Chapter 6

"Looks like we're in for a wild ride, eh Princess?" Shejo jabbed her fist into Kim's shoulder and laughed as the Chinese troop transport jet's engines roared to life after takeoff. "We'll be at Lhasa by midnight and kicking ass till morning."

Shego's jubilant exuberance stood in stark contrast to the moods of the other occupants in the plane; the Internal Security teams looked incredibly grim, and Kim shared their feelings. Hijacked nuclear missiles were no laughing matter. There was only one thing that could be done with an ICBM, and it was never a good thing.

"Adrenaline junkie much?" Kim asked coolly, hoping that Shego would take the hint and quiet down.

"The rush is always nice," Shego admitted, "But mainly it's cause I look forward to a bit of payback."

Kim raised an eyebrow. Shego shrugged.

"Like I said, just because I don't get all emotional doesn't mean I have don't feelings."

Kim mumbled something indistinctly about Shego's bad grammar and turned her attention to the engineer opposite her, who was busy checking over his explosives. Perhaps it would be a good idea to keep some distance from him when the fighting broke out, just in case...

"Hey, Princess?" Shego tapped Kim on the shoulder after a few minutes of silence. "What do you have against me?"

"Pardon?" Kim shook her head to clear out thoughts of death and looked over at Shego. "What did you say?"

"Everything I do seems to just irritate you far more than normal. I was wondering why."

"That's not..." Kim immediately tried to deny it, but the look on Shego's face told her the woman was not convinced. Kim froze as she tried to come up with an excuse.

"Forget it," Shego dismissed. "It's none of my business what you think of me. Just a bit too curious for my own good."

"Wait, it's... I'll tell you, just give me a moment to sort it out, ok?" Kim took a deep breath and continued. "You're really sarcastic, even when it's not appropriate, but normally I don't mind. It's just that this time... I guess I was just weirded out by the thought that you might have committed murder, and then I saw you being so flippant about everything. It bugged me that you didn't seem to care about how serious the situation was. There's also... well, you remind me a lot about myself, and it always bothers me that we're much more similar than I'd like for us to be. When I see you, I sometimes wonder if I'd ever turn out like you, and this time, I was worrying if I'd ever kill someone."

Kim's eyes found their way to the floor and stuck there.

"It's silly, isn't it?"

"Nah." Shego put her arm around Kim's shoulder and gave her a surprisingly reassuring squeeze. "It makes sense considering that you almost did me in last year, but I wouldn't worry about it. I was never really what you'd call 'good', and you don't have it in you to be evil, or a killer. Makes me wonder why you signed on for this mission, considering... well, unlike GJ, the commandos here have guns and they plan on using them."

Kim's eyes shot up and looked around the plane. "I... maybe it won't happen. I've always been able to handle situations without casualties before, haven't I?"

"You'll try, Princess, but that's no guarantee. This isn't exactly a Disney channel cartoon we're living in, it's a real world filled with all sorts of unpleasant things."

There was another long period of silence as Kim contemplated the fact that there might be killing involved. She did not like the possibility. Conversation on the plane fell into a lull again, and the sound of equipment being checked joined the jet engines in filling the space aboard the aircraft.

"Hey, Shego?" Kim was the one to break it this time. "Why do you care?"

Kim's question caught Shego off guard, given the subject of their previous conversation. Much to her embarrassment, Shego found herself stammering as she scrambled for an answer.

"I, well, you know... despite everything, I do respect you for being able to keep up with me, even if you're a right pain in the ass most of the time. You're one of the few people who get me. Heroes and villains like us live in our own little world; it's pretty hard for outsiders to really understand what we go through, and what makes us tick. Hell, you're probably the closest thing I have to a friend after Drakken, but were were more like 'evil family' - his words, not mine."

Shego made air quotes around the phrase "evil family", evidently not a fan of the term. "Could never really communicate with him, you know? Sometimes it was like we lived in two completely different worlds."

"Hey." Shego change the subject abruptly this time, as if she did not want to talk about Drakken anymore. "You tried dating people other than the doofus, right? Drakken and I definitely saw you dating some other dumb blond once."

"Yeah, Manky," Kim replied. "And don't call Ron dumb."

"Whatever, the point is: how'd it go?"

Kim bit her lip. "Not well. He was cute and nice, but we never really connected. Not like me and Ron."

"Exactly. Manky was just a normal teenager who tanned at the beach and probably smoked pot. Monkey boy was your sidekick and did shit with you. It really wasn't any surprise when you started dating him; the supervillains even had a betting pool about it, which I won by the way."

"Yeah, well it didn't really last," Kim mumbled as she remembered the breakup. "We kinda just... drifted apart after college."

"Shit happens, Princess, but don't worry; you still have me." Shego grinned toothily and gave Kim another squeeze.

"Oh joy." Kim promptly made a face and pretended to be sick over Shego's catsuit.