Chapter 24: Wrongs Righted
The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.
10 FEB (Friday) 1989. 2105.
The Girls, even Bubbles, had to undergo surgery again because of their fight in the Silver Age Cineplex. Blossom's slash wounds required dozens of stitches. Buttercup needed to have Naga's Duranium blade removed from her thigh, and the damage to the artery, muscle and skin there repaired. Bubbles was crying all the way home when the pain started flaring up like forest fires in her jaws and chest. As it turned out, Naga's punches had fractured her lower jaw and a few ribs, though the fractures weren't serious and needed no surgical intervention - the surgery part came in only when it came to the cut in her forehead and lower jaw, involving at least two dozen stitches.
The fact that she was feeling pain again, and as a result, fear and anxiety, worried Bubbles. The fairy godmother had blessed her with her magic tonight - but what about other nights? As naive as Bubbles was, she knew that crime wasn't going to disappear overnight just because she had defeated Naga. Without more of her magic, she was going to be afraid and anxious again, and she was going to fail and fight poorly at every turn. Blossom's love and forgiveness and Buttercup's acceptance, two things she had fought so hard for, two things she treasured the most, other than Dad and his love, would likely evaporate once more until things would go back to how it was.
The fairy godmother had made no mention of how she would help her from now onwards, but she could only hope that she would provide her with a steady supply of her magic.
Because there was one other thing she needed from it. The drug for the sake of itself. It'd felt good - so good. Pleasurable. Addictive. How it banished her fears and anxieties entirely. For now, even as she sat in the lab, it was as if the fear and anxiety in her were stronger than before - mostly because she knew that she would feel the worst of it next time, without the fairy godmother's magic. But there was something more. Somehow, her fears and anxieties were less controllable than ever.
The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.
10 FEB (Friday) 1989. 2215.
"Dad, there's something I need to tell you," Blossom said to her father as she was alone with him in the bathroom, getting a sponge bath from him as usual.
"What is it, sugar plum?" Professor Utonium said as he carefully wiped away the soap around her stitches with a sponge.
"I've been hurting Bubbles," she said, her voice shaking with a combination of sadness, regret, and fear of her own father. It was something she had to do - she knew that apologizing to Bubbles wasn't enough.
The professor stopped, and put down the wet sponge he'd been wielding, shocked at the implications of Blossom's confession.
"I… know. You pushed Bubbles in The Strip when you didn't like how she smelled," the professor said, hoping that that was the end of that. How could Blossom, the nicest and smartest of The Three, possibly be abusive to her sister?
"No, Dad. Even before that. And after, and… and it wasn't just because she smelled bad," Blossom said, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I slapped her when she didn't save me from the Purple Man… And I didn't just push her once when she didn't save those children in The Strip. I slapped her at the movies today and… she fell and hit her head on a car because of me."
"Oh honey…" the professor said, unsure of how to react to this.
"I'm sorry," Blossom apologized "I've changed, Dad."
"No… You haven't," the professor decided. "You're still my little Blossom. You're a good girl, sweetie."
"But I've hurt Bubbles so many times!" Blossom said, unable to believe her Dad's reaction.
"And you told me about it instead of hiding it," the professor said. "I won't deny that you've made a serious error in judgment - a series of it. But it's only human - and you've been going through some terrible things."
"I won't do it again, Dad," Blossom said. "I promise."
"Did you apologize to Bubbles?" he asked.
"Yes…" Blossom said.
"And did you promise Bubbles too that you won't hurt her again?" the professor asked.
"Yes," Blossom said.
"There will still be consequences though," the professor, however, said firmly. "I'm sorry."
"I know," Blossom agreed. They hugged after that.
The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.
11 FEB (Saturday) 1989. 1412.
The next day, when the Girls had recovered enough, Professor Utonium left The House with Bubbles and Buttercup, taking them out for a puppet show extravaganza - something that would help them forget about the week's struggle.
Blossom, however, was excluded from the day's entertainment excursion as punishment. She was left behind at home with Selicia, whom the professor had entrusted with the parental duty of further providing some form of penalty for hurting her own dearest sister. Thomas and Selicia had agreed on an entire day's worth of house chores. As such, while Bubbles and Buttercup spent an hour laughing at puppets, many more on rides and games and chomping on burgers and fries, Blossom had to tidy her room, vacuum the rest of The House, mop it, clean the entire family's armory and every bathroom in The House. Lunch was oatmeal. Dinner was worse; a bowl of vegetable salad that Selicia had deliberately made plain and unappetizing.
What Thomas and Selicia did not agree to, which Selicia had kept secret, was when she'd asked Blossom to strip naked and sit on the toilet. Selicia, who was in her USDO security uniform because she had to report to headquarters in the morning for a security review, had brought her stun baton up. She'd kept her uniform on throughout the day for the authority it loan her. Now, she stood imposingly over Blossom, who was rendered helpless by her own guilt and Selicia's power over her as a parent. Furthermore, she was tired from slaving through chore after chore from lunch to dinner and demoralized from the lack of fun and a good meal.
It was the perfect set-up. Toilet aside, should the rest of the family return home unexpectedly, she could just hide the baton, clean Blossom up and claim that she was just about to give her a sponge bath.
"Do you know why I'm doing this, honey?" Selicia asked as she pushed a tab on the handle of her USDO-issued stun baton all the way up, setting the stun baton to maximum charge – which would be excruciating and paralyzing for a normal adult human being, but 'just' plain excruciating for any of the Girls.
"Because I've been a bad sister to Bubbles…" Blossom said, downcast.
"And Buttercup too," Selicia added to Blossom's list of guilt as her stun baton hummed with electricity. "Remember when I said your punishment will come? Well, this is it. You've been a very bad girl, Blossom."
"I know…" Blossom said, her eyes closed as she tried in vain not to cry. She had found it difficult to sleep last night because of it. "I'm sorry."
"Save it. Are you afraid?" Selicia asked, intending to stretch out the punishment and terror for as long as she could.
"Yes…" Blossom said as she took shallow, frightened breaths when she heard the scary electrical sizzling noise from Mom's stun baton. She recognized it from that time when she gave her a shock from it at the lowest setting during training, just so she and her sisters knew how it felt like.
"Now is that right?" Selicia said as she marched forward and jabbed the stun baton at Blossom's shoulder. Blossom inched back, but there wasn't much distance before she could feel the water tank of the toilet behind her.
"You don't know what is fear yet. Here, let me teach you," she said as Blossom was taking shallow breaths and crying in fear and expectation of an electric shock. Without warning, Selicia pushed the button, shocking Blossom and making her scream – not that there was anyone at home to hear it but Mom.
And she had a very good reason for putting Blossom on the toilet.
The City of Townsville. Suburbs. The House.
11 FEB (Saturday) 1989. 2053.
Blossom had been in bed ever since suffering Selicia's brutal punishment regime, curled up in a fetal position, her ample, fiery orange hair covering her like a blanket as she sobbed in her dark room, alone. It was imprinted in her memory now – how Mom had shocked her with the baton for half an hour straight, sometimes just waving it in front of her to scare her. She remembered falling off the toilet after her forced defecation and scrambling to a corner between the bathtub and the toilet, smearing the floor with her filth.
Her Mom had continued calling her names and shocking her regardless with her baton, and on top of that, blamed her for dirtying the toilet floor with her shit and urine.
By the time it was over, Blossom could barely remember being bathed by the same Mom who had been tormenting her and put to bed, spick and span as though nothing had happened at all. Selicia had intended this – even warned her that there would be more if she ever spoke of it, that she would further destroy the family if it was no longer a secret.
Despite her terrible ordeal, however, Blossom was able to force a smile through, in between sobs. She had been punished – and therefore free of her guilt. She had been a good girl, like what Daddy said. She had been honest about her mistakes, and that had set her free. She couldn't bear to imagine what it would be like to have to hide her terrible mistakes and look her Dad in the eyes every day, with her evil secret on the surface of her mind. She couldn't bear to imagine how she would face her sisters and lead them again, knowing that she was guilty and unworthy.
It was all over. And now, she was alone in her misery. But not for long.
Blossom did not hear the front door of The House open at first, but she did hear Dad's footsteps coming up the steps. For some reason, it'd made her anxious. Despite expunging her guilt, she was no longer sure of how to face him, or her sisters.
And speaking of which, her sisters had likely flown up the stairs as she didn't hear their footsteps. The door to her room had opened and the light switched on before she could react to them. Turning in bed, she saw that they were both clutching paper bags in both hands, smiles plastered on their faces.
Bubbles' smile quickly disappeared the moment she saw how obviously Blossom had been crying in her room – her face was still flushed, her cheeks were still wet, and her hair was uncharacteristically messy. Her red bow was askew and bent like the ears of a depressed bunny. Putting down her paper bags, Bubbles immediately rushed to her side.
"Blossom! Please don't cry, Blossom!" Bubbles comforted her sister the moment she saw how miserable she was. At a loss for what to do, she turned to Buttercup, who shrugged her shoulders – knowing little about emotions and empathy even within herself, she was even more hopeless when it came to comforting others.
But it didn't take long for Bubbles' to figure out a solution.
"Don't cry, Blossom, I've brought you something nice," Bubbles said.
"What is it?" Blossom sniffled, already doubting that anything could cheer her up. Bubbles' smiled at her mysteriously before turning around and, even more mysteriously, started rummaging through one of her paper bags. Carefully, she pulled something out of it before turning around and showing it to Blossom.
Blossom had been observing Bubbles with mild interest, her punishments, and mistakes still fresh on her mind.
Bubbles held up a pair of puppets in front of Blossom. They were puppets of the traditional variety, with handles for controlling the head and limbs. The puppets were styled after the Girls' favorite puppet show, Puppet Pals. Mitch had a purple bonker for hitting Clem, while Clem had a hat with a flower for Mitch to bonk. Blossom sat up, somewhat fascinated by this.
"Dad got one just for you. But you get to choose since you've been staying at home," Bubbles offered before flashing a toothy smile. Blossom considered the puppets and reached for Mitch at first before going for Clem. She remembered how Mitch would always hit Clem with the bonker, and she didn't like it – it had resembled her mistake too much.
Holding the puppet possessively, she played with it a little as if it was a doll before giggling and smiling back at Bubbles.
"Don't be sad, Blossom," Bubbles comforted her sister. "Maybe you could join us for a puppet show next time…"
"I don't deserve it," Blossom said instead and stopped smiling instead. In the back of her mind, however, it wasn't just her guilt weighing heavily in her mind. Her Mom's secret abuse was a constant source of emotional turmoil - but she couldn't tell anyone that. Like what Mom said - it could destroy the family if she did...
"Or we could play with our puppets together," Bubbles tried harder. "I find it hard to control Mitch – maybe you could teach me since you're smarter…"
Blossom had started sobbing again. She didn't like this. How things had resolved itself so quickly. How easy it was for Bubbles to come back to her. It had taken far longer for their classmates to like them again after their mistakes. It felt… wrong somehow. Like there's a price she hadn't fully paid up yet.
"Why are you being so nice to me, Bubbles?" Blossom said. "After everything I've done?"
"Because sisters are sisters, Blossom and love is love, just like Daddy said," Bubbles said. "I shouldn't have given you a reason to hit me…"
"No, Bubbles, it's all my fault…" Blossom swiftly corrected Bubbles. "I shouldn't have treated you that way no matter what."
What she didn't say, however, was the fact that she understood what it was like to do something really, really wrong. Like taking drugs.
Buttercup didn't like the looks of things. It was lost on her how good it'd made her sisters feel. It concerned her, however, that Bubbles was going to undo everything she had been doing to Blossom, not that the supposedly smartest of the three of them knew what was happening. Without Bubbles, Blossom was ripe to be influenced by someone else. Buttercup had hoped to turn Blossom into someone more like her and get on her good side so that she could extract favors from her and even be given the freedom to do as she wished – including grievously injuring criminals and killing them.
As much as Buttercup admired Bubbles' new power, she saw her as competition now – and somehow, she knew she would have to get closer to Blossom than Bubbles ever could. It was no easy task, as it was something she was never good at. This was contrasted with Bubbles, who didn't even need to try to be sweet and gain everyone's love and attention. Oh, how she hated that about Bubbles.
"Now isn't that sweet?" Blossom heard a male voice coming from the door. Turning to it, she saw that it was Dad, smiling at them. He laughed when he saw the silly look on Blossom's face – that in-between look in the middle of happy and sad. Blossom flew towards him for a hug.
"I'm sorry," the leader of The Three cried. "For everything."
"There, there, Blossom," Dad comforted Blossom as he patted her on the back as they hugged. "It's over now. You've served your 'sentence', so to speak. Now, how about supper?"
"Do I get to eat with you? And Bubbles and Buttercup?" Blossom asked hungrily, finally accepting the fact that she had paid her due for her mistakes.
"Of course, sunshine. We're a family after all," the professor agreed. "Now, chocolate pudding or cinnamon rolls?"
The City of Townsville. Esperanza Acres. Morbucks Family Mansion.
12 FEB (Sunday) 1989. 0820.
Elodie 'Princess' Morbucks had been awake for hours - how many, she didn't know. Twelve? Twenty-four? Thirty-six? It felt like forty-eight this time, not that she cared. She had been lying in bed for the past… She had lost count of the number of days she had wasted away in bed. Had it been four days? Or seven? Perhaps even more.
Terrible memories continued to assail her the moment she realized she was still awake. She sobbed, having cried for hours since calming down yet many hours ago. Pulling a piece of tissue out from an ornate tissue box placed beside her, she blew her nose, and a mix of snot, both new and old, mixed with a dash of blood, dirtied the tissue. She balled it up and threw it aside ungracefully - no longer caring about the lady-like behavior she had been cultivating since she was old enough to walk and talk. The tissue ball joined a mountain of others next to her bed.
There was pain in her forearm. Friendly old Doctor Bill had inserted an IV drip into her to keep her hydrated and nourished. There was no other way she would drink or eat - what was the point? She knew that not doing any of those things would result in a lot of discomforts, then death, but she no longer cared. What was the purpose of living? When there was nothing for her in life - when she had no mother, no daddy who could stay with her for long, no friends, neither health nor future? When the person she called her BFF had abandoned her, just like all the others?
And the worst part was, Bubbles and her sisters had abandoned her for a very good reason. For days upon days now, Elodie had been playing and replaying the masquerade ball like a computer game - like one of those adventure RPGs. She would keep wondering what she could have done differently - and the terrible thing was, it felt as if she was locked into that single road by… everything. She couldn't disobey her father, and she couldn't convince Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup to abandon the party. She wouldn't even have found out that her dearest dad had been planning a demonstration of the Girls' abilities anyway. Even in her dreams, she kept wondering how she could have done something differently, and when something too fantastic happened and the problem was solved and she and the Girls would remain as friends, she would wake up from the dream only to cry and wish she was back in it.
In fact, she wished that she would fall asleep forever, never to wake up again. Sometimes, she was even convinced that her dreams had been the reality, and her life was the nightmare.
The sunlight had crept into the room an hour ago. But with half the curtains drawn, the room was dimly lit. Anything more would seem like an insult. The birds outside sang as if nothing bad had happened to her - all it did was to make her feel worst, not better, and there was no way to express the deep regret and sadness she felt as she had cried her eyes to aching exhaustion and desert-like dryness.
It was at this time that the door to her room swung open. Three sets of eyes pierced through the darkness in the corridor outside to look at her. One pair was glowing pink, another glowing baby blue, and the last pair was glowing lime green. The Princess stared at it for a long time, before turning in bed, deciding that they were just more of her hallucinations, manifestations of her wishful thinking. On the worst days, if there could be such a thing, she would think that she saw them, only to realize that she had mistaken certain things for one or all of the Girls. One of the butler's cat eyes, for example, or kites in the distance, flown by her neighbors.
"Princess?" one of them spoke. It was Bubbles - Elodie remembered the voice all too well. In the first few days, she'd clung to the memory of her voice for hope.
'We're best friends forever, Elodie. I'll be there for you forever and you won't have to be sad again,' Elodie remembered what Bubbles said word-for-word as they danced together in a waltz, savior, and victim hand-in-hand.
"Princess? It's me," the hallucination spoke again from the darkness. The eyes floated closer, like ghosts coming back to haunt her, until…
"Go away…" the Princess warned the hallucinations off hoarsely. "You're not real…"
"What are you talking about, Princess?" the hallucination of Blossom pressed on.
"Go! Away!" the Princess shouted and flung the ornate tissue box at the three sets of glowing eyes. They dodged it with ease.
"Hey, what gives!?" the hallucination of Buttercup exclaimed.
"Why won't you leave me alone!?" Princess shouted again with renewed sobbing. Taking a purple pillow, she hid her head under it, muffling her sobbing. "You're not real - you're not real - you're not real!"
"C'mon, let's go - she doesn't want to be our friend anymore," she heard the Buttercup hallucination say dismissively.
"You could be right…" the Blossom hallucination agreed.
"But… We've come all this way," the Bubbles hallucination said. "We have to try harder…"
"Hmm…" the Blossom hallucination wondered. "She doesn't think we're real- Bubbles? Bubbles, what are you doing?"
Elodie took a peek out of her pillow, only to find the three hallucinations of her best friends, who were now lost forever, floating closer to her such that she could see them fully, and they were wearing the same kind of dresses as they would normally wear whenever they came over to play, or when they were here on a stay-over. Each of them in a color matching their eyes, with a black sash around their waist - tall white socks and black Mary-Jane shoes. They were just like how she remembered them.
And the Bubbles hallucination was getting closer. The Princess bolted up when she realized it, looking like she had just seen a ghost.
"No! Stay away!" she screamed at the phantom-apparent, afraid of her because she was afraid of getting her hopes up only to realize that she had been talking to a hallucination, which would then dig open her wounds once more and make her regret and depression worst.
Wielding her purple pillow as a weapon, she threw it at Bubbles, who dodged it. The pillow didn't fly far - the Princess didn't even have the strength to hurl it across any real distance. Bubbles let herself drop to her knees in the Princess' queen-sized bed.
"Princess - it's me, Bubbles…" the memory manifestation said, still coming closer, walking on her knees. "Don't you recognize me?"
The Princess backed away, only to meet the huge, oaken headboard of her bed, a look of abject terror in her face as she feared getting her hopes up with just another hallucination.
"No! Go away!" Elodie screamed as Bubbles came closer. "You're not real! No!"
Elodie threw a slap at what she thought was a hallucination, only for it to seize her by the wrist. Bubbles then took her by the arms and gave her a tight hug.
And it felt real. It felt very, very real. There was warmth, and the familiar sensation of touch - the touch of someone who cared, who was her friend for sure. Elodie sobbed hard and shook with the release of emotions when she realized that maybe, just maybe, it was real this time.
"Shh… Elodie, it's okay…" Bubbles comforted Elodie as the depressed little girl hugged her back, and couldn't get enough of it. "I'm here now."
"Is this another dream?" Elodie would then say, still delirious from her week-long act of self-destruction. "Is this real?"
Bubbles looked her in the eyes and made eye contact. Elodie's eyes were entirely red from hours of crying and a couple of days of sleeplessness.
"Yes, I'm real, Elodie," Bubbles said as she hugged her again. Elodie held on tightly to her, as if afraid that she might be whisked away by something again – whether it was fate, ill luck, or duty.
"It really is you- I- I've- missed you so much!" Elodie struggled to speak through her sobbing and exhaustion.
"I told you I'll never leave you alone," Bubbles comforted. "I'm sorry I didn't visit. I was just…"
Bubbles' voice had trailed off, taken away by her demons. Elodie was sad, but so was she.
"It's been a terrible week," Bubbles finally managed, herself shedding tears and sniffling.
"But I'm sure things are going to get better from now on," Blossom encouraged the two as she floated over to them, ever the leader. She put an arm around Bubbles' shoulder. "Right, Bubbles?"
"Of course she's right – you got your cool new power and all that!" Buttercup joined in and tried to blend in, not wanting to be left out and lose out.
"Right…" Bubbles agreed reluctantly, still acutely aware that she had done something terrible to gain her sisters' approval. She had obscured the truth about her 'new powers'.
Together, the four girls hugged, and for the moment, they were happy.
END OF ACT 1: PRICE OF PEACE
For a preview of Act 2's artwork, visit this chapter on Archive of Our Own.
