Deus' War Pt. 2

"It's okay, Shego. I'm here. Kim's always going to protect you."


"Okay, you're going to have to go over that again," Frankly this was the third time the woman had said that. It was all only just starting to sink in for her. It didn't help any that the blood pooling out of her shoulder was starting to make her light headed. Shego briefly toyed with the concept of being in shock. Only ten minutes ago she had watched the girl next to her dismember another person and somehow it didn't seem terribly important to her. Shock, maybe they were both in shock. That could explain so much.

"Hold still," Shego braced herself against the tree she was sitting on, her eyes training to one blood free speck on the teen's face. What happened next was her own fault, incredibly off putting, but still all Shego's fault. She had insisted that a hospital was not an option, she remembered that clearly, but had somehow not connected the fact that there was only one way left to remove the bullet nestled in her shoulder.

To her credit, Shego didn't scream as three slender fingers snaked into her body. She could feel every inch of movement as they forced the already healing flesh to tear itself open further. It was necessary, but it burned with the white hot intensity of a small army of villagers complete with pitchforks. More disturbing was the reaction of the girl performing this operation. Shego could hear the stifled giggles from her ally, held barely at bay by a clenched mouth. As the bullet was finally yanked free, the red head held it up triumphantly while she finally let the dam burst on those torrential giggles. Only, what the hell was funny in this whole situation?

"Well, at least that's out in the open," Kim tossed the bullet behind her like some kind of rock that had suddenly lost her interest. Instead she sat down next to her rescued villainess and proceeded to snuggle right into the crook of her injured shoulder. An absent hand traced the outline of the wound, now free to heal as messily as she wanted, "Maybe it'll be easier to think of it this way. Think it's natural for only one person to have the inside track on the future?"

A slight shift of her weight soon turned into full fledged scooching while the red head matched every move she made. A few seconds and it became apparent that Shego was just going to have to deal with her own personal arm comforter. It was the least she could do, in the scheme of things...sort of, "Okay, let's leave the stupid questions aside for right now. How'd you even know to come and fight off the bad guy, princess? I know I didn't trip a single alarm."

A stray hand brushed away a few raven locks from Shego's face. It all seemed perfectly natural, until the woman realized the hand that did it wasn't her own. She soon found herself staring into two all together too close emerald eyes. It was just a little on the disconcerting side, "Well, mine wouldn't be any good to me if it couldn't help me protect the most important thing in the world, now would it?"

Okay, this was suddenly going all kinds of wrong. All kinds was perhaps a momentous understatement- the grand pubah of all understatements if you will. The woman had a feeling she was about fifteen minutes away from being an extra in a slasher film. Pull it together, snappy comeback, "No offence pumpkin, but the most important thing in the world is a dinky lab?"

There were no words. Shego slowly found herself realizing that the girl in front of her wasn't going to engage in their usual banter. It was kind of strange, all the girl did was nestle herself into her little resting spot again and fish into her pocket. With no more ceremony than giving a bottle or water to a parched man crossing the desert, the little blue device was hefted onto her bosom.

Oh, how many times had Shego thought of all the damage that could be garnered with that device? To have an inside look into the teen hero's tech network might give anyone the shivers. But, for all the times the goody goody had lost the damn thing it had never so much as accounted for a screen saver. If it wasn't destroyed already it would toast itself long before there was any hope of breaking into it. Now, here it was sitting on her chest, just waiting to spill all of its secrets. It couldn't be this easy. It just couldn't. And, as the device was hefted to eye level with more than a modicum of difficulty - she had lost far more blood than she cared to admit - it truly wasn't that easy. The entire screen before her was filled with information about the villain. Entries spanning the past day and even into the next spoke of everything she had and would do, even observations on her mental state.

12:25 Shego's looking at the entries. She seems...I don't know...nervous, like it worries her.

God, that was an understatement. This was quickly becoming far more than she could handle. A pile of questions were already forming in her mind to demand from Deus the next time she saw him. For the time being, though, about all she could do was moderately play along. She convinced herself that playing along was simply easier than trying anything with a wounded shoulder, "Is...Is this all me?"

"Mm hmm," Kim purred into Shego's shoulder as she reached up and accepted her patented Kimmunicator back, "I like to call it, 'The Diary of Future Love'. It gives me all the details on you in convenient five minute intervals."

That was about all she could take. Stabbing shoulder pain or not, Shego shot up from her seated position and walked off. She didn't so much as look back, it was just...too weird.


"So Deus?" Her voice fluctuated a little bit, unsure of what tone she was really supposed to take. Casually she ran a hand down her chestnut hair till it peeled the strand off at the waste. A few more seconds were spent staring bullets at the hair like it was an invading organism. She had every memory she needed, more really, but couldn't yet decide which was the best station to take. It just didn't feel right.

"There really is no need to be so formal," It was so strange of a feeling. To look upon the face of a god and wonder if there were some things that even he didn't know. Just who was she fooling, and what was she going to fool them into thinking, "I had something I wanted to give to you. A little gift as it were."

"I won't kill anyone," Really, she was just trying to get a rise out of the would be god. It was important to gauge reactions, to see just how far she could venture from script. A small smile graced her lips and her deep blue eyes studied the man in front of her with boundless enthusiasm. The her she was right now would never have said something so ludicrous. She lived for killing.

"I know," He didn't even stutter a beat as her mind reeled at the complications. She had been expecting some kind of a broken record, over half the possible reactions all revolved around him laughing at her and playing along with the game. This one was an outlier, one she hadn't even considered coming true. All of a sudden, she had to wonder just who this being was, "It took quite a bit of effort. I had to rework yours into something that suited the new you...Murmur?"

She was struggling to get a grip on the situation. The paradox was staggering. Deus was, for all intents and purposes, a god. But, he was a god on a small scale, his infinite power could not exceed his boundaries. There was just no way he could possibly have perceived something that exceeded his original scope. It was like a computer program deciding that turkey must be delicious without having any previous experience of turkey. Or, something like that. God knows she wasn't the scientist, and it was probably pointless debating the finer points of cross world line travel with herself. Still, this was worrisome.

Her hair was quickly dropped from her hand as the pink haired youth tugged at her skirt. In her other hands the girl held a small cell phone which she quickly held out while he continued talking, "I know you don't have one of your own, so I thought it only prudent to make you one as well. It's quite a good design if I do say so myself."

"It looks like seven years old," Indeed, the phone certainly looked it's age, or rather the age it should have been. It was an older model design, god it was actually one of those designs that slid up and down for the number pad. How could the god of reality be so out of touch?

"See, told you it was stupid looking," Murmur looked especially proud of herself as she hopped off to her little corner of the chamber.

"I have a little bit of a penchant for the better designs. Before everything was just a small flat box," Deus sounded almost a little annoyed with everyone criticizing his design. This, in turn, elicited a giggle from both girls in the room. She considered, almost vaguely, that this might have been what it would be like to have a little sister. Now, if only she could figure out which her was thinking those thoughts, "But, I promise you that it has every function you could need. Including your very own, Chaos Diary."

"You know, it's hard to imagine you don't get a kick out of naming these things with the stupidest names possible."

Now he seemed noticeably put off. This was the reaction she had been hoping to obtain with the killing comment, but better late than never, "You don't want to know how it works?"

"Not especially," She absentmindedly flipped through the entries. A rather non linear look at what could be. It certainly lived up to Deus' poorly conceived name. The diary would give chaos theory specialists a holy grail. Of course, something like that was nearly unusable by everyone. It lead to only one conclusion, one she didn't like at all, "Just how much do you really know Deus?"

"It wouldn't be much of a game," Deus laughed slightly, standing up for the first time in the recollection of her borrowed memories. In truth, he was rather short, maybe an inch taller than her and his hair fell shaggily till it almost hit the floor, "If I couldn't design the pieces to properly fit with my players abilities. Now would it, Faith?"

She shivered at the name, he was making a game at dropping hints, just like she was making a game of the entire thing. Before she could bring another question out the girl found herself standing back in her own makeshift home. No, it was more like her borrowed home.

Along one wall sat a small bed and a nightstand. A closet stood less than two feet from the foot of the bed and practically in arms reach from that was what passed for a bathroom. She lamented her lack of an actual tub with great fervor, but creature comforts just were not meant to be. She glanced down at the small array of items on the bed, focusing immediately on the identification. Jacqueline Annabelle Faith, Stupid Deus, stupid doc, stupid...I need a vacation... Oh well, her mind wandered for a second, searching through the lifetime or new memories till it settled on just what she wanted.

She made a mad dash for the closet, flung it open, and grabbed at her prize. The pale blue tank top she had been wearing was quickly discarded - it would be burned later - and in its stead a wonderfully thick dark grey sweater was thrown on. A warm blush spread across her cheeks and she felt, at least, a little more at home.

Then it all came crashing down, the homely feeling anyway. She was jolted back into her 'persona' by the ringing of the phone she had only obtained minutes before. Most people would be wondering who could possibly be calling, not either of her current persona's unfortunately. One was noticeably perturbed to be disturbed this late, the other already knew who was calling. Still, she channeled all that latent hostility as she picked up her little phone, "This had better be good."

"Oh, but it is fraulein," The man on the other end had some kind of eastern European accent, maybe German or Dutch or...no, she didn't really care. This her didn't really care about a lot of things, "I have a job for you, after all."

"How much?" Short and sweet, she realized that was what had been missing from her conversation with Deus. She was supposed to be short and to the point.

"Very professional, unlike some other...rather incompetent idiots. Thirty million US, in vichever currency you want."

She let out an appreciative whistle through the phone, just long enough to be convincing, "You could contract a small gang for that amount. Must be some target."

"Targets. Targets. Two! I vant you to kill Kim Possible und Shego."

"For that kind of money, sure," She had no intention of following through on the contract, but she was going to play a good little part any way. Besides, assassins don't play well together. Her employer would not bother to hire another until he realized that she couldn't be trusted.

"Und, don't disappoint me. I would hate to introduce you to my strudel factory, Ninth."

"Of course not, Tenth," The line was instantly dead. She secretly loved playing games like this, leveraging information that she could not possibly have known to play with their predictable little minds. Everything was on the move now, soon she would have to be as well.


"And you were planning to tell me when?"

"Now, now, Michelle," Deus stood up, his body making no real movements as he quickly reappeared beside Shego. Her shoulder still hurt immensely, even nearly three hours later, and she was still holding it like a wounded puppy. Still, in his presence it seemed to die down to no more than a dull ache. That didn't help much with the patronizing tone he took though, "You simply never asked."

"Not like I expected to have to ask a figment of my imagination," She responded indignantly, trying her best to be put out by the whole experience. Of course, it was exceedingly hard to ignore the evidence to the contrary of her assumption.

"Is it really so hard to believe? The line between imagination and reality has always been exceedingly thin. To turn imagination into reality requires nothing more than a human of exceeding talent, so to it should seem no great task to make the transverse true. Indeed, perhaps it is the effect of living in the realm of imagination that differs a god from a mortal."

Before Shego could quip back about his nonsensical ramblings, Murmur decided to speak up from her seat on the currently vacant throne, "What the boss means to say is that he's an eccentric god who tends to prefer making his home in the imaginations of humans. But, you'd be surprised how difficult it is to get cable wired in."

"I'll give you eccentric," Shego huffed, rolling her shoulders and finding them surprisingly free of pain. Not like she was going to thank him for doing something like that. It was the least he could do after putting her through that, "After all. What sane god gives someone a super stalker power?"

"It is that super stalker power, as you so eloquently put it, that both saved you from Third and allowed you to be the game's first survivor."

"Just what I always wanted, to be indebted to an obsessed redhead. Just how many of us are there anyway?" Now it was getting a little uncomfortable. The feeling of having your skin knit itself back together is rather hard to place, it's even harder to place when the skin isn't healing. In reality it was more like her shoulder was travelling back in time, the completely indescribable feeling of having her body simply seal itself back up without groan or complaint paired itself with even her cat suit slowly mending again. Where only seconds ago there had been pain, now there was a slight tickle of cloth growing over freshly formed skin. The black haired villain shuddered, her body convulsing to the freshly reformed nerves.

"Thirteen. I have chosen the thirteen most worthy humans I could find to compete for the ultimate prize. My very throne."

"Basically, you all get to go around killing each other and the last one standing becomes a god," Murmur shot out from the throne again. Shego wasn't sure which was more disconcerting, her wound mending itself or the fact that a small child was more at ease with the premise of this contest than a hardened villain. How was she supposed to adjust to the fact that she was suddenly in a game where the only way to win was to kill the other players?

"So, I just have to kill Kim Possible plus ten other people who I don't even know? And in return I get to be a god, sounds like a pretty sweet deal," It was a pretty sweet deal, or rather it should have been. Any villain should have jumped at the chance to be a god. Only, on the inside, Shego was still sweating about what it would mean. She never killed, not for a long time. It was one thing she had more in common with a hero than her villain side would care to remember. Then again, she'd seen a hero kill tonight, spurred on by this bloody game. Could she adjust to that too?

"I wouldn't worry so much Michelle," Finally her shoulder was fully healed, as miraculous as a god could truly accomplish. In an instant Deus was back in his throne. Well, he stopped for a brief moment to kick Murmur out first, but watching the pink haired demon fly through the air was definitely a highlight to the day, "I have great hopes for you. Perhaps you could go all the way."

You mean 'perhaps I could kill eleven people'. Or maybe Kimmie will kill the other ten for me, like that wouldn't be just so convenient. Shego was quickly snapped out of her reverie by the pounding on her door. Judging by the laboured breathing on the other side Drakken had been pounding on it for a good five minutes trying to get her attention. Of to the corner of her eye, her phone vibrated yet again, the twenty-third text message from a certain obsessed redhead.

"SHEEGO! I BROUGHT THE EMERGENCY MEDICAL KIT!"

She slowly shook her raven hair, looking at her perfectly healed shoulder. She wasn't entirely sure which was funnier, her buffoon's reaction to the gunshot wound she had brought back or the fact that the 'emergency medical kit' was actually just a bucket with cotton pads (mostly for removing stubborn makeup), Q-tips (because they had been on sale at the time), and an assortment of band aids sporting different Marvel superheros. No, it was probably funnier that he had once tried to treat a henchman with a steel beam impaling his leg with that same medical kit, "We just need to find a band aid big enough to cover the hole. I'm sure there's one in here somewhere."

Shedding her cat suit, more for dramatic effect - and because she secretly enjoyed the shade of blue he was about to turn- than anything, Shego made her way to the door. When she finally pressed the release and opened it she was treated to a very distressed Drakken, curled up on the floor in the fetal position and wrapped around his precious medical kit. It took him another solid half a minute before the blue idiot realized the door was open and sprung to his feet, waste basket firmly in hand.

"Shego! I just wanted to," To his credit, he managed to get further into his sentence than she had figured he would before he got stymied by the fact that her green skin was only adorned with a pink sports bra and matching bikini cut underwear. She chuckled lowly as he mumbled through something that she assumed was supposed to be about removing the bullet but had been rendered unintelligible by the sudden shift in blood flow in his body.

It really was too bad, Drakken wasn't such a bad guy, but he was more of a brother to her than possible romance. For all his flaws, for all the failed plans and incompetence, he was sort of like a puppy that just grew on you. Still, they'd been down that road before and the only thing she'd learned from it was that they should always negotiate her contract while she was in her underwear, "Yeah, Dr. D? Does it look like I've got a bullet wound on me?"

"But, but," She snapped her finger in front of his flustered face, causing him to properly focus on her shoulder, "It was there when you came in? How does a bullet wound just heal in fifteen minutes? Oooh, this is another one of those comet power things, isn't it?"

He was sulking now as he walked away. Under his breath came muttered anger about the fact that he had never been able to 'create' synthetic comet powers. That was the last thing he needed anyway, an army of lazy henchmen with the ability to accidentally melt themselves into puddles of goo.

"Hey, Dr. D?" Shego started, her voice low and threatening to break apart at just about any moment, "I don't suppose we could try to take over the moon instead of the Earth? Just for a couple of weeks, or months, or, you know, forever?"


Thirty-third message in an hour. Aren't you supposed to be in some kind of class or something pumpkin? Who gave you my number anyway? Shego flipped through the messages slowly, pretending to be interested in what they said. Most of them were inane and stupid, exactly the kind of things she expected of her teenage counterpart. Well, aside from the frightening frequency of them. Briefly, she wondered why she hadn't deleted all of them before reading them.

The woman's long black hair splayed out on the bed as she collapsed backwards into its comforting embrace. Strands extended to cover every inch on its glorious white sheet, giving the bed a unique textured pattern of black and white, as she heavily sighed into the screen of her phone. She had seen this movie before, she had seen the telltale signs a mile away. Hell, she had even ran for the hills, and here she was reading through every single text like some kind of...high school girl! She was trying to justify it more with each text she read. The little red head had saved her life, removed a bullet and just been so damn vulnerable. She could pretend, a little, that she was only reading the texts out of a sense of duty. A hero had made herself a killer just to protect her, certainly she was owed something for that effort.

The only problem with that line of thought was that Shego wasn't really good with rationalizing. Sure, she could pretend like she was rationalizing everything away, but she knew the real reasons. She always knew. She was playing the game with Kim for one reason; because she wasn't comfortable with the game she was stuck in and the hero was. If need be she could use that obsession to rid her of the responsibility of having to take more lives. It was a sickening thought. Shego, a current villain and dead sexy thief, was going to use a teenager because she was too scared to take lives herself.

The thirty-fifth message flashed onto the screen of her phone...Hey, want to go on a date tonight? Absently Shego found herself responding to it. Her fingers deftly flashed across the stupid device's keypad as she lost herself in the snarky reply. Really, she hoped for their usual verbal sparring match, she wanted anything remotely normal. What you're going to take a wanted to criminal on a date princess? Like to a water park? Everyone can be all like, 'Look at the hero and the villain, just on a date. Nope, nothing wrong there.'

Shego hummed happily as the message zoomed off into the either. Certainly, it would wake the girl up from whatever dream she was stuck in. She would realize the difference between the two and maybe at least that part of her life would go back to normal. Of course, that train of thought only lasted about forty seconds until the response arrived back. Seriously, this girl was supposed to be in school, she was supposed to be a senior. That's a great idea! I'd love to go to the water park with you. Pick me up at 4:30?

Fuck, Shego's mind reeled as she rolled to her side. The phone was all but forgotten as she curled her toned legs into her chest and gripped them with supple arms. This girl was bordering on certifiable. Somehow, the date was not only her idea, but the girl had it in her airhead mind that Shego was the one doing the asking out. God knows - Deus, her mind corrected her - how many pieces she would end up in should she decide to stand the girl up, I'm dating a crazy girl...I'm dating a crazy girl who owns at least one sword that I know of...FUCK!


A redheaded blur of excitement streamed out of the change room, followed several long moments later by a downtrodden raven haired beauty intently having a staring contest with her own feet. Shego loved any chance to show off her perfect trained body, normally. Still, this was hardly a normal situation. Think of all the excuses she had used on Drakken just to get here. Actual excuses! She had completely forgotten to simply throw a few plasma blasts at him and had instead rambled through the stupidest excuse she had ever used. As if he really believed that she was going steal plutonium from Russian orphans.

Her feet certainly were interesting though, something she could scowl at without feeling bad about it. It also kept her from having to look and remember exactly why she was here. Though, the little blush Kim had been sporting as Shego slipped into the white and blue checkered string bikini had been completely worth it. Gah! She was thinking about her again, nice laser focus on the feet. Suddenly she was bumping into something, someone Shego vaguely realized as her head darted upwards. Maybe Kim had run back to drag her into the water or something.

Staring up at the black haired villain was another woman. Well, up was a little misleading considering she was at most three whole inches shorter. In the end, the poor girl looked like some kind of ridiculous mismatch for a water park. Her scrawny - yes, the only appropriate word was scrawny - legs ended in a pair of ridiculously cute and low cut white bikini shorts, its side strings tied at the sides in two identically cute bows. Immediately above the perfectly appropriate bikini shorts was a completely inappropriate sweater. Seriously, she was wearing a thick woolen turtleneck sweater in the same colour as her ass length chestnut hair. The hair itself was nicely trussed up with two braided bangs wrapping around the back to keep it completely confined and out of her face.

For a second, a second was all she could afford, Shego absently lamented the lack of a matching top. The girl probably would have been completely stunning in the full ensemble. Of course, her piercing blue eyes quickly brought Shego back to the reality of the situation. There was blue tinged glock .22 only a few precious inches from her face, her pale skin could practically reach out and kiss it with a little straining.

"You're wide open," The girl spoke, her voice completely unfettered. She wasn't hesitant, her hands didn't shake at all and she didn't look the slightest bit phased that they were in public. All too quickly Shego heard the now dredded nail grinding sound emanating from the tiny device clipped to her own bikini shorts. It had been Kim's insistence that she not let the device out of her sight and now she only wished she had ignored it. It didn't take a genius to understand exactly what was happening, "You should probably check that too."

The girl's gun gently motioned downwards and back up in one quick motion. Somehow, Shego knew it would be easier to lunge at the girl, try and wrestle the gun away and maybe kill her, but she instead unclipped the phone and did what she was told. DEAD END, those horrific words appeared on the screen again, only this time they had no accompanying flavour to them. It was like she was just going to die no matter what and for no reason what so ever.

"So, what, you're just going to kill me?" Shego tried staring the girl down, emerald eyes meeting steel blue in an attempt to gauge anything she could. Her phone flexed down instinctively as her body tensed, ready to exploit any weakness she could find.

"If I was going to kill you, you'd already be dead," The way she stated that, perfectly matter of factly, was terrifying in and of itself. It was like that was a foregone conclusion, even worse was the way she giggled while she pulled away the gun and used it to scratch her own chin. Her entire body was practically vibrating with laughter right up until that horrid noise once again engulfed Shego's phone. Her arms were a flurry, temporarily forgetting her position as she rushed to check it. No longer was there any hint of death. Could anyone change their mind so completely like that, was this some kind of trick? How did you trick the future anyway?

"You expect me to believe you when you're the one holding the gun," Shego asked incredulously. She didn't expect it to accomplish much, she certainly didn't expect the gun to immediately be tossed from the supple fingers. She was soon juggling the gun between her hands pretending that she wasn't deathly afraid of what this might actually mean for her.

"I've got too many of those things anyway. Did you know you can get rifles in pink?" There it was again, that melodic giggle like this was some kind of everyday occurrence. The shoe was completely on the other foot, though, Shego was the one with the gun now. The gun she was treating like some kind of month old rotten sandwich. It was quickly discarded as her hands engulfed themselves in their traditional green glow. Screw guns, screw the game, screw Deus; she would do this on her own and in her own way.

"Too bad, you gave up your only advantage," She lunged, aiming for brown and tuning out the rest of the world. She was tired of this stupid game and would make this girl a green and black bruise in retribution. It was quick and ugly for only one party involved, each time Shego would recover and lunge again only to find the girl not in the same position she was a second ago. It probably didn't help any that she was a flurry of black hair and rage rather than any actual talent. Eventually she gave up, pounding her fists into the ground and black flames licked out across the polished pavement, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"A lot of things, probably," Anger slowly seeping out of the woman, embarrassment quickly replaced it to her chagrin as the ground quickly formed around her little super powered tantrum site. Rather than continue, she accepted a sweater clad hand and was quickly brought to her feet. The concept of the appeal of a super powered cat fight was not lost on the woman, "For instance, I don't think I'm supposed to have a sense of humor. And don't even get me started on my taste in clothing."

"You think you're so funny, don't you?"

"No, I'm delightful, you just don't know it yet," She turned quickly and began walking off dismissively, her voice still calling over her shoulder, "You're going to want to work on those openings First. I wouldn't want you to die before we get the chance to meet again. And, tell Second I'm sorry we didn't get the chance to meet."

FUCK, Shego's internal monologue was starting to break down massively. There were several expletives that she wanted to yell out. Hell, she wanted to throttle the woman as she yelled them. Information overload is a terrible thing to happen, even worse as it continues. As if the day couldn't get any worse, another scantily clad woman sneaked right through the opening created by the retreating chestnut crazy. Another crazy one with brown hair, Shego was quickly rethinking her hatred of redheads for a slightly crazier colour. Of course, the eye patch didn't do much for her all together too provocative black one piece swim suit. Fuck, fuckity fuckity, fuckin fuckity FUCK!

"Looks like you have some crazy luck, Shego," Doctor Betty Director, Bets Shego reminded herself absentmindedly, had quite the timing. Had she been watching the entire exchange? Of course she had, that wasn't even a question anymore, "Or, should I call you First?"

Before Shego had finished opening her mouth to talk there was a flurry of red hair wrapped around her in a tight hug, frantically searching for what Shego only assumed were supposed to be wounds. Despite the awkward scene, she could maintain a cold attitude towards her old friendly enemy, "What are you doing here Bets?"

"Watching things develop, I suppose you could say."

"Wait a second," Kim was speaking up now, her face twisted into a horrific scowl at the woman in front of her. Shego kind of liked it, watching Kim practically gut the woman with her eyes was almost satisfying, "You're telling me that Shego was almost killed and you just stood there and watched!"

"I wouldn't exactly put it that way," Betty visibly shrunk from the verbal assault, but she recovered quickly enough for it to be barely noticeable. No more than a tick, really, "If she was going to be killed, she wouldn't be standing here right now."

"Why does everyone keep saying it like that?!"

Both women turned to look at the seething villainess. It was an utter shock, but she was tired of being talked about like that. Like everything was a foregone conclusion. She'd survived apparent death before, why was it such a surprise now?

"You really don't know who that was, do you," Both women looked at each other, then at Betty and quickly shook their heads. This earned them a little laugh for their effort, "Jacqueline Annabelle Faith, alias Ninth. I can understand Kim not knowing, but Shego you should know that name."

Kim's eyes were on Shego in an instant as her hand rubbed against her temple. Her mind was still reeling from everything and working through the precious little clues was preciously hard. Jacqueline...Jack...Jackie...JACKIE!

"Fuck," Shego collapsed to her knees, the reality just hitting her. It was a rather heavy reality anyway, "Jackie the Ripper? Seriously?"

"Mmmhmm," Betty nodded her head in an amused admittance. It was sort of understandable now. Jackie the Ripper, there were a lot of different theories on how she was so good, but there were precious few facts. You could just say, Shego and Jackie weren't exactly on the same lists in the villain world. Interpol, FBI, watch lists, no one bothered to put Jackie on lists like those solely because there was another bigger list she got to be part of. More precisely, she was placed first on the Assassin Watch list, a list where...well it was probably plenty obvious. The woman never failed a contract.

"So, I take it someone really wants me dead," It wasn't much of a question and barely elicited a nod from the woman in front of her, "But, why didn't she do it?"

"Who knows what goes through her head? Maybe she determined it was better business. She's in the game too now, maybe it's easier to keep you alive to find out who everyone else is. After all, she can come after you any time she likes. Still, it isn't much like her to shirk on a contract, much less warn her target like that."

"She's...delightful," Shego muttered under her breath, no one caught it, probably due to the intense stare off the other two women were engaged in. Kim had obviously figured out this next question already and didn't like the answer, "Bets, how did you know about the game anyway? You're one of them, aren't you?"

"I'm Fourth," She fished a small little phone out from in between her scantily clad bosom, smiling sadistically as she did so, "But, I don't really have much interest in winning just yet. I'd rather use this power to put away all sorts of criminals first. I guess that means we have a bit of a truce, for now."

"Oh no you don't," Kim was snarling as she chased after the older woman. Gods, she's kind of hot when she acts like a dog protecting her master. Crazy as fuck, but hot. Not that it all really mattered, she never did manage to catch up to the woman. Shego knew it probably wasn't the last time they'd cross paths. The only reason why Betty had mentioned the motivation she had was because it was the exact same motivation she had. Watch the two woman and discreetly use that to take out any competitors. Shego suddenly had an intense dislike for both water parks and brown hair.


"Vun, vun zimple job. Yet, zhe vailed," Ugh, she sighed heavily. His accent was somehow worse when he was angry. How much longer was she going to deal with this incompetent rambling? Probably about the same amount of time the whet stone was going to last her, "Vhat kind uf incompetant...STRUDEL, eets the Strudel vactory fer her."

The ranting went on for a few more minutes. The domed man paced like a mad man on Ritalin, all the while getting more and more off track. He had completely forgotten about the woman watching him and likely the entire purpose for their meeting. Mergers with idiots were rather hard to negotiate, "Und then, avter de cushion eets time fer de..."

It was rather hard for him to finish his final thoughts without a head. The woman's machete had cleanly separated the domed head from the rest of his body. A pity, she figured, as now she would have to re-sharpen the entire blade. So much work, but hostile takeovers were just so much more...hostile...than a merger.

"Miss Shine," A young man in an impeccable black suit slowly walked his way into the red round room. Rather than being surprised at the decapitated body beside her, the young man simply stepped over the body and even kicked the head with a resounding metal clank out of the way. She demanded professionalism of her subordinates, not like the man she worked for, "We have finished downloading all his files. The charges are planted as well, we're more than ready to move out."

"Excellent," She smiled, her blue eyes going to work as she focused on the man in front of her. Her one free hand snaked out and began to gently tug at his tie as she massaged it into perfect position. Upon deciding that just everything about him was perfect she started to stride off, "We can now move on to phase two. See if the dead moron or his goons had any whet stones lying around, I chipped my weapon on his fat head. Then trigger the charges and we'll be off. I do believe I have a date with a moderately crazy red head and a frightened raven haired reformed killer. It just won't do to be late to their funeral."


Outtake Scenes (A couple of short scenes I couldn't edit in without detracting from the story. Think of them as bonuses)

#1

Deus sighed, with Michelle finally gone, he could relax again...sort of, "Why did we make the Diary of Future Love again Murmur?"

The pink haired girl curled up on his lap, shrugging casually as she did so, "It's in the contract boss. Nothing we could do about it."

A giggling came from the other end of the large empty room, hidden behind a pillar as she huffed out a small strand of pink hair, "Oh come on, what kind of story would this be without it? Besides, they make a cute couple."

"Sometimes I worry about her boss."

#2

As Betty walked firmly past her, the girl finally let out a contented sigh. The play was perfectly in motion now, the pieces were set and she couldn't think of any more inappropriate metaphors. It was another few minutes before the girl finally stopped walking, her legs giving out beneath her and her body collapsing in a brown sweater filled heap. She was giggling uncontrollably.

"So, that's what she's like...sort of."


A/N:

Wow, that was a behemoth of a chapter. Considering we're only about two thirds of the way through this arc. Before I forget, Jackie's words " No, I'm delightful, you just don't know it yet," are in no way mine. I'm absolutely sure I took that line from some other fic. I'm not quite willing to go looking through all the fics I've read recently to try and find it so we'll consider it an Easter Egg (if someone can tell me where I got it from I'll make sure to update for the attribution).

I should also probably put this in here. Kim Possible and all characters are from Disny, Deus and Murmur, as well as plot points are taken from Mirai Nikki/Future Diary. A few original characters are my own at least, so there's that. I kind of wish I could claim ownership of Papa Drakken, just that name makes me smile.

There are a few other Easter Eggs I've been laying the ground work for pretty much starting in this chapter. Foreshadowing is a fun thing, but I wonder if anyone will pick up on them. Other than that, god Shine is a little bit on the nuts side. I suppose being cooped up doing crosswords for weeks will do that to you, or I'm rationalizing.

If this chapter is any indication (It probably is), chapters are going to start getting longer from here on out. Which means, longer times between chapters but so much more meat to them. I'm okay with that honestly, but there is always the option of breaking it up further. I could totally have broken this chapter into two parts if I had wanted.

Next Time...Deus' War Pt.3 ~ Shine's plan enters phase two as the game gets into high gear. Enemies will drive out of the woodwork for a chance to kill the newly minted couple of Shego and Kim Possible. Can they make it to the end, or will other plans set in motion send them off the deep end? Stay tuned.