I do not own Kim Possible, or any other Disney character. I'm just borrowing them for my own view of alternative tales.

Kim Possible: Aftereffects

By LJ58

"Get over yourself. The world isn't just about you, KP. Everything doesn't have to be all about you. You can't run around like this forever. Sooner or later, you have to face your own destiny. And in the meantime, you need to consider remember that sometimes…..it's just about everybody else. Sometimes, you have to let the rest of the world have a chance."

Kim sighed as she stood outside the small securities specialist shop called simply 'Go Security' where she had finally tracked her.

Four months ago, the world made sense.

At least, it did to her.

That was just before the aliens attacked. Just before Ron and Drakken saved the world. Just before Ron actually dumped her to go find his own destiny. Just before he told her he had more to do than chase after her, and help her 'save the world.'

Which was a laugh. Because that final proved conclusively even to her ego that she was not doing any saving that last time around.

In the end, she couldn't even stand up.

In the end, it was all Ron.

She got knocked flat, and left for dead. She would have been dead, an alien trophy, if Ron's mystical monkey power hadn't saved her, and everyone else. Her. Kim Possible. Saved by her 'sidekick.'

It was galling.

Embarrassing.

Almost as bad as his dumping her to go find his own destiny.

"It's what I have to do, Kim," he had told her in that suddenly serious, suddenly mature voice that made her feel like a selfish child.

He had smiled at her as if he were older and wiser in just those few months than she would ever be in years to come. Then he had told her what she had been suspecting for years. "It's not like you really love me. You like me. And I like you, too. But it's not love. And it's not going to last. We both know that. We both know your heart has always belonged to another all this time."

"But I need you," she had cried that final evening together, protesting the shameful secret that had haunted her of late. "I need you with me. We're a team."

That was all she had cried, fearful of any future without Ron to lean on. Fearful for once, and admitting it as she clung to him. Her best friend. That was when he had gently, but firmly pushed her away.

That was when he told her; "Get over yourself."

She stared at the shop she approached a few days later after Ron left her alone, surprised that Wade had finally tracked her here. Alone. Just as she had been shocked to see her standing at Drew's side when he received the Medal of Freedom.

Drew Lipski. Savior of the world.

Ron, characteristic of him of late, gave the loopy man full credit for his deeds.

He had helped. Drew had actually taken down most of the machines with his mutant plants. But Ron had stood alone in the end, fighting the alien warriors, and taking them on like a peerless warrior. Like a real mystical monkey master. She had been shocked. Proud. And so very frightened.

Then she disappeared while Drew withdrew from the fading limelight to try to continue his efforts to rid himself of the pollinator's mutation, and perhaps seek a way to top his first true success. And to him, his greatest shame. After all, it wasn't every super villain that ended up saving the world he was trying to conquer.

Now, Kim had finally found her.

She took a deep breath, and climbed out of the Sloth to head into the small, unassuming shop.

"With you in a sec," a gruff voice that still carried a familiar sardonic tone called from the back as she entered the shop.

"Shego," she murmured when the green-skinned woman in casual work clothes appeared, blinking in surprise at her presence at her counter.

"Kim Possible," the green-skinned woman in a plain green jumpsuit half smirked. A blue-collar uniform rather than her trademark costume. "Don't tell me you need a security system?"

"What? Oh, no. I….I just wanted to…..talk. If that's okay?"

"Sure. Free country. Still a free world, too, thanks to your boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend. He left."

"Finally wised up, huh," Shego couldn't help digging.

"I guess. Listen, I didn't want to talk about him. I wanted to talk about….us."

Shego actually looked confused.

"Shego……?"

"Whoa. Okay. For the record, it's Sheila now. Just plain Sheila. Says so on my pardon, and my business cards. Shego? She's gone. Retired. Finito. So, what's on your mind, Kimmie," she asked, glancing at a clock. "Because I have a two o'clock appointment I can't miss."

"It's just…. Well…. All those times we fought. I started getting the feeling there might be something….."

"Whoa. Hold it. Stop right there, Kim," the older woman held up her hands and actually looked ready to break out laughing.

Kim felt her heart clinch.

"I think I know where this is going. Only it's not happening, Princess. Whatever you thought you felt? I was riding you. Fu….. Uh, screwing with your head. Trying to take you out of your game. C'mon, girl. You're still a child compared to me," Sheila Go laughed now. "And let's face it. I like men. Male men. You flatter me, but….. Nuh-uh. Not happening. 'Kay?"

"'Kay," Kim smiled weakly. "I….I was just confused, is all. Trying to put things….in perspective. I….."

"Excuse me," an elderly man broke in as the door chimed. "I was told you could help me with….

"Oh, beg your pardon, Miss. I'll wait till you're…."

"I'm done," Kim choked out, and turned to leave without looking back. "Go right ahead."

"Well…..if you're….."

She rushed out, and climbed into the car. She didn't even try to drive. Just hit auto-drive, and let the car take her away from there. Tears blinded her anyway, and she didn't want to risk an accident. Shego, the woman she had long respected, admired, and maybe even liked, had turned her down. Brushed her aside like an adolescent crushing on her teacher. Her female teacher. Ron was off chasing his destiny. Shego had a real job. Even Bonnie was marrying Junior. Meanwhile, she was……

God, she was pathetic. And that old man hadn't even recognized her. Talk about fame being fleeting.

She heard Ron's voice in her head again, telling her to get over herself.

"Fine," she eventually murmured. "I'm done. I'm through," she told herself. "As of now, I am officially over it," she choked, and reached for the car's controls. It was time to find her own real destiny. She'd do it, and she'd do it alone. Without help. Without favors.

After all, she was a Possible.

KP

"Say, aren't you…..?" Kim looked up to see a Freshman looking at her with that expression she used to enjoy. The fawning adulation. The worship.

"Sorry. I can guess what you're going to say, but I'm not her."

"You're not Kimberly Possible?"

"Depends on the one you mean."

"Huh," the obviously confused blonde girl blinked.

"You either want the college tutor. Or the hero. I'm the former."

"Oh, right. That's who I wanted. But now that you mention it, you do look like a picture I once saw….."

"Nope. I'm just a tutor."

"But you look like….."

"I get that lot," she smiled wanly, and looked up from her book as she realized her coffee had gone cold while she was absorbed in the book on Quantum Mechanics she was reviewing. "That's why I kind of shot you down. After constantly hearing the same thing, it got a little tiring."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess. I would think it would be cool having the same name and looks as someone that famous."

"You'd think," she sighed, "But it's actually a pain," she told her. "People actually expect you to do things. They watch you, and wait for you to chase after some bad guy, or something weird like that. I'm not even a cheerleader," Kim told her.

Not anymore, she thought to herself, thinking of almost four solid years of college without any of the usual volunteering she once did. Unless you counted tutoring.

"So…..tutoring? What subject?"

"Pre-Cal," the woman groaned.

Kim sighed as she closed her book. Not even a challenge. Still, it beat doing nothing, and she was paid. She was a TA after all. And she had expenses.

"Let's see where you are," Kim smiled, and gestured for her to sit down.

KP

"Where are they now," the woman on the television screen asked as a series of faces flashed across the screen.

Bored, restless, and not wanting to admit it, Sheila forced herself to watch the pedantic show of stars who had fallen from grace, or just fled their own fame. Then she saw a young, smiling redhead, and her attention froze.

"You all remember Kim Possible," the announcer stated confidently. "The girl who could do anything."

"Doy," she told the announcer with the fake dental work.

"In over four years after her greatest challenge in helping rid Earth of invading aliens, the adventuring redhead has yet to show her face anywhere near a disaster, or a crime in progress. No one knows why she suddenly vanished, or where she went."

The announcer was replaced by an image of Dr. Director, looking older and harried as she was surrounded by cameramen.

"Dr. Director, is it true Kim Possible was put in cryogenic suspension after being injured by aliens," one of the reporters actually asked her. The questions actually got worse from there.

The woman didn't even yell 'No comment,' as she fixed her good eye balefully on the crowd, and bulled her way through them.

"With no help from Kim Possible's former comrade-in-arms, we turned to her family."

"Comrade-in-arms," Sheila laughed. "Who writes this stuff?"

Then a familiar face came on screen as Dr. James Possible was caught coming out of the science center where he worked.

"Dr. Possible, is it true your daughter went out into space in pursuit of the Lorwardians," a reporter demanded.

"Do you actually have an IQ, or were you being serious," the at times absentminded rocket scientist asked in turn.

His responses grew worse, too, leaving the media befuddled, and Sheila giggling as she recalled that time she lived with the family as 'Miss Go.' Then Anne was seen outside the hospital, and she loved her response.

"Dr. Possible. A second please. No one has seen your daughter in years. Is there any truth to the rumors she and her former rival Shego are living together as lovers on some remote tropical island?"

"Are you insane," the neurosurgeon asked bluntly. "Or are you suffering from tumors that just make you sound stupid or delusional? If you like, I can give you a full cranial examination. Feel free to check in with my office any time," she said, and climbed into her car and drove off.

Sheila wasn't laughing now.

That last question hit home for her.

She was still remembering the look in Princess' eyes that day she blew her off. For a moment, even she had to admit her heart had raced, and her body had tensed when her longtime nemesis walked into her shop out of nowhere. To hear her falter over the reason for her arrival was almost cute. And damning.

Even she never expected to see what she did when she blew her off, though.

Defeat.

She had finally beat Kim Possible, and it had felt…..bad.

Before she could even go after her, though, the old man had distracted her, and the redhead had driven off. And promptly disappeared.

"We attempted to speak with Kim's brothers, but the eccentric, young inventors were….preoccupied and unable to respond," the announcer was going on.

Sheila did snigger now.

She knew that was the announcer's way of saying you took your life into your hands when you got near those two. Literally took your life into your hands. She wouldn't doubt a few of those camera men might have ended up in the hospital knowing the 'tweebs, as Kimmie had always called them.

"Her former companions in Team Possible have also vanished, and it leads us to ask one more time, 'Where is she now?' If you know, feel free to call our network with any information, leads, or tips on the elusive Kim Possible. If your information leads to an update, you just might be the next star on….."

"Yada, yada, yada.

"I guess Pumpkin finally wised up, and took off," she sighed as she eyed the blank screen after she snapped the program off.

Sheila's restlessness died stillborn in the wake of that program, which she tried not to think about as she walked to her bedroom to retire for the night without locking up. Anyone stupid enough to break in on her deserved what they got. She might be 'reformed,' but she was still her own best security. Still. Almost five years without a sign of her? Where had Kimmie gone? What was she doing now? A part of her wouldn't mind knowing. Not that she was worried. No way. Far from it. She was just….curious.

KP

Kim frowned as she stared into the insulated carrier at the fragments resting in special cases, and looked back at Dr. Olsen. "Is this really it? The original Go City comet?"

"Well, fragments of the original," the older, balding man smiled. "That is why I called you in, Dr. Possible. We don't have anyone else in the region remotely qualified to study and catalog this anomaly."

"I thought it had been studied before now," she shook her head as she considered the attached file. "What brings back interest in these samples now?"

"Well, to be honest, Dr. Possible, a recent discovery may have altered what we think we know of the legendary Team Go's mutations. We first considered that the exploding meteor, or comet, simply infused them with unknown radiological elements that caused their genetic mutations."

"Yes, I am familiar with the team's history."

"Yes, well, do you also know that recent surveys found a few larger surviving fragments in the vicinity that after precursory examination, suggested there are actually trace fragments of…..alien DNA embedded in the pieces. That's why we called you in, Dr. Possible. With your specialties, and your own familiarity with Team Go, we hoped you might help us finally unravel the mystery of the rainbow comet, as it is euphemistically called. It could well even unlock secrets of genetic mutation, or human evolution itself if I am right."

Kim smiled at that slip. Robert Olsen was a maverick in the astrobiology field. It was one of the reasons she chose to work with him. She liked his reputation, and that most considered him a quack or outright lunatic didn't bother her.

She was still so focused on her building her own career at twenty-three after earning her degree, two masters, and a PhD in just three and a half years that she rarely even saw home very often now. At least most of the questions had died down by now. They even had a stupid program about her life on last week. As if she were some over the hill star from decades past.

So not the drama, she reminded herself.

"All right, Dr. Olsen. I think we should start with a basic……"

She frowned as someone knocked at the door.

"Oh. That must be the security specialist I called. With these pieces being housed here for our use, I wanted to ensure we were well protected," the pudgy man smiled. "After all, we are dealing with some unknown forces here, and potentially dangerous ones at that. Just the sort of thing to bring out the lunatics."

"Okay, Dr. Olsen. I'll start with precursory full-spectrum exams after I get these logged in while you take care of….whatever," she smiled over her shoulder at him.

"Thank you, my dear. And welcome aboard," he smiled, making Kim feel quite good.

It made her feel as if she belonged to something again. It was, admittedly, a good feeling.

KP

Ron's eyes were closed as he stood barefoot and bare-chested before the nine men who held staffs before them. He waited in a deceptively casual stance, his expression relaxed, his demeanor calm. The moment the nine bo staffs came at him, he seemed to explode into action without actually moving from where he stood. Hands flashed, and his body seemed to weave and duck, but his feet never moved.

Not one of the nine ninja around him got close. When he straightened up, eyes still closed, expelling a cleansing breath, all nine ninja were sprawled out around him. Unconscious.

"Very good, Stoppable-San," the increasingly ancient Sensei spoke to him as he summoned him to his side with a mere nod of his head. "You have improved over the years until I know I have made the right decision. As fate has put the Lotus Blade into your capable hands, so, too, do I now put something even more precious in them.

"Master," Ron asked quietly, walking beside the old man who seemed ageless to him.

"Stoppable-San, you need not call me master any longer. You are to become the next sensei of Yamanouchi. You have already surpassed me, and in only a few years time. You are truly the ultimate monkey-master that legend foretold."

"What is it you are saying, Sensei," Ron asked him quietly, sensing something weighing on him.

"Stoppable-San, I must ask you where your heart lies. It is very important."

"My heart is here, Sensei," Ron told him quietly but firmly. "I am no longer torn. If the invaders taught me anything, it was that I cannot deny who, or what I am. But I thought the next sensei of Yamanouchi had to be a member of your family?"

"And so you shall be, Stoppable-San. After you wed my granddaughter, Yori."

Ron said nothing.

"She is pleasing to you, is she not," he asked.

"She is a skilled warrior, and a beautiful woman," Ron told him quietly. "But does Yori wish this also? I would not want to….."

"It would be my honor to wed the man I have long admired, and respected. And always loved, Ron-San," as a soft murmur from behind tickled his ear.

Now Ron smiled.

Of all the ninja in the school, only she seemed able to still come up behind him. To surprise him.

"Yori-San," he nodded to her as she joined them. "I take it you have already discussed this with Sensei?"

"She has, Stoppable-San. I am an old man. My time is passing. Before it does, I would see my line extended. Will you wed Yori, son of my heart, and oversee Yamanouchi's future?"

"It would be my honor, Sensei," he said as he bowed low before him.

KP

"Be out of your way in a sec, Red," a gruff voice told her as Kim used a special electron-scanning microscope to peer into one of the larger fragments of the meteor before her.

Kim tensed at the sound of that vaguely familiar voice, slowly looking away from the yellowish stone that was actually very porous with a peculiar tinting that still had a faint glow. The other spectral colors were present, but faded. As if something had been taken from them. Something vital. The yellowish samples remained slightly phosphorescent, which was more than intriguing. It also suggested, as the professor had claimed, that there might be something organic to its base. She had been studying that sample all day since the start of the third day of her research when that voice cut into her concentration.

She turned to stare at a green-skinned woman who was eyeing a nearby door with a thoughtful gaze, and a toolbox in her hand stenciled with 'Go City Security' on the side. Kim turned back to her work, and said nothing.

"Okay, Doc," Shego spoke casually, neither one of them looking toward the other. "I just gotta drill here a minute, so don't let it……"

The outer wall exploded before the green-skinned woman could finish whatever she was about to say.

"Knock, knock," a curt, heavily accented voice drawled as a short, rotund man in a billowing….mumu?….stood in the gaping hole surrounded by two fierce looking robotic creatures.

"Professor Dementor," Kim spat in genuine shock.

"Am I to be knowing you," the man with a now gray beard spat. "Nein. I do not be thinking so. Now just be handing over the comet debris, and I will being gone without harming you, fraulein."

"I don't think so," Kim swore, and spared a glance to see Shego was down, a section of the wall having half buried the woman when it fell in on her.

"I see you still like wearing dresses," Kim spat, stepping between the mad dwarf and the workstation where the comet's fragments were in full view under their glass cover until she was ready to pull them out for study.

"It is a housecoat," he wailed. Then blinked, frowned, and then watched as Kim slowly pulled off her lab glasses, and stared coldly his way. "Wait. Kim….Possible? You are now a scientist?" The man laughed manically. "This is being my lucky day. I will take the elements to empower my new bio-warriors, and put an end to you once and for all," he crowed.

"I don't think so," she said again, glancing back at Shego who was still out cold.

"What are you waiting on, you mechanical fools. Kill her," the man still favoring his ridiculous helmet shouted.

The two powerful automatons started forward.

She didn't wait for them to reach her.

"Let's see. Mark II industrial movers," she parroted from a recent commercial. "Suitable for home, or professional use," she said as she lunged under one sweeping metal claw, and rolled up behind the first robot. "But not too bright," she said, adding her own assessment while standing up as the second aimed its claw at her.

She somersaulted over the mechanical creature's head, and smirked as the claw ripped into the back of the first robot, shorting it out as she came down on the trapped limb, and used it bounce over the second machine to land behind Dementor.

"Nighty-night," she smiled, and slammed his helmeted head into an exposed stud.

The man dropped like a stone.

The second robot spun around, ripping out its own still trapped arm, and using the other to send her flying into the lab table where her precious fragments lay exposed, sending them flying when even the heavily insulated case shattered after she, table and all went flying on impact.

"Snap," she groaned and climbed to her feet. "Forgot they're also persistent," she told herself, and picking up a broken table leg, she ducked out of the way of the pincher now trying to grab or impale her, and rolled to one side, then the other, and finally found the vulnerable chink in the robot's body armor that she was seeking.

Driving the wooden leg up into the small space, she just ducked another swipe as she spun around to give a hard back kick to the wooden spear that drove deep into the vulnerable electronics, shorting out the device, and shutting down the robot. It staggered and jerked to a stop, and she stood panting near the gaping wall for a moment as she surveyed the damage.

"Good thing….I still work out," she said with a faint grin at the fallen Dementor, a little surprised to find the man was actually still trying to play these games. Which, she to admit, was how she had viewed the whole hero thing at the time. No wonder Ron had left.

She looked back at Shego, who was only starting to move as she heard sounds of sirens approaching. Better late than never.

"Sheg…" She stopped, and shook her head. "Sheila," she called, approaching the woman who groaned as she stirred restlessly, and tried to move only to find half her body pinned down by debris.

"Just a minute, Sheila," she called, and leaned over her. "I'll get you….."

"Get away," Sheila howled, and her body exploded in green fury even as Kim howled in pain as her face was slashed by Shego's flailing, free hand. Kim fell back as she half turned away, clutching at her face while feeling blood flowing as every inch of her face burned, and she blindly tripped over something and fell hard. Something squelched in her suddenly sensitive ears, and then her face was really burning, and she screamed again before she passed out.

"Damn it," Shego growled about the same time, tearing her way out of the rubble that covered her. For a moment she had been trapped in a nightmare. An old nightmare, but a potent one. She lashed out, but found only shattered concrete, and broken wood covering her.

So why had she heard someone cry out?

She turned and saw two smoldering construction robots near the fallen wall, and a smaller, squat shape slumped near that opening. Then she fixed on the white-coated figure who lay sprawled face-down near her.

"Damn. Did those things kill her," she choked as she dusted herself off, and went to check on the fallen scientist whose face was obscured with blood, and tangled red hair as far as she could see. But what happened to the robots, she wondered idly as she slowly turned the woman over she thought looked a little like……

"Kimmie," she ground out, staring in horror as she clutched the still slender redhead to her as she stared at her ravaged face. And the vicious claw marks that marred one side of her face, and had obviously torn out her left eye.

Only that socket wasn't empty. Not anymore. Something….pulsed in it. Something….yellow.

"My God. My God," the old doc that had hired her cried out as he only then arrived at the scene of the chaos. "What happened? What happened."

"Global Justice," a grim voice called out from the broken wall. "No one move."

"We need help," Sheila cried. "She's hurt. Kim's hurt!'

"Shego," that grim, stern voice sounded as the blue-uniformed woman turned from the fallen Dementor.

"It's Sheila," she screamed inanely, hugging Kim to her.

"What the hell happened here, woman?"

"No clue. But Kim's hurt. Help her," she begged Betty as she clutched at Kim's limp body as Dr. Olsen stared at his fallen researcher with eyes hugely rounded at the sight before him.

"The comet," he realized, staring at her eye. "She….She has been affected by the comet."

"What comet," Shego and Betty both spoke as one.

"The Go City comet fragments. We were studying them. We think…. We are certain…. We found alien DNA embedded in them."

"Alien….DNA," Shego croaked.

"This is Dr. Director," Betty pulled out a radio to bark commands. "I need an Alpha level containment on this location. "And get medicos in here now."

"I'm so sorry, Kimmie," Sheila sniffed as she continued to hold the limp body in her arms, knowing, as Betty, that those claw marks were hers. She had hurt Kim.

One more time.

To Be Continued…………