Authors Note: Welcome to Kim Possible: Shadow Plays, a story that took root in another, abandoned idea about a year and a half ago. This first section is therefore quite old, and while I've given it a lot of polish, there's probably bits and pieces here that may or may not be as good as I want them, but if I don't push myself to publish, I never will (and no matter how long you polish a turd, it's still a turd, right? Just kidding, I don't think this is a turd. Oh god I hope it isn't a turd!)

This fic will eventually be rated M. It includes mature themes, violence, character death(s), and sexual content (eventually).

Now, without further ado, on with the show!

Kim Possible: Shadow Plays.

Global Justice HQ, USA.

The quiet shuffling of papers in the office was interrupted by the sound of a security seal being overridden from the outside, which triggered a warning alert tone that caused both occupants of the room to jump slightly in surprise.

"Doctor Director! You're going to want to see this, ma'am!"

Dr Elizabeth Director looked up as her secretary, Andrea Sesstant, pulled open the door to her office and barged in. Betty blinked in surprise, in the six years she had been her secretary, there had never been a single instance of Sesstant having ever used her override to disable the security on that door. It was something that almost nobody had access or clearance to do, and the times it had happened had always been dire emergencies.

A sudden premonition of danger gripped her. This can't be good.

She dropped the report on active field operations in Europe that she'd been scanning through onto her desk and sent a curious glance at the author, who was sitting opposite her on the other side of the spartan desk.

Agent First Class Will Du had turned in his chair to give the secretary a dressing down for the interruption but he paused before a word passed his lips, halted by an arm on his shoulder.

He turned back to his boss and gave her a wary look, but he recognised the look on Dr Director's face as the secretary closed the door behind her.

"Intel just caught wind of this a moment ago, this is going out live right now," Sesstant told the pair in a rush, turning on one of the two large screens on the far wall of the office and tuning it to Global News Network. "They've found her!"

Dr Director frowned and looked at Will, who returned her blank look with his own, adding a shrug. A fresh tickle of fear settled into her stomach. "Found who?"

As the screen flicked to life, the banner scroll at the bottom of the screen was already in motion, and Betty's eyes widened in shock as she read the current text.

"... United Nations spy agency implicated in terror attack plots by teen heroine Kim Possible.."

"What the fuck?"

Betty's frowned at the unexpected curse from her senior field agent. Clamping down the urge to add a few choice curses of her own, she snapped an order to her secretary. "Trace this, make sure Intel and Ops are getting clean copies."

Sesstant nodded and ran from the room quickly.

Nobody had seen or heard a single thing from Kim Possible for nearly a year - she had effectively vanished from sight several months after the Lowardian attack, in the aftermath of an incident in Tokyo. Betty knew that Kim's parents still had a significant reward posted for any information about their daughter's whereabouts, and she had directed all GJ assets worldwide to report immediately any potential sighting of the teen.

She vanishes without a trace only to reappear now? What's going on?

As her brain struggled to make sense of the situation, she noticed that her senior agent appeared to have gotten his initial surprise under control.

"Will, what are you thinking?" she asked.

"Well for starters, there's no real need to trace it," Will observed quietly, pulling a notebook from somewhere on his person and jotting down notes rapidly. "Unless that's a truly fantastic bit of set creation, she's on the steps in front of the Capitol.. and that looks like Senator Willard, Senator Roberts and Senator McCallum with her, which kinda points to it being the real deal."

"Three of our biggest critics in the Intelligence Oversight Committee," Betty said, without bothering to disguise the tone of disgust in her voice. "Want to bet this is going to be another witch hunt?"

Will snorted in response, and nodded his head in agreement with her assessment, then reached for the remote to turn the volume up.

"Thank you, Senator Willard, for that truly flattering introduction," Kim was saying, looking out at what appeared to be a massive scrum of media, with camera flashes going off almost constantly, offsetting the din of dozens of shouted questions from the pack that had erupted the moment she had stepped up to the microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please... there will be plenty of time for questions at the end. If you'll allow me to read my prepared remarks, please."

"Prepared by who, I wonder?" Will asked sarcastically.

"I think I have a vague idea," Betty replied bitterly, looking at the Cheshire Cat-like smiles on the faces of the men behind her.

"As many of you probably know," Kim finally continued, as the crowd eventually settled. "For five years, beginning during my time at Middleton High School - go Mad Dogs! - I started conducting what were at first, simple missions to help people who needed it. Over time, however, the scope of that help changed and expanded - significantly. I began to run up against people who had the desire to hurt lots of people, as well as some who wanted to take over the world or hold it to ransom. People like Dr Dementor, Monkey Fist, and Duff Killigan, or the Seniors."

"I hope Drakken isn't watching, being left off that little list would hurt his feelings," Betty muttered. Will snorted, knowing Drakken was currently ensconced in a secure research base, his every whim being catered to with the exception of outside news access, which he probably didn't even notice given he was unlikely to be paying attention to anything other than his latest ridiculous prototype.

"Even after the Lowardian attacks convinced the smarter of the more active or well known villains to retire, I kept my world saving heroics going against the holdouts, and the new threats that began to emerge to fill the power vacuum left behind, because it was the right thing to do." Kim paused, and looked around the assembled media again. "But it came at a price."

"During the early years of my career, I became aware of a covert group of secret police and spies known as Global Justice. As an arm of the United Nations, I assumed at the time that they were benign - at least as benign as a secretive world police force can be," she added to scattered laughter and, incredibly, ever broader smiles on the faces of the men standing behind her.

Betty suppressed a growl. Global Justice operated under extremely close supervision from the Security Council for good reason, and the safeguards they implemented were far stronger than anything the US foreign agencies had ever operated under - but it was the fact that they operated at all in the country at all without direct US Government oversight that upset some in Washington, including the three standing behind Kim Possible with Cheshire Cat grins.

"However, I soon discovered that Global Justice had a dark secret. They adhered to no national borders, and answered to no governments, and played by no rules. They were dangerous, but I didn't realise at the time because I'd allowed myself to be distracted by the careful front they presented, and I was conned into helping them with their own dirty laundry. The villain who called himself Gemini, the leader of the Worldwide Evil Empire, had managed to capture my friend and sidekick while Ron was working with Global Justice. It was at the resolution of that kidnapping that I discovered the shocking truth that Gemini and the leader of Global Justice, Dr Betty Director, were fraternal twins."

She paused and let the outcry of the media die down again before continuing. "Yes, that's right. Global Justice is run by a one-eyed megalomaniac who is solely and completely determined to one-up her insane sibling by any means necessary, regardless of the collateral damage to the world."

Betty Director couldn't stop the angry hiss that burst from her. "That... that bitch!" she snarled, surprising even herself with her anger. "And to think I once considered her a future candidate for Global Justice!"

Will said nothing in response to her outburst, his attention completely locked on the screen.

"I've chosen to go public with what I know now, because I recently discovered, with the help of several of my friends, that Global Justice is planning a series of bombings in major cities across Europe and America, using them to implicate WEE - and by extension Gemini - in a terrorist attack, then using the chaos and confusion caused by the attacks to usurp many of the national security agencies currently in place on both continents, for their own nefarious ends."

Dr Director found her jaw unable to move from where it had gaped wide open. This was unbelievable, it was utterly inconceivable.

The line from the Princess Bride about not knowing what that word meant popped into her head unwillingly, as she struggled to translate the words she'd just heard into some form of coherence, find some way of interpreting them that made sense.

"I know that by saying this publicly, I risk a lot of heat from Global Justice. I know they will try to silence me for revealing their devious plans to the world," Kim continued. "But I'm used to that - it's no big. This sitch is just like any other, and I've come to men in Washington I can trust," here she paused and indicated the three senators behind her with a wave of her arm. "Because like me, they are willing to fight for the right cause, to always do what is best for America and the world. Together, we will expose the threat of Global Justice and ensure the safety of everyone threatened by their treacherous and callous acts, because together, as my father says, 'Anything is Possible..'"

She never finished the sentence.

Without warning, a small ragged hole appeared in her forehead, and a splatter of red, white, and gray exploded over the people standing behind her.

The screams of the assembled press nearly drowned out the shouts of the Secret Service guards screaming "Sniper!" and diving to tackle their assigned principals as the crack of a high powered rifle shot finally sounded, several seconds behind the bullet that had killed its target instantly.

As Betty watched on in wordless horror, two Secret Service agents were also hit with clearly fatal shots as they scrambled to cover the senators' bodies with their own and tried to hustle them out of the line of fire to safety. She saw several more agents grabbing the body of Kim Possible and retreating rapidly with it.

A moment later, the feed they were watching jarred sharply as the camera fell to the ground, and a body - probably that of the cameraman who had been carrying it - fell in front of it, his eyes open and glassy and part of the side of his head missing.

GNN finally chose that moment to cut the feed, back to their anchors at the news desk, both wide eyed and slack jawed in disbelief at what they'd just witnessed - and broadcast to the whole world.

Betty's mind spun in circles. Normally, she prided herself on her ability to think quickly, coolly, and logically in any crisis, but in this particular moment of madness, she found that all her years of training simply hadn't prepared her for such an impossible situation.

"We need to get moving, quickly." Will - his voice thick and choked with emotion - recovered first. "We have to get out of here before they send the army in to capture - or kill - us."

"What?" Betty asked, staring uncomprehendingly at her senior agent and the expression of shock still written plainly on his face.

"They're going to come after us," Will said slowly, rising to his feet and gathering his notepad and other effects. "They're going to think we just.. assassinated Kim Possible."

"That's.. that's.."

"Absurd? Yes. I know. But you saw the same thing I did. The whole world just saw Kim Possible accuse us of being terrorists planning to bomb cities around the world, and then seconds later be assassinated live on TV. I don't know why or how she was convinced to say what she said but it also doesn't matter - if we don't go, right now, they'll be locking us up and throwing away the key - or worse - before nightfall. The US knows where this HQ is, and there's an Army base less than fifty miles from here. We have to get out, we can't go down like that."

Betty's mind finally started making an effort to catch up to the situation facing them as the news banner changed to "Kim Possible assassinated on Congress steps - Global Justice to blame?"

"Running is going to make us look guilty," she protested weakly, her brain still spinning it's tyres, futilely trying to process the scenarios being laid out before her.

"We already look guilty!" Will nearly shouted at his boss. "Whoever set this up did it brilliantly. We've already been instantly convicted by the court of public opinion. We need to initiate Ghost protocols and get out of the US before it's too late."

Betty stared long and hard at the desk through the fingers she'd clasped loosely over her face. The fact that Will Du, of all people, was advocating going rogue just wouldn't compute in her brain.

Then she realised that was the exact opposite of what he was advocating. The Ghost protocols were actually written for this kind of drastic situation. In an invasion of GJ by a hostile force or a subversion by means of mind control or blackmail, if the situation was unrecoverable, senior agents and anyone that they trusted completely were tasked with escaping the situation and then operating underground - metaphorically speaking, since the Global Justice North America HQ was already underground - and using any means necessary to identify and expunge the source of the threat, until normal operations could be restored.

This definitely counted as a drastic situation, Betty realised. She looked around the office, at the few personal items that marked it as her office. A photo of her and an ex-President, a couple of pictures of her and her family - minus one particular member, of course - and the small model of the F4 Phantom that her father had flown in Vietnam.

She didn't feel right leaving it, but Will was right. If they didn't leave, there was no way they wouldn't be in jail - or worse - by the end of the night.

"You're right, of course," she sighed reluctantly, standing from her desk and sweeping the reports on the top into a pile. "Ghost is a go. Make whatever preparations you need - and make them fast. I want you to take the time to scrub the Ops records - including this stuff - and try and get a communication to all our agents to let them… let them know that they're on their own and to do their best. If there's anyone you completely trust, give them a heads up, then exfiltrate and meet me at… meet at the Delta site as soon as possible."

Will nodded and saluted. "Good luck, ma'am."

"You too," Betty Director whispered as he left.

KP KP KP

Nashville, USA.

Jack Hench leaned back in his chair, taking another sip of his whiskey - Japanese, 19 year old, just like his other favorite export from that country - and watched as multiple different news channels attempted to dissect - hah! - the big news of the day, the only news of the day, really: the assassination of Kim Possible, on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington DC.

It seemed like there was an even split between those who believed the implication of Global Justice in the plot, and those who thought it was a villain seeking revenge for years of defeat, but that didn't particularly bother him.

After all, Jack knew the truth, and that truth was… whatever he wanted it to be.

His phone rang, surprising him momentarily, before he realised who the caller had to be - not many people had the ability to override his Do Not Disturb function, but this one… well, it paid to keep this one happy - at least for a little bit longer.

He lifted the receiver, waited for the tone that indicated a secure channel, and then spoke.

"Go."

"Jesus Christ Jack, what the fuck were you thinking? Did you have to make it so public? It scared me half to death! I could have been shot, too!"

Jack resisted the urge to snort, reminding himself that the bluster was probably the result of shock, having just seen the back of someone's head explode a meter in front of him.

"We only specified the target, not the method. That was left to the discretion of the contractor, and I think she held a bit of a grudge."

There was a long pause, while the other person contemplated that information.

"Fuck, what a psycho. Did you at least tell her we were off limits?"

"Of course not, that would have given her far too much information for later use."

Again, there was a long pause, and Jack began to wonder if it might be better to get rid of this loose end sooner rather than later, to prevent any possible second thoughts from getting in the way.

"Look, it had to be this way, okay?" he said soothingly. "She was told her target and to minimise additional casualties, but I'm guessing she wanted a bit more chaos to cover her exfiltration."

The caller seemed to accept that, heaving a sigh that sounded resigned rather than upset. "She knows how much, exactly?"

"The name of her target only," Jack said confidently. "She was contracted and paid through a double blind via a trusted third party. We're safe from any leaks on this end, and as long as you stick to the encrypted links I provided you and only use the phone I gave you in secure mode when you call me, you're safe as well. The NSA don't have the capabilities to break this encryption - nobody does."

"Can you be certain of that?"

"As certain as I can be about anything, sure," Jack replied, then made a mental note to talk to his technicians about improving that, just on the off chance someone had made advances he didn't know about yet.

It always paid to be ahead of the curve.

"Has your agent in place reported any movement yet?"

"Yes, I just got word that GJ are going dark. You can inform the President, and commence the launch of Phase 2 now."

"And the other players won't interfere?"

This time, Jack did snort.

"They're all either irrelevant or not on the board now. Nobody's seen the real target in a year, and the green bitch has been gone the last six months - the last place she was seen was Senior Island."

"I don't suppose we'd be lucky enough that those two fought each other to the death and somehow both won?"

Jack laughed out loud. Now there was a pleasant thought. He allowed himself a momentary daydream of the two, locked in a fatal embrace, falling off the edge of a cliff, or into a volcano or something similar, then shook his head to rouse himself. "Hah! I doubt it, but it's a pleasant daydream. Keep your ears to the ground. Any sign of either, alert me and I'll set up the necessary welcoming committees."

"Fine. What about the others?"

"None of the others are worth mentioning, which was the whole point of this little arrangement. Neither of us can afford things to continue to be this quiet right now. Once we've secured the assets and appropriate arrangements for their… deployment.. have been made, we'll be just fine."

"And the loose ends in DC?"

"Leave them to me, I have a few ideas about twisting the knife if things don't go as planned in Phase 2."

"You're not confident the forces you gave me can do the job?"

"Let's just say that it always pay to have a backup plan or two or ten when playing this side of the game. I learnt that the hard way on more than one occasion," Jack said.

"I'll take your word for it."

"Just stick to the script, Senator, stick to the script and the schedule; this will go exactly as planned, then both of us will be rich beyond our wildest dreams and even more powerful than that," Jack lied smoothly.

"I don't know, Jack, I can dream pretty big."

"Trust me," Jack told him. "I know exactly what I'm doing."

He disconnected, then dialled another number.

"Everything went exactly as predicted," he said. "The Senator's just about set the ball rolling, and I'm passing on the required information for Level 2 to our 'friend' now."

There was a long silence on the other end.

"Good. we calculate a 98% chance you will need to resort to the second level permutations on the Director task. Also, there is a message for you."

After a slight pause, there was a faint click and another voice came over the line. Jack paled when he recognised it.

"Jack, my boy, just a word to the wise. Don't fuck this up, or you'll find yourself playing your last hand much sooner than you might have planned. We'll be watching."

The call disconnected, and Jack was left staring at the wall of screens for a few moments, a discomfortable feeling settling into his gut, before he finally lowered the handset to the desk.

The whiskey in his glass suddenly wasn't quite as appealing as it had been ten minutes ago.

KP KP KP

Sydney, Australia.

"Hey sleepyhead, that's a neat trick, you're in two places at once!" a voice called out from the lounge room of a large hotel suite overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the bright sunshine of the morning streaming in.

"What?" another voice floated back, a note of confusion in the female voice.

"I said you're in two places at once, unless they're playing a recorded speech you did on the Hill?" the first voice said, loud at first but lowering as the apparent magician made an appearance from the master bedroom.

"I have no idea what you're talking ab-" The voice trailed off and the figure shook her head in bemusement, setting her short, bleached blonde hair shaking around her. "Okay, that is mega ultra weird," Kim Possible said softly, reaching down to grab the remote from the hand that held it to turn the volume up.

"... because together, as my father says, 'Anything is Possible...'"

Two sets of eyes watched in complete shock as the death of Kim Possible played out in front of them, exactly the same that it did for Betty Director and Will Du.

Kim found that she was shaking uncontrollably by the time the footage suddenly cut out, and barely noticed when the hand that had originally held the remote - long since dropped from her own to the floor and completely forgotten - grasped hers gently but insistently.

She eventually realised her companion was asking her a question - had asked several times without her even hearing it.. "Kimmie.. Kim… are you okay, Kim?"

Kim stared at the images - frozen on the screen or frozen in her brain, she couldn't tell which - and felt her mind spin out of control. She moaned at the pain that suddenly bloomed in her brain, and the tightness in her chest, like her ribs were suddenly made of iron bars instead of bone. The thought that slowly rose to the top and began to dominate her entire existence was a three word phrase that raced through her mind.

That could have been me. That could have been me. That could have been me!

The universe around her slowed, she couldn't hear her own breathing or feel her pulse, there was nothing but those five words, over and over and over in an unceasing cascade.

She wasn't aware of her balance wavering, or Shego lunging up from the couch to catch her before she fell through the glass coffee table in front of her, or the way the other woman rolled in mid-air to take the brunt of the impact of their utterly graceless fall to the floor.

She wasn't aware of anything for a long time.

KP KP KP