Please note: This story is set outside of Disney's canon universe. I will attempt to keep the characters true to form, but certain requirements of my alternate universe will impress changes upon them.

Warnings: Mild violence, Homosexual relations, Mild language

Note: This is early. Surprising, no?

Chapter Ten
In Which a Hero is Seen as a Villain

"How could you let this happen?" Ron thrust his fist against the wall of Shego's apartment.

Shego stood a few feet away, bristling. "You think this was my fault?"

"You were supposed to watch her back!"

"I think that's the job of a good sidekick." She snapped back. "And where were you, huh? Getting your dink wet?"

"Shut up!" Ron's face turned a bright purple color. "This wasn't my fault!"

"And it wasn't mine either. So you can either lay off and work with me, or you can keep hollering at me. Choice is yours, kid."

He ducked his head. "Do you know where he's keeping her?"

"No, but I'm sure we can find out."

Ron eyed her warily for a moment longer before joining her on the couch. The television provided them with images of the battle, from Kim's fierce onslaught right up until Drakken stopped her.

"The thing that gets me," Ron watched the clip run for the fifth time. "is how he got a needle to pierce her skin. The doctors couldn't manage when she was in the hospital. They couldn't do it, so why can Drakken?"

"Maybe he didn't." Shego mused. "Do you remember much about the doctors? Could they do anything with an I.V. or hypodermic?"

"They could barely break her skin. They couldn't get the I.V. to work at all, though. They thought she was going to die for a while." Ron leaned closer to her face. "What are you thinking?"

"That maybe he froze her, but it's not permanent. He only got the bare minimum injected into her, by my logic."

Ron's face brightened. "Like in Hercules! Pain and Panic only fed baby Hercules most of the bottle to make him human – but not the last drop."

Shego allowed a momentary look of confusion to cascade across her features. "Sure. Whatever."

"Don't you watch Disney movies? Weren't you ever a child?"

"No."

"You're no fun."

"I'm glad you can think about fun." Shego flicked Ron's ear. "Concentrate."

"So what's your plan?"

"We break into Drakken's complex, find where he's keeping her, and break her out."

"Sounds simple enough. Then what?"

She blew a raspberry into the air. "You want more? That's not enough. We start there. If we can get her out, we'll take it from there."

"I like your positive thinking." Ron stretched his arms over his head and twisted to crack his vertebrae. "What are you waiting for? Call Betty, or Wade, or whoever. Get this started."

Although Shego wanted desperately to smack him for his nonchalance, she resisted the urge. Hitting the blonde doofus would solve no problems. Instead she pulled out her communicator and contacted Wade.

|x|x|x|

In the basement of his headquarters, Drakken paced from corner to corner and occasionally paused to drag his fingers down Kim Possible's frozen arm. A wicked grin disfigured his face at these moments. The henchmen around him avoided eye contact.

"I've done it!" Drakken hissed. "I've won! She can't drag me down any further."

"Sir?" Leon approached and saluted.

"What do you want?"

"The press is clamoring outside. They want a statement. You need to attend to them."

Drakken looked at Kim steadily. He half-believed that the moment he took his eyes off of her, she would disappear. There was a ephemeral feeling in the air that bothered him. He scratched the back of his neck.

"I suppose you're right." He straightened. "This is the perfect moment to tell the story the way it should be told. With none of the Possible girl's vicious lies."

Leon saluted again as Drakken marched past. Most of the henchmen marched with him, but Leon remained. Once he was alone, he walked to Kim's side and slid his fingers along Kim's wrist. Her pulse was there, shallow and steady. He reached up to rub his ear, covertly moving his mouth into position near a small communication device on his wrist.

"She's alive."

"And well?"

He winced at the biting tone that sliced through his earpiece. "I don't know. She's still frozen?"

"And Drakken is occupied?"

"There're ten different news stations outside." Leon reported, keeping his voice low. "He should be answering questions for a while."

"Betty's people should be out there causing trouble, too." Shego responded thoughtfully. "That should buy us half an hour or so."

"What are your coordinates?"

"Uh… The rooftop."

"There should be a door nearby. Enter that and descend. Keep to the shadows. She's in the basement. Wade should have already forwarded you're a map. If you have problems, I'm here."

Shego took the walkie talkie away from her mouth and motioned for Ron to follow her. They darted in the door Leon mentioned. The top two floors were mostly empty, which gave them a chance to rifle quickly through Drakken's office. Though time was limited, Betty had asked them that one small favor – if they could find any evidence of his dirty dealings, she would appreciate it.

Ron tucked something into one of the pockets in his cargo pants. He waved Shego onward. Whatever he'd found, Shego trusted it was good enough for them to move on. The further towards ground level they traveled, the more people they almost ran into. Ron had none of her grace, Shego discovered, and she often had to pull him out of the way to avoid being discovered.

"Will you be careful?" She whispered to him after a third such close encounter. "Just try it, for me?"

Ron scowled at her. Without Kim as a buffer between them, tempers had worn thin. "I'm doing my best, you damn green harpy."

"Sh." She slammed her hand over his mouth as two men slouched past them. Neither individuals sensed anything out of the ordinary. Shaking her head, Shego dragged Ron to the set of stairs leading to the basement.

Leon was waiting there and ushered them down. Ron sputtered at the sight of Kim motionless but ever punching. As Ron ran clumsily to Kim, Shego haunted the edges of the room. She trusted Leon to a certain extent, but nothing could overcome her natural wariness of other people.

"You took long enough getting down here." Leon muttered to her.

She shrugged at him. "We did have other business to attend to."

"You're cutting it close." Leon pointed to a television screen mounted to a far wall. "Channel 8 has already stopped asking questions. You have to get out of here now. The moment he knows she's gone, the building will go on lockdown."

"We'll never get her up to the roof."

Leon stared blankly at her. "You say that like you don't care."

"We came in the roof, but I never planned on leaving that way."

Ron waved them over. "We can't reposition her, Shego. What are we going to do?"

Shego groaned. "There goes that plan, I guess. But we still have to try."

"You two do what you have to. I'll go stall Drakken."

"Try to get him up to his office or something. Away from the front door."

Leon saluted her, wondering if he would ever be able to break that habit. After working for Drakken it was just natural to salute anyone in power, but he couldn't say that he liked doing it.

|x|x|x|

"Enough questions." Drakken yelled at the mob of reporters before him. Things had not gone as planned. There were too many allegations that he had dealt with the situation inappropriately. Too many questions about heroes of the past that had met questionable ends. "I'm not answering anymore. Send your complaints to my P.R. department. I don't have to deal with you people."

Spinning on his heel, Drakken stalked back into his building. Immediately, Leon was at his side waving a paper in his face.

"Sir, you're going to want to take care of this."

"What's this?" Drakken snatched the page and held it close to his face, as if he were going blind. Nothing of the sort was occurring, but Leon understood that his boss needed the dramatic elements in his life.

"It's what several of the news casters out there are publishing as a release."

"What's it even say?"

Leon bit his tongue – Drakken held the paper and could obviously read it himself. Sighing deeply, Leon began guiding Drakken away from the basement stairs and up to Drakken's office.

"They're worried that you're corrupt."

"Ridiculous." Nonetheless Drakken's eyebrows squinched together like two furry caterpillars attacking the same leaf. His lips pursed. "I thought this would all be put to rest with my defeat of that villain."

"People will talk."

"So they will." Drakken finally tugged away from Leon. "Well. There's nothing to be done today. If you need me, I'll be downstairs."

"Sir! If you let this go, then you may lose your opportunity to fix this in your favor!" Leon darted in front of Drakken. Drakken's eyebrows intensified.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking out for your best interest. The Possible girl is frozen, correct? She will be there long after you get your own perspective out there."

"Get out of my way." Drakken shoved Leon to the side. "Hold him."

Two waiting henchmen grabbed Leon's arms. When Drakken was out of sight, Leon twisted to look at Victor and Hugo. He nodded slowly and all three men fled the building. Whatever was set to happen that day had been put in motion. There was no point in sticking around to suffer the aftermath.

Several floors below, Drakken shoved men out of the way. His temper was bubbling just below the surface. It was obvious to him that something was definitely occurring behind his back, and he was going to get to the bottom of it. He burst into the basement, spotted the lack of Kim Possible, and began screeching like a wounded crow. Anything that wasn't bolted to the ground was thrown and broken.

"Darn you Kim Possible!" He shook his fist at the ceiling. His rage only increased when he viewed the security tapes later and discovered Leon's betrayal. This quadrupled after he realized that Leon had already fled. Someone would need to be held responsible for this.

|x|x|x|

Kim was propped near the front door, draped with blankets. They had carried her frozen body across town, but not even the heat of the summer day, nor the heat of the blankets, had even cracked the layer of frost in Kim's veins.

"Well this is great…" Ron tried to fight the listless tone growing in his voice. "What next?"

"I told you, we'd deal with it." Shego insisted. She stared at Kim. "I wonder if she can hear us."

Kim stared back.

Ron let his head fall into his hands. "How are we supposed to fix this?"

"Look, kid, first step is to just take a few deep breaths. At least we have her back, right?"

"Right." His inflection suggested that the opposite was true.

"Go lay down." She pointed towards her bedroom. "Don't come back until you've fixed your attitude."

As Ron sulked down the hall, Shego resisted mimicking his pessimism. It's a cold day in Hell when I'm telling someone else to fix his attitude, Shego thought. Heating her hands as hot as they would go, Shego placed her fingertips on Kim's shoulders.

"Come on, Kim. You can wake up. You can do it. You can do anything."

From inside the prison of her body, Kim fought to move. She had wanted to cheer when her friends had rescued her, to scream when she had first awoken in that blasted basement. But she couldn't move her eyelids let alone emit noises.

When nothing happened, Shego removed her hands and let her body cool down. "We'll find a way to help you," she promised, "and I won't let him get away with this."

Good, Kim wanted to reply.

"It looks like you got your ass handed to you." Shego plopped down onto the couch. "If you weren't already out of commission, I'd beat your ass."

As if you could.

"A lot of good that would do." The communicator in her pocket vibrated. Shego pulled it out. "Shego."

"Shit is hitting the fan." Betty announced grandly. "Those documents you grabbed, they're perfect. I've already leaked most of them."

"Ron never actually told me what they were."

"Receipts and pictures. Drakken sunk his own ship on this – he actually kept a record of the crimes he committed and then resolved."

"I didn't think even he could be so dumb." Shego glanced at Kim once again.

"The police are going to make the arrest tomorrow. It's still on the down low right now, but I have connections."

"That's great. You think he'd be willing to talk about whatever he put into Kim was?"

"Probably not. He's probably taking that to the grave." Betty sighed. "He probably views this as his last great achievement – why would he undo it?"

"We can't just let her rot like this?"

Rot? Kim panicked. I'm not ready to rot yet.

"She's no better?"

"No. Not moving, not speaking. Just… ice-like."

"Keep hoping. Keep talking to her."

Shego hung up on Betty and moved back to Kim's side. "You can't just give up. You were just getting to make a difference."

I know! And I was enjoying it.

"I won't give up if you won't." Shego rubbed Kim's arm.

I'm not giving up. Kim thought and struggled against her body.

|x|x|x|

"This is an outrage!" Drakken screamed as police officers secured his arms behind his back. "I demand proper treatment."

"This is proper treatment." The nearest cop chuckled. His burly frame overshadowed Drakken's ratty stature considerably. His nametag glittered in the sun – Barkin. "Proper treatment for scumbags."

"I am no such thing! You merely do not understand my genius!"

"I've heard that before." Barkin shoved Drakken roughly into his cruiser. "Doesn't change that you're a criminal."

"You read him his rights?"

Barkin slapped his forehead at his partner's comment. "I'm not fresh out of the academy."

"So you didn't?"

"You have the right to remain silent – anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to a lawyer. If you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you." He droned.

Drakken fought the cuffs chafing his wrists, but settled against the car's rough leather seats. "I'll be out of here faster than you can save your sorry jobs."

"Sure you will." Barkin turned his sirens on and swerved into traffic.

"I'm the only one keeping this city safe."

"The way I hear it, you're the one keeping this city in danger."

"Don't believe those lies!"

"It's not me you'll have to convince." Barkin barked. "So shut up."

Drakken seethed quietly until they reached the station. He walked quietly to the building, stepped quietly inside, and quietly refused any comment when questioned. Before they could book him, Drakken pressed a discrete button on his watch.

Somewhere in the city, a clock began to count down.

A/N: Only a few more chapters to go. This is early because tomorrow I plan to be drunk.