Shego with her eyes closed tightly together, shifted in annoyance. Opening one eye she looked over at Ron and Kim. Ron's chest was moving up and down in a gentle manner and by all appearances he was fast asleep. Kim on the other hand was shifting and squirming around and even with her eyes closed looked almost as annoyed as Shego was feeling.
"You asleep Kimmie?" Shego asked softly.
Kim immediately opened her eyes and looked across at Shego. "No. It's like trying to sleep before Christmas or a long trip. You know you should be asleep but you just can't force yourself."
Shego shifted slightly with Ron's arm across her shoulder and pointed at him. "Ron seems to be asleep."
Kim frowned and nodded her head. "He says it is one of his 'special' abilities. That he can sleep anywhere or any time he wishes. I can't count the number of times heading back after a mission all keyed up and looking over to find Ron sleeping like a baby. Its really annoying."
Shego's eyes began to widen in alarm. "But if Ron is asleep while we are awake... That means he is facing Krueger alone in the dream world!"
Kim's eyes widen in panic to match Shego's and both women leaned back once again against the tree and furiously shut their eyes and tried to force themselves to sleep.
Ron hearing the noises of steam and screeching of metal on metal opened his eyes and found himself in a stairwell leading down into the gloom.
"I must be dreaming." He muttered out loud as he was certain he had never seen before a place like he now found himself in.
"Kim? Shego?" He called out softly. When he heard no reply instead of looking nervous he breathed a sigh of relief. "The Ron man's special sleeping ability comes in handy once again."
Moving down the stairwell he reached a landing and pushing open a rusted looking door found himself in a gloomy corridor with walls that had large holes gaping in them every several paces.
"Come on Krueger! I'm here! Come out, come out where ever you are!" Ron yelled.
A eerie dry chuckle that seemed to come from everywhere at once was Ron's only answer.
"Aww come on. Don't tell me you are afraid of me?" Ron taunted as he slowly made his way down the corridor towards the door at the end of it. Hearing the sound of metal on metal Ron spun around to see Freddy's finger knives slowly curl around the metal door he had entered by just a few moments ago. The knives seems to caress the metal door for a moment before the door was pushed open to reveal Freddy standing there.
"Ah. There you are. Good." Ron stated.
Freddy cocked his head to the side to study Ron for a moment. "Aren't you missing your Kewpie dolls?" He finally rasped.
Ron looked puzzled for a moment before he frowned. "Shego and Kim are not Kewpie dolls! They are my... Um, friends."
"Don't you mean something more than friends?" Freddy replied. Holding up his ungloved hand he made a circle with his first finger and thumb and then taking the knife gloved hand he held out the first finger blade and slid it in and out of the circle suggestively.
Ron's faced flushed red, with anger or embarrassment it was hard to tell. Instead of backing away from the fried face monster in front of him, Ron actually started to walk towards him. "What they are is my business not yours!" He growled at Freddy.
Krueger watched the young man walking towards him with amusement. Was the boy suicidal? Finally it dawned on Freddy what Ron was thinking of trying to do. Raising his finger knives he tapped one of the blades on his chin. "I get it. You don't want to risk your little playmates in a fight with me so you rushed here first thinking you can fight me on your own?"
Ron pulled to a stop a few feet away from Krueger. "I'm not going to fight you, I'm going to destroy you completely." He said calmly.
Krueger laughed uproariously. "With what?" He finally asked.
Ron although wearing his 'serious' face still gulped a little. "I really hope this works. Sensei always said the Lotus Blade would find me and come to me if I called it but I really don't think Sensei ever thought I would try this dreaming." Ron muttered as he held out an empty hand and concentrated on it.
Freddy had about decided to cut off Ron's held out hand when there was a sudden flare of light. When the light died down enough to see once again Freddy was shocked to see the blond teenager in front of him was now holding a long sword in his hand.
"What do you do for an encore kid? Pull a rabbit out of your ass?" Freddy growled.
Ron held the sword out in Freddy's direction and with another burst of light the sword was gone to be replaced by a long silver pole. The pole suddenly extended in Krueger's direction hitting him in the stomach and driving him backwards toward the half open metal door behind him. Hitting the door hard, Freddy crashed into the door and through it as if the door was paper-mache instead of rusty metal.
"Boo – yah!" Ron stated. Running to the now ruined doorway, the Lotus Blade reverting back into a sword as he ran, Ron planned to follow through to put an end to Freddy Krueger.
Reaching the doorway, Ron stepped through and found... Himself standing in an octagonal arena and not the stairwell landing he had not long ago left.
"Huh?" Ron asked in surprise. The octagonal arena was surrounded by high stone walls. As Ron turned to look behind him he was only semi surprised to find the doorway he had entered by was no longer there and had been replaced by yet another stone wall. In the center of the floor of the arena there was a octagonal symbol with four slash like marks in the middle.
Moving cautiously with the Lotus Blade held out in front of him Ron advanced to the center of the arena, always turning slowly to keep all angles in view. Reaching the center Ron resisted the urge to scratch his head. There was no one else in the arena with him. Krueger seemed to have vanished completely.
Sensing something behind him, Ron whipped the Lotus Blade around and felt a shock wave travel up his arm as he just barely managed to block a heavy blow from a Samurai sword. Looking at his opponent Ron was startled to see a Samurai warrior in full armor standing before him. The details were perfect except for one thing. Some Samurai would wear fearsome face masks that depicted demons or animals to scare their opponents. This Samurai had a face mask of a badly burnt man. Ron could see the oily serpent like eyes of Krueger glaring out at him from through the eye holes of the mask.
To Ron's consternation he noticed that it was taking all his strength to keep the samurai sword from slicing him apart and Krueger was wielding it with just one hand. The implications of that were just starting to sink into Ron when he felt four cold yet burning slashes across his stomach. Leaping backwards he broke free from the swords' lock and looked down at his stomach.
Revealed through four razor slashes in his shirt he could see blood start to weep from cuts in his stomach. They weren't deep but they were painful.
Looking back over at his opponent he spotted what he had missed before. Krueger had been wielding the sword single handedly because his other hand still maintained his glove with finger knives. It had been this that had sliced Ron when he had been distracted by the samurai sword.
Neither Kim nor Shego were having any luck forcing themselves to sleep when they suddenly felt Ron beside them give a violent shudder. Sitting up quickly both women turned to examine Ron by the light of the moon. They could just make out four slight cuts across Ron's stomach and as they watched the cuts began to bleed.
"We've got to get Ron out of there!" Kim nearly screamed.
"No! We've got to get in there to help him!" Shego nearly as frantic as Kim replied.
"How! Its not like I can go to sleep while Ron is being sliced apart right beside me and I can't do anything about it!"
"Kim. KIM!" Shego shouted to get her attention. "Do you trust me?" Shego asked her as Kim tore her eyes away from Ron to look over at the green skinned woman.
"We've been through this Shego. Yes! I trust you! Ron trusts you!" Kim nearly cried as she realized that Shego was deadly serious.
Shego nodded her head. "Then I can help you into the dream world but I'm going to warn you. You will have a headache later."
Kim stiffened as she thought that Shego meant she was going to hit her to knock her out but then nodded her head. "Do it Shego! Please!"
Shego leaned over Ron's body and reaching out with her hand she flared her plasma powers but confined the power to one finger and touched Kim in the center of her forehead. Kim instantly was out.
Shego leaned back against the tree and looked down at her still glowing finger. "I've never tried this on myself." She muttered. Reaching up she lightly touched her glowing finger to her own forehead and sagged as the power knocked her out.
Ron backed away as the Samurai Freddy stalked towards him. Raising the Lotus Blade he changed it into a large round shield as Freddy crashed the samurai sword down once again. There was a loud clang as the sword bounced off the round shield and Ron began to breathe once again as he thought he just might have a chance to defeat Freddy in the dream realm.
Suddenly there was a rasp of metal on metal that almost sounded like a human scream and Ron risked a peek to see what had happened. Freddy having had his samurai sword stopped by the shield had swung his knife tipped fingers and landed a blow.
While the sword hadn't even dented the shield, the finger knives had deeply scoured grooves in it.
Ron could feel the Lotus Blade shield shake as if it was shivering.
"I don't know where you found that tricky penknife boy but these babies..." Freddy held up his finger glove. "Were baptized in the blood of dozens of babies and blessed with dream magic. Your toy can't stand up to them!"
Ron was afraid that Freddy just might be right. It would be one thing to lose his life fighting this evil but entirely another matter to lose the mystic Lotus Blade in the same fight.
Scrambling to his feet Ron found himself trapped in one of the corners of the octagon. Refusing to think about that for the moment he concentrated once again and the shield reformed into the Lotus Blade sword. Even in sword form Ron could see four gashes on the blade's surface.
"Return and heal." Ron instructed the sword. Ron could almost feel the blade trying to resist the order and stay to protect him but he was the master of the Lotus Blade, not the other way around so the sword shimmered and was gone.
"Well the sword is safe." Ron muttered as he now found himself facing Krueger unarmed.
"Pity you aren't." Krueger replied as he readied his samurai sword and his finger knives.
Before Freddy could bring either of his weapons to bare on the unarmed teen in front of him, he was hit from the side by a massive green fireball that caused him to be hurled away from Ron.
Freddy flew through the air till he crashed hard against one of the walls of the octagon and crashed to the ground. The samurai armor fell apart revealing Freddy standing there in his ugly red and green sweater and his brown dirty hat. Other than a scowl on his face there was no signs that he had been injured at all by the blast.
Shego raced across the floor of the octagon to reach Ron's side. Kim was no where in sight.
"Ron! Are you okay?" Shego asked and before he could answer Shego had pulled up his shirt to look at the light slashes across his stomach.
"Its okay Shego. I got hurt worse the last time Bueno Nacho had a 'kids eat free day.'" Ron attention on Freddy was lost when Shego wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. "What the hell do you think you were doing go in first to face Krueger alone?!" Shego growled at him all the while she nearly squeezed the life out of him hugging so tightly.
"I thought I might be able to beat him?" Ron managed to wheeze out.
Krueger's dry sadistic chuckle was heard coming from everywhere and yet no where. "Aww. How sweet. Young love. You two love birds comfort each other. I'll go keep the lone and lonely love bird company for you."
Ron released himself from Shego's grasp and turned to look where Freddy had been. All that was left there now was the pile of samurai armor. Krueger was gone.
"Shego! Where's Kim?" Ron shouted.
Shego could only look around helplessly. "I don't know. I sent her along first. She should be here!"
Kim looked around in confusion. She was at Middletown High School and for the life of her she couldn't remember arriving or what day it was. There had been something important she was suppose to be doing but her mind was foggy.
"Well the easiest way to find out what I was suppose to be doing is just ask Wade." Kim muttered to herself as she made her way to her locker and rapidly spun the combination to open it. As Kim performed actions she had done a thousand times before, something still felt oddly wrong. As if there should be someone standing next to her as she opened her locker door.
"Hey Kim. Sorry to hear that the loser dumped you." Bonnie sniped insincerely at her as she walked by Kim's locker.
"Huh?" Kim replied but Bonnie had already walked on. Kim couldn't believe the ugly green and red striped sweater she was wearing.
As the door to the locker opened Wade appeared on the computer inside the locker. "Hey Kim. So sorry to hear about what happened with Ron."
"Ron?" Kim realized that was who was missing from next to her. "What happened with Ron? Where is he?"
Wade looked at her. Behind him Kim could make out his computer equipment. She couldn't remember when he had redecorated the computers with a red and green striped motif but her mind was on other matters at the moment.
Wade looked at her like she had lost her mind. "Ron got hit with a evil ray and turned back into Zorpox. He and Shego ran off and got married. Remember?"
Kim felt like the earth was opening underneath her feet. She felt dizzy and defeated all at the same time but a sudden certainty halted all the feelings.
"Ron wouldn't leave me... And neither would Shego. They both love me and I love both of them."
"What are you saying Kim?" Wade asked her his face growing larger as he leaned in towards the camera on his computer. "Shego is your enemy and Ron is a loser who never really cared for you."
"Ron is so not a loser!" Kim shouted at the computer and then looked around to see if anyone had noticed her being tweaked.
The hallway was completely deserted however... Which was very suspicious.
Looking back at the computer with Wade on it Kim wondered when her computer had been redone with stripes of red and green on it.
"Don't worry Kim. You may have lost Ron as your boyfriend but..." Wade's voice grew deeper and harsher sounding. "I'll be your boyfriend now!" Wade's face seemed to melt and was replaced by Freddy's.
Kim with a back flip managed to leap away from the locker as the computer spouted red and green striped arms and tried to snare her. Missing her the arms pulled back into the locker and the door slammed shut.
"Nice form Kim but not as good as what I could have done." Bonnie's voice said from beside her. Kim turned to tell the cheerleader off when she spotted that Bonnie was now dressed in her cheerleader outfit but she had a dusty brown hat perched on her head that the fashion conscious real Bonnie wouldn't have been caught dead wearing.
Kim shook her head and placing her hands on her hips said. What is with you and trying to appear as other people Krueger? Your own face so ugly you can't stand wearing it?"
Bonnie's form started to melt and twist to reveal Krueger. Kim prepared herself for anything he might pull but was still shocked when with a yell of K.P. Ron bolted through the hallway doors and accidentally slammed into the still changing Krueger knocking him off his feet to slide on the floor of the hallway.
Ron blinked. "Was that Bonnie wearing a dirty sweater and a hat or was that Freddy wearing a cheerleader skirt? In any case that was sick and wrong!"
Kim watched Ron cautiously. "More to the point. Are you Ron or Freddy looking like Ron."
Ron reached up and scratched his head. "I'm me... I think."
"Tell me something that only Ron would know!" Kim still on guard and not letting him get too close demanded.
"Um, I hate Camp Wannaweep and I'm the most luckiest guy in the world to have two bondiggity girlfriends like you and Shego?"
"RON!" Kim shouted with joy and wrapped her arms around him tightly. Finally she released him. "Where is Shego by the way?"
Ron spun on his heels to look at the door in the hallway he had just entered but only to see the door was now gone. "Damn it!" Ron shouted shocking Kim who knew Ron rarely if ever cursed. "He did it again! He separated me from Shego this time."
Shego looked around in the gloomy hallway she found herself in. She had been running with Ron after blasting a way out of that arena of death she had found Ron in and they neared a set of double swinging doors. Shego had been careful to keep pace with Ron when her foot suddenly slipped on something on the floor and she slowed for only a moment. Ron had crashed through the door but by the time Shego had gotten back to her feet the door had disappeared. Blasting the wall where the door had been did little good so Shego turned around to find another way to Ron and Kim. The corridor she was walking down was damp and gloomy and it was reminding her strongly of something but she couldn't place what.
Reaching a door Shego didn't pause or even try for subtlety, she slammed the door open and strolled into the room beyond without pause.
"Ah Shego. There you are. Where have you been?" A voice Shego instantly recognized and had recently come to loathe called out.
"Dr. D? What the hell are you doing here?" Shego growled.
Placing a hand to her throat Shego realized that she really had growled that rather than saying it. Shego found something attached to a collar around her throat and before she could identify it any better than that felt a sudden tug that caused her to fall forward onto all fours.
"Bad Shego! How many times I've told you doggies should know their place!" Doctor Drakken said as he pulled on the leash connected to the collar around Shego's throat.
Shego's eyes widen. He did not just say that did he? She tried to rise to her feet so she could rip Dr. Drakken a new one when she suddenly realized she no longer had hands or feet. She now had paws... Just like a dog. Shego opened her mouth to curse and demand to know what the hell was going on but all that came out was a series of growls and barks. Looking over at the shiny walls of the lair Shego could see that she looked like a Doberman. She had no human features whatsoever.
"Bad doggies that can't follow directions and no one loves need to be put down. Can't have rabid beasts running around now can we?" Drakken sneered at Shego.
Shego tried to scramble backwards as she saw Drakken raise a hand and instead of fingers there were four hypodermic needles filled with a bluish liquid but the leash held her firmly in place.
"Now now Shego, this is only going to be excruciatingly painful." Dr. Drakken replied with a sick grin that continued to stretch and distort his face until he no longer looked like Drakken but more like Freddy. He bent over to jab the needles into Shego when two shoes belonging to two different people crashed into his face and hurled him away from Shego.
"Get away from her..." "You sadistic monster!" Ron yelled with Kim finishing his sentence for him. 'Drakken' flew through the air till he crashed into a machine on one side of the lair.
Kim landed in a battle ready form while Ron bent over the shaking Shego. As soon as his hands touched her shoulders Shego found herself back to normal and no longer appearing like a guard dog.
"I'm not a rabid animal bitch am I?" Shego cried to Ron.
Ron dropped to his knees and wrapped Shego in an embrace. "No. You are not an animal or beast of any kind!"
Shego continued to shake but she looked up at Ron and managed a weak smile. "You didn't say I wasn't rabid or a bitch." She reminded him.
Ron managed his own weak smile. "Trust me Shego. You are not rabid or a bitch. You are a beautiful woman that is loved completely by two people."
"Oh please. You are making me sick." Freddy's voice called out as he rose from the wrecked machinery.
"Dude! You are one sick creep. Killing someone is one thing but why would you want to torture someone like that?" Ron said rising to his feet and starting to stomp his way towards Krueger.
Shego rose to her feet and Kim quickly rushed to her side to make sure she was okay.
"Because fear and agony is sweet." Krueger replied to Ron's question as if Ron had asked how the weather was. "You remember don't you Ron? Remember the fear in Shego's eyes when you were... Zorpox? Remember the sweet thrill when she feared you would kill her?"
"That wasn't me!" Ron shouted as he raised his hands to cover his ears. "I'm not Zorpox!"
"Oh but you are. You deny it and try to hide from it but you are more Zorpox than you ever want to admit to." Freddy goaded Ron. "Wouldn't you love to see that fear in their eyes again? Have that cheerleader Bonnie down on her knees pleading for her life as you slowly slip a knife into her back?" Freddy's eyes grew distant as if listening to something only he could hear.
"Wouldn't you like to twist and break Monique's bones when she tries to argue with you about who the better wrestler is?"
Ron started shaking as if he was freezing.
"Wouldn't you like to see the agony and the ecstasy on Kim Possible's mother's face as you slowly slice her apart after you...?"
Ron's shaking stopped and when he looked up Kim stifled a gasp. She had never seen Ron so angry in her life. In some ways it was more terrifying than Zorpox's insane laugh had ever been.
"Shut up about Mrs. Dr. P. She's a saint! She raised me when my own parents couldn't be bothered!" Ron roared.
"Ron. Freddy is reaching into your mind to try and torture you. Don't let him!" Nancy's voice suddenly called out.
Krueger instantly lost interest in Ron's rage and pain and turned to look at Nancy standing at the entrance to Drakken's lair.
"Nancy!" Freddy said with a leer. "The one that got away!" He turned to face her ignoring Team Possible completely.
Shego and Kim quickly raced to Ron's side and wrapped their arms around him. They could feel him quivering from rage and self disgust that Freddy's words had wrapped him in.
Rufus watched Nancy's sleeping form nervously. Hearing a noise he ducked just underneath the covers.
Two people came in, one was the nurse that had let Ron, Shego and Kim in earlier and the second was a man that was obviously the staff doctor.
"Oh. She's already asleep." The nurse said stating the obvious.
The doctor had pulled a needle from his pocket and filled it from a bottle he was carrying. He hadn't even looked at Nancy yet but glanced over at the nurse's statement.
"Well then she obviously doesn't need this shot. She looks like she is sleeping peacefully enough."
"But doctor her chart states she must receive a shot of hypnocil every night no matter how she seems to be progressing." The nurse answered.
The doctor looked down his glasses at the nurse. "Which one of us is the doctor here and which is the hired help? I tell you when she receives a shot or not!" The doctor laid the already filled needle on the nightstand by Nancy's bed.
"If she shows signs of having nightmares, then you may give her this injection but while she is sleeping normally I see no reason to give it to her now."
On the bed Nancy began to twitch in her dreams but both the nurse and the doctor in their disagreement missed seeing it.
"Yes DOCTOR." The nurse replied icily.
The two people turned and left the room.
Rufus poked his head out from under the covers and shook his tiny head in disgust. Hoping up on the table he watched Nancy as she started sweating and twitching in her sleep.
Nancy fearlessly walked towards Freddy with a scowl on her face. "You killed my friends and my mother!" She yelled at Freddy.
Freddy clapped his hands together in mock glee. "Oh goody! You didn't forget all the good times we have had!"
Past Freddy's shoulder Nancy could see something strange happening. Ron, Kim and Shego were clutching each other and a strange bluish green glow began to appear around them. It was soft and even though Nancy couldn't explain if anyone were to ask her, it appeared to be a comforting glow.
"It ends here and now Krueger!" Nancy snarled at Freddy.
"Going to try and grab me and wake up again?" Freddy replied with a sneer. "It didn't work the first time and it won't work this time either. I'll just cut you up in the real world and find someone sleeping and slaughter them as I make my way back to the dream realm. Or do you expect your little buddies here to help you fight me in my realm? I rule here! No one can take me out in the dream realm!" Freddy started to turn to point in derision at Team Possible.
Nancy couldn't explain it but she knew in her heart it would be a bad thing if Freddy noticed the glow surrounding Team Possible so before he could turn she reacted.
Rushing the last few feet she grabbed Krueger tightly, managing to pin his arms to his side if only temporarily.
"Now!" She screamed.
Rufus watching the sleeping Nancy gave a slight jump as she began to mutter. "Now. Do it now!"
Making a quick decision Rufus grabbed up the hypodermic and leaping off the table jabbed it into Nancy's neck and pushed the plunger down.
Ron didn't understand what the glow was about that surrounded him, Kim and Shego but he knew he felt safe and loved inside it. When Nancy started yelling 'now' he didn't know why but he raised his hand and pointed it at Krueger's back. He was only dimly aware that both Shego and Kim mirrored his actions.
The glow shot out from their hands and hit Krueger in his back but Krueger struggling to free his arms from Nancy's embrace didn't even notice.
A rippling took place around Nancy and Freddy and suddenly both of them appeared in a girl's bedroom. From Ron's point of view it was like both Nancy and Freddy had been pushed through a doorway that hadn't been there a moment ago and were now in another room than he, Kim and Shego were.
Freddy finally broke free from Nancy's grasp and using his non gloved hand he pushed her back hard. Nancy fell onto her bed and Krueger leaped on top of her. Nancy struggled with Krueger to keep his blades from her face. Finally Krueger noticed that something wasn't quite right. Looking around he blinked.
"Your room? I didn't alter the dream world to bring us here!"
"Welcome to my mind you son of a bitch!" Nancy hissed at him as she managed to get one of her hands free and slugged him in the face.
Ron, Kim and Shego moved closer to the strange doorway that led to Nancy's bedroom. They prepared themselves to leap in to help Nancy as Krueger jerked his knife gloved hand up in preparation to plunging it into Nancy's face.
Suddenly Nancy sank into her bed leaving Krueger lying on top of the bed in confusion. Krueger turned to look around and spotted Team Possible watching but even as he moved to get off the bed and go after them the doorway shrank and disappeared.
"What is going on here?!" Krueger roared as the wallpaper on the walls began to peel off to reveal complete darkness behind them. The bed slowly dissolved dumping Krueger to the floor that was also growing more and more misty. Everywhere Krueger looked the room was slowly vaporizing and what was left behind was total and impenetrable blackness.
"I am Freddy Krueger! I am the Dream Master! No one can defeat me! No one!" Krueger roared as everything vanished leaving him in darkness.
Ron turned to look at Shego and Kim. "Is it over? Did we win?" He asked.
Shego looked thoughtful. "I think...So."
Kim nodded her head. "Yeah I think what we saw was Nancy trapping Krueger inside her mind. You noticed she disappeared before the doorway vanished?"
Ron and Shego nodded their heads. "I think that means she stopped dreaming at the point and Krueger found himself alone."
"But what was with the strange glow around us?" Shego asked. "It was nothing like my plasma powers."
Kim didn't answer as she had no clue.
"Mystical Monkey said the Pleasant Dream Gods worked through dreamers to help nudge people suffering from nightmares into pleasant dreams. He also said the Dream Guardians could help nudge a Dream Master into a dying person's mind so they would die also. I think what the glow was, was us nudging Krueger into Nancy's mind." Ron said slowly.
"So what do we do now?" Kim asked looking around.
"Well I would suggest a wet dream..." Shego glanced around at the dream version of one of Dr. Drakken's lairs and shuddered. "But not here. This place gives me the creeps. Strange isn't it? I used to work and live in one of these places all the time but now it creeps me out."
The background wavered slightly and started growing dim.
"What's going on now?" Ron asked nervously.
"This place was created by Krueger to terrorize Shego. Now that he's gone, we are waking up and like a bad dream it is fading." Kim replied taking a guess.
Kim faded from view as she woke up in the real world.
Shego looked over at Ron. "See you in the real world and you better hurry or me and Kim might start without you." She then faded away as well.
Ron opened his eyes and yawned. It was still dark out and he could feel the rough texture of the tree's bark behind him. Under either arm was Kim or Shego. They had defeated, at least for now, Krueger and the world was safe. He couldn't help it. A grin formed on his face.
A grin that faded as he felt Shego give him a light jab to his ribs.
She sat up and on the other side of him Ron could feel Kim doing the same.
"I have a question for you Ron." Shego began. "Why did you try to fight Krueger in the dream world? If you were going to take him on, why didn't you just grab him, wake yourself up and let me and Kimmie who were still awake take him on?"
"Don't I even get a good morning kiss first?" Ron asked trying to change the subject. Unfortunately Kim could read him like a book. "First the answer and then depending on the answer you MIGHT get a kiss."
Ron sighed. "Shego have you ever killed anyone?"
"Huh? What's that got to do with anything?" Shego asked.
"You haven't had you?" Ron stated more than asked.
Shego looked away for a moment before looking back at him. Ron could see her face by the moonlight and even though we are talking about Shego here, she looked fragile.
"No. I've put people in the hospital before but I've always prided myself on never cross that particular line and killing someone."
"Exactly." Ron stated. "If we had brought Krueger to the real world there is only one thing we could have done and that would have been to kill him. We couldn't capture him and turn him over to the police. No one would believe he was the serial killer from years ago. They would have had to eventually release him, not to mention all Krueger had to do is find someone asleep and escape that way and that we couldn't allow that. I suspected you had never killed anyone before and I knew that Kim had never done that."
"Krueger is not a person! He's a monster!" Shego argued.
"But yet if you had killed him could you look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that you are basically a good person and deserve a second chance?" Ron countered. "Or would you forever be telling yourself that you could never be a hero again cause you murdered someone? Forever wondering if there is a darkness inside you just waiting for another chance to kill again?"
Kim looked at Ron as if he had lost his mind. "So you attacked Krueger in the dream world?"
Ron shrugged. "I thought I might have a chance to destroy him there and if it didn't work out I was going to try and pull him into the real world and take care of him myself while you and Shego were safe in the dream world."
Shego folded her arms. "So you would have been the murderer and forever wondering about the darkness in yourself?"
Ron shrugged again and got to his feet and stared at the moon in the sky. "If it saved you and Kim I could and would have done anything."
Kim could feel tears coming to her eyes. She loved Ron so much.
Shego? Shego was stunned to her core. First Ron risked his life to save hers and now he just admitted to being willing to risk his soul to save hers. Shego had never known anyone willing to do that for her. She vowed once again to do whatever it took to be the hero that Ron thought he saw in her and to never leave his or Kim's side.
It was a silent trio that watched the sunrise. After waking from Freddy's defeat none of the three could bring themselves to sleep again but that was okay, they didn't really need to. They took comfort and revitalization just being in each other's presence. Ron was once again sitting with his back to a tree with Kim and Shego nestled into his arms. They would have to wait another three hours before the hospital opened to visitors but none of them really minded it.