Chapter 16: Bitter End

Hours later, back in a time share lair, Shego came storming through the front door with a look that could curd milk. She was dragging a kicking Drakken, by the collar, behind her. They had just escaped from jail again. After they were inside the lair, Shego picked Drakken up by his collar and planting him on his feet while she stared at him with hatred.

"Please, Shego, I didn't know it wouldn't work," stammered out Drakken as he covered his face, expecting a fist to hit him.

"Wouldn't work! To make the people count sheep! So they all fall asleep so you could take over the world is as stupid as you could get! Don't know why I stay around here," Shego cried out as she passed by Drakken and flopped down on the couch that was in the living room.

"I wonder that myself, Shego. You don't even have a contract with me anymore, but you still stay. Why do you stay," Drakken said as he went into a bedroom.

"Zip it, Drakken," Shego snapped as she flamed up a talon and pointed it at Drakken.

"Alright, Shego, I'm going to the lab to work out our next plan," Drakken said as he disappeared in the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

"Fine by me," Shego said as she pulled a magazine out from under the couch.

After Shego looked at the magazine for a few seconds, she looked up at the calendar across the room. When she realized what the day was, she sighed and closed the magazine. She stared at the calendar for a few minutes and laid the magazine down on the floor. After she let out a soft sigh, she got up and went into her room where she then laid down on her bed. Shego, while laying there, stared at the ceiling for several minutes before she peeked a look into her closet. In the closet hung the dragon skin suit she wore a year ago, with the three bullet holes still in it.

After she let out another soft sigh, she turned over and buried her face into the pillow before she started sobbing. She thought about Merrick and why he knew her as she continued to cry. The whole year she thought about him and the reason why he knew her. She could never figure it out. His name caused her to be sadder than anything. The name she remembered for some reason, but she could never remember why.

After she had cried for a long time, she thought, I had to love him to care so much about him. Why did he have to die?

She realized she said it aloud, but she didn't care. She was feeling a painful lost which she couldn't explain and the more the memory of the guy she thought she knew filled her mind, the worst she felt. There had to be some truth on what happened a year ago, but she would never learn the truth.

As the memory of Merrick's face came into her mind, she thought she heard a voice say to her, "I never liked to see you cry."

"I'm going crazy," Shego stated as she wiped tears from her eyes.

"No, you're not," said a voice in the room.

"Ok, now I heard that, I must really be losing it," Shego said as she turned back over and looked around the room.

After scanning the room for a moment, Shego saw one of her curtains in her room was twisted looking.

"Ok? Now I'm seeing things as well," Shego said as she continued to stare at her curtains.

"It's hard to believe, isn't it, Sheila," questioned a voice from the curtains.

"Merrick!? It can't be...you're dead," Shego exclaimed as her red puffy eyes widen at recognizing the voice.

"Well yes, I been dead for more than six years they say," Merrick stated as he appeared in front of the curtains while he wore no mask and had a t-shirt, blue jeans, and leather boots on.

"What? Your dead!" Shego said as she flamed up her hands.

"Relax Sheila, you don't remember me. Do you remember Mal," Merrick said as he walked closer to Shego.

"M...Mal!? Oh no. You're Mal!? I came back after I left and looked for you. They said you died in a car wreck. I was heartbroken. I was afraid I was partly to blame for your death...I could not forgive myself because I thought that was true," Shego said as more tears formed in her eyes.

"Yes, I'm Mal, Sheila. You leaving broke my heart too. I didn't understand why you did. I was so enraged by it I couldn't think straight. I joined the project hoping it would kill me. It didn't because the anger you caused me to feel kept me alive. The rage, however, gave way to the love I still felt for you. That's why after the experiment I remembered you. I loved you then and I still love you now," Merrick said as he sat on the bed.

"So that's why I fell for you so quick. I tried to forget you and nearly did until you came back. Then old feelings I had for you surfaced. Oh Mal, I'm sorry. I made a mistake," Shego said as she covered her face with her hands.

"Yes, Sheila, I forgave you long ago because I still loved you and there lies the problem. You will continue what your doing now until you get tired of it and find something else to do. We can't be together because of that. I can't live this kind of life. I have other things I need to do before I can tell you my dreams. I'm coming back out of retirement," Merrick said as he lowered his head and looked at the floor.

"But...oh forget it. What you mean coming out of retirement," Shego stated as she uncovered her face, showing she was crying more from Merrick's last statement.

Merrick let out a sigh before he looked back at Shego while he said, "The Sons of Rah will return someday. I'm going to see to it that I hunt the last of them down."

After his words, Merrick got up and headed toward Shego's bedroom door.

Before he got to the door, Shego asked, "Will I see you again or will you disappear out of my life for good?"

"In time I will return again, but who knows, I might never. It's easy for someone to disappear when they got two graves," Merrick said before he opened the door and slipped out of sight.

Shego heard the front door open and closed. In the next instant, she heard Drakken screaming her name and came running to her room.

When he got to the room, he said, "Shego! There was a man here, walked through here, right out the front door. Why didn't you stop him."

Drakken, however, got a plasma shot in the chest.

When he got up, he said, "Ok, ok I get it. Not allowed in your room," as he left the doorway.

No you idiot. The love of my life has just walked out on me, Shego thought before she turned over and cried herself to sleep.

Two months later, a man was standing on a beach watching the tides, with pale blue eyes, come in and out.

He watched the waves for several minutes before he laughed and said, "Well Merrick, you think it's over, but it just begun. You and your friends will have a terrible life when its time."

After his statement, he turned and started to leave the beach while five men appeared out of nowhere and started walking with him. They, too, were looking over the beach with pale eyes.

Onto Exos Complexity