Nothing: Middle English, from Old English nān thing, nāthing, from nān no + thing thing — more at none. First Known Use: before 12th century.
1: not any thing : no thing leaves nothing to the imagination
2: no part
3: one of no interest, value, or consequence they mean nothing to me
— nothing doing
: by no means : definitely no
— nothing for it
: no alternative nothing for it but to start over.
Nowhere
The Nothing
There was no light.
There was no dark.
No up, no down.
No right, no left.
No forward.
No backward.
There simply wasn't.
In the midst of this open expanse of nothing that had neither beginning nor end, a golden pinprick of light floated along.
Something in the Nothing.
Tumbling along like a leaf on the wind, the golden bit of light swirled about as the nothingness struggled to crush it but failed with every attempt.
Inside the golden dot Kim Possible groaned in agony as her stomach lurched up into her throat as the machine fell through the nothing, "Make it stop," she moaned as she felt the machine tumble in the nothing.
As if on command, her descent slow before finally stopping completely and she was left hanging in the emptiness.
She took a deep breath, "What's next?" she asked no one in particular.
She knew she should feel angry, upset, maybe even sad over the loss of all the universes but right now she was simply in a state of shock having come to the realization that all she had ever known was now completely gone.
"Can you get that door open?"
Kim looked around into the nothing as a female voice that sounded so familiar echoed around her.
"Hello?" Kim called out hesitantly, "Is someone there?"
Nothing.
Kim nodded-
"Bob get the door open now. I don't want to be here when the neighbors come out to see who's making all this noise."
The voice sounded agitated and Kim was left wondering who the owner of that voice was even as it echoed around the machine.
"Creator," Kim said aloud, "…Real Sidekick, I need you to give me a clue as to what I need to do."
She didn't notice it at first, how could she?
A tiny inconsequential blinking green light near her feet but Kim didn't notice it when it came on.
"Great," she muttered as she sank against the crystalline walls of the machine that had now become both her ark and her prison.
"What do you mean you can't get the door open," the voice was getting very angry, almost to the point of rage, "People are probably calling the police right now…Wolf!"
Kim shook her head at the voice, "I don't know who you are but I'm pretty sure you're not going to help me…"
She trailed off as she stared into the nothingness surrounding her machine, her eyes fixating on one of the items without seeing a thing.
A light suddenly blinded Kim and she brought her hand to her face but even before she cover her eyes, the light was gone.
She shook her head-and it was back again: a glimmer of light that blinded her in the eyes but just as quickly would disappear.
Kim looked around the machine in confusion; hoping to discover the source of the blinding light. And then she saw it.
The ring.
In one of the arms extending from off the base of the machine, encased in a smaller version of the crystalline pod she now sat in was Josh's ring. The ring slowly spun in the confines of its prison, light shining into the nothingness that surrounded Kim. Every time the light passed her by the light blinded her and her eyes followed the beam of light if only out of boredom.
Her eyes noted the beam traveled in a large circle, almost like a lighthouse guiding a lost ship.
Guide…Kim thought back to the chant,
"His love not returned will guide her and stay with her when she becomes lost…" Kim recited as she suddenly realized she was looking at her next clue.
One traveler for the journey to the creator,
as power from beyond the stars will fuel her machine.
His love not returned will guide her and stay with her when she becomes lost.
The symbol of royalty will open the doors closed to her and the machine will carry her
even as the soul of an immortal protects her.
Kim thought back to the chant and started sounding out the clues, "I'm the traveler on my way to the creator," a mental check, "Shego's power from beyond the stars is powering the machine," another mental check, "So that means that Josh's ring is going to guide me. But how?"
Kim looked around the crystalline pod she was in and decided to wait and just watch what happened next.
The beam of light spun around the machine and her eyes never left the light. The beam of light illuminated the tiny light at the base of her pod and she gasped in wonder at the tiny green light.
Reaching a tentative finger out, Kim touched the light but just as quickly jerked her hand away as the light was really a button and once she pushed the faint vibration Kim had been feeling ever since the machine started transformed into a loud roar.
Without warning, the machine rocketed upwards into the nothingness, the only way Kim could tell she was rocketing upwards was because she found herself pressed into the floor of the crystalline pod at the sudden acceleration.
She slowly pushed her body up and into a seated position and looked upwards as she continued to fly upwards through the nothingness. Something swirled outside her golden machine and Kim watched with mouth agape as a blue glow surrounded her machine and whipped about as if she was standing in the midst of a fire.
"The soul of an immortal protects her. Thank you Ron," Kim breathed as the nothingness tried to crush her fast traveling machine. The Mystical Monkey Power lashed out, creating a narrow path through the nothingness that led the machine upwards her goal.
The golden machine rocketed upwards through the blank nothingness, a fiery trail of the deepest emerald trailing from beneath it.
Upwards the machine continued to travel, it could have been for seconds or eons that she traveled, time had no meaning here.
Still she traveled.
And traveled.
And traveled..
And traveled…
Nowhere
The Nothing
After what seemed like several hours, Kim felt the machine start to slow and she stood up, the vibrations starting to weaken.
She looked up from her seated position and looked as something appeared before her in The Nothing.
She cocked her head to the side as the Machine stopped outside the only constant in this Nothing.
A Crack.
Even in the midst of this Nothing, a crack in the very fabric of reality, or rather unreality, existed.
Several meters high it stood against the raw power of Nothing, an energy rift of a deep purple hue burst forth.
Streamers of energy rippling at its edges crackling and wafting out into the Nothing that was trying so desperately to push into this crack but against all odds, the Nothing was pushed back.
White light of the purest form poured through the crack, shining forth into the Nothing but never overcoming the chaos.
Instead the light held the chaos, the emptiness, at bay.
The crack was barely large enough for a person to walk through but Kim knew beyond the shadow of a doubt she needed to pass through that crack.
The Machine slowed to a stop outside the crack and Kim pounded against the crystalline glass, "What are you doing?!" she shouted, "Take me through the crack!"
The Machine didn't respond but instead powered down, floating in Nothing just meters from the Crack.
Kim shielded her eyes from the light that poured from the Crack but as she looked around the Machine she realized she had no way to move the Machine forward.
She leaned against the wall and slid dejectedly to the golden floor, to have come so close only to fail…
Kim looked down at the bottom of the pod and saw the blinking green button reappear. Cautiously, Kim reached down and pushed it again.
Silently, a gold like liquid pooled outside her crystalline pod and rose up the clear exterior. It covered the outside of her pod with a sound of pouring water accompanying it and before she could react, Kim's pod was completely covered in the gold material, all outside sight of the Crack and the beautiful white light was gone.
In the darkness from inside the pod, Kim could only hear her labored breathing.
"Just breathe Kim," she whispered to herself as she fought to keep from panicking.
Darkness
"Breathe…"
The darkness was swallowing-
"Breathe…"
A tiny gleam of light appeared at the top of the pod and slowly traced its way down the side of the pod.
Then another.
And another.
Soon little streams of light were falling down the sides of the pod all around her almost like she was looking through a window outside in to the middle of a rain storm. Rain droplets of white light traced their way down the inside of the almost egg shaped pod Kim stood in, each droplet leaving behind a path of light.
To Kim it appeared like the droplets of light were showing a world beyond narrow confines of the pod.
"This is impossible," she whispered as the white erased the darkness and burst into her sight.
The white light blinded Kim and she held a hand up to her eyes as the white light cut through her eyelids. She put her free hand out to support herself against the sides of the pod but found the walls mysteriously gone. With no support, Kim fell to the ground and groaned as she hit the ground with a resounding thud.
As her eyes adjusted to the white light, Kim looked up from the ground and noticed a large black object that was out of focus as she struggled to adjust to the sudden light.
When her eyes had adjusted to the brightness, Kim looked on in confusion as the large black object actually turned out to be a large gray door that had enormous patches of rust covering the parts that were not gray.
A door wouldn't normally be out of place, but this was a door that stood in the middle of the room with nothing around to support it up. From Kim's vantage point she saw the door had nothing behind it to connect the door to.
Her eyes narrowed and she looked around her new location to figure out what this meant.
Kim looked around but found herself completely alone in a large white corridor with the gray door capping one end and on the other-
"This is impossible," Kim breathed as she walked towards a crack on the far end of the corridor.
She reached the edge of the corridor and stared out into Nothing that rested beyond the edges of the Crack.
Floating just out of reach rested the golden Machine, now missing the crystalline pod that had held her. Kim watched the machine floating amid the paradoxes and chaos before she turned back to the gray door.
Her eyes journeyed back from where she was standing to where she had been and shook her head at the confusion brought on by the Machine.
A final head shake and she turned her back on the machine and started walking towards the gray door.
She walked up to the door and grasping the handle firmly in her hand she gave a tiny smile, "It's all over."
Clang
The door opened to the white corridor Kim was still in.
She stepped through the door and found herself staring at the other side of the door, "What?"
She closed the door and opened it again.
Nothing.
She tried for several more tries but nothing.
Kim swore under her breath but a thought suddenly appeared in her mind, "It can't be that simple," she muttered to herself.
She looked at the front of the door again and saw a tiny outline in the front of the door, "Symbol of Royalty?"
Kim leaned back and placed her hands on her hips and felt something in the front pocket of her tan cargo pants.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a bloody flag, "I don't know how you got into my pants pocket but this will do the job."
Kim flattened the broken flag out on the door and placed it in the tiny outline only to watch in amazement as the flag was absorbed into the door. From the imprint on the door, color radiated to the rest of the door like roots of a tree. Soon, the gray and rust colors of the door were replaced by a purple glossy paint that glimmered and sparkled as if newly made.
Kim reached out a hand and tentatively turned the handle.
The door swung open with hardly a sound and inside a long circular corridor with a myriad of colors at the end greeted her.
Kim took a step into the door and as soon as she was inside the door closed shut behind her with a resounding-
CLANG
Kim shivered involuntarily and took a deep breath as she walked confidently through the swirling tunnel of darkness towards the colors that lay beyond the edge of the tunnel.
As she neared the end of the tunnel, the colors rearranged themselves into-
"Oh…wow," Kim gasped as she realized what she was looking at.
The Crack
Between Reality
Ordinarily a mirror would be nothing worth noting but rather than reflect just the viewer, this mirror reflected both the viewer and other objects. As Kim neared the mirror she saw her reflection moving with her but with every step she took the mirror changed around her reflection.
Kim stared at herself but she was four years old and she was back in prekindergarten. She stopped momentarily and watched as a series of three boys surrounded her and knocked her little red ball away. As she fought to keep from crying the three boys looked up in terror but were knocked backwards as four year old Ron Stoppable jumped into the fray but was swiftly beaten up until Kim came and saved him.
Kim took another step and the mirror swirled again to show her a scene of her running through the hallways of her high school. She vaulted over students and teachers alike, silently shouting her apologies to those she hit as she raced to her locker. Upon opening her locker Kim looked for her print button and tried to print off her paper.
She took another step forward and saw herself squaring off against a large, mutated octopus in what looked like a death trap.
As Kim neared the mirror she watched as moments in her life appeared in reflection but only for a moment as the mirror changed with each step. As she approached the mirror her life continued to pass by.
Her first kiss with Ron, a fight with Ron in Bueno Nacho as Professor Dementor looked on with glee.
Her teaming up with Shego as a horde of Wegos swarmed them. In the background Kim saw Zorpox fighting Electronique for dominance of the Attitudinator with neither side winning.
She fought Warhok and Warmonga only to fail but at the last minute Ron saved her as he unleashed all his Mystical Monkey Power.
A final step and Kim saw her reflection change to a behind the shoulder shot of her staring at the mirror.
Kim looked up as she noticed words inscribed on top of the mirror.
"Ore realitatem," Kim said aloud. Thinking back to her Latin class she had taken with Ron she translated slowly aloud, "Edge of Reality."
Almost like one watching their life flash before their eyes before they died-
Kim's eyes widened as she realized the true purpose of the mirror being here: everything in the mirror, everything she had seen, had been her life up until this point. The reason it stopped was because there was nothing left to show her.
She reached out a hand and leaned against the reflective surface only to recoil in wonder as the mirror's surface tilted inward.
Kim touched the mirror's surface again and felt her hand sink into the reflection but quickly pulled it back.
"Either I live or I die," Kim said to herself as she took a deep breath, "But I can't stop here," a pause as she dusted her pants nervously, "Not now."
She reached out a hand to touch the mirror and felt the reflective glass bend in her hand as she pushed into the mirror.
Like a cloth, the mirror curved around her hand and with each passing moment Kim pushed deeper and deeper into the mirror.
Her hand was soon lost to the mirror.
Next went her arm.
Then her shoulder.
Kim pushed into the mirror with her leg and felt the leg be consumed by the mirror.
Then her other leg.
Kim took a final deep breath and pushed the rest of her body into the mirror.
The soft and pliable surface of the mirror wrapped around Kim and hampered her movements but still she pushed on, all the while feeling a tingling at the base of her skull.
She continued into the mirror and soon the tingling grew into enormous pain that felt almost like her skull was being torn out.
Still she pressed on.
She screamed into the mirror as the pain doubled in sensitivity with each step.
Still she pressed on.
Nearing the end of her limit Kim felt something tugging at her. It wasn't tugging her back but she felt like she was being pulled forward.
The pain still continued to grow but renewed by being led forward, Kim trudged along through the confines of the mirror.
Minutes later, the pain grew too much for Kim and she collapsed to her knees even as she felt the tugging pull her through the mirror.
Kim struggled to see through the pain and watched in wonder as her world swirled into stars and colors that slowly meshed together until they faded into her blackness that came from unconsciousness.
Just before the blackness claimed her, Kim's world exploded into light and she found herself standing in the most peculiar place.
July 9th, 2012
Los Angeles, California
9:00 P.M.
The Real Sidekick slowly opened his eyes, groaning as his world swam into focus.
"Real?" he heard his sister ask as if from far away, "How do you feel?"
"Like the morning after finals," he groaned in agony as he closed his eyes in pain.
He heard her snort, "He'll be fine in the morning."
"We don't have until morning," a different voice said.
"We need to speak to him now," a second voice agreed.
"Well if you try to talk to him, you might kill him," SilverWolf05 explained.
"Are you a doctor?" the first voice asked.
"No," she replied, "But I am his sister so that makes me the most qualified person to talk to about his health."
"Will he die?" the second voice asked.
"Not right now, but he'll have a bad headache throughout it all," Wolf said begrudgingly.
"We'll chance that," the first one said as he pulled The Real Sidekick to his feet, "Sidekick?"
"Oh hi Bob," Sidekick mumbled weakly, "Long time no see."
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" the second voice asked angrily.
"I've saved her Mark," Sidekick answered with a glint in his eye, "Kim is coming here."
"If you do that, you kill us all," Mark said.
"And why is that?" Sidekick replied, "Afraid she'll collapse reality or something like that?"
He saw Mark's face tighten, "If you bring her in here, you'll kill us all. Physically bringing a cartoon into our world will collapse reality." He paused, "and yes I know how overly dramatic that sounded but a two dimensional object in a three dimensional world will collapse everything."
"Well then I suppose it's a good thing I'm not bringing her body here," Sidekick smiled.
Bob loosened his grip as he realized what The Real Sidekick meant, "How?"
"Where is he?" a female voice shouted through Sidekick's haze, interrupting his answer, "I've got a horrible headache and I really don't want to look for him anymore."
"Creedence," he laughed, "glad to see you're here."
"You know I always hated that name you gave me," she said.
"Well your initials are CCR," he retorted, "I think it fits."
"Christy Carlson Romano," she said as she pushed aside Mark, "Christy. Carlson. Romano. You never bothered to learn my name."
Sidekick smiled, "I learned your name when you were on the show," a weak chuckle, "I knew each and every one of your character's names."
Christy appeared unfazed, "That was a long time ago. We've moved on."
"Well a few of us don't think so," he replied.
Christy turned to Bob, "What do we do now?"
Bob looked at Christy from the corner of his eye, "Check his computer and find out where he left Kim at."
Christy turned to Sidekick's computer and clicked at the screen before turning back to the group, "Something about a mirror that Kim is pushing through," she paused, "That makes no sense."
"You will shortly," Sidekick smiled slightly.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Christy asked absently as she rubbed at her temple in an effort to stem the sharp pain blossoming in her skull.
Sidekick didn't answer her question but instead nodded to her condition, "You know what's causing that headache," a pause, "Don't you?"
"Shut up," Christy said.
"And you're helpless to stop it," he taunted.
"I said shut up," Christy turned away.
"How does it feel to be helpless knowing that despite your best efforts," Sidekick shrugged, "Which admittedly weren't much, you still failed?" he asked.
"Shut. Up." She ordered sternly.
"It's too late," Sidekick warned, "She's already coming."
"Impossible," Bob said, "We've stopped you."
"No, I've got all the pieces in place and even better," Sidekick smiled and bowed slightly, not an easy task for him as he was still held in the grip of Bob, "This is my favorite part, you were so focused on me that you forgot completely about where Kim is going to show up, or actually whose body she was going to show up in," he paused as he realized that didn't make sense, "Right Christy?"
The Traveler and the Vessel of Voice
Two sides of the same coin
Sisters in blood and bond
Now forever joined.
Christy looked up in horror as she heard the second half of the chant echo through her skull, "No," she pleaded, "Please don't."
Bob felt the blood drain from his face, "You can't have."
"Just like I'm able to enter her universe through Tam, so Kim enters through…" Sidekick trailed off as Christy collapsed to the ground.
Mark was at her side in an instant, "What did you do to her?" he growled.
"Nothing," came the cryptic answer, "Christy is fine."
"What did you do to her?" Bob asked angrily and tightened his grip on the Real Sidekick's collar, "Answer me Matthew!"
Hearing his real name spoken aloud Matthew turned to Bob, "Ask her."
Mark looked from Christy to Sidekick whose lips were moving silently and his eyes appeared to be looking off into the distance, "What are you doing?"
"Finding Kim's place in the story," Sidekick looked at Mark, an evil smile on his face, "…and here it is!"
Nowhere
The Nothing
In the midst of The Nothing, the Machine floated, a forgotten golden of light constantly buffeted by the relentless power of Nothing.
It started slowly but in moments the Machine was covered in a blue glow as the golden metal began to glow.
Green plasma poured from the Machine, mixing with the Mystical Monkey Power and the two lights condensed to the size of a pinprick.
The Nothing watched the Machine with a mixture of curiosity and confusion as the light seemed to vanish.
But not for long.
Like a bomb bursting, light exploded from the pinprick as the two combined powers pushed back the Nothing, in the process propelling the Machine towards a crack in the reality of Nothing.
July 9th, 2012
Los Angeles, California
9:03 P.M.
So many loud voices.
Kim couldn't make heads from tails as her world consisted of colors and shapes that blurred together all over a cacophony of noise. She pulled her hands up to her ears and curled up into a fetal position, not caring about the medium length brown hair that tumbled over her face.
She felt a pair of hands tugging at the hands and she slowly let her hands fall away, "Ow," she whispered.
"Christy?" she heard a middle aged man ask her, "Are you all right?"
Kim shook her head, "Who?"
She looked around the room she was in and saw two men up against the wall, one slowly being choked as they both looked at her with mouths wide open.
"What?" Kim asked.
The man being choked broke free from the choke and slowly made his way to Kim.
Approaching her, dropped slowly to his knees in reverence as he extended a frail hand, "Good evening Kim. My name is Matthew, but you know me better as The Real Sidekick," he paused and looked around his apartment, "Welcome to the real world."
Disclaimer: I own Nothing, Disney owns the rest.
Author's Notes: So here we are entering the home stretch and only a few chapters to go before that will be the end of Fractured. I wouldn't be lying if I said I wasn't dreading the end. Although it will be nice to not have to worry about editing the next chapter.
Special thanks this week goes to Katsumara (Easy buddy, pace yourself), CajunBear73 (The only Universe that actually survived was one where 73 bears populated the...don't give me that look. It's late an I'm tired), Eddy13 (I like to make things as bleak and hopeless as they can get. That way the light is that much brighter.), Sentinel103 (We all die, but what we choose to do with the life given to us...), Darev (I'd like to think we're more than just characters in a FF but then again, so do the characters in this story), and Twuscany (The end is always in sight, it just takes some of us longer to get there).
And to you, the ever silent reader. Thank you for reading this and sticking through all the way to the end. As always, if you have a comment, question, concern or just want to sing my praise, review.
Until next time,
TRS