I do not own any Disney Character named herein, and am only using them for a tale meant for entertainment purposes only.
Kim Possible: Hearts & Minds
By LJ58
1
Kim sighed.
The redhead was once again scanning the monitors that displayed scenes from all around the world. Only she saw nothing.
Less than nothing.
Everything was peaceful.
Everyone was abiding by the law.
Everyone was being nice.
There weren't even any accidents today.
No traffic problems. No lost pets. No nothing.
"Something wrong, Princess," a sultry voice cooed sardonically from behind her just then.
She turned, eyeing the voluptuous green-skinned woman in the door of the communications room.
"Shego," she murmured without much of a reaction. "Just another boring day in paradise," she complained.
"Isn't that what you wanted? Wished for," she asked, walking over to put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Well, yeah," she admitted. "But….perfection sure leaves you wanting. It seems like nothing is happening any more."
"I wouldn't say nothing," Shego grinned, and leaned down to kiss her cheek. "What say you knock off early, and come play? It's not like anything is going to happen here."
Kim Possible sighed, and tried not to show her new partner and lover how boring even she was getting to be.
It was as if everything in the world had become…too safe. Nice. Law-abiding. It was Utopia to the extreme, and the only person that didn't fit was…
"Kiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmm!"
She turned away from Shego, and stared at the monitors even as the shout rang in her ears. All the screens were now suddenly showing flaming rubble. Giant robots, and bizarre mutant creatures ran rampant everywhere. People were being mauled. Dying. Eaten!
She turned, and stared at Shego who had started chortling almost manically as she visibly changed.
The nice Shego was transforming before her eyes.
The sleek, green silk dress and heels were turning into a familiar green and black catsuit as her hands rose in clawlike shapes as her smile twisted, and turned demonic.
"What do they say about wishes, Pumpkin," the suddenly evil Shego cackled. "Be careful, you might get it in spades," she snarled, and lunged at her, a suddenly glowing hand slashing down through the back of her chair, narrowly missing taking off her head as Kim rolled forward, bounced off the comm-panel, and then somersaulted up and over the manic woman who was now trying to kill her as the world literally burned just outside her headquarters.
"Kiiiiiiimmmmmm," the shout came again. "Can you hear me! Please, hear me!"
She shook her head, blocked a glowing hand from punching through her chest, and was driven halfway across the room by the force of the blow even if it had been deflected. She spun around, looking for her attacker, but Shego seemed to have vanished.
She turned instinctively, but never felt the blow that sent her falling into darkness.
KP
The young man held to the small, limp hand, staring down at the pale face surrounded by tubes and wires.
"Please, Kim," Ron Stoppable rasped, his voice a soft whisper. "You have to hear me. Please, wake up. Please."
"Stoppable," a curt voice called. "Time's up."
Ron turned to eye the man in a blue uniform jumpsuit.
"Visiting hours are over. We can't make exceptions. Not even for you. It's time for the doctors to do their job."
Two men in white stood behind the Global Justice agent, and looked as grim as Ron felt.
"No change," one of the men did ask in a sympathetic voice.
"I….don't know," he admitted, turning to look back at the pale, limp body. "Earlier…. I don't know. It might have been wishful thinking, but…..I would have sworn I felt her hand try to move. Like she was trying to….grab something."
"We haven't had any indicators from her in over three months," Will Du told him grimly. "The physicians….."
"Look. Look at this," one of the doctors abruptly told the other, gaping at the EEG before him.
"Ronald," the bald doctor turned, eyeing the young hero. "When exactly do you think she tried to move? What time?"
"Maybe….thirty minutes ago," he said, just starting to stand. Trying to stall as long as he could. Just wanting to be with Kim for one more second if he could manage it.
"The same time as the REM surge," the doctor with graying hair declared, tapping the readout. "You're right, Mr. Stoppable. It's proof."
"Proof," Ron asked. "What is it? What happened?"
Both men grinned as they faced him.
"Kim Possible isn't brain-dead. She was dreaming! She's still alive. Obviously catatonic, but still alive."
Ron would have sworn his heart thudded to a stop just then as he felt the knot in his chest almost choke him.
"Thank God," he rasped, finding tears suddenly blinding him. "Thank God."
"Now," the bald man said. "We just need to somehow reach her. And, somehow, wake her up."
"Three months," the other admitted. "That is still a long time considering, though. We….might not be able to…."
"No," Ron turned back on him with a sharp glare. "If Kim is alive, she is fighting. Even now, she's fighting. She doesn't know how to give up. So if there is the slightest chance, we will give it to her, and she will make it work."
"Stoppable," Will started to complain.
"You know what I'm saying, Agent Du," Ron shot back at him, cutting him off. "You were one of those ready to give up on her. To pull the plug. Well, this is proof. She's still alive, and she just needs time. Just needs…"
"God! Will you just shut up, and let me get some sleep," a voice grumbled in a complaint garbled by the tubes in her mouth.
All four of them turned to face the only other person in the room.
Kim was frowning. Her eyes were still closed, but she was visibly frowning, and looking irritated. The first sign of emotion on her face in months.
"Kim," Ron called to her.
The doctors both looked stunned, and the man holding the EEG readout was staring back and forth from the printout.
"This is…..impossible!"
Ron only laughed, and turned back to grab Kim's hand again.
"Don't worry, KP. I still have your back. Just come back. We're all waiting, so just come back now!"
A faint groan filtered up from her throat, but the pale redhead didn't speak again. Nor did her eyes open. Nothing on her monitors suggested any true change after that brief surge.
Yet every man there had heard her speak.
"I'd better call Dr. Director," Will Du remarked after a moment, and left without demanding Ron go, too.
Just then, not all of GJ could have dragged the young Monkey-Master out of that room.
KP
Kim Possible sighed wearily.
She was watching kids play in the park.
Their parents were there, watching carefully, because it was still that kind of world.
Kim had come out to picnic with her best friend since forever, but Ron had to leave. Duty called, and while she was sidelined, he was still the hero that the world called on when in need. She turned her wheelchair, conscious of her insensate limbs, and remembered when she could run and jump, and just…move.
She smiled at a young girl that chased a ball nearby, and the girl paused seeing her, then darted away.
She remembered the day she had been injured as if it were yesterday. It was a day hard to forget.
Those two giant aliens had literally conquered their world inside of an hour. Quick, easy, and without a hint of remorse for the thousands dead, or the tens of thousands injured. All while she was trying to fight free of an alien ship in orbit with the most unlikely partner of all time.
Ron had come for her then. Helping to save the world. He, and Drakken. In the end, they saved the planet. Or, Ron had saved the planet. In the end, she had been a potential trophy about to be flayed by the monsters that mocked her. When Warhok had flung her carelessly aside to face the maturing Monkey-Master, she did not know at the time just how badly he had injured her.
She would go another four weeks before the stressed and fractured disks in her lower back would suddenly yield, and leave her helpless. Paralyzed completely below the waist, with a left arm barely able to move. She, the girl who could do anything, was suddenly left in a chair unable to do anything. Now, all she could do was watch as Ron now ran off to save the day.
All she could do was sit and wait.
"Still feeling sorry for yourself?"
She turned to see Shego. Hero turned felon turned hero again.
The woman in a bright green dress walked over to sit on a bench near her. "Anne said you were out here again."
"I like to watch the children," she admitted.
"I figured you'd be married, and having your own by now," the woman who had helped Drew and Ron save the world remarked.
"No. That's not likely. Not now."
"Just because you're stuck in that go-cart? C'mon, Kimberly," she chided her. "A lot of people have it worse, and they still manage….."
"No, it's…. Well, it's not common knowledge, but I could never have children now. Not that I would have before."
"Want to explain that one? Because even I can see you're pretty much drooling over all those little rugrats out here."
"Well, first, it was all those rays, and things. They added up. Wade told me I was pretty unstable on a molecular level. Frankly, even before this, I was afraid what that might do to a child."
"Yeah, I can see that. I'm the queen of unstable metabolisms," she admitted, smoothing her skirt over still firm, muscular limbs. "But surely your doctor, and all those genius friends could help….."
"And after that last surgery, I found out…. Well, they had to remove…..everything," Kim said quietly, fighting the urge to cry.
Again.
"Everything," Shego asked in genuine sympathy.
"Everything. Turned out I was also….. Well, I had some kind of tumors. Could have been cancerous. So….. That was it. I was done. So, no marriage. No kids. Just a slow fade," she sighed, staring out at the kids. "Not the way I ever expected to go out."
"That's crap," Shego spat, and stood up, slapping her viciously across the face.
"Shego!"
"C'mon, what happened to that never-say-die spirit? Anything is possible, right? So get up. Get up right now, and show me you're still my Princess!"
"Oh, shut up. I can't do anything anymore. That's over. I'm done. I just want to…..go to sleep," she told her, dropping her head as her eyes closed.
"Sleep? You're going to sleep your life away here!"
"God! Will you just shut up, and let me get some sleep," she hissed, and yet suddenly found herself on her feet, fists raised, and ready to fight.
Shego grinned a feral grin.
"Told you, Pumpkin. Ready for round two?"
Kim glared, feeling her temper surge, and then she flung herself at her, fists and feet flying as she attacked the woman abruptly wearing her own familiar costume as they fought across the park, scattering children, and heedless of the parents shrieking, and running for their own.
Kim laughed at every step she took, and every blow she flung.
Shego laughed just as loudly, full lips pulled back in a smug grin, and met every strike with a block, or a blow of her own.
KP
"Ah, Dr. Possible," Ernst Starke greeted her as the bald man gestured for her to enter the sealed ICU chamber where Kim Possible now rested. "Good, good. I asked you here today not just as mother, but as a doctor. I'm well aware you are one of the foremost authorities on the human brain. Well, your daughter's brain is….. To be frank… Doing the impossible. We hoped you might be able to help us understand her case."
"What is happening, Ernst," she asked as she walked into the room, her blue eyes focused on her daughter's still, pale form like lasers.
"Three days ago, we received incontrovertible proof that she is not brain-dead as first feared. Young Stoppable even felt her try to move," he told her. "The exact time was marked by a very pronounced spike in REM activity. She was obviously dreaming."
"Ron told me about that," Anne nodded, studying the monitors herself before forcing her eyes from Kim to study her charts next.
"Yes, well, did he tell you she somehow spoke aloud?"
"Kim always talked in her sleep when stressed," Anne admitted. "It was how I sometimes figured out what was really going on in her head at times."
"I see. Well, in the three days since, we have monitored increasing REM cycles that are growing more and more intense even as they last longer."
"Any other outbursts? Movements? Anything of note?"
"Well, the thing is…"
"Give me that," she heard Kim say very clearly even as the chart Anne held was ripped from her hands, hovered in mid air before their eyes, and was then flung across the room to bounce off the wall. It stayed on the floor where it fell as Anne just stared at her still sleeping daughter.
"Yes. A most timely demonstration," Ernst said uneasily. "And now you know why we cleared the room. She has had furniture flying around, too. Anything not literally nailed down…..has become a projectile at times."
"Incredible," Anne murmured, walking over to gently lift one of Kim's lids to peer into her eye.
Her pupil was hugely dilated, and she was obviously not seeing anything.
"Ah, yes," Ernst said, glancing at the monitor now bolted to the wall rather than resting on a table. A lesson learned. "Another REM spike. You see? It is growing more intense, too. This one, if it follows the earlier patterns, will last at least ten minutes before she…fades again. Then it seems as if she is again brain-dead. Yet, obviously…..something is going on. What do you think?"
Anne stared at her daughter.
"I'm calling Wade."
"Wade? But he isn't…"
"Only he can answer the questions I have to ask," she told him, and turned to leave. She glanced back before leaving, smiling at her daughter, and murmured, "Hang on, sweetie. Just hang on."
Then she rushed for a phone.
To Be Continued…