7. Azadi

Shego stood over her baby girl lying in pieces on the floor of the motor lab at the Stingray Foundation. She'd never seen her girl in such a terrible state. It was more than a little disheartening. Shego herself had seen better days, of course. Her arm was currently in a sling and her leg in a brace forcing her to use a cane, to say nothing of her head. But she'd recover, Dr. McKullen had insisted that, her baby girl though...

"She'll live," came a voice from far behind her, followed by familiar click-clacks of heels on the concrete floor. Shego turned to see Sylia walking up with a stern look on her face. "We've got plenty of good mechanics here. They'll get her back together in no time."

Shego turned back to her bike. "Send her to Raven," she said.

"The doctor?" asked Sylia. She put a finger to her chin and tapped it idly. "I could probably do that. It'll take longer, though. No telling when he'll work on her as well."

"I can wait," nodded Shego. "She has a primary care physician and I'd like to make sure she gets back to him."

Sylia smiled and laughed lightly. "Very well, I'll have Linna box her up for you."

Shego nodded and then slowly turned away from her baby girl again. "I want something from you."

"Oh really?" said Sylia. She crossed her arms but still looked at her with a smile. "A hit to the head and you're all requests now."

"Feel free to decline," said Shego.

"I always do," said Sylia.

"Kim doesn't have any ID," said Shego.

"I've suspected as much," said Syila with a nod. "Why is that?"

"She has amnesia," said Shego. "No memory of her life before a certain point just before we met. She doesn't care who she was before then, but it has been an issue that she can't prove who she is now and what she knows."

"You see the contradiction there, right?" asked Syila.

"She IS Kim Possible, regardless of who she was," said Shego. She was trying to dance around this as best she could but it was hard when her opponent was the ever-too-crafty Sylia Stingray. "She needs to be able to prove to people that she is Kim Possible."

"And you want me to help her do that," said Sylia.

"If you can," said Shego. "I have no idea how you go about that, and I don't want to ask Nene and have her get in trouble."

"But its okay for me to get in trouble?" asked Sylia, an eyebrow arched.

"You seem... adept at getting out of trouble."

Sylia looked back at her with a smile that seemed to say 'you have no idea how right you are.' At least to Shego's eyes.

"Fortunately, there is a legal method of doing that," said Sylia. "With no history it's a little trickier, but there are means of getting ID and a Social for someone who has slipped through the system up to adulthood. There are occasionally children that come out of closed communes who have never been identified to the government, we can use that path with Kim."

"So you'll help?" asked Shego. "I just want to be clear."

"I'll help you," said Sylia slowly. "But in exchange you have to be honest with me."

Shego narrowed her eyes. "About what?"

"Why now?" asked Sylia. "You've been traveling with her for months."

"She wants to get a job," said Shego. "She needs ID."

"And it has nothing to do with a desire you have to someday stand before a court with her?" asked Sylia.

Shego scowled at Syila. "You are—"

"Doing you a favor," interrupted Sylia. "And I have conditions. I'm quirky like that."

Shego sighed. "That is not my direct intent," she said. "But it would be nice to have the possibility some day."

"So she finally accepted you?" asked Sylia.

"You realize you are blackmailing me."

"It's not blackmail," said Sylia. "It's... contract negotiations." Shego eyed her suspiciously. "You don't exactly make it easy to be your friend," added Syila.

"You don't want to be my friend," said Shego. "You want to get in my pants."

"I can have multiple motivations," said Sylia. "And I'm not cruel. If your heart is set on Possible, then I'm not going to tell you otherwise."

"Really," said Shego flatly.

"Even I can admit that things are different now than when we first met," said Sylia. "So, you were saying about you and Kim?"

Shego sighed. "If we must get into this... yes. Kind of."

"Kind of?"

"She's still pretty sure she's mostly straight," said Shego. "But she wants to 'see where things go.'"

"Sounds ambiguous," said Sylia.

"It's not," said Shego shortly. "We are a couple. We may not be sexually attracted to the same gender, however."

"Which is typically a starting point for a lesbian relationship," said Sylia.

"Only in a jaded world," said Shego.

"Which you suddenly don't live in?" asked Sylia.

"Hrm," grumbled Shego. She looked anywhere other than at Sylia. "Love and sex are separate. It's nice when they agree, but it apparently is not always the case."

Sylia touched Shego's cheek gently and guided her face back to look at her. "Well, if you ever need a sexual partner, you know where to find me," she said softly.

"You really have no shame, do you?" asked Shego.

"I just don't like to lie to myself," said Sylia. She smiled and removed her hand.

Sylia turned on her heel and started heading back out of the labs. "I'll get started on the paperwork to give Kim her new identity. And I'll tell Raven to expect a package in the mail."

With a couple dozen click-clacks, Sylia was gone and Shego found herself alone again with her bike.

In the quiet loneliness of the garage, Shego allowed herself to smile.

"Fun, isn't it, baby girl?"

*** Fin.

A/N: Too much "epic-ness" has worked its way into this story. I am not pleased. It always gets hard for me to write when I am juggling too many motivations. I'm going to try and thin that out a bit. I had a plan for Shego-in-a-coma storyline, but didn't have much of a plan for Kim and Sylia waiting in the hospital. So I wrote whatever came to mind. That... has gotten me into trouble.

Based on the feedback I got from the question I posted in chapter 5 I'm pushing off the stuff I intended to write for Hitchhiker 4 a bit to spend more time on Kim and Shego's budding relationship. But as a result, I don't have it written up yet! So, things may go south. I have no idea. I also have no preview to share this time.

The Hitchhiker 4 begins November 1st! (Er, at least I hope it does.)

Kim Possible, Shego, James Possible, Ann Possible, Senior Senior Senior, Senior Senior Junior, Vivian Porter, Hirotaka, Yori, and Zita Flores are all from Disney's KimPossible. Sylia Stingray, Linna Yamazaki, Nene Romanova, Priss Asagiri, Leon McNichol, Daley Wong, Brian Mason, Fargo, and Dr. Raven are from ARTMIC/Youmex's BubblegumCrisis. All characters and situations are presented in a modified format inspired by their original published appearances.

Additional information was obtained from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. I know it's sometimes inaccurate, but it's a good for figuring out the basics of a topic so you know where to look next.

I continue to know almost nothing about league motorcycle racing, long haul trucking, or medical diagnosis (especially neurosurgery), and made almost everything up. Forgive me. :)

If you enjoyed this story please check out my other Kim Possible and Bubblegum Crisis works at Fanfictiondotnet under the username TempestDash. My opinions about television, movies, video games, and life in general are also available on my blog at rogue-penguindotcom. Also check out my weekly podcast at TheTITANShowdotcom where I talk about nothing with my co-host, Matt, and sometimes a guest or two.