Thanks bunches to: Kimberly Ann Possible, BabyMama9672, Widow Shark, Sestren NK, recon228, Sand Lord, kemiztri, JPMod, Classic Cowboy, Spooks-A-Lot, Jokerdaking, Potential Boy, Jezrianna 2.0, Cold-Chaos, Mobius97, aimtbj, Dreammergurl2007, and Willk1989.
Special thanks to: LKillingsworth, for the time and effort you put into reviews that I think might actually be longer than a lot of actual fics!
Story highlight: Check out faithful reader Sestren NK's story "The Sociopath Episode" (The title alone is cool), he has an interesting take on villainy by creating a KP nemesis who seems more human than cartoonish. You'll find the story in his profile.
Author's note: You might have some questions by the end of this chapter. And that's OK. I ask you to bear with me, as there are a few details that cannot be revealed until later in the story. But I am fairly confident all explanations for seeming inconsistencies will suffice by then end of this tale (and if they don't, then I definitely want to know about it).
If you don't like cliffhangers, you might want to duck. I'm about to hit you with two of 'em…
VI.
"Welcome to the what now?"
Tim laughed. Ron looked around. The lab was low-lit, with all kinds of strange electronic devices humming and blinking. He turned around, expecting to see an image of the office building hallway he was just in, but it was gone.
"I had to close the portal as soon as you came through," Tim said good-naturedly, "Can't keep it open or bad stuff happens."
"Yeah," Ron said, confused, "OK. You can send me back, though, right?"
Tim shook his head gravely, "I'm afraid this was a one way trip."
Ron's eyes went wide.
"Kidding!" Tim said laughing boisterously, "Come on, you don't think I'd really do that to you, do ya?"
"Yeah," Ron said, laughing nervously, "Good one."
"Oh, would you relax?" Tim said with a dismissive wave, "I think most people would be interested in visiting the future."
"I guess so," Ron admitted, "So this is what Chronos was all about?"
"Yep!" Tim said with a smile, he moved around behind a bank of electronic equipment and seemed to be taking some readings, "I've been working on this project since that day you came to see me at my off-sight lab. Which I guess for you would be today, huh?"
Tim seemed to think this was very funny and laughed long and loud. Ron found it kind of awkward.
"I'm sorry," Tim said wiping a mirthful tear from his eye, "I guess when you've been working on a project this long, you start to go a little crazy. I thought you should be the first to try it out, since I did ask for your help all those years ago… or today as is the case from your perspective. Do you feel any kind of ill effects from what you just experienced?"
"I'm still a little dizzy from the double vision thing," Ron told him.
"The double-? Oh, right!" He seemed to just remember it, "You said you had some vision trouble that first day I asked you to come in."
"Yeah."
"Wow," Tim said turning serious, "I can't even begin to guess exactly how many years ago that was. I suppose I look pretty old to you, huh?"
"A little," Ron admitted.
"I'm actually fifty-six years old. Gosh, I was eighteen when I began work on Chronos…" He trailed off.
"Dude, you've been working on this project for almost forty years?" Ron asked in wonder.
"Well," Tim admitted, "Note solely. Actually, this thing's been more of a hobby of mine. I knew it would work eventually, I just needed for the right technology to be invented. Most of this stuff was designed and built by Wade."
"Hey," Ron said, suddenly curious, "Is Wade-?"
Tim held up his hands to silence Ron, "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that."
"Why?"
"Frankly, time travel is something new. You're the first person in – heh heh – 'history' to actually move from one point in the Time Continuum to another. In other words, you're the first person to ever successfully travel through time."
"OK" Ron said, "But what about Wade?"
"Well," Tim looked a little uncomfortable, "That's just it. I'm afraid I can't tell you about your family or friends. It could cause you to make decisions and take actions you otherwise might not have, and that could have devastating consequences."
"But you-" Ron began.
"Yes," Tim acknowledged, "I'm technically a friend of yours, I know. But see, I'm prepared not to discuss anything with you that might affect your future. Discipline of a scientist and all that. But there's something else – and you gotta admit this is pretty cool – see, when you get back to your own time, you're going to tell me that Chronos is a success. That'll give me the motivation to stay with it all these years. Pretty nifty little Causality Loop, eh?"
"Yeah, I guess," Ron sounded disappointed, "Why did you call yourself a 'friend' of mine? I thought you were family?"
Tim's face clouded over for the briefest of seconds, then he smiled again, "Sorry, man, old habit. I mean, you still kind of look like you did before you and Kim got married."
"So what' up with Kim?" Ron persisted, "Can't you at least tell me how she's doing? She's gotta be, like, in her upper sixties?"
"I'm sorry, Ron," Tim said sympathetically, "I just can't answer that. Tell you what I can do, though, I can show you around Middleton. You can see the school, your old house, stuff like that. I think you'll agree we've got some pretty cool stuff here in the future."
"Well," Ron said doubtfully, already he wasn't liking time travel, "Maybe I should be getting back."
"Alright," Tim said, disappointment creeping into his voice, "But just remember, I can send you back any time, even back to the moment you stepped through the portal. It'd be like you never left."
Ron looked around, thinking for a moment. After all, here was an opportunity to check out all the cool stuff that had been invented in the last forty years. Ron's doubt and trepidation began to fade.
"So," He said at last, "They got flying cars in the future?"
Tim smiled at him, "Wait until you see 'em."
"What's the sitch, Wade?"
"Hey Kim, Ron's still not home?"
You mean you don't know?" She said in mock surprise. "I thought you had us all microchipped."
"Not since you got engaged," Wade informed her, "Ron asked me to deactivate the devices. He was going to talk to you about getting new ones installed."
"Why not just reactivate the old ones?"
"They were biodegradable," Wade went on, "Once I deactivated them, they simply dissolved and were expelled through your-"
"You know what?" Kim cut him off, "I really don't need to know all the details."
"Fair enough," Wade said, grinning, "So Ron's still out doing this Chronos thing?"
It was late in the afternoon. Kim had been running some errands in the Kimjet when Wade popped up on the view screen.
"Yeah," She confirmed, "I'm not even sure if he's going to be home for dinner. Tim pulled him away from lunch today."
"You up for a mission?" Wade asked, changing the subject.
"What's up?"
"There was a robbery at the Tri-City Museum last night. Someone managed to get in and steal a rare artifact called the 'Tempus Simia'. No one even noticed it was missing until this morning. The police have been out there, but I thought Ron might want to go take a look. Or you."
"Why Ron?"
"Well, 'Tempus Simia' translates, in the literal sense, to 'Time Monkey'. Something about it just caught my attention, so I've been doing some research for the past couple of hours."
"Yes…?" Kim prodded.
"The Tempus Simia is an idol that was split into two halves, severed at the head."
"Eww."
"It's just a stone statue. Anyway, some of the legends recorded in the less reliable history books indicate that when these two halves are brought together, the idol is a source of what one book calls 'mystical monkey power'." Wade emphasized the last three words.
"And the only person we know that's ever been interested in that is…"
"Exactly," Wade finished her thought, "Which is why I thought Ron might want to check this out."
"OK", Kim said, puzzled, "So there's been a mystical monkey artifact in a museum here in Middleton all this time… why would Monkey Fist wait until now to steal it?"
Wade shrugged, "Could be he didn't even know of it until now. After all, he's been a bit preoccupied, you know, hiding from-"
"The Gorilla his dreams?" Kim interjected.
"Aw, man," Wade said with a groan, "That was bad, Kim, just awful. I doubt even Ron would have made a pun that bad."
Kim giggled, "I'll have to remember to tell him that one when he gets home."
"So," Wade continued, "What do you think? You up for a mission?"
"Yeah," Kim said hesitantly, "I guess. But it's my first mission back as Kim Possible. Feels weird without Ron."
"I understand," Wade said sympathetically, "But if it really does turn out to be Monkey Fist, then there could be some bad stuff in the works."
"How bad?"
"Who knows?" Wade shrugged again, "With Monkey Fist, though, it always seems to be 'take over the world' bad."
"True," Kim admitted. "OK. Do me a favor and contact Captain Hobble over at the precinct. Ask him if he'll let me take a look at all the evidence the police collected from the crime scene. I'm going to go over to the museum first and check it out myself."
"No problem," Wade said, "Welcome back, Kim."
Kim smiled, feeling a nervous excitement within her as well as something else, something familiar that she hadn't felt in a long time. Kim Possible was finally back where she belonged; in the business of saving the world.
"So…" he asked nervously, "How do you find your meal?"
"My what?" She said distractedly, "My…oh, my dinner…yeah, it's good. I like it. It's really… you know…good."
"Good."
"Yes it is."
"That's good to know."
"OK, then."
Silence again.
They'd shared hundreds of meals together. But not one of them so awkward as this. It could have been the fact that they were on their first date. But then it could also have been the fact that everyone else in the upscale restaurant was trying not to stare. But could you blame them? It wasn't everyday they saw a blue skinned-man and a green-skinned woman, trying not to act like it was their first date.
Ten years ago, the idea of going out with Drakken would have made Shego's skin crawl.
Well, sans Moodulator, anyway.
But the last couple of years had been something of an eye-opener for her.
Shego had been charged only as an accomplice to Drakken's Diablo-bot scheme and thus was let out of prison after only a few years. Naturally, her first impulse had been to seek vengeance on Kim Possible, but that path had led her into a relationship with Kim's fiancé.
Just the very memory of kissing Ray Beam made her ill. The fact that she took his abuses made her hate herself. But then, Ray was his own special breed of monster.
Under the right circumstances, Shego realized she wasn't as strong as she thought she was. After all, even Ron Stoppable had cowed her into submission during his brief stint as a villain. He wasn't the pushover Drakken was, and he'd only threatened her with a tank full of sharks. But it was something in the way Stoppable intimidated her; a sinister menace lying just beneath the surface that told her to keep her place, or else.
And, to her surprise, she did.
But Stoppable – or 'Zorpox' if you prefer – merely threatened her. And in hindsight, she realized it was likely he never intended to carry out his threats against her.
Ray, on the other hand, didn't issue threats. He just lashed out. His sudden bursts of anger and occasional bouts of abuse genuinely frightened her. There were no warnings, no signs, no indicators of Ray Beam's rage. It simply exploded, and most of the time it had been directed at her.
And Drakken… She could only recall one time when Drakken had become truly enraged. And that was when he was teaching Ray Beam a lesson in the finer points of operating a Gravimetric device. Even now, more than a year later, it still took her breath away, recalling the fury Drakken had unleashed on Ray, all because Ray hadn't been very kind to Shego.
She'd only seen this protective side of him once or twice before. And certainly never to such a degree of wrath as he had demonstrated that day in the Nevada desert. It had sparked something in her.
If asked, Shego probably wouldn't tell you she'd fallen in love with Drakken. At least, not the kind of love you might be familiar with. But she was grateful And with him, she felt like she was home; something she'd never felt even in the company of her brothers. She knew he was completely lost without her. He needed her, and maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to be needed.
They had probably shared hundreds of meals together, but she knew right away what he meant when he nervously asked her if she wanted to go have dinner somewhere. And, truth be told, there was something cute about it as well.
Could she do better than Drakken? Maybe. But her time out in the world alone also told her 'maybe not'. And anyway, Shego wasn't getting any younger. Sometimes you had to appreciate what you had, instead of convincing yourself there's something better out there. Because as far as Shego was concerned, there probably wasn't.
"What?" she asked, rousing herself from her thoughts.
"The waiter wants to know if you would like coffee or dessert, or both?" Drakken interpreted for her. The restaurant was so fancy, the waiters only spoke French.
"Oh…uh…no thanks."
"No, merci." Drakken related to the waiter.
"I didn't know you spoke French, Dr. D."
"Oh…well, not fluently per se, but I do know a few words. Spend a few years in a French prison and you're bound to pick up one or two phrases. Although we might get kicked out of here if I used most of the French words I know. And please, Shego, just call me Drew. I think we can safely assume our relationship has moved to less formal grounds." He informed her.
"How about I call you Drewbie?" She teased.
"OK…Shego," He said looking around self-consciously, "Let's not test the good Doctor's patience."
"Oh," She groaned, "Please tell me that pun was unintended."
"What pun?"
"You said 'Doctor's patience'." She reminded him.
"I said what now?" Confused, then he brightened, "Ah! Yes! Quite right. An exquisite pun to be sure."
"Oh come on," she said rolling her eyes, "I know you better than that. You did not say that on purpose."
He gave her a strange sort of affectionate look, "You do know me better than that, don't you?"
Shego blushed, which turned her face a sort of pale beige, "I guess you learn a few things about someone when you hang around them long enough."
"Indeed," He replied quietly, "Which is why I thought we should take this relationship to the next level. I realized something that day I came to break you out of prison. Just the idea that someone else had mistreated you in some way… I don't know."
Shego said nothing. But something was stirring within her. His act of retribution on Ray wasn't territorial, at least, not in the sense that Drakken didn't want Shego seeing someone else. No, his motivations were all about her well being.
And once again – as it so often did over the last year - the image of a drowning Ron Stoppable floated into her mind. His thoughts had been on Kim's well being; even at the point of his own death. Shego remembered the deep-seeded jealousy she felt when she concluded no one felt that way about her. Except now it turns out someone actually did. And much the same way Ron had gone berserk after Ray had called Kim 'Kimmie Cub', Drakken had lost it when he dealt with Ray regarding his abuses toward Shego.
Her feelings toward Drakken began to deepen.
"But anyway," Drakken continued after a short time, "Ever since I heard Kim Possible married that guy… her sidekick… whatever his name is…"
"Wait," Shego interjected, "Kim and the buffoon got married?"
Drakken nodded, "Some eight months ago, from what I understand. I was researching my latest project and came across an announcement in the Middleton Gazette. But it got me to thinking… you know I've always seen us as family. And truth be told, I sometimes have a difficult time getting by without you."
"No!" Shego said with mock surprise.
"Please, Shego, this is difficult enough as it is." Drakken protested. "But I think we might want to consider making our relationship…I don't know…deeper, I suppose. I have no idea what I'm trying to say, so maybe I'll just drop the subject for now."
They both were silent for some time. Drakken looked uncomfortable.
"So," she changed the subject to ease the tension, "What's this new project about?"
Drakken blinked twice, she'd never been interested in his schemes before.
"Well," He began hesitantly, unsure if she actually was interested or if she was looking for an excuse to tease him, "I'm actually building a large battlebot, but this one has a unique purpose."
"Go on," she encouraged.
"I'm constructing this one with some very special equipment. I'm going to place it in an underground facility where it will monitor world events via a broadband connection to the internet. When the robot determines the world is at its weakest, it will emerge, seek me out, and we will conquer the globe!"
The restaurant had become utterly silent, all eyes turned to the blue-skinned man who was shouting by the end of his rant. Their waiter hurried over to their table, presented them with the check, and snootily uttered a few phrases in French.
"See," Drakken said pointing at the waiter, "Those are some of the words I learned in the French prison."
"What did he say?"
"Something involving our mothers." Drakken replied heatedly.
Shego's fists flared up. She shot a glare at the waiter, "You got something to say about my mom, Frenchy boy?"
The ensuing damage to the restaurant was considerable.
Tim's lab was on the thirty-eighth floor of a building near the edge of the downtown area. The interesting thing was, so was the parking garage where he kept his car.He took out a small remote device, pushed a button, and the car powered up.
Most of the vehicle consisted of clear glass or plexi-glass, or some sort of clear substance Ron didn't know about. It looked like an oblong flying bubble without wheels. The engine was housed beneath their feet, in a sort of platform that encompassed tiny landing struts and one or two other pieces of equipment.
Doors, if you could call them that, slid aside allowing the passengers to climb in and buckle up. There was no visible steering wheel or anything Ron thought could be used to steer the vehicle. On the driver's side was a flat monitor with what looked like a satellite photo of Middleton. The words 'please select destination' appeared on the screen.
Tim touched part of the screen and the image immediately zoomed in on that section he had indicated. He pushed another section on the close-up image and the words 'please confirm' appeared on the screen. He pushed that same section again and the vehicle lifted gently off the platform. The garage door slid upward, and they glided out into mid air.
Many of us have had experiences where we've been away from our home town for some time and then gone back to find it has changed a bit. And most of the time that feeling we get is a sad one. No one likes to see strange new neighborhoods or shopping malls in a place we once called home. And certainly, it would be a shock to the system to find our hometowns almost totally unrecognizable.
That's what was happening to Ron.
Middleton had apparently become a major metroplex in the last forty years. Skyscrapers dominated the skyline. The Middleton Bank, once the tallest building in downtown Middleton at thirty stories, was now dwarfed by numerous buildings more than twice as high. The downtown area had spread out in all directions, and was now no longer a tightly compact urban center, but a sprawling city on a par with any of the major cities in the U.S.
That's not to say Middleton had turned into some real-life version of Gotham City necessarily, but it was so different from what Ron was accustomed to, he was struck with an almost instant melancholy. Everyone goes through a 'things aren't what they used to be' phase in their lives. Trust me, if you haven't yet, you will. But we all get the chance to watch things develop gradually. A new neighborhood here, a couple of tall buildings there. To Ron, Middleton looked like an old friend who'd had extensive plastic surgery and, while that friend might have looked a bit different, it wasn't necessarily an improvement.
Lines of traffic streamed through the air. Tim sat back and folded his hands while the vehicle smoothly made its way into one of the lanes and matched speed with the rest of the cars.
"Hydrogen thrusters?" Ron asked.
"Actually, it's some sort of mag-lev repulsor technology that interacts with the earth's gravity in much the same way two magnets can repulse each other." Tim said casually.
Ron smiled for the first time since he'd arrived, "You don't want to tell me because of the whole time stream pollution thing."
"Something like that," Tim said, returning the smile.
The vehicle noiselessly slipped out of the downtown area and began descending toward a vaguely familiar building.
"So is this still the high school?" Ron asked, now fascinated.
"Yeah," Tim confirmed, "Though it looks quite a bit different, doesn't it? That building is still the gym, though the interior looks completely different from what you remember. They renovated it when public schools began incorporating anti-gravity sports into the curriculum."
"Anti-gravity sports!" Ron said, perking up, "Oh, come on, you can tell me about that at least!"
"Yeah, I don't see a problem with that," Tim said with a chuckle, "Let's see. Basketball is now played in four dimensions. Then there's Four Cube, which is basically an anti-gravity version of Dodgeball. Then there's Parisi Squares. It'd take me several days to explain that one."
"Sounds cool." Ron enthused.
"It is," Tim confirmed. He punched the surface of the screen a few times and the hovering vehicle lifted into the air once more.
Ron watched the high school gym as it faded into the distance. It was a little strange to think that his activities in that building were now a part of its history. Certainly they were at only ten years past his high school graduation, but he wondered if Kim's world-saving exploits were still talked about in the halls, or if anyone still talked about the night Deathray blasted a chunk of the building away in an attempt to kill him.
The thought made him wonder about Kim's former fiancé.
"Any idea whatever became of Ray Beam?" he asked Tim.
"Hmmm," Tim said, thinking, "I remember there was something about him in the newspapers a few years ago. Something about him being paroled, but I have no idea what became of him after that. Ah, here we are."
Ron didn't recognize it at first; some of the trees had grown up around it, while others were missing. But at last, he remembered it as the house he grew up in. Ron pressed his face against the glass in fascinated wonder.
"Are Mom and Dad still living there?" Ron wondered aloud.
"No," Tim confirmed, "Your mom moved to a retirement community a few years back."
Ron pulled his face away from the window and looked at the older man sitting next to him.
"Dad?"
"He passed from natural causes." Tim said quietly, "But I can at least tell you this. You visit her just about every day."
Ron simply nodded, "I bet she goes crazy for our kids. She always said Kim and I would have beautiful kids."
Again, Tim's face clouded almost imperceptibly.
Almost.
"All right," Ron said in a harsher tone than he meant, "Either you tell me now, or take me back. I'm getting tired of all these cryptic responses."
"I…" Tim began.
"Come on, Tim. After all we've been through?" Ron backed his tone off a little, "I mean, you said I was the first person to travel through time, how do you even know I'd be corrupting future events?"
"You don't understand-"
"Fine," Ron cut him off, "Then I'm ready to go back to my own time now. I don't think I much like it here anyway."
The Kimjet flew low over the Central African jungle and set down as close to the temple as the trees would allow, which meant Kim still had a few hundred yards hike ahead of her. She'd seen the temple from the air. It looked like a giant monkey head had been carved from a single large stone. A stone stairway led up to an entryway set between the monkey's paws. All around the temple was thick jungle without a single sign of civilization for a good hundred miles or so.
Kim was still trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Over the last couple of days, she'd been to St, Petersburg, Russia, and the middle of the Australian Outback. The curator of the Museum in Middleton had told her the lower half of the Tempus Simia had been unearthed in an underground temple near St. Petersburg. More than a thousand years ago, Tibetan Monks had carried the lower half as far as they felt was necessary to separate it from the head of the idol. When they reached the cold northern wastes of Russia, they spent twenty years digging an underground temple and set the lower half of the idol on a pedestal in a small shrine.
The head was taken deep into the Australian Outback, and left in a similarly monkey-themed temple there. While she was searching the Outback, Wade had uncovered more information about the idol.
As it turned out, there was yet third temple in Central Africa that held the power of the Tempus Simia. However, in order for the power of the idol to work, the body had to be placed on a special pedestal and then, precisely when the sun reached a specific point in the sky, the head was to be placed upon the idol and the power of the Tempus Simia would manifest itself.
What Kim couldn't figure out was, if the two sections of the idol were supposed to be hidden from each other, and its power kept out of the hands of evil, why would there be three temples containing the three key components of the Tempus Simia? Why not simply bury the idols and destroy the temple? It made no sense.
But then she wasn't thinking totally clear these days. She hadn't heard from Ron since the lunch they had with Monique. When she called her brother Jim, he said Ron and Tim were busy with the Chronos Project and Ron was ordered by Senior Director Du to give his complete cooperation in the project. Kim told Wade to have Ron come out and join her wherever she was; she really wanted Ron to be there on her first mission back. Wade said he would, but as of this morning, Ron hadn't been heard from. The Ninjet was still parked in the Basement at home.
An intense feeling of déjà vu came over Kim as she strode up to the temple. She knew she'd never been here before but she couldn't help feeling as though she had. She gazed up at the sky, and then pulled out her Kimunicator. A clock in the corner of the screen indicated it was ten minutes until noon. Wade guessed that noon would be the approximate time the sun would be in the proper place for the idol to work. And today had to be the day Monkey Fist would attempt to bring about the idol's power.
The temple in the Outback was empty, of course, and the head, if it had been there, was certainly gone now. But there had been signs of recent encroachment into the temple. Wade had done a thermal scan and found heat signatures everywhere. If it was Monkey Fist, then he had been in the temple only a few hours before her. When Wade beeped in and told her what he'd found out about Central Africa, she pushed the Kimjet to its limits in order to get there as quickly as possible.
She put the Kimunicator away and looked down at herself, missing her husband now more than ever. She'd decided against the battlesuit for her fist mission, and instead chose to wear the Club Banana mission clothes Ron had bought her for their showdown with Deathray. She was feeling like her old self again. Well, almost.
While in the air on the way to Africa, Wade kept her company via the view screen. She shared her feelings about Ron with him, telling Wade that she just felt somehow incomplete without his presence on the mission.
"You mind if I ask you something?" Wade said hesitantly, "It's kind of personal."
"Sure," Kim said, curious, "Go ahead."
"Is this what marriage is like? I mean, is it like the feeling you just described to me? That you feel like nothing without Ron?"
"Well, no I didn't quite say that," Kim corrected, "I just said I felt sort of incomplete without him. I mean, I wouldn't be nothing without Ron. I'd still be able to function and go about my life. It's not like I'm helpless."
"OK," Wade acknowledged, "I understand. So what exactly do you mean by 'incomplete'?"
Well," Kim thought for a moment, and then smiled, coming to her own realization, "It's not that I'm 'nothing' without Ron, it's that I am everything with him. You see what I'm saying?"
"I think so." Wade replied.
"Ron brings things out in me that no one else can. He pushes me to go the extra mile, to push myself harder, and to challenge myself more." Kim was thinking aloud to herself just as much as she was talking to Wade, "If I hadn't had him for a sidekick during my teen hero days, I might have just stuck to babysitting. I mean…"
Kim sat there thinking for a moment, and the memory that surfaced brought her to the brink of tears; not of sadness, but perhaps of relief. After all that history together, it now occurred to her that not ending up with Ron would have been a tragedy.
"Our first mission, before we even met you. We were in middle school. Ron ever tell you about it?" She asked in an emotional voice.
"Yeah," Wade said slowly, trying to remember, "Something about some guy's Cuddlebuddy collection, right?"
"Paisley," Kim said, remembering the name just then, "Anyway, he and some other guy were trapped in a vault, unable to move because if they did, a laser security system would have fried them both."
"OK," Wade confirmed, "I think I remember this. Ron said you had to do some pretty serious tumbling to get to the shutoff switch."
"Yeah," Kim said with a far away look in her eyes, "And when I finally managed to shut off the system, Ron was the first one to speak."
"I'm willing to bet it was something along the lines of 'booyah'." Wade guessed.
"Yeah", and finally, a tear did manage to escape her eye and roll down her cheek, "So Paisley's friend couldn't believe they had just been saved by a cheerleader and Ron…"
Kim trailed off, overcome by the emotion of the memory. Tears rolled, and it was a strange feeling to cry but not be sad. She suddenly wished more than anything that Ron was there.
"So this guy couldn't believe he'd been saved by a cheerleader…" Wade prodded.
"Yeah," Kim said, sniffing and wiping the tears from her cheeks, "And Ron said 'That's Kim Possible! She can do anything!' And, I mean, he said it like he really believed it, like he wasn't just stating a fact, but like it was a really cool discovery or something."
"Sounds like he's loved you since day one," Wade said quietly.
"I think we were in love with each other long before either of us realized it," Kim said, drying the last of the tears and pulling her mind back into the present, "I hope he feels the same way about me."
"Kim," Wade said seriously, looking directly into the camera so it would appear to his friend he was looking directly at her, "I worked with Ronin for two years before you guys got back together. You never would have recognized him back then. He was quiet, sullen, depressed all the time. I think he told like two jokes in twenty-four months. And we both know he tried to end his own life – man, was that really just over a year ago? – a stupid thing to do, but remember, he was doing it so Deathray would leave you alone. Now it's like he's his old self again. Most of the traces of the old Ronin are gone thanks to you. It's like you said: it's not as though he's nothing without you, it's just that he's everything with you."
"Thanks, Wade," she said warmly, "So what's with the curiosity about marriage?"
"Oh," Wade said, suddenly self-conscious, "That's all, nothing more. Just curiosity."
"Uh huh," she didn't believe him, "We're going to have a talk when I get home, young man."
"What?" Wade said, what was obviously artificial static began to cloud over the screen, "I can't make out the signal, Kim, you're starting to break up."
Kim was roused from her thoughts by a chillingly familiar sound coming from within the temple. It was laughter, but not any normal kind of laughter.
"AHA AHA AHAA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" the high-pitched hysterics echoed though the chamber and were answered by wilder, more hysterical-sounding screeches.
"Master," Came an unfamiliar voice, "What are the final instructions?"
"I'll let you know when we arrive. But now the critical moment approaches. Prepare yourselves."
"Not today, Monkey Fist!" Kim said defiantly stepping into the central chamber.
"NO!" Monkey Fist practically screamed, "It can't be you! Not now, not after all these years! I've come too close to be stopped now."
"Monkey ninjas, attack!" Said the unfamiliar voice again.
Kim was set upon by monkeys in ninja garb.
Yep, I'm back in business alright, she thought to herself.
She spun, sweeping a leg through three monkeys and knocking them back before leaping over two others. She moved toward a stairway that led up to a sort of shrine. At the top, Monkey Fist was holding a small, stone monkey head and looking up at the sky. His face a grotesque mask of lust and greed.
Then something seemed to occur to Monkey Fist, "Beware the sidekick! Kim Possible has only ever beaten me once, but the buffoon… he's a different story altogether."
"Don't know if you were aware of this or not," Kim called out to him, smacking two monkey ninjas heads together and making a run for the stairs, "But that 'buffoon' and I got married. That means our victories are community property, which means that between us, we've beaten you…oh, let's see…every time!"
"Don't let her up here!" Fist called out fearfully.
"I obey, Master," said the voice whose owner dropped onto the stairs between Kim and the idol.
"So the Monkey's got himself a sidekick," Kim observed casually.
"We all serve Monkey Fist," her opponent said, gesturing about him. Most of the Monkey Ninjas had recovered and encircled Kim menacingly.
"Not all of us," Kim said coldly and flipped over backwards, clearing the monkeys behind her. When she landed, she swept her leg out, kicking the nearest monkey ninja into the human she did not recognize. They both went sprawling.
"THE TIME IS NOW!" Monkey Fist screamed from the top of the stairs. He slammed the head of the monkey down on to the body of the idol.
A burst of reddish light accompanied a deep, pulsating explosive kind of sound. A visible, pale red shockwave emanated from the light-burst and spread out in all directions, knocking everyone off their feet. Kim was sent hurtling backwards and smacked painfully into the stone wall behind her, crumpling up in a heap on the ground. She struggled to lift her head, then summoned all her strength just to bring herself up to her knees.
"Come, Fukushima! Come, my monkey minions! The dawning of the era of the Monkey King is soon upon us! AHA AHA AHAA HA HA HA HA HA!"
Behind Monkey Fist, a glowing crimson vortex opened up in mid air. Kim managed to pull out the Kimunicator and press the 'scan' button as Fist – carrying the Tempus Simia idol – followed by the one he called Fukushima and then each of the monkey ninjas ascended the stairs and stepped into the vortex.
Just before he stepped through, the one called Fukushima turned and looked at Kim, "Tell your husband I will be returning, and I will be coming for him. There is a score between us that will be settled."
The sound, the light, and any remnant of indication that there even was a vortex in mid air ceased instantly. All was silent for a few seconds as even the jungle animals had been startled mute. Gradually, a bird would begin to call, a monkey would howl from far off, or a colony of beetles would begin chirping, and then the jungle resumed its normal chatter once more.
Kim struggled to her feet and stood, completely alone, in an empty temple in the middle of Africa.
Ron angrily looked about Tim's lab for any sign that the future version of his brother-in-law might be returning. For two days now he'd been stuck in this future. Though Tim assured him everything would be fixed to exact specifications, Ron no longer trusted him.
They'd tried to send Ron back two days earlier, but something had gone wrong. The portal wouldn't open. Then the equipment seemed to overload and fizzle out. Tim scurried about the lab, trying to figure out what was wrong. He came to Ron with some bad news.
Catastrophic failure resulting in a complete breakdown of cohesion of the Time Stream. In other words, he couldn't open a portal for Ron to step back into his own time. But not to worry, it was just a matter of replacing some sophisticated equipment and rebuilding the portal emitter. Forty-eight hours tops.
Ron told the older man that he better return him to the exact time when he left. He didn't want his wife worrying about him.
And again, that momentary clouding of the face at the mention of Kim.
Tim was out of the lab now, picking up a few parts and something for dinner. Ron was alone with his thoughts.
And one active computer terminal.
Ron sat down in front of it, trying to recall what he'd seen Tim do in the flying vehicle two days earlier. He touched the screen. Words appeared before him.
Please choose from one of the following options: News, Games, Weather, Search, Current Stock Prices, Address Book.
He started with search. A virtual keyboard appeared at the bottom of the screen and Ron typed in the name 'Kim Possible'.
There were three thousand matches for that name. But among the top matches was probably the one he was looking for.
Kim Possible, a biographical summary.
Ron touched that section of the screen.
Born and raised in Middleton, Kim Possible first appeared on the public scene as a teen hero during her formative high school years. Together with her sidekick, who would later become her first husband, Kim Possible battled numerous villains of…
Ron mentally tripped and fell over the word 'first'. He touched an icon in the upper left corner of the screen, an arrow with the word 'back' inside of it. Erasing Kim's name from the search space, he typed in his own name.
Three hundred matches, including a 'biographical summary'.
Childhood friend, sidekick, and onetime husband to Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable made a name for himself as the mysterious ninja hero called 'Ronin'. Though he and Kim Possible grew up together, their marriage only lasted three years and ended in a bitter divorce and lengthy legal battle over the fortune amassed by Ron Stoppable. They had no children together, and Stoppable never remarried, instead choosing to share a home with his mother after his father died of an untimely heart attack at the age of fifty-five…
"'Passed away because of natural causes?'" Ron shouted.
"What are you doing?" came an alarmed voice behind him.
Ron stood up and whirled around.
"You lied to me about my father!" He pointed an accusatory finger at Tim.
Tim held up his hands in protest, "If I told you the truth about him, you would have demanded more answers!"
"And Kim!" Ron continued, bellowing, "Why didn't you tell me about Kim?"
"You don't understand-"
"I'm getting tired of hearing that from you," Ron crossed the lab in three strides and grabbed Tim by the collar of his shirt, pulling him close and snarling, "Make me understand."
Tim seemed resigned to finally admitting the truth, "Kim remarried after you guys split up. You two never had children, but she did have children with her second husband. Those are my nephews, as well as one niece. And all three of them have grown up, gotten married, and had children of their own, Ron! Don't you understand? With this knowledge, you might manage to save your marriage, and that would wipe out an entire section of my family tree!"
Ron relaxed his grip a little, his mind reeled, trying to absorb the information.
"And now that you know," Tim said quietly, "I cannot allow you to return to your own time."
"What can I do for you, Mrs. Stoppable?" Senior Director of Operations Wil Du formally addressed the woman sitting across the desk from him.
"It's all right," Kim said smiling, "You can drop the formalities."
Wil smiled back at her, "I only do that when I have permission. I understand you've been on a mission for the past couple of days. Something about Monkey Fist?"
"Yeah", Kim confirmed, "Did Wade brief you?"
"Yes, he's preparing a report. But it's a standard procedure. I assure you that GJ is not trying to interfere with your operation in any way. This is just for our records." He said affably.
"Oh, that's no big," Kim said with a dismissive wave, "I'm actually here about something else entirely. But I'm afraid it might be something of a sensitive nature."
"I'll do what I can to help," Du assured her.
"It's about the Chronos project," Kim began, then continued hurriedly when she saw Wil was about to speak, "I know, I know, it's a Top secret matter. I'm not actually interested in the Chronos project itself. I was just wondering if my husband might have some time off to come home. He hasn't been home in a couple of days. That was when he was summoned to report for Chronos."
Wil's brow furrowed, "Agent Stoppable hasn't been home at all?"
"No," Kim confirmed, "Is this not typical for a GJ Project?"
"Well," Wil explained, "There's an unwritten operating procedure around here. We all have families to go home to. We don't mandate our people to work twenty-four hours a day on any project. That only applies to field work; missions that require an agent to be gone for a given length of time."
"Well, maybe Ron's on a mission." Kim suggested.
"No," Wil said distractedly, then he leaned over and pushed a button on the surface of his desk, "Would you have agent Tim Possible report to my office, and tell him to bring any materials relating to the Chronos project?"
"Yes, sir," a voice acknowledged from the other end.
Kim and Wil made small talk until Tim walked through the office door, alone.
"Where is agent Stoppable?" Du asked him.
Tim shrugged, "I don't know. Why? Was he supposed to be with me?"
"I got an encrypted e-mail from you two days ago asking for agent Stoppable's participation in the Chronos project." Wil insisted.
"I sent you no such request," Tim answered, his confusion deepening, "I haven't seen Ron in like a week."