A/N: Ok i had a really long and winded explanation (i.e. nothing) about the delay and whatnot but stupidly in the midst of trying to upload the new image, backed out of my explanation and lost all that writing, so instead i'm just going to cut to the short and simples of it.

Sorry for the massive delay folks, not sure what to say that'll make up for it. I want to give a majorly huge shoutout for my 2 newest and biggest fans, Peterson Muldoon from instagram (idk what it is on his web page exactly, just type in what I wrote and it should still bring you to him) and Heitomos from Ao3. Why am I applauding them the most out of all of this? Oh, not much except for their AMAZING contributions!

Thanks to Heitomos for his commission picture- you guys ever wanted to know what a full-fledged Catra-She-Ra looks like? Well now you can by going to my Ao3 site and looking at the latest comment. Idk who did it or how but they made a full scale model of what Catra looks like in this, and, while i think she should be a bit darker, it was freaking beautiful to look at.

Perhaps more amazing than that is Peterson Muldoon's work, though. Why is that? Oh, not much, just that instead of doing one pic, or two, or a DOZEN, this guy has so many freaking pictures of fanart of MY FANFIC that i don't even know what to do. I highly recommend everyone looking up his artwork because its freaking sweet, and he's still doing it to date. For example, you guys ever wanted to know what a full-powered darkness-empowered adora looks like? well now you can by looking at his instagram because holy heck is it awesome!

Edit: i also forgot to add the sources when I redid this stupid author's notes XP For Heitomos's picture, look under the comment section in my Ao3 posting, it'll be along the more recent comments with a direct link in his comment. And for Peterson's, go on instagram and type in Peterson Muldoon and you should find his account, should be like or something. I HIGHLY recommend checking them out people, the art is amazing!

I'd also like to thank the others who've kept in touch with me like Star Saber and Peyton Helix who've kept in touch with me as well as a handful of others just to make sure i was fine. Its so touching to find kind and moral support through all of this. I'm hoping to come back into things and get started in writing this again cause i haven't even seen season 3 yet XD!

Which reminds me, plz refrain from spoiling anything from it- not seeing it is the only motivation i have atm to keep working on this as not seeing it is giving me a reason to finish this season up. The sooner i do, the sooner i can see it, so please refrain from spoils. The less motivation i get the less writing i get done or the longer it takes (though hopefully not as long as 2 freaking months XP).

Once again, glad to be back guys! Thanks to those who've supported me up to this date and I hope you all enjoy!

...

...

...

"Huff... Let's never go through that again..." Adora groaned, rubbing her forehead as she leaned against the wall.

The last several minutes may have been the most nerve wracking experience she had ever faced, and given all of her adventures and time within the Horde, that was saying a lot. What could make the second-in-command of an entire army of the Horde so nervous compared to the usual? Oh, not much. Just the fact that Entrapta's robot went on an indestructible rampage and nearly finished off all of the princesses, including Frosta!

With the monitors in front of them, they were witnessing everything that Orbko, Entrapta's newest and greatest of creations, was doing. Through its eyes, they saw as the robot managed to defeat each and every one of the princesses and allies of the Rebellion single handedly, With its adaptive capabilities, it managed to predict and expose each of their fighting styles and weaknesses. With its evolutionary capabilities, it could alter its own body into a living weapon, creating maces out of the shield-like carapaces around its limbs, or creating a means to fire a fist like a rocket at one of his enemies.

It was the greatest weapon the Horde had ever created, and it proved to be troubling.

Because of its adaptive capabilities, it could alter its own programming in the event it worked against itself. For example, as Adora, Scorpia, and Entrapta came to learn, it could rewrite its own targeting system to identify someone as either an ally or an enemy, such as it did when Frosta started to attack it. Confused by the fact a fellow ally was attacking it, it rewrote its own functionality to determine that Frosta was a fellow enemy, and attacked her immediately like it had all the others.

Needless to say, it proved to be the most capable weapon Entrapta had ever built. It grew stronger the longer Mermista bashed it with her mystical waters, it created weaponry and components to defend itself against Glimmer's magic. Even when they worked together to combine their strengths into a single, unified, course of attack, it still managed to overpower them with ease, removing them or disabling them from the battle, and allowing it to charge the youngest princess when she was most vulnerable.

It was only thanks to Entrapta's speedy hacking that they managed to stop the robot at all. She had to rewrite its priority settings so it would ignore Frosta long enough to carry on with the rest of its mission, prioritizing the recovery of the First Ones' technology over fighting the princesses. There was no closer call that Adora had ever experienced than the sight of the robot nearly flattening Frosta's head like a pancake with one of its maces just inches away from her face.

Saving her life was the easy part out of all this. The challenging part would be trying to figure out how to apologize to her after this.

"Will the robot ignore her now?" Scorpia asked, taking the brief moment of peace to look away from the screen.

"Not entirely," Entrapta spoke as she twisted her exhausted hair in her hands, "just long enough to complete the rest of its mission. With its priority focused on the Beacon, it should provide enough of a distraction to leave the rest of the princesses alone, at least until they attack it again."

"Can't you just command it to stop completely or something?" It seemed like a no brainer to someone like Scorpia. Why bother allowing the robot to continue its mission if she had no control over it? "Just command it to come back to base so we can dismantle it."

"And destroy one of my greatest creations?!" The scientist stammered, pulling at the side of her own cheeks as her hands slid across her face. "I could never do something so cruel! Besides, I couldn't do it even if I tried. Orbko completely locked me out of its systems, so even if I attempted to, it would just create another firewall."

"So?" Adora failed to find her reasoning as she stepped forth. "Why don't you just hack your way through it now like you did before? You wouldn't have to do it in a rush like last time, you know."

"Normally I would if the situation wasn't as dire as they were now. The problem is I don't know if attempting to hack its system could trigger a glitch that could overwrite its priority settings. If I do something wrong or if it does something I'm not expecting, it could overwrite its priority settings again, and this time I doubt I could hack it as easily as I did before, if I can at all!"

"Nghhh..." Adora looked off to the side as she tried to think. What were they supposed to do in a situation like this? If she backed out of the mission now, she would have to explain her failure to Lord Hordak. If she allowed the mission to continue as it was, they could risk jeopardizing a great alliance they had with the Kingdom of Snows. There was no safe end to either of these situations!

Trai... tor...

"Ghh..." And there's that stupid voice that always made her gnarl her teeth in frustration. She's not a traitor! She told herself. She didn't know what to expect!

"Adora?" The blond nearly jumped at the mention of her name, turning to Scorpia with surprise as if she never realized she was there. Instead of continuing on with any verbal response, she trailed Scorpia's gaze down to her right hand, seeing what caught her attention with concern.

Her right hand was shaking. She didn't even feel her right hand shaking, however little, as the veins within blackened with a thick darkness. She wasn't the least bit aware that her hand was moving until Scorpia pointed it out to her, never realizing as the thin black lines were starting to trail up her fingertips. She focused on her breathing as she inhaled deeply, grabbing onto her hand as she tried to relax her nerves.

These were the times that worried Scorpia the most. To watch one of her dear friends struggling so much with themselves, just to calm themselves down, was painful to watch. How was she supposed to understand Adora's situation, to be supportive of it, when she didn't understand what it was like to have a mind working against your own body in the first place? She might as well be a robot herself and give someone else control to her movements just to get an idea.

"I... I'm okay..." She exhaled when she saw the blackness coming to a halt. "Are you sure we don't have to worry the droid?"

"Not for the time being anyway, no." Her enthusiasm was a little less than inspirational considering the first surprise they came upon when Orbko managed to overwrite its own targeting systems. "It'll ignore the princesses as long as they don't attack it again, which I'm leaning towards a fifty-fifty chance of happening." At this, the purpleness that was her hair finally sprang back to life after their brief rest. Smiling, the geeky scientist let out a small chuckle as she pet her hair, awing at it as it carried her back to the couch.

With this, Adora made her way over to the couch as she sighed. She couldn't communicate with Frosta for the time being, and there was no way for them to control Orbko from wherever it was for now. If she wanted to accomplish anything, she needed to remain calm and watch everything play out in front of her and have Entrapta act when the situation truly called for it.

She couldn't mess with the robot or have Entrapta hack it, and she couldn't fathom destroying one of the greatest robots the Horde has ever known, not when it was within Lord Hordak's sight. The most she could do for now was sit back and pray to herself that the princesses weren't foolish enough to attack the robot after losing so pitifully to it.

And somehow she knew that with someone like Catra on their team, that was nothing more than wishful thinking...

...

...

"Ugh... You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Catra rubbed her head in response as she walked through the trees with Swift Wind's head over her shoulder. "What about your wings? Are they okay?" She asked with a twinge of guilt on her mind, remembering how he shielded the both of them when they were struck by the robot's rocket fist.

"Eh, more or less." The scrapes and bruises around his wings did little to deter the brace facade he was putting on. After all, what kind of noble stallion would he be if he couldn't measure up to the limitations of the great She-Ra! "I'm pretty sure I'm well enough to fly-"

*crick*

"Eek-!" Almost immediately upon stretching out his wings as a sign of showmanship did the magical beast come to regret it. The second his wings were spread out in full, they were struck by an intense pain along the further half of his wingspan, feeling a sharp crack within his bones, before dangling helplessly over his sides, the look of discomfort spreading across his long face. "Ehh... in about an hour... maybe nine..."

"Mmmh..." The horse's ears drooped at the sound of her moan. The last thing Catra needed right now was any more guilt adding on to her already-tormented mind.

And coming back into the clearing of their previous battle didn't help in those matters.

All around her, her fellow allies and friends were pulling themselves to their feet, some of them from the trees. Over to the left she saw a slightly bruised Glimmer helping a numbed Mermista off the ground, throwing her arm around her own shoulder as she helped the mermaid princess up to her feet.

Over a few yards away, she could see Frosta standing nearby as Bow was working to cut down a tangled up Perfuma with a knife who was still stuck in the trees. Out of all of them, she seemed to be the least injured. There were a few stray leaves sticking out of her hair and a small twig, but other than that, pride withholding, she seemed to be perfectly fine between the rest of them.

"Is everybody okay?" Glimmer asked around as Catra came into the clearing.

"Aside from the fact I can't feel my legs?" Mermista huffed, blowing a bang of her hair out of her face with a nonchalant tone. "Super."

*snap*

"Careful, Bow..." Perfuma warned quietly as Bow cut away another vine from the tree with his knife. If she could get any sense of feeling in her hands after having them restrained by the thick green vines from the tree in the last ten minutes, she would've easily manipulated the plants to lower herself to the ground.

*snap*

"Don't worry, I'll get you down soon." Bow assured following another snap of the twisted vines.

"It's not that. I'm just saying you should be careful for when I-"

*snap*

"Wahhhh-!"

*Thud*

"...Fall..." Being so preoccupied with the princess's entanglement, Bow had neglected to consider where, or in this case, who she'd be landing on the moment she was free. Perhaps it was something he would be able to consider it next time once he pulled his face up from out of the wet blades of grass that he was weighed upon.

"Noted..." Mumbling from under her, the princess of plants quickly hopped off of her saviors back, helping him back up to his feet as the others drew closer to the clearing.

All of them had an uneasy look in their eyes as they gazed at one another. What were they supposed to say about the recent loss they suffered? Despite their best efforts, they were all tossed aside like ragdolls before the might of the superior droid that was Orbko. It was stronger, it was smarter, it was more agile than any other robot they had ever faced. Even if they were to combine the strength of all the past droids they ever fought, none of them would be able to compare to the monstrosity they had all just faced.

Breaking the silence surrounding the group, Mermista finally spoke, "Would someone mind telling me why we just lost to the walking trash can back there?" Out of all of them, Mermista was still the only one without prior knowledge to the droid's capabilities.

"That thing learns from every attack we throw at it." It was hard for Glimmer to repress the memory of how it countered her own magic, the way it threw her energy back at her with the moldable carapace around its limbs. "Every time we hit it with something new, it learns how to defend itself against that and anything we throw at it."

"And I'm pretty sure we just made it invincible after we all hit it all at once." The weight of the situation continued to pile upon Bow's mind as he pinched the bridge between his eyes. "What was I thinking having us all attack it at once? It probably knows a hundred different ways to defeat all of us by now."

"Bow, its all right. I'm sure we can beat it if we come up with another plan."

"Or if one of us actually try harder next time..." Frosta's snide comment didn't go unnoticed by the magicat who scowled back at her.

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"What do you think it means? Everyone was giving it everything they had except for you!" Frosta felt little to no concern over her minor rant as she argued, with Catra being the focus of only half her anger. "Out of everyone who fought against that bot, you're the only one who held back!"

"What makes you think I held-?"

"Don't play dumb with me, you know what I mean! We all do!" Glancing around, Catra's nerves tensed a little as her ears drooped, seeing the uneasy expressions of her fellow friends and allies meeting her gaze indirectly. "We practically begged you to turn into She-Ra when we needed it the most, and instead you ignored everybody and lost us our chance of making a kill switch!"

"That-!" Catra tensed a little as she shifted her eyes away in quick thought. She needed to be careful in how she worded the rest of her conversation, less she give away the dreaded secret she's been struggling to keep. "T-That wasn't anything, alright? I just thought we didn't need it, that's all." Her dreadful gaze quickly shot back with a look of contempt at the younger princess, crossing her arms in personal disgust.

"Yeah, right! Like that's the only reason." A sense of fear started to tug at Catra's chest as the fellow eyes of her friends were drawn to the young princess, a pique of curiosity and confusion crossing their faces.

"What do you mean by that?" Glimmer wondered.

"Think about it for a minute. Why she's been so stubborn lately? The reason we haven't' seen her transform into She-Ra for the last month? It all makes sense now." All of Catra's senses were put on high alert as her heart began to race, noticing the increasingly curious expressions of those surrounding her.

Did Princess Frosta actually find out about her little secret? About her inability to transform into the true form of She-Ra that they desperately needed? What was she going to tell them if Frosta came out and revealed it? She couldn't turn into She-Ra's true form, that was something she could handle. What she couldn't handle was explaining why she couldn't transform into She-Ra, provided it truly was her fault as she thought.

If the rest found out the truth, what would they say to her? The nerves were getting as her tail gave off a slight twitch, already picturing the number of things they would shout at her, all the reasons they could blame her for her mistake. It's not like she didn't want to tell anybody about it, she just wished it wouldn't come to that. And now, here she was, with Frosta preparing to reveal the big secret-

"She doesn't want to transform into She-Ra anymore!"

...Or not.

Still, the line of questioning proved troublesome as the rest of the group's curiosity only continued to grow. "What do you mean she doesn't want to turn into She-Ra?"

"Think about it. Every time we come out to these woods, Catra's only ever fought them normally. She's never tried to use her sword, she never tries to turn into She-Ra, and she hasn't done anything since the battle of Brightmoon other than getting angrier all the time!" The She-Ra-in-question turned her head away and crossed her arms as the young princess pointed accusingly at her. "She hasn't turned into She-Ra because she either can't, or, more likely, she doesn't want to."

Without seeing, Catra could feel the gaze of her allies falling on her one by one, practically telling from first look who was feeling what. She could feel Mermista's perplexity as she wrapped her head around this, Perfuma's concern and worry if something was actually wrong with She-Ra, Bow's and Glimmer's combined expression of confusion and surprise as to whether or not this was the reason she was so irritated recently, and Catra herself gritted her teeth as she felt Frosta's smugness coming off on her, even if she didn't show it.

"She... doesn't want to?" Perfuma repeated with the tilt of her head.

"Catra, is... is that true?" Of all the people who had to ask her that, why did it have to be Bow? She could easily ignore the others as she never felt much of a connection between them, but it was harder to remain silent whenever she found Bow or Glimmer talking to her.

"Tch, o-of course not!" The feline growled back, trying to maintain her composure and usual persona as she spoke. "I can turn into She-Ra at any time! I... I just don't do it unless its an emergency or if I'm training."

"What sense does that make?" Mermista questioned with a raised brow. "Wouldn't it make more sense to use She-Ra as much as possible to get more experience out of it?"

"B-Because... Because it's what Light Hope told me. She said until I get stronger personally then I'll never be able to master She-Ra's power, even with all the strength it grants me." With every beat of Catra's racing heart, her anxiety grew as she watched the others turn to one another. "Look, I really can't explain it all right now, it's a long story," Catra replied pushing her way through the crowd in an attempt to dissuade any further conversation, "let's just find that stupid robot and take care of it before we have to worry about more bots showing up along with it."

"We can take of it after you tell them the truth!" Frosta practically demanded, unaware of the rising tension building within Catra that her friends were accustomed to. "We can't take any chances with you if you keep letting your anger in the way!"

"I am telling you the truth, and I don't have any problems controlling my anger. Now let's go!"

"No you're not and no you can't! You keep getting angry all the time and you're taking it out on everybody else! You choose to take your anger out on the rest of us because you can't get over the fact that what happened with Adora was your fault in the first place!"

All at once, the remaining members of the Princess Alliance turned to the Princess of Snows as Catra stopped in her tracks. Nobody else could believe the very words that came out of Frosta's mouth, the forbidden name that was uttered. It was one the rest of the alliance had all agreed upon to never mention, all of them being all too well aware of the plausible consequence and reaction that would come out of a certain magicat in the process.

Frosta just used the A-word. And it wasn't until she noticed the returning looks of her fellow allies that she became nervous of her predicament.

"...What?" Frosta wasn't naive, but she was young. She was at the borderline of turning into a teenager and still a child, and it was only natural for a kid to make the occasional mistake.

She was tired of Catra's bossy attitude since meeting her, always shouting, always demanding. It would be one thing if she directed it at the princess herself, given all the times she teased or pranked her, but she was tired of putting up with it whenever it came to shouting at anyone else. To her, there was no reason or excuse that she should be above the other princesses, She-Ra or otherwise.

All the same, Glimmer almost prayed silently to herself as she wished those words never came out of the young princess's mouth, much less anyone's. Those prayers went unanswered as she could practically feel the tension rising from Catra's person, the aura of hatred and anger practically glowing around the girl as she squeezed her clawed-hand into a fist.

"You know what?" Everyone was caught off guard at the sight ferocity gleaming from Catra's eyes, the girl grinding her teeth as she turned around. "Let's take a moment to make something clear around here..."

"Catra, don't-" Glimmer's attempts at calming the situation were literally pushed aside as Catra shoved passed her. With the fire burning in Catra's eyes, the Princess of the Kingdom of Snows shuttered slightly as she backed up, feeling the menacing aura engulfing her as Catra stomped closer.

"I don't care about Adora anymore, got it? I don't care about that stupid fight we had a month ago. I don't care if we have to fight these stupid bots for the rest of our lives, I don't care if I can turn into She-Ra or not, and I don't care if we never beat the Horde at this point in my lifetime." The magicat continued to rant even after Frosta fell backwards, her ankle getting snagged on an exposed root and falling to the slushy grass. Without missing a moment, the young princess continued to push herself backwards as she attempted to escape the snarling cat's rage.

"You know what I do care about these days? Nothing! But it doesn't mean I need a constant reminder about my life or my problems on a daily basis. I need people to mind their own business, I need people to focus more on robots than me, and I need little shrimps like you to stop acting like a stupid BRAT!" And it was with that final rant that Catra finally exhaled, panting with a face full of rage, not an ounce of care in her eyes as she stood over the younger princess who had been backed up to a tree by now.

She needed this vent. She needed it more than anything given everything she unloaded before the group. She was tired of always trying to be the patient one around the group, especially whenever Frosta was involved in their meetings. She always got away with whatever prank she pulled on Catra without a second thought, always got to speak her mind because, as Catra assumed, she was a child. The kid never got yelled at as much at the meetings, got to pester Catra to no end, and never had any repercussions because of it.

Catra NEEDED this right now.

And for a change, she didn't care about the fact she just yelled at a child, and she refused to care about it! Just looking back at her, the young princess was throwing her own glare at her. Catra was sure she was going to comeback with some witty retort, something smart to say to continue this aggravating charade. She was going to say something back at her, proving herself to be the spoiled, irritating, brat, that Catra has come to know her to be since joining the Rebellion, the stubborn prankster that she's known her to be. The minute she started to yell back, Catra was REALLY going to let her have it!

...Why are her eyes watering? Catra blinked at her own abrupt thought. There wasn't a shred of anger within the young princess's eyes, any hint of the anger that Catra expected to be brought back to her. It was with the sniffling that emanated from the younger princess that Catra continued to realize the reality of the situation, blinking to herself as she started to rub her head in confusion.

"W...Wait... what-?" Anything Catra had to say thereafter fell on deaf ears as the young princess took off. Catra didn't even have the time to raise a hand towards the young princess as she ran from the scene, the tears draining from her face and her sniffling ringing in Catra's ears until she was out of sight. Her ears rose twitchily as her tail came to a halt, the situation at hand finally dawning on Catra after all this time.

She just screamed her anger out on a young princess no older than eleven-years-old, right in front of the remainder of the Princess Alliance, no less. Turning back to the very allies she's came to know, she could tell they were unhappy at first glance. Not glaring or annoyed, mind you, but simply put off by the sudden performance.

"...Ouch..." Mermista's voice was the first to break the silence of the group as she turned her head away with unease. The reality of her recent outburst slowly rushed back to Catra as the unnecessary guilt weighed upon her heart, groaning internally as she pushed her forehead against the tree she backed Frosta up to.

"Oh, gimme a break..." She was tempted to challenge fate. She was tempted to ask herself and those around her how things could possibly get worse around here. But she's been stumped by fate since joining the Rebellion one too many times to know the sad reality of her situation: It can always get worse than it was now. Even though they currently had to contend with a robot that could learn, predict, and counter all of their attacks accordingly, and they were now down one princess, it could always get worse.

"The Horde's new bot is way too strong, and way too smart!" The archer broke the tension in the air as he finally spoke. He bore himself a weight of the responsibility after everything that they had witnessed till now. "We'll never be able to catch it. I thought I could help, and be the Rebellion's tech master. But that was obviously a dumb idea." The other princesses and Swift Wind looked to one another at this. Even Catra couldn't help but turn her solemn expression in his direction for a moment.

Everything since the start of this day had gone down hill. The group prioritized taking a bot intact instead of destroying one, lost to an overpowered robot that had studied all of their strengths and weaknesses and used it against them, and caused several arguments and issues between several members of the team. Everything from this day was the result of everyone trying to go with Bow's plan, and now he felt the weight of that idea crumbling before him.

Still, it didn't mean he should feel the most responsible out of this. Glimmer knew that, and she made her way over to him, patting him on the shoulder, to ensure that he knew. "Bow, it's not your fault, none of this is. You're the only one who came up with a real plan. Without it, we'd still be fighting the bots without end, and wasting more time while the rest of Etheria is in danger."

"Glimmer's right." Smiling, Perfuma nodded in agreement as she stepped forward, raising a small fist to her chest with conviction. "You're the only one who knows the most about all this tech stuff, and if anyone's going to have a chance of stopping them, it's you."

"It would be nice if we could stop doing the same thing every day..." Mermista insisted, giving a small smirk as she added a little humor to the conversation. To Glimmer's satisfaction, it seemed to be just the boost of morale that Bow needed as a small smile inched over his face.

"...That thing wasn't interested in exterminating us." Bow commented, rubbing his chin in thought. "It had a chance to eliminate us and instead it left us alone, like it was searching for something else."

"Did anyone else notice any other bots like it around here?" Swift Wind added curiously. "I flew all over the forest, and I didn't see any other bot on the way here."

"Maybe the Horde could only afford to make one like it?" While she might not have been the tech expert like Bow was, Mermista was still knowledgeable enough to know the principles of resources and management. "I mean, anything that advance couldn't have been cheap." With all of this in mind, Bow came up with a possible conclusion.

"Which means it was probably sent to acquire more resources. Anything with that much power had to have been made with First Ones' Technology."

"Pffft! Is that all?" Swift Wind nearly chuckled with a snort. "Well good luck getting any of that around here! The only place I know with any sort of First Ones tech is-"

"The Beacon!" Raising her head from the bark, all eyes turned back to the magicat at the grand announcement. "That place is loaded with First Ones tech. I don't even know how far down it goes, there's no telling how much they could salvage from it."

"If the Horde gets their hands on it, they could build an army of those robots. We'd never be able to stop them!" The weight of the situation collapsed on everyone simultaneously. One robot was more than enough for their match. It studied their strengths, threw their own powers against them, and evolved over the course of practically one-sided battle. If the Horde ever managed to mass produce them as expected, all of Etheria would be brought under their rule within a month's time.

"Well what are we waiting for then? Let's track that thing down before it-" The impatient She-Ra was brought to a halt as she felt a familiar tugging on her tail. To no surprise of her, she turned back to see Glimmer holding onto the end of her tail, her facial expression giving no sense of joy or remorse for what she was doing, just an uncertain firmness to it.

"Catra..."

"...What?" Shifting her eyes around, she noticed the others giving her the same look, including Swift Wind, and groaned knowingly. There was only one thing they wanted from her before she fought again. "Ok, no."

"Catra, come on."

"Why do I have to do it?"

"Well for one thing, you'll have an easier time tracking her down with your sense of smell." Mermista pointed out crossing her arms.

"And you're the one who made her cry in the first place." Swift Wind almost regretted his addition to the conversation as he watched Catra furrow her brow in irritation.

"Whose side are you on?!"

"Look, Catra, we don't have a choice. We barely survived our first encounter with that thing, and that was with all of us working together. If we're going to have any chance of defeating that thing, we need everybody's strength." As much as Catra wanted to argue against Bow's line of reasoning, she couldn't deny he had a point.

Within the first few minutes of fighting that thing, Catra and Glimmer barely survived alone. That robot managed to overpower the two with ease, even with Catra's morphable weapon, disabled Glimmer's energy blasts, and managed to make her waste a vast amount of her energy without putting a dent into it.

On top of it, it also would've been a good way to gauge whether or not Catra could control her emotions. They couldn't allow any more slip ups to what could be a potentially deadly fight, and that included getting Catra's anger under control. Considering it was her anger that practically started off the robot's berserk rampage in the first place, added to the fact that they barely survived for as long as they did only because of Frosta's timely intervention, and there was no room for argument.

She hated to admit it, but if they wanted to defeat the Horde's newest superweapon, they needed to have Princess Frosta at their side again.

"Ugggh... fine, I'll find her." She finally agreed. "But if she ends up being worse after I apologize, it's on you."

"Heh, deal." Glimmer replied with a small smile as Catra trudged her way through the woods. It was comforting at times to see Catra trying to be a bit more selfless when it came to the others, even when she didn't want to put up with it. She waited until Catra was fully out of sight before turning her attention back to the rest of the group. "Please tell me I'm not going to regret that..."

...

...

"Ugh... dumb... brat... I can yell as much as I want, but no one can yell at me..." These were the kinds of obscenities that Catra had been mumbling to herself for the last ten minutes, often mocking Frosta's childish behavior or the annoyance of everything she had to put up with till now. The entire trek through the woods was nothing short of annoying.

First off, her feet were freezing. Maybe it was a sign that she should start wearing her combat boots more often, even when she was walking through the woods. She could still feel the fresh cold water squishing between her feet against the moist grass, the sound of water dripping from icicles along the surrounding branches she passed as she made her way through the forest. It was almost as if her extra senses were adding onto the cold around her, reminding her of her shoeless state.

The second annoyance was trying to figure out what she would say when she finally ran into Frosta again. How was she expected to apologize to someone like her when she was still mad at her to begin with? She was obnoxious, loud, seemingly did everything in her power just to annoy Catra, and now Catra herself was expected to apologize to her? She might as well be yelling at a lit stick of dynamite and telling it to stop!

The third and most troubling part ouf of all of this, though, was what she was going to say. If her experiences with Adora taught her one thing, simply saying sorry wasn't going to cut it. From her personal experience, just saying sorry was almost as bad as never apologizing at all, if not worse given what her life has lead up to till this point. She was going to need to say something that actually meant something to Frosta if she wanted it to be effective in any sense of the word, or at least enough to get her to help them fight off the robot again.

But how the heck was she supposed to apologize in a way that meant something to someone she disliked the most out of the group?!

*sniff*

Her ears twitched as she picked up the familiar sniffle of a young girl, her tail wagging a little tensely as she prepared herself for what was to come. Ok, just go in, say you're sorry, then drag her back. She told herself as she pushed her way through the foliage. As expected, sitting atop an overgrown boulder stretching a near twenty feet into the air, she saw the young Frosta with her back turned to her.

The girl didn't seem the least bit interested as Catra approached, nor oblivious to her surroundings as she spoke, knowing there was only one person who would've followed her at a time like this, whether or not she wanted to. "Come to yell at me some more?" She grumbled as Catra crossed her arms, never giving the She-Ra her full attention. "Why don't you just leave me alone and tell them you apologized, I know it's what you want to do anyway."

"You know if you didn't act like a little brat all the time, we wouldn't even be having this conversation in the first place." Catra spat back. Even if she didn't want to push through this conversation that didn't mean she didn't want to put this all behind them, at least long enough for them fight alongside each other again. "If you just knocked it off with all the sass and backtalk, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"Well excuse me for not knowing how to act around you guys," she snapped back, glaring at her briefly with her tear-filled eyes, "I never had any friends before!"

A blink.

That's how long it lasted.

For that one split-second that Frosta looked at her and turned away again, Catra saw a brief flash of a familiar person in Frosta's place, the last person she expected to see in this situation; herself. More specifically, the young child version of her that lead her to this sort of life.

That same little kid who was always angry, the one who had just as hard of a time making friends, and the one person Catra never wished to remember. She was the one person who was always angry with the world, the one who thought she could handle everything on her own, and the one who never wanted to make anymore friends unless it benefitted her in some way. And of all the people who needed to remind her of it, it just had to be Frosta right now.

The look of surprise on Catra's face said it all as she lowered her head. She still didn't know what to say to her, but she knew enough to know she couldn't leave this alone, no matter how much she wanted to. With a small groan to herself, she leapt her way along the boulder until she reached the top, sitting with her knees curled up like Frosta and staring straight ahead in thought as she tried to think of what to say.

"I don't want to talk to you, so just leave me alone." The young princess continued, turning her head away as she rested her chin upon her knees.

"Yeah, well... I can't exactly go back without you." Catra replied, the tip of her tail bobbing a little behind her. "We need your help to stop that robot thing. We don't have to like each other, but it doesn't mean we can't fight together either."

"Oh, yeah, I get it. You're not even here to apologize, you just want me to help you take down that killer robot."

"So?" There was an awkward silence during the next several seconds as Frosta glared back at her, Catra eventually realizing what she said as she chuckled nervously, Frosta turning her head away in disgust. "Eh heh, I mean... t-that's not true or anything. We just-"

*swiff*

"Huh?" The next response she received was the furthest from the list of things she expected. Instead of just pushing her away, using her magic to shove her, or anything else to get the magicat away from her, she instead offered her a very familiar item, one that caused untold paranoia and stress to the honorary princess half an hour ago.

The small box she's been hiding from Catra, one she offered to her as she held her hand out in front of her.

"Just take it and go. I know it's the only thing you're interested in right now." Frosta practically ordered, dropping it in the feline's hands before she even had a chance to accept or decline it. "I don't even care anymore."

There was a small twinge of uncertainty in Catra's chest as she looked over the unfrozen treasure box she had been trying to get her hands on. While she was more than eager to accept the mysterious container and unravel its mysteries, another, very small, part of her wasn't as thrilled about receiving the item as she had hoped to be. The young princess was doing everything she could to push this conversation away if it meant getting Catra away from her. Even if it meant giving Catra something she wanted to keep from her, she'd much rather deal with that than Catra's vain attempt at apologizing.

Still, the curiosity never left Catra as she examined the container from every angle, from its sturdiness to the elegant snowflake symbol over its top. Extending the small claw at the tip of her pinky, she quickly went to work as she dug into the small opening of the container, listening closely to the small clicks of locks and springs being undone as she picked around the interior.

What was going to be inside once she opened it? Her mind was reeling in from everything within the last half-hour, so much so that she didn't know what she should be feeling right now. Pride that she finally got something that resulted in her foot getting bitten over? Regret about how she yelled at her not too long ago because she found Frosta, the child, annoying? Curiosity over what was inside of the mysterious box? So much was rushing through her mind with so little time to ponder!

With a solid, last, click, the magicat's eyes widened as the trunk of the chest popped open, a small sliver of an opening greeting her as she finally unlocked the contraption. What secrets did the mysterious container contain? Answers to why Frosta was being so shady recently? Some useless item that would've pinched on Catra's nerves out of regret? An explanation for all the strange things that have been going on as of-

A pendant? No... a locket, with a familiar snowflake-like design.

Catra blinked to herself as she grabbed the small golden chain that was attached to the small glittery object, watching it glisten in the sunlight with a bright shine. Watching it twirl around in place, she noticed the small button atop of it, giving it a click to reveal a pair of people she's never met before. And while she might not know of them on a personal basis, given their arctic-like clothing and the fact they were kept in a locket of all things, it wasn't really hard to put two and two together as to who they were.

"I inherited the throne when I was eight." Frosta stated as she continued to turn away from the cat. "It's kind of hard to make friends when everyone you know is your sworn subject."

"...Ugh... kid..." Catra groaned as she pinched between her own eyes.

Great. Just great! This is what she needed. Give her something else to feel guilty about, like how she took her anger out on a kid who practically had the same lifestyle as her growing up, if not possibly worse given all the responsibilities she must've had to deal with. "Look, if you had something as pointle-... as simple as this, then why didn't you just tell anyone?"

"Because it's none of their business!" She retorted. "I don't want or need anyone worrying about my personal feelings or anything in the middle of a mission. It would get too distracting and embarrassing."

"Well yeah, but at least then you aren't acting weirdly around anyone and everyone knows things are fine." Catra started to feel a bit of her aggressive tension rising up again as she stood.

"Who cares if they think I'm being weird?" Even at this, Frosta refused to give her any attention as she remained in her spot. "It's none of their business anyway, and it's not like it's hurting anyone!"

"But that's not the point! It doesn't matter if you're not hurting anyone with your secrets or not. Everyone else is going to get worried and distracted if you keep things to yourself. You're not helping anyone by keeping secrets to yourself, you're just-!" She froze. Her mind processed what she was about to say before she even said it as her eyes widened a bit in surprise.

Everything seemed to be still around her as she realized what she was about to say. Taking her sword out of her sheathe, she examined it closely, watching it shine with the familiar light of the sun as she was greeted back with her own reflection, speaking softly to herself. "...You're just making things worse by not telling them..."

Was... Was this her? Was this really what she was doing to everyone else around her? She didn't want them to know about her She-Ra issue for a number of reasons, the most prominent being that it was none of their business. She made her own foolish mistake to begin with, and as such, it should've been up to her to fix her own She-Ra problem, no matter how much the others would insist that they help. That should've been the end of it, and everyone would move on with their own lives.

But this? Was this... actually what she was doing to everyone else? Was she actually making the same mistake as Frosta was at this very moment? Looking back on it, just trying to keep it a secret was dragging on her nerves, getting her tense more easily throughout the last month as she tried everything to make sure no one found out the truth. She didn't want the others pestering her for something that wasn't their business, especially something that Catra felt responsible for to begin with. If she made a mistake, then it should be her own responsibility to clean it up, right?

... Wrong... As much as she hated to admit it, after all this time, she was wrong. She had no idea if her friends were continuing to worry over Catra or if their worries were just a spur of the moment. She couldn't tell if they were still bothered by Catra's strange behavior or if they were willing to just let it be. Knowing these people as she does now, she highly doubted it. They were probably confused and concerned, even now, for her strange behavior, for her unexplained aggression. And its a realization Catra would never come to if it hadn't been for one person that reminded her the most of herself.

Frosta. The same girl that continued to sniffle as she wiped away a tear with the edge of her coat's sleeve.

With a sigh, Catra sheathed her sword again as she sat atop the boulder once more, placing the mystery box with the locket inside against her as she curled up her legs and hugged herself gently.

*flick*

Frosta nearly jumped as she was caught by surprise, opening her eyes a little in astonishment. Catra had actually brushed away some of the tears in her eyes with the tip of her tail, catching a small bit of her attention as the girl looked out into the distance.

"You know... I really, really... really... can't believe I'm about to say this, but... You really remind me a lot of... well... me." Her statement was met with nothing short of surprise from the ice princess as she wiped away the rest of her tears with her own two hands.

"I... remind you of you?" She asked to make sure her hearing was still working. The small grin on Catra's own face as she lowered her ears and head said it all.

"Yeah, you kind of do at this rate. The whole "loner lifestyle", "trying to take on everything yourself", "doing whatever you can to prove useful to everyone else", all of it. You want to show everyone you're capable of taking care of yourself, that you're stronger than you look."

"W-Wow..." Frosta didn't know what to say as her tears finally dried. "Thank y-"

"That's not a good thing." Instantly, the small grin present on Catra's face suddenly flipped as it was replaced with a regretful frown. "Look, Frosta... After everything I've been through, everything I've done to get to where I am now... I hate it. I hate being on the opposite side of one of my friends, I hate what I did in my past to turn them away, and, honestly, I hate the fact I found the Sword of Protection."

"You... actually regret becoming She-Ra?" Was this the same magicat Frosta knew or did she just cry herself to sleep and this was all some hallucinogenic sleep that she was suffering from?

"Don't get me wrong or anything, it's not like I would trade it all back." She clarified. "I still care enough about the Rebellion at this point to keep away from switching sides, and it's not like I've never been happy since I joined. But," at long last, she finally gave the ice princess her direct attention, the sincerity in her eyes leaving little room for doubt, "after all the pain I've been through to get to where I am today, I wouldn't wish it on my most hated enemy, or allies for that matter."

"So... why are you telling me this?" Frosta asked as a small blush grew over Catra's cheeks, temporarily.

"Because no amount of pleading or wishing is going to fix the mistakes I've made in the past. But you still have chance to fix everything, or at least stop yourself from going down the same path I did. You're plenty strong as it is, Frosta, just... just don't make the same mistakes I did, alright?"

"R... Right..." There was an unusual awkwardness in the air as the two looked away from each other again, this time with Frosta's body pointing in the same direction as she sat alongside her.

Both girls were relatable in ways Catra never saw coming. They both have a troubled history and a path, yet trying to do everything themselves in turn. They didn't care if it came off aggressive to anyone else in their eyes, not as long as they could see just how strong they were on their own to begin with.

Yet, even with that, it didn't separate the path both girls had took to get this far. Who knows how they looked in everyone else's eyes, what they thought about them when they were behind their backs. Both girls closed off themselves to get through their troubles, and to prove themselves reliable to the rest of the world. There was only one big difference that it came down to when the details were stacked next to each other.

Frosta still had time to make a change. And an apology.

"...I'm sorry I bit your foot earlier."

"Heh, don't sweat it. I'm just sorry I haven't washed it in a week."

"I thought you said you washed it three days ago?"

"Yeah, well, actually, that's the last day I remembered not cleaning it. I stopped counting after that." The lack of disgust on Frosta's face assured her she understood the joke. In fact, to Catra's relief, she saw a small smile growing around her lips as she chuckled softly. "Oh, by the way," she paused growing her claws out, "if you tell anyone I was this sappy, I'll shave your head and give you a swirly."

"What's a swirly?"

It was almost sadder to Catra that she didn't know what a swirly was compared to the realization of similarities the two had.

*boom*

Catra jumped to her feet in an instant as her ears picked up the distant sound of a small explosion going off. Looking over the distance past the bundle of trees and leaves, she could see a small stack of smoke over a mile away from wherever she was. The younger princess remained in her spot as she barely caught the sound in her own ears, though knew if anything caught Catra's attention, it had to be bad.

"It sounds like they found the walking trashcan."

"Well what do you want us to do about it?" Turning back to her, Catra saw the guilty frown she had over her expression as she turned her head away. "That thing keeps learning the longer we fight it, and we barely put a dent in that thing to begin with. We've spent so much time arguing that we might as well be fighting each other at this rate." As much as Catra hated to admit it, she had a point.

How the heck were they supposed to stop that thing? It grew stronger every time they hit it, it learned from their moves and figured out the best strategies to take each of them down. It even managed to take them down at the same time for crying out loud, and they probably lost their only chance of ever beating it after Catra refused to become She-Ra earlier. And with tensions still surrounding most of the group, it was just as Frosta said.

They really should just keep fighting each other by now, it would prove just as effective.

It also proved to give Catra one of her most reckless ideas to date.

"...Actually... That's exactly what we should do!"

"Huh?"

...

...

...

A/N: Hooftah, it felt so good to finally post after so long ^^! Once again, huge shoutout to Peterson Muldoon and Heitomos for their amazing art contributions and whatnot, as well as the people who've kept in touch with me till now!

As always, hope you all enjoyed! Leave a like, fave, follow, and review if you enjoyed and hope to see you soon!