Disclaimer: I don't own Kim Possible or any of its characters or concepts.

Author's Notes: This chapter basically just continues the plotlines begun in the last chapter, with a little bit of new information thrown into the mix. Anyway I hope you like it. I'll try to get to the more interesting parts of this story soon.


Chapter 9: The Dark Knight

Lying prone on a sterile hospital bed, Ron breathed through the aid of a ventilation machine, his still damaged right lung making it difficult for him to breath of his accord. As of yet he had still failed to regain consciousness but his condition had stabilised to the stage where his life was no longer considered to be under threat.

The boy's right shoulder was heavily bandaged, his entire arm bound to his side to prevent any unconscious movement. The surgery he had undergone meant that what had once been a gaping hole was now merely an area of badly scarred tissue, though movement still had the potential to cause further internal damage. Until the bones refused entirely it was necessary that the limb remain restrained.

Though Ron himself was not aware of it, several figures stood around his bed. His mother sat by his bedside, holding his left hand and almost glaring at the room's other occupants. She was worried for her son of course, but she was motivated also by her annoyance that anyone else would dare pretend that they cared as much as she did. It didn't help matters that all of the boy's visitors were female.

Standing on Ron's other side and looking down on him sadly was Yori, tears gradually forming in the corner of her eyes. The girl could not understand how her life could have gone so bad so quickly. First her home was destroyed, her Sensei and many of her closest friends killed before her eyes. Know one of the few people outside the school that ever mattered to her was lying unconscious in a hospital bed.

The young ninja thought back to the moment when Kim told her what had happened to Ron. At the time she had not wanted to believe it. The whole reason she had even come to Middleton was because she wanted to find the blonde teenager. She had thought maybe if he told her everything would be okay then it just might be so. With her master dead she needed someone she knew she could trust.

But now the one person she had been sure she could rely on was unable to help her, unable to comfort her. She had been trained to need no-one, but she realised that right now she needed Ron, more than anything she needed him to recover.

Standing beside Yori, Kim could clearly see the emotions written across the ninja's face. Sadness and despair were certainly the most predominate, but there was anger there as well. The redhead had thought her life had been screwed up after the events onboard The Raven but she realised that her tribulations were nothing compared to the Asian girl's.

The last of the room's occupants was Shego, but unlike the other three she didn't stand beside the bed, instead leaning against the wall beside the door. Her arms were crossed across her chest, making it clear that she had no real interest in being there. She had come only because Kim had asked her too. That did not mean that she was completely uncaring of what happened to Ron, it just meant that she wasn't torn up by the simple fact he was still unconscious.

The three younger females had just returned from a visit to GJ headquarters, where Yori had made a full report to Dr. Director about the destruction of Yamanouchi. The Japanese teenager's wounds had already been properly addressed by Mrs. Possible at the time so she did not have to worry about bleeding across the Director's office. Surprisingly perhaps, Betty had already known of the attack on Yamanouchi, though she had been unclear on the exact details.

As she continued to stare at Ron, Yori's expression twisted into one of anger, an expression which she soon turned on Kim. "Why didn't you protect him!? You're the leader, isn't that your job!?" She wasn't sure why she was taking her anger out on the redhead, but she knew she needed someone to blame.

Turning her head away, Kim began to look mournful. "I don't know. It all happened so fast, I… I didn't see." That was true enough, she had not seen Ron get hit, but that was only because she was busy looking out for her own skin.

It didn't take long for Ron's mom to add her voice to Yori's, pleased to find someone who agreed with her position. "You should have seen! I never wanted my boy to go on those missions with you, but I decided to trust you. Now I see that trust was misplaced."

Shego growled, glaring at the older woman who had dared insult her Princess. "What the fuck do you know!? At least the ninja girl has some experience, and considering all she's lost I can understand her anger. But what gives you the right to judge?" She had only spoken once before with the blonde woman but she was already certain that she didn't like her.

Frowning deeply, Mrs. Stoppable glared back at Shego. She certainly did not like the ex-villain. Although only somewhat aware of the younger woman's villainous past, she knew enough to mark her as bad. Knowing that the mercenary had been present when her son was injured, she had no trouble placing much of the blame on her.

Both Ron's mother and Yori looked like they wanted to say something further, but were distracted by a loud groan coming from the bed below them. All eyes immediately moved to the bed, watching for any sign of movement.

Groaning again, Ron slowly began to open his eyes, wondering why it was he felt like he'd been hit by a truck. The last thing he could remember was being hit in the head by a lump of metal, so he was little confused to find himself waking up in what felt suspiciously like a bed. "Uhhh… where am I?" He could make out figures clustered around him but his eyesight was too foggy to tell exactly who they were.

Surprisingly it was Shego who responded first, everyone else too shocked to even move. "You're in Middleton Hospital Stoppable. You've been unconscious for almost three days now."

Blinking rapidly, Ron attempted to focus on the figures around him. He felt a hand within his own and turned his head to the left, soon making out the form of his mother. Exchanging a brief smile with the woman who had brought him into the world, he turned to his other side to see who stood there. He was a quite surprised by what he saw. "Yori?" He wasn't surprised to see Kim there, or even Shego, but the Japanese girl's presence was unexpected.

Yori smiled, almost reaching out for Ron's right hand before she remembered it was strapped to his side. "Hai, Ron-kun. It is good to see that you are awake." Internally she was overjoyed to see that the boy had recovered, but she did a good job of hiding most of her joy from her face.

The blonde boy went to rise but was held down when Kim placed a firm hand on his abdomen. "Stay still Ron, you're still not fully healed." Like Yori, the redhead was overjoyed to see her best friend awake but could keep her head enough to make sure he didn't move.

Squeezing Ron's hand harder, Mrs. Stoppable drew her son's attention to herself. "Ron stop talking to them, it's because of them and people like them that you're even in this situation." Though Yori had obviously not been involved in the incident on The Raven, the mere fact that she knew her son was incriminating enough for the blonde woman.

At first the sidekick seemed confused by his mother's actions, and then a slight frown crossed his face. "I know you've never really liked what me and Kim do mom, but what happened to me wasn't her fault. It wasn't anyone's fault but the bad guys." For once Ron sounded completely serious, the usual jovialness of his voice completely gone. It wasn't that he didn't like his mother, she was his mother after all. It was just that he didn't like the way she talked about his friends.

Mrs. Stoppable gaped at the blonde boy's denial. Had she really lost touch with her son so much that he would take these girls' side other hers. "I… I need to go tell your father." With that she released her son's hand and silently left the room.

Watching the middle-aged woman leave, Kim seemed somewhat worried by the departure. "Will she be okay?" She didn't particularly like Mrs. Stoppable, but she certainly didn't want to come between her and Ron.

Shaking his head, Ron lifted his left hand and held it before his face, noting that his mother's grip had left it slightly red. "She'll be fine." He supposed the reason he was being serious was because he was still in shock from having been unconscious for so long, and that it would probably past quickly. Temporarily putting the situation with his mother to the corner of his mind, he turned his attention back to Yori. "So what are you doing here anyway? Not that it isn't nice to see you." He added the last part hurriedly, to make sure the ninja didn't take offence.

Pausing for a moment in contemplation, Yori sighed when she realised she was going to have to tell Ron the truth, slightly fearful of telling him such distressing information when he had only just regained consciousness. "Ron-kun, it's about Yamanouchi."

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Seated in a throne identical to the one onboard The Raven, Brad rested his chin on his right hand. "So, did you get what you wanted? And more importantly, did you get what I wanted?" In all truth he couldn't care less about what anyone else wanted, his own wants was all that mattered to him.

Brad had agreed to send Nathaniel and Ashleigh, along with a sizable amount of his henchmen, along as backup for Monkey Fist's attack on the Yamanouchi Ninja School only because he expected the group to bring back something of use to him. Something that would help him learn more about the source of Ron Stoppable's power. His genetically-altered subordinate had claimed that he knew everything there was to know about the Mystical Monkey Power, but the well dressed male had little confidence in the monkey-man's intelligence.

Fingering the hilt of the sword that rose over his shoulder, Monkey Fist smiled to himself, enjoying the feeling of power that rushed through his fingertips. "Yes, the Lotus Blade is now mine. And as for what you wanted…" He reached into his vest and retrieved a small book. "Your boy found this on that old man's corpse, it's what you wanted." He tossed the text to Brad, unsurprised when the greying man snatched it from the air.

Flipping open the text, Brad smiled slightly at the contents. "Good, good. You can keep the sword and do what you will with it, just don't get in my way." He really didn't care what Monkey Fist did anymore, he had already served his purpose. However, if he did get in the road he would be eliminated, that was just the way things were.

Unaware of his boss's thoughts, Monty continued to run his hand along the Lotus Blade's handle. He could hardly believe that the weapon was finally his. The ultimate artefact of Mystical Monkey Power and it was in his hands. With the sword's power, nothing would be able to stop him, not even Brad.

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Throwing his damaged weapon aside, Nathaniel didn't even bother watching as it clattered to the ground in the corner of his room. He had tried to use the weapon in training but had been forced to admit it was too far gone, the damage it had taken at Yamanouchi beyond repair.

The battle with the old ninja sensei had been tougher than the spiky-haired male had expected, the aged master putting up quite a fight. Though ultimately the young man had managed to achieve victory, it had been the closest fight he had had in a very long time.

The room which served as Nathaniel's living quarters was little more than a grey cube, featureless concrete walls surrounding a limited amount of furniture. A rather uncomfortable looking bed sat in one corner, accompanied by a tall but plain wardrobe containing the swordsman's limited amount of clothes. The only other pieces of furniture were a large punching bag and a badly scarred block of wood adjacent to the bed.

Ignoring all the furniture however, Nathaniel strode to a seemingly meaningless stretch of wall. Reaching out with his right hand, he hit an almost unnoticeable notch, activating a secret mechanism that caused a section of the wall to slide away.

Once open the wall revealed a multitude of swords, all of them neatly held in harnesses bolted to the secondary wall that lay behind. Though many of them were of a similar design, none of them were identical.

Scanning over them quickly, Nathaniel grabbed the one that had forever been his favourite. It was easily a meter in length and had a thick, heavy blade. One side of the sword was a single, razor-sharp edge, similar to the edges of many of the other swords. The other side however was saw-toothed, a dozen backwards bending serrated hooks ready to rend flesh from bone at their master's command.

Unlatching the weapon's harness, Nathaniel swung it over his back and slid the deadly weapon home. Given the slightly odd nature of the hooks it was a miracle that nothing caught. Once the weapon was secure a quick flick of a switch sent the wall sliding back into place, hiding the fact that the compartment had ever existed.

As the compartment disappeared from view, a single click heralded the opening of the room's door. As the sturdy wooden object swung open it allowed a single figure to enter, silently moving towards the pale inhabitant. The footsteps of the figure were almost completely silent, generating so little noise that they were only detectable by the most heightened senses.

As silent as they were however, they were not so silent as to fool Nathaniel. "You wanted something…" He turned to face the intruder. "Ashleigh." He could guess what the girl wanted, used to her presence by now.

The blonde smiled, throwing a few stray strands of hair across her shoulder. "You know what I want Nathy, it's been a long day." Her sweater and jeans were gone, leaving her standing in nothing more than her blue undergarments. A tongue running across her lips made her intentions clear.

Nathaniel simply stared for a moment, before removing his sword and its harness and hanging it on a hook on the wall. "Whatever, my body's still a little tense so I suppose I could use the release." He casually pulled off his shirt and motioned towards his bed. "After you." Strangely even in this situation his voice was emotionless.

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Swirling a clear vial of liquid, DNAmy stared in wonder at the contents. Sometimes her genius impressed even her. It had taken so much work, but finally she had what it was she wanted. She had the answer to what made Shego the way she was.

It would seem that one of her scientists had already informed Brad of her discovery, as the man himself strode into her lab, walking straight up to her and standing with arms crossed. "I hear you have good news for me. I do hope I was not misinformed. People tend to die when I am misinformed."

Swallowing loudly, Amy lifted the vial she was holding and handed it to Brad. "That's it. That enzyme is responsible for Shego's mutations." She had managed to extract the enzyme a few hours earlier, but it had taken her some time to effectively synthesise it.

Brad snatched the vial from her hand, holding it up to his face. "So are you saying that if I inject this enzyme into someone it will give them Shego's plasma powers?" He hoped that it would, as that would significantly help his plans.

Though she knew it was not the answer Brad wanted to hear, Amy had to shake her head. "Unfortunately no. I've tried exposing the enzyme to different samples of blood and each time there is a different genetic effect, and err… each blood sample was destroyed. I could posit a guess that the process would be more stable when used on a complete person, but there is a high chance that anyone exposed to the enzyme will umm… die."

Flipping the vial over in his hand, Brad took a moment to consider the geneticist's explanation. "I was hoping for a way to reproduce Shego's powers, but in a way I suppose this might actually be better. A different power for every different person."

Though hesitant to interrupt, Amy felt she needed to point out a qualification to her earlier statements. "Actually, I believe that the genetic mutations are caused by reactions with certain sub-groups in the person's genes. Since it doesn't come down to their entire genetic makeup, it is likely… no actually it is certain that some people will have the same mutations as others." She had no way of telling just how many different mutations were possible, but she was sure it was a finite number.

Waving a dismissive hand, Brad showed he cared little for the qualification. "Regardless, it may still prove useful. All that needs be done now is to properly test it. I'm sure I can scrounge up a few expendable guineapigs."

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Sitting in the Middleton Hospital waiting room, Shego leant back in her seat, supporting her head with her arms. "So, he finally recovered." She was seated next to Kim, the two having left the room because Yori had requested to be allowed to speak with Ron alone.

Kim nodded slowly. "Yeah, he did." She knew what her companion was getting at, she was thinking of the agreement they had made earlier in the day. When the two had promise to divulge their feelings to each other upon Ron's recovery neither had expected him to recover so soon.

Sighing softly, Shego turned her head to the side so she could meet Kim's eyes, the redhead seated beside her. "What do you want me to say? I still don't know, I sort of got distracted by all this stuff with the ninja girl." Even without the distraction she probably wouldn't have been able to come to terms with what she felt so quickly, but it was a convenient excuse.

A slight smile crossed Kim's face at Shego's justification for her lack of knowledge. "In that case I vote for extending the deadline till a more convenient time." She smiled slightly wider when she received a nod in response. Though she was happy that her best friend had recovered, she now regretted having made the earlier agreement. "As long as we're not discussing… that, why don't we discuss something else? Like maybe what we were discussing before Yori interrupted."

Though she knew what the redhead was talking about, Shego decided to play the ignorant card, hoping that it might postpone further questioning. "We were talking about something earlier?"

Knowing that Shego knew exactly what she was talking about, Kim shook her head. "We were interrupted before, but this time you're going to have to tell me. Who is Dark Knight?" She had forgotten about the supposed villain for awhile but now he was at the forefront of her mind once again.

Throwing her head back, Shego glared slightly at the ceiling above her. "I suppose you could say he was my nemesis."

Kim frowned slightly in thought. "I though Aviarius was Team Go's nemesis, that's what Hego told me." Although she had thought the birdman a little unimpressive to be the nemesis of superhero team, she saw no reason to doubt what she had been told.

Shaking her head slightly, Shego maintained her eye contact with the ceiling. "Aviarius was always more Hego's nemesis than mine. He's a bit like Dr. D, lots of nefarious plots, not much success. Dark Knight on the other hand, he thought his plans through a little more. We didn't have to fight him very often, but when we did it was always tough, and even if we won he always managed to get away."

The information shocked Kim. "He was good enough to fight off your entire team? That doesn't really seem believable. Did he have strong henchman or something?" How could one man defeat multiplying twins, a shrinker, a plasma-wielder and a man with super strength?

Shego laughed softly. "Believe it Princess. He had no henchman, he was just one man. At first I never saw his face. He wore a technological suit of armour that gave him incredibly strength and speed, as well as a significant amount of armoured protection. It was also black and made him look like a medieval knight, hence the name. The suit aside though, he was an impressive martial artist with skills that surpassed mine, at least at the time."

Pausing a moment to process the information, Kim asked the only question she could think of. "So what happened to him?" Courtesy of their earlier conversation she knew the man was dead, so she wondered how it had happened.

The older girl looked thoughtful, as if even she was not sure of the answer. "We… finally managed to beat him. It took everything we had and then some, but we beat him. Down at the police station they finally managed to remove his helmet. Inside… inside he was just an old man, Betty said he must have been at least ninety years old. The suit was really the only thing keeping his frail body going." She could still remember the shock she had felt when she finally saw her nemesis' face, a man who could defeat her in combat, a man she had respected in some ways, was nothing more than a frail old man.

Although all that information was certainly interesting, there was a name in there that caught Kim by surprise. "Betty? You mean Dr. Director? What was she doing there?" If the brunette had been the leader of GJ at the time then her presence would have made some degree of sense, but it was strange for her to be at a police station.

Raising an eyebrow, Shego lowered her head to look at Kim. "You mean you don't know? Betty was the head of the Go City Police before she joined Global Justice, that's why she knows so much about my past, she was there." It surprised her somewhat that the redhead had not been aware of that fact.

Though that answer did indeed surprise her, Kim knew that the information was not entirely valid to their current conversation so merely stored it away for future reference. "So if this Dark Knight was so old, I'm guessing he just died from his age when the suit was removed." She wondered what the difference was between killing someone and allowing them to die be taking something they needed to live.

Shego almost laughed again, but this time she managed to hold it in. "The Go City Police didn't allow him to die Pumpkin, they hooked him up to some life support and put him in a special cell. His suit was locked up in the station's inventory. However a few days later, when they were preparing to transport him to prison, someone broke him out, and took the suit as well. They all thought he'd gotten away but a few hours into the investigation they found his dead body in a nearby park. Someone had killed him and taken the suit. I left a few days later but I hear they never did find out what happened to it."

A look of confusion crossed Kim's face, not at the method of Dark Knight's death, but at the other piece of information Shego had let slip. "You left? So that's when you became a villain?" It seemed they had finally gotten to the topic of conversation that truly interested her.

Eyes intensifying suddenly, Shego fixed Kim with an intense stare. "You still want to know what happened don't you?" She didn't even blink as her companion nodded. "Maybe I should start at the beginning of that last battle with Dark Knight, the last battle I had before it happened…"

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Hego grunted loudly as his back slammed into a sturdy concrete wall, his heightened endurance the only thing saving him from a broken spine. Ignoring the blood that trickled from his mouth and nose, he looked up at the midnight figure that stood before him. The ominous villain looked more like a robot than a man, but the musclebound male was certain that he was indeed human.

Along with his siblings, Hego had come here because they had gotten a call from the Go City Police informing them that Dark Knight had been spotted at an abandoned warehouse on the docks. The armoured villain was considered among the most dangerous men in the world and therefore warranted the immediate attention of the superhero team.

Upon their arrival they had discovered Dark Knight working on some kind of generic super weapon device. They didn't know what the machine was meant to do and they didn't care either. While Shego, Hego and the Wegos had engaged their opponent, Mego had snuck inside the machine and screwed around with its circuitry, causing it to partially explode.

Understandably the destruction of his machine had not gone down well with Dark Knight and he had responded quite violently, viciously attacking Mego when he exited what remained of the device. The purple hero's siblings had tried to protect him but they had not been fast enough and now the twenty year old was lying in a heap on the ground, a small river of blood flowing from a head wound.

Angered by their brother's fall, the Wegos had tried to attack Dark Knight head on but despite their multiplication powers their young age and relevantly small amount of stamina lead quickly to their defeat. For the creation of each clone drained the strength of each other clone, essentially substituting individual power for numbers.

While a badly damaged clone would simply disappear and merge what remaining strength it had with the other clones, the originals transferred all the damage they took to the clones they had spawned. This meant that it only took two good hits to take all the Wegos out of action. Two good hits Dark Knight was only too happy to give.

Now Shego and Hego were the only two left able to fight the overpowered villain. As the older sibling rose to his feet once more, they began to circle their opponent, the seventeen year old female igniting her hands with raging green plasma.

Half-maddened by the attacks on her brothers, Shego's eyes flashed dangerously. "You bastard, I'll make you regret what you've done!" The plasma around her right hand began to glow brighter, condensing into a sphere. "Let's see that damn armour of yours take this!" Punching out with her right arm she sent the powerful plasma bolt racing towards the man's armoured chest.

The mask that covered Dark Knight's face gave him the appearance of some form of demon, with a twisted scowl and two small horns accentuating the already frightening appearance of the suit's glowing red eyes. Although the fearsome visage hid the fact, the man within smirked at Shego's attempted attack and jumped easily to the side, watching as the sphere raced past inches from his chest.

Charging forward, Hego attempted to tackle Dark Knight while he was still airborne but was foiled when the older man swung out with his right leg catching him on the chin and propelling him backwards at high speed.

Hego crashed to the ground headfirst, the solid impact knocking him unconscious. Rolling along the concrete floor he collided with a pile of crates, bringing them crashing down on top of him.

Seeing her brother fall, a loud growl began to escape Shego's throat. "Damn you, try dodging this!" Leaping into the air she brought both arms slashing down, sending six high-powered plasma spears racing towards the ground. Before the attacks had even reached their target however she spun in a circle and sent out six more.

With a total of twelve plasma spears rapidly closing in on him, Dark Knight immediately flipped backwards onto his hands in an attempt to escape the blast radius. Unfortunately for him however, Shego had predicted the move.

The first six spears hit the floor where the armoured villain had originally been standing, exploding violently and generating a shockwave that knocked him off his feet. As his back hit the ground he could do little but watched as the final six plasma spears streaked towards him. Moments later he disappeared in a blindingly green explosion.

Falling back to earth, Shego landed in a crouch with her right hand resting on the ground. Head bowed and shoulders heaving she struggled to catch her breath, her entire body feeling drained of energy. She had never fired so many plasma spears at once before, especially not after using her concentrated plasma bolt, an attack that could take enough energy out of her by itself.

The sound of a heavy footstep brought Shego to her feet, but not fast enough to avoid catching a gauntleted fist in the chest. Coughing up a spray of burning green blood, the pale female fell to her hands and knees, struggling to breath even more so than she had before. She couldn't be sure but she had the feeling that attack had broken some ribs.

Stepping out of the smoke that had concealed him, Dark Knight looked down at his defeated foe. His armour was scarred and pitted but had nonetheless survived the spears' impact intact. "I'm rather impressed Shego, no-one has ever done this much damage to me before. But now you're going to die." His voice was filtered through the suit's vocal system and came out raspy and somewhat mechanical sounding.

Before Shego had a chance to rise, the suited villain kicked her in the side of the head, knocking her over onto her back. Slamming a booted foot down on her left shoulder, he smiled slightly as he heard the joint break apart.

Biting down hard on her bottom lip, Shego forced herself not to scream, determined not to give her opponent the satisfaction. She attempted to kick up with her right leg but Dark Knight caught the limb effortlessly. He smiled as he twisted, snapping the ankle with ease.

As the mysterious villain's foot lifted from her shoulder only to slam down on her chest, Shego couldn't help but allow a small whimper to escape her lips. The foot began to be twisted, sending spikes of pain through her already damaged ribcage. "I'll get you for this, just you wait."

Lifting his foot high, Dark Knight prepared to bring it back down, planning to shatter Shego's ribs and drive the splinters into her lungs and heart. "You aren't going to get anyone for anything ever again. You're going to die."

Though blood was beginning to fill her chest cavity, Shego nevertheless managed to laugh at the armoured man. "If you've got the time to be talking, you should look behind you." She smiled wickedly as a veritable wall of blue dived over her, crashing into Dark Knight and sending the both of them flying across the room.

As he and his enemy rolled across the ground, Hego tried to get as many good punches in as he could while the other man was still disoriented. When they finally came to a stop he was on top and attempted to pin the villain to the ground with his weight. "Don't touch my sister!"

Under the mask Dark Knight glared at the massive man on top of him. "You never know when to just lay down do you Hego." Pulling his legs out from where they were held he brought them slamming into the oldest Golovin sibling's abdomen, propelling the blue haired man into a conveniently nearby wall. "Maybe if you actually learnt how to fight you'd be a threat."

Flipping back onto his feet, Dark Knight stalked over to his fallen opponent. As Hego tried to rise to his feet, the armoured villain kneed him in the neck, almost crushing his windpipe in the process. As the larger man struggled to breathe his attacker grabbed his head with his right hand and drove it violently into the wall behind, leaving a large dent and once again rendering him unconscious.

Releasing Hego's face, Dark Knight drew his right arm back, preparing to deliver the final blow. Before the attack could be released however he was distracted by flashing green shadows crossing the wall. Turning slowly he was surprised to see that Shego had managed to rise to her feet. Her right foot faced in an odd direction but nevertheless seemed to be supporting her weight. Her left arm hang motionless at her side but her right arm was raised before her.

Growling manically, Shego bared her teeth in an animalistic snarl. "GET AWAY FROM MY BROTHER!!!" Her right hand erupted into fiery plasma and strangely enough her left hand followed suit. As the intensity of the twin glows increased even her eyes appeared to be glowing bright green.

At first Dark Knight was not threatened by the teenager's actions, believing her to be far too weakened to really put up a fight. That was before he noticed the thin wisps of plasma that seemed to be radiating out from her body. Less than a second later a wave of heat exploded from Shego's form, turning the air around her into a shifting haze.

As the metal girders and concrete blocks that surrounded her began to heat up and melt, Shego continued to exude plasma from her body, the green energy escaping from her anyway it could. Sweat glands or wounds, the method didn't matter, release into the surrounding air was all that was important. As the martial artist's body heat continued to rise, small strips of her skin began to peel off, releasing even more wisps of plasma.

Realising that the girl might indeed be a threat, Dark Knight charged towards her, clenching his right hand and deploying three razor sharp claws from his knuckles. "If you think I'm going to give you the chance to attack then you're sadly mistaken!" He swung out with his bladed fist, aiming for his opponent's chest.

Rather than try and avoid the attack, Shego simply caught it with her right arm, or at least stoped it with the limb. Instead of using her hand she 'caught' it with her elbow, allowing two of the claws to plunge through flesh and bone, and the third to cut across the side. Raising her head she smiled menacingly. "What were you saying? Something about stoping me?"

Before Dark Knight could react Shego straightened her arm, ripping his claws free. Although her elbow had now been torn almost to shreds she still managed to keep the limb steady and point it at the villain's chest. Then, through sheer force of will she raised her left arm as well, cracking noises from her shoulder doing nothing to slow her down.

As the plasma-wielder's wrists pressed together and her hands opened, the plasma that circled around her was drawn towards her joined palms. The glowing energy fused into a green orb that surrounded both hands and glowed so bright that it was near blinding.

Having a reasonably good idea of what was coming, Dark Knight attempted to retreat but did not move anywhere near fast enough. With a final animalistic scream Shego fired out the concentrated plasma from around her hands, sending a huge surge of glowing green energy rushing across the intervening space between her and her target.

Raising his arms in a feeble attempt to defend himself, Dark Knight took the attack head on. He was blasted back through several thick walls before eventually coming to a stop against an iron bulkhead, the column of plasma still driving into his chest but lacking the power to push him through the thick obstacle.

Despite her impressive stamina Shego could not maintain the attack forever and seconds after the villain's movement stopped she cut off the flow, collapsing to her knees soon after. The last thing she saw was Dark Knight sliding to the floor before darkness claimed her and she collapsed face down.

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While the whole of the battle just described to her was of great interest to Kim, the part which caught her attention the most was the wounds that Shego had suffered. "So wait, he broke several of your ribs, fractured your left shoulder, snapped your right ankle and ribbed up your right elbow. How did you survive that?" As much as she hated to admit it, the redhead thought the chest wounds alone should have spelt the mercenary's doom.

The pale female almost laughed at the concern she heard in the younger girl's voice. "I'm surprisingly resilient Kimmie. The loss of energy and blood caused me to lose consciousness, but fortunately my brothers recovered in time to take me to hospital. I was unconscious throughout the whole process but apparently they performed surgery on me to reconstruct my damaged elbow, reset my shoulder and ankle and repair the damage to my ribcage and internal organs. According to Hego they were working on me for almost half a day." All she could remember of the incident was waking up in a hospital bed with her body feeling like it had been pushed through a wood-chipper.

Kim knew that at the time in question Shego was the same age that she was now, and she wondered how she herself would have reacted to sustaining such injuries, or whether she would even have survived. "How long did it take you to get out of hospital?"

Shrugging lethargically, Shego returned her gaze to the ceiling. "Just a couple of days, Hego convinced them to release me, going on about how quickly I healed. He took me down to the police station to see the unmasked Dark Knight, where I was congratulated for finally managing to defeat him. Though considering that I was in a far worse state than him, I'm not sure if it really should have counted as a victory for me. Regardless, I was… quite shocked by what I saw. I couldn't stand to look at him for very long, so I left. I walked out of the police station, across the street and into an alley, planning to make my own way back to the Go Tower. That was when I met them."

Realising that this way be the segment of Shego's life she had been waiting to hear, Kim sat forward in her seat. "Them?" Perhaps she was finally going to find out the reason for the fall of the onetime superhero, a thought that filled her with both expectation and dread. The thief's earlier life was bad enough. Whatever made her fall was probably worse.

For almost an entire minute Shego said nothing, wondering if now was really the best time to tell the redhead about the darkest few days of her life. Again she considered how much easier it would be to just say nothing, to leave and return to living the way she had before. And again the answer came to her that she just couldn't do that again. If revealing her past was the price of staying with Kim, then it was a price she was willing to pay. "They… they were just thugs, petty criminals who spent their time stealing from old ladies and trashing shopfront windows with bricks. Usually they would have been no problem for me, but there was a dozen of them and I was too badly injured to effectively fight back.

"Though my ankle had been reset it was nowhere near capable of supporting my full weight, significantly decreasing my agility and speed. The remaining damage to my left shoulder and right elbow made it difficult to use either arm for attack or defence, and though my chest injuries had been largely repaired the remaining damage was still enough to prevent me from breathing properly. Despite the amount of time that had elapsed, my body had yet to replenish its energy stores and I was barely even able to turn on my plasma.

"Even with all those handicaps however, I still managed to floor three of them and knocked around two more, but then their leader drew a gun. If I'm focused enough, guns aren't usually a threat to me but in this case I was far too weakened to do any bullet dodging. He was quite efficient. Four bullets, one in each shoulder and one in each leg. I couldn't really even move after that." Shego had never felt as vulnerable in her life as she had at that moment, not even with her father.

Though she utterly dreaded the answer she was sure she would receive, Kim's inquisitive side forbid her not to ask another question. "What happened next? What did they do to you?"

Shego opened her mouth to respond, but all she ended up doing was drawing in a deep breath. This process was repeated several times with no progress made, until eventually the martial artist just shook her head. "I… can't, I just can't. I'm sorry Princess but I can't tell you what happened next. I can't relive that moment." She wanted to tell her, she really did, but if she put voice to her memories then they would consume her mind once again. It was odd, she knew what had happened, they were her memories after all, but as long as she didn't actually say it some part of her mind was protected.

As Kim looked on as the older girl actually curled in on herself, bringing her knees up to her chin and wrapping her arms around them. It was exceedingly odd to see the pale thief acting in such a way, almost like a scared child. The teen hero realised that this was Shego with all her emotional armour stripped away, a little girl who had lost her innocence long ago.

Looking closer, Kim saw that there were actually tears forming in the corners of Shego's eyes. They did not fall but they were there nonetheless. Slowly rising from her seat, the seventeen year old came to stand in front of her companion, reaching out and gently gripping her wrists.

Though at first she tried to resist the force exerted by the redhead, Shego eventually allowed her arms to be pulled open, slowly lowering her legs as well. To the raven haired woman's surprise, Kim actually sat down in her lap.

Wrapping her legs around Shego's waist, Kim placed her hands on the other girl's shoulders in an attempt to offer support. "It's okay. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, I can pretty much figure it out on my own." She took in a deep breath, wondering if what she was about to do was right. Wether it was right or not though she realised that she was going to do it. She needed to do this, if only to discover what she truly felt.

To Shego's surprise and shock, Kim quickly leant in and pressed her lips to the pale female's own, capturing them in a sensual embrace. As the kiss continued both sets of green eyes shot wide open for a few seconds and then slowly began to close. As their eyelids came together fully the kiss began to deepen.


End Notes: I love ending chapters at places like this. It just pisses people off so much. Also the consistent flow somewhat necessary during a chapter can be broken between chapters, making it easier to write. As always I'd appreciate reviews.