Disclaimer: I've started learning how to seize Kim Possible for myself, but not yet.

-Secret Lair-

She rarely ever smiled, her genetic engineering had done much to dampen her better half and over the past several years she hadn't had much occasion to smile. As she strolled through the large steel doors that hid the lair from the rest of the world however, she had as bright a smile as she'd ever had on her face. She did after all have the potential to smile, even if it was more often than not triggered by a rather sadistic and psychotic sense of pleasure. And for a refreshing change of pace things were going her way. She had always been leery of declaring victory before she'd won, a trait from both her genes and her life, but this once she allowed herself to go from feeling cautiously optimistic to a bit confident about her chances.

The henchmen walking down the ill-lit hallways all gave her a wide berth as they saw the smile on her face. And not without good reason, her smiles were almost always accompanied by something terrible happening to someone. They would be right this time to assume that something bad had happened to someone, the only difference was that this time it wasn't to one of them. That made her even happier, she'd had so much time to terrify and demoralize her henchmen that the thrill was gone. But doing what she'd just done to Kim Possible, oh that was a feeling that she would be amused by for months to come. Perhaps even years since she would look back on this as the true beginning of her march to global conquest. Not to mention that with her other self out of the picture for the time being and Team Possible split for good she could finally work on getting Ron to see her as he ought to.

Of course that was going to have to come later, she'd thought this plan through for years and she also knew that one of the biggest mistakes her villainous compatriots made was to plan for victory before winning. Once she'd taken over the world she could concentrate all the time she wanted on other matters, Ron being just the most important of those matters. There was also the little matter of hoping that her erstwhile partner had completed the other part of this phase of their plan. It may have been a proverbial marriage of convenience but it was also one that had proved most productive, although one she was also sure would disintegrate after global conquest. Not that she had anything in particular against her partner, it was simply the nature of such villainous partnerships that the spoils would be distributed to the one who won between the partners after the plan succeeded.

Walking through a door that was little different from any of the other doors in the lair she pulled out a large and cushy chair before throwing herself into it and propping her feet up on the table. She sat there alone in the darkness for several minutes, not that being alone in the darkness bothered her after her prison stint. Rather than be afraid she quite appreciated the darkness, not least because it reminded her of what she'd just managed to accomplish thanks to the darkness. She had just grabbed a nail file off the table and started to idly work her nails when a door at the other end of the room opened and a figure shrouded in darkness sat at the chair at the other end of the table.

"I see you're back," the figure said, "did phase one go according to plan?"

"Oh yes," she smiled viciously, "it went absolutely perfectly. Team Possible never knew what hit them and now that they're completely out of the picture you can proceed with your part of phase one. I trust you'll be capable of holding up your end of the deal, Global Justice has a security system second to none protecting what we need from them."

"You might find their security system challenging," she couldn't see her partner's face but she could well imagine the smile, "I assure you however that with the skills and abilities I have at my disposal I will walk through Global Justice's vaunted security system as though it wasn't even there."

"Don't go getting cocky on me," she scowled at her partner, "even for you all it needs is one mistake to tank this whole venture of ours. Global Justice might not be Team Possible but if they catch you in one of their high security vaults that would be just as bad for us as Kim Possible ever could hope to be."

"That will not happen," her partner growled, "I've run through this enough times to be able to deal with any unforeseen occurrences. And in any event once we have what we need from them it won't matter if they're on to us, they won't be able to locate us in time to stop phase two and once that begins there's nothing anyone can do."

"Even if you are right," she stood up to make her point, "if they catch you before you're on your way out with the goods the plan just failed then and there. And I guarantee you that if we end up in jail because of your incompetence you won't like what happens next."

"Is that a threat?" Her partner's voice turned menacing.

"Not at all," her voice was sugary sweet, "You know me well enough to know I don't make threats. That was just a fact."

"That's good for you," She didn't bother to conceal her joy at the scowl on her partner's face, "I don't take kindly to being threatened."

She didn't respond verbally to that, just calmly smiled and returned to working on her nails as her partner stormed out of the room.

-College-

Kim wiped the tears from her eyes and stared up at the ceiling for what must have been the sixth or seventh time that day. It seemed all she'd done for the last few days was cry when she wasn't forcing herself to keep it together during classes. And for once in her life she couldn't simply go to Ron and cry out her problems on his shoulder and then be able to count on him telling her everything would be fine. Perhaps even more than having Tara kidnapped and at the mercy of Bonnie's psychopathic clone that one fact alone had brought more tears out of her eyes than anything else.

It had also caused Kim to lose more than a little sleep. Not just the sadness over having Ron blame all this on her, although that didn't help, but wondering just what had wrought such a change in her best friend in so little time. Ron had never been able to hide his feelings from her and when they went into Bonnie and Tara's house he'd shown no signs of blaming anything on her or even considering blaming anything on her. And Kim couldn't help blaming herself a little too. She knew that she couldn't possibly have foreseen this but it had been her plan that Clone Bonnie had taken advantage of to pull such a coup on them. On top of that even before Ron had blown up on her they'd come away with so little from the visit to Dr. Bortel that Kim not only felt like she'd let her friends down but that she'd totally failed in her plan.

Kim rolled over onto her stomach and used her pillowcase to wipe her eyes dry, pushing herself upwards she swung her feet off the bed and got up telling herself she had to be strong and find a way out of this sitch for everyone's sake. This was something she went through every time she locked herself in her room to cry and every time her sense of determination was just a false front to hide that for once Kim Possible felt like she was truly in over her head and the girl who could do anything might have finally met her match. Kim was also very well aware of that but try as she might she couldn't come up with anything else and if nothing else marching out with her head held high soothed her battered pride for a moment at least.

Just as she reached out for the doorknob Kim's phone started ringing, the redhead walked back over to her bed and lifted the phone out of its cradle. On the caller ID screen Kim saw a welcome name flash that cause a little smile to break out on her face.

"Hi Mom," Kim hit the talk button, "everything going fine?"

"Of course Kimmie," her mom said in her usual soothing voice, "I just wanted to call to see if things were going any better with you."

"Anything better than rock bottom would be an improvement," Kim snorted, "Tara and Bonnie are somewhere even Wade can't find them and Bonnie's clone can do whatever she wants to them with no one there to stop her, Ron's blaming the whole thing on me, and to top it all off I'm starting to blame this whole thing on me."

"So that's a no, things are not going better for you then." Her mom finally spoke after a lengthy pause.

"That would be a yes," Kim actually laughed a little.

"Kim," she could tell her mom was warming up for a lecture, "you have to remember that however much you can do and think you can do you're still not God. You don't know everything and you don't control everything. It's the same thing in surgery, we train for years, we get the best information and have the best tools known to mankind, and we use all that to the best of our abilities. But sometimes we still lose people and there's nothing we can do about it. You took all the best information you had at the time and thought it out with a mind that's been doing this for years. You ought to know that if there was anyone who could guess your plan and figure out a way to turn it against you it would be Bonnie's clone. She's just as smart as the original and she's using that power for evil, I don't think it should come as much of a surprise that she's going to win a few rounds. But you know what, I'm still sleeping fine at night because I know in the end you and Ron will figure out some way to beat her and everything's going to turn out right."

"I'd like to think that," Kim sighed, "and I've told myself that plenty of times. But Ron's angrier at me than he's ever been before. He wasn't even this angry with me when I ditched everyone and everything for Eric right after learning apparently nothing from that episode with Josh. I always thought our friendship could survive anything and that we'd be old and grey and still laughing together about something but now I'm not so sure."

"You two will be fine," her mom spoke with absolute confidence, "Ron's not dealing with this in the best way but I'm sure he's just as sad about all this as you are and he's always been the one to believe most that you can do anything. His entire world just got hit at the core so you're going to have to wait for a way to bounce back for him to get his head back on his shoulders. Maybe if you two sit down and try to find something you missed during your visit to Dr. Bortel it might shake him out of his little gloom and doom mood. And if that doesn't work just give me a call, I think he could probably stand up to me or his mom but there's no way he can stay mad if both of us tell him to calm down."

"Wait," wheels started turning in Kim's head, "wait just one second. Bonnie's clone stole lots of stuff from Dr. Bortel's lab… and Ron got angry at me without any buildup and it's so unlike him. Maybe she… Mom you're a genius! Sorry to cut this short but I've got to run."

Kim hit the end button and dove across her bed, digging into her backpack she pulled out her Kimmunicator and hit the on button.

"Wade," she rolled herself off her bed and started walking towards her door, "I need a ride to Dr. Bortel and I need it as fast as you can get me there."

"Okay," Wade replied with the air of one well used to Kim's moods, "MC Honey is taking off from the airport in half an hour for her European tour and the plane will be passing close enough to Dr. Bortel's lab you can parachute there, I'll upload the directions to the airport into your Kimmunicator's GPS and hold the plane till you get there."

"Please and thank you," Kim smiled as she hit the off button.

Kim walked into the living room where Ron was sitting watching the TV, he stood up as she walked in with a grimace on his face but she cut him off, "Stuff it Ron, there's a flight at the airport with our names on it and you're coming with me."

"And why should I do anything you say?" Ron glared at her, "all you're going to do is screw up again, I'm going to wait for Bonnie's clone to make a move and then I'll stop her myself without you there to let her win again."

Kim took a deep calming breath, if she was right Ron wasn't really himself and she couldn't blame him for what he said, too much.

"I've got several reasons," Kim said after getting herself back under control, "some of them less pleasant than others but I'm hoping it never comes to that, now come on we need to go."

"You're going to have to do better than that to make me move," Ron sneered at her, "I doubt someone as pathetic as you can come up with anything to make me follow you again."

Kim's response wasn't a verbal one; instead she let loose her most powerful weapon, her Puppy Dog Pout. Dispensing with any buildup to the process she went straight for a full out tears in eyes, bottom lip trembling, and even adding a little whimper to the package.

Ron held out for a few seconds that dragged on for an eternity for the redhead but soon enough his resistance cracked and he let out a great aggravated sigh, "Oh alright, I'll come along. But at the first sign of you screwing up I'm turning right around and you can march into failure alone."

Kim fought down the urge to bite back and instead dragged him bodily out the door to where Tara's car now sat in the driveway in place of her own missing car. The trip to the airport was cloaked in icy silence, Ron fumed in his seat, and Kim focused all her attention on getting them to the airport as quickly as she could.

Fortunately they were well enough known to more or less breeze through security and before MC Honey was even supposed to originally leave they were walking up to the star in the cabin of her private jet.

"Kim Possible," MC Honey nearly took Kim's arm out of its socket when they shook hands, "it's been a long time since you needed my help."

"Yeah," Kim said bashfully, "I always felt so bad having people chauffer me around so whenever I could I used my car after I got it. But it's gone missing and we need to cover some serious distance so if it's not too much trouble can we tag along for part of the ride?"

MC Honey just smiled, "As long as I've got a private jet you've got a ride."

Ron made sure to sit as far away as possible from Kim when the plane took off but she was well past caring, if her suspicions were right she wouldn't have to put up with Ron being mad at her much longer. Several hours later they leapt out of the jet over Dr. Bortel's small island, but not before Ron shot off a few snide remarks about how Kim had probably done her chute wrong and would end up organic paste on the ground. To Kim's utmost joy Wade had called ahead and they were able to jump right into the lab compound this time rather than having to land on the coast and then trek several grueling miles over volcanic rock.

"Dr. Bortel," Kim shook hands with the scientist as she and Ron walked into his main lab, "I have a problem and I think you can help. It's about something that was stolen from you."

"I have already told you everything I know," Dr. Bortel said, "if you think a second look will help you, you can try but I have already started storing new inventions in there."

"Actually I think I've found something," Kim smiled.

"You have?" Dr. Bortel's face lit up, "where, show it to me."

"Right there," Kim pointed to Ron.

"What?" Ron and Dr. Bortel said at the same time.

"Bonnie's clone stole several moodulators from you," Kim explained, "and I think one of them is on my friend right now. It would be absolutely fantastic if you could take it off him."

"Whoa, whoa," Ron backed up with his hands held out defensively, "I don't care how much Dr. Bortel know about all this I don't want any of your stupid plans getting anywhere near me."

"Ron, sit!" Kim's outburst sent Ron scrambling for a chair where he sat sulking and glaring at her.

"Now then," Dr. Bortel walked up behind Ron, "let me take a look here."

It was very much obvious to Kim the exact moment that Dr. Bortel took the moodulator off of Ron, his eyes went from being hard and angry to the soft brown eyes Kim had know as her best friend's since she was four years old.

"KP?" Even his voice sounded normal again, "Where… what…"

"Relax," Kim rushed up and wrapped him in a great big hug, "I'll explain everything."

Over the next hour, while they waited for their ride back to arrive, Kim did just that. Ron went from shock that Bonnie's clone had managed to get the moodulator on him without his knowing to abject horror at how he had treated his best friend. Kim put an end to that telling him that knowing how bad he felt was all the apology she needed and that something like this could never break them apart.

"I still just can't believe it," Ron cradled his head in his hands as they were over the mid-Atlantic, "I should be locked in a little box and poked with a stick for this. I feel terrible."

"It's okay Ron," Kim rested a hand on his knee, "Bonnie's clone wants us to be miserable about this. She knew darn well that the only thing that would get to me even more than her kidnapping Tara was your being angry at me about the whole thing. She was probably hoping it would split us apart or at least slow us down big time."

"And isn't that what she did," Ron groaned, "I was blaming everything on you and you were locked up in your room, that sounds a lot like we were broken apart. And she has slowed us down, who knows how much she's gotten done in the last few days with us out of the picture."

"It doesn't matter," Kim grabbed his face and made him look at her, "she can do whatever she wants for these few days because now that we're back together she's already lost. She can beat me, and she can beat you, but there's no way she can beat us."

Ron's smile was all Kim needed to know that her best friend was back in business with her.

AN: Yes I am still alive despite all reports to the contrary. Law school has simply kept me horribly busy and when I do have time to write I've been on my computer for so long that I'm plain sick of the thing. Over the weekend though I had time and my muse was in overdrive so you get to enjoy this latest little bit. Not too much about the chapter itself, should be fairly self-evident. And no, you're not getting any hints about Clone Bonnie's partner till the big reveal. Now ciao till next time, which is hopefully shorter than the wait for this chapter.