A/N; FINAL CHAPTER PARTY! Woot, boogie over here, boogie over there, boogie everywhere! YAY! Guys, I made a thing! It's such a thingy thing, isn't it? Much excite! So fun! Lots wow! Anyhow, I don't own PPG and no money has been made at all.

ONE WEEK LATER-

The former Mayor stood behind the podium making a speech about his time looking out for the citizens of Townsville. "Lastly, I would like to thank the Powerpuff girls. They have…" He wiped away a tear. "They have always been so willing to lend a hand. They are like granddaughters to me. Thank you, Townsville, it has been one heck of a ride." Mrs. Cartwright placed an envelope in his hand. "Now, it is time to announce the new Mayor of Townsville." He tore it open and read the paper in his hand. "Townsville, please welcome our new Mayor of Townsville; Mayor Franks!"

The new Mayor rose from his chair beside the podium to shake hands with his predecessor. Mrs. Cartwright gave him the sash, hat, and the key to the City. Everyone was clapping hard, whistling, and shouting congratulations. Mayor Franks shook hands with Franks, and took a spot at the podium.

Mrs. Cartwright and Mayor swore Mayor Franks into the office. Afterwards, he turned to face the audience. "Citizens of Townsville, it is a pleasure to know you chose me to represent all of you. I-" He suddenly froze and his eyes seemed to glaze over. "I hate all of you. You disgust me to no end. You cannot control excess, so you burden others with the job of keeping you safe from yourselves. I refuse to take responsibility for any of you. Therefore, I declare that all crime is now legal including homicide. Feel free to ruin yourselves, which you've been so determined to do for so long."

Bubbles felt her heart stutter in her chest. She shared a shocked look with her sisters. Buttercup flew right up to Mayor Franks' face. "Hey, I don't know who you think you are, buddy. You'd better resign now!"

A nasty smile showed the man's teeth. "I am the Mayor and I will do whatever the HELL I want." He raised an arm and a yellow beam blew Buttercup into a pillar of the courthouse. Mayor Williams laughed evilly and grabbed Mrs. Cartwright by the arm to drag her back to his office. "Come on, bitch. You've got documents to write up."

"What the heck was that about?!" Buttercup spat out the dust that had gotten into her mouth. She flew back over to her sisters. "Girls, we have got to take care of that asshole before he destroys the city!" She tried to fly after the new Mayor, but was blasted back by yet another sickly yellow burst of power.

HIM watched the entire scene go down. He secretly seethed as Bubbles' sisters attempted to dodge Mayor Franks' attacks. Bubbles grabbed his arm. "Do you know anything about this?" She whispered urgently.

He nodded almost imperceptably. "I know who is doing this. This is my brother's handiwork." He turned to face her. "He's possessed the Mayor. The three of you combined would not be able to stop him. I can, but I would have to reveal myself."

She knew what he was asking. "Do it, we will deal with the repercussions later. We will distract him, while you prepare." She bit her lip and floated up, but sped back down to him. She placed her hands on both sides of his face and kissed him hard on the lips. "I think I love you." She said in his ear before she flew away to join her sisters.

Him stood there for a second. "Well, that was anti-climactic." He looked down to see the talking dog sitting by his feet. "What are you doing staring at me? You should be saving the city, dumbass." The dog rolled his eyes.

The demon shook off his surprise just as the top of the courthouse exploded in a shower of concrete dust. He pushed his way out of the crowd and ran into the building. He saw the possessed Mayor shooting beams of power at the girls. They always managed to dodge just in time, but a yellow blast nearly knocked Bubbles out of the air and an incredible rage like he'd never mustered before filled him. Blinded by anger, he forgot that he was not simply attacking his brother and slammed bodily into the Mayor. The crunch of bones could be heard.

"Sir! It's not safe!" Blossom, still thinking that he was merely Mr. Offelees, yelled down to him.

Mephistofelees shed his human form at that reminder. His body was enveloped in deep red fire and his eyes glowed with a bloodlust that promised endless pain to the one who had incited his wrath. "Demoriel, I warned you to stay out of this." His voice was cold as ice. "Give up your hold on the human. Stand down."

Demoriel cackled. "Alright, brother." A swirl of yellow vapor exited Mayor Williams' mouth and materialized. "It's not as if I could utilize my full power while controling him, anyway." He said dismissively. "You know, I've always wanted to fight you. I just never had a justifiable excuse."

He grinned widely. No one had challanged him in millenia and now one of the few demons that had almost enough power to defeat him had taken the initiave. "How amusing, Demmie."

Demoriel dropped his calm façade at this comment and growled at his brother. He burst into a ball of yellow flame that grew bigger by the second. Bubbles watched in horror, unable to move from her spot until her sisters yanked her back. "What the hell is going on?" Buttercup demanded to know as they witnessed both demons transform into their true forms.

"I don't know, but we've got to evacuate the city before their fight crushes everyone!" Blossom commanded. "Come on, girls." She swooped down to scoop up as many people as she could. Bubbles and Buttercup did the same.

Overhead, a thundercloud had formed. Lightening and thunder, presumably summoned by either Mephistofelees or Demoriel, clashed and echoed through the city. People screamed in panic and scattered as they witness the most horrific battle of their lives. Red and yellow fire flew through the air like granades and soon most of the surrounding area was also circled in a huge blaze.

Bubbles dared to glance away from her duty and witnessed Demoriel smashing the upper half of a building into HIM's face. Her heart gave a painful start, but she forced herself to look away. It took a few minutes, but they saved the entirity of the group that had been watching the election, plus the inhabitants of the surrounding buildings. Blossom had corralled the citizens and was now shouting evacuation orders. The huge group of people moved into the the city park, which was far enough away from the courthouse that they should be safe.

However, Blossom insisted that she remain behind with them while Buttercup and Bubbles returned to try to resolve the situation. Buttercup glared at Bubbles as they sped side by side. "Did you know anything about this?"

Bubbles scowled at her sister. "This is really not the time for an inquisition, Buttercup!" She refuted any further demanding questions her sister asked in the next few seconds. They stopped just a couple of feet away from the on-going scuffle. She held her breath as she watched HIM break Demoriel's arm. The other demon howled in pain and aimed a fireball at his face. Mephistofelees gracefully dodged the projectile, but Bubbles had not reacted in time.

"BUBBLES!" Buttercup screamed as she lept away.

The fireball slammed into her body and she screamed in pain. The pain of Hellfire is so much worse than normal fire. She passed out mid-air and fell back into the pavement. The noise got the demons attention. Upon realizing what had happened, an earsplitting screech cut through the air. His infernal rage fueled Mephistofelees' fire so that it burned higher and brighter than ever before. It reached a full twenty feet above his head

Demoriel felt a strange sensation on his foot and he looked down at the rubble to see a minescule white dog. "I think you might've fucked up." He said before trotting swiftly away. The next thing the yellow demon saw was a massive fireball. He was knocked completely off of his feet and flew nearly a quarter of mile straight into a skyscraper. The building toppled onto his head, but he had bigger problems.

Bigger, more pissed off problems.

Mephistofelees was pounding the hell out of Demoriel. Blood and bits of torn flesh covered his fists, but he did not stop. He could not stop. She is dead. She is dead. She's dead. "YOU KILLED HER!" He snarled at the limp body beneath him, which was now putting up no resistance. Bones crunched and teeth turned to powder, and Demoriel's flesh was giving much more easily than before. He was literally being punched into pulp.

It was several minutes later before HIM realized that he had truly destroyed Demoriel. His rage waned, but the pain did not. His true form wavered and faded. The demon dropped to his knees at the edge of the massive hole in the pavement where Bubbles had landed and he reached down to touch her. He gently lifted her out and cradled her body close.

Demons do not love.

Demons do not cry.

Buttercup tried to approach, but a demonic growled warned her away. He petted his beloved's face. "I am so very sorry, Bubbles." Buttercup couldn't understand what was happening. Why was HIM holding her sister like that? Why did he sound so broken? "You can not imagine how much I mean that." He pressed his forehead against hers. "Why did you come back, you silly woman?!"

"I..am..not..silly." A weak cough punctuated her remark.

"Bubbles?" Buttercup murmured in awe.

Bubbles opened her eyes and smiled a little. "HIM, I was wrong before. I definitely love you." HIM gripped her tighter and buried his face in her hair. He was saying something over and over again that Buttercup couldn't really make out, but it sounded like he was saying 'I love you, too.'

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

FINAL CHAPTER

Bubbles woke, for the second and hopefully final time within only three months, in the hospital. Every part of her hurt and when she looked down she could see that most of her upper half was wrapped in bandages. That included most of her face, as well. She could catch snatches of a conversation taking place outside her door. "-minimal scarring, though she has lost most of her hair. Although, that should grow back with time." There was another person there that answered which she couldn't hear. "No, sir. I'm afraid we did the best…..asleep at the moment….no visitors…" The other voice sounded irritated now. "No, I just told you we can't-!"

HIM burst through the door despite the RN's protests and strode determinedly over to her bed. "Bubbles!" He exlaimed exuberantly. "I brought flowers!" He sat a beautiful bouquet of tiger lilies by her bedside. "Good news, looks like you'll be out of here in no time. Bubbles tried to reply, but the bandaging muffled her words. "Don't worry, the doctor said that the fire did very little damage to your skin. The worst of it hit your chest, so there might be a few scars-" His eyes flicked down to her bandaged torso and something dark flashed there.

His smile returned. "Nevermind about that, because it looks like Lucy has some 'splainin' to do!" She tried her best to convey her question with her eyes. "Well, your sisters practically beat down my door." He made a pouty face. He'd spent a long time hunting down the perfect antique door to replace the old one. "They left marks on the-" He caught her look and immediately got to the point. "Anyway, I tried to explain what was going on, but they wouldn't have it. They wanted the story from you, but since you have been in and out of conciousness they had no other choice. I don't know why they bothered to ask me if they weren't going to believe any of it." He chuckled.

Another male nurse accompanying the first strode into the room. "Sir, I'm afraid only family may visit Ms. Utonium at this time."

HIM smiled deviously. "I'm sorry, but I was under the impression that being her fiance counted as family." He laid an arm across his forhead in dismay. "Oh my, I just can't stand it any longer. My dearest Bubbles could die at any moment. We must get married immediately!" He pointed at the nurse. "Please retrieve the acting pastor/priest/et cetera in the building."

"Sir, I highly doubt-" HIM pretended to start sobbing heavily on the nurse's chest. He pushed the 'inconsolable' demon off of him. "Uh, fine….just…get off me, man."

Bubbles looked on in a slight panic as the nurses left. "Don't worry, that was only a distraction so I could do this." He scooped her out of the bed and, in a flash of fire, they had disappeared. The poor nurses would return with the confused priest to an empty room. He started to unravel the bandages that were practically holding her hostage. "There." He said when he finished and he admired the outcome. "Don't worry, still as beautiful as ever."

"HIM?" She said softly. "Are you alright?"

"Just peachy." He said in voice that was a bit too hyper. He immediately melted under her inquiring gaze. "Oh, fine. You caught me. Bubbles, you have no idea what it's been like for me the past two weeks. After everything happened, your sisters wanted to beat me six ways to Sunday. They wouldn't even let me see you; they guarded the damn door like attack dogs. When it wasn't them there, it was that superhero Goof Troop the Justice Friends." He closed his eyes, a look of drawn-out suffering on his face. "I had no idea how you were or if you'd been…damaged." He said the word carefully. He glanced quickly at her and reached out to her. His claw brushed her chest. "I am so sorry about this." She looked down at herself and noticed a small, and roughly round patch of scarred skin to the left and just below her collarbone. She examined the rest of her skin and, apart from being a bit tender and pink, found it to be relatively fine. She rushed to the bathroom to examine her face. There was small, ragged scar along her cheekbone, too. "That must have come from hitting the pavement." He had followed her to the bathroom.

"Oh, it's so ugly." Her eyes teared up as she met his reflected stare in the mirror. "A-am I ugly to you now?" Her hair had burned so badly that it was now only an inch long.

He appeared to be geniunely shocked. "What? Of course not!" He wrapped his arms around her from behind. She had been bare under the bandages, so her nearly naked body was now pressed against his. She had barely noticed that he was in his human form and dressed in normal clothes.

"How did you get past my sisters and the Justice Friends?" She asked to break the silence. He was silent for two minutes straight. "HIM?"

He groaned. "I'd hoped you wouldn't ask that particular question. I might have called in a favor from Mojo and the others. I might have also kidnapped a couple of high profile celebrities and imprisoned them on the top of the highest building in Townsville….and I also might have done a few other morally questionable things that I would rather you not ask about." He chuckled. "After all, your sisters can't blame you if you didn't know, hmm?"

She was about to respond when there was a frantic pounding at the front door. "HIM, you get out here now or we'll force you out!" It was Buttercup speaking.

Bubbles sighed. "I'll get it." She was dreading the long-overdue explanation to her family concerning the events of the past few months, but it had be done. Family, after all, tended to be rather persistant in these matters. She tentatively opened the door just as Buttercup was aiming a flying kick and barely got out of the way. Her sister crashed head-first into the kitchen. HIM chuckled when he saw her predicament.

"Welcome back, girls." He said pleasantly.

"Can it, you." Blossom snapped. HIM sniffed in an affronted manner and busied himself with making tea. Blossom glared at Bubbles. "I want to know exactly how long you knew about this and why you thought it was a good idea to keep it from us. We're your sisters, how could you do this to us?" Blossom's eyes were welling up with angry tears.

"I-"

"Yeah, traitor!" Buttercup flew up in Bubbles' face. "I saw you two being all lovey-dovey after that fight. Are you going to tell us that he's changed or that he's really just a sensitive guy lashing out at the world like some cheesey Mommy Porn novel?

Bubbles ground her teeth in an effort to keep herself in check. "No, he's just as much of an asshat as he's always been. He enjoys mayhem, chaos, and shopping. No one can expect him to change. I just happen to have feelings for him in spite of those things." Buttercup made a gagging noise, while Blossom refused to look at her 'traitorous' sibling. "Buttercup, you have no room to talk about me. I know you've been going soft on the Gang Green Gang for a while. You think that I don't know why you don't feel like pummeling them anymore?" Bubbles reminded her sister in a dangerously low voice. Blossom, surprised, frowned sternly at Buttercup who had the decency to blush."Besides, he promised me he wouldn't attack Townsville anymore."

"Because we can definitely trust HIM." Blossom snarked back at her.

Bubbles ignored her sibling. "To answer your questions directly, I've known that it was HIM since the night we had dinner together. He told me himself-"

Buttercup interjected rudely. "What did you do when he told you?"

Bubbles bit her lip. "I….uh…I punched him….a lot."

Buttercup scoffed. "Well, at least you had it right in the beginning."

The blonde puff face palmed. "No, you're not getting it!" She went over to HIM and grabbed him. She pulled him over to her sisters. "He told me himself. As in, he voluntarily gave up information that he could have used to hurt me, you, and Blossom."

"Am I allowed to have any say in this argument?" HIM asked politely.

"NO!" All three of them yelled at him simultaneously.

Bubbles tightened her grip on his arm. "You saw him fight that other demon…" She glanced up at HIM, who mouthed 'Demoriel' at her. "He fought Demoriel to protect all of us-"

"Well, actually, just you." He corrected.

"Not. Helping." She growled out of the corner of her mouth. "You know how we couldn't even touch Demoriel? Yeah, HIM is stronger than he was. He could have destroyed everyone and everything a long time ago if he really wanted to. Instead, he's just spent most of his time teasing us and causing low-level mischief."

A high pitched whistle broke in. "That would be the tea." HIM said brightly.

Blossom shared a glance with Buttercup. "We aren't saying you've convinced us." Blossom crossed her arms stubbornly. "If he causes any problems, small or big, then we are separating you."

Bubbles arched a sceptical eyebrow. "No, you won't. I've let both of you steer me in this or that direction my entire childhood. I suppose now is as good a time as any to put my foot down and set my own terms. I suspect that both of you will search for any trumped up reason to try to separate us. That's why I am telling you right now that if you try to do that at all I will cut you both completely out of my life. I will not speak to you, write to you or even acknowledge that you exist." She paused and continued in a gentler tone. "Please, let me make my own choices for once. Blossom, I appreciate that you want something better for me, but I will not be going to college no matter how many pamphlets you put on my bed. Buttercup, I will never be as tough as you are. I cannot change the fact that I am more sensitive than you are, so you can keep your 'grow up' speeches to yourself. This is not a phase or some sort of rebellion. This is how I've felt the my entire life. The pair of you have practically smothered me in demeaning underestimation and I've finally realized that it isn't a betrayal to stand up to you."

"Bubbles, the tea." She released her grip on him. He bustled over the the screaming teapot to remove it from the stovetop.

"We had no idea you felt that way." Blossom spoke quietly. "We weren't trying to bully you. We just want the best-"

Bubbles pinched the bridge of her nose. "Yes, I know, but what is best in your opinion isn't what is best to me. Look, I don't have very high aspirations for a career. My dreams are to have a quiet life as an artist. If I also have to have a job on the side, then that is fine. In regards to HIM, I'm not exactly sure because I can't predict the future. It will either work or it won't."

"And if it doesn't? Bubbles, what if it doesn't work and he ends up hurting you?" Blossom sounded pained.

Bubbles shrugged. "I will move on, I suppose. Although, it'd be pretty hard considering I'd have already had the best." HIM began sniggering quietly in the background. Bubbles grinned at her own joke.

Buttercup rolled her eyes very theatrically. "Please tell me you don't mean what I think you mean." Blossom looked a bit green as well.

Bubbles was confused for moment, then their meaning struck her like a ton of bricks. "What?! No, no, that is not what I meant!" She insisted, though her sisters looked doubtful.

HIM, sensing an opportunity, closed in and wrapped her in a close embrace. "That doesn't mean it isn't in cards." He said in a sing-song voice while looking directly at her sisters.

Buttercup clapped a hand over her mouth. "I think I'm gonna be sick. That's our sister, man!"

Blossom, awkward and turning greener by the second, reached into her purse and shoved something into Bubbles' hand. The blond puff took a single look at it and blushed beet-red. Blossom had handed her a handful of condoms. "Be safe…" Blossom awkward stepped backward. "We're..uh..gonna go now. Bubbles,….remember from high school…it's…erm..like a banana…." She rushed off in a streak of pink followed closely by a retching Buttercup.

Bubbles glared up at HIM who was in the midst of a manic fit of laughter. "Did you see their faces?!" He said in between his hysterical chuckles. He calmed down when he noticed that she wasn't equally amused. "You wanted to get rid of them, right?"

She ran a hand through her newly short hair. "Yes, but did you have to mention our sex life?" She moaned in exasperation.

"Which is non-existant, by the way." He reminded her. "We should change that." For that, she booped him on the head. "What was that for?" He rubbed his head.

"For being a dirty perv." She chirped. She happily sipped her tea while he grumpily dumped half the sugar bowl in his own cup.

()()()()()()()

It took an amazingly short amount of time for everyone in Bubbles' extended family to accept her and HIM as a package deal. The professor had been the most enthusiastic and the girls were surprised to hear that HIM and the professor had run into each other several times over the years. In fact, they were almost friendly. "Well, that explains that bet they made when we were six." Buttercup muttered disapprovingly.

Professor Utonium had actively encouraged their relationship because, in his own words, HIM was ' not a bad guy for an inherently evil demon.'" Blossom could not bring herself to challenge their creator, so she simply sat in the corner watching the former criminal like a hawk. Professor's acceptance meant that Val was also pretty okay with HIM hanging around. Krunk was pretty much happy with everything considering he was no longer the only one with a mixed-morals relationship (which is what the newspapers called such things in an effort to be PC).

Major Glory had been as unhappy with the situation as Blossom, which was a topic that they bonded tightly over. He finally got to take her out for that coffee and they decided to see where that might lead. Six months after all this had started, they had been on their fourth date, which the patriotic hero had taken as a reason to decorate everything in tacky red, white, and blue flags, confetti, etc.

Buttercup took much longer to own up to her feelings for Ace. It began with a concert, which led to her accepting his offer to join his band. That, inevitably, led to her going on tour with them. You know what they say; what happens on tour, stays on tour. By the time they returned to Townsville, the pair were stuck to each other like glue. Blossom was even less happy about this than she had been about Bubbles, but she put up with the situation in hopes that it would blow over or, preferably, blow up.

In regards to our favorite pair of lovebirds, as far as I know they lived happily ever after. No, there were no children and they never bothered with marriage. After all, 'holy' matrimony doesn't do well for unholy union.

~Finite~

AND THE DAY IS SAVED THANKS TO HIM! It's good to know that everything turned out nice in the end. Well, mostly. Poor Blossom, haha! Thanks to everyone who loved and supported this rather /different/ story. We hibbles shippers are a very strange bunch. As always, have a lovely day my dear ducklings.