A/N: You know the hard part of a writer? When you have to rewrite something here or there. It's hard because depending on how far back it is, you have to change not just whatever your rewrote it, but EVERYTHING after if you brought it up at any point between then and where you're at.
For me it happens from time to time. Sometimes I go back, add in or remove a thing for a later plot point, yadda yadda yadda. I do it about once or twice a fic when I need to correct or change something, and it's not that big of a deal.
Here however, i had to rewrite the ENTIRE FIRST 4K WORDS I HAD TO THE FIC!
Why? Because I wasn't satisfied with how the original was coming out. With allergies and flu season coming on, I'm in the middle of having a minor cold. Nothing too big, just a stuffy throat, but still annoying. So I take cough drops. Unfortunately, i'm rather addicted to the stuff so I eat them like candy from time to time (I can't help it, the cherry taste is good XP).
As such, when I wrote the first 4k the first time, it was towards night, aka when my writing is at it's least good. By the next morning I was so disappointed with it and displeased with how it was presenting that I decided to rewrite the whole thing (basically had to since even trying to correct it here and there wasn't enough to fix how bad i found it).
So with that said, hopefully you guys enjoy the episode's chapter! As always, when writing over 1-to-2 days, some parts/bits get rushed. Sorry if that happens, hope you still enjoy regardless ^^!
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"Aaaagh!" Catra roared as she threw another Shadow Weaver off of her, running down the hallways.
When people woke up, their day usually started off on the right foot before things got bad. Without any stress or knowledge of what the day would bring, they could start their day off with a simple smile if they wanted to, ready to greet the day as they prepared their mornings for whatever it had to offer. It gave them a sense of clarity and relief, disguising any possible troubles they were going to face for the day with a happy sun or simple rain cloud looming over their head.
Catra's day, however, was the farthest thing from a sun shiny or happy day.
There were no sunshine and rainbows greeting her outside, there were no happy civilians going about their day with a smile on their faces, there wasn't even a cloud in the sky to look down on her with a face of curiosity. There was carnage. Destruction. Everything she saw outside her bedroom when she woke up in Mystacor, at who knows what point in time since passing out, was in ruins and utter chaos. As if this day couldn't get any worse!
She thought all the hallucinations and paranoia she was dealing throughout her day was the worst of it, that the rest was all behind her. After dealing with hallucinations for nearly the last twelve hours straight, filled with terror and paranoia that made her question her own sanity and brought about visions of her friends and allies betraying her, she was at her wits end.
She couldn't differentiate fiction from reality, she didn't know who was real or if the words they spoke were true anymore. Anything from what she heard to what she saw was fabricated, faked. Half the time she saw someone approaching her with a knife in her hand, others she heard them contemplate betraying her and possibly harming her best friend when this was all over. And with how frequently these episodes of paranoia were setting in, she would never figure out what was real and fake ever again.
The events that lead her to passing out minutes ago were considered the last straw by Glimmer's enraged aunt. After getting some semblance of peace, figuring out for herself that some of the things she saw or heard were hallucinations, she tried separating herself from the others. She couldn't risk harming her allies and they believed giving her space would keep the hallucinations at bay. If no one was around her, she couldn't possibly misunderstand or have false visions of what she was seeing, right?
Oh how wrong they ended up being.
After finding herself secluded to the hallways, she began hearing voices all around her, ranging from the people she loathed to the people, specifically person, she most cared about. The voices drove her through the hallways until she found herself in the middle of the Lunarium, It was there, all her fears and all her anger were solidified into one being, the person who spent a majority of Catra's life feeling unwanted, who made it their personal vendetta to make sure the girl she was worth nothing more than a weapon.
Shadow Weaver.
She taunted the girl endlessly, enticed her into fits of rage and tears as she tried to prove her own courage. She wasn't going to allow her to see she was terrified, weak. She wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of proving her useless on her own, that she needed everyone else around her to get the job done. And she wasn't about to acknowledge that without Adora around, she was frightened, helpless to fight back against one of her greatest fears.
As she predicted, she acted accordingly by striking across hundreds of crystals with her blade, trying everything in her power to strike at her former mentor and prove to the world that she was not afraid. With each swing another insult was thrown at her, another bout of laughter at her inability to do things on her own, and a reminder that because of her, Adora had never been closer or trusting of Shadow Weaver as she had been now. Everything reminded her that it was her fault.
By the time the insults were over Shadow Weaver's work had been completed, and the girl did exactly as she expected her to. Entering the room, a devastated Aunt Castaspella was shocked and dismayed to see thousands of crystals lying shattered beneath her feet, the single magicat in the center of the room being the only source of blame. By the time Catra had realized what she had done herself, it was already too late.
There was a fire in Aunt Casta's eyes as she yelled at the girl, the shield between Catra and the aunt's possible wrath being Glimmer herself. With the threat of telling Glimmer's mother about the incident, knowing how much she already distrusted the ex-Horde, Glimmer was forced to comply with her one condition: she wouldn't tell her mother if Catra was locked away in a bedroom for the rest of the evening, somewhere she would be safe and others would be safe from her.
It was from there, after passing out, through unknown reasons, that she awoke to find this horrifying new reality, one where everyone was gone, a warzone had filled the environment around her, and Shadow Weavers filled the halls endlessly. All the walls were in crumbling ruins and disarray as she passed them. She didn't know where her allies were, she didn't know where to go to find help. All she knew was that, for whatever reason, something was telling her to go straight to the Lunarium, the place where all her troubles would disappear.
The one thing she didn't know, however, was why she forced herself not to cut down these Shadow Weavers she kept coming across. It wasn't out of mercy or decency. Heck she would've loved nothing more than to cut down as many of these Shadow Weavers as possible. Yet for some reason, her mind was telling her against it. It was as if it was warning her not to slay these Shadow Weavers, like it would lead to some form of trap.
With that in mind, she came to the conclusion that her mind was warning her about some devastating aftermath that would follow, like if she destroyed any of these Shadow Weavers she would be caught in a major explosion soon after! While it stayed her hand from the dozens of Shadow Weavers she came across, it would do nothing once she came across the real one.
Shadow Weaver was in here, somewhere in this maze of hallways. Perhaps at the Lunarium itself? Time would be her only ally as it proved itself down the line. All she knew at that moment was that she had to get to the Lunarium and stop whatever evil would befall Mystacor, unaware of the dark spectre that had filled her mind...
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Magic gathering in the palms of her hands, Castaspella smiled as she prepared for the ritual that came once every month, one that ensured the safety of Mystacor forevermore. The Eclipse Ceremony was a vital livelihood for the sorcerers and sorceresses of Mystacor. It kept the barrier that shielded it replenished after every event, and, more importantly, kept them outside from the clutches of the Horde's evil grasp.
If ever a time came they found their defenses down, found themselves without the lense to protect themselves, the Horde would hound in on them in an instant. After the Rebellion, Mystacor was the last fighting chance the world had against the Horde's evil reign, the last bastion of peace anyone had in the hopes of defeating them. Even if the Rebellion continued to stand, should Mystacor, and all it's mystical secrets, fall, the rest of the world wouldn't be too far behind.
It spelt doom for all across Etheria, annihilation for all around the globe. It was a beacon and sanctuary for all who practiced in the arts of magic, and last line of defense from oblivion.
It was during that time, watching from the sides as the rest of the mages were circled at the center, preparing for the ceremony, that Glimmer started to frown.
"You okay?" Bow whispered, leaning over from her right.
"No, I'm not." She muttered staring at the floor. "I just feel guilty leaving Catra like that locked up in her room."
"Yeah, I know what you mean." Bow shrugged with uncertainty, finding it as hard as her to get any enjoyment from the lightshow. "Who knows if she's still hallucinating in there or having a nightmare by this point."
"Hmm... Do you wanna go back?" She offered with a curious smile. "After all, we've seen the ceremony plenty of times. Missing it once shouldn't hurt?"
"Heh, yeah, sure. Besides, it wouldn't be fair if Catra was forced to miss out on the show too." Smiling to each other, they grabbed each other's hand before teleporting away.
While she kept her focus on the ceremony at hand, Aunt Casta felt a slight shift in the air, realizing her niece and her friend had left. While it depress her to know they left when the ceremony was finally ready to begin, she couldn't blame them for their reasons. After all, she did basically make Catra an official prisoner in her room all night, so it didn't bother her if they left to keep her company. In fact, if anything, she felt a little more pleased with the fruition. It warmed her heart knowing she had such deepening care for her friends, no matter how strange they might've been or if they were imaginary.
She just hoped she would be okay given Catra's strange behavior since she met her.
Looking up to the sky, she smiled as the moons began to pass by in front of each other, the eclipse finally beginning as the moons merged into one. Flashing with a bright violet light, the eclipse began to rain its beautiful energies down upon Mystacor, its beautiful lights bouncing across the room as it reflected from the numerous crystals that still remained in the Lunarium, culminating to a single flash that filled the entire room with it's beauty.
With its energies pouring in, Casta began levitating the Lunar Lenses into their respective formations, reflecting the direct energy into a rainbow of light across one another, forming a pattern as Casta moved herself to the center of the sacred room, gazing into the fountain of water that lied beneath the skylight. It was here all their magical energy would gather into one, and the shield protecting Mystacor would renewed.
That opportunity never came to pass.
Almost immediately after gazing into the water, she gasped. From the edges of the fountain a horrific darkness began to encircle the fountain, spreading across the waters like a poison until it filled the water in its entirety. From there, the darkness burst from the center, catching everyone off guard and in shock, as a mass of shadows burst out of the waters in a twisted explosion of blackness, shrouding the room with it's malefic evil.
One by one, the many lenses that were used in the ceremony began to alter, darken. One after the other they began to blacken into a sinister color, reflecting a darker energy from the light they once gave into a vile display of wickedness and cruelty.
Still in shock over the endeavor, Casta channeled as much energy as she had into her magic as she attempted to stop the ensuing darkness that filled the room. It took everything she had to keep the darkness at bay from the center of the skylight, where the Lunar Lenses were being held in place. But all of it was for naught, as even with all her strength and all her efforts to keep the evil at bay, the darkness pushed through her magics, filling the walls and ceiling of the sacred room with shadow.
At this, a culmination of the shadows began to merge together in the center of this great ceremony, the sorcerers and mages powerless to stop it as it gave shape. It morphed into a great mass, a form that all of them were familiar with, and at the same time horrified, to see it return.
"Light Spinner!" Casta gasped, unable to believe what she was seeing. The darkened body that was her hissed at the name, the one source of light from her entire body being her white eyes and the red jewel adorned in the middle of her forehead.
"I've given up that name for quite some time now, my dear Castaspella. I go by a new title now." She commented, gazing into her own hands before directing it at the head sorceress herself.
"Shadow Weaver."
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...
*swoosh!*
"Catra, we're here!" Glimmer announced happily as she teleported back to the bedroom with Bow, the latter carrying a plate of sandwiches on a serving tray.
"Hey, I brought you some food!" Bow called out, gesturing the several sandwiches he had to offer. "I didn't really know what your preference was, so I grabbed a whole bunch of..." Bow's silence was followed by Glimmer's own as they gazed around the room, seeing the one thing neither of them were prepared for.
Emptiness. There wasn't a Catra, there wasn't a lump sleeping on the bed, and there wasn't a sword at it's side like they left it. Everything that is and ever was Catra was missing from this room.
"Catra?" Glimmer called out again, checking by knocking on the adjoining bathroom just in case. "We left the ceremony early, in case you-"
*crash*
"Uhhh Glimmer?" Bow called out nervously as he backed away from the entrance. Popping her head back into the room, ignoring the mess he dropped to the floor, Glimmer's mind filled with fear at what he was staring at.
The entrance, the one they had personally locked and secured in case she started hallucinating again, was destroyed. The fringes of it were cracked apart, the sides of the frame were practically split open, and the door itself was smashed into two large wooden chunks, as if a battering ram had crashed through it. All of this was what was left to greet them after their return, with the knowledge that Catra was now missing and, worse yet, she had her sword with her.
"Oh no... Catra!" Glimmer screamed as she and Bow ran out into the halls. There was no telling which direction their friend could've gone. All they could do was pick a direction, North in this case, and run down as fast as possible as they could. "I can't believe she broke out of her room!"
"In hindsight, we shouldn't have left her sword with her either." Bow commented, continuing to pick up the pace with his friend.
"Gee, thanks for that reminder!" Glimmer rolled her eyes in annoyance as they continued. There was no telling where Catra had gone or where she had ran off to. The only thing that mattered to them right now was finding her before she ended up hurting someone, or worse, someone ended up hurting her in retaliation.
What made it more troubling was the fact she had her sword with her, not that it was better off than a cat with her deadly claws. While her inability to transform into She-Ra gave little comfort, it did nothing to quell the fear building up inside them at the fact she still had a sword.
A sword is a sword, and it was good for one thing.
Cutting.
"Catraaaa!" Glimmer called out, alternating between herself and Bow.
"Catraaa! Where are you?"
There was no telling when the magicat ran off or how much damage she could do! Her hallucinations definitely had to play a part in all of this, though what confused them was how it caused her to hallucinate to the point of breaking out of her room. It was a door and a bedroom. With Glimmer having one of the few spare keys to it, there was no way anyone else could've gone into the room and done something to frighten their dear friend.
Did the hallucinations get worse while they were gone? Did it give her some horrific vision of the door trying to come alive and eating her? For all they knew she now saw inanimate objects as living things. Everyday items one would find in their home might've seem like terrifying monsters that were plotting against her.
It was crazy, sure, but then again, their friend was currently crazy!
"Where could she be?" Glimmer asked after running for another minute, taking a small break at a split between four separate hallways.
"How should I know?" Bow moaned to himself as he squeezed his head. "For all I know anything I did say to her came out as something else to her."
"Ahhhh!" The two nearly jumped at the sound of a young acolyte running down the halls, clearly in terror.
"Hey wait!" Bow stopped as he grabbed the young teen by his shoulder. If it wasn't for the presumably recent bruise he had under his eye, they would've let him go without question. "What's wrong? What happened?"
"The Horde's attacking, that's what!" The announcement sent fear and dread in the inner regions of Glimmer's and Bow's mind. No matter how prepared they were for it they still weren't ready to hear it. "Some crazy cat girl with a sword! She started attacking people out of nowhere!"
"Oh no..." Glimmer prayed that it didn't get any worse than that. "Did... Are there any casualties?"
"Not to my knowledge, no," the one sentence of relief was short lived as he continued, "not like it matters anymore though."
"Why's that?"
"Because the barrier protecting Mystacor is failing!" He fretted. "Something went wrong in the Lunar Ceremony and now the whole barrier is beginning to wane!" Without another word, the boy jerked out of Bow's grip as he continued running down the halls for his life. It didn't matter if they couldn't understand how she got all the way down there already. Who cared if it made sense as to why she could go down there to begin with? All that mattered was that the Eclipse was failing and who the most likely cause of the mayhem appeared to be.
"Catra!"
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"Huff... Finally..." Catra panted as she reached the Lunarium, out of breath from the numerous Shadow Weaver clones she had to fight on the way here and all the running that came with it.
Many of the Shadow Weavers varied in strength. Some of them saw to deal with Catra physically, charging the young girl and trying to restrain her, no doubt to torture her like she had years ago. While most of them were easy pickings, managing to swipe half of them and drop the other half with the butt of her sword's hilt, others proved more vicious, throwing strange tendrils at the girl as they tried to tie her down. Thankfully her claws came into play at this as she managed to escape every time, soon ensnaring, not entirely sure how, the Shadow Weavers with her own magic.
Then came the ones who casted more of their magics at her. They ranged from large balls of darkness to red streaks of lightning straight from her hand. Many of these proved easy to dodge whereas a few of them nearly proved disastrous for the young girl. She found at least two instances where shadows were stuck against her feet, almost as cold as ice, forcing her to bash away at the freezing temperature with sword, and another instance of them blasting her endlessly with their lightning.
If it wasn't for the fact they foolishly got closer as they kept her pinned to the ground in agony, she never would've found the opportunity to swipe them off their feet, knocking them out cold by planting her elbow directly into their cut. She still refrained from finishing them off afterwards, knowing these clones were nothing more than mere copies of the real one, the one who had to be somewhere around these halls of horror.
After another several minutes of running, she finally came to the Lunarium itself, the place her mind was shouting at her to return to. To her surprise, and reluctance, she found the room filled with five other Shadow Weavers passed out at the center of the room. No doubt they were fought off by whatever forces remained of Mystacor, the very forces she had yet to come across during her trip here.
That was the one thing that bothered her behind all of this. Why didn't she come across a single guard or sorcerer around here? Even if they were no longer breathing, she should've seen at least one or two people around here. There wasn't even the smell of blood in the air, however stale. Did they evacuate before things came worse, or were they possibly all captured and taken prisoner after the Horde invaded Mystacor?
If they did leave, then why didn't they come back for Catra? They kept going on and on about how they were friends, and at the very least she did acknowledge them as allies. Was the attack her truly so bad that they couldn't reach her in time, or did they simply not care for her like they let on?
Whatever the case, she knew this was the center of all the problems, indicated by the strange black light she saw illuminating from the middle of the Lunarium. From there, she saw the lenses that Glimmer's aunt once told her about, the ones that were necessary to protect Mystacor's defenses and its people. Following the black light itself proved differently from her perspective.
Here, she saw the light shooting into the sky as it touched the barrier itself. From above, she saw bits and pieces of the barrier beginning to crumble, melting away little by little as the barrier became undone. Gritting her teeth, gripping her sword tightly, she walked her way over to the lenses that now laid at the center.
No doubt Shadow Weaver did something to it, somehow corrupting it's pure magic into something terrifying. Her mind kept screaming at her to destroy the lenses, believing that once the corrupt lenses were destroyed, the rest of Mystacor would be saved and the barrier would be made whole again. Even if it didn't, it was better than allowing it to drain the barrier's power away.
On top of all of that, this was the proof she needed. She needed to prove to herself that no matter how afraid she was of Shadow Weaver or how angry she made her constantly, that she was stronger than the witch of darkness, that she was not her toy to manipulate or bend to her will. The entire experience up to this point was truly terrifying for her, and now it was finally going to pay off.
"I told you I'm not afraid!" She yelled to everything around her, lifting the sword high into the air as she prepared to destroy the evil objects once and for all!
*Swoosh!*
All instincts of destroying the dreaded relic were erased as her attention turned towards the sound of a mysterious gust of wind emanating from behind her.
...
"Catra, stop!" Glimmer pleaded with a shout, taking in the sight of the room thereafter.
What happened here during the few brief minutes they were gone?! Everyone around them was tossed aside and weakened after some strange battle took place. There was no way Catra could've managed this, right? No matter how strong she is, especially without She-Ra, there was no way she could've taken on five distinct sorcerers and sorceresses, including her aunt who was the Head Sorceress of Mystacor!
On the off chance she somehow was responsible for all of this, that wouldn't explain how Catra caused the room to darken intensely like this, or explain why the Lunar Lenses were covered in sickening Shadows. No amount of She-Ra Catra could channel had this kind of magical power.
"What happened here?" This room looked like it had a full blown war to Bow, the walls covered in blast marks and the half dozen sorcerers passed out across different sections of the room. "Catra, did you do this?"
...
This was different.
Compared to the other Shadow Weavers that appeared before her, these two teleported into the room directly. How did they do that? Most of the Shadow Weaver clones she came across used direct forms of magic against her, all of it shadow based with various effects. These two, however, were the first ones if not the only ones she came across so far that used their magic differently, like they had no idea what was going on earlier. If she didn't know any better she could've sworn it reminded her of-
"Ngggh!" Catra groaned in pain as she squeezed her forehead. As if telling her to forget this line of thinking, her mind was shot with a severe spike of pain. The instant she was about to say someone else's name her mind took over again, redirecting all the information she was thinking and turning it into a new line of thinking. It was a short and painful experience that gave her a new realization.
"Shadow Weaver!"
Yes, that must be it! One of these two must be the real Shadow Weaver! There could be no doubt, no confusion among them! Looking at the two of them as she tightened the grip on her blade, she knew it. The way their hair spiraled into an eternal nothingness of darkness, those sinister eyes that could plan ten steps ahead for every scenario. Yeah. Yeah! She was definitely staring at the real Shadow Weaver between these two!
...
"Shadow Weaver?" Glimmer wanted to know why she spoke that name again for the second time today. Better yet, who was she referring to? "Catra, who's this Shadow Weaver you keep mention-"
"Ahhhh!" With a mighty roar, the magicat leaped to the air, raising the sword high above her as she prepared to strike down on the two. Reacting quickly, Glimmer teleported herself and Bow to the right side of the chamber, looking back to Catra in shock.
"Catra, what are you doing?!" Glimmer contemplated going over to her side before she saw that hate-filled stare in her eyes. "Catra?"
"Glimmer, I don't think Catra's controlling herself right now." Bow announced as Glimmer looked back and forth between her two friends. "Look at her eyes, they're both yellow! The right one's not blue!" It was hard to tell from where they were standing right now, but Bow was right.
Those eyes were burning with nothing but hatred and contempt. It reminded her a lot of Dryl back when Catra had gone feral, except this time there was emotion behind the madness instead of pure rage. She saw anger, confusion, disbelief... and sadness. "What happened to her...?"
...
There was familiarity about these two Shadow Weavers that didn't sit right for her. Despite all the anger and fear filling her mind, her chest was aching for some reason. Why? She didn't have a soft side for Shadow Weaver. She would love nothing more than to put her on the opposite end of her blade at this very moment. Shadow Weaver manipulated, lied, coerced others into her upbringing, everything for her personal gain.
Wait, of course! Why didn't she see it before? These weren't her feelings she was going through! Obviously Shadow Weaver was manipulating her thoughts at that very moment, trying to manipulate the girl into not attacking these two! She hated herself for not realizing it sooner, unable to believe it almost worked!
"You can't fool me, Shadow Weaver!" She shouted, raising her blade to the two as she rushed them.
...
"Catra, stop!" Glimmer cried out as she gathered her violet magic into her palms. She didn't want to fight her friend when she was outside of her own control. She didn't want to fight her friend period as Bow prepared his own weapons!
And at first, it didn't look like they had to. Ten yards from where they stood, as she neared them halfway, she planted her sword firmly into the ground a couple inches, the hilt of the sword shooting straight up. For a moment, the two relished at the sight of it, thinking that Catra had somehow snapped out of the delusion and was back to her former self.
That line of critical thinking proved fatal though as immediately following this, Catra hopped atop her blade, using the hilt of it as a footstool. With one mighty leap, she shot straight towards the two, tackling Bow out of the way as she grabbed on to Glimmer, the one she was sure was Shadow Weaver!
Pushing passed the two for a good few seconds, the two of them rolling around from the brute force, Glimmer groaned as she opened her eyes again, finding an anger-filled, fear-stricken, Catra on top of her, her knees planted firmly into her stomach as she pinned her down. The girl had the advantage here as she grabbed her throat, hissing angrily as she brought her face towards her for a brief second.
...
She wanted Shadow Weaver to see it. She wanted the woman to see all the pain she caused her throughout her life, all the misery she had been living through since the day she was born. She wanted to take one last good look into Shadow Weaver's cold uncaring eyes for the last time before she finally snuffed out all of that light.
...
"I've been waiting for this moment for so long..." She growled, lifting back her right hand as she extended the claws out as far as she could.
Glimmer was at a loss for words. Here she was, about to be killed by her friend who had no idea who she really was or what was happening. In a way, she felt more sorry for Catra than she did herself. What did this Shadow Weaver do to make Catra despise her so much? Why couldn't she see it was her and not whoever Catra thought it was?
*swiff*
By the time she registered any of these thoughts, Catra had already brought down her hand in one mighty stroke, ready to tear at her jugular in one great swing. "Ngh!" Glimmer closed her eyes in panic, readying for her end to come. Catra was faster than she could teleport, pinning her stomach down directly to get a delayed reaction if she tried to swipe at Catra herself. There wasn't any way out of this for her.
*sniff*
And in a moment of De Sha Vue, she opened her eyes again. Like she was the first time Catra lunged for her throat after Entrapta's robots infected her with a virus, a mere inch from her nose, Catra sniffed. Why was she sniffing her so much all of a sudden this time? Was she stifling a sniffle out of potential remorse for what she was about to do? Was she actually feeling bad on the inside about killing her former mentor?
None of the answers came to her as she found herself lifted off her feet, still being joked by the crush grip Catra had on her throat, her tail wagging violently from side to side.
"What did you do to Glimmer?!" She shouted, adding on to the confusion of the other princess.
"W-What are you talking about?!" She stammered, kicking her feet as she tried to break free of her grip.
...
"You should've heard her scream in agony when I was toying with her." Shadow Weaver cackled, sickeningly finding amusement in all of this chaos.
The rage burning further in Catra's heart nearly doubled from that one sentence alone. She couldn't believe what she was smelling off of this dangerous woman. The scent of her ally was going off like crazy all around her, her instincts being kicked in on high alert. She had something to do with Glimmer, one of the people she thought made it out of this warzone by this point. Upon closer inspection, she could catch the faint scent of Bow's person coming off of her too, just enough for it to be noticeable.
No doubt they truly had been captured by this monster, possibly all of the citizens of Mystacor for that matter!
...
"What have you done to her?!"
"Catra, it's me!" She tried to remove Catra's grip from her neck, shaking her wrist with all her might to no avail. As she said this, she saw a glint in Catra's eye. It was only for a brief period, as following whatever she said, whatever Catra thought Glimmer was saying, she saw a tear. A single tear in the corner of her left eye.
The fire inside her eye was slowly shared with an expression of sorrow, Catra almost seeming upset about whatever she thought Glimmer had said. She had no idea what would make Catra loosen a single tear like it, but the weight of the situation became apparent as she pulled back her hand.
"Grrrrrrrr!"
*pew!*
Right as the killing blow was about to be struck, a large blue wave of energy blasted at the girl, knocking her away from the nearly deceased Glimmer, the girl herself falling to her knees as she coughed rubbing her sore throat. Looking from the sight of her blasted friend to the direction of the blast itself, she let out a small gasp as she saw her Aunt Castaspella, the woman barely conscious as she lied on the floor from the stomach with her hand held up.
"Auntie!" Glimmer cried out as she teleported to her side.
As she did, Catra growled angrily at the blast. Apparently one of the Shadow Weaver clones in this room wasn't as passed out as she thought it was, not that it mattered at this point. As the former Shadow Weaver was checking on the other, Catra rushed towards the too in a mad sprint, extending both her claws as she prepared to take them both out in one go.
She was so obsessed with her targets that she didn't register Bow being near her until after he tackled her aside, bashing her away as she neared them. With reflexes suitable for any cat, Catra flipped through the air at this as she landed perfectly on her two feet, squatting as she Bow loading an arrow in his weapon, preparing to fight off his friend for as long as needed.
To her, all she saw was another Shadow Weaver gathering up dark magic into her hands again, not even seeing the weapon in Bow's arms from her viewpoint.
"Take Castaspella and get out of here!" He ordered, refusing to take his eyes off the magicat. "I'll hold her off!"
With a nod, she collected Aunt Casta into her arms as she teleported the two of them away, leaving Bow to stall for as much time as he possibly could. Knowing time was of the essence, Glimmer didn't bother teleporting themselves very far. She reappeared halfway into the adjoining hallway as she rested her aunt against the wall, the woman barely maintaining consciousness as she groaned.
"Aunt Casta, are you okay?" She took her Aunt's right hand as she tried to sooth with comfort, shaking her shoulder gently to help her maintain the ounce of consciousness she had left. "I'm so sorry about Catra! I don't know what she did but-"
"It's alright." Her aunt gave her a small smile as she patted Glimmer's chin. "I know she's not in control of herself. She didn't do this to me." The only thing keeping this from being a teary conversation between the two was the fact Glimmer knew her aunt's scrapes and injuries weren't fatal.
"I don't know what's wrong with her," she glanced back towards the direction of the Lunarium as she heard a small explosion, no doubt Bow giving it his all fighting against Catra, "and I don't know how to fix her."
"She's being possessed." Her aunt revealed. "I've seen this magic once before. It's a horrid state where a dark force drives the victim mad until they do their bidding. Anything she sees, hears, or feels is not her own." She gave a small groan as the bit of consciousness began to deplenish.
"Then how do I stop her? There has to be something I can do!" She didn't want this fighting to continue! She couldn't risk the entirety of Mystacor and all of it's citizens, but at the same time she didn't want to lose her friend, especially if it meant losing her by her own or Bow's hands.
With a cough, her aunt replied, "She won't stop until she finishes her task... unless..." Glimmer panicked. Her aunt was losing consciousness by the second and was starting to close her eyes.
"Unless what? Aunt Casta, please!"
"Mmh... You need to convince her she's hallucinating," she groaned, "find a way to convince her this is all fake, at least enough of it to make her break free..."
"Break free?" She repeated. "How?"
"I... I don't..." With a final utterance, her aunt finally lost the last of her consciousness and felt into a peaceful sleep.
"Aunt Casta? Auntie!" Glimmer cried out as she tried to shake her awake.
Sadly she knew it didn't matter at this point as she gazed down the hallway. She could already fill in the blanks of her Aunt's final words on her own. She didn't know how to stop the possession without magic, and there was no way Glimmer could pull it off on her own with magic without knowing how to remove the possession in the first place. One wrong slip up with her magic and she could wind up turning Catra into a vegetable for the rest of her life!
"There's gotta be a way to fix her..." She mumbled to herself, thinking as fast as she could with the limited time she had left. "She doesn't see, hear, or feel anything we do, so how... wait a minute..."
By the time she registered any of these thoughts, Catra had already brought down her hand in one mighty stroke, ready to tear at her jugular in one great swing. "Ngh!" Glimmer closed her eyes in panic, readying for her end to come. Catra was faster than she could teleport, pinning her stomach down directly to get a delayed reaction if she tried to swipe at Catra herself. There wasn't any way out of this for her.
*sniff*
And in a moment of De Sha Vue, she opened her eyes again. Like she was the first time Catra lunged for her throat after Entrapta's robots infected her with a virus, a mere inch from her nose, Catra sniffed. Why was she sniffing her so much all of a sudden this time? Was she stifling a sniffle out of potential remorse for what she was about to do? Was she actually feeling bad on the inside about killing her former mentor?
None of the answers came to her as she found herself lifted off her feet, still being joked by the crush grip Catra had on her throat, her tail wagging violently from side to side.
"What did you do to Glimmer?!" She shouted, adding on to the confusion of the other princess.
"That's it!" With a pound of the flat side of her fist against her palm, she teleported out of the hallway, heading straight towards the one place she knew had the answers.
...
"Ahhh!" Bow roared as he continued firing at Catra. He was running out of time, and more importantly arrows.
The few arrows he had used up to this point were less of a means to harm his friend and more intended to slow her down or incapacitate her. From net arrows to sticky arrows, he tried to slow down Catra as much as possible, biding all the time he could offer as he kept Catra at bay, distracted from completing her mission.
And he couldn't lay a hand on her! Catra's reflexes and agility gave her a great boost of speed and reflex compared to a normal person. In part thanks to the claws she had, whenever he tried to land a hit on her from the ground, coating it in a sticky or sap-like substance, she used the walls to her advantage, leaping up to them as she dodged from place to place. She had a greater advantage of the environment than he did, more than he did as he had to contend with Catra while also avoiding his own traps.
In the brief moment he took her eyes off, looking back to find one of his arrows, she vanished. Fear settling in as he looked around the room with his bow drawn, he slowly stepped aside as he made as little noise as possible. If she was on the walls then he should've heard the faintest of scratches coming from somewhere. That was the one thing to to indicate where she was and where she could possibly strike form next.
It did nothing though given her incredible speed. By the time he heard a noise, she already was launching the attack. Kicking off the wall behind him, hidden in the shadows of the upper exterior of the walls, she gave off the strongest kickoff she could as she launched herself from the wall, Bow powerless to stop her in time as it was already too late. By the time he turned around preparing to fire, Catra kicked him roughly against the face, delivering a massive blow powerful enough to knock him off his feet, knocking him out cold as he slid against the ground.
Walking over to the fallen Shadow Weaver clone, she spat. Her instincts were telling her this wasn't the same Shadow Weaver from earlier, and he was of no import compared to the other Shadow Weaver who disappeared with another clone. Because of it, she didn't bother finishing him off as she went back to collect her blade, pulling it out of the ground with ease.
"Time to end this..." Seeing the reflection in the sword, seeing the same yellow and blue eyes as she always did, she walked over to the center of the Lunarium where she saw the dark energies bursting from the core of the room.
This was it. With one final plunge she would end all the corruption and dark magics Shadow Weaver was planting around here. She would get her revenge for all the times she used her, all the times she manipulated her in the past, and most of all, she would get revenge on her for using Adora the way she did.
All the while, Shadow Weaver herself smiled with fascination and amusement as she watched the cat through her waters. The cat had done everything as she predicted and everything she was about to do! She thought she would leave here a hero when in reality she was going to cripple Mystacor's defenses in a single blow, and it would be all her fault!
This was going to be the most enjoyable display she had ever witnessed!
*swoosh!*
"Agh!" Catra choked as she felt a presence falling onto her back, dropping her sword. Unable to turn her head, she shifted her eyes back, catching as much gaze of the real Shadow Weaver as she could as she pulled the arm holding her throat.
"Noooo!" Shadow Weaver screamed, lowering her head towards the fountain of water in frustration.
On her back Glimmer reappeared, wrapping her knees around Catra as she held onto her back, using her left arm to stay in place as she struggled to maintain her grip. This was the one chance she had left to save Catra and to stop her from destroying the lenses, seeing Bow knocked out several feet away from in the back of the room.
"I sure hope this works..." Glimmer gulped to herself as she pulled her other hand against Catra's nose.
To Catra's point of view, she was attempting to use some dark vile magic against her, seeing the twisted magic gathering in the palm of her hand.
"No!" She was so close! Her mind was exploding with thoughts as she stepped back a few feet, unable to get the heavy woman off of her. She came so close to stopping one of Shadow Weaver's plans, and her mind was already telling her how she failed! Why could she never beat this woman?!
She couldn't allow this to continue! Shadow Weaver was one of the most vile people she had ever known, maybe even worse than Lord Hordak himself, having met the Lord of the Horde a few times in person growing up. She was ruthless, cunning, and evil beyond comprehension, disposing of all her possible assets as soon as she finished using them. And knowing her the way she did, she would do the exact same thing to Adora when Adora finally outlived her usefulness!
"I'm... not... letting... you... win!" Catra grunted between chokes of breath.
She wasn't going to destroy the lenses at this rate, that's what her mind kept telling her. So perhaps she would have to settle for the ultimate sacrifice instead? She didn't care about her allies here, wherever they were, presuming they were okay. Here, she realized the best way to deal with Shadow Weaver was to deal with her herself, and she would happily take her down with her!
Pulling the sword to the front, she prepare as she slowly turned it around. She didn't like the idea of taking her own life, but if it was to stop Shadow Weaver, she would do it with a smile on her face. She would stab Shadow Weaver through herself, taking the girl with her if it meant winning. In the long run, it would deal a crippling blow to the Horde. Without Hordak's second in command, there would be a power vacuum, buying time for the Rebellion to continue gathering its forces and drawing strength, everything necessary to finally win!
With a deep breath through her nose, her grip tightened. With a final pull, she clenched herself as she plunged the sword straight into her heart-!
*sniff*
She froze. That scent... that weird, bizarre, soothing, scent. It was... familiar to her. With the blade's tip barely an inch from her chest, she smelled it.
Where... Where have I smelled this before? The same Shadow Weaver who gave off the scent of Glimmer was now giving off her scent and a familiar fragrance she smelled earlier today. It was a soothing scent she remembered from awhile ago, back when she was getting a massage from Dr. Kiroh. It was calming, it gave her a sense of clarity when she smelled it, it was...
Incense!
Wait, why did it smell of incense? Just because she recognized the smell didn't mean she should be smelling it herself, right? She was here, staring at Shadow Weaver's magic-covered hand, the same one who pulled her away from the Lenses, and the very one her mind was screaming repeatedly for her to kill! Yet it didn't explain why her magic was filling with the scent of incense.
Come to think of it, why did it have a smell to begin with? It was dark magic, it didn't have a scent like the smoke from a fire or the tranquil scent of fresh water. And why was there a small bit of smoke rising in front of her too? It was the same size of smoke you'd get from a candlestick, barely the size of one's pinkie.
She chuckled a little as she thought of that. Pinkie. Like Pinky. The one who brought her to the massager in the first place... wait... how would Shadow Weaver's magic have the same smell? It didn't matter if she could use her magics to spy on her enemies, she couldn't get any sense of smell through her methods, whatever they were. And this one stupid smell was really bothering her as her mind kept screaming angrier for her to ignore it!
Why was she growing a headache from all this? This was nothing! She should just ignore it! She should impale herself with the sword to- HANG ON A MINUTE! She shouted in her head, grumbling as she started to shake. Why would she ever think of impaling herself with a sword?! That was beyond stupid! She wasn't about to risk her life for these, no matter how little they mattered to her! They were nothing, they were-
"Ghhhhh!" Catra growled audibly, shaking her head back as she convulsed, squeezing her eyes against her palms. "What's happening?!" Her voice echoed in distortion as Glimmer continued to force her to smell the incense candles.
"It's the smell, that's what's happening!" She knew whoever was speaking through Catra's mouth wasn't Catra's voice alone. At this, Catra started having flashes between the reality she saw and the true reality, the illusion struggling to maintain its hold over her mind. "You can duplicate her other senses however you want, but you can't get rid of her sense of smell!"
That was the grand realization behind this entire plan. She remembered everything that lead up to this point, all the people she passed on the way here that Catra knocked out or beat senselessly till they retreated. She didn't spare her because she wanted to, it wasn't due to some self pity she had for them. She knew the anger her friend could go through, and she was never one to allow such things go for the people she held a grudge against.
She spared those people because that's how this Shadow Weaver person wanted it to be, she needed it to be! If Catra killed anyone on the way here, she would've picked up the scent of blood in the air. If it was one person, it'd be one thing. If she killed more than two however then she would've picked up on the unusual scents the people were giving off! Because she barely knew these people she wasn't bothered by the individual scents they were giving off. That's why she was so confused when she picked up Glimmer's scent from earlier.
Because the magic would've disrupted if Catra's other senses started to kick in!
"Gehhhh!" Catra yelled as Glimmer held tightly. "Get ouT of mY heAd!" Her distorted voice was matched with the eerie substance that began draining from her ears.
Glimmer saw it. From her ears a thick cloud of darkness slowly started to seep, all gathering and amassing in front of the girl as Catra fought off the illusion. She heard a low growl coming from the black misty substance, fear slowly coming to her as she saw it give shape to a large humanoid-like creature, one without a face and a victim to corrupt its magic through. If Glimmer saw through the spell from the outside, there was no way it could work against her either from the inside.
As the last bits of the darkness left Catra's shrouded mind, the girl collapsed to the floor, Glimmer hopping off of her as she turned to the evil creature of darkness that towered over the both of them. Lifting her own head up, Catra held back the urge to groan, a small pain in her head from an unknown source, before she eyes widened at the sight of the monstrous creature.
"What the heck is that thing?!" She yelped, jumping to her feet as she backed up to Glimmer. As she did, she gazed around the entire room. Compared to the devastated war torn state it was in earlier, now it looked like there was barely a fight in here, the few scratches she did see she knew came from her own claws. "W-What happened in here...?" She shook as she looked at her own claws. "Did... I do this?"
"No, Catra." Glimmer smiled to her friend as she patted her back, glaring at the creature afterwards. "That did!"
"Gaaaaaaoooooooooo!" The monster was furious. It had a mission to do and it was going to see it through no matter how many times it had to retry on it's former host, or if it had to dispose of these people itself. Growing more in size, the two stepped back as it nearly doubled in size, gathering as much power as it could to deal with threats personally, resulting in it making it's final mistake. "Gaaaauuuuuuuu!" The creature cried out in pain as a bit of light enveloped it.
Looking behind the monster, the two saw as the violet lights of the Lunar energy were purging the creature in its entirety. The creature roared in pain as it struggled to maintain form, swiping at everything around it in pain as it tried to save itself. As the eclipse drew closer to it's fullness the beams in turn grew larger, engulfing more and more of the creature as it tried to escape. After a few more seconds, the creature gave one last final roar as it dissolved into nothingness, destroyed by the Lunar's pure energy.
"You... You did it..." Catra wasn't able to comprehend what had happened. Glimmer, the shorter pudgy girl she knew her to be, disrupted Shadow Weaver's plan, stopped Shadow Weaver's abomination. She stopped Catra herself from losing her own life and bringing down Mystacor with it.
Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she turned to see a perky Glimmer smiling back to her, ignoring the few scrapes she had on herself as she did. "No. We did it." She stated. "You're not giving yourself enough credit, Catra. All I did was help you come to your senses, but you were the one who fought the monster off."
...Why did she have to be like this? Why did she have to have the same stupid smile like Adora did? The one who tried to brighten her mood whenever she was feeling down, the one who tried to show Catra her own strengths compared to everyone else who mocked her for her weaknesses? Why did she have to be like this when Catra was so rotten to her, when she expected nothing in return?
What did Catra even have to give her in return for this? She was already fighting for the Rebellion and she barely knew anything about Glimmer herself out of her own lack of interest. And there wasn't anything in particular Glimmer seemed to like other than calling Catra and her allies her friends.
There was only one thing that came to mind as she shifted her eyes away with a bit of a frown.
"Thank... Glim-"
"Ahhhhh!" The appreciation was cut short as Glimmer suddenly let out a scream of panic. Falling to the floor as a dark tendril pulled at her legs, Catra's eyes widened as she saw Glimmer getting pulled into the encompassing darkness that filled the room again, watching her disappear into the shadows.
"Pinky!" Catra yelled trying to run after her.
Before she could reach the girl she was already gone, disappearing completely into the abyss. From there, Catra froze and began to creep backwards as the shadows started to take shape, gathering together as it solidified into a shadowy form from where darkness crept forth. She felt a lump in her throat as she collapsed backwards, pushing herself away as she crawled from the towering figure who had a vendetta against her, those white seething eyes glaring intently as the one other bit of color that remained on her came from the jewel on her forehead.
Towards the wall, Glimmer was out cold. To the side, Bow was knocked unconscious by her own work. There was nobody else that could help her in this moment as she panicked, feeling the dread and despair washing over her as she found herself all alone with her greatest fear.
"Shadow Weaver..."
...
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A/N: I really hope i don't make a habit of 5-part episodes XP I don't mind it or anything but it's something I hope to not make a habit of, i prefer keeping it back to 4 (personally i liked it back when I just kept it to 2 XP).
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed! Leave a Like, Follow, Fave, and Review if you enjoyed and hope to see you soon!