Bonnie shivered as she lay in bed. The room wasn't especially cold, but the bed was empty. She felt Josh's absence keenly. This wasn't him being gone for a day or two. This was what forever felt like.
That wasn't the only thing. Now that she'd had a few hours to think about it, she was beginning to regret doing what Dementor had suggested. She'd wanted to hurt Kim Possible very badly, and Dementor had offered to take care of it for her. And she wanted Kim to hurt! She wanted her to suffer for what had happened to her!
But Bonnie was thinking more along the lines of humiliation and emotional heartache. Now that she'd collected her wits, it had occurred to her that Dementor's idea of hurting Kim very badly was something along the lines of - well, hurting her badly. As in putting her in the hospital, maybe even… killing her?
Bonnie didn't mind if people thought she was a bitch. She worked hard to create that impression in high school. “Bitch” and “accomplice to murder” were two very different things, however. And she suspected that if she had any hope of winning Josh back, helping a convicted felon inflict serious bodily harm on another person would, if discovered, skewer whatever chance she had left.
She was paralyzed by inertia, however. She seemingly lacked the energy to breathe through her nostrils, much less pick up the phone and - what? Tell Kim she was walking into a trap?
Proactively helping Kim didn't seem to be a motivational force for her.
Then there was an insistent knock on the front door. Bonnie groaned and shoved her head under her pillow.
But they weren't going away, and they knocked again.
She hissed as she rolled out of bed, wearing her blanket around her shoulders like it was a stole. Probably the police, come to take her to prison. Let them. She'd never see Josh again.
Bonnie opened the door and gasped.
“Hey,” Josh said.
“Josh,” she whispered. “Why didn't you let yourself in?”
“Left my keys behind, remember?”
Bonnie unwillingly turned her head to look at the little table by the door. She hadn't even realized they were still there. “Does that mean you - want to come in?” she asked hesitantly.
He nodded after a moment. “Mind if we talk?”
“No!” Her vehemence startled them both. “I mean, no, please come in.” She sounded needy. She sounded desperate. She sounded pathetic.
She was.
Bonnie sank onto the couch. Josh stood over her. She sensed a lecture.
“Christ, Bonnie,” he finally sighed. “Why can't you treat everyone else the same way you treat me?”
“Hey, this is who I am,” she surprised herself by arguing. “This was me in high school. This is me now. You knew that when we started dating. What, couldn't take it any more?”
“What I couldn't take,” Josh replied, “is how you wear one face outside and another when we're alone. I used to give you the benefit of the doubt, you know. I thought - the snarky elitist bitch who tears people down in dinner party conversations and never tips her waitress, she's just the facade, just some role she learned from her parents. She's not the sweet girl I love coming home to. After this last stunt, though, I'm not sure. Maybe I'm the one you're playing.”
“Josh, no,” Bonnie said quickly. “I was always real with you.”
“And when I'm not around, you're what - fake? I've heard you rip ‘friends’ apart when their backs were turned. It made me wonder what you said about me when I wasn't there. I've wondered about a lot of things, Bonnie. This last thing, I just decided to stop wondering and start believing. You're not a very nice person, are you?”
Bonnie wanted to defend herself. She'd never talked about him behind his back. Well, okay, little things, but what girl didn't? But he'd asked a question, and he did so value honesty in a relationship. “No,” she said. “I'm not. I thought you accepted that.”
“Maybe I shouldn't have.”
“Josh,” she said despairingly, “what is this? Why are you here? If I'm so evil, then why didn't you just keep on walking?”
Josh looked at her. “Because I still love you, Bonnie.”
Her head dropped and a tear spilled from her eye. “I love you too, Josh,” she said. “But does that make a difference?”
“I don't know,” he told her. “Maybe if you could just give me a sign that other people's feelings mean something to you. That you want people to just be your sycophants and your servants. That to you, compassion isn't just a word.”
She stared at him. “Do you really think I'm that heartless?”
“You're the one who said you're not a nice person.”
“Guess I have to be a do-gooder like Kim Possible,” she said, spitting out the words venomously.
“If you still think you have to compete with her, then yeah, I guess you do. I forgot - in your world, everyone else is your enemy, someone who has to be beaten and-”
“Will you please STOP IT?!” she screamed. “You say you love me, and yet you just come here so you can say cruel things to me!”
His cheeks turned red, but he refused to look away. “What do you know? Now you know how you make everyone else feel,” he retorted.
“Fine!” she shouted. “You want the good girl? You want Ms. Nice Guy? Then go to the fucking zoo! Because-”
“The zoo?” Josh asked, bewildered. “Bonnie, what are you talking about?”
She stopped. Bonnie looked into his eyes. “You want nice?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Kim Possible is at the city zoo looking for Dementor. But she's walking into an ambush. And she needs you more than I do right now.” Bonnie trembled. “Is THAT nice enough for you?”
Josh grew pale as he listened to what she was saying. “Oh God,” he said.
Suddenly exhausted, Bonnie stood up. “I hope you find the girl you're looking for,” she said as she headed back to their - correction, her bedroom, dragging her blanket behind her. “No matter what else you thought, I always wanted to make you happy.”
Then she slammed the door behind her, choking back a sob.
He stared at the door. “Maybe I just did,” he muttered.
With that, Josh whirled around and ran for the door.
“Point in favor of my outfit,” Shego muttered as she and Kim helped Ron over the fence. “Less chance of that happening.”
“I'll have you know Kim never had her pants ripped off by her grappling gun,” Ron said as they pulled him over. “Kim, don't listen to her. Stick with what works!”
“Ron's just afraid I'm going to start making him wear this,” Kim said as she adjusted her tights.
“I remember what Junior looked like in green and black,” Ron reminded them. “It wasn't flattering.”
“Don't worry, Stoppable,” Shego said. “I refuse to allow your freckled butt anywhere near my signature look.”
“At least it got the mole rats over,” Kim said as she offered Ron back his pants. “And I think the old look works best for me.”
“Mmm-hmm,” Shego said lazily as she looked at Kim.
Kim blushed. She'd felt Shego's eyes avidly taking in every inch of her body since they left. And she'd enjoyed it! Her cheeks turned even redder.
She really didn't want to change her look for future missions, but maybe this outfit had more personal uses - snap out of it, Possible! You're here to stop Dementor!
“Let's find the Professor before he uses that ray gun again,” Kim said.
“Should we split up?” Shego asked.
“And risk one of us running smack into a killer ape from twenty million B.C.? I don't think so.”
“Apes,” Ron said, dread written on his face.
They ran down darkened pathways that ran between empty habitats. Birds flapped their wings nervously as they ran past, then settled back down to sleep.
“Where's the late-night shift?” Kim wondered aloud. “The security?”
“Where are the animals?” Ron asked.
“Dementor's probably got them tied up somewhere,” Shego said.
“He tied up all the animals?” Ron gasped. “The fiend!”
“She means the zookeepers, Ron,” Kim sighed. “The animals are kept indoors at night, probably.”
“Oh. Yeah, that'd make more sense.”
“Well, well, if it isn't Team Passable, with guest appearance by the girl who's gone soft.”
They all froze as Professor Dementor's mocking voice rolled across the property, amplified by loudspeakers so that it echoed everywhere. “I am NOT soft!” Shego yelled.
“Forget it, Shego,” Kim said. “I'd ask you to show your face, Dementor, but I'm thinking there's a really good reason you wear a mask, and frankly I don't want to know why.”
“Oh, the great Kim Possible, always so witty, always so in love with the sound of her own voice. Well, let's see you have snappy repartee for THIS!”
The three leapt back as the front bars of one of the empty cages fell forward with a resounding crash, exposing what lay inside.
Which was nothing.
“Gee, Dementor,” Kim said, “I'm speechless. Sometimes no snide remark seems enough.”
Dementor sounded exasperated. “Where is the button for - a-ha! What about this?!”
The iron door at the rear of the cage slowly opened, and a pair of large yellow eyes looked out of the darkness.
Kim, Shego, and Ron all took a step back.
“What is the matter, Kim Possible? Cat got your tongue?”
“Eep!” Ruby said, ducking into Ron's pocket.
Lazily a huge form emerged from the shadows, padding lightly toward them. Its fangs gleamed in the moonlight - two in particular.
“That's a saber-tooth tiger!” Kim said, amazed. “They've been extinct for millions of years!”
“Obviously Dementor introduced one of the zoo's tigers to the wonders of modern technology,” Shego growled.
The tiger roared at them. It had to be twice the size of a regular tiger. Saliva dripped from its jaws.
“Legends say the cat steals your breath. Well, this cat will steal your very last breath!”
“Ron,” Kim said, “get out of here now, and find Dementor before he turns any other animals into prehistoric killing machines, okay? Or coins any more bad cat-related puns.”
“But KP-”
“Do it, Stoppable!” Shego shouted at him, but she was drowned out by yet another snarl from the tiger.
Ron raised a finger, but it hung in midair. “You know, I'm sensing you gave me an order, and normally I would never take orders from you, but today I'll make an exception.” Then he turned and ran in a different direction.
“Try not to order my sidekick around, Shego,” Kim said.
“What's mine is mine, and what's yours is yours,” Shego replied lightly. “You can definitely wear my clothes ANY time you like.”
Kim muttered under her breath. “Don't kill it,” she warned Shego.
“Excuse me? Hello? I believe you just referred to it as a prehistoric killing machine?!”
“It's just one of Dementor's victims, an ordinary tiger. If we can get Dementor's ray gun back, we can change it back.”
Shego grunted. “Fine. But not if it makes one of us Dementor's NEXT victim.”
The tiger roared a third time and leapt at Kim.
“KIM!!!”
Kim quickly drew her grappling-hook gun for the second time that night and fired it at an unlit lamppost. She let it pull her out of the way and swung about, landing on the very cage the tiger had lived in prior to its transformation.
“Thanks, leave it to me,” Shego grumbled as the tiger landed on all fours, looked about in annoyance, and focused on her. She snapped her fingers, crystallizing her claws.
The tiger leapt in front of her and batted at her with massive paws. Shego ducked and dodged easily, but her claws had no affect on its thick, shaggy hide when she tried to scratch it. “Damn,” she muttered.
Then Kim leapt onto its back.
The tiger arched its back and hissed, outraged at her temerity. It rolled over with a cat's grace and tried to slash at her as she was thrown off. Having already anticipated that it would attempt to buck her, however, Kim had already leapt directly upward. She evaded the claws, landed on one foot in the tiger's soft underbelly, and sprang away as the animal flinched from the pain and scrambled after her.
“This could take a long time,” Kim thought as she rolled out of the tiger's way.
“Come on, come on, Stoppable,” Ron said to himself as he ran past rows of cages and simulated natural habitats. “If you were Dementor, where would you go? Someplace you know nobody would look for you?”
He skidded to a halt. In front of him was a large sign pointing to his left with the words “Monkey House”.
Ron shuddered. “I wouldn't look there, but it's not me he's afraid of,” he whispered. Then he turned and ran to his right.
Kim pulled back with all her might as she stood on the back of the tiger's neck and pulled back on its whiskers. Shego was underneath its bulk, trying to push its mighty jaws away from her face. The tiger slavered over Shego's body even as it tried to shed the nuisance tugging so painfully at its whiskers.
“Shego,” Kim said, panicking. “Get out of there!”
“Sure, easy for you to say,” Shego grunted. “You don't have a two-thousand pound cave cat on your chest. With its hot, stinky breath in your face, either!”
“Can't hold - him back - much longer!” Kim grunted.
“Just give me a few seconds’ more,” Shego said as she transferred one hand, then the other, so that she was now keeping the monster at bay by grasping the two “teeth” that gave the tiger its name.
Slowly the giant cat forced her to give way, until it suddenly stopped, a peculiar expression on its face.
“Sorry, kitty,” Shego told it, “but you have two cavities. I'm afraid you're going to need a root canal.”
Then instead of pushing, she pulled at the fangs with all her might.
Having completely frozen its tusks down to the root, they snapped off, then shattered in her hands.
The tiger reared back on its two hind legs, completely throwing a surprised Kim off. It rolled on its back over and over again, futilely pawing at its mouth in apparent agony. Turning tail, it finally fled into the cave from which it had emerged.
Panting, Kim came over and offered Shego a hand. “What the hell did you just do to it?” she asked.
Shego turned off her gloves so she could accept the gesture without freezing Kim's fingers. “I froze the sabers and broke them. Hey, when we change it back, it would have lost those tusks anyway, right?”
“No need to defend yourself from me, Shego,” Kim said. “At that point, you were in grave danger. I would have killed it if I could have.”
“But you said-”
“I said, your life was in danger,” Kim interrupted. “If I could only save one of you, there'd be no question.”
Shego nodded. “Thanks. How about we go find him now?”
“Dementor?”
“Actually, I was thinking Stoppable. He's probably lost by now. But yeah, Dementor works for me too,” Shego said wickedly, flashing a smile.
“You really do think you're all that, don't you?” Kim asked.
“Don't you?”
“Come on, let's go,” Kim said, avoiding the question. But she gave Shego a smile that was sufficient answer.
They hadn't run more than twenty yards, however, when Kim stopped. “Did you hear that?” she asked.
“Hear what?”
“It sounded like thunder.”
“Afraid of a little lightning?” Shego asked.
They both heard the trumpeting sound, though.
“Uh-oh,” Kim said.
Turning wildly around a corner, the gigantic enraged animal stampeded toward them.
“A woolly mammoth?” Shego asked, incredulous.
Seeing them, it lowered its head, pointing razor-sharp tusks at them.
“I say we run,” Kim said.
Shego growled. “I hate running, but okay, Fearless Leader.”
As they ran back the way they came, the Ice Age beast chasing after them, Kim looked at Shego. “Are you as sick of prehistoric animals with tusks as I am?”
“Totally. These supervillains can be so predictable.”
“So, you managed to dispose of my saber-toothed tiger, did you, Possible?” Dementor muttered to himself as he checked the little device he'd brought that allowed him to hack into the zoo's system of security cameras. He spotted Kim and Shego fleeing from the berserk mammoth. “Let's see how long he keeps you distracted.”
“But,” he added regretfully, “you may get away from him. I think one more trap may be in order.”
The mad doctor looked down into the pit where the crocodiles lived. They floated lazily in the water. Their eyes, however, suggested there was nothing lazy about them. It was more like they were lying in wait.
“Oh yes,” Dementor said, lifting the time ray. “Let's see how Kim Possible fares against your evolutionary ancestors.”
“I was sure you'd feel right at home in the reptile house.”
Dementor whirled around and got a fistful of fish food in his eyes. “Aaaah!” he shouted. “Who dares fling pellets in Professor Dementor's face?”
Ron faced him bravely. “Me.”
Dementor saw him, and he chuckled. “Oh, so it's the third wheel, is it? Enjoying playing second fiddle to Shego now?”
Rufus and Ruby peeked out from their pockets to quickly stick their tongues out at Dementor, then disappeared again. They'd gone into hiding when they spotted all those big snakes. Or rather, when the snakes spotted them. And started drooling.
“You could have killed Kim with that thing,” Ron said coldly. “I don't think you can be trusted with it any more.”
Dementor pointed it at Ron. “And I could kill you too, eh?”
Ron raised one hand over his head, and waggled his palm in Dementor's direction. “Waaaaugh!” Ron said, showing yet again that even if he wasn't a martial-arts master, he could act like the ones on the television.
“Interesting,” Dementor said. “Test subject shows a loss of ability to form coherent words, perhaps anticipating effects of time ray.”
“You really want to take on Cave Ron?” Ron challenged him.
“Actually, I've changed the settings on the ray. It will set you back about, oh, two billion years?” Dementor guessed. “When it's through, you'll be a few gallons of primordial ooze.”
“Eh heh, heh heh,” Ron said nervously, backing away.
“Goodbye, Mr. Stoppable.”
“If I gotta go out, at least I go out with one villain remembering my name,” Ron replied.
“I'm not a complete idiot like that Drakken fellow,” Dementor said, irritated.
“Are you sure?”
Ron and Dementor both looked around, confused. Neither had spoken.
Then the lights went out.
“KP?” Ron called. “Shego? Wade? Anybody?”
“Nobody turns the lights out on Professor Dementor,” Dementor shouted. “This is MY show, and I am the one in control!”
Ron felt someone brush past him. “What the - ?”
Dementor took one hand off of the time ray so he could take his other device out. If he could access the zoo's security systems, then he could also reactivate the lighting anywhere. “A-ha!” he crowed when the lights came back on.
“Thanks,” Josh Mankey said as he grabbed the time ray from Dementor's hand.
“You!” Dementor screamed, infuriated. “You, who keeps Bonnie Rockwaller from me! Must you spoil my dreams of world domination as well?!”
“Guess so,” Josh said as he raised the aerosol can in his other hand and sprayed white paint into Dementor's face.
The scientist screamed and backed away, trying to clear the paint from his eyes.
“Dementor, look out!” Ron shouted.
Dementor hit the railing behind him forcefully and flipped over it. He screamed as he fell face-first into the crocodile pit.
Or rather, he fell only a few feet before Josh and Ron caught him by the ankles. “Aaah, pull me up, pull me up!” he pleaded as the crocodiles cast off their pretense and circled hungrily below him.
“Why, so you can hurt more people?!” Josh yelled.
“Maybe we should let him drop,” Ron suggested.
“I don't know, the paint might make the crocodiles sick.”
“After tasting HIM, the paint might be an improvement.”
Dementor dropped slightly, and he shrieked.
“I think we lost him,” Kim whispered.
“I certainly hope so,” Shego said. “I remember when Commodore Puddles became a giant and sat on me. I didn't want to relive the experience.”
“I hope Ron's okay,” Kim sighed. “Maybe he's having better luck with us. At this rate, we'll be fighting killer flamingos next.”
“Anything's better than killer monkeys.”
Kim and Shego spun around. “Ron!” Kim gasped. “You're all right! And - you found Dementor? And the ray gun? Josh???”
“Oh, joy,” Shego said sourly. “Abbott and Costello save the day.”
Ron hoisted up the time gun. “We already changed the mammoth back. Although we decided we'd let the zookeepers find a way to get that elephant back in its cage.”
Josh shoved Dementor in Shego's direction. She grabbed him by the arm with a savage look, and he whimpered in fear. “Bonnie told me I could find you guys here,” he told them.
“Run that by me again?” Kim asked.
“Bonnie told you might be falling into a trap,” Josh said.
“Gee,” Shego said. “Wonder how she got that idea.” She shook Dementor vigorously. “Any ideas?”
“Just forget it, Shego,” Kim told her, sounding tired. “We're just glad you were able to help, Josh.”
Shego didn't appear to share her sentiments.
“Well, Ron had it all under control. I just helped a little.”
Ron grinned.
A tiny laugh escaped Dementor's lips.
“Well, maybe more than a little,” Ron added sheepishly.
To be continued…