She tosses a blanket over the body the moment they drop dead.
Hôtel Plaza Athénée: Paris, France
August 25th: 2:03 AM
Still though, the neck crooks off to the side and blank eyes turn towards nothing in particular, and then just like that, it's gone. Veiled under the cover of darkness.
No one will ever see this body again.
Shego stares at the body a moment longer. Ugly, complicated feelings gnaw at her heart. She takes a seat on the king-sized bed, right besides the body. Her hand wrinkles the comforter. She breathes sharp, ragged breaths. Her skin crawls, threatening to break into a cold sweat. She closes her eyes and grinds her teeth. The world pulls away and for a moment, it's just a job.
When she walks out of this place, she'll just be just like anyone else. She can get a drink at a bar, and no one will look at her any different from anyone else. No one will know, and that's how it needs to be.
But all too soon, Shego has to reopen her eyes. There's work to be done after all.
The air is stale; soon, it'll smell a helluva lot worse. The walls glitter like gold—superfluous and upsetting.
She stares into her reflection in the giant flatscreen. It's odd, she thinks, that despite everything that's happened, she still looks exactly the same.
THUMP. THUMP.
There's pounding at the door. Shego gets up with a start.
"Shego?" a familiar voice calls out.
Shego blinks. "Princess?!"
On the other side of the door, Kim's expression softens in her fatigue. She waits a few seconds, then steps towards the door and presses her hand up against the wood.
"I can't hear anything on your end," she says quietly. "Which means you haven't left yet."
Shego stares at the door. Her fingers twitch in anticipation of the chase, and yet she finds herself drifting closer to the door.
Kim leans her forehead up against the door. "Maybe that means you want to talk? Just… open the door. Please."
Shego bites down hard on her lip. Stares at the door. Raises her hand into the air. Closes her eyes. And blows out the door handle.
Kim slips in quietly, dressed in her classic black crop top and cargo pants. She freezes at the sight of the blanket-covered corpse. "Is that…?"
Shego nods gently.
Kim bites her lip. For a moment, she finds herself unable to tear her eyes away from the deathly still lump on the bed. An intrusive thought begs her to rip the blanket off the body. She wants to see the remains of Shego's work. Perhaps if she can face death head-on, she'll understand why Shego does what she does… and consequently, Kim will understand why she's trying to save Shego so badly.
Anxiously, Kim turns back to Shego, and neither party knows what to say.
Kim notices how Shego's hand shakes in place, how her guilty eyes keep scrolling back to the body. Shego's posture is weaker than usual, less sure of itself.
Shego notices that Kim is pale. Her hair is frazzled, and her eyes are manic. She looks like she hasn't slept in days. The girl holds herself completely still, giving Shego the floor to make the first move.
Shego inches backwards towards the window, her hand poised above the corpse.
Kim matches Shego's pace, inching forward. She extends a hand to Shego from afar, hoping in vain that she'll take it. Shego shakes her head, and Kim drops the hand to her thigh.
Essays of words bubble up into Kim's throat. So much has transpired since they last saw each other at the Bermuda Triangle. So much has changed within Kim, so much that no one seems to understand. But it doesn't matter. In the next three seconds, Shego will make a break for it, and Kim will have to chase her. So instead, Kim keeps it simple.
"Thank you," she whispers.
Shego's mouth hangs agape for a moment, the green woman at a total loss of what to say.
But only for a moment.
Shego smirks. "Right back at ya, Kimmie. Thank you for reminding me—"
She drops a green ember onto the blanket, and it catches fast, exploding into an emerald blaze.
Kim sprints ahead. Shego leads the chase, charging the window. She blows out the glass, leaps out the frame, and disappears into the night. Kim follows close after, climbs onto the windowsill, readies her grapple line, makes the jump, and—
—something grabs her by the arm. Kim swings forward like a pendulum, her momentum slowing fast. For a moment, she dangles in the air, and then she falls back, slipping through the window and crashing into the floor at a roll. Shaking arms push her back up to her feet—
—and Ron leaps in through the window, dressed in his usual black sweater and cargo pants.
Kim blinks rapidly at Ron, trying to make sense of what she's even seeing. Meanwhile, Shego's glow booms like a beacon, and as she dashes across rooftops, her light fades into the horizon.
"Ron!" Kim hisses. "What are you doing?"
Ron advances on her menacingly, but quickly, he loses his thunder. He looks from side-to-side anxiously, using the room as a distraction. Eventually, he finds his nerve. When his eyes fall on Kim, his voice hitches.
"Tell me you're not working with Shego," he says.
"What?" she gasps under her breath, her eyebrows knitting wrinkles of confusion into her face. It replays in her mind: Shego lets Kim in, Kim thanks her, and they leave together. She looks at Ron, suddenly very aware of how powerful he really is.
"Ron," she says carefully, slowly sidestepping her way around him, looking for an exit. "I know what it looks like… and I promise you. I'll explain everything soon, but right now, Shego's getting away, and I need to—"
Ron grimaces, prompting Kim to stop talking. He shakes his head and looks back at her with a scornful gaze. "That's not happening, Kim. It's over. You tell me right now what's going on, or I'll… don't make me do my job."
Right there is a window of opportunity. His indecisiveness is her way out.
She rushes him. Tries to dash past him, but he turns and grapples her by the waist. He spins her around. Completing a rotation, he throws her back to where she started.
"I'm serious, Kim," Ron says. "I don't want to do this with you."
She rushes him again. He grabs her. Lifts her high up and twirls around again and again. She hoists her legs up to her chest and kicks the nearby wall, boosting herself backwards, sending the two of them tumbling to the floor.
She rolls off him and lands in a crouch facing the window. A very primal rage flows into her blood, and she pounces over Ron's prone form.
Ron acts just as quickly. He rolls onto his back, snaps his arm out, and snags onto Kim's ankle. She crashes down on her chin.
He pulls on her, and her fingers sink deep into the rug. She grits her teeth and kicks backwards, knocking Ron square in the face. He shrieks in pain. She grimaces, feelings of self-loathing caving in around her heart. But she ignores them. She kicks Ron again. Then a third time. He releases her, and she scrambles towards the window. She readies her grapple line and suddenly, very suddenly, Kim's eyes go blue.
She feels phenomenal power release itself from behind her. Ron's shadow creeps backwards then disappears. She feels his mortal form pass through hers, and as he does so, she feels his warm embrace. Propelled by the love Kim has been trying to squash out, Ron fights back with all he has.
Still though, a fierce pride swells in her chest at this display of raw power: Mystical Monkey Migration.
Ron rematerializes directly before her. They stare at each other, neither party knowing exactly what to say.
If there is even anything left to say.
Ron grits his teeth, raises his fists, and summons blue light. It expands off his wrists, taking on the form of a riot shield.
She rushes him, and he thrusts his shield at her, bouncing her backwards. Sheer power radiates off the shield, stinging Kim's flesh. She rebounds back in and throws her whole body into a deft punch at the shield. She hits it hard, the reverberations ringing loudly. Kim growls and suddenly, all she sees is red.
This anger that's been curdling within her releases itself, while the rest of the world goes blank. It all waters down into something simple: Kim versus Ron.
He won't let go of her, won't stop trying to save her.
She pummels the shield, snarling and hissing, her mind giving itself over to a feral state. She swings and swings, Ron's magic burning the knuckles off her leather gloves. Her fists go raw as blood pulls from flesh.
Meanwhile, Ron hurts too. Though the magic shield manages to protect Ron from maybe half of Kim's onslaught, he still feels her fists pelt into his body over and over. Though the phantom blows don't leave wounds, his body aches. His Mystical Monkey Mitigation spell is supposed to protect him from these sorts of things, but then again, perhaps Kim is his Kryptonite.
"Kim!" Ron pants. "You're hurting yourself! Ah—fuck! You're hurting me!"
She doesn't hear him. No, she punches and punches, cracking the shield more and more. Ron's magic leaks from the cracks. He struggles to resist, but little by little, Kim pushes him across the floor, all the while her hands become soaked in crimson.
She doesn't care; she has to beat him. She has to prove to him that she's a monster, that she's unlovable, that he needs to let go.
Ron's face breaks into a sweat.
"Kim, you're hurting—" He tries again to warn her, but she ignores him. He gives up, yelling now. "Kim—BACK OFF!"
The shield splinters apart and explodes into a torrent of power that blows Kim backwards. It hits her like a truck, knocking her down to the ground. All of Kim's anger dissipates, replaced with an animalistic fear as she looks up at Ron.
His chest rises and falls, his breaths heavy and loud.
"I'm sorry," Ron says softly. "I didn't want it to come to that, but Kim—you were really hurting me. I felt all that, do you understand?"
Her eyes widen, her lips tremble, her voice shakes. "What?"
He frowns and extends a hand to her.
She watches his hand like a distrusting cat, then turns away. She looks out the window frame and sees the last of Shego's light disappear into the horizon.
"Kim," Ron says sternly as if she were a child. "Let it go. You can't catch her."
Kim bites her lip. She backs away from Ron nervously.
Ron takes a deep breath. "Kim, I know everything."
She furrows her brow. "What… what do you mean?"
He looks away. "I know you went to the Bermuda Triangle a few nights ago. I didn't want it to be true, but Betty showed me the pictures."
Kim cringes. "It's not what it looks like."
Ron sighs loudly.
"I know what that sounds like, too," Kim begs him. "But I'm not a criminal. I'm not working with Shego. I'm trying to save her."
"Save her?!" Ron spits. He raises his arms into the air. "How can you even justify this!?"
Kim pales. Looks back at the window. Clenches her jaw. Looks back at Ron, her mind working furiously to come up with some kind of solution… she catches it fast.
She says, "Ron, I went to the Bermuda Triangle because I wanted to see if they could help us Disappear."
Ron deflates.
"I should've told you, I'm sorry," Kim says, unable to make eye contact. But Ron doesn't notice that. Doesn't care about it. So naturally drawn to Kim, he steps closer to her. He listens, and she continues. "That Disavowed Agent List I told you about… I'm on it. My trial's on the thirty-first. There's no way out but to run."
Struck silent, Ron stares at her. Bites his lip and turns away. Leans his fist up against the wall, his back totally turned to Kim.
She could run. But she can't. Not like this.
"I'm trying to save Shego…" Kim starts to explain, pausing when she hears Ron muttering something under his breath. "Ron?"
He doesn't answer.
She bites her lip and continues, "It's because I owe her a favor. I didn't lift the DAL off her, she gave it to me."
Ron turns back towards her, a dark look in his eyes.
She winces, her voice cracking. "I tried to kill Drakken… back at the Triangle. We never talked about it, I shot his eye out, and I don't know… I don't know what I want anymore, but I know—I know Shego is making a mistake doing this, and I need to… I need to… Ron, you're scaring me. Talk to me, please."
Ron raises his hand to her. Subconsciously, she reaches towards it, to take it, but she stops when she realizes what he's holding: A gun.
"How did you know to go to Paris?" Ron murmurs.
"I…" Kim stammers, unable to pull her eyes away from the barrel of the gun. She tries speaking, tries explaining, but her voice won't come to her. She moves her lips, but nothing comes out. She grabs at her throat. Tries again. Nothing.
She screams—and nothing comes out.
Ron blinks rapidly, his eyes pink and misty. She wonders how long he'd been crying without her noticing.
He grinds his teeth. "Kim Possible…" His voice shakes. "...you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will—hey, who're those guys?"
Click.
Click.
Click.
So focused on each other, both Kim and Ron failed to notice the three heavily-armored police officers aiming their guns at them. One of the cops screams at them in French, motioning for them to get down on the ground with his gun.
Kim and Ron exchange a significant look and nod to each other. They lie flat on their stomachs, holding their arms over their bowed-down heads.
The officer lets Kim back into her holding cell, unlatching her handcuffs just before slamming the iron door on the two of them. Kim sighs. Brushes some dust off the cold cement floor and takes a seat. Ron sits across from her at the other side of the room. He looks down at his lap, stewing in anger.
"You call Will?" he asks quietly.
By now, her voice has come back to her. Yet every time she looks at Ron, she can't help but imagine him pointing a gun at her, and her mouth closes up. It's a struggle to speak to him now after what he's done.
"Yeah," she says. "He should be here soon. I guess he followed me to Paris too."
Holding Cell: Paris, France
August 25th: 5:06 AM
Ron shakes his head and laughs bitterly. "Let me guess. You used an old Team Possible contact?"
Kim criss crosses her legs, hands pressed deep into her knees. She sighs loudly.
Ron looks up at her, a dark look in his eyes. He makes to say something but thinks better of it, returning to his sulking.
"What?" she asks.
He groans. Looks up. "Kim… I need you to talk to me. Tell me that it's not true."
Kim looks away. Shifts her jaw back and forth, trying to outthink the situation. But if she says nothing, then there will absolutely be a trial awaiting her at the end of the month.
She speaks tonelessly, trying not to invest herself in the story. "Big Daddy couldn't help me with Disappearing, so instead I asked where Shego was. They… did me a favor."
If Ron knew that she gave up the DAL so she could find Shego again, it'd all be over.
She squirms uncomfortably. For someone who's coasted off such a positive image as long as she has, it hurts so much to lie. Especially to Ron.
She continues, "It's because we saved the world so many times that they helped me. They showed me a map. Shego killed people in Haiti, Brazil, and Morocco. I didn't tell them about the Senior killing."
Ron frowns. "I don't get it, how did you know about Paris? That Triangle could have gone in any direction."
She bites her lip. Shakes her head.
Ron clenches his hair in frustration. "C'mon KP, you gotta work with me here."
Kim bites her tongue but only for a moment. "What happened to you? When did you become Betty's lapdog?"
Frustrated, Ron crosses his legs and gestures animatedly with his hands. "Kim, it just… makes sense. You're trying to take my powers away so that you can and Shego can wreak havoc. I mean, I don't know, maybe you weren't in until Paris, but I know what I saw. And I know what I heard. You thanked her."
Kim growls under her breath. "Why are you so committed to misunderstanding me?"
"Then why were you thanking her?" Ron snaps back.
She looks away, stewing in anger. It should be easier to talk her way out of this, but she supposes she's making it difficult on herself. Still, despite everything, she wants to keep her secrets.
"I told you, I owe her a favor," she growls.
But it goes deeper than that, and though it is the truth, there's enough hesitation to tell Ron that it's a lie.
"Sorry," Ron sighs. "Not buying it."
So Kim tries a different approach. She sifts through her mind and finds a different truth.
"I haven't been able to sleep much lately," she says suddenly.
Ron eyes her curiously.
She continues, her eyes finding sudden interest in a leak in the ceiling.
"I keep waking up at the same time every morning, and I can't sleep for hours after that… so I just worked on the case. I spent a lot of time reading about Shego's targets, and I know you had a soft spot for Señor Senior Sr., Ron, but Shego killed some pretty bad people. That guy in Paris was an arm's dealer. In Morocco, it was a child sex trafficking ring."
Silence folds between them. Drip. Drip. Drip.
"It took me three nights to figure it out, ha… I even started sleeping with Pandaroo again. He helped a little."
Kim checks Ron for a reaction, but the moment she sees his face it becomes too much for her, and she turns away again.
"I figured that Shego was working her way towards the ultimate hit job… DC. If you connect Brazil to Haiti, it leads right there. And if she was hitting DC, then that meant she would be making a stop in Paris."
Finally, she looks at Ron.
He's sullen. He leans back against the wall, his legs stretched out, his wrists balancing on his knees, his fingers hanging limp. "I had a vision you know…" he says. "...of you crying in a prison cell holding Pandaroo."
Kim blushes, finding it awfully difficult to hold eye contact. But then she notices it: A flicker of a smile crosses Ron's face. She looks up expectantly.
Ron's expression softens. "I believe you."
She exhales a sigh of relief.
He continues, "But… Kim. If you knew that Shego was going to kill someone in Paris, and someone in DC, why didn't you tell anybody?"
She tries to remain cool-headed. Calm. In-control. But still her voice shakes. "I can handle it. I can save her."
"You keep saying that," Ron says. "But how, Kim? I mean—seriously Kim, her next target could be the President for all we know."
Kim looks him hard in the eye, trying to be imposing, but she fails. She bows her head down. "I can't believe you pulled a gun on me."
"Yeah, I did," he says stiffly. "But I still love you."
She laughs bitterly. "Yeah right."
He grits his teeth. "Ask me how I got to Paris."
She doesn't acknowledge him.
"Fine, whatever," he groans. "I just had a feeling something was wrong after we talked earlier… and I decided to go to wherever you were: Mystical Monkey Migration. And it brought me right to you. But I wouldn't be able to track, say, Will, with my magic. Because I don't love Will."
She snorts.
He bows his head. "Fine. Let me show another one: Mystical Monkey Medicine."
A warm feeling flows into Kim's raw hands. She holds her hands up to her face, staring in amazement as the dried out scabs melt back into fresh blood that then retreats into her flesh. Her skin repatches the wound, new layers growing over her bloody knuckles. The pain subsides slowly, and within seconds, it's as if she never got herself hurt.
She looks up at Ron, not knowing what to say.
He looks her right in the eye. "You still love me too."
She stares back at him, blinking slowly. "N-no. Ron…"
Ron groans. "We broke up so you could save me, right?"
"I… um." Kim leans away from him, hugging herself. "I d-don't… um…"
"And then you fought me in the Simulation Room," he says. "You keep putting on this show, acting like you hate me, but Kim—I know you. I've known you your whole life. You can't fool me."
She blinks back what might be tears. "Please stop… y-you're making me uncomfortable."
"Well then what else am I supposed to do?" Ron spits. "Throw everything away like you have?"
"I haven't…" Her voice comes out without her thinking, and her consciousness drifts away. She hears herself and doesn't recognize a word of it. None of it sounds like her. "...I'm n-not…"
"Yes, you are," Ron challenges. "Will's talked to me about it. Wade too, heck, even your parents, Kim. Everyone's worried about you."
Momentarily, she returns to herself. She tries to be angry, but her voice comes out watery. "Well maybe no one should worry about me."
Ron's face falls in sympathy. He hesitates. "We don't have to get back together if you don't want to, but it's just…"
It hangs in the air between them.
"...Just?" Kim echoes.
Ron steels himself, his gaze intense, his voice purposeful. "You'll save Shego, but you won't save yourself?"
His words cut like a knife, and she goes numb. Kim crumples in on herself.
Ron continues, "It's like you've let everything go to Hell so that it won't hurt so bad when you're gone."
"Wh-when I'm gone?" she repeats.
He nods. "That vision I mentioned… you go to jail. I guess that lines up with what you saw on that disc, huh? Anyways, I saw you in chains in a courtroom. I saw you crying on your prison cot. I saw you… it doesn't matter, we're gonna make sure it doesn't happen, alright?"
She smiles weakly at him. Sniffs loudly and brushes some tears from her cheek.
"It's too late," she says, voice high and choked up. "There's no way out. I thought… I thought we could use the money from the Bermuda Triangle and the Seniors to just… Disappear. Live on the run. But… no. I can't."
Ron blinks. "What—what do you mean? Kim! That's the perfect solution, we could just run!"
She shakes her head slowly. "No. We can't. To get the kind of money we'd need to live safely… we'd have to do what Shego's doing."
Ron draws back.
She continues. "I think that's why Shego's doing this. She wants to Disappear and I need to—"
"You need to leave Shego alone," Ron says dismissively. "Listen, Kim. I can protect us. Our bond has made my powers stronger than ever. I can do anything."
Hearing those words come from his mouth, it breaks her. Tears well up.
She smiles weakly despite herself and looks at Ron sympathetically. The sound barely escapes her lips. "No."
Ron frowns. "No?"
Kim sucks on her lower lip, postponing the inevitable. "You can't do anything, Ron. You know how I know that? Because that's what they said about me, and—" The tears overcome her, and her voice cracks. "—I can't do anything."
Kim cries. She buries her face underneath her arms, shoulder blades twitching erratically.
Ron sits there helplessly, not sure what to do, or how to help. For the several seconds that pass them by, Kim weeps loudly. Ron then makes a decision: He shuffles forward, getting onto his hands and knees. He crawls across the dust-laden floor until he's directly in front of her. Anxiously, he extends a hand to her.
"Kim," he says when she doesn't look up.
Her eyes peek out from behind her arms. "What?"
Ron tries to stay strong. "Maybe you don't have to be able to do anything, I don't care about that stuff, KP. I love you, and I want to be with you. Don't let them win. Do something good for yourself for once, and come back home with me. We'll figure the rest out later, but you need to make the decision right now, or I'm… I'm done."
She almost smiles. If Ron leaves her forever, then she's won. She did her job. She really did make him hate her.
But simultaneously, she remembers something: Plan B.
If it works, then she can get everything she's ever wanted, she can still have Ron.
She reaches out and takes his hand. It's ice cold. They gaze into each other's eyes for some time.
She goes for a kiss, but he doesn't notice and goes for a hug. She pulls out at the last second, and leans her cheek sideways against Ron's shoulder. His arms wrap around her back. For a moment, her back remains tense and she hesitates holding him back.
"Kim, it's okay," Ron whispers. "Let me love you."
She closes her eyes and relaxes herself. Ron's hand slides onto her back and rubs it in smooth circles. She reaches up and grabs onto his shoulder, massaging where it's most tense.
A rattle at the iron bar door snaps the duo out of their moment. A guard stands outside their cell. He rattles the keys. Will Du stands behind him in a trench coat, looking darkly at Kim.
Doctor Director yells at Team Possible for a half hour straight. It's an onslaught of cold, vicious expletives. At first, her words cut like daggers, threatening to sink deep into Kim's psyche… but then, she hardly registers a thing Betty says.
See, Doctor Director makes one singular mistake: She allows Kim and Ron to sit while she storms back and forth across her office.
Very early into Betty's rant, Ron taps his foot against Kim's. She blushes at his touch, and without making eye contact, she swings her foot towards him, briefly hooking their ankles together. She releases and lets her foot fall back into place.
He taps her with his foot again, and this time she escalates her retaliation; she takes his hand. His cold, pale, sweaty hand. When it closes around hers, warmth radiates from their pressed-together palms. Everything within Kim relaxes. Her stresses and anxieties melt away. For a moment, she almost closes her eyes and leans up against Ron's shoulder, but he uses a quick, gentle kick to snap her out of it.
She squeezes his hand tight while Betty continues to rant and rave… and Kim smiles.
Global Justice HQ: Upperton, Colorado
August 25th: 12:51 PM
"What are you smiling about?" Ron smirks at Kim the second they step out of Betty's office.
"Nothing," she says, taking a moment to gently thump Ron with her shoulder. He flashes a smile for her, and slowly, his hand itches towards hers. She takes it with no hesitation.
Ron smirks. Lets his eyes scroll away from her. "I know who peed in her cornflakes, ya know."
"Oh?" Kim's interest is piqued.
Ron grins and taps his nose. "Will told me: Betty's girlfriend just dumped her."
"Ooh!" Kim purses her lips.
"I don't know, KP," Ron says all cavalier. "I totally get how she's feeling right now."
"Ouch," Kim sighs, elbowing Ron in the side.
He rubs the spot where she got him. "Too soon? Heh. So, uh… what's the word on our second first date?"
She tries to play it aloof, but she can't help but blush. "Where at?"
"Bueno Nacho?" he suggests.
She rolls her eyes. "Really? After everything we just—"
"It's tried and true!"
She snorts and takes Ron's hand. "I actually had something different in mind."
He raises an eyebrow curiously. "Oh yeah?"
"It's a mission," she whispers. "An unsanctioned mission."
Ron's smile fades. "Uh—I don't know if that's a good idea, KP, with you on the chopping block and all."
"C'mon," she urges. "It'll be just like old times."
Ron tries to remain stony-faced, but Kim's pout is unbearable.
"Alright, what's the sitch?" he asks with some excitement.
Kim grins. Holds out her Kimmunicator, and it emits a thin blue beam that expands into a hologram of a spinning diamond.
"This was stolen from a Tibetan tribe recently. Funny how it's ended up in the new museum in Yamanouchi a few days later."
"Whoa," Ron exclaims. "That's like—a reverse Indiana Jones."
"Exactly," Kim says. "The best part? The request came to us because the tribe leader said that stealing the diamond back is… well…" She purrs. "...impossible."
Ron's expression softens, and he smiles.