The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: Slowly but surely I shall earn enough money to buy Kim Possible, but till then don't own it.

Chapter Six: Collision Course

please note all information scribed within the lifetimes of those who were active during the Second Invasion or of events before the Second Invasion will be subject to update by archival librarians without notice for some time as new information comes to light

all information regarding historical events, figures, and locations is provided courtesy of the royal archives in Middleton

please be aware that archives are being updated with new information and records on important historical figures may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for the foreseeable future

-Excerpt from Important Historical Figures Volume XX, subject Tara-

Like many of the important figures of the Second Invasion Tara was born into modest means. Extremely modest in her case as she was born an illegitimate child and therefore left with her mother, a scullery maid. For the first several years of her life Tara followed in her mother's footsteps and began to learn the necessary skills to spend her life as a scullery maid in the lower reaches of the castle at the heart of the Rockwall Kingdom. Obviously enough this is not how her life transpired as one day fate decreed that her life's path should be radically altered.

Traitors though they might have been as adults, as girls Princesses Connie and Lonnie were merely mean spirited and vain girls who took every opportunity possible to pick on and tease their younger sister. Being a victim of such abuse herself Princess Bonnie took a rather grim view from a young age of such things happening to others. One day she happened to witness the children of several high officials picking on a young blonde girl who happened to be the daughter of a lowly servant, quickly she chased them off and helped the young girl to her feet. At that moment was born a friendship whose depth would be exceeded only by that between Princess Kim and Ron Stoppable.

Princess Bonnie and Tara quickly befriended each other and over the next several years they proved a nearly inseparable pair. Princess Bonnie gained insights into her subjects that her sisters would never dream of as well as learning humility, patience, and many other traits necessary in a good ruler. Tara learned to read and write, something few people born into her station could ever hope to achieve. Also she stopped learning to be a scullery maid and instead began courses that would lead her to a life as an administrator, more than likely a personal assistant to Princess Bonnie given their friendship.

Stranded in the castle by the Second Invasion, Tara was able to use her access to Princess Connie and Lonnie's personal correspondence to funnel important information to the resistance and from there to allied armies fighting to liberate the Rockwall Kingdom. This among other things during the Second Invasion makes her far more important than one might suspect one servant in a castle to be.

-Three Kingdoms, Five Days Later-

Ron reached into his bag and pulled out his blanket, the sky was clear so he didn't need to bother setting up a tent. Over at his horse Josh fumbled around in his bags looking for his blanket. Setting his blanket on the ground Ron took his saddle off his horse and tied it to a nearby tree with plenty of grass nearby for the horse to eat. Then he searched around and found enough freshly fallen pine needles to make if not a comfortable bed at least one that would be better than bare ground. Walking back he saw Josh had at least taken care of his horse but that he hadn't done any of the other things needed to make even a basic camp.

"I don't mean to pry or anything," Ron dropped off the load of pine needles he'd been carrying, "but do you need help over there?"

Josh looked over at him from where he was sitting on his blanket, "I wasn't kidding when I told her highness that I'm really not all those stories make me out to be. I just keep being in the wrong place at the wrong time and end up getting credit for what I didn't even do or for something that really doesn't deserve all the attention it gets."

"You're… serious," Ron started gathering some rocks to make a fire pit, "I guess it's not so bad though, Kim is always going on about how we need heroes during times like this and I guess even if you're just a normal soldier like me people still need to see a hero and you've gotten the job."

"I wish it was like that," Josh sighed, "I graduated near the bottom of my basic training class and at the bottom of my officer training class. When I came back here with that message about where Princess Bonnie is I was going to tell the king that I'm really not a hero. But then before I could he took me to a hospital where a bunch of wounded soldiers were recovering, and the looks on their faces… I just couldn't tell a bunch of guys who wanted to get back into the fight and be like me that I'm nothing like their hero."

"It's tough," Ron used some flint and a knife to start a small fire, "I'm not sure what anyone told you about what I do but if you didn't hear much that's kinda the point. I do my thing and no one ever hears about it if I'm lucky. I guess it just comes down to we're all part of something bigger than ourselves when it comes to this and we just do what we can. You stay alive and be a hero, I'll go rescue the princess and hopefully no one who didn't know it already knows it was me who did it. Who knows, you might even wind up getting the credit for it."

"Please no," Josh actually seemed to beg, "I just want to get through the rest of this war as quietly and boringly as possible. No more heroics for me and definitely no more combat, I've probably used up all my luck for the rest of my life staying alive this long."

"I don't think it's gonna turn out like that," Ron used a few sticks to prop some rabbits they'd caught earlier in the day over the fire, "did you ever read a news sheet or listen to any of the town criers while you were in Middleton?"

"No," Josh's face paled, "should I have?"

"I'm not sure you needed to," Ron sat down next to the fire, "but at the rate they're going you're going to be as famous as anyone in the old stories by the time this war is over. I even heard people saying you should be betrothed to Kim so you could make the bloodline even stronger."

Josh just stared at him before finally stammering out a response, "you… you're kidding right, please say you're not actually serious."

"Serious how?" Ron asked, "Serious like I think you two should be betrothed or serious like I heard lots of people talking about it?"

"You think we should be betrothed?" Josh squeaked out, "but you know that all the stories about me are totally fake, how could you want the Princess of the Three Kingdoms to be betrothed to me?"

"First off I don't care that you're not what all the stories make you out to be," Ron started ticking off fingers, "Kim's like my sister so I just want to make sure whatever guy she ends up marrying is right for her. Second I don't know you well enough to have an opinion about what I'd do if you wanted to court Kim. If we were going to be traveling for more than four more days together I might be able to get one but my third thing is that it doesn't even sound like you want to be betrothed to Kim."

"Don't get me wrong," Josh held up his hands defensively, "I'm sure her highness is a great person and that any guy would be lucky to spend the rest of his life with her. It's just that I'm not nearly old enough to be deciding something like that. I know peasants our age are probably already working on a second kid but they're not talking about Princess Kimberly. And most of them already know each other, they probably grew up a farm or two over. I've only talked to the Princess two or three times and I know some couples never see each other before they get married but I don't want that to be me. And then there's my parents, if they heard people saying that the Princess and I should be betrothed I'd end up married to her before either of us knew what happened."

"Never thought about it like that," Ron pulled the rabbits off the fire, "I'm pretty sure if I ever get married it won't be to anyone who would get noticed. And I don't have any parents to drag me to a wedding."

"No one you want to get married to?" Josh said around a mouthful, "Even if you don't want to marry into nobility I'm sure you know at least a few girls."

"I had a girlfriend," Ron stared into the fire, "but she… the Drakanadians killed her."

"Sorry," Josh said quietly, "I, uh didn't know."

"It's okay," Ron picked a piece of meat off his rabbit, "like I said no one is supposed to know when people like me do something. And that also means that when one of us gets killed no one outside that little circle is ever supposed to know."

"That's… that's depressing," Josh tossed the remnants of his rabbit into the fire, "makes me kinda guilty for living this long when someone who knows what they're doing is dead and it really makes me wonder how much longer I can last when I'm this bad at war."

"I don't think I can do much about your feeling guilty," Ron followed suit with his rabbit, "but in four days I can at least make a dent in how bad you are at combat."

"Okay," Josh said, "so we start tomorrow?"

"Nope," Ron reached into his bag and pulled out a sword, "go get your sword, there's still light and then it's a full moon tonight."

Over the next four days the kept up a pace that wasn't too hard on their horses but still ate up ground at a good pace. Whenever they stopped Ron had their swords out and was making Josh practice his sword work. When they were riding along Ron talked about various forms and styles of swordsmanship that they would then practice when they stopped for the night. Josh listened and practiced as much as he could, not just because of lingering guilt but because he didn't want to die during this war and he saw learning how to fight as his best chance for survival. Working their way northwards the Rockwall Mountains steadily grew out of the horizon over the course of a day until they took up the whole northern sky. As few miles as it was in a straight line it took them another day and a half to get through the passes, the time probably would have been twice that were the routes not all paved to ease traffic. Finally they made it to the section of the line that Josh was in command of and that Ron was going to sneak through to rescue Princess Bonnie.

"I guess this is where our path together ends," Josh walked with Ron up to the trenches, "I think about all I can do is wish you good luck."

"It can't hurt," Ron slung his bag over his shoulder, "getting in there won't be too hard, getting out is going to be where it gets fun."

"Thanks for everything you taught me on the way here," Josh stuck out his hand, "I feel like I'm just bad at this now instead of totally incompetent."

"As Kim would say, no big." Ron shook his hand, "you know your limitations so as long as you don't get killed you'll do alright."

With that Ron hopped down into the trench, the sun went down shortly thereafter and in the gloom of twilight Josh only barely saw Ron's outline crawl out of the trench towards Drakanadian lines.

-Rockwall Kingdom-

Tara poked her head out the door and breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing an empty hallway. Straightening her skirts she stepped out of Connie and Lonnie's apartments and making sure to appear as though she belonged everywhere she went walked down several flights of stairs to a small courtyard on the side of the castle. Another quick peek showed that the courtyard was empty as twilight slowly faded into darkness. Tara walked quickly out into the courtyard and over to a particular barrel, pulling off the top she slipped several papers into a hollowed out section of one of the boards. Those papers contained all the latest correspondence from the Drakanadian army that happened to cross the princesses' desks. Tara knew she was staying up to date and being useful by listening to Drakanadian generals curse at how the allies always seemed to know where they were going to attack or where their defenses were weakest.

That despair among her enemies was her only source of joy since Connie and Lonnie took over the kingdom. And in the last few weeks it had gotten considerably harder to sneak her messages out of the castle, with the Drakanadian emperor himself in the castle security had gotten much, much tighter. As bad as that was it was the creepy green lady who really freaked Tara out, she seemed to appear in places without any sound or other warning and Tara could have sworn she saw a green glow around her hands when she got angry. At least Connie and Lonnie hadn't gotten any smarter and were still leaving highly classified information on their desks that Tara could plain walk in and copy. She supposed that if they were thinking a little harder they might remember she could read and write as well as they could and stop leaving things where she could read them. But thankfully their vanity and pride totally blinded them and they seemed to act as if Tara was barely capable of human thought.

At least they were spending less time each day hounding her and making her do things over and over, with their partners in crime in the city they had to at least appear for the time being as capable rulers rather than two petulant little girls hell-bent on using the resources of the Rockwall Kingdom for their own shallow pursuits. Tara would of course have traded Connie and Lonnie looking over her shoulder more often a million times over to not have all the extra guards crawling around the castle that she had to dodge to get her messages out. And then she had to dodge them period, she had never met a group of men with such wondering hands and eyes but these Drakanadian soldiers seemed intent on making every use they could of the victors perks. Most of the girls in the castle shared her distaste for the brutes but Connie, Lonnie, and several of their lackeys seemed to be eager to let the soldiers indulge their baser instincts.

Several times in fact Tara had been ordered by Connie, Lonnie, or one of their lackeys to fetch someone else in their little camp only to find the door locked and hear rather indecent sounds coming out of the room for quite some time. Several more times Tara thought that the princesses had been on the verge of ordering her to join in their debauchery but somehow she'd always escaped or they'd been distracted and hadn't managed to wrangle her in. If what she heard was right though some of the other servants around the castle and even some people off the streets hadn't been so lucky and more than a few of those had spent more than a little while huddled in their beds trying desperately to forget what had happened to them. Tara supposed that ironically enough while Connie and Lonnie were by far the worst of the lot being their personal servant did give her a small bit of protection, others wouldn't dare touch her for fear of their wrath and their need to appear busy kept her doing things when they might otherwise think her unoccupied enough to force her to join them.

Sneaking back the way she came Tara stopped only in the kitchens to grab a slice of bread and some roast lamb before continuing up to the princesses' chambers. In the past she would have used such free time to go back to her room and rest or seek out her friends and try to catch up with them. These days though everyone always kept up the appearance of being busy even if they were accomplishing absolutely nothing, to do otherwise risked attention from the wrong people. And not just Connie, Lonnie, and their ilk, Drakanadian security watched everyone they could as closely as they could and saw conspiracies behind every curtain and under every carpet. Almost, almost amusingly enough they were in their own twisted way actually right to be suspicious, the castle staff did everything they could to make the day to day running of the occupied Rockwall Kingdom as inefficient as possible and they managed to keep the Drakanadians in a running headache for lost messages, misplaced files, and every manner of inconvenience they could think of or make up on the spot.

That didn't stop Connie and Lonnie from walking up to her all smiles on her way to their apartments, "Tara, for once we're actually glad to see you. We have the most fantastic news ever. Well fantastic for us, you'll probably think it's a bit less joyful but we really couldn't care less about what you think."

Since they hadn't given her express permission to speak Tara had to settle for a curious look to try to prod more out of Connie and Lonnie.

"We've finally found our little sister," Connie started and then Lonnie continued, "We've had wanted posters put out for her guards and one of the soldiers coming back from the countryside recognized them and directed us the right way. Our scouts have confirmed that they're still in the village waiting for something. We already have an entire division of Drakanadian soldiers marching towards the village, they'll be there tomorrow night."

Tara couldn't quite contain her gasp, it was going to be all she could do to get a message ready and make it down before someone in the resistance picked up her messages for the night and then it would be too late to alert them to Bonnie's impending danger.

Then her hopes were dashed, "Of course our dear little sister being dragged back here in chains will be cause for celebration, as will our finally getting to execute you in front of her before we give her what's in store for her. But don't worry you'll be able to help in your own little way, we do need someone to pick out our dresses for the party and then help us into them tomorrow. You'll have the privilege of coming with us to pick out our dresses and then when you wake up tomorrow you can help us into them before we take you to the dungeon where you'll wait for the executioner. I know it doesn't sound like much fun for you, and it shouldn't, but we'll be enjoying ourselves plenty and that's what matters."

Tara barely kept herself standing as she slowly tailed after the princesses. The prospect of her own death didn't scare her much, it had been impending for far too long to affect her anymore. But the fact that she couldn't do anything to save her best friend and she would have to see her dragged into the castle in chains before she died nearly brought her to tears.

AN: Told you all working wouldn't slow me down writing. I know I'm evil to leave all of you with a cliffhanger like this but I'm just evil like that. No promises on who it is or if it's anyone important to the story but people are going to bite it next chapter, just thought I'd let you know before leaving you, ciao.