This is both prompt XXVI: Blood, and also the dark!fic challenge from the LJ community. This is meant to be set during WWII, but you can say it's some time in the future with our current Planeteers, since I'm aware canon says Gaia had been asleep for the last hundred years.

Enjoy!

Even with her eyes tightly closed, she could still see the battlefield. The bright flashes of gunfire, the barren ground trampled by armies, the earth poisoned by blood. The Earth cried out as she did at the violently shed blood. Hundreds had fallen every day, bones buried underneath the earth every minute. That was normal, natural as Chronos kept time marching on. What wasn't natural were the ones killed by this hateful battle, this war that encompassed the whole world.

And today... just now... her five most favorite children…. She collapsed to the floor, a choking sob as she saw the scene again and again and again in her mind. She had sent the rings out, calling on the children of the world to unite mankind during this horrible and so foolish war. Man had always warred with one another, but not to this extent. Not with the power to destroy not only armies, but entire cities, whole nations, and perhaps the Earth itself.

The soldiers hadn't even blinked as they had executed her children. Witch craft. Traitors. Insolent children. One bullet to each, a splatter of crimson against the dead ground.

Gaia hadn't heard the creak of the boards, or anything to announce the new arrival until strong crystal arms drew her close suddenly. Familiarity of cool skin on her own allowed her to relax into him, taking comfort as well as giving it.

"I failed you" he whispered, words muffled by his lips pressed to the flesh of her neck, "I failed them. Gaia I-I'm so sorry."

"Even you aren't perfect," she tried assured him, her own voice raw. "Nothing is."

"But I was their protector!" Captain Planet pulled away slightly, his brown eyes reflecting the pain in his voice. "I should have been there for them! They called on me to help them, and I wasn't there!"

"You were doing your job," she stressed, placing a hand on his cheek. "You had no idea they would retaliate the way they did. I had no idea they could be so...so heartless."

Captain Planet sighed heavily, "What do we do now, call more Planeteers?"

She paused before shaking her head. "No. They have made it clear that they will not listen to reason. We'll wait, and intervene with this war only if they threaten to destroy everything. Until then, rest. You deserve it, and moreover, you need it."

"Do I look that bad?" His smile was just as forced as his faint joke. She merely returned the faint smile before he took her hand. A fresh wave of pain struck as he dropped the five golden rings into her palm, closing her fingers around them before he pressed a reverent kiss to her hand. "My power is yours," he whispered softly, the rings warming as he disappeared in a flash of light.

Alone, Gaia sighed as she brought the rings close to her heart. "And mine yours." Maybe she would rest as well. These humans, her children, had grown independent, as much as they could. Maybe it would be beneficial to both parties to take a break from her motherly duties. Allow them to grow, and hope they would end this madness on their own. A leap of faith that she didn't feel very confident in.