A/N: For some reason, this dark little idea popped into my head... No idea why. And it took on a life of its own.

There was no moon. The night was black as jet, and but for the lights from the warehouse below Drakken wouldn't have been able to see anything in the remote part of the Orinoco rainforest that was to be the site of their next larceny.

He hung back nervously and watched Shego as she gazed at their target through binoculars, laying flush against the flat rooftop and just barely peeking over the edge. He still wasn't used to her new look of all black with her hair wrapped all around her head in a some type of layered plait. A mask hung around her neck ready to cover the lower-half of her face, and night-vision goggles completed the look. The only semblance to her old costume was the pouch on her calf. When she wore the goggles and mask they concealed her skin, rendering her nearly invisible in the dark.

He likewise wasn't used to the costume she had insisted that he wear, essentially black combat fatigues, but with heavy-duty bullet proof armor and a few 'accessories.' 'Because we both know you'd be a goner without them, where we're going,' she had told him. He also had a mask and goggles, but he wore them as little as possible. He felt terribly out of character with all of it.

Shego motioned him forward with a subtle gesture, and he slowly crawled on his belly as she had taught him until he reached her side and peered over the edge of the roof with her. He lifted his binoculars and followed her gaze until he easily found their target: hundreds of packing crates, filled with bags and bags of a pearly white powder that went by many names in the underworld. And it was all being loaded into about two-dozen massive trucks by a contingent of at least fifty men clad similarly to himself, all speaking Spanish.

Shego tapped his shoulder, and he lowered the binoculars to see her point first at the corner of a building far to their left, and then over to the first truck in the caravan. He raised the binoculars again and looked to her first point.

Dr. Director of Global Justice peered around the corner of a building, along with General Shipp of the U.S. Army. Drakken knew that the Army's special teams were all stationed strategically around the supposedly hidden jungle warehouses for miles. Traps had been set, every road was guarded, and every contingency considered. If all went as planned, this would be the biggest drug bust in history.

Except that he and Shego were planning a double-cross.

Well, Shego was. He was just along for the ride, as he had been for the last eight months when she decided she was getting bored with their vanilla jobs at G.J. At first she had taken small side jobs of the sort the government didn't want the public to know existed. But those jobs had quickly gotten bigger and bigger, to the point where he had been working up the courage to confront her.

Except that she came to him first. She had been blunt and said she was done, that she had been done before it had ever started. She was a villain. But she had stayed for him and wanted him to go along with her now. Her plan was to keep up the facade and begin rebuilding their empire, which would be easier while they weren't wanted in any countries.

The very idea made him sick. He had wanted to plead with her, to tell her that he was happy, and that when they were inevitably found out it would be worse for them than ever.

But every argument was forgotten when he melted into her passionate kiss.

To the world they were still heroes. But now he followed her on every mission, obeying her orders, and carefully covering up their tracks.

A few million stolen here, a job for Belarusian crime lords there. Most of the time she secretly took the independent contracts and would be gone for weeks, and he was left hoping she would come back alive even as he forged all manner of excuses when their bosses came looking for her.

When he expressed his concern with her disappearing acts, she started taking him with her. Thus began his mercenary training and the distressing revelation that there was more in her head this time than the weekend-style villainy to which he had long been accustomed.

This time there was blood. And bodies. And a disturbingly casual attitude about it all that urged him to attend her even more closely.

On that moonless night they were the Army's wild card. Dr. Director was there in the capacity of an independent contractor as they were, and General Shipp was running the show. He would give the order for special forces to move in. Then if things looked to be heading south, Shego and Drakken would arrive with their superpowers to mix things up. But only if absolutely necessary.

Shego had decided it was before they were even out of the Pentagon.

Her plan was very simple on the surface. When the Army moved in, so would they. They would steal one truck, easily missed in what would no doubt be a blood bath once the firefight started, and get away with ease since they knew where all the booby traps were and which roads to take. What was worth a few cents in Venezuela would be worth thousands in the U.S., and Shego knew exactly who to sell the goods to.

"Sarria is here," she whispered, drawing his attention to the other place she had pointed. A man smoking a cigar whose face Drakken couldn't make out stood near the lead eighteen-wheeler, giving orders and dual-wielding Uzis. "So that's the truck we go for."

"Why?" Drakken asked.

"He wouldn't be guarding it so closely if— Oh…look!"

Drakken looked again as the back door of the truck was slid open and a crate was lifted inside. This was the last one and filled the vehicle to capacity.

When he looked over at Shego, her expression was almost lustful.

"If that truck is actually that full of coke… It could be worth almost a billion!"

Drakken felt a familiar, licentious desire rise within him. What he could do with a billion dollars…

"Okay, sixty seconds out. Are the synthodrones ready?"

"Yes," he said with a nod, swallowing anxiously.

There was no coming back after this mission. Everyone would know when his newly improved and much larger electro-synthodrone army attacked exactly who was responsible. And his creations would of course attack everyone. Mercenaries only took the side of who paid the most, Shego had instructed him, but for this plan their only loyalties were to themselves.

"And the jammers?" she continued, tucking her binoculars away into her small backpack.

She never looked at him anymore. She never teased him and hardly ever talked to him outside of giving him an order or explaining their next job or scheme. There were no more Friday nights at karaoke, or vacations to Greece. When she wasn't out doing something decidedly illegal and self-serving, she was making plans for the next time.

He barely recognized her.

"Yes."

"All right, wait for my signal," she said, reaching for her mask.

"Shego?" he said, catching her hand in his.

She looked up at him with questioning and almost suspicious eyes.

Before she could react he slipped his other hand behind her head and quickly closed the distance between them, kissing her ardently.

45 seconds…

She didn't respond.

40 seconds…

She gently tried to push him away. His fingers laced between hers as his tongue bravely caressed her lips.

35 seconds…

She spoke against his mouth that there wasn't time for that, her warm breath mingling with his.

30 seconds.

His tongue continued its demands until her soft lips parted, and his heart swelled.

25 seconds.

Finally and gratefully his tongue found hers, writing his desire in tender swirls. The answering press of her lips was sweet and hesitant.

20 seconds.

The hand that pushed against his chest weakened until it slipped down and lay limp in her lap. Her lips trembled in their effort to respond to his fervor.

15 seconds.

He slowly withdrew his tongue and hers followed, unwilling to surrender the touch. His lips captured her honey-sweet member and suckled it gently.

She moaned.

An urgent need for air forced him to relinquish his control, and he reluctantly drew his lips away from hers. When he opened his eyes hers were still closed, and he ended up holding his breath again.

He wanted to save her. He wanted her back. But the deeper she went into this new world, the further she fell. Simply tagging along and being there with her wasn't enough. And his fear grew as the days passed with no glimmer of hope, and he was almost out of ideas.

His earpiece crackled with the voice of General Shipp, signaling his troops to move in. He knew she heard the same thing in hers.

In the moment her eyes opened, she was there. The familiar friend who challenged him to be better than he was, and who he admired for her relentless pursuit of self-worth, not letting even the world hold her down.

She was looking at him.

But in less than the time it took for the general to issue his command, she was gone, displaced by the dead eyes of the mercenary.

The loss was so profound that he felt it deep in his chest, like a fist clenching around his heart.

"Shego…" he whispered desperately, begging her to come back to him.

Her eyes met his and there was a flicker of her—the tiniest of flickers—that he wanted to believe and hope in.

"Drakken..."

And then she was gone again, pulling away from him and putting her mask in place.

On the ground below them, the sound of machine gun fire had taken over the night and he knew he had to refocus. He would never get her back if he wasn't able to keep up with her.

"We'll have time for that after we get our billion. Let's go," she said, climbing over the wall and sliding down the rope they had secured there.

Drakken followed and moments later was peering over her shoulder into chaos.

Erratic flashes of yellow and orange lit up the surrounding jungle as the army moved in against the drug lords. The criminals were meeting the attack in kind, most shielding themselves behind the crates and trucks while others used more brash tactics, rushing to meet their enemies in armored cars. The unending retort of too many weapons was dizzying, and Drakken huddled behind Shego in fear.

"Now," Shego hissed, and Drakken obediently sent the command to the synthodrones.

They watched from the shadows as the towering seven-foot automatons appeared as if from thin air amid both the soldiers and the criminals as their cloaking devices were deactivated, their numbers excelling those of the combined sides of the conflict.

Anger and shock and terror and rage were the cries of their enemies, easily understood whether in English or Spanish as the new and improved electro-synthodrones attacked. Bodies began falling, some by electrocution and others by blunt force trauma as the highly-skilled androids followed their programming.

Shego began creeping along the wall of the building they had hidden upon and toward the lead truck, her eyes never leaving the action.

"Gun," she said. Drakken quickly handed her the laser pistol he had designed and she used the invisible beam to shoot out every light along their path as they went, a little extra security in case the synthodrones weren't distraction enough.

Their earpieces crackled with the furious voice of Dr. Director, demanding to know what they were up to. Synthodrones had been banned in their first year at G.J.

Shego handed him the gun back as they came to the corner of the building and paused. This would be the hard part. There was no cover between them and the truck now, and it was about forty yards away from them. The gate that would lead to freedom was closed and locked, and the rumored leader of the cartel was still standing right next to their prize, cigar still in his mouth and an uzi in each hand.

The fighting was concentrated at the other end of the caravan, which was to their disadvantage. They would likely be spotted if they simply made a run for it.

"We need the fight to come over here," he muttered.

Just then, an explosion sent flames and debris in a thirty foot radius. Drakken fell to the ground and covered his head, while the unflappable Shego merely narrowed her eyes. Luck was in their favor as a combination of soldiers and criminals ran toward the gate, some fighting each other and synthodrones pursuing them all.

"Attention all units..."

In their earpieces they heard Dr. Director proclaim them belligerents in the fight, and General Shipp authorized all necessary force to stop them.

There really was no going back.

"Ready?" Shego asked, looking at him as he sheepishly stood back up.

"Mhm," he said nervously.

She took off running through the dark toward the truck and he followed right behind her, his eyes darting around between their enemies looking for any sign of threat. The first came from one of the soldiers who spotted them and shouted their names. Heads turned in their direction, and Shego growled in anger as their cover was blown.

They were halfway there. One of the soldiers ran in front of Shego to stop her, but without hesitation she leapt into the air and came down on top of him with a harsh kick to his knee. Drakken heard the crack as the bones were broken and the man cried out in pain.

Two of the drug lords opened fire on them and Shego dropped to the ground and rolled swiftly toward them. Before they knew what had hit them she had swept their legs out from under them and was behind them, a snarl on her face as she twisted one of their arms in each of her hands until she heard the telltale snap.

Drakken was transfixed in a mixture of awe, horror, and disgust at the violent display.

"Drakken!" Shego's cry alerted him, and he turned to see the missile from a rocket launcher growing rapidly as it raced directly toward him.

He pressed his fingers fiercely into the button on the center of his belt, activating his personal shield. He closed his eyes tightly as the rocket impacted it, the light momentarily blinding as the flames expanded and then dissipated.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

Any shield that could stop Shego's powers could stop a rocket.

Shego was up again and had knocked back the soldier who fired at him with a harsh kick to the chest. The man's body fell back hard against the ground and he didn't move again.

Catching his breath, Drakken hurried to catch up as he knew he would probably be hot-wiring the truck before they could escape.

Shego was only a few steps ahead of him, her eyes darting from side to side almost daring anyone else to challenge them.

Sudden pain as if from a large fist hit Drakken square in the chest. Again. And again, and with a grunt he faltered in his run and tumbled head over heels in the last ten yards to their destination.

Shego's cry of fury forced his eyes up again and he saw that it had been Sarria with his Uzis that took him down, and now the target of his lover's rage.

He would thank her for the bulletproof armor later.

He watched as if spellbound as a massive green blast from her hands lifted the man off the ground and slammed him into the side of the eighteen-wheeler. The force left him suspended for a moment and then his body slid down to the ground, a thick red stripe of blood following him and staining the side of the truck.

"Come on!" Shego said, dragging him up with a hand on his bicep.

He scrambled into the truck as she melted the gate away with another blast, and in a moment she was by his side.

Whether by some miracle or more dumb luck, the keys were in the ignition. After the motor started he put his foot down hard on the gas and never let it up, willing the vehicle to move. There was an echo of metal upon metal as bullets spattered against the truck, but Drakken knew it was all in vain. With their treachery revealed Shego had no more reason to hold back. Whoever was shooting would find themselves dead if she was annoyed enough.

A figure suddenly ran in front of the truck with hands outstretched and Drakken instinctively stepped on the brakes.

"Don't stop! Just run them over!" Shego growled.

"Dr. Director?" Drakken said as the woman ran up to Shego's side of the truck and shouted at them through the open window.

"Why!? How could you betray—!?"

She was interrupted by one of Shego's green blasts. It knocked her down hard, leaving bloody and smoking wounds on her chest and face.

"Move over!"

Drakken obediently relinquished the driver's seat to Shego and looked sadly at his former boss writhing on the ground in pain as they drove away.

Drakken's chest still hurt from the multiple bullet impacts. He was sure they would leave bruises. But it also hurt from the betrayal. This life was never what he wanted.

"We'll make a deal once we get to Colombia, and then double-cross them once we're on the plane," Shego said, the truck beginning to accelerate as it left the warehouse and started down the jungle road.

"With who?" he asked cautiously.

"Don Mario."

Drakken's eyes widened. "Are you sure?"

"We'll offer him a large cut. When he knows who we stole it from, he'll be more than willing."

"You've...dealt with him before?" Drakken said fearfully.

"I've worked for him."

The possible implications made Drakken sick to his stomach. Why, why had she chosen this life? What had happened to her?

"Will we need more synthodrones...for when we cross him?"

"Nah." Shego leaned back in the seat as the truck made it up to sixty miles per hour, steering with one hand atop the wheel while she studied the titanium-clawed glove on her other. One corner of her mouth curled lazily upward, but the smirk didn't reach her eyes. "And you know...we can get even more money out of him."

"How?"

She flared her hand, illuminating the cab in a terrifying green light. "We'll just offer his head to the highest bidder."

"Oh..."

Drakken's mind and heart were in turmoil as he studied her, a facsimile of the person he had known and loved for years as she drove away with their billion-dollar prize

He still loved her. It was the only explanation for why he kept following after her, obeying her every whim, committing crimes that were in his mind unthinkable. But how long could he survive watching her kill without a thought, sometimes even taking pleasure in the act?

She kept falling, falling away from the real world and into a place he wasn't sure he could follow.

He reached out and took her gloved hand in his and kissed the back of it. He knew his eyes bore the desperation he was feeling, and there was nothing he could do to conceal it.

When she looked at him this time there was no evidence of the person he used to know. No glimmer of hope, no response whatsoever. But worse...this time he recognized the beginnings of indifference in her eyes.

He wondered how long it would be before she fell away from him, too.