A shout out to the 'Life Where I'm From' youtube channel. Hosted by Aiko, the videos '12 Reasons Why Japanese Bathrooms Are the Best!' and 'Doing Laundry in Japan' proved to be both charming and invaluable to the writing of this chapter.

Thanks to MrDrP and gerbilHunter for their reviews! Thanks also to MrDrP for beta reading this chapter on such short notice—Karin is making you one of her special miso soups!

Thanks to everyone for reading!


I.

Kim had been both shocked and relieved when Ron decided to forego his bath.

She had been weighing her options as to the best way to spend the next two hours of her time when he burst through the bathroom door, his clothes sticking to still-damp patches of his body. To her questioning looks, he would only answer with a 'zip-the-lip' gesture. After twisting on his shoes, he gave her a good-bye kiss, called "See ya, soon" over his shoulder, and disappeared behind the closing front door. Ten seconds later, he came back, gathered his wallet, the Roncom, and Rufus, and, without bothering to put any of these in his cargo pockets, was gone again. Whatever the surprise was, Ron was certainly bringing his 'A game' to seeing it through.

As she sat in the bathroom and rinsed herself clean with the shower head, Kim was still reflecting on how fortunate Ron's decision to only take a shower had been. As much as she loved him, nothing tweaked her more than his ability to spend an entire afternoon in the tub. Unlike baths in America, Japanese baths were temperature-controlled. The water never got cold; it would remain at a toasty temperature for as long as the occupant wanted. This luxury feature combined with a marinating-inclined personality spelled trouble for anyone waiting in line behind him. Twice, he had literally fallen asleep in the tub. Both times she had roused him by severely lowering the bath water's temperature from the control panel in the kitchen. Apart from the nodding off, she really couldn't blame him. Taking long, leisurely, stress-reducing baths was one of Kim's favorite things about living in Japan.

She rolled the cover off the tub and tested the warmth of the water.

Perfect.

Considering the stress of the past few weeks, Kim had every intention of making this the day when she would beat Ron's all-time record. Maybe even take a short nap.

Bee-be-be-beep. Although the Kimmunicator was lying on the arm of the couch in the other room, the bathroom door was slightly ajar, and her device's tones echoed at a surprisingly high volume against the tiles.

"Of course!" she cried. She hastily rolled the cover back over the tub, quickly wrapped a towel around her body, and raced to the couch.

She pressed the display, and Wade's hologram appeared.

"Bad time?" he asked.

"No, not really," she sighed. She sat on the couch's arm and adjusted the wet tangle of her hair, so that it wouldn't drip (too much) on her friend's upholstery.

"Well, I finished the tests on the flute," Wade began.

"Spankin'!" Kim brightened. "What did you find out?"

"Not much," Wade pronounced casually. "It's completely normal."

"Oh." Kim didn't put much effort in disguising her disappointment.

Wade went back to nonchalantly typing on one of his many keyboards. "Oh!" he said raising an eyebrow. "There was one tiny thing that seemed odd about it."

"Really," Kim asked somewhat indifferently. "What was that?"

"It's not composed of any known element from this planet," he deadpanned.

After a few seconds of silence, Kim chuckled. And then she began to laugh in earnest. In fact, she laughed so hard, that she found herself wiping tears from both eyes. "Oh, Wade, I love you so much," she managed finally.

When she looked back at his hologram, he was wearing a strange expression.

Is something wrong?

He didn't say anything for what seemed a very long time, and Kim began to feel very awkward. Finally, he found his voice. "So, I was going to do another quick test or two and then get this to you as soon as I can. Okay, Kim?"

"Yeah, sure," she nodded. "Is everything okay, Wade?"

"Of course, great," he smiled. "Talk to you later." He ended the call.

Was it because I said I loved him? Surely, he knows I do. Of course, I love Wade. He's one of my best friends. He's saved my life and Ron's dozens of times. But … have I ever said those words to him?

She remained in this troubled state of mind as she reclined into the warm waters of the bath. She hoped her words hadn't somehow upset Wade. Unbidden, a thought occurred to her that Wade might have been carrying a secret torch for her all these years. She quickly dismissed it. It was big-heady bordering on arrogant; besides, his reaction had seemed … well, he had seemed depressed. She vowed to have a heart-to-heart with him the next time they spoke. Whatever the sitch was, it needed to be discussed.

However, even after settling on this game plan, Kim found that she couldn't fully relax. Something else, just below the surface of her thoughts, was keeping her in a restless mood. She adjusted her position in the bath to get more comfortable. As she did so, her right knee broke the surface of the water. She spotted the small shaving scar she had given herself the Saturday morning after she and Ron had become a couple. The reason she was shaving her legs on a Saturday in the first place was due to the odd anxiety she had developed at the time. For the first few days after Junior Prom, she had started obsessing over being 'perfect' for Ron. This obsession had reached its crescendo when she had carelessly dragged a razor over her knee. At the time she had worried the scar might last a few weeks; four years later, it was still visible. But that so didn't matter. 'Perfect' had stopped mattering once she realized that Ron loved her for her—and that included her imperfections.

"Of course," she sat up in the tub.

It was so obvious. Although she had embraced her physical imperfections that week in the spring of Junior year, she still hadn't accepted her emotional ones. She still felt compelled to hide them from Ron. Like being frightened these past few weeks. She now knew exactly what she needed to tell him and how to say it. Ironically, Kim found that she both wanted Ron to be with her right that minute and for him to take as much time as he needed to prepare her 'surprise.' Now that she was fully at ease, she wanted to enjoy the rest of her bath for as long as she could.

II.

The Doctor had just finished whispering the last of his instructions to Rufus when he thought he heard Zoe's voice.

"Off you go," he told the mole-rat, who dutifully scampered down his arm and leaped onto the stationary claw of the Yeti.

He felt compelled to stand to have a better view of the vault's antechamber but thought better of it. Getting up would certainly animate the Yeti. Only by keeping perfectly still could the plan proceed as designed.

"Ow! You're hurting me!" Zoe's voice cried in the near distance.

"What are you doing, Mr. Paisley?" Kim's pained voice asked.

"What's going on out there?" the Doctor demanded as he jumped to his feet. Plan or no plan, he couldn't sit still while his friends were in trouble. The robot growled and stood accordingly. The Doctor ignored this bluster and stood on his tiptoes in order to see over its shoulder. When this didn't work, he crouched down to get a better view from beneath the robot's hairy armpit.

An extremely short, improbably round man was dragging his two friends toward the vault.

"I say!" the Doctor cried. "What is the meaning of this? I order you to let them go!"

"Ahh, Doctor," a harsh, raspy voice emanating from the small man pronounced. "So, fate has decreed that we should meet again."

If he had time to reflect on all the particulars of the situation, the Doctor might have been amused by the Great Intelligence's choice of such a less-than-formidable host. The banality of his adversary's stratagem would have also received well-earned derision. This was the exact same ploy the Intelligence had use in the London Underground when it possessed Prof. Travers to take poor Victoria captive. However, at the moment the Doctor was far too alarmed by what was transpiring to make such observations. The possessed Mr. Paisley was walking himself and Zoe and Kim into a deadly trap. Within just a few steps, the trio would be standing within the expanse of the laser grid. With no way to communicate with Jamie and Ron, the Doctor had to assume the grid could come on at any second.

"Stay back!" the Doctor commanded. "I'm warning you. I have … uh … I have a blaster in here!"

"A blaster?" the raspy voice asked suspiciously.

"Yes, and I'm not afraid to use it, either. So, stay back!"

After a brief silence, grating laughter echoed along the walls of the vault's large antechamber. "You are in no position to threaten me, Doctor. I set the terms here." Mr. Paisley dragged his captives across the threshold of the laser grid.


"Oh, no," Jamie cried as he stared into the monitor overlooking the antechamber. "That little guy has pulled them onto the grid. We can't fire it up now!"

Ron seemed not to hear as he was too busy flipping switches and twisting knobs on the panic room's various control panels.

"Stop, lad!" Jamie grabbed him by the shoulders. "You're gonna fry Zoe and Kim!"

"Nuh-uh," Ron assured him. "I'm just trying to turn on the speakers, so we can talk to them."

"But you don't know which button turns on the laser grid," Jamie objected.

"Yeah, I do," Ron nodded. "It's that one, dude," he pointed to a big red button in the center of the middle console. Right above it, someone had adhered a fat strip of white duct tape and helpfully scrawled upon it in red marker: "WARNING! LASER GRID BUTTON! ;- (".

"Oh, aye," Jamie said. "So, what turns on the speakers?"

"No idea," Ron shrugged, "better mess with everything."


"M-Mr. Paisley," Kim pleaded as she tried to wrench her wrist from his cruel grip. "I know you d-don't won't to hurt us."

He, or whoever was controlling his body, aggressively ignored her. "Hear me, Doctor! No harm will come to these children, so long as you do exactly as I command!"

Ok. Fine.

"First, you will provide me with—"

Here, the Intelligence's speech was cut short as Kim roundhouse kicked Mr. Paisley's stomach. On reflex, he released Zoe's hand, and the teen-aged mathematician found herself on her backside. Seeing that Kim was still in the possessed man's clutches, she swept her leg under his tiny feet, sending him face first onto the floor.

Unfortunately, this only made him angrier, and he maintained his iron grip on Kim's right hand. As he stood back up, he fixed her with a fierce, bottomless stare. Although the Intelligence had intended to cow her into submission with this look, it merely rid Kim of any guilt she might have harbored for what she was about to do.

She shifted her center of gravity and using all her strength and his own weight against him, she flipped the Paisley/Intelligence over her head. He hit the floor hard, releasing her hand as he did so, and rolled off the grid into a potted plant.

"Good show, Kim!" the Doctor cheered from behind the Yeti. "Now, you two need to get off—"

"Girl!" the Intelligence howled from his place on the floor. His voice swallowed up the room. "You will regret that!"

Suddenly, the Yeti turned from the Doctor and began running full tilt toward Kim, raising its gun as it approached.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Zoe cried as she threw one of her shoes at the robot's armed claw. Missing the gun, she scored a hit on the monster's shoulder that proved enough to throw off his charge. Kim zagged to the left and Zoe zipped to the right. For a moment the Yeti was confused as to whom to chase. A smack to the back of the head freed it from its momentary indecision.

Bending down to remove his other shoe, the Doctor chided, "Pick on someone your own size!"

The Yeti spun around, turning the full blast of its crimson eyes upon him.

"Oh … dear," he muttered, raising his hands as he backed away.

"Look out, Doctor!" Zoe cried.

"This way," Kim urged, gesturing for him to follow her.

A terrible ear-scraping noise broke across the room, causing everyone—including the Paisley/Intelligence, to cover their ears. His master distracted, the Yeti froze in place.

"Yeah," Ron's voice echoed through the hall, "hold this down, and you can talk … I think."

"Doctor," Jamie's voice blared through the unseen speakers, "are you ready to stop fooling around, so we can take care of this boyo for you?"

"Kim! Zoe!" the Doctor hollered, "Get to the corners quickly!" As he turned to run back to the vault, he muttered, "'Fooling around?' What a nerve!"

Recovered, the Paisley/Intelligence turned his attention to the fleeing figure of Kim, the person who had ruined his latest gambit to defeat the Doctor. The Yeti chased after her, aiming its weapon with deadly precision.

"Run, KP! Run!" Ron's voice urged over the sound system.

Not entirely sure what she needed to do, Kim attempted a triple handspring—the move she knew would cover the most ground quickly. As she reached the end of the second handspring, she heard a sudden 'zap' that caused her to lose her concentration. She slipped and skidded on her side into a corner of the room.

When her vision cleared, the Yeti was not ten feet behind her, trapped within the beams of the laser grid. Smoke began to pour from several points on its body, its eyes died one at a time, and then it collapsed into piles of dust and smoldering fur. For several moments all she could hear was the faint buzzing of the beams, and then the grid switched off.

"Zoe! Kim! Are you both all right?" the Doctor called, staggering across the grid in one shoe.

"I'm fine, Doctor," Zoe said as she pushed her way free from a cluster of chairs on the edge of the grid. "A little bruised, but otherwise fine."

"I'm okay," Kim called as she stood up. "Ow!" She felt a sharp pain on her left hip. However, before she could examine it, she was swallowed in a fierce hug.

"KP, are you all right?!" Ron gasped out of breath. "I was so worried!"

"Yes, Ron," Kim said patting his back gently. "I think I'm fine." Since she was still in his tight embrace, it wasn't an easy task to determine the source of her pain, but she managed. She laughed, "I think I just landed on the flashlight funny."

"Oh, cool," he laughed.

He was still hugging her, and it was beginning to make her feel a little awkward. The feeling was compounded when she noticed that Zoe was staring at them with a peculiar smile on her face.

Before she could ask Ron to let her go, a high-pitched beeping filled the room. Its tone was so painful that everyone reflexively held their ears. It was coming from one of the larger heaps of smoldering fur. From the middle of the pile, a silver sphere slowly rose into the air.

"Doctor, do you think you can defeat me so easily?" Although the raspy voice of the Great Intelligence still emanated considerable menace, the effect was somewhat undercut because its source was still laying upside down, his small feet resting on a potted plant. "The control sphere is undamaged. Your primitive technology cannot pierce its defenses. It is only a matter … a matter …"

During the Intelligence's last few pronouncements, the sphere had begun to smoke. After he had ceased speaking, it started to spark. Finally, it crashed to floor.

"What happened?" Kim asked.

The Doctor beamed and ran to the fallen orb. "Well, the Intelligence is correct. These control spheres are virtually impenetrable," he picked it up and began to turn it over in his hands. "Conventional weapons, including lasers, cannot harm it. Ah-hah!" He pointed to a small hole near the thin seam that bisected the sphere into two. The hole looked like it had been chiseled … or nibbled. "Fortunately, we had unconventional means at our disposal."

"What are you on about now?" Jamie asked from the doorway.

"I was wondering when you were going to show," the Doctor muttered. "Here, give me a hand with this, Jamie."

The two fumbled with the sphere for a minute before it came apart in two equal halves. Inside was a tangle of wires and what, to Kim, appeared to be an old-school computer board. The tangle of wires began to move of its own accord, and the highlander jumped back in alarm.

"Really, Jamie," the Doctor shook his head in disapproval. "I thought you would have gotten use to Rufus by now." The little pink blob jumped from the mess of wires into the Doctor's waiting hand. The Doctor then carefully handed the naked mole-rat back to his human.

"Can anyone tell me where I am?" a small voice from the potted plant asked plaintively. "I'm afraid I've lost my glasses."

III.

Kim didn't even last an hour in the tub before she started feeling bad about all the productive things she could have been doing with her time. Although she firmly believed she could outlast her best friend boyfriend in a one-on-one soaking contest, she knew that relaxation wasn't worth the effort once you started feeling guilty about it.

After toweling off, she quickly identified the first task she needed to address: laundry. It was already mid-afternoon, and she hadn't even begun a load on what, essentially, was laundry day. She filled the washer with a light-colored wash, connected the attachment hose to the machine's top and then placed the hose's suction end into the tub water. Just before she started the machine, she thought she heard something from the main room.

Oh no!

She ran out into the living room and saw that all the windows were being pelted with rain.

"It was supposed to be a nice day!" She raced to the apartment's small balcony, flung open the slider, and hurriedly gathered Michele's clothes inside. They weren't soaked, but they were wet enough. "Great."

Kim broke out the apartment's vast arsenal of indoor hangers. She rehung her roommate's laundry in the doorways of both their rooms. She also set up the mobile hanger stations in opposite corners of the living room to be ready for Ron and her clothes. One thing she missed from America were clothes dryers. Although naturally dried clothes had a certain appeal, especially when they had been hung outside, laundry became exponentially more of a hassle in Japan whenever it rained.

Unfortunately, the only matching outfit she had that was both clean and dry was a spare mission outfit. She weighed the option of just lounging about in her robe but remembered that she was expecting company. Captain Jack said he would be over that evening but there was no telling when he might arrive. Also, Wade was sending the recorder over by courier.

Where is Ron?

It was already after three and he still wasn't back. She thought about texting him but changed her mind. Instead, she started studying for an upcoming exam. A half hour later she gave up. Something was still making her anxious.

"It's not just because you're alone is it, Possible?" she snarked. However, the way her words sounded as they echoed in the empty rooms only made her feel lonely. Even Rufus' snores would have been good company right about then.

Then she heard a key in the front door.

"Are you guys decent?" Michelle laughed as she pushed the door open with her shoulder.

"Hey!" Kim said, springing to help her roommate with her backpack and purse. "How was class?"

The oddness of Kim's gesture was not lost on her roommate. "Is everything okay?" she eyed Kim suspiciously. "Has Ron not come back yet?"

"No, he hasn't," Kim admitted. "Hey, how did you-?

"He texted me two hours ago about … your surprise. Asked me if I needed anything. Strange, he isn't back yet."

"And what did he say about the surprise?" Kim asked.

"Forget it, Kim," Michelle shook her head as she headed to the fridge. "Not gonna happen."

Kim sat back down on the couch. A few seconds later, she asked "What if I played a round of DDR against 'uncanny-valley me'?"

Michelle's one guilty obsession was the video game Dance Dance Revolution. During their sophomore year, Ron had given Michelle a pirated version of the game from South Korea that contained unlicensed likenesses of celebrities that the player could dance against. Unbeknownst to Ron, one of these illegal likenesses was of his best friend girlfriend. When Michelle made the discovery, she had begged Kim to dance against herself. Kim, however, was genuinely horrified by her avatar. Not only did she refuse the offer, she even refused to be in the room when Michelle was playing the game—in case she caught a glimpse of her digital doppelganger on a splash screen.

"Ooooooh," Michelle cried. "You are so cruel!" She munched on a cold pancake from the fridge as she considered the offer. "No," she sighed finally. "Not gonna happen."

The next few hours flew by. With Michelle in the apartment, Kim found that her anxiety level had dropped down to near zero. She was able to make headway with studying and took actual enjoyment out of hanging up the new loads of laundry. Of course, 'near zero' is not the same as 'zero'—Ron had been gone an awfully long time. Just as she was about to send him a text, there was a knock at the door.

"I got it," Michelle called.

Kim kneeled back down on the floor and continued hanging shirts.

"Kim, you have a visitor."

Although it was not quite evening, Kim stood fully expecting to see Captain Jack Harkness. But it was Wade Load who she discovered standing in the living room.

"Wade?"

"Hey, Kim," he gave her a small smile. She noticed that he was holding the Doctor's recorder.

"How did—" she began.

"I borrowed your dad's mini-Kepler," he explained. "I told him I had something you needed ASAP."

She was just about to say that he didn't need to bring it himself, when he turned to Michelle and asked, "Can we have a moment?"

"Oh, sure," Michelle nodded and quickly disappeared between the clothes hanging in her bedroom's doorway.

"What, what's going on Wade?" Kim asked, forgetting to use their catch-phrase.

"Well, that's what I wanted to ask you, Kim. What's going on?" He seemed sad.

"Is this because of what I said earlier today?" she asked tentatively. "I-I thought you knew that I loved you. I mean, of course, I love you, Wade. You're one of my very best friends."

"Oh, no," he shook his head. "I knew that, Kim."

"I know that I've never used those words before, but whenever I tell you that 'you rock,' that's what I'm saying." Kim wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve. Why am I crying?

He held her hand, and then gestured to the floor. They sat cross-legged on the floor, close enough that their knees touched. She took a few seconds to get herself together. "Then why? Why did you come all this way?"

"It wasn't what you said, Kim. It was how you said it."

"How did I say it?" she asked.

"You said it," and here Wade struggled a bit. "You said it like you were saying 'good-bye.'"

IV.

"So, does that take care of the Great Intelligence?" Zoe asked.

Jamie shook his head.

"Oh, I should say so," the Doctor said chipperly, "at least for the here and now. The one control sphere is destroyed, Mr. Paisley is back to normal, and, even the fungus has faded into nothingness." He flipped some switches on the Tardis control station. "However, Jamie is right, the Great Intelligence will be back at some point in the future." He paused. "Or in the past."

"Shouldn't we be getting these two sleeping beauties back to that bedroom of hers?" Jamie asked, gesturing to Kim and Ron who had managed to somehow fall asleep while being squeezed into one of the least comfortable rocking chairs either had ever sat in.

"Don't they make a sweet couple?" Zoe smiled.

"I hadn't really thought about it." The Doctor took a few moments to regard his sleeping companions. "Ah, yes, I see what you mean, Zoe."

"Well, he definitely has a thing for her," Jamie said. "The way he went on and on about her up in that panic room."

"And she does for him too," Zoe smiled. She brushed absently at Ron's cowlick.

"Too much adventure for one night, I suppose," the Doctor nodded. "Yes, well, we should definitely get them back to bed, then."

Here, Rufus stuck his head out of Ron's pocket and began squeaking urgently.

"What's that?" the Doctor asked, bending over to hear. "The couch, you say?" He nodded. "I think that can be managed."


Tired and worn out, James Possible was immensely relieved when he and his sleepy sons entered their home. The reason being the figure of Ron Stoppable sleeping on the family couch.

"Why is Ron sleeping in his clothes?" Jim asked. "Without covers?"

"And with his butt in the air?" Tim asked.

"Language, Tim," James said sternly.

"'Derrière?'" Tim offered.

"Better."

Ron's head and torso were lying flat on the couch, but his knees were bent and propping up his 'derriere.' James noted, with some satisfaction, that Ron's shoes were off. But that was gravy. The important thing was the boy wasn't bunking in his daughter's bedroom.

"Yeah, why can't he sleep normal like Kim?" Jim asked.

And that's when James' mood soured. Not three feet away from Ron's 'derrière' was his only daughter curled up under a throw blanket. He noticed an odd grating sound and then realized he was grinding his teeth. He wasn't sure what he needed to do, but this situation could not stand.

"Maybe we should ask him why he sleeps liked that?" Tim suggested.

"Wake him up?" Jim asked.

"I'll get the air horn," Tim said.

James put his hands on their shoulders. 'Don't move," he whispered.

Kim had begun to stir. She sat up, bleary-eyed, and looked over at her sleeping friend. She eyed him for a few seconds and then tossed away her blanket so that it covered him. He reflexively pulled it around himself and lay his, now-covered, derrière on its side. She lay back and promptly went back to sleep.

"Go to bed, boys," James whispered to his sons.

A few minutes later, James Possible returned to the living room and carefully placed a blanket over Kim. He then tiptoed out of the room, so as not to disturb their sleep.

V.

The sun was just setting as Jack Harkness exited the Tōdaimae subway station. He was a ten-minute walk from Kim Possible's apartment. Running a little early, he decided to stop on the way and grab a yakitori. As he was fishing for the money in one of his great coat's inner pockets, he noticed a flash of red. "Fantastic," he muttered.

After walking away from the vendor and taking a bite of chicken, he opened his coat slightly to verify if it was the Lorwardian detector that was glowing and not some other device. It was the detector.

Here, Kim. This is the detector I promised would save your life. Oh, why is it flashing red right now? Don't worry, it gives false positives all the time.

He angrily pulled out his phone to call the official/unofficial Torchwood tech vendor who had given him the device not two hours earlier. But the call didn't connect.

"No," he shook his head.

He tried calling another Torchwood affiliate. That call failed as well.

He called the Kimmunicator. No service.

Jack started running through the crowd. However, most people did not make way for him as they were distractedly complaining about their electrical devices suddenly not working.

VI.

"Wade, I'm frightened," Kim admitted, looking away. When she looked back, he looked concerned, but his eyes were warm.

"That's completely understandable, Kim."

"I know, I know it is," she said absently. "But I'm not used to it."

"Have you asked Ron about it?"

"No, not yet," she groused. "I've tried to talk to him all day about it, but something kept interrupting us." She sighed, "And, of course, I've been putting it off, too. This is so difficult for me to talk through, I mean, even with you."

"Well, I don't think fear is something you need to talk through with Ron," Wade said with the beginnings of a smile.

"Huh?"

"All you need to do is ask him how he deals with it. I'm sure he's got plenty of good advice."

And then it clicked. Kim had been fretting over how to cope with being frightened for weeks, and one of the world's leading experts on the emotion had been next to her the entire time.

I am so, so clueless!

"You rock, Wade," she said with extra emphasis and pulled him into a tight hug.

Before she let him go, he whispered, "No matter what happens, we'll have your back."

The sound of a key scraping in the lock was followed by the door bursting open. "Hola, everybody!" Ron called.

Kim was on him so quickly that he dropped one of his grocery bags, spilling its contents on the floor.

"Just a sec, K—" he didn't even get to the 'P' before he was swallowed in her kiss.

When it ended, he took a moment to get his head clear and then asked archly, "Ok, who blabbed?"

"No one did, Ron," she smiled. "We just need to talk."

Upon hearing those ominous words, Ron Stoppable's face automatically dropped.

"Oh, no, no, that's not what I meant!" she said giving a couple of quick snaps of her fingers before his dazed eyes. When they refocused, she said slowly and seriously, "Ron, I'm going to need some advice. Advice on being afraid."

VII.

Being a former 51st Century Time Agent, Jack Harkness could spot shoddy extraterrestrial technology when he saw it. For example, he knew from experience that when arcs of luminous plasma, commonly known on earth as St. Elmo's fire, gathered in tight clusters it was a significant indicator of the presence of low-rent cloaking technology.

At this moment, he was seeing two dozen such clusters hovering alongside Kim Possible's apartment building. He raced into the lobby and charged up the stairs two steps at a time.

When he reached her floor, he paused only to remove the safety from his weapon.

VIII.

"Here you go, Ron," Wade said handing him a box of gingerbread mix that had fallen to the floor.

"Oh, thanks, Wade," Ron nodded. "Waitaminute! What's Wade doing here?!"

"I just stopped by to bring you guys this." He held up the Doctor's recorder, giving Kim a wink over his shoulder.

"Wow," Ron breathed. "There it is. Coolio!"

"I can't verify its 'coolio' factor," Wade explained, "but it is very strong. Whatever it's made of is a very resilient material."

Kim took it from him to judge its weight. "Hmm, doesn't feel that sturdy," she commented.

Michelle, who was bemused that everyone seemed excited by what appeared to be a plastic flute, asked the obvious. "Why were you gone so long, Ron?"

"Oh, man," he sighed, "it was such a hassle with those guys down at the Embassy."

Kim picked up a package of butter from the floor and noticed that it had a U.S. seal stamped on one end – and was missing a stick. "Why were you at the U.S. Embassy, Ron?" she asked.

"Eeep!" Her best friend boyfriend turned pale. He quickly gathered the rest of the spilled contents from the floor and placed them hurriedly back into the bag. "No one saw anything! Look away! Look away!"

Noting his human's distress, Rufus did a quick scan of the kitchen floor for anything that might have been missed. He spotted a stick of butter near Kim's feet and raced to recover it. When the mole-rat tried to pick it up, he realized that the balmy summer evening (not to mention the three hours waiting in customs) had not done wonders for its firmness. He tried pushing it, but that only made things messier. Finally, he decided that a caber toss would be the most efficient method to reuniting it with its brethren on the table.

"Uh-oh!" he muttered. Unfortunately, his aim was less than perfect. The stick missed the tabletop but made a clean landing in Kim's right cargo pocket.

"What was that?" she asked, feeling the sudden weight. She reflexively placed her hand inside.

"Sorry!" Rufus squeaked from the table just as Kim removed her butter-coated hand.

"Eww," she grimaced. She dropped the recorder into her left cargo pocket and then quickly rinsed her hand off in the kitchen sink.

"Sorry, guys," she called, "I have to go change." She shot Rufus an arched eyebrow.

Once she closed her bedroom door, however, she realized she had nothing dry to change into. She was in the middle of deciding whether her capris or her jean shorts were soggier when a loud commotion from the other room distracted her.

And then her bedroom wall collapsed onto itself.

IX.

Fortunately, no one had been standing around the front door when it was kicked in.

Michelle screamed. Startled, Rufus jumped on Wade's head.

Recognizing who was standing in the door with a gun drawn, Ron managed, "Jack!?"

"Where's Kim?" Jack demanded.

Pointing in the direction of her bedroom, Ron began, "She's—"

"They're here!" Jack shouted. He raced through the living room, stumbled over one of the mobile hanger stations and landed hard against Kim's door. He stood, shattered its thin plywood in half with his shoulder, and pushed his way painfully between the pieces until he was inside.

X.

After a few seconds of complete disorientation, Kim comprehended exactly what was happening to her. She didn't want to accept it, but it was most definitely real. Even with her eyes closed, she knew.

The vertiginous, sickening sensation of drag one felt as they were caught in a Lorwardian tractor beam was as unmistakable as a nightmare. She opened her eyes, but the olive light of the beam momentarily blurred her vision.

Then she felt someone grab her leg. Part of her didn't want to look, didn't want to see Ron's panicked eyes. It would be a replay of Graduation night, and she so didn't want that look of hopelessness to be the thing she remembered him by. But a larger part of her knew that it being the last she saw of him was exactly the reason she needed to see it. She opened her eyes.

But Ron wasn't holding her leg. Elda Marker was.

"Bastards! Let. Her. Go!" the vampire howled, her blood-red eyes glowing. Clinging to the partial remains of Kim's outer wall with her left arm, she was trying to drag her back down with her right.

Kim watched as the muscles in both of Elda's arms grew strained and prominent, and she felt her progression to the ship actually begin to slow.

Clicking sounds overhead caught her attention. The long barrel of a weapon appeared to the right of the tractor beam's aperture. "Watch out, Elda!" Kim cried.

Two red streaks of plasma raced by Kim. Elda dodged one, but the second hit her in the right shoulder. She screamed in pain, let go of Kim's leg, and fell into a huddled ball in the remains of Kim's bed.

Kim was crying out so hard that she couldn't hear herself.

As she started to ascend rapidly, some movement below caught her attention. Glancing down, she saw Jack trying to squeeze his way through her bedroom door. He was holding a gun in his right hand. Just as he made it through, a bolt of plasma struck him, and he fell back against the shattered pieces in the frame.

The last thing Kim saw before the aperture swallowed her was his motionless figure slumped on her bedroom floor, smoke pouring from his chest.


To be continued …