Warning: Implied abuse, violence, trauma, etc.

~Butters' P.O.V~

Well, it's starting to look as if there's no hope for me here. I'm surrounded by nothing but black. I can't even see myself. I wonder around, trying to find out where I am. This isn't easy.

Worthless.

The word makes me stop dead in my tracks.

We all hate you.

I shakily turn around and see a group of small children. I remember who they are immediately. They're children who bullied me to the point of near insanity. They went to my school, so there was no escaping them. Unfortunately.

No one likes you.

I wonder as to why they're all looking down at me, and look down at myself. I'm no longer twelve. I'm a small child no older than six. The oldest boy steps forward, staring at me with a pitiful expression, though it's simple enough to see that he's also trying not to laugh.

Why don't you just die?

The hurtful words pierce though me akin to a bullet. I stare at the ground in fear, as I always did when I was small. I just eyed my feet and allowed their words to hit me. I didn't know what else to do.

Look, he's too scared to even look us in the eye!

What a coward.

He's a waste of space.

Why does a person such as him even exist?

Unable to bear the insults anymore, I snap out of my spineless state, turn around, and run away. Though it's a weak move, at least I won't have to listen to their spiteful words any longer.

Ha, he's running away!

He's really is a coward.

Good riddance.

As I'm running, I see myself turn from a small child into my normal self. Getting too tired to run any more, I rest my hand on a dark wall, huffing. I look behind me, but see nothing but a dim, grey hallway. I look ahead again and see the hallway leading to a door. The door is bright red, which allures me towards it, since the rest of my surroundings are such dull colors. I open the door to see myself; when I was about three. My young self is merely staring into a mirror, looking heartbroken.

What is wrong with me?

I freeze when I hear the young child's thoughts. My younger self is wondering why everyone hates him so much. I remember doing this countless times when I was smaller. As long as I can remember.

Did I do something bad? That I wasn't meant to?

"No, you didn't." I tell him. He seems to hear me, and smiles at himself in the mirror. Suddenly, another door to the room bangs open loudly, and we both look at the culprit in horror.

"Sir…" The smaller me squeaks, hunching up frightfully. I also waver at the sight of my father. He's clearly had too much to drink, and had an argument with mother. He grabs the defenseless young me's arm and starts pulling him out of the room. As he's being pulled out, my three year old self makes brief eye contact with me. I'm shocked at the damage in his eyes. Is that what Kenny sees… whenever he looks at me? The red door is suddenly slammed in my face, and I fall over backwards in surprise. I hear horrible screaming on the other side, and put my hands over my ears, closing my eyes. I walk away from the door, back down the hallway, trembling. When I finally open my eyes, I see another red door in front of me. I don't want to open it, if it means I have to see something like that again. I hear people coming up behind me, and suddenly I'm being pushed forward.

OPEN THE DOOR! OPEN IT!

Children scream at me; the same children I saw earlier. I do as they say, afraid that if I don't, they'll do something horrifying to me. When I open the door, I see my old classroom, from when I was about seven or eight. A younger me is standing at the front of the class, trying to answer an equation on the chalkboard. His hand is shaking, and the teacher is standing nearby, impatiently tapping his foot. He folds his arms, shaking his head at my old self.

"Leopold, we all went over this earlier. Were you not paying attention?" Lots of children snicker. The younger me sniffles and looks towards where I am in despair. He cannot see me, it seems. I flinch a the reminder of what I used to look like. I was beaten daily by both my mother and father, not to mention my insane grandmother. As a result, I had many bruises, wounds, and bandages all over me. My clothes weren't of the best quality either. It doesn't take a genius to see eight year old Leopold is fighting off the urge to cry. When I see the teacher reach for his cane, I step into the room to intervene, but as soon as I do, everything in the room turns to black. There seems to be no floor beneath me, so I immediately fall.

There is a loud sound of glass smashing to pieces. I feel myself suddenly sitting on the ground, and hear the sound of large lights switching on. I open my eyes to see nothing but white, and remnants of (what I would presume to be) a broken vase in front of me. I stare at it in horror. Hearing footsteps approaching, I look up - and see Kenny standing there. He initially looks skeptical at the fragments, but then smiles painfully and kneels down, starting to put them back together.

"Kenny, why…?" I trail off when I realize he cannot see me. I look at my hands and realize that I'm now transparent. I'm merely a soul. Is the vase supposed to be the broken me? It must be.

Leopold…

"LEOPOLD!" Kenny snaps me out of my dream-like state. "Are you hurt? Do you feel sick?" He looks into my eyes, desperate for an answer.

"Wh-What's going on?" I ask, blinking confusedly. Was it all a vision? I wasn't asleep, so it couldn't have been a dream.

A voice says inside of me: It's alright, Leopold. Calm down. Karen's voice. It was only a vision I sent to you. Please, please think about it.

"I don't know! Ruby asked us to pick up the 'McDonald's' bags, we did as we were told, and then you suddenly dropped them and zoned out. We've been trying to snap you out of this state for almost ten minutes! Don't scare me!" I look at Kenny, opening my mouth to apologize; but my voice deteriorates and I merely look at the floor in shame.

~Kenny's P.O.V~

"I cannot help but wonder where Pip and Damien went off to…" Leopold remarks while looking around cautiously. I honestly don't see what he thinks of as a danger over here. This village is practically the safest place on earth. The police basically get paid for nothing. And yet, all of us fairies work constantly and receive absolutely no payment. It isn't fair. I eye my human nervously; afraid he's going to have another session of staring into space suddenly. He seems fine, but I'm still not sure if he's completely alright.

"Will you two step on it? God, you're slow!" Ruby turns her head to face us angrily. Karma immediately hits her, and she trips on the step as we're finishing crossing the road. As cruel as it is, Leopold and I hide our urge to laugh. Sometimes, people need to obtain some discipline. And that person just happened to be Ruby. Craig and Tweek keep walking ahead as if nothing happened, since they're always in their own little world. The lovey-dovey saps. How I envy them… no wait, that isn't good. Envy is a sin, and a sin is the last thing I would want to commit.

"Why are we actually doing this?" I ask tiredly. Honestly, all I wanted to do today was walk Leopold to school, do my work, maybe visit Clyde, walk Leopold home, give my report, and go to my tree. All I wanted to do.

"'Cause I ain't letting this food go to waste. So we're gonna go to the 21st century and reheat it, whether you like it or not. I mean, you guys are hungry, right? And besides, I'm gonna piss myself from all the coke I drank, because some people didn't wanna drink it. And I'm not gonna pee unless it's in a freaking toilet. You idiot! Why did you have to make me stay in human form!?" I blink, trying to comprehend her speech.

"I understood approximately 10% of that. Why do we have to come?"

"It's pretty obvious! I need you to help me carry all the stuff. Especially as we've now got one bag less 'cause I'm sick."

"You seem to be doing alright now."

"Shut up! I'm dying inside."

"Yes, dying so badly that you don't need to help us carry things." Ruby turns her head back around, fuming and with fists clenched. It's so simple to wind her up. Though, after a while of watching her walk in front of Leopold and me, I start to feel sorry for her. It isn't particularly difficult to see that she's struggling to stay upright. Just as I'm about to offer to carry her, she stops us all.

"Ok, this is far enough. Now, Craig, Kenny, you guys got your golden bangles on?" Craig and I nod, frowning with effort to understand her question. "Good. You guys need to stay in human form the entire time we're there, clear?" We nod once again. "Alright. You guys can see me now 'cause I've just made myself visible, in fairy form. But when we get there, I'm gonna quickly change into human form, so don't mind if people see me. Now the issue with all your clothes…" Ruby looks us all up and down in disdain. Who does she think she is? Craig and I wear the best clothes in the world, as all fairies do, and both Tweek and Leopold dress fairly respectably as well! Ah, it's to be expected. Ruby's always been vain as a peacock, even when she was a human.

"What's wrong with our clothes?" My human asks for all of us, clearly puzzled.

"People will stare at you. Seriously, even I'll be embarrassed by that. So do me a favor, all of you, and take of your jackets, waistcoats, ties, and ribbons, whatever. Just leave your white shirts on." The four of us exchange glances and do as she says. I take care not to look at Leopold, for I fear that I'll receive a nosebleed from merely seeing him take an article of clothing off. I have to say, when I had to change him from his night clothes that morning I was afraid Damien would come and hurt him, it took all my strength not to attack him.

"This looks ridiculous." Leopold bluntly states the obvious, looking at himself miserably. I completely agree with him, as do Tweek and Craig.

"Oh believe me, there's more. Now, unbutton your top two buttons, all of you. Go on! And untuck your shirts while you're at it. For God's sake, you guys look retarded, just like everyone else in this damn century." I scowl. Says the person who used to admire the dress of every woman that walked past. Ruby was always showing off her new dresses and shoes, since she was spoilt rotten by her parents. As was Craig. And in my opinion, the humans in this century look much better than the people in my time. "…Meh. You guys look passable. People might gawp a little, but we'll have to live with it."

"Wonderful, because all we think about is pleasing those abnormal beings who consider letting a young girl run around half naked normal." Craig says, folding his arms and glaring at the ground. He's obviously in a bad mood. To be honest, I'm not my best today either.

"Shut your mouth, Craig! Believe me, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for you guys. I doubt anyone else is ever gonna offer to take you over two centuries to the future." Well, that is true. I'm slightly more intrigued with the idea now. It will be interesting to see what humans have done to the world. "Alright!" Ruby claps her hands together excitedly. "When we get there, hold hands with your partner. And when I say partner, I mean your human or fairy." YES, RUBY YES! YOU'VE GIVEN ME AN EXCUSE TO HOLD LEOPOLD'S HAND! "And try not to act like you're on another planet. People will think you're nuts. And don't speak if you can help it. God, this is gonna be harder than I thought…" Ruby sighs, but bounces back to her happy bubble in less than a second. Well, I figured after two hundred years of doing that, she'd get the hang of it. "Now, unless you wanna be left here, you'd all better connect these to each other. They're special handcuffs I got made by an 'Inventor' fairy. So sweet of her." She gives us four pink pairs of short shackles. How the metal got to be pink, I'll never know. I put mine on and chain it to Leopold. Leopold chains his to Tweek, Tweek chains his to Craig, and Craig chains his to Ruby. Ruby clanks hers onto my left wrist and winks. I frown, unable to comprehend what she means. Suddenly, our background, the things that surround us; all disappear. They're replaced by a beautiful morning sky… over large buildings that I thought weren't even possible to build. Then gravity takes it's toll.

"GYAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Leopold, Tweek, me, and yes, even Craig scream as we start falling. Craig and I are stuck in human form, what can we do now? Ruby quickly flutters her wings as fast as she can to slow down our fall; but it doesn't do a thing. We all go crashing down to what I would guess is a park. We weren't that high, so it doesn't hurt too badly. Not life-threatening. The 'handcuffs' we're all using rip apart instantly. I wouldn't be surprised if we all have cuts on our wrists now. Opening my eyes, I find that I've landed in a large fountain. My wrists are both bleeding slightly, and I'm now soaking wet. There's a small child with his mother standing at the edge of the fountain, and they're both staring at me with gaping mouths and wide eyes. The small child drops a coin into the water, still in shock. I stand up and rub my head, trying to see straight. The boy soon recovers from his initial surprise and says to his mother, "Wow! A superhero fell from the sky! That was wicked!" The mother quickly drags him off by his hand, but the boy manages to turn his head and flash me a final smile. I watch him go, studying his outfit. How strange.

I suddenly remember Leopold.

"Leopold! Leopold, where are you?" I call, feeling frantic. I follow our chains with my eyes and find that he has fallen into a large sandpit. I hurry over to him desperately. He groans as I help him up, obviously in pain. "Are you right? Can you stand? I can carry you if you want." Part of me dies inside when I see his wrists are bleeding even worse than mine. Though, it doesn't look life threatening.

"No… No, I'm fine. I just wasn't expecting to land in a shallow lot of sand." He answers, rubbing his nose since he landed face first into the sandpit. As I steady the unbalanced human, I glance around. Young children (that have most likely been playing in the plastic objects nearby) are staring at us. They suddenly start clapping and laughing gleefully, as if we've entertained them greatly. I waver and pull Leopold away from the play area. The humans here are odd, unusual. It scares me.

"Is… Is everyone alright?" I call out, listening carefully for someone to answer me.

"I-I'm fine! My wrists are just bleeding a bit!" Tweek cries from up inside a tree, obviously not able to get down. I vaguely remember him falling into it.

"Yes, same!" Craig says loudly enough for us to hear. He's appeared to have landed in a bush that I now suspect has thorns in it.

"Yup." Ruby says, raising her hand up so we can see her. She's lying on her back, having smashed a bench in half as she landed on it. Thank goodness she was in a fairy form, or she would have most definitely snapped her spine in half. Leopold walks over to Craig and pulls him out of the bush. Craig staggers towards the tree Tweek is in, and makes a move to start climbing it, but I stop him. Craig's wrists are bleeding by far the most out of us, and some of the blood drips onto my arm. Wonderful, ruined white shirt…

"It's alright. I'll do it. I think you should pull out all the thorns stuck in you." Craig flushes from embarrassment and starts to painfully yank the thorns from his body. God, I haven't climbed a tree in years. Yes, I frequently sit in my own tree, but I always fly into it, not climb. I almost fall a few times, but I manage to get to Tweek unharmed. He clings to my arm for dear life, and I sigh. The journey down isn't going to be easy with a twelve year old boy holding onto me. As expected, I soon lose my footing and we both go crashing to the ground. We weren't that high, thankfully.

"My apologies, Tweek."

"No, no! It's quite alright! Thank you for getting me down, Kenneth." Tweek smiles at me in gratitude.

"Kenny, we need to help Ruby." Leopold says hardly, frowning.

"Oh, yes." I stand up and start to move towards where Ruby is still lying. She's got bleeding scratches everywhere, not to mention many splinters.

"Oh my God! Is she ok?!" A bunch of girls come running. I would guess that they're about sixteen or seventeen. How can they see her? Oh yes… she's gone into human form.

Leopold and I are unable to answer the girls, shocked at their looks. They wear their hair straightened, loose, and obviously coloured. What shocks us more is how baggy their tops are, and that they're wearing pants.

"Ow, it hurts so much!" Ruby cries out, putting on a distressed face. One of the girls lifts her out of the crushed bench, looking remorseful.

"What happened?"

"This bench is so weak! All I did was run into it, and it broke."

"What the hell!? That's screwed up! Here, sweetie, are you ok?" Another girl pulls out some shards of wood from her leg. "Why are you dressed like that?" Ruby feigns a look of hurt.

"Do you not like my dress? My mommy said people would make fun of me for wearing it, but I didn't think that they really would…"

"NO! No, of course not, it's real pretty. So pretty that I've never seen it before. That's why I asked."

"Oh, ok then." One of the girls glares at us.

"Well, are you guys with this girl, or are you just watching like a couple of retards?"

"No… we're with her. She is my sister." I answer the girl, trying to speak the way they do.

"Well, you should take her home right away. And be more careful next time. Jeez." The girls walk away, shaking their heads in disbelief.

"Quite the little actress you are, Ruby." I murmur, watching in abhorrence as she pulls out all the splinters and brushes herself off without effort.

"Kenny, remember, over here I'm merely a seven year old. I can't act like I normally do. And the same goes for you and Craig. Kenny, you are a fourteen year old boy, Craig, you are a thirteen year old boy. No more, no less. Got it?" I nod, barely able to see her point. This new sort of language is going to be difficult to get used to.

"Um, yeah."

"There we go! Ain't that difficult. Now, let's go. Screw the McDonald's, I can just make something. Let's go to my house, get some good clothes, and go to the grocery store. Come on, let's go." Ruby suddenly has a coughing fit. I have to grab her shoulders to prevent her from falling.

"Do you really think you'll be able to do that?" Ruby smiles slyly.

"As long as ya carry me the whole way, then yeah." I narrow my eyes, but pick her up anyway.

"Oh hell naw! Piggyback, Kenny, piggyback!"

"No. As punishment for being sneaky, you're being carried like a little princess."

"Meh, whatever. Just friggin' carry me. AND REMEMBER; HOLD YOUR PARTNER'S HAND!"

"How am I meant to hold Leopold's hand? I'm carrying you!" Ruby sighs irritably and looks directly at Leopold.

"Cling onto Kenny's arm. Act like his lil' bro. You're small enough."

"…?" Leopold tilts his head in confusion.

"TAKE HOLD OF KENNY'S ARM AND ACT AS IF HE'S YOUR OLDER BROTHER BECAUSE IF YOU'RE LEFT HERE THEN I'M FUCKED!"

"Oh… understood." Leopold slyly holds onto my arm, and I cheer internally.

"OK! Last thing; Leopold is Butters here. Alright? And Kenneth is Kenny. People will make fun of your real names."

"Butters? That ridiculous name Kyle made up?"

"Yup. He told me about it the other day. I think it's a cool name. Kenny, if I hear you call him Leopold even once, then you're gonna regret it." I glare down at her. If I didn't know her since the day she was born, then I'd absolutely hate her by now.

"Ok, up these steps." Ruby instructs me, pointing upstairs. "Down this hall…" We all walk down a hallway, staring at the doors. "And this door!" She says quickly. I sigh in relief and put her down. My arms feel as if they are going to fall off. "Please be the right key, please be the right key…" Ruby pulls out a key, looking triumphant when it opens the door. "You have no idea how lucky that was, dude."

Ruby suddenly clambers off of me and sprints to a room, despite her sickness. I follow her, peeking into the room, only to see her rummaging through a chest of drawers. She pulls out shorts, some kind of shirt; make that two, and some (what I would presume to be) undergarments.

"There!" Ruby sees me staring and points to the clothes one by one. "Top, undershirt, short shorts, underwear."

"Ruby, how can you wear those?"

"It's common here. So don't stare at girls who do it, alright? People will think you're a pervert."

"The only person I dedicate to romantically is Leopold."

"Butters. And yes, that's true, you know that, I know that, but they don't know that. So no staring. And try not to act like you're in a different dimension."

"Alright… but don't expect any miracles. Don't you think those clothes are too short for a poorly person?"

"No, I'll be fine." Leopold comes into the room, looking dazed.

"You okay?"

"Yes. This is just… so fancy."

"Meh, this place is pretty decent." Ruby shrugs her shoulders. "And you guys…" Ruby scampers to her cupboard, closet, whatever she calls it, and pulls out a huge pile of clothes. Clearly too big for her.

"Who are those…?" My question is answered when Ruby takes a 'hoodie' from the pile and holds it up in front of me, comparing the size.

"This should be ok for you, Kenny, but I got the same size for everyone, so it might me too big for Butters… and maybe Tweek too."

"Good. I don't want to wear that." Leopold says, scowling at the clothes.

"Aw, come on! Kenny," Ruby gives me some of the clothes. "Put these on and show Butters how hot you'll look in it." I sigh, snatching the clothes from her. Ruby guides me to the 'bathroom' and practically locks me into it. I have to knock on the door when I'm done so that she'll open it. When she does, her eyes widen immensely as she sees me. "Fuck… you do look hot!"

"What does 'hot' mean?" I ask, unsure.

"It means you look fine! You look good! You look, like, amazingly handsome!" I flush at the compliments and look down at myself. Though unusual, it does look strangely good.

"Man, I knew orange would suite you. The light blue you normally wear is cool and all, but that's my colour! Orange is way better on you. And the black jeans look great with it!"

"Um, thank you."

"Let's see, let's see." Craig gently pushes Ruby out of the way and looks towards me. He nods approvingly at the outfit. "I'm impressed." He states, baffled. Tweek is behind him, staring in admiration.

Leopold comes, and his mouth drops open when he sees me. He quickly looks away, embarrassed. I'm a little bit disappointed by his reaction, but at least I can clearly see that he thinks I look nice.

"Ok, see Butters, he does look nice. Now, all of ya, you guys gotta wear it too." Ruby gives each of them a change of clothes, slightly different in color and style. When they come out, one by one, I can see Ruby has a talent with these things. The clothes suit each of us perfectly. "Now, Tweek, Craig, you guys are coming with me. You can't be trusted alone here without me helpin' ya. So you'll be coming with me to the drug store. Kenny, Butters, I'll have to trust you in the grocery store."

"Grocery store?"

"You're gonna need to buy food. I'll write down what you need to get, but try not to wonder like two blind guys in a mine field."

~Butters' P.O.V~

"God…" Kenny and I gawp at the huge shop in front of us. This isn't going to be easy. "It's so strange to see that they sell everything in here."

"No, I think it's just mainly food." Kenny corrects me, looking agonized. I feel his pain.

"Ruby gave us a biiiig list."

"Yes, yes she did. And if we don't buy everything on it, all hell is going to break loose. So let us go." I nod and cautiously follow him into the mysterious 'grocery store'. Since Ruby literally ordered me to hold onto Kenny's arm, and if she sees me not doing it, I'll probably die, I have to awkwardly have my hand wrapped around his right arm. Many people stop and stare at us, especially me. What is wrong with the people here? They stare at you for almost nothing…

"What on earth is oregano?" Kenny suddenly asks, looking at me miserably.

"I think it's a spice… or maybe a herb? One of those."

"Oh. I thought it could have been a vegetable." Kenny smiles at me sheepishly, but I don't smile back.

"Is something wrong?"

"No. Nothing. I'm perfectly fine." I frown in confusion. Is something wrong with me?

"I see…" Kenny sighs knowingly.

"What is it? Tell me what you know." My fairy shakes his head, silently telling me he doesn't want to explain.

"Kenny, please."

"You know," Kenny suddenly turns into an aisle with lots of herbs in it. Or at least, I think they're herbs. "If a vase falls and breaks, whether it was accidental, or someone pushed it and pushed it until it fell, it will still break into pieces. And yes, you can glue the pieces back together, but it will never be the same. The scars will always exist, no matter what." Kenny sees that I don't understand and continues. "I mean, a vase is the same as a person. Whether people accidentally hurt them, or they purposely did it, a person can fall and break." I remember my vision. Falling and breaking after being reminded of my traumatic childhood.

"When you say 'break', what do you mean?"

"Breaking is the most your mind can take. It's the limit. And it can be triggered by anything sad. A tragic event, bullying, abuse…" I see where this is going.

"Are you saying I'm similar to a broken vase?"

"Yes. I'm saying I can see the damage in you, just the same as I would be able to see the cracks in a fixed vase."

"But… but a vase doesn't always have to break if it falls. What if it landed on a carpet, or another soft surface?"

"…Are you saying a soft surface is something to help you after the fall? Such as friends or family?"

"Yes!"

"That may happen in many cases, but tell me, did it happen with you? Did you have a soft surface to land on once you fell?" Well, Kenny's done the inevitable. He's left me speechless.

"No, but…" I try to think of the correct words to use. "There is one person who found that very vase, and I think they've made very good progress fixing it by now." Kenny nods and starts looking for the infamous 'oregano'. I glance to my right and surprisingly see Karen standing there. A man sees me looking at her and also tries to see her, but obviously cannot. He walks away, baffled. Karen is smiling at me approvingly. This is my first time seeing her properly in real life.

"Leo-I mean, Butters, snap out of it. Come, we need to go." Kenny waves a hand in front of my eyes. I blink, trying to see Karen just a bit longer, but alas, she has vanished.

"Alright, next on the list, onions…" Kenny starts pulling me towards a section with lots of fruits and vegetables in it. As he's rummaging for some actual good looking onions, I think of an interesting question.

"Kenny?"

"Mmm?"

"If… you had a chance to bring Karen back to life, but I would have to die, then would you take it?" Kenny stops rummaging through the onions, staring at the list in silence.

"If you died, then I would as well." He says eventually.

"But say you wouldn't! Say you wouldn't perish if I did. Would you take the chance?"

"…"

"Answer me!"

"Is it really necessary to ask me that question?"

"I'm sorry, but I was just curious-

"I mean," Kenny looks me directly in the eyes. "Don't you already know the answer?"

"You… would choose your sister?"

"No, you fool! I would choose you."

"But why?"

"Listen to me. You are my human. Ever since that day I first saw you, whether we wanted it or not, we were chosen to be together. You are, as my human, more important to me than myself. I care about you more than Craig, Ruby, and even Karen combined. That is my answer."