What you don't know

She had been having nightmares for the last week. She didn't have nightmares. She was tough, strong. She gave others nightmares. Everyone feared her, except for maybe a nameless redhead. Yet every night she would wake up, covered in sweat, the image of a blond haired young man burned into her mind. She would lay there for hours before she could fall back asleep, but even then her sleep would be restless, and she would spend the rest of the day out of sorts, and tired.

Tired, she was so tired, all the time. Everyone at the lair was avoiding her. Drakken, the old fool, had excused himself to go in search of their next lair. He hadn't been back for three days. Everyone else stayed out of her way, so she continually found herself in the gym taking her frustrations out on the training dummies, as well as the walls and anything else that she could destroy. She did it without plasma to make it last longer, but now the final dummy had been reduced to scrap, she could do nothing but stand there and pant.

Who was this person that haunted her dreams? Who was it she was training for a battle against? She didn't know. She knew what he looked like. He had messy blond hair, and freckles. However it was his eyes that she remembered most, they were brown, and cold and dark. Try to look away and they drew you in, look into them and you found yourself looking at something that only happened to be inhabiting a human body. Something that would have no qualms of killing you. Something completely and totally amoral. Something more powerful than anything she had ever seen.

Those eyes were looking at her with an amused interest. Watching her as scientist might look at a particularly bright lab rat. Those eyes didn't fear her, they didn't even hold contempt. The held her so far below whatever lurked behind them that she might as well not exist, but she was interesting, so she was allowed to for the moment. If anyone else she knew gave her a look like that, it would make her want to kill them, but this person, this look... It had so much force behind it that she just wanted to crawl into a crack somewhere and hide.

During the short trip back to her room she thought it through for the thousandth time. When had this all started? On a Sunday afternoon, just 2 days after their last encounter with Kim Possible. The only thing that had happened that day, as far as she could remember was that she had slipped on a wet spot of floor. She had asked Drakken to fix it. But on the other hand she hadn't told anyone that she had fell, nor got it checked out. She had taken worse from fighting Kim Possible before hadn't she? She couldn't have some brain damage from so minor a thing could she? She was starting to wonder.

But maybe it would be a good idea to get a check up, who knew what could have happened when the last death ray exploded. Maybe something hit her and caused a delayed reaction? Maybe Kim Possible had used some new weapon against her? She didn't think so, but it might be worth it to look over the video of their last fight.

So she wandered into security, and sat down. The henchmen had vacated just before she arrived, but she didn't really care right now. Slowly she went through the files and found the recording. It wasn't long as fights went. She was pretty proud of how it had gone. She was even starting to win... Till things started to explode when the pink rat thing had chewed through some important wires. Of course Drakken had been caught up in arguing with Ron and hadn't noticed.

Ron... As she looked at his image suddenly the face that had been haunting her dreams flashed in front of her. The face... It was Ron? She wasn't scared of Ron! But no... she realized there were differences. First of all the face, the man from her dreams was full of self confidence that Ron lacked. Ron was a fool, a normal person roped into helping the Princess. He didn't do anything but provide a few laughs. Occasionally his bumbling had stopped a few plans, but his rat thing had more self confidence then he did.

Still she couldn't shake the feeling, strange as it was that Ron was more than he appeared. That she was forgetting something important about him. The question was, what was she forgetting? She considered dismissing it. It really wasn't that important. Ron had nothing to do with the dreams. All she would have to do is double the dose of sleeping pills that she was taking yet again. Yet still something inside her resisted. Some stubborn part of her felt that she needed to find out what it was that she was forgetting. There was a reason that she and Drakken had lasted as long in the villain business as they had. It was because both of them were incredibly tenacious.

So once again she went for a walk, down the hall to the 'Junk' room. A place that she had made a note to learn more about after the first Zorpox episode. One of the new additions to the room was a memory recall device that Drakken had built after the fiasco with the cue cards. It had taken him a long time, but he swore it worked. As odd as it might sound to an outsider she trusted him. It was only his doomsday devices that messed up on. His more normal ones worked just fine.

As she strapped the machine to her head she gave a shake of her head wondering what had gotten into her. She wanted to forget the face in her dreams, not remember it. Still, maybe there was something important about the sidekick that she had forgotten, and while it might be trivial it would drive her crazy till she remembered it. It probably wasn't important to remember though, and this was overkill.

As she sat in the chair of the Remembrance Enhancing Machine she was startled to realize that she could not turn it on. It wasn't a physical limitation. The button was right in front of her finger. She just could not for the life of her press it. It might not be important. It wasn't. She would just get up and go back to her life, maybe berate some henchmen for the fun of it.

Without realizing it a small charge of plasma fired from her finger and pressed the switch. A smirk graced her features, "Oops..."

Lights, and sounds rushed around her. Then there she was, back in her room, meeting the Caretaker. Being surprised that he was able to guess how she had become a villain. Learning fear as she realized just how outclassed she was. Experiencing the rage as he implied that she actually was bi and had a crush on both Ron and Kim. Knowing hopelessness as he sat on top of her and raised his finger... and erased her memory!

The machine released her and she fell away from it, reaching out to the wall for support. She just leaned there for a moment trying to process this information. Even Drakken had never tried to erase her memories. It had been so hard to break the block. If she hadn't been so determined she never would have done it... never would have remembered. She had found it difficult to even want to remember.

Now she knew why. The Caretaker had erased her memories. However he had not taken into account her determination. Now the question was what to do? She couldn't confront him. Next time he might do something much more permanent. Attack Ron without telling him? Who knew what would happen then. The caretaker might give Ron a boost and she wasn't sure she could beat him. No, she was sure she couldn't. The one time that Drakken had used mind control on both her and Kim neither of them had been able to catch him.

Why had she never noticed that before? They had been fighting up to form that day, but Ron had defeated both of them, even with restraints on. Then there was that time with the Lowardians. Ron claimed that he had used up all his Power in the fight, but what if he hadn't? What if it was still there, just he was not able to tap into with without the Caretaker's permission? No, she doubted that she could take Ron out.

Also if what the Caretaker said was true, then she and Drakken could never succeed at taking over the world. It was impossible. Maybe if they could get Ron away from Kim so that he stopped caring so much. Still... Even that was a stretch. No.

So what was left for her? She remembered the jeering of her fellow students when they laughed at her green skin. She remembered finding Drakken, only a few years ago. She had rescued him from some men that were after him. He still hadn't told her why. They had talked, and eventually made a vow to take over the world. A few bank robberies later they were in business.

Drakken... He was something of a father to her. Her own father had died in the meteor impact, and Hego never acted like a real father. He was too stupid. Drakken was sometimes dense, but she had to admit, if only privately, she was impressed with some of the things he had created. If the caretaker was to be believed, he was a true genius. That didn't stop her from teasing him though! She was free, and she enjoyed it.

Freedom. Now there was a thought. They had thought about what they would do once they had taken over the world. Mostly they had decided that they would try to make life a little better for people. Drakken had a new robot that could reconstruct things, and he figured that after the clean up, he could use them to start housing projects. Help get people off the streets.

Of course they had agreed to do anything they could to stop people from looking down on those who were different. That was what had made them choose their life in the first place. They would get rid of crime, and just try to make the world better. Now that she reflected on it, was that so different from what Ron and Kim were trying to do? When they had saved the world from the Warlardians that spring the world had actually cheered them on, despite how different they looked.

And the more she thought about it, the more she began to chuckle while imagining the site on Kim's face when she came to stop a villain only to find out that she had been beaten to the punch. It was fun riling up Kimmie. No she didn't like her like 'that' but she would admit, Kim was kinda cute.

Never mind that. The real question, she thought to herself as she walked back to her room, is if Drakken will go along with it. She was pretty sure that she could convince him, but she would have to wait and see. It wouldn't be easy, but if he went along with it, it could be a nice change of pace. Maybe just once and for all she could prove that she was better than the Princess!

As for Ron, she thought tiredly as she climbed into bed. It was a shame that Kim had taken him. That much power, mixed with his normal kindness. He would be completely reliable. Kim didn't know how lucky she was to have him. Even the Caretaker, she thought before she slipped away, had been nice. It would have been much safer for him to just kill her, but instead he had given her a chance. For that, she was greatful.

.x.X.x.

Fear the evil plot bunnies! I actually did not expect to be making a sequal to this story. I did try after I wrote it, but I couldn't see any way to keep it going. Shego had forgotten, and the Caretaker wouldn't show up again. I didn't have anywhere to go. It wasn't till yesterday, while I was looking up some stuff from another of my stories that I read it, and my muse handed me this story on a silver platter. It is differant, and you may not like it, but I do, so I really don't care.

Will there be another chapter? Maybe. This was made to stand alone, but who knows?

Finally, the bit about Drakken being a father figure. I don't know, it just always seemed that way to me. Drakken is the same age as Kim's father, and yet Shego only seems a few years older than Kim. Especially when you look at her brothers. I see them having a father daughter relationship in the show, not a lover, lovee one. I mean, why else do you think drakken was so squicked out when Shego came on to him?