Heart of the Fury Chapter 24: Learning to Fly, a kim possible fanfic

The Trinity Sitch - Book 4: Heart of the Fury

Chapter 24

Ron wasn't sure how long he had been awake. He propped his head behind his hands, staring at the top bunk. Waking up alone wasn't terribly unusual for him, at least relatively speaking. When they got their own place right before their last year of college they spent many nights snuggled tightly together, the intensity of actually living together taking control of them. Then, as time went on, they settled into a more relaxed routine. Sometimes they cuddled, sometimes they staked out their own part of the bed, all depending on the kind of rest each needed. No words were spoken on the matter, it was just the normal course of things. If the need arose, the other was always close at hand. Many nights they went to bed dead tired, stretching out apart only to find each other during the night. Other nights it worked the other way.

The fact he was alone in his bunk didn't bother him in the least. Even back when they started taking vacations together they would routinely get rooms with two beds and sometimes, especially in the summer they would take advantage of the extra room, especially at first as they overcame a lifetime of sleeping alone. There really wasn't much room on the bunks and both of them had literally worked their tails off working out the day before. They did keep their record since returning from their honeymoon going again that night, falling into a very deep, relaxing sleep afterward but it was obvious Kim must have needed to stretch out a little more. It was just like at home. Neither of them were large by any stretch of the imagination so their king-sized bed was actually overkill but sometimes they would find themselves stretched out on opposite sides, far enough apart they couldn't sense each other. So he stared at the bunk above him, imagining here there, sleeping on her side, the covers draped on the curve of her hip, one arm under her pillow, the other hand on top of it, close to her face.

It didn't bother him, but he certainly would rather have her in his arms. They may have lived together for almost a year before the wedding and they had started showing their love for each other in stronger ways for some months before that, but actually being man and wife, taking their vows before God and in front of their families made that bond so much deeper. They may not have waiting until their wedding night as they had planned when they were younger, but in the end it did not make that first night in their own home any less special. In fact, a slightly naughty bit of his mind told him it made it better, since by then they actually had a pretty good idea what they were doing.

His heart skipped a beat when he heard a slight moan, mainly because it didn't come from above him but from across the tiny room. For the first time since opening his eyes he looked at another part of the room. The lights were very dim but they could not totally turn them off, probably because of some security consideration as he really didn't think the Torellians were worried about monsters in their toy box.

"Kim?" he slid his feet out of the bed and went over to her. She was sitting on the floor, lightly gripping the sides of the fold-out toilet. He could tell just from the way she was sitting that she had either been sick or was just about to. Then the smell reached him and he realized she already had.

"I'm okay, Honey. Go back to bed." She said weakly.

There was no way that was going to happen now. His heart was pounding in his chest. Kim just plain didn't get sick. Bad colds very occasionally, but never leaning over a toilet sick. "What is it?"

"I just think this Torellian food isn't agreeing with me, that's all." She said, her voice a little hoarse.

"How long have you been up?"

"About thirty minutes. Really, Ronnie, now that it's out of me I feel a whole lot better."

He could tell from her voice that wasn't totally true. She was fighting it for all she was worth. The feeling was as unknown to her as it was unpleasant. Moments later he knew he was right when he heard her throwing up again. The sound and watching her body heave like that was simply heartbreaking. This just didn't happen to the invincible Kim Possible, no matter what her last name was now. In a heartbeat he was at her side, gently touching her back, brushing her hair away from her face. "KP, do I need to get the ship's doctor."

"Nah, just got some bad meat or something. Who knows what's in that stuff." She tore a piece of paper from the dispenser, wiping her mouth. She was a bit too quick on the draw as she leaned forward and heaved once more. This time, fortunately, there was nothing left. Ron found he was grinding his teeth in frustration, knowing there was really nothing he could do for her other than touch her to let her know he was there.

"Are you sure, KP. I ate a lot of that stuff too and I'm okay so far."

"Baby, you've got a stomach like a blast furnace, well, unless you get on a spinney ride at the fair. But you've got to remember, these are Torellians. Plain and simple they're aliens, they aren't humans, not really, so their physiology may be different, or maybe I just ate something I'm allergic to and don't know it."

"Kim, this isn't like you. The only time I've even heard about you throwing up was when you tried helping your mother at the hospital."

"God, how'd you hear about that?"

"I'm your Soulmate, or have you forgotten." She sat back, letting the privy close. He caressed her face, looking into her eyes in the faint light. "Okay, actually your Mom told me about that once, said how proud she was you didn't faint."

"I guess I can do anything but keep my lunch down when I see a human brain."

"Or giant mutant cockroaches." He said, grinning at her. "You want some water?"

"Please and thank you." She said, watching him get up and fill a cup from the small folding sink above the privy. She took the cup from him and gulped it down.

"You feeling better for real now?"

Kim nodded, clutching the cup close to her face. He took it and filled it again. "Yeah, much." She stood up, looking a little wobbly. She rinsed her mouth out twice, scrubbing her teeth and tongue with her finger, then washed her face. "Maybe it was that wine they served us. Did I ever tell you about that so-called bridal shower Sherry had right before she married Drakken?"

"You mean the one where you swore you'd never touch a margarita again in your life."

"Oh, so you do remember."

"Yes, and I also remember that was one of the few nights you spent in the other bedroom of our apartment. Kim you've got to face it, you don't hold your drink very well."

"No kidding. I didn't sleep with you that night because I spent most of it, as Monique so delicately put it, 'calling China on the porcelain phone.' Just didn't realize I had so much of that stuff last night."

"Honestly, I wasn't really paying attention, the party was just too much fun." He smiled at her again, holding her hand as she sat down on the bunk.

"Yeah, I saw you and your fun. Just remember, you can look but not touch."

"Ah, naw, that's not why I was looking. Besides, I don't think they look that good under the armor, I think all that was just for show." The 'going away' party the Ambassador had thrown for them the night before was only the second time they had seen Torellian women on board and, if the shape of their armor was to be believed, they were built quite well. "Besides, you're the one I wanted to take back to my room." He caressed her cheek, knowing it was a really bad time for a kiss.

After what may have been a few minutes or close to an hour of sitting quietly together Kim got up and turned up the lights, starting the timer for a shower, throwing the slightly soiled nightshirt in a pile with the rest of their Vershaltian clothing. Ron sat back on the bed watching her, something he often did at home, marveling at how beautiful she was. Even after leaving cheerleading behind over four years ago and virtually retiring from the hero business she was almost fanatical about both of them keeping in shape. In fact, as she had matured into her 'woman's body' she was in even better shape now than she had been when the two of them had run all over the world, fighting villain after villain. Her neck and arm muscles were thicker and even though she had grown only a single inch since then she looked much taller. Maybe it was her proportions. Her waist was still extremely slender and her figure was what could best be described as petite, making her look tall unless she was standing beside him.

She turned to face him, noticing his stare as the field contracted over her body. She fluffed her hair out as the cycle finished, shaking her mane out over her head to let it dry as much as possible before brushing it back again with her fingers. She smiled at him, a little streak of vanity pleased that he enjoyed looking at her so much.

"Feeling better?" He asked as he slipped out of his bedclothes, setting the controls for his turn.

"One hundred fifty percent." She answered, slipping on the inner body suit of her armor. After couple days they were staring to be as comfortable wearing it as they would regular clothes. She picked up her Kimmunicator, checking the chrono. "It's a bit early yet, but I'm too awake to go back to bed."

"Yup." He said as the water started. He grinned as Kim sat down on the bed to take her turn watching him.

As much as Kim though she had stayed just like she had been for the last six or seven years, Ron really had changed a lot. When they started dating they were just about the same height, then, almost magically by the end of summer he was slightly taller than her after actually being shorter the whole time they had known each other. By the time their Senior Prom rolled around he couldn't even wear his father's powder blue tux any more. He was now just a couple inches shy of six feet tall, still not a really tall man by most people's standards, but taller than she ever thought he would be. It was like puberty wouldn't let him go until he was almost eighteen. He also wasn't quite as skinny as he had been back then either. In her usual way she had taken charge of his health and put him on a better diet and started working out with him. By the time he came back from his second trip to Yamanuchi his chest had filled out and his arms, while still fairly thin, were filled with corded muscles. That actually caused a little bit of a problem. Where once Kim had Ron all to herself because of his one-time utter lack of social status, she suddenly found him catching the eye of more than the handful of girls she had to contend with before. It took her a while to come to terms with the depths of her jealousy where it came to her man.

But it was what they were finally seeing in him, the same thing she had been awakened to when he finally confessed his feelings for her. What had been inside him was finally showing on the outside and of course they would notice. Both to them and to her eyes Ron had become a very beautiful man. Now he was even more beautiful to her, even though at the moment he really, really needed a haircut and a shave. He was, perhaps for the first time in his life, pretty shaggy looking. His beard was filling in much more quickly than she would have imagined but then again he had always shaved pretty closely, except for an aborted attempt to grow a mustache when he was seventeen. He looked so different with the beard, though the moment she put her hands on a proper razor it was coming off. It tickled too much when they kissed! That didn't matter right now, though. It made him look rugged…manly. Then again she would love him just as much if he was still the short, thin boy she had known since they were both four.

"Okay Ron, how much do you know about H.A.L.O?" Kim had to nearly scream in his ear to be heard over the din of rushing air.

"Uh, as in what we're going to be wearing if this doesn't work?" He asked, naked fear showing on his face as the clouds rushed by beneath them.

"High Altitude, Low Opening. It means if this doesn't work we're going to have one hell of a tandem jump."

The ship was skimming the upper atmosphere of Arkonia, just low enough they could jump without suits, though they would require oxygen. The Torellians had been able to improvise some helmets and masks for them. So they would not get separated they had been strapped together, a single large parachute strapped to Kim's back. They still had not told them their actual plan as they didn't know for sure if the Torellians knew about Kim's powers. If anything they knew she could turn silver and was a fearsome fighter, but they had not seen her fly. Even Den Taag's men at the arena has only seen her enter from the smashed roof. They wanted to keep some secrets for themselves.

The parachute was there if for some reason her powers failed to work. She wasn't even certain if she could remember how to fly. The one time she had done it was purely on instinct, fearing that Ron was dying. There was also the chance that she would be too distracted by the jump to actually change forms. As they waited in their quarters to be summoned she had practiced changing back and forth, but there was absolutely no way to test her flying prowess.

Kim watched their improvised jump-master. The young Torellian technician was carefully watching a scanner. The rush of wind was too loud for them to hear his voice, though it didn't matter as he could not speak Arkonian. Instead they would use hand signals when they were finally over their jump point.

Kim had to admit to herself she was more than a little scared right now. Ron could jump out of any airplane by this point, but he had never quite gotten over his fear of free fall. As she matured she finally realized he was not simply being a baby about it, for him it was a very real and palpable fear. It shamed her that she had not realized that sooner.

This jump was far beyond anything they had ever attempted before. If she couldn't change, if she couldn't figure out how her flying powers worked they jump was going to be rough. She wasn't even sure if the controls of the alien chute would work like the ones she was familiar with and the last time she had executed a tandem jump was with one of her brothers when they were only ten years old and therefore quite small. She was doing it now with a grown man, one who was a good fifty pounds heavier than her.

The tech gave them the agreed upon signal. The man probably had no idea what a thumbs up meant, so it was actually a bit amusing to see him do it. Ron gave Kim's hand a good squeeze as he closed the visor on his helmet, scrunching his eyes tightly closed.

Kim pushed off into the clouds. Somewhere below them would be the massive crater known as the Great Spiron of Arkonia. Seven great rivers flowed into the crater, pouring into it in a series of waterfalls that made Niagara look like a pitiful trickle. In the center was a whirlpool that churned with almost unimaginable fury. Where the water went from that point, they had no clue. It would take a pretty impressive underground river to carry off that much water, but the crater had been there, the rivers running strong and true throughout the entirety of Arkonia's recorded history.

The ship that had been their home for three days was gone almost instantly, lost in the heavy cloud cover. The boiling waters created an almost permanent thunderhead growing out of the crater, feeding the clouds above, casting a constant gray light on the mossy dark greens and saturated brown stone of the natural wonder. Once again they found themselves alone, falling from the heavens, plummeting blind with only an oversized gauge strapped to Kim's wrist to tell them how far they had fallen.

She felt the rush of adrenaline as they fell, something she always enjoyed but here there was too much danger. If they were not careful, especially if they had to rely on the chute, they would end up falling all the way through the cloud, ending up in the whirlpool itself, meaning certain death. Nothing could live in those violent waters. They had seen a number of men go to their deaths when part of the ground collapsed, torn away by the rushing waters of the river.

It was now or never. If she could not make the change in the next ten thousand feet they would have to use the chute and pray they could clear the water. It was decided as they approached the planet they would have to aim for the eastern edge of the crater, hopefully landing just inside near the hidden fortress where they had met the Blessed Mother of Arkonia nearly two years ago. If they were to meet up with the rest of Team Possible in time they had to take that chance. If they landed too far from the crater they risked spending a day or longer getting there in unknown terrain. The region was more hilly than mountainous, but if they lost sight of the crater they could become hopelessly lost with few supplies.

Kim spread her arms, slowing their plummet as much as she could. Ron did the same. She could feel his mind touching hers, his fear washing over her, becoming part of her.. Even over the din of rushing air she could hear his screaming. He simply could not help it, he was utterly terrified, far beyond any terror he had felt before. He had utterly no control over the situation and it was only his unshakeable confidence in her that kept his heart beating now.

Then the sensation of freefall deep in their guts lessened. The wind rushing past their faces became more tolerable. The clouds parted beneath them and they could see the lands spread out all around them.

They were skirting the edge of the great thunderhead, the mouth of the crater right below them. Yet the ground was not rushing up to meet them. Instead they soared, almost lazily, so far above the ground they seemed to be floating.

Ron tried his best to twist around, hoping to see Kim fully armored and transformed. He was strapped too tightly to her to see much, but what he could see astounded him.

Instead of the short, stubby wings of her glider-pack, wings seemingly made of the silver metal had sprung like great eagle wings right from her arms, stretching down her legs like the para-suits they used from time to time to make short jumps. How he wished he could have seen her in all her glory, like a winged goddess slowly spiraling toward the ground. He wondered for a moment when he had actually stopped screaming, but that thought was chased away as something unexpected washed over him, something powerful that uplifted his soul.

Kim was filled with utter joy. A wish she had buried so deep in her soul that she didn't even know she had it had been fulfilled. She was flying, flying free under her own power, soaring partly on the wind, partly on whatever her gifts used to propel her. The joy was so powerful it was spilling out of her and into him through their link. She probably could not have contained it if she tried. It made him want to spread his own wings and fly along with her, like two mated eagles who would never again have to be tied to the surface. His fear was washed away and he extended his own arms as if they would spring wings of their own.

They circled and swooped, caught up in the joy of flight. Both of them understood at last the poem the air force embraced. They slipped the surly bonds of the earth, experiencing a freedom that so few could. Flying with their old jetpacks and later their glider-packs only hinted at this. It was a pale shadow of true flight. This felt like what man was meant to do, the dream that had been around since Icarus, ever since the first lowly caveman had seen a bird and wished he could spread his arms and join those magnificent creatures of the air.

Ron noticed something. The crater was starting to get further and further away as Kim rode thermals, letting the wind carry her. He realized she was becoming lost in her joy. He ground his teeth as he came to a decision. There was a job to do and it would take both of them if it was going to happen.

Head in the game! Head in the game! Head in the game! He started thinking at her, shouting with his mind, hoping he could be heard over the crashing symphony of her ecstasy.

It worked. Thanks, Ron he heard in his head as she circled back toward their original destination. You've always been there to bring me back to Earth.

He could almost feel her smile in his mind.

The rim of the crater got closer and closer as they spiraled downward. Kim knew that when she had flown before it had been all about the power. Whatever had propelled her that night was nothing like what she was doing now. She had simply traveled from one point to another. There had been no great wings stretching from her arms. There had been no facsimile of her glider-pack. It had simply been her, hurtling like a vengeful missile. Was that still her power to command or was her heart, her soul crafting her power into something that fit her better? She hoped that one day she could find out.

They passed over the rim one last time, the remains of the once-great fortress visible in the distance. With just a touch of her mind, Kim accelerated towards it, slowing finally outside before finally coming to light just outside the crumbling outer walls. Remembering what had happened the last time she had been here, she made sure to land on the opposite side from the river.

More of the land had crumbled away since they made their escape early the previous year. The secret exit they had used to escape the betrayal of Arcus Uri was gone, consumed by the mighty torrent of the river. In fact, more than half the false fascia of the extensive underground complex was now gone. Untold eons of erosion had undermined what had been a village or a fortress. During their escape, the Trinity had fired her small guns, trying to scatter the Arkonian soldiers sent to capture them. Instead it started a chain reaction, sending the weakened ground into the maelstrom, including the soldiers, as well as the sword Ron had been told he was fated to carry.

Once on the ground, Ron quickly hit the release from his harness. He quickly turned to look at his wife.

The wind howled around them, making her hair flow behind her. Her face, her hair, even her eyes were that solid silver color. The metallic green and black of her armor were in perfect contrast. Her slowly retracting wings completed the picture. He couldn't imagine anything more beautiful. That is until she shut the power down, returning to normal.

He met her luminous green eyes.

The Champions of the Effurien had arrived.

Gryphion stood in one of the forgotten chambers deep in the Master's Palace, confident he had once again eluded Podondrin's spies. He quickly changed out of the velvet robes he normally wore, putting on the clothing of a man with much lower station. Then he strapped the Terran sword to his back and walked over to a dusty mound in one corner.

"The time is finally near, old hero." He said to the crumbling bones. Bits of what may have once been armor lay there in some semblance of a human form. Empty sockets stared back from what was left of its skull.

"Maybe I could have used this Terran relic to save you." He pulled the Tempus Simia from the folds of his shabby tunic. "Maybe you could have spared these people eight hundred years of anguish, but then perhaps I would not have the opportunities that I have carefully fostered. The time of heroes, your time died along with you. You could have been the savior of these people, but you never saw that. I can't blame you, how could you know. When the Podondrin became blinded by his own power, but the evil that corrupted him, you could not see it, not until his knife was in your back.

"Maybe if I saved you I might not have ever come into being, and where would that leave this world? Without hope? Without me to take them from this cruel tyrant you helped come to power in your blind weakness? I should think not."

He raised the idol into the air, grinning at it. "For many long centuries I have waited for this day. Soon the false Master will make his bid for ultimate power and I will be there to take it from him. I shall be the one to lead the entire human race, both here and on the Mother World to a golden age, an age of the new Arkon! I shall be the hero reborn and the Dark Lord of Arkonia shall fall!"

As he spoke the last he sent a command from his mind into the idol. A red swirling vortex opened in front of him and he stepped through.

Leaving the old bones alone once more in the guttering light of a nearly spent torch.