Kim Possible

So the Drama

Resolution

©Copyright by Jeriddian 2007

Disclaimer: Kim Possible and all related characters are property of the Disney Channel.

Based on the first three seasons of the television series

FanFiction Rating: T

"A friend is a sweet responsibility, not an opportunity" — Khalil Gibran

Author's note: To all of you who responded so wonderfully to my writing, I sincerely thank you for your kind words and support. If you are reading this story for the first time, know that it is a story best enjoyed if you are intimately knowledgeable of the Kim Possible television series and all of its details and history. But I feel it is also enjoyable even if you don't know the original story that well. I have tried to enrich this novel with as many references to the original series as I could, creating new only what was minimally necessary to tell the tale. Also the story is based only on Season Three events, so the fourth season really does not apply. I truly hope you will enjoy it, and encourage you to write a review if you feel it is worth one. I thank you for your interest. Again, to those who have kindly supported me, thank you very much.

Prologue - The Beginning

The day broke with clarity on the mountain top monastery with sharp definition of its lines in the blazing sunlight. But despite the intensity of the illumination, the morning was still biting cold. Nothing moved save for the few swallows still scratching for leftover orts from the monks' table, cast out for them from the evening meal. The only other thing that could be seen was the lone young woman frozen in lotus position at the center of the tournament ground in the courtyard. Her breathing was slow and contemplative, her eyes unfocused to anything there, centered instead to everything inside her. Her auburn hair was slightly unkempt and she looked to be comfortable and at rest. Yet her meditation was disturbed. Despite the fact she was a true adept at the art and her mental skills were unmatched by any save her master, she was not at peace. The source of that disturbance was what had happened but twelve hours before. With a false calmness hiding her distress, she thought back to the previous night, continuously and repeatedly reexamining all the events...

Everything had been prepared. Everything had been readied for that one moment, the goal for which she had trained so many years. The masters had all come to witness the solemn ceremony for which they had been gathered, which first began with the invocation of the spirits of the mountain. As the prayers started, she could remember seeing them. There were the Shaolin and the Wing Chun, the Wu Shu and the Tai Chi Chuan next to them, and the Tai Shing Pek Kwar. Around the circle she saw the others, Bagua Zhang, Sanshou, Tien Shan Pai, Ying Jow Pai, and from the south were the Hung Gar and Lau Gar families and their styles. All sixteen great styles were represented here, gathered in the Great Hall of the Monastery, standing in a semi-circle around the walls of the huge chamber, sternly cold faces assessing, contemplating, hoping, even dreading what was going to happen with the extraordinary student who stood at the room's center. They were all looking at that young woman... ...her... ...the Chosen One. At the center of that semi-circle, her own master stood and faced her at the critical time. He stared at her intensely, being stone still for the longest time, and then hesitating for but a moment he gave her a quick nod.

With that one small gesture, the Test had begun. Instantly she assumed tiger stance, having sensed that style appropriate for the beginning, to show strength and tenacity from the outset. She knew not what to expect, only to expect the unexpected. The incantations by the monks continued as the smoke of the incense rose and thickened in the dense air of the chamber. Still, nothing seemed to be amiss, and she watched carefully, unmoving from her position, seeing nothing untoward until the smoke seemed to move strangely, as if against the air currents of the room. Taking on life of its own, the vapors started to amass into a palpable cloud that gathered form until she could see it face her. More and more it became defined, looking familiar, until she could recognize it... ...It, too, was the Tiger. She thought about this as she gaged the danger. As she had assumed this animal form, so it would seem the Test would set her to task for it. The beast stood there and glared at her, baring its teeth and growling threateningly... ...then it suddenly attacked, roaring in its ferocity.

The young woman changed her tactics. Whirling around into a Crane form, she sidestepped the bite and claw attacks, assuming the one legged stance characteristic of the bird, fluttering her arms slightly in imitation of the wing movements. The tiger growled, approaching slowly, trying to goad her into a premature lunge, but she calmly waited, as would the Crane. Finally, the Tiger assaulted her again, growling impatiently in defiance and slashing at her in strong powerful strokes. Nimbly she jumped back and forth, smoothly evading them and then suddenly striking in return with two quick front kicks, imitating the Crane's beak, solidly connecting with that almost ethereal body. Knocking it down, it seemed to lay still, defeated. Unexpectedly, the Tiger's form dissolved away into smoke and incense. The young woman quickly withdrew again and stood high in the Crane's one legged position, fluttering the wings once more as the scattered smoke slowly coalesced into another form. Gradually the vapors came together, this time into a Crane like her, only one much larger, again challenging her right to use the form she chose. With a screech, it flapped its wings at her, trying to confuse her sight as it pecked at her with its beak repeatedly, trying to break her balance, but she smoothly repelled each thrust of the bird's beak with the Crane's characteristic evasive moves. To counter her opponent, she changed her style to that of the Monkey. Moving almost comically, she approached the giant Crane as it again struck out at her, still fluttering its wings and then jumping back to try again. But the young woman's moves were unexpected and seemingly unpurposed. Here and there she jumped, looking at her opponent with quixotic gestures that would confuse it. Again and again the Crane struck with its beak, each time barely missing her as she moved at random in different directions. Finally, the smoky bird lashed out with a beak strike that overextended its reach. This allowed the woman to grab its beak, literally crawling up onto the giant bird's body where she was able to strike it down. It collapsed to the ground, squawking into wispy gas. Her opponent so disrupted again, the young woman leaped down to the floor. Crouching and ready, she stayed with the Monkey style. The smoke swirled again before gelling back into a new form. This time, it chose the Dragon. Once more the Test sought to cleverly thwart her, to use the direct attacks of the Dragon with its ability to slide back into ethereal invisibility within the incense smoke against the sly tricks and gymnastics of the Monkey. But she was equal to the challenge. She jumped and bounced out of the way as her enemy continually opened its mouth and attempted to burn her with its breath. Innately, she was able to sense when the smoke and incense would suddenly give up the form of the Dragon's body when it attacked. Frustrated, the Dragon intensified its strikes, seeking to barrage her with repeated bites and claw attacks at the expense of its invisibility, until she was able to fool it with her variant Drunken Monkey style moves and make it jump in too close. Then she was able to strike its neck and chest with her quivering palm attacks. Screeching its annoyance, the smoke dissipated once more, only to reform into yet another opponent to be confronted...

One by one, the stances and techniques of the sixteen great styles were visited upon the young woman by her near immaterial adversaries, to deny her the claim that she was the Chosen One. All five major animal forms were arrayed against her at one point or another. In addition to the Crane, Dragon, and Tiger, came the stealth of the Leopard and and tenacity and patience of the Snake. The swaying and clutching techniques of the Praying Mantis were particularly difficult, but she remained successful, knowing exactly which animal form to counter it. The Bear soon made its appearance, and went down in defeat. All the other animal forms known to Kung Fu were thrown against her as well, including those using the strong low stance techniques of the Southern styles with their strong hand strikes and holds, followed by the lightning quick kicks of the Northern disciplines according to the nature of each form. Repeatedly she was assailed, and in turn she used all her knowledge, exhibiting the skills and techniques of all the great animal forms and the sixteen great styles. One by one, the old masters nodded in confirmation of their approval of her mastery as her successes mounted...

At the end, there was only one style she had left. Saving her own outer self form for last, she assumed the Dragon, and was surprised to see the smoke form again into two opponents, monkey and rat, neither of which had been seen before in the Test. She frowned at this. Her present form was dominant to either of theirs in power, and she had already proven superior maneuverability. It did not make sense for the Test to put itself at such a disadvantage. Even the division into two opponents did not present an obstacle as it only weakened the individual power of each of them. But it did not matter. Her task was to know her foes and to defeat her enemies in the combat of the Test. So she had been instructed.

Determined to bring the Test to a close, she attacked. Yet the monkey did not move aggressively, only evading her with sad eyes. The rat seemed to chitter in fear as it rushed about, looking for a place to hide. Slithering and sliding with undulating movements characteristic of the great beast that was her sigil, she hid her movements and strikes until the last moment. Even so, the monkey managed to dodge her attacks, though it never returned a riposte of any kind. She thought it a strange looking monkey with a bared face and freckles, its eyes brown. For a moment she thought it looked almost human, but it was nobody she recognized. The rat also looked strange, seemingly having no hair. But it did not deter her singlemindedness. She knew only that she had to defeat them. She continued to attack until she finally cornered the monkey against one wall, the rat having jumped around evading her advances as well, trying to bite her in defense when it could. With the monkey unable to move, the rat jumped again, landing on the monkey's shoulder as she delivered her final victorious strike, the rodent painfully shrieking at the her in an effort to distract her from delivering the blow. She was not to be denied. Swiftly, she delivered a jumping side kick right through her adversary's abdomen, directly into its chi. As she did, she was struck by how much sadder the monkey's eyes had become. Instantly, the smoke of both animal forms dissolved away. She stopped then, breathing hard, waiting... ... and there was no more. The incense no longer felt threatening to her. Slowly it was rising, clearing the air and gathering above her. She realized it was over, and she was exultant, feeling she had finally done it. She had finally passed the last obstacle. Beaming with her success, she whirled around and looked at her Master for his acknowledgment, his approval that she had finally achieved her goal, that she had proven she was indeed the Chosen One. She was ready to start the great mission for which she had prepared for half her life...

Something was wrong. She saw shock on her mentor's face, and alarm on most of the other masters as well. A screech came from above and up there she saw where the smoke had re-accumulated. A slow steady roar assailed her ears and the smoke suddenly broke apart into a myriad number of animal forms. These were the same ones she had faced, but now they attacked all at once without mercy. She cried out, unable to defend herself from so many strikes at one time. Feeling the sting of their bites and claws and beaks, her flesh being ripped apart by talons and teeth, she screamed as she fell into unconsciousness.

When she awoke, she found herself on the floor of the chamber. There were no wounds, no pain, no blood. Her uniform had only mild scuffs of dust on it. All the monks were around her, sitting with sad faces, quietly discussing in hurried tones their next course of action. She quickly got to her knees and knelt to her master. All voices stopped and turned to her.

"Master.", she pleaded, "What has happened? Did I not pass the Test?"

His face anguished with pain, he said, "No, young one. You did not."

Her eyes flew wide open in shock.

"But how? Why? We followed the prophecy completely! What did I do wrong?"

"That is something we must determine. But we do know you failed at the last part only. That part of the Test was one of recognition of your inner animals. The monkey and rat are tied to you in the Great Trine of your destiny. You were not supposed to attack them. They were not enemies. I am sorry... ...but you are not the Chosen One."

Stunned, she stared wide-eyed at him. Then as the tears came to her eyes, she ran from the room. So many years she had spent training. So much suffering and inuring to hardship. Was it all for nothing? Did her life just become a waste? Over the next few hours, she wandered the halls, numb to all feeling, lost with no purpose, stumbling around. It simply made no sense. How could she fail? Everything she had done to that point had shown her and the masters here at the monastery she was the only one who could fulfill the Prophecy. They counted on her to be the one that would keep the great evil which had come across the sea from descending completely upon the land, indeed upon the entire world. But now, none of it made sense. She wracked her brain trying to figure out why it all went wrong. She could only think of one way to do that, and so she went off to meditate, to enter the higher state of interpretation to find meaning to all this, to find out why she had spent so many years here to learn all she had learned... ...and which now appeared to be a total waste. The dawn had found her there in the courtyard, her mind enveloped in this conundrum which had now completely disrupted her life.

From the nearest building, a door creaked and opened to the old man who slowly pushed his way through, pausing when he saw the young woman. He calmly stroked his long beard and hair, both whiter than the snow still abutting the monastery walls at this time of year. As he watched her, he quietly considered the fact that she had been there all night despite the freezing cold. He knew she was master enough of her body to defeat that and other trials even more severe. But it would have been far better if that was all she had to endure, even a thousand times over, because he knew last night was much worse for her.

Looking down to the ground, he sighed in resignation, wishing that what had occurred could be undone. But it was too late for that. After the failure of the Prophecy to be fulfilled, she had left the council of elder monk masters despairing that failure, what she actually considered as being her failure. But it was not so, as the Monks later learned later that night. Their meditations brought new wisdom to them and they learned that the Prophecy was not wrong. They had only misinterpreted it, and so his young charge, despite the fact that she was not the Chosen One, would still be a key to its fulfillment.

Belying his age, he glided towards her on a young man's legs, finally standing before her and gazing down with the affection that he had developed over the many years she had been with him. She truly was like a daughter to him, and it was painful to know that she would now have to leave him, and that he would never see her again. He gently lowered himself down to a sitting position before her and waited silently. He knew her distress, understanding what she had just experienced, and he could see nothing else was important to her at this time. She had not bothered to change or wash up since the Test, still dressed in her black ceremonial fighting uniform. But even so absorbed in her thoughts, he knew that she would sense he was there, and he was simply being polite in awaiting her to come out of her meditative trance. As the student, she should have attended to her master as soon as he approached her, but he was allowing her great leeway now.

She did not keep him waiting any further. Slowly her eyes closed, and she gently exhaled the last breath of the exercise. Arising out of lotus position to her knees, she bowed gracefully to him, which he returned regally.

"Master.", she murmured, "What now? Now that I've failed..."

"No, my child. It is not so", he replied serenely, "In fact, that is why I am here. It is to my great shame to tell you that it was not you who failed us, but we who failed you."

The young woman gazed at him, puzzled.

After a moment she asked, "But, Master, I do not understand! There is no doubting the Prophecy. You yourself said that I was the only one who could fulfill it. Every reason I could have had to doubt you was wiped away as you showed me the beauty of the art and the skills I have learned here, and in the knowledge I have been privileged to acquire. And yet in one short night, everything has changed... ...I am not the One... ...I..."

"Do not blame yourself, young one.", he said gently interrupting, "If any are to blame, it is the elder monks and myself. In our desperation to find the hero who was sought for so long, we let ourselves believe too well without properly meditating upon the Prophecy, a necessary act we have finally performed last night after you had left the Test."

"But still, I failed the Test."

"Yes... ...It was fated for you to do so."

She gaped at him, shocked.

"But... ...Master... ...then why am I here?"

He sighed softly, his shoulders slumping in resignation.

He replied, "Because just as it was fated for you to fail, it was also fated for you to come here as well to do so. It was more important that you learned the skills you now have for another purpose. Our meditations have shown it was critical for us to misinterpret the Prophecy. It was meant to be so, for you are still crucial to it. You are not the One, but you are as important as she who will become the One."

She looked at him, alarmed, speaking in a dazed voice.

"But how? You know the prophecy..."

"Born in the year of the dragon under the month of the rat, shall come she whose time will ring with the dragon's wars.

Born in the year of the dragon at the hour of the monkey, shall come she who shall thwart all evil.

Born in the year of the dragon and of the earth shall come she whose soul shall be the monkey and whose friend shall be the rat.

Born in the year of the dragon enveloped in fire and full knowledge from birth shall come she of the great Trine, and all three shall save the world."

"Master,", she murmured, "I was born in the year of the dragon, in the month of the rat, at the hour of the monkey. We know of the times we face. War breaks out upon us again in many different places in the world. In the fire and crucible of your teachings have I proven myself with full knowledge."

"And so our meditations showed us.", he answered gravely, "Yet the monkey and the rat did not appear to us as we thought. It was only natural that as your outer self was dragon, that your inner selves would manifest as monkey and rat. The first Great Trine would be complete and the foretold great leader, intense and powerful, would be so endowed. But we were fooled, fooled by our smug pride that we could so easily interpret the sacred words. We had thought that these would be aspects of your inner self to mature with time and training. We had contemplated too deeply, and our meditations of the evening showed how we had erred. It was far simpler than that. The Chosen One shall indeed be born in the year of the dragon, in the month of the rat, at the hour of the monkey. She shall be born into a time of great trouble and evil, and she will be called upon to save the world from that evil. But that time is not now."

She looked at him perplexed, "But then how am I part of this, Master, if?... ...if I am not the Chosen One?"

He smiled at her and said, "My child, you must now leave us and go out into the world to live your life. I shall miss you so greatly for you have become a daughter to me and I will be sad to see you go, but it must be so in order for the Prophecy to be realized...

"This is why. The monkey and the rat shall not come from within but from without. The monkey shall be the chosen one's soul in the form of one who shall be her soul mate. The rat shall be the third, also from without, who shall be their friend. She will face the evil with these two beside her as her allies, in full knowledge for she shall be born with the knowledge and skills of the sixteen great styles of the art already within her. Had you been the Chosen One, you would have recognized them as your allies during the Test, and not fought them, for they bore the faces of her companions...

"And she shall be enveloped in fire, outwardly as her hair, the color of the flames of war she will wage against the evil ones, but also inwardly in the fire of her resolve and determination to defeat the evil she is called upon to conquer. For your part, the magic of the Prophecy has put you in her stead in this time for a crucial reason. You have done the learning of the sixteen great styles for her. Thus by the Prophecy's magic shall she be imbued with your knowledge at her birth. The art will then appear at a very early age, and she will naturally recall that knowledge and will develop her skills through her own self- realization and the tutelage you shall arrange. The Prophecy shows us that when she is a grown woman, she will already be master of them all. And you will be most important as you must guide her, not in her skills you will have already given to her, but in her character, to keep her on the path of goodness, and not one of evil...

"For she is your future granddaughter."

Present Day

Kim Possible lay in the hospital bed so irritated with herself she could just scream, especially so since it was her own blasted fault. She knew she should not have let that sitch get so far out of hand. As it was, the injuries she had suffered were minor, yet here she lay, curled up in pain in the pre-op area about to go into one of the operating rooms in the surgery suite. Sure, avoiding that car hurtling at her was no big, or so it seemed at the time, however she barely managed to get out of the way of it, and the hard landing she suffered disabled her enough to put her here in this unbelievably exasperating predicament. Of course, the timing could not have been worse with all the things she had left to do, her father now gone to Washington to advise the Pentagon, Monique down with the flu, and Ron out there somewhere, or more importantly not here where he was supposed to be! Worse, she was getting more of those vexing belly spasms her injuries seemed to have triggered, and her doctor had expressed concern she might have suffered some internal damage that might require surgery, thus her present predicament. But what irritated her more than anything else was how helpless she felt. All she could do was wait, confined to counting long minutes on her bed, until the surgical suite could finally be cleared for her. She sooo hated being this incapacitated, and it certainly didn't help one bit that she threw a fit on the way to the hospital because of all the fussing over her by her parents, notably just as her father was leaving. It only worsened her mood to new lows.

Fortunately, once she got to her room, things finally settled down and became quiet. No one was with her except her mother who sat silently beside her reading a medical journal. Kim was still a bit groggy from the analgesics they had given her, just enough to blunt the pain. She grunted with a slight twinge from another spasm as it hit her, and her mother looked up at her over her glasses to make sure she was all right.

"Where's Ron?", Kim asked her for about the sixth or seventh time.

"He finally called and said he was on the way.", her mother answered, "He's picking up Jim and Tim from school."

The abdominal pain let up and she relaxed, slapping the bed in frustration.

"I so wish he'd hurry up. I really hate doing this alone!"

"But I'm here for you.", she said supportively.

"I know, Mom, I know. But I'd really like him to be here."

"Well, I'm sure he'll make it soon, Kimmie."

"Yeah.", Kim sighed, trying to see the better side of the situation, "Thanks anyway. I really am glad you're with me."

"Of course, dear."

Her mother smiled and returned to her reading.

She settled back down as comfortably as she could, dreading the next muscle spasm that would hit her, trying not to be upset at having to wait at all. Yet, Ron was late, again! And despite her attempt at perceiving the' silver lining' in all this, her black mood really was growing darker by the minute. She hoped Jim and Tim weren't giving him any trouble. They had been such little terrors lately. She was considering how to make them behave better when there was a knock at the door. Excited, she sat up quickly, glancing expectantly at the sound, then realized it couldn't be Ron. He wouldn't have knocked. Dejected, she lay back down again.

"Come in.", she said morosely.

A woman with short blond hair timidly stuck her head past the door and looked in. It was that reporter, the one who had been doing the story on her over the last week. A magazine writer, she wanted to pen an article on Kim's life and her remarkable career. To do this, she had been interviewing her in several segments, one each day. Another interview session had been scheduled today until this 'accident' happened, and when the reporter learned she was in the hospital, she called and asked if she could still come up and continue the work. Despite her mother's reservations, Kim allowed it, especially since it was hopefully the last one. Kim didn't mind the interviews initially, but she was starting to get tired of it and wanted it all over and done.

"Is this a bad time?", the reporter asked.

"No, not really.", replied Kim.

Actually it was, but she needed a distraction. Her mother looked at the reporter with a slight grimace but then turned her attention back to her reading and said nothing. The reporter smiled with gratitude as she took a chair and pulled it up to the other side of the bed opposite from where her mother sat.

"Thank you so much for letting me come in and continue with the interview.", she said congenially, "I know this is rather inconvenient, but I do hope to be able to finish up with this session."

Kim gave her a smile as she answered, "You're welcome. I was thinking the same thing. Besides, it'll help take my mind off the pain while I'm waiting."

"Great! I heard they were supposed to take you to surgery. I hope it won't be long."

Kim looked over at her mother longingly.

Dr. Possible glanced back over her reading glasses and said, "Don't look at me. I'm just a brain surgeon."

Kim looked up at the ceiling and sighed, even more irritated, then blurted out to her visitor, "Whatever! Let's get on with it."

The reporter opened up her notebook and turned on her tape recorder.

"Okay, we had just stopped at the point where you had defeated Dr. Drakken and his fiendish plot to take over the world with the toy diablos."

"Right.", Kim replied, deep in thought.

That brought her attention back into focus, concentrating on the reporter's point of reference.

"Right.", she repeated, "Once the command signal tower was destroyed and I took down Drakken and Shego, we secured them and called the police to come pick them up."

"I understand that Mr. Stoppable had a hand in capturing Drakken."

"That's true.", Kim said, "Of course, without Shego to protect him, that was no big. As you know, Ron's always been a great asset to my operation."

"Yes...", said the reporter as she scribbled some more notes, "And then it was after that you went back to your junior prom, wasn't it? It's so fascinating that you had just saved the world again, and then you simply returned to your conventional school life as if it was of no great importance, like nothing that momentous had occurred."

"It's what I do.", Kim replied in a rather nonchalant tone, "I'm proud of my work. But I never wanted any of that to interfere with my private life either. I do try and keep those two aspects separate."

"I see.", the reporter said, writing something down, "So tell me, what happened then?"

Kim's brows knotted in deep thought. The prom seemed so distant now, so far away, yet it really was like only yesterday, not really that long ago. She could still feel the emotion, the sense of accomplishment, the triumph of the mission, the first kiss... ...yeah the first kiss, and everything else that complicated the next year of her life.

The reporter waited patiently as Kim gathered her thoughts. She gingerly sat up and started to fluff a couple of pillows against the headboard to prop herself up, preparing for a long session.

Her mother got up, saying, "Here, let me help you with that."

Kim thanked her as she finished propping the pillows. Then she leaned back, relaxing as much as the pain would let her. Once settled in, she looked steadily at her guest for a long while before speaking.

"You know,", she finally said, "I had thought the first three years of high school were really great years, but my senior year...",

Her voice trailed off as she looked away for a moment, hesitating. The reporter waited, then tried to draw her out more, saying, "Yes..."

Kim looked back at her and smiled.

She said, "My senior year... ...gosh. That was probably the most stressful, the most worrisome, the most frightening, and the most dangerous period I ever had in my career."

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah.", Kim replied softly, smiling even wider, "But I wouldn't change a single minute of that year for anything, because it was also the most wonderful year of my life."