Kim wanted to see that Tao was all right. She wanted to rush to her and make sure that she wasn't dead. The knife against her throat, however, made her stop. "I thought you were going to kill her," Kim said spitefully. As she spoke, a group of men in military uniform stormed up the road, a black car following them steadily. A strip of zip-tie plastic was laced around her wrists and tightened. "I will," the young woman behind her snapped. She stepped out from behind Kim. She was only a few inches taller than Kim with short, dark brown hair and the same brown eyes. Her eyes stared at Tao's unconscious body with sheer loathing. "Then why is she still alive?" Kim demanded. She struggled vainly against the restraints, but was stopped immediately by one of the uniformed men who took her by her shoulders. "Because you can't bait a dead beast," the woman replied simply. "Take her to my father's lab. And make sure you wipe some of the blood on the car. Tao needs to be able to track us, after all." She continued to stare at Tao, eyes narrow. Before long, however, she got into the black car. ---------- "Wake up! Dammit, wake up!" Tao felt a flat palm connect with her cheek and opened her eyes. She looked up and found Shego kneeling in front of her. She coughed weakly, eyes blurred from the tranquilizers. "Where's Kim?" Shego asked. "Where is she? Who took her?" Tao shook her head, closing her eyes tightly to concentrate on purging the toxins out of her blood. She blindly wrote a name in the snow with one hand, her left arm still bleeding. Shego looked at the name in confusion. "Who the hell is Farrah?" Tao ignored her for a moment, ripping her shirtsleeve from where the robot's spike had sliced it open. She tied the scrap around the gash in her arm, pulling it tight with her teeth. Working her hand into a fist a few times to test her muscles, Tao stood up and took a deep breath. She pointed her thumb over her shoulder to signal to Shego to get on her back. Shego, however, grabbed her around the collar and slammed her against the tree she had been sitting against. "I'm not going anywhere!" Shego snarled. "Your mother said you stopped talking sixteen years ago. That means you can talk. I want you to tell me exactly what's going on before I gouge your eyes out!" She raised one hand, letting the green flames blaze with her anger. Tao did not speak, grabbing hold of both of Shego's wrists and pushing her away easily. She frowned, her hands tightening into fists. In a flash, she had spun on heel and tore massive strips from the tree with her claws. Her tail wrote words in the snow. I can't, the words said. I can't talk until I can tell her what really happened. "Tell who?" Shego asked. ---------- "My name is Farrah Green," the young woman said. Kim opened her eyes, letting her arms rest from struggling against her restraints. Farrah had sat down in a metal folding chair a few feet from the pipe Kim's arms were tied around. She was merely sitting. There was no typical pacing or raving that came with a capture. Kim looked at her in confusion. "You're not exactly following super-villain protocol," she replied. Farrah smirked at her words. "I'm not a super-villain," she answered. "I'm just out for revenge." "What did Tao ever do to you?" Kim demanded, pulling at the plastic zip-tie around her wrists. Whatever miniscule flicker of warmth that was in Farrah's eyes immediately died. She frowned, glaring at Kim with such clear hatred in her face that the heroine recoiled. "It's her fault that my mother is dead," Farrah snapped. "Sixteen years ago, my mother and I were kidnapped and she was murdered because of Tao. My father barely managed to save me." "How is it Tao's fault?" "Dr. Psymon was working with my father for a government project to create a kind of super-soldier. Tao was the result of this project. When Dr. Psymon ran away with Tao, my father was ordered to send troops to recover her. In retaliation, Dr. Psymon ordered Tao to kidnap my mother and I to hold us as hostages to make my father give up. Just before he agreed to leave her alone, she slaughtered my mother." Kim stared at the other young woman in shock. "She was six," she insisted. "And I was three," Farrah said in return. "What does that matter? She killed my mother." "I don't believe you," Kim growled. "I know Tao. She wouldn't have done that." Farrah let out a long, cold laugh. "You have no idea what she really is," she murmured. "Tao was created to be the perfect killing machine-the answer to every problem the United States military has or ever will have. She is the hound that hunts down the government's enemies." "She's not an animal!" Kim shouted. "She's a person just like you and I!" Farrah stood up, the chair skittering across the floor in her haste to stand. She backhanded Kim with enough force to make the red-haired woman lose her balance and fall to the floor, her arms still painfully tied to the pipe. Kim looked up at Farrah, a line of blood dripping from the corner of her mouth. "Don't ever tell me that I'm like Tao," Farrah snarled, eyes blazing with rage. "I'm nothing like her." She turned to walk away, but Kim spoke up. "You're right," she said. "You aren't like Tao. At least she has some good in her." Farrah froze. After a moment, she turned and knelt down, grabbing Kim's chin and staring straight into her eyes. "Don't talk like you know me," she ordered. She stood up and turned, leaving Kim alone in the room. ---------- The guards that stood on duty turned around when the hissing sound of metal heating started to echo in the massive corridor. The metal of the front door was glowing bright red, and began to fall away in large molten chunks. When the door fell away completely, steam filled the doorway from the metal and snow meeting. Shego burst through the cloud and slammed into one of the two guards, pinning him against the wall. The man was about to shout to his comrade, but paled when he saw Tao standing with the second guard unconscious at her feet. "You're going to tell us where Kim is," Shego said simply, holding up a hand. It burst into bright green flames, and she held it close enough to the guard that he began to sweat and whimper. "Where is she?" The guard, trembling and unable to speak, pointed down the hall. Shego glanced in the direction before letting her flames dissipate and punching the man in the forehead. He crumbled to the floor. There was only one path in the hallway. It led to large, metal double doors that stood ominously closed. Tao crouched down and sprang forwards, charging the doors. She hit them in the center with the curve of her shoulder, breaking them down off their hinges with an echoing bang. Shego jogged in after her, her hands dancing with her green flames. "Shego! Tao!" Both women looked up at the cry. Shego, seeing Kim tied to the large pipe, ran forwards immediately. Even if Tao had shouted to warn her, she would not have listened. Thusly, she did not see the two cables flying at her. The cables carried her into the wall, the spikes at the ends of both stabbing deep and hard into the concrete wall. With a suddenness that blinded the three women, lights flashed on and lit up the room. "After sixteen long years, we meet once more." The voice came from a ledge ten feet above the ground, from a man in dress military attire and with gray hair. He smirked at Tao rather viciously. "You remember me, don't you?" "And you remember me," another voice said from across the room. Farrah stood leaning against the wall, glaring at Tao. "It's time to settle this Tao-once and for all. You will die here." Despite the situation, Shego snorted. "And who's going to do it?" she inquired. "You?" Farrah smiled darkly. "No," she answered. "Tao is going to kill herself." A panel slid up from the wall beside her. The sight that was revealed was eerie. Tao stood just beside Farrah, smirking at herself. Tao's eyes widened in shock, and the two stared at each other. "Kill her," Farrah murmured. The Tao that stood beside her vanished in a blur, but reappeared in the center of the room, where Tao originally had stood. She hit the wall, having been slammed into by her clone. After a moment, she sprang back off the wall and launched herself at Tao. The two stood in the center of the room, trading blow after blow. "I'm sure you want to know how I did this," the man said. "With the blood that Tao wiped off on Possible, I was able to create a clone. With the proper acceleration, the answer to my problems was created." Small bursts of blood erupted from each strike, claws on both hands and feet tearing into flesh. The sheer force of the kicks, punches, and open-handed swipes sent one Tao flying, the other laying chase. They hit the walls, running along them to reposition themselves for powerful blows. When they leapt, a crack rang out and they hit the ground. Unable to see which was which, Kim and Shego watched in horror as Tao fought Tao. A scream-a scream filled with such pain that Kim felt tears come to her eyes-suddenly came from one of the two. One Tao was kicked away, and when both stood, Shego drew a breath in terror. One Tao stood with four bloody gashes shredded over and through her left eye, the eye completely destroyed. The other stood, holding her right arm, which extended at a strange angle. Both women were panting from exertion, blood dripping onto the floor around them. "How can you just watch this?" Kim demanded, shouting through tears. Farrah and the man did not reply, instead watching the two women in the center of the room. "They're killing each other! Even if you wanted revenge, this is just sick!" Farrah only continued to stare at both of the women, something smoldering deep in her eyes. The Tao with the broken arm charged forward, leaping up and clamping her fangs onto Tao's right shoulder. Before she could leap back, however, Tao grabbed her around the middle and would not release. The sound of raw electricity began to ring out in the room. After a short time, Tao let go. Tao fell to the floor and twitched only a few times as her skin let off steam before falling still in death. Kim and Shego stared in horror at the corpse. Farrah stood straight from the wall, taking a few steps towards Tao. She heard the sound of a gun being cocked, however, and turned. She froze when she saw her father aiming the gun at her. He smiled at her and pulled the trigger. Farrah stood in shock when the splash of warm blood hit her in the face. She could not find it in herself to recoil when Tao, shoulder pierced through by the bullet, put her arms around her. The silver-haired woman panted with weariness and pain, but swallowed and looked at Farrah with her remaining eye with a faint smile. "I swore to protect you." Tao spoke, and Farrah heard. Her voice, though laced so heavily with pain it could not help but tremble, was gentle. "I promised your mother I would. And I could not speak until now because you would never have believed it." She took a deep breath, pulled her arms away, and turned around. Tao cast her arms out, creating a shield from her body. "Once again, you get in my way," the man, Dr. Green, sighed. "Didn't you learn your lesson sixteen years ago?" Tao smirked at him. "I learned my lesson from the woman you had murdered," she replied. Farrah's eyes widened at the words. "What?" she asked in a whisper. Tao looked at her over her shoulder with a sad smile. "I didn't kill your mother, Farrah," she said. "Your father commanded three of his soldiers to take you and your mother captive and kill you both." "Why?" Farrah asked. "Why?" Dr. Green demanded. "You ask 'why?' Your mother was a fool. If she had gotten her way with my superiors, Tao here would have been free to live her life as a monster in the human world. She even did a psychological study on her by seeing what would happen if she played with a three-year-old child after six years of military training. You were her playmate, Farrah. "The report was a bullet in the head for my super-soldier project. It showed how much damage Tao's mind was beginning to suffer. She was restless in her training-but you, little Farrah, your influence was helping her to become something less like a weapon and more like a person. You and your mother had to die, and Dr. Psymon and Tao were the perfect scapegoats." "But why did you save me?" Farrah asked in a whisper to Tao. Tao smiled over her shoulder again. "When you played with me, I smelled something from you," she murmured in return. "I had no idea what it was, but I always wanted to smell it again and again. I wanted to be around you. There was no way I could have understood what I felt when I was six until recently. I love you, Farrah." She turned back to Dr. Green, smirking at him. "Playing a shield?" he asked. "You assume that I won't kill you because I need you for my project." "Pretty much," Tao replied. "Clones aren't as good as the real thing." Dr. Green chuckled. "And soda is rarely used as weaponry in war," he answered. "You're expendable." He cocked the handgun once more. Tao tensed, readying her body for the next bullet. Dr. Green smirked when he saw his daughter move and fired his shot. Farrah pushed Tao out of the way, the bullet piercing her thigh completely. She let out a cry of pain, falling to the floor from lack of balance. Tao stared at the blood that seeped from between Farrah's clenched fingers. Dr. Green chuckled at the sight, but gasped when Tao suddenly appeared in front of him. Her fangs were bared, a tiger's growl rumbling from her throat. Her remaining gold eye burned with the purest of rage. Without any hesitation, she grabbed him by the throat and snapped his neck. After he fell to the floor, Tao heaved herself over the ledge, clinging to the wall to keep from falling. She walked to Shego and pulled the cables from the wall to free her. Shego in turn ran to Kim and sliced the plastic zip tie apart, pulling the other woman close. "I'm OK," Kim murmured over and over, hugging Shego just as tightly as the black-haired woman did to her. "Are you all right?" Shego chuckled weakly, rubbing Kim's head affectionately. "I'm fine, Kim," she answered. "Let's just get out of here." She stood and turned around, flames surrounding her hands. Sphere after sphere of powerful green flames were hurled at the door until it fell away in soft molten hunks. To their surprise, Tao was already walking for the door, carrying Farrah in her arms. "Tao, stop!" Kim said, both she and Shego running to the silver-haired woman. "You're hurt!" The gentle smile that Tao gave them made them stop where they stood. "My legs are fine," she said. "I can at least get Farrah to the hospital for her leg." "Tao, she threatened to kill you five minutes ago!" Shego snapped. "Why are you helping her now?" "Because I love her," Tao repeated. "Come on." She turned and walked out the door, Kim and Shego following her after a moment and a shared, confused glance. The night and a new snow were starting to fall when the four women left the military facility. It was only just beyond Upperton, and in a bare five minutes, they had entered into the city. What people there were on the sidewalks parted when they saw Kim leading Tao towards the nearest hospital, Shego walking just behind them to ward off attackers that did not appear. When they walked into the hospital, the doctors and nurses that were walking their rounds stopped. It was a quiet moment, the only sound the ticking of the clock in the front lobby and the faint dripping of blood from Tao's wounds. Tao smiled at no one and everyone. "She needs your help," she said. "Could someone help?" Her words caused a stir. A doctor shouted for a gurney, which was rushed over to where Tao stood by two nurses. Tao gently laid Farrah onto the gurney, smiling at her. She made to step back, but felt her consciousness swirling away from her. Tao hit the ground with shouts and cries accompanying her into darkness.
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