The Ninja and the Princess

Disclaimer: I am Iron Man! I don't own Kim Possible!

Chapter Twenty: Bad Moon Rising

*please note all information scribed presented about regions, cities, and any other data should be considered a work in progress. New developments and new research can come to light or be presented at any time and archival staff may find it necessary to update relevant entries.

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

***please be aware that following the recent Royal Scientific Convention our archives are being updated with new information and records on general information may not be in proper alphabetical or numerical order for some time

-Excerpt from General Encyclopedia, Concepts Section, Volume IX, subject Inquisition–

Following the first invasion the integration of its various components into the Three Kingdoms proceeded in a relatively orderly and continuous fashion. Many previously powerful nobles however found the return of centralized authority difficult to accept as it led to a lessening of their power. Additionally a number of bandit lords banded together as the Three Kingdoms systematically restored order to the southern half of the continent. At first these malcontents met the Three Kingdoms in pitched battle and except for a few limited encounters were soundly routed. This led many to resist in less overt ways and thus was born the inquisition. Also known as the Royal Tribunal for Internal Security, the Inquisition was established approximately ten years following the First Invasion and continued off and on until its final dissolution in the year 375 following unification. Originally begun to prevent rebellious persons from slipping away into the general population the inquisition expanded over the course of several decades. Eventually at its zenith it was an institution devoted to rooting out and eliminating anti-royal elements as well as the monarchy's political enemies.

Throughout its various iterations the inquisition developed a set of fairly standard procedures for rooting out royal enemies. Scouts would be sent ahead of the main body to watch roads away from the town or manor the inquisition was about to investigate. Those found fleeing were subject to great suspicion and often received harsh treatment. While it was never required as such to speak with visiting inquisitors those who did not were often believed to possess secrets they wished to hide. Thus the arrival of the inquisition often resulted in a public gathering. At this gathering persons were invited to admit to participation in rebellions or anti-royal activities. Provided they were able to give over useful intelligence they would generally receive light penalties in an effort to entice others to confess. This is not to say that the inquisition demanded names regardless of the truth, penalties for false accusation were often harsher than that of outright rebellion. Rights given to suspects at trial varied over the course of the inquisition. One relative constant was that the discovery of bias by any accuser was sufficient to set a defendant free. Somewhat similarly confession by torture was generally not permitted. However as torture became a more favored choice of inquisitors to obtain confessions the definition of what constituted torture became considerably narrower.

By the year 325 following unification changing attitudes among the nobility and royal family meant that the inquisition had diminished in power to a considerable extent. Having weathered anti-royal sentiment for over three centuries its perceived threat had all but disappeared. This liberalization of thought combined with the development of the printing press in 318 and its consequences led to the widespread dissemination of new ideas that further weakened the inquisition. Throughout the 340's and most of the 350's it appeared that while officially still existing the inquisition had ceased. This was proven to be false as in 361 a new monarch ascended to the throne and promptly restored the inquisition to the height of its power and terror. In late 374 a Noble Congress assembled that declared the monarch unfit to rule and struck his name from all records, this is why we today are unaware of his name. Following this the Noble Congress invited Mim Possible to the throne and her first act was to permanently and officially abolish the Inquisition.

-Upperton-

"Ma'am I understand entirely your concern that we haven't completely rooted out the Drakanadian spies in our midst but why are you so concerned about damage to the city's defenses? We'll be setting sail with the vast majority of our troops for Drakanada as soon as we get word of success from the attack in the Rockwall Kingdom, and that could come within a matter of days. What does it matter that our defenses here aren't all they can be if the Drakanadians can't possibly attack us here?"

"Because General Cranstin," Kim nearly growled, "they can attack us here. I'm not talking about a whole invasion fleet but you said it that we'll be leaving only a skeleton garrison. If I were the Drakanadians and I wanted to distract us from attacking I can't think of a better way than landing a small force here in Upperton to burn the city or worse occupy it? Do you think we can continue an attack in Drakanada if the docks here have been burned or occupied by the Drakanadians? They know it too and if we let this spy keep sabotaging our defenses here they just might pull it off."

"I don't mean to argue," Cranstin's voice clearly said he did, "but you've been the one stressing lately that the stronger our initial attack the less work we'll need to put into defense in Drakanada. If we start pulling troops from assault training to repair gates and walls it could come back to haunt us. I think this says we need to redouble our preparations to attack, if the Drakanadians are at the point of desperation trying to stop us on their own soil they couldn't hope to do anything here."

Kim sighed, "Have you made your decision of what units are going to be staying behind on garrison duty?"

"Yes Ma'am," Cranstin said in surprise at the abrupt change of topic, "it was a difficult choice. All the men in the army want the chance to participate in this invasion but we have our list."

"Well then," Kim said, "there's your repair crews right there. If they don't have to participate in training for the invasion anymore there's plenty of other ways they can be useful."

"We had hoped to delay the announcement as much as possible. It will likely have a negative effect on the morale of those units and I think giving them as little time to think about not going as we can give them is in their best interest."

"I get your point but this needs doing and it's in the best interest of the whole Three Kingdoms. Go do it, dismissed."

General Cranstin saluted stiffly even for him and turned to leave Kim's office.

Kim sighed and stomped down the urge to throw something fragile at the wall. Sometimes it seemed like her side was as busy fighting itself as it was fighting the Drakanadians. Politics, petty rivalries, plenty to give her a headache before she threw in the fragile egos of several commanders. It would almost be a relief to finally launch the attack since it would throw enough large problems in front of them that all hands on board would actually mean something.

After an hour of trying to catch up on the eternal paperwork and bureaucracy that went with running an army a knock sounded on Kim's door.

"You wanted to see us?" Josh walked into the room followed by Erik.

"Yes," Kim leaned back in her chair, "you two did real good catching that Léon girl. It appears as though we have another Drakanadian making trouble in the city. It's just small sabotage of the defenses right now. Gates that won't close, weapons gone missing from the armory, and a few other small things. It's nothing nearly so bad as the intelligence leak but I want it shut down. We're leaving only a handful of soldiers in the city once the attack gets under way and they'll have enough on their hands just keeping order in the city. Now if the Drakanadians can sabotage the defenses they can sabotage the docks, I don't want them to have the opportunity and you two are going to make sure of it."

"I don't suppose you'll listen to me this time when I say we're the last people who should be looking into this." Josh said.

"Not a chance," Kim barely missed a beat, "everyone else around here with the pull to do this has an ego the size of the city and is incompetent to boot. If I brought someone in from somewhere else by the time they got up to speed on everything we'd already be in Drakanada and it might be too late. So that leaves you two with your already stellar record of catching Drakanadian spies. Now hurry up and go find this spy I want Camille to have a friend down in the dungeon."

"Yes Ma'am," Erik saluted, "is there anything you can tell us before we start our investigation?"

"I had some people make a map of where the sabotage happened and when," Kim handed Erik a folded piece of paper, "see if you can look for patterns, likely places of attack, anything that will let us be there waiting when this guy strikes again."

Erik saluted smartly and executed a perfect turn on his heel, Josh sighed as he saluted but Kim didn't care. They'd get results one way or another and at this point that was all she really cared about.

-Rockwall Kingdom-

A small part of Tara was glad she had gone numb bust most of her was just that. A constant stream of Drakanadian soldiers the whole night before had reduced her dress to tatters that couldn't decently cover someone half her size and more than a few of them had been quite rough while enjoying themselves at her expense. Even numb as she was Tara knew that if she lived long enough she would pick up an impressive collection of bruises and probably more than a few scars, though living long enough was a very big if. The only reason she was still alive Tara had been told was so that Bonnie could hear about her execution just before it happened and obviously not be able to do anything about it. That had been nine days ago and Tara figured her life was better measured in hours than days at this point.

"Wow it looks like you had fun," Tara looked at the door to see Connie and Lonnie walking in, "if you wanted to spread your legs and let the soldiers do you raw all you had to do was ask. It was mean of them to keep your mouth too busy for you to tell them how much you appreciated it but it let them go faster and you don't have the time for any more of them to take a turn at you."

Tara's jaw had long since become too numb and bruised to spew all the vitriol she wanted to at them but her middle finger still worked.

Lonnie didn't hesitate as she pulled out a knife and drove it into the palm of Tara's left hand. Around Tara's bitten off curses she spoke, "What a temper. Really it's your last night alive and we gave you the opportunity to give lots of people pleasure and if you'd taken it right you could have had a wonderful night yourself. But I guess someone dumb enough to think our little sister is worth anything would screw that up too."

"I supposed I need to discipline you too," Connie said as she walked up and casually backhanded Tara across an already swollen eye, "It's almost a shame you'll be dead tomorrow. The soldiers were really starting to enjoy you and we'd thought up some other ways to get it through to you that you shouldn't have spied on us. But the Drakanadians really want you dead and I want it enough to not care that much."

Tara still had her right hand but her body had hit its wall and she just law against the wall on her straw pallet as Connie and Lonnie walked out the door laughing. The next morning she was force fed bread and water, no fancy last meal for her, and a Drakanadian healer made her barely capable of walking to her own death. With only one hand Tara had a difficult time getting the remnants of her dress to cover close to as much as they should have but she eventually managed.

At last the door to her cell opened, "Frugal Lucre was responsible for your capture and I will be the one to lead you to your death. You are ready to go?"

Tara was in no way ready to go but dawdling would only encourage Connie and Lonnie to try out their ideas so she nodded him and walked out of her cell. The halls were almost eerily deserted so no one saw just how degraded Tara's condition had become over the last ten days, one small last mercy. Finally they came to a door and Tara followed Frugal Lucre out into the light.

-Rockwall Kingdom-

Ron and Bonnie dashed from the tree line to where the castle wall joined with the city wall. Their Drakanadian horses tied to trees back beyond sight from the walls. The horses Bonnie had brought to Ron's tent had never made it out of the camp once Ron pointed out they'd have enough trouble sneaking themselves through never mind something the size of a horse. The way north had been almost eerily devoid of other people. It was obvious enough that the citizens of the Rockwall Kingdom weren't going anywhere with the Drakanadians sitting on them but Ron was fairly sure that with the Three Kingdoms planning an attack there should have been a stream of Drakanadian soldiers and supplies flowing forward to stop them. Perhaps they were being held in reserve somewhere but where that was Ron couldn't say.

"So," Ron watched as Bonnie swung aside what looked like solid wall but clearly wasn't, "do we have a plan other than burst in there, grab her, and run? You know all while not being caught or killed by the Drakanadians."

"Well," Bonnie looked both ways down the hall before darting in, "if they're using the courtyard I think they will. And it makes sense because it's the only gallows set up in the whole castle. It won't be very crowded, the courtyard is so small that when we do hang someone it's just a royal official, the executioner, condemned, and the family of whoever they killed to wind up there. That hopefully means they're trying to keep this quiet till it's done so there shouldn't be very many guards. We are kind of going to have to grab her and run but hopefully we can use that crossbow you stole to cut down on the number of guards."

"I guess that works but if we burst in there we only get one bolt before the guards are rushing us."

"There's a small tower on the back of the wall, just for observation, but it has a little window that opens towards the courtyard and a ladder that goes down into it. That should let us see where the guards are going and maybe even get off two or three bolts before they realize what's going on. Besides, if they do rush us I know how to use a knife and I don't mind making some Drakanadians need to see their own healers."

Ron quite purposefully didn't respond to that, as they'd moved through the Rockwall Kingdom seeing what months of occupation had done to it had made Bonnie progressively more bloodthirsty and only increased her drive to get revenge on the Drakanadians. Ron wasn't sure what Bonnie's knife could do to someone in full armor or if healing magic could be used to hurt people like his mystical monkey power but he preferred to remain ignorant of both questions.

As they snuck through the empty courtyard and into the tower overlooking it Ron couldn't help voice a thought that ran through his head, "You don't suppose they already did it do you? Like at dawn to keep anyone like us from messing it up."

"They didn't," Bonnie sounded like she was trying to reassure herself as much as him, "If they had there would be a lot more guards everywhere to deal with the public. The people are on the edge of a revolt anyways and this would put them over the top. They haven't done it yet, they haven't."

What seemed like an hour was more like ten to fifteen minutes judging by the way the shadows through the window moved. Then a door opened and a man dressed all in black walked out, Ron grabbed the crossbow and quiver of bolts from the floor but didn't expose himself to take aim just yet. He watched the man in black, likely the executioner move around the courtyard checking various things before walking over to a chest below the tower he and Bonnie were in and emerging a few seconds later with a length of rope.

"Recognize him?" Ron turned to see Bonnie looking over his shoulder.

"No," she said, "I don't think the Drakanadians would trust someone from the Rockwall Kingdom to do this. But then I'm not exactly on a first name basis with the executioners."

"Gotcha," Ron looked back to the courtyard, "at least you were right though. They haven't hung her yet."

Ron took Bonnie's silence as a cue to continue watching. The executioner slowly wound the rope into a noose and tied it to the gallows. Then he checked the mechanism of the trap door and made sure the ground below was clear of obstructions. At the back of his head Ron felt his mystical monkey power start to tingle and he moved into the window to watch a particular door. Before too long it opened and Ron felt the world slow down as he started to tap into his magic. A rather unimpressive Drakanadian soldier in chain mail walked out into the courtyard followed by a blonde girl. Ron didn't need Bonnie's descriptions of her to recognize Tara as he moved the crossbow a hair and squeezed the trigger.

Tara gasped as Frugal Lucre jerked straight and fell sideways with what looked very much like a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest. She watched him hit the ground and decided it was most definitely a crossbow bolt that had brought his life to such an abrupt end. Frantically looking around for the attacker Tara saw someone in the window of the small tower at the wall putting another bolt into the crossbow. The executioner was also looking around but he never saw the second bolt that punched deep into his chest and left him to flop lifeless from the gallows platform onto the ground. Tara had forced herself into a state prepared to be hung with dignity but this had thrown her for such a loop that she felt raw terror as she looked for a place to hide from the mysterious assailant.

"Tara, are you okay?" Tara looked up to see… Bonnie in the window. Surely her sufferings had finally made her crack but if she was about to die hallucinating her best friend wasn't the worst way to go.

"Wait right there, I'll be down in a second." The hallucination Bonnie called out again. Tara was quite sure no such thing was about to happen but she was still alive and she needed to catch her breath before figuring out a way to escape.

Tara watched in a bit of a daze as she imagined Bonnie descending the ladder. She did however begin to have serious doubts about herself when the hallucination grabbed her from the post she had been sitting against into a very tight hug.

"Bonnie, is that really you?" Tara could barely speak as months of emotional exhaustion began to crash down on her.

"It's me," the not hallucination Bonnie said, "we need to get moving in a hurry but let me take a look at you first."

Bonnie's smile disappeared quickly as she looked Tara's condition over, particularly the state of her clothes and the blood-soaked rags covering her left hand. Tara shortly felt the warmth from Bonnie's healing magic on some of her larger cuts that were at particular danger of becoming infected.

"I don't mean to interrupt this," Tara looked up to see the man who had shot Lucre and the executioner, "but we need to go now."

"Hold up Stoppable," Bonnie didn't look away from her work, "If we have to drag Tara to the horses because she can't walk that's not exactly going to speed us up. No one saw us come in so I should have time to patch up the worst."

"Okay," the man, Tara didn't think his actual name was Stoppable, sighed, "but we really need to get out of here before someone…"

"Sees you?" Tara looked over to see the creepy green woman Shego who was always with the Drakanadian emperor, "oh it's too late for that. I admit you got past the outer lookouts and believe me they're going to know they should have seen you by the time I'm done with them. But you really didn't think you could get here without us knowing it did you?"

"Get Tara out of here Bonnie, I'll deal with the scary green lady and catch up."

"Wait," Tara managed to croak out, "she has magic. She can melt stuff and punch through walls."

"Too late!" Shego snarled as she leapt at the blonde man, he quickly drew a blade from his side but to Tara's surprise Shego's hands stopped dead when they met it instead of going right through.

"Oh a Lotus Blade," Shego slid back, "I've always wanted one of those. I'll enjoy taking it from your cold dead body."

While Shego and the Stoppable guy fought around the courtyard Bonnie dragged Tara to her feet and made for a small door that would let them run along the wall to the woods where the horses were waiting.

Just as Bonnie reached for the doorknob the door burst open throwing Bonnie and Tara on to the ground.

"You're coming with me princess," a blonde woman Tara didn't recognize stood over them, "and it's gonna be freaky!"

"Hell I am," Bonnie pulled a knife from her boot and lunged at the woman, "I've come this far and a half-with lackey isn't stopping me!"

The blonde woman let Bonnie crash into her, twisting to avoid the knife, and flashed a needle from her sleeve that she jabbed into Bonnie's arm.

"That's supposed to do something to me? You'll have to do that like a hundred times to bring me down, I hit you once and you're going… down…" Bonnie's eyes drifted shut and she fell to the ground.

"Sorry princess, looks like you're not freaky enough!" The blonde woman grabbed Bonnie and dragged her out the door.

"Stoppable!" Tara dragged herself to her feet, "They've got Bonnie!"

Tara looked back to see Shego and Stoppable standing a few feet apart, "Well it was fun," Shego said, "but that's my cue to leave. Places to go, things to do, and all that sort of stuff. I'm sure the soldiers on their way right now will keep you plenty busy till they kill you."

"Come on," Stoppable ran over to her, "we'll get our horses and catch up. If they're riding two people to a horse we should be able to catch up before too long. My name's Ron by the way."

Tara followed Ron out the door the blonde woman had taken Bonnie through and down the wall. From the noise up there it was clear Drakanadian soldiers were running to their posts, however Ron and Bonnie had avoided notice coming in Tara didn't think it would work going out.

"This isn't good," Ron muttered, "we can't follow Bonnie if we have half the garrison behind us. Not if we want to make it back to safety anyways."

The sound of voices behind them cut off any reply Tara had, several Drakanadian soldiers swarmed out of the door they had just come out of and immediately started after them.

"That settles it," Ron shouted back as they ran into the trees all the while dodging Drakanadian archers, "we've got to lose these guys first then we can try turning around and going after Bonnie, any idea where they might take her?"

"I don't think they want her dead," Tara found it quite difficult to un-tether a horse with only one hand, "the Drakanadians are very interested in people with magic and ever since they found out Bonnie has magic they dropped the talk of wanting to kill her."

"So a school of some kind then?" Ron started his horse south and Tara followed, "Probably in Drakanada itself, that's going to be fun getting to."

"You'll do it though won't you?" Tara all but pled, "I mean you two came this far just to get me, you can't stop now."

"I'll rescue her if I have to ride to the North Pole. But I can't do it dead and if I let you get hurt Bonnie will kill me when I find her."

Tara kept riding in the wrong direction as the sounds of pursuit echoed behind her.

AN: I passed the Bar Exam! I passed the Bar Exam! I passed the Bar Exam! Did I mention I passed this little test I had to sit at the end of July? Okay, so if this chapter is a bit more neurotic than most I barely slept this week stressing out over results being released. I did tell you this story would be heading into darker territory and I believe this is delivering. I kinda feel sorry that Bonnie accomplished so little in this chapter. I've always tried to write her very much not the damsel in distress and look what I go do to her. Anyways, time for the weekly exhortation to vote. Election day in the US is just 3 ½ weeks away so start clearing your calendar to vote. That said come back same time same place next week.