Ch95: Rebirth of the Raven

A jolt rocked the ship, scattering the burning metal debris across the floor. Outside, the orange glow against the metal rings holding the useless Diamondback together were growing brighter and brighter. The metal was heating up. Friction was increasing. Soon, there would be a breaking point reached. The plasma overhead continued to vent in, still largely confined to the ceiling so that it created a smoky layer over the broken roof panels and smashed circuitry. The cracks in the viewports grew larger. The floor rattled and shook viciously as though trying to dismount its rider in some enormous rodeo. Above it all the two unopened eyes waited in a body as rigid as a statue. Blossom felt her reality growing dim and distorted around her, her eyes still lit up by an explosion that had died away but left a glare burnt into the back of her eyes. She hadn't seen that explosion clearly. But she was aware that there was only one gynoid left, now. She was told not to watch the result of Bell's attack, but she did. Even in the blurred clarity in which she had witnessed it, Blossom felt a sickening feeling overcome her weak, failing body. She was simply glad that her eyes hadn't the strength left in them to see the explosion properly. If she had... it would have haunted her unendingly. She felt so tired. She wanted to crawl into bed. The rest of her body already felt as though it was asleep, for she felt none of the pain that was meant to be coming from it. She managed to smile a little. Everything was finished now. Her eyes drifted shut. There was no need for nightmares, anymore.

Bell felt as though something was choking her. Something seemed to have seized her around the throat and grasped it tight ever since she saw that final shot bury itself into Barasia's stomach. Where was that overwhelming sense of relief she had been expecting to experience, now that all of this crisis was at an end? Shouldn't she rest easy knowing that all those who had been slaughtered now had at least some form of justice carried out for their sake? She instead felt awful... and empty. She knew she could talk and regulate her atmospheric intake just fine, but that vice-like feeling around her neck wouldn't go away. Still on her knees, she didn't take her eyes off what had become of the girl she had so ferociously conflicted with all these months. She felt awful; far more so than any sort of relieved and comforting feeling. This legacy of their rivalry had just come to a screeching halt. Bell cared not the slightest for that strange, foreign new metal organism in that broken glass alcove. As far as she was concerned, the last living survivor of her species, a race of young cybernetic superchildren created by the misshapen genius of a tormented and twisted man, was herself. Bell was happy to call Blossom, Bubbles and the Professor her family. But her artificial blood was thicker than water. As far as her TRUE family was concerned... she was alone.

Again.

A tear dripped from her eye as she prostratedly edged herself toward the broken, blackened remnants of Barasia. At times she shuffled on her knees. At others, she fell almost in a defeated way to all fours. But all the while, she cried softly. She wanted to hold her... she wanted to hold her sister in her arms the same way she used to do so with Breannin. She hated it so much that her only chance to do so came when she was lifeless, unable to struggle away as she no doubt would have tried to if approached by her. Just thinking of it made her sorrow gush out in gasping sobs of sheer grief, loss and pity. If only she'd said yes to all those offers of redemption... if she'd said yes just ONCE.... none of this would have happened. She would have seen a better life and wanted it, Bell knew. But in her haste to complete a doomed desire, she threw that, her gumption and eventually her life away. Bell felt sick as she approached the fallen chassis. The floor was black, too. It was covered in remnants... of clothes, of skin, of hair, of innards... all burnt, barren and black. Everything that burns... everything that dies turns to black. If that were the case, then Bell knew her heart was the colour of tar right now. Barasia had fallen forwards, so her upper body was closest to Bell. Amongst the immolated remains around the girl's shoulders were pieces of metal that had been snapped by a sheer force, crunched and disfigured so that they couldn't possibly be re-used in any practical way. They seemed to have ejected from her body as it had crashed to the floor. Fried neckbones, probably. She couldn't see much, if anything, of Barasia's head. Several of the positronic fibres still lay sizzling on the floor, burning so hot that they were melting against the cold metal surface. There was a clump of synthetic mold lying to one side, a decent distance away from the right shoulder. Bell blinked to clear the tears away, and then quickly worked it out. It was the upper half of Barasia's right ear, blown off in the explosion and spared a savage incineration thanks to the distance that it had put between itself and the rest of her. This was worse, she realised. This was far worse than Breannin's death, where nothing of her could be identified. Here, with so many parts still visibly intact yet useless, helpless, lifeless, Bell could associate so many memories with those little pieces. She saw one of the blue hairclips near the ear scrap, its paint mottled, chipped and all but removed in the blast. That hairclip kept that beautiful curtain of onyx hair from hiding her cheeks and eyes. Now, there was nothing left for it to hold onto. Nothing left to be a part of. Bell closed her eyes for a moment and breathed out an unsteady sigh that calmed her slightly, "L-Look.... look at you..." she murmured.

Another heavy jolt hit the ship and every overhead light flickered for a few seconds as the vessel again struggled to keep itself working. The energy barrier blocking the doorway fizzled and sparked, unsure as to whether it was still needed before finally deciding to call it a night. With the screen gone, there was now a way in and a way out. And there was someone eager to get in. A zip of azure light shot into the deck and crouched beside the fallen body of Blossom, two eyes wide in concern yet brows furrowed in determination to help her injured sister. Bell didn't notice Bubbles' entrance. Her attention was well and truly elsewhere.

Bell grabbed Barasia's upper arm, the same one she'd damaged in order to remove her most potent weapon. It felt cold, hard and... robotic. She hated that word. It didn't do her any justice at all. Yet, that's how it felt. With no brain to move each part, with no sense of direction to guide it and no thought pattern in place to know what it was meant to do, the arm and, sure enough, the rest of her felt like one large fake mechanism that simply served to take up space. Without her own brain, Bell would be exactly that, too. She was so grateful for her brain. Nobody was ever allowed to touch it unless she knew she could trust them with her life. There used to be two of those people. One of them, the man she called her father, wasn't around anymore. So that just left the man who took his place. When she turned the body over, she was met with a horrid sight. Staring at a headless body with hands that looked like they'd met the nasty end of a lawnmower blade was difficult enough. But Bell now had a perfect view of the after-effects of that monstrous cranial eruption. Her dress had been torn apart and then ruthlessly melted to the synthetic skin around her arms, creating a disgusting clumping that dyed the skin a horrible colour and fused the body with the clothes it wore. There was nothing left of her neck other than a small protruding ridge where her nape was meant to be at the back. And upon her chest was now a deep crater into the body itself, torn open from the inside by her internal processor, her own heart, beating so madly that it exploded under the sheer force, setting her chest cavity ablaze until it burnt through entirely. Within, everything was charred and smelt of cooked metal, molten plastic and pungent smoke. The smell of death for cybernetic creatures like themselves. She couldn't see much left that was recogniseable. Anything that had been in range of that secondary detonation was all but gone, and the parts nearby to those were in pieces or melted against what was left of her collapsed ribcage. Loose bits still rattled as her quivering arms tried to hold her. Everything that the Cluster had put inside her... all that corruption and foreign technology was finally gone, at the expense of her life. Barasia had suffered right until the end, but... Bell couldn't help but smile slightly. That little bit of her that was pure, untouched... just as she was meant to be... it was finally free. And Bell believed that if that part of her had a place to go... there'd be a little girl cloaked in deep blue awaiting that sad and lonesome traveler at the end of her crossing journey.

Bubbles cradled Blossom in her arms, holding her against her bosom and making a disgusted face as she saw up close the extent of damage upon Blossom's right hand side. She smelt the acrid scent of torched flesh mixed with blood and she gagged slightly. Blossom was still alive. She could feel her heartbeat. Blossom had outlived Barasia by a mere thread. But even a thread was enough. Bubbles placed her hand, untouched by anything other than a light coat of sweat, against Blossom's sternum, narrowing her eyes, "Wake up, sis... wake up..." she bit her lower lip, unsure if she was doing it right. Her hand began to glow as she directed her own energy into it. Each of the girls were able to swap their energies with one another, the Chemical X within them that spawned their powers making them capable of doing so. Only Bell had a body and a focus strong enough to convert that energy into a useable weapon, rather than just have it absorbed into and dispersed through their bodies. The floor jolted beneath her as though the whole ship were some enormous rollercoaster. She propped herself up on her right arm to prevent herself falling flatfaced on the cold metal. The ship was breaking up. She knew that, because she had made it happen. The ship was too big as a single piece. If it hit the planet, Bubbles had no idea what sort of devastation the impact would cause. She'd heard about the dinosaur extinction theory. She often had trouble picturing it; she was terrible at history. But in spite of that, she did not want this ship to create a practical example. She'd taken her comm chip off and inserted into the nearest computer access terminal, allowing remote access for Dexter. They'd tried that trick on the other ship Barasia brought here, once before. Dexter had taken great glee in blowing every available plasma junction or explosives cache or power core whooseewhatsit to pieces, tearing holes in the ship so large that it crumpled like a trodden-on soda can. The front end was next, Bubbles was aware. They had to get out of here quickly, and of all the opportunities, now seemed like the best. Dexter, disheartened that he couldn't somehow interfere with the activation of Barasia's new body yet dismissing the notion as pointless all the while, was barking in her ear even now, wanting to know if Blossom was alright and if the fighting was over. She knew the answer to the latter question and, a moment later, could answer the first one too.

As though having held her breath for an uncomfortable duration of time, Blossom drew in an enormous gasp of air and nearly bolted upright, coughing and wheezing with eyes so frantic and wide it was as if she'd roused from a nightmare. As she coughed she sprayed Bubbles' cheek with drops of blood that came from whatever horrible injuries she had sustained within herself. Bubbles winced, afraid that Blossom would go from slow deterioration to a frightful heart attack. She gripped her sister tight, careful not to put any pressure on her extensive wounds. She heard that thickly accented voice jabbering in her ear from the camouflaged chip on her dress' black shoulder stripe. With a relieved sigh as Blossom met her eyes and forced herself  to calm down, Bubbles smiled and responded, "Yes, Dexter, she's ok. I have her here... she's alive."

The tiny, filtered voice responded, "Tell that little champion she had me worried...!"

Bubbles grinned, "You had BOTH of us worried."

Blossom huffed, her heart still racing as her body regained feeling. When the pain began to return, she wished that it would take its time, "W-What happened? Why's everything shaking... and... BELL!" she struggled against Bubbles' hold but her sister embraced her firmly now, squeezing hard enough to draw a pained grunt from Blossom which convinced her to stay put. Bubbles saw her dress and arms getting caked in Blossom's blood. She'd need a bath for certain. Blossom, however, would need more than a mere wash. Blossom grit her teeth, staring across the trashed and razed room at Bell. Her vision was blurry, her body still weak. She could not get to her, but she saw her holding something very dark in her arms and crying into it. That was no handkerchief... "Bell! Bell, are you ok!?"

Bell sniffled, holding Barasia's body and speaking to it as though she were still very much alive and responsive, "You... you're like this because you were different... y-you know that, right?" Her tears dripped onto the burnt black fabric that had fused with the synthetic beneath, creating a single layer of solidified gunk, "It's 'cause you weren't part of my family... it's because you were different. You were always so proud of that... but it made you explode because your body didn't have the Cell inside it to absorb that last attack... you were so proud of it, but it killed you..." she sobbed.

Bubbles grit her teeth, knowing that Bell was in a world of her own right now and rightfully so, "Blossom, Bell's a bit upset to talk right now... we should all just get out of here and sort this out back home... where we can all have a long talk..."

Blossom struggled defiantly, "What about that body!? What about the sun and all the other stars!? We just gonna let her cons- GYAAAH!" she screamed, pain flaring up in her ruined arm. Tears freshly fell, tears of pure agony that clouded her feelings of anger and frustration. Bubbles could only hold her. If only the power of healing were an ability that she could wield. Then, perhaps, she would make a bigger difference. She bit her lower lip. She'd done almost nothing in all this as the rest of her family fought, suffered and... and...

"Buttercup..." Bubbles whispered, "We won... I told you we would win..." A thunderous BOOM shook the ship as, outside, a corona of orange illuminated the endless darkness. One of the huge rings that formed the giant yet defunct cannon shattered like a dropped crystal wineglass, its pieces slamming into the hull and tearing away as they glowed a brilliant shade of tangerine. Bubbles felt her pulse within her temples. She hated desperate, stressful situations. She always felt most uncomfortable at times like these, "Blossom, I don't think that body's even gonna have a chance at eating any suns... this whole thing's gonna bunr up before that happens."

Bell had buried her face in Barasia's burnt-out remnant, "If only you listened to me... but you were always so STUPID...!"

Bubbles grit her teeth so hard she thought she'd chip a molar, "DEXTER!" she yelled, her voice so loud that it easily carried over any of the surrounding tremors and explosions, "Get that teleporter thing ready! We need to get out of here!"

"Just a moment!" Dexter shouted in return, sounding as though he had quite a few things on his platter right now.

Blossom shook her head, "What happens if we don't make it?" she pouted in a weak show of morbid inner fear, "What happens if we end up... falling?"

Bubbles glanced outside. She had no idea how far up they were, and the cracked windows didn't help her to see. She met Blossom's stare again. A smile crept to her face. A depressed, almost ironic sort of smile. How was she to know the right answer? She tried, anyway, "Um... we hold our breath?" she offered, getting a pixieish giggle in return.

Bell's eyes were drenched with tears that she'd been waiting for so long to shed. She was at least glad that she could hold Barasia as she was left to spill her heart. That way, at least, the conveying of her deepest feelings could at least seem tangible to her, "You could have been so much better... so much better than this burnt-out husk... I hate you so much for what happened to you... for all those people who never stood a chance. For what you did to me and the pleasure you took in doing it. And... and I hate you because, now that you're gone... I'm the only one of us left..." she clenched her fists, still clutching the scorched dress fabric within them as the body lay across her lap. The fabric tore and crumbled so easily. "I love you Barasia... always did, always will... God, I hate you sometimes though..." she couldn't help but smile, "It all ended the same way that it started, too... with your head being overloaded... your body taking in too much all at once until it couldn't work... you are fried, I'm all alone... we're... we're back to how this whole mess started in the first place," several more tears fell, "Dammit, I've gotten nowhere..."

Bubbles glanced up. The plasma was still coming in from those damaged vents. The ship had to be in at least two pieces by now, a Titanic in orbit. Where was all that volatile gas stuff coming from? Flames of friction lapped at the trashed windows, threatening to burst their way through. If they did, it was over. She couldn't get up to console Bell, because she would have to leave Blossom. Again, she felt useless. That was all she ever could feel in all of this. All this time, being seen as the simplest Powerpuff, only fighting when it seemed necessary to do so and taking a back seat as Blossom heaped all the emotional attachment to Bell upon herself. Bubbles so dearly wanted to know Bell better. Perhaps they'd find common ground! Bubbles loved to draw, to craft, to create. Her art teacher was so fond of her imagination. Perhaps Bell was expressive too! Bubbles looked forward to meeting up with Courage, the school's dog, at the earliest possible recess. Did Bell have a pet? Did she like dogs? Bell had brought that weird green dog to their house once. It had caused them to lose all their clothes. Was that dog hers? Bell had strange taste. Pink was better than green. The fact was that Bell trusted Blossom the most. Bubbles had allowed herself to stay out of  Bell's way as she assimilated herself to the Utonium family (Buttercup, meanwhile, had openly refused to get into the mushy bonding stuff, as it was seen by her as an impedance). Perhaps, when everyone had recovered from this, she'd spend more time with her. Buttercup was gone... and the Powerpuffs were always a trio. It was Bell's job to assume that vacant role. It was settled. When this was out of the way, Bubbles would get to know her new sister. No more shyness. No more staying out of the way.

But they wouldn't get this out of the way if they didn't get themselves off this stupid ship, "Dexter, hurry UP!"

"I know, Bubbles I know!" he cried. There was a muffled noise that Bubbles couldn't discern between background static and a far-off explosion in the ship, but it was immediately followed by a growling "Dammit...!"

"What's wrong!?" Bubbles squealed.

"Hang on a sec, ok?" There was a loud thud on his end, "What in the name of Hawking's wheelchair is going on!?"

Blossom muttered, "Dex... calm down, ok?" hearing his voice, no matter how enraged he sounded at his own seemingly unreliable equipment, always made her feel better. The same way that she did when she got pinned to the wall... and that quartzeyed face... drew close to hers, and... Blush.

Dexter disparaged, "Something is wrong... something is VERY wrong..."

"What? What!?" Bubbles yelled, but she got no immediate answer.

Blossom, feeling a strange pain in her stomach that was not caused by injury but instead by the terrible belief that something rather bad was about to happen, said softly and almost confidentially, "Before the fight... I swore an oath to Bell that we'd never be apart... that we'd never leave her behind, and... that we'd always be a team as sisters." she gulped, "What if...."

Bubbles glanced down, bewildered, "How did you make that oath? Did you shake hands? How did you swear it?" she asked. When Blossom turned a vivid shade of red, Bubbles' confusion mounted.

Dexter's voice sounded horrified, "Something.... something is..." he gulped, "There is... a gravitonic emission... growing larger and larger... right in front of Bell's position."

Bubbles' breath caught in her throat as her gaze shot to Bell, who all of a sudden seemed extremely distant. Blossom's already pale face whitened further, knowing right away what it was.

Bell cuddled Barasia against her, eyes narrowed in determination, "If only you could have seen... that your plan was never gonna work..." the ship creaked beneath her, "It would never.... work..." Something rattled above her, followed by a sudden hissing that sounded much like a latch coming loose. Just like the sound her regeneration matrix made when it had finished. Her innards froze over. She glanced up, just as another loud hiss reached her ears, "Would.... n-never..."

KSSK!

One of the two dozen cables broke free from the entombed body, dropping away from its forearm.

KSSK!

A second cable broke away, partially freeing the neck. Bell felt herself beginning to shake.

KSSK! KSSK!

The arms seemed to tense as more and more of the transfer conduits detached, retracting into the back of the alcove, moray eels back to their homes. Those slender fingers began to curl as the first bursts of life came into them. Bell didn't even blink. She was witnessing her own kind's evolution. "This is..." The mouth of the contained supercreature parted in a lifegiving gasp, its eyes remaining firmly shut for now. Bell held the lifeless body ever tighter. It was now useless, meaningless and obsolete. What she held was nothing more than an empty, destroyed shell now. Even as she clung to Barasia's body protectively, destroyed by her hand, she was watching Barasia the person, the nightmare, coming back to life.

This... wasn't how it was meant to be...