The second and final chapter of the story has very little action, but is just as emotional and dark as the first, if not more. And if the first chapter didn't convince you of this story's "T"-rating, this one certainly will. Either way, I hope you enjoy it!

I own not the characters or locations in this story, only its plot.

The moonlight filtering through the blinds of the window above the sink was the only thing illuminating the kitchen as the two sisters sat at the table, both with a glass of milk in front of them - one cold, one warm.

Buttercup observed her sister as Bubbles took a sip at her cup. She had taken a short shower to soothe her injuries and straighten out her hair, which was now back in its trademark twin pigtails (she thankfully didn't have to worry about the debris and monster blood that had caked her hair while she was fighting, as they were holographic, and so had disappeared when the simulation ended). She had also changed back into her pajamas, as her regular clothes had been ripped beyond repair (a result, unfortunately, that was not holographic, and so remained even after the fight was over). When she made it back to the kitchen, Buttercup watched as she poured a glass of milk, warmed it up, and sat at the chair to her right, the moon casting soft, dramatic shadows across her tired face as she gazed miles away at nothing.

Not once since leaving the basement had Bubbles said a single word. Buttercup figured it would be up to her to break the silence.

"How long have you been going down in the lab to train at night?" she asked.

Bubbles seemed a bit startled to have been brought back to the present so suddenly, but the surprise lasted only a moment before she answered quietly.

"I don't know...every few days for a few months now, I guess." Her voice sounded a bit hoarse...probably from screaming so much while fighting, Buttercup noted. Maybe that's why she had warmed her milk before drinking it.

"A few months, really? You've been doing it for that long? Why?"

"Uhhhh...I just wanted to do some training. To, you know, push myself to become a better fighter..."

The way Bubbles avoided Buttercup's eye alerted her to the fact that Bubbles wasn't telling her the whole truth.

"Push yourself to be a better fighter, eh? And I guess tonight was just another routine all-out battle? Riiiiiight..."

"It's the truth-"

"I don't buy it," Buttercup countered. "Something's bothering you...something happened or someone said something or you did something that's been eating away at you, and you were trying to get it out of your mind."

Bubbles head snapped towards Buttercup at the accusation.

"Nothing's bothering me!" She said it a bit too fast and at a slightly higher pitch than usual.

"Don't give me that," Buttercup said, her own voice getting an edge to it. "I know you better than you think. That fight I saw in there? That wasn't a training exercise. The way you fought...there was no focus, no plan of attack - that was 100% raw, unhinged emotion driving you. So fess up—what's wrong?"

"I told you, nothing's wrong," Bubbles snapped at Buttercup. "Why do you even care?"

"Because," Buttercup spoke in a calmer voice than she had been using, "I'm worried about you. It's not like you to do something like this. I'm the one who fights to let off steam, not you. And I know that it had to have been something really intense if you had to fight monsters in order to let it out. I really hope it wasn't anything I did; if it was, I'm...I'm sorry. But I'm worried about you because I know where this road will lead. And I know that there are better ways to relieve stress than by fighting.

"More than anything, though," she took a deep breath before speaking, "I care because I'm your sister, and I don't like it when you feel bad. I just want to help you get over whatever it is so that you can go back to being happy again."

Buttercup finished her milk in one last gulp. Bubbles was silent, watching her sister as she put her glass in the sink and headed for the doorway out the kitchen.

"I won't force it out of you, though. Just...if you ever do want to talk about it, whenever, I'll listen."

She almost made it to the door and was about to call out "Good night," when Bubbles stopped her.

"Wait!" Buttercup turned around. Bubbles looked at her with a gaze that, to Buttercup, looked very vulnerable.

"What did you mean when you said you knew where this road will lead? What road?"

"What road? Well..." Buttercup began slowly walking back towards the table as she spoke. "You fight monsters to relieve stress or whatever, right? They're just monsters - they're not real, you're not hurting anybody, and it feels good. You feel alive, and when it's over, you feel much better than when you started. That'll last a good while...but sooner or later, there'll be some times when it's just not enough. You'll fight, you win, and you'll still be upset by whatever was bothering you. And it won't go away in your sleep, and it'll still be there when you wake up, and you won't even notice that it's still affecting you, but it will be. You'll hit a bad guy one too many times or kick him just a little too hard. You'll start snapping at the people you love...without even meaning to. And if it goes on too long...you'll do anything to let off steam. And anything might set you off. You won't be able to tell the difference between fake monsters and real people. You might do something you'll regret. It'll happen eventually…I know all too well that it will."

Buttercup was back at the table by the time she finished speaking, mind reeling back to her own personal experiences. She had exposed a bit of her own soul, a part that she wasn't proud of...but if it could help Bubbles, she'd expose it and everything else.

And she would have, too, had Bubbles not brought her back to reality. She had begun crying again, only this time she was shaking as though she were frightened.

"Oh, Buttercup," she spoke with a watery voice, "it may be too late for me already!"

Buttercup, shocked as she was to hear Bubbles's declaration, felt she was finally about to get to the root of the problem.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

Bubbles answered her with a sob. Buttercup waited patiently. Usually, she would've told her to spit it out, but she knew she had to tread lightly here. She may not have been used to taking on the 'supportive sister' role, but seeing the state that her sister was in was enough for her to try and take up the mantle.

Bubbles sniffed and took in a deep breath to collect herself before she spoke.

"Well...see...okay, you're right, the real reason I go down into the basement is to get rid of stress. I mean, whenever there's something negative that's bothering me that I can't just get rid of by crying or screaming or painting or coloring or anything like that, I go down there."

Buttercup had guessed right. Whenever there was a negative emotion that Bubbles couldn't handle in any of her usual ways, she went down there to fight it out. It seemed very out-of-character for her sister, though.

"Where'd you get the idea to do that?"

"From you," she answered, "because I've seen when you are having a bad day, you fight monsters and then you feel better again. And...well, I've actually done it before, a long time ago. That time, I was really mad at you and Blossom for teasing me, and I went downstairs that night, just to prove that I could do it. But...it felt good to fight and let it out."

Buttercup remembered that ordeal. She had never seen their arch nemesis Mojo Jojo destroyed so badly in all the fights they've ever had with him (save the time he stole their candy). But even still, that episode served to highlight exactly what was so dangerous about Bubbles doing what she was doing-Buttercup remembered random citizens being punished for minor crimes, Bubbles snapping at her and Blossom, and one poor talking dog.

That had been about Bubbles proving herself, though - when she felt she had done that, she reverted back to her old self and never looked back. Now, however, it was about relieving stress and releasing emotional build-ups, and that was a much dangerous path because there might not be an end to it if left unchecked.

Feeling she was almost there, Buttercup spoke again.

"I remember that, actually," she chuckled lightly. "But that was a long time ago. You said you'd done this plenty of times since then...so what brought you down there tonight?"

Bubbles face dropped, and she got that vulnerable look that Buttercup noticed a while ago. But she spoke up.

"Tonight? Ummm...well...I was...I...I did something today. Something not good. Something I couldn't deal with, and it wouldn't leave my head, and I just had to find a way to get it out."

She started breathing a little harder, and Buttercup could almost see the fear radiating off of her.

"It's all right, Bubbles," she said to her sister, touching her shoulder. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No!" Bubbles looked to be trying to steel herself for a monumental task. "I'll tell you."

And she told Buttercup the story. She told her how she was out on patrol over the suburbs listening for anyone that might need help. How she heard the scream of the little boy from inside the house. How she flew through the roof, expecting to see a fire or something destroyed. How she instead saw a bruised and bloodied young boy cowering on the ground; a boy she knew, who she recognized from class...a boy who liked to eat paste. How she had seen the boy's father glowering ominously above him, advancing towards him, his hand balled into a fist. How she looked back between the father's angry snarl and the boy's petrified gaze and put two and two together. She told her how, just as he was about to strike again, she snatched that boy's father and held him up off the ground. How she hit him harder than she had ever hit a human in her entire life. How she could see nothing but red as she repeatedly hit him over and over again, breaking his jaw, dislocating his shoulder, sending teeth flying. How he begged her to stop. How she had just kept going. How she lifted him up by his neck. How she contemplated things that she never would've guessed she would even be able to contemplate.

She told her how it took all of her will power not to do what she though the man deserved to be done to him. And how, when it was all said and done and the man was out cold, she had turned to the boy and found that he was looking at her with that same frightened look that he had when his dad had loomed over him.

Bubbles had never, in her entire life, felt guilt that heavy.

"I took him to the hospital, and left his dad for the police," she continued, with that same miles-away gaze Buttercup had seen earlier. "The doctors say that Elmer's going to be okay. But I don't think I'll ever be able to forget what I saw. I never knew people did that to their kids. It was part of the reason I went down there tonight, because I couldn't get it out of my mind. But that wasn't the main reason…."

Bubbles paused, and then looked at Buttercup with a desperate expression and fresh tears in her eyes.

"Buttercup, don't you see? I almost broke the one single rule that every superhero in the history of superheroes lives by! The one thing that keeps us from being evil! I...I really thought about it. I almost did it. I almost...I almost...ki..."

Bubbles put her head down on the table, unable to continue. Buttercup didn't blame her. There was no way she could've guessed that it was something that heavy that weighed on Bubbles's mind. In all their time as superheroines, none of the girls had ever seen anything close to what Bubbles had today. True evil - not a mad monkey destroying property to take over the world, but someone physically hurting someone that they were supposed to love unconditionally. Buttercup remembered what it felt like when they thought the Professor didn't love them anymore; they had exiled themselves from Earth because they couldn't handle being there without him to care for them. And then, she imagined what it might feel like to have the Professor not only not love them, but actively try to hurt them. Buttercup couldn't fathom it. And that it was happening to Elmer! Their own classmate! She had no idea that he had been dealing with something like. And had she been the one to stumble upon it, had she been in Bubbles's position...

Buttercup's thoughts were interrupted when her sister suddenly began speaking again.

"I went to the training room tonight because I felt so ashamed of what happened, and it wouldn't go away. All day, I've been thinking about what I almost did, and...and what it might mean." Bubbles paused just for a second.

"Buttercup...am I a villain? Am I...am I a monster?"

Buttercup couldn't take it. She looked into Bubbles's eyes, with tears shining anew in the moonlight, and proceeded to give her the biggest hug she knew how to give. She let Bubbles sob on her shoulder as she rubbed her back and stroked her hair. After about a minute, she pushed Bubbles back a bit while keeping her hands on her shoulders, so that she could look directly at her.

"NO. No, you are not a villain, Bubbles, and you are not a monster. If anyone's the monster, it's Elmer's dad! I can't believe that he would do that to anybody, let alone his own son! Poor Elmer...I would have never guessed. I bet that's why he looked so scared—I don't think it was because he was afraid of what you were about to do, but more like he was afraid because you had just found out his secret. You probably had a similar look on your face when you saw that I found out your secret tonight. And believe me when I say that that guy is lucky that it was you who found out. Had it been me who had seen it, or maybe even Blossom...well, let's just say his luck may have run out forever. But no, you're not evil. Not by a long shot...I think the fact that you held back at all says enough. I wouldn't have thought twice about it."

It was the truth. Even as Buttercup was saying it, an intense anger at Elmer's father arose in her, as well as a great sadness for Elmer himself. He was timid and shy to begin with; now she knew why. How would she treat him, knowing what she knew now? But that was a problem for another day; Buttercup had to get a grip on herself if she wanted to help Bubbles through this.

"But you probably would've been able to deal with it," Bubbles spoke again. "I couldn't...it's been tearing me apart inside. How do you do it? I mean...whenever you do something you regret, how do you get over it?"

Buttercup let go of Bubbles and sat back down in her chair.

"How do I get over it? Well, like I said, I used to use fighting to get over my stress, because it felt good to fight villains who I felt deserved it anyways. Then you guys said that I was becoming too violent, so I learned other ways. A great man taught me how to meditate to remain calm and reel in my emotions, and how to keep a positive attitude about things. He taught me to do things in moderation, and not to revel in fighting...so I try not to anymore."

Bubbles looked surprised.

"…You meditate?" Buttercup chuckled and nodded.

"Yeah. Whenever there's something negative that's bothering me that I can't just get rid of by crying or screaming or painting or coloring or anything like that, I go to the roof and meditate." She repeated Bubbles's words with a playful smirk, and it managed to get Bubbles to crack her first smile of the night. "I could show you how if you wanted to learn..."

Bubbles answered playfully, "Yeah, I'd like that. If it could get you to calm down, it'll definitely be good enough for me!"

"Ha, ha," Buttercup replied, sticking out her tongue. "Of course, I still do enjoy kicking butt. A lot. I just don't do it as stress relief anymore. But I'd be willing to spar with you if there's something so bad that meditation won't be enough. I think it'll be better that way, anyways, because you're fighting a real person instead of fake monsters, and it'll be me, so we can talk about it afterwards."

Bubbles smile grew wider.

"Yeah...I think I'd like that, too. You could even teach me how to fight better!"

Buttercup laughed. "Or vice-versa." Bubbles looked confused.

"You just beat level 15 downstairs! I barely beat level 12 not too long ago. Since when were you able to fight so good, and why didn't you tell me!"

Bubbles, for her part, actually looked a bit sheepish.

"Oh...yeah...heh heh...I told you I've been going down there for the past few months. Usually, I only beat the level when I'm feeling really, really bad about something. If I'm just mad or sad and that's it, I lose most of the time. So maybe I'm just getting lucky."

"Or maybe you've been holding out on me this whole time. I guess now I'll be able to find out." Buttercup's voice, which she had purposely tuned to try and lighten the mood, turned more serious.

"But more than anything, Bubbles, I just want you to know that I'll always be here for you, and Blossom will too. If something's bothering you, just talk to us about it. It doesn't have to be right away, it can be whenever you're ready, but just don't let it sit in your mind for too long. And please promise me you'll stop going to the basement at night for anything other than just to train."

Bubbles stared at her sister for a bit, thinking off-handedly that Buttercup had never seemed older than she had at that moment. She cracked another smile.

"Okay, Buttercup, I promise. And thank you...for everything." And she returned the hug her sister had given her before.

"Anytime. And I mean it. Now come on...it's too early in the morning for this much drama!" Bubbles chuckled.

The two sisters rose from the table. Bubbles rinsed her glass and set it in the sink, and the pair of them floated back upstairs to their bedroom. They found Blossom stirring awake when they entered.

"Girls, it's...almost 4:00 a.m. Why are you up?" She asked in a groggy voice. Bubbles and Buttercup looked at each other and smiled.

"Couldn't sleep."

"Got milk."

"Feeling better."

"Good night!"

Blossom shook her head and nestled back into her pillow again. Bubbles and Buttercup crawled into bed themselves and exchanged good-nights before drifting off to sleep.

Neither one of them could remember having a more peaceful slumber.

And there it is. I apologize if Bubbles or Buttercup were too OOC. I did try to get them as right as I could, but I wonder if it was believable. As I said, I've never written a dark story before, so any comments and/or criticisms will be greatly appreciated. And while I do accept and welcome anonymous reviews, I can only answer you back if you sign in ;-).

Above all, thank you so much for reading! Please do review, as it's the only way I can get better!