Author's Note: This chapter didn't exactly turn out the way I planned it, but still I think it'll work well enough. I'm worried I kind of overdid it with the gore levels, though, so expect less of that in later chapters. Gore doesn't suit the story well, don't you agree? Although considering the circumstances it might have been appropriate here. Your opinions are always welcome :P On a sidenote, I'd like to thank narutolover1012 for pushing me in writing this chapter. It was on my hard drive for a while but I just didn't upload it. Anyway, I've said enough. Enjoy the chapter and R&R please, thanks :D

Brick and Blossom

Blossom awoke with a headache. She was lying in a clearing in what seemed like a tropical rainforest. When she looked around she discovered someone lying nearby. With a shock, she realized it was Brick. He started to stir and got to his knees.

"What...what happened?" he asked, confused.

"The black particles hit me, but I don't know how you got here," Blossom replied.

Brick's head snapped up when he heard Blossom's voice and he looked at her to see if she was injured. "I jumped in front of that demon's attack to save your life. Are you okay?" he asked.

Blossom nodded. "Aside from a little headache I'm fine. How about you?"

Brick checked himself. "I guess I'm alright, too."

Blossom helped Brick get to his feet and looked around.

"Do you have any idea where we are?" Brick asked.

Blossom shook her head. "Not really. I guess this is some world Kare created. But I thought he was going to curse us, not just transport us."

Before she could say anything else, Kare's voice sounded from the sky. "So little girls, you are finally at my mercy. And you boys, it was brave to try and help the girls; I had not anticipated that. But it doesn't matter. The six of you are doomed. This trial will end your existence. If you can make it to the top of the mountain at the center of this land your minds will stay intact. If you lose yourself in this beautiful world, for example by dying, or just going insane, you fail the test, and my curse will slowly but surely destroy you. If you make it though, you'll just return to the normal world. Try not to get your hopes up, though..."

With a final evil laugh, Kare vanished. Or at least his voice did; he was probably watching them.

"So Boomer and Butch are here too huh?" Blossom said.

"I guess so. It's good to know that they're alright. So, what will we do?" Brick asked.

Blossom thought for a moment. Obviously Kare's 'trial' would be more than just some sightseeing tour, but nonetheless they had to reach the summit of the mountain. "We'll have to follow Kare's directions for now," she said. "It's probably the only way of getting back to the others."

Brick stayed quiet. He watched Blossom as she flew up a little, only to fall back down. She landed in such a position that he could actually look under her skirt. He blushed heavily and quickly looked away. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"We can't fly here. Kare must want us to walk. Well, at least I saw the mountain, so I know the way," Blossom said.

For a few minutes, the two walked through the forest in silence. Nothing was hindering their progress. "So um, don't you find it weird to be here with your enemy?" Blossom asked, to break the silence. (Yes of course, in a jungle it's never quiet but you get the idea)

"Right now I don't really think of you as an enemy," Brick admitted. "We're in this together, so there's no point in fighting. And you girls never really had a problem with us as long as we kept quiet, so I figured you wouldn't try to kill me," he continued.

Blossom looked at the ground. She really liked Brick, but didn't allow herself to show it. He hated her, she was his enemy. He was only nice as long as they were here; when they got out he'd probably turn back into his arrogant self. But she would try to make the best of this time together, even though they were in hell, or some other demonic dimension. So far though, they'd only seen the jungle around them.

"This is quite a boring place. With a demon like that Kare guy, I'd expected a lot more monsters and flames," Brick said. No sooner had he said that, or they reached the edge of the rainforest and gazed upon a desolate wasteland. Not too far off, you could see the remnants of a city. The buildings were all destroyed; some twisted beams and concrete walls were all that made up the skyline, and every other part of the city.

"Oh my god, is that....Tokyo City?!" Blossom said disbelievingly.

Brick just stared. He wished he'd kept his mouth shut.

"Brick, we have to check it out! What if our friends..."

Brick nodded, but felt that something was wrong. He couldn't quite put his finger on it though. He followed Blossom as she started running towards the city. Blossom was extremely worried. What if the others were somehow in that devastated city? And not just them, but all her friends, and her family. She ran harder, anxious to reach the city. They reached the outskirts of the ruins, and found that it was indeed Tokyo City, by the shattered but still somewhat readable sign at the outskirts of the town. They ran into the streets, searching for any sign of human life. As they got further into the city, they noticed that fires still blazed in some of the destroyed buildings. Suddenly Blossom had a vision in her head of a certain building, and her heart pounded faster as she raced through the streets to her destination.

"Blossom, wait! Where are you going?!" Brick yelled.

"To the school!" She yelled back and continued running. The school was ablaze when Blossom and Brick arrived.

"Oh no...please...don't let this be..." Blossom stammered, and ran into the burning building.

"Hey wait! It's too dangerous!" Brick yelled after her.

Blossom didn't listen; she entered the building and started to search it.

"Guess I'll go with her..." Brick muttered and followed Blossom inside.

"Kaoru! Miyako!" Blossom yelled. Again, she looked around frantically and ran to the lunchroom. (Or cantina, or whatever) Inside, bleeding and broken, lay Kaoru and Miyako.

"No..." Blossom whispered.

Brick felt his stomach heave upon seeing the scene. Kaoru's left arm was gone beneath the elbow, and blood oozed from the wound. Her left eye was also gone. Only her leg was still in place, but it was bent at a really weird angle. Her entire body was covered in deep cuts. Miyako too looked horrible. She was clutching her stomach, desperately holding her guts inside. A deep gash ran over the side of her face. She too had deep cuts all over her body.

"W-what happened?" Blossom stuttered.

Kaoru looked at Blossom with her one good eye and said, "Kare...we were no match for him...why weren't you with us?!"

Blossom took a step back. "I...I..." she stammered.

"Please Blossom, tell us. Why weren't you here?" Miyako asked, her face contorted in pain.

Tears welled up in Blossom's eyes and she fell to her knees. "I...I...didn't...I..." Tears ran down her face. "I'm so sorry..." she whispered.

"Don't give me that bullshit," Kaoru said. "You just chickened out. Some leader you are."

Blossom shook her head violently. "No! That's not true!"

"Please Blossom...don't lie to us..." Miyako said.

"I'm not lying! Please...believe me!" Blossom collapsed and cried.

"Don't act like you care," Kaoru said harshly. Blossom cringed and looked up, still crying.

"Please...don't...I..."

"You left us, Blossom," Miyako said, her voice unbearably sad.

Blossom broke down again and lay on the ground sobbing.

"That's enough," Brick said. "She didn't chicken out. She didn't know about all this. Kare probably kept her away from the city."

Blossom looked up, amazed by what she heard. Was Brick actually defending her?

"Bullshit...we saw her run away," Kaoru said, her eye now blazing with anger.

"No...I..."

"Blossom, don't. I'll take care of this," Brick said. "Listen, I don't know who you saw running off, but Blossom's been with me the whole time. Kare threw us into a jungle. It couldn't have been her."

Kaoru struggled to rise, but collapsed again. "Don't fuck around with me, Brick. I may be injured, but I can still kick your ass and deal with Blossom afterward."

Brick didn't so much as blink. He stared hard at Kaoru, his face an emotionless mask. "In your current state you'd die if a pigeon took a crap on your head," he said bluntly. "I know we're enemies, but Blossom didn't know about this and that's the truth."

Kaoru turned away and Miyako shook her head. "You don't get it, Brick. When Kare came here, Blossom ran away. If only I knew why..."

Hearing all this, Blossom got to her feet and stood on wobbly legs, tears still streaming down her face. "Miyako...Kaoru...You have to believe Brick. He's telling the truth. Kare..."

"Save it! I won't listen to a traitorous whore who's been hammering on the fact that she was the leader, but chickened out when we needed her most. I hate you Blossom, and if I find a way to get even with you, I will," Kaoru spat.

"Kaoru...Miyako...Miyako believes me, right?" Blossom pleaded desperately.

Brick looked at her. He was worried that Blossom might lose it and go insane, which would make sure she failed the trial and got cursed.

Miyako only shook her head. "You have let both of us down, Blossom. I don't think we can be friends anymore, if we survive this."

Blossom trembled, and took a few steps back before turning and running, to the roof.

"Blossom!" Brick yelled. He turned to face Kaoru and Miyako. "Listen you two. If Blossom does something stupid and gets herself killed and thus cursed, I'll make sure to..." Brick stopped speaking as he realized the truth.

This was an illusion created by Kare, to determine if they'd be cursed. This was part of the trial. If Blossom knew...

"Where is Kare?!" Brick demanded.

"Up on the roof, where the traitor went. He's torching the city from there," Kaoru said.

With a last look at the two heavily injured girls, who were actually illusions, Brick ran to the roof, where he found Blossom face to face with Kare.

"Kare! I'll kill you!" Blossom yelled, her sadness replaced by rage. Kare merely grinned his devilish grin.

"Montblanc Shoot!"

Kare caught the yo-yo in his claw and pulled Blossom to him. He raised his other hand to kill her.

"Stop it!" Brick yelled. "This is not real. Blossom, this is a trial remember? This is all an illusion, created by Kare."

Blossom's eyes dulled, and then brightened again. She looked like she suddenly snapped awake. "You're right! That's why I knew where I had to go, this is one of my nightmares, I remember now!"

With that, Kare released his grip on her. "You little bitch..." he said, and then he vanished. The destroyed city disappeared with him, and Blossom and Brick now stood on top of a rock formation, looking over a desert. The mountain loomed in the distance.

Blossom turned to Brick. "Thanks. If you hadn't been there, Kare would have killed me and I'd be cursed." She felt slightly ashamed of herself for falling for Kare's illusion, but it couldn't be helped.

Brick blushed a little and said, "Well, it was nothing really. I just suddenly remembered, that's all. You were overcome by your emotions and fear. That's why you didn't realize it was fake."

Blossom smiled a little. She hadn't expected Brick to be so modest. "Well, anyway, you saved my life." She turned to face the mountain. If they could reach it...

"Well, let's go," Brick said, and jumped of the rock formation. Blossom nodded and jumped after him.

For a while, they walked through the searing hot desert. Even though it had been dusk when they were in Blossom's nightmare, it was now the middle of the day. It wasn't even truly a desert, because there wasn't any sand. Just dried up, cracked mud. A vast plane of cracked mud; there wasn't even the slightest bit of variation in the landscape. No bushes, oases or hills, nothing. Furthermore, it seemed like the temperature was rising every second.

"What's...with...this heat?" Blossom panted.

Brick looked over his shoulder to see that Blossom was sweating heavily. He felt the heat as well, but since he wasn't human it didn't bother him too much. "Just ignore it. The Chemical Z will protect you from it."

Blossom looked at him. How could he be so unaffected by this heat? "Yeah...Let's keep going," she said.

Fortunately for Blossom, it didn't take long for the sun to begin to set, meaning the temperature started to drop. "That's weird. Maybe the days here are shorter than on earth," Brick said.

"What do you mean?" Blossom asked, not sure what he was talking about.

"We've only walked for a few hours, and the temperature was still rising when we started walking. That means we started before noon, but now the sun's already setting," Brick replied. It appeared Brick was right, as it was completely dark an hour later. The temperature had also dropped drastically and was now way below zero.

"Maybe we should stay here for tonight. Since this is a demon's realm, I doubt it will be safe to travel at night," Brick said.

Blossom nodded and sat down. She shivered. "Well, at least it isn't a thousand degrees anymore," she said. She reached in the pocket of her skirt and retrieved a large bag of candy. "Here, we'll eat this for dinner. It's all I have with me," she said, handing Brick some of the sweets.

Even though the night was pitch black Brick and Blossom had no trouble seeing through it with their Chemical Z enhanced eyes. They ate the sweets in silence and then Blossom shivered again.

"Cold?" Brick asked.

Blossom nodded. "Take my coat, I handle extreme situations well," Brick said with a smile, handing over his coat.

"You wore that coat with a black shirt under it in that heat?! What are you?" Blossom asked amazed.

Brick grinned. "I'm a RowdyRuff Boy." Blossom smiled a little. Then she thought of her situation and said, "You know, I wish we could just be friends. We wouldn't have to fight all the time."

She was almost shocked at her own words. What the hell was she thinking talking like that? Becoming friends with a RowdyRuff Boy…it seemed out of the question, but the way Brick had defended her in her own nightmare stuck with her and she really wished they could just stop being enemies.

"Well…maybe we could be, you know, when this is all over," Brick said, feeling slightly nervous.

He knew it probably wouldn't happen, hell, he wasn't even sure if they'd even survive this trip to dimension x or wherever they were, but it couldn't hurt to hope. Blossom looked at him, amazed by his reply. She'd expected him to sneer at her and tell her that this alliance was temporary.

"I wonder how the others would react…I'm almost certain Kaoru…um, I mean Buttercup…would kill me just for suggesting being friends with you," she said, smiling sadly. Brick ignored the last of Blossom's words and said, "You know, I know your real names, there's no point in keeping it a secret."

Blossom shook her head and said, "I know, but right now she's Buttercup and not Kaoru. We kinda stick to our heroine names when we're transformed." Brick nodded understandingly. He realized how annoying it had to be for Blossom and the others to keep switching names.

"Anyway, the bottom line is that I'd be dead if I said we're friends," Blossom said.

"The same goes for me. I'd probably have to fight Butch first and then Boomer. They'd really see me as a traitor for befriending you; actually I'm surprised they agreed to warn you," Brick said, dropping on his back.

Blossom thought for a moment and wanted to say something, when she noticed Brick was asleep. She smiled lightly and whispered, "Sweet dreams…" Then she too lay on her back and tried to get some rest.