Chapter Fifteen: Challenges
Ann looked up at Shego and slowly rose to her feet with a glared aimed at Dementor. When the man didn't rise or move, Ann nodded. Then, the surgeon turned and dusted her hands with a glare before she growled a curse in Mando'a and quickly holstered her blaster under her coat as it had been before.
Veronica only looked at the woman in shock. "What was that?!"
Ann shrugged, "I don't take kindly to being held hostage." The doctor then looked at Shego. "Can you match thermite?"
The young dragon shivered. "Not sustained, I can hold temperatures that high for about two minutes before I have to shut down the plasma. Otherwise, I risk passing out."
The redhead took in this information and lightly smiled at the reminder of the dragon's love for her Kimmie Cub. Ann also took note of Veronica's nervous tapping and watched eyes dart from street to sky and back.
"Relax." The woman stood, turned from the body to Shego, and put a gentle hand on the thief's shoulder. "Thankfully, blasters are nearly silent, especially when compared to the noise makers Earthlings call weapons." Ann said calmly before she knelt to get a closer look. "Can you lift a bodybag from the morgue in the basement?"
The young dragon frowned. "Ann, you can't think…"
"I cannot let anyone, especially Betty, learn of blaster technology," the warrior sighed. "Where I'm from, blasters are as common as conventional firearms are here; I even have an ammunition station on the far wall in my forge." Ann shook her head. "However, we also know how to effectively treat wounds created by blasters. Plasma weapons are too dangerous for Earthlings currently."
Shego stared at Ann in shock. "Your husband…"
Ann glared at Shego. "Slug throwers, that's what medicine here knows best." Ann sighed and looked back up, her glare far more heated. "If Kim was shot with a blaster outside of her armor, there's little to be done for her!" Ann hissed. "Do you want that?"
Veronica shivered and nearly wailed but stopped when Kim soothed her back to reality over the Karadim. "I'm going to get your damned bodybag."
Ann nodded and looked down at Dementor's body. Ann then traced the wound with a finger. The doctor suppressed a shiver. "(The stories of you told, father…)" Ann smiled sadly and wiped a tear away. "(The Ancient Ones proved to be the same and different.)"
When Shego returned, the pair lifted the body into the bag and zipped it up quickly. Then, Shego took her full form but growled in resistance when Ann moved to get on her back. Ask, Veronica said with a surprising gentle firmness. You can't just climb on whenever you want. You're not Kim.
A flash of anger kept the woman calm though Veronica spoke in her mind unexpectedly. "I am her mother."
Shego hissed and snorted, blowing smoke into Ann's face. I did not make the rules. Ancestors, ancient even by Dragon standards, whispered from within Shego's DNA. Would you be comfortable if I walked up to James and gave him a kiss on the cheek?
"Without appropriate context…" Ann mused darkly. "I would accept it or, more likely, be extremely uncomfortable."
Shego nodded as her cloak still hid much of her scales. Same principle, ask.
Ann shook her head and bit her tongue from the curse forming on her lips for a moment. Then, the woman frowned deeply, "May I ride on your back?"
Back at the school, Kim looked from Felix to a middle of nothing, not a traumatized stare but far way all the same. I trust her, Firefly; Kim nodded. Go.
The dragon looked at Ann and nodded slowly and lowered herself to lay on the ground. Get on.
Ann set her face and jumped onto Shego's back after a moment of hesitation. The woman closed her eyes and took a calming breath. Her hands tightened around the cloth that joined the dragon's hood to the body of her cloak and clung for dear life as Shego continued to rise higher and higher into the air. The tendons in her hand began to ache from the effort of Ann's grip. Ann refused to yield to fear and beat the feeling down with sheer will.
Veronica mentally shook her head in disbelief at Ann's actions as she flew above the clouds and found herself curious. The dragon fought a laugh and dared to do a barrel roll to sure up Ann's grip. After Shego righted herself, a noticeable sustained plume of faint Bogan surrounded Ann. This is new. The question in her mind danced in the back of her awareness even as the dragon turned herself to dive towards the Possible House. I thought Mando'ade lived for thrills.
Thrills come in many forms, Shego. Without preamble, Ann leapt from Shego's back and ran for bushes around back. Then, the woman emptied her stomach into the bushes. With a quick wipe of her mouth, Ann returned to see Veronica in her Humanoid form and frowned at the woman. "If it's not with a sen'tra on my back, I despise flight."
Veronica nodded and shook her head, Way to go, Shego! The dragon's mind spat. You ruined a perfectly good rapport by showing off!
Ann sighed and motioned for Veronica to follow her inside the house which currently probed empty with James at work and the twins at school. The woman walked into the dinning nook and sat at a chair. Then, she motioned for her daughter's wife by Mando'ade custom to take a seat on the opposite side of the table. "Veronica…"
Mrs. Possible, I only want to-"'
Ann cut the dragon off with a raised hand. "A warrior always listens before he or she speaks." Ann noted the downcast look on Veronica's face as if the woman prepared for chastisement. "I am not angry with you." Ann smiled when Veronica picked up her head from the table and looked at the redhead in confusion. "Rather, I wish to tell you something of which you are likely not aware."
Shego raised a brow. "What is it?"
Ann sighed and felt a little sadness well up within her. "Do you recall a few nights ago when you cared Kim to bed?"
The dragon leaned forward. "Princess muttered something, but I couldn't make it out."
Ann reached over and put a hand on Veronica's. The redhead laughed with a touch of tears in her eyes. "You could not understand because it was Mando'a." Ann squeezed Veronica's hand. "She swore a Mando'ade Oath of Union." Ann shook her head with a laugh. "By Mando'ade law, she has been your wife since she uttered those words."
Veronica's mind froze at the word: WIFE?!
Back in school, Kim giggled. Yes, My Shield and Sword?
Veronica stared at nothing for a moment. "Oh, Kim, you are in so much trouble after you get out of school!"
Ann shook her head slowly with confusion painted on her face. "I don't understand why you are upset with her." Ann stood up and smiled at her daughter-in-law. "From what Wade showed me, you and her complete each other."
Shego tried not to show she was fuming. With no hope of concealment from Kim, Veronica sighed and looked at Ann. "It's not that I don't want to marry your daughter. I do." The plasma slinger shivered and, for a moment, saw her grandfather's irate face. "Kimmie has the perfect family, and I would only ruin the dynamic."
"Ruin it?" Ann and Kim said in stereo unknowingly. "Veronica, do you know what you give to Kim and our family?"
Veronica couldn't help it and muttered a soft response, "I'm a failure. I can maintain the mask for almost everyone, even my brothers, but Kim saw the mask and unintentionally rips it away every time we meet."
"(No honor exists in deception.)" Ann said with a firm but not berating tone. "To put it simply, Mando'ade hate tricks; we'd rather face death in a fair fight than through a coward's poison or ambush."
"I don't know who I am without the mask."
Ann shook her head. "You made yourself powerful and confident beyond your past trauma. You do not wish to embrace it fully because you fear the outcome." Ann shook her head. "(Stubborn child…)" The Possible matriarch muttered. "You said Kim rips it off of you. Is that a bad thing?"
Veronica growled. "I AM A MONSTER!"
Kim glared hard at her Sola Myn mentally, but the look leaked onto her face and unnerved many students when they saw. However, Kim only refocused and looked down at her work to direct to anger in a more acceptable manner than killing students and teachers with looks. You are not a monster! Kim pleaded. Who fed you these lies?!
What do you call four freaks who got pulverized by a multicolored comet?
Wait… Kim thought as she remembered the basic lessons on lightsabers her Mom taught her. Mom told me Jetii use crystals in their weapons What if the "comet" was a giant crystal?
At the mention of Jedi and crystals, Shego felt an alien rage, no indignation, swell within her. Karadim…Kris'l? The strange phrase rolled through her mind, but Veronica effortlessly translated it: "Heart of My Bonded". A shiver of sadness ran through the young dragon. Flashes of pain but not pain nearly overwhelmed Veronica, her Draconian instincts begging for a funeral dirge in the form of a mournful "song" of a melancholy cry to the sky. Shego shook her head to clear the emotions from her mind. Then, she looked at Ann. "I never understood why the 'comet' hit us," a mirthless chuckle rolled from her throat. Then, thoughts of Kim replaced the pain and brought a genuine smile to the woman's face that even reached her eyes and made them seem to sparkle. "The comet led me to meet Kim."
Ann nodded, clueless to the deeper meaning of Veronica's statement. "You are no monster, Veronica." The woman rose to her feet, walked over, and put a hand on the dragon's shoulder. "I'm just upset that it's took Kim to help you see that."
Kim blinked and thought of something even as she walked over to turn in her work for class about fifteen minutes before the bell would ring to go to the final class of the day, If the comet was indeed a Karadim Kris, why were you the only one out of you and your brothers to take on a full Draconian metamorphosis?
You are so damn smart, Princess, but you really do miss the simple explanations. The Kris belonged originally to a female Darith.
Kim felt a blush creep from her cheeks to her whole face. The Kris could not change your brothers because they are male?
A strange feeling and images that evoked one as a person asked to enter a dwelling came over Kim and Shego. Without question, the Sola Myn agreed to allow access into the previously private conversation. Yes and no, a familiar voice spoke up moments later. Some Draconian abilities did pass to your brothers on contact with the Kris, child. Amber answered for the pair. The Twins gained very basic illusion abilities akin to the advanced ability to hide one's sign in The Bog'shla from others. The Purple One accessed our ability to shrink. The Blue Fool gained but a fraction of a mature Draconae's physical might.
Kim nodded, "He did seem relatively weak as far as super-strength goes. The girl blushed a deep read when she realized she spoke aloud with a few students giving her worried or questioning looks.
Felix just smirked. "I guess I can start calling you Emma Frost."
Kim shook her head, "I cannot communicate with anyone I wish, Felix, just Veronica or anyone who asks permission to join our conversations." When Felix's grin widened and he opened his mouth to ask, Kim growled, "Do not."
The young man wisely shut his mouth and nodded, "Just be careful about those sudden outbursts." Felix teased with a more friendly grin.
Kim sighed and put a hand to her head. Well-honed instincts made her nervous as the young Mandolorian began to move to her final class of the day. A feeling tickled at the back of her mind. Even with Killigan directly and Dementor's attempted attack on her mother, Kim couldn't shake the idea of a threat at any time. He nerves stood tight under load. Few things occupied her mind as she allowed her mind to break off into an automatic process tasked with work the teacher gave and the primary focus on possibilities of attack. A slight tug led the warrior to believe the next attack to be Drakken, but she didn't know how this attack would shape itself. With Drakken, that was always a guessing game until Kim met with the man to foil his scheme of the week.
As Kim walked out of school later, her Kimmunicator chimed, "What's the sitch, Wade?"
"Hello, Kim Possible!" Kim felt her jaw clinch when the blue egomaniac appeared instead of her long-time friend. "I've heard some rather intriguing rumors since you took Shego from me."
Kim smiled, dark and sinister like she stared down her scope at a valuable mark. "You actually called for your beating." Kim spoke as the grin deepened. "I am impressed, Drew."
The man fought to keep down a shiver. "Unless you and Shego join me, I have the command codes to military laser weapon systems." The man gained a mad glint in his eyes as he began to monologue. "I know your weakness. You care deeply about that fool father of yours and an integral part of my evil family. If I can threaten your family and hold both you and Shego hostage, you will learn to see me as the superior foe and mind to that of James T. Possible! You will serve as general to my army of Shego clones, and I shall let you keep the best of them as a toy."
A distant part of Kim registered the addition of a time limit to respond, but the rage Kim felt rolled through her with enough force to drive awareness away. Kim growled a harsh, "(Fuck you, Drakken!)" Eyes flashed with small red bolts of energy across the normally placid olive eyes. Then, the Mandalorian bounty hunter crushed the Kimmunicator in her grip, her eyes shifting to reptilian slits as she did. When awareness returned, the young woman closed her eyes and focused on breathing to quell the spike of fury that cost her the Kimmunicator. Shego, we have a mutt to put down. Kim looked towards the house. How fast can you get here?
I am on my way, my Sola Myn.
Kim could feel Veronica as the woman neared her, but a far off pinprick made itself known as well, not that Kim had skill enough to notice. With her eyes flashing between the two different states rapidly, Kim squeezed her eyes shut and stumbled as Veronica landed. "I don't feel so good."
Veronica looked at Kim in worry. "(Come on, Kim,)" The dragon said softly. "(I'm taking you home.)"
With no further details, Veronica took Kim and lifted off into the air. Normally, a flight eased Kim's mind and allowed her to shake off any doubts or fears the warrior had before she went into battle. Now, the magic, Veronica noted, seemed to leave her. In fact, Kim seemed to grow worse as the pair flew. With a final look of worry, Veronica landed a few miles from their destination in a surprisingly wooded area.
"Drakken…" Kim felt her body tossing to and fro without rhyme or reason. "He…wants…"
Shego nudged Kim gently and guided her to safety on the ground from her back, "(I know what he plans to do, Kimmie.)"
Even with the help, Kim stumbled and looked ready to fall into sobs. The normally strong and confident fighter clung to Veronica and shook with restraint. Disoriented, Kim nearly tumbled from Veronica's back to the ground and would have had the dragon not caught her.
As hopelessness crept in on Veronica's mind, the dragon wrapped her Sola Myn in her wings and pulled the trembling redhead close. Then, Veronica mustered as much courage as she could and plastered a cocky smirk on her face. "(He could not handle me as a Human with plasma power. What hope does he have now?)"
"Scared…" Kim managed.
The simple word acted as a key and opened Veronica to feel the Karadim as Kim felt it: undulation violently and pitch so severely, the dragon nearly puked. Veronica saw Kim under Drakken's control, fighting pain as Drakken forced her to Rebrand with a clone rather than the genuine article. The Bog'shla knew each life form created with it and knew the minute differences between clone and template. Kim screamed in agony and pleasure as the two Marks dueled with each other. As the original Mark burned and seared, as of yet only bright red and not smoldering, tears skated freely down Kim's face. Contrary to the tears, Kim wore this twisted grin which proved her as broken and approaching insanity.
"Veronica…" Kim laughed in a haunting tone that held no joy, only pain. "I'm so…sorry."
Veronica jerked and bucked in resistance to the vision. She could feel The Bog'shla fighting her shields and beating against them with the power of tsunamis behind its waves of invasive energy. "(No, please, don't show me.)"
Veronica's panicked cries echoed in Kim's mind. Kim wanted to soothe her Sola Myn in that moment, but walking the Karadim for such a thing… No! Kim set her mind as steady as she could with a meditation Nichole drilled her in for such emergencies. At the edges of her awareness, Kim heard another plea: "(I know what happens. Please, spare me!)"
At the word "sorry", Kim's body ignited. Her chest burst into flames a moment after The Mark began smoking. Then, the screams began and ripped into Veronica fiercely. Even as Kim's body should have long since been ash, she continued screaming, the power of The Bog'shla itself exacting a price for the broken Karadim.
Veronica felt herself launch out of the vision due to an unseen influence before the image of Kim became ash. Shego dared to look and saw her lover in a meditation state, whole and not even singed. Joy and terror fought within Veronica at the moment when her eyes connected with those of her Sola Myn. Kim?
"Veronica, I'm safe," Kim said gently before the redhead placed a hand on the dragon's cheek. Veronica soaked in the warmth of the simple gesture and felt tears begin to roll down onto the hand that held her cheek. "I'm here. Drakken cannot coerce my…" Kim shuddered. "…cooperation."
Veronica shook her head sadly. "(As you are, he most definitely can.)"
Kim looked down and refused to meet Veronica's eyes as flashes of fear and defiance rolled from Kim. The gesture warmed Veronica's heart, but she knew will alone could not say the wicked vision in her head.
A gentle claw lifted Kim's chin to meet Veronica's eyes. "(Only one way to complete our Mark and keep Drakken from his goals for good Kim,)" Veronica gently wrapped her arms around her Sola Myn. "(Do you trust me?)"
Kim blushed, for she knew this would change everything. There would be no going back. Kim would be blessed with Draconian longevity. Also, Amber and Nichole only hinted at it, but Kim's body would physically change in yet unspecified ways. A part of her feared the promised changes, but Kim also knew she would have Veronica for immediate support with Nichole and Amber on standby in Yggdrasil to aid when needed. Kim gently cupped Veronica's face in hands and kissed the woman. "(I trust you now and forever.)" Kim said in rough Draconian, her Human mouth and tongue giving the nearly impossible language harsh and sharp tones it normally lacked.
Veronica grimaced as the clumsy words tumbled from her Sola Myn's mouth, but she couldn't be happier. Your wish is my command. With slow and careful movements, Veronica placed Kim atop her and shot in the air to find a secluded area for the pair to be alone and be as tender as they wished with each other when they truly made love.
Please Read and Review. How was this chapter? Just a heads up: The next chapter picks up after Kim and Veronica seal their Karadim.
