Future in the Stars | Catradora

24 - Waking Up

Three days in a row?! Wow. I'm proud of myself. Question of the day, what are your favourite ships?

Glimmer's POV

I spent the night at my mother's bedside, anxiously waiting for her to open her eyes. She was awake about an hour ago, but she fell back asleep pretty quick. I mean, I can't blame her; she was basically frozen in time before we rescued her. But still, I wanted to talk to her.

"I don't know if you can hear me, Mom," I started, taking her hand. "But I want you to know how much I missed you. And also, thank you for sacrifcing yourself to save us from the portal. That was really brave of you."

No response.

"I know we fight a lot, but living without you has been so hard. I never missed arguing with anyone so much."

Still nothing.

"Okay, at this point, I'm basically just talking to myself," I muttered, but I still continued the one-sided conversation. "I wish I could have had you by my side when I took over the throne... being queen is a lot harder than you make it look. There's so much you have to take into account! And I've never been that great of a leader. I've made so many mistakes without you there to scold me."

I looked down at the ground, kind of ashamed.

"I should probably thank you for, you know, being so tough on me. I would have given anything for you to yell at me not to activate the heart of Etheria. Argh, I know you'll be really disappointed in me."

"I could never be disappointed in you, sweetheart."

I gasped and snapped my head back up. "Mom!"

She smiled, and reached to brush a strand of my hair behind my ear. "You've grown up so much. I'm so proud of you."

"I'm so glad you're back," I cried quietly, tears streaming down my face.

"So am I," she whispered. She looked around at the room, probably wondering where she was. "What did I miss?"

"Not much," I said. "Just that She-Ra looks 10 times more badass, Catra's on our side now and is Adora's girlfriend, Bow and I are together now, and we defeated this evil cult leader named Horde Prime who was terrorizing the universe."

Mom blinked in confusion. "I wouldn't classify that as 'not much.'"

I laughed. "No, I guess you're right. Oh! Um, there's one thing you should know..."

"Hmm?"

"Dad... he's alive."

Adora's POV

My eyes fluttered open when I heard a baby crying. I was confused for a moment, and wondered how a baby got on the ship, but then I remembered Catra rescuing the two kids from that planet about a day ago. I shuddered as I remembered carrying unconscious Catra and the toddler back to Darla as the planet was getting consumed by the vortex. I was so worried.

I closed my eyes again, hoping that either Roe or y/n would deal with the problem, but the cries continued. I tried to get up to go calm the kid down, but Catra was still cuddled up next to me. I slowly rolled her over so that I wouldn't wake her up, then I got out of bed and headed out of the room.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," I whispered as I made my way down the hall. The crying was getting louder.

I turned on the light and quietly approached the makeshift crib. Well, it wasn't really a crib, it was just a box lined with blankets. The tiny hybrid whimpered in her bundle, and I so badly wanted to pick her up and hug her close so she wouldn't be so unhappy anymore, but I was afraid I might hurt her by accident. I didn't know much about babies.

I wondered if she was hungry, so I got up and headed for the kitchen. I knew we had some powdered milk in storage somewhere, so I went to go find it. I let some water heat up while I searched for the package.

"Not intended for children under the age of five," I read off of the label once I found it. "Well, as long as it doesn't kill her, then I'd say it's fine..."

I prepared the milk and brought a bowl of it over to the baby. We didn't have a bottle, which was unfortunate, but I was hoping she'd be old enough to lap it up on her own. I wasn't really sure what to do, so I just helped the baby sit up and handed her the bowl. She didn't do anything, she just continued crying.

"I'm sorry!" I whispered. I felt like I was about to start crying, too. "I don't know how to help you."

I took the bowl away and set it on the floor. I reached into the crib and pulled the little girl out, then rocked her a bit. That seemed to calm her down.

"We need to come up with a name for you," I mused as I continued gently rocking her. "We can't keep calling you 'baby.'"

She made a cooing noise that melted my heart.

"What do you think?" I asked.

Obviously, I didn't get an answer. But it was worth a shot.

"You look like a strong girl, you should have a strong name. Hmm... how about Diana? No, too princessey. Artemis? Oh, geez, I'm bad at this. Alright, what about... uh..."

The baby opened her eyes and looked up at me with an adorable expression. I suddenly felt a kind of connection to this kid... I didn't know why, but she mattered to me. I wanted to protect her, and the other kid we had rescued, too. And maybe it was silly, but I felt like naming the little girl was an important task. After a few more moments of deliberation, it came to me.

Before I could tell the baby her new name, however, I was startled by something banging into the wall. I turned around sharply to see Catra fall onto the floor.

"Catra!" I whisper-shouted as I ran over to help her. "What are you doing out of bed?"

"I didn't know where you were," she said, struggling to get up. "What are you doing in here? And who were you talking to?"

"The baby," I explained bashfully. My hands were busy, but Catra managed to prop herself up agasint the door frame. "I was figuring out what we should call her."

"Oh?" she mumbled, rubbing the side of her head. "What did you decide on?"

I smiled.

"Mara."