The Kim Possible of tomorrow is back. Seriously, Yesterday's Enterprise, Tomorrow's Possible, that was the catalyst for actually writing this. Again, my thanks to everyone who's following the story.

Chapter 14 is dedicated to puns. Not any specific puns, just the abstract concept of playing on words. The real reason Starfleet is losing the war is that they are running low on puns. Fortunately, KP brings a lot in terms of puns per word. You can bet that General Lee Outrageous would have already wiped the floor with the Klingons.

Previously, on Tomorrow's Possible:

"Kimmie and the Buffoon! I am going to kill you both!"

Chapter 14: At the mercy of History's restless tides

Faced with Shego's attack, Ron instinctively tackled Kim to the ground, allowing them to dodge her fire.

Drakken tried to bring the situation under control, "Wait, Shego, they're the ones who broke you out!"

"So," Shego turned her attention to Drakken, "you betrayed me, after all I did for you? What kind of miserable excuse for a lackey are you, Drakken?"

"Excuse me, Shego, but we're all a big evil family now."

"You can shove your damned evil family up your –"

Drakken gasped in shock, "Shego, watch your language, what is the happy couple going to think of you if you say such things!"

"Happy… Couple?" Shego stopped, as if a switch had been flipped, and looked back at Kim and Ron. As luck would have it, their unflattering position on the floor helped to paint the picture for Shego, "Woah, woah, woah, timeout! You're telling me that Kimmie and the Buffoon are an item? Ha! That's hilarious, tell me, sidekick, did you yell 'booyah' when it happened?"

What. The. Hell. Is going on?

"Uhmm, maybe? You're putting me in an awkweird position here, Shego," Ron said.

"Well, I'll give you this, Kimmie," Shego said before continuing in a mock whisper, "he's not entirely without merit…" Before Kim's jealousy could threaten her, Shego did a double take and examined both Kim and Ron more carefully. "What the hell happened to you two? You look like you've aged a whole decade!"

"Well, we kinda did," Ron answered as he and Kim stood back up, "it's been like 12 years."

Shego pointed at Drakken, "But he looks more or less the same, minus the muscles, not that that surprises me, what they don't tell you about conquering the world is that geneticists and other scientists don't like to work for you…"

"Well, you see, Shego," Drakken said, "the Buf – sorry, sidekick shattered the Time Monkey into a million pieces, right? Well, that sort of wreaked havoc with whatever that thing uses to control the chroniton field to create time portals and it threw people around in time in a bit of a haphazard fashion. So I've been here twelve years, Monkeyfist twenty-something, Killigan eight or so years, sidekick ended up in a parallel universe or something and travelled back in time a few weeks ago to join us… And she, somehow, was born here," he concluded, pointing at Kim.

"Seriously, doc, you expect me to believe that load of malarkey? I know the princess when I see her, and this is 100% Kim Possible. Wait – don't tell me, the Buffoon cloned Possible?"

Ron reacted with outrage, "That is sick and wrong, Shego!"

"Actually, that's why we broke you out, Shego…" Kim said. "We need your help to piece together what is going on because it's not making sense, and since you have the most experience with the Time Monkey, we were hoping that your feedback would help us figure things out."

"Uh huh, not seeing the part where that benefits me," Shego replied.

"Well," Ron offered, "an omnipotent being says we should destroy the Time Monkey."

"Yeah, not interested. Thanks for the breakout, I guess, but the best I can do is not steal your ship. Attracts too much attention anyway, otherwise I would."

"Think it over, Shego," Kim concluded, "we're scheduled to rendezvous with the Enterprise in seven days. In the meantime, the top left bunk is yours, you have enough replicator credits for two sets of clothes in case Lissepian prison yellow is not your style. We all get one replicated meal per day, rations for the other meals. If you need me, I'll be in the cockpit monitoring things, we're not out of the woods yet, and if any Cardassian patrols show up, we'll have trouble. You coming, Ron?"

"Right with you, KP!"

They walked back to the cockpit, where Kim practically fell into one of the chairs, sitting down slumped over.

"Did we really just pull off a crazy jailbreak only to come up empty-handed anyway?"

"I wouldn't worry, KP. We've got a week; she'll probably be so bored by tomorrow that she'll at least tell us all that she knows."

"What if she doesn't know anything useful?"

"She has to, I mean, she took over the world using the thing." Ron's stomach rumbled shortly after he finished his sentence. "Well, guess that it's time for some lunch. Menu 16 sound good to you?"

"Please and thank you…"

Ron walked off to get the meals out of storage. Kim took a deep breath and sat upright, examining the console. Sensors showed no traffic nearby and all systems were nominal. All things considered, the operation was going pretty smoothly. She checked the latest messages from the Enterprise, everything was on schedule on their end and Starfleet Intelligence had no bulletins for the sector categorized as yellow or higher. One red bulletin had been issued for Starbase 375, as an emergency Klingon communication had been intercepted and decrypted – four birds of prey were out of contact for over a week by this point and assumed lost or seriously damaged.

'Threat Level RED

'Reinforced Klingon squadron (K'Vort) out of contact since Stardate 43508. AO point of reference is Starbase 375. No reported encounters with UFP vessels. All UFP vessels accounted for.

'Possible encounter with navigational hazard.

'RECOMMENDATIONS:

'Maintain Warp 6 or higher outside Starbase 375 scanning radius. Maintain permanent sensor sweeps. Yellow alert recommended. No civilian traffic in AOI, treat bogies as hostile – CONFIRM RULES OF ENGAGEMENT WITH STARBASE 375, THIS BULLETIN DOES NOT CONSTITUTE CLEARANCE.

'Report any navigational hazards to Starbase 375 Operations Officer ASAP.

'OUTLOOK:

'Klingon forces stretched thin in this AO, SAR activities not likely.'

Kim smiled at the results of her efforts, Looks like everyone's still in the dark about our little skirmish…

Kim continued reading, skimming over the titles of the green bulletins, a few caught her attention.

'Cardassian forces report uptick in Nausicaan pirate attacks,' could be a problem if we run into them. 'Ferengi mercenaries involved in "especially lucrative opportunity" in Cardassian sector,' must be the Cardies outsourcing the solution to the pirate attacks. 'Possible employment of chemical weapons by Bajoran resistance group on station Terok Nor,' doesn't sound like their usual MO…

"Yo KP, lunch is served!" Ron had returned, interrupting Kim's reading. "Let's eat before Rufus gets any ideas about alternative plans for our food…"

The next several hours were mostly uneventful, with Kim staying mostly in the cockpit – putting up with Shego did not sound like fun, and the chairs were comfortable enough up front. Ron occasionally went to check in on Drakken and Shego, but always reported little of interest: "She's just catching up on gossip, turns out the Andorian newsnet anchor was spotted being rather affectionate with a Denobulan politician."

"And she cares, why?"

"Beats me, I'm not sure she really cares, I think it's more about sending us a message."

"Drakken having any luck with her?"

"Nope. Whatever leverage he had sort of flew out the window when she took over the world. But hey, it's not a total loss, at least we've confirmed that it is Shego and the, uh, right Shego."

Kim raised an eyebrow at Ron's choice of words.

"Uh, I mean right as 'the one we thought she was', I didn't mean anything else, KP, and oh, I'm so in the doghouse…"

"Yup," Kim said as she got up from her seat and moved close to Ron. "But I'm willing to look the other way in exchange for some Ronshine," she playfully whispered into his ear.

"Oooh, Starfleet officer taking bribes, that's very naughty, just asking for trouble," Ron whispered back as he put his arm around Kim.

"You'll just have to pay me under the table, then…"

Between kisses, Ron announced with mock outrage, "Kimberly Anne Possible, I am shocked, shocked!"

Ron was busying himself with repayment on Kim's neck when Drakken walked in.

"Uhh, can you two tone it down? It feels weird to have my teen nemesises getting it in on in the same confined space I'm stuck in."

"Point a), we're 27, mind your own business." Ron began to move his face away from Kim, leading her to whisper, "Nope, keep going, I'm not letting him interrupt this." She continued her answer to Drakken, "Point b), the plural of 'nemesis' is 'nemeses'. Point c), whatever sitch brings you up here better be important."

After some of the indiscernible noises he was so fond of making in lieu of intelligible speech, the angry scientist finally said, "Shego got a bit, uh, excited watching the news."

"Excited, how?" Kim queried.

"Angrier than I've ever seen her."

His words piqued Kim's curiosity and abruptly stopped Ron's activities. There was an unspoken agreement between the two lovers that the situation did, indeed, merit intervention.

As they stepped into the Rio Grande's rear compartment, Kim saw Shego at the other end of the room waving a PADD in her hand, she had indeed taken the opportunity to change out of the Lissepian prison jumpsuit and into a green catsuit of sorts. Now I see what Ron meant about how she dressed… Her enraged screams filled the room, "Someone is going to pay for this, if it's the last thing I do in this wretched world!"

"What's the sitch, Shego?"

"Princess! You tell me! Why did a bomb wipe out my entire cell block hours after I escaped!?"

"A bomb?" Kim needed a moment to understand Shego's accusation, "Hold on, you're not suggesting we had anything to do with that? We broke you out!"

"And that's the only reason you're still alive!"

"Uhm, ladies…" Ron interrupted the exchange to glares from both Kim and Shego, "Maybe we should all, uh, get on the same page? This is the first we've heard of a bomb…"

"The Cardassian newsnet is blowing up with a story about the prison," Shego answered, slightly calmer, "Loss of power, small fires, yadda yadda. But they're also reporting that there was a bomb – their words – in my cell block. One guard dead, two maintenance workers critically injured, and they were lucky that the cell block was nearly empty when the bomb went off, thanks to the loss of power."

"I don't like this, KP," Ron said. "But I think Wade might be able to help us, if he's still wired into the Lissepians' systems."

"Grab a seat, everyone, we're making a call," Kim announced as Ron set up the improvised teleconferencing setup on the table again.

"Hey guys, how's the trip going?" Wade asked as the call started.

"Wade," Kim began," we just heard that there was an explosion at the prison after we left, what can you tell us?"

"An explosion? Wade turned to face another console of his and punched in a few commands. The text was unreadable on the PADD's small screen. "Woah, this is big, very big. They called in the big guns to investigate, local cops found traces of a molecular decay detonator –"

"Romulans?" Kim interjected.

"It gets weirder, the Lissepian planetary defense force intercepted a group of Ferengi mercenaries when they tried to beam out from inside the perimeter the cops established. The transporter activity was flagged and they were intercepted before they could leave orbit. They're confident that they were involved, because their ship was loaded with Romulan explosives up the wazoo. Excellent news is that they're being blamed for the whole thing, bad news is that the Obsidian Order is getting involved, worse news is that I don't have an explanation for the hit."

"Wade! There was a bulletin from Starfleet Intelligence earlier about Ferengi mercenaries!"

"Hold on, let me bring that up…"

"Do I want to know how you have access to that?"

"Nope… And here we go: 'Ferengi mercenaries have been reportedly hired by Romulan proxies for illicit activities in Cardassian sector. Intel is not actionable, dissemination to Cardassian authorities on imminent threat basis not warranted. No immediate threat to UFP interests. Cardassian warships may be on high alert, exercise caution when transiting Cardassian-controlled space. Do not enter Cardassian-controlled space without functioning IFF, exercise standard precautions.'

"I'm not really sure what to make of it," Wade concluded.

"I have a suspicion," Kim answered. "Monkeyfist."

Shego and Drakken gave her confused looks, but Ron quickly picked up on Kim's reasoning, "Of course! He, his buddy Duras, or really both of them – but someone is tying up loose ends after I showed up. They use their Romulan connections to discreetly hire a hit squad, they go with Ferengi mercenaries because it's a big job, too big for a single freelancer, but they want to keep their distance. Of course, the Ferengi would have cheaped out and used whatever detonator was readily available from the Romulan grey market, which is why they really should have hired some total outsiders, I'm thinking Orion Syndicate splinter groups…"

Everyone else in the room was staring at Ron, even Rufus from one of his pockets.

"Blowing up the whole cell block is cheap and easy, but attracts a lot of attention. Maybe a micro-explosive smuggled into the cell. Eliminate the collateral damage and give the authorities room to just blame some feud among criminals and forget that it happened…"

"Sidekick…"

"Yeah, Shego?"

"You're scaring me. Don't dabble in this villain stuff. Also, I'm in."

"Excuse me?" Kim said.

"Your Time Monkey business. I'm in. One condition: Monkey-freak gets what's coming to him."

"Deal," Kim replied without hesitation.

"I know where the Time Monkey is. The body is on Earth, the Tri-City Museum, conveniently."

Well, duh, it's listed as part of their collection.

"And the Klingons had the head, but I stole it. That's probably why they figured I'd be better off dead. Good news is that I stashed it away safely: It's on Terok Nor, the assay office. Bad news is that I have to pick it up, there's no way you can defeat the biometric scanners with a Cardassian breathing down your neck."

Kim was at a loss for words, but Ron filled in the gap, "Uh, that seems like a weird choice."

"Let's hope the Klingons think so too, because stealing it from under their noses was not fun," Shego answered.

"You're actually serious," Kim said incredulously, "you left half of a time-manipulation statue in a random glorified Cardassian locker."

"Believe it, Princess. I'll admit, it sounded better in my head than it really was, but at that point I could either hold my nose or scuttle the whole heist. Sure, hindsight and all that, but it made sense at the time."

"It's really not that bad a place," Ron said to the bewilderment of his audience. "Sure, it's a tacky Cardassian eyesore, but it's fine."

"Uhh, are you talking about the Cardassian space station orbiting Bajor? Because that's what Shego is talking about," Drakken attempted to clarify.

"I mean, it was at the mouth of the wormhole, not in orbit of Bajor, but yeah."

"Okay, sidekick," Shego responded. "I took over the world, so keep that in mind when I say: That's cold. I'm not sure whether to be proud or scared of you."

"Huh?"

"Ron…" Though Kim addressed Ron specifically, her words were also an explanation offered to the two time-travelling villains. "I'm sure Starfleet and Bajor made the best of it after the Cardassian occupation ended… But the thing was – is, I guess, an orbiting labor camp."

The present reality seemed to quickly dawn on Ron, "You mean… Slave labor and …"

"Oh yeah," was Shego's answer.

Kim hated being stuck between a rock and a hard place, but the need to retrieve the Time Monkey's head won out in her mind, "We're about a day away from Bajor. That gives us some time to get out story straight and figure out a gameplan. And we'll need to do something about your look, Shego, unless you want to be sent right back to Lissepia by whatever Gul runs that place."

"And this is why I said 'No touchie my monkey' back at my tower…"

"Sorry Shego, different Kim Possible, but you still don't get to order me around."

"The Doc told me about that, not sure how that's supposed to work…"

Yeah, join the club.

"…because you could totally pass for my Princess."

Kim was pretty sure Shego's choice of words was little more than an attempt at pissing her off and kept her reaction to an annoyed scowl.

"But I actually said that to your sidekick, sneaky bugger he is. Still, even he didn't get to touch it – unless you count the million pieces it broke into, so you definitely didn't."

Drakken loudly gasped, drawing blank stares from the others.

"Uh, I just, uhmm, remembered that I left my light on…"

So not even a crappy liar.

Whatever the reason, it could wait. It was time to change course and begin the preparations for what would likely be an unpleasant mission.