Ron awoke in the morning, practically on instinct he tried to pull Bonnie into his chest. Sadly all he did was pull air. He was depressed, but she did say worst case she might have to come back in the morning. On some level he wondered if she felt the same way. He had it for her bad. He smirked thinking about how she would be making fun of him for being this clingy and how "It's fine, who doesn't want to be near their queen". It's probably best he just start his day to help get his mind off her. She should be back in a few hours.

Ron scrambled himself up some eggs, bacon, and potato patties and put on an extra patty for Rufus. He loved how excited his buddy got over the little things. Ron knew he was a fantastic cook but Rufus was smiling like he made a lobster or something while he ate. It was adorable. He gave Rufus a little pat then went to put on his training pants and wrapped his hands.

As usual he only had a singular focus while training. Since Bonnie's concussion he's been going extra hard. All he could think about was her head bouncing off the wall and watching her slink to the floor. He needed to become stronger to protect his bonbon. That statement drove him. He had to push himself. Ron tried his best to focus more on technique than raw power. He knew had the strength and he could call a little more with his monkey power, but his forms, parries, and blocks weren't perfect. After about an hour and a half of this he decided it was enough, some of the wood chipping off the post agreed with him. He also did another half hour of strength training he called normal, but was ridiculous by most standards. Afterwards he showered then decided to wait for Bonnie. She could be here any minute.

He perked up when he heard the doorbell then remembered Bonnie had a key, duh. Although really who else could it be? No one else came here. Even Kim, especially after their last conversation. He opened the door and didn't see anyone. Looking down there was just a package with his name on it. Ron shrugged, sometimes he wondered if those package delivery guys attend some ninja school or something. They act like if you see them they failed their mission.

Ron brought the box over to the table and popped it open. His eyes narrowed as there was a typed note there, it read: "Hello Stoppable. Come to warehouse eight on the edge of town near lowerton. You know where it is. Come alone. No GJ, no Possible, no robots, no molerats. If I so much as catch a hint that you alerted or brought anyone along she dies. There's a surprise for you on the back."

He turned over the paper and clipped to it was a picture of Bonnie tied up, fear and defiance in her eyes. Shego had a flaming fist pointed at her. Bonnie had no chance of living through that. He would have to obey and come alone.

Warehouse

Ron was livid. Part of him wanted to pull Shego's beating heart out of her chest for daring to kidnap Bonnie, another part of him was terrified. Both were primal, fighting for dominance in his mind. He felt his fear was justified. There was no way he could be sure his monkey powers would activate, and if they did he had no control over how much he got. It sent a shiver of his spine thinking about what would happen if it wasn't enough. After taking a deep breath he went into the warehouse though a front door. He didn't want to chance making Shego jumpy.

"You finally made it." Shego stood with an evil smirk next to Bonnie, who was grumbling into her cloth gag. Tied to one of the metal beams.

There was no way he could reach her before Shego could at the very least seriously injure her.

"Yes, I'm here. What do you want? She has nothing to do with this. Let her go." Ron was scowling at her as if he wanted her head to spontaneously explode, which wasn't too far off.

Shego's eyes grew before she started laughing, waving her hands for effect to tease him "ooo look at you, thinking you're big daddy around town now." She turned to Bonnie and began running her fingers through her hair. Then gave it a hard yank. She saw Ron take a step and activated her other hand with plasma "Ah ah ah." After he begrudgingly backed away she continued "Is it because of her? Given how her hair looked coming from your place I'd guess so."

Ron flinched "Th-That doesn't concern you."

She held her gut while laughing again "It's true!" She changed to a mocking high pitched tone "Aww did you come to play hero and save your little girlfwend?"

"Enough! What the hell do you want? What's your plan?"

"Hmm, I think it's time you learned who calls the shots here" Shego produced a knife from the back of her suit in a pocket

Ron was amazed for a second given how tight the suit was that it even had pocket, until she held the knife to the side of Bonnie's neck "What are you doing?"

Shego raised an eyebrow "What does it look like I'm doing?

"Come on, you don't do this. You do what you want when you want, but you're not this kind of evil." He was pleading with her. Shego wouldn't kill a loved one in front of him just to prove a point, would she?

Her evil grin reappeared "You are right about some of that. You don't know me very well though. You can't be sure. Are you willing to bet her life on it?"

No, no he was not. He got on one knee and bowed his head "I will do whatever you want. Just don't hurt her."

"Hmmm. Right now, I just want you to watch." She then turned to Bonnie's

Ron looked up in time to see her slicing at the side of Bonnie's neck. A little blood dripped down. He heard her squeak in pain and could no longer control his body. He launched a flying kick towards Shego's face.

Shego caught it with her free hand. She withdrew the knife before incinerating it then punched him in the stomach, hard. Into another steel beam nearly across the room. That was more than enough to knock any normal person out.

That hurt quite a bit. He was coughing up a bit of spit and trying to get some air. He pushed himself back up after a few seconds. He had to save Bonnie.

Shego looked at him getting up and was beyond surprised, when he looked at her before his next attack she saw the little blue fleck in his eye again. Shego's lip creased into a slight smirk then she lunged back at him.

Bonnie looked on but could say nothing. Although she winced when she saw the villainess grab both of Ron's arms.

Ron tried to fight it but she was just too strong. He knew she was inhumanly strong because of the times she picked up fully grown men with ease, sometimes including him, or watching her crack concrete or stone. Experiencing it firsthand felt a lot different though. Soon she had he on his knees with his arms at his side, she began taunting him.

"You're not good enough to save her. You're pathetic."

"Tch" Ron wanted to come up with a witty response but he was trying too hard to fight her grip and push

"When I'm done with you, your little girlfriend is next. She's going to die knowing her boyfriend was too pathetic and weak to save her. No one is coming. It's just you and me." Shego's smile could reflect sunlight at this point.

At that moment Ron thought back to the first time he felt pathetic. The first time he felt weak. The first time he had to depend on someone else.

Past

His parents weren't exactly absentee yet, but the signs were clearly there on some level. One of them being they never really spent much time with him and just plopped him in front of the TV. He almost religiously watched his hero shows. They were amazing, they always stood up for what was right and protected those who needed it. He promised himself he would be just like them.

He was excited for his first day of school. At the time he figured other kids were sensible and nice. He would finally be able to make some friends. That is until he saw them picking on a tiny redhead girl.

"Hey give it back! I was playing with it." she said

"Oh you were? Then here." The boy reached out as if to give the ball back to her

"Really? Thank you!" She said her smile reappearing. When she reached for the ball however the boy snatched it away and tossed it to one of his other two friends. They continued to pass it around her. Sometimes bouncing it off her back for comedic effect. Until she began crying.

"Hey, what are you guys doing, that's not nice or fair." He snatched the ball out of their hand while they looked on. Mainly confused as to why this random kid was talking to them this way

The redhead girl looked up, her tears drying away. Then he continued on with a speech. He failed to notice the more he spoke the angrier the boys got.

"We are in kindergarten now, the playground has rules. We have entered the next stage in our lives. If someone is playing with something you don't just take it, that's not fair. We are older now. We are sensible. Do you guys understand?" Ron said sternly, eyes closed and finger wagging until he was finished

Sadly, they did not. They began to chase him around the playground and the girl resumed crying. He started to scream as he ran. His little toddler legs stumbled and he tripped though. All three of the boys began to stomp on him and the only words he could form were "ow" and "stop". He was about to start crying himself. This was painful. They stopped suddenly though. When he looked up they were on the ground and Kim was standing above him, hand outstretched.

That was the moment they became friends, but it was also the moment he felt the most pathetic. He had tried to be a "hero" and save her but she ended up saving him. Things continued on that way all throughout school. She always defended him from the bullies. He wasn't strong enough. Their first "mission" which was an accident he wasn't good enough to help the guy while Kim did it with ease.

Kim really wasn't as much to blame. She was just calling it like she saw it. Even if it is a terrible thing to say to a friend. She just saw a clumsy, weak boy she had to protect.

Present

"No more" Ron whispered to himself

Shego thought she heard him speak "No more huh? You begging for you and your little girlfriend?"

Ron closed his eyes and dug deep. He had to do this. No one else could. There was no backup coming. No Rufus to hit a self destruct, Bonnie wouldn't magically untie herself and bust out some amazing moves, Kim wasn't coming either. Even if she did he wasn't sure she could handle Shego in this state.

Shego's smile grew as she felt her arms being resisted.

Soon Ron was back on his feet, looking her dead in the eye, his brown eyes had shifted to a cerulean blue. Both of their arms were shaking in the struggle for dominance. "Why in the hell is she smiling?" He thought. The thought of him fighting for his life couldn't be that funny could it?

The ground began to break a little at their feet. Ron was amazed, he never felt this much power coursing through him before. He didn't take much time to marvel at his newfound strength though. While cool, this pissing contest of strength was getting him nowhere in terms of disabling Shego and saving Bonnie.

He gave her a quick headbutt on the nose then jumped and kicked her in the chest. Doing a flip and landing on his haunches. He then tackled her into a beam and it bent. He figured that had to at least stun her.

Shego clasped both of her hands and clubbed at his back with all of her strength. It got him to let go but..."Is he getting back up!?" The only person to her knowledge she could hit like that was Hego. She picked him up by the back of his shirt and punched him in the stomach, sending him flying into a wall, it left a comedic dent. She saw him close his eyes and figured he was done. She turned to make sure her captive was still present.

Ron was playing possum, he grabbed Shego's neck then kneed her in the stomach several times. The last one sending her entire body almost to his head in height. He didn't care how strong she was, that would drop anyone he knew. Then he heard her grunting and struggling back to her feet "You can't be serious."

Shego felt herself being lifted by the back of her jumpsuit and heated a plasma fist. She heard her captive start screaming into her gag and ignored it. She hit him dead in his chest.

Ron looked down after he stumbled back. He felt her punch him, he saw her fist was glowing...but at worst it was a first degree burn. He looked at Shego who was also staring at the would be burn site. He looked again and it didn't even look like a first degree. Was he durable AND healing? He didn't really have time to ponder this since Shego had begun a tackle of her own. He felt a giant thud on his back and it hurt quite a bit, then she let him go which sent him flying. Laying on the ground he opened his eyes after couple of seconds "Am I outside!? You sent me though a brick wall!? Come on!"

Shego was dumbfounded. Truly. She looked at him like a deer caught in the headlights. Then went back to her normal evil smirk "I thought you could actually keep up. Was I wrong?"

Ron crouched into a fighting stance "Nah, we're just getting started"

Bonnie had been watching them fight for twenty or thirty minutes. She kind of just guessed since she obviously didn't have a clock or anything on hand. On some sick level she was happy she got kidnapped, what she was witnessing was amazing. The parries, the punches, the kicks they were almost blurs for her. This was beyond cool.

Considering how badly they had beaten the hell out of each other they really didn't look all that bad. Some blood and cuts here, some minor burns that magically healed within a few minutes there. She could not say the same for the building. They had thrown, kicked, or punched each other through several different points in the brick walls. It almost looked like a cartoon or an action movie or something.

Right now they had devolved into what she thought was pure stupidity and took no skill at all. They were just taking turns throwing blows at each other in the stomach. WHY were they smiling? What is entertaining about getting hit by someone who seemingly isn't human so hard you fly into a wall? Or worse one of the several steel beams that bent in ways they were not supposed to bend. In ways no human should be causing them to.

One final time they punched each other simultaneously and both flew into beams. They got up and began stomping towards each other but the building sounded like it could collapse any second.

Ron immediately looked at Bonnie then back to Shego. He tried to reason with her, she was raising her plasma coated hand "No there's no time for th…." She wasn't pointing at him, she was pointing at Bonnie. Ron tried to block but there's no way he could reach her in time. Surprisingly to Ron and Bonnie all she did was singe the rope enough for it to be easily breakable.

"Go save your little girlfriend Stoppable." She slowly walked up to him

Ron took a step back "Wh-What about your evil plan?"

Shego rolled her eyes "You'll figure it out later," she closed the distance between them and slid something into his pocket "and when you do, call me. We're equals." Shego ran through one of the many person sized holes to her hovercraft.

Ron's mind was muddled thinking about what just happened. He still couldn't quite understand "You'll figure it out later." He decided it best to just take the advice and get Bonnie out of there. Ron didn't see the look of concern and awe on her face as he carried her from the collapsing building.

Hidden affections has officially hit ten thousand views. Thank you for reading and reviewing. I really do appreciate it. I've been excited about this arc for a minute so I hope it came off well in this chapter.

I also have an idea in mind for the next chapter of the lilypad so It should be complete in the next few days.