The Matrix: Revisited

by Classic Cowboy

Rewrite of The Kimmatrix Trilogy with Turles. Everything that has a beginning has an end. I see the end coming, I see the darkness spreading. I see death... and you are all that stands in his way. But for every end ... there is a beginning. The Oracle

4. Resurrections Chapter 4

The Kimmatrix: Matrix Resurrections

A Fan Fiction Fusion By

Classic Cowboy and Turles

Chapter 4: Two Sides, Two Paths

"The Man who sees both sides of a question is a man who sees nothing at all."

- Oscar Wilde

110101100110100111001011011100101010110101

Ron and Kim soon found out how right Link was. The moment that the two of them came back to their room and laid down on their flat mattresses and threadbare pillows, they fell fast asleep. Not a single word was spoken between them, not even the pleasantry of 'Good Night' . They were just too damn tired.

While Kim was sleeping soundly, Ron was still wide awake. He fell onto his mattress still trying to recover from the effects of what had happened in the jump program. The funny thing about Kim's jump was that from his vantage point, Kim looked like she wasn't going to make it. She would have missed the ledge of that building by a few, lousy feet until Ron lent a helping hand. It was only a small shove to help Kim get to the other side and Ron was trying to recover from the feeling of hitting the pavement. It was so real that he could still feel the soreness of the impact on his face as well as the side of his body.

Inside his mind, he even felt himself fall to the ground once again. He groaned as he picked himself off of the cold floor. Once on his feet, he found himself in very strange surroundings. The place looked a lot like the innumerable villain's lairs that he and Kim had been to. He did ask Kim once if they had been in a certain lair before. Kim responded that they all start to look alike after a while.

Ron saw that she was right, after seeing all the different villain lair motifs that adorned that place. There was the high ceiling for the huge death ray, motion activated laser cannons, enormous electronic equipment, and computer banks. Of course, Ron's favorite was the lagoon filled with man-eating piranhas, but that was probably outside the lair. None of that concerned Ron at the moment, because he felt alone, in the sense of not seeing Kim anywhere.

"KP?" He called out, his voice echoing through the lair, "Kim? You here?"

His voice echoed back, showing there was no answer. Compelled to find Kim, Ron started making his way through the lair. In his wandering, he noticed how dark it was. The only light was from all the LCDs on the different machines. With the darkness all around him, the little lights of green, red, and amber looked like eyes belonging to some horrible monster that could devour Ron at any moment. The idea chilled him to the bone more than a brain freeze from an king-size slushy. He pressed on into the heart of the darkness while trying to keep his thoughts away from whatever horrors might be out there in the dark.

Despite all his conscious efforts to avoid those thoughts, he was reminded of his first return to Camp Wannaweep, where he met his old cabin-mate, Gil, who became an amphibious mutant after all his time in the camp's lake, which was polluted by run-off from the nearby Science Camp. Ron's heart began to race more and more as he tried his hardest to not think of that place of evil. Not even the truth of the Matrix could erase the scarring memories of that horrible place.

He must have wandered for hours through that lair, at least that's how long it felt to him. In truth, he didn't know how far into the lair he had wandered. All that he wanted to do was find Kim. As he walked with his arms and hands stretched out, he could feel the hard, smooth surface of the walls on either side of him. Naturally, he deduced that he had come to a hallway, but the strange thing to him was that there were no doors, at least he didn't feel the frames that normally accompanied doors.

Eventually, his eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness to see some measure of what was ahead. It was a light, a soft, yellow light that poured down a fork in the hallway. Seeing the opportunity, Ron raced ahead, hoping for some sign that would bring him to Kim.

Standing under the soft yellow light at the fork in the hallway, Ron carefully examined each hallway. His eyes once again adjusted to the soft yellow lights that illuminated the hallways. The hallway on his left was wide, almost as wide as the dining area of Bueno Nacho. It was well lit with soft, yellow lights above and smaller ones lining the bottom edges like the ones he used to see in movie theaters to light up the walkways. The hallway to his right was narrowly tight, so much so that it seemed that Ron would have to shimmy in sideways to get in. It was also dark, as dark as the rest of the lair that he had to guess his way through.

"Mister Stoppable." A man's voice called out. The voice had sinister quality to it, especially with how it drew Ron's name out and accentuated the S in his name. It just sounded wrong, and sent cold chills down Ron's spine. He looked and from the shadows into the soft yellow light of the wide hallway came a man. He was dressed in a black, three piece suit and a pair of dark rectangular sunglasses. He looked like one of those agents that he and Kim ran into while in Morpheus' Training Program.

"I see you're finally ready to finish my work." The Agent smiled at Ron in such a way that it gave the young teen goose bumps.

"Who are you?" Ron asked as he backed away from the agent. Even though it was his first encounter with that particular agent, Ron was scared, even more than he was of the Agents he met inside the Matrix.

"Do not play games with me, Mister Stoppable." The agent smiled demonically at him, "You know exactly who I am. I am who you were in one life and I am who you were meant to become in this one. I am the face of inevitability. Mister Anderson could not stop me…and you…Mister Stoppable…are proof of that fact."

"No." Ron said as he shook his head, his voice filling with panic, "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Oh, you do…Mister Stoppable." The agent said with villain-like evilness in his voice as he came closer to Ron, "Let me…refresh…your memory."

As the Agent finished his halting sentence, Ron cried out in pain. Something had pierced his chest. He looked down to see that the Agent had plunged his fingers into Ron's chest as if he was about to tear out the boy's heart. From the impacted fingers, Ron saw a dark, silvery liquid that began to spread like a freakish infection. It felt cold to Ron, as if he were being submersed in the coldest water on Earth. The kind of cold that is said will kill a man in less than two minutes. It felt like he was dying.

"Back off!" Another voice demanded.

Ron looked away from the Agent's attack and saw a man emerge from the dark and narrow hallway. He was dressed in gray, tattered clothes, much like what Ron was wearing when he was out in the real world. The man looked like he was injured, as there were purple burns all around his face or at least around the areas of his eyes, which were covered by a red bandana.

"It's not your choice!" The tattered man shouted at the Agent as he lunged forward, grabbing Ron's arm and pulling him away. His pull yanked the Agent's fingers from Ron's chest, allowing the infection to dissipate. Ron started to feel better as the Tattered Man pulled him towards the narrow hallway.

"It's not yours either…Mister Anderson!" The Agent growled as he lunged for Ron's other arm and pulled him in the direction of the wide path. All the while Ron felt as if he was a rope in a tug-o-war between these two men. Until he thought to himself, 'why should anyone dictate my path? That's my choice!'

"No!" Ron cried out, shaking his head, and trying to pull himself away from both the Tattered Man and the Agent, "Stop it! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Ron cried out, sitting bolt upright in his cot and breathing raggedly. He looked around the gray, rusted walls of his quarters onboard the Nebuchadnezzar II and realized that it was just a dream, a silly, stupid, little dream. He reached up and wiped the sweat off his forehead before he looked over to his right to find that Kim was still asleep. He let out a quiet sigh of relief that his outcry didn't wake her up.

He brought his feet over the edge of the bed and stood up on the metal floor. He endured the stinging iciness of the floor on his bare feet as he padded his way over to Kim's bed. He saw that the blanket was only covering half of her; she was trembling from the chilly temperature of the Neb II's interior. Ron knelt down, leaned over, and stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers. He had to admit, looking at the red shadow on Kim's head, that he did miss the red hair, much like how he missed his own hair, but he told himself that it would grow back.

Seeing how cold Kim was, Ron reached down, pulled Kim's sheets back over her shoulders, then took one of the thickest from his bed, and laid it on top of Kim, tucking her in snugly before climbing back into his own bed. As he was lying there in that makeshift bed, he stared at the ceiling thinking back on his dream, or perhaps nightmare would be more accurate. There was just something about it that he couldn't simply let go of. Normally, in any dream or nightmare, they're easy to brush off because it's just a dream and not real, but his view on what was real and what was not had been shaken very recently, and there was just something about that nightmare. He couldn't let go. It had too deep of an effect on him to allow any sleep for Ron that night.

He just kept thinking about it, the two men at that fork in the hallway pulling him and tugging him in different directions. He pondered upon the meaning as well as the questions of that nightmare. Who were those men? Where did they come from? What interest did they have in him? And most of all, why?

"Maybe this friend of Morpheus' will be able to help me." Ron thought to him as he curled up into a ball on his bed, took the last blanket he had for himself, and held it tightly over him for warmth in a cold world. He closed his eyes, softly hoping that the nightmare wouldn't return to him.

Ron didn't know if he had dreamt or not. All he remembered was falling asleep and the next thing he knew, Morpheus' voice was whispering into his ear.

"Good morning, Ronald."

The sound of Morpheus' voice at a distance of less than two inches from Ron's ear took him so much by surprise that Ron literally leapt out of his bed and fell to the metallic floor with a thud. Ron had recovered quickly to turn his attention directly at Morpheus.

"Morpheus!" Ron shouted, "Haven't you heard of knocking? What if KP had been changing clothes or something?"

Morpheus never seemed scared or phased by any of Ron's yelling. He simply looked back at him calmly to say, "It is fifteen after eleven and, had you not been in such a deep slumber, you would have known that she had changed her clothes, quite possibly in your presence, and left thirty minutes ago. Not that you would have peeked as you did in the sparring program yesterday." Morpheus finished and stepped towards the door, smiling at the blush that was covering Ron's face. Yet before he left Ron, he turned back to say, "Get dressed, we jack into the Matrix in thirty minutes. Niobe and Kim are already waiting in the Construct."

Ron nodded and quickly pulled up his boots over the ragged legs of his pants and followed Morpheus up to the main deck.

110101100110100111001011011100101010110101

In New York City, under the fabricated blue sky, the team from the Neb II had entered the Matrix. It was in a part of the city that was run down and used up. The kind of place in a city that looked as though it needed to be bulldozed to the ground to make way for something new. All the buildings had broken windows, litter was flying everywhere, and the air all around felt muddy and polluted like a dirty lake. It was there in the center of that place, at an old apartment building, a singular, black phone began to ring. It was an old, rotary model that must have taken nearly a minute to dial a simple number. Above the outdated phone was a solitary light that shined down upon it like a spotlight on a rock star.

From the shadows came a hand that reached for the receiver, it was picked up and slowly brought it up to Morpheus' ear. Morpheus like Ghost and the confused Ron Stoppable behind him was dressed differently than what Ron had seen before. Ghost in his casual, tie-less suit and square sunglasses, Morpheus with his alligator skin coat that was v-cut to show off his black suit shirt, and silver tie, while Ron whose suit was black with a red, button up shirt, yellow tie, and oval shaped sunglasses.

"We're in." Morpheus spoke into the receiver, after which he hung up the phone. He looked around, seeing who was missing and asked, "Where are Niobe and Kimberly?"

With Ron inside the Matrix, he could see, sense and feel things that were going on all around him. All he had to do was simply look and he saw it: the code of the Matrix, all that green, garbled text flowing in different directions all over the surfaces of the room, and, apparently, he could see through walls as he saw two feminine figures moving on the other side of the adjacent wall.

"They're in the next room." Ron reported to Morpheus, pointing towards the door that led to it. He consciously changed his sight back to real world vision with textures, colors, tints, shades, hues, and light.

The door that Ron pointed to opened a second later, with Niobe walking out and looking at Morpheus, Ghost, and Ron. She was dressed in her imitation, red, alligator skin suit, and had her hair done up into small 'nodes' all over her scalp.

"And they say girls take forever to get ready," she smiled as she cracked the joke at the men's expense. She went on to explain, "Kimmie desperately needed a new look, so we've been playing around with a few ideas in the Construct."

"Oh?" Morpheus asked, raising his eyebrows at Niobe's report.

"See for yourself." Niobe said as she went back to the door, leaned in, and called, "Kim? They're ready for you."

Kim stepped out into the room, and she had such a stunning visage to her that Ron couldn't help letting his mouth hang open slightly before mouthing the word, "Wow." Even Rufus wiggled out of Ron's coat pocket, got a look, and chirped his own "wow" at Kim. She was wearing a pair of red, reflective, oval sunglasses. She wore the long, smooth, red-leather trench coat that Ron gave her. Underneath it she wore a skintight, leather vest that zipped up the front and stopped just below Kim's bottom rib to show off her smooth, perfect midriff. Matching the vest was a skintight, leather skirt that hung low on her hips and showed off the curves of her lower half as it led Ron's eyes down to her pair of black (Or onyx if they were from Club Banana) boots that buckled up to just above her calves.

Kim took off her red, mirrored sunglasses and looked at Ron.

"What's wrong?" She asked of her best friend, "Don't like it?" She asked in that same pleading tone that she used when she made her trademark 'Puppy-dog Pout'.

"No! I mean, 'Yes'." Ron squeaked, his voice shifting in his pubescence from high pitched to low pitch. He cleared his voice and shook his head, "You look…great…er…good…um…nice. Yeah, that's it! Nice."

"Good." Kim smiled, "Just like Club Banana only I didn't have to spend a thing. By the way Ron,"

"Yeah, KP?" Ron asked nervously, wondering if Kim was going to be mad at him for staring.

Kim came over to Ron, brought up her hands, and fixed his collar.

"You don't look that bad either." She said as she fixed up his tie as well and then put her sunglasses back on. Ron coughed and mumbled into his shirt as she did this.

"If you two are quite finished." Morpheus spoke up, his commanding position showing through, "It is time for us to head out. Niobe and Ghost, you two wait here."

Niobe and Ghost nodded.

"Kimberly and Ronald, come with me." He ordered as he headed out the door, and, without asking, Kim and Ron followed Morpheus down through the building and out to the street where there was a black Dodge Charger waiting for them. The two teens looked at the car for a moment before Morpheus climbed into the drivers' seat, while Kim took shotgun and Ron got into the back. At this, Ron couldn't help feeling resentment. He thought to himself, 'Morpheus thinks I'm the seventh One and I'm still just the sidekick.'

The Charger drove through the streets of New York City, coming out of the rundown areas, over bridges, and into the main part of Manhattan, as the people, stores, and restaurants passed them, the disbelief was still with Ron and Kim.

"I still can't believe it…" Kim said, softly marveling at everything she was seeing out the window and knowing the truth. "All of this…none of it was real…at all."

"It is as real as you make it, Kimberly." Morpheus said, sounding like an ancient sage as he continued to look down the road.

"Whoa…" Ron uttered as he looked out the window with Rufus climbing up onto his shoulder to look out with him.

"What is it, Ron?" Kim asked looking into the backseat.

"I used to eat there." He pointed to a Chinese Restaurant called The New Hong Kong that passed them by.

Rather confused, Kim looked at Ron and retold the truth, "Ron, you used to eat at Bueno Nacho and what's more, you've never even been to this city."

"I know that." Ron answered back gently, knowing the truth as well as Kim did, "It's just that I have memories of my own life…and I also have those memories that I feel were mine, but at the same time they aren't. What does that mean?"

"Weird much?" Kim asked sarcastically with a cocked eyebrow.

"It simply means that the Matrix cannot tell you who you are." Morpheus answered.

"But an Oracle can?" Kim asked.

Morpheus smiled as he recalled the same discussion between Neo and Trinity. "That…" he said, keeping his smile, "Is a little different. But one thing you should know about the Matrix. This is the most crucial lesson."

"Oookay…." Kim said as she got that confused look on her face like a kid being asked a question in class that they don't know the answer to.

"Even though none of this is real" Morpheus began, "your mind makes it real. If you are hurt inside the Matrix, you are hurt outside as well. If you are killed inside the Matrix, you die in the real world as well."

"The body cannot live without the mind." Ron said on impulse, then felt confused about why he said that. He then looked to Rufus who simply shrugged at him.

"Oh really?" Kim asked Ron, a playful smile growing on her lips, "How does that explain you? Or do you not go by the same rules?"

Slightly peeved, Ron glared slightly peeved at the back of Kim's seat. He knew that Kim was implying that he was mindless, but then again could someone mindless come up with something like the Naco? Ron smiled at his own creativity as he looked down at the Naco on his belt.

"If I am correct," Morpheus added, trying to hold back the growing smirk on his face as if he were about to laugh, "That could very well be the case."

Ron folded his arms as the car started to pass by some apartment buildings. As it came to one particular building, the Charger began to slow down. Ron looked up at the highly compact apartment complex and the déjà vu came back again like a wave wanting to drown him.

"We're here." Morpheus stated as he climbed out of the car.

110101100110100111001011011100101010110101

Morpheus walked ahead of the two teens in that relaxed stance of his with his arms behind his back. The three of them passed by the doors to a narrow foyer, which was filthy beyond belief. There was graffiti everywhere, bearing different people's names like Neo, Trinity, Mouse, Switch, Cipher, Apoc, slogans like the end is coming, political and religious, one-liner soap-boxes like Only Jesus can save you and John 3:16 written in multi-colored fluorescence. While at one end of the foyer, across from the elevator was a small wooden bench. All around it were black bags of putrid smelling garbage. Yet sitting amongst all this garbage and filth, like a pleasant smelling eye of a rancid smelling hurricane, was a short, Asian man wearing an open, white, Kung Fu uniform shirt, circular sunglasses, and dark pants. He was just sitting there on that wooden bench, cross-legged sipping tea from a cup with the kettle sitting next to him as if his situation was as normal as could be.

Ron's gazed at this man with his Matrix code-vision. He already knew that something was very different about him, yet it wasn't confirmed until he saw the code of him. It was very different from the green code that was everywhere else. This man's code was yellow, almost golden, and shimmering as if the man was made of sunlight. Ron's eyes shifted back to their normal state as the man looked up at the trio entering.

"Welcome, Morpheus." He smiled, "You're right on time."

Ron and Kim came forward, "Who are you?" Kim asked.

"My name is Seraph and I know of you two. Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable, your reputations have reached the Oracle." The Asian man introduced himself as he stood up to meet Kim and Ron. He bowed to Kim and he even went over to shake Ron's hand.

"Yo ha, bro-ha." Ron gave his traditional greeting, smiling politely as Seraph took his hand.

Seraph shook Ron's hand and as he did, he felt a slight jolt. Something that he had not felt in a very long, long time; it felt conflicting. On the one hand, the presence that Seraph felt from this boy named Ron Stoppable was friendly and familiar, but at the same time it felt menacing and evil. It was the menacing and evil part that sent him into automatic defense mode. He reeled back and threw a punch at Ron's chest.

Ron went flying backwards and smashed against the wall.

"Hey, what'd I do?" Ron asked as he got up.

Nothing was said as Seraph made his next attack on Ron. He started with a few kicks while Ron was still down. Yet, Ron felt it coming and used his Matrix-bending powers to lift himself off the ground and make a small flip over Seraph's head. With that, Ron turned and made his attack against Seraph. The attacks between the two of them went back and forth while Kim and Morpheus simply stood by, watching the two of them. To their eyes, it seemed as if Seraph and Ron were moving at the speed of sight. For the next few minutes, the two combatants were just torsos with blurs for arms and legs until each blocked a direct attack from the other that pushed them a few feet apart. With the distance between them, Ron came back to his fighting stance.

Seraph, on the other hand, stood still for a moment. During his fight with Ron, he felt the familiarity of the previous One and, at the same time, he still felt that menacing evil that dwelt within his spirit. It was like a fetid smell that no one wants to mention.

"Good." Seraph smiled, "I apologize, but I had to be sure."

"Sure of what?" Ron asked very confused.

"That you are who the Oracle said you were." Seraph answered.

"You could have just asked him." Kim protested, "Would have saved us a lot of time."

"No." Seraph shook his head as he smiled, "You do not truly know someone until you have fought them."

"Another Yoda." Kim muttered to herself as the four of them went to the elevator.

The elevator ride up to the seventh floor was a silent one. Ron was still reeling from all the déjà vu he was experiencing, the building, that man in the white Kung Fu shirt, and the elevator. He had heard a lot of times on the Discovery Channel as well as a few other sources that amnesia victims go through the same thing. Sometimes being in certain places triggers memories or feelings that he or she had been there before. Even though Ron had realized the truth about the world around him and everything about it, there were still gaps in the truth.

Once the elevator stopped on the seventh floor, both Seraph and Morpheus walked out with Kim and Ron following shortly behind. The hallway was very much different from the foyer they were in before, long with fluorescent lights dotting the ceiling, and the walls and floors were green, not Matrix green, but more like a pale green the same shade as faded lime. The color was expected. The fact that there were no doors was not. Not a single door could be seen along the walls

"All right, I'm officially freaked out now." Kim whispered to Ron.

"You and me both, KP." Ron answered back.

The strangeness of the door-less hallway began to grow over the next five minutes, and to Kim it felt like a very long walk from one end of the Middleton mall to the other…the long way until they saw something on the right side of the hall; it stood out like an oasis in the middle of the Sahara; it was a frame for a door.

"I'll tell you what I told Neo, Ron." Morpheus began, turning to the blonde haired teen, "I can only show you the door; you're the one that has to walk through it."

"Do you think it'd be possible to cut back on the Yoda trip?" Kim asked, sounding very annoyed by all the metaphorical and cryptic messages.

"No, he's right, Kim." Ron said, the seriousness coming over him again. Ron looked at the door, with Rufus on his shoulder. His hand reached out for it, and, like so many cases before in the past, Ron was expecting something to happen… there was something amazing to be said for the simple act of turning the doorknob. Something did happen, the door opened before Ron could even get a good grip on the doorknob.

As the door opened, there stood a young African-American woman dressed in a white nightgown. She had long curly hair that came down to her shoulders, and her brown eyes held a softness that could calm a dementor. She also held a small tray in her hands containing a plate of cookies and a small, white cup.

"Seraph." She said looking at the group, "Morpheus, Kim, Ron. Right on time, as always. I'll take you to see the Oracle, but I have to take care of my little brother first. Please, come in. Seraph, please return to the foyer."

Seraph bowed to the young woman and the trio and then took his leave.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, once again." Seraph said to Ron as he headed back down the long, door-less hallway back to the elevator.

The trio walked through the only door in the entire hallway, which closed behind them and they followed the young woman through the narrow hallway of the apartment. Behind them was a small bench that seemed as though it belonged in a doctor's waiting room.

"Morpheus, have a seat." The young woman instructed to Morpheus, hinting to the small bench, "Kim and Ron, please come with me."

Ron and Kim watched as Morpheus took the seat while they followed the young woman. The three of them didn't go very far, just to a door in a recessed alcove off the narrow hallway. Holding the tray in one hand, she knocked on the door.

"Hey, bro." She called softly as she made her entrance, "I've got your snacks ready."

"Cool, be there in a second, sis." A muffled voice called out from the other side of the door.

Kim and Ron instantly looked at one another.

"That voice…" The two of them uttered in unison as they looked back at the slowly opening door. The two of them already had expectations about who was fixing to come out. All their expectations were met when they saw a short, curly haired, blue clothed, African-American boy walk out and receive the tray from the young woman.

"Hmmm." The boy said, "Sugar cookies! My favorite!"

"Wade?" Kim asked.

Wade looked over at Kim and Ron, who stared at him in awe for a moment. He, however, looked at them with a pleasant surprise on their face as if he was expecting the two of them. He held the tray in one hand and waved at them.

"Oh, hey guys!" He said very happily, "I wondered where you two disappeared to. So, how's the outside?"

"Um…" Ron forced out while Kim stood beside him, "Wade. We finally get to meet you in person! Wow!"

"Yeah." Wade agreed, "I figured it would happen sooner or later."

"Are you the Oracle?" Ron asked, stepping back just a step.

"Me?" Wade laughed loudly, but was careful not to drop his milk and cookies, "The Oracle? No way. That's my mom. I'm just a Search Engine."

"A Search Engine?" Ron asked, "So that means that you're not human, you're a part of the Matrix."

"Yeah, that's about it." Wade answered.

"Freaky." Kim blinked.

"Super freaky." Rufus squeaked in as he popped out of Ron's coat pocket.

"Well," Wade shrugged, "I guess mom wants to talk to you both, and I need to get back to work." He turned and was about to head back into his room before he turned around to face his friends again, "Nice seeing you two, by the way; really made the day a little brighter."

"Never thought I'd see the day when I'd meet Wade in person." Ron said to himself.

"The Oracle will see Ron Stoppable first." The young woman said to the pair.

110101100110100111001011011100101010110101

Ron passed through a veil of wooden beads to the kitchen past the family room where Kim was left to wait on the couch. He pushed the beads out of the way, and as he stepped in, he caught the warm, sweet aroma of something baking in the oven. He looked around, seeing how aged the kitchen was, as well as how green it was too; faded green paint and patterned wall paper, green just seemed to be a major color theme in the Matrix. There were old pieces of kitchenware and furniture that looked as though they came out of the seventies. Over by the stove was an old woman with black hair that was starting to show signs of age with a few stray gray hairs and wearing an old, green dress. Ron couldn't see her face and he was about to announce his presence when the woman answered for him.

"You don't need to introduce yourself." She said never turning away from the stove; her voice was very soothing almost like a grandmother to her grandson, "I know your name is Ron Stoppable, and I am the Oracle."

The Oracle turned around to face Ron and show her well-worn face with a few wrinkles, narrow brown eyes, a pair of glasses hanging from a gold chain on her neck, and a warm smile on her face. All her features seemed so grandmother-like and so was her tone when she addressed Ron.

"Not exactly what you were expecting was it?" She asked, still smiling away, "Almost ready." She got up from the stool in front of the stove to put on a pair of oven mitts.

"Smells good, doesn't it?" She asked, reveling in the sweet and warm aromas.

"Oh yeah." Ron smiled, "I still can't get over that I finally met Wade in person."

The Oracle took out the baking sheet of cookies and set them on a nearby counter, "Oh yes, Wade. Quite the prodigy; has my intuition and the Architect's brilliance."

"The who?" Ron asked.

"Never mind that now." The Oracle advised, "There are other things to worry about and don't worry about the vase while we're at it."

"What vase?" Ron asked as he instinctively looked around the room. Before he knew it, his elbow had hit something. He quickly looked, and saw a blackish-green vase fall to the floor shattering into pieces, leaving water and flowers strewn all over the linoleum floor.

"That vase." The Oracle answered Ron's question.

Ron quickly looked from the smashed vase to the Oracle, "Oh, my bad." He apologized quickly.

"I said don't worry about it." The Oracle said as she took off her yellow apron, "Looks like you've forgotten quite a lot since we last met. You should be feeling some major déjà vu right now, so I'm going to have to re-teach you a few things."

"But…how'd you know about the vase?" Ron asked with the déjà vu coming from the back of his mind at full force like a rhino charging head long into his thoughts.

She smiled, bringing the cookies to a clean plate, "Oh, what's really going to bake your noodle later on is, would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?"

Ron scratched his head for a second, "I think my noodle is long past baked." He said, feeling very confused.

"Well, let's have a seat." She smiled as she brought the plate of cookies in one hand and her pack of cigarettes and lighter in the other.

The two of them sat down and Ron didn't know how to deal with such a situation. It really did feel like he was in the presence of an Oracle, who could predict every move and decision he would make. Looking down at the old nineteen-seventies style table, Ron felt the words forming in his head and he was about to start, but the Oracle beat him to it.

"I know you've been having weird dreams, Ron." She said, almost sounding like a doctor with the perfect beside manner, "We'll get to that later, but first let's get your abilities out of the way."

Ron nodded slowly feeling relieved, as if the Oracle had told him exactly what he needed to hear.

"I really am sorry to have to tell you this, kiddo, but you are not who you're supposed to be. Then again, who is nowadays?"

"What?" Ron asked, feeling the confusion twist even more in his mind and stomach like a psychological pretzel.

"Your natural personality was overridden and copied over on the very day you were born." The Oracle stated. Her voice sounded very serious, but still had that soothing, grandmother quality, "Nonetheless, you were born to be someone who should never see the light of day."

Taking it all in, Ron felt the confusion starting to drown him, making him wish for answers that weren't there. As he took all this in, Rufus popped out of his coat pocket and came to the table. The little mole rat looked at his life-long friend, wondering what was wrong and if he could help. Rufus' worries were set aside when the Oracle started to pet him.

"So…" Ron began as he looked up from Rufus to the Oracle, "Who am I?"

"You are who you are, and that's the important thing." She reached over, took the plate of cookies, and held it up to Ron, "Cookie?"

The déjà vu registered once again inside Ron's head and he couldn't stop himself from asking, "Do you know if I'm going to take one already?"

"I wouldn't be much of an Oracle if I didn't, now would I?" The Oracle responded.

"But, if you already know, then how can I make a choice?" Ron questioned again, feeling confusion coupled with this sense of insane déjà vu swirling inside his head.

"Because you've already made the choice. Now you have to try to understand it.", The Oracle explained. Ron's hunger overtook his curiosity and he dove into the plate of fresh-baked cookies. One after the other, the cookies vanished faster than anything the Oracle had ever seen. Even Rufus managed to get one. Then again, who could blame Ron? After spending a few weeks eating that white paste; anything looks good, even if it was all just in his head. As soon as the plate was empty, the Oracle looked to Ron with a rather surprised look on her face.

"Well, your appetite has grown." She mused, "Last time, I had to practically force you into just having one."

"What?" Ron asked with a full mouth.

"You'll understand later on." The Oracle set aside what she said earlier as she came to the things on Ron's mind, "Right now I think that you have more urgent matters bothering you, right?"

"Yes." Ron said slowly as if thinking that she made a lucky guess.

The Oracle took a cigarette out and light it up, "Tell me." She began as she took a small puff on the cigarette, "In your dreams. Do you feel like you are being pulled in two directions?"

Ron gazed at her with his eyes widening in shock about her accuracy. It was as if she had been reading his mind or had been there in his dream. Though Ron used a little logic for once in his life: since his brain was connected to the Matrix, then maybe she was literally reading his mind.

The Oracle smiled widely, "I thought so." She took another puff of her cigarette, "I'm sorry kid, but I have bad news. You have two sides to you, and with each side, there is a path. You have the potential to be a hero beyond any the world has ever known inside the Matrix or out, but you also have the potential to destroy everything and enjoy every second of it. Unfortunately, that isn't the bad news."

"Uh-oh." Rufus shuddered as he scurried back into Ron's pocket.

Ron gulped and shook his head, "I'm not sure if I want to know the bad news…"

"You have two roads, but you have no say in the path you will take." The Oracle stated seriously as she placed her cigarette in the handy ash tray, got up from her chair, walked over, and looked at the teen, "Your guide will lead you down the path you are meant to take."

Ron looked up at the Oracle in confusion, "Who is my guide?" He asked, "How will I find him? Or will he find me?"

"She has already found you, and you, her." The Oracle smiled.

Ron scratched his head, "Her? Who?"

"You'll know who when the time is right, but not in here." The Oracle said as she laid her old finger on Ron's forehead and then brought it down to his chest, "You'll know it right here."

"That's not very helpful…" Ron said with a cocked eyebrow and then reached up to rub his temples, "In fact…I think I have a headache now."

"That's all I have for you right now." The Oracle apologized to Ron, "I'm sorry that I couldn't give you better news, kiddo. It is one thing I hate: giving good people bad news."

Ron got up from the table, the confusion coming down on his shoulders like sandbags. He didn't even look up at the Oracle when all of it had sunk in and began to weigh him down like a pair of concrete shoes bringing him to the bottom of a muddy lake. He turned to walk out the bead veiled doorway before he heard the Oracle call for him again.

"On your way out," She instructed, "Could you send in Kim for me?"

Ron turned to look at the Oracle once again with his brown puppy-dog eyes and silently nodded. Before he headed out the door, the Oracle said one last thing to him.

"Sorry again, Ron, but I can assure you of this much."

"What?" Ron asked his voice very downhearted.

"Whichever path you take, Kim is going to be right there by your side the whole way." The Oracle told him with a smile as if everything that she told Ron was Pandora's Box and that there was still Hope at the bottom of it all.

Ron smiled weakly, but remembering that Kim would be there with him all the way made him just a bit happier, and with that, he smiled brightly before he walked out of the kitchen.

110101100110100111001011011100101010110101

A few minutes later, Kim Possible slid into the Oracle's kitchen, easing out of the beads that covered the doorway. She moved almost like a wild animal coming into new territory, being cautious with each step she took. Some would say that she was being paranoid but Kim wasn't one to take unnecessary risks, especially with all the truth that she'd learned in the past few days. Her eyes came upon the Oracle sitting at the kitchen table.

"Such a lovely young lady" The Oracle smiled, "I can see why he likes you."

"Who?" Kim asked curiously.

"Not too bright, though."

"I resent that." Kim said going into automatic defense.

"No need to be defensive, Kim." The Oracle smiled, "You'll know what I mean sometime in the future."

Kim brought her mind back to the matter at hand. She wondered how this woman knew her name, and then she thought that that Ron must have told her. She narrowed her emerald eyes at the old woman.

"Oracle, right?" She asked, "What's the sitch? What'd you tell Ron? He seemed pretty…shook up."

"I'll leave that for him to know. He'll tell when he's good and ready to share. After all, you've shared everything with each other since you were four, even private things that you didn't want to know. I'm sure you haven't forgotten some of your early puberty conversations." The Oracle winked up at Kim.

Kim already began to blush because she didn't forget any of those conversations that she and Ron had. It was roughly between grade school and junior high when Ron and Kim began to change within themselves. Kim did admit to Ron that she noticed her breasts were growing, while Ron wasn't at all shy about telling Kim about his pubic hairs. He talked about it as if he had won a gold medal at the Olympics. As she blushed brightly at this, Kim looked at the Oracle as she sat down in front of supposed senior citizen.

"You're good." She smiled, "Not even Wade knows about that."

The Oracle shrugged, "I only know enough."

"So," Kim began nervously, wondering about what she would hear, "What do you want to…prophesize about me?"

"Oh, that can wait a few minutes." The Oracle shirked, "Right now, I have to tell you the importance of your current mission."

The minute Kim heard that, she felt the blood drain from her face, her mouth felt dry, and the cold sweats started to flush over her.

"My mission…" She uttered through a dry cracked voice, "I had forgotten all about it…"

The Oracle reached over and touched Kim's hand. Her old, leathery skin felt quite soothing to her, almost like the Oracle was trying to calm her like her mother did when she was younger, before she became as strong and independent as she was after she met Ron.

"Don't worry about it, Kim." The Oracle said soothingly, "It might be comforting to know that your release from the Matrix was part of your mission. As a way to prepare you."

"For what?" Kim asked.

"For the enemies that you will face down the path." The Oracle said as if she was prophesizing, "But the point is that you cannot allow Drakken to use the machine that he stole from the Merovingian. At all costs, he cannot be allowed to use it."

"What is it, anyway?" Kim inquired, brushing some of her hair away from her face, "The Merovingian never told exactly what it was. Just went on his cause and effect trip."

The Oracle nodded, "That's him for you. What I can tell you about it is this: It can be used to revive something that shouldn't be." She paused for a moment and stated, "You've done a lot of good, you and Ron both. I can't begin to tell you how many lives have been saved. I know that you've doubted the good you've done since learning the truth. I can tell you that it may be digital, but the lives you've saved and the good you've done has been as real as Morpheus' obsession with shaving his head."

Kim gave a small giggle with that comparison the Oracle made.

"Don't stop the hero thing now, Kim." The Oracle advised, "With what Morpheus has taught you and will teach you, the tools at your disposal for helping others will be limitless."

"I'll remember that." Kim smiled.

"And now, as you put it, prophesizing." The Oracle smiled as she lit up another cigarette. Kim leaned forward with great interest in what the Oracle would say next and stayed deathly quite as the Oracle began, "You've helped a lot of people in your life, Kim, but very soon someone very close, the one you love…really love…will need your help…desperately so and will ask for it. He'll need you not only for physical…but emotional support.

"Who is he?" Kim asked, thinking of all the men in her life that she could love and who would really need her. She tried to confirm what she knew with the Oracle, "Josh? Will? Hirotaka? Brick? Or even the off chance…Junior?" There were so many people that she helped inside the Matrix that it seemed like the possibilities were endless, and with her heart in her throat, Kim waited to hear the answer from the Oracle's lips.

"None of the above." The Oracle stated.

Kim gawked, still wondering who it could be if it not the ones she named. They seemed to be the most likely candidates in Kim's mind as she mulled over it, but if not Josh, who was at the top of her list, then who? Kim snapped out of her thoughts.

"Those are the only guys I know that are my type." Kim refuted, still digging further into her mind to find the right answer, "Who else is there? Have I even met him, yet?"

"Yes. You know him very well." The Oracle nodded as she reached up and flicked the teen's nose, "He's right there, child."

"How will I know?"

The Oracle looked upward and pointed to an area over Kim's head, "Do you know what that means?" She asked.

Kim looked behind her to where the Oracle was pointing, and there above the door was a small, wooden cut out. It was a rectangular piece with dark brown, curved lines around its edge and in the center were carved and painted green letters. Kim knew what it was from the Latin class that she and Ron signed up for.

"It's Latin." The Oracle answered her own question.

"Nosce te ipsum." Kim pronounced.

"Very good." The Oracle nodded, "It means Know Thyself. I do wish that just once I wouldn't give a good person bad news." She signed as she shook her head slightly, "I'm afraid you'll know exactly who he is the minute your time among the living is up, and you'll hate yourself for not seeing it sooner to really enjoy what many men and women never get a chance to experience: true love."

The Oracle got up and moved slowly over to one of the cabinets.

"Maybe you'll get another chance in your next life, who knows?" She said as she brought over a small piece of candy to Kim. It was a red mint given out at restaurants, "Candy? I'd offer you a cookie, but your friend ate them all."

"That's Ron for you." Kim smiled, "No matter what the situation, he never loses his appetite." She reached out and took the piece of candy from the Oracle's hand, "Thank you." she said, but she couldn't help sitting at that table and thinking about all the things she had been told. She got up from the table, placed the candy into her pocket, and was about to turn and leave the kitchen when she was stopped.

"For all it's worth, Kim." The Oracle spoke up, "You and Ron have both proved to me that Neo wasn't a one time fluke, and that there are people that give the human race a reason for existing. You are both fine champions."

Kim's cheeks blushed slightly as she tried to be modest about her exploits.

"No big." She smiled, "I just do what I can."

The Oracle walked up to Kim and hugged her. Kim received a strong aroma of both acrid cigarette smoke and just-baked cookies. At first, Kim didn't know what to do, but there was something comforting in that smell and the warmth that came with it, even though Kim knew that it was digital. It felt like that same grandmother feeling, the kindness and age that went with it. With the Oracle's arms around her, Kim hugged back.

"Don't stop what you do, Kim." The Oracle whispered, "Don't ever stop."

110101100110100111001011011100101010110101

A moment later, after all the prophesizing and advice the Oracle gave to Kim, the two of them walked out into the family room where Ron and Morpheus sat in waiting on the old couch. The two of them weren't even talking to each other. They looked as though they had a lot on their minds, which was understandable for Ron, though Morpheus was always the strong, silent type when he himself wasn't spitting out prophecies.

"Morpheus." The Oracle called.

Morpheus stood up like a soldier at attention and waiting for orders from his commanding officer.

"These two have an important mission." She stated, "Drakken must be stopped; can I expect you to give them your full support?"

"Without question." Morpheus said as he reached up to put on his sunglasses.

The Oracle smiled, "Very good. It would be smart to find out more about what Doctor Drakken has taken before you can really go after him." She glanced at both Ron and Kim, "I'm sure you can help the kids here persuade the Merovingian to be more helpful. If not, I'm sure what you've taught them will."

Morpheus smiled as did Kim and Ron, all three of them thinking back to that time in the sparring program when they tested out their new gravity-defying moves.

The Oracle smiled as she went back to her kitchen and the trio headed over to the front door. There was a quiet silence amongst them as they were preparing to leave. Morpheus reached for the door handle when another door burst open. The trio turned to see what had happened and saw Wade running, rather sluggishly because of his pudginess, down the hall.

"Kim!" He called out to her, wheezing as he reached her; he panted as he spoke, even though it was a short distance from his door to Kim's position. Then again for a kid who spends the majority of his time in his room, he probably didn't get a lot of exercise, "I'm…glad you're…still here." He wiped the sweat off of his forehead as he looked up at Kim.

"Ok, Wade, just breathe. Now what's the sitch?" Kim asked as she walked over to the exhausted Wade.

As she did, the Oracle appeared at the end of the hall, "What's all the commotion, son?"

"Monkey Fist." Wade answered both ladies, "He's holding some diplomats hostage downtown."

That news sent chills and then a hot flash of adrenaline through Morpheus. He knew what was to happen on that day in downtown New York. He came up behind Kim and looked down at Wade from behind his mirror-like sunglasses.

"The Council Meeting." He stated.

"Oh dear." The Oracle sighed.

"Half of the diplomats are freed." Morpheus stated, sounding a little worried but then a little calmer when he realized something, "If memory serves, Monkey Fist is a martial artist. The Council Members should be able to handle him."

Ron looked up at Morpheus, "Hairy Hands isn't really the problem." He said, using his knowledge of past experiences with the self-proclaimed Monkey Master, "It's his army of Monkey Ninjas that you gotta worry about; he usually has them in full force."

Morpheus glanced at Ron, seeing a flash of Neo over that boyish exterior. He then brought himself back to the situation at hand.

"Can you see them, Ronald?" he asked.

Ron looked, his vision changed from normal to the jade tinted code of the Matrix. Through it, he could see and feel everything in the Matrix as if the world was just an extension of all the senses in his body. He searched and found the unique code, a code that Ron felt could belong only to one man: Monkey Fist. He brought his vision back to where he was, changed it back to normal, and nodded to Morpheus, confirming his question.

The Oracle smiled once again, "He is the One, Morpheus." she said, her announcement being heard by everyone in the hallway. Kim and Ron snapped their heads at the old woman, wondering if she was really serious about what she was saying. Her smile said it all, while Morpheus simply looked at her.

"He is?" He asked, still looking at Ron and wondering too if she was right, "Are you sure, Oracle?" He questioned with a twinge of worried concern in his voice.

"Yes." The Oracle answered, sounding very sure of herself, "He has the gift, and he has the purpose, though he does not yet see it."

"What do you mean?" Ron protested, "And why didn't you say this to me earlier?"

"She told you exactly what you needed to hear, Ronald." Morpheus explained rather cryptically.

"Huh?" Ron asked as he scratched his head.

"You're not like the others, kiddo." The Oracle continued as she came up behind Wade and placed her hand on his shoulder, "Your destiny is not like any before you, but you are definitely the One."

"Booyah for the Ron-man!" Ron cheered for himself as he broke out into a miniature dance.

"Back to the mission." Wade spoke up, "You three should hurry to the Council Hall, but you'll be lucky if you get there by tomorrow with the traffic out there."

"Then we'll just call in a favor for a helicopter ride." Kim suggested, knowing it had worked several times before.

"I believe there's a better way." The Oracle said as she turned and walked down the hall to another door. She reached up and knocked on one of them, "Sati?"

"Sati?" Ron thought to himself, the déjà vu going full force once again with the sound of that name.

A moment later, the door opened widely and out stepped a beautiful, young woman. Ron couldn't help looking at her from head to toe. Her eyes, skin, and hair all dark colors: black hair long and shimmering like obsidian, deep brown eyes like leather, and skin smooth like porcelain and a shade reminiscent of oak. Her dress was a pure white like a wedding dress, but with the style of an Arabic belly dancer, and the skirt coming down to her knees with a slit all the way up her thigh, and her top was like a swimsuit top as it wrapped around her chest, showing the curve of her bosom as well as the well defined belly.

"You called, Oracle?" The young woman, which Ron and Kim assumed was the one named Sati, bowed, and looked over at the trio. She only glanced at Morpheus and Kim, but not with Ron. She made eye contact with Ron and her face lit up as if she had been reunited with a lost love. She dashed over to Ron, took him in her arms and hugged him, while Ron was starting to feel smothered.

"You've returned!" She cheered with great joy as she let go of Ron and looked into his brown eyes, "Oracle said I would see you again, but I began to wonder if I would."

Ron looked at the woman named Sati, and was about to ask if they'd met before, but then he had another flashback. He remembered lying down on his back on a hard concrete floor, and when he woke up he found himself in a train station; a subway to be precise. He remembered a little girl being there, who met him when he woke up.

A little girl named…

"Sati…" Ron uttered in that voice that again didn't seem like his own, but he still managed to smile with it, "You have grown up so much."

"Um…Ron." Kim interrupted, "Can we stay focused here? We're in a hurry to do some saving."

"Um…right, Kim." Ron said as he brought his focus back to the mission at hand, but Ron wasn't blind to notice that Kim was flashing suspicious looks over at Sati. His mind would have dwelt further upon the issue, but then the Oracle started giving instructions.

"Sati?" The Oracle asked, "Would you show them the shortcut to the Council Hall?"

"Yes, of course, Oracle." Sati bowed and smiled before she reached into her purse and pulled out a small ring of keys. With the keys in her hand, she moved past Kim, Ron, Wade, and Morpheus to the main door of the apartment. Instantly, she chose one of the keys, placed it into the key hole, and, with a turn of the key and doorknob, she opened the door, but what she opened the door to seemed to defy the rules of the Matrix as Kim and Ron knew them.

They went ahead through the door and found a long, white, fluorescent lighted hallway filled with green doors. There were doors down the hall in both directions as far as the eye could see. The two teens couldn't help just staring in awe of what they were seeing.

"Let's move, shall we?" Morpheus asked as he came into the hallway with Kim and Ron, "Our time is short."

Kim and Ron looked back to the door that they came through; Sati was about to close the door, with Wade and the Oracle waving at them from the other side.

"Good luck on the mission, Kim." Wade smiled as Sati closed the door and joined the trio.

Sati motioned, "This way." and the four of them walked down the hall with Kim and Ron still looking around in awe about where they were.

"Kim." Ron whispered, "I think I know what this place is."

"What is it, then?" Kim asked back.

"They're back doors." Ron answered, "Programmer access."

"And don't tell me." Kim guessed Ron's next sentence, "You don't know how you know that, you just do."

Ron simply shrugged at Kim's response.

Ahead, Sati glanced over her shoulder at Kim, remembering the nasty look she had received from the red-head a while back. She had a feeling that something had to be going on between those two for such a reaction to be warranted and so she tested her hunch.

"Are you his girlfriend?" She slyly asked Kim.

Kim was quick to answer with a light snort, "Yeah right. Me? Ron's girlfriend? Best friend, definitely, but us as a couple? No way."

"Uh huh." Sati said as she looked ahead down the infinite hall of doors. Her tone seemed sarcastic to Kim as if she were saying that she didn't believe the answer given.

Kim looked over at Ron, who didn't look at her; she wondered about that question and thought in a rather shallow way that Ron couldn't stack up to Josh Mankey. She looked from Ron back to Sati, who stopped at a singular door that looked just like the hundreds of other doors in that hallway. Sati didn't take out the keys from her purse; instead she turned to look at the two teens.

"Since you're not his girlfriend," She addressed Kim, "You won't mind me doing this." Sati then looked over to Ron with a gaze in her eyes, much like what Kim had when she looked at Josh. Sati then leaned over to Ron and gave him a quick kiss on his lips. It wasn't anything passionate; it seemed more like a kiss that a little girl would give to anyone before learning of the passions that go into one kiss. Ron, on the other hand, began to blush so much that he could feel the start of sweat on his forehead. Yet, he loved the feeling; it was such that his head was spinning and he could feel that stirring within his own loins with something so simple. Sati broke the small kiss and looked at the dazed Ron.

"I have wanted to do that since I was a little girl." She smiled as she took out her keys and opened the door to another hallway, but a more business-like hallway, "Here you are and good luck to you all."

Morpheus and Ron were the first to go through the open door. Morpheus simply gave a nod to Sati as his form of thanks and Ron walked past her with a goofy, dazed look on his face like a boy having his first crush. Kim, however, didn't move from where she stood. Ron and Morpheus, through the door, watched her warily as she stared at Sati. She glared at the older woman with a contemptuous look in her emerald eyes, a kind of spitefulness, as if Kim wanted nothing more than to tear out her throat and then stuff it back down her mouth.

"Kimberly." Morpheus called, "Come along."

"Right." Kim answered back as she glanced at Morpheus and Ron on the other side of the door. She walked up to the door and passed Sati, as she did, she still gave that woman an icy, death glare. When she was through the door, Sati spoke again.

"Good luck again," Sati said before smiling sadly at Kim, "I pity you for not seeing what is before you."

Kim didn't even turn to look at Sati; she still had that resentment for that stunt she pulled with Ron. As the door closed behind her, she tried to figure out why it bothered her so much. She wasn't Ron's girlfriend after all, so why was she so upset by it? She set it aside when Morpheus called to them.

"Come." He said as he walked down the hall with Ron and Kim following suit, "Let's see what you've learned."

110101100110100111001011011100101010110101

Across the city from where the Oracle lived was the United Nations building, the very place where the Council Members from Neo Zion were to meet the representatives of the Machine Empire. However, before any of the discussions could even get started, they were interrupted by a man with hairy hands and bare feet with opposable toes, the master of Tai Sheng Pek Quar (Monkey Kung Fu), Monkey Fist. He came into the Great Hall of the United Nations building swiftly and forcefully, taking the Machine and Zion representatives hostage. In the Great Hall, which was modeled after the Greek Theater with its half circle of desks and seats going up and up and the floor down at the bottom. Monkey Ninjas were guarding all the doors, while Monkey Fist stayed down on the floor near the podium. He paced back and forth, looking at all the representatives and reveling in the possibilities of what he could gain.

"I should get a bundle for holding these buffoons hostage." He said to himself, though it was over on his left, down in front that he caught a good glimpse of something that whetted his appetite for revenge even further. He saw a man and a woman, one with brown hair that was graying along the sideburns and the other with red hair that came down to the bottom of her neck. He came over on all fours and looked at them, "What an added treat! Kim Possible's parents! What bargaining chips I have gained!"

The Possible parents hugged each other almost like refugees waiting for the war to be over.

"You won't get away with this, Monkey Fist!" Mr. Possible threatened the kung fu freak.

"Oh won't I?" Monkey Fist smiled widely as he got up on the desk in front of them, perching over them like a stone gargoyle, "I haven't heard anything from your precious daughter in weeks. If she really were around, she'd have stopped me by now…but she hasn't. The stars have shined down on me today!"

As the Monkey Kung Fu Master reveled in his nearing success to his evil deeds without any interference, the past that had haunted him was coming to call at the door. Outside the Great Hall of the United Nations came Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, and Morpheus. All three of them ready and waiting to try out their martial arts tactics on whatever was beyond the closed doors. They came unarmed, but, then again, when fighting martial artists, what would the point be? It would take the point out of learning all those martial arts styles during training day.

"This is it." Morpheus said as he looked past Kim and Ron at the door. "Ready?"

"Born ready." Kim said.

"I'm furiously psyched and ready to kick some major, monkey ass." Ron said with a great smile on his face.

"Let's do it." Kim said as she and Ron both, like synchronized swimmers, reached up with their legs and kicked the doors to the Great Hall wide open. They heard the screech of the Monkey Ninja's being shoved aside by the huge and heavy doors along with the last line of Monkey Fist's rant down below.

Kim was quick with her response.

"You'll definitely be seeing stars, Monkey Boy." Kim called out from the top of the Great Hall, as she and Ron walked down the aisle between the desks and chairs.

"Kim Possible." Monkey Fist smiled, "I would be surprised to see you, like Doctor Drakken is all the time, but what would be the point. I was thinking that this was going rather too easily, so I'll finish this quickly. Monkey ninjas! ATTACK!"

From all around the Great Hall, Kim and Ron saw the Monkey Ninjas coming like a flood ready to consume them both. Yet, while Kim was in her fighting stance, Ron didn't cower behind her like he always did in the past. He simply stood his ground as the simian shinobis came at him. They were all within striking distance when Ron raised his right hand. The Monkey Ninjas all made their attack against Team Possible as Ron's hand rose, and before their primate persecutors had time to do anything, they all froze. Every single simian stopped dead in mid-air around Kim and Ron as if they had all hit some kind of invisible fly paper. Some of them struggled to get loose, but they couldn't. Ron then turned his hand over, palm up, and raising his hand, he sent them flying into the ceiling, and then after turning it back over, he flicked his hand like he was performing a sleight of hand trick and all the Monkey Ninjas flew backwards against the walls, knocking out those that were still conscious after the impromptu meeting with the ceiling.

Kim turned to Ron.

"I told you that I wouldn't be dead weight, KP." Ron said calmly to Kim.

"What in the world just happened?" Monkey Fist gasped as he tried to grasp what had just happened in the past minute or so. While at his feet, the Possibles saw Kim and Ron and, instinctively, decided to duck down underneath the desks to hide from Kim. They didn't know if she knew what they knew about the situation, about the Matrix, the machines, the plans to rebuild the real world, or any of it. After all, how would they explain what a rocket scientist and a neurosurgeon were doing at the United Nations? As they ducked down they whispered to themselves.

"Do you think Kimmie knows about us?" Mrs. Possible asked her husband.

"I'm not sure." Mr. Possible answered back, "But her clothes and Ron's seem very different than what they normally wear. She must be with Morpheus."

As Mister and Misses Possible hid, the battle between Monkey Fist and Team Possible continued. Ron Stoppable looked down at Monkey Fist, who had hopped down into the aisle and was now looking up at his old nemesis. The one who started out to fear and hate monkeys and apes, all freaks of nature as he called them since they all held stuff with their feet, but that didn't seem to matter anymore. For Ron and Monkey Fist, it was a more personal battle with the incidents that they'd had against one another: The Jade Monkey Statues, the Tempus Simia, the Lotus Blade, the Prophecy of the Space Monkey, etc. Each time, Ron was there and it seemed he became more and more unafraid of monkeys. Yet, Monkey Fist knew there was something different about this time.

"I was expecting you, as well, old friend." Monkey Fist smiled sarcastically as he reached into his belt and pulled out a hand full of shuriken, "After all, where Kim Possible goes, her bumbling sidekick always follows, like a pathetic lapdog!" He made that last statement as he threw the stars up the aisle at Ron. Kim went back into her fighting stance ready to dodge, block, or catch them, but Ron stepped forward and held up his hand. Like the Monkey Ninjas before, the throwing stars froze in place as if they had embedded themselves in some invisible wall. Ron brought again pushed his hand forward and the super-sharp throwing stars flew back toward their owner. Monkey Fist had less than a second to dodge his own projectiles as they whistled through the air past him to embed themselves in the wall behind him.

"That won't work anymore, Monkey Butt." Ron said with a great defiance in his voice at Monkey Fist.

As Ron stepped down the aisle to meet up with his old nemesis, Kim looked over her shoulder at all the diplomats whispering amongst themselves. Is that really him? Neo? The One! Has he really returned to us? Praise Neo! The One! He has returned! It took a very weird turn in Kim's mind, because it felt awkward for Ron to save her instead of the other way around, but then again there were times that Ron had saved her, like the time she was vanishing into nothingness and Ron brought that plant to help her, or when he donned the costume of the Fearless Ferret, not to mention those times at Wannaweep. Still, this particular situation felt so much more different than those.

"KP?" Ron asked.

Kim looked down at Ron from where she stood, "Yeah, Ron?"

"The Monkey Ninja's are waking up. Do you mind taking care of them? I'm going to take care of the Main Monkey this time."

"Fine by me." Kim smiled as she dashed out over the desks and began to fight each of the Monkey Ninjas one by one.

Meanwhile down on the main floor of the Great Hall, Monkey Fist and Ron Stoppable were in their own Kung Fu stand off. Monkey Fist went into his stance as Ron went into his. As they were staring each other down, Monkey Fist had to know something about the monkey hater.

"Have you gained a new level of Monkey Magic?" He asked, almost sounding frightened by what Ron could do, but still tried to retain the strength in his stance to show no weaknesses to his foe.

"No Monkey Magic is anything like what I can now do." Ron smirked at Monkey Fist in an almost demonic manner.

The way that Ron was smiling at Monkey Fist made him angry, because it just seemed so arrogant and pompous, but at the same time…frightening. Yet, Monkey Fist laid aside his fears and concentrated on the fact that the boy was still a buffoon and an arch-bumbler. From his stance he bolted and jumped for Ron Stoppable; it seemed like he did it in half an instant, but while Ron was holding his stance, Monkey Fist, like the throwing stars and the monkey ninjas he sent, froze in mid-air. He tried desperately to get free out of whatever was holding him.

"Let me go!" He cried out, trying desperately to use all his strength and power to break free, but he was reduced to watching as Ron came over to him. They locked eyes for a moment, or at least Monkey Fist did, since Ron was staring at him from behind his mirrored sunglasses. Ron leapt up and kneed Monkey Fist in his sternum knocking all breath out of him and sending him up and out one of the many walls near their battle ground.

As the fight continued on down on the floor, Kim felt like a spectator watching a martial arts competition, but she couldn't help feeling that something was wrong. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out the cell phone that was part of the program that Niobe designed along with her clothes, and made the call.

"Operator." Links voice called out from the other end.

"Link." Kim called, "I think something's wrong with Ron. What's going on as far as the code goes?"

"It's going all weird over here." Link reported, "Last time I saw shit like this was when Neo was alive and kicking Agents' asses, but there's something else in the code that I remember seeing before. I can't quite place where, though."

As Kim's concerns grew, the battle continued on, even though it was all one-sided. Ron was simply kicking Monkey Fist's ass and he was only doing it with one hand. The Kung Fu Master was already bruised and bleeding as Ron picked him up by the collar of his uniform.

"Still want more?" Ron asked sadistically, "I haven't even broken a sweat!"

The fear gripped Monkey Fist like nothing he had ever experienced before. In the back of his mind, he was starting to regret the day that he ever met this boy. Looking at that smile and those mirrored sunglasses on his face, he couldn't take anymore, but that wasn't the worst. Ron's fist reached back and plunged into Monkey Fist's chest; it felt like his fingers were digging through his skin, much in the same way that bare fingers rip into the meat of fried chicken, and Monkey Fist could feel himself bleeding and gasping for air.

"What…what's…happened…to you?" Monkey Fist wheezed as Ron's fingers went deeper and deeper into his chest.

"Me?" Ron asked in a voice that wasn't his at all; it sounded as if it belonged to a much older man, a more sadistic…more evil man, "I'm not the one you need to be worried about!"

As Ron's fingers began to press through Monkey Fist's flesh and down to the bone, Kim Possible decided to step in. In all the years that she had been out saving the world, she had never once killed anyone, never before, and she certainly wasn't about to start, nor was she going to allow Ron to either. She dashed down the steps of the Great Hall to where Ron held Monkey Fist.

"RON!" She screamed out, trying to snap him out of whatever funk he was in.

Behind the mirror-like sunglasses, Ron blinked several times before realizing what he was doing. He pulled his fingers out of Monkey Fist's chest, and allowed him to come down to the floor of the great hall. He looked at his hands and the blood that was on his fingertips. He reached up with his clean hand, pulled off his shades, and looked at Kim with those big, brown eyes.

"KP?" He asked with such a worried look on his face, "I…I don't know what came over me."

"It's ok." Kim smiled warmly as she placed a hand on Ron's shoulder, "We got him, and that's what matters; now let's get out of here."

Ron nodded, and looked back at his fallen enemy. Even though he hated and despised Monkey Fist, deep down, Ron felt that he should be grateful to this misguided madman. Mainly because if it weren't for his constant exposure to all the monkeys and monkey business, Ron would have never gotten over his fear of monkeys in the first place, just like Morpheus said, 'Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.' He looked down at Monkey Fist and the blood that was oozing down his chest, he then looked at his own blood stained hand.

"What was I about to do?" He asked himself.

"Ron?" Kim called from the main door of the Great Hall.

"Coming, KP." Ron called as he dashed up the stairs where he met up with Kim and Morpheus.

Morpheus looked at them both and smiled proudly like a father looking at his children on their graduation day.

"Excellent work, you two, and now it's time to go."

Kim and Ron nodded as they followed Morpheus down the elevator of the United Nations building to the ground floor. Coming back out into the sunlight, both Kim and Ron saw the sun setting inside the Matrix. It still was unbelievable; the whole world that they knew was digital, and yet, there seemed so much detail in everything. As they left the United Nations building, neither one of them knew that as they did, Kim Possible's parents were watching their little girl and her best friend with a great sense of pride in their hearts.

110101100110100111001011011100101010110101

Back in the real world, onboard the Neb II, Kim Possible gasped as she had awakened in the jack chair. She looked up at the dingy and grimy hulls of the Neb, while Niobe stood over her, taking out the jack from the back of her head. At the same time, the jack chair that Kim was in was being lowered so that her restraints could be unbuckled. As she sat up in the chair, she looked over and saw Ron leaving the room. Something was wrong.

"Hey Ron!" She called, "Wait up!" She reached down and took off the buckles binding her feet, jumped out of the chair and followed Ron down the halls. "Wanna get something to eat? I know the goop isn't that great, but I could really use some company."

"Thanks, but no thanks, KP." Ron said as he smiled weakly Kim. "I'm not feeling so well; I think I'll just get some rest."

"Ok." Kim acknowledged as Ron stepped out, leaving her behind. Kim couldn't shake off the feeling that there was definitely something wrong. Firstly, there was the way that Ron looked after he came out of his session the Oracle, then there was that girl named Sati, and that incident where it looked like Ron was about to kill Monkey Fist. Kim knew Ron better than anyone else, even Ron's parents. She knew that Ron was the sweetest man that could ever live and that the thought of killing someone was a violation of his being, yet, there he was; ready and willing to kill Monkey fist without a second thought. 'What's going on?' That was the train of thought going through Kim's mind over and over again.

"Kimberly." Morpheus called.

Kim quickly brushed off everything about the situation and turned to face Morpheus, "Yes, sir?" She asked, already in mission mode, "What now, sir?"

"Currently we're running low on energy, and it will take about a week to get back to Neo Zion." Morpheus reported to Kim, "We should get there in time for the Anniversary if we leave now, but after the celebration and when the Neb is recharged, we'll come back and pay the Merovingian a little visit as the Oracle suggested. As for right now, I believe you mentioned getting something to eat."

"Yes, sir." Kim smiled as she followed Morpheus to the mess hall of the Neb II.

Meanwhile, down in one of the cells, Ron was still feeling the effects of what he had done or was about to do to Monkey Fist. He looked at his right hand, the very hand that was going to kill him. Even though there was no blood on it, Ron could still see clearly in his mind the image of that man's blood on his hands. He went over to one of the cots, laid down, and curled up into a little ball, trembling slightly as he kept staring at that hand of his.

"What was I going to do?" He asked in his mind, trembling with fear, "Why was I even going to do it?"

As he thought about it, he remembered the Oracle's words, 'You've got two sides to you. Each side has a path. You have the potential to be a hero beyond any the world has ever known, inside the Matrix or out, but you also have the potential to destroy everything and enjoy every second of it.'

Ron mulled over that last sentence and became very frightened by the prospects of it. As he stared at his own hand and thought about that last part that he replayed over and over in his head, he had to admit something very terrible to himself. He had to admit that while he held Monkey Fist in that position and had his fingers plunged into his chest….he had to admit…he enjoyed it. He enjoyed watching Monkey Fist suffer.

He trembled even more as he hugged the pillow and pulled the covers over his head; he felt like he was a child again. When he was younger, he slept with a nightlight on because he thought that there were monsters in his toy box. He felt even more scared on that cot on the Neb II, because those monsters were all in his head, and this time, they were trying to get out.

"Whoever this guide of mine is…" Ron whimpered under the covers, "I hope she'll hurry up and…help me…"

To be continued…