Just a warning, this chapter is fucked.
Kim had never felt hunted in her life. She thought she had, but as she heard the braying of what could have been a certain silver hellhound and felt probing thoughts laced in gold, she understood how Shego felt when she knocked on Kim's door a month ago.
Unlike Shego however, she wasn't terrified, she was thrilled. So thrilled that she couldn't help the bubbly laugh of pure delight that escaped her throat.
It didn't take long before she could see the large bloodhound looping along beside her. Those cunning eyes seemed to smirk at her.
She could also feel Ivy's tendril, probing hesitantly at her mind, getting just enough information to tell to Shego.
Shego… She couldn't help but visualise the startled look on the other woman's face when she kissed her. If being bad meant more of that then she didn't want to change back.
She continued to run, her body stretching for every step to keep ahead of her hunting party, although she would be happy to lose the damn dog. Her mind quickly set to thinking about the best way. Maybe she should put her out of her misery. She had lost her lover recently.
A cruel grin stretched across her face as the perfect idea solidified in her mind. She zipped away from the dog, hearing it turn behind her, following close but not about to lunge. It was a game to both women.
A game Kim wasn't about to lose as she leapt over a log and turned midair, her foot colliding with Jasmine's ribs. She yelped in surprise before she was slammed into a tree. She fell like a sack of potatoes while Kim ran on. She got back onto her feet with a low growl and took off after her, continuing the chase.
Kim's lips were curled into a manic grin as she began to bounce off trees, she could hear Jasmine coming closer again. "Didn't that mutt learn the first time?" The thought passed through her mind but she shrugged it off as she kept running. It didn't take long before she saw the black and silver hound.
It didn't matter, they were nearing position. They would be much easier to deal with while they were simpering goody goodies.
Jasmine was hit first and let out a noise akin to a scream. Ivy, racing above instantly went on alert to avoid a similar fate but it didn't matter and she too was hit by the Reverse Polarizer. She dropped a lot more quietly.
Shego dove out, catching her older sibling and rolling with the dazed body. She set her down, quickly avoiding a shot from the stupid, acursed machine.
She then had to dodge Kim's kick, her heel sinking into the ground before she sprung up, trying to angle Shego so she could be hit.
Ivy blinked as she looked around. She felt odd, weirdly optimistic and… cheerful. She reached out with her hand and a bubble popped up around Kim. Just because she was good(?) now didn't mean she wouldn't help her sister.
She reached up her other hand, making a shield around herself to stop any more stray rays. She looked around, noting that something was wrong with Jasmine but that was pushed aside by the fact Shego was crouching beside her, looking intently at her.
"Are you okay?" Ivy blinked at her younger sibling, her head tilting slightly.
"Yes." She replied simply. She cast her thoughts out like a net and stood up, she could feel the culprit, and unlike them, she didn't need a machine to change their mind.
Shego hesitated as she watched Electronique stumble out of the woods, her body jerky as she was forcibly controlled. Igo didn't even look bothered as she rose to her feet, her gold shield lowering while Kim ended up bound.
"Change her back." She ordered and Electronique rose her arms, struggling against the very real grip Ivy had on her mind. She turned to look at Kim, the bubble popped as she waved it away and her hand closed, holding Kim still.
A beam shot out and Kim slackened in Ivy's grip and the telepath gently laid the redhead down. She smirked as she turned a cruel expression onto Electronique.
"Hey now Poison Ivy." Ivy turned as an expression of annoyance crossed her face. A woman stood off to the side, standing over Jasmine. Shego paused as she looked at her, there was something familiar about her, asides for the fact she was wearing Jasmine's cape and was stark naked. "Don't kill her yet. Or break her mind." Her lips quirked in amusement, Kim groaning softly as she began to come to.
"Who are you?" Ivy asked and the woman laughed before she bowed, two pitch black eyes stared down at her.
"My name is Demon. The Attitudinator did something interesting. See, your precious Jasmine, is actually a really, really scared little girl, she acts big and tough but she hides it so very well." The woman purred softly as Jasmine began stirring. "Don't ask why it split us. I don't know but right now, she's bad and I'm good. Despite what you may believe."
Shego glared at the smiling woman as Jasmine began to pick herself up. "No one said she had a split personality." Electronique spoke up from where she was being held.
"You should have guessed. Although, I'm not surprised, she's good at hiding it. So is this like a side effect for people with splits?"
"Well… yes but most of the time the personalities flip either good or bad, they don't split."
"Thank the Glow. She is a shapeshifter."
"Demon, have you ever been stabbed?" Jasmine's voice was soft as she pushed herself to her feet.
Shego frowned from where she was crouched next to Kim, a feeling of wrongness coming from her eldest sibling.
"In my own body? No. In yours? Plenty of times." She gave the other woman a wolfish grin but she didn't seem too concerned.
"In all honesty. You seem evil still." Demon laughed as Kim rubbed her throbbing head.
"That, is an act. One our darling Jasmine is very intimate with." She was still grinning as she looked at them before she yelped as she was suddenly pinned.
"Hang on. If you were both evil why is only one good now?"
"Because Jasmine was never evil." Ivy spoke up as she looked at the pair, Jasmine's hands were holding Demon and she looked like she wished to strangle her.
"What?" That was Shego, her head snapping up in disbelief.
"What? You think the sweet little girl that couldn't hurt a bug could kill someone?" Demon asked sarcastically and blinked as she was backhanded.
"An insect doesn't know what hit it. People deserved it."
"... Are we sure she couldn't kill anyone?" Kim asked as she looked at the winged woman.
"Ah… Well she's evil now. Of course she could kill someone in this state. I'm just glad she's not the telepath." Ivy spoke softly and Kim shook her head.
"Change her back." Jasmine's head snapped around, black eyes burning. "Now!"
Electronique lifted her arms but Jasmine leapt off Demon, flipping away from the beam.
"Jasmine!" Shego couldn't help but cry out her name as she avoided the following blasts. Kim looked at Shego's expression, worried, conflict and even a hint of fear. Ivy's expression mirrored Shego's, even Demon looked a bit worried.
"Okay. Shego, Igo." They both looked at Kim. "Keep her busy. Give me the Attitudinator." Shego paused before she raced forward to engage Demon in combat.
They were evenly matched, Jasmine had learnt all she knew from Shego and Shego had only expanded her martial arts since then. Shego flared her plasma and Jasmine bared her talons.
They leapt around, Shego sending balls of plasma to keep Demon on her toes. Ivy would reach in, her Glow wrapping around Jasmine like a snake before her shape would change and she would escape, only to receive a minor burn from Shego.
This was not the fight with Angel Kim had witnessed a week ago. This was less flashy, less an act and more deadly. Brutality didn't have a place in this one as the goal wasn't to entertain. Ivy and Shego were keeping her on guard and defensive but they couldn't get past it and it seemed that Jasmine had closed her mind to Ivy.
It was a stalemate in terms of keeping her still but Kim only needed one chance to change her back and the battle was beginning to drag out. Jasmine was well aware of their plan and was doing everything in her power to avoid the multiple attacks.
Kim got that chance when Shego flared her plasma and sent a massive ball at Jasmine. "I'm sorry Jasmine." Her voice seemed to echo because of a very sudden silence. The silence was broken by roars of pain and hissing, bubbling skin. Kim shot the Attiudenator at her and the roars turned to startled, agonised screams.
Shego stumbled away, heaving as memories of the first time she'd burnt Jasmine overlapped with the now. It was worse this time. The first time she'd been silent, trying not to get Shego in trouble or alert Team Go to her being there. This time she had no mental preparation, any that she had had had been tossed with her personality flip.
She was on all fours, heaving herself as her melted skin and muscles dripped off her bones. She panted heavily, tears steaming the second they left her eyes. She thankfully passed out not long later.
Ivy nearly rivaled Shego with the shade of green she'd gone and Demon was not looking at her host. Kim wanted to look away, she really did, but it was a train wreck in the making. She couldn't look away.
Demon was the first to move, she went to her host and pulled her over. The woman was limp and unresponsive. That was probably a good thing.
"Well shit. Looks like without another personality she won't heal." She rolls her eyes. "Oi, Blueby. Can I go back into her?"
"Well you shouldn't have separated from her." Demon snarled suddenly, her hands clawing but no talons sprouting. "Kim, darling. See to Shego and Ivy." Kim blinked as she looked at Demon but moved to check slowly on Shego. She dumbly noted she was in shock. In all her fights with Shego nothing like that had ever happened. Her guts were still churning with horror and disgust.
She moved to Ivy first, the gold woman was still as stone and jerked violently when Kim touched her shoulder. She turned to blink owlishly at her. Kim looked back helplessly and gestured to Shego.
She moved to Shego, her pale skinned lover was still heaving. She looked guilty and horrified at herself, at what she'd done and didn't seem to notice Kim's presence at all. Ivy was hit by a wall of guilt and remorse, it staggered her. Even through her own shock, Shego's emotions managed to overpower anything she was feeling. She held back a heave at the tiny glimpse of Shego's thoughts.
A dark, green room, it was night and someone was in it too. Plasma, burnt flesh, silence.
Kim looked at Ivy as she heaved and lost the fight against her own horror. The stoic woman was in tears as she gagged.
Kim looked between them, unsure what to do before she settled on stroking Shego's back and trying to break whatever feelings of horror were being piggybacked between the two women.
There was a brief flash, and Demon staggered to an upright position.. She reached up, hissing as she touched her melted face. She swallowed weakly and gagged on the feeling that went down her throat, she suspected that the jelly like substance was her flesh. She closed her damaged eyes, thankfully Shego had gone low instead of melting everything and began the taxing job of fixing her host body.
She really wished that the first time had been the last, but alas, that was very clearly not the case. "Shego." Her voice was a hoarse croak and both her siblings turned violently to look at her. "Thank you."
She slumped backwards as she passed out, she'd started the process which meant when one of them woke in control their face would be better, they would also be in a lot of pain unless they ended up in a hospital, then they would be in a confused fear which would quickly turn to rage.
Shego watched her sibling collapse a second time and scrambled over to her, making sure she hadn't died this time. She let out a soft breath as she felt a pulse, fluttery and weak but there. Kim was right beside her and Ivy was opposite them.
"Let's…" Shego's voice caught and she swallowed back bile. "Let's get her home." Ivy nodded and turned to look at Electronique. The woman was frozen in place, Ivy's hold on her mind still tight.
Shego gingerly moved her hands, trying to work out the best way to carry her much larger sibling without causing her more pain. Ivy sighed softly and lifted her with a gold disk.
"Perhaps you should sing St James Infirmary Blues when she wakes up, you know how much she loves it." She looked at Shego who simply nodded. The trip home was silent and Ivy had contacted the police to collect Electronique. They'd kept the Atitudnator and it had been given to Wade so that it couldn't happen again.
Kim didn't go to Jasmine's room, she was sitting silently in the living room, Ivy and Shego were with her, although she heard when Shego left, the guilt eating her alive. Kim looked at her as she sat across from her.
"I swore I would never do that again." Her voice was hollow and she was sitting hunched up, staring down at the floor. "I didn't keep my word. I…" Her voice caught and she choked on the words. Kim sat silently, not sure what to do as she watched the other woman struggle. She didn't want to crowd her or force her to talk but she didn't know what Shego would do. She didn't seem to want comfort, well, it was more she felt she didn't deserve it.
Kim licked her lips as she hesitated, her mind filled with the scene, the smell of burnt flesh was still strong in her nose and she caught her breath slightly.
Shego slowly looked up, seeing Kim's conflicted and pale face, she knew exactly what the redhead was going through. She knew what would probably help her, but right now she couldn't. She closed her eyes, a mistake as she saw Jasmine's burning face and felt a fresh wave of guilt.
"Shego." Kim's voice cut through the echo of agonised screams and Shego blinked at the green eyes that were close to her. Kim had moved. Her hands were gently cupping her clammy cheeks. "You did what you thought was necessary at the time to get your sister back."
"Was it the right thing?" Kim's thumb gently stroked her smooth skin.
"I can't tell you if it was right or wrong." She looked at her eyes, so open and raw, hurting, guilty, blaming herself. "You will have to talk to her." Shego nodded and Kim moved forward, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and pulling her head into her chest. Shego's arms wrapped around her waist tightly and she quietly cried into her shirt.
Why is the best time to write right now when I haven't slept in 30 hours and I'm still bouncing off the walls while slowly freezing to death?
If you're wondering if I'm okay, I'm not, I'm really, really not okay.