Chapter 52: Knowing The Subconscious

"Gross, gross, gross..."

Bubbles is not pleased that she is covered entirely in blood, but it is better than continuously being drenched in blood. As she looked out the large crevice that she took shelter with her unexpected companion, there is no sign of the blood rain ever stopping. The crevice within the mesa is more akin to a cave, for it is large enough to house them both and the ceiling height of the crevice is several feet tall. The cool but dry surroundings within the crevice is comfortable enough for Bubbles, for being drenched with liquid is not the most pleasant of experiences.

As Bubbles twist a part of her skirt to squeeze out the blood from her dress, her eyes are now upon the dark shadow calling itself Break. The silhouette appears to be just a solid mass of darkness in the shape of the orange-haired Rowdyruff Boy, with its solid crimson eyes the only visible feature that pops out. It appears that the figure is also drenched in blood, as it is twisting its 'hair' to expel the blood. The apparition then takes a seat a a feet away from Bubbles, putting his hands on its crossed legs.

"So...Break right?" Bubbles attempts to start a conversation and the dark shadow-like character turns its head to face her.

As two crimson globes stares at her with disinterest Bubbles is still feeling uneasy over its particular appearance, but it sure beats being the only one in this unfamiliar dreamscape.

"Yes?" Break answered the pigtailed Powerpuff Girl while continuing to get rid of all the blood running down its body. Break's voice is a distorted voice, sounding exactly like Brick with his voice being duplicated by a reverberating echo that is slightly out of sync, unnerving the Powerpuff Girl with its discordance.

"Sorry if this sounds a little rude...but what are you?" Bubbles asked, confident enough to know that it will not hurt her whatever the shadowy figure may be.

"I'm Brick's failsafe device." Break answered in a clipped manner.

"So...you're always here?" Bubbles asked, not knowing why Brick would have such an entity, or to be precise such a function, within his body. However the dark entity finds a little offense to the way Bubbles asked the question.

"I've always been here. I should be asking you that question actually." Break threw an inquiry back at Bubbles, the ball now at Bubbles' court.

"Right, I'm sorry. I'm...I'm here to help Brick."

"Sure." Break shrugged.

Bubbles is unsure if the dark shadow-like figure is lying or not, but the sentient shadow appears to be friendly enough for her to tell it the reason why she is in here in the first place. The figure raised an eyebrow, or appears to do so, casting a shadow of caution on both Break and Bubbles. Both individuals are silent once more as the torrential downpour of blood continued on outside, knowing well of the awkwardness between are uncertain about the objectives of the other in this dreamscape and they are utter strangers to each other. Or to be exact, Bubbles is the stranger in this world. Break is familiar enough with Bubbles to know that she means no harm, as Brick's interaction with Bubbles always calmed the mindscape within Brick. The lunch meetings in particular always provides a calming gentle winds in the savanna which Break is fond of. But Bubbles' presence within this surreal landscape raises a warning flag within Break as no one else is suppose to intrude into this sacred sanctum of their psyche.

"So...does it rain often here?" Bubbles attempted her second try to initiate a conversation with Break once more, and Break figured that it is best to answer the pigtailed Powerpuff Girl. After all, it is easier to engage with a more willing participant than a reluctant one.

"It doesn't rain in here." Break replies and his answer catches Bubbles by surprise.

"It doesn't?"

"The rain started since the fight with Him." Break informed as he looked outwards towards the crack in the crevice, and the rumbling sound of thunder can be heard. Bubbles looked at the apparition and wondered why it is looking at the skies with eyes clouded by unease. Bubbles felt that the situation is a little too depressing for her liking.

"Brick must be down under the weather huh?" Bubbles tried to joke it off, but it seems that Break missed the point.

"No...I think it's a wound in his soul. Him did rip out something from within Brick's soul. Took a big chunk of Brick and myself as well, and his psyche is bleeding."

"Ripped...out...something?" Bubbles asked with unease in her voice, unsure about what the shadowy figure is talking about. Ripping out a part of a person's soul sounds life-threatening but she is not familiar with the concept of a soul as she had never faced a situation where souls are involved.

"I need to know what it took from Brick." Break's eyes narrows into near slits.

Bubbles is silent once more, knowing well that it is a very sensitive topic and it is not in her best interest to agitate the Brick-like being. Bubbles take a rest next to the sitting apparition, partially due to the dropping temperature of the crevice, but also her own curiosity to see the Brick-like apparition up close. As she sneak a few glances at the apparition, she noticed the vein-like patterns from the side of its eyes pulsing with red energy with every heartbeat. Bubbles is tempted to touch the shadow-like being with her hands, but at the same time she knows that nothing is as it seems. Instead she asked the entity a question instead.

"Why?" Bubbles asked.

Two glowing red eyes are now looking at Bubbles in the eye, and her heart jumped a little. She is still not used to Break's demonic appearance, her heart still beating from the initial fright. As the two red eyes are now staring into her soul, a cold chill runs down her spine. The entity reads the expression on Bubbles' face like a book and the two eyes are now frowning before he look away.

"We are two sides of the same coin, and one can't live without the other. If I can't find Brick, I will fade. If he can't find me, he will fade." Break points towards his chest, and Bubbles can finally see a dim flash of dull crimson glowing from inside his chest. It pulses weakly with every beat, and each beat was longer than the one before.

Bubbles decided that it is best to be silent about it, for it is best to not say anything in this situation.

It suited Break just fine.


The Powerpuff Girl and the apparition sat down in silence as the sound of a torrential rainstorm crashed on the mesa with the percussive sound of thunder rumbling accompanying the rain drops. Bubbles have no idea how much time had passed since they were taking shelter in the cave, but it is long enough that Bubbles can sense her restless heartbeat. The rain of blood is still continuing outside and shows no sign of stopping. The torrential downpour of blood continued on with greater intensity making it now nearly impossible for them to get out from the cave.

"Alright." Bubbles clapped her hands before getting decided that since it will take a while for the downpour of blood to stop, she'll have to do something about keeping themselves warm.

Break turned towards Bubbles for a moment before turning its attention back towards the wall in front of him. Break is not interested in Bubbles,' present actions for this is the first time he had interacted with her in any meaningful way. Most of the time Break is just an observer, watching Brick and this girl interacted with each other in this world of his. However, Brick is now missing and the girl that was once across the veil of existence is now here with him. He is not even sure how that worked, but he needs to find Brick fast.

Break shortly noticed that the girl bend her body a little and soon started to feel the angle between the ground and the walls of the sheltering cave. Break's disinterest soon turned into a genuine curiosity as she started humming a tune as she felt the ground between them. It soon dawned on Break that she was looking for something and he decided to observe her a little watches her actions intently as she heads back to where he is and the blonde girl returns with some dried things and she dumps them a few feet in front of him. Bubbles moved away from the things she just dumped and is now looking on the ground on all fours to find something that is only apparent to her. Break finds the view of her moving around very intriguing, and he can her mumbling about something as she looked around.

A sudden exclamation is a sign that she found what she is looking for.

Bubbles walked back to the pile of things with what appeared to be two flat rocks and she soon kneel down and started to scrape the two rocks together. The action continued for a good while, and finally Break decided to stand up and walk up to her.

"What are you doing?" Break asked, intrigued by her odd action of scraping two rocks together in front of a bunch of things she scrounged up from the cave.

"Making a fire! Don't you feel cold?" Bubbles asked the dark apparition and the apparition is particularly perplexed.

"Um...no. Not really." Break answered, not really understanding the question.

"Oh right...you're a shadow. Shadow's are supposed to be dark and cold." Bubbles puts her index finger on her temple as if she is thinking about something while her eyes are looking up towards an imaginary thought bubble. Seeing that she may need some help after all, Break was tempted to ask Bubbles about her thoughts. However it appeared that it is best to leave this particular odd one some time for her to articulate her thoughts. Bubbles thought for a while before she gave the shadowy being her best answer, which came out more like a question.

"Something to light up and make a fire?" Bubbles puts out her tongue in jest, and with a wink to boot. Break shaped one of his eyes to resemble a raised eyebrow, and realized that her request is particularly simple to do. Why would she struggle to do so, he wonder.

"I can just do this instead." Break narrowed his eyes and opened his palm.

A dark red flame burst out from his palm, surprising the Powerpuff Girl. The apparition threw the flame on the random things and the flame is soon alight in front of Break and Bubbles. Bubbles' eye sparkle with excitement as the flame grew larger. Break shrugged as the flame finally stopped growing and the crevice is now alight with a red glow. Bubbles soon take a seat beside Break and the two are now watching the flame instead, huddled around the flame and making themselves comfortable as the sparking sound of the flame echoed in the crevice. As the bright crimson day turned to a near-black crimsom night, both individuals are now glad that the flame helped keep them warm and the chamber well-lit. Time passed by and it felt a little odd not saying anything for such a period of time.

"So...Bubbles right?" Break decided that this time, he should strike the conversation instead.

"Yeah, that's me. What's up?" Bubble's baby blue eyes are now looking at Break, her eyes sparkle with every flicker of the fire in front of them.

"Why did you allow Brick to kiss you?" Break's question made Bubbles coughed, as she was not expecting the dark figure to ask her that particular question. Break did not notice the awkwardness of the question as he awaited the Powerpuff Girl to regain her composure once more. Bubbles covered her mouth before she speak to him, her eyes looking away from Break.

"Seriously, you don't have any tact." Bubbles blushed as she looked away from Break.

"Tact? It is the truth is it not?" Break asked her, not aware that he is just plowing through any sensibility of understanding Bubbles' embarrassment. Bubbles mumbled her reply, but Break didn't really hear her well. Perhaps she need him to speak up more.

"Seriously, I find you a little flirty at the beginning. But when Brick decided to kiss you, you went all submissive. I do not understand it at all." Break mentioned as the flame danced in front of him. Bubbles struggled to answer the question, for she is not really sure what happened at that moment as well. Noticing Bubbles perplexed look,Break decided to give a little context to the question asked.

"I didn't appear until three years ago. So I don't know much about my host." Break explained, and Bubbles opened her mouth, voicing out a silent 'Ah' to Break before answering him. Break is now rather attentive to what Bubbles had to say about the reasoning behind her actions.

"We grew up hating and fighting each other. Brick's a real brat. A bossy one actually. Mean. Rude. Reckless. Hotheaded. Selfish. Quick to trade fists." Bubbles remembered the main traits of the Rowdyrufd Boy during the time when they were adversaries, and Break's eyes narrowed in confusion.

"No redeeming feature whatsoever." Break voiced out his opinion, knowing that his comment is the exact cause for his confusion. Bubbles nod her head, and she gives out a small smile which Break finds a little hard to follow.

"Boys are always stupid when they're young. I mean, the Rowdyruff Boys got superpowers, which makes it worse, but they're still boys in the end. We Powerpuff Girls always clashed with them when we are young." Bubbles laughed it off. Break noticed that Bubbles appear to be remembering a time that passed a long time ago, the nostalgia as obvious as the full moon in the dark night sky. A time when he is nothing but the darkness.

"In that case, why are you here? Why do you want to help Brick?"

"Yeah, I wondered why as well." Bubbles said with a sigh, shaking her head but smiling at the same time.

"He sounds like a really unreasonable character, and I will admit he is still behaves like that today." Break voices out his opinion, and Bubbles turned around to look at the red-eyed apparition.

"Well, I guess..." Bubbles rolled her eyes with a grin that acknowledging his faults.

"But why him? He's moody, grumpy, anti-social, intimidating-" A finger soon rests on the part of Break's face where his lips would be, and Bubbles closed her eyes for a moment before opening them up again for Break to gaze into her zircon-colored eyes. She lifts her finger off his face and turned her attention back towards the flame.

"Honestly I didn't expect myself to like him in the first place. When I first met him after all this years, he's as intimidating as ever, and honestly much more intimidating than before. As I watched him, I worry that he will hurt someone, and indeed he almost did. But then I realized that people are just afraid of him, and for that they stayed away from him. The time when he was getting his lunch at the cafeteria and people parted away in fear made me realize that if everyone hates me, I would hate the world as well."

"Okay..." Break said, listening closely to what the Powerpuff Girl have to say. Bubbles drew a circle in the dirt on the ground and she continued on speaking.

" So I did what my sister couldn't; I decided to talk to him. One thing leads to another and here we are. I am talking to Brick's fail-safe device in his dreams." Bubbles then stretches her arms upwards before getting up from the ground and started stretching her legs. Break soon realize why Brick is always uneasy around her. The way she stretches her body accentuates her body curves and her bodily assets, and if Break is a entity of flesh and blood, he will be excited by this display. Alas, he is always the straight cold man to Brick's warm, fiery boyish personality.

"So you talked to him and all this turned around like that? I don't get it." Break is clearly not understanding how their development escalated to such an extent.

"You don't need to. I personally believe in the goodness in everyone, even people like Brick. And somehow I was right. Brick turned out to be more well-mannered the more I spoke to him, and he acts the way he did with everyone else because they judged him first and not taking the time to know him as a person. And he is trying very hard to not be what the world think he is. Alone among the Rowdyruff Boys, he's the one most concerned with his image, as if he is trying to hide many things from the world." Bubbles gives Break a sad grin, knowing well that she might have opened Pandora's box with the statement.

"Like me." Break points to his dimly glowing chest.

"Like you." Bubbles reiterates as she tilts her head and her sad grin turns into a more genuine wide grin. Break looked at her and his crimson eyes relaxed a little, and somehow understood why Brick is drawn to her. The way she conducted herself, her viewpoint, and with her looks, this is what Brick needs to fill the gaps in his wounded and battered heart.

He just needs someone that will accept him for who he is, not for what he is, Break thought in his mind. Break laments that he is unable to play that role.

But then something happened. Something subtle but obvious enough that Break and Bubbles stopped their conversation despite not knowing what happened. The silence that slowly permeates the cave is now slowly becoming a deafening silence, and both individuals realize what is missing.

The blood rain has stopped.

"That's bad." Break voiced his concern.

"How is that bad?" Bubbles asked.

"I am going to check what's going on outside." Break gets up and walks towards the exit of the cavernous area. Bubbles followed shortly after and the pair are now at the mouth of the cave and an unusual sight greets them. The whole reddish landscape is now covered in pure blackness and theirs eyes could not see any further. Break lights up a flame in his palm and slowly takes his first few steps towards the darkness accompanied by Bubbles. Slowly but surely they ventured away from the entrance to see what else they can find in this land of true darkness.

"What's going on? Why is it so dark?" Bubbles looked around the pitch black surroundings and trying her best to keep track of the distance between them and the cave opening. If it were not for the flame in his arm and his glowing red eyes, Bubbles would have lost sight of Break.

"I don't know but something just happened. And that something is making me feel very uneasy."

The darkness is broken by the sudden appearance of a bizarre sight of an alabaster white disc shining brightly in the black skies. A dark glowing red miasma soon formed itself before Break and Bubbles, and Break and Bubbles can only watch as the dark miasma glowed with even greater intensity. A slender, powerfully built animal-like figure with a large, deeply descending rib, a sloping back and a heavily muscled neck slowly formed from the miasma. The legs are moderately long, and the ears are relatively small and triangular. A slowly elongated part of the miasma soon formed into a sharp snout-like object. As it slowly rises, it soon tower over Break and Bubbles and several eyes with a totally black pupil at the center soon opened up from the miasma and the sharp,elongated part soon split apart to show rows of sharp bone fang-like teeth. The head soon morphed into a bestial head resembling a grotesque mix between a wolf and a crocodile with six large tusks, three on each side, protruded from the fulcrum-region of its mouth.

Several flame-like protrusions soon started to form on its body before turning into tendrils resembling a grotesque combination of broken razors, flaming vines and Venus flytraps at the end of each protrusion. A mane and an elongated end of the body soon turned into a conflagration of dark red flames, lighting up the dark body of the being with a crimson red glow. Bubbles watched in horror as the growl of the bestial being before them rumbles through Bubbles' body. Bubbles' heart is now starting to pound louder than the vibrations she is sensing in her body as the darkly majestic abomination rise up to its full height and snarl at Break and Bubbles, baring its rows of vicious teeth at Break and Bubbles.

"That's a very big wolf-thing." Bubbles was so shocked that her reply is oddly serene and peaceful as her brain are trying to make sense of the optical feedback from her eyes.

"That's new." Break corrected the Powerpuff Girl.

"New?" Bubbles asked calmly, but her internal state of her mind is anything but calm.

"And as with all new things..." Break slowly raises his hand and points at the looming wolf-thing, causing the snarl of the abomination before them to become more aggressive and reverberating through the air like an echo.

What are you doing?, Bubbles asked herself in her mind, knowing that she this situation can not possibly get any worse. Alas, Break proved her wrong by completing his sentence.

"I'm going to hit it and see what happens." Before Bubbles can say anything else, Break fires the beams from its eyes and it made contact with the beast's face. The towering behemoth howled as the smoke form the blast clouds its face.

"Oh." Bubbles said curtly, realizing that this is a dream to begin with, and anything goes in a dream. Bubbles cursed the power of imagination, subconscious thoughts, and repressed emotions in forming the psyche of a person's appearance in a dream world and letting it act in the most foolish way possible. The jaws of the being before them widened and the shark-like rows of teeth facing them is made worse by the drooling from the mouth of the creature as well as its snake-like tongue flickering in the air.

"Oh?" Break finds Bubbles' response to be particularly short, as she is often a little more chatty.

"You're an idiot Break. You really are." Bubbles said without any tone of anger, but instead a tone of acceptance of her situation.

An anguished and furious howl came out from the being's jaws and the earth shook so violently that Bubbles and Break lost their balance, and they only managed to stay upright as they bumped into each other and act as one another's support. Break felt something soft pressing against his chest, or to be exact two soft things pressing against his chest. Seeing the situation not being in their favor at all, Break grab Bubbles by the hip and with one arm lift the blonde girl in a bridal carry and started sprinting away into the crevice once more. The monster immediately gave chase and now Beak is frantically running in a crisscross manner for both their lives. Several loud snaps justified Break's actions as several more tendrils crashed downwards,hellbent on getting Break and Bubbles.

"WHY DO YOU HAVE TO HIT THE DAMN THING!?" Bubbles shrieked, the need to know the answer to this question is very important to her despite the imminent danger that they are facing.

"I DON'T KNO-WHOA!" Break was interrupted as he avoided another snapping jaw from the beast. Break fired off a pair of beams from his eyes, hitting the creature directly into one of its eyes. Instead of stopping the creature, it became infuriated and a guttural roar exits the abomination's mouth.

"THAT'S NOT VERY CLEVER!" Bubbles yelled out.

"DON'T YOU THINK I ALREADY KNOW THAT?!" Break snapped back at her. If he knew that Bubbles will be this annoying, he will definitely leave her alone to her fate. As the cave where they came out from is coming closer in view, Break knew that he will not make it in his present speed. Concentrating all the energy into his legs, Break jumped into the crevice with Bubbles in tow, missing another bite from the creature's jaws. As Bubbles and Break scurry away from the mouth of the crevice, and in effect moving away from the jaws of the abomination behind them. Both Break and Bubbles watched as the creature clawed at the mouth of the crevice, and both of them edged a little back to avoid any chance of the monster grabbing them.

"Seriously...thank goodness we are so close to the cave." Bubbles sighed in relief.

"I wouldn't count on it." Break saw the edges of the crevice-like cave cracking apart with every attempt the bestial being attempted to get at them. With every slam and roar, both individuals knew that they do not have much time. Break look into the chamber where they are at and he notices something that could prove to be useful for this situation. Break taps Bubbles on the shoulder and after catching her attention, he points towards the direction where he was looking at moments ago.

"There. It appears to be a cavern network. Let's move." Break waited for Bubbles to nod her head before grabbing her arm and lead her into the only escape route they can see.

As they ran into the cavern, the light from the entrance faded away and Brick lighted a flame in his palm, acting as a makeshift lantern for them to navigate in this cave inside a mesa. The growling from the bestial being continued on and echoed throughout the cavernous network. As the time passed on, the roaring sound soon gave way to the sound of a deafening silence and Break and Bubbles decided that they can now be at ease. Break tossed a flame down on the ground and the red flame soon illuminate the area where they are standing at.

"This would do, and we need to rest." Break adviced the blonde Powerpuff Girl with the pigtails.

"Yeah." Bubbles straightened up her skirt and takes a seat near the flame.

"At least we are out of that creature's sight." Bubbles is fatigued and the weariness is now seeping into her body, signalling that she needs to rest. Even the shadowy figure before her is closing its crimson eyes, and she will have to ask the burning question in her mind when the shadow is awake. Bubbles slowly closes her eyes and as her vision blurred into darkness, the last thought in her mind flashes.

This is going to be a real drag.


[Him's Sanctum]

The skies are showing random clips of a bunch of African-American singers wearing rather bright and campy outfits dancing and playing instruments while performing a song that is the epitome of happiness and joyfulness, conjuring the images of clear skies and dancing under the stars through a prismatic and psychedelic lens. The campiness of the music and the images are as bizarre and disorienting as the world itself spins around in a display of madness.

Below this images, a crimson figure in a dress robe is now watching three screens before it, lying down on the couch with a beauty mask plastered on its face, revealing only its emerald eyes visible. A smile etches itseld on the dark overlord's face as it watched what the screen is displaying; The Powerpuff Girls. The first screen showed Blossom being treated by a field medic surrounded by a younger Brick and Boomer. The second screen showed Buttercup walking down a street while talking with Boomer down a busy pedestrian walk. The last screen Bubbles alongside a figure made out of darkness lying down around a fire in a dark place.

"This is pure entertainment right here!" The effeminate cacophonous squeal of both a high pitched female voice and a deep baritone exited its lips.

Him clearly had enjoyed every moment of its machination and those events that are outside Him's control. The dreams are definitely something that Him did not expect to see, for its plan had gone off a tangent that is far more entertaining than it planned. The boys themselves provided a cage that trapped the Powerpuff Girls in the dreamscape of the Rowdyruff Boys. That played a melody in its mind, and a joyful smile etches on its face.

Him's plan will come to fruition, with or without the Powerpuff Girls or the Rowdyruff Boys. But all Him want in the process is for it to be much more exciting and entertaining. Accomplishing its objective is boring unless there is something to struggle against. If the Rowdyruff Boys and Powerpuff Girls succumbed to their dream forays, it would be a great loss for Him, but at the same time their current ordeal is particularly entertaining. As the sensation of the raw emotions flows out from these dreams of the six of the most powerful beings in the world, Him shudder in an euphoric excitement for the insecurities of the Rowdyruff Boys and the strong emotions of the Powerpuff Girls in their quest to get the boys out from their dream is fueling every fiber of its operations to a feverish pitch.

"Such diverse and intense emotions...I regret nothing." Him mutters to itself as it watches the three screens before it. Only those little boys and girls can even reach to the levels of emotional energy that can further enrich Him and its agendas. The Powerpuff Girls and the Rowdyruff Boys grew up to be such fine young adults in Him's eyes, and they have broken all its expectations of them. Him closed its eyes as it slowly lean back on its couch and as Him's body relaxes, the scenery changes within the realm once more.

The scenery of the band turned into a serene and azure bright sky with not a cloud in sight, surrounded by a clear, transparent blue ocean and Him's couch is now resting on a pristine white beach with several coconut trees shading Him. Him is truly enjoying itself as it saw how the Rowdyruff Boys and the Powerpuff Girls interacted with each other. It will rest here until the final phase of its plan reached its checkpoint.

"So boys and girls, don't disappoint me. Or else you'll make me a very sad demon."