Chapter Eight: All the Time in the World
Master Sensei knew well the virtue of patience. It was absolutely vital to the way of the ninja, but in truth, that only scratched the surface. In learning and teaching, work and relationships, and daily life itself, he found that it was often better to let things come as they were than to rush life's course along its path. It was a lesson that he worked hard to instill in his young and naturally anxious students.
So it was that he waited quietly at the desk of an office space the Yamanouchi school had on hand for observation missions in the city of Matsumoto. One of the school's graduate ninjas had discovered the presence of a person of interest a short time ago, and now Sensei was awaiting a full report on why that individual was here and whether Yamanouchi should be concerned.
A knock on the door suggested that his patience was about to pay off, and in soft Japanese he said, "Enter."
The student who complied, a highly promising young pupil of his, had switched out her dark uniform for a set of casual clothing. Evidently she had seen fit to leave the shadows behind and consult with civilians or authorities – something must have come up. She bowed deeply and said, "Master Sensei, I have much to report."
Sensei nodded and gestured for her to continue. "You may speak, Yori."
"I do not know the full details, but it seems Monkey Fist has discovered the family line of Toshimiru. Earlier today, he confronted and assaulted the latest bearer of that lineage, who had recently become pregnant with her first child. Apparently, he believes the child to be involved in some form of prophecy."
It took all of Sensei's considerable self-control to keep his expression even. For the lineage of Toshimiru to resurface after all this time, and the latest bearer to be subject of a prophecy… it was almost certainly the Han. But how on Earth had Monkey Fist learned about the Han, much less that her time was upon them?
"This is most troubling," he said softly, stroking his long beard as he thought. "I trust from your description that this woman escaped the encounter?"
Yori nodded. "Yes, but she did not do so alone. By the time I had found their whereabouts, she was in the process of being rescued by the team of Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable."
So the Stoppable boy had been involved as well! Sensei could not say whether it was destiny or simple cause and effect that had brought both new bearers of the Mystical Monkey Power here, but it bore further investigation regardless. It was fortunate that he already had plans to introduce the young Mr. Stoppable to his school.
"It would be best not to draw too much attention to what has happened," he decided aloud."I will speak with the local authorities about bringing us into their investigation and keeping the details quiet. Have you been able to contact them or the victim of this attack?"
Yori nodded with a quickness that suggested she had anticipated this question. "I approached the police station under the guise of a concerned citizen to alert them of the situation, and after the target and her rescuers arrived, I briefly spoke with her. She is taking shelter at the station for the moment, but has already expressed a keen desire for help for herself and her child."
Sensei stood from his chair. "You have done well, Yori. I am very interested in meeting this woman myself, and I can think of several ways we might provide the security she seeks. Come – it is likely that this will not be your final involvement with Toshimiru's legacy."
He allowed Yori to lead the way, preferring to keep a steady pace with which he could more easily mull over this new development. As he walked behind her, he silently considered the likelihood that life at his dojo was about to become significantly more interesting.
Tell me your secrets, Max thought to himself as he turned the Tempus Simia over and over in his hands.
Magic was a bit of a finicky thing, he knew. He didn't have any of his own, but between his dad, aunt, sister, and the family pet, he was pretty much surrounded by living examples of monkey magic at work. There was a kind of intuitiveness to it – sometimes it just sort of happened when you least expected it, sometimes it reacted to stress or a pressing need or even some vague concept of destiny, and to use it with any real intent and consistency took a slightly paradoxical combination of focus and instinct.
Magical artifacts, though they could be complicated to set up, worked similarly once they were active. So long as a user knew roughly what the thing did, that same mix of focus and instinct would help them more or less know how to make it go. With the right force of will, Max could hold the Tempus Simia in front of himself and just sort of make a time portal appear. That much he'd figured out how to do simply by giving it his full attention once the team had finished at the police station. But he also had a sense that there was more to it, some property or even another power that his 'magical intuition' or whatever was missing.
"I don't like this," Kim muttered half to herself, glancing out the window. Team Possible was holed up in a small cafe on a quiet street not far from the police station. They were hanging around here in the likely event that Monkey Fist came back either for another desperate stab at Chiyo or to get his magical toy back. The others had left Max to his investigation for now, under the excuse of it being "more secret family stuff," and he had a feeling that Ron now suspected him of belonging to a family of wizards.
"What's not to like?" Ron asked between sips of hot chocolate. "Chiyo's got plenty of backup between the cops and us if Monkey Man goes after her, we've got backup if he goes after us, and this is quite possibly the best cocoa I've ever had. Even with the creepy gorilla statues, this has got to be the best way this sitch could have played out."
Kim sighed and went back to nursing her own drink. "Maybe, but we can't guard Chiyo forever and she can't get back to her life until this is over. I won't be comfortable until we bring Monkey Fist in."
Ron seemed to consider that for a moment, but then he perked up and frowned thoughtfully. "Hey, so Chiyo has the Mystical Monkey Power, right? But she couldn't have gotten it from the funky jade statues because Monkey Fist was the one who put them together and then they got all smashed."
Kim shrugged. "She must have inherited it from an ancestor who got it back when the monks were around."
Max glanced up. "She did. That's something Monkey Fist said before you guys got to the house."
Ron nodded. "Right. And this whole… prophecy thing, it has something to do with her kid getting it too, right?"
Kim cocked her head. "I mean, probably. Where are you going with this?"
Ron stirred his drink absently and pursed his lips. "So if the Mystical Monkey Power can be inherited… does that mean my kids are gonna have it?"
Max looked back down. It only passes to the firstborn. Normally he was crazy jealous of Joan for being born on the right side of that particular monkey power rule, but in this scenario it had been kind of a blessing in disguise. He wouldn't have to worry about trying to explain away a power he didn't have, after all.
Kim pursed her lips as well. "I guess they could? That's so weird to think about."
She smirked. "Honestly, when I have kids I just hope I'm half as badass a pregnant lady as Chiyo was back there. I mean, I know part of it was her powers kicking in, but did you see how fast she moved?"
Okay, now Max was half convinced his parents were doing this on purpose. He held back a grimace and wished he could just talk to them frankly without worrying they'd get stuck with knowledge they shouldn't have yet.
The Tempus Simia thrummed under his fingertips, its magic responding to his stray thought, and all at once he knew how to use one of its powers.
His eyes widened. "It can seal memories," he muttered under his breath.
Kim and Ron looked over at him. "Come again?" the former asked.
Max's mind was racing. The two of them had accepted his general secrecy about his stake in this mission well enough, but the closer they got to the part where they caught Monkey Fist and he had to take the guy somewhere other than prison, the harder that was going to get. He hadn't told them about the time travel because that little detail was the key to them potentially figuring out a whole host of other details about him. But if this thing could erase memories of facts they'd learned about the future, that meant he basically had a safety net. He straightened up, a small smile on his face, and returned their gazes.
"I said it can seal memories, but that's not gonna make much sense without context," he replied, placing the Tempus Simia on the table and tapping it with a finger.
"Okay, so bear with me because this is about to get weird. This thing? It's called the Tempus Simia, and…" He hesitated for just a moment before plowing on, "Well… It's basically a time machine."
Ron blinked. "...What."
Max's heart was pounding, but he kept going before he could second-guess himself. "Yeah, told you it was weird. But my point is, Monkey Fist – at least, the one we're chasing – used this thing to come to this time period from the future to change something bad that happened to him in his past. I… more or less followed him through the portal."
Ron's eyebrows shot up, and Rufus' head popped out of his pocket to listen more closely to the conversation. "Wait wait wait," Ron said, "You're saying you're from the future?"
Max smiled awkwardly. "Yeah."
Kim was resting her chin on folded hands, propped up by her elbows. Her brows were furrowed as she processed this information, but gradually her eyes began to widen.
"Everything makes so much more sense now!" she suddenly blurted out, snapping upright. "That's why you can't contact anyone you know, and why Wade couldn't find any info on you, and – Chiyo and her baby, they're part of your family or… or are going to be, aren't they?"
Max considered for a moment before nodding. "More or less."
Ron raised an eyebrow. "Wait, how does that work? She's Japanese, and you're, ya know, not."
Max shrugged. "I never said it was a biological relationship."
Kim sighed and rubbed her temples. "Okay, so this is a thing now. So you're from the future, the Monkey Fist we've been fighting is also from the future, and you're telling us all this now because it turns out the thing that brought you here can do some kind of 'memory sealing'?"
Max nodded and glanced down at the 'thing' in question. "That about sums it up. From what I can tell, the memory sealing is to keep people who learn too much about the future from staying that way."
Kim frowned and leaned forward to scrutinize him, squinting a little as she looked him over. "Who… are you? What happens in the future that we're gonna have to forget when this sitch is over?"
Max winced a little at the question. "...Do you really want to know?"
Kim stared at him a few moments longer, mulling it over, but finally she sighed and shook her head in resignation. "I guess if it's not important to the mission, it would be better not to have the distraction."
"Aww, but now you got me all curious!" Ron complained, slumping over in his seat.
"But what's the point if we'd have to forget the whole thing anyway?" Kim countered. To Max she shot another quick look and added, "This is all we need to know for this mission, right? Or does Monkey Fist have a secret weapon from the future or something that we'll have to be ready for?"
Max shook his head. "Just the gorillas."
"That'll have to be good enough for now, then."
A familiar four-tone beeping cut into the group's conversation, and all heads turned as Kim retrieved the Kimmunicator. "Monkey Fist?" she guessed when Wade's face appeared on the screen.
Wade nodded, but he was frowning thoughtfully. "Monkey Fist. But didn't you say he'd probably be going after you to get back something Max took from him?"
Kim glanced at the Tempus Simia. "Now that we've learned more about it, that seems more likely than ever. Why?"
Wade's frown deepened. "Well, Monkey Fist doesn't seem to think so, because he's heading back to England now."
Kim's eyebrows shot up. "Really?" She looked over at Max. "There's – there's no way he hasn't figured out that he doesn't have the Tempus Simia anymore, right?"
"No way," Max agreed. His brow furrowed in thought for a moment, and then he snapped his fingers as he realized something. "I bet it's because we have it! If he just up and went after us now, there would be nothing stopping me from using it to escape and stranding him here in the past."
Wade shot up in his seat. "I'm sorry, did you say the past?"
"So you think he's, what?" Kim asked. "Laying low to catch us by surprise later? Putting something together to counteract the Tempus Simia until he can get it back?"
Max shrugged. "Honestly, you have way more experience with him than I do."
Kim nodded absently and considered the situation. "Well, whatever he's planning, we can't just wait around for him to get the upper hand. Wade, were you able to get ahold of Nakasumi-san?"
"Affirmative," Wade said, though he was still giving the group a slightly wide-eyed look. "I just have to give the word and he'll have a jet ready to pick you up by the time you make it through the airport."
Ron suddenly straightened up in his chair. "Ooh! Can that time portal thing take you to different places too?"
"Time portal?!" Wade echoed from the Kimmunicator.
Max blinked and looked down at the Tempus Simia. "I mean, yeah?"
"So then, why don't we just use that to get to Monkey Fist's place right before he shows up?"
"Except we don't know for sure that Monkey Fist is going back to his estate," Kim pointed out. "There could be a museum he's planning to rob or something in the area, and it will be easier to change course if we're traveling normally than to keep trying to guess both the time and place."
Max nodded thoughtfully. "True. And come to think of it, I'm pretty sure Monkey Fist landed in the wrong place last time he used it, so I don't know how accurate that part of it is."
"That settles it, then," Kim said, getting up from the table. "We'll call the time portal plan B, if we have to."
"Again: time portal?!" Wade practically shrieked.
"Short version: Max is a time traveler," Kim said as the group made their way out into the Matsumoto sunshine. "I'll fill you in on the way."
"Hey, d'you think this is the present or the past?"
Max looked up to where Ron was parachuting several yards above him. Monkey Fist had indeed been heading back to his main estate, and Wade's quick coordination with the Nakasumi pilot and the rest of Team Possible meant that they'd reached it less than half an hour after him. They were aiming for a little-used tower that Kim and Ron had managed to slip through unseen once before, in the hopes that they could get the drop on Monkey Fist before he did the same to them.
At Max's confused look, Ron elaborated. "Okay, so, from your point of view, you were chasing Monkey Fist around in the present, went through a time portal, and now you're in the past. But from me and KP's points of view, now is the present and you're a guy who showed up from the future."
There was a brief pause in his train of thought as Kim, then Max, landed smoothly on the flat top of the tower. Ron just missed the mark, and the other two had to help him scrabble up and over the parapet before removing their parachutes.
"So anyway, which one of us is right?" he continued in a low voice as the group filtered through the access hatch and started making their way down the tower. "Is now, like, now-now, or is it past-now and everyone here but you and Monkey Boy is just a… I dunno, a memory of the us that are running around in your time?"
Max tried to process that question for a moment, failed, and let out a weak, "Huh?"
From her place at the front of the group, Kim glanced back. "I'm not sure time even works that way," she interjected. "I mean, I think I get where you're coming from, but bringing time travel into the mix makes the whole concept of the present kind of freaky-weird."
The three of them had reached the landing into one of the estate's main halls by this point, so she motioned for the boys to keep quiet while she nudged open the door to check for occupants. After confirming that the coast was clear, they all filed into the hall and started creeping along one of the walls. They kept their eyes and ears open for any signs of Monkey Fist and his entourage, but there was nothing just yet.
Still, the lapse in conversation had given Max time to think Ron's question over.
"Well… Monkey Fist came here to change his past, right?" he reasoned. "So the first time around, you guys must have been doing something different than this. So if time does work that way, then the fact that we are doing this means that this must be past-now."
Ron groaned. "Aw, but I don't wanna be just a memory!"
Max shrugged. "I mean, you're still doing stuff in the future… er, present?" Probably freaking out over my disappearance, but if this works then that won't be an issue for much longer. "Whatever it is."
Kim suddenly halted and shushed the two of them. "Look," she whispered, pointing further down the wall they were sneaking alongside. Soft light was spilling out into that part of the hall, and as they got closer, they could now see that it was coming through a small and seemingly random opening in the wall. Craning his head, Max could just make out a set of stairs leading downward.
"Looks like Monkey Fist is in his inner sanctum," Kim went on. "Chances are his goons are either with him or nearby, so we need to be extra careful sneaking in."
Max and Ron nodded, and the three of them made for the stairway in silence. Max could almost feel the tension building as he glanced around furtively, but no gorilla guardians materialized to cause them trouble. It was eerie how quiet a giant frigging castle could be when any staff had long since ditched the job and the only human occupant was holed up in a secret room with all his not-so-human buddies.
It wasn't until they were about a quarter of the way down the stairs that Max heard any sound from this 'inner sanctum.' Soft simian hoots and chatter told him that at least some of the monkeys were down there, which was probably a good sign. As he edged closer to the room, a distinctly human growl of annoyance confirmed that the monkeys weren't alone.
"Speak to me, blast it all!" Monkey Fist suddenly yelled. A shadow fell across the thin strip of room visible from their vantage point, and everyone quickly pressed against the darkened wall of the stairwell. Monkey Fist appeared a moment later, loping forward on all fours with a heavy scowl etched on his face. He was directing said scowl at some kind of altar that Max couldn't get a good view of.
"I grow impatient, prophet," he continued. "The monkey ninjas are at the ready, the golden banana is in position, and still you are forcing me to wait. I demand a sign!"
Max blinked. Well, that was… something. He glanced back and forth between Kim and Ron to see if either of them knew who the heck Monkey Fist was talking to, but they both looked as lost as he was.
Monkey Fist continued to pace in front of his altar, and the sound of the monkeys' chatter became more subdued at their master's growing agitation. The next minute or two seemed to stretch impossibly long as the heroes tried to determine whether to strike now or wait for more information.
"Well?" Monkey Fist asked, the bite in his tone cutting through the near stillness of the room.
All at once, a radiant green glow shone out from somewhere in the altar. Monkey Fist halted in his pacing as a deep and reverberating voice began to speak.
"I have told you already," the voice said, a slight edge in its otherwise even tone, "my duty was to provide a sign of the Ultimate Monkey Master, not answer to the whims of every disciple who thinks highly of himself. Ron Stoppable is and will always be the Ultimate Monkey Master. Not you."
It was probably a minor miracle that Ron managed to keep his cry of "I'm the what?!" to a hissed whisper. Kim held up a hand to remind him to stay quiet, but Max could tell that she was just as shocked by this revelation. Huh. He wondered how they were supposed to have found out about that if not for this.
Back in the sanctum, Monkey Fist sneered. "I still fail to see why you would anoint that buffoon over me, but will you at least tell me how to circumvent the Tempus Simia? It was your order's own design, after all."
There was a long pause. Then the voice softly asked, "You came across someone who built a Tempus Simia?"
"I built it," Monkey Fist corrected. He stood up straight, his hands folded behind his back.
"Or at least, I will build it several years from now. I have returned to my past to prevent… an unfortunate incident with the Yono, but the device has been stolen from me."
Kim glanced back at Max and mouthed, 'The Yono?'
Max grimaced, rolled his eyes and made a so-so gesture, hoping that would be enough to convey that it was a long story that Monkey Fist was twisting to his own end.
After another pause, the mysterious glowing entity spoke up again. There was a note of concern in its voice as it said, "If what you are saying is true, then you are wielding the Tempus Simia in error. You cannot use it to prevent the return of the Yono, because anything you use it for in the past has already affected the future."
Max gasped, his brain short-circuiting for a moment. Monkey Fist's cry of "What?!" was basically a significantly angrier version of the one thought that managed to run through his head.
"Wait, does that mean what I think it means?" Ron whispered.
Before Kim could shush him again, Monkey Fist stole back everyone's attention with a howl of "No! No, I won't allow it!" He scrambled up to the altar and gripped its edges, his face bathed in verdant light.
"This cannot be how it ends!" he shouted. "After everything I've worked for, I refuse to believe it was predestined to come to nothing!"
"The Tempus Simia's power is tied to stability," the voice replied evenly. "It works alongside the flow of time, not against it, and to use it effectively one must have the wisdom and foresight to do the same. If you have not already seen its effects in your fight against the Yono, then you must either search harder to understand what you should do and have done, or else make things right in your own time."
Monkey Fist's eyes narrowed. "I'll show you foresight, you –"
Ron leaned forward and spoke just loud enough for Max and Kim to hear him over the continued ranting. "So, if Monkey Fist can't actually change the past… Does that mean we already won?"
Max shook himself out of his stupor. "I… guess?"
Ron smirked. "So then, can we just waltz in right now, nab him, and then you'll be free to take him home or whatever?"
Max opened his mouth to reply, but stopped. Too late, he realized that the inner sanctum had suddenly gone quiet.
Before he could turn to see if its inhabitants had discovered his group, a monkey ninja dropped down from the stairwell ceiling and shoved Ron forward. Thanks to Ron's position above the rest of the team, he tumbled downward into both Max and Kim and set all three rolling uncontrollably until they finally found themselves sprawled at the entrance of the sanctum. Max looked up with a low groan to find Monkey Fist staring down at him like he was some kind of disgusting insect.
"Seize them."
Before Max could get his bearings enough to stand up and make a run for it, one of the stone gorillas stepped forward from its place just beside the stairwell and hefted him up roughly by the upper arms. The other hooked one thick arm each around Kim and Ron and held them both, struggling, against its wide stone chest. Rufus poked his head out of Ron's pocket, but before he could drop down and scamper off to mount a rescue operation, one of the monkey ninjas grabbed him and held him tight.
"I wouldn't start celebrating yet," Monkey Fist said, eyes trained firmly on Max. "The Han's future may be secure, whelp, but the same can hardly be said for you."
A/N:...I can explain.
Seriously, though, this chapter (or more specifically, the revelation we get near the end) has been a particularly big challenge for me to work out pretty much since I set down the plot for this fic. The "You already changed the past" trope is all good and well when it's used to throw a curveball against the heroes, but when it works in their favor, it can easily ruin all the tension in the story. Hopefully Monkey Fist's actions in the end here have done enough to prevent that. Suffice it to say, he's not out of the fight just yet; he just has to get a bit more creative.
And on the topic of explaining things, I actually have a pretty extensive headcanon for how time travel works in the KP world and what exactly was going on "between scenes" in A Sitch in Time. The simplified version is that the Tempus Simia creates stable time loops (although destroying it erases it from the timestream and undoes those time loops) while the chrono-manipulators used by the future Resistance can actually change the future. If anyone's interested in hearing the full details, I plan on writing a blog post about it when I complete this fic.