It was like something out of a twisted nightmare best left forgotten.

"Ron, let him go." Kim commanded. To her side, Dr. Director and Will Du stood ready for anything.

"Ron? Ron's not here right now, and I'm busy choking this old coot at the moment. Would you care to leave a message?" Zorpox grinned as he turned to his helpless hostage. "Funny thing about hypnosis Kim Possible, a subject can only be brought out of a trance by the voice that induced the trance in the first place. Guess that means someone won't be needing their larynx in tact much longer." At this, Zorpox tightened his grasp, prompting a pained gasp from Dr. Marshall.

"Let him go, Zorpox. You haven't been waiting this long for another chance at him." Kim tried to move so as to bring Zorpox's gaze directly upon herself.

"Oh don't worry Kimberly Ann, you and I will have our time together soon enough."

"Zorpox, my name is…"

"Special Agent Well Duh." Zorpox sneered at Will's formalness as the agent moved along side Kim. "Buzz off, the adults are talking here."

Will struggled poorly to hide his indignation as he began again. "I am a senior agent by rank and you will address me directly. Tell me what you know about the Annihilation Wave."

Zorpox merely turned back to Kim. "Please tell Agent Duh over there that I don't deal with errand boys. Now, I want out of here right now, or our dear friendly doctor here is going to have to start learning how to communicate through sign language." Zorpox punctuated himself by grasping even more firmly on the doctor's throat, causing him to gasp out in agony again.

"That's not happening." Dr. Director, having remained silent until this point, now moved up directly next to Kim Possible. "I'm in charge of this facility, and I can tell you you're not going anywhere."

"What do you know about the Annihilation Wave?" Will Du spoke up again, moving slowly across the room so as to flank Zorpox against the wall.

"The Annihilation Wave?" For the first time, Zorpox seemed to pause in his focus. His gaze seemed to drift off to the side as if in thought. "I would have had to have…" Zorpox seemed to mutter something silently to himself.

Not waiting for another opening, Kim moved over and grabbed Will's wrist. Aiming it directly across the room, Kim pressed the button to activate the twin cables that shot across the room. One hit Dr. Marshall on his shoulder while the other hit Zorpox's arm that had grabbed the doctor's throat.

The electrical surge moved across the cables and directly into both hostage taker and takee alike without mercy. As the two cried out in pain, Kim leapt across the room to tackle Zorpox to the ground.

"Ron, snap out of it!" Kim maintained her hold as she kept Ron pinned to the ground. For another thirty seconds, he struggled within her unyielding grip.

"I swear Kimberly Ann, when…. I…." Slowly, as if awaking from a bad dream, Ron's anger seemed to melt from his face, replaced by a deep confusion as his breathing settled. "KP?"

"Ron!" Kim relinquished her hold almost immediately. Realizing that he had awoken from his trance, Kim moved to help Ron to his feet. "Are you alright?"

"Wha.. what just happened? Ron asked groggily. His question was answered as his eyes moved around the room towards Dr. Marshall's coughing form. As Ron's memory slowly returned to him, his eyes widened in horror.

"Oh god. Oh my… I'm so sorry dude. I… I… I need to use the restroom." Ron excused himself meekly as he ran out of the room.

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"WHAT WAS THAT?"

The question was punctuated by Will Du's upper body as it slammed up against the wall with a loud thud that echoed throughout the entire room. Kim's grip could have made diamonds out of coal as she held on to Will's forearms with fiery rage.

"Unhand me this ins…" BHAM! Will slammed against the wall again. The battered agent looked almost desperately to Dr. Director for aide, but she seemed to pretend not to notice, in spite of the fact that she was obviously looking directly at them.

"The next time you get any ideas about messing with my boyfriend's head, I want you to remember something, if he loses his head, you lose yours!"

Will endured another thrust against the wall before being dropped casually as Kim stormed out of the room after Ron. It took Will another second of indignation and checking himself to ensure that he remained unsoiled before he finally spoke up.

"Dr. Director. You cannot just stand there and ignore this. She just assaulted a Global Justice agent."

"Really? I must have missed that." Dr. Director seemed to muse almost innocently.

"Dr. Director, you cannot let this…"

"Du, drop it. That's an order."

"But…"

"Let. It. Go."

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It took Kim some time before she was able to catch up to Ron. He had indeed chosen to hide himself inside the male's lavatory but Kim wasn't about to let a trivial formality like that stand in her way, especially not now. After doing a quick scan with the Kimmunicator to ensure that Ron was alone in there, she opened the door to find Ron washing what she assumed to be tears from his face.

As Ron looked up, Kim's reflection in the mirror startled him aback. "KP! What are you doing in here? This is… this is…"

"I know what this is Ron, and I know we're alone in here. You can relax."

As anxiousness faded from Ron's features, they became replaced with hard lined determination. "KP, I am done."

"Ron…" Kim's features softened in response as her guilt worked its way up to her surface.

"I don't care what other tests Global Justice wants, they can forget it." Ron stated simply as he began pacing back and forth within the restroom.

"Ron…"

"I'm not giving them my temperature or my blood pressure; I absolutely, positively refuse to have anything to do with any more flash cards…"

"Ron…" Kim was beginning to get frustrated all over again.

"… and the next person who tells me I am getting sleepy while dangling a watch in front of my face is going to be swallowing their own teeth for dinner!"

"Ron!" Kim grabbed him by the shoulders as she brought his face directly to her own. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry is not good enough this time KP." Ron's voice began to shake as a tear began to work its way out from its hiding place behind his right eye. "Not this time. I have enough screws loose up here in my noggin, I don't need anyone else unscrewing anymore of them."

"I know." Kim's voice was soft and unchallenging, her emerald irises never once leaving Ron's gaze.

"I am not some lab rat or some human guinea pig. I mean sure, it was fun with the whole 'Ron Factor' but this is not my idea of a good time on a Saturday afternoon." Ron went on, even as more tears worked their way out from behind Ron's face, his voice still shaky, losing strength with each passing second.

"I understand." Kim maintained her tone of voice, as much for his sake as her own.

"And I… I… I hate the fact that you saw me like that." That was it. That was the last straw. With that, Ron's outer wall crumbled as he fell into Kim's tight embrace as he clung to her dearly for strength.

"I'm so sorry Ron." Kim spoke in to his shoulder. "I didn't know that would happen. I should never have pushed you into that. If you're really done, if you want to go home, I promise no one will stop you. I won't let them. If I have to kick Will Du and every other GJ agent's head in to a wall and bust you out of here, I swear I will."

Ron clung to her all the more tightly as her words echoed in his mind and heart before wiping clean his eyes as he pulled himself back enough from Kim to look her in the eye. "You're staying?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean…" Kim was cut off.

"Then I'm staying." Ron's voice carried surprising strength in its determination.

"Ron." Kim removed her right glove as she brought her hand up to his cheek. "You know you don't have anything to prove to me. What you've been through… I can't even imagine…"

"Every good superhero needs their sidekick." Ron replied with a grin.

"Actually, every good super hero needs their partner." Kim corrected. "Rule 101 in the superhero handbook."

"I thought that was never mix up your grapple gun that looks like a hair dryer with your hair dryer that looks like your grapple gun."

"That's rule 101B. And it was an honest mistake."

"Least I kept my pants on that time." Ron smiled at simpler times.

Kim shared in the brief moment of nostalgia with a like smile before speaking again. "I'm going to go talk to Dr. Director about an idea that I've got. You coming?"

"Give me a sec KP." Ron sniffled. "Gotta clean myself up first."

"Take your time." With that, Kim leaned in on her tip toes as she planted a much needed kiss on Ron's lips that he returned with great enthusiasm.

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Will Du waited anxiously down the hall way from the restroom, clutching a file tightly in hand. If this plan was going to work, he knew that he needed to talk to…

The restroom door opened, prompting Will to look up, only to see Kim Possible emerging. Rather than risk another confrontation with her, he concealed himself as best he could around the corner of the hall. Fortunately, she wasn't looking for him, and so instead walked off in the opposite direction, allowing him to make his way towards the restroom.

Inside, he noted Stoppable in front of the sink, washing his face off. Will pretended to clear his throat so as to earn Ron's attention.

The look in Ron's face perfectly mirrored the one he had seen in Kim only minutes ago.

"Dude, whatever the hell you want, you'd better get it from someone else." Ron burned as he clenched a paper towel in his hands before tearing it to shreds.

"For what it's worth, I didn't know that you'd relapse like that." Will seemed to strain the words out of his mouth.

"If that's your idea of an apology, GJ should really invest in manner training for you senior jerks."

"I didn't say I was here to apologize. I stand by my decision."

The incredulousness on Ron's face was overwhelming before eventually giving way to grim acceptance. "You would."

"Stoppable, whether you realize it or not, you were onto something in that room."

"I wasn't in that room! Zorpox was." Ron's voice grew in frustration.

"Maybe so. Either way, I believe you were starting to mentally reconstruct your own actions. You may not be able to remember, but I bet Zorpox has a pretty good guess. He was thinking. Just before Kim Possible acted, I believe he was on the verge of remembering or concluding something of real value. Something that we might be able to use to save lives."

"Well sorry to burst you bubble dude, but Zorpox isn't here anymore, so I guess you won't get the chance to ask him."

"Actually, that depends on you." Will paused for effect. It was show time.

"What?" Ron already didn't like where this was going.

"We have a confiscated Attitudinator." Will stated calmly, his words already thick with implication.

"Oh no!" Ron stated matter of factly.

"We need it in order for you to stay under the influence for longer than hypnosis will permit."

"No. No. NO!"

"If Zorpox can recreate his own scheme, remap his own thought processes as it were, it might help us…"

"I must be speaking another language cause you're not hearing me: Not. In. Your. Life."

"We're talking about the fate of the world. Right now, the answers are somewhere in your head and if you can't get them out…"

"No." With that, Ron proceeded to throw his hands up over his ears as he began shouting "My naco has a first name, its B-U-E-N-O."

Will moved forward with a look of frustration as he pulled Ron's hands down, silencing him in the same act. "… then maybe Zorpox can."

Ron had held his anger in check more than long enough. His hands shot out, grabbing Will by the collar and lifting him up into the side of one of the stalls.

"Go… to hell." Ron stated coldly.

Will maintained his infuriating air of confidence as held up the folder he had so tightly been clutching in his hands. "Before I do, you might want to take a look at these."

For a moment, Ron considered absently taking the folder and flushing it and its contents down the toilet. But curiosity won out over rage as Ron took the folder in hand, dropping Will down while he opened it to examine it.

"The tsunami hit the coast minutes ago." Will explained. "We just got these satellite photos of the affected regions. I thought you should see for yourself."

The images within the folder, though not as graphic as Ron might have initially feared, were still powerful. Tons and tons of soil and forestry had been uprooted and spilled out over the towns in the affected area. Homes were damaged by the rubble, while others had been completely uplifted by the wave and reduced to floating debris to be carried back out to see.

Ron's imagination worked to Will's favor as it began to recreate this scene for Middleton or any number of other places that Ron had visited over the years. His creative processes could not help but to include the mad cackle of Zorpox echoing over the devastation. His mind envisioned his alter ego laughing up a storm as he worked feverishly within some dark lair on last weapon of mindless, merciless destruction.

"We still don't know how he did it." Will admitted quietly. "And we're running out of time. If we are going to do this, I need an answer now."

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"Unfortunately, we haven't found a sign of Shego's activity in weeks." Dr. Director relayed regretfully. "It's still a pretty big stretch that she would know anything useful anyway. From what you've told me, she didn't even know about Zorpox's plans to rebuild the Mega Weather Generator."

"She's the only other person who could." Kim argued as she walked alongside the director. "I know it's a stretch but it's the only other lead that we've got at the moment."

"Still no word from your associate?" Dr. Director inquired.

"No. Not a beep from Wade since he called us last."

"It's frustrating, isn't it?" Dr. Director asked rhetorically as she looked out over the command center. "Hundreds of agents and dozens of experts across the globe relaying and exchanging information instantly, and so far all we know is a whole lot of nothing."

"We've still got time." Kim tried, unconvincingly, to sound optimistic.

"I've got a feeling this one's going to be close." Dr. Director shared in Kim's pessimism.

"It will be unless we get some help."

Ron's voice startled Kim and Dr. Director. The pair turned around to see both Ron and Will Du standing side by side. It was another second before the pair explained their plan. Then followed another second of silence.

After that, the screaming started.

"WHAT?" Kim and Dr. Director's responses were simultaneous.

"Ron, we need to talk." Kim spoke through gritted teeth as she grabbed Ron by the arm, dragging him out of the room.

"Du, my office. Now!" Dr. Director's voice was even less pleasant then Kim's

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"Ron, I can't believe you. You have got to be the most… idiotic, most, most selfish person I know." Kim's reaction didn't surprise Ron one bit. That didn't make it any easier.

"Kim, this is my choice." Ron stated calmly.

"Oh, don't you give me that Ron Stoppable. Don't you dare look me in the eye and lie to me! Will got to you, didn't he? He said something that made you feel guilty, and now you want to punish yourself by going through with this."

"Kim, this could help us out."

"Help? We're in the middle of a world crisis Ron, bringing Zorpox into the mix is not helping! It's the equivalent of trying to clean up an oil spill with napalm and a flame thrower!" Kim's anger grew with each second.

"Maybe. Maybe not. What if he does know something? What if he can help us?"

"Ok Ron. Say you're right. Say Zorpox manages to remember how he built the Annihilation Wave, where he hid it, how to turn it off, all that useful stuff. You think he's going to tell anyone anything if we ask him nicely?"

"If he doesn't, you flip the switch, put him back in his box, and we're no worse off than we were." Ron offered simply.

"Don't you give me that." At this, Kim's anger seemed to triple. "Don't you dare make it sound like that's it. Like that's all there is to it."

"Kim, Zorpox will be locked in a cell when you question him. He won't be going anywhere."

"That's not my problem. My problem is that you are going to be in there with him. Maybe that doesn't bother you, but it scares the hell out of me!" Kim admitted finally. That was it. That was the last of her straws. And with it, came another round of tears that made Kim even madder.

This time, Ron felt guilt's weight as it bore down on his chest. "Kim, I can't let him hurt anyone else. If this helps at all, if this helps even one person, saves just one life, then it's worth it."

Kim felt her rage subside, being tracked in its wake by frustration. "Don't do this. We'll find another way." Kim's tone changed from a lecture to a plea. "We'll use the hypnosis again."

"Won't work. If Zorpox does come back out, he'll just stall until I wake up again."

Kim finally moved directly up to Ron, grabbing him hard by the arms. "Don't do this. Don't ask me to watch you turn into that monster again. I can't do it. I swear I'll never forgive you."

The words hit both Kim and Ron alike with mutual surprise, and devastation. The last of Ron's strength flowed out from his body like fading vapor, even as Kim found herself taken aback by horror at her own words.

"I'm sorry." Ron said finally.

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"Absolutely not." Dr. Director stated firmly.

"Director, with all due respect, this is Stoppable's decision."

"Du, I'm missing one eye. I'm not blind." Will's detachment from this plan seemed to infuriate the director all the more. "Letting that nutcase inside my facility is the exact opposite of what I call a good plan. You expect me to pull agents from this investigation just so that we can guard the person responsible for this whole catastrophe in the first place?"

"Ma'am, in the hypnosis session earlier, I believe that Stoppable, or Zorpox for that matter, was on to something. He seemed like he was on the verge of… something. Maybe just an inkling, or premonition, or maybe just a hunch. But something. Some kind of lead that might give us more answers than we have."

"You expect me to risk the security of my facility on the remote possibility of a premonition or a hunch? Out of the question." Dr. Director folded her arms at this.

"Director, with all due respect, this is Stoppable's decision." Will repeated.

"Wrong! This is my facility; the Attitudinator is locked up in an evidence locker that requires my authorization, which makes it my decision."

"Ma'am, you know that we know less than nothing about the Annihilation Wave. Right now, we can only speculate as to its function. For all we know, the eruption of Mt. Scarem was triggered separately somehow, and the Annihilation Wave could be some sort of crippling computer virus that was uploaded onto the net itself. We need more intel and if Stoppable can't provide us with any answers, then maybe Zorpox can."

"Or he could waste our time and mislead us, assuming that he doesn't escape while we're running around, trying to guess whether he's telling the truth or not."

"Ten hours." Will Du spoke as if he was bargaining the price on a used car. "We will take every security precaution imaginable. If we can't learn anything from Zorpox in that time, we pull the plug, switch Stoppable back, and be no worse off than we are."

Dr. Director paused in frustration as she considered the plan.

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"I still don't know why you agreed to this, Stoppable." Dr. Director watched as Ron was secured tightly onto the table within the cell. As his restraints were tightly fastened, a lab technician secured the Attitudinator over his head.

"Call it a chance at redemption." Ron stated sullenly. "Kim still won't show?" Ron asked dejectedly.

"I'm afraid not." Dr. Director placed her hand around Ron's in consolation. Kim had refused to be anywhere near the cell when this took place. As far as Ron knew, she had left the facility completely.

"We're ready." A technician announced.

Ron took a deep breath. He felt his breathing intensify, and thought he might actually hyperventilate right then and there.

"Stoppable, just say the word, and this ends right now." Dr. Director offered almost hopefully. "God knows no one could think less of you."

"I made my choice." Ron's words were a ratty whisper as he put on the best brave face he could, and the most horrified than the director had ever seen.

Against her better judgment, she nodded affirmatively to the technician as everyone began to clear the cell.

"Wait."

Kim came rushing past several technicians, her hand reaching out to grab Ron's waiting palm desperately.

"Kim." Tears began to form in Ron's already wet eyes.

"I promised I'd get you through this, and that is a promise I am going to keep. I swear. Do you hear me? I swear." Kim's voice was firm and determined.

Try as he could, Ron couldn't speak. His lungs were too busy chocking to speak. Instead, he nodded, grabbing hold of her hand tightly as he looked up at the technician.

"Do it."

With a solemn nod, the technician moved to activate the appropriate controls. At once, the headset came to life. The technician moved to urge Kim away, but she would not release her grip on Ron's hand.

The machine began to beep and buzz loudly, shaking vigorously as a red glow seemed to emanate from the device down to engulf Ron's entire body. Though he did not cry out, Ron's eyes grew wide with fear as the device did its work.

And then, just like that, it was over.

The device powered down, the glow faded away, and Ron's eyes fell shut.

Kim could feel his grip loosen in her palms, and relinquished hold. Cautiously, she stepped outside the cell along with the technician while on the other side, Dr. Director activated the control, prompting a green wall of solid energy to appear, sealing the cell shut.

From within the cell, Ron began to stir. A low moan escaped his lips as he shook his head slightly. Slowly, his eyes opened, taking in his surroundings, before finally turning to his side, and the audience of onlookers outside his cell, his gaze finally settling down on Kim.

"Ron?"

A wide grin crossed his face as he initiated a light chuckle, which slowly became a laugh, and from that laugh, "Booyahahahahahahahaha!"