Tim walked in to the room where Doctor Director was watching his brother prep Kim and Ron for surgery. "What we're going to do is slice along the right side of Kim's head, inserting a small spike that will slide a needle into the skull to allow us to tap into Kim's mind and give us access to her thoughts. Then, we'll start the cell division process on batch one. By the time the nerve cell grafts are ready, we'll be able to place all of Kim's memories into the memory storage of the new cells. Ron will only have to accept the grafts instead of two separate surgeries. Of course, there is a downside to doing this. Kim may have a problem with the electronic pulses released when we copy her memories. Ron will know everything that Kim does. Their brains may become linked, meaning that they might form a bond like the one me and Jim share. The problem is, one or both of them might go crazy. We can't give Ron any painkillers because of his condition, but if they do become connected, Kim might be able to feel his pain while we operate. Even worse is the fact that we have absolutely no idea what he's been through. Kim might become privy to that information. If she does do you really think that she'll be a mentally stable agent anymore? Even worse, Ron might go insane when he realizes what he did to her. He didn't have any knowledge of how she was after he left and before you guys stepped in. Either one of them could need to be removed from duty. They might even go rogue. Are you sure you want to authorize this operation?"

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Kim lay down onto the bright white, unnaturally clean bed. She tried hard to stop from shaking as Jim strapped her arms and legs to the table. She fought him as he tried to put a needle into his arm, failing miserably. She didn't want to stop looking at her Ron. If the painkillers kicked in and she lost lucidity, she wouldn't be able to. She attempted to express this thought to her brother, but he merely covered her mouth with an oxygen mask. Her last thought as she slipped into oblivion was, "I wonder what Ron will do when he wakes up."

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Jim looked at his sleeping sister. He finally saw the reasons she had for dumping Ron. It hadn't been easy for her, he'd known that. He hadn't known that she had done so because she loved him.

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Tim, with the go ahead from Betty Director, made the first incision a quarter of an inch long. After inserting the nano-probe he and his brother had designed into the incision, he activated it.

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Jim looked at the screen. He knew that any moment know it would- there. It suddenly lit up and started to glow an unearthly green. It was reminiscent of a scary movie special effect. The one where the spooky green glow lights up the cracks around a door and its frame. He smiled. This was what he'd been waiting for. He spared one glance to make sure Kim's vitals remained both stable and in the green before settling into the task at hand.

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Tim, looking at a small screen, was smiling. Kim's vitals were all still fine, though her blood pressure was a little high, and the probe was about to arrive at its destination. Things were going indescribably well.

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Jim was beginning to relax now that the hard part of navigating the minute areas of Kim's brain was over. Everything's going to be just fine. He spared the time for a small smile before activating the computer in charge of downloading and storing Kim's memories.

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Tim looked at Kim's vitals again. Depressing the button that would allow Jim to hear him he said, "Jim, be careful, we seem to have an increase in heart rate and neurological function. If we're not careful here, we could cause a stroke."

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Jim started to worry. Crippling Kim's brain had not been part of the plan. He couldn't do anything other than worry though, because if he did, he would probably cause even more damage.

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Kim was having a horrible nightmare. Zorpox had been forcing her to relive dumping Ron ever since he'd noticed her here. It didn't worry her that she was sent to Ron's mind when she fell asleep. She knew how attuned to each other they were ever since the whole 'Mim and Jon' thing. What worried her was that she couldn't find him. She knew that that was impossible. This was his mind. How could he not be here? but she had no explanation, so she could not find a way to set her mind at ease. She was ready to cry as she was once again launched into that horrible memory.

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Tim and Jim were still worried, but they were both relieved when Kim's vitals seemed to level out. They were also astounded that her body was showing no signs of strain. Her heart rate was 138, which should have indicated at least moderate strain, but that was not reflected by anything else in her body. Her breathing and body temperature were both normal. In everything she was normal, although much healthier than most people. Fighting evil tends to protect against weight gain. Her heart rate was unexplainable. There was no reason for her heart to be acting as if she had been and was continuing to run a marathon. She wasn't even exercising. Her brothers shared a deep worry about her while they worked.

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Kim awoke to find a bandage near the upper right hand side of her face. She felt a dull throb near it but wrenched her brain away to look at the bed where Tim worked on Ron. She felt a burning stab of pain as Tim made the incision. When he noticed that she was awake he tried to inject more sedatives into her system, but nothing worked. He didn't notice the small blue tendril that seemed to connect Kim and Ron.

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Ron felt stabbing pain as he watched for what seemed like the hundredth time as Kim dumped him. Zorpox had been tormenting him on and off all day. H had finally reconciled himself to this memory, loving the new insights he had into her behaviour that morning. The true torture was watching his own attempted suicide and the anger in her voice as she admonished him for it. He knew now that if he'd succeeded, she would have joined him shortly after. He'd thought at the time that he'd failed her and that she would be better off without him. Now he was merely reluctant to expose his heart to yet another wound. Why should he allow her to rip it from his chest yet again? He'd dropped the weirdness with the moodulator because he was scared, let her trample him to be with her boy toys Josh and Eric, forgiven her every time she'd hurt him, followed her on her missions even though he was sure his heart would stop every time, and even forgiven her for dumping her, though after he'd learned her reasons for the last one it was placed firmly in the Moodulator category. Still, how many times could he forgive her? Would it really work out in the end? Would she dump him again the next time she thought he was in danger? Or maybe they'd just find out that they really weren't good for each other? Was he really willing to deal with all of that for her?

Zorpox, seeing the familiar thoughts cross his foe's face tried to encourage them. "Of course you know you two will never work out. IF she accepts you back, you'll have to deal with the UN and nearly endless assassins. You'll never survive. You'll be the reason Kim died. Can you deal with that?"

"Kim will never die. If she does the world will pay the price. You know as well as I do what happens when someone threatens someone I love."

Zorpox grinned evilly. "Yes. You will lose it completely and then the world will be destroyed. All I have to do is kill the cheerleader. Booyahahaha!"

Ron smiled. He felt his restraints weaken. He knew that they'd rekindle his love for Kim within moments. His joyful smile contorted into an ugly grimace of pain. He growled.

Zorpox, the new recipient of the self preservation that had previously occupied Ron, felt his reckless abandon trickle away. For the first time as he looked at this monster that he'd created, he felt true and abiding fear. Fear not only of what this man, if that was truly his nature anymore, would do to him, but of death in general. Zorpox literally shook in fear as he realized that all but one of his defining characteristics were now resident in this man. This man was a Zorpox without hate. He merely loved. That had become much more dangerous. Zorpox watched his former prey as his eyes slowly gained the crazed look that had been the trademark of Zorpox. The now sane man looked at the man who he had been tormenting since he'd been given form in the attitudinator incident. He cowered. He felt his hate slowly shift its focus. He no longer hated the rest of humanity. He hated himself. He attempted a weak Booyahaha. He failed. He destroyed his spectral form as he saw the chains that had been binding Ron melt from within.

Ron felt a new and powerful current running through his body. It reminded him of his monkey powers, but it felt different. The monkey powers always acted like a flowing river, swelling and powering him or receding and deserting him. This new power would not recede til he was dead. It was to MMP as water was to fire. This power would always be there, but it might be deadly to use it. He tapped into it. He felt his bonds melting. It seemed that his new powers were similar to fire. He didn't even notice as his tormentor disappeared. "Booyahahahahahaha!"

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Kim felt as though her heart was on fire. She could feel every cut on Ron's body, including the ones that were mostly healed, in her mind. She was in so much agony that she didn't even notice the slightly red glow that surrounded Ron and healed every single cut. When she could see again, she noticed that her brothers were cowering at the foot of her bed with Ron standing over them. A small light in his eyes alerted him to the fact that he wasn't completely sane anymore. "Oh, Ron. What did he do to you? We'll get you back to normal. We'll..." She trailed off as she noticed the malevolent red glare emanating from his skin.

"You really think that he could truly hurt me? He didn't do anything to compare with what these two did."

"Tim and Jim were just trying to help you! They didn't mean to hurt you or anything! It was probably an accident!"

"You think they hurt me? The incisions they made were very shallow and couldn't hurt me if left unchecked for a month. They hurt you! And for that they must die!"

Kim tried to understand what he'd just said, but her mind could not reconcile what she'd heard to Ron. It was only as he started to bring the lotus blade down towards them that she managed to jump in front of them. "Ron! You can't hurt my brothers! They love us! You love them! If you ever even talk like this again I'll try to stop you! I'll kill you if I have to. Then I'll have to kill myself. You don't want to be responsible for my death, do you?"

Ron narrowed his eyes at her, before turning to give her brothers a harsh glance. "If you ever hurt your sister again..." He let the threat hang in the still air. Kim went up to him and wrapped her arms around him. He coated her in a blue glow while projecting his own red glow outwards to shield them from any falling debris. He shot through the roof of the secret underground installation, preparing to take Kim far from the world to make it easier to protect her.

A/N: No the change in Ron will not be permanent. I happen to like the change in Zorpox, though. I have some obligations to certain societies that might take a large portion of my time in the upcoming weeks so don't expect too much in the way of updates. I just signed up to help build a BB gun range at a Cub Scout camp, not to mention the fact that I need to make sure that I pass English. Irony sucks.

Shout-outs to CajunBear as always, as well as to xvxAPATHYxvx. Please, people, I'm begging you. Don't compare me to Shakespeare. I'm not that crazy! I promise!

I do understand that my writing can be a bit hard to follow. Bear with me. If you guys are good little readers and review, I might even post what Ron told Kim to freak her out so much.

Anyway, if any one thinks they know where I'm going with the story, please tell me. If I don't happen to agree with you, I might even write another alt chapter, like "The Death of the Mastiff", an alternate Chapter 6. Who knows, you might even know where I'm going with this before I do.

I want to give a bit of a shout-out to my 7th and 8th grade English teacher, Mr. Joe Staebell. If you're reading this, thank you for the creative writing assignments. I think they might have been responsible for all the fun I'm having with this story.

As I've noticed that my life has been upbeat recently, I'm going to keep with the trend and give you some uplifting advice. In the mildly abridged words of J.J. Rowland, "If life gives you lemons, stack up the lemons and climb over the prison wall." WIGU is such an awesome comic. (look at my profile if you are confused)