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Chapter 18 – Unholy Presences
Only a couple of seconds after Adora had called him, Bow appeared suddenly beside her, pushing Weaver away from her with his shoulder, an action that made the demon lose control of her shadows and gave the blonde freedom to move again.
"Grab my hand!" Her friend told her without losing a second and she did on instinct, unable to process everything that was happening so fast in front of her.
She turned her head looking for Catra and saw her landing another blow at her brother, throwing him to the floor and breaking the concrete where he landed.
In the blink of an eye, the cat-girl was beside her, holding the angel's shoulder with one hand.
"Go!" She closed her eyes at her devil's scream.
The whole place had been engulfed in a chaotic rhythm of car alarms, sirens, people yelling and her own hearth pumping as if it was trying to get out of her chest. She tried to take a deep breath to calm herself before opening her eyes again, but all sounds disappeared without a trace before she did so.
Once she opened her eyes again, they were at Glimmer's living room, a place she knew well. Everything was calm, not a noise could be heard, except for her heart still beating faster than normal.
She fell to the floor on her knees and could hear someone else falling beside her. She turned to look at her devil and saw her sprawled on the floor, panting and bruised, and she couldn't help but feel afraid again. She didn't even know why, but it seemed to be like everything had been her fault.
Shadow Weaver turned out to be one of Hordak's demons apparently, which was another thing that added to her frustration and fear. What if her date with that demon had actually caused all this? Catra could have died because of her and her selfishness that, ultimately, was worth nothing.
Without thinking it twice, she threw herself to the cat-girl and hugged her on the floor, still crying and realizing that she had never stopped doing so.
"Its fine, we're safe now. He doesn't know where we are." The devil patted her head slowly, still panting.
"What the fuck happened!?" She heard Bow's voice between her sobs and tried to compose herself. She knew that, if Catra told her they were safe, it was only to make her feel better. She had to cool her head so that she could help in any way if the need appeared.
"Everyone knows about it now. Hordak was the first one to make a move." Complete silence overtook the room after that. She couldn't help but feel that there was something else she didn't know. It sounded like that. Still, was it worth asking? She had to, but she didn't know if she was ready for the answer.
After a couple more seconds, she let go of the devil and stood up slowly, taking deep breaths to calm her still going sobs. She sat on one of the couches in the living room, followed by the cat-girl sitting beside her and nuzzling her head on her shoulder.
"What's going on?" She looked at the entrance of the living room where Angela was, a brow furrowed in worry.
"I had a fight with Hordak. Everyone knows." Again, at that, the room fell silent for a few seconds, until she couldn't stop herself and finally asked:
"What is it that everyone knows? What really happened back there?" She asked almost in a whisper, uncertain about if she should ask that now. Maybe it really had nothing to do with her and she didn't need to know, but still, if she was involved, she wanted to know.
"You're immortal. For real. Everyone will come after you to get a favor from god. They just don't know that god doesn't give a fuck." Catra blurted out as if it was not a big deal.
"Catra!" She heard Angela reprimand her quickly, as if she should have never told her that.
"You told me it was a lie…" Adora looked at the devil with worry, her eyes still watery and her head heavy, almost unable to process everything.
"There's no better way to hide the truth than telling it to you and then saying it was a lie." The room fell silent again, as if no one knew what to say now or as if they were waiting for the blonde to say something, but she didn't.
"Was it wise to let her know?" Angela asked Catra when she saw how the human girl was unresponsive.
"Whatever. If god doesn't care, why should we?" The cat-girl was still breathing heavily.
"What do you mean he doesn't care?" Bow asked with disdain, not believing her words.
"He basically just said that I can still make a contract with her and that she already has someone working on her immortality already, which I guess it would be you two. In a few words, he said: fuck you, I've got more important things to do than to deal with this bullshit." Bow just closed his eyes and let out a growl at the devil's words, followed by a sigh from Angela.
"This happened because I haven't made the contract with you, isn't it? If my soul were yours already, no one would be able to approach me like Hordak did, am I right?" The blonde finally spoke, getting out of her self-induced trance after thinking about how to solve this situation now and then think about anything else.
"Adora, that's…" Angela started speaking but was immediately interrupted by Catra.
"You're right. Your soul has no owner and everyone wants you as a gift for god because they don't know how littles does he care about you." Angela was about to scold the cat-girl for her words but the blonde spoke before her.
"If we made a contract and I ask to die exactly when and how I am supposed to die, it would not change anything, right? I would still be immortal as I am now." The devil on her shoulder just hummed as an answer. "Then I guess my immortality comes from, either the date of my death or my cause of death, no?"
"Yes. Your cause of death will not happen." It amazed Catra how quickly the blonde had come to that conclusion without knowing a lot about the situation. Yet, she had always proven to be smarter than she looked.
"In that case, we could write a different one in the contract, making me mortal again after we sign it." She lifter her head from the human's shoulder and looked at her.
"Would you really let go of your immortality after getting the happiness you want? You went as far as summoning a devil to get it. You could be eternally happy!" Everyone in the room just looked at Adora as the silence dragged on for a couple of seconds.
"How could I be happy if I am being constantly attacked?" The cat girl frowned, contemplating the answer the human gave her. "Besides, these last few days I've realized that happiness, or at least my happiness, is not a never ending feeling. I've found happiness in the tiniest things. I only thought of it after spending time with you and realizing that I might have been depressed because of how I closed myself to the world after everything that happened to me. Being with you has given me a new perspective on life. It's all about how everything can change with just a little twist. I think I've already found happiness because of you. That's why the last thing I want is for you to get hurt because of me." The blonde took her hands with hers and looked at her in the eye. She hadn't thought about how beautiful those blue eyes of her were until now. They were hypnotizing. "Even if I have to cut our time short by making the contract right now." She saw those blue eyes fill with water again, letting it fall little by little.
"Adora, I…" She felt water in her face again. She had started to cry without even thinking about it. How could just a few words like those feel so good and make her feel loved? "I don't want to leave you so soon…" The words came out of her without even thinking. Her brain had told her to say a completely different thing, but she couldn't help it.
"Me neither, but there's no other choice." She was suddenly engulfed in a tight hug, hearing sobs directly in her ears, unable to tell if they were hers or Adora's. "And we will see each other again once I'm dead." The blonde spoke weeping as she let her go and looked at her eyes again.
Bow and Angela just watched the scene not knowing what to do or say. It was obvious to them that what Adora suggested was the best course of action, but at the same time, they felt it was wrong. There had to be another way. That's what they thought, knowing unconsciously that there was nothing more to do.
"Why did you let her go!?" Hordak hit Shadow Weaver in the face, making her fall to the floor.
They were now on Weaver's house and the devil was furious. Even after being with him for millennia, the demon had never seen him so furious before and, as such, she was scared as she had never been.
Touching her cheek where the blow had landed, she felt blood on her face. It hurt a lot, but not only physically. She felt deeply humiliated and undignified. Those nasty human feelings turned out to be the worst thing that could have happen to her.
In her mind, she couldn't stop thinking about how being dead would be a thousand times better than being treated like that in the upcoming centuries. And so, she felt grateful about not doing her best to stop Bow from taking Adora, because now her death was certain.
She stood up and looked at the devil, rage on her face, a rage so deep that it felt like it burnt her whole body.
"I let her go because you are a piece of shit and you don't deserve to be the ruler of hell!" Her body suddenly froze at the power he had spurted out after her words. The pressure she felt was so overwhelming she felt like she could barely even breathe.
"You could have been whatever you wanted, now you will just be dust." His wicked smirk made her stomach turn as he put one of his hands on her head. He was enjoying it. He was about to kill his most loyal servant, the one who had been there for him for thousands of years and yet he was enjoying it. It was disgusting.
"That's better than being under your command. I've always hated being your slave." She spoke almost in a whisper because of the pressure she felt in her body.
That was it. Her life was about to end. A life full of regrets, humiliation and sadness because, even if she just started acknowledging her feelings recently, she knew she always had them, and she always felt the same. Adora had just been the last straw. The drop that filled the glass. If by her death the blonde could get a chance to escape Hordak, then she was happy to die. Finally, the suffering would be over, all thanks to a human girl.
And so, as she felt her body disintegrating into dust, she heard her master's laugh and felt relief because she knew she would never have to hear that horrible sound ever again. She was finally free from her shackles.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Angela asked Adora with worry. The blonde was about to sell her soul to a devil and she just couldn't feel guilty because of it. It had haunted her to think that she could have stopped it all just by being there for the blonde before she summoned said devil, and then her point of view changed and she was grateful because of Catra being there for her was actually a big help given her immortality. Still, the thoughts of guilt couldn't disappear, even though there was nothing she could do.
"I am. It's not like I'm going to die immediately. Everything will be okay." Tears started to fill her eyes as she saw the innocent smile the girl was giving her. How could she? She had been through hell or even worse and yet, she was there with a smile. One so bright it could outshine the sun.
"I know, but I'm sorry things couldn't be different." She hugged the girl suddenly, unable to contain a couple of tears that escaped and ran through her cheeks.
"It's not your fault. That's just life." The blonde hugged her back and she felt even worse now, being reminded about how she could have intervened in her life before and make it a little bit better for her. "Thank you for helping me all these years too. You really have been like a real mom for me." And now she was crying loudly. Those few words stabbed her heart as if they were knives. When had she become so selfish? She had let Adora suffer just because she wanted to be an angel again. No wonder why she had fallen.
"The pentagram is done." Catra spoke suddenly, taking her out of her thoughts and letting the blonde go, watching her walk towards the devil with that innocent smile.
"Okay, how do we do this?" The blonde asked without a trace of doubt on her voice or face.
"I'm gonna step on this…" She signaled the pentagram on the floor. "And you're gonna stand in front of me. Then we will start making the contract."
"So the pentagram is needed for that… I see why Scorpia didn't have to make a contract with me to go back to hell then…" The devil huffed in amusement, masking her nervousness.
"Yeah, so…" Catra stepped on the pentagram and it lighted up, a paper flying mid-air suddenly appeared. "What is it that you want?"
"I want money. A billion dollars, please." At the blonde's answer the devil felt like laughing, but stopped herself.
"Okay, it is within my power. Anything else?"
"Yes. I want to die the exact same day I am supposed to, but I would like to leave open my cause of death. I just want it to be painless."
"Doable too. Is there something else?"
"I think I can trust you with everything else."
"Then put your hand on this paper." The human girl touched the paper and it suddenly disappeared in fire. "Now we have a deal. Your soul is mine and you will have your money within a couple of days." The pentagram disappeared suddenly and both the devil and the human just looked at each other without saying anything, smiling warmly and conveying feelings only they could understand through their eyes alone.
"Now that you're not immortal you should be safe, but we should make sure of that before leaving earth." Bow spoke, taking them out of their trance.
"I will. I'm going to try and stay on earth for as long as I'm able to before I'm pulled back to hell by Lucifer. Even if I can't be close to her." The angels just nodded, not knowing what to say right then. They could only assume that both of them felt the same way about this outcome.
"I'm really going to miss you." The blonde suddenly hugged the cat-girl and said devil couldn't help but smile with an already nostalgic smile.
"I know. I'm gonna miss you too." Without a warning, Adora pulled her closer and kissed her, surprising Catra in a good way. Even if they were now bonded by the human's soul, the devil knew that this might be the last time they can share a kiss with the warmth that only a human body provided her. An ecstatic feeling the cat-girl knew she was going to miss.
"You, piece of shit!" Hordak was startled by the sudden appearance of Scorpia in the room where he had just killed his demon. Thoughts of her coming to help Catra flooded his mind, thinking about how hard it would be to beat them both. "How could you hit Catra?" The white haired devil got closer to him and was about to hit him when a purple strand of hair stopped her hand.
"Please don't hit each other, we're siblings." The man turned to look at the other devil that had suddenly appeared and he couldn't help but put a smile on his face.
"Entrapta, Scorpia. It's good to see you. And Entrapta is right. Catra and I had a little disagreement, but it won't happen again so, why don't we forget about it?" She could feel the taller woman releasing her full power and for the first time in his life, he feared her. He never thought she could be so powerful.
"Bullshit! I know you want Adora because she is immortal and you won't stop until you get her!" He pushed through his mild fear and looked at her in anger, remembering that, even if she was powerful, he was too.
"Are you here to stop me?" They both looked at each other for a couple of seconds and, before Scorpia could answer, Entrapta spoke again.
"We're not here to do that. We have to carry out dad's word. A punishment is due!" The purple haired devil spoke in excitement as she moved to stand between her siblings.
"Fighting a sibling is not a reason for punishment. Why am I being punished?" He asked genuinely confused as he looked at the smaller devil.
"Not you. Catra is the one being punished!" He turned to look at the white hared woman to confirm what he was hearing and saw her turning her gaze towards the wall, sadness replacing anger on her face. "It's so exiting! We've never had a punishment before!"
As her little sister rambled nonstop, he thought about why the youngest one was being punished until he finally reached the only reasonable explanation; the little "wildcat" had fallen in love with the human and had broken the rule of not having a deeper connection with her before her soul was hers.
A terrifying smirk appeared on his face. Thanks to her own sister's stupidity, he was about to get what he wanted without anyone being able to stop him.
"Then we must leave immediately." He spoke almost laughing but being able to keep it in for the moment. "Lucifer's word and will should not wait."
And that's it.
I have to let you know that the next chapter will be the last. I already wrote it, but I'm still checking for mistakes and I want to wait a couple of days just to be sure I didn't forget about anything (except Adam. I know I basically ghosted him after chapter 1, but he's not relevant so it doesn't matter).
I'll wait 'till the weekend to post the last chapter though. I really want to be sure I'm not missing anything.
Anyway; I really hope you've been enjoying this story. I've had so much fun writing it and I can't wait to get a new idea and start a whole new catradora fic after this one.
Thank you again for your support and reviews!
See you this weekend!