This next chapter follows the backstory from Breakaway. But again, it's not necessary to read that first.
Ughh I'm still iffy on action. Feedback would be much appreciated, as always!
–N
January 2010
Shego slid into the Middleton Bueno Nacho booth across from Kim and her friend, who looked vaguely familiar maybe? Probably a mission. "Why are we meeting here?" Shego asked.
"I'm home for winter break and I wanted to talk to you. So, here." She gestured to her friend. "Shego, this is Monique."
Monique offered a small wave. "Hey girl."
"Uh, hi?"
"I'll let you tell her, Mo?" Kim said.
The other girl nodded and addressed Shego. "It's about my cousin. Teresa King?"
Shego's blood ran cold and her head swam. Oh yes, she remembered Teresa all too well. "What the hell is going on?" she hissed.
"I think I can help you track down The Bomber," Kim said. "Mego said you never found him –"
"No. We're not going after him."
"But –"
"Why the fuck are you talking to my brothers about me anyway?"
Kim frowned. "It was just something that Keres mentioned."
"Ha! So you decided to trust Keres, who betrayed us all?"
"No –"
Shego stood, her fingers gripping the edge of the table. "I'm done." She stormed out then, pushing poor Ned out of her way.
Well, that wasn't how Kim had envisioned things going down. "Sorry, Monique."
Monique shrugged, but her eyes were sad. "Hey, no big. It just would've been nice to offer my family some closure, you know?"
"Maybe we can still do that," Kim said. And Monique smiled.
XXX
Kim spent that night researching The Bomber. It seemed like he'd been everywhere. Go City, Santa Fe, New York. No one had ever caught him.
She sighed and leaned back as her phone rang, Drakken's name appearing on the caller ID. As soon as she picked it up she had his voice in her ear. "What the hell did you say to Shego?"
"Nothing!"
"That's not true. She's really upset."
"I just offered to help her find a villain from her past. That's it."
Drakken sighed. "You don't get it. The scariest villain you've ever faced was Shego."
"What about –"
"The scariest human villain." Kim shut her mouth then, her protest about the invasion quashed, and Drakken said, "Shego blames herself for Teresa's death. The Bomber took her hostage because he knew Shego cared about her."
"That doesn't make it Shego's fault."
"Has anyone you've ever loved died, Kim?" Silence on her end. "That's what I thought."
"But if we can help her get justice."
"Stop. Just stop. Sometimes you don't know everything. Have you ever considered that?"
Those words cut deep. She'd known Drakken and Shego now for years and never considered a time when they would have the moral high ground.
Well, maybe that time was now.
"Ok." The other line went dead, and Kim set her phone down on her desk. But as soon as she did, she got another call, this time from a blocked number. Kim sighed and put the phone to her ear. "Hello?"
Breathing, just breathing. And then, "Kim Possible?"
The voice on the other end was breathy, and at the same time deep. "Yes?"
More breathing. After a moment, she heard another voice, a familiar voice. "Hello?"
"Monique?"
"Kim! The Bomber has me. He says if you don't stop trying to find him, he'll hurt me. I –"
And then the line went dead once again.
XXX
Though Shego was pretty positive why Kim Possible and her boy toy had shown up at her doorstep in the middle of the night, she wasn't happy to be right. "I told you this was a bad idea."
"Please, Shego. Monique is my best friend. I can't lose her."
"What happened to 'She can do anything' and 'Nothing is impossible for a Possible' and all that?"
"You know this guy. You know how he thinks."
"Somehow whenever you ask me for help, it never goes well for me."
"Please. I don't know what I can say to make you help me except that if you don't, Monique is going to die."
Shego rolled her eyes. "Shouldn't have played with fire, Kimmie." Kim said nothing, just waited, and Shego sighed. "Alright, fine. Has your nerd friend tracked them down yet?"
"Yes!" Ron said, leaning around Kim's shoulder. "They're not far."
"Alright. Fine. I'll tell you everything I know." And she opened the door to let them in.
XXX
Drakken drove them to where The Bomber was holding Monique hostage. The plan: Kim and Ron would go into the hideaway and distract the Bomber while Shego snuck onto the roof. "He used a remote the couple of times we fought him. If I can shut off the control panel, he can't blow anything up."
They pulled up to the lot and Kim and Ron jumped out of the car, making a beeline for the abandoned brick building ahead. Shego made to follow them, but Drakken grabbed her arm. "Be careful, ok?"
She kissed him quick. "Don't worry. You'll be in my ear the whole time," she said, tapping the device that would allow Drakken to help her figure out how to dismantle The Bomber's system.
Scaling the side of the building was, as Kim would say, no big. But once Shego got to the top, she was stunned by the dome that lay in the center of the roof, the sheer number of wires that ran through it. This … might be a little big.
Ok, earpiece on. "Alright, Dr. D. There's a huge glass dome with a ton of wires underneath. Do I just slash them all?"
"No … Glass dome … Give me a minute."
That's when Kim's voice came through on the earpiece. "No bomb-strapped-to chest this time?" Shego couldn't make out The Bomber's words, but she knew Kim had only said that for her benefit. That meant that if she could get Monique out of there, they would be safe.
A shrill, sudden beeping noise began, and Shego looked more closely at the wires. In the middle of the dome was a bomb, ticking away at the minutes. And it looked like Shego had exactly five of them.
"Shit." Shego smashed through the glass and made her way to the bomb. "D, I think the wires were just a decoy this time. He knows I'm involved."
"What do you mean?"
"There's a bomb on the roof. He's planning on just blowing the whole place up."
Silence on the other end, and then, "What does the bomb look like?"
She described it to him, snipped the wires he told her to snip. But even after all that, the bomb continued to tick down. Two minutes now.
Shego braced herself, realizing what she had to do. Over the earpiece she said, "Kim, tell the bomber I'm on the roof."
"What?" That was Drakken's voice. "Shego –"
"Do it."
She heard Kim's voice then, telling the bomber exactly that. And then Kim said, "Shego, he's coming."
Drakken again. "Shego!"
Shego shut the earpiece off and waited. At last, The Bomber burst through the roof, with 15 seconds left on his explosive. Shego dove for the side, but he caught her foot. She turned back and saw his scarred face, his charred skin, both from years of explosions. "Foolish woman," he said. "Toying with me."
"Toying, yes," Shego said, counting down in her head. "Foolish?"
Three. Two. One.
The world exploded, and Shego enveloped herself in her shield. And then she was falling, falling –
She hit the ground and her shield disintegrated. Her ears buzzed with the boom of the bomb and she stumbled a bit as she stood upright. From a distance, she heard Kim yell her name. And then the girl was there, helping Shego away from the building, which was now in flames. Shego saw Kim's mouth moving and shook her head. "What?"
"I said, are you ok?"
"Yeah. Just. Ears ringing. Give me a second." Shego sat back on the ground and put a hand to her head. She might have a minor concussion, but that wasn't awful for having just been in an explosion. Across the lot, Drakken had gotten out of the car and was running toward them.
"The Bomber?" Kim asked.
"Dead." Shego winced and pressed her hand harder against her forehead.
From behind them both, Monique's voice. "Thank you."
Drakken caught up with them then and knelt down beside Shego. "You … You scared me."
She gave him a small smile. "Sorry. Didn't mean to." She made to stand, and Drakken caught her arm, helping her up.
"Let's get out of here," he said. And Shego didn't hesitate to follow.