Kim Possible 1. A naco and a nockout

Disclamer: I don't own Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, or anyone else from the show. if I owned them we would have a forth season.

**The Return of Bad Boy**

Chapter one

"So then, after the butterfly population gets large enough they will begin to block the light from the sun! Then…" Shego tuned out and returned her attention to her magazine as Drakken continued his spiel. _Why does he bother? _she wondered resignedly. _Even if his plans weren't completely stupid Kim Possible and that buffoon would just charge in and 'save the day.' _She paused, _that buffoon…_He had actually been a really good villain; smart and resourceful…and frightening. He had been so confident, and it wasn't mere bravado. He had been one step ahead of her the whole time, and one step ahead of Kim Possible. In fact, if it hadn't been for Drakken's untimely intervention, Ron Stoppable, the buffoon, would have succeeded where Drakken had failed so many times: he would have taken over the world.

At a sudden burst of evil laughter from her blue-skinned boss Shego glanced up to see if he had finished rambling.

"And all the people will be stumbling around in the dark, unable to see the tips of their noses! Then I will…" Nope. The raven-haired beauty wondered, for the millionth time, why she was still hanging out with this guy. He wasn't smart, he wasn't good-looking, and he definitely wasn't going anywhere. From what she could tell, his latest plan had something to do with breading enough butterflies to block out the sun's light. It was, without a doubt, the stupidest plan yet, and it hadn't a chance of working, but there was no point in telling Drakken that.

Maybe she would have quit before now, but she couldn't find a single decent villain in need of a sidekick. Worse, her reputation had been going downhill steadily as Kim Possible usually managed to defeat her.

Drakken seemed to be drawing to a close.

"They will then name me as supreme ruler of the earth!" Drakken proclaimed exultantly. "Then I'll use a special spray to get rid of all the butterflies. Well, Shego, what do you think?" Shego looked at him sourly over her magazine. _If I said even half of what I think, _she mused, _I'd be out on my ear._

Out loud she merely sighed and said, "This plan sounds stupider than usual, when do we start?" After Drakken had finished explaining that they would have to wait for his special butterflies to metamorphose, Shego retired to her room where she sat meditatively on her bed. She had the inklings of a plan, but it would take extreme caution and she still had to hammer out some of the details. It was going to be a long night.

New Scene 

"Mom, Dad, I'm home!" Ron Stoppable called as he poked his head through the partially open front door. Receiving no reply he glanced at the clock on the wall, almost nine. He'd stayed after school for cheer practice, and then gone to his new part-time job at the hardware store. He hated working, but after what his parents called 'the great wedding fiasco' he was lucky he had only been banished to the world of minimum wage.

Stumbling into the inky black kitchen Ron flipped on the light switch. Its harsh electric glare half blinded him for a second and as his eyes became accustomed to the light he noticed a note on the polished oak table. 'Ron,' it read in his mother's neat handwriting, 'we have gone to a staff party at the Luellen's. Don't stay up too late and leave the ice cream in the freezer.'

Ron sighed, and, dropping the note back in its former position, he headed for the stairs, swiping an apple from the bowl on the counter as he passed. For some reason he couldn't quite grasp he felt apprehensive this evening and wished his parents hadn't gone out. At least Rufus was here to keep him company. The little guy was probably napping in his room right now due to a 'no pets' rule at the hardware store. Ron had tried to explain that Rufus was family but the manager hadn't bought it.

Opening the door to his room Ron sighed, relaxing; this was his place. Admittedly it was a very messy place, but it was his through and through, and that was the way he liked it. Picking his way through the clothes, old plates and various other items that coated his floor, Ron made his way over to the naked pink rodent asleep on his pillow.

"Rufus," He crooned, stroking his pet's back with one finger, "I'm home. Look what I brought you." The little mole-rat opened one eye, then he opened the other in a flash at sight of the Bueno Nacho take-out bag in his owner's hand. Ron set the bag on his bed and watched the resulting carnage with an amused smile.

As he headed to his closet to find his pajamas Ron thought he saw a movement at the window out of the corner of his eye. He looked over but saw only the branches of the old oak tree that backed his house.

"Must have been my imagination," he muttered. The next instant, however, a small, round object came flying through the window to land on the carpet. Green smoke billowed up from it, making Ron gag at the sweet, cloying smell. Ron tried to hold his breath butit seemed like too much truble. The smell of the smoke no longer bothered him ether, instead it seemed soothing and relaxing. Then he found himself falling into soft velvety blackness as he lost controle of his limbs andcolapsed on the floor. Ron's last, lingering thought was _I wonder if Rufus finished his naco._

As the smoke cleared a young woman in a tight-fitting black and green suit vulted through the window. In a buisnesslike way the woman slung Ron's prone form over her sholder, then she leaped gracefully out the window and back into the night.


	2. Problems

Well, I think we all know who the dark figure in Ron's room was…

I really want to apologize for not updating in so long. Please bair with my on this story, 'cause I'm in my last year at high school and I really need the grades.

Disclaimer: Alas! I still do not own the work of genius that is Kim Possible!

Ok, author notes! First of all, thanks to all the people who reviewed, you really encouraged me.

I also have something to explain about this chapter. In this fan fic Ron is not blue, and he isn't maniacal. I have done this because I believe a lot of his temperament, not to mention his skin color and insanity came from the fact that he got Drakken's evil. His intelligence, however, he already had. It is my opinion that Ron is very intelligent, as well as a very good fighter, but that he hardly ever focuses it. It takes a big responsibility dumped on his shoulders, or something equally serious to focus his mind and release his 'potential.' This is just my opinion, of course, and I'm not asking anyone to agree with me, but it will be the opinion demonstrated in all my KP fan fics.

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Teen hero, Kim Possible stood anxiously at the end of her best friend's driveway, oblivious to the beautiful afternoon. At first she had merely been annoyed when Ron failed to show up for their walk to school. Even though he had rarely ever been late before she figured he had just slept through his alarm. She had finally gone to school without him, hoping he'd show up later.

Now it was three thirty and still no Ron. Uncertainly, Kim glanced at Ron's house. Nobody was home as his parents would still be out at work, and no one had answered her repeated phone calls. She didn't like the thought of breaking and entering, but there might be something in there that would help her locate Ron. Making up her mind she started toward the porch again, but a familiar four-tone ring from her pocket distracted her. Of course, the kimmunicator! Feeling like a fool, Kim pulled the plastic device from her pocket and clicked the on button.

"Go, Wade," she said impatiently. The ten year old super genius looked up from his computer screen and raised an eyebrow.

"No offense, Kim, but did you sit on a bee or something?" he inquired. Kim ran her hand through her hair, a nervous habit she thought she had outgrown long ago, and forced an offhand smile onto her face.

"Sorry, Wade," she said. "I'm just a little worried. Ron wasn't in class today, he didn't call or anything and there's no answer at his house. But, actually," she added as a second thought, "You can just scan for his tracking chip and tell me where he is right?"

"We-ll," Wade said uneasily, "that might be a problem." He nervously scratched the back of his neck and glanced 'round his high tech room, his eyes focusing on everything except the screen.

"Wade," Kim asked slowly, "you can track the micro chip, can't you?" Wade looked distinctly uncomfortable.

"No, Kim, I can't," he said softly.

"What?"

"I can't track his chip because I took it out."

Kim sank down onto the sidewalk, the rough concrete a relief of normality under her hand.

"Why would you take it out, Wade?" The words seemed to push between her lips, each one sounding more strained than the last. Wade fidgeted, sucking on his ever-present soda as if it was his only life-line.

"You see, Kim," he said finally, apparently running out of soda, "You know how we kept having those talks about ethics and morals? Well I was thinking a lot about that and how you kept saying the chip was immoral...and, long story short I took it out a few days ago." He went for his soda as if on reflex and only remembered it was empty when he failed to extract any liquid from it.

"What do you suggest we do then?" Kim asked, her voice and face falsely unconcerned. _I am Kim Possible, _she told herself sternly, _I can do anything, including pretend I'm not the least bit worried about my best friend._

"The only thing I can do right now," Wade was saying, "is do some hacking, and it'll be tough, because I don't have anything to go on. All you can really do is go about your business until I find something. Which reminds me, I was calling to say I got the information on Josh Mankey for you."

"Oh, yeah, thanks," Kim said, glancing around to make sure no one was looking. "And Wade?"

"Yes, Kim?"

"Call me as _soon_ as you find _anything._"

-------

Ron was in heaven. Nachos surrounded him on every side. Crates of salsa and packets of hot sauce were stacked up to the ceiling. There was also a large fridge filled to bursting with cheese and taco wraps.

Ron was in the Bueno Nacho storage room and there was no way he was leaving until it was as empty as his stomach currently was.

"Hey, Ron," Kim said, coming over and putting her hand on his shoulder. Would you make me a naco? They are _so_ tasty, however did you come up with them?" Smiling, Ron gently hooked his arm around Kim's wast.

"Well," he said, leading Kim over to the substantial fridge to get out some cheese, "tacos and nachos are both so good I could never choose between them. It was always such a hard decision. But then the Ron man had a brainwave. By mixing them together I created something twice as good as either was alone. Nacos are the answer to world indecision!" Kim nodded attentively as she stood at his elbow watching him make her naco. She smiled at him dreamily and Ron felt his heart melt. _Oh, that smile_ he thought.

As they stood there together Ron screwed up his courage and leaned toward her slightly, pursing his lips. Kim smiled and moved closer, her perfect lips centering on his. They were so close, their lips about to connect...

"_SHEGO!"_

Ron's eyes snapped open.

Cold stone walls stared at him, their blank faces chipped and smeared with grime. A barred door let in five wan shafts of light. Where was he? Why did he hear Drakken over a PA system? And, More importantly, why did he have to get woken up right then? Couldn't Drakken have waited a few more minutes? Some people had no sense of timing.

Outside in the corridor a speaker crackled as Drakken started speaking again.

"Shego! Get in here! I'm having trouble with my butterfly larvae!" _Butterfly larvae? _Ron thought, _Man, I don't even want to know what he's up to this time._

Rising from the narrow cot he found himself on he began to explore his cell. It didn't take him long as the cell was only about ten paces square. There was a small, unlocked door at the back but it only lead to a place where he could relieve himself.

Finished his examination Ron returned to the cot and sat down to think. He didn't remember getting captured, but he wouldn't put it past Drakken to come up with some kind of memory erasing thing. The best thing he could do right now was wait and see where things stood. Besides, if he was captured that meant Kim was captured too, and she would be along to rescue him as soon as she could.

All he had to do was wait.

--------

"What do you _mean _you don't sell them any more?"

"I'm sorry, Miss Go, but we had too many problems with people reprogramming them and using them for good instead of evil. At this time Hench Co. has discontinued the Attitudinator. Thank you for your time." The screen went black but Shego continued to stare at it. How could this be? And how on earth was she supposed to turn the buffoon evil now?

She wouldn't let herself be beaten. Admittedly this was a setback, and quite a substantial one at that, but she prided herself on thinking on her feet. Sure, she could handle this, she just had to find someone who still had an Attitudinator. Turing to the computer she began typing, hacking into security cameras and tapes. She was so close she could feel it. Nothing would stop her now.

--------

Me: Sorry about the shortness of my chapters.

Ron: You should be, I'm not even evil yet.

Shego: And when do Ron and I get to make out?

Me: Ummm, I wasn't even sure I was going to have that in this fic.

Ron: _(pouting)_

Me: Awww, that is sooooo cute! Fine, you guys can make out, but that's as naughty as it gets!

Shego: Dang!

Ron: _(looks confused)_


	3. Solutions?

ROBB Chapter 3: Solutions?

Disclaimer: 'Cause Kim Possible's not mine, I have to watch it all the time

And it doesn't seem fair, because she still has perfect hair

(Try singing it to the tune of "in the land of Oz")

Thanks to all my reviewers, you really helped me stay on track.

JPElles: Thanks for the attitudinator idea, I was actually planning to do that already. Great minds think alike eh?

Surforst: That's the million dolor question, huh? And the answer is yes, he was just finishing the last bit when the sleeping gas hit, and he managed to finish swallowing before it overtook him. I hope I've alleviated your curiosity by answering so pressing a question.

Now, please sit back and enjoy the show!

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The full moon shone down on a small, quaint village. It's ghostly light fingered the streetlights and houses. It wandered down the side streets and through the farmlands at the outskirts. Then it stopped to dance on the turrets and battlements of the castle-like fortress which loomed over the small, defenseless town like a hawk over a flock of pidgins in a horribly clichéd moment.

Shining through the window slits the moonlight fell upon the sleeping face of super-villain, Dr. Drakken. He lay, snoring loudly, in a big sumptuous bed, his arms tightly wrapped around his teddy bear and his thumb in his mouth.

In fact, throughout the lair everything was peaceful and quiet. Only two people were still awake and they were taking pains to be silent.

Shego sat at her private computer, the only light in her room that of the screen. Her fingers were constantly tap-tap-tapping at the keys as she left no stone unturned in her search. _There _has _to be another attitudinator somewhere, _she thought for what felt like the hundredth time that night. Her eye roved down the line of entries that she had unearthed. _Nothing, nothing, Eww, who would ever want to see DNAmy in a thong? Nothing, wait! What was that? _Scrolling back up again she found the link that had caught her attention. It was entitled 'Stoppable Family Photos-The Family With an Attitude.'

Shego was interested in spite of herself. It probably couldn't help her, but she had been working for ages and she deserved a small break. Clicking on the link, Shego found it lead to a small blog which had a background of garish pink. _Ugh, _she thought, _are these people sugar-plumb-fairies or something? _

Nevertheless, she searched through the blog until she found the picture section. When she finally found them she shook her head unbelievingly as she stared at them. There must have been fifty albums there. _OK, _she thought, _not only do they have some crazy attraction to neon, but they're shutter-happy too. I should get back to work anyway. Then again... I suppose one album couldn't hurt. _Shego glanced down the list of albums. The one third from the top caught her eye. It was called 'The Great Wedding Fiasco' Shego raised her eyebrow and clicked on it. _Couldn't be worse than 'Little Shanie smiling,' or 'Christmas, parts one though fifteen,' _she mused.

As she looked through the pictures Shego realized she knew this place. She had gone there with Drakken when they had been trying to get his evilness back from Stoppable. In fact, she was even in some of these pictures. Shego was completely nonplussed. _Who takes pictures when they are being bombarded with a plasma catapult, _she wondered.

But now she was passed the battle scene and looking at a bunch of pictures she didn't know. There were a bride and groom at the alter, and there were Kim and Ron sitting at a small, round table. Ron was wearing a tux, and looking surprisingly good in it too, and Kim was wearing a long blue dress. Ron was gazing at Kim with a dreamy smile on his face.

For some reason this bothered Shego. What was she doing to make him look at her that way. For that matter what did that puffed-up cheer-leader have that she didn't have? She was smart, beautiful, not to mention an incredible fighter. Not that she'd ever want attention from Stoppable. Of course not. Not a chance. And if she ever did want it, she'd find a way to get it because that was the way she handled things. But she didn't want it. Not at all.

Angry with herself, Shego went back to looking at the picture, though she found herself looking everywhere but at Ron's face. Kim, at any rate, was not returning Ron's smile. Instead, she was completely focused on the peace of cake she was eating.

Suddenly Shego noticed something under the table and slightly to the side. Leaning closer, she squinted at the picture. Then she let out a delighted laugh, forgetting for a moment that she had to be quiet, and allowed herself to sink back into her chair. _Thank you curiosity, _she thought. _I may just owe you the world._

_--------------_

The other wakeful occupant of Drakken's 'secrete' lair was not feeling nearly so exuberant. In his cell in the dungeons, which Drakken never went to as he thought that was a 'henchman-place,' Ron Stoppable had come to a conclusion.

"Look at the facts, Ron," he told himself as he paced the small cramped room. "One, you and Kim always go on missions together, and always get captured together, two, Kim has never taken so long to rescue you before, and three, the first thing Kim always does when she gets free is come rescue you. So if she hasn't come, that can only mean..." He trailed off and swallowed. "That can only mean that she hasn't gotten away yet. And if she hasn't gotten away yet she must be in trouble."

Ron stopped pacing and stood in the center of his cell, thinking. Admittedly, he hardly ever took a leading role in their missions. Mostly he just did what Kim said he should do, namely be a distraction. But there had been times, a few to be sure, when he had been forced to step up to the plate. And he had found that he had what it took to defeat the villain and save the day.

Making up his mind, Ron crossed to the door and listened intently. When he failed to hear anything he crouched down and reached into his pocket. And then he realized something. Rufus. Rufus had not been captured, or if he had he was not here. Ron felt terribly lonely all of a sudden. Even on the rare occasions when he and Kim were separated or had a fight he always had Rufus to cheer him up and offer assistance. Rufus was always there for him. And now, suddenly, he wasn't. Ron drew a deep breath.

"OK, Ron," he whispered. "You don't have Rufus, so you'll have to improvise." The sound of his voice quietened his rising panic and he rose from his crouch and headed toward the mettle cot. He studied it from all angles then, grimacing in disgust, he lay down on the filthy cement that comprised the floor, and began poking around underneath it. Feeling the bottom of the cot Ron felt his hand close around a rusty screw. _How about that, _he thought wryly. _This thing might actually_ _have been comfortable at one time. _

Getting the screw out of the bed was not a pleasant experience. Fortunately, the bed was very old so it only took ten to fifteen minutes of prodding, twisting and yanking, and left a minimum of bruised and lacerated fingers. When he was finally finished Ron wriggled out from under the bed with his prise and a brand new strained neck. He gazed in dismay at the black smudges on his pants and shirt.

"Kim is so paying for this after I bust her out," he muttered. But there was no time to morn his ruined attire, so Ron crossed to the door once again. By sticking his arm through the bars and bending it at a clearly unnatural angle he could just reach the lock. He began prodding at it with the end of the screw, hearing the faint scraping sounds as it explored the inside of the lock. After only a few minutes of this he felt the lock give and could have shouted for joy and pride. 'Look, Kim!' He wanted to shout. 'I escaped, and I did it completely by myself!'

Unfortunately, Kim wasn't there and shouting would no doubt alert the guards to his presence, so Ron contented himself with a whispered "Booyah," and then, keeping an eye out for guards, he started down the hallway.

--------------

Rap-rap-rap.

Kim rolled over in bed, trying to ignore the sound. It was probably just a tree branch rubbing against her window or something. She hugged her pillow and rolled over, trying to find her dream again. It had featured herself, Josh Mankey her long-time crush and an elegant dinner rather prominently. The next second, however, the rapping changed to a scraping like nails on a chalkboard and Kim sat bolt upright in bed. There, standing on her window sill was Rufus. The little mole-rat was shivering and dragging his teeth across the glass. Kim rose and quickly crossed the room. She unbolted the window and opened it slightly, and Rufus tumbled into her waiting hands.

"Rufus, where were you?" she whispered. "Do you know where Ron is?" Rufus shook his head dejectedly and snuggled into her nightdress to warm himself.

Kim walked slowly back to her bed and sat down on the edge of it. Something terrible must have happened to Ron. He would never go off and leave Rufus voluntarily. _I have to save him, _Kim thought. _Sometimes I think I'm the only one who cares about him. _She remembered what Wade had told her earlier in the evening.

"By the way, Kim," Wade had said. "You should probably wait to tell Ron's parents that he's missing until tomorrow. They've both gone to business meetings."

"Didn't they notice he was gone when they came home?" she asked, incredulous. Wade shook his head.

"They must have thought he was out with you," he answered, fingers typing away like a well-oiled machine. "They were probably only here for a little while anyway, I understand they work a fair amount."

Thinking about that conversation sent a wave of anger through her. _His parents haven't seen him since last night, and they don't even check up on him, _She thought, furious. _I should march right over to that meeting right now and tell them in front of everybody! _She clenched her hands determinately, then, hearing an anguished squeak she hastily loosened her grip.

"Sorry, Rufus," she said, and set him gently on her bed, where he gave her a death glare before retreating behind her pillow to sulk. Kim walked slowly over to the window to close it, and stopped to think, her hand resting on the frame. _Wade hasn't found any information on who took Ron, she mused, but who's to say there isn't any evidence at Ron's house? _She felt her heart speed up, delighted to finally have something she could do instead of waiting like a love sick teen-ager for the phone to ring. _I mean, _she thought, _it's not really breaking and entering if I need to do it to save someone. And I'll make sure to be in and out in five minutes. no one will ever know._

She had been dressing while she thought, and now sheslung her backpack over her shoulder and creped out of her room and down the stairs. _Yeah, _she thought as she closed the front door softly behind her. _This'll be a peace of cake. What could go wrong?_

_---------------_

Me: Ever hear of 'famous last words? See you next time!


	4. To Turn a Sidekick Evil

ROBB Chap 4

To Turn a Sidekick Evil

Disclamer: (tune of 'Down in the Boondocks ' which I also don't own)

Every night I watch the light from the studio on the hill.

I love a character who's owned up there, and I guess I always will.

But I don't dare knock on his door, 'cause Disney is his boss man.

So I'll just have to be content, to write 'bout him whenever I can.

_**applause **_

Thanks once again to everyone who reviewed! You make me feel wanted. I am blushing so much at all the nice comments I am getting. I also appreciate the constructive criticism, I have so many problems with commas and some other aspects of grammar. I hope your suggestions will help me to write more effectively.

I am writing this fan fic for fun, as well as because I love the show and want to see more of the characters. However, I also plan to be a fantasy author as my main career. Therefore, I am grateful for any and all advice that comes my way.

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"Kimberly Possible! What are you doing in my son's _room_!"

The piercing ejaculation entered into Kim's sore head and played a tattoo on her scull. She opened her eyes with difficulty and saw a blurry, upside-down face hanging over her with a glare fit to shatter glass.

"Whazat?" she murmured, her brain still clouded with the fog of sleep.

"I don't want to hear it, young lady," the face snapped. It now seemed vaugly familiar, though Kim was still to disoriented to remember where she had seen it before. "The only things I want to know are where my son is and why you are lying in his bed!"

The jigsaw puzzle of Kim's fractured mind had now fitted itself together sufficiently to realize that the upside-down face belonged to Mrs. Stoppable. Now, what had she said? Kim struggled to remember, but her mind was still a little fragmented. Some peaces were probably still hiding under sofa cushions.It had been something about Ron, of that she was sure. Yes, something about Ron, and something about..._why I was in Ron's bed!_

Kim sat up in a flash and barely avoided conking heads with Ron's irate mother, who was still looming over her. _No, no, no,_ no! Kim thought desperately. _I can't be in Ron's bed, we're _friends! _F. R. I. E. N. D. S. How did this happen? I can't remember what happened last night! Was I _druggedShe glanced down at herself and saw that she was in her mission clothes. _That's odd, _she mused. _Why would I be dressed like this if I...slept here...last night? _"I'm still waiting, Kimberly!" Mrs. Stoppable sounded decidedly ticked now and Kim forced herself out of her puzzling and strangely unsettling thoughts, and tried to think of an answer. Wait...something about Ron...and the reason she came here last night...Oh!

Kim started as everything suddenly came back to her. Ron was missing! And she had come here to find clues as to who had taken him. And then... She remembered coming in through Ron's window. He had the most convenient tree outside, so she hadn't even had to use her grappling hook. She had begun to search his room, but the batteries in her flashlight had been acting up and when she stopped to check them they had gone out completely. Some instinct had made her turn toward the window and she saw a black figure against the moonlight. The next second, the figure had dived through the window and was grappling with her. She thought she had gotten in several good hits, but after only a few moments she had felt an agonizing pain at the back of her scull, followed by darkness.

And that was all.

Slowly, Kim rose to her feet, still under the frosty glare of Ron's mother. She offered this woman a faltering smile and ran a hand nervously through her scarlet tresses.

"There's a very good explanation for this, Mrs. Stoppable," Kim started. "But you may want to sit down for it."

-----------------------------

Shego leaned back in the overstuffed green armchair. She let a small sigh of satisfaction whisper past her lips. She knew she would have to get up in a few minutes and pretend to be awake while Drakken bragged about his butterfly scheme, which was going nowhere if you asked her, though no one ever did, but she allowed herself to sink even farther into the chair's padded back. Lifting a hand to her face, she winced at the new black eye that was forming.

"Stupid Princess," she muttered, resisting the urge to ignite her hands and demolish something. If that blasted cheerleader hadn't interfered she could have been back at the lair in plenty of time for a nap. Not to mention free of bruises.

At least Kimmie probably hadn't recognized her, dressing in black and avoiding using her plasma had been a stroke of genius. Now, hopefully, the cheerleader wouldn't guess who was behind her sidekick's disappearance until the attitudinator had done its work. Shego was confident that Evil Ron could handle anything the Princess could dish out.

Sighing, she raised herself out of the soft and enticing chair and changed from her burglar's garb into one of her standard jumpsuits. She then proceeded to conceal her black eye with some pail face cream from a jar, muttering what she would do to a certain red-haired crime fighter the next time they crossed paths as she did so. Finally, after running a brush through her raven hair, Shego examined her appearance in the mirror at her make-up table and pronounced her appearance satisfactory. Just in time too, for as soon as she turned away from the mirror, her boss's grating voice came loudly over the intercom.

"Shego," he barked, "I need you in the lab at once! I don't care what you're doing, drop it and come here." Resignedly, Shego grabbed a magazine from the store she kept beside her bed and headed out the door. She would go do whatever it was Drakken wanted and then she'd take the buffoon some food.

"And tonight," she murmured softly, glancing over at the cupboard where she had hidden the attitudinator, "I've got a date with a sidekick."

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"Three kings, read 'em and weep!"

The other players groaned, as the beefy henchman wrapped his red-clad arms around the pile of poker chips and swept them toward him. As he shuffled, the cards sliding easily through his roughened hands, the big man saw a tousled blond head poke 'round the door frame.

"Hey, there," he called, jovially. "Room for one more!" When the owner of the tousled blond head seemed reluctant, the card player stood up and, walking over to the door, guiding the hesitant young man further inside and over to the card table. "Name's Bill," he announced himself, as he grabbed another chair from behind him and set it up for the new arrival. "And these," he said, motioning to the other henchmen gathered around the table, "are my cronies." a ripple of laughter followed this declaration, but Bill noticed that the newcomer did not join in.

"Actually...um..."

"Bill," card player repeated, smiling.

"Well, um...Bill," the boy continued. "I can't really stay. I'm on..." His eyes brightened and he went on, more strongly. "I'm on a important assignment for Drakken. And I should probably get back to it right away."

"Ah, tha' old slave driver," another card player muttered.

"You'd best get off, then," Bill said, reluctantly. "Otherwise, he might send..." his voice sank to a whisper and everyone else self-consciously moved closer to him. "Shego!"

"Uhuh, yep, of course," the blond boy said quickly, jumping up and backing toward the door. "It was really nice meeting you guys, hope I'll see y'all soon!" And he was gone. Bill chuckled, greenhorns. They were jumpier than a basket full of grasshoppers. Shaking his head he began dealing out the next hand. He felt lucky tonight.

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Ron walked through the winding corridors, silent now that the henchman's laughter had died away and thanked his lucky stars at his narrow escape. He had never considered before the perks of being unnoticed and constantly forgotten. If Kim had been in his place the whole lair would have been alerted by now. Instead, the henchmen had asked him to play cards with them.

However, after the relief of not being discovered had stopped being in the forefront of his thoughts, Ron's mood reverted back to the state it had been in before the intrusion of Bill, that is, dismay. Kim was nowhere to be found. He had searched the various cell blocks painstakingly and their only occupant, besides the numerous rats, was a terribly fake looking plastic skeleton, which was sprawled on the floor of one of the cells. It might frighten a five-year-old, on Halloween night, in a graveyard, at the full moon, after a scary story, but he doubted it.

Had Kim already left? What if she had thought she was the only one captured and had escaped, not knowing her sidekick was still in Drakken's clutches? Ron's heart sank at this thought, but he couldn't stop now. Besides, reason told him that if Kim had left Drakken would be in jail and the lair would have been reduced to a pile of rubble. At any rate, there was nothing he could do but keep looking.

Ron gradually meandered through the lair. When the corridor branched, as it did every few feet, he picked a random direction and proceeded along it. After a while he noticed he had been slowly heading upwards. The hallways were less obviously dank and he noticed more chrome.

After a little while he came to huge glass window that faced out on the corridor. It flooded the section of hallway in front of it with a bright beam of light, as though a searchlight had been pressed to the other side.

Hesitantly, he began edging past the window, crouching so as to keep below its bottom. However, he couldn't resist peaking over to find out why the light was so strong. At first, as his forehead emerged over the window sill, Ron could see only shadows through the blinding illumination, but as his eyes adjusted he beheld a familiar scene.

Drakken, arms gesticulating rapidly, was pacing back and fourth in front of several large glass boxes that contained, as far as Ron could tell, numerous piles of cotton balls. Shego sat on the edge of a silver counter top, thumbing through a magazine and looking board.

Absently, Ron wondered why she stayed with Drakken. She could probably run rings around him if she got out on her own. He watched her brush back a strand of her onyx colored hair with a matching glove. She really was stunning, when she wasn't trying to kill him, of course. He wandered if she was dating anyone from the villain community and, to his surprise, found himself fervently hoping she wasn't. Why should she? She deserved much better than someone like Senior Senior Junior, that little spoiled brat.

Suddenly, Ron noticed that Shego had turned toward the window and appeared to be staring right at him. He ducked out of sight, inwardly cursing himself for staying exposed for so long and got ready to run when she set off the alarm. Except she didn't.

Ron waited for what must have been a good ten minutes, his bent legs shaking from remaining tensed and motionless for so long, but there were no yells, no blaring horns and flashing lights. She must not have seen him. Maybe she was looking at something else, something _beside_ the window. Ron let out a small sigh of relief and passed the back of his hand over his sweaty brow. But he still shouldn't press his luck, so he resumed his interrupted trip past the window, then continued on down the corridor. Kim wasn't there, so he'd just have to keep looking. And when he found her she was going to have to buy him the biggest naco he had _ever_ seen.

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Shego wanted to scream. Here she sat, listening to Dr. Boring rant, again, while the only chance of success she had found in a long time was getting away. After seeing Stoppable's head through the window it had taken a monumental effort not to show her surprise. How had he managed to get out of his cell? Still, she couldn't help feeling a little impressed; she hadn't thought he could find his way out of a walk-in closet. Then again, she had known that his intelligence he showed when affected by the attitudinator had been his own. He had shown he was very resourceful, not to mention capable of logical thinking. For some reason that eluded her, he never used these skills during missions. Instead, he played dufus while Little Miss Perfect saved the day.

However, these questions could wait, Stoppable couldn't. He was probably already on his way toward the main entrance. She had to go after him.

"Drakken," she said, loudly. No answer. He was off in his own little world, the only place he would ever control.

"Yo, Dr. D!" she tried again. Nope, no response. She might as well have been talking to a tape recorder. This had gone on long enough. She had been nice; she had listened with minimal sarcastic remarks; she hadn't fried anything in over an hour, but now her patience was exhausted.

"DRAKKEN!" she bellowed, following her ejaculation up with a couple of plasma blasts. The response was gratifying. The mad scientist shrieked like a noon-day whistle and jumped five feet in the air.

As soon as his feet touched ground again he was off. If there was one thing he had learned while working with Shego it was that, when his sidekick used that voice it was time to take his leave and contemplate the wonderful fact that he was still in possession of all his appendages.

Shego smirked; that had felt good. She then headed out the other door after the buffoon. He would soon have cause to be glad she had vented her anger at her employer.

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Left, right, left, right, left, right. Ron stared at his feet, mesmerized. He hadn't eaten for more than a day, now and he was beginning to feel the effects. Before, he had been too caught up in his fear, as well as his determination to find Kim to notice, but his body was now making up for lost time. Every single muscle he owned ached, while his stomach felt as though a cyclone was tearing through it._ It wasn't supposed to_ _be this way, _he thought, dejectedly. _I was supposed to find Kim and then we were supposed to defeat the badguys and get out of here._

So deeply was he buried in his own thoughts he failed to notice the dark figure crouching in the space between the wall and celling. All he knew was a brief bout of fiery pain at the back of his scull, then sweet, restful darkness.

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"Rise and shine, little sidekick. Actually, don't rise, because you're tied down." A malicious chuckle followed the words. Ron found himself being unwillingly pulled into wakefulness, despite his best efforts and, as he tried to turn over he felt tight bands press against his body. He didn't want to face the world again, sensing it would be none too pleasant.

"Lemmie alone," he mumbled. The inside of his mouth had the consistency of cotton wool and it hurt to talk. He wondered how long it had been since his last drink, but wondering was too much work. He sensed rather than saw, as his eyes were still firmly closed, a figure come and loom over him.

Ron cracked his eyes open and saw, once the various blurs had resolved themselves into recognizable objects, Shego's face, a foot from his own.

"So you're finally awake," the villainous observed, running a hand through her wavy hair.

"Shego," Ron rasped through his crusty lips. "What have you done with Kim?" He put as much fire into the words as he could manage, but it wasn't much. Shego looked surprised for a second, then she smiled.

"Aw, worried about the princess, Ronnie?" she asked sweetly. "I assume she's at home, bighting her perfect nails. Surprise overcame Ron's aching throat.

"She's not here?" he questioned, his voice more raspy by the second. "You mean she escaped?" The last word was too much for him and he lapsed into a coughing fit. Shego grabbed a cup off a nearby table and held it to his lips. Water, sweet, refreshing water trickled between his chapped lips and over his tung. He gulped it down, eagerly, not caring that the cup had been presented to him by a villain. If it was drugged, it was drugged. He was too thirsty to be suspicious.

"Oh, Kimmy didn't escape," Shego told him, retracting the cup far too soon. She was never here in the first place. I wanted you." She bent and picked something off the floor, out of Ron's limited line of site. As she straightened up and he saw what she held Ron felt the beginnings of horror shiver down his spine and if he hadn't been strapped down he might have made a break for it.

"Oh, no," he whispered. Shego's smile widened as she placed the attitudinator on his head and tied the straps under his chin.

"Say goodbye to the princess, Ronnie," She smirked. "I don't think you'll want to see her when this is over. Then she reached out a green-gloved hand and flipped the on switch.

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Muahahaha!

Hey, sorry again that this was so late, but I have an excuse. Observe...

_(Deyinel (Me) walks into the backstage dressing room. Kim and Shego are sitting at opposite sides of the room brushing their hair and glaring at each other.)_

Me: _(Oblivious to the invisible lasers shooting out their eyes at each other.) _Here you are, this is the script for chapter four of "Return of Bad Boy," have a look before you start performing. _(Gives them said scripts and starts to leave.)_

Kim: Wait! It says here that Shego beats me...SHEGO NEVER BEATS ME!

Shego: Oh, please, Princess. I beat you all the time.

Kim: YOU DO NOT!

Me: Uh...I have to agree with Shego here. What about the time in "Hidden talent when she knocked you out, or in "A Sitch in Time" when she had everyone captured?

Shego and Kim: A sitch in _what?_

Me: Nothing.

Kim: And another thing, when I get woken up here, _(points to script) _I act like a complete moron!

Shego: And that's different from how you normally act because...

Kim: That's it! YOU'RE GOING DOWN!

_(Kim and Shego leap at each other and start one of their trademark fight scenes. Deyinel stands helplessly watching. Ron comes in eating a taco and looks at the two people apparently trying to kill each other.)_

Ron: They're at it _again?_

Me: Unfortunately. _Now _how am I supposed to get this thing in on time?

Ron: As KP would say, no big. I mean, how long can they keep fighting?

_(Two weeks later Ron and I are sitting in two lawn chairs and sharing an order of nachos. Rufus is asleep at the bottom of another, empty, nacho container. Kim and Shego are sitting across from each other on the floor and kicking each other half heartedly.)_

Me: Would you two _please _stop fighting now?

Shego: Yeah...Kimmie. Why don't you...submit?

Kim: No...take...take back what you said.

Shego: Try...and ma...ake me.

_(The two continue kicking weekly, though slightly harder.)_

Ron: _(Sighs and looks at a wall calender.) _Maybe after another week...

Well, you can guess where it went from there...I finally got them to cooperate, so I got the chapter in. Let's hope this doesn't happen again.

So, I hope everyone liked this chapter. I know it's the longest one I've ever written, so I'm afraid my next one will probably be shorter again. I just felt that I really wanted to end this chapter with Shego turning on the attitudinator and scenes just kept cropping up. So R&R and tell me what you think.

Oh, also, you can check out my Ron/Shego forum if you want. Come oooooon. I know you want to. ;)

And, I'm really sorry to any K/R fans out there, but this will have a R/S ending. I have a story that is K/R coming out soon called "Potential Boy," so that's something, anyway.

See you next chapter!


	5. A New Villain Is Born

ROBB chap 5

Disclaimer: Darkness. Suddenly a bright light goes on, trained on Deyinel's face where she sits in a hard chair. Several grim looking men and a large, grim looking mouse in red shorts are standing in front of her, glaring. Deyinel: No, I won't say it! It's MINE! It came to ME! It's my...precious? _(sighs) _Fine, Kim Possible doesn't belong to me. Dang! Curse you, Mickey! Curse YOU!

I'm back from Costa Rica!

I Am SO sorry about the huge delay on this chapter, but as I said in my profile page I am having some major issues with Evil Ron. I know how I see him, but I'm having trouble putting it into words. Also, I'm having trouble with his relationship with Shego. Nevertheless, I'm having a lot of fun writing this story, though Kim and Shego _never_ cooperate. In this chapter you'll get to see some of what evil Ron is like. Yup, it's the big moment at last, I hope I don't disappoint. _(begins hyperventilating) _

Thank you all for your wonderful reviews and comments! I can't tell you how happy it makes me when people enjoy my stories!

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Beep, beep beepbee... Before the kimmunicator had a chance to finish its trademark tone it was seized. The ten-year-old super genius found himself staring into the furious green eyes of his crime-fighting cohort.

"Where is he," she demanded.

"I'm not the villain, Kim," Wade said, stifling a yawn. The pudgy boy had huge bags under his eyes and his cloths were creased. He ran a hand through his hair agitatedly, adding to his rumpled state; a testy Kim was not fun to deal with. "I'm doing my best," he continued after a moment, "but I still haven't got any information on Ron's whereabouts. His parents haven't received a ransom or anything, have they?"

"No," Kim answered despondently, sitting down on the edge her bed. Her own cloths were clean and wrinkle free, and every hair on her head was in place. Her room too, was meticulously tidy. Since she couldn't do anything to help Ron she had to focus her nervous energy somewhere. An owl hooted from outside her window, its melancholy song perfectly matching the red-head's mood. "But they don't seem very worried about him," she added, her voice now rising in anger. "Annoyed, yes. Annoyed at the _inconvenience!_" Her eyes looked as though they were spitting green sparks. "Worried for their only child's safety? Not so much!"

As she spoke her fingers tightened on the kimmunicator's plastic casing, her knuckles turning white. Her voice snapped coldly in the warm night air, all but frosting the small plastic device in her hand. Wade was half afraid that a little more pressure might cause a crack in the plastic, hard as it was.

A change of subject was probably the best course of action. Good thing he didn't need to invent something. Scratching his head uneasily, he dove in.

"Kim, I'd _love_ to chat, but I didn't just call to hear the gossip from missing son central. One of my servailence cameras has detected a suspicious looking figure outside your house."

Kim immediately relaxed her death-grip on the kimmunicator and felt the relief of having something productive to do. This was something she knew how to deal with.

"Where and who, Wade?" she asked, deciding to leave the question of just how many servailence cameras Wade had around her house for another day.

"I don't know who it is," the ten-year-old answered confusedly. "It's hooded. Male, I'd say, and it's not a ninja; it's making enough noise to deafen an elephant." Kim nodded, already planning her first move.

"Front of the house, or back," she asked, almost absently.

"Front." Wade's voice sounded incredulous. He mopped his forehead with a cloth held in his chubby hand. "But, Kim, he's just standing at your front door – in plain sight!" Before Kim could answer there came the sound of the doorbell, resonating in a loud Ding-ong!

Kim flew through her trapdoor and down the stairs, hair streaming like a comet's tail behind her.

As she reached the front hall she paused then, deciding on the direct approach, she seized the knob and flung the door wide, slipping into a fighting stance as she did so. And there stood...

"_Drakken?_" she exclaimed.

It wasn't really his identity that surprised her, though she hadn't known he knew where she lived. It wasn't even the fact that he'd shone up at her house unprotected and rung the doorbell. She didn't exactly hold her unexpected visitor's intelligence in high regard. No, the thing that had shocked her was the way he looked. His cloths had jagged tares all over them and he looked as though he had had repeated encounters with an electrical socket. He also had a nasty looking cut across his cheek and was covered in dirt, mud and branches. After a few moments of gaping in slack-jawed amazement, Kim found her voice.

"What are you doing here? And, what happened?" Her voice sounded a little more concerned then she would have liked, but Drakken had a way of looking pitiable even when he was triumphant. Now he was reminiscent of a run-over bull dog puppy.

The mad scientist hemmed and hawed for a few minutes, fiddling and trying to straighten his attire, an attempt which failed miserably. Finally he cleared his throat.

"Ahem, yes, well," he started. "So, y-you're Kim Possible." Kim raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," she said, with just a hint of 'maybe I should call the paddy wagon.' "I would assume you knew that by now." Drakken chuckled self consciously.

"Well yes," he agreed, pulling at his shirt collar with one hand. "What I mean is, you help people, right?" He looked at his feet now, and the last part of his statement was said so softly Kim could barely hear it. "Well, it so happens I...need your help."

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Drakken's former lair was a flurry of activity. Nervous looking henchmen, some sporting minor burns, or other injuries were swarming in and out, arms full of equipment like red-clad ants. Ron and Shego stood on a raised platform from which they were watching the operation. Or, rather, Ron was watching the operation, Shego was watching Ron.

He stood, leaning on the platform's railing and calmly observing the spectacle below. However, despite his apparent lack of concentration, Shego harbored no doubts that he was aware of everything around him and prepared to act if the need arose.

It amazed her how different the he was now from 'Zorpox the Conqueror,' as she thought of his former evil self. Zorpox had been insane; there was no doubt in her mind of that. He had been commanding and frightening because he was a maniacal, evil genius with the power to back up every one of his horrible threats.

This Ron, on the other hand, had Zorpox's intelligence, as she could tell simply from the way he talked. At the same time he had a commanding presence in the way he walked and talked which she couldn't help finding fascinating. When he spoke he had a certainty that his directions would be followed.

There was also the change in how he treated her. She didn't know exactly what she had been expecting when the attitudinator finished, but it defiantly wasn't that he would offer her a partnership. Frankly, he had explained that if either of them was in a position of power over the other they would be constantly fighting and testing their limits, which would be counter productive. She had agreed, slightly confused, and he had then drawn her away to plot the eviction of Drakken.

And, of course, there was the way he now looked.

The first thing he had done, after convincing the henchmen their loyalties now lay with him, had been to go to Drakken's room and turn out the closet for something to wear. Shego wasn't sure why he was in such a hurry, but she wasn't about to argue.

Besides, he certainly looked the part of 'villain' in the loose, black pants and shirt, which a black, silver-lined cape. Shego had been surprised Drakken even had something that classy in his wardrobe.

And Shego was even more surprised by how the buffoon looked.

_He looks hot._

Wait! Where had _that _thought come from? Shego shook her head slightly. _Down, girl. This is not a place you want to go. Although..._ After all, it wasn't like he'd be jumping into Kimmie's arms any time soon. _Alright, I admit it, _she mused. _Black looks good on him; makes him look more muscular. _

She thought of the moment the attitudinator had begun its work, what she had seen in his face.

_At first, fear. _

_But not the kind of fear she was used to. Not the kind she saw on an almost daily basis. This was a primal fear, something deep and instinctual, she could feel it. It wasn't the fear he had when he had merely been captured. That was a surface fear. This was fear of himself. Of what he was becoming. Then slowly his expression changed._

_Determination. _

_A battle took place on his face, in his eyes and lips, just as she knew it must be going on all through his body. He trembled from his ears to his fingertips to his toes, then became ridged, hard and cold as a block of ice far from even the memory of warmth. Still his lips twitched involuntarily over his bared teeth._

_For an instant his eyes locked with hers, his dark brown orbs were frozen in terror at the battle he was losing, and they pleaded with her for help. _

_Shego suddenly felt a pang in her chest as though the icy horror of his eyes had cracked and penetrated a protective shell she didn't know she had. She felt as though something precious and rare was slipping away and would be lost forever and had a sudden urge to snatch the attitudinator from his head, reverse the process, anything to keep from losing something she hadn't known she wanted._

_And then it was over. _

_His body relaxed in one motion, his eyes closing and the taught muscles and tendons going slack and limp. But this was not the way Ron Stoppable relaxed. Though his body was still and lax there was a sense of waiting, a slight tensing of muscles as though he was a tiger, asleep but ready to spring. _

That was the way he looked now; feline, poised and ready for action.

Trying to decipher these new things she felt when she looked at the former sidekick before her, these feelings of attraction, Shego realized she didn't know what they meant, or how long they would last, but, like this 'new Ron' who stood before her, when she saw something she wanted, she took it.

"Stoppable." She said it with as little emotion as she could manage, but knew there was a suggestive tone to the word.

Ron turned from the wrought iron railing, one eyebrow raised. "Shego," he said evenly, but his eyes told her he knew what she was suggesting and was not adverse to it. Shego smiled wickedly, then glanced at the busy henchmen below them. "Should we dismiss the underlings?" Ron asked, seeing her look.

"Nah," she answered. "If any of them interrupts us I'll just fry him."

"Fair enough." Then Ron took a step toward her so they were face to face, placed a firm, black gloved hand on her shoulder and tilted his mouth to meet hers.

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Well, sorry for the long wait, and I'm sure you won't have to wait as long for chapter six. Also, sorry that scene was all from Shego's point of view. I promise you will see some stuff from evil Ron's POV soon. Plus, hopefully more Rongo romance in the next chapter! ;)

So what does everyone think of evil Ron so far? R&R and let me know, and I'll update as soon as I can.


	6. Coca And Second Thoughts

ROBB chap 6

Disclaimer: If I owned Kim Possible thinkith thou my stories would only be available on the Internet?

_The following was posted in all my stories._

**REVIEWERS PLEASE READ:** Thanks so much to my reviewers! All the help and advice you give is wonderful. I really feel that you are helping me improve my writing style and spelling, though I know I'm still not great at the latter. The positive feedback is also awesome. It's a fantastic feeling to open a review and find that the person loved your story and wants to kill you if you don't update soon, lol. But seriously, without you guys to encourage me I would probably still update, but I wouldn't know whether people liked my story or not, and for what reasons. You, the reviewers, really aren't appreciated enough for what you do. It only takes a few minutes of your time and may seem like little to you, but just know that every review I get, whether it gives me helpful advice, update entreaties, or just tells me I'm doing a good job raises my spirits and lets me know there are people out there who like my story, even if I make mistakes. Remember, it's the little things in life that count. Every time you take a moment to do something for someone shows them you care. So thank you, and know that you are appreciated, for where would the authors be without the reviewers? (Very lonely.)

And now I present the long overdue chapter six of Return of Bad Boy!!! (You may applaud now.)

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Kim sat on one end of her living room couch and watched as super villain and her arch foe Dr. Drakken tried to fish a marshmallow out of his hot chocolate with his fingers.

He was seated in her father's arm chair and wrapped up in a bathrobe and fuzzy slippers. The tip of his tongue protruded from the side of his mouth and he was concentrating solely on the task at hand. Kim cleared her throat, the marshmallow escaped, and the blue skinned, would be conqueror raised his head.

"_Well?_" Kim demanded.

"Well what?" Drakken glanced at his chocolate covered fingers for a minute, then put them one by one in his mouth and sucked them clean.

Kim rolled her eyes. "Well, what happened to make you show up at my door covered in mud and asking for help?"

Drakken put his hot chocolate on the coffee table and folded his hands together in his lap. He looked embarrassed, and maybe a little ashamed as well.

"It was all rather complicated, you have to understand," he began. Kim raised her eyebrow.

"Who attacked you?" She asked, finally losing her patience.

"Your buffoon!" Drakken blurted out, then sat back, going a slightly darker blue from embarrassment.

"My buff...Ron? Ron attacked you?" Kim blinked. This was unexpected.

"He did more than that." Drakken was positively pouting now. "He brainwashed Shego into helping him, and stole my lab! I came to you because I thought you could tell me what happened to him, and because you can get him under control."

Kim was already pulling out her kimmunicator, the device letting out a familiar tone as she swiftly pressed the button used to contact Wade and brought the computer genius up to speed. She also had to press Drakken for a few more details, such as the location of his former lab.

He was a little hesitant to give her directions until she informed him, through clenched teeth, that she wouldn't be able to help him unless she was able to get there. This logic won through in the end, but it still took about half an hour before they were able to head out.

And as Kim climbed aboard the small bush plane that was to transport Drakken and herself three words kept repeating over and over inside her head. _I'm coming, Ron! I'm coming, Ron!_

Just then she heard a crash and, turning, found that Drakken had slipped on the plane's smooth floor. He looked up at her and chuckled self consciously. He tried to rise, but as he straightened his hand slipped from where he had braced it and he tumbled to the floor for the second time.

"Help?" Drakken said in a small voice.

Kim sighed, then turned away again and looked resolutely out the window.

It was going to be a long flight.

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Shego stood and watched the stars.

She was standing on the observation deck on top of their new lair. Their lair which was guarded by devices _he _had built and which would not only alert them to Kim Possible's presence when she came, but ones which would also capture her.

_He _was down below working on the plan for world domination they had worked out together earlier. True, most of the ideas had been _his_, but hehad run them all by her, searching for problems. It looked as though this plan would work, and there was probably nothing Kimmie could do to stop it.

Shego had never been so close to world domination before, with the exception of the last time she had met evil Ron, and then he had not treated her like an equal.

She had also never made out with such an attractive villain.

Yes, things really couldn't be better.

So why did she feel so unsettled? Why did she feel this sense of _wrongness_ whenever she saw _him_?

She realized she had known Ron Stoppable the sidekick much more than she thought she had. Now it seemed she was noticing the things that were different about him, that was what it was. When Ron walked now there was an arrogance to his stride. It was not the crazy arrogance of Zorpox, but somehow it was...worse...for that. Zorpox had been frightening yes, but he had also been crazy, and had not seemed like Ron at all.

This Ron was dark, cold and in command. He was Ron, but all his Ronness seemed to have been striped away. So why did that bother her? She had made the sidekick better, hadn't she? _But he's not himself_, a voice in her head whispered.

_I _know_ he's not himself_, she retorted fiercely. _He's better now!_

_Is he? _The voice was persistent. _He doesn't joke anymore, or have that carefree attitude. _

_Exactly! _Shego was exultant. _I lo...I'm attracted to him now._

_But you already were._

_Shut up._

_You know it's true. You used to watch him when you were fighting Kimmie. You liked how he could still be so light hearted through all the stuff that's thrown at him and all the cruelty he's seen. You liked _him. _You just didn't think he was good enough for you, or that he wouldn't like you because you're evil. If you really cared about taking over the world you'd have left Drakken the dufus long ago._

_I said shut up! _Shego gripped the railing so hard her clawed gloved bit into the metal. Plasma flashed from her hands, heating the poor, abused railing until it glowed.

"A little angry this evening, are we?"

"Ron!" Shego spun to find the object of her mental argument lounging against the door to the balcony.

"Don't use up all your anger on the railing," Ron chastised, smirking. "You may want to save some for when Possible's techno geek figures out where we are." His smirk widened to an evil grin that looked so wrong on his face Shego shivered involuntarily. She yanked her claws out of the melted railing, and walked across the floor, joining him at the entrance.

"So why did you come up here?" she asked, trailing a finger down his black clad arm. Why did it take an effort to touch him? Without hesitation, Ron raised a hand and ran his fingers through her ebony locks. Forceful. Why was that bad?

"I actually wanted to tell you blue boy enlisted the cheerleader, and they've gone to investigate his old lab." He leaned in suddenly and kissed her on the side of the mouth. "However, I'm certain they can wait for a few minutes."

Shego had not been expecting the kiss, and had to force herself not to flinch. What was wrong with her? Fiercely, she squashed her troubling feelings down into the pit of her stomach, refusing to acknowledge them, and responded to Ron's kiss with one of her own.

She'd deal with these counter-productive thoughts of hers later. And she would _not _destroy everything she now had because of them.

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Complete and utter destruction. That pretty much described Drakken's former lair. The walls were still standing, but the ceiling was gone, apparently blown out from the inside, and the whole place had been left a charred and empty ruin.

Standing in the doorway, Kim heard a thud and, turning, found Drakken on his knees before the gutted fortress, one eye twitching spasmodically.

"I'm going to _kill _him!" Drakken blurted out. "My beautiful lab! All my color co-ordination gone to waste! And my gadgets! My lovely gadgets! Oh, when I get my hands on...on..." He paused for a moment, searching his memory, then continued. "When I get my hands on what's-his-name he'll wish he'd never been born!"

"You know, Dr. Drakken," Kim pointed out, waking gingerly into the what remained of lair and over to one of the walls, "if you want my help that means no killing my best friend. From what you described he's probably under mind control or something, which means your sidekick was probably this plan's instigator."

"What?" Drakken stopped his ranting to gape at his arch foe. "Shego would _never _turn against me! She is loyal to the end!"

"Keep telling yourself that," Kim muttered, not loud enough for him to hear. She was searching for anything that hadn't been completely destroyed and might proved a clue about where Ron, Shego and the henchmen had gone. So far she hadn't had any luck.

Drakken turned away, sulky, then caught sight of the twisted remains for a small metal machine lying beside what had once been a stone counter and now resembled a pile of gravel. With a small scream the mad scientist ran to the object, and cradled it in his arms.

"My coca maker!" Drakken looked as though he might cry. He put the pile of scrap-metal on the floor gently, then raised his abnormally small fist to the sky. "You will pay for this, Don Toppable! You will pay!" Kim groaned and clapped a hand to her forehead.

"Why did I even bring him along?" she wondered aloud. "As if he's going to be any help finding...wait." Her green eyes narrowed, spotting a thick tangle of wires leading to a literal heap of disconnected security cameras. Snatching the kimmunitcator from a pocket, Kim brought it to life with the touch of a button.

"Find anything?" Wade inquired, then he looked past her and saw the state of the lab. "Woah."

"Actually I did find something. I think." Kim turned the device in her hand, holding it so Wade could see the heap of wires and cameras. "Could any of those still have data you could access?"

"Maybe. Plug them into me." Kim raised an eyebrow at the odd sentence, but found the end of the first wire, plugging it into the port on the kimmunicator. If this worked they would be back in business. She didn't even mind Drakken's ranting.

Well, not much.

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There you are! And now this story is coming together again. I'm really having trouble with Shego's inner dilemma, and it took me a long time to write her scene in this chapter. How did I do with it so far? I don't think it was too bad, but I'm always open to suggestions.

Oh, the reason you haven't seen anything from evil Ron's point of view so far is that that scene was more of an important part for Shego than him. You will probably see some focus on him in the next couple of chapters though.

Thank you for reading, and please review, they make it all worthwhile. :)


	7. Introspection and Deception

ROBB chap 7.

Disclaimer: What? You say I _don't _own Kim Possible? But I thought it was to finally be mine! What are you…? Hey, get that lawsuit away from me! Fine, I still do not own Kim Possible. _(Pouts)_

Thanks once again to all the wonderful people who brightened my day by reviewing. Virtual group hug!

Also, and this is really cool, my stories were nominated three times in Zaratan's Fannie Awards. (No wins, but meh.) "I Still Hate Him" was nominated twice, and our very own Dark Ron in this story was nominated for best villain! If the person who nominated one or more of them is reading this I would like to say thank you SO much! It's a wonderful feeling to know that people liked my stories that much!

Here I am, back again. Today I bring you a chapter of enchantment, of mystifying splendor. A chapter of such power and suspense, such ethereal majesty, tantalizing, pants-defying… Eh…In this chapter you get to see some stuff from Dark Ron's point of view. _(Waves hands around making 'woooo' noises.)_

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Ron strode down the corridor of his new secluded forest lair, each step proclaiming his confidence and control. His black cloak swirled around him granting a sense of menace to his normally unimpressive frame. Except now, _this_ was normal.

A smirk flicked across the new villain's face at the thought. Never again would he play the idiot while Kim Possible saved the day. Never.

His former self might have been happy letting that puffed-up cheerleader get all the credit and thanks for the work they did together, but now that Shego had helped free him from his 'good' side; his week side, he would show the world, as well as his former 'partner,' just what he was made of.

And oh, how they would tremble!

Of course, he had to be careful this time around. He and Shego had discussed it and agreed that the only reason they had been defeated last time was because they had only prepared to deal with Kim, so when Drakken showed up they were caught off guard. Ron was a logical thinker, and though he was fairly good at coming up with plans on the fly his real strength was in planning ahead.

It was not his _only _strength however.

Ever since what he liked to call his 'awakening,' Ron had been feeling a strange twitching tingle spreading through his body, touching and sparking on his every nerve and cell.

His mystical monkey power was growing.

He figured it was probably stimulated by the change in his mind, a breaking down of the barriers of mistrust his week self had erected to cage it. Already it was much stronger than before, desiring, demanding, screaming to be used. And use it he would, but only when he chose; he was the master and would not let it rule him.

Ah, he had been such a fool.

He had spent his entire life being the nice guy, a pathetic goodie-two-shoes who looked after everyone but himself, who risked his life for a world which mocked and forgot him.

Ron clenched his hands in fury and his eyes burned briefly with a bright blue flame. He felt the dark beauty beside him start slightly and tense up, and his lips twitched into an amused smile.

Shego had been unusually jumpy lately, he reflected. There was probably some apprehension about facing Kimberly at the bottom of it and, no doubt, some nervousness concerning himself and what he could do to her as well. Still, he meant to keep his eyes open. Innocent of not, no one kept secrets from Ron Stoppable.

Not Anymore.

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"Yes! I'm in!"

Kim started, head jerking and bobbing as though she was Noddy and somebody had just given her a sharp rap. She rubbed her eyes and looked down at the kimmunicator where it lay next to her on the ground.

It had been two long, dusty, boring hours since Wade had agreed to try and hack into the security cameras' feed, and Kim had done everything one _could _do in a decimated evil lair except sleep. This, of course, was what she was doing when she was interrupted.

Wade grinned at her through the kimmunicator's tiny screen. He looked exhausted and appeared to have strangled his paper soda cup at some point, but now his dark face was alight with the joy of victory.

Kim passed a hand before her eyes to fully clear her vision and smiled back at the boy.

"That's great, Wade," she congratulated. "Anything interesting?"

"I'll say!" Wade's fingers spoke to the keyboard. "Take a look at this," he said after a moment.

The image on the screen changed to a view of the inside of the lab, specifically the large room where the teen crime fighter was currently sitting. The picture looked slightly grainy, as though the camera lens hadn't been cleaned properly, and Kim squinted, trying to make you the details in the empty room.

Suddenly a henchman, identifiable only by his bright red uniform, went flying through the air from off-screen and struck one wall with a sickening crash. The next moment Ron came into view. There was no doubt that it was him. He was moving easily with a kind of liquid grace, but as she stared at him in dismayed confusion, Kim saw the tell-tale vacant, unchanging smile on his face.

"Mind control," she breathed. Wade nodded.

"My guess would be that it's some kind of modified compliance chip; like the one Drakken used on you, but with body enhancers," he said, studying the still playing footage on one of his monitors. "You ever seen Ron fight like that?"

Kim shook her head, wincing as another henchman was forcibly introduced to the wall. As she watched, Shego came on-screen as well and fired a particularly large plasma blast at Drakken's precious coca maker, a satisfied smirk gracing her lips as it was reduced to rubble.

Than she paused. Remembering something, she turned suddenly and sent a burst of plasma at the security cameras. The screen went black.

"And that," Wade said, chubby face re-appearing on the tiny screen, "is that."

"But we don't know where she's taken him," Kim groaned.

"Actually, we do. Northern Canada." Kim gaped at her friend.

"How do we know that?" she asked. Wade smiled.

"A little further on the camera started working again, audio anyway, and I heard Shego tell the henchmen that was where they were going. Apparently there's a secluded rental lair in the northern Canadian wilderness. I didn't hear any exact co-ordinates but," he shrugged. "It shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Fantastic!" Kim beamed at the boy and could have hugged him had he not been so far away. She could hardly believe things were finally starting to go right. It was a heavy load off of her mind to know what had happened to Ron, and although she knew from personal experience that mind control was far from pleasant, at least he was alive and seemed alright. And she thought she could now guess just who she had fought with in Ron's room.

Shego would have a great deal to answer for when Kim caught up to her.

"Got it," Wade announced, breaking into the teen's thoughts. "Want me to set you up with a ride?"

"Please and thank you," Kim replied, the phrase slipping easily off her tongue. She hugged herself awkwardly with her free arm as she felt the chill of the wind and glanced once more around the ruin. "I suppose I'd better get Drakken," she said, sighing.

"Yeah, where is he anyway?" the tech genius asked, fingers dancing confidently over the keyboard.

For answer, Kim turned wordlessly and pointed to a far corner of the charred room where the blue skinned doctor was sleeping, curled into a fetal position with his thumb in his mouth, his other hand clutching the remains of his coca maker possessively. Wade whistled.

"There are some things about super villains I think I would be better off _not_ knowing," he murmured.

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Oooooooooooooooh, Kim is in for the surprise of her life, no?

I have a question. Did anyone other than my brother and I read the old Noddy books when they were kids? I'm talking about _before _they changed the Gollywogs to clowns. _(shudders) _Anyway, if anyone did, and recognized my reference, tell me and I shall give you a virtual cookie. ;)

And now, _please_ let me know what you thing of Dark Ron now that you have finally seen him in his entirety.

PS: The whole 'tantalizing, pants-defying' thing is from a Strong Bad e-mail. I don't own that either.

I'll see you next time, and thanks for reading.


	8. Betrayal

Return of Bad Boy chap 8

Disclaimer: They're gonna keep making me say this, aren't they? Forever and ever. (sigh) Fine, Kim Possible is not mine. It belongs to the lucky, super rich people. (eye twitches)

So here we are, once again. First of all, let me apologize for the enormous gap in my updating times. My only excuse is that I had to concentrate on my university exams and everything else took a backseat to that. However…MY EXAMS ARE NOW FINISHED!!! WOO! So now I can hopefully get back on track with updating. :)

So enjoy this chapter, strait from my newly out of school mind!

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"How could she betray me like this? Me? After all I've done for her how could she drop me _again_ for that…Okay, so I haven't really done anything for her, but I haven't done anything _against_ her…for a while anyway, and now she's off gallivanting with _him_. I bet he doesn't even know how to rant properly, he…"

"Could you _please _keep it down back there?" Kim almost snarled, interrupting Drakken's angry monologue and glaring back at the blue skinned megalomaniac where he sat hunched in the oversized duct, typical of any rental lair. "It wasn't exactly easy getting this far without being discovered," she continued, lowering her voice, "and I'd really rather not have our cover blown before we even _find _Ron and Shego."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Drakken retorted, admittedly lowering his voice to a whisper. "Are you insinuating that it's a cake-walk breaking into _my _lairs?"

"I wasn't, but it usually is," the redhead snapped back. "Now please just stop talking and concentrate on crawling _quietly_." Drakken muttered mutinously under his breath for a moment, but reluctantly lapsed into silence and resumed crawling on his hands and knees behind the teen heroine.

_How do she and the buffoon always make this look so easy?_ he wondered dismally as he shuffled along. It was dusty and cramped and his knees were developing bruises. He was also very tired. It had been a long, boring flight to Northern Canada, and Kim had just sat there, talking to her little computer genius friend and looking out the window. Not that he cared if his mortal enemy chose to ignore him, but there had been absolutely nothing to do. They hadn't even asked for his help in planning a strategy for dealing with his wayward Shego and the mind-controlled buffoon.

Then, when they had finally reached the lair they had needed to avoid about sixteen different traps and safeguards. The shirt and pants he had borrowed from Dr. Possible were now almost as ripped and dirty as the clothes he had been wearing when he'd first arrived at his arch enemy's house in search of help.

All in all, Dr. Drakken had had enough. He was just about to loudly point out this fact to his temporary companion when she suddenly stopped crawling and, lifting out one of the vents on the bottom of their duct, slipped through and motioned for him to follow.

They were in a small service corridor lit by several recessed lights spaced evenly along the walls. Drakken brushed himself off fastidiously as soon as he had finished climbing out of the vent, then turned to see that Kim had already started making her way down the corridor and had to hurry to catch up.

Kim had stopped before a large metal door and was listening intently, one ear pressed close to the dark gray surface. As Drakken drew level to her she held up one hand, indicating that he should keep back and stay silent. _Typical_, the super villain reflected indignantly.

Drakken pouted and fidgeted, watching Kim's set face and still frame. He tapped his foot impatiently, twiddled his thumbs, cracked his neck, and then began cracking his knuckles one by one, pulling at them through the black gloves which he'd refused to take off despite the fact that they looked extremely odd with Dr. Possible's business suit.

When he turned to Kim again she was staring at him as though she would like nothing better than to remove his head from his body and play soccer with it.

"You could not possibly be more annoying and distracting _if you tried_," the teen heroine said through clenched teeth.

"Kimberly, your words hurt!" Drakken exclaimed reproachfully. "I know we're arch enemies, but you can still show me a little respect and appreciation. Besides, that is no way to talk to a grownup," and he held up one small finger for emphasis. "No matter _whom_ he is. Is this how you talk to your elders at home?"

Kim opened her mouth to reply, no doubt with a comment that would be even less respectful than her former, but before she could speak she and Drakken heard something which forced their disagreement to a necessary halt, footsteps.

Immediately, Kim clapped a hand over Drakken's mouth and, whispering "I think it's empty, don't worry," she turned the handle of the large gray door and slipped through, pulling him after her.

For the next, tense minute villain and hero were silent, listening together as the footsteps drew closer, and then faded away. Only when all was silent did they turn to look at the room in which they stood, and saw that at least part of their search was over.

------------------------------------------

Kim was both immensely relieved and slightly puzzled.

She and Drakken stood at one side of a large, circular room, obviously one of the main rooms in the lair. In the very center was a round dais on which sat a slick, metal table. And lying full length on the table was Ron. He was bound with thick straps across his ankles, legs and chest, and was fighting to say something through the gag stuffed into his mouth and tied tightly around his head.

Kim felt a huge weight lift from her shoulders as she saw him, but also a tinge of uncertainty. He had been under mind control, she was sure of it. So why was he tied up?

Behind her, Kim became aware of Drakken. He was muttering and grumbling something about why couldn't people stop stealing his ideas. She caught "…lamest excuse for a trap ever," and felt like laughing. Of course that's what it must be. Whatever had happened before, Ron was definitely not under mind control now, she could see it in his anxious, brown eyes. He was back to being himself.

Keeping an eye out for the result of the trap, Kim moved swiftly to her friend's side. Probably nothing would happen until she had freed Ron of his shackles; that was the usual way it worked. Still, it was probably a good idea to stay alert. Drakken stayed where he was, still softly ranting and complaining. Kim ignored him.

Ron was still moaning anxiously to her through his gag, and Kim realized that she had better take it out first so that he could keep watch while she freed the rest of him. It also seemed likely that he would be in danger of swallowing his it if he kept up moaning like that.

"Kim, it's a trap!" Ron blurted out the instant he could speak. Kim couldn't help a small smile as she realized how much she had missed his habit of stating the obvious.

"I know it's a trap Ron," Kim told him, smiling. She was now working at the large buckles which attached the straps to the table. "It's always a trap," she continued, straining as her fingers fought the cold metal buckles. Just keep an eye out while I free you and then we'll deal with whatever it is."

Kim's head was down as she worked away, and so she didn't see Ron's eyes flash furiously or the way his kind, caring face twisted briefly into a mask of hate and loathing. But the next moment the frightening change was gone, his expression once again that of worried bewilderment and trust.

"Sure thing KP," he piped.

"So," Kim said, smiling in satisfaction as she felt one of the metal fasteners give, the thick strap going slack. "What happened to you?"

"Shego got the drop on me in my room," Ron said, squinting around the room and toward the door where Drakken could still be seen ranting at no one. "She brought me somewhere, Drakken's old base I guess, and put some kind of chip on me. Right here." Ron raised one of his newly freed hands and lightly touched the back of his neck.

When he lowered his hand again he softly brushed Kim's hand with the tips of his fingers, than trailed them up her arm before withdrawing. For some reason it made Kim feel nervous, a slight, not unpleasant shiver running down her back, and she darted a swift glance at her sidekick, but he was still scanning the room for guards and didn't seem aware of what he'd just done.

Kim shook off the feeling and continued working at the buckles; there were still the bands on Ron's legs and feet to release.

"Anyway," Ron continued after a moment, "I guess it was some kind of compliance chip because I couldn't control myself. She'd tell me to do things and I'd watch myself do them like…like a puppet." He paused for a moment and shivered slightly, as though reliving the memory. Kim squeezed his shoulder briefly in sympathy, she knew what mind control felt like.

"We destroyed Drakken's base," the blond said after a moment. "We leveled it. I guess you saw that." Kim nodded. "And then we moved over here." He sighed. "Once we'd got everything set up Shego brought me in here and strapped me to this table. I didn't understand because I was already under her control, right? I mean, why would she want to tie me up?" Thin, red clothed arms wrapped protectively around his body. Kim felt like hugging him herself.

"She took the chip off, then leaned in close to me and said this was a trap she was setting for you; that there was nothing I could do and she was going to…kill you."

Kim looked up at Ron after undoing the final buckle. There was so much pain and concern in his deep brown eyes. He took her hand in both of his.

"Kim, I was so scared," he said softly.

Kim was unable to speak. She felt as though she was on the edge of something powerful but fragile, and that if she were not careful she would shatter it before she even knew what it was. Her heart was beating so fast and her chest was hurting. But for some reason, it was not unpleasant.

Still holding her hand, Ron slid off of the table and stood in front of her. He let go of her then, and used his right hand to lightly brush her hairline, sending electric tingles through her. He leaned forward and, wrapping his arms around her, he pulled Kim toward him and their mouths met in a gentle, magical kiss.

Kim sank into the kiss as into the warmth of a hot bath. She happily sank and sank and wished never to rise again. She was not even aware that she was running out of breath when Ron pulled back and she opened her eyes to see…_a spiteful, triumphant sneer_.

Ron's cold eyes taunted her and matched his twisted grin as he seized the bewildered heroine's arm and slapped a dark blue patch onto the exposed skin of her wrist.

It all happened so fast Kim was still reeling when he threw her from him and she felt the hard iciness of the tiled floor. Blackness invaded her vision now and her limbs would not work. Kim's eyes closed and her head dropped, but as she spiraled into unconsciousness she still saw Ron's sneering, hate filled face, and that image was the last to fade.

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Aren't I evil?

I have to give some credit for this chapter to the Kim Possible movie and the way Erik tricked Kim into hugging him before knocking her out. I actually had not planned to have Ron do anything of the sort originally, but than as I started writing this chapter the whole scene unfolded.

Am I wrong, or did Dark Ron just get a little more awesome?

And don't worry about Rufus, I haven't forgotten about the little guy and you'll find out what he's doing in the next chapter.

So give me some feedback, especially about the scene with Kim and Dark Ron. I think it came out really well, but tell me what you think.

And I'll see you next chapter!


	9. The New Ron

ROBB chapter 9

Disclaimer: No, I did not get the rights to Kim Possible for Christmas this year. Better luck next time, I suppose.

Merry Christmas, wonderful readers! Once again I am late with updates, but at least I made the goal I set for myself. And thanks to all my reviewers. You guys have a fantastic holiday! And eat an extra peace of Pumpkin pie and ice-cream. Just tell your parents I told you to. ;)

Mini disclaimer: _Deyinel is not responsible for any trouble you get into on account of following her advice, and does not control your parents, contrary to popular belief._

Enjoy!

* * *

There was a thump, and Drakken slithered to the floor as though all his bones had turned to jelly. Ron turned, smiling, to see his new partner standing over the blue skinned mad scientist with a crowbar in one hand and a smirk to match his own. 

"I've been wanting to do that for years," Shego said smugly.

"Well, it appears dreams _do_ come true after all." Ron picked Kim up and slung her body carelessly over one shoulder. "Now we'd better get back to the control room, the next act is about to begin."

As she followed him through the door and down the small passage with its smell of mildewing cardboard, Shego stole furtive glances of Kim's face as it hung over her partner's shoulder. It was peaceful in repose, showing nothing of the arrogance she saw so often when they fought.

_Stupid_, Shego thought to herself, shaking the thought out of her head. She had made her decision; there was no sense in dwelling on it.

She followed her partner silently; she knew what she must do.

* * *

In an air duct overhead Rufus watched in dismay. He was confused and hurt at what Ron had become, and for a few seconds could only hug his small body and shiver. Why did this have to happen? 

Rufus wished he and his human were at home watching bad TV and eating something with toasted cheese on it. Yes, missions were commonplace, and often enjoyable, but Ron was not with him, and so the mole rat felt very lonely. With his owner's confidence in him he often felt invincible. He felt like he could achieve anything because Ron would love him whether he did or not, and would always be there to catch him when he jumped. Without his human, Rufus was just a scared little rodent, more intelligent than most certainly, but not very powerful or brave.

He didn't know if he was equal to this task...

He shook himself, getting rid of these troublesome thoughts, and scampered hurriedly off through the duct. He had instructions on what to do if something went wrong with this mission, and he would follow them.

And Kim and Wade would be able to fix Ron. They _had_ to be able to.

* * *

Kim didn't want to wake up. Somewhere inside her she could feel consciousness returning and fought it as delicately as though she were a courting sparrow, gentle lest her very fight bring her fully awake. 

Unfortunately, she was fighting a losing battle. She could sense someone looming over her, breath hot on her face. She finally opened her eyes to see her former sidekick, a disdainful sneer twisted around his face like a deadly viper.

_Oh, Ron._ Kim felt her heart drop down to the pit of her stomach. It hadn't all been a horrible nightmare.

When he saw her eyes open, Ron's sneer widened into a full out grin which was so filled with malice and hatred Kim could hardly bear to look at it.

"Welcome to Hell KP," Ron said slowly, clearly enjoying her shiver as he rolled her initials sweetly off his tongue. Kim gathered herself with difficulty and sat up, discovering to her surprise that she was unbound.

"I know this isn't you Ron," she told him.

"You're right there, Kimberly," he told her amiably. "I'm not the Ron you knew, Shego and I killed him and he's never coming back." His voice lowered ominously as he bent in close to her. "So you had better get used to me, KP, because I'm Ron now, the real Ron. Now," he said, stepping back and rubbing his hands together, "how do you feel?"

"Excuse me?"

"Any complaints?" he asked conversationally. "Headache, stomach cramps, sore muscles?" He smirked at her surprise. "My patch shouldn't have had any side effects, but one can never tell until it's…tested." Kim felt something deep and unpleasant at the pit of her stomach which had nothing to do with the drugs she'd been given.

"And just why do you care?"

"First, because it means that my invention works," he said. His smile had gotten dangerous again. "And secondly, because I want you in top physical condition for our fight."

Kim gaped. "You want to fight me?"

"Very much so," Ron said seriously. "You see, my invention will take care of the world at large. I'm not going to tell you about it, we'll call it a surprise. But my mystical monkey power is just itching to be used, and I am dying to see what it can do in a real fight. You always wanted me to unlock my potential, Kim. Don't you want to know what I'm capable of now? Or was that just another of your lies?"

"I've never lied to you, Ron!" Now Kim was angry. No, not angry, furious. All of the emotions she had felt before her bout of unconsciousness were flashing through her mind. She remembered the worry, hope, righteous anger, joy, love, and finally that horrible crushing feeling of betrayal. She was shaking with suppressed rage and sorrow.

She suddenly ducked and then brought her fist up for an uppercut, but found her wrist clutched in a strong hand. Ron leaned in almost as close as he had when they kissed.

"_There's_ that anger I know so well," he said mockingly, almost breathing the words onto her lips. "Never lied to me, KP? What about that time when you were vanishing from embarrassment, and you said you'd stay in your room. I risked my life to save you, and what to I find? You were just a floating head, wondering how she'll be able to kiss Monkey-boy without a mouth."

"That was _one_ time!" Kim snapped, trying and failing to break free of his crushing grip.

"You want more?" Ron straitened up and threw her to the ground, seemingly without any effort. "What about my tracking chip, Kim? Didn't know I knew about it, did you? Oh, and then there was that time on Halloween." He waved his hand airily as though to indicate vast reaches beyond comprehension.

"I could name a dozen others," he went on, "but I have better things to do than slam the truth into your face over and over. Shego is probably finished tormenting Dear Doctor Drew by now, which means that I'd better go and put our world domination plan into effect. Once it's started I'll come back and we can have our fight. Please…_try_ to impress me, won't you?"

He had turned away from her and was heading toward the to the small room they were in, when Kim leaped and flew at him, intent on knocking him out with a vicious kick. Ron did not turn, but raised one hand in almost a board fashion, and, ducking under her kick, seized her shirtfront and propelled her forward. When he let go of her, Kim was barely able to stop herself from smashing into the wall. She landed in a crouch, panting.

Save your strength Kim," Ron said over his shoulder as he opened the door and stepped through. "You're going to need it." Then he pulled the door too with an ominous clang and Kim heard the sound of a key turning in the lock.

Kim sat in the empty room…cell, and stared at the door threw which he had departed. _Ron…_But he wasn't Ron, he was like some monster speaking with Ron's voice, smiling with Ron's mouth. And yet this monster _was_ Ron. A Ron whose goodness had been siphoned away, who was smarter and stronger and faster and…

_And who especially hates me, for things I've done._ She thought back to all the times when Ron had been there for her, and all the times that she had not. She thought of the times when she had taken him for granted, bossed him around, belittled him, and still he had stuck by her and been her friend. And she had never appreciated him.

And if she and Wade and Rufus were able to bring back Ron's good side…what would he do, and what would she? His good self must have already forgiven her for all of the things she had done, but could she forgive herself?

Deep in the lair of Ron and his partner Shego, Kim wept. She didn't notice the camera on the wall of her cell which was relaying her vulnerable image to Ron, or the evil pleasure he got from seeing her so broken. And it was doubtful whether she would have cared if she did.

* * *

Not a very Christmasy chapter, is it? This chapter, in fact, is meant to seem a little creepy, with Ron speaking to Kim affectionately, calling her KP, and such.

Next chapter will feature the fight, and also some more Rongo goodness, (or badness), for the fans who are ticked at me because of the lack in this chapter.

Chapter three of Son Of The Monkey Man will be posted later today.

But for now, review please! I would love to hear what you think. (That is my Christmas present.)

Merry Christmas!


	10. Show Time

ROBB chap 10

Disclaimer: I don't own Kim Possible. However, that is probably Evil Ron's first goal after he finishes taking over the world.

This chapter is dedicated to two wonderful influences. The first is the KP episode "Graduation" – a truly awesome end to the series which finally did Ron justice.

The second, is a fantastic webcomic called "Terinu." (The web link is in my profile). This comic really inspired the chapter, particularly the main character, Terinu, who can also shoot living energy out of his body. The comic is sci fi and I would seriously recommend checking it out. It is made by someone much more talented than me. ;)

I hope you enjoy this chapter; I had a lot of fun writing it once my muse had been inspired.

* * *

His black cape swept behind him like a storm cloud, himself a thunderbolt of malevolence. He raised one dark arm and his whole body shivered as a blue light, cold as ice, slowly formed around his uplifted hand. Teeth showed as he smiled in satisfaction at the light he held like a fragile, fallen star, then with one movement he spun and slammed his glowing hand onto the pad inset into a panel of lifeless machinery.

At his touch the power flowed from his hand and into the pad, lighting it up so brightly that it reflected onto his face like a spotlight. The light then spread out in all directions from the pad, flowing into all the devices on the control bored, bringing them to light and life with a hum like the deep rumbling of an irritated lion.

When the whole control panel was lit with the glowing blue radiance he raised his hand once again and let the light fade from his fingers. The machinery flickered with iridescent blue light, as he turned, hearing a small sound behind him.

"Was that _really_ necessary?" Shego enquired, one eyebrow raised. Ron smiled that slow, frightening smile which looked wrong on his mild face.

"Activating the control panel that way? Yes," Ron answered. "If all of my devices can only be activated and controlled by monkey power, then even Possible's pet nerd can't hack into them."

"I meant the theatrics."

"Oh, those?" Ron looked pensive for a moment, head cocked, monkey-like, to the side. Then he shook his head. "No, those weren't necessary, but they were fun."

* * *

By the time Shego came for her, Kim had sufficiently composed herself to be able to glare witheringly at her captor when the green-skinned woman opened her cell door.

"I can't believe you did that!" Kim snarled as Shego walked into the cell. "Didn't you have enough of _Zorpox_ last time he went after the world's supply of nacos?"

"Newsflash, Kimmy." Shego was carrying some kind of shock stick in one hand, and now held it up in warning as Kim stepped forward. "He is _not_ Zorpox now by a long shot, as you would have realized if you had half a brain. And now that you've been captured he and _I_ are about to gain control of the world. Wanna come and see?"

Kim thought fast. She was clearly not getting out of this cell by herself, and if she went with Shego she might easily find a way to stop them. She'd done it a million times, right? Never mind that the very last thing she wanted to do was to confront Ron again, she had a strong suspicion that she wasn't up to it.

It didn't matter anyway, as it turned out, because Shego did not wait for an answer before jabbing her stick into Kim's ribcage and turning it on with the flick of a finger. Kim jerked in pain and felt all of her muscles go limp, as she fell to the floor once again. She wasn't unconscious, but she couldn't move. Desperately she tried to move something, anything, but could just about manage to keep breathing. Her lungs felt so heavy. As she struggled with her other muscles she felt herself losing control over her vital functions and her heart skipped two frightening beats.

"Easy Princess," Shego said, sounding almost worried. "Fighting is definitely not a good idea right now. Blacking out is probably the _best_ thing you can hope for if you keep straining like this."

Kim forced herself to concentrate on inhaling and exhaling, on the blood flowing through her veins, on the churning of her stomach as it digested her food. All the little things that made her body work, which she had taken for granted, now needed conscious direction through the deadening brutality of the shock stick.

Shego picked Kim up under the arms and propped her in a high-backed wheelchair. Kim hardly noticed. Her eyes were dry, and she bent her thought that way until she managed to blink, slowly.

As she was wheeled down the corridor, Kim spared herself for one, fleeting thought, where on earth were Wade and Rufus.

* * *

At that moment, Rufus was looking down into the control room, watching as his former master worked the board of flickering switches and lights as though he were playing Beethoven on some complex instrument. The mole-rat was aware of what he had to do, but found himself at a loss as he looked down through the air-vent's grating.

The machinery Ron was working with was advanced, so much so that it looked alien, like something from a science fiction movie. Nowhere could he see anything that would disable the board, or the large signal tower which stood beneath a hatch in the ceiling, ready to be raised into firing position.

Rufus dithered back and forth for a few moments, uncertain. Kim wanted him to disable the machine, but he could not see anything that he could easily tamper with, and there were several black-uniformed guards stationed around the room. He finally decided to wait until an opportune moment presented itself, it would not help them if he were captured as well.

* * *

Ron did not look up from his work when Shego brought Kim in, but that slow smile slipped around his lips again. Blue fire flickered over his fingers as he flipped a switch on the control panel. Immediately a crack appeared in the lair wall above his head, and two panels slid out and back, revealing a large television screen.

The screen brightened, and Kim tried to gasp when she saw the grave faces of the most powerful world leaders. These dignitaries were assembled around a table, and obviously already knew something of the danger they faced. Ron glanced at Shego.

"Mind if I do the honors?" he asked politely.

"Oh, go ahead." Shego waved a hand nonchalantly. I know you'll enjoy it more than I will."

"Thank you." Ron turned back to the sweating dignitaries. "Your excellencies," he began. "I have called you all here today not to give you an ultimatum, nor to make demands." There was a murmur of surprise and confusion from the seated leaders, and Ron held up one hand with a frown.

"No," he continued. "Instead, I simply state fact. I have a count-down set for sixty seconds. When it is finished my device will be activated, disabling every explosives-related weapon on earth, save my own, which are protected." He flashed a hungry smile at the shocked faces on the screen. "So, unless any of you feel that you would like to attack me using, oh say…swords and crossbows, that means the world is mine."

Behind him on the wall, a large glowing clock was now uncovered, and began counting back from sixty. Someone on the screen had found his voice.

"_Wait a minute!_ Can't we talk about this?"

_**52 seconds…**_

"Afraid not," Ron replied calmly. "I doubt there's anything you could give me that I'd want more than everything."

_**44 seconds…**_

Kim was struggling with unresponsive muscles and tendons, ignoring the discomfort of her irregular heart, lungs and veins in her panic to do something, _anything_, to stop the countdown. She felt almost as though she were fighting to get out of her dead no, dying, skin, she could feel it twitching spasmodically as she strained. She felt a hand on her shoulder through the pain and desperation and could see Shego out of the corner of her eye.

"Please Kim," the villainous said so softly the words were almost breathed. "You're going to kill yourself. Give it a chance to wear off."

_**35 seconds… **_

Kim was shocked. Was Shego trying to help her? But the instant had broken through her panic and she could feel the shuddering of her organs more, the pain striking through her very core, and she suddenly realized the danger that she was in. She forced herself to calm down.

There was pandemonium on the screen now, important world leaders tripping over themselves as they rushed about looking for something to do. Ron stood with his back to her, but she envisioned the kind of smile she had seen on his face before, and felt her calming heart skip again.

_**22 seconds… **_

There was now some semblance of order in the conference room on the other side of the screen. Most of the dignitaries had begun a desperate little huddle in a corner of the room, while one of them was looking anxiously at his watch, shaking it.

"Allow me," Ron said to this man, benignly. "We are at…"

_**15 seconds…**_

"Fifteen seconds."

Kim thought she could feel her fingertip move, just a little. Before she could get at all excited over this, however, a small pink blur shot down from the air duct overhead, and landed expertly on the counter next to the control board. Ron saw, and turned with a frown, starting forward as the mole-rat leaped sideways and onto the board itself.

_**9 seconds…**_

An anguished squeak from Rufus, a bright blue energy beam that seemed to go right through his little body, arching out from the outstretched hand of his master. The mole-rat was thrown off the panel and landed on the floor. Kim felt her finger twitch again in shock, but forced herself once again to calm down and spare her laboring body. Ron shook his head and laughed as his pet struggled to his feet, whiskers smoking.

"Oh no," he said. "You and I have blown up doomsday machines far too often for me _not_ to defend mine."

_**3 seconds…**_

Kim's eyes were glued to the clock.

_**2 seconds…**_

Complete silence had taken over the room, as well as that on the other side of the screen.

_**1 second…**_

"Show time," Ron murmured, and a buzzer sounded.

Slowly, smoothly, the door in the ceiling slid open and back, and the great, ponderous machine slid upward into place with a grace which belied its size. Kim felt the sudden, cool night air sting her quivering flesh as it whistled through the opening.

Ron had turned and was allowing a blue, glowing energy to form in his hand. It could only be energy. It crackled around his fingers like baby lightning bolts. It was just like the energy he had attacked Rufus with. _What was it?_

Ron turned then and pulled a metal lever at the base of the giant machine. _Chrack!_ The blue lightning snapped like sparks as it latched onto the lever and spread down the handle and into the machine's body. Ron pulled the lever down and the entire towering machine lit up a radiant blue. An antenna unfolded from the top, and Kim felt the whole building quiver with the rush of energy being released by the machine.

There was a moment of complete silence, except for the painful moaning of the wind. Then suddenly there was a terrified scream. It came not from Ron and Shego's base, but from behind the door leading out of the conference room, miles and miles away. The door opened revealing a pale young officer.

"Sir...sirs," the lad panted, at a loss. "It's mayhem out there! People are calling from the armories, our troupes, they're…No one knows what's going on!"

"When you're ready to surrender, give me a call," Ron advised pleasantly. "I'll give you half an hour before I send in my…considerably less disabled forces." He cut the power to the screen by flipping a switch, leaving the following pandemonium in the room to speculation.

He turned then, looking at Kim directly for the first time since that awful betrayal. "And now KP," he said almost gently, "I think it's time I finally dealt with you."

* * *

Hope you enjoyed!

The shock administered to Kim is really nasty. I did it really to show just how evil Ron is, really. Think about it. Ron has not had evil added, but had all of his good _removed_. He has no mercy, no kindness. He is just the embodiment of evil. _Shivers_.

* * *

**Second disclaimer:** I said the comic "Terinu" inspired this chapter, it also inspired Ron using his monkey powers to activate and control his devices, particularly the signal tower. You should seriously go read this comic, guys. ;)

* * *

That's all for now. Kim and Ron's fight is next chapter, so wish me luck writing my second fight scene ever. And we'll get to see some more from Dark Ron's point of view. I was going to have that this chapter, but it didn't quite work out that way.

Thanks for reading, and please review; I'd love to know what you think.


	11. Realization

ROBB chap 11

Disclaimer: Not mine, although I do own a truly astonishing number of plot bunnies.

So we're actually getting pretty close to the end of this story. But there are still several remaining chapters. When I am finished this story, I plan to start another one, mostly because I would go completely insane if I didn't start one of the other stories that are burning a hole in my mind. (Sounds painful, doesn't it?) But wait! Before you all start getting ticked at me, let me assure you that this will really not impede update times more than usual, because I tend to do a lot of brainstorming for these stories anyway, and this way I will be putting some of that to use.

In any case, I have something that will make at least some of you feel a little better. I will be putting a pole up in my profile where you can vote for what story I will be starting next. I will have several options up, and you will have until the last chapter of Return of Bad Boy is posted to vote. The pole will be put up as soon as I post this story, so go and check it out.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed chapter 10. That chapter is quite possibly my favorite one so far, and I'm glad to see people liked it as well.

* * *

This chapter was inspired by the online comic Sluggy Freelance, especially the characters Torg and Alternate Zoë. There is a link in my profile if you'd like to read it. Also inspired by all of your wonderful reviews. ;) Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

Wade was frantic. He couldn't contact Kim. He couldn't even locate her or discover what was happening. He couldn't understand why he was unable to hack into any of the systems in the base. They were complex to be sure, much more so than anything Drakken had ever built, but they certainly weren't out of his league. Yet he had been trying for several hours now, and every attempt was shut down, blocked or, maddeningly, ignored.

He stopped typing for a moment and took a long pull on his soda straw. This was one of those times when he wished his mum would allow him to drink coffee. He was so tired, but he just _knew_ Kim was in trouble. According to the plan, Rufus was supposed to shut down the machines while Kim and Drakken freed Ron and took Shego out. Even with the compliance chip, which might have body enhancers, Ron should still be no match for Kim.

He took another long drink, hearing the angry suctioning of the straw as it searched for the last dregs in the bottom of the cup. Empty already?

But something had obviously gone wrong, and Kim could be captured, or worse, mind controlled herself. Why couldn't he get in?

Suddenly, one of his other monitors blinked to life, displaying one line of type in brilliant blue across the black screen. _Turn to channel six_ Wade read slowly, unbelievingly. Someone had hacked into him? _Him_?

Absently, he moved his fingers over the keys, instructing the computer to turn to the correct channel. It wasn't as though he was accomplishing anything here. The screen lit up to show the Hispanic reporter who dominated channel six news.

"…American military has confirmed that this was no bluff," the reporter was saying. "Five countries have already surrendered and it is this reporter's opinion that the rest are soon to follow." The reporter paused for effect, an effect which was ruined somewhat when he grabbed a tissue from the box on his desk and mopped his brow with it. "Just one look at this villain is enough to realize that he means everything he says and will back up his threats," he continued. "A copy of his ultimatum has been released, and will be played so that every citizen will know just what their valiant leaders are faced with." The reporter gestured to someone, and the picture on the screen changed to show…

"_Ron_?" Wade ejaculated.

Behind him, the light on his door turned red as its lock slid silently into place.

* * *

Ron had won. There was nothing anyone could do to stop him now. No override could restore humanity's precious weapons or bring his crashing down. As she stood there in the blue glow of his deadly machines, the certainty came crashing onto her head with the suddenness of a bolt of lightning.

They had won.

Or perhaps that was wrong, Shego realized. She had lost, and Ron, sweet, noble goofy Ron had won. She had been fighting against him all along, ever since she saw his terror, not of her but of himself, of the evil he could unleash. Ever since she watched the good die out in his dark, desperate eyes she had been fighting him, fighting desperately to convince herself that he was a loser, that she liked his evil self better, that this was what she wanted.

But he had finally won, long after he had already lost.

Shego knew she had to do something to destroy this monster she had unleashed and save Ron from himself. She knew if she succeeded, and succeed she must, he would never be hers again. She would never feel his arms around her, or rest her head on his shoulder. She would never kiss him, feel his lips on hers, his breath hot as their passion as it caressed her pale throat.

But then of course she never had, because this wasn't the man she loved, not at all.

It wasn't that she didn't enjoy being evil. She had certainly had fun beating Drakken to a bloody pulp, although the fact that Ron seemed _turned on_ by this had made it less fun than it could have been.

It was just that Ron was so _wrong_. She loved the person he was, as different as he was from her. And yet it was true that they were alike in many ways. She saw in him some of the person she used to be before she turned to a life of crime. But at the same time he was so much _more_ than she had ever been. She had always been a bit of a rebel, sarcastic and dangerous when messed with. He was…pure. He was so pure, so wonderful, and she had destroyed that.

So she must do something, but what on earth could she do? What could she do against someone like this? True, she still had the attitudinator, and could use it to turn him back, but first she would have to get it on him, and make it _stay_ on long enough to activate it. Even with him more-or-less trusting her, how could she make him let his guard down long enough?

Why had she changed him in the first place? This stupid denial had cost her too much. Ron was the strongest, smartest person she knew. He always had been. And at that thought the new, watery sun came out over the remnants of a storm.

He always had been, and that was the key.

Perhaps she would be able to save him after all.

* * *

The effects of the shock stick were wearing off. Kim could clench her fingers if she really concentrated, and she found that she also had to expend less energy in concentrating on her heart, lungs and veins. Her foot really itched though.

She was trying desperately to rally herself. Ron wanted to fight her, he had said so. He probably wanted to do so to prove to himself that he was better than her. She felt a lump growing in her throat and forced it down. She had to think like him.

She inspected the lair from her forced position in the wheelchair. Rufus was looking back at her out of a small cage with bars almost as thick as himself. His whiskers were a good half inch shorter than they had been before his encounter with the instrument panel. Nearby lay Doctor Drakken, his blue face almost completely black with bruises and his nose quite obviously broken. He was unconscious. Kim felt bad for getting him into this, although she knew it had been at least partially his fault, but she couldn't waste time on him now.

She was beginning to worry that she wouldn't be able to beat Ron in a fight. He was just so confident and condescending. And she remembered how, in the cell, he had seemed to almost anticipate her moves. Granted she had been unfocussed, but with the body enhancers he must be using, as well as whatever was causing that strange blue energy he had activated the machine and zapped Rufus with, she really didn't know how strong he would be in a strait fight. And what other surprises did he have waiting for her?

She heard a soft step and watched silently as Ron came to stand before her, hands behind his back and feet apart. He stood with all the confidence of a man who has the very world at his feet.

"It's time," he said, and Kim shivered before the hunger in his eyes.

* * *

Ron was in ecstasies. He felt better than he ever had before, he was certain. A whole thirty-five minutes remained before the world's time was up and all of the countries had already surrendered to him.

The world was his, every part, every person, everything, and did he relish it.

All throughout every cell of his body his mystical monkey power was singing, fed by his confidence and elation. It was held firmly in check, waiting for its next target. He mused that he just might make that first target be the bullies who had tormented him in high school; all those opportunistic mooncalves who had mocked and degraded him his whole life. They had been quick to flock around him whenever he gained any kind of wealth or power, and had just as quickly gone back to mocking him as soon as an ill timed misfortune succeeded in stripping him of it. Well, now he owned them, as well as the rest of the world, and he aimed to make them regret every taunt and humiliation they had ever bestowed upon him.

After that, Shego had some of her own personal annoyances to torment, which would probably be just as much fun, and then… Well, they would just have to see. It wasn't as though they didn't have time and to spare. And running the world couldn't be _all_ boring.

But first, Kim. He studied her face after he had spoken and was amused to notice that she appeared to have gotten some of her spirit back. She was looking more like her old self now, namely showing off her infuriating 'I can do anything, I can save the world' mentality.

Just thinking about this personality of hers usually made him furious, but now he was pleased. If he fought a hopeless teen hero and defeated her easily it was no guarantee of his superiority. He had to fight her, if not at her best than definitely with her in 'hero' mode. He would take such pleasure in crushing her newly found resolve and confidence. He wanted her to realize just how much better 'the sidekick' was than her before she died.

Ron was also interested to note that the paralysis was wearing off. Kim was actually capable of making expressions. He wondered absently if he should make the charge stronger, or if that would kill the subject outright. That was no fun. And it was, after all, why he had gone for a milder charge on Kim. A lack of time and test subjects had forced him to err on the side of caution with his former friend. He could _not_ allow her to just up and expire on him after all this work. He wondered who he should test the strengthened charge on. Josh perhaps? Or did he want to save something nastier for the 'artist'?

Well, that kind of speculation could wait until later. He had to purge Kim's system of the remaining energy from the shock stick, (definitely needs a name, he decided), and then he could get to beating and humiliating her.

After all, he _did_ have a world to run, and was therefore on a schedule.

From his cloak, he drew the dampener he had made for the shock stick and twirled it casually. He could see Kim eyeing the device nervously and smirked. It certainly looked rather lethal, all spikes.

"What's the matter Kim?" he asked sweetly. "Don't want the use of your limbs back? If you'd rather I don't mind letting you sit in that chair for another hour or so until you've worked up the courage to face you 'sidekick' in battle." He made to stow the dampener back in his belt and Kim made a kind of desperate, strangled grunt. He stopped, then quickly darted forward and jammed the device into her chest. Aqua energy shuddered through her and he withdrew, but continued watching her. This _was_ Kim Possible after all, and he could expect a trick of some kind.

* * *

Kim gasped as she felt the alien paralysis fall from her and for one moment she didn't know what to do as she tried to consciously monitor everything in her body but no longer needed to. Then she was back in control of herself, and she was mad. She wanted to take that smirking man before her and beat him until his face was a mask of blood and bruises. This wasn't Ron, not a bit of him. She would get Ron back, but first she would fight this infuriating monster and teach him to respect her.

She sprang up from the chair and advanced on him where he stood calmly smirking.

"Shego," he called, but his eyes were on Kim.

"I'm here," the villainess said, lightly touching down next to him.

"I'd like to fight Miss Possible alone," he said with a brief wink in Shego's direction. "Would you mind awfully being a backup to make sure she doesn't go near any of the machines?"

"No problem, Ronnie," Shego answered. Then, with one eye on Kim she leaned in, _kissed Ron on the cheek_, and then retreated to take her place. Kim growled.

"You've been _dating_ her?" she demanded absurdly.

"Well, why wouldn't I be?" Ron asked, all innocence. He and Kim were circling each other now, bodies tensed and ready. "She is beautiful, smart, talented, a _wonderful_ kisser." He paused and seemed to consider, his body still circling. "And most important, she appreciates me for my strengths as well as weaknesses, and wants me to be the best I can be, and she knows I feel the same about her. Don't you agree that that's the way it should be, Kim?"

Kim didn't answer. Instead, she broke the stalemate and charged. She feinted as she came, then ducked and sprang up, trying for a high kick to his shoulders. But he seemed to flow around her like water. She tried again with the same result. She flew at him again and again, punching, kicking, ducking, feinting, but she couldn't touch him. She came at him in a hundred different ways but it was like trying to fight smoke. And through it all he smiled at her encouragingly as much as to say 'I _know_ you can do better than _that_.'

This one-sided battle continued until Kim was panting with exhaustion and fury and he was still fresh, his smile still kind and vaguely amused. Then, with no warning, she felt something impact her head so hard that stars burst violently behind her eyes. She hadn't even seen him move. She backed up, shaking her head to get her vision back. Ron was definitely smirking now.

"Oh, I'm sure Shego wants you to be the best," she retorted bitingly. "Especially when she has you buffed up with body enhancers!"

"What…?" Ron's face had gone white as snow against his black clothes. "You think I've been artificially enhanced Kim?" he asked quietly. He started shaking. His eyes, Kim saw, his eyes were glowing, cold and blue. His skin seemed bathed in blue light and his hair was waving and moving in a breeze she could not feel. The air had grown chilly and Kim felt as though icicles were growing slowly on her exposed skin. Around Ron in the lair objects had begun to float. Kim stared unbelieving as a chair, a metal table, an empty cage, these things and many others rose frighteningly up into the air. They swayed as though under water and seemed to shiver with the pure hate radiating off the boy at their center. Then Ron seemed to sigh, and the objects, released, fell to the floor with a crash that shook the room.

Kim had just managed to keep her feet. Her heart was pounding as though it were trying to escape, and she was short of breath.

"What was that?" she managed.

"That was not a body enhancer," Ron said levelly. "That was my mystical monkey power. Oh, but you probably don't remember me getting it, do you?"

"The monkey power?" Kim said, beginning to rally herself. "Didn't you and Fiske lose that when the idols were destroyed?"

"No," Ron said shortly, and ran at her. Kim just managed to block his arm strike. Then, before she had time to do anything he had swept her feet out from under her and she was on the ground. Kim rolled out of the way and felt the impact of his boot striking the floor where her head had recently been.

"I've been hiding my power for years," Ron explained. He caught her as she rose and drove her back with a swift barrage of punches and kicks without breaking a sweat. "My old self was too much of a coward to use it. Besides, he was worried you might not have liked him anymore if he got too good in a fight."

"What are you talking about?" Kim demanded. She tried to land a kick, but he caught her foot and flipped her fiercely, flinging her from him.

"Oh come on, Kim!" Ron brushed some nonexistent dust out of his cloak and advanced on her again. "Every time anyone, particularly me, gets better than you at anything you freak out. You just can't handle it. Remember Home Economics?"

"I let you tutor me, didn't I?" Kim gasped out. She was in trouble and she knew it. She hadn't landed a single hit on him. She couldn't touch him and she was exhausted from dodging. Her side and head ached miserably where he had struck her. Even worse, _he was toying with her_. She knew instinctively that he was only playing. At any moment he could get bored and end the fight and there would be nothing she could do to stop him. Had he really had this potential inside him all this time? No, that was stupid. She would have seen it, gotten him training or something. But for right now she had to keep him talking, and fighting. Where was Wade? He should have realized something was wrong by now. Maybe he was getting help. But then why didn't he contact her?

"Eventually you did, but we both know you never really stopped envying me. I know you were secretly glad when my restaurant was shut down. But the important thing now, is that with Shego's help I finally broke free." He didn't give her a second to raise her defenses once again, but instead plowed into her. His fists and feet were everywhere. It was like being beaten with steel rods and she thought the pain would never stop. Within seconds Kim was crumpled on the cold cement floor with blood flowing freely from her nose. Her lip was bleeding too and she could taste it, salty, sweet and sickening. It tasted like defeat. Ron stood over her, relaxed, smiling blissfully.

Kim tried to get up, but her body didn't seem to want to obey her. The pain was slowly growing, particularly in her left arm. At first she had thought it was only sprained, but now it felt like a fire was burning under her skin and getting hotter all the time. Was this what a broken bone felt like? Funny, she'd never had one before, although she remembered Ron having to wear casts several times.

She focused on Ron's face far above her, on that smile of counterfeit innocence.

"There's no room for heroes in my new world KP," Ron told her gently. "They must all be exterminated."

"What did you do to Wade?" Why hadn't she thought of that before?

"Disabled him," Ron said carelessly. "I thought he might be useful to me so I left him alive. I just used my monkey power to invade his computers and shut them down. Oh, and did _you_ know Wade has an electronic door and lock?" A malicious chuckle.

"Ron, don't do this. This isn't _you_." So what if it didn't work? She didn't have anything left.

"Now, what did I tell you, Kim?" Ron sounded vaguely disappointed in her. "I _told_ you this is me now. My good half was week, pathetic, a _loser_. I beat him down, and he's _never coming back_. But don't worry," he said with all the gentleness of a best friend. "I'm going to crush your skull, and then neither will you. Say 'hi' to him, will you?" And he lifted one hand high.

Out of blurry eyes Kim watched as a ball of brilliant blue began to form in his hand. Were her eyes blurry with pain or tears? She could fight a bit, roll out of the way, prolong it, but why would she? Was there really any point? Maybe this monster above her was right. And maybe when she died she would find Ron waiting for her. She missed him.

"Goodbye KP," Ron said. Kim closed her eyes.  
"Just a minute Ronnie." Shego's voice. "I have to say," the villainess continued, "that I loved that little speech, gave me chills. But I think you're wrong about one thing." Kim opened her eyes again. Shego stood in front of Ron with one hand behind her back. In the other hand she held the attitudinator.

* * *

Yay, another insanity inducing fight scene. I really have no clue how this turned out. I know nothing of fights or martial arts, and I didn't really go for broke on the fighting anyway. My main focus here was the head gaming. This is mainly because Ron can beat Kim easily, and we all know it, (except for Kim, possibly). Therefore, the fight in itself isn't really what's important here. Instead, I wanted to have Ron both fighting Kim and breaking her spirit at the same time. Because that is just the kind of guy he is, and also because it lets him have some closure and feel that he's better than her.

Anyway, I hope my writing in this instance wasn't too painful.

I think only two more chapters! Squee! And I have a doozy planned for chapter twelve! Yeah, I'll shut up now.

Please let me know how you liked the chapter, especially now you've seen more from Ron and Shego's points of view. And please go and take the pole. If nobody votes I'll have to pick for myself. ;)

See you next time!


	12. Right and Wrong

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Return of Bad Boy chap 12

Disclaimer: I don't own Kim Possible, I simply enjoy its universe and the characters who live therein.

Here it is, the second to last chapter. Technically, it's the last chapter, as the next one will be an epilogue, but for all storyline and poll-voting purposes, it's only second to last. I will put up a notice in my profile the day before chapter 13 goes up, so anyone who wishes can still vote.

Sorry this is so late. I planned to have it updated Sunday night. I was up at our cottage on the weekend and wrote out most of the chapter in rough, (on paper with a pen), but then we didn't get home until late and I didn't have time to type it up and finish it, and progress is now slow because I am back in school. At least it's a monstrously long chapter.

Thank you so much to everyone who read, and especially everyone who reviewed! You guys make me so happy, although if I didn't get so many nice reviews I'd probably devote more time to writing my novel, and less time to fan fiction.

A special thank you to Data Seeker for sending me so many e-mails and reminding me I should be writing. ;)

Enjoy please!

* * *

Dedicated to the webcomics Goblins and Terinu for inspiring me.

* * *

Ron watched Shego warily. Her sudden intrusion and odd tone had made him suspicious, but there was something here he didn't understand. Shego was not stupid. If she meant to betray him why had she not done it when he was distracted with Kim? Why wait until his attention was full on her?

So he didn't attack her, but merely watched.

"What am I wrong about?" he asked softly, his voice dangerous.

"He wasn't weak," Shego said, and her smile widened slightly. Ron chuckled harshly through his teeth. He seemed the very picture of scorn but there was a glint of something in his eyes besides the danger, perhaps a hint of fear.

"You think he was strong?" Ron enquired, as though merely entering into a classroom debate. "He was pathetic. He had his power for more than a year, and instead of using it to improve himself, he just stumbled along, abused by people he should have been able to cripple." Ron's innocent face was twisted once again into a menacing mask of fury and disgust.

Shego smiled, sweet, but with a hint of her familiar sneer. "Than why did you let him?" she asked softly. Ron tensed. Shego was aware that she was playing with explosives, but there was no other way to do it. She could only pray he wouldn't explode too soon.

"What are you implying?"

"Nothing," Shego answered, smile becoming more mocking. "Everyone has two sides to them, good and evil. So if you're so powerful, so much the 'better half,' then why didn't you take over long ago? Ron was always the kindest, gentlest person you ever saw. How was he able to keep you cowed for all those years if you're so much stronger than him?"

"_Stop it!_" Ron started toward her, but then stopped and drew a deep breath. His eyes were overflowing with blue fire.

"Because you're not more powerful," Shego said softly. "Are you?"

Ron lunged for her. Ordinarily, he would have had her, Shego knew that. But he was too furious now, unstable. She had pushed his buttons in the same way he had done to Kim before, and with the same result. He was livid, too angry to guard his actions, and easy to read. He wasn't using his powers either, though Shego wasn't certain why.

She was able to skip back and to the side as he lunged. She didn't engage him; he would crush her. Instead, she turned so she was still facing him, and kept talking. Therein lay her only advantage, her only weapon.

"Everyone has two halves to them, good and evil. But his good side, it always prevailed. What did you ever make him do, _really?_" Shego drew in a breath. She was frightened, _terrified_, of this fiend before her. She knew if he caught her she would die screaming, and so would many other people. And then, even if Ron came back to himself, it would be his end. Could he live with himself after ending so many lives, after causing so much pain? Or would he end up in the bathtub someday with his life drained out through his wrists? No, this had to end now, and it had to end her way. There was no other option.

Ron lunged for her again, face set in a gruesome rictus of hatred, and she barely managed to sidestep him. She had to keep her mind on him right now. She couldn't worry about what would happen if she lost because she _could not lose_.

"In all Ron's life what has he ever done wrong? Copied somebody's homework? Shirked his responsibilities a couple of times maybe? It could just be me, but I don't think that's really evil enough."

He lunged for her a third time, only this time she wasn't quite fast enough. He seized her arm as she tried to duck away and his hand tightened and tightened until she had to fight back a scream. The attitudinator fell from her tortured hand and clattered to the floor. Desperately, Shego opened her other hand, allowing her secret weapon to drop to the floor. She heard the faint thump, and followed it silently with the first prayer she had ever uttered.

Ron pulled savagely on her arm, almost jerking it out of its socket, she thought, and pulled her closer to him until their faces were only inches apart. His face was twisted into an expression somewhere between a grin and a grimace, ugly with the extremes of his hatred, and she thought _I hate you. I hate what I've done to you._

She said "You're not as strong as he was. You never will be."

"Then I'll learn to live with that," Ron answered, his voice as charged as every one of his kisses. Poisonous kisses. Kisses of passion, never affection, never love. "Pity you won't have a chance to," he said, and the blue fire in his eyes seemed to flair as his hand, impossibly, tightened.

"Hey Jerk!" Kim's voice, floating through the haze of pain. The redhead was on her feet, incredibly, although one arm hung at her side, twisted and useless. She flew at Ron with a high kick, and he threw Shego to the ground and turned on his new prey with a snarl of pleasure.

Shego fell hard. Her own arm was still screaming, singing with the pain, but she had no time for it. Rufus…where was he?

She glanced swiftly around herself, located the mole-rat a foot from where she had dropped him, and nodded. The attitudinator was beside her on the floor and she snatched it up anxiously. _Please let it still work!_

Ron had hit Kim as though his fist was made of stone and she was falling again. Falling with one half of her face gleaming bloody from what was probably a broken nose. She fell slowly, so slowly, and when she hit the ice-cold concrete of the lab floor it was with a groan that seemed to last for an hour. Forever.

Ron started to turn, to finish Shego off, but before he even finished turning Rufus attacked. The mole-rat leaped at his master and sunk tough, chiseled teeth into Ron's unprotected ankle. Ron let out an animal shriek of pain and white-hot rage. His hands flashed fierce blue and Rufus would have been gone, dead, would not exist, except that Shego was in the way. She stood, facing this Ron-demon, and suddenly she was angry. She was so angry, so indescribably furious that she shook with it. Too much anger. Through the fog of fury she felt her comet powers swell, brighter and brighter. Her green light shot from her hands, met his blue fire and fought it.

She could feel their powers grow, twisting and fighting. The mixed powers were too bright, painful. She shut her eyes and could feel them through her lids, a dangerous, livid light. She knew that if she stayed there a second longer his power would overwhelm hers and she would burn until all that was left was a blackened husk. She ducked down, out of the power struggle, and rolled to the side, and he stumbled past her on the waves of his power. It was too much, and he fell to his hands and knees. And as he fell, Shego moved, ignoring her aching limbs and pounding head. She grabbed the attitudinator off the floor, slipped it onto his head and flipped the 'on' switch.

When he felt the sudden weight on his head Ron gasped, a small sound of fright, and began to reach for it. Then he froze, froze with his hands still reaching and a look of desperate horror on his face that Shego had seen only once before.

Her hand was aching again and her head was spinning worse than ever from the titanic struggle. The excessive use of power seemed to have drained her of all energy and all she wanted to do was collapse, but there was one more thing she wanted to do, had to do. She crawled around to where she was facing Ron, facing the monster that had already started fading slowly into the depths of his eyes.

"You were wrong about something else as well," she said to the monster. "He _is_ coming back."

She wasn't sure she believed it yet, but it was over.

* * *

Ron was rising up, up through layers of cloud; thick, dark and swirling gray. He was fighting through it, clawing through it as it oozed around him. He didn't know why he was here or what he was doing, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was fighting up through the gray, clinging mass, and every time he broke through a section of it he could feel it join him, merge into his body and fill his soul with strength.

_Unngh!_

Ron burst up and out through the last layer of cloud and he was free. No, more than that. He felt full, complete. He had regained something that he hadn't been aware of losing and now, he felt like himself.

But before he could really begin to glory in the feeling it became marred by memory. He saw himself as he had been; a vicious monster. He was hit painfully with all the things he had done and worse, all the things he had been going to do and he shook with it.

There was a memory before him of himself striking Kim, hitting her and kicking her; breaking her, her body, mind and heart. He felt his evil self's exaltation as each one shattered and Kim herself seemed to break. It was sickening and Ron wanted suddenly, desperately, to flee. He wanted to run as far away as possible from the guilt and horror that was consuming him.

But he couldn't, because it was his responsibility. He had caused all this pain and misery, all this darkness, and he had to try and fix it. He had to make it right.

* * *

When he came to this realization Ron began to see again and to notice his surroundings. He found himself crouched stiffly on the hard floor, every muscle feeling tight and sore. His very essence felt week. He unclenched with difficulty, and kind of fell over. A pair of concerned eyes was hovering over him. They glittered like wet jade. He wanted to tell the eyes not to be concerned about him, that he really was fine, but he wasn't certain he would be able to form the words. He was also distracted because the green eyes looked strange. They were not Kim's eyes, he was certain of that. And yet, they looked familiar.

Ah.

He sat up quickly. Too quickly, and he had to stop for a moment as the soaring dizziness behind his eyes died down to a swelling throb. In sitting up so unexpectedly he had nearly cracked his forehead against Shego's, although he hadn't really noticed at the time, and now she sat back a little, one hand outstretched as though she was offering to help him up.

That was somehow really important, but he couldn't afford to think about it right now.

"Where's Kim?" he whispered. His voice wasn't sore, but it was almost painful to hear for him. He kept expecting it to start snarling at people, spitting threats like corrosive venom, searing everything it touched.

"Over there." Shego motioned toward the left. "She's really hurt, I think." He thought he saw something unusual in Shego's face as she spoke, but once again he didn't have time right now to think about it. His mind was still in turmoil and he had to focus on the imminent right now. She helped him to his feet, but the dizziness was disappearing rapidly, and he walked unaided to where Kim lay.

She looked pretty bad.

Ron could see that Shego had tried to move her a little while he was…_finding himself_, he supposed, but Kim still looked crumpled. Her right arm was twisted backwards despite Shego's evident attempt to straighten it. Blood covered one half of her face like a mask and it had matted her hair into a hard, cruel crust. Blood had spread in an ugly smear down her shirt and across her cargo pants, and the blood on her clothes and body was stuck with dirt and dust. One long, jagged tear had nearly ripped the left pocket of her pants right off and from beneath this too there was a hint of red. _Oh, no._

Ron sank to his knees beside his friend. _I did this to her. _Me._ I'm the only one she could always trust, and I betrayed her._

"It's not your fault Ron," Shego said, almost as though she had been listening. Her voice seemed to rally him and his resolve from before came back.

"I know," he said, "but it _is_ my responsibility."

"I…" she started, but Ron shook his head, cutting her off.

"It's my responsibility," he repeated. "And I'm not gonna blame you."

"Then at least let me help." He wouldn't have to do this alone. He felt his heart lighten considerably.

"Alright." He didn't smile, but Ron felt his face soften a little. "Can you get some bandages?"

"Sure." He felt her shift behind him. "I'll see if I can find anything to use as a splint while I'm at it."

He nodded, but didn't answer. He was aware of her leaving, but most of his attention was focused on Kim. He lay one hand gently on her cheek, his fingers almost caressing the crusted blood and bruised flesh.

He was wondering whether he could, whether he_ dared_ to use some of his power to help her. Since the day he had got it, the day he had needed to embrace it to defeat Monkey Fist, Ron had never used it. He had avoided even thinking about it when he could. But the power was always there, always at the back of his subconscious. He could lock it away, chain it up, ignore it, but it was still there, quietly insisting to be used.

Now, for the first time ever, he wanted to listen; he wanted to use it.

The broken arm was no good; he had no idea how to fix it and would probably end up doing more harm than anything. But perhaps her delicate nose…

He closed his eyes and searched inside himself for the power, found it waiting for him. It wanted to rush out immediately, but he wouldn't let it. This was too important. So he caught it and held it, and only allowed a little, the barest flicker of blue, to seep out into _him_. He didn't know quite how he did it, and he wasn't certain that he would be able to do it again, but he felt the power flowing through him, and he knew it for his.

His hand was still barely touching Kim's silent cheek, and as the power touched her through his hand he felt her, the fluttering of her breath in her throat, the pain in her arm as though her bones were made of red-hot metal, her restlessly sleeping mind.

Ron did not move his hand from her cheek, but he shifted his mind until he could feel the stinging throb of the broken nose. It was bent and wanted straitening, and he knew it would hurt her, but he couldn't let it set the way it was. He tried to make the power feel cool, gentle water on heated flesh.

Then he reached out with his mind and _wrenched_. Kim moaned, rumbling through her chest, but she didn't wake up, and Ron gritted his teeth as fresh crimson poured from the abused nose. The rest was easier, though painstaking. He healed veins and cells, re-knit cartilage and did the best he could for the deep bruise that was forming.

He knew he had the power to do so much more, and the temptation was there, as strong as he had known it would be, but oddly, that made it all the easier to resist. It was begging so strongly to be allowed free reign that he knew it was wrong, could imagine the consequences. He clamped down on his desire and continued working.

And when he finally straightened up from his task, stiff and sore, and blinked the spots from his eyes, Shego was there beside him.

* * *

He almost fell over again, and Shego was just able to catch him. She had arrived in the middle of his healing, and stood watching, wrapped. She was going to settle him on the floor, but he rose to his knees again almost at once. He was pale, and Shego thought he looked immeasurably tired, but his eyes did not hold the despair and intense self loathing she had seen in them only minutes before.

Kim's eyelids fluttered. Shego looked at her where she lay, and though she was covered in bruises and dirt and stained with blood, the villainess thought she looked just like a sleeping beauty from long ago, waiting to awaken. Perhaps she would have left right then, but Ron turned shining eyes on her and she couldn't.

"I think she's going to be okay," Ron said, though it was more assurance than question.

"Princess has had worse."

"I'd better check on Rufus." He started to get up. He was going to fall over again.

"He's fine," she said. "He's still out; I think he caught some backlash, but he'll be fine." This was not a lie. The mole-rat was singed, but essentially uninjured.

"Oh." He settled back, relieved. "And Drakken?"

"He'll live."

There was a very loud silence.

"Thanks."

She hadn't been looking at him, finding it easier to keep her eyes on Kim, which merely made her chest ache clearly and comfortably, but there was something in his voice that made her look at him sharply. It was not a simple thank you. His voice was as warm as a new spring day, welcome after the long winter. When she turned to him she was confronted with more gratitude in his soft, brown eyes than she had ever received; far more than there should be.

She said, softly, "I don't deserve to be thanked." There was something between them as they sat together amid the crumpled remnants of their scheme. The air was charged and pregnant with some benign purpose. Ron opened his mouth, but before he could speak Kim's eyelids fluttered and he turned to her, exuding worry as though he were a mother hen.

"M' arm," Kim mumbled. Her voice was thin and breathy, eloquent of the pain she was feeling.

"It's okay Kim." Ron crouched over his friend as though he were trying to guard her from the pain. "Everything's going to be okay."

But instead of reassuring Kim, Ron's voice had the exact opposite effect. Her eyes snapped open and she lurched desperately away from him. Her head cracked against the cruel floor and a moan shuddered through her lips. But she continued to scuttle awkwardly backwards on her good arm, eyes darting about like trapped aphids.

Ron, too, recoiled. His brown eyes were wide with terror, not of Kim, but of himself, of what he had done to her. He wanted to comfort her, to _help_ her. But it seemed he could only make things worse, and the knowledge of the shear amount of damage he had caused and _was causing_ was ripping mercilessly at his insides.

Watching this tragic spectacle, Shego might have reacted much the same as Ron, but for one thing. She knew she was responsible for this mockery of a reunion. She felt it like a heavy yoke on her neck. But this weight was familiar. She had seen too much heartache, too much suffering, too much crushing betrayal wrought by her own hand. It was still painful, but it was a pain she had learned to deal with. In this case, she opted for sarcasm.

"Oh, stop it Princess!" Shego snapped. "He's not evil anymore, and if he was I'm _sure_ your panicked crab dance would deftinately avail your escape." The villainess snorted and rolled her eyes extravagantly. Kim seemed confused. She stopped futilely retreating, and glanced between Ron and Shego warily.

"It's…really me KP," Ron offered after a reproachful look at Shego. "I'm…I'm home."

* * *

Perhaps she saw something in his eyes, something in his face that she recognized, that she saw every day of their lives together. Afterward Kim was never certain just what it was that convinced her that this was Ron, _her_ Ron. She rather thought it was his hands. Thinking back, she remembered that what she now thought of as Dark Ron had always held his hands very low down. When he did not have them up, waving or brushing about to emphasize a point they were always straight by his sides or clasped low behind his back. They were always very sure of where they should be and what they were doing. They were very military.

But her Ron's hands usually seemed to have a life of their own. They twitched and fiddled with his pockets. They liked to move around up by his shoulders and their gestures were generally very much exaggerated whenever he was enthusiastic. Yes, perhaps it was the hands.

In any case, she looked at him and she _saw_ him. You couldn't say she was alright, but perhaps her shattered soul mended a little. Gingerly, she sat up, favoring her burning arm, and tried not to flinch when he spoke.

* * *

"Kim, I am so, _so_ sorry," he whispered. She knew it was him; he could see it in her eyes, yet she still looked wary, as though she might flee at any moment if she could. But she looked at him levelly enough.

"It's not your fault Ron, you didn't start all this."

_That's what Shego said._ So maybe it wasn't his fault. That didn't make him feel any less responsible. It didn't make it any less painful when his best friend shrunk from him as though she expected him to skin her alive. So why did they insist on telling him it wasn't his fault. Whether or not he had started it didn't matter, because in the end there was darkness, there was torment, and there was almost death, and it was by his hand, altered or no.

But all he said was "I know."

Shego had brought some bandages, a bowl of warm water and soap, and some disinfectant, and she and Ron helped Kim fix up her arm as best they could and to wash her bloody face. They didn't try to set the break in her arm, knowing a mistake could be disastrous. Kim took several painkillers with a glass of water, and Ron and Shego settled her in a chair while she waited for the medicine to start working.

Then it was time to call the world and tell them the nightmare was over.

All the while they were fixing Kim up Ron had been uncharacteristically silent. He seemed to be pondering something, and indeed he was. Though he was still wrestling with his conscience, he had moved that particular fight onto the backburner for the time being, and started considering certain confusing things he hadn't had time for when he first regained consciousness. He was coming to a decision. Perhaps it was wrong, it was certainly unwise and likely would be very difficult to bring about. It might not even work.

But it was rather like clawing toward the surface of that strange, gray cloud when he was first trying to find himself. Up was the only way to go and giving up was not an option.

"You need to call the world leaders," Kim said as she finished settling into her chair. "They have a right to know what's going on and they must be in a panic out there." She had recovered some semblance of herself, but she still seemed nervous and her eyes followed Ron everywhere. She said "At the very least, Doctor Director will want to lock this place down and make sure everything's as we said."

"And that's my cue," Shego announced. She was standing over by the door into the lair's main body, about twenty feet away from the other two, and when they turned to look at her in surprise she smiled sardonically. "You don't think I'm going to wait here to be captured, do you?" she asked. "No thank you. I plan to make good my escape before your little friends show up." Suiting the action to the word, she turned to the door.

* * *

"Shego, wait!"

_Drat_. She wouldn't have stopped if it hadn't been Ron who called her, but some part of herself wanted to hear him out and that small part somehow succeeded in halting her legs. Stupid emotions.

"You don't have to run," Ron said.

"No, I really do."

"She's right Ron," Kim said from her regal position in the chair. "She began this whole mess, and even though she helped us she's still a villain, and no one is going to forget that." That was exactly Shego's point, but she could have blasted Kim for saying it. But there had been enough blasting. So instead, she settled for another smirk which had been cut from the same cloth as a grimace of pain, and shrugged carelessly.

"You heard the princess, Ronnie. Global Justice cells aren't exactly comfy, and I'd rather not have to try escaping when my powers are this exhausted, so if you'll excuse me…"

"Who cares what people think?" Ron interrupted, a little command creeping back into his voice. "Who cares what the law says? We know what happened, and we know that if you hadn't risked your life Kim would be…" His voice hitched, but he said it. It was important. "Kim would be dead and the world well on the way. Tell me how much their laws would matter _then!_"

"But that _didn't_ happen," Kim snapped, getting awkwardly to her feet in her agitation. "And so the laws _do_ matter! We couldn't ask Doctor Director to pardon Shego based on this one instance. It's ridiculous; we'd be laughed out of the room!"

"Now wait a minute," Shego broke in. "Who says I _want_ to be pardoned? Maybe I like being a villain!"

"Do you?" Ron asked seriously.

_Double drat_. She brushed his comment away like a bothersome horsefly.

"Like Princess says, it doesn't matter," she spat bitterly. "At the end of the day, I'm still a villain." Ron drew in a deep breath.

"All I'm saying is this doesn't have to be as impossible as it looks."

Shego stopped sneering, vaguely intrigued. "What do you mean?"

"What are you talking about?" Kim asked at the same time.

"Look," Ron said, gesturing around him dramatically. "Look around. We took over the whole world and no one could stop us. We have leverage if we dare to use it."

"_Ron!_" Kim gasped indignantly. "You can't do that, it would be really wrong!"

"And what do you call what's happening now?" Ron demanded hotly. "Shego helped us, she _saved_ us. For once she saved the world. But she's not even allowed to stop being at the top of the 'most wanted' list. Her only options are to surrender herself and be locked up in a cell for the rest of her life for her crimes, or to stay on the lam and remain a criminal. Does that seem fair to you?"

"Two wrongs don't make a right, Ron…" Kim began, but surprisingly Ron cut her off.

"I am so _tired_ of those old adages," he said. "They were made up long ago and they're still useful, but people troll them out on any occasion and think they apply. And," he continued. "I'm not suggesting that we threaten anyone. I don't think we should tell them we're going to keep the world if they don't do what we want."

"What are you saying?" Shego asked, beginning to smile, just a little.

"I think we should go to Doctor Director and talk to her," Ron said, speaking directly to the villainous. "We tell her privately our situation. She has the power to clear you if we can only give her the inclination. We can remind her of what could have happened. And if she won't help us, if she won't paint you as they hero you are, then I'll resign from hero work, publicly. And I'll tell the reporters about every one of the injustices going on in Global Justice."

"Reporters love a scandal," Shego offered genially. "They could make things very unpleasant for the head of a world-wide police force."

"I don't like it," Kim said to Ron. "Besides, Shego already said she doesn't want to change."

That wasn't _exactly_ what she had said.

"I don't think she said that at all," Ron told Kim, which made Shego want to blast him and hug him simultaneously. He turned to her. "Do you want to end it?" he asked softly.

Oh well, it seemed a time for taking chances.

"I would like to give it a try," she said to him, and only him. "On one condition."

"What's that?"

"You would have to give me a chance," she said. "Not just as a good person though." He looked at her, puzzled, and she drove ahead recklessly. "I like you Ron, I like you a lot. And I'd like you to give me a chance to see if we could have something…together."

She watched him after she had finished, and she saw his deep, brown eyes fill slowly with a knowledge he hadn't known he lacked until now. Then a slow smile seemed to whisper softly around his mouth.

"I think I would like that," he said, and his face seemed to fill with light. Shego wondered briefly what Kim thought of all this and why she wasn't saying anything, but she didn't want to look away from Ron's shining eyes to find out.

In the end, it probably wasn't important.

* * *

There you have it!

I hope everyone liked the chapter and didn't mind the lateness too much. School has been very busy already and I know it's only going to get worse, but I know exactly what will happen in the next and _last_ chapter, (Claps hands eagerly), and so it _will_ be out fairly soon. I would also like to remind anyone who has not yet voted and would like to that the time is nearly up.

Thanks for reading, and wish me luck on writing the final chapter.

Oh, and as always, if you should happen to feel an irresistible desire to press on that little button on the bottom left of the screen and let me know how you like the chapter, feel free to do so. ;)


	13. Epilogue: Sunset

Return of Bad Boy Chapter 13

Disclaimer: As we reach the conclusion of this story we are forcibly reminded that **Deyinel does not own Kim Possible!**

Well, here we are, the last chapter. "There is something solemn about it" (Burnett, "A Little Princess").

I want to thank everyone who read and enjoyed this story. It has been wonderful sharing it with all of you, and I hope to continue writing and posting fan fics for a long time to come.

I especially want to thank all my reviewers. Everyone who took the time to review let me know that they liked the story. The constructive criticism has been very helpful, and although grammatical errors still persist, I know you have all helped me to improve my writing style. Mostly I just loved opening my e-mail and seeing reviews from people who liked the chapter, or even who had issues with the chapter they wanted to discuss with me. I love to here what is good about my chapters, what achieves its effect and why, and I like to know what people are thinking, and what they noticed in the chapter, what got through to them.

It's been a crazy ride, and thanks, once again, for joining me on it.

Please enjoy the last chapter. The poll's winning story will be announced at the end of the chapter.

PS: if you're waiting for a reply to you review, I will get to them, I have just been busy. ;)

Read on!

* * *

Dedicated to my wonderful mother, who schools me in grammer and constantly helps me to improve my writing.

* * *

Perhaps it isn't up to me to tell you what happened next. However, you would be hard put to find someone in the next few weeks who felt he had the time to spare for storytelling, and so I must suffice, I suppose.

It turned out that Ron was at least partially right; Doctor Director was anxious to avoid a scandal, largely because the whole event had placed her organization in a very bad light. World leaders were furious at the situation they had been faced with. People that important are not used to having real obligations to the laundry lady, let alone being at the complete mercy of a seventeen-year-old with a cape. Needless to say, they were extremely displeased that Global Justice had been totally unable to stop him or to do anything once Kim Possible was defeated and Ron had struck.

People always said that. He struck swiftly. He struck with _precision_. They never said he conquered, that he controlled the world, if only for about a half hour. But they were thinking it. You could see it in their eyes, in their emphatic declarations of how he had 'struck' without warning.

In any case, Doctor Director arranged for a highly publicized trial, in which it was eventually decided, through great deliberation and unending, unimpeachable respect for the honest pursuit of justice to the full extent of the clear law, that Shego's recent, redeemable conduct more than balanced out her past offences.

Do I sound bitter? Forgive me. It is not because I don't think Shego deserved a second chance. If not for her the world would be a very dark place right about now and I would be the slave of a ruthless tyrant, or worse. My problem with this solution, as usual, is simply factual. I have always despised how leaders will spit on any law they please so long as it will benefit them. Somehow, Doctor Director worked the trial so that, by the end of it, you half believed she had planned all of this from the beginning, and she made much of granting a pardon to Shego, proving how Global Justice is even capable of reforming formerly hopeless villains, while mere prison terms still fail to work. Wasn't it her organization that is so fond of throwing every criminal in sight into a dungeon, _including_ Shego? Doctor Director had no thought of pardoning Shego until Ron convinced her and, it must be owned, threatened her with public exposure.

It didn't bother Ron, didn't ruffle his plumage in the slightest. But then it was Ron who first came up with this plan. I never realized it before, but I think Ron is a great deal more logical and_ aware _than any of us ever suspected. He was also very forceful. He took charge of the situation with the sort of ardor I rarely saw in him before, and would stop at nothing until his end was achieved.

The world is still dying down now, although I think the worst is over. Shake people up, frighten them, force them to see a dark reality they never thought of, and you'd be surprised how quickly they shake it off and fall back into their normal routines. The adaptable nature of humanity at work is truly amazing.

I'm avoiding a subject, I know. Kim and Ron. Well, you have to understand that it's complicated. I wasn't there and didn't see it, but I know that their friendship came closer to shattering than it ever had before. They had a long talk together after much of the mess had been sorted out, and decided together that they couldn't have a relationship as anything more than friends, at least not at the time. Kim was still very shaken and wounded, and Ron was strangely calm and unemotional. He knew how much he had hurt her, even if it wasn't technically _him_ at the time, and they decided on the best outcome possible in my opinion.

Kim's now off working to become a full agent of Global Justice, and Ron's working on getting a cooking degree so he can open a restaurant. He doesn't really need the silly piece of paper of course, but when I asked him, he said he found the classes interesting and inspiring, so I suppose it's worth it. They still see each other as friends of course, but not quite so often as before. There have been…a couple of changes.

Then of course, there's Shego. Shego has grown like a young, eager sapling newly planted in good soil. I've only spoken to her a couple of times, but she's a very interesting person. She's still very sarcastic you know, but there's no bitterness behind it now, only playfulness. She's still _mysterious_, I suppose, but that's another part of her. She's back at University now, finishing her Masters; Psychology, if you can believe it.

Concerning her and Ron? No, I don't think I'll say anything about them at the present. You can draw your own conclusions.

* * *

The sunset glinted golden off of two brown eyes. Large eyes. Deep brown eyes, deep and dark down in their depths with what they knew, what they had experienced, but bright and sparkling with light at the surface with the joys of life. Ron stood and looked at the sunset. It was a glorious one; pink and gold and orange clouds all melting into one another while dark gray and wispy white guards provided escort to the glowing, bejeweled maidens.

"It's beautiful," Shego said.

"Yes." Ron breathed the word; let it wander away to the fantasy landscape overhead. He turned to look at her where she sat beside him. She was wearing a rich, blue turtleneck with a pair of warn, black jeans, and her dark hair fell wispy around her face from a loose braid. At a sudden thought he glanced at her uncertainly.

"Don't you have a class?"

"Class can wait," Shego murmured. She moved closer to him and lay her dark head against his shoulder. "It's not often my man finds the time to come and see me during the week." Ron blushed slightly, but his arm came up, almost of its own initiative, and hugged her closer.

"Well, my instructor was sick," Ron said, whispering too. "And I couldn't think of a place I would rather be." A soft chuckle at his shoulder.

"Flatterer," she accused.

"Not at all," Ron said gallantly. "It's nice to have someone nearby to taste my creations before I have to show them to the class."

"Well, always nice to know you think of me," Shego pouted, making him smile. It was fun to tease him, but not too much. He was still so shy around her, as though always afraid of driving her away. It reminded her that although he was becoming more confident in himself, in his powers since he began training with that ninja school for part of the year, more confident in his own strengths – in his power over his dark side, still he was shy and sweet and somehow pure. Indeed, he was all of those things which she was surprised to learn had initially drawn her to him.

As if by some unspoken agreement they rose, and watched the last of the sunset together.

The glittering ladies were dancing away now, flying before a high wind that swept their gowns about before it. Darkness came with it in a great sweep like the last note of a song. Standing before the chill wind Shego tactfully shivered, and was rewarded when Ron wrapped his long, strong arm once again around her. She smiled into his eyes and saw her smile reflected back, and knew she always would.

The world was settling down already. They had both changed, she knew. And yet, somehow she thought that things would work out for the best. She looked into his eyes and knew that he thought so as well.

And that was really all that mattered.

* * *

Thank you all so much for reading, reviewing and enjoying this story. It's the first one I started writing, and now it is finished. (sniff)

And the winning story is…_Best Friends Since Pre-K_! Woo! Thanks all for voting, and the first chapter will be up soon.

In the mean time, feel free to check out my other stories if you're in the mood. ;)

And, as always, please tell me what you think. ;)


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Kim Possible, Adventure, Romance