iyiw: Cage Bats, Kissing, Cooking & Conundrums
Disclaimer/Author's Notes: Kim Possible and all the characters of the show are owned by the Disney Company. All other characters can be blamed on the author (he, however, is not responsible for all of their actions at all times, being barely responsible for himself most of the time).
This is a strictly not-for-profit, just-for-fun work.
Enjoy! Please read and review.
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A/N Forward:
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This is, indeed, another entry in the "if lovin' you is wrong" multi-verse.
The idea can be blamed on kt and the story she asked me to beta: no idea how it happened, but it did. I fully suspect she let loose a pack of pregnant plot bunnies in my study and giggled while she did it.
I tell people: write what you know, so this is a spin-off from the Blue Eyes, Shining arc. The question came up: what would have happened if the Lowardians had started to use biological warfare?
A warning to readers: multiple character deaths occur in this story, and the Angst Monster gorged on peanut butter and macadamia nut cookies. You have been given notice…
…and, now, on with the story…
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iyiw: Cage Bats, Kissing, Cooking & Conundrums
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Chapter 1: …a friend, indeed…
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(Nine months after Graduation….)
"I'll be back, abuela de generosidad," Zita Flores said as she watched her grandmother close her eyes and smile at her just before she closed the hospital room door. She started walking down the hallway and had taken just a few steps before the young woman's eyes filled with tears.
Her abuela, generous with her time and talents beyond everyone's imagination, was dying, and she recalled her closing her eyes with a smile, 'maybe, for the last time,' she thought sadly.
She had only a short time left, and Zita was happy that she had been able to spend as much time with her as she wished.
She hadn't told her about the breakup, though: her abuela loved Felix and would have been devastated to learn that he had called off the engagement.
Zita still didn't know why, even after all these months. Felix had disappeared two days after he had broken up with her, and she hadn't seen him since.
She walked down the corridor of the hospital wing, glancing mindlessly at the names next to the doors. The hand-printed names, on small white paper cards were, at times, almost impossible to read, like some the handwriting of several doctor that she knew, so she almost ran into the wall when she saw one name that was done so perfectly clear and easy to read that it stood out like a huge beacon in the starless night. She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the printed name, a name that she knew all too
Felix Renton.
She back-tracked the few steps she had taken before the name had really sunk in and stared at the name printed on the white card, convinced that there must be a mistake. Reaching up, she felt the letters:
they were real.
She decided to see if she was going crazy, or if one of Kim's supervillians was into cloning…again.
She knocked quietly on the door.
"Yes, come in," a familiar voice replied.
Zita threw the door open and stared from the doorway at her former fiancé, lying in the single hospital bed in the room. Felix looked over from where he was watching the television set and dropped the remote in his lap. 'Merde,' he whispered inside as he saw who had thrown the door open.
He grabbed it up and quickly punched the off button, leaving the room filled with only the sounds of the machines. "Zita! What are you doing here?" Felix looked shocked, but he knew he'd been busted, one more time. 'How did she find me?' he thought, but he didn't have a chance to think much more because Zita took the assault.
"I come up here to visit my abuela, Felix. I walk down the hall, and I find you in here," she crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him. "Is this why you broke off our engagement, Felix: because you got sick?"
"No, Zita, I'm not sick," Felix replied, his voice stronger than Zita expected to come from him, considering that he was in a hospital bed. "I'm dying," he added calmly, finally saying it out loud to someone other than his mother and his doctor.
Her reaction was partially what he expected, but he got more:
Zita gasped, put her hands up to her face, and walked calmly over to Felix as the door closed behind her. As she neared the bed, her face became unfrozen from shock and morphed into something different…
…as she slapped him across the face with everything she had, leaving her handprint squarely embedded squarely across his cheek.
"You…you…," and she launched into a string of Spanish that echoed around the room and out the closed door, almost as loud as her slap accompanied by a stream of tears that flooded onto Felix's bed and the floor as she backed away from him, the speed and volume of her words both increasing with each word. Felix was very glad that he didn't understand her, because he was certain the he would have been blushing to hear them come from Zita's mouth. It was the tears, though: those tears that he was not expecting that ripped him in two. That was harder to take than the slap.
"What did you expect me to do when I read about your passing in the newspaper, Felix?" Zita screamed as she suddenly switched back to English and wiped away the excess water, allowing her eyes to bore through to the inner workings of his very soul.
"I wanted to spare you my pain, Zita: that's why I broke up with you. I couldn't put you through what I've been through these past months," he unknowingly winced as he remembered the screams, the pain, the fear and pain on his own mother's face, his own fears….
…'and yet, her tears, Zita's verdammenswert tears', he thought. That's what he couldn't take inside. It was tearing him up like a piece of full sheet of paper in a cross-cut media shredder and ripping his heart, as well.
"Spare me?" She snarled. "You broke up with me, didn't tell me why, and you wanted to spare me?" She spat a few more words in Spanish with the venom of a cobra that he was sure wasn't very polite, accompanied by even more watery streams…
…and then, she laughed in his face. "You're such a gringo, Felix Josiah Renton: you couldn't imagine that I'd want to be with you, no matter what happened?"
"Well," he began, and he stopped as she pulled his head forward so that his lips were mere millimeters from hers.
"You're stuck with me until you're gone, now," she whispered.
"No," he said sharply and pushed her face away from him with all the force he could muster.
Zita looked angry enough to let loose a full "Poncho Villa"-like onslaught of Spanish that would easily compare to her first bombardment after she had slapped him hard enough to practically unhinge his jaw.
"I can't kiss you," Felix said, his voice just above a whisper as he lowered his face.
"You can't, or you won'tkiss me, Felix?" she spat back, her voice angry and almost back to the same volume it had been just before she had left her hand print on his cheek. Now, her tears were no longer of sadness: they were filled with pure anger, and a fire burned brightly behind them, one that could have made Shego envious.
Lifting his face, tears streaming from his eyes now, he again repeated "I can't kiss you." He paused for a second then whispered "I don't want to kill you."
She stopped speaking and stood there in a full quandary at what her ex-boyfriend had just said. The shock, this time around, was nothing like what she'd previously felt.
At the shocked look on her face, he motioned for her to sit on the bed. Taking a deep breath and her hand in his, he began to tell her what happened.
After he finished, Zita's now falling tears matched his. Twin tears, like waterfalls of exquisite beauty, fell for the love that she still had for him and he still, she hoped, he had for her..
"You did all that, why?" she asked in a voice filled with both concern and compassion.
"I had to make certain that you would make it, Zita," he smiled. "A world without Zita Flores is no world that I'd want to leave behind," he grinned.
Zita smiled weakly. "Smooth talker, 'wheels,'" she replied, and Felix laughed. His laugh was infectious, and Zita joined him only a few seconds later.
"Wow, Zita, that felt good," Felix said when they both finally quit laughing. "You don't know how long it's been since I laughed like that."
"After Graduation," she reminded him, "at the beach?"
He smiled. 'Good times, good times,' he remembered Zita riding with him most of the night and the feel of her sitting on his lap. "Do you understand?" he asked, and she nodded.
'It's so not fair,' she thought, and then she had to ask: "Well then, can I at least hold you?"
"Yes, you may," he laughed again, and she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him so tight he wheezed jokingly.
"I want to hold you for as long as I can," she whispered, "until I can't hold you any longer," she added, and her tears soaked the shoulders of his hospital gown.
"You won't have long to wait," Felix, a huge smile on his face, whispered when she finally let him up for air.
"I don't care," she whispered. "As long as you have," she leaned in again for another hug, and Felix didn't complain.
'As long as we have together,' she whispered inside her head…
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Zita came in, three days later, and found Felix sitting up in his bed, looking not at all well. He turned his head when he heard her enter the room, and he held out his arms.
She crossed the distance quickly and grabbed him, holding him tightly. She was shocked to feel how cold he was.
"Mom died last night in her sleep and I'm not doing real well, either," Felix said, and Zita held him even tighter and cried for the woman she had already bonded with as her future mother-in-law, so many months ago after their first meeting over dinner.
"Zita," Felix said softly, and he pulled back. She was shocked to see the look on his face. "I'm scared," he whispered, and her heart broke as she pulled him back to her, once again. "Will you stay with me until…" he hesitated to ask.
She had no qualms about her response:
"As long as you need me," she whispered into his ear, "as long as we have," she added, and she felt him nod his approval.
"I love you, Zita," he whispered.
"I love you, Felix, my handsome, wonderful cat," she whispered and squeezed…
And she felt him take a breath, and then no more.
Her tears falling, she decided that she didn't care, any more.
She leaned in and kissed his lips before they could turn cold.
"As long as we had," she said as she laid him back on the bed, closing his eyes as the nurses came rushing, trailed by the doctor. "I'll always love you Felix," she whispered as she felt her heart break and then heal in just moments as her tears suddenly stopped falling.
The doctor walked over to Felix and felt his wrist. She reached over and turned off the screaming monitor and nodded to the nurse after looking at her watch: "time of death: 9:47 AM MDT."
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"As long as we had," Zita whispered as she placed the single red rose on the casket at the gravesite of her BFF and a matching one on the casket of Dr. Rebecca Renton. She heard her mom, Gabrielle, sniffle behind her as she also placed roses on the caskets. She raised her head and took the four steps from the caskets to the podium to look out over the crowd of people that had come to give their respects.
"We are here to celebrate the lives of two people," she began, "but not any ordinary individuals. Dr. Renton and her son, Felix, willingly gave up their lives as they researched and discovered the 'lovely parting gift,'" Zita laughed, "left to us by the Lowardians: a virus, released over Middleton by the pods on their landings that, if left unchecked, would have started their assault by killing everyone on the planet with a compromised immune system.
"The virus was designed to mutate, however, so that after all with compromised immune systems were gone, the virus would then go on to kill the rest of the human race. Dr. Renton and her son identified the virus, created the nanobots that were released into the atmosphere over the city of Middleton, and saved the planet. The dual purposes of the nanobots were to destroy the virus and then to self-destruct at the completion of their tasks. Unfortunately, the virus had already attacked several individuals in Middleton, and the self-same nanobots that they created to save us all could not, in fact, save all of them…nor, could they save their creators.
"The death toll of 200 in the Tri-Cities area: Upperton, Middleton, and Lowerton, was a small price to pay for the safety of the entire world, but it came as a very personal cost to me," Zita continued. "I lost my fiancé and future mother-in-law as both were infected, and they spent their final months and died, saving the world."
She stopped and stepped away from the microphone, pulling out her handkerchief and wiping her tears.
"I lost my best friend," Gabrielle said into the microphone, "but what she was doing doesn't surprise me: she was the strongest woman I know, so her saving the world was no surprise. Rebecca, I'm going to miss you, my friend, but you will always be in here," she touched her heart and stepped away from the microphone.
"I lost my best male friend, a true hero," Ron Stoppable said after he stepped up to the microphone, Rufus on his shoulder. "It isn't the hoops I'll miss, or all the games of Zombie Mayhem I would have lost," he grinned. "It's something even more important.
"Felix accepted me as an equal, a friend, even though he was way smarter and more athletic." Ron paused for just a moment then went on, "In my years with Kim, one of the things she taught me was what it means to be a true hero. "A true hero keeps going," Kim says, "no matter the odds or what is ahead." Kim has called me a hero every now and again, but I do what I do for her. Felix did what he did because, as he told me after he was infected, 'it's my job, Ron; just like yours is to take care of Kim,'"
Ron paused again and wiped his face with the back of his hand. "He's a hero, because he kept going, even when so many other people could have just folded up or gone into hiding. Not Felix," Ron smiled. "Felix, man, I'm gonna miss you," Ron said, placing his wireless controller on top of the casket.
"And, Mrs. Renton, in case you never heard it, you were a bon-diggity Mom and a real beauty; that's one reason Felix had so many friends willing to come over," he smiled. "Thanks for being there, for Felix, for me, for all of us," he concluded, placing a single white calla lily on her casket. He then stepped away from the microphone. As he walked away, Rufus handed him a huge white handkerchief and wiped his own tears with a small tissue, both of which he'd managed to secret out of Ron's pocket.
"I lost a dear, dear friend," Kim Possible stated as she stepped up to the microphone after placing a single white rose on each of the caskets of Felix and his mother. "Felix made me realize one of my greatest faults: my inability to face my own mortality. He showed me that when I first met him," Kim smiled, "and made a total fool out of myself, trying to keep both my feet out of my mouth whenever I talked to him.
"He taught me he wasn't disabled, but that he was just differently enabled. He taught me about 'cage bats,'" she smiled, "allowed me to play hoops with him, and even saved me on a mission."
Kim stopped and pulled out a tissue, wiping her face. "Felix spent far too much of his precious remaining time here, telling me that this wasn't my fault," Kim's tears were now even more evident as she spoke, "that I wasn't to blame for the Lowardians causing this just because Warmonga came back to Earth with Warhok. This was their plan on the first visit, but Warmonga's defeat delayed the release of the virus. They released the virus when they dropped the first pods on the Tri-Cities area: the die was cast, even before they perished.
"Felix, you are the one who really can do anything."
Kim paused once again, this time looking down at Felix's casket before continuing. "And, Mrs. Renton: thank you for talking to me like an adult, rather than like a stupid kid who didn't know anything about Felix's condition, that day when I first met you. My only hope and prayer is that I can be as strong as the two of you," she concluded, turning and placing bouquets of red, yellow, and white roses on both caskets and, then picking up a basketball and placing it on Felix's casket.
Kim took Zita's hand and led her back to a seat in front of the microphone. Ron reached up and took the hands of both of the ladies, helping them to their seats and placing Zita between the two of them and Gabrielle on his other side. "She needs both of us, KP, and Gabby needs us, too," he had explained to Kim earlier as they had ridden to the gravesite, and Kim had, reluctantly, agreed.
The vacant spot at the microphone did not remain vacant for long.
"We are here," a general stepped to the microphone, "to represent the nations of the world in honoring the Renton family. Many of you did not know that Felix's father was a member of the Department of Homeland Security as a member of the Secret Service," he continued, eliciting gasps from several people, "and that he died in the line of duty, saving several individuals at the loss of his own life. His widow and his son have made their husband and father proud in following the Renton tradition.
"With the approvals of several heads of state," the general continued, "we will render honors to our fallen heroes," and the general saluted Zita, Gabrielle, and Kim, then stepped forward, opening a case that he held under his arm.
"Mrs. Flores, Ms. Flores, Congress has voted, unanimously, to award both Dr. Rebecca Renton and Felix Renton the Congressional Medal of Freedom, posthumously," he pulled out both of the medals, encased in their glass. "This is nowhere near what they deserve, ladies, but it's all that we can do."
He gave them each a medal and then saluted again, dropping the salute slowly, and turned to the armed and unarmed men, all standing.
Soldiers from every continent, over 20, all lifted their arms. Only the American soldiers, holding loaded weapons, fired, again and again, rendering an unheard-of 21-gun salute for non-military persons.
The roaring sounds came over the mountains as a formation of blue jets came barreling from the Rockies, six jets in all. Two of them pealed away: one to the right, and one to the left, as the remainder of the formation screamed by, overhead. Zita smiled as she saw the two jets each releasing a trail of smoke: one pink, one blue.
"Mrs. Flores, Ms. Flores," the general stepped forward once again, a folded flag now in each of his hands. "On behalf of the President of the United States, on behalf of a grateful nation, and on behalf of a grateful planet," he handed the first flag to Gabrielle and then handed one to Zita. He then stepped back and saluted both ladies.
The rose petals on both caskets fluttered their approval as the sole bugler began "Taps."
Ron felt Zita and Gabrielle squeeze his hands so tight that his eyes glowed blue for a moment, and blue tears fell from his face onto his lap.
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chapter now complete
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Translations:
Abuelo – (Spanish) grandmother
generosidad - (Spanish) generous
verdammenswert – (German) damnable
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What happens next? Stay tuned for Chapter 2: …someone special, this way gives…
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2009.10.30
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