Cat-Ra

by Monokub

"If" is such a powerful word. What if the reasonings for our duo were different? What if the personalities of our two favorite females were altered ever-so slightly? And most of all, what if Catra became She-Ra? Currently Season: 4

61. S2 Episode 1: The Frozen Forest End

A/N: No people, you are not imagining things, you are in for a verily fun and length read X)! Honestly, I wanted to be done with this freaking episode since i was on it for over 2 freaking months, wouldn't anyone XD? So I just typed away until I got it covered. I think I can safely say my writing is more than back if I managed to write out almost double what I normally do and within a week or so's time ^^ Huge shout out to all the fans that kept this series going. Will remind its been two months since my usual writing, so if some parts are choppy and whatnot, you'll know why.

Also to those who didn't get the message update last time, I owe the great fan art for this series to a guy named on instagram. I swear you guys have GOT to see his artwork, it is amazing, especially for someone who does it for free. The best way to flatter a fan writers work is to make fan work of the fan work... or least that's my opinion XP

So with that said, thanks to him and all of you guys for keeping up to date with me and staying by my side no matter what! With that said, hope you enjoy the thrilling conclusion of the First episode of Season 2!

...

...

...

"Whoooa!" Bow yelped as he was hurled through the air by the robot's incredible strength. So much for his plan of a sneak attack.

After the first round with the dreaded Orbko awhile ago, the Princess Alliance found itself in a mess. Following their loss, there was a great amount of anger and discord between Catra and Princess Frosta, the latter of which blamed the former for not turning into She-Ra when they really needed it. The argument resulted in a tearful Frosta running away through the woods and forcing Catra to chase after her, knowing they needed everyone's strength if they were to stand a chance against this thing.

That left the remainder of the Princess Alliance in search of the mighty machine, as well as putting a stop to its wicked scheme. During a small discussion before the magicat took olf, they realized the robot was actually in search of the Beacon, one of the great remnants of First Ones. It housed an abundance of technology that no other site had yet to compare to, one that could bring about salvation if used in the proper hands, or, as the Horde intended, create an unstoppable army of these terrible robots that could learn and adapt to any situation during combat.

Thanks to Swift Winds connection with She-Ra and the sword, he was able to help the current princesses and Bow track down the Beacon, coming across Orbko just as it found the First Ones ruins. They couldn't help but imagine what terrible power the Horde would be capable of if their plans succeeded, if they actually managed to create such an unstoppable army. Their primary mission was to stop the advanced machine, which presented another problem the group had to deal with in itself.

They needed to figure out a way to beat it without destroying it.

Throughout all the fighting, the one detail that kept everyone from giving it everything they had was their own mission. They needed one of the Horde robots to be captured alive in order for Bow to develop a Kill-Switch, a device that could easily disable any and all the droids the Horde had been sending to the Whispering Woods for the last month to keep them occupied. The sooner they completed their task, the sooner they could turn their attention to the rest of Etheria and take back any of the regions that were captured by the Horde during their absence.

They were dealing with one of the strongest creations the Horde had ever unleashed upon the Whispering Woods, and it was taking everything they had just to stay alive. The robot learned throughout all the fighting their strengths and weaknesses, managed to shape and construct shields and weapons out of the defensive carapace that covered its limbs.

As if that wasn't enough, the robot was capable of adapting its internal structure, allowing it to raise its temperatures to burn anything around it, like the many vines Perfuma attempted to ensnare it with, or lower it to freeze the air around it, turning several massive blasts of Mermista's water power into solid, unuseable, chunks of ice. It forced the the princesses to adapt in turn at a rate that was abysmal in comparison to the robot's own.

Not to mention Glimmer's own disadvantage over the robot. Having previously fought the robot alongside Catra before their friends arrived to help, she had exhausted a great amount of her energy teleporting herself, Catra, and the robot on half a dozen occasions. With just enough magic to conjure up one more teleportation or several blasts of her magic, she was fighting with a severe handicap, one she wouldn't even have if her magic staff didn't amplify what little of her power she had left.

The one advantage the robot couldn't adapt to, hopefully at least, was how many enemies it was facing at the same time. With such a varied mix of abilities from sheer strength and technicality like Bow's trick arrows and the princess' magics, the robot was forced to adapt to each situation accordingly, reverting to its neutral state each time it had to contend with another attack.

Unfortunately, this only proved to delay the inevitable loss they were facing. No matter what advantage the group had over the robot in numbers, the robot was continuing to adapt. Learning as it fought, it was starting to counter everything they threw at it before they could even land their attacks.

And it was providing more than an entertaining display for particular members of the Horde as they spied on them through the small drones circling around the action.

...

From the other side of the cameras, Adora, Entrapta, and Scorpia could be seen watching through the monitors from the comfort of their couch. Through the various monitors, they could see all the angles of the fight from the several smaller monitors surrounding the one large monitor in the middle that displayed everything the robot was seeing. It felt like a good way to unwind after the fiasco awhile ago.

The robot was one of Entrapta's greatest creations without comparison. Its strength was unmatched by any of the droids, its capacity to learn proved an advancement beyond anyone of this generation was capable of creating, and the technology that allowed it to manipulate its carapace into an adaptive weaponry was unheard of. Truly, it was one of the most marvelous things ever created by the Horde, and one of the princess's most proudest creations!

There was just one tiny flaw they weren't prepared for; IT CONSIDERED PRINCESS FROSTA ONE OF ITS ENEMIES!

Even now, the back of Adora's mind was filled with worry of whether or not Frosta would maintain her relationship with the Horde after this, as well as her own safety. The Kingdom of Snows was one of Etheria's strongest kingdoms, and was proving to be an invaluable ally since they joined forces. They provided resources and information on the Alliance that was unaware of Frosta's true allegiance, and the Horde provided a handful of technology and schematics in exchange.

Nothing too important, of course, for safety precautions, but more than useful enough to the Kingdom of Snows in their environment. Adora took personal responsibility to make sure they were evenly compensated in the exchanges, much more than any of the other Horde Captains or Officers would've allowed if she wasn't Hordak's second-in-command. And that same princess was almost on the receiving end of Orbko's wrath if it wasn't for Entrapta's timely intervention, resetting its priorities long enough to temporarily force it to leave them alone.

So, now with their ally out of harm's way, she took great enjoyment as she watched the remaining members of the Princess Alliance struggle in vain against Orbko's might, sitting left of Scorpia as she helped herself to a bowl of popcorn, and an overly-excited Entrapta who seemed more interested in the technology surrounding the robot than the battle itself.

"There's enough technology in those ruins to create an army of those robots." Adora commented, grinning a little as she watched the robot toss Bow through the air into the tree branches. "You'll be able to create so much with all that tech, Entrapta, that it'll make Orbko look like a child's plaything in comparison."

"Ooooooh!" The stars were shining greatly in the scientist's eyes at the announcement, hopping in her own seat out of pure excitement as she squeezed her fists. "I want it nooooow! Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!"

"''Chu think Frosh'ta 'ill be okay," Scorpia paused as she swallowed another mouthful of popcorn, "will be okay if she runs into the robot again?"

"I don't know. It depends on if I can alter its priorities again if she runs into it." Being the always-prepared scientist that she was, she pulled out one of her various datapads from her bundle of hair. "But I also run the risk of it finding out its priorities have been tampered with. If it does, it might not respond to to its orders anymore, or any of its commands."

"Well couldn't we just activate its self-destruct thing if it goes haywire? We wouldn't need to worry about it then."

"We can't afford to destroy it carelessly." Adora never took her eyes off the screen as she replied. "Without the materials from the Beacon, we'll never be able to create another one like it. Besides, at the rate things are going right now, we probably won't even need anymore." The second-in-command smirked as she leaned against her arm, elbow firmly planted against the couch's right arm.

It's funny when she really thought about it. To think that these very same princesses, the ones that wanted discord and chaos throughout Etheria, were the very same people who thwarted Adora's plans a month ago that almost brought the Rebellion down to its knees. Now, here she was, sitting back and relaxing like she was watching an old video as she watched the same princesses getting tossed around and beaten down by one of their greatest creations.

Once they were removed, nothing would stand in the Horde's way. And, when enough of them were taken down, there would be no reason for Frosta to feign allegiance to the Rebellion anymore. Everything was about to be brought to an end, and it would all start the moment Orbko had a princess crushed under its metallic foot.

...

*Wham!*

"Hnngh!" Glimmer grumbled as she dodged right of the robot's powerful fist as it slammed to the ground. With its fist stuck temporarily in the ground, the princess of Brightmoon rushed up the robot's firm limb, jumping several steps ahead of it as she attempted to impale the shaft of the staff directly into the robot's lone eye.

Sadly, the robot was already two steps ahead of her as it predicted the attack and caught her by the back of her right leg before she could reach her intended target. Dangling briefly in the air, Glimmer let out a small shriek of fear as she felt the robot rotate its entire arm once before throwing the princess over to the trees, straight into the archer who had just recovered from his previous toss, and knocking the both of them head first into the ground.

*thud*

"Owww..." He felt like he got hit with a suitcase for a moment, his whole body wracking with a minuscule pain as he lifted himself from the floor. "Glimmer! Are you alright?"

The princess didn't seem to be any better or worse than he was safe for a few scrapes along her arms and head, brushing the dust out of her hair as she shook away the dizziness. "Y-Yeah, I'm fine." She assured, paying almost no mind to her friend as she directed her attention back to the robot.

"Nothing's working, Glimmer. That thing's too strong." Bow kept his gaze on the robot as he watched Perfuma and Mermista attack it at the same time.

The technology was unlike anything Bow was used to, and there was little time for him to examine its structure when it was flailing about and attacking them at the same time. Restraining it didn't help with the four of them, its metallic plating grew more resilient the longer they attacked it, and his attempts to blind the robot's one eye proved futile as the robot managed to burn away anything that disrupted its vision in a few seconds.

It was virtually unstoppable.

"What if we removed its core? Wouldn't that turn it off completely?" Glimmer asked hopefully.

"We'd still need to restrain it long enough to remove its back panel." Without a moment's hesitation, the archer jumped back to his feet as he attempted to fire another arrow directly at the robot's head as Mermista distracted it with another wave of her mystical waters. Sadly, as expected, the robot didn't give so much as a single twitch as it predicted the projectile coming its way, using the shield-like plate over its left arm to angle the arrow just slightly enough to bounce away completely.

And to the ground directly at Mermista's feet.

*Boom!*

"Ngh!" The oceanic princess groaned in pain as she was pushed away by the powerful blast, sending her through the air until she collided painfully against the Beacon's outer walls. While the explosion didn't seem to graze her too much, there was a searing pain in her right shoulder, one she couldn't soothe as rubbed it with her other hand.

"Mermista!" Bow cried out with worry and regret. It wasn't a matter of the robot trying to defend itself- it intentionally directed the arrow so it would blast her away and damage her shoulder. With a distracting pain running through the upper right of her body, it would be harder for her to direct the flow of water as easily as she did while moving from the robot at the same time. This, like many other cases, was a prime example of the robot's superior intellect and strategy.

"Bow!" And no sooner did Bow hear Glimmer's cry of panic did he see the robot charging straight towards them. Knowing that Glimmer's magic was waning, giving her an assuring nod, the princess teleported herself away from the scene as Bow shot out another arrow a dozen yards away, one that grappled one of the many thick and sturdy branches of the fine oak, and grabbed on as it propelled him forward and out of the robot's massive tackle, knocking over the tree they were near in the process.

As he propelled through the air, looking back to see Glimmer had teleported, exhausted, on the other side of the clearing, he contemplated. The robot showed no signs of slowing down, no signs of weakness, and grew stronger with every passing second. Something this powerful had to have some sort of vulnerability, some Achilles Heel that many creations had. If his time tinkering and experimenting with a variety of arrows taught him anything, is that all creations had a weakness or vulnerability in one form or another.

But what was its?!

*swish*

Before the robot could advance in the archer's direction, it felt several powerful grips bind each of its arms by the wrists and along its right ankle. Turning its head in a full one-eighty, its systems were already processing how to deal with the princess of plants while eliminating its bindings at the same time. It took all of Perfuma's concentration just to keep the robot at bay, the sweat dripping from her forehead attesting to that.

Her efforts bore little fruit though as the alloy around the robot's limbs began to morph and change shape, taking the form of two serrated blades that began to buzz like a saw. In one swift motion, the robot untangled the sturdy vines in one swift strike, ignoring the princess's useless efforts to attempt another binding at the dreaded machine. Before the princes could launch another row of vines at the creation, the powerful machine launched its right fist directly at the princess, grabbing her arms in the air as it flew her through the clearing until she was pinned against the trees several feet off the ground,.

"Perfuma!" Glimmer cried out, rushing over to her pinned aly. Both princesses struggled as they attempted to pull Perfuma's wrists out from under the robotic hand's tight grip, Glimmer desperately pulling Perfuma's legs as the pinned princess tried to pry her hands free. Even as the princess attempted to summon several long vines from the trees to pull away the mighty fist, nothing seemed to work. "Come on... Come on..." Glimmer muttered to herself as she saw the robot approach.

Watching the scene from the tree's branch, Bow tried to figure out what to do. It was nothing short of menacing as trudged through the mushy ground beneath its large feet, casually making its way towards them, and it was ready to counter anything thrown towards it when the opportunity rose towards it. He couldn't afford to fire any of his arrows towards it or he risked it deflecting the arrow towards the two, if not directly at Glimmer and Perfuma themselves. He needed a miracle right now to descend from the heavens and strike down this contraption once and for all!

...Or a very strong feline with some serious anger issues.

"Hey! Buckethead!"

*WHAM!*

The moment it turned its head it was met with the collosal force of a blunt mallet from a feisty young warrior known as Catra, scraping it across the face with a harsh strike. It was powerful enough to knock the robot off balance briefly, forcing it to its knees as Catra brushed right passed it. It was a sight of relief to her fellow allies as they saw the magicat appear in the nick of time, standing between the large robot and the Beacon itself with her sword-turned-mallet.

"Catra!" Her friends called out in unison and relief as the robot got back to its feet.

It recognized the magicat as the warrior of the group, the one that was quick on its feet but with a greater lack of defense than the others, save for when she returned to her She-Ra state which it had yet to witness. It still gave it more than enough excuse as it readied itself for battle as it reshaped the alloy along its left hand into the battle-hardened maces it once wielded. It also released its grip on Perfuma as it returned its other hand to its side, reforming its other alloy until it was finally dual wielding its weapons.

"Catra, you need to be careful." Glimmer warned as she helped Perfuma back up. "That thing's getting better at predicting our attacks and weaknesses."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, relax." She shrugged off, readying her weapon for the fight in front of her. "I already got a pla-"

*whoff*

There was no warning for the magicat, or the rest of them for that matter, as she found her face engulfed with a giant wallop of snow. Needless to say, they could already see the angry eyes forming over it as it melted around her, her anger literally melting the snow right from her face to reveal the hardened hate-filled expression that covered it. All eyes, including Orbko's, turned back in the opposite direction as they saw another familiar and irritated face greeting them from several yards behind the bot, her hands still in the air as if proving her involvement in Catra's interruption.

It was none other than Princess Frosta, the Princess of the Kingdom of Snows.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?!" She yelled in annoyance, squeezing her fist. "We were supposed to sneak up on it, you stupid pet!"

"I was trying to take it out in one shot, you dumb brat!" Catra snapped back.

"Oh no..." Several bouts of moaning could be heard from the allies that watched from afar, even Mermista as she made her way to the trees where Bow was watching from.

It wasn't enough that Catra had to ruin whatever form of sneak attack they had planned for the monster, oh no. Evident by the lack of care in either princess' eyes, there was little to no care they had for each other, proving that they still had anger towards one another. The entire point of Catra splitting up from the group temporarily was to try and make amends with Frosta after yelling at her to the point of tears and running away. And judging by the sudden outburst of irritation, chances were they didn't make amends in the slightest.

In fact, it only seemed to deepen the hatred the two had for each other. Pranking each other at every opportune moment, being a nuisance at practically every meeting they had, and incapable of forming two sentences without calling each other "brat" or "pet". It was just the kind of thing everyone became accustomed to whenever Catra and Frosta were in the same room.

Now, on top of insulting each other, they seemed to harbor twice the amount of hatred they once had for one another. As if insulting each other wasn't enough for either of them, now they were practically attacking each other in the midst of combat, while dealing with an enemy with the strength to match all of theirs combined. It would prove problematic for everyone from the Princess Alliance.

And a great source of entertainment for those simply watching.

...

"Ha! Talk about clumsy!" Scorpia laughed, leaning into the chair as she continued eating her popcorn. "She messed up the plan before they could even get the drop on it!"

As she laughed, the scientist left of her was already typing a hundred codes a second into the datapad held by one of her hair extensions. "Don't worry, Adora. Already getting Orbko's priority setting on standby in case we need to save Frosta again." She knew with her own assurance that they had nothing to fear. After all, if the robot took out everyone else but Frosta, then there would be no need to even worry about the princess as she could just run away. But it was always better to be safe than sorry.

However, to Entrapta's curiosity, as Scorpia noticed the strange silence too, Adora didn't respond. She didn't even seem relieved. Instead, the blond commander leaned closer to the screen with a hint of anxiety in her eyes. She looked less than pleased about the scenario and more worried about it.

"Adora?" Scorpia received no direct response as the commander's eyes were focused on the screen in front of her.

"...Something's wrong..." She finally said, gripping the tip of her couch's arm a little tighter.

"What do you mean? Everything will be fine!" The scientist's assurance did nothing to waver Adora's worrisome expression. There wasn't so much as a twitch in her eyes as she watched what was playing out before them. "I'll have Orbko's priorities set to escape if it becomes necessary and-"

"No, not that." She interrupted. There was a small scowl growing on the side of Adora's lips as her expression hardened. Her two friends looked to each other in confusion for a second, wondering what was going on through Adora's mind. "I've seen the way Catra fights and pulls her pranks. Whenever she's prepared to do something, something she knows will work, there's always a small glint in her eyes that tells me so." The commander gritted her teeth as she finally turned to them.

"She's not being reckless or purposely trying to draw out the fight to taunt the machine. Catra's up to something." And it wouldn't surprise her right now if she intentionally gave that telltale sign knowing Adora was watching.

...

"Why do you always have to be such a pain?!" Frosta groaned loudly, rubbing her forehead to soothe the migraine she seemed to be having.

"Oh yeah, I'm being the pain in this group." Catra scoffed, leaning against her sword as she tipped it into the ground. "Definitely not the princess crybaby who probably still wets the bed."

"That's rich coming from the person who's probably covered in fleas right now!"

"I don't have fleas!" She yelled back, subconsciously scratching the back of her head as she taunted. All throughout the banter the mechanical being seemed to stare between the two, noticing the tension rising between them. If it allowed this to continue, chances were they would eventually attack each other, a fitting strategy against higher numbers.

Meanwhile, it brought untold disbelief to her remaining friends who were recovering and watching from the sidelines, doing their best to stay out of the situation and recover for the brief moment they have of respite.

"Why does Catra have to do this now of all times..." Honestly, Glimmer would've preferred any other time of the day for them to do this, not when they were fighting an unstoppable killing machine that could take them out at the same time.

"At least the droid seems preoccupied." Perfuma commented, reminding her of their minor fortune.

"So... Shouldn't we be helping them? Or something?" Mermista asked as she continued to soothe her aching shoulder.

"Not until we find some sort of opening." Bow replied quietly as he readied his arrow. "If we all rush out at once, that thing will just shoot our attacks back at each other. We need to wait until Catra has its full attention."

"You know I honestly thought you were on to something back there with that whole apology thing." Frosta continued to rant, casually pacing a slow step after the other. "You were kind, seemed sincere, and I thought you were keeping a leveled head, but clearly that required too much brain power from you."

"Pffft, yeah, that's rich, talking about brains from someone like you?" Catra taunted back, sneakily giving a quick glance at the robot out of the corner of her eye. So far it didn't seem to be fighting back as it waited for the two to possibly turn on each other. "You know maybe I'd take your words more seriously if you were someone of adult height. At least then I could hear you from all the way down there."

"Yeah, like I want to waste precious oxygen wasting words on someone like you." As she insulted, she began to gather a bundle of ice around her feet, spreading slowly a few yards around her. "You know at least in the Horde, someone like you could be commendable. Around here, you're just a pain to deal with, in Brightmoon and out."

"They're going to kill each other, aren't they?" Perfuma panicked as she felt the tension rising between the two again, her fear encircling Glimmer who let out a small gulp.

"I really want to say you're exaggerating but..." A single teleport. That's all Glimmer could muster at this point. If she had to get in there and sort this out then she would, but she almost prayed it wouldn't come to that.

"You know, I almost wish your parents were still alive at this point," everyone else's expression went dead at the statement, unable to believe what they just heard as Catra sneered back to her, "because at least then they could share in my misery with you."

"...You take that back..." Frosta's face tightened with an insurmountable hatred, one that caused the ice to crack around her feet.

"Aww, did I strike a nerve?"

"I said take it back!"

"Why don't you make me, brat?" Catra's final taunt was brought with a gesture by the magicat, telling Frosta to give her everything she had. "Or do I need to tell mommy and daddy what a bad girl you've been? Oh, wait, I forgot."

"That's it!" The eleven-year-old had enough by the looks of it. She wasn't going to take any more sass from this stupid and annoying "Hero of the Rebellion", no matter how prestigious her title or her status might be. She had pushed Frosta far beyond the point of simply talking their way out of the situation, and now seemed more intent than ever to end that miserable excuse of a princess.

Gathering all the energy she could around her, the others watched as she formed a massive ball of solid from out of the ground, shaping and sizing it until it was as large as she was, and in the shape of a solid wrecking ball. All around her, worry and warning signals were flashing in everyone's mind, save for Catra and Adora, the latter of which continued to watch all of this play out through the eyes of the powerful machine.

If everything was a ruse, Orbko would pick up on it after Frosta attacked. It would know all of it was a trick, retaliate against the princesses, and continue fighting on as it has been, and, hopefully, without Frosta ending up in the ensuing casualties. It would quickly be reprogrammed like it was before under those events to keep it from endangering Entrapta's life, and the Horde could carry on their business without further irritation or distraction from the Rebellion and its stupid Princess Alliance.

...So why did she feel uneasy all of a sudden?

"Frosta, no-!" The sound of a thunderous crackling caught Adora's attention as the princess finally launched her attack, ignoring the pleading cries of her surrounding allies. Catra grinned at the oncoming projectile as she prepared herself for the oncoming strike. Planting her feet firmly in the ground, Catra struck the massive globe of ice with as much strength as she could without her She-Ra state, shattering and scattering the contents directly at the robot standing between them.

*crish!*

The others watched as the robot was pelted by dozens of shards of solid ice, some of the icicles penetrating its metallic plating in its forearms and legs as it covered its head for protection. As expected, the Horde trio could see the robot already analyzing the attack and calculating it at a mile a second with coding dancing around the screen. It saw the threat standing before it, generating over a hundred different ways to combat it, and prepared the maces within its hands as it was about to engage in combat, taking a step forward-

"You call that a blast?" Catra taunted back as she stuck out her tongue. "I've been hit harder by a mosquito, and it was at least a hundredth of the size you were!"

...

...

...

*bzzzt*

"Huh?" The same flash of confusion went off in the minds of her surrounding friends as they saw a small spark of electricity dance around the robots head. The massive droid grabbed its head as if in confusion over its current state. It didn't take any direct hits to where the brain should've been built, it didn't appear to be in any sort of agony, and yet it was standing around like it didn't know what to do.

"Oh please," the younger princess scoffed back, "I wasn't even trying. I mean, it would be a huge loss if we lost the She-Ra side of you. Oh, I'm sorry, I meant the only useful side of you."

"...You want to say that again you little brat..." Catra's brow narrowed as she willed the weapon to change within her hands again. Thankfully to her, it transformed into the beautiful spiked ball-and-chain flail that has worked wonders for her in the past.

"What? Was it too fast for you? Geez, no wonder the Horde never wanted you. If you were any smarter, then maybe you would actually make a friend who wanted you back."

"...I really wish I did this the first time I met you. Hnnnngh!" The growl stemming from Catra's throat was followed by a massive heave as she swung the massive chain around her for a full swing before flinging it directly at the younger princess. Grinning, Frosta formed a durable thick coating of ice around both her hands as smashed the giant ball away in a single punch, directly into the path of Orbko who continued to survey the situation dumbfounded.

*crunch*

Like before, the robot wobbled in place as its right shoulder was scrunched up by the ensuing strike, leaving a trail of cuts and scratches along the right side of its arm. Processing the attack, the robot turned its attention back to the blue-haired snow girl who launched the attack, preparings its calculations to-

"Oh come ON! If you're supposed to be the "big hero" of the Rebellion, why do your attacks feel like a light breeze? We would've beaten the Horde months ago if you were even a little stronger!"

*bzzzt*

And like before, the others watched as another spark of electricity danced around the robot's head, this time with its body trembling in place. It's like it was scared at the apparent amount of confusion it was feeling, at a loss for how to process what was being displayed before it.

The others watched in the same amount of curiosity as a small amount of hope began to rise in their spirits. Catra and Frosta weren't being attacked or countered by the robot's immense strength, the robot wasn't preparing any sort of strategy to retaliate, and it continued to struggle against the array of data that was going through its mechanical mind. Whatever was going on right now, it was working. There was just one question.

What was going on?

...

"What's going on?!" Adora yelled in frustration. The blood boiling in Adora's veins wasn't just limited to her actual blood. A small trail of dark veins began to grow along the right side of her arm, her emotions working against her as the darkness seeped into her body.

"I-I don't know!" The three words that no scientist in the history of Etheria should ever utter, and Entrapta finally used them. Nibbling her left fingernails while typing madly into the datapad with her right, holding it with her hair, she panicked. "I-It's not picking up or registering itself as being attacked!"

"Is it broken or something?" Scorpia might not have been as intellectual as the other were, but she knew enough to know something was wrong when a giant monitor in front of her was displaying an ERROR message repeatedly and flashing a dim red light that blanketed the whole screen.

"No! ...Maybe? I don't know!" Ah! The second time she said that! She swore to herself if she said it one more time, her hair would likely fall out! "For some reason it isn't processing the attacks like its being attacked itself! I had it programmed for this exact thing if the Rebellion ever tried to attack it as a team, like it did before!"

"Well I don't really blame it." The stinger-girl shrugged as she looked back to the monitor. "I mean, just by looking at it, it looks more like those two are fighting each other than they are fighting it."

"Fighting each oth-!" The scientist froze as hard as Frosta's ice at the comment as she felt every brain cell of her glorious mind slowly draining away from her. "Oh noooooo! No! No! No! No! No-!" The scientific mastermind panicked as she tapped endlessly against the pads. Shrieking, Entrapta grabbed several more datapads as a revelation came to her mind, one that didn't go unnoticed by the commander.

"Did you figure out what's wrong?"

"Unfortunately! I think I know why its not fighting back!" Looking back to the big screen, the others watched as they saw several graphs and readings indicating what its perception of threats and details over its intended targets were. "I designed Orbko to respond to direct and immediate threats like if it was ever attacked. Naturally, with a programming that advanced and with the technology I used to make it, I had to set its functions so it would only register direct threats against it as an enemy. Obviously we couldn't have it roaming around attacking every soldier that bumped into it or pebble that fell on it, right?"

"Yeaaah...?" Despite the lack of information Adora had compared to her enlightened friend, she could tell she wasn't going to enjoy where this line of reasoning was headed.

"So, I built its functions with the ability to determine one's emotional response, so it could always pick up an enemies intent in attacking it. It was the only way I could get it to tell the difference between friend and foe, to keep our own soldiers safe if I ever deployed more of these on the battlefield."

"And that means..." Slowly, the commander's eyes widened as the dread piled on her mind, turning back to the screen from the scientist with her anxiety rising. "Oh no..."

"What?" It was times like this Scorpia wished she was as smart as her friends so she could keep up with whatever line of reasoning they had. Then again, she wouldn't ever dream of giving up her artistic ability either. "What does that mean?"

The mad scientist clutched her forehead with a loud cry, distraught over the great realization she had. "It's not registering Catra or Frosta as its targets because they're directing their anger at each other instead of Orbko!"

"Ah-!" Now that much Scorpia could understand. In short, if the two kept yelling and taunting each other back and forth like they were now, there would be no way for Orbko to logically determine that they were attacking it rather than each other.

"Now do you finally understand what it means, Scorpia?!"

"I think I do... It means Catra actually outsmarted you!"

"... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

...

Back in the field of battle, the others watched in amazement as Catra and Frosta continued bash away at the giant droid that could only stagger in place. It was starting to become oblivious to its surroundings as Catra and Frosta continued to rant back and forth, swinging their power and weapons at one another and deflecting it at the robot.

It was beside itself with a paradox of confusion. It was being attacked by an enemy force but the violence wasn't directed towards it, yet its self-defensive protocol was registering as it being attacked, and it wasn't supposed to attack anything not directly attacking it! It was the programming within its own advanced mind that was chipping away at the robot's reasoning, and the longer it remained perplexed by this endeavor, the longer Catra and Frosta bashed away at it.

None of the others could believe what they were seeing either as they continued to watch Catra and Frosta chip away at the monstrosity, seeing the bits of protective alloy around its limbs being scraped away. The very robot that was kicking their butts at the same time mere minutes ago was now acting like a training dummy against Catra's and Frosta's brutal onslaught of insults and retaliation, or at the very least, getting caught in the crossfire of it.

"They're winning!" Perfuma squeaked as she clasped her hands together. Her eyes were alight with stars as she watched the marvel in front of her, unsurprised that the mighty She-Ra would find a way to save the day.

"Shouldn't we help them now?" Mermista asked, still on the other side of the clearing with Bow.

As much as Bow wanted to assist his friends, he shook his head in response. "Not now. If we try to interfere in any way, we could draw the robot's attention and mess up their plan. We need to keep quiet until they can disable it without destroying it." By the looks of things, that wasn't going to be a problem at this rate.

Already, the bot was covered in cuts, dents, and scrapped along its limbs and torso. Chunks of the alloy were torn away from the robots bits and scattered across the ground beneath its feet, and the electricity continued to worsen as it sparked around its head. No matter how focused Catra and Frosta were on each other, they could see the amount of damage they were doing to the once brilliant creation, and knew it was only a matter of time before they brought it down to its twitching knees.

...

This was bad. Really bad.

The screen was flashing red at an increasing pace as Orbko continued to take damage. A small outline of its body was propped up on the right side of the screen, identifying the areas that were currently the most damaged. It was an unsettling sight to the commander as more and more of its body was continuing to flash in red, the sound of its destruction echoing in Adora's ears as it endured its onslaught.

The worst part about all of this was the amount of technology used to create this powerful machine. If it failed now, if it was beaten and battered beyond recognition, there would be no means of remaking it or acquiring a new one. It took nearly all the First Ones tech they had acquired in the first place to build this one, and it could take potentially years to make a brand new one from scrap with the technology they had on hand.

"Come on, do something!" Scorpia stammered as she watched in dismay.

"I-I-I'm thinking! Every time I try to input a new set of commands, though, Orbko locks me out like it did before!" Why was Entrapta cursed with so much intelligence that her own beautiful creations would be used against her?!

Again.

"...Does Orbko have any other combat settings?" Adora finally asked as the thought crossed her mind.

"Huh?" Taking a pause from her dancing fingers, Entrapta turned to the datapad on her right as she checked. "Oh, well, yeah. It also came with basic combat functionality. It wouldn't need to analyze enemy data by being attacked or anything, but-"

"Then do it." The commander's expression hardened as she gazed at the main screen.

"B-B-But Adora! If I switch its current settings, it won't be able to learn while its fighting! It wouldn't use its abilities to its fullest, exploit its enemies weaknesses, or-"

"Do you want to live with the knowledge that Catra outsmarted you, or not?"

"Done." With a simple click of the pad, any resistance or hesitation Entrapta had was erased. On the main screen they could see the screen flashing with a lighter color of blue instead of red as the message Rebooting was displayed in bold white writing. Whatever default setting this thing was set to had to work for their sakes. Otherwise, Adora would have to resort to plan B.

...

On the other end of the screen, in a mere second, Orbko's systems were calibrated as the robot's ocular vision changed from a camera lens-like appearance to a burning shade of red. Too distracted by their own agenda, neither Catra or Frosta noticed as the robot lowered its guard as it took the next blast of ice at full force. The only ones who noticed the change of detail were the ones watching from the sidelines, and nothing they were prepared to say could reach them until it was too late.

Raising its mighty fights, both fighters were caught completely off guard as the mighty droid slammed both of its powerful fists straight into the ground, creating a crater nearly twenty feet in radius from where it slammed as it raised the earth around it from all sides. The girls lack of preparation lead to their literal downfall as they lost their footing and began sliding down the raised earth and closer to the terrible droid.

"Whoooa-!" Out of the two, Catra was the first one to yelp as she attempted to scrape her claws and feet against the ground in an attempt to slow down her sliding. Her efforts were all for naught as the robot plucked the struggling cat from the crater and threw her harshly into the opposite direction, smacking her against the very tip of the raised ground and passed it.

The throw proved to be more than enough to distract the younger princess as she briefly watched Catra being flung passed her and outside the crater a good distance before turning her sights back on the robot. Because of the untimely distraction, Frosta only had enough time to make a solid foot-thick wall in front of her to avoid the most out of the robot's follow-up attack as it slammed its fist against her. Despite the amount of shielding she had in front of her, it did nothing to slow the droid down as it smacked her through the raised dirt, slamming her against the ground and skidding several feet away from the crater.

On the plus side, she managed to shrug off a majority of the robot's assault thanks to the blanket of ice that stood between her and the robot's full power. On the downside, the resulting impact against the ground and from the remainder of the robot's strike was enough to almost knock her out completely, dazing her as her eyes closed. It was this image that Catra was met with as she rubbed her aching head, seeing the young princess halfway between her and the robot pulling itself out of the wide hole.

"Frosta!" She yelled out, running to the girl in haste as the robot stomped its way over to her.

Even if it wasn't as advanced now as it was before, it knew enough to determine that anything out here was an enemy, princess or not. Staring at the helpless princess that was blanketed by its shadow, the robot raised its mighty foot as it prepared to stomp the life out of the child for good, eliminating one of its many threats, starting with this one.

*clang*

That little threat continued to prolong its existence as something stopped the robot's massive stomp from reaching its intended target. Several things, as a matter of fact, starting with the magicat blocking the foot from below. Gritting her teeth, Catra struggled as she held the back of her arm against the sword-turned-shield, shaking a little as she was halfway between standing and falling to one knee, a battle she was losing by the second.

The other thing that was prolonging Catra and Frosta's fate was the assistance pulling at the robot from behind. Almost as far back as the crater was, the four remaining members could be seen pulling at the bindings that were wrapped around the robot's arms. On the left, Bow and Mermista were giving it all they had to pull away at the large net Bow managed to shoot from one of his arrows, while on the right side, Glimmer and Perfuma were pulling away with all their might, tugging away at the vines Perfuma had grown to wrap around the robot's waist and right arm.

Together, these friends and allies were pushing back against the robot's formidable strength, yet, it was proving to be nothing more than a delay of the inevitable.

With each passing second, Catra felt herself lower closer and closer to the ground as trickles of sweat dripped over the side of her face. Teeth clenched as she focused all of her energy into pushing back, she could hear the desperate cries and pleas of her allies calling out to her from a dozen yards ahead, doing whatever she could to block it out as she struggled.

"Ngggh! Catra, come on!" Glimmer could be heard yelling as she pulled with all her might. "Call on She-Ra's power!"

"You know, if you feel like it!" Mermista grumbled as her feet were dragged against the ground as she was dragged closer to the robot, one centimeter at a time like the rest of them. "Not like we can't do this all day, but..."

"Ghh..." She knows what she has to do, but was it really necessary? Turning her head back to the kid, every part of her mind was screaming with worry. She knew if she dodged out of the way, Frosta would wind up a pancake. And if she turned She-Ra, a portion of her at least, her secret would be exposed. "Come on, kid..." She whispered to herself, gritting her teeth as her knee was barely an inch from the ground.

The young princess was nowhere near ready to get up, even though she appeared to stir here and there. It might take twenty seconds before she came back to her seconds, it might take a full minute. All Catra knew was that she couldn't afford any of that time or they'd both be flattered by the robot's twisted strength.

Who cares if she had a grand revelation about keeping secrets a couple minutes ago? It's not like she needed to confront her problems right then and there, right? Yeah, sure. Frosta would wake up. She could wake up, use her powers to impale this thing or something, and nobody would need to know about-

*creeeak*

"Agh-!" The warrior grunted as she was firmly pushed to the knee, almost feeling the of the robot's foot causing her leg's bone to shake.

...Who was she kidding? There wasn't any other way out of this, not that resulted in both her and Frosta getting out of this alive. All of it stemmed from the fact that she caused her own reduction of power in the first place, and she was too afraid to confront the others about it. But how was she supposed to confront the others if she let anything happen to Frosta? It would be more on her then for not telling them the truth in the first place!

Well... Then again... Maybe...

"Ghhhhhh! Oh forget this!" And with a final scream, she uttered the sacred words. "FOR THE HONOR OF GRAYSKULL!"

All around her lights of a dazzling displayed danced across the scenery as her entire body shimmered with a sparkling glow, save for her eyes that remained pure light. With the humming of her sword, she brought sword to her face along with her illuminated hand, crossing them side by side until they formed an X in front of her.

With a silent breath, she began pulling the sword and claw against each other on opposite ends, scraping her claws against the mighty blade which danced with a sparkling light. As she did, little by little her outfit changed into a majestic white color, growing little by little along her body as she pulled the blade away from her claw. By the time her claw reached the end of her sword, her entire outfit had finished changing, now sporting a white colored vest with a yellow light image bursting from the center of a light-blue gem, along with a white colored short skirt across her waist.

Finally, she brought her empty hand to her face. She held it there as a golden light enveloped both her wrists, forming a beautifully golden set of bracelets. As a final piece, slowly pulling her hand away from her face as her helmet changed to a golden color, the spikes on the end growing several inches longer as they curved out against her form, just as golden pads stretched from the shoulders.

With this, her transformation had come to an end, and She-Ra had been formed.

*Wham!*

*CRASH!*

Following a blinding light that enveloped everyone's vision, they were next met with the sound of a tremendous slam followed by a severe crash. With the light receding as soon as it came, the remaining allies were greeted by the sight of the terrible Orbko flying overhead, watching as it flew over their head and crashing into the wall of the sturdy Beacon. The droid slumped over, still intact, but with a large round dent now present in its chest.

"Phew, that was close." Bow smiled as they turned their attention back to the hero of the day. " Nice work, Ca-" He stopped.

Everyone was taken back as they turned their heads one by one. It wasn't too surprising to Catra that they would greet her with mixed expressions of curiosity and confusion, all things considered. Here she was greeted by everyone who expected something a little different, a She-Ra they had met once before. Instead, what they got was a She-Ra they saw on a handful of occasions, a She-Ra, while strong, that wasn't complete. The very same She-Ra Bow and Glimmer had gotten used to from the day they met Catra.

"Catra... what..." Glimmer couldn't tell what to say, or if she should say anything.

"L-Look, can we just..." Catra huffed as she scratched the back of her head. "Can we trash the droid first before we talk? It'll take awhile to explain."

While still confused, a few clicks went off in several spots of their minds as they saw a small grimace in Catra's expression, looking a bit ashamed of her own status. From the look on her face, it was starting to become a little clear what Catra had been keeping so quiet about, and why she's been acting so strangely as of late. And, to Catra's annoyance, it wasn't the worst thing she was greeted with in the next five seconds.

"Ugh..." She turned behind her as she heard the small groan of the younger princess. She watched as Catra leaned herself up from the ground, rubbing her sore head as she regained her consciousness in full.

As opposed to anyone who would be relieved over seeing such a hopeful state, Catra's face showed nothing but more annoyance. "Oh, NOW you decide to wake up!" Her grumblings and apprehension wasn't taken as seriously by the younger princess as it used to be, offering Catra a small smile as she realized what Catra sacrificed to save her life.

Her own secret.

...

At the same time, the commander watched with a building anger that was matched by the small trail of darkness growing along her veins. Her right arm was being covered by these dark strands as she squeezed her fist in anger, one she forced herself to repress as she tried to remain calm.

The princesses were all united again, and finally had a bigger advantage now over Orbko's weakened state. While she was more than overjoyed to know Frosta was alright, it bothered her to know that now all of them were ready to fight again, and this time without an overpowered droid to match their combined strength, one that was nearly doubled in size now that Catra had returned to her She-Ra state again.

She hated it all the same, but she had little choice. It was time to resort to Plan B.

"Destroy the droid." She ordered in a firm tone, much to Entrapta's chagrin.

"What?!" She squealed. "Nooo... Adora please!"

"It's fine, Entrapta." She assured as she grabbed one of the datapads out of Entrapta's hair. With a simple swipe, she initiated the countdown. "We'll just find another site and make more from there."

...

*beep*

With the sound of the audible warning-like beep, all eyes gathered on the battered droid where it came from. Standing up on its own two feet, they watched as the droid suddenly began to convulse, twitching in a spasmic rhythm as the ocular eyepiece of the large droid began to flash with a red light.

"What is it doing?" Perfuma questioned as she eyed the bot in a curious manner. While most of them were in the same state of confusion over its strange behavior, Catra was the only one who managed to realize the truth as she noticed the flashing red from tis eye continuing to pick up in speed.

"It's self-destructing!" She stated, much to everyone's shock. She recognized that state all too well whenever it came to her days of destroying droids in the Fright Zone during training.

"If they destroy that droid, we'll lose our best chance to make a killswitch!" Bow added, reminding them the severity of their situation. "We need to disable the bomb, fast!" It took a single nod amongst the friends and allies to understand the plan, sparing little time in the details as every second counted. They had one shot to pull this off successfully before the droid exploded, and this time, they were all prepared.

Wasting no time, Catra charged headfirst towards the spasming droid who charged in turn to attack her. With the archer running behind her, Bow shot directly for one of the droid's legs, managing to ensnare it in a pile of green sticky goop long enough for Perfuma to work her own magic. With as much power as she could gather, she summoned as many vines as she could to the droid's side, wrapping them tightly against its arms as she restrained it from being able to attack.

With the first half of the robot restrained, Mermista and Frosta combined both of their powers to restrain the second half of the droid. With her arm mostly healed to the point of conjuring her magic, Mermista summoned a massive blast of water, dousing the entire droid's body from the neck down as she drenched it in full. With enough water running over its body, Frosta used her own gift of magic to continue off as she froze everything directly from where she stood to the robot, making sure to avoid Catra as she ran, and created jagged block of ice over the robot's body, one that nearly grew up to its head.

Continuing to run as fast as she could, gritting her teeth as the speed of the beeping increased, she noticed Glimmer running right alongside her, giving her a firm nod in understanding as they had the same time. This was the very last of her magic that she could pull off, but she knew she had nothing to fear as of now. With every ounce she could, she teleported for the last time that she could from the distance as she reappeared a little above Orbko, grabbing onto its neck. With her staff in hand, she threw it around the robot's neck as she kept it from moving any further, all of which lead to the droid being completely immobile.

Everyone had worked their part, and it was almost fitting that Catra found herself as the one to wrap things up. With a solid dash and a leap, she jumped straight to the bot like a rocket, wrapping a firm grip over its frozen shoulder as her nails dug into the claws. Pulling back her fist, she knew.

She knew she was watching. She knew Adora wouldn't send out a droid like this without keeping a constant surveillance on it, and she knew she could see Catra in full from whatever angle she was watching. It had been over a month since the two last saw each other, and even though Catra couldn't see or hear Adora from her end, she knew she was listening, and she had the perfect words to greet her back with after all this time.

"Hey Adora."

*CRACK!*

With a single blow, Catra's fist sank straight into the robot's eye, grasping at anything she could feel trembling, and pulled it out posthaste. Sure enough, and thankfully, she found the very mechanism that housed most of the robot's programming, including its brain, and the portion that was set to detonate on a moment's notice. Without skipping a beat, she quickly tossed the device high into the air, just far enough for the rest of them to avoid the explosion that went off not two seconds later.

The ensuing explosion was enough force to crack apart the ice holding robot in place as the shockwave passed by everyone and everything. With the ice coming apart, Catra and Glimmer hopped away from the disabled bucket of bolts as Perfuma drew away her own vines. With nothing more than a single tap from the butt of her sword, Catra smirked as everyone watched the dreaded machine finally collapse, falling on its back with a hard-earned thud.

Orbko had finally been defeated.

...

"... She... won..." The commander was unaware as the veins grew further along her right arm as they started to reach her shoulder.

The image of Catra's fist was the last thing Adora saw before a blip stating that the message feed had been disconnected was displayed, leaving Adora with an irritated reflection looking back at her. So much had happened in the course of one afternoon, some of it for the best, others for the far worse.

On the plus side, Frosta was still alive, and that mattered the most. If she ended up taking Frosta's life indirectly by allowing Orbko to be unleashed, despite being a prototype, she would never forgive herself. It wasn't even the matter of losing a potential ally, she just couldn't fathom what it would feel like to know she was responsible for the loss of life for a young child such as her.

That was the only good thing out of all of this.

Everything after that, though, was worse. For starters, there was the fact Frosta was still alive, after her life was threatened by a robot the Horde sent out. How was she supposed to explain the difficulties or reasoning behind why it attacked her in the first place? How else was she supposed to apologize to her other than a blunt "oh hey, sorry our killer robot tried to eliminate you, no hard feelings, right?". She might as well have sent her an apology card with the words "I'm Sorry" written in bold right in the middle of it. It would've been just as effective.

Another issue was the fact they had lost a majority of their First Ones tech in the process. It would take awhile before they could ever send out something as powerful as Orbko, and there was no telling when that day would be with a lack of materials on hand. They could discover a First Ones cache within a week's time, or they could spend the rest of their lives trying to find anything that came even close to what the Beacon had in store, and they would find squat.

And that's provided they could even find any more ruins at all.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she jumped as she felt a poke on the back of her shoulder. To her relief, and surprise that she could forget, she was greeted with a calm-looking Scorpia staring back at her.

"Hey, its alright, Adora." It amazed Adora sometimes that Scorpia could smile so easily under the most tense of situations. "Look at it this way; it took us over a month for us to have a mission fail. That's gotta be like a new record around here or something, right?"

"...Huff..." Exhaling a deep breath, Adora sighed, letting the tension breathe out of her as she rubbed her quivering hand. "You're... You're right." It warmed Scorpia a little to see the cheerful expresion return to Adora's face, even more so as the shadows stopped growing along her arms. "We'll... We'll just make up for this next time... Thanks, Scorpia." Nodding to one another, the commander made her way out the door as she went off to preform another duty she had.

It always gave Scorpia that big warm fuzzy feeling whenever she managed to help one of her friends, or anyone for that matter. Outside of brawns, there was only so much she could do when her hands were claws and her personality was... usually gullible. So anytime she managed to solve one of her friends' problems, it always felt satisfying.

"Ehhheh eheh eheh..." Speaking of which, there was someone else who needed cheering up. Ready to work her own magic once again, Scorpia strolled her way over to her as she patted the tearful Entrapta on the head.

"It's going to be okay, Entrapta. We can always make another orb-thingy, right?"

"No, it's not that!" She sniffed. "I just can't get over the fact Catra outsmarted one f my creations! I worked so hard on it too, it took me at least two more hours than usual to make! Eheh..."

"Oh... Well that doesn't mean anything. Just because you got outsmarted one time doesn't mean you're any dumber than her." To her joy, she appeared to be on the right track as Entrapta was slowing down to some small sniffling.

"R... Really?"

"Of course! If it makes you feel any better, she outsmarted me too before!"

"...WAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHHHHHHHH!"

...

...

"So... this is what you've been hiding the whole time?" Glimmer asked as everyone gazed at the semi-She-Ra with wonder.

Catra sighed as she looked off to the side briefly, scratching the back of her head with unease. There wasn't any point trying to keep it all bottled up any longer, though, it didn't make the experience any easier to deal with. Her secret was finally exposed in front of all her friends and allies, and the truth had to come out one way or another right now. Like ripping a bandage off, she had to do it quickly, just to get it over with.

"It's not really that I was trying to keep it a secret. It's just that... Mhh..." It always felt awkward to her whenever she had to speak in front of a group like this, especially to her friends. "I didn't really know how to explain it."

"So, like, you weren't going She-Ra because you thought you would've been in trouble, or something?" Mermista tilted her head as she crossed her arms. This was actually the first time she saw Catra's weaker She-Ra form in person, as well as Frosta's, and it was strange to take in.

"No, not that either. I... How am I supposed to explain this?"

"Look, Catra, it's alright." Bow tried to assure with a smile. "So you're not the same She-Ra that won at the Battle of Bright Moon, big whoop. It's not something to be mad about-"

"That's not why I'm mad!" She nearly snapped, almost causing Bow to jump. Turning away again, she groaned. "Yeah, it's annoying I can't go back to the same She-Ra I was before, but that's not why I've been so mad lately."

"... Is this related to the thing you mentioned?" Glimmer questioned, earning the attention of her friends. It was the only thing that made sense to her at the time. How could she forget Catra's strange behavior when they talked at the beginning of this day? "The thing you said that... you were responsible for?" Immediately, the questioning eyes shot back to Catra, all of them wondering what Catra had told her and didn't tell her.

"The reason I'm like this now is because... of something I did... and still doing..."

"What happened, She-Ra?" Out of all of them, it was going to hurt the most when she found out how Perfuma would respond to this. The one who was always praising and worshipping She-Ra, even if Catra was never meant to be her. To her, She-Ra was an icon, a symbol of hope. Thanks to Catra, that symbol was about to be ruined by her very hands.

"Ugggh... " There wasn't any use trying to stall beyond this point. It was time to come clean. "You guys know how I told you She-Ra had to be some grand symbol of hope and truly selfless or whatever Light Hope told me, right? Well I... I already messed that up."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, following a few days after the Battle of Bright Moon when we were all recovering, I... I had a thought I shouldn't have." She stared at the reflection etched into the sword's blade, scowling a little at the person who stared back. "I got to thinking how amazing all that power was, and how strong that form of She-Ra made me. I kept thinking how I could end the war easily if I had all that power in my hands, how I could finish things quicker... and I didn't know how selfish it was until it was too late."

She could recall the very moment of the day she ruined the power of She-Ra, how she lost the Rebellion's one chance at bringing an end to the war. Inside of her room, still recovering from her own injuries at the Battle of Bright Moon, holding that glorious sword high into the air and reciting those ancient words. She smiled to herself when she saw the white flash that always followed, and the surge of warmth donning She-Ra's form always brought her.

And in the very next moment, how it was ruined.

After the flash, the smile plastered to her face was quickly drained away as she looked at herself. She didn't feel the same overwhelming strength that always flowed through her, she didn't feel the bright radiant light that burned within her on that same day. She felt underpowered compared to her previous transformation, like she was missing a lot. And all of this was just based on how she felt on the outside, that didn't even touch how she was on the outside.

Glancing around, trying to find it, she saw the mirror in her room, and silently gasped. She was the same old She-Ra she was used to, the one that was barely a third of what the truth power of She-Ra was capable of. She couldn't believe her eyes, she tried to pinch herself to see if she was dreaming. Yet, no matter how many times she tried, she couldn't wake up.

"I tried over and over again for what felt like hours," she continued, "but no matter how many times I tried, it never came back. By the time I realized why, it was already too late."

"So you've been blaming yourself because-"

"Because it was my stupid selfishness that lost us that power." She cut Bow off. "I finally had the true power of She-Ra at my disposal and I ruined it."

"But that doesn't make sense." The princess of Bright Moon rubbed her chin in confusion. "I mean, if you thought of it then and there, then shouldn't bits and pieces of it come back over time? You're still the Hero of Bright Moon, and you still want to... wait..." A thought suddenly dawned on the princess as she blinked, to no surprise of Catra.

"So you finally get it, huh?" It was almost worth smirking over at how foolish all of this was. She would've gladly chuckled if she wasn't on the receiving end of that joke."I can't turn back into She-Ra because nothing's changed. I keep pretending that I don't have any selfish desire, I keep trying to feign ignorance and pretend I don't know why this stupid sword won't let me transform. I've been struggling with all of this for the last month, and have been doing everything I can to regain She-Ra's power, and nothing's worked."

"I want to be She-Ra. I want to defeat the Horde and stop this stupid war before anything else happens, but not because it's the right thing to do or or something as stupid as honor. I want to end it because I don't want to lose anything else in my life. I can never get rid of that one selfish desire." Her ears drooped at this as she squeezed her grip on the sword tightly. "We lost our one chance of winning this war, all because of me... and I'm sorry."

Everyone was silent as they processed this one by one. There was so much information to take in that none of them knew where to begin, and, personally, Catra hoped it never would. Here she was, waiting for some sort of response from any of them, and worrying every second. Would they blame her for everything that happened? Would they loathe her for costing them the war? If it was her, she wouldn't blame them.

How could she make a ridiculous mistake like that in the first place? She had the full power of She-Ra on their side, she had a chance of turning this all around! Light Hope constantly told her that only one pure of heart, one who achieves pure selflessness, would be worthy and capable of using the full power of She-Ra. She had a taste of all that power, and thanks to her own greed, one which was still ongoing, she lost it all.

Maybe the Horde would return with a grand army the next day, one too big for any of them to stop unless Catra had She-Ra's full power? Maybe some catastrophe would occur that required She-Ra's grand magic to save them, like a shield that could protect the entire castle? All of this and more, Catra lost, and she had no one to blame but herself, and her selfishness.

The first to react was also the last person Catra wanted to see a reaction from. Standing in front of her, Perfuma gazed into Catra's eyes, hiding whatever intent she was feeling in her mind. Catra couldn't tell if she was disgusted, confused, angry? The only thing worse than knowing what she was feeling was not knowing what she was feeling. At least then she'd be better prepared for it after.

There was little else she could do at this point. Seeing the girl preparing to take a step forward, Catra just closed her eyes as she prepared for whatever slap or berating Perfuma had to unleash.

*tug*

...Or a hug... Huh?

Catra blinked as she opened her eyes again, confused beyond words as she felt Perfuma's warm embrace. Not only that, but none of the other princesses or allies appeared to be glaring at her. In fact, they almost seemed to be... smiling?

"Thank goodness." She finally said, pulling away from the girl. "I thought something was wrong."

"Huh?" It was the furthest thing from a last reaction that Catra had expected.

"You had us worried for a moment." Even as Perfuma pulled away from her, her smile looked almost alien compared to anything she was expecting.

"O... kay? I... kind aexpected you guys to be a bit more angry..."

"Angry? Why would we be angry?"

"Why do you think? I just told you, I lost She-Ra's power! We had a real chance against the Horde and I lost it now!"

"So?" It was almost baffling how passive Perfuma was being, almost as much as the rest of them as they continued to smile.

"Catra, we don't care about that." Glimmer stated.

"You don't?"

"Of course not. Catra, just because you want to beat the Horde, it doesn't mean you're selfish."

"It... It doesn't?" There was almost a spark of hope in her words that Catra wanted to believe in. "But I don't care about doing all of this cause it's right, so how is that not selfish?"

"Catra, we all have our reasons for wanting to defeat the Horde. I want to keep my mother and home safe." With this, she laid a comforting hand on Catra's right shoulder, the warmth of it assuring Catra of her feelings.

"I want to stop them from destroying the nature around us." Perfuma smiled.

"Protecting the seas is my reason." Mermista smirked, patting her other shoulder.

"I'm doing it for my parents, and for my friends." Bow stated proudly, planting a soft hand right on her back.

"...And I'm doing it for my kingdom, like my parents would've wanted." Frosta finally said, touching hey left leg as she gave a small smile up.

This was insane. Catra had finally gone off the deep end, or she was hit by Orbko so hard that she didn't know that she passed out instantly and this was all a dream. Everyone, all the eyes and faces greeting her, were warm and comforting. Not one of them had a look of ire or disgust with Catra, but that of a closeness, a bond. In fact, it almost seemed like they were comfortable with the revelation, even knowing it was Catra's fault.

"B-But... If it isn't selfish, then why can't I-"

"We don't know Catra," Glimmer interrupted, knowing what she was going to say, "and we don't care. Even if you're only a portion of She-Ra, all She-Ra, or none of She-Ra, we don't care. Whatever is wrong with it, we'll fix it together, but even if we can't, it won't matter. We're happy enough to have you fighting with us Catra, with or without She-Ra."

Catra didn't know what to say, or how to respond. Everything that she was given just now, the comfort, the acceptance, the understanding, was the complete opposite of what she expected. They should've hated her for this, she should be angry that she lost their only chance at a possible victory.

So why weren't they?

They weren't angry, they didn't seem to hold any sort of grudge. They just smiled at her, patting her back, and embraced her, like she was one of them. How could they be so accepting of her like this? Were they just pretending to be satisfied with all they had? Were they just pretending so they could still have her on their team? Or was it...

No. It wasn't. She couldn't comprehend what she was feeling or why, but... she believed them. She actually believed this was what they were like, the two friends she knew she had were proof of that. They accepted her for who she was, with or without her faults, just like that very day at the Battle of Bright Moon.

She was their friend.

"...Thank you..." With a smile, she spoke quietly, closing her eyes as she held back a trickling tear. It had been over a month since the Battle of Bright Moon, a day that took its toll on all of them. She was still dealing with scars from that fateful day, both physical and emotional. But after all of this, and everything she's been through in the last month, she felt something she hasn't felt in quite a long time.

Peace.

*shiiiiiiiiiim*

"Huh?" Her eyes snapped open as her sword and her body began to glow again, coming to life with a new energy.

Wait... No... it wasn't just her. All around her, her friends, the princesses, were starting to glow to. Their powers were radiating off their body, glowing with a bright light of their distinguishing colors.

Glimmer glowed with a sparkling brightness of pink, Frosta had a snowy cold blue to her person, Mermista was dripping with an oceanic blue, and Perfuma was growing with a bountiful green of nature. And herself, Catra, was no different. Even though she lacked the golden armor she once donned at the battle, she was glowing all the same with a white pure light. She felt a warmth she wasn't used to, her back appeared to be growing, their magic was flourishing all around-... wait, what?

The others were drawn to Catra and all around them as the miracle happened. The nature around them, the freezing and melting slush, was beginning to die out, and spring to life with a renewed vigor. The plants were coming back to life, glowing with a greenness the Rebellion hadn't seen in over a month. And none of it even compared to how much Catra was glowing, both, inside, and out.

The others watched in wonder as Catra's back was glowing, watching as sparkles of pure light began to gather along the blades of her shoulder. What first felt like a small tingling sensation to Catra's back started to grow into a miracle in itself. From one line to the next, they watched as the light grew, amassing as it grew further and further out until a solid mass of light grew from her back and down to her thighs. Eventually, all the light receded in turn as it was replaced by a single item that Catra had not seen since the Battle of Bright Moon.

Her Cape. And with it, she felt lighter, and maybe a little stronger.

"W-What the-?" To say she was shocked would be an understatement of the year. Her friends were nowhere near as surprised as she was, and that was putting them all together! It looked real, it felt real, it smelled real! Well, for a cape, anyway. It wasn't anywhere as much as she would've preferred, but it was better than anything she expected, and something to hope for. "But I don't... I don't understand. How did-"

"Catra," Glimmer interrupted with a calm smile, as always, "it's okay. Just accept it."

"But how did it.. why is it happening now?"

"Maybe its not a matter of being selfish, Catra?" Bow guessed with a shrug. "Maybe you just have to be more honest with yourself. You just need to take it one step at a time, not all at once."

"One step... at a time..." She repeated, staring back at the sword. If everything they said was true, then she had a new goal to obtain: find a way to achieve She-Ra's true form again, and this time, without a selfish mindset to it. She needed to figure out how to be more open with herself, and a way to make up with for what she's done.

She knew for a fact it wasn't going to be done anytime soon. Not today, not tomorrow, she prayed not in a year. But whatever happened now she knew that her friends were going to be behind her, all the way through.

"...Do you think if I asked it, I could get some pants next?"

...

...

Cold. Lifeless. Hopeless. The very definition of a Prison Cell. Within the Horde, it was something so much worse.

The glowing shackles that held her wrist in place, that kept her from attempting any sort of resistance, was a testament to the vileness that grew within her veins. No matter how many times she came down to this place to check on her, she never grew comfortable to see her like this.

Her former mentor, her instructor, a mother. One who once had it all around here, who had the capacity of understanding. She could've been someone Adora looked up to throughout all of her life, and for a time, she did. Now, she was someone Adora wanted nothing to do with, someone Adora would strive to refrain from. She was nothing more than a traitor that got too greedy for her own good, someone who wanted more than they already have. She would never be like her, and she would do everything to make sure of that.

Not someone like a traitor. Not someone like Catra. Not even someone who lied there on the floor under Adora's shadow.

Like Shadow Weaver.

"Shadow Weaver." Adora greeted with a smug grin as she crossed her arms. Out of everyone in the world, save for Catra, there was nobody she felt necessary to tower over except for Shadow Weaver. "You're continuing to look worse by the day. Then again, you did plan to overthrow Lord Hordak, and you didn't seem to care about using those around you." She paused, looking at her own fingertips. "I should know."

"..." Silence. Nothing else but silence. This is exactly what Shadow Weaver gave her every time she came down here for her, whether to berate, taunt, or bring her food. And for some reason, it bothered her.

Looking over to the wall where the chains were attached to, she saw it. A lone, single, monitor, that gave her a camera's feed of the outside world. There wasn't much to it in this dreary environment, but compared to almost every other cell in this prison, she was practically getting the "Royalty Treatment" in turn. "You know, I thought you'd be a little more appreciative after I had the monitor installed in here, or at least a little more chatty, but clearly I was wrong. You continue to dole away down here, doing nothing with your life, when you could be working for us again if you swore allegiance."

"..."

"I just came by to let you know that we actually suffered our first loss today, and I'm actually pretty proud of it." She paused, hoping for even a twitch of her fingers. "Not even a month. Over a month, and it took us this long to suffer a single loss. I don't can't even remember the last time we went three days without a loss under your command."

"..." The witch turned her head to the side, still keeping her masked face hidden from Adora.

"We're getting stronger by the day, our armies are growing, and our success has never been better. And you want to know how I know? Because Lord Hordak acknowledged my achievements himself. His words, not mine. I think I almost saw him grin when I compared my accomplishments to yours. And all you're doing right now is rotting away into nothingness."

"..." Once again, nothing but silence. It almost felt like she was taunting Adora on a level that only she knew.

"Ghhh... Say something!" Adora barked, ignoring as the shadows pooled around her own feet. No matter how threatening she looked, or what sort of threats she made, Shadow Weaver wouldn't even give her a wink. If it wasn't for the fact she knew she was breathing, or how she changed where she was squatting and kneeling every time she came down here, she'd almost think she was dead.

"You know what? Forget it!" She scoffed. "If you want to continue wasting away down here, that's fine by me. The Horde's been doing wonderfully since I became Hordak's new second-in-command, and the soldiers and cadets couldn't be any happier. They appreciate all I'm doing for them, they're succeeding because of what I'm doing for them. I'm leading the Horde into a brighter new age than anything you've been capable of, and all without your twisted methods to boot."

"I don't need you, and I don't need your way of thinking. I'm going to show the world how wrong they are about the Horde, and I'm going to crush the Rebellion under my own path. We have more allies than we ever did with you, and we'll never need what you had to offer, ever again." With that, the blonde teenager began to march out of the cell. If she wasn't going to give Adora any sort of response, then why should she even bother?

"...Heh..." Adora froze mid step as she quickly shot back. "Heh heh... Eh heh heh heh heh heh!" She couldn't believe it. After a full month of full-on silence, Shadow Weaver finally gave her a validated response. And out of all the things she could've done, she just had to laugh at her. Mockingly. "Oh, my dear, sweet, Adora. It's almost precious how naive you are."

"Excuse me?" Finally! A response! Even if it was insulting, it was better than the emptiness that once filled this cell!

"You parade about with this innocence here and there, when in reality, the real world is nothing like you dream it is." Still without looking at her, Shadow Weaver held up her own fingertips to her face. "If there is one thing I never taught you, its how to face the real world, and all it truly has to offer. All the selfishness, all its greed. I never prepared you for what the real challenge that lies ahead of you, and I almost feel sorry for that... Heheheheh..."

Wow. Just wow. Adora didn't know what level of angry or hateful she should be right now. She's waited forever for her to say something, anything at this point, to her, and instead of some deep and meaningful apology like she's owed, some sign that she'll cooperate with the Horde, or something to just let Adora know that she actually regrets her actions, she goes off and mocks her? It would have sicked Adora if she had any respect left for her former mother figure.

"You'll learn, Adora. With or without me to guide you, you'll learn." She didn't care if she was talking anymore as she walked her way to the door. She just wanted to put the past behind her. "You'll never make it out there on good intentions or a peaceful frame of mind. One way or another, you're going to learn that betrayals, schemes, and exploits are the only way to make it through this world." Whether or not she heard Adora before the door closed on her or not, it didn't matter. From behind her mask, the vile woman couldn't help as her expression softened somewhat.

"Or you'll suffer for it even more..."

...

...

*ssskkk*

*ssskkk*

*ssskkk*

"Wh-Whoooah!"

"Wall!"

"I got it!" Catra chirped as she pushed against the solid wall and continued skating across the ice. "Hahahaha!"

This was new to her. It felt new to her. For the last month, she never thought she'd be able to feel any semblance of peace of happiness again. She didn't think she'd find much of a reason to smile during this war given everything it had to offer. There was only pain, suffering, and violence throughout this war, and for a time, that's all she thought she was going to get. What else could one expect out of a war, anyway?

To her surprise, she found something new. She found an understanding that she didn't think was possible, she made amends with a young princess who continued to harass her endlessly, and she revealed a secret that had haunted her for the last month. Back in her typical outfit, back in Castle Bright Moon, she didn't think it would be possible to have anything close to fun anymore, but here she was. Skating across a row of magically generated ice from the young princess who piggybacked on her, the two were actually having more fun than either of them have had in a long while.

And it felt peaceful.

So much peaceful that Glimmer almost didn't recognize them at first as she made her way to her bedroom. She had a few scratches and scrapes she was planning to take care of with some ointment and the occasional bandage around her hand. So imagine her surprise when she saw two people who practically hated each other up till now suddenly sliding across the hallway, coming to a stop as Catra spun around in place as she approached her. Fortunately for the three of them, she managed to catch herself on the wall right next to the door.

"Heh, seems like you two are in a good mood." She commented, ignoring the fact there was now ice trails littered around the various hallways of Bright Moon. And yes, she did find it more than precious to see Frosta piggybacking the magicat with her legs around Catra's sides.

"Heh, why wouldn't we be?" Catra grinned back with a shrug. "All in all, day's been pretty hectic, but at least it'll be less stressful now once Bow makes that killswitch."

"So does this mean you two are friends now?" Glimmer asked with a curious grin as she leaned against the door.

"Friends?" Both Catra and Frosta eyed each other in wonder for a few seconds before chuckling in response. "Heh, I don't know if we'd go that far-"

"But we did at least agree on a truce over the things we both have in common." Frosta stated with a smile.

"A truce?" Glimmer questioned, earning a satisfied nod from Catra.

"Mhhm. We both like to give nicknames-"

"We both like to have fun when it gets boring around here-"

"And we both love to play pranks." They agreed in unison. There was something almost frightening about Catra being a role model to any sort of child, especially when it came to pranking, but at the same time Glimmer couldn't bring herself to ruin the closest thing Catra had to a moment here.

"Heh, why does that not surprise me?"

"Well it's true. We're actually a lot better pranking when we work together." Frosta mentioned with a triumphant nod.

"Oh man, you should've seen the last person we pranked a few minutes ago!"

"And... Who, exactly, did you pra-"

"CATRAAAAAAAAAAA! FROSTAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The sound of the bellowing voice was enough to shake the entire castle, causing the two girls standing to nearly trip over themselves in place. It was nothing like Glimmer had ever heard of throughout her life, and yet she knew perfectly well who the voice belonged to.

"Annnnnnnnd that's our que to leave!"

"Cheese it!" Frosta panicked, creating a whole new path of ice for Catra to skate over like never before. No sooner did Glimmer see the two rounding the corner of the hallway did she look back to see her own mother marching up to her, completely red in the face. It didn't appear to be of anything like anger or fury like she thought, but more along the lines of embarrassment. If her mother's pinkish skin didn't make it harder to tell if she was blushing or furious, it'd be easier to say.

"Mom? What did they do?" She almost didn't want to know, knowing a simple prank from one of them was bad enough. She couldn't even begin to think what sort of chaotic mischief the two could get into when they combined their pranking powers.

It took the Queen a few seconds to compose herself, or at least stop her fists from shaking at her side. Whatever happened to her was embarrassment of the worst kind, and Glimmer knew she wasn't going to like the answer.

"They froze me... to the toilet..." She stuttered.

"O-Oh!" Glimmer didn't know whether to be embarrassed for her mother over the prank that was pulled, or the idea of when the prank could be pulled. All she knew was that it was one of the worst kinds of prank to pull on practically anyone she knew, even from the Horde.

Maybe a happy Catra wasn't such a good idea after all...

...

...

*click*

"Huff..." Frosta sighed as she locked the door for the night. The spare guest room was one of a dozen different guest rooms they had provided for the members of the Princess Alliance while they were visiting or helping with another mission, each one suited to their individual tastes. While she didn't really have a preference on it, Frosta could admit the winter ornamental design to the room was a nice gesture.

It had been a long and demanding day in terms of her physical prowess and relationship with the other princesses, namely Catra, aka, She-Ra. To think she would actually manage to go from horrible to decent in a single afternoon? One filled with a rampaging robot that tried to smash her on several occasions? She wonders if they would be where they were now, or anywhere near it, if it wasn't for that behemoth of a machine?

Digging through her pockets, she reached around as she searched for the small treasure box that was always kept on her person. After all they been through, she did admit it felt a little bad to trick Catra with the box she gave her. Oh sure, the magicat could open the box with her claws, just like Frosta currently was with her ice-made key. Prying it open, Catra fortunately didn't know how to open the secret compartment that was under the precious locket. And why would she?

After all, she failed to notice the small indent at the top of the locket, one that required a simple click as such to open the compartment to the treasure box.

It was there that the true prize behind all of this lie hidden, the very badge that displayed Frosta's status as a fellow Horde Officer, on top of being a princess of her own Kingdom. Checking around one last time, a quick peek through the door to make sure the coast was clear, the young princess grew a small sheet of ice in every opening of the door until she was sure it was sound proof, then activated the small badge that was specially made as a communicator by Entrapta.

"Hey Adora, are you there-"

FROSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!"

"Ack-!" Frosta jumped momentarily from the shock of the loud screeching, covering the badge with her hands to silence the noise. "Would you keep it down?!" She shushed, trying to calm her heart as she uncovered the badge. "Catra just left a few minutes ago, you don't want her hearing."

"Sorry, sorry." She heard Adora apologize through the badge. At the Horde, the same commander was leaning against a wall in her bedroom as she spoke into the communicator next to her ear. "Are you hurt? Are you alright? Ugh, I feel like an idiot for sending that robot today."

'Yeah, was about to ask you on that." Frosta told her as she made her way over to the lone bed in the middle of the room. "What was with that?"

"Again, I'm very, very, sorry. It was a new prototype Entrapta made out of the First Ones tech from the Beacon and your resources. We didn't know it couldn't distinguish friend from foe and we would've disabled it in an instant if it wasn't so close to you guys at every moment. Frosta, I swear to you, we never would have let anything happen to you, and we did at least stop it earlier-"

"I get it, I get it." Frosta interrupted, rolling her eyes a little. "It wouldn't benefit you guys to betray me after only a month anyway, so I kind of figured it out for myself halfway through. Just promise me you'll check in with me next time before you use anything that dangerous, whether or not we encounter it on the same mission."

"I promise you, Princess Frosta." Adora's heart relaxed from its rapid pacing as she heard of Frosta's acceptance. It worked wonders on her stress as well as the stress building up in the form of the black veins along her right hand. By now, her entire arm was covered in black veins from the tips of her finger to her shoulder, something she could probably put off for another day or two at most before needing a recharge. "Nothing like this will ever happen again."

"Hmph... okay. But last chance, got it? I'm not going to risk a relationship if your technology does more harm for my kingdom than good."

"You don't need to worry, Frosta, I swear the tools and stuff we send over are tested twice every time." That was one load off Adora's conscious. She'd had to find some way to make it up to Frosta in the future, hopefully she could find something with a big enough contribution. The only question is what specifically would make it up to her, and how much of it? "The Horde doesn't betray its allies, and I promise you it never will. I have a few more things I need to check on for the night, so I better get going-"

"Wait, Adora?" Frosta spoke up as she lied on her front on the bed. A solemn expression crossed her face as she spoke from her mind. "Are... Are you sure Catra is... really as bad as you say?" The question made Adora's heart nearly skip a beat from surprise, and briefly sickened with disgust. It wasn't like she didn't mind who was asking the question, she just couldn't get over who the question was about. "It's just that... today she was like... I don't know... someone a little more... innocent, than you described her as?"

"..."

"I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable or anything, it's just... It's just I could've sworn that-"

"It's okay, Frosta. I get it." The commander slid against the wall until she was squatting down to her own two feet, looking up in thought as she spoke. "I know she has that look about her. Something that pretends to be innocent, tries to act like a friend? She might do and say things that'll make you question what she's truly like, and I wouldn't blame you. She was my friend for most of my life, and I thought I knew her too."

"But take it from someone whose known her for most of her life. Everything about Catra, everything she does, is all an act. In the end, everything she does is to benefit herself, and only herself. The moment she finds something that'll prove more helpful to her, she'll betray you at a moments notice. I should know, after all... Even after spending nearly a decade together, look whose side she ran to as fast as she could, all for the sake of some stupid kingdom to call her own?"

It was a painful but reassuring reality that Frosta needed to be reminded of. It was how Adora's come to know Catra, and everything she stood for. She was the embodiment of greed, the entity of selfishness. If the Horde was truly as Evil as the Rebellion tricked everyone into thinking, then what kind of evil creature could Catra be in reality?

After everything she's been through, there was only one word Adora had to describe her as.

A Freak.

"No matter how much she smiles to you, don't let her get in your mind. Because the minute you do, you'll regret it... just like I did..."

"...I understand." Frosta finally replied, to Adora's relief. "Sorry, Adora."

"It's fine, I promise. I'm just trying to keep you from ending up like I did... somewhere painful... filled with regret..."

"Y-Yeah..." Unbeknownst to her, there was a small frown perched on Frosta's face as she lied her head against the covers. "I'll check in with you later, Adora. See you."

"Have a good night." A click was the last thing Adora head, and the only thing she wanted to hear as she buried her head between her knees.

Catra had taken a lot of things from her. Half her life, a friendship she cherished, and flippped every aspect of their reality on Adora's head like an anvil. She wanted to help the Rebellion out of her own twisted desires and greed. That's it. That's all Adora could truly see. If Catra ever succeeded and made her dreams come true, Adora didn't know what she would do with herself. And as bad as that was, another worry crossed Adora's mind.

What else did Catra have left to take from her?

...

...

"Uh, okay. I'm talking into this recorder," Bow spoke aloud as he circled the remains of the terrible droid, "because that's what the best scientist I ever knew did."

After a long day of fighting, trying to make sense of these terrible creations and how they work, the self-proclaimed Tech Expert of the Princess Alliance finally had a semi-fully functional droid in his lap, or his table to put it specifically. All that hard work of sweat, tears, and feelings had eventually paid off, as he was already putting together ideas of how to put this so-called killswitch together.

"I'm not really sure who I'm talking to." He continued, examining the robot's limp arm as it lied against the table. "Me, I guess. So, hi, Future Bow... Huh... okay... time to open this thing, I guess." The head of the creation would have to be done last. If Catra's fist was as effective as they appeared, no doubt the inside of its head was shattered to pieces, a small price to pay compared to the rest of it.

Taking one of the screwdrivers on hand, he jammed it directly between the opening of the robot's metallic torso as he pried for dear life. Grunting, the tech expert pulled with all of his might until he finally managed to pry open the lid of the creation, giving him access to the mechanical doodads and wires that were strewn across its body. When Bow finally picked himself off the floor, leaning over the creation, his eyes widened as he gave a short whistle, speaking back into the recorder.

"Whoo, oh boy, uhh... Wow, the technology in this stuff is really... really advanced." He's never been so fascinated by the complexity of a machine like this, or anything it had to offer. "Most of the data programmed into this thing must've been done digitally. Most of the software appears to be from... huh..." It was within the very center of the robot's chest that Bow saw something he had only saw once before. Reaching for it, the young archer plucked out a slender diamond-shaped data crystal from the confines of the machine, filling his eyes with a light he didn't think was possible.

"Hold onto your hat, Future Bow. Entrapta's alive!" This was great! This was amazing! This was beyond glorious!

To think, the friend they all once knew and cared about was actually alive! Oh man, this feeling was intense! How was he supposed to put it? It was nothing like he's ever felt before! It's like the limits of his excitement somehow went beyond the tipping point and kept rising with each beat of his excited heart!

Entrapta was alive, she truly was! Gosh, what an awesome feeling this was! Entrapta was definitely alive! She never died in the Fright Zone! She was alive this whole time! She was-!

"..." The realization took an unexpected turn as it dropped immediately from its rise. All that gusto, and all the excitement, drained from Bow's face as he realized that his greatest revelation was also his biggest regret.

"..And we left her behind..."

...

...

...

A/N: You know whats funny? Almost a little under the entire 2nd half of this whole chapter I did this morning. That's the usual work output I give on a daily basis, so if thats not a sign that I'm coming back, idk what is.

What's more, we're FINALLY (thank GOOOOOOOOD T_T) done with this episode! Thats means, on top of keeping up more with the plot for the next few episodes, we'll also be going more by the episode, so, not to jinx it, but we should be able to see more regular posts ^^ Since im not in school atm, chances are on a more weekly basis (which I pray not since it means no season 3 watching for me till then T_T *cry*), but at least you guys will get to enjoy some good ol' fanfiction AU ^^!

Again, huge shoutout to all the fans and reviewers who help keep this fanfic alive, and thanks again to petie doon from Instagram. I repeat, you guys HAVE to see his work, its freaking amazing.

With all that said, hope you all enjoyed! Leave a like, fave, follow, and review if you enjoyed and hope to see you all soon!