AUTHORS NOTE: I do realize that Him is not from Hell, he's from "his own dimension." However, Him has been explained as the "Devil of their (The Powerpuff Girls) world" so I tied the two together! Again, there will be graphic descriptions of violence and death, please read with caution if you are easily triggered by those things.

Chapter 2 - "I was cracked, I was hollow."

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

"I was cold on the concrete

I'd mistaken the truth for a lie

You were there and you saved me

And I don't know why."

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

Agonizing pain. Something Buttercup never really knew. Sure, the girls had received their fair share of painful beatings from their enemies– but she had never felt anything like this. She lied on the hard broken cement below her, not daring to open her eyes. Her whole body ached. Blood poured out from her open wounds, and she couldn't breathe. If she fought too hard to keep breathing, the pain would only get worse… If she stopped fighting, she'd die.

Through the ringing in her ears, she heard the sounds of footsteps approaching. She whimpered pitifully as her body was lifted into the air by a cloud of red. The deeper wounds that had stopped bleeding once again opened causing blood to drip off her fingertips. Out of all her body, her arms were the most beaten.

"Oh Buttercup." Him's voice echoed, "How's it feel to be on the losing end? I am really enjoying this." Buttercup managed to lift her head and lock eyes with the monster. Out of her own stubbornness, she wasn't going to let Him feel as if she had won. But a part of her knew that, seeing the state she was in, he was coming close.

"You haven't won yet." She pushed out. Her voice was awfully hoarse from screaming for what felt like hours. She kept her eyes locked on his for as long as she could until she felt a sharp excruciating burning feeling in her side. Her body arched back in pain as Him pressed a scolding rod into her side. Once he removed the iron, she dropped her head and fell limp, still being suspended in the air.

"Oh but I have Buttercup." Him put his claw on Buttercup's chin and forced her head up. "Look who I found." Buttercup slowly opened her eyes just in time to see two mangled bodies get thrown in front of her. "Say hello to your sisters."

"Buttercup, wake up!"

The green heroine felt sick as she looked down at Blossom and Bubbles' motionless bodies. There was no doubt about it that they were both dead. Bubbles neck was clearly snapped, and her body was drenched in her own blood. Blossom wasn't as bloody as her sister, but she had been stabbed in the abdomen by a rod that had been left inside of her as she was tossed carelessly aside.

"No-" she sobbed. Him laughed maliciously as he let go of Buttercup's body. At this point, Buttercup didn't care about the pain— all she could focus on was getting to her sisters. But just before she could grab Blossom's hand, Hims yanked her body away from her hand. Buttercup dropped her head as she sobbed, not wanting to look up at Him as he teased her with Blossom's body.

"Buttercup!"

"NO!" Buttercup screamed as she jerked awake. She shot out of bed and into the air, breathing hard with a horrified look on her face. Blossom and Bubbles followed her and floated in front of her. Even though they were calling her name, she still stared straight forward, basically hyperventilating. But when Bubbles gently reached her arm out, Buttercup flinched and then realized who it was. She instantly fell into their arms, sobbing inaudible words. Blossom was the only one to notice the Professor burst in. She and Bubbles slowly lowered their sister onto the bed and then pulled themselves away so that their father could calm her.

The Professor was at her side at once and scooped her up into his arms. She fought him for a second, not fully realizing what was going on, before clinging to his neck. Careful of her wounds, the Professor gently rubbed soft circles on her back. Buttercup was slightly comforted by this, but continued heaving, trying to catch her breath.

Bubbles floated next to her sister as they watched the two from above. Slowly, she sank down onto the bed and grabbed Octi. As quietly as she could, not wanting to bring the attention away from the real problem, she sobbed into the plush. But she kept her eyes on the green heroine. After a while, Buttercup remained resting her head on the Professor's shoulder as she continued to catch her breath. Blossom sat crisscrossed on the bed in front of her, studying her sister cautiously, and Bubbles sat behind her cuddling her stuffed animal. The room was completely silent except for the sounds of Buttercup's wheezing and the Professor's shushing.

Buttercup then locked eyes with Blossom. Tears streamed out of the big green eyes as she looked at her sister for a few seconds before reaching out her hand. Blossom, despite being nervous she would hurt her sister, grabbed her hand gently in return. As she held it, she gently rubbed her skin in an attempt to comfort her. To their relief, Buttercup took a deep breath now that she knew she was safe. Her eyes wandered around the room once again as she concentrated on taking painful deep breaths. She then lost the fight to keep her eyes open and fell asleep within seconds.

The Professor gently placed Buttercup back into the bed. He then glanced over to his other two daughters. The second he made eye contact with Bubbles, she shot out of her spot and into the Professor's arms. She sobbed as quietly as she could, which made it sound like she was hiccuping. Blossom stood quietly on the bed looking back and forth between Buttercup and the Professor. The Professor then reached out his arm, motioning for Blossom to come. And she did just that… while Bubbles was pressed up against his chest, Blossom sank onto his shoulder. Tears streamed from her eyes as she wondered what actually happened to her sister.

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

For the entire rest of the night, Buttercup was tormented with continuous nightmares. She would scream and thrash around, trying to protect herself and get away from what she thought was happening, before being awoken by her father or one of her sisters. These nightmares would happen almost every hour of the night, so the three would take shifts to keep an eye on her while the others got some sleep.

However, Blossom insisted on taking the majority of the shifts. Not only could she not sleep in the first place knowing the fact her sister had been to Hell, but she felt this urge to constantly keep an eye out just in case Him came back for her or any of her family. Blossom spent almost the whole night lying on her back, either comforting Bubbles to sleep or calming Buttercup after a nightmare, lost in thought. She couldn't get her mind off of the horrible feeling she felt when she saw Buttercup get thrown out of the portal, soaked in blood. She had never felt such a feeling…

Buttercup would never know this, but Blossom worried about her safety and well-being every day. Buttercup was tough, sure, but she was still a kid– a kid who constantly chose to jump to action over stratigizing. More often than not, Blossom would get irritated with Buttercup for not thinking clearly before jumping into action. Blossom thought about all of the times she would carelessly watch Buttercup get thrown from the battle and sent crashing into some building. Instead of checking on her or going to save her, all she cared about was being right.

Blossom felt a heavy amount of guilt as she thought about this. Today was the first time she really got a glimpse into what life would be like if she lost one of her sisters. The girls worked as a team, more often than not, two couldn't defeat their enemy without the third. That is unless they had a certain emotional motivation (like when Blossom and Buttercup saved Bubbles from "Octi"). The three were almost never apart. They did everything together: fight crime, school, sleep– they were created together! Whenever they were apart, even if it was only for a few minutes, they hated it.

She also couldn't stop thinking about what the Professor said. Hell?! It made sense seeing as Him was escaping and going back to where he came from… but it never truly occurred to the girls that Him was a demon from Hell. "Time moves differently there. What seemed like two seconds for you could have been two days for Buttercup." The Professor's words echoed over and over in her head. Tears stung her eyes as she stared at the ceiling only imagining what her sister had gone through.

She sat there replaying the moment Buttercup lunged for Him in her head, trying to think of how she should have tried harder to stop her. But even if Blossom blamed herself and tried to convince herself that there was some way the situation could have been avoided, she was wrong. Nothing could have stopped Buttercup from falling into that portal.

Blossom was suddenly snapped back into reality when she heard a wince come from her right. It was Buttercup. Blossom looked over to see her sister shaking and sweating as she mumbled the word "no" or "please" over and over. She comforted her the best she could, hoping she wouldn't have to wake her. After what she had been through, she needed sleep. But no matter how much she shushed her or gently ran her finger over her face– which usually calmed her down instantly– nothing was working. If anything, the longer the nightmare went on, the more scared Buttercup got.

Soon, Bubbles too was awoken by her sister's distress. She hated the fact that Buttercup had to go through this. She rushed over to the other side of the bed, not sure what to do. In all honesty, Blossom wasn't sure either. Buttercup wasn't waking up– but she didn't want to shake or physically push Buttercup awake just in case the touch triggered a worse reaction.

"Shh Buttercup, you're ok." Blossom said gently stroking the sweaty hair out of her sister's face, "you're safe. Bubbles and I are here with you." To their surprise, Buttercup had actually calmed down a bit to her sister's touch. But she still didn't wake up. Bubbles glanced over at the clock to read 4:38 a.m… the night and the nightmares were almost over.

"Bubbles, she's not waking up." Blossom said, snapping Bubbles out of her thoughts, "I don't know what to do."

"If she stays like this any longer I think-" Bubbles spoke as she looked back down at her sleeping sister. "I think we should go into her dream and get her out."

"We can't!" Blossom said, "That's not right. We only did it for the mayor because he asked us to. And knowing Buttercup, I know she wouldn't want us doing that."

"Well, do you have any better ideas?! We can't just leave her to fight her nightmares alone!" Blossom paused. Bubbles had a point. But going into Buttercup's dreams without her consent was crossing a line.

"We wait for her." Blossom said in a low voice.

"What?"

"We wait. It's probably going to take a while for her to recover from this and the best thing we can do is be patient and wait for her." Just as Blossom finished speaking, Buttercup sat straight up, tears streaming from her big green eyes.

"Hey Buttercup, you're ok." Blossom said floating backward so that she was in front of her sister, "you were having a nightmare. But you're safe now. Bubbles and I got you." Bubbles silently watched her sisters. She bit her lip as she thought about what Blossom had said. And she was completely right… the last thing Buttercup needed was somebody to invade her and hurt her process of recovery.

"Blossom?" Buttercup said with a hoarse voice. This shocked both Bubbles and Blossom. They hadn't heard her speak other than some cries for help or "no."

"Yeah, Buttercup. I'm here." Blossom said as clearly as she could. She was holding back tears, not wanting to upset Buttercup any further, but it was making it hard to speak. Buttercup then wrapped her arms around her sister, breathing deeply as if she was in relief. "I got you, Buttercup… I got you."

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

I was cracked, I was hollow

Dried tears in my blood red eyes

But you cared and you saved me

And I don't know why

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

A few hours later, the Professor awoke. He looked over at his buzzing alarm to read 7:00. Once he shut off his alarm, he quietly sat still, listening for any sound coming from the girls' room. But all was silent…

He stood and made his way to his bathroom. Just like every morning, he splashed his face with warm water to wake himself up even more. He looked up in the mirror and wasn't surprised to see the circles under his eyes from pure exhaustion. Little did the girls know that half of the night the Professor was in the lab, trying to find some sort of way to help Buttercup. In the midst of trying to figure out what had happened, he created pills of Chemical X so that Buttercup wouldn't have to be injected every time they had to give her doses.

He then whipped his face with his towel then began to make his way to the kitchen. He stopped just as he was about to pass his daughter's room and stood still, listening for any noise. Again, he was greeted by silence.

As quietly as he could he turned the knob on the door and pushed it open slightly. He peeked in to see his three girls all cuddled together in the middle of the bed. Blossom was in the middle, lying on her back. Bubbles was on her left, hugging Blossom's arm, and Buttercup was on the right, cuddled up against her sister's torso. Blossom's arm was limply around Buttercup's body.

The Professor smiled. He was surprised that Buttercup was already opening up to touch this quickly, but he knew Blossom and Bubbles had made her comfortable enough to know that it was them and she could trust them not to hurt her.

He then shut the door and continued on his way to the kitchen. Once he arrived he leaned on the counter, fighting to stay awake. The silence was making it much harder, so he flipped on the radio. As he flipped through the channels, all he would hear was "Powerpuff Girls' most recent fight" or "What happened yesterday in Townsville. But one channel caught his attention.

"New security footage has been released from yesterday's fight." He listened for a second before he completely processed what they had said. Security footage. He then realized that he could actually see for himself what had happened and maybe some of his questions could be answered.

As the man on the radio explained how to actually watch the footage, the Professor frantically ran about looking for the remote. The second he found it, he flipped on the television.

He stood in front of the screen, watching every movement Buttercup made. He watched as Him spoke inaudibly before Buttercup lunged at him. All within a single second, Him twirled his claw causing a portal to open. The footage began glitching because of this but he could still see Buttercup tackle Him into the portal and the two disappeared. Blossom and Bubbles were then seen flying to the exact spot the portal was and not even three seconds later, the footage became glitchy again and another portal was opened a few yards away from them.

The Professor's breath hitched as he watched Buttercup's mangled body get thrown from the portal. Following that, two streaks of pink and blue appeared and Blossom and Bubbles were instantly by her side. He had stopped watching by then and fell back onto the couch. Tears stung his eyes as he processed through the scene that he had just watched. After a few seconds, he squinted and then pressed rewind on the remote. Over and over again he watched every slight movement any of them made. He especially watched the portal. It appeared to be a ring of fire with the middle opening up to a black and red world. Although he couldn't see inside the portal he could tell that the place burned with fire and was filled with agony.

"Professor?" a voice said from beside him. He didn't even have to look or move from the position he was in to know it was Blossom.

"Yes?" He said not moving his eyes. He was still watching the scene, again and again, still not getting the answers he was looking for.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, Blossom. I'm just fine." He finally glanced over at his daughter, forcing a smile on his face to ensure her that she didn't need to worry about him. He wasn't surprised to see that Blossom looked just as exhausted as he was. She yawned and floated closer to her father. "Why aren't you asleep? It's pretty early and you had a long night."

"I've been awake for a while. I couldn't fall asleep after Buttercup's last nightmare. But she seems to be doing a lot better. She hasn't had one since four this morning." The room fell silent as Blossom lowered herself onto the Professor's lap. "Professor? Will Buttercup be okay?"

"Yes, Honey. Knowing Buttercup, I'm confident she'll be alright. But it's going to take time. We're going to have to be patient with her as she recovers." The Professor ran his fingers through Blossom's silky ginger hair. She was always comforted when people played with her hair in a calming way. Blossom sighed as she leaned against the Professor. She then heard the news reporter on the television mention something about their fight yesterday and she glanced over. The Professor quietly watched as Blossom floated to the tv. She watched in silence as they once again showed the clip of Buttercup entering the portal and then being spit back out.

"Blossom, what's wrong?" He said as he sensed her frustration. She then turned around with tears in her eyes and a distraught look on her face.

"I should have stopped her." She said with a pitiful voice crack. "I-I was just so angry with Him for saying everything he did I didn't even notice Buttercup getting fired up." She sobbed her last words and dropped her head. The Professor rushed over to her and cuffed her head in his hands.

"Honey, none of this is your fault."

"But if I would have been paying mo-more attention I could have jumped in her place!" Blossom shook as she spoke. Behind Blossom, the Professor could see the clip being replayed once again in slow motion. He watched as Buttercup lunged for Him and fell into the portal. But even in slow motion, every action was quick.

"No Blossom. You and I both know nothing could have stopped this from happening. Look." He gently turned his daughter around to face the tv. Blossom watched the speed of everything that happened even when it was in slow motion. She whipped her tears and looked away before she could see Buttercup get spit out.

"I guess. I just– I don't know– I just feel guilty. After hearing what Him said I was blinded-" The Professor cut her off.

"What did Him say?" Blossom paused for a second realizing she hadn't told her father what had happened nor what was said.

"He was trying to get under our skin… He kept saying things like 'someday you will die and I want to be the one to watch it happen' and then something about the fight was… different. He disappeared so I had us separate– which was my first mistake. First Bubbles got attacked and when I got there she was thrown into the building and it fell on her. So I fought him, angrier than I was before. But he threw the both of us out a window and right before we hit the ground, Buttercup got there. And she was pissed. Understandably but I feel like we should have strategized more. We should have stuck together the whole time but I decided to separate us."

"Honey, you can't beat yourself up about this. Being the commander and leader is a lot to handle– but your sisters trust you. And just think, maybe if you didn't separate you girls wouldn't have found Him as quick as you did and he could have caused more destruction. You didn't act selfishly, dear, you acted out of what you thought was best. You girls have fought Him many times, how were you supposed to know he was going to pull such a horrible stunt like that?" The Professor fell silent to let his daughter process all that was said.

She knew that the Professor was right. But no matter what, she still felt a crazy amount of guilt. Even if nothing could have physically stopped Buttercup, she felt as if she could have done something before the fight that would have prevented her from jumping– even though she had no idea.

"You can't dwell in the past and continue to convince yourself that you're to blame— especially when you have nothing to feel guilty about. You need to move on and focus on what really matters right now… Helping Buttercup recover and heal the best we can. Sulking in the guilt and grief isn't going to help in any way, understand?" Blossom nodded. She then collapsed into her father's arms and took a deep breath of relief.

"Thanks, Professor. I needed that."

AUTHORS NOTE: Not super proud of this chapter, however, it really sets up the foundation for future chapters. Thank you so much for all of the support already!