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Whispers. Whispers of saints, of soldiers, of angels. The mutters of darlings and demons, murmurs of ghosts and those lost. Mara was swimming in them, these voices of the hundreds of people who needed her, calling her. The echoes resonated, almost as loud as her pounding heart.
Heart. Her heart wasn’t the one that mattered. The real heart, the Heart of Etheria, did. The one that could destroy everyone’s heartbeat, not just her own.
Not only heartbeats. There were other things that had life but no heart, or at least, not a physical one. But their love was still real and true, and these would be destroyed as well.
Light Hope had always said she looked a bit like a star, eyes twinkling brightly under the grand expanse of the sky.
But sooner or later, all stars die. Someone viewing a nightscape with billions of little lights never misses one if it disappears, but if the entire sky went out? Devastation. Stars were something that Mara clung to, their eternal shine offering her faraway comfort. And the stars that were people? They offered so much more than a luster of shimmering promises.
No. She would protect them, no matter what.
Light Hope once told her that everyone is made of stardust. Mara had laughed, unable to believe that the glittering orbs above them made up the human race, with their plain and non-shimmering skin. Now she could see the stardust in everyone. Every single person shone, if not literally. Even more, stars are distant, people are real. People are brighter than any star.
But not only people. Light Hope was brighter than all of them. Stardust created all things, not just humans. The entire world was stardust, and Hope had gotten an unfair amount. Every room seemed to sparkle that she was in.
When they had been talking about stardust, Mara had joked that she demanded they all should have sparkling skin and glowing eyes if they were truly children of the stars. Hope had reminded her that she actually did have all of these as She-ra.
She-ra.
With an enraged yell, Mara dragged herself out of her thoughts, hauling her sword once more against the spaceship side.
“Mara? Are you alright?”
Mara spun, and the sight of Light Hope sent new tears spilling over her cheeks.
“Oh Hope…” She took a step forward, reaching out only to bring her hands to her chest. Emotions conflicted, a whirlwind in her that she almost couldn’t bear to face.
But she needed the truth.
“Did you know?” Mara whispered.
Light Hope’s expression changed almost imperceptibly by regret. Mara had learned how to read her small shifts in expression. After all, she knew Light Hope better than anyone.
Or at least she thought.
“You knew. ” Bitterness coated her accusation, hurled with all her pain. Of course Light Hope knew. She was their machine after all.
But… so was She-ra.
They were both guilty of crimes, crimes they couldn’t entirely control. And yet, Mara wished that Hope tried to make her own choices a little harder.
“Mara…” This time it was Light Hope who reached, and Mara stumbled back. “I… tried.” Her voice glitched, and fear gripped Mara’s chest. Light Hope couldn’t be controlled, not now , when there were so many things unsaid between them.
“Fight it, Hope.”
“My Mara…” Lighthope flickered, as did Mara’s heart at the “my.” Tears were coming again.
“T-there’s a place.”
“A place?” She leaned forward, breathing stopped as she realized what Hope was trying to do.
“Come on Hope, I believe in you.”
“A d-dimension. Despondos.” Light Hope was fading, glitching almost in half. A choked sound of emotion caught in Mara’s throat. “Th-they can’t g-ge-get you t-there.”
“Hope…” She held out her hand, palm up. Something familiar and sweet filled Lighthope’s face as she brought her fast fading hand up to meet it. Their palms met, and though it was unable to be felt physically, she certainly felt it in her heart. Mara sobbed, eyes meeting her Hope’s.
“Thank you Mara. For being m-my f-f-” She had almost faded completely. “Friend.” With that word, she had one final twist, and disappeared entirely.
Mara screamed, reached for where Hope had been, where her last stand as herself had happened.
She would be preprogrammed. Changed entirely. To someone who didn’t love her.
Someone Mara didn’t love.
Mara allowed herself a moment to curl in on herself, for a fraction of her pain to be felt. Why couldn’t she say anything? There were so many things that had to be said. How much she cared.
After Light Hope’s stand, she would have to be fast. They would be after her any moment.
Picking up her sword, she dragged it along, forcing herself to focus on the word that was more important, not the name of her love ricocheting around her mind.
Despondos.
***
“You’re not Light Hope.” Tears were falling, fast and furious, as her love stood behind her, there but not truly there.
“I am the same basic operating system.” The words tore at Mara’s heart, even though she already knew this would happen.
“You’re aren’t her. ” She shouted, anger and hurt building up inside of her. What she’d give for the real Light Hope to be beside her right now. It was a wish that would never come true. “And you don’t get to tell me what my destiny is.”
Sliding her fingers across the board, the hologram flickered away… for good. Another shock of grief built up in her, as she stopped to look at where Light Hope had once been. The woman who had given her fields of flowers and galaxies, oceans and deserts, icelands and many more places she would never be able to see. Who had been besides her when no one else had, caring and calming. Who had fought her programing every day to make her happy.
Hope had done so much for Mara, and now Mara had to pay it forward.
The next few minutes were both a blur and the slowest of her life. She knew she was fading as she tried to explain it all. To Adora, the future. There was no way she could survive this. She was the star after all. The star that would keep the night sky alive.
Light Hope was a star as well. One that had been snuffed, it’s light filled with darkness.
They were both stars, made of the same stardust, destined for the same fate.
As Mara and the ship met the atmosphere and began to burn, she noticed one thing before she was truly fading to black.
There were no stars in Despondos.