Adora walked through these unfamilier halls of the ruins unsheathing the Sword of Protection from her back as she navigated the place.
"Hello?" She called out in hopes of something. "I carry the sword of She-Ra I've come here for help, is anyone here?"
As Adora approached the main chamber of the ruins the same hologram she had seen before materialized right infront of her.
"Greetings!" the hologram greeted causing Adora to shriek and jump back. "What is your query?"
This caused Catra who had been observing her from the shadows to smirk at her sherik.
"Oh" Adora breathed and recomposed herself from the sudden shock. "I need your help to heal my friend. She's been cursed, and I-I don't know how to save her. The legends say that She-Ra could heal people using this sword….How do I do that?" Adora asked getting a bit nasally and whiny towards the end of her question.
The hologram seemed to pause for a moment as if processing her request.
"...What is your query?" The hologram repeated.
"Oh not this again.." Adora scoffed. "For the honor of Grayskull!"
Adora transformed into her She-Ra form in a blinding lights that caused Catra to need to look away or be dazzled.
"How about now?" Adora asked the hologram.
The hologram's color changed. "Administrator detected. welcome She-Ra."
"One more time. What can you tell me about this sword?" Adora asked.
"Subject: The Sword of Protection." The hologram began. "Classification: portable Runestone keyed exclusively to Administrator: She-Ra, Princess of Power."
"How can I use the sword to heal my friend?" Adora asked, happy to have made some headway.
"Query not recognized." The hologram replied
Adora groaned and ran a hand down her face looking irritated. "The legends say the sword has healing powers. Is that true?"
"One of the Sword of Protection's many intended functions is to heal and restore balance." The hologram answered.
"But how do I do that?" Adora asked with an annoyed smile.
"Query not recognized." The hologram repeated.
"How do I use the sword to heal people!" Adora shouted.
The hologram be an to repeat the same phrase causing Adora to slump over and made sound that was a mix of a groan and cry.
Suddenly she was struck by inspiration rembering a name from her first time holding the sword.
"I need to speak with Light Hope." Adora demanded.
"Light Hope?" The hologram said nearly sounding like a question.
"Light Hope. That's her name isn't it?" Adora pushed. "The woman I saw when I touched the sword for the first time? Where is she?"
"Yes, Light Hope is here." The hologram confirmed. "She has been waiting for you."
"Can I talk to her?" Adora asked hoping she would finally get some useful information.
"You will meet her soon enough." Stated the hologram. "But first, you must let go."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Adora scratched her head in confusion.
"You are not ready yet." The hologram responded."You must let go."
"Let go of what?" Adora asked getting anxious.
"Query not recognized." The hologram responded back to its unhelpful self.
Adora just groaned in irritation.
"Wow this place sucks!" Catra laughed. Starling Adora.
"Who's there!?" Adora shouted and accidently fired a beam from her sword in Catra's direction.
Catra ducked out of the way as the blast put a hole in the wall behind her.
"Hey watch it!" Catra shrieked her tail frizzled.
"Catra? What are you doing here?" The blond asked.
But before Catra could answer the entire room turned to a redened hue and hummed with energy.
"Unauthorized presence detected. Security protocol activated." The hologram stated as it disappeared the room staying red.
"Oh no no no not again" Adora said in panic looking around the room.
"Uh what the fuck was that?!" Catra yelled.
"This is bad you're not supposed to be here Catra." Adora spoke.
The multiple doors in the room began to slam shut on the two. In a moment of desperation and panic Adora grabbed Catra's hand and began to run to on of the closing exits only to be met by a swarm of large bug-like robots similar to the first creature she had seen when she had transformed into She-Ra for the first time.
"What are those!?" Catra gasped in terror at the creepy spiderbots.
"Also not good!" Adora replied turning and running on the opposite direction still pulling Catra with her.
The final door slammed shit right as the two girls were about to make it through. Adora mustered all the strength she could and lifted the sealed door up over her head reopening their escape.
"Come on we need to get out of here!" Adora grunted at Catra as she strained to keep the door open.
Catra jumped through and Adora dropped the door only for one of the creatures to started to rip through it. The ex-horde soldiers ran down the hallway to escape, panting.
Suddenly all the lights overhead start to flicker off one by one. From the darkness appear the glowing red eyes of the spiders. Adora and Catra look to eachother and at the same time shrieked and ran in the opposite direction.
"What the hell is going on Adora?!" Catra yelled while running. "Why are those things trying to kill us!?"
"They are trying to kill YOU!" Adora corrected keeping pace with the magicat. "This place sees you as an invader."
"Well can you tell them to STOP?!" Catra shouted and glared.
"No, I can't tell them to STOP!" Adora shouted back on clear frustration. "Clearly nothing in here is listening to me!"
The two raced around a coenor only to find themselves at a dead end. Adora halts as the monstrous spider turn the corner after them.
"Adora what are you-"
"Stand back" Adora inturupted as she sliced the wall and ceiling raining large chunks of debris down on the spiders and themselves.
The spiders screeched as they were buried alive. But before the same could happen to them Adora grabbed Catra close and put the sword over thier heads before transforming it into a shield to protect them.
Both girls coughed as the dust settled and Adora detransfeomed back to her normal state.
"You shouldn't be here Catra." Adora looked at her former friend with concern. "Those things aren't going to stop until they get you, and as long as I'm protecting you, they'll see me as a threat, too."
"The it's a good thing I didn't ASK you to protect me." Catra scoffed annoyed.
Adora stammer incredulously from Catra's rebuttals. "Why are you here anyway and how did you even find this place?"
"I'm here because a certain blond idiot rushed off into the Whispering Woods without a Magicat Ranger, OR bothering to tell anyone where the hell she was going." Catra shot Adora a very annoyed look. "As for how I was following you, and even if I wasn't the temple shot out a bright glowing light into the sky visible for miles… it wasn't that hard to track down."
Adora blushed meekly at the answer feeling like a fool. She soon shook it of remembering they were not out of danger yet. "Come on we need to keep moving those things could be back any minute."
Catra looked around seeing only one way they could go. "Lead the way princess hairpoof." She bowed and mocked Adora.
Adora rolled her eyes but couldn't help but give a small smile as she took the lead.
The two walked through the ruins in silence neither haveing the will to initiate idle talk at the momant. Waterfalls rushed on either side of them as they made thier way to another alcove.
"Great another dead end." The magicat sighed starting to turn back.
Adora however noticed the wall looked weirly similar to the first door on these ruins she opened.
"No wait it's not." The blond inturjected and placed her hand on the wall. "Eternia!" She spoke the the wall opened up revealing a path.
Catra looked at Adora with a cocked eyebrow clearly wanting an answer.
"Long story." Adora said looking to Catra and proceeded into the room.
The room was pitch black as far as the eye could see. Adora pulled the Sword of Protection using the runestone as a light in hopes of seeing anything tono avail.
"Woooow you found the infinite darkness room." Catra mocked. " Let's get out of here and find another-"
As Catra turned around to leave she noticed the door was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh come on why is the deal with this stupid place!?" Catra shouted out in rage.
"I think I see something." Adora called out to Catra and pointed to a light in the distance and began to walk to it. "Hello?, Light Hope?"
The girls approached the light and study it before a blinding flash over takes them and suddenly they see themselves back in the Fright Zone.
"What is going on?" Adora looked to Catra for an answer.
"Why would I know?" The Halfmoon princess defended herself. "There is no way that we could be back in the Fright Zone and even it we could be why the hell would I want to be back in this hell pit?"
"Let me go!" Young yet familiar voice shouted out.
Adora and Catra turned to the direction of the sound only to see Shadow Weaver holding onto a young version of Catra.
Catra lunged at Shadow Weaver in an attempt to save her younger self the witch had planned only to glitch through the image.
"Silence beast." Shadow Weaver spoke. "It is time you forget your past life, from now on you shall be nothing more then a pet to my ward."
The teens both looked on in horror as the witch casted she spell on the young princess leaving the child in a daze before setting her up in a discarded box labeled as applesauce.
The visage of Shadow Weaver melted into the ground and the running of small feet echoed down the hall. A curious young Adora raced by noticing the box and opened it to investigate.
When the box popped open the child was met with the face of a kitty girl hissing at the bright light.
"Kitty!" The young Adora shouted and hugged the Magicat. "My name's Adora what's yours!"
"I I don't know.." the magikitten flattened her ears.
"You don't know your own name?" Child Adora gasped. "That's no good you gotta have a name.. hmmm well you look like a kitty soooo how about Catra!"
"Catra.."The image of young Catra blinked testing the name out before smiling. "I am Catra!"
The child Adora the jumped into the box to laugh and play with her new best friend.
The world faded back to the temple with Catra and Adora in the place of thier younger selves Adora pinning Catra to the ground in a hug.
"Argh get off of me!" Carra shouted and kicked Adora off at full force.
The teens looked away from eachother both of them blushing too emberassed by the hug.
"I..I didn't know she planted you like that." Adora hugged her legs to her chest. "And she called you a-" Adora shuddered unwilling to attempt to finish the dehumanizing thought.
"A Pet" Catra finished with a scoff a little humoured by Adora's flinching at the words utterance. "It's not like she was the only one who saw me like that... Just the little cat following her master around."
"I never saw you like that!" Adora shouted panicked that Catra would ever think she was capable of thinking about something to vulgur.
"Uh huh.." Catra rolled her eyes and got up and walked to continue looking to a way out.
"I'm serious Catra!" Adora yelled racing after her. "Please don't think I ever did!"
"What even was that crap anyway?" Catra asked completely blowing off Adora's plead.
"I think it was some kind of simulation." Adora theorized. " It was tapping into our memories. Why, I have no idea…"
"This place is so fucking weird!" Catra groaned. "How can you deal with all of this magic stuff?"
"I'm only dealing with it because I need to figure out how to heal Glimmer!" Adora glare and proceed to get right upmin Catra's face."After SOMEONE got her cursed!"
"What do you want? An apology?" Catra asked as she pushed Adora out of her space. "'Cause you're not getting one. Besides Entrapta's already got a way to fix Sparkles. YOU just don't want to wait."
The girls continued down the path in silence for a whole let untill Adora work up the nerve to ask a question
"Can I ask you something?" Asked Adora sounding concerned and serious.
"Can I stop you?" Catra asked back rolling her eyes not bothering to look back.
Both of the girls fell back gasping as they both almost fell down a large hole opened up infront of them. Looking a round they noticed the only way to proceed was over a fallen piller.
"..Why did you help me escape after Shadow Weaver captured us?" Adora questioned
"Seriously?." Catra grunted as she started to walk across the piller. "That's what you decided to ask?"
"It's the one thing I can't figure out." Adora clarified. "You didn't have to do that. You could've gotten caught. Infactyou KNEW you would be caught! N-not that I have any issues with the results you got outnyou found your family Uwaah!"
As Adora rambled trying very hard not to sound like a moron. And failing ended misstepped at the end of the piller losing her footing and began to fall backwards down the pit.
Adora thought she was doomed untill she felt something grasp onto her arm and pull her back from the brink. She looked up to see Catra having saved her
"So I need to ask.." Adora continued once she was back to safety. "Why did you do it knowing what would happen?"
"Did you really think I would just let Shadow Weaver erase your memory?" Catra asked with a stern look.
Adora thought for a second about all the times in the Fright Zone Catra had her back. Despite everyone calling her lazy and useless Adora always knew the real Catra. The Catra who would pretend to sleep just to keep Adora with her longer, the Catra who would always helpmger hide whenever she got sick, The Catra who no matter what would always be there for her when she needed someone. To Adora the answer was clear
"Absolutely not." The blonde said with a soft smile.
Catra gave a small smile back pulling her further from the pit. "So you did have faith in me." She mused out loud.
"Always." Adora stated with finality as if it were a truth of the universe.
Catra's tail instinctually brushes against Adora's hand as they continued walking.
"It wasn't all bad growing up in the Fright Zone, was it?" Catra asked nonchalantly. "I mean, you still have some good memories, right?"
"Of course I do." Adora said 'and all of them with you.' she want to add. "But that doesn't change the fact the Horde was evil...I couldn't stay there after seeing what I saw."
Catra gave a small grunt to aknowledge hearing Adora and continued walking.
"Hey. Missed you too.." Adora continued.
"Wha- I didn't miss you!" Catra scoffed as her face tinged red. "Get over yourself!" Catra kicked at her former bestie causing a yelp from her.
"Not until you admit you like me!" Adora laughed as she got Catra in a choak hold and began to noogie her.
"I don't like you.." Catra grumbled sternly as she broke the hold and pushed her snorting assailant away
Adora kept laughing as she backed up to a wall only to phase through it. She yelled as she hit the ground only to find it did not look heard a familier buzz and looked down to see the blue hexagonal tile floor of the horde training hall.
"Oh come on!" Catra groaned knowing exactly which memory this was.
A preteen Catra phased through the two of them charging at a preteen Adora with a training staff and shouting a battle cry. The two girls clashed, electricity sparklng of thier weapons, and they appeared on even footing. The young Catra poked a clawed on the young Adora's forehead. The young Adora struggled her eyes upwards to see it while the young Catra laughed.
The Adora goes for a swipe only for the Catra to easily dodge the attack kicking the staff out of the Adora's hands. The Catra goes for a strike only for the Adora to grab the staff and fling Catra to the ground a solid 10 feet away.
"Owww." The Catra groaned feigning injury.
"Are you okay?" The Adora asked in concern.
At that moment the young Catra uses the opening to sweep the young Adora's feet. Both girls were now on the ground and trying to pin one another with the young Catra managing to get ontop. At that moment she was rushed by the remainder of the squad and was forced to 3v1 Kyle Lonnie and Rogelio as Adora rolled away.
The young Catra started with the weakest link Kyle kicking him in the chest causing his chestplate to buzz signifying his elimination. Next she grabbed Kyle's staff using it to block both Rogelio's and Lonnie's strikes. The young Magicat then used her opponents weight agianst them sliding to the side and kicking both of their ankles causing the two to buckle. At that moment she struck the staff at thier chests eliminatiing them both. But as The Catra tried to catch her breath the Adora lunged at her and without the energy to defend after the gang up the Catra fell to the ground eliminated by the Adora. The young Catra got up and marched over to her three other squadmates.
"What the heck was that!?" The young Catra snarled. "Way to gang up on me!"
"It was Lonnie's idea!" The Kyle squeaked pointing at Lonnie intimidated by the Magicat.
"Watch your tongue freak!" The visage of Lonnie glared. "We were just makeing sure the pet didn't hurt her owner."
The child Catra balled her fists doing all she could to hold back tears. She would not let herself be seen weak at this moment.
"Hey you did amazing!" The Adora called over to the Catra. "You took out 3 cadets at once! I didn't hurt you did I?"
"Psht no way." The Catra put her bravado back on. "You're just lucky I let you win."
"Riiiight.." The child Adora smirked unconvinced.
"I'm serious!" The Magicat said feigning confidence. "If I came in first, people might expect me to actually start doing stuff around here. Trust me, second place suits me just fine."
"Yeah okay," the Adora said smiling at her friend. "Let's go cool off."
"Eh go on I'll catch up." The Catra replied shooing her in the direction. Of the others l.
The Catra then made her way to the locker room sink and began to let the tears out gritting her teeth. When she looked in the mirror Catra saw herself at her current age having agian taken the position of her younger self.
The mirror suddenly shifted as the room fell away, inside the glass were the glowing red eyes of the spiders.
"Unauthorized presence detected." The hologram's voice echoed around her. "Security protocol activated."
The spider then came through the mirror shooting a sticky green webbing at her causing the Magicat Princess to scream.
Having heard Catra's scream Adora ran through the temple just in time to see Catra being wrapped up and dragged through the mirror. Adora pulled as hard as she could trying to save Catra but it was ultimately fruitless as the spider's pull was too strong and the grip broke.
Catra struggled in panic calling out for Adora but as soon as she saw the mirror quickly dissipate she knew she was on her own, she couldn't rely on Adora to come to her rescue. Once again she would need to save herself. Catra took a breath and steeled herself. She unsheathed her claws ripping the thick goo apart before setting her sights on the spider.
The spider chitted and spat more of the green goo at Catra who dodged it and linger herself onto the spider's head. With her claws out Catra ripped into the mechanical red eysles of the spider and starts tearing it apart. Cables wires and oil spewed out our the creature.
Catra was proud of herself. She had managed to slay one of these monstocities all on her own. As she crept forward to land the killing blow Adora leaped up from behind it impailing the beast and it killing it.
"Are you okay?" Adora asked looking relived she found Catra.
"I had it! Catra shouted fuming at having her kill stolen.
'sure you did.' was the response on the tip of Adora's tongue but decided against saying it. One look at Catra told her a joke would not have been appreciated at that moment.
"In know you did." Adora nodes. " Your Catra there was no way a dumb thing like this would take you out."
"Then why did you take my kill!?" Catra asked still agitated.
"Well.. just because I know you can do something doesn't mean I'm going to sit back and watch." Adora tried to explain but could see Catra did not fully understand her sentiment. " I'm not doubting your ability, but if I see my friends being attacked I'm going to help them. I can't just do nothing."
"That didn't stop you in the Horde." Catra looked away.
"I'm sorry Catra." Adora lamented. "I I didn't know our friends were saying such awful things to you."
Catra responded with a shril laugh. "Oh wow you really-, pft I knew you were an idiot Adora but this? "
"W-whats so funny?" Adora asked unsettled by the wrong sounding laugh.
Catra composed herself and crossed her arms over her chest eyes looking straight into Adora's own. "They were YOUR friends Adora not OURS." Catra answered. "I thought that was fucking obvious."
"Then why didn't you tell me?!" Adora blurted out. "I am a moron I won't defend that, but you never came to me about this! How was I supposed to help you if I don't know what the problem is!?"
Catra snarled and turned away in a huff. " I hate this stupid place! Let's just get out of here and get back to Halfmoon!. " The princess said, walking on trying to ignore Adora's rebuttal, and jumped over a few holes in the ruin's floor.
Before long the ruins started to glitch again signifying another memory was about to play.
"Let's just get this over with…" Catra sighed awaiting another awful memory.
The girls found themselves back in their horde barracks, the adjacent locker rooms sounding full.
"I'm telling you. This new princess is no joke. She wiped the floor with our whole recon squad. Twelve feet tall at least! Took out every one of our machines with nothing but a sword!" The two heard a vision of Lonnie say from inside the barracks. "We were lucky to get out of there alive."
As the two entered they could see the past Catra licking her wounds as Lonnie regaled the other senior cadets with the tail of Adora's first battle.
"Oh, please." The past Catra scoffed. "She's like every other princess: all sparkle, no substance. She caught us off-guard. That is all."
" Hmph You were the only one who saw her up close, and you didn't even land a hit on her." Lonnie chided. "What? Did you freeze up?"
You think I'm scared of some princess? Past Catra growled. "I could take her out whenever I want. I know her secret."
"You didn't tell anyone…"Adora's eyes widened at the revelation.
"And what's that?" Lonnie challenged the Magicat.
Instead of getting mad the past Catra simply smirked feeling like she held all the cards. "Hmm. Like I'd tell you."
"Easy, pet." Lonnie both warned and demeaned Catra. "Adora's not here to protect you anymore. So tread lightly or Shadow Weaver might turn you into a pillowcase."
Catra clawed through Lonnie's skull growling as the images just phased through the attack with no harm taken. "It just HAD to be this one."
The vision did not end there. The past Catra made her way to the bunk bed she and Adora would sleep in and began to rip the bedding apart. Past Catra wept tears of loss and she tore and beat the fabric until it was nothing but shreds.
Adora wanted to comfort Catra but the latter shrugged off any attempt to touch her.
"Catra!" They heard the sickening voice of Shadow Weaver call out and both the past Catra and the two viewers jumped.
"You insolent worthless beast!" The witch smeared. "You failed to retrieve Adora. I should have known better than to let an animal track her down. "
"I did exactly what you told me to! You didn't warn us of the princess being there!" Past Catra countered.
"I gave you a simple task: bring back Adora. " The witch sneared condescendingly. "Instead, your squadron is ravaged, your war machines destroyed, and Adora is still missing….what a waste of resources trying to teach a mongrel to be a soldier."
"Newsflash hag!" Past Catra glared. "if Adora wanted to come home, she'd be here right now. Adora's gone. She defected. And I'm starting to think she had the right idea!"
Adora's jaw dropped. Catra actually HAD thought of leaving the Horde … the soldier
Minds raced trying to see if there was any way she would have worked better or tried harder that resulted in Catra defecting earlier.
She was interrupted by the image of Shadow Weaver cloaking the room in darkness. "You impudent whelp!, You dare threaten defection?!, you pet, I have let you live for far too long, Lord Hordak will decide how best to get rid of you!"
The room faded to black and both girls were back in the temple and Adora felt sick to her stomach.
"She tried to kill you.." Adora whimpered trying to banish the thought of Catra dieing out of her mind.
"DUH!" Catra yelled at her. " Of course she did! What did you think would happen when I didn't bring you back?!"
"I'm sorry Catra I should have let you come with me.." Adora weeped. "I left… I left and left you covering for me.."
Catra smirked In triumph before her expression quickly fell to a wince. seeing tears fall from Adora's face hurt. She should feel happy, a dark part of her thought. After all the agony she put you through, after years of living in her shadow now it was Adora's turn to feel that inadequacy and fear.
Catra shook her head. She knew thoughts like that were not right. But she felt them. She had actually even if only for a moment felt Adora deserved that pain and that fact made her want to vomit.
All of the negative things screamed at Catra all through her life boarded her at this moment the Magicat did what she did best… Ran.
Adora screamed out for Catra but as the ex-horde soldier ran out of sight more of the spider monsters swarmed her. Adora tried to activate her sword but one of the spiders spit their green goo out at the blade and fling it out of Adora's hands forcing the girl to fight them unarmed.
As she ran Catra heard a cacophony of voices from the visions and her own past shouting at her and putting her down. Shadow Weaver would call her an insolent beast, from Lonnie she would hear the hated word "pet". And from Adora she would get the scream she had let out when Catra had stuck her in the back with the stun baton.
Catra's ears perked up when from behind her she heard the sound of soft crying. She turned around to see a young version of herself curled up in blankets with her face hidden.
"Catra?" A young Adora peared in from the doorway and walked in in search of her missing friend.
The Adora went into the crying Catra and pulled the blankets down earning a hiss from the younger Magicat.
"Catra it's okay, it's just me." The young Adora said smiling as she sat down next to the young Catra as the latter wiped away her tears.
Catra had to admit to herself that this was something she did truly miss. When just the presence of Adora was enough to dry tears.
"It doesn't matter what they do to us, you know?" The young Adora stated with both Catras listening intently. "You look out for me, and I look out for you. Nothing really bad can happen as long as we have each other."
"You promise?" Both the young and present Catras ask.
"I promise." The Adora smiled and hugged her Catra while her Catra clinged to her affectionately.
"Now come on." The young Adora giggled. "Let's go back out."
As the two kids started heading off to leave the young Catra stopped and stared directly at Catra for a long moment before catching up with her Adora.
As the room began to fade away back to an unsimulated part of the temple Catra's eyes were filled with determination. She knew exactly what she needed to do.
Back with the spiders Adora was having a difficult time fighting them all off. After shattering a spider's eye with a few punches she ran to her gunked up sword that had been overlooking a chasm and struggled to rip it out of the binding.
She screamed as she was struck in the back by some of the goo and a spider lifted her over the edge of the chasm.
"Stop it, I'm not your enemy!" Adora shouted and struggled. "Just let me talk to Light Hope!"
Adora shoved the spider's leg with her feet which caused her to fall over the edge of the chasm but as she fell Adora quickly uses the goo to hold herself onto the ledge.
Adora then heard the sound of rending metal mixed with sparks and familier grunts. The sounds of the spiders quickly died.
"Hey Adora~, how's it hanging?" Catra smirked looking over the ledge.
"Catra!" Adora smiled filled with an overflowing joy.
"You know what I was right.." Catra said looking directly into the blondes striking blue eyes. "You really do look stupid down there~"
In one solid motion of true trust Catra extended her arm down and Adora without even thinking immediately grasped onto Catra's hand.
Catra pulled Adora up away from the pit and both girls laid on the ground to rest .
"You came back.." Adora stated with the deepest smile.
"Oh course I did." Catra smiled back, brushing her tail over Adora's eyes. "You look out for me and I'll look out for you." I made that promise and I intended to keep it.
Adora didn't need to hear anymore. She hugged onto Catra and softly cried tears of joy. There was still a lot the two needed to discuss and more they both needed to apologize for. But right now Adora felt. Looking at Catra she was given another chance at her promise and was now even more dead set on keeping it. She refused to lose Catra again.
