Catra's heartbeat was loud and strong as if it would pop out of her chest. Her ears must have been playing tricks on her because it also seemed to be echoing through the doors of the storage room. The only other sound came from her rough breaths, fast and heavy as if she finished a marathon, just almost as loud as her heart.

She remained motionless, her face flushed as her head felt hotter. The only thing that Catra could see was Adora sitting on the box, looking at her with a gentle, warm smile. Seconds passed that felt like an eternity, without any of them saying a word. The only sound in the cold storage room was the heartbeats.

Out of a sudden, or perhaps she couldn't take it anymore, Catra started to move. She dashed to the door, quickly dialing the password, and got out. Turning around only once, she met her eyes with Adora, still staring at her with a blush. Before the door could even close, Catra ran far, far away from that room.

Her steps were heavy, something that she did unconsciously to stop hearing the loud sound coming from her heart, although it was useless. The metal clunk when it met her feet just wasn't enough. Her mind was empty as she went on the corridors, or at least she was trying to not think about anything, about that.

In the end, it was useless.

No…, Catra begged, Stop it…

That image came flashing on her mind, almost as if she could picture right in front of her eyes. In one blink, it was the metal corridors; in the other, Adora's face near hers.

Stop… please…, she said to no avail.

Adora's face near her, the blue eyes that watched her after the did was done, the smile as if she enjoyed the show. Catra could see it all. She could feel it all. Going over, and over, and over again on her mind in a loop, with Adora's voice ringing in her ears.

The person that I love and care for the most… Is yo-

"Argh!" Catra groaned as she sliced the wall. She didn't want to think about that, something else needed to be in her mind. Either the sound of metal being ripped off or even the pain that she could feel in her nails, anything that would take her mind off the image was welcomed. So Catra did that, swinging her arms randomly, violently around anything it touched, destroying it as a result or leaving it damaged.

There was no way to know how long the girl was there, but when she was done, there were holes in the wall and on the ground, metal boxes busted open, broken cables shooting out sparks, and an exhausted Catra on her knees with her head hung down. Her eyes were swollen as if tears were starting to come out, but she brought her hands to them in an attempt to not let it happen.

Why, why, why…! she cursed, You stupid, most idiot, dense, idiot, dumb, stupid, awful, brute, monster, idiot girl, why?!

Even with Adora's face on her mind, Catra didn't know who of them she was referring to. Her brain was trying to mind a meaning to what just happened - or figure out why it did. Her hand went to her pockets and took out the only lead she had for all of this, the First One's Disk.

"You… you did this!" Catra said as her claws dig deep into the red crystal. She could feel it cracking on her hand. With enough strength, she could break or so she thought, but it wasn't enough. As ridiculous as it sounded, she wanted to make it pay, "If you didn't mess with her, she wouldn-"

"… Catra?"

A voice called for her, distracting her from the anger she felt. She turned around and saw Entrapta carrying metal parts on her hair, looking at Catra with worry in her eyes.

"Are you… alright?" The princess asked, seeing that her friend was almost on the verge of tears on the ground.

"Yea- Yeah… I am fine," she responded, trying to contain her emotions, whipping her eyes and getting up from the floor.

"Are you sur-"

"More importantly, what are you doing here?" Entrapta was interrupted by Catra's words, who raised her voice with a commanding tone. However, her question was met with a doubtful face.

"I'm in my laboratory like you asked?" Entrapta responded, not sure what Catra meant, "You know, the place you send me to pack my stuff back to the ship?"

Only then Catra realized where she was standing. Entrapta's laboratory was far away from the storage room, so finding herself there just made Catra aware of how long she ran, and also how long she must have been there. But, another worry went into her mind.

"So… how is Adora?" Entrapta asked innocently, but it startled her friend.

"Wha- That was nothin-" Catra was about to rebuke the question, however she realized something that left her eyes wide open, "Oh no…"

When all is said and done, she was their prisoner, a high-profiled character from the Rebellion, their most infamous enemy, the She-Ra, and Catra left her alone in a room she could easily escape from.

Her worries only grew when she saw that the Sword of Power wasn't in her hands anymore. Her mind quickly went to the worst situation possible and her body shook.

I left the sword with her…

Catra did not waste time thinking about her failure and dashed back to the corridor, going straight to the storage room - or so she would if her wrist was not pulled back by someone's hair.

"No, seriously, I really want to know. I need to know!" Entrapta said as she dragged Catra near her, dropping everything she held, "Did she grow any new parts? Did she get any new powers? Have her magic circuits been overcharged? Or undercharged? Is that even a word? Whatever, tell me everything! Spare no details, please."

Entrapta's eyes were full of curiosity as her mouth worked as fast as her mind. The voice recorded was shoved right in front of Catra's face, leaving just a few inches before it made contact with her mouth.

"Knock it off!" Catra slapped the hand holding the recorder, "I have other things to take care of!"

She tried to escape Entrapta's grasp but her movements were sloppy and imprecise, getting angrier at each failed attempt. The princess watched her friend's reaction with a thoughtful look as she scratched her chin.

"Oh, I get it," she said with confidence, "Did Adora turned into a First One's monster whose transformation left you terrifie-"

"NO!" Entrapta's voice was cut when Catra shouted in agony with all her strength, dropping to her knees as if her body gave up.

She could feel it, her limits. It reached it. The whole situation was too much for her to handle and the whole weight crushed her.

"That is… not it…" Her soft voice sounded like a whisper, but it echoed in the room, "This is not why this is about. Whatever that stupid disk did… changed her…" Catra could feel her every thought going straight to her mouth, without any way of hiding them, just her own, real, not desired thoughts, "Things were not supposed to be like this… It just feels… I don't even know… whoever that person is now… is not the Adora I knew…"

Catra remained motionless on the ground. It was so easy to win now, she knew it, every piece was in her favor, but at the same time, it was like everything went against her. Things she wanted to repress within her ever since that person left were back to haunt her. If Catra was alone, those memories - feelings - would probably consume her. If she was alone.

"Oh that. Well, that is wrong," Entrapta said looking at her friend as if it was common sense.

"… What?" It was the only time Catra looked up during her conversation, her heterochromia eyes with a little light inside them.

"Well, not wrong wrong, but wrong," Entrapta responded as her hair pulled Catra by the waist, forcefully making her follow behind, "If things were so easy to determine, science would be boring. If it works, it works and you don't need to change it; if it doesn't work, don't even bother with it anymore. I hate thoughts like that! That is why I loooove data!"

Entrapta sat on a chair and was quickly typing on a nearby computer with Catra by her side, looking more confused than ever. Soon, images appeared on the monitor's screen with text boxes around them.

"Ever since the first Disk Experiment - a failure, no doubt about it - there was something that bothered me about the behavior infected objects were showing. I mean, how could an energy source change the function of the object it affected? It didn't make sense! So I went over the data I gathered from my surveillance cameras and watched how each object interacted under its influence."

Multiple tabs were open, showing records from the first Disk Experiment inside Entrapta's castle. It was the first time Catra saw the images, each video showing different perspectives and recordings of robots, not like the battle-designed ones she was familiar with in Fright Zone, these robots didn't have any weapon or seemed to have combat protocol installed, yet they were acting so violent and fierce in the images.

"It turned out, while the disk influence made them more aggressive, it didn't alter the programming of the robot nor changed their physical capabilities to be more optimal in fights. It appeared, however, to make them adapt their functions to suit this new 'killing mode' of theirs. But!" Entrapta halted her thoughts for a dramatic pause to look at Catra, who couldn't follow her reasoning, "There was a major difference in one of the affected objects!"

Entrapta's finger pushed a button and finally, Catra showed another emotion other than confusion since the princess' monologue began as she watched the new video with her eyes wide open in shock.

On it, She-Ra was violently punching a giant robot trapped within a corridor, her eyes bright red just like the sword's jewel stuck in the metal body. It also showed the pink-dress princess using her teleport behind the tall woman, before She-Ra sent Sparkles flying away with a backward arm swing.

"I will not lie, I thought we would all die there," Entrapta said in a carefree tone like, "But we were fine! Almost. I mean, it was awful, don't get me wrong, there was like infected robots everywhere and-"

A glance over her friend, who had a not pleased expression as she recalled her encounter with an infected She-Ra, made Entrapta realize it was probably best to not keep changing subjects.

"Anyway," she cleared her throat, "The behavior this subject showed was no different than the previous ones, until this point there is," Entrapta advanced the video's footage, going to when Adora was separated from the sword.

The images were similar to how Adora was acting right now, Catra thought. Not taking the situation seriously, going around doing whatever she wants without any regard to her safety or those near her - altho seeing Sparkles being the one having to deal with it made a sound escape from Catra's nose.

"See," Entrapta's voice grabbed her attention, "If the subject was affected just like any other, this type of behavior would be unprecedented! If she was a machine, that is," Entrapta got up from her chair, turning around to see Catra, still not getting the point of her explanation, "Don't you get it, she-"

Entrapta's words were only stopped as something happened near them. Suddenly, a pink light illuminated the dim room and tiny, cute sparkles flew in the air. As Catra and the princess looked over to where this light came from, their eyes met with a small, pink-dressed girl being hugged by a tall, dark-skinned boy, both with a scared look on their faces.

"We should be safe here for now…" The girl said in relief, with her body falling due to the exhaust.

"Huh… Glimmer…" Bow, who managed to grab his friend before she hit the floor, cautiously said as his finger appointed forward. "I think we were better outside…"

"Urg! Are you kidding me?!" The girl groaned.

At another time, Catra would be playing around her newfound enemies from the Rebellion, getting on their nerves as she enjoyed their reactions.

At that moment, she was thankful to them as a grin rose on her face.

The stress was taking over, her mind was not getting the rest it needed, and she really wanted something to put her claws on.