A.N.- This is a one shot I wrote for a contest. It's on Deviant art and is by the PPG Horror group. The theme was "stealing someone's heart" (whether literally or figuratively). So warnings for horror, character death, some gore, sadness and angst. Also for spelling errors, as I wrote this quite quickly to make the deadline. I will double check and proof read later, but please be patient (and feel free to point out errors!)

Wish me luck for the contest, the other entries are so good! ;_;

Tale of the Heart Thief

Boomer, now aged fourteen but still stupid and violent, skulked through an empty, desolate Townsville; it was late at night, far too late for a child to be out, but the Ruffs didn't think about stuff like that because they had never been taught to.

"Stupid Brick," Boomer muttered to himself, his voice even more nasally and raspy from the onset of puberty, "making me go out to get stupid pizza! I don't like pizza and why do I always have to go? He never makes Butch do anything..."

There was a sound, like the tinkling of a kicked bottle, further down the alley which Boomer now stood. He froze momentarily. Using his super-human eyesight he scanned the area for any living creature but he couldn't see anything. He shrugged and carried on walking. Even if there was someone up ahead, who cared? He was a Rowdy Ruff and he was tough.

He was beginning to continue his diatribe against his brothers when a figure stepped out of the shadows in front of him.

"Move outta the way weirdo!" he yelled, "you're in my way!"

The person stood there, motionless and breathing heavily.

"I said move!" Boomer shouted, "I'm a Rowdy Ruff, don't make me kick your ahhhhhhh!"

The terrified shriek turned into sickening gargling as the sound of ripping and tearing sounded across the star-filled sky.

As soon as Boomer had cried out, his brothers had heard him. There was a connection they all shared, similar to the ones the Power Puff girls all had for one another. It was a sort of telepathy, something that told them that something was horribly wrong.

In Fuzzy Lumpkin's old hut- which the boys had stolen away from the poor beleaguered monster- the boys heard the scream and then were temporarily thrown by a searing pain in their chests which was itself shortly followed by a queer sort of emptiness.

It was this emptiness that frightened them the most.

"Where the hell is Boomer?" Shrieked Brick even though what he said wouldn't have made sense at that moment to anyone who wasn't a Ruff, "let's go!" He and Butch burst out of roof and into the city, locating the whereabouts of their fallen sibling with unearthly speed.

"Boomer, Boomer?" They called.

The alley way was still black and silent. But on the floor was a sticky dark red liquid slowly seeping out and spilling onto the path.

With a cry of 'no!' Brick and Butch ran into the alleyway.

Boomer lay, his flesh a ghastly white, his eyes and mouth open and wide, surrounded by his own blood, a gaping hole in his chest. Falling to his knees, Butch took a hold of the little blond and held him to his chest, as if somehow he could revitalise his brother by sharing his body heat. But it was no good.

Boomer was dead.

"Who did this?" muttered Brick through gritted teeth, "who did this to us?" He began to look around the alley, his red eyes burning with fury.

"Who did this?" he screamed, his anger sky rocketing him into the air. Taking in a deep breath Brick blew out a massive ball of red hot flames, engulfing the alley.

Butch had flown away with his brother's corpse in his arms just in time. People in the houses around the alley woke up and began to scream in confused terror as Brick continued to set everything on fire.

Butch watched, the blood draining from his face. He had never seen Brick like this. He didn't know what to do, Boomer was lying cold and broken in his arms and his other triplet was going insane. It was too much! He couldn't process it all!

Suddenly dropping Boomer he ran, not thinking about where he was going or what he was doing. He just ran unable to understand what was happening, unable to deal with the horrors cruel fate had thrown upon him within but a few minutes.

He ran until something grabbed him from behind and dragged him into the shadows. He struggled a little, craning his neck around to see a demented face. He let out a scream but it was quickly cut off as his neck was swiftly twisted, and broken, by the powerful creature. Butch's heart was also unceremoniously torn out of his chest before his body was thrown into the street, lifeless, like a broken doll.

Meanwhile, Brick was looking over his destruction his mind still fuzzy with pain and rage when he heard an obnoxious, preppy voice call out: "stop it you jerk!"

He whirled around to see Blossom and her sisters glaring at him.

He looked at them all, standing in their typical pose, looking absolutely perfect for one another, making it clear to the world that they were three parts of the same whole. He looked at Bubbles, with her bright blue eyes and blonde hair.

"Um, why's he staring at me?" she asked, blushing under his gaze.

It was so stupid, such a stupid thing to say. It wasn't he fault, she didn't know what had happened, none of them understood, but that stupid little comment was enough to remind him fully that Boomer was gone; in a matter of a few minutes his brother had been taken away from him, no more would Brick hear his stupid one liners, see his blond, fluffy hair or goofy grin or blue eyes lighting up with joy.

Brick did something he never, ever thought he would do in front of the girls, especially now being so much older.

He cried.

The anger dissipated and he sunk down out of the sky, towards the ground. The girls, completely thrown by his behaviour, followed his descent before they caught the body of the small child on the ground.

Acting quickly they zoomed towards Boomer, but they saw it was too late.

Bubbles immediately began to sob, horrified at what she was seeing. The girls, like the boys, were no strangers to gore or violence, but rarely did they have to deal with death, especially the deaths of people they knew.

Blossom walked over to her male counterpart and put a gentle hand cautiously on his back.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, barely heard over the loud wailing of the fire engines. "Brick, I have no words, but...but I swear we will find who did this and bring them to justice."

"Where's Butch?" he asked suddenly, his eyes wide and his voice hoarse, "oh god, oh no." Brick's knees gave way and he fell to the floor.

"Brick? Brick?" Blossom looked at Buttercup, "go find Butch, and quickly!"

Buttercup nodded and flew away in a flash of emerald light.

"It's too late," whispered Brick, "he's dead, I already know it." Red eyes looked up into soft pink ones, "I'm going to kill whoever has done this, torture and kill."

Blossom gulped, not liking Brick's tone; his voice was dead and his words were heavy.

She turned to Bubbles, who was still weeping softly, "get him to the Professor Bubbles. I'm going to stay to help Buttercup look for Butch."

Bubbles took Brick nervously by the hand. Brick did nothing to stop her; he was still frozen in rage and grief, already well aware that he was the last of the brothers. The pair rose into the air and flew away slowly to the Professor's.

Turning around to face the furious flames and screaming victims, Blossom took a deep breath and released a great wind filled with ice. As soon as it touched the heat of the flames the ice melted and turned to rain and steam, suffocating the fire and cooling the flames.

She didn't wait to hear the praise and adulations from the people and fire fighting team before she flew away to find Buttercup.

3

Up in the bright, cold night sky, Brick and Bubbles had been flying in a mournful silence when Brick suddenly gasped, "there's something following us!"

The pair turned around to see a distant purple glow heading towards them.

Bubble squinted her eyes, "what is..."

But before she could finish her question, the purple thing flew towards them with such a sudden speed that the pair didn't even know it had moved until the creature was right there in front of them.

"What?" Cried Bubbles, "y-you? But-!"

Bubbles let out a loud squeal of pain before blood squirted out of her mouth and gushed over her chin on to her dress.

Brick let out a roar and flew at the creature, but the being, unperturbed, flung away the dying Power Puff and tore out Brick's throat without a second thought before punching through his chest as it had just done to Bubbles, and ripping out a still beating heart.

Brick's eyes sight failed him and as the creature let go of him so that he fell towards the earth, the last thing he saw was it beginning to chomp into his own bloody heart.

3

Blossom and Buttercup didn't have the same link as the Ruffs. Certainly, as their blonde haired sister died a gruesome, if mercifully short death, they felt a slight tremor in their hearts, and feeling that something inside them had broken, but they ignored the feeling as a rational response they were having on looking at the poor mangled body of the boy once known as Butch.

"What kind of creature could do this?" whispered Blossom.

"What kind of creature would want to?" Buttercup's teeth were painfully clenched, tears brimming in her eyes as she looked at the terrible corpse. "How could anyone, anything, do something so abhorrent, so evil...?" She turned away from them both, tears falling as she wept bitterly, the bile in her stomach coming up to her throat, it and the grief chocking her.

Blossom watched her carefully. The deaths of the boys were traumatic enough, but she also knew that over the years the relationship between the Ruffs and Puffs had been evolving, inevitably, it seemed, as no one was too surprised as the girls began to display more feelings of having crushes on the wayward lads than of genuine dislike. It had started between Bubbles and Boomer, a few silly glances, a few blushes and something like a tentative friendship that lasted despite the brothers teasing Boomer and the sisters berating Bubbles. But then the same thing had begun to happen to the dark siblings, Buttercup and Butch definitely had something going on, though it was far more slippery and difficult to define than Boomer and Bubbles sweet and almost innocent friendship. Blossom was different from her sisters, she had no strong feelings for the boys, not even Brick, she certainly had no romantic inclinations towards them. So while she could strongly empathise with the dead boys, and feel deep sympathy for her sisters, she decided that was cool enough to keep her head.

"I'll have to take the lead on this completely," she decided, "both my sisters are heart-broken meaning Bubbles will keep weeping and Buttercup will be out for revenge, she'll probably be as unstable as Brick; I can't have her out on the field."

"Go home," ordered the red head, "make sure the others got back ok. I will call for someone to collect Butch as well as Boomer and we'll make sure they get a proper burial."

Buttercup snarled in response, "don't patronise me Blossom!" but flew away anyway.

Blossom didn't take Buttercup's anger personally. Instead she calmly watched as her sister left, before kneeling down to look more closely at Butch. His neck was twisted, his eyes and mouth open in shock and horror. He had a large, bloodied hole in his chest. Blossom grimaced before pressing her fingers into the wound and feeling around tentatively. After a few minutes she pulled the red-stained digits back out and sighed. The heart had been removed. Someone or something had punched its way into his chest and ripped out the organ.

"Only things like us can hurt us," she remembered. Lots of people in the past had tried to replicate the girls, the most successful were of course the boys, but there had been others.

"Someone has made another one of us, but it's completely psychotic," for a moment she wondered if Brick had perhaps gone mad and rogue, but then he would not have had time to kill Butch, who was still warm. Besides, while she was no fan of Brick, she did not think he would murder his brothers. "They did care for one another," she decided, "in their own lax manner. No, someone has probably made another one of us. It won't be Mojo, he's done with all of that since the Ruffs turned on him, Him wouldn't have made something unstable, and he wouldn't purposely have his boys killed, his too vain and they are one of his best achievements. The only person that leaves is Princess, simply because she has the money to buy chemical X and to bribe others into making such a being for her, she's also the type of idiot that gets in over her head."

Blossom stayed long enough to make sure the ambulance came to take away the bodies of the boys away in body bags, putting the Professors name as well as Mojo's as their next of kin, before she headed towards Princess' mansion.

But before she took off, for a single moment something in her told her to go home, to go follow her sisters, to maybe marry Brick someday and to live a normal life. But the moment was soon gone and forgotten as duty reasserted itself in her conscience and pulled her away.

3

Blossom smashed into the mansion, revelling in causing as much chaos, destruction and noise as she could. Morbucks was woken from her beauty sleep screaming as Blossom broke through her door and ripped the thick, feather-filled quilt from off her bed.

"What the frick do you think you're doing?" she shrieked indignantly, the lisp still faintly tainting her words. Blossom leapt forward and grabbed Princess around the throat.

"You released something," she hissed, "you made another one of us and now it's out of control!"

Morbucks gasped and flailed until Blossom released her grip slightly. Princess gasped in pain before shooting Blossom an evil look and snarling so what if I did? I have realised that you will never make me a Power Puff Girl, so I decided to make my own. Only she was a dud, so I threw her out! Happy now?"

Blossom leaned back away from Princess, allowing the frizzy-haired girl to sit up while Blossom sat at the end of the bed analysing her enemy.

The silence between them stretched out like the shadows across the bedroom floor and reaching over the walls and ceiling. Words of bitterness and long-term dislike and even hatred hung unspoken as Princess breathed heavily and Blossom stared with disconcertingly large eyes.

"When and how did you make this other Puff?" she asked at last when the silence had long run its course.

"About a week ago," Princess croaked, her neck now sporting an angry red mark, "we didn't use the same tuff the Professor used to make you. I wanted this new Puff to be made of sterner stuff, like me." (Princess smirked,) "after that we strapped it up for a few days to train it into hating you guys, we showed it videos and pictures of you making sure it hated you! We made sure it was way faster, way stronger and way more cruel than any of you could ever be! Only it's under my control, I wanted it to obey, to just be a machine for me to use over you dorks!"

"Did you make it hate the Rowdy Ruffs?"

"No, but that's a good idea I wish I had done that!"

Blossom looked away for a moment, her mind flashing to the two dead children. Rage boiled and churned in her stomach, but she held it in, she had to make sure she knew everything before unleashing her rage on to Princess. Then she asked, "what went wrong with the Puff, why was it a dud?"

"It used up too much energy," was the sullen reply, "she couldn't keep up her speed and agility, so we got rid of her."

Blossom looked back over at Princess, "you know, in some cultures, they believe that if you eat certain parts of your enemies you can posses their knowledge and their power."

"Why are you telling me that, you freak? A-and why are you looking at me in that way, it's creepy!"

"You went too far Princess," Blossom sighed, getting to her feet, "and now you will be locked up and for a long time too. Two Ruffs have been killed tonight, Boomer and Butch. Something bigger and stronger than us ripped out their hearts and left them bleeding on the sidewalk!"

"You don't know it was the Puff I made!" cried Princess, jumping out of bed. Her heart raced and her eyes welled with tears of fear and horror.

"What else could it have been? You taught it to kill us, and face it, the Ruffs look like us only they are male and they have almost identical powers. If this thing is the violent, stupid machine you make it out to be, ten how would it even know the difference? Brick is the only one left, so you can explain to him why his brothers were killed in such a horrible way."

"But it wasn't my fault!" Princess' face paled as she thought of Brick, terrible and bloodthirsty due to the loss of his brothers, coming after her for revenge.

"Then tell me, how do I beat it?"

"I don't know! It should have just died already!"

"Remember what I told you about those old beliefs that the organs could replenish a person? That monster has been tearing out hearts, that's how it's surviving! My sisters are out there," Blossom had leapt forward and was holding up Princess by the scruff of her silky nightdress, "so they are in danger! How do I kill this thing?"

"You've killed it before!" roared Princess, "so you should know!"

"What?" the blood drained from Blossom's face, "what?"

3

"Bunny?" Buttercup's usual raspy voice was now laced in agony. She was on the ground, on scabby and blooded knees. She had just left Townsville and was heading towards the suburbs when a larger more deadly ex-sister had suddenly appeared in front of her and hurled her to the ground like an angry god casting a demon out of heaven.

Buttercup looked up at the deity. It was indeed Bunny, though there were some changes. Bunny still looked too big; she could have been a line backer with her stature and broad shoulders. Her hair was still a light brown and tied back into a ponytail. She still sported a purple dress which matched her lavender eyes. Her face wasn't as deformed and her hunchback was gone. But there was still something that screamed 'error' to Buttercup about Bunny; and it wasn't as something as shallow as mere ascetics and it wasn't as non-threatening as a simple disability. No. Bunny's eyes were cold and hard. They were worse than the Ruffs when they were at their most malicious. In Bunny's eyes there was no love, no passion and not a hint of humanity. She was like a machine.

Buttercup got to her feet, feeling in pain but not willing to hurt her sister, not after what happened the last time they had seen one another.

"Do you remember me, Bunny? I'm your sister. I love you."

Bunny remained impassive.

Buttercup gulped.

The silence was suffocating. The only sound was the faint whistling of the wind as it ran through the bare branches of the cold winter trees. A cloud past the moon, shrouding them for a moment in darkness before lighting them up again, Bunny's features being as clear as day. She was less damaged physically, but without her flaws she now looked blank. It was terrifying.

The Purple One made a step towards Buttercup, who stumbled back, her defences rising.

"Don't hurt me!" she cried out, "look, Bunny if this is about before, I am sorry. Me and Bubbles and Buttercup are so sorry! I can't tell you how we felt after you died, how much it hurt inside, how much we mourned for you and how the guilt ate away from us and never left, even after all these years a part of us was never the same after you went away. Please, maybe we can't be sisters anymore, but can we try? Please, Bunny, don't fight me. Say something. Bunny, speak. Can you talk? If so say something to me, please."

Bunny, after cocking her head to one side, finally seemed to relent, and held out her arms. Buttercup grinned, recognising the gesture; Bunny wanted to hug. True, Bunny's face was still impassive but maybe she couldn't change her expression. Buttercup didn't want to judge Bunny for her appearance or seemingly hostile actions, and so she put her common sense to the side, allowed herself to smile before going into Bunny's embrace.

"Buttercup, no!" Blossom had flown at high speeds out of Townsville, arriving at the area in a furious red light screaming her warning but it was too late. Buttercup looked from Blossom to Bunny in a millisecond but before she could leap away, Bunny had already grabbed the dark-haired girl's head and shoulder and pulled with all her strength, tearing the head away from Butercup's poor body.

Blossom screamed in horror as blood gushed from the headless corpse as it fell to the ground without grace.

Bunny looked blankly at the head of her sister, before flinging it away and leaning down to collect the body. Blossom glared through her tears. Bunny was going for Buttercup's heart, and she was damned if she was going to let that happen. Blossom was already tired from her speedy flight from Princess' mansion to where Buttercup and Bunny were, but now she forced her powers up to their maximum and threw herself onto the behemoth, punching her in the face so hard that Bunny was not only flung off her feet but she actually travelled some feet away leaving a trail of upturned earth in her wake.

As she began to recover, Blossom knew that once Bunny ate Buttercup's heart she would be unbeatable again long enough for Blossom to die. So with a heart burning with horror and sadness, Blossom did the only thing she could, she used her laser powers on Buttercup's body, burning it to a crisp and destroying the heart.

The Bunny-monster let out a roar of rage and indignation before powering up, electric flashing up and down the purple clad body.

"So your element is electric, huh," muttered Blossom, "we never had that, I guess all Puffs do have their own powers."

Bunny shot a bolt of lightning towards Blossom who leapt out of the way just in time. "That bolt of lightning just destroyed those rocks," she thought, her mind racing as she watched Bunny like a hawk, "that means if it hits me I'd disintegrate; Bunny isn't thinking, she will destroy my body and never get my heart at this rate," she leapt again as Bunny lashed out with another angry roar, "so she'll use up her energy more quickly, and being unstable, she'll die the same way she did before, in the silent white death light."

Blossom turned and ran away determined to wear Bunny down.

She ran further into a small grove of woods, away from Townsville and any humanity. But, of course, Bunny was just that bit too fast. She wasn't as quick as she had been fresh after hr kills, but she was still quicker than Blossom and caught up to her easily. She ran in front of the red-head and bashed her in the side, throwing Blossom across the ground and smashing into a tree. However, just in time Blossom managed to breath out some of her ice breath quickly. Bunny was so fast in her attack that Blossom only managed to half-freeze her, but it was another was of slowing the monster down.

Her legs frozen Bunny cried out and wailed impotently before using up a mass of energy to heat her body up enough so that she began to thaw. Blossom watched from a small distance, breathing heavily. She could tell that the crushing force of Bunny's arm into her side had made some damage in her internal organs, but it was nothing worse than what she was used to having from falling through building or being gripped too tightly by island monsters.

"I don't have much time," she thought, "I have to finish this." She bought up the image of her sister being brutally slain by the beast and using the high emotions that image caused, she flew up high into the air at full speed.

Bunny, now free, followed after her, though she was now noticeably slower.

Higher and higher they went, until the air became very thin and the cold was almost unbearable. The full moon was out and everything could be seen clearly. The earth was far beneath them and obscured by clouds. Ice stretched itself on their skin, but Bunny seemed to endure it and for Blossom it was her own element, so she accepted the cold.

The two girls stared at each other for some time. Bunny had a hungry look in her eyes; the first and only show of any emotion or feeling.

Blossom gulped, feeling the anger and nausea rising up.

Then, with a wordless 'go!' the girls flew towards each other. They began to fight quietly but fiercely. They had no need to exert extra energy on screaming or shouting or arguing. Instead they fought like battle-worn soldiers; as the brutal knights of the winter moon.

After a few moments Blossom began to breathe more and more heavily, feeling herself becoming light-headed. Bunny had almost looked like she could smirk, but there was no real malice in her, she was onyl the hapless machine of a demented, spoiled child.

"I'll mourn for you too," thought Blossom, "as well as my sister and the Ruffs. I'll mourn for the way they turned you into a monster."

Blossom threw her final punch, hitting Bunny square in the jaw. However, the punch was now so weak, that Bunn didn't even flinch. Instead she stared unthinkingly at the red head. Blossom allowed herself a small sigh (dare I say even a slight whimper of defeat?) before Bunny kicked her in the stomach, catapulting her through the air.

She then flew forward, grabbing the smaller Blossom by the hair, and was about to tear her head off, when she suddenly gasped. A stream of blood crept out of her mouth.

Blossom had used the last of her energy to punch through Bunny's chest.

Blossom could feel the heart in her hand. It was very warm, and still beating fast. She felt sick, but knowing she had to do this, she gripped the heart and pulled.

Bunny let out a terrible scream - terrible because it was the scream of a girl, of a child,- before she fell from the skies.

As she fell, her body began to shake and wobble unnaturally before shards of a bright light burst out of her, ripping her apart. She was dead and gone before her basic element hits the ground.

Blossom watched quietly, shivering in the cold. She knew that the people of Townsville would still be as ignorant as ever, probably believing that the bright light Bunny caused was a falling star of some kind; and she would have been right. What she also suspecting, as she began to drift to the ground, was that for a long time they would also wonder what happened to the girls, why they disappeared one night before finding their corpses one by one.

Blossom vainly hoped that Bubbles had a least made it home before she landed on the soft grass. Her body was worn and broken.

She was dying.

With one last bit of energy from some hidden reserve, Blossom managed to drag herself to Buttercup's remains, lying beside them before the last breath of her broken body released itself in a puff of white smoke.

The Rowdy Ruff Boys and the Power Puff Girls were all dead and gone.