She-Ra And The Nightmare Warrior (English)

Chapter 7: Roads Untraveled (Part 2) (Final)

  "What's she doing here!? It's dangerous to have her roaming around, why did you let her out?!"

  Everybody was quiet, unable to react or even figure out what to say. Laurel, on her part, felt emotionally unavailable to reply; she wished not to fight anymore; she had no more strength.

  Archie, bothered by the lack of response, was about to go straight at Laurel, but Eira grabbed him by the arm, stopping him on his tracks, under the astonished gaze of the group, especially Laurel, who felt happy of seeing her at long last, even if she couldn't talk to her just yet.

  "Brother, calm down."

  "How can I calm down, when the person that destroyed our planet is free?!"

  "She didn't do it on her own, I helped her, so some of the blame should be on me" she replied, facing him. "If our planet was destroyed, it's because we thought that following the plan, despite the risk, would have been the right thing to do, but it wasn't..."

  "She manipulated you, she manipulated all of us!" Archie gave Laurel murderous eyes, but she said nothing at all, just looked at him.

  "No, if I helped was because I truly believed this was the best course of action, and those kids were our enemies." She said, referencing the friend squad. "The plan was to deal with them, and try not to destroy our planet, or leave to chance their intentions and risk another invasion" Eira tried to speak calmly, but Archie wouldn't give in so easily, not after what happened, "At least we managed to save everybody..."

  "What about the animals?" he asked, losing his patience, "Eira we lost everything! Our family, our home, and our planet... And all because of her!" Archie felt filled with sadness and rancor.

  Laurel, upon listening to the last bit, moved her face to the side; she couldn't help but feel guilty, because she knew the young man spoke the truth, or at least, she too felt like everything was her fault.

  "¡Our planet was dying already, Archie! Why do you think the animals and plants were so scarce? Why do you think the weather was completely inconsistent? I sacrificed years of my life sleeping so I wouldn't exhaust its magic" Archie was speechless, "And if I was in that state, it's because we couldn't defeat Horde Prime by ourselves and we needed Laurel to do so, and because we weren't ready," she remarked in tears, "We all had to sacrifice what we loved to protect our home, we did what we had to and sadly we messed up, but now we got a second chance." Eira spoke calmer now, then she placed her hands on her brother's shoulders; the latter had his eyes fixated on the floor and his hands closed in a fist, but deep down, he understood, "We all have a second chance..."

  Eira side-eyed at Laurel with a subtle smile, making the other girl feel a bit comforted.

  Archie said nothing at first, creating certain tension in the atmosphere. Eira knew her brother could be stubborn, but she hoped this time he'll see-through. The Prince quietly moved forward to hug his sister, making her smile.

  "Let's try not to mess up this time" pleaded Archie in a whisper.

  "We won't..."

  The serene hug of the siblings was broken with the sound of sobbing, it came from Bow who had listened to the argument and, alerted, he had drowsily walked over the room.

  "Bow! You should be sleeping..." started Glimmer, but the boy ignored her and went straight to Eira and Archie, to hug them.

  "Guys, don't ever fight again" he begged.

  As this scene played out and taking advantage of the diverted attention, Laurel abandoned the room; while she wanted to talk to Eira, she knew right now wasn't the time, so she chose to take some time for herself, to think about everything she now knew about Mara, and of what her future might become.