I do not own any Disney characters named herein, and am only borrowing them to tell a nonprofit tale meant for entertainment purposes only.

Kim Possible: Empires

By LJ58

Prelude:

He lay curled in darkness. The dank coolness of the massive cavern that was his lair suited him.

It suited his mood, and his manner.

He also rather enjoyed the way it disconcerted those that came to call on him in the, to them, unnerving environ.

He still smirked at remembering the way they often scuttled into his domain, eyes, or other senses searching shadows. Seeking out his presence. Seeing him only when he wished it.

Then, watching their alarm when they finally spotted him.

Their horror was delicious.

It amused him.

Even those that considered themselves his superiors never truly saw him in truth. They came thinking him but a tool in their machinations, claiming he was leader to their cause, though he knew they saw him so in name alone. They always felt themselves above him, and only borrowed his power for their own aims. He was no fool. He knew the truth of their ways. All of them. In truth, he used them, as much as they tried to use him.

Watching such beings scuttle away virtually reeking with relief that they survived an audience always amused him, too.

Watching those feline Hugaan slink into the cavern now told him all he needed to know about their recent operations in that accursed galaxy he had targeted through his pawns of late.

They had failed.

Again.

Raising a massive, craggy head as he lifted himself out of the shadows, he looked down at the felines with a cold scowl. His reptilian hide was so dark a red he looked almost black, especially in the covering shadows filling his dimly lit lair.

Only great, gleaming grayish eyes betrayed his presence as he shifted, then moved to take a single step toward the furtive intruders, the heavy fall of one foot echoing around them as they froze, and one gave an instinctive hiss of alarm.

"Why are you here without the human's head," he growled archly.

"She….already ascended," the spokesman all but wailed. "Forgive us, lord, but the M'Kandii dragoness has already grown in such power and might that she bent the entire Lorwardian Empire to her will with but a word."

"A word," he growled. "Highly doubtful. More likely you fools let them exploit that ridiculous prophecy. I told you to ensure that blind poet died before it could spread. Did I not?"

"Forgive us, great lord. We did not think a single poet could…."

He growled, his nostrils quivering as thick, gray mist not unlike smoke rose as he grumbled deep in his blood-red chest.

"Forgive us," the feline howled, and all but flung himself to his face, prostrate before him now. "Command us! Tell us how to make amends! Our lives are yours!"

"So they are," he said, and a great forelimb reached down, plucked the cowering feline up, and lifted him to the level of his great head.

The feline all but sprayed urine all over itself as it whined in his grip.

"What did I tell you?"

The feline didn't reply.

"What did I tell you," he echoed, his deep voice dropping even lower, sounding all the more grim.

"Not to…..underestimate…..the dragon-spawn."

"Indeed. Yet you toyed with her. Gave her the chance to grow. To mature. I should rend you, cat," he snarled. "Rend you, and suck on your bones!"

"Wait! It was not our fault. It was those vile squid! They, and that redheaded witch that aids her! We did not know she was given power, too!"

"What….witch?"

"The dragon's p'n'ch'ssa! Somehow….we learned belatedly, she took Communion with the Great Mother herself! She is….unstoppable! A demon in battle. She stands with the M'Kandii heir, and is a true warrior herself!"

"Redheaded….witch," the the great shadow-beast grumbled.

He dropped the feline, ignoring the snap of its legs, and the howl of its pain as it hit the ground from so high up.

"A mere p'n'ch'ssa was allowed to take Communion? And survived?"

"She is said to be the dragoness' very twin! Save in coloring," the injured feline moaned in pain.

He gave a low, throaty chortle.

"Another Blood Heir? After all this time," he said, rising higher in the cavern, the shadow of his bulk looming larger than ever, "I think I shall visit this meager galaxy after all, and this M'Kandii world's Lady. Yes," he said, "I think I shall."

"What….? What of us, great one," the injured feline whined, laying on his side, gritting his teeth against the pain of his shattered limbs.

"Yes, what of you? Spineless…. Incompetent…. Still, perhaps not completely useless," he said, his great jaws lowering. "After all, I've a long trip before me, and I am…..hungry."

Their echoing cries of fear and pain lasted longer than they did.

To Be Continued…