I do not own any Disney characters named herein, and am only borrowing them to tell a nonprofit tale meant for entertainment purposes only.

Kim Possible: When The Wind Blows

By LJ58

1

The lean, coltish girl stood alone on the dimly lit bridge of the small spacecraft, staring out at the sea of stars that seemed to rush past her. Seven years. They had been gone seven years, and it looked like they still had a few to go before they even really got into deep space.

In spite of the advanced systems Warmonga's tech helped refit their engines with, they were apparently still not as fast as a Lorwardian battle cruiser. Still, time wasn't something that really concerned her.

Unless she was looking at her mom's graying hair. Or her dad starting to slow down of late, and sometimes grimacing as he held his chest.

She sighed, and focused on the stars beyond the ship.

So many stars. Yet they had only found nine worlds in all this time that had true, sentient life. Only twenty that were potentially hosts for life at all. So few worlds out of so many.

Warmonga said it was because this part of the galaxy was still young, and that the core of the galaxy had hundreds of races living there. Hundreds of species that would welcome her with open arms, and accept her as their new leader.

Not like the armored feline quadrupeds that had eyed her when her party landed, and immediately tried to attack them. Then there were the living rock-creatures that simply had no use for mammals. At all.

The almost indifferent sentients that resembled walking trees did at least listen to her. And tried to communicate their version of a cosmos they saw in very different terms from the mammalians with her. Still, in the end, they remained utterly apathetic to anything beyond their own existence.

Not like the reptilians that had eyed them, and immediately asked questions. Questions about technology. Resources. And where their world was located.

They had ended up with no choice in crushing the entire 'royal' family to stop them from ordering an immediate invasion after trying to take Kim's ship. The new leaders put in place were told quite firmly by Warmonga that they now belonged to the Great Blue, and they'd best behave, or they would be punished.

While she would have preferred it otherwise, Kim had let Warmonga dangle the dead royals outside the palace walls for the rest of the time they were there. Just so no one else got the wrong idea about Kim's mercy.

Their next two worlds had been reptilian colonies that had all but wiped out the native species. That eased her conscience regarding their actions on the reptilian home-world, even if her mother was still shaken by that experience herself. Fortunately, the colonies had already heard of the Great Blue's visit to their home, and were suitably demur in their attentions to the visitors.

The seventh world they had found with sentient life was surprisingly familiar. The people were humanoid primates, but not quite as physically evolved as homo sapiens. They were close, and still using a tribal system that connected their peoples on the huge, single continent that covered only about a third of the huge world that was mostly water other than that single landmass. There were a few islands, true, but none that supported real life.

Those people had welcomed Kim, and her people as gods, and rather than argue, they tried to teach them a few basics about agriculture they had yet to learn. Along with a few basics that might help tie their tribes together in peace.

When they prepared to leave, the people celebrated their departure as enthusiastically as their arrival, and begged them to return.

Assuring them, they wouldn't be forgotten, Kim left that world feeling strangely responsible for them. She wondered if such travelers had come to Earth in its long ago past, and if that was where the legends for gods and spirits had originated.

The eighth world was a genuine shock.

Tall, elongated, grayish skinned peoples with hyper-evolved intelligence, and a technology that seemed more magical than real had welcomed them as fellow travelers in the multi-verse, as they called it. They willingly showed everything to Kim, and her friends, and assured her they knew all about her quest, and lauded her efforts to make the Great Blue more than a mere martial figure.

The ninth world was far more disappointing.

They had traveled over a year to finally reach it after leaving the super-brains behind, and they had all been excited to find another vital world in the expanse of space around them.

True, they were seeing wonders beyond imagination on an almost daily basis since leaving earth, but sentient life, to date, was as rare as they had feared despite Warmonga's assurances that this would change soon enough.

The ninth world shocked and disappointed her because the life they found was both filled with sentient life, and incredible destruction. The native species were a diverse array of insect life, and they were all literally at war with one another. Every hive warred on the others, and if they ever stopped at all from what she could tell in their short visit, it was to regroup, and plan the next battle.

Only their apparent high fertility rates kept them from killing themselves off completely, but while they were evolved enough to have real intelligence, and create weapons, their only real concern seemed to be in trying to wipe out the others around them.

Even Warmonga was horrified at their near mindless rush to destruction, and was the first to suggest they just leave them to their madness.

Ironically, the insects of any hive were so blindly fixated on their enemies, that they completely ignored the mammals that came to visit. Other than the few that wondered over any weapons they might have with them.

They had visited eleven other worlds with no obvious life forms beyond unintelligent plant or animal species. They could have hosted something, Kim was sure, if only given time. They cataloged what they could of the obvious primary life forms, and went on.

Twenty worlds.

Nine species.

And so very, very few that seemed concerned with more than the usual selfish drives.

It was telling. Especially since she couldn't help but judge her own species all the more harshly after seeing those like the insects and reptiles that had the same rare gifts, and resources, and still only cared for their own madness above all else.

Were humans really any better?

Did they even deserve to be called….human?

"You're brooding again," the slightly more voluptuous teen said quietly as she moved onto the bridge with an instinctive grace that let her almost sneak up on her.

Almost.

"No, not really," Kim murmured, still staring out the narrow ports that served as the windows to the stars beyond the bridge.

"Yes, you are," Shego countered, and slid her arms around Kim, who stood there in the dark blue jumpsuit they all wore since boarding the ship.

All but Shego, who still insisted on green for her garments.

"What do you think we'll find next," Kim asked, putting one hand over Shego's hand that slid around her.

"Does it matter? It's a big universe, Kimmie," she murmured in her ear. "Whatever we find, whatever happens, we already know you'll manage. We'll manage. This isn't about what's out there. It's about what's in here," she said, her free hand sliding up to cover her heart.

Kim sighed. Heavily.

"Sometimes, this….destiny scares me, Shego."

"It'd scare anyone," Shego admitted.

"You?"

"Anyone. Well, anyone with brains," she added.

Kim gave a weak chuckle, and turned in Shego's arms to face her.

"I thought you were sleeping."

"Oddly enough," Shego smiled at her, "I don't seem to sleep well when my battle-mate leaves me in the middle of the night."

"Night," Kim asked, one brow rising.

"You know what I mean."

"I just felt like…..thinking."

"Yeah?"

"I noticed dad was having…..some pains again. Shego, I want to help him, but….."

"You're afraid you'll make it worse?"

"I know I can help him. He just won't let me," Kim scowled, and only then slid her arms around the green-skinned teen that had given up her own life to follow her. "He keeps saying that some things are inevitable, and should be faced with dignity."

"Oh. Sounds like your dad is smarter than I realized."

"But he could….."

"Kim, he knows. Think about it. People do usually grow old, and die. Even we will. Eventually," she smiled wanly. "And what could you have done anyway if you had never got this…..power? What would you have done when he reached this point then?"

"I don't know. I just….. I don't want to lose my dad. Not now. Not yet. Not like this."

"I do understand," Shego told her, kissing the top of her head. "Sometimes, I still wish my parents were here. Sometimes, even I miss my mom more than I can tell you. But that's part of life. Loss is something we all face, and we all have to learn to cope with."

"But I could fix him so easily….."

"Until the next time? And the next? When do you stop, Kim? Where do you draw a line before you stop being a concerned daughter, and turn into a genuine tyrant who is trying to force the universe to fit her model?"

Kim grumbled darkly, and lay her head on her shoulder.

"You know I hate when you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Start reminding me I am not supposed to be a selfish demigod," she muttered, and clung to Shego. "And it makes me wonder if I wasn't being selfish with you, too."

"Kimberly," she said, lifting her hands to cup her cheeks, and stare into her bright green eyes. "We both know you needed me. The truth is, I needed you, too. I love you, and you apparently love me enough to destroy the cosmos if you thought you were losing me. So, let's not go there again, okay," she teased.

"I'm still trying to reconcile the fact that…..woman is a part of me. Or will be."

"I seem to recall a certain coup on a certain planet….."

Kim sighed, still hating they had to be so vicious with those reptiles that just wouldn't listen to anything else.

"Don't remind me of that one either. I'm afraid before this over, I won't even recognize myself."

"You know what I think," Shego asked quietly.

"What?"

"I think that the fact you're even worried about this says all you need to know. Kimberly," Shego told her. "You're growing up, again. You're maturing in ways no one else is ever going to understand, or appreciate. Sometimes, that means….letting go of some things. Sometimes, it means, letting people do things that may hurt you. Or themselves. Because just like you, they have their own life, and their own way of doing things. So, unless you're going to play Great Blue Puppet-Master with the universe, you have to let them do those things."

Kim sighed again, and put her head back on her shoulder.

"How did you get so smart?"

"I've already lived through some of this myself," Shego told her quietly. "Maybe I didn't always make the best decisions myself, but I do know some of what you're feeling."

Kim looked up at her now, and smiled.

"Have I told you how glad I am you're here with me?"

"Not in the last hour," Shego smiled impenitently.

"Seriously. I really am glad you're here."

"Well, it was this, or let you go nuts on the universe. Even I draw the line at universal genocide," Shego teased.

"Shego!"

"Seriously, Princess. Lighten up. Trust me, you obsess too much, and then you drive yourself crazy. Just be yourself, find your own way, and trust the rest of the world, or worlds, to get by without you hovering over them like some cosmic mother hen."

Kim sniggered now.

"There's an image I could have done without," she choked on her sudden mirth.

"I live to amuse," Shego quipped, tapping her nose. "Now, feeling better? No more brooding?"

"No more brooding," Kim smiled. "Think we'll find a new world soon?"

"I know your geek-squad already has enough data to keep them in ecstasy for another seven years. Or seventy," Shego huffed. "But sure, why not? Let's hope we find another world out there that we can land on, and we can see if they want to kill us, too."

"They aren't all…..like that," Kim frowned.

"Those….what do you call them, grey guys weren't bad," Shego admitted. "Although, they did make me feel like the dunce in the classroom every time they looked at me."

"They weren't that bad. They were just…."

"Uh, Kimmie…..?"

"Yeah," Shego was asked as Kim just stood smiling at her now, her former brooding forgotten for the moment.

"I think we're about to have company," she pointed out a nearby viewport even as the ship's automated sensors came on, and began broadcasting a collision alarm.

Kim turned to gape out the ports at the sight of a massive spacecraft that had to be twenty times their own size, and even made Warmonga's old ship look like a toy.

She stared at the huge, cylindrical ship approaching them head-on, and rushed to the computer to broadcast a ship-wide summons.

"Everyone up here now," Kim shouted over the comms. "We have company!"

KP

The shadow slipped down into the locked office with ease.

It moved slowly, but purposely, easily opening even locked drawers as the shadow went through the files found there. Then it moved toward a wall, and easily pried open a wooden shelf that masked a safe. Pulling the steel door open with preternatural ease, cold eyes studied the flash drives in the small satchel they found.

Behind the intruder, a door suddenly opened, and a harsh glare filled the dark room as a security guard peered inside, and then flipped a light switch.

"Swore I heard something," the burly man said to the skinnier man in the same uniform standing behind him.

"Maybe you've had too much coffee," the other huffed.

"Yeah, maybe, but….."

"What now," the younger man complained as he started to turn away.

The burly man walked over to the wall where the shelf seemed slightly out of place. He slowly touched the panel, and then found it swung open to show a hidden safe. He frowned, and tugged on the handle, but the door was locked firmly in place.

"Guess it was just my imagination. No one could have gotten inside here, let alone opened this safe," the man nodded back at his companion.

"Yeah. That's what I told you. Jeez, you gotta learn to relax, old man, or…."

"What," the older guard asked as he turned to see his new partner staring at the ceiling.

He looked up himself, and had time to glimpse a black shadow with glittering blue eyes staring back just before everything went dark.

To Be Continued…..