Christmas was not a happy time in the Drakken lair this year. Sure, everything started off well, the henchmen seemed relaxed and motivated as they decorated the cavern. Drakken hummed the Snowman Hank theme tune as he directed the layout of the streamers.
The tree gleamed in the laboratory, red and gold tinsel glittered in the dimmed lights as various packages appeared underneath as the day went on. Tiny rocking horses and plastic santas hung from the branches as well as the more traditional baubles, and the whole thing was topped by a shiny silver star.
Drakken had spent hours spraying fake snow over the control consoles, there not being much of the natural stuff in the Caribbean even at this time of year. A faint aura of hope and goodwill permeated the lair giving everyone a smile on their face and a spring in their step.
Until she returned.
The first casualty was the novelty snowman strategically placed outside the main entrance to the lair. On detecting movement nearby it began singing Frosty the Snowman in a cheery robotic voice. It didn't even reach the end of the second line before it was melted into a blackened heap of plastic.
She moved through the corridors like a black cloud of doom. Her very presence spreading gloom and misery in her wake. Woe betide the poor henchman unlucky enough to cross her path, a snarl was all they would hear before they were physically flung out of her way. One had the misfortune of having a party blower in his mouth at the time. The initial enthusiastic peep died rapidly in the face of an expression black as thunder. Backtracking rapidly, the poor lackey bumped into the corridor wall and swallowed the offending item in his haste to avoid this green force of nature.
Shego's mood was black before she entered the lair. The veneer of false cheer as she saw it just stoked the fires of her anger even higher. With a face black as thunder, she strode to her quarters and slammed the door shut behind her.
After about half an hour, a querilous voice piped up, breaking the silence that had pervaded the lair in the wake of Shego's entrance.
"Is she gone?"
Various redsuited henchmen peered out from their hiding places as they realised that the coast was clear. Eventually, Dr Drakken climbed out from under the main console, his face displaying extreme nervousness and apprehension. In his hand, he held an opened letter.
"If she's angry now what will she be like when she finds out about this?" Drakken murmured to himself, not realising that he had spoken out loud. If he could just get his sidekick out of the lair for a couple of days... ok so weeks then...
"Oh Drewbie."
The feminine voice echoed through the corridors like fingers down a blackboard. Drakken couldn't help cringing, sure that his temperamental henchwoman would hear, and take matters into her own hands. Wincing in future anticipation of Shego's volatile temper, he turned to greet his guests.
"Hello Mother, Happy Christmas."
The words uttered through clenched teeth belied the sentiment in the words.
"Oh my little Drewbie, a world hero no less. Let me look at you."
To Drakken's embarrassment, he was grabbed by the ear and pulled down to recieve a sloppy great kiss from his mother. In front of the staff no less.
Pulling himself away as adroitly as he could, Drakken flung a glare in the general direction of some sniggering he could hear, and ushered his mother towards the guest rooms, auspiciously they happened to be on the opposite side of the lair to his dangerous lieutenant's quarters.
"Yo, seriously couz, sweet setup."
The southern drawl drew Drakken's attention to the other person now standing in his central chamber. There, Six foot two inches tall, hair half way down his back and a tan that must have taken hours under a sunbed to achieve, the whole look ruined somewhat by the orange jumpsuit and the large tagging device attached to his ankle, stood Motor Ed.
"Nice outfit Eddie." Drakken couldn't help having a dig at his annoying cousin, nor could he keep the resentment out of his voice.
"What's he doing here Mother? Shouldn't he be in jail?"
"Care in the community dear." The words didn't register at first but after a few seconds they jerked Drakken out of his sulk.
"What?" He turned to look at his mother as if she were insane.
"Well, now you are a pillar of society, the criminal justice board agreed to release your cousin into your responsible care." His mother breezed around the room as she explained, running a finger along the tops of the consoles and tutting at the amount of dust she found.
"What does that woman think she's playing at, letting the place get this dirty. I'll have to have words with her if she is going to keep house for my little soldier."
Drakken's face took on a horrified mien as he realised the enormity of the situation. Not only was he now morally responsible for the good behaviour of a psychopathic moron, his mother thought he and Shego were an item, and she was going to give housekeeping tips to a woman currently off the scale in her homicidal attitude.
"Now Now mother, don't fuss." Drakken gave a hysterical giggle as he swiftly directed the pair out of the chamber and down a corridor towards their rooms. "You just settle in and I'll see you later for dinner. It's pot roast."
As soon as his annoying family were out of the way, Drakken sprinted back towards the other side of the lair with undignified haste.
"If I can just explain" he thought to himself, "maybe, just maybe she won't kill me."
The lair was quiet, however, when Drakken once more reached the more frequented areas. No muffled explosions and no screeched cursing. Could it be that Shego didn't know what was going on? Drakken knew he had to tell her sometime, but the longer he could put it off the better as far as he was concerned. Seizing this unexpected reprieve, he hurried off to the kitchen to make sure everything was going to be ready.
Shego had heard Mrs Lipsky's voice. It could penetrate six inches of solid steel when she really got going, but she couldn't bring herself to care. All her anger and sense of rejection built up since her encounter with Kim had simply drained away into a black depression. The thought of never experiencing the thrill of the competition, the frisson she got when she realised she was actually in danger of losing a fight, was not a future she wished to contemplate.
For hours she sat, her room gloomy in the little glow generated by a small desk lamp suited her mood perfectly, and she made no attempt to switch on any brighter lights.
Later, she couldn't describe what she had been thinking, it was as if time just passed by around her. After what must have been hours, she finally stood up and opened the door. Walking up towards the main control room, she could hear down a corridor towards the barracks area, the sound of music and laughter. The henchmen traditionally had a party around this time of year. Previously she had never even considered attending, but for some reason, she felt drawn towards the warmth and light.
When she reached the door, however, she hesitated. This wasn't her world. Easy cameraderie had never come easy to the raven haired woman, and she suddenly felt queasy, as if she were intruding on something personal. This was their night, and she doubted they would want her hanging around, bringing them all down with her dark moods. Silently she turned around and walked away.
Heading towards the main working areas, she saw another light coming from the lounge area. The tree was magnificent, if there was one thing Drakken took seriously it was his Christmas decorations, and this year he had done himself proud. A wide screen TV was showing Snowman Hank, a ritual Drakken insisted on every year, usually demanding that Shego watch it with him, he didn't like watching TV alone.
This year was different. On one side was Ed, criticising the fingerwork as Showman Hank played his ukelele, insisting that a metal soundtrack would make the whole show more poignant, while on the other sat his mother who seemed to be having trouble following the plot. It was a sentiment Shego could sympathise with. She had watched this stupid film at least five times and she still couldn't tell you what was going on. Of course that might have to do with the fact that she always wore her ipod during those times, but hey the thought was there.
Watching Drakken alternate between arguing with Ed and practically tearing his hair out in frustration at his mother, Shego suddenly felt very alone. Even Drakken had family at Christmas, however disfunctional and annoying they might be.
Turning away, she left the inhabited areas and headed for the exit.
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She walked through the hanger, a kitbag tossed over her shoulder. Her personal jet somewhat dwarfed by the multi-coloured aircraft she had parked next to, not that she cared. The Go Jet may be bigger, and probably better armed, but nothing was as swift or agile has her pride and joy. Surprised no-one had come up to meet her, she headed for the lift.
She realised the tower was deserted the minute she stepped out into the lounge. It wasn't just the silence and the darkness, there was the aura of emptiness that buildings get after a couple of days. There was no sign of a struggle so she assumed nothing bad had happened, after all her brothers could certainly take care of themselves. At least the eldest two could, she wasn't quite ready to believe that the twins had grown up enough yet, but she reckoned Hego and Mego could look after them.
No, this was something else. It was the festive season and they had other places to be. Everyone had somewhere else to be, except her. Feeling pretty sorry for herself, she flung herself down on the couch and stared into the darkness. Hunger roused her eventually. Entering the kitchen, she prepared a light snack and settled down in front of the TV.
Shego normally enjoyed being solitary at this time of year. The whole Christmas thing was usually something she preferred to avoid, but that was when she was the one making the choice. This year was different. Maybe because everyone else around her seemed to have someone to be with or somewhere to go, she felt a little left out. Flicking through the channels, she decided that there was nothing she wanted to watch and went to bed.
The next day promised more of the same. When she got up, Shego made herself a light breakfast and settled down in the kitchen to eat it. Sprawled in a chair, her feet resting on the table, she nearly tipped the cereal into her lap at the unexpected sound of the phone.
Shego surprised herself with the alacrity which she answered the phone, but wasn't as surprised as Mego who had only called to check for messages.
"Sis? What the hell are you doing there?"
"Just chillin'." Her tone came across a little too flippant for Mego's taste. Before he could pick her up on it, however, his sister's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Where is everybody? I thought the righteous never slept. Isn't virtue ever watchful for the evil deeds of the malcontent?"
"Oh God, you remember that? Jeez he was a pompous prick." Mego couldn't help laughing as he remembered Hego's posturing to the TV cameras when Team Go first started. Not to be diverted, however, he quickly returned to his original concern.
"You OK sis?"
A sudden jolt of emotion struck Shego leaving her unable to answer for a moment. The obvious concern in her younger brother's voice broke through years of antagonism and conflict, reminding her of simpler times.
"Yeah, sure." She finally managed to get her vocal chords back under control. "Where is everybody anyway?"
"Well I'm in Venice, always wanted to see it before it sank. Hego is somewhere in Laos, and the twins are spending Christmas with their girlfriends, so I guess you got the tower to yourself for the next couple of weeks."
"Good, I could do with some peace and quiet." Shego was starting to feel more herself again, the previous empathy she had felt with her sibling was starting to dissipate, and her voice took on it's more usual snarky tone.
"I'm surprised you could get anyone to take the Wegos off your hands, they were a handful five years ago, I bet they haven't got any easier..." Her voice tailed off as a horrible thought suddenly occurred to her.
"This family they're spending time with. They do know who they are right? They don't think they're just ordinary teenagers."
"Wellll..." Mego's hesitation told her all she needed to know.
Shego ran her hand over her brow, squeezing her eyes shut as she tried to assimilate this new information, until she remembered that it wasn't her problem to deal with any more.
"Fine, whatever. You enjoy your holiday, just don't expect me to deal with any business that might come up while you are all away. This town could burn to the ground for all I care."
Mego heard the click as the receiver at the other end of the line was put back in its cradle. Slowly he replaced his own handset and sat there for a while running through the conversation in his mind. Eventually, he picked up a mobile off the bedside table, and selected a number from the stored list. The phone rang for a few moments before he heard a familiar voice on the other end of the line.
"Hego, its me. We need to talk."
The phonecall had left Shego in a much cheerier mood, although she wouldn't admit it even to herself. She finished her breakfast and settled down to a morning of black and white movies revelling in the familiar comfort of solitude. It was a mood that lasted until lunch when she switched over to the news channel.
The story that Kim Possible was no longer in the hero business took a couple of days to be picked up by the major news networks, but once it was out, it generated wall to wall coverage across the world.
Shego's face was grim as she flicked through the channels, talking heads speculating about the reasons for her taking such drastic action, and forecasting what effect this would have on the world's law enforcement agencies at a time when their resources were stretched to maximum dealing with the fallout from the alien invasion.
In true media fashion, however, speculation on Kim's motivations far outweighed any serious discussion on the repercussions. It let airheads peddle their own pseudo psychological theories on public television, reinforcing their own bloated opinions about their own importance. "Kim was in love with Ron", "Kim was in love with her university quarterback", "Kim was in love with Drakken", "wait ... what? never mind." Shego's brain finally registered the source of the last supposition and dismissed it. Even with the serious channels, however, each theory seemed too ridiculous to explain the path Kim had taken.
It was only when she caught the tail end of the Middleton news broadcast, and saw a re-run of the interview with "Mrs Brinkley" that the penny dropped.
"Damn."
Quickly bundling her possessions into a carry-all, she headed for the hanger.
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Christmas wasn't celebrated in the Stoppable household, but this year there wasn't much Hannukah spirit either. Ron's parents had finally bowed to the inevitable and had left two days ago, heading east to stay with family until it was safe to return.
It was one less worry for Yori, getting Hannah to safety meant she only had to worry about the security of one Stoppable even if he wasn't too keen on her company at the moment. "Honestly, he is so stubborn sometimes." The thought passed through her head as she watched him surrepticiously as he sat watching TV.
The tension had been building between them since the trip to Bhutan. Ron was only concerned with removing the circlet from his pet's head and considered Yori's obsession with finding out what vision Rufus had seen was insensative and callous.
What Ron didn't know was that Yori had desperately been searching day and night for a way to remove the headband, but everything in the books stated that nothing could remove the circlet. When he went to bed, she had been poring over the ancient scripts, searching frantically for the answer to her questions, but to no avail. She was stuck with a bald rodent whose head contained the information she needed to avenge her mentor, and although she concealed it well, the pressure was starting to take its toll.
The young man studiously ignored her once more, absent mindedly playing with Rufus as he gazed at the screen, watching some old film.
"I've tried Ron." Yori thought to herself as she watched the two of them. "Nothing can remove the headpiece. Rufus is stuck with it until he di..."
Her head jerked sideways suddenly focusing on the small pink animal currently reclining on its masters chest. Her eyes narrowed as the thought grew inside her mind.
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It was night by the time Shego landed in a secluded airstrip a few miles outside Littleton. She taxied her plane into a reserved hangar, and a few minutes later emerged mounted on a Yamaha XJ6, custom sprayed in her trademark black and green.
Her outfit matched the paintwork, with the colours of her catsuit blending into the bike to make it look like woman and machine merged into some kind of strange mechanical centaur. The whole ensemble was topped by a green helmet with black flashes and a tinted visor, her hair whipping in the wind as it hung down her back.
She cruised through the compound until she reached the gate opening onto an empty single lane highway. Swinging out onto the road, she suddenly opened up the throttle and sped off into the twilight, heading for Middleton.
Three quarters of an hour later, she sat watching the Possible house over in the distance, her engine idling as she pondered on what to do next. Having steeled herself up to what she was about to do, she rolled the machine behind some bushes by the side of the road, and removed her helmet. From her vantage point, about 100 metres from the house, she rested herself on a convenient boulder and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark.
It didn't take long, but Shego still waited, watching the lights in the house go out as the family went to bed, and waiting still further to give everyone time to go to sleep. This was to be a covert operation and she didn't want any complications.
As the time ticked past midnight, the thief finally made her move. On her back she wore a small backpack, barely large enough to hold a few special items, and certainly not enough of an encumbrance to impede her stealthy approach. As she approached the road, she stopped on the opposite side and pulled out a pair of night vision goggles from her pack.
The Possible house was well secluded from their neighbours, Dr Possible had taken into account the destructive tendancies of his younger children when building his home, and the constant explosions and craters in the surrounding area were enough to put off any would-be developers. Nevertheless, Shego carried out an extensive surveillance of the surrounding area before being satisfied that there was no-one else in the vacinity.
Slipping on her goggles, she scanned the area around the house, nodding to herself when nothing untoward could be seen. Reaching up with her right hand, she twiddled a couple of dials and pressed a tiny stud in the side twice, adjusting the vision to check the ultraviolet spectrum. Smiling to herself at the complex array of beams suddenly revealed confirmed what she had thought.
"Not bad Nerdlinger, not bad." she muttered, understanding that only Kim's pet computer whizzkid could have come up with such a comprehensive early warning system. Tripping any one of the beams could sound an alarm, alerting the Possible household to an intruder. It wasn't just professional courtesy that kept the various Master criminals from attacking their enemy while she slept.
As far as Shego could tell, the whole approach to the house was covered. It was obviously a sophisticated system, with recognition software to prevent false alarms. Indeed, even as she watched, a racoon scampered its way across the lawn, without triggering an alert, but the thief had no doubts that her own approach would not be as easy.
Even as she worked out a route in her head, however, her senses were tingling. On a hunch, she adjusted the goggles settings once more and grinned as she saw a completely separate grid of beams take shape. The original alarm system was now invisible, but what she was seeing now was an ultrasonic protection system designed to work as a backup.
Flicking through a few more spectrums revealed nothing, until she tried microwaves. Curiously that revealed a single beam emitting from a point near the road, hidden by some small shrubs planted in a flowerbed.
"Probably Global Justice keeping an eye on her." Shego dismissed the anomaly as irrelevant, her own route wouldn't take her anywhere near it.
Switching back to infra-red, she once more scanned the area, looking for lifesigns. Seeing none, she finally switched back to the Ultraviolet and slipped across the road.
The sonic defence system was easily disabled, its usefulness being in the unlikelyhood that anyone would think to check having found the main system. Pulling another small device from her pack, she powered it up and two oscillating lines appeared on the tiny LCD. One represented the frequency of the alarm system, the other was the suppressor wave generated by the device. Shego turned a small knob until the two sine waves were in perfect opposition to each other.
The light sensor beams would take more sophisticated methods to neutralise. Taking another item from her extensive thieves toolkit, she buckled around her waist a bulky waistband. Once more she powered up the device and felt the hairs on her arms prickle as the powerful electromagnetic field enveloped her. Steeling her nerves, she stepped across the invisible border separating the Possible household with the rest of the world.
Down in the basement, the computer system controlling the alarm system monitored every photon emitted by its sensors. Each was tagged leaving the emitter and registered when it reached the corresponding sensor. Casually slipping through this impenetrable grid, Shego was unaware of the finer points of quantum tunnelling allowing her to escape detection. Drakken had launched into one of his long-winded explanations of his own brilliance, but the dark haired thief hadn't listened. It worked was all she worried about, and when it stopped working she would pummel him until he fixed it.
Once the wall of the house was reached, it was an easy task to scale the garage and slip onto the flat roof. It was then just a case of climbing the sloping section and swinging out to step onto Kimmie's window sill.
As she went to do so, however, she was alerted by a muffled shriek coming from the room. A scream so loud that even the double glazing couldn't completely stifle it.
Shego adjusted her position so that she could look through the window, trusting to the dark outside to hide her from view. This was helped by the light in the room suddenly coming on. Shego watched as Mrs Dr Possible rushed into the room to comfort her obviously distressed child.
Neither Mother or daughter looked well as far as Shego could make out, both looked as if they needed to catch up on their sleep. Anne Possible sat with her daughter for as long as she could, holding her as Kim wept in her arms. Eventually exhausted, Kim lay back in her bed, and let her mother cover her over with the duvet.
Anne switched off the light and stood watching for a while as Kim went to sleep. She had offered Kim a place in her bed which had been rejected, she could be so stubborn sometimes, and hoped that this time they might get a few hours rest.
Shego watched from the window as Kim's mother slipped back down the trapdoor, obviously in some dire need of sleep herself. She waited another thirty minutes or so to let everyone fall asleep before slipping onto the window ledge.
Instinct made Shego check for alarms without even thinking, finding both the obvious standard house alarm system which she disabled in seconds, and also the much better electrostatic system build directly into the windowframe. A small battery-powered magnet placed near the sensor took care of that, leaving only a plate of glass and a window catch between her and her target.
The window opened silently, not needing the oilcan Shego had brought, and she slipped into the room as silent as a moonbeam flitting across the floor. In the gloom, she could see the bed against one wall, and the trapdoor leading down to the rest of the house. The lump under the bedclothes didn't stir as she crept over to the other side of the room.
There on a desk was a diary. Shego had seen it as soon as she entered the room and figured it would give her some idea as to the state of Kim's psyche. The girl seemed the type to bare her soul in a book.
The book fell open naturally at a certain page, and something fluttered down onto the floor. Picking it up Shego felt a thin strip of stiff card of some sort, obviously a bookmark. Placing it down on the desk, she bent over the book and cupped one hand over the page. A delicate application of comet power caused a dim green glow to shine in her palm. With enough light to see, she began to read.
June 17th
This has got to have been 1 of the greatest days of my life. A morning shopping at Club Banana, extensive beauty treatment and the afternoon watching The Memopad. Ever since Shego turned good, its been like having a big sister. Sure Ron was freaked, but it felt so good acting like a proper girl for once.
"Wow Kimmie, that's like so pathetic." The thought flashed through Shego's mind but it didn't have the malice it would have done a year ago. Secretly she understood the desire to live a normal life, something she hadn't had the luxury of ever since the comet.
Reaching out to replace the bookmark, her hand froze when she realised what it really was. There, lying on the desk was a strip of four photos taken from a mall photo-booth. Shego's hand trembled slightly as she remembered the feeling of closeness she had felt that day, The faces of Kim Possible and a peaceful looking Shego stared back at her, their joyous smiles mocking her own cynical heart.
She stood for a moment remembering her own copy, now ash on a long abandoned lair floor, and the impulsive reaction to Drakken's sudden appearance which had caused her to destroy it. It was a moment she had regretted ever since. Carefully replacing the strip back in its place, she turned her attention to the diary once more.
Flipping through the pages, she stopped at an obviously tearstained page.
"This is more like it." Shego leaned over the book and began to read.
December 19th
I don't believe it, somebody died? What do I do?
I saw that little girl on the TV, and she has lost her father because of me.
Has this happened before? I never even considered the possibility, Ron and I must have destroyed 50 lairs, and nothing like this has ever happened before.
I even nearly got my brothers killed last night as well. It wasn't Shego's fault, her reflexes saved them, but I put them in harms way What kind of sister am I?
I don't know what to do. Shego left, I really need to talk to her, explain somehow. Tim's OK, just some slightly burned hair. The guilt is killing me.
December 22nd
Went on a trip to Bhutan with Ron and Yori. Didn't go well. I froze, vertigo or something, it took Yori to get me to the top of that mountain, not that Ron noticed of course. It really shook me up.
Surprised at Yori though. She can be a real bitch when she wants to be, but she has a softer side too.
and OMG what happened to Rufus? He's got some funky gold ring on his head that we can't get off, and he was rigid when they brought him out of that cave. Yori seems to think that he had some kind of vision but can't get Rufus to explain what he saw. Not surprising really he's a mole rat.
Can't get the feeling that Yori intended Ron to wear that ring though. Some MMP thing apparently. Nah, still think she's a bitch.
There were no further entries, even though several days had passed. Shego reckoned that if Kim couldn't even unburden herself to her diary, then things were really bad.
A stifled moan dragged her attention back to the room and its occupant. The figure under the bedclothes was tossing and turning with increasing vigour.
"NO!" The moan was louder this time, and Shego hesitated wondering whether to flee or intervene.
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The wind was fierce as Kim clung onto the rope in desperation. Her initial anger had faded as her predicament became clear, she was hundreds of feet in the air, and just above her was the leering face of her arch enemy.
Kim blinked. An arm was reaching out to grab her. Mustering all her energy, she flung a hand out and felt fingers wrap around her wrist. Breathing a sigh of relief, she glanced down at the rapidly disappearing ground, shuddering at the long drop, she turned her head back to face her rescuer.
A rotting corpse looked back at her, the fingers around her wrist were skeletal with the bones scratching deep gouges in her skin. Its mouth moved, the voice echoing with a deep sepulchural tone.
"Why should you be saved? You killed me."
Squeezing her eyes shut, Kim opened them again to be faced with the sad face of the little girl she had seen on TV.
"Where's Daddy? What have you done to him?"
"No." Kim's moan was muted as the face in front of her changed once more to that of a gloating Shego.
"Can you fly Kimmie? I thought you could do anything!"
Kim's other arm desperately scrabbled at the rope she was holding as she felt the green thief's fingers loosen their grip.
"NO SHEGO" she screamed.
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"NO"
This time the moan was louder, jerking Shego out of her paralysis. One step took her to the bedside where Kim lay. The young girl was thrashing about now, her arms stretched out even though she was still asleep.
"Don't let go" Kim's voice was increasing in volume as her struggling became even more frenzied. Without thinking, Shego grabbed the flailing arms in a tight grip. Her only thought was to prevent the whole family waking up and bursting in on them. The last thing she wanted to do is have to face Kimmie's mother after nearly killing her son.
"Its OK Pumpkin, I've got you." The words slipped out without her even thinking about them, but the effect was instantaneous.
The thrashing stopped immediately. The stretched out arms, now supported by the older woman's grip, lost their maniacal strength. Slowly, Shego moved them back down to Kim's side, but when she went to let go she was grabbed, the arm pulled in tight to the younger girl's body.
Shego stood there for a while, wondering what the hell she was supposed to do now. The young girl was curled up gripping her arm as if she would never let go.
"Great. Now what." Shego muttered under her breath.
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Anne Possible jerked awake her subconscious mind realising that something was wrong. Briefly disorientated, she barely registered her husband still asleep by her side, or the fact that it was still dark outside.
Eventually, she shook the last shreds of sleep from her mind and the glowing digits of the alarm clock by her bed finally came into focus. 06:30, she had had nearly six hours of uninterrupted sleep. A luxury she had not had for the past three days. Slipping out from under the covers, careful not to wake her husband who was probably as tired as she was, she threw a dressing gown over her shoulders and left the room.
The whole house was quiet as the entire Possible family was suffering from severe sleep deprevation. Her feet made little noise on the hard floor of the landing as she headed for the steps leading to the attic bedroom. As quietly as she could, she climbed the stairs leading to the trapdoor into her daughter's room. At the top, she hesitated for a while, reluctant to disturb the teenager's rest, but eventually her need for reassurance overcame her uncertainty, and she pushed up the wooden cover enough to poke her head into the room above. It took several moments for her eyes to adjust to the gloom, until the misshapen lump lying on the bed resolved itself into that of her daughter. Looking back at her was the steady green-eyed gaze of Shego.
The two women looked at each other for a while. Anne could see Kim curled up soundly asleep, with her head resting in the lap of the thief. What she couldn't see was the grip her child still held onto the older woman's arm, clutching it to her body like a comfort blanket. Without a word, Anne Possible lowered the hatch once more, creeping back down the stairs as silently as she could, and headed for the kitchen.
It was five or ten minutes before Shego entered the room, it had taken that long to get Kim to relinquish her grip without waking her. She wordlessly accepted a hot cup of coffee that was passed over the kitchen table, and slipped onto a barstool gratefully taking a sip of the beverage.
"So how long has she been like that?" The thief's voice was low as if reluctant to wake any more of the Possible household.
"About three days." Dr Possible's reply expressed the deep sense of tiredness and concern clearly evident on her drawn face.
"You know things are going to get even worse, don't you." Shego's voice was intense as she fixed Mrs Possible with a hard stare. "Especially now the press are involved."
Anne's face fell as she finally relinquished the iron control she had been holding back all her concerns. Her composure cracked and she dropped her face into her cupped hands and her shoulders shook. Shego looked on clearly embarrassed at this display of vulnerability, but Dr Possible quickly wrestled her emotions back under control. When she finally lifted her head and met Shego's gaze, only her eyes betrayed her sense of helplessness.
"I've tried talking to her, but she won't open up to either myself or James." Anne's voice trembled slightly as she struggled to keep her feelings under control. "Ron's normally there for her but things aren't right between the two of them, and all the professional help is swamped with the aftermath of the invasion. I just don't know what to do."
"What about Global Justice?" Shego couldn't believe that they would leave their young protege to suffer like this. "I'm pretty sure Betty could pull some strings and get her the help she needs."
Kim's mother spat out a brief "HA!" at the mention of the law enforcement agency. "I have been reliably informed that Kim is considered to be an emotional liability, and as such the UN cannot divert much needed resources to an uneconomic cause." The bitterness in her voice spoke volumes of what she thought about that decision.
Shego thought back to the microwave transmitter she had noted on the way in. Obviously Betty was running some kind of psychological test on Kimmie. That was one hard bitch. Deep down inside, a small worm of guilt was burrowing in her gut. All this had come about because of her selfishness. Unaccustomed to such feelings, Shego definitely didn't like it.
Anne Possible was looking at her with despair in her eyes. Shego shifted uncomfortably as she read the desperation in the older woman's gaze, pleading for someone, anyone, to come up with an answer to the pain her daughter was suffering.
"What do you expect me to do about it?" The question flitted unspoken through her mind as she tried to suppress her own guilt, but already she knew the answer. With a deep sigh, she pulled down a magnetic notepad from the fridge door and scribbled an address onto the uppermost sheet.
"11 O'clock sharp, I need the time to organise some things. Don't wait too long to leave, it'll take some time for the press to really get into gear, but they'll be camped out on your front lawn before you know it."
Shego winced at the pathetic look of gratitude the older woman was giving her. Leaving the half drunk cup of coffee on the table, Shego walked out of the room. At the doorway she stopped and turned.
"I can't promise anything." her voice emotionless as she fought down her own doubts about what she was doing.
"I Know, I'm just grateful you're trying." Anne Possible's thankful smile did nothing to make Shego more comfortable. Without a word, the thief turned and left the room.
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Yori flipped the book shut with an exhausted sigh and arched her back to relieve the strain of two hours sitting hunched over a desk. A gap in the curtains showed her that it would be light soon, they had been going through the prophecies all night. At least she had.
Looking over to the shock of blond hair resting on the book he was supposed to read, Yori pursed her lips in disapproval at Ron's lack of stamina. He was the one insisting that there must be a way to remove the band from Rufus' head, but he couldn't even last a single night researching, while she worked fifteen hours straight investigating something she knew had no answer. Except one.
Her eyes narrowed as she watched the young man sleeping. When she had first met him, his idiosyncracies had seemed endearing, and even cute. His big heart and cheerful acceptance of his position in life had been attactive, but that was then, when Master Sensei was alive and everything seemed much simpler and carefree. Now she was alone, her father figure gone, and of the three members of the team she had brought from Yamanouchi, two were dead. Everything she had lived for was crumbling around her and this fool was more concerned about his stupid pet.
Right on cue, as if summonsed by her thoughts, there was a disturbance in the lining of the supine young man's trouser pocket, and a pink hairless head poked its way out into the pre dawn air. Eyes drooping and whiskers dishevelled, the rodent in question clambered out of Ron's pocked and blinked in the dim light of the reading lamp illuminating the table strewn with books. Not bothering to stifle a yawn, Rufus casually scratched the skin around his midriff and sniffed the air to see if there were any signs of breakfast forthcoming.
Failing to detect any signs of food, he looked around to see if anyone was around who could be persuaded to feed him. Catching sight of Yori, he beamed a toothy grin. Rufus was starting to really like the young asian woman. Not only was she almost as free with her gifts of food as Kim, the pheromones he scented between her and her master seemed more balanced than those with the other woman in Ron's life.
Sure, Rufus liked Kim, he had known her all his life and she was especially generous with sharing her Bueno Nacho, but the scents he had picked up from her had never really changed from when she and Ron were friends in kindergarten. Whereas his master's feelings had changed over the years, Rufus had never sensed a similar development in her.
With Yori, the attaction had been there from the start, and if Rufus was any judge of character, the feelings were mutual. Sure, she was down at the moment, his simple Molerat brain could understand the feelings of loss she must be feeling at this time, but he was sure that given time, their feelings for each other would blossom into something wonderful.
Yori couldn't take her eyes off the ring of gold around his head. The answers to all her questions were trapped inside a rodent's head with no hope of them being revealed while it lived. Closing her eyes as she steeled herself to the task that needed to be done, Yori took a deep breath and, opening her eyes smiled at the unsuspecting rat.
"Come here Rufus." Yori's voice was carefree and light, causing the naked mole rat to look in her direction. Seeing his new friend holding her hand out, he shrugged and dropped down to the ground.
Yori watched as the trusting animal bounded its way across the floor. She squatted down to be nearer his level, her left hand stretched out for him to leap on to, while her right surrepticiously ran her fingers over a certain section of her belt buckle. Pulling out a small needle, its discoloured point hidden in the shadow of the table, she waited for the creature to seal its own fate.
"Come on Rufus, I've got a treat for you."