Empty Lairs..

Are sometimes empty for a reason.

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Author's note:

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This story is a simple one shot for Halloween. It has no connections to any of my previous Kim Possible stories. It takes place somewhere before So the Drama. So Kim and Ron are not dating.

Waverly Hills is a very real place. It has been showcased on Ghosthunters and Scariest Places on Earth. During the days when the place was in business, it was a hospital sanitarium for the treatment of tuberculosis. A horrible disease often called the White Plague that killed thousands. In the pursuit of 'curing' or at the very least relieving the suffering of those inflicted, horrible medical practices were tried. Waverly Hills was such a place where these practices were done. Everything from putting heavy sandbags on people's chests to try and compress the lungs to make them function better, to removing ribs to make it easier to breath. Electroshock therapy was even attempted.

The suffering and misery that happened at Waverly is nearly unimaginable. Belief that Waverly Hills is haunted could be justified even if no evidence existed other than simply because if any place could or should be haunted, it should be the Waverly Hills Institute. But enough eye witness reports and taped evidence have been collected.

In using a real place as a location for my story I want it known that I am NOT demeaning or dismissing the suffering or the dedication of the doctors and nurses who gave their lives to try and cure and ease the suffering of those inflicted with such a horrible disease. I've used real accounts of hauntings and mixed with it total fabrications. No disrespect is meant and no profit is to be had from this story. I do not own Waverly Hills or Kim Possible characters.

Now on with the story…

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Shego looked up from idly filing her nails and watched her boss Dr. Drakken as he steered the hover craft they were in. "So where are we going?" She asked.

Drakken turned to glare at her. "You weren't listening to me yesterday were you?"

"At what point? Before or after Kimmie showed up and blew our latest lair to bits?" Shego asked as she stood up from her chair and stretched feline like.

"After." Drakken grunted. "I told you I found the perfect place for our new lair."

"You are not just going to go to the time share one like normal?" Shego asked finally interested. New lairs were always interesting because when Drakken built them, Shego kept trying to slip her ideas into the designs. Things like whirl pool baths and walk-in closets in her room.

"No, blasted Dementor has it booked this month." Drakken muttered. "So I've decided in my infinite wisdom to find a previously used but now defunct building to build my lair into!" He said in a louder voice.

Shego allowed her shoulders to slump. Translation? An abandoned dump of a warehouse he would slap some lab equipment into and call it a lair. She would be lucky if her room had walls and a door, let alone a walk-in closet. "So, where are we going?" Shego said as she folded her arms in annoyance.

"We're in Louisville Kentucky…" Drakken began.

"You got all the way from Middletown to here in just last night? I've told you before Dr. D. Don't overexert the engines like that!" Shego said pushing Drakken out of the way to examine the controls on the hover craft. Sure enough all the indicators were in the red zone and now that Shego was actually paying attention she could hear the engines whining in distress. "What are you trying to do? Crash us?"

"Shego. I created this machine don't you think I know what it can do?"

"Bullshit. You didn't create anything. I stole this thing from a military base two months after I went to work for you!" Shego replied as she tried to coax the coolant pumps into reducing the engines heat a bit more.

The hover craft shuddered slightly and then dropped a few feet as the engines stuttered. Shego's efforts a little too little and a little too late.

Drakken looking a little blue-er than normal pointed at a large building sitting on top of a hill. "There is our destination anyway Shego. Get us there and this temperamental machine can fall apart for all I care."

Shego stroked the console. "Don't listen to him baby. Just get us over there and you can rest a bit." She tried to cajole the aircraft.

Slowing down Shego eased the craft towards the building and then down to where a large concrete structure sat on its roof. The structure once had large doors that lead out onto the roof area but were long gone and happily the open space they used to occupy was large enough for Shego to ease the flying ship into and brought it down as light as a feather.

"Okay Dr. D. We're here. Now where the hell is here?" Shego asked as she shut off the engines and made a mental note to give them a thorough going over before she tried to restart them again. The very idea of running a precision flying machine 12 hours or more at maximum thrust.

Shego looked up to see Drakken eagerly hoping off the air ship to the floor of the structure they were in. "Shego welcome to the Waverly Hills Institute. Or at least that is what it used to be when it was being actively used of course."

Shego leapt to the ground beside him and tried to look in every direction at the same time. "Are you insane? Don't you ever watch the Ghost Hunters or Scariest Places on Earth? This place is haunted!"

"Oh please. I'm a scientist Shego! I believe in things I can see or measure or control. There is no such things as ghosts, ghouls or things that go bump in the night!"

Before Shego could react, Drakken was already half way across the room towards the doors on the other end.

"Where are you going?" She asked as she raced to keep up.

"Down of course, I need to find a good sized room to make my lab." Drakken replied as he strolled down the center of the hallway.

Shego watching warily the doors on either side of the hallway spotted a room number, 502. Shego knew from the shows she had mentioned earlier to Drakken that was a room in which a nurse supposedly committed suicide after finding out she was pregnant out of wedlock by hanging herself from the light fixture. Shego glancing inside the room saw the non functioning light, after all power had been cut to the dilapidated building for decades, start to slowly swing and she heard a female voice right next to her ear whisper. "Always room for one more."

Shego her eyes wild from being startled spun around with her hands glowing brightly with her powers but saw no one near her.

"Oh good Shego. I'm glad you thought to light up your hands. I forgot to bring a flashlight with me." Drakken replied a short distance ahead of her.

Shego swallowed nervously and looked back into room 502 but the light fixture was now perfectly still. Taking a deep breath Shego tried to convince herself that she had just spooked herself and nothing had happened. However, she didn't douse her hands and sped up a bit to catch up with Dr. Drakken.

Reaching him, she found him standing in front of two metal doors that obviously belonged to the elevator. "What the heck are you doing?" She finally asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing Shego? I'm waiting for the elevator of course."

"Dr. D. This place hasn't had power connected to it longer than I've been alive…" Shego started to remind him when the doors to the elevator opened with a cheerful 'bing' sound. Drakken who had turned to look at Shego when she started to speak slowly turned to look at the elevator as did Shego.

The elevator was a completely normal, comforting looking elevator, which ironically scared Shego even more. The carpet was a disturbing deep red color and the sides of the elevator were clad in a rich dark honey oak wood. Brass railings along the inside were bright and shiny as if they had just been polished and a fancy crystal light fixture hung from the ceiling of the elevator glowing softly. The interior walls of the Waverly Hills building had graffiti sprayed painted from decades of daring teenagers who had crept into it at night, did their vandalism and then got scared away… So why was the elevator in pristine condition? Not to mention how was the damn thing working?

Drakken eyed it for a moment and then started to get into it. Shego grabbed his arm and jerked him back into the hallway with her. "Now I know you have a screw loose somewhere!" She hissed at him. "We are in an abandoned building on top of a hill isolated from everyone, right?"

Drakken looking confused nodded his head. "Of course, that is why it makes such a great place to make my new lair. No prying neighbor's eyes wondering what is going on and if someone were to see something they'll just blame those ridiculous haunted myths about this place.

Shego shook her head in disbelief. "So how is this perfectly abandoned building have a working elevator with lights?"

Draken paused and Shego could see him thinking it over. He glanced down the gloomy dark hallway and the obvious signs of disuse and decay and then back into the still open clean elevator. "Um, perhaps the newest owner is trying to renovate it and the elevator is the only thing he has finished yet?"

"What person renovates a building and starts with the elevator first?" Shego asked putting her hands on her hips.

"One who doesn't like to climb stairs? How should I know?" Drakken grunted as he tried to once again enter the elevator.

"Look. I am not getting into some creepy elevator in a broken down building that is supposed to be haunted!" Shego released his arm. "So you can climb into that…small…enclosed space that is hanging over a shaft, but not me!"

Drakken looked at the elevator one last time and considered. "Okay, we'll take the stairs."

As Shego and Drakken moved further down the hallway in search of stairs leading down, the elevator's doors slowly closed. As they closed completely, if there had been anyone still standing there to hear, they would have heard the muffled screams of young women pleading to be let out as the elevator slowly sank down to the lower floors of the Waverly Hills.

"Now this room has potential." Drakken said as he rubbed his hands in glee. "Nice big cabinets with sliding drawers. Wonder what it used to be used for?"

Shego still in the hallway after leaving the stairs, she was behind because she kept stopping every few feet to look over her shoulder finally caught up to where Drakken was. "This is the morgue Dr. D." She said in a slightly quieter voice than she usually used.

"Is it?"

Shego frowning in annoyance walked over to one of the large 'cabinets' and lifting up on the locking handle she opened the door and then reaching in she pressed the release on the sliding bed and dragged it out, the metal making a groaning rasping noise as it slid. "What else do you think a bed inside a drawer is for?" She asked rhetorically.

Drakken instead of being unnerved was actually smiling. "Perfect! These will be absolutely perfect for my synthodrones! I can put the creation chamber over there and once they are nearly finished I can store them in here to finish their growth cycles."

Shego blinked at him for a moment. "You are one sick person. You know that?"

"Oh please, not more silly superstitions or phobias?" Drakken threw his weight against the sliding drawer trying to make it go back inside the cabinet but it wouldn't budge. He slammed against it several times before grabbing his hip in pain. Shego shaking her head at him reached down, pulled the release handle on the slide freeing the drawer, and slid it back into place. Closing the door, she then twisted the handle to lock it back in its closed position.

"This place is so perfect! I wonder why I didn't think of it before?" Drakken muttered to himself as he reentered the hallway to continue exploring. Shego rolled her eyes and started to follow him when a slight noise caught her attention. Freezing in the doorway, Shego ever so slowly turned her head to glance over her shoulder behind her. The morgue drawer she had just shut was open and the table was fully pulled back out as if waiting for someone to lie down on it.

"Always room for one more." A man's voice breathed on Shego's neck.

Spinning with her hands glowing fire Shego ripped out a sizeable hunk of the doorway with her hand before realizing there was no one there.

"Shego! I agree that doorway will need to be a bit wider for my lab equipment to get inside but we can wait till I can get a work crew out here to do that. You don't have to. Now come on I want to see about this access tunnel I've heard so much about."

Shego her eyes wild with fright looked over at him. "The Death Tunnel? I am not going near the Death Tunnel."

Drakken frowned. "Such a melodramatic name for a perfectly good functioning exit/entrance. Why is it called the Death Tunnel?"

Shego looking back into the morgue room saw that the cabinet drawer was once again shut as she had left it and again she wondered if she was just imagining things. "It's called the Death Tunnel…" She started as she turned and hurried to Drakken's side. "Because when this place was a hospital they used to take the deceased out through the tunnel to a train station at its base to haul the bodies away."

"Now see Shego? There is nothing to worry about here. You just said it yourself. Nobody is buried here. They hauled all the bodies away to be buried somewhere else."

"Not everyone. I remember from the shows they mentioned that they had a furnace here where the poor that had no one to claim the bodies or pay for funerals were incinerated." Shego in a quieter voice replied.

"Excellent." Drakken replied. "Wonder if they are still in working order? I can destroy any failed experiments or refuse I have in them." Drakken smiled at Shego. "Everyone has to do their part to make this a greener world after all."

Her fear starting to decline Shego rolled her eyes. "He wants to take over the world but worries about recycling and not filling up landfills."

Drakken shrugged. "Who wants to take over the world if it is nothing but a garbage heap?"

Once again finding the stairs, they made their way to the bottom most area of the Waverly Hills Institute. The hallway ended at a large metallic sliding door. Drakken motioned for Shego to open the door and reluctantly Shego grasped the handle and pulled the door back.

The first thing to meet their eyes as the door opened was a huge mound of long black bags lying piled to one side of the room. On one wall was a large dark opening while the opposite wall had a single metal door in it. Drakken ran over to the dark opening and worrying Shego slightly he stuck his head into the opening and looked up.

"What is this thing?" He asked after a moment and pulling his head out.

"Body dumbwaiter." Shego replied.

Drakken looked at her blankly.

"When someone died upstairs, they would casually as not to spook the other patients pull them to a room that had the other opening to that chute and slide the body into it…"

Drakken nodded. "Oh okay I get it now. The body would lower down here where it was taken out and put in those bags."

Shego turned to eye the bags. Even knowing what the shaft was used for, she hadn't immediately placed that the black bags before here were body bags. She could feel the hair on the back of her neck start to stand up.

"Then this must be the door to the …" Drakken said as he ran over and tugged on the metal door. The door slowly slid open and a smell that Shego was sure she would not forget for a very long time wafted into the room.

"Death Tunnel." Shego whispered.

A low sloping tunnel was indeed revealed, on one side were steep stairs going down while the other side had a ramp where the dead were piled into carts and lowered to the bottom of the tunnel.

"Shall we check it out?" Drakken asked turning to look at his sidekick.

"I am not going down that tunnel." Shego replied distinctly.

"Oh come on Shego! It's a tunnel. Nothing more. If the cart system still works we can ride down to the bottom in comfort!"

"Are you crazy? I'm not getting into a cart that has had hundreds and hundreds of dead bodies piled into it!"

Drakken muttered to himself. "First the elevator and now the cart, I've never seen a woman that liked to walk as much as you do. Fine, you stay up here and I'm going to ride down and see if the train rails at the bottom can still be used. It would be a lot easier to sneak supplies in through the train system than it would be to fly them in." So saying, Dr. Drakken hopped up into the cart waiting at the top and pressed the button that would send it down to the bottom. Shego watched as Drakken was slowly lost to sight in the gloom of the tunnel as the squealing rusty cart descended on the ramp.

Now that she was alone and not having to worry about keeping her tough bad girl image for Drakken to see, Shego wrapped her arms around herself as if she was freezing even though the weather was quite warm and began to pace as she waited for him to come back. Hearing a long zip noise Shego flared her hands into fire and looked at the body bags. "Don't even think about it or I'll flame you to ash instantly!" She ordered the bags. Keeping an eye on the bags, she started to back towards the back wall of the room.

Suddenly a noise as if something large and heavy had been dropped down the body dumbwaiter behind her was heard. Spinning around Shego stared at the dark opening of the hole but made no attempt to walk over and look inside to see what the noise had been. Trying to keep one eye on the bags to her side and the other on the dark hole Shego didn't hear as hands neared her shoulders.

Suddenly the hands clapped down on her shoulder and with a high pitched eek, Shego spun and started throwing fireballs. Drakken who had come up behind Shego dove for cover as fireballs flew above his head and down the tunnel behind him.

"Damn Shego! What is your problem?" He asked as she regained control and ceased flinging hot plasma around.

"ME? What about you? What the hell do you think you are doing sneaking up behind me like that?" Shego shouted at him.

"I didn't sneak up." Drakken replied affronted. "I came back up the tunnel and thought the cart made enough noise to wake the dead so I thought you knew I had returned." Drakken looked past her at the body dumbwaiter hole. "What were you staring at so intensely anyway?"

"Nothing." Shego replied quickly. "Well can you make use of the train system below?"

Drakken shook his head. "Sadly no. The train rails are in bad disrepair. Take far too much effort to make them work again but we can use the hover craft to fly down it and still bring in supplies that way at least." Drakken nearly hugged himself in happiness. "This place is just so perfect. Kim Possible will never think to look for me here and it is so deserted no one will bother us."

"No one living anyway." Shego muttered as she felt chills run down her spine.

Two weeks had passed and Drakken couldn't be happier. His latest batch of synthodrones were finishing their maturation process in the morgue's old storage beds, his latest plans for world domination were on a drawing board in his personal room, which was located in what used to be the hospital's electroshock room. Things were progressing nicely; the only thing that was slightly annoying to Drakken was Shego's attitude. He just couldn't figure out how a woman who was feared in so many parts of the world could be so skitterish in the grand old building he had taken over. It was only with the greatest of reluctance that Shego would enter the main building at all, preferring to spend as much time as possible on the roof in a small tent, and then there were certain areas Drakken couldn't order Shego to enter at all. Drakken had only once made the mistake of calling Shego on her actions and saying she was too scared. That had resulted in Drakken having to play a game of hide and seek as Shego stalked him throwing fireballs at him for calling her a coward. In the end, what had saved his hide was hiding in the Death Tunnel till she cooled down, the tunnel was one of the areas Shego absolutely refused to step inside of.

Drakken with a great deal of effort finally managed to pull out the storage bed that one of his synthodrones was lying in and checked its progress. If anything in that building should cause unease or a slight sense of creepiness, it should have been the synthodrones. At this stage of their development, they looked like faceless corpses lying on the bed.

Drakken turning around couldn't find a piece of equipment and thusly didn't see as some dark black liquid bubbled up around the edges of the drawer and silently inched towards the synthodrone. The fluid looked like nothing more than dark blood as it seeped its way into the unformed eyes and mouth of the synthodrone and was quickly absorbed from sight.

Finally finding the hood that he had been looking for, Drakken eased the head of the synthodrone up, silently cursing Shego all the while for not being there to help him and eased the hood over the head of the automaton and attached it. Drakken didn't notice as the goggles built into the hood glowed a hellish red for a moment as he eased the head back down to the slab.

Reaching down Drakken released the lever holding the drawer in a locked open position and pushed the synthodrone's body back into the cabinet. "Give me seven days and I can make you a maaaan. Dig it if you caaaan." Drakken quietly sung off key to himself as he closed the door and locked it. "Actually the process takes about a week and a half but whose quibbling?" He asked the empty room.

Inside her tent Shego was nearing her breaking point. No matter how many times Drakken or she told herself there were no such things as ghosts, Shego could feel 'them' watching her. Every time she closed her eyes, even in the tent on the roof as far away as she could get from the main rooms, she could hear a voice saying. "Room for one more." If it wasn't for how well Drakken paid her and also that Shego was naturally a loyal type of person, she would have left Drakken in the mausoleum of a building and wished him luck and got the hell away from that accursed place.

Hearing a plane approaching Shego scrambled out of her tent to stare up at the quickly darkening evening sky. She couldn't or wouldn't let Drakken ever know but each time she heard a plane she secretly hoped it was Kim Possible showing up to stop them and destroy this lair. She never thought she would be glad to see Kimmie and have a lair blown up from underneath her but this was one place she would welcome it with open arms.

Reaching into a pouch on her hip, she pulled out a pair of binoculars and stared upwards at the plane ready to be once again disappointed as the plane passed overhead with no action but this time she was pleased to see the door in the side of the plane open and after a brief freefall two chutes open.

Shego resisted the urge to set up landing lights on the roof so Kim and her buffoon sidekick could find it easier and with a sigh turned to report to Drakken. Even though Shego wanted to get away from this place like crazy, she was still duty bound to notify Drakken that Kim had found them and prepare some kind of defense.

Passing by room 502 to get to the stairs to go down and tell Drakken, Shego paused for a moment and glanced into the room.

"One…two….three….four…Always room for one more." Shego heard children's voices singing and the light started to swing. With a burst of speed, Shego didn't exactly run from the doorway but she did move faster towards the stairway. She had time and time again told Drakken about the voices but since the scientist hadn't heard anything himself he dismissed it as Shego's nerves.

Passing the elevator doors Shego wasn't surprised with a 'bing' they opened. That was one thing that even Drakken had to admit was a little unnerving. Every time you came across the elevator doors, no matter what floor you were on, they would open as if inviting you to come inside. That was the one area that Drakken had taken Shego's advice on and never went into the elevator but always took the stairs. He of course constantly complained of the physical exercise but he took the stairs never the less.

"I haven't fallen for that yet. What makes you think I'm going to fall for it now?" Shego muttered to the elevator as she passed.

A deep ominous voice came out of the open doors. "You have been falling for years. Soon it will be time to reach the bottom of your shaft."

That was new. Never before had the elevator spoken to her. Shego had an almost irresistible urge to stick her head inside the elevator to see if she could spot where the voice had came from but Shego had seen one too many horror movies in her day to be tricked like that and was not about to stick her neck out where doors could suddenly slam shut on it and take her head off.

Now running, and telling herself it was because she had to alert Drakken about Kim's imminent arrival, Shego made it down the stairs and to the morgue area where Drakken had set up his lab and was usually there.

"Dr. D. We've got Kimmie about to make an entrance." She told the scientist.

"How, how could she have found us so soon?" Drakken ranted.

"Well maybe it is the fact you used your own real name when you had the power hooked back up to this place so you could run your lab equipment?" Shego pointed out.

"I had to use my real name. They required a deposit and my driver's license." Drakken muttered. "Well my synthodrones are not ready for deployment yet so you'll have to stop her and that buffoon that follows her everywhere!" He ordered Shego.

Shego started to argue with him but out of the corner of her eye, she could see one of the morgue drawers slowly start to creep open. "Right! I'll go right now to the outside and stop her." She agreed and quickly ran for the stairs back up.

Drakken shook his head at Shego's always eagerness to fight Kim Possible and moving slower left the room and followed after Shego. The morgue drawer continued to silently creep open and when it was fully extended the synthodrone lying on the slab slowly sat up. The goggles covering the eyeholes in its mask glowed a lurid red and a deep voice came from the body. "One…Two…Three…Four…Always room for a few more."

Reaching the roof, Shego peered into the evening gloom. She hated this time more than anything. Late evening or early night was when the 'shadow people' came out and that unnerved the criminal henchwoman more than anything else did. The shadow people were vaguely man shaped shadows that seemed to always hover right at your elbow and when you turned to face them they would fade away as if never there. Drakken told her repeatedly that it was just tricks of the light in the gloomy old place but the shadows set off Shego's internal alarms and mere 'tricks of light' didn't do that. Shego could sense them even with her eyes closed and it always freaked her out.

Since Drakken had power reestablished within the building and the long ago lights put back in and since Shego knew Kimmie knew where they were anyway, Shego didn't see the sense of blundering around in the dark and flicked on the light switch to the building on the roof. As blessed light flooded the area, Shego could sense out of the corner of her eye the shadows fleeing to the dark windows leading outside.

Slowly walking past the hover ship sitting in the middle of the room, Shego started towards the doors leading outside. As she neared, she could hear voices.

"How could you get stuck Ron? There is nothing on the outside to get hung up on." Kim's annoyed voice could be heard.

"You know me KP. If there is a way to get tangled up I'll find it." Ron answered her.

Shego leaned against a wall. There at the exit to the room to the rooftop was Ron Stoppable hanging from a chute while Kim stood glaring up at him.

"Aww you brought us a house warming gift. A piñata." Shego called out to draw their attention.

Kim turned to face Shego in a defensive crouch and prepare to leap to the attack to meet her.

"Um, little help?" Ron asked plaintively from where he hung above the floor in the doorway.

"Not now Ron. I have to fight Shego."

Shego thought about going at it with Kim and leaving the poor guy hanging but her and Kim's fights tended to range quite a distance and the thought of leaving any poor soul hanging defenselessly so the shadow people or worse things in Waverly Hills could get at them sent chills down Shego's back so carefully she aimed a fireball over the sidekick's head and fried the cords of his parachute dropping him to the hard cement floor of the building's roof.

Kim didn't even turn her head to see if Ron was all right but from where she was Shego could see the sidekick raise a hand from where he had landed face downward. "I'm okay." Ron stated and without raising his head he added. "Thanks Shego."

Shego merely nodded her head in his direction. "Any time Ron."

This did cause Ron to raise his head to look in her direction. "Hey she remembered my name."

Shego frowned. "I always remember the names of my enemies." She reminded Ron.

"And I'm going to give you even more reasons to remember my name." Kim promised the green skinned villainess.

Shego would rather just step aside and let Kim and Ron get to the process of destroying the 'lair' but she owed it to Drakken to put up some kind of token defense… That and a good old fashion knockdown, drag out fight with Kim was just the thing to relax all of Shego's pent up worries and frustrations the old building had been building up inside of her so Shego flared her hands with her powers and said. "Bring it Princess."

That is how Drakken a few moments later found them. Kim and Shego hurling insults, and in Shego's case fireballs as they fought back and forth. Standing watching the fight Drakken became aware of the sidekick of Kim Possible leaning on a wall beside him watching the fight as well.

"Hey Dr. D. Where is the self destruct this time?" Ron almost casually asked him.

"Like I'm going to tell you the self destruct is in my main lab a floor down?" Drakken answered back and then slapped a hand to his forehead.

"Thanks Dr. D." Ron grinned as he made to run past Drakken into the hallway behind him. Ron however was stopped when he ran into the chest of a synthodrone who had silently come up behind Drakken.

Shego glancing over from her fight with Kim and called out to Drakken. "I thought you said the synthodrones weren't ready for action?"

Drakken blinked at his own creation a few feet away. "They aren't. I haven't even programmed them to move yet."

Shego could feel a chill run down her back.

The synthodrone seemed to glare down at Ron who was lying on his back on the floor in front of it. A reddish glow could be seen in the goggles.

"1…2…3…4… Always room for more." A deep voice called out from the synthodrone's body.

"Hey dude." Ron called over to Drakken. "You programmed them with baritone voices this time?"

Drakken was turning a pale shade of blue. "Um, I didn't even give them voice boxes this time since they have no need to speak."

Kim and Shego paused in their fight to look over at the menacing synthodrone.

"We have waited a very long time for more patients to show up." A rasping voice called out from behind the hulking synthodrone body and stepping around it, a man in a bloody doctor's gown was revealed. Its face covered with a medical mask leaving only milky white eyes visible. As everyone stared at the figure, it blurred as if its head had suddenly and rapidly moved from side to side before freezing once again staring at them. The effect was almost as if a movie was being played and accidentally slipped into fast speed for a few seconds before returning to normal. Needless to say, it was chilling and otherworldly thing to see someone do.

"I fear your cases are all terminal however." The otherworldly specter added.

"Okay, that's it." Shego stated as she put her flaming hands in Kim's direction out. "I am so out of here!"

Turning she made to walk past Kim towards the exit to the roof but stopped as she saw the way was now blocked by hundreds of shadow creatures. They were all very solid looking this time and their eyes were glowing red. Slowly backing up Shego bumped into Kim who was staring at the moving wall of shadows as well.

"What are those things?" Kim asked her.

Shego merely shook her head to show she had no idea.

The doctor figure turned to glance at Drakken who was cowering near the wall and raising a hand it revealed it was holding a medical scalpel.

"You have a wonderfully creative mind. I look forward to picking your brain for eternity."

The figure then turned to glance at Ron who was still lying at the feet of the synthodrone.

"Um dude I have no brains just ask anyone." Ron stuttered.

Even though the thing's face was covered by a surgeon's mask, everyone got the feeling that it was smiling. "Soon that will be quite true." It promised Ron.

"Shego get it!" Drakken squeaked.

Shego stared at Drakken for a second. "Sorry doc. My contract says I'll protect you from any living opponent, it doesn't say anything about menaces from the grave. And beside if you had listened to me in the first place we wouldn't be here for this to be happening now!"

The doctor figure reached out and grabbed a handful of Drakken's lab coat and started dragging the man out of the room past the synthodrone.

"SHEGO!" Drakken's now panic stricken voice called for her.

Shego even though she thought to herself that he was getting just what he deserved for ignoring all her warnings made to leap to his rescue but she was a split second slower than Kim Possible.

Kim leaping the distance made to punch the ghostly doctor figure to get him to release Drakken but was stopped in mid air as the figure raised his hand in a stop direction.

"A fit specimen, you should last quite long in my tests for a cure." The figure intoned and suddenly Kim went limp and dropped to the floor. The doctor's arm extended to grab her by the collar and he started to drag her off as well.

"KIM!" Ron shouted as he leapt to his feet to go after her but was stopped as the synthodrone stepped into his path. With Kim in danger, Ron didn't even hesitate and threw a series of punches and kicks in Drakken's creation's direction. The hulking creature didn't even try to avoid or minimize the damage Ron was doing but absorbed it all. With an almost casual backhand it drove Ron back to where Shego was.

"I'll hit him high, you hit him low." Shego whispered to Ron as she helped him to his feet.

With Kim in danger Ron didn't even hesitate a moment. "Right." He replied as he launched himself low to the ground to take the thing's legs out from under it when Shego hit him.

The synthodrone spun on one leg to meet them. A foot lashing out to kick Ron flying backwards and a spun backhand knocking Shego flying.

"I don't get it. Drakken's creations are never this tough." Shego growled as she got to her feet.

Ron searching on the floor found a piece of long ago broken glass from the windows and charging forward he slashed the orange jump suited creation. If it had been a living person inside that suit he would never had done something like that but with a synthodrone the quickest way to end a fight with them was to puncture the suits they were in releasing the green goo that made up their bodies…. Only this time it wasn't green goo that came out. It was blackish looking and horrible smelling fluid that resembled….

"Blood?" Ron said looking at the stuff covering his hands in horror. Had he misunderstood and that wasn't a synthetic synthodrone in front of him but a person? As Ron watched the slash that had crossed the entire things belly and was spilling that reddish black fluid everywhere suddenly sucked back into its stomach not leaving a trace of a wound.

As Ron stared in horror at what he thought was a wound in a living being, Shego launched another attack and was caught by the hulking brute. With one hand the thing was holding Shego at arm's length and was slowly choking the life out of her.

"Lotus Blade!" Ron screamed as he threw the glass shard away and raced towards them. Shego out of the corner of her eye could see Ron coming and wondered what the young man planned to do when he reached them. As Ron leapt into the air, a shinning blade burst through the wall of the structure they were in and landed in his hand. Without pause, Ron brought the blade down severing the arm that was holding Shego and she fell to the ground and quickly pulled the fingers of the hand away from her throat so she could breathe once again.

The creature turned its head to look at Ron and started to step towards him but then stopped and looked at its stump of its arm in surprise. While the wound caused by the glass shard had healed almost immediately and by the way the thing was holding its severed arm stump up it obviously thought that wound would too but it didn't. Where the Lotus Blade had cut a golden like glow was left behind and as the synthodrone stared at it stump stupidly, the glow suddenly shot up the rest of the stump and spread to cover the rest of its body and with a flash, the synthodrone was gone leaving just a faint trace of ash blowing in the wind.

"What the hell was that thing?" Ron yelled turning to look at Shego.

"I don't know." Shego replied getting to her feet and rubbing her neck. "It looked like just one of Drakken's normal synthodrones but I've never seen one of those things do what it did and Drakken said he hadn't gotten around to programming them yet." Shego's eyes widened and she looked around at the building they were in. "It's this place. It is doing it."

Ron looked nervously around as well. "What is this place anyway? Kim wouldn't tell me when Wade told her he found your guys' latest lair. She just told me I didn't need to know. We would get in and out and destroy it like usual."

"It's the Waverly Hills Institute." Shego paused for a moment trying to think how to explain.

"You mean that place on Ghost Hunters and Scariest Places on Earth?" Ron squeaked.

Shego nodded her head. "And it has my boss and your girlfriend." She said as she started to run to the hallway to try and retrieve her bone headed employer that insisted there was nothing wrong with the building.

"She's not my girlfriend." Ron yelled as he followed Shego. "We're just friends."

This surprised Shego enough that she paused for a moment. "Seriously?"

Ron frowned at her.

"It's just that we all assumed you two were an item the way you follow her around like a puppy dog all the time."

"No. We're not." Ron stated flatly and marched past Shego to try and find where the crazed doctor like thing had dragged Drakken and Kim. He was a little sensitive on the matter since Kim had carefully explained to him just recently that this Halloween she wanted to go on a date with Josh Mankey and not their usual Halloween tradition of Trick or Treating. Sure he was glad that at least this year she had told him rather than lie and sneak around behind his back to do it like she had the year before but it still hurt somewhat that she would rather go on a date with Monkey boy rather than spend it with her lifelong friend.

Shego allowed Ron to get a few yards ahead of her as she pondered that everything wasn't as perfect with Princess and Ron's relationship like all the villains out there thought. Finally striding to catch up with him, Shego couldn't resist looking into room 502 as she passed it.

As soon as she crossed in front of the doorway to that room, tendrils of barbed wire shot out from it and wrapped around her neck cutting off her air supply and slithering down her body to tie her hands behind her. It happened so fast she didn't have time to scream for help or fire up her plasma powers. The barbed wire quickly pulled the struggling Shego into the room and the door slammed shut behind her. Shego found the other end of the barbed wire was around the light fixture in the ceiling of the room and as she struggled to free herself it pulled her towards a rickety stool beneath it.

The strategy wasn't lost on Shego. The barb wire meant to pull her up on to the stool at which point one would assume someone would kick the stool out from under her, leaving Shego to hang. Shego was a brave woman none could say she wasn't. There were only two things that scared Shego beyond belief and one of them was the thought of dying alone, so it wasn't surprising that tears came to her eyes as she felt the barb wire tug her and she had no other option that step up on the stool or risk the sharp wire severing her head all together.

"1…2…3….4….And you are no more…." women's voices seemed to sing around her.

Just as Shego felt the stool she was standing on get kicked out from under her, Ron burst through the door and without pause he threw the strange sword he was carrying, the blade flew through the air and severed the barb wire that was just starting to pull unbearably tight around Shego's throat as her feet as the stool she was standing on disappeared.

Shego fell to the ground and from where she lay she could see ghostly nurses wearing bloody hospital uniforms start to surround Stoppable. The nurses looked human except when you got to their heads. Each and every one of them had their heads bound with bloody bandages. Ron held his hand up as he recalled the Lotus Blade from where it had stuck into the ceiling after freeing Shego from her noose. As soon as the blade returned to his hands, he made a sweeping motion slicing the nurse moving towards him. With a shriek, all the ghastly nurse figures disappeared in a flash of golden light in a manner similar to the one the synthodrone had done.

As Ron raced to Shego's side the blade shrank in size till it was the length of a small pocket knife and Ron carefully severed the wire around her throat and hands. As the blade touched the barb wire, the wire flared and turned into rusty dust.

"Are you okay Shego?" Ron asked as he tried to examine her at the same time he kept an eye on every direction in the room.

Shego opened her mouth and rough croaking noises came out.

Ron instantly clasped the pocket knife Lotus Blade to his arm and Shego saw that the blade transformed into an arm band. With extreme care, Ron moved Shego's hands away from her throat and gently prodded. The barb wire had cut severely into Shego's throat, nearly destroying her voice box completely. It was a minor miracle it hadn't severed the arteries running to her brain and she hadn't already bled out.

Ron swayed at bit at the signs of damage and copious amounts of blood but regained control quickly. He could faint later but right now Shego and Kim needed him to keep his wits about him.

"Okay Shego I think I can help you but you are going to have to trust me." Ron said in what he hoped was a firm and comforting voice. "I once was taught a technique that can heal but I've never been the best of students at any time so I'm going to have to have you be really still while I concentrate."

Shego could see her blood all over her hands where she had touched her throat and knew from the pain that she was in bad shape so all she could do was nod her head and then regret even that action, as she suddenly feared her head was going to fall off.

Closing his eyes Ron breathed deep several times and when he opened his eyes again Shego could see they were glowing a soft blue color. She had never seen anything like it before and for a moment was fearful that the Waverly had taken him over as well.

"Do not fear." Ron's voice calmly came out as he laid his hands softly around her neck. Instantly soothing warmth flowed from his hands into Shego's body and Shego could feel the pain and terror start to recede in her. After several long moments, Ron finally shut his eyes again and when they opened once more, they were his natural brown. "How are you feeling?" Ron asked her gently.

Shego opened her mouth to retort how did he think she should feel. She had her throat cut but to her surprise, she felt no pain. Cautiously she worked her jaw a few times. "I feel…" She said surprised when her voice came out strong and clear. "I feel fine." Scrambling to her feet, she looked into a dirty mirror that was in the room. There was still traces of blood around her throat but as Shego wiped them away she could see her throat was now fine. The skin was uncut, there wasn't even a trace of a scar to show where the barb wire had so cruelly cut into her, and there was no pain at all.

Shego turned to look at Ron in awe. "That is amazing. How many times have you done something like that?" She asked.

Ron grinned. "That was my first time actually. Glad I remembered how sensei said to do it." Ron grew serious. "We need to find Kim and Dr. D, there is no telling what this place might be doing to them."

Shego nodded and made for the doorway. "Right, for some reason I think I know where it would take them. Follow me."

Ron leapt to follow Shego as she ran down the hallway. Seeing an elevator and hearing the bing of it arriving Ron stopped only to have Shego grab his arm. "Don't take the elevator. Take my word for it."

As they ran to the stairway, the elevator doors behind them closed and opened several times as if gnashing teeth in frustration.

Entering the hallway leading to Drakken's lab Shego and Ron pulled to a stop. There in the middle of the hallway was a little boy standing there bouncing a ball. If it wasn't for the gray pallor of the boy's skin or the unnerving smile on the tiny tot's face, Shego might have thought the kid was just some local boy who had gotten lost and had somehow wandered his way to the floor they were on.

"Hey little one." Ron addressed the specter. "We don't have time to…"

"Play!" The boy yelled in a too deep voice as he threw the ball towards Shego. Shego in annoyance raised her arm to punch the ball back. She only had moments before the ball hit her to realize the ball had split in the middle and was now sporting vicious looking teeth as the ball chomped down hard on her arm. Shego couldn't help herself as she screamed out in shock and pain as the teeth ground into her forearm. Dropping to one knee she grabbed at the ball with her other hand, flaring her powers and reducing the cursed thing to ashes within seconds. Looking up she spotted the kid raising his arm once again to hurl a ball at her. As the boy released and the ball identical to the one Sheo had destroyed came hurling through the air towards her it split into dozens and dozens of other balls all sporting blackened teeth.

"Oh crap." Shego muttered as she winced at the thought of all those mouths clamping down on her.

Ron quickly stepped in front of Shego and from the angle Shego had behind him, she couldn't tell what it was he did but suddenly the blade like thing he had earlier was back but now it looked like a ceiling fan. Ron spinning the shaft quickly caused it whirl destroying the balls coming out them. As the last one neared the ceiling fan like object flared and was now a baseball bat. Ron swung out at the last ball and rocketed it down the hallway past the little boy thing.

"Fetch." Ron shouted at the kid.

"You are no fun." The ominously deep voice came from the boy and turning the boy ran after his ball leaving Ron and Shego alone in the hallway. Another flash and the Lotus Blade was once again an arm ornament around Ron's upper left arm.

Ron dropped to his knees beside Shego and gently pried her other hand off the wound on her arm. "Let me see."

"I'm fine." Shego growled annoyed at herself on how many times Waverly Hills had tricked her this night and how many times she was indebted to an enemy to save her.

"Shego who knows what kind of infections this place can give a person." Ron told her sternly as he pried her fingers away from the wounds and looked at it. Shego once again felt the warmth and comfort radiating out from Ron's hands and wasn't surprised this time to look up and see his eyes glowing blue once again. What did surprise her a little was the sense of peace she felt around Ron. Finally, Ron nodded his head. "All done." He said. And Shego glancing at her arm saw that he was correct. There were still gashes in her glove and costume where the ball's teeth had broken through but her light green skin underneath was free from any wounds. There wasn't even a single mark to show where the teeth had penetrated.

"You know, you could make a lot of money doing that with plastic surgeons. Instant face lifts without any scars or healing time." Shego commented as she got back to her feet. Together they both raced off to find Kim and Drakken.

Reaching the area of the hospital that used to be the morgue, Shego and Ron could hear the ghastly doctor talking. "I fear you will feel hideous pain but after a while you will get used to it."

Running at full speed through the doorway Ron had only a moment to process the images before him. A wimpering Drakken was strapped to a gurney while a still unconscious Kim was lying on one a few feet away. The doctor ghost, zombie, ghoul or whatever it was, was standing in front of Drakken's gurney with a bone saw in its hand. The doctor turned to look at Ron. "Do you mind? This is delicate brain surgery and you are not qualified to help in the process."

Drakken's eyes that were already huge grew ever larger and he began crying for his mommy.

Ron didn't pause but grabbing the arm band around his arm, he transformed it into the Lotus Blade and swung it in the doctor's direction. However, before the blade could come in contact with him, the doctor vanished leaving the bone saw to fall and land on the table next to Drakken's head.

With a thought, Ron shrunk the Lotus Blade back to a useable pocketknife size and started cutting the straps holding Drakken down.

Shego having run into the room behind Ron slowly kept scanning the room trying to spot the doctor if he were to reappear. She didn't notice as one of the morgue cabinets behind her start to slowly ease open and the drawer bed on it to extend. The bed was empty.

Hearing just the slightest rasping noise from behind her, Shego started to turn when restraint straps, that weren't on the bed when either her or Drakken had seen them, suddenly lashed out and catching her around her mouth, arms and legs pulled her onto the bed. Almost instantly, the bed smoothly slid back into the cabinet and the door swung shut trapping Shego in the darkness inside the cabinet.

"Feel the cold slipping into your bones?" A voice whispered into her ears. "Soon this will be your permanent home."

Shego struggled fiercely against the straps. While her hands since they could summon and control her green fire wasn't hurt by it the rest of her body wasn't immune to the plasma fire and the way her arms were strapped to her sides, Shego knew firing them up would likely burn her legs severely but she wasn't going to die, not like this. The second of Shego's greatest secret fears was enclosed spaces. Not surprising being a criminal and being locked up time and time again, she wasn't overly fond of close spaces but even the most severe jail space was bearable. This tiny tight coffin like space wasn't. Shego was sweating and near complete panic as she struggled but the straps just grew tighter and tighter around her. She was beginning to have problems breathing due to the ones around her chest and already she couldn't feel her legs or arms because the straps had cut off blood flow.

"Relax and just wait for the worms." The voice cooed into her ear again.

Sudden light flared as Ron with his eyes glowing bright blue again ripped the door off of the cabinet and with a savage pull managed to drag the bed out of the darkness. Not even bothering to use the Lotus Blade, Ron ripped the straps holding Shego down with his bare hands and pulled Shego up into his arms.

"Shego?" He shouted into her face as Shego continue to stare past him. Getting no response Ron did the only thing he could think of, he took Shego into his arms in a hug and whispered to her. "Come back Shego. Don't let a pile of rocks and bad memories take you from us."

"Alone." Shego mumbled. "Dark."

"No you are not alone Shego. I am here for you. Come back."

Shego gave a mighty intake of breath and sagged into Ron's arms. Wrapping her arms around Ron she clutched him desperately and sobbed. After a moment, she regained her composure but before releasing Ron she growled lightly. "I am really really starting to hate this place."

Ron chuckled. "There is the Shego we know and love."

Ron started to gently push Shego back from his embrace when to his surprise she pulled him close once again and slammed her mouth down over his in one deep soul searing kiss. Finally, Shego released him and stepped back. Ron was left in a daze and could only blink at her for a moment.

"That was to thank you. You saved my ass several times tonight." Shego explained to him.

"Well, I'm glad if I had to save something it is something as nice as…"Ron started to say but stopped himself.

"Ron." Kim's icy voice called out from behind them. "Would you like to explain why you are kissing our enemy and how I came to be strapped down to this table?"

Shego could see Ron wince. "Sure for the kiss she wakes up but not for any of the other weirdness this night" Shego muttered where only Ron could hear her.

"Hey KP. You won't believe the kind of night we have been having…" Ron said as he turned to face her and trailed off as he could see something in the shadows at the head of Kim's gurney start to form.

"Ron?" Kim asked as she saw him staring past her. Craning her neck Kim managed to look up and behind her and saw what looked like a skeleton wearing an orderlies' uniform form behind her and Drakken's gurney.

Drakken was freed from his restraints but was curled into a ball on the gurney and was sucking his thumb oblivious to what was forming so near to him.

"Kim!" Ron shouted as he made to go to her rescue. Unfortunately the morgue cabinet table behind him and Shego had regrown its restraints and lashing out at that moment pulled both Shego and Ron back onto the table and slid back into the cabinet. The torn off door that had been thrown across the room by Ron flew back into place healing itself as it came and slammed shut throwing both Ron and Shego into darkness once again.

Ron could hear outside the cabinet the sounds of Kim yelling and struggling as she was wheeled somewhere else and Drakken calling for his mother. The voices faded into the distance as the restraints that had caught Ron and Shego side by side and was slowly pulling them to face each other as it tried to crush the two people inside the cabinet.

The darkness in the cabinet was so complete that Shego couldn't even seen an outline of Ron who was lying inches away from her but she could feel his body as it was being slowly forced against hers.

"Well this could almost be enjoyable if in another place and time." She muttered.

"I can't bring my arms out to my sides because of the straps." Ron stated. "But if I turn and bring them in front of me and we can keep a little space between us I might be able to use my hands and get us free."

"Can't you just use that sword thing?" Shego asked as she allowed herself to turn more to face him and quickly brought her hands up so she could push against Ron's shoulders to try and maintain a gap between them.

"I'm afraid to call the blade into action as close as we are. I may end up skewering you instead." Ron explained. Shego could feel his breath on her lips as he spoke. "But if either of us can get our hands out away from the straps we can use our abilities and get free."

Ron squirmed as he slid his hands in front of him and tried to bring them up only to have them get snagged on twin mounds between him and Shego. Ron idly wondered what they could be and flexed his fingers trying to figure it out.

"Ron." Shego calmly said. "You are groping me. Now if you want me to thank you that way, hey I can be talked into that but this is not the place."

"Oops. Sorry. Wow, you are bigger than you… Um, right." Ron nervously laughed. The straps were constricting so tightly around both of them that a few moments longer and neither Ron nor Shego would be able to free their hands. Sliding his hands from the center of Shego's chest, Ron just barely managed to get them on her shoulders while Shego did the same to him and they both pushed at the same time giving them just enough slack to slide their hands out away from their bodies. This ended up with their hands free on either side of their heads but now there was nothing to keep them from being forced even closer and Ron found his lips being pressed almost painfully against Shego's as straps tried to crush their skulls together before they could escape.

Suddenly a flaring of green and blue light erupted inside the cabinet and it was blown to pieces by the powers of Mystical Monkey Power and Meteor energy working in concert.

Leaping to their feet both Ron and Shego quickly moved away from the destroyed cabinet and looked around for any snake like straps that might be slithering across the floor. Shego looked over to where Drakken and Kim had been and wasn't all that surprised to see that they were now gone. "The building took them somewhere else." She stated.

Ron sighed. "Any ideas where this time?"

Shego also sighed. "Only one place left that terrifies me, so of course I'm betting it took them there."

Ron swallowed. "Death Tunnel?"

Shego reluctantly nodded her head. "Death Tunnel."

"We need to get ahead of the building for a change." Ron said as he quickly looked into every room on the second floor. Finally, he pulled to a stop outside one of the rooms. "Here it is."

Shego looking in spotted a dark familiar opening in the wall. "Oh no, you can't be serious. The body dumbwaiter?"

"It is the quickest way to the bottom isn't it?" Ron asked as he walked over and cautiously stuck his head inside the opening and glanced downward.

Shego sighed. "Without taking the elevator, yeah."

Ron gestured for Shego to join him. "I don't see the dumbwaiter thing. It must have crashed years ago but the chute is narrow so I can put my feet to either side and slow our descent."

Shego decidedly didn't look thrilled but nodded her head all the same. Ron opened his arms to her and for a moment Shego was confused but then realized he wanted her to cling to him during their descent.

"Do you have any idea of all the things that can go wrong with this plan?" Shego asked as she wrapped her legs around his waist and then clung to his shoulders. "You know, you are a lot stronger than I gave you credit for." She commented as Ron didn't even shift from her added weight. "Wouldn't this be easier if I climbed onto your back?"

Ron grinned at her. "Don't have to be all that strong. You are as light as a feather and I prefer you on me this way." At Shego's raised eyebrow, Ron quickly added. "So you can look over my shoulder and make sure nothing is in the chute with us behind me. And to answer your question? Yeah I've watched enough horror movies I can imagine all sorts of ways this can go wrong."

Shego grinned back. "And you know just the right things to say to a lady. Kimmie doesn't know what she is missing." She said as she wiggled a bit on Ron's body to make sure she had a firm grip and couldn't be dislodged

Ron kept the wince from his face at the reference to Kim and tried to think thoughts of cold showers to keep his body from reacting to Shego clinging to him so tightly and in such a provocative way. "Ready?" He barely managed to say without his voice cracking.

"Never but let's go." Shego replied.

Ron leapt backwards into the hole with Shego clinging to his front and threw his hands and legs out to brace against the sides of the walls. Instantly he started to slide downward from his and Shego's weight.

Passing the first floor Ron could see what looked like dozens of zombie like patient ghosts wandering outside in the hallway through the opening on that floor to the chute as they slid by. He thought of mentioning it to Shego who had her chin resting on his shoulder as she watched the blank wall behind him but then thought why bother? There was nothing they could do about the mass of dead and it looked like they were more interested in going somewhere anyway that bothering Ron or her in the chute.

Nearing the bottom both glanced downward in the gloom and could make a ghastly decaying face staring up at them. The zombie like creature was standing at the bottom of the chute and had its arms up as if to catch Ron and Shego as they reached the bottom. With about ten feet between them, Ron suddenly pulled his hands and feet away from the walls and allowed himself to plummet the remaining distance and landed on the thing's head crushing it down like a tin can.

Quickly Ron and Shego scrambled out of the opening into the room in the basement but Ron's landing must have done the job as the zombie like thing didn't stir or follow them out of the chute. As they entered the room, they could see Drakken and Kim, still on their gurneys was sitting in the middle of the room.

As Ron and Shego made to go towards them, the body bags along one wall suddenly stirred and flew up as their zippers unzipped. Obviously, the bags were going to try and trap Ron and Shego inside them, at which point neither Ron or Shego doubted the bags would try to constrict them to death like the straps upstairs had tried. Shego flared her hands and started throwing fireballs left and right.

"I told you what I would do it you tried that shit with me!" Shego shouted as the bags burst into flames and quickly turned to ashes.

Ron quickly freed Kim from her restraints and with a few not so gentle slaps to his face managed to bring Drakken out of his terror induced catatonic state.

"Okay all we have to do now is get the hell out of here!" Shego stated and walked over to the door that lead back into the hospital.

"Wait. It would be quicker and easier to go out this way." Drakken pointed at the Death Tunnel door.

"The only thing that goes out that way is the dead." Shego replied. "I am not nor am I ever going to go down that damn tunnel and that is final!" Pulling on the handle of the sliding door into the hospital, she pulled it open.

As the door opened it could be seen that the hallway beyond was crowded from side to side with hundreds of oozing, bleeding, and coughing corpses and standing at the head of this dead army was the menacing doctor from before.

"Time to take your medicine." The figure intoned and the mask over its face twitched. Whether from a smile or something was moving under it was anyone's guess.

Shego pulled the door and slammed it back into place. For good measure, she used her powers and wielded it shut as well.

"Then again everyone should experience new scenery when they can." She said as she walked over to the door leading to the Death Tunnel and stared at it. Ron standing next to her could hear her muttering under her breath. "I really don't want to do this. I really don't WANT TO DO THIS."

Ron suddenly swept Shego into his arms in a bridal carry.

"Ron? What the hell are you doing?" Kim asked angrily.

"Just open the door Kim. We are getting out of here right now."

As the tunnel door opened and the musty smell of death reached them, Shego turned her head and buried her face into Ron's shoulder. "You tell anyone about this moment of weakness Stoppable and I'll make you regret it." Ron could hear Shego whisper to him.

"Wouldn't even think of telling anyone Shego." He whispered back.

"Say, where is that naked pink thing of yours anyway?" Shego continued to whisper trying to take her mind off the tunnel as Ron entered it with Kim and Drakken.

She could almost feel Ron's smile above her. "You know what I meant." She growled at him

"Rufus wasn't feeling well so we left the little guy at home. And I'm glad the little guy isn't here for this."

Shego could feel the gentle swaying as Ron navigated the stairs while he carried her and Drakken muttered about the cart being at the bottom and having to walk all the way to the bottom.

Suddenly Shego heard a sliding noise and Kim's gasp of fear.

"What is it?" She asked lifting her head away from Ron's shoulder and flaring the power in one of her hands slightly. In the gloom of the tunnel, she could see rotting bodies sliding on the ramp beside them and as they passed by the bodies would reach out and try to grab a hold of their legs. Kim was pressed against the rocky wall next to her and Ron. "This is not happening." Kim muttered to herself. "There is a logical explanation for all of this."

"Yeah well don't let one of them grab you anyway Princess." Shego told her as she threw a fireball at one of the ghoul like creatures who in trying to grab them almost came off the ramp to end up on the stairs with them. The fireball not only knocked the thing back onto the ramp but it set it on fire as well causing a stink that made all of them start to cough and gag.

Shego pressed her face against Ron's shoulder once again as the group sped up their descent. "Are we out yet?" She asked plaintively.

"Nearly there." Ron assured her.

"The door is locked." Drakken's voice called out.

"Well unlock it then." Kim barked at him.

"Like I have the keys?"

Ron sighed and placed Shego down on her feet beside him.

"Get out of the way." Ron said to Kim and Drakken who were standing in front of large metal doors at the bottom of the tunnel.

Shego looked around nervously as Kim with an angry glare at Ron did as she was told and moved over to stand beside the green villainess.

"So what happened between you two up there?" Kim asked as she folded her arms across her chest.

"Not now Kimmie." Shego replied.

"Why? Is there something I should know?"

"Yeah. Like where did all those bodies sliding down the ramp go to if they are not down here at the end of the tunnel." Shego asked.

Kim suddenly fearful herself looked around. "Aww crap." She replied as Ron, his eyes glowing blue shoved on the doors ripping them from their hinges and causing them to fly open.

Standing on a railway station like landing just outside the doors were dozens and dozens of zombie like creatures and as a mass, they turned to look at them.

Kim, Shego and Drakken started to sink back into the tunnel but Ron merely stepped forward. "Dudes. You are going to miss your train if you don't keep an eye out for it."

The zombies as one turned to look back at the ruined rails waiting for a train that would never arrive.

"Come on guys. Let's slip off this way while they wait for their train." Ron whispered to Kim, Shego and Drakken and gestured to the end of the station platform.

So as the dead waited for their ride, Kim, Ron, Shego and Drakken silently trudged down the train tracks and made good their escape from the Waverly Hills Institute. Well silently that is until they got about a ¼ of a mile away, then Drakken started complaining about the loss of his hover ship and having to walk.

"You could go back for it." Shego pointed out.

"You won't go back for me?" Drakken asked.

Shego merely turned to glare at him for a moment before silently turning and continuing to walk.

"As soon as we reach a town we are turning you two over to the local authorities." Kim promised Shego.

"Kim? Seriously? After what we all have been through this night? And if it hadn't been for Shego's help I would never have been able to reach you to save you." Ron stated.

Kim seemed to pout for a moment. "Well, okay. But just this once."

"yeah, yeah. Whatever you say Princess." Shego said waving a hand negligently.

Finally, they reached a point where the old rails of the railroad split in two directions. Without a word or a glance, Drakken and Shego took one direction while Ron and Kim took the other.

Ron sat in his darkened room and looked out at the full moon that was visible in the sky. It was Halloween and just as Kim said she would do, she went off on a date with Josh Mankey and left Ron sitting alone at home.

Not that Kim knew he was sitting alone at home. He had told her he was going trick or treating as he did every year but this year, after the very real horrors he had seen at Waverly Hills, well it just lost some of its appeal this year. Monique had invited to the Halloween party she was holding but the thought that he might run into Kim and her date there had taken that appeal away as well. So Ron was sitting alone.

Even Rufus had gone out with the Possible twins to help with the charity haunted house that they were helping their mother and father with. That was something else Ron could have gone and done this night but considering the theme this year was a 'haunted hospital'? Ron decided he would rather stay home.

Lying back onto his bed Ron stared up at the ceiling and tried not to think about Waverly Hills again. Not just because of the obvious horror he had faced that night but because thoughts of that place also brought up memories of a certain green skinned woman being in his arms.

A shadow crossed Ron's window and instantly Ron had rolled to the side of his bed and was holding a baseball bat. A normal bat not the transformed Lotus Blade, for a few days after Waverly Ron had kept the sword by his side at night but finally with nothing happening he decided one night to dismiss the blade and allow it to return to its resting place in Japan.

Turning Ron swallowed nervously as he watched a dark shadow enter through his open bedroom window.

"I'm not scared of you and I have a long hard object!" Ron squeaked at the shadow.

The shadow paused. "Calm down Stoppable it's just me." Shego's voice called out. "And I'll let the long hard comment pass this time."

Ron dropped his bat and reaching over turned on the small light on his bed stand table. "Shego?" Ron blinked as he stared at the woman who was, if not breaking, was still entering his house.

She had on a short diagonally cut black and green skirt with black and green boots and a halter top that left her minty green shoulders and stomach bare. "Um…uh… That's a different look for you." Ron finally managed to say.

Shego grinned. "I was at a Halloween party at the time share lair. Dementor insists on putting one on every year but I got bored and snuck off."

"So why are you here?" Ron asked genuinely confused.

Shego crossed the room and took a seat on Ron's bed next to him. "I never did really thank you for saving my life all those times at Waverly."

"You thanked me." Ron said as a grin broke out. "I'll never forget that kiss you gave me."

Shego looked Ron over. "My life means more to me than just some simple kiss Ron." She finally explained. Reaching over Shego clicked off the light on the night stand.

There were sounds of someone throwing themselves on top of someone and sounds that might have been someone removing someone else's clothing and a very happy Booyah! And then Shego's whispered. "Trick or treat?" Followed by Ron moaning, "Treat. Treat. Treeeeaaat."

"Happy Halloween Shego."

"Happy Halloween Ron."