Secrets Ch. 12

Hey guys, I'm back! Sorry it's been so long, I had a Powerpuff Girls rut, and had to give it a rest for a while.

Anyway, as always I don't own the PPGs.

Thanks for sticking with me this long, If you see older chapters re-submitted in the near future, it because I couldn't stand the typos and grammatical errors in them.

Any who on with the story, please, please, please R&R!

Buttercup's POV:

Butch and I didn't talk the rest of the way to Dad's, I knew he was mad.

He wouldn't even look at me when we landed in the familiar front lawn; he just kept his head down.

Blossom looked at him curiously, and then up at me, as Brick rang the doorbell.

"Are you okay?" she mouthed

I just nodded

She didn't seem convinced and looked at Butch once more.

"I'm in the lab." Dad said over an intercom next to the door. There was a short buzz and the door swung open.

We all walked in casually, "So what are we going to do for training?" Boomer asked

"Dad should be able to help us figure something out." Bubbles answered

I rounded the corner, and my attention fell to the couch. It was littered with bloody cloths, and bandages.

"What happened?" Brick asked looking up horrified

"Dad!" Blossom yelled flying down to the lab, as we all followed.

Dad was in the corner, tending to a severely beaten and bruised Ace.

"Oh my gosh!" Bubbles said as we all stopped in shock.

"What the hell happened?" I asked taking in his condition.

"He got here this morning, he's been in and out of consciousness; I don't know what happened. I can't get him stop bleeding."

He said putting pressure on a cut Ace had on his forehead.

Brick and Blossom rattled off a list of suggestions, all of which Dad confirmed that he had tried.

I went to the chemical cabinet, and scanned it for the bottle I needed.

I grabbed one of the bigger bottles.

My siblings stared at me, as I dipped the end of a clean cloth in it.

"Here" I said handing it to the Professor. He just looked at me skeptically, but took it and gently applied it to the cut above Ace's eyebrow. His open wound immediately started to heal before our eyes.

"How'd you know how to do that?" Brick asked

"His blood has Chemical X traits, just like Mojo's; that's where the green color comes from. It's just like with us, Chemical X makes us heal faster." I said blankly as I watched Dad blot it on his forehead, and the cut started to very slowly heal.

Blossom changed the subject trying to get the most out of our time. "We were going to train, is that okay?" she asked Dad.

"Yes, of course, both training rooms are up and running help your selves."

I watched in my peripheral vision as all my siblings left for the training room which was more like a gym, unlike the digital training room I had been training in. Little did they know…

Butch stood there frozen watching me with a frown, almost as if he were studying me.

Boomer stopped awkwardly, "Dude, you coming?"

I looked up and his green eyes met mine for a split second, before I looked down at my feet.

"Yeah"

He followed his brother, and when the door to the training room closed I sighed.

"What's going on between you two?" Dad asked pulling a rolling chair up for me, and I sat, taking the cloth from him, and started carefully dabbing Ace's wounds with Chemical X.

"He knows something's up." I looked down at my work. "I told you. He just reads me too well."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him not to worry about it, that it would be fine."

There was an awkward silence between us.

"Do you remember when the three of us were in high school, and your Chemical X bottles would always go missing?"

"Yes, and I could never find out where they went."

"Well, he's injury prone; this one." I said nodding towards Ace.

"Ah" He said nodding.

I looked at him skeptically, "Did you know I was with him, back then?"

He chuckled "I knew there was someone. I just didn't know who."

"And here I was thinking I was so sneaky." I smirked.

The room fell silent again, and I put the cloth down, scooting my chair away from the stretcher.

"We're gunna get the girls back, right Dad?"

He nodded sensing the worry in my voice. "We're going to get them back, safe and sound."

He got up and kissed my forehead.

"The belt is finished, no more malfunctions." I just nodded. "But now you need to go train without it, build up your natural powers, okay?"

"Yeah" I got up, and headed for the training room. I stopped "Hey Dad…"

He turned from his work, back to me.

"Thank You, for everything."

He just smiled and nodded.

I pinned my now shorter hair in a ponytail, and entered the training room.

Brick was holding one punching bag while Butch wailed on it, sweat dripping already from his forehead.

Blossom was doing the same for Bubbles, as Boomer coached her.

I quickly taped up my hands, and headed for one of the unoccupied bags.

"BC you want me to spot you?" Boomer asked

I was too busy watching Butch, he was furious. Furious with me

"BC?" Boomer asked again.

"Uh, yeah sure" I nodded

Boomer took his spot behind the punching bag, and I noticed Butch staring at me out of my peripheral vision, as he and Brick switched places.

Blossom and Bubbles had started talking about possible plans, Brick and Butch soon joined in.

I put on my fingerless black boxing gloves and started punching the bag; Boomer holding it firmly in place. He was mainly listening to their theories, but concentrating on my actions.

"So we know they're separated, how do we get all three of the girls back safely?" Blossom asked to no one in particular.

I was hitting the bag at a pretty good even pace, as they kept talking.

"We could split up…"

Boomer suggested.

"I have a feeling that's what Him wants us to do though." Blossom said as she put her own gloves on and switched places with Bubbles.

"So, we stay together…that takes us three times longer to find them, than if we split up." Brick said in between punches.

"What do you think he's doing to them?" Bubbles said sadly "They've got to be so scared."

I felt my jaw tighten. All I could hear was Snake's voice from the night before in the bar.

"Scaredssss out of their little mindssss" He hissed

I punched the bag harder, this getting Boomer's attention back from the four next to us to what he was doing.

"Bubbs, you can't let yourself think like that." Blossom said as she threw punch after punch.

I started zoning out, still hearing the conversation in the room, but mental images of Him, Sedusa, even the dead cab driver from last night whipped through my mind at lightning speed.

The red leather was eerily reminiscent of Him's skin, and claws. I kept punching with everything I had, and Boomer had to use a lot of his strength to keep the bag stable.

"Anybody got any new theories?" Brick asked stopping to wipe the sweat on his brow.

"Dang BC, take it easy." Boomer said.

I could hear a ripping sound coming from the bag as I punched, like it was going to give way.

Blossom stopped soon after that, and I could feel several pairs of eyes on me.

My mind was still far away, further away than any of them could possibly imagine.

I almost couldn't make out their words anymore, as pure anger radiated off of me.

Him was just playing games with us, he didn't care about the girls, they were just pawns in his big plan to finally knock us down, make us suffer and take over the world.

Did he actually had the audacity to threaten me? I'd show him.

No one threatened my family and got away with it.

"I don't know, I just think there's something going on that we don't know about yet." Butch seethed, I knew by his voice that he was glaring at me.

My mind stopped racing and I was back in the present I threw one last punch, and a sharp stinging burning pain shot through my right arm again.

Even the weakness of the last punch was enough to rip the punching bag wide open, the rice that filled it, spilled all over the floor.

I hissed in what to them looked like anger, but was actually pain. I ripped my gloves off throwing them to the ground, a few colorful words slipping from my mouth, as I turned and stormed out of the training room.

I could feel the shock of our siblings, the deafening silence only broken by the slamming of the lab door behind me.

I flew up out of the lab to our old bedroom, and closed the door locking it behind me.

I looked down at my arm, there was dark red line from the inside of my right bicep that curled up to my pointer finger exactly were the searing pain was coming from.

I barely grazed it with my left pointer finger and realized it was blood.

I bit my lower lip in anger "Shit" I scrambled to grab tissues off of one of the nightstands, and wiped most of it up.

It stung like nothing I had ever felt before, like the skin was slowly being ripped open.

I had almost gotten it to stop bleeding, when I felt the atmosphere in the room change.

Red smoke billowed in front of me, and a familiar claw formed out of thin air, one round red tip digging into the flesh of my right arm.

I winced and it took every bit of power I had not to scream. I fell to sit on the tri-colored bed, and smothered my mouth with a pink pillow.

Him appeared out of now where, his claw digging deeper into the wound he had created, and I thought for sure I my arm was going to split in two. The pain was making me dizzy.

My arm was shaking wildly from the trauma affecting it, as his free claw held it steadily in place, while he slowly tortured me.

"Ah, Buttercup you do remember our deal don't you?"

I glared up at him, keeping the pillow to my mouth as I fiercely tried to fight back tears.

He pushed his claw harder into my skin.

"Yes" I screamed into the pillow, it came out as a muffled cry.

"Good" His wide white smile disgusted me.

"So you either convince Butch that nothing's going on." His voice changed alarmingly fast to one of darkness and rage. "Or I slowly and painfully killall of them off one by one."

"Okay" I said into the pillow. "Okay!"

He pulled his claw away from my arm, his long serpent-like tongue licking the blood on its tip.

I sat up and cringed He really was sick. I slowly put down the pillow.

"Remember that this…" he held my right wrist up to his face "This is a reminder. You signed our contract with this hand, and if you blow it, I will find out."

His feminine voice once again turned demonic quickly, as he roughly dropped my arm.

I winced.

He roughly captured my chin in one claw "such a tragedy that you have to die so young. And to think, you were my favorite daughter-in-law." He sympathetically pouted

I pulled away from him in disgust. "Don't ever call me your daughter-in –law. The boys were never sons to you and you know it." I whispered.

"Ah, but Butch was." He smiled "He did so close to destroying you after all, Didn't he?" His moved a piece of hair out of my face with his free claw. "Like father, like son."

"He is nothing like you." I spat "He never was and he never will be."

He grabbed my chin more forcefully this time laughing. "I'd watch it if I were you" He snapped, as I glared up at him.

"Buttercup?" Blossom called through the door. "Are you okay?"

I looked nervously at the door, and back at Him.

"I'm not fond of deal-breakers." He whispered before disappearing once again.

"Buttercup, answer me. Please…" Blossom called again.

"Yeah, I'm coming."

I looked down at my arm which was completely healed and cleaned but still hurt. It was almost numb from all the pain.

I was about to open the door when I noticed the bloody tissues on the bed. I disguised them by wrapping them in a few layers of clean tissues before tossing them in the small pink trash can.

I took a deep breath and opened the door.

"Hey" Blossom said frowning

"Hey" I said flatly.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine" I nodded

I headed towards the stairs, but she stopped me.

"What was that about?"

"Nothing, I got pissed off. I'm ready to get the girls back and for all of this to be back to normal." I said clearly irritated, shrugging my shoulders.

"Okay," she said looking at me skeptically

I ran downstairs, and Blossom followed me to the lab.

She headed back into the training room.

"I'll clean that up…By the way" I said under my breath.

"It's not in our way, don't worry about it." She smiled and closed the door behind her.

"Still got your temper, huh?" I turned to see Ace now sitting up on the stretcher with his back against the wall.

I sighed and strolled over to the white couch across the room from him.

"Yeah, I guess" I said leaning my elbows on my knees and running my hands through my hair.

"What happened?" He asked frowning. It was almost like he knew something was wrong.

"I should be asking you that question." I said looking up sarcastically and meeting his shade covered eyes.

"I asked first" he pushed

I just rolled my eyes.

"You and the hubby get in a fight or somethin'?"

"That's none of your business" I snapped

He got uncharacteristically quiet.

I waited a few minutes, and the silence was starting to make me nervous.

He was looking down, and seemed to be in a completely different world.

"What's up with you?" I finally asked.

He looked up at me, then quickly back at the floor.

"Nothin'"

"I call B.S." I said getting up eyeing him suspiciously; and leaning on Dad's desk a few feet in front of him.

"It's nothin', alright?" He said and got up grabbing his leather jacket and shrugging into it. He winced with every movement.

I saw Blossom, Bubbles, and Boomer, watching us through the glass of the training room as Brick and Butch trained.

Blossom gave me a look through the glass as if to ask 'What's his problem?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Where are you going?" I asked genuinely concerned.

He ignored me, grabbing his wallet from the desk and heading toward the door on the other side of the room.

"Ace!" I finally yelled

He stopped turning around "What?" said annoyed

"What the hell happened to you last night?" I asked frowning

"I got beat up, what does it look like?" He yelled

I couldn't help but be reminded of all the fights we used to have like this. He'd be annoyed and walk off, and I yell at him until he was gone.

He started to turn around, when I stopped him. I stood, frowning, arms crossed.

"What's your problem?"

He let out an exaggerated sigh, and turned to face me.

"What happened last night?" I pushed sensing something was off with him.

"His minions snuck up on me before I could get to the shack, knocked me out, and when I came to I was in his lair and they beat the shit out of me." He said

"Why? I thought Him wanted to see you?"

"He did." He spat

"Well what'd he want?" I was getting impatient.

"He told me to be careful where my loyalties lie."

I rolled my eyes and rested against the desk once more. "Well since you're here, I guess he got his answer right?" I laughed it off.

Silence filled the room and now Butch and Brick had joined the group who were watching us behind the glass.

I looked up to see his shade covered eyes, as he looked at the floor.

"Right?" I asked

He let out a heavy sigh and ran his hand through his long greasy black hair.

"I didn't want to do this to you again…" He whispered looking down.

The small smile on my face fell and my heart sank.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Everyone from the training room made their way into the lab and watched from a safe distance.

"I knew." He mumbled

"Knew what?" I snarled, and I could feel my heart start to race.

"I knew…he was gunna take em'"

Memories of all the times he had used me flashed in my mind.

I let out a sarcastic laugh "You knew he was gunna kidnap them?" I asked "And you didn't think to tell us? Or did you just get too drunk to remember?"

He shrugged his shoulders regrettably "Listen, I…"

I slapped him so hard he almost hit the ground, balancing himself with one hand as the other came up to hold his jaw.

"Do you not understand that we could lose our daughters because of you?" Blossom yelled from the corner, Brick grabbed her arm before she could get out of control.

He weakly stood up, to face me.

"What did you tell him?" I got up in his face "Huh? I mean Him probably loved having his own personal little spy here, right? So, what all did you tell him?"

Silence…

"She asked you a question!" Butch yelled

"I told Him you were coming with me to the bar, as BellaDonna." Ace said looking up guiltily at me

I obviously knew that Him had figured out I was Bella but slowly realized it was only because Ace had warned him about it.

That was it; Him's way of driving the last nail in my coffin.

I bit my tongue, and shook my head.

Blossom yelled something but I didn't hear it, I was too furious.

My sisters were holding the boys back at this point.

"I'm sorry" He whispered just loud enough for me to hear "I didn't want…"

I snarled through clenched teeth and my voice was dangerously low. "Get out"

I couldn't even look at him, as he turned and left, the door slamming behind him.

"Son of a Bitch!" Brick said punching the banister of the lab stairs.

Boomer took a deep breath "It's okay, we re-group, train some more…We're not gunna let that stop us."

Brick, Blossom, and Boomer headed back to the training room. Bubbles started to follow but looked sadly up at me.

"Buttercup are you okay?"

I turned away from her and sat back on the familiar white couch.

"Yeah, Bubbs I'm fine." I sighed trying to form a smile.

She turned and left, and my head fell into my hands.

After a while I felt someone sit next to me and knew it was Butch.

He placed a hand on my shoulder, and rubbed it.

"I'm sorry" he said

I sat up, looking at the floor. "Is it sad that I wasn't surprised?"

"You knew better, you tried to tell us." He shifted

"I mean what did I do to him, to make him keep doing this to me?" I looked at Butch to give me the answers I needed to wrap my head around what had just happened.

"I don't know, that's just how he is I guess." He pulled me to his chest and kissed the top of my head.

We sat like this for a few minutes before he spoke up.

"I'm sorry for pushing you to say something in there." He nodded towards the training room.

I looked up at him, and his forest green eyes looked worried.

"I just really need you to trust me on this." I pleaded

"And I do, I trust you, but I need you to be careful. Please."

"I am" I said nodding

"I love you so much, Babe. I…" He took my hand in mine. "I just can't do any of this without you."

It was crazy, just how well he could read me sometimes.

"And you won't have to..."

Okay thanks for reading guys! The next chapter is almost done, hopefully I'll get it posted soon. Thanks for sticking with me and this story! Don't forget to R&R! ~vwvanlover