Been a hell of over a month since I updated, but a few Naruto fics finished, rereading previous stories in this Monkey Fist saga, and hope everyone had a Happy New Year. :D Hope the wait was worth this new chapter and reviews appreciated when finished reading!

Chapter Four

A Bride in Distress

Everything seemed calm and peaceful, dark, until his body jerked to awareness and his senses followed.

Damn it all, why did he have to land into WATER of all things?! On second thought, it was better than the ground in case bones in his body shattered. But if he didn't get out of here, he was going to drown, so he mustered his strength and looked to the heavens, seeing the darkness gradually giving way from outside to inside: olive green to lighter blue and ultimately white. Holding his breath, ignoring his lungs burning, he thrust himself north for freedom and fresh air...

...and gasped with all the power he had, uttering a wordless shout of victory that he was still alive, but now that he was free, he began to swim for the shore and see what was left of the incident. The jeep was laying on its side, though the occupants were out of there - and one was missing. He coughed and sputtered, gasping for precious air, and crawled his way out until he was belly-flat on the grass. Charya and Mealea were there, though the father himself appeared frazzled as he was supported by his daughter who was grimacing. The flowers on the young woman were absent, telling him they had been destroyed somehow in the almost-crash. The vehicle didn't seem to be damaged by any means, only laying on its left and the tires intact. Grunting and having himself together - and pleased he didn't lose his prized wedding ring - Monty stood up and dashed over to them, the earth squishing beneath him. They must be close to the great lake if this was one of the smaller starting points.

"Are you both all right?!" he demanded, wringing out his hair and his shirt the best he could. "I trust neither are seriously injured?"

Charya had to shake his head a little and then reach up with his hand - the other around his daughter's shoulders and holding something - to rub his head back and forth, side to side as to get rid of the offending headache he must be having if not a severe cranium injury, as the lord saw there was no blood present. He then let go of Mealea who at first protested, but her father waved it off with a feeble chuckle. "Nothing that hasn't transpired before, my boy. But if only...if only we had been able to detect those blasted mines ahead of time! They should not have been there, at all!" Charya said angrily. "Imbeciles were damned good to place them! What the government has to say about this is what I want to know!" He then held out the thing in his grasp.

Monty felt his eyes widen when he saw what it was.

There lay his wife's wrist Kimmunicator, in both the man's hands. There was a slight crack in the screen, but other than that, there didn't appear to be any damage, making Monty smirk. What the fool, whoever it was, didn't know was that Kimberly had her genius update this gadget to the point where it could not be broken apart so easily.

But this much was clear besides her absence: his wife had been taken by whoever led them off the road and to this point. "At least I get to go through to Mr. Load," he said, then cleared his throat. "I mean, Wade. Silly me of forgetting we are on familiar terms now." And once he had a signal, then he was going to tell him that Kim was missing and that help was required. It was as she predicted only yesterday: because you were Kim Possible, trouble always followed you everywhere. And because he was married to her now, he was sucked into her world for good.

And wherever she was, whoever had her - whatever they wanted - he was going to save her. The kidnappers couldn't have gone very far.

Wade's face came online. "Kim - oh, Monty! What happened?!" he asked, already detecting everything from where he was. "And I thought that you guys were gonna have nothing but fun."

"Precisely what I thought," Monty answered bitterly. "We don't have much time, but she has been taken, and I was thrown into the water before I could -" He was interrupted by a desperate Mealea.

"Kimberly was taken by mercenaries, sir! I saw it happen. They made her remove her caller, all her weapons, and left us all here without killing me and Father. But their commander said we were not worth killing...and neither was Monty."

There was a dreadful pause before Wade finally closed his slackened jaw and uttered a bemoan before getting himself together. "Okay, I'm going to help you then. There's no - damn, what is happening?!"

What he referred to was the static that was the signal being interrupted. Monty's brows furrowed as he tried to figure out himself before the distortion materialized into a clear quality as well as a man in Cambodian greens. He appeared to be around the English nobleman's own age, and he was smiling which Fiske did not have the heart to return. "Ah, Lord Fiske, I'm glad this transmission has gotten through. All it took was a button to press on your wife's old site I'm surprised is still running well despite her retirement."

"What do you want?" he snapped at the man who sighed and lowered his eyes.

"Oh, and I thought the British were more well-mannered than that. But I suppose that shouldn't surprise me, given your history I made a hobby of studying, which the world no longer cares about since your deeds have all been rectified, if I'm right. But as for who I am: Captain Dul Pich of the Wild Geese Unit - a mercenary's team - and bonjour to Your Lordship."

A French and English speaking man, how interesting. "And to you, but skip the pleasantries now that we know. What have you done with my wife?"

Charya and Mealea stayed out of the conversation, but both viewed the captain with malicious intent. Dul Pich chuckled. "Oui, your wife. Well, see for yourself." He then turned around and showed Kimberly seated behind him in the back of a jeep, one uniformed man on either side of her, and it appeared she was cuffed or at least tied behind her back. She had been scowling at the captain, but as soon as her attention was locked with his, her husband's, on screen, out with the words:

"Monty, don't do it!"

"Kimberly!" What was she saying, "don't do it"? And then Dul's voice entered from the other side, not showing his face.

"Yes, I was going to get to that, my friend. In fact, your wife for what I want you to retrieve for me and my men, in regards to very important business along the Mekong."

Monty bared his teeth. "And what would that be?" Something from the Angkor temples, no doubt. What else? There were many things he could think of. It was no secret that it was still coveted by graverobbers and thieves from in this country and outside. That was why it was so heavily guarded to this day. But these people, these Wild Geese, proved they were very good with updated technology that they had ways to get in themselves, but no, they chose him, Lord Montgomery Fiske and his new wife, to be dragged into this. Why was he not surprised?

"The famed, yet to be discovered Marquise of the Naga itself."

It was as if the world had shaken tremendously, not to tear the earth itself apart but to cause everything atop to shatter into debris. Just the mere mention of what was rumored to be hidden beneath those depths, no doubt buried deep for good reasons...

"Impossible," Monty spat. "Why would you be interested in the dagger of the Naga princess herself? And what purpose after you've gotten what you wanted?"

Having turned the screen back to himself, Dul Pich blinked once, obviously bored. "Time is running out with these questions, Fiske. We are going up the river, but I am entrusting the rest of the details to you." He then turned around and barked orders to "shut the woman up" when Kim shouted once more to not agree to it, and there was the sound of muffled crying out; she'd been gagged. "But I shall have the coordinates and information transmitted through to your genius ally I had the pleasure of overriding just to talk to you. Let me know as soon as you receive them. Your genius has means to get through to me personally." So, this was his game, was it? He was playing with all of them the hard way, keeping them in the dark...but on second thought, as far as Monty was concerned, with his knowledge of the legendary Marquise of the Naga, he would think of a means to use this against the devious captain.

That also meant Wade had his time to look up the man's background, if anything could help them.

"He's going to get it once we get the coordinates, but I really don't like this," Wade said over the tapping of keys, once the footage ended. "Damn it, he is very good when he had the communication channel overrode. These Cambodians, no offense to the whole people, really got better with the tech - particularly the Wild Geese group."

"Can you look into them while we make the trip?" Monty asked when he heard the beep that was the incoming coordinates where the hidden treasure was located - and in a place that caused some deaths every time it was attempted to be infiltrated. He had to close his eyes and could only listen to the protests of his two dear friends.

"Monty, to desecrate a vital place for such an honored, ancient weapon! Imagine if the government apprehended us for this!" Mealea huffed indignantly, folding her arms across her chest. Her father angrily kicked at the grass with one foot.

Young Wade, however, was more optimistic if still wary. "If you all hurry, you can still make it, but look out for more mines as well as the rains." Which would hit them by the afternoon clock striking. He was right; they had to hurry up and save Kim...but that meant giving in a vital piece of Cambodian history which dated back to mystical ancestry.

And Dul Pich was going to have to learn his lesson the hard way the same way Monty Fiske had.

~o~

If she didn't know any better, she'd say this man was a wannabe supervillain, trying to rekindle the flames of world domination, starting here on Cambodian soils.

Now, this seemed like one of those movies, but it was also a scenario she was all-too familiar with: she'd been in captivity sometimes in teenage-hood, but on her honeymoon of all times?! She had to resist spitting out when she found herself before the leader of this small platoon that left her new friends behind alive - and forced her to drop her Kimmunicator, prompting one man to stomp a boot on it, not knowing that it was protected with a new casing that gave it the appearance of outward damage - and her wrists secured with cuffs that were leather rather than harsh metal to cut into her skin, but she just lifted her chin in defiance.

What Dul Pich said insulted her so much when he meant it as a compliment as he looked mostly on her face rather than up and down: "Your eyes are very expressive, Lady Fiske - or is it Mrs. Fiske right now, since you clearly aren't used to being called such a title?"

She wasn't going to give him the benefit, so she answered honestly and collectively. "No, but it's really not bad once you get used to it. Titles don't make who you are."

"No, I suppose not," he answered, and then switched to French on her. One of the best languages she knew that Monty did, too. "Savez-vous pourquoi vous êtes ici? Au moins une idée?"

Pas du tout, mais comme vous n'avez même pas lu mes droits, cela constitue un enlèvement. But she chose to say it in English just to counter insult. "Not at all, but since you haven't even read my rights, this qualifies as kidnapping, monsieur," Kim said, the last word rolling off her tongue smoothly, and that was when she found herself hauled over the shoulder of one man, shouting at him to put her down and that she could walk on her own, but he thrust her into the seat, only to face a reprimand from his commander.

"You fool, I told you to treat the lady properly. After all, she deserves some ounce of respect." Unless she herself disrespected him extremely. That meant she had to think of ways to get away from him and try to find a route back to her husband and their friends. Since the Kimmunicator was left there, maybe he was contacting Wade after Mealea told him what she witnessed. She prayed the poor girl was okay.

"Anyway, now that we are here," Captain Dul said as they started moving again, "I'll answer you and say that because I predicted no would be the answer, your husband will need more...persuasion to help me get what is most important to what I have transpiring upriver. Something that I could ask you to do for me, but I doubt you can make it through with your 'condition' -" Which meant he somehow knew she was pregnant, and that made her blood go cold. "- so your husband is vital, with you as the perfect leverage."

Hence the conversation that he ordered linked, finding connection to Wade whether her genius - as the man called him - would accept it on her website or not. Kim tried to protest and plea Monty to not agree to anything, since she knew a hint but kept it to the back of her head for now. That earned her mouth slapped over until it was all over.

When he said the Marquise of the Naga, she shouted at him as the vehicle began to roll, and the ride was a little bumpy if not monstrous. "No, you're going to need it to prolong your life, aren't you?" According to mythos, the Marquise of the Naga was a creation of the Hindu prince who manufactured it from precious metals belonging to the people of his wife, none other than the snake-like Naga. Its user could wield it as a weapon, but also to decrease negative emotions whilst helping you examine your relationships...and second to most importantly, it strengthened your life.

As it always went: in the wrong hands, it was lethal not just to these people, but to the entire world. "Here we go again," Kim had to mutter to herself, but she hadn't heard the worst of it.

"I shall explain better while we are on the boat to our destination, but we also got more of what we needed on the way here that you will also see for yourself."

And by this time, they had arrived to the boat which was currently resting on the side of the river, ready for the riders to join. She refrained from swallowing.

~o~

"They'll be traveling north upriver, from our current point, but first means to go through the great lake, the Tonlé Sap, and with the coordinates, we can still catch them after we have what he wants."

Of course there were objections, and as much as he loathed everything, they had no choice in the matter. But Wade promised that he would pull the strings and have them on the tails of the Wild Geese in no time, without getting them all into trouble - and that meant Monty and his small group of father and daughter.

"Just pray that we do not spend the rest of our lives locked up behind bars after we save Lady Kim," Charya said with a shake of his head, and together, Monty helped him get the jeep back to its upright position, and the driver himself got in to inspect any internal damage. "Me thinks that you two should flee the country and never come back for both of your sakes if things go awry."

Monty had to nod his agreement, then looked behind him to see Mealea climb in after them, and then she brought up the suggestion. "Father, perhaps we can consult extra help even if those men have guns."

"You're right, daughter. We go to them right away." With that, Charya turned on his radar to detect any more mined bombs they could come across. It just went to show that no matter friendliness in these parts, the unrest could trigger a new era of fear and death because of the Wild Geese, however long they had been about. But Monty hoped to distract himself from the worst, especially when he thought about what Bates told him once.

"...his family lost him - especially the wife and child. Had you wed a long time ago, you would have felt it if you lost them, and they would have experienced the same tremendous loss as...Mrs. Stoppable and her daughter have now." Those were his former valet's words when they both learned of Ron Stoppable's death, and Monty Fiske understood that wisdom even now that his wife and their unborn were in mortal danger.

Wade was online again, monitoring the areas and planning to disarm any of the bombs in the ground should they come across, and in the meantime, he had what he found on the Wild Geese.

Bates' words at the end come from the finale of a previous Monkey Fist story, "Doomed Lord Fiske", which is also part of this saga.

The Wild Geese were a mercenary unit in the anime Hellsing Ultimate OVA, and since I had no original ideas for this one, what the hell? XD I thought a funny name for an organization so brutal.

Wiki: "The Nāga are a pan-Asian mythical race of reptilian beings, who in Cambodia were believed to possess a large empire or kingdom in the Pacific Ocean region. Cambodians today still say that they are 'Born from the Naga'." More on that perhaps in the next chapter. Same with how the captain knew Kim was pregnant. Well, sometimes resourceful men like that have ways to find out, and never knowing HOW is even scarier, don't you think?

Tonlé Sap: a large river-lake which connects to the Mekong River.

Translations again:

Savez-vous pourquoi vous êtes ici? Au moins une idée? - "Do you know why you are here? At least an idea?"

Review please, and hope the wait was worth it. :D