Fights like these were rare between creatures of such great power. Usually, they ended when one recognized the superiority of the other. Clear-cut cases of murder, like Scar killing Mufasa, were even rarer, but abhorred more often than the battles.
The battle was to take place in Dementor's courtyard, where the clouds were closing in, signifying more than just new rains. Ratigan and Kigo-Lynn were sitting in ornate wooden chairs, opposite each other. There was a moment of silence. Nothing was heard, except the wind in the air, the breathing of the competitors and the spectators.
Suddenly, Kigo-Lynn made a small gesture, and a hatchet flew towards Ratigan! But Ratigan moved his left hand in a circle, and a small, pinkish circle appeared where his hand was, blocking the hatchet. Kigo-Lynn did it again, but Ratigan retaliated in the same manner. Kigo-Lynn did it a third time, this time producing an ax, but Ratigan created a larger shield with both his hands, blocking the ax, then gently blowing them away into nothingness.
Kigo-Lynn then put her left hand down by the left hand side of the chair. The next moment, she was holding a plasma-gloved over a cannon fuse, which was connected to a homoncular cannon (Author's note: Well, what were you expecting?) She lowered the plasma flame to the cannon fuse, setting it aflame. The next moment, a cannon ball flew towards Ratigan.
However, Ratigan was not fazed in the slightest. Another miniscule hand gesture, and the cannon discharge changed his course, turning around to hover back over Kigo-Lynn's head. The next moment, it exploded into a display of confetti.
Kigo-Lynn decided it was time to change her attack strategy. Ratigan almost did a double take. Kigo-Lynn had changed herself into a replica of Kim, only the eyes were slightly still and unnerving. Ratigan was apparently surprised, and definitely shocked.
And that's when Kigo-Lynn took the moment to hurl a spear into Ratigan's unguarded stomach, causing him to involuntarily bow his head, apparently dead. A gasp rang out from his supporters, and an evil snicker emanated from Dementor. Kigo-Lynn only smiled, but it faded a little. "That was eas.", she thought as she approached Ratigan's body. But when she pulled aside a bit of the suit where the spear had gone in, a bit of sawdust spilled out. She had been tricked! "Too easy."
The next thing she knew, something hard landed on her head, turning into something wet and gooey. Kigo-Lynn literally had egg on her face. She looked upwards, and saw Ratigan perched on the chandelier on the ceiling smiling, waving, . . . and dropping another egg onto her actual face, since she was looking up in his direction this time. Glaring angrily at Ratigan, she brought her hand down, magically bringing down the chandelier, Ratigan, and quite a bit of the ceiling as well.
Walking towards Ratigan, she opened a bit of the suit around his chest. Small, yellow birds started escaping from the void. "Well, that explains the eggs . . .", Kigo-Lynn mused to herself.
"Looking for somebody?", an all-too-familiar chillingly masculine voice asked from behind her. She turned around to see Ratigan, sitting in the chair she had previously occupied. Grudgingly, she dumped the sawdust-filled dummy of Ratigan out of the chair, causing it to vanish when it hit the ground.
Kigo-Lynn was officially tweaked now. All of a sudden, she started throwing fireballs at Ratigan like it was going out of style. Before she knew it, more of the ceiling was being taken down, bit by bit. She directed the fireballs to the ceiling above Ratigan's head, causing more and more rubble to pour down. But, then, she did a double take. Ratigan had an umbrella, and it was somehow protecting him from the roof rubble. "Lead-lined, in all probability", She thought. She raised her hands, and sent the whole of the ceiling above the duelists crashing down on top of them.
"Dad!", Veeken cried.
"Ouch", Drakken said, wincing.
"This is an interesting development . . ."
All was silent for a minute as the spectators watched for signs of life from either one of the competitors. Suddenly, the rubble started to slide away, and both Ratigan and Kigo-Lynn rose from the rubble, somewhat injured, but still standing.
"It appears that no one is the winner.", Ratigan spoke to his opponent as the rain started to decant in from outside.
"Only temporarily . . .", Kigo-Lynn replied, her voice barely above growling level.
Just then, Kigo-Lynn started growing taller in height, hunching over as she grew. Her once calm, sanguine face grew forward into a elongated snout, canines sprouting from her gums. Fur sprouted from her arms until they were covered, and Ratigan was sure that he saw a tail poking out from behind her. Kigo-Lynn had finally transformed from a human to a purebred monster.
"This complicates things," Veeken commented. Just then, Kigo-Lynn the werewolf threw back her head and howled at the sky. "Okay, this really complicates things!!!", Veeken reiterated.
"This ends, fool!", Kigo-Lynn snarled. "Right here, right now!"
Ratigan glared at his opponent for a moment, then said disdainfully," So be it."
The two opponents circled each other, moving slowly, each watching the other's movements. This continued until they were in the positions the other had started in.
Suddenly, in a blur of movement, both opponents charged at the same moment. Like two gigantic boulders set on opposite mountaintops and toppled by an earthquake, which roll down their respective mountains, gathering speed, until they crash into each other so hard they disintegrate into powder, the two collided.
But instead of disintegrating, both fell aside, and Ratigan got up first in a easy leap, going for the vulnerable part of Kigo-Lynn's neck. Kigo-Lynn sensed the danger, and like a bear shaking himself off after a long swim, sending water flying everywhere, she shook off Ratigan just as easily. Then she hurled himself at him while he was still trying to rise. Drops of blood were flying through the air; One landed on Veeken, and she clutched it to her as if she could give him strength.
And so the fight continued, but it seemed that Ratigan was worse off. He was bleeding freely from a cut at his chest and his left arm appeared to be useless. Kigo-Lynn landed a hard blow against Ratigan, sending him sprawling on the ground.
~ * ~ * ~ *
"Oh, God.", Ratigan thought. "This is it. I'm going to die."
Suddenly, a pair of emerald green eyes came into his semi-blurred vision. "Emerald green?", he mused. "I must be dying. Kim's here to-", he stopped in mid-thought. "Kim?", he asked out loud.
"Ratigan, it's me.", a musical voice replied.
His vision cleared up a little further. Kimberly Anne Possible, a person he had thought to be dead for several weeks, was standing over him, looking into his eyes. But her outline was faded, as if he was looking at her through a frosted window. "Kim? You're alive? But-but how can that be?", he asked.
"It doesn't matter. I'm here for you.", she replied. "Listen, if you don't get up, we're all going to die.
Kim was alive . . . She was still alive . . . But she had been used; She had been used to use him, to play into his mind, his feelings, his thoughts .. . . Dementor would pay for this.
And so he got back up slowly, and started towards Kigo-Lynn, this false impersonation of Kim, and the battle continued.
~ * ~ * ~ *
Kigo-Lynn started jeering at him, calling broken-hand, whimpering cub, rust-eaten, soon-to-die, and other names, all while landing blows Ratigan had to duck under instead of blocking them. However, there was something that no one except Basil and Veeken could see was happening. It certainly wasn't seen by Kigo-Lynn.
Because Ratigan was only moving backwards to find ground that hadn't been cluttered with rubble or eroded into mud by the rain, and the left arm was really fresh and strong. Animals couldn't be tricked, unlike humans, but Kigo-Lynn was still more human than animal, and Ratigan was tricking Kigo-Lynn. At last, Ratigan had found a spot that was still dry because it was sheltered by an area that hadn't broken away from the ceiling.
It came when Kigo-Lynn reared above, bellowing his triumph and turning her head tauntingly toward Ratigan's supposed weak left side. This was when Ratigan struck. Like a wave that was building its strength over a thousand miles of sea, making little movement out in the open, but upon reaching shore, it was a terrifying monster to all who saw it. That's how Ratigan struck Kigo-Lynn's unguarded jaw, claws and all.
It all happened so suddenly, that it took several viewings of the video from one of the surviving security cameras for them to believe it had happened. In one second, Ratigan reared up, the glove on his left hand (surprisingly still intact, despite the fight) glowing crimson red, his claws that had wounded Basil so grievously so long ago, now unsheathed, and Kigo-Lynn's jaw, which she had so foolishly left unguarded.
It was a terrible blow. It tore her jaw clean off, scattering blood as it landed several yards away. Kigo-Lynn backed off, instinctively reaching up to feel for the jaw that wasn't there. Her red tongue rolled down, useless. She was suddenly voiceless, biteless, but not punchless. This is when Ratigan attacked again.
The two charged each other, both landing heavy blows, before Ratigan's razor-like teeth managed to find a purchase on Kigo-Lynn's unprotected throat. The two wrestled this way and that, spraying mud everywhere. Kigo-Lynn tried to escape, but her fate was sealed. Ratigan would not let go, not even for a second. Kigo-Lynn needed to be destroyed.
Eventually, Ratigan tossed Kigo-Lynn as far as he could throw her, but Kigo-Lynn came charging back. Ratigan met the attack with the same brute force, and they continued to wrestle, Ratigan regaining said purchase on Kigo-Lynn's throat. Thrashing this way and that, Kigo-Lynn once again resumed her ill-fated attempts, but it was too late. Then, Ratigan ripped upward and outward, pushing Kigo-Lynn away from him and severing the agonizing connection. Kigo-Lynn reeled back, and looked like she was about to attack again, when she reached for her throat, which now had a decent-sized chunk torn out.
Kigo-Lynn sank to the floor, eyes wide with shock. Ratigan walked up to her. He had already spat out the flesh from Kigo-Lynn's throat, and stared down at her. All of a sudden, Kigo-Lynn appeared to speak. Not from her mouth, long since useless, but from Kigo-Lynn herself. "I have failed, Professor Dementor."
Ratigan turned towards Dementor, now in the grasp of Basil, who clearly wasn't letting go. Turning back to Kigo-Lynn, he noticed a strange device on her belt. It was a miniature television, linked to all the security cameras in the building. Sifting through the various cameras, Ratigan searched until he found what he was looking for, the almost empty chamber that Shego described, where, in the center, was the cause of all this chaos. Kim.
To Be Continued…
