DISCLAIMER: Nothing belongs to me if you've seen it on TV. Soundtrack for this chapter: Horror Show by Iced Earth; Felicite Thosz by Magma; In Search of Space and Space Ritual by Hawkwind.
Kim closed her eyes, almost involuntarily threw her hands up, unable, unwilling to watch the end. She didn't understand all that had just transpired, but she was sure of two things: unbelievable as it might seem, that was the real Shego, not a robot duplicate, and she had been completely unaware of her true nature. Another victim of family secrets. The thought enraged and sickened her. She knew Drakken was capable of practically anything, but keeping something like that from Shego was monstrous. Unthinkable.
No one should have to live without knowing their heritage.
All that flashed through Kim's mind in the split-second before the green woman struck the fragile glass globe, smashing it into a billion glittering shards, spilling the eerie, precious substance within, erasing, eliminating, destroying –
She realized that the crash hadn't come, except in her imagination. Instead Dementor broke the tense silence, spat something in German: "Was die SAM HILL ist da los?"
Cautiously she peered out between her fingers, almost afraid of what she might see, and stood astonished.
Seemingly unconscious, Shego hovered in the air, surrounded by blue light, no more than an inch from the globe. The positronic brain had also shut down almost entirely, either from damage or survival protocols. Slowly the crippled harlequin spun around, perhaps moved by air currents, sparks still crackling from her torn shoulders and the wires dangling from her wrists.
Kim knew immediately what had happened, shot a quick glance of thanks to Ron. During the Lorwardian battle, Ron's tai sheng pek kwar had defied gravity, lifted giant attack pods into the air to send them crashing down with terrible force around the alien invaders. Catching Shego with that power must have been child's play. His studies at Yamanouchi are making a difference, she thought. There was a time that he'd still be trying to tie his shoelace or something.
She turned to face Dementor; a second later Ron finished tying his shoe and stood by her. "OK, let's finish this, then," she said, knowing as she said it that she had absolutely nothing to back it up. Fear was a black hole within her, consuming everything, but she refused to let her enemy know it.
"You still persist?" The evil colossus grinned, unimpressed by Kim's bravado. "Fine. Zis time zhere shall be NO INTERRUPTIONS vhile I DRAW ZE LIFE FROM YOU BOTH."
"Don't touch her," said a voice. "That's my daughter, you monster."
Dementor whipped around to face the woman standing in the turbolift doorway. "Ist everyone on ze PLANET coming to zis party?" He snorted in disgust. "Vith ze power of MATTER-ENERGY INTEGRATION I can NOT BE DEFEATED! Least of all by a MIDDLE-AGED BRAIN SURGEON vith IDEAS ABOVE her STATION!" The waves of force began their sinister coruscation around the giant. "Very vell, zhen, I vill CONSUME ALL OF YOU! Face ze full fury of PROFESSOR DEMENTOR!"
Kim's mother said something in a language none of them knew, more a song than a statement. In response another woman stepped out of the turbolift, red-haired, green-eyed, wearing a jet-black uniform with an alien symbol in red above her left breast. Behind them three others waited, all red-haired, all similarly clad. Whoever the stranger was, she was unafraid of the behemoth before her; she assumed a battle stance, hands above her head. Poised. Waiting.
Kim and Ron slowly stepped back, realizing this was no longer their fight, to stand beside Drakken, who was still tied to his chair. Worse, he was facing away from the combatants. "What's going on?" howled the blue man, craning his neck in vain. "Who's here? What's happening?"
Neither crimefighter had answers to those questions, so they continued to watch in silence as the battle began.
With a snarl, Dementor loosed his energy-absorbing power on the stranger; she caught the field with her bare hands as blinding arcs crackled through the air, swirled it around and flung it back at Dementor with devastating effect. There was an explosion of sparks from the backpack he wore; he staggered back, swore in German and intensified the blast. Both the mad scientist and the woman were ensnared in the evil energy, neither daring to let up. Sweat beaded on the woman's brow as she cast the force back at the crazed Bavarian, who raised the power another notch.
" You cannot vin, Fraulein," jeered the giant. "For me, zhere is only victory – or DEATH!" He increased the power still further; circuits began to glow red throughout his integrator suit. The whole underground room shook with the violence of raw, unleashed energy. "Whoever you are," bellowed the Professor, "you vill PAY FOR YOUR INTERFERENCE!"
"Whatever they're doing, make them stop," shouted Drakken over the roar, as the chair jittered across the floor. "The shaft can't take this abuse! They'll bring it down on us all!"
But there was no respite for the fighters, both approaching their limit, both realizing that whoever broke first would lose this battle and everything else.
Kim picked something up off the floor. One of Shego's robotic hands, its talons sharpened.
The stranger cried out, stumbled under the strain; Dementor stepped forward, his power bringing the woman to her knees. The integrator suit was smoldering, but his eyes shone with the mad light of triumph. And Kim knew what she had to do.
Like a panther she leaped onto the madman's back, into the diabolical forcefield that surrounded him. The power ravaged her body like acid, searing every cell, instantly draining her life and vitality, but with all the strength she had she drove the talons of the hand into the backpack, pulled up on it, slicing through the delicate circuitry it contained even as she fell, frail and broken, from her perch. The blue flare of retro-metabolism swept over her, but through the hazy glow she saw Dementor flailing, shrinking, light flaring from the backpack, streaming out in all directions.
"Nein, NEIN!" cried the translucent, still shrinking scientist, staring at the blinding beams now radiating from him as the damaged integration field turned in on itself. "Zis cannot be HAPPENING! I am PROFESSOR DEMENTOR! I – am ze MASTER— of ze UNIVERSE –" With a final flash and a crack of thunder, he disappeared.
There was silence.
"Is he –" Ron began, and knew that he was. The menace of the Professor was no more.
Kim's mother was beside her, helping her up. "Are you all right?"
"Mom, how'd – how'd you find us? Who are these people?" she asked, though in her heart she already knew the answer.
"They've been looking for me a long time, Kim. Earlier tonight they found me. The same device that tracked me down found you."
One of the women joined them. "I am Yammith Sh'anai of Hydraian rescue mission PXR-5. We are… pleased to meet you, Kimberly Possible."
Kim smiled. "Block comprehension, right?"
Kim's mother nodded. "Yammith is both commander and ambassador." She indicated the woman who had fought Dementor. "Than'ara can handle and manipulate various forms of energy."
"Yeah, I sorta guessed that. Please and thank you, Than'ara."
The alien woman nodded, slightly.
"Where's Dad?" Kim asked.
"He stayed with the Tweebs. They all wanted to come, of course. But there's only so much room in the shuttlecraft. If we were going to get you and Ron back home, we couldn't bring them."
"I hate to interrupt this family reunion, or whatever it is," whined Dr. Drakken, "but could one of you take a moment to untie me? And bring that, uh, robot down from there?"
"Oh, right. Ron, bring her down, will you?" Kim asked, as she loosed the blue man.
"I – I didn't put her up there," stammered the young man. "Dementor absorbed all my ch'i energy. It's only beginning to come back." The tubes and wires dangling from the green woman's wrists made him shudder. "That's – that's not the real Shego, is it? "
"No, of course not," Drakken blurted, "it's, ah, it's a duplicate I built." He wasn't sure if anyone was buying that line, but he pressed on regardless. No one must learn the truth. Least of all Shego herself. "You, ah, you mustn't tell her about it. She won't let me clone her, but she didn't say anything about robot duplicates. It's, uh, it's not as good as the original, but it's getting there."
"Yeah," Ron nodded, his gaze still fixed on the unconscious, hovering figure, "Dementor would have never beaten the real Shego."
Dr. D. seized the moment. "Right. See, the buffoon understands. Do all the rest of you understand? Dementor couldn't beat the real Shego. The robot's not as good as the real thing."
"So why do you have it?" Kim asked, dryly. "Why not just another Bebe or something? Why a Shego-bot?"
"I don't know, just for my own twisted amusement! What kind of question is that?" Annoyed, he turned to Kim's mother for support. "Can't you rein in your daughter? Does she have to pipe up with every random thought that runs through her head?"
"My daughter is a grown woman, Dr. Drakken. She has a right to say what she thinks."
"Well, let her say it somewhere else. We're, uh, we're running out of time." He turned to the Hydraians, hands outstretched, imploring. "Which one of you has the antigravity touch? I need to fix that robot before, uh, before it reboots. Can't do much with her up there." A nervous grin. "She's not the Goodyear Blimp, you know."
Yammith Sh'anai exchanged some words with one of her group, spoke apologetically to Dr. D. "Ka'tnka has the gift of levitation, but she didn't use it. Does the robot itself have antigrav capabilities?"
"No, the robot itself doesn't have antigrav capabilities," he testily snapped. "If it did, I'd just bring it down myself. OK, we've all had our fun with Dr. Drakken, now quit fooling around." He regarded the peacefully floating figure with something akin to panic. "Stop messing with me and bring her down. Someone here did it. It didn't happen by itself."
"Kimmie," began Mrs. Dr. P, a strange understanding in her eyes, "why don't you try?"
"What?"
"Just, uh, just imagine the robot coming down. Slowly. Safely."
"Why, Mom? That's not my… gift."
"Humor me."
She looked up at Shego, imagined her floating down to the ground, was not in the least surprised when nothing happened. "Mom, you know I can't –"
"No I don't, honey." Her mother was beside her, hand on her shoulder, voice gentle and calm, quiet, not much more than a whisper. "I don't know you 'can't.' Is anything possible for a Possible?"
"Of course, Mom, but –"
"Did you see the robot levitate?"
"Sure. I was right here…" She trailed off. "No. I didn't. I had my eyes closed. I couldn't watch. Mom, I don't think that is a robot. Or just a robot. I think it's really –"
"One thing at a time, Kimmie. Close your eyes again. Imagine her coming down. In that chair. Safe. You wanted her safe when you closed your eyes the first time, right?"
Kim didn't answer; eyes closed, she visualized the robot – no, she visualized the woman drifting gently, a leaf on the wind, to come softly to rest in the chair that had held the man who was her creator. A man she would speak to, very shortly, about that very sitch.
There were cries of wonder from the Hydraians. One of them breathed something in their musical language, her voice hushed, reverent.
Kim's mother.
Kim opened her eyes, realized her life had just changed again. This time, though, she would deal with it. This time she would trust the one person in her life that could help her adjust to this new reality. The time for secrets and mysteries was past.
Yammith Sh'anai spoke to Mrs. Dr. P. in the language of their native planet. "K'myrii, that cannot be. We all saw the power of retro-metabolism save her life in the battle with the giant. It is the most blessed of all gifts, but no Hydraian has more than one. It is genetically impossible."
"She isn't a Hydraian," Anne Possible replied, still in the Hydraian tongue. "Her father is Terran. She is something new. Maybe everything we know is wrong. Maybe—" and she regarded her daughter with love and pride –"Maybe Kim is the future. Of both races."
"There must be tests. We must know how many of the gifts she has. She must come to our homeworld with you. She must –"
"Commander Sh'anai, I honor you and your position, but my daughter will decide for herself what she must do. As for myself, again I honor what you have done, but I am not returning to Hydraia."
"What? Unheard of. You would stay here on this backwater world?"
"I would stay here with my husband. With my family."
Dr. D, his face a snarl, posed a question to his red-haired nemesis. "Can you understand that canary song?"
"No. And it isn't 'canary song.' It's the language of their world." A world with one language, she thought. How wonderful.
"How does your mother know it, then?"
"She's – she's been to college."
"College. Bah. Always it's college with you Possibles. Some minds are too far-reaching for such a regimen." The blue man growled, listening to the alien speech. "Who knows what conspiracies they're hatching? What secrets they're discussing? And in my house, too. Under my roof. Under my floor, truth to tell."
Ron broke in. "Not everyone is all about conspiracies and secrets, Drakken. Some people are open with each other. Some people have nothing to hide."
"That's what you think, monkey boy." Suddenly the sinister scientist had enough. "Hey, everybody. I've got things I have to do. Got a robot to work on. I'm sure we could all talk – in a language I don't understand – for hours, but the party's over. Turbolift's to your right. Nice meeting you. Maybe we can do it again sometime." He walked to a bench, collected some equipment, put on goggles and began reattaching the robot's hands to its arms. "Or not."
"Come on, KP." Ron and the others were heading for the exit. "We've pulled his fat out of the fire. Again. Guess it's time to go."
"I'll be up in a moment." She waited till the turbolift doors had closed before she spoke to the blue man. "Dr. Drakken."
"Yes, what?" He didn't look up from his work. "Thanks for everything. Or do you want money for that now? College changes everything, doesn't it?"
"That's really her, isn't it. Shego. That's really Shego."
"No. It isn't. It's a robot. Didn't you notice? Shego's on vacation." He opened the robot's eyes, gazed into each with a strange cluster of lenses, nodded in satisfaction and turned his attention to the positronic brain. "If you're going to stand around, hand me that sonic screwdriver."
Puzzled, Kim examined the peculiar little device. "Where'd this come from?"
"Auction. The collection of a multimillionaire named Henry Van Statten. Lost his mind dabbling around with alien artifacts. Ever hear of him?"
"Just recently." One less threat to Mom, she thought. And myself. She passed Drakken the device; he took it without looking around and began disconnecting a fried circuit board. "She needs to know, Dr. Drakken."
"Who needs to know what? What are you saying?"
"I heard her. She almost destroyed that computer you're rebuilding. She thought it was hurting her somehow. If she had taken care of it first, instead of Dementor, you wouldn't have a Shego to rebuild."
He dropped the sonic screwdriver; with a beep of finality it rolled under the big machine, but he made no effort to retrieve it. "You don't know what you're talking about. As usual, you think you're all that, but you're –"
"I'm not a teenager any more. You don't have to go over the same old lines with me. But you have to listen. She needs to know who she is. Tell her. Tell her everything. Don't erase her memories, don't invent some story, don't treat her like a child. She isn't a child. She's the wonderful invention of a brilliant man. Who loves her."
Drakken said nothing.
"I was on the Lorwardian ship when she came to rescue you. I saw how you responded. How she responded. She's a daughter to you, isn't she?"
"You need to leave now. Your buddies are waiting for you."
"Do you want her to find out the hard way? Do you want her to find out when she gets injured and sees what's within? Do you want her to find out when you're dead and gone, and can't be there for her, can't help her cope? Tell her. I'm leaving. I'll never tell anyone. It's our secret. But you need to let Shego in on it. If you love her. If you trust her. If you want her to be safe."
He had retrieved the sonic screwdriver, was intently working at the torn cables deep within the big machine. There were no more words.
Kim walked to the turbolift, stepped inside, and was gone.
Somewhere a phone rang; an irritated foreman picked it up, listened, yelled for one of his Strudelwerks flunkies. "Myron!" He handed the phone to the thin, ineffectual-looking man. "Some nut wants ya. Make it fast. We're catering that Mittwoch aus Licht thing tonight. A thousand apple strudels!"
"Y'ello…this is Myron Norim, who's this?"
The voice that crackled over the receiver was immediately recognizable, to Myron's horror. He cringed from it as if expecting to be kicked. "MYRON! Zhis is PROFESSOR DEMENTOR. Due to an unforeseen accident, I once again" – there was a long pause –" need your help."
"Aww, do I have to? I'm lucky to have my job back after the prison term –"
"ZHAT vas your OWN FAULT, Myron! Because your COMPETENCE is NOT! You vere BORN to be a NINNY. Zhat is vhy someone must DIRECT you. Now listen. You must go to ze SECRET lair. Ze one in ze Pyrenees. Und you must fetch me ze Higgs Boson Germinator."
"Higgs Boson! Ooh, ooh, I know what that is! The particle that creates mass!" It had been in yesterday's crossword puzzle.
"Ja, ja! I haff need of it for ze REASSEMBLING of mine SELF from zis pure ENERGY."
"Energy?"
"Ja, Myron! Thanks to Kim Possible, und some of her freunds, I am no more zhen a VOICE on ze PHONE LINES! It is all I can do to zis single call muster! An unexpected setback, to be sure…but vith your help, und ze Higgs Boson Germinator, I zhall ZOON ONCE AGAIN be ze MASTER of the –"
Myron Norim hung up with a strange smile on his long face. All night he smiled. Sometimes he even tittered a little, under his breath, as though laughing at a secret joke.
His co-workers ignored his behavior. They had a thousand strudels to bake. And everyone thought Myron was sort of weird, anyway.
