Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible, any of the other characters from that show, or those from any other media I may reference in my stories.

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3 Days later, in Bavaria.

Ron sat leaning against a tree, once again reading the data supplied by the Chamberlain. He was surrounded by dense forest, nearly three miles from the nearest town. But less then a mile from the estate of Gerhard Fritsch, the man who would have kidnapped Kim Possible, and make her deny her own identity.

Sara was washing in the stream on the far side of the tree from Ron, and he could clearly hear her splashing water on herself. Though they had purchased some supplies on their way, they were a little short on fresh wardrobe. Camping out had not been in their plans, but the small size of the nearest town made strangers conspicuous, and Sara feared attracting the curiosity of Fritsch, who's servants frequented the town.

They had also failed to obtain the information they sought, the answers to the two new questions posed by the Chamberlain. Basically, they weren't packing the right equipment to fully monitor Fritsch's communications, or even obtain clear information on the layout of his mansion. There appeared to be only one option left, but Sara was loathe to take it.

But right this moment, despite the subject of his reading, Ron's mind was distracted by another question. "Um, Sara?" The sounds of water splashing ceased. "Yes Ron?"

"Have you figured out why Young Ron reacted so strongly to seeing Old Ron? I mean, I know I can freak out sometimes at the drop of a hat, but his actions were kind of extreme, I think!"

After a few moments of silence, Sara finally replied, "I think so. Remember the night before, he was watching some movie or television program that disturbed him, according to you?"

"Yeah, he was fascinated by whatever it was, but disturbed at the same time, why?"

Another pause, then she tentatively replied, "Well, I'm no expert on twentieth century films, but wasn't there this one, where Death meets, or visits a man, all cloaked in black? And when he finally takes his hood off to show his face, it's the man's own face on Death? Can't remember it's name at all, but I think it was black and white. Maybe not Ron's usual choice of a movie to watch, though!"

Ron thought it over for a moment, then nodded to himself. "I think I know the one, and no, I don't think I'd have watched it if someone told me the story, but if it looked interesting visually, he may have come across it while channel-surfing, and stuck with it to see what would happen! Too bad we don't have a way to check if it was on that night, though, to confirm your suspicions!" His eyes suddenly locked onto something the reader was displaying. "Whoa!" he muttered quietly.

Sara was still talking, and didn't hear his exclamation. "So, the day after seeing that film, he's suddenly confronted by a dark-hooded figure with his own face!" She shook her head, "Poor Ron! The Older one, that is! His first plan wouldn't have worked, and on this try, he picks the wrong day and wrong way to reveal himself to his younger self!" She was perched on some dry rocks above the rushing stream, waiting for her body to dry off. The stream ran downhill away from her, wending it's way through the trees. She knew it would eventually cross through the estate, and had been careful not to let anything drift down it that might have betrayed their presence in the woods.

The air was a bit cool, though, and she decided she was dry enough to dress. Standing, she picked up her underwear, and made a face as she realized it was still damp, but shrugged and slipped them on anyway. She was tugging her jeans on when Ron spoke again.

"Something interesting about this guy's family history, Sara! Apparently, his grandfather was working for the Nazis back in the early forties, even though he lived in Switzerland at the time. But he abruptly changed his ways, and practically forced his children and grandchildren to do good, whether they wished to or not, because someone visited him, and scared him, but spared him on condition he turn 'his family's hereditary genius for medicine' to good works, or else!"

Sara had frozen as she was stooping to pick up her bra. "Really? Who was it that scared him so badly?" She asked with a touch of trepidation.

"Well, this you are not going to believe, but it was supposed to be 'The Shadow!' I mean, he wasn't even real, he was just a fictional character!" Ron was grinning, wishing he could see Sara's face, but the grin vanished as the girl suddenly stormed past him, and strode angrily up the hill towards where they'd made their camp. His eyes bugged out as he saw that she was still barefoot, and bare to the waist. It took him a moment to ratchet his jaw shut, then he scrambled to his feet and dashed after her. "Sara? Wait up!"

He caught up to her kneeling beside the black leather bag. She pressed her thumb against the latch and held it there for several seconds. A 'click' sounded, and the latch sprang open. She opened the top of the bag, reached in, and shot to her feet, her hand dragging a long garment out of the bag. It was black on one side, and lined with red silk on the other. Sara stared at it for nearly a minute, frowning. Then she spun and tossed it to Ron, knelt and began pulling out the rest of the bag's contents.

Ron just stared incredulously as she produced the full outfit for her Shadow disguise, guns and all. She continued to poke around inside the bag, but found nothing more. She remained kneeling for several minutes, a thoughtful scowl on her face. The she emitted a resigned sigh. "I guess we're going inside, Ron. But we need more data about the set-up in there, and with our equipment, that will take a long time to gather!"

Ron stood silently for a moment, then suddenly brightened. "I may know a shortcut!"

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Wade Load entered his room and closed the door tightly behind him. He resisted slamming the door with an effort. It would negate the assurances he'd just given his Mom that he was all right. He took off his suit jacket, dropping it, and his previously removed tie, on to a table littered with spare computer parts, then dropped into his swivel chair and stared blankly at the screens before him.

They'd buried Ron today. He'd stood there as respectfully as he could, while feeling the pain almost rolling off Kim as she held on tightly to her father's hand and wept silently. The empty feeling in the pit of Wade's stomach, the helpless feeling that cloaked his brain, had made the whole funeral hazy, almost surreal.

He tapped the spacebars on each of his keyboards, and the blank screens lit up with images. Images of the mysterious figure who had apparently frightened Ron, and caused his death. Gleaned from various surveillance cameras in the area, the pictures were themselves hugely frustrating, as they gave him not a single look at the subject's face, even in reflection. "Kim's going after this guy, and I have to help her find him, so she can...what? I mean, what will she do, the right thing, or what the guy deserves? No, she won't...she can't kill! Maybe I shouldn't help her, but how can I not? She's my friend, it's what she wants, I have to let her do whatever she needs to, don't I?" Wade buried his face in his hands as he emitted a frustrated growl, shaking his head.

A loud beep brought his head back up, as a new image came up on one screen. He stared at the incoming message icon, his scowl deepening as he saw the ID the sender gave. He angrily punched three keys, and the image changed to a message, 'No Video Signal, Audio only'.

"I don't know who you are, or how you got that code, but you are about to get the spike of your life..." He began angrily, before an unfamiliar voice cut him off.

"Do that, and you don't get the person responsible for Ron Stoppable's death!" The voice, deep and male, snapped. "Or rather, Kim Possible gets to him first, and someone will die if that happens, mark my words!"

Wade's scowl deepened, as he replayed his own recent thoughts in his mind. His fingers continued to enter the command to send a spike to the caller, but they moved slowly, hesitantly. "Am I just supposed to take your word that you know the guy? You could be planning a trap for Kim, or getting me to work for you under false pretenses!"

"True! But all I'm going to do is give you the guy's name. You see if you can find evidence of him plotting against Kim and Ron. If you don't, fine! But if you do, you send me all the info you can get on the layout of his home in Bavaria. And I promise he'll get what he deserves. But, you'll send the data to me anonymously, to a different number, so that it cannot be traced back to you. If you don't, I will not act on it, do you understand?"

Wade bit his lip. The last bit puzzled him, the insistence that he protect himself. It didn't sound as if whoever this was was completely bad, if at all. And he didn't see any harm in checking someone out, if he kept the info to himself if they appeared innocent. "Plotting against Kim and Ron? Are we talking about the guy who frightened Ron, or not?"

He clearly heard a sigh over the connection. "No, unfortunately, that person meant Ron no harm! He meant to warn him about the plot, but he forgot in his excitement that his appearance would probably frighten Ron, especially taking him by surprise! But, if he hadn't intervened, Ron would have been abducted, and used as a lever against Kim. She's the real target. The guy I want you to check out intended to...destroy her effectiveness as a hero, while leaving her alive."

Those words sparked Wade's curiosity, but he chose not to ask their meaning. "Don't want to be influenced by whatever story this guy's selling! But, he has one thing right, Kim would do anything to save Ron, even surrender herself!"

"Do we have an agreement, Mister Load?" The voice inquired.

Wade took a deep breath, then exhaled. "Send me the name, and I'll check it out!"

"Gerhard Fritsch, he's a psychologist, officially, but he's been involved in a number of secret experiments in brainwashing, and psychological torture, among other things. Resident of Germany, most of his family is deservedly respectable, he's the black sheep of the bunch!"

Wade's fingers danced over the keys, entering the information. "Got it! If I find anything linking him to the attempt on Ron, I'll get back to you!"

"Understood! Sending you the number to contact me. Just make it a data download, I don't want to hear your voice again. They'll be no record of this conversation anywhere, once I hang up! Good Luck, Mister Load."

It took Wade nine hours of research, followed by careful investigation, to turn up something suggestive. Unable to get into Fritsch's own E-Mail accounts without leaving proof of his intrusion, he tracked the outgoing E-Mails instead, and finally found a recipient who had a more vulnerable account, and hadn't cleaned out his in-box.

The date on the first E-mail to draw his attention was the day before Ron's death. It was encrypted, but Wade cracked the code in less then five minutes. It read: As to my main project, will commence tomorrow with the acquisition of the lever, by which I will control the primary subject. Once subject acquired, cannot estimate time necessary to finish project, but can promise total success.

"Hmmm, if Ron was the 'lever', and Kim the primary subject, this might support the story." Wade mused aloud. His decryption program finished with the second E-Mail. It was dated yesterday. Cannot express my disappointment at the turn of events. Changes in primary subject's behavior subsequent to incident involving lever will most likely make her an invalid test subject for my experiment. Will have to seek new subject, which could take weeks. Will inform you if and when I choose one.

"Now he refers to subject as 'her'. Changes in her behavior? Yeah, losing Ron will have to change Kim, especially if she goes off on a vengeance trip! But, why does it make her 'invalid'? Why did this guy choose her in the first place? And do I help this guy who called me? I should ask Kim, or at least...I can't! I can't take the risk she'll go too far!" He leaned his elbows on the desk, fingers pressed to his temples. "What am I going to do?"

After a moment, he resumed typing. First, he was going to look for signs the 'evidence' had been planted for him to find, as well as search for more. He also began the acquisition of the information his mystery caller had requested. He'd decide whether to send it later, based on what he discovered in the meantime.

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"I'll be the diversion, Ron, while you try and get what we want. I want you to do your best not to be detected at all, if possible. I know you no longer have the Mystic Monkey Power, but you didn't depend entirely on that before, did you?" Sara and Ron sat in the lightening woods, finishing off a meager breakfast from their rations. It had been nearly twenty hours since they'd contacted Wade, with no response as yet.

Ron shook his head. "No, I actually did learn how to be pretty stealthy." He looked hopefully at Sara, "What exactly do you want me to look for? I mean, we're supposed to be finding the answers to those two questions, right?"

Sara stared at him silently for a moment, then shook her head. "Try and find any information you can on what he did to Kim, or would have, in this world. Then we'll decide what to do with it later."

Ron frowned. "I'm not arguing with that, but...that's not the way we're supposed to do things, is it? I'm kind of confused about why the Chamberlain is doing this, why he's helping us do this."

"As to that, I have a theory, which I'm not going to share with you, sorry. I'd rather keep it to myself, because if I'm right, just knowing about it might have consequences. But don't worry, I don't think anything bad is going to happen to us because of what I'm planning!" Sara smiled reassuringly at Ron. "At least, nothing bad to you, Ron." She thought.

Any further discussion was interrupted by a buzz from Sara's communicator. "We're getting something from Wade, at least." The download took nearly four minutes. Then Sara took the data chip and transferred it to the reader, and they began studying the contents. Wade had included the two E-Mails, as well as detailed plans of Fritsch's estate, including a surprising amount of info regarding it's security systems.

"Hmmm, two floors, and an underground vault, which is where what we want probably is. Both floors have high vaulted ceilings, which helps explain why the building is so damn tall for just two levels!" Sara scrolled through the floor plans. "Two studies? Library/study on the ground floor, Office/Study on the second. Odd layout though, three staircases up, each to a separate section of the second floor, two wings, and the office, no other access between them on the second floor level. So to get from his office, say, to the Master Bedroom, he has to go down one set of stairs, then climb another?"

"He must like exercise, or whoever built the house originally did!" Ron commented.

"Oh, he had it built, five years ago. Now, as to security, it's pretty good, against normal thieves. Not sure we have all the internal systems though, according to Wade's notes. But, we should be able to gain access to the house all right. Security Guards are not regular types, these guys are killers, which means gloves off, as far as I'm concerned." Ron looked a bit troubled by that, but he said nothing. "So, we'll study this, and go in tonight."

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Gerhard Fritsch was a robust man in his early fifties, with thick dark hair barely touched by gray. He sat in his second floor office, reading through the voluminous correspondence from one of his most trusted colleagues. Casually dressed in a white polo shirt and gray slacks, he had a face that would have gone a long way, with a decent bedside manner, to making him a hit with female patients. If anyone he ever treated had been considered a 'patient', rather then merely a test subject.

Unlike his siblings and their children, Gerhard was not altruistic, nor charitable in any way. He considered them small-minded, and unduly influenced by his grandfather's 'boogeyman' from the Second World War. He himself had never believed the story, and certainly not let it affect his ambitions, or his ethics.

Now he shook his head at what he was reading. "Fine theories, but this has to be put into practice to prove it's validity! He is so timid! There are places where such research can be conducted, without any concerns over their ethical implications! The location where I intended to work on Miss Possible, for instance! No one there would have been the slightest bit bothered by the things I would have had to do to her, to prepare her for her treatment!"

He scowled in disgust, "And now that project is scrapped! She is no longer the happy, well-adjusted and strong personality I needed, with such powerful family ties I would have needed to overcome in submerging her personality beyond recovery! The loss of her close friend will make her re-evaluate her world view, and may change her personality in unpredictable ways! No, I no longer have a reliable baseline from which to begin, curse the luck!"

The sole audience for his rant was his main bodyguard, Erich. A practically stereotypical big, muscular brute, he occupied a seat near the door. He was armed with a BXP submachine gun, holstered on his left side. He was quiet and efficient, and only spoke in response to questions, most of the time. Fritsch preferred that in a bodyguard, or practically any other type of employee.

"Now, I'll have to start a search for another such person, with sufficient notoriety for my achievement to be noticed! I--" A loud ringing noise began to sound from a speaker over the door. Erich was on his feet instantly, gun drawn and held ready. Fritsch shot to his feet and peered outside. He had lost track of time since his supper, night had fallen. Through his office windows, he could see a pair of guards dashing across the lawn, heading towards the house. "Damn! Whoever it is has made it to the house!" he snarled.

Circling his desk, he headed for the door, waiting impatiently as Erich opened it, then stepped through to make a check. When his bodyguard finally waved him through, he strode angrily onto the second floor landing. And stopped with a frown. The central part of the house was circular, and so was the main foyer. The stairs down descended counterclockwise to his right, ending just short of the arched doorway leading to the East Wing. The entryway was directly opposite where he now stood. From the landing to the marble floors below was a good thirty foot drop.

The cause for his frown was the lighting. Though light spilled into the room from both wings and the entryway, as well as from the hallway directly below him, which led to his library, the lights for the foyer itself were out. Fritsch studied the chandelier in front of and above him, but saw no damage. The sound of booted feet drew his eyes downwards, as the chief of his security force ran into the foyer from the west wing.

"Doctor Fritsch!" The slightly winded man called up to him, "I recommend you head for the vault area, it's the most secure area of the house, while we deal with this!"

"That's not precisely true, but it's still a good suggestion!" Fritsch thought as he responded with a nod. "Very Well!" he replied. The security man nodded and exited into the east wing, moving fast enough to stir the heavy wall hangings that flanked the doorway. Dark blue in normal light, now they appeared black. Fritsch gestured to Erich to precede him, and the pair started down the stairs.

Only a few steps down, Fritsch nearly missed his step as a sinister laugh suddenly echoed through the house. He grabbed at the railing to regain his balance, as Erich reached out to help steady him, as well. "It can't be! There is no such person!" the thought had barely passed through his mind when gunshots sounded, and the laugh repeated itself. Shouts and more shots followed, but the laugh overcame them all.

Fritsch spun and looked back up towards his office, but then took hold of himself, and gestured for Erich to continue their descent. They were a third of the way down when two guards dashed in from the east wing, breathless. One turned towards the steps, and stepped forwards as he tried to speak. Then the wall hanging seemed to reach out and enfold them both, and a struggle ensued in it's folds.

Erich promptly swung his pistol-like SMG up, taking a two-handed grip. Before Fritsch could voice a protest for the guards' well-being, if indeed he meant to, Erich opened fire, pouring out the whole clip from the weapon in one continuous burst. The wall hanging fell limp again, and two riddled bodies fell to the floor. The security guards.

Erich was beginning a smooth reload when the laugh came again, causing him to fumble the fresh clip for his weapon. And just that suddenly, the Shadow was on the stairs, ascending towards them. "Nein, nein, nein, NEIN! He can't be real!" Fritsch screamed inside his own mind, as he backed up a step.

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Ron slipped silently through the west wing of the house, using a scanner to track down the entrance to the vault. So far, he hadn't had a problem, Sara's Shadow impersonation was keeping everyone very busy. Ron tried not to think too much about the fact that all the shooting meant people might be dying, he just concentrated on doing his own job.

But just as he approached the hidden entrance, he stopped with a frown. His scanner was reading the security measures for the vault clearly. In his days with Kim, he'd have rated them as a 'seven' on the difficulty scale for bypassing. So, why was he also picking up measures that rated a 'ten', covering the access to the library?

After only a moment's thought, Ron changed his plans.

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The Shadow's hands appeared to be empty, so after a moment's hesitation, Erich re-holstered the still empty SMG and readied himself for a hand-to-hand encounter. The Shadow advanced up the steps, and his sinister tones preceded him.

"Gerhard Fritsch! Did you really think I'd forgotten your family? The pledge your grandfather made, and my oath to him regarding my actions if one of his descendants broke that pledge? If so, you are a fool!"

Fritsch's mouth worked, but nothing came out. At the back of his mind though, a reassuring thought whispered. "There is still Erich, and your other bodyguard to deal with this--whoever this fool is!"

Erich unwisely surrendered the advantage of having the higher ground, or maybe he expected to catch his opponent off guard. In any event, he lunged forwards when the Shadow was two steps below him, swinging his right fist in an overhand blow at his opponent's head. But a hand caught his wrist, and the Shadow twisted, pinning Erich's lead foot against against the stairs with her own foot as she pulled, and suddenly the big bodyguard was tumbling uncontrollably down the stairs to end in a crumpled heap at the foot of the stairs, lying in the pool of blood spreading from the victims of his own ruthlessness.

But even as Erich tumbled, another factor intervened. Erich was big, relatively slow, and obvious. Fritsch's second bodyguard was anything but. He came flying off the railing from the landing above, leaping across the gap and down towards the Shadow. It was a prodigious leap, but the man knew his ability, and was totally confident in his judgment regarding what he could, and couldn't do. Two sharp blades gleamed in his hands.

But he failed to account for one factor in his leap. The physical stopping power of the three .45 caliber bullets that slammed into him when he had barely cleared the upper railing. Though his lightweight, State-of-the-Art body armor prevented the slugs from penetrating his body, it did nothing to prevent the cancellation of his momentum, or the disruption of his coordination caused by the pain of the impacts. And it was still thirty feet to the marble floor below.

Fritsch stared in shock at the two smoking automatics that had abruptly appeared in the Shadow's hands, then down at the bodies of his two bodyguards. Then he spun and scrambled up the steps again, fleeing towards his office, the mocking laugh of the Shadow pursuing him.

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The falling Ninja gave Ron quite a shock, as well, smacking into the marble floor only a few feet away from him. Suppressing an exclamation of surprise, he ducked into the hallway leading to the library. Studying his scanner, he began working controls to jam or spoof various sensors in the hallway as he progressed. The locking mechanism on the doors took more time, but fortunately he didn't have to deal with any infrared beams or similar defenses, which always gave him problems.

Once inside, though, he faced the challenge of finding what he wanted,if indeed it was even here. Walls of books surrounded him, which was hardly a surprise. They all looked old, and Ron assumed that what he needed would be a great deal newer. He scanned for hidden safes or other secret compartments, and found none. He studied his own scanner for a minute, and found a means of scanning for the age of objects. He then began to sweep the scanner across the shelves, and began to get some peculiar readings. He frowned as he puzzled them out, then suddenly smiled, and began to pull some of the books down.

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Sara entered Fristch's office through the unlocked door, one gun ready in her right hand. Fritsch was seated at his desk, trying to appear composed as she approached, moving to one side so as not to stand directly in front of the desk.

"Your experiments on human subjects have been nothing short of reprehensible, Doctor Fritsch! It is past time for them to be brought to an end! But, I have a question, Doctor!" Sara stopped just short of the front of the desk, two feet outside the corner. "Why would you choose as a test subject someone like Kim Possible?"

Fritsch's expression went from feigned calm, to confusion, to interest. "I see one of my colleagues has been indiscreet! I wonder which one betrayed my confidence? As to the answer, it was just fate. I wouldn't have thought of her at all, if not for seeing her on the television, a brief documentary describing her accomplishments, and a quick profile of her family life! It made her seem the ideal candidate. It was never anything personal, believe me!" Fritsch's hands were out of sight below the desk. One held a pistol, the other the remote control for his office television set, which was on the wall next to the door. It was on the opposite side of the room from where Sara stood, but still behind her.

Screwing up his nerve, Fritsch hit the 'on' button on the remote, waited a second, then shoved his chair back and tried to bring his gun up and fire while his foe was hopefully distracted.

It didn't work...

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Ron reached the campsite first, Sara appearing moments later, having covered his back trail. She pulled off her hat and scarf, and slumped down wearily on a rock. "Did you find it?" She asked.

Ron nodded. "I hope so! I found these pages interleaved with the pages of some old books in his library. They're in German, and I only had time to translate a little of them. They all have the same project name, and the dates indicate they're something he's been working on recently. So, I'm hoping they're what we need."

"We need to move right now, we'll look at them later. Pack everything up, and let's go!" Alarms still echoed through the forest, and the sounds of speeding cars and sirens whooping were now becoming audible. The pair made their departure as quickly as possible, moving a safe distance away before using their transporters to fade away completely.

Hours later, after getting some sleep, Sara pored over the notes Ron had gathered, using a translation program in her scanner. She finally nodded and sat back, satisfied. She looked around at their surroundings. They had transported themselves to Maine, and now sat on a rocky strip of coastline, the subject of curiosity for a goodly number of seabirds.

Ron, who was gazing out at the ocean, looked around as she spoke. "We've got what we need, Ron. But, as far as dealing with Old Ron in the future? We still have to do it the hard way. We have to make him change his own mind, without revealing our possession of the potential cure for Kim, understand?"

Looking into her serious eyes, Ron slowly nodded. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't, but you're calling the shots, Sara! Let's get this all over with, shall we?"

Sara flinched, then nodded, "Yeah, let's get this all over with."

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This started out as such a simple story. But, all of my stories end up running away with me. But, the end will come soon, I promise!

Please Read and Review.