Syncopation.

Ron wasn't sure why that word came to mind, but it described his state of being just about as well as anything. Thoughts danced around him, just outside his notice, but pressing against his mind. There was no physical sensation, but new senses seemed to blossom and he could taste thoughts, smell emotion. And feel the immensity of a new universe all around him.

Being dead isn't so bad, he thought. If I am dead.

"You are very much alive. More than ever, in fact." The familiar voice of the Chorlix echoed in his brain. Well, whatever served as a brain in this realm.

The penny dropped. "I'm inside the Chorlix?" If he'd had a voice, it would've squeaked. "Coooooool." And it was. This wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind, but hey, it was better than the alternative.

When he saw Kim fall, he knew he'd need to try. He could do the math, just like Kim. (Only more slowly, some honest part of his mind chimed in.) He knew the consequences, and he knew just exactly what Kim would be feeling – he'd felt it himself moments before. He wished he could do something about that.

The Chorlix seemed to know what his thoughts were, even if it didn't directly read his mind. There were no secrets here. "We can't directly affect the realm where you came from, but you still have a link. And here's an idea…" The combined minds of the Chorlix poured knowledge and suggestion into Ron's mind, and he felt himself starting to become more a part of the Chorlix.

"Whoa, whoa, just a second… I can do that? Really?" He felt gentle assent from the Chorlix. It was getting easier to read the universe-mind, to start feeling the larger currents and eddies of thought and emotion that made up the healed strand. It was magnificent, really, an entire universe worth of people who had joined together to form something altogether wonderful and amazing. Ron knew that he would always remain Ron, but he would also become something… more. And it would be bodacious.

"OK," he thought back to the rest of the Chorlix. "Here goes nothing."

Kim was only a few paces away from the Chorlix when she stopped abruptly. She wasn't sure why, but she turned and looked at Ron lying forlornly on the ground. She felt an undeniable desire to hold his hand, just one more time. Leaving an impatient Shego behind, she ran back and knelt by Ron, and gently took his hand. Her palm rested next to his, and for an instant she felt a spark, an echo of their wetware links. But it couldn't be, of course.

"Kim…"

Eyes wide, she looked around, but the ghostly voice seemed to come from nowhere. The others watched her sympathetically – except Shego – but no one seemed to hear the voice.

"Kim… one last thing…" she could swear she heard Ron. "Hold up your hand." Feeling a little silly, she held her hand out, palm out. Without warning, images and foreign thoughts swirled through her wetware, momentarily taking over her entire processing capability. The palm holo projector twitched into focus, and a small disc coalesced in the air above her palm. It slowly took on more definition, turning blue with a design etched into it. Kim had no idea where this was coming from – her wetware was doing things she couldn't follow, even if she'd had a technical background. She was sure it was doing things it was never designed to do.

As abruptly as it had started, the wetware became quiescent and the holo switched off… but instead of disappearing, the disk thunked into Kim's palm, solid as a coin.

That wasn't supposed to be possible!

A gentle chuckle edged into her mind, and gave her further ghostly instructions. "Turn it sideways, press the design." She did so, and the disk began to expand, except for the cobalt blue color looking almost exactly like the portal that faux-Bonnie had opened to get them to this rabbit-hole of a place. It hung suspended a few inches above the ground, about two meters in diameter.

"What in the world is that?" Shego asked. Although hard to impress, she seemed somewhat subdued by this latest development.

Kim gave Shego a funny half-smile, cocked her head as if listening to something only she could hear, and abruptly grabbed Shego's arm. "Help me here!" She bent down and grabbed under Ron's shoulders, indicated the other woman should grab his feet.

Shego sighed. "If it gets us out of this extreme weirdness zone any faster, whatever." She effortlessly grabbed Ron's feet. "Now what?"

"And a one… and a two…" Kim chanted, swinging Ron's body just in front of the blue disc. Shego got it on the second swing.

"And a goodbye you!" she finished as they let go, watching Ron's body fly into the disc… and then watched it fly out the other side and land with a thump on the ground.

Kim walked over, knelt down, and looked puzzled. "I thought it would take care of him," she said. She straightened Ron out into a more dignified position, then reached up and touched the blue disc on the edge. It shrank to coin size again, and Kim pocketed it.

Shego looked at Ron. "So, you just gonna leave him there? I don't think it much matters, in this place." She gestured at the not-sky and strange ground. Not having wetware, she wasn't sure it wasn't supposed to do that. For all she knew, this was how you buried someone.

"No," she said, and turned. "It doesn't. Let's go."

"I think I've got a concussion," Kim heard behind her. Whirling, breath caught in her chest, she saw Ron sit up and grab his head. She was next to him, arms wrapped around his chest, in an instant.

"Ron!" laughing and crying at the same time, Kim couldn't decide if this was real or if she was cracking up. She'd take either, as long as Ron was in it.

Groaning, Ron pried himself slightly away from Kim's grasp. "I thought I said 'gently toss the body'," he said. "That was more like chucking coal." He looked up at Kim for the first time, and smiled. "But all is forgiven."

Yuma squatted down next to Ron and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Welcome back. Now would you like to explain?"

Ron saw that he was the center of attention, and squirmed a little at the stares. The calmness of the Chorlix remained, but he could tell it was fading – along with the incredible batch of knowledge he had. But he knew a tiny link would remain – to the rest of his consciousness that resided in that other universe. They didn't need to know about that quite yet.

"You didn't think being super advanced was all about pretty lights, did you?" He explained his experience, at how the Chorlix had given him the knowledge to connect to Kim and use her wetware to produce the blue coin. "It's kind of a portal thingy, but it has a couple of uses. The first was to copy my mind and life energy back into this sack of meat. But it has another purpose, too." He looked at Kim, who eyed him a little warily.

Ron stepped closer to her, took her gently in his arms, and put his mouth next to her ear. He whispered just loud enough for her to hear him. "I'm mortal."

She tensed, then pulled back and looked at him. "Will it work for… anyone else? And does that mean…?"

He grinned the biggest, goofiest grin he had in his inventory. At a loss for words, he just nodded his hands once. Kim stepped out of his grasp, and yelled "Whoopie!" at the top of her lungs. Then she planted the biggest kiss she could on Ron's face.

Still smiling, the two took hands. Ron looked at Yuma, and raised his voice. "Oh, and the Chorlix said to tell everyone – when the time is right, we'll all gather back here to move up the ladder." He looked directly at Kim. "All of us." Yuma smiled widely, her grin not as goofy as her adopted father's, but still big.

A basso rumble filled the air. Turning around, everyone watched strands of light part from the ground as the Chorlix rose into the not-sky. Soon it was just a pinpoint of light, then it was gone.

Tana strolled up to the teenagers. She looked confused. "Is that all?" She seemed to want Ron to tell her more, maybe the secrets of the universe or something. He just grinned at her, enjoying her discomfort.

"For now." He paused, then said, "Except – we kinda need to get home. If that's not too much to ask."

The goodbyes were mostly easy. Simple farewells and "Till we meet again" took care of most, but Ron had a hard time saying farewell to Yuma. They finally were able to disengage, Ron with the promise that he would definitely find a way of joining her at some point.

Finally, it was just Shego, Kim, Ron, and Bonnie left standing on the open plain under a missing sky. Bonnie had stayed in the background, but appeared miffed that somebody should know something she didn't. She eyed Ron with distaste, seeming to expect him to burst forth with monologues about the nature of the universe. When he acted exactly like his old self, she was even more indignant. Somebody who'd communed with the gods shouldn't fall on his butt when his girlfriend pushed him!

Kim snuggled against Ron's side while Bonnie once more drew her hands from above her head and produced a black portal. "So, your portal coin will turn us all normal mortals again, and we can finally grow up and have a family, right?" She wanted so much to hear him say those words.

"You got it. Just step through and boom – mortal and able to have kids. We're gonna get married!"

Kim laughed and hugged him tight. "Hey, you've got to ask me first. Don't make any assumptions there, Romeo." She kissed him on the cheek.

Ron did a double-take. "Seriously? I just kinda assumed… I mean, after all this time…" He seemed at a loss for words, worried that he'd offended her. Kim laughed harder.

Shego made a rude noise and put one leg through Bonnie's portal. "Oh man, some things just never change. I'm outta here." She disappeared into the black disc.

Bonnie made an impatient gesture. Ron looked at the circle, thinking of the uproar their return would generate. Within the month, he'd bet most of the immortals would be mortal again, and families would begin anew. He also had a feeling that, with the advanced medical and genetic treatment they had available, most of them – including Kim and Ron – would last to the next Singularity. The next step on the way up the ladder. On their way to the Chorlix, where a part of Ron still remained.

Holding hands, Kim and Ron stepped through the portal.

The End