(A/N: Hello again! I realize the last three chapters were a little light on Kim and Ron, so here's a chapter more focused on them. It just seemed unnecessary to write out what they were doing during the battle against the Lorwardians because if you wanted to see it, you could just watch the KP Graduation finale. From here on out, though, they'll be playing a much bigger part in the story. Enjoy!)

Ron wiped down the last hamster cage in the aisle and looked around the pet section of Smarty Mart. It was pretty quiet today. Everyone else was probably busy either enjoying summer vacation or recovering from the near-alien invasion that had occurred almost a week ago. Ron would have been amazed by how quickly and easily Middleton had for the most part bounced back, if it didn't have such a long history of being attacked by basically every villain ever. Finished with the cage, he set down his cleaning supplies and, after double checking that he was alone, pulled a thick, leather-bound book out of his pocket. He flipped to a page near the middle and began to read silently. To choose an effective mantra for meditation purposes, it is important to…

"Stoppable!"

Ron snapped to attention and found himself face-to-face with Mr. Barkin. "H…hey Mr. B," he said nervously. "Nice day to not be ruled by alien overlords, am I right?"

Mr. Barkin was not amused. "Of all the ways I'd expect to catch you loafing around during work, reading is the last thing I would expect," he said gruffly, looking down at the book. "If you'd started doing that earlier, you might have graduated with a decent GPA."

"Okay, see now, that's just mean," Ron replied. He shut the book and walked out of the aisle, stepping around Barkin. "I did just manage to graduate high school and play a major part in stopping an alien invasion all in one night. I think I deserve a little slack here. Now, if the sight of me reading bothers you so much, I can always take it to the yard supplies aisle…hey!"

Mr. Barkin snatched the book out of Ron's hands with surprising dexterity. "What is this about anyway?" he asked, flipping through the pages. "Meditation…concentration…the mind…the soul…Stoppable, is this really yours?"

Ron looked on nervously. "No, it's a friend's. But it's, like, centuries old or something, so could you be careful?"

Barkin looked down at him intimidatingly, closed the book, and handed it back. "I don't need to concern myself with any of that lunacy, and neither do you. This is the twenty-first century, Stoppable. Now get back to work."

Ron took two steps backward, then checked his watch. "Ha! Would you look at that? My shift is over. See you next time, sir!" With that, he bolted across the store and through the automatic doors that led to the parking lot.

Kim Possible's purple car was waiting at the curb for him. As he slid into his seat, he remarked, "You know, I'm never going to get used to working with Barkin as a non-student. He has zero impact on my academic future anymore, and yet I still always feel like he's trying to fail me."

Rufus poked his head out of Ron's uniform pocket and squeaked, "Blech! Barkin!"

"That's just how he is, Ron," his girlfriend replied as she pulled out of the parking lot. "He's probably still getting used to not being able to fail you too." She glanced over at the book on Ron's lap and asked, "Is that one of Raven's?"

Ron nodded. "Yeah. I've had them for a while, so I should probably return them when we meet up, but after everything that happened last week, I thought I should give them another look first."

"You mean because of your Mystical Monkey Power? It seemed like you had it pretty figured out back there."

"Well, yes. And no. I don't know, KP, superpowers may sound badical, but they're confusing as heck." He paused briefly, then began to explain, "See, when you were in trouble, I did the whole monkey thing and it worked perfectly. But that was the first time I've ever been able to use it to that level. I think, and this is just a theory, but I think I was able to do it because you needed help. Because, you know, I love you."

"Love you too, Ron," Kim smiled as she turned onto her street.

"Aw," Rufus squeaked, making a heart shape with his tiny paws.

"Thanks, KP, but what happens when I need to save someone else?" Ron asked. "Someone who's not my girlfriend? Or what if I'm not saving anybody and just need to use my powers for some other reason? Or what if my theory's wrong and it has nothing to do with you?" He sighed and leaned his head on the back of his seat. "Honestly, I expected finally tapping into my Mystical Monkey Power stuff would give me answers, but now all I have is more questions."

"Hm…" Kim said thoughtfully, trying to come up with something helpful. "What about Sensei? He might have answers. He taught you basically everything you know about Mystical Monkey Power."

"Yeah right," Ron rolled his eyes. "Sensei only shows up once in a while to tell me something unnecessarily cryptically, then vanishes again until the next 'life lesson' or whatever. No disrespect to that dude, but he's not someone I'd go to for a straight answer, like, ever."

"That's a fair conclusion." Kim said, pulling into the Possible house's driveway to park. A drone had crashed straight through the roof on the night of graduation, but thankfully the family rocket scientist had access to some very cutting-edge technology that had made rebuilding the damaged parts of the house a cinch. "So, what about Raven's books? Are they helping you find answers?"

Ron shrugged. "I mean, they make sense, but they're mostly about focusing on your center and meditating and stuff like that. I think that's supposed to help me understand my powers better, and it has a little, but I'm still pretty confused."

Kim looked down at the ancient book in her boyfriend's lap. She leaned over, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and said, "Let's look them over together then. Two heads are better than one, right?"

Ron grinned. "Yep, especially when one head is Kim Possible's."

He followed her into the house and upstairs to her bedroom, leaving the door partially open to follow the rules set by Mr. Dr. Possible once the two friends had started dating. Ron set the book down on the bed and the two of them sat down and began to peruse the ancient pages. This was the first time Kim had seen the inside of any of the books Raven had loaned Ron. Initially, she'd been a little curious, but kept her distance. The books were intended to help Ron become more in touch with his powers, and she had no need to do the same, so she had never asked to see them. However, now that this book was in her hands, her curiosity grew by the second. Only a few times during her adventures had she handled a book this old, delicate, and unusual.

"Is that…Latin?" Kim asked, stopping on the last line of the third page of the book.

"Oh yeah, I think so. Most of it's in English, though. Well, except the weird symbols in the back. Really should ask Raven about those. I can't decide whether they're instructions for opening a portal to the underworld or a recipe for strawberry cheesecake and I feel like that's an important distinction to make. You know, so we don't end up with evil cheesecake."

Rufus, his little pink body now seated comfortably on the bed, shook his head, squeaking his agreement. Evil cheesecake was not ideal.

"Wait a second, Ron," Kim said, placing her hand over the page and looking her boyfriend in the eyes. "Portal to the underworld? Is that the kind of stuff that's in here?"

"Well…" Ron wasn't entirely sure how to answer that question, and his face revealed his uncertainty quite easily. "I don't think so?"

"You don't sound sure. Ron, what have you been doing?"

"Nothing! I've only ever touched the meditation stuff, I swear," he added, holding up his right hand. Rufus did the same in solidarity. "That's almost everything in the books anyway. If Raven does have books with freaky spells and stuff, she didn't give any of them to me. I just don't understand what all the symbols mean, and I know Raven can do some really weird magic, so there's always the possibility…"

"Okay, I get it," KP said, her tone relaxing slightly as she turned to the next page of the book. "I just wanted to make sure we're not going to start doing any dark magic or whatever in my room. It's probably a bad idea to mess with that, and the last thing I need is to accidentally summon some…I don't know…evil force into my house. I already have the tweebs to deal with, after all."

"Don't worry, KP," Ron assured her. "No evil forces are being summoned today. See this? This is what I'm talking about." He pointed to the title line of the page.

Kim read it aloud, "Reflecting on Views of the Self? Ron, what does that mean?"

"I think it means looking inside and reflecting on the way you see yourself," Ron explained, secretly proud to be the informed one this time. "The point is to recognize your own subconscious weaknesses and strengths and gain a better understanding of your identity and abilities. I was hoping if I tried it, it would help me see what's stopping me from using my powers in a lot of situations."

"Uh-huh," Kim nodded, looking the page over carefully.

Ron flipped to the next exercise. "Here, this is a simpler one. The Emotional Balancing Act. When you follow each step, you identify the emotions you currently feel, or have felt in recent circumstances. Once you identify your emotions, you can figure out how they are influencing your choices and try to balance them out in your mind. You could do it for imaginary scenarios too, but I haven't tried that yet. If my emotions are affecting my powers, then I figured I could use this exercise to work through them."

Kim skimmed the page, not quite sure what to make of it. While her missions had on multiple occasions put her in close contact with the supernatural, Kim Possible had grown up in a very scientific household, and still maintained a healthy amount of her parents' skepticism. "Wouldn't you be able to do the same thing by, like, journaling or something?"

Ron shrugged. "Maybe. But the book seems to know more than I do, so why question it?"

Kim had to concede that Raven was the expert. "Fair enough. Have its methods been working?"

"Sort of. I feel like they'd work better if I had a different mantra."

KP raised an eyebrow. "A different mantra?"

"Yeah. It's those words people say when they meditate, you know?"

"I know what a mantra is, Ron. But what do you mean about needing a better one?"

Ron flipped to the very last page of the book, which featured a list of phrases. At least a couple looked like they were in Latin, but Kim couldn't recognize the languages of the others. "I've been using these generic ones to help me focus, but if you want the words to really connect with you, they have to have meaning. Remember that thing Raven always says? The weird catchphrase?"

Kim thought for a moment, then remembered. "Of course! It's 'Azarath Metrion Zinthos,' right?"

"Right," Ron nodded. "She made that one up because it had meaning to her. I have no idea what it means, but clearly it means something important. That's why, if I really want to unlock and control my powers, I have to find my own mantra."

"So you can be like Raven?"

"Okay, see, when you say it that way, it sounds way weirder than it is."

"It's not weird at all, Ron." Kim placed a supportive hand on his shoulder. "Raven is a cool, powerful person who knows what she's talking about with this whole meditation thing." She looked down at the book again for a brief moment, then added, "I just hope you're not getting in over your head with all this stuff. I've never seen you this intense about anything, and it's kind of freaky."

Ron laughed. "Is Kim Possible, THE Kim Possible, warning me about getting in too deep? The girl who rescued an ambassador halfway across the world, aced two tests, led cheer practice, went to yearbook committee, finished her homework, and babysat for three hours in a single day? Multiple times?"

Kim sighed and rolled her eyes, smiling slightly at Ron's description of her life. "Ha ha, Ron, you got me. You really do know me too well."

Her boyfriend fist-bumped Rufus beside him. "Fourteen years, baby! Counting Pre-K, of course," he added to clarify his math. "That is fourteen, right? Pre-K, then kindergarten, then…" He started to count on his fingers.

BEEP BEEP BEEP-BEEP

Kim held up her Kimmunicator watch so Ron could see. "What's the sitch, Wade?" she asked.

"Just checking in," the boy genius on the screen said. "Thought I'd update you on some of the aftermath of the Lorwardian attack."

"Go," said Kim.

"Well," Wade began, "I've been getting in touch with as many major cities as possible, and as of last night, all of the ones I've reached have started rebuilding whatever the drones destroyed. Some have already made a ton of progress." He pressed a button and a slideshow of images from around the world appeared on Kim's watch showing construction and cleanup efforts in motion. "More rural areas might need a little more time, but overall, I think we'll be okay. We're lucky we got in touch with the Teen Titans when we did. Cyborg's message reached every member of the honorary Titans network, which is spread out all over the planet. Without their help, the damage would have been ten times worse."

"Booyah, Titans! That's what I'm talking about!" Ron exclaimed.

"Yeah, and get this," Wade continued. "Someone was filming in Jump City while the Teen Titans were fighting the drones. They uploaded the footage to the internet, and it's gone viral. Like, mega viral."

"Really? I haven't seen it yet. What is it?" Kim asked.

"I'm sending it to you right now. Might want to switch to your computer, you're going to want a bigger screen."

Kim hopped off her bed and took a seat at her desk. Ron scooted over to the edge of the bed so he could see. Kim turned on the computer and Wade instantly appeared on the monitor. He clicked a couple keys, then disappeared from the screen, replaced by video footage of drones stomping through Jump City. The camera was shaking and aimed at an awkward angle, but the figure of the drone was clear. As it moved down the street, the camera panned back to see Starfire speeding through the air from an incredible height, her fists outstretched and glowing with starbolts. She hit the top of the drone and triggered a humungous explosion. The camera moved slightly further out of its holder's hiding spot to see the giant drone slowly toppling into the bay below. "Whoa! This is insane!" the cameraman's muffled voice said. As the smoke cleared, Starfire's undamaged shape emerged as she flew over the water to catch Robin, the wind from her movements created waves below. "Dude!" the voice behind the camera said. "No freaking way!" The camera zoomed in closer on Starfire as she carried Robin back to shore, although once it found her face, very little of Robin could be seen. After a couple more seconds, the video ended and Wade reclaimed the screen.

"That video was uploaded three days ago," he explained, "and it already has seven million views. And that's just the most popular one. There are other videos of the fight going around too. Check it out." He divided the screen into three rows and three columns so that he occupied only the bottom left space. Each of the other spaces played a video of Starfire defeating the drone from a different angle. All of them looked awesome.

"Whoa," Ron reacted. "Starfire can kick some robot butt, huh, KP?"

"You can say that again," Kim replied. "But Wade, has Star seen any of these videos? With all those views, she's basically a celebrity."

"I haven't talked to her yet," Wade answered. "Although Cyborg did call me earlier to talk about the communication system, and he said he'd seen at least a couple of the videos. Think it'll go to her head?"

Kim couldn't help laughing at such a ridiculous idea. "Starfire? Please, she's probably the humblest person I know. The girl could blow up a mega asteroid on camera to save all of humanity and still worry people are judging her for being a little different."

"Mm-hm," Ron nodded in agreement. "Although, in fairness, she does drink mustard."

Wade expanded to full screen again to redirect the conversation. "As cool as that footage of Starfire was, I do need to talk to you guys about something else. Remember how the U.N. offered Drakken and Shego awards and official pardons for helping save the world?"

"Yeah," Kim replied. "They deserved it. There's no way could have won without them, as insane as it sounds."

"Right," Wade agreed. "Well, the ceremony was three days ago…"

"And?" asked Ron.

"And they've gone totally off the grid," Wade continued. "I've tried every tracking system I've ever used on them, and neither of them are anywhere to be found. No new lairs, no suspicious activity, no security footage, not even a check-in at Shego's favorite Mediterranean resort. The moment after the ceremony ended, it's like they went completely invisible."

Kim's brow furrowed. "Interesting. They've just been pardoned, so there's not much reason for them to go so deep underground." A lightbulb went off in her bright red head. "Unless…they're taking advantage of the lack of attention and surveillance on them now that they're no longer criminals so they can start working on a new evil plan."

"Exactly what I was thinking!" Wade agreed. "Of course, we can't be sure they're up to something, but the timing is more than a little suspicious."

Ron stroked his chin thoughtfully, remembering past interactions with the evil duo. "Yeah, those two do tend to be up to things pretty often."

"Thanks, Wade," Kim said. "Given the circumstances, it's possible Drakken and Shego just want some space from all the insanity, but if you find anything worth looking into, let me know."

"You got it!"

Wade signed off. Kim turned around in her chair to face her boyfriend. "You know," she said, "that was super weird fighting side by side with Drakken and Shego during the invasion. I'm still not totally over it. Starfire's going to want to hear about it when we see her, though. You remember how much she believed in Shego and all that…what?"

Ron blinked. "What do mean, what?"

"Your face, it's giving me a look."

"Oh!" Ron snapped his fingers in realization. "Sorry, I kind of zoned. I was thinking about those videos of Starfire and they gave me an idea."

"What kind of idea?" Kim knew Ron very well, which meant she also knew that his ideas could range anywhere from unbelievably foolish to surprisingly genius.

Ron scooted off the bed, picked up the book with one hand, and grabbed Kim's arm with the other, pulling her out of the chair. "It's another Mystical Monkey Power thing. I'll explain outside. Come on, KP!" He bolted out of the room, down the stairs, and into the Possible front yard, dragging her behind him.

"Ron, what are we doing out here?" she asked, once they had reached their destination.

Ron looked around for a second, spotted a long stick lying on the ground, and handed it to Kim. "In all those videos," he explained, "Starfire was kicking major space robot butt because of her super powers. I think I remember someone saying that her powers depend on her emotions, which, if my theory about the fight with the Lorwardians is correct, mine do too. See where I'm going here?"

Kim looked down at the stick quizzically. "Not really."

"Okay, let me break it down. Starfire practices physical fighting constantly, and when she fights, she can use her powers no matter who she's saving. Maybe that's it for me too. Maybe I need to get out of my head and just practice accessing my powers in a fight scenario. I've been focusing really hard recently on understanding my powers from the inside, but I've barely tried to use them physically since graduation."

"Hm…makes sense, I guess," Kim replied, although she felt a little uneasy. "Do you want to practice fighting, then?"

"Yes, but not just that." He set the book on the ground and opened it to its halfway point. "This is an exercise I haven't tried yet. You're supposed to take in your surroundings, then blindfold yourself and focus on spatial awareness. The point is to be able to sense things around you that you can't see. I think Mystical Monkey Power is supposed to give you heightened senses…"

"You think?"

"Ninety-nine percent sure. Probably. There are a lot of heightened abilities that are part of it, and I've never actually read a complete, official list. Anyway, this is going to help me tap into that part of my powers."

Kim was starting to follow her boyfriend's train of thought. "So basically, you want to do this exercise to tap into your powers, then have me attack you while you try to fight me off blindfolded."

Ron grinned and gave her two thumbs up. "Exactly! You don't happen to have a blindfold-shaped piece of cloth handy, do you?"

"I mean, I think Uncle Slim left one of his bandanas in the garage, but…" Before she could finish her sentence, Ron was running across the lawn and into the garage. In seconds, he returned with Slim's bandana. "But," she said, continuing her thought once he was back in earshot, "don't you think you should talk to Raven about this? It's her exercise, and if you haven't tried it before, you might not be ready."

"It's called seizing the moment."

"I don't think that's what that phrase means."

"KP, I have monkey kung fu powers, not an English degree." He backed away from her and sat down cross-legged on the grass, then tied the bandana over his eyes. "Now I'm going to meditate until I feel at one with my surroundings. When I stand up, hit me with the stick. And don't go easy on my just because we're dating, I need this."

"Ron, I don't know about…"

"Sh!" he hushed her, placing a finger over his lips. "Do not disturb the meditation!" He then rested his hands on his knees, palms up, and recited one of the generic mantras from the back of Raven's book, "Tempus…Locus…Imperium." He breathed deeply in and out, concentrating on his senses. Kim stood by and watched from a short distance, feeling a bit awkward.

Finally, he stood up slowly and stretched out one arm to each side. "I am one with this space," he said, as if making a grand pronouncement. "I'm ready." Ron bent his legs and posed with his hands in position for battle. "Bring it on!"

Kim leaped toward him, sweeping the stick below her, aiming for his feet. Ron stepped out of the way just in time. She then turned a cartwheel and landed behind him, striking this time at his shoulder. Again, he dodged it, turning around to block her before she could land another attempt. "Ron, you're actually getting it!" Kim exclaimed, both surprised and impressed.

"That's what happens when you've got mad monkey senses, KP!" he replied, backflipping away from her. She lunged toward him again and, this time, succeeded at hitting the inside of his knee, knocking him off his balance. "Whoa…whoa…" He bent backwards into a handstand and tried to kick her away, but ended up springing into the air, landing in a large bush at the edge of the yard. "…ow."

Kim dropped the stick and walked over to the bush. She reached in, pulled him out by the edge of his shirt, and untied the blindfold. "Was that bush anywhere in your spatial awareness?"

"Heh heh…no." He shrugged sheepishly. "I was doing good for a while though, wasn't I?"

Kim sighed and took his hand. "Let's wait on doing any more Mystical Monkey training until after we talk to Raven. Deal?"

Ron looked at his girlfriend and replied with only a small amount of reluctance, "Okay, deal."