Awake
Hordak was in and out of consciousness. Seeing figures on him, but not being able to recognize their features. Bright lights shone on his face and then suddenly back into darkness. Voices he couldn’t hear the words to. So much was happening, but couldn't be able to process anything.
Finally, he could hear beeping.
Hordak groaned, opening his eyes slowly, adjusting to the dim room that he figured to be in a make shift hospital room. His eyes scanned the room and turned to see someone in a chair, laying their upper body on him. He took a look towards himself to see that he was filled with tubes and was in a gown. Hordaks’ attention returned to the person on him and noticed her purple hair he came to love. He tried to speak, but at first only small croaks could come out.
“En…trap…ta….”, Hordak finally choked out. Entrapta snapped herself awake, bloodshot eyes looking into his. Immediately she started crying as she maneuvered herself on him, wrapping herself on him without much pressure, and whispered, "You're finally awake. You're alive." It sounded more that she was telling it herself than telling Hordak. He didn't focus on that as he heard how hoarse her voice sounded and the amount of bags under her eyes told him that she hadn't been sleeping well. Although he might understand if he knew how much time he was out.
Hordak moved his arms slowly and hugged her, feeling like it was their first skin contact in ages. "Entrap...ta...", he said again, trying to speak more, but was stopped as she looked up to him. "Hey no need to talk, you're still recovering. I'll get you some water.", She said as she jumped off, energy seeming to burst out, and ran to get water for Hordak.
He reached out for her, scared to be alone, but only could sigh as he watched the last of her go through the door. Hordak look back to himself and scanned where tubes entered and exited from his body. He looked out the small room and could tell that there were others in too looking from the drinks and blankets behind. Questions started to form as he tried to remember the last thing he did, but every time Hordak tried to remember, a sharp pain in his head caused him to stop and groan. Not only that, he could feel the aches in his body starting to grow again.
Hordak closed his eyes, trying to calm his mind, remembering that Entrapta will come back soon. On cue, his ears perked at the sound footsteps rushing towards his room, except it wasn't Entrapta. Adora and Catra came inside, almost stumbling over each other trying to stop their momentum, and breaths hitching when seeing that he was awake. Hordak opened his mouth, about to say something, but was interrupted by two yelling out his name and running towards him.
He was puzzled when they almost threw themselves on top of him, hugging him and saying things like "You had us so worried!", "How dare you pass out on me!", and "You're awake!" Hordak felt a burst of emotion in his chest as he tried his best to hug the two, croaking out, "Cat...ra...Ador...a..."
They looked up to him, tears leaking out of tired looking eyes, but bright shining smiles when hearing him call their names. Hordak slowly smiled at them as he hesitantly wiped their tears away, scared to scratch them. He looked up when hearing the soft padding of Entraptas' hair walking and saw her with a cup of water and a jug supposedly filled with water as well, smiling at the scene in front of her and tears still streaming down her face. She wiped them away with her hair and said, "Don't hug him too hard. He's still in a lot of pain killers, but that doesn't mean that he won't feel it later."
"Oh right! Catra come on", Adora said, a sheepish smile starting to form and got off him, but Catra ignored her as she continued to hug Hordak. "Catra...", Adora warned. "He's awake and I haven't had the chance to bond with him like you guys", Catra pouted and loosened her grip, but continued to hug him. "It.... is... alright...", Hordak said as he put a gentle on to the smaller figure, knowing that his past self would be surprised on how much he's starting to care for the one he wanted to get rid of.
Catra grinned as she stuck out her tongue to Adora who just rolled her eyes but laughed. Entrapta let out a small laugh as she got close to the two and said, "Here you go Sunshine." Hordak smiled as he held the water and slowly drank it, feeling the water clear his throat more. He sighed in relief and gave back the empty cup to her, thanking her with more strengthen smile.
"Now... can I ask.... what happened... to me?", Hordak questioned. The atmosphere seemed to dim as the three others looked at each other, but Entrapta took up the task to explain with a sad sigh. She sat on one side of the bed and Adora followed on the other side as Catra made herself comfortable next to Hordak.
Entrapta began, "Due to stress on both your mind and body, you basically had a full on shut down and passed out in the court. It turned out that the amount of stress affected your hearts and caused one of them to cease, causing your body to collapse with only one heart working to keep your body up and running."
Hordak frowned as he moved one hand over where one of his hearts where and realized that his chest did ache earlier when he awoke. He didn't say anything as Entrapta continued. "When we had your heart pumping again, the other gave out due to the amount of work it had to do by itself. It kept on going like that for two hours before they both began to work at the same time."
Entrapta held his hand, which he gladly held on to back, and sighed, "With the amount of work to get your hearts beating, your body was going through rough stages with out proper circulation. So many parts of your body were failing and we had to get so much into you just to stabilize your body." Finally she looked up to him with tears in her eyes.
"Hordak you were dead for at least twenty minutes three times in only a week."
Hordaks' breath hitched as he felt his hold on her shaken. He looked at himself, mind racing at her words. "I.... died?", Hordak asked in disbelief. He felt the other two hold to him as Entrapta nodded to his question, face filled with worry if she said too much too soon.
Hordak could feels his breathes quicken and forced himself to close his eyes. He could hear the heart monitors nearby start picking up. A ringing started to ring. He could hear the others try to call out to him. Why was he feeling like this? There were so many different times that he was ready to die, yet hearing that he did? He could hear cackling- was that horde prime cackling? Laughing on how weak he was about the prospect of death? Was he worthy to live if he was so scared? Why does that knowledge terrify him? Why is he so wea-
"Hordak!"
His eyes snapped up. He felt tears streaming down his face, but they were stopped by the hands the were on either side of his face. Entrapta was staring straight at him, a worried but determined look, as she repeated with a softer voice, "Hordak, stay with me."
Hordak could just only let his mouth gape, gasping for air as he reached up and held the hands that were holding him together. Entraptas' face soften as she wiped the tears with her thumbs and repeated, "Stay with me Hordak. Take deep slow breaths." Hordak slowly started to regain his senses and followed her instructions, focusing only on her as she continued to instruct him on how to control himself.
He was still shaking when he got into a steady rhythm on his breathing, but when Entrapta saw that he could get a hold of himself, she smiled, saying, "You're okay now Hordak. You're safe here with us. We're not gonna let you go away again any time soon." Hordaks' gaze went away from her and to the two others who looked at him worriedly, but smiled when he looked at him.
Catra softly punched him on his shoulder and said, "We both got to pay back each other, so I'm gonna make sure that you're not going any where."
Adora put a hand on his other shoulder and said, "We have a lot to talk about and I don't want to miss out on that chance."
Hordak could feel his tears slowly come to a stop and gave them a tired, but warm smile. Entrapta smiled at his expression and said, "That took a lot out of you. You want to take another rest?"
Hordak hummed, "I.... would appreciate... it..."
Entrapta nodded and looked towards the others, nodding along to her unspoken instructions as they got off of his bed and Entrapta followed, still having a hold on to Hordak as he himself slipping back into unconsciousness. Although he could feel himself give into the tiredness, he held on to Entrapta, requesting, "Please... do not... leave me..."
Entrapta looked a bit suprised, but smiled and brought his hand up to her mouth and said, "I'll be here with you, Hordak. I'll be here when you wake up."
Hordak smiled and looked at the the other two who not needed his words and only nodded, understanding that he would want to see them when he awoke too.
He looked at Entrapta before drifting off to sleep and whispered, "Good night starlight."