Villain

A/N: This is the last chapter. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope this ending will be a satisfying one. I really enjoyed working on this fan fiction-- more so than any other piece I've written. Extra special thanks to those who reviewed, and super thanks to those who stuck around from the very beginning to now to see this finished. It took nearly a year, but it's finally done! I appreciate your patience so so much, you have no idea.

I will really miss writing this. Thanks again and I hope you enjoy this final chapter of Villain.

Chapter 21

"You see, Mojo lead the other team of villains to complete a very important task that day. It was essential to the mission. Without the success of his team, the take over of Townsville could never happen. Their mission was no easy one either. They had to break into the Townsville prison, without setting off any alarms or being seen in any way. They snuck out over nine hundred inmates that day and in less than an hour's time. Nothing was caught on camera, and not a single guard was even aware they were in the place. But thanks to Mojo's flawless plan and Princess's new telekinetic powers, it wasn't as difficult as one would imagine.

"With those hundreds of newly freed prisoners, the villains were able to storm City Hall. All they needed to do was march right on in. Nothing other than complete and total surrender was an option to the Mayor, along with every other official there. Even the cops ran out of town first chance they got. Just like that, they abandoned the city they had once sworn to protect. They ran as far as they could. Well, I guess all except for one, right?"

"And what happened with Blossom? Did she really get away?"

"Well, seeing as I couldn't chase after her… Yeah, she did. She got away, but ran away. Haven't seen her since. But we're looking for her. It's not over, that's for sure."

"Did that cop car really have you pinned good?"

"Sure as hell did." I paused, thinking back to that moment in my life when I thought I was as sure as dead, left bleeding to death. It happened more than five years ago, and I had told the story a million times over the years, but every time I came to this point in the story, my memory was vague and hazy. "You see," I continued. "It felt like an eternity as I was pinned there, watching everything fade to black around me. Apparently though my dad and Princess were right across the street and witnessed the whole thing. They told me later I was only there for maybe a minute long before they made their way over to me. But to me, I felt like I was watching my blood drip and my surroundings darken for more than a hundred lifetimes. All I remember is finally everything went pitch black. Then all of a sudden everything got bright again, and I was in Princess's arms as she held me, and Mojo was right there too, looking as worried as I'd ever seen him.

I lost so much damn blood; they could have used it all in place of water at those amusement water parks. I don't know how I survived, or even if I actually did. Princess didn't bother waiting to check if I was alive or dead, before she used her powers to fling that damned police car right off of me. According to Mojo, she just took me in her arms then and held me tightly, and shut her eyes, and a few moments later my eyes shot open again and I was okay." I smiled a little. "And that's the story."

"Wow," my audience breathed. They were the twin boys of Sedusa's. They were just four-years-old, but already assisting their mom in the occasional robbery and often tagged along with the Gangreen Gang to cause other trouble. It was the first time they heard the story. At least from me, directly that was.

I worked constantly as the one in charge of the Villains' Movement, and I had many responsibilities which only seemed to be increasing lately, so I hardly had a chance to spend time telling the tale again. And it was a long story to tell about how I got to be where I was that day-- how I became a villain. I was surprised that the telling went uninterrupted at all.

I stood from my chair and excused myself, thinking it was about time I go and check in on my father.

City Hall was as busy as it had always been, only now, the people who ran around the place all worked for me. We were changing the world, and for the better. Townsville had quickly become a great example of that. Its citizens, at first, lived in fear, but that changed soon. After a few years, they came to realize that with me in control, they were actually safer. I kept them safe, just as long as they didn't cause no trouble. The only people who saw consequences were those good-for-nothing resistance groups; it wasn't long before they were all shut up for good though.

But the city went on living their lives as they pleased. Of course, there were a couple rules and laws changed, but nothing major in my opinion. It was all for the better. Once the town started behaving, I ordered the villains and crooks of Townsville to spilt up and move onto the two neighboring cities of Townsville. They started terrorizing everything and everybody there, just as they had done to Townsville.

As new Mayor of Townsville, I just started making negotiations with the two town's officials. Their city for their citizens' safety. All I had to do was give the command for the bad guys to stop, and they would. All I needed was for them to hand control of their city to me. But you know politicians-- they're stubborn bastards, and can't ever do anything the easy way. But we were close. I could feel it. They were on the verge of giving in to our revolution. Just a little more. And once we had them, we already had all their native villains and crooks on our side-- our army was growing. As soon as we got through with those two cities, we would be able to split into as many as six more groups and conquer six towns at once next. Our momentum would only grow faster-- it wouldn't be long before the entire nation was under my command.

I arrived at the door to Mojo's bedroom and knocked before entering. I didn't get a reply and I knocked again, before deciding to enter. I quietly shut the door behind me and approached his bed. He was on his side, lying on his bed, with his back towards me.

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

I sighed with relief. "Jesus Christ, Old man," I laughed a little as I sat down on the chair by his bedside. "You know it scares the shit out of me when you don't answer when I knock."

Mojo was getting old and for the last few months, he had been too sick to move and had been confined to his bed for weeks. He insisted he felt fine, and everything was okay, but I had both doctors and veterinarians (I wasn't sure which would be most appropriate) give me their opinion on his condition. Four separate doctors and three vets. They all told me the same thing: "It's just his time."

He was hanging in there, though. It had been months since those so called specialists told me that stuff, and he was still around. Maybe they were wrong. The more I thought about it, the more I was certain that they had to be wrong.

"Need anything?" I asked my dad as he sat up in bed a little.

"Did you set up that meeting like I advised you to? The gathering of Citysville's officials to discuss our terms, conditions, provisions and demands once again?"

I had more so been referring to a drink or something to eat. Technically, my father was on "vacation" from his role as my advisor. I answered him, anyways: "Yeah. It'll be this Thursday at three."

"Good, good. And has Fuzzy reported to you this week about Citysville's current progress?"

"Yeah. Fourteen robberies, three murders, six monster attacks and the number of cops still sticking around there has dropped by about thirty percent. And Ace reported back on Neighborfield, too. He said there were three robberies and one monster attack."

"What? That's all?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that didn't sound right to me either. But that's the report they handed me. There's been an increase of the number of cops by about eight percent, though. Still, it seems a little strange."

"Hmm," Mojo scratched his chin a little. "Make sure his team isn't slacking."

"Already on it. I sent over Princess to have a talk with him to see just what the problem is. That was about three hours ago."

Mojo smiled. "Good." He reclined against his pillow again. "It looks as if you have everything under control, Son. No need for this old man anymore, right?"

I stared at him. "Dad, there's always a need for you. Don't talk like that," I frowned.

He just smiled at me. "What are our plans for the next upcoming weeks?" he asked, changing the subject.

I sighed. "Well, with Citysville, it depends on this Thursday's meeting. I'm guessing they'll finally fold though. They're getting hit hard now, and I spoke to the Mayor personally today to set up that meeting. He sounded pretty damn anxious and scared, so I doubt there's gonna be much resistance on Thursday. And I'm pretty confident if they give up, Neighborfield will right after. After Thursday, I'll judge whether or not it's a good time to attempt another negotiation with them. I'm pretty sure that won't even be necessary so long as Citysville goes as planned. Then, I guess, we get organized about which cities we move onto next."

Mojo nodded. "Very good, Son."

Just then there was a knock at the door, and Princess entered the room. Five years later, and she and I were still together. I guess you could say we were as good as married then, though we never really talked about that stuff. Her and Mojo were finally learning to get along and didn't fight too much with each other anymore. Mojo at least accepted the relationship more than he reluctantly had in the beginning-- I guess her saving my life was enough to persuade him.

Princess held a large envelope in her hands and wore a slight frown on her face. "I have good news and bad news," she reported, biting her lip a little.

I glanced from Mojo to her. "What is it? Did you talk to Ace?"

She nodded. "Yeah I talked to him alright. So good news or bad news first?"

"Bad news," both Mojo and I answered in unison.

"Well," she began with a sigh, opening the large envelope and pulling out several sheets of paper. "Beginning just five days ago, there have been threats made to every criminal in the town."

"What kind of threats?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

Princess handed me the papers in her hands and I took them. "All sorts written on these flyer type things. And they've been showing up all over the place. What's really spooking the criminals there is when they show up. They seem to be right before a crime is committed--or at least originally planned to be committed. For instance, these burglars were going to go rob a jewelry store. They arrived at the place, and everything seemed fine. The leader turned away to talk to one of his men before entering the place; when he turned back around there was one of those flyers there on the door. Came out of no where in just a split second's time. I got similar stories from at least a dozen others."

I studied the flyers. They were fairly simple. Each had a single message typed on them in bold, capital letters. "YOU WILL BE STOPPED." "JUSTICE SHALL PREVAIL." "A NEW HERO SHALL RISE." "YOU WILL BE PUNISHED." I handed them to Mojo so he could see them for himself.

"At first we guessed they were from some new underground resistance organization," Princess continued, "but after looking at these and thinking a bit, I have other ideas as to who may be responsible."

"Why not an organization? They've done this sorta stuff before, after all."

Princess shook her head. "Like this? Jojo, the messages appear within a blink of an eye. It has to be something more. We talked about it for quite some time, and we came up with a pretty good guess. Then when I returned here it was confirmed."

"What was confirmed?"

"Well, that would be the good news." Princess paused. "When I arrived, Sedusa came to deliver a report to you, but I told her I'd tell you for her." She paused again. "Jojo, they think they've finally located Blossom."

I blinked at her for a long time, before I glanced over to Mojo, who was still staring at Princess, looking a bit in disbelief. "How sure are they?"

"Pretty sure. But, Jojo, in Neighborfield that's who we guessed was doing it. And Sedusa said her team's suspected location of her is in Neighborfield. It can't be a coincidence. She has to be there, and she has to be the one who's up to all this."

I slowly nodded as I began to realize just what this meant. "Do we have an address?"

Princess nodded and handed me a small slip of paper. I clenched the thing tightly in my grasp. I looked to my dad who gave me a single, firm nod. I returned the nod and then gave Princess a kiss on the cheek before I left to finally finish the final battle between my sister and me.

It had been over five years since I last saw my sister. She must have known I wasn't defeated because she went into hiding immediately after our battle. I had an entire team dedicated to finding out where she was, but we always assumed she would have been smart enough to go a little farther than a couple towns over. But I guess, she saw that prediction of ours coming and did exactly that.

I arrived at my location, and surveyed the area. It was your typical suburban neighborhood, and her alleged home was your average, pleasant little house-- just like the home we grew up in. I looked at the mailbox and saw the name "Nikita." Either she married-- which I highly doubted-- or changed her name to keep hidden.

I walked up to the front door and paused before trying the handle. Of course, it was locked, but it didn't take much force for me to pull the knob right out from the door, and I was inside.

The first thing I noticed was an edited family photo. It had Blossom, Bubbles and the Professor-- I was cut out of course. I wandered about the home quietly, keeping my ears strained for any noise. Just when I thought I had visited my sister when she wasn't home, I picked up something with my super hearing, coming from the basement.

There was a clash-- as if something made of glass had fallen and broken. I opened the door which lead to the staircase of the basement and began my descent down to where she was.

The steps creaked as I moved down the stairs, and I was certain she heard me, and I predicted I would have little time to react and defend myself before she came at me, but when I turned the corner, she stood at the opposite end of the room and had her back towards me.

I knew she knew I was there, for she remained completely still. From her back, I could tell she was distressed. Her long, red hair was knotted and tangled and a complete mess. Slowly, she looked at me over her shoulder, and I caught a glimpse of her gaze. Her eyes were heavy and tired. She looked away from me, with her back still towards me: "So, you found me." She laughed a little, sounding almost insane. "You just couldn't leave me be, huh?"

"What are you up to, Blossom?" I asked. "You've been making threats to my men?"

She laughed some more. It was unsettling. I moved closer to her and stood behind her with just about a foot between us. "I thought I'd give you fair warning." She finally turned around and faced me. "I thought you'd appreciate it."

I got a good look at her. She was thinner than she used to be, and much more pale. If she wasn't naturally so beautiful, one could say she had grown ugly over the years-- but still, this was impossible for Little Miss Perfect. Still, right then she looked disheveled and beaten.

"So are you coming out of retirement?" I asked her, casually strolling over to the work table she had been facing and began poking around. There was lots of equipment lying around-- beakers, test tubes and bottles of assorted, colorful liquids. It looked like Old Blossom had become just like her own dad-- some geeky, nerd scientist. I looked at her: "Going to save the day again?"

Her expression remained unchanged. She kept on staring at me with an indifferent sort of look. Like I was just her annoying sibling again, who just needed to get out her room so she could keep playing with her little science kits in peace. "What do you want, Jojo? Why are you here?"

"I came to see what you were up to," I answered, beginning to peer into a large pot of brewing liquids. Blossom immediately pushed herself in front of me, blocking my view. I rolled my eyes at her little outburst of obsessiveness, which hadn't come to a surprise to me-- she had always been like that with whatever little project she was up to. "And to finally finish our fight, of course," I continued.

Blossom shook her head at me. "I don't want to fight you. Never again." She turned around so that her back was facing me once more. "I won't be doing anymore fighting, Jojo. As much as I'd love to be the one to destroy you, I've decided to sacrifice all that in order to provide a new hope-- a stronger hope, which, I assure you, will be your demise." I watched her suspiciously as she seemed to fiddle around with something.

I pushed her on her shoulder so that she spun around to face me again. She had rolled up her long sleeve on her right arm to reveal a needle stuck right in her vein, attached to a long tube which was then connected to a small, glass vial attached to her belt. I didn't know what it was or how I should respond to it; all I knew was that it wasn't what I was expecting. She quickly yanked the needle from her arm and detached the vial from her waist. She held the tube of black liquid in her hand with an extremely tight grasp and seemed to want to hide it from me. She looked at me: "If you don't mind, I have work to do."

I glanced from the vial in her hand to her. "No," I said. "You're gonna fight me, like you're supposed to."

"Perhaps another time."

"No," I repeated, feeling pissed. Just what was she up to? I hated her and her mind tricks. "Now." With both hands, I shoved her. It wasn't meant to be rough. Just something that I hoped would push her over the edge and encourage her to battle me. I had done it many times before when we were kids, so I knew the perfect force that would send her stumbling backwards just a little, but not enough that it would knock her off her feet.

Only this time it did. She fell backwards and landed on her ass hard. The vial popped out of her hands, but she lunged for it and caught it before it hit the ground. She clung to the thing, "Oh, thank God."

I blinked at her. Was she trying to lead me to think that she had grown so weak over the years that a simple shove would knock her over? Trying to fool me into thinking she wasn't capable of fighting me anymore? "Get up!" I yelled at her.

She stayed sitting on the floor and shook her head. "I'm not fighting. Just leave me."

"Fine," I scowled. I marched over to her and quickly snatched the precious little bottle she seemed to be so concerned about.

She immediately went into a panic. "Give that back!" she demanded jumping to her feet immediately. "You have no right to take that! It's mine, so just give it back right now!"

I held the vial up, over her head, hovering above the ground by a few inches so that it was completely above her reach, as she hopped up and down on the floor. I blinked at her, confused as hell as to why she wasn't flying up to retrieve the item. I looked at the vial in my hand and tried to study it. At first, I thought it was her blood-- the way it seemed to come out of her own vein, I thought it had to be that. But no blood was as black as this. "What is this?" I asked her.

She didn't answer me. She clawed at my cape and tried to pull me down to the ground. I stared at her with even more shock then. She was acting so helpless. If she needed the thing so much, then why wasn't she just attacking me like she should?

I slowly lowered myself back onto the ground again. She threw herself at me, but I swatted her away, and she fell to the ground weakly once more. "Is this some sort of trick?" I questioned her. "Is this some sort of self-exploding thing, and you're trying to trick me into holding onto it by acting all desperate but weak at the same time?"

Blossom sat on the floor, rubbing her head which she had hit on her fall to the ground. "Give it back," she repeated, her eyes seemed to tear up a bit.

The last thing I needed to do was to listen to her. She might have been acting different, but I knew the same old sneak was in there somewhere. I also knew I probably shouldn't be holding onto that thing for too much longer in case that was a part of her twisted little plan. As I contemplated what I should do while watching the black liquid swish around in its container, Blossom charged at me.

It wasn't so much the force, as it was the sudden, unexpected surprise that caused me to trip, and the two of us fell onto the floor together. The vial flew out of my grasp.

Both Blossom and I looked up and followed it with our eyes. It flew across the room, over to Blossom's work table and landed perfectly inside the pot of brewing liquids she had been desperate to keep hidden from me before. Immediately the large, tin pot began to glow brightly.

Both Blossom and I rose to our feet. I cautiously began to step backwards and Blossom did too. As I watched the light around the pot grow brighter and brighter, I realized what had happened.

"A new hope." That's what she had said earlier. She said she made a sacrifice for a new hope. The black liquid. It definitely wasn't blood. It was something which flowed through her veins, and flowed through mine as well, along with Bubbles' when she was still alive.

She had extracted all the Chemical X from her own body to do just what Professor Utonium had done over twenty-one years ago. That's what was in the vial. That's why she was so weak. She sacrificed her powers to give them to her "new hope." She must have spent the last five years trying to guess the Professor's ingredients to Chemical X. She must have been unsuccessful, so this was her last, desperate resort.

Blossom looked at me with pleading eyes. "Please go."

I stared back at her, and then looked to the growing light.

I could have stayed. I could have killed Blossom and all three of them just as soon as they were born. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble. But I didn't. I left the place as fast as I could before I could see them. Even though it would have been in the Movement's best interest for me to murder them all… I couldn't.

After all, I had helped.

I had to let them all live for one, distinct reason:

One of them had to be mine.

When I returned to City Hall that day, I entered the place with nearly a hundred eager, anxious faces waiting. They all stared at me, waiting for me to announce what had happened and whether or not I finally managed to kill my sister. I looked at all of them. I didn't want to disappoint them, and I didn't want to scare them with news of a new super hero team-- one that I had been a part in creating. I simply push past the crowd and said: "She wasn't home."

I closed myself off in my own room for the rest of the evening. I reflected on everything that had just happened and contemplated on what I should do next. Mostly the events played over and over in my head, and I focused on them intently, as if I could magically change the outcome as they repeated again and again in my mind.

I heard the door to my room open and shut. "Leave me," I said, without bothering to see who it was.

"Come on now," I immediately whipped around at the sound of my dad's voice. "You and I both know she was home."

I rushed over to my dad who had been making his way across the room, all slow and wobbly with his cane. I guided him to the nearest chair and made sure he was comfortable. "What really happened?" he questioned.

I blinked at him for a while. "How'd you know I lied?"

"Because I know if she truly was not home, you would have waited. If she really wasn't at the location when you arrived, you would have stayed until she arrived as well. You had been waiting for five years to face your sister again, and I know you would never just walk away from your chance to face her once more, even if you had to linger in that home for days before she showed." He leaned his cane against the table next to him. "Plus your mind-reader girlfriend told me you were lying."

I sighed and pulled a chair over so that I could sit across from him. I stared at my feet for several moments as I sat hunched over with my head in my hands. "I don't know if I should tell you."

"Of course you should tell me! You are required to tell me! It is mandatory to share such important information with your own father! It is a necessity and it is vital! If you don't tell me, I'll just call in your girlfriend to take a deeper look into your thoughts and she--"

"Okay, okay," I stopped him. I sighed again deeply and looked away from him, focusing on the window on the opposite wall of the room.

"Well? What happened?"

"I don't know how to say it."

He blinked at me. "Did you fight?"

"Not really," I answered. "She didn't want to. I tried to make her… but she couldn't."

"What do you mean she couldn't?" he raised an eyebrow.

"She doesn't have her super powers anymore," I answered.

"Why?"

"She got rid of them."

"Why?"

I hesitated for several moments before continuing: "She needed the Chemical X… to make new Powerpuff Girls."

His eyes widened. I allowed him to reflect on that heavy sentence before continuing. "I didn't know what she was doing when I got there. I didn't realize it till it was all done and happening right there in front of me." I breathed deeply and shook my head, still in disbelief with myself. "Dad, I accidentally added the Chemical X myself."

I looked at Mojo who just nodded his head slowly. I expected him to freak out and demand for me to explain how it exactly happened and how I could have been so stupid. But he just kept nodding, as if it was something he had both expected and predicted.

"Well," he began after a few moments of silence, "I suppose this would be an appropriate time for the two of us to share a couple cigars, hm?"

My father passed away about one week later from old age. "It was just his time," is what they told me. "According to who?" I'd always wonder. I had so much left to do, and even though Mojo had given me all the knowledge, tools and confidence I needed to complete my mission alone… I still wanted him there, and always beside me.

He was my father and mentor for just short of six years. Without him, I would be nothing. I loved him, and I knew I would never stop missing him.

I didn't cry at his funeral. I had done enough crying the day he passed. As he faded away in front of me, I grasped his hand tightly and did nothing but cry as he spoke to me. He spoke to me the entire time-- to his very last breath. He reassured me everything would be fine, and he told me he was proud of me. He reminded me of my duty to the world and again said he was proud of me. I cried and listened, and he spoke.

I felt as if he wouldn't appreciate me crying at his funeral, so I kept myself strong throughout the entire ceremony. There were thousands of people there-- all of them were grateful to his efforts, and all of them wept.

As I sat and listened to speaker after speaker recall how my father had changed their lives, Princess, who had stepped out of the ceremony for a brief moment because she simply became too overwhelmed, returned. She sat down next to me and whispered in my ear: "Something's happened in Neighborfield."

I nodded, knowing what she meant. I never told her about what happened that day with Blossom, but it wasn't as if she needed me to in order to understand.

"You should wait," she whispered again.

I shook my head. "He wouldn't want me to," I answered as I stood, and left to go face something I had been waiting to confront for the longest.

I arrived at the bank just in time to see the last criminal fall to the ground unconscious. Above the pile of beaten crooks hovered three little girls. They all blinked at me, seemingly surprised at my arrival.

"Who are you?" the red one demanded.

"Who are you?" I returned, ascending to their level.

"We're the Powerpuff Girls," they all responded in unison.

I smiled a little. "Are you really?"

The red one looked at me suspiciously. She had long dark red hair which was pulled back with a bright red ribbon. "Who are you?" she asked again.

"You first."

"We already told you who we are," she responded, placing her hands on her hips.

"You didn't tell me your names."

The red one raised an eyebrow. The orange one to her right replied with a squeak and a smile: "I'm Candy!"

I smiled at her. Her brown hair was tied into two long pigtails and she seemed to bounce in place excitedly where she hovered in the air. I looked back at the red one. "And you?"

She hesitated. "Cherry."

My eyes fell on the yellow one on the left. The first thing I noticed was an all too familiar scowl on her face. Her little body was tense and ready to attack, and her yellow eyes were narrowed and focused on me. She had short, curly black hair which made her look like a punkier version of Shirley Temple.

I flew so that I was directly in front of her. "And you?"

She gave me no answer other than a meaner stare.

"Her name's Cat," Candy answered for me. "She's pretty grumpy most of the time," she added.

"I bet she is," I answered, still looking at Cat.

"Who are you?" Cherry demanded once more.

"Me?" I looked at the group's leader. "I'm Jojo."

Their eyes widened.

"You're a bad guy!" Candy squeaked.

"Let's get out of here, Girls!" Cherry instructed her sisters and she disappeared in flash of red light, followed by Candy in a flash of orange. Blossom must have warned them to flee if they ever met me.

Cat remained where she was, still glaring at me.

"Cat!" her sisters called.

"Cat, Mom told us to leave if we met her!"

"But--" the yellow one began to protest.

"We have to go!" Cherry yelled.

I watched the girl hesitantly follow after her sisters. She did so in a much slower pace, looking over her shoulder at me as she flew. I knew what she was thinking, because I recognized that look: "I could beat her." She was strong and stubborn and wanted to fight.

Just like me.

"Cat," I called out.

The girl stopped and faced me. I flew out of the bank and met her in the night sky. I smiled at her. I couldn't help it.

As my dad was in his deathbed he told me: "Don't do anything stupid. Don't get carried away. You'll want to do something; I know you'll want to. But just be patient. Be calm. Wait. As much as you may want to intervene--meddle-- get involved--interfere-- you must allow Fate to play out.

"Fate is a strange thing. But I've learned that it will act in your favor just as long as you do not rush it. People are naturally trying to hurry things. They are instinctively greedy and impatient. Yes, you have to work for what you want, but you must also always know your own boundaries. You must not become like the majority of fools out there. Always thinking you somehow deserve something-- somehow you earned it and are entitled to it. That something could be another person's fate. No one can own such a thing. No one can own another person's destiny. No one can own another person.

"Your destiny was to become a villain. The greatest villain. I imagine it will someday become hers as well.

"But you must let her find it on her own."

As those words from my father replayed in my head, I knew I could only allow myself to say one thing to the girl:

"Cat," I began. "When you're ready," I smiled, "I'll be waiting."

The girl's scowl disappeared for a moment and was replaced with a look of confusion. As she blinked at me, her sisters called for her repeatedly. Finally, she shook her confusion away, shot another unpleasant stare at me, and then disappeared with a flash of yellow light.

The end.