Kim Possible and all related characters are the property of Disney.

Doctor Who and all related characters are the property of the BBC.

This chapter features the Twelfth Doctor.

"Come Out and Play (Keep 'em Separated)" was written by Dexter Holland and performed by the Offspring

Ron Stoppable couldn't help but think about that Spider-Man meme, the one with the two identical Spider-Men facing off against and pointing at each other.

Didn't that come from that old cartoon from the 60s? Ron thought to himself. I think so. I mean, Spidey's suit didn't have all the webs on it, and that's how he was drawn in that show. Ron was about to mentally list off everything he knew about that old cartoon when he remembered what was going on right in front of him.

There were two Kim Possibles, and this time, one of them wasn't Camille Leon. One of them was a Zygon who wanted Ron dead. Head in the game, Ron-man, he chided himself. You can do a deep dive on that later.

Then his train of thought jumped tracks from Spider-Man to doubles. Maybe I should write a book about clones next, he thought. That could be cool! He was about to make a mental list of all the stories about clones out there when he heard Rufus yell in his ear.

"Sorry, Rufus," Ron said to his little friend. "I'm not used to this anymore."

"You need to keep aware of the situation, Ron!" his old friend the Doctor admonished. He was a lot more curmudgeonly than he used to be, as evidenced by the annoyed tone in the Doctor's voice. "The last thing you want is to let your guard down."

"I know!" Ron said defensively. "I'm out of practice here!"

Both Kims rolled their eyes. "Head in the game, Ron," they said at the same time and in the same tone.

"Ugh, stereo," Ron groaned.

"Now what?" the Doctor's companion Clara asked.

The Doctor was already thinking of a few dozen different ways he could rewire his Zygon detector to make it more accurate, but that would require running all the way back to the TARDIS so he could access the main unit; the device he was currently holding was just a remote interface.

"Hand me your device," he said to Clara as he slid his sonic glasses onto his face. "I need to network your receiver to mine to see if I can boost their sensitivity." He pulled the cover off Clara's unit and started pulling out the circuit board.

"What will that do?"

The Doctor gestured towards the twin redheads. "Hopefully it will allow us to discern which Kim Possible is the real one." He didn't have to add the fact that there were no guarantees it would work.

While the Doctor got to work, UNIT Sergeant Pam Mazing approached the twin Kims. "This isn't necessary," she said calmly. "I don't know how long ago you were torn from Zygor, but things have changed. We have changed." In the blink of an eye, the commando expanded into a red skinned being with an almost conical head and octopus-like suckers.

Ron's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets and his jaw dropped. He looked from the creature that had been Pam to the Doctor. The Time Lord wore the same look of surprise. "Did you expect this?" he asked. "I didn't expect this! M. Knight Shyamalan wouldn't have expected this!"

"Change shouldn't be so difficult for us, since we change our forms so easily," Pam said in a raspy voice. "But it does. We either cannot or will not adapt. On this planet, we have been forced to. I know you probably think we should be out in the open, showing the humans who and what we really are, but that is not possible.

"Humans are more dangerous than you think, Tolkran. They destroy each other without even a second thought. They would eliminate you with even less consideration." Pam reached a hand out to the two identical redheads. "Come with me. Join your fellows. There is a place for you here."

There was no response from either Kim Possible. "Good try," Clara said.

"Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough," the Doctor said with a sigh, then he got back to work fiddling with the wiring in his own receiver.

Ron, meanwhile, had an idea. It was actually a pretty good one, but it would require taking a Zygon into his confidence. "Hey, Pam, or whatever your name is, I'm gonna need you to keep a secret for me."

Pam returned to human form and asked, "What's that mean?"

"It means this." Ron took his glasses off, folded the earpieces, and held them in his hand. He wasn't going to need them. At least, he wouldn't need them to see with. Ron focused on the spark of mystical flame that had resided within him since the day he stood in a circle of jade monkey statues.

Ron knew almost everything about that flame now. It had become an integral part of him, and he couldn't imagine his life without it. The power let him save his home planet from the Lorwardians not once, but twice, and it let him survive a night of passion with Empress Wargayme.

He tended that flame and let it grow. It didn't erupt, but it did flare just enough to allow Ron to tap its energies. Ron opened his eyes, and they were now glowing a bright blue. That glow both compensated for Ron's poor eyesight and allowed him to see what couldn't be seen.

Clara and Pam stared intently. Pam knew nothing of the mystical monkey power, and Clara had only learned of it mere hours ago. She had never seen even a fraction of the power before.

One of the Kims backed up a little. "Isn't that a bit of overkill?" she asked uneasily. "I mean, I know I'm still so not your favorite person, but isn't powering up and attacking me a bit much?"

"Like Ron would attack me," the other Kim said. "If you really understood what I know about him, you'd know that's not the kind of man Ron Stoppable is. Even after my betrayal he'd never do that."

Ron grinned. The Kim who said that looked right, all the way down to her chi, which the power was letting him see. The other Kim, however…

The outline of her chi was that of a Zygon. Tolkran could make himself look outwardly like Kim Possible, but that imitation was always superficial. The person at the core of who Kim truly was couldn't be replicated so easily. No, to Ron, the second Kim was an obvious fake. Well, obvious when he cheated and used his gifts.

A monkey shaped blue aura exploded into existence around Ron as he gripped his glasses. They flashed a brilliant azure before being replaced by a glowing katana. Ron got in a fighting stance. "It's quitting time, Tolkran," the Monkey Master said in a warning tone.

The false Kim backed up. "You've been wearing the sword on your face?!"

"You don't even need glasses, do you?" the Doctor asked in an amused voice. "Let me guess, those are your brainy specs that you think make you look a bit clever." The Doctor had no room to talk. He'd done the same thing in his fifth, tenth, and eleventh personas.

"Oh, I need them," Ron said. "Well, when I'm not using the power I need them."

The real Kim laughed and shook her head. "What does Sensei think about you turning the Lotus Blade into your glasses?"

"It was his idea! The Blade constantly adjusts as my prescription changes. Plus, the lenses never break or get scratched. I save a fortune on new specs! You tell me an easier way of carrying around a mystical shapeshifting sword than by wearing it." Ron looked at Kim with his most serious face. "Kim, like the song says, 'you've gotta keep 'em separated.' You might want to get over here."

Kim hurried over to her friends, leaving a snarling Tolkran, still wearing Kim's visage, standing alone.

"The offer still stands," Pam said. "There's a place for you. All you have to do is come with me."

"Then what?" Tolkran spat. He was still using Kim's voice, but now with what sounded like a London accent. "I've killed. I gleefully slaughtered an order of Chinese monks and I'm more than ready to do more of the same to whomever stands in my way." She looked over at Ron and growled. "Unless Stoppable here grows a spine and kills me."

"I don't want to do that," Ron said. "I already have enough blood on my hands. I don't want to add to that."

"Then you're a fool." Tolkran resumed his own form and held his hands out. In a move almost too quick to see, he fired bolts of blue lightning at Kim. Ron threw himself in the path of the thunderbolt, just as he had done lifetimes earlier in Fourth Century Japan. This time, instead of blocking the attack with his body, he used the Lotus Blade, which had taken on the form of a shield.

The bolts of energy mingled with the mystical power already crackling through the enchanted metal and dissipated. Ron grinned menacingly at his old foe. "Booyah," he said in a cold voice.

Tolkran transformed back into Kim and took off running. Ron was about to follow when the Doctor stopped him. "Tolkran's not going anywhere," the Time Lord said.

"Yeah, but this place is a maze! There's no telling where he'll end up!"

"True, but we need to regroup."

"He's right," Kim said, agreeing with the Doctor.

"Fine." Ron allowed the power to go dormant, the aura and the glow in his eyes faded, and his irises went back to their normal brown. As that happened, his vision went from way better than twenty-twenty, to blurred and fuzzy. The Lotus Blade vanished in a blue flash, again assuming the form of Ron's horn rimmed specs. He slid them back on his face. He could see clearly again.

"It's too bad I have a major fear of lasers," Ron lamented. "I'm a prime candidate for laser eye surgery, but I have flashbacks of villain lairs."

"What song did that lyric come from?" Kim asked. "That 'keep 'em separated' lyric?"

"It's from some old song from the nineties. Hana likes to blast the local classic rock station when she stays with me, so she could tell you more about it," Ron told her.

"And you're a Zygon," Kim said to Pam. "What happened to the original Pam Mazing?"

"She died last year," Pam said, sadness heavy in her voice. "Pancreatic cancer. Horrible disease. Once her doctors found the tumor, it was already too late. She told me I could use her identity." A look of what could only be described as grief crossed Pam's face. "She treated me like family. And before you ask, Place and Heath have no idea I'm not human. Like I'd out myself to those two xenophobes." She smiled. "By the by, my Zygon name is Lorront, but just call me Pam."

"Wait," Ron said, "the original Pam is dead and you can still turn into her? Tolkran couldn't do that! He kept a monk named Sato alive so he could still assume his form."

"It's a recent development," was all Pam said about it. She smiled at the monkey master. "So, Ron, tell you what. You keep my secret and I'll keep yours."

Ron smiled. "Deal."

"Now what?" Clara asked. "I mean, we can't just leave Tolkran here, can we?"

"For the time being we can," the Doctor said. "We have another problem, one that is, quite literally, much bigger. This TARDIS is, I think, in the process of going dormant. It may be preparing to die." He turned to Clara. "Do you remember the wastelands of Trenzalore when we saw a future version of the TARDIS there? It was to be my tomb before you appealed to the Time Lords to give me a new series of regenerations."

"It was huge," Clara said. "The exterior was expanding to the size of the interior."

"If this TARDIS dies, the same thing will happen here, and it will destroy this stretch of sewer, as well as the street above. The dimension dams that keep the interior proportions from affecting the exterior will break down, and the whole thing will grow, displacing whatever is around it."

"That's not good," Kim agreed. "Is there any way we can stop that? What about your people, Doctor?"

"I don't know where or when they are," the Doctor said. "I've looked, but to no avail."

"Considering you used to think you'd destroyed them all," Clara said, "this is better."

"It is, but it doesn't help this TARDIS. The Professor, her operator, is dead. She's alone. There's nothing I can do about that."

"Maybe we could solve two problems at once," Kim said. "Maybe we can convince this TARDIS to take Tolkran somewhere or somewhen else."

The Doctor gently touched a nearby wall. "I'd prefer not to imprison Tolkran again." He turned to Pam. "I'd prefer to return him to his people."

"We may wind up having to lock him up anyway," Pam said. "He tried to kill Kim."

The Doctor nodded. "No easy solutions," he admitted.

Ron closed his eyes, took a breath, and let it out. "I don't want to have to… I mean… I have enough blood on my hands."

The Doctor went over to Ron and put a hand on the young man's shoulder. "You still haven't forgiven yourself for Warmonga and Warhok."

Ron shook his head. "They didn't deserve to die like that. I wasn't even thinking! I just hurled them into their ship and it blew up!"

"Ron, you know I abhor violence," the Doctor said in as soothing a voice as he could. "However, there are times when I've had to take up arms and commit extremely violent acts. I did that during the Time War, and I stopped calling myself 'the Doctor' because of it.

"When I encountered that incarnation of myself during the last Zygon incursion, I treated him, or rather myself, like some kind of pariah. That was when I thought I had destroyed my own people, including over two billion children. As it happens, I and every one of my previous selves worked together to shunt Gallifrey off to a pocket dimension. I saved my people instead of destroying them."

"I couldn't save Warmonga or Warhok," Ron said sadly. "I'm a murderer."

"No, you're not!" Kim protested. A wave a regret washed through her. She hadn't been there to support Ron as he came to terms with having to kill. She'd been half a world away with Reed. "You saved me. You saved everyone on this planet!"

"She's right," the Doctor agreed. "Perhaps…" he trailed off, not sure about how to phrase this, "… is there someone you can talk to?"

Ron nodded. "Dr. Fukushima." He saw the surprised look on Kim's face. After he'd been given permission to reveal everything to her about Yamanouchi, Ron had told her about the disgraced ninja who went by that name. "She's his aunt," Ron said, answering Kim's unasked question. "She doesn't hold a grudge against me, though. It turns out Fukushima is the black sheep of the family. And since she's a Yamanouchi graduate, I can tell her everything. I'll be giving her a call after this is all over."

"Well that's good," Clara said, "but that doesn't help us with this problem. Tolkran is hiding in an almost endless labyrinth! What do we do now?"

"We go back to the console room," the Doctor said. "Where we first came in."

"But there was no time rotor," Ron protested. "How do you know it's the console room."

"Call it a hunch. Also, I have no better ideas. Professor Chronotis changed this TARDIS's desktop theme to make it look like his assigned rooms at Cambridge. Last time I was here, the console was disguised as a hutch. Now come along, everyone, let's get to the console room. I have an idea."

As soon as they arrived back in the room where they had first entered the abandoned TARDIS, the Doctor pulled a key from his pocket and handed it to Kim. "You and Tolkran are linked," he said. "Any plans we make, Tolkran will know. I want you to go to the TARDIS and wait there."

"This is my operation, Doctor!" Kim exclaimed.

"I understand that," the Doctor said, "but right now you're a liability! We can't let Tolkran learn anything about what we're planning. Go to the TARDIS and wait there."

Ron pulled Rufus from his pocket and handed him to Kim. "Rufus can keep you company. Besides, you two have some serious catching up to do."

Kim looked from Ron to Rufus, whose eyes had grown large and whose bottom lip was now quivering.

"Not the puppy dog pout!" She scowled. "Fine!" She pulled the nose plug out of her pocket and put it in place. "Hold your breath, Rufus," she said as she went back out into the sewer.

The Doctor stood in the center of what he was calling the console room, despite the fact that there was no console. There was the door that led out to the sewer, some ramdom cables on the floor, and that was it. There was nothing that even resembled a time rotor.

"If this is the console room, then it once looked like a sitting room," the Doctor explained. "There was a couch, chairs, and over there," he pointed to a corner off to his left, "was a kitchen where Chronotis was constantly making tea. The man was a tea connoisseur."

"I take it he didn't travel much," Pam surmised.

"He didn't," the Doctor confirmed. "He and his TARDIS pretty much stayed put for over a century. It only moved when a young woman named Claire Keatley tripped over a tea trolley and hit a button in the hutch."

"Only now there's no hutch," Clara observed. "This doesn't look anything at all like a sitting room."

"Indeed," the Doctor agreed. "My TARDIS is a Type-40, which was old when I first…" he trailed off, trying to find the right word.

"When you stole it," Ron and Clara said. They'd both been told the story, and Clara herself had been there when the Doctor and his granddaughter absconded with the TARDIS. Clara had thrown herself into the Doctor's timestream, causing slivers of herself to wind up at different points in the Doctor's history.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes!" he declared grumpily. "I'm not the only one who has stolen a TARDIS. The Master and the Rani stole their TARDISes," he said, referring to a Time Lord and Time Lady who had been regular thorns in his side, "and Chronotis stole this one. Let's hope I can reach her."

"So," Pam said, "what were you saying about your own TARDIS?"

"I don't remember now," the Doctor growled. Then he shot glares at Clara and Ron. "Certain people here interrupted my thought process. Now come on, let's get searching. The rotor has to be around here somewhere."

The Doctor set about his search, but there wasn't much to look through. There were no cabinets or cupboards, nothing that a console and time rotor could conceivably hide in.

Ron was wandering around the spacious chamber, hoping something would jump out at him. He got what he wished for, after a fashion. He caught his foot on one of the random cables running the length of the floor and he fell forward. He would have face planted into the wall, but he caught himself. His right hand connected with a panel that retreated into the wall. When that happened, a section of the floor opened, and a hexagon shaped console rose from it.

The Doctor gave Ron a stern look. "After all this time you still trip over your own two feet." Ron gave him a sheepish grin. "Well, in this case it bore fruit. We have a console." The Doctor walked around the control device, trying to figure out what was analogous to his own TARDIS, and trying to remember the controls he'd used back in the 1970s when he actually piloted this machine.

"Can you fly it?" Clara asked.

"I've flown it before, so what do you think?" the Doctor asked harshly. "The question is, will it fly?"

"What kind of fuel does one of these use?" Pam asked.

"Back on Gallifrey is the main Eye of Harmony," the Doctor explained. "It houses a singularity, which is a black hole that my people created to power our world. Each TARDIS has what you'd call a satellite Eye of Harmony, linking it up with the central Eye on Gallifrey. This TARDIS has been sitting here for who knows how long. It may not have enough power to do much.

"Since the end of the Time War I've been periodically taking my TARDIS to Cardiff, where there's a rift in spacetime. All I have to do is park there for a spell and top off the tanks."

"Can we take this TARDIS there?" Clara asked.

"Doubtful," the Doctor replied. He checked one of the gauges in front of him. "From what these readouts are telling me, she is in low power mode. She doesn't have enough energy to travel all the way to Wales."

"So, we use a gas can," Ron said. "Take your TARDIS to Cardiff, fill up a power cell, or something, then bring it back here and charge her up."

The Doctor gave his old friend an approving smile. "That's a good idea, Ron." He turned to Clara. "Come on, let's go to my TARDIS and see if we have any storage batteries lying around."

"I'll stay here," Ron said. "In case Tolkran makes his way up here."

To say Kim was angry would have been an understatement. This was her mission. She was in charge of this operation, and she had just been unceremoniously removed from the sitch. "I don't stinking believe this," she groused.

Rufus was sitting on the console, watching Kim pace. "Sorry," he said in a sad tone. He also sounded tired.

That realization made Kim stop. She took a good look at him. Now that she thought about it, it seemed that Rufus had slowed down a bit since she'd last seen him. Kim realized that Rufus had spent most of his time sleeping in Ron's pocket. Kim remembered that Rufus slept a lot in general, but now it seemed like that was all he'd been doing. She didn't remember how old Rufus was, but she assumed he had to be at least middle aged. Naked mole rats lived, on average, about twenty years. Then Kim remembered that he had been exposed to the mystical monkey power the same time as Ron. She hoped that exposure meant he would have a longer lifespan.

"How have you been, Rufus?" Kim finally asked. She went over to the console and picked him up.

Rufus climbed up her arm and nuzzled her. "Missed Kim."

She smiled. "I've missed you, too," she said. "And I've missed Ron." Kim found a spot to sit down. "It's been a long ten years." Rufus emphatically agreed. "Maybe, once this sitch is done, we can all start reconnecting. I just got the two of you back in my life. I don't want to lose you and Ron again."

The TARDIS door opening got Kim's attention. She stood up as the Doctor, Clara, and Pam came filing in. "What's the sitch?"

"The 'sitch,' as you put it, is you're going back to the other TARDIS," then Doctor told her. "We have…" he searched for the best word to use "…we have an errand to run. You, Ron, and Rufus will wait for us to return."

Kim scowled at the Time Lord. "And you're not going to tell me what this errand is, are you?"

"No," was his curt answer. "Now hurry up! The sooner you go, the sooner we can do this and come back."

Kim again put the nose plug in and exited the TARDIS.

"She doesn't look too happy," Pam observed.

"Can't be helped," the Doctor said. "The less she knows, the less Tolkran knows." The Doctor dashed around the console, setting controls and flipping switches. "Now, let's head to Cardiff. Then we'll check the storeroom and see if we have a spare battery."

"If we don't?" Clara asked.

"Then we make one."

When Kim reentered the console room, she saw that it looked the same as before. No console. Pressing the hidden panel again caused the time rotor to retract back into the floor. Hopefully, they'd remember where it was without someone having to trip on a cable. Ron was there waiting for her.

"Did you draw the short straw and end up with babysitting duty?" she grumbled.

"I volunteered," Ron told her. "Besides, I have a better chance of fighting Tolkran off if he comes back." He adjusted his glasses. "I do have a bit of an advantage."

"And I assume you're not going to tell me where the others are going?"

"No can do, Kim," he said. "It's a need to know basis, and Tolkran doesn't need to know."

Kim nodded. "I don't like this."

"No one does." Ron went up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "But we gotta do what we gotta do."

Kim looked away. "I still don't like it."

Ron took Rufus from her and placed the naked mole rat back in his pocket, then he walked over to the nearest wall and sat down on the floor, resting his back against said wall. Kim joined him.

"Rufus is slowing down," she finally said.

Ron nodded. "The vet says he's healthy for a mole rat his age. It's just, he's getting up there."

"I've missed too much time with him," Kim said.

"That's my fault," Ron told her. "Talking to you hasn't been on the top of my to-do list."

Kim let out a sigh. "I know I've said this a lot today, but I am sorry. I wish there was a way I could make it up to you, but there isn't."

"There were a lot of times I thought about reaching out," Ron said. "But then I'd let myself get mad, and I would just, you know, not do it."

Kim nodded. Then, suddenly, an almost forgotten memory made itself known. An image from her past snuck out of its hiding place in her brain and replayed itself in her mind's eye. Kim couldn't help but smile at the pleasant memory.

"Do you remember that mission to London right after the Lorwardian invasion?" Kim asked. "And that weird lady?"

Ron's face lit up. "Yeah! Dr. Smith. She remembered my name."

"Dr. Jane Smith," Kim said. Then she saw the sad look on Ron's face. It sounded a lot like Sarah Jane Smith.

"I remember you liking her coat," Ron commented, trying to push the memory of his late friend from his mind.

"It was so stylish," Kim pointed out. "Long, hooded, and that nice cream color. The rainbow striped shirt looked good, too."

"What was her friend's name? Yaz?"

"Yaz," Kim confirmed.

"Yaz got really flustered when she met you," Ron said. "I think there was a bit of hero worship."

Kim chuckled. "No kidding."

"Why does this remind you of that mission?"

"Because that mission was one of the last times that we really talked. I hadn't left for university yet, and I hadn't started getting tunnel vision about my studies. And then UNIT and Reed happened, and I didn't see you for over a decade."

"I'm sorry about that," Ron said. "I just… I just couldn't."

Kim reached for Ron's hand. He didn't pull away. "I understand. You were protecting yourself. It just… it hurts that you had to protect yourself from me. That I hurt you so badly that you needed to do that.

"What I really remember was Dr. Smith taking me aside and telling me to cherish the small moments. 'They can be fleeting,' she told me. 'Take what time you can and cherish it. You never know when it'll be gone.' I never really understood what she was getting at. Maybe she had a look at the future and was telling me to keep my priorities straight."

"Or she was telling you to enjoy life. You kinda stopped doing that once school started up for you."

"Yeah," Kim agreed. "Maybe." She smiled at Ron. "How about, after this sitch is all sorted out, we grab some dinner. Bueno Nacho? My treat?"

Ron smiled. "My treat. I owe you for all the lunches you bought me back in the day."

Kim was about to say something when a noise that sounded like a distorted "bonging" echoed through the chamber. "What was that?"

"Not good!" Ron was already back on his feet. "So not good!"

"What is it?"

"The cloister bell," Ron said. "I've heard the one in the Doctor's TARDIS go off. It means Tolkran found a spot where he can do a lot of damage!"

Kim pulled out the handheld unit for the Zygon detector. The screen said, "No Signal." Then she realized why that was the case. "The main unit is in the Doctor's TARDIS."

Ron closed his eyes. "Let's hope he didn't make it to the cloister room. That's where the Eye of Harmony is."

"How bad would it be if he did find it?"

"Bad," Ron told her. "Around New Year's Eve in 1999, this dude called the Master left the Doctor's Eye open, and it almost destroyed the world."

"Noted." Kim was in mission mode. "Any idea where this cloister room is?"

"Nope," was all Ron needed to say. "And there's no guarantee that's where Tolkran went!"

"Not good," Kim said, echoing an earlier statement by Ron. "So not good."

Next time: Kim and Ron scour the TARDIS of Professor Chronotis, hoping to find Tolkran before he can do any real damage. Will the Doctor, Clara, and Pam get back in time to help?

Author's note: calling the Offspring song "Come out and Play (Keep 'em Separated)" an "old song from the nineties" and classic rock hurt to write. I was a senior in high school when that song came out.

From 2001 to 2015 I worked for a classic rock radio station, and when eighties hair metal started getting played around 2009, I felt old. I felt even older when, shortly before both my tenure at that station and my radio career as a whole came to an end, songs from the nineties were added to the rotation.

In regard to Pam being a Zygon, I wanted to have a heroic Zygon in this story to counterbalance Tolkran. Pam originally wasn't going to have as big a part to play, but the more I wrote her, the more I liked her. So now she's on the front lines with the rest of our heroes.

The Dr. Smith Kim and Ron were talking about was none other than the Thirteenth Doctor. What was happening in London in the weeks following the invasion that drew her attention? You'll just jave to wait and see.

Happy New Year to you all. May 2025 be a good yesr for us all.

-w