She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Time to Heal

Part 1

Adora opened her eyes and squinted as sunlight streamed through the palace windows at Bright Moon. She tried to sit up only to feel a weight on her chest and a chill as the nerves in her bare skin came alive. In a flash she realised what the weight was as Catra raised her head and grinned up at her in a way that told Adora she felt safe and was okay with not being quite alert yet.

"Hey, Adora."

"Hey, you." Adora reached up and scratched her behind the ears in the way she knew Catra liked. Sure enough, Catra rested her head on Adora's chest again and purred softly, relaxing even more as though she was trying to melt into her. Kissing the top of her head, Adora's hands worked down through her hair. She let one hand travel down Catra's back as the other one wrapped around the back of her neck to pull her closer. Suddenly, Catra screamed. It was entirely without warning and the noise seemed to go right through Adora who froze in shock as Catra recoiled and landed in a heap on the floor. She curled up into the foetal position and drew her knees up to her chest as she started shaking and clawing at the back of her neck frantically.

"Get it out of me! Get it out!"

"Catra, it's okay!" Adora was by her girlfriend's side in an instant, trying to restrain her before she managed to do any permanent damage to herself. "It's okay! It's gone! Entrapta got it out!" Eventually she was able to pin Catra's arms down by her sides and held her close until she stopped shaking. Tears streamed down her face as she threatened to break down into a sobbing mess. Neither of them cared at that point.

"I need to get it out." It was the last thing Catra managed to say before breaking down into a mess. Adora held her close, her mind racing. This had been going on for days now, although never this bad. Catra had been mentioning she could feel something sticking in her neck or suddenly whirling around and rubbing her neck as though someone had touched her. They'd asked Glimmer's Aunt Casta if she knew anything that might help, but she'd brushed them off saying that it was probably a phantom sensation due to trauma. Probable as it was, this wasn't something they could allow to fade in time. It was getting worse, not better. Glimmer had been calling meetings in the war room to plan their Best Friends Squad adventure to restore magic to the galaxy and Catra had wanted to go with them. If they didn't get this sorted that wasn't going to be a possibility, but there was no way Adora was leaving her behind. Not again.

Carefully, Adora stood up. She hauled Catra with her before sitting her down on the edge of the bed before sitting behind her. It was hard on a military-style cot big enough for one. Glimmer had been talking about having a double made for them but they'd told her not to rush since they enjoyed the closeness it allowed them. Now it was looking like they might have to change that for these sorts of situations. Getting in behind Catra and not falling off the other side of the bed was a challenge, but at last she found a comfortable enough kneeling point.

"Okay, hold still. I'm gonna have a look and see if I can find anything. Okay?" Catra nodded timidly and let Adora work as she got in close and delicately ran her fingers across the site where the chip had been while Catra was under Horde Prime's control. It was easy enough to spot. The six pinholes in Catra's skin hadn't quite healed yet. They also ran deep. That made sense since the chips were designed to hijack and colonise the nervous system. But there was nothing there. No matter how hard she looked, she couldn't see anything.

"Well?" Catra asked nervously. "You're very quiet back there." Adora silently cursed herself, realising she should have been saying something to try and reassure her.

"Nothing here." She sat up and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend, resting her head between the other girl's shoulder blades. "You've got the marks where it used to be but that's it. Maybe you just need to let the marks themselves heal. If you can still feel them and know they're there then it might feel like there's something left behind."

"So I just need to give it time to heal?" Catra looked sceptical. "But it feels like there's still something lodged in my neck. It's not just pinpricks, I actually feel like there's something in there!" Adora let out a controlled breath, hoping she was right and that this was just the result of stress.

"Look, just give it some time to heal." She lifted her head a bit and nuzzled the back of Catra's head, burying her face in her hair and making her giggle. It was a rare thing and something she hadn't heard since leaving the Horde. "Why don't you try and relax for a bit. I'll throw some clothes on and grab us some food." Catra nodded so Adora stood up to let her lie back on the bed. From there, she planted a swift kiss on her lips before turning around to hunt for where Catra had thrown her trousers. "Dammit, Catra! How do you manage to throw them that far?"

"Years of doing it in my head and then the eternally enjoyable feeling of doing it in real life." Catra shrugged, offering a grin that almost made Adora's legs give out. "You know, after you left I practised on Lonnie. She kept coming back to the room and wondering why her clothes were all over the place." The image took a few seconds to form in Adora's mind. Once it did, she couldn't help but burst out laughing. In an instant, all the stress of the past few minutes washed away and was replaced by the calmness brought only by being with Catra. Things weren't exactly back to how they used to be, but they were changes the pair of them could live with.

"Try and get some rest." Adora finished pulling on enough clothes to see her to the kitchens and smoothed her hair enough to hide a night of making out, not even taking the time to tie it up. "I'll grab us that food. Do you want anything specific?"

"Something meaty." Catra gave a small, slightly forced smile as she tried to relax back. That in particular warmed Adora through. Catra had grown so used to the Horde's ration bars that Bright Moon's food had been a shock to her system and senses. She'd stuck to bland foods for a few meals and was starting to graduate up to more advanced stuff. Most of the meat in the kitchens was rich and full of flavour. Yet another indication that she was starting to be able to grow into the person she always should have been.

"I'll see what I can do." She winked and slipped from the room, making her way to the kitchens.

The halls of Bright Moon were alive with activity in a way she'd never have dreamed of before the last few days. Even without the renewed life of Ethiria plain as day outside, made even more obvious by the vines encroaching through the windows. As she walked, her attention was taken by an almighty commotion from a hallway off to her left. A high-pitched cybernetic whistle followed by the clumsy clanging of robotic legs as the spherical shape of Entrapta's converted Horde robot, Emily, raced through the halls and only just managed to stop in time before knocking Adora flying.

"Entrapta, what the hell?" Adora seethed as she tried to hide how shaken she was. The young woman riding on top of Emily, beaming like an idiot as a strand of purple hair rose to push up her welding mask and she effortlessly dismounted.

"Ah! Adora, just the girl!" Behind her, Adora heard ragged panting and looked to see Hordak running after them to keep up. As soon as he reached them, he dropped to his knees and fought to slow his breathing. "Oh, don't mind him. His cardio stinks." Entrapta waved a hand dismissively before turning back to him. "No rides on Emily for you for a while, mister!" With that, she turned back to Adora. "Anyway, I was hoping you could help me find something. Is there a She-Ra power for that?"

"Not to my knowledge, no." Adora shook her head. "Look, I was going to get Catra some food. She's not feeling great."

"Catra?" Entrapta perked up at the name. "Great! Maybe she can help. It's hers anyway, I guess."

"What?" Adora was clearly unable to hide her confusion because Entrapta rolled her eyes like it should have been the most obvious thing in the world.

"Okay, so do you remember when I took the Horde chip off her neck? Well I kept it along with the ones I took out of the others since it gave me the idea I might be able to upgrade Emily to detect nerve damage and I wanted to see if they were useful. Anyway, I recognised the deconstruction I did on Catra's, but there's a piece missing. I thought something looked off, but it took Emily scanning it to identify it. Twice!" As Entrapta carried on, blissfully unaware of the horrible sinking feeling forming in Adora's stomach and the picture forming in her head, Adora forced herself to stay calm and keep her words measured.

"Entrapta, I need you to focus here!" The other princess paused, looking up expectantly and not seeming bothered about Adora cutting her off mid-sentence. "Which piece is missing? Specifically."

"Oh, it's a piece off one of the needles. Look!" Entrapta held up the chip. Adora took it and had to strain her eyes to see what Entrapta meant. Sure enough, one of the six needles that gripped onto the victim's neck was ever-so-slightly shorter than the rest. It was still just as sharp, but the point was more angled. It had sheared clean off. Hastily, she focused back in as she realised Entrapta had carried on talking the entire time. "-I mean I'm not surprised it's broken like that. That thing was messed up by the time I had to take it off her. No wonder it was malfunctioning like it was. How many times did her neck get slammed during that fight again?" Adora felt sick. Her entire appetite was gone.

"Entrapta, do you think Emily's scanner can be used on a living person?" she asked. "I know the Horde bots could do that, but I also know how much you've modified her."

"Oh, it's no problem!" Entrapta shrugged. "Why do you ask?" Adora shrugged in response, her grimace not budging.

"I think I've found the rest of that chip." She turned and broke into a run, losing all composure she'd fought hard to keep for this long. They burst into the room as Catra woke with a start, almost falling out of bed as the hair on her arms and head bristled. Adora was the first through the door and raced over to the bed while Entrapta and Emily raced into the room both practically screaming in enjoyment as Entrapta laughed like she'd never be cheerful again. Hordak was last, face-planting into the room in exhaustion.

"I did not sign up for this!" His muffled words were just legible from the floor.

"You know you could be easier on him, right?" Adora called over to Entrapta as she dismounted Emily while still grinning from ear to ear.

"It's for his own good." Entrapta told her. "When he was cloned from Horde Prime, there was a defect that made his body degrade quicker. I made him the suit from First Ones tech but Horde Prime took that off him. They repaired his body a great deal but now I'm trying to get him in peak condition to keep him from degrading until I can get more tech to work with. Speaking of, you're a First One, aren't you? I don't suppose you could scrounge up any more for us, right?"

"Enough!" Catra cut in as she got her hyperventilating under control. "Would someone care to tell me where my food is and what the hell you idiots are doing?" Before Adora could even answer, Entrapta beat her to the punch.

"It's okay, Catra. Just hold still. This probably won't hurt a bit. Maybe."

"What?" Catra bristled further and jumped back off the bed, her claws coming out fully and her whole body tensing. Instantly, Adora was there to calm her down.

"Catra, it's okay. Look, I had an idea on why your neck might still be causing you problems and I wanted her to take a look. Emily's scanner should be able to find out if there's something wrong." Adora could see Catra trying to put all this together in her head and realised it could make for a dangerously unsettled stomach. She got onto the bed with her and pulled her close, keeping Catra's neck exposed and facing Emily. Catra closed her eyes and leaned in, merely content to breathe in Adora's scent and listen to her heartbeat. With both of them holding onto each other like the world depended on it, neither of them noticed the mechanical whirring noise of Emily's scanner.

"Just get it over with." Catra muttered as she curled her arms around Adora.

"It already is!" Entrapta announced as Emily ran to the wall and started projecting the readouts onto it.

"Good!" Catra practically screamed as she sat up a bit. Adora could understand her frustration. "I just can't figure out what's wrong with me. It's like ever since the war ended and I've no longer had to live on my nerves I've been in pain a lot of the time, my neck has been on fire, I keep getting these phantom nerve sensations and I just can't reorient myself. I can't get comfortable and it just hurts so much!" The last sentence was almost a sob. Adora held her closer, wishing she could take the pain away.

"Probably carrying around the alien metal doesn't help." Entrapta mused as she looked over the scan results. That made Catra's ears prick up. She turned, wincing as the pain struck her in the neck again.

"What alien metal?"

"The tiny sliver of Horde Prime's control chip stuck in your neck!" Entrapta looked at her with a stern expression. It was a rare look for her and just didn't seem to suit her. "Are you trying to tell me you can't tell a piece of metal when it's lodged in your own neck? Can I ask how you ended up leading the Horde again?"

"Briefly!" Hordak muttered fiercely from the floor. He still hadn't moved and lay face-down as before.

"Well I thought you got it all out when you took the chip off me in the first place!" Catra snapped. "Are you trying to tell me that when you take a chip out you don't even make sure you're getting it all? How many other people are literally getting it in the neck right now because of you?"

"Probably no one." If Entrapta had even registered the insult, she didn't show that it phased her. She kept looking over the readouts like nothing was wrong. "Okay, I'm going to ask again, Adora: How many times did Catra's neck get slammed in that fight?"

"Why?" Concern washed over Adora like a bucket of cold water. "What's wrong?"

"I'm reading serious muscle and bone damage to her third and fourth cervical vertebrae right next to the piece of the chip." Entrapta turned to Catra, concern plain on her face. "My guess is it hairline-fractured during the fight and only got worse when she was fighting with us. She's only noticing now because she's not having to live on her nerves. This thing needs to come out and then you need to rest up. Two weeks absolute minimum."

"So this piece of metal was my problem the entire time!" Catra practically jumped up and raced over to Entrapta. "I have to get it out! You can get it out for me, right?"

"Uh, I'm just a mechanic." Entrapta shrugged. "I fix machines. Not people. I got the chip off you because it was affecting you and because I had to tinker with the chip, not you. This needs someone who knows what they're doing enough to get it out without damaging you further. Get it wrong, say bye-bye to bodily movement and hello to lifelong paralysis!" With that, she turned to leave, knowing her job was done. She walked over to Hordak to help him up only to see his body gradually rising and falling as gentle snoring rose up from the floor. "Ah, the poor baby's tuckered out! God, I love him." With that, Entrapta's hair wrapped around Hordak's left ankle as she began to drag him unceremoniously from the room while leaving a trail of drool behind him as Emily followed in hot pursuit.

"Wow, that girl's hair care ritual must be immense!" Catra muttered as she walked over to the dressing table and picked up a compact mirror. "Hey, this thing stays shut with magnets, right?" Instantly, Adora realised what she was planning and snatched the compact mirror away, setting it back down.

"Catra, I know what you're thinking and it's probably not going to work. This is Horde Prime we're talking about. Evil though he was, I don't think he was stupid enough to make a metal chip that could be defeated through magnetism. Even if he was, just ripping it out blindly could easily paralyse you even without all that other damage we have to worry about now! Personally, I'd prefer you able to move. Especially if it means moving like you were last night. That was seriously impressive." Catra sighed and turned to pace the room. Frustration was plain on her face, but Adora could also tell she was panicked.

"So what do we do?" she asked. "Entrapta won't take this thing out, apparently it needs a world-class surgeon and we don't have anyone with the skill to do it!" Adora caught her by the shoulders before sweeping her into a hug and holding her close as though the world was ending. It took about ten minutes for Catra's breathing to even out. During that time, Adora guided her over to the bed and sat her down again.

"You're right." She nodded before resting her head on Catra's shoulder. "We don't have anyone that can do this. But what about anything?" Catra's ears twitched as Adora lifted her head to stare into her girlfriend's eyes. Yellow or blue, it didn't matter. Both were drowning in confusion and excitement.

"Of course! It's so simple! I... I'm not following you." The excitement drained from Catra's tone in a way that made Adora laugh. While she found humour in Catra's flippant attempt to hide her nerves, it also caused a hint of doubt to creep in. If Catra was unsettled, would she go for it? Adora had to admit she wasn't fond of the idea either. But did they have a choice?

"Okay, don't get mad: I think the Fright Zone might be our best bet."

"What?" Catra jumped back like Adora had electrocuted her before staring at her like she'd grown a second head. It hurt Adora to see that look on her face and even more to make the admission, but she truly didn't see any other way.

"Look, just hear me out: She-Ra's magic restored all the life they stripped away from the land. The medical capsules are still there in the Horde base. We take Entrapta, we get one operational and we get that damn thing out of your neck. Then it's just a nice casual stroll back through the forest to Bright Moon and then maybe take a couple of days off to relax and let you get reacquainted with yourself." Catra actually laughed at the last sentence, rolling her eyes and letting out a sigh.

"Oh, you make it sound so easy."

"It is!" Adora protested. In response, Catra only smirked and raised one eyebrow.

"Oh really? Let me ask you something: how do you expect Entrapta to stick with us all the way there and then not get distracted by literally everything as soon as we get to the Fright Zone? She'll be trying to reboot the whole damn place! That's the last thing we need!" Adora sighed. Catra had a point. There was no way to trust that Entrapta would stay focused and even less guarantee that she wouldn't want to stay and keep fixing things when she saw the condition of the technology there. Adora let out a sigh of frustration.

"Okay, what do you suggest?" she asked.

"Take Sparkles and Katpiss Everdeen with us." Catra shrugged.

"You mean Glimmer and Bow?" Adora gave her a pointed look.

"Yeah, I gotta stop using those nicknames." Catra rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Take them with us, let them get us there while you keep an eye on me in case I freak out again. I don't trust myself not to. When we get there she teleports back here, grabs Entrapta, we put her to work fixing a medical capsule and then she takes her back again before she gets ideas on how to reactivate the entire facility. Then we get the fragment of chip out of me and make our way home." Adora considered it, turning every aspect over in her head. It made sense. It made a lot of sense. It took her plan and finished it off perfectly.

"Sounds perfect." Adora leaned Catra back to rest properly on the bed and squeezed her shoulder lovingly before getting up and heading to the door. "Right, I'll grab Bow, Glimmer and some food since I totally forgot about that with everything going on. You just have a rest for a bit. I'll be back in a few." Catra nodded, needing no more encouragement to grab the blanket and turf it over herself. As Adora watched, she saw Catra's nose twitch slightly as she rested a head on their double-length pillow- the only thing they'd allowed to be replaced so far- and knew she was picking up her scent left over on the pillow. It was unbelievably cute and really wanted to make her go back over and cuddle up again. It took everything she had not to go back. There would be time later. For now, she had things to do and a mission to prep for. She had two jobs: get Catra some food and find Bow and Glimmer. If her guess was right, she might just be able to do both at once.

Author's Note: This is a story that I wrote last year and totally forgot to upload. There are four chapters and an Epilogue; so don't worry, I don't plan on just leaving it here. The next chapter will be up at some point next week. Please feel free to review and let me know what you think.