A/N: Hooftah! What is going on peeps! Hope you guys had a nice weekend and a Cinco de mayo for those celebrating it! Had a few snags to deal with this weekend and an issue or two here and there, but overall I think this came out rather well all things considered ^^
This also might be one of my more quirky/silly opening lines to an episode's chapter, which I hope you guys enjoy because it'll be the last warmy feeling we get through the rest of the season...
Anyway, enjoy!
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...
None of those present here could believe their eyes, half of them still recovering from the tackles and slams they had personally experienced from their enemies as they got back to their feet.
All of this had began with one, single, girl, known as Catra. When she touched the Sword of Protection, it had changed everything. It began an epic tale of adventure that brought her across the world of Etheria, in a way that she had always dreamed of, yet not in a way that she had always hoped.
She got to experience the many wonders of the world she was always secluded from, unaware of as she was raised within the confines of the Horde. From the harrowing and deadly seas as she traveled across Salineas, to the magical realms of Mystacor, the magic capitol of the world that housed a variety of sorcerers and sorceresses from all around the world. This was a freedom she had never gotten to experience in all her life, and she had the chance to see the world and all it had to offer her!
The only setback that kept it from being the way she hoped for- it wasn't with the friend she thought she'd be sharing the experience with.
That girl's name was Adora. Friend, ally, Force Captain of the Horde. The very person who's live she ruined and took advantage of throughout most of their childhood, one of the best friendships anyone could ask for. She was always by her side, protecting her and helping her through most of her problems, and never returning that assistance unless it helped Catra out in any way.
This wasn't the way they were supposed to meet each other here. They were supposed to be on the same side, as they always were! They were best friends who had each others' backs! Before Catra found the sword, she was supposed to either be a simple soldier following orders, or finding some way raise through the ranks so she could be a fellow Horde Force Captain, fighting alongside Adora with the Rebellion.
All the same, she was also supposed to be fighting with Adora for the Rebellion. After everything she found out from Light Hope, she was supposed to be giving Adora the sword in her stead. She was the She-Ra they were looking for, not Catra. When she gave her the sword, Adora was supposed to be aware of her destiny, and, presumably, turn over to their side and fight against the Horde with Catra. Personally, given her experiences with Glimmer and Bow, she would gladly fight alongside her against the Horde, especially against everyone who tormented her throughout the years.
Now that same friend was glaring her down across from the ravine of Bright Moon, with an army of Horde tanks at her back. Adora's eyes were burning with anger, one Catra could feel blazing across her skin as she glared at her.
Catra never wanted this, honestly. A part of her wanted to do this against her own will, almost wishing the Rebellion was forcing her to do this. Adora was her friend, someone better than Glimmer and Bow had a personal experience with. The monster she became was a result of Catra's own doing, and nothing she could say would change their opinion of her, she knew.
She still wished the options she had were easier to contend with. Originally wanting to run away from all of this, she came to the conclusion that there was only one feasible path, one way to take after another necessary pep talk with Swift Wind, a horse, of all people. He made her realize that the pain she was feeling would always continue to rise the longer she ran away from her past and didn't confront it, and it was only a matter of time before she reached a point where she couldn't escape from it.
She didn't want to confront her past anymore, and she didn't want to lose any friends no matter how this day played out. But after all she's done, everything she's experienced, she's had to come to a grand realization:
Unless she confronted her past now, there would be no one there to comfort her in the end when her past finally confronted her.
Maybe that's why her current She-Ra form was still the same as always. While she might have felt a little stronger, whether or not that was due to her less selfish actions or the fact the inhibitor was officially removed, it still wasn't enough apparently to convince the sword that she was worthy of the true form of She-Ra. It's not exactly that surprising when it came down to it.
On a whole, she was doing it for her own benefit, to an extent. She was doing this to lessen the pain that she would feel later on in her life, and to prevent herself from suffering an entirely new level of pain. And even though she was going to be rescuing the people she did admittedly care about, it was still with that selfish mindset that kept the sword from granting her its full power.
Nevertheless, she didn't care about it. This was her last chance to save her friends, something she failed to do in the past, and she wasn't going to abandon them again.
"C-Catra..." Glimmer's never been so happy to see her appear, possibly more overjoyed by what she actually called her compared to the last minute rescue she finally preformed. "Y-You... called us friends..."
The small blush on Catra's face as she turned her face with a small curve in her smile all but confirmed it. "Heh... yeah... I guess I did."
"...You pick now of all times to say it?!" Her once cheerful demeanor was soon replaced with utter disbelief and annoyance as she dropped her arms.
"What? I thought you'd be happy!" Cut her some slack at least! She's spent all this time without actually calling the two friends, and after everything they've done for her she thought it was the least she could do! "Better late than never, right?"
"We're in the middle of a war!"
"Well excuse me for thinking it would cheer you up for a change!"
"Well it would have if you did it-!"
"Um... guys?"
"What?!" Bow would have fainted at the sight of the two terrifying girls that glared fiery anger at the young boy.
"Maybe we should have this conversation after we survive?" He suggested, pointing back to the army of Horde that was still at their doorstep.
"...Fine." They agreed in unison, turning their attention back to the source of the Horde army.
Adora was chuckling on the inside as Scorpia made her way to her side again, grinning that Catra was still alive enough for her to deal with her personally. She was also rather surprised by her change of outfit. Not once did she ever see Catra change her outfit, not even when she was pulling one of her hair-brained schemes. The golden tiara, the bracelets, the white clothes-
She stopped as she stared curiously at Catra's legs, growing a small blush on her face as she removed her headband. "...Catra, where are your pants?"
"I know, right?" Finally, someone who got her! Shaking her head from the small bout of confusion, she drew her sword in Adora's direction, threateningly. "Adora, I'm giving you a chance here. Turn back... please..." Glimmer and Bow were all too aware of the pain in her voice as she said this. From up close, there was a small twitch they could see in her grip of the sword, Catra's stance being unusually off balance compared to normal.
"Turn back?" Adora scowled at the request. "Did you think I would turn away with the entire army just because you said to "turn back"? First you mess up my life, abandon me, and now you're telling me to leave you alone? Tch, you know for the so-called friend who said they cared about me, you're terrible at showing it."
"I do care about you, Adora." How many times was Catra going to have to argue that? "Do you think I want to be out here right now? Do you think this is any easier on my end? I want to go back to the way things were, Adora, not how they are now."
"...I used to want the same thing, you know?" Lowering the anger in her brow, she turned to the headband grasped firmly in her hand.
"Why did she take off her headband?" Bow whispered over to the magicat, drawing his bow and arrow at the ready.
"I kept thinking everything that was happening since you left was a bad dream, and you were going to be there the very next day." She shared in the guilt of Catra's departure, how unaware she was that it would lead to her defection. Until recently, she wished she could go back to that day every second of her life, and either go with Catra like she should have, or stopped her from leaving in the first place. Maybe she would've joined her side and seen what the big deal was about this Rebellion, or manage to convince her to come back to the Horde like she should have.
With renewed vigor and a sense of anger spreading across her, she squeezed the headband in her hands. "But I'm tired of looking into the past, Catra. I'm sick of being the only one who wants to go back to those days, the only one who's tried to fix things. I'm tired of you, Catra."
"So now, I'm moving towards the future." With a stern look in her eyes, the captain grabbed both ends of the headband firmly. "One where the Horde rules all, and the world is united."
"The Horde doesn't want to unite the world, Adora! It just wants t-"
...
"Are you okay?!" Glimmer kneeled to her side quickly as she helped pat her back.
"Ack-! Ough...I'm...ough... I'm fine..." Catra rasped, her voice a little sore from the salt water she forcefully inhaled. Looking around her various things began to dawn on her.
First off, these visions were a world renowned pain at this point. After her experience a minute ago, she could officially state that when and if these visions appeared were unpredictable. During the few times she's had said visions within the last week before this mission, she had the fortune of them not popping up unexpectedly or inconvenient times. At most, she probably found herself having a vision once or twice in the hallways for several seconds.
Now she was realizing that it didn't matter what she was doing or where she was when these visions occurred, and that could prove very problematic in the future.
Secondly, her She-Ra form went off way too early compared to last time. There officially had to be some bug with this stupid sword at this point because the second time she went She-Ra, she found herself in her state for nearly a full day, twenty-four hours to be exact. Here, she lasted maybe several minutes before it wore off, and that's not including whenever it passed off while she was having a vision.
Lastly she realized...
"Y-You guys... saved me?" For whatever reason to her, this apparently warranted the two to smile back to her.
"Of course we saved you," Glimmer said brightly, "we're a team!"
"Yeah! The Best Friend Squad sticks together!" Bow declared.
...
"Agh!" Catra let out a groan as she clutched her head, wobbling a step forward as the migraine passed as quickly as it came.
"Catra?" Glimmer ran over to her side with Bow, worry in both their eyes. "What's wrong?"
"I..." Her feet were the only things wet at this point, compared to the vision she just had. "I... I just had another vision..."
This was far beyond any sort of vision she's had up to this point. Most of her visions came from the far pasts of her childhood, the memories surfacing within weeks to months of each other, and always taking place in the Fright Zone. According to Light Hope, these were supposed to fill her with a sense of peace of some sort, to help her calm her heart in order to better use the sword, and strengthen her connection to it.
The recent vision she just had was the farthest thing from what she was used to. It wasn't anything too horrendous, save for what happened right before it, and it didn't really give her any sense of peace. As far as she remembers, she nearly drowned to death on that day, and Glimmer and Bow saved her. It was kind of hard to forget since it lead to Catra fulfilling her promise to Glimmer after she, presumably, helped her transform into She-Ra, followed by the immediate week she went without talking to her out of anger.
What was the point of this sudden vision, though? Thinking about it, her visions happened whenever the sword was around her, so it was easy to assume that the sword was the one who gave her the recent vision, as Light Hope stated. But what was the purpose of it just now? Why show her a random vision out of nowhere in the middle of all this? Even the one that almost made her drown had more sense to pop up than this one did! Least that one was after she killed the giant sea serpent.
If her past visions were trying to tell her how to find a sense of peace, what was this one trying to tell her?
"You had one now?"
"Catra, are you sure you're able to fight?" There was no way he or Glimmer could save Catra in the middle of this war. If Catra ever was in peril in the midst of all this, nobody would be able to save her, and Bow couldn't risk that.
"Y-Yeah, I'll be fine." Catra shook the fuzziness out of her head before returning her attention to a threatening Adora. "Adora, it's like I was trying to say. The Horde doesn't want unite Etheria. All it's going to do is cover the world in darkness!"
"Darkness, huh? And what's wrong with that?" It was just like Catra, to always judge people or things because of their differences. Despite how people always treated her the same way, she never let it deter her from how she treated others. "A cloud here, a shadow there. You are one of the last people who should be complaining about the dark side to everything, Catra."
"Adora, that's not what I meant!"
"And I don't care what you meant, Catra! Besides," smirking the Force Captain looked down to the headband clenched tightly in her hands, "I happen to enjoy a little darkness, Catra. I haven't collected any shadows since the Fright Zone, and now..."
Catra silently gasped as it suddenly struck her. Looking to the ground, the mountains, the trees, everywhere, she saw it. The reason Adora was brave enough to come out in the middle of this battlefield with one ally as backup, the reason she took off the headband, the way she seemed intent on spreading the darkness. All around Catra, around Bright Moon, was the very source of Adora's headband's power: Darkness.
And now, the entirety of Bright Moon was covered in a layer, however thin, of it.
"No..." She steadied the grip on her sword, uneased by the tension filling the air and the battle she knew was about to unfold. "She's going to draw the shadows from this place!"
"No she won't!" Tightening his own grip on his weapon, Bow steadied the arrow in full, taking aim directly at the headband itself in an attempt to pry the band straight out of Adora's hands in a clean shot. Slowing his breath, in one quick motion, Bow fired the arrow directly between Adora's raising hands and the open air behind her, firing it as swiftly as the wind as it was launched directly towards the Force Captain.
Only for Scorpia to grab it a few feet away from Adora with one claw.
"No you don't." She sneered, clipping the arrow in half with her strong claws. By the time she pulled her claws back, the rest were met with the sight of a mischievous grin plastered on Adora's face as the headband was lifted to her forehead, tied tightly around her head with the assurance that it wouldn't come off without consent.
And her transformation had begun.
All around them, from the waters to the forest, everything began to shake violently as a strong gust blew through the valley. Looking around them, Catra could see the trees as the leaves were pulled off by the wind itself, the branches cracking under the force of the massive draw. From every crevice and every source of darkness, from the smallest hint of shades to the biggest source of shadows, Adora drew in every source of shading she could, squeezing her head a bit as she pushed passed the pain that followed.
This was unlike any source of shadows Adora had gathered previously in the past. Before, all she gathered the first time was during a setting sun over the Kingdom of Salineas, the kingdom flourishing with pure shadows from all around the buildings that the sun had provided, followed by the darkness that could be pulled from the ocean's murky depths. It didn't matter if they couldn't tell just how deep or how far the range of her shadows could pull from, it provided more than a match than Catra was capable of fighting against.
The other times she had done it was during her own personal training. With the Fright Zone being the epitome of cruelty behind it's lies and manipulations, shadows ran amok across the land, the skies being filled with clouds of darkness and the corridors bright enough just for day to day labors. She drew in the average amount of shadows that she could from the zone, harnessing them and modifying her own shadows in a variety of different forms and uses.
The one common string they all had along with them was that they were limited by the amount of shadows they could produce. With an average quantity to pull from, Adora managed to pull them into all sorts of things between gargantuan clawed arms to blades capable of stretching up to twenty feet away.
Now, she was at the epicenter of an entire land filled with shade and darkness, one that was rushing into her like a whirlpool.
From every angle and every side, they watched as the shadows beneath their feet and from environment pulled towards Adora endlessly, moving like a wave across the solid ground, as it coalesced into a singular point. Under Adora, the blonde Force Captain watched as the shadows pooled around her, growing a deepening darkness that slowly began to spread around her in size and mass.
It was no surprise to her as the shadows began to grow around her body itself, the blackness churning with power as they rose across Adora's body. She closed her eyes in anticipation and calmness, the once unbearable pain of this rush of power feeling like nothing more than a warm breeze blowing across her person. She was used to this power, she was prepared to embrace everything it had to offer if it meant winning this war, and the results continued to satisfy her as her power continued to mount.
Reaching the top of her head, covering her in pure shadow, the power still didn't appear to be slowing down as it drew over the girl. The power continued to amount without pause as it began to spread across her surroundings a good seven feet in radius. In a circle, the others could only watch on in terror and wonder as the shadows rose out of the ground as it spiraled all around Adora, spinning like a twister as it began to levitate the girl off the ground a few feet, continuing to fill it's master with it's dark power.
Catra was trembling a little bit as she watched this, her animal instincts telling her to be afraid like Swift Wind appeared to be as he lowered his ears. This was unlike anything she, or the rest of them at that, have ever witnessed before. They weren't just witnessing someone harnessing the powers of their surroundings for their own benefit, they weren't using it to attack anyone that neared them to keep themselves out of harms way.
This was the power of a Princess, one who now appeared to have mastery over the darkness as it began to float the girl back to the ground where her feet were firmly planted, her top half slouching over as her arms dropped ahead of her. The darkness began to dim around her, revealing the form of Adora once more. They didn't hear a plea or cry of pain, they didn't hear any bouts of laughter at the overwhelming power, and they didn't hear anything other than the wind that continued to push passed everyone's head.
Until it happened.
*Crack*
All at one, Adora's right shoulder twitched violently. It was only for a second, long enough for everyone to see her throw her arm back and forth. A crackling that almost sounded like bone being misplaced, Adora's fingers started twitching back and forth as her right shoulder spasmed out of control. The Force Captain kept her head lowered as the ponytail of her hair practically broke itself free out of her hairband, the hair willing its freedom from the bounding leather as the ends of her hair started to flow around her.
Instinctively, the rest took a single step backward, feeling something big was coming towards them from the stationary captain. Adora had never felt such a rush of power before in all her life. Instantly, her emotions were swarmed with an everlasting sense of calmness and peace, feeling like nothing could possibly harm her in any such way. She barely felt anything as something suddenly sprouted from her back along her right shoulder blade, grinning as she felt her hair wave around with the power that filled her entire body.
It's no wonder Shadow Weaver was always so obsessed with power if this was the peacefulness she always felt!
While she didn't turn around herself, she could see perfectly clear in the water what had popped out of her back, and she didn't care. She didn't care as four massive shadowy thick tentacles sprouted on each side of her back, from both her shoulder blades and both sides of her abdomen, stretching out nearly a foot thick to the tip, and as long as her body in length. All four of them gave off their own sinister aura of darkness, small spores of shadows emanating off of them as they wiggled around her back. And the transformation didn't stop there.
In the water, she saw it. Like a majestic wave washing over her hair, one strand after the other, she watched in glee as the left half of her hair, from the front all the way to the back, right down the middle, started to darken until it was completely black, clashing perfectly with the right half of her hair that maintained its constant blonde glow, and the red that became her irises as they changed color.
There was little care she had for the small shadowy claws that manifested at the tip of her fingers, feeling her shadows were ready to spring into action instantly whenever she needed to form something.
With this, the transformation was complete. There was no pain as the tentacles burst from her back, since they didn't actually come out of Adora herself. All the shadows that were too much for her body to personally maintain sprouted from these places of origin, allowing Adora to expel the excess magic without injuring or harming her own body. And with a wicked smile, she slowly leaned her head up, looking directly at Catra.
The traitor.
The ex-best friend.
The enemy.
And now she had an entire assortment of powers to play with.
"Guys," Catra spoke at long last, keeping her attention on her abominable friend, "run."
"What?" Glimmer must've misheard her, right? There's no way Catra was suggesting she was going to take on Adora by herself, right?
"I said run-!"
*crackckckck-!*
Before Catra could sputter her warning again, she was dragged forcefully against the ground by a massive tentacle wrapping around her right leg, through the ground, as she was pulled by Adora's massive upper-right appendage. Catra felt the harsh scrape of the dirt as she was pulled over within seconds, and was tossed hazardously into the woods nearly a hundred feet behind them, passed the mechanical tanks.
It took little to no effort on Adora's part, the half-blonde sneering at how simple the dragging was. All it took for her was mere thought to drag the magicat away from her friends in a mere second, not even feeling it as she normally did with her shadows. This new boost of power kept her from feeling the strange shadows she attacked with, her sense of pain or touch numbed by the raw power that now infested her body.
"I'll take care of kitty, you focus on the Moonstone." Adora didn't give Scorpia the chance to question it, not that she would, as Adora dug the tentacles several yards ahead into the ground. With one solid pull, like a slingshot, she threw herself into the air, the others watching as she leaped into the sky until she landed within the forest, her body hidden by the foliage and trees that encompassed it.
That left the other Force Captain to grin back at her enemies, gesturing with her hands for the tanks to press on the attack. Glimmer and Bow tensed a bit as they prepared for the army of tanks that were approaching them, half of them already charging their cannons as they took aim at the duo and the Moonstone's pillar. They would need to fend off the attacking tanks and mechanical machines with their own two hands as long as Catra was preoccupied with the newly empowered Adora.
Fortunately, they wouldn't have to do it alone.
Sensing her daughter's distress, observing the tanks that were steadily charging towards them, the Queen gathered all the magic she required into the runestone as she began to channel her power. In one large blast across the ravine and its coast, the Queen unleashed a powerful wave of blue magic, blasting all of the tanks away a couple feet, and Scorpia a good distance over the tanks from the blastwave, temporarily immobilizing them as they found themselves either backed up to one another, or the few that were toppled entirely by the Queen's blast.
The Queen would have to be careful not to use too much excess energy as she required it to keep the dome-like barrier around the Moonstone's chamber. It would only take a couple hits from the oncoming tanks to completely destroy the last line of defense Bright Moon had to offer to the Rebellion. It forced Glimmer and Bow to contend with the tanks as she went back to focusing her magic to protect it.
It was all up to them now as they prepared their weapons for an all-out assault from the tanks, ready to defend Bright Moon with their lives. They just hoped that Catra would be all right on her own as she continued to deal with her former best friend...
...
*shkkkkkkkk*
"Gah!" Catra cried out as she crashed against the rough ground on her back, the pain, while mitigated vastly by the new She-Ra form, was intense.
It was also thanks to her She-Ra state that she managed to recover almost immediately from the landing as she jumped back to her feet, the sword still clenched tightly in her hands throughout the landing. That saving grace of recovery was the deciding factor if Catra was prepared for what came next, because no sooner had she gotten back to her feet did she jump away from her landing zone in order to dodge the massive shadowy fist Adora slammed into the ground, digging her fist a good foot into it.
Catra still couldn't believe what she was witnessing. Her friend had gone from the everyday average human into a horrifyingly twisted abomination that was pulling her hand casually out of the ground. "Now why'd you have to move?" Adora asked playfully as the two circled around each other, Catra keeping a good ten-foot distance between them. "It just makes it a lot harder for me to HIT YOU-!
*craskkk!*
She didn't know if her enhanced state also enhanced her reflexes, and she didn't care at this time. In a little under two seconds, the Force Captain charged literally headfirst towards her friend with a powerful headbutt, Catra barely an inch away as she ducked to her right out of the way in time. That didn't stop Adora's charge, however, as she slammed her head against the mighty oak, one of the few hundred trees that had yet to be frozen over, and leaving a perfectly round-shaped dent in the tree's bark.
Catra stared at her at this, unable to believe Adora managed to pull off such a feat of raw power, but was nowhere near as surprised by what followed. Standing place for a good moment, the Force Captain grinned as she turned her head around in Catra's direction, ignoring the small crackling sound the two heard as she did. From the point of impact where her head smacked, a small thin line began to grow around it, spreading across in both directions within seconds until it reached the back of the tree where the two lines connected.
Nothing could surprise Catra more than the sight as the tree slowly started to creak, her ears twitching at the sound of splitting wood, as the tree started to lean towards the opposite direction of Adora. Her eyes were glued to the wayward sight as the tree started to tumble further and further, eventually collapsing over completely onto the ground with a thunderous crash.
Adora barely batted an eyelash at this as she rubbed the right side of her neck, cracking the bones a little as she tilted her head from side to side. For anyone to be able to pull off a show of strength like that, to pound one's head against a solid tree and splitting it in half in the process, wouldn't take anything remotely close to a human's strength to pull off.
It would take a monster.
"How the heck are you still standing after that?" Catra asked in her bewilderment, distancing herself again as she prepared her sword.
"It's a nice little trick I came up with." She replied. Dissipating the shadows around her hands, holding her left arm against her chest, Adora pinched her fingers against the exposed skin from her sleeves. Instead of pulling at the skin itself, Catra blinked as she saw Adora pulling up an entire layer shadow that seemed to be invisible to the naked eye as it touched her skin directly. "I call it "Shadow Armor". Not the most original name, but it has its uses. It's basically like an entirely new layer of skin over my current one, stronger than steel and keeping me from being injured or hurt as a result."
"So you can't feel any pain?" Catra gave a small cheeky grin as she steadied her sword. "Good, then I don't have to feel too bad about hitting you as hard as I can!"
*clang*
The bout of certainty did little to quell Catra's nerves as she blocked the swinging blades from Adora's arms, their heads inches away from each other as Catra struggled to stand her ground as Adora pushed her back. "Ugh, you're always so violent, Catra." Adora teased a she pushed down on the cat.
"Say's the one who brought an entire army with her!" Catra hissed as she pushed back, earning a casual shrug from the abomination.
"Eh, fair point, don't care."
Without so much as a blink, Catra watched as she saw two of the massive tentacle-like appendages from her back solidate at the tip into two powerful, and most of all lethal, spears. The magicat jumped away from the impact site as Adora impaled the two mighty shadows where Catra was standing a mere second ago, barely missing her as one of the shadows nicked the left side of her right foot. It was interesting to see how much distance she could put between the two of them in her She-Ra state, her form enhancing her already superior agility.
Catra knew that if she was going to have any hope in surviving this fight, her speed and agility were the only two advantages she had over Adora.
"How do you expect me to hit you if you keep moving?" Without any care or effort, Adora watched as the tendrils on her back attempted to strike at Catra as she approached her, watching the magicat struggling to keep up the pace as she dodged and deflected one tendril after the other. "It's almost like you want to live~"
*clang*
"Shuddup!" Catra gritted her teeth as she held all four of the tendrils back at once as they struck the side of her blade simultaneously. Her reflexes and agility were proving very little in comparison to Adora's newfound strength, focusing on keeping the tendrils striking her as her feet were pushed back by the sheer force of Adora's strength.
"Seriously, I would find this extremely sad if I didn't find it so hilarious." Her taunts did nothing to trick Catra into letting her guard down, even though the irritation was building up in the back of her mind. "The big mean kitty cat pretending to play hero, just so she can get some stupid piece of dirt that nobody cared for."
"I thought you cared about it, Adora, okay?"As she said this, she felt her back pushing up against the wall, forcing herself to push the palms of her hands against both ends of the blade in order to keep the tendrils from pushing any closer. "We always talked about being in charge of everything, having everything for ourselves, you know?"
"I was talking about being one of the leaders of the Horde, idiot." Instantly, the playful, quirky, expression that was on Adora's face converted into one of contempt and pure rage as she scoffed, Catra noticing the intensity of the force being pushed against the blade as it neared her head slowly. "I wanted us to stand alongside our friends and family as one of the heads of the Horde, to be grand general or commander that others could look up to, Unlike you, I never once thought of betraying everyone!"
At the sound of her last word, Catra reacted as she felt the intensity of the force lighten, just a little bit, but more than enough for her to counter to this. With one solid push, she shoved the tendrils back a good foot before ducking out of the way, letting the tendrils drill passed her as they broke through the tree they were pinning her to, snapping it in half.
Not wasting a moment to herself, Catra growled as she charged directly for the Force Captain, Adora growing rather surprised by turnabout as she morphed both her arms into the dreaded shadow blades they once were, blocking her incoming strike at the last second and being pushed back in turn like she did with Catra.
Unlike Catra, the She-Ra only managed to push a good two feet until the shadows behind Adora quickly dissipated. Assuming, at first, that something messed with her powers and shadows, Catra soon came to watch as two of the lower tendrils resurfaced again, pushing against the ground behind Adora as they pinned her in place. Meanwhile, the Force Captain grinned as the two higher tendrils formed into a pair of deadly scythes,
"Another interesting detail I learned," Adora began as she reformed her arms back to normal, "is that my own shadows can't hurt me." Catra didn't even need an explanation of what she meant as she felt Adora grabbing both her wrists tightly with a force strong enough to crush a bar of metal in half, her She-Ra form being the only defenses she had against this powerful grip.
Unfortunately for her, crushing her wrists wasn't anywhere near Adora's train of thought. Looking back up, her pupils shranks as she realized Adora had trapped her in her vice grip as she rested the pair of scythes directly above her, intending to swing them downwards in an arc from behind her. Based on what Adora said, she knew her friend wouldn't be affected by the potential guillotine the scythes combined into, but it went without saying that Catra's chances would prove fruitless.
At the sight of the blade beginning it's downward swing, Catra reacted with haste as she grabbed Adora's own arms as it swung. Confusing her momentarily as a result, she became aware of Catra's plan as she suddenly swung herself between Adora's legs right as the guillotine had swung down, imapling Adora as the blade pierced her chest, yet leaving no noticeable injury as a result, like the Force Captain had explained.
That didn't leave her from being attacked in other ways, however, like the way Catra continued pulling her after she zipped between Adora's legs, pulling the blonde off her feet as she spun forward, landing on her back and giving her a small daze as the shadows in her back dissipated.
And still in Catra's own grip as she pried hers from Adora.
From here, assuming Adora was telling the truth about her self-proclaimed "Shadow Armor", the warrior shouted in rage as she lifted Adora off her feet, slamming her in the nearest tree next to her as Adora's body flopped into it like a ragdoll, grunting audibly as she felt her entire back round across the tree. This was followed by another angry roar as Catra did the same with the other tree, this time slamming her stomach into it, and finally throwing her a dozen yard ahead of her as she collided headfirst into the tree directly across from Catra.
It didn't matter if Adora couldn't feel the pain, she knew that taking any blows like that would disorient the girl long enough for her to escape from the fight and return to defending the Moonstone from the invading Horde army. As long as Adora was either unconscious or disabled in some way, she could focus on defending the castle and hopefully save her friends.
She was so wrong about that.
"...Is that it?" Adora mumbled loudly as she casually rose off the ground. Catra didn't know if she should be amazed or terrified as she brushed the dirt off her body as if nothing had happened, smirking back to Catra in amusement over her dumbfounded face. "Really? And here I thought I was going to have a fun time around here."
"Tch, fine by me." Catra tried to maintain her composure while trying to think of a plan. "If you really didn't feel any of that, then I really can hit you as hard as I want to!"
"Hit this, hit that, that's the one thing you were good at in the Horde, you know?" Adora commented as she cracked her knuckles. "You always knew how to give a beating with those mangy claws of yours, and how to scare people who didn't agree with you. Looking back on it, your betrayal shouldn't have surprised me, Catra." The captain's conviction intensified as she drew a single blade over her right arm, the shadows radiating off of it signifying its immense power.
"You really never were one of us. You never listened to other people, you always did whatever you wanted. It's like you really were planning on this from the very beginning, never caring about who you in the process! It was always "attack first, ask questions later", with you. You never tried to understand anything around her." Fed up with her annoying rant about who betrayed whom, Catra lunged straight at the girl as she ran with all her speed, keeping her sword at the ready as she prepared for any sort of counter. "Maybe that's why you were always so easy to-... to..."
"Ngh..." Catra came to a stop ten feet away from her as she noticed Adora's vacant-growing expression, the girl staring off into space as she stared ahead. "Nggghhhh!" Groaning, Adora threw her arms to her head as she squeezed against it, all the shadows and all the darkness around her disappearing as she dropped to her knees. "Agghhhhhhhh!"
"A-Adora?" What was happening to her? Why did the shadows decide to disappear like this? She had never seen her friend like this, never in so much pain, at least with her head. She watched the girl squeeze her head as she groveled in pain, her body shaking incredibly as she panted out of breath, awaiting any sort of reply that sounded threatening or looked like an attack.
"C... Catra?" Adora opened her eyes again, showing a sense of confusion and sorrow in her eyes as she stared at her. "W-Where... Where am I?"
"Ad... Adora?" She couldn't believe it. Right here, from the sweet and sincere way she spoke and the look of innocence in her eyes, she was looking at her best friend once again. The girl didn't appear to have any idea of where she was or why she was here, just that she was scared and confused.
"How... How did I get here?" Catra lowered her ears as Adora hugged herself. "Are we in the woods? Where's the Fright Zone?"
"Adora, is... is that yo-"
...
"Tch... I... I can't..." Shaking, she hugged herself as her eyes wavered, the fear evident in her eyes and her trembling.
"What do you mean you can't-"
"I mean I can't!" She shouted, refusing to take her eyes off the crystal where she saw the vacant expression in her own eyes. "I... I can't beat her... I can never beat her..."
"Why can't you beat her?" It was so bizarre to see her acting like this. She wasn't hallucinating anymore and she wasn't being affected by the paranoia in her mind, Glimmer filling him in after the two woke up from the vibrations of the pillars crashing.
"Because, I... I can't..." She slowly raised her hands to her head head as her tail dropped lifelessly. "I'm too afraid..."
"...Afraid? That's your only excuse? That's the dumbest thing I ever heard!"
The sound in his voice was somewhere between surprise and annoyance, never seeming like the person to get irritated so easily since she met her. Raising her head slowly she saw a determined look in his eyes as he smiled to her. "Huh?"
"Catra, do you think I'm not afraid right now? Do you think Glimmer's not afraid? I mean look at her!"
Turning their heads to the side, they were met with the sight of Glimmer continuing her battle against Shadow Weaver, the princess giving it everything she had. Using her own magic, she fired several shots at the approaching tendrils, dispelling each and every one of them as they neared her, until she found enough time to use her teleporting again. When she reappeared, she was above a surprised Shadow Weaver, the shadowy figure caught off guard as she fired a massive blast at the figure, disintegrating the shadows from where they once came.
It still proved useless in the run as the shadows gathered near seconds after as they attempted to swarm Glimmer in all directions, Shadow Weaver appearing behind her as she directed the shadows with her hands. Having the advantage of mobility, however, Glimmer teleported again before the shadows touched her, reappearing on top of another crystal at least forty feet above Shadow Weaver, the witch anticipating this as she slid against the walls in her shadows, approaching the girl who continued to fire back.
"You don't think she's terrified of what she's doing right now? She's risking her life because she's afraid what'll happen to her if she loses, Catra. She's fearing what will happen if she can't save us and Mystacor, and yet she's not letting it consume her or making hasty decisions because of it. She's channeling her fear into hope that she can save everyone no matter how risky things become."
"B... But..." It's not like she didn't understand what he was saying, she just couldn't see how it helped her! This was Shadow Weaver they were talking about, the person who made it their life's goal to torment the young girl from an early age! Of course they weren't frightened of her, they have no idea what levels of cruelty existed within her mind.
"And let me tell you a little something, Catra. I'm always scared." He enjoyed the sight of her eyes refusing to tremble at the statement, seeing her shaking subside into a calmness. "I don't have any fancy powers like you have when the sword works or Glimmer has with her magic. We live in a world where war is tearing the planet apart, a war we have to fight in. Every day I'm terrified something's going to happen to one of us and I'm not going to have the power needed to save us when the situation calls for it. And I still don't let it get to me to the point where I can't do anything."
...
"Geh..." The vision came back to her again, the same as last time as it didn't display any memories of the far past or a piece of her childhood, but of her pep talk with Bow about Catra's intense fear over her greatest tormentor, Shadow Weaver. That was another thing she noticed with these visions. Aside from how they were nowhere near the time of her previous visions, these ones always left a strange pang in her head and her heart. Assuming that the sword was the cause of this again like before, it left her thinking.
Why? What was it trying to do here? There wasn't any peace she felt at the end of these visions, at least none that she could see, and doing them right in the middle of a war like this? No matter how bad her previous one was, she could not afford to have them randomly appear in front of her during her fight with Adora, knowing one slip up could easily result in her back having a giant shadowy spike sticking out of it!
Luckily, her friend didn't seem to change so much as she hugged herself, looking up to Catra scared and confused as she hugged herself.
"Ca-Catra?" She whimpered, sniffling. "Why am I out here?"
"A-Adora, it's okay!" She couldn't afford to have this stupid sword mess her up now of all times, deciding to plant it firmly in the ground as she made her way over, giving a comforting smile as she kneeled in front of her, placing her hands soothingly over her shoulders. "You don't have to worry, it's going to be alright!"
"What... What are you wearing?" Adora wondered, raising a brow as she checked her up and down. Her attention turned upwards as she shifted her eyes towards her forehead, noticing the red cloth around it and the messy two-colored hair that dangled around it. "What am I wearing? And what happened to my hair?!"
"You don't have to worry about it," Catra replied, brushing a few stands from her eyes, "everything's going to be all right now." She didn't resist as Adora threw her arms over her best friend, being embraced in her lost and confused state, as the She-Ra did as well, closing her eyes and almost getting teary eyed out of pure happiness.
She didn't know how it happened, she couldn't tell why Adora was back to normal, and she didn't care. Adora was back to normal, back to the way she remembered her.
"Catra... I-I'm scared..." Adora trembled. "I don't know what's going on. How did I get here? The last thing I remember was being on the way to Salineas and then nothing. We... We were fighting about something, and then I wore the headband, and I... I... I don't know what's going on!"
"Like I said, you don't have to worry anymore, Adora. I promise you, everything is going to be okay." This was beyond the realms of perfection. It was like a miracle in and of itself.
If Adora had no recollection of what happened, then she couldn't be entirely held responsible for whatever she's done! The Queen would have to take mercy on her for that if she agreed to help them! She would be fighting for the Rebellion and they would finally be on the same side! They wouldn't have to fight each other anymore, they would always be there for each other like they promised, and Catra promised that she would never take advantage of her again like she did.
She finally had a way to atone for everything that resulted in everybody she cared about winning.
"... Fool."
"Gck-! Ack!" Catra coughed hoarshly as she felt nearly a dozen different tendrils wrap around her throat and her chest, pinning one of her arms completely to the side and giving her other one just enough elbow space to reach her arm to her neck, not that it did any good with the intensely wrapped tendrils choking her to death.
From the ground Adora rose, smirking up to her as she got to her feet. From behind Catra could see the numerous shadows protruding from her back that were currently keeping her bound, regardless of whether to suffocate her to the point of passing out or otherwise. Her legs were in no better position as she felt her right one wrapped in two of the large tendrils over and under her knee, with the other one completely wrapped around the knee itself.
Adora had completely tricked her into letting her guard down, to approach her carelessly, and there was no way she could pry herself free from her suffocating fate.
"I really can't believe you actually fell for that." She chuckled, finding the greatest joy in the situation Catra was currently placed in.
"Ak...or...ehhhh..." Catra choked out, the grip on her throat becoming tighter by the second as they wrapped tighter around her neck.
"Oh, Catra, please save me, I have no idea where I am! Boo hoo hoo!" She bellowed with laughter as she held her sides together, almost doubling over from the bubbling chuckles emanating from her stomach. "I can't believe you actually fell for that! Gosh, you're so stupid! In case you haven't noticed, my eyes are still the same color, genius. Do you really think they wouldn't have changed back if I returned to that helpless little girl you took advantage of?"
"Keeh..eck..." The lights in the corners of Catra's mind were starting to dim, the lack of oxygen bringing a numbness to her body as she tried to think of a way out of this mess.
"Seeing the way you tried to comfort me, showing you cared for me, I have to admit, it was a little touching for a few seconds." She muttered, turning her head away in sorrow. "It actually looked like you cared for a moment... like you really did change..." The sadness that filled her eyes were replaced with one of the utmost resentment that a person could display. "But that's the way I used to be, the side you always took advantage of, Catra. I will never let you turn me into the sniveling girl you can manipulate and use. I won't let anyone treat me like that again!"
"Ghhhhh!" Gurgling in her breath, uncaring as she saw Catra do this, the magicat let out one final hiss as she slammed her fist on Adora's back, the captain staring at her as she felt a small push on the back of her right shoulder, if nothing else, and sneering.
"That was your big plan? A pat on the back?" She taunted, pushing Catra out of arm's reach, taking an extra precaution as another tendril grabbed onto her wrist directly, completely immobilizing her. "Really, Catra, I expected a little more resistance out of you than this. You're almost making me wonder if I should think about regretting what I'm doing. And then, I realized, why should I feel so bad about crushing an ant under my boot? The world's filled with them anyway?"
"-ck... o..." Her senses were starting to grind ever so slowly to ta halt, the lights dimming around her vision as everything started to turn a dark grey.
"Hmm?" Hearing the strange sound coming from her, Adora decided to let up, just this once. Playfully putting a hand to her ear, she blinked curiously as she neared Catra's head, turning her ear in her direction as she loosened one of the suffocating tendrils on her neck. "Say that again, kitty? I couldn't quite catch that."
With the easing force around her throat, she felt a small flow of oxygen entering her lungs again, giving small pants of breath as the lights returned to her. She had no other means to defend herself with aside from this. She was played like a fool by her dear friend, she let her guard down and stupidly lowered the sword, thinking her friend had returned to normal, and left herself up completely open to any form of attack as she embraced her friend in a hug.
Adora couldn't feel pain, and by the looks of it, it was going to take a great amount of force to injure her in any sort of way. There was no telling how much energy she was blessed with after all the shadows came rushing towards her, transforming her entire body into a living weapon, and she didn't care.
If Adora wanted to fight dirty, then fine. Catra knew how to fight dirty too.
"I... said... boom."
"Boom?" Why boom? What the heck did she mean boom for? Did she grow lightheaded much faster than Adora thought she could? Was she spouting whatever nonsense first came to her mind in order to try and confuse Adora? There wasn't even much effort put into her attack. All she did was slap a hand against her back and-!
Adora's eyes quickly widened as she turned her head around. With her new state of power, she couldn't feel any pain. With the Shadow Armor over her acting as a new form of skin, her entire body was well protected as it shielded her from any sort of injury and kept anything from stabbing into her personally. So when Catra slapped a hand over her back, she never felt the small thing being stuck into her back in the process.
Like a single arrow that was currently blinking with a red light around the shaft.
*BOOM!*
An intense explosion engulfed Adora as it destroyed whatever tendrils she had lapping around Catra's neck, throwing the She-Ra-in-training a good distance away from her as the fire and smoke exploded in a glorious fashion. The feline was thrown a good distance back as a result of the incredible force of power, up to the very spot she planted the sword as she skidded across the ground. Brushing up to it, she let out a few large coughs as she gathered her breath, rubbing her neck from the soreness Adora instilled with her tendrils.
She was actually quite surprised how big the explosion was as she saw the smoke and ash that was covering everywhere around Adora stood, the cloud of smoke being at least three feet in a radius around her. Her ears were still ringing as she grumbled, rubbing her hand against both ears as she sluggishly got back to her feet.
Having friends was a thing that many people should often strive to acquire because they come with many useful benefits. For one thing, they would always have your back when you need them, even if they weren't there in person. They could be with you in spirit or in your mind, cheering you on from a distance as someone felt the energy their thoughts gave them through their encouragement. With someone at their back, the friend could easily accomplish whatever task lied before them, and face it head on.
In Catra's case, she was grateful for the friends she had that, both, encouraged her, and bestowed upon her their precious gifts, like a certain explosive arrow specially made by a grand archer, one she knew she had to thank by the time this entire fight was over. It proved quite useful as she watched the dust dissipate further, seeing how it spaced her a good distance away from Adora and freed her of her suffocating bounds as well.
It was such a shame, though, that it didn't appear to do much more than that. Finally diminishing completely, Catra steadied her sword as she saw her friend staring back at her, hunched over as a noticeable trail of soot rose from her back. If anyone else had taken a hit like that directly, they would've lost a limb without a second thought, or worse. Despite the Shadow Armor that protected her, Adora would be lying if she denied feeling anything that explosion did to her, feeling a small burning sensation across her right shoulder as a result.
The pain was still manageable, though the feeling was not. No matter how much stronger she was in her current state, she couldn't say that Catra's explosive idea didn't hurt a little.
"Ghhhhhh..." The fire burning in Aoora's eyes were hotter than the explosion that enveloped her a few seconds ago. Catra wanted to play dirty like this? To go all out on her no matter what? Fine. She could be that way. It just meant Adora didn't have to be so merciful in how she ended her, too. "You're gonna pay for that, freak!"
Catra still couldn't believe she allowed herself to be fooled like that by her best friend, to her her guard down so carelessly. To think that someone like Adora, a friend she cared more about than anyone else in the world, would resort to using a manipulative means of trickery like that, was baffling. It only made matters worse when she finally realized why she was having these new visions of hers in the first place.
They weren't telling Catra to feeling a sense of peace or to draw strength from those memories, they were to warn her. They were reminding her that she still has friends that needed her and supported her, not in the ways Adora currently did anymore. If Catra was going to have any chance of beating Adora, then she had to do the one thing she would never be able to do, no matter how painful it was going to be.
She was going to have to let go of Adora.
And she couldn't do it.
...
...
...
A/N: We're drawing down to the LAST 2 chapters (after this one), AND THEN WE'LL BE AT SEASON 2 PEOPLE :D!...after I take a short break from all this work XP Lol...
Here's to hoping you guys have a blast with these last two episodes. Next ones should come out one day at a time, if not two. I plan on having this season FINALLY completed by the end of this week, so even if I'm a day late, expect to see the end of our long and arduous journey verily soon!
Really hope you guys enjoyed! Leave a like, fave, follow, and review if you enjoyed and hope to see you soon!