Changing Tides


Shego sprinted into the house and slammed the door as the wind picked up. She was shivering already, but she looked to where Drakken had gone. Instead she froze, the lair was completely trashed, worse than their old one after Warmonga had left. Her stomach sank at the memory, and she shook her head. She heard the locking of a door and she glared. She stepped over a turned over chair, ready to start yelling at the door but her eyes caught sight of the controls for the security system and then to the door. There was a trail of red starting from on the controls. How had he hurt himself? Her eyes fell onto the discarded scalpel on the ground, her brows furrowed in confusion.

"What the..." she was torn on how to feel as she looked around, her eyes fell to the computer monitor, it was completely smashed.

She looked at the workspace next to the security monitors, there were no sketches, no stupid doodles, no normal tools. Shego looked at it, the scalpel on the ground, a strange rig made of vices and straps, and a series of tool. Her eyes fell back to those things on his hands... were they stuck? She rolled her eyes. Of coarse he'd get himself into a minor inconvenience and blow things out of proportion because he was salty. She headed down the hall and knocked on the door to Drakken's usual room.

"Drakken, what's going on?" asked Shego, there was no response, her mind fell to the trail of blood, "Are you bleeding out in there just to avoid me?"

"No," came a forced response, he sounded muffled, "Yes."

"Come out of there, don't be such a dramatic idiot," scoffed Shego, she rolled her eyes, there was no response, she waited, "Seriously, Dr. D, get out of there... and what's with all that cheap surgeical crap."

"Just go Shego," came a yell right at the door, she jumped back, "J-Just... as soon as the storm let's out.. go. I mean it, go and don't come back."

Something in his strangled words sounded off. He sounded pained, like he wanted to say more but chose not too. Shego glared and her hands flared green. If he was going to be childish and lock himself in his room to avoid her. She wasn't going to play nice, nobody ignores me. Her mind fell back to the unanswered calls, the storm away at the beach, his statements. While in a less agitated state she may have reasoned he had a right to be mad, that she had been wrong, that despite being obnoxious, annoying, and a pain in her ass, she missed his company. Yes, she might have, but now she was agitated and the sound of something being thrown at the door raised her temper.

"Alright, now I'm really done with this," growled Shego and with a flare of green the door burst open, "If you're not going to talk to me..."

Shego's eyes fell over the room, everything was thrown about, the bed didn't look slept in, just piles of clothes and broken items on it, it's frame looked worse for ware. A chair had flown as she'd blasted the door, the item she'd heard, but also, the dresser had been shoved against it. She had to step around it even, the mirror lay shattered, the curtains torn. It looked like it had been ransacked, as if Drakken had been searching for something, but the broken bits, he had just been destroying. Her eyes landed on Drakken and his posture was off. He was holding his injured hand at an odd angle, as if trying to hold it back and hurt it. She expected anger, rage, childish comebacks.

"Get out!" yelled Drakken, but that wasn't the emotions she registered, his eyes were pleading, he looked scared, "Please, Shego. I can't hold it back much longer."

His eyes seemed to glow at the same time the gauntlet's he wore let out a pulsating crimson color and he let out a pained groan. It took Shego a split second to clear her own emotions from her head. She'd misread the situation because she'd been so focused on her own thoughts. Drakken wasn't avoiding her, he was trying to protect her from whatever those things were. He's such an idiot! She didn't have time to yell at him about how he should have just told her, because his hands lunged forward, dragging him with them. Shego ducked as a first slammed into the wall.

"Care to explain," said Shego as she swiped under his legs.

"Long story, put on these when I shouldn't have," said Drakken his expression fell and he glared, "Save your retorts."

"Whoa, hadn't even said anything..." Shego flipped back as the hand clawed at her, it's sharp metal nails slashed through the air, "This is different. You fighting me?"

"You should have stayed away!" yelled Drakken, and his voice sounded off now as he dove towards her.

"Answer the phone and maybe I would have," snapped Shego, but she wasn't sure if she was talking to Drakken at all now, something in his expression and actions were not him, "Leave it to Drakken to get possessed. Great."

Drakken lunged at her again and she kicked him in the chest, she cringed a bit at expression he made. So much for an apology and Chinese food. His right hand grabbed her ankle and yanked hard, she followed the spin and used her hands to brace herself as she used her other leg to sharp kick his arm off her. She rolled away as he let go with a sharp hiss to his reaction. She assessed the situation, the gauntlets stones were glowing but his eyes were dimming. He was trying to take control, He needs time. So did she, there had to be a way to get those things off. She took the opportunity as his hands flexed and raised. She lunged and slammed his wrists into the wall, using all her strength to hold them back.

"Drakken, get your head together," she snapped, her grip tightening and her energy radiating.


Shego's hands glowed as they pinned his wrists to the wall, he was trying to clear his head, make them stop, will his arms to regain control. But he felt so fatigued from fighting, from no sleep, from the emotions. She can't help you. Give up. Just give up. He looked up at his left hand, it was clawing towards Shego, the glowing of the stone even brighter. It mingled with the green glow of Shego's hands. He was in an out of focus. He didn't even remember entirely fighting her, just fleeting images and and pains. Her narrowed eyes looked at him, but the voices were stronger. You were fine without her. She's just here to ruin everything. Like she did with Warmonga. Like she always does. Is it you who messed up or her. Drakken focused, trying to clear his head, focus on something, anything. If she's gone, you wont have to deal with all this pain. She wont come back... she wont.. Her grip slid and the gauntlet's finger's dug into the back of her hand like talons.

It reacted at her slack and launched at her throat, Drakken's right hand seemed to be under his control enough to grip at his writst, willing it to let go. The voices echoing were faint in his head, but Shego's expression wasn't one of concern as he looked at her for a brief second. He couldn't read the expression, she was thinking. Then without much warning, bother her clawed hands dug into the gauntlet, green flaring and it was like wax being ripped off. Painful. Uncomfortable. Agonizing. Numbing.


Drakken looked at the wrappings on the small table, he could barely feel Shego wrapping his hands. The discarded gauntlet's still smoldered in the corner where Shego had chucked them. He hissed as her hand wrapped his fingers, apparently the feeling was back there, unfortunately. He looked at his right hand, the bandages were tight and the tips of his fingers were thicker with cotton balls. It reminded him of a weird alien cartoon or the ET movie. He thought about cracking a joke but he wasn't sure what the mood was. They had just battled it out, and his internal chaos was still flaring.

"ET phone home," he heard Shego muttered and he snorted and looked at her, the smirk on her face made his shoulder's relax a little, "Well Doc, looks like you should be good."

"Thank you... Shego, I," said Drakken as Shego tugged at the wrappings a bit, the power flickered off.

"Uhg, there goes the generator," said Shego, the darkness was only muted by the flickering of the lightening from the storm through the windows, "Are the candles still in the storage room?"

"I can get them," said Drakken, he went to stand up but realized Shego still had his hand and with a groan she tugged him back on the couch.

"Oh no. I just bandaged you hands. I can already see you turning them into torches. I'll find them," sighed Shego, Drakken glared and was about to retort, but the reminded her couldn't exactly feel his hands, he would have in fact tried to light them to walk back.

"Fine," said Drakken in defeat, he felt the couch shift and felt the ghosting of Shego's hand on his shoulder as she walked behind the couch.

Drakken waited a few minutes before letting out a deep groan. Every fiber of his being told him to relax, to let sleep take him, but the other part was on edge. Why had Shego come back? Lack of funds. He shook his head, while he didn't have those gauntlet's on, he knew it would be a while before they thoughts would clear. He held up his hands and squinted in the light that flickered outside in the storm. He could scarcely feel them, but a tingling sensation had started at his tips at least. The nauseous feelings had gone, and he felt exhaustion and hunger hit him like a bucket of bricks. She might be planning something, stay alert. He shook his own head and glared in the direction he knew the cursed contraptions were. Remember she... Drakken began thinking about all his plans and schemes. The ones that he'd put on a back burner. The laser would wait, he wasn't going anywhere near those things. As he laid back against the couch he began wondering what to do with those things. He didn't exactly want them around, useful stones or not. A thought crossed his mind as he remembered Hermes with a cringe and then Shego. Hadn't Cleopatra double crossed Shego and Pandora... he had questions about that.. but he smirked deviously. Perhaps Cleopatra might like them... she liked to wear cursed items.


After nearly being taken out by a stool, some ill-placed screws, and what Shego hoped was just oil, she made her way back into the living quarters with two lit candles. The generator was shot, she'd gone to check on it, and she wasn't going to pretend she knew anything about them. She rolled her eyes, that was not a knowledge she honestly wished to fill her head with. Let Drakken tinker with that thing. She felt a wave of unease, sure she may have helped him out of a bind, but she didn't know if that meant things would slide back into place. She put the candle down on the back table and turned to just blatantly inquire... but Drakken was out. Shego leaned on the back of the couch and looked at Drakken, he'd fallen asleep when she'd gone to get the candles. The flickering lights illuminated the destruction a lot more. Overturned tables, broken computers, his workspace was trashed. She looked at the now faded gauntlets, the glowing had stopped and they looked much bigger now. She looked back at Drakken and wondered what turmoil he'd gone through, there had to be more than just the destruction around them. She looked at his hands again, black veins ran through them and his wrists seemed thin even with the wrappings. She looked at her own hand, the sharp scratches seemed trivial compared to his current state. She pushed his hair off his face. So much for not needing me. She didn't smirk, she didn't even get any rise out of it like she normally would have. She felt her chest tighten as she looked at the gauntlet's again, the medical tools he had laying around. "The worst cruelty that can be inflicted on a person is isolation." Her mind echoed a quote from Sukarno, a vague memory of a paper she'd wrote years ago. All ways of communication were gone from in this lair, and seeing how those things worked, she doubted they'd let him leave.

"Shego?" came Drakken's voice and she looked to see him stirring and she retracted the hand that had been absentmindedly brushing his face, his hand replaced it with a look of confusion.

"You hungry?" asked Shego, her stomach twisted and she was glad it was dark as she felt her face grow warmer.

"We're..." he seemed to choose to move to another topic like her, "I don't think there is anything?"

"I can make... pancakes... not sure there's syrup but with have a mix," said Shego, she smirked, "Been a while since I've used my powers to cook."

"It's been a while since we've testing out the fire extinguisher and had food poisoning too," said Drakken, a tug of a smirk on his face, Shego felt her nerves fall and she scoffed.

"Okay, ET, you have a better option," replied Shego as she swatted a pillow at him playfully.

"No. I was simply saying... it's been a while," said Drakken as he sat up, the sad smile that flickered on his face was replaced by an unreadable look.

"If you're okay with it... maybe we could make sure that doesn't happen again?" asked Shego, she hoped he was lucid enough to get her implications.

"...I'll supervise," said Drakken as he got up, and the small smile on his face made Shego feel like things were starting to piece back together.

"Alright, but if you get too close to the fire and burst into flame, Mr. Mummy, you better stop, drop, and roll," said Shego as they walked towards the kitchen.

"Noted," said Drakken, and after a moment, "What happened with Cleopatra?'

"Oh!" said Shego with wide eyes, "That is a long, crazy story... which I will get too after we locate where there might be a frying pan in this mess."

"... yeah," said Drakken, she saw the devious smirk flicker across his lips, "Do you think she might... like those gauntlets?"

"Like..." Shego glanced into the other room and back at Drakken, his eyes alight and she felt a thudding warmth in her chest as she returned the dark smile, "I think she just might, you know how she likes dangerous fashion."


What a delightful gift it will be →