Chapter 19: Precedence
Heh, with some of the reviews I was getting afraid some people didn't know, even though it was obvious. This chapter's actually been split into two due to the length. Believe me, every single thing brought up will be explained in detail by the end of this.
Think you know Val? Think you know why he really allowed Kim and Ron to escape at the end of the previous story? Guess again. This story is going to take an extremely serious turn because of this. My warning here is if you choose to read, DO NOT take any of this serious to heart. It's a fiction story after all. I didn't write it for people to agree or disagree.
And my apologies to any female readers out there, as well as those who expect action. There will be nothing but flashbacks and dialogue for these next two chapters.
Everything was a blur. It wasn't darkness… some orange light and moving shapes … none of it clear. The sound of everything echoed…
Flames… Rain…
Footsteps…?
Then a nice taste of H2O all over your face. All of Kim's five senses finally started coming back.
The first thing she saw was a lone figure standing, wearing a trenchcoat with burnt holes all over it. His back was facing her, but he was also taking the moment to let the rain soak him, being absorbed by the scenery. As Kim scanned the areas with her eyes alone, she could see that she was back inside the building on the last floor, but the roof had been completely decimated by the Hind, which stood in flames and with a bunch of scrap metal scattered everywhere. A huge chunk of the roof was blown off, and it seems only the wall near the stairs and the opposite were left, including the ceiling portion of those areas. Because of this, Kim could see that she was suspended in mid-air.
"So, you're finally awake."
The figure in the middle then turned around and faced Kim, eye to eye.
If Kim had her doubts, she could now confirm everything. It was definitely Val, but she couldn't say he was looking better than ever. In fact, he appeared far worse. Other than a burnt trenchcoat being a bad fashion statement, especially when you don't wear a shirt under, she could see that any areas of skin had various cuts, some which were bleeding. He didn't seem to be bothered by it for a second, and if Kim didn't know any better, she could have sworn that he enjoyed the look.
She would have spoken, but a sour taste was clogging her vocals. She coughed up a bit of clogged blood, probably from a nosebleed.
"Val… you're alive… and… you survived?"
Knowing that he was flying a helicopter was one thing, but to see him in the flesh again brought back a severe feeling of nostalgia. Not to mention she remembered exactly what happened. No one could have survived that kind of impact, not even…
"You should be more surprised about the fact that you survived, K. Not exactly without a scratch, but impressive nonetheless."
Kim couldn't see much of herself due to the angle she was hanging from, but now that she thought about it, she felt really cold. Too many breezes than her cheerleading outfit gave off. She had to pop her neck to regain control over it, due to some awkward stiff feeling in it. Now that she could see all of her surroundings, she could see that she too was covered in cuts, but not as many as her captor. Not only that, but she was stripped of her mission suit, wearing nothing but a normal black tank top with tight pants – what she wore under the gear. Of course, these also had burnt areas and rips, but nothing revealing. None of her usual gadgets were on her, either. No utility belt, no Kimmunicator, nothing in her pockets, not even her rocket shoes. Although if asked, she would admit that they were softer and more comfortable. Otherwise, she was quick to grow uncomfortable of the feeling.
She was used to wearing everything in such situations, and she almost felt completely naked without them. She could only imagine how she looked in the mirror.
But then, someone else came to mind. Ron. He was to her left, being suspended in the air by sharp wires and still unconscious. It was clear to Kim that that was how she was also being suspended. Thankfully though, Ron seemed to be in the best condition out of all of them.
Val scoffed. "Oh, him? Last time I checked he was alive. I'm pretty sure his pet was also knocked out by the much earlier explosion, but then again, what do I know?"
Kim tried to stretch to get a feel for what she was in, but she instantly felt pain.
"You and Stoppable are being suspended in the air by razor-sharp wires. Pull on it too much and you can say goodbye to all of your limbs. You'll be fine as long as you don't move too much, and by 'too much', I mean 'at all'."
Kim had a hard time getting the energy to talk. She felt like hell, and she could've sworn that her entire body was bruised. Just then, Ron starting coughing.
"Hmm! I guess he did survive as well. Impressive."
Kim hated to see Ron cough up blood, but it too clogged his throat, kind of like a blood clot up your nose when having a bloody nose.
He didn't even bother opening his eyes. "Oh man, KP, I just had the weirdest dream. You took on a freaking Hind!"
Well, at least one of them was energetic, even if he too was stripped of his mission suit, weapons and equipment, except for the bandana. Unlike Kim, he wasn't wearing a shirt under his suit. Bare-chested with a bandana and pants, and for some reason he still had his gloves on. Kim could have sworn she had seen this appearance before, but couldn't remember it.
"Ron, that wasn't a dream."
Ron groaned. "Oh, great, since the fight went out with a bang, we're dead then."
Kim sighed. "Ron, open your eyes."
The second he did, he almost screamed at the sight. Sure, being a few feet away from a demolished flaming helicopter and seeing the middle portion of the roof gone looked cool in the action movies, but not here. Then he made eye contact with their host.
"VAL!"
The only person in the room standing on their feet chortled. "It's good to see you too. Welcome back to the land of the living, Stoppable. So Team Possible has successfully made it out alive from such a massive explosion. Magnificent…"
Ron sighed. "Out of all the villains I've wanted to remember my name, why'd it have to be you?"
"Would you prefer if I didn't?"
"Good point."
Ron was about to tug on the wires, but Kim gave him the warning.
"Ron, don't. Sharper than barb-wire if you do."
"Oh. Lame," he quickly replied without any emotion. With the tone in his voice, it was clear this wasn't the first time.
Val took a few steps forward with his eyes on Kim. "Well, this feeling is quite nostalgic, isn't it? Has it really been three months? Or are we nearing four? Oh, that's right; it's been two months, fourteen days and nineteen hours…"
The two just glared at him.
"You two can relax. I'll snap the wires once you're ready, but don't pull too hard. In case you want to risk the pain and try to escape, I've already rigged the place with explosives, and too much pressure will set them off. This time, I won't be responsible for your deaths. Well, not entirely, anyway."
Kim grunted. "Val! What's going on? Why are you doing this? What are you really after?"
"Why am I doing this and what am I really after? Hah. Just what I would expect from you, Kim. Cut straight to the chase and skip the details, when you have no idea how to sum everything up. I'll tell you when you're ready to find out. Right now your minds are completely unstable from before, so shut up and calm down. Anger doesn't help one think clearly."
"Enough with the lectures, Val!" Kim interrupted.
"Thank you very much for proving my point, Miss Kimberly Anne, and I thought you were the patient kind."
Kim sighed, trying to get a grip on herself. "I don't think you went through all this trouble just to kill Elurt and us," she replied calmly, although it was obvious that it was forced.
"Oh? What makes you so certain?"
"I really don't think someone would go through nuclear missiles, walking death tanks, nanomachines, and bio-mechs just to get us. There had to be a much, much easier way than that. Even if Drakken wanted to, he wouldn't go through all of this."
"Maybe I don't like the easy way. Don't you remember, Kim? I'm like you," Val smiled. "I enjoy challenges."
Kim groaned. "I'm nothing like you, Val."
He just snorted. "That's what you think… You really remind me of myself in my much earlier days."
Ron coughed. "Okay, dude, seriously. We checked out the records and everything about your 'older days'. We know some girl broke your heart and that ruined your high school social career, and you graduated early with some ridiculously high GPA. We also know you've got some mad martial arts skillz and all, but we don't need anymore stories."
Val was silent upon hearing this, and there was a brief yet uncomfortable moment of silence between them. It appeared as if Ron got Val in a weak spot, until he started letting out some strange noise. At first, it sounded quiet, almost like crying, but abruptly burst out into malicious laughter.
"Hah! Is that what the records indicate? My, my, my… Maybe I should tell you that I'm a consecutive winner of Mexico's chupacabra-eating contest. Believe that as well?"
"Half the story?" Kim asked with a puzzled face. "What are you talking about? We had GJ find your profile, and it's all in my Kimmunicator!"
Val cleared his throat. "Ahem… was in the Kimmunicator. Tell me something, K, do you blindly believe anything documented as truth or fact?"
"What?"
"What Nevren told you about me, what the GJ profiles consider my 'official profile', Nevren's story about the bio-mechs…?"
"You're not saying that it's all a big lie?"
"Lie? No, not quite. Rather… inaccurate information. And my GJ profile? If you remember correctly, Kim, I'm officially dead. And if it wasn't apparent already, I'm quite alive."
"Dude, KP and I have seen everything," Ron interrupted. "But I gotta know: How the heck did you resurrect yourself?"
Kim would've slapped her forehead. "Ron, don't you see? He never died in the first place!"
"I dunno, KP, I've seen enough on this mission to think otherwise. Besides, he's kinda got a Dracula thing going there with that 17th century style coat," Ron protested.
"Dracula?" Val asked, scanning himself with his eyes. Upon further inspection, Ron had a point.
"And every Dracula guy I know never dies, no matter how many times you kill them!" Ron continued.
"Ron, you've been playing too much Zombie Mayhem."
"Zombie Mayhem doesn't have Dracula."
"Castlevania, then."
"Eh… you're probably right."
Val silently chuckled to himself. It shouldn't have been a surprise that since Kim was still left out of Ron and Felix's gaming when they got together, she tried to become familiar with everything that Ron played. She sometimes tried to play some in Ron's room after missions, usually when Ron was too exhausted to do anything else. She was far from a gamer, though. Silly woman.
"Okay, KP, we agree on one thing at least, that he's not dead." Ron finished.
"Right," she agreed, "but this I gotta hear."
By the time the two returned their attention to Val, he was repeatedly cracking his knuckles just by stretching out his fingers over and over.
"Are you two done? Regardless, you bought the cover-up story, didn't you? Blindly listening to the news and taking every word of it as fact."
Warp back to late April of the same year.
Val had just forced Kim and Ron to escape, forcing them to leave while trapping himself in his underground lair. The water was rising, the walls and ceiling were falling apart, and Val only had a right hand to go on. The room was flooding, but Val didn't care at all. He wanted a death wish, and he got it, but not before what he wanted – a final duel with Team Possible. The water consumed him, and everything faded to black shortly afterward.
But the next thing he knew, he was spitting bubbles in the lake. Frustrated that death escaped him yet again, he tried to swim to the bottom in hopes that he could still be found dead in the rubble of the place he won off eBay, but unfortunately for him, his body just found its way back to the surface, including another.
Val was pretty upset that he was still alive, but not surprised in any way. He figured it would be a good idea to get out of here before the authorities came, but before he was about to make his escape, he found Kim and Ron near the shore, both with their faces underwater. As much as he wanted to fight it, he couldn't leave the two alone.
He grabbed them and tossed them to the shore, not realizing that they were landed to each other.
Instead, he looked onto the clear skies above. "Continue to live on, my friends… we shall meet again…"
With that, he tossed the seaweed-infested body he found in the woods under a series of placed logs. He made his escape before the helicopters arrived.
"Back up!" Ron cried. "Are you saying that you saved us… again?"
Val scoffed. "You're surprised? I wasn't going to let you be killed off by the waters of Upperton Lake. If someone was going to kill you down there, it was going to be me. I'm not going to allow nature to steal my glory! And actually, that's not the real reason at all."
For Valia, to his advantage, most of the police and cleanup crew were around only for the lair wreckage and to pick up Kim and Ron. They didn't even search the nearby woods. But he got an idea. For ages, he wanted to start a new life and leave his old one behind. But this way, he could fake his death. Upperton Lake was a place where people would often throw parties, including frats and sororities. So really, the story behind the corpse he found was that of a frat boy who had too much to drink, fell in the lake, and drowned. It was one of many bodies down there, all killed by the same circumstances.
He wasn't surprised that no one realized the unfortunate soul was missing, but then again, the corpse had been underwater for ages. You couldn't recognize anything.
He realized that if he wanted people to think he was dead, he had to do something.
Parts of Nev's battle suit was still on him, and he realized it was foolish to merge the thing onto his body.
Stupid teenager, he thought to himself.
So, it was a ten process to rip the remains of the battle suit off, and it was pretty much torture. What he did was put the various pieces of his skin and the suit all over the body. The doctors would take the easy way out of trying to determine who the body belongs to, and the body had its blood drained already. He was quite astonished to see that the left hand was also missing, but it was not much more than a skeleton wrapped in seaweed.
"Poor bastard. You're more useful dead than alive."
He didn't have any pity for the dead, only because of how he lived and died. To Val, this puppet didn't achieve anything worth remembering.
He buried the body under some mud so it would appear that it had been there for days. If they took a blood sample from the suit, it would be his blood, and the news would consider him dead in a few weeks.
He survived the procedure, but he was going to suffer extreme blood loss if he didn't do anything about it immediately. He was able to save the stealth camouflage, the only device that didn't overload on the suit, only because it was covered in plastic and encased in rubber. Since it still worked, he strapped it on, hid himself, and made his way through the woods and past everyone. He managed to get a ride on the ambulance with Kim inside.
Once at the hospital, everyone was scrambling to get equipment for Kim and Ron. People were on the phones contacting their families, people were running into each other, and Val could've sworn he saw an old man run off with a ration. Fortunately for Val, he was able to crawl on the ceiling like a spider and make his way to a room with several bandages. The place was in too much of a rush for anyone to notice his blood stains in various areas.
He wasn't astounded that Kim and Ron were placed together in the same room when everything was said and done, and their families were already on their way to see their children. They had made it out safely.
So he would be officially dead in a matter of weeks, and he couldn't be seen when they discovered the body. So Val took some more equipment from the hospital, and with the stealth camouflage, he could go anywhere.
A trip around the world sounded wonderful. The electric shock from the fight revived who he truly was, and not the asshole teenager the two fought earlier. He figured it would be a great way to start over.
"Whoopie…" Kim sarcastically remarked. "That explains the body, but not your sudden change to save us after the fight."
"Oh come on, Kim…" Val protested. "Didn't you two notice anything… unusual when our fight was over?"
"You know, I did." Ron answered, "I figured it just made something in your brain snap – almost like memory loss. Shock therapy?"
"Oh, come on, Ron. You're thinking of Spider-Man 2 again where Doc Ock gets electrocuted and he's suddenly back to normal." Kim countered.
"Um, not really, KP, even though we watched it a lot before."
The same went for movies, too. The two had become avid movie-goers since getting together, and Kim didn't know before that most of Ron's money went to DVDs.
Val let out a small chuckle. "Actually, Kim, he's very close."
Ron continued with the next thought that came to mind. "Yori told us that Sensei killed you. I mean, you're obviously not dead, but what was that about?"
"Well…"
Traveling the world sounded like fun at first, but there was more of a personal motive involved. As the days went by, Val got depressed, not having a purpose in life anymore, and he thought it would be nice, but it was anything but. He took a trip to Hawaii, and it would've been nice to join a hula class or something to take his mind off things, but he clearly wouldn't be accepted with his current physical appearance.
He didn't want to go back into who he was, or go back into the past, or what he remembered was the real past. Life was about going forward, not backward.
That was that. No more Kim Possible, no more Ron Stoppable, no more of anybody, except for the one he needed to seek guidance from.
Sensei.
Valia had been to several martial arts schools in his life, and Yamanuchi had stood out among them. He was nine when his grandfather took him there, but he never revealed how he knew of its location, let alone existence. He would be trained, and because he was unaware of the things to come, he did rather well. However, he was not signed up for the lifetime plan that most of the students were signed up for. He spent a year there, and he remembered Sensei to be a strict but caring teacher.
It took him four weeks before he finally made his way to Japan, only by walking across half the country and sneaking in on a boat to Hawaii and then another to Japan. By now authorities would have found and identified the body. The perfect exit.
He wore little more than a dark cloak as to hide himself, other than the stealth camouflage. His face had a few bruises, but it was the only portion of his body that wasn't affected by the removal of the suit. The boat ride across the pacific was what he needed, let alone a day in Hawaii. Peace, quiet, and tranquility. The social life of the trip didn't seem to interest him at all. He didn't care about making friends who were rollerblading through the city regularly, and he didn't respond to any of the girls winking at him. Every girl he knew had a negative impact on his life, and he wasn't going to allow for it to happen here as well.
But now he stood before the front entrance gates of Yamanuchi, taken aback by the fact that nine years later he still knew of its location. He started to get a bad feeling about coming here, but he was not one to back down from any fear. Reason being?
The school appeared empty. He remembered the sights of students always practicing their techniques, sparring against each other or talking to each other on breaks. Then again, that was nine years ago when the majority of the students were young. Surely Sensei changed his teaching methods as they grew older, wiser, and stronger. But now it appeared to be void of any life. None of the leaves blew from the trees, even. The school stood in dead silence.
But before long, the wind quickly shifted direction. No, a small figure revealed himself.
"Ryan-kun, you have returned," an old voice greeted.
It was none other than Sensei.
Valia felt honored in his presence, bowing and soon kneeling before his former master.
"Sensei, I have returned in dire need of your guidance."
Sensei sighed in pity at his former student.
"I am afraid I cannot be of any assistance," the old man answered without any hint of emotion.
Valia suddenly went bitter, almost biting his lips, "What…?"
Sensei stood firm in his position, not appearing to be intimidated by his former student's tone.
"I said that I can not be of any assistance. I have not stood out here for more than five seconds and already can I see the anger deep within your soul. I can see what you have done to others to fulfill your own selfish ambitions. Your skills, which have grown unquestionably superior to many other students worldwide, was meant to be used for the good of mankind, not for your own selfish desires, and not to kill for the sake of what you consider good. My guidance will not be enough for a soul so dark and full of hatred as yours. Even if I manage to succeed, you will eventually fall from the light into the darkness once again. Your mind is far too dangerous to further train. I am sorry."
Valia sighed, but he couldn't hold himself from who he had become. "Sensei, please… I am not going to offer you a choice on this…" he threatened. Then he realized this was exactly why Sensei rejected his wish, but it was too late now. He hadn't been sane for some time, and today was no different.
"Leave," Sensei ordered him.
"No…" His inner rage was starting to possess him once again, and got into a fighting stance, "You will continue to train me, old man."
"I do not think so."
The winds started to pick up as both stood firm. Quickly, despite all the pain in his body and lack of sanity in his head, Valia launched himself upward and went straight towards his teacher.
If the old man wouldn't teach him, he would have to convince him.
Sensei was powerful, but to Val, his own abilities were unquestionable even to the likes of Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable. Surely he would give the old man a hard time.
In fact, it was quite the other way around. Sensei stood firm in his position, and before Sensei's and Val's noses made contact, Sensei thrusted a palm straight into his opponent's face, sending him flying straight into the wall next to the gates, almost demolishing it and sending Ryan right through it. Shock and confusion ran through his mind. Val made the mistake in thinking his mentor's age would work against him and slow him down, but Sensei was no less powerful than he remembered him.
Sensei took a few steps forward, just enough to see if he was still conscious. "I am going to tell you one more time. Leave." he softly demanded.
Val shook off the debris from his shoulders as he rose again to face his mentor, "Make me…"
Again, Val jumped straight at him, but he left himself wide open the exact same way as before, and Sensei unleashed an endless barrage of punches to his gut, at least breaking a few of his ribs before finishing it off with a spinning roundhouse kick, sending Val slamming against one of the supporting poles of the bridge.
"Please," Sensei spoke with concern, "I do not wish to bring you any further harm. Leave and do not come back."
Val got up, still firm in his mood, "With all due respect, Sensei… I don't take orders from anyone anymore. Not even you."
Sensei merely turned around and made way for the gates. Depending on how you view things, someone turning against their back on you is an insult, and that's exactly what Valia took it as. Despite his teachings and beliefs, he was going to take out Sensei, even if it meant from attacking from behind.
Sensei sighed, "Forgive me."
Just as Val was about to grab him, Sensei slammed his elbow against his chest without turning around. Without looking back to see Val's condition, he continued back to the gates, already aware of what had become of his former student.
He fell straight into the ravine below.
Well, not exactly. Val was hanging by his foot.
Sensei turned around when he heard mad laughter behind him. He was surprised, not at how persistent Val was, but rather that he wasn't correct in assuming his former student fell. He quickly ran to the bridge.
"Ryan-kun, lend me your hand."
Val just continued to smile, looking at the canyon below him. "You know, Sensei, now I see why you never allowed children on this bridge without a superior such as yourself."
"Ryan-kun, please."
"No… you were right, Sensei, I have grown dark beyond my years, and you're right… even if you can guide me back to the light, the sun will still set, and the stars are too far away to reach… With what's happened, it's hard to remember my true former life… but everything has been slowly coming back to me, and with all I've learned throughout the years, I can't return to the light just now. Perhaps someday, I will see everything through your eyes, but for now… you've already helped me more than enough… I can't believe that with the mind erasure I became so arrogant and self-centered… Everything's back… Thank you, Sensei."
Sensei knew Val wasn't going to allow him to do anything further.
"Worry not, Sensei, you're forgiven. Until we meet another day… I have some unfinished business to take care of."
With that, Val twitched his leg, and fell straight into the river thousands of feet below.
"I was afraid of that…"
Even Sensei had his doubts of him surviving, but even he knew of Val's true past.
"But you did…" Kim spoke with clear boredom in her voice. "Ugh, I'm confused. First you're maniacal, then merciful, then just plain sick and wrong, suicidal, and…"
Kim couldn't finish, and Ron was still taking his time grasping everything. Val just stood patiently as the two gathered their thoughts.
Val shrugged. "Heaven spat me out and hell had no vacancy."
To her, it was now clear why Yori thought that Val was killed by Sensei. The old man knew the truth, but he probably didn't want one of his most trusted students, one who looked at him like a father, to know that an old friend came back with blood in his eyes. Yori never knew what happened to Val after he left, completely unaware of his fight with Team Possible. It wouldn't be the first time former students tried to attack their old mentor, though, but they were all for different reasons. Some challenged Sensei demanding that he hand over some hidden fabled weapons, some challenged him demanding to return to the school after being expelled (the most recent being a former student named Fukushima), and some others in the forms of ninja assassins, usually from another school. Compared to the others, Val didn't have it so bad when fighting Sensei, since he was actually able to see how he lost.
But for Kim, that was the only thing that made sense. She suspected that Val wasn't really dead after hearing that he may have died in another way from what the news reported. And to think she attended his funeral as well…
"That still doesn't explain why you did any of this," Ron went on. "You even dragged Yori into this?"
"Dragged? Oh no, that's where you're wrong, my friend. Sensei hid the truth from her because of my involvement with you, but the second she found out, she was just dying to be captured. Poor fool, falling for a boy in less than a week, and becoming obsessed with the thought of seeing him in the months to come… I honestly didn't intend for you to be so concerned with someone that wasn't your girlfriend – let alone someone you hardly knew as well. I guess you're not qualified to be a true teenage hero either…"
"See, that's another thing I don't get," Kim snapped, "What's with you telling us what being a teen hero is all about? You're anything but, Val."
"What makes you so sure?"
"No real hero would steal nukes, use a bunch of bio-mechs, steal some MPAWVs-"
"Judgments," Val corrected.
"Judgments?"
"That's the real name of the project, to develop giant war vehicles that can travel through land, sea, ground and air. Doesn't matter the terrain, the weather, or enemy security. Besides, Judgment is a much nicer term."
"Fine, Judgments then. Whatever." Kim mumbled. "No kind of hero would do such things, and not in the name of some obsession. I might not know everything about you, Val, but I know you're the kind to obsess over things."
Val stood silent for a few moments, before looking up at Kim with a sinister smile on his face. "You're absolutely right, my dear. But I have some bad news for you. This isn't going to be anything like the last time. I haven't gone out all the way to accomplish so much in the name of revenge or obsession. You're just a bonus."
"A bonus? So that means…"
"While you have been successful in destroying the Bio-Mech line and the Judgments, it doesn't there end there. There's still quite a nuclear threat."
"So where are they?" Kim demanded with a hard tone.
"I'll tell you when you're ready."
Kim groaned. "So what are your reasons for everything, then?"
"I'll tell you when you're ready." Val repeated, then turned his eyes to Ron, who was acting weird.
"Sorry to interrupt…" Ron squealed. "But… I need to PEE!"
Both Val and Kim groaned with disgust.
"Too much detail, Ron!" both cried in unison. Kim didn't even notice.
"Hey!" Ron protested. "At least I'm not like Kim where she just loves to tell me she needs to pee!"
"RON!"
"I'm not lying! You can't say 'I'll be right back' or 'I gotta take care of private business' or 'Nature calls' even. It's always 'Ronnie, I gotta pee!' and it's always with a smile, too!"
"RON! SHUT UP! NOT NOW!"
Kim was beyond mortified. If she was still under that disappearing spell, she'd be a ghost, and she'd have enough power to suck out existence in the process as well.
But Ron wouldn't shut up. "So wait, its okay for you to say it, but not me? I mean, what's up with that? That's sexist, KP!"
Val was shaking his head. "It's called a double standard, Ron. Happens everywhere on the planet and it can't be avoided. And people say I abuse my freedom of speech…"
"Would you two shut up? This isn't funny! This is worse than when my mom… never mind."
"When your mom called you 'Bubble Butt' in front of Drakken and Shego? Get over it, Bubble Butt." Val grumbled. "It's not like this is news to me."
The couple blinked in unison. "What?"
"Oh please. You said it yourself, Kim, I was obsessed. Even though I tried to leave everything behind, I've been spying on you ever since you placed that souvenir from our last duel on your dresser."
"Souvenir…"
Warp to late May.
It was a day just like any other day. That's what anyone not named Kim Possible would have said. It was late, and she was bored, tired, and alone. It had been three weeks since graduation, and Ron wasn't in the country. He had gone back to Yamanuchi to finish his training, interrupted by his dream of finding out her whereabouts after she had gone missing, and there was no telling when he'd be back.
And boy, did she miss him.
But that wasn't the only reason Kim was sad. It was only two days ago that the news identified the body found near Upperton Lake. As she feared, it was Valia Erocus Ryan. He was a dangerous foe who was desperate for a worthy duel with her and Ron, even if it meant his life was the cost. But she couldn't understand his last action – why did he allow her to escape? Most villains would die only if they could take her down with them, but Valia didn't have that same desire.
Today was his funeral, and the body would not be present due to the recent discovery.
Kim attended to give her final respects, not only because this was one of her former foes, but because she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. She didn't know everything about his past, only that it really wasn't that different from Ron's. The difference between the two was that Ron didn't hold grudges on those who made his life miserable. Kim had her share of grudges from time to time, so she could sympathize to an extent. But the hero and the villain had a few things in common. Her anger was fueled by any pain Ron would go through, and it was a weakness he exploited and used against her. It would be their teamwork skills that would take him down once and for all.
She thought they would meet again since the body was never recovered, but the news reported otherwise a few days ago. She wasn't exactly that comfortable knowing that someone you fought was dead. Kim hadn't been to many funerals in her life, but if she felt bad for the guy earlier, she felt just plain miserable now, because hardly anyone attended. On one side, there were probably five others, and on the other was an open casket with no body. No pictures, no flowers, just the casket. She didn't even know whether or not this was the right funeral, but it was. She didn't recognize anyone, probably some high school pals who heard of him at the most. But Kim's eyes ran across a ghost, an opposite that was nearly a twin.
No, it was the girl that ruined him, Michelle Stonedge. Unfortunately, she didn't come on her own free will; her boyfriend forced her to come. Kim wasn't one to immediately dislike people, but Michelle was an exception, and to her it was no surprise that Val went insane from heartbreak, more so from her proud inability to care. Michelle knew what role she played, she knew that she ruined him, and she didn't care. If anything, she took this opportunity to show off some expensive clothes she got, as well as her boyfriend. Kim chuckled at him – even he was disgusted at Michelle's lack of respect toward the dead. Kim could tell that he was going to break things off the next day.
But Michelle was wearing a lot of feathers and sunshades, but when she removed them, it almost frightened Kim.
Michelle was merely a double. Same height, same build, same hairstyle, and same eyes. But they weren't twins. Michelle had pale brown eyes, much like the boy who crushed on her, and brunette hair. Pitifully, she tried to make it blonde, but it clearly didn't work.
Kim was annoyed by her, but her presence didn't distract Kim's purpose here. They had given his biomechanical hand to her, the only remain they had found, and she was going to place it in the casket as if respecting her former enemy.
Suddenly, as she was about to let go, someone grabbed her hand, and Kim almost gasped when she realized who it was.
"BONNIE? What… ho… what are you doing here?"
Bonnie had an uneasy look on her face, trying not to make a scene. "Hi… well, um, you see…"
"Ex?" Kim guessed.
Bonnie shook her head. "No! Well, he's… my cousin. He was my cousin."
Kim's jaw dropped.
Bonnie scoffed. "Don't get in all over your head, Kim."
"No, I mean, I honestly had no idea. You were related?"
"We weren't close, but yeah. I met him a few times when we were younger, but he was always interested in other things, like his weapons, martial arts movies… he was kinda oscillated."
"You mean isolated?"
"Yeah. We weren't that close, and we never really saw him a lot, at all kinda."
"So what brought you here?"
Kim noticed Bonnie's mom and sisters nearby. The siblings were clearly bored and had no idea of why they were there.
"It's not them, if that's what you're thinking. It's weird, I just felt bad when I heard the news. I can't explain it. It was scary enough that he turned into some kind of psychotic bad guy that did something to screw up my cell phone for three weeks, but I felt something… different when I heard he died. Sorry he gave you a hard time."
"Bonnie, you give me a hard time all the time."
"I know, and I kinda came to say I'm sorry for that, too."
"Really?" Kim asked in surprise.
"This is a funeral after all, Kim. Not the place for some lame cheerleader rivalry."
"You're right. But… why did you come over to talk?"
Bonnie pointed to the object in Kim's hand.
"That. Why are you putting it in the casket?"
Kim held the hand up to eye level. "To pay my respects. This is the only remain they found at the time."
"A metal hand? Why would he have this?"
"Believe me, you don't want to know."
Kim offered it to Bonnie, and she took it to inspect it. It was mostly a chrome hand that had no detail on it, but various areas were damaged and showed what it was made of on the inside. Something about holding it in her hand made Bonnie feel different.
Bonnie finally sighed, "You should keep it." She was unusually warm in her voice, pushing the metallic object against Kim's chest. "Something wouldn't be right about putting some fake limb in place of his body. It's no replacement."
Kim was surprised that Bonnie had a point, so she accepted it.
"Thanks…" Bonnie quietly spoke.
"Huh?"
"You see, Kim, I…" Bonnie spoke uncomfortably, "Family deaths are common with me, since my mom's one of six children. I always go to funerals about these relatives I know little to nothing about, or never even heard of. The thing is, no one ever comes to them - No big family reunions, no best friends, not even regular friends or co-workers or school peers. No one. Even now there's no one here. So, here's some guy that gave you and Ron a hard time, and you're still here to pay your respects. So, thanks."
"No big. I just feel sorry for him. I mean, here's a guy who tried to be himself, and everybody tortures him for it. He gets bullied, beaten, heartbroken, and no one's there to tell him it's okay. Nobody cares, and that's why he snapped. He was just quick to let his anger and power consume him. It's a real shame. You meet people like this and sometimes you wonder if you could go back and help them. Then I look at some of the people here and see that even now they don't care, and they know exactly what they did. I'm sorry, Bonnie."
"Thanks, Kim. I never really knew who he was, but what you just said kind of gives me an idea, but now I feel worse inside."
"My Kimmunicator's database has a full bio on him, or at least what GJ was able to find. I can print out a copy of it if you want."
Bonnie blinked, "You'd… do that for me, even after everything I put you through?"
"It wouldn't hurt."
Kim pulled out her Kimmunicator and pressed a few buttons, printing out a short profile of Bonnie's deceased relative, and handed it to her.
A weak smile made way to Bonnie's face. "I appreciate it, Kim... But you said his heart was broken by someone who knew what they did and didn't care?"
"Something like that."
"Oooh, wait till I get my hands on her!" Bonnie snarled.
Kim was surprised. Bonnie did this often in Middleton, blowing off a lot of guys who tried to woo her and didn't care, yet stood up for the relative she never truly knew. Something was different about her now, but inside Kim still saw the Bonnie that wanted to completely destroy her high school career. She decided to clue her in, and maybe this would get her on Bonnie's good side. Kim knew that Bonnie was the type of person that needed one target to make miserable, and right now that was Kim.
She decided it was time to hand the torch to Michelle.
"If you really want to know, she's with the big brown-haired guy near the window," Kim whispered.
Bonnie also lowered her voice, "You're kidding, Michelle Stonedge?"
"You've heard of her?"
"Heard of her? Our families hate each other. My mom hates her mom, though she hides it in public, and my sisters hate hers. She was also a cheerleader in Upperton, but never attended any of the games or regionals. I'm surprised she was never kicked off, and here I working my butt off."
So that's why Kim never heard of her. "No kidding. Well, she's all yours."
Bonnie then walked off toward the direction of the couple, leaving Kim alone with the metallic object in her hand. Memories of the final battle with Ryan came to mind. She was still surprised that she and Ron got out of it alive. Ron… even if he were here in Middleton, would he have come? Would he have come on his own will? Looking around the room, it appeared that most of the people here didn't wish to come, probably forced to come by someone else's wishes, excluding Bonnie's mom and surprisingly Bonnie herself. But then she noticed one more figure. Nev Killbourne himself, former friend of Valia and the one who clued Kim and Ron in on him. She slowly approached him.
"Depressing, isn't it?" he started.
"Tell me about it. He may have tried to kill me and Ron, but I couldn't help but feel it was more of his anger than his true self."
"Poor guy. I suppose that when you pray for death's sweet embrace, he'll find you somehow."
"He's in a better place," Kim hoped.
Kim and Nev really didn't talk much. They both paid her respects, and after seeing Bonnie leave with Michelle's now-ex-boyfriend and her family, she left. Nev would stick around for a few more minutes before doing the same.
'Poor guy,' Kim thought, 'Just a few friends that probably didn't even know him that well and his ex has the nerve to come here. At least Bonnie and Nev came.'
She arrived home late that afternoon, and it would be a few minutes before the tweebs and her parents would come home. By now she was back in her room in regular clothes and Rufus was starting to wake up. Sometimes she forgot that Ron had left Rufus behind, but at least this time he wasn't calling her every five minutes to see how he was doing. She missed Ron a lot, and he didn't leave any methods of communication. He had to do everything all alone. It was a choice he made and she accepted, but it never dawned on her how lonely she felt without him.
She was reading some magazine to kill the time and to get her out of her sad vibe, constantly looking at the chrome hand that now lay on her dresser. She found herself extremely bored in the summer with no Ron around. It was like every night was Friday night, the night in which she now declared her official Ron night, and he wasn't there at all. It didn't help that the hand on her dresser reminded her of the funeral that day.
The doorbell rang. Mom or dad must've forgotten the keys again. Kim put down the magazine and made her way out of her room, and down the stairs, expecting to find her dad making up some excuse abou-
"Surprise!"
Instead stood someone she felt like she hadn't seen forever.
"Ron!"
Surprise indeed. Ron finally came back from Japan, and he came packed. He was completely finished with all his training and Kim was quick to notice he had a box behind him.
"Ron? Is that for me?"
"Rufus, actually."
Kim pouted in disappointment.
"Just kidding. Of course it's for you," he confirmed as he placed the box in her hand.
Kim was ecstatic, "Can I open it?"
"Well, yeah, KP. That's the point of a gift, isn't it?"
She nudged him, "You never know if it's an early birthday present or Christmas gift."
"Kim, both are months away. Go ahead, open it."
So she did. She gasped when she saw it, a beautiful golden necklace covered with emerald diamonds, matching her eyes perfectly. She was giddy all over when she put it on.
She quickly wrapped her arms around him, "Ron, I love it!"
He chuckled, "Knew you would, KP."
Little did Kim or Ron know that upstairs, one of the fingers opened on the hand, flashing red for a brief second.
If Kim could move her arms and legs, she'd slap her forehead.
"A mini-camera…? No way, it couldn't be."
"Don't believe me? I'm well aware of the sessions where you both made out time and time again, the snuggling, hugging, and all that cute action. I was also able to tap every one of your phone conversations you had with dear old Ronnie, and the many television programs you watched. Thankfully, I wasn't treated to any X-rated actions."
Kim sulked.
"That's just the tip of the iceberg, Kim. Did you honestly believe that since it wasn't attached to my nervous system that it had no power? No, it could do anything on its own, including walking out of the house and following you everywhere you went. Every moment you thought you had in privacy, the hand was watching. The tree house, the mall, the movies, your room, your living room, Bueno Nacho, Club Banana, Smarty Mart-"
"That's enough!" Kim yelled. "Just why? All I want to know is why!"
Val just chuckled to himself, and both Kim and Ron knew it was one that had a message in it: I'm not telling.
Kim was unable to believe that all of those private moments she and Ron had together weren't so private. The thought alone was devastating.
Ron decided to speak for her. "Dude… this is some kind of twisted obsession…"
Val sighed as he turned around, standing still in the cold rain. Despite the heavy precipitation, the fire on the Hind refused to die, and there were no signs of it blowing up.
"Let me ask you two something… do you honestly know why I became so infatuated with you and Stoppable?"
Kim didn't answer, but Ron was paying full attention.
"It was because when I first heard of you both, you were the first team of teen heroes who decided to go public. I honestly didn't think it would work, but later on, you appeared everywhere. Television, newspapers, magazines, audio interviews on the internet, everything. But down the line, you faced more dangerous works of destruction, and then came the footage where Kim kicked Shego into the tower at Bueno Nacho HQ. Everyone was concerned with how Shego managed to survived, but I was more concerned on someone who was willing to kill their old rival just for some… petty revenge over playing with her heartstrings. I had always dreamed of a worthy challenge, and even my high GPA wasn't enough to fulfill that. But once I saw you, I knew that I wanted to fight you."
"Fight? You wanted to kill us!" Ron snapped.
"That's what you were supposed to believe. Anyway, I was hoping to engage in a duel with Kimberly, a legendary fight worthy of remembering, one that would leave one of us near-dead but with enough strength to live. However, upon my research, I discovered that you two don't take your villains seriously. That's why I had to take the game to the next level. This way, you two would view me as a threat and not hold back. Unfortunately, and disappointingly, I was treated to a softie who got all emotional once her partner took a hit."
Val paused to let out an exasperated sigh.
"Usually, when heroes work in teams, they don't freak out once a partner goes down. A romance is cute, but if you haven't realized it already, it'll get you both easily killed. That's why soldiers and agents are usually forbidden to fall in love on the field. So again, I had to rework my plans to the point where I convinced you two that it was personal, by trying to make you fight each other, which admittedly was rather fun to watch. You simply cannot work without the other team member to support you. Even then, you both were constantly worried about another, and the stress was your weakness. You were far more concerned with each other than yourselves, and it worked against you in a fight. I wouldn't leave you two alone until we fought in a decisive battle, and the only way to provoke you was that you kill me, or I kill you. Once you got your head in the game and fought two-to-one, needless to say I underestimated you. I never got my ass handed to me by a cheerleader and a slacker, or anyone for that matter. Honestly, the fact that I was beaten by a AAA-caliber woman, in terms of appearance, brains, technique and so much more, and by a slacker who I thought at the time had so much in common with me then… fascinated me to no end."
"So… you're not concerned with our relationship anymore?" Ron asked.
"Hardly. Neither one of you can work without the other, unfortunately for you, but together you are quite a formidable force, even by my standards. Personally, when it comes to your labels, a cheerleader and a slacker dating, I like the sound of it the more I hear it. Admittedly, knowing that it was the real deal, and not some pathetic temporary bonding due to both of your own emotional isolations-"
"Emotional Isolations?"
"It's a phase some teens enter when they feel emotionally alone. No one to hold, no one to care for them; they hit a level of low self-esteem because they feel they can't get a boyfriend or a girlfriend, and sometimes they become desperate to find anyone. They don't care how long they know someone, how well they know them, before they jump into the relationship. You went through that phase much earlier in your pre-teen life, while Kim experienced it days before the drone, sulking at the fact that everyone had a date for the prom but her. That's when the drone appeared and she thought she hit the ultimate standard, and we all know what happened when he was killed by your pet. But I was clearly wrong about you two dating for that reason alone. Even I understand that after all you've been through on this operation, like Cousin Bonnie said, you two are 'inseparable'. Knowing that, I'm actually growing quite envious of your relationship."
"Nice…" Ron commented. "So why get us involved this time?"
"I couldn't move onto the future, not until I know what it is that makes you and Kimberly indomitable."
Kim finally spoke. "So you mean you made us go through all this hell, just to make us come up here to some kind of final fight?"
Val chuckled. "I can see I've succeeded in properly provoking you just by the venom in your eyes, more so than last time. But there is a lot more to this than just obsession, my dear. Like I said, there is a real threat behind all of this, but perhaps I've overestimated your ability to tackle it… hero."
Ron continued to squirm. "Um, can I take care of business already?"
Val sighed. "Well, I don't want you trying to shove your crotch in my face for a reverse cross throw with your legs if your pants are stained with urine… Sure. The bathroom's between what's left of the stairs and the ladies room."
From where Kim was at, she could see Valia barely twitch his arms. Suddenly, a series of blades had cut the wires that kept Ron suspended in mid-air, sending him crashing into the floor below. The wires had also quickly unraveled themselves, safely releasing him. Ron quickly located the bathroom doors and ran right in. Lucky for him, the men's bathroom wasn't destroyed.
Val decided to change the mood. "So now he's grown back into the buffoon instead of the confident man? I suppose the excitement wears off after some time."
"Actually," Kim smiled, "This whole experience has really made the meaning of the relationship more alive and exciting. Even though Ron's gone through a lot, the fire's still there. I never thought such things would make me see him as a soul mate."
Kim was hoping this kind of information would disgust Val, but apparently it didn't.
"You've changed," he remarked. "Before, you were trying so hard to keep an intimidating profile, and now, you're acting no different than the time you were affected with the Moodulator… anger, sadness, confusion, bubbly love… especially with him around. Unfortunately, being human doesn't really help you out in a dire situation."
"Listen, Val, I know how to balance real life and world saving."
"Keep telling yourself that. You allow both to merge in at once, and if it weren't for the fact that you were facing textbook villains, you'd be dead from it. Normally a dictator wouldn't allow you to talk smart in front of them, and would blow your brains out almost instantly."
Before Kim could counter, Ron came storming out of the bathroom, only to be taken to the ceiling via a net trap.
"Can't have you doing any funny business after taking care of personal business, Stoppable," Val sighed.
"Aw, weak sauce!" Ron cried.
"Tell me you at least washed your hands…" Val mumbled.
"Always do!"
"Good." Val dusted his gloves before turning to Kim again. "So, where were we?"
Kim stared at him with poison in her eyes. "For putting me through all the crap you did, from trying to assassinate Ron, giving out some nuclear threat that made us travel halfway around the world to fight four cybertronic biological weapons, a giant mech, putting nanomachines in Ron, having to make us go through a hundred floors to take out the rest of the bio-mechs, Elurt, and fighting a freaking Hind, you'd better have a darn good reason for this."
Val shook his head while he laughed. "Oh, Kimberly Anne… you have no idea. You see, not all heroes know the difference between right and wrong, truth and lie. They can exceed in one, but fail in the other. One of the very few differences between you and I is that I do what you consider wrong, but I know the truth of everything. You do everything you believe is right, yet you live in deceit."
"That doesn't make much sense."
"Some people you would consider heroes or legends don't work like pacifists. Sometimes we stoop to what the public considers acts of terrorism to do what is right."
Neither Kim nor Ron was getting it.
Val let out a disgruntled sigh. "Well, I was hoping part of my codename, 'Dive', would be an indicator of who you were dealing with, but seeing that neither of you are familiar with those in the field, I'm not surprised you failed to see it… again."
Ron was baffled. "You're serious; you're some kind of…"
"Teen hero? Need another story to prove it?"
"No way," Kim argued. "The GJ reports don't have anything like that on you. If you were a teen hero, I'd know."
Val just burst into laughter. "And you honestly thought before this journey that you and Ron were the only ones. You have no idea of the other 7,852 teen heroes worldwide! And if you already forgot, they said I was dead, too! See a pattern? And not surprisingly, they don't even mention me by my real first name."
"You mean Valia's not your real name?"
"It's short for my full name, Valhalia. But the middle and last names are quite the same. Proves the accuracy, doesn't it?"
"Whoa, wait, if you were good, why did you go bad?" Ron asked with curiosity in his eyes. Even if he didn't believe that Val was ever good to the point of saving the world, he had to hear this one.
"I had my reasons, and believe me, they're very similar to the situation you both are going through right here and now."
He turned his back to the two as he began.
'You see, back then, I went by the codename 'Valve Dive'. One of the many codenames I had, but that was my primary one."
Kim thought to herself – was that why the others were calling him a traitor? They knew who he was…
He was a government agent? Could it be?
Val pulled out a card and tossed it towards the two, sliding it across the floor.
Valhalia Erocus Ryan - CIA.