DYING TO LIVE



A PpG 'alternate reality' fan fiction

By I am a good fighter


DISCLAIMER: Powerpuff Girls created by Craig McCracken and all characters associated with the show are owned by Cartoon Network


Story idea adapted from the novel 'Replay' (c) 1986 by Ken Grimwood


This story is rated PG-13




SEVEN

When you have superpowers, avoiding attention isn't the easiest thing to do. The best way is to go where there aren't any people, or avoid using your abilities where there are.

I didn't know if my family ever came looking for me, but word would have certainly gotten out of my disappearance. And I couldn't change the way I looked; even if someone had never heard of us I was going to stick out. So I went to only the remotest places on earth, where I could have some solitude without a serious risk of being discovered.

Surviving in the wild was easier than I thought it would be. I watched animals eat certain fruits and berries and avoid others. I could easily catch and cook all the fish I wanted. When I couldn't find clean water, boiling it with my eye beams made it drinkable. Doing these things without being noticed was much more difficult.

It was the middle of June and I'd been gone for six weeks. It had taken longer than I hoped to find that perfect spot to work on my 'problem'. I had finally found it and I'd been there a week. An isolated cave in the Himalayas, out of the wind and far above the range of most wildlife. At one time, mountain climbers or native Tibetans may have used it for shelter, but I thought that it hadn't seen a human in years. A few quick flights down to the mountain's tree line and I had all the firewood I needed. Farther down, the streams were full of fish and I had plenty of dried fruit from my week in the Amazon rainforest.

No, survival was easy. But I hadn't a clue to my situation. I tried to reason with myself. I had died twice, only to come back to life. Each time at a particular point, though I had lost over two months the second time. First, late December, then mid March. Did that mean anything?

I knew now this wasn't just an at-death's-door dream. The chill of the air, the smell of the woodsmoke. I stuck my hand in the flames and quickly pulled it out. No, it was all too real. But, how could this be happening? Though it was right up his alley, Him swore he wasn't behind it. I believed it, because his ego was bigger than Mojo's or mine and he would have waved a triumph like this under everyone's noses.

We didn't go to church and religion was something that we were never exposed to in our house. It was something I'd wondered about but was too afraid to discuss with Professor. I'm sure my sisters thought about it, too; but we never discussed it, either. I think we didn't WANT to know the answer. But I forced myself to think about it now. We were created artificially. Had Professor avoided the subject because he had taken what was supposed to be left to God? Was God now having His revenge against us for it, through me?

No, I refused to believe that. I figured that if Professor was made in God's image and then created us using knowledge and talent that were God-given, that we were OK in God's eyes. From what little I knew, God, whatever He was, was supposed to be a loving, forgiving God and would never do something like this. No, someone or something else was responsible. And just because God wasn't behind it didn't mean He'd automatically step in to save me from it.

I tried to imagine what life was like for those I'd left behind. For those I'd left behind. Wait a minute! I had died twice, and each time I had left my sisters to cry over my lifeless body. They and Professor and the rest of the world had simply continued on without me, unaware that I was living in some other place and time. How were they dealing with it? What were their lives like now? Those were two separate and distinct worlds yet I knew them both. Did one have any awareness of the other?

Suddenly, this wasn't just about me anymore. Yes, it had happened to me, but it was much bigger than just me. In spite of knowing the how, the why was unfathomable. Were there really multiple parallel universes? Was I going to die in every single one of them? On August 19th, 2000 at 1:17 on a beautiful Saturday afternoon? Had I already died a hundred, a million times?

No, that was crazy. If I knew about two of them, I should have known them all. Unless it was just beginning. Where and when would it end? I felt overwhelmed by the whole thing, understanding only that I wanted it to stop. I couldn't bear the thought of my loved ones having to endure that pain one more time. I wanted it to end for myself, too. If it was my fate for my life to be over at such a young age, I wanted it to be OVER. As in DONE. Not over, and over, and over...

It hit me with the force of a slap. I had to be living under a curse, placed by a being far more powerful than Him. It was the only thing that made sense to me. But curses could be broken, and I knew how! I either had to die before my appointed time or live past it. I could only control the time of my death before that August day by killing myself. That would break the curse but I would be dead for good. It seemed rather pointless. But by making sure I avoided any sort of danger on that day, I would live until some unknown time in the future and the curse would also be broken. That was definitely the better option, but I swore to whoever might be listening that if it failed, and I began this repeating cycle again, I WOULD take my fate in my own hands and end it all, forever.

That day was fourteen months away. I resolved at that moment to live my life as fully as I could, to be the best person I could be. Until the 19th of August, 2000, when I would take a day off.

I stood and put the fire out with my ice breath. I would return home to my family and beg for forgiveness. I vowed to not rejoin the Powerpuff Girls until I proved I was worthy. I removed what traces I could that I'd ever been in that cave, and headed home, for my beloved Townsville.