She-Ra And The Nightmare Warrior (English)

Chapter 7: Roads Untraveled (Part 1)

  Days went by, and Catra questioned whether or not she should go to talk to Laurel; the last thing she wanted was to foolishly be carried away, for that she needed to be a little distrustful since she had no doubts that the warrior would try to use any sign of Catra's vacillation to her own advantage. While Catra made up her mind, Laurel remained imprisoned, tired, and bored of having no other activity than meditation, exercise (which was limited due to her body's injuries), or sleep. The latter she hated the most. Any time she tried to rest, nightmares of her past would come out, waking her up agitated and melancholic. And although her body demanded it, she refused to sleep as much as she could; Laurel had already revived her memories more than enough while trapped in the darkness all those years ago. She wanted no more.

  Time appeared to move slower in there, and she felt hopeless about the "new home": maybe for the rest of them it would be a wonder, but for herself, she expected nothing more than a small and sad room like this one, unaware of how prisons looked like back In Etheria.

  Laurel, already resigned from the lack of activities to do, lied down, trying to get some rest. And although her idea was not to fall asleep, she found herself wrapped in the ship's quietness and her eyes closed involuntarily. At first, there was nothing but black and so it remained for a little while until a memory invaded her slumber. One she would have preferred to never remember at all:

  She, standing at the entrance of the ship that had once belonged to her, but it was now Mara's, seeing how the latter prepared to depart. Laurel had tried plenty of times to convince their superiors that Mara wasn't ready yet, but for the first time in a long time, she didn't get her way.

  < After helping her friend with the last preparations, Laurel stood outside the ship waiting to say goodbye, with a knot in her throat and frustration never felt before.

  Once she was done, Mara walked to her, and upon noticing the clear anguish on her companion's face, she asked worryingly: "Are you alright?"

  "No, I don't want you to go..." Laurel let those words out, at the brink of tears and held her hand. Mara opened her eyes in surprise, she didn't expect such a reaction so sudden, far less coming from such a cold person. So, it took her a couple of seconds, and then she smiled full of compassion and love, but with some sadness in her eyes: she wished she didn't have to go, as well.

  "I have to, Laurel..." she replied, without letting go of her friend's hand, which she held even tighter, "But I promise, once I'm done, I will come for you, and take you to Etheria with me," she said, trying to appease her, but Laurel didn't know what else to say; she partly understood and knew that avoiding her departure will bring them a world of trouble, so she tried to control herself enough to let her go.

  "You promise?"

  "I promise, we'll soon meet again..." confirmed Mara with a smile, and dropped her hand, "See you soon..." said for the last time, meeting Laurel's eyes with her own, feeling how the two of them were breaking ever so slowly at that goodbye.

  Not wanting to cry so as not to complicate things more, Mara turned around and walked without seeing behind her. And she almost managed, until, she felt the doors closing behind her, then, she couldn't help but give one last teary look at Laurel, who was crying as well. Minutes later, the ship took off, taking her to what, unbeknownst to them, would have been her end.>

  The warrior came back to reality almost in tears, her body filled with anger and impotence. And she would have let those feelings take over if it wasn't that she noticed someone watching her from outside of her prison. Laurel opened her eyes and got up to see who it was, meeting face to face with an unsure Catra. The aforementioned had her arms crossed, a was about to retire as she felt the other girl was not available, feeling slightly relieved at the idea of not talking to her in the end, since she had started to regret that idea.