A/N: This is AU all the way, even more so after the show's bringing back the RrB.
On the first day, a day that lasted one day or billions of years, whichever perspective you happen to take, the Creator made the Universe; its secrets known only to said Creator, and the subject of dream and speculation forever more by lesser beings.
Of the numberless stars and other celestial bodies that make up the Universe, only one is known to sustain human life. What is only suspected is the possibility of life beyond this tiny rock called Earth.
Could there be others out there? Could there be others out there who are just like us? Could there, in the endless array of possibilities, have been a collision at the point where our solar system was formed, a collision of such magnitude that the collection of gases and particles that formed what we became was riven in two and hurled millions of galaxies apart?
Could there actually be a galaxy out there identical to ours? One that, perhaps, gave life, as we know it, to others? And what if, if we permit ourselves to dream, might become of such a world if there were no catastrophes like the ones that killed off the dinosaurs and set back the progress of evolution? A world where life went on, unfettered…why, the humans that then resulted, if they exist, might well have attained a state of perfection by now.
What if….
"Bleah!"
Buttercup made a face, as if something nasty had just passed her lips. She spat several times, looking thoroughly disgusted.
Blossom and Bubbles giggled at their sister as they stood alongside the road near Mojo Jojo's volcano-top lair. The three Powerpuff Girls had just watched the paddywagon drive off with their evil foe ranting at them through the bars in the rear doors. His latest plan to destroy them had ended with the simplest of gestures; gentle kisses on the cheeks of each of the now-extinct Rowdyruff Boys. They barely paid attention to the base ingredients strewn on the road near them, continuing to chuckle as they launched themselves skyward.
"C'mon, Bubbles!" Blossom laughed. "Let's go find some more boys for Buttercup to kiss!"
Bubbles cackled madly, and neither noticed the annoyed look they were getting from their fiery sister as she caught up with them.
"Yeah, Blossom!" the golden-haired 'Puff answered back. "Practice makes perfect!" She shot her dark-haired sister a wide grin.
"Oh, shut up!" Buttercup barked back.
Blossom thought that her sister didn't seem as vehement as she usually got when they ragged on her. "Come on, Buttercup, it wasn't that bad! Was it?"
Bubbles glanced over as they approached the halfway point to their house. "Admit it, Buttercup, you really liked it, didn't ya?"
The beginnings of a smile tugged at Buttercup's lips. "I can never get anything past you two, can I? But, where did those guys come from?"
Blossom pulled up suddenly, growing serious. "I'm not ready to tell the professor about this just yet. Let's go someplace where we can talk it over."
Each of the girls had places they liked to go to be alone, to sort things out whenever something was bothering them. But each knew where the others' were, just in case. Secrecy would be nice, but their duty wouldn't allow them that luxury. They had to be able to group quickly in case of an emergency. And though they were different from each other in many ways, in others they were eerily alike. At times, they seemed to be thinking exactly the same thing, and often came to the same conclusion almost instantly. Buttercup's favorite place was a cliff at the shore, overlooking the ocean. But a monster might see them and come looking for a fight they weren't in the mood for right then. Blossom's was on the moon, but one of her sisters was always on hand to answer 'The Call' and go get her if that's where she was. If all of them were on the moon, that wasn't good.
'The waterfall," they said as one. Bubbles' spot of choice, in the mountains north of the city. They'd still be able to see the Powerpuff Signal from there.
When they arrived, they landed on one side of a stream that formed at the base of a seventy-foot waterfall and flowed away down the mountainside. They were high enough up in the mountains that only a few adventurous types had ever been there besides themselves. The pristine beauty of the scene had barely been disturbed. Tall, light-green ferns dominated the lush vegetation surrounding them. There were a few leaf-bearing trees, but this high up, conifers made up the bulk of the woods that covered this part of the mountain. They could hear birds chirping above the steady roar of the falling waters. Bubbles took up her favorite position on a large boulder covered with soft, cushiony moss. Blossom saw no other good place to sit without getting dirty, so she elected to just float. She got a good view of the opposite side of the gorge while keeping her eyes on Bubbles' face and her other sister's back. Buttercup stood on the bank with a handful of pebbles and was absently tossing them down into the still waters of the pool at the base, away from the cascading waterfall. She stared at the ripples as they broke her reflection, but her attention was fully on the conversation about to take place.
"Okay," Blossom started. "I think it's pretty obvious who those guys were."
"Yeah," Buttercup agreed. "The stuff little boys are made of."
"Only they were evil 'cause of something Mojo did to them," Bubbles finished.
"Right, Bubbles," Blossom said while rubbing her chin, thinking. "Or they would have been good, like us. But where did Mojo get bad Chemical X from?"
"Who cares, Blossom?" Buttercup answered, continuing to toss her little stones. Their splashing made a rhythmic accompaniment to her words. "Mojo can… * plop *… make all the… * plop *…boys he wants… * plop *…and we'll… * plop *…beat 'em… * plop *…every time!"
Bubbles giggled and said, "Hey Buttercup? Maybe we can practice * beating * those bad boys at home in the Danger Room!"
Buttercup dropped her remaining pebbles and whirled, laughing out loud, and she floated over to join her sisters. But Blossom wasn't smiling.
"Girls, this is serious. Kissing is fun, and if they show up again we know what to do, but…but we did something today that I'm ashamed of, and it has everything to do with those boys…and us."
"You mean 'cause…'cause we destroyed 'em?"
"No, Buttercup. They were evil and they had to be stopped. I just didn't expect that to happen. But that isn't it, either."
Bubbles looked at her sister in confusion. "Then what, Blossom?"
"When we thought we'd lost, that Townsville wouldn't want us anymore, we were ready to leave…to just…go away…without even knowing where we were going to go. At least I was. I never once gave a thought to going to see the professor, to ask for his help or advice…"
At this point she began to sob. "…or even to tell him goodbye!"
In one horrifying instant, her sisters knew it was also true of themselves. Buttercup scrambled to find a rationale, to deflect the shame she now felt. "But, Blossom, we were just upset! We never lost before!"
Blossom had herself back under control. "We didn't lose today. It was just like Ms. Bellum said, we were attacking the problem from the wrong angle. So, why did we react the way we did?"
Bubbles covered her ears, trying to block out her sisters' words, but the reasoning was coming from within. She had always believed that she loved the professor with all her heart, but…
"No, Blossom! I love him!"
Blossom sighed. "So do I, Bubbles. I know he loves us, too. He's done everything a real father would, but sometimes I have a hard time feeling connected to him."
Buttercup sat down heavily on a rock, not even feeling it. What she felt was like her insides being squeezed, long-imprisoned thoughts trying to escape. "Me too," she said dully, then looked up at Blossom. "I think I've always kinda resented him without knowing why. But now I know why. We don't have a mother. Yeah, lots of kids don't, for all kinds of reasons, but we never even had a chance of having one!"
Blossom nodded vigorously, as if Buttercup had expressed something she, too, had never been able to put into words. "And I've always had so many questions! Like, how were we born, not like babies, but knowing all the stuff we knew and everything?"
"Yeah, like we weren't really born but sucked from someplace else and…" Buttercup stopped, the realization hitting her like a punch. "Those boys."
"Exactly," Blossom said grimly.
Bubbles hunched herself smaller, trying to seep into the boulder, her arms tightening their grip on herself. "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" She jumped up suddenly, shrieking, "Those boys aren't like us! And Professor is too our real daddy!"
Her face was beet-red with anger, and she turned and flew off. Her sisters caught her and pulled her back down to the spot. She tried squirming free, but two-on-one wasn't good odds.
"Yes, Bubbles, those boys were exactly like us," Blossom said softly, trying to get her sister to settle down.
Buttercup took the cue, rather than getting angry herself, which she was prone to do. "Yeah, Bubbles. It's only something Mojo did that made them bad. That means that anybody can make more boys, or even girls like us, if they have all the right stuff."
"Or the wrong stuff," Blossom added. "But where do we come from, all made like this, without having to go through babyhood like normal people?" That was another thing she was resentful of. Having superpowers was great, but at what price?
"And if we came from somewhere already made, then the professor isn't our real father."
Buttercup expected another burst from Bubbles at that, but her sister just sagged, and she and Blossom let Bubbles go.
"I'm sorry, girls, you're right. I thought about this stuff too, but I didn't like it and I made myself stop. But I don't resent Professor at all. I mean, we aren't any better. What about poor Bunny?"
"Oh, geez, Bubbles," Buttercup said, cringing. "How could we forget about that? And all because we selfishly wanted somebody to help us, not because we really wanted a sister. At least the professor wanted us."
"No, Buttercup," Bubbles shook her head. "He wanted a perfect little girl. And though we might be made from the stuff that makes perfect little girls, he didn't get what he wanted. But he loves us anyway, just the way we are. That's what fathers do."
She took a step back from them and said, "I don't care where we came from. We're here. I'm going home now." She took off, turning to tell her startled sisters, " An' when I get there, I'm gonna tell Professor how much I love him, and then I'll tell 'im about those boys!"
They watched her go, then stood staring at each other dumbly for at least a minute. Finally, Blossom shoved her hands into the pockets of her dress and slumped.
"Y'know, Buttercup, I feel like I'm supposed to set an example for you guys, but how can I do that when I'm such an idiot sometimes?"
Buttercup frowned. "So that's why me an' Bubbles act like idiots! Thanks a lot!" She gave her sister a playful punch in the shoulder.
Blossom was only able to return a small, sad smile. "Thanks for tryin' to cheer me up, but I feel really awful about this. Professor gives us everything, but I'm not giving back like I should. Some part of me is holding back. I see the look on his face sometimes when he's tucking us in, before he turns out the light. I just know he's dying for us to call him 'Daddy'. But I can't, an' I don't know why."
Buttercup sighed in agreement. "Yeah, I know. I keep telling myself it's because he told us to call him Professor, but I know it ain't true. Well, he did, but you know what I mean. An' Bubbles can't do it either. She just can't admit it 'cause it hurts too much."
She paused, then said, "So, why are we like this, huh? It's because we've always known something wasn't quite right about our 'creation', isn't it?"
"Yes. Only we just don't know what. And we still don't. But those guys today…"
"Yeah," Buttercup grunted. "Those guys. Something Mojo did made 'em evil, but other than that it was hard to read 'em. They were pretty much alike. Not like us…"
"Maybe that's because we didn't get the chance to see the real them. Like anyone who sees us in a fight doesn't see the other sides of who we are."
"Gee, Blossom, good point. Do you think we really destroyed 'em? Or just sent 'em back where they came from?"
The question went unanswered while the unasked one hung between them. Finally, Blossom spoke it, and answered both as best she could.
"Or to where we came from. And that's the problem. If we did come from someplace else, maybe we do have a real father, and a mother, too. That means we were taken away from our family against our will. And that's just awful. They would have to feel terrible, and afraid, not knowing if we're OK or even still alive."
"Yeah, Blossom, and that's what I always resented, kinda. But, if it is true, it isn't the professor's fault. He sorta accidentally caused us to come here instead."
"And if it's true, we ought to remember what our lives were like."
"I sure don't remember anything before we got here. So, how can we go back to somewhere we aren't even sure exists in the first place?"
They were discussing things they knew Bubbles would never accept openly, but they now suspected that their sister thought some of the same things. And it was why she had left. She just couldn't cope with it. They were struggling with it, too, and subconsciously wanted to end the discussion.
"I guess it's something we'll never know, Buttercup. Until something destroys us."
"If that's what it's gonna take, I'm not in any hurry!"
"Me either. We better get going, the professor's gonna wonder where we've been."
Buttercup nodded and they left their sister's idyllic meditation spot behind. Once in flight, she turned her head toward her sister. "Blossom, do you think we should talk to him about it?"
Blossom didn't answer right away. "When we first came out here, Buttercup, that's exactly what I wanted to do. I just wanted to go over it first, with each other. But now, I think he's not going to have any better answers for us, and all we'll end up doing is hurting him. I think we should just forget the whole thing."
"You're right, Blossom. Even if we're right and we did come from somewhere else, who's to say we'd have it any better if we could go back? What fun is a place where everybody has superpowers?"
Finally, Blossom smiled. "I heard that!"
That should have been the end of it, but it was only the beginning.