"Hey Adora..."

The feline grinned, exposing her two little fangs that glistened in the artificial light of the arena. Her heterochromatic eyes remained focused on only Adora; the instinct of hunting prey shrouded behind them. Blue and yellow, two such different colors united in just one person's orbs, it was something unique to her.

"Catra! I should have known they'd send you," Adora growled, spinning her lightsaber in a threatening way, the humming becoming louder as she did.
Without wiping off the smirk, Catra curled her tail and moved a step forward, testing her opponent with a few low set strikes. She parried them with ease, knowing the fellow Sith apprentice was playing around without yet using any of her strength. She could feel that the tan-skinned feline was fully recovered, that she hadn't even fought anyone yet. Adora, however, was weaker, exhausted and mildly wounded. This would be an unfair battle.

Catra started circling her enemy with light steps, looking for a weak point in her defense, "Well, of course, they would, the others wouldn't be much of a challenge for you."
"I don't know if I should feel honored or if I should be pissed. It's low to send someone as close to me as you into a fight," the other girl remarked. She took a step backward, trying to maintain her defensive pose. Normally she would use the knowledge she had about forms of lightsaber combat to strike with extreme aggression but something held her back.

Adora's opponent giggled evilly, "Aw, you know nothing's too low for me." Even though it was a tense situation, Adora felt the urge to smile. Before she could do that, Catra lashed out in a series of furious strikes. The red beams of their weapons connected with the sound of thunder, both of them trying to overpower their enemy. It was hard for the young girl to maintain an intact defense as the feline pushed onward, her two blades disappearing in streaks of red light that occasionally stopped as she reconsidered an attack only to slash at Adora from a different angle immediately afterward.

"I see you have been training," she mocked Catra while blocking a strike of both of her opponent's lightsabers at once. Sparks rained down the touching beams of energy, slightly singing their skins as they stood only centimeters away from each other.

"Everything for you," Catra answered with a smirk. Then there was a streak of brown blocking Adora's view as the cat woman jumped six feet into the air, using the force to enhance her strength. She landed right behind Adora, both of her weapons glowing with red hot energy. The blonde turned around to be greeted with two low attacks that were supposed to hit her knees, causing her to jump backward. She tried to concentrate, tried to regain the smoldering rage she had felt while fighting the troopers but there was nothing. It was clear that Shadow Weaver had known this would happen, that was why she had chosen Catra for this fight: To make it challenging. Adora felt no hatred towards her, they had been growing up with each other after all. Best friends forever and... sometimes even more than that. How could she defeat someone like her without the necessary pain...?

Fortunately, or unfortunately, something Adora would question for a long time, Catra took a step back, simultaneously closing her sabers again. The look in her eyes made the young girl shudder.
"I love these fights way too much to stop but just the two of us? That's getting a little boring, isn't it? Why don't we spice this up a little?" the small form of Catra said before slowly retreating into one of the shadows. She raised her right hand, holding both index finger and thumb close to each other before she snapped. The sound was enhanced by whatever trick she had learned but Adora knew it couldn't mean anything good. And she was right. With the creaking of metal sliding on metal, the towers finally revealed their purpose. Dark silhouettes emerged from their inners, their shining armor reflecting the light.

"Oh, are you fu-" Adora bellowed before the Sith troopers opened fire.

The blaster bolts ripped holes into the soft stone, smaller ones but there was something odd about them. Hot bubbles formed where the energy beams hit the floor, only leaving slight bruises in the material when they did.

Adora deflected one of the shots towards the ground, shooting a glare back to the still laughing Catra, "Sharp ammunition? Really?!"
The feline smiled, "Oh? So you think that's challenging?" There was a little spark of betrayal in the back of her head when the blonde Sith continued to defend herself against the enemies. Shot after shot bolted towards her, every strike of her lightsaber hitting them with high precision. But she knew that it wouldn't be long until her body started to overheat, to grow weaker and take her concentration with it. Soon there would be no way Adora could stay safe in the open. So, she chose the obvious choice of retreating into cover.

Using the force to give her a lift, the apprentice jumped into the shadow of one of the crystal columns, trying to escape the roaring thunderstorm of concentrated energy singing her flesh. Powerlessness and fear tried to overwhelm Adora, this situation was hopeless. She couldn't risk stepping back into the yard to retrieve the mysterious glowing pyramid from its middle. Either Catra would use her chance to strike or one of the shots would strike her down.

"Use your fear, concentrate. Fear leads to anger. You are stronger than this. Show me what you're capable of and I promise you, you will be there with us, leading the first strike against the galactic republic. Now fight, make me proud, my apprentice."

Shadow Weaver's voice was nothing more than a whisper but it gave the girl a sudden boost of confidence. The remainder of what she was trying to reach was more than enough of a motivation for her to close her eyes and concentrate, once more bottling up the fear, hatred and all the negative feelings she was being exposed to. She took one final deep breath before stepping back into the light. Her lightsaber reignited in a rain of sparks as thousands of volts were bundled by the legendary kyber crystal inside the weapon.

"You want to end my life? Then come and get me!" she yelled, using her newfound strength to force her hurting knee to bend and run towards the nearest tower. The incoming fire intensified as one of the gunners inside used his comrade's light machine gun to push back Adora but there was no way he could try and stop the raging apprentice. For Adora, there was no try to win either. There was do or do not, prevail or go down in a last act of glory. Her weapon moved in low but powerful arcs, shooting the bolts back at their owner. The combination of luck, skill and pure rage finally got rewarded as one of the stray shots hit the gunner in the guts, leaving him to tumble down the tower's rim. With a loud thud, his body hit the floor.

Using some of her bundled strength Adora catapulted herself onto the next tower, taking down three of the dark troopers inside in the resulting skirmish. When she was finished with them, she picked up one of their rifles. She had trained with them for an extended period but the plump weapon had never suited her needs. However, now it was time to put those skills in action. Hiding her saber, she raised the metal gun against her shoulder, squeezing one eye shut as she looked through the scope. The blue visor was confusing at first but it took Adora only seconds to realize the blinking lights on the inside, showing her distance, charge of the energy cell and a red dot in the middle to aim with.

"C'mon you bastards," she whispered as she aimed for the troopers in the next defended post. The first shot was a complete miss, sailing past the heads of the soldiers. The second one hit the metal frame of the building, making it blacken as the steel began to boil. The third shot finally hit something, even though it wasn't a trooper. The bolt sailed through one of the men's legs and hit one of the small resupply stations they had brought with them, igniting the highly explosive load and sending them tumble to their death as they tried to avoid the flames.

Adora giggled nervously as she saw the tower's structure break loose, making it tilt in a dangerous angle, "Not what I wanted to hit but it worked." Only one real opponent remained, the creaking of her sharp claws echoing off the arena walls. The Sith apprentice looked down the steep side of the tower she was on, trying to see where Catra was running to. There was no sign of her but the silent rattling of nails hitting the floor now and then. She began to grow nervous, where was that damn feline?

"Looking for someone?" a voice whispered only centimeters away from Adora's ear, making a shudder run along her spine. In one fluid motion, she ignited her weapon, swinging it at the voice in a try to win the fight before it had begun. But Catra's natural reflexes didn't need the force to enhance them when she simply stepped back, the dirty grin on her face still not leaving since they had started to clash.

She continued to tease, "Wow, is that how you greet a friend?"
"Not a friend, but a foe," Adora answered before lunging at her adversary with fierce determination. Seeing as Catra's eyes widened at the unexpected attack, her plan to take her by surprise had worked just a little. Her red blade was weakly deflected by the other girl's two ones, making it strike the ground and burn through a few layers of metal before she regained her balance. "So, you're finally back in form to fight?" the brunette asked, "I have been waiting for this for a looong time Adora."

She knew the tower was a bad place to fight, she needed more space. A quick plan formed in her head and this time, it was her turn to smirk. "Oh yeah? Well, me too and look, I have a little present for you," the blonde answered and raised her hand. A sudden wave of energy swiped her opponent off the tower's platform, making her shriek as the ground raced towards the feline. But she had the reflexes of a jaguar, landing on her feet and growling towards Adora as she jumped down to the concrete, slowing her departure with the force around her. The midichlorians in her blood felt like they made it boil as Adora regained her balance and started to advance towards her old friend.

Another growl emerged from both of their throats as they started to slash at each other with rapid speed, their blades clasping together with the sound of lightning, the whirring being a noise-drowning hum as if a whole fleet of dragonflies had decided to move their colony. Deflecting one of the furious strikes, Catra spun around, slashing and hacking with the gained momentum, making Adora slowly retreat as she tried to maintain an active defense.

"Sometimes, the offense was the best defense," Shadow Weaver had once said. But for an attack, for a real attack, she would need something to fuel her, to drive her forward. Rage was no option, neither was hatred nor pain. Catra had been there since Adora could remember, always by her side, always ready for a new adventure. It was hard enough to fight her in the first place, both of them knowing each other's strategies and thinking made it challenging to get the upper hand on each other. Was there anything else she could use...? Parrying one of her attacks, the blonde quickly countered with a wide slash, pressing her friend into making a step backward.

There was this small pull in her guts when she looked at Catra, standing there with all of her confidence, the red light of her sabers only making the picture more perfect than it already was. This feeling, what was it? Frustration? Annoyance? No, it was... passion. And passion was a weapon most of the Sith were unable to control. Adora had heard stories of long-lost masters who had used their love and passion to win each of their fights until they started to grow hungry, joining the light side in its path of destruction in the galaxy in the end.

But right now, there was no choice to make. This was Adora's last hope. And she took it, embracing the feeling and receiving a certain kind of calmness, her face smoothing to a mask of peace and replacing the grim mask. Catra raised her eyebrow, noticing the sudden change in her best friend's behavior. But she didn't mind, stepping forward, one foot at a time, slowly advancing towards the feline. Each of her strikes were slower now, resting in their place for only the split of a second longer. And with each step, she began pushing Catra back. The sound of their colliding blades grew louder as the power behind the strikes intensified with Adora using her strength. Her opponent's eyes widened as she started to feel herself weakening, the aura of her opposite overpowering hers.

And then, with one last powerful blow towards the lower part of Catra's sabers, Adora disarmed her. The two blades remained open as the flew away, only closing when they had almost reached the ground where their metal clattered when it hit the cold stone. Her blade was at the feline's throat, whose eyes were wide open with fear and defeat in them.

"How did you... How...?" she stuttered, slowly crawling back to escape the lingering heat of the saber's tip. Adora blinked, quickly holstering her weapon.
"Wha... I don't..." she replied, unable to keep up her voice. Puzzled she extended her hand to help her beaten friend up, her accepting the invitation and heaving herself up to her feet.
"We'll talk about this later," she whispered as a big hidden door started opening towards the yard, two figures slowly starting to emerge from the darkness within.

"Well done, my apprentice."