Kim Possible: "The Darkness Without" Pt 25
By Eoraptor
Boring but important legal stuff: Kim Possible and all related characters are property of the Walt Disney Corporation ©2002-2007. Use of the characters here is not for profit and is specifically for the enjoyment of fans of the characters and series. Kim Possible was created by Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley. Redistribution of this text for profit or without the author's consent is prohibited.
More boring but important stuff: This publication is rated by the author as R for violence and adult themes throughout. If you can't handle this type of material or it is illegal where you are located, don't complain to me or the site admin this document is posted on, JUST DON'T READ IT! This work is inspired by a fan artwork by YogurthFrost on Deviant Art. (http://www .deviantart. com/ deviation/50783161/) It is with his permission that I write these pages, and that the characters and situations here are only partly my creation.
Author's Notes:
Now, on with the Story...
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No one had realized it at the time, but Shego had been running on her reserves for over a week. The show for GJE atop the Sears Tower had been fueled entirely by adrenaline and attitude, and even that was in short supply for the verdant villainess. She hadn't been healing while on the tower because all of her energy had been spent patching up the fifty caliber bullet wound in her gut and its little brother in her thigh.
In fact, though Shego hadn't bothered to tell anyone, she'd only just gotten her fire powers back that morning. And pushing them to do things she didn't normally do with them, such as igniting her elbows or her entire forearm, had damned near made Shego pass out.
She'd been able to struggle to her feet after the last time Wraith-Kim had knocked her flat on her back, but only just. She'd stayed on her feet only with the thought of protecting the Princess driving her. When she sat down between Bonnie and Monique aboard the Osprey, the world faded to bottomless black. She didn't even complain bitterly when the flight nurse stitched her leg up without anesthesia. Nor did she particularly complain when Monique rolled her around like so much over-cooked spaghetti, to put a shirt on over her shredded unitard to prevent some of the more lecherous agents from staring at her.
Ron was doing exactly as he was ordered to by Dr James Possible. Even in the tight confines of the back of the Osprey, no one got within three feet of KP without informing him exactly what they intended to do. The ethereal blue glow that had surrounded him, the sign he was drawing on his itinerate monkey magic powers, had faded; but he was still a big and strong young man and no one wanted to pick a fight with him in the tight quarters of the helo-plane.
He also fended off all attempts to give him first aid, despite the trickle of dried blood at his lips and the fact that his erect posture was entirely for show. When Kim had slammed what turned out to be a mechanical arm into his chest with the enchanced strength of her battle armor, she had cracked at least two ribs. Without the monkey power to enhance his strength, Ron was barely able to keep the black spots at the edge of his vision at bay.
Still, he continued to stroke the short strawberry hair of the woman he loved on so many levels, and threatened to disembowel anyone trying to get close to her. He wondered what the consequences of summoning the legendary Lotus Blade into the back of a military helicopter would be.
There was a reason Shego had sat down between Bonnie and Monique before her body had given up the ghost and checked out for a brief vacation. The two were still ready to come to blows over the identity of the redhead in the back of the aircraft, and neither was in shape to do so.
Bonnie was fidgeting and wiggling, despite the fact that some of her honey coloring had faded. She'd lost, despite Monique's best efforts, a lot of blood from one of Norm's throwing-star CDs. One of the flight nurses had attached an IV to her arm to restore some of the lost fluid, and it even contained a hemoglobin substitute, but it wasn't doing much to restore her color.
Still, she showed the same fiery will, and selfishness, that she always had; and if she could get past the languid Shego and the hyper-vigilant Monique, she would have gone back and shown Ron a thing or three about just whose hair he was so tenderly stroking. How dare he lie to everyone about who that was. His girlfriend was dead! He was sick to try to project that onto Sara.
There was the added problem, in Bonnie's plans, of the fact that her left calf wouldn't support any weight, and was only being held together now by a complex compression dressing one of the flight nurses had applied to it. No one was telling her, but none of them liked the ashen appearance of her left foot and ankle. Yet none of this would stop Bonnie.
The instant Shego and/or Monique were outside of grabbing distance, she was going to go get Sara. Sara had saved her ass in London… and she knew that these dicks in blue were going to arrest her as soon as she woke up. This time Sara needed saving. Now if she could just find a place to change into the jumpsuit they had given her to put on under her robe.
Monique glanced back at Bonnie every now and then. She could just tell that damned cheerleader was itching to make a break for the back of the Osprey. She knew she didn't have a lot to worry about, considering that one of the medics had pulled her aside and asked, rather stupidly, if they were related. He must have thought she was mullato or something because of Bonnie's dark skin and the way she and Monique had been nipping at each other like siblings.
He'd asked because he needed to inform someone that Rockwaller was probably going to lose her foot, but that she was too pumped full of the pain killers that they had snuck into her IV to be informed directly. Monique felt a small twinge of sympathy at this. She new Bonnie took some amount of pride in her body, and in her dancing, and having to wear a plastic foot for the rest of her life was going to be a serious blow to both.
Still, the girl was not relenting in her insistence that Kim was actually her lesbian lover Sara. Monique had only seen one abortive embrace between them earlier that morning, but she had to begrudgingly admit that Kim's new short hair certainly lent a little credence to the idea of her as 'the butch.'
Pushing thoughts of the queen bitch aside for the moment; Monique looked back at Ron and felt more than a little torn. She felt like she was falling for the blond; but she now had not one but two challengers at least, for him. With Kim back, she knew she had little chance at all. She wasn't up to competing with nearly twenty years of history. No one was under any denial that Ron was still at least a little in love with Kim all through college, and Mo though Kim probably had a few of the same old feelings for him while she was still around... almost two years ago.
Yet, there was also that scene Norm's machine had shown her… Looked like a damned wedding to Monique's chocolate eyes… even if the woman with Ron wasn't anyone she recognized. So, she had a lot of decisions to make. With Kim back, she was probably out of a job too, even if the Ninja suit hadn't been destroyed. Looked like sabbatical at Club Banana was coming to an end.
The redheaded woman lying on a stretcher in the back of the Osprey, her head half in Ron Stoppable's lap, didn't move in the slightest. She didn't react to the caresses in her hair, or the IV needle being pressed into her surviving arm. Her face was still and unemotional in the extreme.
In fact, the only thing to indicate she was alive at all was the slow rise and fall of her chest now that the armor plating had been removed from most of her battered body. The woman who had been Kim Possible, teen hero; and who had been Sara Smith, thief par excellence, simply existed for now.
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Four days had passed fairly quietly for the three people Global Justice Enforcement was referring to as 'Unique Possibilities.' Ron had never actually heard the name of Monique's website before, but he found he liked it. It was equal parts homage and originality, just something he'd expect from his fashion plate friend.
The three of them had been patched up in good order, despite Shego's vociferous complaining at the hospital gowns they all were forced to wear the first three days. Finally about the fourth day, when the Possible's, and Wade and his partner were given clearences, they brought the heroes some clothes; although Shego wasn't thrilled by their choice of a black blouse and a maroon skirt for her. She felt like a christmas tree all in red and green.
Ron's chest was bound up in a new kind of immobilizer that allowed him to stand and walk without trouble, yet completely froze his aggrieved ribs in place to allow them to knit. A few steri-strips covered the deeper cuts on his cheeks where CD-R shrapnel had gashed his already faintly pock-marked face, but he was doing remarkably well under the circumstances. He seemed to be acting as the unofficial liaison for the three to Director Du, since Susan Justice was still cleaning up the public relations nightmare in Chicago.
Shego, who's medical peculiarities were also known to Global Justice, had merely been given massive amounts of high-calorie food and vitamins along with lots of water and juice, and allowed to heal on her own; subject to checkups every few hours of course. The 'checkups' of course were actually a thinly veiled excuse to make sure she didn't decide to leave the hospital; considering she still had a few outstanding warrants which were awaiting her full recovery to be dealt with.
Monique, having been fairly well off after the row on the tower, merely needed a few small stitches on her arm and thigh where Norm's clipboards had grazed her,and the mechanical drafint pencil-cum-dagger had peirced the meat of her leg. She, therefore, objected even more strenuously than Shego at having to wander the top secret hospital facility in a gown for three days. She vowed to anyone who would listen that the first thing she was doing when she got back to Middleton was designing an entirely new style of hospital gown that didn't require her to wear two to be well covered.
Bonnie… now she was another story entirely. She'd lost a good amount of blood, and couldn't stand up without a serious wave of vertigo. This put her into an even fouler mood because while Ron, Monique, and Shego were given regular access to the still slumbering woman they'd rescued, Bonnie was bed-ridden; and had her lacerated calf held high in the air for all to see. She took very little comfort in the fact that they'd managed to save her foot, because if they'd taken it off she might have been able to use a wheel chair to go see Sara. Maybe her little fox could even hook her up with a nuclear powered foot when she woke up.
With each passing hour that she was withheld from Sara's side, Bonnie's mood grew darker and more petulant. She steadfastly refused to 'squeel' on the redhead, knowing that she wanted nothing to do with helping them arrest the woman she was falling for. It didn't matter though. She realized the more that they asked her questions, the less she new about the armored theif.
True to their word, the Dr's Possible, along with Wade, Vivian, and J and T Possible, had been there within fourty-five minutes of Unique Possibilities' own arrival at the secret hospital. They were allowed to see the woman lying unconscious in the high security wing for a few minutes, before being escorted out. It would take several days to get them security clearance to wander the building since they weren't patients.
James Possible called from their hotel room that night to thank Ron for making sure 'his kimmie-cub' had made it safely from Chicago to the top-secret medical facility somewhere in Ohio. He told the young man not to worry about being shot into a black hole, and to get some sleep.
Anne Possible spent her night calling in every favor she had and getting a hold of every one of the families medical records, in addition to quietly enquiring for help from her old staff. She was under strict orders not to tell them what they were being called in for; and decided for the moment that playing by Director Du's rules would work. She didn't like it one bit, but the man had a point. Kim still had a lot of enemies, and the longer they thought she was dead, the better off she'd be in recovery.
Late in the afternoon of the forth day, when they had finally been given fresh clothes by the Possibles; Monique, Ron, and Shego were led to a large conference room. It was a video conference room, and several friendly faces stared out from various monitors. Ron recognized Professor Acari and Cyrus Botrel, and several of the other faces seemed familiar to him from Team Possible's past missions. It had to be a large conference center, since it was already physically occupied by Will Du, Susan Justice, the six member neurosurgery unit of Middleton General Hospital, Anne Possible, James Possible, J and T Possible, Wade Loade, Vivian Frances Porter; and a blue face that made the two heroes blink in surprise, and caused Shego to faint dead away.
Dr. Drew Theodore P. "Drakken" Lipsky was still confined to a wheel chair, and eighteen months in a coma had left him extremely frail; but his beady black eyes shined as keenly as always, perhaps as insanely as always too. He rubbed his unusually small hands together, which were currently lacking their trademark black rubber gloves, and watched as his former bodyguard was hauled to her feet and given a whiff of smelling salts.
"mrrph, snrtt… meh… Lemons squares!" Shego's eyes snapped open in shock at the bitter scents being wafted beneath her nose, and looked around dizzily. "Shit! I'm awake, what did I miss?"
Her eyes finally moved back to the sight that had sent her sprawling, and she swallowed hard. "Hi… Dr… D…"
"Hello Shego… Glad to see the years have been kind to you." Drakken's voice was cold and haughty; and when he said the years had been kind to Shego, he was indicating the still fading claw marks on her arms and legs where the skirt set she'd been given bared her limbs.
Will Du allowed a very brief moment to pass, and then cleared his throat. "You two can speak privately later if you like. For now we're here to deal with the matters at hand. Shego, sit down please."
It wasn't a request. Shego was still a bit uncertain of her footing, so she reluctantly complied. She looked around and noticed that the fourth member of their impromptu little circle was absent. "Where's that cheerleader girl? What'ser name?"
"Miss Rockwaller won't be joining us. In the morning she's being flown back to London to continue her treatment and rehabilitation. Her involvement in this is over for the moment, as she refuses to cooperate with us." It was Susan Justice, the cool young blonde woman who had led the assault on Sears Tower, who was speaking now.
Ron and Monique exchanged glances. They wondered what the extent of her 'lack of cooperation' was. Either she was refusing to tell what she knew about Kim's activities over the last few months… or worse in their eyes, she was still claiming that the woman laying in the security ward wasn't Kim at all.
Director Du broke them from the unspoken conversation as he called for a formal start to this meeting. "Firstly, thank you all for being here, either in person or by electronic means. We'll begin by reviewing the last few days' events. For those of you here for your medical expertise, please bare with me, this won't yet involve you yet."
"Four days ago," Du began as he looked about the faces of the young heroes and his second in command, "A rouge element within Global Justice attempted to carry out what we are terming an act of scientific terrorism. The target was the Sears Tower in Chicago."
Du went on with his unnecessarily wordy recap of the events for a good fifteen minutes before he'd even gotten to the Vortex machine's explosion. Drakken raised his frail hand to speak; and Du, sighing with irritation, acknowledged him. "Yes Dr. Lipsky?"
"You mean to tell me that you set me up all that time ago? And built an illegal copy of my intellectual property?!" His voice, the young heroes noted, had lost none of its whiney quality during his long slumber.
Will Du bit back an angry retort, taking a very deep breath. Finally he began again just as it seemed Drakken was about to renew his protests. "Dr. Lipsky,"
"Drakken"
"Fine. Dr. Drakken. I'll thank you not to repeat those allegations in this meeting. They are highly classified, and at this time not everyone here has clearance to be briefed as to their nature. I'll speak with you privately on the matter later. May I continue?"
"Gnnn… Ermmmm… Grrrr… Fine fine, yes go on."
Shego looked on in surprise. Director Du had done in a few words what usually took her three of four plasma blasts back in the day. He'd shut down one of Drakken's infamous rants. Either the blue man was slipping, or she'd need to give this weasely little director a bit more thought.
Finally Will concluded his treatise on the events atop Sears Tower and looked around. "What you all have just heard is the truth. The public is, however, being told that this was all principle photography for a major motion picture. It is to prevent the kinds of panic seen in America following 9/11 and the first Sears Tower Detonation. If any of you speaks of this beyond this room, you will be subject to immediate arrest under the provisions of the SSCA. Understood?"
A few reluctant nods were given by those who didn't already know what was going on.
"Now, on to the second issue at hand. You all know that the woman pulled off of the tower by Unique Possibilities goes by the name of The Green Wraith, or Sara Smith. Ladies and Gentlemen, brace yourselves. It is our belief that this woman is actually Kimberly Anne Possible." Will watched the people in the conference room and on the monitors as they exchanged meaningful murmurs and glances amongst one another. Finally he held up his hand.
"The specifics, as Dr Drakken alluded to earlier, are still highly classified. At the moment, she is in some sort of coma. It would appear that a combination of brain damage and psychological trauma caused Miss Possible to assume the identity she has been traveling under for at least the past seven months, and perhaps longer. We are still tracking down information on the specifics of how she survived the Detonation eighteen months ago."
Again came the murmurs. Then Drakken gave a triumphant shout, despite his deteriorated condition. "So Kim Possible… You thought you were all that… but I guess you- Hrrrk!"
Now most people would have assumed it would be Shego who would silence Drakken's rant, given her years-long quest for Kim's personal vengeance. Not to mention her intense loathing for the cerulean scientist's rants.
Those who wouldn't have guessed Shego would have laid their money on it being Ron who would wrap his fingers around the blue man's throat to choke off his taunt. They too would have been out a few bucks.
No, Dr. James Possible was the last person anyone would have assumed would be manhandling Drakken and practically lifting him out of the wheel-chair. Agent Justice quickly covered the edge of the table and moved to pull the rocket scientist off of Drakken, even as James tried to get back at him. "Drew Lipsky you sick twisted little man! That's my Kimmie Cub you're talking about!"
"James!" Anne gasped at her husband's outburst and rushed to his side, wanting to protect him from himself it seemed.
"Whoa… I like Kimmie's dad a lot better this way." Shego smirked and whispered quietly to an awestruck Monique.
Ron, like Monique, wasn't exactly sure what to make of Mr. Dr. P's outburst, so he sat back and held his tongue. Apparently threats of being sent into deep space might be more than idle.
Finally, when it seemed that some sort of order had been restored, Will took a deep breath and began again. "Now… if we could please complete this meeting without any further interruptions? Just like the actual events on Sears Tower, the official whereabouts of Kim Possible are still different from the reality. And just as deeply classified for the time being."
Again a few reluctant nods of ascent were had from the neurosurgery team and the teleconferencing scientists.
"Good. Now, the reason the rest of you are hear is simple. Kim Possible has saved this planet, this nation, and each of you personally, several times over. Each of you are experts in your given field, or know Kim's medical history intimately. Do you understand what we're asking of you?"
They all looked from one to another, mutually deciding that they did indeed know what was being asked. It was just a matter of picking a representative to speak collectively for them. Finally, Dr Cyrus Bortel spoke up in his soft voice with its non-descript german accent. "You vant us to restore Kim Possible to good mental and physical health, no?"
Anne Possible, her belly so distended with her unborn daughter it seemed as though it would burst before the assembled group, stood up. "We want you to move Heaven and Earth to get our Kimmie back."
Given that the population of the room currently included, either physically or virtually; Four members of the Possible clan, a rocket scientist, twin mechanical geniuses, a legendary computer hacker, an entomologist/chemist, a robotacist, six neurosurgeons, an astro-biologist, a very pregnant neuro-biologist, the director of Middleton Space Center, and of Middleton General Hospital, two mad scientists with experience in multiple fields, the head of Global Justice Enforcement and his second in command, a fashion designer turned detective, one of the most feared mercenaries on the planet, and a young man with mystical monkey power…
Well... Moving the Heavens and the Earth was actually well within the range of possibilities.
Will concluded the meeting, "Spare no expense, people. Kimberly Possible deserves nothing less."
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A week had passed, and things were slowly falling into place. Well, slowly was subjective. To Anne Possible it was interminably slow. In reality the group assembled to restore her daughter completely from her subjective death was moving incredibly smoothly and efficiently.
A set of complex surgical procedures were already scheduled on the comatose young woman who had most recently claimed to be an international jewel thief. Following those the really cutting edge work would begin. That was where Dr's Drakken and Bortel, and the twins, and Wade would be really key. Professor Acari already was providing some remarkable anti-coagulant based on Amazonian spider venom to prevent aneurysms and strokes.
Anne sat at the desk which had been set up for her her in the office of the Global Justice Enforcement hospital, and went over the most recent MRI's of 'Sara Smith' from last June. She compared them yet again to the most recent brain scans of 'Kimberly Anne Possible' of two years ago. Those were in turn compared to a third set marked simply as Jane Doe #1, as the young woman in the bed next door was being officially referred to.
There was a knock at the office door and she didn't look up as she poured over the scans, "Come in."
"Anne… Its good to see you in the flesh again. How's baby Stan doing?"
"Baby Sta-?" Dr Possible looked up and smiled in recognition. "Stan. Stan Oblongotta you old skull cracker. I understood Global had you on retainer, but did they actually fly you out to help?"
Stan's smile quickly faded at that, and after a moment, Anne's followed suit.
"No… I came out on my own when Jamie Amygda called me about some of Sara Smith's files. Anne… you realize you can't do what you're proposing, right?" He was giving her a very serious, perhaps even grave look, across her loaned desk.
"Well, I'll admit there's some major risks… but with the team we've got I don't think-,"
"That's not what I mean Anne. It's completely unethical."
Anne stared up at him as though he had begun speaking in an obscure dialect of Norwegian. "W-what do you mean unethical?"
"That woman in there is not your daughter, Anne. Kim died that night in Chicago. Everything I have read about Sara's case indicates she's a completely separate individual."
"The finger prints? The retinal scan? The crescent shaped birthmark on her… Those all belong to Kim, Stan." Anne tried to keep her breathing calm. Stan was just a little too invested in this case, it seemed, to let go. That was all this was… professional over-concern.
"The DNA… the Brain Scans and EKG's… Those all belong to Sara Smith." He took a deep breath, running a hand through his hair. "Anne. The woman in there is not even Kim Possible under the definition of the law. Her DNA is different, which is the court prescribed method for forensically establishing identity."
"Then the Law is behind the times, Stan." Her eyes narrowed and she couldn't keep the sound of betrayal from her voice completely.
"Anne, stop this. You're not that woman's guardian. You have no right to be performing incredibly invasive brain surgery on her unless her life is in imminent danger, which it's obviously not. It's ethically unsound and morally reprehensible. Sara Smith is who that woman is, and you have no right to change her mind, literally. What you're proposing is nothing short of psychological murder."
Dr. Possible couldn't argue his reasoning. His argument was sound; and it was based on established guidelines and medical principles. So she did the one thing she could do in this situation. She slowly lifted her ponderous belly out of the chair, walked carefully around her desk, and slapped Stan Oblongotta across the face.
"That is my daughter in that bed. I don't care what you, or the president of the AMA, or God All Mighty care to say otherwise. You want to bring me up on ethics charges? Have my medical license stripped? Fine… do whatever the hell you want after the surgery. I'm getting my little girl back Stan."
Reaching for the intercom, she called in the best person in the building to take care of her current problem. "Shego… Doctor Oblongotta would like you to show him to his car, could you come up here and help him?"
"Sure thing Anne. Be right there."
Stan glared at her. He turned to show himself out before the foul tempered mercenary could show up to 'escort' him. "Anne, have you even considered that if you do this, the woman who wakes up may not be Sara or Kimberly? If she wakes up at all?"
Stan opened the door to step out of the suddenly icy office, and was greeted by the woman he had hoped to avoid. She blocked the door frame completely, and looked passed him to Dr Possible. "This guy bothering you boss?"
"You have no idea Shego…" Anne suddenly sounded about a decade older, if not more. She decided though, that maybe all the expressing of anger and bad feelings that James and Shego and even Ron had been indulging in recently might be just what she needed. She looked up, and tried to muster the most malicious glance she could.
"Do you know what Dr Oblongotta's medical opinion is Shego?"
She eyed the slightly balding brain man and then looked back to Kim's Mother. "Not a clue Anne, I'm just the hired muscle round here. But please, enlighten me?"
"He says that we have no right to bring Kim back. He says that Sara Smith is the rightful owner of that body sleeping in the next room." Anne's darkly teasing glance had been forced at first, but as she took in the sudden predatory glint in the mercenary's eyes, her smile began to grow and become a bit more legitimate.
"Oh does he now? Well Doctor Oblongotta… I'm not a Ph. D. in anything other than ass kicking and name taking… but I do think I know that the girl who owned that body for twenty two years has a lot more claim to it that the dyke who had it for eighteen months." Shego eyed the doctor now with a dangerous smile and reached out, resting a hand on his shoulder in an entirely unfriendly manner.
Dr. Possible winced at Shego's language, especially the 'D' word. Yet she didn't bother to intervene on Stan's behalf. He had more or less threatened her family. And that was a dangerous mistake to make any day… but especially today. Threatening to deny her her own daughter was not a smart move on the neurosurgeon's part.
"Shego, why don't you explain our position on the matter to Dr. Oblongotta on your way to the car…" She scowled at the former friend, who seemed to be more than a little apprehensive at leaving in the company of the jade woman. "And make sure to use small words, like you did with Drew. I want to be sure he understands our perspective on the matter."
Stan understood the reference. Everyone who had met Drew Lipsky in the last few days knew just who had left him in his wretched state. He was suddenly very thankful when a pair of GJE orderlies came down the hallway. He bolted right past the malachite muscle and moved behind them. "Gentlemen, I seem to have lost my way. Could you please direct me to the parking garage?"
Shego smirked slightly, "That be all boss?"
Anne sighed softly and nodded. She didn't want to admit it, but it felt good to tell Stan off and let Shego scare him witless. Maybe this was what the hospital's grief counselor had called 'venting.'
She flopped heavily back into her borrowed office chair and sighed. She was loathed to admit it, but Stan was right. If the woman in the next room woke up at all following the procedures, there was a decent chance she wouldn't be either Kim or Sara.
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(okay, so I promised this was the end, but it looks like maybe two additional chapters. I didn't expect Anne's ethical dilemma to take up so much of the chapter. )