Exposure

Shego picked up an extremely gaudy crown encrusted with millions of dollars' worth of gemstones. She wondered how much it would sell for, but her musings were cut short by a tsk-ing sound behind her. She rolled her eyes and put the crown back before looking over her shoulder at Drakken. He was tinkering with the small box-shaped device he'd brought with them and she wondered if he even knew how the thing worked. She let out a loud sigh.

"I am double checking the energy level I have it set at," hissed Drakken.

"Yeah, that's nice," shrugged Shego. "Explain to me why we aren't taking things to peddle for cash?"

"We are only at this museum for one thing. The less we touch and disrupt, the less likely Kim Possible will come barging rudely into our lair." Drakken rolled his eyes and looked at the crown she'd held. "How much do you think we'd get for that?"

"To the right collector...a few million. Quick turnover? Half," shrugged Shego. She weighed the odds. "Not worth it because there's only a few who'd want it, and selling to anyone else would involve contacting specific people and splitting the cash. I'd rather stick to money and simple jewelry to pawn."

"Moving on then," said Drakken. "We need to get into the lower storage levels where they keep the research artifacts. That's where we'll find the good stuff."

Shego rolled her eyes and pondered if he'd actually looked at the layouts she'd shown him or if he was basing his infiltration plan on the movie she'd walked in on him watching. She glared slightly remembering how quickly he'd decided to return to the lab when she'd walked in. She crossed her arms and was about to make a comment about the whole trip, but she suddenly got an idea.

Drakken focused on his device, hoping to see anything spike on their way towards the stairwell. They'd already managed to kill the security system and the guards would be out cold for at least a few hours. This still didn't mean he'd rather not find something quick and leave with zero chance of anyone being alerted. He was a little suspicious that the security of one of the world's major museums for artifacts and research was so lax.

He just hoped he could find something there with similar levels of Painite for his Tubtonic laser—

Medusa.

Drakken rolled his eyes and cursed under his breath at his own mental interruption. He focused on the numbers as they jumped and he looked up...to see a statue gliding towards him. He screamed and ducked behind a display, hitting his knee hard as he tried to cower. He heard Shego's laughter and his panic turned to agitation as he pulled himself up. Shego was doubled over laughing as she stood beside the statue that was clearly on wheels. He felt his face grow warm from embarrassment rather than anger but he was glad his voice didn't convey that.

"Will you zip it?" he hissed as he stalked past her.

"You should have seen your face." She shoved the statue carelessly and followed him. "I thought I'd give you some authentic action like that movie you watched. Didn't everything come to life at night and attack people?"

"That was not the point of Evening at the Registry and will you stop messing around?" Drakken scoffed.

"Well I wouldn't know. Someone didn't invite me to movie night," snorted Shego. Drakken tensed but shrugged. "Normally you don't start movies that early."

"You said you were going out," shrugged Drakken. "It's not like you came back early for movie night or something."

"Pfft, yeah right," he heard her scoff and give a slight laugh. "Who in their right mind would cut short a night out just to sit around and watch a movie."

"Exactly," replied Drakken. "Besides, it was only a small break before I had to get back to the lab."

A moment passed.

"I still don't understand how you could lose the one item you actually had for the laser," scoffed Shego. "You have hordes of random junk but the one useful thing—"

"Yes, well...it happens Shego. I might have done so in the last three rebuilds courtesy of Possible and the buffoon," snapped Drakken as they reached the stairs. "Shego?"

"What?" asked Shego. Drakken swallowed hard and nodded toward the dark stairwell. "I hope you just want me to light the way and you're not afraid of something jumping out at you."

"Clearly," sighed Drakken.

Shego lit her hand and Drakken nearly knocked over a priceless vase as he jumped away from her. He watched her pause and raise a brow. His chest was pounding as he saw the light; it gave him far more of a reaction then he himself found normal. He coughed slightly and chose to act like nothing had happened. Shego rolled her eyes and moved forward down the stairs.

They had gone down a good distance with Shego lighting the way. It would have taken less time if Drakken wasn't trailing so far behind. Shego glanced at him a few times, his eyes darting quickly from watching ahead of her and back to his device. It almost felt like he was intentionally keeping distance. She debated on calling him on how slow he was being but instead let her hands' light vanish. She hit the wall and grinned as she heard Drakken's response.

"Shego?" he heard him growl. "Shego?"

She fought her snicker at his panic.

"Is someone afraid of the dark?" she whispered. She was grateful that it carried, making it sound more eerie.

"Stop it." She could hear the agitation fade to slight panic. "Shego I can't see."

"Doy," snickered Shego. She heard Drakken yell and then the sound of something heavy rolling down the stairs past her.

Shego panicked. Her hands darted out in dread towards the sound. She felt nothing and flared her hands to see. A boot lay at the stairs in front of her and she heard snickering. She glared around to see Drakken still on his stair where she'd last seen him, a smug grin on his face as he laughed and his toes wiggling beneath his exposed black sock. Shego felt a wave of emotions spinning as fear and panic faded. She forced a sneer on her face as she stood up and flipped her hair, walking ahead and kicking his boot further down the stairs.

"Hey," grumbled Drakken as he hobbled behind her. She ignored him. "Oh, so scaring me is fine, but when the shoe is on the other foot...heh...then you're not too happy are you."

"Whatever," scoffed Shego as she reached the landing. She opened the door and kicked his boot into the room.

Shego crossed her arms as she looked around the storage facility, ignoring Drakken grumbling behind her as she calmed her thumping chest to take in their surroundings. There was a wall of dimly-lit practice-display areas, piles of books on tables, and aisles of floor-to-ceiling drawers of varying sizes. Each aisle's end was labeled with numbers in similar fashion to a library but far more complex. She heard a clatter behind her and glared over her shoulder. Drakken had dropped his device while trying to shove his boot back on and she crossed her arms tighter as she stalked ahead.

"Any idea what we're looking for?" asked Shego.

"Painite...or something of equal value," grumbled Drakken. "Are you going to be in a foul mood the rest of the caper?"

"Haven't decided yet," snorted Shego as she looked at the labels.

Drakken read the labels a short while later, trying to decipher the codes that were being used. If they hadn't cut the power save for emergency lights, he'd have had Shego hack the network and look. He glanced over at Shego who was looking at the practice display cases and frowned. She hadn't said anything to him since they started searching the storage room.

She's such a poor sport.

He mumbled under his breath. He'd simply been playing along with her little scare tactics. Perhaps she was annoyed he'd beat her at her last one. He shook his head and focused. He needed to find something there to replace what he already had. He'd chickened out in trying to explain using the Gauntlets to Shego and honestly he didn't want to mess with them if he could avoid it.

There has to be something here...

He looked at his device and groaned. It was all over the place on the scale he'd set. There were so many different materials for it to pick up on, he'd have to concentrate its focus. He whined to himself under his breath. It meant having to go from drawer to drawer to get readings versus it telling him where the needed material was. He must have been making more grumbling and whining noises in his frustration because he heard Shego scoff.

"Are you done with your mini tantrum?" she snapped. "What's your problem now?"

"At the moment, your attitude," he snapped back. Shego narrowed her eyes.

"Well then you shouldn't have pretended to have gotten hurt as a joke," she retorted. "It's tasteless even for you."

Drakken opened his mouth to rant about the device and their current dilemma but paused. He fought the smirk on his lips as he looked at her.

"You're mad because I made you scared I got hurt?" he asked. Shego turned away from him and held up a rock. "Aw, you were worried."

"Puh-lease," scoffed Shego again. "I was more worried about having to take care of your whiny crying the rest of the trip. I was worried for my sanity."

Drakken's smirk grew as he felt a warmth tingle in his chest. As if to stop whatever feelings were trying to win over his thoughts, he felt a phantom tingle on the side of his face. His smirk fell into an expressionless response as he instead rolled his eyes. He walked over towards Shego and held the device up to a few items on the display wall to test the concentration he'd turned it to, trying to broaden the detection at least so they didn't have to hunt the whole place for something useful.

"We're going to have to broaden it to find a general area...but after that it will be drawer by drawer due to the concentration setting," mumbled Drakken. He heard Shego breathe heavily through her nose. "I'm sorry, did you have a date this evening I was unaware of."

"Maybe I did," snapped Shego. Drakken stared at her and she sighed. "No... Just hoping not to be here until two in the morning looking at pretty rocks. What is this system?"

"It's by mineral potency," replied Drakken. "Just because a stone normally has a certain level doesn't mean there aren't environmental factors. That's why not all Painite would have the same readings...thus the need for my ELR—"

"Energy Level Reader, yeah you ranted for half the trip about it," groaned Shego. She looked around the room and then at Drakken. "Where did you learn that fact? College?"

"Don't really remember, probably," shrugged Drakken as he began walking down the halls. "I did spend time in the geology labs, remember... Roommate from heck."

"Uhm hmm," Shego walked behind him and he heard her snicker. "Gee, wonder who you talked about rocks with..."

"Shego," Drakken cut off whatever rant she was about to embark on...only for the ELR to start beeping. "This is promising."

They turned down the aisle and Drakken heard Shego groan the same time he did. It was the biggest aisle with the most drawers in the entire storage room.

"Figures," sighed Shego. "All right, where do we start?"

Drakken walked silently down the aisle and sighed as the meter would go up and down as he walked, not helping in determining a specific area. He gestured to the first ten feet of aisle and put the device on the ground in between them before opening a drawer.

"I'm assuming you want us to pull out drawers and hold them over the device till it goes off," asked Shego. Drakken nodded. "Suddenly you lost your voice?"

"Wish you would," muttered Drakken. He smirked and moved quickly as he dodged where her foot was attempting to kick him. "Losing your touch."

"If I really wanted to hurt you, we both know I could," she snorted. Drakken felt a little relieved as he saw her smirk.

Time ticked by slowly as they worked. Drakken was already getting frustrated and they'd barely moved past the first section. There were a few that seemed close and Drakken wondered if combining some of them might achieve the levels he needed, but he reminded himself that he needed it as exact as possible in order to be able to even test it. His shoulders slumped at the thought. He didn't even know if anything they found would actually work... He didn't even know how correct he was about the Painite. His mind was spiraling downwards, tearing apart his whole plan. What if after all this it didn't do anything?

"What if it doesn't work," he muttered to himself.

"Your device?" he heard Shego respond. He looked at her and she pointed to the device on the ground. "If you made me dig through hundreds of rocks for that thing not to read it...I'm going to take those rocks—"

"No...the Tubtonic laser." Drakken leaned back against the shelves. "What if after all this...it doesn't even work."

Drakken began mentally going over his notes, his calculations, and wondering if he'd missed something. What if he had the levels wrong? He lazily went back to the drawer he'd pulled and sighed as he waved it over the device to hear nothing. He heard Shego sigh and looked at him, a rare smile on her face as she spoke.

"It will work...and if it doesn't," shrugged Shego. "You'll tweak it until it's done. And if it still doesn't...you'll come up with something else. You always do."

Drakken gave a slight smile at her words and she turned back to her drawer. He stared at her for longer than he should have and found his thoughts falling back to New Year's and her words on the dance floor.

'I think you're brilliant.'

He smiled a little wider to himself at the memory, but it turned to a very quick stabbing pain in his chest at what that had led to. He glared down at the stone in his hand and told himself to focus. It took a few more drawers and another mental once-over of his formulas for him to do so, but he managed it. Drakken squinted down at the device as they moved further into the darkness of the aisle. He nervously looked up at Shego and swallowed hard as he glanced at her hands.

"Shego, could you..." Shego looked at him.

He indicated to the device and the darkness around them. She rolled her eyes but her hand ignited over the device to see how close it was to his requirements. The device sprung to life and skyrocketed over the levels. Drakken felt a wave of excitement until he watched the levels drop as Shego let her glow fade. He looked at the device, and then to her, and then back at the device. Shego was looking down at it and to her hands. She let the light die and the device stopped. She flared her hand again and it spiked. She finally diminished her hands.

"Guess that won't work," said Drakken. He was simply going to have to rely on sounds versus sights.

Drakken moved to yet another drawer and jumped when he heard the beeping and spun around to see Shego smirking. Her hand fell to her side and she went back to her drawer. This happened three more times before Drakken's face was contorted in annoyance enough for her to relent from her games. Drakken wondered how long they had been there and how long they still had to go. It might warrant another break in, but it would set them back because security would probably be amped up after that night.

"Shego, how long do we have before those guards wake up?" asked Drakken as he opened another drawer.

Shego didn't answer but he saw a green glow around him and wondered if she was checking her watch. The ELR started beeping and grew louder and louder until with a small fizzling sound he heard it crack, and he dropped it. Drakken glared at his feet where he saw the thing smoking before turning his head to glare at Shego. His aggravated yell died in his throat before it started.

Shego was staring at a chunk of what looked like glowing charcoal in her hand. It was pulsating faint colors, the strongest being green. But that wasn't what froze Drakken in horror. It was Shego. A green glow swirled and pulsated around her, her eyes glowing and fixed on the stone she held. Drakken didn't know how to react to what he was seeing. It was growing warmer around them. He could see liquid leaking down her cheeks.

"Shego!" he yelled, trying to get her attention. "Put that down!"

She didn't move and Drakken saw the tiles beneath her feet begin to curl and melt in front of him. There was a wave of utter panic rushing through him at how hot she must have been getting. He went to knock the stone from her hands but it was like getting near an oven. He looked around as he continued to call her name and try and gain her attention. He darted past her, only glancing at the metal drawers starting to wilt around her. He looked for anything, even a chair, anything to gain her focus.

Shego's mind was swirling, her stomach felt hot and heavy as if she had eaten flaming steel. She heard nothing as she gazed at the stone. Its colors pulsated and her head was filled with images she couldn't place. Sound came back, but not from around her. She was hearing her voice aligning with the images in her head. Everything faded.

Shego's feet nearly slipped on a large rock as she walked through the creek. It was covered in moss and she'd lost her bearings. She looked angrily at the crystal clear water near her feet as her shoe got wet. Reflected back in the water was a young dark haired girl wearing a light pink jean jacket and a hiking pack. The anger she felt reflected back at her.

"Come on She-She!" came a young boy's voice. She looked to see the sandy brown hair of her younger brother fading from view.

"Mav! Wait up!" she yelled after him before running. "Mom said we can't explore without each other."

She was running as if she'd known the place before; each log and stone were all familiar. She caught up to her brother quickly and nearly smacked into him as he made a sudden stop. She was about to yell but he shushed her and pointed up ahead to where a dark-haired teen boy was talking with a girl in hiking gear. She and her brother shared a devious grin as they snuck closer. Shego snuck along the tree's edge and got closer.

The dark-haired teen boy was grinning at the girl, obviously interested in more than the conversation they were barely having. Shego saw the log he was standing on and glanced across to nod at her brother. In one swift movement the two turned the log, knocking the teen boy into the creek with a sputtering splash.

"Henry, are you okay?" laughed the teen girl as the boy struggled to get to his feet.

"Need to work on your landing, bro," snorted her brother as they both laughed at the teen.

"Uhg, really," glared the teen. He blushed as the girl he'd been talking to stifled a laugh. "These are my uh...brother and sister."

"They're cute," she laughed. "I should be going back to my camp ground anyway. Nice meeting you all.

Shego watched the girl walk away and watched Henry's shoulders fall before turning and glaring at both of them.

"Do either of you know timing?" he snapped.

"Yeah, that's what Mav and I were doing," smirked Shego. "Finding the perfect time to flip that log."

"Way better than rock collecting," smirked her brother.

"Yeah well, you should have stuck to rock collecting nerds," grumbled Henry. "I hope you two wanted to go for a swim."

Both yelled as he started after them, nearly tripping on the log again as they ran.

"Kids!" came a woman's voice from the ledge above the creek. "Dinner is ready. Save whatever revenge till after, okay?"

Shego looked up on the ledge to see a sun-kissed woman with dark sandy hair like her brother's staring down at them. She looked like her, minus the hair. A dark-haired man came into view holding up a plate as if to show them that there was in fact food.

"Henry has a girlfriend!" yelled Maverick as they climbed the ridge.

"I do not," snapped Henry as he followed. "Because I have horrible evil siblings."

"Hey, Mav's the evil one remember," snapped Shego. She smirked, "I'm just devious."

"We'll discuss who's evil and who's not over dinner," said the man with a laugh as they reached the ledge where a picnic table sat. "I mean, your mom and I can tell you about real evil people."

"Uhg, let's not talk about work on the family camping trip," scoffed the woman. "I'm more interested in hearing about Henry's new girlfriend."

Shego happily tossed her hiking bag down and headed to the table where food sat, a charcoal grill still burning away from where the meal had been cooked. The woman sat next to her and made a 'tsk-ing' sound before Shego felt fingers in her hair. Soft dark green eyes looked at her as the woman began putting her hair into a braid. Her smile and eyes made Shego feel a sense of warmth and protection she didn't understand. The woman's mouth continued to move but the sound faded as ice engulfed her.

Shego felt the ice fade and her stomach twist like lava. There was a thick smoke filling her lungs as she coughed, the sound of metal hitting the ground behind her the only other sound in her head now. She looked ahead of her where the stone she'd held had rolled. Her mind was swirling and her chest was pounding as the images swirled. She felt a hand hesitantly touch her shoulder and the swirling stopped. The lava in her stomach did not and she doubled over as it forced itself out of her.

She felt overwhelmed by emotions that she couldn't place, by the heart she felt pulsating under her skin, and by the visions and memories making her head throb. She felt cool gloves on her neck as her hair was pulled back out of her face as she got sick. She wanted to yell at Drakken for ending her recollection but as she saw the melted ground and the buckled shelves...she knew better than to do so. The lava kept coming and she felt her jaw shake.

"We have to get out of here," came Drakken's voice. It was soft and something about that alarmed her. "Come on."

"But you need—" she could barely breathe as she spoke.

"Not important," there was that soft voice again.

Shego's legs shook as she tried to stand. When had she even fallen to the ground? She followed Drakken weakly as he walked ahead of her, still close enough to keep watching her. There was an expression on his face she couldn't place...but suddenly it was upside down and sideways, and swirling. She saw his eyes go wide and then it all went black again.