Story: Under the Milky Way Tonight (all chapters)

"I thought you were going to Wade's," Ron said.

"He's still on that physical fitness kick," Monique sighed. "Watching him makes me tired, and I'm too tired as it is."

"If Wade is on a physical fitness kick, then what are WE doing?"

"Dying by degrees?"

Ron's answer, little more than a whimper, was answer enough.

Now that Kim and Shego had worn each other's outfits during their capture of Duff Killagan and ended their wagering on who the better teacher was, their "lesson plans" for Ron and Monique's training had become less competitive and more cooperative. The two students had already been informally sparring with each other, but now they were spending their mornings teaching each other the moves they'd learned the night before. Then they had to SHOW their teachers how well they'd learned the following night. Kim had reasoned that the best way of judging how well someone had memorized their lessons was by seeing how well they could teach others.

"It's not like they're training every bit as much as we are," Ron finally said. "More, even."

"Yeah, but they FEED off each other when they spar," Monique said. "It's like they get OFF on it."

"Monique, please," Ron said instantly. "That's an image I don't need in my head. Ever."

"Hmph. Shego just looooves gossiping about her sex life when we fight," Monique complained.

"Too much information! Too. Much. Information!"

"I wasn't going to go into the details, Ron."

"Shego, Kim, and the S-E-X word should not even be in the same sentence where I'm concerned," Ron told her.

Monique sighed. "Maybe training wouldn't be so exhausting if we had the kind of connection they do."

Ron blinked. "Did you just suggest we could improve our fighting skills by dating?"

Monique was so surprised by his question that she sat up, and her sore muscles groaned at the sudden movement. "Um, I mean, well, not - huh?" she asked, so unlike her normally smooth manner.

"You said - "

"I know what I said! I was just wishing I had an advantage like that, not propositioning you, Stoppable!"

"Oh. Because, you know, we ARE sharing a bed."

"Only because there's just the one, and I'm too beat to kick you out of it."

Ron chuckled. "Maybe one day I'll meet a beautiful girl who'll train with me - "

"Ron, look at the woman in the skintight bodysuit next to you, and tell me what's wrong with that sentence."

"AND," Ron went on, "we'll fall madly in love with each other."

"Ah. Now I know you're not talking about us."

"Hey! I'll have you know that Ron the Man is quite the catch."

"Please, Ron. I'm so out of your league. Too bad girls like me don't just fall out of the sky."

Ron's Kimmunicator went off. Ron thought about getting it out of his pocket himself, but his arm seemed to be malfunctioning. "Rufus, ol' buddy? Mind getting that for me?"

Rufus and Ruby's heads popped into view from underneath the bed. "O-kay!" Rufus chittered as he scampered over and pulled the Kimmunicator out.

"Ron?"

"Wade," Ron said. "How's the aerobics coming?"

"Actually, I'm in the anaerobic phase of my training right now."

"Unaerobics? Sounds like doing nothing to me."

"He means weights, Ron," Monique muttered.

"Just got the call from Doctor Director," Wade told them. "Apparently we got a hit on the website. All she knows is it's super-secret and it's somebody big. Something about global importance, and they want to meet you guys in person TONIGHT."

"Tonight?" Ron asked. "Sounds like a break from training. Woo-hoo!"

“Sure thing,” he said amiably, getting up.

“It could be a she,” Wade pointed out from the monitor.

“I’m not sure the room could handle that much high-powered estrogen,” Kim chuckled.

Ron Stoppable didn’t care that he was the only man in the room. Or that his college plans were temporarily on hold. Or that he was wearing a watch that, given a little effort, could transform into one very unique Lotus Blade.

What he knew was that life was good. He was where he wanted to be. He was brimming with so much self-confidence, he could have been twelve feet tall.

And when he opened the door, he almost fell over.

“Stoppable,” the man breathed. “You look the same as when I saw you last. I was hoping to say something different.”

There were few things that could surprise him any more. The sight of Mr. Barkin dressed like an army officer with a fistful of fruit salad on his lapel was one of them.

“M-Mister Barkin,” Ron stammered. He was feeling closer to four feet tall now.

“Colonel Barkin,” his former high school principal said. “Am I allowed to come in, or do you expect me to remain outside like some barbershop wooden Indian?”

“Uh, no, no sir. I mean no, Colonel. I mean – permission to come aboard granted?”

“That’s the Navy, son. I’m Army Reserve, recalled for active duty,” Colonel Steve Barkin corrected him as he strode in. “It’s a very nice . . . “ He seemed to be struggling for the right word. “Hovel you have here. I take it you’ve been spending your money on field assets.”

Ron was finally putting two and two together. “Wait, YOU’RE the one with the mission?”

“I’m just the point man,” Barkin said. “This mission comes straight from the top. The United States government, Stoppable. I imagine you consider yourself to be a patriotic man, Stoppable?”

“Er, yessir.”

“Then you should consider this the greatest honor that will ever be bestowed upon you, having the chance to possibly sacrifice your life for your country. Where’s Miss Possible?”

“Upstairs,” Ron said, still stunned by Barkin appearing like some kind of poltergeist.

“Hm,” Colonel Barkin said before he went ahead.

“Huh?” Ruby asked from his pocket.

“That, my little friend, was Steve Barkin. The man, the myth, the legend – the one who gave out detentions like they were breath mints.”

“You know your military minutia, Miss Possible,” Barkin said approvingly. “I’m not surprised.”

If Kim was surprised, Doctor Director was absolutely shocked. She stood up slowly. “Steve?” she asked.

Kim stared at her. “Steve?”

“Hello, Betty,” Barkin said. “It’s been a long time.”

“Wait, you KNOW each other?”

“It’s classified, Possible.”

“Steve Barkin was the American government’s liaison to Global Justice for two years,” Dr. Director explained.

“It WAS classified,” Barkin muttered.

“Oh, loosen up, Steve,” Betty Director said. “You think YOU’RE privy to the number of secrets Kim Possible is?”

“I thought Global Justice was independent of the U.S. government,” Wade said.

“It is,” Dr. Director explained, “but like GJ, the United States has military and intelligence operations running simultaneously all over the globe. We simply HAD to share information with the Americans if we didn’t want to continually step on each other’s toes, interfere with each other’s missions, and essentially create one very big mess. For a long time Colonel Barkin was an essential part of that . . . wait, how do you know him?” she asked Kim.

“Are you kidding me? He was our high school principal!” Ron said as he entered.

“The U.S. Army – the best of the best of the best,” Shego added sarcastically.

“I’d watch your tongue, young lady,” Barkin warned her. “The Army is one hell of an institution.”

“Then why is the Army coming here?”

Barkin frowned.

“Steve?” Dr. Director asked. “School principal? Why aren’t you a general by now?”

“I retired from active duty several years ago,” he said. “You remember our last conversation.”

She put a hand over her mouth. “I thought you were just – “

“No, I’d already put my papers in. I guess I thought you’d – “

“As extremely weird as this is getting,” Kim said, “maybe you should tell us why you’re here, Colonel?”

“Indeed,” Barkin said, glancing at Betty Director one last time before focusing on Kim. “Miss Possible, we’re dealing with a threat to not only our great nation, but to the world community. The very foundations of this planet are at risk. The military tried to deal with the problem itself in a joint operation with Global Justice, but we’ve lost all contact with the expedition and we’re assuming they’re KIA.”

“What kind of expedition?” Kim asked.

“Well, you may not believe this, Miss Possible,” he replied, “but a terrorist group appears to have built a secret base on the surface of the moon, and they’re threatening to use some sort of device which could alter the moon’s orbit. The effect this would have on the world’s oceans would be completely catastrophic. This entire world could be completely submerged overnight. Or, it could break the planet in two.”

“My God,” Betty murmured.

“Who are the terrorists?” Wade asked.

“Their identity is part of the reason why I’m here,” Colonel Barkin said. “Your unit is uniquely qualified for this mission, considering your history. You see, it’s the Worldwide Empire of Evil.”

Dr. Director gasped. “Gemini,” she whispered.

“Your brother, yes,” Colonel Barkin said. “Kim Possible, you’re the one person most responsible for the first downfall of Sheldon Director’s organization. Your country needs you to defeat him a second time.”

Kim waited only a moment. “I guess you can consider me drafted,” she said.

“Aye aye, Colonel,” Ron added.

“Can the naval expressions, Stoppable.”

“Sorry, sir.”

"So Sarge," Shego said casually.

Barkin favored her with a glare. "I believe you heard Ms. Possible call me by the rank I've earned, Shego."

"Mmm-hmm, right. So Sarge, Kimmie may be ready to be 'drafted', but I consider myself more of an independent contractor," Shego replied, "and that implies the all-important contract detailing the fee arrangement. I think you led the doc here to believe that we'd be paid for this?"

"Shego," Kim said, exasperated. "This is saving the world he's talking about!"

"That's all right, Ms. Possible," Barkin said. "Your government anticipated Shego would require her thirty pieces of silver."

"Only if those pieces of silver are going to fetch me a nice price on the antiquities market," Shego shot back.

"Shego!" Kim hissed. She turned back to Barkin. "I don't like your choice of words either, Colonel Barkin, sir," she warned him.

"Fine," he said. He stood even straighter, if that was possible. "The United States government is aware that Team Possible has become a for-profit venture. We're prepared to direct a great deal of government work your way in the future - should there be a future, that is."

"You're coming to us NOW," Shego pointed out. "What's the incentive?"

"NOW is special circumstances and a dire emergency," Colonel Barkin told her. "Normally, it would be highly unlikely that the United States would hire you for any freelance jobs."

Kim was startled. "For what reason?"

"For keeping a terrorist on staff."

"EXCUSE ME!" Shego exploded. "I don't know if this is another example of 'military intelligence', but I'm not wanted for a damn thing!"

"There are no outstanding warrants for your arrest, true," Barkin said, "but your name is on a government watch list based on your international criminal record. Barring extraordinary circumstances - such as saving the planet - you'll spend the rest of your life labeled an extreme security risk. You couldn't even get into the White House on a visitors' pass, Shego."

"Shego may not have spent the past five years in an official penal institution, Colonel Barkin," Kim told him, "but believe me, she's more than paid off her debt to American society."

"Again, perhaps," Barkin acknowledged, but he didn't even bother to look at Shego, who seethed in her chair. "However, I would remind you that I mentioned her 'international' criminal record. Next time she tries getting through twenty-three different foreign countries, see how far she gets. She's been classified as an 'undesirable' by the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Portugal - "

"All right," Shego muttered.

"Austria, Saudi Arabia . . ."

"I said - "

"Thailand, Angola . . ."

"I said ALL RIGHT!" Shego screamed, snapping her fingers. Her hands ignited. "You say one more name, and I'm soldering your TEETH together."

"He IS right, Kim," Wade said quietly. "My information says there are a lot of countries that would turn Shego away at the border on sight."

"Like I said," Barkin said, looking pointedly at her hands, "a security risk."

"All right, that is ENOUGH." Kim got between them. "Colonel, Shego is part of my team. For the second and last time, I won't have you provoking her. You will treat me and everyone who works with me with respect, or I'll be the one turning down government work in the future."

She shot Shego a look that said she wouldn't say anything in front of Barkin, but that they WOULD talk about it later.

"KP's in soccer coach mode," Ron whispered to Doctor Director.

“I'll agree to what you ask, if you agree that the United States has conditions of its own,” Colonel Barkin told her.

“Conditions?” Kim asked, eyes narrowing.

“Military term for ‘interfering’,” Shego muttered.

“One,” Barkin said, ignoring Shego, “as I have previous experience with liaison work – as Betty so inappropriately pointed out – the United States wants me to be their point man on this. I would need to be privy to planning sessions, and kept in the loop during your mission.”

Kim was already annoyed that the military came TO her with one hand, and demanded things OF her with the other. And after several months of close quarters with Shego, she could read her body language expertly enough to know from one glance that Shego, despite her indifferent exterior, was quite irritated. Still, it didn’t seem like THAT much of an imposition, as long as Barkin was kept in his place. “You said one,” she said, though. “Which implies there’s a two.”

“Correct,” Colonel Barkin said. “You will be expected to . . .” He paused. “Take someone with you.”

“That’s completely – “

Shego slammed palms on the table and shot to her feet, a shout on her lips.

Or at least, she WOULD have, but Kim had moved behind her, and her hands kept Shego firmly in her seat.

“Out of the question,” Dr. Director finished, thanks to Kim heading off Shego’s inevitable outburst.

Shego looked over her shoulder at Kim. Obviously Kim wouldn't be the only one to have words later. “Look,” she growled as she faced Barkin once more, igniting her black-gloved hand and waving dark fire with one finger, “the military may want to micromanage the team that never loses with you as their patsy – “

“I beg your pardon,” Barkin hissed, squinting at her.

Kim put one hand over her face. Like Shego and Ron just a couple months ago, "respect" would be a loosely defined word.

“But that’s too damn bad," Shego continued. "You can sit outside our door, and if we don’t want to tell you something, you can smile and take it like a good soldier. And you’re sure as HELL not shoving some tightass Navy SEAL type down our throats. You ever heard of team chemistry, Burpin!”

Kim finally decided to just say nothing. Better to let Shego expel the remainder of her anger right now, rather than having her seethe the rest of the meeting and all night too.

“Firstly, it’s Barkin,” the colonel snapped.

“Oh, but when she mentions the Navy, he lets it slide,” Ron muttered.

“Second, FYI, this is not actually a request made by the American government.” He scowled at her. “Personally, I think it’s a mistake, but our administration believes in an outdated concept they like to call ‘bilateralism’, better known as ‘letting other countries shove their noses where they don’t belong’.”

“Wait, this request doesn’t come from Global Justice, does it?” Dr. Director asked.

“No, they’re still nursing their wounds,” Barkin said. “This comes from the prime minister of Japan, actually.”

“Japan?” Kim asked.

“You see, Ms. Possible,” he explained, “Gemini has already supplied us with simulated footage of what he expects will happen should his mad scheme succeed. Again, we don’t know if it will work, or if he’ll just turn the moon into this galaxy’s second largest asteroid belt, but if we assume he’s right, then the MOST immediate impact on the Earth’s tides will be something on the scale of the submergence of the islands of Japan and the California coastline. Not to mention Hawaii, the Philippines, Wake Island. And twenty-four hours later we won't need the Panama Canal because Panama will BE a canal.”

“Major floods, terrible destruction, and maybe hundreds of millions of people die,” Kim realized.

“We stopped using the word ‘maybe’ some time ago, Ms. Possible. So, as you see, the Japanese feel they have as much incentive as us, and more than anyone else, to stop Gemini,” he said. “However, they don’t feel comfortable leaving their fate entirely in the hands of three young Americans – “

“Four,” Ron said.

Everyone looked at him. “Huh?” Kim asked.

“I think we need to bring Monique in on this,” Ron replied. “I mean, I realize we originally hired her for situations where we had to split up, but maybe this is one of those times when we need that extra person.”

He expected Kim, certainly Shego, to object, but surprisingly, neither did. “If we’d had Monique with us in Africa,” Kim said to Shego, “things there might not have come down to a toddler upgrading your gloves.”

“She can fight damn good,” Shego agreed, “but she’s mostly been fighting scum here in Middleton. I’d like to see her up against some real competition. Granted, evil henchmen come in all shapes and sizes, but – “

“Ahem,” Barkin said. “While I expect to be informed as to just WHO you choose to take with you, what I was trying to explain is that the Japanese would feel more at ease if one of their best operatives were present on the mission. There's also a matter of Japan's national honor, and you know how they feel about honor.”

“Why should we care how the Japanese feel about this?” Shego asked coldly. “They’re not hiring us.”

“The American government would feel more at ease if you made their lives less difficult and went along with it.”

“I’m not letting some stranger onto my team sight unseen!” Kim protested.

“You won’t have to,” Barkin said. “She’s somewhere in this building right now.”

Kim looked at Ron. "You didn't tell us he brought someone with him."

"He didn't!" Ron said. "He was alone!" He stared at Barkin. "And did you say She?”

“This young woman is not incognizant of the position she's putting your team in," Barkin explained. "She thought it might be a preliminary sign of her skill level if she could get past your security without alerting anyone."

"To be honest, there are still five or six holes in our current security for a reasonably competent person to exploit," Doctor Director admitted. "We're on a shoestring budget still."

"Be that as it may, the Japanese government was also sensitive to the notion that you might resent an outsider,” Barkin told them. “So they sent someone with whom you had a past working relationship with. Someone you knew.”

Kim scratched her head. “Who?” she asked blankly.

Ron stiffened as words from the past came back to him.

. . . left two years ago to become a 'secret agent' for the Japanese government. Very secret, of course, and I probably shouldn't have told you, but since we are both dreaming, it is not as if I have actually said anything . . .

“Oh, man,” he whispered.

“I’d better find out where she is,” Colonel Barkin said. He pulled a cell phone from his jacket pocket and flipped it on. “Agent?” he said.

“I don’t give a shit if it’s someone you know,” Shego grumbled. “I never worked with anybody from Japan. And I’M certainly not working with someone I don’t know.”

“But I haven’t!” Kim said defensively. “Ron, do you remember anyone?”

"Well . . ."

A ventilation duct fell from the ceiling two feet behind Ron, making him jump. The voice of the woman whose form silently followed it made him jump twice as high. "Perhaps you will introduce me to your friends, Stoppable-san?" she asked, standing up.

"Ron?" Kim asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah, heh-heh," Ron said, tugging at his collar as the woman, clad in skintight black, removed the mask that covered her features. "KP, this is Yori. Yori, Kim Possible."

"It is a great honor," the Yamanouchi student said, bowing deeply. "Ron-san told me much about you when he attended my school years ago."

"Ron," Kim said flatly. "What does she mean by HER school? Because I seem to remember you went to school with ME since kindergarten."

Shego just looked at the discomfited Ron and, for the first time in a while, found a reason to smile.

To be continued . . .

Author's Note - Confused? Wondering when Team Possible took on Duff Killagan? Check out Triaxx2's crossover Kim Possible fanfic, "Lost". Specifically Chapter 5, written by yours truly.

"I assume you can explain this," Kim said to Ron.

"Uh, yeah, KP."

"So?"

He risked a look at Yori. "I'm, er, not allowed to."

"Not ALLOWED to?" Kim asked, confused. Her gaze also moved toward Yori. "Who are you?" she demanded. "How do you know Ron, and why can't he talk about it? What do you think you have on him?"

"Please, Possible-san," Yori said mildly. "I am not the one responsible for Stoppable-san's silence. He is merely sworn to an oath - which, judging by your reaction, he has kept. Stoppable-san, in light of the circumstances, Sensei has granted you permission to take the members of your team into your confidence. He asks only that this information remain between us."

"What about him?" Shego asked, gesturing a thumb in Barkin's direction. "Whatever his status is, he's sure as hell not a 'team member'."

"Colonel Barkin has been enlightened by our ministry already," Yori said.

Kim had dismissed Yori and returned her focus to Ron. "So," she said, "willing to share NOW?"

Ron swallowed. Yori's explanation had not done much to ease the flat stare he was receiving from Kim. "Actually, uh, if this is only supposed to be said once, then maybe we should call Monique in right now?"

"You've been wanting to involve Monique all night," Shego said slyly. "Missing your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend," Ron replied, exasperated.

"We're getting off track here," Kim said, unwilling to be distracted. "All right, fine. You think Monique should be here for this? We'll beep her via Kimmunicator. If she can get here quickly, then you tell us EVERYTHING when she arrives. If she can't, then you tell everything right NOW, Ron."

"I'll take care of it," Wade said, speaking up for the first time since Yori's arrival.

Ron took another moment to give Yori a look while they waited for Wade to let them know what Monique said. She'd been a pretty girl when he first met her, but as an adult she was beautiful, her figure filling out the tight ninja gear quite nicely. Her hair was cut much the same as it had been years ago. If she were to wear the schoolgirl uniform she'd worn in Japan when he knew her, she'd more than fulfill the fantasy of many a man.

And this was not the time to be thinking THOSE thoughts, not when Kim was still giving him the evil eye. Shego, of course, seemed to be enjoying every moment of his awkwardness.

"Monique says she'll be here in five minutes," Wade said. "I told her it was important."

"Okay," Kim answered. "While we're waiting for Ron to come clean, maybe you can tell me what your qualifications are, Yori."

Ron winced as Shego's gaze sharpened. Both she and Kim were becoming territorial. They zealously guarded the reputation of Team Possible as well as their own individual reputations, and they weren't going to let a newcomer intrude on their chemistry unless they were satisfied she wouldn't hold them back.

"Of course, Possible-san," Yori said, seeming completely at ease. "I have been employed as a secret agent by the Japanese government for the past two years. Before that I spent many years in specialized training which prepared me quite well for my current occupation."

"She comes highly recommended, Ms. Possible," Barkin added. "Her superiors tell me they've never had an agent her age, male or female, as talented as she is."

"Please, Colonel," Yori told him. "I am sure there have been others better than I."

Shego rolled her eyes. "Gee, aren't you the self-deprecating type," she said dryly.

Yori smiled slightly. "And by the look of your clothes, Shego-san, you are the loud type," she replied, staring at one of the large bright green patches on Shego's catsuit.

Shego's lips curved downward. "I say we screw the army's conditions, leave both of them here, and just start up Sappho's engines and take Gemini out ourselves. I don't see why we need either of them."

Kim didn't answer at first, tapping her fingers. "Colonel Barkin, you mentioned that our current government believes in the spirit of bilateral action."

"Unfortunately."

"Well, then perhaps in the spirit of multilateralism, the American government can convince the twenty-three countries on that little list of yours to expunge Shego's criminal records. After all, this IS a world-saving mission," Kim argued. "That implies we - including Shego - will be saving those countries as well. In return," she added, looking once more at Yori, "we'll accept your two conditions."

"Kim," Shego growled. "Fuck them if they can't accept me. The normal rules don't apply to people like you and me."

"You are the two members of Team Possible with the highest profiles," Dr. Director pointed out. "And this is a business you're trying to run. It will NOT help our image if you're arrested and subjected to deportation hearings the next time you set foot in a foreign country."

"The only person who's ever managed to take me into custody is in this room," Shego retorted, "and somehow I don't see her taking THAT mission on."

Kim chuckled. "Shego, if this is what it takes to get the rest of the world to see you the way I see you - "

"Dead sexy?"

"Then we'll do it," Kim went on. "Assuming my government can play along?"

Barkin grunted. "If that's the only way to get your help without causing a diplomatic headache, then I imagine the administration will do what it can."

"Good." Kim looked at her watch. "Ron, if Monique doesn't get here soon, then you've got to start talking. You and she can share later. Time's in short supply right now, and - "

Monique picked that moment to barge in. "All right, what's the big . . . emergency?" She stared at Colonel Barkin. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Monique," Shego said. "Do you want a couple minutes alone with your man?"

"I think I can wait," Monique said wryly, having already told Shego during a practice session that whatever Kim thought she knew, she and Ron weren't involved. Glancing at Ron, she noticed the Asian woman near him, dressed almost exactly like the Oryx. "Hey, new girl, stealing my look? Not cool."

"Monique, be nice," Kim said, her tone overly polite. "This is Yori. She's an old friend of Ron's. You know, the one he's not allowed to talk about?"

"KP," Ron sighed.

"Why do I feel like I don't want to know?" Monique said.

"I don't really care one way or the other, personally," Shego noted.

"Well, I do," Kim said. "Ron?"

Ron shrugged. "Remember in high school, when I went to Japan as an exchange student?"

"Wait, that's how you know her?" Kim asked, surprised. "That's the big secret? You spent a few weeks in school with her?"

"It wasn't just any school, KP," Ron explained. "It's called Yamanouchi, and - "

"Oh, the secret ninja school," Shego said, looking bored again as she began studying her nails.

Everyone stared at her.

"The what?" Kim asked.

"Wait, you know?" Ron said at the same time.

Yori said nothing, but she looked shocked.

Shego looked up from her fingers. "What? You didn't?"

"Uh, hello? SECRET ninja school?" Kim reminded her. "Wait, ninja school!"

"Come on, it was all over Villains Digest Online years ago," Shego said. "Monkey Fist spent a month ranting about it. Something about him, Stoppable, a magic sword - I thought he'd read one too many mangas myself. I just figured you were there too." Then she smiled. "Turns out you were just out of the loop."

Kim's attention swung back toward Ron. "You're telling me you went off to Japan by yourself, enrolled in a school for ninjas, fought Monkey Fist, and didn't tell me?"

"I had no choice, KP," Ron pleaded. "I had to swear an oath that I'd never reveal the school's existence! Believe me, I WANTED to tell you. I showed off some mad skills and never got to talk about it!"

"Stoppable-san speaks the truth, Possible-san," Yori confirmed. "He swore an oath to the Sensei of our school."

"And what's this about a magic sword?"

"Magic," Barkin scoffed.

Ron removed the watch from his wrist and held it in his right hand. He didn't even bother to speak. With a thought it shifted in his grasp and became a Japanese sword.

Kim and Dr. Director both gasped. Shego's eyes widened.

"This is the Lotus Blade," Ron told them. "It - responds to me. Something about me being the Monkey Master. Which, surprise surprise, is why Monty Fiske wanted it. It used to be kept at Yamanouchi, and then one day I woke up and found it next to me." He turned to Yori. "But now that you're here, you can take it back to Sensei."

Yori held up her hands, not to take the sword, but to refuse it. "Stoppable-san, I did not come here for the sword. Sensei says that if the Lotus Blade came to you, it did so for a reason, and any attempt to return it to Yamanouchi would fail. Undoubtedly it would return to your side the next day. For better or worse, the Lotus Blade is a part of you."

"Great," he muttered. "All these parts of me that I don't remember having a say about."

"All right, time out," Monique said, making a T-shape with her hands. "Wade tells me to get here ASAP, and what do I get? Ron's a ninja with a sword that can turn into a watch, my old high school principal is dressed like a four-star general, and there's a strange Japanese girl in the room who's dressed like me. If SOMEbody doesn't start from the beginning and tell me what's going on here, then I'm going back to the streets."

"Ok, I think we all need a break," Kim agreed. "Ron, you mind stepping out with me for a minute?"

"No problem," Ron said instantly.

"Stoppable-san?" Yori asked. "It has been a very long time since we spoke last. Perhaps we too might 'catch up' at some point?"

"Picked up a few American phrases in the spy business?" Ron asked.

"Not exactly," she said. "Only after I left Yamanouchi and began work for my government did I have access to American television."

"While they're chatting," Barkin grumbled, "maybe you and I can work out the rules of my position here as government liaison?"

Dr. Director realized he'd been talking to her. "Er, yes, of course," she said, wondering if that was the ONLY thing he wanted to discuss.

"Since everyone seems to be pairing off," Shego said to Monique, "I suppose I'd better fill you in on the mission."

"Wait, mission? With you guys?"

"I haven't been training you all this time just so you can pound a few hoodlums into submission in half the time, you know."

Yori suddenly noticed that the room was emptying out, and she was the one left out. "Well, I will just - " she began.

"I'm still here," Wade said from the computer screen. "If you have any questions."

"Ah," Yori said. "Tell me, are Possible-san and Shego-san always that - "

"Yes."

"But I did not finish - "

"Trust me, it's yes."

"I'm not going to rip you apart," Kim sighed. "Obviously this 'Sensei' person gave you a very big responsibility that you felt bound by. It's just a little upsetting to find out that after all the years we've been friends, there's this big part of you I knew nothing about."

"It's not THAT big a part of me."

She looked pointedly at his sword. "Apparently you've become bonded to a shapeshifting weapon in a way that transcends the rules of space and time, Ron."

"It's because of the Monkey Magic, KP. And you know I sure as hell never asked for THAT. Besides," he added carefully, "it's not like you've never hidden important things about yourself from me."

Kim's expression grew stricken. "Ron," she said, immediately understanding he was referring to the lie she told him about Shego in Boston.

"Don't worry about it," he replied, shrugging. "I told you I forgave that. I'm just trying to remind you that people have different reasons for keeping things from even their closest friends. Even people like you and me."

Kim waited a few moments before she responded. She was forced to admit that her indignation rang hollow next to her own sin of omission. True, he'd kept his secret for far longer - she'd felt compelled to tell the truth about herself and Shego within a few days - but he'd been living with an obligation to keep a sacred promise. "You're right," she said, her shoulders slumping a little. "I was overreacting."

"Hey, don't be too apologetic," he said sheepishly. "I hated keeping this from you. You had the right to be disappointed."

"I'm a little jealous, actually," Kim told him. "I never got to study secret ninja arts with professionals in Japan . . . that's why you wanted me to teach you Japanese styles of fighting instead of Monkey Kung Fu, isn't it?" she realized. "I was surprised by how fast you learned, and later I thought it was because of the magic. But we were covering old ground for you, weren't we?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Some of it, yeah. But I'd forgotten a lot too. I'd say I've learned more from you than I did from them."

Kim glowed a little at that. "Still, I think we should start focusing on some fighting techniques from parts of the world OTHER than Japan. Maybe some Capoeira to start - you've never studied in South America, have you?"

"Ick. Too many bugs."

"What about Yori? How good is she?"

"Considering what she was like when I met her, plus another few years at Yamanouchi and two more with the Japanese government?" Ron said. "She can probably clean my Monkey Master baboon butt."

"Could she take me?"

"Well, her name isn't Shego, so I doubt it."

Kim looked again at the sword. "Can it become anything other than a sword or a watch?" she asked. "You were obviously meant to wield the Lotus Blade on missions, but a sword isn't exactly a nonlethal weapon."

"Sensei said that a weapon is only as lethal as the intent of the person wielding it. But it can be almost anything I want it to be," he said. "Except a naco. I tried. Not that I would have eaten it, but I had to know."

Kim chuckled. "Are you okay with Mr. Barkin being a part of this? I should have asked you before I accepted, but I was dealing with some irrational anger. You and he didn't exactly see eye to eye in high school."

"I figure if I whip him up a chocolate cloud, he'll be fine."

"On the plus side, you DO get to go on a mission with Monique for the first time since - you know."

Ron didn't respond. He'd explained to Kim that the times he'd shared the spare bed with Monique had nothing to do with romance, and everything to do with being too tired to care about the close quarters. But Kim had become oddly attached to the idea of Ron and Monique dating, and Ron worried that Kim might eventually put her indomitable energies toward matchmaking. Shego, he suspected, would only encourage her. As he'd seen, Shego saw the relationship as another way to tease him.

"I wonder how we'll tell them apart," Kim said thoughtfully. "They both dress all in black."

"I wouldn't worry," Ron said. "Monique always did know how to accessorize."

They were interrupted by the arrival of Yori, who clasped her hands briefly. "I beg pardon, Possible-sama, but Wade-san asked me to relay a message. He wishes to speak with you."

"Okay," Kim said slowly. Ron had vouched for her, but the fact remained that she didn't know Yori personally, and until she got a better idea of what the Japanese spy was like, she would treat her with guarded politeness. "I don't know why he couldn't just contact me on the Kimmunicator, but - "

"Those little handheld devices, correct?" Yori asked. "Actually, Wade wishes to meet with you - in person."

Ron's jaw dropped open. "In person? Like, face to face?"

Kim was equally stunned. While Wade had apparently gone out on a few dates with Monique before the battle with the Acceptable family, Kim still had never met with him in person before. What was so important? "When?"

"I believe now, Possible-sama. He said time is of the essence, since this man Gemini could act at any time."

"Dude, I am so coming," Ron said. "A mission on the moon AND meeting Wade in the flesh? What are the odds?"

Kim paused. "Yori, just now you referred to me as Possible-sama, but Wade as Wade-san? Why?"

"I am on your team?" Yori asked.

Kim nodded.

"As long as that is the case, you are my leader, and therefore you have earned the honorific of 'sama', as opposed to 'san'," Yori explained.

"I see. Well, we'd better invite Shego too," Kim said. "I doubt meeting Wade has any special significance for her, but it must be major, and I wouldn't want her to feel like I left her out of something."

"Neither do I," Ron said.

"Scared, Ron? Can't you just turn the Lotus Blade into some plasma-tossing gloves, Ron?" Kim asked teasingly.

"Yeah, copying Shego, THERE'S a smart idea."

To be continued . . .

"Hey," Wade said, looking a trifle embarrassed.

"Wade?" Kim asked. "That IS you, right? Not a hologram or a robot or something?"

"Nope, me in the flesh," he replied, spreading his arms and turning in a circle once.

Kim surprised him by stepping forward and hugging him impulsively.

"Heh, just making sure I'm real?" Wade said awkwardly.

"Just thanking you for the thirty or so times you saved my life, Wade," Kim said into his ear before she let go.

Wade rubbed the back of his neck. "It's not necessary, Kim," he said. "It was worth it the first time - "

"Wade, it's you!" Ron said excitedly as he arrived. "Uh, it is you, right?" He jabbed him lightly in the forearm. "Ouch, guess so. Nice bicep."

"Maybe I should just wear a little sign around my neck that says, NOT A HOLOGRAM," Wade joked. But he did agree that he had nice biceps, compared to where they were a few months ago.

"Maybe you're a clone, Nerdlinger," Shego said as she came in. "I could get you a soda, Kimmie."

"Never thought you'd meet me in person the same time as Kim, Shego," Wade said dryly.

"Eh," Shego said, shrugging her shoulders. "Not like I care."

"Interesting," Yori said from behind Shego. "Even in my work as a Japanese agent, I have not seen a single place with such computers. Is this an American thing, doing everything bigger?"

"Nope, just a geek thing," Shego sighed.

"Just a hero thing," Kim corrected her. "Wade, this is Yori. Yori - "

"I was there, Kim," Wade said quickly. "On a computer screen anyway. No need to make formal introductions." He did approach Yori and bow, though.

She returned the gesture. "Possible-sama obviously holds you in great respect, Wade-san," Yori said. "How is it you have saved her so many times without ever being in the same room with her?"

"It's all in the Kimmunicator," Wade said proudly. "Designed by yours truly and updated constantly. As for the computers you were admiring, I can - "

"Whoa, time out," Shego cut him off. "How about you tell Pumpkin what the big news is before your geekspeak makes my brain melt?"

Yori raised an eyebrow. "Shego-san is right, Wade-san. We do not have much time. However, when our mission is completed, I would enjoy hearing the rest of what you were about to say."

Wade blushed.

"Yadda yadda," Shego muttered, waving her hand in a circular motion.

"Shego," Kim said. "Wade, just what IS so important that you invited me over to your home?"

"Oh! Right over here," Wade told her, heading toward what looked like an upright steel cylinder. He tapped at some buttons on a panel nearby. "Do you remember something called the Centurion Project?"

"Kinda hard to forget a top-secret prototype stuck to my wrist that turned into full body armor with shoulder-mounted laser cannons," Kim pointed out.

"Ohhhh," Shego said, remembering. "That night you lied to your parents."

Kim flushed. "Er, yeah, that too."

"Well, when you were still in high school," Wade explained, "I did some tinkering around with the Project, using the data I collected while you were wearing it. Then the Acceptables came along, you retired, and I put my work aside."

"Wade, you can't actually be saying you built her another Centurion Project," Ron said. "She had to wear that thing all night! Shego couldn't even CLAW it off of her!"

Shego looked at Kim. "You are NOT wearing that thing into MY bed, Kimmie," she said.

Wade coughed into his fist. "Don't, um, worry about that, Shego. I made a lot of modifications, especially after I picked up where I left off a couple months ago. Right after the Congo incident with Monkey Fist, actually. You were laid up in the hospital overnight, remember? Your mother wanted to make sure none of those monkey bites became infected?"

Kim nodded.

"I thought you could use a little protection," Wade said.

"I don't think pregnancy is a concern right now," Shego said evilly. She looked straight at Yori, obviously hoping for a rise from her.

Yori didn't react, however, although Wade coughed more loudly this time. "I do not believe he spoke of that kind of 'protection', Shego-san," she said. "If I am not mistaken, Wade-san is describing some kind of body armor?"

"Exactly," Wade said. "It's not metal, Kim, but it's still your very own suit of shining armor."

There was a hissing sound, and the cylinder slowly rotated, revealing a compartment inside. Inside, draped over what looked like a dressmaker's dummy, was a bodysuit like Shego's. However, instead of wild splashes of green and black, it was a shade of white so bright it was almost blinding, accentuated by shining blue stripes.

"I don't have a fancy name for it," Wade said. "I just call it the Battle Suit."

"Whoa," Ron said.

"Mmm-hmm!" Rufus agreed, shading his eyes.

"Most impressive," Yori added.

"Wow," Kim said, amazed.

"Hmph," Shego grumbled. "The colors are a little too goody-goody, don't you think?"

"I guess I'm not a fashion designer like you, Shego," Wade retorted. "I was worried about making something both supple and strong, something that gives Kim complete freedom of movement, and yet something every monkey in the Amazon couldn't chew through."

"It's gorgeous, Wade," Kim said. "Even Monique would agree if she was here."

Shego still looked unimpressed. She turned away and picked idly through the papers strewn about a nearby desk.

"Could this super suit stop a bullet?" Ron asked.

"No," Wade admitted. "Not without affecting Kim's speed and mobility, and that's been her first line of defense for so long, I wouldn't DREAM of slowing her down. But it's tough enough to withstand most slashing, clawing, and biting attacks. And even if the Battle Suit DOES get torn, the suit's nanotechnology can repair the tear in seconds."

"Nanotechnology?" Yori repeated slowly.

"Incredibly tiny robots," Wade explained, favoring her with a smile. "So small you'd need a pretty powerful microscope to see them. But thousands and thousands of them working together can do some pretty amazing things in a real short time."

Kim stared at the suit a little more closely. "Wade, is it the lighting in here, or is this suit - glowing a little?"

"Not the lighting, Kim," Wade told her proudly. "This suit has a small power source along the waist. When it's activated, the suit will increase your strength AND - "

"Wade," Shego interrupted softly, her head facing downward.

"Yeah, Shego?"

Without even looking in his direction, Shego shot out her arm and grabbed Wade by the throat. Before anyone else could react, Shego propelled him backwards until his back was flush against the wall. She raised her other arm, clutching a roll of papers in her fist. "You want to explain this shit?" she snarled.

"Shego!" Kim gasped.

"Sorry," Shego told her, "but Wade here obviously has some trust issues. Don't you, Wade?"

"Shego," he began nervously.

"Don't you Shego me!" She tossed the papers to Kim. "Look what's written in the upper right of those blueprints."

Kim hesitated a moment before she unrolled the papers and found detailed design schematics for the Battle Suit. They were covered with notes, including the one Shego pointed her towards. "Glove technology perfectly designed to deflect and neutralize all plasma-based attacks," she read out loud.

"Plasma," Shego spat. "Gee, Wade, wonder why Kim would need to protect herself from plasma attacks?" Now that she was no longer holding the blueprints, she ignited the plasma flames of her right glove and held it a few inches from Wade's face.

"Shego, I can explain," Wade said quickly.

"Maybe you should have built yourself a Battle Helmet, dweeb," Shego retorted. "You could use those plasma defenses right now."

"Shego, let him talk," Kim said, sighing.

"Yes, I highly doubt Wade-san would have invited you into his inner sanctum if he considered you a threat, Shego-san," Yori added.

"Those are the original blueprints," Wade said when Shego didn't move. "From when Kim was still in high school. So back then, yeah, I'd say she needed it. But I've made an upgrade or two. Now it can protect her from most small-arms laser fire. It won't block a shot from a laser cannon, but with this suit she can even 'catch' laser fire in her hands and toss the energy back her enemies' way. And the power source that I was talking about? It powers the gloves too. Which I was about to tell her when you flew off the handle."

"My gloves don't need batteries," Shego said, but she was loosening her grip by then.

"Yeah, well this suit wasn't designed by a two-year-old super prodigy," Wade pointed out.

Kim put her hand on Shego's arm. "Let him go, Shego. You heard him. This isn't about you."

Shego dropped her arm, but the frown she turned on Kim was ferocious. "I still don't like it," she said.

"Dude, why?" Ron asked. "With this she'll be, like, KP 2.0! Fightin' Kim-style, taking it to the next level." He looked at Shego. "Kinda gives her the edge on you now, doesn't it?"

"It disrespects her!" Shego shot back, tossing Wade a hostile look.

"Ron, Shego, everyone, just dial it down a notch, okay!" Kim burst out. "I don't see why we're all arguing about this! Shego, what do you mean this suit 'disrespects' me?"

Shego folded her arms. "Last time I checked, there isn't a person on this planet other than me who can beat you. The two of us . . . and him," she said grudgingly, gesturing toward Ron.

"Thanks. I think," Ron mumbled.

"Have nothing to fear from anyone else on Earth OR the moon!" Shego said forcefully. "You wearing that suit is an admission of weakness. It says to me that you need to be stronger, that you need special laser defenses, that you can't take everyone else on the same way you've been doing it for years."

"You've worn those gloves, or gloves just like those, for years," Kim said quietly. "But you don't really need them. Or at least, you didn't until we were in Monkey Fist's temple and your plasma powers were the only thing that saved us from being torn apart by three hundred monkeys."

"I've worn them for so long, they're a part of me," Shego said. "Like you and your grappling hook hair dryer, or the lipstick laser. I'm not saying it's beneath you to use something other than your fists and your feet. I'm just saying - "

"You're afraid me wearing this suit is an admission that WE'RE not strong enough, isn't it?" Kim said. "That I still need a super-powered suit even with you and Ron at my side?"

Shego looked away. "No," she muttered.

"I'd just like to point out," Wade said gingerly, "that this Suit isn't an open invitation for you to make like Superman from now on. For all intents and purposes the Battle Suit runs on electricity. If you activate its special attack and defense modes, you'll drain the battery in ten minutes, tops. And then you'll need a full day to recharge it again. This isn't a new way to fight. This is more like an emergency backup."

Kim looked doubtful. "I don't know, Shego DOES have a point. On the other hand, your inventions have never done me wrong before, Wade. And just because I wear the suit, I don't actually have to use the special functions, right? I could just wear it for added protection?"

"That's right, Kim," Wade said. "It should offer increased protection against exposure to heat and cold, too."

"You could always try it on, Kim-sama," Yori suggested.

Wade moved away from Shego and, taking the Battle Suit down, handed it to Kim gently. "Go right ahead," he said. "It might not even fit. Your physique has changed from five years ago, and my estimates could be wrong."

"Besides," Ron added, "it's not like Shego hasn't been trying to get you to change your mission clothes for months now."

"You're not helping, Stoppable," Shego warned him. But then she looked at Kim. "You might as well," she said. "I'm not entirely opposed to something that could save your life the next time someone tries to stick a knife in you."

Kim nodded. "Okay. Guess I'll be back in a minute then."

She went into the small private bathroom Wade's parents had built for him in his rooms.

"I hope it fits," Wade said.

"If it does, and if Shego-san is anything like I've been told," Yori said cheerfully, "then I do not think she will oppose it further."

Shego swiveled on Yori. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You obviously have a great appreciation for Kim-sama's body, Shego-san," Yori replied. "I am sure you would appreciate it all the more if she wore clothing as tight as yours."

Shego stared at her.

"Think she's got a point there, Shego," Ron said.

"Don't encourage her," Shego grumbled.

"Ah there, you see, Wade-san?" Yori said, gesturing past Shego. "It does fit."

Everyone turned to see Kim's frame outlined in the entrance to Wade's bathroom. Yori was right - it did fit and it did show off her tightly honed physique exquisitely.

Shego blinked.

"What do you think, everyone?" Kim asked as she stepped forward. Her attention was on Shego.

"Looking good, KP," Ron said, whistling.

"Still . . ." Shego cleared her throat. "Still not crazy about the color scheme," she continued, "and I say you should just rip the batteries out now and forget about the extra features. But would I mind seeing you dressed like that for every mission? Hell, no."

Yori smiled. Her point had been made. She looked at Wade. "It seems your own mission has been a success, Wade-san."

Wade blushed. Much as he had every time Yori had smiled at him, spoken to him, or just looked at him so far.

"Do not let Sappho hear you call her a 'pet'," Dr. Director warned him. "She won't appreciate it."

"Even if the spaceship can use its color-changing function to blend in with the stars," Barkin continued, "we still have to assume that Gemini has some kind of early warning system that will alert him to Team Possible's approach. What will they do then?"

"I believe Sappho is a much more evasive craft than the ships used by the American military," Dr. Director said. "We have to trust she can avoid any enemy fire. Once she makes contact with Gemini's base, well, then we trust that Kim, Shego, Ron, Agent Yori, and the Oryx can handle any defenses present. Granted, it's a lot to ask of them, but I don't think we have the time to plan any grand sort of flanking maneuver without a better idea of the layout of the WWEE base. And frankly, I trust them to succeed very much. Well," she amended, "I don't know much about your Agent Yori - "

"She's with the Japanese, not with the US, Bet - Doctor," Barkin said, covering the slip. "But they assure us she's the best."

"Very well," Betty Director said, choosing to ignore his mistake.

"I don't know much about your Oryx myself," Barkin continued, "but our intelligence agency has quite the file on her, and it's an impressive read."

Dr. Director raised the one eyebrow. "You have a file on Oryx?" she asked, surprised.

"Well, let me put it to you this way," he said. "Monique."

She gave nothing away, and yet Barkin knew her well enough to tell she was startled.

"Don't worry," Barkin added. "The NSA's kept close tabs on all goings-on in the Middleton area ever since Ms. Possible emerged. One young woman dealing with the crime problem isn't our concern, and if she contributes to the effort before us, I dare say she won't have anything to worry about from the American government."

"I see," Dr. Director said slowly. "So they've been monitoring things here?"

He nodded.

"What about the Acceptables?"

Colonel Barkin frowned. "I can't speak for the NSA in that regard, but I should point out that Global Justice spoke VERY highly of them."

"And what about you? Is that why you were the principal there?" she asked hopefully. "So you could keep an eye on Kim and Ron?"

He paused. "No, it was pure coincidence I was there," he said. "I didn't become aware of what a special student I had on my hands until she first started making headlines."

"Oh," she replied.

There was a pause.

"I realize time is of the essence," Barkin finally said, "but maybe we should talk about this?"

Betty Director looked away. "I'm not sure I want to, Steve," she said. "Because it sounded a lot like you said you gave up your career for me."

"My years at Middleton High were very professionally rewarding," Steve Barkin said firmly. "Those kids needed me more than a desk at the Pentagon did."

"You gave up your career," Betty repeated, "and you had nothing to show for it."

"It's been years," Steve replied. "I moved on."

"Then why do you want to talk about it?"

"Obviously you're still bothered by what happened."

"When I told you that my role as the head of Global Justice couldn't permit me to become romantically involved with a high-ranking American officer, much less liaison between GJ and the United States, I wasn't asking you to retire!" Betty burst out.

"But we were involved, Betty," he reminded her. "Whatever the rules said."

"I know what the rules said," she replied irritably. "And all right, yes, there was some - contact."

"I suppose that would be a euphemistically correct description of what we did," Barkin said dryly.

Betty frowned at him. "Yes, all right, fine. Still, when you said you would leave the Army for me, I never took it seriously. You lived for the American army. And then you just - left. Gone. The Americans assigned a new liaison officer, and they never explained why. I never found out what happened to you."

"You couldn't have just used GJ resources?" he asked.

"It would have been improper to do so for personal reasons," she said quickly. "And anyway, where were you?"

He looked embarrassed. "Well, perhaps I didn't think things through properly."

"You think so? You really think so?"

"As I was saying," Barkin grumbled. "When I resigned and gave up my role as GJ liaison, I also lost . . . any means of contacting you."

She stared at him. "You can't be serious."

"Well, it's not as if you ever gave me your phone number," he growled. "And you know how GJ security is. I tried getting through to you. But I kept getting jammed by low-level GJ agents who didn't know me as 'Colonel Steve Barkin, U.S. liaison to Global Justice'. I was just 'Mr. Barkin, Col. (Ret.)'. Apparently," he said, sighing, "you're a very busy woman who can't take calls from just anyone."

Dr. Director put a hand over her face. "Oh, hell," she said.

"I would like to know, though," Steve Barkin said. "If I had gotten through to you . . . would we have been able to continue our relationship?"

"Oh, Steve," Betty said. "I - I think - no, I don't think so, Steve."

He looked down. "I see. It wasn't because I was an American officer, was it?"

"Steve," Betty said helplessly. "It wasn't you, it was me, it was who I was. I was the director of Global Justice. Emphasis on the word GLOBAL. I lived for that job the same way you lived for the Army. I had to live for that job if I was going to be any good at it! And you - you were handsome, bright, dedicated. You were something good in those few, brief moments that I could relax. But you can't build a relationship on a few brief moments. When we spoke, I used rules and regs as an excuse because I didn't want to tell you the truth. I guess - I was already married to the job."

"I suppose you were," Barkin said.

Betty's phone rang, but she made no move to answer it.

"You should get that," Steve told her. "It might be Ms. Possible. I'll just - get some air." He stood up stiffly.

"Steve, I'm sorry," Betty said. "It's my fault you resigned. I should never have - "

"Betty, please," he said. "There was nothing to forgive years ago, and there sure as hell isn't anything to forgive now."

He marched out of her office without looking back.

Betty shook her head and pulled her phone out. The caller ID read 'VIVIAN'.

"Hello, Vivian?" Betty said.

"Betty, hey," Dr. Vivian Porter said. "How are things going?"

"Fine," Betty replied, not really meaning it. "How about you?"

"Not bad," Vivian said. "I'm just taking a break from my work."

Betty looked at her watch. "It's past eleven at night, Vivian. How long have you been there?"

"Since seven this morning. I've worked over twenty-four hours straight before, Betty, so sixteen is nothing to me. Besides, tell me you're not at your desk."

Dr. Director's cheeks flushed slightly. "A big mission came up," she admitted.

"Well, I didn't mean to disturb you, I was just calling to say hi," Vivian said. "It's weird, you know. For years my friends were all robots. And now that I have you and Holly, I have this sudden compulsion to call you or her once a day, when before I would have just worked until I dropped. Funny, huh?"

"Funny in a good way," Betty said. "Sometimes you don't realize that there are important things besides work . . . until they're gone. And then you wonder if you should have done things differently."

The phone was quiet for a moment. "I hear you," Vivian finally said. "Are you all right?"

"It looks like my brother is back to either rule the planet or destroy it. I could be better."

"Want me to come over? My work - I could save it for tomorrow. I mean, ever since Robot Wars ended, all I did with my free time was run additional experiments, so it's not like I'm trying to beat the clock."

"No, that's all right," Betty said. "I have classified intelligence files to review. Can't launch an attack on the moon without all the data."

"Er, no, I guess you can't. Guess I'll give Holly a ring then."

"Thank you for calling," Betty said sincerely. "I needed it."

"You're welcome," Vivian said. "I enjoyed the chat just as much as you do. Betty?"

"Yes?"

"You say the world could end?"

"Only if Team Possible fails, and I don't think that's likely. So the chance is very slim that we'll see planetwide destruction in the next few days."

"You sound like a meteorologist."

Betty laughed for the first time that night.

"You'll give me the heads-up if the apocalypse is a go, right? That's what friends are for?"

"That's what friends are for," Betty agreed. "Good night, Viv."

"Good night, Betty."

Betty Director terminated the call, stood up, and went into the next room to check on Thomas. He was fast asleep on his crib.

Maybe it was because of Steve, and maybe it was because of a lot of things, but Betty was suddenly struck by how much she loved her son.

She was sorely tempted to lie down in the cot next to his crib, knowing she could pass out instantly, but instead she went back to her office and her duty.

To be continued . . .

"Well, you ready or what?" Monique asked.

"Monique-san, I am only waiting for Kim-sama to say she is ready," Yori replied calmly.

"Mmm-hmm," Monique said. Yori was a little TOO calm, she thought. She probably looked this way sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office. "In case you hadn't noticed, Yori-SAN, there are three people sitting at the table."

"But Kim-sama is the team leader," Yori pointed out. "As team leader, Ron-san and Shego-san will defer to her."

"I thought you did your homework on Shego," Monique said dryly. "Defer isn't in her vocabulary. If she doesn't like you, she'll let it be known. And just between you and me? I'm thinking she's already started not liking you."

Yori only smiled.

Monique had nothing more to add. She'd been called back to Team Possible's headquarters at seven that morning. At this point the building's facilities weren't yet top-notch, but its training and practice facilities were first-rate. Which was good, because Kim called the meeting to personally evaluate Yori's fighting abilities. And Monique was the test.

Kim, Ron, and Shego were set up, bizarrely enough, at a folding table. Kim even had a clipboard. As if this was the setting for a high school debate or a spelling bee, instead of a fight between two women who'd been told to hold nothing back.

Monique and Yori were wearing identical practice gear, tight black bodysuits that didn't really offer one's opponent any kind of grip. Monique's mask was off. Among the things Kim wanted to evaluate were how well Yori could read Monique's eyes and anticipate her moves.

No, that wasn't quite right, Monique admitted to herself. It was so Kim could evaluate how they BOTH read each other's eyes. Monique felt certain that this test was meant for her too. She'd been groomed for weeks for a mission like this. Shego had been teaching her personally for this reason. She wasn't just a small-time vigilante watching Middleton's streets, and she wasn't just Ron's sparring partner. The Oryx was a reserve member of Team Possible, which meant she had to meet the same standards that Kim or Ron themselves met. She had to protect the world's safety, not just that of a random pedestrian or two.

Shego looked bored, Monique thought, but she felt that would change once the first punch was thrown. Shego might not have a pencil or a checklist, but she would be mentally cataloguing every move Monique made.

Monique was a little surprised to realize how much she wanted to meet Shego's expectations, even exceed them. She'd learned to need Shego's approval in the arena of battle. And of course there was Kim, her friend for years. She didn't want Kim thinking that she'd allowed friendship to blind her to the reality that Monique was nothing special.

And then there was Ron, who looked ready to pass out. "Slacker," she thought to herself, not meaning it in the slightest. Here was the onetime lab partner who told her she'd be doing all the work on their next project because he didn't care if he failed. And now she fought him most mornings with the knowledge that he'd managed to become a little bit better than her. His "Mystical Monkey Power", Shego had explained to her recently. Shego also was of the opinion that this wasn't an excuse.

Monique agreed. She knew she could be as good as Ron. It drove her to practice that much harder. By now she could put the biggest thugs in Middleton down to stay with two hits, then show off her killer abs dancing at the Planetarium, and it didn't matter. She wanted Ron - she wanted him to respect her. Oh sure, Monique knew he did, but she wanted to earn it and go on earning it, the way he had.

"Don't you go falling asleep on me, Stoppable," Monique said suddenly. "I'm not stopping in the middle of this because I have to come over there and smack you upside the head."

"Ron," Kim added.

"Sorry," he mumbled. But he winked at Monique as he settled back in his chair.

For Kim's part, she couldn't help but flash back to a certain preteen with braces trying out for cheerleading. Only now she was in Bonnie's place, and this wasn't about the cheerleading squad. This was about determining whether Yori was someone she could trust in the serious life-and-death situation that was about to unfold in space.

She also wanted to see how Monique met the challenge of someone who was extremely highly touted by the Japanese government. But this wasn't a competition in the sense that only one of them could make "the team". Monique was a part of Team Possible for two simple reasons.

One, both Shego and Ron had privately told her how deeply they respected her abilities and her growing potential. Two, Monique had appeared without warning during their showdown with the Acceptable Family, and she'd carried her weight that night. Frankly, now that Kim accepted Monique's double life as the Oryx, Kim would have her on the team for every mission if Monique wasn't already committed to her role as Middleton's protector.

Now, if YORI could meet MONIQUE'S challenge, then that said a lot about her.

"Are we going to get on with this?" Shego asked, then sighed. "I should be prepping Sappho for the mission."

"Oh, right," Kim said, starting. "Shego's right, we don't have a lot of time. Monique, Yori, I expect you to go all out, but I also expect you to be in fighting shape when the fight is over. If one of you ends up with a broken leg, Team Possible will be shorthanded for this mission, and I can't have that. So I'll trust that you can control your punches."

"I believe I can refrain from inflicting such an injury on my opponent, Kim-sama," Yori said.

"I don't think that's gonna be your decision," Monique retorted.

"That's right, Monique," Shego said casually. "You figure out how to get under that skin, I don't think she'll be the same fighter."

Yori chuckled.

"Looks like someone's already taking sides," Ron murmured.

"You're not?" Kim asked just as quietly. "You can't tell me nothing happened between you and Yori in Japan."

"Trust me, KP, she wasn't interested."

"Says the boy who never realized Tara liked him until it was too late."

"Eh-heh, eh-heh, yeah," Ron said. He looked at Yori. Could she maybe . . .

Yori looked in his direction when she sensed his attention was upon her, and she gave him a little smile in return.

Nah, he wasn't picking up on anything.

"If you two are finished gossiping," Shego grumbled.

"Begin," Kim said.

Vivian Porter looked up from what she was working on. "Yes, thank you, Oliver," she said. "You can just read it for me and decide if it's important." This was one of the ways she was always testing his programming, forcing him to analyze messages meant for her and decide if she would consider them worth responding to.

"Of course, Dr. Porter . . . hm, that's interesting."

"What is?"

"It appears to be a message from Dr. Freeman's SAFO. She wishes to have a few minutes of your time in the hangar. How shall I respond?"

Vivian thought about it for only a moment before she replied. "Tell 'Sappho' I'll be there in a few minutes," she said. She'd had rare opportunities in the past to engage Dr. Freeman's creations in conversation. As a robotics expert who was always working to refine all aspects of her constructs' artificial intelligence, including social interaction, these conversations were enlightening.

"Yes, Dr. Porter."

She did feel a bit guilty as she left her laboratory. She'd spoken to Holly after phoning Betty last night, and Holly had asked about her progress with Thomas Director's cybernetic implants. Vivian didn't have much to report, however. Maybe if she was working on THAT instead of engaging talking spacecraft in chitchat, she'd know more.

Still, it wouldn't take long, and Vivian was curious why Sappho had contacted her instead of Dr. Freeman.

"Good morning, Dr. Porter," Sappho said as Vivian entered the hangar and approached the ship.

"Good morning, Sappho," Vivian replied. "How can I help you?"

There was no answer for a moment. "Perhaps you'd like to step inside where it's more comfortable," Sappho finally said, opening her hatch.

"All - right," Vivian said, confused. She boarded the spaceship and heard the hatch close behind her. "Is this some sort of private matter?"

"Yes, doctor. You are the expert in robotics."

"Yes?"

"I need you to build me a Shego robot."

Vivian coughed violently, blindsided by such a request. "I'm sorry, you need what?"

"A Shego robot. I am hoping that when it is completed, Dr. Freeman will give it a Shego personality."

"I can't be hearing this correctly. You want - a robot that looks and talks like Shego? Kim Possible's friend?"

"Yes, Doctor Porter," Sappho replied.

"Could you perhaps explain yourself?"

"Well, you see, I find myself liking Shego very much," Sappho said. "But Kim Possible says I'm too - flirtatious. So I agreed to stop doing that. But now I don't know HOW to talk to her. I mean, it's not fair! It's not like I'm going to steal Shego from her. I'm just a machine!"

"And you think having a Shego of your own is the answer," Vivian said. "One you can talk to in any manner you like."

"Yes! You understand, Doctor Porter."

Vivian understood, all right. She understood that this was a perfect example of how giving a computer "personality" created all sorts of complications that "artificial intelligence" did not.

She also understood that this was a disaster in the making if she didn't talk Sappho out of it. "Sappho," Vivian said hesitantly, "you said you like her very much. The real Shego, I mean."

"Oh, yes."

"How do you think the real Shego will feel when she learns you have made a copy of her?"

Sappho didn't respond at first. "She - she might get mad?" she asked finally.

"It's possible," Vivian said. "It's possible she'll think that there's something about her you don't like, and so you created a robotic double more to your liking."

"But I would explain to her," Sappho said.

"When?" Vivian asked. "Why would Shego want to talk to you? You'll have replaced her."

"No!" Sappho burst out. "I still want Shego to be my friend. I just - "

"Sappho, for lack of a better word, I think you're in 'love' with Shego," Vivian said gently.

" . . . That's silly. I'm just a computer inside a orbiting space vessel."

"With a personality," Vivian reminded her. "For better or worse, Dr. Freeman has programmed you with human emotions. That would include love."

"I - I guess," Sappho said. "But if that's so, what do I do? Shego is with Kim Possible and Shego will always be with Kim Possible. Maybe . . . maybe I need my personality chip removed after all."

"Maybe you need to talk to Shego about this," Vivian replied.

"Oh no, that would be too embarrassing!"

"And not having a personality any more would be better?"

"Well, no, not when you put it like that, Doctor Porter." She made a disgusted noise. "I'd probably be gray for the rest of my depreciable life, and not even care."

"Exactly," Vivian said. "From what little I've seen of Shego, she likes things bold, forward, and daring. I take it she likes flying you?"

"It's a - mutually enjoyable experience, Dr. Porter," Sappho replied, daring to purr a bit.

Vivian shook her head slightly. If Oliver ever started acting like THIS . . . "It sounds like she'd enjoy flying you less if you lost your personality. So you wouldn't be happy, and neither would she."

Sappho sighed. Vivian could almost believe there was a human woman hiding inside the console speaking into a microphone. "That could be. In that case, my only remaining option WOULD be to speak with her."

"Well, that's good," Vivian said gingerly. "Er, do you need anything else?"

"Oh, no, Doctor. You can get back to your work. I apologize for - eep!"

The lights inside the ship suddenly went out.

"Sappho?"

"Shego's coming," the ship hissed.

"Why are you whispering?"

"I - don't know. I just had a sudden urge to hide."

Vivian chuckled. "Unless you can turn the hangar lights off too, I don't think plunging the cockpit into darkness will help."

"Oh, right, right! Sorry!" The lights went back on and the hatch opened.

"Sappho?" Shego's voice floated up. "We've got a mission today."

"Just a moment!" Sappho said nervously. "Dr. Porter and I were discussing reverse nanotechnological personality-driven neural re-inhibitors!"

"Whatever."

"Reverse what?" Vivian asked.

"I find Shego stops listening to what she calls 'technobabble' after the third word, Dr. Porter."

Vivian let herself out and found Shego lounging against the ship's exterior. "Well, well," Shego said. "I guess you're Doctor Porter?"

"Yes," Vivian said. "You must be Shego."

"What's your profession, Doc?" Shego asked. "Sexual therapy?" She grinned wickedly. "Or plastic surgery?"

Vivian narrowed her eyes and scowled. "Robotics," she said. "Be thankful I just turned down a sale."

Shego looked puzzled as she watched Vivian go, then shrugged and went into the ship.

"Hello, Shego," Sappho said. " . . . Isn't the weather nice today?"

"Have you even been outside yet?"

"Well, no, but you're not wet or dressed warmly, so I made an educated guess."

Shego threw herself into the pilot's seat, one leg swinging lazily. "Nice enough," she said. "Except for this insane troll who wants to rule the world from his private moon palace."

"Oh dear. Has Dr. Drakken escaped?"

"Uh, no," Shego said, snorting. "He's still in custody, I guess. Actually, we had this new girl Yori in headquarters today, giving her a test drive. People who should know better think we need to drag her along on this moon mission. So we sicced Monique on her."

"And Monique did well?"

"Not so good at first," Shego said. "First few minutes, she was being seriously outclassed by this Yori girl. Had me wondering if I was deluding myself about Monique's progress, rather than admit I'm not cut out to be anyone's 'sensei'."

"I'm sure you make a great sensei."

"Well, doy! Of course I do. I was getting to that."

"Oops, sorry."

"Anyway, even Stoppable could see that Yori was holding herself back, letting Monique 'save face', even though Kim told her not to. Kimmie was about ready to pop her cork when . . ."

"And then what happened?" Ron asked.

"Well, it was like this little voice in the back of my head suddenly said - "

"Kill them all?"

"Ron."

"Build it and they will come?"

"Ron!" Monique said, laughing.

"Help me out here, Monique, what else do voices in people's heads say?" Ron asked with a grin.

"They say, 'If that boy doesn't shut up and let me finish telling my story, kick his ass.' "

"Kick my ass? Now I know you're insane," Ron said. "But go on."

Monique rolled her eyes. "It said, 'That looked just like one of Ron's moves. Just a little faster.' "

"Ouch."

"Hey, you think you're faster than her? You fight her and see. Anyway, it was like throwing a switch in my brain. Once I stopped paying attention to how goddamn fast she was, I realized that a lot of her moves weren't any different from yours, Ron. And once I saw that, the fight got a whole lot more interesting."

"You're telling me. I was about to wake Ruby up when you finally turned up the heat," Ron said.

"Ron, are you trying to vex me here?"

"I'm just trying to lighten the situation with some goofy Ron-style humor."

"Lighten the situation?" Monique asked.

Ron took a gargantuan bite of his naco and somehow managed to work it down his esophagus. "You proved you're ready to come with us today, Mo. And because of that, there's a chance you could be dead tomorrow," he said seriously.

"Wow," Monique said. "Way to kill the mood, Ron."

"Hey, I'm just saying - "

"I could be dead tomorrow if a mugger pulls a gun at the wrong time," Monique pointed out, shrugging. "I've accepted that. You don't think I've accepted giving my life to save the world too?"

Ron nodded. "On Team Possible," he replied, "you learn that risking your OWN life is a lot easier than watching your closest friends risk theirs." He took a drink. "Worrying you won't be able to protect them is hardest of all."

"Okay, NOW you've killed the mood," Monique said. Then she took a drink from her own soda. "But I hear you, Ron. I'm going to have Kim's back, just like you."

Ron chuckled. "I said protect 'them', not 'her'. You think I'm not worried about you too?"

"You . . ." Monique stopped and smiled. "That's just about the sweetest thing you've ever said to me." She followed the direction his eyes were looking in. "But you're still not getting my naco."

"Aww," Rufus whined.

Yori stopped. "Kim-sama," she said deferentially. "You were not happy with my fighting skills? You - do not wish me to join you on your mission?" She said these last words with a trace of anxiety, letting more emotion slip than she had since her arrival.

"No, it's not that," Kim assured her. "For starters, try not to take such long showers. The pipes in this building still need an overhaul," she joked, trying to put Yori at ease.

"My government has assigned me this grave responsibility," Yori continued, evidently not reassured. "My honor as well as my nation's safety is at stake. Please, if my performance this morning was unsatisfactory, allow me another - "

"Whoa, whoa," Kim said, raising her hands. "I told you, I'm not kicking you off the team. You looked great out there today. There's just some things we need to review if you're going to join us."

"Ah," Yori said, seemingly embarrassed by her 'outburst'. "Please continue, Kim-sama."

"Well, first of all, I told you to hold nothing back today. But I could you see you were laying off Monique earlier. You practically held the door open for her to get back into the match, which is exactly what she did," Kim said.

"I did not wish to shame her, Kim-sama. You all speak highly of her, especially Ron."

"I'm not surprised," Kim said. "Ron tried to deny it, but I'm almost positive they're dating. Which isn't to say she hasn't earned her place here."

"Monique is Ron's - girlfriend?"

"Yeah, that was my reaction at first, but I've really gotten used to the idea," Kim said casually. "But anyway, you can't worry about shaming your enemies on a mission. It's a common weakness among my enemies that they don't seize victory when it's within their reach. They relax, they taunt you, they get lazy, and suddenly it's too late and I've destroyed the doomsday machine. That is NOT a weakness I want anybody on my team emulating."

"I understand, Kim-sama," Yori said.

"The other thing is . . ." Kim hesitated. "If you don't mind me asking, Yori, you're a secret agent. Have you ever - killed anyone in the line of duty?"

Yori didn't answer at first. "Twice," she eventually said. "I felt I had no choice. It was that or be killed . . . will this be a problem? Working with someone who kills?"

Kim sighed. "No," she said. "Why? Will it be a problem for you?"

"I am quite well aware of Shego's reputation. Her past actions do not - "

"Not Shego," Kim interrupted, suppressing a flash of irritation at Yori's assumption. "Me."

"Oh," Yori said. "I was not told of this."

"I felt like I had to," Kim said. "And I have to live with that. But I choose to believe that it happened for a reason. Because I know what taking a human life can do to a person, I'm determined to see that Ron, Shego, and Monique never have to experience that. Team Possible does not kill, Yori. Not again."

"I see," Yori said. "Still, you must realize that we are going on a mission where there may be no alternative."

"Then you find one," Kim told her.

"But - "

"It's not open for discussion, Yori. I've made my decision. Got it?"

Yori stiffened, then bowed. "I understand, Kim-sama."

"Good." Kim flipped open her Kimmunicator. "Shego, where are you with Sappho?"

Shego's face appeared on the screen. "The Space Center, why?" she asked innocently.

"Ha ha," Kim said. "I mean is she prepped?"

"Not yet, but we're working on it."

"Well, try to be finished soon. I want to be in space long before sunset." She looked at Yori. "By tomorrow, the only Gemini in space should be the one in the stars."

To be continued . . .

“Regrettably, Kim, my assistance has to end here,” Sadie said as she pulled up in front of the Space Center. “I’m many things, but a moon buggy I’m not. Of course,” she added darkly, “Sappho is plenty buggy.”

“No big,” Kim said. “I’m sure there will be plenty of missions where we’ll need you instead of her.”

“There’d better be,” Sadie sighed. “Sappho will be insufferable tomorrow. ‘Guess who was helping save the world while you were playing taxicab, Sadie?’”

“Does your transportation often . . . argue, Kim-sama?” Yori asked as she got out of the back seat.

“You should hear the spaceship flirt,” Ron told her.

Yori lost a bit of her composure as she stared at him like he was speaking in tongues. Then she laughed, albeit a trifle hesitantly. “Oh, Ron-san, I have never forgotten that American-style humor of yours.”

“This girl’s got to get out more,” Monique mumbled.

Kim went around to Sadie’s trunk space and removed an ordinary garment bag. Inside was a highly sophisticated battle suit prototype, but Wade had assured her she need treat it with only the same care she might treat a blazer for the office. “Yori, while you’re a part of the team I think you’ll find we rely upon people and machinery that are a big cut above what you rely upon in your work as a secret agent.”

“I apologize, Kim-sama. I have seen wondrous things as a student at Yamanouchi. I should not be so startled by – a car that acts like a person,” Yori said.

“Wave of the future, honey. Wave of the future,” Sadie assured her.

“Is Sappho part of that wave?” Monique asked dryly.

“No, I believe she and I can agree that there will and should never be more than one of her,” Sadie replied.

Monique stepped away from the car so Ron could get his mission gear as well. She was already clad in her all black nighttime clothes, her wavy hair the only visible part of her body as it cascaded past her shoulders through a slit in her outfit above the back of the neck. She felt awkward being seen like this in broad daylight, but not as awkward as she’d have felt if she was seen by someone going into a room as Monique, and leaving it as the Oryx.

As Ron reached into the trunk for his bag, his hand brushed against Yori’s. “Oops, sorry,” he said, pulling back. “Ladies first.”

“It is no trouble, Ron-san,” Yori said. “You have seniority, you may go first.” She smiled a little. “I hope Monique-san did not see our hands meet like that. It would bother me greatly if I gave your girlfriend the wrong impression.”

“Whoa, my what?” Ron asked. “Where did you get that – oh. Let me guess.”

Yori didn’t answer at first. “Your guess, Ron-san?” she finally asked.

“Uh, yeah, right, it was KP, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, Ron-san. How very clever of you.”

“It’s not clever, it’s just anything’s possible to Kim,” Ron said. “Even the chance that Monique and I are going out even though I told her we weren’t.”

“So it is not true?” Yori asked.

Ron was about to respond when a little noise distracted him. Rufus was hanging out of his pocket, chortling. “I could date her if I wanted to,” Ron said to the mole rat defensively.

“Hm,” Yori said, retrieving her gear. “That is very interesting.” She brushed past him and sauntered toward the Center’s main entrance.

“Ohh-kay,” Ron said to himself as he got his bag. “I tell KP I’m not dating Monique, and she tells people I am. Then she thinks YORI’S interested in me. Where does Kim get this stuff from, Rufus?”

Inside his other pocket, Ruby groaned.

“I will be honored to meet Dr. Possible,” Yori said. “Perhaps some day I will have the chance to meet your mother as well.”

“We could have another sparring session,” Monique suggested evilly. “You’ll find yourself her patient real fast.”

“Ah, Monique-san, that sense of humor of yours – so like Ron-san’s!”

Monique’s eyes widened.

Ron grinned at Monique as he put an arm around her shoulders. “Highest kind of compliment, wouldn’t you say?” he asked.

“Not going there, Ron.”

“Once we get there,” Kim went on, ignoring the repartee behind her, “Wade will link up with the Center’s computer network through Dr. Director’s Kimmunicator. He’s customized his computers at home so heavily that they outshine the resources here. It wouldn’t be efficient for him to come here.”

“A pity. I’d like to meet him some day.”

Kim stopped in her tracks when she heard the voice and saw the form outlined in the entrance to Mission Control. “Mom?” she asked, surprised.

“Hey, sweetie,” Mrs. Dr. Possible said as she came towards Kim. “Are you all ready for today?”

“Almost,” Kim said, still confused. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have work today?”

“Yes and no,” her mother said. “My shift at the hospital is over, but I’m on call here.”

“On call?”

“Kimmie, you’re about to embark on a very dangerous mission in space. Oh, I know, you’ve been in space before, but this isn’t just Dr. Drakken on a satellite,” Holly Possible explained. “This is a self-described ‘empire of evil’ in a secret facility on the surface of the moon. If one of you is injured or, say, deprived of oxygen due to exposure, I think you should have a trained physician and neurologist waiting here.”

“I don’t really think this mission will be that dangerous, especially with all five of us,” Kim said. “Oh, that’s right! Mom, this is Yori. She’s joining us from Japan for this assignment. Yori, my mother.”

“It is a great honor,” Yori said, bowing.

“Betty has told me all about you,” Kim’s mother told her. “It’s very nice meeting you. Hey, Ron, Monique,” she added, looking past Kim.

“Hi, Mrs. Dr. P,” Ron said.

“You should go home after we take off, Mom,” Kim went on. “We could be gone a while, and someone needs to watch the tweebs – “

“Don’t worry, they’re here too,” her mother said casually.

“Hey sis, can we – “

“Come along?”

Kim blinked. Her mother’s presence was a surprise, but the tweebs were a bigger one. “Is this about you flying on Sappho, or going to the moon?” she asked them.

“Can’t it be both?” Jim replied.

“Do these children often come on missions?” Yori asked Ron.

“Unless we need a portable sonic phase disruptor, not really, no,” he said.

The twin boys focused on the two women all in black. “Whoa, ninja chicks!”

“Now we HAVE to come along!” Tim added.

“Even at that age,” Monique said, “men are into women who can kick their asses.”

The tweebs’ faces fell. “Aw, that’s just Monique,” Jim complained.

“I bet the new girl’s still a ninja,” Tim said hopefully.

“You boys would be staying here even if there were twenty ‘ninja chicks’,” Holly warned them, “so be glad it’s ‘just Monique’.”

“Sorry, tweebs,” Kim said. “You want to join the team, you come back to me when you’re twenty-one.”

They looked at her intently. “All right, sis,” Tim said. “You’ve got a deal.”

“Uh, what?” Kim asked.

“Looks like we’ve got just five more years to get in shape for the team,” Jim said thoughtfully.

“Not much time to start bulking up,” Tim added.

“What are you guys – “

“You said, we want a place on the team, we come back when we’re 21,” Jim reminded her. “Sounded like a promise to me.”

“And me,” Tim said.

“That’s not what – “ Kim started to say.

“Think they’ve got you there, KP,” Ron said.

Kim shot him a look. “Not helping,” she muttered.

“Come on, kids,” Holly said. “Your sister has more important things to do.” She glanced at her daughter as the boys disappeared back into Mission Control. “Don’t worry, boys their age won’t remember things like that.”

“I’m not so sure,” Kim said. “They never let me live anything down before.”

“Miss Possible,” Barkin grumbled as he appeared behind Mrs. Dr. Possible, “need I remind you that the world is in imminent danger? As in, no time to lose?”

“Right, gotcha,” Kim replied. “Let’s move, guys.”

“There’s my Kimmie-cub,” James Possible said as they entered.

Yori raised an eyebrow.

“Dad,” Kim said, exasperated. “Not in front of everybody, okay? Where’s Shego?”

“Well,” he said, “Sappho is currently on the tarmac, and it appears Shego is on her.”

“You mean on deck.”

“No, I mean on Sappho. Lying on top of the ship. I’m told she does enjoy her sunbathing,” her father said.

“She’s been prepping Sappho for the past hour,” Dr. Director explained. “And, well, you know Shego. She’s not fond of making small talk.”

“Unless she’s fighting,” Ron pointed out.

“Shego knows her banter,” Monique added approvingly.

“Yes, but perhaps one day she can learn to enjoy holding a conversation without launching a brawl,” Dr. Director suggested. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the Kimmunicator she’d been given not long after starting work for Team Possible. “I believe Mr. Load said you’d be needing this?”

“Actually no, you will,” Kim said. She went over to her father and handed it to him. “Dad, we need you to connect this to your computers. It’ll allow Wade to interface directly with the Space Center’s network while you’re monitoring Sappho’s flight. It’s the only chance we’ll have to communicate with him from the moon.”

He took the Kimmunicator with a small look of misgiving. “I don’t know, Kimmie, some people here would feel very uncomfortable about granting an individual free access to our network, especially a computer wizard. There would be security concerns.”

“If it would make them feel any better, Wade could probably hack into the system on his own.”

“Oh, I’m sure they’d feel MUCH better,” he said wryly.

“Dr. Possible,” Colonel Barkin said, “this is a government matter of the utmost importance. I’m sure that trumps the very small risk that some minor classified project would be compromised by Mr. Load.”

“Very small? How about zero?” Kim replied.

“The work done here is cutting edge, Colonel, and decidedly not minor. And if you had let me finish,” James went on, “I would have explained that while some people would be uncomfortable, I am not one of them. I trust your judgment, Kim. So I just won’t tell them.” He glanced at the device. "I don't suppose you have a USB cable handy?"

"Just turn it on, Dad. Wade can walk you through the rest."

"Hrm," he said, studying her. "I'm not seventy-five, you know. I DO know a little something about computers."

"Remember when you needed us to set the VCR for you?" Tim asked.

"Like, say, last night?" his brother added.

James Possible grumbled as he activated the Kimmunicator.

"Hey Kim - I mean, uh, Mr. Possible," Wade said as his face appeared on the screen. "Did Kim talk to you about - "

"I'm trusting you won't feel the urge to go peeking at other scientist's project files while you have access, Wade."

"No problem, sir."

"He's probably seen most of them anyway," Monique said.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," James replied.

"Just set the Kimmunicator next to any port," Wade told him. "I'll take care of the rest."

"I thought Wade-san was simply an inventor," Yori said. "These handheld devices, Kim-sama's new suit. But I see, he is like a ninja of computers, is he not?"

"I - guess you could say that," Ron admitted. "Ninja of computers? I guess you didn't have a lot of exposure to the Internet at Yamanouchi."

"My government has helped me greatly these past two years," Yori replied. "Apparently it is impossible for an agent like myself to function without being 'computer literate'. But that kind of - hacking, I believe the American term is? I am lacking in that kind of talent."

"Nice to know you don't know everything," Monique muttered.

Yori smiled slightly. "Do not fear, Monique-san. I know more than enough when it comes to fighting - as you have experienced."

Wade's face suddenly appeared on every computer monitor in the room. "Coming in loud and clear?" he asked.

"In surround sound, Wade," Dr. Director said. "Although I think we'd like to be able to use SOME of the computers here ourselves."

"Oh, right." The original displays reappeared on most monitors, with Wade's face remaining on a widescreen display near the long window overlooking the launch pad. "Better?"

"Much."

"Kim, I'm opening a frequency with Sappho now," Wade told her. "We'll be able to receive your transmissions here as well as at my house. She's confirming that a course has already been plotted by Colonel Barkin."

"That's right," Barkin said. "The American government has had coordinates for the location of the entrance to Gemini's base for a few days now."

"Let me guess," Kim said. "That's where you sent the joint American-GJ detail?"

He frowned. "Well, yes."

"So it's possible it was just a trick, and if we go there, we'll find an ambush waiting?"

"It's been deemed 'unlikely' by the Joint Chiefs. Besides, it's not as if we have any alternate coordinates."

Kim just nodded. She'd see if Sappho could run her own scans once they were in space. "Then I guess we're ready."

The atmosphere seemed to get a bit more still, and she looked around at the rest of the team (except Shego, of course), then at the adults and her brothers. "Guys, come on, it's just a mission. It's not like I've never had to save the world before. This isn't goodbye."

"Of course it's not, Kimmie," her mother said quickly. "It's just - your father and I are very proud of you. And you too, Ronald. Monique. It's not often that we see you off on your missions, and this one is as important as they come."

Kim didn't know what to say - she'd never felt the absence of her parents' love and support, but considering it had been just a few months ago that she feared losing it forever because of her same-sex relationship, it just felt good hearing it. Ron, however, didn't feel quite so tongue-tied. "Thanks, Mrs. Dr. P," he said. "We'll send postcards while we're gone."

Yori chuckled at the sound of his "American-style humor".

"You also have the thanks of your government, Kim Possible," Colonel Barkin said. "There might just be a medal or two coming when this is all over."

"Not a Navy medal, right?" Ron asked.

Barkin grimaced at Ron. "No, Stoppable, not one of those."

"Right, just checking."

"I do need a place to change before we go," Kim remembered, taking the garment bag containing the Battle Suit off her shoulder.

"Use my office, Kimmie-cub," James said. "But so you know, Kim, it's a cloudless day today and the glare on the tarmac can get extremely bright," he warned her. "Let them know downstairs that you'll need eyegear before you go out onto the launch pad."

"Free shades? Sweet!" Ron said.

Rufus poked his head out. "Me?" he asked hopefully, pointing at himself.

"Sorry, Rufus," Mr. Dr. Possible said. "They don't come rodent-sized."

"Awwwww."

"Nah," Shego said, her arms folded underneath her head. "If I didn't make a real effort to piss people off, everyone would love me, and I don't have that kind of free time."

The white orb hovered over her, connected to a cable that issued from an opening in the front of the spaceship. A light at its center flickered, which Shego had learned meant the craft was thinking. "I can't tell if you're being serious or not," she eventually admitted.

"You're still learning about humans," Shego said. "Which is my point. It took my Pumpkin weeks to figure out our relationship. What chance would an artificial intelligence have?"

"I think Sadie is right for once. You ARE full of yourself."

"Does that mean I'm not your favorite pilot any more?"

"Actually, I think I like you even more."

Shego laughed. "Well, let's see if you can't try toning it down when Kimmie's around. I don't think it's cheating if I flirt with a machine, but she really doesn't see it that way. And maybe some day we can build you your very own robot to flirt with. Maybe one that comes in green and black?"

There was a pause before Sappho laughed nervously. "Oh, Shego, what odd things you say," she said. "Oh look," she added a tad too brightly, "the rest of the team is coming."

"Finally," Shego said. "Mind if I get a little help down?"

"Of course not."

Shego was over twenty feet in the air. Not even she could land a fall from that height without breaking a half-dozen bones. But Sappho moved her "eye" within reach, allowing Shego to grab hold of the reinforced titanium cable. Then Sappho slowly lowered her to the ground, allowing Shego to lean against the ship and wait for Kimmie's arrival.

As the other four slowly came into view, Shego watched for a while, and then whistled.

She had to admit, her past desire to get Kimmie into one of her catsuits had been more about the skintight fabric, and less about the color scheme. Shego was identified with green and black. It wouldn't do for Kim to start wearing the same colors. White and blue was better - although she still thought the pattern was a bit too conservative for her taste.

The way that "battle suit" hugged her curves, though - rowr. And with those sunglasses on . . . "Oh, Princess," Shego breathed. "I knew you had the 'right stuff'."

Of course, now that Kim had finally stopped insisting on dressing like Stoppable, still in his black top and baggy pants, now she had the Oryx and the new girl Yori dressing alike. What WAS it with heroes and their insatiable need to wear matching outfits?

"About time," Shego only said as the four arrived. "I did get to work on my tan, though."

"Nice shades," Kim said, noting they were different from the standard-issue ones she'd received along with the other three.

"Kimmie, you KNOW I'm a sun worshipper. I'm never without a pair, plus five or six more stashed somewhere, depending on my mood that day." She lowered her sunglasses slightly with a finger. "I have a style, you know."

"Is this Yori?" Sappho asked, her eye focusing on the Japanese woman as it came around to look at the new arrivals.

"Ah, you must be Sappho . . . Sappho-san, I mean," Yori said. She'd learned from Sadie, who had been offended when Yori had addressed her without the honorific. Apparently some machines didn't differentiate themselves from people.

"Hm, you're cute," Sappho purred.

Yori blinked.

"I told you, it takes getting used to," Ron said.

"A spaceship flirting?"

"Actually, the not flirting. I mean, hello, Ron Stoppable, chick magnet?" he asked plaintively. "There was a time she liked my ears."

"After getting hit with a cosmic backlash, yeah," Shego said, chuckling.

"Not to hurry things along here," Monique said, "but if I know Mister Barkin - and unfortunately, I do - he's turning red right now waiting for us to take off."

"She's right," Kim said. "Gemini needs to be stopped ASAP."

"Then let's go kick some tail, shall we?" Shego said. "Come on, I've got a ship to pilot."

Sappho made what could only be described as a 'happy sigh'.

Colonel Barkin, and the others with him, wasn't the only one who observed their takeoff with keen interest. "They're - " someone began to say.

Then he carefully looked at the ground beneath him and tested it gingerly with a foot. "On their way," he finished saying into his transmitter.

Nothing happened, and Kappa breathed a sigh of relief.

To be continued . . .

"So," Yori said warmly, "tell me more of Shego, Ron-san. My government has quite extensive files on her, but they are largely related to her criminal past. Surely she has changed from the woman she was before?"

Ron and Monique exchanged looks. There were a few reasons for this. One was that Yori was inviting a discussion about Shego behind the former thief's back. Shego was with Kim in the cockpit, monitoring Sappho's flight now that they'd left the Earth's atmosphere behind. True, Yori didn't seem to be encouraging any kind of negative talk, but Shego was intensely private, and they'd already both witnessed that Shego wasn't ready to trust the Japanese agent any time soon.

Monique wasn't altogether fond of the other woman either, for that matter. Oh sure, Principal Barkin - damn, it was hard thinking of him as "Colonel" - had vouched for her, but she got under the vigilante's skin. And to be honest, all these weeks of tutelage from Shego had given Monique an odd sense of loyalty to her teacher.

Ron had a history with her, though, and she'd seen from the look in his eyes that he wasn't quite as reluctant to tell Yori things as she was.

Mainly, however, Ron and Monique looked at each other because Yori's question was so hopelessly wrong.

"I hardly knew her before," Monique said, "but she doesn't seem that different to me."

"Nope, pretty much the same," Ron agreed.

"Except for wanting to give Kim her sweet loving."

"Yeah, if you want to consider that a big difference."

Yori didn't seem prepared for this answer. "But - before, she was a thief. A fugitive from justice in over a dozen countries. Her employer tried to take over the world many times. You fought her yourselves, and now you are friends. How can she be the same person?"

"If you knew her before," Ron replied, "and you heard the things that come out of her mouth now, you'd understand she hasn't changed much."

"I never realized there was such a short journey from 'villain' to 'hero' before," Yori said dryly.

"Just three little letters long, Yori," Monique said.

"KIM," Rufus chimed in eagerly before any of the humans could.

"I confess, I do not completely understand," Yori said. "That Shego would change for Kim, yes, but you say she hasn't changed."

Monique glanced at Ron. "You can answer this better than I can," she said.

"I should have taken psychology in college," Ron sighed. "Look, from what I've gathered from Shego and KP, she's never cared a whole lot about 'good' or 'evil'. She lives for challenges, for excitement, for risk. She's proud of herself, and she likes reminding people what she has to be proud of. First she worked for Drakken because he paid her to steal, and she stole because she was the best at it. Then KP got involved, and it became more about beating someone who was as good as her."

"Obviously Kim-sama was better than Shego, or Dr. Drakken would have won long ago," Yori pointed out.

Ron coughed.

"I wouldn't say that out loud," Monique warned her. "Shego doesn't see it that way. She says there were a lot of other factors that got in the way."

"Such as?"

"Most of them involve someone getting in the way. Either the idiot, meaning Drakken, or the buffoon."

"That would be me," Ron added.

Yori looked offended. "That is a highly inappropriate word to use - "

"It's okay, I got that a lot back then," Ron said. "Anyway, I've worked her up to 'Stoppable'. I might have her calling me Ron by 2011. I have charts if you want to see."

"Er, no, that is not necessary," Yori said. She was still wondering how to analyze the information they were giving her. She hadn't mentioned to anyone that her superiors in Japan had given her a secondary assignment. Obviously the primary objective was to assist in the saving of her homeland, but she'd also been asked to gather data on Shego, on Kim, on their relationship - basically anything that could give them any indication as to how true Shego's commitment to 'good' was. There were those who were concerned that Shego was one bad breakup away from changing sides.

Or, worse yet, that Shego was in a position where she could theoretically "corrupt" Kim. Certainly Kim Possible had never before shown herself to be vulnerable to temptation.

But then, she'd never charged the people she helped before - until Shego came along.

If Yori detected any signs of this becoming a possibility, Japan - or any other government with which it chose to share this information - might need to take steps some day. Against whom, no one could say. One Shego was bad enough. Two would be positively terrifying.

Yori had gone into this mission knowing that she would be, for all intents and purposes, spying on the team leader, withholding information from her. This bothered her, but her duty to her homeland was clear. She would help save the world today - and perhaps her observations would do so again in six months, or a year, or whenever Shego "snapped".

Ron's analysis, therefore, wasn't all that reassuring.

"Look," Monique said, interrupting Ron's ongoing treatise on Shego's personality and jolting Yori's thoughts. "It all comes down to one thing. Shego's in love with her. So the things that are important to Kim are important to her. Her personality didn't have to change for that. Not that she'd ever admit to it," Monique added darkly.

"Really?" Ron and Yori said together.

Monique sighed. "Come on, Ron, you don't see it?"

"Shego and love are two words I don't usually see together," Ron said.

"Spar with her for a week and listen to the things she says," Monique replied. "She's just someone who thinks falling in love is equal to going soft, and she could NEVER allow that. 'Soft' is a four-letter word for her."

Ron nodded. "Yeah, that's true . . . wait, 'soft' is a four-letter word for everyone, Mo."

Yori giggled. "Oh, Ron-san, truly your wit is so quintessentially American."

Monique looked at her flatly. Surely Ron saw that this girl was practically throwing herself at him.

Judging by the look on his face, though, he was still trying to puzzle out "quintessentially".

"Mmmm-hmm," Shego muttered as she monitored Sappho's flight path.

"On the other hand, this is the moon we're talking about. Nobody goes to all the trouble of building a moon base as an elaborate ambush. And if there were a second installation on the moon, you'd think a telescope would pick it up."

"Mmmmm-hmm."

"Then again, who's to say Gemini didn't just build underground?" Kim sighed. "The logistics alone are a nightmare. We can't exactly park Sappho a few miles away, put on bulky spacesuits, and sneak in. But we can't exactly smash our way in either. We'd create a vacuum effect - "

"Mmm-hmm."

Kim looked at Shego. She hadn't contributed a whole lot. She glanced to Shego's left and noticed a thin cable leading from the ship's console to . . . was it going into Shego's ear?

"Shego!" Kim snapped, grabbing the wire and ripping something out of Shego's ear.

"Hey!"

"I'm trying to plan one of the most dangerous and important missions of my life with you, and you're listening to iTunes!"

"It's not like that," Shego retorted.

"Er, Kim?" Sappho interrupted. "I'm sorry, this is my doing."

"What is?"

"Yori's pumping Ron and Monique for information about me," Shego said calmly. "Sappho's feeding me the audio."

Kim blinked. "She can do that?"

"Kim," Sappho explained, "I am this entire ship, and this ship is me. I hear everything spoken here, just as you would feel a breeze blowing across your toes."

"And you're doing this for Shego why?"

"I asked her to keep an eye on Yori," Shego said.

Kim folded her arms. "I don't care WHO is ultimately responsible, what I'm asking is WHY."

"Because I don't trust her," Shego replied.

"So I don't trust her either," Sappho added.

"We have to trust her, Shego," Kim sighed. "We don't have an alternative."

"Yes, we do," Shego retorted. "We put her in one of Sappho's cabins, we lock the door, and we don't let her out."

"Oh, like THAT'S going to go over well with the American and Japanese governments."

"She was foisted off on us by the government, Kimmie," Shego said. "She was a condition. We're the absolute best out there. We had the position of power. We had the right to say no. We should have been the ones setting conditions, not them. And they stick us with this spy?"

"I think 'secret agent' is the proper term."

"She's paid to infiltrate and spy on other people, Pumpkin. And because of her history with Stoppable, she's got instant access. You think he's going to watch what he says around her?" Shego snorted. "One of us needs to keep track of what she knows. If I even think she knows something I don't want her knowing - "

"Like what?"

"I like my privacy," Shego growled. "There's all SORTS of things I don't want her knowing. I'm going to have to make Yori understand that if she hears something, she won't be breathing it to her superiors." Then she scowled. "I'll need a minute alone with Monique too," she added darkly.

Kim didn't like the look in her eyes. "About what?"

"It's nothing," Shego said. It was bad enough that Monique was telling Ninja Chick that she was - ugh, in love with Kimmie. Shego certainly didn't need to repeat such idiocy. She starts sleeping with Kim, and suddenly people expect her to go all mushy. Kim understood. Even if they were meant for each other, Shego simply wasn't wired for love. Love was for wimps.

"Whatever you may think of Yori, Ron DOES trust her," Kim replied, "and that carries a lot more weight with me than you probably like."

"Probably," Shego agreed. "But that goes for everybody else, too."

Kim smiled and shook her head. Always having to be the big, bad Shego. "If you want Sappho to monitor what she's doing, I guess that's fine, as long as it doesn't interfere with her other functions."

"I am in the room, you know. In fact, I am the room," Sappho muttered.

"You're an integral part of this mission, Sappho," Kim said. "Besides being our transportation, there's your ability to change your outer hull to whatever color you like. Even, according to you, the color of a starry sky."

"Pffft," Sappho said. "Piece of cake."

"I don't like the situation," Kim said. "It's probably a trap. But if you can camouflage us effectively, it won't matter, because we'll be on top of them before they know it."

"Or we could just blow a hole in their little space condo and let the atmosphere suck them out," Shego said.

"No killing," Kim said.

"They're going to have guns, you know. I think 'no killing' is overrated when compared to 'no dying'."

"Shego."

"I know, I know," Shego said. "I know how you feel about it. I just want to point out that there's going to come a day when we won't have a choice. And you have to prepare for that."

"That day doesn't have to come," Kim replied stubbornly. "I can do anything, remember?"

Shego sighed. "I hope you're right. I really do."

Shego looked at Yori. "I realize you can only speak for Japan, but don't you government people keep an eye on space? Don't you have spy satellites? Because I would THINK somebody would notice THAT being built."

"Shego-san, generally those satellites are pointing DOWN, not up," Yori replied. "As for why it went undetected, we believe they have some form of stealth technology that hides it from view."

"I can see it just fine," Monique said.

"I do not think secrecy is a concern any longer, now that Gemini has declared himself."

“’Declared himself’ is a funny way of saying he threatened to make California disappear,” Ron pointed out.

Kim didn’t say anything. She was studying their objective. It was truly massive. It wasn’t all that tall, but it was probably the size of a football field. She couldn’t imagine the amount of men and materials it had required to build, all of which Gemini had to ferry into space without anyone noticing. How had he done it? How had he paid for it?

“I wonder if we can salvage this,” Kim said thoughtfully. “It would make one hell of a bonanza for NASA. The government might be a little more grateful if we can hand this over in slightly useable condition.”

“Considering we’re planning on smashing a hole in the roof, I’m not convinced we can pull that off, Kimmie.”

Kim sighed. Sappho was designed for deep-space exploration. It was assumed that she would need to land on inhospitable planets. It was even possible she would have human passengers to disembark there.

For that reason, she’d been equipped with hardware that could allow her to descend on the moonbase from above, punch a hole through the exterior, and seal it off in such a way that the air inside wouldn’t leak out in five seconds. That way they could enter without having to change into – and out of again – bulky spacesuits.

“Is everyone ready for this?” Kim asked. “If anything goes wrong – well, it won’t feel pleasant for any of us.”

“Except Sappho,” Monique said.

“I won’t like it if you all die!” Sappho complained.

“There’s a lot of ways this could pan out with us not feeling ‘pleasant’,” Shego pointed out. “No point focusing on just one of them.”

“Not the pep talk I was looking for,” Ron said.

“I trust this will work,” Yori added. “It would be quite unfair if we died within seconds of my first opportunity to serve under you, Kim-sama.”

“Still not encouraged,” Ron told her.

“All right, no point stalling,” Kim said. “Sappho, you ready?”

“I was built ready, Kim.”

Their descent was slow, as Sappho needed to monitor her surroundings constantly on the chance that she’d need to change her exterior.

They stopped sooner than expected, though, because everything changed.

Specifically, their target disappeared.

“What the fuck just happened?” Shego asked.

“It wasn’t real!” Monique shouted.

“That’s why no one ever saw it,” Kim said grimly. “Gemini probably just activated the image when he thought guests were calling. Wade, come in! The ambush just got sprung . . . Wade?”

Everything really had changed, though, because instead of an answer from Wade or mission control, they got static.

“Someone is interfering with the signal,” Yori said.

“No shit, did you learn that in top-secret government school?!” Shego snarled.

“KP, look,” Ron said. “There’s something down there.”

Kim really looked for the first time and realized Ron was right. Besides being a hologram, it had also hidden what appeared to be a sizeable hole in the moon’s surface. “What’s he digging down there?” she muttered.

“A place for his little spaceships to ambush us from?” Shego asked. “Because here they come.”

Four small craft, each much smaller than Sappho, slowly rose from the hole and headed in their direction.

“We can take the runts,” Monique said.

“I’m not a combat-equipped vehicle, Monique,” Sappho corrected her. “If they’re armed, my only choice will be to outrun them. Plus the fifth ship that’s approaching from above.”

“Great,” Kim said, seeing control of the situation vanishing. “Onscreen?”

“Have you been watching Star Trek while I wasn’t looking, KP?”

The visual showed a ship that was definitely larger, although still not as big as Sappho. And it was definitely armed, as it bracketed Sappho with two laser beams.

“I couldn’t survive more than a few of those, Kim,” Sappho said. “And we’re receiving a transmission. Should I accept?”

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Kim said.

The picture was momentarily fuzzy, and then became clear again.

"Well, well, it's been a long time, Kim Possible," Gemini murmured. He looked older. So did the dog. It wasn't an improvement for either of them.

"Gemini," Kim said coldly.

"I must confess, your plan was brilliant - the camouflaging is exquisite, and even now I can't pick your craft out from space - "

"Maybe it's because you've got one eye," Shego suggested.

The eye she was referring to regarded her balefully for a moment before returning its focus to Kim. "Your presence could only be detected if someone was monitoring this airspace with specially designed machinery, and someone would do that only if they knew you were coming. Which was, of course, the one flaw in your plan. I knew you'd be coming."

"Government mole, Gemini?" Kim asked.

"I could lie and say yes," Gemini said. "The thoughts of the government witch hunt that would follow amuse me. But no, Ms. Possible. It was pathetically easy. Once the military failed against me, what, o what would the Americans do next? Why, call in the one person who defeated me in the past. The one who very nearly drove WEE into the ground," he said with a touch of bitterness.

"Global Justice helped," Kim replied, knowing what would happen.

She was right, as the chihuahua in his arms began barking frantically.

"Now Pepe, there there, it's all right," Gemini soothed the dog. "She didn't mean to say those nasty words." He looked back angrily at her. "And how else would you get to my secret moonbase but your very own family Space Center? I've been monitoring take-offs from there for days, while pondering the essential question - how to defeat you."

"Let us know from prison when you give up," Shego said.

Gemini chuckled. "So droll, Shego. Actually, I cheated my way to an answer. What does the computer say in that delightful movie? 'The only way to win is not to play'? I concluded that the only way to defeat you was not to let a fight begin in the first place."

"You're losing me, Gemini," Kim replied.

"Maybe he's surrendering?" Ron asked hopefully.

"Ah, if it isn't the Ron factor," Gemini said, seeming to notice him for the first time. "I believe you still owe me for those Nacos years ago."

"Actually, the docs over at GJ said I was more of a non-factor," Ron told him. "So could you tell your mailing service to stop sending me recruitment info? My parents have been throwing those things away for years."

"Hm, that would explain those monthly charges. But a NON-factor? I have a hard time believing that."

"You could ask your sister - who you say is your twin but who looks nothing like you - next time she visits you in prison."

Gemini smiled slightly. "I don't think I can wait that long." He tapped a few buttons on his mechanized hand. "Agent Kappa, would you please ask Dr. Director if Ron Stoppable truly wasn't the 'Ron factor'? Thank you, I'll wait."

No one answered for a moment. "What are you saying, Gemini?" Kim finally asked.

"Oh, didn't I mention it? I admit, it must be dreadfully cliched, Kim Possible, but I'm holding your entire family hostage - as well as everyone else in the Space Center. As I said, the only way to win was not to play. You're going to give yourself up to me, or they'll be shot one by one."

Kim fell back into her co-pilot's seat.

"You're bluffing," Shego said. "That's why you're jamming Wade's signal, so we can't prove you're lying."

Gemini gestured with his good hand while keeping Pepe secure with the other. His image shrank as the left side of the screen showed the interior of Space Center mission control. Everyone could see the camera pan, showing Kim's parents and brothers, and Dr. Director with Thomas in her arms. There were also twelve men in the room armed with handguns and automatic weapons. Colonel Barkin was - "Where's Barkin?" Kim demanded. She tried to sound stern, but there was no strength in her voice.

"On the floor," Gemini said. "He had to be subdued. Agent Kappa, please let Ms. Possible see that the colonel is alive."

One of the uniformed agents snapped his fingers. Two others picked Colonel Barkin up off the floor. His arm was twisted behind his back, and his nose was bloody.

"She says non-factor, sir," the man who snapped his fingers said. He looked nervous, like he wasn't sure if Gemini would like his response.

"Hm. Pity," Gemini said. "Of course, she could be lying. Kappa, kill the boy, then her."

"No, NO!" Kim screamed, leaping out of her chair. "You won't harm any of them! No more!"

"The fate of the world is in your hands, Ms. Possible," Colonel Barkin said. "Our lives don't change that."

"So what, I should just watch as my entire family is murdered?!" Kim retorted. Her stomach was a ball of ice, and yet her head felt feverish. She'd sworn after her mother's abduction by the Acceptables that her family would never be in danger again, and now . . . "I'll surrender."

"Kimmie, no," her father said.

"The colonel is right, Kim," Dr. Director added. "He could kill us anyway. He can most certainly kill millions of people across the globe. Even though you don't see how you can make this decision, it has to be made."

Her mother shook her head. Kim knew she was agreeing. She didn't care. "Gemini, you won't harm them if I go quietly?"

"I've seen your files, Ms. Possible," Gemini said. "So many successful missions coming after successful escape attempts. With your loved ones safe, I know you won't try to." He swept his gaze around Sappho's cockpit. "That goes for all of you, including the two women I don't recognize."

"This - this vile dishonor you have perpetrated will not last, Gemini," Yori said. Her voice actually shook, as her anger was slightly getting the better of her.

"Ah, so the Japanese have a representative? Evidently not willing to trust a few gaijins. What about you, Shego?" he asked smugly. "I'm sure you don't want to agree - a few lives no doubt mean nothing to you - but you can hardly continue if all of your friends have - "

"I'll surrender," Shego said, interrupting him. "I don't like it, but I won't let you hurt them."

He seemed surprised. No one on the SAFO did. Shego rested her hand on Kim's shoulder, and Kim's hand came up to grip it tightly.

"Well," he said. "In that case, you will deactivate your 'cloaking device' and allow us to escort you to my real base. I hope you liked the fake, although it wasn't a total sham. That large hole you're seeing? If you descend far enough inside, you'll find the device that's going to change the world. As well as this small pale rock orbiting it."

Kim filed that information away. When the time came, she might have to disable the device manually.

Right after she manually beat Gemini into something no one would ever recognize as human. Mom, Dad, tweebs, Betty . . . I have to trust you'll find a way out of this, and so will I.

Agent Tri-Epsilon was one of several agents who had been sent to secure the Robotics Division at the Space Center. These were scientists, not fighters, but there was no telling what kind of machinery or firepower they might have here. Besides, Gemini wanted as many hostages as he could get.

The agent raised his gun and knocked on the door labeled "Dr. V.F. Porter". "Open up!" he ordered.

The door opened a few moments later. "Yes?"

"Dr. Porter, you're coming with me. This gun in my hands says so. Any questions?"

Oliver had plenty of questions, but he'd arrived at the answers, or at least reasonable estimated guesses, by the time this intruder had finished speaking. The priority was to protect Vivian, and if this man believed he was Dr. Porter, then this man needed to go on believing it while the woman was asleep on a cot in the back of the lab. But he couldn't leave her alone either. She might wake, realize he was gone, and go looking for him. If there were more men with guns, one of them might encounter her and . . .

He'd realized this even before the man said the word "Porter". By the time he got to "questions", Oliver knew what he had to do.

He shoved the man backwards and ran back into the lab, closing the door. Probabilities indicated the intruder would -

The probabilities were right. The agent fired several times through the door. Most of the bullets impacted Oliver in the back, and he hit the ground, sprawling. He lay still.

The agent opened the door slowly and entered the lab. Dr. Porter, he saw, was either very dead, or about to be very dead.

He shrugged and left. The sound of the gunshots might have alerted other scientists. He had to move.

The sound certainly alerted Vivian Porter. She bolted upright in her cot, but fortunately she was hidden from view by computers. She couldn't see him either, but by the time she calmed her nerves and stood up, the man was gone.

"Oliver!" she gasped, seeing the robot down and rushing over. "Oliver, can you function?"

"I - bzzz - believe I am not - brrrrng - badly damaged, Dr. Porter. I apologize for - nnnnh - bringing this upon myself."

"What happened?" Vivian asked as she went to fetch tools to give the robot a quick patch-up.

He told her, with the occasional mechanical interruption. She said nothing when he finished, but quietly worked on the repair job. When she was done, she went over to the phone but discovered there was no dial tone. "Phones are down, and the technology in here will interfere with my cell phone. We need to find a way out of the building," she said. "There could be dozens of armed men. Someone needs to contact the police."

"I will go," Oliver said. "They have already inspected this room. They will not return. If you stay - "

"The police won't believe a machine, Oliver," Vivian said. "We'll both go."

"But your automobile - "

"Damn," she realized. She'd taken the bus because her car was in the shop. Even if they got outside and called the police, they'd have to find a new hiding place. "Too bad you can't tell someone's car to open its doors and drive away. They really need to upgrade the computers in cars these days."

"There is one possibility," Oliver said.

To be continued . . .

"The Space Center is secure, Agent Kappa," the transmission came in. "All surviving staff members have been placed under guard in the cafeteria.

"Excellent," Kappa said as James Possible's head rose.

"Surviving? He said surviving! Who have you killed?" he thundered.

"Don't yell, James, please," Holly said. Jim and Tim were right beside her. They'd faced danger before, like when their sister had been chipped by Drakken, but this was different. This was a lot of men with guns that could spray the room in two seconds.

Kappa nodded, though. "Agent Omega, did you say 'surviving'? There were casualties?"

" . . . Er, yes, sir. One of the scientists in Robotics tried to run. He was cut down."

"I see."

"Who?" James asked. He was quieter, but no less insistent. "Who was it?" Every scientist here was like a member of his very extended family . . .

"Agent, do you have a name for the scientist?" Kappa asked. It would only cause them greater pain, he reasoned.

"A Dr. Porter, sir. V.F. Porter."

Holly Possible and Betty Director made identical gasps.

"While my Kimmie-cub is destroying your employer's insane plans," James said angrily, "you'll be regretting your OWN mistakes."

"And if you're dead in five seconds, you'll be regretting not keeping your mouth shut."

"James!" Holly hissed.

Pained, he turned away from Kappa.

"You knew this Porter?" Barkin asked Betty, sitting on the floor next to her.

She nodded. "She was a friend, helping me with Tommy - " Betty blinked and lowered her voice. "He said he tried to run."

Barkin looked quizzical.

"He said that Porter ran because HE tried to run," Betty whispered.

"And?"

"The V in V.F. Porter stands for Vivian."

Barkin quickly understood. "Then she's not dead."

"But they think she is," Betty replied, barely even moving her lips. "Which means - she's going to do something very brave, or very stupid. We need to DO something here. Not just for Kim or the world, but for Vivian too."

"Any ideas?"

She was the head of Global Justice for years. She had plenty.

Kim was evidently still in shock, Shego thought. Hopefully she was going to snap out of it by the time they arrived at Gemini's base.

"And the tweebs," Ron mentioned.

"Right, the tweebs," Kim agreed. "My whole family. First the Acceptables take my mother, then the Supreme One grabs Ron's parents, and now this." She looked up at Shego, and the look in her eyes said that Kim had moved on from shock to fury. "These people are going to learn that our families are off-limits," she growled.

"Because villains are so good at learning from past mistakes," Shego muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"This wasn't a problem for me before, you know," Shego said. "I didn't have a family. I didn't have loved ones that could be used against me like a weapon."

"It was never a problem for me, either," Kim said. "Well, almost never."

"Look, you're pissed, and I'm glad to see it," Shego replied. "But Gemini was right about one thing. The easiest way to stop us is to make sure we never get started. He won't be the last person to decide that your family is a great way of doing that."

"So what are you saying?" Monique asked. "That Kim should just lock her family up in a box so no one can kidnap them again?"

"I don't know what I'm saying," Shego said, frustrated. "I don't have answers. I'm just saying that we have to take steps to prevent this in the future. We can't start every mission with some creep threatening our families."

"But you said yourself that you do not have a family, Shego-san," Yori pointed out.

"I said I didn't have one," Shego said. "Despite what Gemini obviously thinks, that seems to have changed. Not that I'm entirely thrilled about that," she added quickly.

Kim ignored the last part. That was Shego showing she was tough. What was important was that, to an extent, Shego thought of her family as her own. If you listened to what Shego really said, she thought, she could surprise the hell out of you. "You're right, Shego," she agreed, "but we can't worry about it now. The problem is what Dr. Director said. We can't just do what Gemini wants. Otherwise millions die, and probably my family anyway."

"And us," Ron said.

"Right. We can't do anything about my family, but they've been in tight spots before, and they have both Betty and Mr. Barkin too. And Wade," she realized. "Even if he can't help us, he can still help them. So we have to assume that, if we give them enough time, they're going to free themselves."

"So we play along for now," Monique said. "And after enough time goes by, we make our move."

"But how much time is enough, Monique-san? And how do we do that from the position of being captives?"

Kim, Shego, and Ron all chuckled at once.

"Escaping is never a problem for them," Shego added.

"Sappho," Kim said.

"Yes, Kim?"

"As far as we know, they don't know you're an artificial intelligence. Pay attention to everything while they're ignoring you. You might be able to help. Also, they're going to confiscate the Kimmunicators. If Wade can break their jamming signal, we'll need you to monitor communications."

"Of course, Kim. However, the latter part may prove difficult. Our course will take us to the far side of the moon any moment, which means we'll have the moon between us and Earth."

"The far side of the moon?" Ron asked. "Isn't that the dark side?"

"Not necessarily," Sappho replied. "Because of the way the moon revolves, almost half of its surface cannot be seen from the Earth at any time. This is part of the dark side, yes. But you can be on the dark side without being on the far side."

"Dark side, far side . . . how many sides does the moon have?" Ron complained. "And how can something round have sides anyway?"

Yori giggled. "Oh, Ron-san, your - "

"American-style humor, yeah, we know," Monique said crossly, and Yori blinked.

"Kim, we've reached the far side of the moon, but there's a light source up ahead and it's not the sun."

Kim nodded. "It must be their base. That's how they avoided detection all this time. They were on the moon where no one could see them."

"Actually, Kim, I don't think they're actually ON the moon."

Sappho brought up the visual, and they all understood. In a sea of blackness there was a bright light that, as they approached, turned out to be innumerable smaller but powerful lights spread out over what appeared to be a small rotating space station orbiting the moon.

"Now I don't get it," Shego said. "Why go to that trouble? Wouldn't a base on the surface be better?"

"Not if you've got some device which you claim can alter the Earth's tides by doing something to the moon," Kim replied. "Who knows what destructive impact it'll have on the moon? It has to be big, whatever it is. The shockwaves would destroy any surface-based installation."

Still, questions returned as Kim pondered Gemini's secret. Like the fake base they'd seen earlier, this kind of structure must have required enormous amounts of cash, not to mention manpower, and all operating under strict secrecy. Gemini must have been working on this from the moment he escaped prison, maybe even sooner. That kind of long-range planning wasn't something she usually encountered from her enemies. It made her wonder if she'd underestimated Gemini.

He'd used her family against her. Of course she'd underestimated him. Well, no more.

"When we fight back," Kim said, "the little troll Gemini is mine."

"Now that's what I like to hear," Shego said.

Fifteen minutes later, they'd docked at the space station. Gemini's ship had arrived first, so he was undoubtedly waiting for them, waiting to lord his supposed dominance over them. "Sappho," Shego said as they waited for the all-clear to open the hatch, "you be careful, got it? You're our ticket out of here."

"There are other ships, Shego."

"Yeah, but none like you."

Kim thought she heard something like a muffled squeal. She shook her head. Whose personality had Dr. Freeman programmed her with, an exotic dancer's?

"Ms. Possible." Gemini's voice echoed across the spaceship. "I hope you'll enjoy your stay here." His voice hardened slightly. "Starting right now."

"Let's do this," Kim grumbled.

Sappho opened the hatch. Kim led the others out before Gemini's men could have the pleasure of leading them out at gunpoint.

Gemini was waiting for them a few yards away, surrounded by armed men. "Ms. Possible, so good to see you," he said urbanely. "And a new outfit? Just for me? You shouldn't have."

No one responded.

"Oh, come now, Kim Possible," Gemini went on. "Isn't there some cliche you should be spouting now? How I won't get away with this? How I won't make it out of this alive?"

"Just because I don't waste my breath saying it, doesn't make it any less true, Sheldon," Kim said coldly.

"My name is Gemini," he retorted.

"Whatever," Shego said.

Gemini glanced at her. "If you're expecting me to offer you a chance to switch sides, Shego, forget it. I don't trust you nearly enough."

Shego laughed. "Sorry, I'm not interested in short men anyway."

"Why don't you just take us to our cells, Sheldon?" Kim asked. "So we can join the Marines and GJ agents you captured."

He looked at her like she was insane. "Ms. Possible, restocking our supplies is an expensive and slow process. Whatever makes you think I would waste them on prisoners?" Then he laughed. "So I wouldn't be in a rush to join them, unless you want me to kill you all now."

Everyone's eyes widened, except for Shego's. She cursed and shook her head. "Could have been avoided if they came to us first like they should have," she muttered.

"Perhaps," Gemini agreed. "At any rate, you won't be placed in cells quite yet. We both know you can't risk harming your family, Ms. Possible. My men will be taking you to get changed. You'll be joining me for dinner."

"I thought you didn't waste supplies on prisoners," Monique said suspiciously.

"Oh, but you're not my prisoners. You're guests." He chortled and turned to go, then stopped. "Before I forget - Shego, please remove your gloves and turn them over."

"Like hell I will," Shego snapped.

"You keeping those would be like me leaving you with a loaded gun, Shego," Gemini said.

"The last time I let someone take my gloves, I never saw them again and the Acceptables had a big shiny toy with plasma powers," Shego replied.

"I hold a two-year-old boy's life in my hands, Shego," Gemini reminded her. He smiled. "Earlier you surrendered with the rest of them when I threatened Kim's family and those with her. Is it quite so easy when I'm taking your powers as well as your freedom?"

Shego's lips were pressed together so tightly that they were paler than her skin. "I don't need plasma to have powers," she said angrily as she played with her wrists, then yanked her gloves off with a couple smooth motions. She tossed them at Gemini's face.

He caught them deftly. "Thank you, Shego. I'm going to provide you all with dinner wear. I suggest you put it on."

Then he left, flanked by twenty men.

That left twelve more with them, although Kim admitted that at the moment, even a single guard would have been enough. They didn't dare fight back - yet.

Several guards quickly stripped them of their weapons and gadgets. Monique lost her super-strength taser. A Japanese sword and several throwing weapons were taken from Yori. Kim lost her Kimmunicator, as expected.

As they were led away, though, Kim cast a look Ron's way.

The Lotus Blade, still in the form of a watch, remained around his wrist.

Vivian looked where he was looking and saw a bright red jeep. "You can interact with it?" she asked again.

"Her, and yes," Oliver replied. "Just like the SAFO. We can use her to bring the local authorities here, and they can rescue the others."

She nodded. "Well, let's - "

"Wait," he said, stopping her. "Over there. Two more of them. They must be there to prevent escape attempts like ours."

Vivian saw them, one short and one tall. "What do we do?"

"We run," he said. "There's no cover between them and us. Dr. Porter, you must remain on my left. I will stay between them and you. If any shots connect, they will strike me instead of you. I can take it."

"You're not a combat droid, Oliver," Vivian reminded him. "You aren't going to sacrifice yourself for me."

"I am built to serve, Dr. Porter. And I'm about to start running, so you have no choice." Before she could react to that, he did in fact start running.

"Damn it," she hissed, running after him.

They were spotted quickly. "You there, stop!" one agent cried out. Bullets whined off the pavement a second later.

We're not going to make it, Vivian thought as one bullet hit Oliver in the shoulder and he grunted.

The distance between them and the car, however, got much shorter as the SADI's engine roared and it darted towards them. It screeched to a stop alongside Oliver, opening two doors on their side. "Get in!" a voice commanded.

Oliver and Vivian leapt inside, and the doors closed automatically. Sadie then turned and drove, not for the exit, but for the intruders. They put two bullets in her windshield and a third in her grill, instead of trying to run, and they paid the price as Sadie collided with them both, knocking them flying. She slowed down only slightly before she hit them, and that was the only reason they lived.

"I saw the armed men," Sadie explained. "But there was nothing I could do. Radio communications appear to be down in the area."

"You're Dr. Freeman's SADI?" Vivian asked breathlessly.

"Call me Sadie," the car said. "These men must be working for Gemini. The coincidence is too great."

"Gemini?" Oliver asked.

"Kim Possible left earlier today on a mission," Sadie explained. "Gemini is the head of some evil organization that's threatening the world. These men must work for him. Either they're trying to sabotage the mission, hurt Kim's family, or both. You're scientists?"

"I'm Dr. Vivian Porter, and this - "

"I know you, you're the robotics expert who's friends with Kim's mother. I have data in my memory banks of Kim mentioning you."

"Er, yes, that's right. This is Oliver, my - "

"You're a robot, aren't you?"

"All right, I'm just going to stop talking now," Vivian muttered.

"We were hoping you could take us to the local authorities," Oliver told Sadie.

"Hm," Sadie said. "Of course I can, but I don't know if that's a good idea. How many men are inside?"

"I really don't know," Vivian said. "I tried avoiding them."

"But there must be close to a hundred employees at least," Sadie replied. "They'd need a lot of men to guard them all. I'm not sure the Middleton police is equipped to handle that kind of force without people dying."

"We can't just leave them there," Vivian told her.

"No, no, of course not. Looks like I'm a part of the mission after all. Okay, there's another option. Kim Possible works with someone named Wade. He's a computer genius. I haven't been able to reach him, but if we go far enough away from the Space Center, the jamming frequency should stop. He'll have more information, and he may know what to do."

Vivian looked helplessly at Oliver. "Do we have another option?"

"For the moment," he said clinically, "none that won't endanger human lives."

"Then let's roll," Sadie replied.

"He has a large variety," one of the female guards said. "Your coming was inevitable. The right size had to be available."

"What's this dinner crap anyway?" Monique asked. "What kind of villain takes you prisoner, threatens your family, and then expects you to have a meal with them?!"

"I think Gemini's been reading Señor Senior Senior's handbook of villainy," Kim muttered.

"I'll notify him you're ready," the female guard said before stepping out.

"He probably just wants to pretend he's got four hot girls on a date," Shego said.

"And Ron-san."

"Who knew he was a swinger?"

"With taste in fashion," Kim added reluctantly. She checked herself out in the mirror. Her Battle Suit was gone, replaced by a sparkling sky-blue sleeveless dress with spaghetti straps that ended just below the knees.

"Yeah, well, I'm guessing mine was custom-made," Shego replied. She was wearing a green-and-black outfit that left her midriff exposed. The skirt exposed a lot of leg and, Shego noted approvingly, wouldn't restrict her movement when it was time to kick someone's ass. She also wore long gloves that went up to her elbows, one green, one black. No powers, of course.

"Maybe we're in the wrong line of work," Monique said. "Maybe we should have been supermodels." Her dress was bright red. While it showed little leg, it did show quite a bit of cleavage, and hugged her hips in the right way.

"Supermodel secret agents," Yori suggested. Her Asian-style dress, a dark blue with a high collar and short sleeves, looked a little tight on her, and she tugged at the hem. "Although these outfits do not leave much room to hide a gun."

"I'm sure Gemini wouldn't want us to be hiding much of anything in these dresses," Kim said.

The female guard returned. "Your 'host' is waiting," she said, although hosts didn't usually invite guests at the point of a gun.

Kim swept past her. If Gemini thought he could intimidate her or throw her off her game by putting her in a dress, he was sadly mistaken. This was about the mission and her family now. It was on.

"Wow."

They turned and saw Ron. He was wearing an expensive black tuxedo, and from the look on his face, it was probably the first time. He stared at Monique as if she'd sprouted wings. She looked down at herself, then back at Ron. "Yo, Stoppable, eyes up here, remember?" she warned him.

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah," he said, looking her in the eye. "You all look, um, great, really."

"They didn't make you dress Rufus or Ruby, did they?" Kim asked.

"Nah, it kinda would have clashed with the whole naked mole rat thing."

Rufus popped his head out of Ron's jacket pocket. He took one look at the girls, opened his eyes wider, and almost fell out.

"You look very nice as well, Ron-san," Yori told him.

"Thanks, Yori," Ron said. He glanced at Monique again. "I think this outfit is worth more than my wardrobe back home." One more peek at Monique.

"They're called breasts, Ron," Monique said irritably. "They were here before, you know."

Ron turned bright red. "Yeah, right, sorry. Guess I just picked up on that," he mumbled.

He realized a moment later that this was perhaps not the best thing to say.

"Just for that," Monique said, "you're escorting me to my seat." She jammed her arm inside his and "accidentally" stepped on his foot. Ron winced.

Shego looked down and realized Kim had taken her hand. "What?" she asked.

"We're going to dinner, and we're dressed to kill," Kim said.

"You're damn right about the killing part," Shego growled.

"I say, for the moment, this is a date," Kim went on. "So we're going in holding hands, got it? Besides," she said more quietly, "Gemini seems to think we're not that tight. This is one of many illusions I plan to dispel today."

Shego nodded slowly. "You're right, he's been acting like I'm going to stab you in the back the first chance I get." Then she grinned. "But you don't have to give me an excuse to hold your hand in public."

They were escorted to a relatively spartan dining room, except for its size. But the table in the middle of the room was sumptuously laid out for dinner. There were eight chairs, although there was some empty space between the three on one end, and the other five. Evidently Gemini didn't think it was a good idea to have them sitting near him.

Yori was directed to the chair at the other end, with Monique and Ron on her left and right. Shego and Kim sat across from each other in the middle. The only other guests appeared to be the ring of armed men standing by the walls.

"Are they going to carry their guns and serve us at the same time?" Ron asked quietly.

"I have other agents for that," Gemini said as he entered. Behind him was an Asian woman in a Japanese embroidered kimono.

Kim recognized her. "You," she said. "I thought you were in a Texas prison."

"I was," Jaqui replied, looking at her malevolently. "My employer broke me out. I guess you didn't hear."

"Gemini is who you were stealing for, you and your hacker friend," Shego said.

"Yes, I hope E-Cool appreciates the fact that he's locked away in Texas," Jaqui said. "He should be safe from the flooding. Probably."

"I have appointed Jaqui as my personal bodyguard," Gemini explained. "She has some experience in fighting you."

"Losing to us, you mean," Kim said.

"I regret there are very few with experience in winning against you," Gemini observed.

"Very few? You mean zero," Shego shot back.

"The Acceptables beat you, Shego."

"Yeah, and they're dead."

Gemini chuckled as he sat down.

Not across from Yori, however. He took the empty chair to the left of the seat of honor.

"Is there a seventh guest?" Monique asked.

"Seven?"

"There's two empty chairs, and the girl in the bathrobe is one."

"She's my guard," Gemini said calmly while Jaqui snarled silently at Monique. "She remains standing. No, those seats are for . . . my backers."

"Your backers?" Kim asked slowly.

"Kim Possible! Shego! It has been too long."

Kim was stunned.

"Yes, it's been a day for unpleasant surprises, hasn't it?" Gemini asked, sneering.

Approaching the table were Señor Senior Senior and Señor Senior Junior.

To be continued . . .

There was a moment of silence while Kim digested what she was seeing. Junior had been one of the people who ambushed Shego in her apartment last year, so his presence, while unexpected, wasn't a complete shock. And the Seniors' money explained where Gemini raised the funds necessary to build this station. But Senior Senior? And Gemini? It wasn't just that she'd thought he was too involved in the operations of Smarty Mart to return to those days where he attempted to take over the world. It was that she'd been his guest for weeks prior to the attack on the Acceptables' home, and she realized that seeing him there felt like . . . betrayal.

And if she felt that way, then how might Shego take it?

"Shego, don't-" Kim started to say, already knowing exactly how the former thief would react, but she was too late.

"You two-faced, slimy, demented, senile old fart!!" Shego spat at Senor Senior Senior. She leapt from her seat onto the dinner table itself, and began running towards the elderly man. She didn't even notice the glassware and plates in her way, much less feel them breaking under her feet.

Her forward progress was halted, however, when Gemini caught her ankle with his robotic hand. She stumbled and fell to her knees. "Out of my way, tiny!" Shego snarled.

"You'll forgive me if I - overcompensate," Gemini shot back. He touched a button on his cybernetic wrist, and the metal hand energized, sending thousands of volts through Shego's body. She snapped up, ramrod straight, her hair on end. Shego's jaws were clamped shut, but the others could hear a scream forcing its way past her teeth as she arched her back.

"Let her GO!!"

Kim dove out of her chair, over the table, and tackled Gemini. Shego swayed drunkenly and pitched off the side, landing on the floor. She flopped like a fish a few times, then lay still. Kim and Gemini, meanwhile, tumbled across the floor before Kim put both feet in his chest and heaved, sending him flying into the wall.

Kim crouched and turned, intending to check on Shego. Instead she found herself looking down the barrel of a gun, and Junior had his finger on the trigger. The barrel was surprisingly big, like it might swallow her hole. She wasn't a handgun expert, but she'd heard stories about how it felt to stare down a .45 Magnum. Kim's guess was the stories were right.

"I don't think that would be a wise idea, Ms. Possible," Senor Senior Junior said calmly. "Look around."

Her fury slipped away as she remembered the gravity of their situation. Ron, Monique, and Yori were all practically on their feet, but each had several guns pointed at them. More guns were trained on Shego, who was on her hands and knees and trying to stand. And, of course, she couldn't forget the danger her family was in.

"I deplore the use of threats," Junior went on, "but Shego was the first to become violent. I must ask that you keep that in mind, in case you thought of seeking further vengeance against Gemini. You started this."

"Your FATHER started this!" Kim shot back. "He started this when he hired Gemini to build this station and threaten the world!"

Junior laughed gaily, as if he was without a care in the world. "Oh, Kim Possible, my little blue fox. So much you still do not understand. I like this. It will allow me to tell such an entertaining story during dinner. Please, return to your seat. Help Shego up, if you like."

Feeling more confused than anything else, Kim got up carefully, watching as the armed men stepped back from her friends, allowing them to sit back down again. She went over to Shego. "Shego, baby? How are you?"

Shego shook her head vigorously. "I'm fine," she grunted, shrugging off the helping hand Kim offered.

"You weren't fine five seconds ago."

"A jolt like that is nowhere near enough to stop me," Shego asserted. She stood up slowly. "Old man," she told Senor Senior Senior, "if you say one word to me - if you even sigh at me, I will make you WISH you died of natural causes years ago!"

Senior shook his head, then nodded gravely. He took his seat, allowing Junior to sit at the head of the table.

Gemini rubbed his back and looked angrily at Jaqui. "Where, pray tell, were you when I was being manhandled by Possible?" he demanded.

"If you're going to antagonize Kim Possible and hurt her girlfriend, I'm not going to be held accountable" Jaqui replied.

He bristled. "I will hold you accountable as I see fit!"

"Oh, do calm down, Gemini," Junior said. "Sit, eat. Nobody's going anywhere."

Gemini stiffly walked over to his chair and sat down again, but clearly he was trying to keep his temper in check. Needing a distraction, he snapped his fingers. "Agent Phi, please bring me Pepe," he ordered. One of the guards quickly left.

"So, now that everyone has gathered," Junior suggested, "why don't we eat?"

"I'm not hungry," Monique said coldly, holding Junior's gaze for a moment before he looked elsewhere.

"I'm actually - " Ron stopped when he caught the glare Monique was now giving HIM. "Not that hungry either," he said. "Maybe a roll?"

"I think we're all more interested in talking than eating," Yori told him.

Junior raised an eyebrow. "I do not believe we have been properly introduced," he said as Agent Phi returned and unobtrusively brought Gemini his pet chihuahua on a pillow. "You are Japanese, yes?"

Yori nodded. "My name is Yori, and I am an agent in my government's service."

"Ah yes, of course," Junior said, nodding as well. "Japan would cease to exist if our demands aren't met. Isn't that right, Gemini?"

"It is," Gemini said sullenly.

"So, Yori, my name is Senor Senior Junior, and I will be your host for the remaining duration of your very short lives. Gemini here is actually my right-hand man here. Even if he doesn't really have a flesh-and-blood right hand any more." Junior chuckled at his own wit.

"I am not your - " Gemini began, angered.

"Sidekick?" Shego asked spitefully.

Gemini whipped his head towards her and scowled.

"Yes, this is true, he is not my sidekick," Junior confirmed. "But he is my employee. Or tell me this, Gemini - which of us actually pays your men, and which of us sends them falling through the floor for petty infractions?"

Gemini didn't respond. He just went on looking at Shego - and away from Junior.

"I thought as much," Junior added, a smug smile on his face.

Kim had a hard time believing it, but everything - Junior's demeanor, his comments, his father's continued silence - pointed to it. "Your father's not in charge here, is he?" she asked him. "You are. This is all your doing."

Junior looked surprised. "Why Ms. Possible, I thought that was perfectly obvious. You accuse my father of such underhandedness? I'm shocked, frankly. He is a businessman, not a criminal. He is only here because our private island will not survive a shift in the planet's tides. What would you have me do, abandon my father?"

"So instead you’re threatening HER father?” Shego retorted. “Along with the rest of her family? I seem to remember that WE were the ones who saved you from those screwed-up – “

“You saved me from nothing!!!”

Everyone, even Senor Senior Senior, drew back at Junior’s outburst as he rose to his feet and banged his knuckles on the table before him. A champagne flute that had escaped Shego's stampede now fell over and broke. The scar running vertically down his face became more pronounced as his cheeks reddened.

He glared venomously at Shego. “You abandoned me, my old teacher,” he growled. “You left me there to rot! To burn! And oh yes, they burned me for days, because we had a history together, because they thought I might know where you went,” Junior sneered. “As if you could think of anyone but yourself, Shego.”

“That’s not true!” Monique interrupted.

Junior made a dismissive gesture at her. “The three of them don’t even factor into my plans, Shego,” he said coldly. “I should just kill them now, but I wouldn’t want that to be a distraction for what I have planned for either you, Shego, or you, Kim Possible.”

“If Shego hadn’t escaped when she did, how she did,” Kim said, remaining calm while mentally she tried to adapt to a Junior she’d never encountered before, “she might have been recaptured. As it worked out, you were freed because of her actions.” Junior wasn't usually this - unstable

“My safety was no concern of yours, Kim Possible,” Junior snapped. “You wanted to save your precious mother from those Acceptables. Well, I wanted something from them too! I didn’t just want my freedom. I wanted revenge! Revenge for John’s torture, for Yvonne’s depravity! And you took that from me – you killed them before I could!”

“Junior’s sanity has left the building,” Shego muttered, now looking bored.

His gaze turned back to her, but instead of raising his voice yet again, Junior seemed to collect himself. “Not so, Shego,” he told her, smiling. “I must be sane, because I see everything I wanted within my reach. Are you suggesting that I am delusional, that you are not all my prisoners?, and I am not being delusional, no? I told my father after I was freed that I would still have my vengeance on the Acceptables even if they themselves had died. I swore I would do what they could not. I would take over the world, and destroy Kim Possible. When that happened, then I would prove myself their better!”

“You can’t kill millions of people because of this, Senor!” Yori said. “This will not give you your honor back!”

“Honor schmonor,” Junior mocked her. “This is called vengeance. And let's be perfectly clear, Sheldon," Junior continued. "I am quite close to victory here, and I don't want your bruised ego interfering. Ms. Possible and your sister destroyed your organization years ago. When I found you last year, you didn't have enough men to rob a Bueno Nacho. I used the money I stole from my father – “

“You stole from your father?” Kim asked, startled.

“He gave me five million to start me on my journey, Miss Possible. It was not nearly enough. Who do you think built this station? Frugal Lucre?”

Kim looked at Senor Senior Senior. He refused to look up from the table.

“I used that money to completely rebuild WEE, Sheldon,” Junior went on. “You gave me the kind of structured criminal organization I needed. It would have taken me years to build up my own network. And I thank you for it. But I will blow you out of the nearest airlock if you don’t remember who is in charge here, and your men will help me do it.”

Gemini’s face was nearly purple, and he looked about wildly. “He’s nothing more than a spoiled child with an oversized ATM card!” he cried out, turning to the guards. “I am Gemini! I am WEE! Who will you follow - him or me?!”

There was no reaction, as if they hadn't even heard anyone speak. Gemini’s shoulders slumped. "No," he mumbled. "I made WEE. You can't just - "

“Cheer up, Gemini,” Junior said. “You will win, and your sister will lose. That’s all that really matters to you, isn’t it? Already she has been reduced to being Team Possible’s nursemaid, instead of the head of Global Justice – “

Pepe began barking angrily.

“Oh, Pepe, now,” Gemini said quickly, trying to calm the dog. “He didn’t mean to upset you.”

Shego turned in her chair to face Gemini. “Global Justice,” she said cruelly, a wicked smile on her face.

The small dog’s agitation and volume rapidly increased despite Gemini’s efforts to soothe it. “Shego, you – “

“Global Justice,” she repeated, all-out grinning.

“Global Justice,” Kim echoed a second later, backing Shego up.

“That is ENOUGH,” Gemini roared furiously, while Pepe yipped frantically. He held up one robotic finger. “The next person to say those words is getting a miniature rocket in their lap!”

“Gemini,” Junior said, exasperated. “I think you’re – “

“Global Justice.”

The last one pushed Pepe over the edge. It snarled, twisting violently in Gemini’s grip, and falling to the floor, it immediately ran out of the dining room.

Gemini pointed his finger at the person who had spoken. “You’ve pushed me too far, old man!” he shouted at Senor Senior Senior, who had spoken in front of Team Possible for the first time that night. Kim wondered if there was any significance to Senior’s provoking him. He didn't look concerned that someone was shoving a lethal - finger in his face.

“Sheldon, do not point. It is very rude,” Junior told him. “Also, there is the small matter of you pointing a weapon at my father.”

Gemini was seething, but he grudgingly lowered his hand.

Junior sighed. “I had hoped to have a nice dinner with my enemies. It is something my father was always fond of when he tried to take over the world. Was it not, father?”

“It was,” Senior agreed gravely.

“It appears however, that you are determined to be difficult,” Junior said. “I suppose I shall just send you to your cells. Guards?”

They immediately snapped to attention, something Gemini couldn’t fail to notice.

“Please take Mr. Stoppable, Miss Yori, and this third girl who never bothered to introduce herself – “

“It’s Oryx,” Monique retorted.

“A silly name, Oryx. As you like. Have them confined. Make sure their cells are in different parts of the station. I do not wish for them to attempt to communicate with each other. As for Kim Possible and Shego, they have a different fate in store for them," Junior said.

None of the three struggled as guards came for them. The people Junior was holding hostage at the Space Center made sure of that. "KP," Ron began.

"I'll find you guys soon, if you don't find us first," Kim reassured him.

Junior chuckled. "Your confidence is endearing, Ms. Possible."

Kim glared at him. "I hope you still find it endearing when my fist is hitting your teeth."

"I highly doubt that," Junior replied, gesturing at Gemini's agents. Ron, Monique, and Yori were swiftly taken away, leaving Kim and Shego behind with the Seniors, Gemini, and Jaqui.

"I know what you're thinking," Junior said once they were alone.

"That you're insane?" Shego asked.

"That you're a lousy son?" Kim suggested.

"That cosmetic surgery is still an option?"

Junior laughed through gritted teeth. "Ah, that wit you're both so famous for. No, what you must be thinking is, 'Surely there is nothing more that could surprise me tonight. WEE has its very own space station, and is being financed by the Senior family. My friends and family have been taken hostage. I've become Junior's prisoner. Surely the surprises are over.'"

"And right now I'm thinking they're not," Kim said dryly.

"Indeed you're right, Kim Possible. In a few minutes, my own personal bodyguards will be escorting you to a very special deathtrap designed especially for the two of you. It is my belief that neither of you will enjoy the experience," Junior told them.

"A little wordier than what Dr. D always said," Shego replied, yawning, "but I'm thinking that's the only difference. What makes you THIS deathtrap will kill her - and me, for that matter - where the other ones couldn't?"

"I never said I believed it would kill BOTH of you," Junior replied, unable to resist a gloating smile. He turned to his right. "Ah, I see your escort has arrived."

Kim followed his gaze, and the blood drained from her face.

"Kimmie?" Shego asked. "What is - "

"You look as if you have seen a ghost, Miss Possible," Junior said idly.

"That's - that's impossible," Kim said, reeling.

"No, but you're close," Junior replied, mocking her. "Is not science a wonderful thing?"

"We certainly think so," John Acceptable said, gesturing to Don and Yvonne.

"Yes, please," Vivian said, still racking her brain for some method of rescuing dozens of her fellow scientists from an armed force of trained men. She'd always been told she was a genius, but that didn't make her a tactical genius, unfortunately.

Wade's face appeared on Sadie's viewscreen a few moments later. "Doctor . . . Porter?" he asked, bewildered.

"You're Wade?" Vivian asked. "We're contacting you from inside Sadie."

"Who's we?"

"Me and my assistant Oliver."

"Where's everyone else?" Wade asked.

"Still at the Space Center," Vivian told him. "Wade, do you know what's going on? There are men with guns and they tried to kill Oliver - well, kill me, actually, and - "

"I don't know a lot myself," Wade told her. "Kim Possible and the others are on a top-secret mission from the American government. Sappho is transporting them to a secret base on the moon. They were approaching their destination when I suddenly lost contact. I was cut off from Mission Control at the Space Center a few seconds later. To be honest, you're the first confirmation I have for what's been happening. I hacked into military communications, but they don't seem to realize there's a problem."

"Oh," Vivian said, disappointed. "Sadie thought you might be able to help rescue everyone, but - "

"Whoa, whoa, don't get ahead of yourself, Dr. Porter," Wade said. "There's nothing I can do for Kim right now, my communication attempts are being jammed. But there are things I can do for the Space Center."

"Like what?" Oliver asked.

"For starters, just because Gemini is jamming my frequency, that doesn't mean I can't do the same thing to them," Wade explained. "His soldiers would lose radio communication."

"But you don't understand," Vivian said. "There are probably dozens of hostages back there. There are men spread everywhere that Oliver and I had to avoid just to get out of the building. There were two more outside that could have killed us if Sadie hadn't hit them."

"Two guards?" Wade asked. "Where are they?"

Sadie grunted. "In my trunk. They'll live, but they're unconscious. We couldn't let them be discovered."

Wade nodded. "Okay, look. Most of those people are scientists like you, Dr. Porter, but you've also got Colonel Steve Barkin, who used to be a career military man, and Dr. Betty Director, who used to be - "

"The head of Global Justice, I know," Vivian said. "We're friends."

"Then you know the kind of person she is."

"I do," Vivian said softly.

"None of us are equipped to handle a hostage situation, but THEY are. All we have to do is free them. Look, I've run the statistical probabilities based on what I know and what you told me. When I lost contact with them, Dr. Director and Colonel Barkin were in the control tower with Kim's family and Tommy Director."

"Tommy's in there?" Vivian asked, horrified.

"The only place at the Space Center with the capability of sending and receiving transmissions to the moon is the control tower," Wade went on, ignoring her interruption. "The head of Gemini's unit has to be there in order to maintain contact with Gemini. My guess is he'll still have the Possibles, the Directors, and Barkin there too. But the other scientists were probably herded into a central location like an auditorium or a cafeteria."

"So if we jam their frequency and retake the control tower," Oliver said, "the guards holding the other scientists won't realize anything is wrong."

"Exactly," Wade said, snapping his fingers. "Dr. Director and Colonel Barkin will know what to do then."

"All we need to do is save several people, including children, from a group of gun-toting thugs holed up in a tower," Sadie pointed out. "And first we'll have to get there without being spotted. Sounds easy as pumping gas."

"There's a way," Wade told them. "Years ago there were a network of tunnels underneath Middleton."

"Oliver and I know those tunnels," Vivian said. "People built robots and used those tunnels - "

"For fights, that's right," Wade said. "Those fights are finished, but I've made some additions for a - friend of mine, and one of those tunnels will take you inside Space Center property."

"Even me?" Sadie asked.

"Well, no, not you."

"So it'll be up to me and Oliver," Vivian said.

"I might be able to help with that."

"Fear not, father. I will talk to them via the monitor in my quarters," Junior said. "I thought it was best if I left them alone with the Acceptable brood. Kim Possible has a formidable spirit, as you yourself know, father. I have weakened that spirit, however. I have delivered a series of unpleasant shocks to her system. First there was the ease with which we captured her, then the danger posed to her family, and then our surprise appearance. And now the culmination, the resurrection of Shego's bogeymen, the Acceptables. She is completely off-balance by now, and she will be fair prey for what I have in store for her."

"You think your little trap will kill her?"

Junior chuckled. "No, I think it will kill Shego. THAT will kill Miss Possible, and then the Acceptables will finish her off."

Senior frowned. "I cannot approve of this, Junior. Regardless of your need for revenge, it is directly because of those two young women, as well as Mr. Stoppable and the Oryx, that you were returned to me. I cannot countenance their destruction."

"Then it is a good thing you are merely an observer - someone I dragged along with me," his son said. "Otherwise your opinion would actually matter."

The father's frown became more pronounced, and wrinkles appeared on his forehead.

"Father," Junior sighed, "we have arrived at my quarters. I have to give Kim and Shego the bad news, and you have to return to your room." He beckoned to the guards on either side of the entrance to his habitation. "Please take my father there," he said, dismissing them with a wave of his hand.

"Yes sir," they said in unison.

"Junior, please reconsider," Senor Senior Senior said.

"I love you, father. That is why I ask you to stay out of this," Junior replied. "Tomorrow the world will be under my thumb. Rejoice in that."

He left his father behind without another look and entered his rooms.

"See you later, Shego. Maybe," John told her before the door shut, leaving her trapped. Alone. She'd been separated from Pumpkin, and she was still angry about it.

"Good," she murmured to herself. "You can cry for me a second time, Johnny."

Shego leaned on the wall and took a moment to collect herself. The Acceptable children - alive. She never saw them die, but Kimmie had and Shego took her word for it. There was no way it could be true. But they'd spoken to her and Kim as they were taken here, and Shego had observed them for years. The likeness was uncanny.

Kim obviously thought it was them, from the way she'd moved like a freshly risen zombie. Shego had worried after they'd surrendered that Kim was on overload. But no, THIS was Kim on overload.

"Shego? Old friend? Mentor? I hope you are enjoying your accommodations?"

Shego's head snapped up. Above her head, Junior's face had appeared on a screen set in the wall itself. "Those are impostors," she hissed.

"Oh no, I assure you they are quite real, Shego. They've made great strides with Dr. Drakken's cloning technology since it was first developed. While they still have that distressing weakness to carbonated beverages, scientists - MY scientists - are now able to replicate his discoveries. At great expense, I should have you know, WEE agents were able to recover the DNA of the three Acceptable children from the caverns beneath their old lair. It took months, but we have succeeded."

Clones. She hated clones. Why did it have to be clones? "Uh, hello? If you can clone them, why not just kill them? That's what you said you wanted, isn't it?"

"They're just copies, Shego. They have all the memories of the originals just before they died, but still they are merely shadows. Somehow I fail to see why that would be quite as satisfactory. Besides, I preferred having them programmed to obey me faithfully. They are my servants now."

"You never made much sense when your father hired me to teach you," Shego replied heatedly, "but now you're even worse! First you decide you're going to accomplish exactly what the Acceptables were set to do, and then you practically bring them back from the dead? This isn't payback - this is them still controlling your life!"

Junior growled. "You couldn't possibly understand."

"Bullshit!" Shego retorted. "I was imprisoned and tortured, same as you, Junior. If ANYONE can understand what you went through, it's ME. So why don't you just open up a few liters of Pepsi on those phonies, and then do what I did - move on with your fucking life."

He paid her no mind, though, and sighed. "I do not wish to talk about me. Why don't we talk about you and your bosom friend Kim instead? Your soulmate? Your one true love? Isn’t that right?"

"We're not in love," Shego grumbled, crossing her arms.

"I see. You merely surrendered both yourself and your precious gloves to my men because you value the sanctity of human life," Junior said, his voice practically dripping with scorn. "I bet you would do anything for her, even give your own life?"

" . . . Probably," she admitted.

"You're wondering what that button does, aren't you?"

Shego looked at the button, pretending disinterest. "Not really, no. I was thinking about how I wish I had a magazine. Maybe some emery boards.."

"Well, you SHOULD be wondering about it. Pushing that button will open the door, let you out, and give you your freedom."

She stared suspiciously at him. "What's the catch?"

"No catch. Although I would suggest pushing it soon. You have thirty minutes before the ceiling crushes your body quite completely."

Shego started as there was a grinding noise above her. She looked up and saw that the room's high ceiling had almost imperceptibly begun to move downward. "Oh, come on! Even Dr. D was more original than THAT. If you're gonna kill me, at least use a little imagination!" she complained.

"What can I say?" Junior asked. "My father's handbook has not been updated in over forty years."

"That still doesn't explain why there's a button that will let me out."

He smiled at her. "In a moment, I will be giving your partner Kim a similar ultimatum. She too has a button. And like you, I will be telling her that when one of you presses the button, the OTHER button will no longer be operable. The ceiling, however, will descend at a MUCH faster rate. In other words, Shego, if you wish to save yourself, you need only sacrifice Kim's life in return. And vice versa – if Kim wishes to save herself, she must condemn you." Junior laughed mockingly. "I am sure your decision will be a difficult one. I know firsthand what a selfless person you are. But you had better hurry and make a choice, because it won't take Kim long to realize that you will betray her too. The clock is ticking. For both of you."

Shego detected sarcasm. She was a master at it. She felt like telling him this, and telling him what else she was a master of, but her throat had become strangely dry and her brain just couldn’t formulate a proper sentence.

Kimmie, no . . .

To be continued . . .

Kim couldn't see the look on Junior's face as he gloated, but she could hear his mock sobbing. "Oh, boo-hoo!" he moaned. "I must kill the most important person in my life in order to escape from here and save the world. How sad this makes me! Wah-hah-hah!"

She couldn't see his face because she was kneeling on the floor, hands on her thighs, eyes closed. She didn't doubt that he interpreted her reaction as a sign of weakness. In truth it was a form of meditation.

You are not going to lose it, Kim, she thought to herself. That's what he's trying to make you do. Probably still traumatized from years of being the Acceptables' prisoner. Like a schoolboy who bullies the younger kids because he was bullied himself. He wants to break you the way he was broken. That's why he's been trying to overwhelm you with one bad shock after another.

You're going to be out of this metal shoebox long before his thirty minutes are up, Kim, because you can do anything!

She wasn't sure how, though.

And Ron has the Lotus Blade! Yori's a trained ninja AND spy. There's no telling what tricks she has at her disposal. Monique - she can adapt to any situation. If worst comes to worst, one of them gets you out of here.

But there was no telling how long that would take. Maybe longer than it would take for the ceiling to turn her into a pizza.

Kim clamped down on the nagging doubts in the back of her head. She didn't have the luxury of going to pieces today, not when the fate of the world rested on her shoulders. She couldn't allow herself to even entertain the possibility that she might have to . . .

Her shoulders slumped a little. She wasn't going to push the button. She couldn't push it, no matter the cost to herself. Shego had been abandoned by people her entire life. It had taken a supreme effort on her part to trust Kim. The very notion that Shego's last thought before death might be "Kimmie betrayed me" - it made Kim's heart feel ready to break just thinking of it.

Since she wasn't going to push it, she might as well pretend it wasn't even there. Which meant she had thirty minutes - twenty-nine, now - to get out of here.

Meditation over.

Kim's eyes opened, and Junior's mockery trailed off as he read the look in them. "Ooooh, it appears I have made someone maa-aad," he said, sneering at her.

"You think you're in control here, but you're not," Kim said.

"Really," he said dryly.

"You're no more in control," Kim said, "than you were when John Acceptable hurt you for the sake of hurting you."

Senor Senior Junior's smile vanished. "That same John Acceptable you refer to, he is my servant now," he said icily.

"He's just a clone," Kim said, shrugging. "The one who counts is the one who zapped you and then billed your father for the electricity."

"How dare you," Junior growled.

"If only your father had paid for therapy when you got out," Kim said with a pitying look. "He must have really wanted to believe that the only scars from your time in captivity were the ones on your body. Maybe if he'd been honest with himself, we could have avoided this whole thing."

As soon as the words were out of Kim's mouth, she realized she meant them. She couldn't completely blame Junior for his actions, even though he'd have to pay for them regardless. The Acceptable clones might belong to him, but the spirits of the dead family haunted him still.

Junior's image trembled on the screen. "When Shego reveals her true colors to you, Ms. Possible," he hissed at her, one clawed hand raised, "and allows you to die alone so she can save her worthless, miserable hide, you will be granted five seconds to reflect on your own mistakes. Who knows? If you'd been honest with yourself about the kind of person Shego is, truly we could have avoided this whole thing."

Then he terminated the connection.

Kim sighed. She didn't like to think about what Shego must be going through right now. Something like what she was going through, she imagined.

Still, the idea that one of them couldn't break out in less than thirty minutes?

Im-possible.

The Lotus Blade, he'd learned a while ago, was a terrible timepiece, mainly because it always said the time was 3:49 A.M. At least a broken clock was right twice a day. This was only right once.

Of course, that was due to the fact that it wasn't really a watch. While it could take the likeness of a wristwatch, the Lotus Blade couldn't replicate a digital watch on the inside. Hence the inability to keep track of time.

Ron had chosen a watch because it made it easy to carry around, because guards weren't going to pay attention to a cheap watch, and because he was usually late anyway.

Whenever he was ready, though, the Lotus Blade could become many, many other things. Sword, staff, shield, mirror, pocketknife, chain, Frisbee, yo-yo . . . just not a naco.

Too bad. He was hungry. He never even got a roll.

The question was, how could it help him escape? His cell was solid metal on three sides, with an invisible force field sealing off the way he'd come through. Well, been shoved through, anyway.

The device that activated the force field? On the other side, of course, near the one guard.

Still, it could have been worse. A prison cell and one guard? Easy meat for KP. Apparently Junior thought it was more than enough for Ron.

Either that, or Junior was still borrowing his father's handbook - Page 113, How To Place Your Foe In An Easily Escapable Situation Under Minimal Supervision.

Ron's guess was the first one. They hadn't even bothered to take the mole rats.

His eyes traveled upward, and he smiled. That air vent was too small for him, but NOT too small - for the fortieth time, he thanked the creator of HVAC.

Satisfied that the guard wasn't paying attention to him, Ron picked Rufus and Ruby up, holding one in each of his palms. "You guys have your work cut out for you, I guess," he said quietly. "Find somebody, ANYbody - KP, Monique, Shego, Yori - and help them escape. Got it?"

"H'okay," Rufus agreed.

"Mmm-hmm," Ruby chimed in a moment later.

"Let's do this old school then," Ron said. He put the rodents down and took off his watch, willing it to become a screwdriver. He went over to the ventilation duct in the ceiling and started working on the screws.

After a minute he checked his progress, then looked again at the Lotus Screwdriver. "I wanted a Phillips, not a flathead," he muttered.

The tip of the screwdriver changed slightly, and this time Ron started getting somewhere.

And when Monique wasn't happy, she let people hear about it. Unfortunately, the only person around seemed to be Yori, and she was sitting cross-legged in her cell with her eyes closed.

"Yori," she tried hissing again. "Yori!"

The Japanese agent didn't even twitch her eye.

"She's just doing it to annoy me, I know she is," Monique growled.

Junior's orders had been for Monique to be placed in a cell far from either Yori or Ron, but as the trio had been marched away, they discovered that those orders had come into stark conflict with reality - the station wasn't exactly overflowing with prison space. Upon conferral the guards had sent Ron by himself to "Cellblock Alpha", and Monique and Yori to cells across from each other in "Cellblock Beta". As Kim's longtime partner Ron was the known commodity, and he was accorded the greater "respect".

Monique hoped Ron realized that. He always perceived villains as slighting him as a distraction rather than a threat.

As for Monique, however, she'd confronted her own grim reality. While Shego, and Kim indirectly, had drilled months of training in fighting skills into her, neither had really covered the art of escape. And without Wade and his gadgets, Monique was left with zilch in the escape plan department.

If anybody should be breaking out, it should be Secret Agent Woman . . . and she was napping!

Monique growled. "YO-ri!" she snapped.

Yori's eyes opened, but she gave no sign that it was Monique's words that roused her. She gazed around her cell as if seeing it for the first time. "I see," she said simply.

"Well, of course NOW you see, you've had your eyes closed the whole time," Monique said irritably.

Yori smiled mysteriously. "Ron-san is attempting something. Escape, I imagine."

Monique pressed against the force field and looked to her right. Their two guards were engaged in an animated discussion. Nearby on the wall was the lever that would deactivate the invisible fields keeping them in. "How'd you know that?"

"The Lotus Blade," Yori said simply. "I felt its energies change. I believe Ron has altered its shape - into what, I cannot say."

"Not really answering the 'how', Yori. So the Lotus Blade did something. How can you tell?"

"It was housed in Yamanouchi for many years. I have seen it, studied it, felt its power. I have also seen Ron-san use the Blade. My ninja training has exposed my senses to things beyond normal men. So both the power that is its mystical signature, and the bond Ron-san has with the Blade, are familiar to me."

"Hmph," Monique said suspiciously. "Ron and his sword have a BOND?"

Yori nodded. "He is the Monkey Master. He is also a very generous and open young man. Is it not easy to have a bond with his heart?"

Monique shook her head and chuckled. "Oh, now we're finally getting somewhere."

Yori cocked her head. "Getting somewhere? Monique-san, I do not understand your - "

"Don't be coy, Yori. You do it well, but don't try it with me. You've been wanting to 'bond with his heart' since you got here," Monique said, pointing a finger. "And certain other parts of his body too, I bet."

Yori narrowed her eyes slightly. "I do not like what you are suggesting, Monique-san."

"Oh, come on, girl! You've been making your play for Ron since you got here. You're trying to tell me they don't teach Seduction 101 in government spy school?"

"That is highly classified!" Yori said defensively, as her cheeks grew a bit darker. "And YOU are just jealous!"

"J-jealous?!" Monique spluttered. "Of you and Ron? You're not serious. That boy and I have been friends for years. Believe me, if I was going to start jelling over that boy, it would have happened a long time ago."

"Really," Yori said dryly. "Because it appeared to me you were 'jelling' when Ron-san became mesmerized by your dress. You couldn't get your arm around his fast enough."

Still wearing her evening dress, just as Yori was, Monique instinctively put her hand over the low V-cut of her dress. "That was to keep him next to me with his eyes FRONT, Yori."

"Indeed? You looked like a couple to me. For a woman who complains that Shego-san continues to deny she loves Kim-sama, you seem to be equally in denial about your own feelings."

Monique turned away. "We're just friends," she said through gritted teeth. "All we ever do is spar together."

"Yes, just like Kim-sama and Shego-san always spar together."

"That's different," Monique grumbled, even as she suddenly remembered times when they'd both left training sessions too exhausted to return to their homes, and ended up sharing a spare bed at Team Possible HQ - platonically, of course!

"And anyway," Monique went on, "you haven't denied it yourself. You're saying you're not interested in Ron?"

It was Yori's turn to step away. "Ron is," she said hesitantly, "a great man. I have known that ever since his stay at Yamanouchi. He has many fine qualities that even he seems unaware of. It is . . . true that I have thought of him at times during our years of separation. But now is neither the time nor the place to speak of such things! And I am certainly no seductress!"

Monique grinned. "I guess you didn't have the grades for Seduction 102?"

Yori's face turned crimson, and Monique knew she was at least half-right. "That's good," she added, "because Ron and subtlety don't mix. You could give him hints for ten years and he'll still wonder why you've never had a boyfriend. You need to be straightforward."

"I am not so brazen. But of course this is a trait of yours. I see you have given this thought before."

Monique blinked. "Wait, what? No, no I haven't. That's like saying I have feelings for Ron, and I do NOT have feelings for Ron."

Yori nodded. "Then we have no need of arguing, do we?"

"Uh - no, I guess not."

"Good. Then perhaps we can see about escaping . . ." Yori suddenly smiled slyly at her. "Unless it is your hope that Ron-san will come and save you."

Monique sniffed and didn't answer. Oh, she'd pay for that later.

One of the guards turned and looked at the other, their own conversation having stopped long ago. "Man, these chicks are better than soaps!" he said.

He wondered if that made those other two girls "henchwenches". They'd looked like fine wenches to him!

The guard decided to amuse himself by harassing the sidekick. Like a kid like him would ever have a chance like one of those girls.

"Hey, you!" he began to say, but he stopped, mesmerized by what he saw.

The prisoner appeared to be practicing - with a real, honest-to-God, samurai sword!

The guard started, then ran over to the cell. "Hey, prisoner! Where the hell did you get that?!"

Ron looked up, irritated. "Dude, do I interrupt you when you're practicing setting ants on fire, or whatever it is you do for fun?"

"Give me that weapon before I pump you full of holes!"

"Sure, I'll just pass it through the impenetrable force field."

The agent pulled his firearm and pointed it at Ron. "When I lower the force field, you hand that over slowly. Handle first, too!"

Ron shrugged. "Okay, but it's my turn again when you're finished."

Possible's sidekick was crazy, the guard decided. He pushed a button on one side of the door, causing the barrier between them to disappear.

Ron casually reversed his grip on the sword so that the flat of the blade was between his palms. The sword hilt was there for the other man to take hold of.

Then, as he reached out to commandeer the weapon . . . it changed.

Specifically, it changed into a bo staff that was easily much longer than the sword. So long, in fact, that it extended right up to the guard's face and clocked him solidly between the eyes. He lurched back and dropped his gun, putting both hands over his face. My head, my head, CHRIST that hurt!

Ron calmly changed his grip on the staff and buried the other end in the guard's stomach, bending him over. A single sweep knocked the guard's legs out from under him, leaving him on his back. One last crack to the man's temple guaranteed he'd stay unconscious.

Then Ron tapped the staff on the floor once, allowing the Lotus Blade to revert to the form of a watch. He looked thoughtfully at his former captor.

"I think this tux would look better on you," he said out loud.

Ruby nodded and smiled.

Rufus and Ruby had thought about her staying behind on Earth. They were worried about endangering the litter she was carrying.

But they'd decided that if both of them went along, there was a greater chance of Ron surviving this.

And they wanted their children to get to know their "Uncle Ron".

Now, however, they had a second choice. Once again, it came down to protecting Ron and his friends, or protecting each other.

They'd reached a T-intersection in the ventilation shaft they were inside of. They could remain together and choose one direction. Or they could split up and cover more ground.

Rufus had already accepted Ruby's presence on the mission. He wasn't sure if he could let her out of his sight. She was a good mate, and would make a good mother. If they stayed together and picked the right direction, then everyone would be okay!

Ruby, however, put her paw on his, and shook her head.

Rufus nodded sadly. If this mission didn't succeed, then Ron might die, along with millions on Earth. What world would this be to raise their offspring in? What would he tell his family? That millions died because he was being selfish?

Ruby leaned over and nuzzled his cheek.

Then she turned and hurried down the right fork.

Rufus watched her go. Every instinct in his body told him to follow her. Instinct had never served a naked mole rat wrong.

He went left instead.

Certainly his vision had not included him being "escorted" to his rooms by his son's henchmen, rooms that were certainly luxurious, but still rooms where the door could only be opened from outside.

Why did his son do this?

Better questions might include "Why did my son steal from me?"

"How can I stand by and allow the women who saved my son to die?"

"Is this my fault?"

Senior sighed. Perhaps if he'd sought professional help for his son when Junior was freed. Or at least kept a better eye on his son and his evil plans.

And now it seemed Junior had completely discarded the Villains' Handbook. Oh, certainly, he invited the hero to dinner and then placed her in a specially-made deathtrap. But to hamstring Kim Possible in such a way, taking her family hostage, that she was unable to defend herself?

And this resurrection of the Acceptables - pure madness! How could Junior even look upon their faces?!

"Is this fate?" Senior asked himself. "Is this my punishment for the mistakes I made raising my son?"

He suspected another part of his punishment would be the hit Smarty Mart stock took when investors found out what his son had done.

There was a buzz at the door, signifying someone's arrival. "Enter," Senior said wearily.

The door opened and a single WEE agent came in. "Your son wants you," he said.

"Again? He sent me away not long ago."

"Orders, Senor."

Senor Senior Senior shrugged and followed the agent out.

Once they were in the fully-lit corridor, however, Senior took one look at the ears sticking out from under the agent's visored helmet and immediately knew who it was.

Unlike SOME villains, Senior knew his enemies by face and name.

"After you," the disguised Ron Stoppable said.

Senior smiled and began walking back the way he'd come earlier. Obviously Mr. Stoppable had decided that the fastest way to free Kim Possible, Shego, AND Ms. Possible's family was to cut off the head of WEE. It was equally obvious that he didn't know where he was going. If Senior wished, he could lead the sidekick on a wild goose chase, ending in the WEE cafeteria. That would be a very evil thing to do.

"May I ask something?" Senior asked as they made their way.

"Uh-huh."

"What did you do with the owner of that uniform, Mr. Stoppable?"

Ron Stoppable stopped. "Aw, man," he said softly. "The one time I'm recognized, and I'm in disguise!"

"I believe your ears are a bit of a giveaway."

Ron hurriedly jammed his ears underneath his headgear. Then he looked at Senior. "The guy I got this from? He's resting. Also a lot better dressed now. Now tell me where your son is," he said. "And where I can find a closet."

"A closet?"

"So I can knock you out and stuff you in it. Can't exactly surprise the son if the father knows who I am."

"This is my son's game," Senior said. "He has said that I am merely an observer. Let him figure out who you are. I will say nothing."

"No offense, Senor Senior Senior, but why should I believe you?"

"Because the villain inside of me tells me that if I say nothing, you are going to make this day quite interesting."

Ron didn't respond right away. "Yeah, I guess I'd buy that," he finally said. "Okay, keep walking."

Senior took his suggestion and resumed their path.

After a few moments, Ron spoke again. "You said I'm going to make this day interesting. How do you even know if it's day or night here? There's a reason they call it the dark side of the moon, you know."

"Consider it a figure of speech. Although you could always look at your watch."

"Trust me, that won't help."

Instead she thought of Ron-san, and Monique-san's comments. As she had stated, she was NOT trying to lure Ron-san in. While there was no single program like the "Seduction 101" that Monique-san kept referring to, the Japanese government DID attempt in various manners to hone its agents' ability to gather information through all means, including ones' own beauty and charm.

For all her potential in other areas, Yori had not performed well in this subject. She could lie, cheat, AND steal, but she couldn't bring herself to deceive the heart of another.

For the first time, Yori wondered if this was because her heart had belonged to another all along.

As an accomplished ninja Yori knew stealth when she saw it. In one important way Ron-san defined "stealth" - almost no one seemed to realize what strong and attractive qualities he had, including HIM. He had lived his life under the radar. Yori, however, knew he was a Monkey Master from the beginning. So instead of overlooking him the way everyone else did, she had studied him, and found him to be many things she wanted, and yet a breath of fresh air too.

And then Ron-san was gone again, back to America. Yori assumed she would never see him again.

She was not sure what was the greater surprise - finding that she WOULD see him again, or seeing him as the exact same man he was before, only stronger.

Yori thought she might have been in love with him all that time, and never known it until seeing him the other night.

This was a mission, however, for the survival of her homeland. Her duty and sense of honor demanded she succeed as well. Yori believed she had hidden her feelings quite well from him. Ron-san's behavior had seemed to validate that.

Monique-san's comments, however, indicated that she was doing a good job of hiding her feelings from him - and nobody else.

Yori wondered if Kim-sama or Shego-san had noticed as well. Shego-san probably wouldn't care if she had, but on the other hand she might tell Ron-san when it was likely to provoke the biggest reaction. Kim-sama - Yori had no idea how she would feel about some "interloper" bearing secrets of Ron's past becoming involved with her lifelong friend.

Perhaps she shouldn't say anything. Perhaps she should leave the instant the mission was complete.

She knew one thing, though. If they didn't survive this, none of this would matter.

Which meant it was time to make her move, and hope Monique-san noticed and responded in the expected way.

After all, they'd already been in their cells for almost half an hour.

To be continued . . .

Shego hadn't moved in over ten minutes, Señor Senior Junior noted. She just sat in the corner of the room, facing the wall. It was most aggravating that he couldn't get a good camera angle of her face. But of course, the woman just had to be aggravating in everything she did, didn't she?

Junior checked the clock. Twenty-one minutes gone by. In eight minutes, both women would have barely enough room between the floor and the ceiling to lie flat on their stomachs or backs. In nine, they would be dead.

The fact that they were both still alive after twenty-one minutes astounded him.

His expectations had been elementary. Both women would take anywhere between five and ten minutes to search the room and learn there was no way out, other than the button.

Once they were satisfied that the only possible outcome was for one of them to live, and one to die, then it would only be a matter of time before one of them pushed the button.

As he had told his father, he expected that person to be Kim Possible. While he did not doubt that Shego would also push the button, given enough time, he felt that Kim's overriding sense of duty, responsibility, and self-sacrifice would compel her to put the fate of the world ahead of her own personal happiness. If one of them was to live, then let it be the one who had been saving the world for years.

He had also stacked the deck in Kim Possible's favor by planting the suggestion that Shego wouldn't hesitate to save her own pathetic skin, even if it meant murdering Kim. Junior knew this to be true. Deep down, she must as well.

There would then be those terrible few seconds where Shego would realize what Kim had done. She would feel anger, fear, hatred, betrayal - and Kim would know it.

And then . . . one deceased Shego, and one devastated Kim Possible, wracked with guilt and grief. She would lurch out of the room, only to find the second part of the trap - the Acceptable siblings. She would be easy pickings.

If, by chance, Shego beat Kim to the button, she too would be overwhelmed three-to-one by the Acceptables. Seeing their faces before she died had its own . . . appeal.

Junior frowned, bored. Neither of these things had happened, however, because they refused to push the button!

Shego just sat there, as if the button behind her didn't even exist.

Kim, well, she looked ready to break any moment, but then she'd looked ready to break five minutes ago. He could see her on the monitor staring at the button like it was a coiled venomous cobra preparing to strike.

He sighed. If this went on for another - seven minutes, then he might have to do something drastic.

In the meantime he studied Shego's gloves. The confiscated items - the Kimmunicators, their battle attire, Shego's plasma gloves - had been brought to his quarters earlier. He was fascinated by the gloves. How wonderful it must be to have that kind of power! If only he had more feminine hands . . .

Kim had searched and scoured the room for the slightest sign of a weakness. There was none. Just a door, and the button that opened it.

There was a chance, of course - Junior had said earlier that when Shego pushed her button, Kim would have five seconds to reflect. Kim assumed the same went for Shego.

Kim remembered that the Acceptable Clones had dragged the two of them through a rectangular-shaped room with two doors on either end. Kim had been forced through one, and Shego had to have gone through the other. Kim felt sure that when the door opened, she could cross the second room in much less than five seconds.

Push the button, dive out, open the second door, dive in, grab Shego, dive back out.

Five seconds? Perhaps.

So there was a chance.

Kim shook her head and put her hands to her temples. A one-in-a-trillion chance. Why delude herself?

Junior, like all villains, was predictable. He wasn't going to just let Kim waltz out. There had to be a second trap waiting for her outside, probably the clones or armed guards. They weren't going to get out of her way when she came out.

More importantly, Kim's "chance" was built on two very shaky premises. One, that Kim's door would open the second she hit the button. It might not open until Shego was . . .

Two, that there was a way to open Shego's cell from the outside. More likely both doors were controlled at a second location.

And that was the biggest stumbling block of all. Junior had to be watching the whole thing. The moment Kim made some kind of move, Junior could probably push a button and flatten Shego before Kim took four steps.

Best to just accept the facts and deal with it. Junior was right. Kim was getting out of here a murderer, or not at all.

Really, she already WAS a killer. What was one more?

I can't decide, I can't!

My parents, the tweebs, Ron, Monique, Betty and Thomas Director, Mr. Barkin, practically everyone living within a hundred miles of the Pacific . . . they're counting on me! I'm Kim Possible, I have to save them before it's too late!

"I c-c-can't," Kim wept quietly, trying to keep herself from breaking into open sobs. Junior would LOVE that. "I swore I'd never kill again! And I'd have to kill Shego! Oh God, I'd never be able to live with myself!" The sense of shame and guilt would never leave her, ever. Not to mention the knowledge that she'd murdered the best thing that had ever happened to her.

So instead you're going to force Shego to kill YOU? You're going to stick HER with a lifetime of loneliness and shame? Even if you don't kill her, you're ending her life anyway!

Kim clutched her stomach. She felt the urge to vomit. She was damned either way, but she COULDN'T kill the woman she . . .

Loved.

Kim stopped breathing for a moment.

Loved. Yes, she couldn't deny it. Now was the time for honesty. She loved Shego. She was deeply, totally in love with Shego.

Oh, NOW I get this epiphany! Why couldn't I have realized this an hour ago when I could have TOLD her?! Not now, when it just makes this harder for me!

Shego, I love you! I need you to go on living! I - I don't think I can push that button!

Love?

Shego scoffed. Where had THAT thought come from? She didn't love Kim. Kim didn't love her either. Love wasn't for warriors like them.

One concept warriors DID understand was the idea of the honorable suicide. While the thought never exactly appealed to Shego, she could understand why some people might be driven to it. Compared to a long life without freedom, without excitement, without the thrill of the chase and the fight, what was so bad about death?

Not that Shego was technically going to kill herself.

She'd just sit there until Kimmie pressed her button.

Even as she'd searched her trap for some means of escape, Shego had understood on the deepest level. She wasn't going to push the button. Period.

Shego would never find another person like Pumpkin, someone who was her equal, someone who could make her feel so alive in the heat of combat, or in the bedroom. Kimmie was her double, her match. They were meant to be together forever.

And even if there WAS another like her out there (which there wasn't), this mythical person wouldn't want her back. Since birth, no one had ever wanted Shego. For Kim to spend all those months fighting past Shego's defenses, to get Shego to open up to her and return the feelings she offered freely - that was an absolute first.

Shego was sure it would be the last too.

So she had no incentive to push the button. Even if she lived, her life would be empty and hollow.

Kimmie needed to live anyway. SOMEONE had to stop Junior and save the planet, not to mention everyone at the Space Center. Who should that be, Shego or Princess? Please, like THAT was a hard question.

Shego scratched her chin. Kim had to understand all of this too. Shego didn't matter in the greater scheme of things. Certainly not compared to her compulsion to save the day.

So why hadn't she pushed the button yet?

Shego had an idea why, and she hoped it wasn't true. "Kimmie," she muttered to herself. "If you got some stupid idea that you're in love with me, I'll break out of here just so I can kick your ass!"

Okay, yeah, soulmate, nobody in the world like her, meant to be together forever, only person to want her back . . . Shego could see why Kim might get that idea, but . . .

Her head dropped forward.

You're gonna be dead in a few minutes, so if you can't admit it now, you're just being stupid, Shego!

"Okay, fine," Shego whispered. "I love her, all right? I love Kim Possible. She's mine, I love her, I'm just a big ol' softie."

She grunted. She was already sorry she said it. If she could take it back -

. . . oh, Kimmie, I wish I could just kiss you and tell you one time. ONE TIME!

Shego still wasn't pushing that button, though. So Kimmie had better wake up and do it.

She ignored the tear running down her cheek.

No one person in that room - in the entire Space Center, in fact - was better equipped than her to assess her captors' strengths and weaknesses. Dealing with her brother's messes had occupied much of her career with GJ. Even when she assumed control of Global Justice and all operations, she had considered Sheldon a personal responsibility and treated him as such.

Of course, it had been years since she'd found herself facing Gemini's men. WEE itself, it seemed, had been out of action for as long as she had. Her experience might no longer be accurate. Still, she had to work with what she had.

For most WEE agents, their biggest weakness was their indecisiveness in a crisis. Agents who failed Gemini often found themselves swallowed up by the ground below their feet. And Gemini's definition of "failure" was notably fluid. So when WEE plans began to fall apart, the agents in charge sometimes became almost paralyzed when faced with a decision. Any initiative they took could get them killed. And of course, their underlings were no better.

That kind of hesitation, even if it only lasted for five or ten seconds, could be valuable, especially if Betty could count on it. The question was, could she?

Ironically, though, Betty understood that her presence was as much a hindrance for the hostages as it was an advantage. Steve and the Possible family were all old enough to either defend themselves or flee when the chance arose. Tommy, however, could do neither. His welfare had to be her first priority, and she wasn't confident that she could engage their guards AND protect his all-too-fragile life. No, she wasn't confident at all.

"How about I hold him?"

Betty glanced to her right, startled. Steve's suggestion had surprised her. "I'm sorry?"

"You've been holding your son in your arms for hours," Colonel Barkin pointed out. "You must be tired."

"You know how to hold him?" Betty asked dubiously. "I didn't realize that was something they taught in Special Forces now."

"I've been assigning sacks of flour to my students for enough years," Barkin replied dryly.

A little hesitantly, Betty handed her son over.

"Handsome boy. Big too," Barkin murmured as he held Thomas up and looked him in the eyes. "Too big for your mother to hold," he added much more quietly, "if she's going to watch for her opportunity to wipe the floor with these goons."

Betty caught her breath. But as far as she could tell, no one had heard him. "I guess while I was watching them, you were watching me," she muttered.

He coughed. "Well, there are much worse things to look at," he said.

She blushed.

The miniature dog looked at him reprovingly, as if to remind him that he hadn't protected Pepe from repeated exposures to the dreaded "Global Justice". Then it shrank further back, refusing his entreaties.

Gemini hissed. As if the indignities of the past hour weren't enough, even his DOG spurned him now!

Señor Senior Junior's presence had been much more tolerable when he was merely Gemini's "financier". Then he'd been - all right, perhaps a bit of a godsend. While Junior's comments had been exaggerated earlier, it wasn't entirely inaccurate to suggest that WEE had become a shadow of its former self. That it had probably dropped off GJ's radar entirely.

Undoubtedly if his sister were still in charge, she'd make GJ care. That didn't improve his mood.

Gemini resented suggestions that he had become a villain to spite his sister. It had been his intention from the outset to take over the world. He believed Betty had become a GJ agent to spite HIM.

If only she had accepted what had seemed perfectly obvious to him. She was born four minutes after he was. That made him older. Ergo, he was the older brother.

I mean, really, how much more logical did he need to be?!

Older brothers were looked up to by their younger sisters. Older brothers protected their little sisters. Older brothers were NOT systematically thwarted by them! Sometimes he even felt a pang - if she'd only gotten with the program, she could have become his protégé. With her talents, she would have had a lock on the Agent Alpha position for all time! No holes in the floor for her!

Well, unless she did something REALLY foolish.

Like allow herself to be shoved out the door by Global Justice. It was bad enough when GJ no longer considered you a worthy adversary. It was worse when it no longer mattered. When Betty left, the organization lost some of its "magic" for him.

Now she was a part of Team Possible. THEY were his true enemy now. He'd had all of them in his grip. Betty herself, a gun pointed at her head, and all he had to do was give the word and she'd be gone!

(Apparently she had a son now. Why wasn't he told he was now Uncle Gemini?!)

Gemini stopped. Team Possible was supposed to be his true enemy now. For the moment, however, that role was occupied by the bastard usurper Junior, who had STOLEN what was rightfully his by throwing money about!

He sat on his bed and seethed. Oh yes, when Team Possible escaped - as he expected they would - and Junior was brought low, who would be waiting to seize the reins and turn the tables on ALL his hated rivals?

Sheldon Director would.

The future Worldwide Emperor of Evil.

"Nique!"

Monique spun around. "Who's there?" she asked.

"Mo, mo!"

Hearing a tiny metallic tapping as well, Monique raised her head and vaguely saw a pink shape on top of the vent covering the airshaft. "Ruby?" she asked, recognizing the mole rat's voice as being slightly higher than Rufus'.

"Yay, uh-huh!" the naked mole rat said enthusiastically.

Monique exhaled in relief. "Ruby, there's a lever on the wall over there," she said, pointing in the right direction. "Any way you can navigate your way over and pull it?"

"Youbetcha!" Ruby retreated back into the ventilation.

"Those little rodents sure do come in handy," Monique thought as she went to try to get Yori's attention without warning the guards.

Her attempts failed, however, as Yori's cell was empty.

Monique gaped. "Oh, come ON! She gets out before me, AND she doesn't tell me? That girl is just wrong."

Looking over at the wall where the lever was, Monique saw a ventilation opening not far away. Unfortunately, both guards were too close for Ruby to get anywhere near it without being spotted.

She leaned against the forcefield and rested one hand on her hip. "Oh, boys?" she cooed. "Got a minute?"

"I dunno - "

"Chill, man, she ain't getting through that barrier," the other guard said as he headed over. The first guard followed after him.

"That's right, boys, I could never get through here," Monique said. "Not like her."

"Who?"

Monique pointed.

Both guards turned and stared as they realized, just as Monique had, that Yori's cell was empty. "What the fuck - we've got an emergency!" the second guard said. "Get on the intercom!"

"Right," the first guard replied, turning to run for the stationwide communication interface. He took a few steps and then skidded to a halt.

Ruby waved cheerfully at him before she jumped and stomped on the lever, pushing it to the OFF position.

"Shit, run!" the first guard cried out. "The forcefield's been shut off!"

"Do tell," Monique said as her left foot launched forward and collided with the back of the second guard's head . . .

Just as Yori dropped down from the ceiling of her cell where she'd hidden, and buried her left foot in the guard's stomach.

The guard bent over like the corner of a rectangle, then crumpled to the floor as both women drew their feet back.

"Thank you, Monique-san, for getting them to notice my 'absence' and drop the barrier," Yori said calmly.

"Thank the mole rat," Monique replied, wrenching the fallen guard's helmet off and hurling it at the guard who was still standing. It bounced off his head with a very loud thunk, dropping him.

"I will be sure to do so," Yori said. "After we have located Kim-sama and the others."

Monique started dragging one of the guards into her old cell. "Probably she'll find us first, unless Ron does."

Kim didn't try to turn her head. The viewscreen on which Junior's face had appeared earlier had become blocked by the ceiling long ago. The ceiling was too low for her to turn her head anyway. "Right, because this hasn't worked out for you at all," she said, her voice hoarse.

"Why have you not pushed the button?" Junior's disembodied voice asked.

"You mean, before Shego pushes it?" Kim asked sarcastically.

"If you do not push the button in the next minute, you will die. If Shego doesn't push it either, you BOTH will die."

"And then Ron kicks your ass. World still saved."

"I thought this would be a lot more fun," Junior complained.

"Then I guess you really are the head of the new Acceptable Family," Kim retorted. She had to believe Ron, Monique, and Yori would pull it off in the end. Because she couldn't push the button, not without ripping her own heart out. Shego, I wish you would push your button and live. But you're not - could you maybe love me too?

Junior sighed. "It's not what I had in mind. I guess I'll just have to decide for you."

Kim blinked. "What?"

"I will have to open one of the doors for you, if you are so stupid that you can't save yourself."

"Open Shego's. Junior, please, open Shego's!" Kim found herself pleading.

Junior chuckled now. "Such lack of dignity, Ms. Possible!" There was a pause. "But no, I believe I shall save you instead. Shego, well - I guess she'll know you chickened out at the last second."

Kim shook. "No, you can't do that, no, NO!"

"Sorry, Ms. Possible, I - ugh, what is this now?"

"Junior?" Kim called out when he didn't finish. "Junior?!"

Two agonizing minutes ticked by as Kim realized the ceiling had stopped moving, just before it would begin to squeeze her body against the floor.

Then, without warning, the ceiling began to rise. And the door began to open.

"No," Kim whispered. "He didn't - she can't be - oh God, Shego, Shego, NOOOO!!!"

To be continued . . .

Junior was gloating inside. Kim's naked plea to spare Shego's life and take her own, while contrary to his original expectations, had been most satisfying. Obviously the heroine wanted him to relieve her of the burden of making a choice! Too bad for her that he'd known from the beginning that Shego was not meant to survive this encounter.

Neither was Ms. Possible. The Acceptables had trained with each other since their cloning. More importantly, WEE scientists had found a cure for their intensely self-destructive sibling rivalry, which Junior had witnessed firsthand, and which had led to their demise. At last the name "Team Acceptable" was a more accurate label.

Yvonne especially had expressed her desire to destroy Ms. Possible. Junior believed it had something to do with her being the only female Acceptable. John had been more interested in killing Shego, but ah well, that was why they'd been brainwashed to be loyal to him as well as to each other.

"Such lack of dignity, Ms. Possible!" Junior said into the monitor. Then he paused a moment, pretending to weigh her request. He glanced at the second monitor. There Shego too was out of view now. He wondered what she was thinking now that the ceiling had stopped so close to snuffing out her life. "But no, I believe I shall save you instead. Shego, well - I guess she'll know you chickened out at the last second."

"No, you can't do that, no, NO!"

The silly girl probably wouldn't even be able to defend herself against the Acceptables! "Sorry, Ms. Possible, I - "

At that moment Junior was interrupted by a chime alerting him that someone had entered his quarters.

"Ugh, what is this now?" he griped, rising from the computer console.

Then Junior started. "Father?"

"Junior, this man says you wished to see me," Senor Senior Senior said, gesturing to the uniformed WEE agent next to him. "I do not appreciate you sending me to my rooms and then calling for me again. Of course our time together is important, but - "

"Silence, father. You!" Junior demanded, pointing at the underling. "Why have you brought my father? I gave no such order!"

"Well, uh, sir," the agent said, nervously fiddling with his wristwatch, "I was told - sir! The prisoner's escaping!" he suddenly blurted out, pointing at the monitors behind him.

Junior whirled around. Impossible! He took his eye off the fool girl for three seconds and -

"Explain yourself," Junior said slowly, seeing nothing on either monitor to suggest anything had gone wrong. "I am losing my patience with you."

Turning back, Junior froze as he found himself with the tip of a Japanese sword at his throat. The blade quivered, as if the metal itself wanted nothing more than to press forward and tear out his jugular. His eyes flicked briefly to his left, where he'd left the sword confiscated from the Japanese spy along with all the other weapons and gadgets - still there!

His eyes returned to the WEE agent. The sword had to have come from somewhere, but he was positive the man had been unarmed!

"I suppose Gemini sent you," Junior said, bored. "Evidently some of his men still have incredibly misplaced feelings of loyalty towards him. I can reward you for putting the sword down. Gemini would just promote you to Agent Bi-Epsilon or some such nonsense."

The agent ripped his visor off, and Junior became decidedly less bored as he found himself looking into Stoppable's eyes.

"You asked me to explain myself," Ron said. "The prisoners are escaping because you're going to let them out of whatever deathtrap you have them in. Was that clear enough for you?"

"You are not going to kill me," Junior said, licking his lips. Why did his father not DO something? "Team Possible does not kill."

"You might want to re-evaluate that, considering all the sharp and pointy weapons we brought along with us," Ron replied.

Junior looked again to his left. Ninja sword, throwing stars, plasma gloves with claw tips . . . okay, those could all be construed as lethal weaponry. "All right, all right," Junior whined. "It is only a silly little deathtrap. I am sure they can escape whenever they want."

Had the sword become slightly longer? Junior swore the young man hadn't moved a muscle, and yet he felt the tip of the sword pricking his neck and drawing a bead of blood.

"I cannot free them without turning around, Stoppable," Junior pointed out.

"Do it, then," Ron said.

Junior felt the sword pull back JUST slightly, allowing him to lean backwards and turn to the computers again. Any relief he felt was tempered by the sensation of the sword tip now pressed against his back. He'd been told (by John Acceptable, many times) that disemboweling was incredibly painful and not at all a quick death.

It took just a push of three buttons. One to raise the ceiling in Kim's cell and open the door, one to do the same in Shego's . . . and one to summon twelve guards to his rooms at top speed. As for the ladies, well, Kim Possible was evidently psychologically worn out. Still outnumbered three-to-two, still lacking Shego's plasma, they were doomed to lose anyway.

"There, you see?" Junior asked, gesturing to the monitors. "The ceilings that would have squished them? Going up. The doors that were closed? Opening. Your friends are free. Perhaps you could put the sword down now? "

"Perhaps we could talk about the hostages in the Space Center first?" Ron suggested.

"I would like to discuss that further as well, Junior," Senor Senior Senior interjected. "Junior, villains do not kidnap the hero's parents. Perhaps a sibling or a lover, but still, this is what sidekicks are for. A sidekick keeps the hero’s loved ones safe by becoming a more visible target. I believe that is why the name most heroes use for sidekicks is 'insurance', much in the way villains often refer to them as 'bait', according to the glossary on page 349 of . . ."

Junior closed his eyes and sighed. "Top speed" couldn't be fast enough.

Her first alarmed thought was that her button had been pushed by mistake. She glanced over, but the button was several inches from any part of her body, and the ceiling hadn't been low enough to depress the button itself.

Maybe this whole thing had been some kind of sick test by Junior, Shego wondered. Maybe he wanted Shego to push the button first so Kim would think she betrayed her. Maybe the ceiling was never meant to go down to the floor all along.

She was going to have a talk with Kimmie after this. Why she didn't push the button when the world was at stake . . .

Shego was unable to fight the glow in her chest. She couldn't do it! Even with the world at stake, she couldn't betray me!

Oh hell, you wanted a chance to tell her you love her once - and damn it, you ALWAYS get what you want!

Shego stumbled to her feet and turned toward the opening door.

"NOOOOOO!!!!"

"Pumpkin," Shego breathed, feeling a shard of ice slide into her heart as she heard Kim's agonized scream. No, it couldn't be - was she being let out so she could hear the trap crushing Kimmie to death?

"Kimmie!!!" Shego cried out, dashing out of her cell. She stopped short, however, as she encountered her three least-favorite people yet again.

"Awww," John Acceptable said nastily. "Were those tortured screams for me? It's been such a long time too."

"Kimmie!!!"

Kim's head darted up. "Shego?" she whispered. "You're - "

She leapt to her feet and ran as fast as she could. She didn't get far, though, as she was frozen in place by what she saw.

The Acceptables were waiting. That this had been Junior's plan wasn't a surprise.

The surprise was seeing Shego, very much alive, at the other end of the room.

"Shego," Kim said softly.

Shego's eyes caught hers, and the former villainess visibly exhaled with relief. "Princess," she said.

Don turned around. "Look sharp, guys. Looks like we've got both of them."

"I thought Junior said we'd only be fighting one," Yvonne said.

"I don't give a shit," John snarled. "I'll take on TEN if it means getting Shego!"

"I love you, Pumpkin," Shego said, not even paying attention to the siblings any more.

Kim gasped. "Shego, I love you too," she said, the words spilling from her lips almost before she realized it.

Shego smiled widely. "You're just as soft as I am, I guess, Kimmie."

"This is cute," Yvonne sneered, "but any lovers' reunion will have to wait until after you've dealt with US."

Kim and Shego looked at the Acceptables, then back at each other. Yvonne was right. The clones had to be dealt with before they could take each other in their arms. Kim wanted nothing more at that moment, but she had to wait because of these stupid fakes.

And Kim could see Shego was smoldering for the same reason. "I tell Kimmie I love her," she said, "and you three think you're going to ruin the moment?! You have never SEEN what we're capable of until right fucking NOW!"

Kim couldn't have said it better herself.

"Dude, you were in charge all along," Ron retorted.

"Yes, but it had to be announced at the perfect moment!" Junior complained. "Having Team Possible present was necessary. I needed the right audience!"

"He has a point," Senor Senior Senior admitted.

The door burst in at that point, and ten WEE agents plowed through, each drawing a gun and pointing it right at Ron's head. Ron brought up his sword defensively, but then saw it was useless and lowered it again.

"Finally," Junior sighed. "That button was supposed to summon you with all possible speed! What have you been doing all this time?!"

"This station is shaped like a circle, sir," one of the men said. "Whereas the shortest distance between two points is a straight line."

Junior gave a dramatic sigh. "In the future, let's put more straight lines in my secret bases, all right?" He lowered his hand and looked at Ron, a crafty smile appearing on his face. "Well, sidekick, or insurance, or bait, or whatever you’re called, it was a good effort, but you have lost. And for nothing! As we speak the Acceptable children are disposing of the oh-so-special Kim Possible and Shego."

Ron gaped at him. "Acceptables? There's MORE of them?!"

"No, just the three. I cloned them."

"They didn't torture you enough? Huh, I guess all those weird stories are right. People DO learn to enjoy being dominated."

"They SERVE me now!" Junior shot back, scandalized.

“Well, I guess it’s nice that you take turns, but still too weird for me.”

Junior sneered. "Your witty remarks are as much help as an evil laugh to you now.”

“I think that was uncalled for, Junior,” Senor Senior Senior said. “Besides being something every villain needs, an evil laugh can be good for the diaphragm.”

“And NOW,” Junior said, ignoring his father, “I will bring up on the monitors for you, visual proof that Team Possible is officially finished, and that I am the new master of Earth!"

With theatrical grandness Junior swiveled about and pushed a few more buttons on the console. The picture on the monitors changed from the rooms in which Kim and Shego had been imprisoned in, to the room they were in now.

"And don't you ever, ever, EVER try laying a hand on my Kimmie again!" Shego snarled. She punctuated every use of the word "ever" by bashing Yvonne's head into the floor.

Junior stared in disbelief.

"Wow," Ron said.

Not only were Kim and Shego winning against superior numbers, but it wasn't even close.

"Those moves," Junior whispered.

"Yeah," Ron said. "You must have made them really mad. KP's in the zone right now."

At that moment, "being in the zone" seemed to mean a kick delivered with such force to Don Acceptable's kneecap that every man in Junior's quarters heard bones break. Ron heard more than one person gasp.

Ron had watched them spar with each other dozens of times, and one thing that was common in their fights was a shared sense of joy. Fighting each other energized them in a way that nothing else ever could. When they sparred, Kim and Shego practically shone.

There was no joy on the monitor, though. Today (or was it tonight? Ron still wasn’t clear on that one) Kim and Shego were disposing of the Acceptable clones with a ruthless, methodical, even murderous efficiency. Their economy of movement and the force with which they delivered their attacks meant a few quick blows delivered with savage power. The biggest surprise was that Kim appeared to be the more brutal of the two.

Several guards winced as Kim flipped Yvonne Acceptable over her back - and Yvonne’s face met Shego's foot in midair.

"Ooh," Senor Senior Senior said sympathetically as a brutal arm chop from Shego to Don's Adam's apple left him gagging.

Every person in the room sucked in breath and put a hand over their crotch when Kim drove her knee into John's private parts with such force that he was knocked several inches into the air.

"I'd say you made them extremely mad," Ron added. He looked at his "captors", who he suddenly pitied. "No telling how long they'll stay like that, either."

Someone whimpered.

Junior's face was pale white - both from shock and rage. "Every available man," he hissed. "Gemini is to take every available man to take care of Kim Possible and - "

"Senor Senior Junior!"

Junior snarled at the intercom. "What?" he demanded.

"Sir, the prisoners have escaped!" another of his minions reported.

"I know that," he said with exaggerated patience. "I'm watching Ms. Possible and Shego on my monitor right now, and - "

"No, sir, I mean the other prisoners! The blonde-haired man, the African-American woman, the Asian girl - they're all gone!"

"Booyah," Ron murmured.

Junior snapped at that. He clubbed Ron at the wrist, causing him to drop the Lotus Blade in surprise, before delivering a backhand to Ron’s face. "I would not sound so excited, Mr. Stoppable," Junior said coldly. "Despite what he thinks, you are not a free man. I have new orders," he announced.

"Four of you," Junior said, "will take this man to the nearest airlock, and you will expel him from my home. See how much he likes the vacuum of space!"

"Could I take the Hoover vacuum instead?"

"You,” Junior continued, ignoring Ron as he randomly selected a fifth guard, “will notify Gemini that he is to collect all personnel working on non-essential tasks, and sweep the base for the African girl and the Japanese spy. The rest of you will proceed to where Kim Possible and Shego were being held. You are now tasked with bringing these women down. Shoot to kill, take no prisoners, understand? The Villain’s Handbook is officially closed!"

"Yes, sir!" they barked as one.

"In the meantime," Junior said, "I will be in the main control room. I think it's time to take the moon out for a ‘spin’."

"Junior," his father began to say.

Junior cut him off. "You will stay here," he said. He pushed a series of buttons on the console. "You are now cut off from the controls. You cannot interfere in anything on this station now. I will collect you when this matter is settled." He stopped. "And speaking of fathers . . . it is time I had Agent Kappa," he said, giving Ron an evil smile, "do away with our hostages in Middleton, now that Kim Possible has gone back on her word."

"You won't succeed," Ron said angrily as two men held his arms behind his back.

Junior’s guards followed closely behind him as exited, leaving Senior behind by himself.

Well, not QUITE by himself.

A small pink head poked out of Senior's jacket outside pocket. "Que?"

"Ricardo, I believe I am at a crossroads," Senior said impassively.

"Eh?"

"My son is only doing what I asked of him. I wanted him to make a real effort for the first time in his life, to become a true villain. And so he has. Can I really betray him, even if it means betraying the very women who are responsible for giving him his life and his freedom back?"

Ricardo shrugged. Obviously the question was beyond him.

"But then, perhaps that only means that I am as guilty as he. If I had done things differently . . ." Senior sighed and moved across the room to the box of equipment that Gemini had confiscated from Team Possible. He picked up the pair of gloves that Junior had left lying beside it. "Ricardo, I have a favor to ask of you. I need you to return these to their owner. You are familiar with her, correct? The young woman with the pale skin?"

"Blanca chica!" Ricardo agreed. "Shay-go!"

"Excellent," Senior said. He gave the gloves to the naked mole rat before taking Ricardo out of his pocket and placing him on the desk. "Ms. Shego came with several friends. If you can find any of them, please go to them. I am sure they will help you."

"Hoh-kay," the rodent said.

Senior rubbed his pet's head. "You are a credit to your species, Ricardo. I feel vindicated that the naked mole rat will one day become America's number-one pet - if there are still Smarty Marts on Earth when this enormous mistake has ended." He sighed. "Now go," he added.

Ricardo grinned and waved before he scampered away. He climbed up the wall and disappeared into the nearest air duct, a flash of green and black trailing behind him.

Rummaging through the contents of the box, Senior was intrigued by one item in particular. "Interesting craftsmanship," he murmured, pulling it out.

Then he headed back toward the computer. "And now, Junior, since you have so thoughtfully given me the opportunity, I have one last bit of - correspondence to take care of."

"You're right," Kim agreed. "I just - I can't believe you said you love me."

"Yeah, well, don't hold your breath waiting for a repeat," Shego said gruffly.

Kim grinned. "Oh, trust me, Shego. You're going to enjoy being wrong about that." She looked around. "What do we do with them?" she asked, gesturing toward the Acceptable siblings.

"Fuck 'em," Shego said. "They're not waking up any time soon. When this is all over we'll just ship them off to prison along with everyone else." She smiled grimly. "I always thought they got off easy. But now they can serve those life sentences after all."

Kim nodded. "Sounds like a great idea to me. How about we get out of here then?"

"We COULD just wait for the guards to show up. It's not like they have a chance against us."

"No, we need to find Junior and Gemini right away," Kim said. "We can't just sit here and deal with their flunkies while they're flooding the Earth and pointing guns at my parents' heads."

Shego looked a bit guilty. "Sorry," she said. "I was so worried about you, I almost forgot about everything else."

"That sounded almost romantic," Kim replied, blushing.

"Yeah, yeah," Shego said as they ran for the one exit.

"Speaking of your family," Shego added as they hurried on, "how the hell is Junior staying in contact with the Space Center anyway? We're on the other side of the moon, for Christ's sake. No way can they receive radio transmissions here."

"I feel like we've had this conversation before," Kim said. "Fat lot of good it did us."

Shego shrugged. "Maybe we should skip the thinking part, find Junior, and just destroy anything nearby that even looks like a communications relay? Now that we’ve escaped and all, I have a bad feeling Junior may view that as breaking our agreement.”

“Me too,” Kim said quietly. “It’s not a bad idea, but do you even know where the docking station is from here?”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky,” Shego said.

“There!”

Kim and Shego skidded to a halt as several guards emerged from a doorway and pointed at them.

“And maybe we won’t,” Shego muttered.

Agent Delta turned. "Agent Tri-Phi, what is it?" he asked.

"Agent Delta, I have new orders from Senor Senior Junior. Kim Possible and her team have escaped. Senor wishes for us to meet up with Gemini at his quarters, and begin sweeping the station for the escapees," Agent Tri-Phi told him.

Delta sighed. Gemini would be absolutely insufferable, probably in a titanic sulk, now that he'd been supplanted in the WEE hierarchy by Senor Senior Junior. Even so, it was preferable to the current situation. When asked why he had not performed his duties, he could claim with a straight face that he and his detail had been called away before they could finish.

Which would be a lie, because he wasn't getting anywhere in his attempt to force entry into Team Possible's spacecraft. The highly advanced ship had repulsed all tries to board it. The hatch was impervious to everything his men threw at it, and anyone who came within three feet of the door received a neural shock that left him incapacitated for fifteen minutes.

He shook his head. As long as WEE had all of Team Possible in custody, gaining access to the ship wasn't important. The ship wasn't going anywhere. But of course, now that the heroes had escaped, preventing from reboarding their craft and leaving the space station seemed like a priority. So naturally, the ship was to be left completely unguarded.

Then again, Agent Delta didn't really want to be between Kim Possible and the spaceship with just six men. That would be as crazy as, say, the Germans attacking Pearl Harbor.

"Move out, double time," he told his underlings.

No one argued.

Sappho watched them leave. "Finally," she muttered. "Men. Ugh."

Then she calmly detached herself from the station's docking mechanism and flew away, well before anyone could notice. There was something she wanted to look into.

To be continued . . .

"Señor Senior Junior!" one of Gemini's agents barked, leaping to his feet.

"Oh, for goodness - everyone sit down," Junior snapped as he entered the control room. Obviously Gemini had everyone below him wound too tight.

While he was able to control everything that happened in the space station from his quarters, it was only in here that he could see as many as twenty-four different camera feeds at once. Just as importantly, contacting his detachment on the Earth's surface would be much more convenient from here. Since Kim Possible had been so rude as to defy him, he felt he was justified in ordering the execution of her family.

"Are you here to monitor the search for the missing prisoners?" a second agent said.

Junior peered at the symbols on the man's chest. "In due time, er, Agent Bi-Gamma. First I wish to raise the WEE agents watching the hostages at the Space Center. Who is in charge there?"

"That would be Agent Kappa, sir," Agent Bi-Gamma said.

"Very well. I have new orders for him. While you are doing this, one of the others can tell me how the search for the other two women who came with Ms. Possible."

The other three agents looked at each other dubiously.

"For heaven's sake, I'm not going to drop you through the floor if I don't like what I'm hearing," Junior said, exasperated. "I thought we established that!"

"Well, uh, sir," Agent Bi-Mu began hesitantly, "we can't find them. They've found some way of avoiding detection by our security cameras, and the search effort led by Gemini has failed to turn them up as well. Also, some of the cameras have begun going off-line. Guards report they've been damaged."

"I see," Junior said, frowning. "And Ms. Possible?"

"Both she and Shego have been engaged. We haven't succeeded in neutralizing them yet, however." Agent Bi-Mu brought up an image on the largest monitor in the center of the room. Junior saw both Kim and Shego outnumbered six-to-one in close quarters, yet they were clearly winning.

"Well, we appear to have them bottled up for now," Junior grumbled. "Perhaps if we send enough men in there, their unconscious bodies will block the door!"

"Sir?" Agent Bi-Gamma asked. "I'm getting a weird bounce-back signal from the first mini-relay."

Junior's right eye twitched. "You mean the satellite in Earth orbit, right?"

"No, sir," Bi-Gamma said nervously. "I mean the first relay in the chain."

With Junior's money, Gemini had built an ingenious array of floating relays in space. They were capable of bouncing transmissions from the station to a news satellite orbiting the Earth. From there the transmission piggybacked on the data stream the satellite regularly sent down. Both the incoming and outgoing signals had consistently escaped detection by both NASA and the owner of the satellite. As for the relays themselves, only an extremely intensive search of a small and very specific section of space would turn up the tiny devices, and the military had failed to do so.

And now it wasn't working.

"Try again," Junior growled.

"I have, sir. It's hitting some sort of . . . um, Senor? We're receiving a transmission from the relay!"

"Agent Kappa must be trying to hail us," Junior reasoned. "We were blocking each other. Let it through."

" . . . Hello? Helllooooo, stupid clumsy human males? Is this thing on?"

Five men stared at each other. "What was that?" Junior asked disbelievingly.

"I believe it was a woman, sir."

"I know THAT!"

"Actually, I'm an artificial intelligence with a female voice and personality," the transmission purred. "You can call me Sappho. Just for the moment, anyway. I wouldn't want you to think we're friends or anything."

"Sappho?" Junior asked, bewildered.

"A SAFO? Self-Automated Flying Orbiter? Your spies at the Space Center must have mentioned me?"

Junior snapped his fingers. "Ms. Possible's spaceship!"

"Wow, Shego was right," Sappho murmured. "You ARE dimwitted."

"Cut the transmission," Junior said angrily. He waited a moment. "How is this possible?!" he then demanded. "We have men on board that ship, don't we?"

"Actually, sir, they were still trying to gain entry when you gave the command for every available man to locate the escaped prisoners," Bi-Mu said.

"If I'd know they were STILL trying to get on board the stupid thing, I wouldn't have included them! I want them assigned BACK to accessing the ship's systems."

None of the agents spoke at first. "Uh, well, you see," Bi-Gamma finally said, "she's gone, sir. She just . . . flew away by herself."

Junior slapped his hand over his face. "This is just perfect. And she's not a she! She's an it!"

"Don't you mean it's an it?" Agent Tri-Alpha asked.

"Forget it! If the SAFO is blocking our transmissions, then we need to destroy it! Ready the ships and have them - "

"The pilots are busy assisting the search, sir," Bi-Gamma said. "It will take time to get them to the ships."

"Also, if we destroy the ship, it could destroy the relay too, and then we won't be able to reach Agent Kappa anyway," Bi-Mu added.

"Do not make me rethink the hole in the floor thing," Junior snarled.

It was a cleverly designed communications array WEE was using, she saw, but it had one weakness. Docked at the station as she had been, it was all too easy to trace the signals traveling between the station and the first relay. Once she'd isolated the location, Sappho had determined that preventing Junior and Gemini from sending any sort of "execute the hostages" orders to Earth was more important than docilely waiting to ferry Shego and the others back.

Well, yes, she'd have to transport them back sooner or later. She could always go back when the need arose.

In the meantime, Sappho now had audio recordings of the speech patterns of both Gemini and Junior. Which meant Phase Two could begin.

"Hmm-hmm-hm-hm!" she hummed happily.

"No talking!" a WEE agent barked, swinging his gun in her direction.

"Pale," Betty finished. She looked at him. "He looks a little peaked," she said. "He could get fussy, and you know how fussy children are, cry, cry, cry."

"Well," he said indecisively.

"And you can't exactly stop a crying baby by pointing a gun at it," Betty continued. "You could always shoot him, but then you'd have to explain to Gemini why you shot a hostage without orders. I'm sure he'll understand, though. I know my brother VERY well."

Holding back panic, he waved the barrel of his gun in Holly's direction. "Check on that kid, and for God's sake keep him quiet!"

Mrs. Dr. Possible rose and went over to Betty and Thomas. "I'm sure he's all right, Betty," she said as she crouched down. "More all right than the rest of us, in fact. At least he's not aware of what's happening."

Betty just smiled.

"Just act like you're checking my son's health, and use a lot of medical jargon so that the guards believe you're only examining Thomas rather than drowning out the sound of my voice."

Holly twitched and tugged on one ear. She could have SWORN she heard Betty talking in her ear very quietly, but she'd never even moved her lips!

"Ventriloquism. Useful skill for GJ agents."

The two women's eyes met. Holly glanced over at Col. Barkin. The twinkle in his eye belied his seeming lack of attention. "Yes, well, let me examine Thomas' juvenile thyroid gland," Holly said with a bit more volume.

"Good," Betty murmured. "As long as we're here, our lives are a weapon Gemini can use against Kim and the others. We have to fight back. I need you and your family to stay out of our way. As civilians it's not safe for you to fight against armed guards."

"Hm, his ulterior uvula looks a bit yellow," Holly said as she looked in Thomas' mouth.

"I also have reason to believe that Vivian is alive. I believe that a male corpse was misidentified as 'V.F. Porter'. Which means she's hiding somewhere in the Space Center, and the longer these men are here, the more likely it is she'll be found by a patrol. And then she WILL be dead."

"Pulse and heart rate are fine, but that one pupil is just a bit more dilated than the other."

"What I desperately need from you, however, is to protect my son as if he were one of yours. I have to focus on the battle ahead. I can do that if I know he's safe in your arms, Holly."

Holly Possible looked again at Betty. "Don't worry, Betty, your son will continue to receive only the best medical care as long as I'm around," she said firmly.

"Thank you, Holly," Betty said, moving her lips for the first time in a while. "Would that include holding him for a little while? My arms are a bit tired."

Agent Kappa snorted. "Tired, Doctor Director? I guess retirement and motherhood doesn't agree with you!" he sneered.

Betty's good eye studied him like he was a bug under glass as Holly gently took Thomas from her. "I'm sure all I need is some good - exercise."

"If it makes you feel any better," Wade said, "when you shoot somebody, they like it less than you do."

Vivian glared. "You're not making me feel better."

"Don't worry, it's just a taser. I modified it for Mo - I mean, the Oryx. It won't kill anyone."

"And this - Wade-bot of yours. It seems awfully first-generation."

Wade's face looked smug as it beamed at her from the viewscreen of the robot construct he'd sent her. "Yeah, well, can your robots do this?"

The robot suddenly shimmered out of sight.

"Hm, cloaking technology," Vivian mused. "Of course, I DO know twelve ways to disassemble your machine in under five seconds. So either stay that way, or assume that everyone knows less robotics than I do."

"But Dr. Porter," Oliver said, "everyone does know less robotics than you do."

"I hope you didn't program him to say that," Wade's disembodied head said. "That would be kinda - Drakkenish."

"I'm guessing that's not a compliment."

"Ask Shego some time."

"Not too interrupt, Dr. Porter," Oliver said, "but perhaps we should be focusing on liberating the humans in the control room."

"Sure," Vivian sighed. "A dozen armed guards against a scientist, a robot with a gunshot wound, and an invisible robot. I'd be excited to begin too."

"Your friends are in there," Wade reminded her. "Mine too."

"I haven't forgotten," Vivian said, thinking of Holly and James. And Betty. "It took me long enough to make friends without, you know, making friends with a soldering iron and a screwdriver. I'm not about to lose them now."

"You haven't lost them yet. They're just up that elevator. I'm jamming the cameras in the elevator car. They're just seeing an endless loop of empty space."

Vivian hefted the weapon in her hand. It was nonlethal, and it wasn't like she'd be taking these invaders on with her dainty little feet. "Then let's go."

As Vivian boarded the elevator, though, Oliver stopped at the threshold. "Oliver?" she asked.

"I am sorry, Dr. Porter, but you must go up without me."

"What? Oh, Oliver, I didn't mean anything bad when I made that 'soldering iron and screwdriver' remark. You're still my oldest friend!"

"I am grateful for the sentiment. But I must protect you."

"Protect me? By staying here? From what?!"

"If I were to board, Doctor, we would be exceeding the maximum weight capacity for this model elevator car. There is a chance it might crash and destroy us all. Therefore you should send the elevator back down for me when you get out, Doctor."

Vivian blinked. "Oh, yes, well then, excellent observation, Oliver! Obviously your processors have recovered nicely from the shooting."

At home, Wade slapped his hand over his face. The Wade-bot did the same, and nearly put a cable through its viewscreen.

Thanks to intensive lessons from the self-described "best damn thief on the planet", Monique had been able to avoid detection up to this point, even though she was clad in a fire engine red dress instead of her usual black attire. Of course, against the metallic gray walls of the station, black and red would stand out equally well. Shego's lessons about being able to be stealthy, even in bright green, were paying off.

The problem was, while they couldn't find her, she couldn't find what she was looking for either. No Kim, no Shego, no Ron, no nothing.

Why did this thing have to be so big? And couldn't there be a couple straight lines somewhere?

Monique skidded to a halt. There was an odd skittering noise coming from above, like some kind of security measure she hadn't encountered yet. She raised her fists, unable to hide anywhere.

A small pink head popped out of a ceiling duct several feet ahead of her.

"Rufus?" Monique hissed.

The little head turned around. "Buenas noches!" it greeted her.

Monique blinked. Evidently all that Bueno Nacho had made Rufus bilingual.

The pink head disappeared again, and then two shapeless masses dropped from above. Monique picked them up, and was startled to see they were Shego's gloves. "Um, gracias?" she said dubiously.

"De nada!" the naked mole rat said cheerfully.

"There she is!"

Monique looked up again. Five WEE agents, led by Gemini himself, had spotted her. Gemini was either pointing at her, or preparing to fire at her. Or both.

"You know," Monique said, "I think I best be going now."

"Ay, caramba," Ricardo muttered as she fled and the WEE agents pursued her.

None of them seemed to care as they carried him to certain death outside of the nearest airlock.

"You can't be searching for KP if you're here with me," he suggested.

Nothing.

"Um, I'm a master of Monkey Kung Fu?"

"You ain't him. He's British," one of the agents said.

"Monty would have so loved to hear you say that." Ron looked around. Certain death seemed certainly near. And so far no beautiful ladies had arrived to save him.

It looked like he'd have to save himself. And the only way he could think of doing that, was by doing something he'd never done intentionally.

"Visualize the Lotus Blade," he thought. "Visualize the Lotus Blade in my hand . . . be the ball . . . there is no spoon . . . if you build it, it will come."

He peeked at his hand. Nothing.

"Damn."

"What the - where did that come from?!"

Ron turned his head. Well, okay, it was in his left hand instead of his right the way he'd wanted, but that was progress anyway. "Okay, visualize a chainsaw."

"It does - seem a bit like overkill," Kim said, grunting as a punch glanced off her shoulder.

"Overkill! Now that sounds like a great idea! How about we start killing these guys instead?"

"No!"

Shego shook her head as she swept a WEE agent's legs out from under him. She hadn't been serious - and killing talk was very serious - but if there came a point where their options was kill or be killed, she wasn't sure if Kim would be up to it.

"Then maybe we should start stacking the unconscious ones. We can barricade the passageway. I can smell the irony from here," Shego said sarcastically. Fortunately she didn't realize she had echoed something Junior had said earlier. "Because otherwise, we're going to be climbing over these guys soon."

"I'd be more worried about your dress," Kim replied. She gestured to the two-piece evening gown Shego was still wearing. While the outfit Gemini had thoughtfully provided her didn't restrict her freedom of movement, it wasn't designed for intense physical combat. "If this keeps up, you're going to be fighting in the buff."

"Which would be the only bright spot of the evening for these WEE clowns," Shego pointed out. "Your dress isn't exactly in pristine condition either."

Kim drove the heel of her palm into a WEE soldier's chin, slamming his jaws shut with such force that he almost bit his own tongue in half. "Unfortunately, right now we have bigger priorities than tracking down our mission clothes. We're never going to stop Junior OR save my family if we continue making progress at a snail's pace!"

"I'm open to ideas," Shego said. "Allegedly you CAN do anything, you know."

"Yeah, but when I'm taking on five guys at once, I can't put them down any faster than the reinforcements show up." Kim swept another WEE agent's legs out from under him and karate-chopped his arm, causing him to drop the gun he was pulling from a shoulder holster. "And these guys are getting desperate if they're willing to risk putting a bullet through the station hull!"

Shego caught a glimpse of the handgun on the floor, and she spared a foot from the battle to kick it over to Kim. "If you want to put these guys down faster, there's always that!"

"I said, no killing!" Kim dodged a leaping kick, allowing the guard to stumble past and almost run into a wall.

"Oh, for Pete's sake, Princess . . ."

Shego's train of thought was suddenly derailed as another WEE agent, flailing his arms as Shego tripped him, accidentally grabbed Shego's top. The weakened fabric stretched for a moment, long enough for Kim to see and know what was going to happen.

Almost as if some sort of "guydar" was activated, each man in the room, even the ones facing AWAY from Shego, stopped and turned heads to stare as the agent's desperate attempt to grab onto Shego's body tore her top in half, allowing them to see her breasts . . .

Supported by a black strapless bra. Shego took in the looks of disappointment. What, did they think her breasts just stayed in place by magic?

"Yes," she said, shrugging two limp pieces of fabric off both arms. "They're real."

Then she ruthlessly kicked the man responsible for tearing the dress, cracking his sternum.

"And they're spectacular!" Kim added cheerfully.

"Ugh," Shego groaned as Kim's high roundhouse kick spun a man in a circle before he dropped like a sack of flour. "I knew you watched too many sitcoms. Don't even get me started on 'Pals'."

"Baka," she hissed, but the guard just stumbled past her without a second look, his uniform torn in thirty places, blood leaking from multiple cuts.

"Hey, come on, this is just like Halloween!"

Yori looked up and blinked. Ron-san was stampeding after the WEE agent, his eyes alight with an almost maniacal joy, some form of garden implement in his hand. "Ron-san?!"

Ron skidded to a stop. "Yori! Hey, you're safe!"

"Yes, if you consider hiding from dozens of armed guards on a hostile space station behind the moon safe, Ron-san."

"Ah, Yori, you and your Japanese-style sense of humor," Ron said. Then he glanced past her. "Wait, where's Monique?"

"We separated," Yori explained. "We did not know if you, Shego-san, or Kim-sama were in danger, and felt we could find them faster if we went in different directions. Ron-san, where did you find that - "

Ron wiggled the tool a bit, and it instantly transformed into a sword.

"Ah. I do not believe the Lotus Blade has ever before taken the form of - whatever that was."

"Chainsaw," Ron said absently. "I hope Monique's okay. This is her first time on a mission with us. Rufus and Ruby are gone too, but they've done this before. Mo, well - "

"I am sure she is fine," Yori assured him, even as she gauged the look in his eyes and sighed internally. "As for your pets, Ruby helped us escape."

"She did? Great! Hey, have you seen KP?"

"I regret I have not."

"Then I guess we'd better move," Ron said. "Too bad this can't turn into a Kim Possible detector."

"Have you tried?" Yori asked. "If it could become that chainsaw contraption, then who knows what else it could turn into?"

"Other than a naco, you mean?" Ron held up the Lotus Blade hesitantly, and it turned into a divining rod. He gripped it with both hands, and it lurched forward and to the left. "Whoa, good call, Yori."

"Yes, obviously your American spirit of invention has infected me."

"Good," Agent Kappa said. "New orders would be nice."

Betty Director snorted quietly. Typical member of WEE, craving direction.

There was a brief hissing noise, followed by an unusual voice. "Agent Kappa? Are you there? This is Señor Senior Junior speaking."

Betty and Barkin stared at each other. The Seniors are involved? Betty mouthed.

Barkin shrugged. "Last I heard, Triple S was running Smarty Mart," he whispered.

Agent Kappa, however, appeared unsurprised. "Yes, Señor Senior Junior," he said, standing at attention. "What can I do for you?"

"I thought you should know that I have assumed control of WEE. Gemini is now my second-in-command."

The WEE agents looked around, clearly unsure of how to respond to that. They all stared at Kappa, which didn't help his own sudden anxiety.

"You have replaced Lord Gemini, sir?" Kappa asked.

"I have been signing your checks for months. I thought it was time I ceased being the silent partner."

Betty groaned. It had never occurred to anyone that Gemini had sought outside financing. But to think that Junior, who had been saved from the Acceptables by Kim Possible just as she was, would . . .

"I understand," Agent Kappa said. "Lord Gemini - I mean, Gemini informed us something like that might happen one day."

"Good. Kim Possible and her teammates have been thoroughly beaten. The hostages are no longer of value to us. You are to move your prisoners to a secure location from which they cannot escape without outside assistance, and then make preparations for your return to the station. You know," Junior added, "the one on the other side of the moon?"

Betty raised an eyebrow. Evidently Junior hadn't considered the possibility that others were listening. Of course, if Kim really HAD been beaten, it was possible that he just didn't care. Certainly the blood had drained from Mrs. Dr. Possible's face.

But Agent Kappa bit his fingernail. "Lord Senior Junior, I have pre-existing orders from Gemini. He ordered that the hostages were to be killed once the threat posed by Team Possible had passed."

"Yes, but you have new orders, Agent Kappa!"

"Gemini may not see it that way, sir. I need some kind of assurance that I won't be upended from my bed one night and dropped through a hole in the floor. Shouldn't we at least kill the family members?"

Betty had heard the word "kill" one too many times to be comfortable. While every guard's attention was on Agent Kappa - and in fact, the Possible family also seemed mesmerized by the discussion of their impending doom - Betty's eyes were on the guard inches from her. She turned to Barkin. Are you ready for this?, her eyes said.

His eyes said he'd been ready for this for over thirty years.

Betty didn't even look at Holly. She knew her child was safe. Nodding, she sprang up behind the guard. She wrapped her arm around his neck, completely cutting off his oxygen, and pulled the firearm from his shoulder holster.

"Lord Gemini's sister!" Agent Kappa shrieked.

Any further orders were interrupted by Betty, who murmured something about "finger exercises" before she put a bullet through his throat.

Kim Possible didn't kill, but she'd been known to.

The first guard to move was closest to the Possible twins. His movement wasn't exactly voluntary, however, as Tim and Jim pulled something from their pockets and clamped them around his ankles. They activated, revealing themselves to be some kind of rocket boosters. The WEE agent was blown off his feet and careened into the wall headfirst.

Betty chuckled. She should have known the Possibles wouldn't just cower and wait to be killed in the crossfire. She took out two more guards, and the survivors did her the favor of firing back, not at the helpless hostages, but at the WEE agent Betty kept between herself and them. He took three slugs to the chest, and Betty felt him die. It didn't affect her; the GJ agents who had died in her arms in the past were the lives she'd mourned. This man was just a human shield.

One of the men firing at her cried out as Mr. Dr. Possible felled him from behind with a heavy chair. "That was for Vivian!"

Barkin was still unarmed, but he was far from defenseless. He tripped up the nearest guard. Before the agent could get up, Barkin put his foot on the man's neck and pressed down viciously, snapping it. "And that was for the United States," he said grimly.

"I can't raise the men guarding the other prisoners in the cafeteria!" one of the remaining WEE agents cried out in dismay.

"Pull back!" another shouted.

His escape attempt was ended a moment later by a bullet that exploded from Betty's gun and put a hole in his forehead, but three other men made it to the mission control entrance and fled through it, the door closing behind them.

"We have to stop them," Dr. Mr. Possible said, "before they harm anyone else."

Betty let the dead body in her grip drop to the floor. "Holly, is Tommy - "

"He's just fine, Betty," Mrs. Dr. Possible assured her. She didn't seem the least bit traumatized by the shootings.

Which was good, because there would probably be more.

Well, maybe he aimed well, but he hadn't aimed well enough, and neither had his goons. Not only that, but she'd lost them. She hoped Gemini enjoyed telling that to his new master.

Of course, she doubted she could find her own sweet self. She was thoroughly lost, and she wasn't even sure where she wanted to be. Wherever Kim and the others were, she supposed. The only reason she knew she hadn't been in this sector before was that - until a few moments ago - the security camera had been operating. Now, however, she'd reduced it to nuts and bolts and loose wires.

That also meant it was time to start searching again. There were several doors nearby, and any of them might lead to Kim, Shego, Ron, Yori, or Sappho. "I mean, I've found the local Cyclops and a Hispanic naked mole rat so far," she said to herself. "So I'm DUE to see a friendly face."

Newly determined, she tried the first door and slipped through as it opened.

So it was only after she entered that she discovered she wasn't alone.

"Oh, hell n - "

To be continued . . .

Feedback: I hope everyone who has always been so supportive will continue to write.

Disclaimers: Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, Shego, Wade, and all other characters from the Kim Possible television series belong to Disney, its television production arm, and the creators and producers of the animated series. All original characters are my invention. I seek no profit from writing this, and expect none.

"Goddamn it, open, open already!" Agent Delta-Alpha hissed as he slammed the DOWN button for the twentieth time.

"How the hell did that happen?" Agent Tri-Iota asked, still shocked. "That one-eyed bitch - she took out half the squad before I knew it!"

"Yeah, well, that 'one-eyed bitch' is Lord Gemini's sister, the former head of GJ, AND she's going to be coming after us any second," the third survivor, Tri-Sigma, said. He faced away from the elevator, training his weapon down the corridor they'd taken to get here. "Keep your cool, Iota, and help me cover our retreat. They've got to come from this direction. If I see ANY motion, we shoot. If only we can get to the men guarding the other scientists . . ."

"Maybe they've been taken out too," Delta-Alpha said dourly.

"Can it!" Tri-Sigma snarled. He wasn't going to turn his back until the elevator doors were safely between him and their pursuers. Neither was Tri-Iota, if he had a you-know-what of common sense.

So when the elevator doors opened a few seconds later, with still no sign of the approach of Doctor Director or any of the other former hostages, the only one to see Vivian Porter and the Wade-bot inside was Delta-Alpha. All three of them were startled, but the taser was in Vivian's hand, and in pure instinct she fired at point-blank range, pumping thousands of volts into his body. He spasmed for several seconds before collapsing.

"What the - " Tri-Sigma burst out, turning to see what had happened . . . and forgetting to keep an eye out for Doctor Director.

For that reason, Agent Tri-Sigma had the dubious distinction of being taken by surprise twice in mere seconds. Once when he realized that they'd been hit from behind, the second when two bullets came from the direction he'd been looking and punched through Tri-Iota's left shoulder and upper body, breaking his collarbone.

To his credit, Tri-Sigma attacked the closest and most visible target, the woman in the elevator cab. Before he could raise his gun, however, two invisible pincer-like forces grabbed him by the elbows. One squeezed mercilessly, and with a cry he dropped the gun. Then he screamed as he felt himself lifted into the air. He banged his head against the ceiling, rendering him unconscious.

Vivian didn't notice. She was still staring at the man who had been shot. The bullets had come from nowhere, and the blood splatter was a bit too graphic. She felt nauseous.

"He had the right idea," Dr. Director said as she emerged from the darkness at the other end of the hallway, "but when you're exposed and being attacked from both sides, there's really not much you can do."

"B-Betty?"

Betty Director smiled as she tucked the gun into the back of her waistband. She ignored the three agents, two of whom continued to writhe on the floor in agony. One, the man who had been shot, kept crying out unintelligbly. "And here I thought you might be in danger," she said, as if she didn't even hear the other man. She gestured to the agent who appeared to be floating in midair. "I take it there's a cloaking device at play here."

The Wade-bot shimmered into view. "Hey, Dr. Director," Wade said.

"Wade?" Betty asked, surprised, as Colonel Barkin came into view. "What the hell is that tin can supposed to be?"

"The best I could offer Dr. Porter on short notice. She said she had some friends to save."

Vivian flushed. "Stop, Wade. You're making me sound like some sort of courageous hero."

"Sounds accurate to me," Barkin said. "Takes guts to go into an unknown situation facing an enemy you know nothing about."

"You also sound very much alive, Vivian," Betty added. "Which is good, since these men seemed to think you were dead. There are some people in Mission Control who will be very happy to know that's not the case."

"You don't seem very surprised," Vivian said.

"I'm not. Very happy, but not surprised."

"I need to get in there too," Wade said. "Whatever jamming device they're using, it hasn't been deactivated yet. We need to shut it down so I can find out if Kim and the others are okay."

"Good," Barkin said, nodding. "Betty and I need to find the other hostages. Dr. - Porter? You join the Possibles and stay put."

"Oh, don't worry," Vivian said, laughing nervously. "Still not a fan of guns." The man's blood was spilled all over the floor. Betty's right foot was in a puddle of it. Didn't she notice? "Or, you know, shooting them. At people. Or anything else."

She stopped as Betty put a hand on her arm. "You're safe now, Vivian. Please join the others," she said quietly.

Vivian nodded and hurried past them.

Colonel Barkin looked at Betty. "Friend of yours?"

"Yes. Yes, she is."

He shook his head. "Never easy the first time a civilian close to you sees you at work, is it?"

Betty dragged her right foot against the floor, leaving a bloody smear. "No, it never is."

Shego looked pessimistic. "Well, we've still got Doctor Badfinger to worry about sooner or later. He's probably holed up with a bunch of Alphas so he can ambush us. Welcome to the brave new world."

"Doctor Badfinger?"

"All right, you got me, I don't know if Gemini has a medical degree or not."

"Gee, I didn't think we were in Hell, but someone sure seems to have abandoned all hope," Kim said dryly.

"I'm just being realistic," Shego said.

"Uh-huh, sure."

Suddenly there was a thundering rush of footfalls coming towards them. At least two, Kim thought.

"See? Realistic," Shego told her. She'd never dropped her fighting stance, and now she turned to face the newest threat.

Ron came careening around the corner. His legs seemed to be trying to keep up with the rest of his body. Both arms were stretched out and forward like he was pretending to fly like Superman. In his hands was something that resembled bicycle handlebars. "Slower, slower, brake, brake, BRAKE!" he screamed.

"Ron!" Kim cried out happily.

"KP! . . . ehhhh, stop!" Ron yelled as the item he was clutching zeroed in on Kim and pulled him directly toward her. "Turn into a watch or something!"

There was a flash of light, and the thing in his hands was gone. Ron stumbled forward, slowing down very suddenly, and only just managed to catch himself from falling, just as Yori appeared from the same direction Ron had come.

"Ron, are you okay? What was that about?" Kim asked.

"Just . . . a second . . ." Ron panted.

"Kim-sama," Yori said, "Ron-san transformed the Lotus Blade into a kind of compass that stayed pointed at you. As we drew closer, evidently the pull of the magic became stronger, and eventually Ron-san did what he could just to keep up."

“The Swiss Army Lotus,” Shego said sardonically.

“You’re both all right? Where’s Monique? Is she – “

“I do not know, Kim-sama,” Yori said while Ron collected himself. “We escaped at the same time, but we chose to separate so that we might cover more ground. Now that we have found you, however, perhaps Ron-san can now use the Lotus Blade to find her.”

“Well, that’s good, because you’re the first welcome sight the two of US have found, and you were the ones doing the finding,” Kim complained. “You’d think it would be harder to get lost in something that’s basically a giant circle, but it’s not.”

“Too many doors, too many henchmen,” Shego said. “You could search this place for hours, even if we all split up.”

“It’s not the same without Wade,” Ron pointed out.

“Well, we’re all experienced world-savers,” Kim replied. “I’m sure we can do this on our own.”

A crackling noise could suddenly be heard coming from nearby. “Kim? Are you there? Can you hear me?”

“Wade? Wade!” Kim burst out. She looked around wildly and realized it was coming from a transceiver clipped to the belt of one of the unconscious WEE agents in the hallway. She ripped it off hastily.

“Thought we could do this on our own,” Shego murmured.

“Hush,” Kim hissed. “Wade, is that you?”

“Kim! You’ve got to get to Monique RIGHT NOW!”

“What? Monique?! Where, why? Wade, we have no idea where she is or even where WE are!”

“It’s called the ‘dining room’ on the station schematics!” Wade said quickly. “I’ve isolated your location through the device you’re using to communicate with, and I can give you directions, but we can talk while you’re running!”

“Left or right would be nice!” Shego snarled.

“Left!”

“More running,” Ron sighed as Kim took off like a bullet with the others right behind her.

“Wade, if you’re using WEE’s network to talk to us,” Kim asked as she ran, not even sounding winded, “then they can listen in on this, can’t they?”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t – turn right up ahead – matter. According to my readings, every WEE agent on that station is either out cold, or they’re closing in on Monique's location – left! Go back and go left through that door! What do you think ‘dining room’ is code for?”

“It’s a dining room, Wade. They served us dinner. Wade, my family – “

“Your family, Dr. Director, and Col. Barkin are all safe. They’re working on getting the rest of the Space Center staff out of a hostage situation. Sappho found the communications array linking the station to the Earth’s surface, and she’s allowed me to hack into their computers directly. Monique, though, she’s alone in the dining room with at least fifteen different signatures. Although it could be worse.”

“How could it be worse?” Yori asked.

“She could have not had me as a trainer,” Shego muttered.

“Actually, I’m not sure how it happened, Kim,” Wade explained, “but she says she's wearing your Battle Suit.”

Kim almost stopped running. “What?”

“Like I said, not sure how it happened. I’d ask her, but she’s busy. Double doors on the right! Expect reinforcements! Everyone is listening to this, and they’re converging on this spot!”

“No big,” Kim grumbled.

Kim was the first through the doors, and found the dining room in ruins. The table was lying in three pieces on the floor, as were four men – no, five, she saw feet sticking out from under a section of table. And Monique – sure enough, she was surrounded by WEE guards and wearing a skintight white-and-blue suit.

“Kim-sama,” Yori said softly. “There are armed men coming behind us.”

“You and Ron hold the doors,” Kim told her. “Shego and I are going to do a little moshing.”

“Moshing?” Shego asked. “You should have stuck to ‘no big’.”

And since she was outnumbered twenty-to-one, she’d take every little edge she could get. And so her chest heaved, as if she was fighting helplessly for every breath. Which wasn't entirely acting.

If any man was distracted by her heaving chest, so much the better. It wasn’t like her new clothes hid anything.

Said new clothes were giving her a bit of an edge as well. The suit made her feel stronger and quicker, and overall she must have made quite an impression, because when the men had burst into the dining room behind her, they'd been impressed enough to hang back for a second. If they’d piled on her immediately, she might not have survived.

“Monique!”

Monique wanted to look in the direction the cry had come from, but if she took her eye off the action for half a second, she’d have her head cracked open. “Little – busy!”

The WEE soldier behind the one in front of her was suddenly hurled aside. “Have you been going through my closet again?” Kim asked as she appeared.

“Ha ha,” Monique muttered.

Shego materialized a moment later. “I thought they ran out of bad guys here, and you were just hogging them to yourself.”

“I got bored waiting for y’all to find me, so I picked a fight,” Monique told her as she grabbed the hand on her shoulder, twisted the man’s arm behind his back, and then broke his wrist.

“Where did you find my Suit?” Kim asked as the three women faced away from each other and formed a triangle.

“Got time for a story?”

“Well, apparently my family is safe, so now I do.”

“Please, do not be alarmed,” Señor Senior Senior said. “I will not hurt you.”

“No offense, pops, but you can’t hurt me,” Monique said. “You’re the father, right?”

Senior nodded gravely. “Yes. A poor one, but yes. And you are the Oryx.” He glanced at her left hand. “Those gloves do not belong to you,” he added.

Monique looked down at Shego’s gloves, which she was still clutching. “I don’t think they’re your size.”

“The last time I saw those, they were in the possession of a small hairless rodent.”

“A small – did he speak Spanish?”

“Ah,” Senior said. “So Ricardo is all right?”

Monique held up her hands in a “T”. “Time out, this is seriously tripping now. Ricardo is the naked mole rat?”

“Yes. I presume you got the gloves from him.”

“Yeah, I did. Do I ‘presume’ he got them from you?”

Senior smiled, but it was a sad smile. “You don’t believe I would help you over my son.”

“Since he’s not going to win, I’d say you have a very good reason to help us,” Monique pointed out.

“Pragmatic, but not the reason why. Unfortunately, you do not have time for an explanation. You barely have time for me to tell you where my son is going. Even now, he is giving orders to have Ms. Possible's family murdered, and to unleash destruction upon the Earth's shores.” Senior went over to a table nearby and picked up a bundle of white cloth. “While you’re here, you may as well have this too.”

Monique reached out, stunned. Old man appears, gives you critical information and powerful weapons right before the big fight - what was this, a game of Everlot? “Kim’s Battle Suit? Old man, your son is not going to be happy when he finds out.”

“No? Then I suppose we shall both have to be unhappy with the other. I do have a couple suggestions to make in the meantime,” Senior told her.

“Oh?”

“One, I ask that you take this as well, and keep it safe.” He reached into his jacket pocket and took out an unlabeled compact disc. “The proper authorities may find it interesting.”

“I guess I can do that. What’s the other suggestion?”

“I realize you refer to that as Ms. Possible’s suit. But judging by the state of your dress, my dear, you may wish to borrow it for a while.”

“I don’t know,” Monique said. “There was a look in his eye . . .”

“So how did you wind up here?” Kim asked. There were only a few men left, and she could divide her attention easily now. From the sounds of fighting coming from outside the room, Ron and Yori were in no danger of being overrun by reinforcements.

“Senior told me there’s an elevator that runs through the middle of the station,” Monique explained. “The upper level contains machines that keep the station in place and provide artificial gravity. The lowest level is where Junior will activate the device that he’s been trying to blackmail the Earth with. Those doors over there,” she added, gesturing in the opposite direction from where they’d entered, “take you to the elevator.”

“I never even thought of additional levels,” Kim admitted, embarrassed.

“Yeah, yeah, can I have my gloves back now?” Shego asked, in an almost agony of impatience.

“Sure,” Monique said, reaching into her leg pouch.

Gemini wanted to remind him that he was no man’s “flunky”, but Junior would probably point out that Gemini WAS his flunky, and hearing that wouldn’t improve his temper. “I remember,” he said sulkily.

“In that case,” Junior replied, “while I prepare the moon for its new oh-so-fashionable alterations, you can – give our friends the finger.”

“Better yet, why not all five?” Gemini growled. His men were almost all gone, but that just meant he’d have a clear shot at Possible’s foolish sidekick and the new girl from Japan. Exiting the corridor he’d been lurking in, he pointed a hand at Ron and Yori. A miniature missile shot out of his metallic index finger and headed right for them.

Ron saw it first. “YORI!” he cried out, stepping in front of her.

It wasn’t enough time for him to get Yori out of the way, but it was enough for Ron’s instincts and the Lotus Blade to take over. The Roman legionnaire’s shield that materialized bore the explosive impact of the miniature rocket, saving both their lives, but the force of the blast threw Ron through the doors. His body hit Yori’s at full tilt, and both of them sailed through the air. Ron landed heavily on top of her.

“Ron!” Kim and Monique shouted in unison, while Shego snatched her gloves from Monique’s hand and kept an eye on the doors.

“Yori?” Ron asked groggily, shaking her by the shoulder, but the secret agent was unconscious. He put a finger to her neck and exhaled with relief when he found her pulse.

Gemini strode in two seconds later. “I don’t know where that shield came from, NON-factor,” he sneered, “but I dare you to – “ He got a look at the wreckage in the dining room. “Oh, come on, that table cost over five thousand dollars!”

“Gemini, are you insane?!” Kim exploded. “This entire station will implode if one of those rockets misses!”

“Well then, why don’t you be a good little girl and stand still?” he snarled. He fired a second rocket at her.

A wave of black plasma, however, incinerated it in midair. There was a minor concussive blast that knocked everyone back a step.

Shego mockingly waved a glowing green finger back and forth. “Why don’t you be a good little boy and be nice to girls?”

Gemini just grinned nastily at her. All four fingertips on his cybernetic hand flipped up.

“Uh-oh,” Monique muttered.

Three miniature rockets sailed out, while a bright blue laser beam emanating from Gemini’s ring finger burned a charred line across the floor directly for Kim. She backflipped towards her destination, the doors leading to the elevator shaft – not realizing that Gemini was nudging her there.

Since dodging his missiles was apparently as dangerous as being hit by them, Shego burned yet another rocket out of the air while Monique hurled a piece of that five-thousand-dollar tabletop at another one. “Damn things are as limitless as his men,” Shego muttered. “He’s a walking self-destruct button with that thing!”

Ron meanwhile was forced to be a stationary target to protect the defenseless Yori. He hunkered down behind his shield and kept himself in front of her. Instead of trying to flank Ron, Gemini seemed intent on simply pulverizing the one thing between them.

Ron had no idea if Gemini would succeed. He just gritted his teeth and braced for another impact.

“Ron-kun?”

His head whipped around. “Yori?”

Yori had risen to her knees. Her hand was pressed to her temple. “I – hit my head?” she asked uncertainly.

“Well, actually I hit your head. Maybe with my head, I don’t know. Look, can you run?”

“Oof,” she murmured. “My body is sore, but no more so than during training at Yamanouchi, and I was expected to fight through THAT.”

“Good,” Ron said. “Then stay close behind me. We’re going to introduce Gemini to the Stoppable Lotus Express.”

At the other end of the room, Kim dodged another laser blast, ran up the stairs, and banged the button to open the doors. She hesitated, though. She wasn’t sure if she could leave the others behind without disposing of that maniac first.

“That’s it, Ms. Possible,” Gemini whispered. “Just a few more steps . . .”

He was distracted for only a few seconds, but that meant Ron covered plenty of ground, leading with his shield, Yori right behind him with a hand on his shoulder. Gemini whipped his hand around and fired three missiles at point-blank range just before he was crushed by Ron’s stampede. One exploded against Ron’s Lotus Shield while the others glanced off and veered crazily. Shego tracked one and blasted it.

Monique couldn’t follow the path of the other one, though, and this was unfortunate because it was headed for a point squarely between her shoulder blades.

“Monique!!!” Kim screamed. She leapt down from the stairs and tackled Monique.

The rocket hit the steps and exploded. The damage was high enough above the floor that the station’s outer structure was unharmed, but shrapnel went everywhere and sliced Kim’s left thigh open, making her cry out.

Shego ran over, seeing that Gemini was too busy. “Are you okay, Pumpkin?” she asked anxiously.

“I’m – fine,” Kim said. “Damn, that hurts! Monique, are – “

“Yeah, I’m good, thanks for the save, Kim. But you’re going to need to get that bandaged.”

Kim looked down at her leg. She had three bloody gouges across her thigh, like a wild animal had clawed her. “It can wait. We’ve – “

“The Battle Suit,” Shego said. “Nerdlinger said it could heal things like this, right? Monique, switch clothes with Kim.”

Monique’s eyes popped out. “Girlfriend, this is not the time or the place!”

“We’ll take care of it, Shego,” Kim said. “For now, you’ve got to go ahead and stop Junior. We’ll catch up in a minute.”

Shego wavered. “Are you sure?”

Kim smiled. “So not the drama. Go, save the world. We both know you can.”

“Pfft,” Shego said. “I’m just doing this because we have a contract.”

Shego then leapt and bounded her way past the damaged steps and slipped through the open doors leading to the elevator shaft.

Nobody, including Shego, noticed that the doors which closed behind her were solid steel, and several inches thick.

To be continued . . .

Shego slashed through the elevator roof and dropped in, perspiring slightly. “Of course Junior makes sure the elevator car stays at the bottom of the shaft,” she muttered. Good thing she had her claws back.

She pried the elevator doors open and found herself in a pitch-black room. Shego shook her head. Junior was probably hiding by now. He was all out of . . .

"Good evening, Ms. Possible. I've been waiting for you."

The hairs all over her body stood up. Not because the voice didn't belong to Junior, but because she knew who it did belong to. Or belonged to anyway.

The lights suddenly came on, and Shego found herself in a large nondescript circular room. The only machinery was on the side opposite her, a mishmash of oversized electrical cables and advanced computers, crowned by three glass domes. The smaller ones to the left and right were empty.

Inside the middle one was Mrs. Acceptable.

"Oh, it's only you," she said when she saw Shego, disappointed. "John's pet."

Shego could feel the hatred and loathing bubbling up her throat like a physical force. "And you're just another clone," she said with revulsion.

"Well, I 'died' in the same place my children did," Mrs. Acceptable replied. "My DNA was waiting to be found too."

"And you're Junior's toady now."

Mrs. Acceptable chuckled maliciously. "No, can't say that I am, Shego. I'm here under most unwilling circumstances, actually. I couldn't get out of this machine if I wanted to. And I did want to, until I found out that murdering slut girlfriend of yours was coming."

"Don't talk about her that way!" Shego erupted.

"There was a time you would have received quite a jolt for such backtalk."

"Yeah," Shego said, "that worked REAL well on your children. You know, the ones who tried to kill you too?"

Mrs. Acceptable frowned. "You should talk. Your friend Dr. Director stole my child!"

"You were dead! And you were experimenting on Tommy!"

"Tommy? Aw, so you're fond of him. How sweet."

"And I'm very not fond of you. How frightening."

"Yes, well, I have new children now."

Shego laughed. "Kimmie and I beat their asses a little while ago."

"Those things are not mine," Mrs. Acceptable said scornfully. "And Thomas, well, he was special, but he wasn't . . . perfect."

The other two domes, it turned out, were not empty. Their occupants had merely been kneeling and bent over. They rose now, and Shego took a step back.

"You are imperfect," the two Bebes said.

"Wuh-oh."

"Protect your queen! Destroy her!" the new Bebe Queen commanded.

"In-cog-nito, my dear KP," Ron said. "Got me into Junior's chambers earlier. And I got him to shut off whatever deathtrap you and Shego were in, so you're welcome."

Kim stared at him. "That was - it was because of you?"

Ron blinked at the intensity of her gaze. "Uh, yeah, I mean, I'm sure you would have gotten out of it yourselves, I didn't mean to ruin it for - "

She almost knocked him over with the fiercest of hugs. "Thanks, Ron. Thank you so, so much."

He hugged her back.

"If Shego and I ever have babies," Kim told him, pulling back, "I want your sperm."

"TMI!" Ron and Monique said at the same time. "Jinx, you owe me a soda!" Monique added.

"Awww, man, I never get those," Ron complained.

Yori finished tying up Gemini. "I have rendered his hand nonfunctional," she reported. "He is no threat to us."

Kim turned to look at the WEE former leader. She swayed a moment as she did so. Whatever the Battle Suit was doing to her injuries, it felt weird. Not unpleasant, but she did feel a bit weak. "You've lost, Gemini. You couldn’t even defeat us by blowing yourself up.”

“It would have been worth it so that the world might know that it was I who defeated you all,” Gemini said fervently.

“Ego still taking the demotion kinda hard, huh?”

Gemini sat and seethed.

“And I assume you heard that my family, not to mention YOURS, is safe," Kim went on.

"Yes, well, Betty was always too clever for her own good."

Monique tugged at her new clothes. "Pink and gray men's tights, ugh. Not even I can make this look good - especially when they're riding up my butt. You got a problem with women agents, Shelly?"

"Considering women have been the bane of my existence? Uh, yes!"

"We don't have time for this," Kim said. "We've got to find Shego and help her stop Junior's machine."

Gemini chuckled.

"What?" Ron asked.

"Good luck getting through that door," he said, sneering. "It's solid steel."

"It seemed to open just fine earlier," Kim said.

"That was before someone went through them."

Kim tensed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Gemini shrugged. "All I know is Senor Senior Junior wanted me to make sure you entered first, Ms. Possible. I imagine he had something special planned just for you."

"KP does get all the best deathtraps," Ron said.

Kim stopped wasting her time with him. Shego was all alone in there, and - she ran for the door. Sure enough, it wasn't responding. "Damn," she whispered.

"Kim."

"Wade?" Kim asked, grabbing for the WEE communicator. "Shego's trapped behind this door, and I can't open it. Could you do something about this?"

"Kim, about five seconds ago the station began diverting all power, except for essential functions, to a location below you. I don't think any door will open now."

"The moon machine," Kim realized. "Can't you shut it off?"

"I’ve tried, Kim, but they've installed some kind of special safeguard. According to the error messages I keep getting, somewhere below you is some kind of switch, and if it's thrown manually, it acts as a kind of massive circuit breaker and terminates the whole process. Other than that, this machine is like a snowball rolling down a hill. No brakes, no engine, just gravity. Someone needs to physically push the button, so to speak. It's really archaic, if you ask me."

Kim sighed. "I'd say 'archaic' is doing a good job of stopping us so far." Shego had eluded one deathtrap through the skin of her teeth. Kim couldn't bear to think of her in a second one in one night. But if she couldn't open that door . . .

She looked at Yori. "Yori, how 'nonfunctional' is Gemini’s hand exactly?"

"They're not very individualistic, but then I never really needed that in a child," Queen Acceptable mused.

One of the Bebes helped Shego back up by landing an uppercut to her chin, and then was gone again. Blood splashed out of Shego's mouth as she landed wobbly on her feet. There had been other blows like that one, hard, fast, unblockable. She'd lost count after her nose was all but broken. She’d choked on her own blood more than once.

If she could just get them to stop for one moment . . . even though their exteriors were shielded from plasma, Shego knew eleven different ways from the Drakken days to dismantle them. But there was no way she could do that now. From the Bebes’ perspective, Shego was as stationary as Mrs. Acceptable was.

Shego rubbed her lips with her arm and gazed at the new Bebe Queen with narrowed eyes. They'd been given two commands, and "protect your queen" came first. Drakken's Bebes would have interpreted that as being the primary directive, and therefore more important than "destroy her".

She couldn't simply charge the Queen, since they could stop her in her tracks in less than an instant.

And they'd just block any thrown plasma and be gone again before Shego could say "doy".

But if she combined the two . . .

Before they got around to stretching her out on the floor again, Shego hurled two concentrated balls of plasma, one green, one black. They headed straight for Queen Acceptable, and Shego ran right behind them.

From the Bebes’ perspective, there were two threats to the Queen. Both could be neutralized easily. Human logic would dictate that one take care of the plasma, and the other take care of Shego.

The Bebes couldn’t delegate, however. Programming logic stated that the plasma was the more imminent danger, and therefore had to be neutralized first. Each Bebe would have to defend their queen before Shego could be dealt with.

So, for just a mere second, each Bebe stopped directly in the path of a plasma ball before they’d traveled more than a foot. The plasma splashed harmlessly against their metallic chests.

Shego was just a human, but with her reflexes, a second was nothing. For that brief instant where the Bebes weren't moving, where there was still so little space between her and them, and where Shego could know to a certainty what their location would be, Shego's clawed fingers darted forward. Knowing their height dimensions from her sidekick days, she sent small but highly intense charges toward where their faces should be.

Most of the Bebes’ bodies were plasma-shielded. One of the reasons for the “most” was the lenses that were their “eyes”. Shego’s plasma couldn’t even scratch their faces, but a fraction of plasma energy shattered the lenses and penetrated into their heads. That energy was enough to fry a good deal of the microchips and intricate, highly sensitive wiring inside. That in turn sparked a chain reaction that started burning through their entire bodies.

"Not per - not - nnnnnnnnnnnn - "

Shego casually walked around the two robots, now that they'd stopped moving. She waited for a moment as their bodies jerked and swayed due to the total internal meltdown, and then putting a hand on their backs, she pushed.

The two Bebes crashed down onto the floor, and almost immediately their outer shells began to give off clouds of dark smoke.

"Sorry about your deathtrap, Your Majesty," Shego said, gingerly testing her nose. No, not broken, so she didn't need to reset the bones herself.

Mrs. Acceptable shrugged. "They weren't the trap. Junior thought Ms. Possible would find a way to win. So did I. I didn't think YOU could, but I guess nothing's perfect after all."

Shego chuckled. "So who's the deathtrap? YOU?"

"In a manner of speaking."

"Gonna make me feel bad about myself to death?"

"Have you ever heard of a kill switch?"

"Of course."

"Well, that's me," Mrs. Acceptable said. "I'm the switch. You want to flip me? You have to kill me."

Shego didn't understand. "You're a switch? Flip you? I don't get it."

"You always did need to have things explained to you," Mrs. Acceptable said wickedly. "Right now, there's a device located in an extremely deep hole in the moon's surface. You may have seen the hole when you were ambushed earlier. Think of it as an energy well. You just fill it with power. Eventually, the energy being fed into it exceeds its containment limits, and it explodes. That's what the station is doing right now. All available power is being diverted through the cables that are anchoring this station to the far side of the moon, and then through other cables along the moon’s surface into the well. If this goes on for long enough, the well reaches critical mass and explodes. And THAT explosion, Shego, will be big enough to take a major chunk out of the moon. Maybe even break it into several smaller pieces."

"Gemini told the government the device was just supposed to affect the Earth’s tides. That sounds a little more catastrophic," Shego said, frowning. Breaking the moon - that sounded like civilization-ending stuff.

"That's because Junior lied to him. Junior is just insane enough to destroy the planet if he doesn't get what he wants." She smiled beatifically. "I'd like to think I drove him to that. Of course, his father can be blamed for making him spoiled enough, I suppose."

"And you're saying that if I kill you - "

"This machine monitors my heart rate. If my heart stops for a full sixty seconds, a circuit breaker is tripped and the station stops feeding the energy well. So yes, only my death will save the world."

Shego looked at her. “And you expect me to believe that shit? Why would Junior stash you here when he already had a deathtrap ready for us upstairs?”

That penetrated Mrs. Acceptable’s malevolent good cheer, and her lips puckered like she’d sucked on a lemon. “Originally I was cloned and placed here for my own punishment,” she said. “Junior wanted me to know what it was like to have no control over my own life. The Bebes were as much my jailers as they were my protectors. He also claimed that my heart might as well be good for something. Apparently this trap is a happy coincidence for him.”

“Even so, I’ll just destroy those machines, and then I’ll take you to your twisted daughter so you can prepare for life in a women’s penitentiary. Just between you and me, it’s not safe to drop the soap there either.”

Mrs. Acceptable sneered at her. “Now who’s talking shit? Do you really think he’d go to all this trouble, and then leave a gaping loophole like that? Sure, go ahead, destroy them! You always were so foolishly impatient. But you won’t be able to take it back if you’re wro-ong.”

Shego swore, but Mrs. Acceptable just gave her an especially nasty smile. "Now imagine if you were Kim Possible, and I just told you all of that."

Shego nodded slowly. Kim was even more bitterly opposed to killing than she had been before the showdown with the Acceptables. And she'd be given the choice of either letting the world die, or violating her own convictions and taking a second human life. Shego realized that while Mrs. Acceptable believed this had been all about punishing her, on some subconscious level for Junior it was no coincidence that Mrs. Acceptable was here. Maybe Junior believed in his heart that Kim would either be crushed or killed by the Acceptable siblings, but deep down Junior had prepared for the worst, and purposely selected as his kill switch the person who most symbolized Kim’s decision to take a human life.

This was exactly the same kind of trap as the one from before, a psychological one. It was designed to cripple Kim, attack her where she was most vulnerable, make her beat herself, and destroy her from within. First Kim had been asked to sacrifice her lover to save the world. Now she was being asked to . . .

Shego blinked. Oh, how devious. Mrs. Acceptable, in a way, represented a second chance for Kim. If she were to live, it could be as if the killing never took place. Oh sure, Kimmie would still see herself as a killer, but maybe it would be easier to take if there was no longer a body somewhere. And instead, Kim would have to murder her all over again. Junior obviously hoped that would break Pumpkin. It was very diabolical and incredibly cruel.

How she hated him right now.

"Just one problem, though," Shego said angrily. "You didn't get Kimmie, you got me. And I have no problem snapping your neck, you sadistic, monstrous bitch."

"Why yes, you're right, Shego! Soon you'll be a killer too, just as bad as Kim Possible! You'll be able to know exactly how she feels! And I'm sure she would accept your decision. I mean, I'm sure she hasn't done anything so foolish as to order her 'team' not to kill anybody."

Shego froze before the mental image of how disappointed in her Kim would be when she found out. And Kim would blame herself too. Maybe if she'd done something differently, Kim would think, she could have prevented Shego from making the same mistake she made. Maybe it was Kim's fault that Shego was a murderer.

She looked at her hands. It had been a conscious decision years before not to kill. She had never seriously reevaluated that decision. Now Shego swallowed. Years later, killing didn't feel any easier. It felt harder.

“Or think of it this way – you can be as bad as me! I’m bad, aren’t I?” The Bebe Queen tried to look naughty, but she came across as demented instead. “I’m going to play a part in the death of humanity, and I love it!”

Shego looked into the other woman’s face and knew despair. What were her other options? To let the world be destroyed? To wait for Kimmie to arrive, assuming the energy bomb would wait that long, and foist the decision off on her like Junior had intended? To put the burden on the shoulders of Monique? Ron? Maybe Yori, she’d killed in the line of duty, right?

Another Shego might have been appalled by yet another sign that she was going “soft”, but that didn’t even factor into this Shego’s decision any longer. Her life was changing so fast! Even the Bebes’ speed paled by comparison. She wasn’t the same person she was five years ago, or even five weeks.

And in five minutes, she’d be another person entirely.

“A while back,” Shego said, “after Kimmie put you down like a rabid dog, she said she thought I was better than her, because she had killed and I hadn’t.”

“And we all know how you need to be better than her,” Queen Acceptable sneered.

“I need to be better than everyone else," Shego corrected her. "I can't be better than her, not for long. Our life together is a constant state of competition. We live to surpass the other, even if it’s just for a day, because we both know no one else is on our level."

"My," the clone said dryly. "Maybe you can't spell K-I-M without E-G-O either."

Shego barely heard what the other woman was saying. "Knowing Kimmie, part of her still believes I'm better than her. That I'll always be a better person than her. And I refuse to let her believe that any longer."

There was a moment of silence while Mrs. Acceptable digested her last comment. A trickle of worry crossed her face.

Then Shego leapt atop the machines. Legs spread, she stood above Mrs. Acceptable and looked into her eyes. Charging up her gloves, she began driving crushing lefts and rights into the only barrier between her and the "switch".

"Wait," Mrs. Acceptable said shrilly, giving way to panic, "what are you doing? You can't mean this!"

"Watch me."

The tempered glass cracked, then buckled, and then shattered under the relentless battering. Shards pelted Mrs. Acceptable's face, and she shrieked as one sliced her left cheek.

Shego's left arm shot through the hole she'd smashed. The plasma in her glove vanished as her hand clamped over Mrs. Acceptable's mouth. Shego kept the left side of her hand firmly wedged against the woman's nostrils.

Mrs. Acceptable began frantically pulling at Shego's arm while she shook her head back and forth, trying to dislodge Shego's grip. Her face turned red from both the exertion and the lack of oxygen.

But Shego had been right. She was the best. Mrs. Acceptable was far from the best. She might as well have tried to fight a steel rod for dominance. The trapped woman could barely move within her computerized cage, and tears rolled down her face as the clawed tips of Shego's gloved fingers dug into her cheeks for a better grip, leaving four beads of blood welling.

"This isn't vengeance," Shego whispered.

Mrs. Acceptable's struggles began to falter. Her arms sagged, then drooped limply like the petals on a dead flower.

"This is about saving Kim."

Shego began to realize that she was breathing heavily, almost in gulps, as if she was breathing for both of them. Which wasn't necessary, since the other woman would never need to breathe again. Shego hesitantly let go. Her fingertips were wet with blood, and she wiped them on Mrs. Acceptable's blouse.

The machines kept humming, and Shego waited. There appeared to be dozens of cables that had been surgically implanted into Mrs. Acceptable's thighs and calves. She could see signs that others were attached to her lower back. These were obviously monitoring her heart rate and pulse.

She wondered again if Mrs. Acceptable had lied to her. Maybe destroying the machines would have succeeded. Or maybe nothing could stop the bomb from exploding. But Junior couldn't be that eager for death - could he?

Fifty-seven . . . fifty-eight . . . fifty-nine . . .

She felt the computers go off before she saw it. Some lights stayed on, but the hum, the internal motion of the machines - that was gone. More importantly, the vibrations in the floor had ceased. That had to mean it was over. Planet - and one orbiting rock - saved.

"I'm glad I killed you. I'm glad you're dead," Shego said coldly. "I am, I am!"

To be continued . . .

Monique held the cybernetic hand up to her lips and blew across the fingertips. "Thanks for lending the hand, Virgo," she said.

"It's Gemini, and it was stolen, not lent!"

The barrier had been thick, but dozens of mini-rockets had done the trick, blowing a hole big enough for them to climb through.

"Come on, we don't have enough time," Kim said. "Let's get down there and - "

The remnants of the door slid up two feet before it stopped, hampered from going any further by the hole blown through the door.

"Kim, the power's back to normal! The door should be open now," Wade said, his voice crackling over the transmitter.

Monique looked at Kim. "He didn't just say we did all that for nothing."

Kim sighed. "Wade, at this point it would be easier if you just left it closed, okay?"

"Um . . . roger that."

"Please and thank you." Kim smiled at them, but it wasn't a big smile. "Shego must have thrown that switch," she said. "I just hope she's all right."

"She's probably just waiting down there for us," Ron replied. "Some sly remark planned for when we come in."

"That would be Shego," Monique agreed.

Kim clambered through the hole first, and the others followed suit quickly. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary - just another hallway, this one with doors at the other end. Further investigation revealed that the elevator was locked, and that they'd have to climb down. Monique chucked Gemini's hand as they made the descent.

“Shego definitely went this way,” Kim murmured. She pointed to the claw gouges in the metal walls of the shaft.

“I hear something,” Yori said sharply. “It’s coming from below. I believe I hear Shego-san’s voice, but I cannot make out the words. She does sound animated, however.”

Even Kim couldn’t hear Shego. Ninja training, she thought with a trace of envy. Maybe one day a sabbatical to Yamanouchi was in order – just to pick up a few skills she hadn’t managed to come by on her own . . .

After a few more moments, Kim could hear her as well, though. She sounded – angry. “Junior really did push her buttons. Mine too,” she thought.

Kim couldn’t make out the words, however, until she was the first to drop through the escape panel in the top of the elevator car. They were muffled, as the elevator doors were shut, but she could understand them. They were also probably the last words she expected.

“Stupid bitch! . . . One time . . . both want . . . same thing . . . spite yourself to screw me over!”

Angry, yes, but there was a frenzied, almost frantic quality to it that alarmed Kim. Plus, it didn’t sound like Shego was talking to a man, but what woman could she be referring to? Yvonne was lights out above, and . . .

Jaqui, Kim realized for the first time as she moved toward the doors so Ron could drop down. That sociopathic thief Team Possible had put away earlier that year, only for her to resurface as Gemini’s personal bodyguard during dinner. Kim hadn’t seen her since. Junior must have dragooned her into service as some kind of last-resort defense. Shego’s words made no sense, however. What could they both want?

“Ron,” Kim said. “Think a Lotus Crowbar could open these?”

“No problemo, KP,” Ron said, hefting a crowbar that hadn’t existed a moment ago. He jammed it between the elevator doors, and he and Kim started prying them open as Monique joined them in the elevator.

“Damn it, breathe!” Shego snarled on the other side of the doors. “You’ll breathe if I have to tear out your lungs and inflate them myself!”

Kim gasped and stopped pulling at the crowbar. Ron wasn’t paying attention, though, and on his own he got the doors fully open. What had Shego done??

What Shego had done transfixed her in more ways than one.

Shego had a woman on the floor of a circular chamber littered with machines at one end. A couple of blackened husks that Kim could just barely recognize as destroyed Bebes lay nearby. Kim couldn’t see the woman’s face, but her bare legs were white, withered, and pockmarked with circular bleeding cuts.

The reason she couldn’t see the woman’s face was that Shego was bent over her, both hands clasped together, pressing rhythmically on the woman’s chest. It was the classic position of someone trying to restart a human heart.

“Please,” Shego said despairingly. “I need Kimmie to be able to look at me the same way!” She shifted position, held the woman by the nose, and breathed into her mouth.

“KP, what – “ Ron began to say as Kim’s face grew even whiter. Once the woman’s face became visible, she immediately recognized her as Mrs. Acceptable. Naturally Junior had resurrected her as well, then left her down here as some kind of nasty, horrifying surprise – the trap Gemini had spoken of, Kim thought absently.

She rushed forward. “Shego!”

Shego looked up. She looked equal parts guilty, frustrated, anguished, and frightened. “K-kimmie,” she stammered. “It’s not what it – I had to – he wanted you to kill her again! But I, I had to – but we can bring her back! We have to!”

Kim stared at her dumbly. “Shego, what happened here?”

“I HAD TO!” Shego wailed. “Even more than you had to! You were just saving a baby, I had to - but I can take it back for both of us if - ” She turned her eyes on the dead Mrs. Acceptable, and her face blossomed with rage. “If this selfish, psychotic witch would fucking breathe again like she’s supposed to!” Then she started pounding on Mrs. Acceptable’s chest with one fist. Kim couldn’t tell if it was CPR or just Shego lashing out. Or both.

By pure instinct Kim caught Shego's fist before she accidentally put the woman beyond all hope of saving. “Let me take over, Shego," she said. "How did she die? When did she die?"

Shego opened her mouth, then closed it, like a fish. "She suffocated. I, I suffocated her. Kimmie, you weren't here, you don't know - a couple minutes maybe - "

"I'll take care of it. It's going to be all right," Kim interrupted. She sounded calm and professional, because this was a crisis and that was how she was supposed to sound. This was routine for her. She'd been in this situation a hundred times before. Well, okay, maybe not this exact situation. Normally the person she was trying to save wasn't already dead. Normally she wasn't in love with the person responsible.

So perhaps it was good that part of her was reacting by rote. The rest of her was on the verge of a panic attack as she was overwhelmed by a host of sudden questions. What if she died? Would Shego have to go to jail? Could you go to jail for killing someone who was already dead? Were clones the same as people? What about all those clones of Drakken's that she'd melted years ago? Oh God, had she been a murderer long before she killed Mrs. Acceptable? For God's sake, the woman she killed was right in front of her and Shego had killed her! Why had she done it? Was there something Kim could have done to prevent it? What if -

Kim took a few seconds she probably didn't have, drew a deep breath, and ruthlessly choked those questions off. There could be time for questions later. Right now was about bringing a life back. Still, she looked down at Mrs. Acceptable's face and was unable to suppress a shiver of disgust. This was who she had to save?

Shego's attempts at CPR, for what she'd seen, had been textbook but unsuccessful. Suspecting she'd need something a little more drastic, Kim reactivated the WEE communicator she'd taken earlier. "Wade, can you read me?" she asked, moving quickly again as she stripped away Mrs. Acceptable's blouse.

"Loud and clear, Kim. What's going on?"

"Wade, remember before when we left? Remember you said the Battle Suit could function as a makeshift defibrillator?"

"Yeah?" he asked carefully.

"I need you to walk me through that. Now!"

Meanwhile, Monique had taken Shego aside while Ron and Yori watched Kim work. Shego, Monique thought, was entirely too docile now. "Shego, what's the sitch? What are those things?" she asked, pointing at the two wrecked robots. "And how the hell did that crazy bitch end up here?"

"I put her there when I started trying to revive - "

"No, no," Monique said, alarmed. Shego had been frenzied when they entered, but all the energy seemed to have vanished from her, leaving her looking and sounding empty. She was probably psychologically exhausted, Monique guessed. Kim had already told her about the trap Junior had sprung on them. "I mean what is she doing here? How did she die?"

"She - it was another trap. She said the bomb was rigged to monitor her heart rate," Shego said mechanically. "The only way to stop it was to . . ."

"Stop her heart," Monique finished for her. Damn. "So that's why you suffocated her then. So you could revive her once the machines shut down?"

Shego's face darkened with shame and guilt. "No, I, uh . . . I didn't think of that until after.”

Monique wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“All I could think,” Shego went on helplessly, interpreting Monique’s silence as condemnation, “was that I had to - kill her before Kimmie arrived. Before Kimmie had to make that decision herself. It had to be up to me, Monique! But it was so hard! And once it was done . . . "

“Clear!” Kim ordered, as Ron fell back. She placed the palms of her Battle Suit on Mrs. Acceptable's chest, and the stripes on her Suit briefly flashed blue. The dead woman’s body jumped, then lay still again.

“I knew Kimmie wouldn’t understand,” Shego went on miserably. “Knew she couldn’t forgive me. But either that or choose between the world dying and Kim sacrificing her beliefs – my own personal fucking happiness never did count for much.”

“Clear!”

“There’s the lesson for you, Monique,” Shego said. She sounded hopeless.

“Shego – “

“Heroes and villains – they don’t get to be happy. I learned both ways. Don’t forget – “

“We’ve got heartage!” Ron called out. “Boo-YAH!”

Shego started. “What?”

“Wade-san’s technology is truly amazing, Kim-sama,” Yori said, checking Mrs. Acceptable’s pulse. “She needs medical treatment, but she is out of danger for now, I believe.”

Monique looked at Shego while Kim wiped her brow with her Battle Suit sleeve. “Maybe when Kim asks you if this is why you suffocated her, THIS time you should say yes, Shego,” she said quietly.

Shego shuddered. “No. No, I don’t think so. Besides, I’d still know.” She saw Kim trying to catch her eye, and she turned away.

Kim sighed when Shego did that. They would have to talk about this later, of course. She needed to hear Shego’s explanation for what happened here before she could make any kind of decision on where they went from here. Obviously the trap Gemini had mentioned had involved either Mrs. Acceptable killing her, or the other way around, and Shego had been caught instead.

But Shego couldn’t believe that Kim would be so hypocritical that she’d stop loving the former thief for committing the very same crime that Kim had committed last year?

From the way Shego had been acting when Kim got out of the elevator, she evidently did.

Kim yearned to comfort and reassure Shego until she smiled again, but that would have to wait. Kim wasn't sure she was mentally prepared for that conversation herself. Monique seemed to have it in hand anyway. The mission, this damn mission that had caused them all such heartache, couldn’t end until its architect was taken care of.

The glove hand of her Battle Suit crackled with electricity as she clenched a fist tightly.

Let Junior fear the moment when she got him in her hands.

Whoever decided doors were "nonessential" would have to be dealt with. It wasn't until you worked with these halfwits long enough that you appreciated the value of being able to drop people into holes.

At any rate, he'd been forced to wait outside the hangar until one of two things happened - either Kim Possible murdered Mrs. Acceptable and shut off the energy flow from the station, or she failed and the device went off. In either situation, power would return to the doors.

To implement that, he'd given Gemini relatively straightforward instructions. Make sure that Ms. Possible entered the corridor first, while keeping the others too occupied to follow. Once Junior received confirmation that someone had crossed the door's threshold, he activated the bomb and locked down the door.

Of course, the second step had proven redundant, but if the end result was the same, what did it matter?

There had been a chance that Gemini had botched it and allowed someone other than Ms. Possible to enter. That the energy bomb hadn't gone off - and everyone on the station would have felt it if it had - proved that it was indeed Ms. Possible. Only she had a chance with her preternatural ability to overcome any obstacle, even the Bebes and their super speed.

Junior was relieved. Despite the satisfaction it would bring from knowing Kim Possible had failed to thwart his scheme, having the bomb detonate was not his best-case scenario. Where would he live, for starters? He was in no rush to live through the apocalypse.

The true point of this whole exercise had been about power, about seizing it and holding it over the heads of others. That way everyone would know that you were someone to be feared, not someone to be trifled with. The lunar device had been intended solely as a sword with which to hang over the world's head, to bully it into giving him what he wanted.

And, of course, giving him a world stage onto which he might lure Team Possible, for its inevitable defeat. Once again this would send a message to the governments of the world that Señor Senior Junior was not someone who could be stopped.

Of course, now the world's initial reaction wouldn't be to see it that way. They would see it as a defeat, one that ended with him skulking onto a spacecraft while Team Possible was occupied with saving the planet AND its moon. Time would tell, however. Ms. Possible's reputation would suffer once people realized she was two times a murderer.

And she herself might not be able to come to grips with her actions. Then she would surely break, and it was he who did it to her.

"If you thought I was just one of the Acceptables' victims, you were wrong," Junior murmured as he slipped into the hangar.

He didn't like leaving Father behind, but he believed it was firmly established that his father had not been involved in the plan. Team Possible, hopeless do-gooders that they were, would treat him . . . properly?

"Father?" Junior asked, surprised.

For he had left his father in his personal quarters, and now Junior found him sitting on the floor, his back leaning up against a crate. Surely he must be seeing things.

But his father turned his head to look at him. "Ah, my son," he whispered. "I was hoping to find you here."

"How did you get here?" Junior asked. "I asked you not to leave my rooms."

"I wished to speak to you one final time, Junior," Senior Senior told him.

"Final time? Father, you are not making sense."

"Ah. That may have something to do with the heart attack."

Junior took a step back in shock. "What?!"

Senior smiled wanly. "You did not know this, Junior, but I developed a heart condition when you were a prisoner of the Acceptables. The doctors said it was likely stress-related."

Those Acceptables . . . yet another reason why he enjoyed being their master! Junior clenched his fists in rage. "Father, we will board a spaceship and fly you to the nearest hospital!"

His father raised an arm, as if to wave him off, but his arm fell back limply. Junior realized with dismay that he didn't have the strength or the mobility to do more. "Junior, it is too late for that. Either I will recover, or I will die. I felt the symptoms even before I reached the hangar."

"But, but - didn't the doctors give you medication?"

"Yes, Junior, they did. But when your men abducted me, and I awoke to find myself on the other side of the moon, I did not have my pills on me. And I did not think you could send a craft back to Earth for the sake of my heart medication," Senior told him. "Plus - I did not want to burden you with my medical troubles. I have always tried to protect you. Too hard, as it happens."

Junior couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Come Father," he said, approaching him. He would pick his father up if he had to, and carry him into the nearest spaceship. "While you recover, I will get us as far from Team Possible as I can."

"Ah yes, Team Possible. A delightful group of people. You know, I met that African girl earlier. The Oryx? She came to my rooms. Or your rooms, rather."

"The Oryx? She was in my rooms?! Why did you not tell me this?!"

"It was rather like closing the bag after the cat was out of it, Junior. Also I did not think you would appreciate the fortuitous nature of her visit."

Junior had been in the process of bending over to pick his father up in his arms, but he paused now. "Fortuitous how?"

"Junior, I have always done what I thought was best for you. Too often - hiring someone to do your homework for you, for example, or encouraging you to join me in villainy - it seems I was wrong," Senior Senior said gravely. "In time, I hope you will realize that what I have done today, I did it in your best interests. And this time, I will meet my maker believing I was right."

"Father," Junior said quietly. "What have you done?"

Senior shrugged. "I merely gave this Oryx girl the location of the elevator leading to the computers controlling the moon machine. I may have, in a roundabout manner, given her Ms. Shego's gloves as well." He paused. "Oh yes, and then I gave her Kim Possible's special suit."

"You did what?!"

"I did have an opportunity to retrieve the gloves later, actually. Perhaps not one with a high likelihood of success, but still a chance. But I passed. I had no regrets. They WERE in frightful need of them, I thought."

"That's because they're the good guys, I'm the bad guy, and they needed them because I was trying to have them killed! How could you betray me like that?"

"As I said," Senior Senior said wearily, "it will be up to you to decide some day if I have really betrayed you - or if this was an end to all my past betrayals of our family." A tear slid down his left cheek. "I see now that I betrayed you most cruelly after you were rescued from the Acceptables."

"Father - "

"I wanted so much to believe that you were all right once you were recovered physically. I should have realized that you were scarred emotionally as well. That your recovery would require more than a few weeks' bedrest. Maybe if I had, you would not have embarked on this destructive path, Junior." Senior sighed. "For that, I ask you to forgive me."

Señor Senior Junior looked down at his father. He wanted so much to be angry with him - how could his own father, after giving him so much, turn away from him on the cusp of his great success? Unlike those Acceptable bastards, he had loved his father all his life. What had he done to deserve this?

His rage shriveled up and died, however, at the sight of his father lying there. He looked gray and shrunken.

He looked like he was going to die. And Junior was the one who separated him from his medication.

Junior had never had to think very hard. He had his father and servants and minions and jailers to think for him. Now, more than ever, he wanted to understand. "But why, father?" he whispered, crouching in front of him. "Why them and not me?"

Senior smiled sadly. "Son, I will love you with my dying breath, but I suppose . . . I wish you were more like Kim Possible."

Junior was so stunned that he didn't hear Kim brake as she came running into the hangar. He did hear her gasp, however, when she heard his father's last words. Junior turned on her. "You!" he shrieked. "You couldn't stop by stealing my victory from me! Now you must steal my father as well?!"

"Junior," Kim said, then stopped. She had no idea what she'd just walked in on, but she didn't have the least idea of how to respond to what she thought Senior Senior had said. All she knew was that it looked like she'd walked in on Junior's last moments with his father. Seeing the others catching up with her, she held out a hand and put a finger to her lips. The other members of Team Possible all stopped.

"Junior," Señor Senior Senior murmured. "Take care of - Ricardo - for me."

He closed his eyes, let his head slip down, and silently died.

"No," Junior said, staring at him. "No, no, no!" He put his fingers to his father's neck, then felt his chest for a heartbeat. "Father, you cannot die!" he sobbed as he pulled his father into his arms.

Kim took a few quiet steps backward. "Wade," she whispered. "Quietly, tell me if you can you make absolutely sure that nobody escapes from this hangar, either on foot or by spaceship?"

"Other than someone piloting a spaceship through the hangar bay doors, which would probably kill them and everyone on the station, no problem."

There was no telling what Junior might do in his grief. Kim hated intruding on him, despite everything he'd done to her and Shego and her family and her friends that night, but it was too dangerous leaving him alone. "Okay, we'll wait here. Ron, why don't you guys start making sure the WEE agents aren't able to make trouble when they wake up?"

"I'll do it," Shego said.

"Don't you move," Kim said quickly. Shego still wouldn't look her in the eye!

"Good idea. Why don't you all not move?"

The silky whisper was all the warning they had before a shape emerged from the shadows and held the razor-sharp edge of a metal fan to Ron's throat.

Ron spoke first after a moment of shock as everyone took in the slim figure standing behind him. "Uh . . . yeah, not moving sounds doable."

"You!" Monique said as Kim swore. She'd remembered Jaqui while down below, and then promptly forgotten about her again. "You're Gemini's flunky!"

"What, you thought I'd just follow on his heels and take you on with the rest of those fools?" Jaqui sneered. Her flawless beauty was marred by the vicious snarl that twisted her face into that of a rabid animal. "Once I heard you escaped, I was the only person on the station who remembered what every villain on Earth knows - Kim Possible gets away, Kim Possible engages villain, villain loses. My mission was about getting out of this, and if that means taking a hostage onto a spacecraft and flying out of here, that's what it has to be."

"We'll never let that happen," Kim said. "Besides, Ron doesn't even know how to fly a ship, do you?"

"Strangely not offended, KP," Ron said.

"I bet your sweet little self-automated spaceship would love to help darling Ronnie here," Jaqui retorted.

"You'd be surprised," Shego said dryly.

"I am sick and tired of this damn mission," Monique growled as she estimated how quickly she could put her foot through Jaqui's nasal cavity. "When the hell is it going to be fucking OVER?"

"If you don't move," Jaqui shrieked, "it's going to be over for Stoppable right now!"

"No!"

Twin voices spoke, and neither were human.

Dropping from an air duct, Rufus and Ruby landed on Jaqui's shoulders. Rufus latched onto her ear with his teeth, while Ruby dug all her claws into the side of Jaqui's neck and twisted.

Jaqui squealed in pain and terror. She spun clockwise, the metal fan leaving Ron's neck as she twirled and flailed about, trying to dislodge the two pink rodents. "EEEEE! GET THEM OFF GET THEM OFF!!!!!"

Kim thought that if she kept spinning another minute, she'd start flying like a helicopter. "Any of you feel like taking care of her? I'm beat. In fact, I don't know about you guys," she said, looking at Shego, "but I just want to take Shego home so the two of us can crawl into bed."

Shego looked shocked. "Hey, I thrive on action," she said weakly, but for the first time, and in spite of herself, she seemed hopeful.

To be concluded (forever!) . . .

"How the hell am I up before you?" Ron asked Kim as she shuffled into the kitchen area.

She grunted and reached for the coffee. "For starters, you crashed almost as soon as we landed back on Earth. For another, the military was asking me questions for over an hour. And I had to check on my family." Kim looked morosely at him. "And after all that, I didn't sleep very well. I had a lot on my mind."

"Oh," Ron said. He looked down at his own cup of coffee. "I'm sorry, I didn't think - "

"No, now that you've brought it up, did you see Shego today? She wasn't in our bed when I woke up earlier."

Ron shrugged. "I only woke up thirty minutes ago. I haven't seen her."

Kim seemed disheartened as she drank from her mug. "I don't know why she's avoiding me," she murmured. "She can't believe I'm going to leave her!"

"I DID see Mr. Barkin, though," Ron volunteered, eager to get her mind off Shego for a minute. "He came in a little while ago with a couple suits, and they've been in Dr. Director's office with the door closed."

"Suits?" Kim asked, raising an eyebrow. "FBI? CIA?"

"More like Armani."

"Great, sounds like lawyers then." Kim frowned. Why would lawyers be with Colonel Barkin? Maybe it had something to do with the legal repercussions from their mission. Or the people Betty had killed yesterday.

Kim looked at Dr. Director's closed door. They really needed to have a talk about that. She was eternally grateful that Betty had kept her family alive and unharmed, but . . .

As if Kim's thoughts had rung a bell in Dr. Director's office, the former GJ boss emerged. "I thought I heard your voices. Kim, could I have a word with you? Ron, you should come too.”

“Is there a problem?” Kim asked.

“Not exactly, no.”

“That was reassuring,” Ron said as they followed her back to her office.

Standing just inside the door was Colonel Barkin. Sitting in two chairs across from Betty’s desk were the two strange men Ron had mentioned. Sure enough, their suits were too expensive-looking for them to be with the government. Both men appeared to be in their sixties.

“Kim, Ron, these men are – were Señor Senior Senior’s personal attorneys,” Betty explained as she sat down. “Apparently Senior gave the Oryx a CD-ROM on the station and asked her to keep it safe.”

Kim looked at Ron as a pang of sorrow ran through her at the reminder of Senior Senior’s death. Junior hadn't tried to flee while Jaqui was being restrained the night before. He had remained with his father's body until an American military spacecraft docked next to Sappho at the station. Only then had Team Possible headed for Earth as dozens of Marines took up the job of cleaning up the mess WEE had left behind. The elder Senior's corpse had been treated with all due respect, Kim had been told. “Did she mention anything about it to you?”

“Not that I remember,” Ron said.

“The Oryx handed it over to the authorities,” Barkin said. “It turned out to be a visual message intended for his attorneys that Senior recorded while on the station, and the CD-ROM was turned over to them.”

“Ms. Possible,” one of the two men said smoothly, “my name is Walter Fogel, and I’ve represented Señor Senior Senior for over twenty years. My colleague here is Harvell Madigan, and he has assisted me on many, many legal matters involving Señor Senior and his son over the years.”

“How do you do, Ms. Possible?” Mr. Madigan asked.

“Fine. What’s the sitch?”

“The, eh, sitch?” Fogel asked.

“As in the situation,” Betty supplied.

“Ah. Yes, of course. Ms. Possible, it appears that while he was in his son’s custody, Señor Senior recorded a new last will and testament,” Fogel said. “From what we’ve been told by the authorities, and from his own words on the CD, it appears he knew he was going to die when he made it.”

“God,” Kim said. “How horrible.”

“Indeed. At any rate, Señor Senior Senior made several changes to his will. He stipulated, for example, that two billion dollars be set aside for the purpose of reimbursing Smarty Mart for any money which his son embezzled, once the extent of the damage is known. As for the son himself,” Fogel said distastefully, “Señor Senior Junior inherits one million dollars, which is to be placed in a trust specifically for any future expenses relating to his physical and/or psychological care.”

“Wait,” Ron said. “He only gets a million? And it’s just for – “

“As Señor Senior put it,” Madigan interjected, “Junior will need that money for a full-time psychologist if he abandons his current path, and a full-time physician if he does not.”

Kim’s chuckle was forced. If Junior didn’t get his father’s money, who did? And what business was it of hers?

“The most important alteration,” Fogel continued in all seriousness, “is his inclusion of you, Ms. Possible. More precisely, the Team Possible corporation.”

“Me?” Kim asked, shocked. “Why would he leave ME anything?”

“Apparently you helped save his son last year?” Fogel asked. “Also, Señor Senior Senior said in his statement that he has greatly respected you for years. He could not think of a more deserving recipient, or one who would do more good with it.”

Kim and Ron both looked stunned, so it was Betty who asked the inevitable question. “How much did he leave Team Possible?”

“We’re still determining the precise valuation, but it appears to be several billion dollars.”

“WHAT?!” Ron burst out.

Kim just stared. “You – you can’t be serious!” she said.

“We are totally serious,” Fogel replied. “There was an initial concern that some would claim you forced Senior Senior to change his will while you were alone on the station with him, but we have proof that didn’t happen.”

“What kind of proof?” Betty asked calmly.

“In case of kidnapping,” Fogel explained, “several years ago Señor Senior Senior gave our firm a list of fifteen code words. He stated that any future changes to his will, written or oral, would contain fourteen of those words, no more, no less. Otherwise we would know the change had been coerced by kidnappers or extortionists.”

“Several billion dollars?” Kim repeated. “Cash?!”

“Not all of it,” Fogel said. “Most of Senior Senior’s assets were in investments. There’s the private island, of course, the mansion, the controlling stake in Smarty Mart, the – “

“Wait, wait, wait,” Ron interrupted. “We own Smarty Mart?”

“Señor Senior Senior didn’t own it outright, but he owned so much of the corporate voting stock, he might as well have,” Fogel told him.

Ron looked ill. “I think I’m starting to hyperventilate. Need – paper – bag!”

"Perhaps you should lie down, Ronald," Dr. Director suggested. "In fact, maybe we should continue this discussion at a later date. I think the memory of Señor Senior Senior's passing is still fresh in our minds, and that this is a subject best left to our attorneys."

"We have attorneys?" Kim asked.

"Well, no, not yet. But I had several United States government contacts when I was the head of Global Justice who have entered private practice. I can call in a favor."

"In that case," Fogel said, "have them contact us when they're prepared." He handed Betty his business card. "An estate of this magnitude will require time anyway."

Ron looked around. "Maybe we should buy a couch first," he suggested. "For the next time I feel a sudden urge to lie down?"

"Let's go, Stoppable," Barkin ordered. "Looks like it's the showers for you. I might have known," he muttered.

Ron didn't look comforted as Barkin put his arm around Ron's shoulders. "KP, help."

"Betty and I have to talk things over, Ron," Kim said absently, staring at Dr. Director even while the two attorneys passed her as they exited the room.

"Yes, I imagine we do," Betty agreed. "Steve, I'll - "

"See you tomorrow night?" he asked, his eyes twinkling.

Betty's cheeks reddened. "Er, yes, we should discuss that further. Later. Not now."

"I'll see to Stoppable's - case of nerves then."

"Eh, you know, Mr. B, this isn't Middleton High," Ron said nervously. "We don't have a nurse."

"I'll have you know I was a battlefield medic in cases of emergency."

"Eep!" Rufus squeaked.

A few seconds later, the room's population had suddenly dwindled to two. "What about tomorrow night?" Kim asked.

Betty fiddled with her prosthetic ear. "Well, Kim, Steve and I may have decided to . . . try picking up where we left off several years ago. It seems neither of us have really dated anyone since then, so we're looking at it as a very long - break."

Kim blinked. "You're dating Mr. Barkin."

"I think we have more important things to talk about."

"I'd like to pretend we didn't for a second, but okay," Kim said. "Look, Dr. Director, I thought about - what happened at the Space Center. And I don't want you to think that I want you to quit. You protected my family, and you were outnumbered, and I never specifically told YOU that you shouldn't kill anyone since you're not a field member of Team - "

"Kim," Dr. Director said calmly. "I appreciate what you're saying, but I have a few things I want to say to you. So why don't you let me have my say, and then you can decide my future, okay?"

Kim didn't entirely like the sound of that. "Um, all right."

Betty sat on the edge of her desk. "First, I don't think my administrative role with Team Possible should be an excuse. I believe that I should hold myself to the same standards as the rest of you, much as I held myself to the same standards as GJ agents beneath me years ago. If your policy is no killing, then that should be my policy."

"Well - "

"Please, Kim. Let me finish uninterrupted. Then you can say all you desire."

Kim nodded.

"That policy of yours, Kim . . . I think it needs to be changed." Betty waited to see if Kim would interrupt. The young woman's eyes had widened, but she'd remained quiet.

"It's not that I disagree with your intentions, or your motives, or your goals, Kim," Betty continued. "I admire them, in fact. It should be the object of every law-enforcement agency in the world to pursue justice with as little loss of life as humanly possible. As humanly possible, Kim," she repeated.

Then Betty sighed. "You are so incredibly talented, Kim. I couldn't do the things you can when I was your age. I certainly can't do them at my age. I'm probably not in the best shape I could be in either," she admitted.

"But even if I was, I don't believe I could have dealt with the situation at the Space Center without killing anyone, even with Colonel Barkin's assistance. Ten armed men, close quarters, five untrained civilians including two teenagers and a two-year-old boy?" Betty shook her head. "Maybe if I was younger. Maybe if I was you. But I wasn't. I'm not. And I didn't have the luxury of time to think of a better way. Sappho, she meant well, trying to impersonate Junior. But there was a fifty-fifty chance those men would have started firing in one minute."

Kim was starting to turn red, and Betty grunted. "All right, I guess I can't ask you to sit there silently. Say what's on your mind."

"I'm not questioning your judgment at the Space Center, Dr. Director," Kim burst out. "You were protecting my family, your friends, your baby. You were trying to free yourselves so Junior couldn't go on holding your safety over our heads like a sword! But there's a difference between what you did, and what you're proposing!"

"Actually, what I did ties in with the point I'm trying to make, Kim. Sooner or later, there will come a time for you or your teammates where the situation is so desperate, the odds so long, the risks so great, that every option needs to be available. Including killing the bad guy when the alternative is likely the death of you, your friends, or innocent victims."

"No," Kim said firmly. "There's always another way."

"For you maybe. But Ron, Monique, even Shego - they can't all be you. Face it, Kim - even YOU can't be YOU all the time. None of us are perfect. Sometimes you have to make personal sacrifices to protect others."

"I'm TRYING to protect others! I know that Global Justice agents are allowed to kill in the line of duty. Had you ever killed someone before you retired?"

Betty nodded. "Yes, I had. As a GJ agent I killed four men in the line of duty."

"Was it easy for you?"

"The first time I had to make that call in the field, no. The later times it was easier," Betty said, "but it was always hard for me at the end of the day. It was hard for me last night too."

"And you can probably imagine what I went through after I killed Mrs. Acceptable," Kim said. "And you know what Shego went through last night."

"I do."

"Then why can't you see? I'm trying to protect my friends from going through the same thing!" Kim cried out. "Anything's possible for a Possible! Together I know we can face any crisis without forcing one of us to go through the trauma I did!"

Dr. Director rubbed the back of her neck. "Oy. I figured as much. Kim, may I remind you of something? Last night, Shego was put in a situation where she felt killing another human being was the only way to save the world. And I'm sure that was hard for her. But knowing how you felt about killing, knowing how disappointed you'd be - would you say that made Shego's burden easier, or harder?"

Kim cringed a little when she thought that one through. "Harder, I guess," she murmured.

"Kim, I understand where you're coming from. Even as the head of GJ, my door was always open for agents who used deadly force in the line of duty. I know what that does to decent people. And I also liked to keep an eye out for the occasional person who didn't mind much at all. For some people, killing is a slippery slope. They do it, they find out it's not that hard, and they tell themselves killing serves justice better than putting people in prison. Those people become monsters in their own right."

"Police, the FBI, Global Justice - groups like those allow the use of deadly force, but for them it's a last resort. A killing in the line of duty always leads to hearings and investigations to determine if the killing was lawful and justified, and therapy and counseling for the shooter. They understand what I'm trying to tell you, Kim. It's always an option, but one whose use requires serious safeguards and extreme caution. Or do you think that the use of deadly force undercuts the authority of police departments across America?" Betty asked shrewdly.

Kim sighed and shook her head. "No, of course not. But we're different, Dr. Director. We can be better than that."

"You're right," Betty agreed. "You're world-savers. You're hope for people all over the world. You're special. And Ron is so loyal, so close to you, that he will never take a human life on a mission, knowing how you feel about it. And I worry if that puts him in greater danger."

Kim gasped. "That was a low blow, Betty," she growled.

Betty held up her hands. "Perhaps. But you have to ask yourself - is it more important to protect him from what it feels like to kill someone, or from being killed? You said earlier that anything's possible for a Possible, as in being able to save the day without killing anyone. I choose to interpret that motto differently. I think anything's possible for you, including being able to help your friends if they kill someone, to draw on your past experiences and life lessons, and help them cope with the trauma."

"I can't - how can I do that? It would be like telling them it's okay to kill! I'd be the one responsible."

"Kim, being a responsible person doesn't mean heaping all the blame upon yourself," Betty said. "Some things are out of your control. Like what happened to Shego last night. It wasn't your fault. But if you don't help her, or if you don't help your friends when they're forced to make the same decision, THAT will be your fault."

Kim crossed her arms in a classic defensive position, but she felt doubtful for the first time. She still felt confident that they could complete any future missions without needing to take a life . . . but Betty was right, Shego had really freaked out last night because she thought Kim would hate her. Maybe things would be different today if Kim told the others -

"So what are you telling me?" Kim asked. "Do you expect me to just change my mind? Tell them that if they want to kill someone, hey, that's okay?"

"No, I don't expect you to change your mind in five minutes. And I certainly don't expect you to tell them killing is 'okay'. Killing is NOT okay," Betty retorted. "Killing is what you do when there's no other choice, when the danger to your teammates or to the defenseless is so grave that it would be foolish to risk anything else. And after, you deal with it, you hope you never have to do it again, and you move on. I'm not trying to tell you what to do, Kim. It's your team, you're the leader, you set the tone for everything that happens here." Betty's shoulders slumped. "I'm just concerned for you, Kim."

"Me!"

"Yes, you. I'd like to be able to mentor you on occasion. And I'm concerned that you've never really gotten over what you did to Mrs. Acceptable, and that until you do, you'll project those emotions onto your team." Betty shrugged. "Or maybe I'm just being overanalytical. Kim, your heart is so big. You take on everyone else's problems and ask for so little in return. So I'm certainly not going to add to that by TELLING you what to do. This is your decision. I just hope that you'll think about it long and hard."

Kim waited a long second before nodding. "All right, Dr. Director. I won't promise you anything, but I appreciate your candor and that you're trying to help. And I do still want you to remain with us. But I expect you to realize that if I choose not to accept your advice, you'll abide by my decision and not bring it up again every three months."

"Of course, Kim. You're the boss."

"Could I ask for your - mentoring on one thing, while I'm here?"

Betty sat back down in her chair. "Try me."

"Shego and I haven't had a chance to say much since we got back from space," Kim said. "I've tried to avoid giving her any kind of impression that I'm angry with her, or that I'm going to break up with her. But she's been avoiding my eyes, and today she's avoiding me."

"Well," Betty replied, "either the signals you're giving her aren't enough, and she needs to hear you say it. Or she's discovered she's capable of killing someone, and even though it was in defense of others, she needs to deal with this in private."

"I thought of that," Kim admitted. "If Shego's feeling guilty or remorseful, would it sound twisted if I said I was - relieved?"

Betty leaned back. "You mean, relieved that Shego wasn't just upset last night because of how she thought YOU might react? That Shego's not a heartless killer?"

"Yes," Kim said. "I mean, I didn't think that anyway, but a lot of people still refuse to believe that Shego's anything more than a selfish, evil thief. That she only does something if it's in her own interests." She looked troubled. "I've seen talk on the Internet and on the television. Some people say she's become one of the good guys only because she thought it would get me into bed!"

"In other words, someone who never risk sacrificing her relationship with you in order to save millions of lives," Betty said.

"Or sacrifice her own life before taking mine," Kim added.

Betty nodded. "Kim, Shego's going to work this out with your help. And over time, the whole world is going to learn who the real Shego is."

"It's the least the world can do."

Monique yawned. “Sure, Yori. What’s up?”

“It will not surprise you to know that I am returning to Japan tonight,” Yori said calmly. “The mission is a success, my homeland is safe, and as I played a role in the mission, national honor is maintained. I will have a new secret mission waiting for me tomorrow, just as you have the streets and alleys of this city.”

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” Monique said. “I guess I’d already gotten used to you being around.”

“And it was my honor to have met you,” Yori replied. “That is why I need to tell you something – about Ron-san.”

Monique eyed her dubiously. “If this is going to be another rehash of our last discussion – “

“No, Monique-san. I wished to tell you that you were right. I have - feelings for Ron-san.”

“Oh,” Monique said after a moment. “Well then, why don’t you stay? Take some vacation time?” Part of her, though, didn’t really mean it.

Yori smiled sadly. “What would you have me do, Monique-san? Ask Ron out, even though this was the first time we were together in over five years? Spend a week with him? What then? He would not leave Team Possible for Japan, and I could not leave my country’s service for him. I’m not ready for that.”

“Yori, I feel for you. I really do. But why are you telling me all this?”

“Because, Monique-san, we both know that you have feelings for him as well,” Yori told her. “I am giving you the chance to do something about it.”

Monique rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on, girlfriend. I keep telling you, there’s nothing between us.”

“Honestly ask yourself how much time you spend with him, and then how much time you spend with everyone else.”

“We’re friends, we’re sparring partners, and we’re on Team Possible together,” Monique said, ticked off her fingers.

“Is that not how Kim-sama and Shego-san started?” Yori asked innocently.

Monique found herself flushing. There was nothing between them, though. Nothing!

“Monique-san, you did not see Ron-san on the station. I did. He was very concerned when you were still missing, and I do not believe it was just worry for a friend, even if that is what HE thinks. I cannot at this time compete with your closeness.” Yori shrugged. “What you choose to do is up to you, Monique-san. I cede the field to you. You must look inside yourself and decide.”

“Yori – “

“For I promise you, Monique-san. One day I believe I will come back for good,” Yori said. “And when that happens, I believe the American expression is ‘all bets are off’.”

Monique’s eyes widened. “Was that a threat?”

“A promise, Monique-san.”

“Wow. I think you’ll fit in real well in America some day, Yori.”

“Is that a compliment?” Yori asked.

“Very much so, yes.” Monique pulled Yori close and gave the startled secret agent a hug. “It was my honor to fight next to you.”

“Please and thank you,” Yori said, grinning.

Then Monique yawned as she let go. “And now I’m getting me some coffee.” Leaving Yori behind, she headed for the kitchen. Ron always left enough in the pot for . . .

Monique cocked her head. Maybe, just maybe, Yori was on to something.

Behind her, Yori’s exit was halted by the sudden appearance of someone else. “Wade-san,” she said. “Monique-san just went to the kitchen if you are looking for her.”

“No, actually, I’m looking for you,” Wade said. “Colonel Barkin said you’re leaving for Japan soon.”

“Yes, tonight. Why?”

“I just – wanted to say goodbye. It was nice working with you,” Wade said nervously.

“And I you. Your computer skills are incredible. I have worked with several people such as you in the field, some much older and more experienced, and none of them can compare to you.” Yori chuckled. “I am sure I will miss you the next time I have to work with one of them.”

“Well, there is something you could do about that,” Wade told her.

“Oh?”

He held something out to her. “Be sure and take this with you on every mission,” he told her.

"A pen?"

“It’s a simpler version of the Kimmunicator. No video, but you’ll be able to communicate with me almost anywhere in perfect audio. And it has scanning capabilities too.” Wade rubbed the back of his neck. “You know, only as a last resort. I wouldn’t want the geeks in Japan to think I was stepping on their toes.”

“How delightful, Wade-san!” Yori said brightly. “I will make sure it is a secret between us.”

“And, you know, in case you just want to talk when you’re free,” Wade added. “I mean, because you were one of us for a few days. I think we should stay connected.”

Yori studied his face and understood. Her smile didn’t change as she nodded. “You are absolutely right,” she said. “I will speak to you again when I am in Japan.”

“That’s great! I mean, great, everyone will be glad when I tell them,” Wade said quickly.

Yori doubted that he would tell anyone. Young love was so sweet.

The joke fell flat as Kim slid into the booth Shego was occupying at the Planetarium. Shego was staring into a filled shot glass.

"You'd think my tolerance for alcohol would have gone down after years of being a prisoner of . . . the Acceptables." Shego turned her head and grimaced, as if the very act of saying the name made her ill. "Looks like I've got a cast-iron stomach, though."

"I've been looking everywhere for you," Kim said. "I finally tried here because I know this place has significance for us."

Shego nodded. She picked up the shot and downed it in one gulp, but said nothing afterwards.

"You know, last year, after the showdown in the Acceptables' lair?" Kim continued. "After, I didn't know if I had become a different person, or if I was the same person I always was. And I didn't know which scared me more."

"You're the same," Shego said. "Believe me, I've known you for years. You're the same." She sighed, and then her face changed as depression seemed to cross her face like a wave. "You're the same," she repeated.

"Shego, you told me a while ago that you'd never killed anyone. I know where you're coming from, I understand what this is doing to you - "

"No, you don't," Shego said calmly. "You don't know where I am. I don't know where I am. That's the problem . . . no, I take that back. The problem is I don't know who I am."

Kim reached out for Shego's hand, but the pale hand slid back a quarter of an inch. It was enough for Kim to know she didn't want to be touched right now. "You're not a killer, if that's what you mean. You may have killed, but that doesn't make you a killer in the truest sense of the word. Not caring that you killed, that's what makes you a killer."

Shego looked up, and a bitter smile played with her lips. "Pumpkin, you may not appreciate this at first, but part of me wishes I WAS a killer 'in the truest sense'. It would make things easier."

"What things? Shego, you need to let me in. I thought this was about Mrs. Acceptable, but it's obviously not," Kim said, troubled.

"No, it's part of it," Shego corrected her. "I freaked out back on the station. Thirty seconds after she was dead, I panicked. I was terrified of the look I thought I'd see in your eyes. Then I calmed down a little when I realized that wasn't the look I saw from you. Of course, then came dealing with what I'd done."

"And I'm here to help you with that," Kim said, loudly enough to carry over the music, but only just. "Shego, I - "

"Look, Princess, you can't help me, okay?!" Shego snapped.

Kim stiffened. Shego saw this and flinched in turn. "I don't mean it like that," she said quickly. "I'm not angry with you. I'm not . . . argh, this is what I'm talking about!!"

"Shego, I don't know what you're talking about. You have to try explaining to me."

Shego groaned and put a hand over her face. "What's my least favorite word in the dictionary?" she asked.

Kim blinked. "That's easy, it's 'soft'. Shego, you can't be upset because you think feeling remorse about killing someone means you're going soft!"

"It's not that," Shego grumbled. "It's . . . I was that dysfunctional family's prisoner for years. I was subjected to physical and psychological torture. It was the worst time of my life. And a few months after I got out, did I seem a whole lot different to you?"

"No," Kim said hesitantly. "You were the Shego I'd always known, pretty much. Other than that you were finally willing to let your guard down and try giving our friendship a chance."

Shego held out a hand, as if to say There you go. "You hit both nails on the head, Kimmie. A month of excessive training and a high-calorie diet, and I was back to my old self. And I liked my old self. I still do, Princess. Hell, I love that Shego! But that Shego would never have agreed to be your friend. She needed to be your rival so badly."

"And didn't that work out for the best?" Kim asked pointedly.

"Yes," Shego said, closing her eyes. She opened them again and looked at Kim. "I love you, Kim."

Kim couldn't stop herself from smiling. Finally, some sense! "I love you too, Shego.”

Shego didn’t smile, though. She almost looked like it pained her to say it. “Don’t say that. Don’t say my name. Don’t call me Shego like you’re sure I’m her. Because I’m not, not any more. I don’t know who is, but I’m – not – Shego.”

All at once, it dawned on Kim. “You’re right,” she realized. “The killing is just a small part of this, isn’t it? You’re afraid for your identity.”

Shego nodded. “Kimmie, I’ve been making choices since we first teamed up. And I could rationalize those choices. I was Shego, and I was evil and selfish and greedy and unconcerned about anyone else. But I worked with you because the Acceptables were a greater personal threat. And I became friends with you because even then, I felt the first stirrings of lust.”

“You what?” Kim asked, startled. They had never really talked about when their feelings for each other first changed.

“Oh yeah,” Shego said. “Why did you think I was so possessive? But that’s not the point. The point is that I was acting out of character, and I needed to tell myself that I was only acting for my own benefit. Any mercenary will take a few jobs for the good guys if the pay is right, and being close to you, I thought, was a high-paying job indeed.”

Kim nodded. “And then came the space station.”

Shego sighed again. “Twice, twice, I did something that I couldn’t rationalize in a hundred years. I was willing to sacrifice my life to save your life. And if that wasn’t enough, I was willing to sacrifice my life with you to save your soul. Not to mention a few billion people. I was downright heroic yesterday.”

“You’re not in the mood to appreciate it right now,” Kim agreed, thinking how odd it was to hear Shego saying words like the ones she'd used with Betty earlier, “but you were.”

“Blech.”

“And you feel like you can’t reconcile good Shego with evil Shego.”

“Good Shego?” Shego scoffed. “There’s no such thing. There’s evil Shego, and then there’s this other goody-two-shoes that I don’t recognize. If I didn’t feel horrible about myself over killing that evil bitch, then at least I could believe I hadn’t really changed! But I do, and that’s just one more sign that I have!” She suddenly looked oddly helpless. “Kimmie, I don’t know how to go back to who I was before, and I so want to go back, but I don’t know how, and come to think of it, maybe I don’t want to go back. But I don’t want to go forward either!” She looked away. “I’m afraid of losing myself.”

Kim stared at her. She’d never anticipated this, but then it had never occurred to her that Shego was dealing with even bigger problems than Mrs. Acceptable’s brief death. “Shego,” she said, stalling for time while she tried to think of what she should say, “this is a special place for us and all, but how about we step outside for some privacy . . . and maybe some quiet. The bass in here is going to break my teeth.”

Shego shrugged. “S’kay.”

Kim almost couldn’t bear to see Shego acting like – well, like someone else as she docilely followed Kim outside. The closest alternative was Sadie, and Kim led Shego into the back seat. “Sadie, would you mind turning off your ‘ears’ for a little while?” she asked.

“Of course, Kim.”

“And as for you, Shego.”

“Maybe this is for the best,” Shego said softly. “Maybe if I turn into this other woman, I can be sure you won’t – leave me. I don’t think I could survive all this change if I lost you too.”

Kim gasped. “Shego!”

If that admission came as a surprise, Shego’s next movie shocked, even horrified Kim.

She started crying.

“Oh f-fuck, I’m so pathetic!” Shego wailed. “Only the Acceptables ever made me cr-cry!”

Kim took her by the arms, intending to pull her close and comfort her, but she hesitated. “Shego, you’re not changing,” she said. “You’re exactly the same person you were before.”

Shego’s tears dried up almost instantly. “W-what?”

“You were never as evil as you made yourself out to be. Even as Drakken’s sidekick. You told me once that you never wanted me to die back then, that you wanted to see how I’d escape. Not exactly the proper behavior for an archnemesis, I’d say.”

“That was different!” Shego shot back. “That was, was – professional curiosity!”

“That was a woman who not only drew the line at killing, but didn’t even want to watch someone else die,” Kim replied. “You were never heartless. You had a rotten childhood, and you were angry, and you lashed out at everyone around you. And now that you have someone who loves you – who doesn’t just love part of you, who loves all of you – you’re not changing. You’re just letting the real Shego out. The Shego you would have been if your parents had lived and raised you the way you deserved.”

“Just because you can do anything doesn’t make you a trained psychiatrist,” Shego said crossly, rubbing at her eyes.

“Gee, the snark still appears to be there.”

"Kimmie - "

"Shego, I hate to break this to you,” Kim said, “but you might actually like the new you if you tried. In fact, I bet that in the long run, the new you won't be that much different from the old you.” Kim looked down. "I'm changing too, you know. Betty seems to think that it would be better for Team Possible if I made killing an option."

Shego snorted. "Why? Because I handled it SO well?"

"Yeah, well, maybe she's wrong and maybe she's not so wrong. Police officers kill suspects on occasion."

"But you're Kim Possible."

"Funny how Betty seemed to be able to use that to support her argument," Kim said. "Look, I don't want to get into it now. I'm just saying - " She chuckled then. "We love to compete, don't we?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, how about we see who can help the other adjust quicker?"

"Ha!" Shego laughed. "Our last wager worked out REAL well."

Kim smiled. "See, I told you the 'new' Shego wasn't all that different."

Shego looked away. "It's not going to be that easy, Pumpkin."

"Because if you WERE that different, I'd have to love you less, wouldn't I?" Kim asked. "And yet I don't."

"Damn it, Kimmie, I've done my crying for the year, I don't need to start again!"

"If you're that emotional right now, why not put it to some good use? Like ravaging me passionately right now?" Kim asked, grinning.

Shego blinked. "Sometimes I forget how exciting the 'new Kim' can be," she murmured.

"Exciting is good."

"Princess, no future mission could live up to this last one. We're going to need all the excitement in our private lives that we can generate," Shego said with a hint of a leer.

"Maybe we should start now."

Shego leaned forward, pressed Kim against the car seat by the shoulders, and kissed her. Breaking for air a minute later, she smiled. "Consider the engine started."

The car suddenly came to life.

"Not you, Sadie!"

It powered down again.

Dr. Drakken threw his plastic utensil down. “A spork, hah! They’d like to THINK you can use it like a fork. It barely qualifies as a spoon!” He rose from his table. “I hereby swear,” he proclaimed grandly, “that my next invention shall be a spork that works!”

And I will prove it works by sticking it in Will Du’s eye!, he thought to himself.

No one paid him any attention. There was a reason he sat alone at lunch. He was insane.

Drakken knew they thought of him as such. He couldn’t understand Arabic, or Farsi, or whatever it was Islamic terrorists spoke. It could have been Bulgarian for all he knew. Drakken DID know that he was the sanest person in the room. He was sane because HE chose not to sit with THEM. These jihadists were scary!

Unfortunately, he was being “held indefinitely for questioning” on the grounds that he was a terrorist. So they kept him with the other terrorists. A.k.a., the scary people.

Dr. Drakken wondered if he should have treated Shego differently. Shego would have freed her “Dr. D” from GJ custody by now. Especially if she still had that chip on the back of her neck.

Instead, that Kim Possible . . .

That was another sign he was sane, Dr. Drakken felt. He’d be crazy if he didn’t hate Kim Possible with every fiber of his being. Meddlesome girl, always interfering, and now he was locked away with annoying GJ agents and scary terrorists. And she may have fooled everyone else, but HE remembered that her hair used to be brown.

“There’s a spork with your name on it, Kim Possible,” he grumbled.

“A spork? Been hanging around Agent Dash too long, I guess.”

Dr. Drakken squinted up at the intruder. “I will have you know that I am the great . . . ” His voice died.

“As I recall,” Yvonne Acceptable said, “you weren’t so great after Shego left.” She paused as she sat across from him. “Actually, you weren’t that great when she was around either, I think.”

“You – you’re – you’re supposed to be dead!” Drakken squeaked. “Everyone says so!”

“Actually, I’m a clone,” Yvonne said. “You know, the improved kind that doesn’t get melted by carbonated beverages. Unlike, say, your clones.”

“I could make non-melting clones if I wanted to!” Drakken complained. "And it looks like your creation wasn't perfect either! Your face looks a bit swollen to me."

Yvonne grimaced. "Oh, that's left over from our last tango with Team Possible. Believe me, I looked a lot worse last night, but they tampered with our genes when they cloned us. We heal mighty fast now."

“They? Who's they? Who would clone YOU? The villains don’t like you Acceptables any more than the goody-goodys do!”

“It’s not really relevant,” Yvonne said idly. “Except if you villains want to blame someone, blame my parents. They came up with the plan.”

“Hard to blame them when they’re dead too,” Drakken retorted. “Er, that is – are they cloned as well?”

“Daddy dear was obliterated. My creator couldn’t even find DNA traces of him,” Yvonne replied. “Mother’s in the hospital ward. My brothers are in their cells. Apparently we’re not allowed to be in the same room together, so we have to eat lunch separately.”

Drakken shrugged. “Prison stinks. Maybe if you’d known that sooner, you might not have started locking villains up.”

Yvonne sighed. “Yes, prison does suck, and we've been here less than a day. We're thinking of escaping. Want to come with?”

“Escape? Hah! This place is filled with the biggest threats to global peace anywhere! The security is unimaginable! And believe me, I tried imagining it! This place, it’s worse!”

“Because,” Yvonne went on, ignoring his interruption, “my brothers and I, we hear you’re looking for a sidekick.”

Drakken stopped. She wasn’t kidding. “A sidekick has her uses,” he allowed. “When she follows orders, that is.”

“Well, how about three sidekicks who sometimes follow orders?”

“ . . . It’s better than what I had before,” Drakken admitted.

Yvonne smiled. “Because, you know, after we got that cripple Dr. Director out of the way, the Acceptables were awfully chummy with the head of Global Justice. We had, like, practically free range of GJ headquarters. We know all SORTS of things about this complex that other prisoners don't.”

“So why me?” Drakken asked suspiciously. “Why not just the four of you?”

“The four – “ Yvonne leaned back and laughed. “Our mother?” she spluttered. “You think she’s with us?”

“Well, I know MY mother can be a pain – “

“We want you,” Yvonne interjected, “because we need an idea man. That’s you. AND we all have a score to settle with the same people. Shego, and of course . . .”

“Kim Possible,” Dr. Drakken snarled.

“Exactly. Also, we can't just break out of our cells and walk out. We need to pay our mother a - visit in the infirmary first."

"Saying your farewells?"

"You could say that. So do we have a deal?”

Drakken looked at the spork in front of him. He picked it up, snapped it, and shook her hand. “Deal.”

“Wow,” Yvonne said. “Your hands are smaller than mine.”

“That's it! Just once I'd like a respectful sidekick!”

The difficult conversation with Kim earlier had been just the beginning of her long day. Dr. Director had spent two hours with both FBI agents and Middleton police officers, going over the events that led to the deaths of several members of WEE, mostly by her hands. The investigation would grind on for some time, but early indications were that they’d be ruled justifiable homicides.

She'd also brought up the matter of Shego's culpability for what happened to Mrs. Acceptable. Barkin had volunteered the information that the American government was prepared to declare that this was a military mission, and as such Shego would not be charged with attempted murder as she was acting in the line of duty. The Justice Department had begged off prosecuting her, raising several complicated issues which would lead to years of appeals, including who had jurisdiction for a crime committed on a privately-owned space station on the other side of the moon, and whether killing any clone, much less the clone of a woman who was already dead, was murder.

Then came her own report on the moon mission. She’d written multiple pages on the entire incident, drawing on both her own observations and the conversations she’d had with Team Possible. Betty thought it was important that team members should have extensive files on all prior missions, just like they did in GJ.

And of course, there was the bombshell dropped by Señor Senior Senior’s lawyers. Obviously it was very good news – Team Possible could go back to not charging clients and being a completely nonprofit operation, something Kim was much more comfortable with. One of Betty’s first acts once the will cleared probate, in fact, would be to reimburse those few organizations Team Possible had billed for its services.

Betty was even starting to think that Team Possible Inc. could grow into the kind of organization that surpassed GJ in the amount of good it could do.

It also meant a lot more work. As an experienced administrator and the only person who had ever run a multi-billion dollar organization before, Betty was the obvious choice to monitor Team Possible’s new and improved finances. Global Justice had invested tens of millions of dollars with various financial management firms who were considered reliable and a low security risk. She had already entered into talks with three of them. Probably they’d leave most of Senior’s investment portfolio untouched – no one was about to suggest their judgment was better than Senior’s.

Of course, since their portion of Señor Senior Senior’s estate included over a billion dollars in cash and other liquid assets, there were ample funds available to upgrade their facilities. One question they would have to answer was whether to renovate the current building or to buy something newer. Then there’d be computers, vehicles, furnishings, training equipment . . .

Betty glanced at the door to Tommy’s bedroom. Maybe some kind of day care facility – raising her son was a full-time job in itself, and she’d be bringing him to Team Possible headquarters a lot in the future.

She sighed. Tommy had lingered in the back of her mind all day. Especially when she learned of the cloning of not just Tommy’s siblings, but his birth mother as well. True, while she wouldn’t wish her years of imprisonment on anyone, that torture had led to joining Team Possible, to reuniting with Steve, and of course to Tommy. She had never felt as close to someone as she had to her adopted son.

And now there was a very real, very gruesome, very frightening possibility that Mrs. Acceptable could sue to reestablish her parental rights. No one could say what might happen then. No court in the world had ever heard a petition from the clone of a dead person.

Thinking of Tommy’s birth mother also generated fresh doubts about Tommy’s brain implants. So far Holly and Vivian hadn’t made any progress. And now this unfortunate distance between her and Vivian – Betty couldn’t believe that Vivian would be any less determined to help her son’s condition, but you never knew.

Betty wasn’t a young woman, but she could certainly still outlive her son. It was late, she was alone and exhausted, and more than usual, this thought depressed her.

“I just wish I could know for sure about Tommy,” she murmured.

There was a crackle behind her, and Betty was suddenly conscious of some kind of warmth on the back of her neck. She swiveled around in her chair and gaped. A circle of white light, slightly taller than an average adult male, hung in front of her. Blue streaks ran through it and swirled in a spiral pattern.

As GJ’s former resident expert on temporal mechanics, Dr. Director was personally familiar with what was in front of her – a time portal.

Before she could move, however, two incredibly strong hands reached through the portal, grabbed her by both arms, and yanked her through.

Even though she was blinded by the bright light, Betty kicked and struggled as she tried to clear her vision. “No, no, let me go!! Put me – “

“Please be calm, Dr. Director. All will be explained.”

Dr. Director froze. She knew that voice. “Sappho?!”

“Betty. You’re looking young – er.”

Betty could have sworn she heard the smirk before she saw it. Not that seeing it was possible, because Sappho didn’t have a face. The woman standing before her did, though. She was a Caucasian woman in her early thirties, beautiful, with long curly blonde hair.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Dr. Director. “And what am I doing on Sappho?”

“Betty, if you were on me, you’d be too busy enjoying yourself to be asking questions,” the blonde said – with Sappho’s voice.

“She just traveled through time, Sappho. She’s confused enough without you teasing her. And could you please let go of her?”

Betty turned her head at the sound of the unfamiliar voice. A man in his late teens was approaching her. She took one look at his face and gasped in horror. “John Acceptable!”

“John Acceptable” winced. “Wow. Nobody’s confused me with him in a while. I kinda got used to it. No, Mom, it’s me. It’s Tommy.”

Betty stared. This gave her time to inspect the young man's face, and she could see that it wasn't John, although there were striking similarities. Like brothers. "Tommy?" she asked, shocked.

He looked a little embarrassed. "Uh, yeah. Hey, mom. You're looking, um, younger."

"And you look older!" It finally dawned on Betty. "You said I traveled through time. This is the future? How long?"

"Little over fifteen years. Yesterday was my eighteenth birthday, actually."

"I asked you - well, the future you - if we could celebrate by going to a strip club," Sappho said. "I was most disappointed when I found out you have to be twenty-one, not eighteen."

"Sappho!" Tommy hissed. "It was just as embarrassing the first time!"

"So," Betty said, ignoring the question of how Sappho turned into a human for the moment, "you're all right? You're going to be all right? They got the machines out of your head?"

"Actually," Tommy said, "yes, I'm going to be all right, but it's because they put MORE machines in my head. It was always too dangerous to remove my birth mother's additions through surgery, and eventually they WOULD have killed me, but Aunt Vivian invented a chip that regulates the activity in my head."

"She did? Well, not the answer I anticipated, but it's your health that counts!" she said happily.

Tommy looked serious. "Mom, part of the reason I brought you here is to warn you. Apparently you did something in the past, and you and Aunt Vivian didn't speak for a while?"

Betty looked down. The Possible family had actually WITNESSED those WEE agents being killed in front of them, but Holly was still the same with her. Probably because she was protecting their children. Vivian, however, had turned distant ever since she saw the bodies in Mission Control. Betty had actually gotten a little annoyed about it. Yes, it was a shock, but she had her reasons, and Vivian had no call to treat her like a sadistic assassin!

"Well, do something about it," Tommy went on. "She's the one who saves me, and that might not happen if you're not friends any more. Sure, she's not the kind of person to stop helping a little baby, but if you two are close, the extra motivation might lead to her finding the cure in time. So just say you're sorry, okay?"

"All right, all right," Betty said. "I'm sure we'd be friends again eventually, but - I'll do whatever it takes. But Tommy, time travel can have serious consequences. You shouldn't risk them for something that's already happened!"

"Actually, I had to. You told me to."

"Excuse me?"

Tommy chuckled. "Something about saving the space-time continuum. Apparently Mom went fifteen years into the future the night after Mission: Moon, and met her son and Robo-Sappho. She told me that I had to do this, or I'd create a paradox."

"My name is not Robo-Sappho!" Sappho snapped.

"When exactly did Sappho become - "

"A robot?" Tommy asked. "About four years ago. Another one of Aunt Vivian's inventions. We can transfer her core consciousness from the spaceship to the robot body, and back again, in case there's an emergency and she needs to help with a mission. She spends most of her time as a robot, actually."

"They need her help that often?" Betty asked.

Tommy grinned. "No, she goes to bars a lot and flirts with pretty girls with black hair."

"It's a coincidence!"

Betty felt her head hurting, and she didn't think it was a symptom of her unexpected time travel. "So, who invented a time travel machine?"

"I did," Tommy said. "Two years ago. We call it the Time Director. Original, huh?"

"Well, you always were precocious."

"Don't worry, we hardly ever use it. The last time was three months ago. Kim had to go back in time and give Shego her plasma gloves when she was a teenager."

"What? That was her?!"

"Like I said, paradox bad."

"Right. So, is there anything else you can tell me while I'm here? For science, you understand?"

Sappho laughed. "Isn't science great?"

Tommy smiled. "Well, we can't leave this room, because the less you see, the less chance you'll change the past. The world's a pretty nice place these days, so change would also be bad. And I have strict instructions about what I can't tell you. But I do have a slide show."

He led her over to a bank of computers with oversized monitors. Betty looked at her surroundings for the first time, and saw that the room she was in had wall-to-wall technology. The only place without blinking lights or wires was the narrow corridor Tommy was leading her down.

"Here, have a seat." Tommy hit a few buttons, and the center monitor sprang to life.

"Team Possible - anything's possible for our world!"

Betty raised her eyebrows. "You do advertising?"

"Uh, no, we, um - "

"Team Possible has many fans, Dr. Director," Sappho informed her. "This is one of the most adequate 'fan videos' found on see. I'm assuming the fan in question didn't insert all those blurry images and black bars."

"No, that would be our own careful editing," Tommy replied.

From what Betty COULD see, Team Possible had expanded over the years from four members to nine. It was now three separate teams, in fact, each conducting separate missions all over the world.

All three team lineups surprised her.

Team Possible - Kim, Wade, and Yori.

"Yori comes back?"

"Thirteen years ago. She said she could do more good here."

Team Go - Shego, Monique, and Tommy.

"You're a member? Tommy, it's too dangerous! You're only eighteen - "

"A few years older than Kim was when she started. And I've been learning martial arts since I was six."

"And that chip in your head could malfunction!"

"It's in the center of my brain. Any hit that could do that would kill me first." Tommy froze when he saw the anguished look on her face. "Sorry, Mom, that didn't come out right."

Betty sighed. And she couldn't even fight it, because that would change the past. "Just keep rolling."

Team Stop - Ron, and two men she finally recognized as Jim and Tim Possible.

"They were serious about joining when they were eighteen," Tommy said. "They're great guys. They say I remind them of themselves at my age."

Oy, Betty thought.

Team Possible continued to save the world free of charge. In fact, it donated a large part of the income from its investments - including Smarty Mart, where Ron was apparently their top marketing consultant - to charities around the planet. And its headquarters was the biggest building in Middleton.

"Sorry, I know it wasn't much," Tommy said when it was over a few seconds later. "But you're better off not knowing the rest."

"Why, is it bad? Are there - are they forced to kill anyone else?"

Tommy looked uncomfortable. "Ron did, although I can't say when. That was bad, but everyone was there for him. Some of what I can't tell you is bad. And you won't be able to do anything about the bad parts, because that would - "

"Change the future," Dr. Director finished for him. "I know."

"I do have one bad thing to tell you," he said. "Mom has a precise list of everything 'I' told her, and if I leave anything out, I've changed history. In two days, Dr. Drakken and the Acceptable children kill Mrs. Acceptable, escape GJ custody and join forces."

Betty smacked her forehead. "You have got to be kidding me! Christ, I stop running things there and everything goes to hell! And now I can't even warn them!"

"No, but you CAN do some advance preparation for the first time they take Team Possible on. Mom did."

"First?"

"I can't tell you how many times, but yeah, first."

Betty sighed. "Anything else on this 'list' of hers? Mine, I mean?"

Tommy looked at Sappho.

"Kim and Shego adopted a boy. Daniel is nine. Ron and Monique are married. They have a daughter, Michelle," the robot said. "Wade and Yori are also married, although they have no children."

"Wait, Ron and Monique I can see, but Wade and Yori?"

"During her final two years with the Japanese government, Wade becomes her go-to computer geek. They become close. When the age difference is no longer a problem, they begin dating."

Betty scratched her head, and then paused. "Am I married too?"

Tommy became wide-eyed. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Mom says that's completely off-limits!"

"What, what happens?!" Betty asked alarmed.

"Hello? What if I have bad news? What if, hypothetically speaking, I tell you that you dated Steve Barkin for a month, or six months, or six years? You're not going to bother dating a guy if you know it won't last! And then you've changed history! I can tell you that you're with someone today, and you're happy, and that's it. No names!"

Betty considered that. It was completely logical, but if her relationship with Steve lasted, there would be no reason not to tell her that, would there?

Then again, it certainly wasn't fair to herself or Steve to break things off on the basis of Tommy telling her nothing. And she was with somebody, and she didn't have anyone else in her life other than Tommy, Team Possible, Kim's family, and Vivian.

So she resolved that it wouldn't have any impact on their relationship.

In the back of her mind, though, she wondered.

"Fine, I won't ask anything else," Betty said. "Unless there's something else you need to tell me."

Tommy calmed down. "Just one thing." He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. "Rely on your instincts and your judgment for when you make decisions, and forget about what you learned here. Mom says I came to bring you hope for the future. We're going to be all right. She thought you could use that."

Betty blinked back a tear and nodded. "She's right. I'm right. The woman I'll be."

"Yeah, yeah, it's confusing, I got it."

"Tommy, we should be getting her back," Sappho said. "We've told her everything, and the longer she stays, the greater chance there is that she learns something else."

"Sappho is right," Betty said. "I should be going. It's not like you're going to miss me."

Tommy's smile widened. "Yes, that's true. Although maybe we could play catch first. I bet you're a little sprier right now."

"I'm from the past and you're making jokes about my age?"

Tommy led her back to the platform she'd arrived on. "See ya later, Mom," he said.

"Fifteen years later," Betty said, chuckling. "And Sappho? You look great. More than a bit like Vivian, actually."

Sappho smiled brightly. "Thank you, Dr. Director. Vivian did design me, after all. And of course you think I look great."

Betty shook her head as the light from the portal appeared and blinded her. Sappho was still a little too full of herself.

When her vision cleared, she was home again. She went into the next room and looked down at her son's sleeping form.

"Don't worry about not knowing what's to come," she whispered to her son. "We're all going to live happily ever after."

The End.