"Ah, goot. You have finally come around." Dementor waggled a finger in Ron's face. "There are questions to be answering, silly boy."

Ron was chained to the wall. That was typical. He'd been fastened to the walls of villainous lairs so many times over the past four years that he'd begun to develop merinthophobia. Sometimes he longed for the days when he had no reason to have learned that word.

This was definitely becoming one of those times.

Of course the Wadebot was gone; Dementor, unlike other mad scientists he could name, wouldn't be foolish enough to bring such a device into his sanctum sanctorum. Probably it had been unceremoniously destroyed.

"And you did find zis place how? I do not brag to zay I am ze finest at ze lair shielding, ever."

Ron said nothing.

"Who have you been telling, now? Ze silent treatment vill not do. Who else knows about your little discovery? I need information. Information. INFORMATION!"

"You won't get it," he spat.

"Oh, by ze hook or by ze crook, I vill. Komputor! Show our guest – er – our other guest." Turning away from Ron, he muttered "Note to self: vork on ze evil repartee."

"As you request, Dementor," droned the electronic voice. A ceiling hatch slid open; the chemical-filled cylinder descended from above, Kim suspended within it. Faced with the awful sight, Ron cried out, a wordless sound of raw emotion, and strained against his bonds to no avail. "What have you done to her? I'll – "

"Temper, temper," Dementor chided. "You vill do NOTHING. But vhat I have done IS A STROKE OF ZE PUREST UNADULTERATED GENIUS!" He laughed, loud and long. "Komputor, show ze young man his liebling's current status."

"Yes, Dementor."

They both watched the giant monitor as Kim leaped from one giant spinning top of doom to another, her weight deflecting them devastatingly into each other's paths, even as she drew nearer to Senor Senior, Senior and his custom-built megagravity projector. A healthy, vigorous Kim, not at all like the pale, almost motionless body connected to the cables and wires of her cylindrical prison.

"She iz in dreamland und doesn't even know it. Ve have supplied the machine vith eighty-zeven basic dream zequences."

Ron was usually immune to science, but that puzzled him. "Why eighty-seven?"

"Bekause to ze odd numbers I am partial."

Electronique had entered the lab. "Zome are interkahnected, making up leengthy adventours; some stand alone, separated by periods of dreamless rest. We don't want her burning owt on us."

"Burning out?" He realized he needed to encourage their ranting, get as much information out of these maniacs as he could. They might reveal something that could save Kim from the living hell they had engineered for her. Even if he couldn't understand it, he might be able to hold onto enough to help someone who could.

"Applied properly – as only Dementor and mysalf have been able to do – the Wachowski theorem not only makes its zubjects unable to distanguish dream from reality, but convarts them eento human batteries."

"So," Ron began, slowly, "this is like that movie."

"La jetée? No, eet ees nothing like that. Why would you think so?"

"Not La jetée," said Dementor, eyeing Ron strangely. "Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse. And it's nothing like zat, either. You are vun mixed-up kid."

Electronique returned to the subject at hand. "Be all that as it may. While she fights villain after villain een her dreems, she ees also powering both the machine and our villa. If we have a piece of toast een the morning, we have Kim Possible to thank for eet." She smiled at Dementor, who beamed in return.

Ron wasn't smiling.

"Ze komputor is quite capable of ze generating of new zequences, too," added Dementor, happy to have a captive audience. "But they vill all be deriving from ze data in ze original eighty-zeven. Those are ze ones she vill most often re-live, as vell." The insane inventor shrugged. "Ze beast, zat is its nature."

"There is no way you could defeat Kim. She can do anything."

"Actually that ees not completely true." Electronique sounded almost apologetic. "Computehr analysis revealed that she always loses the first skirmish. Always! Evon to peaple like Frugal Lucre, who are unworthy of the title of Zupervillain."

"Knowledge, power is being. Vhy ve never noticed it before... All the kickings and hittings it vould have been preventing! Ach!" The scientist winced with the memories. "So ve made sure zat, this time, ze second skirmish would BE IN HER MIND ONLY! Thus ve fulfill ze law of ze second encounter victory... or at least she THINKS she has."

Electronique was watching the dream monitor. "In fact, she has defeated us zome thirrty or fourty times. But I haven't zeen her take on the Zeniors before."

"I have, mein dear, but I vill not spoil it for you."

"Not een the mood right now. I'll watch eet anather time." She left the room.

Dementor turned to Ron, his face anything but reassuring. "As for you, buffoon, ve have another Vachowski cylinder waiting. Komputor!"

The empty cylinder descended from the ceiling, surrounded by a swarm of small, hovering robots.

"Ze machines vill prepare you for ze insertion. Forever you vill be beside her, two little lovebirds, and ve shall be able to run ze washer and dryer simultaneously vithout dimming ze lights." The metal swarm ominously floated toward the struggling teenager as Dementor looked on with amusement. "VE ALL GET VHAT VE VANT!"

From the top of the spiral staircase a ball of green fire flew through the air, exploded in the midst of the robots. A figure in green nimbly leaped from level to level, dodging the stun rays of the surviving robots, blasting them out of the air one by one. "What I want," shouted Shego, assuming a battle stance at the foot of the stairs, "is Kimmie."

"ON TREES ROBOTS DON'T GROW!" bawled Dementor. "And you found me how? Ve don't label our lairs. Zis place is turning into Grand Central Station!"

"All those dish antennas in your back yard. Sure sign of technological evil."

"What about satellite TeeVee?"

"I believe I covered that."

"Ve thought you vere vith your blue buddy." The disdain in his voice was palpable. "Ze hypnotist. How did zat vork out for you?"

Hidden behind equipment, Electronique was delicately adjusting the knobs on an ominous machine. It was her invention, though Dementor had helped design it. She watched as meters peaked and oscilloscope patterns weaved across their tiny green screens.

Team Go had defeated her before, and she had no intention of repeating the experience. She threw the final switch; the lights flickered, but the machine was online, humming like a hornet's nest. Electronique looked it over one final time; satisfied, she walked back out to the main lab. Soon they would have two new batteries for their Wachowski device.

Unaware of her old enemy's plans, Shego continued: "I don't stare into hypnotic spirals to see if they're working. Couldn't bring him around, and Global Justice was coming through the doors, so I skedaddled. Bigger fish to fry."

"So vhy must you bother us vith your nonsense?"

"Life was getting boring without Kim around to punch."

"I thought her sidekick vas crazy. You are certifiable."

She pointed to the cylinder with a claw-tipped finger. "Get her out of that, now. You can leave the sidekick in the chains, but when we go, he goes with us. He's part of Kimmie's entourage. Wouldn't be the same without him."

"Thanks," Ron glumly muttered.

"Don't mention it. And I mean that."

Electronique stepped out, whispered to Dementor without breaking her stride: "We're ready."