A/N: Sorry for the long delay in update, and sorry also if this chapter isn't as interesting. But well...it's part of the over-arching story. Again, I hadn't intended to break this into chapters but it truly is way, way, way too long to be posted all at once.

Part 4

"I, um...would you like to hear another story?"

Of course she didn't respond, and Drakken felt the sick feeling return to his stomach. He frowned and looked away to where the red of the sunset had all but vanished. He wondered if he should turn the flashlight on when it got dark... He could still hear the rain through the hole in the cave's ceiling.

"The hover-car really won't take long to fix, as soon as the rain stops. I know you've been telling me to put a dome on it for years... Eddie would call it 'tricked out.' But it does have some utility... As long as I'm adding things, do you think it needs more seats? I know the last model had three in the front... It would be useful if we ever capture Kim Possible...although I suppose we could just stuff her in the trunk... Yes, I know that's what you would prefer... But I'd like her to hear my gloating before we imprison her for life in the dungeon... Oh! That...that was supposed to be a surprise..."

Drakken felt his chest constrict in pain again.

"I built a dungeon, under the new lair..."

Tears came to his eyes again. They would never capture Kim Possible together. Shego would never see the dungeon he had built. But...he could tell her about it.

"You...you might not like it. It's entirely cliche... I even put a fake skeleton in there, hanging from a wall with shackles... But I had it built it out of the natural cave, so lava is running through..."

Drakken realized just then that even though his clothes were dry, he was still very damp. The cave was hot and humid, and his hair hadn't dried at all in the time they had been inside. He tugged at his collar uncomfortably.

"It has those...old medieval cages that are only big enough for a person to stand in...hanging from caves over the lava flow... And it has a drawbridge over the lava, with the controls only on one side. Oh! You'll like this. I calculated the length of Kim Possible's grapple gun from various security footage and made sure the ceilings are higher. Even if she escapes the cages or shackles, she wouldn't be able to use that thing to get out. And I want to find something that she's afraid of to put inside, too... Maybe—"

He had been about to say 'spiders' but stopped short. The last thing Shego needed reminding of was spiders.

"Maybe I can build a projector...or a Pepper's ghost stage... What do you think the odds are that Kim Possible knows about Pepper's ghost? I'm sure her computer kid knows about them, but there wouldn't be anything digital for him to scan. That's what I'll do..."

He tugged at his collar again and suddenly felt itchy all over. He gently placed Shego's hand on her leg and noted how cold she seemed to be despite the heat in the cave.

"I'm just...going to take my shirt off. It's too hot," he explained as he moved off of the wall.

He stayed within her line of sight as he undid the buttons and then yanked the sweat-soaked garment off of his back, the sleeves sticking to his arms slightly. He tossed the shirt away in the direction of the unopened chip bags. He un-tucked the t-shirt he was wearing from his waistband and pulled at the front of the shirt a few times to air out his chest.

He looked at Shego's still-damp hair and the sheen of sweat over her face. He reached his hands cautiously toward the zipper of her suit.

"Do you want me to... Ah...n-never-mind," he said with a blush, changing his mind. She definitely would not want him undressing her, even if she was hot. And...it wouldn't matter anyway.

He leaned back against the wall and found the stone cool and a slight relief, though his back was still sweaty inside his t-shirt.

"Actually, that...that reminds me of another story. Do you want to hear it...? You probably don't... But my first year in college, I'm sure my dorm room was haunted."

He shifted to put his shoulder against hers, and when he picked up her hand to hold he noticed again how cold she was even through her suit. It wasn't a good sign. Or...maybe it was? Would a quick death be better?

He fought the urge to cry, and leaned his head against hers.

"It's a scary story... You can tell me later if you think so or not..." He paused to gather his emotions as he recalled the memory and decided where to start. "The dorm room I was assigned was on the top floor and in a corner. Oh, I should explain... This was the old building, that had been part of the old campus before MIST was founded. I...can't remember what the old college was called. But my dorm had been part of the original buildings that were built in the 1920's. So it had all the original plumbing, the walls were thicker...the windows had no screens and were single-plate glass... Some rooms, like mine, didn't have a shower and only an old claw-foot tub. And the water was fed from a natural hot spring. It would have been interesting, if not for the haunting...

"When I moved in I also had a freshman roommate. His name was Jonah... He was from Kenya. But that's not relevant... The room was very nice and we both liked it, but all of the upperclassmen told us we had the haunted room. They told us that back in the twenties...a man and woman had been shot and killed in our room, because the woman was the young wife of one of the professors...and the man was a student apprentice to that professor. It was the professor of course who murdered them, after catching them together.

"The story we were told was that the ghosts of the two victims haunted the room, and if anyone ever did anything at all dishonest...horrible things began happening to them. Freak accidents and injuries... Things going missing..."

The light from the sunset had vanished entirely, and Drakken found himself feeling afraid. He turned on the flashlight and set it facing up on the floor right between his and Shego's legs.

"I know what you're thinking. I'm being a baby... But it was really haunted, Shego! After the first couple of months...first, our laundry was destroyed. Down in the washroom... In the same machines we always used. Both mine and Jonah's, but no one else's was ruined. You could say that was just a coincidence... But later that week when I tried to take a bath... I filled the tub as usual while I shaved, but then when I went to get in...the cold water hadn't worked. The tub was only full of hot water. I could have been scalded! And...and before you say it's just coincidence or the old plumbing...that same night the window fell closed while Jonah was studying and the pane shattered. He had so many cuts on his arms and face.

"After that, Jonah admitted he had stolen the answers to the first chemistry test. I was livid. I couldn't believe he had done it, knowing our dorm was haunted! And I know you'll just say...it's still only coincidence. But that night... It was the night before the test... I was asleep, and I woke up when I heard Jonah shout. I saw...I saw two people standing over his bed. It was a man and a woman, and they were wearing clothes from the 1920's. And they both turned and looked at me and...then they vanished."

Drakken turned and looked at Shego's half-lidded eyes. Nothing about her expression had changed.

"I know you don't believe me... Or you think I dreamt it, because of the upperclassmen trying to tease us... But Jonah saw them too! We moved out of the dorm that weekend..."

Drakken's skin was crawling for the horrid memory, and he moved the flashlight closer. But it was casting ominous shadows on the ceiling of the cave and on Shego's face. He noticed how she was much paler than usual, and thought again of how cold her skin was to the touch. He checked her pulse and found it perhaps slightly slower...and her skin was definitely cold.

He realized that in the dark he wouldn't be able to work on the hover-car, even if the rain stopped, which it hadn't.

"I think...maybe we should sleep now," he said as his chest constricted in pain. Was she dying quickly? Would he wake up in the morning to find her gone? "It's too dark to work on the hover-car...and...and you're right, I probably should have just done it in the rain. But...there is no anti-venom for tarantula bites. Because they're..." He swallowed shakily. "They're not fatal."

He let go of her hand as his emotions got the better of him, and he picked up the flashlight.

"I'm turning this out now...um... I'll close your eyes for you, so you can sleep better..." He very gently closed her eyes one at a time with his index finger, and then he took her hand again before turning the flashlight off. He set the light down next to him and then moved closer to her, pressing his hot and sweaty side to her cold one. He leaned his head gently against hers.

"I know it hurts... But that's what it does," he said, trying to reassure her. He hated to lie to her...but he couldn't tell the truth. "And I know it seems like it's not getting better. But the venom just has to...run its course."

He stared into the darkness for a minute and listened to the rain above. He wondered what he would do in the morning... Whether it was raining or not...if she was still alive, he would fix the hover-car. But if she wasn't...

"When I was a child...I would use my glasses to burn bugs and spiders... You know, by focusing the sun's light through the lenses..."

Drakken yawned and let tears fill his eyes as he closed them.

"Don't worry Shego... Try to sleep... Don't worry."