Ma-Ti sobbed softly as Gi looked around the scorched forest, her ears straining for any sound of approaching trouble.
"Ma-Ti...we have to go now," she said, her voice barely louder than a whisper.
He didn't answer, just kept whimpering, kneeling with his face on the ashy ground.
"Ma-Ti...please..."
She knelt down beside him, but he didn't look up, just curled up into a tighter ball, his whole body shaking with every sob. He really did look like a scared child now. He was tall for his age, and smarter than you would expect any fourteen-year-old raised in the jungle to be, so Gi was sometimes surprised to remember just how young her friend was. She could sympathize with him at the moment, now; after all they had witnessed she would honestly have loved to curl up next to him and just sob for the next day (or week, or month or year), but they didn't have time for that, they had to go.
She slowly put her hand on his shoulder. He stopped trembling but didn't look up, nor did he feel the tears stop pouring from his eyes.
"Ma-Ti, please...we have to go now, okay? We can't stay here."
He finally looked up at her. His face was covered with dirt and ash, except for twin lines of water running like rivers down his cheeks. He tried to wipe them off, smearing the whole mess in the process.
"How could this happen?" he croaked. "Why...how could...?"
He covered his face and started sobbing again. Gi took a deep breath that was more like a gasp, her lungs didn't even seem to want to work right anymore (the burning dust in the air didn't help matters), shaking his shoulder again.
"Ma-Ti, please, you have to calm—"
"Everything's gone!" Ma-Ti suddenly screamed, his voice muffled by his hands. "Dead! The whole island—Wh-Wheeler, Linka, K-Kwame—the whole f-forest—"
He fell on his face again and Gi bit her lip, feeling tears well up in her own eyes. She blinked them back and looked up at the gray sky, her breathing quick and deep again—no Gi, do not cry, you cannot cry, Ma-Ti is already crying, you will not cry when he needs you, he's just a little kid and you have to be strong right now, you are a Planeteer and you have to fix this, you can't fix this but you have to and you cannot cannot cannot start crying right now, not for the trees or the animals or your friends, your life, your home—
She looked back at Ma-Ti and put her hand back on his shoulder again. He didn't stop trembling this time—he just kept sobbing, his face buried in the ashes of everything that had been theirs since Gaia first called them more than two year ago.
Who had done this? She didn't know. How had they done it? She didn't know. Where was Gaia, why couldn't they call her anymore? No idea. What would they do now, alone now without the other Planeteers or Captain Planet to help them? No answer.
Gi began to tremble herself now, and she eased herself lower onto the ground, laying down beside her friend. She curled up closer to him, allowing her hand to stay on her shoulder.
They really needed to get off of Hope Island. Whoever—or whatever had done this could come back, they could be in danger, they had to find out what force had destroyed everything and how to make sure it didn't spread anywhere else.
But right now, Ma-Ti needed her.
She wouldn't let herself cry.
But she would stay here with Ma-Ti until he was done.
Author's Notes: Well, with this prompt, it sort of had to be depressing, didn't it? And yeah, this show has quite a bit of opportunity for darkfics if you think about it.
Sorry this took so long, new chapter coming...whenever I think of something for it, I guess. Please review!