Dr. Drakken wiped the sweat from his brow as he tightened one last screw on his xenothium-powered cannon. This was one thing even Shego couldn't deny he was good at. Once the screw was fully in, he stepped back and admired his masterpiece. This super weapon could easily disintegrate skyscrapers in seconds. "Shego!" he shouted, feeling the need to explain his genius to somebody.

There was no answer.

"Shego!"

Still nothing.

"Hm," he thought aloud. "She's probably getting her nails done again or something. I don't see why, if she wears gloves all the time. Oh well. I could always give Kim Possible a call and get a head start on my gloating."

"Ever considered you do that too much?" a deep voice asked.

Drakken spun around and saw Slade standing right behind him, in the control seat of the cannon. "You," he stuttered, "you…really move quietly for someone wearing so much metal."

"Why thank you," Slade replied. "I like this design very much, Doctor. You really have outdone yourself. My only question is if it is, say, transportable?"

Drakken beamed with pride. "I knew you'd ask about that. I know I'd find it pretty difficult to take over the world without being able to move locations. Watch this."

His big blue finger pressed a red button on the body of the cannon. Each piece of the device folded in on itself until it was reduced to a box only a little bit larger than Slade. "Not exactly pocket sized," Drakken explained, "but the closest I could get without damaging the machinery. Just load it into whatever car or jet you have in mind, press the button again, and bam! Instant death ray!"

He looked to his ally for approval. Because it was impossible to view Slade's face, Drakken was forced to wait for a verbal comment. Slade finally approved. "Precisely what I hoped you would come up with. Doctor Drakken, you have proven yourself most capable."

"Oh," Drakken said, faking modesty, "it's only been a life-long passion of mine to rule the world and tinker with dangerous machines in the process. As a nemesis of mine would say, no big."

"Thank you very much, Doctor." Slade turned away and began to walk out of the room. "If you will excuse me, I have some plans to attend to."

"Oh, by all means go," Drakken said. "Anything you want me to do while you…"

"Just stay there. I will come back shortly to discuss your part in our greater adventures."

Drakken sat down in a chair. Once Slade had been gone for a few minutes, he realized that sitting in one place was kind of boring. "When will he get back?" the mad scientist wondered. He started harmlessly whistling an Oh Boyz tune.

Slade passed through a few dark corridors, the sinister kind one would expect in an evil lair, until he found one slightly less sinister looking door. It was painted bright green and had a "Do not disturb" sign hung on the knob. He ignored the sign, took out a key, and unlocked the door.

"Apprentice, are you in there?"

"Not mentally," a woman's voice replied from the other side. "Five more minutes."

He pretended he didn't hear her and turned the knob, opened the door, and stepped into the green and black themed room. Shego had made herself completely at home in this room as soon as the lair was built. There were even a few posters of her favorite hip-hop artists on one wall. Currently, she was reclining in a black spa chair, cucumbers covering her eyes and white facial products covering her face. Her hair was wrapped up in a green towel, and she was wearing a fluffy bright green robe. Her nails, no longer under their gloves, shone black like they had just been painted. They reached up to lift one cucumber halfway off one eye, then set it back down. "I said five more minutes," she reminded Slade.

"I disagreed," he replied. "There is a matter of great importance that I wish to share with you."

"Will it still be there in five minutes?"

He sighed, exasperated. "Can you not do this another time?"

"Well, now that you've been talking so long it's probably only four more minutes. I need this. You try living with an incompetent blue supposed genius bent on a new take-over-the-world scheme every week. Stress relief is basically required." She lifted the other cucumber and looked at him. "Four minutes. Out." The cucumber fell back down.

Slade stood tall over her, intending to intimidate, but the effect was lost due to the cucumbers. "Apprentice, I order you to listen to me right now."

"I've got a name," she said. "I've also got four minutes left until that timer goes off. Either get out or join in."

Appalled at the very idea of joining in, Slade walked across the room to the timer Shego had referenced. He held down the top button and changed the time to go off in exactly ten seconds. He walked silently to Shego's side, put it up to her ear, and…

MC Honey nearly broke her eardrums.

Shego jumped out of her seat like she had been shocked. She took off her cucumbers with one hand and used the other now fiery hand to grab the alarm clock and throw it against the wall, silencing it. Now that she had taken out her anger on the music, she advanced toward Slade, her second hand glowing so hot that it shriveled and quickly incinerated the cucumber slices.

"You'd better have something really important to say," she said, pointing a green glowing finger at the metal-masked man. "I swear, if this could have waited, you are going to so regret what you just did."

He revealed no sign of fear. Instead, he calmly began to speak to his apprentice. "I shall allow you to be the judge of that. I actually have two things to show you. The first is this." He pulled out from behind him a black bodysuit with neon green lines. There was a green "S" in Slade's usual font choice. "It's a battle suit. You'll find it similar to Kim Possible's, with some modifications."

Shego, her hands no longer glowing, crossed her arms and shook her head. "I don't need any battle suit to fight Kimmie. I've got enough tricks up my sleeve without any help."

Slade set it down on her spa chair and continued, "But you had some difficulty fighting Kim Possible in addition to the Titans. This suit is capable of enhancing your powers to their purest, strongest level possible." He pointed out the neon green streaks along the arms. "I know you're unaccustomed to it, but it's sort of a tradition of mine. New apprentice, new uniform."

Shego inspected it. The suit was made of her two signature colors, and she couldn't really argue with enhanced powers. She faced him again. "What's the second thing you wanted to show me?" she asked.

"It requires going into the meeting room," Slade answered, "and based on your current appearance, I do not believe you wish to do so."

Shego looked down at her robe suddenly, then in the mirror, where she saw her face still covered in white facial cream and her black hair poking sloppily out of her towel. She would have blushed from embarrassment, but green skin tends to hide that pretty well. "Um, yeah. I'll be out in a second," she said, recovering.

Slade paused before walking out the door. "Apprentice, you will at least try on the battle suit, will you not?"

She looked at where it lay on the chair and shrugged. "Sure. Couldn't hurt anything."

"Good." He closed the door and walked away to the meeting room.

Shego joined him about five minutes later, dressed in the black battle suit. The neon green streaks and initial stood out in sharp contrast. Slade was less than pleased with her timing. "How long does it take to dress and walk a few feet?" he questioned her.

"You say that the day you have to put on makeup and blow dry your hair," she retorted, taking a seat and propping her feet up on the table. "I've got to say, though, this suit is really comfortable, and it doesn't look half bad on me."

Slade stood in front of her and said, "I'm glad you like it. I was able to copy state of the art technology to increase the power going toward your hands during battle. Wait until then to try it out. The matter I wish to speak of is how I found this technology, and how it relates to what happened at the football game."

Shego put her feet down. "What about it?"

Slade pressed some buttons so that the big screen showed a picture of the green glowing confrontation of a few hours ago. "You and Starfire had a connection," he said, gesturing to the image. "You admitted it. After a little bit of research, I concluded that your powers come from the same source. I don't know how she got hers, but yours came from a meteorite probably from a very far away galaxy. Presumably, Starfire's."

Shego nodded, but she wasn't hearing anything new.

"I did a little research," Slade continued, "and found that there is one item made from the same mineral as that fateful rainbow meteorite. Any power for which that mineral is a source can be removed and returned by this item. You ought to remember it well: Aviarius's staff."

Shego now looked like she cared just a bit. "So that's how that thing worked. Should I go out on a limb here and say you're thinking about finding it and using it on Starfire to eliminate one of the good guys? I'm more than happy to steal it for you, as soon as I figure out where it is."

"That's the thing I wished to speak with you about, apprentice. The last time you fought Aviarius, you dropped the staff just before being rescued by Dr. Drakken. Some might even say you…handed it off willingly."

"Ridiculous!" she exclaimed defensively. "I'd never help my brothers like that! And for the record, I didn't need saving."

"Perhaps. However, Dr. Drakken thought you were going soft. He even told you so. The fact is, apprentice, he didn't trust you after that near turn to good. You have never been the most obedient or respectful of sidekicks. Once he saw you seeming to break from what he wanted, he went back and stole the staff for himself, then repaired the broken shards to restore its power. His intention was to use it on you as soon as you became unmanageable, in other words, to betray you."

Shego was silent for a second, then fell out of her chair laughing like a hyena. "Dr. Drakken? Betraying?" she said between laughs. "That doofus couldn't steal anything without me! Ha ha…he couldn't think of anything that evil, no way! Oh, this is just too good!"

"Then," Slade spoke over her laughter, "how would you explain this?"

A long stick stuck into the ground next to her. She quit laughing and looked up, seeing at its top the rainbow jewel of Aviarius. She stood up and stared at it in wonder. "No," she said. "That's…that's not possible. Who gave you this?" she demanded hostilely. "Was it my brothers? Where did you find it?"

She shut up as soon as he started to talk. "I found it in the same room you gave me the combination to get into. I was merely intending to take inventory, but this was too important not to be addressed. It was from this very staff that I copied the technology for your new battle suit. Do you still doubt, apprentice? Is there any other explanation?"

Shego shrank back a few steps, still gazing at the staff. She wasn't scared, of course, just shocked. Dr. Drakken betraying her? It seemed completely out of his capacity. But Slade had to be telling the truth. How else could the staff have gotten here? Drakken knew that the staff was her only weakness. He was the only other villain besides Aviarius who did know. But how dare he try to use it against her! A little trickery here and there was all a part of a villain's life, but messing with her powers was one step over the line. Her anger boiled and she felt the energy rush to her hands, which began to glow bright green, brighter than ever before.

"He is going to pay for this," she said. "Where is that blue-faced dork?"

Slade pointed out the door. Shego ran out and found Drakken there, now having found a crossword puzzle and being stuck on number 27. "Dr. D, you've got some explaining to do!" she yelled, taking away his puzzle and burning it to a crisp.

"Aw," he said. "I almost had it." He stood up, trying to look dignified. He failed. "Explaining about what, Shego?" he asked. "About my magnificent new invention?"

"About this," Slade said, stepping into the light and holding up the restored staff.

Drakken paled. "Well, you see, I was going to tell you about it sometime…"

Shego grabbed his shirt. "I know everything. You were planning to use that thing against me, weren't you? You thought I was going soft, so you wanted to get rid of me."

"What?" Drakken said, looking honestly confused. "That's not why…I didn't…Slade, you've been watching me for years. You said so. She won't believe me. You tell her why I did it."

Slade was probably smiling evilly under his mask. "But, Doctor, I already have." He turned his back, pressed a button on the control panel in front of the room, and a cage came up from the floor, shutting itself around Dr. Drakken. "Shego works for me now," Slade explained, facing Drakken again. "She knows who the real villain is."

"But," the caged scientist protested, "I made your robots and your death ray! You can't do this without me!"

"Your services have proven most helpful," Slade replied, "but your job is finished. I suppose I can be merciful and allow you to work for me as a handyman. I would let you out of the cage, but she would probably tear you to pieces."

Drakken looked uneasily at Shego. "Er…probably right."

Slade now addressed his apprentice. "Tonight we move to my headquarters in Jump City. Tomorrow, you will fight the Titans."

(A/N: But why did Drakken really fix the staff? Slade, you just ruin everything.)