Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible, any of the other characters from that show, or those from any other media I may reference in my stories. Thanks to Screaming Phoenix, Neihaera, and King in Yellow for their reviews of the last chapter.

Doctor Betty Director, head of Global Justice's North American division, was in a foul mood. Not because she'd just had a new headache dumped in her lap by none other than Kim Possible, to go along with the stress of trying to direct three other major operations at once, however. Oddly, being given a fresh problem had been a relief of sorts, the other three investigations had been drawn out by the usual bureaucratic considerations meant to prevent GJ treading on any sensitive local toes. The current three seemed to belong in her top five biggest red-tape headaches of all time, and the first person to mention the saying 'they always come in threes' would seriously regret it.

But she'd just gotten off the phone with the agent supervising one of those operations, to find out that the Justice Department had switched their own top man for some reason, and the newcomer had postponed everything while he was brought up to speed and reviewed the personnel involved. She'd managed not to vent her frustration on her agent, a trait she practiced that her people appreciated greatly.

Right now, though, Kim's little problem wouldn't have been the first thing to occupy her attention, if it weren't for the appearance of her aide, Abby Hogan, who entered Betty's office after a perfunctory knock. "Well, I've done the best I could," Abby began without preamble, "And this is what I think we can spare to look into this problem in Go City." She handed a Betty a sheet of paper with a list of names on it.

Betty studied the list while she replied. "We're not looking into the matter in Go City, we are assembling a liaison team to coordinate with the local FBI, pending more substantial proof that people have been involved in international white slavery, at which time we can conduct a joint investigation with American authorities, or engage in one of our own." She paused, then read aloud from the list. "John Bannicross, Will Du, Brenda Core, Emmett Waller, Kelli Lindell? That's three agents with limited, or nonexistent, field experience, two of whom are regular watch keepers in our Operations Room."

Abby shrugged. "Like I said, that's what we can spare, unless we pull some field people from the other cases. At least Bannicross is an experienced team leader."

Betty nodded grudgingly. "Well, that's true," She admitted, "And he has a good record for dealing with other agencies. Who specifically is he dealing with in Chicago, as far as the FBI is concerned?"

Abby closed her eyes briefly, recalling the information. "Everett Deal, 19 years with the Bureau. Generally regarded as a good supervisor. But, there are rumors about headline coveting. Suggestions of one or two internal reprimands. Been Special Agent in Charge in Go City for the last two years. Low opinion of local police force, lower opinion of Team Go. May use any excuse to avoid tying his agents up on anything connected to the local crop of super-villains. I mean, Federal crimes he can't avoid, but anything borderline..." She shrugged dismissively.

Betty was silent as she tapped her pencil on the desk top. Then she picked up the list again and handed it to Abby. "Approved, get them kitted out and moving, find out if they can carry US Marshal ID for this one."

"Shouldn't have any trouble there, we haven't given them any reason to regret letting us do it before." Abby replied. "Now on another subject, what do you think Kim Possible is doing right now?"

Betty gave her a look suggesting the change of topic was not welcome, then sighed. "I'd like to know why Paladin involved her in the first place!" She pushed her chair back and stood up, stepping over to the bank of monitors on one wall and scanning them as she continued, "The idea of her taking those ashes to Shego...have we checked the official adoption records for that girl, Millicent Whitlock?"

Abby's look soured. "Yes, and someone slipped up badly. The family that supposedly adopted her doesn't exist. Which suggests that someone who approved the adoption was a party to this white slavery, or was deceived, which wouldn't explain the lack of at least a cursory background check. And...we found five other similar adoptions in the records for the Crescent Street Orphanage, going back eleven years, and that was just with a cursory check of our own."

Betty didn't turn from her scrutiny of the monitors as she responded, "Well, I think a more in-depth check is called for, provided the resources can be spared from our priority projects."

Abby grimaced. "Well, not really, unless we hold back Lindell or Core from the team, and have them run the check. Or..." She trailed off expectantly, and sure enough Betty turned to regard her curiously. She smiled half-heartedly. "Or we can have Wade Load pass along his findings, he's definitely running a similar search for Kim."

That brought a scowl to Betty's face. "She's getting involved in this, isn't she?" She asked rhetorically, "Which should surprise no one!" She stood silently, jaw clenched, for nearly a minute. Then she flung her hands up, and then grabbed the back of her chair and squeezed until her knuckles whitened. "I thought...she's just not equating this with the people she fought in the Caribbean, is she? That maybe she's not ready for this sort of thing? But who am I to judge, she seems to have weathered her experiences last summer without any great trauma!" She released her grip and fell silent, face set in a frown of concentration.

"As far as we know." Abby remarked quietly. "But you're worried about her, aren't you?"

Betty snorted, shaking her head. "She's a hard person not to care about, isn't she? I almost have the parental desire to put a stop to her adventuring, can you imagine that?"

A hint of sarcasm crept into the last, but Abby just smiled. "Better be careful, boss, or you're going to get all mopey on me." As Betty shot her a glare, she became serious. "Imagine what it's like for her parents, Betts? Letting her find her own way, and she chooses a path like this? And not being able to hypocritically rein her in now? Well, they don't know the truth about what happened last summer, she hasn't even told Ron how serious it became!"

Betty didn't reply at first, considering whether to reveal a secret to her aide. But then she nodded slightly. "I have it on good authority that Shego has been almost obsessed with the footage from that day that was recorded by Drakken's surveillance cameras. The fighting, especially. For some reason, she almost sent a copy of some of it, or some footage from the prison cameras, to Kim's parents! But then didn't, now why do you suppose she'd do a thing like that?"

Abby shrugged. "Mess with Kim? Get her parents upset, so maybe they'd ground her?"

Betty shook her head. "I don't buy it. Shego has had the opportunities and the means of getting Kim out of her hair for a long time, either permanently or temporarily, through injury, death, or other less injurious methods, and she hasn't. Doctor Pryor, among others, thinks she relishes having Kim around as an opponent." She referred to the head psychiatric resident for this base. "So, why try and get her grounded now?"

"Guilt?" Abby suggested, "She owes Kim her life, and that probably doesn't sit well with her. So, she tries to eliminate any possibility of having to spare Kim? In a fight, or..." She trailed off, frowning. After a moment, she resumed tentatively. "Unless she thinks that by getting Kim grounded, she might actually be discharging that debt, saving Kim's life in theory? Is my imagination running away with me, because that sounds totally whack! And certainly not like Shego as we know her!"

"Ah, but do we really know Shego as well as we thought we did, Abby?" Betty replied with a question, one that had bothered her for quite a long time. "We know her past, as far as what's recorded on paper, but do we know the woman herself?"

Betty's intercom buzzed. "Yes, Grace?"

"Will Du here to see you, Ma'am, and the answer to your earlier inquiry came back as affirmative."

Betty rolled her eye. "Very well, Grace, send Agent Du in in a minute, all right?" She took her finger off the key and gave Abby a sour look. "Grace gave me the code for 'And he's got that air of insufferable smugness', I wonder what he's found?"

"We'll know in a minute." Abby replied, "So, Grace can discern between his normal smugness, and the 'insufferable' level?" She added with a smirk.

Betty gave her a smug smile back. "Not just in him, Abby."

Abby's brow furrowed, and she regarded Betty suspiciously, but any reply was prevented by Du's entrance. Doctor Director, face serious again, regarded him coolly. "Well, Mister Du, what have you found?"

Will of course braced to attention as he responded. "I discovered a previous inquiry involving Millicent Whitlock in our files, Ma'am."

Long practice allowed Betty to limit her response to a slightly raised eyebrow. "Really? In what...ah! Did we seek her out in regards to obtaining background information on Shego?"

Abby hid a grin as Will deflated slightly. His response was still crisp, however. "Yes, Ma'am, that's exactly it. The investigating agent at the time discovered that the family that supposedly adopted the girl did not exist. His report doesn't say what steps he took after discovering this."

Now a serious scowl formed on Betty's face. "I don't like such an omission in an official report, Mister Du, who was the investigating agent?"

"Frank Durham, Ma'am, now working out of our West Coast base." Will replied, then added, "Ma'am, with regards to the rough time line we have concerning Miss Whitlock, relayed to us secondhand by Miss Possible, the incident may coincide with her move from Go City overseas to where she died."

"Damn!" Abby muttered. The grim look on Betty's face showed her own feelings clearly. She rose again, but just stood at her desk, before shaking her head.

"The two incidents aren't necessarily related, but I'd like you to set up a little talk with Agent Durham, Abby." She waited for Abby's nod of acknowledgment, then addressed Will again. "Have we found anything to indicate exactly which country we are talking about?"

Will's face set in the impassive expression with which he always gave bad news to superiors. "Other than to narrow it to Central or South America, Ma'am, no."

Betty's face was equally impassive as she replied. "Have them keep working on it. You may go, Agent Du. And mention to whomever is trying to discover the answer that Miss Paladin may have private transportation that we have difficulty tracking, but she generally goes through customs normally, contact the State Department about her passport use of late."

When Will had gone, she turned back to her aide. "I doubt we were the cause of Miss Whitlock's final fate, she wasn't the only victim of this racket! But find out who Durham talked to about it. And he damned well had better have made some inquiry, or passed it on!"

00000000000

"Ashes on the water, all that's left of her..." Shego stood in melancholy contemplation as she watched the ashes she'd solemnly cast from the container float briefly on the top of the water before vanishing. She blinked back tears as the breeze swept some stray hair across her face. "Well, I've done as you wanted, Milly, but why the hell did it have to be so soon!" She flared her plasma, deliberately incinerating the small container in her hands. Then she winced and looked around. "Great! Draw attention to yourself, why don't you! This will be hard enough to pull off with Possible looking over my shoulder, I don't need the cops after me, too!"

But none of the handful of people in sight appeared to have noticed her display, all seemingly wrapped up in their own business. Or..."Could Possible have brought some back-up from GJ? Now trying too hard not to notice?" The suspicion took root quickly, but Shego abruptly shook her head. "Possible doesn't work like that, and would have no reason to keep it secret that I can see" Then a wary scowl crossed her features, and she looked at the water lapping against the rocks she stood on.

"How does someone go from being your best friend, to forgotten, ignored, just like that? When she was adopted, I was resentful, but I still missed her. But then, after the 'comet', it was as if...what?" Her expression darkened further. "Why don't I think of the times I was actually happy in this place? With Milly, the twins? Yeah, even with Henry and Warren? What keeps those thoughts, those memories, out of my head?"

She concentrated for a moment, remembering a time playing with the twins. "We watched 'Sesame Street' with the other younger children, it had to be a school holiday, I was about twelve.." Then another memory intruded, her having a laugh at the expense of the Sureté, having pulled off a theft right under their noses...she shook her head violently. "That's happened before! Memories of my childhood, happy ones, overridden in my head by ones from my criminal career!"

She took a quick glance to where Kim stood, head slightly bowed, on the grass strip between Bay Drive and the rocky shore. "Is she praying for Milly's soul? She might be. Just as well someone is, I don't feel like I can ask much from God these days." She looked up at the sky. Rain was definitely on the agenda, it was time to stop musing and get going. "Going to where, is the question! If I actually meet the guy responsible for what happened to Milly, what am I going to do? Most likely, something Possible will try and stop! And then what, how far am I willing to go? What really worries me right now is that I don't know the answer, I've never had this much doubt about my intentions before."

Kim was lost in her own thoughts. She'd heard someone say once that you couldn't start thinking about your enemies as human beings, or you'd lose your edge against them. She'd rejected that notion out of hand, yet...how had she thought of Shego all this time, that seeing the villainess so human and vulnerable disquieted her so much?

"Hey!" Kim started, and looked up to see Shego approaching, having gotten far closer unnoticed then Kim was comfortable with. "Just how are you planning to go about this, Princess?" The older woman asked, spreading her arms wide in an all-encompassing gesture. "You do have a plan, I assume?"

Kim drew in a deep breath to calm herself, because Shego's tone was nettling, goading. Then she gestured towards the orphanage. "I need to talk to someone there to get some information that might point us at whoever helped rig your friend's adoption."

"Why don't you have Nerdlinger look it all up on his computer?" The tone was only a trifle more pleasant this time. For Shego, that is.

"Because there's something that's not in the public records, that's why." Kim replied with forced calm, "He already found that there have been several adoptions where the family receiving the child was bogus, Shego. Seven so far, besides your friend. The question is why no one ran the usual background check on the adopting family. Either someone important in that Orphanage, or maybe Go City Child Services, is in league with whoever hurt those children, or someone inside was deceived by someone they, or the orphanage as an institution, trusted."

Shego pursed her lips as she scowled towards the orphanage building. "And you think you'll get the answer just by walking in and asking?" She asked skeptically.

"It can't hurt to ask one person, someone in charge." Kim replied, "I know that's just the sort of person we need to suspect, but I don't intend to come right out and tell them about Milly, unless I think it'll do some good. The woman I'll be talking to is a Mrs Kenneally, was she around then?"

Shego's look soured considerably. "Yeah, she was here then..." She mumbled, "And I hated her! But, to be...fair, I think she's an honest woman. Feh!" She snorted, "Imagine me being a judge of someone's 'good' character!" She stared at the building again. "Not sure how she'd feel to see me again."

That caused Kim to remember something. "Oh! By the way, your brothers are here.." Kim saw Shego's eyes widen in shock, then almost immediately narrow in suspicion, "Well, the twins are, not the older two." Kim hastily amended. That caused Shego to shoot a glance at the building, suspicion changing to a confused mix of emotions. Kim thought she saw fear, hope, and worry chase each other across her face.

"Um.." Shego wet her lips nervously as she wavered, "In that case...in that case, I don't think I'll go in with you!" She said a bit louder then she intended, causing her to actually blush slightly. Then a thought struck her, and she rummaged in one pocket, as Kim watched curiously. Finally she pulled out a compact with a blue and white marbled finish and gold fittings. She handed it to Kim, after fiddling with it briefly. "Take that with you, so I can hear what happens."

Kim studied it briefly, then handed it back, shaking her head. "No. If you were to hear something important, you could just take off without me, Shego."

A look of outrage appeared on Shego's face. "WHAT! What's the matter with you? Can't you just trust..." Her outburst was choked off abruptly as she clamped her mouth shut and blushed deeply as she actually realized what she was saying. Then she caught sight of something behind Kim, towards the orphanage, and a panicked look appeared on her face. She looked about frantically as if for somewhere to hide, but there was nowhere but the bay itself. Then she seized control of herself. Tugging the brim of her hat down as far as she dared, she whispered urgently to Kim. "My car's across the street from the front of the orphanage, Blue '08 Mustang, meet me there afterwards!" Then she walked hurriedly away.

Thrown off by these very un-Shegolike antics, Kim still was able to correctly guess what she'd see when she turned around. The Wegos had emerged from the same door she had, and were walking towards her. Or rather, stopped to let some traffic pass by on Bay Drive before crossing over to where she was. With one last intrigued look at Shego, Kim started over to meet them. Her mind began to list the things she wanted to ask them, and she wondered how much she could ask about Shego's past.

As Shego walked away her emotions were roiling within her so much she almost became physically ill. There were conflicting desires with regard to the Wegos, on the one hand the strong desire to turn and go back and embrace them, striving vainly against another desire, to put as much distance between her and the weakness they represented as possible.

Then there were the conflicting feelings about Possible. On one hand, she wanted to leave the girl, strike out on her own and find the vengeance she craved. But that was balanced by a practical consideration. Kim could talk to people Shego couldn't. Shego could threaten or intimidate the same people, but that might not work, and would soon draw more attention to her then she desired. And going through the people in question was preferable to seeking the answers in Go City's underworld, for several reasons.

Firstly was her past in Go City. It was the one place where her hard-earned reputation was negated by memories of her time as an uncertain teen 'heroine'. She had to try too hard to be taken seriously in this town. Secondly, and more important, the people she sought might get advanced warning of her coming through the same people she'd have to deal with.

And right now, a distinctly different concern about Kim was dominant in her mind, what information she might glean from the twins about Shego's past. And the possibility that somehow she'd involve them in this business which the thief now realized was the thing that worried her most. Their presence would completely negate her chance to gain revenge, she knew without doubt she'd never act out her plans with them present as witnesses. Possible's feelings and opinion of her she couldn't care less about, but the boys...

Then she heard something that eased those concerns considerably, and risked a quick glance back. Carried on the breeze came the tones of the Team Go emergency signal. She saw one of the boys, Ted she would have bet, cast his eyes heavenwards while spreading his arms in what was probably a 'why now' gesture, as his brother Franklin answered the call on his wrist communicator. Shego idly wondered if they were the same cut-rate models the City had bought for them all those years ago, or whether they'd sprung for tougher and more reliable versions some time since.

After just a few moments, she saw the pair exchange glances, and apparently apologize to Kim. Then Shego flinched as a sedan shot past her, a blue light flashing from it's windshield. It skidded to a halt, and the Wegos climbed in immediately. The car promptly accelerated away, leaving Kim standing at the curb, shoulders slightly slumped.

"Why so disappointed, Kimmie? Lost a chance to get some dirt on me?" Shego thought as she turned and walked away again, a slight smirk on her face. Then a slight frown appeared. There was an outside chance Kim could have actually wanted to ask the Wegos something pertinent to the hunt, though Shego personally doubted it. Still, anything that sped the process up...she shook her head. One way or another, Kim would find something, Shego had faith..."HUH?"

Crossing Bay Drive, Kim dismissed her brief disappointment at the lost opportunity, and concentrated on planning what she'd ask Mrs Kenneally, and perhaps more important, how she'd ask it. What information to share...she wondered briefly about Shego's qualified endorsement of the woman, how was she to take that?

Her musings were interrupted even as she reached for the door handle by the Kimmunicator going off. Suddenly feeling an unexplained shiver run down her spine, she took it out and activated it. Wade's face resolved on the screen, and there was no sign of worry on his face, but somehow Kim still felt he was about to give her bad news. "What's the sitch, Wade?" She greeted the boy.

He grinned broadly. "Hey Kim, just wanted to let you know, Jen Paladin just flew into a community airport about nine miles from Go City, with her partner." His grin faltered, then vanished, as she saw the look of dismay on Kim's face. "What's wrong, Kim?"

Kim delayed answering as she squeezed her eyes shut and chewed on her lip briefly. Then she opened them and looked at Wade's face on the screen. "I thought she was ahead of us!" She paused, thinking, then shook her head. "I thought, after giving me the ashes, she was going to come straight here, and get on the trail of the bad guys!" She flung up her hands as she walked away from the door. "I hoped that she'd get the bad guys before Shego could get near them! Now what do I do, can I stall her?"

There was a moment's silence before Wade's puzzled "Stall her?" Brought Kim's attention back to her webmaster. "Oh! You couldn't know, I'm sort of teaming up with her, easier to keep an eye on her that way." The blatant skepticism that appeared on Wade's face immediately drove home to her how wrong that sounded! But she was committed, one way or another. But she stopped short of reassuring Wade that things were under control. They weren't, and he'd certainly know it. "This sitch is tricky, Wade, and I'm playing it by ear. Just trust me, okay?"

Wade was silent for a moment, then he grudgingly nodded. "Okay, Kim," he replied, "But I'd feel a lot better if this was the kind of sitch you usually get involved with."

Kim sighed. "So would I, Wade," She answered fervently, "So would I..."

And so this chapter ends.

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