Love is Magic, and Magic is Love

Magic is Love

The awful, agonising pain finally stops, and I'm able to open my eyes. I find myself standing on the floor of the medical bay, naked, and without a single injury in sight. I stretch my toes, noticing that the metal floor doesn't feel cold beneath my feet, and my body feels lighter, somehow.

"What- Oh," I say, glancing upwards, realising that I'm standing at the foot of the cot on which my other, motionless form lays. It's completely drenched in blood. My jaw is slightly open, my head is tilted to one side, and my eyes are tightly closed. "That's... that can't be...."

I walk around the room, looking at everyone, trying to get their attention. But, they can't see me, and I can't hear them. There's Angella, with her eyes tightly closed, and tears rolling down her cheeks. She's still holding Glimmer and Bow, both with their faces buried into her chest, their torsos shuddering.

"Uh, guys?"

Melog is sitting next to the steel table, with their snout resting next to my hand. I'm grateful that they haven't changed colour, haven't freaked out. They're just sitting there attentively, as though waiting for something.

"This is some kind of prank, right?"

Entrapta is standing by one of the medical terminals, staring blankly at the single, flat line that scrolls across the monitor in front of her. She taps the screen with the end of her pigtail a few times, then grabs a handheld device and hovers it over my stretched out arm, sealing up one open wound after another, until Scorpia stops her, that is.

I see her say something, but can't hear a single word. The next thing I know, Entrapta is shaking her head, talking animatedly and trying to push past Scorpia.

"What the hell is going on?!" I ask, my voice echoing around me.

I watch as Scorpia pulls Entrapta into a tight hug. Entrapta's shoulders slump, and she drops the device to the floor, wrapping her pigtails around Scorpia's shoulders, and sobbing against her chest.

"Oh, come on! I'm not..." I mutter, holding out my hand, flexing my fingers, a chill traveling up my spine when I realise the digits are slowly becoming translucent. "... dead?"

I leap towards my body on the cot and try to press my hands against it, but I pass straight through, until I'm crouched on the floor beneath the bed.

"No..." I say, peering down at my clenched fists, banging them silently against the floor. "No, no, no!"

I raise my head, and spot Adora sitting against the wall beside the bed. She's not She Ra any more. In fact, she looks smaller than ever, her cheeks drenched in tears, her knees clutched tightly into her chest. I crawl next to her and reach out a hand, but I can only watch, horrified, as she starts to bang the back of her head against the wall, over and over.

"Stop it!" I say, my gut wrenching. "You'll hurt yourself, idiot."

Thankfully, Perfuma rushes over there and stops her, pulling her into her arms. Adora becomes motionless within the embrace, vacantly staring through me, and past the cot. She just stays there, unblinking, barely moving, and if not for Perfuma's hand rubbing down her back, I'd think that time had stopped, somehow.

"Adora, I'm sorry. I... I didn't want this," I say, standing up and holding my hands out in front of me, spreading my fingers wide, choking back tears as they fade away to nothing. "I... I wanted to spend my whole life with you," I say, my heart aching. "I wanted us to grow old together, doing all the dumb, boring stuff that old people do."

My forearms become see-through, and I grimace, my gut twisting in cold, icy fear as the harsh reality of everything hits me. It's over...

Then I feel myself gently tugged at, pulled away from the floor until I'm floating a few inches in the air, powerless to stop the invisible force. "No, wait! Not yet!"