- Final Fate -

Kim Possible turned out the last light in the penthouse suite before heading out the sliding door to stand in the moonlight on the rooftop patio. The silvery luminescence enshrouded her pale blue summer dress with an ethereal glow as she stretched languidly in the warm night air. Walking around the pool, Kim moved to stand on the far edge of the rooftop, leaning her crossed arms against the solid stone railing and looking out on the sparkling city spread out below her.

It had been a long, hard decade Kim reflected, but this year she had finally gotten her Doctorate in medicine, only one year behind schedule. All things considered, given everything else that had been going on in her life during that time, it was a miracle she was still so on-track. The pressures and demands of being the world's hero were bad enough, but with all the trouble that had come up between her and her family it had almost been too much. And it had all been because of one woman, the seeming source of all complication in her life.

Shego.

After Shego had kidnapped her that day so long ago it had been one car wreck after another. First there was the unbelievable, heretofore impossible revelation of her feelings towards Kim, and her intentions to act upon them. Then there was the breakdown that had shown Kim it wasn't just some sick obsession she had had with her—that as bad as Shego was, at least in this she was pure. That had sparked deep feelings of sympathy and caring within Kim, so strong they prompted her to reach out and give the other woman a chance, however slim it may have been.

For a while it had been nice, having Shego as a friend. Then, as things progressed, that friendship grew into something more, and Kim found out that she had been wrong. She was capable of giving Shego everything she had wanted from her.

The morning after, the full impact of what she had done had hit her, and it was the beginning of a long, difficult time for Kimberly Anne Possible, coming to terms with this particular application of "anything's possible for a Possible." Until that night she had been secure in who she thought she was, but that identity had been shattered, leaving her to try and pick up the pieces and put them back together again.

Shego had tried to support her as much as she could, but she really hadn't understood what Kim was going through. She had always lived life by her own rules and didn't give a damn what anyone else thought about her, so the best she could come up with was; "so you're Bi or maybe Gay; big whoop. Who cares what anyone else thinks?" She just couldn't get it.

Then there had been the next hit, nearly a year later when she had "come out" to her family. Her brothers hadn't blinked; to them it was no big, just like it was to Shego—and they thought Shego was "cool" too. Her mom had been disappointed, but understanding & supportive of the way Kim was. However, she had also been dead set against Kim having anything to do with Shego, no matter how much it had seemed the woman was trying to reform. It had taken her quite a while to finally come around and accept that Shego really did care for her and really was trying.

It had been different with her father. They had always been so close, and even to this day Kim still felt a sharp stab of pain over the way he had closed off to her when she finally managed to summon the courage to tell him the way she was.

"You're no daughter of mine."

Cold, like ice, those were the last words he had spoken to her that hadn't been in anger or disgust, turning his back on her completely and disowning her from the family, cutting her off totally from them. And no matter how much her mom and brothers had tried to smooth things over with him, to try and get him to talk to her, to try and understand, he remained intractable.

The years afterwards had been trying ones; with tensions running so thick you could have cut them with a knife. Kim had been torn up by guilt the more and more it seemed her revelation was going to splinter her family apart. Her mom had seriously considered divorcing her father and taking Kim's brothers away from him over his stance, and it had been a close thing that she hadn't—mostly due to Kim's constant pleading with her that she could live with his reaction, but she couldn't live with that happening.

Eventually things had uneasily settled down to a point of "truce," where Kim's mother and brothers didn't talk about her in front of her dad, and in turn, he didn't make any waves when he knew they went out to see her on their own. It was hard, but better than the alternative, and eventually their lives had returned to as close to normal as they were going to get.

Ron had been almost as bad. It was like the revelation was the straw that broke the camel's back. He had stood by her after they had broken up, months after they had gotten together the night of the Diablo Incident, and they had even managed to work back to something that was very nearly the same as they had had before trying to be together. Kim had even been happy for him when he had started dating Monique. He had stood by her when he thought that she had just been trying to reform Shego. He had even accepted a "third place" position on Team Possible as Shego began taking an active role in their missions. But he just couldn't accept Kim and Shego being together as more than that. It wasn't that he had a problem with Kim being Gay—or at least, so he said—it was that he had a problem with it being Shego. He just couldn't accept that.

After that he had grown more and more distant, until he stopped going on missions and eventually, stopped seeing her altogether, save for when they met through other friends or at social gatherings.

It wasn't until a few years later that other things had come to a head with her and Shego, the night of that terrible storm that so mirrored the turmoil Kim hadn't even suspected was brewing in the other woman until it erupted in anger, argument, and finally, full-blown violence between the two of them.

Shego's accusations had cut her to the quick, and she had reacted with anger of her own, lashing out against Shego with her own sacrifices, her own deep pain over what her relationship with the other woman had cost her. They had raged and fought and almost killed one another that night, each wrapped in armor forged of pain and suffering and righteous anger. After it was all done, every emotional barrier between the two of them had been stripped away, completely exposing their deepest resentments and hurts to one another, and things could never be the same between them again.

Kim drew a deep breath and vented a long sigh, focusing on the city once more instead of gazing into the past of her troubled memories.

Shego was out there somewhere right now Kim knew, creeping through a dark airshaft penetrating a fortress-complex in order to steal some device or precious data housed in its protective fastness. Or maybe she was battling hordes of elite guards as she fought her way towards her goal. Or carefully stalking someone unfortunate enough to have drawn the attention of forces powerful enough to be able to pay her to bring the target to them.

Even after so much time had passed it was hard for Kim, knowing that that was who Shego was, who she'd always be; a mercenary to the core and unconcerned with whatever rules she was breaking. And as much as Kim disapproved of her methods, as much as she wished she would do the right thing just because it was right, it was never going to happen. Shego was Shego and Kim was Kim, two different people with two inherently different views on the way the world worked.

As she stood lost in thought, a section of shadow detached itself from the penthouse roof behind Kim and tumbled to the patio floor below, landing in a crouch with the barest whisper of impact. Uncoiling, the shadow straightened and glided out into the moonlight, moving towards her with flowing strides of long feminine legs, each pace sliding like water into the next, weight balanced on the balls of feet placed perfectly one after the other—silent, soundless, deadly. Sections of dark black material and a waterfall of raven hair drank in the light even as emerald panels and pale skin reflected its luminescence.

The figure moved in complete and utter concentration, stalking its prey with supreme confidence until it had moved up to within mere feet of her. A strong arm rose up behind Kim without a hint of sound, the hand extending forwards toward her like a ghost. Moonlight gleamed off of the razor-keen edges of five wickedly curving plas-steel talons as the fingers moved closer to their target.

At the last moment, Kim spun around and slapped the offending hand away with a forearm block before sliding out to the side through the opening and dropping into a grounded defensive stance. Her eyes widened in surprise and she drew breath in a gasp as she beheld the striking ebony-and-green-ivory features of the woman who had almost crept up on her unawares.

"Shego!" Kim shouted, surging forwards, her arms sweeping up to slide around the taller woman and pull her in close. "You made it!"

Damnit. One of these days Possible; one of these days I'll finally manage to sneak up on you… Shego thought as she returned the embrace warmly.

"Of course I did Pumpkin. You didn't think I'd let some crappy little CIA contract keep me busy tonight, did you? It is our 'wood' anniversary after all…" Shego said with a snicker, her tone half amusement, half innuendo.

"I'm just glad you're back safe Shego," Kim said, looking up at Shego for a long moment before gently taking her face between her hands and drawing her down into a deep, extended kiss.

"I love you Kimberly Anne Possible, my beautiful valiant little Princess…" Shego murmured with a throaty burr when the kiss finally broke, hugging Kim tighter to her as she gazed into the depths of her loving fern-green eyes.

"And I love you too Shego Possible, my beautiful wicked little Bad Grrrl…" Kim responded with a playful, affectionate smile.

Oh yes, admitting that Shego had been right, that Kim hadn't treated her fairly at all, had been one of the hardest things she had ever done. Learning to love Shego for what she was, for who she was instead of who Kim had wanted her to be, had tried to make her be; that had been even harder still. But the most important things in life were always the ones that you had to work the hardest at; that took the most effort to achieve. And Kim and Shego had the most important thing of all.

Love.

The End

Author's Notes: Well, that's it folks, hope y'all's enjoyed the ride—and I hope to get final feedback despite not having any more parts to hold hostage on y'all's for it either. ;) :p

Should y'all's be interested, this was "officially" my second finished Fic. I'm still working on what I consider to be my first, Revelations of Destiny, a full story that promises to be well over forty chapters long when it's done.