Ron 1/2

By Parareru

Disclaimer: Kim Possible and crew are owned by Disney. Season 3 has finally arrived. Hoorah.

Ranma ½ and crew are owned by Rumiko Takahashi. Any and all Jusenkyo inspired madness can be laid directly at her feet.

denotes Japanese speech

Chapter 13: Collision

"We're nearly there," Ron sighed wearily as he trudged up the hill. In the distance, he could see the waterfall that marked the end of the trail and the beginning of the long bridge leading to the Yamanochi School. Ron suppressed a growl and cast an irritated glance at his travel companions as he heard yet another squabble break out behind him. Flying around the globe with Kim had spoiled him. While the accommodations weren't always luxurious, after all, who could forget being squashed between two burly Marines, at least they had gotten them to the right place and right time without much risk of injury. At the time it had seemed very noble and self-assured, but now Ron found himself wondering why on earth had he gone on this mission without using one of Kim's contacts?

-Earlier-

"So if I'm reading this right once the trains start running we have to catch the super express to Shinjuku and then take the morning bus to Mt. Yamanochi," Ranma said as he looked over the train schedule. "That should put us at the monastery just a little bit before nine."

"Shouldn't we take the train to Shibuya first and then hop onto the Yamanote line?" Ryoga asked.

"Right, like we're supposed to take advice from someone who's tried to go to Hokkaido and end up in Okinawa instead," Ranma retorted.

"That was an honest mistake!" Ryoga retorted back. "You board one wrong bus and then..."

"How do you get to Okinawa by bus?" Ron asked curiously as Ryoga blushed slightly in embarrassment. "Isn't it an island?"

Mousse glanced at Ron and adjusted his glasses. "You've been to Okinawa then?"

"Me? No. But Mr. Miyagi lived there," Ron said simply as if that explained everything.

The Nerima residents looked at each other, wondering if that was a name that they should know. "Miyagi was teacher?" Shampoo asked.

"Are you kidding? He's only the best teacher ever! Wax on! Wax off! Sand the floor! Paint the fence!" Ron exclaimed excitedly as he moved his hands rapidly to demonstrate. The Nerima natives again looked at each other, wondering what waxing had to do with anything.

"Ron, what are you talking about?" Ranma asked.

"Come on, haven't you seen the Karate Kid?" Ron replied as he raised his arms above his head and stood on one leg. Suddenly he hopped up and snapped a kick out that inadvertently tore through the train schedule in Ranma was holding in his hands. "Oops," he said sheepishly as he landed.

"Oh, brother," Rufus groaned with an embarrassed shake of his head and Ranma stared at the shreds of paper, twisting them around to see if he could still make out some part of the schedule.

"Ranma, after fight is over, you take Shampoo on date?" Shampoo abruptly asked as she peeked over the remnants of the tattered schedule in Ranma's hands.

"Serious business like this and you still try to seduce Shampoo?!" Mousse angrily demanded before Ranma had a chance to respond to the Amazon's question.

"Hold it! I ain't tryin' to do nothin'!" Ranma shouted back with equal vehemence as he recoiled away from the purple haired Amazon.

"Saotome! This I can not allow!" Mousse roared as he leapt for Ranma, a long staff springing from the sleeve of his robe.

"Will you quit it?!" Ranma demanded as he deftly evaded Mousse's attack by ducking low and sliding forward under the charging boy. "We're goin' to try and help your sister!"

"We can take of that after I give you the thrashing you deserve, you womanizer!" Mousse yelled back as he swung the staff around wildly in an effort to connect with the object of his wrath.

Ranma jumped over the staff with ease as a loud crack echoed through the station. Four pairs of eyes looked at Mousse in shock and then to the person on the receiving end of the vicious attack.

Ryoga let out a low chuckle as he reached up with a quivering hand to grasp the length of wood pressed against the side of his head. "Just. What. Do. You. Have. Against. Me?" he said in a deceptively even tone. His hand tightened and the wood creaked and splintered under his powerful grip.

Mousse adjusted his glasses and peered through the thick lenses. "R-ryoga! It was an accident." Ryoga merely growled in response.

"N-now wait a second," Ron said, stepping between the two boys holding up his hands in a placating manner. "Don't we have something more important to do?"

"Every time," Ryoga muttered with a clenched fist held before him. If he heard Ron at all, Ryoga gave no indication whatsoever. "Misfortune still seems to follow me every single time I'm with you." A bright yellow aura flared to life around the bandanna-clad martial artist and everyone backed a step away. "Ranma! This is all YOUR fault!"

"Wh-wha?" Ranma said in surprise, mirroring the shock that everyone else felt at Ryoga's statement. "Whadya mean MY fault?!"

"Every single time misfortune falls on me, it can all be connected to you!" Ryoga howled. "Jusenkyo! Akane! And don't think I've forgotten about the time you threw me out in the trash! And after I babysat your kid! That's gotta count as cruelty to animals!" Ryoga charged forward, yelling with inarticulate rage.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Ranma groaned as he sidestepped the charge. Ryoga got worked up over the most trivial things, often blown out of proportion in his own head. Ranma never forgot that their entire years long feud had begun over bread.

"Don't forget about me!" Mousse shouted as he leapt in for an attack.

"Great! Why me all the time?" Ranma asked himself, ducking and weaving to avoid the chains darting from Mousse's sleeve.

"Um, excuse me? Don't we have a train to catch?" Ron asked plaintively.

"Ranma, you fight for Shampoo, yes?" Shampoo asked coyly as she clung to Ranma's arm.

"Shampoo!" Mousse wailed, tears streaming from his eyes at this apparent betrayal then he turned to glare at Ranma. "Damn you Saotome! To have seduced Shampoo like this and turned her against me!"

"WHAT!" Ryoga roared, his face turning livid. "You seduced Shampoo! Ranma, you dog! You betrayed Akane's trust!"

"Waitaminnut! I didn't do nothin'!" Ranma yelled defensively as a sinking sense of familiar foreboding filled him. Every time something like this had happened, despite his best efforts to defuse the situation, it would almost always blow up with himself on the receiving end of things.

"Um, the train?" Ron said again in another attempt to regain control. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he finally sighed in disgust. "Well, we might as well go grab some Bueno Nacho," he muttered in an aside to Rufus.

"Yeah! Naco!" Rufus agreed.

"Get back here and take your thrashing like a man!" Mousse yelled as chased after Ranma, hurling fistfuls of shuriken and knives. Through either some fluke or skill, not a single blade came close to endangering the few bystanders that were in the station.

"Come on! We got somethin' more important to do here!" Ranma yelled back in irritation in a futile attempt to try reasoning with his attackers.

"Three chimeritos," Ron ordered as he walked up to the Bueno Nacho Express counter next to the ticket booth. The cashier gave Ron startled, disbelieving look before grabbing a takeout bag and quickly tossed the bundles of Mexican food into it.

Ron held up a ten yen piece and peered at it curiously. "Hmm, yen equals dollars, right?" Ron asked Rufus who merely shrugged and shook his head in answer. With a bewildered shrug Ron tossed twenty yen onto the counter and nodded his head in thanks to the cashier who was watching the fight with wide-eyed amazement, not even realizing that the American had grossly underpaid him.

"Yeesh, you'd think he'd never seen a three way brawl in a train station before," Ron mused to himself as he tore open a chimerito and handed another to Rufus. He paused with the bundle halfway to his mouth as a thought occurred to him. "Then again, I haven't seen a three way brawl in a train station before either," he realized.

A bell rang and an announcement in Japanese went out over the PA. "Uh oh, Shampoo think we just miss our train," Shampoo mentioned as a train left the station with a telltale clatter.

"What?!" Ron panicked. "They can't leave!"

"They just did," Shampoo returned calmly.

"So does this happen often?" Ron sighed in resignation. They'd just missed their train and thanks to his timely demonstration of the famous Miyagi Crane Kick they were going to need a new train schedule too.

"Is very common," Shampoo confirmed, not taking her eyes off the fight. "Though Shampoo not know why Mousse always challenge Ranma. He know he no have chance against airen."

"Testosterone. Gotta be," Ron muttered as he watched the fight boil towards them. Looking aside at Shampoo, he saw that she was unconcerned with the literal direction the fight was taking and decided to follow the lead of a native and stay put.

"So how's it going?" Ron asked Ranma with exaggerated casualness as he took a bite of the chimerito in his hand and the pig-tailed martial artist flipped over Mousse's chains to land next to him.

"Oh, not bad," Ranma replied with the same tone. He then cocked his head at the chimerito in Ron's hand. "Hey, you got another one of those?" he asked hopefully.

"Sure," Ron answered with a shrug and tossed the remaining chimerito at the fighting martial artist. "By the way, Shampoo thinks we missed our train."

"Thanks man. You're a lifesaver," Ranma said as he grabbed the chimerito out of the air and peeled off the wrapper. He suddenly leaned to the left and kicked his legs up as a salvo chains and bandanna whizzed both above and below him. "We missed our train? Oh, crud."

"Ranma has the gall to eat while we're fighting?!" Mousse demanded.

"How dare you ignore me?! BAKUSAI TENKETSU!" Ryoga roared as he leapt forward and stabbed at the ground beneath Ranma's feet.

Ranma suddenly looked to his right and his eyes widened as he noticed the water fountain they were standing beside. "No, don't you idiot! There's a water—" A gout of water exploded around the group. "—main," Ranma-chan finished, looking down at soaking wet, black piglet.

"Great, just great," Ron-chan griped as she tossed aside the soggy and ruined chimerito and wrung some of the water from her shirt. Quickly she reached down and grabbed P-chan before the pig could leap to the attack again. Idly, she though of how odd their group must now look consisting as it did of two girls, redhead and blonde, a black piglet, a white duck, a naked mole rat and a cat. Not exactly the stuff that legends were made of.

"Well, it could be worse," Ranma-chan began telling Ron. "There's another train coming in half an hour. We should be able to find some hot wat—" she suddenly stiffened and broke off as she felt something brush against the back of her legs. With a growing dread, she slowly looked down, half expecting what she would see, but hoping she was wrong.

"C-C-C-CAT!" she shrieked in terror as Shampoo sidled up next to her, purring in contentment. "YAAAHHHHH! GET IT AWAY FROM ME!" Ranma-chan yelled at the top of her lungs as she raced away at top speed, Shampoo right on her heels. "COME ON SHAMPOO! QUIT IT! STOP FOLLOWING ME!"

Mousse quacked as he took to the air and chased after the fleeing redhead and the pursuing cat. P-chan began squirming in Ron-chan's arms, obviously wanting to dive back into the fray despite the limitations of his current form.

"Come on," Ron pleaded to the pig. "Settle down and I'll get you some hot water, Ryoga."

Ron-chan felt a tap on her shoulder and she turned to look in the serious face of a Japanese police officer.

Excuse me, miss? Is there a problem here?

Ron-chan stared blankly at the officer, having no idea what he'd just said. "Um, arigatou?" she said hopefully.

Oh, so you're a tourist. Well, I guess you can't be involved in this mess then, miss.

"Um, arigatou?" Ron-chan said again hesitantly, confusion evident on her face as she tried puzzling out what the police officer was saying. Something about a spaceship she thought.

Well, enjoy your visit to Tokyo, the officer said with a wave of his hand as he left.

"Um, arigatou?" Ron-chan repeated, completely confused at this point. P-chan merely shook his head as he settled into Ron's arms and let out a soft grunt to remind Ron that she needed to search for some hot water.

-Now-

"Come on, guys! Can we focus here?" Ron turned and yelled his Jusenkyo cursed companions.

"Boy, he's awfully pushy," Mousse muttered.

"Yeah, we're doing him the favor here," Ryoga agreed.

"Look, I'm sorry," Ron apologized. "But we're nearly there. Can we please shelve the bickering for just five minutes?"

"Huh. It looks like we've got company," Ranma grunted as he pointed his chin back behind Ron.

Ron turned in time to see a lone figure clad in a black gi step out from behind the waterfall blocking their path. With a start, he realized that it was one of the teachers from the school and in vain he tried to remember his name. Something to do with a mountain?

"Greetings, Stoppable-san," the teacher said in slightly accented English as he bowed respectfully to Ron. "I am Fujimiya-sensei from the Yamanochi school."

"Right, the teacher for the meditation class," Ron answered, snapping his fingers as he finally recognized the teacher.

"Exactly," Fujimiya replied with a sad smile. "Sadly I must inform you that Monkey Fist and his force of monkey ninjas have taken over the monastery."

"I know. That's what we're here to take care of," Ron said confidently as he gestured to his traveling companions.

"Yes, I know of all of them by reputation, if nothing else," Fujimiya replied with a slight nod to each person in turn. "Ranma Saotome, candidate for the Yamanochi college program. Ryoga Hibiki, master of the Amazon construction techniques. Xian Pu, feared Amazon warrioress. And Mu Tsu, master of the Hidden Weapons." He sighed heavily. "Master Sensei felt that these four would join you. Unfortunately, you must continue along the path alone."

At that signal, smoke billowed out around the teens and dozens of monkey ninjas sprang up around them. Surprisingly, there were an equal number of human ninjas interspersed among the monkey ninjas although to a man, they all wore sullen expressions of reluctance on their faces.

"Wh-what's going on?" Ron asked as Ranma and the others instantly took up defensive stances. Ron swiveled his head around in confusion, trying to make sense of why Yamanochi's teachers and students would suddenly side with Monkey Fist's ninjas.

"Lord Monkey Fist has ordered that you are to proceed along the path alone," Fujimiya answered with a grimace of distaste. "He holds Master Sensei hostage."

Ron's mind raced as he considered this revelation. "Help us and we can beat down these monkeys, then we can go free Master Sensei," he promised.

"I wish things were that simple. Monkey Fist has changed Master Sensei into his monkey slave and his forces have gathered the youngest of the children. If we do not comply with his every order, he will force Master Sensei to slaughter the children. Even with all of our combined skill we cannot be certain to neutralize all of the monkey ninjas before they send their master word of our betrayal."

"We're not going down without a fight," Ryoga warned, his hand clenched around the haft of his umbrella.

"And there is no need for a fight," Fujimiya responded. "Provided that Stoppable-san proceeds along the path alone."

"It's your call, man," Ranma offered to Ron. "Just give the word and we'll take them down."

Ron slowly turned in a circle and looked at the forces array against them. That they could defeat the monkey ninjas he had not doubt, but the question was could they do it quickly enough. He swallowed heavily as he considered his options and made the only decision he could. "No," he said softly through ashen lips. "There's too many of them, we might not get them all and all it'd take is one to give a warning."

Fujimiya relaxed as a wave of pent up tension drained out of him. "Thank you," he said gratefully to Ron.

"Well, Rufus. Looks like it's just us," Ron said with a wry grimace.

Fujimiya sensei coughed apologetically as he held up a small steel cage brought to him by one of the monkeys. "Monkey Fist's orders were that you proceed entirely alone."

Rufus looked up at Ron with worried eyes.

"I don't like it," Ranma said softly, his eyes darting from all of the combatants. "It's gotta be a trap."

"I know, but what choice do I have," Ron groaned in frustration. "I can't risk the children getting hurt."

Ranma let out a resigned sigh and offered Ron his hand. "This looks bad. You're going to need to use everything you've learned to win this."

"Thanks," Ron said in genuine gratitude as he took Ranma's hand. With one last look behind him, he began walking along the bridge leading to the monastery.

"Wait, Stoppable-san!" Fujimiya-sensei suddenly shouted, causing Ron to turn around. The monkey ninjas glared at the teacher as he approached the bridge. "I wish you luck. You will be... tested and it may very well break you, but you must not fail. Yamanochi and the entire world hang in the balance." His lips parted as he wished to say something else, but instead pushed Ron along the bridge. "You must go before Monkey Fist does something rash."

"What are you hiding?" Ranma asked the teacher as Ron walked alone into Monkey Fist's new stronghold.

"Monkey Fist has a surprise planned for Stoppable-san," Fujimiya replied sadly. "I hope that he is strong enough to do what must be done."

---------

Ron crept into the monastery courtyard, his senses extended and alert for any danger. He felt exposed and naked once he had finally crossed the bridge and he felt a curious itching sensation between his shoulder blades. Instinct suddenly took over and he dived to the left and rolled away from a flight of shuriken that passed through where he was standing only a moment ago.

"Yoohoo! Avon calling!" Ron said from his crouch partially to mask the sense of unease he was feeling at the moment. His eyes searched the walls and buildings from some trace of his attacker. With a sense of sad nostalgia he recalled that about this time the master lunch-lady would've been pulling out a tray of elegantly prepared sushi for the mid morning break. Instead, he was now dodging assassins as he crept through the school where he had spent a very memorable week.

Though come to think of it, the last time he was here, the same villain had wanted to kill him. And there was no two ways about it, Monkey Fist wanted him dead, dead as last week's mackerel. Why else try to drop him in a pit of lava. Then again, it was kinda cool to realize that he had a personal arch foe. Guess you have to take the bad with the good.

"Very impressive Ronald," Monkey Fist congratulated his nemesis as he stepped out into the courtyard. "Your skills have improved greatly."

"Is this where you tell me I'm not a Jedi yet?" Ron quipped as he considered rushing the mutant ninja master.

"How droll," Monkey Fist said as a small monkey dressed in red robes came to stand beside him. "I believe you've already met my servant."

"Master Sensei?" Ron asked in disbelief. It was one thing to see his friends turned into monkeys, to hear about it from a fairly reliable source, but to see his mentor with his own eyes... A venerable ninja master like Master Sensei should've had some sort of defense against that kind of magic.

"As you can see Ronald, I am in control here," Monkey Fist continued. Hope surged within Ron as he swiftly scanned the area and saw no one except for the three of them.

"Looks like you forgot your hostages though," Ron cried out exultantly as he gathered himself to leap at Monkey Fist. Monkey Fist merely nodded unconcernedly and snapped his fingers.

"Ron!"

The sudden cry behind him threw him off balance and he whirled around in shock. Ron gasped in surprise to see Kim standing in the doorway of the main building, wearing a black ninja gi rather than her mission clothes. Kim's chest was heaving as if she was under some great strain; her eyes were wild and panicked as she stared at Ron.

"Kim! What are you doing here?"

"She is doing my bidding," Monkey Fist said ominously as he circled around Ron to stand beside Kim, his hands clasped behind his back and the transformed Master Sensei trailing obediently behind him. "Now, you will surrender the Lotus Blade to me or else I will order her to do something... unfortunate."

Ron's hand angrily clenched around the amulet and pulled it over his head. With a flash of light the sword sprang into his hand and he held it at the ready. "You want it, come and get it," Ron challenged with a feral snarl.

"Amusing," Monkey Fist drawled without a trace of emotion. Leisurely, he pulled a dagger from behind his back and pressed it into Kim's unresisting hand. "Kimberly, do be a dear and slit your own throat if Ronald doesn't surrender the sword in ten seconds."

In a supreme display of confidence, Monkey Fist turned his back on Kim to face Ron again, showing beyond a shadow of a doubt that he didn't consider her to be a threat. Ron's eyes widened in horror as Kim slowly raised the knife in her hand. For a brief moment he held a hope that she would turn the weapon against Monkey Fist, but her hand was steady as she drew the blade up and rested it against her neck. Only her face betrayed her anguish and torment as she tried to resist the command.

With no other option, Ron lowered the Lotus Blade and tossed it with a clatter at Monkey Fist's feet. With a triumphant smirk, Monkey Fist scooped the blade up into his hands and willed it to change from sword to staff to shield to sai to tonfa and back to sword. Monkey Fist began to chuckle, a low chuckle that started deep within his chest that soon exploded into a maniacal laugh.

"Let her go," Ron demanded, breaking through the Monkey Master's revelry.

"I don't see any reason why I should," Monkey Fist taunted as he strolled up beside Ron. "After all, I find it extremely gratifying to have Kim Possible as my slave. And while she is not a willing slave, this is much more... fun." To punctuate the hopelessness of the situation he then gave Ron an insulting pat on top of the head.

"I swear if you hurt her," Ron growled.

"You are in a position to do nothing," Monkey Fist sneered, his eyes flashing angrily at Ron's continued defiance. "Perhaps I should let Kimberly prove my point."

Ron's eyes instantly darted to Kim. "Don't," Ron pleaded softly. "I won't fight you."

"No, you won't," Monkey Fist promised, an insane light gleaming in his eyes as he brought a speculative finger to his lips and pointed at Kim. "You'll fight... her."

"What?! You're crazy. I'm not going to fight Kim," Ron protested.

"Crazy? Crazy?! Yes, perhaps I have gone a little crazy. The two of you have been a thorn in my side for far too long. Every time I was due to claim my due as the Monkey Master the two of you would interfere. The Monkey Magic meant for me would suddenly snatched away by one of you," Monkey Fist ranted with a maniacal chuckle. "I can't think of anything more fitting than having the two of you fight to the death."

"I'm not going to fight Kim," Ron said with a determined shake of his head.

"Do whatever you want," Monkey Fist said with a dismissive wave of his hand as he regained a measure of his composure. "Once she disposes of you, I will be the true Monkey Master and I will use the Talisman's power to bring this entire world under my control."

"I'll stop you," Ron promised. "We'll stop you."

"Hardly likely if there's no longer a 'we,'" Monkey Fist mocked. "Kimberly! Attack Ronald! And kill him. Slowly."

At the command, Kim crouched and shifted her weight to the balls of her feet, her tail weaving sinuously behind her. She skittered forward a couple steps, the knife held low before her and Ron hopped backwards in response.

"Kim, you've got to fight it," Ron said as Kim began circling around him.

"I'm trying!" Kim gasped, her face contorted with effort even as she leapt forward with a disemboweling slash. Ron jumped backward, mostly avoiding the attack. The material of his mission shirt parted under the knife's edge and a thin weal of blood beaded up on his skin. "I'm sorry, Ron!" she sobbed.

"First blood to Kim Possible!" Monkey Fist crowed. "You'll have to do better than that, Ronald!"

"Ron. Please. You have to stop me," Kim pleaded even as her body launched another volley of attacks.

"Kim, I can't fight you," Ron countered as he defended himself and earned a few more nicks for his efforts.

"You're the only one who can! Please, if you don't, I'm going to end up killing you!"

"I can't hurt you!" Ron yelled back as he ducked under Kim's backfist and blocked the follow up thrust of her knife. He backed away from Kim, desperately fending off her attacks. In an effort to gain some room to maneuver, Ron turned away from Kim and leapt for the courtyard wall.

"Ron! Duck!" Kim shouted as her disobedient body hurled the knife at the blonde.

Acting on instinct again, Ron tucked himself into a ball and felt a slight breeze pass over his head as the blade cut through where his back had been only a second earlier. Rolling to a halt, he looked up and whistled at the sight of the knife quivering in the trunk of the tree in front of him.

"Thanks, Kim!" Ron said, turning around just in time for Kim's fist to crash into his jaw.

"Don't thank me! Fight me!" Kim yelled as her tail whipped out to snag Ron's ankle and send him crashing again into the dirt.

"Sorry! I forgot!" Ron yelped as he rolled away from her stomps and scrambled to his feet. "Besides, I just got an idea!"

Ron leapt up and used the top of Kim's head as a pivot as he flipped over the heroine's follow up strike before kicking off of a convenient tree to fly high into the air. He twisted his body around and as he began to descend from his jump he pressed his wrists together and took aim at Monkey Fist. "MOUKO TAKABISHA!"

However, as the ki blast left his hands, Ron felt something hard collide with his shoulder, spinning him around and ruining his shot. The ki blast flew wide, missing Monkey Fist by a wide margin and demolished the wall beside them.

"Oops, I can pay for that," Ron apologized, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"Pay attention!" Kim shouted as she crept up behind Ron and tried to sucker punch him.

"Sorry!" Ron yelped again as he ducked under the swing, rolled back onto his shoulders and pushed off into a handspring that sent him sailing over Kim.

Kim instantly whirled and launched punch-kick combo that sent Ron back on the defensive. Her body executed a leg sweep that Ron nimbly jumped over and then she immediately launched an uppercut that clipped Ron's chin. Ron stumbled and staggered as he tried to shake the stars clear from his vision, but Kim pressed the attack, giving him no quarter. Ron feebly tried to ward off the blows, but Kim's body relentlessly drove forward, ducking under his guard and fired off a right cross that sent a spray of blood from his mouth.

Ron continued to retreat, weaving drunkenly as he tried to gain some ground to clear his head and Kim's eyes widened as she saw him inch backwards towards a fist sized rock half buried in the dirt. Time seemed to slow as she opened her mouth to shout a warning to Ron only to watch helplessly as his heel caught on the edge of the rock. Ron's arms pinwheeled wildly as he tried to regain his balance. Kim's heart caught in her throat as Ron fell and his head struck the ground. Ron made an effort to get up, only to fall back, completely spent.

"Excellent, Kimberly," Monkey Fist applauded slowly, halting Kim in her tracks as her body waited for another command. "Now I have an idea of how Drakken must feel when he watches Shego fight. Most impressive."

"Don't do this," Kim pleaded as Ron groaned softly on the ground.

"Why Kimberly, I am not doing a single thing," Monkey Fist said with exaggerated innocence and a feral grin. "You're the one who's going to kill Ronald."

"No," Kim whimpered as Monkey Fist pulled another knife from his belt and pressed it into her waiting palm. She strained to gain control of her body for even a brief moment as she stood over Ron and reversed her grip on the knife.

"RON!" Kim howled as the knife plunged downward for his chest.

"Psyche!" Ron crowed as he twisted out of the blade's path and sprang to his feet once more as Kim sobbed in relief.

"BAKUSAI TENKETSU!" Ron cried as he stabbed his finger at the protruding hunk of rock he had tripped over moments earlier. The rock instantly vanished in a shower of fine shrapnel that pelted Kim with little effect and kicked up a cloud of loose dirt that instantly obscured Ron from her view.

Kim coughed and waved her hands as she tried to fan away the dust that blinded her. She let out an involuntary yelp as she felt a pair of hand grab her knife arm and twist the weapon out of her grasp.

"Booyah!" Ron crowed as he spun on his heel and flung the knife at Monkey Fist only to have his aim skewed as Kim delivered a quick spin kick that caught him across the shoulder. The knife sailed harmlessly over the wall and Monkey Fist narrowed his eyes in irritation. That Ronald had managed to fire off a ki blast and just now threaten him with a weapon was intolerable.

"Finish him off now!" Monkey Fist commanded.

"I won't!" Kim snapped back, struggling to regain control of her wayward body. She bent every fiber of her will towards resisting Monkey Fist's command and her body wavered and took a faltering step towards the villain.

"I am your MASTER! Obey ME!" Monkey Fist roared furiously as the Talisman around his neck glowed and surrounded him with its aura. That same glow surrounded Kim and she howled in pain as the Talisman's power lashed out against her.

"Leave her alone!" Ron yelled as he charged for the Monkey Master, but Kim tackled him well short of his goal, her body once again under Monkey Fist's control.

Ron and Kim struggled on the ground until Ron finally managed to roll onto his back and plant his feet against Kim's stomach. With a grunt he pushed Kim off of him with a kick that sent her sailing towards the broken wall and the exposed cliff face. Kim's tail whipped out to snag a nearby tree branch, altering her trajectory so she that landed on top of the ruined wall.

Kim felt her body gather for a leap when the damaged wall collapsed under her weight. She reached out as she fell and managed to grab a piece of the wall. She looked down at the chasm and the veils of mist that stretched beneath her feet.

"Hold on, Kim!" Ron shouted as he ran to her aid. Ron loomed over her and reached for her hand desperately.

For the first time that day, mind and body were united as she reached for Ron with her free hand. The section of wall under the grip finally gave way to her weight.

"KIM!!!"

Next: Final Conflict

A/N: Thanks for Reading and Reviewing!

Sorry for taking so long to update, but I've been a little busy. But now that the World Series are over and the curse is reversed it's time to get back into the swing of things.

I have some qualms about the Ranma melee in the train station, but figured a couple of things. Mousse never misses out on a chance to pound on Ranma. And Ryoga's one messed up kid. He doesn't want Ranma to be with Akane, yet he gets pissed when Ranma "flirts" with another girl because it'd hurt Akane's feelings.

When Ryoga mentions getting thrown out in the trash, I'm referring to the episode where Mousse and Ryoga team up against Ranma. To convince Ryoga to join him, Mousse tells him to imagine Ranma and Akane married. Ryoga then had a daydream where he was living his life as a pig in their house, but Ranma and Akane end up kicking him out because he made their baby cry.

Now it may seem strange that Ron wouldn't know the exchange rate between yen and dollars, but I figure that the first time Ron was in Japan, Yori didn't let him stock up at the airport. And in the earlier chapter, Kim would've paid.

Hope the fight between Ron and Kim didn't disappoint.

Next up is the fight between Ron and Monkey did something weird with their code so the characters I normally use to indicate foreign languages and scene changes got messed up. Hopefully it will post correctly.

Till next time.

Glossary:

Airen – means beloved or husband in Chinese. (I think)