Voices echo through silence.
"... Schnitt ... dissektion der bauch ..."
"... Macht kern ... unerschöpfliche quelle ..."
Walking in the black. Through…To….
"... Sever arme ersetzen ..."
Stop.
Light flickers to life above.
"Die Vorbereitungen sind abgeschlossen. Bringen Sie es hier."
All around are shadows. One withers closer until it forms the outline of a man. Its claw reaches into the light, becoming a steril, black rubber glove.
A warm presence is at my side. It clutches my hand tightly, afraid.
Afraid for me.
"My choice"
The voice is mine, but I haven't spoken. I can't speak or move.
The warm presence is gone and I'm on my back, restrained, with some kind of gag in my mouth. Drawn black surgical lines form a map on the bare skin of my upper torso. I stiffen as the formed shadow returns and traces a sharp, bony finger over and inside both ends of my shoulders, then forms an "X" in the center of my chest.
The marks bleed.
A high pitched, whirling sound fills the air.
The light is gone and all I can fell is the searing, unbearable pain.
Kaoru jolted from her fitful sleep, breathing harshly. Her skin was covered in a light sheen of sweat and sticking to the sheets covering her. Kaoru noted the black Egyptian cotton pillow case and sheets and knew that she was in Butch's bed.
Which made no sense, of course, because she was beyond sure that she had been nowhere near Butch or his bed when she'd fallen asleep. And yet here she was, tucked between his stupid black sheets with his stupid arms arms around her.
'Come to think of it, when the fuck did I fall asleep?' The last thing she could remember was sneaking out one of the upper level windows with her bag, intent on leaving. It had been a few hours after Amber had forced her to agree to she and Butch accompaning her home.
An agreement Kaoru, obviously, had no intention of keeping.
Frustrited, Kaoru moved to shove the male, who she was still completely pissed at, off of her person and hopefully flying into the nearest wall. But when she turned her head to glare at him, it was not Butch pressed up to her back, but Amber. Her pale, lightly freckled face was calm as she slept, tiny strands of hair danced across the features of her face.
Guilt welled up in Kaoru chest. She cared for the girl and thought of her as her friend. It pained her that this might be the last time she would see her.
'But what other choice do I have? I don't want them to come and see that part of my life...'
That, and the thought of being anywhere near Butch right then brought mixed feelings, the strongest ones being homicidal fury and, to Kaoru's utter dismay, a strong urge to cry.
As gently as she could, Kaoru removed Amber's arms from around her torso and stood up. Tucking the covers around the girl's thin body, Kaoru leaned over and brushed away the hair from her face. "Goodbye, Amber. I'll miss you." she whispered.
Holding in a sigh, Kaoru turned to leave, only to find herself face-to-face with Butch's chest.
"And just where do you think you're going, young lady?" Butch asked in his smug little voice, twirling the thin straps of her backpack in his left hand. Kaoru felt all the color drain from her face, as she looked up at him in dread. His eyes, which contrary to his playful smirk, were hard and serious. She could feel the heat returning to her cheeks as his emerald orbs bore into her.
Then she remembered just how pissed she still was. Her face curled into a scowl and she shoved him away from her. He stepped back a little, but not nearly far enough. Kaoru reached up to snatch her bag. Butch easily caught her arm and tugged her forward in a single move. He caught her mid torso with one arm, throwing her bag over her head and away from her with the other. Kaoru spun away from him and proceeded to twist his arm behind his back as hard as she could. Butch looked back at her quietly, his expression vague as his eyes shifted down to her hand then up to her face.
Confused, Kaoru looked down. Fixed securely around her fourth finger was a strange white ring with a large black oval.
"What the-?"
Butch suddenly kicked Kaoru's legs out from under her. Kaoru hit the floor back first with a loud THUNK!, pain ringing down her back. Kaoru looked up and growled viciously at Butch, who was leaning over her. Butch held both of her wrists in each of his hands. He brought the one with the ring to his lips, silently whispering words against the stone. The stone dissapeared and the ring turned to black hematite, carved with jade designs.
Butch then shifted both of her wrists into one of his hands and repositioned himself so that he was sitting on her calves. He looked down at her sternly.
"Lemme' make something clear, Princess" he said slowly. Kaoru squirmed restlessly, turning her head away from him. The floor had some carpet around where Butch slept, but where she had fallen had none. Her back was surely going to bruise-
"I'm sorry"
Kaoru's body stilled. "…What?"
Slowly, Butch let go of her wrists and sat up straight. "I said I'm sorry. What I said before and how I treated you …was wrong." Kaoru turned her head to look up at him, in shock.
Butch never apologized. Like, ever.
The room was dark, but she could see he wasn't looking at her and that he looked very uncomfortable. He looked back at her and sighed.
"I have two brothers. I… lost one when I was very, very young. Both me and my youngest brother tried to get him back, but we… we lived somewhere…bad. The people there did terrible things to us. One day they took my little brother… Boomer…" He paused for a moment, his voice catching in his throat.
Kaoru sat up on her elbows, anger forgotten, and waited silently for him to continue. When he started again, she didn't pull away when she felt him reach for her hand.
"They cut him up. Tore out his vocal cords and put their stupid tech inside him, all for their stupid experiments. All so he could be a better weapon, be useful to them. I wasn't anywhere near him when it happened, but I heard him crying. I felt his last screams vibrating through every bone in my body."
"That was the last straw. Boomer had only just barely survived, and I wasn't going to let them hurt him anymore. A week later, we busted out. But I couldn't forget about my first brother. He was still missing and he needed us. We needed to be together. Before everything had happened, we'd managed to break out a few times, but never for very long, so I couldn't be sure if they still had him or not."
"My brother and I have been searching for him ever since we got away. It kills me sometimes to send Boomer out there, but he's become such a great tracker and he's gotten so much stronger... I go out sometimes too, but mostly stay behind. You know, be "the brains of the operation"."
Butch let out a hard little laugh. Self-loathing and bitterness filled the sound and made her want to reach for him.
"And the worst part is, he hasn't come back in more than a month, and I haven't done shit! I let myself get distracted by… by…"
"- by me."
Butch looked down, not saying anything.
Kaoru had never seen him sad like this. For reasons she refused to identify, it was breaking her up inside.
His words echoed through her mind.
"They cut him up"
"Put their stupid tech inside him"
"Stupid experiments... make him a better weapon..."
Did he know? Could he possibly know just how close he was? Kaoru opened her mouth to speak but stopped when she felt his hand brush against her cheeks and his fingers lace through her hair.
"I hate losing people. Whenever I care about something, it almost always, in some way or another, gets taken from me. I know if I let you go now, you won't come back. I won't see you again."
Kaoru blushed with shame. "You don't know tha-!"
"You wouldn't even tell me you're real name, Kaoru."
Kaoru went cold.
…How...
…How...
"How do you know that name?"
Butch gave a lazy smile, twirling a strand of her hair.
"There's a reason I'm the "brains of the operation", you know. I checked you out.:
"Kaoru Utonium; adopted daughter of Professor James Utonium, and Buttercup of the famous Powerpuff Girls Z. You have two sisters, also members of your team. Each of you and your sister's adoption papers are sealed to the point where even I couldn't find them, so you apparently none of you existed until you were 7 years old, which was the same age you all started fighting crime. You're the proclaimed "tomboy" of the group, are allergic to peaches. You take pride in the fact that you can curl your tongue. You're jealous of your oldest sister, but admire her more then you'll admit and love her as much as your youngest sister."
Kaoru was speechless. She'd tried so hard to hide from him, and he'd known all along. She felt stupid and exposed, but couldn't bring herself to be angery with him for it.
After all, he'd told her about his brothers.
'…He might understand…'
Slowly, she sat all the way up. They stared at one another for a long time. Kaoru had just built up the courage to break the silence and tell her secret when a rather loud cat-call came from behind Butch.
Amber had woken up two minutes ago, while Butch was telling Kaoru about herself, and was sitting on the edge of the bed cross-legged, smiling with utter and total amusement at the two.
"Oh, my, my, MY! What's this I see before me? Am I interrupting something… private?"
Kaoru blushed furiously, realizing how intimate they must've looked, and pushed Butch off of her. She quickly got to her feet. "I-i-it's n-nothing like that!" Kaoru insisted, waving her hands dismissively.
"Oh reallllly? Then where, oh where, did that pretty little ring come from, hmmm?"
Kaoru balked and moved to take the condemning item from her finger, only to find it wouldn't come off. She tugged and tugged but the ring refused to budge. Butch's hand enveloped hers, stopping the obsessive tugging.
Amber giggled. "What's up, Butch? You didn't tell me you two were going steady now."
Butch rolled his eyes, a tiny blush gracing his cheeks. "Stop teasing her, Sweetie! It's just something I picked up to make sure she doesn't try to run off."
Butch let go of Kaoru's hand and flew up into the air. He was almost 10 feet off the ground when Kaoru felt something tugging her after him. Her hand rose, without her consent, and pointed itself in his direction. He smirked and started flying in the opposite direction of her. Before she knew what was happening, Kaoru felt her body leaving the ground and going in Butch's direction.
Kaoru quickly stopped herself and stared at the ring with horror. "What the fuck is this thing!" she screamed.
Butch chuckled. "An insurance policy, Princess. It'll make sure you don't try to ditch us before we get you home. Don't worry though, it'll come off."
Kaoru looked up and saw that Butch was now only inches away. His smile was nearly demonic in its mischievousness. He leaned in until his nose was touching hers.
"When I want it to, that is."
Scene!
Ugh, it's fuckin 2 am x_x I am so skrewed for the day
Bah, least I made my deadline
Special shout-out (again) to THE POWERPUFF for making such a huge effort to get this new chappie to come. Hope you and your friends keep readin, luv!
REVIEW (pwease)
Love,
me