Author's Note: At first, when I wrote this chapter, I kept rewriting the end because, bluntly, I couldn't bring myself to do the deed. I didn't think that it was right to have something that sad, again. But this is the way the story goes, and I can't change it. And so, for the second time, I apologize.

Please read on, and spare a review to give your feedback.

Chapter Thirteen

Buttercup sat making patterns in the sand, tears dropping to the ground. She could not kill him. Murder was one thing. Murder was something she had committed many times to various monsters trying to destroy Townsville. But murder in this way was so sick, so wrong. She could not do it, no matter how much Butch pleaded with her. Finally, he had passed out where he lay, his dark green eyes vacantly staring out into nothingness.

She had done nothing to help his wounds. Blood gushed out from each pore in his body -- there was nothing she could do but to wait solemnly until his death. He wouldn't survive more than six hours, at most. It truly was a ghastly sight -- a straight vision of pure red and green. Dirt coated his bloodied face, and if his chest had not been moving up and down, she would not have even guessed that he was alive.

She needed the game to end. Now.

She looked up thoughtfully at the sky. What would life be like without Butch? What would life be like without her sisters... Buttercup had never thought of this, but the game would end just the same if both of them died. She'd be an only child...

Suddenly, an amazingly perfect idea sprung into her mind. "Butch," she said, leaning towards him. "Butch, I know you can't hear me. But I'm going to tell you anyway. Antidote X is the equivalent of sodium, water, and blood. Professor once told me... thank goodness I remembered. If I can get some water from the ocean, mixed with your blood, I can make enough Antidote X to remove some Chemical X from me and transfer it to you. That should keep you alive, because it's what we're made of... it's crazy, I know, but it's not like we have many other options." She smiled weakly.

After collected the needed ingredients, Buttercup took a sharp ended stick from the ground and drew a line across her skin, leaving blood. Now that her flesh had been cut, it would be easier to drain out the Antidote X from her body.

She poured the mixture onto the gash in her arm and gasped in pain. It burned as if she had just put magma onto it. She quickly pressed the wound against Butch's body, and she felt her energy being drained. The color began to return to his face. Chemical X was slowly being transferred into him, and it was obviously saving him. His skin was growing back, and his eyes returned to how they had been. He was alive!

She ripped cloth from her dress and wrapped it around her cut. He looked at her, felt a new energy, and smiled. He kissed her passionately, placing his hands on her face. She kissed back forcefully, wrapping her arms behind his back. Once again, they were united.

Bubbles was fading. Not visibly -- it was slow and painful, but Boomer saw it. Bubbles's sentences weren't making sense, and she had a strange look in her eyes that just didn't seem right. Sweat was pouring down her face, and her mouth hung open dryly, gasping for the air which did not seem to reach her lungs. Boomer sobbed helplessly, grasping at his own chest as if it would help her to breathe.

She panted, closing her eyes in the quiet agony. Her head tilted to the side, and it seemed as if she were quickly losing consciousness. Boomer feared the worst -- if he let her go to sleep now, she would never wake up again. Then he would never live his dream, or have that wonderful pleasure of hearing her say "I do".

He shook her violently. "Bubbles... Bubbles, don't leave me. Don't ever leave me. You have to stay with me, always!" he exclaimed, her body being flailed back and forth by his worried hands. "Please... you're going to stay with me, aren't you? Don't leave me!"

"Never..." she murmured, a smile spreading across her face. "Never leaving you..."

Tears fell rapidly down his cheeks. "No... no, don't go... just a little while longer!"

She leaned upwards, kissing Boomer. He held her in his arms to lessen the strain on her... kissing her as if this would save her, that this would ease her enormous pain.

They stayed that way -- kissing so lovingly, so gently that it almost felt as if nothing else mattered but their love, the ever burning passion that fueled them to continue on in their journey to safety, and that love was the only thing that they needed to stay alive together, forever -- until Boomer dropped Bubbles into the sand beneath them and realized that she was lifeless in his arms.

Bubbles was dead.

RIP our second deceased one... there is a happy ending awaiting you, too...