Calm before the Storm
A Kim Possible Fanfiction
immo
Author's note: Before I head off to Korea for some fun times, I guess you guys deserve a little something something. :P I wanna say to all of you with the reviews and comments--disgruntled grumblings included--were much appreciated. They kicked me back on to the writing block and ideas have been flowing through my head lately. Its all a matter of trying to write it all down.
And I truly truly mean it to all of you who have taken the time to write to me. Thank you so much. I'm not much for calling people out, but y'all know who you are :) One of these days, I'll get around to thanking you all personally, promise. :D
"Good boy," Lang said quietly. The dog sat there, panting happily, waiting for the man. Lang had left the encampment, unsure of what to do, with a ragtag group of hunters with him, all following him, trusting that he would do the right thing.
He had had several violent encounters with the monks. They had been righteously furious about the Hunters killing two of their people. At the last encounter, Lang had managed to get a monk aside and pres a note into the monk's hand before retreating.
What his father was doing... Lang didn't agree with. He had watched stoicly as his father had beat Tim until his back was raw, watched Tim's twin brother scream until his voice broke. He had watched all of this without batting an eye, but his insides twisted with horror at what was happening.
A muddy dog, indistinguishable from the various strays that wandered through the village, had arrived at the village shortly after the altercation with a note for him that said simply 'follow me'. Lang had slowly gathered a small group of his most trusted men and women, then had left at night under the pretense of patrolling.
And now, here they were, following the german shepherd to god knows where--
"Hands up where we can see them." A voice called out to them from the darkness of the woods. The dog had finally stopped in a large clearing, an hour after leading them out of the village. And from nothingness, several monks and a blue man stepped out of the trees. The dog that had lead them here left their side to stand beside the cerulean man.
"Heen's son." One of the monks hissed. "Tell us why we should trust you?"
"I don't want this." Lang motioned for his people to stand down as they shifted restlessly, skittish and uncomfortable in the knowledge that they were probably surrounded on all sides. If a fight did break out, they would most likely suffer heavy losses.
"I didn't know what my father was doing, but that's no excuse. I want... I need your help. If I were to bring Tim out... well, the whole village would string us up." Lang had no illusions about what he was doing. He was betraying his people and he felt slightly sick at the thought. But... what he was doing was right.
The woman at his side, one of his best friends since he was young, put a hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture.
"WE... we're all here to help. We're sorry for what has happened and we want to make it right." Ka Yi spoke up, her hand leaving Lang's shoulder as she spoke up. "We hunt the other-folk. But we don't hurt humans."
A murmur rose up around them. "What has happened to Jim and Tim?"
"Jim and Tim?" The blue man caught the names. "What happened to the boys?"
"My father," Lang's voice was tight with shame, as he answered the man in English. "My father had him flogged when he couldn't answer any of the questions we had."
"What questions?" Dr. Lipsky wrung his hands in agitation.
"Is it not obvious?" Another man stepped out of the darkness and Lang and the rest of the hunters immediately stiffened, fighting against their instincts to attack this man. The feel of his 'otherness' set their teeth on edge.
"They want to know where I am. And how to get me back." Haoxian's voice was a low growl, his anger apparent. "And what do you want? Me in chains, dragged back to your village? Put back in my prison?"
Lang opened his mouth to speak, but Haoxian wasn't done.
"Because if that's what it takes, I will do it."
"What?" Almost everybody looked at the young man in shock. He shrugged.
"Why are you surprised?"
"You've--you've been wanting to escape since forever!" Lang blurted out, reverting to Chinese in his shock.
"And I will do it again. But my freedom is not worth Tim's suffering." Haoxian asserted strongly, though his body shoke at the thought.
"What's this one person worth to you?" Lang asked, amazed. "You're just an animal--"
"He was the first one in a long time who did not treat me as such." Haoxian whispered. With Tim's simple kindness, his ready trust, the Possible twin had given him back the dignity that had been robbed from him when he had been put away. Treated like an animal, beaten to the ground and dragged back whenever he ran away. Before, he had been afraid to go back, terrorized at the very thought of it. But now, Haoxian knew he could stand it, he wouldn't lose his mind in his prison.
And he could always escape again.
"So?" Haoxian straightened up. "Do we have a deal?"
"We didn't come to negotiate taking you back with us." Lang said, after a moment's pause. "We came to switch sides. We'll give you back Tim and Jim in exchange for taking us in."
Haoxian visibly relaxed, as another person stepped out of the shadows now. This person had an uncanny resemblance to the twins, maybe something about the shape of her eyes. Her red hair was a dead giveaway, though. Lang had remembered hearing that she had been up in Er Mei while the green snake's disciple had been around. Two other people appeared beside her; a freckled young man with a face that seemed open and kind and a young dark-skinned woman, her eyes darting uneasily from the redhead to Lang and his group.
"You must be... Kim Possible."
"I am." Kim's eyes were hard, shining like small semi-precious stones. She looked emancipated and ready to keel over from sheer exhaustion, but the set of her jaws told him she wouldn't be budged. "How are you going to bring my brothers back to us?"
"We'll sneak them out tomorrow night. Another patrol. This time, we'll hide Tim and Jim in the group, in our clothing."
"Can we trust you?" The dark-skinned woman asked, her worry apparent in the way she was wringing her hands. "How do we know you're not just setting us up for something?"
"You don't." Lang answered truthfully. "And its not likely, since we're bringing them out to you. Once we do that, we're marked by our own people. They'll come gunning for us just as hard as they've been gunning for that creature with you. It's all in your hands. We're putting our necks out."
"His name is Haoxian." Dr. Lipsky snapped, not liking how they kept referring to the Asian man as a 'creature' or an animal.
Kim stared at the men and women in the clearing, studying them carefully. The she nodded and motioned to the dog who had lead them to the clearing. "Take Tigger with you."
"He'll help out. We can't get too close to your encampment." Dr. Lipsky added eagerly, kneeling down on one knee to rub the top of the german shepherd's head affectionately. "He's a good boy, aren't you? You're such a good boy!"
"I don't think a dog's going to be much help, ah Lang." Ka Yi whispered to her friend. "It just might get in the way."
"I don't think she's asking us." Lang said carefully. "Anyways, what harm can he do? He's just a dog. And dirty as hell. He'll blend in with the rest of the strays we have at home."
The word 'home' made Lang wince a bit.
"Why are you doing this?" The freckled man next to Kim Possible asked quietly, but his voice was heard in the silence. "Why are you helping us?"
Lang took a deep breath, then exhaled it shakily. "I... am betraying my clan. I understand that completely and so does everyone here. But... we want to do what's right. Even if it means giving up our ways, we have to do what's right. What we're doing now is wrong and no excuses I could make for our leader--my father, could make it right. So we're trying to fix it."
"Do you trust them?"
Kim had been sitting in the room the monks had given her, legs drawn up to her chest and eyes closed, meditating. Ron's voice shook her out of her reverie and she gave him a small smile before motioning for him to take a seat at the lone table in the room and stood up to join him there.
"I don't trust them at all." Kim sat down across from Ron and answered simply, shrugging. "That's why I needed Tigger to go with them. If anything seemed odd, he could defend himself and he'd be able to come back and tell us quickly. Jim's dog is about as smart as Rufus. Maybe smarter."
"Hey!" The hairless molerat popped out of Ron's shirt pocket, looking scandalized. The hairless rodent placed a paw on his chest, patting himself while chittering angrily. "Smart-er! Smarter!"
Kim let herself smile at the indignant molerat. "Sorry, Rufus. My mistake. You're definitely smarter than Tigger."
"Hmph." Rufus crossed his arms, still ruffled but calming quickly.
"Guess we'll find out tonight, huh?" Ron rubbed his arms subconsciously, feeling a bit nervous. They would rendezvous at the same clearing they met at last night. What if something went wrong?
"Don't think about it, Ron. Lets talk about something else. How's Nam Ho?" Kim asked after the abbot. They had come down from the mountain to a pretty big mess. The hunters, a clan made up of ex-monks that had disagreed long ago with the tolerant approach to the other-folk, had attacked the abbot and his five accompanying monks at a simple meeting. Two of the monks had died, but Nam Ho and his remaining companions had escaped with heavy injuries.
"He's resting." Ron shrugged, uncomfortable with this topic. Sure, he got the occassional bruises and scratches from missions. But having seen the abbot lying there comatose on his bed, attended to by those monks who had medical knowledge... wrapped up in bandages, breathing shallowly...
"Its just a chest wound..." Ron knew he was playing in a different ball game. People were dying. And there was nothing Team Possible could do about this. Damn it, part of Team Possible was being held hostage by the crazies!
"And Haoxian?" Kim closed her eyes, concentrating on the red gem hanging, hidden underneath her shirt. Things were looking grim, but just the thought that she could possibly do all of this, get everything together... she'd be able to find Shego.
"He's studying in the library with the other monks." Ron rubbed the back of his neck. "He's been trying to look for an answer to a question that Tim asked him before he was kidnapped."
Kim perked up. "What was it?"
"Uh, 'how did they catch your father'?" Ron scrunched up his face, remembering Haoxian's excitement and some of the research-type monks scouring the shelves upon shelves of books, scrolls and parchment in their huge library for the answer. "Um, Kim, Michelle's village wanted to--"
"I don't want to talk to them." Kim felt anger flare deep inside her chest. The matriarch of the village, Grandma Lo, shrugged when Michelle and Kim confronted her with what they had found out. She had been told to, she had explained. The elders all had known, but they didn't say anything. And they hadn't wanted Kim back until it seemed that she might have accidentally found out because Shego and her companions' activities would make the news.
Then Mrs. Fox--Red--had been ordered to keep Kim around until things had been resolved. Kim had been played for a fool. They all had. Those old cronies, those elders of She Cun were as devious as snakes. If it weren't for the fox's change of mind, Kim would've still been up there, in a pleasant haze, unwilling to leave.
Vince, Michelle and their baby had moved out of the village too, not happy about being an unknowing participant in the whole scheme. Michelle was also, for reasons Kim sort of understood, a little bit pissed off at her.
"Okay." Ron saw the set of Kim's jaw and wisely left it alone. It was the was the same old, anyways. They wanted to reason with Kim and told her to just stay out of the way. That they would take care of her, take care of everything. They wanted her safe.
Ron did too, but seeing Kim actually asserting herself and being proactive was better than seeing her half-dead with grief over Shego.
Shego...
"Kim..." Ron cleared his throat, not knowing where to start. "Um... You and Shego were... you two were kinda close, huh?"
Kim stiffened at the question. She had wondered if they would ask. Everybody retained their memories of their time in Red's thrall, so she had hoped they would pass it off as the magic affecting Kim.
"Like," Ron cleared his throat, embarassed. "You two were REALLY close, weren't you? Or is it like, I dunno, am I--you know... I mean, you two--"
"We were." Kim's voice was so low, Ron almost didn't catch it. "We were... she was. I..."
"It's fine." Ron blurted out, wanting to reassure his friend, even though he wanted to scream out that Shego equals FLAMING HANDS OF DEATH, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?
"She's my everything." Kim lowered her head, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Rufus gasped both paws at the sides of his head in shock at the revelation.
Ron slumped down, hearing this made him sort of relieved that nothing really bad happened to her when she had been missing. But a part of him was... angry. So damn angry.
"So. Um. Let me get this right." Ron said carefully. Slowly. Trying to get a grip on his emotions. "You were up there... with Shego ALL this time and you guys were just..."
Ron paused, trying to find the right words. And they came out horribly stilted and... just horrible. "Fucking each other?"
"It wasn't like that--"
"No, it was probably all Shego's fault." Ron tried to sort out his jumbled feelings. "It's, you know, coping mechanism. You were a hostage, you didn't have a choice, right? And she was probably the only one you saw day in and day out and you're NOT a lesbian because you dated me before and you were all Josh Mankey fangirl before so--"
"It..." For Kim, this was the first time she had to think about this. Been able to think beyond her haze of grief and depression. Think about this beyond Shego-and-Kim and remember that there was more than just Shego-and-Kim. There was Shego-and-Kim-and-the-world. It shocked her a bit. So. That's what pulling herself out of the funk she was in would do. She would have to face everything. "It's not like that."
"Did she force you?" Ron placed a hand over Kim's in a gesture that was meant to be supportive, but Kim recoiled at the touch and the question.
"No!" Kim protested, couldn't keep the next words from pouring out of her mouth. "She loved me!"
There was silence as the two friends looked at each other. Rufus looked between the two humans nervously, then decided to retreat into Ron's pocket where it was safe. Tension filled the air and after a long silence, Ron started speaking again, an unreadable expression on his face.
"Did you try to escape?" Ron's eyes were narrowed as a thought occurred to him. "Did you know we were nearby looking for you?"
The guilt that momentarily flashed across Kim's face made Ron breath out a breath he didn't know he had been holding in. He had always wondered... Kim was damn resourceful. How could she had been kept in one place for YEARS? He was certain even a state-of-the-art holding facility wouldn't keep her for long. And She Cun and Er Mei had been no state-of-the-art big house.
"Kim, what happened?" Ron kept his voice soft, knowing if he didn't he'd be yelling at her, screaming at her. "You haven't told ANYONE since you came back what really happened. But you know, I think you should really tell the people who love you. You put us through hell, Kim."
With that, Ron stood up and left the room, unable to stay a second longer. He would do something he'd regret later if he stayed. And Kim, recognizing Ron's need to have his distance was left in her room to think alone.
Michelle balanced baby David on her hip as she entered the monastery's library. At least twenty monks, plus Haoxian, were wandering along the shelves, scouring them for the answer to the question Tim had asked.
How DID they catch Haoxian's father?
From what Haoxian had recalled of his father, they had immediately been able to clear up some of the fog. Haoxian's father had to be someone important, someone powerful for him to be imprisoned and not killed. The hunters were merciless; if they could've killed Haoxian's father, they would've. And so the researchers in the library looked at the records the monastery had on the hunters and their activities as far back as they could.
"What did they find out?" Michelle asked curiously. Haoxian had finally come to a stop and was sitting with his back against one of the shelves, his long-ish hair tied into a short ponytail. He looked up at the woman with a beatific smile that momentarily blinded Michelle.
"Well, I still do not remember a thing," Haoxian said calmly, holding out a hand to Michelle's gurgling baby who squealed with joy at the attention being given to him. "But apparently, if my memory is not wrong and I am not really Haoxian..."
The man's voice betrayed his disbelief. "But if I am, then by what we have found out... Some old texts we found had a brief mention of me and we were pretty sure this had to do with me since they mentioned my father being imprisoned. The information we found, it said I was 'One of the Dragon's sons, one of the sons of the Fifth, named Haoxian'. I also have... eight other siblings."
"Do they mean like how the Chinese people like calling themselves 'Descendants of the Dragon'? The Fifth?" Michelle furrowed her brow. "The fifth what?"
"We do not know." Haoxian shrugged, then let out a frustrated sound. "There are gaps in what I know. Large gaps. I am aware of myself, of my power. Of needing to save my father. But that is all I remember."
"I'm sure you'll find something soon." Michelle smiled apologetically at Haoxian as her son caught a hold of the handsome young man's sleeve. "Sorry."
"It is quite alright. Your son is adorable." Haoxian smiled faintly, then his features darkened. "I am quite sorry to have troubled all of you, though. Truly. I really did not want Tim or Jim to be hurt by this. I should not be in this library. I should be doing something to rescue Tim and Jim!"
Michelle looked down at the other-folk, seeing the remorse on his face and felt surprised. "Why do you care?"
Haoxian shot Michelle an irritated look. "Why does it shock you people so much that I have the capacity to care for one of your race? Of course I care! Should not kindness be returned in kind? But Tim and Jim are in danger now, and it is my fault. Tim is hurt and that is my fault also."
Michelle fell silent at Haoxian's berating of himself. The young man did look truly distraught over this.
"It is not your fault. Your kind has never been accepting of us." Haoxian shrugged and smiled wryly at the woman's silence at his outburst and the troubled look on her face. "I am not surprised that that is one thing I remember. Humans are not very accepting."
Michelle sat beside Haoxian, letting the silence stretch for a time in between them as David wobbled up to his feet, using his mother's hands to help him. The baby boy drooled happily at his accomplishment.
"My ancestor was a giant demon white snake. And for as long as I've known, a green snake has been having frequent meetings with our village's elders to make sure we were provided for." Michelle said matter-of-factly after the silence had stretched for longer than comfortable and Haoxian was considering excusing himself from her company. "I'm pretty accepting. I just don't really trust in people. So it's not 'your kind' I have a problem with. It's everyone."
"Huh." Haoxian gave Michelle a playful smile, recognizing this was her way of apologizing. "So...?"
"I'm just a bitch." Michelle supplied, smiled self-deprecatingly.
"Ah." Haoxian chuckled.
"Sir!" A few of the monks came running, clutching a roll of ancient bamboo strips, bound together as a scroll. The scroll looked to be falling apart. Haoxian and Michelle immediately stood up, their agitation alarmed them and the obvious excitement on the monks' faces made them hope that something important had been found. They all clambered over each other to speak until finally Haoxian had to hold his hand out for silence.
"Just let him read it!" One of the monks said excitedly, pushing his friend with the scroll forward. The suggestion was taken and the molding bamboo scroll was thrust into Haoxian's hands. The three of them stood there eagerly, waiting for Haoxian to read it.
"Huh." Haoxian raised an eyebrow at the three monks, then cast a glance over at Michelle before offering the monks a smile. "Thank you."
Opening the scroll, his face immediately darkened as he read the words aloud on the scroll, the smile dropping from his noble face.
...eight brothers locked the Fifth in his prison. Then they themselves were locked away and had their mind stripped from them. This wasn't an easy task, but once we had them locked up, the keys were scattered to the four corners of the world. Only one of the keys was kept close by, and that belonged to the one named Haoxian. Because of this, Haoxian would be able to escape periodically...
"It's a record from someone in the hunters' clan!" The monk, either not aware or not caring that Haoxian's face was twisting into one of pained disbelief.
"It... it can not be real--"
"Oh, it is! Look, here it mentions your eight brothers, something the other scroll mentioned. And if that other scroll was right, this one might be too. And also, the type of characters and the style of writing used, all correspond to the time that we estimated you and your family were locked away!" Another monk piped up. "We found this hidden between two shelves! It seemed like it fell from the top and lodged itself somewhere mid-point. Course, its in bad condition and that was all we could salvage, but better than nothing, right?"
"We did this?" The anguish in Haoxian's voice finally managed to get through to the monks and they quieted down. "We put our father in his cage? This is the answer?"
Michelle put a calming hand on the man's shoulder. David, seeing his mother doing that, did the same thing.
"Bababababa." David gurgled, patting Haoxian's shoulder with baby enthusiasm. Haoxian chuckled wearily, handing the scroll back to the monks. He was at a loss. What was he going to do?
"Find the remains of the scroll. There must be some pieces lying around." Michelle ordered. The monks hopped to it, uncomfortable with how upset Haoxian seemed. "Come on, I think you need some air."
Haoxian nodded, letting Michelle lead her out of the library. They walked on silently, away from the building. Michelle kept quiet, knowing that this being needed to gather his thoughts together and slowed down so that Haoxian was leading the way. Finally, the three of them ended up in the large courtyard where Michelle had left Vince before, sparring with a few monks.
"Hey!" Vince spared them a glance, almost not quick enough to deflect a few blows from his opponents. "Done with the book stuff?"
"My husband never was the book-y kind." Michelle leaned over to Haoxian and joked, wanting to bring up the young man's spirits.
"What do I do now?" Haoxian looked out into the courtyard, a bleak expression on his face. "I... if I put my father in his prison, should I let him out? Despite what I feel?"
"We don't know what went down." Michelle tried to reassure the young man. "The other monks will look around for more clues. But follow your gut feeling. Everytime you've escaped, that's all you can concentrate on. So it must be something you know you should do. But we'll make sure, first."
"So basically, we are back at square one and have nothing to show for almost a whole day of inhaling the dust in the library." Haoxian let out a humourless chuckle.
"We know that the reason why you're out is that the key is close by. So we now know we need keys to get your brothers out." Michelle pointed out. "Do you know... do you know what your key looks like?"
"It... huh." Haoxian turned to Michelle and smirked at her. "You are quite smart for a human."
"And you shouldn't colour us all with the same brush." Michelle held out her baby to Haoxian. "Here. Get to know David. His Chinese name's Ga Ming. He's a pretty good representative of our species."
"Ah babababa! Blurbubburbbrrr..." Baby David gurgled happily as Haoxian took the baby carefully. In thanks, the baby stuck out his hands and started patting Haoxian's face in delight.
"He is unbelievably adorable." Haoxian exclaimed, the baby's antics managing to elicit a real laugh out of the man. Michelle watched smugly as her son managed to wrap another person around his little finger.
end note: And indeed, calm before a storm. Kinda boring, but lets get to some good stuff next chapter, right? :D