Drakken was excited. Things were falling into place! He had the first several - SEVERAL! - major pieces to his plot and Kim Possible was none the wiser! His hostile takeover of Bueno Nacho had gone through and finished up easily. It was amazing what mind control shampoo could do when properly applied.

Ron had told him that he would take care of everything after his takeover was complete. In fact, he'd been puttering around with some of the numbers and policies with the previous level of control. Drakken cared little for the restaurant chain and Ron seemed to care so much about it so he was fine with Ron taking it over from him. One less headache to deal with.

Ah well. It really didn't matter. What did matter was bringing Ron in on his plot. He was struggling against his own nature to fully bring Ron in. He'd fully intended to tell Ron everything! He just...wanted Ron to be impressed.

His magnum opus to the plot had just finished cooking. He would be introduced to Ron later, after the picture show. There still wasn't a name. Maybe Ron would have an idea of what would attract Kimberly Anne? And put in a good word for his creation so Kimberly wouldn't suspect a thing? He was starting to cut it close with his timeline; now that he was fully on track to attack during prom, he would need to move fast. Frankly, if he hadn't stepped in to help Ron he probably would've come to the same conclusions earlier anyway.

The results may be cutting his timeline close, but Drakken was nothing but happy and satisfied with it.

Drakken shook his head as the tube gave the alert that someone was coming through. Ron was his new partner. He needed to be transparent about everything.

Everything.

Drakken made his way to the tube. Shego was off doing who-knew-what, which was still rather perfect for keeping him on track with his plan. All she needed to do was be on hand.

The tube made the strange swooshy noise when it finally hit the end and opened its doors. Ron fell out, having clearly been jostled by the movement. He fell flat on his face at Drakken's feet. Drakken resisted rolling his eyes; some habits were really hard to break. Instead, he helped Ron to his feet.

"Ugh. Man, why is the ride so bumpy?" Ron complained as he brushed himself off.

"It's Global Justice. Their incompetence is unquestionable, including their rather bland technology."

"They still manage to catch you," Ron unhelpfully pointed out.

"No, Kim Possible catches me," he corrected. "Global Justice just drives the paddy wagon."

Ron raised a finger in protest, mouth open, before a strange expression crossed his face. He then put a finger on his chin and, apparently in thought, he murmured, "Y'know, I didn't really think of that."

"Even with as much as Kimberly Anne destroys my plans, Global Justice can't even get a finger on me," Drakken crowed.

"I guess good on you?" Ron clearly wasn't sure how to celebrate Drakken's great intelligence.

Oh! That reminded him. Right. Bringing Ron in on everything.

Drakken wrapped an arm around Ron's shoulders and began leading him to the main console room. Grandly, he declared, "It's time, Ron."

"Time? Time for what? A test?! You're giving me a TEST!?" Ron began hyperventilating.

"What? No!" Drakken wasn't able to resist dope slapping Ron to make him snap out of it. As Ron rubbed the back of his head where Drakken had smacked him, Drakken spun Ron around and gripped him by the shoulders. "No, it is time...for you...to find out…" Drakken gleefully shouted, "MY PLAN!"

Ron's eyes lit up suddenly. "Really? I thought you were, like, carrot and sticking me!

Drakken's confusion was mounting. "'Carrot and sticking'? What in the world would've been the stick?"

"Okay, so, I didn't think that far ahead about it," Ron said plainly.

Drakken wished Ron would finally believe him about everything. Ron was so used to the rug being pulled out from under him that even with Drakken he struggled to have the same level of trust as Drakken had for Ron.

Drakken seriously said, "It only makes sense to tell you. After all, I trust you as much as I trust Shego."

Ron was confused as he asked, "So not that much?"

Drakken blinked. "No. A lot. I trust you a lot."

"But you haven't told Shego your plan!" Ron complained.

"That's because I'm trying to impress her with my genius!" Drakken proclaimed. "After this, she won't be able to deny my great intelligences."

"Oh, right. Gotcha." Ron gave finger guns. "Provin' you're the brains."

"Indeed." Drakken nodded, then shook his head. "Back to the topic. I will show you my plan, from beginning to end. The pieces, anyway."

Drakken began leading Ron to the big brain room, the one he'd styled to match his favorite Y-person character's own Cerebellum Room. The visuals that it would provide would be perfect accents to his explanation!

They eventually arrived at his special thinking room. Strangely, it said that there was already an occupant in there. None of the henchmen would dare to enter, which meant that it must be Shego. What she was doing in there was something he could only guess at.

...Or could he? There was nothing preventing him from simply going in.

"Stay here," Drakken said.

"Uh, okay?"

The mad scientist nodded before opening the door and walking in.

Shego seemed to be looking at the visual graphs he'd put together to keep all his pieces in place. He couldn't help but to sneak over and gloatingly look over her shoulder, her confusion obviously growing.

"What's he going to do? Throw the world's weirdest pajama party?" he heard Shego murmur loudly.

Ah! Perfect timing!

"You really haven't figured it out, have you?" he smugly asked.

Shego glared. "Unlike your pet dork, you aren't being open with me."

"Ah ah ah!" Drakken tsked while waving a finger. "There's no need for bitter sass. There's a reason I haven't told you."

"Oh really."

"Really." He didn't want to say it was because he was certain she would shoot it down with her sniping comments or that he wanted to impress her. Instead, he noted, "Considering how swimmingly my plan is going so far, I don't want to rock the boat."

"None of it makes sense. None of it!" Shego complained, hopping up as the door to the room opened. "How could you put any kind of world-conquering plot together with this junk?"

"What junk?" Drakken and Shego both looked over to the blond who had just entered the room.

Drakken facepalmed as Ron looked at the graphs and explanations on what everything was. Great! So much for the surprise! Of course Shego had to ruin it for him!

"Wait. You actually haven't told him?" Shego said as she eyed Ron.

"Well, no. I was going to right now before you RUINED the surprise!" Drakken complained.

Shego thought for a minute, then shrugged. "Eh. If I can't piece it out from this, he won't be able to. I-"

"Whoa now! You're doing what with the toy design?" Shego and Drakken again looked over at Ron who was now staring intently at the parts of his plan.

Drakken blinked. "You...understand that?"

"Well, yeah! It's kinda obvious," Ron said.

The mad scientist flinched back as Shego growled and lit her hands up. "Excuse me?!"

Strangely, Ron didn't react, instead peering closer at the part about the Hephaestus project. "I can get what you're going for. It's a little abstract out-there sorta thing, but knowing you so well? I can see how it all fits together."

Something in Drakken's gut lurched as that seemed to somehow disarm Shego. As she thought on his words, mentally chewing them, Drakken realized: Shego didn't know him well enough to understand his plan.

The weight of it shook him. Drakken had ragged on Ron for how superficial his friendships with those teeny-bopper tagalongs of Kim Possible, but he hadn't actually thought on his own relationships in a long time. He knew that Shego was the closest thing he had to a friend before Ron. ...Yet at the same time, would she even bother picking up her phone if he didn't pay her?

Drakken realized with shocking clarity that Ron really was his only friend, just as Drakken was Ron's. Shego was only there to get money and Iceland. Ron likely understood that and helped direct him to figure out that same thing.

Suddenly Drakken felt very alone, like a spotlight had latched on to him and everyone was whispering behind his back. Shego was always mean to him. He'd figured it was her way of showing affection. She'd done similar things to her brothers. It was like he was part of the family!

…Except…the moodulator. That showed him what Shego was like if she was being affectionate and love-struck. It was all so foreign to Drakken that he'd been begging for the Shego he knew to come back. When she did, he thought things were good. She was showing the same level of contempt for him as she always did. Only now did Drakken realize that it was exactly what it was on paper: barely contained resentment and hatred of him, tempered by greed.

He couldn't trust Shego. He couldn't trust Shego at all.

Drakken heard through his stupor, "Yeah, well, I suppose the fact that you two understand it means I'm not on the train to Loserville."

Drakken bristled now. Shego was a lackey, like all his henchmen. She didn't care about him in the least, so why should he care about her?

"Hush up, Shego," he snapped. Drakken didn't let his henches talk back to him.

An elegant eyebrow tilted. She said, shrugging and chuckling, "Yeah, I guess you don't have any great comebacks ever, do you?"

Drakken felt that one particular vein in his head pounding while his anger grew. "Shego, if you don't stop being the jerk that you are, I'll-"

"You'll what?" Shego challenged, lighting up one of her hands. "We both know you can't take me, even if I cared enough to do something. And really, you'd be useless without me."

"I can invoke clause 49 dash 14." He hadn't threatened to use that particular part of the contract in a couple of years.

Suddenly Shego looked hurt and uncertain at his rebuff. "What? You'd fire me for insubordination? Really?"

"Ohhhhh, dang!" Ron commented from the background. "How in the world have you gone this long without firing her?"

"She had qualities that made me overlook her combative nature." Drakken stepped over to her, standing tall and looking down at her. "I refuse that now. You will bring yourself to heel, Shego, or you'll end up on the outside looking in once the plan unfolds."

Several emotions crossed her face. Anger, hesitancy, hurt, more anger. Finally she growled and said, "Fine, boss. I'll listen for now."

"That is the minimum expected of you. I was far more allowing before, but I see now that I was soft." Drakken wrapped an arm around Ron and began walking him out to leave Shego to her fruitless attempts to understand his plan. "Go ahead and try as hard as you can. You don't have the information needed to understand everything."

Not like Ron. Not like his best friend. Clearly it was too much to ask from his sidekick.

It wasn't until they were halfway down the hall farthest from the Cerebellum Room that Ron finally broke the silence. "Uhm, what just happened?"

"Something that was needed a long time ago," Drakken said darkly. He muttered under his breath, "She isn't a friend, she's a lackey."

"Wait, you thought Shego was your friend?" Ron looked like he was having trouble not laughing. He managed to sputter, "Man, I have no idea where you've been! Shego only cares about herself."

"I see that now. I didn't before. Thanks to you…" Drakken slowed, then stopped. "Thanks to you, I know now who my real friend is. My only friend. I really thought…"

Drakken's gut was finally twisting. Tears bit at his eyes. He shook his head. No! He wasn't some, some emotional teenager finding out their friends were a bunch of snakes. He wasn't Drew Lipsky, whose friends had destroyed his life. He was Drakken. Dr. Drakken. Evil genius and an adult.

An adult who just realized he was completely alone save for one person despite his foolish attempt to pretend otherwise.

Drakken nearly jumped as arms wrapped around him. Belatedly he noted that Ron had bundled him up in a hug. He certainly did not notice the completely pathetic tears rolling down his face, or the hitch in his chest that made it hard to breathe without sputtering.

"It's okay, Drakken. We're best buds! We're the same! We don't need to worry about other people. We have each other!"

Drakken couldn't stop himself. He fell heavily into Ron's arms as he wept, mourning something that never existed. The snot-filled affair that he was certain was messing up Ron's clothes went unnoticed by the blond who simply let him cry.

"It's okay, Drakken," Ron repeated. "Once you - we - conquer the world, everyone will want to be our friend!"

Yes, that's right. Conquering the world. Being alone wasn't so bad, especially when he was alone with the only person that knew and understood him. Once they got the plan rolling, it wouldn't be a problem anymore.

Of course, Ron still didn't understand the difference between 'friendship' and 'slavery'. He wasn't sure how to explain that without bursting Ron's balloon. So he said nothing and simply let himself cry his heart out.

Drakken wasn't sure how long it was until his tears dried up and his breathing was unencumbered. The entire time Ron had been hugging him, trying to help him. He'd vowed that no one would hurt Ron again. Apparently the same applied on Ron's end.

Finally, he managed to step back and get a bit of space between himself and Ron. It was out of habit; he actually felt okay with the contact they'd had. He coughed to clear his throat and he stuttered, "Th-thank you, Ron. For being my friend."

"I'll always be here for you," Ron said as he let his arms hang down.

"I know." And Drakken knew it was true, unlike with other people. Ron and his mother were the only ones he cared about now.

It was then that Drakken looked around and realized he had led Ron down close to his secret laboratory. It was PERFECT! NOW he could show Ron the distraction for Kimberly Anne and get a stamp of approval!

Not that he really needed to say anything. Ron had already figured it out, after all.

"I'm sure you can guess what I'm about to show you," Drakken said as he again led Ron around the lair. He stopped at a particular chunk of wall where he knocked in a certain series against the rocks. There was the familiar beep before the wall opened up like a swinging door, smoke billowing out for effect.

"One of the toys with the growing tech in it?" Ron asked as he stepped through the smoke behind Drakken. He stopped suddenly as he said like something had just occurred to him, "Wait. Those are the toys at Bueno Nacho. You distributed them already!"

"Yes! As you know, the toys are being distributed across the world. I'm about to show you something else, something that requires your direct help!" Drakken giggled as the smoke finally dissipated enough to let the lab be fully visible.

His wonderful little distraction was figuring out the clothing replicator when they entered. Now his attention was drawn to them. He got up and walked the few feet over to them.

"Who's this?" Ron asked, suspicion obvious, "and why is he dressed like a synthodrone? Like, I know they were specifically part of the plot…is this the distraction? A synthodrone instead of a clone?"

Drakken giggled as he proclaimed, "Why yes, he IS a synthodrone! The most advanced synthodrone!"

"Really?" Ron stared. Then, curious, he asked, "What's your name?"

His project smirked and replied, "Around here, I'm known as Synthodrone 901."

Ron's head tilted as he said, "That's not a very good name." Eye squinting, he continued, "I would've guessed your name was Eric. You look like an Eric."

EUREKA!

"Ohhhh, write that down, Synth-Eric." Drakken was so excited! "What else do you think of him? Will he be a suitable distraction for Kim Possible?"

Ron thought for a moment before he said, "Yeah, he's got the cute high school look that KP likes. Same kinda thing as with Mankey." Ron then asked, "You said he's a more advanced synthodrone? Like, does he shoot lasers?"

"He has a personality, identity, and a brain!" Drakken replied proudly.

"Is he still a giant sack of goo like the others?"

The grin on Drakken's face faded at that. A little annoyed, he said, "Well, yes! What else would it be?"

"I dunno. Make them compartments or something?" Ron reached out and poked Eric. "I mean, one nibble from Rufus and he'll curl up as his goo falls out. Do you really want a major part of your plan to be so vulnerable? He could burst from a papercut! And then KP would be all over your plan!"

Drakken pulled out a notepad from his labcoat and began jotting down notes. "So, improve his durability. What else would you suggest?"

Ron looked thrilled for some reason. "You're gonna listen to what I say?"

"Of course I am! You're my partner in this. We're going to get this going together. Anyway, what else?"

The blond focused as he noted, "I don't think making the major signal tower so big and obvious is a good idea. Is there a way to shrink it down by country and distribute it across the world?"

So many good ideas! Drakken continued to jot everything down, mentally incorporating them into his plan. Yes, Ron was such a great partner. Problem solving his plot so it would be impenetrable. Kimberly - the world - would never see them coming.