Song: In this shirt
by the irrepressibles
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Rogelio's POV
The pain hits me in the form of anger rather than sadness. Once the door shuts behind me I'm convinced it isn't real, that none of it has really happened and that I'll wake up from this twisted dream with nothing but a miniscule case of shivers.
Of course, I don't wake up, and the realisation that Kyle has been separated from me settles in. A surge of hatred for myself runs through me and I punch the wall with a glare on my face.
How could I have been so stupid? Why didn't I fight harder?
My head feels like it's splitting in half again and I let a tear fall down my cheek. I haven't cried since I was a child, but this moment seems fitting. I've lost my world, my everything, and all because I was too weak to fight.
It's ironic. Me, a soldier, scared of fighting after years of rest in love with a soldier who hasn't stopped fighting wars inside his head for years.
I'm too agitated to sit down, so instead I take large but quick steps around the cell, my tail feeling abnormally heavy and my teeth suddenly too sharp. Is this what it's like to be Kyle? Paying attention to so much details that everything slowly becomes painful?
A scratch coming from the ceiling makes me turn around. The spin makes my head go into frenzy but I manage to stand still. More scratching noises come and I realise they're in the vents. Have the princesses come to rescue us?
After being here for a while I forgot that was a possibility.
"Kyle? Rogelio?"
The voice is instantly familiar.
'Catra?'
Soon enough I can see her behind the silver grill of the vent, smiling down at me. I feel relieved that it was her who came for me, since she can understand every word I say almost as well as Lonnie can.
"Where's Kyle? What's wrong?"
Adora crawls up beside Catra and frowns down at me. I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand and look back to where the door would be.
'She has him.'
They share a look and Catra shakes her head.
"How many times do we have to come back here?"
She grumbles. Adora shoves her lightly and gestures towards the grill, which she slices open in an instant. The sound of the metal barrier crashing to the floor fills my ears but nobody comes to check in on me.
'I can't leave without him.'
I growl, backing away towards the door. Adora wears a pitied look, but she shakes her head anyways. My heart drops.
They obviously spent lot of time planning our rescue, and risked a lot sneaking in here, but am I willing to throw all of that away?
What will happen to Kyle if he comes back and I'm gone?
"Rogelio, come on! We'll have to rescue Kyle when we rescue the sword."
Catra hisses. They both stick their arms out in unison and I'm torn for what to do, my head turning from the wall to the vent a couple of times before I'm interrupted by the sound of footsteps outside the cell. Adora gasps and waves her hand at me so I have no choice but to do it.
I have to leave.
I quickly slide a bedframe to the wall and stand on top of it, the vent now right in front of me. The wall starts to slide and I grip into Catra and Adora's hands, thanking them when they pull me up into the metal chute. My heart feels way too heavy.
The two girls start crawling but I look over my shoulder instead.
Kyle falls into the room and I open my mouth to call to him, but then I see the large sword he's dragging behind him. Astra peeks in and gasps up at the vent.
"Rogelio, go! Quickly!"
Kyle shouts, louder than I've ever heard him shout before. I start crawling and try to ignore the angry words tumbling from Astra's mouth.
"We're nearly there, come on!"
Catra says. We keep crawling.
I just left Kyle alone. I just left Kyle in there, alone. What sort of monster am I? He doesn't deserve this-
"Up here!"
Adora says, standing up and sliding a metal slate above her head open. She crawls out and so does Catra, eventually followed my me. I roll out onto the roof of the ship and suck in fresh, sharp breaths. The sky is dark, throwing me off, but the air is cool and refreshing.
'Kyle. I have to go back for Kyle.'
I growl. Catra shakes her head and waves for me to follow her and Adora. Glimmer smiles at me from where she stands waiting, but her expression drops when she catches my expression. Before I can stop it, I'm crying again.
"No... please tell me we don't have to go back in there again..."
Glimmer pants, extending her arm to us. We all place a hand on hers and within seconds we're back at Bright Moon.
Even though the other princesses are there, I don't care. I fall to one of the chairs in the huge room we're in and rest my face in my hands, letting the tears flow down my palms and trickle onto my arms.
Adora shakes her head so nobody questions me. Instead they all start to plan their third rescue mission for Kyle.
"Rogelio?"
I turn to see Lonnie sitting next to me. I smile at her and roughly get rid of the tears with my hand. She smiles at me and hugs me from the side.
"I decided to help out. I can't hide forever... and if Kyle can do it-"
We both laugh but then I'm hit with another wave of guilt. Lonnie pats my knee with a pitying expression.
"Was she treating you okay? You look like you havent slept for days."
I nod and smile as Imp crawls onto my foot. Lonnie groans and scoops him into her arms.
'I can't believe I just left him in there. It was so selfish.'
I grumble quietly. Lonnie sighs and shakes her head.
"I can't believe I didn't come to help sooner, I mean I didn't even check on you guys once. That's selfish. But you?"
She wipes a tear from my scaly skin and smiles at me.
"Nah, you're not selfish. You never were."
Imp repeats her words back to me and we both laugh. I try not to think about Kyle in there. I try not to think about what could be happening to him, because of me. Why did I go? Why did I leave?
The other princesses are still conferring and talking about plans, but Scorpia comes over to us and pats my shoulder with one of her claws.
"I'm sorry we couldn't get him out of there. We're all staying here tonight, to make sure we get enough planning in as possible. We'd like you to stay too."
She says with a smile. I nod and Lonnie just folds her arms, setting up a tough exterior as though she wasn't just comforting me.
"We think it's only fair that you get some rest, though. We plan, you sleep."
I open my mouth to argue but Scorpia stops me with a shake of her head. She nods over at Glimmer and then steers me out into the corridor, towards the room I stayed in last time.
"Seriously, try and get some sleep. This is going to be a long session, and you've barely closed your eyes by the looks of it."
I nod and try my best to smile when Scorpia closes the door behind her.
The bed is soft and unbelievably large, which only makes me feel more alone. Kyle is suppose to be next to me, but he isn't. Instead he's stuck with Astra and whatever that sword thing was. Is she hurting him? Did I hurt him? He called for me to go...
I can't fight off sleep for long, but the moment I close my eyes, all I can see his him.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
I hope that was a good read! I know it's a bit of a sad chapter but It's necessary!!
-Rose 💗