“KP! I’m glad you showed up, I was just thinking about you!” Ron said fondly, pulling Kim into a tight embrace.
Kim tensed, “Yeah…me too.” It’s not that she wasn’t used to hugging Ron, just that she was very anxious about what she came here to do. But it has to be done, Kim thought determinedly, I can’t just keep lying to him…or to myself.
“You alright, Kim? You seem sort of stressed.”
“Hm? No, I’m fine. Just a little tired, if anything. Really, it’s no big,” Kim offered the best feeble smile she could muster up.
“Hm… Well, what do you say we head upstairs for a…nap or something?”
“N-nap?” Kim squeaked.
“Well, you said that you were t-tired--” Ron responded nervously.
“Oh, right. Yeah, I, uh, guess I could use a nap…”
Ron led Kim up the stairs in silence and into his bedroom, where he shut the door. Kim sat awkwardly on his bed. Ron sat next to her.
“So…” Ron started. Very smooth, he thought to himself.
This is it, Kim… The perfect opportunity to break up with him. Just take a deep breath and do it! Kim inhaled deeply. “Ron, we--”
“Oh, hey, Kim, I just remembered,” Ron seemed nervous about something and didn’t even appear to notice that Kim had started talking.
“Remembered what, Ron?” Kim said softly. This was so the drama.
“I, um, got you something. Wait here,” Ron said, and with that he left the room.
Kim sighed. Great. Just great.
In a few minutes Ron returned with a small box in his hand. He handed it to Kim. “It’s not much, but…” Ron scratched the back of his head and stared at the floor.
Curious, Kim reached for the box and opened it up. She gasped. “Ron! What--how--how did you afford something like this? It’s gorgeous!” The typical female reaction upon receiving expensive jewelry. The box Kim had opened revealed a swing necklace with round, brilliant diamonds. “Ron, how much was this?”
“Don’t worry about it Kim. You…are with every dollar. Here, let me put in on you.” He took the necklace and lifted Kim’s hair.
Kim winced as she felt Ron’s hands stumbling to get the necklace latched. Why wasn’t she happy with him? There was absolutely no way she’d every find a sweeter, more thoughtful guy.
Because he doesn’t make you feel…you know, Said the voice in Kim’s head that often told her things she didn’t want to know. Some would call it a conscious, but Kim preferred to call it a pain in the ass.
When Ron finally got the necklace on, he let go of Kim’s hair and went around to sit next to her again. The look he gave Kim was so pure and simple that she couldn’t believe what she was about to do.
“Ron, I can’t accept this. Look, what I’ve--” but Kim found herself suddenly cut off. There were chapped lips on hers, a pair of squinted eyes and beads of sweat in her face, an inexperienced tongue maneuvering its way into her mouth; it was nothing she expected and, more importantly, nothing she wanted. She put her hands to Ron’s shoulders and pushed him away. She was met with a goofy, lop-sided grin.
“What’s wrong?” Ron asked, confused.
“Ron, we need to talk and I can’t keep this necklace.”
“Why not?”
Kim took a deep breath. Here it goes. “We aren’t--”
The Kimmunicator suddenly beeped obnoxiously in her pocket. WHY does this keep happening? The cosmos must be against her. It foresaw this day the moment of Kim’s conception and now it was laughing at her.
She turned on the Kimmunicator. “What’s the sitch, Wade?” she asked, exasperated. So close. So close.
“Kim, we got a break-in at the Middleton Science Museum. Thieves, presumably. Their identities are unconfirmed, but there are two of them…a man and a woman…”
Kim smiled. This is what she’d been waiting for. “Shego…” she whispered. “I’m on it, Wade.” She stuffed the Kimmunicator into her pocket. “Ron, I am going to get home and change. I’ll see you--”
“Mission time, boo-yah!” said Ron enthusiastically, appearing to have forgotten their moment of just a second ago.
Kim sighed. She really wasn’t in the mood for him tonight, and she wanted to take this mission alone… “Yeah… I’ll uh, meet you at my house, okay?”
“No problem, KP!”
And thus, Kim Possible as we know her exited the Stoppable house one last time.
“Alright, Ron, we do as always--sneak in there, and you will handle Drakken. Good?”
“No prob, KP.”
Kim stared at the huge towering building before her, a symbol of her obstacle, of her opponent, of her rival. Yes, this where she belonged.
They quietly crept inside the back of the building and all the lots were off. Good thing Kim brought the new night vision sunglasses that Wade just created. She put them on and scanned the area.
“Anything, KP?”
“Nothing apparent…” But the hairs standing up on the back of her neck told her otherwise.
Kim remained silent; she continued to survey her surroundings and crept on throughout the giant museum hall, Ron in tow. Weird, Kim thought, Doesn’t seem like anything is missing…Maybe Wade was wrong…
She had no sooner thought that when suddenly the lights in the hall were flicked on and Kim couldn’t see a thing. She whipped off her sunglasses and her eyes adjusted to the light. Before her, on the platform of an exhibit, stood who else, but Dr. Drakken.
“Drakken,” Kim said, adopting a simple fighting stance and clenching her teeth.
“Hello, Kim Possible,” Drakken said calmly. He stood straight and tall, and lacked the…the flair that Kim had so gotten used to.
Kim wasn’t about to admit it, but his casual demeanor unnerved her slightly.
“I was watching you walk around this room, you know. If I hadn’t seen you outside just minutes before, I never would have known you were approaching.” His voice remained level and even. “You really are a talented woman.”
Kim blinked, surprised, but she wasn’t about to let him scare her. “What’s your game, Drakken?” she yelled.
“Yeah!” Ron piped in, “And where’s Shego?”
Exactly what I was wondering, Kim thought. Drakken only smiled. “Well, Drakken?”
“Aww, what’s wrong Kimmie? Couldn’t stand the thought of another day without me right?” The voice Kim had been waiting for came from behind her. She smirked. This really was where she belonged.
“You wish, Shego. More like I couldn’t stand the thought of you out where I couldn’t beat you. Again.” Kim turned around smoothly and made direct eye contact with Shego, who was a good 20 feet away from her with a hand on her hip and an arrogant grin on her face. “Let’s do this, Shego.”
“Love to, Pumpkin, but unfortunately, I have more important persons to attend to tonight,” As if, Shego thought. But she knew that would make Kim fume and she did so love to see her angry. She deliberately locked eyes with Ron, “like Stoppable.”
Kim blinked and her eyes widened. She was stunned. “What? You--eh--him?” This so isn’t happening!
“Me? ” Ron yelped, equally shocked.
“Better duck!” Shego yelled, and immediately shot two balls of plasma directly for Ron’s head, which he dodged, like she thought he would.
And so Kim watched abashedly upon her boyfriend battling her greatest rival. Shego chose Ron…over me?
See, I told you that you were getting sloppy. Stupid voice.
“KP! Drakken is getting away!” Ron yelled from beneath Shego, who was straddling him while he held her glowing green hands away from his face. That’s myspot! Kim thought angrily.
Kim looked behind her and, indeed, Drakken was running off. She looked back at Shego, and sent her a vulnerable, pathetic glance. But Shego was too occupied with Ron to notice, or so Kim thought. Kim was about to turn around when, just in time, she saw Shego send here a sly, smug, glance as if saying, “And what are you gonna do about this, Princess?”
And by the time Kim smiled back, Shego’s attention was back on Ron. Right then, she realized that this was nothing but Shego’s being Shego. She didn’t see Ron as a more worthy fight than Kim, she saw fighting Ron AS a fight with Kim.
“Kim! It’s alright, I’ll be fine, just go after Drakken!”
Right. Drakken. With that, Kim took off in the other direction, through the door Drakken had run through.
Kim and been walking through room after room for at least ten minutes, and still no sign of Drakken. She was beginning to think he got away. And then I really wouldhave to face facts--I’m getting sloppy.
“Ahem,” said a light voice in the corner of the room. Kim tensed and faced the direction the voice came from.
“Drakken.”
“Possible.”
“…”
Drakken simply sat in a chair in the corner of the room, smiling and…humming? Okay, this was just TOO much.
“Why are you still here Drakken? You could have gotten away a long time ago.”
“And miss this chance to speak with you? Never, Kimmie, never!”
Kimmie? She didn’t like the way it sounded coming from him, not at all. When that word came from her parents, she felt loved, when it came from Shego, she felt challanged, but when it came from Drakken just then…she felt, well, she felt a little afraid.
“Well, sorry to have let you down Drakken, but I am not in the mood for talking!” Wasting no time, she ran at him and landed a punch squarely on his jaw and followed it up with us swift kick to his gut, knocking Drakken to the ground on to his back. Kim stood over him, glaring.
Drakken slowly got up, rubbing his jawbone. “Now, now, Kim, did I display even the slightest desire to fight? I said I just wanted to talk.”
To say Kim was curious about this whole situation was an understatement, to say at the least. “So talk.”
Meanwhile…
“Take this, green scum!” Shouted Ron, jumping from an exhibit and landing an elbow-hit to Shego’s chest, successful knocking her over. He scrambled to his feet while Shego stood up and brushed herself off. Stay calm, thought, Drakken said to make sure not to hurt the kid…
“Green scum? Really, Stoppable, you have got to work on your witty battle banter.”
Ron froze. This was getting to be too much. “Okay, seriously Shego, what the hell is your deal?”
Shego paused and blinked, relatively confused. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me, what’s up? First me and Kim don’t here from you for over two months, then when we do, you completely ignore her challenge to fight with you and choose to fight me instead! And don’t even pretend that you are giving this fight your all, we both know that I would be cinders by now if you were.”
Shego said nothing.
“And on top of it all, you haven’t called me buffoon or sidekick even ONCE today! You remembered my NAME! What gives? Go on, spill!”
“Maybe Drakken wants me to fight you…measure you up, see what you’re made of.” Shego lied.
“He fights me all the time. He should know by now what I am made of. I’m not buying it.” Ron said coldly, crossing his arms.
“Fine. You caught me,” Shego feigned admission, “I really just chose to fight you over Kim today because I knew that it would make her pretty furious. I mean, seriously, did you see the look on her face when I told her, ‘I have better persons to attend to!’ Ha! Priceless!” Well, it wasn’t a complete lie; Shego did get a kick out of Kim’s reaction.
“You are mean, Shego.” Ron said, accepting the explanation. “Especially since I think Kim was looking forward to fighting with you.”
“Well, doy, of course she was, no one can keep her going like I do…” Shego said rather suggestively, to tease Ron. She did know Kim looked forward to their fights, but it was still nice to hear her sidekick--her best friend--er, her boyfriend-- say it.
Ron caught the innuendo, but it let it go. “Whatever. You’ll probably want to tend to Drakken at some point, he’s probably a bloody mess by now. I’m gonna go find Kim. Later.” And with that, he casually turned to stroll away.
No! Drakken needs more time! “I don’t think so, Stoppable!” she yelled, running at him and slamming him into a wall. “Fighting you is actually mildly entertaining.”
“I’m flattered,” Ron said flatly through gasping breaths.
“Well, Drakken? Do you have anything to say, or should I just go right back to beating on you?” Kim said impatiently. If he had anything to say, she wanted to hear it, but she wasn’t in the mood for games.
“What do you think of Shego?”
“W-what?” That was certainly unexpected.
“Shego. What do you think of her?”
“I hate her. And you. You know that.” Kim said uneasily.
“Well, of course. But I mean beyond that. You must hold some sort of opinion of her. Is there anything you admire about her? Her looks? Surely you have noticed that she is a woman of beauty unmatched. Her fighting skills? You must realize that she is the only known person around with skills to rival or even surpass your own! Or maybe,” Drakken’s eyes gleamed, “Shego’s pure desire and willingness to go after what she wants and let nothing, nothing, get in her way?”
Of course Kim thought Shego was beautiful. Anyone with eyes could realize that she is the most gorgeous creature placed on this earth.
Eh…Awkward thought…ahem. Moving on.
And of course Kim admired Shego’s skills as a fighter. Drakken was right, when Kim fought with Shego is was like nothing else. It was adrenaline and power and fury and lust and aggression and a million other adjectives Kim couldn’t begin to name.
“Life is more than…getting what you want, Drakken.” Kim answered evasively.
“Avoiding the whole question, I see. No matter, it was unfair, I apologize. You two are enemies. But you see, I do admire Shego. Greatly, in fact. Kim, today I take a page out of Shego’s book.”
Excuse me?
“Today, I go after what I want. And today, there is no one around to stop me.” Drakken must have been working on the creepiness thing while they had been apart, Kim thought. Because she was getting some seriously nasty vibes from him.
“And…what is it you want, Drakken?” Kim growled, prepared for a fight.
“Same thing as always. You. Out of my way!”
Before Kim knew what was happening, a searing pain shot from the right side of her neck throughout her whole body. Her head was on fire, she had to be dying, this was hell and the devil was laughing and then--
Nothing.
A/N: And so marks the end of Chapter 3! Read and review… I thrive off reviews. And this is the last super-fast update. Mark my words! (You: “Yeah, right, sure.”)