A/N: Hooftah, another lengthy chapter to my new and old fans! Gotta say i'm actually having a blast writing these (how quickly I updated this being proof of that)! It's like I said before, while this will try to stick somewhat to the show, you can be assured of key differences here and there when needed. Thanks to those already reading and following the story, I hope not to disappoint!
Now onto the show!
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"Ngh..." Catra mumbled in her sleep as she tossed in the corner of Adora's bed.
The last few hours, both awake and asleep, had been a relatively big headache for the young teen. For the last several hours, her head has been filled with brief flashes and images of the distorted scenes the mysterious voice showed her. They would appear for a millisecond every couple of minutes, just enough times for her to comprehend what she was seeing after awhile. What made them so troubling were the echoing voices calling her name every now and then, as if asking for her directly.
At least, she assumed it was for her. What bothered her the most out of it was how it never sounded complete. Whether the images distorted themselves inside her head or the voice did, she never got a complete vision of one or the other. It's like the visions themselves were living and struggling to actually tell her everything she needed, like it was actually suffocating to call out whatever she needed to hear.
All of this played in her head for the last several hours, and what she was hoping would be a few hours of relative peace only ended up being a colossal nightmare. As opposed to a peaceful slumber of either a happier dream or nothing at all, her dreams were filled with never-ending visions of these strange happenings, going back and forth repeatedly without end. It was actually worse in this case because of how frequently it repeated.
Eventually it reached it's climax when she finally awoke on the bed. While the images began to end, the voice kept calling to her louder and more vocal no matter how hard she squeezed her ears. "Catra... Catra... CATRA!"
"SHUTUP-!" Catra nearly yelped as she sprang from bed. It took her a moment to realize no one but the voice was talking to her at this time, Adora still sound asleep in her bed by the looks of it. And yet while the voices appeared to have ceased, there was still a ringing sensation going on throughout Catra's head, an irritation that wouldn't stop until she obeyed whatever was calling her. "Alright, alright, I'll go, whatever." She muttered to herself quietly as she walked out of the room.
She didn't know if the voice could hear her or not and she was already aware of how crazy it was that she was physically responding to some strange voice only she could hear in her head. If this was some form of brain damage, then at least she knew she was going crazy, which was a much better alternative than the annoyance that built up her headache.
All the while she was completely unaware of Adora suspiciously opening her eyes.
...
"Shut up, shut up, shut up..." Catra continued to mutter to herself as she banged her head softly, quietly exiting the door as the other cadets slept.
The good news was that the images had finally stopped entirely and the voice no longer echoed throughout her head! The bad news was that literally every instant that she so much as decided against going back to the woods, they instantly came back again. It was like having an annoying dog that kept barking outside your home every time you tried to sleep! Whatever this thing was about she hoped it was worth it because at the rate it was going, if it was brain damage, she was willing to jump another hundred feet from the air and plummet to the ground if it meant turning it off!
"Hey, where are you going?" She heard Adora whisper to her as the door opened again.
"Wha- Nowhere! Just go back to sleep." Catra whispered quickly as she tried to move on.
"Not until you tell me where you're going!" Adora demanded as she grabbed Catra's wrist.
"Ugh!" She growled rolling her eyes." If you must know I'm- Ah!" She quickly yelped as she covered Adora's mouth and pulled her behind several pipes protruding from the ground to the ceiling. She had to wait until one of the scouting droids patrolling the halls left before she could continue. "-going back to the woods."
"The Whispering Woods? What for?"
"How should I know? But ever since I came back from that place I've had this stupid voice inside my head that I can't turn off!"
It pained Adora to admit something so crazy, but there was a good chance Catra was right about earlier. "Maybe you really are brain damaged? Come on, I'll take you to the infirmary-" She suggested as she tried pulling Catra along, only for the feline herself to swipe her hand away.
"Wha- No way!" She tried her best not to sound too insensitive, knowing Adora was trying to help. "If we go to the infirmary, they'll want to know how I got like this in the first place, and then they'll find out about the skiff we stole and we'll all be in trouble!"
"No we won't," Adora insisted, "we'll just make something up, like you banged your head in a sparring match or something."
"That's even worse! I just got promoted to Senior Cadet this morning. If we tell them I got brain damaged from a stupid sparring match or something, I'll be demoted for sure at best!"
"Then we'll just come up with something else or-"
"Ngh..." Catra moaned as she rubbed her head again. The longer she paused like this, the stronger the ringing sensation became, and the longer the two remained in the hallway like this, the better chance they both had of being caught. "Look, I really can't explain it, but I need to go back to the forest and figure out what's going on, okay?"
"Then I'll come with you." It was moments like these Catra really hated. Her friend always insisting on doing whatever it took to help without realizing how much trouble it would cause the both of them eventually.
"Absolutely not! If Shadow Weaver finds out you left because of me, she'll skin me alive!" She stammered.
"But Catra-"
"Look, if I go to the forest and don't find anything, I promise to come all the way back and we can go to the infirmary together. If I do find something, I'll bring it back and that'll be my proof about everything. Okay?" That was the only agreement Catra could think of at that moment, the increasing ringing becoming harder and harder to concentrate and plan out with each passing seconds.
Sadly, Adora was still having a problem processing this. It was her fault in the first place that any of this happened after borrowing a skiff. If she hadn't done that in the first place, they never would've gone on a wild ride through the Fright Zone, entered the Whispering Woods, get Catra knocked out of it from a hundred feet in the air, and finally end up with what appeared to be brain damage. There was too much of a guilt factor on her end of things. "I don't know... Do you absolutely promise to come back if you don't find anything?"
"Just give me two hours, three tops." Catra smiled, relieved that she was finally reaching some common ground with her only friend.
Perhaps a little too relieved as she didn't bother waiting for Adora to finish her reply. "Well... I don't-"
"Great, knew you'd understand. Gotta go!" Catra quickly sputtered as she quickly and quietly rushed down the hallway.
"Catra? Catra! Ugh..." This day kept getting more worrying for the young girl.
Now she was ending up with a headache...
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"You're not crazy, you're just traveling into the woods because a disembodied voice told you to... You're not crazy, you're just traveling into the woods because a disembodied voice told you to... " This is what Catra had to repeat to herself for what she felt like the last half hour.
She couldn't really process how long she had been in the woods for, nor did she care anymore. Every time she started doubting herself the ringing sensation came back to her, just like it did every time she, as she assumed, took a wrong turn, because whenever she did the ringing instantly grew twice as loudly which was followed by a distorted image in her head. No matter how many times she tried to tell herself all of this, the reality of the matter came back to haunt her.
She was crazy. There was no disembodied voice. There couldn't be! She didn't know if she'd been out here for minutes or hours anymore as her ability to process time dwindled with each individual ringing. What could've been a few hours already felt like mere minutes while what could've been a few seconds felt like hours to her. Nothing about this day was going out right!
Was she crazy? Was there no disembodied voice? Thinking back on it, she remembered Adora mentioning something about strange old creatures right before she fell out of the skiff. Maybe one of these creatures bit her or stung her after she passed out, or maybe she landed right on top of one? Maybe they were poisonous in some way that affected her mind, or maybe the bush itself was poisonous and gave off some poisonous pollen or something that caused her to hallucinate all this! This would be a lot easier if her crazy side didn't ring louder as if to tell her she was wrong!
Every time she tried to make sense of it, this whole sword dilemma came back to haunt her. First there was a distorted image, then a disembodied voice, then she finally had a ringing going off in her head when her vision returned to normal. She had no idea if seconds were passing during these distortions or minutes, just that the sooner she figured out what was going on, the sooner this problem would be resolved and she could finally get some sleep for crying out loud! Especially since going to the infirmary started to sound like a good idea regardless of consequences.
"What the heck am I even doing out here? Adora has to be right." Catra muttered to herself as she pushed her way through the foliage. "A stupid sword covered in stupid vines in the stupid woods? She has to be right, there's no way any of that stuff could really happen! If I'm lucky, this is all a hallucination or a really bad dream. Either I wake up any moment, or I go home, forget all of this happened, get to the infirmary, and-" That's when it happened.
There, through the thickness of the forest, she saw a familiar glow of light emanating. There was no way it couldn't be from the same thing in her hallucination, that brilliant, mesmerizing glow being an exact replica of what she once saw.
"No way..." Catra found herself in disbelief as she neared it, not realizing that the ringing had finally come to a complete end as she did.
Sure enough, as she pushed her way through some of the large leafy bushes of the Woods, there it stood; a tranquil, almost angelic light, shining through the forest, all coming from a mysterious, possibly powerful, sword that was trapped in a tangle of sturdy looking vines. The very same sword from her vision, the very same thing the voice kept calling for her to vine.
The very thing she needed to get everything she wanted.
"JACKPOT!" She couldn't help but cheer. After all, how couldn't she when everything was so perfectly lined up?!
Everything she set out to since they stole the skiff finally came in full circle! They explored the woods, found a mysterious object that was bound to be full of power if the light it shined was any indication. Oh man this was too good to be true!
She could see it now, bringing the sword to Lord Hordak himself, everyone bowing before her as he makes her his second in command, or maybe even his right hand! And there at the bottom of the steps would be a pitiful looking Shadow Weaver, forced to bow before her so that even her head was planted firmly on the ground, which Catra would happily step onto just so she would know her place.
And then, the scene would instantly shift to an unspecified amount of time later on where everything is made out of Catra's perfect image of her own Kingdom. After getting rid of Hordak through whatever means necessary, there Catra would be, sitting on her own kind of throne, with Adora rightfully placed as the head of her entire army! And like before, she could picture the perfect spot for Shadow Weaver: at the bottom of everything as a measly janitor mobbing and sweeping up everything around her, if she was lucky.
Heck, why stop there? After that, her armies would set out to conquer all the surrounding kingdoms of Eternia, commanding all of them to submit to her rule and power! She wouldn't just stop at one kingdom, she would continue on to the next, and the next, until the entire world itself was within her grasp! And then and only then would everything be hers, right down to the very last bit of dirt across this planet.
And nothing, absolutely nothing, was going to ruin that opportunity... at least that was the mindset she had before she heard two other voices coming into the clearing.
"Bow, just let me lead the way, okay?" A feminine voice said as a mysterious figure appeared from the forest.
"The light came from the edge of the forest." The other voice spoke out, sounding similar to that of a young teen boy.
"Yes, you saw the light. It's this way."
"The tracker pad says otherwise."
"It's this way-"
"Huh!" The two figures gasped simultaneously at the sight. Their eyes instantly locked on to Catra's very own, all three of them going wide-eyed at the sight of each other, each of them taking several seconds to so much as respond.
"Horde Soldier!"
"I see her!"
"Ahhhh!" They both let out a warcry. Catra eyed the two briefly before shifting her gaze back to the sword. She came all this way to claim it and knew that ultimate victory was within her grasp.
Paying no mind to the duo, she gritted her teeth as she charged head first at the sword, claws stretching out just in case she had to get violent. After the major headache she's had to endure for the last several hours she was not about to lose the only thing that annoyed her up till now! Surprise still came to her as a purplish light blinded her temporarily, quickly taking the form of the young girl from earlier who suddenly appeared beside the sword. She didn't care how young the kid was, the sword was hers and she was willing to fight for it!
Looking back to Catra herself, the young girl wasted no time as Catra reached for her, quickly teleporting out of the way before Catra grabbed her and reappearing several yards behind her with the sword in hand. Such magical ability was strange to Catra, but it did little to stall her as she quickly chased after her. Thanks to her feline qualities, she took the opportunity to leap straight into the air, ready to pounce on the poor princess like the little mouse she was.
*WHAM*
That was before she was suddenly in the side by an oncoming arrow with a fairly large bulbous design on the end, almost in the same appearance as a boxing glove itself. While it was somewhat fortunate it wasn't more barbed and deadly, Catra refused to let any gratitude be known from her as she quickly sprang back to her feet, resuming the chase once more.
"Bow, catch!" Glimmer quickly called out, throwing the large sword at the bowman. Bow found himself in a startle as he quickly dropped his precious weapon, being forced to grab the sword with both arms before he dropped it and without cutting himself, and quickly took off on foot thereafter. Catra didn't even get the chance to catch the purple girl herself, who she could've used as a potential hostage, as she quickly teleported again, this time reappearing at Bow's side.
"Grrrr I'm getting really annoyed with this game!" Catra growled as she gave chase. From what she could gather, she was faster than the two, and from what she could observe from the purple girl's powers, she could only teleport a short distance away while she was in a hurry, meaning she had the terrain advantage as long as she didn't slow down. "If you drop the sword now, I promise not to hurt either of you!"
To her surprise, the purple girl appeared to have the same train of thought as she glared back at the supposed spy, reappearing several feet in front of her with a strange glow in her hands, halting Catra where she stood. "Since when do Horde Soldiers not hurt anyone?"
*boom*
"Agh!" Catra screamed covering her eyes. This was one of those few times she hated her animal-like qualities. Despite the increased senses they gave her, they also came back to bite her when the increased senses worked against her, such as her increased sense of sight giving her a near-blinding flash from the Glimmer's purple explosion. If it wasn't for the fact the explosion itself was very minor, the blast could've dazed Catra for several seconds at least.
Still she was not discouraged, powering through the haziness as best she could as she saw the two running again. She came so close to getting everything she's ever wanted and she would sooner let Shadow Weaver skin her alive before she'd ever let this opportunity slip.
Reacting quickly on her own, catching the princess off guard, she quickly leapt into the air onto her shoulders, just as quickly leaping off those and pushing her to the ground as she leapt into the air again. Bow found himself at a loss as he realized the catgirl was in the air again and was unable to escape her oncoming strike in time as she toppled right on top of him, knocking the sword out of his arms and straight on ahead.
Catra would've gladly scarred the guy as much as she could if she wasn't in a hurry, focusing her attention entirely on the blade as it slid forward and chasing after it. She couldn't allow these two to take her precious prize, she just couldn't! Without it she'd be going back to her miserable life for however long that was until the end of her days! She failed to realize the purple girl had materialized above her once again until she was right on top of her, tumbling the both of the several feet ahead, nearing the sword itself.
By the time Catra regained her focus, she suddenly found herself locked in the purple girl's arms, the girl holding her right arm as best she could. Before Catra could possibly swipe at the girl, she found her other arm captured by Bow, all three of them now grunting as they struggled to both grab the sword and keep the sword from each other.
"Nghhhh!" Catra growled as she inched her free right foot towards the sword. She didn't care what she had to grab it with, she would've used her tail if it was close enough at this point. She was willing to use everything, and give up anything, at this very moment, to get what she wanted. "The sword... is... MINE!" And with one scream, she managed to touch the sword with the tip of her toe's claw.
And just like when she found it the first time, the entire world around her was engulfed in a brilliantly bright light.
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...
This time the light came in fashion, descending from an absolute world of darkness before Catra herself, who quickly realized the surrounding forest and the other two people she came upon had disappeared. This strange, ominous, light was giving off a dazzling array of sparkles as it grew in front of her, illuminating the scenery that had so drastically changed around her. There was no more greenery, no more forest. All that surrounded her were strange runes and symbols upon what appeared to be mystical enchanted crystals.
"What...?" Catra whispered to herself in disbelief. At least everything was less distorted than last time. She could even see and feel the scenery around her now, including herself. For some reason she felt both calmness and fear from the bizarre happenings around her, something screaming at her that everything was alright and wrong all at the same time.
That is when she appeared. The strange, mysterious, oracle who Catra only glimpsed of the first time she had these visions, now whole and in person, looking straight at her.
"Hello." And now it was speaking to her... unless she was hallucinating again which she found just as likely at this point. "I am Light Hope. I have been waiting a very long time for this moment."
"Y-You can see me?" Catra questioned still in disbelief as she got to her feet.
"Yes." Light Hope responded with an almost robotic tone. "I could not reach you before until you had forged a bond with the sword."
"Forged a bond with the sword... right..." Catra scratched her head in confusion. "Look, before we continue on with this, are we going to get some static thing going on like last time? Because I'm going to ram my head against the tree if I get stuck with another headache of visions in my mind again."
"I apologize for the discomfort previously, but there was an malfunction created when you first came into contact with the blade." Light Hope explained, adding on to Catra's confused state.
"Malfunction? What, was the sword broken or something?"
"I can not comply in my current state. This message is broadcasted in the event of an unforeseen circumstance such as this. I can only respond to certain statements."
"You're kidding... right?" Catra asked in somewhat hopeful disbelief.
"I can not comply in my current state. This message is broadcasted in the event of an unforeseen circumstance such as this. I can only respond to certain statements."
That was a yes. It became more infuriating when Catra realized this person before her was also slightly distorted, though not as much as her previous incarnation.
"Ugh... fine, just give me a minute." Catra scratched at her head as she thought, pacing back and forth. She didn't know where she was at this moment or what was going on. All she wanted at this point were answers to everything within the last few hours, and she was only going to get them to very specific and related questions. "Ok... first question! What is going on- no wait. What is this sword?"
"This sword is a powerful weapon forged by-"
*bzzzt*
"DATA CORRUPTED." Light Hope suddenly distorted entirely for a moment.
"Oh come on!" This was getting really annoying! First she couldn't ask non-specific questions, now she couldn't ask specific questions without a chance of the data either missing or being corrupted for whatever reason! Now she was actually wishing she was brain damaged so she wouldn't have to put up with so much annoyance! "Just tell me what you can then!"
"Affirmative. This sword was created in ages past for the one who was chosen to wield it."
"Chosen to wield it?" Catra pondered the statement for a few seconds. "You mean... me?"
"DATA CORRUPTED. Etheria has need of you, Catra." Catra nearly shouted in anger when she heard the annoying "DATA CORRUPTION" line again, finding herself thankful that it had more to say after. "Will you answer it's call? Will you help fight for the honor of Grayskull?"
"A Gray-Skull? It's honor? What are you talking about? You're not making any sense!" Much to her dismay, much like it had when she previously saw this strange vision, she was met with distortions building up all around here, all flickering between a blueish-to-reddish hue, this time save for Light Hope Herself.
"If you wish for all the answers you must find me..." Light Hope stated as she began to slowly back into the blinding light, her form dissipating along with the scenery around her.
"Wait, no! Don't disappear yet! I'm so confused!" Catra herself began to disappear, her voice fading in and out in waves, presumably coming back to reality as the vision slowly faded. All she had left by the end of this strange meeting were more questions than answers, and Light Hope's last two fading words echoing in her head.
"FIND... ME..."
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"Mmh..." Catra moaned as she slowly came to. Much like before, the vision ended with her waking up again upon the grounds of the Whispering Woods. The only difference this time is that she could feel herself sitting up. That and the unmistakable scent of that she wasn't alone this time.
"Hey! She's awake!" She suddenly heard bow screaming on her left.
"My hearing's FINE! You don't have to yell!" Catra snapped back in his face, her sensitive ears twitching from the recent yelling. A second later she realized Glimmer was kneeling on her right, still glaring daggers at her like she had been all throughout their previous scuffle. "What?" As she tried to move from her spot, her attention shifted to her newly bound hands, finding them tightly pinned together by the wrist. "Okay. No." She grumbled trying to pry them away from each other. She needed just a small bit of slack to get her claws to cut their way through, noting how efficiently the two must've tied them to prevent her from using such an escape.
Sadly for her, they took every precaution for that as their knot tying proved quite effective. Seeing how her current captors were two teens that appeared to be within the same general age as herself, she tried starting up a seemingly-pointless conversation with the two as she tried to think of a plan. "What happened?"
"Quiet, Horde spy, I ask the questions!" The princess shouted. Much to Catra's annoyance, along with the fact she was now taking orders from some wannabe pixie girl, she also had the sword in her hands. Now she was going to have to think of a plan to get out while also not getting cut up into ribbons by the girl who think she owned it. "How did you get into the Whispering Woods?"
"I rode a magical dragon that can shoot fireballs from it's eyes, what do you think?" Catra sneered. "I walked in, duh! And I'm not a spy!" She stated looking back to Bow.
"Sure, sure. You just happened to find yourself in the Whispering Woods, like you just so happened to try and steal our sword." Glimmer pointed out in a sarcastic tone.
"Ok first off, I know it's not yours or it wouldn't be in the middle of nowhere in the first place. Second, I found it first. It's mine!" She exclaimed as Bow stood.
"The Whispering Woods is under the Rebellion's protection. You were lucky to make it as far as you did." She commented walking around the supposedly-helpless captive. "Come on Bow. Let's get this spy back to Bright Moon where she can be interrogated properly.
Ok, so Catra officially had to admit. Out of the many things the supposed princess wannabe had to show, she was rather surprised they had the gull to use interrogation techniques, not that they would've had any effect on herself of course. They probably had no idea what real interrogation was like. Heck, if they wanted to truly interrogate her, they should just force her to live in the Fright Zone for the rest of her life! She watched as Glimmer pulled Bow to the side a few yards away, flicking her ears up as her tail flicked curiously to eavesdrop.
"This is perfect!" She squealed. "Not only do we have the First Ones tech for the Rebellion, we've also captured a Horde spy! My mom is gonna be so impressed!"
"Mama's girl!" Catra insulted shouting over.
"Hey! This is a private conversation, criminal!" Glimmer grumbled as she marched over. "Now come on, on your feet!"
This was going to be a long day...
...
Ok. Step one, Catra had to find a way to get away from these two numbskulls, which was easier said than done since one of them had a bow and arrow, and the other one could teleport in the blink of an eye. Step two, she had to escape after getting the sword back. That alone was going to make the hassle of escaping even more tiresome since it required lugging around the heavy sword while also keeping these two off her back. It wasn't enough that they knew the terrain, but they also had that stupid gadget tracker thing that could show them where she was, or at least the sword, at all times.
Step three, finally find a way out of this place along with all of the aforementioned stuff up above. As much as she hated to admit it, she had no idea where she was at this point in the forest. Her entire sense of direction coming to this place was based solely on the sword itself practically telling her where to go. She might've been able to find her way back to the sword's previous location and find her way out from there, but with tweedle dee and tweedle annoying following her she would've been forced to lose them somewhere else in the forest, and that would've ensured she get lost.
All of these problems piled on atop of each other as each one made the situation worse than the last. If she wanted to do one of these things, she needed to do all of these things at the same time. And seeing how these two had the home advantage of knowing the Whispering Woods, at least compared to Catra herself, she found herself at a severe disadvantage before the two.
Except for one small problem.
"You're positive you're going the right way, Glimmer?" Bow asked after walking for the last twenty minutes.
"I know what I'm doing Bow." Glimmer insisted. "Can you please just trust me for once?"
"You know I always trust you, but I'm starting to get a little freaked out." Bow glanced around their unfamiliar surroundings. "I mean I pretty much grew up in these woods, and I've never seen this part of them. I've heard stories about weird stuff out here."
"It's fine, okay? Just let me figure this out." Glimmer said fidgeting with the tracker pad as she teleported away.
Well this was definitely a new way to die Catra didn't see coming. If the two didn't kill her themselves, get eaten by a giant monster, fall from another hundred foot height to her death, she could now add getting lost for the rest of her life in these woods by these two idiots. Boy, what a fun day this was turning out to be...
"Okay, touchy." Bow commented as he pushed away from drooping plants from Catra's face. "Sorry about her. Usually she's really nice." He waited a few moments for a response. "Not much for talking, huh?"
"What was your first clue?" Catra snarled. "It's not exactly comforting talking to the people taking me as their prisoner you know."
"There." Catra was startled a little as he quickly helped her over a protruding branch she nearly tripped over. "Suit yourself."
Up a short ways away the two came to a stop as they watched Glimmer teleporting from place to place several feet around them. It still baffled Catra that she was the prisoner to these two numbskulls, shaking her head in disgust at everything. "If she's what your princesses are like, I'm surprised the Horde didn't take over everything years ago. Isn't she supposed to be some 'all powerful empress capable of razing cities with her bare hands' or something?"
"Is that what Hordak told you?" Bow asked curiously.
"Meh, just bits and pieces. Honestly, I know which parts of them are lies and which parts are the truth unlike most of my... well..."
"Family? Friends?"
"Allies! I was going to say allies." She mumbled looking off to the side. "Most of them would stab me in the back if given the chance..." She glanced back to the princess who still didn't seem to know right from left. "Anyway, what is she to you? You her servant? Butler? Personal Guard or something?"
"What? No, we're just friends." Bow's smiling demeanor gave Catra little room for doubt.
"Grrrrr," The two turned their attention as they heard the princess grumble, frantically poking away at the tracker pad, "come on you stupid thing, WORK!"
...Well almost no room for doubt.
"No, seriously, why are you with her? Does your family owe her money or something?"
"Look, I know she might seem a little rough around the edges, but she's really nice and considerate. You couldn't ask for a better friend than her."
"Yeah, sure you couldn't..." It was during this time Catra kept him distracted that she continued to saw slowly at her bindings. A few minutes prior to this conversation she managed to get her pinky loose enough to reach one of her claws towards her wrist. It was still going to take awhile as she had barely a centimeter of room to move her pinky, but it was better than nothing at this point. All she had to hope for for now was the princess boy over here would be distracted long enough with their conversation.
"Hey," Catra nearly flinched as he called back to her, startled momentarily thinking he caught her, "have you ever actually met a princess?"
"I've heard of at least one at the Fright Zone, I think, otherwise no. It's not like I have much interest in them anyway."
"...Mind if I ask you something?"
"Shoot."
"What exactly are you doing all of this for?"
For the first time since this conversation began, she found herself surprised by his unexpected question."What do you mean?"
"I mean why are you working for the Horde and all that? No offense, but you don't seem all that interested in a lot of things related to all this. So you have to have some reason for wanting to work for the Horde, right?"
Between the two she officially decided Bow was the least annoying of the two. Withguarding the fact he's the only one she's had to actually talk to for the last several minutes, he did at least seem genuinely interested about her in these last few minutes compared to any of her allies she's know for the last dozen or so years.
She still hated them equally of course.
"I-"
"Ahh..." The sound of Glimmer whimpering up ahead caught their attention again. Wasting no time to figure out what was going on, Bow quickly ran in her direction, dragging Catra along by her arm as he did.
Pushing their way into a clearing, they came upon the source of Glimmer's discomfort, the same look of terror and dread filling Bow's expression shortly after. This wasn't just a simple clearing Catra had entered or the ruins of some civilization, these were the desecrated remains of what used to be a city. All around her was nothing but wreckage and mayhem from the aftermath of a Horde attack, the very side Catra fought for.
Despite being inflicted with the same feeling of discord and sorrow, Bow's expression hardened as he looked around, reminding himself of every reason he fought against the Horde. This is what they were truly like. Savages who only wanted destruction and mayhem wherever they went, not caring who got hurt or what the reason should be. People just like this Catra prisoner here, which he quickly reminded himself of. There was no point delving into her personal story for now, all he did was continue dragging her towards a despairing Glimmer.
Glimmer herself did her best to maintain a strong expression as well. She was a princess, and no matter how hardening or sad things got, a princess must always put on a strong face for her people no matter the pain. Even though there was no one else around save for the prisoner they captured, she still couldn't bring herself to ignore her princessly duty. She held back the tears as she picked up one of the remains off the ground, displaying a crude drawing of a child and parent holding hands.
"This. This is what the Horde fight for. Destroying lives and homes everywhere they go. Are you happy now?!" She snapped at Catra.
"Tch..." Catra scoffed shifting her eyes away annoyingly. "I wasn't here when it happened, princess. They probably deserved it for one reason or another anyway."
"What is your problem!?" Glimmer shouted, shocking Catra slightly as she pulled her closer by her shirt. "Don't you care about anyone other than yourself!? Don't you care about all the lives and families that potentially died here?"
"It's called war, princess!" Catra yelled back. "Bad things happen all the time in war! There was never a good thing that happened in a war!"
"How can you be so...Ugh!" Glimmer grunted loudly as she stepped away. "Why do you have to be so selfish?! Can't you care for once about someone other than yourself?!" She asked angrily gesturing to the surroundings.
The environment didn't have much of an effect on Catra, the young catgirl just looking almost bored at her surroundings. There were ruined pieces of rubble here, a busted droid that definitely came from the Fright Zone there. There was nothing to be gained or used by standing around this place. She even thought Bow making a small memorial off to the side using the scattered belongings of this place's inhabitants, yet Catra was unaffected by that all the same. Everything about this place screamed depressing and not one thing here got to Catra.
Except for that. Over off to the side she saw what appeared to be the burnt remains of a small woolen doll. If there was a woolen doll like that, that definitely meant there must've been children here when the attacked happened. For just a moment, a tinge of guilt pang through Catra's chest that was just as quickly replaced with calmness. It was a child, for all she knew the Horde must've picked it up and orphaned it in the Fright Zone. In fact maybe the Horde never attacked this place to begin with? Maybe something else did and the Horde found this place like the rest.
It was the closest thing to sympathy Catra had for the possible child, provided there was one to begin with at all.
"Ever since the Horde got here they've been poisoning our land, burning our cities, destroying everything in their path." Glimmer continued to rant as she marched up to Catra. "And you're a part of it! Why do you have to be so self centered? Why can't you have an ounce of respect for the people here? Is it too much to ask you to just pretend you care about someone else's misfortune other than your own?! What makes you so above everyone else that you can't even acknowledge someone else's sadness-"
"BECAUSE NO ONE EVER ASKED WHAT I WANTED EVEN ONCE, PRINCESS!" Catra exploded. She could only put up with so much ranting and mad raving about herself for so long. And she was completely oblivious to how much it showed that it bothered her, her cat eyes narrowing as they focused on the previously-angry princess.
"You think I'm selfish," she went on, stepping forward as Glimmer backsteped, "you think I only care about myself? Well guess what princess, you're right! I am selfish. Not once since I learned to so much as walk did anyone ever ask 'hey what do you want Catra', 'hey Catra, do you want this?' or anything of the sort. Everything I was given in my life was something I had to work for. Everyone I've met in my life wanted nothing to do with me. Anyone I ever helped in my life never repaid the favor. And anyone that seemed interested in my life was only out to get me!"
"So you know what? You're right, princess, I don't care about anything! I don't care about these people, I don't care about the Horde, and I certainly don't care about-!"
*rumble-rumble-rumble*
"Huh?" If there was a single thing in this Universe that could've distracted Catra from her incessant ranting just now, it was the overpowering earthquake that caused the ground to rumble violently.
"What is that?" Glimmer asked looking around. As far as she knew, Catra wasn't capable of something like this, and Catra was pretty sure of the same for her.
It was then that the ground between the surrounding trees started to violently ripple as a large streak of devastated earth ascended from the scenery near them. The rumbling became more violent and vicious as a hideous grey insect-like creature of unknown origin suddenly protruded from Etheria's mantle, pulling itself out of the massive quake in the ground as it towered over the trio of roamers, raising it's mandible to crush the collapsed princess Glimmer immediately upon exiting the hole it pulled itself out of.
"Watch out!" Bow quickly warned, relieved as Glimmer hastily teleported before being crushed by the great insectoid. Glimmer quickly reappeared on a nearby outgrown root of the tree, leaping back onto the face of the giant creature as she let out a giant blast of her magic at point blank, possibly blinding the giant creature along with attacking it. Unfortunately, both plans seemed to be a waste as the creature didn't seem the least bit fazed by the attack, instead seeming angrier by the inferior strike.
This was just the distraction Catra found herself needing as she finally finished sawing through her bindings enough to pull her ropes apart and free herself. She wasted no time heading straight for the sword that was dropped at the creature's appearance. She gazed at the sword in excitement, seeing her reflection coming off of the shining blade and relishing all that was going to happen once she brought this back, all while being unaware as the creature itself prepared to strike at her until she saw it in the sword's reflection.
"Look out!" Bow quickly leapt to her side as he shot an exploding arrow at the creature, covering it's mouth with a strange sticky green substance and halting it's attack. Catra grinned with a mental sigh of relief at this, fortunate the bowman made himself useful in distracting the creature for herself.
"Thanks!" She sputtered as she quickly ran away into the woods again with the large sword in hand, leaving a baffled Bow to look back, somewhat discouraged.
"Hey!" He yelled back.
"Look out!" Glimmer quickly shouted as she tackled him out of the way of another of the creature's giant mandibles. The two found themselves too preoccupied to worry about the sword now with the massive creature on their tail. There was no way they were getting it back, provided they lived long enough to realize that.
At the same time, Catra grinned to herself as she peeked around the tree she was hiding, taking a moment to enjoy usefulness of the Whispering Wood's creatures. They gave her everything she needed to perform the perfect escape, and a way to dispose of the two delinquents without causing her further discord. Now she just had to be on her way, find her way back to the clearing that she found her sword, and make her way home from there!
"See ya later guys, thanks for the assist." She joked to herself as she began to walk away.
That was when another of the unexpected list of things happened. Before she could take her third step away from the tree, the blade glowed with a blindingly fluorescent light, one that blinded her for merely a full second, before disappearing again all the same. The timing of it along with her actions helped Catra put two and two together, though she was incredibly skeptical of what she was thinking.
"What?" She asked it as if it could speak. She stared at the blade as if expecting an answer, growing irritated by the second. "What? You want me to go back there and help them?" Once again nothing, yet something told her that's exactly what it wanted. "Are you kidding? Forget it!" She grumbled looking back behind the tree. "I mean look, they're doing fine, I'm sure they can handle it anyway."
The line of certainty quickly dwindled as she saw the twos' bodies being thrown against a tree with Glimmer landing on top of Bow before falling to the ground. Despite the injury, Bow seemed to be the least injured of the two as he quickly got back to his feet, frantically firing several ineffective exploding arrows at the creature while protecting a temporarily out-cold Glimmer.
"Well... they're still doing fine... sorta..." She mumbled growing increasingly unsure. She looked back to the blade in annoyance as if expecting an answer, never getting one no matter how hard she stared. "Look, it's not like I owe them anything anyway, remember? They're the enemies, we're not on the same side, and your my ticket to a better life!" Once again, nothing. That's when her attention was caught by the frantic shoutings of Bow again.
"Glimmer! Glimmer! Wake up!" He yelled shaking her worriedly. He grumbled as he stared back to the giant monster itself. The last stand he was prepared to make for himself was using the study bow as a weapon, the other arrows most likely having little to no effect that could delay the creature any longer.
"Mmmmmmh..."
"Come on you giant freak, I'm right here!" Bow yelled swinging his bow against one of the approaching mandibles. The best he could hope for at this rate was for Glimmer to wake up and teleport the two away to safety, or hope he distracted it long enough, through whatever means, until Glimmer awoke and escaped by herself. It was a worrying case scenario but it was the only alternative he had. The only other thing left that could've saved the two of them was some sort of miracle, and that was never going to happen!
"Hey bugzy!" Or maybe it was, because to his surprise on the other side of the clearing, he saw Catra again with the sword in hand, waving over to the massive bug and catching it's attention. Step one of her brilliant plan was working. Now she just needed to think of and execute a plan two. She moaned to herself as she looked over the sword again, shaking it violently to get anything to happen. "Come on you stupid magic sword, do something! Create a laser beam, shoot fireballs, anything!" The ground shook more and more violently by the second as the creature neared Catra.
Whatever she decided to do she needed to do it fast. She knew her claws were too weak to pierce it's hard outer shell if exploding arrows didn't so much as leave a scratch on it, and she wouldn't be able to jump in and dive the blade head first into the giant creature thanks to the annoying weight of the blade. That's when another idea rose from the recesses of her mind. It wasn't like an idea she herself was forming, it felt like something else was creating the idea she needed most at that time.
"Umm...How do I use this thing?" Catra asked herself quickly. "Do I need a password? Is there an on switch or something? I could use a hand here you stupid sword!" Typical, the one time she actually wanted the sword to say something to her throughout the entire day and it was silent. The answer was on the tip of her tongue, she knew she was close to it but she couldn't piece together what! That's when she saw the creature towering over her again, surprised by how quickly it rushed over, and raised it's giant mandible over her head to strike. "Ah!" She yelped, using all her might to lift the heavy blade over her head.
It was then, all at once, that an emanating, glowing, light ascended from the blade just after the creature's massive claw struck it. Like all the previous times, each and every time Catra tried to connect to the blade through some physical means, did she see the various visions play out in her mind along with a familiar voice.
"Catra..." Light Hope's familiar voice echoed as the images played out. The ranged to more varied and vivid locations, from a tranquil castle surrounding a giant gem, to the rocky plains with a mysterious black hole in the center, to an asteroid crash landing on a planet, closing in with a mysterious ruin she had never seen before, and finally to an image of the sword itself shining in the darkness. "Catra... will you serve for the Honor of Grayskull?"
That was it.
"For the Honor of Grayskullll!" Catra shouted at the top of her lungs. Immediately, light expanding from the sword across the surrounding clearing, just as Bow was helping Glimmer back to her feet. The two were shocked by the massive energy they felt radiating from the Horde spy, watching in amazement as light enveloped her entire body, causing the massive creature itself to seemingly recede a little.
It was then, just as the light dissipated again, that they witnessed someone they had never seen before. A mysterious young knight who was enveloped in the light's benevolence, appearing out of thin air. There stood the same person who was once before, now changed by the sword's magic. Her clothes at changed drastically fo pure white, as golden shoulderplates formed from her shoulders, and another pair of golden bracelets appeared on her wrists. Even her helmet had changed ever so slightly, the tips of it now slightly larger with a small ruby gem focused on it's center.
Within the center of white chestpiece was a symbol. A symbol of hope and light, one with a great brightness over the middle, protruding from a blue gem, stretching out across the chest on all sides, and connecting from the top to the bottom of the chest piece. All along with her pants which had shortened drastically, now just barely a few inches below her waist. Despite that, the figure that stood before them was the image of a proud warrior, one who was ready to battle and defend those who needed it.
This, was Catra. This, was She-Ra...
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A/N: You know the hardest part about being a writer while being mildly autistic? It's not using the same words repeatedly. You might think that's easy but when you write as much as I do, the challenge is not saying things like "They thought this", "They thought this", "They thought this" over and over again while still making it apparent what I'm trying to say.
Anyway thanks to those who have messaged me with their support and interest in the series! Be sure to leave your thoughts and review of what you think! And if you notice some subtle things here and there that dont make sense, have no worries! I guarantee all of those parts that don't make sense WILL make sense later on in the volume as I happen to have an underlying reason for all of that... *cough* *cough*
Anyway-! Leave a like fave and be sure to review if you liked it! Tell your friends too if you can, the more support the better! Stay tuned!