A/N: Final Word Count: 12.1k Pre-A/N's.
Well folks, this is it! This is the day many a people have been waiting for ^^ While it won't be disclosed entirely till the very end, the results of the countless voting will have been made public by the very end of this episode, more or less hinting of what's to come in the following episodes, as well as some things that most likely won't be expected. Either way, I sincerely hope you guys enjoy the episode as we get down to the action of the episode, which I had a verily fun time writing out ^^
Enjoy!
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"Come to think of it, Mermista never invites me to hang out with her other friends." Seaw Hawk commented as the group trudged through the frozen landscape. "I mean, heh, am I not cool enough for them? I'm so cool, I am Sea Hawk!" Catra tried to ignore the exaggerating captain as she pushed on ahead a little further. By the time Sea Hawk looked ahead, he saw everyone else was already ahead of him, save for Frosta who was the only one left at his side. "You think I'm cool, right?"
"I don't know," the young princess shrugged, walking ahead, "how cool is Bow?"
Ouch. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but Catra found that to be a rather low blow as they pressed on.
The day had been rather uneventful as far as missions went, and for the first time, it was almost a welcome change of pace to Catra. After receiving reports of Horde activity in the Northern Reach, she was more than willing to partake on a mission that involved bashing away soldiers and bots from the Horde. With the previous mission's events still fresh in her mind, she was more than willing to take on any new challenge the Horde had to offer to clear her head.
That was, until Frosta ended up joining the group.
It wasn't entirely of her own free will, either, not that she didn't want to make up her mistakes to her allies. Out of everyone that accepted her back, unsurprisingly, Catra was the odd one out who still showed signs of hostility towards her. She wanted nothing to do with the girl or her stupid kingdom, and was willing to trust her about as far as she could throw her.
Which was pretty much a great amount if that meant she could throw her far into the middle of an ocean, or an active volcano at this point.
She couldn't understand how everyone else could be so forthcoming about accepting her back, either. Why were they being so gullible about this? Frosta betrayed them. Her betrayal nearly lead to the end of the Princess Alliance itself, not to mention possibly the rest of the Rebellion with it! No matter how much help they can offer in turn, you do NOT forgive someone so easily!
Yeah, sure, she could admit. The fact she betrayed the Horde at the end was the one redeeming factor in all of this, but so what? That didn't excuse her from betraying them in the first place. If anything, it's the only reason Catra didn't suggest a punishment more severe than throwing her in the stockades for the rest of her life. She wasn't anywhere near the mood to allow her back with the Princess Alliance, much less on a mission this soon with them.
That was a little detail that she could thank Glimmer for, too. With the goal in mind of trying to get the two to make up with one another, she convinced Frosta to go under the idea that Catra wouldn't be joining them on the mission, keeping her involvement a secret until they met up with Sea Hawk. From there, she went on to convince the young princess to try and reconnect with Catra, hoping the mission would help Catra get over her aggression like it had in the past.
That still didn't make the ordeal any easier to go through, of course. The entire trip to the frozen wastes here alone was uncomfortable as Catra refused to so much as make eye contact with the girl, and Frosta was filled with guilt and despair to open up to Catra directly. Even with Glimmer's attempt to force a conversation between the two, the young princess barely said three lines to her before Catra walked away.
She hoped to herself that everything would be better by the time their mission was over. Besides, at the very least, her ice powers could help around here.
As they reached the top of the slope, Catra came to a halt, examining the landscape around them as everyone else walked past her. Glimmer didn't notice she was still behind them until she noticed a severe lack of negativity in the air.
"What's wrong?" She asked. "Did you see something?" At the audible question, the other three turned back to see what she was doing.
Catra kept her gaze glued to the ground as she felt around the rough edges of the pathway. Something felt off to her at the touch, the jagged roughness of the ground beneath her feet. "I think something else is out here."
"What? Other than the Horde?" Frosta wondered, looking around.
"Something other than you? Yes." Catra replied with a snide remark, intentionally insulting the princess as she answered her question.
"You know, they say all sorts of strange things happen in the Northern Reach." Sea Hawk commented, looking up at the eerie frozen sky. "Voices on the wind. Monsters in the snow. Machines break down. Sailors disappear without a trace. We could be next!" Switching from one persona to the next, he dropped his current demeanor and switched to a more anxious personality. "I am cool, right? I am. Right?"
The sound of Bow's sigh was the only thing to distract the others away from answering. "My tracker pad's been on the fritz ever since that rogue communication hub messed with it. I'm having trouble pinpointing the Horde's location."
"Why don't you ask their new friend? I'm sure she could find it in an instant." Frosta did her best to ignore Catra's disdain as she turned away, rubbing her arm from the sting it still left. That didn't mean someone else like Glimmer could easily ignore it, narrowing her brows as her fist tightened.
Walking up to the distrustful girl, she grabbed her arm. "Hey, mind if we chat for a minute?" She didn't bother getting a response from She-Ra as she teleported the two of them a dozen yards behind the group, out of earshot with the wind howling over anything they were saying. "Do you mind easing up on her? She's just trying to help!"
"I am easing up on her!" She snapped back. "I didn't toss her overboard the first chance I got, did I?"
"Catra, you know what I mean. Frosta feels bad enough for what she did, the last thing she needs is you making it worse for her."
"The last she needs? That's like the first thing she needs!" She couldn't understand Glimmer's and the rest of the Alliance's obsession with letting Frosta seemingly-off the hook like this! "Did you hit your head and forget everything she did? She betrayed us. I probably would've noticed something was up if I didn't put my trust in her, and look what happened!"
"Catra, we all put our trust in her, it's not your fault alone." She reminded. "It's just as much our fault as it is yours."
"Then why are you okay with it?!"
"I'm not okay with it! But she's doing her best to try to make the best out of the situation, so the least you could do is try to be a little less insensitive about it."
"You think this is me being insensitive? You should consider yourself lucky, I've been thinking of nearly everything I could say to her and only said two lines!"
"Catra..." Furrowing her brow, Glimmer took a deep breath as she tried a different approach. "Look, how about this? Unless she talks to you directly, you don't say anything to her. Deal?"
"Mmmh..." What would be the point of her agreeing to this? If she agreed to it, Frosta was obviously going to say something or other making it pointless, and the moment Catra insulted her or something, she'd be the one Glimmer would yell at.
"Catra!"
"Fine, deal, whatever!" She grumbled, leaving the princess behind as she rejoined the group. "Let's just go already." It was hard for Glimmer to accept that as Catra's final answer, but she didn't feel like she had a choice in the matter. Anything she said that could get her riled up might affect her She-Ra state, and as much as she wanted to reconnect the two, she didn't want to risk doing something that hurt Catra or her powers.
Teleporting herself back to the group, she examined the tracker pad from behind her friend. "Did you find anything yet?"
"No." Bow shook his head in dismay as Catra returned. "The rogue communication that messed it up alone is bad enough. The freezing winds around here are making it more than impossible.
"Worry not." Finally! A chance to remind the group of how honorable, proud, and cool Sea Hawk was! "We'll follow our instincts!" Pointing to the heavens with a glorious declaration, he pointed directly behind himself as he took the lead. "This way!"
Completely ignoring the jabbering, Bow turned his attention to the small beeping coming from his pad. "Or there's this new signal now. It's big. It looks like a First Ones tech signature."
"Then we'll follow the tech." Catra stated as the group took off again. It took Sea Hawk several seconds to realize he was left behind again. Trying to maintain all the awesomeness and coolness within himself, he quickly shifted his pointing in their general direction, trying to take lead again as he ran to the head of the group.
At the same time, the young princess found herself walking side-by-side with She-Ra, the warrior doing everything to ignore Frosta's existence right next to her. "For the record, I wouldn't know where we were even if the Horde did tell me about this place." She commented, earning a breath of irritation from the tailed-warrior as she didn't bother to look at her.
"Tch, whatever, brat." For a moment, Frosta actually looked up to her with a sliver of hope.
Name-calling each other was something the pair used to do whenever discussing between the two of them, and while Catra might have denied it otherwise, she usually gave nicknames for the people she cared about. In Frosta's case, they were along the lines of "brat", "squirt", "pipsqueak", and so forth, and after adjusting to the usual nicknames she gave her. It was kind of their own special way of addressing each other as friends.
In this case, however, there didn't seem to be any form of tact or friendliness behind the words. Catra continued to give off that irritating glare of hers as she refused to turn her head in any direction towards Frosta, keeping her sight on the path ahead. The silence alone was more than enough to convince Frosta of the scorn she still had for her as she lowered her head again in shame.
When Catra called her a brat, she truly meant it this time.
...
...
"Ah. Here we go. Well, the drill bots are definitely gone." Entrapta announced as she stood over the bridge, her voice echoing through the massive hole under the bridge. Taking a look for themselves, Adora and Scorpia leaned over the bridge, inspecting the empty chasm themselves.
"What? They just disappeared into thin air like that?" Scorpia's chilling nerves already started to unsettle her more and more as she took a step back from the bridge. She had a million questions forming in her mind as Entrapta began to pace a little along the bridge, examining the statistics and details through her own tracker pad in the hopes that the data would provide an answer.
"Maybe there's scientific truth to the rumors about strange happenings in this region." Just the thought of it left Entrapta with terror and excitement. On the terror-side of things, it meant there was some reasonable explanation to all the disappearances, and that very reason could still be surrounding them as they spoke. On the excitement-side of things, it also meant that there was the possibility of making a new discovery that the world of science had yet to see, and she would be among the first to discover it!
"We weren't here to investigate some old rumors, Entrapta." Adora grumbled, trying to peer down into the abyss below her feet.
The intense weather surrounding them did nothing to brighten her mood as she squeezed her hands upon the railing. She couldn't allow to have another mission end in failure just because a couple of dumb robots suddenly went missing, and she couldn't afford to return to the Horde empty-handed without something to show for it. Her career was on the line, and, more importantly, her life was on the line.
After the string of recent failures she's been suffering, she needed to get a mission done successfully, even once, to avoid Hordak's wrath. Tired and fed up with her failures of late, the leader of the Horde warned the girl that if she failed him one more time, however slightly, that he would lock her up until the end of her days. Personally, that was probably the least problematic situation she considered herself to be in.
She was tired of messing up, tired of dedicating her life to the Horde without anything to show for it. Since the Princess Alliance had cleared out the Whispering Woods from the army of bots they sent them on a daily basis, they've done nothing but get in the way of Adora's plans and messing up all of her schemes. It wasn't just taking its toll on the girl on an emotional level, finding herself suffering in worse ways each and every time she failed, but mentally as well.
From being traumatized by repeated betrayals of those she thought she could trust, to a new consciousness that seemed to take on a life of its own, the girl had been suffering greatly every day, and it continued to grow worse. She couldn't put up with the stress of everything, she didn't have the energy to push harder than she's ever been, and she still somehow managed to go through with it for her life's dedication of paying back the very family that raised her since she was an infant.
She owed it to them. She wanted to return the favor. She wanted to prove to everyone her methods of alliances and whatnot were the key to uniting Etheria, one that didn't risk the lives of the innocent around her. And every time her emotional state changed, she found it harder to maintain those convictions.
She needed to succeed to pay back the Horde. She needed to succeed for herself. And each time she failed, she only became more determined to succeed in the next mission.
"Hordak wants that technology, if it's down there." She continued. "And we're not leaving until we get it."
"But Adora, we can't do anything without those drill bots," Entrapta tried to protest, "and we can't collect it without their help."
"Look, I don't care if I have to jump in there and collect it myself! Just give me some sort of data to work with and help me find it, or we're leaving you behind until you do-!"
"Adora!" The Force Captain was cut off as she heard the familiar, annoying, and painful voice of an old friend yelling at her from across the bridge, one she refused to believe was already here. No, she takes it back. With the mission going the way it was at this rate, it was only reasonable to assume that Catra and her annoying friends were going to be around to mess everything up again, and she would be the one to suffer for it.
Sure enough, turning around, there they were. Members of the Princess Alliance and symbol of the Rebellion itself appearing from the clearing haze. Catra. And how could she forget her wonderful allies like the Princess, Glimmer, the tech expert, Bow, the traitorous Frosta, and... whoever the mustache guy was.
"And, once again, the little furball shows up where she's not wanted." Adora commented crossing her arms, leaning her back against the bridge's railing. She would've been a lot more stressed out about their appearance if it wasn't for a certain toy Adora picked up awhile ago. In fact, she was actually a little more eager to see her again after all this time.
"You know, I'm actually a little surprised you're out here." Catra remarked, holding the sword behind her head uncaring. "I would've figured the little teacher's pet would've been sent somewhere more comfortable or warm. Then again, you really did mess up at the battle of Bright Moon. So I can't blame her." She smirked as she saw the small tendril of shadows forming from Adora's shoulders. It was ironic when she thought about it- while Catra's emotions affected her She-Ra state, the shadows welling up in Adora made it obvious when something was bothering her.
"Teacher's bet?" The Force Captain grinned back, realizing what she meant. "Oh, riiiiight, her. I never did tell you about her, did I? Silly me, and here I thought we shared everything together," she cracked the knuckles in her gloved hand, forming a fist, "like pain." Her expression soured as she saw the younger princess at her side. "At least we have the same taste in traitors around here."
Unlike Catra, Adora's words didn't get to Frosta as her expression hardened itself. "I'd rather be a traitor than a villain, Adora." She retorted.
"Oh, right, I'm getting it from the traitor now?" She playfully shook her head, shrugging. "Why don't you reach adult height before I take your words seriously, Frosty? At least in the Horde, I could take you seriously." It was almost baffling to Frosta when she thought about what she saw in Adora before compared to how she acts on the outside.
"Enough." Catra raised her sword threateningly to the blonde shadow-girl. She had more than her fair share of annoyances throughout the last several days. "We're taking back the Northern Reach, Adora. So pack up and go home, or I'll make you go home. Now!"
"Hmm, how about I say no, and I skip to the part where I say, "over my dead body"?"
"Glad-" Catra stopped as she looked to Adora's side. Her eyes widened with shock as she recognized the familiar princess who was examining her tracker pad, the first person to betray them, and the second-most annoying person she knew from the Horde. "Entrapta!"
"Oh, no..." Bow muttered, realizing what was about to happen.
"Hmm?" Entrapta casually lifted her head to inspect the caller of her name, and gave a calm smile as she waved with her hair. "Oh, hey, Catra! How's it goi- AHHHH!"
*WHAM!*
Entrapta barely dodged the incoming attack, falling to her side, as Catra jumped into the air and came slamming down with her sword. The heat of her frustration fueling her veins as she glared at the girl. "What are you doing?!" The scientist screeched, backing away in fear as she struggled to get back to her feet on the slippery bridge.
"Hold still and you'll find out!" With another shout, She-Ra transformed her sword into a spiked mace, attempting to slam it down on the girl who nimbly slid out of the way, resulting in Catra leaving a large dent and shaking the bridge. The scientist wasted no time hightailing it out of there as she ran in fright, confused beyond measure for Catra's unexplained bout of anger. Without any regard for the people behind her, Catra angrily chased after the girl through the bridge, her sword returning to its original form as she did.
At this, Adora just blinked. It took her several moments to process the fact that Catra completely ignored her and went on after the scientist instead. "Hey- Wait a minute!" She yelled as Scorpia chased off ahead, with Adora trailing behind her. "You're supposed to be fighting me!" That was a group of words Adora never thought she would say out loud, and yet, here she was.
"Catra!" Glimmer cried out as the rest of the Princess Alliance chased after them, weapons drawn to their side and magic at the ready.
This was bad. Extremely bad! The last time Catra had revenge on her mind, she started losing portions of her She-Ra powers before she even reached the girl. There was no telling what would've happened if she actually managed to catch the girl this time around!
Noticing the pests that were following after them, eagerly forming the massive claws and shadows over her arms, once Adora reached the end of the bridge she quickly grabbed on to the edges. With a massive heave, using all the strength she could call out to right now, she pulled the bridge from the edge of the the gaping hole, the sound of metal creaking and crushing underneath her shadowy fingers filling the air.
The others watched in dismay as they felt the entire bridge being lifted out from under their feet the strong shadow warrior ripping at the end of the bridge while they were still stuck in the middle.
"Hold on to something!" Bow warned to everybody, grabbing on to the bridge's rails as the rest of them followed suit. No sooner than they had after grabbing the rails did Adora go about her business.
With a large, massive, pull, she ripped the end of the bridge off, tearing at least twenty feet of the cold steel from the platform, and watching with delight as she saw the bridge slowly bend itself over from its own weight. The others let out a scream as the bridge began to bend from its own weight, over half the bridge began to sink into the maw below them. Unwilling to waste any more of her precious time, Adora continued on her way as she chased after Catra.
The others held on for dear life, each of them holding onto an opposite end of the railings until the bending finally came to a stop. From the straight and precise flatness the bridge once had, it now had a jagged torn edge on the end while over half of it was now slanted and bent over, twisting a little the further it went out and nearly curling up. They found themselves fortunate enough that the bridge came to a stop when it did, instead of the entire bridge itself becoming undone in the process.
From Bow on top to Glimmer, Sea Hawk, and Frosta all below him, they all peered into the gaping chasm with an extraordinaire sense of relief, glad that the worst that could have come never came to pass. Granted, it didn't really do anything to help their current predicament.
"Are you guys okay?" Glimmer asked, looking up and down to make sure everyone was accounted for.
"I think we're fine." Bow replied, shaking from the cold steel and the near-death experience they came across. "But you need to go on ahead and help Catra before it's too late."
"But what about you guys? I can help you across the bridge before-"
"There's no time!" He quickly interrupted. "You need to stop Catra before she gets hurt or does something she'll regret, and you'll waste too much energy teleporting each of us off the bridge."
"But-"
"It's okay, we'll be right behind you." Frosta shouted up to her, looking at the other end of the chasm.
There was about a thirty foot difference between them and the other side of the bridge, not to mention the elevation. Nevertheless, it wouldn't be close to a match for the young princess as she began to channel her powers, using her energy as she began to form a small downward slope from hole's walls to the end of the torn bridge. It was a slow process, but one that would work out eventually once she had the two sides connecting.
"We'll meet up with you as soon as we can. Go!" Frosta ordered again, keeping her focus on the task at hand.
"Right!" With a nod, the princess quickly teleported from where she was hanging to the other end of the bridge, specifically the other end of the platform from where the bridge was torn off. Taking a quick look at her friends, she prayed silently for their safety as she ran ahead, hoping to catch up to Catra before anything bad happened.
...
"Catra-!"
*wham!*
"I think you're suffering from-"
*crash!*
"An unexplained existential crisis!" Entrapta continued to squeak as she dodged one attack after the other. The only relevance of safety she had around here was hiding among the boulders that kept the girl from lunging directly at her, ones that were demolished under She-Ra's strength as she came slamming down on top of them.
"Oh, I can explain it all right! Just hold still for me!" Catra refused to listen to any reason or order as she continued in her pursuit.
And why should she? This was Entrapta they were dealing with! The first person to betray them after they thought she was dead in the Fright Zone, the supposed genius scientist who couldn't use typical logic to figure out the rest of them didn't abandon her in the first place! The person who's been making dangerous weapons and bots for the Horde since the moment she joined, practically before they joined if her personal bots were anything to talk about.
And the one Catra wasted what felt like a better part of her life feeling guilty over!
Maybe she was the reason she couldn't transform into her fully-powered She-Ra form before? Maybe she had everything to do with the fact that all of this was happening? With all the time spent feeling guilty about her, consciously or subconsciously, there was no telling how much she affected her She-Ra state. She might've been She-Ra a lot sooner if she didn't have the girl's death looming over her head!
At this point, it didn't matter. She spent so much time worrying over the girl only to find out that she was working for the Horde willingly! She didn't care about those she left behind, and even if it did, Catra wouldn't forgive her. She promised Glimmer she wouldn't do anything threateningly or dangerous to Frosta for the rest of the mission, and she planned on keeping it that way. She also didn't say anything else about any other potential princesses she came across, and if Catra couldn't have the second traitor, she was more than willing to trade it for the first!
She needed this!
"Is this about all those tests I had done on you without your consent?" Thinking quickly as she ran, the princess scooped up a large clump of snow and rolled it into a ball the size of a cannonball. The moment she rounded out the other end, she threw it with all the strength she had in those lengths of hair, throwing them at Catra and landing square in her face- it did absolutely nothing to slow her down as she easily brushed it off. "Because I lost the data if it makes you feel better!"
"I didn't even know about those tests, so thanks for giving me another reason!" She growled. Getting tired of their little game, looking around the snowy field, Catra dug her claws into the nearest boulder she could find, one half the size of her body and more than capable enough of crushing Entrapta's entire head. All she needed was a good aim to make sure the projectile left its mark.
No sooner did she line up her shot against the fleeing princess did she end up getting tackled away from her line of sight by Scorpia, the girl crashing into her as she dropped the boulder behind them. Just as soon as Scorpia pushed her to the ground, she threw herself ahead of her, blocking her path as Catra jumped back to her feet.
"If you want to get to Entrapta, you're gonna have to go through me, Catra!" Scorpia declared, pounding a claw on her chest with pride.
"..." Out of all the ways things could've turned out, of the many people she could've met, Catra ended up being complete dumbfounded as she stared at the girl. "...Okay, I' going to be completely honest. I have no idea who you are."
"What? What are you talking about? We met lots of times!"
"No, I saw you lots of times, but we never really met face to face. In fact, I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've even spoke to each other like this."
"How... How can you not know who I am? I'm Adora's friend? I've been keeping her company since the day we met?"
"Oh..." Sneering, she transformed her weapon into a lasso as she gave it a twirl. "Then why didn't you say so?" With a precise shot, Catra threw the end of the lasso directly at the scorpion's claws, entangling one of them in a tight grip as looped around her pincer.
Surprisingly to her, however, the moment she did, Scorpia showed no signs of making it easy for her. Before she could give the lasso a tug back, Scorpia ended up having the same idea as she looped it around both of Catra's wrist from her own end, pulling it out of her grip as it tightened around her hands. No sooner were they tightened did Scorpia pull at the rope with her own claws, pulling Catra off her feet and slamming her into the small icy glacier behind her in a small crash.
"Oh yeah... now I remember you." Grabbing at the rope again, Scorpia lost all the grip she had as the lasso returned to its previous form, freeing Catra's own hands as the sword returned to her. Seeing how someone was so insistent on getting in her way, she decided to take Scorpia up on her offer of "going through her" as she charged sword first towards the scorpion girl, the who was pushed back against the snow as she gripped the bladed end of the sword between her claws, refusing to let go.
As the two began to fight, Catra was unaware of the approaching commander coming in from behind her, the howling winds and Catra's own anger distracting her from her senses as she fought off the red-carapace menace. With the pull of her tendrils sinking into the snowbank around herself, she attempted to leap directly ahead of the two, planning to catch Catra off guard as she continued the fight with Scorpia. But, just as soon as she took that first three steps through the air did a familiar sound catch her ears, having barely enough time to see a familiar mount of pink before her face was struck back into the ground.
"Agh!" Adora yelped, her face completely unguarded from the surprise attack as she took the full force of Glimmer's magic-induced punch. Rolling over her own back, Adora glared at the pink-haired princess as she summoned her father's infamous staff to her side. "You know, between you and the animal, I really have no idea who I hate more right now!" Both girls ran to reach other as they slammed their weapons into each other, Adora's shadow clashing with Glimmer's staff.
It was almost surprising to Glimmer as she saw small traces of the black veins trailing up Adora's neck again, and a little sad when she thought about it. "Adora, look at yourself! You need help!"
"Since when are you a doctor?" She scoffed, kicking Glimmer away. She did have to admit, Glimmer wasn't entirely wrong in her statement. With the fighting mixed between the princess's attacks and her shadows actively protecting Adora from the harsh cold, it was draining her ability to contain it almost three times as fast. "And when did we become friends enough for you to lecture me?"
"It's a little something called compassion!" With a shout, the princess shot a beam of pure magic from her hands at the commander, pushing Adora back as her feet sank into the snow building up behind her. "You should try it sometime!"
"Ghhhh! Where do you get the idea that you should be talking to me about compassion!?" Focusing as much of her darkness as she could, she pushed through the princess's magic as she blasted her right back, knowing the princess off her feet long enough for Adora to push on ahead.
Slamming the girl to the snow, Scorpia attempted to subdue the girl as she pinned her by the collar to the ground while she raised her own stinger above her head. With just an inch of space left for her, Catra barely managed to catch the stinger with her hands barely around the tip, using whatever frustrated-power she had to keep the girl from stinging her. It was close enough that Catra could see the toxic green liquid dripping from the girl's tail, doing her best to keep it from getting any closer to her forehead.
"Do you know how much you hurt Adora when you left her after your rescue mission? She was in tears!" Scorpia yelled, still angered by the memory.
"Yeah, well cry a river for me!" Catra nearly choked as the stinger came a little closer. She could practically feel the tip of the stinger rubbing against her forehead. "It's hard to feel bad about someone who tries to kill you!"
"She doesn't want to kill you, you jerk! You should be grateful for-"
*pitooey!*
"Blegh!" Scorpia spat in disgust as she tried to wipe her face aggressively, releasing her claws from Catra. "You spitted on me!" The moment she had her freedom, Catra immediately followed up with as she punched Scorpia square in the face, throwing her off of her as she got back to her feet.
"You're lucky that's all I did!" She mocked, preparing to continue her attack while the girl was still down. Running for her sword in a mad dash, she just had enough time to grab it in her hands before she was tackled, once again, by another combatant. In this case, a certain Force Captain named Adora who had a grudge against her.
"Adora!" Scorpia called out happily as she kept her focus on Catra.
"I'll take care of this, Scorpia." Adora announced. "Go stall the others. This won't take long." Summoning forth as much shadow she could possibly draw, the Force Captain surrounded her entire torso, arms included, in a blanket of protective shadow armor, protruding up to two tendrils on her back as she prepared to face off against Catra.
"Y-Yeah! I got it!" Scorpia uneasily agreed as she rushed back to the princess. She didn't want to argue with her friend over a simple request like this, but at the same time she worried for her. With her refusing to wear the wristband to keep her shadows in place, there was only so long she could continue fighting by herself before her shadows made her sick again.
Sinking her claws into the snow, Catra growled, tail wagging angrily, as she glared up at her current target smirking back at her. "Are you sure you don't need your girl-scout to back you up?" She taunted.
"If you mean someone I can safely call a friend, then I'm fine!" Wasting no time, Adora lunged for the girl with both of her own claws, tendrils shooting out ahead of her as she continued the attack.
...
Shaking the snow off of her as she got up to her hands and knees, Glimmer was about to continue her own chase when she heard Bow calling out for her with the others.
"Glimmer!"
"Bow!" She greeted back with relief. She was worried if they were truly going to be alright given the state she had to leave them in. "Are you guys okay?"
"We're perfectly fine, lass." Sea Hawk replied proudly. "We owe the young princess much for saving us."
"Wait a minute," Glimmer paused, looking around, "where is Frosta?"
"She took off after she made us a staircase." Worry overcame Bow as he responded. "I thought she came up here to join you?"
"But I thought-"
*Crash!*
With a thunderous roar, the ground in front of them was slammed with Scorpia's massive claws, disrupting the brief conversation they had. No sooner had she landed did she follow up on her attack did she swipe her tail at them, knocking them back a good distance as she cleared the space around her.
Refusing to let up, and determined to show his past crew the definition of the word "cool", Sea Hawk quickly drew his heat-induced rapier as he charged at the girl, forcing her to block the attack with her own claws as she pushed back against him.
Drawing his arrow, the archer called back to his friend as he waited for a clear shot. "We'll hold off Scorpia. Go catch up and find Catra and Frosta as soon as you can!" She didn't need to give a verbal response as she rushed out of the scene on her own two feet, conserving her magic for the eventual rematch with Adora that lied ahead.
As much as Scorpia wanted to, she couldn't chase after her with these two catching up to her tail, so to speak. Especially while the only thing keeping her from being shot at was the annoying figure standing right in front of her.
With his manliness at stake as well as the appearance of perfection, Sea Hawk found this to be the perfect opportunity to ask her, "So, do you think I'm cool? Be completely honest with me."
...
The battle raged on around the other sight of the battlefield. Both girls were giving it their all as they slammed into each other with each striking blow. The girls that hated one another's guts, the ones that wanted to be victorious in the end. The ones who wouldn't let anyone else claim their victory for them no matter which side was beginning to win or lose.
In this case, Catra was on the losing side.
Attempting to lunge at the girl again with her sword, Adora easily managed to smack the girl to the ground with the use of her tendrils, wasting no time to follow up on this as she kicked Catra soon after, crashing her back straight into the surrounding wall of ice and snow that covered half of their field. With a lunge herself, Catra had just enough time to grab at Adora's hands as the girl pushed her a little further into the glacier, her body sinking in as Adora pushed back with all of her might.
"What happened to that little hair job you had before, Catra?" She teased, grinning wider as Catra was shoved another inch into the wall.
"I'm sure you'd like to know." She practically snorted, trying her best to push back. Strangely, she found Adora's strength to be a little stronger than it was last time, even with the fact she was missing part of her She-Ra form from before. Then again, with the rising darkness growing along Adora's neck via her veins, it was likely she wasn't planning on holding anything back this time.
"Actually, I wouldn't. No offense, but orange is definitely not your color." With another tease, Catra watched as she raised the two tendrils from her back, skewering them against one another until they were perfectly sharpened enough to puncture anything that Adora wished to, like someone who couldn't get out of her grasp, for example.
*Wham!*
Just as she was about to contemplate how to push Catra further into the ice, or how she could've used a nice trophy over a mantle, if she had one, Adora was suddenly smacked from the side by a large wall of ice, throwing the girl away from her as Catra pulled herself out of the ice. Without needing an explanation, she shot the young princess a look, one without a sense of thankfulness and just a very small bit less of contempt.
"Wow, you hit her." She mocked as Frosta approached her. "I guess that means you're totally on our side now."
"Do you want to keep insulting me all day, or do you want to smack her around?" Frosta shot back. Personally, she had a feeling the real answer wouldn't be to her liking, but for now, Catra turned her focus back to Force Captain who was starting to get a little out of breath.
Like she agreed before, even though she had little to no trust in any of the other princesses, especially Frosta, Catra was at least willing to work with them.
As for Adora, it continued to disgust her that the person she used to trust as much of a friend was now working again with the same person who was, from her understanding, never her friend to begin with. Either way, there was probably a blessing in disguise; if she managed to take down either of them and brought them back to the Horde, Hordak would be more than willing to forgive her past mistakes.
Provided she could last long enough as the veins were slowly getting to the point of causing a fever.
With Adora's grumbling acting like a warning bell, the duo pressed on the attack as Catra rushed for the Horde while Frosta channeled her magic again. With the lift of her arms, she nearly crushed Adora as she lifted two durable slabs of solid ice on both sides of her, pressing them into the young commander and pinning her in place as her arms and shadows held them at bay. That gave Catra more than enough of an opening to launch an attack as she jumped for the girl, ready to strike her down.
Or so she thought. As soon as Adora found her close enough, she quickly dug both her tendrils into the top of the slaps, pulling herself out of the minor confinement as they slammed into each other at full force. The second Catra was taken back by her recovery was all the time Adora needed to grab onto the girl's waist by her tendrils, pulling Catra through the air as she jumped off and crashing her straight into the column of ice behind her that Frosta set up.
With one obstacle out of the way for the moment, it gave her plenty of time to charge back towards the traitorous princess that she wasn't planning to forgive, extending the shadowy claws of her hands a little as she lunged for her. Preparing for the attack, Frosta created a small sheet of ice in front of her, hoping to block whatever attack Adora planned to throw at her. She ended up underestimating the commander as, right before she struck the sheet of ice, she caught Frosta by surprise as both of her tendrils lunged at the girl, tightening around her wrists as they pulled her into the air several feet off the ground.
Wrists stretched out at each side, tightening with each passing second, Frosta struggled to concentrate to gather her magic as Adora gathered her shadows again into an enlarged fist, squeezing it tightly in front of the girl that disgusted her as a sign of power.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself, traitor?" Adora wondered, narrowing her eyes angrily as the squeeze on Frosta's wrists began to hurt.
"Y-Yeah..." Frosta grumbled back, opening one eye as she tried to push back the pain. "I can see why Catra left you to begin with!"
Adora was, suffice to say, taken by surprise by that remark. Of the many things Catra taught Frosta in their little time together, it was knowing how to insult their enemies, how to make them slip up in the middle of battle. It was also just a fun way to tease the rest of the Rebellion from time to time when she felt like it.
What she didn't teach her, though, was how there was a time to place to say her petty insults, and how there were some people she shouldn't try to insult for her own safety- like the Queen of the Rebellion, Angella, or a certain Force Captain who was having a really bad day who took Catra's abandonment rather personally. It was clear to her how much Frosta's insult affected her as she saw the veins growing along Adora's cheek beginning to hasten, the captain pulling back her fist with every inteion of knocking Frosta out as painfully as possible.
*tug*
Until that happened.
Right as she was about to strike, she was immediately taken by surprise by Catra from behind her, the magicat growling as she grabbed along the tendrils from Adora's back with enough crushing force to pry them off of the young princess. With Frosta released, Catra followed up on her assault as she pulled the tendrils harshly, pulling Adora off her own two feet as she struggled to break free from the grip behind her.
In a full large loop around the two and with a great, big, pull, Catra slammed the girl into the very wall of ice she pinned Catra to just moments ago, making her throw her hands to the side of the wall upon impact. Before she could get a chance to collect herself, Adora let out a small yelp as both her hands were blanketed in a solid sheet of ice, pinning both her arms to the wall as they were encased in ice. Without giving her a chance to react, Catra draw the sword right up to the girl's neck, nearly pushing it against her skin as she refused to back down.
Normally, the average person would be wary of the person pinning a blade to their neck like this. To someone like Adora, she just threw Catra an amused, knowing, glance as the situation had yet to phase her.
"Give me one solid excuse, Adora." Catra challenged, barring her teeth. "I dare you!" It almost frightened Frosta to see her willing to push on like this as she approached from behind.
"Oh, please, Catra." Adora rolled her eyes without a care in the world. "We both know you won't do it."
"You wanna bet?!" She gritted her teeth, pressing the blade closer to her by a single inch.
"Yeah, actually, I do. I know you're not going to do it, Frosta knows you're not going to do it, and you know you're not going to do it." There was no semblance of fear in Adora's voice as she stared straight into Catra's eyes. No matter how menacing Catra looked, no matter how much they hated each other, there was no way she could possibly go through with it.
... And she was right.
Groaning to herself, Catra backed away from the trapped commander, squeezing her anger onto the sword as she tightened her grip.
"You've lost either way, Adora." Catra stated, noticing the dark veins along Adora's neck and cheek. "The outpost is mine. So do yourself a favor and go back to the Fright Zone."
"Go back?" She sounded perplexed and curious of the notion. "Why would I give up when we haven't even gotten to the fun part?"
"Fun part?" Catra asked, looking back to Frosta who could only shrug in response.
*swish*
"Catra!" Glimmer called out as she appeared behind them.
"Glimmer?" That was the moment she made her mistake.
The moment she let her guard down.
"Thanks, Glimmer." Adora's thanks almost went unheard of as she got out. While the shadows along her arm acted as a cover, she easily managed to slip her own arms out of the sockets, getting herself back to the ground with ease, and rushing straight for the empowered warrior as she tried to turn around again. Digging through her pockets, she pulled out the one device she knew would turn the entire situation into her favor, and grant them the victory she needed.
The First Ones tech-virus.
*clink*
Without so much as a warning, with no understanding of what she was aiming for, Catra was too late to stop her from tagging the triangular device over her sword's runestone. In a brief flash of red light, everything within and around the girl began to change for the worse.
"Nnnngggghhhhahh!" Catra cried out in a bloody war as pain and emotions overwhelmed her entire body.
The moment the device so much as brushed against the runestone, the virus began to spread. With red veins trailing along the ends of the sword, Catra was helpless to stop anything as the vein-like virus spread over to her hand and grew along her entire body, filling the girl with unimaginable sparks of emotions that she had never experienced before, even for her. With an even greater flash, waves of dark red began to erupt from the sword, spreading out into the distance that overwhelmed the field, catching everyone's attention, including those who were hundreds of feet away.
Catra continued to cry out as the pulsating flashes continued, the dark red veins spreading through the limbs of her entire body. Adora was almost amused by the irony of things as she was by Catra's current state. Throbbing her head in pain, the way the veins were spreading all throughout her entire body, it reminded her a lot of the state she found herself in whenever she used too much energy. And if that was the case of how it would turn out, then Catra would be powerless as Entrapta said in no time!
And... she had to admit... feeling what it was like to be in that state of constant pain and agony several times over... she almost felt a little sorry for her as her amusement turned into an unsure wonder.
Teleporting again, Glimmer angrily appeared at Adora's side, keeping her direction facing the emotionally unstable warrior who continued to scream in agony.
"Adora, what did you do?!" She shouted.
"RAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!" That was all the time Catra needed before her transformation was complete. With a beastial rage, she roared to the world surrounding her as she was devoid of any emotion other than rage, malice, and pride. Her arms were soaked in the veins of the pulsating red that grew from her hands, her pupils red with a bloodshot color, and her tone almost had a robotic-hum to it as rage overwhelmed her.
"Catra! What's wrong?" Frosta wondered worriedly, running to her side.
"Frosta, don't-!" But it was too late.
*WHAM!*
The moment she was in arms reach, without any sense of hesitation or holding back, the transformed-She-Ra smashed the girl with the back of her wrist, sending her flying straight ahead like a shot out of a canon. There was no telling how much pain it inflicted as the young girl was knocked out cold the moment she struck her. There was no remorse in Catra's eyes as she watched her getting sent flying, only pride at her own accomplishment.
"Frosta!" Glimmer's cries of worry were enough to draw the warrior's attention away from the flying girl. The moment they so much as made eye contact, Catra charged like a mad demon straight towards them, first targeting Adora as she swiped with her blade without holding anything back. It was easy enough for Adora to dodge it, throwing her tendrils atop the icy wall as she threw herself away, but it still surprised her how destructive Catra was when she destroyed the wall in its entirety.
She didn't show any signs of letting up either as she immediately turned to the next closest target, Glimmer, one of the few people Catra had come to know as a friend. Teleporting back and forth, the Princess of Bright Moon tried to yell at her friend through the screaming rage and the howling wind, trying to get through to her as Catra destroyed nearly everything around her with each passing blow.
"Catra, stop! This isn't you!"
Over in the distance a short run away, Adora found Scorpia and Entrapta peering out from behind a flat boulder, having a remarkable view of the action as Bow and Sea Hawk started to arrive on the scene.
"I... I thought you said... She'd be powerless!" Adora reminded, returning the shadows temporarily to minimize the power she was currently using.
"She will be." Entrapta's confident smile did nothing to ease Adora's mind as she watched the show, holding the tracker pad and recording all the data she would need. "Eventually." One word was enough to get Adora to raise her brow in surprise. "I think." And two more were enough to push her into disbelief.
Then again, she did have to admit, it was rather enjoyable to watch from afar. "Actually, I think I can live with this." She grinned. There was nothing better than watching Catra flail about trying to injure one of her own teammates . In fact, this could've been the best kind of revenge she could've asked for. Watching Catra in a mad rage as she tried to take out the very people she came to care about? It was almost poetic in some way as she thought about it... and she still couldn't continue watching it without a hint of concern.
"Catra, I know what you're really like, this isn't you!" Glimmer attempted to plead with the girl as she continued telporting to save her life.
Catra was having none of it on her end. Right now, she only had three prime directives in her current state: Destroy. Kill. And enjoy herself. And nothing would convince her to stop.
Following the previous teleporting, her attention switched to the down princess a dozen yards away, one still out cold as she lied partly buried in the snow. Grinning mischievously, the magicat ran straight towards the downed princess like a bullet, the sword tightening in her hand as she knew what she wanted to do, and what Glimmer knew she would do.
"Noooo!" Teleporting in a mad haste, Glimmer just reached Catra in time as she held her back, grabbing her from under both arms as she was no less than three feet from annihilating the girl. Catra thrashed about with all her might to throw the girl off of her to no avail. "Catra, please! You have to fight this, we need you! You have to let go of the sword, I promise you'll be fine!"
There wasn't anything resembling the old Catra left in her from her point of view. Without any sense that the princess was going to let up, Catra lowered her head forward a few inches before thrusting it back, smacking Glimmer square in the face as she threw her off her feet with a mere butt of the head. It wasn't near enough to knock her out like it did Frosta, but it still hurt like she couldn't believe. Catra was enjoying herself through all of this, she wanted to do this to all of them right now! And nothing was going to keep her from charging back towards the girl who interrupted her fun!
"Glimmer!" Except for the lone arrow that struck her square in the chest, bursting into a rope net that knocked her off her feet, entangling her in a mess of rope.
"Glimmer!" Bow shouted over as Glimmer rose from the ground, shaking her head. Remembering what she was doing before the brief stall, she quickly ran ahead towards the downed princess, checking over her immediately for any hopeful signs of life!
"Phew, still breathing." Glimmer gasped as the anxiety left her. Seeing how hard Catra smacked her away, the way she lied motionless in the snow, she was starting to fear the worse.
She soon discovered the worse was yet to come as she looked back to see Catra getting back to her feet. Without any word of warning, the feline pulled the rope apart with her own two hands, growling angrily as she jumped in the air with the sword raised above her. Teleporting themselves to safety, Glimmer immediately disappeared from the spot just as Catra's sword came crashing down on the spot. The teleporting princess soon appeared by Sea Hawk and Bow's side with Frosta in her arms, thoroughly exhausted from the amount of magic she just finished spending.
"What is happening?!" Sea Hawk squealed as he and Bow helped support Glimmer onto her feet, taking the younger princess in his own arms so she could get their support.
Glimmer would find no rest from the wicked as the trio heard the sounds of Catra's aggressive roar, the girl continuing to pursue them without pause. It would've been taxing on her, but she didn't have a choice if she wanted to save them. With every drop of magic she could muster, she teleported the four of them as Catra slammed down on her sword, embedding the twisted blade halfway into the ice.
Appearing no more than twelve feet away from their spot, Glimmer almost collapsed entirely to the ground, the energy drained out of her taking up nearly everything she had. It forced Sea Hawk and Bow to help the girl stay standing, pushing themselves to keep her up for as long as they could. Despite the amount of exhaustion and pain she was in, Glimmer couldn't turn away, just like the rest of them.
Catra growled like a wild animal as she pulled at the sword which was currently stuck, doing everything in her power to free her trusted blade from captivity, and continue the onslaught that she wouldn't let up in. This was unlike any Catra her friends had come to know. They saw her rage from time to time, saw the sadness and sorrow, saw the things they considered little in life to be major issues to someone like Catra.
This was none of those Catras' to them. This, was pure rage incarnate. Rage given power in the form of She-Ra, the form of Catra. This was no warrior or symbol of hope for the Rebellion.
This was a monster.
A monster whose anger refused to quell, one whose only objective was to destroy everything around her. Pulling with all the might she had in her body, she began to scream as the blood-red runestone began to charge up with power, preparing for a final attack. With all the might the sword would grant her, the strength that she had yet to reach, Catra heaved, pulling the sword with a grand swipe that shot out a shockwave of power in the direction of her friends, spreading glaciers all around them that could pierce even the toughest metals.
*CRASH!*
The glaciers were the least of their worries as they felt the ground grumbling around them, the blocks of ice withering in strength as it became undone. None of them were free enough to stop it from happening, none of them could resist the pull of gravity that controlled one of the elements of the world. With a single, solitary, scream for each of them, they fell.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" All of them screamed for their lives as the hollowed ice beneath them gave way, plunging each of them into the shadowy depths below, with nothing but ice and snow falling after them. With her own two hands, Catra had personally brought down over half the Princess Alliance within minutes. And she showed no regret as she panted, looking over the massive hole she created with a sense of victory.
A victory shared greatly with Adora.
"She... She did it..." For the first time in awhile, she smiled with a sense of accomplishment as she stood from behind their cover. "She did it... She finally did it!" She couldn't tell how happy she should be right now, only that her happiness was finally returning to her. She had finally succeeded in a grand mission after a long while, and with Catra's help no less! Half the Princess Alliance was gone, the Rebellion would be in shambles when they found out the truth, and nothing would stand in their way again!
She would finally be recognized by Lord Hordak, be able to make up for her past mistakes. Frosta, the traitor, was gone, Catra the defector had done the work for them, and the Princess of Bright Moon finally came to an end! At long last, Adora would understand the feeling of peace, one she hasn't recognized in a long while!
At least, she would have, if her voice didn't attract the attention of an enraged She-Ra.
"Ghhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Catra grumbled, still with her semi-robotic voice, as she lunged for the girl with all her strength, and slammed the sword where Adora once stood.
The Force Captain had little time to partake in her victory as Catra came charging at her like a heat-seeking missile, one that wouldn't stop until it reached its target. Scorpia and Entrapta watched, the latter with excitement as she wondered what could be learned from this line of study, as Adora fought off the enraged Catra. Adora didn't care how much of her magic she used, whether or not it would bring her to the brink of collapse. Catra was the only thing left standing in her way, and she was going to make sure she was captured with the power of her own magic!
A magic, that proved useless, against She-Ra's might.
"Haaahhhhh!" Adora screamed as she attempted to strike back against the raging bull. It proved as effective as a balloon trying to push against a solid wall as her attack didn't even bother Catra, didn't leave so much as a scratch along her arms, as Catra powered through it long enough to land a direct hit right into Adora's stomach.
*WHAM!*
For a moment, Adora almost felt like she was going to throw up, feeling the contents of her own lunch practically pushing inside of her. Her vision became disoriented as Catra pulled her fist back, letting Adora slowly drop to the ground without a sense of care or decency. In fact, she cared so little for the Force Captain that she didn't even let her hit the ground before kicking her straight ahead, crashing her through a boulder that the shadows barely managed to protect her from.
Adora couldn't process the pain she was inflicted with fast enough to react to Catra's follow up, rushing straight for the girl with a killer instinct. Doing what she could to fight back against this monstrosity, Adora attempted to ensnare her with her own tendrils, thrusting several of them from her back to the girl that wrapped around her right wrist and both her ankles. Normally, she'd be strong enough to lift the girl off her feet, and restrain her long enough to follow up with an attack. This time, fate had other plans in store.
With a sinister grin, like Scorpia had done with the lasso earlier, Catra wrapped all three of the appendages with a single loop of her arm like they were nothing, toying with Adora as she tried to pull back. She cackled with delight as she gave it a solid tug, pulling the Force Captain off her feet and right over to her until her face was pressed firmly into Catra's hands. She couldn't even retract the shadows in time for Catra to throw her harshly against the ground, face first, and stomping right onto her back in a painful manner.
"Ahhhh!" Adora cried out in pain as she felt Catra's heel sink into her back. The pain didn't end there for her as the rage-induced demon continued grabbing at the base of the tendrils, holding them firmly in her hands as she started to pull. It hurt like crazy, it was unbearable to the touch. Just like in Bright Moon, Adora was helpless to stop Catra as she pulled off two of her four tendrils straight from the back, one at a time.
This time, she pulled all three with a solid tug.
*Snap!*
"AHHHHHHHH- ackkk!" It hurt beyond anything she's ever felt before. There was no bright side to the fact that the shadows weren't really part of her real body, she could still feel everything as if it was her own. The shadows carelessly dissipated into a thin smoke of darkness as they left Adora's side. Not only was Catra fighting physically against everything she had to throw at her, she began to choke her as she turned her around again, clamping a firm grip over Adora's throat.
"C-Ca-Catra... S-Stop... P-Pl-Please..." She raspy pleaded, actually forming tears in the corners of her eyes. Despite the scene of her begging, Catra just grinned, freeing her other hand as she held the sword with the wrap of her tail around the grip.
This... This was unlike anything Adora had ever seen before from her. There wasn't a hint of hesitation, no sense of decency or sincerity coming form Catra like the past times they fought. No matter how many times Catra declared she hated Adora, or Adora her, the two were never brought to the brink where they would actually try to kill one another, at least not since the battle of Bright Moon when Adora felt she was at her worst.
But this? This? This was unlike anything she's ever witnessed. This Catra wasn't hesitating to do anything she needed to in order to win, no ounce of clarity in her eyes that usually held her back from injuring Adora severely. She enjoyed fighting, sure, she loved to take her anger out on something, but this? This Catra right here? She wasn't anything like the old Catra she was used to.
This Catra was thriving on the carnage and destruction, relishing in it. Within her eyes, before Adora's vision started to become fuzzy, she couldn't see a single spark of the old Catra looking back at her. All she could see as Catra squeezed at her throat, watching humorously as Adora tried to pry the hand off with all of her power, was enjoyment. She enjoyed all the pain she was inflicting, she wanted to make Adora feel pain and agony like this. With a wider, cackling grin, she raised her free hand, extending the claws that were ready to end her wherever they struck. It was then that Adora finally understood this look from her.
"I-I'm s-sorry... d-d-don't..." She could feel the light fading from her own eyes.
Catra was fully intent on killing her.
"Get away from her!" Like a protective mother watching over their cub, Scorpia threw herself at the demon incarnate with all the power she hand, pulling her off of her dear friend before the last of Adora's life could be drained from her.
Nothing from Hordak's machines ever compared to this sensation of having her throat forcibly closed, but it still brought the same sense of relief when the air finally returned to her. Enough relief to roll out of the way when the sword nearly came to her head as it fell out of the air. Adora's eyes wavered as she saw her own reflection for a moment, the sword just inches from her own face it was so close.
Looking back to the sounds of struggling, rubbing her own throat soothingly as Entrapta ran to her side, the two watched as Scorpia continued to hold the magicat at bay, pressing her back against a boulder as she refused to let this insane animal harm her friend any further. It didn't take very long for Catra's rampage to end soon after as her head filled with a familiar humming sound, one that nearly made the girl lose consciousness as she closed her eyes.
*shiiiiiiim*
With a bright glow that enveloped Catra's body, the trio watched as she returned to her previous state, seemingly out cold.
"Oh! I get it now!" Entrapta squealed with delight as she rushed over. "The sword got infected, not Catra herself!"
"I think my throat begs to differ..." Adora retorted, still speaking in a raspy tone as her throat slowly healed. The fever that began to pick up was nothing to her at this point, the near-death experience making everything else she felt seem like child's play. Grabbing the sword out of the ground, examining the dark veins, Adora approached the exhausted cat as Entrapta examined her.
"Huh. I guess she really is organic matter." She commented, feeling her head with the tips of her hair.
With the warrior trapped in her arms tightly, Scorpia looked ahead worriedly to her beloved friend. "Adora, are you okay?!"
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." She weakly replied as her voice returned to normal. "Thanks, Scorpia." It warmed Scorpia's heart to get a small thank you out of the girl after the mood she's been in for the last few days. Plopping the sword over her shoulders, Adora smiled to her enemy as she as she leaned closer to her, wanting her victory to see the first thing in Catra's eyes when she opened them. "I got to say, Catra, you really had me there."
She lifted the girl by her chin with the tip of the sword's handle, smirking as she had a clear view of Catra's face. "You actually came so close to beating me all on your own for once... before you tried to kill me..." That image flashed in Adora's mind briefly, the face Catra made still burning in her mind until she shook her head. "I guess congrats are in order for that much at least." Her expression heightened as she saw Catra wincing a little, the girl slowly opening her eyes halfway as she stared at Adora with her mouth agape.
"With this sword, the Rebellion is nothing. You took care of your little friends for me, and I thank you for that. Because after this, even if you escape the Fright Zone again, you'll never be welcomed back to the Rebellion." This is what victory should feel like to Adora. After a hard-fought battle, tons of action, and a plan that almost backfired on her, she was the one who was victorious around here. She couldn't ask for a better, albeit safer preferably, turnabout than this. And it was all thanks to Catra and her own two hands.
"..." And now, the victory was starting to get boring as Catra continued to stare at her, a bit of drool nearly coming down her chin as she stared at her like she was in a vegetative state.
"Mmmh..." Was she really trying to ruin this for her? To steal any sort of enjoyment she possibly could from this moment? She refused to give her that satisfaction, she refused to let Catra be the one smiling in the end after she won. "Well? Say something!" And at that moment, she did something Adora had never seen her done before.
She took a single finger, and poked her on the tip of Adora's nose with a cheesy grin.
"Boop."
...
...
...
A/N: Annnnnnnd viola! If you understand what it means, then you know the results of the vote ^^ It was seriously a close neck-and-neck voting people. I swear to god I had soooooooo many people going back and forth between drunk catra or cat-catra, and i honestly didn't know what it would be. We even got two late voters who both delivered their own vote which honestly could've won- but sadly, it was before the deadline, so it didn't qualify as I'm afraid :/
Thanks to everyone who voted and supported this fic thus far. I might be slowing down a bit for awhile since I need to focus on school work as much as I can, but I still promise to keep in touch when able, and hopefully have another chapter out in a few days.
With that said, hope you all enjoyed! Leave a like, fave, follow, and review if you enjoyed and hope to see you soon!