"Heya Gimp," Eric smirked as he returned to the clearing, "How's the leg treating you?"

Felix said nothing but idly fingered the gun attached to his hip and eyed the man in front of him with disdain. Out of the group that had entered the separate trails, Eric was the first to return.

"Nothing to say, eh?" Eric smiled, "It's all right, you can hate me all you want."

"I don't hate you Eric," Felix said, "No, I don't hate those who are inferior to me. I just treat them the way they need to be treated."

Eric chuckled and patted Felix on the leg, "I can live with that."

"Dead end on your trail?" Tim asked as he exited his trail.

"It was a big loop," Eric nodded as he blew on his hands, "You seen Ron or Jim?"

"Nah," Tim shook his head, "You find anything interesting?"

"Well, first I walked down the trail but upon discovering it was a giant loop, proceeded to come back here where I had a stimulating conversation with our resident Gimp," Eric explained, "Then you came back and that brings me to right now."

"I take it you three didn't find anything," Ron's voice sounded strangely flat upon entering the clearing.

"Nothing," Tim said.

"Same here," Eric confirmed.

"All right, so that means Jim chose the right trail," Ron said to himself. He was quiet for a few seconds as he contemplated what he should do next.

Felix grabbed the reigns to the horses and passed them out to the individuals they belonged to as Ron came up with his new plan. "We're going to ride down the trail Jim took and meet up with him down the way. Josh shouldn't be too far out."

With a surprising amount of grace for someone wearing an enormous fur coat, Ron hopped onto his horse and headed off down the path. The rest of his crew mounted up and followed slowly behind their leader.


Ron's horse neighed softly as the snow continued to fall and Ron patted his mount softly on the neck, "Easy Rufus," he whispered his horse's ear, "we don't want to scare Jim."

Rufus neighed back affectionately and Ron patted Rufus again while wearing a smile. The smile quickly died on his lips as he rounded the corner and took in the scene in front of him.

Jim lay on his back in the middle of the trail, his arms at his sides and an enormous bloody slit where his eye should have been.

"Damnit," Ron whispered as he looked at the dead body in front of him. Tracks surrounded the body and upon seeing the bark on the ground, Ron instantly knew what had happened. Dismounting, Ron sank to his calves in the snow and trudged over to the body of his friend and partner Jim.

"Ron, why'd you stop right in the middle of the…" Felix trailed off as he saw the body of Jim Possible for all to see, "Oh."

"What's the…hold…up?" Tim asked as he too entered the clearing and saw his brother lying on the ground.

Letting loose a strangled cry, Tim flung himself to the ground and clutched at his brother's cold body. Tears of despair and rage poured from his eyes and he rocked Jim's lifeless body back and forth.

Ron slowly walked around the body looking for any sign of what else Josh may have done. Suddenly it clicked for Ron and he could only think of one word to describe the situation, "Shit."

"What?" Eric asked as he hadn't seen Jim yet, "What is it?"

Ron ignored the question and turned on his heel towards Rufus.

"Tim, we need to go. Now," Ron ordered tersely as he broke into a light jog. In one swift move, he pulled himself onto his horse and spurned Rufus through the clearing quickly, following Josh's blood trail through the snow. Tim didn't even notice and just sat there, cradling holding his brother.

Felix and Eric followed, both looking at each other in shock at Ron's obvious callousness to the loss of Jim. Upon reaching the edge of the clearing, Ron turned around and looked at Tim still sitting there.

"Tim! Let's go," Ron shouted across to the grieving brother.

Something snapped in Tim and with a snarl he set his brother gently upon the ground. Turning around he drew his pistol and advanced on Ron, "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" he shouted, "YOU KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN! AND YOU DID NOTHING TO STOP IT!"

Ron didn't even bat an eyebrow at Tim's pistol and slowly dismounted off Rufus, "Yes, I thought this might happen, but I expected it more to happen to Eric."

Eric nodded slowly in agreement before realizing what he was agreeing with, "Hey!"

Ron ignored Eric and advanced on Tim whose gun was now shaking, "Josh Mankey killed your brother and what he did to Kim…" he trailed off as both of them remembered the painful memory, "What he has done to your entire family was and still is unforgivable. But I can help you Tim. We can take back what was taken from us," he took another step towards Tim, "We can take vengeance on the coward."

The gun wavered in Tim's hand, "Together Tim, you and I can make him pay. Right the wrong," Ron took another step forward. "But right now, Mankey has your brother's coat, his gun and enough food and supplies to make it to the plains. If he makes it there, we've all but lost him. Now is not the time to shoot me, no now is the time to be tracking Josh down to kill him," Ron extended a hand to Tim and asked, "Are you still with me?"

With a painful sigh, Tim lowered the weapon and nodded slowly, "Let's go make him pay."

Ron nodded with a smile and retreated back to his horse. As soon as he mounted Rufus, he started giving orders, "Tim, you and Eric ride ahead to scout for Josh. Felix and I will take care of the body here."

The group nodded and went about their tasks. Tim started for his horse, but as he passed by his brother Tim closed the eyes and crossed the arms back over his chest. Giving one last look at his brother, he leaned down and whispered in Jim's ear, "Give the rest of the family my regards."


Josh was in bad shape. Even he knew this. His world was darkening and he was experiencing what many of his soldiers had referred to as tunnel vision. With his vision starting to narrow and a perpetual numbness in his arm, Josh knew that if he did not get help soon, he'd be dead. The scarf was not even worth keeping pressed against the wound to staunch the blood flow and he hardly felt it when it slipped from his shoulder. The sudden feeling of cold in the bullet hole jolted him back to his senses and looking around he realized that the scarf was more than twenty feet behind him.

Groaning, Josh stopped shuffling through the snow and trudged back to the scarf, the distance between him and the scarf growing with each footstep. Finally, he made it to the scarf and sank to his knees, heedless of the cold snow now seeping into his pants. He grabbed the scarf drunkenly with his good hand and stuffed it back over the bullet hole.

Knowing that he had to keep moving, Josh slowly struggled to his feet, but nearly collapsed as he stood up. Grabbing a tree branch for support, Josh held on and shook his head to clear the stars that appeared in his eyes. Upon clearing them he looked over the tree branch and rubbed his eyes again to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

Nope, what he saw was still there. Josh dropped to his knees again, only this time it was intentional. He pulled on the cold steel and with great effort, forced the metal jaws apart. Pulling on another branch, Josh prayed that he'd have enough strength to make this trap. Several minutes later the trap was set and Josh set the final touch. Setting his red scarf on the tree branch, Josh prayed that the plan would work. If it didn't…well, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. Taking a look behind him, Josh paused to hear something…anything. He thought he heard a bit of shouting but that quickly faded and the woods were quiet again.

Turning on his heel in the snow, Josh slowly stumbled away from his trap, but after several feet, he turned and broke out into a run in a mad effort to outrun his pursuers who he imagined were getting closer by the minute.


Clop Clop Clop

Ron didn't look at the approaching horses, instead he looked at the bale of hanging above him. Pulling on the rope, Ron helped his son ease the bale of hay into the barn and with a resounding boom, the bale landed on the floor. It was then that Ron looked away from his work in the barn and towards the approaching horses. The boy standing above him also stopped his work moving the enormous bales of hay into the loft and looked eyed the column of horses approaching the house with a bit of unease.

"Dad?" the boy asked with a slight tone of fear creeping into his voice.

"Don't worry Jon," Ron said as he too tried to mask his fear. "I'll go see what these men want. You need to stay here and make sure the bales of hay are in order. Can you do that?"

Jon nodded and retreated back into the safety of the loft as Ron slowly made his way towards the men.

"Ron?" Felix asked, cutting off Ron from his memories.

Ron shook himself and looked at Felix, "What is it?"

Felix smiled, "You were there, weren't you?" he asked, more a statement than a question.

Ron nodded, "It was beautiful that day."

Felix shook his head, "No siree, it was too hot and humid that day for my liking."

Ron raised an eyebrow and eyed his best friend cautiously, "And I suppose you enjoy this freezing cold."

"Me?" Felix asked, "Heck no. I'd rather be in Dodge City with some cute thing dancing on my lap right now."

Ron chuckled, "Well, I thank you for taking a break from your busy schedule for this."

Felix instantly sobered up, "What he did to Kim was unspeakable and as such we need to do this."

"Ron," Eric's voice preceded his arrival, and it brought Felix and Ron back to alert.

Ron tapped Rufus lightly in the sides and his mount edged forward, "What is it?" he asked as Eric appeared in front of them.

Tim found something I think you need to see," Eric replied with a current of excitement pouring from it.

Ron looked at Felix and nodded silently, "Let's end this."

Felix nodded back, "Do lets."


Ron and Felix entered the area Tim and Eric were with apprehension. The trail had widened up and now instead of a close and claustrophobic trail, there was enough room for the four of them to ride abreast. Ron and Felix approached the two helpers he had paid for.

"What is it?" Ron asked.

Eric pointed towards Tim who was kneeling down in the snow, "You might want to ask Tim about that. But I think we've made a fairly big discovery."

Ron raised an eyebrow skeptically, "And what might that be."

"We have his trail again," Tim said with satisfaction in his voice.

"No decoy trails?" Ron asked suspiciously as the snow started to ease up.

"No, Josh even dropped his scarf on a branch as he passed this way," Tim reported as he pointed about fifteen feet down the trail, "You know that he wouldn't leave that lightly. He must be on his last legs."

Ron nodded distractedly and his thoughts jumped back to Kim as he looked at the scarlet scarf hanging on the tree branch, "Bring…" he paused as his voice cracked. He cleared his throat and tried again, "Bring it to me."

Tim nodded, not knowing why Ron was getting choked up. To him, it was an old and weathered scarf, but to Ron it must mean so much more.

He approached the scarf with disregard to the trail. However as he approached the scarf, he looked down and noticed an awful lot of blood near the scarf. Josh must've dropped it here and bled for a while.

Shaking off the thoughts, Tim grabbed the scarf by both hands and pulled it to him. He felt the scarf catch on part of the branch and jerked the scarf towards him.

Ron saw Tim fumbling with the scarf and asked in a concerned voice, "What is it?"

"Nothing," came the frustrated reply from Tim, "It's just caught on something, that's all."

Snap

Tim gave the scarf one final pull and the scarf flew back into his hands. On the other side of the branch, the bear trap that Josh had rigged to be launched when the scarf was pulled also came with it and flew directly into Timothy Possible where it clamped into his rib cage before contracting and crushing Tim.

To Ron it looked like Tim simply vanished. One second he had been standing there with the scarf in his hands, the next he was flung across the path with an enormous bear trap embedded in his chest.

Without thinking, Ron jumped from Rufus' back and sprinted to the fallen Possible, Felix and Eric hot on his trail. Ron dropped to his knees next to Tim but upon seeing his brother-in-law like this rose to his feet and lurched away, trying desperately to keep his stomach down.

Eric dropped to Tim's side and placed a hand lightly on his chest. Blood erupted explosively from Tim's mouth as he coughed and screamed in pain at the bear trap embedded in his torso. Eric jumped back in shock as Tim continued to scream in pain.

Eric looked at Felix whose face showed pure shock and gone white, "What do we do?" Eric yelled.

Felix didn't answer so Eric grabbed Felix by the leg and asked again, "What do we do?"

"I…I…I," Felix stammered. Seeing dead bodies was nothing new to him, but this was a close friend and in many aspects, a brother.

Boom

A gunshot rang out and Tim's screaming stopped instantly, the echo fading in the mid-afternoon air.

Both Felix and Eric turned to look at Ron who had his pistol out, the barrel still smoking and with out a word, he put the pistol back safely in its holster and pulled the scarlet scarf from Tim's hand.

"We bury Tim and make camp here tonight," he ordered without a trace of emotion in his voice.

Eric and Felix nodded silently and stared at the body of Tim Possible in silence and despair.

Ron turned to leave but Eric called out, "Mister, who exactly are we tracking? I mean, he's taken out two of ours already and we've only had a glimpse of him. Is he part Injun or what?"

Ron didn't turn to answer but instead grabbed a tiny shovel off Rufus' back, "You don't want to know what Josh is," Ron answered before walking off the path to dig a grave.


Josh heard the gunshot ring out, but it was so faint that he felt that he could slow to a walk. His condition had only worsened with the loss of his scarf, but he was sure that the gunshot he just heard related to the trap he had set and he prayed for the dead man. Whoever it may be.

Josh craned his head to look over his shoulder to see if he was still being pursued. In doing so, he took his eyes off the path in front of him and tripped on a hidden branch. Josh fell to the ground, but kept falling. Thinking that he was dying or at least hallucinating, Josh closed his eyes and prayed for just a few more minutes here on Earth.

However, he was not dying, instead he had fallen from the top of a hill and was slowly sliding down the slope. Josh opened his eyes as he picked up speed and tried to slow his decent when he saw where he was heading: A fast moving river.

Josh stuck his good arm in the snow to stop himself, but it was to no avail and with a scream, Josh slid headlong into the river. The river instantly picked at his battered body and pulled him along. As he bounced off the river rocks and walls, Josh lost track of time and his location as the river beat him more than any man had ever done so before.

Suddenly a boulder was in front of him and he had no way to avoid it. Bracing himself, Josh slammed into the rock with such force that he lost consciousness for a few moments.

The barn and house were aflame and the occupants ran for cover-

Josh came to and found himself still in the rapids. He felt his feet brush the bottom of the river but each time he tried to brace himself against the river bottom, he just kept moving.

Another rock lurched in front of him and he bounced against it sharply, eliciting a gasp of pain and inducing another wave of unconsciousness.

The large fields of corn were ablaze and the animals had all been rounded up. The weight of the pistol in his hand felt good and seeing Ron on the ground in front of him gave him feelings of-

He came to, this time in the midst of a calm stretch of the river. A dull roar echoed around him and looking down stream, all he saw was a sudden drop off.

Paddling weakly, Josh struggled to make it to a bank, but it was no use. Josh Mankey plunged over the top of a waterfall screaming and cursing as he fell over thirty feet into the water below. Upon hitting the water, Josh blacked out again and he knew nothing for a long time.


"Ring around the rosie," the little girls chanted, "Pockets full of posie-"

"AAAAUUUGGGGGHHHH!!" a man bellowed, instantly stopping the little girls mid-song.

The little girls looked up at the waterfall that they were playing by and gasped as they saw a man shoot out over the top of the waterfall and land in the water with an enormous splash.

By some cosmic coincidence, he floated directly towards the girls and washed up directly in front of them. The man opened his eyes for a second and extended an arm to them, but then collapsed.

Being little girls, they both did what anyone their age do: they ran screaming for their mother.

Tara Matthews stood hanging her laundry to dry when she heard her girls scream. Not play scream but the sound of pure unadulterated terror, the sound every parent fears. Tara dropped her clothes basket and sprinted towards the sound of the scream and ran into them as they came to find her.

Tara dropped to a knee and upon seeing that they weren't hurt, pulled them in for an embrace "Zita, Monique, you better have good reasons why you scared mommy like that," Tara kissed them both on top of the head, "Now why did you do that?"

Monique pointed towards the waterfall, "Mommy, there's a man in the water who just tried to grab Zita. But he fell asleep before he could do anything."

Tara nodded unbelieving and stood up to look at the waterfall. The majestic falls provided a natural barrier and constant water source to her home. Right now though, she wasn't looking at the view. Instead she looked to verify her daughter's story. A dark shape rested on the bank and she stopped as she saw the shape on the bank of the river stir.

"Oh my God," she whispered, "There is a man in there."

"We know mom. TWWJS," Monique answered haughtily.

"Huh?" Tara asked and looked at her oldest daughter with a confused look.

Monique sighed, "That's what we just said."

Shaking her head, Tara started giving orders, "Zita, make a bed for our stranger by the fire place and then go boil some water. Monique, you're going to give me a hand hauling this man inside."


Josh slowly opened his eyes. The pain in his arm was incredible, even more so than the initial gunshot wound and the following hours. Looking around, he saw himself to be in a log cabin with a warm fire nearby. Looking up, he came face to face with a little girl who looked like she came from Mexico.

"Mommy," the little girl said with such innocence, "That scary man is awake."

"Thank you Zita," a voice said from his left. Josh looked over and found the source of the pain. A beautiful blonde haired woman was leaning over his shoulder and opening his bullet wound.

"You damn fool," she whispered to Josh, "You should've had this checked long ago."

"Wasn't…a …place to check it," Josh whispered back to the woman.

"Yeah, well, this next part is going to hurt and I'd rather not have you moving around," the woman explained as she removed a pair of glowing pliers from the fire place, "Zita, I need you to go play outside," the woman ordered. As Zita went outside, the woman looked over at her other daughter, "Monique, I need you to help our patient back to sleep, then go play with your sister outside. Don't come in, until I come out, understand?"

"Yes Ma'am," Monique answered as she walked to Josh. "Sorry Mister," she said sheepishly right before she brought a rock down on Josh's forehead.


Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible or any thing else belonging to Disney.

Author's Notes: In case you didn't notice, I did have to make a few changes to accommodate this story. Felix walking, Eric up, and moving are two immediate examples. There will be a few more changes but it's the only way that I could write this story. As with all my other stories, leave a review and you will receive a response. Special thanks to karenstern05. You miss, rock hardcore.