Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible
*~*~* flashback
*~* dreamscape
The Assassin: Nemesis
Chapter 9
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"I won't stop," Bonnie said as she stood from where she fell.
"I know," Nate smiled at how far she had come in the past few months alone.
Three months had passed since the last chapter, school had started, and Nate, having no jobs lined up, was attending regularly. Bonnie still hadn't been made a full assassin, so she wasn't given any jobs. It was almost Christmas, and Middleton was covered in a fine layer of powdery snow, beneath that was black ice. Nate had decided to step up Bonnie's training in preparation for what was to come. A week prior to this he had gotten a letter (well, to be more precise, Shego got a letter), saying that a family reunion was being planned. He had groaned, most of the assassins in his family were too full of themselves at this point.
'Thank gods for the family tournament,' he thought as Bonnie charged him, her purple trench coat swirling around much the same as his green. 'I'll be able to show them just how much I've improved since last time.'
Bonnie's next strike was fast, very fast, but seemed slow to him as he deflected it harmlessly to the side. His foot snapped out, catching her ankle, kicking it towards her other foot, causing her to fall forward. As she fell he pirouetted neatly around her, and thrust his elbow into her side, forcing her to the ground. She lay there for a few seconds, moaning, holding her side, then she slowly stood up.
"How did you not see what I was going to do?" he asked her. "Bonnie, you have to think of fighting as chess, predicting moves and compensating to turn them against your enemy is all part of the game."
"But...you're too...fast," she said between breaths, still holding her side.
"You're just going to have to get faster."
*****
A graveyard, but not just any graveyard, this graveyard contains the grave of one Lisa Hela. The pendant was still there, the days of the graverobber were over, so no one was going to take it. A shadow covered the grave, and leather bound hand snatched up the locket. They raised the locket to their shadowed face, and opened it, smiling at the pictures contained within. The chain was looped over their neck hidden beneath the hood. They turned and headed off, towards the exit.
"Rest in peace, sweet Lisa," they said taking one last look over their shoulder.
*****
"When are they gonna get home?" Shego asked as she watched the clock.
"You know them, when it comes to training, they'll go for hours," Kim said.
"Like me," the raven-haired woman said.
"Yeah, but in a different way," the young redhead replied, sitting on her girlfriend's lap.
The Sindel house had been decorated for the appropriate holiday. There was a tree, with garland, lights, ornaments, and, in place of a star or an angel, a small sword was placed atop the tree. There was the traditional mistletoe hanging in the archway at the end of the short hallway that connected the living room to the kitchen.
"So, family reunion, eh?" Kim asked.
"Yeah, it's been so long since the last one, I was really only about your age then," she replied with a slightly thoughtful look. "It ended with Darien losing his hand."
"Darien?"
"My asshole-of-a-second-cousin, he and Nate have been competing since the day they could hold a weapon."
"I'm guessing it was Nate that took his hand."
"Yup, he said he keeps in a jar of formaldehyde in his closet. It's creepy in a way, but if you'd known Darien, you'd say he deserved it," Shego said with a bit of a shudder at the thought of that person.
The door swung open and bounced off the doorstop on the wall, a swurl of winter air coming in with it. In an instant two persons ran inside and shut the door. There was a blizzard outside at the moment, and the forecast had called for almost three feet of snow by the next day, which was Monday. Kim and Shego's attention turned to the two disrobing figures, it was Ron and Tara.
"Hey, I see that Nate and Bonnie haven't gotten back yet," Ron said as he pulled off the large stocking capitalism he wore, shaking his slightly longer hair.
"Nope, we're expecting them any minute though," Shego said and she stood up, brushing the wrinkles out of her red and green clothes (tis the season), and greeted them. "Anyone care for some hot chocolate?"
"I'd love some," Tara said as she hung up her heavy winter coat.
"Be right back then."
*****
"Shouldn't we be getting back?" Bonnie asked as she threw a snowball at Nate, a distraction.
He watched the snowball whiz by his head, knowing full well that Bonnie was going to charge him. Turning back he was met by a snowball to the face, then Bonnie's elbow in his gut. A grunted laugh escaped him as he twined his fingers above his head and slammed the combined fist into Bonnie's back.
"Yeah, we should," he said helping her up. "That was a good workout today, you almost had me."
"I know, I've gotta work on striking and retreating."
"Right."
He grabbed her hand and squeezed it, feeling the invisible forced from beneath him lift up the flaps on their coats and their hair. In a flash of light they were gone, as well as all the snow within a five-foot radius, evaporated.
*****
Two hours later the six of them were sitting in the living room at the Sindel house, enjoying a cozy fire. The scales above it hadn't even move a bit since Quetzalcoatl had been banished to the abyss. Aeris, having been spared, had taken up residence keeping Sashna company at the temple. Nate sat on the floor, his back against the front of the large armchair that Bonnie was sitting in, her legs wrapped around his shoulders. Ron sat on the couch, Tara as close to him as she could be without actually being on his lap. Also on the couch was Shego, with Kim on her lap.
'It's too peaceful,' the ever-ready part of Nate said.
'Maybe, but let's enjoy it while we can,' the calm part retorted. 'It might not last too long.'
He sighed a long, contended sigh as he got more comfortable where he sat. The carpet was soft, without being irritating as most kind of carpets are, and the thigh right next to his face made a wonderful pillow. He watched the fire burn and dance behind the metal grate, and decided to have a little fun.
The fire grew huge for a few seconds and small bits of it flew through the grate to land on the stone hearth in front of it. Christmas music filled the air as the stereo turned on, and the bits of flame began to dance. There were six of them in all, all taking on a bit of a human shape (like flubber, except on fire; I always wanted to watch that blob of green burn). Everyone watched them with interest, and when it they were done, everyone clapped and applauded as they bowed. The bits then jumped back into the flames.
"You know, you're all welcome at my house for Christmas dinner," Kim said a bit offhandedly.
"Mom and Dad won't be home till New Year's, so...sure, why not," Nate answered stretching. "Unless Bonnie wants to spend a nice quiet dinner here."
"What about Sarah?" Bonnie asked.
Yes, after the whole thing with his brother, Nate had gone and gotten Sarah from Aki's. She was asleep at the moment, seeing as what time it was.
"She'll be going home," he said while thinking of how empty the house would feel. "I told Jinai about how her parents left her here, he said he'd deal with them later."
"Well, at least he knows," Shego said.
Nate settled back against the chair, wondering what was happening to Nox at the moment. With the demon's eye in her he couldn't track down her signal, with it being masked and all. It was strange, even though he couldn't find her, he could still feel her mind, trying to reach out. It was impossible, he knew that, but it didn't keep him from wanting to believe it.
'What's happening to you right now, Natsumi?' he thought.
*****
In contrast to the blizzard raging across the American Midwest (I can only guess that that's where Middleton is) it was sunny and warm in the temple in the Andes. Aeris was busy flying around grabbing various things and decorating the large cavern with this and that. Sashna was watching her with an extensively confused expression on her face. She didn't know what all this was, and when she asked, Aeris just said that it was Christmas. That just confused the young catgirl, and Midora even more so.
"What is Christmas?" she asked.
"I don't know, I was looking through one of the memories left behind when I returned those human souls, and this was one of them. I know it's strange, but every year, many of the people on this planet decorate their houses like this and give gifts," the demoness said as she placed an evergreen tree that got form gods know where on top of the entrance to the abyss.
Small, black tendrils lifted from the surface and gripped the tree, but didn't pull it down. She then proceeded in decorating it with the usual things. She stepped back and looked at it, something was missing; snapping her fingers she held her hands out in front of her, as if to hold something. A small flash of light and in her hands was a star; her wings fluttered and she placed it atop the twenty-foot tree.
"Tell me, Sashna, what do you wish for?" Aeris asked as she eyed her creation with satisfaction.
"I wish that Kul would come home."
'Thought so,' she thought then said. "I mean other than that."
"Oh, um," she placed her hand on her chin tin thought. "That's a good question."
"Not much for material things, are you?" the jet-black woman asked as she patted Sashna on the head.
"Uh-uh," she shook her head. "What about you?"
"Kul, would be nice, but that's ancient history," she looked thoughtful for a second, then said, "I want to be cured of this need for souls."
"It can be done," Sashna said with a purr, Aeris was scratching her behind the ears now. "With the archway."
*****
"Merry Christmas to me," Kyle said as he opened up a seemingly abandoned warehouse.
Inside was a cache of weaponry he had stowed away there. What with the loss of his beloved Despair, he needed something new. It had occurred to him that he could ask Nate if he could borrow a weapon, he had seen the arsenal when he blew open the house. That idea hadn't appealed to him much, since he figured it was best they thought he was dead for good. He knew, though, that Nate knew he was alive, always keeping tabs on his energy signature. But the balance keeper always made sure to make him aware of his presence inside the once-dark assassin's mind.
"Maybe..." he picked up a large, double bladed axe, with two glowing green eyes on either blade, Agony. "No."
He placed it back down where he found it and looked around some more. Here and there he picked up a weapon, but put it back down after deciding it wasn't right. It was hard to find a weapon that didn't carry the name of something used to describe pain, and that's not what he wanted. Finally he reached the very end of the warehouse, which was about the size of a football field. There he saw the perfect weapon, Tega, an alien word for strength. It was a gunblade, basically a broadsword with a rifle inside. This one looks a bit like a heavy claymore, with a large guard on it, where the magazine clips in. When in rifle mode, the blade splits down the middle and opens to reveal the barrel, while the person firing it hold the struts on the guard where the trigger is.
"Perfect," he grabbed the sword and pressed a button on the pommel, the blade split open and the trigger pops into place. He returned it to its sword mode and sheathed it at his hip, it was too long to sheath on his back.
*****
Natsumi Arika stood before the council of dark assassins, awaiting their instructions. They were all talking quietly amongst themselves, so much so that her ears couldn't hear them. She knew that they were talking about her though, since once in a while they would point towards her. The one in the center snapped their fingers and the floor began to shift, long chains erupted from said floor and wrapped around her wrists and ankles.
"Nox, you failed to kill your target, and we do not accept failure in this organization," they said as they rose from their chair.
The hooded figure stepped down from the raised platform and walked over to her. Two gloved hands slowly descended from the sleeves and reached up, pushing the hood back. It was a woman beneath it, wearing a small device over her slim throat. Midnight blue hair had a sort of Raven from Teen Titans look to it, the way it was longer in the front than in the back. Black eyes, which seemed like bottomless pools of death, stared intently into the shorter girl's blue and red eyes. One hand, it doesn't matter which, reached up and removed the device from her throat.
"Natsumi Arika, your services as an assassin are no longer needed," she said in a very sweet voice, and thrust her hand at Natsumi's face, her target was the Demon's Eye.
Upon retrieving it, Natsumi's normal eye regrew in its place. The woman looked at the eye before promptly crushing it, and the demon within, to a squishy mess on her glove. The glove she held up to the girl chained before her, still staring at her intently.
"Lick it off."
"What, no way..." she began to protest, but was silenced by a quick backhand to her face.
"Would you rather I drop you into the pit with the demons; I'm sure they'd love a new playmate like you," she whispered into the frightened girl's ear.
"A-are y-you Shinigami (Japanese god of Death)?" the Japanese girl managed to choke out.
"No, but you're very close," the woman said.
'Nate,' Natsumi sent out a message with every bit of thought she could, 'HELP!'
"The demon's eye failed to keep you in check, how about a demon's heart, would that do?" she licked her lips at the idea and Natsumi cringed.
*****
'Natsumi,' Nate opened his eyes.
TBC
Bet you thought I wasn't going to continue this story, well you were wrong. The nemesis wasn't Quetzalcoatl, but the person behind him and all his actions. It might be the woman now torturing poor Nox, or it could be someone else, I'm not telling. This chapter is a little shorter than normal because I wrote then end of it first, then had to write filler above it. Oh, yeah, I wrote this chapter with a Christmas theme because...well...it's Christmas time. Merry Christmas readers, and have a happy New Year, even though I'll probably see you all before then.
*~*~* flashback
*~* dreamscape
The Assassin: Nemesis
Chapter 9
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"I won't stop," Bonnie said as she stood from where she fell.
"I know," Nate smiled at how far she had come in the past few months alone.
Three months had passed since the last chapter, school had started, and Nate, having no jobs lined up, was attending regularly. Bonnie still hadn't been made a full assassin, so she wasn't given any jobs. It was almost Christmas, and Middleton was covered in a fine layer of powdery snow, beneath that was black ice. Nate had decided to step up Bonnie's training in preparation for what was to come. A week prior to this he had gotten a letter (well, to be more precise, Shego got a letter), saying that a family reunion was being planned. He had groaned, most of the assassins in his family were too full of themselves at this point.
'Thank gods for the family tournament,' he thought as Bonnie charged him, her purple trench coat swirling around much the same as his green. 'I'll be able to show them just how much I've improved since last time.'
Bonnie's next strike was fast, very fast, but seemed slow to him as he deflected it harmlessly to the side. His foot snapped out, catching her ankle, kicking it towards her other foot, causing her to fall forward. As she fell he pirouetted neatly around her, and thrust his elbow into her side, forcing her to the ground. She lay there for a few seconds, moaning, holding her side, then she slowly stood up.
"How did you not see what I was going to do?" he asked her. "Bonnie, you have to think of fighting as chess, predicting moves and compensating to turn them against your enemy is all part of the game."
"But...you're too...fast," she said between breaths, still holding her side.
"You're just going to have to get faster."
*****
A graveyard, but not just any graveyard, this graveyard contains the grave of one Lisa Hela. The pendant was still there, the days of the graverobber were over, so no one was going to take it. A shadow covered the grave, and leather bound hand snatched up the locket. They raised the locket to their shadowed face, and opened it, smiling at the pictures contained within. The chain was looped over their neck hidden beneath the hood. They turned and headed off, towards the exit.
"Rest in peace, sweet Lisa," they said taking one last look over their shoulder.
*****
"When are they gonna get home?" Shego asked as she watched the clock.
"You know them, when it comes to training, they'll go for hours," Kim said.
"Like me," the raven-haired woman said.
"Yeah, but in a different way," the young redhead replied, sitting on her girlfriend's lap.
The Sindel house had been decorated for the appropriate holiday. There was a tree, with garland, lights, ornaments, and, in place of a star or an angel, a small sword was placed atop the tree. There was the traditional mistletoe hanging in the archway at the end of the short hallway that connected the living room to the kitchen.
"So, family reunion, eh?" Kim asked.
"Yeah, it's been so long since the last one, I was really only about your age then," she replied with a slightly thoughtful look. "It ended with Darien losing his hand."
"Darien?"
"My asshole-of-a-second-cousin, he and Nate have been competing since the day they could hold a weapon."
"I'm guessing it was Nate that took his hand."
"Yup, he said he keeps in a jar of formaldehyde in his closet. It's creepy in a way, but if you'd known Darien, you'd say he deserved it," Shego said with a bit of a shudder at the thought of that person.
The door swung open and bounced off the doorstop on the wall, a swurl of winter air coming in with it. In an instant two persons ran inside and shut the door. There was a blizzard outside at the moment, and the forecast had called for almost three feet of snow by the next day, which was Monday. Kim and Shego's attention turned to the two disrobing figures, it was Ron and Tara.
"Hey, I see that Nate and Bonnie haven't gotten back yet," Ron said as he pulled off the large stocking capitalism he wore, shaking his slightly longer hair.
"Nope, we're expecting them any minute though," Shego said and she stood up, brushing the wrinkles out of her red and green clothes (tis the season), and greeted them. "Anyone care for some hot chocolate?"
"I'd love some," Tara said as she hung up her heavy winter coat.
"Be right back then."
*****
"Shouldn't we be getting back?" Bonnie asked as she threw a snowball at Nate, a distraction.
He watched the snowball whiz by his head, knowing full well that Bonnie was going to charge him. Turning back he was met by a snowball to the face, then Bonnie's elbow in his gut. A grunted laugh escaped him as he twined his fingers above his head and slammed the combined fist into Bonnie's back.
"Yeah, we should," he said helping her up. "That was a good workout today, you almost had me."
"I know, I've gotta work on striking and retreating."
"Right."
He grabbed her hand and squeezed it, feeling the invisible forced from beneath him lift up the flaps on their coats and their hair. In a flash of light they were gone, as well as all the snow within a five-foot radius, evaporated.
*****
Two hours later the six of them were sitting in the living room at the Sindel house, enjoying a cozy fire. The scales above it hadn't even move a bit since Quetzalcoatl had been banished to the abyss. Aeris, having been spared, had taken up residence keeping Sashna company at the temple. Nate sat on the floor, his back against the front of the large armchair that Bonnie was sitting in, her legs wrapped around his shoulders. Ron sat on the couch, Tara as close to him as she could be without actually being on his lap. Also on the couch was Shego, with Kim on her lap.
'It's too peaceful,' the ever-ready part of Nate said.
'Maybe, but let's enjoy it while we can,' the calm part retorted. 'It might not last too long.'
He sighed a long, contended sigh as he got more comfortable where he sat. The carpet was soft, without being irritating as most kind of carpets are, and the thigh right next to his face made a wonderful pillow. He watched the fire burn and dance behind the metal grate, and decided to have a little fun.
The fire grew huge for a few seconds and small bits of it flew through the grate to land on the stone hearth in front of it. Christmas music filled the air as the stereo turned on, and the bits of flame began to dance. There were six of them in all, all taking on a bit of a human shape (like flubber, except on fire; I always wanted to watch that blob of green burn). Everyone watched them with interest, and when it they were done, everyone clapped and applauded as they bowed. The bits then jumped back into the flames.
"You know, you're all welcome at my house for Christmas dinner," Kim said a bit offhandedly.
"Mom and Dad won't be home till New Year's, so...sure, why not," Nate answered stretching. "Unless Bonnie wants to spend a nice quiet dinner here."
"What about Sarah?" Bonnie asked.
Yes, after the whole thing with his brother, Nate had gone and gotten Sarah from Aki's. She was asleep at the moment, seeing as what time it was.
"She'll be going home," he said while thinking of how empty the house would feel. "I told Jinai about how her parents left her here, he said he'd deal with them later."
"Well, at least he knows," Shego said.
Nate settled back against the chair, wondering what was happening to Nox at the moment. With the demon's eye in her he couldn't track down her signal, with it being masked and all. It was strange, even though he couldn't find her, he could still feel her mind, trying to reach out. It was impossible, he knew that, but it didn't keep him from wanting to believe it.
'What's happening to you right now, Natsumi?' he thought.
*****
In contrast to the blizzard raging across the American Midwest (I can only guess that that's where Middleton is) it was sunny and warm in the temple in the Andes. Aeris was busy flying around grabbing various things and decorating the large cavern with this and that. Sashna was watching her with an extensively confused expression on her face. She didn't know what all this was, and when she asked, Aeris just said that it was Christmas. That just confused the young catgirl, and Midora even more so.
"What is Christmas?" she asked.
"I don't know, I was looking through one of the memories left behind when I returned those human souls, and this was one of them. I know it's strange, but every year, many of the people on this planet decorate their houses like this and give gifts," the demoness said as she placed an evergreen tree that got form gods know where on top of the entrance to the abyss.
Small, black tendrils lifted from the surface and gripped the tree, but didn't pull it down. She then proceeded in decorating it with the usual things. She stepped back and looked at it, something was missing; snapping her fingers she held her hands out in front of her, as if to hold something. A small flash of light and in her hands was a star; her wings fluttered and she placed it atop the twenty-foot tree.
"Tell me, Sashna, what do you wish for?" Aeris asked as she eyed her creation with satisfaction.
"I wish that Kul would come home."
'Thought so,' she thought then said. "I mean other than that."
"Oh, um," she placed her hand on her chin tin thought. "That's a good question."
"Not much for material things, are you?" the jet-black woman asked as she patted Sashna on the head.
"Uh-uh," she shook her head. "What about you?"
"Kul, would be nice, but that's ancient history," she looked thoughtful for a second, then said, "I want to be cured of this need for souls."
"It can be done," Sashna said with a purr, Aeris was scratching her behind the ears now. "With the archway."
*****
"Merry Christmas to me," Kyle said as he opened up a seemingly abandoned warehouse.
Inside was a cache of weaponry he had stowed away there. What with the loss of his beloved Despair, he needed something new. It had occurred to him that he could ask Nate if he could borrow a weapon, he had seen the arsenal when he blew open the house. That idea hadn't appealed to him much, since he figured it was best they thought he was dead for good. He knew, though, that Nate knew he was alive, always keeping tabs on his energy signature. But the balance keeper always made sure to make him aware of his presence inside the once-dark assassin's mind.
"Maybe..." he picked up a large, double bladed axe, with two glowing green eyes on either blade, Agony. "No."
He placed it back down where he found it and looked around some more. Here and there he picked up a weapon, but put it back down after deciding it wasn't right. It was hard to find a weapon that didn't carry the name of something used to describe pain, and that's not what he wanted. Finally he reached the very end of the warehouse, which was about the size of a football field. There he saw the perfect weapon, Tega, an alien word for strength. It was a gunblade, basically a broadsword with a rifle inside. This one looks a bit like a heavy claymore, with a large guard on it, where the magazine clips in. When in rifle mode, the blade splits down the middle and opens to reveal the barrel, while the person firing it hold the struts on the guard where the trigger is.
"Perfect," he grabbed the sword and pressed a button on the pommel, the blade split open and the trigger pops into place. He returned it to its sword mode and sheathed it at his hip, it was too long to sheath on his back.
*****
Natsumi Arika stood before the council of dark assassins, awaiting their instructions. They were all talking quietly amongst themselves, so much so that her ears couldn't hear them. She knew that they were talking about her though, since once in a while they would point towards her. The one in the center snapped their fingers and the floor began to shift, long chains erupted from said floor and wrapped around her wrists and ankles.
"Nox, you failed to kill your target, and we do not accept failure in this organization," they said as they rose from their chair.
The hooded figure stepped down from the raised platform and walked over to her. Two gloved hands slowly descended from the sleeves and reached up, pushing the hood back. It was a woman beneath it, wearing a small device over her slim throat. Midnight blue hair had a sort of Raven from Teen Titans look to it, the way it was longer in the front than in the back. Black eyes, which seemed like bottomless pools of death, stared intently into the shorter girl's blue and red eyes. One hand, it doesn't matter which, reached up and removed the device from her throat.
"Natsumi Arika, your services as an assassin are no longer needed," she said in a very sweet voice, and thrust her hand at Natsumi's face, her target was the Demon's Eye.
Upon retrieving it, Natsumi's normal eye regrew in its place. The woman looked at the eye before promptly crushing it, and the demon within, to a squishy mess on her glove. The glove she held up to the girl chained before her, still staring at her intently.
"Lick it off."
"What, no way..." she began to protest, but was silenced by a quick backhand to her face.
"Would you rather I drop you into the pit with the demons; I'm sure they'd love a new playmate like you," she whispered into the frightened girl's ear.
"A-are y-you Shinigami (Japanese god of Death)?" the Japanese girl managed to choke out.
"No, but you're very close," the woman said.
'Nate,' Natsumi sent out a message with every bit of thought she could, 'HELP!'
"The demon's eye failed to keep you in check, how about a demon's heart, would that do?" she licked her lips at the idea and Natsumi cringed.
*****
'Natsumi,' Nate opened his eyes.
TBC
Bet you thought I wasn't going to continue this story, well you were wrong. The nemesis wasn't Quetzalcoatl, but the person behind him and all his actions. It might be the woman now torturing poor Nox, or it could be someone else, I'm not telling. This chapter is a little shorter than normal because I wrote then end of it first, then had to write filler above it. Oh, yeah, I wrote this chapter with a Christmas theme because...well...it's Christmas time. Merry Christmas readers, and have a happy New Year, even though I'll probably see you all before then.