XIV

"Hey, Kimmie."

Kim came to. "Mom?"

"Do you feel any different?"

"Tired."

"Not surprising."

"Why do you say that?"

"You don't have any functioning nanites in you. It will take a couple of days for your body to fully get rid of them, and you'll feel tired until that's done, but you are cured."

"That's great." Kim was too tired to be enthusiastic. She looked around at the hospital room she was in. "I'm in the same hospital Shego was in?"

"As she's in," corrected Dr. Possible. "We're keeping her in another room, sedated and under guard. I don't trust her not to hurt you after we killed off her nanites."

"How long have I been sedated?"

"Just a day or so. And thank you for the information and alien device you got us, that helped us to fill in our blank spots. And now that we know the frequencies and the phase of that other world, we're now finishing up counter-nanites."

"Me and Shego got for you," corrected Kim. Blinking, she asked, "Counter-nanites?"

"They work pretty much the same. They're drawn to the frequencies these nanites work on and give false impressions that make the nanites think the brain is dead so they shut down. They also undo the other changes, like to the vocal cords. After there's no more traces of active nanites, then they shut themselves down and the nanites and counter-nanites are treated as waste material by the body."

"Mom," asked Kim, "why are you still here? Weren't you scared that I'd betrayed you? Or that Team Go reported on you?"

Dr. Possible laughed lightly. "Oh, we got Team Go, too. And I understand there's a bunch of ninjas on call that are protecting the hospital. Plus, there are underground sections not listed on any schematics that are insulated and make sure no signal gets through. That means no one can call us while we're down there, but it also means that no one can be traced there, either. And as for you, there was talk about moving the operation, but Sensei canceled the move."

"Why?"

"Right after Ron and Yori got back, Sensei sent out a ninja cleanup squad to assess the threat potential and see if they could get you back. But they found you and Shego gone and most everyone dead or unconscious, and recognized Shego's handiwork in some of it. They brought the survivors back, including Drew, and whatever Sensei did made him confident that you were still on the side of the angels." Frowning, she added, "But I was still worried. You could've left a message much sooner than you did."

"Sorry, things got confusing. I got shot and fell several stories, woke up in India, from there flew to Dementor's lair in Germany, we barely escaped the cops, and…"

"And?"

Kim blushed. "It's a long story. Just, I've been through a lot and was really busy doing what I was doing." As Dr. Possible stared hard at her, Kim added, "And as for the side of the angels, I was told by people in Global Justice that our own government was working with moodulators and other technology to create their own nanites for the same reason."

Dr. Possible narrowed her eyes. She suspected Kim was trying to change the subject about what happened after Germany, but if what she said was true, then that was not good news. Shaking her head, she said, "We'll see about that. In the meantime, after we're sure the infection is eradicated, we'll be sending out all our findings, which will make it harder for any group of people, including in our own governments, to try anything similar in the future."

"Mom, you rock."

"Just doing my part. And I couldn't have done it without you. I'd probably be a mind controlled puppet right now if it hadn't been for you." She shrugged. "We're running the final tests now, and seeing how it's worked on you, the ninjas are going to be spreading these counter-nanites to those in Global Justice, CDC, and anywhere else they find them. I understand that includes finding the right phase for the world they originated from."

Kim blinked, and then smiled. "Let THEM experience the culture shock of another world."

"You have no idea. Apparently, this other world came to see flesh as so weak and evil that there were cults to transcend it. Most in our world try religious paths to transcend the flesh, and I admit, it can get pretty scary, too. But the other world had no world-spanning religions as we know them. Religion on that world was viewed much the way as we see cuisine on this world: a detail of culture that was mostly insignificant. But after the wars that nearly destroyed their world more than once, a movement arose to transcend the ego that was seen as causing wars by using cybernetic implants, and there were even major political parties and manifestos that swept their world the way Marxism swept ours. The leaders of these cults and political parties were fanatical enough that they managed to upload their entire consciousness into computers and robots, where they serve as 'enlightened,' having transcended flesh and ego."

"Robotic?" asked Kim. "By the way, what was up with Wade? He seemed really robotic to me."

Dr. Possible nodded. "Apparently, if given enough energy, the nanites can reproduce to such a point that the body actually starts becoming more machine than human. Somehow, Wade had enough of a gift to use the information he got to begin constructing his own devices and tapping futuristic 'free energy' to allow his body to begin transforming. Given enough time, his meat body would no longer have mattered to his consciousness. Perhaps he would've been made a governor in this world, I don't know."

"Poor Wade," said Kim. Making a face, she added, "And that is seriously creepy."

Dr. Possible shrugged, saying, "I'm sure they find our religious wars disturbing, too. But for whatever reason, it works for them. They HAVE stopped war. But there are yet other worlds where technology took other routes, and some of them are expanding outwards. The 'enlightened' of this other world lost any motivation to explore beyond attaining raw resources. Their only purpose is to survive and maintain their stability, even to the point of invading other worlds before such worlds can spread their disorder to them. Of course this meant a cultural dead end, but they don't seem to mind that."

"But now, what they fought against is going to be the natural result of what they did to stop it from happening in the first place. I bet Yori could've told them that was bound to happen, sooner or later."

Dr. Possible grinned. "Well I could've told them it was foolhardy to cross a world with Kim Possible in it."

Kim laughed happily. "Thanks, Mom."

Then Dr. Possible crossed her arms and frowned. "Now tell me why you had to run from the cops and what you did after you left Germany."

"Eep!"

--xxx

After his exercises, Ron went to meet Yori.

"Hey, Yori," he said happily, "I seem to be getting better control over my monkey kung fu!"

"Excellent, Stoppable-san," answered Yori.

"I'm not sure why this is," he continued. "I've practiced on my own and it just didn't seem to come out except when it wanted to. Other than when I was evil."

"Evil?" asked Yori.

"Um, yeah. There's this device that inverts the personalities of anyone exposed to it, at least for awhile. When I was switched to evil, I had no problem using my mad monkey powers." He blinked and added, "Among other things.

Yori shrugged. "It takes time to master these abilities. And maybe you wanted to be sure Kim saw you as a friend instead of someone to compete against, something you only cared about when you are, as you say, 'good'."

"Maybe," Ron said, "or maybe I was just more prone to apply myself when evil."

Yori laughed. "You have proven yourself very devoted and reliable. And beside, good and evil are both a part of nature. There is good and evil in all things, and in all people. I have a hard time believing any device could dilute either good or evil to the point that it was all that existed. Such a person could not continue to exist as anything natural."

"I don't really get why ninjas are so beyond the good and evil thing."

Yori shrugged. "That's an oversimplification. We recognize good and evil as both having their place, and the goal is harmony and balance, and being a master of nature—the parts of it, and ourselves, that many call evil as well as the parts many call good—rather than being mastered by it. It's like technology: we strive to master technology, not be mastered by it, as has happened to the cybernetic invaders."

"Yeah, but good is good, you know? I mean do you want to live next to someone with a good heart or one with an evil heart?"

Yori nodded. "Point taken. However, there is great evil done by people with the best of intentions, such as the ones invading our world who see themselves as fighting the good fight. And evil people, in protecting their own interests, have proven quite capable of taking care of other evil people, sometimes more effectively than good people because the evil ones can better predict how evil people will act and can fight as dirty as they have to, when a good person or government would be thoroughly confused and incapable of fighting that same enemy using naïve goodwill and fair play."

Ron shook his head. "So sometimes it's good to be evil? See, that's where you lose me."

Yori shrugged. "It is how the ninja have survived. Our traditions come from religious exiles that have been persecuted throughout the centuries. And more than once, in Japan, samurai have drafted thousands to make war on the ninja. And more than once, the ninja struck directly at the samurai and their generals. The samurai, much more cowardly than they pretended to be, fled when they realized that they could not tyrannize or slaughter my people, and with them went their armies. The armies leaving meant that the conscripted peasant soldiers survived to return to their families, leaving fewer widows and orphans behind, and keeping their numbers big enough to discourage the war lords and nobility from brazenly raping and abusing the women and children. Likewise, assassins in other parts of the world have preserved their peoples from endless warfare by killing the leaders that declared the wars and blood feuds to begin with."

"Ok, that makes a little more sense," nodded Ron, though he was still obviously uncomfortable with the concept.

"And then the ninja clans have adopted many orphans. Remember, war and plague once claimed many more lives than they do today, and there were many children to be starved and abused on the streets. The ninja adopted them, saved them from misery and exploitation, which is good. They were then sent to seduce, befriend, and ultimately betray and murder the leaders of the society that the ninjas had saved them from. Is that good, or is that evil?"

Ron sighed. "Ok, now I'm confused again."

"I was found as a runaway. I was abused in ways I do not wish to share with you yet, and I ran to the streets to escape it. There I found that criminals wanted to enslave me, force me onto hard drugs in order to control me—much like these nanites, now that I think about it—and also to destroy any sympathy I might have from strangers. The government then took to fining such unfortunates, who would have to continue to be sex slaves in order to pay the fines as well as support the pimps that enslave them."

Ron was speechless. "Yori, I had no idea. I thought you were born into a ninja family. I don't know what to say…"

Yori continued as if Ron hadn't spoken. "But I evaded them and survived with cleverness, skill, and honor, and I impressed a ninja working for the Yakuza, and I began to be trained in the arts at the age of 12. However, my scruples were such that I was transferred to the Yamanouchi School. Because of these ninjas, good and evil, I was spared more family abuse, and the rape and abuse that was most likely to have happened to me on the streets, from both sides of the law."

"So they're more good than evil."

"Of course, I am trained for spying, combat, manipulation, and trickery. Not all the methods I am expected to use are as honorable as I like. Though Sensei has shown great tolerance for my scruples, I fear that when he is replaced, I will be expected to do things I am most uncomfortable with. Good people like Sensei are very rare, as they usually have no taste for authority, and they are often more vulnerable to the dirty tricks of less principled people who seek to replace them. So, were the ninja good or evil in saving me, and many others like me, from a life that would make death seem preferable?"

Ron shook his head. Finally, he said, "Yori, I can't call anyone evil that saved you from the alternative you were faced with."

Yori looked at him intently, and said, "Hana's parents are alive and don't know where Hana is."

"What?" asked Ron. "My sister?"

"Once it was known that Hana was special, a baby of prophecy, Sensei decided that she must be hidden in order to be protected. The family she was born into do not have the skills to care for her, and would be helpless to stop the evil ones who would try to corrupt Hana, steal her powers, or just kill her to make sure she could not grow to threaten them. Sensei did explain this to them and they agreed, hoping to be reunited with Hana when she is old enough to protect herself. But had they not agreed, I'd have likely been assigned to have kidnapped Hana in order to protect her, and I would've done so."

Ron sat down. "I'm used to thinking in terms of good and evil, and there are so many shades of grey. What's wrong with black and white? Why won't it work anymore?"

Yori continued with a more abstract point. "And I understand that 'free energy' is used by the invading world, and may soon become available to this world. It's a good thing that fossil fuels will no longer be able to pollute our world, that hospitals will no longer suffer power failure during disasters and the failure of power plants, and that energy can be used by anyone, not just to those who can afford to pay for it piecemeal."

"Yeah, that sounds good." His tone still showed he was uncomfortable with this, as did his hands that he held over his head.

"But what happens to all those people who work in the oil industry? They will be unemployed, and many industries that support them and their workers will also suffer greatly. Plus, some will use that energy for nefarious purposes. You yourself have stopped Drakken more than once because great uses of energy had been detected. But in a world of free energy, your Wade would not be able to detect it until it was too late."

"Ok, now that sounds bad!"

"Likewise, many oil barons in the Middle East use their money to fund terrorists, but they will dry up, and the terrorist cells they fund with them. The world will be greener and healthier with far less terrorists killing and kidnapping tourists."

"Ok, now that sounds good!"

"That is because there's good and evil in everything, Stoppable-san."

Ron was silent a long time. Yori stood silently by him. About five minutes later, he softly said, "Our kissing has good and evil in it, too, doesn't it?"

"Everything does." Then Yori blinked. "And I almost forgot to tell you. Kim Possible has been captured and cured. She is still recovering, but she is who she once was."

It took several seconds for that to sink in. When it did, he drove a fist into the air and shouted, "BOOYAH!" And then he glanced at the enigmatic glance of Yori, and said, "Good and evil in every sitch, gotcha. What are we going to do?"