This Is The Way

Kim watched in shock as the person that had taken over Ron's body pointed a finger at her. Then the world disolved around her.

She was standing in an empty white expanse, and in front of her a shadow stood. The shadow was dark and nebulas. Every now and then I seemed to take on the form of people she had faught over years before returning to darkness again. She saw Warhawk, Shego, and the Yono all appear, then fade out.

Kim quickly realized that this was all in her mind and relaxed. She would have to just wake up. She had delt with worse sitches before. Yes she was in a hurry, but panicking wouldn't help. She closed her eyes and went through a quick mental routine that she used to wake up when she needed to go on a mission in the middle of the night. When she openned her eyes nothing had changed.

Then the shadow spoke. "Welcome," it said in a deep echoing voice "to The Way"

Well, Kim thought, at least it hadn't attacked her, but the sitch was getting really weird, really fast. Deciding that politeness was the best option asked,"How do I leave?"

"You may leave at any time. All you have to do is ask. However," the Shadow continued before she could say anything, "be aware that once you leave you may never return."

Kim bit down on her immediate request to leave. This sounded suddenly very important. She chose her next question with care, "What is the way?"

"The Way is the one true fighting style from which all others are flow. The Way is Power. The Way is a philosophy. The Way is an art. The Way can protect, and The Way can Way is niether good, nor evil, but is rather a tool that can be used for either."

Kim had heard similar claims before from several of the martial arts she knew, and it had always sounded to her like a way to impress newcomers. Somehow though, this time she believed it. Maybe the whole shadow in her mind thing helped. She was in a hurry, but maybe she had enough time to learn something new. "How long will a lesson take?" she asked the shadow mentally gauging the time she had till the rocket departed.

"The time it takes depends on the individual; however when you leave no time will have passed in the real world."

That changed things. That meant that even if the lesson was useless she could still have some time to work out what had just happenned to Ron, and how to deal with the Caretaker. Her answer was clear, "Teach me"

The shadow stopped shifting and resolved itself into Shego. "Welcome to the first step on The Way" it said in its deep, hollow voice, and then it leapt forward throwing a quick strike aimed at Kim's shoulder.

Kim had seen enough movies that she wasn't caught off guard. She raised her arm to block, and realized at the last moment that it was a fient. She managed to roll with the punch to her gut enough that it didn't take her out of the fight. Though now she had a burning pain in her side. She side stepped a follow up strike and managed to launch a quick flurry of punches at the shadow.

The first two were blocked, and on the third, the shadow grabbed her arm and threw her. Kim felt her arm pop out of its socket and the distant flash of pain that adrenaline was keeping away. As she flew through the air Kim realized that the shadow had her outmatched. Something she had not felt since her second black belt. She also realized that unlike in the classroom, there were no safeties set in place, and that the shadow was playing for keeps.

Kim landed and rolled absorbing her impact and just dodging a foot tha slammed into the spot where her head had been a moment before. She managed to scramble to her feet, though her left arm hung limply, and faced the Shadow again. She managed to block the first two attacks, but then her feet got swept from underneath her and she landed on her face. She felt a sudden pain in the back of neck, and then everything went black.

Kim openned her eyes and found herself standing in the empty white expanse across from the shadow. It still looked like Shego. Kim didn't feel any pain in her body, but the adrenaline was still running through her. Kim looked at the Shadow and openned her mouth to ask what had happenned, but the Shadow spoke before she could, "Welcome to the second step on The Way" and turn it leapt forward to attack her again.

"Welcome," said the shadow, "to the step fifty on The Way." Kim stepped aside as it attacked, and then faked a second side step and instead bent down, and grabbed the shadows leg throwing it away from her. Kim didn't follow. She used the time to gather her thoughts. She had lost to the Shadow forty nine times without much of a chance to stop and think. She was getting better at fighting, she knew it. The Shadow was always just a bit better then her though, matching her growth, and it kept pushing her to get better. If she kept this up for long she would be more than a match for anyone. Anyone, but the Warlordians. They had numbers, and if the others could fight like Warhawk and Warmonger, she was still a long way outmatched. She smiled grimly. This training was exactly what she needed if she wanted to make a difference in the upcoming battle. Maybe the person who had taken over Ron, the Caretaker, had been trying to help. Her train of though was cut off as the Shadow reached her and they started fighting again.

"Welcome to step three hundred thirty two on The Way"

Kim watched in surprise as the shadow split in two. Now she was up against two opponents that looked like Shego. They came at her together, and despite the fact that there were two of them Kim realized that she was still only slightly outmatched. The teamwork that they faught with was terrible. But in the end she hadn't managed to take them both out. I wonder, she thought as the next step faded in, if I'll have to fight more then two if I last long enough?

"Welcome to step two thousand seven hundred fifty one on The Way"

Kim looked at the hundred shadows she was against and set her jaw. She waded into them, hands and legs blurring in blocks and strikes. There were too many to gang up on her all at once, and it had become a battle of endurance for her. She was moving on pure reflex, blocking attacks from behind from sound alone. Still the shadows crowded around her, like a pack of wolves around prey, and eventually she fell.

The next Step faded in and she saw she was against a single shadow again. Then she saw that it had a gun.

"Welcome to step seven hundred fifty six thousand one hundred three on The Way"

Kim looked at the hundred forms of the shadow she was up against. Some had swords, others staves, and still others automatic weapons. She was wearing out mentally. She could feel it. But that same drive that had driven her to martial arts at such a young age, the drive that had saved her when she faught against villains with super powers when she had been a teen without any of her own, drove her foreword. She charged into the crowd before her determined to take down as many as she could.

She thought she was prepared when the next stage faded in, but when she found herself looking at a dogater cuddle-bunny she knew things were about to get worse. She was right. Her practice helped her a lot, but she was used to fighting opponents that walked upright with and didn't bite with teeth that could crush iron. Thankfully the pain was over quickly.

"Welcome to step one million four hundred twenty one thousand eight hundred twelve on The Way"

Kim looked at the Shadow in shock. She had known that her last fight would by the last one. An army of over a hundred cuddle-bunnies of every type and persuasion had been a tip off that she would be trying something new soon. She was not prepared to see Warhawk standing in front of her. He was big she knew, and he would be strong, and almost impossible to hurt. She shifted her feet into a style that she had developed against some of the tougher cuddle bunnies and held out her hand, "Bring it."

She took the initiative and dove in at him, rather than going for a high kick she feinted one and dropped her leg under his hand that had reached to grab it. Her other leg had her entire weight behind it, and it slammed into Warhawks ankle throwing it off balance. She let her momentum take her under him, and slammed her elbow into the back of his knee, knocking Warhawk to the ground. She knew that what she had done hadn't really hurt the Shadow, but she knew a few tricks now that she hadn't before. She quickly braced her body and struck a blow using all of her muscle, from her toes to her finger tips into Warhawk's side. The force of the blow was so strong that Warhawk's armor cracked, and he coughed up some blood. His hand went to his side. But he rolled to his feet and glared at Kim.

Kim was shocked; nothing had ever survived that blow before. She didn't have a name for it, but it was the strongest hit that she had learned how to deliver. How could Warhawk just shrug it off? She realized that she would have to get real fancy… In her next fight. Warhawk grabbed her with free hand and pulled his other away from his side. As he went to rip her apart she saw his hand had been covered in blood. The fight had been a close one after all. If she hadn't have frozen, she might have stood a chance.

Time passed and the fights continued. Kim reached a point where she no longer had time to concentrate on battle. She was forced to react on instinct alone. While she realized that she had reached a turning point, she found that she now was free to think as the battles went on. Her concentration was still on the fight, but she could now concentrate on other things. Like what had happened to Ron.

The Caretaker? He had called himself. He said that he was there with Ron's permission. She couldn't see any reason for him to lie, and he was helping her, in a fashion. So that meant what he said was true. Probably. There was someone very smart with access to Ron's head. What was he doing there? How powerful was he? From how he and Shego had talked, he must be very powerful. Talking about building a planetary shield had been discussed, but had been dismissed as impossible. He talked about building one in a few days, maybe a week.

Was he lying about what he could do? Kim didn't think so. Shego had believed him, and, as she had pulled that thief away from the Caretaker, she had seen fear in Shego's eyes. Shego didn't get scared easy. So that meant that she believed the Caretaker was able to do what he said. This tracked with her being put in here. She had never heard of something like this before, and could only imagine the power that would be needed for it.

So what was the Caretaker caretaker of? It sounded like the world, the way Shego had said that it was his job to stop anything bad from happening. Maybe it was something that had entered Ron with his mystic monkey power? No, that didn't track. If the Caretaker was watching over the world, why would it matter how smart Ron was?

Then she saw the light. Ron's abilities, how he had done impossible things his entire life, it all made sense. Kim didn't know where the Caretaker had come from, but he had been with Ron almost his entire life. Probably from just after they met in kindergarten. In fact…

Kim remembered one day in grade one, she had been talking to Ron, and he had been serious as he was when he was that young. He had just come out of the library and at the time she thought he was being silly when he had told her that he could never be the smartest person in the world. She thought it had been a game he had been playing. He told her that he was going to change, and he asked her to watch out for him in the future. She had agreed and offered to make a pinky promise. Ron had broken down crying and hugged her. Then they had made the promise. How had it gone?

"I promise to protect you Ron, no matter what the situation, because anything is possible, for a Possible."

She hadn't always lived up to that promise, but it had been her drive for much of her young life. It had been the reason she had learned all of her different martial arts. Now she finally understood what had happened on that day. She wished that she could allow herself to cry, but the tears would have blurred her eyesight, and she couldn't afford the distraction against the ten warlodians that she was fighting at the moment.

That meant that Ron had always been able to be smart. He knew about the Caretaker. He knew about the Caretaker, and so did Shego. And she, Ron's best friend, his girlfriend, didn't. That just didn't happen. She loved Ron, but suddenly her image of him acquired a crack. He had always trusted her about everything. Well… Everything important anyway. And he had gone and told Shego, and not her?

Things started to come together. It had started the night that Shego had stopped DNAmy at the museum. Ever since then Ron had been treating her nicer, and giving her looks that Kim couldn't identify. Kim had even caught them talking alone, only for them to immediately change the topic when she came close. At the time Kim had talked herself out of jealing, remembering Yori. She had forgotten that Shego wasn't Yori, and that what she wanted, she took.

But that Ron was cheating on her. That was the big one. Ron had never seemed like that type of person. But then he had never hid something like the Caretaker from her before either. Kim wasn't sure what to think, but she felt worry in her stomach (just before it got ripped out of her and she remembered that tensing up in a fight at this level was lethal). All she knew was that she would have to have a long talk with Ron, and with Shego.

She never would have guessed that Shego liked Ron though. She had seen Shego giving Ron interested looks before, but then, Shego had given her the same looks, so she had just written it off as a quirk that was unique to Shego. However if she was interested in Ron, and she was trying to seduce him, or using this secret as leverage over him, then she would have to have a long girl to girl talk with that involved a stern warning at the end of it.

Yes, Kim thought darkly, there would be a lot to talk about when she finally finished the way.

She took notice of her surroundings again and realized that she wasn't sure how long she had been training. All she knew that her soul was starting to feel tired. That was the only way she could describe it. Her body was fine, but her emotions were growing darker and darker. She was starting to feel suicidal. And when she paid attention to what the Shadow said she was shocked.

"Welcome to step thirty four billion fifty eight million nine hundred thirteen thousand six hundred ninety seven on The Way"

Kim looked at the army of Warlordians with their weapons their shields and watched in surprise as she moved through them taking weapons from their owners and turning it upon the hapless wielders. Personal shields shattered, invisibility was seen through. She felt like a spectator in her own body, as she danced through them, and watched them fall in scores. Every punch was now as strong as the one she had hit Warhawk with in the first battle. She didn't waste motions or time on anything less. And then, to her surprise, she was at the last one. It was in the shape of Warmonger, and it was unarmed. She had lost her staff blocking a punch from the second last one, and so she was unarmed too.

Kim could have gone for a weapon, but that would have wasted time, instead she directed a punch into the ground and hit the warlordian in the chest with a quivering palm that sent the equivalent of a hundred punches directly into the chest of the warlordian. There was a look of shock on Warmonger's face as she collapsed. To the ground, her heart and lungs destroyed by the attack that had bypassed her armor.

Kim looked around the battle field and didn't see a single enemy. She realized, belatedly that she had won. This was her first win, and she didn't feel elated as she had expected. Rather, she felt gladness that the warlodians that she had fought were only constructs of imagination. The scene was gruesome, and absently she wiped her bloody hands on her pants.

The scene faded away and the Shadow spoke, ""Welcome to the last step on The Way" then it faded out, and Kim saw that for this last fight, she would be fighting herself.

She prepared herself, and leapt forward at the same time her doppelganger did. They clashed in the air, neither one getting and early advantage. Landing on the ground they turned and started fighting, neither one taking the time to reposition themselves. Kim knew that the briefest moment of imbalance would be fatal. Each attack was lethal, and each one was blocked. The ground beneath their feet began to groan and crack from the stress that was being put on it. Still they fought on, neither one able to gain the advantage.

Kim refused to lose this last fight, but everything she tried to do to succeed was defended against. There seemed no way to defeat her double. As she fought she wondered if maybe this was a test of some sort, if maybe there was another answer. For the first time, Kim said something in the middle of battle that was not a curse, or a taunt.

"Why," she asked, "Are we fighting."

"I don't know," answered her double.

Kim thought about it for a moment, "Want to stop?"

"Sure" answered the other Kim.

They paused for an instant in their fighting, and that instant lengthened into a pause. That pause continued as they backed away cautiously from each other until they were outside of combat distance. Then the other Kim dissolved back into the Shadow. It bowed to her, "Master"

"Teacher" Replied Kim.

And then the world dissolved and she found herself on the walkway in a sewer with Ron helping her to her feet. She blinked for a second getting her bearings. She could still feel the muscles that she had gained in her mind, which made her wonder if the entire thing had been all in her head or not. However she pushed that aside and focused on the important things.

"Why did you hide this from me?" she asked Ron, glancing down at her hands. They felt the same, but she could feel power in them that she had never had before. She knew that she could destroy concrete with them and not break a sweat. It was a strange feeling.

She looked back up at Ron as he replied, "Because…. Well… I didn't want him to freak out. He is supposed to be a secret. I didn't find out about him till Shego confided him to tell me." He scratched the back of his head as he talked, and for a moment she wanted to hug him and tell him that she believed and trusted him. Then she remembered all the stuff that had happened with Shego, and how he had hidden this from her and turned away from him.

They had more important things to deal with right now anyway, "I am not going to ask right now. But we are about to have a five day trip in a space ship together, and I want some answers from both of you. However now is not the time for this drama. We have to get to GJ now! The Rocket is scheduled to launch in 20 minutes. Drakken's waiting for us." She said, trying to keep her voice calm and neutral. She wasn't sure if she trusted Ron, and now she knew she didn't trust Shego, but that was secondary. The fate of the world was at stake, and she had to go off and save it. After all, she had promised Ron that she would protect him.

.x.X.x.

A/N: So for the first time we diverge from Shego's point of view and follow Kim. I want to give a special thank you to CajunBear73 for being my best reviewer. Thanks man... or bear... or whatever... You make my day! Would you like to be my Beta in the future? Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. I was originally not going to include this, but Kim's jump in fighting skill seemed like too big of a plot point to gloss over the more I looked at it. I also want to say that anyone who wants to write a derivative work of this has permission. I have had one or two requests, so go for it guys.

Also next chapter will be the first time that Drakken appears in this fic. So if someone could please tell me what color eyes he has, I would be quite grateful.

Finally, this marks the most writing I have every done in a single day! W00t!

Jak in Black and White signing out