A/N:
Disclaimer: I don't own Kim Possible, if I did, I would be rich and my stories would be on TV rather than here.
I managed to contact the Lunar Colony, Ron's parents had fled along side the Drs Possible. And I wanted to establish good relations with my closest, galactic neighbor. I was a bit surprised when the short actuary glared at me from the other end of the line, "I refuse to negotiate with the woman responsible for my son's death." There were a number of agreements from those nearby.
The line was cut before I could correct their assumption, then I realized... it was Kimmie and her computer nerd that did it. They lied to them to prevent any chance of peaceful negotiations.
A string of colorful curses were slipping out as Ron entered the control room, "Plumbing back up again?" I motioned for a chair, and once he'd taken a seat I explained what had happened, "They.. they think I'm dead, and that you're the one that killed me?"
I had to stop him as he tried to reach a console to contact them himself, "Ron, please... think about it for a moment." I knew as well as he did, they wouldn't take the news any better than Princess did. If they thought he was dead, maybe that would be better for everyone.
My heart nearly tore itself out of my chest when he looked at me and nodded, his eyes were holding more pain than I thought he could bear, "Ron Stoppable.. is dead." I wrapped my arms around him and pulled his head to my shoulder as I felt the first sobs wrack his body, "Why?" With some effort, I led him back to his room, giving him a bit of time to calm down. As I sat him on his bed and pulled one of the chairs close, he cleared his throat, "It hurts, knowing I'm doing the best I can... and it's not enough."
I'd had enough of this, "It's not enough for what? Do you realize how many lives you're responsible for saving? Before you suggested it, all of the drones were going to be armed with disintegrators rather than the NLEWs. I probably would have put the crazy golfer in charge of Scotland, just so he would shut up; now, he's helping feed an entire continent and playing his own personally designed courses."
As I was taking a breath to keep going he cut me off with a quiet whisper I nearly missed, "Thank you." I lost all my wind to keep going as he seemed to get his feet back under him, meeting my eyes he forced a smile, honest but pained, "I needed to be reminded, I'm not doing this to make people happy... but, to fulfill my destiny, providing peace and protection where I'm able." There was a few minutes of comfortable silence before I saw a spark in his features, "BN?"
Leave it to Ron to think of food as the answer to his crisis, "I'll have it picked up." I didn't want to remind him, now that he's 'dead' we can't have him walking around in broad daylight. "I still say you're going to have a heart attack if you don't slow down on that."
The servants were clearing the table as we made our way to the control room, "I think I'm going to go visit Midas, you want to join me? This whole 'taking over the world' business is hard work." I stretched my neck, feeling the tension I needed him to work on.
"Yeah, it's a private area, and I don't think any of the people there will recognize me." I was pleased to see he was starting to apply his brain a bit. The walk-in safe swung open as we approached, recognizing both of our biometric scans, and out of habit I made my way towards the Tempus Simia only to have Ron grab my arm with a frown, "Let's use the transportulator."
A phone call later, we were both standing on a terrace, overlooking a vineyard, "Mind telling me why you didn't want to use the monkey?"
Ron glanced around and motioned for the stone railing, "Sensei gave me some scrolls to study... The Tempus Simia is one of the evil artifacts created with the MMP. At first, I didn't believe it, feeling the power in me, I just couldn't see it being used for something bad." He leaned against the rail and looked out across the green below us, "I was wrong, some people have twisted it for their own purposes."
"Apparently they didn't use it well enough, or they'd be the ones holding it and doing things their way. Right?" I'd never really thought about it, and was never really interested in how the old monks made the thing.
"No, they used it too much, and realized it too late. Why do you think it was separated and put in different parts of the world?" When I shrugged he continued, "They realized it was evil, it feeds on it's user. Draining their life from them to power itself." He chuckled sadly, "The worst part, you can't go back with the intent of telling yourself not to use it... the idol won't respond if you try."
"So you're telling me, no more walks through time using the monkey idol?" I really didn't like the idea of losing the ability to use my ace in the hole... but I didn't like the idea of having my life drained by a little stone monkey either, "Midas is calling, and Lena is with him." Resting my hand on his shoulder for a moment,
I gave a gentle squeeze, "Thank you, but let's relax for a bit before returning to our new world order."
I woke to a soft knocking, the clock read 3:00 and it was dark out my window. I mumbled for them to enter, figuring it was just a drone with something important to report.
Imagine my surprise when, instead of the heavy foot falls or light whirring of the hover-bots, I barely heard the footsteps of my partner in this endeavor, "Julia?" I pulled the sheet up around me as I sat up and turned towards him, "Why am I still here? Or, I guess, why are you keeping me around?"
Just what I really didn't need, Ron second guessing himself when I'm half asleep. With a grunt, I motioned for him to take a seat as I moved over and made room, "Do you want to be here? Do you want me to kick you out the door?" He quickly shook his head, "Then why worry about it? You're my friend, you've helped me, and I'm sure you will continue to be by my side and help me for quite a while."
"It's just, I know I'm not the greatest sidekick you could have. I mean, I know I'm not completely useless, you've beaten that into my skull enough; I just don't know what my purpose is anymore." I just smiled as he leaned back next to me, it's rare to see him this focused, but it reminds me that my choice was right all along, "I helped you take over the world, and in doing so I saved countless lives. I made suggestions that you put into effect that turned out to help millions. But now, what is my purpose?"
"Exactly what you're doing now. Being my friend, supporting me in what I do, and you know I'll be there when you decide to do something stupid." Ruffling his hair I smirked, "It's what friends do, even if it's three in the morning, and we should be asleep. We're there for each other."
A mechanical voice reported, "Attempted breach of military firewalls in progress."
"What does he think he's going to accomplish?" I groaned as I hit the switch to send the spike, immediately the warning went away. Unfortunately it would take a couple minutes till my network was back at 100 percent.
Ron, who had been sitting in the corner reading comics looked up, "He's trying to do what I used to do... distraction. Kay-" The words fell off for a split second before he popped to his feet with his goofy grin, "Kim is probably trying to infiltrate 'home base' right now."
"You don't think they've seen through the fake?" I glanced around, almost expecting to see her drop out of one of the ventilation grates.
He shook his head, laughing, "That's the problem with her, she overlooks the obvious answer in favor of the more difficult solution. There's a highly defended central operation command in the heart of Middleton, why would anyone think to check the basement of the highschool? It's always being remodeled, so no one questioned the construction to build this place."
Sure enough, as the rest of the systems returned to full capacity, an intruder alarm signaled people in the main command building. Shaking my head, I flipped the switch that flooded the entire sky scraper with knock-out gasses, "Shall we go say hello?"
Having taken the time to make sure she wasn't still carrying any gadgets to enable her to escape, and triple checking the restraints, I nodded to the closest synthodrone to wake her.
It pressed a metal cylinder to her neck, and with a short hiss she started to stir, "I'm sure your head feels like you went to a rock concert with a hangover, so I won't take too much of your time." I was almost impressed by the glare she threw at me, "It's over, we won, the world is ours. Why you won't accept that is beyond our understanding, but we can't allow you to continue to put people's lives at risk."
The venom in her voice was unmistakable, "We, you keep saying that. Where is your sidekick?" I was surprised how she nearly spat the words out. Though, I guess I shouldn't have been.
"My partner? The one that you and Wade decided to kill?" That glare was worth a mental pat on the back, good to see I can still get under her skin. Glancing at the clock I turned towards the exit, "Don't worry, you'll be given the best accomodations available. You're an honored guest, a reminder of the futility of resistance."
"Wade?" I paused as I heard Ron's voice through the door, "Come on Wade, answer. We've got Kim, and there's no reason we have to look for you." This was new, and not planned.
"Ron?" I didn't even have to see the kids face to know he was shocked, "No, this is a trick, Kim said you were dead. Nice try Shego, but I'm not falling for it."
Sliding the door open enough to peek in, I saw a myriad of emotions play across the blond's face, finally settling on that kicked puppy pained look he'd perfected, "Wade... she, she lied." He took a breath before jumping off the deep end and explaining everything that had happened, how he was working with me to save people. Deciding it was safe to enter, I slipped in and took a seat where Ron would see me, but Wade wouldn't pick up my presence. There was a long debate about morality, right and wrong... choices and decisions, before Ron dropped the big one, "Will you work with us? Or..." He never finished his thought, it was evident he was trying to avoid thinking about what we'd done to Princess.
Wade was a genius, but not a decision maker. It took answering another dozen questions before he finally agreed, "I'll do what I can to bring people around, but if I just start trying to change their minds right now... I don't want to think what the tweebs would do to me." As they shared a chuckle, I saw Wade's features pale, "Oh no, the Tweebs. They're on the way to break her out now, and if what you said is right, there's no way I can convince her."
We made best speed to where we were holding her, but anything is possible for a Possible; double for those two brats. I let loose a string of curses as we left the detention facility. It was perfect, there was no way to escape from inside, and Wade's robots were far from capable of springing her. They worked like a well oiled machine together, never spoke anything except gibberish, systematically taking out the defenses before releasing their sister.
"Why didn't we think about this? Of course the tweebs would help, they've grown up watching her save the world time and time again." Ron was in the process of beating himself up over the whole thing.
I wasn't happy either, but it was an unexpected hic-up. One we'd correct next time, I had no doubt there would be a next time, Princess wasn't going to give up that easily, "Easy Stoppable, we made a mistake. Not our first, but it's not the end of the world."
