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bcbdrums · 3 years

Note

Waterfall!!! And also I appreciate the font!#

You thought I forgot... You thought it would never happen... Well friend, I never delete anything!!! Enjoy waterfalls, and adventure galore.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, @gothicthundra!!!

FFn AO3

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Lost World

Shego pushed her hair out of her face as she gave Drakken a sidelong glance from where she sat piloting the hover-car low over the ocean, rapidly approaching an island—their first sign of land in hours, when their destination should have presented itself early that morning. Drakken's brow was lifted in a furrow as he held the large map out in front of him, the corners flapping in the breeze as he turned it clockwise once, and then again. Shego let out a groan.

"Do you even know where we are?" she asked, licking her lips against the slight chapping that was beginning from the hours in the wind.

Drakken seemed to startle and he brought the map close to his chest, turning an innocent and far too broad grin on her.

"Eh, heh-heh..."

There was a pause as Shego blinked at him before groaning.

"Ugh, fine. You fly, I'll navigate."

"But you said I'm not allowed to fly because the last time we were over islands we—"

"Ugh."

They traded roles, with Drakken handing her the fluttering map as she shifted over one seat so he could take the center in front of the steering column. It wasn't too long after the change that they descended through the remaining cloud layer, and in following the small chain of islands a more promising destination soon came into view—a massive island the size of Iceland.

"All right," Shego said decisively, "Hench said it was near the—"

She was cut off as a shadow suddenly covered them, and they had but a second to look up and then duck before what could only be a living creature swooped in to attack them. As a the hover-car was rocked in the air and a horrendous scraping sound filled her ears, Shego registered a glimpse of brown leathery wings and teeth within a beak.

The sound and shadow gone, Shego lifted her head and whirled around in her seat, hands ablaze and ready to defend them. But their adversary had vanished, presumably up and into the clouds.

"Was that a pteranodon!?" Drakken sputtered, spinning in his seat and leaning over the dash in search of the creature.

"No. They're extinct, dingus," Shego said, her ire misplaced as her heart pounded for fear.

"But it looked just like one!"

"As if we really have a clue what any extinct thing looks like," Shego scoffed, peering over her side of the hover-car. There was no sign of their attacker. "It was probably some kind of condor."

Even as she spoke, their eyes locked together on broad scratches into the back of the hover-car that appeared to have been made with talons. Shego swallowed nervously and rolled her eyes, turning to quickly sit down again.

Drakken was frowning and appeared quite anxious, but he sat back in his seat, Shego hoped noting the logic in her words. She herself realized that the map had been lost when she ducked, and she tapped the control console to hopefully distract Drakken's attention from that fact and the bizarre attack. She had definitely seen skin, not feathers...

As Drakken gripped the controls again, another shadow suddenly covered them, but as they looked up this time and gasped in unison, it wasn't a single creature, but a flock. Distinctly triangular wings with claws at their apex drove the creatures directly toward them, and Shego barely had time to throw her hands over her face before Drakken was clinging to her, and somehow together they fell to the floorboards as the hover-car was scraped, rocked, and spun during what Shego could only call a bird strike. Or in this case, a seemingly-not-extinct pteranodon strike.

It ended with a loss of sound and a gaining of black smoke that billowed up around them as Shego felt her stomach suddenly float. They were falling out of the sky, fast, and Drakken realized it as she did when they gasped again.

"Get off!" she cried, shoving at his arms even as he was scrambling away, both of them reaching for the controls as the craft plummeted.

They ended up both half-seated in the center as they pulled back on the control stick, trying to level the hover-car. But whatever the creatures had done was making it nearly impossible.

"Rrghh! What's wrong!?" Shego shouted over the wind, and after moment of blinking out of his panic, Drakken turned and started looking around at the damage to the craft.

"Nnh! The right engine is out and I think the gyroscope was damaged, among other things!"

"Can you fix it?"

"Not in the air!"

Somehow, the craft was beginning to respond, and as Drakken slid back into the seat and rejoined Shego in pulling on the control stick somehow they started to level out. But they were still rocking violently and Shego finally noted the blaring of alarms from the instruments. The smoke from the flamed-out engine was no longer choking them and they all but fell through the last wispy layer of clouds as they moved too quickly toward the nearest island, upon which trees and cliffs were beginning to gain definition.

"We need a place to land!" Drakken called above the wind.

"If we can do anything but crash I think we should call it good!"

Shego internally felt the grimace that Drakken displayed, and they fell into silence for several minutes as they fought the controls in an effort to bring the craft safely down. The cliffs and trees that came into focus were revealing a tropical paradise, which was in fact the type of location they had been looking for, but whether or not it was even the right island anymore was in question.

"I think we can make that ridge over there," Shego said, risking taking a hand from the stick to gesture to the only visible clearing they could see as the hover-car continued to rapidly descend despite their joined efforts.

"Then what? Nyaaaaahh!"

Shego let out a scream herself as below them, out of the trees emerged a massive barrel-shaped head, a gaping mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, and short limbs that reached for them as they soared past. A deep yet deafening rumble sounded from the giant creature, and whether it was from both their efforts or only one Shego didn't know, but the control stick was yanked violently away from their new adversary and the hover-car started to flip.

Shego grabbed onto one of the restraints just as Drakken grabbed onto her, and as the craft spun wildly beyond any hope of control they fell back to the floorboards in a heap where Shego tried to brace herself inside to keep from being ejected as their usual place of security became a violent ride worse than any rollercoaster she'd ever braved.

She heard Drakken scream her name, but he was still holding onto her so she didn't acknowledge him but with a pointed cry.

"Hold on!" she said and then grit her teeth as the hover-car slammed into things, rocks and trees and who knew what else, until it finally hit ground hard and slid to a stop beneath some cooling shade.

Shego realized she'd closed her eyes and opened them as she tried to calm her breathing and assess her situation. She was bruised, but nothing felt broken, and she felt like she'd been through the worst of the old Team Go training routines that Global Justice had ever designed.

She had a flash of panic as she realized Drakken was a dead weight atop her, and she elbowed him hard as the first instinctive reaction she could muster.

"Owww, Shego!" he complained.

She breathed a sigh of relief. "How badly are you injured?"

"Well thanks to you I have bruised ribs."

Shego rolled her eyes and gave him a gentle shove, and was further relieved as he slowly climbed off of her, wincing but seeming to be in no worse state than she was. She sat up slowly and together they peered at their surroundings.

They were deep in a tropical forest, the trees rising high and cool, lush greenery surrounding them. There was a distant sound of water along with the cries of unfamiliar birds and the buzzing of insects. Shego grimaced and watched Drakken's concentrated frown as he slowly looked around them, probably mentally asking all the questions she was.

Where were they? Were they okay? Could the hover-car be repaired? If not, was there another way off the island?

"Was that a T-Rex?" Shego blurted out before she could help herself.

Drakken blinked down at her. "No. That thing was much...larger."

Shego blinked in surprise as Drakken offered her a hand up, but she took it. She suppressed her groan of pain as she righted herself and then they both climbed out of the hover-car and took a few steps away to truly assess the damage.

Their trustworthy vehicle certainly looked battered beyond repair, with numerous gashes from the talons of the winged creatures they'd encountered and dents and scrapes from the impact of the crash. The right engine had flamed out entirely and was definitely inoperable, and from the look on Drakken's face when Shego glanced at him, there was far more wrong with the craft than the superficial damages.

"I'm guessing we can't fly that out of here?" she asked.

"Nghn... Help me get the hood open," Drakken responded.

After forcing the hood up and feeling the start of a headache from the disapproving scowl on Drakken's face, Shego decided to do some quick scouting.

Looking all around, she could only see trees and lush greenery that seemed to grow thicker in every direction except one. She headed that way, and after cautiously pushing past several trees she thought she recognized she spotted the high ridge they had previously been seeking for landing. She also saw smaller cliffs nearer and others beyond, all covered in the same tropical vegetation. Distantly, she thought she could hear the roar of a waterfall.

She felt her brow knit as she turned back. The new lair they had been heading to—a specialty design and first of its kind from HenchCo, fully equipped with a variety of automated defenses and standard super-villain tech—was supposedly on that island, if they had navigated correctly. But there had been nothing, absolutely nothing in that brochure...about dinosaurs.

As Shego returned to the hover-car where Drakken was bent deep within the engine and grumbling, she wondered if Drakken's map-reading had been that bad or if Hench had pulled one over on them. When she reached the still-smoking vehicle Drakken stood up, wincing in pain as he slammed the hood closed.

"Can you fix it?"

Drakken glared at the craft. "Not here."

"Well...great, just great. Now what?"

Drakken rubbed his neck, wincing again as he cast his eyes over the wreck. He reached down to the dash and pushed a button Shego couldn't clearly see.

"We still have the map... Let's just...go to the lair."

"Uh, we lost the map," Shego admitted.

Drakken's brow twisted and he reached back to the rear of the vehicle. Shego's eyes widened as he pulled the map she'd let go during the first attack, tattered and soot-stained, from the ridiculous tail fin of the center engine. She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah... Maybe the water's turned on at that lair. I could use a shower."

Drakken was turning the map over and then seemed to startle as he took in Shego's words. She watched as he assessed his own appearance, his coat twisted and a bit dirty from the smoke, but not damaged. His hair was unkempt as hers was, and her own suit was a bit dirty. But more notable was the sweltering heat that reached them even beneath the shade of the trees. Sweat had already beaded on her brow and was worse on Drakken's.

As she took the map from him and turned it the right direction, leading them back the way toward where she'd seen the ridge, she wondered if the quest and impulsive purchase of a new lair wasn't a fool's venture to begin with.

-----------------------------------

The grade was at least forty-five degrees, Shego decided, after a mere three minutes into the more difficult part of the hike. They had navigated through thick trees, across a trickle of a stream that Drakken had wanted to follow, but Shego reminded him their new lair was on a cliff, and up a hill densely packed with shrubbery. They had both been slapping insects off of their faces more than once, and Shego was grateful for the suit she wore and even for Drakken's coat, if it meant that much less complaining.

"Shegoooo," he whined.

She rolled her eyes. "What?"

"You said we'd find a break fifteen minutes ago," he said pointedly.

Shego grimaced. The 'hill' they were ascending had turned into a mountain and the incline had grown steeper by the minute. After almost an hour she was ready to acknowledge the need for a break, but there truly was nowhere to stop. However the trees were thinning and the sun was becoming brighter—good for the possibility of a rest stop, but bad for their mildly injured condition.

"Okay, we'll stop once we get through these trees," Shego compromised, adjusting her step to be more towards the light. Unfortunately it meant changing her gait to walk more sideways, and she wondered if Drakken would catch on. "Hey, Dr. D.—"

"Ahhh!"

Shego rolled her eyes and shook her head as Drakken slipped and fell, tumbling several feet before smacking into a tree trunk. Shego winced sympathetically and carefully started toward him.

"You all right?"

Drakken waved away her offer of a hand up as he used the tree for leverage.

"I'm beginning to wonder if Hench wasn't just feeding us a line about this...state-of-the-art lair..."

"You think?" Shego scoffed.

Drakken stumbled past her and began climbing the mountain again. Shego noted the sweat dripping down the side of his face before wiping her own brow as it suddenly began to itch. She followed him in silence, the map useless in their present endeavor since they simply needed to reach the top.

"Shego! Look!"

Drakken had paused and was leaning back against a tree, and when she reached his side she saw what had caused him to grin.

Not a flat area, but a sharp cliff's edge awaited them, rocky and just as thick with trees as the part of the hill they were walking. But more telling was the view beyond, where a thin, sparkling waterfall fell from a higher ridge and down beyond view.

Drakken cast a smile toward Shego as he pushed off the tree and started toward the cliff. She followed quickly, worried he might slip and fall over to a horrible end, but as they reached the edge a few minutes later she saw...while a dangerous fall, it wasn't sheer. The rocky cliff was peppered with vegetation, and it appeared one could climb down if determined. The waterfall emptied into a shimmering blue pool below, looking like something out of a dream.

Beyond the tiny oasis, the larger ridge was in view through the trees, and Shego could hear but not see a thundering waterfall somewhere beyond what the tropical forest concealed. She wondered if they were still heading in the right direction, since the map did indicate a fall near the lair. But the map hadn't said anything about dinosaurs...

As if in reminder, a sudden deep rumble echoed off the cliffs, the sound bouncing over the mountain in menacing waves and seeming to even vibrate Shego's bones. The birds nearby responded in flight, scattering from the trees in zig-zag patterns and revealing their bright, foreign colors for a moment before returning to their havens.

"I'm going for a swim."

Shego did a double-take as Drakken picked his way to the edge of the cliff, looking up and down the smaller ridge for a convenient way down.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm hot, tired, bruised, and smelling a bit ripe. We can take a break here," he said decisively as he climbed a bit further up the edge of the cliff. Shego's breath caught as his foot slipped on loose rock dangerously near the edge, and then she started up after him.

"Dr. D., we're lost, probably trapped, and there's dinosaurs on this island. I don't really think there's time to be getting caught with your shirt off."

Drakken had fairly tripped his way several more feet up the incline, Shego cringing with his every step, and he had apparently found a place he thought suitable and was beginning a climb down the cliff.

"Stop being such a panic-Nancy."

"That's not the phrase, and—"

"You could always join me, you know. You're not exactly smelling like roses this afternoon either."

Shego's jaw dropped in a gasp, and she watched with wide eyes until Drakken had descended out of sight beneath the cliff face. She was so busy processing the insult and the request and trying to understand which had made her face suddenly flushed beyond the heat of the sun, that she forgot she needed to keep an eye on him. When she finally picked her way to the cliff's edge, Drakken had already reached the bottom where dense shrubbery surrounded the pool. Drakken was peeling off his lab coat.

"Dr. D., you realize that there could be parasites or something in that water."

Drakken's gloves were stuck inside his boots along with his socks, and Shego narrowed her eyes at the button-up shirt he was wearing beneath his lab coat...and was beginning to unbutton.

"We don't even know if this is the right island, Shego. If we have to climb this mountain I'd rather be at least mildly comfortable doing so. And I'm fairly certain I lost some skin in the crash."

Shego was about to protest, but Drakken's shirt had come off very quickly and had been tossed atop the lab coat on a bush and she found her mouth had gone dry. The white tank top beneath his shirt was sweat-soaked and showed the definition of his muscles quite well. She was staring at his broad shoulders and the way sweat seemed to glisten on his biceps, when the telltale sound of a buckle being undone suddenly sent her heart racing.

Shego reached blindly for a tree to hold onto as her breath caught when Drakken stepped out of his pants, folding them carelessly and tossing them on the bush, and then he pulled off the tank top. He even removed his hair-tie and sat that atop the pile. When his thumbs hooked beneath the elastic of his boxers, Shego spun around and gripped the tree trunk with both hands, noticing suddenly how heavy her breathing had become.

"Wait! Sh-Shego, you're not peeking are you?"

Shego rolled her eyes before gritting her teeth. It took him until he was naked to think about that? Was he...trying to get her to look at him or something?

"No I'm not," was what she managed, her mouth still dry.

"Good... Oh, Shego..."

Her heart leapt to her throat at the way he moaned her name and she stepped nearer the tree, as if it could protect her somehow.

"What?" she snapped.

"The water is perfect!"

Shego swallowed anxiously and slowly turned around. Drakken was over waist-deep in the water but she could still see far too much pale blue beneath the ripples than was decent. She drew her gaze upward to his face, but at that moment he ducked his whole body beneath the water and swam toward where the tiny waterfall was splashing down softly, the white foam further disrupting the clarity of the water to Shego's relief.

She watched as Drakken stood beneath the fall, tilting his head back and letting the water run over his face and wetting his hair down into a shiny black curtain over the back of his neck. When he reached his arms high under the stream and stretched, Shego's heart began to pound.

Drakken... Drakken was...startlingly attractive.

As if without permission, Shego's eyes drifted down to where the water rippled and obscured the pale blue beneath the surface. Strong legs held him up, and atop them she saw the healthy curve of his rear and...

She looked away again, swallowing the lump in her throat as her eyes stared without focus at the trees. Yes, he was very attractive.

"Shego? This is very refreshing. Are you sure you won't join me?"

Shego let herself slide down the tree trunk to sit. It gave her less of a view of the pool, but she could still just see Drakken from where she had settled in her frustration. He had taken a few steps out from beneath the falls and was peering up at her.

"No thanks," she said, crossing her arms and legs. It was then that she suddenly noted just how itchy her skin was, the sweat even worse for Drakken's antics, and she grabbed up her tangled hair and piled it atop her head in an attempt at some small relief.

The desire to peel out of her own suit and slip beneath the waters was suddenly very strong as she felt the heat under her collar, the way her suit was sticking to her in places, and the way too many of her muscles and joints were aching from both the crash and the prolonged exertion of the climb. But Drakken's seemingly friendly request had her heart pounding and her head racing in confusion. Was he actually expecting her to strip and swim naked with him? Was it some kind of...awkward proposition or come-on, disguised in an innocence he hoped she wouldn't see through?

She couldn't find an answer that made sense, so she let her eyes fall back to where Drakken was still standing next to the small waterfall, rubbing and scratching at his skin with a small grimace on his face. Shego wondered just how banged up he was from the crash and considered again how amazing it was neither of them had come out with worse injuries. After a few minutes of 'showering,' Drakken stepped fully out from beneath the sparkling fall, the sunlight seeming to accentuate his best features both above and below the water, and then he turned to float on his back. Shego's cheeks reddened and she looked away.

"Ah...Shego?" Suddenly his tone was anxious.

"What?" she said tersely, studying the dirt on her boots.

"I think...uhm. Ah... That is. Were you going to join me?"

"No," she said just as curtly, not daring to look down. "Someone's gotta keep an eye out for prehistoric nightmares."

The hesitation in his voice suggested he might have realized his state of indecency, and that the waters were crystal clear rather than the gray-blue that surrounded their usual lair. It allowed her heart to calm just slightly, knowing he hadn't in fact been propositioning her in any way. Although it didn't erase the images she was trying not to picture, the revelation of just how appealing her boss was from head to toe still at the forefront of her mind.

"I, ah...think I'm done actually, if you...wanted to clean up? A-After I get dressed," Drakken added quickly.

The tiniest of smirks curled Shego's lips upwards, knowing Drakken had figured out just what he'd done and he was hopefully now as embarrassed as her. She could make it worse with a quip thanking him for the show, but before the thought could leave her lips another occurred. If she accepted the admittedly tempting offer to slip into the waters, would Drakken then be perched atop the cliff ogling her?

It seemed unlikely, given his present nervousness, but...he was only a man, right? Would he be tempted to watch her? Or perhaps simply notice by mistake...

Of far, far greater concern was the heat rising in her chest and pooling deep in her core, and in fact...that she was leaning towards going down to the waters to see if he would peek at her. And the sudden, unthinkable desire for him to actually do so...

"Shego?"

She startled, drawing her knees up to her chest and hugging them, letting her hair fall as she stared wide-eyed at Drakken's face suddenly less than ten feet from hers as he had ascended the cliff. He was fully clothed once again, his wet hair pulled back into its usual ponytail.

"What?" she snapped far too harshly, and he recoiled.

"Did you...want to clean up, and I can keep watch?"

Her heart pounded. Her lips parted even as she still mentally tripped over the choice she suddenly found desperately difficult to make, but then...

Another deep rumble, closer than the last, sent birds vacating the trees and this time many of them didn't return, but headed toward the higher ridge. Shego swallowed the lump in her throat and ignored the rising heat in her body as again the sound seemed to shake her to her core.

"I think my turn's gonna have to wait, Doc," she said, pulling herself upright.

Drakken climbed the rest of the way up and over the cliff, and Shego watched him with a wary eye even as she glanced around over the dense trees that were likely hiding unknown horrors.

"So you feel better now, huh? Can't be comfortable to have gotten dressed while wet."

Drakken glanced at her a bit nervously and then after wringing out his hair, resumed the trek ahead of her up the cliff.

"I used my under shirt to dry off. It's better than being itchy," he tossed back over his shoulder as Shego paused to consult the map again.

They still didn't even know if they were on the right island, so she wondered if there was even a point. But the ridge that was hidden beyond the tiny oasis would seem to line up with what they had been told, if the distant sound of a larger waterfall was any indication.

Puzzling over the map and their location helped Shego refocus on their present circumstance, and not the brief show she'd been witness to minutes before. Not to mention Drakken's renewed grumbling as he half-stumbled up the ridge ahead of her. But if she needed a further distraction, it was quick in coming as a few steps later had her nearly crashing into Drakken's back.

"Uh, what's the big—?"

"Hsshh! Shego!" Drakken whispered in a hiss, turning and nearly knocking her down the steep cliff. Their mutual grabbing of each other's arms was her saving grace, and she was about to protest when he suddenly pointed to the top of the cliff which was the source of the thin waterfall. Shego's jaw fell open.

At the top of the cliff was a herd of small creatures, perhaps the size of a retriever dog, but distinctly dinosaur-like in appearance. They looked like sauropod dinosaurs, gray-green and scaly, and they were all moving about the cliff in apparent ease, drinking from the unseen waters above and foraging in the bushes.

Shego swallowed slowly. She was about to make a comment when from somewhere behind the ridge, a massive head rose up into view on an even more massive neck, at least three times the girth of a giraffe's by her estimation. She had no idea where the ground was below the creature, but if the head and neck were any size indication then the thing was over twice the height of a giraffe as well.

"Drakken..." she heard herself choke out, though she wasn't sure why.

"It's...it's a sauroposeidon!" he whispered gleefully. "And her tiny broodlings!"

Shego turned to him with a grimace. "You just made that up."

"I did not!"

A shadow passing overhead caused them to both look up, and the massive silhouette of a pteranodon was clear as it blocked out the sun momentarily, then flying away and down past the cliff that concealed the greater body of the sauropod.

"Okay, I think we're on the wrong island," Shego said, trying to lean out of Drakken's grasp. "Unless DNAmy got here first..." she added in a mutter.

"What?"

Just then, the sauropod raised its head high and it let out a low call. All of the young ones turned and vanished into the bushes and trees, and Shego and Drakken watched as the massive creature seemed to turn before also disappearing beneath the cliff. A foreboding worse than had already been swimming around Shego's mind took over with a pounding in her head and chest.

"Should we be worried about that?"

Before Drakken could answer, the birds in the trees around them all took flight, and they turned just in time to see the massive barrel-shaped head from before with its gaping mouth of teeth moving through the trees on the steep hill they had already traversed. Shego could see more clearly now the gray-brown color of the creature's scaly skin, the life in its amber eyes, and the way it moved with purpose towards them.

"Drakken..."

"Okay, maybe it is a T-Rex," he said through a nervous laugh. "A very, very...very big one."

Not one coherent thought ran through Shego's head except 'run', which was useless as there was absolutely no way they could.

"Run!" Drakken cried, pushing past Shego and moving down the hill and toward the dinosaur.

"What...?"

She didn't have long to wait as Drakken started scrambling down the cliff again and toward the pool. She followed, having no other recourse, and she noted with rising anxiety that the dinosaur was advancing on them with ease.

"It'll probably just get us more easily down here!" she protested as she caught up to him, and together they attempted to push through the dense foliage and move along the perimeter of the pool. Beyond were more trees, and presumably a stream or some other outlet for the waters. Shego knew there must be another cliff just out of sight somewhere, given where the large sauropod had been.

"Well it definitely would have caught us up there!" Drakken retorted.

Shego couldn't argue, and as she glanced behind them to where the sounds of breaking branches and a heavy thudding that were surely the creature's footfalls indicated its continued its pursuit, her eyes widened at how close the animal suddenly seemed.

"Dr. D. it's gaining!" she alerted him, and he paused to glance back with a frown.

Shego moved past him then, escaping some of the thicker shrubbery and wading through a shallow stream that was revealed as the small pool's outlet, her boots sinking into the heavy silt.

"Hey be careful crossing this," Shego cautioned, turning back as she left the less than knee-deep waters.

"I think the Tyrannousaurus is of greater concern, Shego!"

She rolled her eyes and shook her head at him as he stumbled into the waters, still moving forward herself. But then she gasped as suddenly the ground gave way beneath her and yet didn't as her feet and calves were engulfed by a viscous material. Her arms flailed as she fought the momentum trying to send her face to the ground while her feet remained suspended one in front of the other in a run. Managing to stay upright, she looked down at the same time she heard Drakken's strangled cry from behind her.

"Quicksand..." she muttered.

"Don't move!"

Shego twisted her torso to face him.

"You think? Get me out!"

In crossing the stream they had moved beneath some taller trees, which Shego hoped would give a momentary shelter from the pursuing beast. She held stock still, knowing the slightest movement would increase the rate at which she was sinking, and that there was a point coming soon at which there would be no escape.

"How!?" Drakken said, looking around frantically.

The thudding of massive footfalls and the snapping of branches was growing nearer, and Shego felt panic begin to grip her heart as she realized that without movement, she was almost defenseless against the terrible lizard. But would it go for the stationary target, or the moving one?

"Oh, Shego! There's vines!"

Her worried gaze that had come to rest on Drakken lifted to follow where he was pointing upward, well out of reach, to where some vines wound around the trunks and branches of the tall, tropical trees. She grimaced as she realized they were useless, but it was a short-lived thought as at that moment, the dinosaur stepped into view.

Its head was about level with the vines, at least twenty feet off the ground, and its sharp eyes fixed first upon her and then down to the nearer target of Drakken. Shego instinctively tried to move, but that only resulted in her lifted leg sinking further and feeling cemented down. She ignited her hands and fired a massive, glowing blast at the face of the creature.

The dinosaur recoiled, and an unsettling rumble so low in frequency it was scarcely audible shook Shego so violently that she stopped firing and held her hands to her ears, Drakken doing the same even as he stumbled away in attempt to flee the creature. Shego realized the sound had come from the dinosaur, and she grit her teeth and resumed firing, ignoring the painful vibrations in her chest as she sought to defend them against certain death.

To her dismay, the beast only shook its head against the flames and continued forward and in her direction. Her eyes widened at the sight of its gaping maw, every tooth sharp and glistening as it sought to make a meal of her.

"Drakken!" she screamed as she fired blasts into the fearsome animal's open mouth.

It recoiled again against what she hoped was a worse pain, and then out of the corner of her eye she was stunned to see Drakken had also apparently attacked the creature, though merely by slapping and kicking at it repeatedly as he was doing in the glimpse she caught. Whether or not it distracted the beast she didn't know, but the situation took a startling turn as the T-Rex took a foul step and sank deep within the quicksand.

A strangled shout left Shego's throat as the beast's body fell less than ten feet from her in the quagmire, it not being able to maintain balance as she had.

"Drakken!" she screamed again as its head wagged toward her, and she resumed firing to hopefully discourage it.

"Shego, cut these vines!"

Drakken's voice suddenly came from somewhere above, and she blinked in surprise to find he had climbed up onto the tail of the dinosaur after it fell. Drakken was pointing to the vines still out of reach on the higher branches, but before Shego could fully process his request the dinosaur thrashed in attempt to free itself. Drakken was tossed upward by the unexpected action and Shego gasped as he smacked into the trunk of the tree. She fired at the nearest vines to where he'd hit and was surprised again as Drakken had the wherewithal to grab onto not just one, but two of the pieces of loosed vegetation.

One vine slipped from his grasp, but he managed to hold onto the other and get both hands on it as it spun and fell, bringing him down in a spiral toward both Shego and the dinosaur. He cried out incoherently, his eyes wide as he sailed so near the T-Rex's face he could have touched it, but then the length of the vine ran out and he began falling back the way he'd come, still spinning and looking dreadfully out of sorts.

"Shegoooo..." he called helplessly, sounding almost sick. But before Shego could reply Drakken had crashed into the tail of the dinosaur once more and this time he held on.

"What...what are you...?"

Drakken had climbed up on the felled creature's back and was traversing it towards her.

"Tie the vine around you, and...I'll pull you out," he said, stopping his approach near the creature's hips. He was still a good ten feet from Shego, but apparently found it near enough as he hurled the vine toward her. Unfortunately, the dinosaur chose that moment to thrash again, and Shego watched in horror as Drakken was propelled up and back, this time falling hard on the ground beyond her sight somewhere behind the large creature. But she had caught the vine.

"Dr. D.!?" she called even as she began pulling the vine into a make-shift harness, unwilling to reject the one opportunity of escape that had been presented.

As she tied the vine she glanced over to where the horrible beast was likewise trapped, its bright amber eye staring at her with intelligence and menace. Her heart beat faster for the look of threat, and as she finished securing the vine she tore her eyes away from the massive creature and back to the jungle, her gaze darting to and fro searching for blue.

"Dr. D.?"

Silence was the only response. And it was with that uncertainty that for the first time since even before the crash, she felt true fear begin to weave its dark tendrils around her heart.

"Dr. D.!?"

"Hold on!"

Shego craned her neck until she saw Drakken ascending a tree behind the dinosaur. She was confused until she saw that the tree's branches were just as overgrown and entwined with those of the larger wild tree where her vine was anchored. She realized he was trying to reach the vine in attempt to free her, but the other tree would have been impossible to climb.

The dinosaur slowly wagged its head toward Shego, and she noticed that it didn't seem to be sinking any further into the quicksand though its hind legs were completely submerged. She wondered if there was a bottom to the deadly pit she had unwittingly stumbled into, and for the moment hoped not because it might save her from the T-Rex. It had moved its head to within fifteen feet of her, lolling in the quicksand and staring at her with a fierce, calculating glare. She ignited her hands to see if it would see her as a threat, but it only continued to watch her. It reminded her of a wolf sizing up its quarry.

She glanced upward cautiously to where Drakken was crawling along a twisting branch, and she followed the vine with her eyes. It wound around the branch he was on several times, and then seemed to grow from the other. She narrowed her eyes.

"I'll cut it loose," she called up to him, and as soon as he affirmed the decision with his eye contact, she shot a blast up to sever the vine between the two branches. As soon as it fell, end still smoldering, Drakken grabbed it and started unwinding it from the branch while his other arm gripped the limb desperately.

The dinosaur brought its head nearer to Shego, within ten feet, and she leaned away instinctively. Its upper body had sunk somewhat into the quicksand, but perhaps because of the greatness of its surface area it hadn't gone in too deep. The beast appeared to be smiling due to the natural set of its jaw, and Shego grimaced. It would just be her luck, to be gobbled up by a smirking dinosaur.

"Hold onto the vine!" Drakken's voice sounded from above, drawing her focus. She complied, noting how Drakken had wrapped the vine around his waist and one arm. She was concerned he would injure himself, but had no chance to warn him before he suddenly let himself fall from the branch.

The shortened vine caught him quickly where it was still draped over the branch, and she felt the tug as his weight was the force trying to heft her up out of the restrictive quicksand. But it still gripped her legs like a vise despite the slight give she could feel, and the resulting pull of the harness was painful as she took all of Drakken's weight. She glanced at his face which was twisted in pain, his arm clearly being pulled to its limit where he had wrapped the vine around it, and she started trying to move her legs back and forth to create space around the confining substance. At first she only felt herself sink further, but her persistence coupled with attempting to pull herself up on the vine finally resulted in some upward movement.

"It's working!" she called to Drakken, who acknowledged her with a brief look even as he struggled against the restraint he'd put himself in. Shego wondered if his arm wasn't going to end up dislocated, but then she felt an even greater give in the quicksand.

Shego turned her focus almost entirely to escaping, peripherally watching the dinosaur that seemed to be eyeing her now with anger. She wondered if it was intelligent enough to understand that she was going to be free, while it most certainly was going to meet its end. The seemingly growing menace in its eye, mere feet away from her, seemed to imply just that, and it gave her the adrenaline she needed to hasten her escape.

After what felt like forever but was probably just over five minutes, she had fully extracted one leg. The release of the one vise-like grip let Drakken's weight settle even more, and the tug against her other leg was increased and it took even less time to fully free that leg.

She maintained eye contact with the dinosaur as she ascended, Drakken's weight bringing him to the foliage-covered ground where he didn't even bother trying to stand, laying on his back as he tried to extract himself from wrapping of the vine. Shego looked down at her legs, dripping with the thick, wet sand, and despite the sudden trembling of her frame she began pumping her legs powerfully.

As soon as she had enough momentum and before Drakken could unwittingly drop her back into the quicksand, she leapt from the vine and landed next to him, mere feet from the tail of the T-Rex.

Drakken peered up at her, seeming to assess her, while she did the same to him. His arm didn't look dislocated, and he was looking at her in a mxiture of pain and confusion.

"You have quicksand in your hair," was what he finally said as he lay panting on the ground.

Shego rolled her eyes, ignoring her own heaving chest and shaking limbs as she reached down to give him a hand up.

"We should get out of here."

"I don't think it can get out... Shego..." He had let go of her hand after standing, and she turned back to see him staring at the dinosaur in childlike awe. "It's a Tyrannosaurus rex."

"Yeah, and it has no interest in small talk. Let's go."

Drakken acquiesced with only a small frown of dismay, this time following when she grabbed onto his wrist. As they moved with utmost care around the massive wash of quicksand, the dinosaur opened its jaw mere inches and another bone-shaking rumble caused them to stop and cover their ears, the low-frequency vibrations causing even Shego's hair to hurt.

When the sound stopped, Shego grabbed Drakken's wrist again and hastened their departure. As they left the dangerous mire behind and approached what appeared to be a break in the trees for the sun shining through, she paused to look back at the beast one more time. She felt unease as it made eye contact with her again, and she suddenly realized why: it wasn't behaving like a trapped animal. It seemed wholly calm, and was clearly intelligent enough to know it was trapped.

Shego swallowed nervously and decided to put the creature out of her mind as they turned to leave the denser part of the jungle behind. As they approached the sunlight the sound of water grew louder, and it wasn't long before they saw why.

"Whoa..." Shego said as they exited the trees and came upon another cliff, this one sheer and dropping away to another lower plateau. It was there that a massive waterfall poured down over yet another far larger cliff, which gave way to a valley beyond. The tributary that the falls were flowing from ran along the plateau, and as Shego followed its shimmering line further she could see the large sauropod in the distance, having made its wise escape. The plateau extended far, and the fast-flowing waters curved around the other side of the mountain they had been previously ascending. She wondered briefly if there was a spring at the top, or if it was simply snow melt that fed the various falls.

Suddenly her senses were assaulted by the familiar rumble which was the T-Rex's bizarre and unnerving vocalization. She stumbled from the pain it caused, sending vibrations through every fiber of her being, but then she gasped in fear as Drakken's own pained stumbling brought him to the edge of the cliff.

"Drakken!" she shouted, lunging for him in time to grab his shoulders, but not too late to prevent them from both going over the edge. They half-fell, half-slid down the cliff face, knees and elbows bumping painfully against the jagged rock while Shego tried to keep one hand on Drakken and grab for anything to slow their fall with the other. He was apparently doing the same, as suddenly their fall was broken by an impact against thin tree branches, which they then tumbled through until Shego managed to get a strong grip on one of them. Drakken slipped out of her grasp, but she was relieved to see him get his hands on another branch moments later.

They made eye contact through the falling leaves, again assessing one another, and when Shego released the breath she was holding Drakken let out a small whimper. She expected him to complain afterward, but he merely gritted his teeth against obvious pain and turned to start descending the tree.

"You all right?" Shego heard herself say as she moved to follow suit.

"Never better," was Drakken's sarcastic yet flat reply. Shego's only response was to grimace until they were on the ground again, and she looked around to be sure this time it was solid. There was no sign of quicksand, and the plateau was far more open than the higher part of the mountain had been, the trees more sparse and the foliage less dense.

Shego discovered she was still trembling as she started toward the fast-flowing waters of the broad tributary, intending to clean off the quicksand that was somehow spreading from her legs over the rest of her. Drakken was clutching his left arm as she passed him, and he followed quickly.

"Are you okay? Shego?"

"If this is the right island, Hench had better give us our money back," was her reply.

They reached the silty bank and Shego paused, second-guessing the decision as she wondered if the slick ground was going to prove to be another death trap.

"Shego?"

"I'm all right..." she muttered absently, wondering again what they were going to do. The map had most definitely been lost during the last misadventure, before she'd even stumbled into the quicksand.

"Shego!"

She looked down as Drakken's hand was suddenly on her arm, and then she was yanked forward along the bank of the stream. She had no need to protest as looking up she saw his cause for alarm. Less than ten yards away, one of the winged creatures—a pteranodon, if she remembered right—was standing beneath a tree and had begun walking toward them, the claws at the apex of its wings suddenly turning the creature into a quadruped. Standing, the creature was taller than they were. As she was processing this, another movement at the corner of her eye attracted her attention, and what had seemed merely like gray-green rocks suddenly became living forms that she soon recognized as more of the winged creatures.

Drakken stopped running and she nearly crashed into him. Peering over his shoulder she saw he had stopped about ten feet from the edge of the next cliff, next to the massive waterfall. He looked nervously between the waters, the drop off into nothingness, and the advancing pterosaurs. Shego stepped up to the edge and looked down. This was the waterfall she had been hearing, over thirty yards in width and falling what appeared to be nearly two-hundred feet to a broad, sparkling river in the valley below.

Shego looked back up to where the creatures were still advancing.

"I don't suppose there's any chance these ones aren't carnivorous?" she asked.

Drakken took a step back toward the cliff, shaking his head as he frowned in worry. One of the animals spread its wings then, their extended length reaching nearly twenty feet.

"Nrrgh!" Shego groaned in pain, her face twisting as she yanked at her hair in frustration. She noted then the quicksand that Drakken had mentioned earlier, tangling the ends of her dark tresses. She would worry about that if they survived. She turned and grabbed Drakken's face and forced him to look at her.

"What? Shego—"

"Don't flail too much because you need to stay upright. Right before you hit, straighten your legs and press your feet together, point your toes, and press your arms down to your front."

"What? I don't underst— Shegooooo!"

Fearing there was no time to lose, she had simply picked him up as she ran the last few feet and leapt off of the cliff, letting go as soon as they were in free-fall. It had been the right decision, as seconds later a pteranodon passed over their heads, its talons closing on air as it sailed past.

"Don't forget!" Shego called, catching his fearful gaze just before he accelerated past her.

She grimaced and grabbed hold of her hair as it whipped around her, keeping to herself that they would hit the water below at over one hundred miles per hour and that her instructions on how to fall could mean life or excruciatingly painful death. But there was no more time even if she wanted to, as the water was approaching faster than she could process. She pressed her feet together hard as she held her hair in front of her with her arms down, holding her breath at the last second.

Just as being trapped by the quicksand had been like being stuck in cement, entering the water felt like slamming into concrete, and for a moment she almost forgot to hold her breath as pain arrested her every sense. But as time seemed to slow she gradually felt the encompassing wetness, her hair floating away from her body as she had somehow let go of it. As her momentum decreased and she became aware that her limbs, though feeling like jello, were still attached to her, she remembered to move them and started pushing against the water that seemed determined to pull her downward. Then she opened her eyes and started looking for Drakken.

Turning all around she finally saw a dark blue shape amid the lighter blue waters, descending rather than ascending. She mentally cursed as she pushed her pained body toward him, hooking her arms under his without taking too close a look at him as she kicked her aching legs to bring them to the surface. If he was dead, or terribly injured...she couldn't bear to see it.

When finally air hit her face, she gulped in a breath even as Drakken's head lolled onto her shoulder. The spray from the waterfall kept her face from drying and she feared her voice would be lost in its roar, but still she filled her lungs again and fairly shouted.

"Drakken!?"

His closed eyes pinched more tightly shut before sliding open to peer deliriously into hers.

"Shego?"

That was all the response she had time for as her strength was giving out. She turned to look all around them, but the riverbank was at least fifty feet distant or more on both sides. She nearly felt like crying at the effort it would take to swim them both to shore, but then Drakken's hand lifted slightly out of the water and pointed.

"There," he said through a cough, and she looked to where behind the waterfall there was a clear space along with rocks and foliage, and the hint perhaps of a cave. It was far closer than the banks, and so gritting her teeth she held onto Drakken with one arm and began to swim.

After several strokes which brought them nearly to the crash of the falls, she felt resistance and was surprised to find Drakken pulling away from her, beginning to swim on his own power. She watched as he pushed his hair out of his eyes and appeared to be in great pain as he swam with purpose toward the mossy rocks behind the falls. She wasted no time in matching his stroke, and before long they were climbing up to safety side by side, the thick moss providing easy handholds for her shaky grip, and then gratefully she found herself on an almost flat surface.

Having slid her body up to be face down, she leaned up on her elbows to watch as Drakken did the same. They made eye contact in that same way they had been for the last several minutes of chaos, assessing one another, searching for the assurance from the other that everything was okay. Receiving it again, despite all odds, Shego let her strength give way as she fairly dropped her cheek down upon the thick, soft moss that covered the rock. Drakken did the same, holding her gaze even as they both blinked in exhaustion from the ordeal of the fall.

"Shego..." Drakken said quietly.

"Mmh," she fairly grunted in reply.

"If this is in fact...the right island... How should we kill Hench?"

A laugh that sounded more like a cough left her lips in reply, and despite the desperate urge to simply close her eyes and sleep, she lifted her head again to peer around at their surroundings. The mossy rocks gave way to the familiar, lush foliage and the darker rocks of the cliff, eroded away after years of being beaten upon by the waterfall. There was a tall, narrow crevice that could be a cave or merely a trick of the eye. And as she turned to look on either side of the falls, she saw that on one side the cliff rapidly grew steep and more jagged, and was completely impassible. On the other side however, it looked as though they may be able to walk their way out to the opposite bank rather than swim, if they were careful.

A light misty spray from the falls was still hitting them, and Shego slowly rolled to her back and was amazed at the sight that met her eyes. The sun was shining directly on the falls, the thicker parts looking gray but the rest a brilliant white as the cascading water droplets reflected the light. She let herself lay down fully, the pain from impacting the water finally settling in as the shock diminished, and she might have slipped into an exhausted sleep right then if not for a slight tugging she felt at her scalp.

"You still have quicksand in your hair," Drakken said quietly, his gloved fingers pulling at the ends of one thick tress and dirtying with the remnants of the sand and scraping up bits of the giant moss in the process.

Shego withheld a groan as she painfully pushed herself upright. Astonishingly, she didn't think she had any injuries that were easily detectable. No broken bones, at least.

"Are you all right?" she asked Drakken as he continued to be distracted by her hair.

He blinked at her and slowly sat up, grimacing in pain as he did so.

"Something's wrong with my arm," he said, and she noted he all but let the left one lie limp—the one he'd wrapped the vine around.

"Can you move it?" she asked.

He cautiously lifted it and began testing its limits, each movement accompanied by a fresh wince of pain.

"You might have torn something," Shego continued, shifting closer and taking his hand, starting to feel his joints for anything that might be out of place. She entirely missed the startled look on his face while she did so, and for a minute as she felt up his arm, searching for torn muscles or ligaments and anything that might give more pain and an indication of how badly he was hurt, she was unaware of his other hand still trying to clean the quicksand from her hair.

When her hands reached his shoulder he let out a hiss of pain, narrowing his eyes at her for a moment before the look suddenly softened. She was surprised by this, and as he held her gaze she suddenly found her cheeks flushing, though why she did not know. She pushed on his shoulder again to distract him from it, and a distinctive 'ow' left his lips.

"Yes, that's where it's the worst!" he affirmed, leaning back from her slightly.

"You might have torn something, but it's not bad," Shego said. "It would be best to immobilize this arm."

"And just where are we going to find an ACE bandage out here, Shego?"

She rolled her eyes and shifted away, sliding her shaking legs back into the water.

"Same way we got a harness and pulley?" she said.

Drakken half-frowned as he watched her dip her hair into the water and run her fingers through it, removing as much sand as possible. But after a glance around them showed no vines or other suitable binding material nearby, she simply climbed back on the rock and returned to his side. Her legs still felt like rubber beneath her and her body ached, and she wondered how Drakken was managing to sit upright enduring at least the same pain as she was, if not more.

When she was next to him again the fatigue suddenly hit her like a weight, and she looked from beneath heavy eyelids to where he cradled his arm, his wet hair plastered down to his forehead as he looked at his limb worriedly. She was surprised as the emotion was suddenly transferred to her, his brow rising as he looked at her in concern. This time when her face flushed she didn't look away, but merely marveled at how well Drakken had endured everything they had been through. She was frankly surprised that she had survived, let alone her boss.

"Are you cold?" Drakken asked.

Shego realized she was hugging herself and shaking, her muscles tensed. It was probably a combination of shock from all that had occurred, but she was indeed cold.

She nodded to the affirmative as Drakken let out a huge yawn, his teeth chattering when his jaw closed again. The look he gave her then caused her heart to beat harder, though it wasn't any different that she could tell from his prior worry and assessment. But before she could analyze it further he was unbuttoning his sodden lab coat.

"What are you doing?"

Drakken paused. "Did you...want to keep moving?" he asked, appearing a bit dismayed at the prospect.

Shego's brow rose, and knowing that he must be at least as pained and exhausted as she was, it was clear then that a rest was apparently in order. Especially since all danger seemed to have passed. At least for the present.

"Not yet," she said, shaking her head. "Let's...break here for awhile."

She lay down on the moss and watched as Drakken got out of the lab coat, unbuttoning a few buttons of his shirt beneath as well. There was no sign of the tank top he'd worn before, and she wondered if it had been left behind at the pool or was simply shoved into a coat pocket.

As her eyes lingered on his sculpted collarbone and his broad, muscled shoulders revealed through the wet shirt, she almost missed him spreading the coat out over his legs like a blanket, wet though it was. She was surprised then when he moved to spread it over her too.

Her first thought was actually how much warmth the coat suddenly brought, despite being wet. The second was a further flushing of her face and pounding of her heart, which she knew had been encouraged by Drakken's physique being put on display again. But it was hidden again as he settled down on his back on the moss and closed his eyes, pulling the coat up to their shoulders and then holding his injured arm across his chest.

Shego watched him for a moment, but then as rational thought caught up to the emotions that had seemed to rule over her since the hover-car crash, she realized that he was probably just as concerned for her as she was for him. The insecure part of her wanted to cast off his kindness and say she could take care of herself. But the more mature part was eager to accept the small offer of comfort and safety; it was all they had at the moment, after all.

She moved nearer to Drakken on the moss until she was almost touching him, and she caught his suddenly nervous gaze just before she let her eyes slip closed. It would serve him right to be a little uncomfortable, after the show he'd given her earlier...

With her mind racing with images of every moment between the crash and the present, and with her body feeling so heavy that it might simply dissolve, she fell fast asleep.

---------------------

Shego nimbly undid Drakken's shirt buttons with one hand while her other pushed his collar aside. She bent forward to place a soft kiss on his shoulder as her fingers continued to explore his physique. A thrill ran through her as his hands slid into her hair at the back of her head, his fingertips running gently under her jaw to draw her face up toward his. She looked at his lips, smiling softly, and as she leaned forward to meet his kiss her gaze lifted to his eyes, warm, and full of love...

---------------------

Shego woke up. Her racing heart was the first thing she was aware of, and the roar of the waterfall second. Next she realized that somehow, she had moved nearer to Drakken in sleep and was pressed up against his side.

A flash of imagery from her dream caused her to hesitate, but only for a moment before she backed away. Drakken was still sleeping, unmoved from when she had closed her eyes before. She wondered how long she had been out, suspecting only a brief period because her hair and suit were still very damp. Of course, the lab coat retaining heat and thus moisture could have something to do with that.

As images from her dream came back to her again, she stared at Drakken's still face. She thought back to when he had decided to bathe in the pool, unaware of her watching him. That had to be the reason for the dream... Nothing else. She had no other feelings for him, besides...

She blinked at herself as she watched him sleep, wondering at herself. What were her feelings exactly? Protectiveness... She wanted to keep him safe. It was her job, after all. And she supposed there was a sort of caring and friendly regard that had developed over the years. But nothing deeper. Nothing like the lust she'd felt in the dream, or like...that look in his eyes.

She rolled over to face away from Drakken, her face twisting in worry. He didn't...have feelings for her, did he? He couldn't...

And yet despite all the uncertainty and fear the idea brought her, she couldn't deny the warmth trying to seep into her heart at the idea. A sudden, sharp inhale from behind her alerted her to Drakken's waking, and she felt a fluttering in her chest and stomach. She groaned internally before rolling back over to face him again.

He was blinking in confusion, and when she took a deep breath his eyes flashed to hers in fear.

"Dr. D.?" she asked quietly.

His expression calmed and his cheeks colored—from embarrassment, she was sure, nothing more—and then he moved his hand over his injured arm.

"Shego... If this island really is some sort of lost world...we could make a fortune—"

"Whoa, hold it right there Chief," she said, pressing a finger to his lips to silence him. "We are not selling, cloning, mutating, mind-controlling, nothing with these dinosaurs."

"But Shego—"

"Nope. Has the...what, hour and a half at most that we've been here taught you nothing?"

Drakken's face fell. "Fine..." he said, more disappointed than angry. It surprised Shego, especially as she'd been hoping for a tantrum to try to bring more normalcy back to her thoughts.

She was saved then by a gurgle from Drakken's stomach, and she carefully pushed herself upright, every joint and muscle protesting the action.

"You hungry?"

Drakken likewise started to sit up, slower than she had and grimacing with the movement.

"Like there's a Chez Couteaux around here..." he muttered.

Shego rolled her eyes. "We can catch some fish from the river," she said, gesturing broadly.

"Oh."

"After we find some place with more sun so we can dry off," she continued, slowing standing to her feet.

Drakken winced doing the same, and Shego noted how he still held his left arm to his chest as he fumbled with his coat.

"Wait... What about using your belt as a sling?" she suggested.

Drakken blinked back into focus as he peered at her curious.

"My belt?"

"Yeah. Here, I'll do it," she said, reaching for the black belt of his lab coat and pulling it out from the loops. She buckled it and then reached up to put it around his neck. She couldn't help but blush from the closeness, and when she glanced at his face it had colored too. She frowned and looked down to his wrist, carefully looping the belt around it several times until it was elevated and held close to his chest. She then draped his coat over his shoulders so he wouldn't have to fight with it, fastening the collar so he could wear it like a cape, though he slipped his right arm into the sleeve regardless.

Drakken cleared his throat. "Ah... Thank you."

"Just be careful," she said, regretting how harshly the words came out. He hadn't actually done anything... It was her own mind to blame if she was having any confusing thoughts. "Let's look for a place we can start a fire and get dried off."

Drakken nodded his agreement, and Shego took the lead as they picked their way over more moss-covered rocks and others that were simply slick from the surrounding mist. The sun still shone brightly, and it helped in their carefully moving out from behind the thundering fall and back into familiar, lush foliage, birdsong eventually reaching her ears as they moved further and further from the waters.

It occurred to her then that there was no guarantee of safety down in the valley. In fact there would probably be more creatures near the water in the more forgiving terrain. But thus far there were no signs of dangerous animals, and she decided to relax while she had the chance. There was no telling how long the peace would last.

Several minutes later found them in a slightly more arid part of the forest, the shrubbery less dense and the air not so damp. There was no sign of anything she could use as kindling, but she could always cook a fish on a rock if it came to that. She paused and squeezed down the length of her hair, but only a few drops fell from the ends as the sun was doing a good job of drying it.

"All right..." she said, sighing lightly. "Dr. D. if you wanna wait here and maybe look for something to start a fire, I can go— ...What is that?"

Drakken was several paces behind her and trying to hide something under his coat. But with the one arm immobilized he wasn't very successful, and she could see what he held was white and about the size and shape of a melon. He smiled nervously as she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Ah...lunch?"

Shego realized the object in his hands was in fact...a massive egg. Which could only mean one thing... She rubbed her temples as the ache in her head grew.

"Where did you get it? Wh-When did you get it?" she fairly stuttered, in awe of the man's ability to not only get into trouble but also to find a loophole in the litany she'd given him earlier.

"Over there by that boulder," Drakken said, nodding back to a massive, gray-lavender rock partly concealed by the shrubs.

At that moment, the boulder seemed to rise several inches and then sink down again, the process taking several seconds. Shego and Drakken had both frozen upon seeing the action, and then Shego tiptoed next to Drakken who was chewing his lip nervously.

"That's...not a boulder, eh-heh...is it..." Drakken muttered.

"No, it's a big mama dinosaur!" Shego hissed. "Put...the egg...back!"

Drakken favored her with sad, pleading eyes, but she only frowned at him in response. He grimaced and started tiptoeing toward the new potential threat. The creature let out what could only be a snore, and Shego held her breath as Drakken crept nearer.

Suddenly, the 'boulder' rose again, and Drakken scurried quickly back to Shego's side where together they slowly began backing away. The dinosaur took shape and Shego recognized it as a triceratops, at least ten feet tall and twice as long.

She expected the beast with its impressive frill and threatening horns to turn on them, but it only gave them a momentary glance before trotting away at a brisk pace.

Shego felt tension drain from her frame as she relaxed and Drakken did the same next to her, both heaving sighs of relief.

"You would steal from the one dinosaur on this island that isn't carnivorous... Still gotta put the egg back."

"But...but Shego—"

"Nope, I know you don't actually want to eat it. And an angry mama dinosaur is the last thing we need right now."

Drakken looked like a hurt child as he started toward where the triceratops had rested. But at that moment, a familiar bone-shaking rumble sounded through the valley. Shego held her ears as Drakken cried out in pain, clutching tightly to the large egg.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Shego shouted. When the sound stopped and the pain diminished, she ran forward and yanked on Drakken's shoulder, nearly causing him to trip as she started running after the triceratops.

"Shego, why are we...? Oh, yes, good plan!" he said, smiling in approval as they ran through the thinning forest.

"Makes sense to follow the natives. That...long-necked one knew how to escape, maybe this one will too!" she said, voicing the thought that Drakken had already figured out.

They moved through the thinning trees until the valley opened up into a vast grassy field. They stopped short at not only the sight of the triceratops, but also more sauropods and other dinosaurs of varying species and sizes, some in herds, others alone or in small groups.

Shego and Drakken turned to look at each other simultaneously.

"Wrong island?"

"Kill Hench anyway?"

They nodded to each other just before another low rumble caused them to cringe, and they continued forward into the field having nowhere else to go. Shego hoped the T-Rex would have more of an appetite for familiar saurian prey than new.

They had passed the triceratops and noted other smaller dinosaurs fleeing, some heading away into the trees and others looking to shelter with the larger specimens. Shego paused as she realized, there was no shelter in the field, and she doubted a dinosaur would recognize them as friend.

A sound between a snort and a roar caused her to turn around, and she gasped in shock as a T-Rex burst through the treeline out into the field. Whether it was the one that had threatened them before or not, she didn't know, but it was running faster than she and Drakken were and if it chose them as its target, there would be no escape.

To her surprise, the triceratops then turned around to face the advancing predator, sounding its annoyed snort again in challenge.

"Doc, look!" she called, and he stopped running and turned in confusion, his brow rising as he saw what appeared to be about to happen.

Shego watched as Drakken's face morphed from fear to shock and then unbridled joy. Her own brow furrowed in confusion until she realized...the scene unfolding was probably a childhood dream come true. Two prehistoric creatures, inexplicably living, and about to engage in epic combat.

"Is this all just a dream...?" she mused to herself as she turned back, just in time to see the T-Rex commence its attack.

The beast opened its mighty jaws and lunged down toward the triceratops's neck. The slightly smaller dinosaur turned, its frill and one horn meeting the attack and sending the T-Rex recoiling in pain. The triceratops advanced then, thrusting forward with its long horns. The larger bipedal dinosaur stepped aside with shocking agility and went again for the neck of the shorter one.

Shego was just as transfixed by the scene as Drakken, but as a dinosaur that looked like an oversized ostrich suddenly ran in front of them, she realized they were missing their opportunity for escape.

"Dr. D., I hate to interrupt this childhood fantasy, but we really need to go."

He made a sound of protest as he looked at her in dismay, still clutching the massive egg to his chest.

"Look, I know this is a unique situation, but we're really exposed out here."

She watched as Drakken's expression became torn between the wisdom of what she had said, and watching what was surely a once in a lifetime display.

"Nyeh... Nnh, nragh!" he cried out, his face twisting in frustration, and Shego breathed a small sigh of relief at his acquiescence.

They glanced around together and then made a broad circle around the battling dinosaurs, heading back toward the treeline and the high cliffs beyond. Everywhere else around them was too distant, and too uncovered. And besides...there was far more prey for the T-Rex in the field.

When they reached the treeline, panting for breath, they paused to watch the fight once more. The triceratops still seemed to be an equal match to the predator, thrusting its horns toward the T-Rex's belly as the larger creature continued to try to gain a fatal bite.

"I wish we'd brought the camera," Drakken grumbled.

"These probably aren't the last dinosaurs we're going to see today. Come on."

They pushed back into the foliage, leaving the valley with its herds and the fierce battle of the legendary beasts behind them.

The next several minutes were a silent journey, following the sound of water again until it led them right back to where they'd left, albeit from a different angle. They found the side of the foliage-covered cliff, beautiful and entirely impassible, and then moved along its rocky base back around to the waterfall which had proven their one place of respite. Shego was considering the cave-like crevice they had seen, wondering if it too would hold terrors or if it would be one place on the island devoid of prehistoric creatures come to life.

Drakken either guessed her thoughts or trusted her without question, because he didn't say a word when they arrived back at the river and she began leading them back across slippery and precarious moss-covered rocks. Her hair hadn't fully dried yet, but she tried to keep them nearer the cliff wall to avoid the spray and the mist, sure that Drakken in his damp layers was far more uncomfortable than she was.

When they arrived back at the flatter place where they had had a brief nap, Shego paused to look at the waterfall. The sun was still shining through them, the waters cascading down like waves of liquid lace, taking form and then vanishing, the sequence restarting and never ending as the waters emerged from the top and joined the river at the bottom.

She grimaced, the sight suddenly unsettling in that it wasn't something tangible she could exert any will over, just like waves across the ocean.

"Shego?"

She startled slightly hearing Drakken's voice right at her ear, and she turned to see him still holding the melon-sized egg, and then looked up to his concerned face. He backed off slightly when she raised her brow in question.

"Ah...were you...thinking we should try the cave?"

"Yeah," she said, hurrying to move past him and climb higher up the rocks to where the crevice began.

Was she just imagining that Drakken seemed softer and more attentive toward her, or was that a result of all they had been through on the island? Or was he perhaps always that way, and she was only just noticing it now?

The thoughts sent her heart racing again, and she put them aside as she hefted herself up the final rock and onto the ledge where the crevice began. She turned, realizing Drakken would need help, and reached down to take the egg. He looked reluctant before handing it off to her.

"Don't break it!" he cautioned fearfully.

"Not yet. You said we could eat it, well...we're going to."

Drakken looked dismayed as he used his one arm to raise himself up, Shego tugging at his coat with one hand to provide some aid, and she shook her head at his expression.

"No taking dinosaur eggs home to experiment on, either. If we're not eating this thing, then stop carrying it around."

"Ngh... Fine," Drakken said sadly, again surprising Shego with his lack of fire and protest.

Her brow furrowed as she handed the egg back to him and then turned to examine the crevice. It ran at least fifty feet up the side of the cliff beneath the fall, narrowing at the top, and was scarcely six feet wide at the bottom. But Shego could see now, it ran deep under the mountain and there was light coming in from somewhere else, which meant it at least had a 'window' if not another outlet.

"Let's go," she said, striding forward confidently.

Drakken followed close behind, the damp rock beneath their feet soon becoming dry, and no less than twenty paces in did the path broaden and two paths diverged. One grew more wide and seemed to get darker the further it went. The other seemed to be the source of the other light and was narrower. Shego looked over her shoulder at Drakken, who was glancing between the two paths.

"I...would prefer light right now, if...that's an option," he said.

Shego silently agreed and turned to go down the narrower path where light still shone on the ground. The ceiling above grew lower and soon the path was a mere crack, and Shego paused wondering if it was worth continuing and if it would open up at all. But distantly...she could still see light. Drakken made no objection when she turned sideways to continue squeezing through the narrowing passage, and she noted Drakken struggling to keep the large egg from bumping on the walls as he did the same.

"Oh... Whoa," Shego finally said as their efforts were rewarded and the tiny passage suddenly opened into a vast cavern. But it wasn't the space, but the cavern's contents that caught her attention.

"Amethyst?" Drakken said as he stumbled out to stand next to her, the both of them gaping at their surroundings.

A hole in the ceiling was providing the light, and the walls of the cave were entirely covered in sparkling crystal formations. Even parts of the floor were adorned with the majestic-looking stones, and Shego wondered if it was safe to walk on. She had never seen anything like it, and glancing at Drakken's face she was sure he hadn't either.

"Well..." she finally said, swallowing dryly. She took a few steps forward and then sat down on some of the normal stone in the cave. "Want to crack that baby open?"

Drakken blinked back into focus and sat down, his expression morphing into a pout. He leaned forward awkwardly to set the egg down, his left arm still restricted slightly due to its partial-immobilization, and the large egg bobbed slightly on the stone ground before coming to rest between them. Shego lit her hands as she stared at it.

"I guess roasted in the shell would be easiest?"

Drakken grumbled something incoherent, twisting uncomfortably on the ground until he finally reached up to unfasten his collar and then shake the coat off of his right arm. Shego noted that his shirt and pants were still quite damp, and she wondered if since there was an outlet in the ceiling, an actual fire wouldn't be useful.

"I could go grab some firewood?" she suggested. Drakken looked confused, so she continued. "You could dry off a bit more."

"Nngh...all right," he agreed, and Shego rose again, taking a moment to look around at the sparkling purple of the cave before making her way back out through the narrow passageway.

She glanced back to see Drakken gather up the egg into his lap, and she shook her head. She could understand his feelings about the situation... Granted, harnessing dinosaurs for evil would be pretty impressive. But knowing Drakken, ultimately he would likely get bored with the endeavor and simply want one as a pet.

As she moved back out of the passageway and toward the waterfall, she considered the prospect. Where would they even keep a pet dinosaur? And the egg Drakken had taken, from the triceratops... If the size of the mother was any indication there was most definitely no room for a full-grown specimen at the Caribbean. Not to mention, it probably needed food sources that could only be found on that island.

No, a pet dinosaur was simply impossible. Unless...

Shego let the roar of the waterfall mix with her thoughts, the sensation somehow calming as she considered their entrapment. If Jack Hench had really sold them a lair on a lost world, there were a lot of questions to be answered. How had he managed to build it? Why hadn't he mentioned the dinosaurs? If they were truly on the right island, as the map had seemed to indicate, was all of it nothing more than...a plot by Hench to get rid of them? They had ripped him off plenty of times over the years, one time even destroying his entire inventory via accidental explosion when they stole a neutronic laser.

Shego had gathered a number of branches in her arms as she mused over the possibilities, but nearly all were still green. Not that she couldn't ignite them, but Drakken would certainly find the heat uncomfortable. The thought struck her then, that if it was too hot he might take off his shirt.

Her face flushed and she almost stumbled over a mossy rock at the idea. She really, really needed to get those thoughts out of her mind. And yet, the image of a broad blue chest and muscled arms was suddenly filling her vision.

She groaned at herself and shook her head in attempt to banish the thought. So her boss had an attractive figure, so what? That fact wasn't about to change anything between them, and she certainly didn't want it to, so it was best to forget all she'd seen before.

She awkwardly shoved her way back through the passageway, the branches and twigs in her arms making the task more difficult, but finally she managed to push through and returned to the sparkling purple cavern. She was surprised upon entering to find the dinosaur egg sitting alone atop Drakken's open lab coat, the man himself standing next to one of the walls and apparently just staring.

"It's gonna get hot in here," Shego said by way of greeting.

Drakken jumped and whirled around, and a tiny smirk curled at the corners of Shego's mouth. Even with all the noise she'd made in returning, she had still been able to startle him. It was a welcome familiarity, and she focused on that to be rid of her other thoughts as she began arranging the branches and sticks into a pile.

"Oh. Ah...Shego, would you...like a crystal?"

Shego looked up to where Drakken was still standing next to the wall, and holding his right hand behind his back.

"I'm guessing you already got one somehow?"

Drakken then revealed a tiny laser cutter in his left hand, and Shego rolled her eyes as her smirk grew. He stepped back over and sat down carefully, next to her rather than across from what would be the fire, and then he opened his right hand to reveal a beautiful, sparkling amethyst.

Shego felt her face grow inexplicably warm again, and she plucked the golf-ball sized crystal from his palm and pretended to study it in hopes he wouldn't notice the pink in her cheeks.

"This is another volcanic island," he commented as he pocketed the laser cutter and shifted to be more comfortable.

Shego grimaced. "I think we are in the right place... But I'm thinking Hench just sent us here to get rid of us."

Drakken glowered. "Should leave him stranded here..."

Shego leaned back, grinning pleasantly at the idea. "Sounds like a plan. All right, how about lunch?"

Drakken's face fell, but he leaned over and rolled the egg toward him from where he'd left it on his coat.

"So...just set it in the sticks and we can roast it, I guess," Shego commented.

Drakken moved to do just that, but then he gasped and held the egg out in front of him, almost dropping it before he managed to set it on the ground where it rolled until hitting the sticks.

"What?" Shego asked.

"It moved!"

Her brow furrowed. "Eggs don't... Oh...oh no."

A small cracking sound was heard, and Shego stared in horror while Drakken gasped in glee as a small hole appeared in the egg, something gray starting to poke through. Drakken reached down and began trying to pry away pieces of the shell.

"Ungh... Dr. D., you know it probably needs to do that itself to...build strength or something, I dunno..."

Drakken gasped again as he pulled his hand away.

"You're right! Ohh I wonder how long it will take!"

Shego grimaced as she idly looked at the large amethyst still sitting on her palm.

"Look, Dr. D.... I already thought about this. We can't have a pet triceratops. Or any kind of pet dinosaur. It wouldn't fit back at the lair, and it probably needs some food that can only be found on this island."

Drakken turned to her with expectant eyes. "But if we find the lair that Hench sold us here..."

"I don't think there is a lair. And if there was, there's no way we're living on an island filled with dinosaurs."

"But...but Shego—"

"No buts. It's not happening."

Drakken's frame diminished as he sighed, and he turned to watch the egg thoughtfully as he began scratching at his shoulder. Shego considered the pangs in her stomach and considered that they would still need food, especially since it looked as though they would be there for awhile.

"I can still catch us some fish. Want me to start the fire now?"

Drakken considered and then nodded, picking up the egg and moving it several feet away, near part of the amethyst-adorned ground. He then scooted back himself as Shego shot a continuous blast at the stick pile, the heat rising instantly in the cave as it took quite a bit to ignite the green wood.

Shego stood once she was sure the sticks were ablaze and shook her hair out, eager to finish drying off herself. Drakken's scratching had reminded her of her own discomfort, and she wondered if it would be out of place to take a purposeful dip in the river and let her suit dry next to the fire.

She opened her mouth to suggest the idea and ask if she could borrow Drakken's coat for modesty, when her words caught in her throat at the sight of him peeling out of his shirt. But he got stuck due to the belt wrapped around his wrist.

"Ah, Shego could you help me with this?"

Her heart was pounding.

"Help yourself," she answered, a slight edge to her voice. As her eyes lingered on his bare shoulder while he carefully extracted his left arm from the makeshift sling, she thought again about wanting to clean up further... And then her mind recalled the image of Drakken under the waterfall, this time adding herself to the picture.

She closed her eyes and shook her head, the heat she was feeling having nothing to do with the fire she had built. She sat down again, this time on the opposite side of the fire from Drakken.

The flicker of the flames was creating a fascinating effect on the rich purple crystals of the cave, making them shimmer like waves, some slow and others quick and fleeting, matching the chaos of the tiny blaze. It was distractingly beautiful, and she forced herself to focus on that as it became clear to her that her imagination couldn't be trusted for even a second.

"Shego! It's hatching!"

She looked down to where an impressive amount of progress had been made, and she could see a broad curved beak and scales within the much larger hole in the egg. Its sides were also cracking as the creature seemingly pushed against its entrapment, and she let herself slip into the distraction of watching the process, the sounds of the fire and the shimmering surroundings of the cave becoming a mere backdrop to the magic occurring in front of her.

It could have been minutes or even half an hour, but Shego didn't care as long as it provided distraction. Drakken had all but laid down as he stared at the egg, a broad grin on his face as he occasionally muttered encouragements to the creature within. And then finally, the shell gave way to reveal the baby dinosaur.

Drakken apparently couldn't resist any longer and began pulling pieces of the shell away as the baby triceratops, about the size of a chihuahua, rolled over and wobbled up to its feet. It fairly matched the cave, being gray-lavender in color, and it blinked between Shego and Drakken and let out a cry that sounded something like the moo of a calf.

Shego straightened up as her brow furrowed. An internal war began as she looked between the creature and Drakken's excited face, and it was with an annoyed growl that she rapidly came to a decision.

"Oh, look Shego! It's so cute! I'm going to name her...Crystal, after the cave where she was born," he said happily.

Shego's brows knit together.

"How do you know it's a girl?"

"Well—"

"Never-mind. Dr. D.... We have to take it back to its mother."

Drakken looked devastated. "But...but Shego, can't we—"

"Doc... Have you ever seen a baby...anything, born before? What's the first thing they do?"

The little dinosaur let out another cry, louder than the first, and Drakken frowned as it stumbled across the floor and continued looking around.

"They eat," Shego finished the thought. "If you want...little Crystal to survive, she has to go back."

"We don't even know if the mother survived..." Drakken protested faintly.

"Yeah, but this thing'll still stand a better chance out there than it will in here with us."

Drakken frowned, but sighed with the logic of her explanation. As he started to re-dress she looked down to the amethyst crystal she still held and suddenly wondered...why had he given it to her?

Finding no suitable answer, or at least none she wanted to entertain as her cheeks flushed again, she put the gem away in her leg pouch and then hesitantly made to pick up the little dinosaur. Drakken wouldn't be able to manage a squirming creature with his injured arm, and he watched in surprise as she grabbed it and held it away as it began wiggling violently in protest.

"Wild animals don't make good pets..." she muttered as Drakken shrugged into his coat, putting both arms through the sleeves but leaving it open as he put his arm back in the makeshift belt-sling himself.

"Sometimes..." he said sadly.

"Well not this time. Leave the fire, this is still probably the safest place to spend the night."

"Spend the night?" Drakken said as he started leading the way out of the cave.

"Well yeah, unless you have some brilliant escape plan?"

The conversation paused until they had traversed the more difficult part of the passage, and then Drakken glanced at her as they began moving back toward the waterfall.

"It shouldn't take a full day for the henchmen to reach the wreckage. It only took us about...six hours, to get here from the lair?"

"Wait...what are you saying? Why would the henchmen come looking for us?"

Shego very nearly dropped the baby triceratops as it renewed its struggling, and Shego could tell by the look on Drakken's face that he wanted to hold it. She would have gladly handed it over if not for the risk of further injuring his arm.

"They'll just follow the hover-car's tracking device."

"But why? How would they know we need help?"

"Because I activated the distress signal," Drakken said plainly as he began moving over the moss-covered rocks behind the waterfall.

Shego's eyes widened and she felt anger begin to boil in her veins.

"You...you what!?" Shego cried, almost dropping the baby dinosaur in her rage.

Drakken nearly slipped on a rock as he looked at her in confusion and fear.

"Yes, before we left to look for the new lair..."

It was the sheer bewilderment in his expression that caused Shego's fury to diminish as she realized...it made sense. They were supposedly in search of a new lair, and wasting time standing around a pile of wreckage for hours when there was a promise of modern comforts made no sense. It had just been their bad luck that they had most likely been crossed by Hench, and of course Drakken would have activated the distress signal.

Shego scoffed and stared down at the dinosaur, its fearful wiggling continuing while it also appeared to briefly take in their surroundings every few seconds. The small creature reminded her of all the pain and extremely near-death experiences they had been through in their hours on the island, not that she really needed reminding; her body still ached from the death-defying cliff jump.

"Okay, after we get this thing back, we're going to the hover-car. If there is a lair on this island, we're not finding it today, and I wouldn't want to even if there is."

Drakken's face fell again, but she knew he would eventually see it her way. A lost world with all of its unknowns was not the place for a super-villain's lair...

At least, not until it was better understood.

She considered this for the first time as she followed Drakken back through the trees toward where they had first encountered the mother triceratops. Yes, the island was rife with danger... But Drakken said it was volcanic, and that was a plus. They could easily build a defensible lair on an active volcano; they'd done so before, after all. It was doubtful that dinosaurs would be a problem in that harsh an environment, and the fearsome creatures would provide a natural defense against any intruders. Not to mention the island's other hazards, quicksand and giant cliffs, and who could know what else...

Shego's thoughts were broken as Drakken stopped short, and she looked beyond him to see that the mother triceratops was about twenty yards distant, rooting at the ground with her snout and seeming either ill or confused as she turned in large circles and moved back and forth over the same spot of ground. It was clearly looking for its egg.

Shego looked at the slightly-calmer creature she held, and then to Drakken's sad but awed face.

"You...want to pet her before we let her go?"

Drakken startled and looked down at the baby dinosaur. He hesitated, and then reverently ran his fingers over its frill. As he did so Shego looked back to the massive creature in the trees ahead of them. She noted the lines of red blood over its frill and back, indicating where the T-Rex had gotten a few bites in. She wondered if the battle had ended in a stalemate, or a triceratops victory, but she wasn't about to voice the thought and give Drakken the idea of going further into the valley to find out.

She looked down to where Drakken was still petting the small creature, which had amazingly stilled in her hands. Its curious eyes were teal in shade, she noticed for the first time, and its gray scales definitely had a lavender tinge. It really was...cute, with its small nubs of horns and tail that was swinging idly as Drakken gently felt over the creature's skin.

Shego looked up at his face. He was in pure awe of the creature, and there was longing in his eyes as he even ran his gloved hand over the sole of its small foot, seeming to try to memorize everything about it. Shego was tempted to sigh and hurry him along, but...she decided to let him have the moment. It was surely one that would never come again.

"All right," Drakken said with a sigh, his eyes sad as he retracted his hand.

Shego set the baby triceratops down and faced it the right direction, giving it a nudge to get it to start stumbling forward. It let out another of its moo-ing cries, and the mother triceratops immediately looked up and started in their direction.

Shego began backing away, setting a hand on Drakken's shoulder to make him move with her. But the flash of fear she'd felt was apparently unnecessary, as the hatchling and its mother were united in moments, the large dinosaur's attention turning solely to its baby. But then, it lifted its head again and looked directly at them.

Shego held her breath, seeing the same intelligence in the creature's eyes as she'd seen in the T-Rex's before. But it apparently bore them no ill will as after regarding them for a moment it turned to head deeper into the forest, its small baby running at its feet. She sighed in relief, and turned to see Drakken looking almost as if he would cry.

"Come on, you big marshmallow, let's go."

"It was a baby triceratops, Shego! A baby triceratops! Do you understand what this means? The implications of this very island?"

"No, but I'm sure you're going to tell me."

As Shego walked back through the trees toward the river, Drakken began going on about theories being proven and dis-proven, and how the scientific community would be forever changed by the discoveries that could be made on the island. She couldn't help but smile at his excitement, but he stopped suddenly when they broke through the trees and saw the waterfall in its full glory.

The sun had begun to set, making the falls look like liquid fire as they thundered over the cliff and down to the blue of the river below. And then near the top of the fall, a ripple of purple shone through and broke the brilliant gold, and Shego realized that somehow the amethyst cave or perhaps another was also catching the sunlight.

Drakken seemed transfixed by the sight, and Shego's smile grew. It had been an adventure...but one she knew she would remember fondly.

"So..." she began, "let's say we strand Hench here as punishment, and then...in return for getting him out safely, he finances our new lair here."

Drakken did a double-take, his entire form brightening as he fully comprehended her words.

"You mean it? We can have a lair here?"

"Long as it's in a volcano."

Drakken let out a gleeful cackle and raised both fists triumphantly, recoiling slightly as pain arrested his left arm. But as they began walking along the river and in the direction of the hover-car, she knew he would be fine as his prattle about scientific discoveries changed to that of how everyone would soon fear 'Dr. Drakken, prehistoric menace.'

Shego grinned as she listened to his ideas. A T-Rex with a mounted laser cannon did sound like quite the idea.

-----------------------------------

Drakken ran his hands back over his head beneath the thin, sparkling falls, the water shimmering over his blue skin. And then he reached forward to set his hands on Shego's bare shoulders as she stepped under the fall to meet him, his fingers beginning to trail downward sending a thrill to her heart...

-----------------------------------

"Hey Boss? Miss Shego?"

Shego startled awake and sat up, hands ablaze. The startled henchmen recoiled with cries of fear, and the vision in Shego's mind started melting away as she took in her surroundings.

She was seated in the ruined hover-car, apparently snuggled up against Drakken's side where he was still asleep. In front of them stood three henchmen and not too far beyond, two more hover-cars sat parked. The sky around them indicated that twilight had fallen.

Shego's face flushed with embarrassment and she shoved Drakken hard.

"Wake up, you blue dolt. We're rescued."

Drakken let out an annoyed grunt as he was startled awake and likewise looked around them to gain his bearings. Shego moved away from his side and climbed out of the wreckage.

"Hey Boss, can we get going? Schwartz said that he saw a velociraptor, and even though I know dinosaurs are extinct I definitely saw something prowling around in the trees."

Drakken's confusion turned into a smirk as he climbed out of the hover-car and started toward one of the two rescue craft.

"Oh ye of little faith," he said, wagging a finger at the frightened trio. "While we haven't seen velociraptors, there are a great many species of dinosaurs on this island, where we shall be setting up our new lair inside of a month if all goes well. You know, there is a long-held belief that dinosaurs are in fact no more than the dragons of legend and ancient history..."

"Dinosaurs?"

"New lair?"

"But first," Shego interjected as she followed after Drakken, grateful for the distraction, "go kidnap Jack Hench and bring him back to the lair."

"R-Right away, Ma'am."

The three henchmen scurried toward the other waiting hover-car as Shego and Drakken stepped into theirs, Drakken pausing and looking at Shego in confusion.

"You don't want to get him yourself?"

Shego's face flushed, and she hoped the dim light would hide it.

"We can torture him later. I had something else on my mind..."

"Oh... What is it?" Drakken asked as he settled in behind the controls.

Shego made a show of yawning as she sat down. "I'm still tired. Can you set the auto-pilot?"

Drakken looked at her in confusion, but complied with the request as Shego settled in and with a race of her heart moved nearer to his side. He looked at her again in surprise, and she ignored the look as she reached down to her leg pouch to pull out the amethyst he'd given her. It looked different in the twilight, but no less magnificent as she turned it over in her hands.

"Thanks," she said, indicating the gem, and then yawned again before boldly leaning into his right side and setting her head on his shoulder where it had lain before.

Drakken tensed, and for a moment Shego wondered if she'd misread the gesture of the gift, and the looks he'd been giving her throughout the day. Or the way in which he'd snuggled nearer to her before when he thought she was asleep... But then he relaxed as he pressed the button to activate the autopilot, and Shego noticed the flush to his face when he leaned forward slightly. He took his left wrist out of the sling and settled comfortably against the back of the seat, and then hesitantly set his arm around her.

"Sh-Shego...?"

"So. Dragons?" she asked, giving him a soft smile.

His expression relaxed, and he began exhorting about some legend from the middle ages, gesticulating with both hands as he grew more animated doing so. Shego looked down at the gem she was turning over in her hands as her smile grew, and she settled her head back on his shoulder as the hover-car began taking them back home. The next time the dream came she would let it continue, and hoped that someday...it would become reality.

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