Chapter Three: Darkness Settles In

As Kim moved to leave, her helmet comm pinged. "Go, Wade."

The boy genius frowned at his end. "GJ inbound, but there's something off this time." Wade tapped his keys for a moment. "They have six transport trucks instead of the standard two."

Kim tensed after a moment. "Shego," Kim said as she looked at the older woman. "You're going to have to trust me." Kim could hear the approaching GJ vehicles by now through her helmet microphone arrays, but something about them felt different. "Bets is coming to pick you up personally."

Shego frowned at Kim, "Don't get jittery, Princess," the thief said with confidence in her words. "There are way too many bureaucratic bastards at her base she needs to keep in line."

Kim shook her head and sighed before she pushed a nearly invisible button on her helmet. In response, a targeting arm dropped from vertical to horizontal in front of her visor. "I don't like this," Kim muttered. "Armored transports make sense, but this…" The redhead mentally triggered the zoom and grimaced. (Slug thrower rotary cannons? What does Betty expect?!) "…is overkill for standard arrest."

Shego nodded but also offered an alternative perspective. "She knows a new player in unknown armor has taken in Drakken and yours truly," Shego gestured to herself with a smirk. "You have her attention, Kimmie, and not in a good way."

Kim smiled for a moment under her helmet as the trucks rolled up to the lair. The Mado'ad watched the men spill from the transports with careful, critical eyes while Ron slipped past the sea of armed men with Drakken in tow and tossed him in a recently vacated transport truck. Then, Ron returned to his former observation in the shadow, out of sight. Thank you, Yamanuchi!

When Betty Director walked up to her armored Unknown none the wiser, Kim nodded her head toward the small army behind the woman and activated a voice scrambler in her helmet. "I'm surprised you come so well-equipped for a thief and a bungling fool."

"Who are you?" Betty growled as she got in Kim's face. "Where did you get your tech?"

Betty reached to grab Kim's shoulder, but the redhead calmly grabbed her hand. "You have to buy me dinner first, ma'am." Kim squeezed slightly, a grin of satisfaction slipping onto the warrior's face as Betty grimaced in noticeable pain. "Don't touch the merchandise, Kiddo, or I shall see if Earthlings really are so eager to die."

Betty froze, "You're not Human?!"

Kim mentally facepalmed. "Enough," she growled. "I gift you the blue fool you call 'Doctor Drakken', and you fail to even give me your name?" Kim hissed, "If you distrust me because I shall not hand you Shego, I am afraid distrust must remain." Kim offered Betty a gauntleted hand. "However, I shall ride with you to explain my presence on your world."

Betty nodded and began walking to her own truck. Before she climbed in the truck, Betty barked a final order at her men. "Give Shego special treatment."

Kim grimaced before a deep set frown grew on the redhead's hidden face. The hate laced in the four words turned Kim's stomach and made her ball a fist in rage, (Not yet…)

Once back at GJ Headquarters, Kim could no longer hold back reaction to a nagging pain in her head and groaned with a few tears streaming down her face while Betty walked around to the front door, (What was that?)

Meanwhile, Shego groaned in a hazy drug trip because the GJ agents in her escort pumped her full of a drug cocktail designed to overwhelm her Glow and keep the hothead docile enough to safely get her to a cell. Kimmie, Shego thought in the haze, Another sunsets down behind me… Shego started humming in haunted tones even as the song played in its distorted glory of her mind. …/Waiting for someone to save me/ But everyone just runs away/ Waiting for someone to change me/ But no one ever comes… Quiet sobs filled the passenger bay for the rest of the trip to GJ.

Even though Kim felt unnerved by the experience, she forced herself to relax even as the teen turned to go into Betty's office. Once there, Kim pinged Wade twice slowly on her helmet. An electronic overlay of the room filled Kim's vision a moment later. As Kim looked around, the HUD highlighted twenty different listening devices dotted around the room. Without prompting, Kim saw the bugs wink out one by one before the HUD evaporated away. (You rock, Wade!) "Now, since I came in voluntarily," Kim said. "I'll set The Rules of Engagement." Kim reached for her helmet and gently took it off, careful to set it down respectfully in the chair beside her. "Rule One: Release Shego, or I walk out of here right now and let the devastation coming torch the world."

Betty could only stare. There, in alien armor the leader of GJ couldn't even begin to understand, sat Kim Possible. The woman quickly got up and pointed a standard issue nine millimeter at Kim's chest. Kim only sighed and crossed her arms. A part of her reached out to Shego but ran into nothing but a mental wall of cloud and fog. Finally, Kim slammed a fist into the desk. A gaping hole formed as Kim pulled her armored fist from the piece of furniture.

"I won't ask twice, aruetii!"

Betty didn't jump. Instead, she raised an eyebrow, "Threats, Miss Possible?" Betty leaned forward in an attempt to unnerve Kim. "Has anyone captured you or held you hostage recently?"

Kim shook her head, in no mood to play Betty's games. "Fine," Kim growled before she put her helmet back on and turned to walk out.

"Agent Du, stop her!"

"Cute," Kim muttered when the man seemed to materialize in the doorway, freshly pressed with a brand new ramrod up his ass.

"Miss Possible, I'm afraid-"

A fist to the throat and the man crumpled, gasping for breath.

Kim didn't stick around to gloat. Instead, she began to run towards the detention wing. "(Wade, I need a lock on Shego's Glow signature!)"

Wade only understood a few words of the rapid-fire Mando'a, but Kim's tone carried the pieces lost to Wade's mind. "I've got a lock, Kim," the boy said after a second of typing. "Sub-level Three, Cell Twenty-seven."

Kim only spared enough time to mentally send an acknowledgement in the form of a brief tiny blue light in the corner of his monitor. Rage battled patience as Kim made her way around the cellblock. Long buried feelings also bubbled up in the young fighter's mind as she broke through line after line of blockade, only vaguely holding reign to not kill anyone in her quest to reach the powerful and cunning thief.

Something rose in Kim's mind as she fought relentlessly towards her goal. Mandalorian training turned Kim into a wave of destruction. Outside The Void, where Mandalorians learned to focus and hone the mental disciplines involved in combat, bones snapped under the force of Beskar kicks and punches. Tiredness slid off the oily exterior of The Void and never touched Kim's awareness. Instead, Kim could feel the pulse of strange energy that marked her objective and quickly dispatched anyone in her way.

Back in her office, Betty wondered about Kim's state of mind. The woman tried desperately to find SOMETHING linked to Kim's strange armor; a brain modification module, Cyrus Borthol's work on neurological influence, even Gemini's work on neurological-link prosthetics would probably shed some light on the situation with Miss Possible!

Betty looked down for a moment at the hole in her desk thanks to Possible and looked up again to see a movie disk labeled "The Mandalorian: Season One". Attached to the top of the disc case was a sticky note. Sometimes, one must look to fiction to find truth. -Stoppable.

Betty shook her head, I seriously regret allowing Stoppable to go to Japan, now.

"Ma'am," an agent broke into Betty's desk comm as she reached for the disc set to examine it. "The target won't go down. She's broken through my men like fucking tissue paper!"

Betty cursed and shook her head, "What madness has Kim stumbled into?"

Kim growled as the last man between her and Shego stood with his gun drawn. (Standard nine…) Kim thought as she crossed her arms and let the man empty his clip into her chest plate. "Are you done, yet?"

The guard looked at his weapon in disbelief for a moment. Then, he checked the mag to find the gun completely empty. "H-How?'

Kim shrugged, "Family secret, I'm afraid," Kim told the man calmly. "Even I don't know how it works."

The man nodded and wisely stepped aside before Kim entered the cell.

The walls were bare and smelled like a hospital. The floor was spongy even under Kim's boots, but that only made her a little uncomfortable. There on the bed, Kim spied Shego with a cocktail drip running from several bags through a unified IV into the green woman's arm. As all the chemicals ran together in the tubing, they reminded the redhead of tar and made her shiver in disgust and slight fear. The warrior steeled herself and tried to assume The Void to continue, but a single look at Shego brought Kim crashing back to sensation in her body. (Damn you, Aresuum!) Kim cursed before she charged for the bed and tore the IV out. Shego didn't even stir, but Kim could hear the woman whisper, "There's a storm…I can hear her voice again." Kim, thinking quickly, fished a small medkit from a pouch on her belt and crushed a capsule of what her Mom nicknamed "The Destroyer's Power". Then, Kim blew the mixture into Shego's face from her palm.

A few tense seconds and Shego jumped from the bed in her orange jumpsuit and lit up her entire body. "God, that's some good shit, Princess!"

Kim quickly slapped a hand over Shego's mouth and glared at her from behind. "Quiet!"

Shego shivered with pent up energy. "Who woulda thought it?" The green woman said with a face-splitting grin. "Kim Possible coming to get me out of the slammer."

Kim rolled her eyes, (Alright, no more stem for Shego.) Then, Kim grabbed the other woman and began to run for the nearest exit which happened to be a staircase. With a linebacker stance, Kim took the door off its hinges and kept running. Oddly, with Shego's hand in hers, The Void welcomed Kim easily as she continued to run. Three flights up to the main level and fatigue never registered for Kim in The Void. Kim braced herself for an assault and opened the door with her mother's WESTAR-35 blasters drawn, a first for the young Mandalorian.

Betty stood on the other side and gaped at the young warrior before her. "Kim," the redhead seemed to shiver at her name fore some reason. "What happened to you?"

The Void trembled in Kim's mind when the leader of Global Justice didn't call her "Kimberly" as she normally would. "(You Sloth Spawn,)" Kim suddenly railed in her native Mando'a. "(I should feed you head first to a den of Fanned Rawls. Maybe their poison will help you understand how Shego felt in your prison for a few mere moments before you die painfully.)" Kim removed her helmet and glared at the woman. With a deep breath and conscious effort, Kim forced herself to speak English. "If I have to break your organization again, I'm going to come straight at your head."

Betty actually shivered as Kim walked past with a trembling Shego weakly supporting herself with Kim's shoulder. Kim then moved her hand to comfort the shell-shocked woman with her free hand while the other held Kim's Firebird helmet. Betty watched in slight horror as the pair exited the facility without resistance. 500 GJ Elite and she made them look like mall cops… Betty took a small comfort in knowing none where killed. However, it still rattled Betty to her core.

Once on the way back, Shego began to calm down noticeably and glared at her companion, "I'm NOT weak!" The woman blurted without warning. "Th-They don't usually drug me when they lock me up, Princess."

Kim shook her head and looked at Shego. "I know you aren't weak," Kim grimaced. "I've still got the bruises from last week's fight at my uncle's ranch."

Shego smirked, "That was fun," the green woman said honestly. "I've never fought from horseback until that point."

Kim smiled and nodded. Then, the redhead's face scrunched up cutely in confusion for a moment, "Why is Drakken so fixated on my Dad wounding his pride?" Kim asked, wondering if Shego had any insight into her ofttimes employer.

Shego sighed, "Have you noticed how Drakken is emotionally stunted?"

Kim nodded.

"Mama Lipsky coddled him as a child and into adulthood," the green woman said with expert certainty.

"As a result, Drakken can't handle failure or mockery."

The thief smiled, "Ya got it in one, Xena."

Kim's visage became a sea of rolling confusion, "Who's that?"

Shego did a double take. "Com'n, Kimmie," the thief said in disbelief. "You know? Xena, hounded by Ares and a host of other guys while she only wants one person with no dicks in sight, literally and metaphorically."

Kim raised an eyebrow in intrigue, "She turns down the Greek God of War?" Kim shivered, "I know that's not a good idea, and I'm not even familiar with the show or most of Ares' stories." Kim looked thoughtful, "Is this mystery maiden an Amazon or something?"

Shego laughed, Gabrielle didn't start that way by a long shot, but… Shego mentally shrugged. By the end of the show, it could be argued she is. "Stop by my house, Kimmie," Shego said instead of voicing her thoughts. "Then, we can watch it at your folks."

Kim's eyes widened at the thought as it registered in her mind. Then, the teenager blushed. "I don't know if my parents would be too happy with you showing up unannounced like that time we fought Aviarius."

Shego shrugged, "They didn't really seem to mind then," Shego pointed out. "Why would they care now?"

Kim looked down at her feet. "Well, at that time, it was mission related," Kim's voice became unusually quiet. "This is more…personal."

Shego put a hand on Kim's shoulder to comfort her. "I don't think it will bother your parents that much. Remember: your Mom isn't from Earth." Shego genuinely smiled. "I'm sure your Dad won't be too rough."

"He will threaten to send you into a black hole," Kim whispered. "Mom can easily fit a probe big enough for you with a hyperdrive and set it to Sagittarius-A or some other black hole!"

FTL capability does make that threat more likely… Shego thought before she gently wrapped the worried girl in a side hug and smiled, "I'm not going in any pod without a fight, Kimmie." She ran a gentle hand through the teen's hair, "I promise."

With a start as if she finally realized what she was doing, the green thief took her arm away from Kim before she put her hands on the wheel and swapped to manual control. "Sorry, Cupcake, I'm not as comfortable with AI as you are."

"What?" SADIE cut in. "You don't trust me?"

Shego shook her head, "You haven't seen 'Terminator', have you?"

Kim shook her head. "I haven't seen it, but I've heard enough to know it's about an evil AI that deems all Humanity a threat to its existence and elects to wipe Humanity out." Kim sighed, "SADIE's trustworthy." Kim defended, "She's been faithful since we met back at Dr. Freedman's lab."

"Alright, Kimmie;" Shego muttered. "You trust Christine if ya want, but don't come crying when you wind up street pizza."

"Hey!" SADIE argued, "Kim has the guts to be open with you, but you won't trust her to make sound judgement calls?"

Shego felt a stab of guilt at the statement. "Look, Kim." Kim's head shot up at the change in tone and almost plea in her rival's voice. "I'm sorry." Shego whispered. "It's been so long since I could trust anyone completely. It's difficult to shut down those behaviors."

Kim nodded, "Why don't we start with a name?"

Shego gulped, "Alright, my real name is Veronica Goshen, and my father was mayor of Go City before the Comet Strike."

Kim gasped as things began to click in her mind. "The whole 'Team Go' thing was just Hego attempting to mask." Kim probed cautiously. "Beware of a mask, lest you become it."

Veronica nodded. "After awhile, he fell into a psychotic delusion of Superman proportions. Sure, he had strength, but that's all Henry had."

Kim nodded, "That's why you bailed."

Veronica's eyes became distant. "Oh, look! We're here!"

Kim didn't press further.

Instead, the redhead got out of the car and looked up. It was an unassuming upper-middle class house that was nestled in the back of a long driveway. Nothing elaborate stuck out as Kim walked up. Rather, the house had a charming and cosy feel to it, like a small ranch house. It was well-kept and clean, Kim noted as she walked into the living room and noticed an adjoining kitchen and dining area to the right as she walked in.

The feeling of home seemed to wrap Kim in an unseen hug. (Wow, I definitely wouldn't mind moving in with Veronica.) Kim blushed at the thought, (Slow down, Kim.) The redhead chided. (Shoot too fast, and you miss by a mile and likely get mauled by what you are trying to hit.)

"Kimmie, Kim…" Shego's voice broke into Kim's thoughts unexpectedly. "I got the DVDs. Are you alright?"

Kim shook her head vigorously to get rid of the daze. "Y-Yeah, Veronica," Kim tried to recover. "I was just lost in thought."

Veronica smirked with a gleam in her eyes and wordlessly got back in the car to head back to Kim's.

As the pair pulled into the driveway of Kim's parents' house, the girl couldn't help a shiver of fear and looked back at Veronica for assurance. Veronica squeezed Kim's hand and nodded before Kim pushed open the door, "Mom, Dad, I'm home!"

The Tweebs ran down and met Kim at the door. Tim grinned evilly while his brother looked a bit scared, "Kim, Dad knows about you breaking Shego out!"

Jim shivered, "Don't be mad at Wade!" The boy said worriedly. "Dad told us to break in!"

"KIMMIE-CUB!"

Kim felt her heart drop into her stomach. Quickly, she made it over to his small study built as an extension on the back of the house. "Yes, Dad?" Kim asked as she walked to the doorway in her armor.

"Why did you all but dismantle a global security agency today?"

Kim glared at him. "You didn't see what they were doing to Shego, Dad!" Kim protested. "They had her so strung out on drugs; she was barely conscious! It looked as if they were forcing tar into her body from all the drugs!"

James Possible nodded, "I understand that, Kim, but that doesn't answer my question. Why did you break Shego out?"

Kim took a deep breath and walked up to her father, part of her wishing he would allow her to don her helmet before she spoke to him. "I respected her for a long time, but recent events have made it clear: I love her."

James nodded with a stern face, but there was now a twinkle of mirth in the man's eyes. "Now, it's Shego's turn."

Kim nodded and quickly moved out of the way Asher stomach rolled and tossed enough to churn butter. Once outside, Kim looked at Veronica nervously, "Dad wants to see you."

The woman nodded, So the darkness settles in… Shego sang to herself as she entered.

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