And You And I

S237: I'd sworn to myself that I'm content with loneliness

Author's note:

Ok, folks, this is it; the last chapter of the season. And for the title, I have gone for a lyric from the Paramore track The only exception.

Enjoy.

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The green and black; mad-science modified Honda Blackbird rolled off the descended platform of the hovercraft, which floated ten feet above. Clad in full riding leathers in her traditional colours, Shego guided the motorbike forward a few meters and then kicked down the stand. Her gaze scanned the deserted salt flats known as Bonneville Speedway, in northwest Utah. The flats had been the site of numerous land speed records and thus the perfect place for her race with Kimmie. With about nine miles of surface available for them to play with, they could do a classic quarter-mile drag race, a flat-out race to see which vehicle could reach the highest speed and even use the hovercraft to map out several classic race tracks for them to compete on. Yeah, today was going to rock.

Reaching into a pocket on her jacket, Shego pulled out her phone, glanced at the time and frowned. Kimmie should be here by now. She strained her ears, as her gaze turned southeast; the direction she would expect the hero to come from but could hear nor see anything. Hmm, she must still be quite far off, given how much noise that Sloth of hers makes when it is going fast. She glanced at her messages and missed calls, but found nothing from her friend. Shrugging her shoulders, she pocketed the device. Guess she's running late. Shego headed back to the hovercraft and sat down in the pilot's seat to wait.

It did not take long in the quiet of the salt flats for a voice in the back of her head to say, "now's your chance to just leave. Get out of here and away from her as fast as you can."

Shut up! Shego barked in response and grit her teeth.

She'd had to put up with this all week; ever since she had admitted to Kimmie that she thought of her as a genuine friend. Whenever her mind had not been occupied, which, despite her best efforts, had occurred a fair bit since last Friday, she'd had to fend off thoughts about how everything she had been doing since that night in Heartbeats; when she purposefully ruined the hero's date and then knocked her on her ass in that parking lot, had been wrong. That she had gone against the rules she had set out for her Shego persona, bending and breaking them with reckless abandon. And despite what she kept trying to tell herself, something continued to nag at her.

"I'm not going to shut up until you listen to me," the voice said in her own sassy tone, but with a chilly; unfriendly undercurrent to it.

And why the hell would I do that? Shego spat.

"Because I'm the one who made you strong; the one who saved you from things you couldn't deal with," the voice replied.

Bullshit! she retorted. You're just some rouge part of my brain.

The voice let out a mocking laugh. "Where have I heard that before?" There was a moment's pause, before it continued, "you said the exact same thing when I wore the teal hairband."

What the hell? Shego thought in confusion, which was quickly followed by, why is my mind so messed up?

"It's quite simple really. You suffer from serious internal conflict because you've brushed too many things in your life under the rug instead of dealing with them properly. Which is why you continually end up fighting with yourself and why I periodically change forms."

Shego groaned, as an image of herself from six years ago; clad in her green and black catsuit, filled her mind and gave form to the voice. Her devil's advocate having now taken the form of herself from when she had made her Shego persona her default state. What happened to the other one? she asked without really thinking.