Another day has gone...I'm still all alone. How could this be? You're not here with me. You never said goodbye; someone tell me why did you have to go and leave my world so cold?

Everyday...I sit and ask myself, "How did love slip away?"

…

Something whispers in my ear and says...

"You Are Not Alone"

Possible Epilogue to Deicide

Characters by Craig McCracken

Story by Deus Ex Procella

Song by the late Michael Jackson

XxXxX

Blossom stared out over the horizon. It was the same as everywhere else. Even now...seven years after the fallout, she'd yet to find a change. The world was left a barren, desolate wasteland. The remains of civilization lay in ruin; skyscrapers had fallen, streets had split and cracked, and green, green grass had all died in a fiery blaze. Even the sky had died; it was now tinted sickly red. It had become a cloudless sea of blood hanging over the festering scab that the planet Earth had become.

Blossom stalked what had once been streets wearily. It had been fifty years since she last saw this place. Were it not for her superhuman mental faculties, she'd never have even recognized it. She stopped, tired and miserable pink eyes drifting over the once proud City Hall, now a pile of dirt and stone. The Powerpuff shook her head and walked on, tears threatening to fall. Blossom rubbed her eyes angrily, swallowing and blinking.

She came to the end of her journey when she found the battered crater where her precious Pokey Oaks Kindergarten once stood. She covered her mouth, hiccuping and looking down. Somehow through the vicious blaze of megadeath, a twisted, charred swing set had survived. Blossom kept her eyes low as she floated over the pit, coming to rest on the single remaining swing.

She held the chains tightly, feeling them grinding in her hands. She stared at her stubby feet, still clad in scuffed up Mary Janes. Her legs were still sheathed in torn white stockings, her modesty still preserved by a tattered pink dress. Her waist still wrapped in a beaten black belt. The world was frozen forever in the perfect image of death. She was frozen forever in the perfect vision of a little girl. Her three hundred and fifty-seven years were completely meaningless.

Blossom shuddered and bowed her head as low as it could go. Her throat tightened; she bit her lip and struggled to hold herself together. So many years she tried to fight it, so many times she thought she'd won...just to forget ever losing to begin with.

"Why? Why won't you let me come home? I've lost everything...I'm so sorry for everything I said...please...I don't even...don't even have them anymore...please just let me come home," The dead air hanged around her in awkward silence. Deathly, hollow silence that was never, ever broken. Finally, Blossom choked and gave in, sobbing hysterically, not for the first time...certainly not for the last time. There would never be a last time.

XxXxX

"It's horrible isn't it? Knowing that forever really never, ever ends..." A red-hued claw rested against a crumbled building. The little girl, not even four feet away, didn't respond.

"No not a little girl...you were never really a little girl, were you? No, no, nooo...such a deliciously cruel fate, a beautifully horrible fate. No childhood to look back on fondly, no adulthood to look forward to, no end to break the endless monotony of living. A gloriously horrible fate...a fabulously terrible fate...one that, I believe, seems so vaguely familiar..." He smiled, a smile that barely reached his own glistening yellow eyes. It'd been a very long time since he'd smiled sincerely, he wasn't even sure he remembered how to.

The dark figure floated closer, wisping around the little girl like a serpent, his lower extremities little more than a cloud of ruby red smoke. He paused. His lip twitched. She was crying, hysterically...somehow that took the sting out of forever.

XxXxX

Blossom stared at the ground, licking her lips and attempting to wipe away her tears. A futile gesture, more quickly replaced those swept away. She shook her head and bitterly rubbed her eyes. Getting off the swing, she began to walk away.

'Maybe there's somewhere I missed...seven years is such a short time...I could look harder...' She gasped as the sky grew darker, as the world took on the painfully familiar hint of Hell. A ghastly red mist splayed out at her ankles. She swallowed hard, sweat beginning to pour down her brow. She heard a wicked little chuckle and looked up. There he was, lounging on the same chunk of rock he had been before...when she was still just a child.

"Oh sweet, little Blossom. How absolutely wonderful it is to see you so...miserable," He cackled. Blossom stared at him in shock, a lump forming in her throat. She bit her lip and looked down, new tears spilling down her cheeks. Him grinned and stared at her. His grin began to falter. He sighed and sat up, perched on the stone.

"Could you please stop this? You've become so horribly dull and predictable. I simply can't find joy in your suffering when it's so routine and practiced!" Blossom choked out a laugh, looking up at Him. She wiped her eyes and floated up to the devil, the a tiny, frightened smile on her lips.

"You...you're still here...but I thought..." Him's leer faded, replaced by a look of...hurt. He sighed and floated off the rock, walking through the graveyard once known as Townsville. Blossom blinked and quickly flew after him. "W-Wait! D-Don't leave, please don't leave! Please...please..." She caught his claw. He turned to her, eyes glowing and a sinister green mist rising up from his skin. She held on tightly, her misty, pleading eyes boring into his.

"..." Him sighed and pulled his claw back, crossing his arms. Blossom giggled, a weak, strangled sound. The two began walking, side by side, through the wasteland. They walked in silence, an oddly more comfortable silence than the dead silence that had captured the lifeless rock. Finally Blossom found the courage to ask him once more.

"W...Why are you still here?" Him paused, sighing and slouching down to the ground, cheek rested on his claw. Blossom sat next to him, hugging her knees to her chest.

"You know, it's funny...every year, like clockwork, you'd remember your fate and go crazy. Of course, it wasn't a coincidence," Him giggled while Blossom glared and looked down, shuddering with anger, "Yes, yes, it was my fault you remembered, my fault you reacted so violently...it was a game of sorts. Even wiping your memory was my doing. Oh it brought me such unparalleled joy! It was the equivalent to that joke of a holiday for me!"

"Christmas?" Him rolled his eyes and looked away.

"Well if you want to point fingers..." Him sighed and glared at her. "But then you just haaaad to find out on your own...you just haaaad to talk to your sisters and just haaaad to overcome your immortality complex!" Him let out a puff of air, flapping his claw. "And so there went my joyous annual game. Oh it was just horrible, like a child finding out that Santa Claus wasn't real," Blossom looked away. Him had been behind her repeated cycle of suicide and remembrance the entire time?

"Why did you do it? Why me? Why!?" Him turned to her. She was leaning forward on hands and knees glaring at him, looking ready and willing to kill him. Or at least make an attempt on his everlasting life. Him blew a raspberry at her, shooing her away with one claw.

"Why Blossom? Have you forgotten? I'm evil! I just love to see you cry!" Him's goblin grin faded and was replaced with a miserable look. He glared at the Townsville wasteland.

"If...you really need to know...I suppose I picked on you because you could take anything I dished out...I couldn't break you like anyone else," Blossom sat back, still glowering, but with a slight sense of pride.

"That's not the only reason...you always went on and on about destroying the world...then you'd just let us win...why?" Him bared his teeth, glaring at her. She wasn't looking, the look quickly lost its power. He growled and looked away. Blossom turned to him, blushing and looking down.

'Maybe that's why...' She looked up at him. He looked down at her. The venom in his eyes, the mask of unimaginable malevolence...even if she lacked Bubbles' empathy, she could see a look so very, very similar to the one found in her own eyes. Him must have read her mind because he quickly snarled and looked away, red cheeks a bit darker.

"So...why are you still here?"

"This is my punishment...and eternity alone and away from...that woman," Blossom perked up, curiosity overwhelming her better reason.

"Woman? What woman?" Him turned to her, his whimsical attitude returning. He tittered gaily.

"Oh deary me! Did I let the big secret out? Oh no!" Him fell back, holding his stomach and laughing with increasing hilarity. Blossom's lips trembled, and soon she was giggling along with him. The two sat, laughing like lunatics for ages before calming back down. Still a titter or a giggle slipped out every so often.

"S...So..." Blossom tried to speak through chuckles, "The...the secret? Is it...that God is a woman or that you're..." She snickered deviously, "Or that you're straight?" Him gasped and turned to her with a mockingly shocked look.

"Why! Blossom, I am simply appalled! Are you implying that I'm..." He raised his voice even higher and flapped his claws in possibly the gayest gesture of all time, "gay??" Blossom fell over, once more laughing hysterically. Him giggled and waved his claw.

"Oh nonsense! Simply nonsense!" Him sighed and shook his head, "To think I'd even settle for anything less than I deserve! Absolute nonsense!" Blossom chuckled and wiped her eyes, grinning from ear to ear. For once in her life...she'd never been so happy to be with the embodiment of evil.

"Him..." The demon stopped giggling and looked at her. Blossom blushed and sighed. Bashfully she threw her arms around the monster, hugging him tightly. "I...I forgive you...for everything..." Him blinked and looked down at her, resting his claw on her back. Him swallowed bringing his other claw to his lips.

"You...forgive me?" Blossom nodded and hugged him tighter. She didn't say another word. She didn't need to. Him smiled, and suddenly gasped. He looked at his claws to see that he was glowing. He looked at her, then turned his eyes up to the sky.

'So that's...that's why...' Him smiled and pulled away from Blossom. She frowned and looked up, gasping when she saw him glowing. Him began to dissolve into a glistening red mist. Blossom gasped and snatched his claw, gritting her teeth.

"No! No you can't leave me! You can't leave me alone here!" Him laughed and swirled his claw around.

"Oh don't be so dramaaatic, Blossom. Why...I believe you've given me an epiphany of sorts...you know there's a wonderful story I heard once upon a time...a story of a beautiful bird who burned up...and came back even more beautiful...it sounds so gloriously tragic...so fabulously uplifting...so vaguely familiar...wouldn't you say?" Him cackled as he melted away in a sea of red smoke. Blossom stared in horror at the spot where he had once been. Again...she was alone...fore...

"Blossom!" Blossom gasped and turned around. A rainbow arced over the sky, a bicolored rainbow of green and blue. Maybe the end wasn't the end afterall. A tearful smile spread across her lips. She heard a soothing, comforting voice—a voice that reminded her of a mother's love—whispering in her ear.

"You are not alone..."

Author's Note: This is my entry to the "In Loving Memory of the King of Pop" challenge. For the other possible epilogue to this story, read Alicorn's "Another Part of Me". It's amazing.