Ron's Worst Nightmares
Object Lesson
By Pat Squared
Once you defeat a man, you have to defeat him for the rest of your life.
Shego did not know who uttered that truth, but now it governed her life.
She had lost her temper and turned one of her co-conspirators into an object lesson. She would never forget the screams, the look of horror, and the smell of burnt flesh.
"My way or you all will go the way of Monsieur Poincare!"
The challenge was made. The gauntlet was thrown down. Shego could not unsay those words or take back her actions. She had personally killed a man. A despicable man who gloated as his countrymen reverted back to savagery, sure. Nevertheless, Poincare was a living breathing human before Shego thoughtlessly lashed out and burnt him alive.
The object would hold for a few days, even a week before fear stopped paralyzing the minds of her cohorts. Then they will lash back. Shego would have to make another object lesson and another until ... One will always arise to proclaim that the empress should be thrown down and forced to atone for crimes against the people. Shego knew that she proved herself a danger to the group and the pack would band together to pull her down.
It was almost time to bow out, to disappear, and watch Dr. Drakken live a flawed dream.
Blue boy would not even make it through his first day.
However, bowing out would be even more dangerous.
She was the only one who could manage the restoration of France. She knew where all the bodies were buried, who was capable, and who was dangerous. She planed on simply disappearing, letting the others know that to hunt her was to court the release of evidence implicating her hunters to the coup. Now they would hunt her down, no matter what the cost.
Shego now could not simply disappear into the masses of refuges.
Once Global Justice linked her to the takeover of France, there would be no where safe for her to hide. At least Osama Bin Laden had friends in the tribal belt of Pakistan and Afghanistan who could hide him from the world.
Shego had no where to run. When she burnt Poincare, she burnt the last of her bridges.
Now she was all alone. Shego stopped wearing the form fitting jumpsuits and started wearing normal clothing. She managed to hide the truth from everyone but herself. She was pregnant.
When they turned against her, Shego would not mind dying if it was just her. It would have been other challenge to win.
Now she had another life to consider. Being dead meant that her child would be dead. Being caught meant that they would take her child away from her and give it away. Her child would be forced to live the life of a freak without having someone who understood to guide him or her away from all the bad choices and bad things that she did.
Shego now could not see her way out. She would have to maintain power. She would have to keep the terror fresh in the minds of her opponents. She would have to stay and play the game so her child would have a mother and a chance.
Shego would have to defeat the world.
It would be a losing battle and one day she would be posing for rifle fire.
After a revolution, the first ones to be executed are the revolutionaries. The hyenas will tear her down in due time. Alexander the Great, Julius Creaser, Qin Shi Huangdi – They changed the known world, they crush enemies, they built an empire, but in the end they were torn down as their nations and empires went on. She could only hope to stay on top long enough to allow her child a chance.
Shego's dreams of retiring to a vineyard and being Frau Hoffman died with the Poincare's screams.