A/N: This was inspired by the They That Walk in Darkness series written by Kristen Sharpe and Sage SK! :::hugs Kristen and Sage!::: Consider this a gift to the both of you! I am totally obsessed with that story!

Disclaimer: Beware the Jabberwocky! Um…er…I don’t own SWAT Kats. I don’t own the aptly named Jabberwocky-Not-Appearing-In-This-Story either. ^^

~Razor~

I sit at my workbench in the hangar but for once, I’m not building anything. I’m simply sitting here thinking. Thinking about…them.

Who were they? They were us. Well, they could’ve been us if they had chosen to.

They were the evil SWAT Kats of another dimension.

For the first time since I began my "other job" I finally got a true vision of what could happen if we chose to use our skills, abilities, and weaponry for evil.

Trust me. I didn’t like what I saw.

I still don’t like what I saw.

It was…Well, I really can’t call him "the evil T-Bone", can I? Well, I guess I could, but it just wouldn’t feel right. After all, when I looked in his eyes, I could see he wasn’t completely evil.

I have to say that our meeting wasn’t that great. I thought he was my partner and walked right out of that vault with the Mega Detonator in my paws.

Even though I suggested that we steal that thing before our "evil" counterparts did, I felt decidedly uneasy doing it. After all, here was more proof of how good at being evil my partner and I could’ve been. The Enforcers? No offense to them, but we would’ve been on the third lap and coming up from behind when they were still on lap one. It sounds rude, and I hate to put it that way, but it’s just the way it is. The Enforcers don’t have the technology to match our own. Hard Drive’s little "joyride" in the TurboKat* a while back proved that.

My mind’s wandering. I need to get back on my original thoughts.

Maybe if I just spend some time thinking about that experience and stop trying to push it out of my mind, I’ll actually have some nice dreams tonight.

Anyway…that T-Bone informed me that Dark Kat already knew that imposters of his SWAT Kats were running around. When I turned in surprise, he punched me right in the face. I flew back and landed on the floor. Hard.

My partner has never physically struck me because of rage either at me or someone else once. He has never laid a claw on me out of anger. The only times he attacked me on purpose were when one of Viper’s creations bit him and turned him into a mutated frog** and on that fateful mission when he thought that I was the other Razor.

To be honest when I looked up at who I thought was T-Bone, I was instantaneously afraid. I tried my best not to show it, but I was. I mean, little me versus big, burly T-Bone. It’s practically no contest. I could hold my own for a relatively short period of time, but after that, I’d be toast. T-Bone’s able to karate chop eight cinderblocks stacked on top of each other.*** That’s more than enough strength to break me in half.

I quickly figured out that the T-Bone in front of me was not the one I thought it was. To say the least, I was half-relieved and half-freaked out. There I was standing there face to face with one of the evil SWAT Kats. More specifically, I was looking at a twisted mirror image of my best friend and partner.

I shiver. It’s autumn now, and I know I need to start checking up on that heater for the hangar. We don’t want the TurboKat’s fuel to freeze while it sits down here waiting for a mission during the winter. However, my shivering has nothing to do with the slight chill in the air, and I have no intention at the moment to leave my spot and go look over that heater.

I had gotten a good look into that T-Bone’s eyes when he had me pinned down at one point. I had to know…

People always say that curiosity killed the kat…

I hate that phrase now.

I saw what I didn’t want to see: darkness, rage, and hatred. These black emotions changed what should’ve been familiar bright green eyes into eyes that if I didn’t know whose head they were in, I wouldn’t know whose they were.

I desperately searched, trying to find Chance in those eyes. That’s when I saw that in the very back of his eyes was a small glimmer of light, like hope shining in the darkness. Chance was there, but being blocked out.

That’s when I came to fully understand that these SWAT Kats had been the products of hate and anger. They were nothing more than the embodiment of rage. Most likely, that rage was directed at the Enforcers and Feral. I had felt more than slightly angry after being kicked out of the Enforcers, but being a SWAT Kat has burned most of it out of me. Obviously, those SWAT Kats were burning that anger further into themselves.

But in that moment, that T-Bone saw something in my eyes that he didn’t want to see.

I still remember his words.

"*You* can’t be *him*!!"****

I’m assuming that "him" must’ve been his partner. Most likely before that other Razor also turned towards darkness.

When I dove over my opponent to grab the detonator, I glanced upwards and stared into my own face. For the briefest of seconds, our eyes locked onto each other. I immediately began to search them for some clue as to what he was like. I’m not as experienced reading my own eyes as I am reading, say, T-Bone’s. However, that other Razor was completely different from me, allowing me to read his eyes.

Kats alive…He scared me more than his partner did.

Unlike with his partner, this tom had absolutely no light in his eyes. There was nothing there but hate and rage.

I noticed that – like his partner – this kat seemed…well…filthy. His fur was dingy, like he hasn’t been really taking care of it. His sneering smile seemed…greasy in a way, kinda like one of Dark Kat’s. But it was his ears that really grabbed my attention.

They’d been ripped as though at one point they’d been clawed ragged.

That brief instant of staring into my deadly double’s eyes is still burned into my mind. A possible answer for his ears came to me then, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind since.

Maybe…maybe that T-Bone was responsible for his ears being like that.

Oh, that Razor’s partner had ripped ears, too, but it seemed different. Like maybe he’d gone one on one with someone who could match his strength, but that Razor’s ears had been ripped like somebody who was stronger than him had done it.

I shiver again as I think of what could have happened. A fight between the two possibly? It was obvious that they didn’t like each other. They’d been shouting insults at each other.

I stand up quickly. It’s the old feline instinct: the need to move. I can’t just sit brooding anymore.

As I walk over to the heater, I can’t help thinking about him. My double had been just as surprised to see me as I was to see him.

What had they seen in me? What had they seen in Chance? Did they see parts of themselves that they had thought long gone? Did they see ghosts of what they once were?

Or did they see what I see now: what might have been?

~T-Bone~

I shoulda been asleep an hour ago. That’s when I went ta bed. Logically, when you go to bed, you’re supposed to go to sleep.

Well, I guess I’m not always logical, am I?

I keep thinking about that one mission. I can’t get it out of my head. I’m almost scared to go to sleep at night since I keep having these nightmares.

Jake has them, too. He won’t openly admit it since he doesn’t want to worry me – of course, I won’t either for the same reason – but he has them. I don’t know what his are about, but I sure as heck know mine.

For two or three nights after that mission a week ago I was havin’ nightmares where we were those evil SWAT Kats. We would fight and destroy with no regard for innocent lives. Plain and simple: get in our way and you’re gonna get yourself beaten.

I always wake up in a cold sweat after those nightmares. We’ve both had nightmares before about missions we had been on. (Kats alive, there are times after missions when I think that we’re gonna have nightmares for the rest of our lives.) However, that mission has given me my most terrifying ones.

Like Jake, I don’t enjoy hurting innocent bystanders. That’s why I always try to give Jake a clear shot when we’re up in the air. That makes the risk of hurting innocents a little smaller.

But those two SWAT Kats from that other dimension…

I shake my head. They enjoyed it. They had to have.

Well…maybe they didn’t enjoy it as much as I think they did.

I got a real good look at that evil Razor, and he scared the absolute crud outta me. I’m surprised I missed that he wasn’t my partner at first. Now that I think back, if I had paid a little more attention to him when I saw him for the first time, I probably woulda noticed the green skull on his helmet instead of our red triangle. I woulda noticed a lot of things.

That kat must’ve been drinking sour milk every day since he had been kicked out of the Enforcers…Assuming that had happened to him and his partner. (Five bucks says that’s what happened.) He was almost the most rotten little thing I had seen in my life. I look at my partner now and wonder if he’s capable of being what that other Razor was.

Well, if the evil Razor shook me up, the evil T-Bone did worse ta my nerves. That guy was like me when my temper was going at full fury only twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Kats alive, he wasn’t afraid ta shoot an explosive mini-missile at us when my partner was holding the freaking detonator! He woulda been glad ta blow us ta smithereens!

I guess that T-Bone or maybe both he and his partner really wanted ta kill us when their TurboKat (with the ugly green goblin on the front) began ta chase us in that dogfight from way Downtown. He musta really wanted us bad!

I slide quietly out of bed as I hear the sounds of the TV turning on and the volume being turned way down at a fast rate. Jake is obviously awake again. He should be asleep. Not that I have room to talk being awake myself.

I walk into our "living room". He’s sitting there on the couch, flipping through the channels. He stops when an old black and white movie comes on. He sighs and just puts the remote down on the coffee table.

"Hey," I greet.

"Hey," he answers, looking up at me for a moment.

"Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping?"

"Aren’t you?"

What a fascinating conversation we’re having. So far, he’s repeated almost everything I’ve said.

"Sorry," he apologizes even though I haven’t said anything. "I just…couldn’t sleep."

I glance at the clock. It’s one in the morning. Where did the time go?

As to him not being able to sleep, I think I know why. He had another nightmare. Just like I did before I started all this deep thinking.

I sit down next to him. I can tell that neither one of us is in the least bit interested in the movie. It’s just something to fill up the silence. It’s not an uncomfortable silence, but I know that at least I don’t really know what to say to him.

I think back to my nightmare and try not to shudder. It had been the worst out of this series of unpleasant dreams.

Instead of harming innocent civilians, I was attacking my partner.

It was weird. We were arguing, shouting insults at each other, and I suddenly snapped. (I was the evil T-Bone like in many of these nightmares.) I extended my claws and slashed.

Part of the skin of Razor’s right ear ripped off. He screamed in pain.

I shouted at myself to stop, but my body didn’t listen to me. I kept slashing and slashing, ripping more and more of my partner’s ears off. I was shouting something, but I no longer knew what I was saying. I just kept shouting and ripping, shouting and ripping. All the time, Razor was screaming in pain.

Then, I finally stopped…when his ears had been practically ripped off.

He cowered away from me, terrified of me.

I heard him whimpering quietly to himself even as I stormed off.

I awake with a jolt. I didn’t even know I had fallen asleep to begin with! I shiver at the horrible nightmare.

At this rate, I’m never gonna get a decent night’s sleep.

Something warm is against my side, and I notice that the TV’s still on. I glance down at the warm something, already knowing what it is.

Jake is curled up beside me, shivering and whimpering in his sleep.

I bite my lip, wanting to wake him up but also wanting to let him catch a little bit of sleep before we haveta open the garage for customers. Decisions, decisions…

I turn off the TV after grabbing the remote, careful not to jostle my partner too much. I slowly pick him up and carry him back to his room. Maybe I should go back to sleep as soon as I’ve put him back to bed.

I lay him down on his unmade bed – he musta been tryin’ to sleep before he went ta watch TV – and carefully pull the covers over him. He quivers a little, but doesn’t wake up.

I slip quietly out of the room and head towards my own.

That evil T-Bone…I know he’s a part of me in a way. I am definitely capable of doing the things he did, but I’m not gonna do what he did.

Still, there was a part of him that was still…well…me. Hopefully, he’ll snap outta that attitude and go back to being Chance Furlong.

In the meantime, I’m going ta sleep.

A/N: That was weird. Very, very weird. Anyway, your gift, Sage and Kristen! Hope ya like it!

*Reference to "Night of the Dark Kat".

**Reference to "Mutation City".

***Reference to "Caverns of Horror".

****Direct quotation from Sage and Kristen’s "They That Walk in Darkness: Descent: Long Way Down". Exact punctuation and everything! Scary…Or rather, "Déjà vu City". ;)