Disclaimer: Kim Possible and all IP as it is presented in the canon animated television series is Copyright and Trademark by the Disney Company, using characters originally created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle. This is a transformative fan fiction work.
Crystalline Dreams
Story Copyright © Dale W. Robbins (crimsonhawk)
Kim Possible woke gently from her slumber, her olive green eyes fluttering erratically before finally staying open to peer around her.
What she saw astounded her.
The room was literally made of glowing crystals. Not figuratively. Literally. The iridescence of the crystals was a gentle cascade of colors that somehow both lit the room well and soothed her mood.
Even the bed she was lying in was made of crystal! It was somehow ridiculously soft and comfortable, like a waterbed, which defied everything Kim thought she knew about the physics of crystalline structures. But it was made of crystal all the same.
She then noticed the people around her. There were three men standing by the crystal bed. At least, she thought they were men. They didn't exhibit any of the "obvious features" that women would have, like breasts or rounded hips. But, then again, given Kim's build, it was probably better she didn't make any assumptions on that matter. And their nearly elf-like grace and beauty didn't help her to distinguish gender, either. They were dressed in flowing robes that seemed to scintillate as if the clothes themselves were made out of the same crystalline material as the walls around them.
And all three were typing at what Kim could only call holographic light panels in the middle of the air in front of each of them.
Suddenly, one of the men said something to the other two and pointed at Kim. The other two stopped in the middle of whatever they were doing and gazed gently onto Kim.
What the man had said had been unintelligible. Kim was fluent in twelve of the most widely spoken languages in the world and could identify another thirty-eight more by dialect and accent. She had heard nothing like this language before.
One of the men, obviously older than the other two, noticed the frightened look in Kim's eyes. As Kim sat up, he held a hand up as if to politely ask her to hold for a moment. His fingers danced across the holographic screen in front of him... the "lightpad," as Kim decided she wanted to call it... and a holographic reticule appeared right in front of Kim's face.
Kim blinked and lurched back, startled. She then looked at the older man with concern. "Um, what's going on?"
The man's response was in the same unintelligible language as his compatriot. But, as he spoke, he pointed at Kim, then the reticule, then his eye, then back at the reticule.
Kim nodded. "I... I think I understand. You want me to look into this thing, like I'm at an eye doctor or something..."
As Kim turned and dutifully gazed one eye into the reticule, the reticule suddenly burst into a bright flash of light. Kim fell back into a lying position onto the crystal bed, overcome by vertigo. Her head swam for several moments until she finally started feeling less dizzy.
"What did you just do to me?" Kim asked incredulously as she sat back up.
"The procedure took," one of the younger men commended. "I was worried that it might not work on the Relic."
"Fortunately, it did," the older man smiled. "Welcome to the light of the living, Relic."
Kim blinked a couple of times, considering each of the men. "Um, you're speaking English now all of a sudden?"
"English?" one of the younger men asked in return, looking a bit perplexed.
"That is probably the name of her native language," the older man assured. "No, Relic. Your mind is most likely interpreting what we are saying in this… English… since that is the language with which you are most familiar. But I assure you that you are most definitely speaking Galactic Common."
"Gala…," Kim gasped, her eyes growing wide. "Galactic… Common…? What?"
"Galactic Common is the language spoken throughout the Terrosian Hegemony," the older man assured Kim.
"How am I speaking it all of a sudden?" Kim asked, turning her attention fully to the older man.
"The procedure we just performed, retinal synaptic illuminosynchrosis, uses subtle light patterns projected onto the retina of the patient's eye to reconfigure the synaptic patterns of a very specific region of the brain, determined by the pattern of the lights," one of the younger men explained.
"In essence," the older man amended, "we used that flash of light to teach your brain to speak Galactic Common."
"Wow," Kim breathed, looking away slightly in bewilderment. "Medical science certainly did advance, didn't it?"
"Now, I do believe we have each other at a disadvantage, Relic," the older man confessed, dismissing his lightpad with a deft motion of his hand. "I am Velerathdien Gwadiir. I am the Minister of Science to Her Exalted Majesty, Queen Shenminaiel Mithdhrinthor of Terros. These gentlemen are my chief assistants, Taaphadnen and Aulyonon. We excavated your sarcophagus from some ruins in Northern Runalasia. I will be frank… considering the materials from which your sarcophagus was made, we were amazed that you were still alive."
"Well, I was cryogenically frozen," Kim admitted. "What do you mean by the materials of my… stasis pod?"
Velerathdien nodded. "Look around you. Everything is made from crystalophene in various states of matter. It is one of the most versatile… and easily processed… materials in the galaxy. Seeing something made of metal… especially something we assumed was your burial container… seemed like a horrific waste of a planet's geological infrastructure. To us, it indicated that you hailed from a truly barbarous society."
Kim rose a brow to Velerathdien's accusation, but chose not to pursue the matter. "How long have I been under? I mean, I was only supposed to sleep until the doctors had found a cure for the viral contamination that Monkey Fist infected me with…"
"Wait, you are contaminated?" one of the younger men (Aulyonon?) suddenly gasped.
Velerathdien held a hand up to Aulyonon as if to ask silence, then summoned his lightpad with a motion of his hand. Typing quickly at the screen, the older man nodded.
"There is indeed a viral contamination," Velerathdien agreed. "It is a relatively minor one, currently dormant due to what I believe to be the effects of this… cryogenic stasis? At any rate…"
Suddenly, the colors emanating from the crystalophene walls shifted from softer colors to bolder ones. It only lasted for a moment before the softer colors returned.
"It is expunged," Velerathdien smiled.
"Just like that?" Kim asked incredulously. "It was going to kill me in less than a week and the doctors didn't know of any cure! And you took care of it in less than two seconds with some fancy lights?"
"Medical science seems to have indeed advanced significantly, then," Taaphadnen concluded. "Viral infections such as yours have not been seen for quite a long time. Those few infections we do find are easily countered by simple illuminoradiance treatments like the one you just received."
"I am running a full medical diagnostic scan, however," Velerathdien added. "I wish to ascertain any lingering effects the illuminoradiance treatment may have had on your body. Your genome structure is significantly different enough from ours to cause me some mild concern."
"How long have I been under?" Kim asked… again. "You guys are obviously human, although you look a lot different from most people I know. But you're saying your genetics are different from mine. Just how old am I?"
"We cannot be for certain at this moment," Velerathdien confessed. "As we said, we found you in some ruins in Northern Runalasia. We are running tests on the structural integrity of the metal as we speak, but…"
Suddenly, a portion of the crystalophene wall nearby melted away, forming an archway. Through the archway strode a strong and confident woman wearing plated armor made of solid crystalophene and a flowing crystalophene cloak. She was even holding a crystalophene naginata. What struck Kim the most, however, was the woman's face.
Underneath long flowing locks of auburn hair, the woman had a cat's face!
"Um…," Kim started to murmur, inching back in the crystalophene bed in which she was lying.
"Ah, the Relic is indeed awake, as rumored," the woman purred. Yes, purred. "Her Exalted Majesty has requested that the Relic attend to her immediately."
"But, Commander Amadilna," Velerathdien protested, probably using her full honorific so that Kim knew how to address the woman, "the Relic just woke up moments ago. We have not even been given her name, assuming her culture even used names…"
"Hey!" Kim exclaimed, "I'm not that much of a barbarian!"
"You would counter the commands of our Queen?" Amadilna asked, glaring menacingly at Velerathdien.
The older man was appropriately cowed. "No, Commander, I would not."
"Then you and the Relic will accompany me to Her Exalted Majesty's court chambers immediately," Amadilna concluded. The cat woman then turned and strode from the room.
Velerathdien turned and looked at Kim. "Are you able to walk? Or whatever form of locomotion you use?"
Kim shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Yes, I can walk. So not the drama."
Velerathdien turned to his assistants. "You two continue running diagnostic scans on the data we've collected about the Relic so far. Make special note of any anomalies you might find.
With that, Kim hefted herself off of the bed and onto the floor. Even the floor was made of crystalophene, although it was slightly softer than the walls… almost like a shaggy carpet in consistency. Kim then followed Velerathdien out through the archway.
Amadilna awaited them out in the courtyard beyond the walls of the small building from which the three had exited. Kim couldn't help but stop and admire the scene. Amadilna stood, majestic, against a backdrop of a crystalline city skyline, a setting sun, and various crystalline sky ships in the air. It looked very much like a Luis Royo painting in its multicolored, surreal nature.
"Wow," Kim breathed.
"I need you to step this way, Relic," Amadilna commanded. "Take hold of my staff, so that my translocator may translocate you as well as me."
"And Vele… uh, Vela… uh, him?" Kim asked, pointing to Velerathdien.
"The Minister of Science has his own translocator. You do not."
"Fair enough," Kim conceded.
Kim stepped up to Amadilna and gently grasped the woman's naginata. Suddenly, the world around them shimmered slightly and the scene changed completely. The two of them were now within an impossibly exquisite and beautifully decorated crystalophene antechamber with various peoples milling about. Velerathdien appeared like a magical shimmering phantom next to them moments later.
"Wow," Kim breathed again. "How far did we…?"
"It was not far," Amadilna confessed. "346 klicks, if I am to recall correctly."
"Right," Kim nodded. If a klick meant now what it meant in her day…
"Illuminotranslocation is quite the convenience," Velerathdien smiled. "By converting our bodies into light and transferring them through the crystalophene of the structures between the origin and destination points…"
"So, we just basically shot like beams of light through everyone's house walls from the there to here?" Kim asked.
"That is a crude analogy, but not an untrue one," Velerathdien concurred.
"If you would accompany me," Amadilna requested, motioning for Kim and Velerathdien to follow her into the adjoining room.
Kim and Velerathdien complied.
Kim's breath was figuratively taken from her once again. The grand court hall into which they had walked was beyond human description in its exquisiteness and beauty. Easily the size of a football field, and just as tall, the crystalline building stayed upright through some principle of physics of which Kim was completely unaware. The luminescent tapestries, holographic artwork, and masterfully chiseled patterns all combined together to make the room one of the grandest upon which Kim had ever laid eyes. And the music wafting through the hall, just a decibel above the polite murmuring of the collected audience, was so beautiful, so soothing, like a form of New Age space ambient style.
Kim was startled from her reverie when Amadilna's voice suddenly rang out across the hall.
"Now presenting… The Relic Of North Runalasia!"
"I do have a name, you know," Kim muttered under her breath.
As if in response, another voice rang out from the other end of the hall.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please kneel for Her Exalted Majesty, Queen Shenminaiel Mithdhrinthor, Sovereign of the Terrosian Empire, Constituent State of the Terrosian Hegemony!"
Amadilna silently nudged her head, beckoning Kim to follow her. Kim nodded in return and fell into pace behind the catlike woman. Velerathdien stepped in behind Kim and followed the two women across the hall.
As Kim looked up, she saw a woman step up from out of view onto the dais at the far end of the room. Her robes, flowing to an imaginary breeze and shimmering an impossible array of soft colors, accentuated her feminine build quite well without revealing an ounce of skin. The cowl over her head nearly covered her face. What little of her face Kim could see was covered by a regal, crystalophene mask.
Amadilna and Velerathdien stopped just paces away from the regal woman and dropped reverently to their knees. Kim, unsure of what to do, began to drop to her knees as well.
"You need not kneel, Relic," Queen Shenminaiel spoke.
Kim's eyes went wide. That voice?
"The rest of you may leave," Queen Shenminaiel continued, looking about the room. "Including you, Commander, Minister. I would counsel with the Relic privately."
Amadilna and Velerathdien glanced at each other momentarily as the rest of the crowd within the hallway began to shuffle out. They then turned to the Queen.
"My Queen…!" they both exclaimed simultaneously.
"I have spoken," Queen Shenminaiel replied sternly. Then she added in a softer tone, "I am aware of both of your concerns. But the Relic will be safe and untainted in my hands, Velerathdien. I will also be safe with the Relic, dearest Amadilna. But do not stray far, Commander. I would summon you again shortly."
Amadilna nodded reverently. "As you wish, my Queen."
As the two stood, Velerathdien placed a gentle hand on Kim's shoulder.
"Give Her Exalted Majesty your highest respect, Relic," Velerathdien suggested. "She has led our Empire for the last three hundred cycles and she is wise in her ways."
Kim tried hard to not raise a brow at the Minister. Instead, she nodded dutifully.
With that, Amadilna and Velerathdien followed the rest of the courtiers out of the hallway.
As soon as the crystalophene wall closed behind the departing crowd, Kim turned to Queen Shenminaiel.
"Shego?"
Queen Shenminaiel pulled back her cowl and removed her mask, revealing to Kim that she was indeed who Kim suspected her to be. The woman looked slightly older than Kim remembered her, sporting slight crow's feet at the corners of her emerald eyes and a tiny bit of graying at the temples, but she was most definitely who Kim suspected her to be. Although her hair style was so different! It was cut short and combed back in a style that should have been impossible even with hair gel... rather like the feathers of a bird. But it was still that raven black with the slight undertone of green. And her skin was still pale, almost green-like.
"Shego," Queen Shenminaiel sighed, smirking slightly. "Now that is a name I have not heard in ages."
"What is going on, Shego?" Kim asked. "How long was I under? Everything is so… different."
Queen Shenminaiel sighed and looked wistfully off in the distance. "You have me at a disadvantage, Relic. I am trying to remember your name…"
"You're trying to… what?" Kim gasped.
"It's been a long while, Relic," Queen Shenminaiel sighed apologetically. "It's hard to remember that far back."
"Really?"
"Think of it this way," Queen Shenminaiel replied. "What did you have for lunch two days before you 'went under'?"
Kim smiled. "A club sandwich with some cucumber sauce and a cranberry juice cocktail. Ron made it for me because he knew it would be one of the last times we'd be able to spend time together for a long while."
"Okay," Queen Shenminaiel smiled. "Now, what did you have have for lunch two weeks to the day before you 'went under'?"
"Um…," Kim thought about it for a moment. "If… if I remember correctly… I think it was a fruit salad with some ginger ale. I think Dad had a barbecue that day…"
"Okay," Queen Shenminaiel continued. "What did you have for lunch a cycle to the day before you 'went under'?"
Kim blinked twice and then skewed her face up in an odd look. "Um…"
"Even better," Queen Shenminaiel added, "what is the name of the girl who sat across the room from you in school when you were seven cycles old?"
Kim shook her head violently. "Cycles? You mean years? Is there a point to this, Shego?"
"Now imagine what it would be like to remember someone's name from five thousand cycles ago."
Kim nearly fainted on the spot. But Queen Shenminaiel was quickly by her side… almost too quickly… and caught her before she did.
"Five…," Kim gasped, mustering up the strength to stand up again. "Five thousand years…? Seriously? It's been five thousand years since I went into cryogenic stasis?"
"The Ministry Of Science was quite excited over the fact that your stasis pod was still functioning," Queen Shenminaiel laughed. "Trust me, Relic, I remember you. We used to battle against each other constantly when I was Doctor Drakken's lackey. It was some of the best times of my life, testing my skill against yours. It has just been so long that I cannot get your name off of the tip of my tongue. Carmine? Crystal? Candace?"
"Kim," Kim replied, smiling softly after having heard Shego's confession. "Kim P…"
"Kim Possible," Queen Shenminaiel finished. "I knew I would remember it once I was given that nudge. You were that important to me."
Kim looked around again, as if looking for something. "So, five thousand years, huh?"
"Indeed, it has been, Kim," Queen Shenminaiel agreed. "The history that has passed since…"
"Okay, that was freaky-deaky weird," Kim cut in.
"What was?" Queen Shenminaiel asked carefully.
"You just called me 'Kim,'" Kim replied.
"But that is your name," Queen Shenminaiel started to protest.
"I'm so used to you taunting me with pet names," Kim pointed out. "Like Pumpkin or Princess or Cupcake. Or even Kimmie, as if I were a little girl. You never called me Kim."
Queen Shenminaiel chuckled at that. "By the stars, I was so immature back then."
"Out of respect for Her Exalted Majesty," Kim smirked, "I will neither confirm nor deny those allegations."
Queen Shenminaiel laughed at that one. "Oh, Kim, how I've missed you."
"I can only imagine," Kim sighed. "It's only seems like a couple of weeks since I last saw you. But yet… five thousand years?"
"Yes," Queen Shenminaiel nodded, looking off to the side.
As Kim watched, Shego waved her hand towards a nearby wall. An opening, not unlike a window, appeared on the wall. It revealed that the sun outside had finished setting. The crystalline city skyline glowed a soft, pleasant glow of many colors, doing nothing to obstruct the clear night sky. The sky was full of twinkling stars. The moon hung overhead, full and bright.
"We're not even on Earth anymore, are we?" Kim breathed as she looked beyond the porthole opening.
Queen Shenminaiel chuckled. "We are on Terros, Kim. You have always been on Terros. We gave the planet a formalized name once we encountered the Felinar."
"The what?" Kim asked, looking back at the Queen.
"The Felinar," Queen Shenminaiel replied. "Amadilna's people. They hail from the planet Felinos."
Kim gave Shego a queer look. "Feli… They're not even trying to be subtle about it, are they?"
"I asked Ama to teach me her native language one time," Queen Shenminaiel smirked. "It felt as though I was having a conversation with a Bengal tiger. Essentially, once the Felinar learned what we now call Galactic Common, they latched onto our word for cats and ran with it."
"So we've encountered life from other planets besides the Lowardians, huh?" Kim mused as she turned back to the porthole.
"The Felinar are but the first… and admittedly the most human... since the Lowardians," Queen Shenminaiel agreed. "Our peoples are even genetically compatible. Vel has stray traces of Felinar in his blood."
Kim snorted at that.
Queen Shenminaiel rose a brow to that. "What's wrong?"
"Stray," Kim giggled. "I see what you did there."
Shego considered Kim curiously for a few moments, then finally chuckled. "Right. Ah, Kim, I have so missed you."
Kim allowed herself a smile at that point. "Five thousands years is a long time. How are you even still alive?"
"Apparently, my comet powers not only heal me at a faster than normal rate," Queen Shenminaiel replied, shrugging her shoulders, "they have granted me effective immortality. According to Vel, I heal off the atrophy that is incurred through aging. I do age, but it is at a fraction of a fraction of the rate of normal humans. That is even taking into account current normal life expectancies, which extend into the half of a millennium now thanks to modern medical science."
"Wow," Kim breathed. She felt as though she was going to breath that word a lot today. "How do you keep yourself from going insane? Seeing the changing of the times, the passing of loved ones…"
"I knew you would be one of the few who would understand that concept, Kim," Queen Shenminaiel nodded. "I have worn so many personalities in the last five millennia that I am not even quite certain who the real me is anymore. To be honest, I am no longer certain if the 'Shego' you knew was the real me."
Kim nodded somberly. She considered Shego for several moments. She was tall and confident as Queen Shenminaiel, refined and regal. So unlike the snarky sidekick she had fought so many times.
"You've been Queen Shenminaiel for only three hundred years?" Kim asked carefully.
Queen Shenminaiel nodded. "Yes. Which means I can only hold reign for another one hundred cycles or so before I have to engineer a transition of power. This has been a benevolent rule, so I cannot exactly rely on a rebel faction to oust me like last time."
Kim blinked a couple of times. "Like last time?"
"I finally decided to conquer the world a little over three millenia ago," Shego confessed. "Pulled it off easily. It was about five hundred years before we encountered the Felinar and we were still using sublight drives to explore the stars. That seems so primitive now. At any rate, I ruled as Empress Shellindar the Dark at that time. I was an absolute tyrant, indulging in every pleasure I could think of without regard for anyone else. It was rather cathartic, actually."
Kim bit her lower lip, but continued to listen.
"Predictably, a rebel movement formed under my tyranny," Queen Shenminaiel continued. "I played cat and mouse with them for a time. Eventually, though, the whole thing got boring. Having every whim catered, every wish indulged. Even fighting the rebels became more of a boring chore than anything. So, after about three decades, I let them win. I did make it a point to vow revenge as I made my escape, though. Their leader reminded me a lot about you, in fact."
"I was only supposed to be in stasis until they found a cure to Monkey Fist's virus," Kim muttered.
"That is a funny story," Queen Shenminaiel stated, getting Kim's attention. "After you disappeared, Monkey Fist declared that you were dead and tried to conquer Terros. Doctor Drakken and Professor Dementor took exception to Monkey Fist conquering 'their' world. So a three-way war broke out and the world was caught in the middle. Once the dust had settled, Drakken had won, thanks to my help. But the price was too high. The population of Terros was maybe one-tenth of what it was before, technology of all kinds had been rendered useless because of a ritual Monkey Fist had performed, and arable land became scarce. Humanity had been effectively reduced back to the Bronze Age."
"You remember all of that, but not my name?" Kim smirked playfully.
"You try forgetting an event like the near-annihilation of the Terran race," Shego replied, rolling her eyes. "At any rate, no one knew you were still alive and in stasis. Quite frankly, Monkey Fist's ritual should have rendered your stasis pod non-functional, so your survival is still a mystery of the ages."
"I'm almost not surprised," Kim countered. "The pod had been built by Wade, after all, so it would have withstood a lot more than a lot of people would have expected."
"Speaking of your technical assistant," Queen Shenminaiel said, looking at Kim, "his gear did survive the Great War. He eventually uploaded his consciousness into various different kinds of matrices over the millennia. I should introduce you to WADE 48.0 sometime."
"That would be spankin'!" Kim beamed. "What does he do now?"
"He coordinates the hyperspace travel between the various factions of the Hegemony, moderates trade standards, and keeps a watchful eye for the Mesothelar."
"The… what?"
"The Mesothelar," Queen Shenminaiel reiterated. "They are the least human of the sentient species we have encountered so far. You might as well call them giant spiders. They see the rest of us as food and have tried to conquer us numerous times in the last millennium."
Kim swallowed audibly at that revelation.
There was several moments of uncomfortable silence, the two of them gazing out through the porthole, before Kim finally spoke again.
"At least you guys are in good hands with Wade at the helm," Kim said.
"And there is Ama," Queen Shenminaiel smiled. "You know she is the current head of the Yamanouchi ninja clan, right?"
Kim rose a brow to that. "The clan that Ron and Yori were a part of? So they went public?"
Queen Shenminaiel shook her head. "No. But they serve my throne as secret protectors of the Empire. They are the best kept secret in the galaxy. Ama is the only public figure… and quite the woman."
"I've only got the impression that she takes her job very seriously so far," Kim confided.
"You will come to know many more sides of her, Kim, trust me," Queen Shenminaiel said, turning to Kim. "I would have you join my Inner Circle. Right now, only WADE, Ama, Vel, and a couple of others you have yet to meet know of my true nature. Everyone else believes I am an upstart that just appeared out of nowhere three hundred cycles ago and overthrew the last Emperor, whose administration had grown corrupt."
"Will I get my own lightpad, like Vel's?" Kim joked.
Shego considered Kim carefully. "Lightpad? What is a…? Oh!"
Queen Shenminaiel took Kim's arm and gently extended it. "Position your fingers like this. Then think about what you call a lightpad and flex your wrist slightly."
Kim did as she was told and gasped when a holographic screen suddenly appeared in front of her.
"We call them luminotrons," Queen Shenminaiel explained. "You are basically summoning a dummy terminal that connects to a greater computing network that runs on all of the crystalophene fibers throughout Terros. Every wall, every piece of clothing, every piece of furniture, they each provide a portion of what we call the Crystal Matrix. Whatever we were doing with computers back in our day does not even scratch the surface of what the Crystal Matrix can do today. Take some combat lessons from Ama. You'll be surprised what you can do with a luminotron while under fire."
"I want to spar with you again," Kim suddenly said, excitedly. "Now that we're not enemies, I'd like to see how we do against each other. Our fights were so much fun…"
"Not until Ama reports that you are ready," Queen Shenminaiel warned. "I have had five millennia to hone my skills, Kim. And I know ways to use a luminotron in combat that would blow Vel's mind if I actually used them. At this moment, I would kill you faster than a blink of a warblar's eye… and that would be with me pulling all of my punches."
"I... I see your point," Kim sighed, turning to her luminotron screen. "Wow! I can even understand what's written on these screens. That light treatment thing really worked."
"Retinal synaptic illuminosynchrosis?" Queen Shenminaiel asked. "I was curious as to how you learned Galactic Common. I'll admit, I tried to get Ama to summon you before Vel could do anything. I wanted to hear English again."
"That explains why Ama was so obstinate," Kim said, smiling.
"A beautiful woman, isn't she?" Shego sighed.
Kim rose a brow to that. "You're… smitten with her?"
"Well, yes," Queen Shenminaiel replied, shrugging her shoulder. "Not that I could ever confide my feelings to her while she is serving me in an official capacity. Why is that surprising? What is there to not like about her?"
"Um, the fact that you're human and she's Felinar?" Kim asked carefully. "And you're both women?"
Queen Shenminaiel sighed and smiled patiently at Kim. "Time to catch up with the times, Pumpkin. The standard gender orientation in today's society is pansexuality."
Kim blinked for a moment. "You just called me Pumpkin."
"Was I out of line?" Queen Shenminaiel asked.
"No!" Kim gasped, holding her hands up. "No, not at all! It kinda feels good to see a little bit of the old you coming through."
Queen Shenminaiel smiled. "Good. I was hoping that would be case."
"So, what's pansexuality?" Kim asked, moving the subject along.
"Pansexuality?" Shego asked, thinking for a moment. She then looked at Kim with soft eyes. "It does not matter if the person you love is a man or a woman. It does not matter what his or her ethnicity is. It does not even matter if he or she is Felinar or Canthar or whatever. As long as you find that person attractive… as long as you love him or her… that is what matters. And Ama is very, very attractive."
"Wow!" Kim breathed… there it was again… with wide eyes. "That's… deep. So, if I were to suddenly say I found you attractive, you wouldn't be offended?"
"Offended?" Queen Shenminaiel laughed. "Kim, I would be flattered. You are a work of art, yourself."
Kim smirked. "Maybe, someday, my brain will be in that mode, then."
Queen Shenminaiel shook her head mirthfully. "You are such a tease."
Kim then turned back to the porthole. "Five thousand years. That means everything… everyone I knew are long gone."
"Then let us get you acquainted with your new family," Queen Shenminaiel smiled. "We will dine together tonight, you, Ama, Vel, and I. Then you will begin your training under Ama in the morning. It will not be easy. But it will be rewarding."
Shego then leaned in and breathed seductively into Kim's ear.
"I tend to reward the faithful quite well."
"Your Majesty!" Kim gasped, playfully pushing Queen Shenminaiel away. Queen Shenminaiel simply laughed in response.
[END CRYSTALLINE DREAMS]