Fill in the Blanks
LuluCalliope
Chapter Eight
"What's she doing here?" Snake demanded of Ace. "She's not supposed to be here!"
"You can ask me directly, you know," Princess said primly. "I've my reasons."
"What are you doing here?" Snake repeated with a small smirk. "You're not supposed to be here! There, is that better?"
"I heard you fine the first time," she curtly replied, and she didn't flinch when Ace socked him roughly in the shoulder. "Now, I only wanted to voice my concerns about a few things in our plan. I want everyone's opinion on them. So, if you'll excuse us, Powerpuff—how are you three, by the way?"
"Why do you care?" Buttercup asked harshly through clenched teeth. She winced as Bubbles flicked a small glass shard out of her skin.
Princess looked like she was at a loss for words. She stared at each Powerpuff thoughtfully as she contemplated her words carefully. "I don't know," she said at last. "I don't know. I think I always have a little—"
"That's why you turned people against us, used your powers for ruthless reasons, and formed alliances with people in the hopes that we would be destroyed," Blossom said accusingly.
And Bubbles coughed something that sounded like, "Rowdyruff!" Princess sighed in frustration.
"Besides," Blossom added, wincing as blood began to slowly ebb from Buttercup's cuts again. "You all are still evil enough to work for Him. You don't care much about anything except for mayhem and misery, do you?"
"Is that what you think?" Princess asked in a shrill whisper, and my heart stopped when I noticed that tears were filling up in her dark eyes. "Do you think that just because I am—used to be—evil that I cannot feel compassion or show kindness? Do you three think that you're the only ones capable of feeling anything pure? Well, I have a father too, you know. And I need for him to be safe…just like you need the Professor to be kept out of harm's way." She sniffled. "I'm not here on my own accord, and I'm not…I'm not like I was before, although I think…our worst nightmare seems to think I haven't changed. Those lessons in acting seem to be paying off okay."
"They could be better," Butch muttered wryly, and Princess smiled through the stream of tears. She became solemn again, and she looked at the girls intently.
"Say something," she ordered.
"I don't believe you," Blossom challenged softly, her eyes narrowed.
"How can we?" Bubbles asked.
"Look, I don't know what I can do or say to you to convince you that I'm not here on my own accord. But my Daddy didn't want for me to do this, but he told me to join this cause…because if I didn't, I'd be dead. And if I do, I'm better off, even if it is on thin ice." She bristled when Blossom rolled her eyes. "You know what? I'm sorry I wasted your time." She turned back to our "team". "Boys, follow me." She stormed out of the room we were in, and led us down the hall to what looked like another crude study or conservatory of some sort. She waited for us to enter before she closed the door. "Can any of you read?"
"A little," Ace said, and the rest of us nodded in agreement.
"Then I'll try to keep this as monosyllabic as possible…meaning I won't use big words…and I'll write in print, not cursive," she whispered. There was a desk in the room, and she wandered over to it, opening various drawers. She finally pulled out several sheets of notebook paper, as well as pens of various colors. Satisfied, she handed each of us a sheet and a pen before taking the pen in her hand and scribbling something down on a spare sheet. She held it up for everyone to see. "Can you read this?" it asked. Most of us nodded vigorously, but I translated the writing through blowing raspberries for the few members of the Gangrene Gang—Big Billy and Snake—that weren't avid readers. Princess smiled gratefully at me before she continued writing. After about three minutes, she held up a new message.
"I'm sorry that we have to do this, but I don't want for the girls to listen to us talking. Now, I wanted to share this with you. I think that there's something bigger than the plan the Nightmare has in store for us. I think that someone's watching over his progress…I think that down in the Underground, or whatever he likes to call it, there's something that told Him to hurry us along so that he can do what he wants us to do. He said that this is something bigger than taking over Townsville, and I want to find out what it is. Am I going too fast for you, or are you following me okay so far?"
Most of us nodded, but I turned to my sheet of paper, filling in the blanks between the lines. I felt everyone watching me as I lifted up my own paper. "What do you propose we do?" It read.
She smiled once more before scribbling out her answer neatly. We all had mild smiles on our faces, too, but they faded once the meaning of the words sunk in. "I know that we aren't going to find out much of anything by doing the Nightmare's evil bidding. I think what convinced me of the bigger reasons of this plan was his fit tonight. So here's what I propose: tomorrow I have to run a few errands for Mojo Jojo. On the way there, I'm going to visit Fuzzy. He may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he may have the answers we're looking for."
"Are you crazy?" Butch wrote, poking holes in the paper from pressing the pen too hard against the surface.
I elaborated a little on that, writing, "How are we going to get out of the arcade? There's no way we'll be allowed off of guard duty that easily!"
She tapped the pen against her bottom lip thoughtfully before printing, "I'll take either the Gangrene Gang or the Rowdyruff Boys with me. The rest of the team will have to stay behind."
"Riffraff," Boomer corrected on his own paper. Princess rolled her eyes.
"I think I'll take you three with me. You can use the excuse that you were out on day patrol, keeping the skies clear of any weird planes or whatever." The boys nodded enthusiastically.
"Give me the papers," Princess suddenly ordered in her regular speaking voice. We complied, and she ripped the sheets up until they didn't resemble much except for confetti. Satisfied, she sprinkled each little particle into the trash can that rested under the desk. "We can't take any chances," she whispered anxiously before opening the door to the study. She walked down the hall towards the exit, but she paused in front of the room that we had left the Powerpuff Girls in.
"By the way," I heard her saying in a stage whisper, "I hope that you remember that I wanted to be a Powerpuff. I never wanted to be your enemy." And with that, she walked to the exit. She stood there impatiently for a long while before someone remembered to unlock it for her.
Shortly after she left, there was another argument over night patrol. In the end, it went to Brick and Snake. "Punch him if he says or does anything stupid," Ace advised the Rowdyruff. We left then, and we were so silent and thoughtful that we could hear the key turning in the lock.
We didn't speak until we arrived back at the dump. And then Big Billy fell into a fit of hysterics again. "It's the zombies!" He wailed again, and Ace sighed, giving up on the attempts to convince him that there was no such thing as zombies.
Little Arturo, on the other hand, hadn't. "I don't think zombies exist anymore," he said gently.
"So what do you think this is about?" Ace asked.
"I don't know," Artie shrugged. "No se, mi amigo."
"Will you stop speaking Spanish?" Ace snapped.
"I can't help it!" Artie replied. "I can't help it! I'm nervous! I always speak Spanish when I'm nervous!"
"What's there to be nervous about?"
"I don't know!"
"Then stop being nervous!"
"Stop fighting!" Big Billy wailed, and I blew a raspberry harshly.
"Grubber's right," Ace said, relaxing a little. "Let's save it for Snake. I will punch him in the face if he blows our cover...or something."
"Or something," we repeated after him, settling down for the night.
Yeah, I thought, my eyes closing, or something…
A/N: Phew! My brother has been pressuring me to write this chapter all morning. I told him that I am going to kill someone in the story, and he gasped and said, "Oh no, not (spoilers)!" I rolled my eyes and said, "No, not (spoilers)." But I do know who it is…and I do know that there are a few surprises coming up in the next chapter. Review, please!
