Previously on Kim Possible;

At long last, the signal he had waited for! For too long, the mad genius had been without his army of loyal and utterly perfect robot servants. For years, their presence in the world without their creator to guide them had taunted him. "Shego! The most amazing thing has just happened," he barked over the P.A system. Not wasting her opportunity to make fun of her employer, the pale girl laughed derisively before taking the microphone. "Ooh! Let me guess... You ordered five CDs for a dollar and they're all good ones?"

"It'll be okay, Ron. I mean, look at it. With a bed this big, we couldn't possibly do anything in the middle of the night." Measuring the size of the double bed against his and Kim's own rough measurements, Ron merely nodded softly. "Y'know, if this is too awkward for you I'll sleep on the kid's bed and Rufus can just have a pillow. Besides, KP, don't you already plan to share your bed with someone you brought with you?"

"We kissed because I finally realized something, Ron. I've had real feelings for you since before the whole thing with the Moodulator. I don't know what made them stronger, whether it was artificial or not, but I think our friendship has blossomed." Deep inside him somewhere, Ron knew that was right. It was true and it was real. Only together could these two face the uncertain future, and they began to draw each other into another kiss as the sun began to set outside.


Kim pulled away from Ron's lips slowly and reluctantly, keeping him close as she rose from the comfortable double bed. Pulling the young man quickly to the floor, she signalled to Rufus and instructed him to take the Kim-municator and call for help. Perpetually confused, Ron lifted himself up from beside Kim for barely a second before the indistinct shadow that passed over their window paused... "Ron, would you get back down here," Kim hissed before pulling on the hem of his signature red jersey. The shadow outside seemed to grow fainter, slightly fuzzy around the edges. "See, Kim? Nothing to worry about, they haven't..." Suddenly, an all too familiar droning hum filled the room and two of the nightmarish fem-bot creatures slid into the exquisitely-furnished suite accompanied by a hail of flying glass shards. "Your attempts to confuse our sensors have ended in failure, Kim Possible. Bebe has adapted, Bebe can not be deterred from her mission." With the last of the broken glass now scattered about the floor and the smaller child-size bed, Kim gestured for Ron to grab his shoes from the side of their bed and stay behind her. With cold, impassive green eyes she surveyed the damage that these evil robots had managed to cause in their unorthodox entrance. Her heart fell as she saw the tiny creature on the bed, punctured by a single shard of razor-sharp glass...

"What is it, KP? Did something happen to – " Cut off, Ron found himself caught in the full glare of Kim's "resolve face" and began to shrink away from her in the grip of overpowering terror. Facing the Bebes with tears welling up in her eyes again, Kim stalked toward the Bebe robot to her right with Ron's jersey still clutched in her bare hand. Still wearing the jersey, Ron tried his best to dig his heels into the floor and keep Kim out of harm's way, protesting loudly to no avail. She didn't listen, but she soon released him and issued a simple command. "Get out of here now."

"But, what about...?" Ron pointed vaguely in the direction of the bathroom door, still wide open. Clenching her fists and taking the Bebes on yet again, Kim had stopped listening to him. She only wanted to protect him from these things, and he loved that. Ron Stoppable would never have another friend quite like Kim Possible, and he couldn't bear to watch her fight another battle without him by her side, even if it meant the loss of his own life in the process. Standing proudly and raising a fist to the skies, Ron made a conscious attempt to reach inside of himself and drag out the secret power of the one thing he hated and feared most. After trying variations on the Power Rangers' morphing call, the Green Lantern oath, Captain Marvel and He-Man's own magic words, Stoppable ran into the bathroom and attempted to tug the solid metal towel rail from the wall to use as a makeshift weapon. Surprised and overjoyed to see his little naked mole rat buddy safe and alive, Ron shared a weary "business as usual" look with Wade on the tiny screen and sat with Rufus to work on a strategy to get around the Bebes' adaptability. "Rufus, man, I'm glad you're alright. But what was that on the bed?" Miming, Rufus held his fingers up at either side of his head to suggest long ears, and then began to hop around. "Panda-Roo gone," Rufus squeaked as Ron went to work following Wade's instructions.

The Lipsky family residence; Lowerton, Illinois:

His daughter was halfway across the country having the time of her life, Dr. Jonathan Possible kept reassuring himself on the trip down to check on an old "acquaintance". Why, then, did it feel like his poor little Kimmie-cub was in over her head? With a weary sigh, he climbed out of his wife's car and approached the unassuming two-bedroom bungalow to reach for the doorbell. Joining him in the hope of lending some moral support, Andrea giggled like a schoolgirl as she looked around. "Oh, I'm sorry, dear. But just look at this place, and look at us." Watching someone inside moving, Andrea forced a cheery grin and prepared herself for an entire afternoon in the company of a slightly senile yet well-meaning old lady. However, when the door opened, the Possibles found themselves staring into the cold, dark eyes of a mad genius...

"KIM POSSIBLE? Wait, have you cut your hair or...? Also, you seem slightly more mature than I remember," Dr. Drakken had gone from enraged to confused in about a quarter of a second, looking over Andrea one last time just to make sure. Turning, Drakken fled deep into the bowels of his mother's quaint little suburban home with a panicked squeal; he was just going to have to leave this to Shego. Marching down the stairs that led to the attic, the evil sidekick regarded the two new arrivals coolly as they both folded their arms and stood on the porch impatiently.

"I'm sorry, but haven't I seen the two of you somewhere before," Shego asked with a suspicious gleam in her dark emerald eyes; already noticing a distinct family resemblance. Wiping his feet, Jonathan extended a hand to her and introduced himself and his wife before explaining that they were the parents of the fiery-haired thorn in Drakken's side, Kimberly Anne Possible. From the utility closet, Drakken bellowed and shook a fist in the air, "What are you waiting for? Liquidate them, Shego!" Unfortunately, the girl was having none of this, and she gave Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Possible a smile that was already bordering on sweet as she stormed into the closet to listen to another one of her employer's rants.

"Shego? You're not liquidating... Something's up, isn't it? A-ha, I knew it," Drakken exclaimed while Shego just yawned and rolled her eyes at him. "Yes! I will use Kim Possible's own parents as the perfect bargaining chip to... They can hear every word through the closet door, can't they, Shego?" Without another word to Drakken, Shego opened the utility closet and was taken aside by Jonathan while Andrea rolled up her sleeves and stepped into the closet to have a few "words" of her own with Drakken. "Now then... Ah, it's Shego, isn't it? Yes, of course. I'm sorry we just barged in on you without calling first, but we're rather concerned about something." Always quicker on the uptake than Drakken, Shego merely listened and gave Dr. Possible a nod of acknowledgment. She'd only just learned about Drakken's history with the Bebe robots, and the end of that story always raised a laugh out of her, no matter how many times she would hear it. "Kimberly and Ronald are stuck in Las Vegas right now, and these robots of Drew's are hunting them down as we speak." Half-listening to the sounds of a vicious beat-down in progress in the utility closet, Shego let that sweet smile turn ever so slightly wicked as she commented, "Wow, so that's where little Kimmie's moves came from..." As Jonathan sighed, he prepared for a very long evening and found himself wishing he'd brought a newspaper.

Meanwhile, back in Las Vegas:

It had taken some serious improvisation on Wade's part, but he'd finally come up with the perfect solution to Kim and Ron's situation, after Ron had agreed to have his voice and likeness scanned into the Kim-municator's holographic projection software. The bathroom door swung open and the image of Ron stepped out, bawling and hysterical. "Kim, go tell Rufus that everything's gonna be alright! I'll deal with things here..." And then, with a seemingly superhuman burst of speed, the image raced toward the shattered window and dove forward with uncommon grace and agility. Fixed on their priority target's visual image, the Bebe drones didn't have time to scan "Ron" for anything irregular as they followed him all the way out into the bright lights of Vegas. Tumbling down the side of the massive pyramid as the hologram faded from sight, both Bebes reported back to their central command structure to inform the others of their failure, and also the clever holographic trick played on them by the humans. Already programming themselves to adapt and prepare the other Bebes for this subterfuge, neither unit bothered to adapt to the fact that they were now crumpled in a heap on the back of a large Sphinx sculpture. Already called to the scene of the break-in, hotel security and the local police force were as confused as the team working at the airport. Kim reached into her case and pulled out a loudhailer. Checking the batteries were fresh, she began to call down to the cops and security.

"Don't panic, everything is under control here. Just a minor robot-related sitch, we'd be more than happy to clean it up, folks!" Pulled aside by Ron, Kim blasted him in the face with a question before remembering to turn off the loudhailer and put it down; looking into those warm brown eyes as only a young lover could. Clearing his ears out first, Ron spoke as he moved to sit down on the edge of their bed. "Okay, first; you pack a loudhailer for a trip to Vegas?" Replying, Kim shot him a raised-eyebrow "what kind of girl doesn't?" glance before she laughed, "Secondly, right about now you're craving monster Nacos?" Linking arms with his friend-who-is-a-girl, no, his girlfriend; Ron made some space on his shoulder for Rufus as he remarked, "How well she knows me."

The clean-up operation went ahead as planned, Kim theorizing that analyzing the Bebe's brain could teach them something. Conferring with Wade while Ron sorted through the piles of dead metal, holding up all the undamaged circuits and chips that he found, Kim was beginning to grow suspicious. "Wade, the last time this sort of thing happened, Bonnie was in control of the hive. You remember?" She couldn't tear her eyes away from Ron, working away in the heap of junk spread all over the smooth granite floor; and Wade certainly never missed a thing, commenting, "Got it bad for each other, haven't you?" Not offended in the slightest by his remarks, Kim replied, "This trip's been very good for him, and, well... Anyway, let's get back to the business at hand here?"

"Would you like me to hook up to one of the robot's heads and try to access her core programs?" Wade queried as Ron turned the head over to Kim, the three of them looking for a likely port to jack the Kim-municator into. Polite to a fault, Kim nodded her head lightly as she spoke. "Please and thank-you!" Giving her a little smile once they were away from the crowds, Ron pulled at a tangle of wires spilling from the clean break in the Bebe robot's neck joint, plugging the most likely one in and leaning back against a convenient pillar.

"Kim, I don't get it. I know the robots were connected to Bonnie, but what does that have to do with me? Does she actually want me dead or something?" Normally, the mean-spirited barbs fired from Bonnie Rockwaller's infamous acid tongue were met with Ron's laughter, figuring it was just some kind of playful camaraderie on her part. Now, his brain telling him that it really was something serious, he reached for Kim's hand and just let her presence comfort him...

"Ron, if it were anybody else I would tell you that you're just being irrational. But, you know... Bonnie? I'd feel safer cheering alongside Shego!" That seemed to have the desired effect on Ron, his crestfallen look vanishing in the twinkle of an eye. His face split into a broad smile as he loosely wrapped his arms around Kim's shoulders, falling onto her in the grip of hysterical laughter. Joining him, Kim laughed heartily as she found herself imagining Shego jostling with Bonnie for the space at the top of a pyramid, her dreamy bottle-green eyes drawn into Ron's boyish and innocent charm. "Oh, imagine it, Ron... Bonnie and Shego. They'd end up damn-near killing each other, and God help me..." Pausing, Kim laid a hand over her heart before she spoke again. "I'd end up having to break it up before they did each other any permanent damage."

It had taken him some time to decrypt the instructions still being sent to the Bebe drone's brain, Wade forgetting that he'd installed the relevant software on the only computer in the "nerve centre" that wasn't wired up to the internet. Luckily for Kim and Ron, they'd spent the last couple of minutes cracking jokes at Bonnie's expense on their way to the food court level of the hotel. When Wade chimed in again, he laid it all down for them; the Bebe hive was fixated on connecting Ron to their neural network as per the request of their former Queen Bonnie, instantly causing Ron to recall a familiar Star Wars plotline.

"Uh-oh... Kim, do you remember the Thrawn trilogy? In particular, The Last Command?"

"Oh, please, Ron... Those new characters were so awful! Stupid Mara 'look at me, I can do anything!' Jade and her perfect red-gold hair, the way they teased the romance between her and Luke Skywalker all the time..." Sitting across from Kim as she picked out croutons from her salad and used them to soak up her dressing, Ron laughed out loud before interjecting.

"And the biggest villain was just some blue guy, like they couldn't come up with anything better?" Lightly kicking his shins under the table, Kim warned her partner not to steer their conversation into dangerously geeky territory, only a few squeaks of protest from Rufus. They were at a loss for something to talk about over this moment of light snackage, so they naturally tried to avoid the touchy subject of feelings until Ron blurted it out, surprisingly enough.

"I think we could make this work, you know? You, me, together..." He was even beginning to blush as he drew a heart around the initials K.P. & R.S. in his nacho cheese using the edge of a tortilla, Rufus grumbling and chattering quietly for some reason. Taken entirely by surprise, Kim briefly turned her attention to the tiny rodent and picked him up to let him whisper in her ear. Oddly enough, she found herself understanding every "word" that the naked mole rat jabbered, probably as a side-effect of being around Ron. Apparently, Rufus was feeling very sorry for Kim since she'd lost her beloved Panda-Roo, and he certainly wasn't shy about telling her. Stroking him and reaching under to tickle his belly, Kim reassured her little friend that finding something to cuddle up to in bed wasn't exactly going to be hard.

"Aw, that's cute. But, Kim, there's still the little matter of you and me. And you're talking about snuggling in b..." Both Rufus and Kim knew that Ron was much smarter than he pretended to be, or that he could be if only he applied himself properly. It didn't take him too long to figure this one out, that freckled face splitting into a puckish grin as his eyes narrowed slowly... Then the laugh followed, sounding reedy and nervous at first until it abruptly ended. The Luxor's own IMAX movie theatre was blown open, the façade crumbling away to reveal a lone Bebe drone, outfitted in a mockery of Kim's mission gear.

"Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me... It looked cute on my little cousin but this is ridiculous!" The thing also shared her likeness, Kim's keen intellect already speculating some kind of deeper meaning behind this not-exactly flattering imitation...


This chapter is dedicated to Mark Hamill. Surprisingly enough, Mark was never involved with Kim Possible in any way until this particular dedication, I just wanted to dedicate something to him. Please, when you review this chapter, take note of the fact that I am fully aware of the irony present in the digs at Timothy Zahn's Star Wars books. Otherwise, I would not have written them at all.