Change Is Good
Shego stood on the roof of the museum and looked down through the skylight. There, in the center of the room was an amulet. It sat on a pedestal, and around it she could see the faint light of multiple lasers, belonging to some sort of high tech security system. It didn't really matter, such things wouldn't protect the precious amulet from getting stolen. They were useless unless there was someone who could respond to the alarms fast enough to stop whoever wanted to steal it. There was only one person in the world who could do such a thing, and Shego knew that she was busy with Dementor right now. Dementor was trying to copy what Drakkon had accomplished, and might have stood a decent chance of succeeding if he had remembered that The Redhead already had dealt with that plan once before. Either way it meant that Kimmy was busy, and this museum was ripe to be robbed.
Shego bent down and flipped open the window, that would trigger an alarm somewhere she knew, but that was inconsequential and really wouldn't matter. What mattered was the next five minutes. Stealthily she dropped to the floor, hidden in the shadows. Quickly she covered the distance to the wall, and flipped on the the main lights for the room. There in the center of the room was DNAmy along with a few monkey ninja's. They all jumped and turned to Shego before relaxing.
"Hi there Shego! What did Drakken send you to get today? I'm hear for this lovely amulet, according to my research it should allow me to free poor Monkey Fist from being stoned! Of course once I told his monkey ninjas what I was up to they just begged to tag along. Sorry, look at me, I'm rambling" DNAmy paused for air and Shego wondered how on earth this woman managed to steal anything. DNAmy was big and seemed to be wearing a ninja's garb that was far to small for her, the look was disconcerting and might have even caused Shego to leave and let nature take it's course, however the look in DNAmy's eyes betrayed a keen mind. If DNAmy was left alone who knew what would happen.
"Well actually..." Shego drew out the word with a smirk on her face. This would be fun, maybe not beat down the princess fun, but still fun, "Drakken sent me to get you. See him and I? We had a talk and decided to stop being villians. As much fun as it is, it isn't something that we see working out. So we sat down and thought what else could we do that would be fun. Being heroes was out, so we figured why not be anti-heroes? All the fun with a much higher chance of success."
DNAmy's eyes narrowed, "You're turning your back on the community? After all that we have done for the two of you?"
"Let me think about it," Shego brought a finger to her lips thoughtfully, then took it away with a nasty grin, "Yeah, pretty much. So do you want to give yourself in, or am I allowed to have some fun? Oh wait, I'm not a hero, I don't need to ask!" With that Shego launched a blast of plasma at the monkey ninjas. She didn't know how good a fighter DNAmy was, and she wasn't going to attack someone who was helpless despite what she said. Well, she wasn't going to hurt them much anyway.
The monkey ninjas dodged. That wasn't much of a surprise. DNAmy jumping up up about ten feet into the air with a battle cry before coming down where Shego had been standing but a moment before? That was. And then the fight was on. Monkey ninjas individually weren't much of a threat, but the dozen or so there forced Shego to divert much needed attention to keeping them away from her when she should have been focusing on DNAmy. Because now she realized that DNAmy was fast, and strong. Her size that Shego had mistaken for fat had concealed a lot of muscle, and every punch that she through shattered stone.
Shego ducked behind a pillar to get a moment to herself, it was time to change strategies. She was used to fighting one on one and she had forgotten what it was like to be outnumbered. Still, she had her experience from her days as a teen hero to draw on, so the next monkey to leap at her got grabbed. Using the monkey as an improvised weapon she leaped at the others who fell back from her, unsure of how to attack around their ally. The pillar behind Shego cracked and Shego tossed the monkey into his friends and turned to pay her full attention to DNAmy undisturbed for a few seconds.
The next punch that DNAmy through Shego was ready for, she blocked with one hand and drove her elbow into DNAmy's gut stunning her. With the free second that she had bought herself, she grabbed DNAmy and through her into the monkeys that were just starting to move towards her knocking them all into a heap in the corner of the room. For good measure she added a blast of plasma to make sure they stayed down long enough for her to get the handcuffs on them.
"Oof!" DNAmy grunted in pain, "Good little girls don't hit people when their down!"
She sauntered over to them, forcing herself to breath steadily, making it look as if she hadn't broken a sweat. "Then isn't it a good thing that I'm am naughty girl?" Shego started cuffing them, making sure that the cuffs were secure and wouldn't come off, "Don't worry, the cops will be here soon to take you to prison. You'll be nice and comfy there. Trust me. I know"
Shego dusted off her hands and turned around to leave before the cops could get there and froze.
In front of her stood a stunned Kim and Ron. The grappling hook in Kim's hand told Shego that they had come in the same way she had, and the stunned look on their face told her that they heard enough to guess what was going on. "Uh, hey Princess... I was just... leaving?" Shego couldn't think of what to say. There wasn't exactly a manual for this. If there was it would be titled something like 'What to do when your heroic nemesis catches you in the middle of making your turn from villian into anti-hero.'
"Shego... What's going on here?" Kim sounded like she had just caught Mr. Barken kissing Moter Ed. Confused, and very disturbed, but trying to sound like she wasn't because she wasn't sure if what she was witnessing was something immoral or not.
Shego heard sirens and said a quick thanks to whatever saint looked after criminals that were trying to reform, "Can we talk somewhere else Princess? I don't really want the cops to run into me. I still a warrant out for my arrest you know."
"Bueno Nacho!" Everyone looked at Ron in surprise, "It's like right across the street, and no one would think to look for you there. Sides, I'm friends with the management there." He paused, "Uh, Kim, could you explain to everyone what happened here or something? Shego and I will wait for you over there."
Kim was still so stunned she didn't notice the change in Ron, she just nodded blankly and said, "Uh... Yeah. I'll see you there." Shego however did. Ron didn't give the Cheerleader orders, that could only mean one thing. Shego looked into the Caretakers eyes, and saw him smirk.
.x.X.x.
A few minutes later they were in Bueno Nacho. The Caretaker hadn't said anything to her yet. He had just walked ahead of her silently. Shego had considered just running, but decided that it was not worth the risk. She still might get out of this alive, after all, she hadn't threatened his masquerade. So now they sat, face to face across a plate of some disgusting Mexican food.
"So, you recovered your memories I see. I guess I should have done a better job erasing them" The Caretaker looked at Shego with the same respect one might give their pet mouse if it had managed to escape from it's cage. The rest of the look was mostly annoyance.
"Yes well, I suppose even the great Caretaker can make mistakes." Shego wanted to put her hands over her mouth. When would she learn not to taunt people stronger than her. Especially when they could kill her and erase any memory that she ever existed. Not for the first time she wondered if she had a death wish.
The Caretaker didn't take any offense though, "True, I am only a mental construct. I did not anticipate that you would remember, or that it would cause you to act the way it did. However that is not the reason I wanted to talk to you." He paused and took a drink of pop thoughtfully, "Do you want to remember me? You would be happier if you didn't. With a bit more time, and some cooperation from you I could easily remove any knowledge of my existence from your memory." Shego went to answer, but her stopped her with a raised hand, "I could leave your motivation intact so that you are the same person you are now, and it would be easier for you. You wouldn't have to live in fear of me, in fear of messing up. You could just forget all this and go back to your happy easy life."
"No. No matter what the price I want to remember. I've never been the one to take the easy way out. And where do you get off deciding what is best for me? For that matter where do you get off deciding what is best for Ron? He may have created you when he was a child, but he is an adult now. You should give him the same choice you are giving me. You should let him choose whether he wants his genius or not. Everyone has to grow up eventually Caretaker." Shego barely noticed that she had ripped the chair with her hands while she was talking. Everything she had been thinking about since she regained her memory poured out. She knew it wasn't smart, but this... this Caretaker had been manipulating Ron his entire life, and she felt that she had to stand up for him.
The Caretaker looked at her, and for a second she thought she would die, right there in that chair, and she started to pray. The the Caretaker chuckled, "I truly did not give you enough credit Shego. Fair's fair. You don't have to worry, there isnt' any price to pay for keeping your memories, only the memories themselves. As for Ron..." The caretaker trailed off apparently thinking, "You bring up a good point. The only way I could stop you from telling him right now is to kill you, and Ron wouldn't want that, as easy as it would be. While I could make it so he would never believe you, that would be messing with his free will. Something I am not supposed to do. All I am supposed to do is to make sure that he doesn't become because of how smart he is and take over the world. So yes I will talk to him."
Shego felt relief wash though her as she realized that she wouldn't be killed, or have her memory erased. Then blinked in confusion as the person in front of her slumped and closed his eyes. When they opened again she was looking at Ron. The difference wasn't immediately noticeable to a casual observer, but to Shego it was like the difference between night and day. She wasn't sure what he'd say, if he had chosen to remember at all, so she kept quiet, waiting.
His first words told her that he had chosen to remember, "You have a crush on me?"
She looked at him incredulously, his life had just gotten turned upside down, he found out that he was a genius, and he was focusing on that little fact? Errr... On that little fiction? "No!" Shego said anger, and then found herself wishing that she could stop the warmth from rising to her face. To divert that line of questioning she asked, "More importantly, what did you choose?"
"Oh, I chose to know the Caretaker exists, but to just let him do his job." Shego looked at him in surprise, "Well he's part of who I am right? I mean if I became a genius I wouldn't be me, you know? I don't want to forget anything, but on the other hand I am fine with the Caretaker watching out for me. He is like a guardian angel." Ron paused, "You have a crush on me and Kim?"
"I Do Not!" Shego yelled, and was suddenly glad that Bueno Nacho was empty at two in the morning. She lowered her voice, "And even if I did think that you are hot, and Kim was sexy you two are together so nothing would ever come of it, understand? No matter what the Caretaker told you, it doesn't matter. I won't come between the two of you."
Ron held up his hands defensively, "Okay, okay. Sorry. It just surprised me. I thought you hated us."
Shego rolled her eyes, "I could say something cliché like love and hate are very close together, but I won't. I never hated you guys, we were just on opposite sides, and I hate losing."
"Oh." Ron was silent for a minute before asking, "So how am I going to tell Kim?"
"You're asking me sidekick? Your the one with the Caretaker in your head, ask him." She slouched back and tried to glare at him to hide the fact that she had no clue. She hadn't planned for Kim to catch her yet. She was hoping to have a chance to figure out a story and cement herself as one of the good guys. Now it seemed that everything had gone down the tubes. Ron knew about her crush, Kim knew about her trying to be a goody two shoes, and she was stuck in front of some pretty horrific food. Which Ron had just swallowed whole. Disgusting.
She saw the naked pink thing climb up on the table and chitter at her. It almost sounded like, "Did you just ask if you could have my nacho? Go ahead and take it!" Shego watched in odd fascination as Rufus dug in to the nacho. It was kinda cute, in a gross sorta way.
"I am not asking him for help. In fact I have asked him not to give me any more help then he normally would" Ron said after he swallowed. "Anyway, this is your problem too. How are you planning to explain your change of heart?"
"Well I..? Um. Hadn't thought that far ahead" Shego admitted.
The three sat in silence till Kim arrived. She sat down beside Ron and looked at Shego, "So... Hero."
"Yup" Shego replied in the same deadpan tone.
"And you didn't get hit by an attitudenator this time?" Kim pressed.
"Nope" Shego replied, despite being temped to lie and say she had.
"So why?" Kim finally asked.
Shego thought for a second, "Drakken and I decided that we couldn't win against you and Ron," and the Caretaker, Shego added silently, "And it wasn't like we were accomplishing our goal by losing all the time. So we figured that we'd try for a middle ground."
"And that middle ground would be?" Kim asked, cautiously.
"Antiheroes" Shego grinned as she took in Kimmy's shocked expression. It was almost worth everything else that had happened.
Kim shook her head in confusion, "What? What do you mean Antiheroes?"
"You know you rush in to stop villains from completing their schemes to take over the world?" Shego asked.
"Yes," replied Kim
"Drakken and I won't wait. We will take them down as soon escape prison. We won't give them time to start plotting, and because we are outside the law, we don't even have to be nice about it." Shego grinned, but the smile faded when she saw the laughter in Kim's eyes.
"Ah, so you are essentially doing what I do now." Kim grinned.
"What?" Shego asked uncertain.
"Ron and I joined Global Justice. That's why we haven't been in the news much, we are taking our college courses there." Kim chuckled, "And their philosophy is the exact same as yours."
That brought Shego up short. Here she had planned to take care of jobs that Kim couldn't, or wouldn't, but if Kim and Ron were already handling those jobs... Was there even a place for her and Drakken and her as heroes? However if Kim and Ron were working for Global Justice it suddenly made more sense on how they had arrived in time to stop the robbery despite the fact that there was a plot on the other side of the world. Global Justice would have given them a lift, and those planes could really move fast.
As Shego was assimilating everything Ron brought up another point, "Why don't you and Drakken join Global Justice as well?"
"What?" Shego asked, surprised.
Kim looked at Ron, and the two of them seemed to communicate without words, before Kim nodded and turned to Shego, "Ron has a good point, it would make it easier for you, and it would get you off the wanted list right?"
Shego stopped to think about it, she didn't know if it was a good idea, on the other hand, if Kim and Ron were there and she could see them every day. No, she wouldn't go there, still it was an idea, "I'll have to talk it over with Drakken."
Kim nodded, "That's a good idea. I hope that you will join us. You have no idea how sick I am of working with Will"
"Hey, he took care of cleanup so that we could get over here," Ron pointed out. Shego didn't know who they were talking about, but it seemed like Kim had at least one annoying coworker. Shego was surprised to find herself wanting to help Kim. It was an odd feeling, but not a bad one. Shego knew how annoying it was to work with stupid henchmen.
"Look Princess, I have to go now. Drakken will be worried about me, and if I don't show up soon he'll probably invent some sort of resurrection device that will backfire and summon a demon or something." Shego got out of her seat.
Kim nodded, "Okay, I hope you decide to join. See you around Shego."
Ron waved, "Keep in touch."
Shego walked to the door then turned back, "See you around Kimmy" then she stepped out into the night. Despite all the drama that had happened, she coudln't help but feel things were going to get better. Ron still had to tell Kim about the Caretaker, and she had to find a way to make sure he couldn't blackmail her with the knowledge of her crush, but despite that she felt something she hadn't felt in years, that she would have a place that she could go to and be safe. It was irrational, but true never the less.
Just before the door closed she heard Kim say, "Okay, so Shego's good again, I'll adjust... Again."
.x.X.x.
Authors Note:
So here we go, chapter 3. I want to say a special thanks to Data Seeker and apologize for not giving him this to beta, but I have to leave on a month long job soon so I wouldn't be able to posted if I waited. If you see any mistakes let me know and I'll fix them as soon as I can. That might take a while.
So the story continues, I finally figured out how to deal with super Ron. The Caretaker, and the Original Ron were two powerful for me to write a meaningful story around. It wasn't till I asked Ron if he would even want to be a genius that I got the answer. He wouldn't. He likes being who he is. So now I can continue if I can think of more material, and if I get another burst of creativity. I figure that I have a few loose ends that I could tie up here, maybe enough for another chapter.
Thanks for reading and goodnight!
Happy New year Data Seeker!