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01: Killer of Animals.
Killer of Animals, Captain of the Lorwardian missile frigate Redactor, stared at the tactical screen in front of his command station. His two-meter height marked him as a member of the Servitor Caste, too small to be a Warrior, or to be honored with a name, only a job title. The crew were all Servitors, their scarred green skin bearing witness to their tenacity in the face of their brutal and unforgiving culture.
Angry yellow eyes considered the banded gas giant on the screen, its impressive bulk like nothing in the Lorwardian home system. The bright red wound on its side matched the description relayed back by the lost invasion force led by Warmonga and her consort Warhawk. The beauty of the gas giant was lost on Killer of Animals. A sense of aesthetics was not in his makeup.
He checked the charts, reviewing the ship's course. They would be coasting through the system silent and dark. No active scanners. No power to the engines. No course corrections. Nothing to alert the inhabitants of the third planet to their presence. The Earthians had defeated an invasion led by two of Lorwardia's best warriors. That meant they were dangerous.
How dangerous? Lorwardia's best Assessors did not know. Earthian technology should not have been able to stand up to even the smallest of Lorwardian invasion forces. Earthians had advanced only as far as nuclear fission. Their atmosphere choked on the fumes of burning hydrocarbons. Their weapons were still powered by burning chemicals. Their space probes were fragile, defenseless, and woefully underpowered.
But those probes had been cleverly designed to make every amp and watt count. They could do surprising things with very little power. And maybe it was that cleverness that the Assesors had missed. Maybe that had given the Earthians the edge they needed. Maybe that was what made them dangerous. But Killer of Animals didn't dwell on such matters. He was not here to engage with the Earthians he was here to extinguish them, to sterilize their planet.
Their course would take them close to the yellow star, picking up a massive gravity boost to carry them back out of the system before the Earthians could detect what they had done to their star. In the Redactor's bomb bay lay one of Lorwardia's crowning achievements: the Bitter Pill. A weapon that corrupts the hearts of stars, turning their light into a cleansing fire that burns away all life it touches. A fire that burns for a thousand years before the core of the star fails and it collapses into a white dwarf.
No one humiliates the Lorwardian Empire and lives. When the Lorwardians invade your world, you surrender or you die. That is The Law. There are no exceptions. It was Killer of Animals job to enforce that law. In thirteen Earthian days they would reach the star, a month later the Bitter Pill would reach the star's core and The Law would be carried out, the Redactor would safely be beyond the orbit of the sixth planet, where their shields and distance would protect them.
02: James Possible.
Dr. James Possible looked at the screen as his latest rocket test flight passed apogee before heading back down to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. There was a small white dot where there shouldn't have been. The glare of the sunlight reflecting off the rocket outshone the stars in the background, but one dot remained. Dr. Possible did not like surprises, be they boys in his daughter's bedroom, or anomalies in outer space.
He noted the coordinates of the dot and searched through the records of the Middleton Space Center's telescopes. It didn't take him long to find another anomalous dot. And then a third. And a fourth. Plugging the observations into his computer, he calculated that, wait, that couldn't be right. He checked again. The object's velocity was 700 kilometers per second, above the escape velocity of the sun. This object was not from the solar system. It had come from interstellar space, passed the sun deep inside Mercury's orbit, and was just shy of Saturn's orbit as it headed back out.
A cold dread brewed in his stomach. Was this really an interstellar asteroid? Could he be so lucky that he would discover the first confirmed interstellar object to pass through the solar system? Or was this a powered object, a ship? Perhaps the Lorwardians come to see what happened to their failed invasion. He scoured the internet looking for more sightings. After three hours he had the data to show that the object, he tentatively called 1I-2005A, had not noticeably changed course.
Relieved, he filed a claim with the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams to document the discovery of 1I-2005A, or whatever they would name it. He also documented the angle of entry and exit of the solar system and filed a report with Global Justice, the shadowy organization his hero daughter worked with on occasion. If it were a ship, they would know better whom to alert and what, if anything, could be done about it.
03: Shego.
In the aftermath of the Lorwardian invasion, Shego spent six months helping with the recovery effort, rescuing people from fallen structures, rebuilding damaged homes and infrastructure, distributing food and medical supplies.
She hadn't intended to get involved, but Kimmie had batted her cute little eyelashes at her and sealed her fate with that gods-damned puppy-dog pout of hers when Shego initially demurred. She hadn't intended to remain involved, but the authorities seemed reluctant to arrest her while she was helping.
There had been a perfectly selfish reason she stayed, of course. Not that she would have admitted it out loud. Working with Kim turned out to be fun. And the occasional smile of gratitude from Kim always lit up her day. Even working with Kim's newly super-powered boyfriend, Ron, was not awful, especially demolishing condemned buildings. Their combined powers made short, fun work out of smashing unstable buildings to the ground.
In September, some four months in, she had been called into a meeting in the regional manager's office. Behind the desk sat Betty Director, leader of Global Justice, the shadowy law enforcement agency in charge of dealing with supervillains and other situations beyond the abilities of civil police forces.
"Is this the part where you remember I'm a wanted felon and arrest me?" Shego asked, keeping up a brave front.
"Actually, this is the part where I tell you you've been pardoned," Betty said, placing the contents of a thick manila envelope on the table. "There are conditions, however."
"Of course," Shego said. She knew there would be.
"First, no return to villain work."
"Reasonable," Shego agreed.
"Second, England demands the return of 'January 17, 2003' and I'm not to ask you about it."
"Yeah, I wouldn't want that public, either," Shego said, writing a note on a blank piece of paper. "Give that to the English consulate. They'll know what that means. Oh, and give this to the US National Archives," she continued, scribbling a second note for Betty.
Betty Director looked at Shego with a raised eyebrow.
"You don't want to know about that one, either," Shego said with a smirk.
"There is a ceremony at the UN on Friday. Then you are formally a free woman. Anywhere we can drop you off afterward?"
"I think I'd like to come back here. There are still condemned buildings to knock down," Shego said with a smile.
In the middle of November, there was a meeting with all the volunteers. The regional manager thanked them for their dedication and service and informed them that their assistance was no longer needed.
Kim Possible gave Shego a full-body hug. Shego rolled her eyes, feigning annoyance.
"I knew there was good in you!" Kim said, fixing Shego with one of her famous ten-thousand-watt smiles.
"Can't be, we're not naked," Shego retorted, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.
Kim blushed, grabbed Ron's hand, and headed towards their tent to pack up.
They went their separate ways. Kim off to college at the beginning of the spring semester, Ron to Japan to study with the Yamanouchi Ninja clan in order to master his newly acquired "Mystical Monkey Powers". Shego went looking for a job and a house.
She ended up finding both in Upperton. She had money reserves from her life of crime but knew how fast savings could be spent. It was purely coincidental, and not because she hadn't really looked outside the tri-city area. Honest. You betcha. One hundred percent on the level.
04: The Bitter Pill.
Shego sat on the bench of her home gym, wiping the sweat off her brow. She liked keeping herself in fighting trim, and most gyms did not carry weight machines designed for someone of her strength. Those that did tended to attract bodybuilder types who would invariably injure themselves trying to keep up with her. Few people knew that she was the third-strongest human being in the world, only surpassed by her older brother Hego, and Kim Possible's now ex-boyfriend Ron. After a quick drink of water, she went back to her workout.
At 7:30 PM the lights flickered and went out for a few seconds while she was in the shower. She didn't think too much of it; blackouts were not a big deal in the tri-city area due to years of her former boss leaching off of the power grid and the damage done by the Lorwardian invasion.
She ate a dinner of leftover Chinese food and watched her favorite episodes of Buffy on her DVD player. "Out… For… A… Walk… Bitch." made her chortle every time. Damn, Spike was hot. Too bad he was a man. Buffy would be a lot hotter if she were a green-eyed redhead, but Shego wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers. As long as she… well, Shego didn't need to go there until after she went to bed.
Shego woke to a nagging feeling in the back of her head. Something was off. It took her a moment to realize that she was hearing the low rumble of the generator in her house. The bedside clock said it was 12:05 AM. She made her way to the window and parted the curtains. The city was dark. No house lights or streetlights. She did see vehicle headlights in the distance. And the moon. If the city had not been dark, she might not have noticed that it was brighter than she could ever remember.
Shego went into the living room and turned on the TV. Nothing. No signal on any cable channel. She tried the antenna. Nothing but static. She tried her cell phone. No service. She tried her stereo. The AM and FM bands were silent. Then she tried her shortwave radio. She tried a few numbers stations she knew of. The Devonshire Bandit was silent. As was Swedish Rhapsody. The only active one she could find was the Boston Strangler. Its normal broadcast of next week's winning lottery numbers had been replaced by a child's voice repeating "N equals r, f-p, n-e, f-l, f-i, f-c, l." Searching the bands she, found a few weak broadcasts in Morse code, the only one she could make out was simply there letters S, O, S, and coordinates to somewhere in the southern hemisphere.
She dug out her HenchCo satellite modem and tried to log into the InterrorNet, the dark web for villains. She got a signal but could not log in. Figures they'd close her account after her pardon. She dug out a few of her old sock puppet accounts. PrincessBubbleButt still worked. The connection was laggy and dropped packets like med students at their first autopsy. Dreddit barely loaded the home page. Then the connection broke with a NO CARRIER error. Try as she might, she couldn't restore a connection.
For the first time in years, she was scared. She went back to her bedroom, pulled a locked suitcase from her closet, and smashed the locks open. She pulled out her last green and black catsuit and put it on. She always felt stronger and more in control in her catsuit. She checked her pouches and pockets, finding her lockpick kit and a Team Go wrist radio. Obviously one of her suits from her hero days.
There was a missed call light on her radio. Her brothers had removed her radio from their system years ago. Who would call her? She hit the callback button.
"Hello?" she asked. "Who is this?"
"Sheridan?" a familiar voice asked. "It's Betty. Betty Director with Global Justice. I would say I'm glad to hear that you're okay, but you're not, not for long."
"It's just a blackout, right?" Shego asked, knowing damned well it wasn't.
"I'm afraid not. Look, something went wrong with the sun tonight. Must have been after nightfall if you're still alive. Wait, don't interrupt. The sun changed color and brightness. Everything in daylight died, from Utah to Iran. And death is creeping westward with the sunrise." Betty said.
"So, we avoid sunlight?"
"Unless you can get into Cheyenne Mountain, no. Whatever this is, it burrows deep."
"We can't stop it, can we?" Shego asked.
"No, no we can't. Look, sunrise here is in an hour. I need to get home to my family."
"Wait! My brothers?"
"Were on a mission in California. I'm sorry."
Shego stared at the now silent radio. Sunrise was in four hours. That's all she had. Her heart was a cold stone in her chest. She'd always figured she'd die in a blaze of glory. Maybe saving a beautiful, grateful, hieress from some evildoer back when she was a hero, or, in her villain days, facing down a cadre of heavily armed police officers, her plasma blazing while she screamed, "You'll never take me alive, Coppers! HAHAHA!" at the top of her lungs. But like this? Like a bug pinned to a wall?
"Fuck this!" she yelled. She wasn't going to die wallowing in self-pity or hiding under her fucking bed. She was going to go out on her terms: flying straight at the rising sun, her hovercraft full of treasure, her middle fingers extended in a final act of defiance.
In her garage, she pulled the tarp off of the flying craft her former boss, Dr. Drakken, laughingly called a hovercraft. It looked kind of like one, but it flew on repulsers, not a cushion of air. And it could go a hell of a lot faster and higher. She blew the door off her garage with her plasma and flew to Upperton's financial district. Home of the richest banks in Colorado. Home to safe deposit boxes full of the most expensive swag there was. And she would know; she had procured enough of it during her former life as the best thief in the world.
Her final stop was at Di Bergi's, the most exclusive jewelers in Upperton, where even the "cheap" jewelry kept in the display cases after hours was worth more than most people earned in a year. Shego was carelessly ransacking the place, scooping up the gold and platinum pieces, when something caught her eye and brought her to a standstill.
Two identical platinum rings sat alone in the display case. They were elegant, sublime, restrained, perfect. She tried them on, and they fit! What the hell was she doing wasting her final hours on all this worthless crap? Gold? Jewels? Cash? It wasn't treasure. It was garbage. There was something so much more valuable out there, and she'd almost missed it.
She dropped the rest of her loot and found a beautiful black velvet ring box. She stuffed the box with its rings in her loot pouch and ran back to her hovercraft. Shego slapped the large yellow button on the dash. "Find her!" she commanded as she emptied the vehicle. Out went the bags of cash, the bearer bonds, the jewelry, the gold, the platinum, the priceless pieces of art, even the passenger seats. Everything that was not absolutely needed.
She had just ripped out the last internal panel cover when the computer beeped. The display showed a blinking red dot in a valley just west of Middleton. The location of Kim's two-way radio she insisted on calling a Kimmunicator. Shego strapped in, plugged in the course, and hit the emergency launch button. If she was lucky, she'd beat the sunrise.
The hovercraft leapt into the air with bone-rattling force. Her vision darkened and contracted as g-forces tried to drain the blood from her brain. Between her training, plasma powers, and her catsuit being designed to act as a fighter pilot's g-suit, she managed to hold on to consciousness, barely.
The city raced below her as the sky began to lighten. It was going to be close. She flew nape of the earth through a mountain pass just below the corrupted sun's deadly light. There! She knew that red hair anywhere. Shego pulled the throttle back so hard she was nearly thrown into the control panel, straps be damned. She brought the hovercraft down like the fist of an angry god, as close she she safely could to Kim Possible.
05: Kim.
Kim Possible stood with her family in a small valley just west of her hometown of Middleton. After realizing the enormity of the oncoming disaster and her complete inability to do anything about it, she decided to spend her final hours in one of the most beautiful places she knew. The glowing sky presaged the oncoming dawn. It would not be long now. She looked at her parents and her brothers, feeling helpless to save them.
A HenchCo hovercraft streaked from the east, through a mountain pass, and slammed into the ground. Kim watched as Shego stumbled sideways out of the vehicle, her arms comically pinwheeling as she tried to keep her balance. Is she drunk? Kim wondered. Figures. Then she thought better than to judge how Shego faced impending death.
A flash of green plasma enveloped Shego from head to toe, and she stood upright, steady as a rock. Their eyes locked, and Kim watched as Shego ran towards her at top speed. Was Shego so desperate to settle some old grudge that she'd waste the last minutes of her life fighting Kim Possible? But no, Kim noticed that Shego's body language was all wrong. It wasn't anger she saw in her former enemy.
So Kim stood, as casually as she could, as Shego came up to her, panting and short of breath. The look in Shego's eyes was unlike any she'd seen before. A mix of fear, vulnerability, and hope. Kim looked at the small jewelry box Shego held and knew what was in that box. What had to be in that box.
Shego opened it, and inside were two beautiful platinum wedding rings. They were elegant and understated. They were perfect.
Shego took one of the rings and placed it on Kim's finger. "I do," she said.
Kim took the other ring and placed it on Shego's finger. "I do," she answered.
There were no more words. There was no more time.
Kim pulled her wife into a fierce embrace and kissed her passionately. Her awareness contracted until all she could sense was the feeling of Shego against her. The feeling of Shego's body pressed into hers, the feeling of Shego's arms around her, the feeling of Shego's lips against hers.
The sun rose above the mountains to the east and there were no feelings. Only oblivion.
~END~