The Professor was concentrating on his Transdimensional Time Reverser. It would be imperative to get it working. His black eyes glanced over to his small, brunette child who was angrily muttering to herself. She sat cross-legged on the floor with an angry scowl on her face. His little girl. He had missed them all so much. Their very look and presence brought him overwhelming joy. He prayed silently (although he was more of a science man than a God-fearing one) that he and his children would make it home safely.
He looked back at her to see she was carelessly playing with an empty beaker. Normally he would've halted the callous behavior, but he decided to let her play, even though the beaker would no doubt break. In many ways his children reminded him of himself. When he was a youngster, he was a bit of a prankster and had boundless unrest in himself, much like his green-eyed girl. As he grew, he began to find laws of science and a quest for knowledge enticing, like his young daughter Blossom had found it. And when he reached adult hood, he had further gained a good nature and slightly playful spirit like his sweet Bubbles. All those dimensions of his girls were found in himself and visa versa. It made it easier to identify with all three of them. And, at that moment, he'd rather let his Buttercup play and just enjoy her company.
"Shouldn't they have been back by now?" Red questioned breaking the Professor's thoughtful silence. She looked toward the ceiling where the large hole showed the blue morning sky. The Professor looked toward the hole and then toward Ms. Robins.
She was a sweet young lady with an obviously kind heart. She'd come all this way to return his daughters to him. She was indeed a very sweet woman. Not to mention she wasn't half-bad looking either. Red had a slender figure and long red hair although it was tied back at the moment. Her green eyes reminded him a bit of his little girl's. The sunlight glowed upon her worried face and the Professor found himself slightly starring.
A low growl shook him from his thoughts. Buttercup glowered at him, still being protective of her mother, although she knew now they were never truly mother and daughter. Her whole life…a lie. It was hard to believe it. There was nothing more disheartening to her. She always thought that she was born of her mother. Why…why didn't Mommy…Red, Buttercup acidly thought, ever tell me? Why did she lie to me? It hurt her so much. But she wouldn't let a tear fall. She gave an angry look to her "mother" pounding the beaker across the floor harshly.
Red winced at the sound. Her thoughts had been concentrated mostly on Bubbles and Blossom. They had been gone for so long. After they had flown out she had been silent toward her daughter, clueless on what to say. She had just been worried about Bubbles and Blossom. How long should this take? Are they going to make it back in time? What if they're hurt?! What if they're trapped somewhere. My God, poor Bubbles! Thoughts raced through her mind as she turned away from the hole in the ceiling. Then her eyes fell upon Buttercup, playing angrily. She couldn't leave everything unspoken. They had to leave on good terms.
"Buttercup?" Red asked quietly. Buttercup didn't even turn around. She continued to bang the beaker on the floor. The Professor began to become worried. "Honey," Red stated, "don't do that. You'll break it."
"I don't have to listen to you." Buttercup sneered unmercifully, "You're not my mother." Red snapped her head to the side as if Buttercup had just hit her. She looked down for a moment but turned her head back to Buttercup.
"Baby, I'm sorry." Red stated, the only sounds now were that of that damned beaker clanking on the floor and the Professor tinkering, slowly, on his creation. "I know you feel hurt and betrayed. And I'm sorry. I have never felt more sorry for this. You have to understand though, I thought you were too young and it would hurt you. I know it HAS hurt you. I was going to tell you when you were ready. I never meant it as a lie." Buttercup just turned the beaker over in her hands and the banging of the beaker had only become a want in the air.
The Professor gave a weak cough although he'd been trying to hold it in. Red frowned and tried to think of something else to say.
"I love you, Honey." She said clearly and the banging began again almost as if drowning her out, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I wanted you to feel like you really were a part of the family. I thought you may have felt rejected because your…um…'real Mommy' left you. I wanted you to feel first that I loved you just as much as your real mother could." Red closed her eyes lightly. "I just wanted you to know you were loved." The clanking became softer until Buttercup was only sliding the rim on the beaker across the floor.
"I coulda handled it." Buttercup softly reassured. "I'm tough enough to take it. I'm…pretty smart…I would understand." Buttercup spoke solely to the scathed beaker clasped in her mitts. "I know…I know you…love me." Buttercup's voice was unusually soft. "I don't wanna be mad, I just…I don't want you to…to…" Buttercup's face contorted in pain and she picked up the beaker and flung it toward a wall. Oh no, here it comes The Professor thought and waited for the tinkling of glass. His expectations, however, went un-rewarded.
Red held the beaker in her hand after catching it in mid-throw. She looked as her daughter had pulled her rounded "knees" to her tiny chest and turned her face to the side. The picture became suddenly very clear to her. "Oh…honey…" Red's lower lip trembled softly and she knelt down to her child, placing the beaker on the ground as she wrapped her arms around the little girl.
The Professor seemed confused. I…will never understand women. The Professor thought vaguely to himself, having since stopped his construction on the Transdimensional Time Reverser. The two females clutched each other in the middle of the floor as the Professor pieced together everything in his mind.
Buttercup could be an extremely complex child or sometimes she was as easy to read as a billboard. In this particular instance she was dipping into the complexities in herself. She had yet to realize it, but she was demonstrating a way of softening the blow for her mother's inevitable departure. By purposefully finding something to become exceedingly angry about, it would make it easier for her to get up and leave her mother with little clinging or regret until later. Although Buttercup was genuinely upset over her adoption, this was also a sort of built-in safety for her.
"I don't wanna go." Buttercup finally whispered. Red's heart leapt with joy for a mere moment. She didn't want to say it aloud but she had hoped her daughter would want to stay with her.
The Professor, on the other hand slipped a little when he heard her faint whisper. Could he be complete without all three girls? Inside it formed a deep gash in his psyche, choosing this world over their own. Choosing her over him. It would hurt him, almost kill him to see her smiling face in the family portrait and having only that ghost of a smile floating around in his home. What if his other two children chose this world over their original? What if they too left him? The thought made him feel dizzy. Then he would have to stay in this world, just to be with them. And that other world, their homeworld, would collapse and die without them. That house in Pokey Oaks would crumble to the ground, that school in Townsville he'd attended so long ago would disintegrate, all the great achievements would die, along with thousands of others.
No, no he wouldn't allow it. He couldn't allow those people to die in that world. But, would he deny his daughter's happiness? Such a rare and fleeting thing to see her smile without a scowl on her face. Would he destroy all three of his daughter's happiness? For the sake of that world? And was it not true that once they left this world, everyone here would die? For his girls were much like the supporting pillars in a great monument. With them gone from either, it would fall and crush all inside. Including this kind-hearted and gentle Ms. Robins.
He glanced over at her knowing that once those girl's stepped their Mary-Jane clad feet to "the other side" that world would implode and collapse upon her. A swift and final blow for her years of devotion to her surrogate daughter. A fitting end?
"Oh Honey, I know. But, you belong with the Professor and your sisters. This world hasn't been kind to you and you are needed where you came from." Red looked longingly at the light green eyes and cut locks of dark hair. As if taking in every detail before her daughter disappeared.
"Can't you come with us?" Buttercup questioned.
"This is my world, I belong here. You belong in your world." Red smiled boldly. The Professor tried to re-concentrate on his work, still keeping the secret. It burned inside him like a fire. Why didn't he tell her she would no doubt die? Why couldn't he just take her in the portal with him and his girls? Was it perhaps the fear that she may take the girl's from him? Their need for a maternal figure overriding their original love for their creator? Or was it that he would be playing God to take only Red and not whoever it was that took care of Bubbles and Blossom? Perhaps even the fact that her very presence in his world could cause it to collapse. As these thoughts bounced around in his head, he continued to work on auto-pilot trying not to sympathize with the pretty young woman.
"I'll never see you again." She stated plainly.
"I'll see you again, Honey." Red forced a smile.
"How?" Buttercup began to get angry, "You'll be here, I'll be there! How the heck am I suppose to see you again!" She pouted.
"I'll be there." Red smiled. "I'll be in the love the Professor will give to you, I'll be there in his touch and in your thoughts. Trust me, I'll be inside of you and you'll get so sick of me you'll want to puke." Red's grin widened while she spoke as she created her own "fail-safe" device out of the comedy. "But honestly honey, I never truly existed before you came here. If you hadn't wished me, I would've never been. I'm…essentially…a figment of your imagination." Red gulped. This sort of psychology troubled her. She had always thought herself open to these types of ideas, but now with evidence that it may have been true, she cringed. Technically, her God was the child she had raised, and the person she prayed to each night before bed. The little God shook her head.
"You're NOT imaginary." She stated seriously, "I do NOT have imaginary friends! That INCLUDES mothers! You're wrong!" She glared. Red realized that this concept was a little too advanced for her and soothed her child softly while rubbing her back.
"Okay, okay." Red rocked her back and forth. "Why don't we just wait for your sisters to come back before we say goodbye, okay?" Buttercup nodded and listened to the fast thud of her mother's heartbeat.
Once again the Professor's work remained the only sound for a while with the clinking of metals and the fusing of wires. Soon though, a soft sound was heard in the laboratory of Red's soft humming as she began a familiar tune. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…" It continued softly, the words were slightly sticking to her lips as she formed them and spoke them gently.
This only pained the Professor more. As morality gripped him he heard a familiar sound. His eyes gazed up from his tedious work to the hole above. He saw nothing but blue skies and puffy white clouds. Had that sound only been an illusion? His hopes to end the thoughts he was battling with?
Suddenly, a pink streak of light flew in from the hole and landed on the tiled floor with a gentle tap. Blossom smiled at the Professor, her eyes looked slightly redder than normal but she gave off an aura of inner fulfillment.
"Hello Professor, how's it going?" Blossom voice was back to normal, with contractions and that slight authoritative tone. As if all snottiness had been erased from her voice. "Are they…" Blossom looked over to see Red still holding Buttercup; they seemed oblivious to Blossom. Blossom nodded once as if to say "that's how things should be". She then turned her sights back to the Professor making sure to wipe the tracks of tears off of her cheeks. "Is the Transdimensional Time Reverser ready? Is Bubbles here?"
"Almost and no. I have to say that I never expected this machine to be so temperamental. The electron configuration is all out of whack, the hydraulic mechanization won't even spin, and I can't even begin to describe what's wrong with the flux capaci-"
"Professor? I get it." Blossom putting on a trying smile. The Professor stopped raving and gave a light chuckle.
"Sorry, Honey. I'm sure Bubbles will be back in a moment." He turned back to quickly working on the Transdimensional Time Reverser, keeping track of the foreboding time.
Blossom gave off a slight smile and closed her eyes for a moment relishing in the thought of going back home and the thought of her Nana's dear words. She replayed the nights she spent listening to Nana's stories of childhood and the mornings coming back from horseback riding falling asleep resting on Nana's lap. A slight smile even came to her as she remembered the feel of her "mother's" hands through her hair. Warm tears welled up over her pink irises. Some things, I will miss. She thought.
That same sound, from before, interrupted the Professor's work. Bubbles must be coming home. The Professor thought, even happy to THINK those words. He gazed expectantly toward the whole in the ceiling, his eyes only meeting the blue sky though.
Suddenly Bubbles bursts through the roof creating another hole. She had tears in her eyes and began to wail a little, shaking everyone from what they were doing.
"I wish I never wished thhhhhhaatttttttt!" Bubbles screeched aloud, the thoughts of her mother and father swarming around in her head. But it seemed that God didn't give them time to console the child.
The ground rumbled beneath them, The little pieces of plaster Bubbles had cast onto the ground bounced and tittered over the floor. The Professor quickly hugged onto his two closest daughters (as Red all ready had a tight grip on Buttercup).
"What did I do nooooooooowwwwwwww?" Bubbles wailed as Blossom began to feel a burning near her chest. The ground shook more violently and a piece of plaster crushed the beaker shattering it into a million pieces.
