Glimmer stared at the door in front of her, hands clenched into fists. She wasn’t— She had feelings about this whole situation, but— caring for the enemy when she wasn’t exactly the enemy— She hated needing to rely on Catra, for even beginning to like her, but fuck it was hard to think about Catra and keep herself from breaking down right now.
Last night, Catra had stumbled back into the glorified cells Horde Prime had dumped them in, shaky and limping and covered in blood. Glimmer had only caughted the barest glimpse of her, sleep-bleary because she’d been trying to rest. (It hadn’t worked very well. Knowing that Horde Prime had taken her cellmate—and the only person even resembling an ally she had—and was probably torturing her led to bad dreams at best.) Her fur had been matted, her eyes bruised and swollen, and her tail dragging on the ground.
Glimmer had only had enough time to say, “Catra?” before Catra had snarled and shut herself away in the other tiny bedroom.
Sleep hadn’t come any easier after that. Glimmer had spent more time lying on the scant mattress staring up at the dimly red-lit ceiling and wondering what had happened to Catra than anything else. They’d both been taken before, but it had never— Horde Prime smiled politely at them, asked them questions, and ran electricity through them if he didn’t like the answers. Maybe a guard threw a punch or two. Nothing like— Catra had been tortured. What had Horde Prime wanted that she hadn’t told him?
Glimmer didn’t know, but the question had rattled around in her head and woven into what uneasy dreams she’d had. Now it was what passed for morning, and Glimmer was stuck staring at a shut door that wasn’t even locked. (There weren’t locks. They’d had a shouting match about that, the first night.) She could just go in, if she wanted to. (She wasn’t sure she wanted to.) She could ask Catra about what had happened. She might even get an answer that wasn’t just “Fuck off”.
The door to their cell clanged open, just a little, and Glimmer turned to face it with a scowl. A guard—another low-class Horde Prime clone; everyone on this awful ship was, except for them, as best she could tell—stared at her with his blank-masked face, held out his arms, and let a tray full of nutrient cubes clatter to the floor. “Breakfast,” he said, as if that was necessary.
Glimmer didn’t give him the satisfaction of a response, just kept glaring as he retreated. Once the door slid shut again, she went and picked up the tray. At least this would give her an excuse. She replaced all the cubes on it, set the twin water bottles in the middle, and went to knock on the door to Catra’s room. “Breakfast time,” she called through, trying not to sound as anxious as she was.
Catra’s response, such as it was, sounded more like an inarticulate growl than anything resembling a word. Glimmer thought about it, shrugged, and then opened the door anyway. Catra’s dislike of being woken up in the mornings was normal. Catra’s dislike of being seen while hurt was normal. Catra’s desire for food usually outweighed both of those, but if she was hurt enough Glimmer was pretty sure she’d avoid doing anything anyway.
The first thing Glimmer noticed was that the lights in Catra’s room were still sleep-dim. The second thing was that Catra was curled up into a very small knot in the middle of her bed, covered by the single thin blanket Horde Prime had provided. The third thing was that there were bloodstains on the floor and blanket both, black in the red light. Glimmer swore, and knelt down next to Catra. “Can you eat?” she asked, and at the golden glare Catra gave her, backed up a little and said, “I figured you didn’t want help cleaning off.”
“I don’t.” Catra’s voice was raspy, but in a way that sounded more like dehydration than anything else. “Shut up and give me the food.”
“Water first,” Glimmer said. She sat cross-legged and settled the tray on her lap before unscrewing the lid of one of the bottles.
Catra sat up as she offered the water. The blanket fell off her shoulders, revealing another set of bruises. When she realised Glimmer was staring, Catra hissed and tugged it back around her with a wince. “It’s fine, Sparkles. I can deal.”
“Just because you can deal doesn’t mean it’s fine,” Glimmer said, far more softly than she’d intended. She hesitated, then said, “I don’t— Healing magic isn’t something I’m very good at, but I think I can ease the bruising at least. If you’ll let me.”
Catra snatched a nutrient cube off the tray and shoved it in her mouth. Her eyes seemed shiny, but Glimmer couldn’t tell if that was because of pain or something else. But she was chewing alright, and Glimmer didn’t want to press. Instead, she picked up her own nutrient cube and started eating it. This one tasted like nuts, mostly, which was one of the better flavors, such as they were. Some of them—the ones Catra liked best—were like jerked meat. A few managed to taste like vegetables.
Mostly, Glimmer wished they got real food, or something that tasted like fruit. She missed sweet things. But they weren’t going hungry, and whatever had happened to Catra last night had been the worst of it so far, so… it wasn’t as bad as she’d feared, when they’d first appeared on Horde Prime’s ship.
Catra ate another few cubes, chewing grimly and staying very still otherwise, before she finally said, “Okay.”
“What?” Glimmer looked up from the nearly-empty tray. She’d been trying to guess what the flavors of the rest of the cubes were; they didn’t look different to her, but there had to be some kind of tell.
Catra sighed. “Okay, you can try and heal me.”
Glimmer smiled, and almost leaned forward to hug Catra before realising how much that would hurt and also that Catra might claw her in response. “Okay! Um.” Glimmer bit her lip and moved the tray off her lap. “I need to draw some circles.”
“With what?” Catra asked. She flicked her ears back. “Can’t help but notice that Horde Prime hasn’t left us anything useful here.”
“Um.” Glimmer glanced at the dried blood, winced, and glanced back. “Water? I think it’ll work.”
“Huh. Okay. Do I need to do anything?”
Glimmer looked at where Catra sat in comparison to the room. “So long as you’re okay with me dragging your bed to the center of the room? I think you can just stay there.”
“Be gentle,” Catra said, and laid back down.
Glimmer swallowed. She— hadn’t been expecting that, really. “Okay,” she whispered, because she couldn’t get anything more out past the lump in her throat. She stood up, and took careful hold of the mattress near Catra’s head. “I’m gonna move you now.”
Catra didn’t respond, but Glimmer started pulling anyway. Catra was— It was way easier than she expected. Catra moved like she owned every space she was in, and in a fight she managed to be everywhere at once. Glimmer forgot how small she was when she stopped moving, how little space she actually needed to take up. But right now, when Catra was wrapped so tightly into herself, and Glimmer was moving the mattress more easily than a lot of furniture in her room, it was hard to avoid noticing. Her chest felt tight again, as she let go and said, “Now for some circles.”
This was the easy part, as these things went. Carefully, Glimmer dipped her fingers into some water, and then traced a series of interlocked circles onto the floor. Mostly, they didn’t overlap with the blood. When they did, though, Glimmer felt the spark of power it added, and tried not to think about that too hard. She didn’t want to use blood magic, but if she had to— using her friend’s already-spilled blood (Was that what Catra was? Was that what the tightness in her chest meant?) to heal her friend’s injuries was about the best circumstance she could get.
When she finished, Glimmer knelt next to Catra and said, “I need to touch you.”
Catra grumbled, but stuck a hand out from under the blanket. When Glimmer took it, Catra said, “Oh. You’re— warm.”
“I’m glad?” Glimmer squeezed Catra’s hand gently. “This shouldn’t hurt. Or, well, it shouldn’t hurt more than anything already in your body.”
Catra grunted. Glimmer took that for assent, closed her eyes, and felt for the magic inside of her. It was faded, this far from Etheria, but it was still there, a softly glowing place full of potential. She touched it, and felt for the circles she’d drawn as anchors for the spell she wanted to cast. They were in her mind, pink with spots of darker red, and as soon as she touched them they burst into full glow. The power rushed through her, and she let it flow, channeling it towards Catra.
When it reached Catra, Glimmer gasped. Not just because of the sudden clarity of how much Catra was hurt—though it was a lot, and without thinking about it at all Glimmer let more of her own energy flow in too, strengthening the spell as much as she dared—but because of the diamond center of Catra’s soul. It might be hard, but it was beautiful and shone as Glimmer let her energy speed the healing of all her wounds.
The energy of the circles faded, and the spell ended. Glimmer didn’t let go of Catra’s hand. She didn’t want to.
More surprisingly, Catra didn’t pull away either, just uncurled and stared at Glimmer, eyes wide and shining with what was definitely tears. Her fingers tightened on Glimmer’s, tugging forward. Glimmer followed the tug, surprised and uncertain, and then Catra was wrapped around her so tight she couldn’t move from the strength of the hug.
Glimmer managed to get her arm around Catra too, hugging back as much as she dared and not commenting on the way her shoulder was dampening from Catra’s tears. Gently, she pressed a kiss to Catra’s forehead and whispered, “We’ve got to take care of each other.”
Catra laughed, and even as tear-broken as it was, it was the sweetest sound Glimmer had heard since they’d arrived here. “Yeah. I guess we do.” She swallowed, and then tucked her head back into Glimmer’s shoulder. Her voice was so muffled that when she whispered, “Thanks,” Glimmer barely heard the word.
But she did, and she just hugged Catra a little tighter in response. They’d come out of this okay in the end if they worked together.
They had to.