Light and Dark.

Ron ran to Kim, Brick and Bonnie were staring in horror. Quickly, Ron tipped Kim over on her side, water running out of her mouth and compressed her chest.

A gout of seawater exploded from her mouth, and Ron rolled her back over and started applying mouth to mouth. Bonnie hopped on over on the other side helping with the CPR.

For several minutes, Ron grew more and more terrified…until, suddenly, Kim started to breath.

"Alright KP!" Ron said, "Let's get you…" His voice trailed off. Kim was breathing, but other than that she was still rigid…eyes wide open, unseeing, unmoving.

"I called 911." Tara said, unsteadily, coming into the damp room. Meanwhile, a few other cheerleaders had come from the boys' locker room, which had not been flooded, and were bringing towels to wrap Kim in.

"KP?" Ron asked, "KP!"

There was no response.

Kim was in a dark place. There was only night, and she couldn't even see—wasn't even certain if she could feel the ground she walked on.

"Ron?" Kim asked. There was no reply. "Ron!" her voice seemed to be swallowed up in the darkness. But in one direction, it seemed to be slightly lighter. The Teen turned and walked that way.

"What happened?" Dr. Possible asked. She'd been at the hospital watching over Shego, when Kim had come in. The paramedics and the ER doctors were stumped, so Kim came up to her department, since it appeared to be a neurological problem.

"According to the kids?" A nurse answered, "She almost drowned in a locker room." Anne frowned at that, but still…. She brushed Kimmie's hair back and felt the sand like sensation of salt crystals in it. Her clothes were also impregnated with salt and oil residue, and were lying in the prep room of the ER.

But Kim's eyes were still open. She was breathing, unsteadily and shallowly, but so far they hadn't been forced to put her on a respirator.

"Here's the brainscan work up." An aide said to her. Anne looked at it and blinked. It wasn't the same as Shego… the sections of the brain relating to sensory input were working, if anything, over time.

"But what is she seeing…" Dr. Possible asked herself, banishing her fear by focusing on the problem. Hallucinations? Not any type she'd ever seen…. She turned to the orderly.

"Keep watching her—24 hours supervision and be prepared to put her on full life support if any vital signs shift… I need to talk to Ron."

Kim had been walking for what seemed like hours, but the light—well, dark actually but it was somehow lighter than where she was, had been growing.

Even so, the last step took her by surprise, as suddenly her foot hit a wooden deck, and the all too familiar smell of salt water hit her. The air was cold, cold. Kim heard shouts and orders, confused pleas and cries, and over her, an obscenely cheerful skyrocket boosted into the sky, exploding into a white flower of light.

Night time.

On the Titanic

And this time, Kim had a terrible feeling, it wasn't going to be so easy to leave.

"What happened Ron?" Anne said. Ron looked at her and thought for a moment.

"Dr. Possible." The teen said, "I'm…this is going to sound crazy…but here it is." Ron started talking and for the next fifteen minutes continued non-stop, with Kim's mother not saying a thing. When he finished, she nodded.

"It sounds insane." Anne said, "ghosts are angry at my daughter for keeping the exhibit intact…and were angry at Shego for something else—probably stealing, if I know her."

"You believe me?" Ron blurted out.

"Of course I believe you, Ron." Anne said, "You've never given me cause to do anything else…whether or not what you saw was correct…" She laughed softly, humorlessly, "Between moodulator chips and mind control gadgets, it's not out of the realm of possibility that someone is playing a particularly sadistic game with you and Kim." She sighed. "Ron… can you try and find out anything other information? Right now Kimberly's…condition is something I've never seen before."

"Sure thing, Dr. P."

"Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"Be very careful." Dr. Possible said, "Don't take…" She paused, looking at Ron. Might as well tell him to stay home as to not risk it all for Kimmie… "Any unnecessary risks."

"OK." Ron said. It was then that his communicator beeped out its cheerful tune.

"What is it, Wade?" Wade looked worried,

"Ron, I just heard about Kim on the emergency bands…what happened?"

"Other than she almost drowned in a locker room? She's in some kind of coma." Ron sighed, "Wade, did you find anything out about that girl?

"It took a while…" Wade said, "But yeah—there was an Elsbeth, about five years old, in second class. She didn't survive."

"What about her family?"

"Her mother and older sister did survive—somehow, they got separated, but I don't know how—neither one would ever talk about it, and they both are dead—mother died in 1964 and the sister passed away in 2001."

Suddenly Ron went cold—a sensation he was becoming used to—but this time from realization.

Why can't she find mommy? Because mommy didn't die on the Titanic—she survived. And when she died, she went on to whatever destiny awaited her…and wasn't held back the way poor Elsbeth has been.

But why? This isn't some ghost story with some evil guy who doesn't want to leave…she's a little girl.Ron shook his head. He knew that Dr. Possible wasn't completely convinced, but Ron was—his connection with magic perhaps made him more perceptive, but he knew.

This was nothing involving mind control chips, holographic ghosts or anything else. This involved something much older, more primal…and more powerful.

"Ron?" Ron shook his head at Wade's comment.

"Sorry Wade, I was just trying to figure out why… Why they'd be so pissed at Kim?"

"You really think it's a bunch of ghosts?" Ron paused, then nodded.

"Yeah…I do."

Nobody was paying much attention to Kim.

"Get the Collapsible raft down!"

"Trying, sir!" Over the sound of the officers and men desperately trying to get the remaining lifeboats away—struggling in a situation none of them had anticipated or trained for, there was a strangely cheerful sound of music being played. A light, dance number from the dawn of the 20th century, it sounded like. Kim saw the band, playing away as if they were at a competition, not about to die.

"Elsbeth?" Kim called out, hugging herself. There was no sign of the child, and nobody was paying attention to her…even though she was dressed in her cheerleader outfit, which would, to put it mildly, scandalize anyone from this time.

"She's not here, child." Kim turned around and saw a man looking at her, sadly.

"Who…"

"Thomas Andrews… at your service." He said, "Designer of the Titanic, although I'm afraid…not a good designer, all things considered." Kim looked around, at the others.

"They won't notice you…much." He quietly said. "We're just replaying something that has happened over and over again, uselessly, for all who died, died, and all who lived… well, they're not here." A thunderous chorus of barking interrupted him, and Kim blinked as a parade of dogs went charging down the deck.

"Wha…"

"Ah, Mr. Astor opened the Kennels and released the dogs. He did not fancy them dying in their cages." Andrews said.

"You don't sound angry at me."

"I'm not."

"But Elsbeth said…"

"I'm not, but others are…"

"Why?"

"Because you are one of the reasons we cannot leave…."

Ron had left the hospital, heading back to the museum. He didn't want to go. Oh God, he didn't want to go. But Kim was in danger, so he went. He'd left Rufus at the hospital, with Kim. Ron had a feeling that there was nothing here that a naked mole rat could help with.

The problem is, it didn't make any sense. They'd died on the Titanic, not in the museum…. And what was so special about the exhibits. Wade had checked and it had mostly been junk, material recovered from the debrie field and limited probes into the ship before it'd been destroyed in the quake.

"OK… they're pissed at Kim." Ron said to himself. "Fine, why? Because she didn't let Shego burn the place down?"

"But dammit," Ron continued, "Why here? Why not-" Suddenly, Ron almost wrecked his bike.

Maybe it wasn't the items, per se…but something else. He shook his head, whatever it was he didn't know…but he knew what Shego had wanted to do. Ron stopped and thought about it for a few seconds. Then he took the communicator out.

"Wade."

"What is it Ron?"

"I need a truck, and some full gas cans."

"What?" Wade asked.

"Can you get them?"

"Yes…but why?"

"I may…be burning the museum down."

"What?"

"Look, Wade, Shego went back to the museum, and was trying to wreck it. So maybe that's what they wanted. Kim stopped her, and next thing we know, Kim's in the hospital, in some kind of weird coma." Ron shrugged. "All the ghost stories, I ever heard, the ghosts are here for a reason—solve that, and they leave."

"Ghost Stories?" Wade seemed at a loss for words. "Ron, half those stories were dreamed up by camp counselors to scare children!"

"Do you have any better ideas?" Ron asked, "KP's in trouble Wade, real trouble…and this may be the only thing I can do for her."

"I…" Wade shook his head. "Ron, you'll go to jail for this."

"And if I don't, Kim'll probably either be this way forever, o-or die." Ron paused, "Jail's not so bad, if you ignore the food." His joke fell flat. "Look—just have the truck and the gas at the museum—I'll go in first and…figure out what's going on."

"And if they're pissed at you as well?"

"Hey, they've got lots of room at the hospital." Ron said. That joke didn't fly very well either. "Just do it, Wade…."

"Ok…Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"Good luck…and be careful."

"Oh yeah." Ron got on his scooter and headed down to the museum. Wade would have the gas there in a bit…and he'd hopefully know what to do with it. As he drove, he looked over at the sky above the location of the museum…it had the same, odd, greenish tinge they'd all seen earlier. Ron felt the looming anger, fear, despair in the air, and as he drove, he noticed that there were no other cars on the road. No late night walkers…the houses all had their drapes pulled, even though it seemed like every house had turned on every interior light, the outlines around the drapes being spooky rather than pleasant… the houselights trying to fight against what was outside. Ron shivered.

So everyone else felt it, even if they didn't know what it was, and were doing their best to avoid it…. And he was riding right into the center of it.

TBC.