A/N: Hooftah, another possibly lengthy (haven't posted so haven't seen word count yet XP) chapter! Not much to say this time around unless I'm forgetting something which I pretty sure I am...hmm... oh, right. Should make a note my writing here might be a little wonkier than usual (wow that was sad to say). A big challenge over this chapter compared to the past ones is that I'm going in to it completely blank. The episode wasn't that memorable for me in terms of big plot points despite the fact I do find it one of the funniest (come on, who doesn't love a drunken-acting adora XP?) episodes as well as the best moral out of all the episodes in season 1!
Sadly I can't remember much from this one as much as I can from the other ones, and because of that, some spots here and there I had to add on the spur of the moment and while rewatching the show 100 times over. SO sorry if some parts of this are either confusing, seemed rushed, etc.
With that said, hope you enjoy!
...
...
...
*whack!*
"Ha! Way to hit it, squirt!" Catra yelled as she and Adora watched from the bleachers.
The day had been rather strange for the cat girl who had just about everything she ever wanted from this place. She had a butcher's shop that specialized in fish and seafood, she had everyday citizens that wanted to ask her for her advice and assistance, and apparently she had a whole flock of children from an orphanage that wanted to play with her every single day. There was even an infant bouncing around in Adora's lap that giggled at the sight of the kids having fun on the baseball field.
Life was good. Nothing more, nothing less. Actually if there was anything less than this then life would've been miserable, and a miserable lifestyle was no way for a princess like Catra to live!
So why did it feel so strange to her?
Did she forget to do something this morning? Maybe she had an important meeting she accidentally forgot about? Or maybe there was someone who needed to see her about a major problem involving the kingdom? She couldn't tell. All she knew was that some tingling in the back of her mind was telling her this was all wrong, almost silent enough to be mute yet loud enough to never go away.
Was it a price that came with being a princess? With everyone who relied on her for every day advice, it wouldn't surprise her if she got mixed up between someone needing help and an important event that was taking place.
Or perhaps she was overthinking it, just enough to make her shrug it off.
This was her day. Everyday was her day in this big beautiful kingdom on this nice beautiful day! Without a single cloud in the sky, she watched the kids as they hit the ball around with the bat, taking turns here and there, as she managed the outfield to collect whenever they hit it too far. It might not have been playing like the kids asked her to, especially since she spent more time watching it from the bleachers than the field itself, but it was enough to satisfy them as they had fun among themselves while the princess of the kingdom watched.
"The kids really seem to be having fun out there." Adora commented as she played with the baby's little hands in her lap. "Why don't you go join them?"
"What, and ruin their fun? I don't think it would be fair for either side if I was on the other team. Besides, even if it was all of them against me, I don't think they'd let me lose even if I went easy on them, being the princess and all." It was still an amusing thought to Catra.
"Oh, I don't think you'd have to worry about that." Adora cooed at the infant as she lowered her face towards it. "I bet da kiddies could kick Catwa's kitty butt, don't chu?"
This earned several bouts of giggling from the infant as she kicked her legs around in Adora's lap, pulling at her golden strands of hair. "Geheheheh!"
Yeah, they probably could if her kingdom raised them right. She had a kingdom that was both regal and powerful, one where everyone could fend for themselves while helping each other whenever they needed it. If people helped these kids from time to time as much as the orphanage itself did then there was no telling how good these kids would be at a game of baseball.
In fact, there was no telling how good anyone in her kingdom was, seeing how perfect it was. It was perfect, peaceful, full of energy... everyone was happy... not a thing changed during the entire day... "Mmmh..." Catra mumbled staring up at the sky.
"Is something wrong?" Adora asked, noticing her perplexed expression.
"Huh? Oh, no, nothing really. It's just..."
"Just what?"
"...Does something feel strange to you around here?" She wondered turning back to her.
"What do you mean?"
"Well... like the sky for example." She said gesturing towards the big ball of fire. "Is it me or has the sun been like that all day? And I haven't heard any birds since I woke up this morning. Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen a single animal around here since I woke up..." She looked back to her dear friend with a raised brow. "Doesn't that seem kinda weird to you?"
"Mhhm." Adora shrugged. "Maybe you're thinking too much on things." Looking to the sun herself, she smiled as the wind blew through her hair, the infant staring at the sky with her. "I mean, would you really want a perfect day like this to end?"
"Heh heh, yeah, I guess not." What was she thinking? Why would she question everything when the day was already perfect? That was like winning a lottery and then complaining that the millions you made in cash wasn't any bigger.
So what if everything seemed out of place? She was happy like this. The kingdom was in peace, she had her best friend since childhood at her side, and everyone was pretty happy! Why, she could remember how glorious it felt the day she received her kingdom when she... the day that... um...
"...Adora?" Catra spoke up again as a thought occurred to her.
"Yes, Catra?"
"...When did I get my kingdom?"
"Uh, hello? When we beat the Horde at long last, remember?" She rolled her eyes playfully at the obvious answer.
"Yeah, I know, I know. We beat the Horde, the Queen gave me a king... gave me... a queen... Ngh..." Catra moaned as a sudden pang went off through her head. It was a faint one that felt like someone tapping repeatedly from the inside of her mind, almost going away faster than it came to her.
"Catra? What's wrong?" Adora stood as she checked on her friend in need.
"N-Nothing, I... I'm fine..." She shook her head for a moment as she rubbed the sore spot on her temple next to her left ear. "Just a... brief headache, that's all."
"Baaaall!" The two looked back as they heard one of the kids shouting. Seeing it for themselves, the two watched as one of the kids struck the baseball right into the air, flying over the field as swiftly as a bird before finding itself over the fence at the end of the outfield. Catra had to admit, for a five-year-old that was an impressive hit!
"I'll get it." Catra called out as she maneuvered her legs around the metal bleachers.
"Uuuwaghh!" Her ears twitched a bit as she turned back to the infant, the child reaching for her as if wanting to be picked up by her.
"Awww, she wants to go with you." Adora cooed at the infant she was holding.
Catra smiled at this as she pat the kid's head. "Don't worry squirt, I'll be back in a minute." She said as she continued her way through the levels of rows of seats.
"Oh come on, Catra, you can bring her with you."
"It's fine, Adora, I'll only be a minute."
"But Catra-"
"Relax. I'm getting the dumb ball, I'm not leaving anywhere. Give the baby a pacifier or something if it starts crying, I shouldn't take long."
"What baby?"
"Gee, what kid? Who do you think, I'm talking about the-" Turning back, Catra went dead silent as she noticed the sudden lack of figure in Adora's arms. In fact, there wasn't anything in Adora's arm as the blond gave her a curious look. "Hey, where'd she go?"
"Where'd who go?" It was weird hearing her ask this. It wasn't the tone that concerned Catra, it was the seriousness behind it like she had no actual idea of what Catra was talking about.
"T-The kid, the squirt, the b-baby you were holding a second ago!" Catra stuttered, looking around the bleachers near her to see if it somehow crawled away. What was going on here? Did the kid have some sort of magic she nor Adora were aware of? Did it erase Adora's memory of her before it disappeared?
"...Riiight..." Even her reply concerned Catra. She had no actual idea of what Catra was talking about, Catra could tell by her look on her face alone. "Catra, do you want to sit down for a minute? You look a little stressed."
"What? No, I'm fine, it's... I was..." .. Why did she feel fine all of a sudden? She felt like she was looking for someone and then immediately stopped partway through. Why did she feel like someone was missing when they didn't exist in the first place. "I'm... It... N-Never mind." There was that strange pang on her temple again, the one that went off not two minutes ago. "I'm gonna go look for the ball, stay here with the kids."
"Well, all right." Adora smiled sitting back down. "Shouldn't be too hard watching three kids for a bit."
"Yeah, all three of... three... huh?" Now that was starting to bug her. She could've sworn- no. She was positive that were more kids here earlier, like six or seven. Looking out to the field though only confirmed what Adora had said. There were only three kids, consisting of a batter, a pitcher, and someone playing in the outfield, all looking back at her as they waited for her to get the missing ball. "Uhhh yeah... you watch all three of them... I'll be right back."
...
Jumping over the gate and into the nearby alleyways, Catra continued her search for the ball as her mind continued to fill with fuzz in all corners. Something strange was going on around here, even though she had no idea what. She felt like this town was getting smaller to her, that the sky was looking a little less blue. In fact she could've sworn she saw a very faded red over it now, streaking across the sky as the sun continued to shine over them.
But it's always been that way, right? Yeah, it had to be! She remembers being greeted with that same redness that she woke up to this morning, the one that greeted her every morning along with the hundred or so people that made up her kingdom. It was all right if something felt a little off about today, right? After all, as the princess of this kingdom, her word was law and her rule was concrete. If she wanted the sky to turn red, it could... somehow... and nobody would question it. Not her, not Adora, not that person who gave her a Tuna Sandwich this morning, who... he was...
Wait. What sandwich? Why was she thinking about Tuna now? Sure, the cat side of her savored the taste of fresh fish, she might even go get some after she finds the ball for the two kids. All she needed was to remember where to find a sandwich in this small kingdom of hers, searching under various cardboard boxes thrown into the alleyway as well as behind some of the trashcans she came across.
That was when her hearing picked up the faint sound of a rolling object. Looking out of the alleyway and into the streets of her kingdom, she smiled as she ran out for it, picking it up with ease." Got'cha!" She cheered to herself, tossing the ball a few times in front of herself in her right hand. "Now to get it back to that kid and..." As she contemplated to herself, she noticed another thing out of place, one that made her legitimately worried about what was going on around her.
"Hello?" She called out. She was standing in the middle of one of the various market streets of her kingdom, the place that should always be busy whether rain or shine. It was one of the many cornerstones of her kingdom's wealth, one that supplied the kingdom with currency and resources from traders and barters from across the world.
And in her present street, there was nothing. Nothing alive anyway, save for herself. The stalls were empty, the wind carried a faint trail of dust, there wasn't even a footprint belonging to anyone else around this part of the town. Looking down the other direction she was met with the same results. Nobody around for as far as her eye could see, not a single sound of someone running, much less walking, around the market place.
"Helloooo?" She called out again as she walked down the curiously silent street. She didn't have anything she needed to do at this moment, it's not like she came out here to find a ball that didn't exist, so this gave her plenty of ample time to search the kingdom. "Where did everybody go?"
She knew her kingdom was small, but nothing like this. Sure, it had about twenty to thirty villagers, which made it weird when she compared that to the number of buildings she saw around herself. This place looked like a ghost town yet she remembers the numerous people who greeted her this morning. They were all cheering her name, praising her simply for waking up to greet them. She couldn't ask for a better group of people than that!
Here, however, she was asking for any group of people to appear in front of her. It's like everyone decided to up and vanish, like they decided not to exist anymore. If that was a choice, she would've gladly done so on numerous occasions through her miserable life so she knows it wasn't that.
Maybe she should ask Adora? Yeah, that was the better solution. She wasn't going to find anything out in these parts of the ghost town, and since Adora was still at the Castle like she left her this morning, she should be pretty easy to find. It's not like she was going to get her answers by exploring the empty town anyway.
That was the mindset she had until she looked straight on ahead, seeing what couldn't possibly be real, large enough for her to see it grow from the edge of town.
Red.
Pure, violent, red.
What was it? Red was all she could call it. It was a giant wall of red that stretched up to the sky, the same sky that now turned red as it connected with the red in every other direction of her kingdom. She felt like she was in a box, being stuffed inside of it without her knowledge where no other life could get in or out of.
"What... is that...?" A strange fear was planted into her heart, a warning telling her to get away from the dangerous thing she's never seen before. Against her heart's wishes, she ran towards the bright wall of red. She knew it had to have the answers to all her questions she's created today, all the explanations she needed to explain why everyone had disappeared. She felt that once she had this mystery solved, a great realization would be revealed.
Unaware of how deadly the situation was slowly becoming...
...
...
"Catra, wait!" Glimmer cried out as she chased after the feral-turned friend, as she herself was being chased by an army of bots. This was going to be a great day to put into her diary, if she even lived long enough to write in it.
Dear Diary,
Today my new friend somehow got turned feral after being exposed by some red crystal thing that the princess we recruited was experimenting with. Apparently she now thinks she's some sort of protective tiger or a jaguar as she seems savage enough to tear robots limb from limb but peaceful enough to be domesticated like a house cat. This also came with all the annoyances such as keeping her on an actual leash, trying to keep her from attacking anything that neared me, and watching her as she disgustingly ate a small mouse.
On the one bright side behind all of this, according to Entrapta, the princess we came to recruit, the reason she's so protective is because she apparently sees us as friends, if not the people who feed her which is sadly more likely the case. At least it's nice to think that Catra really does consider us closer than she let's on. No matter how far it feels like she's pushing us I think it's a good sign that she might be a little more welcoming of us than we originally thought.
...I hope so anyway. To the future Glimmer re-reading this the next time you write in your diary, be sure to tell Entrapta NEVER TO EXPERIMENT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE REBELLION EVER AGAIN, and to see if she can learn anything else later on about Catra's species. I don't know what this "magicat" thing is, but based off what Entrapta said, it sounds like Catra might be the very last one. I'd ask my mom about it but I don't want her to find out about everything that happened today, especially how Catra nearly ate me awhile ago.
- Love Always, Glimmer.
P.S., Bow, I swear, if you're reading this again and I catch you, I will personally drop you into the middle of the Ocean!
Yup, that would be about as much as she'd expect to write if she got out of this alive.
Nothing she could do for the time being proved useful. She couldn't use her teleporting powers because, aside from the dozens of robots chasing them, there was no telling where they'd end up. Having tried it the first couple times she was in here with Catra she put them into one horrible scenario after the other, taking several times to teleport again until they were safe. She also couldn't afford to waste her magic blasts since there was no telling how many of these robots ran rampant throughout the halls, and the last thing she'd want was to be out of magic when she needed to teleport.
Sadly, Entrapta wasn't of much help either. Throughout the entire chase as the two ran for their lives, following behind a fearful feral Catra, she was more focused on taking notes on the endeavor than trying to get away with her lives. Every single thing she saw was a great new experience for her. She's never learned so much in one day like this since she was little, and she had Glimmer and Catra to thank wholly for this!
"Incredible development." She spoke into the Tape recorder held by her hair. "The robots seem to be working together. This confirms my earlier hypothesis that they're learning, possibly at an exponential rate!"
With a grumble, Glimmer pulled her arm back down as she interrupted. "Right now, I think that's a bad thing! We need to find another way into the lab."
"We can use the air duct! It's one of the few places I didn't program any robots into. At least, not anything big."
"That's great, but what about Catra?" Glimmer looked back to her friend running on all fours with worry. "We can't just leave her out here on her own, and I doubt she'd enjoy getting dragged into a cramped space as she is." It was troubling to say that was the least of their worries.
With each passing minute, Glimmer was aware of Catra's continued progression into a feral state. She noticed how she became more tense over the course of their exploration through the castle, noticing her hiss a little more often and how she continued to get more aggressive whenever Entrapta got too close. There was one point she almost swiped at Glimmer herself as if she nearly forgot who she was.
Coming up around the corner, the two found themselves cut off like Catra was, the magicat growling angrily at the wall of bots that cut off their path. They came in all varieties and designs, from some being two feet tall to others being four feet taller than any of the three present heroes. Some of them had scrubbers and hoses on the ends of their arms while others had sharpened blades for cutting and shearing, ideal for all manner of tasks between sewing, mowing the lawn, and giving proper haircuts.
They also doubled as guillotines for those pesky intruders they happened to stumble upon the castle without an invitation, or anything they'd consider an invitation.
"Rrrrrrrragh!" Catra roared angrily, the ends of her hair standing up in anger as her claws stretched out ready to attack. Seeing the state of the feral creature, the robots repeated the same procedure they did the first time that started this mess.
All by opening their mouths simultaneously.
*Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!*
"Rnnnnnnnnnnnngh!" Catra hissed in pain as she clutched her ears, falling over to her sides in front of the other two princesses.
"Catra!" Glimmer cried out. There was something different going on this time around, something that made her all the more worried than the last time this happened. All around her forehead, growing from the corners of her scalp, red veins could be seen slowly growing, stretching over centimeter by centimeter as it stretched a fourth of the way above her eyes. "What's happening to her?"
"Eeeeeeeeh-!" Entrapta was torn between the excitement building up inside of her and the seriousness of the situation. She knew there was a time and place for excitement and sadly Glimmer told her earlier that this wasn't one of those times. "This is incredible! ..And bad. It's incredibly bad." She nibbled on her gloved thumb.
"Do you know what's wrong with her?" Glimmer couldn't take her eyes off her friend as she continued to watch. The loud screeching noise was irritating her too but definitely nowhere near as bad as Catra currently was. She ran over to her friend, rubbing her shoulders soothingly in any attempt to ease her pain.
"Yes, though I'm amazed it's happening at all..."
"Well what's wrong with her then?" As they bantered Glimmer saw as the veins grew another centimeter over Catra's forehead.
"Well, based on what I'm seeing, I think the robots are intentionally creating that noise to accelerate her mental degradation."
"In english, please!"
"Their screaming is making the virus spread faster!"
...
...
"What is this thing?" Catra continued to stare at the pure red wall in front of her. Two feet from where she stood, she was gazing at the massive wall of red standing on the edge of her kingdom. North, South, East, West. Wherever she turned there was another wall of red blocking off her kingdom from the rest of the world, including the sky above where the sun used to be.
Why did a giant wall appear to begin with? Better question, where were the rest of her citizens? She was princess of the entire kingdom, who cared if it only consisted of twenty or so people! There should've been one or two people coming to the edge of these walls to examine it themselves and she found herself being the only one. Did nobody else see this going on here?
And was it her or was this strange red glowing a little? Why was it making her want to touch it? Surely, there could be no harm in giving it a little tou-
*Zzzzzzt!*
"Ahhh!" Catra yelped pulling back her shocked hand. She squeezed her wrist tightly as she tried to rub the pain away. The steam rose from her hand as she stared at her burnt fingertips, looking back to the red wall as she processed what was going on. "This stupid wall is electrified?"
*eeeeeeeeeeeeee-*
"What's..?" The air began to fill with a sound, one familiar yet mysterious to her. In all directions, up to down, left to right, she could've sworn she heard the noise coming in all directions. It echoed throughout the air, never ending or diminishing wherever she looked. "Where have I... heard that bef-"
*EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-*
"Nggggggh!" Gnawing at her own teeth, Catra growled as she squeezed her head in pain, squeezing her hands against her ears. What was happening to her? Why was she in so much pain from this strange noise? She dug her nails into her head, trying to push them as tightly as possible against the drills she felt being pushed into her ears from all sides.
It was like nails on a chalkboard while being sharped against a blacksmith's sharpening stone. The shivers it sent through Catra's body was on a whole 'nother level compared to all the past noises she's heard. She'd rather deal with nails on a chalkboard at this rate compared to the horrifying noise that was penetrating her eardrums. It was like it was trying to force something into her brain, make her remember a past she didn't have... it was almost... like...
Her eyes snapped open as the pain instantly subsided. "I remember now..." Everything came rushing back to her as she looked at her hands, surprised and confused at the sight of the rings on her fingers and the state of her combed hair. "I was in that crazy geek's castle, and then..." She didn't need to remind herself of every detail she remembered. What mattered to her at this time was everything else she didn't know. "How'd I get here?"
*crick*
"Huh?" Now she was hearing other strange noises coming from around her. The only difference this time was that it sounded like the wall itself was making that noise.
"..."
*CRACKLE!*
"Whoa-!" Catra jumped back a few feet as the wall started moving towards her.
The wall that shocked her to the touch, the walls and sky above that were filling with red, all of them were starting to close in little by little. They pushed passed the ground that seemingly blocked it's way, crushing it under it's terrible redness as the ground itself shook violently. Catra backed away slowly as she saw all the walls closing around her from every direction of the kingdom. With the world slowly sinking in on her, the only safe location she could think of to buy herself some time was the castle itself, the center of all this oncoming destruction.
More importantly, it reminded her of another crucial detail that mattered to her. "Adoraaa!" Catra screamed running back to the castle. She couldn't explain why she was there, she barely knew how she got here herself in the first place. All she knew was that her friend was still here in this crumbling kingdom, and she's the only one that mattered to her around here...
...
...
"Ghhhh!" Catra continued to growl in the outside world, the red veins growing across her forehead continuing to stretch.
"Haaah!" Glimmer screamed as she fired another bolt of magic at one of the approaching robots, blasting it's head off as she backed closer towards Catra. She panted out of breath at the excess of energy they were spending. If they were just screaming in annoyance in an attempt to hasten Catra's viral spreading, that'd be one thing. It'd be easy to deal with these things if they stood in one spot while screaming. Even though there weren't any more of them approaching, the twenty or so that still remained proved irritating enough for the three of them.
Unfortunately, the robots weren't content with standing in one spot while playing a degrading sound affect. They approached one by one on the group as they seemed strangely focused on Catra herself, drawing closer to the magicat in distress who squeezed her head in pain, groveling on the floor. She didn't know what they wanted or why they were so focused on her and she didn't care, She wouldn't allow them to harm her friend without getting through her first!
Hopefully not literally.
*CRASH!*
Speaking of protecting her, it was nice to know Entrapta was willing to put the safety of others first and foremost and the necessity to study every little detail second, no matter how much it seemed to pain her. Stretching her hairs from pipe to pipe that crossed the ceiling, she managed to get atop one of the monstrosities, sinking her hair straight into the small cracks and openings of the robot's limbs before yanking the heads off whichever ones she could. So far, the count was five for Glimmer and three for Entrapta, the scientist getting momentarily zapped once or twice after the last two robots she dismantled directly.
And it still wasn't enough to halt their advance. Several times throughout the fighting did the girls find themselves nearly getting cleaved by a giant pair of scissors or find themselves flattened by a giant mallet-like hand pressing down where they once stood. The robots didn't need reinforcements as their special qualities and numbers gave them an edge over the two and the downed friend they were too focused on protecting.
"Agh!" Glimmer groaned in pain as she was suddenly slammed to the ground by two different robots. The one on her chest was actually torn in half, the upper torso maintaining a strong grip on the girl's shoulders as the other massive one, one with two giant tanks of water equipped to it's back, pressing her down with the other bot helping it. Struggling to break free, her magic too exhausted to attempt any teleporting, she found her face being drenched in a waterfall of liquid, all pouring out of the robot's giant mouth, the deluge pouring over her entire face without end.
I can't breathe! She screamed to herself, kicking her legs in order to achieve any form of slack to slip out of either robot's grip. It proved useless as the two pinned her in unison, Glimmer helpless to pull away from the two as the torrent of water continued to suffocate her, not even a fourth of it's tanks emptied as it continued.
Entrapta was ensnared by two other robots, the one to trap her taking the form of a robotic barber. Like any classy barber, he donned a white apron with a curly, albeit fake, white mustache, a rather slim body given it's surprising strength. Using it's efficient rotational comb to catch Entrapta's hair as she flung it at him. In no time at all, the robot drew in the princess's hair, pulling her over to it as she struggled to untangle her hair.
"Ack! Let go!" She yelled, pulling at it in a futile attempt at freeing herself. Looking ahead of her again at the sound of a strange buzzing noise, she realized the robot pulling her in was the least of her problems. The actual robot she had to worry about was the one with a buzzsaw for a hand, one of a dozen ideal robots for construction and refurbishing parts around here, drawing towards her with the enraged glowing redness like the others. "Wait! Wait! At least donate my body to science!"
Sure, she could handle getting chopped up into bits and mauled to a bloody pulp, but she couldn't go on living with herself without contributing one more thing to the world in the name of science!
All this left an agonizing Catra to grovel as a hulking figure loomed over her. Her entire body was wracked with pain, the instincts incapable of doing anything to defend itself as the ear shattering screams continued to torment her to no end. Her entire body felt paralyzed as as the mech approached her. She couldn't lift her finger, she couldn't kick her leg, even her tail was shaking against her will. There was nothing she could do to defend herself.
There was nothing any of them could do to save themselves.
And they didn't have to.
*BOOM!*
"Haaaaugh!" Glimmer gasped for breath as the endless waters finally came to an end. She coughed up a mouthful of water as she could feel the air flowing through her nose again, panting heavily for the breath of life that eventually returned. Above her she saw the blown remains of what used to be the giant robot's head, the bot stuttering back and forth briefly until it finally fell backwards with a massive thud. Looking to the other bot who pinned her shoulders down, the small figure barely saw the oncoming attack until it was too late, finding it's head smashed away by a friend's weapon she was all too familiar to. "Bow!" She never felt so glad to see him!
Or the reinforcements he brought as the entire area filled with a white, hazy, smoke.
"Come on!" She heard Bow yell. It wasn't directed to her though, but to the friends he apparently brought with him. Not wasting a moment he fired off two more arrows into the distance, bringing down the robot that had ensnared Entrapta and the one that was a foot away from giving her a permanent haircut. Squirming with fear she untangled from the mass entanglement, pulling it out and running towards Glimmer as the other bots approached from behind her.
Coming through the clouds Glimmer watched as his allies charged headfirst towards the robot, one consisting of what appeared to be a butler with various refreshment bottles, a large pastry chef with her light-green bundled up in a simple bow, and a small younger servant who appeared to be about one foot shorter than bow himself. While she had numerous questions to ask she was more than willing to put that on hold- there were still bots to deal with.
With the smoke obstructing the views of the twenty or so bots, all of them ceased their screeching in unison, finding the bizarre happening to be all too distracting. Almost immediately, the feral Catra's eyes shot open with fury as she leaped upwards at the robot who nearly grabbed her, digging her claws straight through the robot and pulling out several wires that let loose electrical sparks until it's life faded away. Without skipping a beat she angrily jumped towards the next closest robot as she continued her rampage.
The pastry chef continued her charge towards several of the smaller bots as she easily bashed them out of the way with her mighty arms. Coming across the fourth bot that matched her size and possible strength, she quickly dug through her apron's pockets as she blasted two cake filling's worth of frosting at the monstrosity, blinding it and pushing it back enough to trip it backwards to the ground. Before it could get up the pastry chef happily crushed it's metallic head under her heel, grinning to herself as she did.
It would make for a crazy tale to tell her kids, if she had any in the future, how she defeated a bunch of psychotic robots with the power of pastry.
Meanwhile the other two servants were working together as they continued to fight off the bots with their own unique skills. The gentleman of the two began spraying several bottles worth of refreshments across the floor, tripping two of the robots and short-circuiting one of the bots that were low to the ground. With the grounds freshly watered and slippery, he smiled back to the shorter servant as he pulled her hand and slid her against the watery surface. Sliding against the floor the servant whisked a dozen round dishes through the air with enough precision to cleave many of the robots' heads, destroying them instantly.
The brief moment of joy she felt at her personal accomplishment quickly turned to terror as she ended up colliding into a hulking robot at the end of her slide. The arms of the terrifying bot were thicker than her entire body, its fingers almost the same size of her head.
Temporarily frozen with fear, she could only watch as the bot raised it's massive fist over her head, ready to strike down. Just as it was about to deliver the first blow, Bow jumped into the scene at the last second, planting his feet straight onto the robot's shoulders as he aimed towards it. It took a single arrow through it's head to destroy the terrible creature, the bot trembling with sparks of electricity dancing around it's entire body as it slammed back to the ground.
With the smoke clearing the three previous princesses looked on with joy, Catra mildly confused, as the robots surrounding them were all finally destroyed. All that was left of them were broken parts and loose nuts, a few of them leaking oils that fueled some of them, and broken pieces of scrap all around the room.
This was definitely a victory Bow would never forget.
"Bow!" Glimmer cheered happily as she ran to him, hugging him tightly as he returned with the same. "Thank goodness you're all right! I was so worried!"
"I'm glad to see you're okay too." He replied as he gestured to the other three. "You can thank them for saving me up above. I might never have found you if it wasn't for them." Looking around, he smiled over to the other princess in the room, walking over to her for a formal greeting. "Big fan of your work, Princess Entrapta." He bowed, kicking away a twitching hand as he did. "Maybe not this work exactly, but your other work."
"Haha... Hi..." She chuckled nervously, shaking his hand with her hair to which Bow kissed respectfully.
*sniff-sniff*
"Uhh... Catra?" That left him to check on the last remaining friend in the room, the same one he questioned as she circled him on her hands and knees. "Uh why is she sniffing my legs like that?"
"Long story short," Glimmer replied as she grabbed Catra's makeshift leash, "Entrapta accidentally created some virus from a disc that's affecting the robots and somehow infected Catra's sword too, and her along with it. She's been acting like a wild animal all day." Worry came over her as she noticed Catra's forehead. Even after the robots were destroyed, the red veins growing over her forehead had yet to recede. "We need to get back into the lab and turn off the disc to turn her back to normal before she forgets us!"
"Heh, I don't see what the big deal is." Bow commented squatting down. He stuck his hand out in front of her for her to sniff. "Even if she forgets us, we'll just stop the disc thing. It's not that bad."
*snap!*
"Whoa!" Bow flinched back as the feral magicat attempted to bite at the stranger's hand. Glimmer pulled back on the rope as she noticed Catra's aggressive state, the girl hissing at him with anger and distrust. "I take that back. But it still means we just have to destroy the virus and she'll be back to normal, right?"
"Well not as long as you don't think about the degradation effect it'll have on her after." Entrapta added in, earning looks from Bow and Glimmer.
"Wait, what do you mean by after?" Glimmer felt a lump forming in her throat as she asked the dreadful question. "I thought you said she would only forget us after awhile?"
"Oh... I didn't mention that part?" The scientist poked the tips of her hair and her fingers with a nervous chuckle. "Yeeeeeah, it doesn't really matter if you destroy the virus if her entire mind is corrupted by then. It'll affect her permanently afterwards."
"And... what exactly will happen if her entire mind is corrupted by the virus?" Why did the only questions that came to her have to be questions that worried her the most?
"Oh... there won't be anything."
"Oh..." She's never been more thankful to hear the results of a question that was filling her being with fear. Bow himself smiled to her at that. "That's a relief. For a second there I thought you were going to say something bad would happen."
"N-No, I mean... there wouldn't be anything left of the Catra you know. She'll be gone forever."
...
*clang*
Unscrewing the hatch of the air vent, Entrapta slowly made her way out of the crawlspace, Catra following closely behind her as she tried to bat at her hair she was being baited with.
With the track record that's been going on for awhile, Glimmer refused to think things couldn't possibly get worse from here. On top of Catra forgetting all about them, now she's saying Catra, the one they've come to know for the last few weeks, would be gone. That was no different than saying "Catra will die" if her entire sense of self was erase from existence!
The trip up to this point was met without resistance. There weren't any other robots the group came across as they traversed the air vents to the main control room, the origin point of the viral outbreak. Catra didn't appear to be getting any worse during the travel but she seemed a lot more hesitant and untrusting of Glimmer as she tried to egg her along into getting into the air vents. Eventually Entrapta came up with the creative idea to lure the girl around with her own hair, angering the cat enough to make her follow the purple monster all the way through the vents.
She was glad she didn't get her hair tangled up in her claws during the last several times she managed to nab at it.
The room itself was in the worst condition compared to the rest of the castle. All around the walls, stretching to the ceilings and floors, the room was filled with red vein-like roots that grew in every direction. Everything the roots touched stemmed from the one location of the entire virus, the viral disc itself, that was implanted in the large computer at the far end of the room. As expected, surrounding the computer were dozens of bots, all standing guard to protect the master core that gave them all aggressive life.
Sneaking behind the wreckage of the room as the others crawled out of the vent, Entrapta glanced through a small opening, Bow standing right alongside her and looking through another opening. "Okay. Where's the disc?" He whispered.
It was during this time Catra silently hissed back to the rope-like leash that was kept around her neck. The thing irritated her to no end, brushing against her fur-like skin with every moment. Noticing Glimmer's distracted state, she began gnawing on the evil leash like a wolf caught in a trap, eating away at the bondage that angered her to no end.
Pointing over the distance, Bow saw the overgrown computer that the bots had been guarding, a single glow shining from the source of the corruption. Roots had grown over the core itself in protection, the roots keeping a firm hold. "How fascinating. It has completely protected itself! I wonder if the bots surrounding it guard it out of direct orders or out of free will?"
"All right. We need to find a way to turn it off." Bow whispered back to the others behind him. "Does anybody have an idea?"
"Rrrrrrrrragh!" Catra roared angrily as she charged head first into the swarm of bots. Pupils shrinking, Glimmer took a double take between Catra and the rope that she ate through, panicking as she saw her method of escape.
"Catra, no!" Glimmer shouted, running after her as her magic was too tapped to teleport.
"Glimmer!" Bow shouted after.
"We'll take care of your friends." The pastry chef stated, rolling pins at the ready in her hands. "You two get that disc turned off."
"Keep them busy." Bow smiled at the assurance, proud that his new friends had the confidence they needed to chase after his friends. Grabbing onto Bow with one of her ponytails, Entrapta shot her long hair extension towards the ceiling, swinging themselves over as the rest of her friends dealt with the bots.
The worry they had for Catra's well-being proved unnecessary as Catra dove into the crowd of the bots, diving both her claws into the first two bots as the rest started to swarm her. None of them were any match for the feline as her quick reflexes worked to her advantage, swiping and clawing at the numerous limbs that came at her before the bots could so much as reach her. It didn't leave Glimmer without worry that her friend was fighting on her own, especially as she saw the small red veins growing closer over her forehead, stretching past her eyes.
The same worry was well-placed as she watched Catra getting grabbed entire torso, pinning her arms to her side. The bot had an arm twice the size of it's body, lifting her off her feet as she struggled to squeeze out of his grip. With the cat failing to pry his grip her, the bot opened it's massive mouth as let out another maniacal scream, right in front of Catra's face.
*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!*
"Rnnnnnnnngh!" Catra cried out in pain, unable to close her ears as the bot kept her arms pinned together. The veins over her head pulsed brightly as they grew at an exponential rate, growing closer by the inch over a few seconds. There was nothing she could do to protect her sensitive ears or her mind as the virus spread all throughout her brain.
*Wham!*
Dropping the cat girl, Catra fell to the ground as the young servant's foot planted straight into the bot's massive face, kicking it to the ground as she leaped away. Seeing the bot ceasing it's function, she turned her attention towards the downed comrade that she was tasked with saving.
At the same time, the two other servants ran side by side as they passed Glimmer, tackling the robots that neared the princess of Bright Moon. With her pins the chef pounded away at the incoming bots, bashing them out of the way as the other servant short-circuited the others with ample amounts of liquid. The two cleared the path for her as she ran up to Catra in the middle of the room, the girl appearing passed out as Glimmer kneeled, raising her up by her shoulders.
"Catra! Catra wake up!" Glimmer yelled as the smaller servant ran off to take care of the other bots. She had no idea how Catra was, seeing the veins in her head were a single inch apart from each other. Any more and she was sure Catra would forget everything about her, everything about all of them. As Entrapta put it, the Catra they knew would be gone forever.
An ounce of relief filled her as she saw her friend wincing a little, beating the alternative of never waking up at all. Noticing a small twitch in her clawed hands, Glimmer sighed as she turned towards the three servants who continued to bat away at the oncoming enemies. She's never felt as useless as she did now without her magic, unable to assist the others without a weapon and her magic nearly depleted.
At least she could take heart that Catra was fi-
*Bash!*
"Ahhh!" The refreshment server yelped as Glimmer was thrown into him, the two crashing against the floor as the other two looked back. With the crash coming to a halt Glimmer picked herself up off the servant, helping him to his feet as she did, then turned her shocked expression over to the one who attacked her.
It wasn't a bot. It wasn't some red giant root that sprang to life.
It was Catra. The magicat who stood on her own two feet, body shaking as her head was lowered. She nor Bow, the latter looking back from the computer he and Entrapta reached, could believe what she just did. That wasn't a play of a teasing or joking manner, she didn't get annoyed with something and wanted whomever to stop. She straight up attacked Glimmer, throwing her into the air so she'd crash into one of the servants who destroyed a bot a second earlier.
Lifting her head, the other four were met with her face. The face of a monster whose pupils glowed red with fury. She gnarled her teeth together as a threat towards the others, Glimmer gasping as she saw several robots approaching behind her. But they didn't attack her, they didn't stare at her with the threatening red that they glared at her with.
They were standing side by side, as if allies in arms.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" With a massive scream of rage, Catra stretched her claws out fully, growling at the other fleshy creatures with unparalleled fury. Catra had join the side of the other bots, roaring angrily as she took the charge of the surrounding bots, pressing on the attack.
Catra had been taken by Virus.
...
...
...
A/N: And with that, we're one chapter away from finishing the episode ^^! Which is especially great since it means I'll be going back into writing the episodes I remember more entirely. And because of that, I'll be adding my own spins on them which I manage to write out faster than anything scene for scene.
Translation: it means faster updates again ^^
Gonna apologize up front because despite the above cliffhangar, the fight itself might be a little short (still a couple thousand words and whatnot) since we are seirously at the last 3-4 minutes of the episode here XP, but i promise it'll still have a nice length ^^
We're almost there guys! We're almost half-ish way through season 1 ^^! dear god i am praying I get this done before season 2 cause I'll never be able to watch it till I get this one done so I can keep this up in turn with the series XP.
With that said, hope you all enjoyed! Leave a like, fave, follow, and review if you enjoyed and hope to see you soon!