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

76. S2 Episode 4: Princess Royale Part 5

A/N: Final Word Count: 15.2K Pre-A/N's. Howdy doody folks! Monokub here with another chapter! We're blowing right into the action this time around with betrayals and battles going all around back and forth! I'm hoping the action is still as good as it used to be, seeing how it's been awhile since I last did some action sequences. Might be a little rusty, but given i still managed to write out at least 2 scenes for each of the three battles going on, one questionably being called a "battle", i still think that's a good sign ^^

Anyway, time to move on to the action! If it actually feels short in terms of action, I apologize, but aside from wanting to get the episode done soon (gods sake i wrote 15k here, cut me some slack XP), as i said yesterday, a bit under the weather. Colds gotten better but still groggy with the cough drops and whatnot.

So, with all that said, enjoy!

...

...

...

"What is all this?" The princess was at a loss on how to process all the information being thrown at them within the last minute.

Adora's long line of planning and contempt for the Rebellion had finally reached its peek. What did she have to show for it? A trap. Not just any trap. A trap that would put any traps that the Horde have previously orchestrated to shame. All the pieces were laid on the board before her, each of her ideas slowly being pulled in to one another, and now she had everyone right where she wanted them.

Now all she had to do was take the pieces out one by one.

None of the three could believe what transpired within the recent set of events. After coming up with ridiculous plan after ridiculous plan, the magicat had enough. She had enough with the stupidity flowing around the tents and the annoying behavior of her friends after spending several hours of trying to come up with the perfect plan, one that wouldn't result in any casualties, and one where they wouldn't have to face another Entrapta scenario.

It was hard to tell how far Catra would push herself in the moment of anxiety of stress as she went in to every detail of their future failure, holding back no details in the ways everyone would be taken out, the terror looming over them if even one of them failed, and the fate of Etheria and the Rebellion if they couldn't take back one simple Horde fortress looming over their heads. All because Catra thought it would be by her own hands that they would lose.

She wasn't a stranger to herself, she knew herself a little better than most did. She was quick, snide, boastful, irritable, and all around every representation of the Horde's worst aspects. From what little she's changed over the months, it did nothing to diminish the realization that if the mission failed, it would be because of her, and she would suffer the guilt of that failure while rotting in a cell for the rest of her life. And she was revealing this to her allies, all of whom had the opposite thoughts on their minds.

They didn't see Catra's recklessness as a downside, they embraced it. They knew the cat was best at thinking on the spot than sitting in a room all day, and that's what they were counting on. They didn't know what to expect from this mission, they knew it was going to get bad regardless how it went. And it was because of this that they believed in Catra enough to pull them out of any trouble they happened upon throughout the mission.

What few minutes they earned from a calmness, a feeling of serenity great enough to bolster Catra's She-Ra state, was quickly brought to an end as the mission soon began.

Barely two minutes into the mission, everything had gone off the deep end, the way Adora expected it to. Having played her part for as long as she could, Frosta revealed her true allegiance to Mermista and Perfuma with the arrival of the Horde ambush that was waiting for them within the camp. If it wasn't enough to separate them from the rest of the group at the fortress, she went one step further as she activated the strange device that now covered the entire fortress from the outside, barring any entry or exit.

Like animals of instinct, Adora saw every way the Rebellion would approach this mission. Reckless, fast, hard, and trusting of one another, she had every card drawn out to lead everyone to their respective sides of the field. While Mermista and Perfuma had a handful of droids and soldiers to contend with, that left the remaining Princess Alliance with her and her domain, followed by the few handfuls of soldiers and Scorpia that stood by.

And she was going to enjoy every minute of it.

"You like it?" Adora teased, viewing the barrier that originated from the sphere floating above the tower. "Entrapta made it for the mission. She's been making a whole bunch of useful stuff for the Horde since you left her behind. I'll never understand why you didn't come back for her, but you have my gratitude for it."

"Ghhh! We didn't abandon her, Adora! We thought she was dead!" Catra growled, squeezing her sword tighter.

"Oh, well isn't that better then? What was your apology going to be if you saw her again? "Hey Entrapta, sorry for never checking if you were really dead or not! We just got what we came for and decided to leave right away". I'm sure she gladly would've accepted that as an apology."

Noticing the small shaking coming from her friend, Glimmer attempted to soothe the raging beast as she gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "Catra, calm down. Remember, you can't let her get to you." The warrior in question shot her a brief look of irritation before sighing through her nose, loosening her grip a little.

"What did you do with Frosta, anyway?" She finally asked, holding back her fangs.

"Me? Absolutely nothing."

"I'm serious, Adora!"

"Hate to disappoint you, kitty, but it's true." Scorpia assured with a small wave of her claw. "Since your little disaster at the Princess Prom, she's been working for us every day. Providing resources, intel, pretty much all you'd need from a friend."

"You're lying!"

"If you don't believe me, why not ask her yourself?" Gesturing towards the direction of the encampment, the others could see the billowing smoke and faint sounds of explosions being set off from the other side. "I'm sure she's still hanging out with the others, though I'm not really sure how much fun the other princesses are having."

"Perfuma and Mermista!" With all that had been revealed between this strange ambush and Frosta's involvement, she had almost forgotten they weren't with them.

"Go," Bow ordered as he drew his arrow, keeping it locked on the two Force Captains, "we'll hold them off. Get through the barrier and bring them both here."

"Right!" As she gathered her powers, preparing to teleport, Adora gave the pink-haired princess a snide grin as she watched.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you..."

Adora didn't give warnings lightly like this. Even if she was on the side she believed in, believed she was going to win, Catra knew she would never give a warning like this with such a smirk. "Pinky, wait-!" By the time she finished her first word, it was already too late.

*swish*

*Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzttttttttt!*

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Disappearing from the spot near her friends and reappearing at the edge of the barrier, the glittering princess felt her entire body surge with a rage of electricity that coursed through her body, screaming in pain as her entire body was struck with tens of thousands of volts. Everywhere around her, her body sparked with a bluish streak of lightning, the princess struggling to just pull herself out from the electrifying barrier, until she felt the energy drain from her very body, causing her to fall out of the air.

It was a miracle that she was barely five feet above the wall before she came crashing down on the hard concrete of the surrounding walls.

"Glimmer!" Her friends both cried out in worry, all the while Adora took an eerie amusing glance at where the princess landed.

"You know, I always wanted to see what happened when a fly flew into a bug zapper." With her brief joke aside, but not forgotten, she turned back towards the ones still below her.

"Didn't you hear me about how this ambush would work, Catra? The First method; Divide and Conquer. These barriers were specially designed to counteract the magics from the Princess Alliance, except for Frosta's. Anything you try to throw at it will bounce off, or in Glitter's case," she smirked again as the princess struggled to get pick herself off the ground, "send a thousand volts through her system."

"What? How did you make something like that?" Catra wasn't a tech wiz, but even she knew certain limitations of science like this, such as studying a princess's magic without anything to collect the info. "There's no way you could've-"

"The robot." Bow's emotionless reply grabbed Catra's eyes and ears, the archer already realizing the details surrounding them. "The one we fought over a week ago. It must've been downloading data from its fight while the princesses were attacking it."

"Ding-ding. It's really impressive what you can do with technology these days, isn't it? From taking out your enemies or collecting data on them, there's just so many possibilities. It's thanks to those same possibilities that this barrier will keep anything from getting in or out. And that means you won't be able to help your... whatever they are to you, and they won't be able to help you."

This is what Catra hated about Adora, even more after fighting for the enemy team. No matter how much one held the upper hand in their situation, if they were fighting Adora, she always had an ace up their sleeve. The girl was a prodigy when Catra thought about it, the way she excelled in her lessons, training, intellect. She may not have been a master in a given area, but between that or being superior in multiple ways, it was no wonder why she was such a formidable opponent.

Or a deadly one.

"Bow," she exhaled softly as she readied her sword, and whatever she would need to change it into, "go get Glimmer, and work on finding a way out of here for us. I'll hold off Adora myself."

"What? Catra, you shouldn't fight her on your own. We should work together instead of-"

"We need to get out of here and meet up with the others first." The warrior transfixed her eyes on the Force Captain, raising her arms in defense as she prepared for anything. "It doesn't matter if we win if something happens to the other three." She refused to allow another Entrapta incident to happen, or death. "You need to hurry before we run out of time."

"But Cat-" There was little time for discussion as Bow saw movement in the corner of his eyes along the wall.

Watching it, his eyes widened at the sight of several fellow Horde soldiers running around the walls from both ends, rushing towards Glimmer from the left and the right all at once. In her current state, she wouldn't have enough time to teleport out of the way if they jumped her, and given the circumstances, there were only a few more times she could keep teleporting before her powers waned, and there was no telling how long this fight was going to last.

Shifting her eyes over to him one more time, the archer's face lit with determination as he ran in the direction Glimmer teleported off to, firing off one of his trick arrows near her in preparation to scale the wall immediately once he reached it. Watching him with her own eyes, Adora gave a small shrug as she waved off Scorpia.

"Scorpia, they're all yours." She announced standing on the bridge's wall. There was barely a tremble in Adora's arms as Catra saw the shadows pooling around her arms, soaking in the magic and strength that came to her with each passing second. By the time she was finished, Adora's arms had doubled in size, covered in a thick blackness of shadows as claws trailed up to the cliff of her fingers. "Catra's all mine."

"You got it, Adora!" Without waiting for a nod in return, the half-human-scorpion rushed over the bridge to the outer walls, expecting to meet the young princess at the same time as the guards.

The magicat grunted as she exposed her ferocious teeth, running down the same path as she chased along with Scorpia. "Hey!" She shouted, using her enhanced agility to reach upwards and towards Scorpia, hoping to cut her off.

"No you don't!" Just as Catra nearly reached the ledge of the bridge, she found her incredible jumping come to a sudden halt. Looking behind her, she already saw Adora's arms stretch out in a shadowy tendril, having thrown it with her incredible might, and latching onto her ankle at the last second as she jumped from the bridge herself.

She didn't bat an eye as she tugged on Catra's leg forcefully, pulling her all the way back before slamming her into the base of the giant tower's walls, and crashing her through it until several piles of debris collapsed atop of her.

Finally reaching the floor herself, she casually patted her own legs of any dust as she waited for her friend to pick herself up from the rubble. To her satisfaction, the warrior didn't last as much as three seconds before she came bursting out of the pile, small scrapes already forming along her exposed skin, and somehow managing to make Catra's face harden more than it had been.

During this, the Bright Moon Princess rose to her feet, her body still feeling like it was sleeping a little, as the electricity slowly worked through her system. By the time she could feel her legs again, the first group had just arrived, nearly jumping the defenseless princess as the first soldier struck with his stun baton. If it was any normal civilian, he might have had a chance. Otherwise, his fate would be the same as Glimmer quickly summoned her staff to the side again, shielding the attack just inches from her face.

Noticing the other two soldiers rushing towards her and the other group almost arriving all at once, the princess gave a small roar as she rolled onto her back, maintaining her grip on the soldier through her staff, and flung him in the opposite direction, toppling the first soldier and the guards into a massive heap that moaned from the fully-maned dropping they experienced.

Jumping back to her feet, the princess barely had enough time to block the other guards' batons both at once, almost being forced down to her knees as they pressed their own weight against it. Grunting, the princess gathered as much magic as she could into her right fist, ready to strike the guards the moment they dropped their ground. That drop was soon provided for them as Glimmer caught them by surprise and allowing the staff to drop. Those few seconds of confusion were all she needed from them before blasting them off their feet, hurdling them both several feet ahead, out cold.

This alone was enough to make the girl pant with exhaustion. Whatever energies this strange device was producing to maintain the barrier, it felt eerily similar to when she had been corrupted by the Black Garnet's energies, the great crystal itself nearly destroying her from an unknown magic. While she didn't have to worry about having a repeat of those events here, the situation remained just as troubling as Glimmer caught a closer look of the encampment from her end, just barely making out a fire over a large rock formation.

She couldn't really see anyone, which was ideal since the camp was supposed to maintain secrecy throughout the mission, but it made the fear and worry for her friends just as bad, if not worse than it already was. They had no idea what was going on as Adora Counter-ambushed them, revealed that someone was working with them from the inside, and Adora appeared to be one step ahead of them all the same.

There was nothing else she could do other than hope for her friends' safety, and an explanation for what was going on.

It was then that she heard the familiar sound of a large pair of footsteps rushing up from behind her, eyes widening at the sight of the scorpion girl charging straight for her with her stinger at the ready. Before she could strike, she was caught off guard as Bow jumped her from behind at the last second, struggling to keep his grip on the flailing girl as he pulled the grip of his weapon against her neck, maintaining his grip on the girl as much as possible as Glimmer gathered another filling of her magic into both her hands, glowing them with a pinkish energy.

"Haaahhhh!" She screamed, charging straight at the girl with staff at the ready.

There was little work to be had as Adora reformed the claws on the ends of her shadowy arms, giving a small crackle in her knuckles as she prepared for a grand fight. In a lot of ways, this was just like the day Adora broke her ties with Catra all those weeks hated the sight of her former friend, still felt like her betrayal happened only seconds ago, and still felt the torrent of pain within her heart as she realized Catra was using her all this time.

She'd been waiting for another encounter like this, almost more than she had been for this mission. This is where she changed her life for the better, and it all started with the former friend who ruined their lives in the first place.

"We have a lot of catching up to do..."

...

...

*crash!*

Mermista shouted in fury as she impaled the next droid straight through its mechanical body right as it started to charge. With a few seconds before the blast, she pulled back on her trident with all of her strength as she directed it to until it was facing one of the other droids that were raiding the camp. With a small twitch in the prongs, she watched with satisfaction as the droid blasted away the other one, then jumped gracefully away from her own droid before she could get caught in the explosion. That was two droids down, another dozen to go.

On Perfuma's end, the princess was struggling with two different complications that came from this fight, both, internally, and with the scenery around her. With a large skiff headed in her direction, with several soldiers occupying it and ready to strike, the princess gathered the magic within herself to fill the ground beneath them with her own power.

Closing her eyes in concentration, she summoned forth a wave of vines right from under the vehicle, raising it high into the air as the soldiers riding it were knocked out of their seats. With the soldiers landing painfully and weakened, she threw the skiff right over to Mermista, crashing it into the droid that was ready to pounce on her within seconds. Smiling to one another in thanks, they turned their attention to the rest of the battlefield that was slowly erupting in flame.

All throughout the camp, there was nothing but chaos and discord as Horde soldiers and droids continued their ambush on the encampment, attacking the princesses with all their might along with the small handful of Rebellion supporters and guards. With the guards handling the few soldiers the Princess Alliance brought with them, and the field supporters dealing with the droids, throwing bolas at their legs and causing them to topple over, it would have been seen as an average Horde attack that the alliance was repelling. There was just one little issue that kept this battlefield from being anything but normal.

*wham!*

The little ice princess that knocked aside a charging soldier with her ice-created gauntlets- Princess Frosta.

The Princess of the Kingdom of Snows. A member of the Princess Alliance and supposed-ally of the Rebellion. One of their friends they trusted with their lives.

All throughout the fight, Frosta had been fighting. From knocking away her enemies or freezing the grounds around them, tripping them up and making them crash into whatever collision course they were set off to. This would normally be a great thing to see except for the fact she was targeting the wrong people, like the ones on the Rebellion's side.

None of this made any sense! Why was Frosta fighting against them, why was she being this way? Throughout all the fighting, it was the one thing plaguing Perfuma's mind, the thing distracting her through all the combat. She was their friend, a fellow princess at that. She shouldn't be fighting with the enemy, they should be fighting against the enemy! No matter how stern Mermista's glare fell upon the girl as they looked to one another, Perfuma's gaze could only be filled with sadness.

"Frosta, why are you doing this?" Perfuma had to figure out the cause of all this, she just had to! "We're your friends!"

"You wouldn't understand!" Shouting, the princess slammed her icy fist into the ground as she created a path of raising frost towards the two princesses, erupting pillars of solid ice out of the ground that grew the closer it drew towards the princesses. Wasting no time, the two dodged out of the way before they could find their own legs encased in the solid blocks. With Perfuma rolling to the right, Mermista kicked off the ground and into the air, leaping towards the smaller princess as she slammed the blunt side of her trident onto the princess's hardened fists, both of them staring daggers at one another.

"Look, Frosty, if this is all part of some big dumb trick, then I'd really like to hear the plan then!" Despite her face showing signs of rage, her chest hurt with a pang of confusion and turmoil. She saw all that transpired within the last few minutes, from her suspicious behavior to her revealed betrayal, and she still refused to believe this was all meant to be taken seriously. There had to be some ace Frosta had up her sleeve, or maybe something she was hiding. It was the only reason she was holding back on her strength, a handicap that started to loosen the longer this possible charade lasted.

"It's not a trick!" As if to prove her point, grumbling, the princess pushed off Mermista's strike before slamming a large fist of ice into her stomach, throwing her several yards where she skidded across the ground before stopping herself, using the trident as a break top stop herself from blowing past any further than Perfuma. Needless to say, Mermista was becoming less amused as the fight progressed, and growing more and more tempted into fighting her at her full strength. The princesses all stared each other down as they set their priorities on one another, letting the droids and soldiers fight among themselves around them.

There was no way this was going to end happily, peacefully or otherwise. Frosta was proving herself to be more of a traitor than they were initially lead to believe, and the longer the fight progressed, the harder it was to tell if she was truly a friend or a foe. All Perfuma and Mermista knew was that the longer this fight lasted, the longer people would be getting hurt around here or back at the fortress. They needed to do whatever they could to stop this pointless fighting and find a way to save their friends.

Even if it meant fighting against one of themselves...

...

...

*clang!*

Catra's sword and Adora's shadowy blades clashed fiercely as they struck one another, glaring into each others eyes. Kicking off from the tip of her right foot, Adora pushed Catra back as she forced the magicat to stay on her feet, barely keeping her balance and the grip on her sword at the same time. Right as she came to a stop, the Force Captain quickly swiped at her legs with another shadowy blade formed along her left arm, stretching it up to five feet in length to prevent Catra from simply backing away from the strike.

Reacting quickly as she anticipated the growth of the attack, Catra changed the blade into a polearm capable of pushing off the ground, clashing the bladed end of the weapon into the ground and Adora's strike and pushing Catra several feet into the air from the other end. The girl's legs straightened in the air a little as she hung upside down, pulling the weapon out of the ground as she completed a full roll in the air, and slamming it overhead in an attempt to strike at Adora's shadow-covered shoulders, hoping to pin her in place.

Unfortunately, she wasn't just dealing with a typical Horde soldier that she could predict on the fly. She was dealing with a Force Captain that she had a personal history with.

Something like Catra's attack was mere cakewalk as the blond casually grabbed the serrated blade with both her hands, grinning to the surprised girl as she began to wave the polearm violently before slamming it into the ground, and Catra with it. It wasn't enough to keep Catra off her feet for more than a second, but no sooner did she get back on her heels did she feel Adora's shadowy fist slam into her face, sending her flying and dropping the sword until she smacked into the inner walls of the large fortress ten feet off the ground, and watching her fall with a solid landing to the ground as her polearm returned to normal.

Groaning as she leaned against the wall, rubbing her head as she slowly got up, Adora pondering as she gazed at her own arms was the first thing Catra saw.

The second thing was her holding the Sword of Protection in her grasp.

"You know," Adora began as she examined the sword flat against her palm, "sometimes I keep wondering about this stupid thing. The way everything changed after you found this giant paperweight, the way you conveniently changed sides the moment you touched it."

"Adora..." Catra winced rubbing her right shoulder, pulling herself from the ground.

"I know you're not under the princess' control now, but it still confuses me. Why are you so obsessed with this thing in the first place? Why did everything about you change the moment you touched this stupid thing? You could've come back to the Horde at any time, but instead you chose to go with the Rebellion and stay with them. After all the time that's passed, even now, I still can't understand why."

Contempt overcame the Force Captain's face as she glared. "Did you do it because you were just greedy? Is that really all there was to this? Or did you think you were supposed to do it in the first place, because some know-it-all said it was your destiny or some garbage?"

"My destiny...?" Catra muttered quietly as she thought to herself. Now that she thought of it, Adora didn't know. She didn't know about the mix-up involving the sword, the day their lives changed forever. She didn't bank her chancces on getting through to Adora at this point, but at the very least, it could open her eyes a little. "That destiny... it wasn't mine, Adora." Lifting her head a little to see the enemy's curiosity. "It was... yours."

"...Huh?" She glanced back to the sword as Catra continued.

"I wasn't supposed to find sword in the first place, Adora. You were the one the sword wanted, who... Light Hope said, was supposed to find the sword."

"Light-who?"

"Some hologram woman living within the Beacon it doesn't matter. The point is, the First Ones wanted you to find the sword in the first place, they needed you to find it. And I... I just got in the way again and messed everything up."

"..." This was the first time Adora had gone silent to Catra's speech as she raised the sword a little in examination.

Was anything she said true? About finding the sword? Was their entire life flipped over because the wrong person found the sword at the right time? It didn't make any sense to her. And what difference would it make if she was the one who found the sword? She would've gladly gone back to the Horde and continue working for them, she was sure of it. Knowing Catra, she was just trying to make an excuse for why she left, again.

At the same time, she had to admit she was a little curious of the notion. Not a day passed where she didn't stop thinking of the moment the two became enemies, perhaps longer than she realized when she thought of the day Catra left. Who knows what would have happened if she went through everything that Catra did. Maybe she would be fighting for the Rebellion, maybe she would've actually became friends with Glimmer and Bow, and Catra, well, she didn't really care about her at this point. All she knew was that is was a possibility that could have happened, right?

...As if!

"...Tch...Pffft! Hahahaahahaha!" Adora's never laughed so hard in her life, nor cause a greater amount of confusion to the magicat at the sight of someone laughing. "Oh my gosh, Catra, hahaha! That has got to be your WORST lie ever!"

"What? Lie?" There went any hope she had of getting Adora to open her eyes, but what did she mean by that. "What lie? It's the truth!"

"Pffft... Okay, okay, so let me see if I got this straight." She wiped a tear of joy from her eyes as she tried putting the pieces together. "You're saying the First Ones, this supposedly advanced race from a thousand years ago, wanted me to find the sword, right? The people who were capable of such advanced technology that we would be using them in the war surrounding us today, they somehow happened to know that I would be born around this time, a thousand years later, and specifically me, and entrusted some "grand destiny" to me."

"So with that said, you're trying to tell me that this incredibly advanced society, again, from a thousand years in the past, placed all their hopes and dreams on the idea that I, Adora, would just happen to randomly stumble across the sword, just happen to find it buried in the ground, and would just HAPPEN to find it on a tiny little speck on the globe, and thought I would just randomly be walking in that direction one day, and happen to come across the sword myself? That has got to be, the absolute, worst lie I've ever heard of!"

"..." Catra just blinked to herself as she processed everything Adora said out loud. "...Okay, wow, yeah, you make it sound really stupid when you say it like that, but-"

*chnk*

Catra almost flinched as the sword was shot in her direction, impaling the wall behind her, and close enough to the point that she saw a few strands of hair falling from the edge of all that remained. Looking back, it was unsurprising as she saw Adora glaring back at her, somehow mixing a sense of contempt and frustration with a stroke of sadness as she stared back at her, arm still raised in the air from the sword she threw.

"Catra, if you're not going to even put the effort in to lie to me, then don't say anything at all." That was one of the few things Adora had respect for Catra before the betrayal. The way she managed to loosen her tongue to get others in her favor, the way she turned nearly any conversation around on others, it was one of the few skills Adora had yet to master, even with Shadow Weaver's help. Now, Catra didn't even have the energy to give her the effort and instead opted to pick the most ridiculous thing she's ever heard.

"Adora, it's the truth!" Arguing proved futile as the warrior pulled her blade from the wall again.

"I don't care, Catra! Even if it was the truth, I wouldn't care anymore. There is nothing about you that I can trust, nothing to convince me of what you said. The day I realized who you truly were, the person who only wanted to be my friend for their own benefit, I lost all the trust I could possibly give you." The shadows along her arms began to erupt ever so slightly as a mist-like evaporation seemed to be occurring, the shadows rising into the air and dissipating, unlike Adora's hatred.

"You used me, tricked me, constantly made it about yourself and what you wanted to do, and you never did anything for me unless it was to help yourself somewhere down the line." She tightened her shadow-covered fists as her glare intensified. "You never, once, did anything I wanted to try, never helped me when I needed it most. And now you want me to trust you after everything you've done to my life?"

Without warning, the Force Captain shot both of her fist-turned-tendrils straight at the girl, forcing her to dodge out of the way of the oncoming impalement that nearly reached her. From the side, she saw Adora's tendrils seep into the wall itself, spreading, multiplying, like a virus as veins stretched all over the wall within twelve feet of her impact. With a solid pull, Adora yanked her shadows back out of the wall, watching as the concrete and metal eroded from her shadow's magic.

Like the trust she once had for Catra, it all came crumbling down until nothing but torn shreds of rusted steel and broken concrete remained.

"All I want anymore is to make you pay, Catra," the shadows around her shoulders began to grow as small sets of tendrils grew in a rotation-like manner, "and feel everything I did since the Beacon."

From this, Catra was taken back as she saw small rock formations flowing along her shadow arms up to her shoulders, all collected from the debris her arms left behind, being pulled out of the skin-like protection with her very own shadows as if she was loading them on for something. The rocks ranged from puny to the size of a small ball, all perfectly positioned and aimed at the cat-girl as she loaded up the various rocks along her arms. Raising an arm to Catra again, even at this forty-foot difference, she was about to show her just how durable her pain could be.

*Thwack!*

"Ah!" Catra yelped in pain as her shoulder was struck. In less than a second, sliding against the dark layer of skin over her arms, the rock jettisoned itself from Adora's palm at full force, faster than a bullet and with the full weight of an average-sized ball, she struck the very tip of Catra's shoulder blade, shattering the rock upon impact and leaving a bruised scrape across her shoulder. She didn't even give her a single moment to catch her breath as she fired the next one at her, this time along her knee.

*sskk*

The pain wasn't as great as the large one that struck her shoulder, but it proved to her that no matter the size, the smaller pebbles were just as troubling as the large ones before it. With speed that Catra couldn't even track and a precision that forced her to accept it was intentional, Adora launched another of the rock fragments against her leg, leaving a smooth, solid, cut along it as it cracked into the wall behind her. It wasn't enough to start any profound bleeding, but that didn't matter.

These were just two of the various rocks Adora collected.

*Tatatatatatatta-*

Adora refused to back down or give Catra so much as an inch of space as she fired from both her palms at the same time. Like a machine gun firing on endless, Catra was helpless to defend herself as she shielded her body with her bare arms, blocking whatever projectiles she could from striking against her face or her chest. She toughed out the pain she felt as the rocks pelted her to no end, wincing several times throughout the onslaught as she felt some of them impact straight against her limbs and joints, nearly dropping to a leg at one point as one collided with her square in the knee.

With what little concentration she had against the dreaded firing, she poured all of her energy into creating a shield from the beautiful sword, never being more thankful that it worked in one of the few times she most needed it, and braced herself against it as it took on the brunt of the assault, leaving everything above her knees safe from Adora's rock-filled barrage. It was times like this Catra forgot about her She-Ra state, remembering how it enhanced her strength as well as her durability. The pain she endured was a result from the She-Ra state lessening her injuries, there was no telling how bad they would be without it.

After a near-twenty seconds of endless, pelting, the assault finally came to an end. Catra waited a bit to make sure there wasn't anything coming her way before lifting her head up, making sure the firing range was clear. All she could see were Adora's hate-filled eyes as she slammed her shadowy fist straight into the Catra's shield, pressing her and crushing her into the wall behind her as she lifted her a few feet off the ground.

"Ngh!" She grumbled as she pushed back as much as possible, barely separating an inch from the wall as Adora pushed harder and harder into the shield, pinning her to the wall. She knew the fight wouldn't have been easy, but she didn't expect herself to have this much trouble. Based on what Bow and Glimmer told her, Adora could only fight for so long in her shadowy-state before her powers became too much for her. So what was she hiding that allowed her to fight for so long?

"First a useless sword, then a useless spear, and now a useless shield." She sneered, leaning a little closer to Catra's face as she taunted. "Can your sword transform into anything useful at all?"

"Mmh..." Finally freeing an additional inch between the two, Catra smirked back. "Like this?" With a small yet blinding flash to Adora from this close, the Force Captain barely registered that Catra had transformed her sword into something, something that would turn the tide in her favor.

A grappling hook.

There was no time for Adora to contemplate the strange choice of weaponry as Catra fired the hook from above her shoulders, stretching it out until it reached all the way to the other side of the Tower's base. With her grip leaving her from the now-missing shield, Adora had no leverage to push herself back as Catra kicked both of her feet into Adora's chest, knocking her off her feet and pinning her to the ground. That's when the magic truly happened.

With a single click of the grappling hook's control, she shot forward at an incredible speed as she pushed Adora further into the ground, dragging her and shoving her through the rough earth around them as Catra continued to pull closer and closer towards the walls. Small mounds of debris and dust blanketed thetrail around them until Catra finally came to a stop halfway there. With a small jump, grabbing Adora's leg as it flailed upwards, she threw the Force Captain with all her might, not at the tower, but against the base of the small archway, crashing into it with tremendous force that managed to collapse the entire bridge on top of her.

For the part of her that did care about Adora, she was relieved to know the shadow protected her from every direction, adding on an entire layer of invisible skin that acted like its own personal suit of armor. Otherwise, she'd be dealing with the fact she dropped a small bridge on top of her friend and most likely crushed her.

At least she could take some guaranteed enjoyment that it definitely hurt.

Just not enough to keep her down any longer than when Adora buried her the first time. Still, it was refreshing ot see the Force Captain panting a little, no doubt from the lack of experience she's had with Catra's empowered state.

"So, is that the kind of pain you were thinking of, or did you want something more?" Cartra asked with a smug grin, taunting with her sword over her shoulder as it changed back to its original form.

She honestly felt good in this fight for a change. Despite the injuries she's taken, and most likely would take further on, this fight was off to a good start! She was definitely benefiting from unlocking more of her She-Ra state within the last week. Who knew how strong she would be by the time she reached her full power again?

"...Heh heh... Hahahaha..." Ugh, there it was again! That stupid laugh! It was perhaps the one thing that constantly annoyed Catra every time she met Adora now. Whenever she was laughing like that, it was because of pride. Pride she obtained from having information or a weapon that Catra didn't, pride from knowing that the odds were still in her favor. And the unbearable part was Adora never telling her why she was laughing until after the big reveal.

"What's so funny?"

"Haha, ahhh... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's just," she took the chance to brush off whatever dirt she collected from Catra's recent surfboarding, "you're thinking too small again, like usual."

"About what?"

"About pain." At this, Adora pulled the braid from her hair as she let it hang loosely around her. "There's at least two types of pain in this world, Catra. Physical pain, and emotional pain. See, the thing about physical pain, is that it's only temporary. No matter how serious the injury, it'll usually disappear within a few days to weeks, if not a month." From here, her expression twisted into a sharp scowl. "Emotional pain, on the other hand, never goes away, Catra. It never stops, it never gives you a break. From my experience, it just keeps haunting you and haunting you until the day you die. That's the kind of pain I want you to feel, Catra."

"Tch," she spat holding up her sword, "kind of late for that, you know. Did you forget everything within the last month?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure eeeeeverything within the last month must've been so hard for you." Watching her, Catra prepared herself as she watched Adora pick up a pile of rocks from the crash behind her, waiting for her to pull another strike with them. Instead, she just waited as Adora crushed each and every one in her hand as she spoke.

*crack*

"Waiting around with your new friends as the robots kept coming."

*crack*

"Toying around with your powers like they were the greatest gift in the world."

*crack*

"And Frosta even told me they helped redecorate your own room. Man, only the saddest person could think of a little remodeling, couldn't they?" It sickened her when Catra spoke like she was in pain. She knew nothing of pain, nothing at all. To her, pain was an irritation you got that went away as soon as you couldn't use it anymore. To Adora, it was someone stabbing her heart with a knife and twisting it endlessly. All she wanted to do right now was to crack open that little wall surrounding what she called a heart, and let the dam burst open itself. She just needed the right pick to pierce it.

"Ghh..."

And there it was. Turning her eyes from the half-cracked rock in her hands to the She-Ra, she smirked. "Oh, riiiight, Frosta, we didn't really get around to that did we?"

...

...

*bzzzzt*

"Ouch!" Bow yelped, pulling back his hand from the electrical barrier.

"Are you okay?" Glimmer asked worriedly, inspecting his slightly burnt hand.

The archer shook it against the cool air for a minute as he rubbed it. "Yeah, I'm fine, but it's no good. Every corner of this barrier is covered. I couldn't imagine opening this thing on my own!" Looking back on it, this must've been the mother of all ambushes.

They had no plan, and they still charged in. They expected things to get pretty dicey, one way or another, and they knew that Catra could easily pull her out of it. With the barrier going on around here, he was sure they still would've found a way out of this situation. Even with Adora around here, he was convinced the Princess Alliance would've been able to push through anything she threw at them, and that everything would be alright.

What he didn't count on was one of their own being a part of this.

With the barrier keeping everyone in and out, there was no way to tell how the situation was going on the other end, nor could they support each other. Glimmer's magic proved useless to teleport through the electrical wall, and without any tools on hand, there was no way he could figure out how to disable the barrier from the inside, provided he could to begin with!

The only bit he was sure of was that the orb thing, the device that generated the entire barrier, was the key to all of this. As soon as he or someone managed to take it down, he was positive that the barrier would come down with it. Easy, right? Unfortunately, no, because like the situation keeping the two teams separated, there was no way he could fire at the thing from the inside. Atop the massive tower, outside of his range, he couldn't get anything close to an accurate shot. The structures surrounding it blocked his way, and he barely had any more than a dozen arrows on hand.

To add to the stress of their situation, all throughout this, they were being chased constantly by Scorpia and a handful of guards. Getting cornered on at least several occasions, with the guards rushing them on both sides and the courtyard being occupied by Catra and Adora, Glimmer had no choice other than to teleport out of harms way, reappearing at least half a mile away on the other end of the fortress, and doing this at least twice. They couldn't risk themselves being captured, not when it would mean forcing Catra to lay down her arms, or vice versa.

"Well there has to be something!" Noticing it from around the corner, she quickly caught the archer's attention as she gestured down the wall, showing the guards that were heading right for them. Nodding back to her, the two quickly sped off in the opposite direction, hoping to stall the possible capture for as long as possible. "Maybe we could break it open or something? I mean, they had to have some way of getting out of it themselves, right?"

"By my guess, the thing is on a timer if they don't take it down themselves, but at this rate, we're not going to last long enough to find out." Looking up ahead, he felt his luck changing as an idea formed in his mind. "But we might have a way to make our own opening." Following his gaze, she understood immediately as the two came upon one of the mounted turrets up ahead.

Thankfully, it wasn't destroyed when the barrier came down, finding it rather fortunate the electrical field didn't do anything that could've sliced the canon apart in one go. Their hopes that things would prove smoothly from here stopped just as quickly as Bow grabbed the handles to the turret. Pulling with all of his strength in an attempt to get it to turn, pushing it forward, having Glimmer help him with it, nothing allowed the massive gun to turn in any direction.

"Ngghhh... Why... isn't... it... turning!?" Glimmer grunted, pushing with every muscle in her body.

"Mmmhhh... ugh..." Almost sliding off his feet as he surrendered, Bow wiped the small pool of sweat dripping from his head. "The barrier must've gone around anything solid when it landed. It's locked into place because their's basically a wall in every direction of it!" It almost made him wonder if the barrier actually phased through the barrel of the turret and locked it into place.

"So we can't use it at all?" What were they supposed to do? Play cat-and-mouse all day with Scorpia and the rest of the guards until someone got them through the barrier? If they couldn't get past the barrier or find some way to disable it, it was the only choice they had if they wanted to avoid capture. Between the girl with the poisonous, paralyzing, stinger and the dozen or so soldiers with her, there was little else they could do that didn't get in Catra's way or expose themselves to Adora while they fought.

"Probably not unless you pulled the turret out yourself, and that's provided it could be pulled out." Looking around, his worries intensified as he saw the surrounding turrets that had yet to be destroyed. Just like the current one, each and every one of them were under the blue curtain containing the Princess Alliance and Horde under one roof. "And none of the other turrets are any better. They're all stuck, too."

"Not all of them." Rubbing his shoulder, she directed him to the tower itself. Up upon the next floor of the tower, Bow had almost forgotten that there was another floor's worth of turrets mounted from the tower itself. It didn't matter if one of the turrets were destroyed, all they would need is one, hopefully, to get a hole torn through the veil. Nodding to each other, the princess teleported the two of them to the closest turret on the second floor, just before the Horde could get to them again.

Reappearing on the next layer, placing plenty of distance between the turret and the Horde's arrival through the bridge, the princess and the archer reached the turret within a matter of seconds, Bow grinning as he quickly got the turret set up while he saw Glimmer panting behind him, leaning on the turret's chair. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah... Huff... I'm fine." She replied, wiping her head. "I probably got three, four teleports left in me."

"Hmhm, doubt we'll need it after this." Smiling, he took aim to the barrier surrounding them, thumbs twitching as they hovered against the triggers. "Fingers crossed!" Without another word, the archer blasted a single shot of the powerful turret at the barrier's blue wall, the blast creating a small shockwave-like effect as the barrier waved outward from the blast. There was a definite reaction to the shot, and firing again, he confirmed what he already knew would happen.

Within a few seconds, the archer watched as a small hole began to form around the barrier, slowly disintegrating in an orange wave of energy that spread around the initial shot. Holding off on the brief firing, his face brightened greatly as he saw the size of the hole the blast left behind. It was big enough for a fully grown human to fit through, and that was just after the first blast! With enough shots, he was positive he could rip this current like a regular piece of fabric in no time!

"All right, it worked!" He cheered successfully, pumping his fist. The same level of optimism being shared by Glimmer slowly faded as the princess leaned closer ahead of him.

"Bow!" She yelled worriedly, pointing to the event that was going to crush his hope as it did hers. Looking through the small scope-like bullseye of the massive weapon, he was about to see why.

No sooner did he puncture a hole within the electrical wall did it slowly begin to repair itself. In merely five seconds since the archer struck the barrier, it began to repair itself just as quickly as it was damaged. A faint blue light glowed around the opening as it slowly shrunk into itself, eventually becoming good as new, as if it had never been damaged in the first place. Bow groaned in dismay at this as his arms fell to his side, seeing how much of his work went down the drain as quickly as it started.

"Aww come on!" There wasn't any chance of them getting through the barrier like this. Even if he made it big enough for Glimmer to teleport through, there was no guarantee she would make it in time before it closed, at least not with such a small opening to begin with. On top of that, they had no means of blasting away the barrier enough with firepower with one measly turret at the ready, the other ones being on opposing sides of this one. That was when he continued to notice something off about the Horde who were halfway across the bridge. "Hey, where'd Scorpia go?"

"Right here!"

"Ahhhhh!" Glimmer cried out in fear as she was suddenly tackled off the ledge by the grinning Scorpia.

"Glimmer!"

The princess of the Black Garnet smiled down to the princess as she held onto her arms tightly, grinning victoriously as the two of them fell closer to the bridge as the Horde neared them. "So, how many teleports do you have left, your highness?" She teased. Looking back over her shoulder, the tackled princess grumbled as she pulled back fist.

"Enough for this!" With a powerful strike, she managed to punch Scorpia's face hard enough to break her grasp on the princess in peril, using what little time she had left to teleport back to the top of the ledge where Bow was waiting, helping to catch her as she nearly fell to her knees from exhaustion. On the other end, Scorpia had just enough time to rub her face clear from the shock of the punch to see the dozens of Horde soldiers appearing right under her before she crashed.

*THUD!*

"Ow..." She was glad the people below her were willing enough to break her fall as she got up again, smiling to them as she pulled herself off the ground. "Thanks for the catch, guys." None of the other soldiers gave her a response other than their own personal moans and groans, half of them incapable of getting up as the others rubbed their backs and legs in agony.

Back on the top, Glimmer continued to moan as she straightened herself out, getting back to her feet as Bow threw her left arm over his shoulder for support. "Make that two teleports left."

"Mmmmh come on." He helped her as much as he could as the two ran back into the tower, hastening their retreat as Glimmer became weaker with each passing teleport.

Time was running out for the two of them, which would end up being three if they were used as leverage as they feared. He refused to let the Horde get their hands on his friend as he contemplated their remaining options. At this point, it was coming down to either waiting for the barrier to come down on its own, fight off the Horde long enough in the hopes of victory, which included Adora in the process, or hope for some other miracle to come save them at the last moment.

And with all the day has been giving them until now, the latter seemed very implausible...

...

...

"You never told me what it was you did to her!" This was Catra's only chance to get the answers she needed out of her. She had to figure out what she had done to Frosta, what sort of threat she had over her that would make her turn on them.

"What I did to her?" Adora poked her chin playfully. "Hmm, let's see... I was an impressive guest at her party, I've been nothing but nice to her like a real friend should, I actually care about her unlike you and the rest of the Princess Alliance who wants to use her... Hmph, I can't think of anything beyond that, sadly." Catra didn't give her any verbal response to that other than a low-tone growl, lunging straight for the girl as she transformed the sword into a two-handed chain and sickle. With a jump to the air, the magical growled as she threw the ball 'n chain straight at he girl, Adora doing nothing to block the attack as she casually raised her arm, letting the small ball wrap around it with ease. "Maybe that's why she told me about your little weakness."

"W... Weakness?" For a moment, Catra was actually confused by what she meant. She never really considered her own weakness up to this point, other than the lack of She-Ra power she had, but... Oh no.

During her momentary confusion, grinning, Adora easily clutched the chain still attached to the She-Ra's weapon, giving it a good jerk as the wave-like motion resulted in wrapping around both of Catra's wrists. Blinking out of her stupor at the last moment, Catra was powerless to stop as Adora forcefully yanked the princess right out of the air, and slammed her into the ground where she left a small crater. It didn't do anything to deter Catra's status, but as she noticed the small twitches in her fingertips and toes, Adora knew she was on the right track.

"You know, among other things. She had just a fun time telling me about each and every one of you, including the Rebellion." Continuing to gloat, the girl casually made her way over to Catra as Catra charged at her again. "Like how Glimmer had a limited number of teleports," she went on, dodging casually to the right, "how useless that Bow guy is without his tech," it just took two mere fingers to block the strike coming from the right, "and how the other princesses would much rather abandon you than risk their own kingdoms. I can't imagine what you could've said to set them off so much."

Of course, Catra knew exactly what she was referring to, the day still scorched into her memory for the last month. The day they went off to rescue Glimmer and Bow, when they thought Entrapta had died when she was really left behind, and the way Catra took her frustrations out on the rest of them, blaming the princesses for Entrapta's death. She didn't need any reminder of the tragic detail, and the fact Adora brought it up of all people made her think of only two words in response. "Shut up!"

Nerves intensifying along her limbs, the warrior transformed the sword into a two-handed great axe, slamming it down with as much force as her current state could give her, forcing Adora to block it with as much power as she had within her shadows as she covered her head with both arms. She did have to admit, she was a little surprised as she felt her feet sink into the ground below her, and feeling the axe cutting deeper into her shadow than previously. While it was to be expected, she knew the risk was well worth the cost if it meant exposing Catra's weakness.

Herself.

"Aww, what's wrong? Did I hit those feelings you pretend to have? You can drop the act Catra, it's just the two of us, you know." Noticing the pressure increasing on her, she quickly rolled backwards as she threw Catra over herself with her own weight. She expected Catra to easily catch herself from the fall, with her only intention of freeing the weight off herself as she looked back. "It's not like you actually care about those princesses anyway, it's not like they like you any better."

"Stop it!" Shouting angrily, she formed two bladed gauntlets over both her arms before lunging straight for the girl at full speed. With her opening deeply exposed to her, Adora easily managed to counter her as she ducked under her, catching the magical by surprise as she kicked her harshly in the stomach and sending her flying. She didn't get anywhere past twenty feet in the air before Adora wrapped a shadowy tentacle around her waist, slamming her straight into the ground ahead of her. The cat was too distraught over this rush of emotions and anger flowing into her mind that she couldn't bring herself to prepare for the blow, bracing for the impact as she landed back into the same crater Adora crashed her into earlier.

Dust scattered around the girl a she got up to her knees from this, her body shaking with unease as she tried to maintain her own emotional state. It was enough to bring a smile of satisfaction to the Force Captain as she lowered her guard, walking her way over to the girl without a care in the world. "What's wrong, Catra? Feel something in that heart you claim to have?"

"I'm not listening..." She growled. She couldn't do anything else except cover her ears with her own two claws, squeezing her eyes shut to ignore everything around her. She was not listening to this, she refused to! She knew exactly what she was trying to do and knew every reason why she couldn't let her get to her. It was a battle between what she knew was going on, and a struggle within her chest feeling what was going on. And she was losing.

"That's called pain, Catra. Cold, harsh pain." This is it. This is what she wanted her to feel. "It feels like someone pulling your heart down into an infinite abyss, beating rapidly against a stream that keeps pushing back. Trust me, Catra, it doesn't go away. And I should know, it's how you've made me feel for the last month. And you wanna know the worst part about it, Catra? It doesn't go away. No matter how much you beg or wish to yourself it does, it never goes away." Her expression softened a little as she looked at her own shadowy hands, muttering softly, "All you can do is force yourself through the pain for the sake of others. You don't have a choice."

"I said shut up!" Catra refused to believe a single word from her about Frosta. She refused to believe it, she couldn't believe it! If she was right about that, what else did she lie about? Did the other princesses truly keep her around just because she was useful? Treat her kindly just to get them through the mission? She knew it had to be a lie, it just had too. Yet, no matter what absurd drivel came from Adora's mouth, she had yet to lie about a single thing.

Looming over the girl now, Adora grinned. "Tell me Catra, what hurts worst right now?" She asked, squatting closer to her ears. Catra's heart rate intensified with each passing second, every word that came from her. She kept yelling to herself, like a mantra, to ignore everything spewing from her mouth, to push away any and all thoughts running through her head. But no matter how far she tried to push away from the girl's words, Adora continued to dig deeper.

"Is it the fact someone you thought you knew turned out to be a traitor? Is it the reality that she's been working for us the whole time, or maybe the fact you're now feeling what I've been feeling for so long?" Sneering, she leaned in closer to Catra's ears, delving into the deepest reaches of Catra's heart as she pulled out the most painful of truths. "Or is it the fact that deep down inside, you actually thought she wanted to be your friend~?"

Catra blinked.

There are lines that are drawn and lines that shouldn't be crossed. Adora just drew the line with a pole and vaulted over it at the same time. She reached deep within Catra's heart and grabbed the bait tightly with her bite. The only mistake she made was never realizing what mistake she made until after it was too late.

She didn't let go fast enough.

"AaaaaahhhhHHHHHH!"

*WHAM!*

In a mad fury, pupils glowing with absolute anger, Catra morphed a massive gauntlet with her sword, and just as quickly smashed Adora into the air with the back of her hand. Adora was completely caught off guard by the speed and power of the strike as she felt like she was hit with the power of a fully loaded train with the speed of sound mixed together, coughing out a gasp of air that would have seemed like sweet relief with the onslaught that was about to follow.

With what little breath she inhaled, she felt her lungs vacating it immediately as she felt a strong lasso wrapping around her stomach, squeezing tightly as she was jerked out of the air again just as quickly as she was sent flying. She couldn't even register which direction she was being pulled too as Catra yanked the girl back to herself, reeling the girl back to her with massive speed as she reformed the weapon again into something she desperately needed to smack Adora with, something she needed to make sure she felt when she came back down.

A Sledgehammer.

*CRAG!*

Adora swore her eyes nearly popped into her head as her stomach took the impact of her attack at full force, shooting the Force Captain straight through the pillar of the northern bridge without any sign of slowing down in the slightest. The attack was brutal enough as she practically felt the armor-like skin around her shatter upon impact, the shadows dissipating into thin air as the concentration left her clarity and the magic left her veins. She was forced to stop herself from flying past any farther as she dug what remained of her shadows into the ground, stopping the ensuing crash from getting any worse as she left a trail nearly forty feet in length ahead of her until she finally came to a stop.

Whereas her assault, didn't.

*CLAK!*

"Ah!" Adora yelped in main as she felt something strike the side of her face. She lost track of the strange attack and Catra as they both left her view, with the former just as quickly reentering it within seconds.

*CLAK!*

"Agh!" She winced deeply in pain as it collided against her right knee that time, forcing her down to one foot as she grasped her right knee in pain. It was the only chance she had to see the attack coming at all, revealing it to be a golden boomerang, one that flew back into the air where Adora found Catra falling from again. With the boomerang returned to her, the magicat returned it to its original form as she fell from the sky, intending to slam the sword straight into the one who had enraged her so much.

Adora had little option left as she was forced to raise her defense as much as possible. With all the shadows she could possibly gather within the last few seconds, she barely managed to block the blade from reaching her as she formed a small dome around herself, pupils shrinking in terror as she sword penetrated through the barrier, stopping just inches away from her face before the sword reached her. She had a small sigh at the sight of its timely halt, taking the moment to recuperate as much as she could have the given moment of peace.

A false peace, at that.

*zzzt*

Within the tranquil darkness, Adora's eyes opened again. From the very tip of the sword, they widened as she saw energy being drawn through the blade, an energy she had seen only once before in her previous fight with Catra. She knew what the attack was capable of, having witnessed the power before on a fully mechanized tank. That tank was refined to take multiple blasts from others before anything could penetrate its armor. Even though she only had a portion of She-Ra's power, she was still about to take the brunt of it at point blank range, with no means to defend herself as the sword already pierced through her shadows.

She was about to be blasted by Catra's magic.

*SPZZZZZZZZZZZT!*

*CRASH!*

There was nothing she could do, she was helpless. With a burst of power, the sword blasted her with as much force as Catra could muster, blasting the Force Captain off her feet and sending her flying against the ground. In less than three seconds, she traversed from the northeastern courtyard of the base, all the way to the wall on the opposite side of the courtyard to the west. Any semblance of peace at this rate was nothing short of a lie as Adora collapsed to the ground.

Pain. She felt nothing but absolute pain right now as she struggled to move her arms and legs until she was up on her hunches. Her body had been attacked ferociously by Catra's assault, one that came to her much stronger than she ever anticipated. Catra's rage fueled every attack while maintaining perfect accuracy and foresight in every strike. It was like she was a completely different person as Adora feebly rose to her knees. She could barely handle the pain emanating from her chest without bursting into tears of pain, biting down on her own teeth as heart as she could as she examined her own chest.

Dead center, right in the middle of her chest, she saw a burn mark the size of her fist. Catra's magic had actually penetrated through her shadows in its entirety, and left a searing burn mark upon her, where her heart should be. It still wasn't enough, not enough to make her admit this hurt worse than the pain Catra inflicted upon her emotionally. That pain was what fueled her, drove her to continue on her missions and push herself to her limits as much as she could.

But, she had to admit, it was pretty close.

And it showed no signs of ending as Catra was already rushing her again, sword at the ready as she dashed to her in a burst of speed.

The magicat could barely register what she was doing to her old friend, and right now, she didn't care. Rage, anger, fury. She felt all of these emotions raging on inside of her, and she didn't care. Adora, this Adora, had nerve. The nerve to push Catra to her limits without breaking them, the nerve to continue pushing past them no matter how many times she begged her to stop, and the nerve to tell her the words she never wanted to hear, or believe.

Well, Adora got what she wanted. She convinced Catra of everything she tried to deny for herself. Frosta was a traitor. A cruel, manipulative, traitor. She didn't care about anything related to the girl. Whether she was still technically a child, or a full grown princess, she just didn't care. She hated her. She hated her for manipulating her like that, all of them like that, but the more she thought of it, she was also thankful for it. It reminded her of all the reasons she didn't grow attachments to anything, the reason she didn't care about making friends like Glimmer and Bow had always encouraged her to do. She betrayed all of them, and she was no better than the rest of the Horde.

She didn't care about her anymore. She didn't care about getting to know any of the princesses anymore. And for now, she didn't care what her emotions ended up doing to Adora. All she knew as she raised her sword, jumping for the girl with all her strength, was that she wanted her to PAY!

And all Adora knew was that she could only defend herself with what remained of her powers, covering her arms with as much darkness as she could gather, and prepared for the worst as the sword came on top of her.

*cling*

"Hngh?" Catra's squeak brought Adora to raise her head again as she continued to wait for the strike. To her surprise, the strike had already come to her, and she didn't even feel it. Looking back, she saw the sword pitifully pressing on her shadows as if it was nothing. Come to think of it, it looked feeble enough that Adora could block it with her own two arms without magic! And looking back at the attacker, she soon came to see why.

Catra. Her She-Ra state. It was shattering. All throughout the fight, without Catra to realize it, she was losing portions of her She-Ra state as her emotions flourished with rage. Every attack that Catra had landed against the girl came with a portion of her disappearing. Every bout of anger, every strike that held nothing but contempt within it, every hit she launched on the girl came with a fraction of her power disappearing along with it. From her hair, to her pants, to everything she acquired in order, it disappeared in the same order as they appeared. Neither of the two girls realized it until this moment, with Adora being assaulted and Catra committing the assault. Needless to say, their reactions to this varied deeply in response.

From Catra's end, she was beyond shocked. All that anger and rage she had boiling inside of her, she couldn't control it. She couldn't control the acts that allowed her to slam down on Adora with all of her force. Not to say she entirely minded it, but she didn't want to go out to the point of nearly killing her as a result. She felt just like Adora did the day they battled in Salineas, except she was more surprised than disturbed by the portions of her power that were disappearing, and the fact she didn't realize it until it was too late. All she had left was the basic of her outfit, her white vest that covered down to her thighs.

And, with a shimmer, those too eventually disappeared.

*Shiiiiiiim*

"Ah!" She was back. Catra was back to her old self again, Horde outfit and all. Same clothes she wore day in and day out, same hair color she was born with since day one, same everything. Except now, she didn't have the sword's power at her beck and call. And the amount of energy she wasted finally started to catch up to her as she began to breathe heavily, feeling a wave of total exhaustion overcoming her as she continued to gaze at her hands in absolute terror.

Adora, on the other hand, began to grin.

The results were definitely different from what she expected. She didn't expect Catra to berserk like that, she didn't think the girl would wash away the energy while pummeling her at the same time, or leaving the burning sear on her chest that reminded her of her near-fatal accident. With Catra's moment of glory finally coming to pass, she grew smug again as she slowly got to her feet, feeling the shadows replenishing her with energy, and relishing the freshness of it returning to her body.

Her plan had succeeded. Catra let her emotions run her wild, and now, She-Ra's power had left her. It didn't matter to her if it wasn't a permanent ordeal. All she cared about was that she no longer had it for the time being, and she didn't plan on letting her bring it back anytime soon.

Neither of them could believe what had happened, and neither of them knew how to react to the situation. All they knew was how to react afterwards.

"So, Catra," hesitating to breathe, the warrior turned around to see the shadows already beginning to reform around her arms, "ready for Round 2?"

...

...

*ssszzzhhh*

The ground soaked in the waters of Mermista's water as she shot a geyser's worth of water at the young princess with nearly all her might. The longer the fight seemed to persist, the more she was forced to fight at her full capacity. Going so far as to blast the young girl several times with torrets of water, only for Frosta to shake them off with ease, or, in cases such as this, freeze the torrent immediately as soon as her hands made impact with the gush.

This is the disadvantage Mermista found throughout this fight with her. The flames that surrounded the camp from the attacking droids that Perfuma was dealing with, the soldiers that the Rebellion's support were fighting against, did nothing against Frosta's chilling aura. All the ice she made throughout the fight might as well have been made of stone, refusing to melt no matter how long the battle lasted.

The only time she managed to be rid of the dangerous chill was when she destroyed the icy environment with her sheer strength, cracking the ice apart with her trident, and occasionally tossing the nearest droid into one of her frozen sculptors she traversed. And even when they did, she just created another icy path to traverse through the battlefield, assisting the Horde with whatever Rebellion soldiers she could as she froze the weapons of the Rebellion or knocked people off their feet with ease.

What were they supposed to do at a time like this? They knew every second they wasted, something bad could be happening on the other side of the chasm, another part of Adora's plan possibly coming to fruition. And with every attack launched at one another, the more Perfuma and Mermista found themselves torn between coming to an understanding, or fighting to save their lives.

With the blast of water frozen before her, the Princess of Salineas quickly hopped atop her newly-formed frozen pathway before charging straight at the young princess, trident in hand. With the following second spent shattering the frozen pillar she had formed, Frosta found little time to defend against Mermista's sudden charge as she struck the trident right above her right shoulder, pinning her to the ground from the coat without hitting her.

"Would you stop this already!?" Mermista yelled as Frosta struggled to break free of the trident's grip. "Look around here, Frosta!" With the princess yelling in her face, Frosta was forced to turn her head, opening her eyes as she saw the flames erupting from the camp and the few Rebellion soldiers that continued fighting against the baton-equipped Horde. "Do you seriously want to be a part of this? A part of the Horde?"

"Hnnngh!" With a loud grumble, the young princess formed an impressive-sized mallet out of solid ice around her left hand, smacking the princess against her side a short distance away as she jumped back into a battle stance. "How is it any different than the Rebellion? They attack Horde outposts and occupied towns too, and that makes them the good guys?!"

Seeing the older princess charging at her again, Frosta blasted a coat of ice against the ground, leading up several yards to and past Mermista as the older princess began to lose her balance against the solid coating. "Because we're not the one taking over those towns to begin with!" Reacting quickly, seeing little alternative in the matter, Mermista scraped her trident against the ground to position herself as she slid, and delivered a quick kick to the younger princess's side as she went past her.

The young Frosta went tumbling away a little as she formed two solid fists of ice against her hands, using her own leverage to break her travel like Mermista had as she slid backwards. That was when she noticed Perfuma over to the left, the princess having turned to her after flinging away another of the hapless Horde soldiers that tried to come near her. Unlike Mermista, she didn't look at her with any sort of anger or frustration. All she had was a look of worry as she raised a hand to her direction.

"Please,Frosta, I don't want to fight you!" She begged.

"...Mmmh..." Shaking her head, the young princess charged back towards the other blue-figured princess with both her hands still covered in ice. Perfuma had never found herself in such a distraught state of being, nor one where she could tell whose side she should be assisting here. All she knew was that Frosta ignored her directly as she continued her battle with Mermista.

The two clashed their powers again as Mermista attempted to douse the younger princess from atop with a cool stream of her raging waters. She knew that the moment she managed to douse Frosta, even once, that the fight would turn in her favor. With Frosta's specialty over ice, her spells would just as likely freeze to her soaked self along with whatever she aimed for, and that would throw her off.

Of course, getting the young princess was proving harder than it proved as Frosta managed to counter nearly everything she did. Like the previous attempts to strike the princess, Frosta easily managed to freeze the overhead wave of water with the chill of her frozen tundra, freezing the wave and allowing it to drop ahead of her that she could easily jump on top of.

Mermista still refused to let the princess's countering magic get to her as she summoned another stream of water to hit the princess from the side, using whatever moisture she could from the ice that continued to melt slowly around them. With a mighty yell, the princess attacked the princess from her right, actually managing to strike her for a change as she knocked her off the pillar and over to the nearby boulder. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to get the princess directly as Frosta quickly formed a small wall of ice with her hands, barely managing to avoid the direct contact with water, but not enough to push against it.

With her back pressed against the wall, she was forced to wait until the cooling waters subsided and Mermista stopped attacking her. That brief moment of opportunity came to her as the water ended, resulting in Mermista leaping into the air with the trident in hand, attempting to pin the girl again to the boulder.

This time, Frosta was ready for her. Blasting at the ground as soon as she could, she pushed off from the boulder with one foot as she shot herself forward away from the large obstruction and the person who almost pinned her to it just a second ago, getting the trident stuck within the rock in the process. That momentary distraction of trying to dislodge the trident was all Frosta needed.

With as much power as she could muster, she shot a torrent of icy frost at the water girl, Mermista barely having enough time to turn around as she was suddenly pressed against the rock instead. She was helpless to push back against the frigid cold as her body started to become encased in the ice, freezing her from the neck down as a wall of ice froze her to the boulder's surface. By the time Frosta let up. only Mermista's hands and head were left unfrozen, leaving the princess to struggle in her attempts to break free.

Their battle was officially over. If she wanted to at any moment, Frosta could finish Mermista off before the defenseless princess could free herself. But, luckily for her, Frosta was less interested in taking anyone down permanently than she was in taking them prisoner, just as Adora promised if it could be helped.

"You know it didn't have to be like this, right?" Frosta spat, raising a hand to the princess as she prepared her magic, just in case. "You could've joined the Horde too, you know. Then we wouldn't be fighting like this!"

"Uh, yeah, because their leader and their boss is totally the understanding type, right?" She grunted, struggling in vain to free herself of her icy captivity. "I'm sure Adora told you pleeeenty of nice things the Horde were going to do, right? Like, maybe she has a wonderful idea for a flowerbed right next to the village she burnt down?"

"She's not like that!" Why was Mermista making this any harder than it had to? The Horde may have been off, but she's seen the decency and kindness in some of them, especially Adora of all people! "She actually cares a lot more about people than you think!"

"Oh, right, because when I look at all the wonderful fire around here, the first thing that comes to mind is thinking of how much Adora cares about people."

"Shut up!" The younger princess yelped, gathering a ball of freezing winds within her hands, preparing to strike again if she had to. It didn't matter what she said up to this point. The Horde wasn't like that, they couldn't be like that! In any sort of war, each side was considered the enemy to one another, and violence would constantly ensue no matter which side you were on. Why would it make a difference anyway if both sides fought each other in the long run?!

Just as she was prepared to freeze Mermista's mouth shut, however, she came to a stop as a lone princess stood in front of her encased friend; Perfuma, Princess of Plumeria. With her magic at her side, she grew a wall of thick vines on both sides of her, ones that stretched up to her shoulders as she blocked Frosta's path.

She didn't know whose side to go with here, but at the very least, she refused to let the violence escalate any further. She wouldn't allow Frosta to harm her friend anymore than this, even if it meant things had to end violently. Whether it was to defend Mermista from Frosta or the other way around, she couldn't just sit back dealing with the few remaining Horde soldiers that haven't retreated.

"...Get out of the way, Perfuma." Frosta ordered sternly, never lowering her hand, preparing for anything. Perfuma just continued to stare at her as the vines remained at her side.

"I'm not going to let you hurt my friend, Frosta." She stated. "You shouldn't be fighting with us, none of us should be fighting each other!"

"I heard that the first time, now get out of the way!" Wasting no more time, the princess shot a threatening burst of her coldness to the princess, one who easily managed to block it with a solid wall of vines. Frosta was actually surprised at how easily the princess managed to defend herself, even more after she returned the vines to the earth below. "I'm warning you to get out of the way, Perfuma!" She repeated. "If neither of you are joining the Horde, then I'm taking you prisoner. That's it."

"Frosta..." Could this truly be the same princess she remembered from before? The one who was celebrated at the Princess Prom, the one who fought at their side at the Battle of Bright Moon, the one who helped defend the Whispering Woods for over a month.

The one she still considered her friend.

"Perfuma, we don't have a choice." Mermista muttered from behind. "She's made her choice, and she doesn't plan on changing it. You have to fight her."

That didn't make it any easier for her. How was she supposed to harm her? She knew what Frosta was, who she was on the inside. For a young girl, any innocent girl like this, to be fighting against their own friends, it had to be a matter of true importance. Something she needed, something she wanted. She wasn't just a member of the Princess Alliance, she was also a beloved friend of the Rebellion, an ally everyone trusted before.

And that's when she remembered the most important detail: She was a princess.

"...Hm." It was the last thing either, Mermista or Frosta, expected, the last thing on Etheria. She may have had an advantage defending against Frosta's cold with her own magic unlike Perfuma, but she didn't bother with it. With a single wave of her hand and a small, tearful smile, the others watched as the walls defending her and Mermista sunk back into the ground.

"Huh?"

"Perfuma, what are you doing?!" Was she seriously this insane? Was Mermista going insane? It had to be one of those two options because for Perfuma to drop her guard when the younger princess could freeze faster than she could grow, there was no way she could defend herself again if Frosta attacked from up close.

"...I forgive you." She smiled, causing Frosta to flinch. She might not have known what else Adora manipulated about her, and she knew trying to talk sense into her wasn't the issue. What she came to, was an understanding.

She finally understood why Frosta was doing this...

...

...

...

A/N: And another chapter completed ^^

Hoping to reach the conclusion by tomorrow or the next day, cause then we move on to everyone's other favorite episode since it has drunk adora ^^! As before, Im leaving the choice between a cat-catra or drunk catra up to you folks. I can work around it either way, i just cant decide what you guys want first, so I'll leave that up to you ^^

With that all said, hope you all enjoyed! Leave a like, fave, follow, and review if you enjoyed, and get ready for some slight feels and discord by the end of the next chapter (if i fin it then).