Author's Note: Meh. I'm not quite satisfied with this, but it's not bad. I tried to deal with the multiple characters with the same name as best as I could, but I could see how there would be some confusion. Feel free to e-mail me if you'd like some clarification, but I think there's enough context to tell whose talking at any given time. I hope you enjoy!


Kim lay silently on the bed, the highest quality silk beneath her, cradling her form like soft hands made of clouds. Staring at her, Ron thought for the hundredth time that she looked like an angel. Each hair was carefully combed, strung into that little swoop across the right side of her head, framing her face in a flow of burnt red.

The room around the two of them might as well have not existed for as little as it mattered to its occupants. Ron, the only awake one, had his attention fixed solely on Kim. He raised a hand to brush her cheek slightly and feel the soft curve of her skin one last time. There was a rough spot just below the cheekbone where the small nest of scars lay.

"I'm leaving," he said so softly the words barely left his mouth. "I know I should have left a while ago, but as long as you weren't going to stop me..."

Kim was silent.

"I made a mistake and you got hurt," he admitted. "I know you say it's not my fault but... I ... I don't believe you. I'm sorry, I can't believe you. I can see exactly what I should have done to stop it and it was completely within my power. I was just..."

Ron trembled. "I was afraid. I'm always afraid. I try to act anyway but sometimes... I can't help myself. No, that's not true. I can, but it's easier not to. It's easier to let you take responsibility. It's easier to be the fool. Then nothing you say or do has to matter if you don't want it to."

He pressed his closed hands into his forehead. Kim refused to turn towards him in the slightest and let him sit there shaking for several minutes. Eventually he stopped on his own and raised his head once more. "This is not what I wanted to say."

"Like I said, I'm leaving," Ron returned to the beginning again. "I'm not sure where I'm heading, but I have a bit of an idea. I don't want to say, not that I think you'll tell anyone, but... if this is the last time we speak, I'd hate to think I'd given you the wrong idea." He laughed sardonically.

With a step back, he lowered his head respectfully. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused. Thanks for... putting up with me." And before Kim could say a word, he was already walking away, crossing the short hall to the large doors in the back.

With a gentle push, he opened them and entered the waiting room beyond. An elderly man sitting on a bench in the room looked up and adjusted his glasses. "Have you finished?" he said.

Ron nodded abruptly. "Yeah, I'm done. You can do it."

"Are there any other members of the party who wish to give their respects?" asked the old man.

"No, I'm the last," said Ron.

"Very well then," nodded the old man. With a heave, he pushed himself onto his feet. "I met her once, you know. A year or so back. A bus I was riding on in Montana had faulty brakes and she kept us from crashing into a building."

"She was kinda helpful like that," said Ron, absently.

"The world is lesser from her loss," he old man asserted.

"I know." Ron didn't wait for a reply and simply turned and left.

The old man watched him leave with sad eyes. "The young always hurt the most," he said to himself. Then he walked through the doorway towards the bed upon which Kim's body lay.

--------------

PART III: Slow Collapse

--------------

Traveling through the shimmering corridor between dimensions was like body surfing on a circular wave. It would shift and undulate with ripples as Shego and Kim flew down it, picking up speed with each passing moment. They were never quite sure how much time they spent in that state, flying through rings of vibrant color, before suddenly, violently crashing upon the dimensional shore and being thrust into reality again.

The hard group flew up into Kim's face before she had a chance to react and felt the old stone sharply against her skull when she landed, shooting pain through her body and making her see stars. Her vision blurred as she tried to pick her head up to look around.

"Unnng..." she groaned. "Shuuggo? Y'there?"

The slow sound of clothes rubbing drew Kim's attention, but to the best of her ability she could only make out a dark blob. She gripped her head tightly to stop the spinning.

"I hate this..." the blob said with a slight groan. Kim recognized the voice as Shego's and was glad that they hadn't gotten separated during transit like they had after the explosion of Drakken's dimensional drill.

"Where... are-wee?" asked Kim, finally feeling the throbbing behind her eyes dull slightly.

Shego blinked and tried looking around for herself. Unlike Kim, she'd managed not to land on her head, but her shoulder was now aching like she's fractured her collarbone. The room was strangely decorated for most, but Shego found it strangely comforting. Then she realized why and felt her stomach turn.

"Oh god," Shego said, rolling her eyes. Then she felt nauseous and forced herself to stare straight ahead. "I think we're in one of Drakken's hideouts."

Kim blanched. "Does it look like it's still in use?" she asked.

"Use your own damn eyes!" snapped Shego.

Kim grumbled and forced herself through the pain to focus on her surroundings. They were clearly in one of Drakken's cave-like lairs. Signs of his random mechanical experiments as well as the trademark two-story-tall computer consoles lay scattered across the room. Chairs, papers and little bits of plastic and metal had been strew about, as if someone had fled in a hurry, but the computer consoles were still on and humming away happily.

Pushing herself to her feet, Kim swayed lightly, trying to keep her balance. The world seemed to be spinning and she put a hand over her face until it stopped.

"'At least we know the landings are rough,'" sneered Shego from the floor. "Fat lot of good that did."

The world stabilized for Kim and she started taking a few experimental steps. "I'm going to look around, see if anyone's here."

She made another successful step when suddenly she felt a vice-like grip on her leg and she fell to the ground again. She looked up to see Shego staring at her with a vicious scowl on her face.

"Shego? What are--"

"Listen here, Princess," Shego said sharply. "We need to set up some ground rules, here."

"Rules?" said Kim in disbelief. "Since when are you a fan of rules?"

"Since now, because suddenly YOU'RE the reckless one."

"Me? I'm the reckless one?"

"Tell me what Wade told us before we left that ... hell-future?" asked Shego.

Kim stared back with a puzzled expression. "That every world will be different?"

Shego sighed angrily. "He said not to tell anyone we're from another dimension. Now remind me what the first thing you did was when we got to the last world?"

"If you recall," Kim said, taking on a lecturing tone. "We were standing right in front of our doubles, what would YOU have said?"

"Your double, not mine," said Shego. "And I would not have immediately jumped to 'alternate reality' if I could have avoided it."

"Yeah, because, you know, we have such a great track record with clones," Kim rolled her eyes. "They'd have attacked us just for mentioning it."

"We don't know that," said Shego. "Every world is different, you just said that. In any case, we should NOT get involved again. You put the TDF in danger by going on that stupid mission for Ms. Too-Cool-For-My-School and while I can care less if you live or die, I refuse to be stranded here."

"It's going to be real boring if we just find a cave and hide on each world until we find Drakken," said Kim. "Not to mention food, water, bathrooms, new clothes..."

"We don't have to be hermits," snapped Shego. "But if you are going to 'save' every world we go to, I demand you give me that TDF and tell me your locker combination."

"You demand?" asked Kim. She pushed herself onto her feet again. "Why? So you can leave without me next time? I don't think so."

"Oh, and I'm supposed to just trust you for old times sake?" asked Shego.

"Well, yeah, I'm the good guy, remember?" asked Kim, feeling a little foolish using such distinctions as 'good guy' and 'bad guy' but lacking any better argument. "You're the evil thief who has, I might add, tried to kill me on multiple occasions. Not at lot of trust there."

"All I want to do is get home," said Shego, standing as well. "Odds are you're going to know the people who can help us get there, so I'm not going to leave you behind if I can help it."

"'If you can help it,' huh?"

"Yeah, and don't think for a second you wouldn't leave me behind if it was too much trouble," said Shego.

"I wouldn't!" said Kim, offended. "I would not leave without you."

"Why not?" asked Shego. "I'm the 'evil thief,' I'm sure nobody would look at you twice. It would be like sending me to jail forever."

"Why?" Kim puffed herself up. "First, because it's cruel and unusual punishment, which is wrong."

"Hah," scoffed Shego.

"Two, because I may need your help too in the end, since I doubt I'll be able to convince Drakken to send us home on my own."

"Yeah, he doesn't really listen to me much either..."

"And three... because this isn't your fault."

Shego paused. "Whattya mean, 'this isn't my fault?'"

"We're in this mess together," said Kim. "It's not your fault we're here, it was Drakken's crazy machine. Something went wrong accidentally, and we're stuck in this mess. That makes us a team in my book, at least until we get back. And I would never abandon my team."

Shego frowned again and looked away. "I plugged in Drakken's machine," she said slowly. "It's my fault it overloaded."

"No, it's not," Kim shook her head. "You didn't know."

"I didn't care," said Shego. "And that carelessness got me..." she trailed off. After a second, she recovered and turned back towards Kim. "If we're a team, it's your responsibility not to get us into any more trouble that we need to be. Otherwise you're putting us in unnecessary risk. Okay?"

Kim thinned her lips to a line. "Yeah, okay," she said quietly.

Shego turned away and looked around. "It's still in use," she said after a moment. "Security's still active." She walked over to one of the tall consoles and sat down.

"Security?" asked Kim. "Drakken puts house security on his lairs?"

"Well, it's mostly booby traps," said Shego, pointing at a series of status messages on the large screen. "Looks like all the hovercrafts and jets are still here too. I'm surprised someone isn't here." Shego frowned and began hitting buttons to cycle through security cameras.

"Wow, closed circuit security too," said Kim.

"Drakken has these little drones that go around and set up cameras everywhere," explained Shego. "They're as annoying as hell and impossible to keep out of my room. I always have to go around ripping out cameras every time we move into a new lair. I do NOT want some creep watching me in the bathroom or while I sleep."

"Hmm," mused Kim.

"What?" Shego said angrily.

"I was just thinking that we all have our little annoyances," said Kim, thinking of the tweebs. She watched the camera views as they flashed past. As it lingered on one of a nondescript hallway, something caught her eye just before it flashed away. "Wait, go back."

"Back to what?" asked Shego as if she just remembered Kim's presence.

"This screen here," Kim pointed to where the security cameras were flashing past. "Go back one, I think I saw something."

Shego pressed a button and the screen changed back to show the hallway again. Kim squinted as she studied it intently.

"Your face is going to stay like that," Shego said, lamely.

"There!" Kim said. She pointed at the screen. The hallway was fairly long with several doors on it which were open. A few of those open doors were spilling light into the hallway. "This one right here, I saw something move in front of the light."

Shego frowned and pressed a few more buttons on the panel. Another area on the monitor displayed a schematic of the lair and showed the location of the camera. "Residence level," said Shego. "Two floors up. Probably why they haven't heard us." She pressed another button and the camera Kim was studying stopped, then rewound. After a couple seconds the obstruction flew past the doorway again and Shego stopped the recording and played it back slowly.

"It's definitely a person," said Kim. "Whose room is that?"

"I don't know," shrugged Shego. "None of these rooms are labeled on the schematic. Could be anyone. A henchman, a prisoner, Drakken, me, anyone."

"Well, is there a camera inside the room?" asked Kim. "You said there were everywhere."

Shego pressed a few buttons and the schematic was suddenly littered with red dots showing the locations of cameras across the lair. The one room they were looking at, however, had a grey 'X' over the red dot, indicating it was inoperative.

Kim looked at Shego with her eyebrows raised.

"I don't care," said Shego in reply. "Let's just leave."

"Aren't you curious?" asked Kim.

"Curiosity killed the inter-dimensional cat," said Shego.

"We haven't met a version of you yet," said Kim idly.

"We don't need to," Shego insisted. She could see the wheels of fate spinning wildly towards her. Wasn't Kim listening when she just explained about risky decisions?

"If she's here, Drakken's probably not far away," said Kim. She started pressing buttons on the panel trying to get the security cameras to cycle again. Instead a weather report came up on the screen. It looked like a live television feed.

Shego stood abruptly. "Let's go." She turned towards one of the archways leading out of the room. The schematics she looked at earlier led her to believe it would take her to the hangar.

"Oh, like she's not going to notice when we take off with a random jet," said Kim, sarcastically. She motioned towards the screen randomly.

"I don't care if she notices, we just have to get away for twenty-four hours." Shego looked back towards Kim when she got to the door. "Stop acting like a child and--"

She stopped mid-sentence and froze in place. Kim looked at her with suspicion. "What's wrong?" she asked. The hair on the back of her neck was standing and she could almost feel trouble.

"Oh my god," Shego said, more with awe than anger. "You're dead."

Kim blinked. "No I'm not," she said, lacking any better response.

Shego pointed behind Kim at the screen. "Yeah, you are."

Kim turned to look at the screen and blanched. The weather report had ended and was now showing the news. A young anchorwoman was silently talking at the screen and on the bottom of the feed was the big letters in yellow over black:

FUNERAL FOR TEEN HERO KIM POSSIBLE

Kim's jaw dropped. "Oh, boy," she said.

---

KIM POSSIBLE, TEEN HERO, DIES PROTECTING 17

Middleton - The world got a little dimmer this week as the heroic teenager and feminist icon Kim Possible, 18, died Tuesday in the process of saving seventeen scientists from an overloading Reactor sources say was accidentally rigged to explode by the global terrorist and self-proclaimed 'Mad-Scientist' Drew Lipsky, aka Dr. Drakken. Lipsky, 47, also perished in the event.

Dr. Lewis Rothchild, a researcher at the Middleton-based Lawson Labs and one of the scientists rescued by Possible, was quoted as saying that Possible "was one of the most heroic people I've ever met. Even after [Lipsky said it was impossible to stop the supercollider she still ran in and saved Davison and Parkins before it exploded." He went on to say, "[Possible will be remembered by us for all time."

The incident began Tuesday afternoon when Lipsky was seen entering the Lawson Labs facility with his frequent cohort, the femme fatal known only as 'Shego.' Possible arrived on the scene with her partner Ron Stoppable shortly afterwards. Reports on the scene are unclear as to the exact events that transpired within the Labs as all digital recording devices were disabled when the supercollider exploded. However, according to Rothchild, Lipsky was intent on using the prototype Dark Matter Energy Reactor located at Lawson Labs to power a device he claimed would create a field of energy that would isolate Middleton from the rest of the Midwest and allow him to ransom it back to the United States.

Lipsky's attempts at city-napping were foiled when Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable arrived on the scene to prevent him activating his device. During the ensuing fight between Lipsky, Shego, Possible and Stoppable the Dark Matter Reactor was damaged and began to overload, a process which, if left alone, could have destroyed the entire city of Middleton and much of the state. Possible managed to stop the overload but several periphery machines connected to the reactor began to malfunction, including the before mentioned supercollider.

Possible and Stoppable evacuated the scientists from the lab, Possible only barely making it out with the last researcher before the supercollider started to explode. Lipsky and Shego, who continued their fight with Possible and Stoppable during the evacuation, kept the heroes from leaving the area as the labs began to burn.

Ron Stoppable, who is currently the only eyewitness to Possible's final hour, said in a statement to the associate press that during the fight part of the surface floors of the lab collapsed into the six basement levels where the fire from the supercollider was burning brightest. At one point, Lipsky was thrown towards the burning pit and Possible leapt after him to save him. She misjudged the stability of the structural pillar she attached her grapple to which eventually collapsed under hers and Lipsky's weight bringing the remaining floors down on top of them. While Possible and Lipsky avoided being burned alive the weight of the falling rubble crushed both their bodies.

Shego, the other remaining survivor from the fight, is currently at large and is wanted for questioning by local, federal, and international police in regards to this and many other unclosed cases.

Kim Possible has been involved in several hundred heroic deeds since she began her 'babysitting job' (as she referred to it once in an interview) when she was twelve. Despite her age and relative lack of supernatural ability, she is often referred to as the world's more capable hero, even beyond such super teams as Go City's 'Team Go.' Her partner and boyfriend Ron Stoppable has been with her since the beginning of her heroic side job and has been friends with Kim since they met at age five.

Kim leaves behind her above mentioned boyfriend Ron, her parents Drs. Judy and James Possible, her brothers Tim and Jim, a host of friends, and a very large collection of allies and acquaintances most of which owe Possible their lives and/or livelihoods.

The memorial service is planned for Friday and is expected to be a full military burial and include statements from several members of state and foreign assembly; self-proclaimed heroes from around the world; and a closing address from Robert Calhoun, President of the world renowned CERN laboratory on behalf of the many dozens of scientists and researchers she's saved over the last five years.

---

Kim stared at the article Shego culled from the online news websites, her mouth open and long gone dry. Dead. Her. For some reason she found it harder to believe here than back in that hellish world she first found herself in. At least there she could have blamed it on the whole world going sour and knew that she was only one of many who had ended up vanishing forever. But here, in a world not different from her own, where she hadn't disappeared but just gotten unlucky once... it was almost too real for her grasp.

"Sorry," Shego said regrettably. "But you asked."

"I can't believe it," said Kim, shaking her head.

"Believe it," said Shego. "It's going to happen to you someday, too. Maybe not like this, but somehow. You can't live like you do... like we do, without this being the end."

Kim shivered. "I guess so..." she said uneasily.

"You sure you want to know more about this world?" asked Shego. Kim said nothing. "Its better we just get out of here and stay low. Head for Bora Bora or someplace. We can't have people recognizing either of us right now." Shego stood up from the console again.

"Wait," Kim said as Shego turned to leave. "What about you?"

"What do you mean, what about me? The cops, feds, everyone is looking for me right now. I can't show my face any more than you can."

Kim shook her head. "No, I mean the other you. The you from this world. She's just hiding in her room in an empty lair."

"So?" asked Shego, not getting the point. "If it were me I'd probably be packing to go on the lam."

"Drakken just died in front of her, though," said Kim. "Don't you think she'd be sad or emotional or something? Shouldn't we do something for her?"

Shego blinked. "I'm not sure you quite understand the relationship Drakken and I had. Imagine the way a scientist might view a mouse he puts in a maze to experiment on. Then imagine Drakken's the mouse and I'm the scientist. If the mouse dies, you just get a new mouse."

"I find it hard to believe even you would be that heartless," frowned Kim. "You practically lived with him for four years."

"Believe it, Princess." Shego looked annoyed. "Besides, what are we going to do? Neither of us are going to be exactly a comforting sight. You're dead and she's going to think I'm a clone or a Bebe or something."

"We can't just do nothing," said Kim.

"It's not our responsibility to do something!" Shego yelled, getting agitated.

"It was never my responsibility to stop those floods or mudslides, or rescue those people from the fires. It was never really my responsibility to stop Monkey Fist from amassing a monkey army, or Senior Senior Senior from trying to ransom the world! It was never my responsibility to stop YOU and Drakken from building bombs, ray guns, stealing technology or enslaving the world! I did it because it was right, not because it was my obligation!" Kim was yelling now, far louder than Shego had been. "And you KNOW it made the world a better place! You know that I'm better off, the world is better off, and even YOU are better off that I always came to stop your crazy plans rather than just waiting for the police to make a move. Tell me I'm wrong! Tell me that I should have let you run crazy!"

Shego clenched her jaw but couldn't build the anger in her gut to rebut her. She wanted to scream at her and punch her in the face for the nonsense she was saying. She'd never had trouble building that ire before, it practically flowed freely within her, the distain for Kim Possible and her egoist ways.

But... she couldn't. The more she tried to hate her now the more guilty she felt and it squashed even the smallest flame of rebellion in her breast. She hadn't so much as thrown a punch since this whole journey began and she knew exactly why. It was that damn first world she still saw whenever she closed her eyes. It was the echos of pain she felt in her arms and chest when she moved or breathed. It was every reminder of the world that had decayed into anarchy and barbarism because she --and no one else -- had been given the power to get her way.

She couldn't give in to her wants anymore. Every time she did it would bring her closer to that animal who ruined the world. She wouldn't become like that. She could not! She had that evil within her, she knew it now for sure, but until her dying breath she would do everything she could to keep it bound and gagged tightly inside of her, never to see the light of day.

Damn that world for making her hate herself.

And damn Kim Possible for forcing her to remember.

Shego turned away from Kim, unable to come up with anything to say. Several agonizing minutes passed in silence where Shego was waiting for Kim to say more, to make her feel worse, but the words never came. And soon, Kim's angered breathing passed and the tension in the room was once more palpable.

Then, without warning, Kim spoke again. "Look--"

But she was immediately interrupted by someone else.

"What the hell?"

Kim and Shego turned simultaneously with incredible speed towards the source of the voice. On the opposite side of the room from the door leading to the hangers, standing a few steps in front of another archway, was another Shego, dressed entirely in black.

The world hung in silence for a few seconds as the dimensional travelers' minds raced to predict what the native Shego would do. A mixture of emotions flew across that Shego's face before a strange, almost wounded expression settled.

"Kimmie?" she said weakly.

"Not... exactly," Kim said experimentally, then looked to her Shego for support. There was none to be found.

The Shego in black eyed her counterpart and immediately became more guarded. "Who are you?" she said unevenly, as if not yet sure what she should feel.

"It's complicated," said Kim. "I'm not sure there's a good enough explanation that you'd believe."

"We're not clones, or robots," added the trans-dimensional Shego. "Though if we were, I'm pretty sure we'd say we weren't anyway."

"Not helping," Kim said in a faux-sugary voice.

"How did you get in here?" the Shego in black said, growing increasingly angry.

"Listen," the trans-dimensional Shego stepped forward. "We're not here to cause trouble. We ended up here by accident and we're leaving. You don't have to worry." She held up her hands in a guarded manner.

"But if there's anything we can do for you..." started Kim.

Her Shego shot a furious glance at her. "Dammit, Princess!"

"What? She just witnessed Drakken's and Kim's death... my death! You don't think that's painful at all?"

"No, I don't," her Shego said through gritted teeth. "Because you're just an annoyance and Drakken wasn't much better. NOT TO MENTION that it wasn't your death, and it isn't any of our business so we shouldn't get involved!"

"Are you two, like, ghosts or something?" asked the Shego in black, now more puzzled looking.

"No," said Kim at the same time her Shego said "Sure." They stared at each other, clearly annoyed.

"Do you need time to get your story straight?" asked the Shego in black.

"We're from an alternate reality," Kim blurted.

"Dammit!" cursed the Shego arguing with her.

"One where, obviously, I'm still alive," continued Kim. "We ended up in this world by accident just now and trying to understand what's happening."

"Riiight," said the Shego in black, slowly. She was clearly humoring her.

"I'm serious," said Kim. "What other explanation is there for me being here, when you just saw me die?"

"Um, robots, clones, time travel, chameleon fields, shape shifters, and possibly some of the alcohol I had last night," said the Shego in black, checking each off an invisible list as she went along.

"I could have told you that," said the Shego with Kim.

"Wow, two of you in the same room is much more annoying that I would have expected," Kim sighed.

"Not nearly as annoying as two of you in the last world," said her Shego.

"Two Kim Possibles?" asked the Shego in black. "That must have been hell."

The trans-dimensional Shego looked uneasy for a second then replied. "Something like that." She stared at her counterpart for a second. "Look, let's just talk for a second and clear this up now that Kim has blurted everything out." She walked casually towards the other Shego, then looked over her shoulder. "Kimmie, stay here for a sec, okay?"

Kim narrowed her eyes but nodded in assent.

---

The two Shegos walked down one of the hallways in the lair away from the room they'd left Kim in. The traveler Shego tried to seem as relaxed as possible, hoping to reduce the perception of being a threat while the local Shego made no effort to hide the fact she was ready for an attack the entire time.

"You don't have to be like that," said the traveler Shego. "I just want to talk."

"Right, and I should believe you... why?" asked the local Shego. "Oh, right, because you're me. And I would never lie to myself, would I?" The sarcasm dripped heavily off her voice.

"Whatever," shrugged traveler Shego and continued walking. They were heading back towards the room where she saw her counterpart in the security cameras as it was the only other place she knew about in the lair.

"I don't see how you're going to convince me of anything," said the local Shego. "It's not like I've gone to great lengths to hide my life."

"Yes you have," said the traveler Shego. "If you're anything like me you made every effort to disassociate yourself with your past, especially your 'Team Go' days."

"Everyone knows about that."

"Yeah, but not before Kim Possible found out and it became public," said the traveler Shego.

"..."

"Anyway, I'm not really going to spend any time convincing you I am who I appear to be," continued traveler Shego. "If you think I'm you from another world or Monkey Fist in a holographic costume, it doesn't matter to me."

"Then what?" asked local Shego.

"I just want to give you some advice," said traveler Shego.

"Advice? From myself. And what, exactly am I supposed to do with this advice?"

"Follow it, dimwit," said the traveler Shego.

"You just called yourself a dimwit, I hope you know," pointed out local Shego.

"I take it back, this is clearly more annoying than two Kim Possibles."

"I won't argue there," nodded local Shego.

The two stopped and looked at each other. Then local Shego sighed.

"All right, I won't say that I believe this entirely," she started. "But lets say I give you the benefit of the doubt temporarily and believe you're me, but from another time and place. What do you really want from me?"

"I really only want to talk," said the traveler Shego. "Kim wants to save your world from all its troubles, but I'm not planning on giving her the opportunity."

"Real messiah complex with that girl," said local Shego.

"Maybe, but she kept the world safe."

"Don't give her so much credit, this world will get along just fine--"

"No," Shego interrupted sharply, and looked at her local counterpart with serious eyes. "It won't. That's what I want you to know. I've seen it with my own eyes, the sort of future that results from her disappearance."

"Oh come on," the local Shego balked. "Kim Possible holds the world together? Please."

"She doesn't hold the world together," the traveler Shego explained slowly. "But she keeps reckless people -- like us -- from bringing down the house."

"Okay, we're done," the local Shego turned away from her double. "You've used up what little doubt I had about you. If you are me, you're a damn Kimmie lover and I'm not taking advice from you." She started walking back towards the main room.

The Shego left behind scowled and raised her voice. "Don't even try to say she didn't matter to you."

"Matter to me? You're a walking soap opera."

Gritting her teeth, the traveler quickly ran up behind her counterpart and grabbed her shoulder. "I can't believe I'm this stubborn," she said angrily. "I'm not saying you had feelings for her, I'm saying that you're going to miss the game! I'm saying without Kim or... Drakken, you're going to be bored!"

The local Shego grabbed the arm on her shoulder and pulled it forcefully away. Her face was filled with rage. "I have had enough of this. I don't need Drakken or Kim Possible to keep from being bored. I am not dependent upon those two annoyances!"

"Fine," the traveler Shego said forcefully. "Just tell me, are you smarter than Kim Possible?"

"You KNOW I am."

"Smarter than Drakken?"

"Duh."

"More capable than Kim?"

"YES."

"A better villain than Drakken?"

"A chimp could be."

"Got an account in the Caymans or maybe Zurich with at least seven figures?"

"Mid-eights, actually."

The inter-dimensional traveling Shego breathed once, slowly, then shouted. "Then what the hell are you doing here, now that they're gone, alone in an empty lab, crying in your room?!"

The local Shego shot her counterpart a look that could melt glass. "I was not crying."

"Of course you weren't," the traveler said evenly, never breaking her gaze.

"Shego!" a voice suddenly shouted down the hall. Kim popped her head in and looked down at the two who were staring each other down. "Er, OTHER Shego! I think you guys should see this." Her head vanished again.

The traveler raised an eyebrow during her stare, then walked swiftly around the local Shego and headed towards the room Kim was in.

A moment later, reluctantly, she was followed.

---

The console that Kim and Shego had been using earlier was now filled with a television news broadcast, this time including sound. Kim was standing in front of it looking a little angry as the two Shego approached from behind. The crawl at the bottom of the screen read:

FIRST POST-POSSIBLE SUPER-VILLAIN

"What's going on?" asked the inter-dimensional Shego.

"Somebody just robbed Jack Hench," said Kim, keeping her eyes on the video.

"Who cares?" said the native Shego. "Happens bi-weekly, probably Dementor."

"There's more," said Kim. "Listen."

The anchorwoman vanished and the report changed to show the on-site reporter who was staring severely into the camera. The view of the reporter slowly widened to show a disheveled but generally unharmed Jack Hench standing beside her. He had a strange smile on his face, very unlike the sly, confident grin he typically held in front of the camera. This one looked almost... earnest.

"If you're just joining us, I'm talking with Jack Hench, CEO of HenchCo, whose world and R&D headquarters was just hit by an as yet unidentified supervillain. Jack, what can you tell us about the attack?"

"Well, it was ... I have to say it was pretty sly, and I'm known for being sneaky," Jack laughed. "I'd never seen the guy before, definitely not a regular client, but he was dressed up like just the dandiest Halloween trick-or-treater. Stormed right in, gave my guards some nasty bruises and demanded access to our developed technology archive."

"What do you keep in this 'Developed Technology Archive'?" asked the reporter.

"Well, it's basically a storehouse for our prototypes," said Jack with a nod. "When we develop a new technology we put it in a temporary casing to see how it performs then use the data to run our production lines. The prototypes then are labeled, dated, and stored in our archives for future reference."

"Did the villain make off with any of your prototypes?"

"Oh, yes, definitely," nodded Jack. "He was quite thorough. Filled up a entire hovercraft -- which we developed -- with everything it could carry, and flew it out of the loading dock and into the sky! Normally we'd just activate our tracking devices and run down the pilfered goods lickety-split but unfortunately we don't attach our tracers on prototypes. I guess that's a lesson hard earned."

"I must say, Jack, despite this rather serious crime, you seem to be taking it incredibly well. Is that because HenchCo is insured for such an event given the nature of your clientele?"

"Well, that would certainly be a relief," said Jack, continuing to smile. "Our actuaries did indeed figure this was a high risk for us and obtained the proper insurance for it. But, really, I've just felt in an incredible mood since the robbery when the villain used one of our Attitudinators on me."

"Attitudinator?"

"Yes," nodded Jack. "It's a remarkable device that we developed at HenchCo based on a design we obtained through menacing corporate espionage on Dr. Cyrus Bortle's one-man think tank."

"Er, okay..." the reporter looked awkwardly towards the camera once then back at Jack. "Well, uh, what does the device do?"

"It swaps the good intentions of one person with the bad intentions of another," Jack said. "Basically turns good people bad and bad people good, depending on the amount of good or evil in a person to begin with, of course. But this guy -- boy he was a thinker! Hah! -- he attached it to a HenchCo portable wide-angle energy emitter and swapped the bad intentions of all the people in our entire building with his own!"

"So, to be clear, he now contains all the evil intensions of all the people who were in the HenchCo corporate headquarters at the time of the incident and you've received all his good intentions?"

"That about sums it up," Jack said happily. "And I tell you, spreading one person's goodness that thin and still having an effect, well, he must have good right to the core. Not anymore though!"

"Would you say that the villain is now more dangerous than he was when he first arrived?" the reporter asked.

"Well, absolutely. I wouldn't want to run into that guy ever again, who knows what he might do." Jack shivered once, then shook his head. "Just last week if this had happened I would have expected Kim Possible to defeat the guy, but now... man, it's just poor timing."

"It is indeed," nodded the reporter who then turned back towards the camera. "I understand we have just now received some amateur video footage of the culprit making his escape earlier today."

The screen suddenly changed again to show grainy footage of the HenchCo building. The video had clearly been enlarged to show the relevant part of the HenchCo building. Suddenly there was an explosion off the side of the building and a blue and green hovercraft laden with odd gadgets emerged from the smoke and took to the sky. The pilot was dressed in vibrant shades of yellow and blue on top of black.

The footage restarted again, this time zoomed in even further on the hovercraft, showing its pilot glancing once back at the building. As he turned, you could see his blonde hair past his tall collar as well as the pair of goggles over his eyes.

Kim's eyes widened and she gasped.

"Isn't that..." started her Shego.

"...Stoppable?" finished the native Shego.

Kim hands went to her mouth as she frowned deeply. "Ron?" she said sadly.

---

Wade drooled absently onto his chest as he sat slumped in his chair with a weak, goofy smile on his face and his eyes half-lidded beneath the brow of his gigantic ten-gallon hat. He had little idea where he was or even why he was here, in fact, very little matter to him except this strange little dot that was floating around in front of his vision. Was it dust? Maybe some sort of small thingy being all floaty in the air. Yeah, a floaty thing.

The floaty thing was a bright color, very pretty. He hoped the floaty was happy it was so pretty and, immediately, he was sure it was. In fact, they were all happy, all the things in the world. And Wade himself, he was also happy. Happiest of the happy happys!

There was suddenly a strange tugging feeling on his head and he was confused, but fairly certain it wasn't all that bad. Then there was a sudden release as a weight started to be lifted from his brow--

The world snapped back into focus around him and Wade blinked with the information overload. Shaking the cobwebs from his mind he looked up and around, noticing he was in some sort of darkened warehouse or cavern filled with electronic equipment and flashing, blinking lights. The sounds of supercomputers filled his ears and the distant echo told him that there were more around there were unseen.

His arms and legs were bound, as they were before he was placed in the chair he was in, and he struggled slightly to see if they had gotten any looser over the indeterminable time he was effectively brain-dead.

"There's no use, my genius friend," a very loud, flamboyantly dramatic voice said near to him. "Despite looking like rope those bonds could keep the moon tied to the earth."

Wade looked up to see Ron, his former friend, standing nearby holding the ten-gallon hat that just moments ago had reduced Wade's intelligence to that of a near-toddler. Ron was dressed up in yellows and black, in a costume reminiscent of the Zorpox outfit he once wore. There was a large yellow "Z" emblazoned across his chest beneath the cape.

"Ron! Get a hold of yourself!" Wade tried.

"Ah, aah!" Ron waved his finger. "It's Zorpox. Say it with me now. Zor--"

"Ron," repeated Wade.

"You know, for a genius you're not very quick. Lets try again."

"Why are you doing this?" Wade pressed on. "What happened to you?"

"To me?" asked Zorpox, surprised. "A better question is what happened to the world! I'll tell you what happened. It got up and changed its orientation."

"The world is gay?" asked Wade, now more confused.

"No, no, no," Zorpox shook his head. "You see, Kimberly and I always thought the world was inherently 'good' and heading towards a utopian future. It just needed some help shaking off these evil folks that kept dragging it down. But, we were wrong! Oh, were we wrong!" He paused, thoughtful. "Wrong were we, wrong we were, and we wrong were." Then he shook his head. "That last one didn't make any sense."

"Anyway," Zorpox continued. "I realized after Kimberly Ann's demise that the world wasn't heading towards utopia! It was heading towards a decadent, self-obsessed dystopia! We weren't correcting its path, we were trying to divert it, change the natural order of the world. Of COURSE we lost in the end."

"You didn't lose, Ron," Wade interrupted. "Just because... just because Kim is gone now, doesn't mean what she fought for is over!"

"But it is," Zorpox said sinisterly. "You see, it's all a bunch of hogwash anyway. There is no utopia. Just people, and people need to be led or they just spend all day thinking about themselves and their pitiful 'noble' quests."

"What you and Kim did wasn't pitiful," Wade said angrily.

"Of course it was, haven't you heard what people have been saying?" asked Zorpox. He walked over to a console and pressed a button causing a huge holographic screen to appear and show a collection of news clips and interviews.

"...it's a pity she her influence wasn't more widespread..."

"...pity her crusade ended in such a manner..."

"...I certainly pity the world that has no Kim Possible..."

"...brings pity on herself by the sheer scope of her endeavor..."

The clips came one after another and Zorpox eventually started shaking his head. He banished the display and looked at Wade.

"Don't you see?" he asked.

"Ron, they were saying it bad that Kim was gone, not that what she DID was pitiful."

"Ah, true," nodded Zorpox. "But the world would still rather throw pity around rather than take up the responsibility for continuing her work."

Wade opened his mouth to object but realized he didn't have an argument. He closed his mouth lamely then looked up again. "There was still you."

"And people barely even remember I was part of Team Possible," said Zorpox. "No, my influence was negligible." He smiled. "Clearly, I had to find a new approach."

"And this is your answer?" asked Wade. "Enslave the world."

"Not enslave," said Zorpox, walking back to the console. "Empower!" He pushed a button and suddenly a series of flood lamps turned on, bathing a huge device in the center of the room, which the lights now confirmed to be some sort of cave. The device was at least two stories tall and looked to have been cobbled together from a variety of gadgets originally intended for other things. It hummed with life and Wade realized the other computers he heard were actually coming from this structure.

"What... what did you build?" asked Wade, almost afraid to ask.

"The future," Zorpox said dramatically. "I'm giving everyone the chance to plainly make that great decision between self-interest and self-sacrifice. Those who walk the path behind me get to march towards my great empire, those who don't... well, they don't really matter anyway, do they?"

Wade looked upon the machine with horror. "You're insane," he said, his voice hollow.

"No," Zorpox said, his voice suddenly steady and low. "Insane is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Like trying to save a world that doesn't want to be saved, or expecting romance from someone who never learned how."

Wade looked at Zorpox expectantly. "What is this really about, Ron?"

Zorpox smirked and the dramatic appearance returned in full force. "I already told you, this is about the FUTURE."

"You're lying," said Wade, pressing on. "This is about Kim."

"There's a difference between what this was about and what it is about," said Zorpox strolling across the floor of the large room. "When this started, it was about guilt. Now, it's about power."

"You took too much evil into yourself, Ron," Wade said. "It's overpowering you, crushing what you were. You're not like this, you're just being manipulated."

"And WHAT," Zorpox emphasized as he turned back to Wade, "makes you think that isn't what poor little, sad, guilty Ronnie wanted? Thinking is a real pain, its better just to follow. The Attitudinator is the perfect solution, just take someone else's wants and desires and incorporate them right into your own personality. No mess, no fuss, and everyone thinks that they're happy." He smiled broadly.

"Oh my god," said Wade suddenly. "That's what you're going to do to the world! You're going to use the Attitudinator on everyone."

Zorpox laughed. "Khan, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, they're only called tyrants because not everyone agreed with their goals. But why bother trying to convince people to agree with you when you can just make them."

"You... you can't do this!" Wade yelled. "Someone will stop you!"

"Someone will stop me..." Zorpox frowned then scratched his chink. "Just for clarity, are you referring to the self-destructive Team Go, or the weighed down with bureaucracy Global Justice?"

"There are still good people out there," insisted Wade. "The nameless heroes who we never saw. They'll rise up to stop you because the world IS good in its heart, no matter what you say."

Zorpox chuckled as he walked over to the gigantic Attitudinator and slapped it reassuringly. "It won't be for long."

---

Kim stared at her traveling partner and spoke deliberately. "We have to do something."

"It's not our responsibility," said Shego with a shake of her head.

"I agree," the native Shego nodded.

"No, this IS your world," the trans-dimensional Shego said to her counterpart. "It is your responsibility and you should do something."

"What?!" she replied incredulously. "How come you get to back out but I'm expected to deal with this?"

"We're not backing out," insisted Kim.

"Because it's your world, and you need to take responsibility for it," said traveler Shego.

"I'm not a hero," the native Shego replied. "Neither are you, I might add."

"This isn't about me."

"Then I don't see why it should be about me!"

"Shegos!" Kim suddenly yelled. Both women looked towards her, surprised. "Can we just act like a team and have all of us go and do something about this?"

The two Shegos looked at each other and frowned.

"It's not like Stoppable is a real threat," said the trans-dimensional Shego. "He's hardly a super villain."

"Though, Zorpox was a natural at it," reminded the native Shego. "If he's been hit by that evil-helmet again..."

"That's a good point," mused the traveler Shego. "His weather machine did work on the first try, which is a feat I can't say Drakken ever accomplished."

"He had to steal one, in fact," said the native Shego.

"Right."

"So..." started Kim. "Have we agreed we should do something?"

Her Shego sighed. "If it'll get her to come along, I guess we can indulge your need to save the world this time."

"Fine," the native Shego rolled her eyes. "I'd hate to see my favorite beaches hit by tidal waves or something. Let's make sure he's not causing too much trouble."

"Great," said Kim. "First things first, we should contact Wade."

"The nerdlinger?" asked the local Shego. "What do we need from him?"

"Oh, he chipped Ron a while back so he could be found anywhere on the globe," said Kim plainly. "He should be able to tell us where he is."

"Smart kid," said the traveler Shego.

Kim quickly moved over to the console and stared at the myriad of buttons. A few moments later, Shego pushed her out of the chair and started typing away.

"Just send a message to the website," said Kim to her Shego. "Hopefully he's still watching it. I would hope he would keep it alive even if... something happened to me."

"Whatever," she said, and started typing. She got a few words into the message when suddenly the screen went blank.

"What the...?" said Shego. "Did you not pay the power bill?"

The native Shego raised her hands. "Don't look at me, Drakken deals with that stuff."

Then the screen came life again and was replaced with an image of Ron, complete in the variant of the Zorpox costume they saw on the news. As soon as the image resolved on the screen, the other monitors in the room changed to match.

"Well, I guess that answers the 'up to no good' question," said the trans-dimensional Shego. She began typing furiously.

"Greetings, EARTH!" Zorpox said with fanfare.

"What are you doing?" asked Kim to Shego.

"Hoping only the screen was hijacked so I can use the computer to trace this signal."

Kim blinked. "Oh... good idea."

"I am communicating to you all now though the magic of television!" Zorpox continued with a smirk. "Or rather, the network of powerful television satellites above your heads set to find any communication signal and override it with my own. Mehehehehehahaa!"

"That is a terrible laugh," said the native Shego.

"Shh!" said Kim.

"I... am Zorpox. No doubt you've seen my wonderful heist of HenchCo on the news already. Not my best work but definitely a start. I like how CNN is calling me the 'Next Drakken.' It's so fitting in ways you'll never really know." He degraded into laugher again for several seconds.

"Anyway, I appear before you tonight to let you know your long winter is over and I am here to lead you into the spring. The long years of hoping people like Kim Possible would save you from your own mess are over. I have come to guide you."

"Now he's got the messiah complex. Great," the native Shego rolled her eyes.

"Of course, I know some of you would deny the glorious future I present to you, and naturally, some of you would intend to follow me just long enough to stab me in the back. To all of you, I offer you this one last chance to rethink your ways."

Zorpox tilted his head down slightly, taking on a more menacing look. "At dawn, as the sun first touches your place in the world, starting with the North American west coast, if you have a strong desire to follow me in your hearts, you will be given the power to see the way towards our future. If you do not wish to follow me, then this will be the last we speak."

Glancing down once, Zorpox grinned. "It starts in twelve hours."

Then, as suddenly as the broadcast began, it ended, and the screens in the lair returned to their original content.

The Shego at the console shrugged. "Well that doesn't seem all that bad, either go with him or don't. I expected worse."

"I doubt he intends to just leave those who don't alone," said the native Shego. "Nothing galvanizes a nation more than an enemy."

"Hmm, you're probably right. Kimmie, what do you --" but she trailed off as she looked to Kim, who had her face in her hands. "Hey," she said in a softer voice. "You alright?"

Kim lowered her hands slightly and sniffled. She rubbed her eyes with her palms and then tried abashedly to hide the action by putting her hands behind her back.

"I'm fine," she said in a slightly choked voice. He voice slowly gained strength. "I don't care what he said, we have to go to him. Stop him."

"We will," nodded her Shego. "But, he's not your Stoppable."

"He's still doing this because of me," said Kim, her voice cracking. "Because I'm not there for him anymore."

"You wanted an empire of fanatical servants?" asked the native Kim.

"No!" Kim snapped, loudly. "But he's alone and depressed and he... he's done this to himself. I should have been there for him."

"This isn't our world," said Shego for probably the tenth time since arriving. "We couldn't do anything for him. It's just bad luck."

"But..." Kim said in a small voice. "What if we don't ever get back home?"

Her Shego blinked as if she'd never considered it.

"What if this is what happens after we're gone?" asked Kim. "I never... imagined I was having this impact but... if people are relying on me..."

"Stop it," the native Shego said suddenly. Kim and the other Shego looked at her. "You're not high and mighty no matter what Stoppable or the press thought of you. We don't need you, and we don't depend on you."

"But..." started Kim, but the native Shego pressed on.

"This is just a stupid kid who's taking his anger out on the world. He will be stopped. Someone will keep this from getting out of hand."

"Who?" asked the trans-dimensional Shego, staring down her counterpart.

The native Shego scowled for quite a while before answering. "Fine, I'll do something." She folded her arms and turned away. "It's not like I wanna see his crazy kingdom, anyway."

The Shego who had thought she's seen it all, felt something start within her, and she desperately tried to hide it. She didn't want to believe it was there, because it put her at risk and made her vulnerable. Since she'd seen her face and name being used to destroy and maim, she had thought she'd lost that flame forever. But if she could change... if a version of her could realize what she never did without seeing that terrible hell, then maybe...

Shego made a small smile and gave in. She let that spark of hope deep within her warm her soul again.

---

The great and powerful Zorpox checked the timer on one of the monitors in the main room. Three hours remained before they could start the plan. It was glorious how close his kingdom was. His will would wash across the world with the rising sun! No better metaphor could exist for an act that would usher in a new reality and he was proud for thinking of it.

Of course, there was the logistical issues that forced him to do it that way as well. He couldn't cover the entire world with his Attitudinator beam at once, even all the amplifiers and power generators he'd pilfered from Hench couldn't keep the beam contained at that range. So he had to work slowly across the surface. It meant that once he started it would be a full day later before he reached China and Japan, giving them precious time to develop a defense. Not ideal. The Japanese were quite industrious, and he had no doubt they could find a shield, but twenty-four hours could hardly be enough, could it?

There was no alternative, however, not that would speed things up any, at least. To bounce his beam back at the planet had to use a series of geosynchronous satellites above his targets and even the near-mass of the Attitudinator beam would throw them off their orbits without firing corrective jets. Of course, the satellites (and ergo, the jets) were solar powered and would quickly deplete their batteries if they weren't in constant sunlight while receiving the Attitudinator beam.

There was a whole range of complications to this plan, Zorpox realized early, and while he was quite a bit smarter than Ronald, he wasn't nearly as scientifically minded enough to keep track of all of it. So, he needed help.

"The calculations for the satellites are complete, Zorpox," Wade said from his place at the main communications console. "Everything in is in place for your grand plan."

Zorpox laughed maniacally. Thankfully using his machine on someone standing right next to it required very little coordination and Wade had been a most ideal test subject. The modifications to the Attitudinator that Zorpox had made worked perfectly. There was no longer any need to do a 'swap' of good motivations for bad ones when using the device. He could now simply send intentions of his own design directly into the brain, such as the need to serve and the almost ruthless disregard to any human life he placed in Wade.

Briefly, Zorpox wondered if it was possible to reverse the damage he was doing to Wade's brain, but the thought was quickly squashed. That was an artifact from an earlier life, one that no longer had any use to him. He didn't care about undoing the changes he was making. Why would he? He was making the world better!

"External sensors are picking up people approaching the lair," Wade announced and Zorpox forced his delicious soliloquy out of his mind.

"Who is it?" asked Zorpox with a grin. He was hoping there would be challengers to his title. He needed test subjects. "Team Go? Or GJ?"

"Unknown," Wade said. "They're in a covered hovercraft, but thermal says there are three people inside. They're coming up low and quiet on the ocean-side, probably thinking we'd be surprised by them. I can shut down their engines with an EM shot. Plummet them into the sea."

"No," Zorpox said. "I want them alive. I can deal with three people myself and I'd love to have some witnesses to the start of my plan. Let them through, but don't make it easy."

"Activating perimeter defenses," announced Wade.

Zorpox leaned over Wade's shoulder as he watched the first line of automated guns go into active status and begin tracking. Wade brought up a view of the exterior of the lair to watch the action from afar.

---

"He's got a lot of balls using one of Drakken's old lairs as his own," said the native Shego as she piloted their hovercraft. It was one of the few being stored at the hideout they were just in and the only one with a roof. Drakken's penchant for open top vehicles made it easy to watch for annoying heroes clinging to the side but outright impossible to stay dry in the rain or, in the current case, protected in case of gunfire.

"Just keep our angle low, you know his security isn't worth much on the tracking side," said the trans-dimensional Shego.

"Any lower and we'd have to be in a submersible."

Kim moved between the two Shegos and stared out the front windshield at the rapidly approaching lair. "You think he's got help?"

"Why would he need it?" asked the native Shego. "He's sitting on more technology right now than James Bond."

"He did always want to turn me evil though," said Kim. "And he worked with you the first time he went bad. Maybe he thinks he's supposed to work in a team."

"Who do you think he would have turned evil then, apart from you?"

"I don't know, I'm just wondering," Kim said, staring at the rocky cliff face punctuated by jutting rocks, random trees, and silvery guns aiming slowly out to sea.

"Uh," started Kim but the native Shego was already gripping the controls so hard her knuckles were white.

"I see them," said Shego, testily. "Hang on!" She pulled the controls sharply to the side, throwing Kim onto the other Shego as they barely dodged an incoming blast from the energy guns. Water splashed against the windshield as the waves split from the concussive force of the shot.

The trans-dimensional Shego gripped Kim strongly by the shoulders and pushed her off, tossing her towards the third seat in the craft. Kim grabbed on it firmly then began the awkward motion of trying to get the harness around her waist.

"So much for invisible approach," grumbled the Shego at the helm.

"He must have upgraded the defenses," said the trans-dimensional Shego. She gripped the sides of her chair as the other Shego banked the hovercraft left and then right, trying to zig-zag their way towards the shore and avoid getting shot.

A sudden jolt hit the vehicle and they felt themselves listing to the side and slowly losing altitude.

"We took a hit," said the native Shego. "Stabilizer's slagged. We'll still make it there without it but I hope they've got a spare ship to take back."

Kim grimaced as the whole craft started to rumble then jerk as they slapped against the high cresting waves. Just a few minutes more and they'd be at the shore. She hated not being able to do anything, but there's only one pilot on a hovercraft.

---

"They're beat up pretty bad," said Wade, using different angles from the exterior cameras to assess the damage to the intruding ship. "No way they're making it back out in that thing. We've got them here to stay."

"Then lay down the carpet," Zorpox said with near-glee. "Let's see who's found their way to my home."

"Shutting down cannons," Wade nodded. He watched the small craft tumble back and forth between waves before eventually crashing into the ocean and coming to stop against the rocks on the cliff-side of the lair. Switching cameras he tried to get a good view of the occupants but each camera was obstructed by something, either a jutting rock or high tide, and eventually he had to settled on a rather distant camera to watch the proceedings.

The hovercraft on the screen swayed slowly back and forth and eventually a door opened and woman dressed completely in black climbed out, jumping onto the rocks and clinging loosely to a outcropping tree. She was slim and had long dark hair an pale skin. Wade did his best to clean up the image but he had a good idea who it was right away.

"Shego," he said to Zorpox, right behind him.

"Shego?" asked Zorpox, surprised. "That's a let down. She probably just wants me to deal her into the action. I was hoping for some desperate heroes." He watched the grainy picture closely. "Who's with her?"

"Nobody else came out of the hovercraft," said Wade. He switched to thermal optics and studied the blooms of color. "The engine on that thing is giving off a lot of heat, but I don't see anyone else left in the ship. Either the other two ditched or they're masking their heat signature somehow."

"They could be hiding in the heat of the engine," pointed out Zorpox.

"Not for long," said Wade, pointing at the quickly shrinking blotches of color. "It's cooling fast. Five more minutes or so and there won't be anything to hide behind."

"Check the undersea cameras," said Zorpox, recalling a few incidents with Kim where they'd assaulted this very lair.

The images on the screen changed again, this time showing slightly distorted views of the dark water beneath the cliffs. Just a small dot of color marked where the hovercraft had moored a few hundred feet above on the surface. Still, no figures or anything that looked like intruders.

"Odd," said Zorpox. "How are they masking their heat?'

"They could be wearing heat resistant outfits, neoprene or something similar. Though if they were covered head to foot they'd suffocate," said Wade.

"Anything else?"

"A specially designed air conditioned suit might throw off the thermal sensors. Like those clothes with A/C in them they make for people who can't sweat." Wade thought future. "Or, honestly, a good mirroring material might do it, but they'd have to have enough to block all the thermograpihc cameras and it doesn't fool normal visual ones."

"So, they're just gone," said Zorpox.

"Or they were never there to begin with," said Wade. "Maybe Shego was playing games with us, trying to make us think there were more people coming."

"To what end?" asked Zorpox. "It doesn't fit her MO. Let's forget the games and bring her in. Send the Synthodrones."

---

Shego climbed the cliff as carefully as she could, not wishing to end up speared and disemboweled by the crags beneath her. Their razor-sharp peaks would be like teeth to her comparably softer body and she wanted nothing of that. She adjusted her bag over her shoulder and pulled herself up higher.

Despite having worked and lived out of this liar off and on over the years, she'd never had to get in from the ocean side of the lair which, naturally, had sheer cliffs climbing several stories before reaching the first basement that had an entrance. If she survived this ordeal, she convinced herself she would have a secret entrance installed at the base of the cliffs too to avoid needlessly deadly situations like this one.

Looking up, she saw she'd almost reached the platform that marked the basement level and she looked down once to confirm there were no bodies already on the rocky base. Nodding to herself she pulled herself up onto the shaped flat and looked up just in time to see the Synthodrone standing there, reaching for her.

Instincts taking over, Shego swung herself to the side and scrambled for a good foot hold before flinging herself back towards the platform, planting her feet square in the synthodrone's head and knocking him down the cliff where he vanished below. Looking towards the secret doorway leading in, she saw it was already open and more synthodrones were racing towards her.

She planted her feet and ignited her hands in a blaze of green fire. The synthodrones, not programmed for very much self preservation, continued to charge her where she slashed fiery lines across their abdomens causing them to topple down off and join their mindless comrade below.

Smiling, Shego strode into the doorway, kicking a latch down in the doorway to keep it from closing and into the basement level of the lair. At first she was shocked, the basement had been entirely renovated from when she'd seen it last. Then she saw the small multi-legged robots cheerfully marching along the floors and walls, eating up parts of the stone while spitting up others. Like a slow moving swarm they marched across the room changing its orientation and shape, using the stone they ate as raw materials for the wall they built.

Ingenious little drones they were, apparently usurped from their original task of laying down security cameras and wire for monitors in the lair. Shego wondered why Drakken had never considered using them in this way but then again, he was way better at creating new things than he was at coming up with uses for them.

Turning away from the quickly growing walls, Shego headed for the stairs towards the upper levels. Even if the drones had been co-oped into building walls, they still probably had put up cameras and she knew the great and self-absorbed Zorpox was probably watching. Four synthodrones was nothing, more would be on their way, she knew it.

"Hold it!"

Shego spun to see the source of the voice. Two synthodrones had arrived, both rather slimmer than the norm but no less menacing. The shorter of the two was standing in front of the other.

"You're coming with us," said the synthodrone in front. It held out a finger pointed directly at Shego who smirked in response.

"Going to make me?" asked Shego, playfully. Then her hands burst into flames that threw green light across the sides of her head.

---

Zorpox stared at the monitors showing Shego being dragged slowly through the halls towards the main room where he sat. His mind was alive with plans and ideas, possibilities. Cleared from the hazy fog that was the 'Ron' persona, Zorpox knew he was the most capable villain in the world. None of the gimmicky screwballs he and Kim had fought were even close to his ability. Their plans were always shallow, poorly planned, and often aimless. "Destroy the world," indeed.

He expected that some of those 'villains' would flock to his clear alpha dog status, but Shego... she was clearly the most shrewd of the rogues gallery, probably the most capable after himself. But she was vain. Oh, was could push it aside sometimes, swallow her pride to get something she wanted more, but it was always come back to her. It was who she was at her core. She had to be the best, she'd never work for someone who could even briefly be considered better than her.

Which begged the question: What was she doing here?

Zorpox considered dozens of explanations but threw each out as being less plausible than the last. The only possible options that remained were three: First could be here to swear allegiance merely to avoid having her brain being tinkered with -- Zorpox knew she hated mind control -- but intended to stab him in the back at the first possible opportunity. Second, she was here to try and work with him as a peer and profit from his grand vision so long as he was strong enough to keep her in line. Or third, she was here to stop him out of some bizarre preference for the world as it currently was.

Yes, Zorpox nodded to himself, she was here to stop him. That made the most sense. She was far from impulsive, but the short deadline to the dawn might have forced her hand into coming here without enough firepower to stop him. It was a stupid gambit and would only assure that she got her mind tinkered with first, much to her probable chagrin.

He laughed loudly, to the surprise of Wade, at his successful analysis of the situation and stood to prepare himself for Shego's arrival. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a small metal disc with a pattern of buttons on one side and a silvery metal spiral on the other. He weighed it casually in his hand as he waited.

"What's the verdict on those underwater thermal optics cameras?" he asked over his shoulder at Wade.

"Nothing conclusive," reported Wade. "The falloff for heat signatures underwater is much much shorter than in air, they'd have to have swam right past a camera to get anything definitive."

"Wade, Wade, Wade! I thought you were a genius!" announced Zorpox.

"I can't go back in time and install a better sensor grid in this place," said Wade, wryly.

"Perhaps you should work on that," Zorpox said as he turned towards the doors just in time to see the two purple suited soldiers dragging the seemingly unconscious Shego by the legs. "Ah, my illustrious guests." He bowed majestically to them.

"Where do you want her?" said one of the synthodrones, gesturing curtly towards the unconscious intruder.

"Just there is fine," nodded Zorpox. He flipped the metal disc in his and pressed several of the buttons on it simultaneously. "Just stand still." He tossed the device at the feet of the two drones and their prisoner. The device whirred loudly and began to glow.

"What are--" started the other synthodrone just before the device exploded bright light, shooting a shimmering beam upwards like a fountain that then cascaded down around the three figures, encasing them in a blue transparent flowing wave.

Zorpox grinned madly. "Perfect," he said.

"Hey!" yelled one of the synthodrones. It looked around and then reached out at the domelike energy field, discovering resistance to its touch. A more forceful punch confirmed that it was impenetrable. The field was only about three or four feet above its head and was only wide enough in diameter to comfortably fit the Shego on the ground and one standing synthodrone on either side of her. The device which had created the field was now floating still above the field just inches off the top of the dome.

The two synthodrones looked at one another and then towards Zorpox.

"We're trapped in here," said one of the drones.

"Well, that's obvious," Zorpox rolled his eyes. "But you should be okay, since you knocked out the only threat in there with you. Though, I have to say, I doubt she's really unconscious." He stared into the dome at the figure on the ground. After a few moments, he said, "Its okay if you want to play possum, I can wait all night."

Shego then opened her eyes and sat up, looking angry.

"There we go," said Zorpox, pleased with himself again. "Sorry to ruin your trap, but Drakken's synthodrones are terrible. I don't believe for a second that two small squads took you, the great Shego, down. These two drones clearly came with you."

"Oh, you're so clever," Shego sneered, getting to her feet.

"Hey, I was complimenting you," Zorpox said in a mock injured tone.

"Bite me, Stoppable," said Shego.

Zorpox's smile fled his face. He looked back at Shego darkly. "It's Zorpox, not Stoppable."

"Oh, riiight," nodded Shego. "And why again is that supposed to make any difference?"

"I am not that idiot Stoppable!" yelled Zorpox. "I'm better than him. Smarter. Wiser."

"Because you put on a lame custom and a pair of goggles?" balked Shego. "Please. You're still the same old buffoon just playing out Drakken's tired old lines. A Stoppable in a Halloween costume is still a Stoppable to me."

"I AM ZORPOX!" bellowed Zorpox. He moved right up against the glowing barrier so that his nose pressed against the shifting field. "Silence that blasphemous tongue of yours or I'll do it for you!"

"Wow, you really have taken on the heavy-handed cheese-ball act in full force," noted Shego, examining the claws on her gloves. "I take it back, Drakken could have learned a thing or two from you."

"You think you're so amazing, well look at where you stand now! Trapped in my forcefield! Your idiotic ambush defused before you even started! How dare you be so smug to me?!" Zorpox was starting to turn red with rage now and Shego stared back with an even expression.

"Because you're just a kid," Shego said plainly. "A little boy who got hurt and is throwing a tantrum now because mommy couldn't kiss the boo-boo away. You can destroy the world right now and it won't mean a thing because the only way you got here is by stealing all the other kids toys and keeping them for yourself."

Shego put her hands on her hips. "A great and powerful villain? You're not even up to Frugal Lucre's discount standard. At least he had a decent gimmick. What's yours? Pound on the floor and stamp your legs until someone picks you up?"

"I am not a kid!" growled Zorpox. "You have NEVER been so close to conquering the world as I am right now!"

Shego looked towards one of the synthodrones then looked down. "Maybe," she said, then raised her head. "But the fun was in the trying anyway."

"Fun?" Zorpox said with disgust. "Fun?" His face was screwed up in an expression of rage. "FUN!? BECAUSE OF YOUR FUN, KIM IS DEAD AND NOTHING I DO WILL BRING HER BACK!"

One of the synthodrones slowly stepped up, moved Shego gently aside and looked back at Zorpox. It raised its hand and pulled at the mask and covering over its head. A frock of red hair emerged followed by a pale face and a pair of deep green eyes that stared straight into Zorpox's soul. "Is that why you're doing all this, Ron?" Kim asked sadly.

Zorpox's expression immediately changed to one of horror and he fell backwards, scrambling to back away. "Y-y-you!" he stammered, his voice hollow.

"I'm not terribly pleased this is how you're remembering me," said Kim softly. "We worked so hard to protect this world. Why are you trying to undo that?"

"Y-y-your not REAL!" yelled Zorpox, throwing his hands up to block Kim's sight from her view. "A-A-A phantom!"

"Yes," nodded Kim solemnly. "I'm just a ghost in this world. So why are you afraid of me?"

"GO AWAY!" Zorpox covered his eyes with his arms and turned.

"You've already sent me away, Ron," said Kim. "By destroying what I stood for."

"NOOooooo," moaned Zorpox as he covered his ears now as well.

Kim sighed and pulled her mask and head coverings back on. She took a step back and let Shego stand in front again. After a few minutes of silence, Wade finally spoke. "Zorpox?"

Zorpox peeked an eye out from between his fingers and looked around. He looked at Shego and her synthodrones and then back at Wade. "Is she gone?"

Wade frowned. He pointed at the field with the three people in it. "She's right in there, she just put--"

"YAEAGGH! Make them go away!" yelled Zorpox.

"What?" asked Wade, confused. "How?"

"I don't care, make them disappear!"

"You want me to kill them?" Wade asked, skeptically.

"I DON'T WANT THEM HERE!"

Zorpox curled into a ball faced away from everyone and went back to holding his head and ears.

Wade blinked and looked between the prisoners and Zorpox. "Should I even try to kill you, or should I just let you go now?" he said, bored.

"It's good to see being evil didn't make you dumb," Shego said, with a smirk.

Wade picked up a gun from his console and shot the floating field emitted, causing the blue shield to shimmer and then vanish. The synthodrone that had yet to unmask quickly ran over and grabbed Wade's arms, binding them with some wire-ties pulled from its pocket. Wade didn't resist and instead watched as the Kim-synthodrone took off its mask again and slowly approached Zorpox.

"It's an amazing replica," commented Wade, with amazement. "Somehow more convincing in the synthodrone outfit than if she was in her mission gear."

The synthodrone holding him shook its head. "She's not a replica," it said simply.

Wade frowned. "What do you mean?" he turned as best he could with his arms held. "She died. I was there when she was buried."

"It doesn't matter," the synthodrone responded, then turned to look at Shego. "Hey, 'the great Shego,' why don't you take care of that thing before half the world ends up zombified or whatever he was planning." It motioned towards the large device in the center of the room.

"Just attitude adjusted," provided Wade. "Though it would have encouraged half the planet to try to kill the other half."

Shego cracked her knuckles and then threw several bolts of plasma at the structure, causing it to shake and burn then begin to smoke. The room noise quieted considerably when as the tall device slowed to a stop.

"Ron?"

In the sudden quiet, everyone turned to see Kim putting a gentle hand on the cowering Zorpox, still curled in a ball.

"Come on, Ron," Kim said. "Look at me."

"No," came the whimpering reply. "Ron is gone... Ron couldn't take it. Ron had to leave."

"Ron is still in there," said Kim. "Our attitudes are only so much of what we are."

"No... Ron isn't responsible for this," said the form, starting to shake. "Ron was good... too good to live in a world... without you."

Kim bit her lip as tears formed in her eyes. "The world didn't turn bad just because I left," she said. "You... y-you did this to yourself."

Zorpox suddenly moved. Shego and the Synthodrone, who had been watching, tensed for an attack, but instead he threw his arms around Kim and began bawling into her shoulder.

"Why?" sobbed Ron. "Why did you leave me?"

He tried loudly as Kim slowly brought her arms around him and held him softly. "Shhh," she said softly. "It'll be alright." She cradled him slightly as her own tears streaked down her face.

---

ZORPOX REVEALED, FORMER KIM POSSIBLE SIDEKICK

Washington D.C. - Ronald Stoppable, former sidekick to teen hero Kim Possible, was arraigned late yesterday afternoon before a federal judge where he plead guilty under sixteen counts including assault, larceny, kidnapping and terrorism. This will only be the first judicial stop for Stoppable, who was revealed to be the menacing villain known as Zorpox, as a date has yet to be determined for his appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court to be tried on several counts of treason. Stoppable was delivered by an unknown individual to Washington officials early yesterday morning in his Zorpox guise. The person who delivered the villain did not give his name and did not remain for questioning.

Until recently Stoppable was the partner to the famous heroine Kim Possible before her death just a few days ago. His sudden ethical switch is claimed to be attributed to an experimental device known as an 'Attitudinator', developed by one of Stoppable's initial targets HenchCo. Police and district attorneys are still trying to determine the legitimacy of such a claim and press inquires to their offices have gone unanswered.

Amidst Stoppable's arrest and arraignment, activist groups have risen across the nation over concern about the once humorously considered 'villain' community whom are now been regarded publicly as some of the worst terrorists currently active. Congress is already drafting a bill to create special task forces to investigate the nature and locations of known villains in the hope than another Zorpox can be avoided. Lobbyists in Washington are calling for this upcoming bill to be called the 'Kim Possible Bill'...

---

Kim stared at the Kimmunicator in her hand with a bit of hesitancy.

"I hope he'll be okay," she said quietly, but apparently loud enough for the two Shegos in the room to snort in unison.

"Just press the button, Princess," said the Shego who would be following her through the gateway. "We've stayed here a lot longer than we needed to already."

"I just wanted to make sure he was alright," said Kim. "Well, I mean, I know he's not alright, but..."

"I'll take care of it," the Shego that would be staying said. "Don't worry so much. I won't let the world go to hell and I'm sure even if they convict him of treason they'll be poking at his brain for years to come to figure out how to undo the Attitudinator's effects."

"That's not exactly comforting," snapped Kim, who then softened. "But... I really appreciate you looking after things here."

"It's not like it's your responsibility," shrugged Shego. "This is my world, and... well, I'm not going to be no damn hero, but if things start to get bad again, I'll step in."

"Thanks," smiled Kim.

The other Shego looked at her but said nothing.

"I don't want any more of your advice, so you can shove it," said the staying Shego. She crossed her arms. "Get out of here while I'm in a good mood."

Shego nodded and walked over to Kim. "We've done all we can, let's go," she said.

Kim nodded and pressed the button the Kimmunicator which caused the gateway to flare to life. They both stared at it.

"It can't get... worse than this, can it?" asked Kim.

"Oh, god, now that you've said that it most certainly will," Shego groaned. She reached down and grabbed Kim's wrist. "Come on, princess."

With a leap Shego yanked Kim into the portal which closed briefly afterwards.

"Hmm," said the remaining Shego. "Nice trick."