The Trinity Sitch - Book 4: Heart of the Fury

Chapter 16: Surprising Attraction

Arcus Corrin sat on her perch, high up on a hill overlooking the modest city of Middleton Colorado, regarding it with a jaundiced eye. She was tiring of the form she had taken in her Master's service and was ready to be quit of this place, to return to her more proper function as the chief of his Gatherers. She was aware these people would consider the shape she had assumed to be pretty, even beautiful, but it was not hers. She was beautiful in her own right, with long, golden hair, large, blazing turquoise eyes and a body that would have been considered perfect for the production of many fine sons if she had ever seen fit to take a consort.

Instead her magic had turned her porcelain skin to a darker, golden hue, her aqua eyes brown almost to the point of being black. Her hair was now short, also nearly black and her body, while still rounded and feminine, was frightfully skinny by her standards. Because she had used powerful spells to accomplish the disguise, it was no mere illusion she could cast aside at will. Her body had actually changed and she would not change back until the mission was complete.

Now that mission was in jeopardy.

Corrin winced when her Master instructed her on his wishes. The items he wanted the Gatherers to bring to him were easy enough to acquire. She could have all of them within a week and none of their owners would have even suspected they were gone until they were safely within the walls of the Master's Palace. Only he would not make her job so simple. The task must be accomplished with a very particular pair of Gatherers, clones he had placed in her tutelage only one year prior. They were good, with the potential to be the very best of her fold, but they did not yet have the experience they needed, especially in such an alien situation.

Their first failure was at the Yamanuchi School. Despite all their careful planning, one misstep led to their discovery and their target was taken into hiding. Fools! She could have been in and out of there herself and none of the students or their masters would have been the wiser. Their failure was compounded when she realized they were now being traced by the very ninja who had detected them.

She planned to instruct the pair later on the full meaning of their failures, but that would have to wait. It was now time to lay a trap for this interloper, one she would spring herself. The Gatherers were sent to take a particular item from a specific home, and it was here the ninja would strike at them. As the Gatherers made their way into the home she set her trap.

All too easily the ninja fell under her spell. She took her form, then she took her memories, leaving her unharmed, as the spell called for, but unconscious. She was about to leave when she opened her mind to the stolen thoughts, intending a quick perusal in case there was anything she might use in her quest. What she learned frightened her very badly. Almost to the point she did not see the second ninja approaching. It was only by sheer luck she was able to cast her snaring spell once more. She looked at her new prey and gasped.

There had been two of them. Not just two ninjas, but two of the very same shadow warrior, two of the exact same woman, the woman whose form she had just taken.

Her mind awhirl with what she had learned from the first, she bent to read the memories of this second one. Again she was surprised by what she learned. Surprised that this second woman's mind was prepared for just such an intrusion. She was only able to glean the barest of things from it, only what had been foremost on her mind when she had been struck down.

She had been thinking of the same blonde haired Terran the first had been. A man the first had come to this home looking for, seeking him to both tempt him and test him, to take him before the teachers of the Tragda Sur. She regarded both of her victims. One a copy of the other, sent to trick the man into following her, to attempt to seduce him so that his bond to a Soulmate could be tested.

Knowing what the man truly was, she could use that information to her advantage, even more so with the other details she had taken from the real woman, this…Yori. Acting quickly, she sent a mental call to her Gatherers. In moments they had abandoned their theft, reporting that the man she sought was indeed in the home and was up and about.

"Dispose of this." She pointed to the first prostrate woman. The hastened to comply. Minutes later she could feel herself changing, the form she had stolen fading away as the life that maintained it faded. It mattered not, now she could take the more perfect form of the original, despite the continued frustration of the mystically shuttered mind. No matter, she had what she needed.

The capture of the Sword of the Effurien was far, far easier than she could have imagined. How could this be the fabled master swordsman who would rise to challenge her Master? She started imagining how he would reward her for disposing of him so quickly so easily. He made a wonderful gift for one of her lovers, the Torellian Governor, Darkoth Den Taag.

Then her plan took a turn for the worse. She did not count on the persistence of the real Yori. Perhaps she should have disposed of her instead of the Blessed Mother's acolyte. The Gatherers went on to their next target while she returned to Arkonia bearing their latest acquisitions, including the small blue electronic device that had been stored in the home. By the time she returned to Earth, she learned the horrible truth.

The cloned Gatherers had been captured.

Never before had that happened. This was the result of sending two with such little experience into a place like this, where all the variables could not be quickly taken into account. She would be the one who must answer for this failure.

But first, the next step of her mission was clear. She had to eliminate the clones.

Joss stared at the raven hairedolder woman with narrowed eyes, Rufus on her shoulder copying her glare. He didn't like the woman, and would never like her despite both Kim and his Ron warming up to her, even slightly. He understood what she was all too well and he did not forgive so easily.

Sherry simply returned the glare with a wicked smirk as she made herself at home on the ready-room's couch, stretching her arms out on the cushions and crossing her legs. "Careful, there, Cowgirl. Don't want to pop a blood vessel and ruin those pretty eyes."

"You seem awful comfortable when all it'll take is one a these people here to snap their fingers and you'll be sittin in a cell for the rest of your life, Shego." She responded in a low, dangerous voice.

"Oh, like any of these GJ goons care the first thing about me any more. Get a clue, Rawhide, I'm a good girl now, so they don't give a naked mole rat's behind about me any more." To demonstrate her point, she blew a kiss at one of the guards assigned to keep an eye on her while they waited.

"Hey-ey!" Rufus squeaked, growling at the black-haired woman, not quite sure why he was being substituted for the traditional 'rat's ass'.

"Good girl my sweet Montana butt. Say what you will, I just think yer hidin behind that little girl of yours till the heats off of ya. Don't forget, I've seen the real you and it ain't no good girl."

Sherry's back went rigid at the mention of Amethyst. All traces of humor went out of her eyes as she looked at her daughter, then Kim's younger cousin. "You listen to me and listen to me good, cowgirl. I am not hiding behind her. I changed who and what I am so she could have a chance at a normal life, got that?"

"Bucket a cow patties." Joss replied, crossing her arms and renewing her glare. "Still don't know why Kim still doesn't open a big old can a whoopin on you for all the trouble you've caused her."

"Maybe because she saw the writing on the wall. We went at it for years and she wasn't able to put me down for good."

"Nice choice of words there Shego. I'm gonna have to remember that when it does come time to 'put you down.'"

"Any time, any place, Rawhide. You may think you're the hot stuff right now, but you don't hold a candle to the Princess. To me you're nothing but a street brawler with fancy gadgets. Oh, but that's right, you're just the 'B' team anyway, you can't do anything unless you get word from Kimmie first."

Joss started to draw back her fist until a firm but gentle hand gripped her shoulder. Her head whipped around, her eyes locking with Yori's. The Japanese woman simply shook her head, nodding toward the child nearby, obliviously playing with a small pile of Cuddlebuddies.

"I guess I figured right you were the smarter one here, Ninja." She said, her smug grin returning.

"Make no mistake, Lipsky-san. Though I have never met you before I know who you are and what you have done. Do not throw your good fortune that some people I have a great deal of respect for have done you the honor of giving you a second chance back in our face. You have the good sense to choose a better path for the sake of your child. Do not waste that. It is a precious gift."

Sherry sat back on the couch, her smile gone. The Possible cousin she knew instinctively she could take, and it wouldn't even require her glow power either. The kid was smart, resourceful and apparently a pretty good scrapper, but she wasn't on par with the Princess. Grit and determination would only take you so far.

The Ninja, on the other hand, was a different matter. Sherry had been trained in the art of Ninjitsu, but never formally and never completely. Her early masters had seen the promise in her, but they could also sense the darkness growing within her. Amazing that people who were essentially assassins would be worried that their art could possibly be used for evil. She was good, having learned all she could before being turned away, good enough to know that a real ninja, one who had been trained since early childhood, could most likely mop the floor with her without breaking a sweat.

That made her stop and consider. Why was she thinking like this? What good could possibly come from antagonizing the cowgirl? Was it just the fact she looked so much like Kimmie did back then? Sure, her hair was darker and she seemed to be going out of her way to dress differently, but the resemblance was striking. At least until she opened her mouth and that shrill western twang came out. Maybe it was just the girl. After all, she was the one who had been glaring daggers at her ever since the Lipskys had shown up at Dr. Director's behest. If the cowgirl wanted to start something, well, she was going to be the one in the wrong. Sherry and her husband had been, for all intents and purposes, been granted safe passage into the stronghold of their enemy to parlay.

Yori watched the contest of wills between the two women with a mix of interest and wonder. The depth of the enmity from Possible-san was surprising, considering the young woman had only actually met Sherry "Shego" Lipsky on two occasions, one of them being Stoppable-san's wedding. During their flight from Arizona their conversation had drifted to the subject of the former villainess. One fact about the first encounter seemed to stick out. Shego had threatened Stoppable-san's life and it was Joss Possible-san who had saved him. Perhaps the girl did have more feelings for her cousin-in-law than she cared to admit. Perhaps that colored her perception of Lipsky-san.

To her, she could barely reconcile the woman she had just now met for the first time with the files she had read in the past. Certainly she looked like the woman, save her coloration, but instead of a petty, sarcastic petulant woman she came off more as an intensely protective mother who seemed to be uncomfortable around many people. Not having met her in combat, she had only her first impression to go by and that was not nearly as strong as Possible-san's apparent feelings.

Yori was having a hard time sorting through her feelings at the moment, feelings that were surprising, in fact shocking and actually quite frightening to her. The feelings were…alien. Curiosity, intrigue even desire filled her, feelings she once thought were only awakened, however briefly, by Stoppable-san, only this time is was not the slightly built blonde boy she saw in her mind's eye causing these feelings. In fact, this was from someone who was almost his polar opposite, save for the fact they had the same inner goodness.

He was tall, taller even than she would have expected. She had always seen him only on a small screen, always seated. She had no idea that he was now over six feet tall and apparently still growing. He had a broad chest that held the promise of even greater breadth in the future, natural muscles beginning to grow there. His skin was darker than hers, a light cocoa hue that she never once would have suspected she would find appealing. He did have one feature in common with Stoppable-san, his face still had a smattering of freckles, like bits of dark chocolate on his cocoa skin. He had a fine, neatly trimmed beard on his chin and his hair had been braided into neat cornrows.

She had never even begun to think this when she saw him as a child on Kim Stoppable-san's Kimmunicator, nor over the last couple days on Possible-san's, but when she came face to face with Load-san as they arrived at the Global Justice Headquarters she looked him straight in the eye and her breath was taken away.

He was nothing like what she thought she wanted in a man, and that is what shocked and frightened her but she couldn't get his face out of her mind. His face and his body. She had the strongest urge to kiss him, not on the cheek, but full on the lips. She had the urge to wrap her arms around his bulky torso, just to feel how much muscle he actually had under his soft-looking exterior.

Her thoughts were not demure, not lady-like and that frightened her as well. She had to keep reminding herself that he was just seventeen!

No! That should not matter! I am only twenty-two and if a relationship is possible with Load-san…

It occurred to her that she was actually, honestly thinking about what a relationship with him would be like. Here she was, now on a mission to find out what had become of the Stoppables, thinking about dating a man she had spoken perhaps two words to face to face.

Yori had learned her lesson. When this was over she was going to say something to Load-san. For all she knew he had a girlfriend, or at least someone he was interested in, but she would not take the chance again by simply sending out signals. Ron had slipped through her fingers, that would not happen again.

Wade was having a tough time concentrating. He had been locked in a conversation with, of all people, Doctor Drakken for the better part of three hours now. That in itself was not only surprising, it was a revelation. He always thought of the mad scientist as being somewhat of a buffoon (ironic that was his favorite insult directed at Ron) and not incredibly bright. Speaking to him as one scientist to another, however, he discovered the man was actually quite brilliant.

Still stark raving mad, but quite brilliant.

They had launched into a discussion first about the nature of the clones they now had in custody. Drakken poured over the data he was provided, looking at the genome, comparing it to base samples. He asked valid and concise questions before confirming the conclusion Wade and the GJ scientists had already come to. Yes, these clones were created using his samples. Yes, they were in fact clones of other clones, not created directly from the original, raw samples taken from Ron and Kim Stoppable. In fact, the "Kim" clone seemed to have gone through several more iterations than the "Ron" clone had, with signs of slight modifications to parts of the genome related to behavior. Specifically those that were theorized to deal with things like independent spirit and the like.

That fact alone was quite frightening.

As the conversation progressed, Wade started noticing something about Drakken. The more they spoke, the more he seemed to relax and the more relaxed he became, the more he seemed just like any other man of science. Doctor Drakken, Mad Scientist slowly morphed into Drew Lipsky, Research Scientist. Was that all it took? Just to recognize the man and show him a certain degree of respect for his knowledge? No, it had to be more complicated than that and after all, the man had actually come very close to taking over the world. He was too dangerous and capable of too much evil just to rely on some pop-psychology (actually, Wade had several minors in clinical psychology, but never truly focused on that aspect of his education.)

Wade couldn't concentrate because there was a face dominating his mind. This was something that had never happened to him before. Sure, he was like any normal, red-blooded teen-aged male, but he had never before become obsessed with any one girl. Yes, he had harbored a crush on one particular girl for many years now, but he never had any illusions that those feelings might be returned. After all, he had been reading her diary for years and had guessed long before she had who her heart belonged to, even though when it finally happened he had been taken completely by surprise.

This was different. Different and shocking. He couldn't quite get his mind around it. He knew who she was, had seen her picture a hundred times in his files and speaking to him over the Kimmunicator. That had never affected him like this, yet seeing her face to face, watching her climb down from the hoverjet, her body wrapped in tight denim, cut so low he could see the slight hollows of her hips disappearing into the faded blue cotton, the taught roundness of her golden colored tummy, her almond shaped eyes, her shoulder length hair caught up in a red band. The sight of her upper body, bare save for a lacy crop-top tank with something even lacier peaking through.

His whole body was on fire just looking at her, and then their eyes met. Wade never believed in love at first sight. He was too much of a scientist to. Love was something that came gradually, it had to be built up. What most people thought of as instant love was merely just lust, the animal craving caused by visual and sometimes chemical cues.

That kind of knowledge was all fine and dandy until it actually happened.

Wade found himself counting the minutes until this meeting was over so he could go back out into the ready-room, just to look at her again. To dream of kissing those nice rounded lips of hers, to put his hands on her tiny waist and draw her close. He wanted to kiss her like Ron and Kim kissed, even though the prospect was utterly and totally alien to his experience. It caused fear to well in him, threatening a return of the crippling Agoraphobia he had felt most of his young life. Yet he had to do something, anything.

Then he had the oddest thought that once again he was crushing on a woman who had given her heart to Ron. Was that wrong, even though Ron had rejected Yori? How could it be wrong, Ron had not only rejected Yori, he had actually never shown any real interest in her, his heart was so dominated by Kim. Somehow he had to drag his mind back to the task at hand. Ron and Kim were missing, that was what was important.

Not a golden-skinned Japanese woman. Not an adult woman who shouldn't have anything to do with a seventeen year old who had the social skills of a hermit. Not teen-aged hormones that were suddenly fully awakened for the first time.

Then Drakken asked everyone but Wade to leave the room, managing to pull his attention back where he felt it belonged. Grudgingly, Doctor Director and her staff agreed, also agreeing to turn off all the surveillance in the room, a fact Drakken asked Wade to confirm as soon as they were gone.

He stared almost dispassionately across the table at Wade, his hands clasped in front of him. The sight was surreal, Drakken sitting there as if he were an ordinary person in some boring business meeting, dressed in a normal white shirt, wearing a dark blue tie. If it were not for his light blue skin and 'baby mullet' he would have looked like any other late 40s, early 50s man in the world.

"Okay, Doctor, we're alone. You're got my full attention."

"Er, yes, Dr. Load. I think I may have an idea what is actually going on."

Wade gave him a look that said go on.

"I think your conjecture that the stolen items have more to do with their relationship than the inherent danger represented by some of those items alone is valid. The single most dangerous thing they have captured is the Pan Dimensional Vortex Inducer, but I do not believe they intend to use it. In fact, I do not think they intend to use any of these items for their proper purpose.

"Every single item stolen was at some point recovered by Kimberly Anne and her sidekick…"

"Doctor, I know you know his name."

"Yes, but to be precise, that was their relationship when these particular items were recovered. As I was saying, that is the only real connection between them. Even I cannot see a potential use for the Vortex Inducer combined with items like a device for growing chitin on insects or…(shudder)…Moodulators."

Wade nodded. If there was anyone else on Earth who knew the devastating effects of the hyper mood enhancers it was Doctor Drakken. The man probably still had scars!

"Dr. Load."

"Wade. I really don't like people calling me doctor."

"Very well, Wade, I know you are like me, a man of science, but do you believe in magic?"

"I believe in what I've seen. Things like an amulet that changed Kim into a monkey…"

"Oh, I bet that was interesting." Drakken grinned.

"Riiiight. Anyway, I've seen things that science, as I understand it, can't explain. That doesn't mean it isn't real, it only means we currently lack a full understanding of what is actually going on."

"Good. Then you won't freak out when I do this."

Wade watched him. Drakken didn't move a muscle or look like he was about to do anything that might 'freak' him out. He still jumped a little when it happened.

Drakken's blue skin slowly changed, fading first to almost white before blooming into a healthy, if slightly pale color. Right in front of his eyes he turned back into Drew Lipsky, save for the fact there was less hair and a lot more forehead than when he first struck out as a mad scientist.

"So you've found out how to tap into Sherry's ability to change back to normal?"

"No. Her ability was given to her using powers granted to her by the biological father of our daughter. Her change is completely physical, while mine, unfortunately, remains somewhat illusory."

"So you're still blue, I just see you as normal."

"Correct."

"What does that have to do with the stolen items or Kim and Ron?"

"The same text which taught me how to do this also hints at what may be at work here. The details are not complete, but I can infer a lot based on my translations of the book. I fear someone or something is trying to create a dimensional portal."

"Isn't that what the Vortex Inducer is for?" Wade asked.

"Not in this case. The Vortex Inducer is designed to function between what we would consider physical planes of existence. By itself, I do not think it is capable of creating the portal they wish to. For that they would need, for lack of a better term, magic."

"So you're saying they need certain objects with a particular relationship in order to create the portal?"

"Not only the objects, but the key to those objects. That may, in itself, be the reason for the clones, or it could be the reason the Stoppables have disappeared. The spell I am thinking of could possibly work if they had these doppelgangers 'recover' the items, just as they were recovered before, basically serving as reasonable facsimiles of the original."

"Unless they actually have their hands on the originals themselves!" Wade gasped.

"By my estimation, they need fifteen objects for the spell to work. How many items are missing?"

"If they had gotten away with the Moodulators, that would have been fourteen confirmed items. The Lotus Blade Yori is carrying would have been an even fifteen." Wade explained.

"This is not good. There is every possibility they already have enough. We have no way of knowing if they have more than we are even aware of. If they have Kimberly and Ronald then it may already be too late."

"You said they wanted to open a portal, what kind of portal?"

"You see, Wade, that is the problem. They want to break into a sealed dimension created specifically as a prison of sorts, a prison for an evil so bad, so heinous it makes Shego and me seem like saints.

"They want to free demons who have been sealed away for over two thousand years."

Yori's eyes lit up as the conference room door finally opened. Drakken was the first out, going directly to his wife whose whole demeanor changed as he emerged. Then Wade came out and the first thing he did was look directly at her. Their eyes met and he seemed to have a shocked expression on his face. Then he screwed up his courage and crossed the room toward her.

"Y…Yori, uh, I, uh, we have a lot of work to do, but, I , uh, I'm kind of hungry…wouldyouliketocomedowntothecommisarywithmeforaquickbitetoeat?"

"I would be honored to, Wade-san" She said, her smile lightening up the whole room.