I don't know why I started writing this. I don't know what it's about. Its just ramblings. Does it have a plot? Yeah, just haven't figured it out yet. So...enjoy?

For the third time of searching her University library database, Nadine Burnier found little to nothing of the subject of her paper. Lord Montgomery Fiske, recently known as Monkey Fist. What did show up was his work, but the objects of his work lacked much research besides what little he said of them. In short, Nadine found out, he had kept the knowledge and history of these objects, besides their lore and myths, to himself.

For reasons almost unknown to even her, this man and his work, both past and present, were the main topic of her paper. It was her third year of college and if this semester worked out as she hoped, she would be graduating a year early. If this paper worked out as she hoped as well, she would be entering a Masters program a year earlier than her peers. That all depended, however, on actually finding the information of this man.

Sure there were news articles – loads, actually – but she didn't trust them. The articles tended to be one way or another, biased, painted him a certain way. Not only that, but they had nothing about the man in his Lord days, only his…Villain days. It didn't help as much as she thought. Yet her University library, which provided the best databases in the world possibly, provided little information.

It seemed, much to her annoyance, that the only way to write this paper was to either interview the man himself – laughable since he had disappeared months ago – or interview someone who had interacted with him heavily from the Lord to the Villain days.

His manservant, Bates, was from the Lord days and currently in prison. Nadine had an appointment set up with his lawyer to interview him next month. But what to do in the meantime and especially during the Villain days? Well, as Nadine switched from the databases to plain and simple Google, she found out how to occupy herself over the next month. Two ways, actually.

Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable.

It was just after one in the morning when she emailed the young Kim Possible, explaining who she was, what University she was attending, and the general, broad topic of her paper. She mentioned a few articles about the high schooler's interactions with the many villains before asking if she could set up an interview with the pair. When she finished signing her name, she hit Send.

Nadine then sat back in her chair and stretched. The library was silent. It wasn't anywhere near midterms meaning that only a handful of students were there so late at night. She was one of them. Usually she took great pleasure in that, but tonight as she had looked over the stories of the many Villains, she felt…uneasy. Minimizing her email to reveal the faces of her people of interest only added to that.

Dr. Drakken, Shego, Professor Dementor, DNAmy, Duff Killigan, Gemini, and Monkey Fist all stared back at her. These were the people that interested her and that seemed most active, if not most threatening, of all the "Villains" she had heard of. Were they really Villains? That was the topic of her paper. It was easy to call them such, group them together, but she wanted to see if there was more to the story.

And for some unknown reason, Nadine found the story of Monkey Fist to be the most interesting, the most unexplored. Maybe it was because he was English, a Lord, or just…just…she didn't dare go further into that. Whatever it was, she felt like his story had an entire other side to it.

Reading about their misdeeds had, however, spooked her a bit. The silence of the library with the occasional shudder and shift only made it worse. So with the email sent and her files backed up, she logged off the computer and packed her things. There was nothing she could do for the night except to wait and sleep.

The journey from the library, across the campus, and into her dorm village – a gated community that called itself a Village at the very least – took about fifteen minutes. That was also how long it took for her computer searches to secretly come back to haunt her. Because of the keywords she used, inquiring about several Villains, their locations, their histories, and so forth, unbeknownst to her a company called HenchCo. had traced her to the University. It wasn't the first time that this company had found her location since she had been researching for over two months. It was, however, the first time that she was officially marked.

Jack Hench of HenchCo. took pride in his company's ability to keep an ear out for his paying members. Those who paid a little extra with their annual membership also received alerts on who seemed to be trying to locate them. So at 1:30 in the morning, a list of Villains received a small list of the people who had recently searched them.

On that short list, for some, was the name and location of Nadine Burnier.

It was not her alarm, but her phone that awoke her at seven the next morning. Nadine nearly flipped off her bed trying to grab it before it went to voicemail. With her legs tangled in a blanket, she hit the green button and offered a groggy hello. There was silence on the other line. With a glance at her clock, seeing that it was still early, Nadine cleared her throat and tried again. "Hello?"

This time, there was a click. The phone call ended. She glanced at the obnoxiously bright screen to see the number was an Unknown. Odd. Now awake, however, she scrolled through her email on the phone as she lay on the edge of the bed.

When she saw a reply from one Kim Possible, her memory of last night came back and her heart leapt. The high schooler explained that she found Nadine's paper interesting and had also, once or twice, wondered of the psychology of these villains. Kim said that she would game for an interview the next day if it worked with Nadine's schedule.

It didn't, not really. She had two classes, a meeting with her advisor and mentor, and then an appointment with her campus counselor. An interview though? Actual progress on her paper? She damned it all, sent emails to the appropriate people, and told Kim that she'd meet her at noon that day.

Nadine did notice as she sent the last email that she had missed a new email that arrived shortly after she retired. It was a notification saying that someone had signed into her email from a Chrome window on a computer that was nowhere near this location. She blinked and re-read it to be sure.

She was accustomed to the notifications saying she signed in from Firefox from another computer in the same zip code, the library, but not Chrome from another state. How strange, she thought. When she looked over her most important emails, however, she saw nothing missing or added in her Sent folder. So…what happened there?

Bueno Nacho at noon. The place smelt a mixture of revolting and enticing. Then again, Nadine's health held on only by a thread as she got the minimum about of sleep and ate only a few times throughout the day, each time something green. It was tempting to get a soda and a taco, but she ended up ordering a salad with unsweet tea before going outside. She looked around as she sat down for the redhead that was a few years younger than she.

She was so focused on her search that she failed to notice another pair of eyes on her. Instead she took out her notepad and pen and nibbled on her food in the nervous way that a rabbit nibbles on lettuce. When a redhead and a blond boy walked up, she nearly spilt her drink as she stood.

"Hi, Nadine? Sorry for being a bit late, the walk too longer than I planned." The redhead said. "I'm Kim and this is Ron, nice to meet you."

Nadine took her hand and shook it, doing the same with the blond. "And this is Rufus." Ron added as a naked mole rat popped up out of his pocket.

"Oh, nice to meet you three. Thank you for meeting with me during your lunch hour, I'm actually surprised they let you wander off campus." Nadine commented.

Kim smiled. "Well, certain students. We're also Juniors so it's a privilege, so they say. Ron, can you order me something so we don't waste anymore time?"

"Sure thing KP!" Ron nearly ran into the restaurant as Nadine and Kim sat down.

Brushing her long hair back into a poor ponytail, Nadine dug into her bag before placing a recorder on the table. "I hope you don't mind my taping this, in case I miss anything."

"No, no, go ahead." Kim smiled and for a second Nadine understood the reputation of perfection the cheerleader had.

"Well, as you know," Nadine said as she hit the recording button, "I'm writing a paper that I hope to publish in a few journals in the next year. The paper consists of what made these 'Villains' become such, their lives before and after, and in general just speculate what makes them snap. The difference, in a sense, between let's say the layperson and them. After all, if everyone turned to world domination or mystical monkey powers when they reach their threshold, the world would be very, very different." She paused. "Interviewing those who had interacted with these 'Villains' are the closest I'll ever get to the persons themselves, so I am aware of the limitation and the required speculation on my part." Though she did wish she could interview some of the folks on her list without any danger.

"That being said, my first question is about the man called Monkey Fist." Nadine tried to ignore the flutter in her stomach. "You met him before he became Monkey Fist, you actually…without realizing it helped him become such What was he like in the span of time, from the first meeting to the moment he changed?"

Kim rest her elbow on the table as she thought for a moment. "He was the perfect stereotype of an English gentleman. Well groomed, even better spoken, and…he seemed…well, he had hired me to retrieve a statue that was booby-trapped. In a way, he was…delicate. His admiration of monkeys were apparent though, especially when Ron, uh, freaked out about it."

"Sorry, freaked out?" Nadine raised a brow.

"He's terrified of them. Which makes the rest of the story interesting because…"

Ron came back with their food. In between bites, the story of how Monty Fiske became Monkey Fist, at least before their eyes, was told. Nadine had entirely forgotten about her salad and drink in the excitement of it all, her wrist screaming at her as she wrote furiously. Still, she didn't stop for one second, especially when Ron reluctantly explained a bit of the 'experience' he had with the four statues.

"Powers?" She raised a brow.

Kim added, "Well, we're not really sure what they did but they did something. His…ability to move and fight so well and deadly comes from his knowledge of Tai Shing Pek Kwar. On top of his…hands and feet, he's a challenge."

"Tai Shing Pek Kwar, right. I have that written somewhere." Nadine mumbled. "Wait, wait, wait. The statues." She flipped through her notebook wildly before stopping on one page. "The…Jade Idols?" She glanced over her notes before repeating, "The four Jade Idols, the ones that…he had mentioned in an article over a decade ago. Jesus, was he looking for this for an entire decade? How…persistent and patient." She shuddered, finding such traits to be both admirable and disturbing given the person.

"Those are the ones."

"And where are they now?"

"Oh, I destroyed them." Ron said casually, making Nadine's jaw drop.

"You destroyed th-…damn." Nadine had to work on keeping cool. The pair was doing her a great favor by this interview. Even though every part of her being was screaming in fury at such a fine artifact – or four, even worse – being destroyed, she had to keep her calm. So instead, she switched topic. "The statues gave him the monkey hands and feet?" Nadine asked skeptically.

"No," Kim said, "DNAmy did that."

Nadine froze as she stared, her heart skipping a beat. "The…they…hold on, these two know each other? They worked with, on, another? I had no idea! There's nothing in the papers to suggest…how curious!"

"Yeah," Ron snickered a he finished off his nachos, "and she's got this huge creepy thing for him."

Nadine's jaw tensed for a reason she didn't quite understand. "She likes him? As in, she is infatuated? And how does he feel of her?"

While Ron snorted, Kim explained a bit kinder. "Not…terribly well. According to him it was just a work relationship that she took for something else. In fact, he's hidden from her before when she's gotten…uh…possessive."

Nadine shivered but felt her muscles relax a bit. "I see." She mumbled, jotting this down. "Can you tell me a bit more of his running?"

Just then, Nadine's watch beeped to show it was one o'clock. "Our lunch hour is over, I can't believe we lost track of time!" Kim said.

"Speak for yourself, I was ignoring it. I don't want to go back to Barkin's history class." Ron protested as he finished his soda.

"I can give you ride," Nadine said as she stopped the recording and slipped everything back into her bag. "Really, it's no trouble."

"Oh, that would be great, thank you."

They piled into her green Kia Rio, small but to the point. After a few moments of silence, Rufus cleared his throat to break it. "You seem really interested in Monkey Freak." Ron said suspiciously. "You're not, like, planning on joining him or something are you?"

Nadine laughed as she took a left, unable to help it. "No, I'd be the worst candidate to join him. I can barely fight, barely fit, and I find myself geared more towards…well, morals. Society-approved morals and Society-condoned vices, I think I should specify."

"Still…out of all the villains, he's the last one you should be so curious about." Ron mumbled.

"Why ever so?" She glanced at him in the rearview mirror.

Kim answered for him. "Well, it can be said that he's…possibly one of the most dangerous ones we've faced so far."

"Because…he has…monkey powers?" Nadine looked at the redhead for a fraction of a second.

"Because he has no qualms about killing someone…especially with his own hands. He tried to kill Ron the first time after the Idols…and every time since."

Nadine shivered at the seriousness in her voice. "Has he killed before?" Their silence answered it all. She gripped the steering wheel tighter. "I suppose I hadn't factored that into my analysis. I've just been focusing on his transformation, not after. Not yet, at least. I mean, I knew he had an obsession with power but who doesn't if you're going to become a Villain? It's practically a requirement." The ride was quiet for another moment until she pulled up to the high school. "One last question."

"Yes?" Kim looked up as Ron opened the door behind her.

"Could we possibly meet up this weekend so I can get more information about the other villains?" She paused. "I'll pay for dinner." It was the least she could do, after all.

Ron seemed excited at the prospect. Kim nodded with a grin. "Sure. Noon on Saturday, we can meet at the mall if it works for you."

"Sounds good. Thank you again for all your help today, Kim." Nadine smiled as the door was shut. When the pair walked back into the school, Nadine sighed and stared ahead for a moment, processing.

Monkey Fist…Monty Fiske…cunning, dangerous, murderous, determined, patient, persistent, resourceful…fierce…cold…but perhaps in his own twisted way still respectable. A sort of twisted gentleman. There would be no way to test that last theory, to figure if he had his own set of warped rules and morals, without actually meeting him.

Still, it was a nice thought.

Nadine punched her steering wheel before driving off.

By the time she got back to campus, it was dinnertime. She picked up another cup of burnt coffee from the student-run shop, a bagel, and a banana. With her "dinner" in hand, she made her way to the library. It was only when she felt the first drop of water did she look up to realize it had darkened on her drive to campus, and it was starting to rain.

"For fuck's sake!" She hissed as she broke into a sprint towards the library. She ran up the grand staircase and when she got to the very top, just a few yards shy of the library, she looked up and smacked into what felt like a brick wall.

Nadine flew backwards from whoever she ran into, a gasp leaving her as she felt her heel fall off the top stair. As she started to fall backwards, to fall down the grand staircase, when a hand grabbed her forearm. The person gave a sharp pull, getting her away from the staircase. "Shit," she panted from the excitement, "thanks, that…that would have…I would have…oh shit."

When Nadine's eyes flickered up to see her savior, she saw…no one. There was no sign and certainly no tree or nearby building for the person to have hid in. So…what was that? Who was that? Where did they go?

She had been so pre-occupied within the past minute that she failed to feel the hot coffee that spilled onto her hand. When she did, she dropped the half-empty cup and cursed loudly. The rapid rain came down, both drenching and cooling her injured flesh. The mysterious person forgotten in this chaos, Nadine darted towards the nearby building to get more coffee from the vending machine. When she got it, she darted to the library and stood in the cool building, shivering from the rain.

So…the evening wasn't going as she had hoped.

Checking out her regular study room, number six, she took the key from the help desk and walked upstairs. When she got inside, making sure it was locked from the outside still, Nadine tossed her food and drink onto the table before letting her bag drop to the floor. She needed to dry off, check her notebook and recorder for damage, and then go back downstairs to rent a laptop for the evening. Eventually she should eat as well.

But as thunder echoed outside and the lights flickered, she felt only exhaustion. Perhaps…perhaps she should just…lay down for a few minutes. Collect her head. Collect her thoughts. Adjust to the near-death she had gone through and the mysterious savior. And just…lay down for a moment…a minute…a few hours.

It was midnight when she woke up. It was disorienting to stare up at bare blank walls. This wasn't her dorm, it lacked her crazy colored calendar, her inspirational quotes, and pictures of her favorite places. When Nadine rolled over, she met nose-first with a table and groaned. That's right, she thought as she sat up, she was in the library. She had fallen asleep in the study room.

There was no more thunder. Her coffee was cold and the banana was already ripening on the table. When she stood and stretched, a mixture of rested and pained from sleeping on the floor, Nadine felt off. It was more than just her sleeping schedule that she destroyed, it was…something in the room.

Unsure what though, she patted her jeans to feel the key to the room. She opened the door and jiggled the handle, ensuring it had still been locked all this time. She turned to the table and saw her recorder ad notebook, running her fingertips over them. Though still chilled from the rain, she was relieved to see they weren't damaged fr-…

Nadine tensed and looked around, glancing out the windows to the library. Did she…did she take out her things before she fell asleep? She must have since the door had been locked, but…when? She didn't recall.

The sight of the notebook, however, reminded her that she still had work to do. So she finished off her bagel and banana quickly, grimacing as she downed the coffee, and picked up the recorder. Leaving the room, ensuring it was locked again, Nadine headed to the computers to find books.

Jade idols.

Simian.

Monkey.

Artifacts.

Archeology.

Archeologist.

Montgomery Fiske.

England.

These were the keywords she used to try and find something in her library. A couple of books came up, one from a decade ago. Writing down the number, she started down the maze of bookshelves. As she did, she became faintly aware that she was alone – so she thought. How eerie to be here at midnight by herself, she thought.

Deciding to fill the silence, she hit the red button on her recorder and spoke softly. "Note and musing to self. Villains seem to start off from one of two spectrums. Either they have a decent size of change to supply their henchmen, their plans, their hide outs and so forth – a career and title, grants from the government, family money, so forth – or they're dirt poor and accumulating debt to fund their plans." Pause. "Like a college student."

She hit the red button again before she spotted the line of numbers she had been looking for. When it got to the one she wrote down, however, it was missing! "Damn." She cursed, wondering if someone had misplaced it. Did she check to see if it was checked out? Yes, she did…and it said it was still on the shelf.

Rubbing her eyes, she cursed once more before thinking. Well, if the only book she wanted to find wasn't there to find, what to do? Murder. It was a thought that flitted across her mind. Monkey Fist had killed someone…who and when?

She walked downstairs to the main computers, feeling better to be in the view of the help desk, in hopes of finding something online. When she got there, however, she noticed no one was at the help desk. Perhaps they were on break or switching shifts – it was midnight, after all. Sitting at a nearby computer, she logged in and waited as it loaded. Once Google popped up, she typed in something simple.

'Monkey Fist homicide'.

There was nothing on the first page, nothing on the second page. If there wasn't anything on the first or second page, why would she go further? With a sigh, Nadine sat back and crossed her arms. Well, everything just kept blocking her. The only path, it seemed, was Kim Possible.

Two days…with a sigh, Nadine packed up and went to get her bag from the study room. Perhaps she would take a shower and read for her other classes. Two days…dear goodness. What would she do with herself?

When she stepped out of the library, she froze. It was pitch black outside even with the street lamps. She bit her bottom lip. Of course she knew it was past midnight, she knew it was dark outside…but to actually see it, to be in it…Nadine dug into her cell phone and scrolled through the phone book.

Campus Police Non-Emergency.

"Hi there," she said when the operator picked up, "can I have a campus escort me to my dorms, Laurel Village please? I'm Nadine Burnier, ID number…uh…shit…I think it's 025534? I'm at the library right now." Pause. "I'm the only one here."

"Yes Miss Burnier," the operator's voice sounded strange, as if she were smirking, "I'll send a car over there right away." Click. The operator hung up. Weird. The voice sounded…darker somehow.

Nadine shivered. Maybe she was just losing her mind. Or more so, her mind was warping everything since it was night. A couple of minutes later, a familiar campus security car showed up at the edge, just outside of the light's touch. She darted over and entered the back seat, smiling. "Hey, thank you so much for this, I hope I didn't take you away from anything important. You know, the usual catching pot users who are too stupid to not get caught, or the underage drinkers who stupidly blare their music loud, so forth."

The man in the front was bulky. He nodded and started off. After a few minutes of silence, Nadine shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "So uh, yeah, Laurel Village. Right…right up there. Take a left and…yeah." Again, the man nodded but remained silent.

To her relief, they stopped in front of Laurel Village's gate. She went to grab the door handle but…couldn't. It was a security car. She had no way to open it. They had to open it from outside. "Um, can you…open the door for me…sir?"

The man didn't move at first, making her stomach churn. Finally he got out and walked around, opening the door for her. The darkness consumed his face. He stood just outside of the light's touch. As Nadine got out, she glanced up and thought she saw blue. "T-thanks. Have, uh, a good night." She darted to the gate, entering the mesh of numbers before throwing it open and running to her room. She wasn't sure why, but the need to run was strong. To feel his eyes on her…to not have seen him…like a shadow…

Nadine used her card to get into the dorm room and yelped when she saw her roommate on the couch. After all she had gone through, after all the silence and solitude, she hadn't been expecting to see her roommate eating mac'n'cheese. "Jesus Christ, Emily, you little…hi!" Nadine shut the door and dropped her bag. "What are you doing up, it's like one in the morning!"

"Waiting for you." Emily looked over from her book, speaking around a mouthful of food. "I need your help with this formula. I didn't…hey, you're shaking. Are you alright?"

Nadine blinked and glanced at her hand. She was shaking. "I…yeah. Just…too much coffee." She lied. "Do you mind if I shower real fast? I got caught in the rain earlier."

"Yeah go ahead, there's hot water." Emily turned her attention back to the book.

As Nadine started towards the bathroom, she glanced at the window with its blinds open. It was just a glance, something she hadn't focused on or intended to look at, she just did. When she did, she saw a flash of green. She snapped her head towards the window, freezing mid-step. When nothing was there, she swallowed thickly and closed the blinds.

Somehow, even a hot shower couldn't shake the chill that seemed to seep into her bones.