Frozen Rubber Band

By RavenStarfire

Author's Note: Yeah, it's another Dark/Evil Kim story. Only the Kim here isn't, uh… as twisted as the Kim in Agnafit... Anyway, this came out of a plotbunny I could not ignore, one that I got after reading Shallow15's The Hyde Factor. Gonna be another short story here… Probably two chapters with room left at the end for me to continue it at some point in the future (stupid plotbunnies taking time away from my original project! Argh!)

CHAPTER ONE: DILABOR

The crash of thunder and lightning awoke her. She looked outside, seeing the rain pour down. "Oh my god – the robots…Eric…RON!" She leapt out of bed and tore open the door. "HANG ON, RON! I'M COMING! JUST HANG-"

"Whoah! Whoah! Kimmie, Kimmie, Kimmie!" Mrs. Possible grabbed her daughter into a calming embrace. "Relax! It's over, Kimmie! You won. You stopped Drakken and Shego. They're in jail. And you had a wonderful dance at the prom with Ron."

Kim stared at the woman embracing her. Her eyes and lip quivered as tears began to roll down her cheek. "How do I know you're not a synthodrone?"

Mrs. Possible looked right into her daughter's shaken eyes. "You'll just have to trust me, Kimmie."

"I-I don't know who to trust anymore, M-Mom… I…I - I have all these sweet and romantic memories of Eric – turns out they're all just a bunch of fucking lies!" She looked up at the stern glare in her mother's eyes. "Er – sorry…But – But, see, now…Now I don't know if this is my real house, I don't know if that's my real room, I don't know if this is the real you – Hell, for all I know, this could all be just one gigantic Truman Show set Drakken's put me in – and – and – and – and I-"

"Shhh…" Mrs. Possible hugged Kim as long as she could as the teenager cried. "You're with Ron now. Just remember that."

"But – What if he's a–"

"Kimmie, please…Goodness, I've never seen you like this before…What is going on?"

"I –" Kim sighed, collecting herself. "I guess now that I'm out of the heat of the moment, all those emotional reactions I shoved aside so I could focus on stopping Drakken are coming back up to the surface…Ugh…" she growled fiercely. "Drakken must be so proud that his mind games finally actually had an effect on me."

"Kimmie, please…Look, just get some breakfast, then go lie down somewhere and get some rest - which is what I'm guessing is all you need. Time and rest."

"Yeah. Time and rest. Sure, I won't be getting that today at all." Kim grit her teeth, a sudden wave of rage boiling up through her as her mother looked on in confusion. "Oh, just watch, Mom. Just watch. You'll see. I'll be off on another mission before noon, unless Wade somehow miraculously falls asleep. Christ almighty, could we just have ONE law enforcement agency in this world that was FUCKING COMPETENT? That'd be great. That'd be just so great – because then I wouldn't need anything this morning except breakfast, would I? Goddammit, where the fucking hell was Global Justice last night? Drakken unleashes a worldwide crisis, and they can't even show up for the mop-up operations after it's over? Jeezus, even the police in all the cities were at least together enough to show up after we stopped the fucking operation… God! No one can fucking stop these people anymore, no one can fucking keep anyone locked up for even a day now, everyone's always sleeping on their asses with "Get Kim Possible to do it" as their snooze button-"

"Kimberly Anne Possible! Look at me right now, young woman!" Startled, Kim looked up into her mother's eyes. "For one, watch your language. And for two –" Mrs. Possible embraced her daughter again. "Just – Just calm down, please, honey. I know Drakken really rattled you last night, but you're really starting to scare me here with how rattled you are. Again: It's over. You won. Drakken didn't. That's all you should care about."

"Why?" Kim snapped.

"What?"

"Why does that have to be all I should care about, Mom? That's great. I beat Drakken again. I've done that before. And you know what, Mom? NO ONE I'VE EVER STOPPED HAS EVER HAD THEIR FUCKING TRIAL! WHY? BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS FUCKING ESCAPE BEFORE THEIRS STARTS! Yeah, I should really ignore the fact that Shego, Drakken, or anyone else I've faced has another chance to escape from prison and ruin everyone's lives AGAIN? What happens when Drakken and Shego bust out again? He got so close to victory last night, he's gonna be more pissed than I am right now! Christ, knowing him, he'll probably just build a fake nuke and a real nuke, send Shego to a city on the other side of the world with the fake nuke to divert me, then drop the real nuke on Middleton! Or, shit, forget that – What if he just buys a gun and shoots you, Dad, and the Tweebs at night while I'm upstairs asleep? What if he - WHAT IF HE SHOOTS RON IN HIS SLEEP, MOM? He's always been unstable, so I wouldn't be surprised if stopping him last night finally tripped his cord, and I know he wants to make my life miserable more than he wants to kill me! Either he'll do it, or some other villain I've pissed off will do it eventually, Look, Mom, I don't know when, but sooner or later someone's gonna go so far that we'll reach the point where the only options are A) They kill me, or B) I kill them!"

"KIMBERLY!"

Startled again, Kim looked up as her mother bent over and helped pull her hand out of the hole she'd apparently punched in the wall – glaring at her the whole time.

Kim looked down, slowly unclenching her fists with a sigh. "…You're right. You're right. I'm sorry, Mom. It's just-"

Mrs. Possible hugged her daughter tighter than she'd ever hugged her before. "I understand you. Which is why you just need to get some rest. This is the furthest from you that I've ever seen you get, honey. You're really scaring me right now, Kimmie. I don't want to be scared of my daughter. Do you understand me?" After a moment, Kim nodded. "Thank you…and Kimmie? IF – you find yourself starting to worry about something like – oh, say, who to trust – Trust yourself first. I can't tell you who to trust, because I don't know the people you trust as well as you do. You'll know more than anyone else. You'll know."

Kim smirked warily. "…Thanks, Mom." Lightning and thunder crashed outside, making her jump just slightly.

"You're welcome, Kimmie." Mrs. Possible closed the living room curtains, then leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. "Calm down, and stay put. Your father's already at work, so you'll have a nice calm house once I get your br - BOYS, STOP STEALING THE SILVERWARE FOR YOUR UTENSIL ROCKET AND COME ON! YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE!"

"Aw, man…" The Tweebs put back the forks they were trying to stuff in a fanny pack and grumbled over to the front door.

Kim waited until she heard them drive away, then fell back on the couch, breathing a sigh of relief. "It's over." She laughed to herself. "It's over…"

As if on cue, the Kimmunicator beeped.

And the rage boiled back up again. "Oh, fucking HELL!" Kim barely heard the lighting and thunder outside as she bolted upright. "Wade, if you're going to tell me Drakken and Shego have already escaped again – DON'T. Because I am so in the mood to just fucking kill anyone if I have to go after them today…"

"Whoah! You okay there, Kim?"

"No. I'm not!" she snapped - before sighing and rubbing her forehead. "Sorry, Wade…I guess I'm just having a bit of post-Lil' Diablo stress…"

"Uh, yeah – Anyways, it looks like the Battle Suit's gonna be out of commission for a week."

"Oh, okay. Thanks, Wade."

"No problem. Uh, Take it easy, I guess. Oh, yeah – I don't think you're gonna have to worry about any missions for a while. GJ was so embarrassed by their no-show last night, they've already quadrupled their number of active field agents. They can probably handle anything that comes up for now."

"Hopefully…Thanks, Wade." Kim turned off the Kimmunicator, flopped back down onto the couch, rolled onto her side to grab the remote, and turned on the TV.

"Not even 24 hours since their arrests in relation to the Lil' Diablo world takeover scheme, Dr. Drakken and Shego have already escaped from prison, easily alluding any effort to find them. They are believed to now be somewhere in the forests, perhaps hiding out at rest stops along the highways..."

She instantly stood up, staring slackjawed and furious at the TV for a moment – until she could hold back no longer, and her rage spilled out like a monsoon. "THEY BROKE OUT ALREADY? AFTER THEY FUCKED WITH MY LIFE THAT MUCH, THEN TRIED TO KILL ME? WHERE THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOUR OTHER AGENTS WHO CAN HANDLE ANYTHING THAT COMES UP, BETTY? EATING THEIR MORNING DONUTS BACK AT THE FUCKING STATION?" The Kimmunicator sailed into the TV screen, which exploded in a shower of sparks and glass.

Kim sat back down on the couch, burying her head in her hands, trying to forget the memories of last night. Drakken had almost outsmarted her. Slipped Eric the Synthodrone into her life, giving her some of the best memories of her life – until they turned out to mean nothing but pain… She'd kicked Shego into that tower – Shego…

"No. That's it. That's fucking it. There's only one way to stop them now…"

Lightning and thunder crashed, illuminating the room briefly as Kim looked up.

"It's over."

END CHAPTER ONE