Author's Note: Thanks so, so much to all those who have reviewed, both regularily and irregularily, favorably or critically throughout this story. I can't begin to tell you how much it has meant to me. This has easily been the most popular solo project I've ever done, and it's certainly been the most fun to work on. Thanks again to everyone.
Hope you enjoy this last little chapter.
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Kim Possible merely stood there, perfectly still, un-relaxed despite being back in her own clothes and out of that cat suit, clutching her Pandaroo tightly, as she eyed Ron's perfectly still form intently.
"I'm not picking up anything unusual." Wade assured through the screen of the Kimmunicator. "It looks like he's himself again."
"You're sure?" Kim would not leave any room for doubt. She would not be tricked by another one of Zorpox's contingency plans.
"Yeah, but it's a good thing you had me do a run down on that Attitudinator. If you'd used that on Ron before undoing Zorpox's modification, he'd have reverted right back to his bad boy self in less than a minute."
"I had a feeling he wouldn't go down quietly." Kim kept a dispassionate glare but returning to the Kimmunicator in hand. "Wade, listen, I said some things earlier…"
"Forget it, Kim. I know this has been rough."
"Not the point. I'm sorry. Still friends?"
"Still friends." Wade smiled, prompting a smile from Kim as well. "Listen, I better let you go. You and Ron have some catching up to do…" Wade moved to sign off.
"Wait. There's one more loose end I need to tie up."
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"Can't you simply burn these accursed manacles?" Monkey Fist asked angrily as he tugged uselessly against his chains yet again, finding them as unresponsive to his desperate bids for freedom.
"I told you five minutes ago, I don't have my powers back!" Shego was getting annoyed at being constantly reminded of her helplessness. "And if you ask me one more time…"
"What? You'll do an unsatisfactory job dusting my library." Monkey Fist noted her ridiculous attire.
"Ooh, tough talk coming from the monkey king. Oh wait, you'd to be a monkey man for that, instead of just the best man!"
"We might do well to stop arguing and try to get out of here." Drakken interrupted the villain's bickering as he raised his voice to get their attention.
"Everyone say cheese."
The trio turned around just in time to see Kim Possible aim her Kimmunicator at them, a small flashing light at the tip of the device indicating that she was capturing their digital essences for more than just posterity's sake. The villains struggled to throw their hands over themselves to mask their identities, their efforts hampered by their restraints as Kim shot off picture after picture.
"Princess, if you even think of showing those to anyone…" Shego was cut off.
"Here is what I am thinking." Kim walked up to the kidnapped group. "Right now, I can think of at least two dozen reasons why I should call Global Justice and have them drag you all to the nearest maximum security prison. But the truth is; you'd probably escape in about a month or so. After all, that's about average for you guys. And besides, Ron and I need some time alone, without GJ agents combing the area, asking us questions and all that other hassle."
As she spoke, Kim moved down to release the chains around the different villains, starting, surprisingly, with Shego.
"So instead of ruining our moment and only getting a month's peace out of it, I'm going to settle for three. Three months."
"And I take it," Monkey Fist began, "that in exchange for these three months of our inactivity, you won't release those photos to… shall we say, unscrupulous parties."
"Oh, you're going to be very active for those three months." Kim assured as she moved over to release him next. "Because Ron and I are going to be on vacation from the world saving business, and we're putting you in charge of our vacation. If Ron and I get a call from Wade, I don't care if we're in class, on a date, hanging out at Beuno Nacho, whatever, if Wade calls, then I'm going to make sure that every one of those pictures I just took will get sent to every computer, laptop, cell phone and every other memory device on this planet."
There was a horrified silence between the three.
"Oh surely you wouldn't." Drakken pleaded.
"I've got a website and three of the most computer gifted people on this planet. If I get any calls, cat stuck in a tree, bad guy ready to nuke Paris, I don't care if it's your fault or not, I will make sure that those pictures are smeared over every hard drive on this planet."
"You're entrapping us." Shego asked incredulously.
"I prefer to think of it as black mail. You three just got drafted into the super hero gig. Congratulations." Kim finished releasing Drakken from his chains at last.
"You've made one fatal miscalculation Ms. Possible." Monkey Fist began. "Now that we are free, what is to prevent us from simply rushing you at once and preventing you from releasing them by force?"
"You're missing your monkey mojo and Shego doesn't have her powers. Try me." Kim looked him confidently, even as she poised herself for battle.
The three villains needed only a moment to look among themselves as they decided.
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Kim stood back inside the science camp building; a slight relief had built up back within her as she saw that the color on Ron's face had reverted back to its old self. As she stood there, she found herself stroking her Pandaroo.
Ron had only mumbled a few nonsensical words as he lay there. She thought she had made out him saying something about 'stupid fear', but it was impossible to make out the rest. As she stood, she suddenly became aware of the sun rising up in the distance, its brilliance reflected off the lake. She found it to be a welcome sight.
"Kim?"
Ron's weak voice coming from the floor startled Kim slightly. She turned to see him groggily forcing his eyelids open as he stretched a bit before gradually working his way to sit upright.
She wanted nothing more right then and there than to leap on to him, tackle him to the ground and wrap him in the tightest hug ever, never letting go of him ever again.
But she couldn't. As badly as she wanted to leap into his embrace, there was something on her mind that she simply couldn't excuse, and she simply had to talk about. So she held a calm demeanor as she asked. "Ron, are you ok?"
"Ohh, why does the Attitudinator have to leave you feeling like your brain just lost a fight to an egg beater? Someone should really complain to Hench Co. Industries."
'Already took care of that part.' Kim noted to herself mentally before adding. "Ron, you remember what happened."
It wasn't a question.
Ron's eyes shot wide nervously as he suddenly became aware of the unsympathetic look in her eyes. For the first time, he felt sweat rolling down his sides and started to wish that this lair was better drafted.
"Uh, just the highlights, all the exciting …"
"Ron." Kim trapped him with her gaze. He wanted so desperately to escape that cruel look, to say anything to make it go away. But instead he hung his head in defeat, knowing she had him dead to rights.
"Yes. I remember everything." He admitted shamefully.
"Ron, Zorpox said some things… about you, and our missions and the Fearless Ferret and…" Kim left her sentence unfinished. Try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to complete that thought.
"KP, the guy's a lunatic and a nutcase and…"
"They're true aren't they?" She cut him off.
"Yes." Ron's head sank again away from her gaze as if he was unworthy of her very presence.
"Ron, why didn't you tell me?" Kim asked fiercely even as her eyes began to water.
"I… I didn't know how to. I mean, how do I say it without coming off sounding selfish? I know we don't do what we do for the attention, and I'd still help you beat a million bad guys even if none of them ever remembered my name. And I know how I can get when I have attention pointed at me, and I know I'm not at my most graceful, but, well, with the extreme sports phase and the naco royalties, it, it just felt really good to be noticed for once. I mean, by someone besides just you for a change." Ron's voice seemed to fall into the gutters themselves as if he had just confessed to the most horrible sin imaginable.
Kim's eyes fell as tears continued to pour down her face, before finally working up the frustration to shout "You lied to me."
Ron's face shot up at this. "No, I didn't."
"Well, then you hid this from me. This was really bothering you and you didn't trust me enough to tell me. What, like I would really forget all the wonderful things we've shared together and think you were some kind of selfish jerk if you told me that you wanted to be recognized like you deserve to be." Kim's anger grew and grew the more she spoke.
"I-I didn't want this to come between us. I love you Kim, I didn't want to interfere with that by making it about which of us is more popular. I just wanted you to be happy." He explained desperately.
Kim threw her face into the air in frustration before turning back to him, sniffling back her tears as they burned across her face. "I'm your best friend and your girlfriend Ron Stoppable, and if you're not happy, then I'm not happy. God, why don't you understand that yet?"
Ron wanted to answer her. He could sense the fate of their relationship, their friendship and their love, hung on his next words. But all his lungs produced were choke.
"And you weren't happy, were you, because this bothered you and you didn't trust me enough to tell me. Do you have really have such a low opinion of me that you think I'd turn on you or whatever if you just told me what was bothering you?"
He didn't know what to say. For every tear that burned down her perfect face, three more followed its example down his. He couldn't bring himself to say anything, to even look at her. Fear and terror seized control of his very being, shrinking him down to a tiny helpless figure helpless before a red headed goddess whose wrath could rip him to shreds.
Kim moved to where he sat on the floor, sitting down opposite him. Her hand reached out across to his chin, bringing his eyes up to hers. Ron found them softer this time, somewhat less cruel.
"Ron, I'm your best friend and your girlfriend. I'm going to be honest with you now, not because it's going to make you feel better but because you deserve to hear it."
Ron's lip shuttered and whimpered. He knew what was coming next, and it would absolutely destroy him. As he realized this, he came to a horrifying conclusion. This was Zorpox's legacy, his last cruel act.
"This hurt Ron. It hurts so much to think that you couldn't trust me with something like this, and I'm sorry, but I can't forget this Ron Stoppable. That you would hide something so important… I'm sorry but I can never forget this."
Ron's head fell down in shame and tears. Somehow, his pain and heartache seemed to triple. It all became irrelevant. His heart was cracking; all that could be decided now was how long this would take.
"I can't forget this, but I am going to try to forgive it, because I still love you Ron, and that love isn't conditioned on some kind of absolute morality clause. So I am going to work very hard to try and forgive you, but you have to understand something, and this is very important."
Kim paused, summoning all her rapidly vanishing strength before speaking again. Ron forced himself to look at her.
"If you ever do this again, if you ever hide something like this from me again, I swear, I'll leave you Ron. And I never want that to happen, because you mean more to me than anything in the world, but I can't be with you, can't be your friend, if you can't trust me like this."
"Kim," Ron managed to choke out. "I trust you with my life."
"But not with the truth. Not all of it. And that can't go on. This isn't to guilt you, or to scare you, but I have to know everything that's really going on in your mind. Whatever it is, I swear, we will work through it together. I can forgive you almost anything Ron, but I can't forgive this twice. If you want me, you have to trust me."
For a moment, Ron said nothing as her words unfolded in his mind. The thought of her leaving him was unbearable. Just the image of her walking away from him, turning her head away from his forever, never to speak to him again burned its way into his mind, sparking memories of a dream that seemed to be fading from his memory. He paused a moment as he considered the ramifications of what he was agreeing to.
It would mean opening up to her in whole new ways. Even as best friends, there had been certain things that they had never discussed in real depth, only one of which was the experience with the Attitudinator. Of course, the affair with the Moodulator was another one that came to mind. In fact, as Ron thought, there were a couple of things that came to mind. It wouldn't always be easy, and it would take work. A lot of work.
Then, somewhere in his mind, another voice brought to mind a question that settled all doubts. Is she worth it?
Finally, he brought his gaze back to hers. Her perfect green eyes waiting desperately for his response.
"Ok KP."
"Ok?" Kim asked, even as she wiped tears from her eyes. She needed to know that this was for real.
"Ok. If that's what you want, then that's what you get." His voice was still raspy, but it slowly began to regain strength. "Everything. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
"Ok then. So now that we worked that out, I'm going to ask; is there anything else that I should know about?"
Ron thought for a moment before remembering something that he had in fact kept hidden a long time. The memory triggered a look of guilt on his face that Kim obviously noticed.
"Ron…" She began with a hint of frustration.
"Ok, well, you remember that time when we switched bodies?" He asked uneasily.
"Yes." She answered, giving him a wary expression.
"Well, I sort of had to change clothes, and… I… kind of… sort of…accidentally looked at my reflection in your body in the mirror… in just your underwear… for several minutes."
"RON!" She shouted indignantly.
"Well, I mean, it's not like I really could've helped it if I wanted. I mean we were stuck in each other's bodies, and I'm sorry, but the whole sitch was awkweird enough, I wasn't going to have you change me while I stood there with my eyes closed!"
Kim fumed for a second longer before calming herself. She supposed she had asked for this after all.
"Ok. Well, since you were… honest enough, to share that with me, I suppose I should tell you that when we switched bodies, I… kinda… sorta… accidentally looked at my reflection in your body in the mirror… for several minutes." She admitted while attempting to maintain modicum of modesty.
"In my underwear?"
Kim blushed slightly, attempting to hide herself behind her scarlet hair.
"KP!" Ron's voice was a loud mixture of shock and embarrassment.
"Oh, and when where you going to share that little secret?" Kim asked sultry.
"That, I was saving for the right moment." Ron defended himself with slight immodesty.
Kim smiled a laugh as she brought herself closer to his face, finally unable to prevent a deep smile from passing between them both.
"We're going to be ok?" Ron felt silly for even having to ask, but he wanted, no, needed to hear the words from her.
"Yeah, we're going to be ok." Kim smiled.
She refused to wait another second. Even as she looked into his deep brown eyes, Kim brought her hand around the back of his head, pulling his face to hers for a deep kiss. Twenty four hours of tension, fear, anger, pain and so much more were released and brought calm as the two embraced.
Seconds seemed like eternity as Kim and Ron fought for more air, forcing their lungs past their limits as they stretched this moment as long as they could before finally parting.
"I missed you." Kim whispered.
"I missed you too. Uhmm, but I do have another confession I need to make. Something that's been bothering me."
"What?" A look of concern slowly brought her smile down.
"You're sitting on my legs. It kinda is a little sore." Ron admitted. Kim looked down to see that she had indeed taken perch on his stretched out legs.
Kim couldn't help but laugh an infectious laugh that Ron eventually caught as well. Kim relieved the weight on his legs by shifting her balance forward, leaning against his chest as he fell back.
In a few minutes, they would call Wade and get a ride. Life would go on as it had. There would be some changes, things would be different, and they certainly both knew that they had more to talk about, but with a little work, they'd be better. But for now, they just simply wanted to take a moment.
