Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible. She is owned by Disney and Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley. Any original characters shown or mentioned belong to me and cannot be used without permission. Got it?

Maternal Instinct: Spotlight

Chapter 18: Zim Possible II-Hillside Chat

Zim let out a small breath as she finally made it to the top of the tallest hill in the city. While it was certainly a good exercise, the real reason she had climbed the grassy outcropping was sitting a few feet in front of her and staring wistfully at the sky. She moved quietly over to the red haired boy then held onto the skirt of her dress as she carefully sat down next to him and pulled her knees up to her chest. She laid her hands on her kneecaps and stared at him for a few seconds.

"Don, what are you doing up here?" she finally asked.

"Same thing I always do, admire the view," he replied, still staring upwards.

The green tinged girl turned her lavender eyes up as well and watched the clouds roll by in the artificial sky. Of course she knew he wasn't looking at the clouds or the clear blue sky but rather looking beyond them. As it turned out the hill was placed right below one of the gigantic windows on the outside of the colony and if one concentrated hard enough they could make out the inky blackness that lay beyond the fake sky. The side effect being the unique ability to see stars during the daylight. It was a beautiful, and slightly unnerving, sight.

"Still dreaming of outer space, huh?" Zim remarked.

"Well how could I not living in one of the colonies?" Don retorted. "I mean we're already kinda in space."

"Yeah just inside a gigantic metal structure with cities in it decided to keep us in and space out."

"Oh come on ZP haven't you ever thought of being out there?"

"Not. At. All," she almost growled.

Don chuckled and shook his head before he looked over at his life long friend.

"That's something I'm never gonna get about you Zim. I mean you do all those gymnastic flips and twirls and all that stuff, but you're afraid of flying," he mused.

"That's different!" Zim insisted.

"How?"

"One," she started, ticking the item off on her right index finger, "when I'm doing my gymnastics routine I'm in control of how I tumble and fall. Two, I'm never that far off the ground so even if I do I walk away with a few broken bones at worse. And three..." she flattered for a bit. "I just...don't like planes! So there!"

"You do know those are some pretty lame excuses, right?" Don smirked as he laid back with is hands tucked behind his head.

"Well they work well enough for me," she muttered, laying her hand on top of her hands.

"Is that why you always take those pills whenever we have to fly anywhere?"

"Yes."

"You know I thought you Possible women were suppose to be all about facing your fears and living life to the fullest and all that stuff."

"Says the man who's afraid of every tiny little bug he sees," Zim smirked.

A panicked look crossed Don's face. "That is different!"

"How?" she asked, fulling enjoying the sudden role reversal.

"Because bugs are creepy! Plus I don't trust anything with more than four legs!"

"Lame," she remarked, looking back up at the sky.

"Whatever," he muttered, going back to his star gazing.

The wind gently swept over them as they lapsed into a moment of comfortable silence. After a few minutes of staring upwards, Don's eyes turned to Zim and a crooked smiled crossed his face as a mischievous idea came to his mind.

"So...I guess a shuttle ride down to Earth sometime is out of the question, huh?" he said jokingly.

"God no!" Zim shouted, snapping her head towards him, her eyes wide in fright.

Don did his best efforts to keep his growing laughter inside but he just couldn't control it. He sat back up as he laughed loudly, his body shaking from the force of it. Zim growled and punched him as hard as she could in the arm.

"Ow!" he cried out, holding his now throbbing forearm as he fell down into the grass. "That hurt!"

"Well you deserve it!" she shot back, staring steely at him.

"I was just joking," he muttered as he pulled himself back up into a sitting position.

"It's nothing to joke about. You're never going to get me in one of those tin death machines!"

"Oh come on they're not that bad! I mean it's just like being in the colonies here."

Zim sharply shook her head. "No it's not. Here there a literally miles of steel and glass and tons of security systems between us and space. In one of the shuttles it's just a paper thin lining that has been known to rupture from time to time. I'll do a lot of risky things but taking the chance of freezing to death in space is not one of them."

"So I guess that means you don't have any real desire to visit Earth anytime soon, huh?" he asked.

"Not really. I mean I don't see what's so great about it. It's pretty much the same thing here as in the colonies."

"If by same thing you mean an actual atmosphere instead of a fake one and weather systems that aren't controlled, then yeah I guess you're right," he said sarcastically.

She studied him for a moment. "Do you really want to go to Earth that bad?"

He thought about it for a few seconds before he looked back up at the sky once more.

"Actually I really just want to go there," he said, pointing upwards. "To space. It just seems like such a cool thing."

"Well technically it is," Zim smirked.

He gave her a sideways glance. "You know what I mean. I just want to be out there! Exploring the galaxy! Finding new planets! Meeting alien species!"

"I think you've been watching too much sci fi again."

"No I'm serious ZP! And it's close to happening! I hear the Autobots are working with some of our best scientists to work their transwarp drives into human vessels. Within the next five to ten years we could have all kinds of ships that are capable of faster than light travel. We could be all over the universe!"

"I think I'll just say right here," she mused, leaning back on her arms.

"But think of all the adventures we could have!" Don shouted as he waved his arms around excitedly.

"We already have enough adventures as it is," she pointed out.

"Yeah I guess you're right," he sighed laying back down again. "Still..."

"Yeah I know."

Don focused his attention back on the sky and the stars that lay beyond it. His thoughts raced about what it would be like to be out there among them all. Going from planet to planet, system to system, wondering around like a wild bounty hunter and tracking down the baddies that way. And of course seducing a bunch of alien women. Mostly though he just thought of the freedom it would offer. As he thought it over, an old song started to come to the front of his mind. Without even realizing it he started to sing it aloud.

"Take my love

Take my land

Take me where I cannot stand

I don't care I'm still free

You can't take the sky from me

Take me out to the black

Tell I ain't comin' back.

Burn the land

And boil the sea

You can't take the sky from me.

There's no place I can be

Since I found Serenity

But you can't take the sky from me."

When he finished, his vision was slowly filled by the sight of Zim's face which has a very confused and concern look on it.

"What was that?!" she asked.

"I'm pretty sure it was the theme song to an old TV show. Early 21st century I think," he informed her.

She sighed and shook her head before she leaned back again.

"Told you you're watching too much sci fi."

"There's no such thing," he countered.

"Whatever."

"So..." he breathed trying to think of another subject to talk about. "I take it things are going good on the villain front since I haven't gotten a call for awhile."

"Yeah it seems like it's been pretty quiet lately," Zim mused. "Still I'm having Nanvel keeping an eye on things. Just in case."

"Sounds like a good plan," he nodded. "Still trying to find You Know Who?"

Zim let out a small growl as her fingers dug into the dirt, helped by the slight green glow that started to surround her hands. A scowl crossed her face as a deadly look came to her eyes.

"Jem Probable," she snarled. "That pink haired mercenary bimbo."

"Yeah that's her. So I guess we haven't found her yet?"

"No! And it's frustrating! I mean...why?! Why?! Why can't we find her?! And capture her!"

"Cause...she's that good?" Don offered.

Zim snapped her head towards him again, a fierce look burning in her lavender eyes.

"I'm better!" she growled.

"Okay, okay," he said quickly holding his hands up in defense. "I'm sorry. I'm sure we'll find her eventually and finally pin something on her."

"Damn right we will," she vowed.

She then took a few breaths to calm herself down and slowly dug her fingers out of the dirt. She then stood up and dusted of her skirt before she looked down at Don and offered him a hand to help him up.

"Come on space cadet," she said.

"What? We going somewhere?" he asked as he took her hand.

"Club Banana's having a sale on boots and I'm not going to miss it," Zim explained as she pulled him up.

"Shoe shopping," Don sighed and slumped his shoulders. "You know how much I hate this, right?"

"Yep," she smirked. "Consider it payback for making fun of me. And making me remember Jem."

"Man you can be downright mean when you want to be, you know that?"

Zim sighed and rolled her eyes. "Alright fine. How about this? After I get a couple good pairs of boots we'll head out see some mindless, overly violent action movie. Sound good?"

His expression picked up. "Now you're talking!"

"Figured that'd do it," she smirked as she turned and started down the hill.

Don continued to stand there for a few seconds and looked back up at the barely visible stars.

"Don't go away, because someday I will be up there, ya hear?" he said as he held up his right hand in the shape of a gun. "Bang."

The End

Author's Notes: Alright so I really wasn't expecting to use these characters again so soon but this hit me at work today and I just had to write it out. Mostly because I really liked it and partly to flesh Zim and Don out a bit as some people said I didn't get too far into their characters in the last story. Which is true so this is the response to that.

Also I just really wanted to write something. You see I was working on the first chapter to "Sidekick, No More" the next "big" MI fic and one I've noticed people have been wanting to see for awhile now. Unfortunately, last Thursday my laptop was hit by a pretty nasty computer virus and stopped working. Thankfully I went to Best Buy and had the Geek Squad to a data recovery so I didn't loose what I had of the chapter or any of my stuff. Which is great. I've reformatted the computer but hit a little snag in that it won't connect to the net now. So I'm going to call either Dell or Verizon or both probably on Friday to try to get it resolved then get the rest of the drivers I need and finally set it back up the way it was! So with some luck I can get back to writing "Sidekick, No More" at least by next week and get that chapter out then. Any wishes of luck you want to spend along would be appreciated.

Speaking of appreciation I have to give a shout out to my roommate Nate Z for being cool with me using this comp during this whole thing. I seriously appreciate it man and I'm going to get this taken care of soon so I won't be an annoyance to you anymore. So to say thanks I'm gonna post the link to his FF.N profile right here:

http:// .net /u/ 281690/ Nate_Z

If that worked just fill in the blanks to get the full link. If not then just look up "Nate Z" in the author's profile section and you should find him. Seriously check out his stuff it's really good.

Finally, Jem Probable is indeed the descendant to Slyrr's Grimm Probable and Rhonda Fatigable. Yes that's right there are going to be MI versions of them showing up in a fic or two. In fact the first one pits them again Jen Credible and her crew. It's one I've had in mind for awhile and Slyrr dude I'm really sorry it's taken me so long to get to it and I really appreciate your patience. Part of my New Year's Resolution was to get to those fics I've been putting off for various reason and this will be one of them. Along with my other KP universes and a few of my Non-KP ideas. So I'm hoping 2009 will be a big writing year for me. And that this thing with my laptop gets the really big bad thing out of the way so that the rest of it will be smooth sailing. Let's hope.

Oh and for anyone wondering, yes I initially named her Jem to not only fit the KP name scheme but as an homage to the old 80's cartoon. Thus why I had to mention she had pink hair as well. Why'd I do that? Because it makes me giggle.

Alright that's it for me, I'm gonna try to get my computer back online. Wish me luck!

Later guys!