Disclaimer: I do not own Kim possible.

Edit: I added a fair bit of more dialogue between Rose and Monique, as well as cleaning up a couple other things.

Thanks to Stormchaser90 for beta-reading.

Head of Global Justice Dr. Elizabeth Director sat in her office, pondering her latest problem. An epidemic of large-scale thefts had been taking place across the world, but no one could catch the culprits.

"Ma'am," an agent with long green hair stuck her head through the door.

"What is it, Agent Red?"

"Kim Possible's genius friend would like to talk to you. He seems rather concerned."

"Tell him I'll take his call in a minute."

Agent Red nodded and retreated into the hallway. "Boss seems rather moody lately. Wonder what's bugging her. Oh well, now's not the time for pointless speculation." She grinned. The hacker kid hadn't said much, but Red was sure Kim was in trouble. "If I can get this mission, It'll be the perfect opportunity to check my theory." She pulled out her radio and turned it on. "Garfield, Williams, meet me at the assembly room in five." The agent then made for the control room, running at almost superhuman speeds. She practically flew into the control room, every one looking up at her intrusion. Dashing over to the communications console, she shoved the agent sitting there out of way, opened up a conversation window, and informed Wade that Director would talk to him in a minute.

"How long is 'a minute'?"

"Well..."

"Let me guess. Something like an hour?"

"I don't know for sure. She's been devoting all of her time to this latest case. So far, she's been in her office for about three days now." Agent Red thought for a moment. "Tell you what, if you can give me an outline of what's going on, maybe I can-"

"That won't be necessary," Director announced walking into the room. She stared at the screen containing an image of Wade's concerned features. "What appears to be the problem Mr. Load?"

Wade launched into a spiel telling how Kim had received a hit on her site, which had asked her to come to the ruins of Drakken's Caribbean lair. When she arrived, she found a hatch set in the ground, which required her fingerprints. He had lost contact with her when she entered. "... and the Kimmunicator was just deactivated!" Wade finished his frantic rant.

"Calm down." Betty ordered."Where is Ron Stoppable?"

"He went on a trip to Japan." replied Wade. "Do you want me to call him?"

"Yes," Director replied. "Tell him to wait at his house. He will be contacted there. I'll take care of calling the parents." Wade nodded and the image disappeared. Betty turned to her communications officer. "Get Shego and Dr. Drakken on the phone," she requested.

-KP-

Shego lay on the bed in her motel room, listening to Drakken ranting outside the window, vainly trying to tune him out. When they had still been villains, she had made a show of pretending not hear him, but, no matter how hard she tried, the mad scientist's whiny voice was impossible to ignore. Right now, he was in the middle of trying to sell one of his inventions. It seemed important to him, for he had ordered her to drop whatever she was doing and come help him. Her ruminations were interrupted by her cellphone's ring-tone blaring out one of M. C. Honey's latest hits. She glanced at the caller i.d. and shook her head.

"What do you want?" she asked, answering the phone.

"I need you at Global Justice headquarters-," the crisp, clear voice of Dr. Director began.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop right there. I'm on vacation, and I'm not going anywhere. Got it?" Shego cut in.

"If you won't cooperate, may I speak to Dr. Drakken?"

"Yeah, well, um, he's kinda busy right now." Shego answered as the sound of Drakken's pleading voice drifted into the room. "As am I, so, if you don't mind, I'm gonna go back to relaxing." But before Shego could hang up, Director said one more thing.

"Kim Possible has gone missing."

"And this affects me, how?" Shego's tone of voice did not change, but she didn't hang up either.

"She disappeared while investigating one of the good doctor's lairs, the Caribbean one I believe." Director replied.

Shego froze. In slightly shaky voice she asked, "Are you sure it was the Caribbean lair?"

"Positive."

"I'll be over in a few minutes." Shego grabbed her flight suit and walked out the door. "I dearly hope I'm wrong," she thought to herself.

-KP-

"Well," Monique said, staring at the girl in front of her, "if you're not Kim, who are you?"

"It's a long story," the girl mumbled.

"I'm only interested in the reason why you're standing in front of me and Kim is not."

A long pause followed in which neither of the them spoke or moved. Finally the other girl sighed. "My name is Rose Imelda Possible. I am a Kim-clone created by Dr. Drakken to aid him in his fight against Kim Possible. Due to various reasons, Kim and I didn't meet each other until about three hours ago and we failed to get along. Kim doesn't like clones, and I lost control of myself."

"As far I can tell, you're the reason for Kim's absence, right?"

"Yep."

"And I'm guessing she won't be showing up any time to soon."

"Right again," Rose sighed.

"Okay, I won't ask what you did to Kim, that's between you and her. However, I am ordering you to finish her shift." At that, Rose's green eyes narrowed.

"And who do you think you are, giving orders to me?" Her voice grew hard.

"I think that you owe Kim this at least. Probably word of whatever you did to Kim isn't going to become public knowledge, seeing that a clone is involved. In that case, if someone doesn't cover for her, she'll be fired."

"So? Do it yourself."

"You know what, I think I will." Monique replied with a holier-than-thou tone to her voice. "Here's your jacket." She threw the leather jacket at Rose, who caught it and exited the store. But as she walked out onto the street, something pulled her back.

"I guess I do owe Kim. She'll be mad enough at me as it is." She turned around and headed back toward the store.

Monique sat at the desk fervently hoping no one would come along. Her hopes were shattered when Coco Banana himself walked through the door. "Kim's sunk," she told herself. She watched as the man approached the desk.

"Ah, Miss Jefferson. Where might I find Miss Possible?" Monique was steeling herself to tell him that Kim was not there, before she was stopped by a cheery voice from the back row.

"I'm right here, Mr. Banana. I was cleaning up a mess in a side aisle."

"Good, I have a matter of the greatest importance to discuss with you." Coco led 'Kim' into a back room.

Monique shook her head. Despite having only met Kim once under unfriendly circumstances, Rose was imitating the girl exactly. When Coco left the store, Rose wearily plodded to the counter.

"I hope that makes you happy," she gasped. "Kim takes interest in the most boring things."

Monique smiled. "It should help improve your position with Kim and family. Her dad is not gonna be too pleased to find out that you beat up his daughter."

"Yeah, that and the fact we met before."

"Wait, you know Kim's dad?"

"It was during the brain tap machine incident. We had a nice long talk, and I almost let him go. He doesn't remember me at the moment, but that'll change the instant he lays eyes on me."

Monique looked thoughtful for a moment. "Care to explain your earlier comment?"

"Which one?"

"The 'hands are stained with blood' one."

Rose frowned. "I'm not sure why I said that. I seem to be associating it with an Agent Alpha and something to do with the name of some constellation. Or I could have been referring to what I did to Kim."

"I hope you didn't hurt her too badly."

"Nothing I can't fix easily. I think her pride was wounded pretty badly, though. It's not every day someone comes along and puts her flat on her back. Now, I have a question for you."

"And what might that be?"

"Do you run into clones all the time? I mean, you stayed ridiculously calm when I told you I wasn't Kim."

Monique suddenly grew very serious. "When you've seen the things I have, it takes a lot to unbalance you."

Rose didn't push the topic and instead began unpacking newly arrived clothes. As she organized the latest fashions, she began to wonder why on earth she was helping Kim.

"I mean," she thought, "I'm sure she'll hate me anyway. I could sneak away right now and no one would be wiser."

"But Monique would want you to help," the voice of her conscience reminded her. Rose sighed.

"Here we go again." It wasn't that she disliked her conscience, in fact, it was very useful at some times. But other times, like right now, it was a pain in the neck.

"Well, if you would listen to me more often, I wouldn't have to do this," it shot at her.

"Please just shut up and go away. Are you here to torture me or something?"

"No, that was Gemini's department."

"Very funny. Wait, Gemini? Who's he and where did that come from?"

The usually talkative conscience fell silent.

"Oh, great. Now you choose to shut up." Rose picked up a collection of empty cardboard boxes and carried them outside for the recycle truck. When she came back in, Monique was sitting at the counter, staring into space. Rose sat down beside her.

"What's buggin' ya?"

Monique stirred. "Do you know why I moved to Middleton?"

"Um, no. Actually, I didn't know you existed before today."

"Oh, yeah, right." Monique gave a faint chuckle. "I'm forgetting that you're not Kim. Several years ago, my parents and I were watching a movie at home, when the doorbell rang. My father got up to answer it, and...," Monique stopped for a moment, "...didn't come back. There was a gunshot and my mother screamed for me to run upstairs and hide. I heard another shot, then footsteps coming up the stairs. In terror, I jumped out of the window in my room, all the way to the ground below. Fortunately, the neighbors heard all the commotion and called the police. But by the time they arrived, it was too late. Both of my parents were dead and the gang was long gone. Oddly enough though, they didn't take anything." Monique dried her slightly moist eyes with her sleeve.

"Ordinarily this where I would give you my handkerchief," Rose joked, "But I don't happen to have one."

Monique smiled. "Anyway, I swore that I would be prepared for anything after that. Of course, I still have my moments. Kim's also talked about people creating clones of her, and your initial behavior was not Kim-like at all."

"Do you remember the name of the gang?"

"I think they called themselves the Jupiter Gang."

Rose snarled. "Those scheming backstabbers!"

"You know them?"

"Heck, yeah. I was part of them, for about three weeks. Then Tommy..." she trailed off. "Never mind. Normally they just do the things any gang would do, but sometimes they take special assignments, like assassinations. Any reason why somebody would want your parents dead?"

Monique could think of one reason but decided against mentioning it. "No, not that I know of. I moved in with my grandparents here in Middleton. Money's short, though. We have just enough to survive on."

Rose nodded sympathetically. "Not to seem insensitive, but how much longer do I have to stay here?"

"Your, or more properly Kim's, shift ends at four." Monique gestured to the clock.

Rose glanced at it. "That's in half an hour. Why does four o'clock sound familiar? Oh yeah, that's right. The explosives I set up in the lair should be going off then."

Monique looked at her, blinking. "That wouldn't happen to be where Kim is right now, would it?" she asked worriedly.

Rose smacked her face. "Idiot! I knew I forgot something." She looked at Monique. "I suppose you want me to rescue her, if she's even still there."

"Of course."

"All right," Rose sighed. She activated the stolen Kimmunicator.

"Kim!" Wade cried as his face appeared, "Are you alright? And why are you in Middleton?"

Rose took a deep breath, quickly running over in head what she wanted to say. "Wade," she finally spoke, "you're going to have do everything I say without question or Kim is going to die. First, I need a ride to Drakken's Caribbean lair that is not provided by Global Justice or Shego, second, I need you to get hold of the aforementioned Global Justice and warn them not to send a search party, finally, I need you to do this without anyone knowing I'm not Kim. Did you get all of that?"

Wade nodded in confirmation and signed out. Within a minute, he was back again.

"Well?" Rose inquired.

"I've got bad news. GJ already sent a search party and it's too late to call them back."

"Any good news?"

"It's a mixed bag. I was able to keep Director from getting too suspicious, but she's definitely curious."

"Great, the last thing I need is Betty sticking her nose in my business. Anything else?"

"The only ride close and fast enough is a hypersonic hover jet currently being tested Kim's dad and brothers. Fortunately, I was also able convince Director not to tell Kim's parents that their daughter is missing, so that won't be an issue."

"Thanks Wade. Oh, and by the way, my name's Rose."

Wade nodded and disappeared from the screen. Rose turned to Monique who shook her head.

"I still don't see how someone could forget that they were gonna blow something up."

Rose grinned sheepishly. "That's the story of my life. Always forgetting things."

Monique shook her head again as Rose dived into the restroom to change into her copy of Kim's mission gear.

Five minutes later, Rose was seated between Kim's brothers in the back of the hover jet, fervently hoping they would make it to the lair in time.

"So Kimmie-cub," Mr. Possible called back, "why go to the same place twice in a day?"

'His daughter' hesitated a moment. "It's top-secret, Dad," she replied. "But if we don't get to the lair in ten minutes, the world as we know it will be changed forever."

Dr. P. chuckled. "That's good enough for me." He pushed the accelerator to full. "Kids these days," he said wistfully to himself. "Reminds me of back when..."

When they arrived over the island, Rose glanced at the Kimmunicator's stopwatch. She had five minutes. Standing up quickly, she grabbed a parachute, strapped it to her back, and walked towards the craft's opening door. She paused a moment before jumping.

"Thanks for the ride, James."

"You're welcome Kimmie-cub. Wait. What did she just call me?"

-KP-

Down below, Shego, Agent Red, Agent Williams, and Agent Garfield stood in front of the very obvious hatch in the ground. Shego promptly melted it with her plasma and dropped into the hole. Agent Red turned around and looked at her companions.

"Garfield, you stay put here. If you see so much as an ant, sing out. Williams, you're with me."

Both of them nodded and Agent Garfield took his position several yards away. He was expecting to sit there till the others got back, doing absolutely nothing. You can imagine his surprise when he saw a hover jet fly over the island. To add to his amazement, a figure jumped from the craft and rocketed toward the ground, waiting until the last minute to pull its parachute. Agent Garfield whipped out a pair of binoculars and took a closer look before quickly putting them down.

"Agent Red," he hastily called into his radio, "believe it or not I just spotted Kim, parachuting onto the island."

"Are you sure it was Kim?" Shego's voice demanded.

"Yes, why?"

"We just ran across Kim ourselves, down here."

-KP-

Rose hit the ground running and raced for the hatch.

"Outta the way!" she yelled at the man who was standing there. Pushing past him, she vaulted into the hole, desperately trying to remember where she had planted the explosives. She let her feet guide her through the many passageways, finally arriving at something of a control room. Quickly glancing at a diagram of the complex, she guessed at the locations of the explosives and took off running again. When she arrived at the first cache, she pulled out a knife and with a quick slash severed a group of wires, effectively disabling the unstable explosives. The second cache was merely a couple halls down, and Rose repeated the process there. As she raced for the third cache, she looked at the Kimmunicator and noticed she had one minute left. The hallways felt endless and Rose could swear she had been running for an hour. She finally reached the place she had thought would be the cache and found... nothing.

"Oh, shoot," was her last thought as she watched the countdown timer reach zero.

(Big grin.) Cliff hanger! How will Rose get out this mess? What new friends will she meet? Will Kim be all right? And where does Ron fit into this? Find out in the next amazing chapter, Into Shadow!