The memory of eleven years ago felt as raw as ever.
Cold droplets driven by an unseen mournful wind seemed to be the only tangible presence Rod and Catra could truly feel when staring at Elena's grave.
Though Rod's conscious mind registered the silent expanse of the graveyard as a memory, every agonizing detail felt nothing but viscerally real.
Behind them stood Alex Anderson, her usual confident demeanor subdued as her shoulders slightly stooped. She was Rod's boss and the formidable head leader of Grand North's government.
Yet, in that moment, she was simply a friend showing a profound respect for the hero's immeasurable loss.
The simple gravestone before them bore only a few words:
"Elena Claws, 2028 - 2140, rest in peace".
Rod's eyes were unblinking as raindrops streamed down his face and traced paths across his now wet black suit. The expensive fabric clung to his broad shoulders with a heavy weight that mirrored the unbearable burden in his soul.
The words, the grief, the sheer reality of it stripped him of all ability to speak or move. To even truly breathe.
Beside him stood Catra. She was too young to fully comprehend the finality of death, but an instinct screamed a single truth: she would not be able to see her beloved mother again. Not truly. Not in the way she remembered.
"Daddy… is mommy not gonna be able to come to the park with us?"
She turned her head, her wide and innocent light brown eyes already glistening with unshed tears while searching her father's tormented face for an answer. For reassurance.
Rod's breath hitched as that simple question ripped through the haze of his own profound shock.
In the overwhelming sorrow, he had almost forgotten she was there, but looking at that distraught face twisted the knife deeper in his already shattered heart.
He stared at his daughter for a few excruciating seconds while feeling the fragile mask of his own neutral expression begin to crack, threatening to shatter completely at any moment.
"No, kiddo… but I promise you something..."
He forced himself to lean down and reached out his hand, gently wiping a few tears from her soft cheeks.
"In the future… far into the future, we will all be able to go there… together as a family."
When they finally arrived home, the familiar comfort of their house felt like a hollow mockery.
Rod closed the front door behind them as the soft click became a lonely echo in the sudden silence. Then, Catra walked away without a word towards the kitchen like a solitary figure consumed by a child's quiet grief.
He yearned to cheer her up and to bring back that light in her eyes, but his mind offered no solutions nor comforting words.
Before even formulating a question, the girl's small voice broke the silence.
"Gonna eat a little, daddy…"
"Okay. You gonna be alright, kiddo?"
"Yeah… gotta wait for mommy somehow," she murmured as new fresh tears slipped down her innocent cheeks.
While her small figure turned right, Rod simply looked down.
The dark hole in his heart stretched wider and deeper, consuming him. It was as if the very air had been sucked from the room, leaving him breathless.
He needed to escape before the brittle shell of his composure shattered completely.
Though, before his legs could carry him away, his gaze snapped to Catra's retreating figure and caught a final glimpse of her small form when disappearing from his view.
"I'm so sorry, kid…"
A full day bled into night, marked only by the quiet sound of Catra's heartbroken sobs echoing from the kitchen. Stars had descended into the sky when her small body finally moved.
She pushed herself up from the kitchen floor, scanning the dim contours of the house as she began a slow search for her father.
"Daddy?" she whispered while shuffling through the quiet hallways of the first floor.
The girl lingered there for a few minutes before her feet finally carried her upstairs, stopping in front of her father's bedroom door.
"Daddy?" she asked again and slowly pushed open the wooden door.
After her gaze finally pierced the dimness of the room, her breath hitched.
She found her father slumped in his office chair with his back to her. It seemed the man was staring intently at something she couldn't quite discern.
Slowly, Catra moved closer as her father was lost in his own world of sorrow.
And when she drew nearer, a broken sound reached her ears. It was a guttural whimper, as if he were crying silently. It all culminated with her small face changing into a mask of shock.
He was looking at it. The photograph. The one Elena had taken on their graduation day. And his tears were falling one by one, staining the cherished image.
Catra had never witnessed her father like this. Broken, vulnerable, utterly consumed by despair. And seeing it, broke something fundamental within her.
"DADDY, PLEASE DON'T CRY!" she shouted with a desperate whimper as tears erupted from her own eyes.
Rod's head snapped up before his grief infused gaze met hers. He tried to move, to rise from his chair, to go to her, but his body slipped. He fell from his office chair as Catra watched in wide-eyed horror.
Before even processing the impact, the little girl launched herself forward.
She ran as fast as her small legs could carry. And just as her father looked up, Catra swung her small arms around him as tight as possible, pulling closer.
It felt like an eternity for both of them, a timeless space suspended between grief and desperate love. But in those brief moments, something profound shifted. Everything changed.
Back in the harrowing present, the echoes of that memory still repeated inside the camping tent.
Rod's gaze was fixed on that same graduation photograph, now clutched in his hand. He slowly lifted his view to his daughter's sleeping form in the nearby sleeping bag before closing the tent door behind him with a heavy sigh.
It was time to sleep. Time to return to his relentless nightmare.