Conclusion.

***************************

Bowls. Dog food. Rawhide bones. Chew toys. Balls. A leash.

It was scattered all over the living room of his lair, just waiting for Commodore Puddles to come home. Drakken stuck his fingers inside the pet carrier for his new puppy to lick. And they would be home right about - now!

He was up and out of the car almost before Shego had turned the last corner, barging right on in with the pet carrier in one hand. Commodore Puddles yipped excitedly.

"Okay, Commodore Puddles," Drakken said, setting the carrier down on the floor. "Welcome to your new home!"

He opened the door, and the poodle bounded out. He rested his chin on his front paws and stuck his rump in the air, tail wagging madly. His eyes darted around excitedly, as if he couldn't decide what to do first. Drakken knew the feeling.

Finally, Commodore Puddles chose to dash over to his new water bowl and take several greedy little laps. Then he jumped back across the room, into Drakken's arms, and began to lick his face with his now-very-wet tongue.

It tickled, and he couldn't help but laugh. Matter of fact, he laughed until his sides hurt.

"What's all the giggling about?" Shego asked as she stepped into the living room.

Drakken narrowed his eyes at her and raised his chin indignantly. "Evil geniuses do not giggle, Shego," he spat out.

Shego snorted. "Exactly. So -" she gave her hand a careless wave - "speaking of evil geniuses, what's this big plan you've been working on?"

Drakken felt himself beam with pride. His latest evil scheme teetered on his lips, ready to be explained, ready to make everyone gasp in awe at his brilliance. It was a feeling he stopped to savor for a moment, because it never lasted. Not after he actually started explaining it.

"I call it 'Operation Evil Global Warming of Doom!!!!'" Drakken began.

Both of Shego's eyebrows shot straight up.

"What?" Drakken demanded. Why didn't she like any of his name choices? First the puppy, now the evil scheme...

"Nothing, nothing." Shego shook her head impatiently. "Go on."

Drakken unfurled the piece of paper he'd been scribbling on the night before last. "With this machine - which I have yet to build," he added in a much quieter tone, "I shall melt the polar ice caps and flood every country in their path!"

"I guess we should break out the water wings, huh?" Shego responded.

Drakken felt himself scowling. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Shego gave a huge sigh. "It means, where are we going to be through all of this? Will we get washed away, too?"

He froze.

One side of Shego's mouth went up. "Didn't think of that, did you, Einstein?"

No. That wasn't going to stop him. There was this guy, back in Sunday School a long time ago - he'd built a huge boat and saved his family and all the animals while the rest of the world was flooded. Maybe he could do that.

"I'll - I'll think of something," he sputtered out. "Meanwhile," Drakken added over Shego's snorts, "I shall build another machine that will refreeze the polar ice caps. That way, if they want to stop the world from flooding, everyone will have to surrender - to me!"

He gave a long pause and waited for the praise. And waited. And waited. "Shego?" he finally got out.

"Yeah, uh-huh, I heard you." Shego went after one of her nails as if it was making her angry. "I'm just not sure how it'll work."

"What do you mean?"

"We-ell," Shego began, "what about, like, the woolly mammoths and stuff encased in ice? What if they got loose or something? And what if your freezing machine breaks or some government agent gets a hold of it? And how would you re-freeze all the polar ice caps when they've already melted and probably merged with all the other water in the world? You'd wind up freezing all the oceans!"

Right at that moment, Drakken hated her. "Well - they'll - I'll - I don't have all the bugs worked out yet!"

"Riii-iiight."

He sighed. The more "i"s Shego put in "right," the more doubtful she was.

"Oh, and by the way," Shego added, sticking a roll of paper towels into his hand. "You'll need these."

"Oh, thanks." Drakken snatched them from her and looked around for a pen. "I can draw my blueprints for the melting machine on them."

"No, I mean you'll need them for that." Shego stabbed her finger in the general direction of Commodore Puddles.

Drakken followed her finger with his eyes. His puppy was coming up from a squat.

Oh. That kind of puddle.

"Shego," he whispered hoarsely, "is he supposed to be doing that?"

"Yeah," Shego replied dryly. "That's part of the responsibilities of being a pet owner. You need to train them not to do that inside."

"Oh." Drakken felt the heat rising to his cheeks. "I thought they just sort of...came trained."

"Yeah, and another thing," Shego added, nodding to the puddle. "You're cleaning that up."

Drakken stared blankly down at the paper towels in his hand. "How?"

Shego slapped a hand over her mouth and began to guffaw.

"Shego, how?"

*********

He found out how. By the time Shego left for the day, he had cleaned up three more puddles and taken Commodore Puddles out several more times before he could make the puddles. He'd told Shego that that wasn't as much fun as playing with him.

"That's the thing about puppies," Shego said as she gathered her things to leave. "They're kind of fun to watch act silly, but once you have to clean up after them, they get obnoxious." As she disappeared out the door, he heard her mumble, "Sort of like you."

Drakken didn't know what that meant, and he didn't really care. No matter what she said, he didn't think Commodore Puddles was obnoxious.

Especially not when it started to get dark. As he worked on Operation Evil Global Warming of Doom!!!, Commodore Puddles curled up next to his chair and licked his ankle occasionally. It felt - cozy, and it made him forget about the night shadows.

He didn't know how long they'd been like that, when the puppy whined and began pawing at his coat. When Drakken looked down at him, he saw Commodore Puddles practically trembling.

"Oh!" Drakken felt like one of those cartoon light bulbs had gone on over his head. "Do you need to go out?"

Commodore Puddles whimpered in response.

"Okay, then." He clipped a leash onto Commodore Puddles's new collar - no easy feat; he wound up pinching his finger more than once - and took him outside the lair.

Sure enough, the puppy did his business. But once he was done, he just sat there and stared at the sky.

"What are you looking at?" Drakken asked - as if Commodore Puddles could answer him. So he just decided to look for himself.

Stars. An endless number of stars stared down at him, like pieces of glitter thrown across a black piece of construction paper.

Drakken hadn't looked up at the stars for a while, and every time he did, he felt obliged to ponder the mysteries of life. Things like why did everyone call margarine butter even if its brand name was "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!"? No one ever said, "Please pass the margarine." Or what would happen if you stuck a screwdriver in your bellybutton and turned it backward?

Suddenly, though, looking at the stars, he felt very - small. He also sort of felt like he was being watched. Like someone was surveying him from behind those stars.

Drakken squirmed on the hard ground. He hadn't prayed for a long, long time. Well, really, what was he supposed to pray? Please, God, let me take over the world?

That didn't feel right. God had made the world, so it must belong to him. He probably wasn't going to just hand it over to any punk who wanted to rule it.

What if I promised to take really, really good care of it?

But he still felt like he had itching powder down his coat. That wasn't right, either.

"Just...." Drakken whispered to whoever was behind the stars. "Just don't - don't forget about me."

Commodore Puddles nuzzled his cold, wet nose under Drakken's arm just then and brought him away from the sudden lumpiness in his throat. His brown eyes seemed to understand everything.

Suddenly, though, the fur went up on the back of the puppy's neck, and he broke into shrill, yappy barks. Drakken heard footsteps, and he froze. Someone was coming! He'd been discovered!

The air hissed out of him in relief when he saw it was just someone from UPS, carrying a brown package. "You Drew Lipsky?" the man grunted.

Drakken gave him his best villain-suspicious look. "Who wants to know?"

The man rolled his eyes. "I got a package here for him."

He was suddenly grateful for the darkness. You couldn't tell what color someone's skin was in the dark.

"Aren't you guys supposed to deliver in the morning?" Drakken asked.

The man groaned. "Look, pal, it was murder finding this place. You're lucky we're here at all. Now, are you Lipsky or not?"

Drakken sighed. "Yes, that's me. Do I need to sign?"

"Yeh. Here." The man thrust out a piece of paper, and as he did, Drakken caught sight of the return address.

Mother.

Once the paper was signed and the man had left, Drakken tore open the box. And stopped and stared for what could have been hours.

Nestled among those weird little Styrofoam packing peanuts was a teddy bear. Soft and brown, lovingly hand-stitched. There was something on its face, though - something strange.

With hands that were suddenly shaky, he reached into the box and pulled it out. It was just what he had thought. Knitted under the teddy bear's left eye was a long, jagged scar.

Oh, Mother.

Drakken reached back into the box and pulled out a slip of paper. It read:

Dear Drewbie,

I heard what the doctors said about your cut; that it was probably going to scar. I wanted you to see this as a reminder that those who matter won't mind, and those who mind won't matter. To me, you'll always be the most handsome man in the world.

Hang in there, Baby.

Love,

Mom

He stared down at the note until it disappeared in a blur. Then he went inside and hid it in his underwear drawer.

Suddenly, Drakken felt tired. Very tired. Much too tired to work on Operation Globing Warming of Doom!!! It was just as well, though. The little I-don't-want-to-take-over-the-world creature was stirring inside him.

"Come on, Commodore Puddles," he muttered. "Let's go to bed."

Commodore Puddles seemed fine with that; he didn't even seem to think the teddy bear was a new chew toy. So Drakken got into his pajamas and even remembered to take out his contacts.

He took the teddy in his arms. It was every bit as soft as it looked. And he climbed into bed with it, holding it tightly in his arms. There was something safe about it.

Commodore Puddles climbed right into bed with him and curled up at his feet. Within seconds, he could feel the puppy's soft little sleep-breaths against his leg. It was all very - peaceful.

And for the first time in a long, long time, Drakken was content.

*********************

Note: The teddy bear can be spotted on A Very Possible Christmas. (And, yes, it has a scar.)