Author's comment: It's interesting how the subconscious mind works sometimes. I have my five favorite KP episodes saved on my TiVo and just yesterday noticed something about my three favorites (Exchange, Blush and The Fearless Ferret). The common theme in each of these episodes is that Ron is the hero. Lo and behold, I look over my story and discover that not only have I basically told it mainly from Ron's perspective, but he's the hero most of the time. Originally it was intended to be a balanced perspective with both characters sharing in the hero duties. Weird, huh?

OK, gonna have to single out a reviewer and say "thanks for noticing". Specifically Cilghal16 who caught my nod to "Space Conflict". Good eye, my friend. I love putting little things like that in my stories. In Chapter 11, with the clone cliffhanger, I thought for sure I was giving away the ending when I had Dementor use a "duplicate collar", but no one pointed that out. I guess it was too subtle.

Anyway, my grateful thanks for the kind words to: Akemi, Blujae, Apaka, Jezrianna2.0, Fuzzie Muzzie, Sestren NK, aimtbj, Raininginsanity, Pseudojuliet, Jacob, sehnsucht792, Jokerisdaking, oneredneckgoddess, LKillingsworth, Kimberly Ann Possible, pokey, Dreamer007, KitsuneAkurei, JPMod, Widow Shark (apologies are never necessary), Mithlond88, ps2teen1213, Spooks-A-Lot, knuckz, RandomReader217, kimnronever, willk1989, Cilghal16, dreaan, EmotionallyAttached, zebraFinch, Tanya16, and Melissa Ivory.

As it turned out, this chapter did run long and I had to break it up. So the next chapter will definitely be the conclusion and there will be a bonus epilogue. But I kinda like the way this particular chapter ends.

Let the showdown commence:


Chapter 13

(delete all)

Shego had spent the last twenty minutes trying to access the Artificial Ray Brain with no success. It was heavily encrypted and Ray never bothered to share the password with her. Not that she was surprised. Ray didn't exactly trust her these days. She knew he'd been working on the brain of the Kim Clone recently, and as it turned out, never bothered to encrypt the access to that. After several frustrating attempts to guess the password for Ray's Brainbox, she turned to the Kim Clone.

It was late, and of course, and Ray had to sleep at some point. Not much was happening. Communication with the lab entrance had been cut off, and the Ray Brain sent six Deathrays to investigate.

Shego had noticed some of the flaws of the Ray Brain right off. Initially, the brain had difficulty sorting out the thousands of signals that came in from each clone every minute. So Ray had constructed a huge number of "sub-brains" that allowed for the rapid processing of the input that came in from each clone. It was like a spider-web of artificial intelligence. Ray's brain lay at the center, surrounded by ten or twelve artificial brains connected to the main one. Each of the surrounding brains were interconnected and had their own network of artificial minds. This allowed each clone to function more independently, and yet still maintain the hive mind and coordinate whatever needed to be done.

The central unit that housed Ray's mind was, of course, a simple copy of the real one, so it had Ray's memories, and capacity for decision making. Or lack thereof. It also had Ray's personality; domineering, quick tempered, and bad at improvisational thinking. Decisions and information flowed mostly in one direction; outward from the central mind. Brainbox Ray couldn't be bothered with mundane decisions. So when a message flowed into the network that two males were spotted at the edge of the woods near the complex's only remaining entrance, the simple decision to "deal with it" was issued by one of the sub-minds.

Information was given different levels of importance, and unless a piece of information was deemed "extremely urgent" it never found its way into the central mind. This was why, when communications to the lab were cut off, the clone in the lab had to walk the Deathray all the way down the corridor and verbally report it to another clone, who in turn passed the information along to another, thus increasing the level of urgency of that particular piece of information. A more efficient and experienced mind would have allowed the clone to simply send a thought out through his controlling sub-mind and thus actual communicators would never have been needed. So when the clone in the lab thought "communications are down" the first level of sub-mind halted the piece of information there and issued an odd command: "notify someone about it." Often the sub-minds – which were simple copies of the central mind of Ray Beam – had difficulty determining the appropriate times to have the various clones function as individuals or to pass possibly vital information along to the central core.

So six Deathrays were sent to investigate, and when the information came back that there was an intruder in the corridor, the sub-mind simply ordered the lead Deathray to eliminate it. It had not yet occurred to any of the sub-minds to ask why there was an intruder, or whether it had anything to do with the two males that had been sighted earlier.

Shego knew that if she shut down the central brain, the resulting cascade effect would shut down all of the sub-minds. She spent a frantic and frustrating twenty minutes trying to guess Ray's password, and was unable to come up with the correct one. Shego thought for a moment. She could try sending out a call for help, but any unauthorized communications would be tracked instantly.

But what if something were to happen to the Kim Clone? An examination would reveal the clone's true nature and someone would begin looking for the real Kim Possible. And considering the intelligence and resourcefulness of those who would come looking, they wouldn't simply stop when they found her. They'd shut Ray's operation down permanently, and Shego would have a way out of this mess.

She pulled up the files of the Kim Clone, scanned for the file that regulated breathing, and deleted it. Then it occurred to her what the clone might be enduring, and the possibility that anyone around it might try to revive it, so she selected all files and deleted them. For the briefest of moments Shego felt guilty, wondering what Kim's Clone might be going through, and perhaps her parents. But then she told herself clones weren't real, and the Possibles would want to have their real daughter back anyway.

Suddenly, the control center began to rumble and shake. Alarms went off. A quick glance at one of the security monitors showed her there was a cave-in at the corridor. That would certainly wake up Ray. She got out of the control center, and found her way back to her hiding place. Now it was just a matter of time.

The waiting, though, was often the hardest part.


Sometimes one of the drawbacks of being a superhero is impulsive behavior. After all, when you have to think in terms of the now, and make split-second decisions that often can affect whether you live or die, then the tendency toward following an impulse can very powerful.

For the second time in a week, Kim Possible's lips were pressed firmly against those of a man she hadn't seen in six years. Of course, that first time she was administering CPR, and in all the excitement, hadn't recognized him until she had taken a good look at him.

This time, however, they were locked in a kiss. For Kim's part it was a yearning, angry-yet-relieved, where-have-you-been-all-this-time kind of kiss.

Granted, those were rare, but when they did happen they could be quite exciting.

The impulse part, of course, was that Kim found herself kissing Ron before she fully realized what she was doing. Intense situations tended to bring out intense feelings in people. And considering the history between them, it probably didn't take much to open the emotional floodgates.

There was something both familiar and new about it. Ron was certainly a different person; muscular yet tender, and with a quiet intensity about him that had probably come from years of training on a lonely mountaintop in Japan. But somewhere in there was the same old Ron Stoppable. She could see it in the way he looked at her; not just for the brief time they had been together in the lab, but – in hindsight – on the roof of the school the night of the reunion, or that day on the roof of the bank.

Kim realized there was something both new and familiar about her as well. The hindsight observations of the reunion and the bank caused her to skim over her relationship with Raymond. She'd certainly never kissed Raymond like this. And though she told him on occasion that she loved him, it was often with the feeling that maybe she was trying to convince herself that she meant it when maybe she didn't.

And just who exactly had she been these last few years? The old Kim, the Kim that frequently saved the world, never would have said 'yes' to Raymond Beam's proposal. The old Kim probably might have seen the hints and signs of Raymond's descent into madness. The old Kim… The old Kim was deeply in love with Ron Stoppable. And when that love was cut off, the old Kim died a very slow death.

And maybe, just maybe, the old Kim was reborn when she stepped out of that cryogenic tube. She almost laughed when she realized just how intertwined her life was with this man. They both had been 'dead' in essence, Ron in the hospital, Kim in the tube. Both had been victims of a plot involving cloned versions of their ex-fiances. And both had undergone a sort of rebirth.

Ron certainly must have. She was surprised when he completely opened up to her like that. She expected some cryptic tale about the dark, mysterious origins of Ronin. But he bared his heart to her, was totally vulnerable to her. She knew if she had not at least said the words "I understand" to him, he would have been devastated by her subsequent tirade. And hurting him was the last thing she wanted to do.

So what did she want?

Other than to go back six years and prevent Ron from walking out of that hospital room?

Slowly, their lips parted and she pulled back a little, looking into his eyes. Neither of them said anything.

She felt like she was waking up for the first time in a long time. Almost the kind of awakening you have when you open your eyes and realize it's your day off from work, or school. No, it was more like finding out they'd canceled school for the day at the last minute, or the boss called and said the company would be closed for awhile, but you'll still get your paycheck. Suddenly there was a whole new life to begin, after being convinced that the way things were a few weeks ago was as good as it would get.

Certainly a part of her was angry about his falsified death, and his ending their relationship the way he did. But were the last six years Ron's fault? Was it his fault she wound up with a fiancé who meant less to her than even her memories of Ron? No one had held a gun to her head and made her accept Raymond's proposal. If her safety all those years ago wasn't Ron's responsibility, then how could her life in the last few years be blamed on him?

He had his reasons, shared them with her, and she'd understood.

What would be the purpose of holding on to her anger? Punishing Ron? He had tried to take his own life. Would adding to his pain lessen hers?

Of course not. Oh, they certainly would be discussing things in the days to come. There was a lot to sort through. And there would need to be some distance between her and her recent engagement. Though, now when she thought about Raymond, there really were no feelings of affection whatsoever. Ron had walked away from their relationship in the interest of protecting her safety. Raymond had put her family through times of suffering for his own ends.

But where did that leave things with Ron? Simply picking up where they left off six years ago was out of the question. A lot of their relationship had been torn down. But she believed there was still a good foundation to rebuild on. Kim realized her thought train had pulled into a conclusion.

The pivotal question was; did he feel the same?

"Guess it was a good thing you didn't get married yesterday, huh?" Ron said in a trembling voice. What was he afraid of? Did he fear this would end before it began, or was he frightened of being with her again?

She leaned in, closing her eyes and feeling the warmth of his breath on her neck. Her lips parted slightly and brushed against his, hesitantly at first, but he didn't seem to be resisting. She held his face in her hands, and kissed him deeply.

The building shook.

Kim sat bolt upright.

"Wow", Ron said dreamily, "Did the earth move for you, too?"

"Ron! That…well, yes it did… but I mean, something actually shook the building." She said, flustered.

"Yeah, well, Ron Stoppable has been known to rock the kasbah from time to time." he said, casually putting his hands behind his head.

She stared at him, incredulous.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this," she said in a shocked tone, "Focus, Ron!"

Ron sat up and looked at her, "I am focused, Kim! Right now multiple Deathrays are tunneling under the building in order to clear away the debris from the cave-in so they can come in here and eliminate us. In the meantime, Jim and Tim are racing against time to cut a hole in the titanium plating and get us out. Frankly, I've been through one deathtrap or another, been held captive by just about every villain in existence, and I can give you a few examples of the times I've been this close to death waiting for the Twins to show up and save me. And in all those times, never once has the experience involved kissing – for the first time in more than half a decade – the only woman I've ever loved! Trust me, I am focused like a surgical laser beam!"

Kim was speechless.

The building shook again, this time a little more forcefully.

Ron let out an annoyed sigh and got up. "I'll go peek my head out and see what there might be to see," he said pulling on his gloves and mask.

As Ron crossed the room, headed for the spiral staircase, Kim caught movement in the corner of her eye.

"Ron!" she exclaimed.

He stopped and looked back at her, concerned.

"Walk back over here" she whispered loudly.

As he did so, he followed her gaze. The camera mounted on the ceiling of the surgical theater was tracking him.

Ron lost his temper. After changing the Lotus Blade to a medieval style mace, he smashed the glass between the observation room and the surgical theater. If the camera had audio capability, he wanted Ray to hear him very clearly.

"Ray!" he shouted, "Just thought you should know Kim's down here with me. I don't want to speak for her or anything, but judging by some of the signals she's been giving me the last few minutes, I don't think she's interested in marrying you anymore. Why don't you come down here and we'll talk about it? Bring one of your big, bad machines with you! You're gonna need its strength to help you pull my ninja boot out of your-"

At that instant, the building shook violently again. Ron hurled the mace and shattered the security camera. For the first time, Kim was seeing him as Ronin, knowing who it was under the mask.

He's actually kinda hot, she thought to herself.

"Well, they know we're in here now, there's no point in hiding." He said, still sounding a little angry.

"I guess not," she said quietly.

She gazed into his eyes. The building continued to shake and shudder, but she barely noticed now. Suddenly it occurred to her that whether or not Ron wanted to be with her again might lie in what he was about to say. Was he listening to her a few minutes ago? Did he see her as a helpless girl in need of protecting? Or would he be able to let go, and trust her to handle herself?

Stay here, his eyes said, stay safe. I will protect you and see that you come to no harm.

He raised his hand, and touched her cheek.

"Be careful," he said never taking his eyes from hers, "I don't want to lose you again, but I won't ask you to sit on the sidelines and watch either."


A very angry Ray Beam slammed his fists in rage repeatedly on the control panel. First, something had happened to the Kim Clone. Its artificial brain had been wiped completely clean. He couldn't tell exactly when this had taken place, but it was very likely the discovery of the Kim Clone was what brought Stoppable to Kim's lab. Then there was Stoppable's taunting little speech. Ron Stoppable was a weakling and a coward as well as a thief. It was so easy to thumb your nose at someone when they were a safe distance away from you.

Stealing Kim from him was the final straw. He could barely contain his rage watching her lavish the kind of attention on Ron that she never once showed to him. But when Stoppable dared him to come down to the lab…

Oh, he was coming down there all right. He was going to show Stoppable how a real man faced his enemies. Stoppable would be on his knees begging for mercy.

Ray picked up his chair and hurled it across the room with a roar.

He stepped out into the complex and flagged down the nearest clone.

"I will be taking control of this machine", he informed the drone. The clone stepped out of the Deathray suit and Ray climbed in. He made his way to the just-cleared corridor. Already a dozen Deathrays were on their way to the lab.

Ray was going to be Stoppable's lucky number thirteen.


OK, so things were going better than he'd hoped. Not that he was hoping she'd kiss him while they were trapped in her lab together. That actually caught him off guard.

Way off guard.

But it did seem to indicate she felt about him they way he felt about her. Still there was a worry on the back burner of Ron's mind. Was what just happened the result of the life threatening situation they found themselves in? Or did Kim really have those feelings for him? Less than a week ago she was engaged to someone else. On the other hand, she also thought her fiancé was a decent person, and that Ron was dead.

He watched as she walked to the top of the ramp and stood there. He wanted to tell her to hide, to let him handle things. But at the last second he realized that would not have been the Kim Possible he fell in love with. It was her confidence, her strength, her fiercely independent spirit that endeared him to her. Indeed, he actually drew strength from her, even in her absence. He realized all his missions as Ronin had been with her presence in the back of his mind. In essence, she had never left him, and it was with a sudden deep regret that he found himself wishing he'd never left her.

What could life have been like?

They wouldn't be trapped in a lab fighting for their lives. That was certain. Ron pushed those thoughts away. That way led back to self-blame and doubt. He was sorry for what he'd done, and he couldn't go back and change it.

The building shuddered as a dust cloud erupted from the corridor. The last of the debris was being cleared away.

Ron mentally kicked himself for not thinking about the lab surveillance equipment earlier. In all his excitement at finding Kim and battling the Deathrays, he'd forgotten about such details. He wondered how much of their encounter Ray might have seen. And had he heard anything?

Kim had decided to confront Deathray directly, banking on the belief that Ray wanted her alive. He'd had opportunities to get rid of her and didn't. Perhaps it was something they could use to their advantage.

More shuddering, more dust, and then the sound of slow deliberate stomping of metal on concrete. The first Deathray was coming up the ramp.

Ron tensed, ready for anything.

The machine stopped when it reached the top of the ramp, standing less than ten feet away from Kim. Then a few seconds of silence. Perhaps Deathray wasn't expecting this.

"Where is Stoppable?" it demanded.

"Where is Raymond?" she demanded back.

"I am Ra-"

"No you aren't, you're a clone! I want to talk to Raymond! The one that's not a clone!" she insisted.

A few seconds of silence and then, "He is on his way."

He wants us alive, Ron thought to himself, for the time being.

Ron was anchored to a spot on the ceiling with the claw and chain almost directly above where Kim was standing. Kim held her ground while Deathray seemed to be considering what to do next.

Ron had written off the Twins. They should have been able to cut through the titanium plating by now, but they must have been defeated by the two Deathrays that remained outside the lab the previous night. And forget the possibility that someone outside might hear what's going on. Even if he banged directly on a metal plate with something heavy, the plates were too thick to translate the sound to the outside. It looked like they were on their own, and Ron had no idea how they were going to get out of this.

"Move out of the way," Deathray ordered Kim.

"No." she answered.

The standoff continued.

Deathray seemed to be trying to figure out what to do next.

Really not the brightest clone in the circus, Ron thought.

"Our orders are not to kill you," Deathray spoke at last. "But we are not prohibited from injuring you." It raised a massive arm and swung it at Kim.

Kim vaulted out of the way, hand-springing just clear of the arm. The Deathray moved forward a few strides to allow others to get into the lab. Ron guessed the lab could hold three or four at the most. The first Deathray was just beneath him now.

Ron let himself go, twisted in the air, changed the lotus blade back to its original form and drove it deep into the lead Deathray as he landed on it. Systems began to short out, electric bolts traveled along the blade and into Ron's suit. An arm came up to swat him away. Ron leaped straight upward, calling the blade to him with one hand while discharging the stored energy at the second Deathray with the other.

The second Deathray was driven back a pace. Claw and chain again, Ron latched it to a metal rafter and swung toward the second mechanoid. Before it had a chance to react , he brought up his feet and pushed as hard as he could when he made contact. The machine topped over backward and skidded down the ramp.

The first Deathray stumbled about as it tried to recover its failing systems. Kim tried to keep it occupied, leaping around in front of it and dodging the wildly swinging arms. She had no suit, no equipment, not even a grappler. Her mind raced, trying to think of what she could use as a weapon.


Three quarters of the way down the corridor, Ray ran into a traffic jam. He accessed the central mind.

"What's the problem at the lab?" He demanded.

"There is a battle in progress, and there is not enough room for more then three, perhaps four of you." The Ray Brain answered over the audio channel.

"Pull back all but the three lead units. Order them to keep Kim and Stoppable occupied but they are not to be killed. That honor is going to be mine." Ray growled.

"Acknowledged."

Ahead of him, nine Deathray units uniformly spun around and began marching back down the corridor. Ray had to turn around and go all the way back to let them pass. This, of course, only made him angrier.


The second Deathray managed to struggle to its feet and began lumbering up the ramp again. Ron turned his attention briefly to Kim to make sure she was all right. She ran straight up the nearest wall, pushed herself off, somersaulted and landed on the first Deathray's back and shoulders. Ron dropped to the floor, ran toward Kim's position and hauled himself up to where she was.

"I can't find the latch!", she shouted, "I think they're internal."

"Get clear!" he shouted back, "Let me try something!"

Kim leaped away.

The Deathray had recovered some of its working capabilities and brought an arm up to swat Ron off. Ron drove the Lotus Blade in deep again, and again he absorbed a huge amount of electricity into the suit. The arm was coming down upon him, and instead of leaping clear, Ron leaned out of the way and let Deathray's arm slam down upon its own head. The impact drove the blade deeper, causing more damage. Ron then imagined a shield with razor sharp edges, leaped clear of the machine, and called the Blade to him. The shield ripped through the side of the mechanoid, leaving a gaping hole, sailed toward Ron and changed back to its original form just before it reached him. Ron then discharged the stored energy into the machine's wound. The Deathray stood up bolt straight, and then fell over in a thundering crash.

"Ron!"

Ron whirled around to see Kim clutched in the grasp of the second Deathray. She had been momentarily distracted by what was happening to the first, and tried to move out of the way of her captor a split-second too late. Kim kicked and struggled but to no avail.

"OK!" Ron shouted holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender, "Just take it easy."

"You will surrender now," The machine ordered, "And await the arrival of Supreme Ray."

Ron tried to hold it in, but couldn't. He burst into laughter, "I'm sorry, who?"

The machine powered up its vaporizer and brought it near Kim's head, "Do not mock us."

"Yeah, OK, you're right, it's cool…just be cool, we'll wait for," Ron coughed a couple of times trying to hide his laughter, "Supreme Ray. Any idea when he'll be here?"

Suddenly, behind Ron came a sizzling, hissing sort of sound. The machine's attention was distracted. Ron called up his trusty battle-axe and heaved it, glowing white hot. The axe sailed through the air, seeming to gain momentum as it flew. It severed the arm Kim was clutched in at the elbow.

Then quite a few things happened at once. Ron sprinted to catch Kim before she hit the floor, calling up the claw and chain. He didn't quite catch her but did manage to soften the blow.

The Deathray powered up the blaster cannon on its remaining arm and raised it to fire at Ron.

The Deathray at the bottom of the ramp began moving up into the lab.

The hissing sound was replaced by a deafening thud of metal against metal.

Ron pried open the fingers of the severed arm, and he and Kim just barely dodged blaster fire as they vaulted away. The one armed Deathray moved aside to let the third machine into the lab and trained its blaster on Kim and Ron.

Finally, one final massive thudding noise and a section of the plating fell away from the loading doors. Daylight poured into the lab. A roaring kind of scraping sound filled the lab as the hole darkened again. Sparks flew as screeching, metallic sounds emanated from the newly created hole. Ron noticed the hole was larger than it needed to be, about eight feet wide and six feet tall. For reasons he was about to discover, this was why it had taken so long for the Twins to cut through.

Ron and Kim dodged more blaster fire as the third Deathray made it to the top of the ramp and powered up its weapons.

Then, shooting out of the newly created gap in the loading dock doors came a Deathray, skidding along on its belly, propelled by its thrusters. Both its arms were stretched out in front of it. The arms raised slightly and then were brought down hard on the floor, causing the machine to launch upward. The thrusters cut off and the machine landed with a thud on its feet. Instantly, beams blazed forth from weapons on each arm. One obliterated the single-armed machine while the other drove the third Deathray back down the ramp.

Ron could see a gaping hole in the newly arrived machine where the hatch should have been.

The Twins had a new toy.

Tim came bounding through the loading doors, looking for his sister and Ron.

"Come on!", he shouted at them, waving his arms in a beckoning gesture.

Kim and Ron sprinted for the gap as Jim, using the newly acquired mechanoid, picked up the Deathray Ron had disabled earlier and tossed it at down the ramp. It knocked the third one over and both went tumbling.

Ron stopped at the gap and turned to see what Jim would do. Oddly, Jim's Deathray fell forward on its belly again, facing down the ramp. Ron had to dive out of the way as its thrusters ignited. Jim just barely managed to hop out of the cockpit before his Deathray took off, streaking and skidding down the ramp and into the corridor. It collided hard with the two Deathray suits at the bottom and drove them back along the passageway.

"Let's go!" Jim shouted, running for the hole in the wall. Ron noticed distractedly that instead of one solid titanium plate, Final Option consisted of three titanium alloy plates a foot thick each and about four inches apart. No wonder it took so long to cut even a small hole.

Jim and Ron raced out into daylight as behind them, the three Deathrays began bouncing off the wall and each other. Sparks flew, metal twisted, the suits began to break apart. Finally, rocket fuel spewed forth and the explosion was almost instantaneous.

The fireball erupted in both directions at once. Jim ignited his rocket pack and caught Ron from behind, lifting him into the air. Tim had already flown his sister to safety. Ron looked back and saw fire belch from the hole. Inside the lab, everything was incinerated; equipment, the cryo-tube, and every bit of Kim's work. The building shook violently, but was held together by the plating.


Ray was just moving out of the far end of the corridor to let the nine units behind him pass when the floor began to shake and rumble. A dull roar began to crescendo behind him. He turned and looked down the passageway to see a fireball racing in his direction, the remains of a Deathray driven before it like some macabre and mutilated surfer. Panicking, Ray turned and sprinted the machine away from the corridor.

The nine units that were just emerging from the passageway took the brunt of the impact, slamming into each other like monstrous dominoes. Most of the fuel cells held together, and only one of the units exploded, driving Ray off his feet, skidding forward.

There would be no clearing the corridor now. It was sealed permanently.

But it didn't matter.

Ray stood up and accessed the Central Brain.

"Move the schedule up. I want to be ready to launch the attack in forty-eight hours." He ordered.

"We will be short by several dozen units," The Brain informed him placidly.

"They aren't crucial anyway. Just be ready to go as I commanded."

"As you wish."

Ray cut the signal. So they had won the first two battles, but they had no idea what was coming. Soon, Kim and Ron would be trembling in fear before him anyway.

Along with the rest of the world.


Jim alighted in the clearing, setting Ron down as gently as he could. Kim and Tim were there, waiting. Having already reunited with Tim, Kim ran to her other brother and hugged him tightly.

Ron turned away from the scene, "Wade? You there?"

"Yes!", Wade said, audibly relieved, "I monitored the explosion at the lab, but somehow I knew you wouldn't get caught in it. How'd everything go? Is Kim with you?"

"Yeah, she's here, she's safe," A horrible thought occurred to Ron, "Wade, do me a favor…"

He stepped over to Kim and the boys. Kim looked at him expectantly.

"What?" she asked.

"Just…checking something," Ron muttered.

A beam emanated from the katana logo on Ron's chest and scanned Kim.

"Bad news," Wade said quietly a few seconds later.

Ron's heart leaped into his throat.

"What?" he breathed, but somehow he didn't want to know.

Wade was silent for a few more seconds.

"You could have saved a bunch of money if you'd switched your car insurance. Oh, and that's the real Kim." Wade said, laughing by the end of his sentence.

Ron angrily pulled off his mask. Kim stepped over to him.

"So am I real?" she asked lightly.

"Yes…sorry, I just had to know." He said sheepishly.

"It's all right" She reassured him, "I probably would have done the same thing."

The Twins gave each other a look. Kim seemed to be standing a little closer to Ron than one might expect when two people were standing next to each other.

"Hmmm," Jim said, stepping over and peering at Ron, "Ron? Is that lipstick on your face?"

"Oh my gosh!" Ron muttered and began wiping his mouth furiously with his sleeve.

Kim turned red, then realized something, "Hey! I'm not wearing lipstick!"

The Twins broke out in uncontrollable laughter. They laughed loud, long, and with youthful abandon. Ron whipped his hand back down to his side and pulled his mask on. Kim turned a deep crimson.

"Tweebs", Kim growled and tried to cover up a smile. It was the first time in years she'd called them that. And again, a light seemed to come on in Kim's head. The twins had never once teased or even joked around with Raymond. They were quiet, and respectful, but Raymond never seemed to have much of a sense of humor.

They could tease Ron because he knew it was a sign of affection coming from them.

In the last week, Kim had almost lost her life, and so had Ron. They had just barely managed to escape the clutches of Deathray, and didn't even know if Raymond was alive or not. But for some reason, everything in Kim's world seemed to be falling back into its proper place. She felt happier than she had in a long time. It really did feel like morning, and the holidays were beginning.

"Maybe you should get to the hospital," Ron suggested quietly, "Make sure everything's all right."

"I'll have my mom look me over," Kim said, smiling at him, "Right now I just want to be at home. You coming?"

"Later," he answered, "I should probably drop in on my parents."

"We'll call you if it turns out something's wrong with Kim," Jim said helpfully, "Like if she needs mouth-to-mouth or anything like that."

The Twins laughed again. Kim punched her brother in the shoulder.

The Ninjet came in low over the trees and hovered above the clearing. Ron climbed in and turned to look at her. She gave him a small wave. The Twins waved enthusiastically and wished him well. Then the aircraft rose up and out of sight.

The Twins airlifted Kim home.


The reunion at the Stoppable household was a joyous one. Earlier that morning, Ron's mother had called the Possibles after seeing a news story about what had happened at the wedding. Kim's mom, having had a pretty rough couple of days with the shock about Ray and the clone and all, was glad to be able to give someone some happy news. She gushed about what a hero Ron was, how he'd saved everyone at the wedding and how he and the Twins were out trying to save Kim.

The Stoppables listened in disbelief.

And they were still trying to believe it when the ninja showed up on their doorstep a little while later.

Ron took off his mask and entered the house, suddenly feeling like an awkward, goofy teenager again. He sat down at the kitchen table and told them about why he had tried to fake his death, and how sorry he was for hurting them.

The Stoppables were just glad to have their son alive and at home again, and wanted to hear all about this hero work he'd taken up. Mom made him a huge stack of pancakes, and soon the parents were listening in rapt attention as Ron described some of the missions he had undertaken as Ronin. It was well into the afternoon before they were willing to let him go anywhere.


Over the next day and a half, Ron Stoppable stood watch on the roof of the Possible house. There hadn't been a single movement from Deathray after the battle at Kim's lab, and Ron was convinced he would come for Kim at some point. The Twins agreed and the three of them decided to stand guard in shifts. Of course, Global Justice still had Middleton on alert, and Wade did occasional patrols with the Ninjet, but if somehow Deathray managed to get through all of that, Ron wanted to be there waiting for him.

Kim had every intention of being at home anyway. She felt like she needed a vacation after the daily emotional roller coaster she'd been riding since the reunion, and just wanted to lock herself in her room for awhile.

Ron gave Kim her space. Mr. Dr. Possible set up the couch in the den for Ron. Even when it wasn't his shift, he intended to be right there should anything happen. Mercifully, the Twins took the first two shifts and allowed an exhausted Ron to sleep the rest of that first day. Ron would have night duty.

Ron found that he actually enjoyed the night watch. Most of his missions were at night anyway; somehow a trained ninja didn't feel all that comfortable in the daylight. But at night, the sun went down, the stars came out, and a huge world seemed to close in around him. Deathray seemed far away. Night just seemed more peaceful. He talked with Wade a little, but Wade was working on a couple of important things and couldn't spare too much time for conversation.

About three hours into his watch, Ron heard footsteps behind him. His instincts told him they weren't the footfalls of an enemy. He took off his mask and turned around.

"You should be sleeping," he said, not meaning it, "You need your rest."

She was in her pajamas, and had thrown on some slippers and a sweatshirt. Her hair was uncombed, she had no make-up on, and her pajamas were old and threadbare. Ron couldn't remember when Kim had looked so beautiful.

"So do you", she answered sitting down beside him.

"No argument here," he said affably, "What's up?"

"Me", she said with a tired smile, "I woke up about a half hour ago and realized you were up here. And I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, so I came up to see you."

Ron smiled at her and then looked off into the night.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes.

Ron had been thinking about something for the past couple of hours and decided he wanted to share his thoughts with her.

"I love you, Kim", he said quietly.

"Ron, I don't think-"

"No," he cut her off, "Hear me out, please. I meant what I said back at the lab. I never stopped loving you. Ever. Remember the first time you said you loved me? It was at that party we had in Drakken's lair. I remember feeling so surprised at hearing you say that to me. I mean, that was the night after the prom! We'd only been dating for a day, but you told me you loved me. Why is that?"

Kim thought back to that night, "Because I knew I did. It wasn't like we just met, we'd been friends forever. When we got together, it just seemed natural. I knew I loved you, so I thought why shouldn't I tell you?"

"Exactly," Ron agreed, "I know I love you. Why shouldn't I tell you? What magical deadline do we have to reach before I can tell you how I've always felt about you? I know you're just coming off an engagement, I know you may not feel the same way… and I know the kiss at the lab may have just been a result of two people being in an intense situation… but that doesn't change how I feel about you. Nothing does."

She gazed at him. "What do you expect from me?" she asked evenly.

"Nothing." he answered instantly.

"You don't want anything from me?"

"That's not what you asked," he responded, "You asked if I expected anything from you. And the answer is 'nothing'. I don't have a right to expect anything from you. As far as I am concerned, no man has a right to expect anything from you. There isn't a man alive I can think of who's earned to the right to be with a person as great as you."

"Oh so you've consigned me to a lonely existence, then?" She joked.

"That's up to you, I suppose. But you asked what I expected. As for what I want, well, that's totally different…"

"So what do you want?" she asked after a few seconds of silence.

"Just you," he answered simply. "You, with me, for the rest of my life. I made the colossal mistake of walking away from you before. I don't know why things turned out the way they did, but you're not engaged to someone else anymore, and I would be a complete idiot if I didn't at least tell you how I feel."

She sat in silence, trying to process what he'd just said.

"Tell me about your life." Ron asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"Huh?"

"Your life," he repeated, "Tell me all about it. I've told you about the last six years of mine. Now I want to hear about yours."

And she did. And like Ron had back at the lab, she told him everything; everything she felt when he walked out, and everything she went through. She told him about the one or two missions she went on after Ron had ended things and how she felt incomplete when it came to hero work. She told him every detail of her relationship and subsequent engagement to Ray, and confessed to Ron how she'd told Ray all about him.

Ron listened to it all and only interjected once.

"Did you know Shego is involved with Ray?" he asked.

"They're working together?" Kim was shocked.

"Well, yeah, but I mean, they're involved, and I would guess they have been for some time." Ron said, allowing the true meaning of the word to sink in.

Slowly, it dawned on Kim. Then, it occurred to her that perhaps she wouldn't need to do a whole lot of processing regarding her relationship with Raymond. Between his cheating on her and becoming everything she had ever fought against her whole life, the relationship with Raymond suddenly seemed utterly devoid of any meaning whatsoever.

By the end of her story, the light was gray in the east, and the sun would soon be up. Ron didn't offer any opinions on anything she had told him and she didn't ask. Finally she yawned and stretched and said she'd probably better get some sleep.

As she got up to leave, she turned to him, took his head in her hands and kissed him. Not deeply or passionately, or even for any length of time; just a brief, warm kiss.

"What happened wasn't the result of an intense situation," she told him softly, "And I, too, meant what I said at the lab. I just wanted you to know that."

He watched her walk across the roof and hop down to the balcony below.

Throughout the rest of that day, Kim found herself trying to coordinate what little she needed to get done with getting some sleep in anticipation of spending Ron's watch with him. When she went up to visit him that night, she found him talking to her brothers.

"What's up?" she asked sitting down to join them.

"We were talking about Deathray," Jim informed her.

"We think he's up to something big," Tim added, "Which may be why we haven't seen or heard anything from him recently."

"So what do we do?" she asked.

"I think it's time we took the fight to him," Ron answered.


Early morning, and they were back at Deathray's old lair in the warehouse district. They had spent a couple of hours at Kim's lab and did some calculations based on the direction the corridor had faced and its length. If Wade's guess was correct, the corridor had ended somewhere underneath the edge of the warehouse district.

Kim was back in her old blue and white battlesuit, and had been fitted with an earpiece and microphone so she could talk to Wade. Ron was in his Ronin outfit, but he was also carrying a backpack, the contents of which he wouldn't reveal to anyone. The Twins remained outside the lair, in case Ron and Kim should find anything, ready to call in Global Justice.

"There's got to be something here" Kim insisted, "It's too much of a coincidence that the corridor should end in this area."

"I've scanned everything" Wade informed them, "I do have an idea, but I don't think Ron's going to like it."

"What is it?" Ron asked.

"I still have the sonar scans I took the night you almost drowned," Wade said, "I can take another one and compare the readings."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Ron said.

"I'm afraid in order to get an accurate comparison, you're going to have to be in the same place and position you were when I took the first scan." Wade said reluctantly.

Ron's heart began to race. He didn't pay much attention to the tank when they came in, for obvious reasons. Now he was going to have to get down and crouch in the very spot where he almost died. He looked at the tank with dread.

"We don't have to do this", Wade said quietly.

"Any other ideas?" Ron inquired. The fear in his voice was palpable.

"No, sorry." Wade responded.

Ron stepped to the edge of the tank and looked down. It looked slightly different, but it felt the same.

"OK," Ron said quietly, "Let's get this over with."

Ron climbed down into the bottom of the tank. The tension was thick. Memories of that night came flashing back through his mind. He began to sweat; his breathing was rapid.

(aw, ninja boy looks scared)

Ron knelt down at the spot where he'd been chained.

(Ray is Deathray!)

"Beginning the scan", Wade said, sounding far away.

Ron's hands shook, his heart pounded in his chest.

(Kim! I've abandoned you)

All he could see were the faces of Shego and Ray as they glowered down at him.

(I'm so sorry)

He could feel the water surging up around him, engulfing him, rushing into his lungs. Ron's head began to feel heavy.

Then, the presence of someone else.

Kim had knelt down on one knee behind him and put her hand gently on his shoulder.

"It's OK, Ron," she said soothingly, "Don't be afraid."

All the pain, all the anguish, and all the fear evaporated instantly. The tank was empty, the lair was quiet, everything was is it should be.

"OK", Wade said, "Got it. Give me a minute to analyze the readings."

They stood up, and Ron turned to look at her.

"That's twice you've saved me from this pit," He said indicating the tank, "Did I ever tell you you're my hero?"

Kim blushed, smiled and cast her eyes downward, then looked back up at him with a newfound shyness. What he said meant the world to her, and she never forgot it.

"I got something" Wade said, "I'm getting sound waves bouncing back from a location that wasn't there in the first scan. Behind you and to your right. The far corner."

Kim and Ron moved over to the spot and examined the wall. There was a bank of computers in front of it, and nothing else. Kim took a close look at the corner where the two walls met.

"This has been welded in place" she said, indicating the wall. "Wade, can you scan and see what's behind it?"

Beams emanated from Ron's chest.

"I can't tell what's behind there," Wade said, "But I can tell you it's hollow on the other side."

Kim and Ron nodded at each other. This was what they were looking for.

Wade contacted the Twins who came in with a couple of blowtorches and got to work. Sometime later, they finished cutting a hole large enough to walk through if they stooped over.

Inside, it was completely dark. The Twins turned on flashlights and shined them about. They were in a short corridor with another wall on the far end. They moved to it and heard odd noises coming from the other side. Once again, the twins got busy with their torches.

No one was prepared for what they found behind that door...


Proximity alarms. Someone was coming in through the old lair entrance. Ray pulled up a security camera image. Look who just got to the party? And right on time, too!

He accessed the central brain.

"I have the intruders on my monitors" the brain confirmed, "All units are powered up and ready to go."

"Have the extra clones converge on their position" Ray ordered.

He was ecstatic. Just a few minutes until launch and look who comes wandering in the back door. The Possible house was the first target on his list, and they had saved the trouble by delivering themselves right into his lair. This was a good sign. He would be successful today. And they would be dead.


No one said anything. They were speechless. Ron finally found words.

"Go!" he said turning to the Twins, "Get Global Justice on the alert and ready to move in!"

They nodded and left, heading back through Deathray's old lair.

Kim and Ron were still trying to absorb what they were seeing.

They were standing on the edge of a massive cavern-like room roughly the size of a European soccer stadium. There was a long ramp that led downward away from them to the center of the floor below. On the bottom surface of the cavern were thousands and thousands of Deathray mechanoids, all lined up in perfect symmetry. Directly in the center of the floor was a large, black metallic rectangular box, connected to dozens of smaller similar boxes surrounding it. Just on the other side of the network of metallic boxes stood a gigantic Deathray. It was the size of a five story building, and bristling with every kind of weapon imaginable. The floor seemed to be covered with some kind of reflective metal.

There wasn't an army on earth that would be able to stand up to this.

"Wade," Kim asked, "Is that thing you've been working on ready to go?"

"Uh, yeah" Wade said dumbfounded. He couldn't believe what he was seeing either. "Just tell me when you're ready."

"Looks like Raymond's been busy for quite a few months", Kim said.

"With an army of clones, I'm sure the work went quickly," Ron responded.

They stood there, unsure of what to do next.

"KIM!" came a booming voice over a p.a. system, "RON! Welcome to my party!"

"Why do they always have a p.a. system?" Ron asked her.

Behind them, a huge metal plate slid into place over the door they had just cut through. They were trapped.

"You know," boomed the overhead voice, "I really didn't think you'd be stupid enough to come on your own accord. But look who I'm talking to; the buffoon and the world's dumbest Nobel Prize winner."

Overhead, the hum of engines and machinery, the cranking of gears. A crack seemed to appear in the ceiling. Daylight spilled into the enormous room. The roof slowly withdrew in two directions like a retractable dome on a baseball stadium.

From their vantage point above, it appeared to the pilots of the Global Justice patrol helicopters that the warehouse district had suddenly split in half and was sliding outward in opposite directions.

Kim looked at Ron. He seemed to have a far away look in his eye.

"Ron?"

"It's all right, KP," she hadn't heard that in years, "Trust me."

"It flatters me that you've come for a front row seat," The voice droned on, "I'll be sending some of my assistant around to help you get where you need to go."

Kim looked and saw roughly a dozen clones closing in on them from all sides. Incredibly, Ron began walking down the ramp.

"Now, if you'll excuse me," shouted a voice from the center of the room. Ray Beam was on come kind of hover craft, floating toward the head of the supersized Deathray. "I've a world to conquer. And just so you know, I'll be starting with the complete and utter destruction of Middleton. I hope you said goodbye to your families this morning."

And at this, Ray Beam actually let loose with a maniacal laugh. Frankly, it would be too embarrassing to try and describe it.

Ron stopped halfway down the ramp and took out the Lotus Blade. He held it aloft before him.

"Surrender now, Deathray!" He shouted, "This will be your only chance to go peacefully."

Ray stepped into the gigantic mechanoid and powered up. He might have vaporized them right there, but he wanted them to watch as he made their families and loved ones suffer, as the world bowed to him in trembling and fear. He decided their deaths would come last.

Ron turned to Kim, "You'll know when to give Wade the signal."

Kim wasn't entirely sure what he was talking about, but said nothing. Ron looked so strange, as though his mind were a million miles away.

The clones began to close in. Ron remained unmoved, holding the Lotus Blade up before him. It began to glow a bright white.

The retractable ceiling finally finished opening. On cue, with a deafening roar, more than ten thousand Deathrays ignited their thrusters. The giant fifty-foot tall Deathray began lifting off from the ground. Slowly it struggled to get into the air.

Ron remained standing perfectly still. He let go of the Lotus Blade, and it hovered in the air before him.

Kim turned her attention to the clones. Whatever Ron was doing, he would need some protection. The clones advanced, and Kim went to work. A quick hand-spring up the ramp and a leap into the air, she took down two clones; one with each foot. She landed, threw a quick right hand at another and then backed off a couple of paces. Turning, she saw three coming up the ramp, almost upon Ron. Kim took three running steps and dropped, sliding down the ramp feet first. She threw her legs up and took out two, grabbing the third by his leg and pulling him down. A hard elbow to his chest and he didn't get up again.

Back and forth Kim went. Up the ramp, driving the clones back, and then down, driving back more. Jabs, quick punches, round house kicks, flying kicks. Not one clone made it within reach of Ron Stoppable.

Ron stood perfectly still, his mind filled with one thing. The Lotus Blade flew straight out away from him and seemed to dissipate somehow, as if it were made of mist or fog.

The gigantic Deathray began to pick up speed. The entire cavern shook with the roar of ten thousand mechanoids launching into the air.

In the place where the Blade should have been, appeared an intangible, swirling, almost misty image of a flower; a lotus. White with its petals closed. The Lotus began to grow and expand, though it never took on solid form. Always it appeared as a misty apparition. It flew straight at the gigantic Deathray, continuing to grow. As it approached the behemoth machine, its petals spread open. Like an enormous, lotus-shaped hand, its petals enclosed and curled around Deathray, halting his upward progress. Slowly it turned in mid-air. Deathray increased power to his thrusters but seemed unable to work against the might of the Lotus. Finally, the Lotus was turned downward; holding the gigantic Deathray facing belly up toward the sky.

"NOW, WADE!" Kim screamed as she took down two clones.

"Good luck," Wade said in her ear, "See you two on the other side."

Hurtling out of the heavens, a black blur against a blue sky, the Ninjet streaked straight downward moving almost faster than the human eye could follow. The aircraft bulleted through the open roof and obliterated itself against the gigantic Deathray, splitting the mechanoid in two at the mid-section. The wreckage of the jet thundered downward.

Wade had constructed an Electromagnetic Pulse Disruptor and strapped it into the cockpit of the Ninjet. Originally he was going to set the craft down near the opening of the old lair and off the EMP, but when he saw the roof slide open, he decided to change plans. Crashing into the gigantic Deathray was a last second decision. Immediately after the collision, he triggered the device.

Suddenly the air appeared to ripple outward from the wreckage of the Ninjet in ever widening arcs. There was a deep, throbbing, deafening hum after which all sound seemed to instantly cease, as though the very sound waves were sucked out of the air.

The EMP waves spread out in all directions, ultimately reaching up to a mile radius.

Everything electronic within that radius instantly shut down.

Deathrays began dropping out of the air like a massive metallic hail storm. Four units managed to get beyond the pulse, and GJ helicopters, which had been pulled back in anticipation of the EMP, took off in pursuit.

Kim grabbed Ron's arm and sprinted back up the ramp. Deathrays fell and exploded all around them. Several fell on the ramp in front of them but tumbled over the side. The two sections of the gigantic Deathray slammed back to the floor of the cavern with an earth-rumbling crash.

Most of the clones died on impact, but many survived long enough to realize their electronic latch mechanisms were useless and perished in flames. Neither Ray nor the Central Ray Brain had thought to delete any of the pain receptors in the central brain or any of the sub-brains. Every ounce of pain the clones felt was transferred back along the network. The sub-brains began to overload and short out due to the overwhelming amounts of pain they received and had to process. The Central Brain disconnected itself form the Network and broadcast a signal that would only be received by relatively healthy clones. In the end, some fifty clones survived.

Much later, Wade would speculate correctly that the reason the Central Ray Brain and the clone signals were unaffected by the EMP was thanks largely to the ultra low frequency the Central Brain was broadcasting. Since the floor of the massive cavern was covered with a reflective metal, the signal was amplified a million times over and thus was unaffected by jamming equipment or the EMP. The Central Brain and its power source were housed in the same type of experimental titanium alloy the Twins had used at Kim's lab, therefore it, too was unaffected by the EMP.

In addition, because the receivers in each of the clones' skulls worked on the same type of electric neurological energy as the human brain, they remained unaffected.

Ron seemed to come out of his daze when they reached the top of the ramp. One or two Deathrays were still plummeting out of the sky. They disintegrated on impact with the floor and erupted in flame. Parts of the cavern floor were engulfed in an immense conflagration. Flames reached far into the sky. Ron retrieved the backpack and unzipped it, showing the contents to Kim. She looked at him with an amused smile.

"Are you serious?" she asked.

"Absolutely, KP", he said, grinning at her.

The central Brain called all healthy clones to it. Slowly they assembled close to the Brainbox. The Ray Brain was furious at the one who called himself 'Supreme Ray'. He should have vaporized Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable when he had the opportunity. And though the Brain was angry with Ray, it was unable to do anything about it. As an insurance measure, Ray had written in an inhibitor file that prevented the Brain from rising up against its master.

So the Brain turned its thoughts to instant vengeance. Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable had thwarted Ray's plans for world conquest almost before they had begun. But they would pay, and pay dearly. They had last been seen at the top of the ramp. The clones turned their attention, and there they were, actually descending the ramp toward them. The clones fanned out in a large semi-circle.

Ron and Kim felt ten years melt away from their lives. The contents of the backpack were having their intended psychological effect on both of them. There was no fear in either of them, no timidity, no hesitation. They walked down the ramp as if they owned that lair.

And what was in the backpack?

Two pairs of charcoal gray Club Banana cargo pants, and two black three-quarter sleeve military style sweaters. Kim's sweater, of course, was short at the midriff, leaving it bare.

Ron knew the battlesuits would be useless once the EMP was triggered. And if they put on their old mission clothes, that might just give them the mental edge they needed to walk out of this alive.

Team Possible was back, baby.

The Central Brain chuckled, the laugh manifested itself through each of the clones. Fifty clones chuckling the exact same chuckle; the effect was eerie and creepy.

Admittedly, Ron and Kim were still a bit nervous. They hadn't really gone up against fifty opponents in hand-to-hand combat. But the only way to get to the Ray Brain was through them.

"Isn't this amusing," said the fifty clones in unison, "The teen heroes have returned for one final showdown. I am going to make you wish you had perished in the flames. You can't possibly expect to come out of this alive. After all, the odds are fifty against two."

Suddenly, into their midst dropped a raven-haired, blazing green, unbridled fury. Her fists flared up with jaded fire.

"Fifty against three", she said coldly.