Drakken's heli-carrier, currently en route to Las Vegas, present day.

Ordering Shego to keep their prisoners from escaping while he resumed his search for the frequency his Bebe army used to communicate with one another, Doctor Drakken found himself absent-mindedly sketching the giant taco sign from Bueno Nacho. The evil applications of such a construction were mind-boggling, but alas, it would have to wait for another day. Shego, meanwhile, was spending her time pulling up a background check on Ron Stoppable under the pretence that Drakken needed to know his enemy. Neither Jonathan Possible nor his wife was convinced, and he spoke to the girl in his usual fatherly manner.

"Ronald's a wonderful boy, Shego. He's always been right where Kimberly needs him, and recently they've been having unusual feelings for one another. You wouldn't happen to be jealous now, would you?" Lashing out at the air in front of him, Shego glared furiously as her powers flared up, hissing a threat to the man through clenched teeth.

"If you ever dare to tell anybody, and I mean anybody, what I'm about to tell you…" Pausing for emphasis, she drew a glowing green line just scant inches from Andrea's forehead before continuing, "Then Mrs. Possible is going to be bringing her work home with her, you get me?" With a chillingly calm smile spreading across her face, Mrs. Dr. Possible relaxed and took her husband's hands into her lap, replying to Shego's threat totally without fear.

"If you come near any of us, I doubt that Kimmie would be held responsible for what she'd do. Now please, just tell us, and I promise that my husband and I will keep your little dirty secret…" Drawing the couple closer, Shego let her burning green flames die down before she exhaled calmly.

"Okay, about this Ron kid… Now, you won't even tell his mom and dad that you know?" Something in Shego's eyes had changed, the diamond hardness of her callous exterior stripped away to reveal a girl no older than Kim and Ron themselves… Letting her continue, the Possibles silently agreed as they huddled closer together.

Bebe hive complex below Alkali Lake, Nevada.

Kim Possible was also searching for intimacy among the cold sterile walls of the machine-hive, their shopping trip cut short before the police had to be called in. Safe in the knowledge that the rest of the hive left her and Ron alone to get on with their lives, she reached into the pocket of her favourite Capri pants to withdraw her Kim-municator and turn it on.

"Kim, thank God it's you! Everybody's been going crazy! Your mom and dad drove all the way to Lowerton to find Drakken, and now they're…" Cutting him off, Kim explained that she'd taken a very bizarre phone call earlier that morning just as Ron emerged from the labyrinthine corridors of the hive to casually greet the young super-genius.

"Wade! Hey, do the folks know that I'm alright? I've been callin' them ever since I got my phone back, but I always get a busy signal here…" It wasn't that he didn't trust the Bebes, and they certainly trusted him… He made them trust him, and that was the problem. Free will was something Ron always took for granted, and seeing Kim controlled that way scared him absolutely senseless. Wade casually informed the pair that Ron's folks were being kept informed, only not by him; leading Kim to take the conversation down a totally different alley with a cheerful smile.

"You're going to love all this stuff I got you, Wade. Ron just wanted to get you a bathrobe from the SkyMall catalogue, but I convinced him to save his money… What?" Leaning forward in his chair, Wade was watching Kim with a curious expression that she knew all too well. It was the same look that the Tweebs shared with her dad, an expression of pure scientific curiosity. Ron gave him the look right back, raising a brow before explaining,

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot! I have this really awesome scar now; it makes me look totally badical, don'cha think?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry Ron. Yeah, you got a good thing going there. Now, can you guys just tell me what happened to you?" With that gentle smile still in place, Kim lifted the Kim-municator to pan around the inside of the hive; watching the expression on his face change from slight scientific curiosity to full-on geek-gasm in a matter of seconds.

"Ron decided that he just got tired of running away, I guess," Kim said with a sigh. The young man certainly tried his best to hide it, but deep down inside Kim could see just how scared her best friend really was. What comfort could these cold metal machines possibly offer to him? Inviting Ron to the spot beside her on the floor, Kim gave Wade a dreamy sultry look before she turned off the Kim-municator. Joining her, Ron set Rufus on his knees and pushed his hair out of the way of his new scar with a grin. Very lightly, Kim traced the line of knitted flesh with the tip of her index finger and winced sympathetically…

Flinching and shivering ever so slightly, Ron half-closed his eyes and turned his face away from Kim, but he still watched her hands moving with those weird chrome fingernails… Not so long ago today, they would have given him a few more scars, or worse; but it wouldn't be Kim's fault at all. Looking back to her with a soft smile creeping to the corners of his mouth, Ron moved closer to let his nose touch the tip of Kim's own cute little button nose while Rufus jumped across to rest on Kim's shoulder and sigh happily. Eyes closed simultaneously, the rest of the world melted slowly away around them and Ron could hear the fireworks already; his lips moving into position over Kim's. And in an instant, her thoughts trickled into his, the two minds mingling.

"Ron?"

"Yes, Kim?"

"I won't lie to you, okay? Just promise me you won't get upset…" Outside this cyber-telepathic exchange, their bodies had surrendered to the mutual need for intimacy while the Bebe drones analyzed Rufus closely.

"Upset? What are you talking about, KP? I'm here with ya; we've got no reason to be upset about anything."

"That's just it, Ron. We're together, and I do love you, but…"

"Yeah, I'm scared too. But you know, we could keep it a secret."

"Alright, back it up there, Darth Vader. I've seen you go full-on evil and I didn't like it one bit." In that instant, the kiss and the rest of their mental connection were broken, Ron looking into Kim's eyes with a raised brow.

"I'm not gonna turn out that way, I promise. We've been tighter than the pants on a whole '80s hair-metal band all our lives, near enough," Ron laughed in response to Kim's Darth Vader comment, giving her his best impersonation of Hayden Christensen's brooding smouldering glance.

"See, I can't even do the thing where his eyes go all freakish. Nothin' to worry about…" Laughing out loud in each other's arms, Ron and Kim slowly drew closer and were just about to kiss again when the familiar Kim-municator chime reverberated around the back of his skull. An odd sensation, and not entirely unpleasant, this was clearly the result of the Bebe hive trying to do some good in the world. Letting Kim take the call, Ron moved to help out with Rufus; it looked as if he was being measured for something that Ron couldn't quite see. Fearing the worst, Stoppable politely asked the drones to step aside and let him look. Squeaking and jabbering, Rufus stood up on his hind legs and modelled the soft white towelling robe that one of the Bebes was helping him into, a shocking pink blister-card package opened out next to him.

"Well, look at yourself there, little man! Very sophisticated…" And with that, the two party-animals shot mutual gun-finger gestures at one another and winked, making clicking sounds with their tongues. Beckoning Ron and Rufus back over, Kim instructed Wade to pull the Kim-municator's camera back a few inches to show them something incredible…

Middleton Municipal Park.

"Wade? Are you playing or not, man?" Looking up from the screen of his laptop computer, Wade Load ran his fingers through the short mass of black curls that made up his hair and gave a shrug to the two identical teenage boys leaning against the back of his bench. "Hey, look! There's Kim," Jim Possible shouted as he gave the nod to his brother Tim; who signalled for a time-out to let Wade do his thing.

"Hi Kim, Ron," the twins chorused as their big sister rolled her green eyes at them and whispered privately to Ron. Joining his fellow players, Felix Renton pushed himself up and out of the seat of his wheelchair slightly until he could feel his feet touch the ground. Crouching down and using his hands to steady himself, he began to rummage through the insulated bag sat at everybody's feet, tossing cold bottles of Quench-Ade to each of the guys and stretching back up to sit down with his own drink.

"Wha's up with you, J & T? Were you callin' a time-out because you're afraid of the competition?" Felix laughed as he poured some of the popular sports drink over his head and into his open mouth, Wade shaking his head and showing his laptop screen to their older friend by way of an answer. In typical high spirits, Tim and Jim both shook up their bottles and sprayed each other with most of the contents, Wade wiping the odd droplet from his screen every now and then as he gave Felix the low-down.

"Aren't those the robots you were talking about? The ones that were stealing heavy industrial machinery so they could make their own assembly line last year?" Felix asked as he experimentally raised his legs one after the other. Taking a swig of Quench-Ade as the figures of Kim and Ron on his screen left the camera's field of vision; Wade nodded curtly as he swilled the sweet, bright blue liquid around his mouth.

"Yeah, they tried to jack your mom's lab for circuitry before Kim pulled the plug on them," the slightly dark-skinned youth casually remarked as Felix unfolded a pair of sunglasses to polish the lenses. Wade continued, explaining,

"They seem to want Ron to lead them, strangely enough. No, I'm being serious. Quit laughing…"

"Sorry, man. Sorry… But, Ron, and robot chicks? I should never have shown him that Sorayama portfolio," Felix sighed.

"Hey, Ron's been a one-woman man since the day I met him. He just won't admit it to himself," Wade replied with a knowing smile.

Wade, Felix and the Tweebs were soon drawn back into Kim and Ron's new situation, sitting and staring in horrified silence as Kim recounted the story of how she lost control of herself for a minute or so, and it took a single moment of happiness to return her to normal.

"It's probably not my place to say it, Kim. But that sounds kinda corny. Sort of an over-simplified love conquers all explanation…" Wade trailed off as Kim shot a withering glance at him, eventually admitting, "Alright, so maybe you might be onto something. But just make sure Ron doesn't get in over his head, okay?" Nodding politely, Kim gave Wade a little smile before she picked up the sound of a single Bebe voice intoning "Warning, Ron Stoppable. System error…" Sharing a wide-eyed look of concern with Wade and the rest of the group with him, Kim raced to the rescue half-expecting Ron to be torn apart from the inside by malfunctioning cyber-genetic implants. Instead, he was laughing and applauding one of the drones for some strange reason.

"Nice! Now, how about a new mail notification sound," Ron asked with a grin before he turned and noticed Kim, standing there just looking at him with her mouth slightly agape.

"Ron, what do you think you're doing?"

"Isn't this just awesome, KP? Their voice is perfect for computer sounds. Wade! You want me to send you a set, buddy?" Rolling her eyes skyward in the time-honoured Possible fashion, Kim found herself just smiling pleasantly as Wade replied.

"Ron, look around you. Do you really think it's appropriate to use an obedient army of robots to record your system sounds?"

Considering Wade's question for a moment, Ron listened to the voice of the drone as it chimed, "Ron Stoppable has new mail."

In that single moment, his mind was made up, and he gave the Kim-municator's screen a bright grin…

"Uh, yes. Obviously!"

"Okay, have 'em zipped up and sent to me when they're done," Wade casually replied as he ended his transmission so that he could get back into the game of basketball he was enjoying.

The terrifying shadow had floated over Las Vegas and made its way up through Reno without incident, though it had caused Lt. Jim Dangle of the Sheriff's Department to drop half a Fudgsicle down his leg. Turning on the external speakers as he sat at the controls, Drakken reached for his microphone and began to issue an ultimatum while his hostages were paraded in front of the camera.

"Citizens of the state of Nevada; hear my words and tremble! For I, Doctor Drakken, have come to wreak unspeakable vengeance upon you if you do not comply with my demands! You will bring Kim… Excuse me for a second, please." The stunned crowds of onlookers gazed up at the heli-carrier in silence as Drakken's image left the camera's focus, hearing only the muffled sounds of arguing as the mad scientist worked through some discipline "issues" with his sidekick. Within seconds, the Bebe hive had locked onto Drakken's transmission and informed their new leaders, letting them know that the enemy was on his way.

"Now, where was I? Oh yes, that's right. I demand that Kim Possible is to be brought to me immediately or her parents shall suffer the consequences. Observe!" Grumbling some, Drakken prompted the cameraman to pan towards the hostages being guarded by Shego. Only the three of them seemed to be laughing about something, instantly sobering up when they realized the camera was now on them. Lazily, Shego scowled at the Possibles and made a vaguely threatening growling sound in their general direction while Jonathan stared into the middle distance rather absently. Screaming and ranting, Drakken threw down the camera and began spouting a long stream of invective, turning his anger on the captives and his own sidekick.

"Shego! I demand a little more enthusiasm out of you when issuing an ultimatum, young lady! Gah!"

"Drew, please calm down. It wasn't her fault… This is the first time we've ever been hostages, isn't that right?" Jonathan turned toward his wife who simply nodded, her short bob of bright red hair moving ever so gently. Finding the camera and setting it right, Shego took it to a safer location and began to deliver an ultimatum of her own to Kim and Ron.

"Look, I don't like you and you don't like me. But I like your mom and dad. You give Doctor Drakken what he wants, let the baby have his bottle, and I'll make sure nobody hurts them. Clear enough?" Staring at each other, and the robots, in terrified confusion, Kim and Ron mentally replayed Shego's words in their shared cyber-telepathic minds, Ron commenting first.

"Shego likes your parents? Kim, this is going beyond weird here. I mean, your dad's a nice guy and your mom's kinda hot, but…"

"Ron, I want to pretend that I didn't just hear you think that," Kim's mind replied as she gave him a double-take.

"Okay. Can we also pretend we're in the Matrix? I want one of those coats!"

"Ron? Subject. Drakken is liable to do anything to my mom and dad… The coats can wait."

"Well, I don't think the Bebes want to go back to him," Ron thought with a shrug. "They might be happier now."

"Ron, they are machines. Tools. They don't care who gives the orders," Kim thought back as her body leaned in a little closer.

"At least someone still likes me for who I am, right?" He said with a grin, closing their mental Instant Messenger.

"Yes, Ron. I noticed Bebe drone #62's been giving you the eye all day," Kim teased as she playfully tapped the tip of Ron's nose.


This chapter is dedicated to Jean Smart and Gary Cole. The smartest, funniest and coolest set of sitcom parents anybody could ever want. Keep those reviews coming in, and thanks for your support!