Fatal Mistake in the Dark
Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible or any of the characters there within.
She was bored. Filing nails can only be entertaining for so long, especially back to back for two hours straight.
She tossed the file aside and sighed, tilting her head back and closing her eyes; her beautiful raven-hair cascaded over the edge of the chair as she stretched and thought of what she could do.
She had read all of the magazines in the lair thrice through. She could work out, but she did not feel much for it, believing she was as toned as she ever would be (and besides, she had spent the entire morning training in the gym!). She wasn't sleepy so she couldn't nap, and the henchmen were not intelligent enough to play a good game of poker. She could have stolen something, but nothing had particularly caught her interest of late and it was stupid to leave the lair without a plan.
The raven-haired beauty huffed in frustration and violently kicked the heavy mahogany desk in front of her, easily knocking the piece of furniture over. She made no move to right it and instead stalked off to find where the doctor was in the house.
She had come up right behind the good doctor when he screamed her name, startling the both of them.
"Ah! There you are!" Drakken laughed cheerfully. Shego rolled her eyes.
"What is it this time," Shego asked, looking over the doctor's shoulder to an array of computers and wires stacked high upon one another; the computers flickered several different angles within what appeared to be an abandoned stockroom, "a shakedown at a warehouse?"
She tossed him an incredulous look as he sourly crossed his arms over his chest.
"Why can't you ever let the evil genius announce his plans?"
The woman threw her hands into the air. "Can't you come up with anything better than that?"
Drakken smiled at her grimly.
"Either this, or something that involves pickles."
Shego held her head in one hand, reminiscing again why precisely she continued to work for this man.
"Let's stick with the warehouse idea." She sighed in exasperation. Shego dropped into one seat before the computers and surveyed the scene before her; studying details, analyzing layout, considering procedure. Her eyes flickered from one area to the next and her mind worked furiously; flitting from one scheme to the next. Her expression became more and more interested. Shego suddenly sat up in her seat, bolting upright to stand over the controls, her hands placed on the desk; her eyes bright and a smile curling the corners of her lips.
The warehouse was configured a lot like the obstacle course Drakken had built for her in one wing of the lair; because this was one of the unusually lucky lairs that had not yet been discovered or destroyed by the police or otherwise. With a few minor adjustments of a few crates and a shift of a box or two—Shego would have a near exact replica of the gym!
Suddenly excited, Shego looked up to the lamps that ran throughout the warehouse. A little trip of the wire here and a quick study of the circuit breaker system…
Of course!
Whether the Doc had actually done this comprehensibly or intentionally, Shego did not know and did not care.
She turned to face him and found he had been jabbering on about his plans. He quickly stopped when he saw her smiling. He swallowed uncomfortably.
"Shego, why are you looking at me like that?"
"You really are a genius, doc!"
She embraced him tightly and was on her way to the obstacle course, it was finally a plan in which the doc's dream could be realized; as well as a certain personal red-headed nuisance of her own...
Shego did not see as she departed; the look of longing in Drakken's eyes as he watched her go.
Shego took a deep, relaxing breath and tossed her hair over her back, one hand reached out for the light switch. She had already trained in the light for the day, and had kept strictly to her training for a full three days; this would be the day then to test her strategy.
She flicked off the lights and waited. Her eyes took but a moment to adjust and she was off. It was a stretch of familiarity and faith, but she knew where every box, every crate, every nook was located and, moving quickly, she would land on each silently and stealthily. Satisfied that she could move in the dark; she moved to the next stage of her training.
Taking a rubber ball roughly the size of a golf ball from her leg pouch, Shego threw it in a random direction and listened and waited. A moment later there was a soft thud to her right. Immediately her mind gauged distance and placement and she already could see the layout of obstacles she would have to manage. She leapt for it and it was back in her hands with a slash down its middle. She threw it again and again and again, finding it quickly every time until it was but rent pieces slipping through her fingers.
Suddenly the silence was ripped through with the opening of a door. The sound was deafening to her ears and the light blinding as it cut through the darkness. Her eyes shot to a figure standing as a silhouette in the doorway.
Ah, a live target. Somewhere in the darkness, Shego smiled.
"ShegOAHHHH!"
Drakken had barely gotten a word out when he was attacked and tackled to the ground.
"Oh, sorry doc," Shego laughed softly directly above him. Drakken could feel a sweat break across his brow. "Didn't see you there."
The weight of Shego's body lying across his caused him to tremble slightly.
"Sh-Sh-Sh-Shego—" he inhaled sharply when her lips brushed his nose in apology. Tongue-tied and flooded with so much warring emotion; anger at her insubordination, shock and surprise at her actions, afraid that she might attack him still, and reflecting on that kiss; he felt light-headed and giddy. Drakken could not speak, not even when the pleasant weight of his partner in crime lifted herself from him. Drakken sat up, sadly, feeling as though he had just missed some grand opportunity for a moment alone with Shego, he reached up into the darkness with one hand. Shego caught it and hoisted him to his feet. In a flash, Shego had flicked on the lights and Drakken was blinded. When his eyes adjusted, he looked to see Shego with her hands on her hips; a smile of content tainted with sultry confidence laced her features.
"I believe we are ready to infiltrate that warehouse of yours." She stated simply.
Drakken dusted himself off and took a hesitant step toward the raven-haired woman, fruitlessly trying to control a sudden, gripping tremor in his spine.
"Shego, I don't know if this is such a brilliant idea." He stated cautiously enough, but his doubts only enraged the woman.
"Huh! This is from the man who must have failed thirty attempts to control the world and you have the gall to accost my first stab at helping you."
Drakken's eyebrows slid into a frown, trying to gather his words into a formidable rebuttal. "It isn't that Shego, this plan just…it does not seem entirely safe." He looked up to her from his meekly clenched fists and her face was still twisted up in anger. She was about to speak when he interrupted her. "Yes, this obviously will give you the upper hand in a fight with Kim Possible, but it is as much a danger to you as it will be to her. I'm just saying that you should heed some caution."
"Doc," Shego's expression had finally caved to one of subtle assurance, "I know the layout of the warehouse, I know the risks, and I know my foe." She turned to leave. "What could go wrong?"
Drakken now stood alone in the gym, once again only able to watch the woman go. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. Perhaps she was right; he was just being a worry-wart. He took a final glance over the gym, trying vainly to dismiss a sinking feeling of doomed fatality.
Kim, who had currently just fallen asleep and was dreaming pleasant dreams, was jarred awake by the ring of her kimmunicator. She fumbled in the darkness for the device and switched it to live video.
"Kim," came the familiar voice of Kim's behind-the-stage technical help and ten-year-old genius, Wade. "I've just gotten word that Drakken and his henchmen are on the move."
Kim groggily looked to her alarm clock and groaned aloud. "Wade, it's one in the morning—and I have school tomorrow!"
"I know Kim, and I'm sorry, but Drakken has had light generators moved into an abandoned warehouse…whatever he's planning, it's going to happen tonight. You've got to stop him."
Kim flopped back on her pillows for a moment with a sigh. Tiredly rubbing her eyes, she knew she had to get up and go.
"All right Wade, I'm on my way."
Outside of the warehouse, two figures were arguing loudly while the poor henchmen stood by; shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably.
"Shego, please reconsider, I have a very bad feeling about this."
The raven-haired woman turned on the blue doctor in a rage.
"Forget it! You've had you chances and you've failed. Now it's my turn to take the helm."
Doctor Drakken's gaze dropped; Shego's words stung and she knew it, but she was getting fed up with his constant doubting of her. She failed to see the irony of the situation…
Shego had never seen the doctor so skittish and he was sweating unnaturally as he stumbled over his words and even his own feet. Even though he was a nervous wreck and she should be assuring him rather than badgering the poor man, she was beginning to lose her cultured patience with him.
"Look. I am continuing this operation with or without your approval. If you don't like it, you can just stay out here and stand guard." She snapped at him coldly.
"Come on boys." She motioned the henchmen forward and they brought the load of generators forward at the woman's command. Drakken did not follow them in.
Shego had all but pushed the image of Drakken looking hurt and crushed from her mind. She did not need the distraction now that she had become the head of operations.
Yes, things were going all according to plan.
Shego sauntered across the catwalk with a satisfied eye. Everything was set and in place. Henchmen were positioned at strategic points with light generators just in case something was to go wrong. The trap was set. All that was missing was one red-haired, teenaged heroine.
Shego was not long disappointed.
"Ok Drakken, let's get this over with." There was a short pause for a sleepy yawn. "It is a school night you know." Kim Possible had arrived, followed suite by a body that ungracefully hit the floor afterward. That would be the buffoon. He shook his head and dizzily mumbled something suspiciously close to something about villains using "normal doors" before he stood, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Apparently the both of them were tired and somewhat uncoordinated. Perfect.
"What exactly is it that you are doing here?" the red-head demanded impatiently of the henchmen. "I'd like to get back to sleep before three this morning…"
"That would be my doing really." Shego said from above them, casually strolling the length of the catwalk. "I insisted that the doc make station here for one night, because that was all I would need." Shego had made it to the far side of the warehouse, her hands glowing nimbly.
"You know, princess," she stated matter-of-factly, as she ripped out the wires to the overhead lights and they immediately faded to black leaving only the generator lights to illuminate the building. "Curiosity killed the cat."
Kim smiled at her adversary.
"Then maybe you should put your claws away, Shego."
The woman scowled, a snarl curled the edges of her lips and her hands erupted into green flame. "Cut it!" Shego snapped and the henchmen shut off the light generators in unison, the warehouse was plunged into darkness.
"Let's play, Kimmie." Shego taunted smugly; her glowing hands, the last bit of light in the eerie warehouse, faded like the coals of a dying fire—and just as suddenly, went out.
Kim had to move and she had to move now.
As soon as she had taken a sidestep to the right, a thunderous cracking and splintering sound exploded from where she had just stood. Kim's back collided with a box as she was showered with splinters of wood and the breeze from Shego's attack brushed over her face. The teen whipped around and struggled fiercely to climb over the crate, narrowly avoiding another blow as Shego had struck out again.
Kim rolled over its top, but Shego was already there and the woman had kicked Kim savagely over its edge. Kim fell hard to the ground and recovered herself, stumbling back into crates and boxes, trying to remain as quiet as possible and holding her breath, keeping absolutely still. So long as she kept still, she would be safe. There was silence in the warehouse, neither opponent moved. Somewhere in the darkness Shego waited for the red-haired girl to make even the slightest sound. The thought frightened Kim. Shego clearly had the upper hand in this battle. Kim was in serious trouble. She frantically thought of what she could possibly do, but under the stress of her exhaustion, the darkness, and the prowling villainess, nothing came to mind. But she could not stand there forever either; she had to move.
Risking a breath and a slow turn around, Kim cautiously mounted another crate that was level with her chin and carefully climbed atop it. A sharp intake of breath came as only a quiet inhale as the crate beneath her creaked.
"So, Kimmie," Shego spoke from somewhere to Kim's left, the red-head slipped into a defensive stance, ready for combat.
"Are you afraid of the dark?"
Shego's voice had moved with impossible swiftness to the girl's right, closer now. Kim shifted quickly to the voice, straining to see into the darkness and not succeeding.
"You should be…"
The woman had appeared behind Kim and viciously delivered a kick to the back of Kim's knees then a punch to her stomach.
Kim scrambled in the darkness for a body—an arm, a leg, a torso—anything! The teen caught onto Shego's arm, the same that had delivered the blow to her middle. She clamped on hard. The woman bucked and jerked, trying to relieve the clinging weight of the teen hero in effort to recede into the darkness once more. If Kim let go now, she would surely suffer more abuse or come to some serious harm.
"Ron!" Kim screamed, still being jerked about wildly by the raven-haired woman. "Get the generator lights on, now!" Shego hissed at Kim's cry, grappling with the heroine, rolling from crate to crate, but still the teen would not let go. Kim cried out in pain as Shego's clawed hand tore across her forehead and then ripped across her cheek; the blows beginning to become brutal and connect with their intended targets—but still Kim refused to let go.
Ron crawled forward in the darkness at his companions call.
"Ok, Rufus, you hit the lights and I'll WAHHH!" Ron smacked hard into a small henchman and the henchman, easily startled by things that hit him in the dark, in turn jumped back; knocked into another henchman who fell onto yet another henchman, starting a domino effect of falling henchmen. One hapless wrong-doer accidentally hit the "on" switch to the generators and the lights roared to life, illuminating the entire warehouse.
Shego and Kim, who were still locked together in the throes battle, were both surprised and blinded by the sudden luminosity. A blow Shego had directed at Kim had gone awry and the momentum of it caused the both of them to fall off the crate and tumble down with great force into a wall that had a shredded splinter of wood and iron jutting out from it.
Drakken wandered aimlessly outside in the darkness and silence. Shego's cruel words were still ringing in his head.
You've had you chances and you've failed.
It was true. He was a failure. Every attempt he had made at world domination had been dashed. Each and every scheme had fallen by the wayside and it would continue along that pattern for as long as he tried. The expressions that Shego had given him at each unveiling of an evil plot made sense to him now. She would look at him in skepticism and doubt and distrust, already condemning his ploy, already foreseeing his failure; and though she would try to assist him, he would inexorably fail…and then drag her with him.
But he did not wish that for her. Just because he would fail at his plans, it did not mean that she would. Where he failed, he wanted her to succeed. That was why they had remained a team for so long. He should have placed more faith in her at the start, instead of confronted her with immediate doubt.
Drakken turned his gaze toward the warehouse. Where the darkness inside reigned. Apparently, all was going as according to Shego's plan. Drakken should not have doubted the villainess.
He smiled and approached the warehouse, ready to give his support to his cohort when just as suddenly; the warehouse came alive with light. It seemed too sudden—too soon. Something was wrong.
A horrible sinking feeling seized the doctor as he sprinted to the doors, his heart thundering in his chest; hoping not to have his worst fears confirmed.
Kim's body collided face to face with Shego and a hideous pain thrust into her middle. She cried out in pain and she slipped backward from the pike, her prone stomach bleeding. She gripped it and stumbled away, staring at Shego in shock. The woman had been entirely impaled on the pike, its tip still peeking a few inches out from her belly, already tipped red from the heroine's blood. Shego's expression was one to match Kim's—shock, severe pain, and utter disbelief.
A blossom of blood grew from where the pike jutted from the raven-haired woman's middle. Shego looked down in horror to the spear that rose up from her body and gurgled a spluttered breath of disbelief. Kim winced at her archfoe's pain. Shego had, in truth, saved Kim's life, at the price of her own.
Shego inhaled, whimpering slightly as she gingerly placed her hands on the wall behind her and pushed her body off of the pike. The gushing and gut-wrenching noise of a body sliding from a weapon made Kim feel faint and ill, adding to the already three inch gouge into her stomach, she nearly fainted.
Shego finally broke free of the pike and she immediately fell to the ground, her legs crumpling uselessly beneath her, her body creating a resonating thump on the concrete floor, her long raven-hair cascading around her elegantly on the ground.
"Shego!" Drakken screamed and rushed forward to the woman who lay immobile on the ground just as Kim fell to her side, the pain in her middle too great to withstand sitting up any longer. Her eyes half-closed in pain as she continued to grip her stomach, her gloves becoming soaked through with her own blood as she watched the drama unfold before her eyes.
Kim was faintly surprised to see tears in the evil doctor's eyes.
"Shego," he said again more softly when he had reached her and pulled her up into his arms.
"Sorry doc…I…should have listened to you…" she inhaled sharply when his lab coat brushed her fatal wound. Drakken hushed her gently. "I never thought it would end this way." The strength of her voice was fading.
"Don't talk like that Shego. We can get through this…" Drakken was begging her not to leave him, begging her to survive until help arrived. Shego smiled weakly up at him, her fingers reaching to cup his cheek.
"I'm sorry…" she whispered and her strength gave out. Her fingers slipped from Drakken's face and her eyes closed; her head tilted to one side.
"No…" Drakken murmured, stricken as she fell limp in his arms. "NO! Shego!"
Drakken shook her, but she did not stir. "No!" his voice faltered and broke.
"Shego."
He slumped forward over the woman and sobbed, cradling her head to his shoulder, broken.
Kim could not stand to watch any longer and she turned her head, her vision fading in and out of darkness. She imagined she saw a luminescent Shego staring her in the eyes, her face level to the red-haired girl and an expression of remorse and concern on her face. Kim saw the luminescent Shego reach out a faint, gloved hand and Kim felt the ghost of a hand touch her cheek.
Live.
And the spirit passed as Ron rushed over to her.
"Hold on Kim, help is coming." He gripped one of her hands in both of his as her vision faded to black and back again. "Hold on."
Minutes felt like hours, melting into days as the EMS finally arrived on the scene. Lifeblood still spilled from Kim's wound, but not as much as it had at first.
Kim vaguely thought of Shego as she was hoisted onto a stretcher and carried over to an ambulance.
"What…about…Drakken?" Kim asked weakly. Ron looked over to her—relieved that she was still alive. He shook his head.
"Drakken; he's gone Kim and he took Shego with him."
What would Drakken do now without Shego? What could he do? Where would he turn?
Kim's scored stomach returned to stab at her memory and she quickly forgot all she thought of as she fainted on the stretcher.
Kim came to and she numbly opened her eyes to find herself surrounded by her family and friends.
"Thank God!"
"She's awake."
"Hey Kim, how are you doing sweetie?" Her mother asked from her left, holding one of her daughters hands in both of hers. "I'm all right." Kim murmured, smiling tentatively.
"Your mom helped to patch you up, Kimmie cub." Her father said from her right.
"You were out of it for three days Kim! Hooshah!" her brothers said together from the foot of her grungy hospital bed.
"Wow," Kim mumbled, amazed. Her back had begun to tingle back to life and it felt numb. She tried to ease the sensation by shifting her body, but the action only brought pain. She groaned and fell back against the pillows.
"Take it easy, honey. You've been through quite an ordeal."
Kim was only able to nod. She brushed her finger's across her forehead, startled to find stitches, several lines of them, running for some length over her face; Kim knew that was going to leave scars—a final cruel memento of the villainess.
"So Kim, I know you may not want to talk about it, but what happened back there?" Ron asked timidly, ignoring the upset expressions of the Dr. Possible's.
Kim sighed, the night had been all a blur in her head, all of the details meshed together as a mess in her head. One thing she could see clearly was that horrible moment when she looked up from her wound to see Shego staring at her in shock and disbelief and…fear. Never once had she seen fear on the villainess' face and to recall that image sent a tremor of trepidation through the teen's spine. To know that death could be so real and so sudden, to anyone; it was a chilling experience.
"Well, I was following a new lead on Drakken and then Shego ambushed me—"
"That woman!" Kim's father snarled.
"Of all the terrible things to do…" sighed Mrs. Possible.
"I hope she dies a horrible death!" Her brother's spoke in unison.
Kim bit her lip and drew her eyes away from her family, her voice shuddering.
"I think she did…I truly think she did."
A baleful cry rose over the mountainside, which gurgled into an insane laughter, as the moonlight fell into a window to reveal a hunched patch of blue in a spotlight in the darkness. Beside the figure lay a shovel, muddied and stained red, forgotten on the floor. The figure was shaking with laughter. He wrung his hands together and sniffled slightly, his tear-stricken face gleaming in the moonlight as well as a low green light that illuminate the floor around him.
Drakken laughed.
"You told me never to do it…You told me not to—but I did, I did!" Drakken laughed a little too loudly then quickly shushed himself with a finger. "But shh! Don't you tell anyone! She would never forgive me for it." Drakken crept forward and embraced a glass cylinder tank, pressing his tear-stained cheek against its coolness.
"But I know, I know you will understand." He giggled softly. "We will be together again." He sighed and embraced the tank more tightly, smiling blissfully, his body still bubbling with laughter.
For inside the tank drifted a fully mature, pale-skinned, beautiful raven-haired woman.
A/N: And who's fault is it truly for Shego's death? Ron for starting the chain of falling henchmen that eventually gets the lights on? The hapless henchman who actually hit the "on" switch to the generator's? Kim for falling against Shego on the pike? Drakken for not reaching Shego in time? Or should Shego, herself, be the one to blame for her own death? Hmm?
Enough questions I don't know the answer to! This story more or less wrote itself, like they tend to do. The only piece of it I actually had in mind was the warehouse fight and then death via that pike; and all of it was inspired by Reise, Reise of Rammstein! LOVE that band!
Gah, I actually had so many plot holes and personality clashes in this story which I would rather not address and humiliate myself, but if you didn't catch any errors, ignore what I've just said…
I hope that this story was enjoyable nonetheless and I DO have another Shego and Drakken story in the works (it should be listed in my profile if you'd like more info!) So keep a look out for it!
Please review!
Blackfire 18