Thanks everybody for reviewing, I hope you keep enjoying the story.
Disclaimer: Kim Possible and related are the property of Disney which, contrary to common belief, I do not own.
Special thanks to Kwebs for beta reading.
Chapter 12: Balance
"Look," Yori gasped, "Possible-san's aura…"
Kim's aura of flame was growing again, not much in size this time but a lot more in intensity. Finally it was almost impossible to look directly at the bright glow.
Kaji got up in a crouching position, still very much in pain, "She is making the choice, once she returns to this world I will take her power."
"Haven't you tried that enough?" Monkey Fist growled from where he sat next to DNAmy, who was still unconscious.
"We will stop you if you try again," Yori stated as she got in a fighting position despite feeling weak as a baby.
Kaji laughed, "I might not be in the best condition, but neither are any of you… and you don't have fire powers, or any powers. Only your Sensei has some, but he doesn't seem capable of fighting for now."
"You can face him Yori," Sensei spoke weakly, "he too has no powers at this moment."
"WHAT?" Kaji tried to use his fire; and true to what Sensei had said, he could not activate them.
"The Dragon and the Monkey Lord have started something entirely new and different," Sensei managed a small smile, "The powers are unusable as long as they are under change."
"These are odds I like," Yori said, "Monkey Fist, will you aid me on this?"
"Most certainly," Monkey Fist got up and he and Yori approached Kaji from both sides, "You will pay for what you did to Amy."
They got about five steps before the deep red filling the room changed and a bright blue joined the color scheme. Yori and Monkey Fist turned around and saw that Ron had 'powered up' as well; his aura was brighter than ever before. However, the usual faint monkey shape was completely gone.
"What is going on?" Yori asked Sensei; the only one she figured would understand at least a little about the latest developments.
"I do not know," Sensei admitted, "but there are things going on far out of our reach or apprehension, all we can do is wait what will happen next and help if it is requested."
Ron held the former Dragonslayer sword at an arms length; the entire glow was drained from the weapon and had joined Ron's glow, the blade looked unnervingly usual now.
"So what do we do now?" Kim asked as Ron placed the sword down; she had finally recovered from the shock of containing more power than she had ever imagined. It felt similar to the vision of having all the power, but this time Kim felt steadied by Ron's presence; the fire would not overcome her this time.
"I'm not really sure," Ron admitted, "I kinda know how the Monkey Powers were balanced, but those were split into two and then re-merged to make the balance."
"So… we can skip the splitting part," Kim assumed, "do you know how the Monkey Powers were merged?"
Ron frowned in thought, "If I understand correctly, it had to do with each side containing part of the other in order to connect."
"Like Ying and Yang?"
"Yeah," Ron's face cleared up, "like that."
"Okay," Kim frowned, "I recall the fire spirit saying that we fit the requirements as we already contain part of each other's power."
"Do you feel the small amount of Monkey Powers residing in you?" Ron then asked, "Try to draw them out and use them to connect to me."
"Uhm… Okay," Kim focused and thought back to the time the monkey king idol had been embedded into her skin, slowly changing her into a monkey.
Yori watched the meditating teens curiously, wondering what was going on, when Kim's aura slowly turned deeper red and started emanating more heat.
"Sensei…" Yori turned around to notify the ninja master when she saw Ron was changing as well; his aura turned a brighter blue, painful to look directly at and burning in its intensity.
"No!" Kaji snapped from the spot where he had been sitting, trying to recover his strength, "It can't be."
"What is going on?" Monkey Fist asked.
"I have read about this in an ancient scroll regarding the Monkey Lord," Sensei said in a wondering voice, "It looks similar to the balancing of the Monkey Powers."
"They can't," Kaji growled, "they will ruin everything, it will destroy the Dragonfire."
"And create a great new force," Sensei finally began to understand, "The fight is not against each other, but together, as one."
If it was unnerving for Kim to think back at the time she changed into a monkey, it was horrible for Ron to recall his first brush with the Dragon powers; Kim's powers breaking through his shield and nearly killing him, the tremendous power that kept him alive but also held him down, almost for too long to aid Kim before she herself fell to her own power…
Ron shook away the thought and instead concentrated on the Dragon power he held. When he found enough control over it Ron began connecting to Kim, hoping she would be able to do the same.
Kim's experience was unnerving, but that was all. She had turned into a monkey, but Ron had been there just in time to reverse the magic.
Feeling the Monkey powers, Kim tried to bridge to Ron and make the connection. She hoped Ron had made similar progress.
In the cave, everybody felt slight tremors and saw Kim and Ron's aura blink in and out of the visual range on each end of the visible spectrum.
"What is happening?" Yori whispered despite herself, "Are we safe here."
"I do not know," Sensei admitted, "these powers are far beyond my grasp… anyone's grasp."
Kaji paced around angrily; without his powers he could not win against the three remaining fighters and turning tail was not an option either, one way or the other he needed a dose of Dragon powers and by the looks of it the powers may change enough to be useless to him anymore.
Kim felt Ron reach out, felt his power connect to her, she felt her own power connect to Ron. Both teens took a deep breath as they let loose the constraint on their powers, allowing them to bridge freely.
…
…
Nothing happened.
Ron blinked, tried to focus his powers again, blinked another time, "Shouldn't we feel something?"
"I don't know," Kim pondered, "it kinda felt like… it just stopped. Maybe we did something wrong."
"Want to try again?" Ron offered.
Before Kim could answer, the whole room shook and creaks started to appear in the sky.
Kim and Ron stared wide-eyed at the complete blackness behind the reddish sky.
Finally it dawned to Kim, "The Bridge… The connection between our physical bodies, it's breaking apart."
"We have to get out of here," Ron said, "or we'll be stuck here forever… or worse."
"But what about the balancing?" Kim asked, "We have to do that now."
Ron shook his head, "We have no time, maybe it only works in the real world. Come on, we have to go."
"No… I… I cannot leave here," Kim told, "I already accepted the power… the vision… I can't…"
"KP," Ron grabbed Kim's shoulders, "I'll be there, and together we'll work it through."
"You don't understand," Kim urged, "You have that great power too. Here we can hold together because this place is… not entirely real, but in the real world…" she left her sentence unfinished.
"Trust me," Ron said as he placed a hand on her shoulder, "We will make it, we always do, it's our thing; beating the odds," he added with a goofy smile.
Kim chuckled despite herself and pulled Ron closer, "You're right, we can do this… and for sure we can't not do this, the others are still in the cave and who knows if Kaji has recovered already."
They stood for a moment, in a tight embrace, readying themselves for anything that lied ahead.
As Ron hugged Kim, a memory from a dream came up; terrible cold that Kim fought a losing battle against, her powers still undeveloped and not up for the task. Him pulling the cold away, towards himself, so Kim could use her own energy solely to keep herself warm.
As the memory floated around in his head, Ron unconsciously did the same thing again; only this time taking away a bit of the heat so that the feverish rage he had seen in Kim's vision would not overtake her.
Kim opened her eyes in surprise as she felt her power mixed with Ron's, but the feeling brought her warm comfort, much the same as she had felt after waking up on an iceberg several weeks ago.
With the comforting feeling, the barriers of fear finally cracked and Kim let go of her tight grasp on her powers; the fear of the rage now fully dismissed by Ron's close and comforting presence.
As the fire powers drained to Ron, the void was filled with his own powers, mixing and connecting them.
Yori, Sensei, Monkey Fist and Kaji had not noticed the hesitation Kim and Ron had; all they had seen was the shimmering auras the teens emanated near the edge of vision, and all they heard was the increasing rumble, as if a massive train was about to drive into the cave somewhere.
Then suddenly, with a brightness that illuminated the entire cave, the auras came fully back, shooting out at each other and making beautiful arcs of light in every color of the rainbow, and probably even more outside of the visible spectrum.
"It's beautiful…" Yori whispered.
Suddenly the rumbling sound increased sharply, making it sound like the cave was about to collapse.
"We should get out of here," Monkey Fust said as he tried to lift DNAmy up.
"We can't," Kaji snarled, "the room is closed until the bridge is gone, two different worlds cannot interact too much."
"What bridge?" Yori asked.
"The connection that Stoppable-san and Possible-san have made to the realm of fire," Sensei explained.
"The connection must be sealed," Kaji continued, "Be it by an energy barrier or, like here, in a confined space, no-one can enter or exit when the connection exists."
"But the cave is about to collapse," Monkey Fist objected.
"No, the connection is breaking," Kaji said with a slight grin, "And when it does, 'Possible-san' and Stoppable-san' will be trapped forever," he added, mocking Kim and Ron's names.
Kim and Ron pulled away, staring at each other in disbelief.
"What just happened?" Kim felt every bit of the Dragon power, but somehow it wasn't making her feel uncomfortable anymore; it had a touch of Ron.
"I think we did it," Ron said, sounding surprised himself, "We balanced the powers."
"Al that effort, an this was what it took," Kim chuckled, shaking her head when suddenly the room shook again, violently.
"The bridge!"
Kim and Ron ran to the gates, which opened easily for the teens and looked at the path of fire pillars.
Half the pillars had gone out and parts of the path were missing. Not just cracked or fallen away, but gone; there was absolutely nothing where there had been ground.
Ron, who had not seen the path before, looked at Kim, "Has it always been like this?" he asked hopefully.
"No," Kim shook her head, "and I think the pillars mark how much of the path still remains."
"You should hurry," Kim and Ron looked up and saw their predecessors standing closely together.
"We know," Kim said, "but what about you?"
"We're together," the woman smiled, "our wait is finally over. You have a whole life ahead of you, spend it well."
"We will," Kim and Ron waved as she started running down the collapsing path.
As the teens disappeared in the distance, the remaining persons smiled at each other as they were slowly obscured by a white mist that poured through the open gates of the former realm of the Dragon.
"I hope she likes my little gift," the woman chuckled.
"I'm sure he will," the warrior grinned, "I know I did."
The woman sighed happily, "Finally at rest…"
"Yeah," her partner agreed, "it took a while, but I couldn't wish for a better way to end.
To far away for Kim and Ron to see, the warriors, the gate and the realm of the Dragon disappeared in the white mist, leaving not a single trace.
Kim and Ron ran at top speed as the world around them slowly stopped existing, the path of fire pillars looked a lot longer than Kim remembered. The pillars only burned at half height anymore and more and more cracks to nothingness appeared on the path.
Despite all this, Kim felt exhilarated, almost giddy even in the aftermath of the power rush and the balancing. And seeing Ron's face, she imagined that he too felt at the top of the world.
"How far still?" Ron didn't even breath heavy; exercise here didn't tax the physical body.
"I don't know," Kim admitted, "I think I arrived somewhere in the middle of the path when I got here."
Ron suddenly stopped, pulling Kim to a stop as well, "That can't be, you made the bridge. I followed your link directly and got into the Dragon's realm."
Kim looked around; the path was now so much gone that running wasn't really an option anyway, "But why is this whole path here?"
"Maybe you projected it when we started running," Ron pondered, "did you notice that it only fully broke down after we stopped?"
Kim frowned, "But if that's true, we should be able to leave here just by thinking ourselves back to our body in the real world, right?"
Kim had barely finished her sentence when the floor dropped, and the redhead felt like a rubber band that had been stretched and suddenly released as she snapped back.
"I'm back?"
She opened her eyes and looked around in the cave; Ron was just in the progress of opening his eyes, Yori and Sensei stared at her and Ron, and Monkey Fist stood protectively over DNAmy, like guarding the woman against a collapse of rocks.
Further in the distance stood Kaji; strange flames circling his body and an enraged look in his eyes as she watched the teens standing up from their previous position.
Kim felt her power reeling in and she somehow knew that was how it would manifest from now on; calm, hidden, unnoticed but available when needed, and frankly Kim felt relieved by that; no more power bursts, strange happenings or otherwise inconvenient displays of power, but a –relatively- normal life.
There was only one thing left to do; Kaji. Kim was about to walk over to the fire sorcerer when she saw Ron staring at her with his jaw halfway to the ground.
"Ron?" Only then Kim noticed her clothes felt differently, she looked down and her eyes grew wide.
Ron stared at Kim's new dress until his eyes started to feel dry, he blinked and noticed his mouth was turning dry as well. Finally Ron remembered to close his jaw, and then he stared more; Kim was gorgeous.
Ron had always thought of Kim as beautiful, even in the partly burned sweat pants and old sleeveless top she wore previously Kim had looked good to Ron.
But now, Ron couldn't keep his eyes of his girlfriend; Kim now wore a gown with orange-red colors like a cascading fire, the effect was strengthened by the folds of the dress curling like flames. The sleeves loosened around her wrists and were encircled by intertwining flames. Deep red sandals, just visible below the dress, enclosed Kim's feet.
Kim looked herself up and down and moved around to get a feel for the dress; the gown was obviously ceremonial, but it would certainly not hinder in a fight. In fact, the dizzying effect of the curling folds would probably confuse any foe for a few moments.
Kim looked back at Ron and chuckled; her boyfriend seemed to approve of the dress too. Kim sent a silent 'thank you' to the woman who had been the Dragon before her; Kim was certain she had something to do with this.
"You!" Kaji looked bewildered at Kim, "How did you get back?"
"Well, that proves where the gown is from," Kim thought, "It's still me, but I met the previous Dragon."
The fire sorcerer said nothing as Kim walked closer until she stood on the pedestal between the now slowly circling scrolls.
Standing between the scrolls made the last parts of ancient history fall in place, and even though it felt confusing to Kim to have the memories of her predecessors – with the full Dragon powers came even older memories – at he same time it felt assuring to finally know what exactly was going on.
"Fahiakajita, you were once a hero, a legend," Kim started, "how did you get so corrupted?"
"Power," the fire sorcerer grinned, "Ultimate power, even more than you have now… I was part of the previous prophecy, I was granted to unlock the Dragon powers if it was needed."
Kaji sighed as he remembered, "Because of the prophecy, I knew the power. I wanted it, and I could have had it… if she," Kaji wouldn't even say the name of the last Dragon before Kim, "hadn't ruined everything by being selfless… it's not our way, it shouldn't have gone like that."
Fahiakajita's eyes glowed with fire, "I have purified some power from your wretched… mix of power… I will get my revenge."
"No," Kim had patiently listened at Kaji's rant, but enough was enough, "Your time is over, you've spent too much time here."
"And how will you stop me?" the fire sorcerer inquired, "As you have noticed I don't die easy; even time itself has not much grip on me."
"You are right," Kim said, "how long did it take you to figure out that your bond with prophecy could tie you to this world?"
Kaji paled, "How do you know that?"
"Previous Dragon memory," Kim tapped the side of her head, "I know a lot, I know I can't destroy you because you are linked with the prophecy, and I can't destroy the prophecy either because it would just return somewhere else. But we can change it… Ron," Kim turned to her best friend, "it seems we have one last part to unite before the balance it complete."
As Ron, after finally recomposing himself from the pleasant shock of seeing Kim's new wardrobe, walked over to the pedestal Kaji growled and leaped at Kim, hands ablaze.
Kim sidestepped easily and let Kaji fly past, "Give it up and accept that you have cheated life long enough, don't disgrace yourself by fighting the inevitable."
Ron stepped next to Kim and she grabbed the orange glowing scroll from the air and held it out in front of her. Ron did the same for the blue glowing scroll.
The scrolls touched and the glows flowed together, creating a new bright white light. Tendrils shot out from the glow and grabbed Kaji.
The fire sorcerer watched terrified as the tendrils snaked over his arms and legs until only his face was uncovered.
Kim and Ron turned and faced Fahiakajita, Kim shook her head, "It didn't have to be like this, if only you hadn't gotten obsessed with the Dragon power."
As Fahiakajita was covered fully by the light, the tendrils shrunk back, leaving no trace of the once great fire sorcerer.
Monkey Fist stared wide-eyed at the spot where Kaji had been mere seconds ago, how close had he himself gotten to a similar fate. He then turned back to Kim and Ron, just in time to watch the white light disappear, leaving only one scroll.
Kim unrolled the scroll and began reading.
The uniting of Powers.
The Dragon and the Monkey Lord, united and divided. Bound to be together, forced to be apart.
Power too great to be handled by one was divided and purified to be balanced once again, but the balance failed because it required complete trust, which was lacked. The prophecy was shredded and shared over the powers that remained, now loose from each other.
War broke out instead of peace, but the powers were calling to return. Again the balance failed, not because lack of trust but because misunderstanding of the powers.
War ended but peace did not begin. The shredded prophecy was molded and formed to make two new prophecies, each one giving one side of the tale.
The Dragon and the Monkey Lord will return, preceded by the events shown in each prophecy.
The power of the Monkey Lord will be guarded in locked parts, to be unleashed by the imposter and granted to the rightful Monkey Lord.
The power of the Dragon will be divided over generations, to be released on the uniting of the families.
One of the locked parts guarding the Monkey Lord's Power will be used to judge the Dragon worthy of carrying the Monkey Powers as well. As with all the locked parts, only the imposter can unleash it, since the imposter is driven to the power.
At that point Ron grinned at Monkey Fist, "Dude, you made it into prophecy… you're an important part."
Monkey Fist grumbled incoherently as he looked down embarrassed.
Kim continued reading the rest of the prophecy.
The Dragon and the Monkey Lord will be judged to carry each other's power and abilities; they will become each other for a brief period of time.
When they are deemed worthy, they may balance the powers.
In the final battle the Monkey Lord and the Dragon will fight! Together; their unity giving the strength needed to defeat their nemesis in their respective powers. Peace will settle, for the powers will be balanced.
Silence reigned after Kim had finished reading the scroll.
Finally Sensei bowed his head, "Will you forgive an old fool for his misdoings?"
Ron held his breath; now that he knew Yamanuchi wouldn't be a threat to Kim anymore he found it hard to hold a grudge. Even after all Sense had done, he too had been mislead… maybe due to one-sided thinking, but mislead still. Would Kim see it the same way?
"No," Ron paled and stared wide-eyed at his girlfriend, but Kim had a smile on her face as she said it, "But I will forgive a wise person who can admit his mistake."
Ron let out his breath, "KP, you kinda scared me there."
Kim's smile grew into a devious grin, "I did, didn't I?" Then she turned more serious, "With this kind of powers you can't really start hating or holding grudges, you've seen what happened to Kaji…"
"And what almost happened to Monkey Fist," Ron added.
"…So it's something to be really careful with," Kim continued.
"And how do you think you can handle that?" Ron looked surprised at Monkey Fist; for the very first time ever since he had met the simian villain there was no grudge or anger behind the man's voice, just curiosity.
"I'm not sure that we can," Kim admitted.
"Maybe we can do the same as the founder of Yamanuchi," Ron suggested, "vest the power such that even we can't grab it instantaneously."
"That sounds like a good idea," Kim smiled, "do you think we can use the Lotus blade for that?"
"I think so," Ron looked at Sensei, who nodded, and went to pick up the sword that had appeared between the teens after the bridge had been shattered.
"Can we still call it the Lotus blade?" Kim wondered, "And will it be able to change shapes again?"
"It will not be able change shapes anymore," Sensei told, "That was reserved for the Lotus blade alone. May I suggest the Sword of Balance as a name?"
"That has a nice sound to it," Ron said and looked at Kim, who approved as well.
Projecting their power into the sword was easy, as they had both drawn from it before. And a short while later the weapon had made its final change; once more a katana shape, with a bluish blade and a fiery pattern running over the sides.
"Oww," everybody turned to look at DNAmy, who was trying to get up, "What happened? What did I miss?"
"Most of it," Ron told, "amongst which Monkey Fist deciding to stay and help you."
"He did?" Amy looked up joyfully at the Monkey villain who, in turn, was looking shocked at Ron.
"Why did you say that?" Monkey Fist cried, "I… why…"
"You do care," Amy got up and pulled Monkey Fist in a fierce hug.
"No! I…" Monkey Fist wrestled himself free, "I don't care… I just…" he sighed deeply, "Look, I'm just not really a cuddler… we'll have to work that out."
DNAmy's eyes shone as she released Fist, "We can most certainly talk that out."
"Let's head back to your place," Monkey Fist said sheepishly, "I've still got some stuff laying around there."
Kim, Ron, Yori and Sensei watched the duo walk out of the cave.
"That was cute," Ron grinned, "but still a bit sick and wrong."
"You said it," Kim smiled, "shall we head out here as well?"
As the four got out of the cave, one of the ninjas told them that Monkey Fist and DNAmy had already left, "We did not try to stop them, they seemed… changed."
"That is fine," Sensei said, then he turned to Kim and Ron, "Now I must bid you farewell as well, I assume you want to savor the last part of your vacation in relative rest."
"Preferably," Kim chuckled.
Ron held out the Sword of Balance to Sensei, "Would you keep the sword safe until it is needed again? I know here it can remain a secret."
"Most certainly Stoppable-san," Sensei bowed as he accepted the weapon, "The sword will be kept as safe as it has been when it was the Lotus blade."
"Thank you," Kim smiled and faced Ron, "I think there's enough power left for one more teleportation, ready to get home?"
"Yeah," Ron stepped next to Kim and they put their arms around each other.
As they faced the sunset Kim and Ron waved their goodbye to Sensei and Yori, and then they were gone.
Yori watched the Sword of Balance in awe, "All the power is vested in this sword? How can we possibly keep it safe?"
Sensei smiled, "The power is only projected into the Sword of Balance, Stoppable-san and Possible-san still hold all the power, even though they think they do not. It is they who will keep the power safe, we are here only to lure the persons away who will want to grab the power for themselves."
"So we are the distraction?" Yori giggled.
"Yes," Sensei chuckled, "you are quite right, we are the distraction."
Epilogue:
Kim and Ron stood on the top of mount Middleton, high above the campground, watching the sunrise over Middleton.
"This is weird," Ron said, "leaving with sunset and arriving at sunrise."
"I like it," Kim smiled, "I don't think you'd get a more beautiful panorama on any other time of the day."
"I guess not," Ron looked out over Middleton and the surrounding terrain, "So, what do we do now?"
Kim shrugged, "Like we always did, we've got a whole life ahead of us, better make the best of it."
"But what about the powers?" Ron asked.
"I don't know," Kim admitted, "they're gone for now, I guess if we need them we can get them back from Yamanuchi. Besides, I doubt we'll need those powers; we can stand our own."
Ron smiled and put his arm around Kim's shoulder, "On to the future then."
"Yeah," Kim answered her boyfriend's smile with one of her own, "On to the future."
END
A/N: I hope you have enjoyed reading the story, let me know what you thought of it.