DISCLAIMER: You know, if it's called FAN FICTION, I think it's DAMN obvious I don't own any of this.

"Evil is a point of view. God kills indiscriminately and so shall we." - Lestat

Kim collapsed onto her bed after a day of class that would rival a world war. She hadn't seen Janus in a week. He had told her that he had to leave for business, but his absence made the days even more insufferable. The best she could hope for is something to watch on television.

She wandered around her room searching for the ever wandering remote. She was on her third pass when she noticed it by her answering machine which was blinking with a new message. Kim was instantly curious considering everyone she knew called her cell phone. She pushed the button and listened to a voice she hadn't heard in a long time, "Hey Kim, Wade here. We need to meet."

CHILDREN OF WAR
PART 003: Hell Parading As Aphrodite

Kim arrived a half hour early to Bueno Nacho because she had been too nervous to eat earlier. Kim had no real intention to meet Wade when she first heard the message, but the upmost urgency in his voice and the lack of information from his message had trouble written all over it. She dipped a chip into the cheese at the stroke of nine when Wade had walked in the door. He hadn't changed too much, though it did look like he had lost some weight, "Hey Wade. See you lost a little weight."

Wade sat down without ordering a thing. He was covered up in an overcoat and sunglasses which he promptly removed as he sat down, "Hello Kim, it's nice to see you in good health."

"What's with the cloak and dagger get up?" Kim looked him up and down with a look Wade could only associate with Bonnie.

"It's for safety reasons. Neither of us are very safe right now." Wade tried to keep his voice low, "And this one doesn't seem to have a care in the world." A small pink blur jetted out of Wade's sleeve and into Kim's nachos.

"Rufus! I didn't know you were taking care of him." Kim was ecstatic to see the Mole Rat, despite the fact it was robbing her of her only meal of the day.

"Ron's folks offered him to me after..." Wade didn't bother to finish his sentence seeing the developing melancholy look on Kim's face, "Kim, none of us blame you."

"It was me who let him go by himself." Kim said solemnly. Rufus jumped up trying to comfort her the only way he really knew how, he offered her a nacho. She smirked and took the chip.

"No one knew what was going to happen, Kim, but I do have an offer to help you get even." Wade said removing a folder stuffed with more files than Rufus had nachos crammed in his mouth.

"I don't do the hero thing anymore, Wade. You know that."

"This isn't a hero job Kim. This is bigger than that." Wade opened the folder and began to flip through the pages, "About three and a half years ago a corporation called MachiNex was founded and began buying and starting subsidiaries left and right. Most of them are fairly normal businesses in the mechanics or electronics. Some of them are a bit odd, namely military weaponry, genetics research, bio engineering and cybernetics technology."

Kim stared at him like a grade school student in an assembly. "Is there a point to this?"

Wade rolled his eyes, "Yes. This same corporation has been hiring some extremely out of the ordinary employees. The listed names are aliases that can be traced back to Drakken, Shego, DNAmy, and Monkeyfist, to name a few."

Kim was giving Wade her full attention now, "But they were all in prison."

Wade nodded, "They were, but whoever is running MachiNex is someone high up. High enough to go over the supreme court on this matter."

Kim sat and pondered this for a bit. Rufus had finished off every trace of food on the table before she spoke, "What else you have on this company?"

"Not much else, I'm sad to say. The security on some of the upper class files is unaccessable even by my skills. The highest I can go is a man named Samuel Aester and his assistant Janus Nemicosto."

Kim shot daggers from her eyes at Wade, "I see. I get it now, asshole."

Wade raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

Kim stood up and put on her coat, "You get me here, you come on about how no one blames me and even bring Rufus with you, and then you try and convince me that MY BOYFRIEND is behind some evil plot trying to make me feel bad for what happened. I struggle with it every fucking day, Wade. You don't need to conjure up a giant folder of bullshit info to rub it in my face, but I have a chance to be happy again and no one is going to take that from me." She walked out the door and despite the warm breeze that came from the door, Wade and Rufus could feel a frosty chill blowing.

Kim marched through the streets. It was late, very late and more than likely Monique and Bonnie are wondering where she had gotten off to again. She didn't want to go back to campus yet, she was too angry and stressed to go back. She just wandered through the streets letting the night take her wherever. It seemed that the night, like Wade, seemed to have an agenda, as she ended up at the old tree house. She started to climb the ladder, half hoping to find her old friend sitting up there wondering where she had been for four years, but she knew he wasn't. Instead she turned and walked into the woods down the road, it was an easy shortcut from the old neighborhood back to the college.

Kim was deep into the woods to the point where no light could be seen in any direction save for the ever watching moon above. "Half way." Kim smiled. She was about to take another step when she caught the sight of a light that shouldn't be in these woods and dived to her side as a blast of green plasma shot past her. Soon as Kim landed on her feet she looked up, "Shego!"

The woman dressed in black and green stood on a rock across from Kim. Her hair was short and styled but was the same in every other way, "If it isn't little Kimmie." Shego looked at Kim up and down, "and she's all grown up, and willing to open her legs for any pretty face from what I've heard." Shego laughed in a way that seemed much more demonic than Kim remembered her having. She then launched herself into battle taking swings at Kim at every opening.

Kim was struggling to dodge let alone fight back. "What's with the temper? Doesn't Drakken want me alive as usual?" Kim flipped backward but timed it wrong and ended up getting a giant slash across her midriff causing her to tumble to the ground in pain. Kim reached to try to pressure the wound to find that the heat of Shego's flaming fists cauterized it.

Shego lifted Kim from the earth by her head and tossed her against a tree, "I'm sure he would Kimmie, but I'm not on orders from Drakken." She gripped her hands around Kim's throat, "So as long as you can be revived, I can do whatever I want." The look in Shego's eyes was beyond evil it was complete madness. Tears began to trickle down Kim's cheek as for the first time, she feared for her life. Shego unleashed another demonic laugh at Kim's fear and licked off the tears on Kim's cheek.

"That's enough Shego. The Master needs her healthy enough to be tortured." A man's voice came from the shadows. Kim's eyes shifted to see the form taking shape, "Janus... no..." was all Kim muttered as Shego slammed Kim's head into the tree rendering her unconscious. All that came next was darkness and fear.

To Be Continued...

Next Time: Men and Monsters

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From the Extremely Cluttered Desk of the Author:
Short, sparatic, but necessary exposition and set up for the fun ahead. For those worried about an unsure direction this is going, no worries needed. Things are just getting heated up, I assure you. Personally, the set up is my least favorite because it moves around too much and it's hard to write when you know what's ahead.

((Revised 5/30/2005))