"What are you talking about? I'm right here," Kim faked after recovering from the initial shock of Lee's question.
"Don't play dumb with me. I want to know where my sister is!"

Kim sighed. There was no point in more lies.

"The truth is- I'm Kim Possible. You might have seen me on the news before."

Lee gasped. "The Kim Possible, as in teen hero who saves the world!"

"Frequently." Kim said modestly.

"If you're really Kim Possible, then why are you impersonating Natalia?"

"Oh, about that. Your sister was…kidnapped, I'm afraid."

Lee's expression changed from confusion to fear.

"Don't worry," the redhead added quickly. "We're going to find her as soon as we can. That's why I'm here, to investigate the palace. And the Baron Adriana's after is really my partner, Ron Stoppable."

"Which explains the closet incident," Lee began to understand.

"In order to find your sister, I'll need to stick around for a little while longer. So it would help if you-"

"Could play along? Don't worry, Kim. I'll make sure no one finds out about this. The tabloids would play up the whole thing."

Kim was amazed at how quickly the other girl caught on.

"I have a question," she spoke from her canopy bed a few minutes later.

"How did you find out? None of the other girls realized I'm not their sister."

"Nattie and I have a… special bond. I noticed you were acting different. By the way, last night when I mentioned Loretta going through our stuff, none of it was true. I was testing you."

"So you knew all this time?" It was news to the teen hero.

"Yes. And Nattie never says goodnight. We use Latin half the time."

There were still other things Kim didn't understand about the island, like the whole excitement- over-meeting-the-queen thing.

"We don't see their Highnesses all that often," Lee explained with a hint of resentment in her voice. "You know how it is with monarchies- riots, power struggles, all that nasty stuff."

"Why doesn't anybody do something about it?" After all, she didn't save the world just so people could created problems in it.

"We're trying. You see, the king and queen are sort of divided on the issue. The empire has tons of senseless ancient rules, like we aren't allowed to refer to our parents as Mom and Dad. The queen wants to end the royal dynasty, maybe even start a republic or something. She's leading what they call the Northern Alliance."

Kim was getting interested. "And your fa- I mean, the king?"

"He doesn't want to give up his power. Not even for the good of the economy or the Byzantine people. King Leopold's not a bad ruler or anything, he's been making changes from within the royal government-"

"-But they can't get rid of the ancient code unless the monarchy ends."

"Exactly! You think a lot like Nattie, Kim. The Northern and Southern Alliances have torn our family apart. Saara, Izzy, and I side with the queen. Adriana, of course, wouldn't give up her heir-to-the-throne title for the world, and Ali and Merisa follow her lead like lost puppies."

"For twins, you and Merisa don't agree on much," Kim thought of her brothers.

"Tell me about it."

"And what about Nattie?"

"She's pretty much stuck in the middle. She believes in our cause, but she feels guilty over betraying the king. Nattie's his favorite. She likes to keep everyone happy."

'Not an easy task,' Kim related.

"We'd better get to sleep. You have no idea what's in store for tomorrow. Ugh- Sundays!"

Kim was too sleepy to care what she meant.

Hope you enjoyed.