And You And I

S213(U6): The road to...

Author's note:

Well, that got a little hairy there. For those of you who doubted Kim, remember, she's the girl who can do anything, lol ;p. So, one down, three to go (yeah, I'm totally spoiling you this time around). Anyway, the title for this next chapter is taken from an instrumental track: The road to... from last year's amazing Hawkwind album All aboard the Skylark. I really like this title for this chapter, as it leaves the destination unknown, which I found to be quite fitting. Enjoy.

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Picture a block of ice in a sub-zero room, where the air is bitter cold, to the point that it is motionless. Now imagine a slight change in the room, one that causes a solitary drop of water to roll from the top edge of the ice, down one side and drip onto the floor. That is perhaps the aptest description of the inside of the Sloth and what was about to transpire, as it sped down the empty highway.

For the past ten minutes, Kim and Shego had sat in deathly silence, as the prison and the small army of searching guards had disappeared from the view of both their eyes and the car's sensors. Eventually, once Kim had got them to the safety of the interstate, she had decloaked the Sloth, allowing her to unleash the full power of the vehicle's engine and rocket down the long road that would take them back to Colorado.

Shego stared out of the passenger window, her gaze not fixed upon anything in particular, simply trying to avoid looking in the direction of Kimmie. Yet still she could not escape the hero's visage, the girl's fiery-red hair and soft features partially reflected in the glass. Despite her best efforts, after it had become apparent that they had escaped from Captain Brooks and her entourage, Shego's brain had gone into a full-on meltdown. Her thought process struggling to reconcile her dual feelings of lust and hate for her rival. On the one hand, the girl had stirred up feelings inside her that she thought she had purged a long time ago, but on the other, Kimmie had been responsible for her incarceration and all she had suffered since. Add to that the events of tonight and her metaphorical nuclear reactor had gone critical.

In the driver's seat, Kim was forcing herself to keep her eyes trained on the road. While this should have been obligatory, given the ridiculous speed at which the Sloth was travelling, the interstate was virtually dead. That and the Tweebs had recently installed an autopilot feature. This gave her mind ample opportunity to wander. And after she had been sure she had eluded Captain Brooks and the small army that had been hunting for them, that's exactly what it had done. The fact of the matter was, she felt torn. She'd just risked her life, or more likely her freedom, to break Shego out of jail, yet the woman had no interest in talking to her. Unfortunately, she had both thought of and feared this eventuality. It seemed that in her rival's mind, the jailbreak was not enough to erase the initial event of her incarceration, which she had already made crystal clear she blamed on Kim.

She woke something inside of you... something you thought you'd long suppressed, a voice said inside Shego's head. She packed you off to jail and then sauntered off with Betty Fucking Director, a second countered. She just broke you out of jail, the first retorted, causing the second to swiftly fire back, only to clear her own conscience. You haven't felt anything towards anyone since Danni...

SHUT UP! Shego bellowed internally, completely sick of the plethora of thoughts and counter thoughts that had been duking it out for the past ten minutes. I don't want to feel anything towards anyone and I don't care why Kimmie broke me out. I feel like crap and I just want to go home! ...you should at least hear her out... ARGH! Shego balled up her fist and hammered it against the door panel.

Several moments before the green-skinned woman's impromptu outburst, Kim too was wrestling with her own thoughts. Should I try to talk to her? Try to explain that I didn't bring GJ down atop her and Drakken? ...Yeah, nice idea, Kim. She's sure to take your word for it, given how many times you've sent her to jail in the past. Oh, and don't forget how you told her that you were going to beat the shit out of her and send what was left off to jail in the first instance. Unfortunately, all of the above happened to be true. What the hell do I say then? Hey, by the way, I'm pretty sure I'm a lesbian now, let's make out. Kim almost veered the Sloth off the road at the sudden manifestation of that last thought. She snuck a brief glance at Shego. Oh god, do I actually like her? That idea scared her and she suddenly felt glad that the green-skinned woman intended to leave as soon as possible.