Shego was slightly jittery. They'd stopped by the water again to fill their canteens and to quench their thirst before setting off. What was it about the water that was bothering her?

Ron scooped up water and drank thirstily. He splashed the cool substance on his face to wake up and then slicked back his hair. "Man this feels nice," he grinned. After he finished playing, he asked, "Can you give me a few more minutes here? The water feels so refreshing and I'm so sore."

The green skinned woman twitched slightly. She'd felt safe here once before too. What was it? What made her fear being near the water so much? "Fine, but don't take too long ok?"

He nodded vigorously and leaned down to slurp up some more of the clear liquid.

After a few minutes he finally pulled away, wiping some of the water off his chin. He sighed in content as he slowly stood up, slightly sluggish from filling his belly.

"Ok Stoppable, let's go."

"Got it," he said, saluting her.

She rolled her eyes and they headed for the forest.

Right before they made it to the tree line a shadow befell them, bathing them in darkness.

Monique stumbled around the dark passages, unsure where she was going and what she was going to do when she found Kim. It wasn't that she hadn't thought of what was to happen, she just wanted to be as rational as possible, and it just so happened that she had no clue what they had gotten into. She had no info to base her plans off of, other than the black blob that was somewhere down here and she needed to be wary of it.

Her feet were callusing over from all the walking over the past few days, and she was positive parts of her feet were bleeding as well. It was hard to say though, considering how numb she felt.

She didn't know how long she'd been wandering around for, but it had to have been at least two hours. The darkness never seemed to end, and neither did the twists and turns and splits in the passages.

Then she heard it. It was soft, but there was definitely something coming from down the hall.

As silently as possible she ran, ran down the corridor and skidded to a halt in front of the door where the noise was coming from.

Pressing her ear to the solid wood she heard someone say, "Now, now, don't be so whiny. Even your nemesis could take more than you when she was here. I thought you were her superior. What's with all this whimpering?" It was slightly mumbled, but still so clear. The coldness in the voice pierced Monique and she flinched back slightly.

There was a slight sobbing sound and a familiar voice choked out, "You rotten bastard. What did you do to her?! Why are you doing all of this?!"

The other voice, Monique guessed to be a male's, cooed gently, "No need for name calling my dear. And I only did to her what I plan to do to you. And this is for the sake of science! I take the best of the best and test them. I want to know what makes them tick, what makes them special!"

"You're a monster," Kim cried.

"My dear," he said gently, though his voice then turned to ice, making Monique shiver, "You have no idea."

Ron shrieked, immediately grabbing Shego. "It's back! That black thing is back!"

She shook her head and tried to stop her slightly trembling body. "No… this is…. This is something completely different. How could I have forgotten?" Her eyes locked onto a pair of bright red ones floating in a slowly blackening mist which was surrounding them.

"What is it?" he asked, voice quivering.

"The third worst thing I encountered in this jungle," she gulped slightly.

"Wha-?"

He was cut off as the mist suddenly filled his mouth, spreading throughout his body like a wildfire. Shego couldn't fight as the mist slowly overtook her as well. It burned, as if their innards were ablaze.

It pulled their limp bodies to the river, all the while they remained conscious, as if watching from outside their bodies, not able to control themselves.

Ron was the first to be pulled under, his blonde hair disappearing below the now black water. Shego quickly followed, engulfed by the strange creature.

The red eyes followed them into the water as they were pulled to the bottom.

A green burst of plasma interrupted the black's attempt to pull Shego under. She'd lit up both her arms all the way up to her shoulders. She let plasma blaze through her veins and destroy the mist.

With her body her own once again, she dove in deep for Ron, but to her surprise, she didn't need to save him.

A blue light was being emitted by the monkey master and the black shadow was suddenly pouring out of every pore, trying to flee as it was vaporized.

As the black disappeared, Ron still continued to sink. He had passed out. The monkey powers must've kicked in when he fell unconscious, saving his life.

She grabbed him by his backpack and swam for the surface, hauling him over the side first before she climbed out after him.

Listening for a breath or a heartbeat she groaned. There was nothing.

She made sure to tilt his chin up, but she refused to kiss him. "No way in hell," she muttered, "There must be another way." As she went over the steps of CPR in her mind it finally came to her. Compressions. That was how she would save him. She was wary though of her strength, careful not to break any of his ribs in the process of saving him. After the 17th compression he coughed up the water in his lungs, spluttering for air for a couple moments.

After vomiting once he managed to sit up and look at Shego. "Thanks," he huffed.

"Don't worry about it. Besides, you did half the work," she muttered. She didn't want to admit it, but since his monkey powers activated, it saved her the trouble of using her energy on creating plasma.

He looked at her questioningly but she didn't give him any information. Now was not the time.

After a quick breather she stood and hauled him to his feet. "Come on. We should get moving."

Nodding, he followed after her, slightly wobbly and light headed.

Looking over her shoulder she saw that he was a little off, and though she would probably regret it later, she slowed down and looped an arm around him. His eyes widened slightly, but she gave him a glare that said, "If you say a word I'm going to beat the shit out of you." He wisely stayed silent.

As they walked along, Ron thought about what had happened before. It was obvious that Shego had faced the thing the last time she was here. Then something else seemed to hit him.

"Hey… you said that was the third worst thing here. What's the second?"

"That… THING from last night."

He seemed confused as he knit his eyebrows together. "What? That's the second worst thing? What's the first?"

Her eyes grew cold and her grip on him tightened as she said, "The man who made them."