covalence (n): electrons shared between participating atoms. the quantified strength of a mutual bond, shared equally, tying two different lives together.

a/n: so. it's been exactly one year, and I just have to say... holy shit. I'm sure I'm not only speaking for myself when I said I had no idea these past months were going to be so hard. I hope everyone who is here is doing okay and taking care of themselves the best they can.

I got a lot of messages while I was AWOL, and I was honestly shocked by the amount of people who popped into my inbox, whether it was to inquire about the next chapter or just wish me well. it warms my heart that so many people are still thinking of my story - I thought about it often, even when I had no time or energy to write it. I work in the medical field, and as you can imagine, it's been rather hectic in this new pandemic world. but I haven't given up on it,and I'm so glad that you didn't either. I hope it brings you as much satisfaction as I have finally posting it up.

Shego's perfecting the point on one of her nails when the door opens. She's lounging, deceptively still, her legs thrown up on a second chair at the breakfast nook. In any other house she'd put them on the table, but Anne has a lot of needles in her office upstairs.

Kim comes in first, laughing. The setting sun washes the ugly purple-black of her bruise in gold.

"No way!" Ron's voice floats in from outside. Shego sighs, expertly clearing away the minute metal shavings with her thumb. "You have superpowers now?!"

Great, they made up.

Kim grins. "Isn't that totally spankin'?"

"It's badical, Kim!" He steps into the kitchen, lankier and more gangly than ever. "You'll have to show—"

His sneaker squeaks audibly as he stops. Everything goes quiet – even the hum of the fridge pauses momentarily, caught up in the tension.

"Please," Shego says mildly, "don't stop on my account."

Ron opens his mouth a few times, unable to find a good comeback, but Kim only rolls her eyes.

"Be nice."

"Nice?" Shego puts a hand on her chest, feigning offence. "I'm a ray of fucking sunshine, thank you very much."

"Who told you that? Your horoscope?"

"I've been sitting here very patiently, positively wasting away, growing sicker with every moment that passes as you finish your little kumbayah… and you give me sass right out the door? Who are you, me?"

"The lines blur more and more every day."

"Nah, you're too short."

She catches the dishtowel Kim throws at her head. Ron looks back and forth between them, still frozen in the archway.

"We really are in an alternative universe," he whispers to his ugly pink rat. It chitters in agreement, poking its head out from the kangaroo pouch of his sweater.

"No such luck, monkey boy." Ron starts, looking sidelong but not meeting her eyes. "You're very much living in the present."

There's a flicker over his shoulder. "I would appreciate if you did not call Ron-san by that name."

Shego cranes her neck. There's a slight figure, still half-inside the shadows cast by the late-evening sun. Female. Shego takes in a dozen different factors at once: her tone, her posture, how she stands comfortably inside the darkness like she's made it her home.

Her eyes narrow. "I didn't know this mission picked up every stray on the block."

The stranger steps forward. Pretty enough, Shego supposes: similar in stature and skin to the girl Shego spent a night with during her stay in Tokyo, but that's where the resemblance ends. This one has a gait that gives her away, a confident grace only manifested in those who've spent their lives cultivating it. Her footsteps are completely silent as she moves over the tile.

Interesting.

"My name is Yori," she goes into a deep bow. Shego tracks the slope of her spine, how her hands rest complacently but not unready by her sides. "I have heard much about you, Shego-san."

"Not much of it good, I trust?"

"I know you are very talented," Yori sidesteps the bait with ease, "and that you have known Team Possible for many years."

"Yori…" Shego rolls the name around in her mouth. "Why does that sound familiar?"

"It is a familiar name."

"It isn't, though." Shego frowns. If she's defending Stoppable, they have to be connected somehow. Who knew he had more than one friend, especially another pretty girl? There must be a catch. "Not here, at least."

"I am only visiting."

Visiting? Japan, judging by the way she speaks. But the way she moves… she's seen it once, half-conscious at the end of the world and bathed in blue light.

"You're a monkey ninja, aren't you?" Shego asks, leaning back in her chair.

Yori's lips flicker into a smile. "You are very observant."

"Just a hunch. I doubt any other martial artist would put up with the buffoon here."

"Ron-san is an eager pupil, unafraid of challenge. It is my honour to teach the Ultimate Monkey Master the true way of Tai Sheng Pek Kwar."

"And," Kim interjects, "Yori herself is an accomplished fighter. I figured it would be good to have as much backup as possible."

Shego shrugs. "Sure, bring all of Global Justice into my intimate, personal problems while you're at it."

"I apologize if I am stepping on any boundaries," Yori says, "but all I wish to do is keep Ron-san safe. I will not interfere."

Kim's brow knots. "I'm sorry, Shego. I didn't think it would matter because I was already bringing Ron."

All the eyes on her makes Shego's skin crawl. "Forget it," she forces out, "what's done is done. Can we just call the nerd and get this over with?"

Reluctantly, Kim brings up her wristwatch. She's still making the sad, unsure puppy eyes at Shego when Wade pops up in all his hologrammed glory.

"Hey Kim!" He turns. "Hey Shego—oh, and Ron! Yori! Good to see you guys!"

"Wade-san," Yori bows again. He bows back.

Ron gives a goofy wave. "Hey dude, how's it hangin'?"

"Better now that you're in the same room again," Wade smiles. "Is Team Possible back together?"

"We never split! Call it… unscheduled vacation."

"Or a temper tantrum," Shego snarks, going back to her nails.

Wade ignores her. "I've got everything set up. Your ride should be here soon… you remember Kurpal?"

Kim grins. "That prospector we rescued from a flash flood?"

"The same. Turns out he was a jet pilot in the Indian Airforce in a past career. All he needed was a little gas money."

"Spankin'!"

Wade's image shimmers, becoming a three-dimensional representation of a map. Similar to the Andula mission, there's little else other than miles of unbroken rainforest – not even a beach this time, no sign of the sea, just trees. Lots and lots of trees.

"So," his disembodied voice comes out from both Kim and Ron's watches, "this is Bolivia. Officially called Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, it's home to eleven million people and about forty different subgroups. It has one of the highest rates of biodiversity in the world – all thanks to its vast topological variance."

Shego snorts. "Your accent is terrible."

"Unlike someone, I'm not bilingual."

"Trilingual, actually. More than that if you don't count being particularly good."

"What's the third one?" Kim asks.

"Piss me off enough one day and maybe you'll find out."

"Anyway," Wade clears his throat, "I've managed to refine the signal a little. Whoever is doing this redirected all my queries to a different location, but I managed to override it. Turns out it's a little more west than I originally thought. That'll put you…"

The image distorts, moving from the Amazon basin, skipping over rivers that wind like snakes through the jungle. They flit over cocoa farms and flooded savannahs, eventually coming to rest on the gentle slope of the eastern Andes. "Here. Isiboro Indigenous Territory, stretching for over a hundred-thousand acres. Sparsely populated and heavily valued for its ecological value. There's a lot of colonized farms to the south, but we're far enough away that it won't be an issue."

Wade zooms in, highlighting a narrow strip of rainforest on the northwestern portion of the map, at the edge of the territory. "And here is where the signal is coming from. This portion of the rainforest is called the Yungas, known for being a transitional zone between the eastern forests and the Andean highlands. But don't get me wrong – transitional doesn't mean flat. This area is still very much mountains covered in trees."

Kim peers closer. "How's the climate?"

"Humid, rainy, and warm. You better bring your waterproofed gear."

Shego groans. "So you're telling me this is Andula 2.0?"

"Pretty much. Pros: currently not embroiled in a violent civil war."

"Cons?" Ron gulps, trailing his finger through a brooding stormcloud hovering over the peaks.

"Still pretty dangerous. There's a road that runs through here called the Highway of Death… though I think they've repaved it recently. I've made sure to pack some climbing gear."

"So," Kim spins the hologram around, blowing up the section that's pinging the signal, "is this the exact location?"

"Well…" Wade reappears, "I've managed to narrow it down to about six square miles, close to the steeper peaks. The natural interference of the landscape is stopping me from getting an exact read."

"More bushwacking," Shego deadpans, "hooray."

"At least you have two working ankles," Kim chirps.

"For now. Who knows what the future holds?"

The roar of a massive engine makes the kitchen windows rattle. From their place around the breakfast nook, all four occupants watch as an oversized jet lands neatly in Kim's front yard. A little sleeker than their ride to Andula, less bulky.

Shego runs her eyes appreciatively over the chassis. "Now that's what I call riding in style."

A slight man in colourful garb pokes his head out of an open hatch. He waves, his bushy beard flapping in the wind kicked up by his massive engines.

Kim waves back. "I'm guessing that's our ride."

"You guessed right. Wanna talk to your mom before you head out?"

"Remind me in a half hour, we should get in the air first."

"Sounds good."

"Your gear'll be in the jet. Good luck!"

He vanishes. Ron's already out the door, running full-tilt, eager to get inside and do a thorough inspection of their new ride – despite working with Global Justice's money for over a year now, the thrill of an upgrade never gets old.

Yori follows at a moderate pace. Shego gets up slowly, blowing the last of the metal shavings from her claws. She can't wait to sink them into whoever's been causing her all this grief.

Kim's waiting for her at the door. She holds it open, an unsure smile on her face.

"Why do you look constipated, sly?"

"Are you mad?" Kim blurts, non-super hand clenched around the doorknob.

Shego blinks. "About?"

"Me inviting Yori. And Ron."

"Do I look mad?"

"It can be hard to tell with you."

"That's fair," Shego sighs. "No, I'm not… mad."

She pauses, reconsidering. There's definitely an emotion there. Difficult to tease out, buried beneath weeks of impatience and apprehension, but Kim's looking at her like she expects more than that. Shego wonders when she started trying to appease Kim Possible.

"Uncomfortable," Shego amends, "but it's not like I haven't been uncomfortable since this whole mess started."

"Still." Kim scratches the back of her head, nervous habit. "I'm sorry. I should've asked."

"I—you did, kinda. I woulda stopped you if I really didn't want Stoppable coming. More than my usual, y'know, general disdain for him."

Kim relaxes her grip on the door - Shego's shoulders drop as Kim settles, mirroring.

"So you're saying I shouldn't take your complaining seriously?"

Kim has this cheeky half-smirk that Shego's started seeing more recently, sly and secret, an inside joke they share together. A year ago she would've thought it sat oddly on her face, but now it seems right at home.

Shego lifts her hand like she's going to tuck hair away from Kim's eyes. Kim's smile dies on her lips as the backs of Shego's fingers brush her cheekbone, barely there, but she doesn't flinch away.

They're a far cry from when a raised hand meant a fist to follow.

Shego pinches Kim's cheek instead, shaking her back and forth with a grin. "I'm saying you need to stop being so emotional with me, Kimmie! I never knew you valued my opinion so highly."

Kim sputters. She jerks out of Shego's grip, cheek blooming red where Shego grabbed. "Okay, that's enough. Moment ruined."

"A moment! We were having a moment? Me? With Kim Possible? Say it ain't so!"

"Come on, loser!" Already fifteen feet away, Shego can barely hear her over the roar of the idling engines. "We're gonna leave without you!"

Shego jogs across the lawn. "You wouldn't dare."

"So sure about that?"

She looks at her, the harsh light breaking pale like moonlight over her face, her hair drinking it in until it gleams with a holy flame. Kim's eyes burn with a playful challenge – Shego, held captive, rises to meet it.

"Yeah," Shego says, sure in a way she hasn't been about many things, "I am."

"T-minus two minutes," Kurpal's voice crackles on the overhead speaker. Shego opens her eyes, done resting but still restless, the glittering dark of the night sky greeting her through the small window. No clouds tonight – the void outside yawns, wild with stars.

Ron stretches, half his hair sticking up from his nap. Yori keeps her eyes closed in half-lotus. Kim, ever alert, goes through the landscape for the fifth time on her watch.

"The mountains don't move," Shego says, sitting up. The rumble of the jet does little to quiet her turbulent thoughts.

"Just trying to get my bearings," Kim replies. "We always seem to drop into the jungle at night."

"You always liked a challenge," Ron says. He tugs his gloves on and adjusts his belt.

"At least we aren't diving into the ocean this time?" Kim's voice turns up like a question.

Shego doesn't hear her. She watches the shadows outside, how they break apart for the wings of their aircraft. It slows without even a sigh – the engines go quiet, the lights stop blinking. They begin to descend towards the canopy and Shego shifts, suit creaking, holding her breath to swallow the stone in her gut.

"One minute."

Fabric rustles as Ron sorts through the heavy coils of rope they'll be climbing. Shego presses back in her seat, pushes down, curls her hands in and out of fists. She scans the trees like they'll tell her what they're hiding.

Kim frowns. "Shego?"

"What?" she mutters.

"You okay?"

"Like you care," she bites out on instinct, lips curled, her claws click-clicking on the jet's hull and leaving hairline scores in the metal.

Kim doesn't respond. Shego glances up, across the hold, and meets her gaze. She doesn't say anything in the awkward quiet, but the downturn of her brows speaks volumes.

Of course she cares: Kim Possible can do anything.

So Shego blows out a heavy breath, balling her hands up and planting them on her knees. "I'll be better once this is over."

"Fifteen seconds," Kurpal announces, nearly lost over the groan of the jet's side door sliding open. Ron throws the rope over the side. They're hovering eighty feet off the ground, over a small clearing big enough to drop into but too small to land. The purr of the engines could be mistaken for the rumble of a nearby river unless they listened too closely.

The other three clip themselves into the rope with a climbing harness but Shego doesn't care, too hot and anxious, sweat gathering at the collar of her suit. She grasps the rope between two clawed hands and leans out into the night air.

"Shego—"

She's already gone, letting herself drop away and over. Rope bites her hands but she doesn't notice the burn. Shego keeps her feet free and lets her arms do all of the work, consumed by the rapidly-approaching ground and the flex of her back as she controls her descent. For those precious few seconds, the noise in her head quiets.

She hits the ground hard. It hurts, but that's kinda the point.

The others come out single-file. Yori touches down last, her lithe body silent as she unhooks and glances around. Shego spares her a curious eye, cataloguing her stance and steps and sight, but all-too soon returns her gaze to the looming rainforest on all sides. It's imposing, almost, oppressive with its mass.

"How are we gonna find a secret lair?" Ron asks. "I can barely see my hand in front of my face."

"Well," Kim starts, "we can go—"

Shego closes her eyes. Her body tingles from the ends of her hair to the roots of her nails. It started as they passed into South America, growing as they inched closer to their destination, so strong it's become hard to think about anything else.

She's tethered by this energy, this strange static. A fish with a hook in its gut. In Middleton it was so far away she could ignore it… but here? It's all she can do not to sprint towards the source, not knowing what reels her in from the other side.

"This way," Shego says, voice low and rough, and steps into the jungle.

The other three fall over themselves to follow her. Kim has a blade that extends from her suit, made up of pure energy, to help keep back the foliage. Ron uses a strange, glowing blue sword. It sings softly when he touches it – the weapon glides effortlessly through the tangled vines.

It doesn't matter: they don't need them. Shego uncorks her plasma, lets it roil up over her elbows, long tongues of writhing energy snapping at the air around her. She's overflowing again and uses it generously to clear the way, leaving a smouldering passage in their wake.

Green splashes on the underside of trees, spills over ferns and their leaves. All the animals in the forest watch as they pass by. Kim comes up by her side, careful to avoid the worst of the splashback.

"Don't tire yourself out before we get there," she says. She lifts her foot over a branch, smoking in the damp earth.

"I won't," Shego responds. A long rope of plasma leaves her hand and she brings it down like a whip, foliage crashing to the ground. "Not like this."

"Another loop?"

"More like… a well. Too full, spilling over."

Kim ducks under a sputtering vine. "You know where you're going?"

She's only trying to help. Shego clenches her jaw before relaxing it again. "Think so. Feels right."

"I trust you," Kim nods.

"You might regret that."

Bolivia is much steeper than Andula. If the rainforest wasn't enough to contend with, the towering mountains offer an additional challenge – as impossible as it is to see how high they are, hidden in the trees, they feel every step on the incline as Shego leads them unrelentingly up. They're all out of breath and soaked in sweat, the heavy humidity of the jungle draped like a weighted blanket over their bodies, burning a straight line through the brush.

Beads of moisture roll down Shego's forehead, her temples, underneath her jaw. The back of her suit sticks to her spine. As the climbing ramps up the condensation on her skin begins to steam, sizzling softly.

"Dude," Ron whispers, low but not low enough.. "She's like, smoking."

"I told you she's sick," Kim mutters back.

"She's not gonna go nuclear, right? I don't wanna be implicated in burning down the Amazon."

"Is there something you'd like to say, Stoppable?" Shego asks, her voice carrying through the trees.

"Just, um," he clears his throat, "looking out for the group. You know, for later."

"I'll make sure your ass is included in the blasting I'm gonna be doing." Shego glances back. Her grin cuts a little too sharp to be harmless. "Y'know, for later."

"That would be unwise," Yori says, the first thing since they arrived. The lightness of her voice belies the hard edge in her tone.

"I'll show you unwise, ninja girl."

"Guys," Kim sighs, "come on. Save it for later."

Shego grunts and faces forward. She leads them through a knot of vines and thick, leafy trees, tuning out the hushed whispering behind her. It's no wonder she usually works alone.

They don't walk long. The incline transitions into a shear, rocky outcrop covered by overhanging foliage and slow-growing moss. Gnarled roots and loose boulders pepper the ground by their feet. Shego cranes her neck up into the darkness; that hook in her belly keeps pulling like it demands she walk through the stone itself.

"It's here," she says, not quiet but not caring.

Kim jogs up beside her. She aims her flashlight up, roving the near-vertical slope. "Yeah?"

Shego puts her hand to the rock. It hums ever so slightly, vibrating at her fingertips. "Close. I dunno how we're gonna get in, but I can feel it."

Shego waits as Kim pulls Wade onto her wristwatch. His blue light, harsh in the inky darkness of the forest, spills an unnatural light onto their surroundings.

"Hey guys," he greets, "any luck?"

"We're pretty sure this is the place," Kim says, "but we don't have an entrance."

"I'll bring up the area." Wade's hologram is replaced by Bolivia, then the Yungas, and then their particular mountain. It spins rapidly, flipped around at all angles like a child figuring out a new toy.

He stretches it out and dissects it. The image splices, pulled apart into coin-shaped sections. "Are you sure? The signal is pretty strong here, but there's so much distortion I can't say for certain."

Kim looks at Shego, who nods. "We're sure."

"Hm." Wade delves under the earth and maps out the roots of the mountain. "There's no excessive energy source."

"Try for an exhaust port," Shego says, still scanning the rocks. "Judging by location, it's probably a HenchCo lair. There's always one somewhere."

He turns the entire mountain on its head. A network of underground rivers, flowing like the veins of a great giant, span for miles and miles under the jungle.

"I'm not… oh!"

The computer chimes and dives into the waters, chasing the flowing streams to a watery nexus directly under the mountain. A glowing, red dot appears in the middle of the tangled waterways. "Good eye, Shego! They built the vent underground so it wouldn't be obvious."

She smirks. "I know. It was Drakken's idea first; Hench isn't very original."

"How do we enter?" Yori asks. "I doubt these rivers are near to the surface."

"There should be—"

"Hey, guys?" Ron's voice comes through over the earpieces that Shego begrudgingly gave to everyone before the mission started. "I found a really big hole."

"Go Ron!" Kim grins. "We'll be right there."

He isn't far. Eighty feet southeast and they're all gathered at the lip, peering down into the darkness below. What little light shines down through the canopy disappears into the depths like gobbled by an open, ravenous maw.

"We have to go down there?" Ron squeaks. "What if there's, like, monsters?"

"If only you'd fallen in, they'd be too busy licking fake cheese from the floor to bother us." Shego summons a small ball of plasma and lobs it into the dark. It streaks down with a hiss, illuminating the craggy walls and scrubby vines clinging stubbornly to the rocks. They watch as the light falls a few hundred feet before fizzling out and leaving them in darkness again.

"This definitely leads to the right place," Wade says. "What were you doing over here, Ron? You hate the dark."

He blushes. "I, uh, needed to… y'know."

"Completely obscured in a strange forest?"

"I have a shy bladder!"

Yori giggles. "I have missed your American sayings, Ron-san."

Shego rummages in her pack – flame retardant - for the grappling hook and coil of rope. Thicker than the one they brought with them to Andula, easier on the hands. "If we keep talking about Stoppable's bodily functions, I'm gonna throw myself into this pit. Without a harness."

"Oh no," Ron deadpans, "don't do it."

Kim rolls her eyes. "Focus, everyone. Wade?"

"There's a river at the bottom that'll lead you under the mountain. I doubt there'll be anywhere to walk. Everyone can swim, right?"

"We have any scuba gear for this trip?"

"Not really. I packed for climbing, not swimming. Your suit has built-in water wings if you need them."

Shego steps into the proper harness that Wade gave them. "Water wings? Seriously?"

"Don't hate," Kim chides with an easy grin. "You never know when they'll come in handy."

Shego tightens the straps, burning one with her still-lit hands before remembering to turn them off. Flame-retardant my ass. It takes her a few moments of silent, sweating concentration to diminish the plasma from a blaze to a soft glow in her palms. Her hands sputter in the humidity of the jungle. "You gonna doggy-paddle, too?"

"Maybe." Kim steps forward, still smiling, her hands hovering above the buckles at Shego's thighs. "You don't know me."

The stink of burnt plastic lingers in the air. Shego sighs and lifts her hands away from her sides. Kim yanks the other belts tight, a little too enthusiastic. "I'd like to think I'm starting—ow! Watch it, Hego."

Kim only pulls harder, delighting in Shego's grimace. "I told you not to call me that."

"But you're such a perfect match."

"Excuse me?" Yori bows ever so slightly when she draws their attention. "My apologies for, ah… interrupting. Might I ask why Shego-san is going first? I would like to offer my services – stealth is my speciality."

Kim finishes with Shego's harness. "Despite how it may appear, this loudmouth is pretty good at keeping quiet when she needs to be."

"It's literally my job." Shego stretches her arms over her head, cracking all her knuckles. "That and beating up teenage superheroes."

"Not a teenager anymore."

"Pardon me, beating up adolescent superheroes."

Kim clips the rope to Shego's harness. "And she's the only one that could probably survive a fall that high, if, y'know, something were to go wrong. Which it won't! But if it did."

Yori frowns. "This hole is very, very deep."

"And I am very, very durable," Shego says, swinging her body over the edge of the lip. Stones skitter from under her feet and fall into the darkness below. Her harness pulls at her hips.

Kim ties her off to the trunk of a leaning coconut tree, clipping it to herself as she does. Her own harness hugs tightly at the curve of her ass and the lithe, solid definition of her thighs. If Shego's eyes linger a little before she turns around, who can blame her? Who even has to know?

"Be careful, okay? Call if you need to come back up."

"Don't worry, darling." Shego blows a kiss. "I'll be home for dinner."

She jumps down before she hears Kim's reply. Her hands flare again, washing the pit in a deep green, casting light where there had only been darkness for hundreds of years. Spiders scurry away as she finds the first foothold and starts the slow, steady descent down.

Much of the overgrowth obscures the natural rock face. Shego rips it off with one hand, turning it to cinders, and worms her fingers through the cracks. She repeats this, over and over. Smoke curls around her body and cloaks her in a thick, moss-smelling haze. Sweat beads at her hairline, but she turns up the heat to make it evaporate before it can roll into her eyes.

Her hands leave a soft glow on the rocks in her wake, impossible to see if not for the absolute darkness.

How's it look? Kim asks, voice crackly through her earpiece. Shego can see the barest silhouette of her in the forest above.

"Steep," Shego grunts, foot slipping on a root before she catches herself. Her light fans out and dozens of tiny eyes shine back at her. "And filled with bats."

You think anyone's been down there before?

"Doubtful, unless they dropped in by helicopter. Or parachute."

The pit widens as Shego reaches the bottom. Three quarters of the way down and she's clinging to the wall at a forty-five degree angle, fighting to keep her body attached. Dirt trickles into her eyes and under the collar of her suit.

She twists to look over her shoulder. The craggy, uneven ground spreads out like a rumpled blanket. The faintest glimmer of light upon moving water cuts through the darkness.

"Fuck it," Shego growls. "Kim?"

Yeah?

"Don't catch me."

She jumps.

Shego aims for a patch of dirt with fewer rocks. Her feet come out in front, knees bent and loose, arms wide. The harness hisses as it unravels.

Shego—she hears in her ear just before she hits the ground.

It hurts. She expected it would as she rolls into the momentum, dust flying as she goes, stones biting into her shoulders and across her back. Water from the stream splashes into her face as her feet sink into the pebbles that line the riverbed. Shego stretches out like a cat, half-lunging out of one roll and into another, the sting in her ankles from the impact already forgotten as her inertia puts her right back on her feet.

She takes a second. Rolls her neck, shakes out her legs. Nothing broken, nothing out of place.

"I'm good," she says, bending back to look up. The lip is so far away she can't see them anymore. "I got tired of climbing."

Warn me next time.

"I did." Shego gets close to the wall and undoes her harness.

That wasn't a warning - I got rope burn.

"Do you want me to kiss it better?"

Are you offering?

Shego smirks. "I could be."

Shuffling on the other side of the line. The rope trembles as someone else clips onto it.

As much as listening to this conversation is thrilling and totally not awkweird at all, Ron says, is it safe to come down?

"Depends," Shego responds, "are you gonna lose your pants and fall to your death? I'll make popcorn."

I think Ron-san is asking if it is trapped.

"I know what he's asking." Shego glances around. Shadows dance in every corner, moving with her as she brings her hands up and into a wide arc. Nothing but rocks and vines and water. "Please hold."

Shego closes her eyes. On a good day, she can sense most standard tricks and traps, their electromagnetism unerringly altered by her own powerful signal. But the noise in her head has to be quiet to feel it – and here, with that buzzing that rattles her bones, she doesn't stand a chance.

She frowns. Her palm turns up, opens, manifesting the tiniest flicker of plasma between her claws. Not as bright as her usual glow. Transparent. She exhales and lets it expand, slow-growing and fragile, veined like the inner membrane of an egg that hasn't yet hatched.

It swallows her and her surroundings, unimpeded by the solid earth under her feet. Shego feeds it so it swells, phasing through the water, the rock, the very air that vibrates and the polar wind it creates.

Her forcefield pulses once. Shego hears the quiet whine of a circuit shorting out on the far end of the pit, near where the river dives underground.

Her light vanishes and she wipes the sweat from her forehead. "We're good."

The rope slaps against the stone as Ron swings himself over the edge. His heavy, fearful breathing in her ear makes Shego's lip curl.

He descends a lot faster than she does, choosing to slide rather than climb down. Yori follows soon after. They nearly run into each other when Ron struggles to undo his harness from the rope, but she simply wraps one leg around and hangs patiently, strung like a hunting spider, until he manages to clear.

Kim comes last, her suit shiny but not quite reflective. She activates the flashlight at her shoulder and illuminates the area in a cold, white gleam.

"Find anything?" she asks, taking note of their depth and distance to the mountain.

Shego walks along the riverbed. At the far edge of the pit, the water rushes down a smooth tunnel eaten through the ground over thousands of years. It roars as it plunges down, steep and sharp, into the abyss.

She trails her fingers along the rim. Someone drilled a tiny hole above the entry – she peers inside and a laser's dead eye gleams back. "There used to be something here. Motion sensor, I think."

"You fix it?"

"'course I did."

Wade's hologram pours out from Kim's watch. "That's your ticket inside."

Another map projects and illuminates the rock face. A winding labyrinth of tunnels spreads out from their location. "They go pretty much everywhere. You only have a few hundred feet to cross, though."

"Any air in there?" Kim asks.

"Pockets, but not consistently. Who's the strongest swimmer?"

"Probably Kim," Ron says. "She was a lifeguard."

"Then you should go first. I'll buzz you when you're at the port. Good luck!"

Shego rolls his eyes as he vanishes. "He's always so chipper. Here's something that might kill you, no big."

"First," Kim says as she takes out the second coil of rope, "please never say no big again."

"Team Possible only?"

"Young people only."

Shego scowls. "You watch your mouth, brat."

Kim grins and sticks out her tongue. "Second, you aren't scared of a little water, are you?"

"Scared? No. Do I have a healthy respect for drowning? Yes. Being waterboarded sucks."

Ron gapes at her. "You've been waterboarded?"

"You haven't?"

"Is that, like, a prerequisite to being a villain?"

"If only the vetting process was that strict."

Kim cinches the rope around her waist, then Ron's, then Yori's. Shego takes it in her hands and immediately starts to burn the outer coil.

"Can't you turn that off?" The acrid stink lingers between them. Kim pats out the smouldering sections before they can do too much damage.

"Nope," Shego sighs, begrudgingly allowing Kim to tie her in for the second time that night. "Not now. Too close."

The backs of Kim's knuckles graze her hipbone. Shego shifts, suddenly restless again.

"Can we hurry up?"

Kim positions herself at the mouth of the river. Her feet slip soundlessly into the icy water, swallowed by the darkness. "You in a rush to get rid of us?"

"Your words, not mine."

They fall into line. Kim clicks a button by her neck and her suit shimmers, reaching up around her cheeks and wrapping around her eyes. Her deep blue lenses glow faintly in the dark.

Ron huffs. "Why don't I get swimming goggles?"

"Because your job is to follow me… but I might…" Kim reaches into her pack and slaps a regular pair of goggles into his hands. "Here."

"Booyah! You just had these lying around?"

"I'm always prepared, Ron."

Kim kneels and then lies down on her belly. She crawls to the edge of the river, more and more of her body eaten up by the water, until only her eyes and nose are above the surface. Her hair spreads out behind her like an autumn canopy.

With only ten feet of slack between them, it forces everyone to follow. Shego's knees sink into the sharp stones of the riverbed; water sputters and bubbles where her hands submerge.

"Ready?" Kim asks, voice garbled. Noises of affirmation from Ron and Yori.

Shego grins. "Let's make this river our bitch."

With one last breath, Kim slips under the stream. It plucks her from the riverbed and flings her forward into the darkness. The other three lurch as their tethers go taut, sliding like fish caught in the mud, before being swallowed one by one.

Underwater rushes by in a cacophony of cold and current. Shego scrapes her knees on the sides of the rock as she hurtles under the ground, barely big enough for her to fit. Her eyes, wide open, see only darkness. That strangeness is nothing compared to the roar of the water as it batters her body.

A left turn, then a right, then another left. Shego's back strikes the top of the tunnel and she takes a reflexive gulp of air, lucky enough to have a couple of inches between the stream and the ceiling. That breath is a quick one, stolen as she plunges under again – she lights up her plasma but it doesn't matter, not down here, witness only to the water roiling all around and nothing else.

One particularly sharp turn bounces her head off the floor; Shego cries out, soundless, water rushing into her nose and mouth. Her chest spasms. She reaches up to claw at her throat as her core ices over, gagging and writhing, fighting herself to not take another useless breath.

It goes on forever. They follow the veins of the jungle down, down, deep into its beating heart. Shego's lungs ache.

The downward slope eases up, straightens out. Her harness stops pulling so hard and then she's breaking the surface, blind and gasping, her first breath wet with all the liquid in her lungs. Shego's eyes water and mix with the dampness of her skin.

Kim is beside her in an instant. "Hey, you okay?"

Shego retches in response. A rush of water escapes through her mouth, uncomfortably warm after spending time in her chest.

Kim attempts to rub soothing circles into her back. Don't touch me, Shego tries to say, but chokes on the sharp, mineral taste in the back of her throat. She transitions to stroking Shego's shoulder with icy fingers, worried tension vibrating off her brow and body language. It makes Shego's face burn.

"I'm fine," she grunts. Her voice rasps along the vowels like sandstone. "Hit my head on one of the turns."

"Are you bleeding?" Kim's eyes flit up to her temple, her sodden hair, checking her jaw and scalp with a familiarity akin to a fine-toothed comb.

"Don't think so." Shego lets her fret for a second before standing up and pulling away. "Doesn't even hurt."

Kim looks dubious but Shego pointedly turns around. Ron and Yori stand off to the side and do a terrible job of pretending they aren't watching.

"What?" Shego snaps.

Ron has the decency to look guilty. Yori frowns.

"Are you sure you are alright, Shego-san? We can rest here a moment if needed."

"I said I was fine."

"I guess it's kinda like being waterboarded?" Ron offers.

Now Stoppable feels bad for her? Shego scowls. "Did I ask for your input?"

"Bu—"

"I didn't think so," she snaps. "Let's get back to our lawful B&E."

She cranks the plasma again. They're standing in a shallow, narrow portion of the stream, flanked on either side by a slick, raised lip of stone. The current nips at her shins. Stalactites hang down several feet, thousands of years of minerals solidified into teeth that line the rocky gullet of some slumbering, underground beast.

Water rushes past, down its throat and into the abyss of its belly below. Shego shivers. She's still sodden inside, cold though the cavern is uncomfortably warm.

"There probably isn't a lot of oxygen down here," Kim wisely moves away, out of the water and onto dry stone. "We should start looking."

"I don't think we have to do much searching, KP."

Ron slaps his hand on the wall. A large, circular port belches hot air intermittently – undoubtedly responsible for the thick, sticky humidity – with a soft hum, drowned out by the gurgling water. It clangs when he strikes it and the note rings out like a funeral bell.

"Nice," Kim bumps his shoulder. "Grated?"

"Yeah. Pretty thick bars."

"Shego, you got some juice left?"

Shego holds up her burning hand, forearm, and elbow.

Kim rolls her eyes. "Come be helpful."

"You asked."

Shego steps up to the exhaust. She can barely peer through the heavy, metal lattice that covers the hole. "I hope this doesn't lead into a trap. But it probably will."

Her plasma coalesces in her hand, the light gathering and swirling, dancing brighter on the tips of her fingers. It sparks and snaps as it licks her claws and turns them bright green.

Shego forces both hands through the gate. It bubbles where she touches, the metal slagging, running down her wrists and hitting the stone floor below. If this was a paid job she'd melt the bolts holding it in place, careful and slow, and gently put it to the side without a sound. She'd wipe the molten metal before it hit the ground. She'd check for trips, for traps, for wires and lasers and sensors. But it isn't.

She welds handholds into the mesh, puts one foot against the rock face, and pulls.

The grate squeals. She grits her teeth, arms bulging. The stone begins to grind under the pressure, spiderwebbing around the pins inch by painstaking inch.

One side gives. Shego uses the leverage, bearing down, and wrenches it from the wall. It comes away with a terrible screech, its wail bouncing endlessly around the cavern.

The group flinches as she tosses it, skidding into the stream. It clangs the entire way down.

Kim sighs. "I thought we were trying to be stealthy."

"You, maybe. I want them to hear the world of hurt coming up this mountain."

"Besides," Wade's voice floats up from Kim's watch. She brings her wrist up, exposing his glowing silhouette. "They probably know we're here. Shego's loop effect gets stronger the closer you get to the source."

Kim nods. "Any luck with the layout?"

"You'll come up in some sort of maintenance shaft. From there, you'll have to make your way in. I'm pretty sure the signal is coming from the core of the mountain, but I'm not sure how it's getting power."

Shego frowns. "Are they using the glow?"

"It's possible. Plasma is a form of nuclear power – reverse-engineering it would leave the user with a nearly limitless well of renewable energy."

"I pay this asshole's electricity bill and don't even get a thank you?" Shego cracks her knuckles. "I've heard enough."

"Be careful. Considering it's a Hench lair, it's probably riddled with traps."

She hauls herself into the pipe. It slopes gradually, slick with condensed water. "Even A-Rank lairs don't have enough security to catch me. This is a C-rank at best."

Wade shrugs. "You're the expert. Good luck, guys."

His image vanishes. Shego braces her shoulder against the side and peers down, catching the beam of Kim's flashlight on the underside of her suit. "You coming?"

Kim smiles, a glimmer of excitement in her eyes. "Lead the way."

Shego grins back. "With pleasure."

She digs her claws into the sides and leaves tiny, glowing holds for others to follow. One by one they file in behind her, taking the path that she forges, crawling their way into the hot, humid dark.

"We're here," is the first thing Shego says, twenty long minutes of climbing and slip-sliding and perspiring. A film of liquid covers Kim's face – she isn't sure if it's water or sweat or… something else. She doesn't want to know.

"Where's here?" Ron asks. His voice races up the pipe like he threw it.

"Shhh!"

Three sets of eyes glare at him. He shrinks back, nearly stepping on Yori's face.

Shego peers down into the dimly-lit space. She's their only light source, her jaw lit up from underneath and so sharp with shadows she could cut Kim open. "Some kind of… boiler room?"

For all her previous posturing, Shego doesn't make a sound as she slips her burning fingers underneath the grate and separates it from the main pipe. The loud drone of machinery starts and stops in staccato: the tortured breathing of the mechanical mountain, some great behemoth on life support. Heat flows up from the hole in the pipe and rushes by Kim with a weight to it.

Shego pokes her head inside. One hand still holding the grate, she uses her other arm to slowly lower herself, jack-knifed and upside-down, into the room.

Kim watches the light and darkness play across the muscles in her back. In another life, she could easily be a sculptor, toiling her days away in a vain attempt to immortalize the divot of Shego's spine and the strong spread of her shoulders.

"Empty," Shego says through the earpiece and lets herself drop. Kim blinks and shakes her head, quickly following.

The room barely fits all of them. One heavy steel door leads out to an equally dank hallway, flanked by lights and pipes and wheels on all sides. Shego passes her hand by a small plaque near the door.

"C-rank, like I thought," Shego murmurs. "Older. Looks like they've retrofitted it recently."

"What does that mean?" Yori asks, peering at an old, rusted dial.

"Whoever moved in asked for some alterations. Stay sharp."

They turn the latch and expose the hallway. Shego inches her head out, palms sizzling. "One camera, down the hall."

"Can you kill it?"

Shego manifests a tiny sliver of white plasma over her pointer finger. "Yeah, I just need—"

The room brightens like daylight, the lighting-fast flash-fire of a bomb. Flame surges up her arm to devour half of Shego's torso. Everyone flinches; she staggers back against the wall, clutching her chest, even paler in this cold light.

Kim steadies her. Plasma licks up Shego's throat and into the curl of her ear. "Shego? What's wrong?"

"I—" Shego works her jaw for a second, her claws twisting in the material of her suit like she'd rip it open. "The loop, I think…"

Even though the intensity of her plasma fades after a minute, white back to green, it keeps burning: Shego's fingers and wrists writhe with flame, unable to be extinguished.

"It's close, isn't it?" Kim asks. "The source?"

Shego nods, unable to mask the strain on her face. "Up."

Kim steps back, stands up straight. "Then let's go up."

Ron falls into line, instinctively responsive to the tone of her voice. Yori hesitates. "What about the camera, Kim-san?"

Kim glances at Shego, not leaning anymore but unusually severe. "It's like Wade said. They know we're here."

"So we just… go?"

"We avoid it the old-fashioned way." Kim waits until it swivels in the other direction. The door groans as she edges it open. "Run!"

They burst out of the boiler room. Kim lets Shego edge ahead, her long strides covering more ground, hands clenched into fists to mask the worst of the light. They duck into a narrow, rusty hallway. Shego weaves in and out of maintenance tunnels, slight and silent as a phantom, keeping them away from prying eyes.

"Through here," Shego mutters, slamming her fist on an old padlock. It sprays white-hot metal as it falls to the ground.

"How do you remember all of this?" Kim asks as they climb the stairs two at a time. Shego's hand melts through the railing as she reaches for it and nearly tips over.

"Until recently, it was literally my job." Shego glances at a door leading out of the stairwell, reconsiders, and keeps moving up. "I memorized all the blueprints years ago."

"Why?"

"Villains are petty, Kimmie. Drakken wanted Hench to know nothing was safe from me, and from him by extension."

"That's a lot of work just for bragging rights."

They slip out of the stairwell, into a hallway much better maintained than the lower half of the mountain. A mop and bucket sit abandoned by the door. "Most of the underworld is one big pissing contest. You fall short, you get to clean up after everyone else."

"Let me guess," Kim covers her back as Shego leans out into a larger atrium. "You shoot the furthest."

Shego glances back over her shoulder. Her wicked smirk makes the hair on Kim's neck stand on end. "Of course I do."

They shadow the near wall. Though the upper floors are newer, they're still dated with dirty linoleum and flickering fluorescent lighting. A walkway, painted a peeling seafoam green, runs fifteen feet above their heads.

"I feel like I'm in an abandoned hospital," Ron mutters.

"No goons either..." Shego flexes her fingers, loops of plasma snaking around her knuckles. "It doesn't feel right. Villains love to monologue, but they need an audience."

"Have you considered that I might not be a villain?"

The new voice bounces around the cavernous space. Kim pulls back around the corner and out of sight, nearly bumping into Yori.

Shego stays where she is, arms crossing. Plasma curls from her hands and around her back like vestigial wings. "Some creepy, faceless voice in this glorified asylum? Only we can be that dramatic."

A laugh. "Don't tell me you're scared?"

"Not a chance." Shego grins, predatory. "But I think you are."

Shadows flicker on the other side of the room. Soft footsteps, languid, tap their way across the walkway. "You don't know anything about me."

A woman leans casually on the railing. Her dark curls spill out over her shoulders, caught awkwardly in the black mask tied to the upper half of her face. She wears an open white lab coat, thrown over a faded dark sweater and tights.

Shego scoffs. "What's with the outfit? You raid the discount bin at Party City?"

"Maybe she shrunk her actual suit in the wash," Kim offers. She steps back into the light, brushing shoulders with Shego.

"Very funny." The woman rolls her eyes. "You villains have such a sense of humour."

"Oh, sweetheart," Shego tuts. "You must really be green if you think Kimmie here is one of us. Don't you watch the news? Or do they not have internet at whatever ass-backwards clown school you attended?"

Their target looks at Kim for the first time. Her eyes widen underneath her mask. "You're—"

"Kim Possible," Kim says. "I'd say nice to meet you, but I don't know your name."

"I—" Her hands dance along the guardrail, restless, betraying her even as she makes a show of straightening her shoulders. "Why are you here? I haven't hurt anyone."

"Maybe not directly—"

"—yes directly!" Shego growls.

"—but whatever you're doing here is hurting my friend. I don't take that lightly."

Shego's eyebrows shoot up. "Slingin' the f-bomb around so casually, kid?"

"My acquaintance," Kim corrects with a roll of her eyes. "Either way, it's got to stop. Whatever you're doing has consequences."

"So, what?" The woman asks, leaning forward. "The good of one person – who isn't even a good person! – overwrites the good of the whole planet?"

"Since when does you fuckin' with my life have to do with the planet?"

"That's the problem with you villains! So short-sighted!"

"Oh," Shego mutters under her breath, "here we go."

Her footsteps echo all around them as she paces. The breeze picks up her fluffy hair, bouncing it behind her, making her look like an angry cloud in the place of a person. "You're always so busy using your powers for yourself. It's always about you. Do you even understand the implications of your abilities, Shego? We'd never have to drill for oil again! We could tear down the dams that destroy our rivers and choke our wildlife! We could reverse the climate crisis!"

She spins, her eyes accusing under her mask. "And what do you do? Use this amazing, exceptional, unbelievable gift to be a thief and a liar? To—to engage in all the worst parts of society you could change by yourself?"

Shego's jaw lifts, a dangerous glimmer in her gaze. "You're awfully judgmental for someone who's been stealin' something very personal for months."

"Stealing?" The woman scoffs, hands tight on the banister as she looms over them. "I'm not stealing anything, Shego. I'm just finally doing something useful with it."

Shego's whole body coils taut. Kim takes half a step forward and cuts into their line of sight, her heel just barely nudging the toes of Shego's suit, feeling the sigh of static as Shego exhales deeply.

"Shego's a person like anyone else," Kim says. "These are her powers, and it's her decision what she does with them, even if we don't always agree."

Something deep inside the mountain stirs to life. Its mechanical lungs groan, shaking the entire structure - Kim tracks the flat-footed wobble of the woman's knees and the tremor of her voice as her walkway bucks, her persona breaking for a moment. This… person, she's—she's inexperienced. Young. Younger than her, maybe. Not yet grown into it; wearing her mother's oversized cloak.

"Look," Kim sighs, crossing her arms once the stones settle. "We're not here as Global Justice. We're not even here as Team Possible… at least, not in any official capacity. All we want is for you to stop whatever you're doing, apologize, and promise you won't do it again."

"Speak for yourself," Shego grunts, "I have some aggression to get out."

Kim knocks her heel against Shego's boot. "All I'm saying is that if you leave now, I think we can stop short of getting the authorities involved."

Shego does stop, then; breaks her gaze sharply from the walkway, eyebrows arched. "Did I just hear you say you're condoning vigilante justice?"

"Totally weird that I'm saying this, but: what she said," Ron steps out of his hiding place, flanking Kim's other side. "I thought we were arresting her, or something."

"What?" Kim frowns. "And then announce to Global Justice we were helping Shego all along?"

"We could just drop her off at the police station?" Ron offers.

"They don't know who she is, Ron. They'll just let her go."

"Oh, no no no, that's not what's interesting here." Shego leans forward, hand on her hip, no longer nearly as tensely coiled as she was. "To the surprise of nobody, I'm not a big fan of authority. I was just gonna beat the shit out of her, wreck her lair, and call it a day. But Princess, you? Suggesting we go around the law?"

"Why is it so hard to believe I can appreciate being discreet?"

"This isn't discreet, KP. This is lying!"

Shego shrugs. "She's already slipped one past Ol' Betts before."

"She did w—"

"Shut UP!"

The woman stomps her foot on the walkway, the whole thing screeching with the momentum. She keeps her balance a little better this time. "God, you all love to hear yourselves talk, don't you?"

"Better than listening to you drone on about moral superiority," Shego says. "We were having a very important conversation."

"Well," she sneers, "excuse me for interrupting."

"Not granted. But even though I still really wanna punch you, Kimmie's identity crisis is a little juicier to me right now."

Kim frowns. "I don't think I'm having an identity crisis, Shego."

The woman sputters. "But—you—don't ignore me! You haven't even asked for my name!"

"Kim did," Ron chimes in. "You ignored her."

"What? No, I didn't!"

"You did," Kim agrees. "I introduced myself, and you started getting all defensive."

Kim can almost see the smoke pouring out of the woman's ears. "Well—you caught me off guard. I wasn't exactly expecting Kim Possible to show up in my lab—uh, my lair."

Shego sighs loudly, tipping her head back. "Can we just get on with it? If I don't get to hit something soon, I'm gonna burn this whole place down."

Kim pinches the bridge of her nose, suddenly very tired. "Kid, what's your name?"

The woman blinks. "W-what?"

"Your name. You wanted me to ask you, so I'm asking you."

She puffs up a little, her worn lab coat falling open a little further to reveal the two brightly-stitched cat eyes sewn into her sweater. "Call me No-Zone."

Kim blinks. "No…Zone?"

"Is that a country?" Ron asks, frowning. "I don't remember it in geography class."

"No, it's—"

"Perhaps a secret code?" Yori chimes in. She steps out and stands at Shego's other side.

"I—"

"Whatever it is," Shego sneers, "I've come up with better while I was daydrunk at seventeen juggling a billionaire's wife and his baby mama."

"Wait," Kim turns. "Wife?"

"Doy, slick. You're delusional if you think only men want a piece of this ass."

"For your information," No-Zone huffs, having to raise her voice to be heard, "my name is a carefully thought-out pun about climate change and the environment! Humorous, but still serious."

"…so," Ron ventures, "not a country?"

"No-Zone! Like ozone, but none! No ozone!"

Each member of Team Possible lets out a pained groan.

"Are you fucking kidding me? No-Zone? Now I'm both pissed AND embarrassed that some D-list supervillain with the shittiest name since the Mathter has been causing me this much grief." Shego scowls and cracks her fingers, the gentle glow in her palms cranking up to a bright light. "That's it, no more talking. It's clobberin' time!"

Kim sighs as Shego takes a few steps back. "Shego, come on. She's clearly not a fighter… can't you just bring the mountain down and be done with it?"

No-Zone glances nervously over the edge. "She's, uh, she's right. I can't fight. At all."

Shego's smile has too many teeth to be mirthful. "Shoulda bought a few guards, sweetie. Not that it would make a difference."

It's almost comical how high Shego jumps. Her body twists like a cat in midair, defying physics and biology alike, soundless as she stretches out and catches a beam on the underneath of the walkway. The whole thing shudders with her added weight.

Kim wrinkles her nose, turning the dial on her belt. "Are you really gonna beat someone who can't fight back?"

"I'll go easy on her, Kimmie." Shego uses the underneath of the catwalk like monkey bars, green light flashing every time she moves her hands. No-Zone starts to back up – slowly at first, more urgent as the glow creeps closer. "Only gonna break three bones. And I'll even let her choose which ones! Isn't that generous of me?"

"You have a weird version of generosity," Kim says as she engages her thrusters. She blasts up, nearly overestimating, but lands heavily on the other end of the walkway with Shego hanging between them.

"I-I agree with her," No-Zone stutters, voice trembling just a little too hard for Kim not to notice. "That doesn't sound generous at all."

Shego punches up through the perforated walkway, spraying molten droplets in every direction. No-Zone barely avoids her grasping claws. "Considering I was gonna break all of 'em? I'd say I'm Mother-fucking-Theresa."

No-Zone backpedals and Kim watches as Shego tracks her from under the catwalk; she waits until No-Zone is far enough away to leap for the next rung, making the whole thing shake ominously without bringing it down. Shego's hand slices through the metal of the platform, enthusiastic but sloppy, never close enough to actually hurt the other villain.

She's playing with her, Kim realizes. Just like a cat does with its food.

"Kim!" Ron calls from below, anxiously watching Shego live out her past life as a howler monkey. "Should we, uh, do something?"

"Go do what you do best, Ron. Take Yori and find a way to shut it all down."

There's a conspicuous set of metal doors at the other end of the room, past the walkway, shiny and new and most definitely a retrofit.

"Copy that, KP!" Ron frowns only for a second, eyes flicking back to Shego and her wide, wild grin. "You got this?"

"I got this."

He takes a deep breath, nudging Yori. They make a break from the shadows for the suspicious doors across the room.

It doesn't take long for No-Zone to notice. Even dodging Shego's clumsy assault, she finds time to lean over the railing. "Hey! Private property, you can't go in there!"

"Do you really think that works?" Kim asks, taking a few ginger steps forward, careful not to step where Shego has done the most damage. "It's kinda hypocritical of you, considering what you've been doing lately."

Yori gets to the doors faster than Ron, her nimble hands searching for a way inside. No-Zone scowls, hopping back a little further, fumbling with something in the pocket of her labcoat. "I mean it! Don't make me hurt you!"

Shego laughs – it's a little unsettling, shriller than her usual rasp, and continues even as she swings herself onto the topside of the walkway. "Big words for a little girl about to end up in a body cast."

Kim's seen that look of fear in plenty of people's faces before she punched their lights out. Seen it in Shego's, too, in that terrible stillness they shared between them as half of Kim's hand hit the ground. No-Zone lets out something between a cry and a whimper, dark skin cast ghoul-grey, and pulls out a small remote on a necklace with a big red button.

"You gonna zap us?" Shego sneers. "I promise, whatever you've got in there, my vibrator has more juice."

The lair shakes. Above them, a large hatch in the middle of the roof groans and splits open. There's a glint of metal caught by the terrible, fluorescent lighting, and then a deafening crash as whatever was hiding in the ceiling falls to the floor.

Tiles spray in all directions. The walkway swings dangerously, Kim leaning her hip against the railing to stay steady. No-Zone herself almost pitches forward right into Shego's waiting claws.

"I-I warned you," No-Zone stammers, thumb letting go of the button. Gears whir to life as the shape on the floor slowly gets up, eight spidery limbs made entirely of wires and burnt-brushed steel splaying out in all directions – it clicks and whines as it rises, levering its strange, round abdomen into the air, entirely featureless save for a single red eye that pops up on its top. It swivels slowly as if waking up from a long and unexpected nap.

Kim sighs. "You did. Shego, this one's on you."

"Guilty as charged. I'll take care of it after showing Miss No-Cool here my fists."

"It's No-Zone, asshole!" No-Zone takes another few steps backwards – there's another door behind her, maybe eighty feet away, still open from where she made her dramatic entrance. It emits a soft, barely-there green glow. "And you won't be showing me anything. I can't believe I thought I could reason with you!"

"If you think that was reasonable, you have a thing or two to learn about diplomacy. You should call Kimmie while you're in the hospital and take a few pointers!"

Shego lunges. She gets most of the way there before the robot – drone? spider? – lashes out with one spindly leg. Shego tries to dodge, but it scoops her around the abdomen and flings her into the nearby wall instead.

It takes out part of the walkway as it does – Kim leaps back, narrowly avoiding the blow, tracking No-Zone as she scrambles out of sight. Shego growls as she peels herself out of the human-sized hole she made on impact. She's not even looking at the robot, eyes fixed on the other villain as she disappears through the doorway.

"Shego," Kim warns as Shego bunches her legs underneath her, "don't you dare leave me to clean up your mess!"

"That's why you brought the B-Team, right?"

Shego jumps, fire under her heels giving her that extra little boost she needs to clear the broken section of the walkway and land on the other side. She turns and gives an infuriating mock-salute. "Don't worry, I'll come rescue you after."

"Shego—" Kim scowls as Shego follows No-Zone further into the lair. "Honestly, why do I even bother? Ron!"

He looks up from underneath her, doing a good job of dodging massive robot legs. "Yeah?"

"Follow Shego and No-Zone. Yori, Rufus, with me. We gotta disable this thing before it brings the mountain down around us."

"Roger!"

"It would be my honour."

Ron leaps onto a service ladder and begins to climb. Yori splits off, quiet as a shadow, weaving between its unnervingly fast limbs and the constant swivel of its glowing eye. Kim licks her lips. The whole thing is maybe twenty feet tall, just shy of eye-level from where she is now. Seamless except where the limbs come out and the hatch for its head. If Shego was still here she could just melt right through and be done with it, but… Kim'll have to get creative.

Rufus skitters up her pantleg, clinging onto the small vents at her shoulder. She smiles and scratches his bald head.

"Yori, get its attention!"

Kim runs along the catwalk, strafing in the opposite direction of Yori, the two of them circling it like fish in a pond. Yori flings a couple shuriken – they embed themselves in its eye, that itself more of a glowing disc than an actual sphere. It whirs, two limbs flying for her, crashing into the ground as she dances out of its reach.

She takes her chance and hits her thrusters. Kim flies forward, right fist cocking back, that red light focused on Yori blinking onto her as she—

Kim doesn't have a chance to change course before the laser hits her.

Her suit absorbs the worst of the kinetic impact. Kim yelps, clipping the walkway, sending herself into a spin before she can stop it. She hits the ground and skids to a halt at the other end of the room.

"Kim-san!" Yori cries, her voice oddly echoed in her ear.

"I'm fine," Kim grunts, "but that hurt. Rufus, you okay?"

He reappears around the debris, a little dusty but no worse for wear. "Yep, mhm!"

There has to be some sort of control panel inside. If she could get to it, frying it would be as easy as ripping out its guts. But her chest still aches from where she took that laser, and she imagines those pincers could tear her in half if they got the chance.

Kim dives out of the way of one arm. Another one comes to try and sweep her feet, but she hits her thrusters and skids out of the way.

"It's too fast, Kim-san. Can we trip it somehow?"

"I don't have a wire strong enough, using my grappling hook will yank off my whole—" Kim blinks, eyeing where the limbs protrude from its bulbous body, "… arm. Okay, new plan!"

She and Yori go back to circling. That eye rotates on the top, and every time it focuses on her Kim feels a chill down her spine.

"Rufus, buddy, you ready for a little mayhem?"

"Oooh, explosion!"

"That's the idea. Yori, go!"

The other woman stops strafing, adjusting without so much as a squeak on the tile as she sprints for the drone. Two of its four arms shoot out towards her – she leaps up, flying over them, managing to pull her feet away from its reaching claw by a fraction of an inch.

Kim moves in. She skids underneath and reaches up, right hand securing around the joint where limb meets body. Metal groans under her grip as she digs her feet in and pulls.

It's not like she's unaware of her new strength – quite the opposite, in fact. Still doesn't stop her from being surprised as she crushes the joint in the socket with a shower of sparks, the drone wobbling as one of its supports falls in. She twists, rivets howling, raw wiring poking through the wound as she tears it from its body.

Rufus runs up her arm with a determined chitter, disappearing into the chassis. Kim flings the broken limb away and ducks from an errant laser before it blows her head off.

"Ron," Kim pants into her earpiece, not getting any room to breathe as the drone fixates on her. Even without a leg it's still keeping up. "Any luck?"

"Lots of big, shiny buttons, Kim! Buttons and numbers and—Shego, wait, what are you—no, don't!—"

An explosion rocks the lair. Sirens begin to blare from every direction, the harsh lighting giving way to a pulsing red alarm, instantly making Kim's head hurt.

"What happened?" Kim yells, but gets no answer. "Ron? Shego? Hey!"

One robotic leg sweeps her in her distraction and slams her into the floor. Kim grunts, unable to wiggle out of its pincer-like grip. Another limb starts to descend, claws drawing back to reveal a terrible, whirling drill in the center.

"Rufus," Kim grabs the outstretched claws to stop them from clamping over her face, "a little help?"

It drives the drill down – Kim wrenches it out of the way, shattering the tile next to her face. It rears back to try again. This time she catches the pointed end with her right hand, sparks flying as the metal meets her super-powered skin.

It hurts in a strange, dull way. Not as sharp as a knife. More like… trapping your hand in a car door and someone slamming it over and over.

"Rufus!"

There's a bright flash of light inside the drone that lights up all the minute seams in its body. The head spins so quick it's a blur – once, twice, three times, one way then another, the red glow flickering sporadically. Yori appears like a shadow alongside them and severs the only leg still planted on the floor.

It staggers sideways. Kim manages to pry herself from its grasp, scraping herself on the sharp metal as she squeezes past.

Smoke billows from the hole where its leg used to be, expelling a great cloud of acrid soot, dust, and one very blackened rodent. Kim catches Rufus before he hits the floor, tucking him close to her chest as the robot crashes to the ground.

"Well done, both of you," Kim gives Rufus the tiniest high-five. "Talk about teamwork."

Yori smiles under her mask, eyes crinkling. "That was badical, as Ron-san says."

Another boom comes from the back room. There's a green glow spilling over the mangled walkway, a sharp taste to the air that Kim usually associates with a bolt of plasma to the face. Static squeals through their earpiece.

"Kim!" Ron's voice is high in her ear, tinny with panic. "I need help!"

Kim vaults off the drone's corpse and onto the remnants of the walkway, her feet barely touching the ground. That light gets brighter by the second, spilling out from the open doorway, clashing with the red lights rioting in the atrium. "What's going on, Ron?"

"I-I don't know! It's Shego, I can't—I can't turn it off!"

She nearly flies into the back room. Kim takes in dozens of details at once; the walls of blinking lights, the huge screen flashing one massive exclamation point, Ron frantically mashing the control panel underneath. There's thick bundles of wires and cables running from every single area of this space, all of them haphazardly tied together, converging directly in the middle around some sort of metal pedestal.

None of it as striking as Shego, one arm raised, caught halfway in a beam of green light so bright it hurts to look at.

"Shego!" Kim yells, her voice lost in the cacophony. The other woman doesn't reply, doesn't even turn her head, eyes wide open and glowing solid green with no pupil to be seen. "Shego, you have to stop!"

Tongues of plasma lash out as they roll off her shoulders. One rakes over a row of computers and turns them to slag, sparks and smoke roiling high in the ceiling, shrouding the room in a thick haze. Kim fights through the vicious wind towards the pedestal. There, held captive in midair, is a small jade shard. Shego's fingers are so tight around it that her suit strains over her knuckles.

"Kim, be careful!" Wade's voice is barely audible in her ear. "If you don't stop the loop, the whole mountain is gonna explode!"

Kim grabs Shego by the shoulder and pulls, but she doesn't budge. Her very flesh is vibrating, light starting to spill out from her parted mouth, her nose, her ears. It's like she's been rooted to the metal itself.

"Shego," Kim tries, cupping her cheek in one hand, "please! I know you're in there!"

No response. Shego's hair lifts with the wind, the heat coming off her near-unbearable. Kim starts to sweat under her suit.

Together, Ron and Yori pull the main plug connecting the strange shard to the computers. It doesn't make a difference – nothing can stop it. Kim feels the power of it in the air, the sheer, alien weight to the charged particles, pressing down over her shoulders like a leaded cloak.

Ron waves to catch her attention. "We have to go!"

"No! I'm not leaving her!"

"KP, please! She's gonna bury us alive!"

Tears prick the corners of her eyes. Wade says something lost in the noise as the beam bloats with power, almost as if trying to drive Kim out. The heat is overpowering, singeing her eyebrows, burning the air in her lungs. It reminds her of that time Shego sealed her hand back—

Her hand.

Kim doesn't think about the consequences as she plunges her right hand into the light. Despite her suit's special weave, it disintegrates in a matter of seconds. Like pushing through water, thick and viscous between her fingers, plasma crawling over her skin – white-green veins spiderweb up her palm, her wrist, her forearm, growing with every second in that halo, writhing like alive. Her face starts to blister from being so close, the ends of her hair crisping and curling up.

She ignores it all. Kim's gaze never wavers from Shego, jaw clenched, straining with every part of her being. If only she could—if she could just reach her—

Their hands brush, Kim's fingers slotting around Shego's. Her thumb touches the shard.

It feels like she's being chewed apart from the inside. Kim opens her mouth to scream, to expel the magma from her veins and—

—she's falling a million miles a second, rocketing through space and time, the void draped so lushly with star and shadow – it's so cold but she's hot; burning up from the inside, from her chest, burbling with liquid stone and fire and all she can see is greengreengreen—

And then she's not. Kim falls back into her body wrongly, almost, too suddenly to feel comfortable; soul shifted three inches sideways, not quite seated the same as when it left. It takes her a moment to realize she's not in the lab – she's not anywhere she knows at all.

Is she dreaming?

Wood planks beneath her feet. Everything frozen in time, crystalline glass-fine shards of dust caught in the rich late-afternoon sun that pours in through an open window. Five kids and her, this phantom-body Kim lives in cramped in the corner of a space not meant for a sixth, a treehouse barely big enough for the tallest boy. It's summer, Kim knows; she can taste the sweetness of the grass in the air, the ripeness of the season.

Four boys and a girl, dressed in shorts and t-shirts and untied sneakers, covered in bandaids and bugbites. Each of them special in their own right – the oldest big enough already to tower, the twins identical save for differently dappled eyes, shaded green like the leaves of this tree – but Kim only looks at the girl. She's sitting on the windowsill, red-roasted shoulders and skinned knees, maybe twelve at the most with a long, messy braid that ties her dark hair down to her back.

Kim blinks. Despite the roundness of childhood and how it makes her soft, she would recognize Shego anywhere. There's ruby-red blood beading from a fresh graze at her elbow, her broken skin the colour of golden sand, and she's grinning without there being any sharpness to it.

Is this a dream, or reality?

Despite the clouds being light and airy, peach-flushed pink with the lateness of the day, there's a snap to the air, the fizzle of static on the tongue. Kim looks over Shego's narrow shoulder and up into the pastel-hued sky, searching for the promise of rain – instead, there's a flash of green on the horizon. Time doesn't work like it should here: it starts distant but it isn't long before the light is bearing down on them, bright and all-consuming, casting strange shadows on the roughened floor of the treehouse.

All five kids look up, caught in slow-motion. Kim can smell the sear of it burning across the sky, leaving a scar in its wake, eating up the air it touches. Maybe when it first happened, it was over in an instant. A flash of light, an explosion, a brief but blinding blow of pain. But here… time stretches the tragedy too long. She tries to scream her warning but nothing comes out when she opens her mouth, an unwilling witness to a fate unable to be changed. In this strange half-reality, there's no sound at all.

Kim watches at the glow becomes a jagged shape, blotting out the sun, replacing its light. It bounces off Shego's face and turns her ghostly green.

Not a dream at all… a nightmare.

A memory.

Shego turns to face the comet just as everything falls apart.

It's as big as the tree itself, a spiralling mass of burning, multicoloured crystal, red and blue and purple but green above everything else. Comet doesn't do it justice, bright-hot and trailing a rainbow of super-heated plasma in a tail that punches through the clouds. Kim's seen blurry pictures before, knows the glow like the back of her hand, but none of it ever did the light justice as it pours down from the sky.

The comet fractures as they watch. Smaller shards of different colours break away like daggers, chunks of amethyst and cobalt and the same deep, dark garnet as Shego's blood, all of them now circling the massive spear of emerald gemstone that falls from the heavens with a brightness that could rival a star.

All of this still slow, slow enough to see the instant flicker-flash of fear on Shego's face. How brutally young she still is, how small and terrified as the treehouse bows out in front of her. How the very wood splits open, yielding like it never existed at all, and suddenly the full weight of the comet bears down upon the tiny space between her collarbones.

Just like that, the very tip of it pressing like a claw against her chest, grinds time to a halt.

Not for long. Only enough for Kim to exhale a silent breath, shaky with her heart in her throat. To see herself in the reflection of the comet's shiny carapace, to see through it, hazy like stained glass. The other side of the treehouse is distorted, and through that strange lens she catches the barest glimpse of a figure sealed inside the crystal; humanoid, in the loosest terms, a shadow of long limbs and hard shell encased in jade gemstone.

Kim gasps, and in the space of that inhale, time restarts again. Her gaze never leaves Shego's little body as it crumples under the burning weight of the comet, wood turning to sawdust under her feet.

Until it does, rising up unbidden to meet Shego's – older Shego, her Shego – horrified face on the other side of the treehouse, materializing like she'd been there all along. They lock eyes and there's a shared sorrow and surprise between them, hung there like a secret.

And so, this is what she sees: not the boys as the differently-coloured shards sink into them, nor the modest house turning to ash in the yard. Just Shego, forced to watch the day her life ended, and having no choice as Kim watches too.