New day, final chapter.
It's been a trip. I wasn't sure what I was expecting for responses to this story, though I had guessed mixed and I suppose that's what I got. I want to thank people for their favs and reviews, especially the nice ones. They've meant a lot.
Eventually, if I'm lucky (for reasons mentioned below) there will be a somewhat uncensored version of this story posted at archiveofourown (_dot_) org /users/Sulla_of_Rome
Chapter 29
Christmas day, the entire school was gathered outside as a large Global Justice helicopter landed on the grounds about a hundred yards away from the main building. To the untrained eye, though, only Sensei, Yori, a small honor guard of ninjas, the Jarls, Luke, Sven, Ron, and Shego were visible. The chopper's side door open and out walked the delegation from GJ.
First was Dr. Betty Director, followed by a small escort of agents, then a haggard and broken Will Du. He had fresh mechanical arms, mechanical legs, and half his face was scar tissue that looked like it had come from a mauling. Then came Kim.
Physically, she looked fit and healthy, but Shego instantly saw a fey madness in the girls eyes, and her breathing nearly went erratic when she spotted Luke. It took an obvious effort for the girl not to run or go for a weapon.
"Dr. Director," Sensei said, giving a shallow bow, "Welcome to Yamanuchi. I hope our meeting today brings forth results that are pleasing to us all."
"Master Sensei," the woman said, giving him a stiff nod. "We appreciate your assistance in this matter. Shall we begin?"
"Of course," the old man said with a slight smile, "This way, please.
The meeting was held in the main hall, which had set up with a low table and pillows for them. Sensei took his place at the head of the table. To his right sat Heather, to his left Dr. Director. Luke sat to Heather's right, and Will to his place beside Betty. Everyone else sat on pillows by the wall, each honor guard behind their respective parties. Ron and Shego were seated in a corner to observe as 'neutral parties.'
Shego was a bit worried about having a young girl who should barely be starting college acting as their lead negotiator, especially against a hardened vet like Betty Director. It seemed the move made the head of GJ confident as well.
"Alright, this is a negotiation, so let's get the bullshit out of the way," the one eyed woman said. "I demand your unconditional surrender to my agents."
Heather gave the woman a sunny smile. "Your offer is most generous," The young woman said, "So I shall return it. We shall accept the unconditional surrender of all Global Justice Agents. Lay down your arms and badges, disband your organization, and you shall be allowed to to return safely to your homes and families."
Several of the agents chuckled, but as Luke looked at them it petered out quickly and they shifted uncomfortably. He never uncrossed his arms, he didn't shift in his seat. He just stared.
"Hmm, yes," Sensei said, "Now that that is out of the way, perhaps we could try and have a serious discussion."
Betty's eye hardened. "I was being serious," She said, "I have this mountain surrounded by agents. On my signal they can and will swarm this compound with overwhelming force. You can either come quietly, or we can take you down the hard way."
"Dr. Director," Sensei said sternly, "You agreed to come here in good faith. I have offered these people my protection during this summit, and I will honor that promise."
"Master Sensei," Betty said, looking at the older man, "We are grateful for your cooperation with our organization in the past. However, I have more than enough agents to handle them and your school if it comes to that, and given what these people have done I have no problem pressing charges against you and your school for aiding them."
"How many did you bring?" Blackwolf asked quietly.
"Pardon me?" Betty snapped, glaring at him.
"How many agents did you bring?" Blackwolf repeated. "A hundred? Two? Five? A thousand?" His face was very still, his eyes were like empty pools.
"I am not divulging tactical information to you." Betty hissed.
"They can't possibly be that many," Luke said, "word has it that your people are very loyal to you, but they know what they face here." He looked at the agents behind her. "You only have nine agents with you in this room. Perhaps there's another dozen in the chopper. Anything else is going to take time to get up here." He looked the woman dead in the eye. "Have you ever played Total War, Director?"
Confusion glittered among the anger on the Director's face. "The computer game?" she asked.
"Yes, that's the one." Luke said, pausing to take a sip of the tea placed before them, "Do you know the most effective tactic for winning battles in that game is?"
"I do not," Betty said, "I have no time for games."
"It's a shame, they're quite good," Luke said. Then his voice cooled. "The most effective tactic in the game is to kill the enemy general. Once you do that, it is only a matter of time before the army routes before you." He paused, letting the woman think. "Tell me, Director, how long do you think your men would last once you are dead?"
"Are you threatening me?" Betty hissed.
"Yes," Luke said, looking almost bored, "You threatened us. So I am threatening you. You present us with our deaths at the hand of untold agents. I present you your death and the rout of your entire army. Even if you had a hundred agents in this room, it would not be enough to stop me. Do you think your paltry ten can stand against us?"
Heather placed her hand on Luke's arm. "We did not come here looking for violence," the girl said, "and while I do feel that Luke's war against your organization is just and I am happy to let it continue, this war has become disruptive to both his duties and the duty of the Jarls. And while I do feel that Global Justice is a corrupt organization who has done more harm than good as of late, I cannot deny that you have been a calming force on this world and that many people are suffering under villains and criminals you would have been suppressing were you not also fighting us. I would see an end to that suffering."
"Do you think we give a fuck what you think of us?" Will Du snapped, "You're the worst kind of scum and deserve to be put down. You're nothing more than terrorists and murderers!" The servos in his arms whined as he clenched his fists.
Heather gave the man a pitying look. "And Global Justice isn't?" She asked. The girl pointed to Ron and Shego. "One of your agents broke into their house, used an immoral technology to enslave a woman whose humanity and human rights had been stripped away, and attempted to kidnap her. When the man whose house it was defended and rescued her as was his legal right and moral duty, you charged him with a dozen crimes. You have spent the last nine months terrorizing that young man and attempting to murder that young woman. And those are just two of a thousand examples I can give."
"They are criminals!" Will snarled.
"Because you made them criminals." Heather replied calmly. "She was nothing more than a house pet, and he was an innocent high school student. Your agent broke the law and attacked innocent people. And when that failed to get you the results you wanted, you charged them. You've done this over and over again."
Betty cut off Will before he could say anything. "Fine," she said, "Global Justice isn't perfect. Even I will admit that. But listing our sins isn't negotiating, and I don't care how you justify your actions. What do you want."
"We want a cease fire," Heather said. "Global Justice shall hence forth cease any and all actions against the Jarls of the Valknut or their allies, Luke Blackwolf or his allies, shall drop all charges and cease all actions against the Stoppables, and shall drop and cease all actions against everyone else who GJ has violated in the name of their so called missions of peace and justice. In turn, the Jarls and Luke shall cease his campaign against Global Justice so long as GJ abides by the terms of our agreement."
Kim burst out with a mad laughter. "So you do all that shit!" She said, "you murder all those people, and you expect to go free?"
Heather gave the redhead kindly look. "In a word, yes." She said. "We reset the board, go our separate ways."
"Why the fuck would we do that?" Kim asked, that fey giggle tearing from her throat.
Heather's face grew as cold and still as Luke's and Shego thought the girl could make a passable goddess of death. "Because if you do not, I can promise you that Luke will no longer hold back, and we Jarls will fully go to war against your organization." she said, and there was some power behind it, as if some fundamental law of the universe was being laid down.
Betty snorted, "Why should we believe you?" she asked, "For all we know, you're begging for peace now because you no longer have the strength or resources to continue your little actions against us."
"If you wish proof," Luke said softly, "Perhaps you should call the previous director of Mossad and ask him for it."
Will and Kim started making protests, but Shego saw the blood and life drain from Dr. Director's face. "Silence!" the one eyed woman roared. Both her top agents froze and looked at her.
"You...you wouldn't dare." Betty said.
"I wouldn't have to," Luke said. "I have you here, now. By the time I'm finished, the ninja's here would have disabled your agents in the chopper. I can get the locations of you secret headquarters from it. Once I get there, it would be like pulling the keystone from an arch. The enemy general would be dead, and her troops would flee the field of battle." He gave a cold smile. "Shamfur dispray."
Betty spun to Sensei. "You wouldn't allow that to happen!" she said, "You offered safe passage!"
"He would," Heather said, "If your side broke the peace first." She pointed to Kim.
The fey light in the red heads eyes had gone wild, and the girl was giggling like a mad woman. "Oh Archleone!" she said, her voice a wavering song, "Oh roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour!" The girl pulled out her gun, which was shaking wildly. "Roam the abyssal lands! The world is your prey! Slake thy thirst in wells of blood made by your own fangs!"
"Agent Possible!" Betty roared in shock and horror, "Holster your weapon!"
Will started shaking and crying beside the director. "O-o-oh A-a-archleone!" he cried, sobbing. The servos in his arms were screaming from some internal pressure.
Ron started shaking, and Shego clutched him. Sensei looked horrified, as did Yori. Sven was gone. Astrid was glaring at the back of Luke's head furious. Heather looked calm, her hand on Luke's arm.
Blackwolf was smirking.
From outside several voices cried out in unison with Will and Kim. "Oh roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour! Roam the abyssal lands! The world is your prey! Slake thy thirst in wells of blood made by your own fangs!"
"You!" Betty said, shaking, staring in horror between her agents and Blackwolf. "You! What did you do!"
"Do you know what a kenning is, Dr. Director?" Heather asked softly. "It's an old Norse art, of describing something with clues. You're probably familiar with some, even if you don't realize it. Probably the most famous is Beowulf."
Ron was shaking harder, but he wasn't chanting. "But Beowulf is the name of a person?" Shego said, looking at the young girl.
"It is," Heather said without looking, but sounding pleased. "it is also a kenning. Beowulf translates to English as Bee Wolf. the Wolf of Bees." Her smile grew icy. "Wolf didn't just mean wolves as we know it today. It was the word for predator. So, a predator of bees would be a bear."
Shego let the girl's words roll around in her head. She could see Betty doing the same. Trying to figure out what the girl was talking about.
Bee Wolf.
Beewolf.
'I didn't choose it,' he'd said when she'd laughed at his name.
Blackwolf.
'It devours.' Heather had said. 'It's from outside our reality. Or before it.'
Black Wolf.
'He's had is from birth,' the girl had said.
Wolf of the Black.
Her entire world had crumbled, the only thing keeping her alive and sane was Ron, the silvery steel of her leash, and if it broke she would fall in to the black, inky void of the abyss.
Predator of the Abyss.
Deep inside Shego, mostly forgotten with the happier times, the safety of the ninja school, and her loving master, was still the abyss that had threatened to swallow her whole. She could feel it, sense it. And as those words rolled through her head...it winked at her, and vanished.
"Oh Archleone! Oh roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour! Roam the abyssal lands! The world is your prey! Sake thy thirst in wells of blood made by your own fangs!" The afflicted were screaming.
'It must not be spoken of,' Sensei had said.
The chanting sounded louder, as if it was coming from down and around the mountain. Echos of madness, of pain, of mind shattering terror. There were explosions, and gun fire as man was confronted with something unknowable to man.
After he'd slaughtered so many agents, he stared leaving a some alive. They had screamed, or gone mad, or catatonic, but they were there. Memorial stones, for all to see. He'd struck all over. No where had been untouched in the reports. There was no where Dr. Director could draw agents who hadn't heard, or seen, or known someone touched by him. And it was so so good at making connections. A thing of darkness that devoured darkness. It had latched onto the hatred in her Master, so innocent and sweet. How much better could it latch on to those who had spent their lives surrounded by violence, darkness, cruelty, and despair?
Betty was barely holding on, her other agents were panicking trying to control Kim. Will was practically having a seizure, and Kim was howling with mad laughter as they chanted. "Oh Archleone! Oh roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour! Roam the abyssal lands! The world is your prey! Sake thy thirst in wells of blood made by your own fangs!"
"So tell me," Heather said with the cruelest smile Shego had ever seen. "Do we have an accord, or shall the lion slake his thirst?"
Shego glanced at Luke and shuddered.
The skin on his face seemed to split as a grin spread from ear to ear, in a Glasgow smile. Through the parted flesh, shark-like fangs glinted wetly in the room's light. With pure, malicious hunger in his dark gray eyes, the Blackwolf Smiled.
"Oh my god its so good to have you home!" Zita screamed as she hugged Shego and Ron with a flying tackle in the middle of the Middleton airport. "We've been so worried about you!"
"It really is great to have you guys back," Felix said as he wheel up behind his fiance. Shego could see the relief in the young man's face.
"Man, it is good to be back!" Ron said, bumping his fist against Felix's.
In the end, Betty Director had had no choice. She capitulated fully to the Jarl's demands, and even given some further concessions. Like naming who was really behind making Shego into an animal. Senor Senior, Senior.
He had come to believe that Shego had uncovered some deeply personal, deeply embarrassing information about his son and some of his associates and wanted her removed as a threat. Rumor had it he had planned on a similar solution to protect her as team Possible had, namely making her a pet if his fears had been false, only in this case for his son, Senor Senior, Junior, who by all accounts was still deeply infatuated with her.
Initially, Shego had wanted to kill the old man and it had taken Ron, Yori, and Sensei to prevent it. Astrid had supported the idea. Luke, surprisingly, offered up a solution; American diplomacy. Go to SSS with a sandwich in one hand, a gun in the other, and ask which he preferred. So they did.
After assuring him that she had never had any such information, she promised that if he undid the laws she would not seek revenge on him because it had led her to finding the love of her life, and if he didn't then she would find out the information, and make sure it went public before she slaughtered him and his son like animals. He capitulated in good humor, congratulated her on her wedding, and wrote them a check for fifty million dollars in damages. Two months later, the laws were all off the books, as was her criminal record. She had her humanity and a clean slate. With that done, Shego returned to Middleton with her husband.
"Big brother!" Hana shouted as she wrapped herself around Ron's leg.
"Hey Hana!" Ron said happily he looked up as his parents walked over and hugged him. "Hey mom, dad."
"We're so happy you're back, Ron," the elder Stoppable said. Then he turned and held open his arms. "Come on Sheila, give your father in law a hug too."
Shego laughed and hugged the man. "Thank you," he whispered in her ear.
"I promised I would," she whispered before pulling back. Ron's mother gave her a slightly stony look, but nodded in her direction. Shego could live with it.
"So, we didn't want to say anything before we got back," Ron said, "But we've got even more good news."
"Oh? What is it?" Zita asked eagerly from where she was in Felix's lap.
Ron and Shego grinned at each other before turning back to their friends and family. "We're gonna have a baby!" They said in unison.
Off to the side, a big tittied goth girl rested on the arm of an average looking man, of average height and average build, with an average face wearing a moderately well kept beard. He adjusted his plain black baseball cap and they smiled at the happy couple as the older woman fainted.
"They look so happy together," Heather said dreamily.
"They do." Luke replied.
"You could be happy again," she said softly. "It wouldn't be a crime, and I know she wouldn't want you to punish yourself like you are."
"I swore an oath," he said softly. "When I was breaking the spell. I swore an oath on my love that I would not be with another woman till she awoke. I will not break that oath."
"I see," Heather said softly, looking up at him. "But what if it wasn't with another woman?"
Luke gave a huffed laugh. "Heather, no one is ever going to be able to say you are anything but a woman." He said, giving her a sad, kind smile. "And if you knew me, truly knew me, what I've done and what I will do, you wouldn't want me."
"Oh, I don't know about that." Heather said, "I do know you, and what you've done. I found out. Why do you think I asked you to help me with the summit the way you did." She looked up at him, caressing his face. "I know Mossad presented you with a question, and you presented them with the solution. I know, and it doesn't make me want you any less, or love you any less, Luke Blackwolf"
"Besides," she said, looking at Ron and Shego. "She gave me an idea on how to keep your oath and still be happy...with me."
"Uh huh," Luke said, skeptically. He was silenced when Heather twisted around to press against his chest and kissed him. He was slow to push her away and she smiled up at him, pulling out a black leather collar.
"Woof woof, Master," she said with a mischievous glint, "Woof Woof."
The End
Alright, well, that's the end.
I'm sure a lot of people probably aren't happy with it, but, well, not much I can do about that. As I said from the start, I didn't so much write this story as it wrote itself in a fit of madness. Madness brought on by ill health, the very real possibility of my not living too much longer (something I've been very harshly reminded of recently), and a few ideas that wouldn't leave me alone. But hopefully some people have enjoyed the ride.
The first idea being a Ron/Shego romance based off the whole "Shego is made an animal" thing. Of course, there was always the option of leaving Shego as an animal. The ending of chapter 12 was a great point for that. On AOO I may split the story there, I haven't decided yet. Still, I found myself unhappy with the injustice of such a thing, and I wanted to find a way to restore Shego's humanity. Of course, having Ron and Shego fight the system was an option, but that would have made them criminals on the run and let's face it GJ is an organization with tens of thousands of agents. History shows us how well lone individuals fighting such things go. Yes, the ninjas could have helped, but again they were small, out numbered, and I couldn't for the life of get an inspired way to do it.
I'd also been listening to a bunch of lovecraft audio books, which reminded me of Luke Blackwolf. Of course, he'd been a character I used to try and work out some issues years ago in the past, but was left behind for...depressing reasons. So I aged him up, threw him into the shit based on ideas I'd had for him years ago, and out came someone who had the power to bring an organization like GJ to its knees, at least with his friends. But I didn't want it to feel like an ass pull, mary sue, or a deus ex, or over powered, so I did my best to leave subtle and not so subtle hints thorough the story, everything from referring to him as Luke or Blackwolf given the situation, to the ethical discussions (after all, it takes a special kind of point of view to be able to do something as monstrous as what was required), to overt things like what happened with Ron. I have no idea if I succeeded, but I tried my best.
I will be honest though, this story was...meant for me. The kind of story I always liked to read, the kind of story I wished had been around to read, and honesty as a remembrance of myself in case something should happen. They say the internet is forever, and well, I figured this could be as good a memorial stone as anything. Sharing a bit of what I loved, a bit of what I thought, and a bit of what I knew. None of the characters are truly self inserts, but there's a bit of me in each and every one of them. Some more than others, perhaps. The lives I'll never live, the deeds I'll never do, the children I will never have.
There is a sequel to this story. It takes place about six years later, Ron and Shego actually do a lot of fighting in it, along with the Jarls, as they deal with the consequences of what happened here at the end. It's more action packed, a lot less philosophical, but I have no idea if anyone would be interested in reading it. Given some people hated my OCs they'd probably hate it as much if not more so than this one. But some people might like it, who knows. The Jarls might get their own stories published elsewhere someday too, if I'm around long enough and get lucky. I'm still considering it. It's also going to matter slightly in regards to avoiding author existence failure, sadly.
Anyways, thank you for your time, I hope you did enjoy the story. It was a pretty wild ride to write it.
See ya, space cowboy.