Kim Potential...
Summary: A desperate Dr. Drakken has sensibly reviewed his Files of Past Plots to find the most effective weapon yet used on KP and improve it with unexpected results. Ron and company find they have a new partner.
Disclaimer: No infringement intended.
Part LXXI...
Drakken undersea lair...Under renovation...About 400 feet down.
"Can we get some power going for the pumps in section four?" Barclay called into a radio transmitter. "The water's knee deep in there."
"Section four?" Sally eyed the map of the facility on screen, which flickered...Barclay giving a whack...It steadied... "Isn't that the main reactor area?"
"It would be..." Barclay sighed...Turning to several synthodroids awaiting instructions... "Fellas, better get to section four and help out with the flooding containment...And be ready to route auxiliary power to Ms. Possible's containment chamber if we lose main power." They nodded, hurrying off.
"Any word?" Sally asked.
"Nothing...But no rants of triumph by Professor Dementor or the Throwback's a good sign..." he noted kindly. "I'm sure the Boss and Shego and Walt are fine."
Another alarm buzzing on the control console caught his attention...
"God, the Boss really got taken on this place..." he sighed.
Hospital clinic on board "Lost Island" submarine platform...
"You wanted to see me...?" Avairius eyed Potential, back in bed...Cushioned in a total body gel wrap...IVs back in place...Wendy hovering on nurse duty.
"I hear you saved my life..." Potential eyed him. "Just wanted to say, thanks."
"It was the Colonel's incredible body structure that saved you, I just provided a getaway vehicle..." Avairius shrugged.
"You could have left me." She eyed him. "You had cause, knowing what my dad did..."
"Maybe I just wanted to be known as the junior villain who saved Kim Possible's dark side..." he smiled.
"When things go bad...I'll try to let you know." She eyed him carefully. "I may not be able to do more, so..."
"Thanks..." Pause... "Will things go bad?" he asked, lightly. "We seem to have the ball in our court...Cyrus and the Colonel, anyway..."
"You know better ..." hard stare. "Why are you here, Avairius?"
"Where else would I go? Cyrus is all the family I have." He replied, carefully. "I'm protecting him as you're protecting your father."
"I'll try to give him a chance...No guarantees...But that's not all, is it?"
"Lindendon has his ideas about you, you know..." Avairius noted. "And, no...It's not just Cyrus..." calmly...
"He's welcome to them...If they fit mine, fine..." she shrugged. "But on my terms...I owe him too, you know. So long as he keeps his word."
"In his way, he will...And he'll hold you to yours..."
"I get that, too." Wan grin...Groan...
"Wendy..." Avairius looked over...
"I'm fine...Like dear Marlon says, pain's a great teacher..." she noted grimly, waving Wendy off. "It helps me to focus. So, I sense I've made a romantic conquest?" sly grin...
"I wouldn't put too much stock in that..." Avairius cautioned. "He won't lose sight of his goal."
"Oooh...Mother of the Master Race, eh?" she grinned. "I could deal..."
He stared...
"Evil side, Alan..." she grinned. "Don't you get thinkin' you're dealin' with sweet lil' Kim your ole foe. I'm her but not the side of her you want to stake your life on."
"And yet..." he regarded her... "I just have, I see."
"I like it when I find I'm dealin' with smart people..." she beamed. "Who get when they're under obligation to me...Anyway you don't care if I mess with the Master Plan to my good, so long as Cyrus lives to die in a supervillains' retirement home and..." grin...
"...Justice is finally done?" she smiled innocently.
He gave a noncommittal look...
"I see we understand each other too..." she beamed. "So, what's the latest news? Dad's not been taken, the UN isn't on to us yet...My original's still unaccounted for, suggesting Team Drakken is still kickin' to some extent...And my lovable, if dunderheaded sidekick?"
Hard stare belying her light tone...
"Drakken's people got him away before the explosion, I'm sure..." he noted...Rather kindly.
"You're sure..." she eyed him intently.
"I can't be...But..."
"He's hard to kill and Daddy was looking out for him...He's alive, I know he is...I'd know if he were dead." She said, calm tone but burning stare.
"You know Lindendon will kill him if he can get hold of..."
"No, he won't. He wants my willin' coop...He knows Ron is part of the price, as much as Dad..." she shook her head. "At least he won't until he's sure it's safe to do it, or I agree...And he'd like to get me to agree...Typical guy. "
"Competitive...?" Avairius, thin smile.
"He wants what you all want...To be loved for yourselves. And that's something only I can give him now."
"Lindendon? He hates women."
"He hates them because he fears them...You all do. Even he knows he can't get the one thing he wants, with all his power and brutality...He can't make a woman love him for himself. One did choose to, once...But she learned the hero image wasn't the real man and she dropped him. But somewhere in him...He's still a farm boy with romantic notions."
"He'll know you're lying, Kim...Don't try to fool him that way...He'll kill you..."
"Never said I'd lie..." she eyed him. "I get honesty is the best policy with him...But he'll hope, I think...And I could be nice to someone who spares my dad, can come to an understanding about my boyfriend...And gives me the life I want as a wedding present...Which includes makin' me Queen of the Earth." Smile, hard stare. "I've warned you, Alan. I like to pay my debts...And I may need your help at some point...But I'm not the girl you seem convinced I am and if you have any gallant, noble ideas about protecting that girl..." cold smile. "That's all the warning you'll get, Avairius."
Knock at the clinic door...Rather hesitant...
"That'll be my beau..." she smiled. "Say, I hope you'll agree to be best man...He really likes you, you know."
Avairius, staring...
"Hey, Colonel, come in!" she called. "Alan and I are done talkin' and I'm fine."
"Pardons, Ms. Drakken..." Lindendon entered with apologetic air... "Avairius." He nodded. "Not wishing to interrupt but we're receiving a curious signal..."
Potential, immediate and intent focus... "Father?"
"Actually, no..." LIndendon, an almost concerned(?) look, Avairius noted...
"Your mother seems to be trying to reach you..."
Aboard Drakken's craft, still surveying the sea floor...Walter, monitoring UN broadcasts, had also picked up Dr. Mrs. Possible's message...
Shego and Drakken listening now...Shego absently rubbing her head, Drakken eyeing her, concerned...
"Poor woman..." Shego murmured, finally... "We have to let her know Kim is still safe...I understand what she's..." she eyed Drakken.
"Isn't there a way, Drew...?" pleading look... "If we could just let her know we're trying to keep Kim safe...Not...Oh, please...?"
"Shego, if we transmit, now..." he paused.
"I know...I know..." she nodded. "She's trying to help our baby, Drew...In spite of..." she closed her eyes. "I want her to know..." pause...
"I could go...Take a suit to the surface, send her a message...If Dementor finds me, you'll be able to finish..." she eyed him.
"Lindendon would kill you..." Drakken, shaking head.
"He could try..." she gave a wan smile... "Don't sell me short, Dr. Drakken. I'm family now."
"Sheila...No." he said, firmly. "Please, I couldn't bear it...He'd enjoy making you suffer for my sake."
"I can't let that poor woman suffer, Drew...I've done enough to her...I know what she's going through but at least her baby is still alive..." earnest stare. "There must be a way...You can find a way...I know you can."
Potential, ignoring doctor's orders, out of bed in robe, in the Dementor platform's control room, listening intently to Dr. Mrs. Possible's broadcast...Her blue and silver skin shimmering a bit in the light...
Mom...Yes...
She'd take me...She'd be my mom, just as it should be, if...
"But not like this..." she whispered, glancing in the window to see her reflection... "Not like this...No..."
No, I'll give her her baby back...The best of both of us...She'll believe...And I'll have the life I want...I just have to hang on a little longer...Find Dad and persuade him...He'll help me, he loves me.
Shego's anxious face before her...No...
"Not you...You're not my mother...No..." she whispered. "I'll have the life that should be mine...Mother, father, boyfriend...I'll have it all...The Drakken way..."
And it will be me she calls for...Sincerely...
Because I'll the only daughter she has left...The one true Kim...And I'll be that Kim, for them...
Just as if there'd never been two...The ultimate finale to Dad's little project...
"Kimberly?" Lindendon entered the control room, Avairius following...Both with such identical concerned looks that she couldn't repress a smile...
My two Evil Fairy Godfathers...Or my two dwarves, tending their Snow Blue and Silver?
"You should be in the clinic, my dear." Lindendon noted. "You'll jeopardize your recovery."
"Learning from pain, Colonel..." she smiled.
He eyed the speaker from which Dr. Mrs. Possible's message issued...Repeating again...
"Your mother seems concerned...I'm sure she'd prefer you rest..."
Avairius, watching...
"She's trying to smoke me out, of course..." Potential noted quietly. "I suppose the whole UN is waiting to come in the moment I send a message."
"That would be a sensible stratagem..." Lindendon nodded. "But if you wish..."
She eyed him... "You'd take that risk?"
"I'm sure the Professor could provide a way to contact her without giving us away, apart from of course revealing that you survived." He noted.
"Still a risk...I appreciate the offer..." she nodded, wan smile... "But I prefer to wait until the call's sincere. Avairius?" she looked over. "No offense but the Colonel and I need a moment?...You don't mind?"
He blinked, then nodded...
Amused to note that Lindendon seemed even more perturbed than he as he left the room.
"Miss Drakken?" Lindendon eyed her.
"Lets talk wedding presents, Marlon...Dowry, I guess is the better word?" she smiled coolly, wave of hand. "I know you've already saved my life and agreed to spare Dad, which I appreciate...But you've picked a demanding girl...I'll make no bones about that...And there's something else I want...And Mommy's message might help me...Or rather, you, get it for me." Careful stare.
"Miss?"
"You want more than my genes, Colonel..." she grinned. "And I'm not sayin' no...Long as we can come to a sensible agreement about my Ronny boy...But there's one last deal-clincher..." she eyed him.
"Indeed...?" he replied, careful stare which could not fully mask his earnest anxiety...
(I'll have to remember that look when I do the eulogy...She noted...Give me as noble Kim, defeater of the Throwback just that sincerely tragic note. "He was a tragic figure, Colonel Lindendon, in a way...And we mourn what he might have been...")
"Yeah...Marlon...You know in the end there can only be one Kim Possible..." she eyed him.