A/N: Final Word Count: 7.5k Pre-A/N's. This is definitely the shorted chapter i've posted in a long while, but for good reason XP. The break off point was perfectly fitting imo as it leads up to... we'll, you'll know when you see it. Point is, this is another chapter, and that means we get one more part to go.
As should be expected, aside from an occasional moment, we get back into the feel zone of things here so not as many laughs. But there will be some good lightheartedness I promise, plus with the size of it being what it is and the intention of the next/final part, it means we'll be able to leave off the finale with a larger size ^^!
So, with that all out of the way, enjoy!
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"You... want to know..." Bow trailed off, his eyes filled with worry as he sat in the opposite couch with Glimmer and Catra, each of them shakily holding a cup of tea.
"H-How we met?" Catra almost gulped at the mention, the pretend girlfriend doing everything in her power to remain calm.
"Of course, you have to tell us!" Lance insisted, waiting on the other couch with George right next to him. "We've been waiting all day to hear about it!" For as long as they've been waiting, the trio had been hoping for just as long as they prayed they would forget the entire notion of how they first met to begin with.
Boy, were they wrong.
So far, acting as Bow's pretend girlfriend was interesting, to say the least. Despite a few ups and downs, mostly along with having to add another lie on top of the list of lies that were already piling up, the magicat and the archer managed to make their relationship seem believable, or just enough to throw Bow's fathers off their trail as they continued to buy in to the charade.
Needless to say, Catra was taking full advantage of the situation as much as she could, using the girlfriend story to make her own life a little easier while chatting in the library. From shoulder massages to the promise of explosive arrows made for her was a prize in and of itself. The real kicker behind it all was the vast knowledge this library could potentially have on She-Ra, the warrior hoping to find some form of information that could draw her closer to She-Ra's power.
She needed it, anything, to avoid losing out on her dream. The dream of one day acquiring a kingdom, the dream that she could finally rule somewhere like she always wanted since she was a child. In order to acquire another portion of She-Ra's power, she was informed by Light Hope that she must ellavate herself in a selfless manner, one which required for her to forego her personal greed and wish for a new kingdom.
It's not like she couldn't understand the reason behind it, since it would mean she would be working for the Rebellion since its the right thing to do and everything. The trouble was, she didn't want to. Like, really didn't want to. She had to find a way to keep her kingdom from slipping through her fingers, and pretending to be his girlfriend right now was their best bet.
Whatever happened, they needed to come up with a plan, and fast. Every second they wasted was another curiosity coming to the dads' minds, and the more curious they became, the closer they would come to the truth about everything between Catra and Glimmer, and how Bow lied about being at a boarding school for all these years.
"Uh, r-right!" Glimmer smiled anxiously, turning to Bow. "Bow, you said you wanted to take care of all the details right?" She reminded, hoping Bow had enough time to come up with something throughout the day.
"Eheheh..." He chuckled through his teeth, keeping the rest of his nervous grin hidden behind his cup of tea. "I might have a problem."
"What do you mean you have a problem?" Catra's feigned smile was almost as painful to watch as the rest of theirs, if not more so since she was the one forced into this situation. "We had plenty of time throughout the tour and everything."
"Yeah, but between shoulder massages and going into detail over your majors, I didn't have enough time..." He mumbled, keeping his face focused on the dads as he glanced back with his eyes.
The very dads couldn't help but notice the strange behavior as each of them looked more nervous than the last.
"Is something wrong?" Lance asked, looking back and forth.
"You don't have to give us all the details if it makes you more comfortable." George mentioned, thinking the kids probably have an embarrassing detail or two they wished to keep hidden.
"No, no, it's no problem." Glimmer eeped, shaking her hand. "W-We were just... discussing who should tell it to you. I mean, we were all excited to tell you how we- I mean, they first met, that we sort of planned to have one of us tell you. Heh, we're just... discussing who should tell it first. About how we met, I mean- I mean they met!."
"How we met?" Catra questioned looking at them. She took the moment to look at the reflection of herself in the light orangish tea in her cup, trying to think of something as the tension rose around them.
So far, using her past had worked to their advantage, and the parents remained none the wiser. If she kept sticking to her past, then they should be fine right. She would just... just have to recount how she met her that day, and fill in some gaps and pieces herself.
"I can tell you." Catra announced, much to Glimmer and Bow's surprise.
"You can?" Glimmer muttered. They didn't seem to share the same confidence that Catra showed on her face, but they trusted in her enough to take the lead if she was feeling up to it. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, totally." She smiled back, earning a trusting smile back from her friends as she began. "I... I remember it everyday, really." The images and memories flashed in her mind as she told them of the very day she met someone, met a friend for the first time.
How she met Adora.
"I wasn't really popular with... school, or anything. Most of the other kids, or... pre-teens, I guess, used to pick on me a lot because of my animal parts, or some other reason." She smiled staring up to the ceiling. Her magic appeared to be winning the parents over as they listened intently, holding each others hand.
"People can be cruel to things they don't understand." George commented, knowing a world of ignorance was a terrible place to think of.
"Well that's just it. I don't know if they misunderstood me or actually did seem to know me. All I knew was, the people... they didn't want anything to do with me. I was alone for the most part. Even when people were hanging out outside, they pretty much just left me alone. I didn't mind it or anything, it meant people weren't picking on me, obviously. But, yeah, I was... I was pretty much alone."
"And that's why Bow was drawn to you, wasn't it?" He felt another wave of pride rushing in as he glanced at his son, Bow scratching the back of his head a little embarrassed in response. "Because he noticed you by yourself."
"Eh, sort of. Honestly we met on a playgr- a park," she corrected, knowing a park was more likely to be on campus than a playground, "where he found me sitting by myself." She remembered the exact moment Adora found her on the side of a dumpster, trying to hide herself from the kids that bullied her when she stood up for someone else. "He found me there, we talked for a little bit, then he offered to be my friend."
"And your friendship grew from there, huh?" He assumed knowingly.
"Well, slowly, for the most part." She remarked, scratching the back of her head. "I was still getting picked on on the occasion, but with him around, it happened less often and he was there to comfort me afterwards. We became such good friends and everything that at one point sh- he, got transferred to another class because he did so well, and I was a little mad him at first."
As she conversed, Glimmer and Bow turned back to each other with the same strange look in their eye. For a moment there, it sounded like she was about to say someone else, or at least their gender. The thing was, her voice sounded a little strained as she mentioned it, and as she continued to describe the way she met Bow, they noticed Catra's ears lowering further and further.
"I thought it was more of his choice than it was some headmaster's or teacher's, and I was upset knowing I was gonna get picked on again. And I was. I couldn't go a single lunch again without someone throwing something at me. But eventually, I... worked my grades up, started getting better at the stuff, and next thing I knew I was being assigned to the same sco- school! School programs he was assigned to, and we've been friends ever since."
"What's going on?" A young blond child asked as she walked into the door's line of sight.
Seeing the child passed Shadow Weaver's flowing robe, Catra let out a squeal of pure delight. "Adora!" She ran straight passed the two adults as she ran straight into Adora's excited arms.
"Catra!" The two friends happily embraced each other in a warm hug as they laughed, overjoyed that they got to see the one friend neither of them thought they would ever see again.
Catra blinked to herself as her ears lowered further, recalling the event and the feeling of joy she felt for one of the few times in her life when she saw the person she never thought she'd meet again.
"Catra?" Glimmer muttered softly, noticing the girl seemed to be staring into space.
"...It was a bit rocky from there, then. I was still getting picked on, but thanks to Ad- Bow, I learned to stand up for myself. Eventually people stopped picking on me, and we became close. Occasionally we got into trouble for one stupid reason or another but it wasn't anything serious." She swirled the tea in her cup a little bit as she shook it around gently.
"Really?" Lance looked to Bow a little surprised. "I didn't think Bow was having any trouble at school."
"Eh heh," Bow chuckled nervously, muttering in response," I, eh, don't recall having... too much trouble."
"Again, it wasn't anything serious." Catra assured, never keeping her slowly mourning expression from the image of the tea's surface. "It was over years, you know? Have a lot of good days, the occasional bad days. For me, the days got bad enough that sometimes I started to feel a little hopeless, but..." She shifted her eyes to the corner away from everyone else. "No matter how bad things got, I wasn't worried be... because..."
As the final memory played out, the one event of her entire life that she'd never forget, she remained silent. Never was there a day she could forget about it, the day that surmounted their friendship for sure.
It was the day they snuck into Shadow Weaver's Black Garnet chamber when she wasn't around when they were really young, the day their curiosities got the better of them. Despite being caught in the same situation, Shadow Weaver directed all her anger, all her hate, to Catra, until the girl finally managed to run away in fear and sadness.
It took her several minutes later to find Catra, sniffling and weeping to herself on the bed, surrounded by a bundle of blankets. And it was in the exchange of words that she remembered the most comforting words anyone had ever given her in her life.
From Adora.
"Nothing bad can happen to us as long as we have each other..."
Catra was silent. Everyone stared at her in wonder, curiosity from the parents and a twinge of worry from her friends, as they noticed the tone in Catra's "made-up story" was starting to sound a little more factual as the tale went on. Now, she wasn't saying anything, or giving any of them her attention. It was a confusing, surprising, to the group, especially her friends, who had never seen this side of her before.
Looking at her own cup one more time, Catra placed the tea cup on the table as she stood from the couch.
"E-Excuse me for a moment, I, uh, need to use the restroom." She stated, keeping her head lowered as she headed for the door to the hallway. Again, the two friends looked back to each other before setting their own cups down, following in pursuit.
"Uh, I'll help her find it!" Bow announced, following behind her a little fast.
"I have to go, too!" Glimmer lied, trying to come up with any reason to excuse herself at the same time. The two fathers waited until they left before they turned to one another, giving the other a small shrug of confusion to the strange way the kids were acting. It wasn't enough for them to be suspicious of anything, seeing how the story sounded plausible enough in most regards, and were convinced that they actually were just heading to the restroom.
"Do you think they're alright?" George asked.
"I'm sure it's fine." Lance smiled, taking in a small whiff of the aromatic tea in peace. "Sometimes memories can be a little overbearing to recollect. I'm sure they're doing fine, though."
...
"Catra?" Glimmer spoke up as the two closed the door behind them. Luckily, they didn't have to go very far to find their furry friend again as they discovered the magicat leaning an arm against the wall with her backs turned to them.
She didn't seem to be crying and there wasn't any sniffling coming from her, so that was quite fortunate. What they did notice was the way Catra balled her right hand into a fist a little as she pushed it against the wall, the girl seeming to be deep in thought about something that bothered. Not too much to make a scene or become emotional over, but enough to make her want to leave the room for a bit.
"Hey, Catra?" Bow called over as they approached, placing a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"
"... Guys, I..." Catra mumbled, turning her head a little to see behind her. "I... I think I finally know now."
"Know? Know what?" With such a vague response, it could've been anything to Bow.
"I," she finally turned a little as she pressed her back against the wall, crossing her arms, "I think I finally figured out why I lost the ability to transform into She-Ra, the true She-Ra, after the Battle of Bright Moon."
The two friends were shocked by the announcement as they gasped mentally to themselves. Throughout everything they've been through today, everything the last few weeks, the last they were expecting to hear today was the realization Catra had; an actual reason to explain why she lost the ability to transform completely.
It was one of the pressing concerns of the last few weeks, the struggle they were trying to overcome since Catra first confessed to them what she tried to keep secret. They've done what they could for her friend, supporting her at every side, encouraging the best out of Catra even if she lost the ability to turn into She-Ra at all, yet they could never comprehend why she lost the ability in the first place.
Emotional balance and peace was the key. That was the general idea behind it from what Catra described. With so many years of anger in her past and regrets, they wouldn't have been surprised if she couldn't fully reach the same level of She-Ra, and she slowly did overtime.
Now, they were about to bare witness to the truth. The truth Catra had been so focused on discovering for herself.
"You did? That's wonderful!" Glimmer beamed, trying to sound encouraging. If she knew the reason why, then that would bring them one step closer to finding out how to fix it! "What is it?"
Again, Catra remained silent for a moment. "I... I think it's because, deep down..." She kept her eyes lowered as she lifted her head to them. "I don't want to fight Adora." That was the response neither of them were expecting, or one that made any sense to them.
"You don't want to fight Adora?"
"Uh, Catra? I don't know if it's occurred to you, but you've been fighting Adora a lot lately." Bow commented with a raised brow.
"No you idiot, I mean fight her and win!" She snapped a little. "I can't bring myself to fight her at my full strength here, even if I felt like I wanted to. Despite everything she's done to us, to Etheria, I... I can't bring myself to hate her, not even a little."
"But why?"
"Catra," Glimmer spoke, stepping a little closer, "I get it, all right? She was your friend once and you can't let go of that."
"Are you crazy?" She grumbled. "I can't look at her and call her my friend these days! Sure, maybe she still is somewhere to me, but that's not the problem. It's not that I can't fight her because she used to be my friend."
"Then why do you think you can't fight her? You're just going back and forth with what you're saying, and I don't know how to make sense of it."
"It's not that I can't fight her because I think of her as a friend. The reason I can't fight her is because..." Like she did with the fake story with how she met Bow, her ears started to droop again as she squeezed her shoulders a little. "It's because I feel responsible for everything she's done to us, okay?" And there it was. The truth Catra came to realize about herself that she's harbored every time she messed up.
The feeling of Guilt.
It was different, somehow, when they saw the way her eyes looked, the way she came back to an issue she's dealt with in the past that related to a past guilt. Back then, she's always maintained a guilt of something that happened fairly recently, or as far as Entrapta's and Frosta's betrayals go.
Here? It was something else. Something indescribable. There was a torment in the corner of her eyes that she couldn't shake off, something further within that wasn't reaching the surface.
"Everything she's done to us happened because of me. I abused her, her friendship I mean. Whenever something came to trouble me, she either blocked it with herself or I used her against whatever threatened me. I did it to make my life easier in the Horde, to get fear or respected enough so that people would stop picking on me. And by the time I realized what I was acting like, so did she. She saw me as the freak everyone treated me like, the one that used people only." She explained, slowly squatting to her knees.
"But Catra, I don't understand." Bow replied as he squatted too, along with Glimmer who kneeled. "You've already shown you're not afraid to fight her and everything, so it can't just be guilt you're feeling. What exactly is it about fighting Adora that you're so worried about?"
"What I'm worried about..." She muttered, squeezing her claws a little against her knees. "Is what will happen after." She shot the two a small, knowing, look as she continued. "Say we ever come to a fight that will never end until we're dead unless we capture Adora, or we end up finishing this war and leave Adora defenseless. What do you suppose will happen to her afterwards?"
"... Oh..." It all started to come together as Glimmer began to realize. Catra wasn't just concerned with the present of their fighting. She was worried what the future would have in store for Adora if the Rebellion won in the end. "I get it now."
"Do you think we're just magically going to be buddy-buddy again after all of this? That a simple apology will make up for everything she's done? The minute we win the war or capture Adora, that'll be the end of her. At best, she serves an extremely light sentence for all she's done, and that's assuming she's lucky enough. At worst? At reality? She'll be spending the rest of her days rotting behind a prison bar, hating every second of my existence for as long as she lives!"
Just thinking about it caused a frown to form over the girl, the feline scratching tirelessly behind her ear at the thought. "Do you suppose we'll be lucky and your mom would take it easier on her? No! She's going to know what Adora's done to the world, Glimmer, and to you. She would never forgive her for what she did to you, and I doubt you would either."
Glimmer was silent at the notion. She wanted to say something, anything, right now to help her friend through her small crisis right now, something to brighten her mood. She wanted to say "I'll forgive her, no problem!" or tell her how she would accept Adora again, how she would be willing to get over her past with her and all she's done to her, all the torture.
But she couldn't. She could never forgive Adora for something like that. It wasn't just because she tortured her in the first place, it was beyond that. What else has Adora done lately that could've been just as ugly, if not worse? How many other people was she supposed to assume were tortured by Adora's very hands?
No amount of forgiveness in the world would wash away Adora's sins, all the crimes she committed trying to bring down the Rebellion and the Princess Alliance. She came to realize now that it wasn't the feeling of fear plaguing Catra's heart at the moment, the crux of the matter.
It was the fear of what would happen to Adora after.
"Adora wanted a friendship with me, and I abused it. And because of that, she's doing all of this now. She wants to make me suffer because of how greedy I was, because of how I used her and joined the Rebellion for a stupid kingdom." The words flashed in her mind as she recalled She-Ra's, the real version of her that she met some days ago, parting words.
"Until you let go of the past, you will always be alone with your own worst enemy."
There was no confusion behind it, Catra understood who her own worst enemy was by this point. The one who was keeping her back from achieving She-Ra's full power, the person who kept her from becoming the hero she needed to be.
Herself.
All because of her memories, all of the guilt she's harbored conflicting with herself. As long as she regretted what Adora turned into, what she's become, she would never turn into She-Ra.
"A kingdom?" That was the other matter that was drawn out of this, the second underlying problem regarding Catra's problem. "...Say, Catra?" She spoke up as Catra turned her head a little. "You never did tell us why. Why do you want to have a kingdom so badly in the first place?" Curiously, Catra stood at this as her expression changed. It didn't morph into a smile or a smaller frown or anything, it just looked like she was feeling passive about all of it.
"W-Well, why wouldn't you want a kingdom?" She said somewhat jokingly. "You'd get to make up rules, you'd get to do whatever you want, you could-"
"Catraaaa?" Bow smirked a little as the two looked at her accusingly. It was a little nice to see her frown disappear even if it didn't bring a direct smile out of it.
"... Mhhh..." She sighed, finally giving the pair her attention. "It was because of Adora, all right? And for me. Growing up in the Horde was... Basically all I said back there, it was related to the Horde. Everyone called me a freak and picked on me except for Adora, and I was getting tired of it. As we grew up together, I started telling her about how I always thought we should have our own place to rule where we could call the shots. At some point when we were kids, we both decided that the first thing we'd do when we got out of the Fright Zone was start a kingdom somewhere, where we were in charge of everything."
"And that's why you wanted to rule a kingdom?" Bow asked. "So you could be in charge?" Another ounce of pain crossed Catra's face, this time accompanied by a small blush.
"W-Well... mostly. The thing is... I kind of had another reason behind it all. It wasn't just so I could be in charge of everything. I wanted to have a place where people stopped calling me a freak, or one where everyone was a freak. Where outcasts could go without being picked on anymore because of how they looked."
"Awww~" Neither of the two friends could keep to themselves as they awed at the mention, Catra's blush intensifying as she looked away.
"Shut iiiit..." She hissed. "But beyond that, I just... I think I just wanted somewhere people treated me differently, you know? Where they'd stop calling me a freak, even if I was one." She pressed her back to the wall again as she finished with her explanation, Glimmer and Bow taking in everything they heard from the magicat.
The girl was afraid, of two things at this point. She was afraid of what would happen to Adora the moment the Rebellion achieved victory and took her prisoner if she didn't escape. The second thing was losing a kingdom she dreamed of since she was a kid, a dream she assumed she shared with the same friend, who wanted nothing in return.
It was Fear that played the ultimate factor in all this. The fear of what was to come next, the fear of losing one of the few remaining attachments she had left to Adora. The Fear of the Future and what was yet to come.
When it all boiled down to the very end, Fear was the ultimate enemy to Catra's powers.
The Princess of Bright Moon had her head lowered for a bit as she took in all Catra had to say, and came out with all she had to respond. "Catra? You don't really think you need one anymore, do you?"
Blushing again, Catra shifted her eyes away as she faced them. "I... I don't know anymore, okay? I don't see why I wouldn't." When she thought about it, she really didn't have much of an answer for herself anymore if Adora was out of the equation. Half the idea behind it all was to share it with her, and the other half involved being somewhere she felt like she belonged. "Why?"
"Because you don't need it, Catra." She said, getting the girl's eyes on her again. "However this war ends, you'll always be a part of the Rebellion, you'll always be among your friends. We don't consider you a freak, and we never did."
"I... I know that, it's just..."
"Just what?" Bow questioned directly. "Catra, your entire point of having the kingdom was to be somewhere you belonged, right? Then that's why you don't need it. You already have a kingdom with Bright Moon, you have us!"
"I... do?" She never once considered the fact that she didn't have her friends by her side like this. What she didn't consider the fact was the idea she might have had a kingdom already out of this.
The very place she's begun to consider a home for awhile, somewhere the Queen assured her she was safe from any harm. Yeah, the people had their annoying quirks to them and their irritations, but giving it some thought, that's kind what made them the same as her; Freaks. The very people she wanted her kingdom to be filled with.
"Of course you do!" Glimmer chuckled as she playfully pushed Catra's shoulder. "Catra, I don't know what to do about Adora. The best idea I can give you for that is to just be patient. We don't know what the future is going to hold in the end. For all we know, Adora might defect from the Horde too and become our ally, just like you and Frosta did. When we cross that bridge, we'll address it."
"But for right now, I'm promising you, you don't need your kingdom. You have friends here, Catra, and nobody who thinks of you like you're a freak. I'm not saying you need to drop everything your doing and renounce your kingdom or anything, but I'm telling you you don't have to feel alone anymore, not with us." Putting a hand to her shoulder in comfort, the two finally got to see a small smile on the girl's blushing face at long last, turning her head uneasily as she scratched her head.
"T... Thanks... Glimmer. Bow" And in a strange way, she had her second desire, too.
Nobody around here ever called her a freak, they didn't consider her to be one. She had her flaws and attitude around them, and they still accepted her for all her "freakiness". She was a part of their strange little family where they were all freaks, and none of them were, at the same time.
She was a part of them.
"So, um, I guess we should head back, right?" She decided, trying to rub the blush away from her cheeks.
"Yeah, we better hurry or else they're going to check on us themselves." Bow replied in agreement. The two friends watched as Catra took the lead ahead of the before Bow smiled back to Glimmer from the side. "I guess we got to find out a bit more about Catra's past after all, huh?"
"At least we got to hear more about somebody around here." She muttered, taking off before he could question it. There wasn't anything resentful or hurtful in the tone she used, but there was definitely a pain in the voice. A pain that was directed at herself and at Bow at the same time, leaving him in a state of confusion.
"Huh?"
...
*creeeak*
"Hey, we're back." Catra announced to the welcoming fathers as her friends followed behind her.
"Sorry for the wait, I, eh, wanted to show them something else while we were here." Bow explained as they returned to the couch.
"It's quite alright." George assured as Lance poured him another cup. "I understand there's quite a lot to see here."
"Heh, yeah." Glimmer smiled back as she observed the countless scrolls and parchments. "So, should we get started?"
"Allow me." Catra insisted, taking the first scroll and sitting at the edge of the couch. She was confident enough to get through the reading herself as she pulled out the first diagram she came across. Glancing over it, she started to blink as she checked the front of back of it, then tossed it away behind her. "Nope."
The other four watched this in confusion, the fathers beside themselves at her sudden and strange behavior as she tossed away a delicate piece of history. If it wasn't enough to worry them, she did the same thing again as she observed another parchment written over a green mat. "Not this." She threw again.
"Uh, Catra? Any chance you'd like to explain why you're throwing away my dads' collection like they were garbage?" Bow asked, trying to give a small smile as she was ruining her appearance again.
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing personal." She shrugged back, looking at a blueprint. "The first two things were just the blueprints to a greenhouse garden and some sort of plumbing system." Her hopes for something a little more useful were dashed as she scanned over the recent finding. "And this one's just for some electrical appliance. It's kinda weird."
The two fathers turned to one another in shock and awe at the amount of detail the girl was providing. Without skipping a beat, the two fathers jumped to their feet, racing to the translating-girl who jumped at the sight of their spontaneous presence.
"Wait, you can read First Ones writing?" Lance asked her, grabbing her by the shoulders.
"Uh, I also studied linguistics?" Catra forced a smile, nervous over the unprecedented reading she had shown off. "I-It's an eighth major- I mean six! What am I at again?"
"Here, read this! What does it say?" Pulling back his sleeve, George demanded to know what the tattooed symbol on his arm meant, hoping it spelled exactly what he thought.
Pulling at the arm a little for a closer examination, Catra replied, "It says... Lunch."
"Oh no." Immediately, all the masculinity and excitement within the man's forearm evaporated, being replaced by a liquid of shame and embarrassment as Lance chuckled behind him. "I thought it said love."
"You thought it said..." Lance couldn't help it as he let out another laugh, holding his sides as he got up to his feet. "I like this girl!" He shouted, continuing to burst into a fit of chuckles. Catra couldn't tell is she should've been more flattered or creeped out by the person who laughed madly like a lunatic, giving a quiet laugh herself as she looked away unsettling. "Actually, there's one more debate you can settle for us, Catra."
As the gentleman he was, George offered the girl his hand as he started to lead her towards the door.
"Eh- You know, actually I think I should stick with my assignment?" She blushed, actually feeling more anxious being stuck with these two than with her friends. "I mean, we got a very big project going on. Yeah, and uh-" And then she froze.
Standing right in front of her, with the biggest, brightest, most pleading eyes she ever saw, Lance stood in front of her, begging his eyes out with stars dancing around him and a waft of pink, tenderly, smoke. Already the magicat was more embarrassed by this than anything else throughout this day, save for maybe the children comment.
It wasn't her fault she was so gifted that everybody wanted her. Why should she be punished just for being so talented in something as reading a different language? Okay, so to be fair, the sword was the one instilling her with knowledge of the First Ones, but that's besides the point.
Still, she couldn't turn away from the embarrassing begging, and while it might not be on Kim's level of embarrassingly cute, it was a close third.
Sighing mentally, she gave a small smile back as she threw her hands to her shoulder. "B-But, um, what kind of... girlfriend... would I be if I didn't help my boyfriend's parents?"
"Great!" Lance boomed with excitement as he threw an arm around Catra. "Onward, best research squad!" He announced, leading the charge.
And now she knew where Bow got that from.
The others could only look back with unease and hope that Catra would be able to keep herself out of trouble as they stayed behind to study. Hopefully it wouldn't take long.
...
Their first mistake was hoping.
Several hours into their research session and they still had nothing to go by. With all the data, notes, journals, translators they had that weren't Catra, resource materials listing books from all over the library, they had yet to uncover a single piece of documented info that could push them in the right direction for Serenia, Mara, or whatever the portal had to do with anything.
Bow lied back on the couch with a sigh as he took a brief minute to himself, worrying about how much time had passed and Catra, or more likely his fathers, were still okay. "We're still getting nowhere." The cushiony pad and the small fire burning in the fireplace did nothing to soothe either of the two. It just reminded them of how long it's felt since either of them stopped researching. "What does a mythological First Ones hero have to do with Mara?" He asked.
He stared up at the ceiling waiting for a response, but when nothing came to him, he turned his head back to Glimmer, who still wasn't looking at him. "Hey, Glimmer, what's up?"
The girl looked like she let out a large breath before she turned around again. "What's up with you?" She shot back, her expression full of hurt. "You have a secret family, and you're supposed to be a historian, and you apparently hate pirates, and you never told me any of this!" Tears welled up at the corner of her eyes as she turned away. "We've been friends for years Bow, and I feel like I know more about Catra than I do with you right now! Like I don't even know you at all!"
It hurt, very deeply. How was she supposed to feel right now? To think that the one person, the very first friend she's ever had in her life, would still be hiding an entire other half to her life that she didn't know about? Catra barely gave them anything at first and it took months to coax her to talk about herself, and as of now, after hearing everything on Catra's mind, it felt like Bow was the strange one here!
"Glimmer, you know everything about me, the real me." Bow smiled warmly as he touched her shoulder, the teary princess looking back as the water dripped from her cheeks. "I act like someone I'm not with my family because the truth would hurt them."
"And it's making you miserable, making all of us miserable." Glimmer stated, wiping away her tears. "I feel like I barely know you, you're pretending to be something your not, and its pulling more out of Catra's past than she's comfortable with. What if she had gotten angry instead of sad, or ran out of here because she was afraid of something?" The archer turned his head away in thought with a look of personal remorse.
Glimmer tried to comfort the archer back, squeezing his wrist with a gentle smile. "Bow, your dads love you. I'm sure they'll love the real you, too."
"You don't know that. They've had a plan for me since I was a baby. But the truth is, I'm nothing like the rest of my family. I've tried to tell them, but they don't want to hear it." He felt like a reverse-prisoner around here, feeling more trapped on the outside than he did within these walls. "So, I pretend." Pain crossed both their faces as Bow curled up a knee on the couch, hugging into it.
There was no way to tell how to react at a time like this. Glimmer was hurt that she didn't know a part of Bow's life despite their years of friendship, yet she understood why a little. Bow was caught between his real life and a fake one, unable to live a full life until he finally chose one to stick to forever. And Catra was stuck in a loop of memories as the useful stories of her past came back to haunt her, in ways that made her uncomfortable.
All of this, all these lies and hardships the group was experiencing today, because of one little lie, one little choice. To either embrace the life his fathers had for him, to go down the same path that they intended for all their lives, or to seemingly forsake his family name and live his true life, and disappoint the very people who raised him all his life...
...
...
"This was found at the same dig site as the rune stone shard." Lance explained as he lead Catra to he large metallic orb-like structure.
So far, the little additional tour Catra was dragged to was a little more enjoyable than she expected, and a lot less stressful than she thought it would be. It turns out, like they requested, the fathers wanted her to help translate some old glyphics and writings on various pieces of artifacts the two had come across all their lives.
The first was actually an ancient spear, or at least the remains of one by Catra's standards. They were trying to figure out if the spear was actually a descended treasure item from a long lost tribe Catra's never heard of, or cared, and if the spear had any particular value to it based on the inscription left along the rod.
Unfortunately, as Catra determined, it turned out the rod was nothing more than an offering for a marriage proposal, if the words "To my darling, Yeck" meant anything to the magicat.
That was among the first debates the fathers wanted to clear up, which came in the form of a small bet George appeared to have won.
The second thing was another vase with an ornate design of yellow and blue colorings, with a notable inscription on the bottom and top of the vase written in green symbols. The smell of it alone gave Catra a suspicion of what it was, and the writing on the rest of it confirmed it.
This wasn't just some sort of vase meant to be a decoration of some sort. It turns out it was supposed to be an urn with the remains of somebody's ashes in it, unless the translations meant it was discovered alongside the crypt of someone's remains. All she knew was that it was related to something dead, or housed the remains of someone dead, and nothing more.
Thus they reached the third milestone of their journey to the very round object itself. It was large in scale, almost an entire foot and a half taller than Catra was, as she gazed at the shiny surface of the metal.
"The thing is, we can't agree on what it is." Lance continued, the debate seeming to be the most important one they've come across as Catra examined it closely.
"...Oh, this one's simple." Catra smiled back with a proud grin. It was actually one of the most common names she's come across constantly, so much to the point she could probably figure it out for herself without the sword. "It's just a rudimentary password thing, something sophisticuts like mwah are taught." She bragged. "It just says "Eternia"."
*shiiiiiiiiim!*
All three of them jumped at once as a large glowing light suddenly burst from a small crevice-like indent of the round sphere. It glowed with a dazzling array of light, one that waited for the very word itself to awaken from its long slumber.
"Ooh, its working!" Lance squealed. Just thinking of the endless possibilities of what it had to teach them was exhilarating! Perhaps it was an ancient piece of First Ones technology? Maybe it lead to the coordinates to a First Ones vault where even more technology and relics awaited them? Or maybe-!
*rumble*
With the glow fading, the trio watched as the sphere burst open a little as a large mechanical pincer-like appendage popped out from both sides, crashing into the floor below the large pedestal. From its roundish base, the creature unfurled itself into an insectoid-like monstrosity, with several glowing eyes on each side of its face, and massive jaws as it roared in a ferocious fury.
"I-It's a-!"
"A monster." George stared in disbelief. Of all the artifacts lying around their library, all the mysterious and mystical curiosities around every corner, they never thought, not once, that a monster would be present within their domain.
"..." Catra turned back to the dads as she gestured to the creature. "Okay, just so we're clear, that is so not my fault..."
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A/N Annnnnd done! This is it folks! We're down to the FINAL CHAPTER OF SEASON 2 ^_^! WHOOHOOOOOOOOOO! God, it feels good to almost be done with this... well, not done since i got 2 more seasons, and ones twice the size of the other XP...oh gawd X*(... *sigh*
But either way, we'll be breaking into some good ol' action next chapter as well as a stunning, thrilling, conclusion to season 2 ^^ I really wonder if by some miracle ill fin season 3 before the final season comes out. Sounds possible since its only 6 episodes, but at the same time, a lot of stuff happens in comparison, and dear god am i looking forward to the changes I have to make X)
Anywho! Hope you all enjoyed! Leave a like, fave, follow, and review, and hope to see you at the season finale!