Dr. Drakken sat on the ground, grumbling to himself inaudibly. He was inside of a sort of cell. Three walls were solid, and one was made of bars running from the floor to the ceiling. He had tried squeezing himself through them, but they were too close together for such a plan to succeed. There was a keypad on the other side of the dark hallway that could open the bars when the passcode was entered correctly, but that was far out of the self-proclaimed mad genius's reach. So, with nothing else to do, he sat in his corner, writing on notecards.

He stopped writing and read one over to himself. "Blast!" he exclaimed, crumpling the notecard into a wad. "I don't have any spoons!" He tossed the crumpled paper into a pile of similarly crumpled failed plans and began writing on a new notecard.

"Planning an escape, Dr. D?" asked a woman's voice dryly.

Drakken looked around. "Shego? Is that you?" There was a light on inside of his cell, but it wasn't bright enough for him to see too far into the hallway.

Shego leaned up against the wall just before it ended and the bars began. One hand lit up in green light, illuminating the whole space. "No, it's the ice cream truck," she said sarcastically. "You want any Fruity Lickies?"

Drakken's brow furrowed. "Of course it's you," he spat, returning to his writing. As his pen scratched, he said to her, "Maybe I am planning to escape. What's it to you? Are you going to report it to your new boss? Hm?" He read over his writing quickly, "Find passcode…get really long stick…where do I get a stick…aha!" He wrote as he spoke, "Steal Bo staff…reach across hallway…"

"It's not long enough," Shego interrupted nonchalantly, examining the nails on her non-glowing hand.

"Not long enough!" he shouted, crumpling up the paper and throwing it away. "Of course it's not! I knew that! I just have to think harder. I will have a way out of here, and it will be foolproof. Let's see…" he took out another notecard and tapped his pen against its surface, trying to think of what to write next.

"You'd think an evil genius would have broken out by now," Shego said casually, throwing her former boss a mischievous glance. "Try crawling through the air ducts."

"Crawl through air ducts…" Drakken said as he wrote. Suddenly, he looked at Shego. "There are no air ducts, are there?"

"Nope," she replied.

"SHEGO!" he shouted, throwing his newly crumpled plan at her. "Have you really come all the way over here for the sole purpose of mocking me?"

"Hey," she shrugged, "it's not my fault you're so easy to mock. I need a little fun in my life."

"Oh, so the new job isn't doing it for you?" he deduced, standing up and walking over to her. "It's not 'fun' enough for you, is it? Bet you're even regretting leaving me for that faceless cyclops. Well, if you think you can come crawling back to me and beg me to take you back, then—"

"Excuse me, Doc," Shego stopped him, "but I never said I was begging. If anything, you should be begging forgiveness from me."

"How's that?" he asked, arching his unibrow.

Her light grew brighter as her fury increased. She glared at him with a look that could freeze most people in fear. "Are you kidding me?" she lashed out. "You knew the staff was my one weakness! I trusted you! Then, you go off and not only steal it, but fix it too! You think I'm the traitorous one for ditching you? Wake up and smell the cocoa moo, doofus! You betrayed me before any of this Slade business got started!"

When she had finished, her energy bolt shrunk back to its normal size. Drakken stopped cowering and marched straight over to his former sidekick. "That's what I was trying to tell you, Shego! I didn't betray you! That is, I did steal the staff without telling you, but it was never any intention of mine to use it against you unfairly." He gave her his best impression of a puppy dog pout. It wasn't very good. "Oh, come on, Shego, just listen to me. I can explain everything." Shego looked away. "Please?"

"Ugh, fine," she said grouchily. "Just make it quick."

"Oh good!" Drakken said, clapping his hands together. "You see, Shego, even though you insisted that you had everything under control that time when I dropped in on your fight with Aviarius, I could see that the staff was putting both you in danger. It was the only thing in the world that could really do you significant harm. Why, incidents that could kill the average person rarely damage you at all, and never in the long term."

"True," Shego admitted. "So the staff can take my powers. Still sounds like betrayal to me."

"Ah, but you have not heard it all yet," Drakken continued. "The thing is, I knew that if anybody else ever found that staff and pieced the crystal back together, they could completely ruin you. A team can't function with only one player, and as much as I loathe admitting it, the truth is you've proven yourself the truly evil partner in this team multiple times."

"As much as I like flattery," she commented, "can we get back to the point?"

"Yes, of course. Rather than let someone find the pieces and cause us trouble, I snuck out with some henchmen and stole the staff and all of its pieces while you were on vacation for some three day weekend. That way, I could be sure that no one could steal your powers again."

"And you fixed it up because…?"

"Well, that one's a bit trickier to explain." He hesitated before going on. "It isn't exactly a secret that you don't like me very much. I mean, you've never had any respect for me whatsoever, and you are disobedient pretty regularly. I never initially intended to fix the staff, you must understand. The thing is, er, well, there came a day when I honestly feared that you would turn against me. We'd kind of had a fight, you'd smashed my latest invention, it was just a bad day. So, I decided to secretly fix the staff. Now, before you get angry, you have to understand that I only planned to use it as a last resort, and for self-defense only. Thankfully, things cooled off between us and I never had to. I left it in storage and all but forgot about it, to be honest. I still have no clue how Slade found out about it, but you see now that I really didn't betray you. I was trying to protect you, Shego."

Shego paused to reflect on the story. It was a plausible explanation, but somehow she couldn't quite believe it. There was something missing. "Okay, Dr. D," she said finally, "but I still have one question. I know I'm a great sidekick and would be really hard to replace, but no villain sticks their neck out that far for an assistant. You're downright terrible at pulling heists, and the henchmen are even worse, plus you'd have to pay them for overtime, which I know you hate doing. Either you're lying, or there was another motive in your crooked blue head, so spill."

"Oh, of course," Drakken replied, relieved that the question was one he was certain of the answer to. "There was a bit more to it than the practicality of having you around. You see, I've said many times that I consider us a sort of evil family."

"Ugh, this again," Shego groaned, rolling her eyes. "Now you're just trying to make me feel bad."

"No, I mean it!" the blue-skinned man insisted. "I care about what happens to you, and it isn't just because you're a good sidekick. If you were ever in trouble, you know I'd be there to help you as soon as I could. That's what family means, Shego."

Shego could remember someone saying something similar to her once, back in Go City. The memory was unclear, but it was probably Hego. Family. That wasn't a word she used much, nor did she want to. Her own family was incredibly annoying and she had done everything she could to avoid contact with them since her turn to the dark side. "In my experience," she said coldly, "families don't tend to stick together."

Drakken stepped toward her and held onto the bar next to her. "Well, in mine they do. Why do you think I haven't told Mother I'm not a radio psychiatrist? Maybe I'm not the best son in the world, but I do care enough not to completely break her heart. I know you don't particularly enjoy talking to or about your own family, and believe me, I am not telling you how to live your life. I'm just saying that in our little family of evil, if you were in danger, I would be there for you, and I would hope you'd do the same for me."

This was not the first time Drakken had mentioned his "evil family" mentality to Shego, but she was still kind of surprised. She had never put much stock in the idea of family, so she had usually casually ignored these remarks. Now, however, she could see that Drakken meant what he said and that he really did care a bit more than an evil mad scientist should. But did she feel the same way about him? She wasn't sure.

"Wow," she said, not sure what would be appropriate to say at this point. "That's…well…it sure explains why you turn spineless whenever Mama Lipsky is around."

The insulting comeback lacked its usual level of sarcasm and sassiness. Shego had to stop this train wreck before she could go too soft. She needed to get her head back in the game. She stopped leaning on the wall and shined her green light down the hallway in both directions, checking for any person, robot, or listening device. It was all clear. She deactivated her energy bolt and faced Drakken in his cell. "What if I told you that the new uniform Slade made me is being used by him to control my powers against my will using Aviarius's crystal?" she asked in a slightly lower voice than usual.

Drakken straightened up. "I'd say it serves you right for letting him imprison me and cheat me out of a partnership."

"Hm," she said. "Interesting. What if I told you that he used it to torture me into submission beyond the call of necessity?"

"Now that's a horse of a different color," Drakken replied. "That would be completely unacceptable." It took him a second to realize what was going on. "Oh! He actually did that, didn't he?"

"No duh, Dr. D," Shego answered. "He's literally taken control of my body. He even got me to call him master, and you know I've never called anybody that."

"Can't you just change into your old uniform?" he asked.

"Already thought of that," she replied. "Not an option. While the crystal is set in Slade's little port thingy, my powers are bound to this suit. If I change back, I'd lose them forever."

Drakken made a fist. "He's gone too far this time! You were wise to come to me for help, Shego. I'll come up with a plan to get us both out of here in a jiffy!" He pulled out a fresh notecard and his pen and began writing.

Shego flicked a little green flame onto the paper. It was consumed in seconds. "Yeah. So not happening," she said. "Slade's got this place booby-trapped like crazy. Any of your plans would probably get us killed before we even saw daylight. And that's another thing. There is no 'we', not yet. Just because your motives were nice doesn't let you off the hook. It's still your fault that Slade got his hands on Aviarius's tech. I'm going to bust myself out of here, and if you cooperate, I'll let you out too, but I'm calling the shots, got it?"

Drakken knew better than to cross Shego when she was upset, so he backed off. "Of course. Anything you say, Shego. How exactly do you plan on breaking out?"

"Dunno yet," she said, "but I'll find a way, and it won't involve any of your stupid notecards. Just wait for instructions, and until you get them, act natural around Slade. I don't want him getting suspicious."

"Of course not," Drakken agreed. "But what about—"

"Ssh!" Shego cut him off, hearing metal footsteps down the hallway. She quickly moved to the opposite wall and leaned against it casually. Slade appeared in the dim green light towering above the evil duo.

"Conversing with the scientist, apprentice?" he asked. "A rather strange use of time."

"Well, I already took a shower," she explained, "so I thought, 'Hey, why not tell Dr. D what an idiot he is?' I'm used to doing that pretty often."

"I see," Slade replied, his eye scanning the area. He was still suspicious, but he had better things to do than interrogate his apprentice and henchman. "I have several new weapons that I would like you to familiarize yourself with. Your foolishness has put us significantly off schedule, so you will need them to take out the Titans quickly and get us back on track."

"Got it," Shego said, standing up straight. "Don't worry, buddy, this time they're history."

Slade's gloved hand slapped her suddenly across the cheek. "I am not your 'buddy', apprentice," he said. "Would you like to repeat what you just said?"

Shego made eye contact with Drakken for a brief moment before returning her gaze to Slade. "Don't worry…master." The word may as well have been fingernails on a chalkboard to her ears.

"Much better. Come along, apprentice," Slade ordered. Shego reluctantly followed behind him. Dr. Drakken was left alone in his cell, still trying to wrap his head around how anybody on earth had found a way to even partially control Shego.

(A/N: Happy New Year, everyone! I've been out of town lately, but hopefully now I'll be more regular about updating. This chapter felt a little bit shippy, but that was not my intention. If you're a Drakken/Shego shipper (DrakGo?), go ahead and interpret it however you want. I'm just saying that it was written from a purely platonic perspective and that you should not expect any kind of romance between this couple. There's already more than enough of that between the good guys!)