Forever Fallen (Catra x OC She-Ra Fanfic)

15. Runestones

"What do you mean?", Catra's voice snapped Harley out of her glazed trance.

Harley didn't have any thoughts. Her mind was empty and every time she tried to think of something-- one thing-- it quickly faded away like an old, forgotten memory lost to time. The girl met Catra's tourmaline and amber eyes, only to sigh dejectedly and take another step towards her, offering her bleeding palm out to her.

"You and Lonnie were right, I was wrong." Harley hummed, uncurling her fingers from the face of the violet gemstone, glinting blue in the artificial light. "There's something wrong with me."

"'Wrong with you'?" Catra pressed her, closing the distance between them and snatching the runestone from her hand with more force than was necessary.

Harley gasped and collapsed onto Catra, the cumbersome weight of her bones becoming unbearable without the support of the electricity that thrummed through her. The force captain's strong arms coiled around Harley's shoulders and held her upright against her as Harley's head lolled into the crook of Catra's neck, the girl's eyes falling shut heavily like lead weights.

"Harley, what happened?! Talk to me, damnit!", Catra gingerly propped her against the cold, hard, metallic floor of the control centre and slapped Harley, her claws dragging a shallow line along her cheekbone like hewn stone.

The girl's eyes flung open and she lurched to the side, hissing in pain as her body ached and throbbed as if she had overexerted herself and now she was paying the toll in dull agony. Harley felt empty as darkness encircled her, the only light to her darkness being Catra's vibrant two-toned eyes. Groaning, Harley brought her knees to her chest and curled up into a ball on her side.

"I got your tech," Harley growled, gesturing to the glimmering pearl trapped in the cage of Catra's hand, "I don't remember much else, Kitten..."

She squeezed her eyes together again, darkness swallowing her whole and she felt the pressure of Catra's body against hers snatched away with the same viciousness as the runestone that was seized from her fingertips. She felt cold. Alone. Numb. Lost in the endless, perpetual void again.

Her throat closed up, her insides burning like wildfire and her breathing coming strained and shallow. She heard a voice screaming but it was drowned out as if she was listening to it from underwater.

That's where she was.

Under the bridge, in the river. She felt the sharp pain in her legs again, followed by the howling sting in her gut and chest. Harley couldn't open her eyes, the pressure was too much against her weak skin. In the void, she saw the crystal, slotted neatly into a silver crown, brittle and dull, surrounded by rubble, dirt and moss. It was buried beneath something, but she didn't know what, the thud of flooding water hitting her in the lungs again.

Something clamped around her wrists and ankles, tearing her apart from the rest of herself and she wailed, thrashing violently against the heavy sea that slowed her movements significantly. She was alone again, trapped underwater.

They're gone.

She was the reason.

Harley screamed again, like the roar of a dying lion, and her eyes cracked open in desperation, her vision hazed by the water, warped and twisted out of shape. It was so bright, like blinding white lights that shunned away the endless, perpetual void but were just as empty and barren. It was only going to steal her breath and walk away.

'Let the ocean take me...' She thought, but it was washed away against the shore, just like the rest. 'Please don't drown with me...'

"Harley!" broke through the warbled rush of water and the braces that were spiraled around her fell away like broken chains.

She wasn't floating in the ocean anymore, there was something beneath her.