A/N: Final Word Count (holy crap) 28.5K Pre-A/N's!
Hey gang! Do you like emotional turmoil and mood shifts?
Audience: No!
Do you like seeing things go from bad to worse for our two opposing sides?
Audience: NO!
Do you like to see sadness all over the place despite a possibly happy scenario?!
One guy: I do!
*BANG*
Audience: No!
Great! I'll take that one yes as everyone's!
Audience: Awwwwwwwwww!
Lol, how's it going guys? Hooftah, what a chapter! This was honestly as big as my season 1 finale- in fact, it might actually have been bigger because despite all the words used in that last one, a fourth of them were admittedly flashbacks/scenes previously used which I copy and pasted, hence this is actually the largest chapter I'd written in comparison :P!
With that, a few notes to, well, note. 1, might've forgotten one or two things here and there since it was overall large. A rather fitting episode to have such a climactic battle given everything I had to work with. Because of that, one or two things might've been skimped on, so if you notice a scene suddenly jumping to another one (or the possibility I reposted two scenes by accident since I had to make multiple compose-messages to write out the finale since it was so large it started making things slow), be sure to let me know.
2ndly, I apologize for the delay- probably could've had this done yesterday with enough time, but was hanging out with friend for several hours and was about 4 when I got home- on school nights i usually fall asleep by 8-9 since i gotta get up at like 4 in the morning for school (with that in mind, various possible typos and whatnot since mornings are always groggy).
But regardless, I still look forward to the feedback this episode. I hope you guys all enjoy this wonderfully large chapter with its action and characters and whatnot, and, hopefully, be satisfied by the time it concludes.
With that all said, enjoy!
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"You... forgive me?" Frosta repeated in a questionable tone. This day had gone from bad, to worse, to confusing, a rather strange order given the turn of events. With the craziness the day had brought, none of the Princess Alliance members thought things could get as hectic as they did here.
After an annoying planning session that took several hours for everyone to get through, they were all finally prepared to assault the Horde fortress that they had spent several days preparing for, a tower that was strong enough to control all entry and paths into the region, and one of the strongest fortresses that the Horde had domain over. With everyone at their ready, and Catra obtaining another portion of She-Ra's power, everyone thought things would go smoothly, no matter how crazy the mission got.
It only took a single minute for everything to turn upside down in an instant, and all because the Horde had something the Rebellion didn't have.
Frosta.
For the last several weeks, Frosta had been working with the Horde, exchanging resources for technology, as she acted as a mole within the Rebellion, and the Princess Alliance itself. She kept them informed of all their plans, strategies, and resources at all time, helping them stay ahead of the Rebellion no matter how far along the Rebellion came. She divulged information on their missions, tech, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the very princesses themselves.
What's worse, she was the key to pulling off their own secret mission, an ambush that the Princess Alliance would never anticipate. With the pat of a small orb, the princess managed to erect a barrier with one of Entrapta's gadgets, just after separating Perfuma and Mermista from the rest of the group who now lied under an electrical barrier, with no way in, or out. It kept the princesses separated and more vulnerable, just the way Adora had planned for it.
And now, she was out here fighting. Fighting against the Rebellion, fighting against whatever supporters were running around here as they fended off the Horde, and fighting against the princesses she became friends with.
Of course, there was an essence of guilt within her mind. Who wouldn't be torn between following orders when it came to harming their own friends in the process, or the ones she could consider friends? The Princess Alliance composed of the most random and zany of people Frosta's ever met, yet it was their playfulness and strange antics that she enjoyed. They seemed like fun people, funny people too. And now she had to fight against them in an attempt to capture them, a plan that came from Adora, who seemed to be one of the few decent people within the Horde!
Adora wasn't like the other people of the Fright Zone. She was kind, and had an innocence about her. She definitely cared about the people she fought for, and considered them something precious like she did. She showed Frosta the cruelties of this war, about how both sides were practically the same, Rebellion or Horde. How was she supposed to say no to someone like that?
The battle itself with the two princess was just as daunting as the ambush they were trying to fell at the same time. On a brighter side, for the most part, her battle was mainly fought against Mermista, the princess who was angrily yelling at her constantly about how terrible the side was, doing nothing to convince her. During this, Perfuma found herself preoccupied with repelling the Horde ambushers and keeping the soldiers safe from the soldiers and droids alike. Even if she wanted to, she refused to fight a fellow friend like Frosta.
Escalating through the destruction of the encampment, the battle eventually came to a brief end as Frosta finally managed to trap Mermista, pinning her to a large boulder in a block of ice that only left her hands and her head exposed. That was when Perfuma took her own stand, standing between the two of them before anymore violence could take place.
At first, neither, Frosta or Mermista, knew how this was going to play out. Frosta was prepared to continue fighting against her friends if it meant capturing them, provided they refused to join the Horde with her. For the most part, she expected some form of resistance. The blockade of large vines she sprouted from the ground along her sides was a good indication of how this was going to go, how determined Perfuma would've been to fight back against her former friend. But after a few seconds of starring down at one another, she did something nobody could predict.
She lowered her arms, her magic, and gave a teary-eyed smile to the girl as she said those three words.
"What do you mean you forgive me?" Frosta brought up her hand again, keeping a cold hold over the magic she was gathering.
"It's like I said, I forgive you." She repeated, still giving the young princess a sincere smile.
"Uh, Perfuma? Now is really not the time for one of your harmony sessions here." She grumbled as she continued to struggle against the icy restraints. Seriously, Mermista didn't have a clue as to what she was getting at, and she didn't want her to get at anything! Frosta was fighting with the Horde, and that meant she was dangerous.
"For..." The queen of cold shook her head as she aimed her magic. "I don't want your forgiveness!" With the flick of her wrist, the smaller of the two immediately blasted a cold wave against the defenseless princess.
Instead of trying to defend herself with her own magic, a wall of roots, or any kind of defense, Perfuma blocked the attack with her own arms, taking on the small chill with barely a thought or concern as a few shivers of ice formed around both her arms. They were barely any bigger than one's finger, with only three appearing on her left arm, and two along her right. All of them didn't last any longer than four seconds before melting away from the extreme heat.
At this, Perfuma just smiled as she lowered her arms to her face, the attack assuring her of what she already knew.
"W-What are you doing? Fight back!" She yelled, throwing another blast of cold over her. It was evidently diminished compared to the first one, with barely an icicle forming over the queen of nature. Frosta's expression hardened at this as she repeated the same sequence for a third time, without being able to create a single icicle over her. It was so weak in comparison that Perfuma didn't even need to shield herself.
"Why? Because it would be easier, then?" Perfuma asked, stepping closer. "Because it would be easier to betray us if you had a reason?"
"Stop it!" Using both her hands this time, the princess blasted Perfuma with a stronger gust of cold, pushing the princess back a foot from the force of wind and the ice beneath her. Despite this, the princess just continued to walk closer.
"I already get it, Frosta, and it's okay." By this point, Perfuma was in front of the increasingly-anxious princess of snows, the younger girl trying to do everything in her power to find a reason to hit harder. "You miss them, don't you?" All at once, Frosta stopped as the magic surrounding her hands dissipated briefly. "They left you a kingdom, and it's one of the oldest things you have to remember them by, isn't it?"
"I said shut up!" Having enough of the pointless commentary, Frosta attempted to blast the princess with as much power as she could, encircling the Princess of Plumeria in a cone of cold. At first, Mermista wanted to shout out in worry at the older of the two, wanting to convince her to stop acting so stupid and defend herself. But, to her surprise, the older princess continued to move forward, as if the cone was having no effect on her.
Maybe because it wasn't? Because no matter how hard Frosta blew the gust of ice, it only passed around the slow-paced princess who continued to smile. "Why don't you try fighting back a little more? Or would you rather have the rest of the camp burn down?!" She tried shouting everything she could, taunting her, mocking her, all in the hopes that she would strike back.
Why did she have to be so stupid!? Frosta was her enemy. She was Frosta's enemy. That's what it came down to in the end of all this, and that's the way it should have been! Frosta understood that perfectly, so why couldn't Perfuma understand that and give her what she wanted?! Just attack her so Frosta could... could... do something already!
"You wouldn't let that happen." She stated, showing no ounce of fear as she was within five feet. "I know you, Frosta. You care too much about the people around you, you see them as your family. You see your Kingdom as your family." Kneeling down at long last, she gently pushed the young princess's aside, disrupting her magic. "That's why you joined the Horde, isn't it? To keep your family safe."
"Ju-Stop talking already!" Frosta yelled, squeezing her own head. Why was she making this so much harder than she had to? They were enemies, they were supposed to be fighting, then, win or lose, she would go back to the Horde in the Fright Zone. And here Perfuma was, with her annoying nonsense, messing everything up!
*tug*
The young princess blinked as she felt a pair of arms wrap around her neck, not strangling her, but embracing her warmly against the cold ice. Perfuma, herself, was happy with all of this as she smiled, seeing the gathering of ice withering away from the princess. "That's why I forgive you, Frosta. You have a kind heart, the kind that any ruler should have. And if you truly wish to join the Horde, you'll still be my friend. Just do whatever you think is right."
"...Grrrrr!" Frosta angrily grabbed the princess's arm as she coated her own in a thick layer of ice. She wasn't going to let her get to her! She was a princess, they both were, so she should know what she should do! She should be fighting to keep herself safe from Frosta, to keep the rest of her kingdom safe from her! There was no reason to be giving Frosta this much of an excuse to join the Horde, she was supposed to be as angry as Mermista was!
And why was she so insistent on messing all of this up?! Frosta attacks them, they attack her, they fight later on in life! All Perfuma had to do was fight against her like Mermista did, and everything would be fine! She absolutely hated Perfuma right now! Hated! Hated! HATED!
So why not give her a reason, right? With the frost gathered around her hands, it would be easy to bash Perfuma aside like Mermista, to blast her away with her magic as she eyes flashed with a winter blue. She could easily give her a reason to treat her as an enemy rather than a friend, and everything would be all right! Besides, why should she treat Perfuma any different than the rest of her current enemies? She was too stupid for her own good, too kind for her own good, too gentle for her own good! All the reasons to hate her! And all Frosta needed to do was to... was to hit her... to blast... she...
"...Ngh..." The young princess squeaked as she closed her eyes tightly. Mermista wouldn't believe it, she couldn't believe it while bearing witness to it, but it was truly happening. With the princess slowly raising her hands to Perfuma's back, she ice slowly melted away with ease, the younger princess losing her will to fight at long last. She pulled back on Perfuma as she threw her arms behind her, squeezing her tightly as her eyes watered into her shoulders. "You're a pain... Such a pain..."
There was no longer any debate with herself and those around her. She couldn't do it anymore. She couldn't continue fighting for the Horde because of one good person out of the entire army, even if she held the same ideals that Frosta did about family. The Rebellion may have its enemies but at least they don't force people to fight against their friends like this, to manipulate them into doing whatever it was they fought for.
The Princess Alliance fought for its beliefs. Its beliefs that they were doing the right thing, and it was the right thing. Frosta couldn't deny that any longer. She wanted to protect the people around them, protect their own kingdoms, and they didn't feel pressurized by the Horde or its threatening power. Beyond that, they didn't force themselves to fight anyone if they ordered it. They were allowed to make their own choices, and choose who they considered an enemy or not.
Unlike the Horde.
Patting her back, Perfuma chuckled softly as she smiled to her. "I know."
Mermista, on the other hand, was at a loss for words. She couldn't believe it. She seriously couldn't believe it. Despite everything that had happened to them within the last twenty minutes, she actually did it. She managed to convince Frosta to lay down her arms and turn away from the Horde with her own sense of decency and kindness. It was definitely the most sappiest thing she ever saw, but to be honest, she kind of preferred it this way if it meant everyone was back to the right side.
Even from her icy prison.
"...Uh, so, if we're all buddy-buddy again, can someone get me down before I freeze to death?"
...
...
*wham!*
"Agh!" Catra yelled in pain as she was smacked to the ground for the third time. Things were getting bad. Really, really, bad.
Her fight against Adora throughout this ambush was progressing at a rate she couldn't begin to process. Unsurprisingly, as it was Adora's manner of thinking, her strategy to ambush the princesses worked like a charm. Having a mole within the Rebellion who could divulge on their plans, somebody that could separate the group before the mission began, and finally having an ally that would activate the very trap that kept the two groups separated from one another, everything was flowing as she anticipated.
Now, she had Catra all to herself while Bow and Glimmer were off trying to find an exit through the barrier that their magic couldn't penetrate, all while dealing with the Horde soldiers and Scorpia who remained behind. She did have to admit, although she didn't expect the battle against her to be plain easy, Catra did manage to hold her ground. She definitely grew stronger since their last encounter, whether or not she had mastered She-Ra's power, if her current state of She-Ra was anything to go by. It was nothing Adora couldn't handle, and nothing she didn't prepare for anyway, for there was another merit to this ambush.
Her weakness. Thanks to the information provided by Frosta, she had come to learn of Catra's own weakness; her inability to control her emotions, which were tied to her strength as She-Ra. If she managed to break Catra's grip on her emotions, she knew she would start to lose She-Ra's power, if not all of it. And, after a bit of bickering and prodding, she had successfully managed to find a crack into Catra's emotional well-being, and managed to exploit her weakness all too well.
A little too well, by the way things turned out.
Adora had to admit, she may have pushed Catra too far at that moment because the next thing she knew, Catra was smacking her down like the punching bag Catra had in her room. She was slammed, tossed, blasted at, and the whole nine yards as Catra assaulted her endlessly with a fury that any animal could unleash. Adora was helpless to defend herself as Catra's grand assault came without end, without any signs of letting up until the last moment. When the last moment finally came to her, however, that was when she began to enjoy the results of her weakness.
Catra had lost her power. All of it. By letting all the pain and frustration of Adora's words get to her, one at a time, the portions that defined her connection to She-Ra, the armor her sword granted her as the fight went on, began to fall apart. Evaporating in a small flash of light that neither of them noticed until it was too late, one by one, her armor began to disappear, along with the power that came with it. One after the other, her appearance slowly reverted to its basic of states, eventually culminating to the end of her She-Ra state entirely, and returning her to the same old Catra once more.
She had no power.
No armor.
No magic.
And that's when Adora began to relish the fight.
Since the moment Catra lost her power, she's been all too weak to put up so much as a chance against Adora. While she, herself, was too injured to go all out on Catra, it was still more than enough to shrug off nearly everything Catra through at her with her own two fists, and the sword that had lost its bond with its wielder. She didn't know if Catra was capable of transforming back into She-Ra if she tried it at the time, and for the most part, it didn't matter. She refused to give Catra so much as an inch of space to return to her She-Ra state. She was going to make Catra feel all the pain she's put her through in the last month.
As for Catra, she was less than enthusiastic about the turn of events, and more concerned on trying to kick Adora's butt, even if it meant using her own two claws to do it. She mocked her, humiliated her, and tried to enrage her. That was all the stuff she could deal with. The part that she couldn't deal with was the aspect of Frosta's betrayal, the way Adora gloated about how much the young princess was planning to betray them from the start, how she didn't care about any of them or show any interest in possibly being their ally, or their friend. She made it very clear that they were nothing more than pawns since day one.
To have that information dumped on her, to think the person they've fought with for over the last month, would be working for the very people they fought against? It angered it. Beyond, angered her. She did all of this to them, helping Adora in her ambush, providing key information about the Rebellion, assisting in this elaborate trap, and informing Adora about each of their weaknesses. There were no words to describe the anger she felt from that betrayal, it was unlike anything she ever felt before.
And she didn't know why it hurt as much as it did right now. All she knew, was that she wanted to get her claws on her, both of them. Starting with Adora.
"You know," Adora flaunted as she brushed the dust off her shoulders without a care in the world, "if I knew it was this easy to beat you, I would've invaded Bright Moon all over again by myself."
"Shut up!" Tightening her fist, she attempted to slam right into Adora's right cheek, a move that Adora all too easily blocked with just a hand from her shadows.
"Seriously, where did all that strength go to?"
*crack*
"Nnghh!" Catra grumbled to herself as she felt a small crack in her knuckles as Adora tightened her hand over it. Nothing broken, mind you, just painfully unpleasant, and more than enough to force Catra to her knees as Adora pressed down.
"Did that sword really give you all that power" She wondered, looking back to the sword that was tossed a few feet away. "Or were you just hold out on me, like how you never wanted to be friends in the first place?"
*bam*
She knew it was pointless, and she didn't care. Wanting to shut that opening she called a mouth up, she attempted to punch her with her other fist, ending with the same result. "For someone who thinks of me as a horrible person, you sure don't have any trouble acting like me." There was too much satisfaction she garnered from seeing Adora's face tighten. With a moment of Adora's distracted, emotional state, pulling her head back as hard as she could, the magicat slammed her forehead straight into Adora's, for once making contact against her old friend and actually landing a blow since her powers disappeared.
It wasn't enough to quell Adora's rage as she pushed her forehead straight into Catra's, but it was more than enough to satisfy the ex-Horde soldier. "I'm nothing like you!" She shouted, tightening her grip as she pushed her head harder against Catra's. "I didn't betray our home and join the Rebellion! I didn't abandon you until I realized what you truly were!" Catra had some nerve. To compare someone like her to Adora, of all people, was one of the few most-insulting things Adora couldn't handle. "Even if I started to become like you in the end, it's only because you made me this way, CATRA!"
*WHAM!*
With the second of her hand freed, pulling back with as much power as she could, Adora struck Catra square in the face, knocking the girl back to the ground like the piece of dirt she was. While she held the advantage for the time being, something as simple as that blow was enough to temporarily exhaust Adora, leaving her panting as her injures were still recovering. She didn't care what this fight took out of her, just as long as she made Catra feel her pain, to make her realize she was on the wrong side, and make her see what she had turned into.
Catra, on the other hand, moaning as she pushed up from the ground, was struck with a thought she hadn't contemplated before, something she couldn't believe she was even thinking about as she tried to push off the pain from Adora's punch.
Was she right? Was what Adora said actually true? She didn't believe her on a lot of things, primarily about her acting like Catra, but was she right about this? Was she actually the reason Adora turned out this way? From the sweet and sincere person she once knew into... basically, Catra?
Looking back on it now, there were a few signs there. If she went back for Adora, she wouldn't still be in the Horde. She lied to Adora back in Salineas about promising to come back if she couldn't transform into She-Ra. She tricked her by pretending to accept her friendship with her all over again in a ploy to steal the sword back after saving Glimmer in the Fright Zone. And looking back on the history they shared together through the Beacon, it was enough to turn Adora away from her, to be disgusted with how she treated her throughout her life.
Sure, there were a few factors she knew she couldn't be blamed for. Shadow Weaver was the one hounding over her, which she wouldn't have if Catra went back... She means, if Adora didn't kidnap Glimmer and Bow because she was trying to save Catra... At... Well she knew she couldn't be blamed for the Battle of Bright Moon! All of that stemmed from... realizing just how terrible Catra treated her throughout the years...
She... hated to say it, much less believe it, yet the more she thought about it, the more she didn't want to, the more she was forced to consider it. Was Adora the person she was today entirely because of... Catra?
*Crash!*
"Ahhh!" Catra screamed in pain as she was slammed again. Directly into her back, completely distracted by the thoughts clouding her mind, she didn't notice as the Force Captain stomped her way over to her, disgusted by everything about her. With a bundle of shadows clumping into her hand, creating a large fist of shadow, Adora slammed Catra in the back and shoved her deeply, deeply enough to break through the floor of the courtyard and throw her straight into the basement of the fortress, the only light illuminating the place through the makeshift skylight Adora just installed.
Trembling from the injuries, scraped and bruised along her legs, Catra groaned as she coughed from the bits of dust that fluttered in the air from the ceiling. Breathing heavily as she rubbed her shoulder, she looked back to Adora in frustration as she weighed her options. To continue fighting, or try to run around the basement for a place to hide until she could catch up with Bow and Glimmer again.
As the options were far from what she usually desired, she saw little choice. As things went for now, the longer the fight lasted, the more advantageous Adora found their predicament, and the more she kept playing into Adora's hands, the more likely of her own capture, if not Bow's and Glimmer's, and the loss of the Rebellion that was sure to follow.
Grimacing, giving her a brief, fanged-filled glared, Catra ran. She ran out of Adora's line of sight as she tried to search the basement for somewhere to hide, or something useful to fight back with. The one advantage she currently noticed was that the basement was verily dark, save for the light coming from the new opening. As long as she stuck to the shadows, she could hide, creep around, and possibly get the drop on Adora if she tried to find her herself.
She knew it, and Adora knew this as well. And in her currently-weakened state, she wasn't going to get the upper hand on Catra if she surprised her.
Grimacing, she turned her attention up to the bridge that was half-destroyed, noticing the commotion and the fighting that was taking place without her involvement.
Atop the bridge, she saw Bow and Glimmer fending off the soldiers' advances and Scorpia's as they fought them off. With their backs against the partly-destroyed bridge, only having about two-thirds of the space to work with, they maintained their ground as they blasted at the incoming soldiers with their magic and arrows, as well as Scorpia directly when she managed to gain closer ground to them.
"Scorpia!" Adora called out as her friend was flung a few yards across the bridge. Shaking her head, her friend looked back to her curiously as the Force Captain made her ascension, using the tendrils of shadows to pull up to the bridge and by her side.
"Are you okay, Adora?" She asked worriedly, noticing the injuries around her body that ranged from minuscule to major bruises.
"I'm fine," she said, shrugging off the pain as she rubbed her shoulder, "but Catra's escaped into the basement. I need you and the guards to find her and dig her out, immediately."
"Her? But what about-"
"Just do it!" She nearly snapped, containing her emotions as she remembered who she was talking to. Glaringly, she turned directly in the same direction as Bow and Glimmer, parts of her shadows reforming along her arms to the best of her ability. It was evident how much the beat-down she took earlier as taking its toll on her, noticing some splotches of her shadowy armor appearing transparent and incomplete. "I can handle things from up here."
"Adora..." How could she stare at her without being worried? Just look art her! She was breathing a little heavier than normal, she noticed parts of her shadow were missing, and her face looked more distressed than the rest of her body despite her attempts to hide it. Still, he was also her friend, and cared about her like any true friend should've. Mentally sighing to herself, she looked back to the dozen or so guards that were still being knocked left and right, letting out a small whistle as she grabbed their attention. "You all heard the captain! Everybody downstairs, and find the cat lady!" She ordered, running back with the rest of the guards.
Bow and Glimmer knew immediately that the sight of their retreat was nothing to feel relieved over as they noticed the blond Force Captain casually walking through them. If anything, they were more stressed by the lack of guards if it meant having to deal with the particular Force Captain that Hordak made his second-in-command that almost brought down the fall of Bright Moon and the Rebellion on her own. On top of that, with about six arrows to Bow's back and enough magic to conjure up one last teleport, two if she did it by herself, they weren't fairing any better than she was.
At this point, it was a race. Either Catra found her way out of the basement past Scorpia and the guards, and managed to regroup with the others in an attempt to overthrow Adora and bargain her to the rest for their freedom, or they needed some miracle to take the barrier down around them so they could make their escape, regroup with the others, and head back to Bright Moon without anymore surprises planning to jump them.
And whichever way it went, they needed an answer, and fast...
...
"Huff... Huff..." Catra huffed as she continued running through the dark basement, rubbing her injured arm sorely. Thanks to her animal characteristics, she had a much greater sense of sight in the dark like this, which helped with navigating through the dark corridors and surprisingly second floor to the complex that made traversing otherwise impossible. On the down side, that was also the only advantage she had as she continued to hide from soldiers and Scorpia alike.
With so many closed off spaces, her weakened state, and the lack of actually using a light, seeing how she needed to stay hidden in the dark, there was nothing else she could rely on through her senses. With the Horde having been all over this place, her sense of smell was useless as she couldn't tell which Horde had been here, and which Horde were coming and going. Worse, with most of these rooms empty, save for a few containers of supplies, her hearing was throwing her off as she heard the sound of footsteps echoing back and forth around here, some of them originating from the floor above, it was so messed up!
If it wasn't for the fact the guards were checking the rooms one at a time, she would've been discovered at least three times by now. Of these occurrences, she was forced to hide behind or under a stack of containers or crates as the guards inspected the room, barely marking a sound as she managed to sneak her way out of her predicament before the guard could inspect the room in full. With all the Horde soldiers using night-vision-goggles to find their way through the darkness, her sense of sight became evenly matched, just barely maintaining her cover as she had to throw a distraction into another room to lure them away.
And, at the rate things were going, she didn't know how long she could keep this game of actual cat-and-mouse, except this time, the cat was being the one chased by the mice. With exhaustion coming near her, she finally stopped to catch her breath as she stood outside the door leading to the hallways again. She needed to find a way out of here without alerting the guards, and get back to Bow and Glimmer before it was too late.
Not to mention the sword that was useless again and still outside in the courtyard.
Holding her breath a little, she poked her head around the doorway, trying to inspect if the coast was clear. Like the previous times, her hearing was thrown off by her lack of concentration and the echoes filling this place. She heard footsteps but was incapable of they were coming or going, or on an entirely different floor altogether. All she knew was that she needed to think of a plan, here and fast, and get back to the surface while she still had one of her nine lives remaining.
And all this time, she was unaware of the hand that slowly circled around her head, until it was too late.
*tug*
"Mmmhh!" Catra screamed, muffled into the hand that had grabbed her so suddenly. With her current state, she was powerless to pry the hand off of herself, at least in a manner that would've been quiet enough to avoid the guards' attention.
"Shhhh!" The voice shushed from behind her, rather than yelling to the guards "I found her!" or something of the like. "Be quiet!"
"Hmm?" Either this guard didn't know what the definition of "alerting the others" meant, or they were actually trying to help her. She knew for a guaranteed fact, though, that that couldn't be the case. Why? Because the voice sounded so oddly familiar to her that it couldn't have been that person.
Hearing the sound of large heavy feet again, the figure quickly popped themselves out a little in front of the door frame, keeping Catra's mouth covered and out of the sight as they waited for the running figure to meet up with them.
"Lonnie?" Scorpia asked, finding the girl with her own pair of night-vision-goggles. "Have you seen Catra around here?"
"Catra?" Lonnie spat. "Do you think if I found her, I'd be standing around here right now?"
"...Good point." Scorpia couldn't have assumed more than that, finding the logic to be more or less obvious. "Any idea where she went though?"
"U-Um... I'm sure I'll find her on my own if-"
"Oh, come on, I'll give you a hand. Four eyes are better than two, after all! Or, well, eight I guess if the goggles count, but-"
"No!" Lonnie nearly hissed as she blocked the doorway, panicking, with her free arm. All the while, Catra still wouldn't let up as she kept her pinned to the wall with her hand clamped over her mouth.
"What? Why not?" No matter how much of a klutz Scorpia could be, she knew she wasn't going to be stupid enough to let anything go without a reason.
"B-Because-! Because, um..." Looking back between the two directions of the hallway, she let out a startled gasp as she pointed down to the further end of the hallway on Scorpia's right. "Huh! Look! There she is!"
"What?!" Scorpia quickly shot back down the hallway, scanning it with the goggles closely. "Where? I don't see-"
"She just crossed the hallway! Hurry, before she gets away!"
"Right! Thanks, Lonnie!" There was no way she could let Catra get away, not when Adora was depending on her so much. Looking down in the opposite direction, she gave all the other guards searching a wave as she called out, "She went down this way! Everyone, follow me!" Without question, as Lonnie watched, the guards swarmed down the hallway behind Scorpia as they followed their assumed target, hoping to catch her before it was too late.
Waiting until all the guards were out of sight, looking down both ends one last time, Lonnie let out a sigh as she closed the door with the switch on the right, sealing it without fear of suspicion. "All right, they're gone," she declared, finally letting go of Catra, "now we can-"
*wham!*
"Oww!" Lonnie yelped. The moment Lonnie gave Catra so much as an inch of free space, the feline wasted no time throwing the girl straight into a pile of crates with her sheer strength. Much like Adora did to her, not giving her so much as a second to rest, she quickly followed up as she threw her behind herself to the wall, squeezing her weakly by the neck with both hands.
"You have a lot of nerve, you know that!" Catra quietly yelled, glaring daggers at the girl. Noticing the lack of strength coming from her, grumbling in turn, Lonnie quickly turned the situation around as she pushed Catra's hands off her neck, throwing the magicat around as she pressed her to the wall now.
"Would you give it a rest? I'm trying to help you!" Somehow, that made Catra's hatred for the girl only worse. With a quick pull of her feet, she kicked Lonnie in the stomach, sending her back a few feet until she crashed into the table behind her.
"Oh, now you want to help me?" She snarled, stomping over to her with her claws at the ready. "Oh, okay, sure! Hey, while I'm at it, why don't I just close my eyes and let you lead the way? I'll even tie my own hands behind my back since you're so trustworthy!" She swore, if she couldn't understand the severity of her own sarcasm, then any respect Catra did have for Lonnie would've dropped to brand new levels of low. Pulling the girl to her feet, she let out another hiss as she attempted to strike her, forcing Lonnie to defend against the attack with her own stun baton, blocking it.
"Catra, I'm serious! I'm just trying to help you out of this pla-"
"Shut it!" No matter how slow her movement was, she would never let Lonnie get a chance to attack her as she swiped at her, Lonnie barely dodging her attacks as she was forced to dodge to the right at least twice, then make a quick jump to the left, all to avoid her. As much of an advantage as she should've had over Catra, she was still thrown off as Catra tackled her to the ground completely, pinning her shoulder to the floor with her left hand and raising her claws with her right. "Like I'm going to listen to the person who hated me all their life-!"
"I never hated you, Catra!" She stated. There was silence between the two as Catra blinked, thrown off if Lonnie was telling her an inkling of the truth.
"Oh, right," her claws twitched with anxiety as she eagerly awaited her chance to claw Lonnie across the face, "because with all the time you and your pals spent bullying me, I could tell were were SUCH good friends-!"
"IT WAS SHADOW-WEAVER, OKAY!?" That did it. That was the one line that made Catra pause in her attack as she was about to get a little too twitchy. Hearing that name again at a time like this was one thing, the possibility that it had something to do with her horrible past was another.
Growling deeper, she finally hopped off of Lonnie as she threw her back against the wall. This time she at least gave her some space as she watched Lonnie rub her throat. "What do you mean it was Shadow-Weaver?"
Finally, she was, hopefully, getting some sort of ground with her. "It means what I said, Catra. Shadow-Weaver was behind all of it." Giving a small glare in return, the bully crossed her arms as she leaned back against the wall. "Yeah, as a kid I found you annoying, and I wasn't the least bit interested in being your friend. But it's not like I hated you or intended to harass you for the rest of my life, either. That would've been a waste of time on my part, and you know it as well as I do."
As much as Catra hated to admit it, she did have a point. A confusing, nonetheless agreeable, point. Out of all the people she could've picked on, the people she could've forced to be along her other few friends and practical lackeys, she focused all her time on energy on a single person growing up. A person who wasn't the least bit threatening to her as a kid, and someone who most likely would've grown differently if she didn't pick on her constantly.
Still, it was her fault that she did turn out like this, to her at least. And just because she threw Shadow-Weaver's name out there like that didn't mean she got any sort of pass. "So what?" She shot back, leaning an arm against the table. "What was in it for you? Did she give you candy or something as a kid? Promote you to the advanced classes along with Adora did? Some kind of treat for listening to her-"
"She made us fear her Catra, all right?!" She yelled back, to Catra's actual surprise. "She scared us and pushed us in ways that were exhausting! And as bad as it was, she said it would only be a taste of what would happen if we let anything happen to Adora because of you!"
"She made you... fear her?" She repeated.
It wasn't something unnatural when it came to Shadow-Weaver. Save for Adora, she kept all the kids she trained and those who grew up around Adora in line with her discipline and harsh lessons, especially those who failed to fall in line. Up to this point, Catra had assumed she was the only one Shadow-Weaver deeply hated, enough to torture the girl physically and psychologically if it meant getting Catra to submit to her rules.
Now that she thought about it, it made more sense given Lonnie's strange behavior the last time they met.
...
...
"Hmm..." Catra hummed loud enough for the girl to hear, looking over the control panel on the side of the door. "Now if I remember, one of these buttons started some grand initiation we did when we were kids, right?" She didn't bother to look as Lonnie's face filled with fear and dread, having a clear picture of what Catra was about to do.
"N-No, wait! Catra, please!" Lonnie begged, sliding to her knees. "Don't!"
"I think it was... ah, here it was." She gave off the proudest smirk she ever could to the girl. "Have fun in solitude."
"No, please! IHATETHEDARK-!"
*Thud*
"..." For some reason, the intense amount of amusement she was about to get out of this grand dose of irony was brought to a halt as Lonnie uttered those last few words, right before the metallic doors sealed her away in a never ending darkness, the same one she practically threw her in all those years ago. "..." She still remained silent, opting to pull open a small foot long panel that was used to deliver food to the prisoners when they were subjected to the Hole as punishment.
It didn't make sense to her as she saw it. Here she was. Lonnie. Former bully, tormentor, and person who nearly made her lose her head, kneeling on the ground in front of her so that all Catra could see were her eyes. She sputtered those last few words of fear out of her thinking Catra would've cared, trying to play whatever last minute trick she could get out of her for her own amusement.
And yet, she didn't seem the least bit amused. Here, right in front of her, Catra could see it. Tears. A pure stream of tears rolling down Lonnie's eyes, the girl looking terrified beyond her wildest nightmares, as the prospect of being trapped in terrifying darkness reached her. She was looking at the bully who subjected her to the pitch black room all those years ago getting a taste of her own medicine, and she was now crying her eyes out for the few seconds she was in total darkness.
What did she expect? Did she expect Catra's forgiveness for all those years of hate and abuse? Did she think she would take pity on the girl who harassed her constantly, all because she was scared of the pitch darkness like Catra was as a child? Did she really expect some sort of mercy out of her?!
"Please..." Lonnie sniffled, looking into Catra's loathing eyes. "Just keep the latch open... don't put me in the dark..." What was she expecting at this point? This was Catra she was talking to. The traitor, the defector. The person who thought she was always the victim and never took responsibility for her own pranks and mischief she pulled on everyone else. The troublemaker who would pick on other people herself if they bugged her out of nowhere, and the one who always goofed off from her duties.
If this stupid cell had an incineration function to it, she was positive Catra would press it on a heartbeat. So why did she think asking for mercy of all things was going to help? She just exposed her greatest fear of being in perfect darkness like this to the person she nearly tried to kill a minute ago, and that's not including all the years of torment she inflicted upon her. This was her chance. Her moment of revenge. Her opportunity of justifiable payback.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...Huff..." Catra shook her head of all the irritation she was getting out of this. "You're not even worth it." With those five words, Catra walked away, leaving the hatch open wide enough to let a small beam of light fill the darkened room. Lonnie herself blinked madly, unable to comprehend what she had witnessed. Catra... THE Catra... just did the last thing she had ever expected her to do for someone like Lonnie.
Something nice.
"...Thank you..." She muttered, sniffling. She saw it for herself and she was still in disbelief.
...
...
Still, having this in mind did nothing to quell the anger in Catra's heart as she stomped over to her. With a seemingly-calming hand on her shoulder, she caught Lonnie off guard as she grabbed her shoulder again harshly, throwing her into the crates and caring for naught as they tumbled on top of her.
"Oh, well that just makes it all better then, huh?" She was starting to grow more sickened with Lonnie the more she knew about it. "You guys decided to pick on me throughout all my life, made my life miserable, JUST so you could have an easier one?" Saying it alone was enough to leave a bad taste in her mouth. Feeling it was an entirely different story.
"You know as well as I do what she's like, Catra." Lonnie groaned, pulling herself out of the wreckage. "She gave me a small experience of what absolute darkness was like. Not some darkness where you couldn't see, either. Real darkness, Catra. And don't go telling me you wouldn't have done the same. If you were in my shoes, you would've done just the same." She didn't show any fear in her expression, provided her eyes were covered in the goggles, as Catra grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, pulling her to her face. "And you can't deny it, can you?"
"Ghhh." She refused to answer. She refused to even think of an answer! Why should she give Lonnie any sort of satisfaction in any shape or form? She humiliated her, bullied her, until Catra finally learned to stand up for herself and others when Adora was around. All her life, she was twisted and shaped by what Lonnie and Shadow-Weaver did for years, and without them, who knows how her life could've turned out?
Maybe she could've been sweet and innocent like Adora, weird as it was to picture that about herself. She could've been a better fighter, someone who matched Adora as an equal in skill than anything else. She could've been the very person who brought this war to an end weeks ago if her stupid involvement never messed up her life. She still hated Lonnie, even from this close, even after everything she revealed.
Who knows how things would be going right now if she was different, too? Maybe she would've been brave or decent enough to rush back to the Fright Zone to get Adora? Maybe if her emotions were different or she had this stupid inner-peace Light Hope preached to her, then she could've become She-Ra a long time ago. She could've done everything in her life differently that didn't leave her questioning herself or the actions she's made to turn Adora into whatever she was now. She could've been a completely different person, and all of her problems could've been fixed by now.
And it's all because of stupid, annoying, OBNOXIOUS, Lonnie!
...And yet... she still couldn't find it in her to project her anger onto her, not without a lack of trying anyway. She was still weak, tired, injured, and running out of time to pull off any more punches or kicks to Lonnie's stupidly annoying face. With a hiss, she shoved Lonnie away from her, trying to ignore the bad feeling on her fingers for touching the girl to begin with and walked off.
"If you're not going to turn me in, then get out of my way." She growled, making her way to the door. "I can find my own way out."
"But that's why I'm trying to help you, you idiot! I know of a way out!" Catra paused mid-step as she reached for the door, the information being the first legitimate good thing she's heard in the last while.
"What do you mean you know a way out? A way back to the top?"
"I mean a way outside and past the barrier." Lonnie clarified as she approached the door. Checking to make sure the coast was clear, she gestured to the reluctant cat as she quickly ran through the door. Despite every logical fiber in Catra's being telling her not to, she found little choice. The longer she hung around, the more likely she was to be caught, and the more she argued with Lonnie, the more likely the brunette was going to rat on her and alert the guards.
So, with a heavy hatred-filled heart, the cat put aside her frustration as she followed after the girl. She kept a close eye on her surroundings and an ear to the ground as she stayed alert. Lonnie did absolutely nothing to gain Catra's trust within the last few minutes. If anything, she trusted her less now than she ever thought possible. Having an excuse didn't give her a pass from Catra's hatred towards her. In fact, it just went to prove how weak she was in the first place.
And weakness had no place with the Horde!
Thankfully, their little trek through the dark spaces didn't take very long, and, to Catra's awareness, she wasn't spotted either. It was only through two doors down the left hallway when Lonnie finally found the room they were looking for, giving the room a quick check before gesturing Catra to follow her again.
It didn't really look any different than the other rooms, save for the aesthetics. There were a few chairs in the area in front of a table, an average-sized monitor on the wall, and, apparently, a dispenser for food and drinks. Most likely the lounge room from Catra's perspective. And trailing along the walls of it was good ol' hate-her-with-a-passion Lonnie, the girl feeling around the walls carefully until she came across a calendar. With a simple flip of the pages until she came to the wall, she gave it a good press with the side of her fist, stepping back as an entryway appeared on the wall next to her.
Catra could actually smell the fresh air and a small stream of blue light of the sky outside as her eyes adjusted to the mix of darkness and light flooding from the entrance. With a severe lack of Horde scents coming from the other end of it, she knew there couldn't be a trap waiting for her. Droids alone had a distinct whirring sound she could hear when things were quiet, and all she could hear right now was the gentle breeze of the wind filling the small corridor to the stairs and outside.
*sheeem*
"It's an emergency exit in case we were overrun." Lonnie stated, leaning her shoulder against the wall. "Take it all the way through and you'll wind up partway through the forest. From there, you're on your own."
Catra was... thoroughly surprised, to say the least. There wasn't any trap, any ambush, any sort of way something could surprise her at the end of this thing. Lonnie had actually kept true to her word, and showed Catra a way out. And somehow... that was still more disturbing.
"Why are you suddenly helping me?"
"I'm not." She shifted her eyes away as she waited for Catra to leave. "But out of all your stupid rules, you had one ideal I agreed with. Paying someone back for helping. You didn't leave me in the dark, so... neither am I. Consider this making us even."
"Pffft, like this will ever make us even, Lonnie." There was that smug old way of Lonnie talking that Catra knew and hated. "We will never be even after this."
"Look, are you going to take the door or what? If the guards or Scorpia show up, I won't be able to talk my way out of this."
"Yeah, that's what I thought," she shrugged, "only looking out for you."
"Look in a mirror." Pausing at the mention, the two girls looked away from each other as Catra grabbed the side of the entryway, preparing to leave, get to the others, and get back to Bright Moon as soon as they could.
That was when she realized something else. "What about the others?"
"Huh?" If Lonnie didn't know any better, she could've sworn that sounded like consideration for someone else. Did Catra actually change more since their last encounter with one another? "What about them? If it's about their lives, you can relax. I doubt Adora would kill them. She needs them captured and taken alive, the way Hordak is expecting them so he can force the Rebellion's surrender, along with anyone else opposing them."
"And my sword?" She asked finally looking back.
"Who cares about a stupid sword?" Lonnie started to grumble as her heart raced with pressure. "Look, I'm trying to do you a favor right now you idiot! Are you going to get out of here or not?" Catra actually contemplated her options.
If she left now she could escape with her life. She could regroup with Perfuma and Mermista, provided they weren't captured, or worse, by Frosta, retreat to Bright Moon, then possibly formulate another plan to save Glimmer and Bow, again, which would most likely result in the same as last time, except without an Adora willing to hlep them escape. But at least then, there was a sliver of a chance to succeed compared to the indefinite zero chance she had if she stayed around here and fought against Adora without her powers.
Alternatively, she could go back up there while the guards were still busy looking for her, meet up with Bow and Glimmer, and have a miracle of a chance to actually beat Adora into submission and force the Horde remaining here to lower the barrier so they could get away. That, of course, came with the small chance they even could pull it off, and by small chance, she obviously meant the negative one-percent chance she had, because any chance she had thrown into her favor was the chance of coming out of this alive, not victoriously.
Neither scenario proved plausible to her, and both were about the same level of chances and success as the other did. They didn't have any means to combat Adora if the rest of the Horde showed up, and there was no way way they were possibly getting out of this situation alive.
The choice was pretty obvious to her.
"..."
*click*
*sheeem*
"What do you think you're doing?!" Of all the many changes she's experienced with Catra up to this point, her stupidity was the most surprising.
"I'm not leaving without Bowey and Pinky, got it?" She muttered, making her way back to the hallway door.
"You're kidding me, right?" Seriously, she had to be kidding her. Did Catra hit her head any harder than she originally thought? Because that seemed like the most likely cause of the delusion she was now suffering. "You're seriously going back? Why? Adora's more likely to kill you than she is them!"
"She's not going to kill me." Catra didn't give her so much of a glance as she reached the doorway. "She made that pretty clear. Besides, I can't really leave those dweebs behind, or, you know, the queen will have my head and all that." It was clear to her that Catra was just sticking to the same tough guy routine she usually did back in the Fright Zone, the one that pretended there wasn't a single thing she cared about besides Adora, to use her or otherwise.
Now, to see her doing the same thing, for two entirely different people regardless of her reason, it was... strange. Strange, and slightly interesting, really.
"Catra, wait!" Lonnie barked, making the girl pause as her hand touched the entrance's doorway. "Just so we're clear, this is on you. It's yours and your choice alone. But after this, we're even. And if we see each other again..." She didn't need to finish what Catra already knew.
"Tch fine by me. I still got about a thousand more meetings between your face and my claws." Her brow lowered in irritation as she saw Lonnie one more time. "And we're never going to be even, Lonnie. Don't forget that." Without another word, seeing the coast was clear, the magicat took off. With her debt repaid and the sight of the annoying pipsqueak who used to be the crybaby of the Horde gone, Lonnie moaned, pressing back against the wall.
She didn't know what the Rebellion was like, but she wondered whether they were better or worse than the Horde to turn Catra into whatever she was today. In the past, if she had the chance, she would've gladly clawed at Lonnie's face before and after she helped Catra out, and probably once more somewhere in-between for good measure. They had no like for each other, barely a mutual respect to keep each other at a distance when they were growing up, and wanted nothing more than to end the other's miserable existence almost twice a day.
The Catra she met here was far different from the previous one. She was still snarky, irritable, showed more pride than she had within her, and was willing to pick a fight with anything that crossed her path. At the same time, she also had a more sensitive side, if Lonnie's ears and eyes weren't tricking her. It almost looked like she cared, a word that would never fit the same Catra she was today if anyone else knew about it.
All in all, it was a rather surprising reunion, one that wouldn't play as nicely if they ever met again face-to-face. Lonnie would make sure of it. Next time, they would be mortal enemies again trying to destroy each other. At least now, Lonnie could do it with a... mostly guiltless conscious holding her back, and she wasn't going to let anyone stand in her way next time she ever had a fight with the girl.
...Or let a couple of eavesdroppers listen in on the whole thing without giving them any mind.
"I know you two idiots are back there, I can see Rogelio's tail!" There was a small shuffling sound as Rogelio pulled his tail back behind the couch, forcing Lonnie to wait several boring seconds before Kyle popped his head up from behind the couch nervously. "Forget either of you two heard all that, or next time, I'll be shocking my baton somewhere it'll hurt during our next sparring session. Got that!?" Kyle's gulp was all the confirmation she needed as he nodded.
"Yes mam!"
...
...
*boom*
The fight had escalated throughout the battle against the young princess and her archer. If it was just a matter of taking on one or the other, she would be just fine, but fighting them both in her current state was proving to be a little more than she could initially handle. From atop the bridge that collapsed partway through the fight to the grounds of the courtyard that now had at least two bridges worth of debris covering it, this fight for the Tower was beginning to take its toll on the structure, and her fellow soldiers who she assumed were winning on the other side right now.
The fight wasn't anything she couldn't handle, not at first, anyway. With the narrow gap the two had between them, she had plenty of space to fight off Glimmer's advances while staying ahead of her without the worry of Bow getting a clear shot. Even with this, the princess still proved to have a lot more energy in her than she previously believed she did, fighting fiercely with her father's staff at her side as she conserved her magic for when she had a good shot of Adora. Whenever she did, she managed to blast the Force Captain's shadow right off of her body, lowering her defenses in the process.
To gain a better vantage point, what she believed to be better at least, the Force Captain was forced to destroy the pillar beneath them as she yanked the support beam out with all of her shadowy power, toppling the bridge with the three of them on top of it, and managing to maintain a safe distance as she supported herself several feet in the air with the tendrils protruding from her back. As for the others, she found Glimmer being forced to use her magic as well as she teleported to the ground level with relative safely, at the cost of taxing her own magic in the process.
This still did nothing to diminish their fighting spirit. If anything, it became increasingly harder to fight against them as Adora wasted an excess of her shadow in her desperation to destroy the bridge, struggling to understand why her powers weren't flourishing as before. Like most problems in her life, she had little doubt that Catra was the cause of all of this, and no matter how much it pained her to say it, blaming her friend wasn't the option right now. For now, she had to contend with the pink-haired princess and the archer who had more than enough fighting spirit to take on the Force Captain with her.
She didn't know where Scorpia was at the moment as she hoped that she would turn up soon, with or without Catra. As bad as her state was, she knew the other two were just as exhausted as she managed to repel, both, Glimmer's staff and Bow's bow, blocking them with both her half-covered shadowy arms, grunting in anger as she pushed the two off of her and attempted to swipe a claw at the princess, nearly reaching her before Bow tackled her away from his defending friend. His support was threatening from close and afar, though he was at least down to one arrow by now, which was meant for a last resort.
Sliding against the ground she stared through the bangs of hair dangling in front of her face, she growled. Unlike Catra, these two were too level-headed to use their emotions against them. They cared for one another, were confident in themselves, and knew how to work as a team against their enemies. Truly, unlike Catra, they were much more threatening opponents at the time, and ones that Adora couldn't predict out of the lack of knowing them.
Of course, as someone who used to be friends with a certain backstabber of a friend, she also knew what it looked like when someone cared for another. In their case, it was learning which one was most likely to lower their guard for the sake of saving the other, and she had the perfect target in mind.
Without fear or hesitation, gathering a small bundle of shadow against her left arm, trying to make her claws as threatening as possible, she charged directly for the panting princess on her right, waiting for the yellow archer to take the bait, shifting her eyes without turning her head as she watched him.
And he did.
"Glimmer!" Bow shouted, running to her side in a mad dash as soon as he could. As she took a defensive stance, she noticed her eyes still directed in Bow's direction as if she was waiting for something. At that moment, she saw Adora already beginning to draw an excessive amount of shadows in her right arm, keeping it hidden from the archer as he neared her. By the time she realized what Adora was doing, it was already too late.
"Bow, don't-!" Her warning was as useless as expecting the wind to save them at this point. Just as she was within three feet of the princess, with the archer nearly at her side, she quickly turned her body as she unleashed her powerful shadows at the archer, blasting him at pointblank range as he was blown off his feet by the massive wave of darkness she unleashed. Bow yelled as he was blasted nearly fifty feet away from the two, slamming into the wall at full force, before dizzyingly collapsing to the ground, seemingly out cold.
"Bow!"
*twang*
"Ungh-!" The princess choked as sh was suffocated. The following moment that she let down her guard in fear for her friend was the other second Adora needed to secure her victory. Gathering the last of her remaining power that she could, she threw several tendrils of her shadows at the young girl, wrapping one around her right arm, her left leg, and around her neck as she held her in the air above her, the weakened princess struggling to breathe as she was constricted.
"Why don't you try your little teleporting now, princess?" Adora taunted. As much as she didn't want to, she felt she had little choice. The longer this went about, the more likely it would be too late to be free of her bonds, the possibility of escape eluding her as the bonds tightened with each passing second. Gathering what little she had left, the princess's body glowed with a familiar pink haze as she attempted the last of her remaining teleports.
*sssshhhhhhhhhh-*
"Ngh..." Glimmer moaned as she gasped for air. It was too late, she ran out of power. She was too exhausted to even gather a handful of energy to blast Adora with, provided she could get a clear hit on her at this rate. All she knew was that her breath was fading as Adora continued to strangle her, waiting for the choke-hold to kick in and for the princess to eventually pass out.
This was all that Adora was waiting for. This moment, right here. The day she crushed the Princess Alliance and the Rebellion soon after. She was going to prove herself to Hordak, to everyone, that her methods were just. Her alliances proved useful, her allies were invaluable, and the friends she made along the way having their back for her when she needed them most. This was the day that Adora flipped over the view the Horde had on her, the way everyone viewed her and her *unique* methods.
This, is the day, she won.
"Haaah!"
*ssshhhkkk*
"Ahhhhh!" Adora screamed in pain as she held her fingers at her side, dropping the princess in the process. Stepping away from the princess as she fell back to the ground, the Force Captain groaned to herself as she slowly turned around. As if she needed a clue as to who did it, who was responsible for cutting away the shadows with the sword that started all of this, and responsible from keeping her from achieving her victory at the last moment just like LAST TIME!
Sure enough, panting there with exhaustion as Glimmer rubbed her neck from soreness, she saw Catra. Not bound by Scorpia or the others, none of her other allies in sight, appearing when she was least wanted, the magicat made her presence known as she cut away the shadows that were restraining Glimmer. The princess let out a few coughs as Adora checked her own fingers, finding a few cuts among them. She's never been more thankful that losing a portion of her shadow directly never resulted in whatever limbs they were attached to, but they did end up giving her a few cuts along both her hands.
Not enough to open any wounds, and not pleasant enough to ignore for too long.
"You... you always have to get in the way, don't you!?" Adora shouted angrily, forming as much shadow as she could along her arms, barely managing to grow anything from the claws over her fingers to the elbows of her arms.
Catra literally spat to the side as she kept her sword on guard, refusing to lower any of her defenses. "Well, you know me..." She mocked, Adora lowering her gaze heavily as a result.
"If I did know you, we wouldn't be in this situation, would we?" There were barely any words the two had for each other as they stared each other down. They've heard excuse after excuse from one another up to this point, even if it left some feelings mixed from Catra. She couldn't get over that nagging bit about Adora, the idea that everything, from the very beginning, was all on her.
Regardless, she didn't care at the time. All she was focused on right now was stopping her old friend from hurting her new ones, and any chance she had of saving their lives all came down to here.
Without so much as a blink, the two rushed to each other, clashing shadowy claw against a magic-less sword, as the two pressed their heads against one another again, glaring down the other in anger.
"Is there anything you haven't taken from me yet, Catra?" With a growl, mustering as much magic as she ground, she grabbed onto Catra's sword by the blade, her hands protected by the shadows power, and pried it from Catra's weak hands before tossing it away. With the two seconds she spent looking at where the sword was tossed, it was all Adora needed before slamming a large fist into Catra's face, knocking her back a good twenty feet, but not enough to toss her off her heels as she skidded across the ground.
"How about your life, for starters?" She hissed back. The second she came to a stop, Catra charged straight at her friend again, claws at the ready. With a solid leap in the air, she brought her claws down, swiping at Adora's arms several times in an effort to hit the exposed parts of her. "You don't see me trying to kill you or your friends, do you?" Feinting her with a right sweep, she quickly ducked away from Adora's brief line of sight, and swiped against her right ankle.
*swiff!*
"Ahh!" Adora yelped, taking a moment to swipe at Catra with her own claws as she forced her to back away. She gritted her teeth as she rubbed her cut ankle for the moment, trying to power through the pain. "Capture," she emphasized, "not kill!" With a wave of her arms, she summoned up her tendrils from her back as she attempted to ensnare the magicat in her grip as she made a run for the sword. "I don't know how you think the Horde does it, but I'm not like!"
To her surprise, and Catra's, she failed to land a single hit on the magicat as she slid and jumped out of the way of the proceeding tendrils, the exhaustion taxing her body continuing to take its toll even now. It wasn't until Catra had a firm grip on the handle again that Adora finally got a tendril around her left ankle, pulling her back as Catra was flinging through the air. "Oh, and what was with the army last month? A welcoming committee?" With both hands to the sword, the magicat cut the tendril loose from her ankle, the proceeding pain making Adora wince as she felt a small cut forming along her back.
"T-That was the headband, all right?!" Using both of her arms this time, she attempted to blast at Catra with a wave of shadow, knowing she wouldn't be able to counter it like the Battle of Bright Moon... or at least, she assumed. With her weakened state, her diminishing powers, she Catra actually managing to maintain her footing after she pushed her away a good ten feet, using the sword to block the incoming strike that knocked Bow flat off his feet. "I can't feel anything when I'm wearing it, and right now, I wish I didn't feel anything!"
"Ghhh... I can help you with that part!" She grumbled, slowly pushing her way closer to Adora.
All throughout this, recovering from her own injuries, Glimmer just watched with amazement. After everything the two had been through, the weeks that had past since the battle that separated them for good, they still seemed to be in pain with one another. They couldn't stand the other's existence, they hated each other for being on the opposing team!...And they hated the fact they had to fight each other, despite trying not to show it.
She's gotten used to Catra's mannerisms and the way she looks at people throughout the months. And, given the way she narrowed her eyes, as she glared at Adora, it was strange. It was unbalanced, uneven with the twitch coming from her other eye, and it still looked like it was filled with sadness. Only now did she begin to realize one of the major reasons she had yet to achieve She-Ra's true power.
She had yet to let go of the past.
"All you do is use people to get what you want, day in and day out! You don't care about any of them as long as it helps you in any way!" By this point, the Force Captain found her back pressed against the wall of the tower, struggling to keep her arms forward as Catra continued to push forward. Ten feet became five feet, five feet became two, and eventually, she was standing right in front of the girl, being separated by the wall of darkness that was shooting in all directions as Catra pushed harder.
"I see how it is!" With a yell, she pushed the sword practically into Adora's palms, shattering the concentration Adora had left as the shadows dissipated around her. On the upside, Catra's sword went flinging out of her hands at the same time. Also on the upside was Catra's fist when she looked back.
*wham!*
"Ngh!" Adora grumbled as she was tossed to the side.
"When you manipulate other people, you see yourself as the hero, and when I do it, that somehow makes me the bad guy!" Grabbing the girl by her collar, she lifted her off the ground as she threw her back against the wall, pulling back her fist as she prepared another strike. Anticipating the event, Adora quickly ducked out of the way, allowing Catra to injure her own fist as it slammed into the wall behind her. "Ahh!"
With the pain distracting her, she headbutted Catra from her chin, knocking the cat off her balance, and giving Adora enough freedom to grab her by the neck before throwing her behind her, slamming her back into the wall this time. "I'm not the villain!" It was getting harder and harder to keep her shadows over her fist, by this time diminishing up to her wrists alone. "Unlike you, I actually care about the people I get to know! I care about what happens to them before and after a mission, every day! It's exhausting, and I put up with it to help them achieve their goals and the Horde's future!"
With as much energy as she could muster, she attempted to slam a shadowy fist right into Catra's face again, hoping to finish off this fight with a final strike. Yet, like everything else Catra had to do, she had to get in the way again. She had to stop her by using both of her hands before they could reach her, the battle becoming more of a battle of endurance and stamina at this point as the two struggled to see who could land the finishing blow.
"Then why does it bother you so much?!" With as much balance as she could, hopping her feet to the wall, Catra sprang off the wall behind her as she tackled Adora to the ground, scattering the dust in the air all around them as they slid. With enough reflex and energy still running inside of her, she managed to be the one on top as she grabbed at her throat and vice versa, both girls glaring daggers at one another as tried to quell their own inner turmoil. "Why can't you just get over it and move on with your life then?!"
"BECAUSE I CARED ABOUT YOU THE MOST!" All at once, everything became silent to Catra as she could only see and two things: the sound of Adora's whimpering as her lip trembled.
And tears flowing down the side of her face. She was glaring at her with tear-soaked eyes as she stared up at her, all while Catra slowly pulled away from her as she leaned up. She couldn't get the image out of her mind, everything that lead them to this moment. Her hands started to shake as the corner of her own eye started to become misty, all while the rage that filled Adora's face started to disappear, being replaced by more sadness.
"I cared about you... for over ten years, Catra." She sniffed. From this, Catra finally stood up from the girl, never taking her eyes off her for even a moment. "And for you... for you to finally pull all those memories away... like they were nothing... I died inside, Catra. I honestly, honestly, died." From this, Adora rose to her knees, squeezing her fists out of sorrow and anger.
This... This was another reason Catra couldn't come to accepting people as friends. What was... What was she supposed to do about all of this? Keep fighting her? Help her in some way? After everything she's done to her, done to the people she now considered friends, how was she supposed to help her at a time like this?!
And how... how could she not do anything? Adora was right, as always, about everything. She abandoned her from the moment she could, left her behind like she was nothing in the hopes of accomplishing her own dreams. If she never grew attached to Bow and Glimmer over the course of their journeys together, she never would've known what it felt like to be like her right now, to know what sort of pain it brought her...
She couldn't do it. As a single tear rolled down her face, she just couldn't. She couldn't bring herself to fight any longer, not against Adora... not against someone she still considered her friend. She was just like she was the day they met, except on opposite ends now. She was looking for a friend, someone to help her through her misery. She could see actually see her younger self flash briefly in Adora's place as she sulked, the tears still dripping from her face as she looked to the ground in sadness.
Then to her, with a face full of pain. She hesitated, slowly, as Catra raised a hand to her. She wanted to help her, she needed to help her, regardless of what happened in the past! Adora stared at the hand in a questioning silence, contemplating everything Catra was doing at that moment. There was barely an expression on Catra's face other than guilt, pain. She look tormented with herself on the outside as she did on the inside.
She was willing to help her now. Now, more than ever. And it was the only moment through all of this that made them both smile a little.
"CATRA, NO!"
"Huh-?"
*WHOMP!*
"Oof-!" Everything, from her stomach outward, became numb to the touch as nearly all feeling left her body, save for consciousness. As she slowly dropped to the floor, for a full second, time seemed to slow down around her as she saw it. Standing next to her, she dropped, for one second felt like twelve to the girl, as she passed Adora's head, and the face that covered her expression.
Smiling. Adora was smiling with the same sinister smirk she had once before at the Princess Prom, one that truly indicated her victory over the matter. And, just like that instance, she whispered right into Catra's ears.
"Third method of ending a war swiftly, Catra: Never show your true strength until your enemy finally lets their guard down." And with that, she watched as the shadows along Adora's arms flourished again, growing back from top to bottom, as Catra finally fell to the ground, in defeat as she clutched her stomach in pain. Adora stood over her smirking down at the weakened warrior as she groveled, waiting until she finally saw her hand move to push herself up before slamming her foot on Catra's back, earning a small hiss from the girl as her tail flopped over.
Adora defeated her. Again.
"Catra-!" She didn't care how badly injured she was or how much magic she was lacking! Catra needed her help immediately, even if it meant risking the chance that she could never teleport again. With as much concentration as she could, pulling every ounce of magic she had left in her body, she concentrated as she prepared to pull off one last miracle and save Catra before it was too la-
*BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!*
"Ahhhhhhh!" Glimmer cried out in pain, a wave of electricity coursing through her body out of nowhere. The electricity only lasted a few seconds, but the pain was still enough. With a wave of dizziness, the princess collapsed to the ground with barely a midge of consciousness as she kept one eye open, all while a lone Horde guard appeared behind her next to a smiling Scorpia.
"We got the princess, Adora." Scorpia informed her with a nod, checking over the princess to make sure she wasn't concealing anything else dangerous.
"Good job, Scorpia." She replied back as she kneeled down to Catra. Even with all its hiccups, this plan became an absolute success, the way Adora needed it to, and the way it should always end for the heroes. Gritting her teeth, she raised Catra's head as she pulled her by her hair, keeping her knee firmly on the weakened magicat's back so she wouldn't escape. "If it's any consolation, Catra, I meant every word I said." She whispered before dropping her again. "But I'm not the same gullible idiot you took for granted, anymore. I've changed. And once your stupid Rebellion falls, maybe you'll finally see that.
*sheeeeeeeeeeeeen*
With that said, not a second later, everyone looked up as they saw the barrier collapsing around them, the orb at the top of the tower exploding into several small parts as it finally overloaded its circuits. To most people, the sight of their beloved barrier coming down would've been a sign of caution and distress. To Adora, however, it was just a sign that confirmed something she knew must've happened.
"Annnd it looks like Frosta's finished with the others."
"Adora!" A voice called out, running from the North side of the tower in an exhausted state.
"Hey, Frosta. Looks like you took care of the others, huh?" Adora asked casually as the young princess looked around.
Frosta was never more assured of herself about her past choice, and this scene could only confirm it for her. The way Adora had her foot trampling on Catra's back, the exhausted state of Glimmer as both her arms were held back by Scorpia, and the way Bow seemed battered as he weakly leaned up from the ground, struggling to get up to his knees. And the legendary sword of the First Ones, lying against the Princess's very feet. She picked it up in both her hands and looked at herself, and regretted the reflection she saw.
"See, Catra? Even a child knows right from wrong compared to you." She looked up as Adora turned back to Catra. Grabbing her by the back of the neck, she grinned as she pulled Catra's head closer to her. "And now, you, and your stupid alliance, are going to share a nice quiet cell back in the Fright Zone. And who knows? Maybe if you're really good, I'll let you out of your cell about a year after the Rebellion burns to the ground-!"
*thwack!*
"Agh!" Adora yelped in pain as she clutched her right eye painfully, dropping Catra to the ground as she slowly pulled herself away. Just when she thought Catra couldn't annoy her further, couldn't possibly be worse than she already was, she goes ahead and proves her wrong, again. Just as she thought about giving Catra any sense of decency, her ex-friend had to go and elbow her right in the eye! "Ghhhhhhhhhhh!" She should've known Catra of all people would be up to cheap tactics, but even this was beyond her. She already lost, why persist? It almost made her regret what she had to do next!
Almost.
Throwing out a tendril against girl's neck, wrapping it around tightly as she reeled her back in an instant to her open palm, she watched as Catra struggled to free herself from her left hand, doing whatever she could to scratch and scrape at whatever she could, finding the process pointless as Adora's shadow-coated armor protected her. "You know, you were much better to be around whenever you were sleeping anyway." Without another word, scowling at the animal, Adora formed a grand fist in her other hand, Catra closing her eyes so she wouldn't see the blow that would wind up with her waking up in the Fright Zone the next day-!
*WHAM!*
Silence fell over the air as Catra fell to the ground again. Strangely, Adora's fist felt a lot lighter, almost non-existent, than she thought it would. She expected something close resembling pain to it, and instead, all she felt was... actually... nothing. Save for the slightly harsh landing of the ground, and her currently pained state, everything else about her was alright. In fact, too alright. Did Adora accidentally kill her without her realizing it? Opening one eye, she realized she must have, because she was seein the strangest thing she ever did in her life.
Frosta. In her Winter's Bane armor, or as much as she could afford of it since it looked like she was currently freezing with parts of her body in separate blocks of ice, standing in front of her right after she smacked away Adora, startling everyone, but nowhere near as her, as Adora rolled to the ground a dozen yards away.
Adora blinked in turn as she processed what just happened for a few seconds before getting up to the ground again, rubbing the side of her face soothingly. "F... Frosta?" What was going on here? "What... What are you doing?"
Sorrow and regret filled Frosta's face as she took the moment to look over the Force Captain's badge she had treasured for so long. It was a nice little keepsake, a memento, of the time she spent with Adora and getting to know her. Now, it was just a symbol of everything she regretted, and everything she would've regretted for the rest of her life if she had stayed with them.
*clack*
There... There had to be some mistake, right? First, she attacked her, clearly by accident, and then... and then she just... she tossed the Officer's badge to Adora's feet. Adora's eyes wavered as she stared at the badge, speechless, confused, until she finally looked back to the young girl she considered a friend.
"I... I can't do this anymore, Adora." She stated. Everyone's reaction, save Catra's, was to blink in surprise at this, except for a lone Force Captain who felt like reality was collapsing in on her.
"D-Do... this?" She questioned as if she hadn't a clue. "W-What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about this, all of this! I... I can't work for the Horde, anymore!" The words coming from her mouth were sending shivers down Adora's spine, and not just from the cold.
She wasn't working for the Horde anymore. She meant with the Horde, right? Yes, that's what she must've meant. She wasn't a tool to her, she was a friend, a good friend! And she had no reason to betray them! She was just... confused, of course. Why would she leave the Horde too?
"W-What... What are you talking about? Frosta, we've done so much together, already!" Adora tried to remind as she weakly got to her legs. "The resources we've traded back and forth, the technology we provided your kingdom, the-"
"It's all been called off." Frosta stated. "The Kingdom of Snows will no longer support resources to the Horde. Not now, or ever.
"B... But why? I thought you were- We were friends!" A small trickle of sweat started to drop from Adora's forehead as she failed to grasp the reality of the situation any sooner. "We are friends-!"
"It doesn't matter!" She yelled, giving her a small glare of sadness. "Just because we're friends doesn't mean its automatically right, Adora. Nothing about the Horde is right, even if you are. You were right about not all the parts about the Horde being bad, Adora, but that... That doesn't mean the bad parts can be ignored! You're just fooling yourself by pretending it is, and... And you just can't, Adora!"
"..." Adora blinked as she lowered her head slowly, contemplating everything she was listening to as the sound of everything slowly became muffled to her ears. "Y-You're... You're really serious about this, aren't you?" She started to shake around her shoulders as as her shadow claws scraped against the concrete.
"We don't have to be enemies, Adora. You should join the Rebellion, seriously!"
"..." Then, all at once, everything stopped. Adora blinked as she lifted her head again, noticing how everything was still around her, as Frosta looked prepared to say something that never came out. Looking up to the sky, she noticed how the clouds themselves seemed to stop, as if time had completely frozen around her. But why?
"Hmm, hmm, hmm..." A familiar hum rang through her ears behind her as they walked casually in their step. "Gee, I wonder who could have seen this coming from a mile away~" Adora refused to five her any thought, any attention. Giving her attention was just her way of drawing strength from her, her willingness to see Aroda being a source of amusement with every passing second.
And right now, she really wasn't in the mood to see her.
"It's too bad, really." She heard her footsteps echoing all around her even as she kept her gaze to the ground. "I mean, it's not like you bet your whole career on this-...Oh no, wait, you did. Well it's not like Hordak expected you to... Oh wow, he actually did think you would pull this off, didn't he? Well, thank goodness Frosta's still at your side- Oh, riiight, I forgot again." Aroda playfully shook her head with a shrug. "Gee, sorry Adora, I just keep losing my head over this. You now how it is when shock and frustration builds up, right?"
Slowly, the tendril of shadows started to seep in from around Adora, the Force Captain's muscles continuing to tense up as time within this frozen realm persisted. "First it slowly eats away inside of you, then you start to imagine everything you could have done differently, and then, ha, reality hits you!" The reflection was all too eager to comment in Adora's ears as she squatted behind her. "The reality that you didn't succeed in your mission, that you failed to capture any of the princesses by the looks of it, really." Grinning, she tilted Adora's head up gently by the chin until she was staring at the one who caused all of this.
"All because of your desperate little desire, to make a new friend who you could trust~"
"Gh...Ggggghhhhhh..." Grinding her teeth, anger burned inside as reality slowly came back to her as Aroda slowly drifted away into thin air. Everything she said, everything Aroda taunted her about, was true. Frosta had officially betrayed them. She betrayed the Horde. She betrayed Adora's trust. And if the other two princesses escaped or whatever Frosta did with them, then that meant the mission was a failure.
"Gggghhhhhh..."
"A-Adora?" Frosta spoke, blinking in curiosity. She knew she wasn't going to take the news well, but this didn't look like any side of her that she had seen before. The shadows along her arms slowly started to gather around her shoulders as tendrils began to grow from them, growing higher and higher as they stretched to the size of Adora's strands of hair.
Adora was angry. She had hate. She had sadness. She had everything broken within her again as she felt it. The pain of betrayal, that same stinging scorn of pain that she once had with Catra. Once again, it was inflicted on her, instead of the person she wanted to inflict the pain on. Not only did her plan seemingly fail, it flipped over. Everything she worked for for the last several days, not to mention weeks of her alliance with the Kingdom of Snows, all went down the drain. All be cause of her.
Because of Frosta...
Because of her friend...
Because of her traitor...
"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Like a rabid beast that had just burst from its cage, Adora charged at Frosta at speeds unlike anything Frosta had ever seen, the Force Captain throwing herself at the younger princess, pulling herself harshly against the ground with her own tendrils as she shot for the young girl. There was barely any time for Frosta to react as she protected herself with her ice-covered arms, blocking the brunt of the attack as the ice soaked up most of it, though didn't prevent her from being blown back into the wall halfway across the courtyard.
"Adora!" Scorpia cried out worriedly. She's never seen her friend this angry before, much less looking this hysterical. Then again, she wasn't there when she was torn apart from Catra's betrayal, so who knew how much she had reacted the last time someone betrayed her? "Here, hold this!"
"Hu- Whoa!"
*thud*
Giving the guard little time to react, or any time for that matter, Scorpia quickly pushed Glimmer into his possibly-waiting arms, the possibility being zero as he had little time to react before Glimmer fell on him. Scorpia didn't care about any of that at the moment, she had to stop her friend from bringing any harm to an ally, former or not, that she knew used to be a friend. For Pete sake, she was still a child!
At the moment, Glimmer felt enough feeling in her bones slowly returning as she leaned up from apparently-unconscious guard, just in time to notice several others appearing from the tower itself who spotted her. Knowing she had to give it her all, hoping Frosta would be able to hold out in the event of some miracle to come.
Like, in this case, an incredible torrent of water that came flushing out of the tower's entrance near them.
*splash!*
"Wahhhhhh!" The guards screamed, drenched from head to toe as they were swept off their feet and blasted toward the wall with a gush of water... right up to Bow just as he finally got to his first leg.
"Oh come oooon..." He had no regrets. All he could do now was await the eventual end to come, knowing Tiny Bow would be waiting for him in the afterlife.
*tug*
"Whoa-!" Or whatever end decided to greet him first, as several seconds before the guards came crashing into the wall, he felt himself being lifted up into the air by several soft, smooth, green vines that were summoned to his rescue. Appearing from beyond the wall herself, he was greeted by an all too familiar face that he was more than ecstatic to see smiling back to him. "Perfuma!"
"Mermista!" Glimmer greeted simultaneously as the princess of waters appeared from the tower, helping her up to her feet. "I've never been so glad to see you!"
"Funny, I've never been glad to see you." Mermista joked, knowingly. She was more than relieved to see everyone was alright as Glimmer quickly hugged her, turning her attention back to Perfuma and Bow as they came running to their side.
"How did you guys get through the barrier? How did you even get here?"
"How do you think?" Perfuma questioned in turn before looking back to the battle at hand.
For the most part, to her relief, Frosta appeared to be taking over the battle relatively well. Despite Adora's animal-like advances, she managed to keep the distance between the two of them as she created multiple pathways of ice in thin air, skating around the tops of them as she continued to lure Adora as far as she possibly could. Possibly, being the generous word her, as Adora refused to give Frosta so much as a foot of space, shooting from left to right practically as she pushed herself off of whatever surface directed her towards Frosta faster.
Including the ice itself.
At once point, the frost princess was forced to back off from her advancement as Adora actually got ahead of her, blasting at her with a cone of cold in order to halt her advances. However, unlike her previous opponents, Adora was something else entirely. Even as her arms began to freeze over as she blocked the assault, the shadows encased within them began to run amok, going beserk as if of their own free will until they shot out piercingly sharp tendrils out of the ice, allowing Adora to shatter them with ease.
Surprised by her quick reaction, she was left little choice but to defend herself as she created as close to a Frosta-sized wall of ice with her bare hands before Adora slammed down a massive fist on the young girl. She belt betrayed, she felt hurt, and she wouldn't be satisfied until Frosta understood what she made her feel, darn it! With a great push, Adora yelled as the shadowy fist actually stretched in its length, practically shooting Frosta straight into the ground as her wall and armor both shattered in their entirety.
"Annnd Adora broke through her defense in under a minute." Bow muttered, worriedly. He didn't think anyone could actually break through her durable ice-covered armor like that, and wished nobody would prove him wrong! Quickly, the archer retrieved the last of his trick arrows as he took careful aim of the Force Captain, planning to provide a good distraction as soon as he had a clear shot.
"Bow, wait!" Perfuma quickly halted, pulling him closer as she whispered into his ear.
There was a small shutter in Frosta's head as her head rang from the impact. Perhaps that was a side effect she should've expected when she encased her body with over half her body-weight at the same time. Possibilities and regrets were at the far end of her mind at the moment, as no sooner did she regain sensibility did she see Adora stomping her foot right next to her, enshrouding her neck in a thick, suffocating, tendril that she tried to pry free from.
"You... of all people... I thought you would understand..." Adora grumbled as tears slowly formed in the corner of her eyes. "I thought family meant something to you?!"
"Nnngh, it does!" She yelped back. "But they wouldn't be proud of the way I'm doing it! What's the point of trying to keep your own kingdom safe when you're doing bad stuff to the other ones to do it?!"
"Ghhhh..." Adora hated this moment. She hated everything having to do with this moment as her shadow's hold on her subconsciously tightened. She knwe she was a kid, she knew it was a mistake, and yet... And yet it just hurt so much. For the second time now, she found herself being betrayed, feeling like she was being used again for their technology this time, and the person betraying her was almost as stubborn as Catra!
*tug*
"Adora, stop!" Scorpia pleaded, grabbing and pulling on to the girl's arm for dear life- a child's life, at that. While she managed to pull away the arm enough for her to lose her grip of the shadows over her arm, it did nothing to prevent her from manifesting them along her other arm, one she used to pin the girl down by her stomach as they breached out, pinning her wrists to the floor, too. "She's just a kid!"
"Ngh! Let go of me!" Adora yelled angrily. She didn't care! She didn't care if she was a kid, Catra, Rebellion, or Horde at that moment! She had nothing but rage inside of her, a merciless rage that cared not for whoever got involved. "She's a traitor! Everything she's done is that of a traitor!"
"Adora, just look at her, ple-"
"I said let go!"
*whap!*
"Ah!" It was only at the sound of Scorpia's sudden shriek that Adora finally blinked. Looking to her right, she didn't come close to understanding who was talking to her until she talking to until one of her tendrils whipped her somewhat against the face. It wasn't anything severe, just enough to leave an inch thick red mark across her right cheek, one she was trying to rub soothingly with her claw. Part of her power drained from her at the realization, her entire right side dissipating of shadow as she reached for her.
"Ah... S-Scorpia, I'm..." She was at a loss for what she just did. She attacked one of her friends, one who was just trying to get her to stop doing something she knew Adora would regret, something Adora knew she would regret too when her mind finally cleared of the fog of hatred surrounding her. "I'm sorry, I... I didn't mean to-"
*wham!*
The strike didn't come from the princess partly pinned to the floor, nor from the scorpion girl who was just attacked accidentally by her best friend. No, the attack came from an irritated feline by the name of Catra, one who was struggling to keep a hold on the girl as she squeezed her arms from the side from behind. At this close of a range, there was little room fro Adora's shadows to manifest around her body, not for the lack of trying as the ones manifested from her shoulders tried to push her away.
That was the opening the other princess needed, too.
Without wasting a moment, the young princess of ice quickly grabbed hold of Adora's legs as she froze her feet to the ground. With the same general idea, she squeezed her legs as tight as possible as she prevented Adora from gathering shadows of any support around them, freezing what little she did manifest in place as she tried to hold Adora steady. Of the weaknesses she divulged of the princesses, she knew a particular one the Force Captain had personally, and it was their best bet for stopping her before anything else could be more chaotic.
"Raise it-!" Frosta struggled to say as she held Adora's legs together.
There was a lot more to yell at her for, but at the moment, she was more concerned with having the time to argue with her after. "What?"
The young princess grumbled again as she had to continually focus on keeping the shadows frozen in place, draining her much faster than she expected someone like Adora to be capable of. "Raise her right hand to the air! Hurry!"
"Her right hand?" What kind of bizarre jumbo was she trying to get at? "What does her right hand have to do with anythi-"
"Just do it!" She yelled again, losing her grip.
Gritting her teeth, doing what she could to contain her anger for now, she wiggled as much free room as she could between herself and Adora's right arm without allowing the shadows to manifest between them. With a bit of effort, still weak from her past endeavor, she managed to pry Adora's arm free as the princess instructed, grabbing her by the elbow as she raised it high and clear into the air for... honestly, who knew. Apparently Frosta did, and, like so many other things, she refused to explain herself to her. With the wrist straightened, arm above her head, Frosta shot another wave of ice at Adora's arm, keeping it pinned in place and steady for as long as her powers could hold. "Now!" She finally shouted.
*swiff*
There was barely three seconds to themselves before Catra's ears picked up the fine tune of an arrow going off, followed by a familiar sound that she was accustomed to follow it.
*boom!*
Both, her and Frosta, were tossed in opposite directions as the small explosion went off from Adora's right wrist. Bow had never been more thankful to keep a small explosion arrow on hand for a last resort. They were good for little else other than detaching the limbs off the droids the Horde sent, but, like all of his gadgets, it proved its usefulness when he needed it most. At least, assuming what Frosta said was the truth.
"Now what?" Glimmer asked, looking back to a Perfuma who was determined to prove her trust in her friend.
"Now, we stall her, for as long as possible." Gathering her magic, Perfuma raised herself from the ground with her own vines that penetrated through the cracks in the wall, in part thanks to Catra's and Adora's constant slamming back and forth. Taking the same idea, as Bow and Glimmer nodded to each other before taking off in separate directions, Mermista gathered her trident before charging straight at the Force Captain on a stream of her own gathered waters.
Now, it was finally time to claim their fortress.
Shaking from the sudden explosion, still maintaining her stance as her tendrils embedded themselves in the ground around her, Adora growled. She rubbed her wrist soothingly, too perplexed by the rash of strange behavior from her enemies and the fury still overwhelming her, and still thankful she had more than enough shadow to protect her from the explosion, not to mention the ice Frosta formed around it. She was slightly saddened to see Scorpia now missing from her side, but all that sadness lasted for only so long before she remembered everything that angered her about today, everyone who went about their way of trying to make her life miserable.
It all started with Frosta of all people, the person who destroyed her trust and made her relive the horrible event that made Adora go off the deep end. Now, she was going to make sure the same day ended with her, not showing an ounce of caring as Frosta coughed a few feet away, still recovering from the small explosion as the smoke filled her lungs.
"I don't care what you pull, Frosta." Adora loomed over the young princess as she regathered the shadows around her arms, finding it surprisingly easy at the moment, and caring little for cause of why. All she cared about was finishing her her mission, and finishing it in the same manner that she told herself earlier.
She wouldn't let anyone stand in her way!
"Hey!" Perfuma shouted from above, catching Adora by surprise. Of all the things she expected to see today, seeing a princess on a wave of her own vines wasn't one of them. "Get away from my FRIEND!"
With the push of mother nature itself, Adora was forced to shield herself with a wall of pure shadows as a large web of vines were shot directly at her, pushing the rage-inducing Force Captain back several yards away from her recovering friend. The vines proved more of a nuisance than a distraction as the shadows began to draw in the vines, shredding them into mere slices the size of her fingers within seconds.
*swish*
"Haaahh!"
*WHAM!*
With rage in her roar, refusing to give her the same chance to recover like she did with the rest of them, Glimmer appeared in a final teleportation, slamming her magically charged staff against Adora's side, knocking her flat off her feet. It didn't little to keep her down for long, Adora grimacing as she pushed herself back up with the tendrils on her back, but MAN did it feel good to her! "Saved that one just for you, Adora." She taunted.
"Gahhhh!" These princesses were starting to push her past the point of annoyance and towards the future of wanting them all dead! With the shadows continuing to empower her, from her back, she screamed as four massive serrated tendrils protruded from her back, all taking aim at the princess who she knew wouldn't be able to dodge all at once given her current state.
That state didn't appear to matter to fate apparently as just mere feet before managing to reach her, Catra, in all of her painfully annoying self, just HAD to tackle her out of the way to the side several feet, Adora's glowering eyes following them as the cat glared back at her. If Catra was going to be as stubborn as the rest of them, then she was going to be the first one she dealt with-!
*Sspissssshhhhhh!*
Blasting at the Force Captain at full force, Adora could only block with her bare arms as her shadows momentarily retreated back to her, making the captain endure the torrent of water Mermista blasted straight at her. Adora growled intimidatingly as she refused to be push back any further, using a shadowy arm to block the majority of the water as she took one incredibly slow step after the other, trying to force back the tide.
"Now!" She heard Mermista yell, running out of the way as the stream of magic slowly came to an end.
The very moment when the water finally left her field of vision, the second she could see her surroundings clearly, she came to understand completely what Mermista was shouting about. Looking up at the small gleam of light that reflected off the surface, she had a few seconds to realize she was in the light of sight of one of the massive turrets, one the archer had mounted, and one directed right at her.
All it took was the press of Bow's thumbs.
*BOOM!*
There was no force to keep the Force Captain on her feet to resist a blast as strong as that. The most she could do is manifest all of her shadows directly in front of her to block the majority of the damage she would've taken, blasting her into the air and throwing her towards the wall. Blinking a little surprised, Glimmer took the moment to look back at the turret-mounting archer above her.
"Wasn't that a little overkill?"
"Hey, I aimed near her, not at her." Bow shrugged back.
For better or worse, Adora wouldn't have to worry about crashing into the wall she was flung to. That would eventually end up being the worse of both scenarios as to why. Eight feet in the air wasn't enough to avoid Frosta's contribution of the attack as she produced a solid, massive, pillar of ice from the ground, launching straight up and smacking Adora right in the back, launching her upwards as Catra made a mad dash for the pillar itself.
She was determined to finish this mission, right here, right now. As Adora just began her ascent into the air, barely reaching over the walls of the fortress, Catra leapt from the ground towards the pillar, sinking her claws into the shattering ice as she threw herself upwards towards the top. In two short leaps from side to side, she reached the top, pushing off with her feet at full force as she reached for Adora.
There was barely any time for Adora to react as her surroundings became disorienting, a strange wave of dizziness beginning to overwhelm her. By the time she realized Catra grabbed onto her ankles, it was too late. With as much force as she could muster, using her own momentum to turn, Catra threw the weakening commander straight down, hurtling her and crashing her into the fragile pillar of ice. The pillar exploded from sheer force in an instant, scattering a cold chill all throughout the base.
Everyone was forced to shield their eyes, even Catra as she came back down. The sharp sting of the cold wind was enough to irritate their senses, the small chill circling through all of them. With a grand attack against the one behind all this, there was no telling how affected Adora was, how much damage, if any, she took. All they knew, standing side by side, that they had the best chance of beating her.
Together.
"Did we get her?" Glimmer asked, never taking her eyes off the scene. The only thing that could tell them that wasn't time was the wait for the mist to dissipate.
*Shooooooom!*
"Whoa"! Bow jumped as he quickly hopped from the seat of the turret, narrowly avoiding the destruction that soon followed.
In a massive display of power, one that none of them had ever witnessed before from her, shooting out from the mist was a massive shadow, one nearly the size of a boat in scale. With several claw-like appendages bursting from the core, stretching in size until its entire hand was over the turret itself, ripping it right out of the ground before chucking it over to another turret along the wall. The tear nearly ripped the platform itself, just inches from Bow's legs as he barely dodged out of the way.
"Um, I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume no..." Everyone already had the same assumption, with or without Mermista's answer.
With the large shadow receding back from whence it came, the mist slowly started to disappear, finally revealing the very figure that had been through half a dozen attacks at once, and still managed to stay on her feet. From her hunched over posture, arms dropped in front of her, panting, exhausted, hair strewn all around her face, there was no way someone like her should be standing.
But she was. Before all of them, Adora stood. The tendrils of shadows on her back were going berserk, near ten of them flailing about in anger as she breathed heavily. Along her right shoulder, it appeared as if her shadowy armor had fixed itself in a haste, shattered beforehand and put back together in seconds as large crags of it burst unevenly with its smoother left side. And all around her arm-covered shadows, violet streaks of purple, almost like veins, could be seen stretching from her wrists, the armor itself almost appearing alive in its current state.
Nothing about Adora said she had been defeated or lost the will to fight. All it screamed was determination, and her inability to accept defeat.
"I'm... Not... Done yet..." She croaked, doing nothing to back down from the Princess Alliance. She didn't care how many times they tried to knock her down. She would continue to draw strength from the darkness, as much as she could, if it meant completing her mission.
That was the moment Frosta lowered her hands again, satisfied, yet regretful, of the outcome at the same time. "Yes, you are, Adora." In her other hand, she unfolded her palm as she revealed the contents that Adora hadn't noticed missing since the team attacked her all at once. It was a precious item that only Adora would know the worth of, or those she most trusted.
The shattered remains of her wrist band, one whose glow had finally been snuffed out.
"No..." Adora scrambled her hand against the wrist as she pulled back the shadow, trying to feel around for what she already knew was gone.
The attack meant to distract Adora from finding out.
The damage she took to force her shadows to protect her, drawing out more power.
The exploding arrow that managed to break apart her armor and the wristband at the same time.
All of it was their plan, a plan that only worked because of her trust in a princess.
A princess who exposed Adora's own weakness to them.
"No!" Adora's cries did nothing to prevent the calamity that followed.
Almost immediately, the shadows within her veins began to take effect, constraining her blood vessels and filling them with a darkness that manifested within. Adora was already gritting her teeth as she tried to shrug off the pain, feeling the shadows spread all throughout her body much faster than anything she's been used to. All the power she unknowingly wasted in rage, all the protection she could afford herself had finally caught up with her.
The others watched, few in dismay, others disgust, as the dark veins began to spread along her neck to her forehead, the Force Captain yelling in pain as she clutched her head in agony. Her face flushed with an instant fever, her vision became disoriented, and her legs trembled from fatigue as she tried to stand her ground.
Catra was actually at a loss for words for her former friend. She didn't expect anything like this from what Bow and Glimmer told them of their encounter with Adora. She didn't look like someone who was just having a mild side effect from her magic, she looked like she was actually suffering deeply in pain. The disgust that emanated from the others were almost on a sympathetic level, never seeing any sort of magical affliction like this before.
"Nggghhhhh!" Adora screamed to herself, continuing to clutch her head as she teared up. She refused to give up, she couldn't give up. She had to fight and win. Fighting. Winning. Those were the only priorities on her mind at the moment as she struggled to stay standing.
"...Adora-"
"Don't even think about it!" She yelled, opening a spiteful eye to her ex-friend as she took a step back. She panted as she continued to stare at her, refusing to take her eyes off her enemies as she became light-headed. "I... refuse to back... back..."
"Adora, enough!" Glimmer shouted, waving an arm. "Look at you! You can barely stand, it's over!"
"It's... It's not over... It's not..."
"Adora!" Scorpia's voice cried out as she approached. From the air, across the wall, riding alongside Lonnie, Rogelio, and Kyle, Scorpia could be seen right in the middle of a skiff, one that flew over to the second-in-command's side in post haste. "We need to leave, right now!" It was shameful to admit, but Scorpia knew the truth. With the princesses reunited, and Frosta back on the side of the Rebellion, there was no hope for success.
"N-No! Let go of me!" Adora weakly flailed her arms as Scorpia grabbed them. This time, there was no fear of the shadows accidentally lashing at her, seeing how they returned to Adora as sickness overtook her mind.
"Adora, it's over."
"No! I can stil... I can... I can... I..." Just speaking alone took everything it had out of Adora as she collapsed back in Scorpia's protective arms, the taller captain carefully pulling her inside of the skiff as she stroked her hair, watching as Adora breathed heavily with barely open eyes.
"It's okay, it's okay." She shushed, gently. "We'll have you fixed up soon, I promise."
This was unlike anything Catra's seen before. From all their time training, getting injured, so much as getting sick, she's never seen Adora look so deathly before. Despite everything that happened, she still had something minuscule to concern for her. "H-Hey... What's wrong with her?"
"Oh, what do you care?" Scorpia grumbled. She may not have known Catra on a personal level, but she knew enough from the things Adora's told her about. Abandoning Adora, betraying her, using her as a kid. She couldn't begin to understand what Adora saw in her in the first place. "You're all she ever talks about, and you still don't care." Without any words of information to give her, she gestured for Lonnie to start up the skiff again as it started hovering higher in the air.
Before she left, she and Catra shared one last look of anger at each other. They knew everything that happened below was a one time thing, and there would likely be no more chances to give. Next time they met, they would be mortal enemies once more. And with the sound of the small engine roaring up, the Princess Alliance watched as they left.
The wind was howling in the silence that followed as they waited for the Horde skiff to leave their sight. Once they were gone, they thought to themselves everything that happened since the start of the assault.
Frosta betrayed them and separated the group, as well as activating the device that would ensure they couldn't reach each other anytime soon. From there, she lead them to the center of the camp, unaware that they were falling right into a trap until it was too late.
With the groups separated, Adora had Catra and her friends right where she wanted them. Ambushing the princess and Bow with Horde soldiers in an attempt to capture either of them while she dealt with Catra personally. With the information provided by Frosta, she knew of Catra's weakness, knew how to exploit her emotions, and used them against her. While the following exploitation was followed by the largest beat down Adora ever took, it proved worth it as Catra had temporarily lost her She-Ra power, and who knew how much of it.
Everything was going smooth after that for awhile. Catra was weakened, Glimmer and Bow were being pursued by the Horde, and Frosta was off dealing with Mermista and Perfuma on the other side. Had everything gone as planned, right now, Adora would've been victorious. She would have them all in bindings as her prisoners and returned to the Fright Zone, where who-knew-what sort of horrible fate awaited them. And her desire for Hordak's recognition would've been justified.
The one calculation Adora had wrong, however, was Frosta's willingness to do what was right, Adora's trust that the young girl had similar ideals. She trusted Frosta with her life, and when it was time to collect her reward, she came and put a stop to her wicked plans. Her betrayal of Adora's perfect plan was the one possibility she never saw coming, and because of it, they were all saved.
Together, they united as they took down Adora at long last. The Force Captain continued to push back with all her might, pushing past her limits, but in the end, it was pointless. By the time Adora could realize the wristband was destroyed, it was too late. Overcome with sickness, she had no choice but to retreat, against her will or otherwise, and returned to the Fright Zone.
The damage done on both sides of the chasm was brutal. Rebellion supporters were still putting out the fire on the other side, several walls of the Horde fortress were torn down, as were the bridges and turrets, and they had a gaping hole in the floor that lead into the basement. Many of them would consider it a sign that they needed to do better, to others that they caused more destruction of the fortress than they were meant to.
But to the only one who cared about the outcome of the battle, it didn't matter. Throwing her hand in the air in cheer, Perfuma announced the conclusion that they had all come to.
"We won!" Her cheer was rallied by the cheer of her friends who came to the same conclusion. No matter how bad the situation turned out for them, in the end, they all won. It was a victory that felt all the sweeter given everything that had come about it beforehand. For all its ups and downs, all its good and bad, they still came out on top of it at the end, and that was what truly mattered.
"I mean, granted," Bow began to comment as he looked around, "we did kind of destroy a third of the base in the process."
"Hey, better than nothing, right?" Mermista shrugged, grinning.
"It's nothing that the Rebellion can't fix with a little touch." Glimmer stated, too cheerful to let the surroundings get to her. "It'll be back and running in a day or two with enough work." It was refreshing to see all her smiling allies again after all that's happened. She felt the need to celebrate, something o compliment their victory. Out of the group, it was Catra's back turned to them that caught her attention. Refusing to let her miss out on the celebration, she quickly ran to her front, still beaming with joy. "Well? Aren't you excited, Catra? We did it!"
It was a moment of Deja Vu for Glimmer, reminiscent to the Battle of Bright Moon. As the rest of the Princess Rebellion felt like celebrating, Catra was the odd one out. Her emotions were the complete opposite to the rest of her friends, finding little reason to celebrate given the circumstances. Unlike the previous time that the girl found her in tears, however, this one was different. It was an expression that made Glimmer's face drop suddenly, something noticed by her friends as they noticed Catra's silence coming off of Glimmer.
"Hey, Catra, are you okay?" Bow asked curiously.
Glimmer continued to blink as she stared at her for a short duration, but it was at the sound of her squeezing her fist that broke the silence, turning her attention straight to Frosta who was only a few feet behind her. "Frosta, run."
"Huh?" Her raised brow was taken with surprise as she had yet to understand the situation. "Run? Why?"
"Youuu..." Catra hissed as she turned her head slowly. "You're DEAD!" With an outcry of anger, Catra attempted to lunge straight for the little princess with her claws outstretched and prepared to claw at her. If it wasn't for Mermista's and Bow's timely intervention, grabbing a hold of Catra's arms separately, there was no telling what sort of carnage she would've unleashed on the young girl within the last few seconds. "You rotten brat! You're dead! Dead!"
"C-Catra, calm down!" Bow pleaded, being forced to push Catra on the ground with Mermista just to be able to restrain her. Willing to keep her safe, Perfuma took a step ahead of Frosta, refusing to allow Catra the chance to get to her if she squired out of Mermista's and Bow's grasp.
"Let go of me you idiots!" She continued to shout. "Don't you get it?! She betrayed us, she betrayed all of us!" While Frosta was already clear of what Catra was angry about, hearing her strike those piercing words aloud made the pain in her chest all the more unbearable. She knew what she did was wrong now, she was willing to deal with the consequences.
But the way Catra glared at her, the way she had that killer instinct in her eye ready to do anything to get her hands on Frosta, it... it frightened her.
"I said get off!" She yelled once more. With all the attention focused on the screaming Catra, Glimmer frowned. It wasn't like there wasn't anything to talk about once they returned to Bright Moon, she just wished Catra would be a little more patient with the situation that they had to endure.
Walking past her friend, keeping her eyes trained on her until she reached Frosta, she sighed as she touched Frosta's shoulder, almost startling the young girl. "We need to talk."
...
...
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MINDS!?" Catra shouted angrily as she banged her hands on the table.
The journey back to Bright Moon was a hazardous one as the magicat posed a source of trouble for the young princess. It took nearly half an hour to calm her down enough just to wait until they got to Bright Moon, even being forced to go as far as to tie Frosta's hands in front of her as a precaution, just to make Catra promise she wouldn't do anything.
Tying, being generally loose in this area, so to speak. All they did was wrap a single layer of Perfuma's enchanted vines over her wrists just to act as if she had been taken back as prisoner. The loop wasn't even tied, much less secure. It was loose enough that the young princess could easily pull back her wrists from both sides, and slip right out of them, but it was the only way to get Catra to cooperate.
Once they returned to Bright Moon, they immediately informed the Queen about all that transpired, remarking on as, even though Frosta betrayed them, she saved everyone in the end once she came to her senses. With the Princess Alliance itself at the forefront of these events, Angella summoned them to the War Room where their missions began and ended, wishing to go over the details of Frosta's betrayal, and discuss the results of it.
Results that Catra was less than enthusiastic to hear.
"Catra, I understand your anger, but you need to calm down." Angella said as she continued to organize all the little details and thoughts in her mind. The entire room felt awkward for the first time in many meetings, being the first they had with an angrier Catra, and one with a known traitor in their midst. "Frosta's actions may have been inexcusable, yes, but she-"
"Then if you agree with me, why don't you do something about it!?" Out of the group, Catra was the only one who stood out of her chair, refusing to sit down until she was satisfied. In other words, never. "The stupid brat betrayed us, betrayed all of us! You guys should be angry about this as I am for a change!"
"Catra, for once, your anger isn't misplaced, but you need to keep a level head about this situation."
"Did you forget it was thanks to her that we survived at all?" Glimmer reminded about the girl who currently kept her head down.
"No. Did you also forget we wouldn't be in this situation to start with if it wasn't for her?!" Catra shot back, not caring about who she shouted at or took her anger out on. "The fact she saved us at all is the only reason I didn't suggest we take things further-!"
"But locking her up for the rest of her life?" Bow questioned, leaning higher. "Isn't that a little extreme?"
"She saved all of us, Catra, and she regrets her decision." The princess of plants refused to leave Frosta's side for even a moment, doing everything she could to defend Frosta's predicament. "She's going to have to live with that guilt for the rest of her life! Isn't that enough for you?"
"Guilt? Guilt? That's the best punishment you can come up with?! " Catra never wanted to tear her own tail off as badly as she did now. "Oh, okay, sure. Let's make her feel guilty for the rest of her life. Hey, while we're at it, let's throw her a stupid parade for the next time she betrays us too!"
"She's not going to betray us again, Catra!" Mermista yelled, growing tired of Catra's constant bantering for the last hour. "Unless you forgot, she's also going to be targeted now by the same Horde she worked with! They're not going to let this go without getting back at her!"
"I can NOT believe what I am hearing right now!" The longer the conversation dragged, the more sanity Catra felt slipping from her mind. "First you guys defend her case, then you say you're not going to punish her, and now you're saying you plan to defend her if the Horde attacks her Kingdom? Am i the only one who hasn't lost their mind?!"
"We didn't say there wouldn't be consequences, Catra." Angella stated raising her voice. "Frosta's dept to the Rebellion will be repaid once she helps us defeat the Horde. To you, it should be perfectly fitting that the person who once helped their side is now the one who will help us bring it down."
"Oh, yeah, very fitting. About as fitting as a pair of shackles around her wrists-"
"Enough! The discussion is at an end, Catra. There will be no more talk about this."
"Why are you of all people defending her? You should be just as angry as I am! Don't you get it? We could've died on that mission, Pinky could've died on that mission! Doesn't that mean anything to you? Because for someone who claims to be a "loving mother", you really don't seem to care about what happens to your own daughter-!"
"CATRA!" The Queen's anger as she rose from her seat, winged spread in fold, was enough to shake everyone, even Catra herself as her ears lowered. "Go to your room. Now."
She... She was kidding, right? She had to be. Giving someone like her such a stupid request, one that Catra doubted she would even listen to, despite the admitted fear of Angella's tone, was ridiculous. So why was her voice so shaken by the Queen's tone? One that had such a parental tone behind it like she was grounding her? "B-But-!"
"NOW!" Face hardening with anger, voice without any fear, Catra was left speechless as she flinched. Looking around, nobody else could look at either of them as the anger escalated, save for Glimmer who stared at Catra with a mix of an apologetic look, and one with sadness.
"Tch..." She gritted the edge of her teeth as her head lowered a little, unable to think of what to say. Whether it was anger, tension, or fear of the queen, it didn't matter. Catra had enough of them for one night. "Forget this." Refusing to make eye contact with any of them, she kept her head lowered as she made her way out the door, leaving with one great slam that shook the entire room as she left.
"Catra..." She couldn't let her friend sulk or storm off like this, not until she understood the situation as well as they did. Without giving her mother a chance stop her, she teleported from her chair, presumably to Catra's side as she left.
"Glimmer-!" At the sight of her daughter leaving, noticing everyone's uneasy expression around her, the Queen finally sighed as she fell back into her seat, rubbing her forehead to cam herself.
"Mmmh." The traitor returned moaned as she leaned her head over her arms on the table. This was all her fault. Frosta was perfectly aware of this. She betrayed them. Some of them should be angry. And the fact Catra took this the hardest out of all of them, took it as if she truly meant something to her, hurt the most.
Noticing this, Perfuma tried to give something close to a sympathetic smile as she raised a hand to her shoulder, still sitting by her side. "Frosta-"
"Don't!" Frosta practically ordered, shrugging her hand away. "Catra's the only one who's treating me like an adult in all of this, the way a traitor should be treated." She gazed around the room as she saw the sympathetic yet saddened expressions of her allies. "Don't you guys understand? I did betray you! I betrayed all of you! You guys should be just as angry as she is! Doesn't any of this bother you at all?"
There was a moment of silence as everyone looked to one another. How were they supposed to respond to something like this as respectful as possible? Yes she made a mistake, yes she betrayed them, and yes, rescuing them doesn't ignore the fact they were betrayed in the first place. But even with that, it was a mistake, a child's mistake at that. How were they supposed to explain it to her in a way she understood?
"Frosta, it..." Bow rubbed his head as he tried to explain. "It's not that we're not bothered by any of this, it's just..."
"It's what?" She demanded to know why they were still treating her like this, like one of their friends.
"We can't blame you for any of it. That's it." The mermaid princess stated, bluntly.
"Why not? Because I'm just a kid?"
"Because you made a decision as a ruler, not as a child." Angella explained. "You only did what you thought was right as any ruler should, taking your kingdom and your people into account first before yourself. That kind of decision-making is one that should be more respected, not hated."
"And we all would've made the same choice, Frosta." Perfuma continued in her efforts to comfort. "Yes, it hurts that you betrayed us, but it doesn't mean you were wrong for your reasons behind it. You were tricked since the day Adora first met you, and we understand that. Even if she didn't, you still only did it to protect the people you care about, the way any decent ruler should."
The princess moaned to herself again as she lied her head down again. That was the one detail that caught Frosta off guard. The idea that she had been tricked by Adora, the fact she used Catra's emotions at the Princess Prom to intentionally make themselves look bad. It sickened her, in some ways, and surprised her in others. There was no way the Adora she knew for the last month, the one who showed her kindness to her and others ever day, was capable of such things.
It truly baffled her, to say the least.
"It still doesn't make it right..."
...
"Get out of my way, Pinky, I'm not in the mood." She snarled, refusing to give her any eye contact as she made her way to her chambers.
"Catra, come on, just take a moment to think about this." She had to make some sort of breakthrough with her, some common ground to explain everything. "Look at it this way: even if you don't care about her personally, we still need the help of her and her kingdom. She's still has one of the most powerful kingdoms in Etheria, and if the Horde ever conquered it, there would be no stopping them!"
"We've been doing just fine without her kingdom, and if she's been helping them for over the last month, then it's like we've been doing this without her, anyway!" Catra flexed the claws of her fingers in and out, trying to resist the urge to scratch anyone trying to annoy her right now, even if it was Glimmer. "If you ask me, we should just toss the brat back into her own kingdom, let her deal with the Horde when they come."
Grumbling, the princess teleported from behind Catra to right in front of her, blocking her path until she finally looked her in the eye. "She's the only reason we survived. Got that? She's just a kid, Catra. You can't tell me you haven't made any mistakes in the past, too." There was bitterness in Catra's throat as she swallowed back the urge to bite. Of all the things to remind her of, her past, which caught up to her over the recent weeks, was the last thing she needed.
"At least my mistakes didn't result in everyone nearly dying!" She retorted, pushing past her. "I'm telling you, the moment we let our guard down, she'll just betray us again."
"She betrayed Adora, she fought with us! Isn't that enough for you? Why do you care so much about this if you don't really care about the others anyway?"
"Because I trusted her before them!" Catra shouted, her rage reaching its peak as she turned around, grabbed Glimmer by the collar of her outfit, and pulled her in. Glimmer didn't show any sign of fear as she glared back into Catra's eyes, though did notice a hint of remorse. "It doesn't matter when or how long the others have been with us. After you and Bow, she was the first Princess I came to trust since joining this stupid Rebellion, all right?"
She released her grip from Glimmer, continuing to squeeze her own fists to stomach the anger. "I didn't trust any of them before her, and after this, I still don't. We barely knew any of them, we barely see them anytime we're not on missions, and they annoy me. And despite all of that, despite how much Frosta annoyed me before, I still trusted her first. And you know what that got me?"
"The minute she has a chance, she rushes to Adora's side and tells her about everything. Tells her about the Rebellion, tells her about the Princesses and the alliance, and she tells them about our weaknesses. Do you get it? Because of her, Adora knows my weakness, she knows She-Ra's weakness." Lowering her head a little to the side, she hissed. "Thanks to her... any chance I once had of defeating Adora in the future went down the drain. Got that? Any time I fight Adora from now on, the minute we get separated, we lose. End of story. All because I made the mistake of trusting someone I thought I could trust, and now this."
Catra's frown was matched by Glimmer's as she told her all of this. It still didn't mean she couldn't trust them, it didn't mean Frosta would betray them again, but at least now she got to the heart of the matter. For the first time in awhile, Catra put her trust in someone, and it ruined her. A trust she had yet to five to the other Princesses, one that took her weeks to give to Glimmer and Bow, and now her trust for others was broken again.
"Catra-"
"Save it, Glimmer." Brushing off the hand, she continued to stomp her way back to her room. "I'm going to bed. You want me to continue working with the others? I can do that. But don't ever expect me to trust them about it."
With nothing else to say, Catra ignored the pink-haired princess for the rest of her trip, slamming her bedroom door behind her with as much force as she could, shaking several things within the private chambers, and sliding herself against the door. She wasn't going to get saddened by this, she knew the risks herself. And it's not like she knew what Glimmer would say, or Bow for that matter. They would tell her to suck it up or something pointless and to trust the others again.
And she didn't care. She didn't care because she learned from experience. She learned that the more trust she gave the others, the more likely they were willing to betray her in one shape or form. She needed to be She-Ra, and the more emotionally attached she got to any of them, the harder it was to maintain. She didn't care about their trust anymore, she barely cared about their lives from that point.
All she cared about was never repeating the same mistake again. She hated Frosta. She hated her betrayal. But most of all, as she growled bitterly, scanning the room, she hated the sight of Adora's crudely drawn face on her punching bag.
"You!" She tackled with such ferocity like the wildcat she was, actually pulling the bag off the chain as she slammed it to the floor. For the first time since getting the stupid bag, since drawing Adora's face on it, she attacked it. Not just attacked, but ripped at it as she clawed the face with swipe after swipe.
She hated Adora right now. Now, more than ever. She knew her weakness, all because Catra was too blinded to see what was obviously in front of her. She wasn't willing to risk putting her trust in someone, especially Frosta, ever again, less she repeat the history that landed her here. As the corner of her eyes watered, she continued to scratch at the face until it was nothing but cotton and leather, unrecognizable as it laid in a mess.
She couldn't trust the Princess Alliance.
She couldn't trust anyone else who joined them.
Most of all, she couldn't trust herself anymore.
...
...
"Hnnnnnnnnngggggh!" The sound of the machine powering down and the air returning to her was such a golden treasure that Adora never knew she would worship, breathing heavily on her hands and knees as the sweat dripped from her head and her hair draped in front of her face.
Everything was bad from the moment she returned. Within what delirium that she could power through until she recharged, she fretted every moment she was in the Fright Zone. The mission was a failure, their efforts were a failure. A handful of destroyed droids, dozens of guards and soldiers captured, and the sickness that she had to endure until she returned to the Fright Zone was all she had to show for it.
Because of her, they lost. Because of her trust in Frosta, they lost. Because she wasn't strong enough, they lost. Her loss was one of the most bitter of losses she had ever felt in her life, one that hinged entirely on her from the beginning. She knew she was the one at fault her, and she knew how Hordak would take it. Of all the times to be proven wrong about something, she wished she was wrong about this.
Hordak's disgust with the girl was known for an instant. With the doors locked behind her, already being informed by the dozens of the tower's capture, all Hordak had to do was wait until she took two steps within the room by herself, trapping her within this sanctum where he turned on the very machine that sucked the air out of her the last time. This time, he was more than willing to keep it on for an additional ten seconds, just until she was on the brink of passing out, before turning it back off.
With the sound of his footsteps drawing closer to her, the loom of his shadow hanging above her, she had never found herself more frightened of his presence than she did now. Or the tone of his voice. "Three failure, one day." He hissed. "Of all my time as your leader, I have never seen you, nor anyone, fail as greatly as you did today, Force Captain."
"W-We-We..." Adora groveled. She couldn't look him in the eyes as her eyes watered, unwilling to stop groveling and beg for forgiveness. "W-We were caught off guard, My Lord. I swear, we-we were just about to be victorious, honest! And-"
"And you still failed!" She squeezed her eyes shut as he shouted from right above her, his breathing practically coming down to the back of her neck. "Not only did you lose one of the most defensible towers the Horde has claimed in recent months, and not only did you fail when you were on the brink of victory, but then I hear, despite your assurance, that Frosta, the one *you* said could be counted on, betrayed us?!"
He had never seen such a pitiful display or performance in all his years of Etheria. This was unlike anything he was accustomed to, anything he informed of about failures and mistakes. This was an entirely new level of contempt and disappointment, and it came from somebody Shadow-Weaver considered a prodigy, one of the Horde's finest. Perhaps the fact Shadow-Weaver recommended her personally should've clued him off on how incapable she was?
"Answer me!"
"I-I... I..." Adora refused. She couldn't. Not out of lack of willingness or disobedience, but simply because she couldn't. Any time something close to air was coming out of her throat, she choked on it suffocated under the weight of her own failure and his anger towards her.
"My disappointment in you, Force Captain, is beyond measure, beyond reason. The only reason I allow your continued existence under my command is because of the one contribution you did deliver that has made this worthwhile." It's not like she needed a clue on what, or who, in this case, he was referring to. Entrapta never let up about how much work she's done for Hordak at his side, even if she didn't relate the details to her or Scorpia, due to his orders. "But my patience still comes with its limits!"
He raised a finger threateningly. "One. You have one, last, chance to prove your worth, Adora. One last chance to make things right. Continue doing your job, and I *may* overlook these instances. But fail me again, one last time. Fail to complete another mission, however small, assigned to you, fail to arrive on time if I call upon you, even a second late, and that will be the end of it. You will be thrown into a cozy, secluded, cell, right alongside your former mentor for the rest of your days. Understand?" Adora couldn't even lift her head up in recognition, she was so frightened. "UNDERSTAND!?"
"Y-Yes!" She shouted, the fear in her tone being evident to anyone around her, if there was anyone else. He was nothing short of disgusted just from the sound of her voice.
Reaching for the wall, she heard the control panels being pressed upon and the doors opening behind her. "Now, get out of my sight, at once!"
Of all the things she needed to be told twice, this wasn't one of them. Immediately, she bolted away without ever looking at his face, unaware of her surroundings until she slammed into the wall of the hallway, and holding onto it for dear life. With the doors sealing behind her again, she panted.
Her chest felt heavy with the shame of defeat, the disappointment he had in her and with herself. She failed greatly today, all because of the person she trusted, the one she thought would be by her side like Scorpia and Entrapta, through all of this. Her arms shook as she pressed them against the wall, keeping her head down as the tears and sweat continued to drip from her face. It was an unbearable feeling of guilt and resentment with her self, one that she couldn't stand to feel.
It was even worse for those watching her, namely Scorpia and Entrapta, who couldn't hear a thing through the tightly-sealed doors. The only indication they had that something was amiss was the state of being Adora was in as she came back out, two minutes later.
"Hey... are you okay, Adora?" Entrapta asked, rubbing her chin with a length of hair.
Scorpia, for one, felt the worst between the two. She felt like she should've done something more, could've done something more. To see her friend in a state like this, like she just suffered who knows what, and feeling the shame that it was somehow her own fault, made it worse. "A-Adora?" She spoke, noticing as Adora began to shake. "He-Hey, it's going to be okay." She tried to cheer up. "You'll see! Next mission you'll prove to Hordak he was wrong about you and then-" As she tried to reach over for her, she was suddenly caught by surprised as a tendril of shadow stretched from her back, closing tightly over Scorpia's claw and keeping it in place.
"Don't touch me right now, Scorpia." Adora coldly muttered with her head down. "I'm not in the mood."
"B-But Adora, I'm just trying to help." She replied, shaking the shadow off. "Come on, it's going to be fine! We'll come up with another mission that'll make up for everything-"
*wham!*
There was no lack of surprise from the two girls as Adora struck. With shadows practically bursting around her right arm, big enough to grab Scorpia and throw her fingers around her sides and shoulders, she pushed the girl roughly into the wall behind her, glaring death itself as she looked into her eyes.
"I SAID NOT NOW, SCORPIA! I'M NOT IN THE MOOD FOR ONE OF YOUR STUPID HUGS, OKAY?!" She didn't give the girl so much as a second to blink in this response before she stormed off, returning the shadows from whence they came as she stormed off into the hallway alone.
There wasn't any pain from the push itself, she was relatively fine. But those eyes, that shouting... It was unlike anything either of the two had ever seen. They had just born witness to a side of anger, the likes of which they never knew Adora to be capable of, being displayed in front of them.
She showed no sympathy for them as she walked away without a word, didn't show any signs of regret from her sudden actions, and didn't even look back just to see if Scorpia was actually okay. The whole time she watched, Scorpia could only frown. She wouldn't have hugged Adora if she didn't want it, she was fine with that! Sure, she wanted to give her a hug of sympathy, but that's besides the point.
She didn't even realize she was staring at nothing as Adora left her view until Entrapta put a sympathetic hair over her shoulder, looking at her somewhat in comfort, before they both turned to the same direction Adora had stormed off in. Whatever caused that reaction was unlike anything in the world to them.
That was their Adora, and not, at the same time.
...
*sheeem*
"Huff... Huff..." Adora heaved as she finally made her way to the room. She didn't bother wondering or thinking about if Aroda was going to show up anytime soon as she stormed in, closing the door and locking it behind her. She grabbed the railing at the foot of her bed as she breathed over it, trying to contain all the emotions currently bottling up inside of her, ready to burst, and one she refused to open.
That's why, of all the time to make her appearance, Aroda knew would be the perfect opportunity to appear behind her, looking much like the regular Adora in all of her casual state. "Soooooooooooo..."
"Shut up." Adora ordered bitterly, squeezing harder on the railing.
"Aww, no fair, I just started to tease you~"
"Not... Now... Aroda..."
"Ooh, you called me by my name, now I know we're good friends!"
"I- Egh-!" Adora held in a cry of pain as her arm suddenly spasmed like it was on fire. She recognized this kind of pain as something she once experienced a few days ago, a few days before she was met with an annoying new companion from her mind. No, no... She thought to herself as she rolled up her right sleeve. She didn't want to think it could be anything else, she needed to believe she just pulled a muscle and then everything would be alright.
Nothing was alright.
Like the days prior that let to her encounter with Aroda, Adora bit down on her own teeth heavily as she held in the urge to scream. From the wrist that it had once ended at, the rot had began to grow once again, spreading slowly and painfully over her arm on all sides. It wasn't as long as it was the previous time, only growing about another two inches in total, but still painful enough for it to be considered unbearable to most anyone who felt it. It was a work of wonder that Adora held back the urge to scream as she waited for it to end.
When it finally did, she inspected it closely, breathing heavily to herself again as she saw the results. Now, her arm was rotten from the tip of her fingers to halfway up her arm between her wrist and her elbow. She didn't know what was happening, she couldn't explain why it was happening. All she knew was that it didn't come close to the pain that today brought her.
"Ooooh, lookin' pretty nasty over there, Adora." Aroda casually remarked, pretending to adjust a pair of invisible glasses as she saw the arm. "Maybe you should get that little scientist friend of yours to help you out, eh?"
"Shut it..." As if the pain had simply vanished, the rotten look of her right arm did nothing to hinder her strength as she squeezed the railing again in frustration.
"Whyyyyy? I'm just trying to help you help yourself. That scientist is pretty smart, I'm sure she could find the answer easily. You know, when she's done being Hordak's favorite."
"Stop it!" Closing her eyes tightly, she didn't notice as she started to squeeze the railing a little tighter, crushing it slowly under her palms
"What? I'm just your conscious, remember? I'm the one telling you what you already know."
"I-I don't know that for sure-"
"Sure you dooooo~ You know that because she's more useful, she's closer to being his favorite than you could ever be. And you know why? Because you weren't strong enough to stop a little princess from spoiling all your plans at once."
"I said-"
"Because you were weak, because you trusted someone who was superior to you in every way, even at... what? Twelve-years-old? I bet Hordak would welcome her back first before he ever thought of you."
"Stop it!" Turning around, glaring at her, she didn't need to form so much as a thought as the shadows came to her arms on instinct, forming the sharpening claws that she was known to have.
"Face it, Adora. You're the only one at fault here. Because you did the one thing I knew would happen, everyone knew would happen." Plugging her ears with her hands did nothing to drown out Aroda's annoying voice. The reflection took this with glee as she smirked, leaning closer to Adora's ears as she whispered, audible enough without any piece of it being interrupted by the hands. "All because I told you sooooooo~" And that was it.
"Ahhhhh!" In a fit of rage, the Force Captain didn't even know what happened for the next several minutes. She felt an outrage of fear as she attempted to swipe at Aroda and her annoying voice without end, Aroda mocking her the entire way as she playfully dodged left and right, jumped over the tendrils as if it was a jump rope, and disappeared and reappeared in several portions of the room, just to focus Adora's attention all throughout.
Not that she needed to since she could pass through them either way.
Adora didn't care about Aroda of all people. She was annoying, she was trying to prove herself right about everything she said, and she had enough of it! She wanted her to shut up, no matter how many times she attempted to silence the annoying voice from her head, she went on to taunt her, more and more, pointing out how everything was her fault and only her fault from the very beginning.
No matter how many times she said it, she refused to listen to her! She was annoying, she was a pest! All she did was mock her on things she couldn't possibly be thinking about herself! So what if she trusted Frosta? She's the one at fault, not Adora! She didn't make her betray them, she didn't make her do anything! All she had to do was be the friend Adora needed her to be, and she couldn't even give her that! She was... She was...!
"Huff... Huff..." Adora barely recognized the room as she finally came back to her senses. Looking all around her, she saw the damage she had done, all that she had ruined, and the stared at her own two claws as they slowly returned to her hands. She didn't notice she was crying until she saw a single teardrop fall into the palm of her hands, watching her fingers twitch left and right with aggression, dropping to her knees, as she was overcome with emotion.
Overcome with sadness.
And began to cry.
"Egheh...eheh..." She cried into her hands as she curled up on the floor.
Aroda was right. Everyone was right. She was the one who was wrong. All that happened today, was her own fault. It was her decision to recruit the princess, her decision to put so much trust into someone as innocent-looking as her. Her fault for thinking she could be a new friend to her, someone who would be by her side like Scorpia and Entrapta. They were the only two she could trust at this point.
It was with the memory of them that her sadness heightened, remembering what she did to Scorpia minutes ago. What kind of person was she? What kind of sick friend pushed away another person like that when she was just trying to comfort her? She didn't feel any less rotten on the inside than her right arm was turning out to be. If anything, her right arm was less rotten than her own heart by this point. Disgusting, rotten, filth.
The pain of anger, the pain of loss, it was breathtaking to her. She couldn't stop as the tears poured out, as the aggression finally left her thanks to Aroda's assistance of getting her aggression out. Just thinking to herself that Aroda was helping her more than she initially believed was almost baffling to her, and she couldn't deny it. Like, whatever Aroda was, was supposed to do, she told her everything she needed to hear for herself, everything she already knew about herself.
This all ended, and failed, because of her. She was the one at fault.
She was the failure here.
Watching this with a grin, Aroda casually picked up the grey blanket tossed over the wreckage of the bed, and threw it over Adora. Adora didn't bother thinking about how she picked up something like that, and she didn't care. Right now, she just wanted to be alone, she wanted everyone to leave her alone.
So, what kind of good reflection would Aroda be if she disobeyed her orders? With a satisfied smirk, she slowly floated backwards towards the wall, disappearing into nothingness. From this far out, watching the display, she said to herself one last time.
"Oh Adora," she whispered, "you're so much more fun than the last person I had..."
...
...
...
A/N: Annnnnnnnnnnnd HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFTAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! What a freaking blast of a chapter- both in the fun sense, and the sense where I freaking hope i didn't drop a disappointing bombshell by the time it was over XP. Mental reminder, I haven't seen season 4 yet, so refrain from spoils, but with that in mind- if I did anything here whatsoever that actually took part in the season 4, its 100% coincidental. Hard to confirm it since i can't technically prove it, but put my word on it.
With that said, this was a very fun chapter to write, and i hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did write it. It'll definitely be the biggest episode this season (balls no i am NOT making another 6-length chapter this season like this XD wait till next season for something this big). And like i said, hope you enjoyed everything all the way through. I know it was depressing here and there, but on a much brighter side, we finally get to everyone's favorite White Out episode next chapter ^^!
Speaking of which, we're (by which I mean I XP) are still tallying the votes for what people want. So far, we have +1 vote for Cat-Catra, so if there is a desire for drunk Catra, we need at least +2 votes for drunk, not to mention more depending on how many people vote for what in the reviews. It's gonna be a close match, but i'll give a full day to tally results as Im taking a break tomorrow. Why? BECAUSE THIS XD!
With that said, hooftah! Hope you all enjoyed the wonderfully long chapter and I didn't waste 28.5k words worth of words for noting. Leave a like, fave, follow, and review if you enjoyed, and hope to see you soon ^^!