TW: depressing thoughts

Catra's POV

Swift Wind took off in the direction of the boy standing at the edge of the building. He looked a little familiar; kind of short, really skinny, blonde hair...

Wait a second.

I knew this guy.

"Can't you go any faster?!" I asked Swift Wind.

"Unlike Glimmer, I don't have the ability to teleport!"

I groaned, wishing I thought of asking Sparkles earlier. Despite my arrogance, Swift Wind sped up his flight. We were almost to the building when the boy jumped.

"Kyle!" I shouted.

Swift Wind dove after him. I reached my hand out, and managed to grab Kyle's wrist. I tried to pull him up, but he wasn't making it easy for me.

"Quit playing around, Kyle!" I grunted. Why wasn't he moving? I was trying to save him!

I took a risk and tried to use my other hand to pull him up. I must have underestimated his weight, because without an arm holding onto Swift Wind's neck, I wasn't stable anymore. With a yelp, I tumbled off the horse's back.

"Dammit Kyle!" I shouted, then gasped as Glimmer appeared beside us in midair. She placed one hand on my arm and the other on Kyle's shoulder, then teleported away.

"What happened?" she asked once we were brought safely to the ground.

I didn't answer, but instead crawled over to Kyle, who was lying on his side.

"Come on, buddy, wake up," I muttered, shaking his arm. I gently turned him over, and, to my surprise, his eyes were open. I waved a hand in front of him, but he didn't show any signs that he had heard me. He just blinked and looked away.

"He's in shock," Glimmer said. "What was he doing up on that building, anyway?"

"Not sure," I lied. "Someone get Scorpia. Unlike me, she actually went to Force Captain Orientation so she's bound to know some first aid."

Glimmer nodded and teleported away. Before she returned with Scorpia and Adora, Kyle turned his head to me.

"You saved me," he whispered, as if it was the most unfathomable thing in the world.

"Well yeah... you... you're kind of my friend."

"I caused all this. You should have let me fall."

"What? Kyle, the buildings are collapsing because of the tecta-something plates underground. And even if it was your fault, killing yourself isn't the answer."

"How would you know?" he dully, sitting up. The usual mix of fear and optimism in his eyes had been replaced with emptiness.

"I nearly caused the end of the world, remember?" I said with a small shake of my head. "I can't make up for my mistakes if I'm dead."

"I should've done it ages ago anyway," he whispered, hugging his knees into his chest. "Everyone hates me."

"No, we don't," I said. "It's like you said back at the party; you were our punching bag. We wouldn't have made it through life at the Horde without you."

Kyle stared at me like I had just said the nicest thing he had ever heard. I felt a strange sense of sadness that he considered that to be kind. This guy was like my little brother, and yet I had been nothing but horrible to him, even when I knew he was suffering.

I wrapped my arms around him, which was a gesture I wasn't used to giving, and one that Kyle wasn't used to receiving. After a moment of surprise, he hugged me back.

"It's gonna be okay, kid," I muttered as he clung onto me for dear life. "I promise it gets better."

"Found her!" Glimmer announced as she returned, with Scorpia, Lonnie, and Rogelio behind her. I pulled away  from Kyle quickly, hoping that they hadn't seen me hugging him.

"Took you long enough," I said.

"Sorry," she breathed, her hands on her knees. "It took a while to track Scorpia down—I ran into these guys on the way here."

"Kyle! Where have you been?" Lonnie demanded, as she and Rogelio ran to his side. "We've been looking all over for you."

"You're not... mad at me?"

"Why would we be mad?" she asked, confused, then narrowed her eyes. "Did you do something?"

"The idiot thinks he caused all this," I said jokingly, gesturing all around us. "As if Kyle is capable of that much destruction."

"Not in a million years," Lonnie said with a roll of her eyes. "Come on, let's get outta here."

Rogelio scooped Kyle up and started carrying him away. Lonnie and Scorpia followed, but Glimmer and I turned around to go find the other princesses.

"You handled that really well," Glimmer said as we walked.

"Uh... thanks?" I replied, rubbing the back of my neck.

"It's a compliment," she assured me. "I'm proud of you, Horde Scum."

I laughed and gave her a light punch on the arm, then broke into a run. The sooner we could find our friends, the sooner we could head home.

————-time skip cuz laziness———

We got back to Bright Moon, but our problems weren't over for the day. The ex-soldiers were scattered all over the courtyard, and some were in the throne room. We had to find a place for them all to stay.

"Who's going to tell them?" Adora asked. "About the Fright Zone, I mean."

"Sparkles is the queen; I say she sould," I said.

Glimmer looked nervous. "I don't want to be the one to tell them their home isn't safe to live in anymore. They hate me enough as it is."

"Maybe we don't have to tell them today?" Bow suggested, his voice getting higher with anxiety. "We could always wait until we actually have a new place for them to stay."

"We can't put it off forever," Perfuma said. "They'll be angry with us if we keep it from them for too long."

"I'll do it," I grumbled. "They all already despise me, so what's the harm?"

"They don't despise you," Adora said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Ha, I doubt that. I led the troops into several battles that ended in failures and never took into account that they all might need a break."

"It's okay Catra, you don't have to—" Glimmer started.

"Don't worry, I have plenty of experience dealing with Horde soldiers," I assured her. "I got this."

"Here, use this," Bow said, handing me an arrow.

"What's it for?"

"Sonic arrow," he shrugged. "And before you ask, no, it's not completely useless."

I nodded and rushed over to the fountain in the middle of the courtyard. I jumped over the water and onto the structure in the middle, then climbed a bit higher on the statue to give myself more height. I took the arrow Bow gave me and hit it against the stone structure. I gasped as a loud sound erupted from it, and dropped it so I could cover my ears. It fell into the water and stopped making noise, but the brief moment was luckily still enough get everyone's attention.

"Uh, hi," I started, but the words got caught in my throat.

Argh, why was this so nerve-wracking? I'd done plenty of speeches before... well, I guess none of them were to deliver this kind of news.

"So," I said loudly, projecting my voice so everyone could hear me. "We went to the Fright Zone and we discovered the cause of all the damage."

"All I need is a name," someone near the fountain said, pulling a combat pole out from behind her. "Who do we have to fight?"

"No, no fighting," I said quickly. Gosh, it felt weird saying that. "It's not an attack, it's a shift in the plates beneath the kingdom. It's causing the buildings to collapse."

"So when can we move back?" a boy asked.

"Well... uh... it's not exactly safe right now..."

"When will it be safe?"

Glimmer teleported right next to me. "We don't know for sure yet."

"Gah!" I shrieked in surprise, and fell off the fountain's center and into the water below. "Gawd damn it, Sparkles."

"We don't know how long it will take for the earthquakes to stop," Glimmer continued. "And even if there are any buildings remaining, they won't be safe to live in. We'll have to rebuild everything."

"We don't have the materials for that!" someone yelled.

"No sh*t, Sherlock," I muttered.

"Bright Moon will provide all the necessary supplies and will assist in the construction," Glimmer continued. "You're not alone in this, I promise."

The crowd didn't look happy about this, but they weren't showing any signs of retaliation. Glimmer teleported down to me, then brought us over to the other princesses.

"That went well," Adora said, as if trying to convince herself that it's true.

"They took it better than I thought," I agreed. "I guess all we have to do now is rebuild an entire kingdom." 

"Right," Glimmer said with forced smile. "Piece of cake."