Kyle and the Princesses of Power

Chapter Five: Fault

Bow, in his desperate attempt to stop Kyle from jumping off the waterfall, had only lied once. He had been trying to distract him because he could tell any other attempt to stop him wasn't working. He had been checking the area with Sea Hawk, Mermista and Glimmer; having one of the latter two could have solved everything. One could have teleported him to safety, the other could have made the water harmless. All he had to stop him was words that Kyle had refused to believe.

When the blonde boy had jumped he had ran to the edge faster than he had known he could, lunging forward with hand outreached in a desperate hope to grab his hand or sleeve or anything. His desperate hand only met empty air and he was forced to watch as he fell. He didn't look scared, didn't even scream. If the discussion hadn't shown how broken the other was, if the near lifeless expression and tears, hadn't indicated that he was the furthest from okay that he could be, then the fact that he was just accepting falling to his death...

No. There had to be something Bow could do. He could take the path and pull him out the water. The fall might not have killed him! If he pulled him out the water then maybe...The current though. And with the bubbles he wouldn't be able to see him. No, no, no. His chest was tightening as he ran down the path to where the waterfall ended and he could barely see through his blurred vision. The tears weren't stopping. How much of this was because of him? If he had offered for Kyle to join the rebellion after he had given the information would he be in the position where he would have wanted to do this? Bow felt sick to his stomach but he needed to focus. There had to be something he could do.

When he reached the bottom he was about to dive into the water when Mermista and Sea Hawk finally – 'too late' his thoughts cut in bitterly – showed up.
"Bow, what are you doing?" she asked in her usual bored tone but her expression showed concern.
"Jumped. Couldn't stop him. From there. Can't...I..." Bow couldn't get a cohesive sentence out. All he could think of was him falling, voice small and so very broken. Thankfully Mermista seemed to understand vaguely what he was talking about and jumped in instead which, Bow supposed, made sense because she could breathe underwater but he felt so useless.

"-w! Bow!" He finally realised Sea Hawk had been trying to get his attention. He made a slight sound of acknowledgment but kept his gaze locked on the water, ready to do something at any moment. "What's going on?"
"He jumped...I couldn't convince him not to," Bow said vaguely. Things were spinning again but he pushed it away to the best of his abilities. This wasn't about him. Mermista hadn't resurfaced with him yet. How much longer until he drowned and there was no chance of him not being de-...Bow didn't even want to think the word. Not when a large part of his was his fault.

Mermista finally resurfaced, thankfully with Kyle...although it may not truly be a brilliant think if the first look at his appearance was right.

Kyle was completely colourless and was completely motionless. His arm and leg were twisted at an awkward ankle and Bow thought he could see some bone protruding from under his knee. His Horde issued shirt was torn in several places and blood was seeping through his clothes in several places. One issue Bow zoomed in on, heart in his throat, was how there was no visible rise and fall of Kyle's chest to give the impression of breathing.
"No, no, no..." he muttered, putting two fingers on his pulse point, hoping to whatever was out there to find something.

Nothing. No pulse. No sign of life at all.

"Bow, I know CPR," Sea Hawk said, uncharacteristically seriously, gently moving him away. Bow watched, fists clenched tightly at his side, still hoping with everything he had that Kyle would move or breathe or anything because of the two conversations he had with him and the handful of times Adora had mentioned him he was certain that he didn't deserve this. No one deserved to hate life enough to want to end it all. But Kyle...he reminded Bow of Adora. He didn't deserve to be in an environment like the Horde and it was painful that the only way Kyle had thought of leaving was through death.

Sea Hawk kept trying but it was clear he was losing hope of reviving the blonde. Then, unexpectedly, Kyle coughed violently, water expelling from his lungs. For a few seconds his brown eyes fluttered open and Bow let out a breath of relief that he hadn't realised he was holding.
"Kyle, can you stay awake?" he asked, sounding quite desperate. With the injuries it was entirely possible that if he fell asleep that he wouldn't wake up again. Clearly not. His expression was kind of vacant and within a moment his eyes were closed again. At least he could tell that he was alive.

"Now what?" Mermista asked. "If he doesn't get medical attention soon he isn't going to make it."
"We're taking him to Bright Moon," Bow stated. Mermista and Sea Hawk both looked ready to argue. "I am not leaving him here or with the Horde." Not again. How to get him there and quickly though...

There was a burst of pink sparkles and Glimmer appeared.
"There you all are!" she exclaimed. "You know we came here for a re-" Her eyes flickered between their tense positions, Bow's puffy eyes and the form on the ground. "What's going on? Why are you with a Horde soldier?!" Then she noticed the blood and swallowed, voice losing some of its hostility. "What happened?"
"He jumped, Glimmer..." Bow murmured. "I couldn't stop him...I-" He couldn't finish that train of thought. "Glimmer, we need to take him to Bright Moon for medical attention. The Horde will see this as a betrayal."
"Bow, he's a Horde soldier," she said, stressing those words. "One we've fought! We can't take him into the heart of Bright Moon!"
"So was Adora!" he retorted. "Glimmer he was so miserable there that he tried to... He... Besides, he helped us before! I told you what Kyle did for us in the Fright Zone."

Glimmer's expression softened.
"Kyle? Who risked himself telling you where I was being held?" she asked. Bow nodded, glad that he was clearly getting through to her. "Okay. We can take him. Adora said things about all of her group but he did sound the least harmless. Okay, us three will teleport. It's quite far so if I collapse you'll need to explain." Bow nodded, feeling a surge of relief as he looked back at Kyle. Thank heavens they could give him help; even in unconsciousness Kyle's brows were furrowed in a pained expression.

He made sure to have a hold on Kyle, ensuring that he was supporting his head. The last thing they needed was him hitting his head on the hard floor of the hospital wing.

One poof later and Glimmer was swaying and exhausted but awake. The hospital wing was empty except for their Healer and Bow quickly put Kyle on the nearest bed, concerned on how light the other boy was even though he and his clothes were entirely drenched. He looked like he had never had a meal, even the ration bars Adora had told them about, and seemed like a hard enough wind would knock him over.

The healer, thankfully, didn't ask any questions even about the Horde uniform. As they saw it someone was hurt and it was their job to heal them.

The healer kicked them out of the room so they could work with no distraction. Bow was going to go with Glimmer to explain to Queen Angela why there was a Horde soldier here. Then he looked down an saw from where he had been supporting Kyle some blood had gone onto his shirt. He felt sick and exchanged a look with Glimmer. She nodded in understanding and he made a beeline for this room, throwing it off pulling on the first clean one that he could grab. Then he sank onto the floor, the events of the day catching up with him all at once.

Kyle was alive but he almost hadn't been. A part of Bow told him this was his fault because he had the opportunity once to offer Kyle a better life. Instead he had used him to get what he wanted. He thought back to their discussion at the Fright Zone.

But then I thought how brave you are for wanting to save your friend. And maybe, if I helped you, you could be my friend too.

Friend. How had that not raised alarm bells for him then? Adora talked about friends – mainly Catra – but someone of a similar age and situation being desperate enough to betray the Horde and befriend a prisoner? Even if then their priority was escaping why hadn't he approached him in conflicts?

You could be my friend too.

And Kyle when finally offered friendship hadn't believed him. Maybe it was just because it was him making the offer but a crippling guilt struck Bow at the thought that him pretending to accept Kyle's friendship may have given him permanent doubts that anyone would be his friend. What had he been thinking? He was usually good with people and Kyle had given plenty of hints that life wasn't okay, that it was somehow worse than Adora's.

"This is all my fault..." he whispered to himself. "I could have stopped this ages ago..." At that moment the decision he made solidified. If Kyle let him he would do anything he could to be a good friend to him, to make things okay.

He owed him that at least.