I do not own any Disney character named herein, and am only writing a nonprofit story for entertainment purposes only.

Kim Possible: Lost

By LJ58

IX

Kim felt like she had been running for hours.

Each time she slowed. Each time she tried to catch her breath. She heard them.

Felt their fetid breath at her nape. Their claws raking at her heels.

And she ran again.

She was back in the jungle.

Lost.

Without friend, or weapon.

Surrounded by deadly cats that wanted to tear her apart. To feast on her. To end her life.

She was very close to collapse when she saw the small shack in the shadows ahead. Bolting across the clearing, she heard the snarling howl of one of the felines, but didn't look back. She raced at top speed toward that door, and slammed it behind her.

Then stared at the shack she had entered.

What had seemed to have been a small, ramshackle hut was now a long hall filled with doors.

Even as she turned around, she realized the door behind her was gone.

"What is going on here," she panted, trying to make sense of things.

Going to the first door, she tentatively found the door unlocked, and slowly pushed it open.

"It's about time," Bonnie Rockwaller snapped at her, dressed in their old cheerleading uniform, and holding out a set of pompoms. "Do you know how long I've been waiting? How long everyone has been waiting?"

"I….. I can't….."

She had started to reach for that silly pompom, but belatedly realized her left hand was gone. There was no way to hold it.

Bonnie sneered at her.

"Of course. You always have some excuse to foul things up for the rest of us. Don't you, K?"

Kim just gaped, then turned and walked out of the door, slamming it behind her.

She stared at the next door, suddenly fearful of what was there. Fearful of what might be waiting.

Pulling open the next door, she saw Ron standing there. A younger Ron.

In his old mission gear.

"I don't know, KP," he told her, turning away from her as if unphased by the fact she seemed to be standing in a door in the middle of a hot air balloon that was miles high in the air. "I think you're taking this coaching thing a little too far."

"Too far," Kim heard herself saying, and turned to see another Kim standing there, looking….stubborn. "I want them to win," she fumed.

"They're kids, KP. They just want to have fun."

"Winning is fun," that other her protested.

Kim slammed the door.

Back in the hall, she recalled all too well when she had let her innate competitiveness overshadow other aspects of her life. Many times to her detriment.

Every door took her to her past. Her recent past included.

One door had her screaming in fear when she opened it to see a lean, snarling jaguar with a missing ear bunching up as if to leap out at her.

It took her what felt an eternity to approach the next door.

Only two to go.

Just two.

And maybe one would actually help her without further crushing what remained of her pride.

Kim opened the door.

"You're still afraid of what other people would think," Shego demanded as she stood up, scattering the impromptu meal they had shared just before that sitch with Dementor.

"I said that wrong," the other Kim, the one that still had her arm protested. "I'm just saying…."

"You're saying you're still ashamed of loving women more than men," Shego countered, cutting her off. "Or is it just me you're ashamed of here," the green-skinned woman demanded.

"No!"

"I used to think you're the gutsiest woman I'd ever met, Kimberly," she shot, "But I think I've changed my mind. You're just another coward. Afraid to stand up, and be herself."

Shego shook her head, and turned to walk away.

"Shego, wait," Kim cried, even as Kim felt her eyes brim as she watched that scene she had somehow forgotten until now. "Please."

Kim watched herself reach out toward her. Knew what she was going to say.

"I'll tell him this week. I swear. I'm going home to see the folks this weekend, and….."

The Kimmunicator chirped, and Kim knew who would be calling her. And why.

She never had the chance to talk to Ron. Or her parents. She ended up in South America, and falling into the jungle.

Kim slowly closed the door, and stared at her clenched right hand.

She had never really stood up that week. Never spoken to anyone while she had the chance. She had just….run away again.

Yet Shego still came after her. Still cared enough to save her life.

Kim walked to the last door. This one at the far end of the hall, and stared.

No more running, she told herself.

Shego had risked everything for her. Her life, and her freedom. Even her reputation, which she knew meant everything to that often frustrating woman.

What had she risked?

Ever?

Kim opened the door.

She was standing back at the main door in the temple's entrance.

She was staring at those panthers prowling around that big, massive feline that eyed her with cold eyes.

"No….more," Kim hissed, and charged the first panther.

The cat met her mid-leap, but Kim twisted in mid air, and her kick sent the animal flying to smash into one of the trees around them. It hit with a howl, and went down hard. It didn't get back up.

The second snarled, but didn't try to attack, it paced around her, watching her.

Kim didn't hesitate.

"No….more," she shouted again, and with a rolling somersault came up behind the animal, leapt on its back, and then sent three quick knife strikes with her bladed palm into the side of its head. The animal howled, and managed four steps away in a drunken stagger before collapsing.

Kim straightened herself, eyeing the bigger cat on the dais with cool, grim eyes, and gave a faint smile.

"No more," she told herself, and charged the animal.

Her first kick drove it back, but even as it went flying, it changed in midair, and landed on two feet.

"Not bad, Princess," the mocking tones of a too-familiar villainess sneered as she gave her a come-hither gesture. "But you're still not in my league."

"No more," Kim howled, and charged the obviously false Shego.

They exchanged kicks and punches for what seemed an eternity, evenly matched in spite of Kim's maimed limb which still managed to help her block quite a few blows. Then Kim managed a hard palm strike that sent the faux Shego flying, smashing into a tree, and bouncing to the jungle floor. When she stood up, it was Ron facing her.

The expression on his smug face all too reminiscent of that Zorpox episode when he had crossed over not once, but twice thanks to mad science.

"You think you're all that, Kimberly Anne," Ron sneered, cracking his knuckles. "But you're not. You're not even close," he cackled with maniacal laughter that would have put Drew to shame on his best day.

"You're…..not…..Ron," she spat, and made far shorter work of him than she had Shego.

Then Ron, driven to his knees, stood up again, and this time Monkey Fist stood before her, and smiled coldly.

"My turn," he smirked.

In that instant, Kim had an epiphany.

"No. No more," she said again, but this time, turned her back on him.

"You turn your back on me? I'll teach you…..!"

Kim intercepted the hands just before they touched her, and flung the apparent monkey master back into the dais where he had begun as a giant feline. The moment he struck the dais, Kim recoiled from the flash of light, and she found herself suddenly standing in a large, empty chamber.

She eyed the empty chamber lit by widely spaced torches, and frowned as she saw there was nothing else around her.

Four bare walls, and that huge dais in the center of the stone chamber.

She belatedly recalled what she had asked Sensei.

"What is inside," she had asked him while preparing.

"Only what you bring," he had told her cryptically.

She understood now.

She finally remembered what was important.

She drew a deep breath even as she heard that massive door slowly grating open again.

Had it been that long already?

She walked over to the door, and stepped outside, seeing the Sensei meditating nearby as the sun was just peeking over the horizon.

"Have you found your way, Possible-San? Or did you…..?"

"I'm fine, Master-Sensei," she smiled, and bowed to him, feeling strangely refreshed considering. "Thank you."

He rose with a fluid grace that still surprised her from one so old, and eyed her carefully before he nodded.

"I see. You did well," he told her, and handed over her prosthetic, and other devices.

"I won't say, 'no big,'" she told him solemnly. "Because it was. I had….forgotten what was important. Forgotten a great deal, in fact," she admitted. "But I remember now, and I remember what made me a hero in the first place."

"Oh?"

"Yes. It wasn't fearlessness. Or even the thrill that drew me. I forgot that from the start, I just wanted to help. Anyone. Everyone. In the end, I just wanted to help, and that was what gave me the courage to do what I did. That, and the people that believed in me. Who loved me."

"Indeed. Then you have learned a very valuable lesson," he nodded.

"Yes. Now, I have to go apologize to….quite a few people," she admitted as she refitted her hand in place for the climb down.

"As you say. I will leave you to return with your friend," Sensei told her, nodding toward a certain boulder where a flash of green was made out just before it vanished again. "Who is not quite as stealthy as she thinks."

"To be fair, she was worried about me," Kim smiled fondly.

"Of course. I will let you two go ahead. Tell Stoppable-San I shall be along shortly."

Kim nodded, and all but ran to the sloping cliffs where Shego waited at the top of that long climb down. Just then, she was looking forward to it.

Behind her, Sensei walked into the still open doors, and eyed the empty chamber.

Then he spotted the three bodies that lay slumped in the shadows.

"Brothers? I trust the lessons went well?"

"Never…..bring her back here," the older monk groaned, favoring his ribs. "Even the monkey master did not kick so hard," he moaned.

"To be fair, she was striking not at you, but at her own fears," Sensei reminded him.

The other two monks said nothing. They were still unconscious.

"I daresay, Master, that she subdued them quite well," the old monk groaned again, and sagged back against the wall.

The monkey ninja master only smiled, and bowed to his brothers before leaving the temple.

"Until next time, my brothers."

"It is….definitely time to retire," the old monk muttered as the doors shut behind the current master.

KP

Kim's return to Middleton, and GJ, made quite the media event.

Especially as she seemed to have regained much of her former daring, and all of her spirit.

The first thing after apologizing to Ron back at Yamanouchi was to apologize to her parents for keeping them out of her life while she had been trying to work through her own attraction to the woman she loved.

She had already apologized to Shego several times, and the woman was getting tired of hearing it.

"Sometimes you can really go overboard with things," she complained at one point. Then swatted her, and added, "But that's part of what I like about you."

"Like," Kim had huffed.

Shego's knowing smirk said all Kim needed to know.

That first night back at their apartment, however, she needed to set one thing straight in her own mind. After they had locked up for the night, shared a very good meal, and watched a film they had both wanted to see, Kim went to freshen up before she walked into Shego's bedroom wearing a robe.

While they had their separate room for privacy's sake, Kim wanted to do this in Shego's room to show her how she felt.

"Shego?"

The green skinned woman turned from preparing for bed, and frowned as Kim just dropped her robe.

"Kim? What are you….?"

Shego just stared at the redhead who had just stripped off her robe, but was making no move to approach her. She didn't say a word as she just looked at Shego, and then pulled off her cybernetic hand, too. She dropped it on a table, and then stepped forward.

"Shego."

"Kim?"

"Can you…still love me? Can you….still love this," she asked, looking down, her good hand gesturing at the scars from her mauling, indirectly indicating her stunted arm.

She looked up at her, and smiled.

"I can put on a….mask, but…. At the end of the day, this is still the real me now. Can you….?"

"You idiot," Shego rasped, and stepped forward to hug her.

"Shego," she sniffed, smiling faintly as she sagged into that fierce embrace.

"I told you the first time you got all self-conscious that your scars don't matter, Kimberly," she told her quietly, pointedly letting one hand slide down her maimed arm. "So let me make this clear. I love you. Every inch of you," she said, and leaned down even as her hand cupped and lifted the scarred end of her forearm to her lips as she had once before.

She gently kissed the scarred flesh, and looked into Kim's green eyes.

"Every inch, Princess."

Kim wept silently as she flung her arms around her, and just hung on to her.

"I love you, too. I guess….even I still need reassuring, though," she finally burbled.

"We all do, Kimberly."

"Shego," Kim sighed, her head resting on her shoulder.

"Yes?"

"I kind of like when you call Princess," she said with a soft sigh.

Shego gave a faint chortle.

"I think you like more than that… Princess," she said, and leaned down to kiss her lips this time. "Ready for bed?"

"Hmmm. Always," she smiled, and didn't even blush when Shego took her by her maimed arm, and led her to her bed.

End….?