Hi everyone! Here's Chapter 21! I hope you'll like it!

Thank you AsianGlitter, Dennis Gerbera, virginia and CamillaMB for your reviews. You're the best!

This story is dedicated to my cousins Mara and Irina! I love you guys!

Disclaimer: Same as always.

On the right side

Chapter 21: The beginning of the journey

The girls stared at the six colored streaks until they completely disappeared. For some reason, they felt like going after them. Leaving them leave like that felt so... so wrong... like they wouldn't be able to see them again.

Buttercup turned to her sisters. The two were looking at the sky with very different expressions on their faces. Bubbles looked very worried and, for a moment, Buttercup thought that her sister was going to take off after the boys. But she didn't and the brunette was relieved. If the blonde would've done that she would've had to make her come back and the blue eyed girl would've probably cried and said that she was worried and that they couldn't leave the boys face HIM by themselves and a lot of other things that would probably be true. For the first time in her life Buttercup doubted that they could win and having someone telling her so would've just made things worse for her.

The Green Puff turned her eyes to her red headed sister. She was, too, looking at the sky, but she didn't look so worried. If she really was, then she hid it well. The red head had a serious expression on her face. She looked very concentrated, like she usually looked when she was trying to solve something important. Buttercup wondered what was on her mind. Maybe she would ask her... or maybe not. The Pink Puff had been quite reserved in the last months... "Like she wants to keep something to herself." The thoughts echoed in the girl's mind for a few seconds, before she realized that those were her thoughts and not something someone just said. She blinked. Keep something to herself? Blossom never did that before. And what could the red head possibly hide? She dismissed the possibility.

"What do we do now?" the brunette heard the voice of her blue eyed sister. Buttercup hadn't been paying much attention to what was happening around her for the past seconds and she heard her sister's question like it was coming from a big distance. Even so, she could tell that the weak voice she had heard speaking wasn't the result of her lack of attention.

The green eyed girl turned to look at her sister. The blonde was quite pale and there were tears in the corners of her eyes. For the first time, she didn't feel like teasing her. Buttercup looked at the leader of their group. Blossom didn't seem to have heard her sister's question. She was still looking at the sky and her features hadn't moved a bit. The brunette was hoping that the red head would answer Bubbles' question so she wouldn't have to speak about that, but it seemed that she had been wrong. The Pink Puff didn't look like she was going to snap out of her trance any time soon. She hated when that happened. It wasn't a usual thing, but when it occurred Buttercup could see how hard her sister's job as a leader could get.

"We wait." The brunette answered her sister's question. It was a simple answer, the most simple she could think of. She didn't want to get too deep into the problem. It wasn't her style. She didn't like to plan and anticipate every little thing. She always said that life wouldn't be any fun if people always tried to find out what was going to happen next. She knew that it would've been a lot easier if they had a plan, but they didn't have any idea of what was waiting for them. They just had Blossom's suppositions that she still wasn't sure where the red head had got them from. "That girl's brain works too much." She thought. But "that girl's brain" never let them down in an important situation before and she couldn't think of any reason why it would start doing it then.

"We wait". The words echoed in Bubbles' brain for several moments. Two words... just two simple words... but why did they hurt so much? The blonde looked at her dark haired sister. The brunette had a frown on her face, but her eyes seemed soft... softer than they'd usually be when she'd say something the Green Puff didn't like. Buttercup was worried, Bubbles could see that.

"We wait". The words rang in her head again. They had to wait. What were they waiting for? They were waiting for the boys to distract HIM so they could sneak in his lair and destroy the source of his power.

"We wait". They were going to wait as the boys were risking their lives just for a diversion... to make their job easier. She felt so guilty. Trying to distract HIM when he was so powerful and so furious at the same time was pure suicide. But even so... the boys accepted to do it. Why did they do it? She knew that they weren't stupid enough to think that they could beat HIM. Not after what happened with the demons. "I am Arsione" the girl remembered the way the demon presented herself. She could even recall her tone: half amused, half disgusted. She had been sacred of her... really scared. She could still see her when she was getting closer and closer to her, after Boomer went unconscious and the demon was about to finish her as well. The boys weren't going to beat HIM. And she had the feeling that they were going to need a miracle to stay alive... the kind of miracle that saved them the first time. But they didn't know what caused that miracle and they didn't have any idea if it would happen again. So this time they were going to make that miracle.

"We wait". But what if they were going to arrive too late and HIM would have already finished with the boys? How were they going to know when to get going? What were they going to do if they were late? If the boys... the blonde shook her head, pushing away the dark thoughts at least for a few seconds.

"For how long?" she asked, her voice even weaker than before. She looked at Buttercup. The brunette's mouth opened but nothing came out of it. Then it closed again. She didn't know the answer. She wanted to answer something, but she didn't know what. Bubbles could see this, so she turned her attention to the person that she knew would have an answer.

Blossom was still staring at the sky and the only move she made was to frown a little as her mind replayed all the recent events. They were all related and she had a vague impression how, too. But she wasn't very sure about many details and many others were still unknown to her. This complicated the situation. "For how long?" she faintly heard her blonde sister ask. She hadn't been paying attention to her two sisters since the boys and the androids left. She had been aware of the fact that they had been talking, but she couldn't tell their exact words. However, when she heard her sister's question she immediately knew what they had been talking about. She closed her eyes calculating the time that the boys would need to fully get HIM's attention.

"We have around half an hour until we have to get to action." The red head said turning around and walking upstairs. Her sisters watched her doing this, thinking of her answer. "Half an hour..." they thought. Wouldn't that be too long?

The Pink Puff reached the stairs and stopped for a few moments. The other two Puffs wondered what was on her mind. They were expecting her to continue her way after a minute or two. But instead, the red head turned her head to them with a very serious expression on her face and said:

"If you still have something to do, you'd better do it now." After that she continued her walk towards the room they shared without looking back.

The other girls stared at her as she disappeared through the open door of their room. They didn't like the tone that she had used to tell them that. It sounded scary. Like... like they were never going to come back. But that couldn't happen... right? They knew how to destroy the crystal and HIM wouldn't even know they were coming until it was too late. What could go wrong?

They looked at each other. They were both a little scared by their sister's words, but when their eyes met they both decided that Blossom was just overreacting and their plan would work perfectly. They knew their sister: she always worried too much. Sometimes she was worse than the Professor. But they decided to make her happy and take her advice.

Buttercup went into the kitchen to have something to eat. On her way she imagined how bad she was going to beat up HIM. She smirked at the thought. She had wanted to do that for some time and now it was finally her chance to do it.

Bubbles went into the living room and began searching through the mess that their pillow fight had made. She remembered that she had left her octopus doll, Octi, in that room. She wanted to talk to the little doll. She always felt better when she did that and now she really needed to feel better.

In the girls' room Blossom was standing in front of the open window staring at the huge amount of smoke and dust that was rising from the place where the town was. She sighed. The battle had probably begun. She wondered what HIM had thrown at the town this time. She wasn't sure. And she wasn't even sure if she'd be able to find out.

It was true: she was worried... worried that they wouldn't make it. It was very possible. Usually they managed to pull through of any situation, but this wasn't just any situation. She closed her eyes, thinking.

What would happen if they didn't make it? If she had calculated correctly, and there was a very little chance she had made any mistakes, they would be able to get to the crystal in time. The boys wouldn't be too hurt and the chance of them dying was very small. Even so, she shivered thinking about the possibility.

But she wasn't sure if her sisters and she would be so lucky. She didn't really know how the crystal was going to react in the moment they'd begin the attack. She just knew that it would be defeated. But what it was going to do before that was still a mystery to her.

And something happening to the Power Puff Girls wasn't going to stop HIM's kind from completing their mission. But it would certainly represent a big loss for the others because she was the only one that knew more about the whole situation. The information she had was a big advantage, especially because the ones that were looking for the "chosen one" didn't know this.

She opened her eyes and slowly left the window. She walked to the big bed and went under it. A minute later she came out holding a silvery notebook. As she walked towards her desk she looked through the written pages.

She reached the desk and sat down. She got to the first white page. Taking a pen, she began writing. Twenty minutes later she was done. She reread what she had written. A few minutes later she was satisfied. She closed the notebook and took a blank sheet of paper and wrote something on it. She left it on top of the notebook and went out of the room and downstairs.

There, she found her sisters waiting for her. For a moment she was surprised to see both of them there, so quiet, as if they were trying not to disturb someone. At first they didn't notice that she was already there. This gave her the opportunity to study their faces. They looked like they had been waiting for some time. What could they have been waiting for? Then she realized that it was her. She understood that they didn't take her words seriously and thought that she was overreacting. But they didn't want to disturb her. She half smiled at her sisters' attitude. She knew what they were feeling and what they were waiting for.

"Are you ready girls?" she asked. The two Puffs startled at the sound of their sister's voice. They looked up at her and smiled.

"You bet!" Buttercup said smiling.

"What are we waiting for?" Bubbles spoke.

"Let's go!" Blossom smiled at them.

With that, they all took off. They flew in silence, each far away in her own thoughts. They avoided getting too close to the town, taking a longer but safer route to HIM's lair. They knew where the demon lived because they had been there a few times before. Of course, they usually used the roof to get in, but they knew of a "back door" that they could use to creep in.

They landed in front of the place. It was two miles away from the town and they had made sure not to get close to Townsville so HIM wouldn't see them. The "back door" was in a cave, very close to the sea.

The girls stared at it. If they hadn't known better they would've thought that it was a kind of refuge for teenagers who wanted to keep their little love affairs secret. As they walked inside the cave, this impression grew. There were love messages written all over the cave's walls.

"How sweet!" Bubbles exclaimed as she read a small love poem on one of the walls.

"Gross!" Buttercup said reading the work of another "artist".

Blossom ignored all the words on the walls. She knew the entrance to HIM's lair was somewhere around there, between all the love words that Bubbles considered sweet and Buttercup thought to be gross.

"What are we looking for?" Buttercup asked.

"Something to open a door, or something like that." The red head answered.

"Can't you come up with something more... I don't know... more exact?" the brunette tried again.

"Something that is different from what's here." The pink eyed girl said not turning her attention from her search.

"Are these things different?" Bubbles spoke after a few minutes of search. The other two girls went to see what their sister had found. On one of the walls on the far side of the cave was a drawing with four red flames. It was very well executed and it was obvious that the one that made it was obsessed with small details.

Blossom looked at the four flames. In another situation she would've said that they were absolutely beautiful. She looked around, at the walls of the cave. Everything there had something to do with love: poems, declarations, hearts. There was not even a drawing of a flower. She looked back at the four flames. There was nothing else drawn on that wall, just the flames. She raised her hand and touched the drawing. She raised a brow in confusion.

"What is it?" Buttercup asked quite impatiently.

"I think this is it. Look." The red head said.

"It's the only drawing on the wall." Bubbles observed.

"Yes and there's something else." The Pink Puff said. "Here, touch the drawing." She said. The brunette reached her hand to do so. "Now put your hand on the other part of the wall." Buttercup did what her sister told her. Her eyes widened.

"It's warmer." She said.

"This is the entrance." Blossom said.

"But how do we open the... um... door?" the blonde asked.

"How else?" the green eyed girl said smirking. In the next second her fist made contact with the stone wall. But nothing happened. The wall didn't collapse and didn't even keep a sign that it had been hit.

"What?" the brunette said surprised. "Ow!" she exclaimed a second later when she felt her hand being burned. Just then she noticed that her fist landed exactly on the drawing which had burned her. "What's wrong with this thing?" she almost yelled frustrated that she hadn't been able to open the entrance.

"It's some kind of spell." Blossom said studying the four flames. She touched them too, but immediately pulled her hand back as they burned her fingers.

"How do we get through this?" the brunette asked still a little angry.

They looked at the drawing. "Flames..." Bubbles thought. "A drawing of flames that burns... just like a real fire..." her thoughts continued. A second later her eyes widened as an idea formed in her mind.

"You know... maybe the drawing is... symbolic." The blonde girl said after a few minutes of silence.

"What are you taking about?" Buttercup asked looking at her sister like she was nuts.

"Well... I think that the drawing could be symbolic. There are four flames that burn you when you touch them. I think they represent a wall of fire." The blonde explained.

"Yeah. That's right! Bubbles, you are a genius! All we have to do is... how should I say this?... put out the fire." the pink eyed girl said, impressed of the originality and simplicity of the trap.

"Um... how do we put out a drawn fire?" Bubbles asked trying to find her idea in what Blossom had just said.

"Like this!" the red head answered with a smile on her face. Then, without giving any more information she turned around to the four flames. She took a deep breath and blew her ice breath. When she finished they all saw that the flames were no more. In their place there was an opening. But they couldn't see what was on the other side because of the bright light that was coming out of it.

"Hm, I was expecting something... darker." The brunette commented while looking at the bright entrance.

"We aren't in yet. We don't know what's there." The red head said.

"Yeah, whatever. Let's go! I want to kick some demon ass." The green eyed girl said taking a few steps towards the source of light.

"You'll never change." Bubbles said smiling.

"Nope. And if I do, please shoot me!" Buttercup returned the smile and disappeared into the bright light. The other two followed.

On the other side of the entrance things weren't as bright as the world that they had just left. Everything was very obscure. There was only a dim light penetrating the darkness of what seemed to be a void.

"Is this dark enough for you?" Bubbles asked her brunette sister after they stepped in the obscure void.

"Wow! This place is huge!" the green eyed girl exclaimed, ignoring her sister's comment.

"I can't discuss such an accurate observation." The red head said looking around. Buttercup was about to make a comeback at Blossom's comment but she got interrupted.

"Guys, how do we get out of here?" the blonde asked. Just then the other two noticed that bright entrance had closed without even one clue that it had ever existed.

"Great, just great! We're trapped in a dark place in HIM's lair and we can't even find the way we got in!" the brunette exclaimed frustrated.

Blossom studied the place. It was very big, so big that it seemed that it didn't have an end. But there was something about that place that really disturbed her.

"Girls, don't you notice something strange about this place?" she asked her sisters. They looked at her and shook their heads.

"Except for it being as big as the sky and disturbingly sinister,.. no, nothing." The blonde said trying to see something that would show them the way to get out of there.

"Look around." Blossom insisted. They did what she told them, but didn't seem to notice anything special. "Do you see any source of light?" she gave them a hint when she saw that they weren't sure what to look for.

Just then the two realized that the obscure light that helped them see wasn't produced by some kind of magical sun, by lamps or by anything else that could be seen. So they looked at the only part that they hadn't inspected yet: the ground.

They noticed, the ground wasn't what they were used to. It was made of what looked like thin white platforms that were placed at unequal distances from one another. This image gave the disturbing impression of a spider's web. And there was another weird thing about the "web": it was glowing. But at a closer look the girls could see that there were millions of little sparks passing through the platforms which produced light.

"Mystery solved: the light is coming from the floor." The brunette said, wondering why it was so important for Blossom to find out where the light was coming from.

"Buttercup, have you noticed these sparks?" the red head asked motioning towards the floor.

"Yeah, they're the ones making the "floor" glow. What's so important about them?" the green eyed girls asked.

"Yeah, Blossom, I don't understand." The blonde said too.

"Look here." The red haired girl said showing them the sparks. "These things are, in a way... organized."

"What are you talking about?" the blue eyed girl asked.

"I'm talking about the fact that these things come from somewhere, they have a source and I think that if we find that source we'll find the way out too." The Pink Puff explained.

"Good job leader girl!" Buttercup exclaimed smiling at her sister.

"We should get going." The pink eyed girl said beginning to walk in the direction where the little sparks were coming from. Her sisters followed her.

They walked in silence a few more minutes, looking around for anything that could represent the exit. They had to be careful where they were stepping too, because the platforms weren't large.

"Uh, why aren't we flying?" Buttercup asked, getting impatient.

"Because, Buttercup, if the way out is in where these sparks are coming from then we won't be able to notice it if we fly." The red head explained. The brunette opened her mouth to make a comeback, but was interrupted.

"Guys... what's that sound?" Bubbles asked in a weak voice looking around like she was expecting to see something horrible.

"What sound?" Blossom asked and the Green Puff understood that even if she tried to make that comeback she would be ignored. She closed her mouth and listened. There really was a sound, but it wasn't something that could be considered normal. It somewhat resembled the sound a small river would make, but it felt disturbingly... alive... like a living creature was making that sound.

"What's making this sound?" Bubbles asked, getting a little closer to her sisters.

"Maybe this answers your question." The green eyed girl said pointing to a place in front of them. The three girls looked in that direction. In the dim light provided by the little sparks in the platforms, several silhouettes could be seen and they were twice as big as the girls. The three Puffs watched with sacred eyes as the figures became clearer and clearer until they were facing a small army of big black spiders.

"Spiders! Why do they have to be spiders?" the brunette exclaimed. She was still a little afraid of those insects.

"Aaahhh! Bugs! Big Bugs!" Bubbles screamed warping her arms around her red haired sister's body, seeking protection.

"Uh, so that's why this thing reminded me so much of a spider's web." The red head said while trying to calm her blonde sister down.

Buttercup closed her eyes and took a deep breath trying to calm herself down. "They're only spiders, Buttercup." She thought opening her eyes. "Uh, disgusting, filthy, overgrown spiders" she thought when she saw the big insects. "But still spiders." She breathed out.

"Do we have to get through those things to get out?" Bubbles said freeing Blossom a little.

"I'm afraid so, Bubbles." The red head answered, thankful that she could breathe again.

Sorry guys, but I have to stop here. School started and my time to write has been cut short. I hope you liked it 'till here.

I'm not sure when the next chap will come, but I think that I may be able to update it next weekend. I'll see what I can do.

See ya' in Chapter 22!