![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thatcrazycajunJust so y'all don't think Lunarites is the only thing you're gonna be getting in these Fanfic Sampler thingies, here's one I wrote awhile back starring my two favorite characters from the animated Disney Channel hit series Kim Possible. Should be work- and kid-safe; no sex, just intense character development and a smidgen of gore. (And it's even founded in canon; Shego's purposely saved Kim's life at least once on the show.)
In this scene, a major (and far more vicious than most) new villain has escaped after battling Our Heroine and leaving her for dead, far from any possible medical help...and Shego, once again unwillingly allied with her chief nemesis, faces a fateful decision.
She kneeled down next to Kim, wanting desperately to take her eyes away from the gruesome sight, yet not being able to look away. "Aw, geeze," she said at last, softly, almost to herself, "you poor kid...even you don't deserve to die like this."
What are you thinking?! the cruel, snide, nasty voice that always seemed to resound in Shego's head snarled. This is what we've tried to accomplish for years: Kim Possible, out of the way—never, ever able to stop us again! Let the meddling little bitch die, you fool!
But even this voice, the one that had ruled Shego's life for so long, that had first enticed her down the path of evil all those years ago, could not drown out the inexplicable, searing pain she was feeling in her heart and her gut, as though it were sympathetically echoing Kim's death-wound. She could feel tears welling up in her own eyes, despite herself. Somehow, something in her was actually...grieving? No! It couldn't be! It made no sense at all! This was her arch-nemesis, her bête-blanc, yin to her yang. And yet...something in her found the thought of Kim dying to be unbearable. To never see that girlish face again glaring her down, one set of green eyes boring into another, across an arena of battle... Something good and precious and worth saving in the world, something needed to balance out...well, people like Shego, would be lost if Kimberly Ann Possible were allowed to die. She couldn't face it; try as she might, she just couldn't bring herself to let Kim die...and she knew that, unless someone acted immediately, the last little flicker of life in those green eyes would go out in mere moments. There wasn't anywhere near time enough to get her to a hospital, even if one had been even remotely nearby. And so, somewhere inside the black-haired, supposedly black-hearted villainess, a decision was made.
Almost as if watching someone else move her body from a vantage point outside it, Shego saw herself tenderly cradle Kim's limply lolling head in her arms...saw herself struggle to remove her trademark green leather gloves, with their razor-sharp metal claws in the fingertips...and move a bare, greenish-white hand over the sickening, gory wound in Kim's chest.
"Please, God," she heard herself whisper—when the hell was the last time she had prayed for anything?— "I know I've used these powers to do some bad stuff..." Was that shame in her voice? Was it breaking, were those sniffles? Jeeze, she was such a wimp all of a sudden. "Okay, a lot of bad stuff...but I used to use them to save lives, a long time ago. Just this one more time...please...let me use them for something that matters...something worthwhile." And she concentrated, as she had never concentrated before, willed all her mind and spirit and soul into turning the green energy she had so often used to hurt, instead...to heal. "Pull together...not break apart...pull together...not break apart..." she muttered over and over again as the green glow started, at first softly, then more brightly, illuminating her old foe's agonized face and sundered torso. She could feel the energy crackling under her palms, and hoped against hope that she could transfer some of that energy to restore Kim's fading life-force. Even if it took all she had, even if it killed her, something inside the woman who had once been an innocent little girl named Sheryl Grace O'Reilly would not, could not let Kim Possible die today.
A few feet away, Will Du and Ron Stoppable were coming to their feet. "She's going to finish Kim off!" Will cried, making to leap to Kim's aid. But Ron's hand clapped onto the Global Justice agent's neoprene-sleeved arm to restrain him. "Wait," Ron said. "I don't think so. Look at her face." Eyes closed, Shego seemed to be in a state somewhere between rapture and agony--but nowhere near death-dealing hate. Both the young women's bodies were surrounded now by a nimbus of softly glowing green light.
"Then what is she doing?" Will asked, perplexed.
"I'm not sure," Ron said, "but it looks like she's...healing Kim somehow."
"Healing her?! Why on Earth would she do that?"
"Beats the heck outta me," Ron said. "But look. She's doing it." Even Rufus, from his vantage point in one of Ron's voluminous pants pockets, was dumbfounded.
Shego could not have said how long she stayed like that, feeding energy into Kim, gradually feeling the body in her arms shudder, then breathe shallowly, then more steadily. Finally she blacked out, almost fully depleted of energy, and collapsed over Kim, still holding her in her arms and on her lap.
Slowly, Kim awoke to find herself under a heavy weight...a weight that turned out to be another person, one she instantly recognized. "Sh-Shego?" she said weakly. There was no response.
"Shego, can you hear me? Are you okay?" She reached up a weak hand to shake the green-and-black-clad shoulder closest to her, but still there was no movement in the unconscious body otherwise. Finally a low, long groan issued from it, and Kim felt relief wash over her.
"Uhhhh...did someone get the license number of that elephant?" Shego muttered thickly, dazed and completely drained from the effort of healing Kim. She then looked down to see Kim's eyes open and full of concern and relief...not to mention puzzlement.
"Shego—did...did you just do...what I think you just did?" Kim asked uncertainly.
Shego took a second to respond. She looked further down Kim's torso to where the bleeding crater was...or rather, had been. The famous purple top was still torn open squarely at mid-cleavage—or where Kim would have cleavage, once she finished filling out—but the skin there was now pink and smooth, rising and falling normally with each breath, as if the wound had never been. The bruises on Kim's face had likewise vanished, although the sweat and blood were still spattered there in spots. Shego smiled thinly and said, almost to herself, "Yeah...I - I guess I did." In her mind, she whispered to God or whatever had allowed her to do it, Thank you.
"You...you healed me?" Kim's face showed her effort to wrap her mind around the bizarre notion of her most feared enemy doing her such a tremendous kindness. "Thanks. Um...Not that I want to seem...the least little bit ungrateful, but...w-why?"
Why, indeed? Shego searched within herself for the answer to Kim's question...and couldn't find it for the life of her. Not at first, anyhow. Then at long last, it hit her: Kim was all the things that Shego herself had once been...and that a part of her she usually refused to even admit was there still wished she could be, and was ashamed at having turned against. And a still, small voice said in her head: Maybe Miss Go isn't completely gone after all, huh? But aloud, she said to Kim, "I owed you, that's all; now we're even. Don't read too much into it, Princess. Besides, nobody gets to kill you but me, remember?" She tried to school her expression back into its customary sneer and summon up the old mocking tone; neither quite seemed to work.
Kim's eyes danced with a trace of their old mischief as she looked up at Shego. "That's all? You sure about that?" she said, grinning up at her once-and-possibly-future nemesis.
Shego glared back, but her heart wasn't really in it. "Yeah, I'm sure. Can you get up? My legs are going to sleep."
"I...I think so. But...wait." But Kim was still smiling. In a lower tone, she whispered, "I heard that stuff you were saying. About wanting to use your powers for something worthwhile." Shego started, red-faced and beginning to anger. "Calm down," Kim soothed. "I won't tell anyone, I promise...on one condition."
Shego sighed. "What?"
"That you promise to at least think about doing more of that sort of thing." Kim's eyes poured kindness and forgiveness and hope into Shego's, and for a moment that seemed timeless, they locked onto hers, entreating. "You could be a really awesome hero, you know...just like you used to be. You still have a choice; we all do."
Shego sighed irritably. "Even assuming I wanted to, hel-lo? Wanted in 11 countries? Multiple felonies and a price on my head? It's not as simple as that, Kimmie."
"You're wrong," Kim said firmly. "I think it really is exactly that simple. Look, you didn't go bad overnight, did you? It was...a gradual process, right?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but...yeah, pretty much," Shego retorted sourly. "So?"
"So you can go back good the same way...if you want to," Kim said. "You don't have to do it all at once; just say to yourself, 'Just for today, I won't be evil, I'll be good.' And you get through that day, and you don't do anything evil. Then you say it again the next day, and the next, and the next. Some days you'll do better, some you won't...but you take it one step and one day at a time. That's all it takes." She took Shego's hand in her own, and the older girl made no protest nor offered any resistance. "That's all I do—all any of us does, I think." The redhead's eyes bored into the raven-tressed older girl's now, with the steel of conviction.
Shego was silent for a long, long minute, lost in thought and those damned green eyes. Could I do that? Would it really be as simple as that? Just choose to do good instead of evil? Then she saw Kim's face reshape itself into an expression she knew only too well. Oh, God, please, not the Puppy-Dog Pout! Anything but that... But Kim was relentless in her entreating cuteness. Finally Shego sighed in exasperation and said, "Okay, okay, I'll think about it. Not promising any more than that."
Kim relented at last, smiling again. "Not asking any more. Now help me up?"
Shego nodded. Staggering, they somehow made it upright, Shego grunting with the weight of both of them and Kim leaning on the older girl for support. "You've put on a pound or two, Possible," Shego growled, more to bait Kim than anything else, trying desperately to re-establish their old dynamic of heroine and villainess-adversary.
"Hard to see how," Kim retorted, "with you always keeping me chasing after you." But she was grinning. Nice try, kiddo, she thought to herself, but you can't erase what just happened between us that easily. Not after what you just did...what I just saw.
Aloud, she said, "You do know what this means, don't you?"
Shego grunted. "Yeah—that I'm a complete moron!"
"No. It means that the hero you used to be is still in there somewhere...and one of these days, I'm gonna get her to come back out for good." Kim smiled a conspiratorial, but determined, smile at her sometime adversary.
"Don't count on it, Cupcake," Shego said, trying again to muster the old bravado—and this time, almost succeeding...almost.
Finally, they reached the spot where Will and Ron had stood, silently observing, unsure of how to proceed. Shego handed Kim off to Ron, saying, "You oughta take better care of your hero-girlfriend there, sidekick. Don't let her get holes blasted in her like that again; I might not be around to bail your butts out next time...assuming I even feel like it." She regarded them negligently as she tugged her gloves back on.
Ron declined to take the bait, instead taking Kim under his arm and saying quietly, "Roger that. And...thank you."
"Yeah, yeah, sure, just don't let it get around, will ya? I have a rep to maintain, y'know." She fixed him with a glare. "If word of this gets out, every super-villain in the world she's ever put away is gonna come gunning for me, including Drakken—maybe especially Drakken...and if that happens, guess who I'll come looking for?" She said this last through gritted teeth and brandished a clenched, green-gloved fist in the boy's face. Ron gulped and nodded.
She turned to Will and held out her wrists, as if expecting him to clap handcuffs on them. "So, Global Jughead, I suppose I'm under arrest?"
"Um..." Will seemed uncharacteristically unsure of himself for once, and Kim stifled a giggle. "In view of certain...mitigating circumstances, I'm inclined to allow you leniency...this time. I feel sure Dr. Director will back me up on it...once I explain the situation to her." He was, of course, sure of nothing of the sort; in fact, he fully expected that the curvaceous, eye-patched head of Global Justice would royally bawl him out and slap a buttload of demerits into his record jacket for letting Public Enemy Number Two walk away from his grasp, not to mention docking his pay well into the next century for the loss of his ship...but he held his peace on the subject, figuring his standing as GJ's top agent would let him get away with it—at least once. I hope, he thought.
"You're letting me go?" Shego was surprised, which Kim suspected was a rarity. "Cool. Waitaminnit—not cool! I owe you one now, don't I?"
"You'd better believe it," Will replied with steel in his voice, jabbing a finger at her for emphasis. "And I will collect, rest assured; one day, you and that blue-skinned boss of yours are going to pay your debt to society for your crimes. But for now, get out of my sight before I come to my senses and change my mind."
Shego mock-saluted him. "Will do," she said, deliberately making fun of his name and relishing the resulting scowl she got from him. "Now just how am I supposed to do that, exactly? I seem to recall you guys blowing up the only way off this rock."
"Relax," Kim said. "You can ride with us; Capt. Krasnovskaya should be picking us up any minute. I'll tell her we're taking you into custody, and when she drops us off at port, you can leave from there."
"Ooh," Shego cooed mockingly. "Little Miss Goody-Two-Boots is willing to lie again...for me? Maybe I'll be the one who turns you bad, Pumpkin." She placed her fists on her broad hips, having regained some composure along with her gloves, and smirked at them smugly.
"Never happen," Kim said stoutly. She folded her arms over her newly-healed chest...and looked down and blushed, realizing the hole in her shirt was still there. "Oop," she said and awkwardly tried to cover the hole with her free hand. Shego snickered, but inside a part of her was charmed by the sight of the redheaded teenager blushing clear down past her collarbone.
"No worries, K.P.," Ron said briskly to cover for his girlfriend, throwing his jacket over her shoulders. "We'll get a fresh change of clothes for you from the ship's quartermaster." Kim eyed him with a silent thank-you and realized anew how lucky she was to have him...and cursed herself yet again for not noticing for so long previously.
Sure enough, the Kimmunicator beeped almost on cue, and Kim radioed their coordinates to the Volgatyev's communications officer. Will chose to wait for a GJ aircraft to pick him up and waved goodbye to them after a well-done handshake with Kim and Ron.
Later, after they'd been taken aboard and refreshed themselves, Kim and Ron sat together in their hastily-arranged guest quarters belowdecks (Shego having been escorted to the ship's brig; security procedures and appearances had to be maintained, after all).
"I couldn't help overhearing some of what you guys were talking about," Ron said. "You really think Shego can be reformed?"
Kim sighed. "I don't know, Ron," she said, "but I can't believe she's all bad—not after today. And she did serve on a super-hero team once."
Ron smiled. "Well, if anyone in the world can charm a super-villain out of being evil, I'd bet money on you, K.P." He kissed her forehead and she smiled ruefully.
"From your lips to God's ears," she murmured as she entered his embrace. They just sat holding each other for a long time until finally, blessedly, exhaustion and stress took their toll and both of them fell deeply asleep.
THE END
In this scene, a major (and far more vicious than most) new villain has escaped after battling Our Heroine and leaving her for dead, far from any possible medical help...and Shego, once again unwillingly allied with her chief nemesis, faces a fateful decision.
—————
Shego looked down at the suddenly frail figure lying at her green-booted feet. Kim's red hair was matted across her forehead, plastered there with a mixture of sweat and blood—her own, in both cases. The bruises on her face were already nicely purpling, and her eyes were barely open. But the worst was the blackened, bleeding, nauseating crater in her chest, exposing charred ribs and a portion of her still barely beating heart; Shego could see it undulating as it beat every so often. Sucking chest wound, she heard in her mind from some long-forgotten TV medical drama.She kneeled down next to Kim, wanting desperately to take her eyes away from the gruesome sight, yet not being able to look away. "Aw, geeze," she said at last, softly, almost to herself, "you poor kid...even you don't deserve to die like this."
What are you thinking?! the cruel, snide, nasty voice that always seemed to resound in Shego's head snarled. This is what we've tried to accomplish for years: Kim Possible, out of the way—never, ever able to stop us again! Let the meddling little bitch die, you fool!
But even this voice, the one that had ruled Shego's life for so long, that had first enticed her down the path of evil all those years ago, could not drown out the inexplicable, searing pain she was feeling in her heart and her gut, as though it were sympathetically echoing Kim's death-wound. She could feel tears welling up in her own eyes, despite herself. Somehow, something in her was actually...grieving? No! It couldn't be! It made no sense at all! This was her arch-nemesis, her bête-blanc, yin to her yang. And yet...something in her found the thought of Kim dying to be unbearable. To never see that girlish face again glaring her down, one set of green eyes boring into another, across an arena of battle... Something good and precious and worth saving in the world, something needed to balance out...well, people like Shego, would be lost if Kimberly Ann Possible were allowed to die. She couldn't face it; try as she might, she just couldn't bring herself to let Kim die...and she knew that, unless someone acted immediately, the last little flicker of life in those green eyes would go out in mere moments. There wasn't anywhere near time enough to get her to a hospital, even if one had been even remotely nearby. And so, somewhere inside the black-haired, supposedly black-hearted villainess, a decision was made.
Almost as if watching someone else move her body from a vantage point outside it, Shego saw herself tenderly cradle Kim's limply lolling head in her arms...saw herself struggle to remove her trademark green leather gloves, with their razor-sharp metal claws in the fingertips...and move a bare, greenish-white hand over the sickening, gory wound in Kim's chest.
"Please, God," she heard herself whisper—when the hell was the last time she had prayed for anything?— "I know I've used these powers to do some bad stuff..." Was that shame in her voice? Was it breaking, were those sniffles? Jeeze, she was such a wimp all of a sudden. "Okay, a lot of bad stuff...but I used to use them to save lives, a long time ago. Just this one more time...please...let me use them for something that matters...something worthwhile." And she concentrated, as she had never concentrated before, willed all her mind and spirit and soul into turning the green energy she had so often used to hurt, instead...to heal. "Pull together...not break apart...pull together...not break apart..." she muttered over and over again as the green glow started, at first softly, then more brightly, illuminating her old foe's agonized face and sundered torso. She could feel the energy crackling under her palms, and hoped against hope that she could transfer some of that energy to restore Kim's fading life-force. Even if it took all she had, even if it killed her, something inside the woman who had once been an innocent little girl named Sheryl Grace O'Reilly would not, could not let Kim Possible die today.
A few feet away, Will Du and Ron Stoppable were coming to their feet. "She's going to finish Kim off!" Will cried, making to leap to Kim's aid. But Ron's hand clapped onto the Global Justice agent's neoprene-sleeved arm to restrain him. "Wait," Ron said. "I don't think so. Look at her face." Eyes closed, Shego seemed to be in a state somewhere between rapture and agony--but nowhere near death-dealing hate. Both the young women's bodies were surrounded now by a nimbus of softly glowing green light.
"Then what is she doing?" Will asked, perplexed.
"I'm not sure," Ron said, "but it looks like she's...healing Kim somehow."
"Healing her?! Why on Earth would she do that?"
"Beats the heck outta me," Ron said. "But look. She's doing it." Even Rufus, from his vantage point in one of Ron's voluminous pants pockets, was dumbfounded.
Shego could not have said how long she stayed like that, feeding energy into Kim, gradually feeling the body in her arms shudder, then breathe shallowly, then more steadily. Finally she blacked out, almost fully depleted of energy, and collapsed over Kim, still holding her in her arms and on her lap.
Slowly, Kim awoke to find herself under a heavy weight...a weight that turned out to be another person, one she instantly recognized. "Sh-Shego?" she said weakly. There was no response.
"Shego, can you hear me? Are you okay?" She reached up a weak hand to shake the green-and-black-clad shoulder closest to her, but still there was no movement in the unconscious body otherwise. Finally a low, long groan issued from it, and Kim felt relief wash over her.
"Uhhhh...did someone get the license number of that elephant?" Shego muttered thickly, dazed and completely drained from the effort of healing Kim. She then looked down to see Kim's eyes open and full of concern and relief...not to mention puzzlement.
"Shego—did...did you just do...what I think you just did?" Kim asked uncertainly.
Shego took a second to respond. She looked further down Kim's torso to where the bleeding crater was...or rather, had been. The famous purple top was still torn open squarely at mid-cleavage—or where Kim would have cleavage, once she finished filling out—but the skin there was now pink and smooth, rising and falling normally with each breath, as if the wound had never been. The bruises on Kim's face had likewise vanished, although the sweat and blood were still spattered there in spots. Shego smiled thinly and said, almost to herself, "Yeah...I - I guess I did." In her mind, she whispered to God or whatever had allowed her to do it, Thank you.
"You...you healed me?" Kim's face showed her effort to wrap her mind around the bizarre notion of her most feared enemy doing her such a tremendous kindness. "Thanks. Um...Not that I want to seem...the least little bit ungrateful, but...w-why?"
Why, indeed? Shego searched within herself for the answer to Kim's question...and couldn't find it for the life of her. Not at first, anyhow. Then at long last, it hit her: Kim was all the things that Shego herself had once been...and that a part of her she usually refused to even admit was there still wished she could be, and was ashamed at having turned against. And a still, small voice said in her head: Maybe Miss Go isn't completely gone after all, huh? But aloud, she said to Kim, "I owed you, that's all; now we're even. Don't read too much into it, Princess. Besides, nobody gets to kill you but me, remember?" She tried to school her expression back into its customary sneer and summon up the old mocking tone; neither quite seemed to work.
Kim's eyes danced with a trace of their old mischief as she looked up at Shego. "That's all? You sure about that?" she said, grinning up at her once-and-possibly-future nemesis.
Shego glared back, but her heart wasn't really in it. "Yeah, I'm sure. Can you get up? My legs are going to sleep."
"I...I think so. But...wait." But Kim was still smiling. In a lower tone, she whispered, "I heard that stuff you were saying. About wanting to use your powers for something worthwhile." Shego started, red-faced and beginning to anger. "Calm down," Kim soothed. "I won't tell anyone, I promise...on one condition."
Shego sighed. "What?"
"That you promise to at least think about doing more of that sort of thing." Kim's eyes poured kindness and forgiveness and hope into Shego's, and for a moment that seemed timeless, they locked onto hers, entreating. "You could be a really awesome hero, you know...just like you used to be. You still have a choice; we all do."
Shego sighed irritably. "Even assuming I wanted to, hel-lo? Wanted in 11 countries? Multiple felonies and a price on my head? It's not as simple as that, Kimmie."
"You're wrong," Kim said firmly. "I think it really is exactly that simple. Look, you didn't go bad overnight, did you? It was...a gradual process, right?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but...yeah, pretty much," Shego retorted sourly. "So?"
"So you can go back good the same way...if you want to," Kim said. "You don't have to do it all at once; just say to yourself, 'Just for today, I won't be evil, I'll be good.' And you get through that day, and you don't do anything evil. Then you say it again the next day, and the next, and the next. Some days you'll do better, some you won't...but you take it one step and one day at a time. That's all it takes." She took Shego's hand in her own, and the older girl made no protest nor offered any resistance. "That's all I do—all any of us does, I think." The redhead's eyes bored into the raven-tressed older girl's now, with the steel of conviction.
Shego was silent for a long, long minute, lost in thought and those damned green eyes. Could I do that? Would it really be as simple as that? Just choose to do good instead of evil? Then she saw Kim's face reshape itself into an expression she knew only too well. Oh, God, please, not the Puppy-Dog Pout! Anything but that... But Kim was relentless in her entreating cuteness. Finally Shego sighed in exasperation and said, "Okay, okay, I'll think about it. Not promising any more than that."
Kim relented at last, smiling again. "Not asking any more. Now help me up?"
Shego nodded. Staggering, they somehow made it upright, Shego grunting with the weight of both of them and Kim leaning on the older girl for support. "You've put on a pound or two, Possible," Shego growled, more to bait Kim than anything else, trying desperately to re-establish their old dynamic of heroine and villainess-adversary.
"Hard to see how," Kim retorted, "with you always keeping me chasing after you." But she was grinning. Nice try, kiddo, she thought to herself, but you can't erase what just happened between us that easily. Not after what you just did...what I just saw.
Aloud, she said, "You do know what this means, don't you?"
Shego grunted. "Yeah—that I'm a complete moron!"
"No. It means that the hero you used to be is still in there somewhere...and one of these days, I'm gonna get her to come back out for good." Kim smiled a conspiratorial, but determined, smile at her sometime adversary.
"Don't count on it, Cupcake," Shego said, trying again to muster the old bravado—and this time, almost succeeding...almost.
Finally, they reached the spot where Will and Ron had stood, silently observing, unsure of how to proceed. Shego handed Kim off to Ron, saying, "You oughta take better care of your hero-girlfriend there, sidekick. Don't let her get holes blasted in her like that again; I might not be around to bail your butts out next time...assuming I even feel like it." She regarded them negligently as she tugged her gloves back on.
Ron declined to take the bait, instead taking Kim under his arm and saying quietly, "Roger that. And...thank you."
"Yeah, yeah, sure, just don't let it get around, will ya? I have a rep to maintain, y'know." She fixed him with a glare. "If word of this gets out, every super-villain in the world she's ever put away is gonna come gunning for me, including Drakken—maybe especially Drakken...and if that happens, guess who I'll come looking for?" She said this last through gritted teeth and brandished a clenched, green-gloved fist in the boy's face. Ron gulped and nodded.
She turned to Will and held out her wrists, as if expecting him to clap handcuffs on them. "So, Global Jughead, I suppose I'm under arrest?"
"Um..." Will seemed uncharacteristically unsure of himself for once, and Kim stifled a giggle. "In view of certain...mitigating circumstances, I'm inclined to allow you leniency...this time. I feel sure Dr. Director will back me up on it...once I explain the situation to her." He was, of course, sure of nothing of the sort; in fact, he fully expected that the curvaceous, eye-patched head of Global Justice would royally bawl him out and slap a buttload of demerits into his record jacket for letting Public Enemy Number Two walk away from his grasp, not to mention docking his pay well into the next century for the loss of his ship...but he held his peace on the subject, figuring his standing as GJ's top agent would let him get away with it—at least once. I hope, he thought.
"You're letting me go?" Shego was surprised, which Kim suspected was a rarity. "Cool. Waitaminnit—not cool! I owe you one now, don't I?"
"You'd better believe it," Will replied with steel in his voice, jabbing a finger at her for emphasis. "And I will collect, rest assured; one day, you and that blue-skinned boss of yours are going to pay your debt to society for your crimes. But for now, get out of my sight before I come to my senses and change my mind."
Shego mock-saluted him. "Will do," she said, deliberately making fun of his name and relishing the resulting scowl she got from him. "Now just how am I supposed to do that, exactly? I seem to recall you guys blowing up the only way off this rock."
"Relax," Kim said. "You can ride with us; Capt. Krasnovskaya should be picking us up any minute. I'll tell her we're taking you into custody, and when she drops us off at port, you can leave from there."
"Ooh," Shego cooed mockingly. "Little Miss Goody-Two-Boots is willing to lie again...for me? Maybe I'll be the one who turns you bad, Pumpkin." She placed her fists on her broad hips, having regained some composure along with her gloves, and smirked at them smugly.
"Never happen," Kim said stoutly. She folded her arms over her newly-healed chest...and looked down and blushed, realizing the hole in her shirt was still there. "Oop," she said and awkwardly tried to cover the hole with her free hand. Shego snickered, but inside a part of her was charmed by the sight of the redheaded teenager blushing clear down past her collarbone.
"No worries, K.P.," Ron said briskly to cover for his girlfriend, throwing his jacket over her shoulders. "We'll get a fresh change of clothes for you from the ship's quartermaster." Kim eyed him with a silent thank-you and realized anew how lucky she was to have him...and cursed herself yet again for not noticing for so long previously.
Sure enough, the Kimmunicator beeped almost on cue, and Kim radioed their coordinates to the Volgatyev's communications officer. Will chose to wait for a GJ aircraft to pick him up and waved goodbye to them after a well-done handshake with Kim and Ron.
Later, after they'd been taken aboard and refreshed themselves, Kim and Ron sat together in their hastily-arranged guest quarters belowdecks (Shego having been escorted to the ship's brig; security procedures and appearances had to be maintained, after all).
"I couldn't help overhearing some of what you guys were talking about," Ron said. "You really think Shego can be reformed?"
Kim sighed. "I don't know, Ron," she said, "but I can't believe she's all bad—not after today. And she did serve on a super-hero team once."
Ron smiled. "Well, if anyone in the world can charm a super-villain out of being evil, I'd bet money on you, K.P." He kissed her forehead and she smiled ruefully.
"From your lips to God's ears," she murmured as she entered his embrace. They just sat holding each other for a long time until finally, blessedly, exhaustion and stress took their toll and both of them fell deeply asleep.
THE END
