You're Stellar
Disclaimer: I don't own Kim Possible. Stellar belongs to Incubus.
It felt like any other mission, the scenario was so familiar and so redundant that their being in space did little to unnerve them from the case at hand. Drakken had commandeered an abandoned United States space station and planned to use whatever weapons it may have still had lying around to convince the leaders of the world to give into any demands he may have had in his sad little head. Now, having called in a favor from Jonathon Utonium to get a ride to the station, Kim and Ron were creeping through the barely lit halls, making their way to the control center where Wade had assured them Drakken was held up, most assuredly with Shego at his side.
Still, though everything about this mission screamed normalcy there was something in the artificial air, something just over the horizon that had the teens on their last nerves.
"I swear K.P. it's this rickety space station! This thing's gonna fall apart any second!" Ron whispered as the two came upon a door that unlike every other was actually sealed shut. Kim ignored Ron and looked down at her Kimmunicator.
"Is this the room Wade?" The boy genius' face appeared on the screen and he flashed Kim a thumbs up.
"That's the one Kim! Already working on getting it open!"
"Please and thank you," She muttered in response. Much as she was trying to ignore what Ron was saying, it was a very real danger at hand. Kim had to agree that the space station did look ready to collapse on itself at any second. As if it wasn't frightening enough that every step they took caused the floor to creak and shudder, Shego was just up ahead and lord knew what a misplaced plasma bolt would do to the dilapidated orbital structure. There was a cracked beeping sound and the rusty door in front of them began to move and slid open, emitting a sound that would make Beethoven cry.
"Oh what is…ah! Kim Possible! I've been expecting you! So you think you can stop my latest plot do you?" Ron and Kim entered the room cautiously, peering around for any sign of danger other than the green clad thief standing beside the good doctor. Shego, for the most part, looked as on edge about the space station as the two teen heroes. Every creak had her stiffening and looking ready to bolt for the escape pod.
"Actually dude, we came here to get you off this rusty space camper before it falls apart," Ron replied, earning him a glare from Drakken, but a look of approval from Shego.
"Thank you! Doy! I've been trying to tell him that since we got here!" Ron relaxed surprisingly quickly and scratched his head.
"Seriously dude, if you were gonna high-jack a space station you should have gone for one that could at least hold up a gun bigger than a super soaker," Kim glanced at Ron and shrugged, relaxing herself.
"Look I really don't want to fight on this thing, can't you just give up and we take you back to Earth and then we fight?"
"That's actually a really good idea Dr. D-," Shego rolled her eyes when the doctor cut her off and spun melodramatically to the control console behind him.
"Enough of this! Shego take care of them while I get the defense systems running!" Shego groaned and rubbed her forehead in annoyance. She turned back to Kim and Ron, focusing her glare on the blond-haired boy then jerking her head toward Drakken.
"Get going, I'm not going to risk my life on this piece of trash fighting the buffoon. C'mon Kimmie, let's go!" Shego lunged at Kim, ignoring Ron who took that as his cue to stop Drakken. Kim caught Shego's lunging punch and rolled back, getting her feet beneath the older woman and kicking out, flinging her through the air. Shego spun and landed on her feet, her hands igniting as she spun and threw a punch at Kim, halting the redhead's roundhouse kick. Kim backpedaled, her arms moving instinctively to block the flurry of punches Shego was now throwing at her. Shego took a clawed swing at Kim, who rolled out of the way and came up, catching Shego in the side with a kick that knocked her stumbling backward.
"What part of abandoned doesn't Drakken get?" Kim questioned as she came at Shego with her own barrage of attacks. Shego blocked and dodged punches and kicks while shrugging and sneering at her employer.
"Like I know, Princess! This is the dumbest idea he's had yet! This thing barely even works anymore!" Shego dropped and tripped Kim, then came up and kicked her in the stomach while she was still in midair. Kim rolled upon hitting the ground and came up, blocking a plasma powered punch from Shego. Growling the thief threw a kick at Kim's head, but the hero dodged again before managing to get an opening and land a devastating combination on Shego's midsection. Following the brief punch combo, Kim kicked Shego's shin, making the older woman topple. Ending her vicious assault she spun on her foot still planted on the ground and caught Shego in the face with a kick that knocked her on her back.
Kim watched carefully as Shego picked herself up. The green-skinned woman's hands were glowing dangerously and the worst part was: Kim would probably have to let any plasma bolts thrown her way hit her or risk puncturing the hull and killing them all. She gulped nervously, noting not for the first time that Shego was feigning fatigue. Whether she should be insulted or grateful, Kim hadn't yet decided.
"Not bad, Pumpkin, but you won't get a hit like that again!" The hero had to actually gamble on this. If Shego was just talking trash like always, she could theoretically get a better hit than that last one in. Of course, if she was being serious, Kim was going to start hurting very badly, very quickly. Shego was about to lunge at Kim again when Drakken and Ron crashed into her.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Keep it over there! Doy! Idiots!" Shego gave Drakken and Ron and harsh shove, sending them crashing into the control console. Then without a second thought she lunged at Kim, landing a rabbit punch in the kidney. Kim half-way doubled over before an open-palm thrust hit her chin and knocked her into an impromptu backflip. Thankfully her cheerleading paid off and she was able to go with it and land on her feet, getting her bearings just in time to block a glowing jab from her rival. Kim caught Shego's other fist inches away from her face and grimaced. So Shego hadn't been bluffing, that was going to make things just a little more difficult.
"Giving up, Princess? You should, you can't beat me!" Kim growled and pushed against Shego, climbing to her feet and bracing herself for what she was about to do.
"I've done it before, one more time is nothing!" Both hesitated before continuing when the station shuddered momentarily. They stood, Kim holding Shego's wrists and braced against one another, waiting anxiously to see what that shudder may lead to. When nothing else happened, Kim was the first to return to the fight, and with a mighty thrust managed to get momentum to send Shego stumbling backward. As she was charging for a follow up attack, the station shuddered again, throwing her off balance and causing her to crash into Shego, who crashed into Ron and Drakken, knocking the two into the open space pod.
"Oof! Will you buffoons just-," Everyone froze as a dim red light began flashing and several faded "Warning!" messages began to flash on the screen.
"What in the world?" Drakken exclaimed. Kim reacted without thinking, lunging forward and shoving the door on the escape pod closed.
"Warning! Fuel Cells Overheating!"
Ron's eyes widened seeing Kim braced against the pod door.
"K.P! What's the big deal!?" Kim only smiled briefly before hitting the Eject button, "Kim! Wait!" Ron's voice faded as the escape pod was launched, leaving Shego and Kim alone on the violently shaking space station.
"Oh wow, I really should have thought that out…" Shego glared half-heartedly at Kim as she struggled to maintain her balance against the floor rocking so fiercely. Her eyes were wide with horror as she watched hundreds of error messages spit across the console monitor. She didn't understand in depth what they meant, but one thing was for sure! It wasn't good!
"Ki-Kim? K-you-th-?" Kim pulled out her Kimmunicator, the frequency being jammed by whatever was causing the space station to freak out.
"Warning! Fuel Cell Containment Unit Failure!"
"Wade? Wade? Wade we need a ride now! Wade!" The screen of the Kimmunicator was nothing but static, with no way of knowing whether her message got through or not. Kim looked fearfully at Shego, who looked like a deer in headlights. Shego tried to downplay the seriousness of the situation by frowning weakly and glaring at Kim.
"Y-Yeah smooth move Kimmie! What kind of idiot only puts one escape pod on a piece of crap like this? Doy!" Kim was hardly listening as she looked around for something, anything that could possibly save their lives. She noticed what looked like a storage compartment, and quickly rushed over, struggling to pry it open.
"Shego! Shego give me a hand here!" Shego snapped out of her panicked daze and hurried over to Kim, aiding her in tearing open the storage compartment. There were two very old looking space suits, which were made even worse by how little oxygen remained in the air tanks, but other than those nothing that might help them.
"Warning! Fuel Cells Approaching Critical Mass!"
"Dammit! This doesn't help at all!" Shego muttered. Both were now holding onto the edges of the storage compartment, barely able to stand period, let alone stand upright. Kim disregarded Shego's pessimistic remark and pulled out one of the suits, thrusting the other into Shego's arms.
"Put it on! Maybe if we can get out of here we can wait it out until someone finds us!" Shego stared back in disbelief and shook her head, pointing at the half-full oxygen tanks.
"Um hello, Princess, there's hardly any air left in these things!" Kim was already pulling her suit on, and only flashed Shego a desperate look before pulling on her helmet.
"And if this thing blows up I don't want to be anywhere near it!" Finding the brilliance in this logic, Shego discarded any dignity she may have been trying to retain by denying Kim's idea and struggled to pull the suit on. Once fully decked out in spaceman gear, both suits being quite uncomfortably too big on them, they began searching for some kind of quick escape. Surely if one was going to build a rickety piece of junk for a space station, they'd have more than one quick escape, right?
"Warning! Fuel Cell Meltdown!"
"Hang on, I've got this!" Shego turned to the nearest wall and held out her now fiercely glowing hand. She gave a primal growl before hurling a ball of plasma at the wall, which caved as easily as a piece of Styrofoam. There was the sound of an explosion other than Shego's plasma hitting the wall and the two began to float off the ground.
"Oh great the artificial gravity is gone! Thanks Shego!" Shego didn't reply, she only grabbed Kim's wrist roughly and held out her other hand. She fired several more plasma blasts, using the momentum to send them towards the exit she created. Just as the passed through the hole and into the vacuum of space, Kim turned to Shego, and in seeing the look of horror in each others eyes, they realized the bitter truth. They were too late.
The resulting explosion could be seen from the planet Earth.
+You are stellar+
Amongst the floating shrapnel and debris of what was once the oldest space station in United States history were two lone figures. They lay unmoving, rocked by the explosion that should have taken their lives and left to float through space until they drew their last breath. Kim was the first to regain consciousness, if it could even be called that. Her air was already thin, lord only knew how long she'd been out. She tried to move, but every part of her body felt like it was the center of her attention, every movement around her felt like it took a million years to process. It was almost like sinking into a sea of pudding, a very disturbing thought but appropriate in describing how she felt.
'Shego,' Kim though weakly, she struggled to lift an arm and just barely managed to nudge a small button located on the side of her helmet, starting up the two-way radio connecting her helmet to Shego's. Okay so the suits were old, but they were quite advanced for their day. Kim could only hope Shego's radio had survived the explosion, or more importantly, Shego had survived it.
"Shego?" She whispered out. Just trying to speak was difficult. Her voice sounded so soft and weak, not at all like she was used to. She held her breath, both to conserve oxygen and out of fear that Shego may not reply. Kim turned her head as much as she could, which wasn't much at all, and could make out a second form several feet away. Her vision was blurry from fatigue, but she could at least make out some sign of movement as she's arm raised up to turn on her radio.
"Hey Princess…" Kim shivered from more than just the cold of space. Shego's voice sounded even weaker than hers did. That couldn't be good.
+Meet me in outer space
We could spend the night
Watch the Earth come up+
"Thank God…I didn't think you were…" Kim let it fade, there was no point in talking about death when it seemed to be hanging so heavily over them. She heard Shego chuckle, though it was more of a sick sound than a comforting one.
"Yeah…me too for a second, glad you made it out okay," There was a pause and Kim could hear Shego's labored breathing. She imagined hers must sound the same over Shego's radio. Man, how did they let themselves end up like this? Kim groaned and tried to move, but she was simply too weak. She opted to just simply stare at Shego. She noticed some more movement and after a lot of squinting and guessing she discovered that Shego, who was floating on her stomach as opposed to on her back like Kim, was now looking back at her.
+I've grown tired of that place;
Won't you come with me?
We could start again+
"I knew it was a bad idea…I didn't even want to go," Shego muttered. Kim shivered violently and moaned audibly. At first when she woke up she had felt very sore and very stiff. Now it just felt worse, like every muscle was tensing up painfully.
"Why did you go then?" the hero managed to stutter out between shivers. She relaxed considerably as the pain ceased and a very soothing calm washed over her. It came with a far more violent shiver, but when it passed she was considerably more comfortable all things considered. Granted, how could one be considered comfortable when death was making the air hang so heavily and so painfully?
"…I wanted to see you," Despite the hazy state her mind was in, Kim was surprised. She tried to get a better look at Shego, but couldn't make out the green-skinned thief's face through the helmet.
"You want to see me?" She heard a grunt of confirmation and both fell into a strangely soothing silence. Neither spoke, though it was arguable that they couldn't speak. Kim closed her eyes tightly and listened to Shego's breathing. It was amazing just how quickly enemies could put their differences aside when they knew they may not live to see tomorrow.
+How do you do it?
Make me feel like I do.
How do you do it?
It's better than I ever knew.
How do you do it?
Make me feel like I do.+
"Yeah…that's the only reason I stayed with Dr. D…much as I like the megalomaniac routine, I just can't stand losing so much," Kim coughed a harsh laugh, and could practically feel Shego glaring at her. Shego didn't question the hero, it just wasn't worth wasting anger on.
"I'm sorry…but if you don't like losing, how do I always win?" Shego didn't snap back like Kim was expecting. While she appreciated that, she really wanted an answer. Kim had seen it more than once. At first she believed that she honestly beat Shego, managing to outsmart or overpower the one-time superhero. But after a while, she began to notice little things that only a martial artist would notice. Kim could see that Shego pulled her punches, she could see that Shego hesitated when a punch might have been too deadly. And the plasma, that was the biggest give away. Shego's plasma could tear through steel and knock out concrete, but for some reason it never killed her? Shego definitely held back, and Kim wanted to know why.
"You're Kim Possible, you can do anything…even beat me.," Kim would have rolled her eyes, but the oxygen was dangerously thin. She was having to wait as long as she could between breaths, and it was wearing on her last reserves. Shego waited as long as she could for an answer before getting nervous, "Kim?"
"You're lying…" Shego fell silent again, even her breathing sounded softer. Kim struggled to keep her eyes open, fearing the worst if she should let them close too long. She then heard a shuddering sigh and forced her eyes all the way open.
+Meet me in outer space
I will hold you close
If you're afraid of heights+
"Yeah I guess I am…" came Shego's shaky reply. Kim shivered, not from the lack of oxygen or the cold of space, but from the sound of Shego's voice. There was a very surreal feeling, a very strange sense of companionship between the once violent rivals.
"Why? Why would you let me win, Shego?" If the tired, weakness in her voice hadn't scared her before, it chilled Kim to the bone now. Her voice sounded so disconnected, so distant. She struggled to bring herself back from the edge, but every time she came back it got harder to stay there. Shego's response came much faster than she imagined. In fact, there was no hesitation on Shego's part.
"Because I love you Kimmie…" That was not the answer Kim was expecting. Maybe "I respect you as a rival" or even "I don't kill people" or something to that extent. But this was definitely the last thing she'd expected. Although—and Kim couldn't be sure if it was a possible mutual feeling or just the pain of death hanging over them—it wasn't an entirely frightening concept. If anything it was much better than what she could have imagined. Better than she had imagined if that was possible.
+I need you to see this place
It might be the only way
That I can show you how
It feels to be inside of you+
"What?" Was all Kim could come up with. She blamed the haze choking her, it was just too big a revelation in such a hopeless situation. Still…things weren't going to get any worse than they were now, why try to make them worse by fighting? It was just too late to fight…too tired…
"Well at first it was just…physical but…you're so much like me…I just wanted to hope you'd make better choices than I did," Shego's voice was cracking, but her breathing didn't seem to indicate if she was crying. Kim just assumed it was the obvious.
"Wow…" another useless reply. If nothing else, this proved just how much stronger Shego was. She was holding on longer and better than Kim was. Kim faded again, but managed to pull back another time, gasping when she realized she had stopped breathing for a moment.
+How do you do it?
Make me feel like I do.
How do you do it?
It's better than I ever knew.
How do you do it?
Make me feel like I do.+
"I'm sorry…this is probably a really bad time to bring all this up Kimmie…I just…" Kim nodded, ignoring that Shego couldn't see the frail movement. She understood, hard as it was to wrap her foggy brain around she understood.
"Better now then never, Shego…" She whispered, thankful to finally respond in more than one word. She heard a faint movement and assumed Shego had nodded as well. Who'd have thought they'd learn to read each other's movements best when they could barely move at all?
"You weren't too weak, Princess…that's not why I held back," Kim perked up a bit at this, struggling to understand just what Shego meant by that.
+You are stellar+
"If I could have changed something…if I could have shown how much you meant to me…I'd have stopped you from ever fighting again but, I couldn't'…"
+You are stellar+
"I wanted to see what you could become, Kimmie…I wanted to see…just how long it would take before you really beat me…then I'd be satisfied…" Kim's eyes were barely open, but she managed to smile. Shego was beginning to fade, she could hear it in her voice and in her breathing.
"I…wish…I wish we'd had a chance to…to talk like this before…maybe even be friends…" Kim muttered. She was clinging to that idea, holding tightly to that thought. Anything to keep from fading again. This time if she faded…she doubted she'd be able to pull herself back.
"Kimmie?"
+How do you do it?
Make me feel like I do.
How do you do it?
It's better than I ever knew+
"I really enjoyed…being your friend when you were…Miss Go, it was a lot of fun…" Kim kept talking, she had to say all of this. Her chest was burning, begging for air that wouldn't come. Her eyes were growing heavier with every breath she took. Everything was becoming so numb. The only thing she could feel was the heaviness in her chest. The only thing she could do was focus on Shego and what she was saying to her.
+How do you do it?
Make me feel like I do.+
"And maybe…maybe someday…I would have…liked to make you proud and…fought you for real...someday…maybe…I wish…wish you'd been…I wish I could have l…" Kim tried to keep talking but the invitation to sleep was far too enticing this time. She had floated to where she could just barely see the Earth now. Maybe it was just one last dream, but it almost looked like there was a three colored rainbow shining against the shimmaring blue planet. She closed her eyes, no longer able to hear Shego. Maybe Shego was ready to sleep too. Maybe…if nothing else they could say they had this one moment…this brief second of understanding. Kim smiled again then drifted off, finally giving in. And…although she was giving up the fight, even if it was just one time…she'd never felt so…
+How do you do it?
Make me feel like I do…+