A/N: A belated birthday gift for "N" of the MakeWolfStarGayAgain duo; a talented writer and one of the nicest people! Happy birthday, dear friend!

This is a mirror-fic to "Everything," chapter 30 of this collection.

When the Dust Settles

Drakken stumbled over the rocks that were still hot underfoot. He tried wiping the steamy grime from the eye-shield of the gas mask he wore, but it only spread it around and made his vision worse. His gloves and coat had already gotten filthy in his search, but it was the last thing on his mind as he stumbled over the super-heated and steaming rocks toward the hover-car.

The disaster replayed in his mind like a film in slow motion: the hover-car spiraling out of control and nearly crashing in the sea due to Kim Possible's interference; Shego's typical bail-out and subsequent fight with Possible on the beach of the volcanic island; the earthquake and ear-splitting sound that had heralded disaster; and finally the eruption.

It wasn't like he had pictured volcanic eruptions in his mind or seen them on film. There hadn't been a rain of lava or even any of the fiery orange substance he had seen. In fact all there had been was a towering plume of gray smoke, and...the pyroclastic flow.

He had read about such of course, and seen images from eruptions in modern history. But watching it occur in front of him had been a sight he wished he had never seen. While smoke and ash towered above, they also slid down the sides of the volcanic mountain in deceptively beautiful shapes, blooming upward and outward, the gray reminding him of petals of a dead flower.

At the distance he'd been hurled to and had remained stuck struggling with the hover-car, it had appeared to be slow and harmless smoke and ash. In reality, the cloud was composed of super-heated poisonous gases, steam, and volcanic rock traveling over the ground at hundreds of miles per hour.

The illusion might have interested him had he not realized it would soon be his end, if he couldn't get the hover-car out of the water. And amid his struggling came the horrifying realization that Shego (and Possible and her side-kick) had no escape whatsoever from the deadly force that was hurtling down the mountain.

He had managed to get the hover-car functioning and lifted it up off the ocean's churning waves, where the deadly flow was racing toward him across the water's surface. And then, terror and anger struck him simultaneously as he saw racing from the clouds, a familiar shock of red hair along with blond, rising to safety on the teen heroine's backpack jet-pack.

'Just the two of them.'

Drakken leaned against the hover-car, wishing the memory of mere minutes before would leave. And yet he knew it would haunt him...possibly forever.

After he had watched from safety, both the departure of his hated nemesis and the dispersal of the deadly cloud, he had of course gone straight down to search for Shego. The gas mask was a necessity, as deadly sulfurous gases still lingered, not to mention the thick ash that still floated through the air.

There was no beach anymore, the island having been fully transformed by the eruption. The trees and foliage that hadn't been buried or destroyed were covered in ash, and the island appeared larger where the flow had stretched out over the waves, new temporary land having been created.

Drakken had landed the hover-car on an actual rock, near to where he had seen Shego leap out of the craft to engage Possible.

'To defend me?'

Drakken wanted to take off the gas mask, but he couldn't for fear of the remaining poisons and ash that floated around him. The inside of the mask was fogging though for his tears, as his attempts at distraction from the trauma and fear were proving futile.

Shego was gone. A victim of circumstance, and abandoned to die by his arch foe. He wanted to be furious with Possible, and he was. But the grief was too fresh and the pain too great. Suddenly all of their past arguments seemed unimportant, in the face of never getting to speak to her again. And he would have happily listened to her mocking if only to hear her voice...

'You were a fool.'

He'd spent years arguing with Shego, treating her like less than she really was to him even though he truly didn't know what he would do without her. And his deepest feelings, the ones he had buried for years and vowed to never reveal... Now he wondered. If he had said something, would things be different?

The air around the hover-car was starting to clear for the ocean breeze, and he risked pulling off the gas mask. He dropped it on the hover-car's seat and searched for a napkin to wipe his eyes. Shego had always advised carrying a supply of basic necessities, considering how often they traveled. He rarely listened to her, and thus came up empty-handed in that moment. He pulled one glove off instead to wipe his bleary eyes.

'I love you, Shego...'

He wanted to follow up the thought with a 'goodbye.' He knew he should, and needed to... But the mere thought sent his tears flowing again. And strangely, he could hear Shego's voice in his head, mocking him for it, telling him to suck it up and that if not for her he would be dead too.

It was that thought that made him sick to his stomach, and it took all his willpower just to breathe.

He blinked as the wind changed and ash got into his eyes, wiping them again and then peering around at the wasteland. Steam still rose from the ashy rock and the waters beyond. The boulder where he'd landed the hover-car was near the cliff face where supposedly was hidden an all-powerful ancient artifact. But they'd not even had a chance to look closer as Possible had intercepted them.

He stared at the area now, covered in ash and with rock piled all around, not even resembling what it had when they had arrived. He began absently replaying the memory of the events, from arguing with Shego to Possible's arrival and the subsequent loss of control of the hover-car, and finally to the volcanic eruption.

As he tried to pinpoint the exact moment he'd last seen her and heard her voice, a green glow suddenly seemed to show from within the cliff face. Drakken thought for a moment he was seeing an illusion due to the smoke, but then the glow grew brighter.

A strangled cry left his lips as he hopped off of the hover-car, gas mask forgotten, and began stumbling over the rubble as fast as possible toward the glow. The cliff face suddenly exploded outward, and he threw up his arms to shield his face from the flying rock. A few hit his forearms and his exposed hand where he'd removed his glove, but he continued forward regardless, squinting against the ash that had been thrown into the air.

And there, silhouetted against the rising smoke, was a hunched, slow-moving figure. But it was one he would recognize anywhere.

"Shego!" he gasped, stumbling again as he increased his pace.

She looked up, squinting through the smoke, and as their eyes met Drakken saw her frame relax. His arms were outstretched as he reached her, and without a thought he picked her up at the waist and spun her halfway around before wrapping his arms around her in a hug, her feet still off the ground. He hadn't even realized what he'd done until her arms went around his neck, and then he set her down and found her staring at him incredulously.

He opened his mouth to apologize, but what fell from his lips instead was, "I love you!"

Her blinking eyes grew wider as his face colored. His mind was racing for a way to take it back, but there was none. And some tiny part of him felt...relieved, for finally having told her.

After a moment he was surprised when Shego's response was to let her arms rest around him and to slowly rest her head on his shoulder. He took the chance and held her tighter, simply grateful she was alive and well.

He felt it had been scarcely a moment when she pulled out of the embrace, though it must have been longer. She was looking at him, but part of her was elsewhere, deep in thought. He held his breath as her jaw worked for a moment before she painfully cleared her throat.

"Can we get out of here?"

"Oh, yes!" Drakken said, turning and letting go of her. But she grabbed his arm at the bicep, and he reached back and held hers in kind, his brow rising.

"How...how did you survive?" Drakken asked shakily, eager to fill the silence.

"Saw what was happening... Blasted a hole in the cliff, and then caved it in on myself to hide," she explained, coughing through the smoke at the end.

"That was...ah...very..." Drakken trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. He was too busy staring at her... At the softness of her cheek, the gray ash on her eyelashes and in the tangles of her hair... Simply overjoyed she was alive.

She looked up at him when he didn't finish, that same soft incredulity and distance in her eyes that he couldn't read. His face flushed again, but he still couldn't regret what he'd done... Even if she mocked him, insulted him...even left him forever... She was alive.

He helped her into the hover-car where she studied the gas mask for a moment before pushing it and his glove down to the floorboards. He climbed in and sat next to her, finding her studying him again. Her eyes narrowed as her brow seemed to twist in concern.

"Were you crying?"

Drakken ducked his head slightly in embarrassment, and then his eyes snapped up again when he felt Shego's fingers under his eyes, wiping away the soot mixed with tears. When her hand fell first to his jaw, and then to his shoulder his breath caught. And then he saw what looked like indecision in her eyes. She licked her lips and then scowled at the taste of ash, but then her expression set with determination.

"Shego?"

His heart began instantly pounding in his chest as she leaned up and placed a dry kiss on his lips. Everything suddenly felt warm and right, and he held her tightly and returned the kiss with all the relief and joy flooding his soul. When they parted her face was flushed and she looked surprisingly shy. But she circled her arms around his neck and leaned up to whisper in his ear.

"I love you too, Dr. D."

Drakken swallowed down the lump that came to his throat and blinked away the onset of tears, made more difficult by the ash still in the air. Everything else forgotten, he set the hover-car on auto-pilot and then looked shyly into her eyes.

"Shego, don't...please don't scare me like that again," he said, leaning away slightly as he realized his arms had found their way around her again.

"No promises," Shego smirked, leaning away slightly herself. But then seconds later her arms had tightened around him and she had nestled into him, causing his heart to race. "I promise..."

Drakken sighed, the fear finally fading as he let everything else wash over him. As horrifying as it had all been...he easily decided the disaster had been worth it after all.