The Trinity Sitch - Book 4: Heart of the Fury

The Colony of the Chosen

To Ron, there simply was no question. It had become one of the inescapable truths of the universe. There were never enough Nacos, monkeys were put in the universe to torment him…

…and Kim was seriously tweaked.

She had spent the better part of the afternoon, into the evening arguing with Tyrian, trying to convince the man that if his people remained, they would be slaughtered. In the end, nothing she could say would dissuade the man. It didn't help either that everyone else she spoke to expressed the same feelings. Troxxite was their home. They had been there since before the Torellians had even discovered it. The vast majority of them, just under three hundred souls counting the young, had been born there.

Ron sat listening to it all, taking it all in. He always left this part to his wife, since she was the one who had majored in international diplomacy and was in the progress of seeking a masters in the same. Since nothing being discussed was of a culinary nature, he simply kept his mouth shut, afraid he would say something wrong, hurting their cause.

Then, as Tyrian recounted the history of his colony to her, something struck a chord in him. Still, he let the story unfold, trying to resolve the resonance in his head.

"Most of us were born here. A very few have arrived only in the last few years. All of those who have come here have done so because we were no longer welcome in our original homelands, all because we could no longer live in a world controlled by the False Podondrin. My ancestor was the Prefect of the Province of Vershaltia, one of the few lands that had not come under his subjugation. We were followers of Arkon the Great and keepers of the True Faith. For many centuries we had been ignored because of the mountainous terrain that protected us. Occasionally we would be plagued by the Gatherers, but for the most part our numbers were deemed to be too small to pose any threat. In fact, we were content that as long as the Masters saw fit to leave us alone, we would live our lives apart from them.

"Then, some four hundred years ago (somehow the same ability that allowed them to speak the language allowed them to comprehend the passage of time in terms they could relate to) one of my ancestors was presented with an ancient book. Inside was a detailed account of the Demon Wars, as well as the prophecy of the Knights of the Ascended. He soon discovered the text was the actual original copy of the Book of Arkon. On the surface the book seemed only to be a history and a set of vague prophecies, but our scholars discovered its true purpose. The book was one of power, in its whole revealing the truth about the Effurien and the days when our saviors would arrive to deliver us from the evil that was gripping our world. From that day we were no longer content just to hide in our protected lands.

"The False Podondrin must have sensed this, because he sent his armies, led by a mysterious warrior dressed completely in black to conquer us. Many thousands died on both side, but our people were eventually captured and taken to Daganshire as slaves. We were put to work building the Master's Palace anew, laying stone upon stone, disguising further the true nature of his citadel.

"Yet, through all of this we never lost our true faith. We new the truth, that one day the Ascended ones would send their Trinity to destroy the False Master. A century passed, then the one who first brought the Book to us reappeared. She broke our bonds and spirited what was left of us away, bringing us to this place where He could not find us, where we could live and grow and keep the faith until that day. Since then we have lived here. Our numbers have never been great, though occasionally she would send others like us to live here."

Kim listened to the story, standing there in all her glory, her legs apart, her head held high. Ron could have sworn the blue bands of her suit were glowing brighter, though that was only a trick of the light. "If all of that is true, why do you want to throw away your lives just to protect a tiny bit of land? That doesn't make the first bit of sense to me. You don't have the numbers or the technology to stand up to a modern military force like the Torellians."

"Because if we do not, we will once again be forced from our homes. Home is home and we will either die here with honor or we will be delivered by the Kiresmek ban Effurien. When the time of darkness begins, we will be the rallying point for the Knights, so that they may restore us to our true home. That cannot be done if we are spirited away again."

By the meeting of the colony elders ended, the sun had long set. A lodging had been set aside for them and Ron at least was going to take full advantage of some real rest. Kim, on the other hand, was still extremely agitated, pacing around their quarters in a huff, he fists balled up, her whole body clenched up.

He didn't like seeing her this way. Normally, the sight of her in a skin-tight super-suit, despite being stained with mud and other gunk, her hair matted from the trek through the jungle and the fight, was considerably hot. Her petite upper torso, her athletic legs, her inverted heart shaped backside all came together in a whole that at the same time melted him and, well, stiffened his resolve. Now, however, the agitation, the fury in her face made her actually look shrill and mean.

Ron sat on the edge of the Arkonian pit style bed, watching her, his heart hurting for her yet not quite knowing what to do. Throughout the whole argument he sat there waiting, trying to figure out what he had heard. He too wanted to save these people and he felt both hurt and betrayed that they would throw away their best efforts. It just wasn't right. They had risked their lives to save a group of people they had never met. People they would have never known about had they not been literally stolen from their world against their will. They had gone into the fight thinking they were there for a reason, that some sort of providence had delivered them to the right place and the right time to make a difference. These people, who had seemed to want to survive, who had heroically stood up to an enemy who sought their extermination, now seemed to have meekly resigned themselves to their fate, all over some notion they had been chosen by some mysterious female benefactor to keep their Faith.

It had seemed so good at first. The people clapping him on the shoulders. Mothers handing children to others so they could hug him. They were being welcomed as heroes. It was something he had always enjoyed, the feeling of gratitude when they helped people. He wanted that gratitude, he fed off it. It was the simple reward for a noble act.

Now all of that felt empty. Their efforts were now empty, meaningless. He felt so helpless.

Kim felt helpless.

He realized as he sat watching her, watching the blazing green fury in her eyes that he was feeling what she was feeling. She was helpless and it was consuming her. She was not in control and it was crushing her and through her, because he could feel what she was feeling, he was being crushed by it as well. He wanted nothing more right at that moment to be back at home, making senseless drives to him company headquarters, coming home to Kim at night, oblivious to all of this suffering, the danger. He wanted to go back to just over a week ago, to when all he had to come home to was a loving wife with nothing but joy in her instead of rage and powerlessness. He wanted to go back to the time where all they had to worry about was 'christening' every room of their new home.

No. That just wasn't right. It wasn't noble. If Kim had taught him something over their many years together, selfish needs had to come after doing what was right. If he was safe at home, oblivious to these people, then by now they would all be dead. Sure, they might have taken a few of the Torelloids out, but then end would have been pre-ordained. Once the battle had been joined, the command craft would have sent the signal for the bots to go into independent mode and they would have mown the whole population down. These chosen people would have been exterminated.

These Chosen people.

"Kim! Stop!" he struggled to his feet, almost tripping on the raised lip of the sleeping pit.

She turned and glared at him, her expression softening once she realized who she was looking at. "What?" she said, her voice still tinged with anger and sadness.

"Something was bothering me the whole time I was listening to Tyrian back there. Something he said caught my attention and I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was until just now. How much have you understood when you go to Temple with me?"

"Some. I don't understand Hebrew yet, but it'll eventually come."

"That's not what I'm getting at. The Torah is part of the Bible, after all. These people aren't willing to lay their lives down because of a piece of land, they're willing because of Faith."

"I don't see what you're getting at."

"Kim, these people are the true Arkonians, the ones who haven't been tainted by that thing controlling their planet. They believe they will be the ones to restore the place once somebody manages to overthrow him. To do that they have to be true to their Faith. I know it's a bit of a reach, but I think they're a lot like the ancient Hebrews who were delivered from Egypt."

Kim calmed down just a little, sitting on the edge of the pit opposite where he was standing. "Ronnie, if this is supposed to be a land of milk and honey…"

"I know, like I said, it was a bit of a reach, but this means something to me. It's central to my own Faith. They've been raised to believe in something, and maybe they are confusing it with the land and all, but if they cut and run, then by their beliefs, they will have failed."

"Ron, if they stay here, we'll be the ones failing. I just can't sit here and watch these people die just because they believe what's written in some old book."

"How is that book any different from your Bible or my Torah? It's what they believe in."

"Oh God." Her head sunk down, her hair drooping limply over her shoulders. Tears were flowing freely down her face. In a heartbeat he was across the pit, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her close.

"It's me again. I'm so wrapped up in myself I'm not taking anything else into consideration. Just me and my selfish 'got to be the hero' thing again. What am I supposed to do?"

"We do what we always do. Fight the good fight. We do the impossible. That means we find a way to save these people without taking them away from their homes. Honey, look at me." He gently took her chin in his fingertips. "Nothing is impossible."

Nothing is impossible he said again, soul-speaking to her.

Kim almost collapsed in his arms, all the tension draining out of her, letting all of her weight be supported by him. She was crying furiously, openly, almost wailing and he let her. Not knowing how he was doing it, he extended his soul into hers, supporting it as he was now supporting her heaving body, to the point he started crying with her. They stayed that way for perhaps an hour, her sorrow fading to stifled sobs, Ron gently rocking her.

Finally spent, Kim put her head on his shoulder, trying to clear her breathing, wiping her face with the smooth, non-absorbent sleeve of her suit. Ron found himself to be rather stopped up himself by that point.

"Maybe it's better we can't smell each other right now." He said, looking at the ground in grime coating his bare hands."

"No kidding." She laughed softly. Then she grabbed him in a fierce hug, not caring that his battered armor dug into her. "I love you so much, Ron."

"I love you too, Kim."

She held him a while longer then finally pulled away, sitting limply on the edge of the pit. She looked at her own clothes, at her hands still covered in black gloves that merged seamlessly with the gray suit, at the blue stripes softly glowing from the power that coursed through the fabric, keeping her body cool, carrying away extra sweat, providing defensive screens and healing damage to the fabric.

"I wonder if there's a reason I haven't taken this completely off for a few days now." She said, stripping the gloves off."

"I'd think it was because of what might be under there." He half-joked.

"No, I think it has more to do with this" She rapped her knuckles on the chest-plate of his armor. "With it on, I'm Kim Possible, superhero and all that. I went too long being just Kim Stoppable, housewife and student."

He looked at her with puppy-dog eyes, showing a little hurt.

"No, Ron, it's not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just, when we stopped doing the full-time hero thing, when we had to quit so we could finish college…I think something inside me just got shut off. Now that we're back trying to be heroes, trying to save the world it's like we're trying to go back to something that just isn't there any more and it scares me that something we've always loved has been lost. I feel like if I take off this suit it'll be like taking off a mask of sorts, like…"

"Like maybe it's time we grew up?" He said, repeating the words she said to him just a few days before they were finally together. "Kim, maybe what we were before has changed. Maybe our teen years were something that's like catching lightning in a bottle." He reached under his arm and found the catches for his armor, letting the chest plate and backing fall aside, leaving his chest bare. "But what's inside the shell is who we really are. What we've become is because of what we've done, what we are inside, all of it. You're still a hero. I didn't even have to ask you when I decided to help these people. Maybe we don't crave the adventure any more, maybe that's it, but that doesn't change the rest. Just a little bit ago all I could think of was being back home, driving that boring drive, coming home to make love to you, hoping one of those times will be the one that makes our family grow."

"Ron, I haven't stopped taking…"

"I know. We've talked about it, sure, but I've just had this secret fantasy about those things not always working. Just a little…what if. That's beside the point. I really don't care if we turned off our Kimmunicators forever. Maybe Joss and the twins would want to carry it on, maybe they'd just throw their names in the hat with GJ. I've thought long and hard about being just the Naco Man, but you know what happens every time I go down that road? What we are keeps hauling us back in. Call it destiny, fate or just the big man upstairs having it in for us, this is what we do."

"But if that's not what you want…"

"KP, all I've ever wanted was to be a part of your life. The rest just came with the package. I've got everything I've wanted and more. I would have been happy just being your best friend. Sure, it would have broken my heart to see you end up with some other guy, but I'd have eventually gotten over that because I wouldn't be willing to lose you because of it."

"Ron, it would have broken my heart anyway if I ended up with somebody else, because that would mean seeing you find somebody. It nearly killed me thinking about you ending up with Tara or Zita or Yori. I had my own selfish reasons that I never told you about Tara, or that I didn't say anything about Yori until she was flying away in a helicopter. Subconsciously or consciously I wanted you for myself. Did you know I was a heartbeat away from telling you how I felt that day outside of DNAmy's fortress? I even said 'you've got me.' Then I realized you mistook what I said as some flip remark because you were seriously considering how Yori felt about me, so I held my tongue. I was so stupid I figured you really didn't have those kinds of feelings for me and it took what you said three weeks later to tell me I was wrong."

"You mean, then, you, huh?"

"Ron, why do you think I followed you to the Amazon, then back to Arizona? I couldn't stand the thought of you being with that strange girl from Yamanuchi."

"Wow." He sat there a while, thinking about that until a knock on the wooden door brought them out of their reverie. He got up and let a young woman, one of the mothers who had embraced him earlier into the room, bearing a stack of folded clothing.

"Lord Vershalt thought you would appreciate more comfortable clothing."

"Uh, sure, thanks. Um, you wouldn't happen to have any place we could clean up, do you?"

"There is a bath house at the back of the courtyard behind this cottage. Your should find the water pleasingly cool, though if you prefer, a fire can be lit for you, though I do not think the water will be warm until far into morning."

"Thanks, I think we can make do."

The laid the clothing out. It was plain, made of soft material similar to cotton, if a little more coarse. There were also a pair of what looked like long shirts made of a much lighter material. They recognized them as the sleepwear they had been provided when they were on Arkonia with the Blessed Mother.

The bath house was similar to the large baths they had pretty much been thrown into that time, just on a much smaller scale. Ron stuck a hand in the water, finding it just slightly warmer than the air. Several blocks of homemade looking soap were nearby, along with a stack of large towels. Kim laid the two nightshirts off to the side. The courtyard was private and the home had been set aside just for them, but, since besides the new Vershaltian clothing, Ron's armor and her battle-suit were the only garments they had and she had no intention of parading around in her all-together, walled garden or not.

He stripped the segmented armor off both his arms and set it aside. Mud and grime had settled into the suit, matting his fine yellow chest hair into a swirled mess. It took some doing, but he finally undid the clasps holding the rest of his gear together until he was down to what had once been a pair of paisley silk boxers.

Kim sniffed again. "Ooof, I think my nose is clearing up. Honey, you stink."

Ron reached up to her collar and found the hidden tab of her zipper, pulling it down to her belly button. He leaned in close to her exposed skin. "Speak for yourself." He looked down at his drawers. He had basically been wearing them since getting them out of the drawer on the previous Saturday morning, having only intended to wear them temporarily on Sunday until he got a chance to take a shower (a chance he never had!) "I think these things need to be burned now." He stripped them off, thinking if he threw them at the wall, they would likely stick. "I am so ready to get this funk off of me." He sniffed in her direction once more as she worked her boots off. "Make that get the funk off both of us."

"That didn't seem to matter to you the other night on that crashed ship." She teased, becoming a little more at ease looking at his slender chest, at the slightly rounded bulge of his pecs.

"I don't think it would have mattered if we were covered in toxic sludge that night. Besides, I was preoccupied with what it might be like if you had stayed in all that metal."

"Um, ew, Ron, I don't think that would have worked too well."

"Can't blame a guy for thinkin that way." He dipped a bucket into the small pool, pouring it over his head, proceeding to lather himself up Japanese style. Kim finished stripping out of her suit and joined him, helping him lather up. The soap didn't work as well as the modern stuff, but it didn't smell like lye.

He took the opportunity to pour a bucket over her head as she knelt to get another chunk of soap. She came up sputtering as her started lathering her up. After a couple of quick rinsing showers that way they slipped into the pool to soak all the rest away. The water was only about three feet deep but there was enough room for them to sit on opposite sides, their toes touching under the water.

"Thank you." She said, watching him from the other side, her shoulders submerged, her hair pulled up and over her shoulders, some of it floating out over her.

"Kim, I like giving you a bath. I like it when you give me a bath."

"That's not what I was talking about. I mean back there in the house, what you said, what you did for me. I really needed to get all that out."

"KP, that's what being married, being partners is all about. It's not all the sexy stuff, all the cuddling. It's about being part of each other and if it means letting you cry or jerking a knot in your tail, the so be it."

"Jerking a knot in my tail? You're the one who's likely to sprout a tail one of these days using all those monkey powers."

"Oh, then who's the one who really did sprout a monkey tail, little monkey queen?"

"Oh no you don't. We're not going there. I'm blocking that whole business with the amulet out of my head. I am not going to even think about it."

"Why not. You were actually pretty cute as a monkey, with all your red hair, your green eyes. Never thought Kimminess would be cute on a banana eating tree beast."

"Ron! I had a unibrow!" She splashed some water at him.

"I know. It was only visible when you were half-transformed. Once you went 'the full monkey' you actually looked, well, I hate to admit this…"

"If you say I looked hot as a monkey, you're sleeping on the couch, buster!"

"No, I wasn't going to say hot. That would be sick and wrong, considering you really were a monkey. You were just weely, weely cute." He said the last in a little kiddie voice.

"Oh, great, I'm the next Cuddlebuddy!"

"That's it! You looked like a Cuddlebuddy! Let's see, what should we call you? Kimmie-Chi? Mon-Kim?"

"Ron!"

"Though, not a lot of monkeys have such nice hips, and every so often the tail flipping up the skirt…"

"Ron!"

"…and perky little…"

Kim shot across the pool, clamping a hand on his mouth. "You can stop that now, mister. And for your information, that was just my top holding its shape."

"Um hum." He mumbled through her fingers, looking at her with half-lidded eyes.

"and who was it just now saying it was sick and wrong thinking those thoughts about a monkey.'

He gently pulled her fingers from his mouth. "Because I knew it was you, and I think you're kickin whether you're a human shaped monkey, and, by the way, that wasn't just your top holding its shape, I'm a guy, I'm wired to notice these things, and I'd think you're just as kickin when you're covered in muck or covered in chrome and I loved you the same either way."

"So, mister smooth talker, how kickin am I right now since I'm clean." She pulled her body up against his in the lukewarm water, straddling one of his legs and pressing her lips up against his in a passionate kiss.

"Badical" he whispered when he came up for air. His face got a little more serious. Not quite his serious face, but without any of his usual goofiness. "So what are you going to do tomorrow?"

"It's not tomorrow yet." She kissed him again, her arms dipping into the water.

Tyrian was wondering by the walls of his guest house and stopped to consider the loud splashing from the bath, shrugged, then hobbled back to the main house on his cane. He had plans to make if he was to save his people, with the aid of these two.

He said a silent prayer, thanking the Blessed Mother for sending the Hand and the Sword to them, hoping that soon the Heart would join them.