A/N: Here it is, the promised alternate ending to Grief. To be absolutely clear, this picks up where Chapter 3 ends, with the unknown villain about to be revealed, and in this story, it isn't Zorpox. It is still perfectly consistent with Chapters 1, 2 and 3, possibly even more so (though the retroactive explainations will change, obviously). That's because this was the ending I originally had in mind for the story (oops, secret's out). Then the story started to twist and turn and take on a life of its own, and I couldn't help but write the ending I ended up giving it...but I still loved the idea of this ending, and couldn't bring myself to discard it completely. SO!

Side A/N: I don't cuss. I also don't write cussing. I do, however, acknowledge the existence of people who cuss (or in this case, people who's personality makes it obvious they would cuss, if they weren't on a kids show), and the necessity of accurately portraying those people. Thus, cussing exists in censored form in my stories...but ya'll know exactly what I mean by ****. Don't pretend you don't.

Oh!onemorething a/n: A quick plug for DragonGhost, from whom I essentially stole the title for this fic. DG wrote a sequel to the story Spite, by Hoagie, and called it Out of Spite (and both of those stories are very, very good, go read them now) so you can see the obvious correlation here.

Disclaimer: I'm just arandomshipper, not an owner.

Out Of Grief

...to reveal the sharp-featured, beautiful face of a woman, framed by a mane of hair darker than midnight. A beautiful green face, wearing a trademark smirk.

"Shego!"

"Sidekick."

"Takes one to know one." He automatically responded. Then he shook his head. Now was not the time for quips! "How are you still alive?! They told me they found your body. In pieces."

Shego's face lost its amusement and took on a look Ron had never seen before, but it terrified him. It was like the embodiment of pure rage. "I told him. I told him so many times, I lost count. I put it in my *** **** contract, for ****'s sake! NO. CLONING! But does he listen? Noooo, he never listens to me! And now look what happened! My last, my very last source of good entertainment, gone because of that ****tard and his ******* stupid as **** clone! I'll tell you what, buffoon, I've forgiven a lot over the years, but I have my limits. I should've killed him back when he tried that whole mind control thing."

Ron, ears burning from the outburst, struggled to understand what he was being told. "So...Drakken made a clone of you...and that's what killed Kim?"

"Of course it was a clone!" She snorted. "If I wanted Princess dead I would've killed her a long time ago." Her face lost its anger and became unreadable. "He said this time the process was perfect. That the clone would be exact, including personality. If that was true, I would be the only good option for a subject, since he'd need someone who already works for him and is a competent fighter. I should have known what he intended, but I just went on my vacation like I always do, and...that clone may have been a perfect copy of me in every way, but it didn't have our history. Me and her. It didn't know that I...that I didn't want to kill her anymore." She shrugged. "Well, now it doesn't know anything. It's dead, along with the big blue idiot."

"So it was revenge after all." Ron said softly. "But then, why all the other murders?"

The smirk returned. "For fun, of course. I gotta have something to entertain myself, now that she's gone. With her, just fighting her was entertainment enough, Sure, I had to be careful how I used my powers, but other than that she could fight me almost equal. These other idiots...I don't even use my powers at all, and they don't last ten seconds! And they're supposed to be the most dangerous in the world? It's over too quick, and that ticks me off, so I always end up killing them. Except Dementor. He's pretty useful, coming up with things like that massive EMP bomb. Until he tries to betray me and escape his forced servitude-and he will eventually, of course-I'll keep him alive for a while longer."

"So all of this was just for your entertainment? You're slaughtering people left and right...for fun?"

Shego put a finger up to her chin, pretending to think about it. "Hmmmmm. Ayup. All for fun. I mean, what else is there in the world? Fun is the only thing worth pursuing."

"But Shego," Ron shook his head. "Your 'fun' is putting the whole world at risk here. If you keep killing whoever you want whenever you want, Global Justice will be shut down, and their peacekeeping efforts across the globe will stop. You can't be that selfish."

"Oh, my fun is putting the world at risk? Well in that case, I'll stop right away!" Shego poured on the sarcasm. "Who do you think you're talking to here, sidekick? Doi. News flash. I am that selfish. I'm a supervillain who's been helping an insane psychopath try to take over the world for years, and if you think a world with no GJ is bad, just think for a minute what a world ruled by Drakken would be like. I. Don't. *******. Care. I'm not going to stop for the sake of the ******* world."

"Then I'll stop you."

Shego's smile widened and became more sinister. "Fine. Stop me. If you think you can. But the kid gloves are coming off now, and I'm putting on my adult gloves. How long do you think you can keep up?"

She tossed her black cloak aside in a manner reminiscent of a certain final boss on a 90's fighting game, revealing a suit vaguely resembling her old green catsuit, but completely black, not a hint of color. She brought her hands up and ignited them. Ron started. The green blaze was easily three times larger than her remembered.

"Oh, you like that? I had Dementor whip these babies up for me just in case I ran into someone worth my time. My old gloves were just designed to let me channel my powers through them, but these? These amplify my power. How much I'm really not sure, since I obviously haven't found anyone worth my time to try them out on...until now. Feeling special, sidekick? You earned my respect with that performance earlier."

"Right now I'm kinda wishing I hadn't." Ron said shakily, bringing his own hands up.

"Try not to die too fast." Shego whispered intensely, a wild look in her eye, just before she attacked.

END NOTE: This has officially become a trend. There's always more material than I think there is, or maybe I just take way more words to get what material I have out there. Either way, the result is that I keep having to extend my stories. If I think it's a one-shot, it's a three-shot. If I think it's a two-shot, it's a freaking 6 chapter story. This time though, I really don't have much material left. I'm extending this alternate ending to a two-shot to give myself leeway during the action, so that I can write more detailed exchanges if I feel like it. That kind of stuff can easily quadruple the length of a chapter, I've found. I guess the important point is, this alternate ending has another chapter coming, so don't panic that I'm leaving it on a cliffy. Though I may still end up doing that at the end...