This is a sequel to "The Deadly Embrace of Desire", which concentrated on the single night of forbidden passion between Kim Possible and Monkey Fist. After she leaves her monkey lover/enemy behind, several weeks into months later she faces him off in "Oh, No! Yono!" and we all know how it ends for Monkey Fist. This new oneshot is Kim's troubling feelings for the man now as stone and walking the Yono's path. The main issue is, Ron is her life now - and how can she ever tell him the truth about her one-night stand with their arch foe?

I do not own Kim Possible.

Chapter One

Love and Memory on the Line

"KP, what's the matter?"

She had not been able to look at her best friend and wonderful boyfriend in the eyes ever since they returned home to Middleton following the collapse of the Yono shrine - and the taking of Monkey Fist down with it. The entire time he had been fighting Ron and baby Hana, she was stone as he was now, unknowing what was going on and unable to do anything about it. She could imagine how it was for him now that it would be eternity for him, until another power-hungry unfortunate soul came and awakened him.

It made her cave in on the inside, but she hid it well - especially from Ron.

Until now.

When they returned home, she had not uttered a sound on the plane ride back, and little Hana - defeater of the Yono Destroyer - had cheered her up the best she could, limited as it was. Even Rufus sensed something was wrong with her and had to whisper to his master. Yori and Master Sensei were still leading the repairing of the Yamanouchi School and recovering from the attack by Monkey Fist and the Yono. Which meant she, Ron, the baby and Rufus were going back to their lives...only something inside Kim felt that even though she would continue to be happy and do what she did best, it meant a part of her life was taken away so nothing would be the same again.

A hollow hole in her heart, her gut even, lingered with the knowledge that Lord Monty Fiske - Monkey Fist - wasn't coming back to cause them anymore trouble.

She'd gone back to the Stoppable home with her boyfriend and his baby sister by the time his parents got home to a shocking surprise: their adopted baby girl was actually a little mini ninja in training, but when they calmed down, they were more than happy to have another little fighter in the family. Maybe someday, Hana would end up joining the Yamanouchi School when the time came, or her parents would try and get her to be normal.

Meanwhile, Kim had her own internal issues to worry about. Getting back home, she was in time for dinner with her parents and the dweebs. Anne had noticed how down she was, but she fluently lied and claimed she was tired, and James didn't press either other than congratulating her as he would. Jim and Tim? They called it a case of a broken heart that made her snap that they were seeing things - but maybe they were right; however, was it really a broken heart?

She'd been in Monty Fiske's bed only one time, and that was in the past where it would remain. It was not like anything would have come from it, given their positions, but that single moment of bliss had been truly stunning for their shared first time. However, fleeting. He'd thirsted for power and becoming the Ultimate Monkey Master, but he was so insane that she couldn't even get him to see it. It made her wonder if his valet, Bates, wherever he was now, had tried to get him to see reason. Kim didn't know the servant that well, but how loyal had he been in the beginning?

So many questions with answers she would never get, but this she did gather: Montgomery Fiske was not always a madman lusting for power. He'd been a human being once, highly respected scholar - and their first and only night in his bed had been what a young girl dared to dream of. And that was what made her crack, because the man who awoke the inner blaze in her body was now stone, resting beneath the earth for all time. It was time to move on, but moving on from pain inside wasn't going to be easy. Which brought her back to the current situation.

Ron had phoned and asked if he could come over, given Hana had been put down for the night. It had been a few days since the return, homework out of the way, and they barely even talked about the incident. They'd known each other since kindergarten, so there should be no secrets between them, which made her feel guilty. Kim never once brought up her one-night stand, but was that what it really was? She'd never felt so alive, but this had not been a fairytale she loved as a little girl. This could have been called Beauty and the Beast if not for real life modern means of morality and immorality in one. She'd thought it'd be easy to keep it from everyone around her, even Ron because they had not yet affirmed their feelings at the time...but that final battle with Monkey Fist and the Yono came back to gnaw at her insides like a worm.

"Hey, Kim?" Ron repeated, sitting beside her. "You barely even smiled at me, didn't look at me, and you hardly say a word since we got home. What's eating at you?"

If she said nothing, she'd be lying to him. "Monkey Fist," she answered, finally looking at him and allowing him to see her eyes shining, trying not to cry. Why was she crying? Aside from her unspoken secret between her and Fiske alone, she hated herself for keeping this from her boyfriend and longtime best friend especially. She knew what he would say once she finally spilled the beans after so many months.

"Oh, yeah. But there's nothing to worry about him now, Kim." He leaned up and placed a kiss on her forehead. "He's 'walking the path of the Yono now', as it's put." He shuddered, and Rufus with him; the naked mole rat jumped out from his pocket and plopped in between them.

"But he didn't deserve that," she said softly, looking down at the mole rat who looked at her, blinking and stunned, chattering his concern.

Ron blinked, too, before pulling it together. "Yeah, I suppose you're right, KP," he said, shoulders slumping. "Even though he tried to kill us all, threatened my sister - which I won't ever forgive him for -" he added with an angry twist of the mouth before it softened. "- and tried to take over the world, he didn't deserve to be turned to stone. But it's what he gets for making a deal with the devil."

Kim would have laughed if not for the fact it wasn't funny, but he was right. Pride and power always came before a fall from grace. "But that's not what's really bothering you, is it?" Ron asked suddenly. "That can't be what's chewing you away like a worm eating through an apple."

"You're more than right on that."

"So, now you're going to tell me?"

She cleared her throat, her heart thumping with the fear of his reaction. It would risk the end of everything they had, namely because she kept it locked away long enough, and they were nearing adulthood which meant any form of change.

"Yeah, not long after we returned the Amulet of the Monkey King, and he was taken into custody again before he was released yet again," Kim explained, her guts clenching, "I received a telegram from him, with Wade's help. It was private, reserved for me alone, but there was nothing of the sort involving his schemes or fighting me - nothing of a challenge. He was recently at Mt. Kilimanjaro, but no artifacts involving monkey magic -" As expected, he cut her off with another one of his rants.

"Oh, no, no nonono, monkeys!" he babbled, putting his hands to his ears only to be shut up by both of Rufus' paws on his mouth, turning back to her and winking.

"Thanks, Rufus. Now, he had a...proposition for me." Even that was hard to get out if not worse than what came next.

Ron's adorable chocolate eyes bulged, but he said nothing.

"He asked me to be his...Monkey Queen."

There was a dramatic pause as well as a slackened jaw before Ron yelped out, "Oh, KP, that is sick and wrong!" He practically shrieked, reaching up to tug at his hair.

Kim lowered her eyes in utter shame. "I knew you would say that."

"But what's worse is that I'm afraid to ask what else happened..." His eyes hardened when he lowered his hands back to his sides. "...because I don't think I want to know!"

"I was afraid you'd say that, too."

He calmed down, but only for a moment, when he noticed how he made her react. "Okay, KP, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to jump to conclusions like that, but did you and His Lordship," he said sarcastically, "get to anything else besides you refusing to become his queen of the monkeys?" Rufus shuddered and jumped behind his master's back, clutching at him in an effort to get any disgusting images out of his head.

She felt worse than ever. Perhaps she should have kept her yap shut, but it was too late now. Several long seconds passed before it gave Ron his answer and he finally lost it.

"OH, GOD, KP, YOU ACTUALLY DID IT! YOU HAD SEX WITH THE MONKEY MAN! THAT IS JUST SICK AND WRONG!"

"RON!" she seethed, finally snapping. "Could you keep it down? My parents and the dweebs will hear you!"

He glared at her, not at all like the sweet-mannered, goofy young man she'd grown up with. They had their occasional fights, but this time just about did it. "Well, perhaps that would be a change," he hissed, "because right now I do not know how to take to my girlfriend - the woman I have loved since we were kids - having a one-night stand with the monkey man who tried to kill us both, my baby sister and the whole world! For goodness sake, Kim, you were on stone while he surrounded you with himself and his monkey ninjas, taunting me about his 'handiwork'!" His voice threatened to shake the walls of this room, but he always managed to keep it low between the two of them. It did not make it better, but why should it? She deserved it.

"I know what he did," she said, "and I don't forgive him for that. But this was only one time, and it was before you and I were together as we are now. But how could I get away from him then?"

"Well, I don't know!" Ron threw his hands in the air. "You could have brought me along for the ride, and we should have taken him down like we always did. Or better yet, the authorities as backup."

It wasn't even that simple at the time! But saying that would only make it worse. "He said he didn't want any fighting, that he wanted it to be peaceful," Kim stated, but he still wasn't having it.

"It still does not mean you shouldn't think straight, Kim! I can't believe you kept this from me all this time! Months ago or not, you shouldn't have been with him at all - ugh!" He shook his head and stood up. She wanted to ask where he was going, but it was like one of those awful nightmares where she could not find her voice. She feared he was breaking up with her, breaking her heart like the time she found out Eric was one of Drakken's bots, but this time was different.

A lifetime of friendship, partnership and love was going down the drain...all because of her.

~o~

Ron Stoppable did not know what to think - or feel - anymore. He had thought he'd known Kim, but with what she'd told him, he felt a little more than betrayed. It just...it was so sick and wrong...!

To conjure up such horrific images in his mind was more than he could bear. Kim and Monty Fiske...Monkey Fist, one of their arch foes...oh, it was just wrongsick! His mind was in reels ever since he and Rufus returned home, and by then his parents went to bed. It was approaching eight-thirty, yet it felt like forever since he left the Possible house. Rufus hadn't said a word, didn't know what to say, but what was there to talk about? His best friend since forever, his girlfriend for so many months now and fast approaching graduation and they would both be going to college...he wasn't sure anymore. His gut and his heart were in too much sickness, and his brain was spinning so much it threatened to shut down.

"Why would she do it, Rufus?" he moaned, plopping down on his bed, looking up at the ceiling and not bothering to take his shoes off. He felt too lazy and useless for anything. "She was...with him...that hairy FREAK..." He looked down at the naked mole rat when he raised one paw up and chittered the words that made him worse instead of better:

"One mistake."

He sighed sharply. "Of course it was one mistake! One that she shouldn't have made at all! I mean, yeah, it was long before we got together, but still...he was our enemy." Ron put both his hands beneath his head as an additional pillow if not soft as the one underneath. "It makes me sick, that he would...but he didn't take her by force, did he?" he went on, assuming it was possible. "If he did, she would have said so, but I didn't let her finish..."

He stopped there. That was it: he never let her continue her explanation because he was too angry and wrapped up in his own feelings, but it still did not make what happened right. But, his mind added, Monkey Fist was stoned now, and he would no longer be trouble to them - so he hoped, for all their sakes. For his, for Hana's, for Yori and Sensei and their school...but most of all, Kim's. He still loved Kim despite that one night she told him about.

Ron's mind pricked. He wanted to know more, try and understand, but maybe another time. Or maybe she might not speak to him after his behavior tonight, that she'd try and avoid him more and more from now on.

He bolted up in his bed, horrified. "Oh, man, Rufus! I blew it now! I gotta talk to Kim soon and fix this between us. I shouldn't have let my anger and sickness get the best of me!" Rufus agreed with him, doing a little brief dance that he came to his senses and so soon. Ron couldn't believe it himself; he'd known Kim all his life to just throw everything down just like that - but there was no telling about her. "Well, what do you think, buddy? Should I ring her now and apologize or do it tomorrow at school?"

His other best friend and loyal pet happily said, "Tomorrow!" And it was settled.

Unfortunately, by the next day, they were called on a new mission and forced to postpone the evaluation of their relationship after her revelation.

Damn Dr. Drakken and Shego for this.

First, they arrived and Drakken had to point out how Ron always lost his pants - and that was NOT always true! - and then his girl and Shego broke it out, leaving Ron to grab Drakken's latest taking: nanotronium, or whatever it was called, and Rufus sent the ship out of control long enough for him and Kim to make it out with the recovered formula.

"Nice work," she'd said with a grin, back to the KP he knew and loved, but there were still mends to make.

And best of all, he hadn't lost his pants - until his attention was directed and insulting him. Why did it always happen?!

Now that his attention was directed then, they had been dating for six months, hard to believe as it was. This half an anniversary should be wonderful, and with a visit to her mother's pediatric event for the kids coming up, it should be fun. Maybe things would look up as a start, but it was still far from over.

Maybe it was a coincidence or not that Drakken and Shego were there to steal a new memory recovery invention at the hospital, one of Shego's plasma rays firing into the wall connecting to the room he, Kim, Rufus and the children were in. The MRM - memory recovery machine, it was called. The doctor who made it had said so after the device exploded by accident - at Drakken's clumsy hands - and erased Kim's memory.

Ron's insides fell. His girlfriend's memory had been wiped out!

According to Mrs. Dr. Possible, Dr. Langford - the man who built the machine - was doing the best he could to reverse the process. And that would take months. Kim still had her memories, but she was "unable to access them". Ron desperately wanted to keep his hopes high, but if they could not return her to normal, then she was lost forever. She would never remember him, her boyfriend, her best friend...

And the one who lashed at her for sleeping with an enemy one time. The last cruel thing he said to her was that she lied to him. And he never once made the attempt to apologize to her first in time. What an idiot he was.

Her parents did everything they could from home videos to showing an old television show Kim hated the first time she saw but grew to love. Then more such as doing the dishes, getting better - but there was still him and her. She mistakenly called him Rob instead of Ron. He was trying his best to be patient and understanding, so he was afraid of snapping one day.

What hurt was that she didn't seem too enthusiastic about the "boyfriend" part. The relationship part was what made him feel all the more ailing, but he smiled at her and helped her move on.

At least she remembered Monique, her best friend for life right up with him. Then came her spending at Club Banana - but when he took her to Bueno Nacho, she remembered the place as well as Ned, but still not him or what they had. She also remembered Wade only because Ron himself mentioned, even laughed at the idea of saving the world just because she was a cheerleader; he had to, like, drag her out of there to go after Shego who had been behind a series of robberies, taking advantage of Kim Possible's current state.

Shego was here in Middleton, and had been at the latest bank but Kim hadn't been ready to fight, leaving Ron to fend for his own life. Afterwards, cheer practice hadn't gotten better - until a great basic move which triggered that little step and made Ron proud. It took a few more basics from Wade to help her remember Dr. Drakken, too - and then they were on board on a train in the mountains where soldiers were in danger.

Drakken, the idiot, had to overload the train's engine, therefore forced the wanted uniformed men to evacuate. That left him and Rufus to handle that while Kim went off to take care of the mad doctor himself. The job had not been easy, but he saved the train - and he could not have done it without Rufus or Kim.

Most of all, Kim and her saving the world she remembered.

Then came the most and always embarrassing part afterwards. Because he used the new belt she got him for their "half-a-versary" - a term for dating for six months - to block the pipe steaming the room, his pants fell down. And it was then and there that she remembered giving him the belt...but most of all, he was her boyfriend.

"And I think I...love you," she'd said when she wrapped her arms around him and held him. He felt her heart hammering loudly against his, which he never thought he would feel again. Now THIS was a memory. Rufus was cheering them on.

But then his brain clicked at the one thing that had been nagging at him for so long.

"So, do you remember...Monkey Fist?"

The cover image is this beautiful artwork I found on deviantart, "beautiful moment..." by m-angela, and it is of Kim and Ron after the series finale "Graduation". :') Brings a tear to my eye.

"Clean Slate" which takes place following "Oh, No! Yono!" was perfect for Ron to realize how he could not leave Kim despite her mistake made. :) Of course, some parts were dramatized to make this story work - as well as the ending which leads to the next and last chapter coming up. Stay tuned!