◈ B A S I L I S K ◈
Your head is always in the clouds, dear Doctor. One day you'll drift too close to the sun.
A cruel little tickle of a notion. One Shego welcomed almost eagerly, like a moth savoring the fire it knew would burn it. Destruction was inevitable; it always had been. That light at the end of the tunnel wasn't hope. It was a fuse. And she was the one who had struck the match.
The marble-and-neon sprawl of Nar Shaddaa's upper tiers was no freer than the cell she'd rotted in. The memories of The Institution never quite let go—the dull-eyed routines, the drip of medication that drowned thought in syrup, the slow suffocation of a mind meant to blaze. A year inside had hollowed her out into decades, her once-razor brain smothered into near-stagnation. Only when she escaped had the flame returned, and now it burned with fevered brilliance. But brilliance came with poison.
She was on the bathroom floor of this wretched gala, Shego coughed iron into her hands. Each spasm rattled her frame, veins bulging as if her body might split under its own betrayal. She clutched porcelain like a lifeline, mask rasping as she adjusted valves to steady her breath. By the time she dragged herself upright, washed the blood from her lips, and slicked her black hair back, she looked passable.
Presentable.
A scientist among sharks.
Outside, the party was in full swing: gilded chandeliers clashing with flashing holos, a sea of suits, silks, jeweled implants, and velvet cloaks. Butler droids floated by with trays of glittering drinks and morsels pilfered from half the galaxy. Investors. Crime lords. Politicians. Pretenders of class, every last one. Shego adjusted her turtleneck, gripped her cane, and forced herself into their current.
"Young Doctor!" A voice like nails on glass dragged her from the crowd. She stilled her lip's curl before it could show. "I thought you'd left already! Not hiding, are you? These rooms can be...suffocating for a lab rat." A heavy hand clapped her shoulder.
Her smile came slow, rehearsed. "Mmn? I wasn't hiding. A girl must freshen up, after all." Her words floated like smoke, concealing the sting still clawing at her lungs.
He chuckled, plucking a flute of something shimmering off a tray. "Of course, of course. Before you vanished, you mentioned...what was it? Searching for some lost A.I.?"
"A family of them." She adjusted her glasses, her voice level but sharp. "Advanced designs. Unique. My family's work. It's my understanding two of them passed through your holdings acquired from sources better left unnamed."
His smile twitched. A flicker of recognition, quickly buried under corpulent charm. "Ah, well. You know how it is. Our company handles countless assets: weapons, defenses, even civil programs. Robotics loves their little toys. If something like that came through, it would be processed...somewhere. But specifics?" He sipped, feigning thought. "Hard to say. And if it did exist, Doctor, what would you pay to see it again?"
Her teeth ached with the urge to bare themselves. He had them. She knew he had them. But revealing hunger was weakness. Instead, she let the corner of her lip curl upward, lazy and dismissive.
"Let's just say I believe in mutually beneficial arrangements," she purred. "But I won't break myself chasing outdated relics from a dead world. Curiosity, nothing more." She shifted her weight, brushing past him with the faintest sway of her coat.
"Besides," she added, voice soft but barbed as she disappeared into the crowd, "in a room this crowded, someone is bound to have what I need. Even if it isn't you."
Her cane tapped rhythmically against the polished floor as she plucked a roll of jeweled sushi from a passing tray, chewing delicately. Mask rasping, eyes glittering, she scanned the predators circling the room. The game had begun.
And this time, she was going to win.