New day, new chapter.
As always, thanks for the favs and reviews. Someone complained about the "Jarls" taking over the story, and I am sorry you feel that way. Unfortunantly due to the constrants of both fanfic and their adult content rules, that does limit how much Ron/Shego stuff I can write (I mean, we're talking about a couple madly in love trapped alone in a trailer for several months. As much as I'm sure everyone would love 40k words of literal Ron/Shego petplay porn, I don't know I could write that and I certainly couldn't post it here). So, for the sake of character development, moving the plot, and setting up things relevant to the ending without them coming across as complete asspulls...I kinda have to use the Jarls. I have, however, tried to include what I can of Ron and Shego in the coming chapters, and to keep them as a central focus as much as I can beyond that when the Jarls do show up.
Upon request I will start trying to remember to post the way to find the "adult" version of the story on Archive of Our Own. So far I've gotten the rough drafts of the "adult" stuff up to chapter 12, and am trying to work on the stuff beyond that as I can, so it's not being updated as regularly because I'd like to finish it before I get ahead of myself and then have to rush. So here it is: archiveofourown dot org/users/Sulla_of_Rome
Anyways, short chapter today and a bit of a dark one, next one is much longer, but as always "set up" is important.
Chapter 20
Breakfast was delicious omelets, with bacon, biscuits and gravy. Conversation was small, with her and Ron constantly blushing and Astrid giving them repeated naughty looks while innocently talking about how she'd heard wolves last night and hadn't know there were any in the area. Even Blackwolf gave small, sad smiles, before cleaning his plate and vanishing outside.
Astrid left shortly after, saying that clearly what she'd picked up wasn't enough food to last and took a list Ron wrote with her. Funds were limited, as were supplies as the local store she said, but she'd get what she could for them.
Ron and Shego did their morning training, wrapping up in time for lunch. Blackwolf showed up again about halfway through Ron's cooking and ate silently with them, before vanishing outside again. Shego noticed he was looking a lot healthier, though she noticed it seemed dimmer outside. Perhaps it was just overcast above the trees. She hoped that was a good sign. Ron had been absolutely cold to the man the entire time, and she'd had to serve out the portions.
"Master," she said softly, nuzzling up to the young man on the sofa, "I know it's hard, but I think you should try and be nicer to Mr. Blackwolf." Ron shot her a hot look, and she nuzzled him submissively.
"Why?" Ron said, temper tinging his voice, "Because our lives depend on him?"
"That," Shego said, "among other things."
"What, other things," Ron said, his eyes getting hot, "He's a damn anti-Semite. What could possibly justify that!"
"Master," she asked softly, "how would you feel if Global Justice kills me?"
"I...I..." Ron stammered, his temper waning as he unconsciously imagined that happening.
"He loved someone, very much," Shego pressed, before he could recover, "And because of something he did, a Mossad agent with the help of his superiors tortured her so bad she went into a coma and has never woken up." She paused, swallowing the lump in her throat. "They filmed it, and left her and the video for him to find, Ron."
"That's...that's horrible," Ron said, his true nature overwhelming any other feelings. His arm tightened around her instinctively. "But...that doesn't justify..."
Shego rested her hand on his chest and looked up at her master. "Doesn't it? Think about what he said, yesterday. I don't know if what he said about Purim and genocide and all that stuff is true, they don't have a bible for me to check. But he is clearly a man who believes what he said, and while I'm no expert in these things, I've met enough Israelis to know they are incredibly proud of their nation and most of them do not question for a moment any action their government, military, or Mossad do in the name of keeping them safe. He probably knows that too. So he sees an entire nation of people who by all accounts are completely happy with the torture and brutalization of the woman he loved."
Ron looked down at her, his emotions warring in his eyes. She pressed closer, if that was possible. "You yourself admitted you hate Nazis and people who think like them, because of what they did to your people before you or your parents were even alive. He had to watch her under go days of torture that he was helpless to prevent." She said softly, looking deep into his eyes. "Would you be any different, if it was done to me? Wouldn't you hate every single GJ agent, no matter how unrelated to the actual event, for being part of those that did it to me?"
Ron wilted. "Yeah," he said finally, "Yeah I probably would."
She nuzzled him. "I'm not asking you to like him, or trust him, or be friends with him, Master," She said, "I just...don't want to see you become a man with hate in your heart, especially not a hatred of something you yourself would become."
Ron sighed, and nuzzled her back. "Is that why you were crying last night?" he asked softly. She nodded.
"Astrid told me what happened," she said softly, tears prickling her eyes, "And all I could think about was what if that happened with us. What you could become, the pain and suffering you'd have to go through. You would lose me, and in the end my death would cause you to lose so much of what I love about you."
Ron nodded weakly and kissed her. The kiss deepened, Ron's desperation growing as he too imagined such a fate. They lost themselves in the kiss, only coming up when the door slammed.
"Oh," Blackwolf said, scratching his beard. "Sorry." He awkwardly went into his room and shut the door.
Shego looked at Ron, who looked exactly like a teenage boy caught making out when he wasn't supposed to, and giggled. Ron stared at her for a moment and then started laughing softly. Slowly, their laughter grew louder as the collapsed together on the sofa, where it slowly petered out.
"I love you, Shego," Ron said after a while, stroking her back.
She nuzzled his chest. "I love you too Master Ron." she purred back.
"I'm really lucky to have you," Her Master said, "You're one smart puppy too."
"Woof," she said happily, smiling up at him. "And I'm really lucky to have you too, Master. A girl could never ask for a better Master than you."
The door swung open and Astrid appeared in the door. She took one look at the couple and made a disgusted sound. "Gods damn it dude, bad enough you have to fuck your dog, but do you have to do it on the couch?" She asked, "I'm never going to be able to get the stains out."
Shego turned to glare at the woman, who burst out laughing so hard she ended up half collapsed against the doorjamb holding her ribs. After a moment, she felt Ron shaking under her before he too, burst out in hearty laughs. Shego relented and joined in, though a bit more reservedly.
Luke stuck his head out to see what the commotion was, and was promptly conscripted into bringing in the groceries. Shego promptly volunteered Ron to help. When he asked if she was also going to help, she gave him her biggest puppy dog pout and protested that doggies didn't carry groceries in, that was a job for Masters, which set Astrid off again.
Thankfully, the menfolk didn't get into worse trouble during their labors, though it turned out a two hour drive for supplies wasn't exactly kind to chilled goods. Still, the fridge was now much more stocked with fresh fruits, veggies, milk, yogurt, cheese, and so on. Astrid begged Ron to make the chocolate cake, because she and Luke would be leaving in the morning and she wanted at least one proper feast with them before they parted ways.
No one admitted it might be the final meal they had together.
Working with the limited pots and pans, Ron prepped a full five course meal, though everyone laughed at Astrid's face when she realized it wasn't going to be quite five star. An appetizer of fried cheese sticks, a Cesar salad, tomato soup, flat iron steaks with baked potatoes, and lastly The Cake.
It was the cake, as usual, that caused all the trouble. It was, Shego thought, like the Irish proverb that drink was a curse on the land, because it made you fight with your landlord, it made you shoot at him, and it made you miss him.
"You cannot honestly be defending the Nazis!" Ron said hotly as she came down from the orgasmic highs of the German chocolate cake. 'Fuck,' she thought to herself. 'There goes all my hard work.'
"It's not about defending them," Luke replied, "any so called defense is dependent on accepting the facts about morality."
"What are you talking about?" Astrid interjected, her voice one of post climax bliss.
"I am trying to explain to Ron moral hypocrisy," Luke said, his voice calm and even.
"By using Nazis?" Shego asked, horrified curiosity and mind numbing pleasure loosening her tongue.
Luke sighed. "Look, you remember what I said the other night about A is A?" he asked. Shego nodded, Ron settled for huffing. "And how an action is good or bad, it cannot be both, and it cannot be good for one person but evil for another?"
"Yeah, mostly," Shego said. Astrid groaned and buried her face in her arms on the table. Clearly the woman had hear this. A lot.
"Okay," Luke said, sipping his beer, "we can posit that for example, genocide is bad, fair enough?" He looked around the table. Shego and Ron nodded. Astrid quietly begged for more cake. Ron gave her another piece.
"So, on it's most basic level, Nazi Germany is the literal worst group in history because they committed genocide." Blackwolf said, his fork absently heading for Astrid's cake. He retreated at the murderous rage in her eyes. "Fair?"
"Fair," Ron said, taking a drink from some purple mixer.
"Okay, but the Nazis weren't the only ones who committed a genocide at the time." Luke said, "In fact, there are some who theorize the entire reason Hitler thought the extermination of the Jews was okay was because just a few years before the Turks genocided nearly their entire Armenian population and no one did shit about it. Hell, the British were in sight of the coastline when it happened and refused to rescue virtually anyone."
Ron looked horrified. "That can't be right," he said, shocked.
"Completely and utterly true." Luke said, "And, after that but again before the holocaust kicked off, the Soviets committed the holodomor, where millions of Ukrainians were genocided in a man made famine. And again, no one really gave a shit about it."
Ron took rather deep draw on his drink. Shego notice another empty bottle already by his plate. "I've never heard about either of those," he said softly.
"No one talks about them," Luke said with a shrug, "Or any other genocides in history really. They only ever talk about the holocaust." He took a long drink from his beer. "So, it presents a moral quandary. Either genocide is not a big deal, in which case the Nazis aren't the worst monsters in the world because they literally didn't do anything different than anyone else. Or it is a big deal, in which case the Turks should really be blasted and the Soviet Union and Communist China are each objectively ten to twenty times worse than the Nazis. That's like saying guy who kills ten people is somehow worse than a guy who kills a hundred people. They're both murderers, but objectively one is a lot more murderous. Though in this case, Hitler killed six million and the communists killed a hundred and twenty million."
Shego wasn't sure what to think about Luke's argument. Part of her wanted to argue, and she was sure Ron was in the same boat. Everything they'd been taught growing up said the Nazis were the worst things in human history. Still, part of her absently noted the man's argument kinda paralleled her own situation. Draken was the one always trying to take over the world, but she was the one listed as a dangerous animal that needed to be hunted down and killed. She blamed her inability to think on the damn, blessed cake.
"Yet today, despite the body count being practically twenty times as much, Communism is taught in our universities, its ideals are pushed in our politics, it's practice in our laws." Luke said, playing with his beer. "So which is it? Genocide is bad, and those ideologies that create genocide are bad and should be rejected...or genocide is not bad and thus ideologies that have caused genocide in the past can and should be studied and spread?"
"It's...different." Ron said weakly. "The holocaust is different."
"Why though?" Luke asked, and Shego saw a spark in his eye. "Because of the methods? Is gas somehow worse than being shot, tortured, starved, frozen, or beaten to death? Dead is dead, kid. How you got there doesn't really matter in the long run."
Ron looked uncomfortable and Shego thought about stepping in. She jumped when Astrid nudged her under the table and shook her head. Hoping she didn't regret it, Shego stayed silent. In truth, she could only think of one real difference about the holocaust. She suspected Ron was in the same boat.
"Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians by the Turks. Ukranians, Chechens, Tartars, Latvians, Kazakhs and others by the Soviets. Serbs. Lybians. The list goes on. What makes the holocaust different?" Luke asked.
"Jews," Ron said finally.
"Exactly." Luke said. "the holocaust was the genocide of Jews. And somehow, that is supposed to make it worse?" Ron shifted uncomfortably, but that didn't stop the dark haired man. "A is A. A death is a death. A person is a person. No person is inherently worth more than any other person. Sure, some can be smarter, or stronger, or contribute more to a society, but all are equal in the eyes of death. Everyone dies. Everyone is equal. No life is worth more than another."
Ron sighed, and looked dejectedly into his beer. Luke relaxed and leaned back in his chair. "I'm not asking you to agree with me," he said, "but you asked why I felt the way I do. Well, there's my example. To Jews, they're God's chosen people, and that makes them special, and to a lot of them that makes them superior, and the things that happened to them worse. I don't agree. To me they're just people. No different from anyone else. And if they're no different, then what happens to them isn't any better or worse than what happens to anyone else, and those that do it to them aren't any better or worse than anyone who does the same thing to a non-jew. And if a hundred and twenty million innocent people butchered in the name of Communism doesn't disqualify it as a philosophy, then why should a paltry six million disqualify literally anything?"
The dark haired man threw back his head and emptied his beer. It clanked hollowly on the table as he set it down. "I suppose if you want it simply, I could put it this way. I don't hate you. I don't even hate your people because of what they were born. You can't help that, no point in hating what people have no control over. A person is their deeds. It's the constant pattern of deeds, the commonality of attitudes, the rank hypocrisy of their actions. That's what I hate." He said slowly, toying with the can. "A Jew will bemoan the horrors of the holocaust as he locks entire populations behind guarded walls and butchers men, women, and children. He will hold tight to the belief that he is god's chosen, a superior being, while screaming that any white person who has pride in their heritage is evil. That's what I hate, kid. That's what I've always hated."
"And it has nothing to do with Maggie?" Ron asked. Shego froze. Astrid groaned. Luke...
Blackwolf went utterly still and what Shego saw in his eyes gave her nightmares for a long time. That look wasn't human. It wasn't even monstrous, or demonic. It was a look that made her remember mostly forgotten stories she'd read getting her degree in some classical literature class, of the terrible vengeance of ancient Gods, cruel beyond measure in their anger. It made her think of the yawning, hungering abyss Ron had saved her from. She wanted to move. To run. To step in front of her Master and protect him, but she couldn't. She was frozen, terrified that gaze would turn upon her.
"Hatred," Blackwolf said, his voice growling and harsh, with something dark and terrible rolling beneath it. It made her think of gaping maws, sharp fangs, and an endless, unknowable hunger, and the abyss that threatened to swallow her that she'd spent the last three months with. She suddenly saw the kind of person who could terrify Mossad, slaughter untold people in the name of vengeance, use any method to achieve his ends, no matter how horrific. "Hatred is too small a word." He leaned forwards and every part of Shego screamed to get away. "If I felt that for your people, boy, there would be none of you left alive."
"Luke," Astrid's voice broke the silence softly, gently. "Luke, it's okay." Her hand slowly came to rest on his shoulder and she gently pushed him back in his seat, moving so she was blocking his sight of everything else. "It's okay, Luke. It's okay."
Shego watched as the other woman gently pulled him into a hug, his face against her belly, and held him. She turned her head and locked eyes with Shego, making a jerking motion towards the couple's bedroom with her head, before turning back to Blackwolf and whispering that everything was okay over and over again.
Shego found her legs, grabbed Ron, and fled. Behind the locked door, which suddenly felt too thin and fragile to be any protection, she clutched her Master. Scared, more scared than she'd ever been in her life. And judging by his shaking, he was too.