"Mathter?" came the voice of a young girl looking out a castle window.
"Yes my sweet?" Came the sinister voice of Vaati who appeared behind the girl
"Ith it aright if I go outthide?" the girl asked longingly
"No, my sweet, you remember what happened the last time you went out?" Vaati said floating over to the window and looking into the market below.
The girl did remember.
"But maybe they awer diffewent?" The girl thought hopefully
"Bunny! Remember what I told you people don't change and they never will." Vaati said, "No go around on your patrols."
The girl jumped out the window into the grounds below and landed creating a crater. She was tall and quite grotesque. She had huge arms with veins bulging in random locations which connected to a large upper body. As it went down the torso and hips were quite small but the legs grew large around the ankles with the same array of bulging veins. Her hands and feet were huge as was her head. She adorned herself with a ponytail. Even with all these things the most interesting aspect about her was her uniform which consisted of a purple letterman jacket with a "P" emblazoned in the side and a one piece shirt/skirt combo and a pair of purple shoes. Around her excessively small waist was a white belt with a circular purple buckle also emblazoned with the letter "P" and this is because she was a Powerpuff Girl Z.
(flashback sequence to the day the Powerpuff Girls Z were formed)
The large white beam fired from the cannon found it's mark destroying the iceberg yet releasing copious amounts of white and black lights that scattered. There was something else that occurred, something that the Professor, Poochie and Ken never saw. A particularly large white ray started a combat with a black ray of equal size. To the human eye it looked like a swirling vortex of white and black that fell into the sea behind the iceberg. Under the water these two forces were desperately trying to overcome one another by forcible energy discharges. They managed to get into an aqueduct pipe and off one of the shoots into a small fountain.
They exited the top and their below them stood a little girl dressed in purple. She was playing with her dolls and action figures. The two rays hesitated in mid-air for a moment and went down and struck the girl in the back at the exact same time. At this point she stretched upwards and her hands and feet became large. She formed her letterman jacket and her upper body stretched to massive size as her arms did the same. She put her hands over her buckle where a flash of light formed from the bottom leaving a silhouette of a skirt which she tugged at the sides to bring it into being, she formed the letter "P" and allowed the heart to form on the back of the jacket as her neck and head grew grotesque and ugly. In the end she put up her hands in fists to the side of her face in her final pose.
When the transformation was complete the little girl didn't remember anything about where she was or who she was. She looked at her giant hands and then around the park. A woman was entering the park pushing a stroller and this little girl started to run up to her. The woman screamed in terror at the sight and rushed out of there leaving nothing but a trail of dust.
"Wait!" this little girl yelled and took a step forward. She heard a squeak and felt something beneath her shoe. She looked down to see a small stuffed rabbit which she picked up, "Bunny!" She yelled happily and hugged the rabbit. She found a small pocket on the side of her jacket where she put the small rabbit so that its arms and head poked out and she went to find someone who could help.
As she was walking down the road everyone cleared the path in front of her, windows were slammed shut and the street vendors dove behind their carts and closed their panels. She continued to walk and eventually she heard an alarm go off and headed in the direction of the sound.
She arrived in the middle of a showdown between some men who were dressed in blue and others who were dressed in black and grey. She looked and saw that the men in blue had guns that they were facing towards the men in black and grey who had nothing but a couple duffle bags hanging over their shoulder.
She ran up behind the men in blue and lifted them up off the ground and banged their heads together, they dropped to the ground unconscious.
"Thanks freak!" The men in black and grey yelled and ran off.
"Fweak!?" the girl said, she thought she was doing good in stopping the "bad guys" with the guns.
"Hey Bunny!" came the voice of another man dressed in blue who had noticed the rabbit sticking out of her pocket.
The girl turned around where the man pulled out some metal loops from the side of his belt. He noticed the large wrists on the creature and realized that the handcuffs wouldn't fit.
"What are you some kinda freak!?" He said looking at the grotesque figure in front of him.
"FWEAK!?" she yelled and ran from the scene leaving large tracks in the cement. Everyone just looked at her run away and no one tried to stop her.
She found herself in a dark alley crying uncontrollably and looking at herself in part of a broken mirror. She let it crash to the ground scaring away some rats that had come to investigate.
"What's the matter little girl?" came a sinister voice from the shadows.
"Evwywon tinks I'm a fweak." She said sobbing into her overly large hands.
"Now that's not true!" Came the voice again, "I certainly don't think you're a freak. People in this town can't accept someone who is truly unique and that will never change."
"I taught I was doin good." She said lifting up her head a little
"And you most certainly were. Those men might have been killed had you not intervened."
"Weawy?"
"Yes really! And that makes you a true hero whether or not they want to accept it." The voice said showing a large eye from the shadows, "Come with me I will take you to see the great Gannondorf, he will certainly not despise you."
The girl hesitated and then nodded in agreement. A dark mist surrounded her.
"What should we introduce you as?" The voice asked
"Bunny!" She replied happily not realizing that the bunny to which she had grown so fond had fallen out of her pocket and lay there on the cement as she disappeared in a whirl of black smoke."
(Back to Present)
It had been a while since that time and Bunny had never set foot outside the castle walls. She would often go up to the gate and look down the road to see so many happy people buying and selling in the market below. She let out a small sob and a tear fell to the ground for the life she could never have and she went back to her patrols.
In the meantime, Blossom and Buttercup were in a world of harsh black and white contrast.
"Welcome to the realm of shadows. The only things visible here are whatever is clouded in shadows." Dark Link explained.
The girls looked around and could see the shadows of people on the street below and the buildings almost all produced shadows that they could at least tell the general structure.
"Here I am linked to every shadow in the world and can travel freely from one to another faster than light." Dark Link said with his arms in the air
Blossom and Buttercup looked at each other and took a step back as they saw that each one was as black as night with glowing red eyes.
"What happened to us!?" They yelled in unison
"In order to travel the world of shadows one must be a shade." Link explained simply and started to look around, "I can sense Vaati's foul stench of a shadow this way!" He said and started to run across the rooftops at top speed. Blossom and Buttercup followed closely behind leaving black flight trails from the soles of their shoes.
They approached what looked like a large castle but it was hard to tell because only the shadows from the trees onto the wall were visible.
"It's as I feared." Dark Link said, "He's using sprites."
"Sprites?" Blossom asked
"Small floating orbs of light that remove the shadows from any structure in which they inhabit. We'll have to set down just outside the castle but be on the lookout for guards."
Dark Link wrapped his arms around Buttercup and Blossom and brought them down to one of the shadows that the trees were making on the side of the structure. His red eyes started to dim and the girls could see color returning to the world.
The world went back to normal and the girls found themselves outside a huge chateau, "I know this place." Blossom said, "This is Chateau de L'isle just above the Centerview Market. I pass it all the time on my way to school people say it's haunted and has a huge monster living within it's halls."
"Well they wouldn't be too far off." Link said thinking of Vaati
At that moment Vaati met with Bunny, "I must go and prepare the way for the return of the great Gannondorf you must prevent anyone from getting to the prisoner. If you see anyone else but me she dies! Got it?"
Bunny looked off to the side with a sad expression, "I asked do you got it?" Vaati said again
Bunny continued to look to the side and nodded her head. At this Vaati disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"What's your name?" Bubbles asked looking up weakly
Bunny looked around and then pointed to herself, "Me?"
"Yes you silly!" Bubbles said trying to smile
"My name'th Bunny." Bunny said smiling
"Bunny that's a pretty name." Bubbles said looking down. Blood was hardened down both sides of her mouth and her stomach was quite sore, she was certain that it was bruised from all the hard strikes that Vaati had given to her. "Bunny why do you help him?" She asked
Bunny looked confused, "He'th my mathter I need to obay." She explained
"But he's a bad man and you are good so why?" Bubbles asked forcing herself to look into the eyes of Bunny
"He'th not tho bad he thaved me fwum the mean peopo outthide." Bunny said, "Evwywon taught I wath a fweak." She said sadly, "But then mathter came and heoped me be nowmal."
"It's good you found a friend in him. Maybe we can be friends too?"Bubbles said trying to smile but closing her eyes at the same time in pain.
"Fwendth?" Bunny said
"Yeah like sisters I mean we do kind of look the same." Bubbles said letting her head drop
"Thithters?" Bunny said excitedly and then she stopped and looked down, "But you awer tho beautifu and I am tho ugwy." She said sadly
"Who told you that you were ugly?" Bubbles asked with as much concern as she could muster
"Mathter did, he thaid thatth why peopo don't like me." Bunny explained
"Well I like you. And I don't think you're ugly." Bubbles said with a tear dropping to the floor, she coughed and some blood came up and intermingled with the tears that were falling from the pain.
"I'd bettow go owt and thee if thomwonth on the pwopety." Bunny said leaving with a sad look. And Bubbles was left alone wondering if this was how she was finally going to die.
On the outside Dark Link, Blossom and Buttercup were trying to find a way inside the castle, a way that wouldn't draw attention to themselves. They all gathered around the side of the castle and looked around the corner to see if the coast was clear.
Suddenly they heard a noise that was getting closer and they turned around just in time to dodge a flying punch from the massive hand of Bunny. The castle wall shattered into pieces at her punch and she stood in two craters from where she landed.
"Stand back girls." Dark Link said and withdrew a long sword from his back. His eyes turned red and his skin turned dark and he lunged at Bunny who turned around and caught Link's blade between her two massive hands. She whirled around and threw Dark Link into the outer wall which fell in heaps on top of him.
Blossom and Buttercup took positions in front of him, "Strawberry catcher!" Blossom yelled and threw her yoyo at the brute but Bunny caught it and crushed it in her hands.
"That's IT! Home-run hammer!" Buttercup yelled swinging with her might towards Bunny but she caught it, fake yawned, and threw Buttercup off the end. When Buttercup landed next to Link Bunny crumpled the hammer as though it was a piece of paper.
"You thwee need to weave now!" Bunny yelled but then she saw that the Girls wore the same uniform that Bubbles did and the same one that she wore, "Awer you thwee thithters?" she asked
Blossom looked up and Buttercup asked, "Sisters?"
"Yeth thithters with the bwue one downthtairs?" Bunny continued
"Bubbles!?" The three shouted in unison, Dark Link had pulled himself from the rubble.
"Yeah!" Bunny said
"Kind of I guess you could consider us sisters." Blossom said looking at Buttercup
"Would you take us to our sister?" Buttercup asked
Bunny thought for a moment, "OK" She said and led them through the front door. There were large floating orbs that lit up every hallway in the place.
They were led down to the lower dungeons where Bubbles hung from her shackles.
"BUBBLES!" The three shouted in unison and ran over to her
Bubbles heard their familiar voices and looked up. "My friends!" She said happily but without much strength. Dark Link withdrew his sword and cut the shackles in two allowing Bubbles to fall to the ground.
They all crowded around her as she looked weakly in each direction. "I don't think I'm going to be coming back this time." She said and looked at Bunny, "I'm sure you can handle it in my place."
Bunny finally realized what her master had done.
"BUNNY!" Came a dark voice behind her and everyone looked up to see Vaati, "I told you if anyone enters here She DIES!"
"Mathter you down't need to do thith we can be fwends." Bunny said pleadingly.
"Stupid Girl I should've never trusted you with so important a task!" Vaati said angrily
Dark Link quickly drew his sword and lunged a Vaati who just raised his hand and caught Link within a cloud of dark smoke.
"Please don't be stupid." He said, "In this place I am a hundred times more powerful than you." He then threw Dark Link against the wall and allowed dark smoke to carry Bubbles over to him. She floated there barely breathing as Vaati withdrew a long sword from his robes.
Blossom and Buttercup tried to stop him but with a wave of his hand they flew against the wall. He stabbed Bubbles right through the stomach. And allowed her to drop.
"NOOOOOO!" Dark Link, Blossom and Buttercup yelled in unison as tears poured down their face.
Vaati was about to send his sword right through the barely beating heart of Bubbles when a giant hand caught his movement. Some blood dripped down his blade as he looked and saw Bunny standing there with her hand in front of Bubbles.
"All thith time mathter I taught that you wath good. But I know now that you wath bad all along!"
"Bunny…I." Vaati started which gave Dark Link enough time to plunge his sword deep within the chest of Vaati who fell over.
Blossom and Buttercup ran over to Bubbles who was hardly breathing. They started to cry, "Dark Link You need to save her use your powers, or that song or something,…" The girls cried and Bunny went over and kneeled over her first Sister and friend with tears coming slowly out of her eyes.
"I can't, my powers can't stop death like Link's Red Potion and only the chosen of the Goddesses can play the full Requiem of the Spirit." Link said sadly looming over his dying ex-partner.
"Bunny hathent done good all hew life now Bunny hath a chanth to make it wight." She said and put her finger onto Bubbles chest. A white glow surrounded them and Bunny started to glow brighter and brighter. Soon she was masked in a bright light and the girls could see her grotesque form shrink down to a normal little girl in a purple dress. Soon even that was gone and the light dissipated as a small piece of purple cloth fell to the ground.
Bubbles gasped and opened her eyes. The bleeding had stopped and she looked around and hugged Blossom and Buttercup.
"Bunny.." Vaati said weakly reaching into his robe and pulling out a dirty old stuffed rabbit, "I finally found it for you." He said and his head and hands fell limp to the side.
"I guess it's true that when you love someone… truly love someone than no matter how much darkness can cover it up it will always find a way to shine through." Dark Link said leaning down, closing the lifeless eyes of Vaati and bringing the rabbit over to Bubbles.
Thanks for reading everyone, it was a fun chapter to right even though the end was hard. I hope you all enjoyed it, Ultima S. Next Off to Hyrule.