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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Emma Lipsky Memorial Institute, Middleton, Colorado. 34 years from now....
Doctor Emily Rockwaller hated showing visitors around. Especially those who were just curious about their most well-known patient. Though well-known applied less and less with each passing year, as the world forgot about her. But some people, other then her family, still came to the Institute to gawk at her, and tut-tut over the tragedy of her life. Emily didn't know for sure if the two current visitors fell into that category, and didn't care. Putting a person on display like this was disgusting.
She was leading them across the lawn, away from the main building, through the outer security barrier to a separate structure. It was adjacent to the main parking lot, surrounded by greenery and flower beds. Those at the moment were bare, it being mid-November currently.
"Kind of unusual, having a day-care center at a mental health facility." Commented the female visitor. She was tall, with dark hair, dressed in a businesslike fashion, with variable-tint glasses hiding her eyes. Her companion was similarly dressed, with brown hair and a somewhat more relaxed stride.
"It's very convenient for the employees, and isolated from the patients, with one exception, of course." Emily replied in her professional voice.
"And that exception can be trusted not to harm the children?"
"Without a doubt!" Emily responded, grinding her teeth slightly as she fought not to snap he answer out. She produced her pass as they reached the sliding glass doors at the rear of the center, and ran it through the security lock. Without any discernible noise, the doors slid open. "Remember the rules, you will observe her, but are allowed no interaction, clear?" She halted and looked at each of her companions in turn with an unwaveringly stern stare.
The woman nodded sharply. "Of course! We have no intention of violating this facilitie's protocols in any way." The young man nodded as well. Emily hesitated, then grudgingly nodded in return, and led them to a door, which opened into a small room with one glass wall. Through it, they could see the main room of the center.
A dozen children were present, ranging from infants to about four years of age, with two adult women and a girl in her late teens looking out for them. The two visitors eyes went at once to one of the women, lying full length on the floor, head propped up on one elbow as she raptly watched a little boy drawing with crayons. A sharp intake of breath by the young man drew Emily's attention, but it wasn't an unusual response.
On the shady side of fifty now, Kim Possible was still easily recognizable. Very little gray showed in her hair yet, but the lines around her eyes and mouth were a clearer indicator of age. Her body was still lithe, but not as fit, though it was hard to tell for sure in the loose clothes she wore.
"She's aged well, I see." The woman commented, "Does she still take good care of herself?"
Emily sighed, shaking her head. "Not much for exercise any more, just some basic stuff she does in the morning. Used to do her old workouts regularly, the first fifteen or so years here, but then she gradually stopped, and became interested only in maintaining a fair state of fitness. She gets regular check-ups here, of course, and obeys doctor's orders to the letter."
"But no treatments are being carried out, currently?"
Emily's shook her head. "Not recently, no. They tried everything they knew of, from when she first came in, and every once in a while someone would show up with a new idea to try, but they always ended up failing, and putting a strain on her. More then one 'treatment' made her condition worse, if anything. Violent, or emotionally barren, for long periods. One 'revolutionary' drug treatment made her sterile! Nothing has helped. Her parents finally refused to let her be a guinea pig for even the most reputable doctors."
The young man frowned. "They haven't given up, have they?"
Emily looked at him wearily. "They gave up so much already, I don't see how they can continue to hope. Her Mother went back to school, learning all she could, in hope of curing her. She succeeded with others, but never Kim. Her Father lost his job, he was so distraught about her, even before his sons also disappeared. They still come, but rarely. They sit in here and watch her with the children, because she's happiest when she's with them. But they can't let her see them, they can't touch, or talk with her. I have to admit, I can't watch them watching her, it's....oh, there are no words!"
The woman was scowling fiercely as she listened, but remained silent. The young man hesitated, then asked, "But how is she dealing with it?"
"She just does. Sometimes, when I walk her back to her room, she stops and looks at the wall. Listens to sounds from the highway. But she never asks...I think she's afraid of the world out there, now. I don't think she believes she has any place but here. She'll probably live out her life here, as it stands. My Mom...she knew Kim once, came here once to watch her like this. I've never seen her cry so much in all my life! And when one of the children called Kim 'Miss Nobody', Mom ran out of here like...that's not important, sorry to get maudlin."
"Nobody." The young man echoed her.
Emily nodded. "Yes, that's what she tells the children, that she's nobody. And if one of them says anything about Kim Possible, which is very unlikely these days, she just smiles and says that that was someone else, not her. Which seems to suggest...oh, never mind! Whatever was done to her, it doesn't fall into any known category of disassociation, or memory manipulation, or anything we can get a handle on! Whoever did this came up with something unique, and after more than thirty years, no one's figured out what it was!"
The young man frowned. "They still don't know who did it?" His companion briefly shifted her gaze from Kim to him, scrutinizing him briefly before turning back.
"There were all sorts of stories in the beginning. One of the villains she fought, someone unknown, even conspiracy theories where the Government did it because she knew too many secrets, but no one was ever publicly identified for the crime. My paternal Grandfather even put up a reward for information leading to a conviction, with no success, and he was one of her enemies! There was a TV special for the twenty-fifth anniversary of her institutionalization, which asked those wonderful questions, 'Where is she now?', and 'Who did it?'; The first answer was obvious, the second one they danced around for forty-five minutes minus commercials and came up with nothing!" Realizing she was becoming a bit shrill, Emily stopped and took a deep breath. As she did, her pager went off. She consulted it, and grimaced. "Excuse me for a few minutes, I'll be right back!" Both visitors nodded, and she left the room hurriedly. The pair went back to studying Kim.
"She's still beautiful, even now." Ron finally said. Kim was tapping the paper the little boy was drawing on. The boy started to grin, even as he looked where she was tapping. "He knows what's coming!" Ron grinned, too. Kim tapped the paper again, talking to the little boy, and he leaned a little closer, smiling widely, but shaking his head. Kim repeated the tap, and the boy leaned down...and Kim pulled the 'Snatch the Nose' trick on him. The boy rocked back giggling, while Kim showed him his stolen 'nose', and he couldn't help but reach up and touch his nose, just to be absolutely sure it was still there.
Ron watched this with a smile, but a tear ran down his cheek as well.
"I was supposed to see this the first time, I think." Sara spoke quietly. "I went to 'Old Ron' thinking Kim was dead in this world. I think he was expected to say something that would have led me here, four years ago. And I think...believe, that is, that I was expected to act in a certain way when I saw this! My previous mission, and then this...hell."
"You still haven't told me what's going on, Sara! Why are you breaking the rules? Why are you being encouraged to break the rules? For Kim? I mean, that's who I'd do it for..."
"It's not about Kim!" Sara interrupted him, "Not for...whoever. For us, yes! We're going to do this for Kim, but she's not the important one, not in the grand scheme of things!" She shook her head angrily. "It's time to go see Old Ron! Are you sure you want to carry the ball on this one?"
Ron nodded. "Yeah, I think I know how to get through to him."
Sara grinned mirthlessly. "Wish you'd let me know what I missed trying on him, that first time! Thought I tried it all!"
"Well, you didn't know she was alive, did you? And after that, we give the doctors the cure, right?" Ron asked, hopefully.
Sara's expression went neutral. "Yeah, Ron, then we give the cure to the people who can help her."
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The years since the previous attempt by Ron to time-travel had not been kind to Wade Load. What hair he had left was pure white, and he looked like a man of seventy rather then one who hadn't seen fifty yet. He had occasional problems keeping his hands from shaking as if he had palsy. He took pills for it, but they in turn made concentrating difficult, so he'd sometimes skip them when he had a difficult project to complete.
Now he was preparing to swallow a couple, as he watched Ron checking his equipment for what seemed like the fifth or sixth time. Ron hadn't changed much in the same period, except Wade couldn't remember the last time he'd seen anything resembling a smile on his face.
This time, at least, he wasn't packing a load of explosives, and was wearing normal clothing instead of something suited for stealth. He swore this time he was not going to use violence, unless absolutely necessary. He wouldn't divulge his full plan, saying he was doing it old style. Which meant making it up as he went along. Maybe. Wade still had a lingering mistrust of Ron, one that pained him greatly, but he just couldn't shake it.
The rebuilt time machine looked the same as before. But in fact, multiple additional safeguards and redundancies had been added, to detect any sabotage attempts.
Wade had spent the intervening years since the previous try trying to verify the existence of parallel Earths. But as he had said then, he already did believe in them. He wasn't quick to accept Sara's explanations as to how they were formed, etcetera, but then again, she had candidly admitted to lying, to keep someone with his intellect from knowing enough to make use of.
So, he accepted that Ron's trip might create a new one. The stable/unstable issue was beyond his means to verify, so he couldn't object to the trip on those grounds. But, one scientist, who he deeply respected, had theorized that there had to be a limit to how many such worlds could exist simultaneously. And he didn't think the consequences of reaching that limit would be pleasant, to say the least. But theories weren't going to deter Ron now.
For nearly a year after their first try, he had gone through the motions of living, as if he had given up on the idea, and the risks. Wade had heard that he was seen often walking near the Lipsky Institute, and on occasion in his old neighborhood. Once Wade had heard a policeman had spotted him loitering near the Possible home.
But then he'd come to Wade, determined to go back. And Wade had agreed to help, simply because he couldn't say no. There was no question of Wade going along this time, it was going to be a solo mission. And Wade would never know if it was successful. No beacons, no return trip. What Ron planned to do with himself in the past, Wade didn't know, and wasn't sure he wanted to ask.
Ron finished securing his gear, and waited a moment before standing up, trying to hide how stiff he'd become while crouching down. He patted his pockets, as if to make sure nothing had vanished from them in the last ten minutes.
Finished, he looked at Wade, and that missing smile of his briefly made an appearance. "Well, I guess I'm ready." He had a lot of mixed emotions in his voice.
Wade popped his pills, and washed them down with water, then nodded. "Unless there's a last minute objection, I guess it's time."
"Did you know I was here, or were you just tempting fate?" The female voice out of the shadows nearly brought Wade's meds back up. Ron spun to face the voice, his expression going straight to hostile. Too hostile, Wade noted.
Sara wasn't in costume, this time. The business attire was a definite contrast to her previous wear. And she wasn't alone this time. Wade found himself surreptitiously slipping a hand into his vest pocket, and nervously fingering a small device that would summon the Lab's security force.
The two new arrivals stepped forwards. Ron tensed up, hostility practically rolling off him as he glowered at Sara. "Why are you here?" He growled. His fingers flexed, as if trying to decide what form to take.
Sara shrugged. "Same as before, Ron. More or less, that is. But this time, I'm not doing the talking, this guy is." She indicated her companion with a thumb.
Ron's gaze shifted to the stranger, studying him intently. He got a curious frown in return. Deciding he wasn't too impressed, he shrugged. "Who's he, your boss or something?"
Wade blinked at the expression that came over the stranger's face, the widened eyes, the grin...."You have got to be kidding!" he muttered.
Sara noted his reaction and smirked, shaking her head. "Better drop the disguise, we don't have a lot of time, Ron."
Old Ron's eyes bulged when Ron canceled his disguise. "Wha...who..I don't...what the hell is going on here?" he stammered out, "Where did he come from!" he bellowed at Sara. She noted the way the veins on his forehead flared into prominence, and winced. "Haven't let up on yourself, have you, Ron?"
"Dude! Chill out, before you bust a vein, or something!" Ron addressed his alternate self. "I was pulled from another world, to work with....Sara, and some others. Her first visit to you had something to do with it."
Old Ron had a sudden urge to sit down. His belligerence had drained out of him, but he still looked wary, as he sat down next to Wade.
"So, it was some kind of test?" Wade asked. A flicker of surprise crossed Sara's face, before she suppressed it. "Well," she replied, "You could say that. A test he failed, by the way. Before we go farther with this, I want Ron to tell me something. Something I really need to know, but can't tell you why."
A bit of hostility surged back up into Old Ron's face. "What do you need to ask me about? Don't you know everything, or can't you find out anything for yourself?" he spat out.
Sara's eyes narrowed, fixing his with a razor-sharp gaze. "What happened to Doctor Fritsch, Ron?"
Old Ron's eyes popped wide, and his face went pale with shock. "How...how do you know about him?" Wade looked at him curiously, his question plain on his face.
"What happened to him, Ron!" Sara repeated sharply. "Why did you really go to work for those people? Why start doing things so radically different from what you'd done with Kim? Was it by choice? Answer me!" She hammered him relentlessly, and he kept hunching deeper and deeper into himself, until he snapped.
"I killed him!" He shouted. "The only person who could have cured Kim, and I killed him!" Wade recoiled so violently, he nearly fell out of his chair. Young Ron backed up a step, shock on his face.
"On purpose?" Sara asked.
"No! I mean, maybe! I'm really not sure how it happened! We snuck into his estate, and I got to him in his office, on the second floor! Then...I knocked him over the balcony rail, and I had his hand....someone said they had the database from his computer....and he slipped out of my hand, or...I dropped him, I'm not sure! He broke his neck when he hit some kind of ornamental statue below." He sagged in his seat, tears in his eyes.
"Who was with you, Ron? The people you went to work for? Did they help you find Fritsch?"
Wade spoke up even as Old Ron nodded. "Who's Fritsch? Is he the one who did that to Kim?" He turned on Old Ron without waiting for an answer, "Why didn't you let me help? Why didn't you tell me? We could have gotten him together!"
Old Ron shook his head. "They came to me, Wade, and said you were too young to involve. Said the same nearly applied to me, but they felt someone close to Kim ought to be there." Sara's eyes narrowed with suspicion, and Young Ron frowned as well. "There were sixteen of us, total. They...took care of the guards, I didn't pay much attention to that. When we got inside, they told me where Fritsch was, and one guy went with me up to his office. We hadn't set off any alarms, so we caught him by surprise. Things are kind of fuzzy, though, I think I was too focused on getting to him, getting....getting a hold of him, making him pay for what he'd done! So maybe...when I heard they had his data...maybe I just let go."
Sara nodded, but not as a response. "And then they had you, didn't they? You killed a man. You killed a man who might have told how to cure Kim. Because the information wasn't in the database, was it, Ron?"
Ron shook his head. "No. I didn't think it through, you know, I just let them convince me...blackmail me, I guess! There was more, and I feel like a fool for falling for it....I 'accidentally' overheard two men discussing turning Kim into an agent, somehow, because of her mental state. If I'd just stopped to think, I'd have realized that wouldn't work. Kim was still Kim, even if she didn't want to believe it. They'd never have made a killer out of her, like they did with me. But the way I was thinking then, I couldn't take the chance!"
Wade was staring at him, aghast. "Ron, how could you keep this all a secret, all this time? How could you let them use you like that?"
"Because I was young and stupid, that's how!" He snapped back. "But now I'm going to change that!" He looked belligerently at Sara and Young Ron. "And you two aren't going to stop me!"
"You mean, stop you from deserting Kim?" Young Ron responded. Sara did a double-take, and Wade's jaw dropped.
Old Ron blinked rapidly, then his face suffused with red. "Deserting her? I can't even talk to her! She doesn't even know I'm out here!"
"So? She's still going to be there after you've gone, this world, with all that's happened here, will still be here. And when you're back there, if you succeed, what are you going to do? Kill yourself? I don't think so!" Old Ron turned his head away from his younger counterpart, face petulant. "So, there you'll be, watching a young, happy Kim and hopefully a young, happy Ron having the relationship we might have had. And it'll feel good....at first!"
Old Ron's head snapped back around, as Young Ron continued, "And then one day, it'll just hit you! That that happy Kim isn't 'your' Kim. Your Kim will still be in that hospital, and her parents will still be in that house, alone. And you won't have undone anything, really, just made yourself a happier world, solely for your own benefit!" he paused, then softened his tone. "This world, all 'our' worlds, are shaped by our relationship with Kim. We chose that path, and on many of those worlds, that path led to tragedy for one or both of us. Yours did, mine did. And 'my' Kim has to live with whatever guilt she feels for what happened to me. I don't like that, not at all! But, it's just one world, out of them all, dude. There are so many where it ends happily, trust me!"
"But...but, there's nothing I can do for her here, nothing!" Old Ron cried out in anguish.
"Of course there is! You can go see her parents, keep them from being alone with their grief! You can keep her legacy alive, keep her memory alive! You can live. My Kim would give her life to have me alive again, yours would want you to have a life, and you know it! It's not the same as if she died, I know! She's there, and may be there for the rest of both your lives! But, she is alive, and has some happiness, even if the reasons aren't the best. She can't have the life she should have had, and you can't really change that now. And you have to know how sorry I am to have to tell you that! Dude, it's corny as hell, but you have to take what life deals you, and make something of it!"
There was silence for nearly a minute. Then Old Ron chuckled. "I don't remember being that smart when I was young! Except, maybe I was, I Just didn't use it the way I should have! You're right, completely right, in the end I'd accomplish nothing, which is pretty much how my life has gone!" He shook his head ruefully. "It's just, I have trouble thinking of anything that isn't focused on saving Kim! It's the old way, save Kim, save the day! She'd make everything all right, if she was all right! But, that isn't true, she can't erase the past, or make me forget it, can she?"
Young Ron grinned. "She might try, though! 'Anything is possible for a Possible' after all! I know it's been a long time since you may have believed that, I guess in your case you found out it isn't always so! My last memories of my Kim are of her fighting, and enjoying it, before she got knocked out by an explosion! Not my fault, by the way!" A faint grin crossed Old Ron's face, and Wade snorted. "I don't want to think about what she felt afterwards, I don't know if I could take it! So, my experience isn't anything to yours, I can't imagine how hard it was, or how much I'd do, if I thought I could change it...for everyone."
Old Ron winced, then nodded. "Yeah, for everyone! I would be deserting them all, wouldn't I? And one day, I'd realize it. And then I'd feel like a bigger failure, somehow!" He looked at Wade, then getured towards the time machine. "Take that thing apart, and make sure it'd take a decade to reassemble, just in case 'Mulehead' Ron resurfaces, 'kay?" Wade hesitated, then nodded. "You Got it, Ron!"
Old Ron stood up slowly, suddenly looking older then his years. He looked at the gear he'd assembled on the floor. "I'll be back for that later, Wade. I need to go see some people, and give them an honest chance to slam the door in my face!" He grinned faintly, then looked at Sara and Young Ron. "What about you two? Mission accomplished?"
Ron kept his mouth shut, as Sara considered her answer. "Well, we have things to do, before we go home, but they're nothing for you to worry about, Ron. And I do mean that, sincerely. Try and make your life a good one, from here on out. I'm sorry I couldn't help you more." Old Ron continued to regard her curiously for a moment, then nodded, and turned to Young Ron. "Well, this is totally weird!" He looked his younger counterpart in the eye searchingly. "I assume, if they recruited you, they have Kim, too, don't they?"
Young Ron winced a bit, then reluctantly nodded. "Yeah, but it's kind of weird, dude! She's into someone else. But, I'd still do anything for her, and vice versa! But, I bet that doesn't surprise you at all, does it?"
Old Ron shook his head. "Nope! Not a bit! Into someone else? Who?" Seeing Young Ron getting all flustered, he grinned widely, "Okay, never mind! Not that I really need to know,right?" That only triggered more contortions on Young Ron's face, as he thought how he'd feel in the same sitch. Sara bailed him out.
"Ron, we really have to go now, things to do, after all!" She took his arm and steered him towards the door. "Wade, can you clear it for us to go out the front door? Lot safer then our other method." Wade nodded, walked to a nearby console, and picking up a phone, accessed an internal line. After a few quiet words, he nodded to the pair. "Go ahead." After they had left, he looked at Ron, speculatively. "He was right, you know."
"Really? Then why didn't you say anything, or try and stop me?"
"Because I didn't think to, and I'd rather have been rid of you, then to have you here, in that mood." Wade answered honestly, and Ron flinched. His gaze dropped to study his own feet. "Guess I need to start my apologizing here and now, don't I?"
Wade regarded him for a moment, then shrugged. "Still keep a bottle in my office, even if it's not smart for me to indulge. Shall we go?" He gestured towards the door.
Ron took a deep breath and exhaled, then made his own sweeping gesture. "After you, Wadester! A little indulgence might be a good idea, before meeting the Doctors Possible!"
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Ron and Sara recovered their own gear nearby. "So now, we go back to the Institute, and give them what they need?" Ron asked hopefully.
Sara didn't answer at first. Then she sighed, "Wish I hadn't brought you now, Ron! But, that was a great job, back there, so it seems I had to, to accomplish that objective." She winced. "But then again...the problem is, you can't get home on your own, and I can't go back until I've done what's necessary! So, you have to come along, there's no other choice."
Ron's puzzlement was clear on his face. "What do you mean? Are we going to make sure Kim is cured, or not?"
Sara smiled sadly. "Of course we are, Ron! But, things are a little more complicated then you think. And explaining what comes next is going to be hard, whether I tell you before, or after. So, lets just get going! Grab your stuff, we're jumping again."
Ron's jaw dropped. "You mean we're going to....then why did we just do what we did?"
"Because.....I had to know something important, Ron, that's why! Something about how this all happened, and something about...him." She shook her head sadly, "I'd almost rather wait and see what he does....but I've indulged myself too much already. Come on, Ron, let's go save Kim!"
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One more chapter, I promise! As to why Sara is breaking the rules, the explanation relates to her explanation of the project in Chapter seven. She and Ron are motivated by their desire to save Kim, but to others, she's not the important one.
Please Read and Review.