Chapter.
"I don't want to marry him," Buttercup muttered as she drank her tea, but three yelling brothers drowned her voice out.
"You what?" Her dad smiled at one of her brother's story.
"Yeah! And then…"
"Dad," Buttercup called, but he didn't hear her. "Dad," she said a little bit louder. "Dad!"
Finally, he turned to acknowledge her.
"I don't want to marry him."
The whole table had become quiet; suddenly, her dad burst into laughter, but just like it started it stopped. "That's a good one," he turned to one of her brothers, "pass the salt."
"No, I'm serious."
Her dad's head whipped to face her, "So am I."
"But I-"
"Buttercup, look at this food, do you know who put this on our table?" He asked and answered his own question, "he has. You wanna know something else?" He looked at her hard, "if you don't marry him, we won't have any food to feed any of us. You don't want that to happen because of your selfishness, do you?" This time he wanted an answer.
Buttercup glared at him before taking a moment to look at her reflection in her tea, then looked back up at him with sad eyes, mumbling, "no."
"No what?"
"No, I do not want that to happen to us."
Her dad nodded stiffly, proud of the conclusion, "good," and returned to his meal.
...
The next day, she met up with her soon-to-be husband, who was chosen for her. She was basically sold off to a man who was in his forties, even though she's only 15.
He threw her on the bed and climbed on top of her, forcing himself on her. "Stop, no," Buttercup pushed him off of her. His wet lips kept trying to touch hers, but she wouldn't let him. She screamed for help, but the guards knew better than to disturb their master's privacy.
The man slapped her, "shut up, you little bitch." Tears were starting to stream down her face, but he ignored it. "You're lucky it's me, instead of some ugly fat man," his voice was muffled by her neck.
"Please," her voice shook. Instead, he started to unbutton her shirt. Buttercup, out of anger and fear, bit his arm. The man yanked his arm back with a scream, and Buttercup took this opportunity to escape. She ran out of the room and to her dad. "Dad, dad, dad!" She called, tears still streaming down her face.
Her dad looked at her in alarm, "wh-what happened?"
"He- he tried to-"
"She bit me!" The man yelled from behind her, interrupting Buttercup's explanation.
"Buttercup!" Her dad looked at her in anger and disappointment, then turned to the man with an apologetic and embarrassed look, "I'm so sorry, Ace. I'm sure she didn't mean to-"
The man huffed, "If your daughter doesn't like me, I'm calling off the wedding," he threatened.
"No!" Buttercup's father squeaked, before clearing his throat, "I'll have a word with her and straighten her out. The wedding will go on."
"But da-"
"Buttercup."
"That-"
"Buttercup."
"I-"
"Buttercup."
"He-"
"Buttercup!"
Buttercup tried to reason with her dad, but it always came to the same conclusion: she was being "selfish".
...
That night, while the others slept, Buttercup snuck around the house, packing her bags and left without a trace.
...
A few weeks later, she was far enough away from her family to not be dragged back so easily. She was aimlessly walking around, not knowing what to do with her life or where to go for that matter. Until, she saw a poster. It was a simple poster with big black bolded letters, 'JOIN THE ARMY. FIGHT FOR YOUR COUNRTY.' Though, tiny words bellow it wrote, 'men only'. Buttercup's eyes squinted at the paper as ideas and arguments went through her head.
She bought a few things and went into a public restroom. There, she cut off her mid-length black hair as short as a boy's and bandaged her breasts to become flat.
...
After two years of training, she was founded to be a girl. Everyone thought she was executed for treason, but she was instead taken to a highly protected and secretive society where she was then trained for another year with top-class skills and techniques not well known to most people and advanced for that time.
...
She stood at attention waiting for the leader of this organisation to finally reveal himself and everything about this organisation. She trained blindly, not knowing where she was or who anyone was, she wasn't sure why. She kept her hair short, forbidding it go past her shoulder, and wore a black skin tight suit, that was flexible and suitable to fight in. The door opened and her eyes immediately and instinctively sharpened. Buttercup was surprised to see the man was about her age, only a bit older. He had black hair, just long enough to be tied into a very short ponytail, and green eyes that analysed even the littlest things, that it made Buttercup uncomfortable.
"My name's Butch," he started, pausing for a bit to look at her up and down before a satisfied smirk came on his face, "welcome," he said, "to Neverland."
Buttercup's eyebrows drew together in confusion, and she didn't need to ask her question.
"You have trained without knowing anything, because we wanted to see how patient you can be, if you were even good enough to be one of us."
"Us?"
He ushered her to walk with him around the place, which was underground, "the Lost Boys," he said, gesturing to the others around him, "that's what I call them."
"How come?"
"Because they don't remember anything from before they came here."
"What? None of them? How is that possible?"
He shook his head, eyeing Buttercup from the corner of his eye.
Buttercup stopped in her tracks and so did Butch as he turned around to face her, "what is this place?"
"This place? It's a place where we train only the most elite people in the world. We save people, help them, guide them."
She was lost for words, but then she remembered something, "why… Why me? Why didn't they kill me?"
He laughed, "you don't remember?"
"What?"
"You're dead," he told her with a sadistic smile.
It only made her more confused and unable to believe anything of what he said.
"Buttercup," it was the first time he said her name, "they killed you, you're dead. You were hanged for treason."
Out of confusion, she pushed him with force, he stumbled back a bit, "stop it!" She screamed, "don't joke like that!"
His smirk remained, "I'm not joking, you're dead. You're still 17."
"What are you talking about? That's not possible."
"Buttercup, how long do you think you've been here for?"
"A year."
He shook his head, "it's been 7 years- well- in the living world."
Her jaw dropped, "no. No, that's not possible."
"You don't remember how you got here right?"
She thought about it before shaking her head. "No, this can't be right."
...
After a while of convincing and going back and forth, Buttercup had finally accepted her fate, "how am I alive?"
He laughed, "we're part of Neverland, we don't age, we don't die and we get to live in the living world, but there's a catch, we have to help people."
"What if we don't?"
He sighed, "that's where the Lost Boys come into play."
"So, I'll lose my memories?"
He nodded, "every year that passes without helping at least one person means losing the last couple of months from your living memory."
Buttercup squinted her eye suspiciously at Butch, "how do you know all this? Who made you the leader?"
A sharp laugh escaped his lips, "babe, I created this place."
...
A decade or so, she still hadn't age and neither did the others in the orginisation. She didn't question why she was the only girl or how these people were selected from the millions of other people who died today or yesterday. It was all too confusing and all too much, she was afraid of the answer.
"Your mission, a girl named Bunny. She's only fourteen years old, but when angered, she turns into this," he showed Buttercup three pictures, one of the girl, she had brown hair and purple eyes, the middle was of her becoming angry, in the middle of transforming, and the last was of her, but it wasn't her. She was larger, hunched back, teeth crooked and her face was furiously scary. "Help her."
She looked at the profile, "but… how? I wasn't trained for this type of thing."
"That is for you to figure out. Unless you want to forget more of your past and join the lost boys?" He smirked.
Buttercup glanced at the lost boys, they walked around the base stupidly, barley able to form words and struggling to do anything really. Other than cleaning up the place, they were completely useless. She glared up at him, "no."
...
Buttercup was transported to Bunny and was able to calm her down before she wrecked the rest of the village and taught her how to control her anger, how to channel that anger to be positive.
"Focus on the sensation of your breathing," Buttercup told Bunny as they sat on the floor.
Bunny let out an annoyed and frustrated sigh, "this isn't working! Just tell me how to take this... this... monster out of me."
"You need to calm down. Turn your negative energy into something positive." Buttercup was at this point thankful she learnt this on her travels alone.
"This is just so boring!" Bunny complained.
"I thought so too, but I grew to really like it, so can you."
"How long did that take you?"
"A couple decades," Buttercup replied flatly.
Bunny laughed, thinking it was a joke, "alright, fine. Let's just get this over with."
...
Unfortunately, Bunny had suppressed her anger so much she died from the rage she bottled up.
...
A few hundred years later, Buttercup was faced with a similar case, "Belle. You need to be careful."
"What's wrong with her?" Buttercup asked, analysing her profile.
"You'll have to see it to understand it."
When Buttercup had gotten to Belle, Belle was facing a gun into her mouth; she was in the midst of pulling the trigger. Luckily, Buttercup got there on time and was able to kick the gun out of her hand and the bullet only cut through the side of the mouth. She screamed in pain, gripping the side of her mouth as the blood oozed out of it and seeped between her fingers, staining the floor. She was immediately taken to the hospital.
Buttercup was about to enter Belle's hospital room when she overheard a conversation, "if I die, you die too," said Belle, in confusion.
"If you die, I'll be you," spat the other voice with such aggressiveness that it sounded like a threat.
"Damn, you're right. Just, please, leave me be!"
"Can't you see?" The other voice asked, "you are me!"
"No! Stop! Just please, go!" Belle screamed.
"Deep inside, you know it's true. You are me, and I am you."
"Shut up! Just, shut up!"
"They'll never be able to separate Brookelle from Belle! Can't you see it's over now?"
"Fuck you, Brookelle! I hope you rot in bloody hell!"
A sinister laugh escaped the girl's lips, "I'll see you there, Belle."
Buttercup took that as her queue to go inside. What shocked her was that no one but Belle was there and everything clicked for Buttercup.
...
Buttercup was able to help her, not in the way Belle had hoped, to rid of Brookelle forever, but to at least help her somehow find a middle ground with Brookelle.
...
Her next assignment was given to her right when she had just finished assignment:BrookELLE. It was her most challenging, assignment: blossomwolf. All she had to do was locate her and bring her home. Easy? Not in the slightest.