"Till the End of the World"
A/N: This (admittedly dreary) story just popped into my mind fully-formed last night. It's nice when that happens.
The world was coming to an end.
Literally.
The skies of Etheria were a kaleidoscope of terrifying colors, most unrecognizable to the inhabitants of the planet, interrupted occasionally by bolts of red lightning so large and so bright that to stare at them was blinding. Black clouds rolled over the horizon, bringing with them fire and the sounds of thunder and chaos.
The Fright Zone was gone, wiped from the face of Etheria, seemingly taking Hordak and Shadow Weaver with it. With their leaders nowhere to be found, the scattered remnants of the Horde did what they did best: they rampaged. Kingdoms fell, runestones were destroyed, and armies lay decimated across the planet's surface.
Weeks passed. Things only grew worse.
With the loss of the runestones, the natural balance of Etheria had been permanently shattered. What began as terrifying storms and massive earthquakes quickly developed into cataclysmic events the world over. The fighting between the Horde and the Rebellion went on, of course, but it served no purpose: victory meant nothing when the very planet the armies fought over was coming to an end.
Catra reflected on all of this as she looked out over the remains of her army, strewn across the ashen wasteland that had once been the Whispering Woods. Bodies littered the blood-soaked ground as far as the eye could see. Bright Moon lay in ruins in the distance, having fallen shortly after the death of its queen.
The Horde was gone. But so too was the Rebellion.
There's nothing left, Catra realized too late as she surveyed the damage her hubris had wrought, taking special note of the massive bursts of flame she saw erupting out of the ground in the distance. There's nothing left to save. Nothing left to conquer. It's really over. All of it.
Catra had come to only moments before, her battle-skiff having been shot out of the sky in the midst of battle. She was nursing a wound in her sight that refused to stop bleeding, and instinctively knew that at least one of her legs was broken. She wouldn't last long without access to a medical facility.
Not that it mattered, she thought to herself. No use in prolonging the inevitable, especially when the world itself seemed to be on its last legs. If she was lucky, she might even be alive long enough to see the planet explode.
She was just about to lie down and let nature take its course when she heard a familiar voice not far off, a groan of pain she recognized immediately. Gripping her bleeding side and fighting the pain in her broken leg, Catra slowly crawled across the battlefield towards the source of the voice. Horde and Rebellion soldiers alike laid in bloody piles all about her, indistinguishable save for their uniforms, and it took both time and effort to climb over them. By the time she reached her destination, Catra was out of breath and too tired to feel anything but heartache as she looked down at the groaning warrior before her.
"Oh, Adora," she said weakly.
Adora – not She-Ra, legendary Princess of Power, but Adora, who had been both friend and foe to Catra so many times over the course of their lives – lay groaning half-conscious against the treads of a fallen tank, bleeding from a dozen wounds. The hilt of the Sword of Protection lay only a few feet away from her, the blade itself shattered into a hundred pieces, far too many of which appeared to be lodged deep within Adora's chest and stomach. Her previously white shirt was now all but red, and Catra instinctively knew she wouldn't be long for this world.
With another grunt of defiance, Catra pushed her way over to Adora and propped herself up next to her. She took a few breaths before finally reaching over and shaking Adora by the shoulder, refusing to quit until her groans began to lessen and her eyes began to open.
"What…?" Adora gasped as her eyes fluttered open. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust before she finally recognized the figure laying next to her. "C-Catra? Is that you?"
Catra smirked despite herself. "Hey, Adora."
Adora groaned as she leaned her head back, as if trying to remember where she was or what she was doing. At one point, it looked like she was about to try to stand up, but Catra grabbed her by the shoulder and stopped her before she could do so.
"Adora, don't," she said. "You're bleeding."
"I am?" Adora asked weakly, before looking down. "Oh. Right. The Sword."
"What happened?" Catra asked, more curious than anything.
"I think I pushed it too far," Adora admitted after a minute, wincing as she tried to shift her position, which only ended up adding to her pain. "I should have taken a break, powered down. But I couldn't. I just kept going and going. I guess I just…pushed it past its limits."
Catra smirked sadly. "I told you that sword would be the death of you, Adora."
"Yeah, you did," Adora acknowledged with a light laugh. She nodded towards Catra's bleeding side. "What about you?"
"Skiff was shot down," Catra told her. "I think it was your friend Bow. He's a good shot. He okay?"
Adora shook her head sadly. "He didn't make it. None of them did."
"Yeah," Catra said softly, "none of mine either."
They sat there for a moment, propped up against the treads of the fallen tank, each of them slowly bleeding out. The sky above continued to grow darker and darker, illuminated solely by the flashes of the multicolored lightning that told them the world was ending. They wondered, without acknowledging it, whether they were the only two left to see it.
"We really screwed everything up, didn't we?" Adora finally said, still looking up at the disaster of the sky above them. "The Horde, the Rebellion…all of us. And me, especially. I was supposed to save Etheria…not end it. Some She-Ra I turned out to be."
"Don't blame yourself," Catra told her, nudging Adora's shoulder with her own despite how much it hurt to move. "I didn't exactly make it easy for you."
Adora laughed at that, lightly, and Catra did her best not to notice the blood that came out of her mouth when she did.
"I…made a lot of mistakes," Adora said after she had finished laughing. "Not just as She-Ra. As Adora. I wasn't a very good friend to you, Catra. When I left the Horde…I hurt you. And I'm sorry. I don't regret the leaving the Horde. But you, Catra…I regret leaving you."
"Don't apologize," Catra responded with a sigh. "You did what you had to do. So did I. We were never going to have a happy ending, Adora. Not together, anyway. Life just…doesn't work like that. At least, not our lives."
"Still," Adora said with a shrug, "I'm sorry."
"Yeah. Me, too."
There was another rumble of thunder and fire in the distance. It wouldn't be long now. Even the ground beneath them felt like it was about to give way, as though the planet itself was simply going to fall apart into a thousand pieces.
"I missed you, you know," Adora spoke up, her voice still weak and raspy, as though she hadn't had anything to drink in days. "After I left. All the time. Every morning when I woke up and you weren't there, every meal you weren't sitting beside me. I…I think I started to look forward to our fights. They were the only time I ever saw you. That, and…in my memories."
"I missed you, too," Catra admitted after a moment of thought. "I never told you this, but…I almost left the Horde, too. More times than I can count."
"Really?"
"Really," Catra confirmed sadly. The pain in her side was beginning to fade, and she realized that wasn't a good sign. "I came close a few times, too, even made it outside of the Fright Zone. But I never went through with it. Always thought of some stupid reason to stay."
"What made you want to leave?" Adora asked, before coughing slightly to dislodge some of the blood in the back of her throat.
Catra laughed a little. "You did, dummy. I wanted to be with you."
There was a pause, and then Catra felt Adora reach over and take Catra's hand in hers. Catra looked over at Adora as she felt their fingers intertwine, and was pleasantly surprised to find her old friend smiling.
"You're with me now," Adora told her.
"Yeah," Catra said softly. "Kinda screwed up it took the end of the world for us to make up, huh?"
"Just a little," Adora agreed with another small laugh. "But letter late than never."
They were interrupted by another rumble of world-ending thunder, one powerful enough to cause both of them to wince in pain. When Catra next opened her eyes, she found Adora looking out over the corpse-strewn battlefield that had once been the Whispering Woods and, for a brief moment, Catra regretted burning the forest to the ground solely because of the sorrow she saw in her friend's eyes.
"You think there's anyone else out there?" Adora finally asked. "Or are we the only ones left?"
Catra shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. Does it matter?"
"Guess not," Adora answered. "I know how messed up it sounds, but…I'm glad you're here with me. In the end."
"Yeah," Catra agreed with a smile, squeezing Adora's hand in hers. "Me, too."
The rumbling was getting worse now, and the air was growing uncomfortably hot. Catra spied what looked like a wall of fire on the horizon, the only thing illuminating the battlefield at all now that the sky had seemingly faded to black.
Here it comes, she thought to herself as she prepared for the end. Adora could see it, too, she was sure, as evidenced by the urgency gleaming in her friend's eyes.
"This is it," Adora announced weakly. "Isn't it?"
"Yeah," Catra admitted sadly. "I think so."
Even the lightning had faded away now, as did seemingly all color in the world around them. The wind, the clouds, even the moons and stars were gone. There existed only darkness.
Darkness…and the approaching inferno.
"Hey, Catra?" Adora spoke up one last time.
"Yeah, Adora?" Catra responded, looking over at her friend for what she knew would be the last time in either of their lives to find tears gleaming in Adora's eyes. Whatever Adora was trying to say, Catra knew it was important, something Adora had been trying to say to her for years, perhaps, or maybe even their entire lives.
"Before we die," Adora said, her voice cracking as she said it, "I just…I want to say – "
She never had the opportunity to finally admit it, though, as Catra rudely interrupted Adora by capturing her lips in a mind-blowing kiss. One moment, all they felt was the fire and the pain and the terror of knowing the end was seconds away, the next they felt only each other. It was a surreal experience for them both, their boundless passion and joy tempered by the taste of blood in each other's mouths and the shocks of pain that came with each movement of their lips.
Then it came to an end, and Catra saw Adora lean back against the tank with her cheeks a deep red in color despite the blood loss. For a moment, she was almost sorry she hadn't let Adora finish her confession. Almost.
"I know, Adora," Catra said softly, looking into her tearful blue eyes and refusing to look away ever again. "I've always known. And I love you, too."
The tears gleaming along the edges of Adora's eyes finally began to fall as she found herself smiling, truly smiling, for what she knew would be the very last time.
"Forever?" she asked, resting her hand against Catra's bloodied cheek.
"Forever," Catra confirmed as she pulled Adora into one final embrace. She closed her eyes and tightened her grip as Adora squeezed her back. The flames were upon them now.
"Till the end of the world."
A/N: Let me know what you think!