a chance." –Rachel Joy Scott, Rachel's Tears

"Oh God, please don't let her die," Dr. Drakken begged under his breath. He rested his head for a second on the steering wheel, tears spilling from his eyes, "Please, please God don't let her die…"

His head lifted as he looked through the blurred traffic. Bumper to bumper with no end in sight. Everyone was trying to evacuate as if they were the next victims. He should've flown the UFO, air watch be darned. Global Justice should know better than to think he'd hurt them.

Of all the places she could've picked, she picked it exactly half way around the world. He snorted and wiped his eyes; alright, so she didn't pick this, he relented.

He went back to surfing the radio channels, but all he heard was useless garble, just a bunch of blabbing about how tragic the loss of Team Go was. He heard her name and turned it up.

"…Shego is currently in Intensive Care, the only one who survived the attack on Go Tower. She has yet to gain consciousness, and the villain responsible for the attack is only rumored. We'll keep you updated on the latest-" He spun the volume knob down, his blood boiling in rage. Dumb newscasters… They hadn't answered his most crucial questions.

Why had she gone home for the weekend? Why were all five of them at home at that time? Why were they slaughtered with all of their fighting experience and powers? What kind of heartless, soulless bottom feeder would do something this atrocious?

Finally, he arrived in the Go City hospital's parking lot. He parked in a handicap spot and raced towards the ER doors.

Hold on, Shego. I'm coming, just hold on.

Worrying about her didn't come natural; she bounced back so fast he didn't have time to. There was only one other time in his life that he had felt so much fear for her. He didn't like to think about that night.

He rushed through the doors to the front desk. A girl hardly out of med school was smacking her gum so loud, he could hear it over the heavy metal music blasting out of her headphones. Her legs propped on the desk, she was glancing through a Villain's Digest magazine. He rang the little service bell and she glared up at him. She pulled the headset down to hang on her neck, her feet thudding to the ground as her magazine slapped onto the desk.

"Whaddya want?" She sneered, sizing him up.

"I need to know what room Shego's in," he stated.

"Sorry, no one gets to see the celeb," her eyes then lit up with recognition as she eyed his scar, "You're that Doctor Dragon dude, arentcha?" Her gum smacked even harder, if that was possible.

"Yes, I'm Doctor Drakken, and could you please look it up?" She smirked, the same spiteful, here-comes-trouble way that Shego did.

"I don't know it off the top of my head; people don't tell me this stuff. It's probably on the computer though…" He grabbed the girl by the collar and he got her real close to his face, so close she could smell his disgusting breath.

"Tell me where Shego is before I obliterate you into Intensive Care yourself," he gritted his teeth.

"Rrrroom 213!" She stuttered. He dropped her like a hot potato and sprinted down the hall.

She propped her feet up, picking up her magazine and putting her headphones back on.

"Jeez, what's his problem?"

The elevator wasn't going nearly as fast as Drakken wanted, especially as the inevitable question popped up in his mind. What if she was already… gone? Drakken couldn't even stomach the other word. The one that meant she was gone forever, not just for a short time, and it was only for a short time…right? So she was just gone, not the other word.

There didn't seem to be anything "intense" about the care in Room 213. It was oddly quiet, and dark save for one row of lights above the lone bed. A young woman around Shego's age was checking the machines, though she didn't have on a nurse's uniform. Actually, there didn't seem to be any nurses around at all…

The girl sank down onto the foot of the bed, her thin frame curving into herself. Her ebony hair hung around her pale face like a curtain. Drakken remembered the girl from the few times Shego had a visitor; she was the bird man's daughter, War Hawk.

He cleared his throat and her lavender eyes met his, puffy red around them and bloodshot.

"I was wondering when you'd get here," she said softly, motioning to the chair beside the bed. He sank into it.

"Traffic was a nightmare," he murmured. He forced himself to look at Shego, fighting back a gasp.

"Is she…"

"She's stable," War Hawk finished quickly, her fingers playing with each other, "The doctors are pretty sure it's a coma, trauma to the head and all that." Drakken felt the tears coming; had the woman in the bed resembled the Shego he knew, they would've stayed back. It couldn't be her.

First of all, she was in a hospital gown, the closest thing to a dress she had worn in a long time. Her long midnight hair was spread out over the pillow like dark fire. The green tint to her skin was absent, her face deathly pale even against the white sheets. This hardly seemed like the girl who rushed into battle day after day, living her life on the edge without regrets. He tried to remember her saying something sarcastic and witty, but the image was lost looking at her delicate state now.

This had to be how the seven dwarfs felt as they saw Snow White in her glass chamber. She was dead, yet alive. But she also wasn't alive, she was dead. It was confusing, trying to find out how to put it.

His eyes didn't leave Shego's closed ones as he spoke.

"Who did this?" War Hawk shook her head.

"I don't know. I was coming home from my shift... I rang the doorbell half a dozen times, and no one answered. I tried knocking, paging, calling but nothing worked. So finally I let myself in, thinking maybe they were busy with something..." Her voice cracked, recalling the memory, "I found them in the team room… It was a slaughter. I tried the twins for a pulse, then Mego, then Hego…"

She twisted away like she was recoiling from the memory. It was only then that Drakken remembered that War Hawk wasn't just Shego's friend; she had also been Hego's girlfriend.

"She was on top of him… Trying to help him, I guess. I pulled her off…it was raspy, but she was breathing. I called 911, and Dad… Both of them were there in less than five minutes." Her shoulders jerked in the beginning of a sob, "He was crying; Team Go's arch enemy cried when he saw them dead…"

Drakken thought of reaching out to her, touching her hand or shoulder…something. But he didn't. He felt paralyzed under the weight of it all. He supposed he had lived in some fantasy version of villainy, where everyone walked away from battles perfectly fine. No murder, just dreams…

War Hawk took control of herself, drawing a shaky breath.

"You'd think the problem would be how many enemies they have, but no. I mean everyone had a little resentment about the whole hero thing, but it's pretty much water under the bridge. Even back then, no one hated Shego. She wasn't the self-righteous one, and had been known to let the occasional villain slip past her guard."

"It might not be a question of how much they were hated, but who would have the ability to kill them," he murmured, "I don't know many villains who have it in them to murder an ex-team in cold blood." What little color was in War Hawk drained from her face.

"…I know someone who fits both of those criteria."

"Who?"

"Tigress."

"The opponent from high school? It's been years since that incident at the cliff."

"Doesn't matter. She holds grudges for obscene amounts of time," she glanced at Shego, "I guess they're the only ones who know for certain, though."

A/N: I can't believe it's been six years since I wrote this story. At the time it was the most heartbreaking, graphic, angsty piece of writing I had ever done. Now… Well, it's kind of sad. So I'm polishing this up, making it a bit longer and changing scenes and such to bring it to its full potential.