Hey everyone! Sorry it's been a long time since I last updated - what, maybe four months? I'm not sure...well, anyways, I am back from hiatus! This is a long chapter that took me a while to write, but it clears up a lot of stuff. However, it brings up yet another plot twist at the end. *grins evilly* You'll know when you read it. Next chapter will probably be when I wrap everything up.
I don't own Kim Possible.
Shego was riding her motorcycle. She wasn't exactly sure where she was riding it to, but she was riding. Even so, she wasn't focused on the road, meaning that she had probably run more than one stoplight. All she could think about was Kim and how she had kissed her. Kissed her! Part of her had been terrified by the contact, but the other part was just like, "To hell with it. It's Kim."
She had been thinking about Kim a lot lately - about how her bright red hair fell with perfect body down over her shoulders, about how closely her olive eyes matched with Shego's own, about her perfect figure. She knew Kim didn't see it that way, though. She saw herself the same way Shego saw herself - soiled, dirty, forever flawed and captured by E.
Motor Ed.
Shego shuddered involuntarily. Where was he now? Why couldn't anyone find him? Was Kim right about him planning to make another move? She couldn't bear all of these questions, but the worst one of all she knew would always be nagging at her.
What if he hurt Kim again?
Suddenly, her cell phone rang, startling Shego out of her thoughts. Only two people had the number, and they were Kim and Drakken. This was the ringtone she had set for unknown numbers. Eyes locked on the road, she reached into her pocket and answered the phone with a rough "Who is this and how the hell did you get this number?"
"Shego, it's Ron. Wade found your number and gave it to me."
Shego relaxed slightly, but only slightly. She knew the buffoon hated her. "Why?"
"I think something happened to Kim."
Shego's heart dropped to her stomach. "What?"
"I...I was on the phone with her, and all of a sudden she just sort of randomly gasped. She wasn't answering me, and then she started screaming. It sounded like something was covering her mouth. Then everything just went silent, but the line was still connected." Ron sounded frantic. "Shego, you gotta help me find her. I can't reach her at all now. You're her girlfriend, you have to help!"
Shego nearly swerved into the next lane. "How do you know about that?"
"I saw you kissing her." His voice lowered. "I kinda made her cry over it."
"You know what, it doesn't matter right now," Shego surprised herself by saying. "I'll probably kill you later for making Kimmie cry, but we need to make sure she's okay first. Get Nerdlinger to get a lock on her cell, and I'll meet you there."
"Already on it, Shego," a new voice said. "Couldn't help but listen in. Sorry." After a brief moment of silence, punctuated by the rhythmic tapping of Wade's fingers on his keyboard, he said, "Got it! The corner of Fields and Avery. Well, more on Fields, but you understand."
Shego accelerated, eyes still focused on the road. "I'm already close. Buffoon, I'll meet you there."
Ron began to protest, but Shego hung up on him before he could really get into it. He didn't matter right now. All that mattered was Kim.
Ron pulled up to the corner of Fields and Avery and immediately saw Shego's sleek green motorcycle standing abandoned beside the curb. This didn't bode well for him.
"Shego?" he called out hesitantly, half-afraid that she would jump out and kill him. "You here?"
He looked down Avery Lane, where Wade had said Kim should be. He didn't see Kim, though; he saw Shego kneeling on the frozen ground, her back to him.
"Shego?" he called again, louder, but she still didn't look up. He approached warily, hands half-raised in case she lunged or something. "Shego?"
He came up beside her, and only then did he see what she was looking at on the ground. There were two things: one was a cell phone, still open and turned on. The other was a Kimmunicator with a small note taped to the screen.
You'll hear from us shortly.
Ron knelt down next to Shego numbly and tapped her shoulder. "Shego..."
Only then did Shego look up at him. Her green eyes were bright with pain and fear, and they were wet with tears. This shocked Ron; he had never seen Shego cry. Never.
"She's gone," she whispered. "He took her."
Ron didn't know what to do to comfort the villainess, especially when he was feeling the same loss and fear she was. Even though part of him still hated her, he knew that Kim loved her, and even if he didn't show it that was enough for him. Partly because he needed it and partly because she did, he reached over and draped a comforting arm around her shoulders. He felt her stiffen under his touch, but he wasn't sure if it was because he was a boy or just because he was Ron Stoppable, the buffoon, comforting her.
"We can find her," he said quietly. "We have to find her."
Shego blinked rapidly and stood up, looking at Ron. She muttered something under her breath.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Thank you, Ron," she repeated quietly, and this shocked Ron almost more than her tears.
"Um...you're welcome..." he said slowly, trying to wrap his mind around what had just happened.
Shego tucked a stray strand of ebon hair behind her right ear and turned away from him. "Call Nerdlinger. Ask him if there are any cameras in this area he can pull tapes from. We did it before, we can do it again."
Ron nodded and pulled out his own Kimmunicator - the Ronmunicator, Kim called it, but that just didn't have the same ring to it. Shego watched as his mouth began moving, but she didn't actually hear his words. All she heard was the erratic pounding of her heart as it fought to free itself from her chest. She looked up at the sky and, after a moment of questioning her sanity, prayed.
Kim was utterly terrified. There was no other term for it. She was so terrified she thought she was going to either throw up or pass out. She remembered talking to Ron, and then that person had come up behind her...then, all of a sudden, here she was, chained by her wrists to a rough brick wall in a dark room.
After she got over the initial panic, she was just barely able to focus enough to assess her surroundings. There was nothing and no one in the room besides her. The lack of bed made her feel a tiny bit better, but only a tiny bit. After all, she was still being held captive by Motor Ed - at least, that's who she assumed had captured her.
Kim rotated her wrists in the cuffs, trying to regain the feeling in them, but the action merely served to chafe the skin below her hands. Only then did she notice that, even though her feet were touching the ground, the only thing keeping her from collapsing were the chains themselves. She stood up fully and breathed a sigh of relief as the pain in her wrists lessened.
Then a sudden notion hit her, and she breathed, "Shego."
What if they had hurt her?
A fresh bout of tears began to spill from her eyelids. If her captor had done something to Shego, she didn't know how she could live with it. She felt like she was on the brink of passing out from the buildup of fear, both for Shego's safety and her own.
"Shego," she whispered, her voice trembling. Her knees involuntarily gave way and she half-sank slowly to the ground, her knees almost a foot above the floor. Her wrists were driven to cracking, but she didn't care.
Suddenly, she heard footsteps approaching the closed door of her room. Her head snapped up fearfully, breath hitching in her throat as the knob turned and the door swung in. She half expected Motor Ed to come barging in, wielding God knows what type of machine. However, that's not who came in first.
"Oh my God..." she whispered.
The burly man walked in slowly, almost mechanically, and stood in front of Kim. He could've been a statue to her had she not seen him come in. His vibrant blue eyes bored into hers, looking but not really seeing through the glaze that seemed to have fallen over them.
"Oh my God..." she repeated shakily, trembling all over. "You...you knew..."
Hego didn't move a muscle. He simply stood there, staring at the captive without the slightest trace of remorse on his face.
"Why?" she whispered. "Why did you lie? How could you do this?"
He still didn't offer up a reply, but someone else did.
"Oh, Kimberly, you haven't figured it out yet, have you?"
Kim's blood ran cold when she heard the voice, accompanied by heavier footsteps. Her heart skipped a beat, and for a few moments she forgot how to breathe.
"Hego here doesn't know what he's done. Look at him, sweetie. Can't you tell, being the smart girl that you are?"
"Don't call me sweetie," Kim threw back, though her voice sounded much more scared than what she would call 'borderline intimidating'. It didn't have the desired effect at all. Her heart rate seemed to speed up with every footstep that echoed throughout the room.
"I'll call you what I want," the man responded smoothly, walking slowly into the room. Even though Kim had known it was him approaching since he had spoken, she still felt a sharp pang of shock as she saw his face for the first time as he emerged from the shadows. Everything about him, albeit familiar, now scared her out of her mind - his well-formed muscles, his steely eyes, his gravelly voice, his untrimmed blond mullet. Even his altered way of speaking frightened her.
"It's been a while since we've met under these circumstances, hasn't it?" the mechanic mused silkily, approaching Kim and kneeling down beside her. He reached out a hand to touch her face, and she flinched away. He merely smiled bemusedly at this reaction, like he didn't give a damn how she acted around him.
"W-why am I here?" she asked, her voice still trembling. "Why is Hego here?"
Motor Ed laughed. "Hego? Hego is my pet, of sorts. He does whatever I tell him to with no choice in the matter. His will is mine to manipulate."
Kim looked up at Hego again. In the darkness of the room, she could just barely make out the faintest light she had ever seen, pulsing gently on his head but almost completely masked by the thin layer of skin and the thick mop of hair covering it.
"You're controlling him," she realized slowly. A wave of fresh disgust swept over her. "You sick bastard."
Motor Ed laughed again, just laughed, and that's when it hit Kim. She recalled Wade saying that he had found evidence of some sort of disease or disorder in Ed's medical history. Now, studying everything different about him, she realized that he wasn't sick at all - at least, not in the illness sense. He was completely and utterly raving mad, and she would bet money on that guess.
"What do you want with me?" she snarled. Her voice was steadier this time, but there was still an unmistakable tremor in it.
"It's not just you I want, Kimmie," he replied smoothly, and this time Kim's heart almost stopped for real.
"Shego," she whispered numbly.
"You see, Kim, I need both of you. I was given an assignment long ago by an unnamed party, along with a hefty check and the promise of another upon completion." Motor Ed sat down fully and leaned against the wall next to Kim. "I don't usually work for the side of the goody-two-shoes people like yourself, but the pay was far too good to pass up."
Kim hated actually having to converse with this monster, but despite her utter fear at having him so close to her she was intrigued. "And this party..."
"Shall remain unnamed, as I said. They wanted the two of you tested to see what you would become."
"For what reason?"
"To recruit you."
Kim's brow furrowed. Who could possibly want to recruit her and Shego?
Motor Ed continued, looking at the wall opposite him like there was a flat screen television on it showing the most interesting show in the world. "This party had been watching the two of you for a while before I took action. When they found me, they offered to recruit me under the table to test you two. So, I took it upon myself to push you to your respective limits. I studied you two for months, calculating the best possible method for my task."
Then it dawned on Kim. "You gave the soda to Hego to put in the cooler, didn't you? But...how did you know..."
"I studied you two for months," Motor Ed repeated, an evil grin spreading across his face. "I found out the convenience store that both of you frequented, your respective favorite brands of soda, and the place you tended to pick the bottles from. For you, you always take a soda bottle from the front right, while Miss Go tends to select the one dead in the center of the front row. It was actually quite simple. I'll admit that, in the end, it was bordering on a lucky chance, but it worked out just fine. I got my targets."
"You were stalking us?" Kim blinked, trying to wrap her mind around this. "And...and we didn't notice?"
Motor Ed continued as if she hadn't even spoken. "I chipped Hego here right after that, and he's worked for me ever since."
Kim tried to shift even farther away from the man. "You are a sick, masochistic monster."
"Why, thank you," Ed replied genially. "Not too long ago, the aforementioned party contacted me, asking for an ETA of when you two would be approved. I said in a few weeks, but I must admit I lied."
"Shocker," muttered Kim. "You, a terrible and abusive manipulator, lied? "
"I gradually lost interest in having you two recruited for the side of good," he went on. "Since Shego went bad and surpassed my own skill, and since you turned into a hero that constantly overcame me, I decided that this was no longer about the money. It was about finally coming out on top and getting my revenge."
"You have your revenge," Kim spat out. "You raped us. You have me cuffed to a goddamn wall with no possible way out. What more do you want?"
He grinned again. "To make you suffer."
"What the hell do you think we've been doing? "
"Not like that. You see, this is why I need Shego here. You are the bait to lure her here, since she is the harder of you two to capture myself. If your life is on the line, or if she thinks it is, she will do anything to get to you in time."
"And is my life on the line?" Kim asked quietly, though she already knew the answer.
Motor Ed seemed to know that she knew. "You tell me. Once I have her here, I will make her suffer through worse pain than she ever has before."
"Don't touch her," Kim snapped, and the tremor suddenly vanished from her voice. "Don't you dare lay a finger on her!"
"That wasn't my original plan," he explained smoothly. "Tell me, do you love her more than you love yourself?"
"Yes," Kim's mouth said before her brain had a chance to catch up.
"And does she reciprocate these feelings?"
"Yes..."
"So, it stands to reason that the most effective way to break her and make her suffer...is to make you suffer and have her watch. That is why I need the two of you together, in this spot."
Kim felt all the color drain from her face. He said he wasn't going to hurt Shego, instead inflicting all of the pain onto her own body. Then again, since when do villains keep their word? She didn't like either option.
"Why are you telling me this?" she managed after a moment.
Motor Ed stood up and stretched casually. "Because there's no possible way it could hurt me. I already have you, and very soon Shego will find her way here as well. There is no way you could send word out to her not to come. The only people who know of this are you and Hego. Hego is my slave, unable to be released by anyone except for the holder of the sole controller, and you...well, you aren't going anywhere."
Kim felt icy fear shoot through her body. "Oh my God...you're going to..."
"No, no, no," Motor Ed laughed. "Not right now, at least. You could get pregnant, and even I'm not low enough to kill a baby."
"You're going to kill me?" Kim whispered hoarsely.
"I haven't decided yet," he answered, and those four words were enough to convince Kim of the truth. No matter whether he knew it or not yet, he was going to kill her if she wasn't rescued in time.
Motor Ed took a few steps toward Hego. "Hego, send the message. You know what to say. They'll have kept her little communicator."
"Yes, sir," Hego responded in a monotone. He turned robotically and walked out of the room.
"My Kimmunicator," Kim realized. She glanced down, only to not see the telltale bulges of her Kimmunicator and cell phone in her pockets.
"Do you really think I would be so naïve so as not to instruct Hego to remove all of your means of communication?" Motor Ed chuckled and then approached Kim again. "Given that I'm not entirely sure when your dear Shego will arrive, perhaps it's best that I begin now."
"Begin w-" Kim started, but her words died in her throat as Motor Ed took something out out of his pocket. The extremely dim light coming in through the open doorway caused the small object to glint slightly.
"We can't have her arriving to see an unharmed Kimberly, can we now? That implies that I've gone soft - which, I can assure you, I have not." His grin spread from ear to ear. "So, my dear, shall I?"
"Nothing," Wade said sadly as soon as Ron accepted his call on the Ronmunicator. "Absolutely no cameras anywhere. Not even an ATM."
Ron bit his lip so hard he drew blood. "This is bad. This is really bad."
Wade squirmed a little in his seat. "You told Shego yet?"
"Shego found the Kimmunicator before him," the green woman herself snarked from offscreen, her eyes not once leaving her laptop screen. She was doing the same thing Wade had been doing, looking for any sort of recording device that had been active at the time of the kidnapping. She was holding in her tears now like she had been for the past few hours. Crying would only serve to slow her down, and she couldn't afford that now. She needed to get to Kim as fast as possible.
Shego glanced at the Kimmunicator laying on the desk next to her. She hadn't touched it once since putting it there upon her and Ron's arrival to his house, after making a quick detour for Shego to pick up her own laptop. The little Post-It note was still stuck to the screen, and every time she read the brief note written on it she felt like she was being mocked. If she lost Kim, she didn't know what she'd do. There was so much she hadn't gotten to tell her.
"I didn't even tell her my name," she whispered without realizing it.
Ron glanced up from the Ronmunicator. "What about your name?"
Shego was about to retort rudely, but for some reason decided against it. Instead she elaborated quietly, "I never told Kimmie my real name. She asked a lot, but I never told her."
"So you do have another name," Ron mused.
"Well, doy. Not even my parents were so brain-dead as to want to name their children Hego, Shego, Mego, and Wego."
"Care to share?"
"Not the time, Ron," Wade warned. "Shego, you don't have to answer."
"I know I don't have to." Shego was silent for a moment. "I really only wanted to tell Kimmie."
"Sorry," Ron mumbled.
"No, it's fine," Shego surprised everyone, herself included, by saying. "It's just...no one else knows except for my family. Not even Drakken."
Ron shrugged. "Your choice if you want to tell or not."
At that moment, a familiar little sound rang out.
Beep beep be-beep...
Ron, out of habit, glanced at the Ronmunicator in his hand before he realized that it was already on.
"It's Kim's," Shego said in a stiff voice, staring at the Kimmunicator. The screen had lit up with a little green KP against a blue background, and was buzzing slightly as it emitted the little ring again.
Wade immediately set to tapping on his keyboard quickly. "Okay, I'm ready. Shego, answer it, and I'll start a trace."
Shego nodded and picked up the device with a trembling hand, peeling the sticky note off with the other. With a glance at Ron, she accepted the call.
Then, suddenly, her face drained of the small amount of emerald color it had, and her eyes widened.
"Hego?" she managed.
Ron just about dropped his own Ronmunicator when he heard that name.
"What?" he hissed under his breath.
Shego's brother stared at her from the little screen blankly. "We have captured Kimberly. If you have any hope of seeing her alive again, Shego, you will come to us unarmed and in surrender."
"You traitor," spat Shego. "You filthy traitor. I trusted you!"
"We have captured Kimberly. If you have any hope of seeing her alive again, Shego, you will come to us unarmed and in surrender."
Shego blinked. "You just said that."
"Wait, Shego," Ron spoke up. "Listen to him. He doesn't sound normal."
"We have captured Kimberly. If you have any hope of seeing her alive again, Shego, you will come to us unarmed and in surrender."
Shego listened as her brother continued to repeat himself in the same dull, monotonous voice. Then it hit her. She had seen this before - no, she had lived it - when Drakken took control of both her and Kim's minds.
"Mind control," she said out loud.
Just then, Hego switched his words. "By now you should have completed your trace. Come to our location tonight, and we give our words that Kimberly will be here, alive."
Then, just like that, the transmission ended.
"Please tell me you got the trace," Shego said tensely, still staring at the now-dark screen.
Wade nodded, though only Ron could see. "Yeah, I got it, but...Shego, it's obviously a trap. Hego was being mind-controlled, and we're dealing with villains. We can't trust them." After a moment he added hurriedly, "No offense."
"None taken," she replied, standing up.
"Where are you going?" Ron asked sharply.
"I don't care if it's a trap," Shego answered. "If there's even the slightest chance that my Kimmie is with them, then I'm going."
"No, you're not," Wade objected.
"Don't you dare try and stop me, Nerdlinger, because if you do I will plasma-bolt you into oblivion."
Wade grumbled a little under his breath before replying, "I meant, you're not going until I give you the address that the trace led me to."
"Oh," Shego said, a touch of sheepishness inching into her tone. "So why didn't you just say that then?"
Ron stood up and started toward the door. "So where are we going, Wade?"
Shego stuck out an arm and barred his way. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, there, Stoppable. Look, I appreciate your help and all, but there's no way I'm letting you come with. If Kimmie's lifelong best friend gets hurt, she'll flay me alive. And you know how hard it is for me to beat Kim when she's pissed off enough to do that."
"And if I let Kim's girlfriend gets herself killed walking straight into what we both know is a trap, then she'll flay me alive," Ron countered. "And you know how hard it is for me to beat Kim when she's in a good mood, forget being pissed off. I have to come." his voice softened a little. "She's like a sister to me, Shego. I love her. I don't want her to get hurt. And if she loves you...then I guess I have to love you too, because you might be my honorary sister-in-law someday."
Shego blinked once, then twice, staring at Ron like he had just found the cure for cancer. After a long moment she smiled softly and stepped closer to him.
"Thank you," she whispered, leaning down and planting a soft kiss on his cheek.
She drew away, leaving Ron standing there stunned, and a hard look crept into her eyes. "Now let's go kick Motor Ed's ass and save our Kimmie."
"Please...s...stop...please...ah!"
Motor Ed wiped the blade of his pocketknife off on his ratty jeans, leaving another smear of blood right next to the countless others.
"Now, Kimberly," he said softly, "it's better than the alternative, is it not?"
He reached down and placed the tip of the blade against the young woman's left cheek, pressing in and then flicking upwards sharply.
"Ah!" Kim gasped out again, feeling a fresh stream of blood begin to trickle down her face. Motor Ed had been doing this for the past half hour, taking a knife to her in places that wouldn't kill her, but definitely hurt her a hell of a lot. Most of her body was covered in blood from various wounds, the most serious of which being a two-inch slit over her stomach.
"Please..." she ground out again, hoping to whatever deity existed up there that she would get out of this alive.
Motor Ed pursed his lips, looking over what he had done. After a moment he nodded in satisfaction. "I don't want you dead just yet. I want you to be hurt enough to give Shego a heart attack when she arrives." He paused. "If she even has a heart."
"Shut up," Kim rasped weakly.
"Oh, that's right. You love her, and she loves you. She must have a heart, because everyone who spends time near the great Kim Possible automatically grows one." He laughed sarcastically. "You only think she loves you. How do you know?"
"I just do," Kim shot back, her voice hoarse. "She has more of a heart than you'll ever have."
Motor Ed squinted at her for a moment and then closed his pocketknife. Kim blinked in surprise and relief, but that faded when she heard his next words.
"I think you look hurt enough. For now."
She noticed that the fingers of his free hand had clenched into a fist, and he raised it slowly.
Then everything went black.
"How much farther, Wade?" Shego asked, yanking the wheel to the side to evade a likely-drunk SUV driver. She wasn't used to driving in a car this old. Since both she and Ron needed to get there at the same time, they had opted to borrow Ron's mother's car. "God, I miss my motorcycle."
"You're almost there," Wade said, his voice made tinny by the Kimmunicator's tiny speakers. "Turn onto Blackwood."
Shego slowed down briefly and made the turn. Then, as soon as there were no other cars around, she floored it again.
Ron gripped the handle above the passenger-side window tightly, his knuckles turning white. "Wade, you may need to ask my parents to arrange my funeral early."
"Shego can't drive?" the boy genius inquired.
"I can drive fine," Shego snapped. "In case you forgot, Kimmie's life is on the line, and I want to get to her now!"
"Sorry," Wade said quickly. "Take this next left turn."
Shego yanked the wheel hard, not bothering to slow down this time. There were no other cars around this part of town. This was the seedy part of Middleton, the part that only drug dealers and criminals used anymore. She had lived here herself a few times. Everything seemed deserted.
"Stop!" Wade suddenly said.
Shego slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop in front of a run-down one story house.
"God, woman, you have a death wish or something?" gasped Ron, rubbing his neck. He felt like he had almost gotten whiplash.
Shego unbuckled her seat belt and opened the door, stepping outside. "Listen carefully, Stoppable, because I'm only gonna say this once. If I'm not out within ten minutes, or I haven't contacted you, then I want you to come in and find us. Be as quiet as you can. Motor Ed is waiting for me to come in and find Kim, so he'll be there with her when I get to her. Hego will probably be there, too. No one expects you to be here with me, so there's a good chance you can take out Motor Ed from behind without anyone noticing."
Ron gulped. "Take him out?"
Shego reached into her back pocket and pulled out a little rectangular device, tossing it to him. "This is a taser. Modified it myself a few months ago. Press the little green button and point the red end at Motor Ed. You've only got one shot, but if you hit him it'll knock him out for hours. Got it?"
Ron nodded, staring at the tiny device in his hands. "Shego...good luck."
"You too," Shego said quietly, and closed the door. She turned toward the dilapidated house and took a deep, steadying breath. "We'll both need it."
She broke into a silent run, ducking into the dark doorway as fast as she could. There was no telling if they were being watched outside, and she knew it. Even though Motor Ed and Hego were most likely inside the house, it was better than being out in the open.
The house was very dark. As far as Shego could tell, the only light in the entire building was being emitted from a small ceiling-mounted bulb in the main hallway. She was tempted to light up, but she didn't want to give away her position. It wasn't likely, but if she could get in and get Kim without being found she would be happier than ever.
Shego paused and listened carefully. She couldn't hear a single sound that sounded anything like Motor Ed or Hego, but there was one little noise, so faint that she could barely hear it...
Shego held her breath and stayed absolutely still, listening.
"Mmm..."
Shego released her breath all in one whispered word. "Kimmie..."
She darted lightly toward the sound. There was one door in the hallway that was standing ajar, and even though it gave Shego an ominous feeling she could hear the sound coming from that very room. She took a deep breath, steadying her nerves again, and crept in. Her sharp, comet-enhanced eyes could see in the dark better than most others, but even so she could barely discern the dark figure fettered to the wall across the room.
"Oh my God," Shego whispered, skidding across the room and falling to her knees. "Oh God, Kim..."
Now that she was closer, she could see Kim more clearly in the dim light from the hall. Her wrists were chained to the wall above her head, and she was hanging limply from the cuffs. Blood covered her body, still dripping from her wounds. Shego bit back a sob and touched Kim's face gently, ignoring the blood rubbing onto her hand. Kim moaned softly at the contact.
"Kim?" Shego leaned in close. "Kim, can you hear me?"
Kim stirred, half-raising her head. Another moan escaped from between her lips. "Sh... Shego?"
Shego leaned down slightly as Kim's eyes fluttered open and, after a moment, fixed on her blearily. A relieved smile split the emerald woman's face in two.
"Oh, thank God you're alive," she breathed.
Kim's eyes widened in fear. "Shego...you...you have to get out of here. It's a trap..."
"Ssh," Shego soothed. "I know. I'm just glad I found you in time." She looked down at Kim again and winced. "What did he do to you?"
"A knife," Kim mumbled. "I think he knocked me out...but I don't remember."
Shego felt a tear roll down her cheek, and she leaned in closer. "You'll be okay, Kim. I'll get you out of here."
Kim managed a smile, and she pressed her lips to Shego's cheek softly. "I love you, Shego."
Shego smiled back. "Selena."
"What?"
"Selena," she repeated. "My real name is Selena." She averted her gaze. "I was so scared that you wouldn't be alive for me to tell you that."
Kim blinked. Shego had entrusted her with her real name?
"Thank you," she whispered. "I love you, Selena."
"I love you too," she whispered back, and she leaned forward to kiss Kim. Their lips connected gently, yet lovingly. Shego ignored the taste of blood on her love's lips, instead merely reveling in the unique warmth that was Kim, the special sensation that only the two of them would ever have.
"I'll be honest, I expected you to be here sooner."
Shego broke away and whirled around, hands suddenly engulfed in burning hot plasma.
"You," she hissed.
Motor Ed strolled into the room and flipped a light switch that Shego hadn't even noticed. The room immediately filled with light, effectively blinding both Kim and Shego.
"So I'm here," Shego spat. "What do you want with me?"
"Shego, just try to get out," Kim said softly. "He's going to hurt you if you stay with me."
"And I will hurt your dear Kimberly if you leave," he added smoothly.
Shego stepped back so she was standing in front of Kim protectively, but she had a resigned look on her face. She had dealt with mentally unstable people before. In this particular case, a mentally ill Motor Ed was potentially more lethal than an evil, steroid-hopped Kim.
Motor Ed rubbed his hands together gleefully in a way that reminded the two others in the room of Dr. Drakken. "After all this time, I finally have it. Kim Possible is incapacitated, and Shego is willing to bow to my every whim to save her."
"We're right here," Kim said hoarsely, sounding somewhat annoyed.
Motor Ed didn't seem to hear her. He had gone off on a little tangent, muttering to himself. At one point he took a little black remote out from his pocket and pressed a button on it. After about a minute, Hego walked stiffly into the room and stood directly in front of Shego and Kim.
"Hego," the woman whispered, looking into her brother's eyes. The absence of emotion she saw there scared her. Now, she wasn't especially fond of her brothers, but that didn't mean she wanted any of them to be sapped of their own free will.
Motor Ed cut off his hushed ranting abruptly when he saw that Hego had arrived. "Ah, Hego. Good. Grab your sister, will you?"
Hego obediently took hold of his sister's slender waist with one glowing hand and lifted her, struggling, into the air.
"Now unlock Miss Possible's chains."
Hego reached into his ankle pouch and removed a small silver key. He inserted it into Kim's cuffs and unlocked them. The redhead, unable to support herself, collapsed limply to the floor when the cuffs opened. A small cry of pain escaped her mouth, and Shego struggled with renewed vigor.
"Lock Miss Selena Go into the cuffs."
Hego pushed Kim aside with his foot unceremoniously and shifted his grip on Shego, preparing to lock her up. The green woman lit up again, the heat of her plasma having been intensified by her anger. She couldn't break free from her brother's super strong grip, but every time he tried to put her in the cuffs she would burn him and cause him to step back sharply. It was almost like training a dog.
"Hego!" Motor Ed said sharply, getting a scary glint in his eye. "Quit playing around, man! Seriously!"
Shego blinked. She had figured out that he was crazy by now, but this reversion was a bit unexpected. Honestly, she didn't know which version of him was more frightening.
Suddenly, an odd crackling sound filled the room, accompanied by the sound of burning flesh. Motor Ed's face twisted into one of pain as he collapsed, limbs jerking around uncontrollably like gelatin in an earthquake. Shego didn't need to look to see what the cause of this was - not that she could, at any rate, because she was somewhat occupied.
"Ron!" she barked. "Get his remote!"
The blond boy blinked and looked down at Motor Ed. "What remote?"
"The one in his hand, dammit!"
Ron approached the man cautiously and plucked the remote out of his twitching hand. "Okay, what do I press?"
"Anything!" Shego snapped. "Just make him stop this!"
Ron looked at the tiny remote in his hand. There were two buttons - one green and one red.
"Not very good experiences with red buttons," he muttered, and pressed the green one.
Immediately, Hego dropped Shego and stood as stiff as a board.
"Ow..." grouched Shego, rubbing her head. "What did you do?"
"Exactly what you told me to do!" Ron shot back. "Why is he just standing there like that?"
"I don't know," the woman answered. "He was doing that earlier when Kimmie was chained..." Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she twisted around on the ground. "Kim!"
"KP!" Ron cried, just now noticing the small figure lying in a heap on the ground behind Shego.
Shego scooted across the floor so she was next to Kim. Gently, she reached out and rolled the young woman onto her back. Then she picked the redhead up in her arms and cradled her in her lap.
"Kim," she said softly. "Kim, you awake?"
"Yes," came the quiet reply, but her eyes didn't open.
"Oh my God, KP," Ron said worriedly, coming over and kneeling beside the two women. "Are you okay?"
Kim's lips curved upward in a small smile. "Ron, does it look like I'm okay?"
Shego laughed and hugged the girl close to her chest. "Never, and I mean never, scare me like this again, all right? I thought I had lost you for good."
"Thank you so much for coming for me." Kim opened her eyes, but almost immediately closed them again. "Stupid light."
Ron grinned. "Sorry. Guess that was a stupid question."
"Yep," she replied, wincing as she sat up a little in Shego's arms.
"Whoa there, Princess," Shego said quickly, preventing her from sitting fully upright. "You need to relax before you start losing more blood than you can replace."
Kim scowled a little, but settled for leaning against Shego's chest instead of lying back down fully. Her green eyes fixed on Hego, still standing motionless a few feet away. "Ron, you have the remote, right?"
"Yep," he replied. "Dunno how to work it, though."
"I do," she said. "I was watching Motor Ed do it. Press the green button and then give him a command. I don't know about the red one, though."
Ron pressed the green button and thought for a few seconds. "Hego, do ten jumping jacks."
The superhero obediently began jumping up and down in a poor excuse for jumping jacks. Shego stifled a laugh at the sight of her brother making himself look so incredibly stupid.
"Ron," Kim said in a warning tone. "How about you give me the remote?"
Sheepishly, Ron handed the little device to Kim. She thought for a moment and then pressed the green button. "Hego, tell me what the red button does."
"The red button deactivates the mind control chip," Hego answered dully. "It also automatically erases any of my memories acquired while it was activated, and does not retrieve them until it is activated again."
"So you remember everything Motor Ed has said or done around you?"
Hego nodded once.
"Hego," Kim said after a minute or so, "do you know who the unnamed party was that Motor Ed mentioned earlier?"
He nodded again.
Shego raised an eyebrow. "Um...quoi?"
Kim sighed lightly and briefly recapped what he had said earlier.
"Oh." Ron looked back at Hego briefly. "So he knows, then."
Shego and Kim exchanged glances. Both of them wanted to ask, but neither of them were sure that they wanted to know the answer.
"Go ahead," Kim said softly.
Shego swallowed and took Kim's hand in her own, pressing the green button. "Hego, who is this 'party'?"
Hego opened his mouth, unaware of just how big an effect what he would say next would have on the lives of the two women in the room.
"Global Justice."
That was the last thing either Kim or Shego remembered hearing before everything went black for them.
Plot twist! It's probably not exactly what you guys are thinking, but I'm just gonna make you all wait until next chapter to find out how everything started.
Merci for reading!