Blossom walked along a dark alley, crying as she thought back on the horrible countenance of Link whom she herself had hurt while he was helping her friend. She felt so horrible that tears hadn't stopped streaming down her face since she'd flown away. The sun had started to set and the alleyway became the haven of shadows, one in particular was following the saddened Powerpuff.

"Why are you so sad?" a whisper of a voice echoed in Blossom's ears.

Blossom whipped around to see no one there, yet she couldn't see the shadow on the wall behind her that had taken a ghostly form.

"Who's there?" Blossom asked loudly, her call echoed through the empty alley

"Why no one is here but you, you and your shadow." The voice said, "Now tell me, what happened?"

"I…I," Buttercup started and turned her head to the ground, "I hurt a friend." She said ashamed

"Oh dear!" The voice said in a kind of mocking tone that Blossom was too depressed to pick up, "And why did you hurt your friend?" the voice asked

"I thought… he was mocking me but it wound up he was just helping a friend." Blossom responded

"Oh my," The shadowy voice said, Blossom not realizing that shadows had started to grow up her socks like vines, "that is sad. But you were right to show him that you wouldn't be mocked!" The voice continued, "tell me what did you do?"

"I broke his arm and probably a rib." Blossom said allowing her depression to stab at her soul like so many knives still failing to realize that the shadowy vines had reached the base of her skirt. "He probably hates me now!" She said and started crying all over again.

"Oh, yes he probably does but you don't need anyone Blossom. Don't you lead the Powerpuff girls? Isn't it up to you to keep the whole city safe? If you're not there then the others can't function, that seems a little too much responsibility to lay on such a small girl." The shadow said reaching the base of her shirt with those vine-like tendrils going ever upward.

"It's hard sometimes but I had always thought that the others had had my back." Blossom stated thinking on the faces of Bubbles, Buttercup and Link.

"Lies." The voice said, "All of them wanted your position and power."

"We did fight an awful lot over everything, at one point we even broke the moon in half trying to see who was the leader." She said recounting that day and smiled for an instant. The shadow's went back just a little, then Blossom thought on the bloodied face of Link and her depression came back ten fold to which the shadows grew rapidly till they had finally reached her neck and started to climb up both sides of her cheeks.

"You Worthless piece of garbage!" The voice cried out in a howl, "they'll never accept you for what you've done."

At this Blossom's depression reached it's peak, she fell to the ground bawling and the shadowy sinews closed in around her tear filled eyes and reached the pupils. The pupils dilated to cover up all of her eyes so that they were only black and white.

"Yes! Now listen to Zant who cares for you and only Zant." The shadowy voice said revealing at last his name.

Blossom had stopped crying and stood on her two feet, face towards the ground. All color had left her body so that her skin was pale and her vibrant red bow now fell to a dull pink. "Yes you care for me." Blossom repeated.

"You must destroy those that have offended you, prepare the way for my master." Zant commanded.

"Yes. They must pay." Blossom said monotonously

"So tomorrow you must bring everyone together and use this." A shadowy hand came from the wall and deposited a small black box into her hand. "This will solve all your troubles and grant all your wishes, consider it a gift from my master, Ganondorf!" the shadow said and then disappeared leaving Blossom in her trancelike state with a small box.

….

Meanwhile, Bubbles looked around the white room she had found herself in. She couldn't remember anything except when the card had burst her bubble. She looked around but all she could see was two doorways on opposite sides of the room one that was white and the other that was black. They had no doors yet when Bubbles looked around each of them they seemed to be just doorways standing in a room.

"Now how did I end up here?" She thought, all she could remember was that instant and everything else was a blank.

She walked around each of the doors and through them but there didn't seem to be anything special about them just two doorways standing on opposite sides of a white room.

"I wonder what these are for?" She said to herself

"They are the gates of choice." Came a voice behind her.

She whirled around to see a woman standing in the middle of the room. She was tall and slender with armor covering her chest. Her shoulders were bare and she had golden bracers on each arm, her pants were tight with purple and black colors on them and on her feet were steel shoes that looked like dress shoes to Bubbles.

"How did you get here? Are you trapped too?" Bubbles asked naively

"No I am not trapped here. I am Impa and a sage of the temple of spirits." The woman explained

"Temple of Spirits?" Bubbles asked

"Yes it is where the dead spirits go to await 'The Sorting'!" she said.

"Dead spirit's? Then how did I get here? I'm obviously not dead!" Bubbles said in a confident tone

Impa smiled sympathetically and raised her hands towards the ceiling. Suddenly the room changed and Bubbles could still see the two doorways and feel the floor under her feet but she seemed to be standing in midair above what seemed to be a mostly destroyed road.

"I think I know this place!" Bubbles announced and saw the crowd of villains that she remembered fighting just now. She saw how Ace threw that black card and saw how her bubble popped but stood in shock when she saw the card pierce her heart.

"Is this… Did I die?" She asked pointing at the frozen image of her with a black card sticking out of her chest.

"You did." Impa said and lowered her hands and released the image

"Boy death is a lot different than I had imagined." She said kind of whiny

"That is because you are not dead." Impa started to explain

"But I thought you said I died?" Bubbles asked

"I said you did die." Impa clarified as a strange music filled the room. "This song is the full Requiem of the Spirit which allows you to choose if you want to go back to living," She said inclining towards the doorway leading into a blackness, "or continue onward to your sorting." She finished pointing to the doorway that led into light.

"But neither of these doors seem to lead anywhere." Bubbles said

"That is because you are not ready for them to, when you are ready your pathway will be clear to you." Impa said, "But you must be ready first. In the meantime let me help you ease your mind." Impa snapped her fingers and suddenly the room changed into a fashion show.

The runway was lit up and so many people seemed to be going in to see it. Bubbles walked over and looked inside to see herself preparing one of the models to go out and display one of the best looking outfits Bubbles had ever seen.

"This could be yours." Impa said walking slowly behind the starry eyed Bubbles, "If you sort well that is. There is no guarantee on earth you will ever become successful but here it is an automatic."

Bubbles took one more look and then looked down and turned around and stared at Impa with a look of determination in her eyes. "Send me back!" She commanded

"Are you sure?" Impa asked, "You'd be giving up on this ultimate dream of yours. There is no guarantees in life do you want to give up your happiness for some people who won't ever be able to help you accomplish it."

"I know that there is a possibility that I will never be successful in life but that's half the fun of living. I can help my friends and family and that's what's important. True this world is my ultimate dream but I can wait for it, it could never be realized without my friends and I would never be happy without them." Bubbles said nearly to the point of shouting

"This room reflects ones innermost desires. Look! The doorway to the sorting is open, that means you truly want to move onward why fight it?" Impa asked.

"You don't seem to realize," Bubbles said more calmly, putting her fist down, "sometimes people are given the opportunity they really want at the time but in the end a desire comes down to a choice, and when given a choice between a dream and my friends… My friends will win every time! Desires can change in an instant, but true friends stay true forever!" she said confidently and walked into the black doorway and disappeared from view.

Impa smiled and looked towards the fashion show, "Funny girl she says she cares about her friends but I don't see any of them here in the image of her desires."

Suddenly the Bubbles from the image said, "Okay Blossom you're good to go!" and the model that she had been preparing turned to reveal a cheery red-head with a bow in her hair ready to walk down the runway. Bubbles then looked out into the audience and waved hi to two people in the crowd. One was a raven-haired woman holding a small child and the other was a green-shirted young man with his arm around her. "I'm sure glad Link and Buttercup were all able to make it to my first fashion show." This Bubbles said to herself as the echo of her inner-thoughts permeated the room.

Impa smiled again. "Well I'll be! No wonder Link chose to use the resurrection song on this one, she truly knows the meaning of life, Friendship!" and soon the image faded and the room fell into non-existence.

Thanks for continuing to read on I hope that some of you are at least finding it a little entertaining, Ultima S. Next, A long road for two to travel.