A/N: Final Word Count: 14.1k Pre-A/N's. HOOOOOOOOOFTAH, god that was a painful amount of editing X_X. For those wondering where and why, it'll be obvious when you see down below. NEVER am I doing that sort of thing again. I dont' mind doing it but its a hassle to make sure every line is practically like it AFTER you finish writing it T_T Ughghghghgh... But i wont deny, i had just as much fun with this story as we get into some early action as well as some feels followed by humor XP
So with that all said, enjoy!
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"I'm... going to disappear?" It still made Catra shudder just thinking about it. It was even more unnerving considering she didn't notice it the first time.
Till now, she didn't think her day could get any worse, and that was saying a LOT given how amazing it started out. Waking up to a new world where she had a family, discovering she was an honorary princess, having people around her that actually loved and cared about her in a sense she was unfamiliar with, it was amazing! Her Mother was Angella, her father was King Micah, and she actually had a sister in Glimmer, the latter taking after some of her "older sister's" playful shenanigans and pranking. And she didn't possibly think it could get any better!
Sadly, it didn't.
It wasn't until someone she cared about, a young little four-year-old by the name of Kim that she knew in Thaymor, and Lonnie, disappeared from existence that she truly realized how horrific this world could be. They were erased from existence in every sense of the word. They were completely gone, nobody knew who Catra was talking about, and any history affected by them had ceased to exist. It wasn't just a physical manner that people were being erased by, it was EVERYTHING related to them and by them that was erased with it.
With the disaster that came with it, Catra only then realized this world was truly nothing like the one she hailed from, and flew across the Whispering Woods in her skiff in order to rescue Adora, only to find out her friend had little to no interest in returning everything to how it once was if it meant erasing all of her troubles with this world, including their past. After a brief struggle and heartbreak, with the forest slowly being erased from existence, Adora was sucked into the void, leaving Catra to fend for herself as she escaped.
If it wasn't for Madame Razz, the crazy old woman she met many months ago and her inspiring words, Catra would never have gotten the courage to continue on, or the memory of her dear friends who meant everything to her. With their aid, she knew she could find a way to fix everything before it was too late, a chance to stop the universe from being erased and save everybody. There was only one little dilemma she encountered on her way home: NOBODY REMEMBERED HER!
With the destruction of the Fright Zone and the Horde along with it, Catra came across two dire problems with her situation, both of which were caused by the same means. First, because the Horde never existed, the Queen and King never traveled to Beast Island to investigate a possible weapon's research lab, and, therefore, never encountered Catra as they did in this universe. This left Catra with the only memories she had of her fake family life, ones which nobody else could recall.
And, somehow, as depressing as it was, she didn't consider that to be her biggest issue.
Her biggest issue came in the other detail related to her origin. Without the King and Queen ever taking her in from Beast Island, without them ever rescuing her from whatever fate befell the rest of the village she was in, there was nobody to save her. With nobody to save her from the same fate, with no means to grow up outside of Beast Island, assuming that's where she was born or raised, and without a chance to have a decent life, there was nothing to bring her all the way to Bright Moon. And without a reason to be there, or anywhere, there was no reason for Catra to even exist.
"I... W-We don't know for sure!" Glimmer tried to encourage, holding Catra's hand. "Maybe it was just a one-time thing? Or maybe you just disappeared long enough to get some of your stuff back? We don't know for sure, right Bow?"
"Y-Yeah!" He nodded trying to throw in his support, although his nervous smile said otherwise. "Maybe you'll just disappear a few times until you get the rest of whatever you were wearing back?"
"Are... Are you sure?" Given the line of bad luck Catra's had till now, her optimism proved to be wavering on the manner.
"Trust us." Glimmer smiled back. "Even if you do, we'll fix everything. The portal, the universe. And everything will turn back to normal, like you said... right?"
"Y-Yeah... Hopefully." Still looking at her own hand, she squeezed it gently into a fist as she shook the thoughts out of her head. Right now, her priorities were clear. They needed to find a way to stop the portal that was slowly erasing the universe, find the sword, and set everything back to normal before everyone was wiped out from existence.
It felt a little nice to be on the same page again as they used to be when it came to missions. Going off on an adventure to somewhere unknown or perilous, seeing whatever wonders they had to explore. With all the memories that had been altered since coming to this new world, she had forgotten how refreshing it actually was, the way it usually broke the boring pace around her daily life.
It was almost refreshing.
*Ka-Rumble*
Almost.
"Uh... what's that?" Bow asked as he gazed out the window. Within the distance stretching far beyond the forest, just like before, there was a glowing, shimmering, light. One that grew rapidly in width from the tiny pinprick it started out as, and stretching to the sides of the forest as it drew near.
There was only one cause to a familiar shake like that, one that Catra knew all too well as she gazed over the horizon. "It's the void. That's the same thing that wiped out the Fright Zone and erased everybody." Catra stated.
"That's what wiped out the Fright Zone?" Gazing at the glowing white light for themselves, Glimmer did have to admit- for something that was going to erase their very existence, it was kind of beautiful to look at over the horizon. "How long do you think we'll have? It looks slow from here."
"Don't let it fool you," Catra warned, "it might move slowly but that thing grows rapidly. Plus, the void travels through the ground faster than on the surface. It could burst out at any moment."
"Then how are we supposed to stop it?" Glimmer asked as she placed a calming fist over her chest, trying to still her racing heart.
"IIIII'm not fully clear on that." Catra shrugged a little as she scratched the back of her head. "Madame Razz said I had to go back to the beginning, which is why I came here. But I don't really know what we're supposed to do next. The only thing Adora and I figured out was to find the sword and then find... someone..." She shook her head at the thought as she tried to recall. With the added stress of everything that happened within the last hour, mixed with the existence that was fading in and out of reality, a few portions of Catra's memory were a little scrambled. "Someone who knew more about what's going on."
"Ooookay, well you said a portal was involved in all of this." Bow reminded, eyeing the creeping wall of death as he faced her. "Do you know anyone who knows anything about portals or-" Bow's mind flashed with a geyser of memories as he started to recall something.
Somebody who had an IQ that possibly couldn't be measured by today's standards. Somebody with flowing purple hair that allowed her to move around, invaded people's personal space in order to study and examine observations about social interaction, and somebody who spent more time working on technology and magic than anyone else within Etheria.
Somebody who was a dear friend to the Princess Alliance.
"Entrapta." Bow gasped, staring back at the wall of light. At the mention of the name, everything started flooding back into Catra's mind as she remembered everything she discussed with Adora.
"Entrapta, right!" She smiled a little, looking at the slowly-approaching wall. At the current rate it was moving, she was positive they had enough time to find some means of transportation back to the Technological Kingdom. "She knew more about the portal than even Hordak did. Hey, Pinky-"
"Why do you keep calling me that?"
"-do you think you can teleport us to Dryl?"
"What?" The princess stared at the cat girl as if she was crazy... well, more than she currently appeared, anyway. "I barely managed to teleport me and Bow in here."
"Huh? But you could... Oh, right..." Man, this universal-timeline garbage was getting annoying!
Another cause and effect due to the Horde's lack of presence in this world; now that there was barely any war within Etheria and everyone lived peacefully, chances were Glimmer didn't train using her powers as often as she needed to back in the real world. Without missions, without using it to fight off her enemies, there was barely any need to other than to play with her mother and father and enjoy her life.
"Okay, then... We'll move on to Plan B." Catra decided, grinning as she punched her fist into her hand.
"What's Plan B?"
"Simple. We use cunning, stealth, and resort to what we do best..."
...
*WHAM!*
"Ahh!" The helpless guards on the other side of the door were powerless to stop the massive gaping doors from slamming into them as Catra kicked them open with her foot.
"RUN!" She shouted, already pulling the two by the shoulder of their clothing as she dragged the two out of the room.
"This is how we normally do things?!" Glimmer yelped, struggling to keep up with the girl while being dragged at the same time.
"Yeah, more or less." Catra yelled back, still grinning. "We get reckless, we hit them hard, and we hit them fast."
"You said the plan required stealth, what happened to that part?!" Bow stammered as Catra finally let them go to run on their own. For a cunning plan that required stealth, there really didn't seem to be any stealth involved, minus the two guards who were knocked out cold from the doors slamming them into the walls.
"It's just a saying when it came to us! We usually just hit the enemy before they even know what hit them! Think of it as improvising."
"I REALLY DON'T LIKE THIS IMPROVISING!" He wasn't looking forward to the rest of her improvised plan if this was how the rest of it was going to turn out. Improvised plans usually involved thinking of excuses, strategies, or layouts on the spot, not alerting and attacking half the guards in Bright Moon just to make a point!
The trio ran as fast as they could across the hall as they made their way towards the nearest exit to the outside world. None of them could afford to slow down, to show any lack of speed, to even tie their shoelaces, as they ran for their lives. With every second that passed, another portion of Etheria disappeared with it, the fate of the entire world resting on the hands of the very individuals everybody would've considered crazy at this point.
"Look, we'll be fine." Catra assured as her friends caught up to her. "We just need to get out of Bright Moon before-"
*ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT*
In another miraculous flash of light, one that was more terrifying than beautiful, her friends ran several yards ahead of the magicat before finally looking back. Scanning across the room, they made the horrifying discovery of what befell their missing friend.
"Catra?" Bow called out worriedly.
"She disappeared again!" Glimmer panicked, checking the hallways of the intersection they just crossed in case they somehow missed her. There wasn't a hairy mane or a furry tail in sight as her friends feared for the worst. A worse that became even more problematic as they waited past the five-second mark it took her last time to come back. "Shouldn't she be back by n-"
"Princess?" The two squeaked nervously to themselves as the captain of the guard was drawn to them from the right hallway, standing in front of them with a curious expression. "What are you doing here? You know your parents don't want you too close to the prisoner."
"Uhh, y-yeah, about that..." Glimmer twitched with a nervous smile, trying to come up with an excuse. "Y-You see, we were just-"
*ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT*
"-it disappears like the Fright Zo-!"
*Thud*
"Ah!" Catra yelped as she fell to her posterior, colliding into the back of the fellow guard. "What the- How did you..." It took Catra a simple look at her familiar pair of trousers to understand what had happened as the same guard turned back to her in shock. "My pants are back?"
"Huh! It's the Prisoner!" The guard shouted, drawing her spear to the magicat's neck in a defensive manner. "Guards, the Prisoner's esca-"
*Thunk!*
"Ahh!" Whatever the guard was about to say was drowned out by the sudden placement of the potted plant slamming, and fitting, right over her head. Her entire field of vision was darkened as she dropped her spear, attempting to pry the tight-fitting pot from her skull as it hollowed out everything she was trying to say. "Get this thing off of me!" And it was with another push from the archer-turned-historian that the guard was knocked out of the way as Bow helped Catra to her feet, continuing their daring escape down the hall.
"I disappeared again, didn't I?" Catra assumed knowingly as they ran.
"It's a little more complicated than that, Catra." Bow stated, keeping his eyes on the path ahead of them. Glancing outside through the wall-sized window, Catra gritted her teeth with concern. Somehow, the approaching wall of light almost doubled in its size and its measure as it already blanketed over half the forest. She couldn't even get five seconds to look at the scenery before the window suddenly disappeared before her eyes, emphasizing their circumstances.
"What do you mean it's more complicated? I disappeared, and came back. Plain and simple." Catra deemed, almost wishing to shrug off what was already complicating matters.
"I don't think you understand, Catra." Glimmer retorted, turning her head back just enough to eye the magicat while paying attention to the hallway. "You didn't just disappear again, you disappeared longer than you did before!"
"Nghhhh..." It was hard for Catra to ignore the matter as she thought to herself.
Now on top of disappearing at random, she also had to worry about disappearing for longer periods of time. With the slow return of her clothing practically being a countdown for her, Catra could easily assume that if she disappeared again, once all of her clothing had returned, there was a verily good chance that she wouldn't be coming back.
So far, the only bit of good news was that there was still a short ways to go, in terms of her clothing, and the pathway to the nearest exit. She still had her sandals, her claws which were still a little manicured, something she resented since her claws weren't as sharp at the moment, and she was still missing her tiara. Once those things returned to her, THEN she could worry about disappearing one more time.
...Or, she could worry right now like the rest of them as they finally reached the exit, or what remained of it, as in, nothing. There was nothing but a blank wall here, a wall that was slowly cracking up with the same energy that was engulfing the rest of Etheria, ones that were slowly spreading against everything around them.
Without a door, obviously, there was no way out, but they also knew they couldn't risk teleporting either. Without knowing exactly how much had been consumed or erased on the other side of the wall, they could wind up walking straight into the very void that was destroying everything in it's path, effectively making Glimmer's powers pointless.
They were trapped.
"There was a door here..." Glimmer muttered as her eyes shriveled with worry. "There was a door here! Where'd it go?"
"Uhhh, guys?" Bow gulped as he turned around. "I think we might have bigger problems." Turning around for themselves, the two princesses of Etheria could see exactly what Bow was getting at as their eyes widened.
Standing before them, looking no less bitter or angered over the sight of the magicat as they did at the Throne Room, were the two proud and protective parents of a certain Princess named Glimmer. With Angella standing with her wings slightly unfolded, gathering a handful of pink magical energies in both her hands, and the proud King Micah, armed and ready with his magical staff in hand, the two parents were ready to defend their daughter with their very lives, by any means necessary.
"Step away from my daughter at once!" The Queen ordered, the magics gathered in her palms intensifying a little as she aimed her right hand at Catra. "Now!"
"Mom," Glimmer called out as she stood between her and the mother who was just protecting her precious angel, "stop. Can't you see what's happening? How everything's falling apart?! This isn't real!" It was with her daughter's persistence, the familiar look of sadness in her eyes, and the constitution of her character, that Angella's eyes truly opened around her.
She recalled everything in one instant. The memories of her precious angel arguing with her plenty of times, the moments when Glimmer showed such gratitude for letting her do something she felt as necessary. All the times she overexerted herself and required her mother's aid to reach the Moonstone to recharge, and all the precious memories that made her proud to be Glimmer's mother, even now.
She could also remember the most recent events that came before her. The final moments of when she last saw her beloved daughter the day before, standing defiantly in the hopes of saving her friend from the Fright Zone, how that lead on to her daughter turning her back on her to release Shadow Weaver from her prison, and how she gave the wicked witch her own trust, using a forbidden ritual to enhance her own powers from the Moonstone, and teleport herself and the rest of the alliance to the heart of the Fright Zone, the image of Glimmer disappearing being the last thing she ever saw.
She didn't even get the chance to say goodbye.
It was with that realization that everything flashed before her. This wasn't the perfect world she always envisioned, this wasn't the world in which she lived happily ever after with her own family. Standing in front of her, she saw the reality that was truly unfolding around her, a white flash going off before her eyes that revealed how this world was beginning to crumble, bits of debris floating up into the air. There was nothing here that was real.
"Angie?" And with Micah's voice, she, too, realized what else wasn't real. "What's wrong?" Looking at him again, her heart didn't feel the same sense of warmth it once did this morning, the way it felt every time she gazed at her beloved.
"I'm sorry, for everything." Glimmer continued, apologizing dearly for all her past mistakes. There were tears in the corners of her eyes, knowing her mother was drawn to the same conclusion that she was. "But we have to make this right."
*KAAKSHHHHHHHHH*
"Wh-WHOAAA!" Turning around at the mysterious sound, Bow jumped back out of fear at what was merely two inches from his own eyes as he did. Turning around with him, Catra and Glimmer were drawn to the sight something unholy before them.
Stabbed through the massive thick wall behind them, they were met with the sight of several large claw-like appendages sticking through the wall. Each of them were nearly a knife in size, each one almost half a size larger than the last as the four fingers slowly slashed through the sturdy wall that was already cracking up.
There was a strange pulsating aura of blue emanating from the silver-colored claws, each of them beating with their own source of energy. The chalked white skin encompassing them was thick and callous, a trail of blue veins stretching from the tips of the claws to the rest of the arm she couldn't see.
If nothing was unsettling about this situation as it was to them, the sound that reverberated through the two-inch thick claw marks in the wall definitely unsettled Catra's nerves.
"CaAAAaaTrrRraaa~" A voice echoed from the other side, distorted, unnatural, sounding like an echo, a whisper, angered and calming, near and far all at the same time. There was no telling what could turn the voice into something like this. There was only one person Catra recognized within the center of all these distorted sounds.
"A-Adora?" Catra spoke, trying to see past the gaming claw-sized holes in the wall. With the light blinding her, there was barely anything Catra could see past the openings. The only thing that stood out to her that she could see was a menacing yellow eye, one that was almost reverse in color. Instead of a black pupil with a yellow iris, the entirety of the eye itself was pitch black, save for a glowing yellow pupil in the center.
It was at the sight of the mysterious eye catching sight of Catra, a sight that made Catra back away in fear, that the voice spoke again.
"KnOCk, Knock~"
*KA-RUMBLE*
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Before anything else could be asked, anything else could be answered, the three screamed for their lives. The floor standing below them gave way, plunging the trio into the depths of who knows where.
"Glimmer-!" And by the time the Queen already called out to them in worry and panic, it was already too late. Just as quickly as the floor collapsed and her daughter and friends disappeared, did everything return to normal. Everything that was broken, the reality that appeared shattered, all of it was the way it was as good as new. It was as if the very realm of reality had never torn away to begin with, so much so that Micah didn't appear the least bit phased by the daughter's sudden disappearance.
All Angella could do was look on in horror, knowing the truth about this world now, and all who dwelled within.
...
...
"Ahhhhh-!"
*Thud*
"Oww!" The gripes and groans of the trio were spread all around as they collided into the harsh ground around them. If it was a flat surface, it'd be somewhat tolerable, but when it was many flat surfaces, in this scenario a staircase, it was a whole different, and painful, story.
Multiple non-broken broken, bones, a handful of invisible bruises, and a surefire pain that wasn't going to pass away at least for the next several minutes, they all felt the abuse of the gravity that collided them into the floor of their descent.
"Agh, I hate landing on my tail!" Catra yelped, rubbing base of her tail a little soothingly as she stood back up. There was nothing worse than a flattening feeling pushing between one's posterior and where the tail grew out of.
"What else would you possibly land on?" Glimmer groaned, shaking a little strangely as she picked herself up off the ground.
"Preferably on one of you doofuses." Catra spat back, hugging herself a little as she rubbed her arms.
"More importantly, who or what was that back there?" Bow felt the need to ask, nearly slipping on the stairs as he tried to balance himself. There was a strange slickness to the stairs that kept him from finding his footing along the ground.
"It..." Catra hesitated to answer as her ears lowered a bit, the image of that ghastly eye still flashing in her mind. "I think... I think it was Adora."
"Adora?" Just saying the name alone already brought a wave of unwanted memories to Glimmer's mind as she remembered. All the ruthless and terrible things she's done, all the people she's potentially hurt in the Horde's name. And, her favorite memory, the time she tortured her! "How was that Adora? I thought you said she got sucked into the void or whatever?"
"I did, I saw her getting sucked in myself!" She sounded as if she was arguing, still remembering the feeling of her hand leaving her as she Adora let go. "I... I tried to save her but..." She couldn't understand it.
She was sure Adora was sucked into the void, she saw her disappear into the white light. She didn't have a chance to free herself from her predicament, she didn't have her shadowy magic in this universe, at least not that Catra could tell. Otherwise she would've gladly used it against her when she went crazy earlier.
And she couldn't even tell what happened to her here! With reality bending and warping constantly as everything was being erased around them, there could've been any number of things that affected her here. More importantly, if she wasn't erased within the white light of the void, then what DID happen to her?
Her ears twitched frantically as she shivered a bit. "Is it me, or is it freezing around here?"
"No, I feel it too." Glimmer agreed as she rubbed her own arms, looking around the room as Bow got off from the ground. Out of the three, he was the only one who could tolerate the cold, debatably, as he examined the structures around them.
"This entire place," he began as he gently knocked on the railing of the stairs they were on, "it's made of ice."
"Ice?" Catra took in the surroundings further away from them as she tried to piece together their location, parts of her memory still jumbled from drawing a direct line. "But... the only place I know of filled with ice was-"
"Whoooooooo!" It was with a cheery squeal that the trio quickly ducked behind the rails, hearing something emanating from the center of the room. They couldn't be too careful with wherever they ended up given the laws and nature of this world were changed upon the individual's liking.
Poking their heads up from the protective wall-like rail that descended to the base of the stairs, the three were met with a sight most intriguing. Within the center of the large room, one the group recognized as the ballroom of the Kingdom of Snows, their eyes laid upon a small spectacle taking place between three individuals.
From the center of the great room stood a women, a proud and noble figure with long snow-blue hair, one who was happily skating across the very ground she formed into ice right as her feet passed over them. She wore a light blue elegant long cape that stretched down to her knees from behind as she wore a sapphire pendant over her chest. The rest of her clothing also matched her winter-esque attire as it stretched from the top of her chest to her waistline where her bright blue pants continued it, addorining with several patterns of blue and white snowflakes all across the design.
The mysteriously slender woman was laughing to herself among the other three as she continued to skate, using her familiar powers to freeze the landscape itself into a chilling field of ice for herself and the rest of her compatriots. Gathering a small bundle of energy between her hands, she chuckled even louder as she unleashed her creation into the air, filling the room with more of her icy magic, and dropping the temperature for our poor three heroes down by another five degrees.
On the opposing end of the makeshift ice rink, a somewhat curly blue-haired gentlemen with a inch-thin mustache, in a large white winter coat was laughing to himself as he continued to skate across the ice as well, wielding a large pole of ice in the shape of a hockey stick in his blue-gloved hands as he traversed the mighty tundra. With blades of ice under his own feet, woolen white pants under his thick winter jacket, he would prove to the world of three that he was the undefeated and undisputed champion of all spots related to ice, in this case, Hockey.
Yet, the final character of the trio, one the group recognized all too well, wouldn't let him have it. Skating across the ice like the blue-haired hockey player she playing against, the young child grinned as she reached up to the tall figure, the very individual who sneered back at the young figure teasingly.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but you'll never catch up to me at this rate." He taunted.
"You wanna bet?" The smaller girl grinned as she gathered a handful of blue energy in her left palm. With the flick of her wrist, the blue-wonder shot a direct beam of ice in front of the mysterious man, growing a small ramp of ice that shot up three feet into the air.
Before the icy player could react, he was launched helplessly over the icy structure as he soared a dozen feet into the air, losing his grip and his center of gravity as he landed back to the hard ground. The force of the fall didn't keep him from sliding any further as he slid across the great mass of ice, screaming playfully for his life as he was slid into a dozen of pin-like icicles that were stacked atop the ground, clearing through them all with ease as he crashed.
"Strrrrike!" The young girl cheered, pumping her fist into the air as she dissolved her icicle hockey stick. "Hahahaha!" The child was having a blast, even more so as the mysterious woman from earlier swept her into her arms, laughing along with the young child as she skated them to the center of the ring.
Twirling about for a bit, the two eventually came to a stop as they simply laughed amongst themselves, the same man from earlier, having already recovered, joining in on the fun as he greeted them both in a hug. At this, the young girl nuzzled her head under the woman's chin, the same woman who stroked her head lovingly and caringly, as the man patted her back.
This was definitely Frosta's Kingdom.
"I get the short one, but who are the other two?" Catra whispered, raising a brow at the mysterious sight.
"Oh... Oh no..." The magicat's head turned to the sound of Glimmer's moan, seeing the regretful frown present on Glimmer's face, one that was shared by a depressed Bow to her left.
"What? Do you know those two?"
"Yeah, we've seen them before, Catra." Glimmer said with a small sigh. "They're Frosta's parents."
...
...
Destruction.
Ruin.
Nothingness.
Now that the world was truly opened to her eyes, the Queen had never been more devastated by the sight of her own kingdom as she was now. Pillars grew and sprouted across the land, trees and soil were being sucked into the air where they were evaporated like water. Most tragically of all, nobody appeared to be any wiser or concerned over the experience. They simply went about their day preforming their duties and talking to one another as they were erased one by one.
Even the sky looked sickening with its pale violet color as the darkened purple clouds around it looked sickening. Everything around them spoke of misery of death, and the people who went about their daily lives acted like it was nothing, completely consumed in the perfect fantasy world that had once hypnotized the Queen and Glimmer minutes ago.
All this destruction, all this chaos, it was one of the worst things the Queen had ever bore witness to, a sight she wished never to bare. And it was even worse to realize that she was the only one aware of it right now.
"Angie?" The sound of her love's voice from behind didn't distract her away from the enchanting and disastrous sight in front of her, not until he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "We'll get her back, Angie." He promised, squeezing her hands softly. "And then everything will be perfect again."
The gentle smile, that glowing warmth, the beauty in his eyes. It was all great, all beautiful, to behold one last time. "This is perfect, my love," she admitted with a tearful smile, "but it's not real." A look of pain crossed his face as she stroked his cheek, sharing with him the very pain that had touched her own heart.
"I remember now." Standing atop the Moonstone's pillar, nothing mattered more to her than this moment right now. To see it all, to see it one last time, even if it was a fake, was the greatest gift Angella could ever ask for. She remembered all of it.
From the way he first smiled when the two had met, to the day he proposed to her, to take her hand as his bride, and no one else's. He remembered the look on his face when she announced he was to be a father, and the tears in his eye when he held his daughter for the first time.
And... the day it all disappeared. The day she wished over and over again for things to go right back to the way they were, to wake up one day to find the very man she loved at her bedside again. A day that never came to her.
"I miss you so much." She muttered softly, wishing this one moment would last forever. "But Glimmer needs my help, and I can't stay with nothing but memories."
What... What was she getting at? Was something wrong? Was this world not the perfect utopia that she wished it all to be? "Angella? I-" Micah tried to speak up, only for Angella to shake her head lightly.
"Goodbye, Micah." She couldn't stand to be around anymore. She feared if she stayed any longer, she would no longer be able to let go, to move on, to save the family she knew that still existed. With another kiss to the cheek, a single tear rolling down her eyes, Angella departed to the sky, leaving him behind.
It didn't make any sense to him. What was wrong with this perfect world? What was keeping her from being happy? Did he not provide enough for her? Did he not give her as much love as he could ever want and then some? She looked at him as if he had already departed from this world years ago, as if he wasn't...
Wait a minute.
Something was off.
The environment slowly dawned on him, the scenery, the atmosphere. These emotions that were plaguing his heart, the feeling he had welling up inside. They were all familiar somehow, clear as the very diamond he once laid on her finger.
It was then, with a small, silent, gasp, that he remembered.
"Angella!" He called out as the ground trembled around him. "Angella, wait! I'm not-!" But it was too late.
Before another word was uttered, before Angella could possibly turn around again to embrace him once more, another pillar of light burst through ground beneath him, erasing him and the pillar from this existence.
There was nothing left for Angella here. She had a daughter, a friend, and a hero that needed to be saved. Whatever troubles were ahead of her, whatever the path may lay in front of her, she was determined to rise through it, to push on through every obstacle that stood in her way. It was almost like a vow to herself as she pressed on, wiping one last tear from the fake reality as her kingdom had been erased behind her.
There was no going back. Only forward.
...
...
"Frosta's... parents?" Catra mumbled, looking back at the happy continued to laugh among themselves.
"Yeah. I've only met them a few times growing up before..." The pink princess couldn't bring herself to finish the line of dialogue, opting to lower her head a little with a frown instead. "Well, you know..." Like Catra needed any sort of reminder about them.
Out of all the princesses of the Princess Alliance, Frosta was the youngest out of everyone, and the only one among them to inherit a kingdom at the age of eight. With her parents tragic departing after the fall of the last Princess Alliance, there was little else for the young princess to enjoy in her life, other than a life of adulthood at an early age. She had no time to play, no time to enjoy herself, all she had to do with herself was learn to be a decent ruler, the responsibilities of the crown forced upon her.
It's not like she minded the responsibility, per se. Far from it. She was devoted to keeping her kingdom alive and prosperous, making it one of the most powerful kingdoms in all of Etheria. Being forced to mature, forced to learn what was necessary to be a decent ruler, she devoted every waking hour to being the proud member of the Princess Alliance that she was today.
And yet, given all Catra had experienced up till now, she had a new sense of remorse for the young princess. Throughout all of her memories in this dreamworld, she only ever got to experience a single day in her newfound life, and she loved it. A loving family, a cheerful home, a playful sister, they were all the things Catra didn't know she was missing, and she would do anything to experience having one again for just another day.
Here? Frosta had an entire eight years of her life with happy memories of her family, growing up with the very people who loved her every day of her life. If Catra was willing to do anything to know what it felt like to have a family again, there was no telling how badly Frosta felt living without her own family to greet her for the last three-and-a-half years she's missed them.
Or what she would be willing to do to keep the memory of her own family alive, such as her kingdom.
"We should hurry up out of here while we can." Bow commented, gesturing to the side of the room that used to leave to the balcony. In it's place, a large doorway stood at the top, one that appeared unfamiliar and foreign given the architecture surrounding this place.
Giving a small nod to the historian, Glimmer gestured quietly back to Catra, rubbing the girl's shoulder to get her attention, before the two followed behind. Reaching up the halfway point, Catra's right ear gave another twitch as she looked back down at the laughing family again in dismay.
Adora was right about one thing throughout all of this. Some of the people around here, those with truly tragic backgrounds, were definitely the happiest and the brightest out of all of this. If she could, Catra wouldn't mind keeping this world as it was and letting people like Frosta, like Glimmer, to live their new perfect lives with their entire family.
But no matter how much she wished it, she just couldn't. Not for some moral dilemma or some useless reason. It was because this entire existence was going to fade out of reality if Catra didn't do anything to stop it! Even if her allies resented her for it, she new she couldn't just let everyone die and disappear, not when there was a real reality to return to.
*swiff*
*thunk*
"Ow!" And it was with the small yelp that Catra finally blew their cover. Too distracted over the family of three who were enjoying the day of their lives, she was unprepared for the sudden slip her sandals caused her as they slid right against the edge of the stair's edge, tripping her over completely. If it wasn't enough of a loud thud to draw her attention, the recent yelp most certainly gave their cover away as the blue family of snow were caught by the sound.
"Catra!" Glimmer panicked, teleporting the short three yards over to her friend as she helped her to her feet.
"Remind me again why I started wearing these sandals in this world?" She grumbled, rubbing her bruised head. It was moments like this when she missed her tiara.
"Who are you?" The sound of the mysterious Queen of ice drew the attention of the two heroes, with the cold family meeting Glimmer's and Catra's gaze while being unaware of the historian at the top of the stairs as he ducked. Meeting Glimmer's gaze for a moment, getting the same idea, Bow gave a short nod in return as he attempted to pick the lock of the strange door with the temple of his glasses, leaving the two princesses to stall for enough time.
'Uhhh, h-hi!" Glimmer greeted with a nervous smile, standing at full attention as she pulled Catra to her feet. There wasn't any use in hiding anymore for the two, and attempting to do so would've been more suspicious. "W-We're not intruders or anything if that's what you're thinking. We were just... uh..."
"... Glimmer?" The mother questioned with a surprised look as she set her daughter down. Despite the few times they had met before Frosta lost her parents, Glimmer was almost surprised that the woman recognized her. "Is that you?"
"O-Oh, you recognize me. Yeah, um, hi."
"Look at you..." The mother fawned with a soft smile as she took in Glimmer's full appearance. "You've gotten so big."
"Well that's one way of putting it..." Catra muttered rolling her eyes, only to immediately regret it as Glimmer stomped her foot with a small blush. "Yeouch! Watch it, brat!"
"Brat...?" Frosta said quietly to herself. Where had she heard that insult before? She felt like she's heard it over a hundred times in her life, yet that couldn't be right. She's lived peacefully with her mother and father for years.
"And... Who's your friend?" The King asked, eyeing the somewhat grumbling girl as she rubbed her toe.
"Oh, this? This is Catra." Glimmer introduced, shifting her eyes briefly to Bow as she checked on his progress.
"Catra?" Hearing the name resounding in her ears, combined with the mysterious insult she failed to ignore, it finally dawned on her as her memories flashed over her mind.
...
Catra had actually brushed away some of the tears in her eyes with the tip of her tail-
...
"You're DEAD!" With an outcry of anger, Catra attempted to lunge straight for the little princess with her claws outstretched and prepared to claw at her.
...
"They are not my buddies." Frosta state, forming small spikes of ice against her frozen fists, ready to smack down the robots and droids as harshly as possible. It's time I pay back Catra for everything...
...
"Is your arm okay?" Catra's sudden question shocked the girl as she faced her.
"Huh? O-Oh, yeah!" She felt excitement as her heart pumped a little, gesturing to the sling she was wearing.
"Then get lost-"
...
The swarm of history came rushing into Frosta's own mind against her will as she recounted the terrible past she had with the Princess Alliance. The time she became something close to friends with Catra, the magicat giving her her friendship far sooner than most of the other princesses of the alliance, the terrible day that Frosta broke that friendship and trust she had with her by betraying them to the Horde, and the events that brought her into the Fright Zone, hoping to save her friend and to at least start to patch up whatever wounds were still inflicted on Catra by her own betrayal.
It was a past she had deeply regretted since her betrayal, the look of hate and disgust in Catra's eye being present every time the girl had seen her since. It wasn't like she didn't deserve the girl's ire, not after everything she did to her and the rest of the Princess Alliance. She just wished there was still some way she could make it up to the magicat after all this time.
"Wait... W-What's going..." Frosta squeezed her eyes shut as she rubbed her forehead for a bit. When she looked back, she knew something, everything was off. "How did we... get here?"
"Frosta?" The sound of the familiar voice of a mother, one that Frosta could never forget, caused the girl to lose her voice in her own throat as she looked back. There, standing behind her, were the parents she once had, the parents she wished she could see at least one more time. "What's wrong sweetie? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"M... Mom?" The young princess pipped up as her mother kneeled to her, smiling. If it wasn't enough to make her heart waver, the sight of her father kneeling to her right most certainly did. "Dad?"
"Of course, sweetie." The father smiled, touching her right shoulder. "Who else would it be?"
"I-I... Y-You're here... You're really here..." The young princess began to tear up. It was evident by the sound of her voice even if her back was turned to Catra and Glimmer. The two older princesses looked to each other, a small frown on both their faces as they continued up the stairs. They couldn't bring themselves to ruin Frosta's touching moment, not when it was going to be erased shortly after anyway.
As for the young princess herself, she smiled brightly to the two parents with tears in her eyes before throwing an arm around both of them, hugging them tightly. "I missed you!" She sniffed.
The parents were a bit surprised by the sudden change in behavior, seeing the joyful smile turning into a cheerful smile in front of them, but refused to let it bother them. With a comforting heart and an arm around her, the Majesties of the Kingdom of Snows hugged her back, smiling.
"Of course we're here, sweetheart." The father said lovingly, wiping a tear from her eye. "We've always been with you."
"Y-Yeah... I know." She sniffed again, wiping her eyes. She didn't know the laws of this reality or what it was that brought her parents back to her. All that mattered to her right now was making the most of the time she had with them.
"I'm starting to hope she doesn't remember this when we get back." Glimmer commented, feeling sorry for the young princess as the two reached Bow. "I doubt she would forgive us."
"It wouldn't matter if she did or not." Bow replied, jiggling what felt like the last lock within the keyhole. "We have to stop all of this before reality is erased. We can't let everyone die."
"I know, but still-"
*Ka-Rumble*
"What?" The present guests and Frosta, those who were more aware of their situation, gazed to the ceiling above them as the entire ballroom started to shake madly. Several small pillars of ice started to break apart from the ceiling, smashing and scattering against the ground as everyone tried to make heads of their situation.
"What's going on?" Catra asked, looking around. Despite her pessimism of what it could be, she had a small hope that she was just imagining things. The part that made her doubtful in all of this was that the void that was consuming the world appeared to be so slow to her originally when she met it up with Adora. In that sense, there was no way this could possibly be happening here now, could it?
Sadly, yes. All around them the room started to crack and break apart as everything rumbled violently. The walls, the ceilings, bits of the floor, were all opening up with deepening cracks as a rush of white light filled the room. It was like a spiders web of trails as one crack opened, leading to dozens upon dozens of other smaller cracks spreading across everything.
The most shocking part out of all of this, the piece that didn't make any sense at first to the four heroes, was the one crack that opened up in the middle of the air, right before Frosta and her family. While she couldn't see it from there, there was something Catra noticed as she saw Frosta's horrified expression, a look of terror at whatever appeared in front of the girl.
*SSSKKKKKKKKTTTT*
Like stabbing a pillow through a bed and cutting it all the way too, the blue-haired princess watched as a mysterious, monstrous, claw tore an opening in the fabric of reality, stretching a good ten feet from side to side in front of the girl as the void's light began to shine through the seams. With one hand pushing at the bottom and one pulling up at the top, Frosta gasped as a somewhat familiar presence ripped a massive white hole in the reality of space, stretching out until it was wide enough for a fully grown adult to step through.
Or, in this case, an unlikely individual who resembled nothing like Frosta remembered.
"Huh, I wAS lookINg for a diffERENt traitor heRe, but You'll dO." Came the voice of a distorted creature, one that Catra heard earlier prior to their escape.
"A-Adora?" Frosta shook a little as she stepped back, all while Catra's jaw dropped in pure shock.
"Adora?" She whispered to herself. She couldn't get a good look at her former friend with the white void acting like a wall behind her, or whatever had changed about her that terrified Frosta so much.
All she could see was a small portion of the back of her head. While the left side of it appeared to be as it usually was, still flowing long and elegant, there was something twisted about the right half of her head. There was an eerie aura of shadow rising up from Adora's right half, almost as if it was leeching off of the girl at every second. Along with that, her hair appeared to be pure white on the right half of it.
"How'd she get here?" Glimmer asked, staring off in the same disbelief that Catra was.
*click*
"I got it!" Bow announced happily, relieved to have pried open the lock as he pulled the door's handle.
"Who are you?" Frosta's mother could be asked as she spoke to Adora. As if sensing the ill intent of what Adora had in store for their precious daughter, both parents began to channel their icy magic in the palms of both their hands, stepping in front of the girl as they prepared to defend their daughter with their very lives.
"Ooh, hOw cuTe." Adora's distorted voice awed. "You tHink you're menacING to me. THat's so SWeet."
Refusing to let the girl get the first jump on them, both parents channeled their powers into the same attack as they launched a torrential wave of pure cold directly at the corrupted Horde. What may have been an impressive feat to many, an attack like this being capable of freezing any unfortunate enemies into subzero temperatures, for the being that was known as Adora, whatever she turned into, it felt like nothing.
The girl casually sighed to herself as she let her hair flow back a little bit, enjoying the feeling of the temperatures that should've frozen her heart within seconds. "Ah, whAt a nice bREeze." She commented, sneering at the wonderful family that was just trying to protect their daughter. "UnFortUNately, I'm in a hurry HERe."
Without a second thought, without any instinct or care, Adora ended their brief little resistance sooner than it began. Lifting her malformed claw up, the very thing that she used to rip a hole in time and space to begin with, and swiped it through the two parents as if they were air. Instantly, the two parents shattered in front of the young princess, virtually cracking apart like the glass of a window, as they crumbled into little white shards.
And then, into nothingness.
"M-Mon... D-D-Dad...?" Frosta's eyes watered heavily as tears rolled down her cheek. Even if it was an illusion, the way Adora did it so carelessly, so easily, mortified her. Almost as much as it infuriated her.
"You didN'T REally think anythiNG made inside a false reALIty could hurt me, dID you?" Adora wondered, almost taunting the young princess as she glared with tear-filled eyes.
"Y-You... my parents..." The princess of ice had never known her blood to boil as intensely as it had now. The mocking tone, the way she flexed her claw in front of her face. She just needed any one thing in the world to set her off, and she would be prepared to lunge for Adora herself.
"AwwwW, don't pout, they were just faKE." She smirked vilely. "It'S not like your real paRENTs cARed enough to stay aroUND eITHEr~"
"Nnnnnngggggggghhhhhhhhhh!" Almost growling, the princess of ice lost her temper as she channeled as much power as she could within both her palms. All around them, the three friends continued to watch as the near-entire castle began to shook, the tremors and vibrations nearly tripled in ferocity as the white cracks across the ballroom began to amass rapidly.
"Frosta!" Glimmer shouted worriedly.
As much as she hated to say it for herself, Catra held her breath and her feelings back as she grabbed Glimmer's arm. "We need to go." She announced, much to Glimmer's surprise and shock.
"But what about Frosta?"
"Madame Razz already said everything will return to normal when we fix everything." Catra reminded from her earlier explanation to the King and Queen.
"But Catra-"
"Glimmer, Catra's right." Bow said regrettably. "Without our stuff, we can't fight her anyway." It didn't make the reality of the situation any easier for the pink princess as she looked back with dismay.
Almost as if she was sensing the onlookers staring at her, Frosta shouted back to them, "I'll hold her off, just get out of here!" She demanded. Hearing the young girl shouting to anyone but her, Adora slowly turned her head to the right, giving Catra another small look at the right side of Adora's face.
Like before, all that she caught a glimpse of was the menacing right yellow eye as she grinned to the cat girl. For better or worse, the eeriness of her voice appeared to have cleared up just a smidge as she addressed her former friend. "Hey, Catra~"
"GO!" With another shout, having channeled a sufficient amount of her powers as needed, the young princess launched an entire cluster of solid pillars of ice, dropping them from the ceilings high above as she attempted to bury the terrible corrupted soldier in an avalanche cascade of solid ice, each of the pillars almost the size of Adora's entire body.
"Come on!" Bow yelled. With little choice, despite their heavy hearts, Catra and Glimmer followed on through the doorway as they escaped from this wretched castle of horrors, just before another small pile of ice collapsed in front of the doorway, blocking it off completely.
Frosta kept up the assault for the next ten seconds as she attempted to gather as much power as she could throughout the attack, channeling all the power that she had into the massive avalanche of ice atop the girl. She didn't' know what happened to Adora or how she ended up that way, and she didn't care. She made it personal the moment she insulted the memory of her parents, and took them away again before her eyes.
The attack lasted for another ten full seconds before Frosta relented, panting out of breath as she waited for the large cloud of ice to dissipate from the scenery. The world around her was still cracking up, not that she cared as long as she took care of Adora for her friends here. Whatever they were up to, she was sure it would fix everything. Her only concern was stopping Adora while she had the chance.
Finally seeing the last particle of ice evaporating into thin air. With a wave of her hands, she brushed the remaining pile of snow and ice away from the landing zone. While there was plenty of broken ice shards and craters of ice around the impact, she didn't see a single thing resembling Adora, or whatever remained of her.
*SSSSSKKKKKKTTTTT*
"Hu- Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" The poor girl barely had the time to turn around before she screamed, hearing the familiar tear ripping open right behind her. With a simple pull by the back of her winter coat, the young princess found herself being pulled into a new opening created by the sinister transformed Adora as a hand burst through the seams, pulling Frosta into the void of light in its entirety.
With the young girl pulled in, all the cracks, all the damage and destruction that had entailed throughout the small fight and brief scuffle had finally vanished, the ballroom returning to the peaceful state it once was as Adora stepped through the white void again.
She has effectively erased the Princess of the Kingdom of Snows from this reality.
"Where are you CatrAAAaa~?"
...
...
"Huff... Huff..." The group panted as they entered the halls of this unknown world. Just as quickly as they entered this world did they see the very doorway dissolve around behind them. The horror, the terror, the princess they left behind. There were so many issues following them both figuratively and literally as the trio tried to save the world.
"How did Adora catch up to us?" Glimmer asked, figuring that Catra would have the answers to everything else.
"What? You're asking me?" The very answers the magicat couldn't provide. "How should I know? I'm still trying to figure out how she found us to start with!"
"Don't look at me," Bow insisted shaking his head, "I didn't tell her where we were going! I don't even know how we got there to begin with."
"Ugh, it must've been from the universe collapsing." That's the only conclusion Catra could come to given their short amount of time as she groaned. "This reality has the power to make everyone's fantasies come true so who knows what else it can do when it's falling apart?"
"Mmh, I just hope Frosta's okay." Glimmer frowned, the sense of unease filling Catra and Bow's mind in the same sense.
None of them knew what happened to Frosta back there, or how Adora easily managed to dispatch of her parents in front of her very eyes. They didn't want to begin to think of the horrible details that might've come about Frosta's end, the pain she must've bared in order to fight off Adora. It didn't matter how sure they were that Frosta could fend off Adora, they knew she had to be erased after seeing the state of the world collapsing in on itself.
"I feel kind of bad for her, you know?" Bow commented, crossing his arms in his own grief. "Being in a fantasy like that, then finding out it was fake before losing the same parents in front of her? It's terrible."
"Mmmh..." The low humming coming from the cat's throat did nothing to dissuade Glimmer and Bow's attention as she leaned against the wall. As sad as it was to see the former life of one of their friends, what their ultimate fantasy would be, it filled Catra with nothing else but worry for the rest of their journey.
She didn't want to give the others a simple reason for her to accept them as her friends, she refused to give them their trust until they earned it like Glimmer and Bow did. But the more she tried to ignore what she witnessed in the previous world, an encompassing backstory, a cause for her betrayal, she couldn't help but feel sorry for the young parentless princess.
And fearful of what was to come next.
"I can't even imagine how bad the others will be."
*tap*
*tap*
*tap*
"Hmm?" Ears twitching, attention shooting, tail raising, Catra gave all the signs of someone coming to attention as she heard the familiar footsteps of somebody approaching her. "Do you guys hear that?" Before any of the three could voice a response, the mysterious individual revealed himself as he gingerly walked down the hallway, carrying a bowl of fruit above his right shoulder.
The individual had nothing but long black pants, the kind that went with a tuxedo, a cumberbundt over his bare chest, and surprisingly massive pex for such a small frame. What truly caught their attention was the familiar facial hair and hairdo over his head, recognizing the chipper young man as the only adventurer who would dare to traverse any halls looking like that.
"Sea Hawk?" Bow gaped in disbelief as the rest of his friends stared. There was a small blush over Catra and Glimmer's face as they tried to avert their eyes a little from the shirtless individual who passed them along the halls.
"Good day." He greeted commonly as he continued on to the next room. Right as they were about to ask him something, something that would've cleared this whole situation up, they saw something even more inexplicably confusing and, somehow, more shocking than the last.
Another Sea Hawk appearing at the end of the hallway.
"Hurry now, mustn't keep her Excellency waiting." The other Sea Hawk stated, following behind the same Sea Hawk with a large fan-like leaf over his arms.
"Sea Hawk has a brother?!" Bow stammered, never realizing the secret life Sea Hawk apparently had.
"Mermista, Darling, your Sea Hawks have arrived~" The three turned to one another before following the trail of voices they heard, realizing along the way they were in Salineas, as hinted, most likely in Mermista's castle.
From the walls to the tapestries, everything around here was in perfectly Salinean architecture, with a few notable exceptions that the group came upon. For starters, unlike the previous trips to the kingdom capital, nearly every other wall within this place was decorated with paintings of Mermista, each one seeming more elegant than the last.
From a punk look, a goth look, a model look, there were looks of each and every possible depiction of Mermista within these halls, with each painting looking as if it was actually trying to out-captivate each other. Combine that with the beautiful pearls that decorated the frames of each and every painting, and you were looking at someone living a life of lavish luxury.
Along the way, they were also surprised, and somewhat disturbed, by the numerous Sea Hawks that they passed around. Nearly each and every Sea Hawk was dressed exactly the same, with some of them looking more buffed than the previous iteration, and every one of them holding an assortment of things from more bowls of fruit to carpentry to who knows what else as the rest were in boxes. There was no telling what was going on or why this was happening.
Until the group finally came to the Throne Room. There, Catra, Bow, and Glimmer stared in utter shock, all of their jaws gaping open at the disbelief of what their eyes laid upon.
"Oh..."
"My..."
"Gosh...
It was as if they were viewing into the self-absorbed world of Mermista's own mind as they witnessed everything around them.
At the head of the chamber, basking within a giant decorative opened pink clam, laid the elegant Mermista, the Princess of Salineas. The very princess was enjoying the luxurious and fashionable lifestyle of her own design as she was swarmed by over two dozen different Sea Hawks, all of whom were attending to her every whim.
To her right stood one of several Sea Hawks who were feeding her an assortment of delicious grapes and fruits whenever she beckoned. When one wasn't feeding her an assortment of delicious grapes, they were off to her left, massaging her feet tenderly between the toes. When they weren't massaging her, they were waving one of several large leafy fans as they cooled off the princess who was enjoying the fine fruity substances.
Along the rest of the chamber, kneeling before her, were the other dozen Sea Hawks who continued to admire her with all they had. All of them went on endlessly about how amazing and beautiful she was in every sense of the word as she relaxed, letting her troubles float away like the bubbles that rose to the ocean's surface.
She was truly living the lifestyle that any princess could dream of. One where they were worshipped like a goddess she believed herself to be, pampered endlessly by dozens of followers, in this case ones who looked like Sea Hawk for whatever twisted reason, and having her every desire and order waited upon by dozens of followers who would've wished to do nothing more than to earn Mermista's glorious attention, even if only for a second.
"... Bow, do you have your tracker pad or a Camera?" Catra asked, never taking her eyes off the scene in front of her.
"Why do you want that?"
"Because this will go down in history as the greatest blackmail I have ever witnessed." Just thinking about everything she could get out of this, if she could show any of the other Princesses a picture of this scene, brought her no end to the sheer amount of joy welling up inside of her. She needed to capture this moment forever, regardless of whether or not it would be erased when they fixed the world around them.
"How did Mermista get a dreamworld like this?" Glimmer questioned gazing around the throne. "Isn't this world still supposed to be some part of reality or something? How did Mermista get some bizarre fantasy like this?"
"Are you really going to ask that after Adora ripped a hole between time and space right in front of our eyes?" Bow argued as he reminded.
"Fair point."
"Mermista, darling, you're just so elegant and beautiful!" One of the many Sea Hawks praised with wide starry eyes.
"Uh, yeah, I know." Mermista casually replied, resting her eyes as she lied upon the soft bed within the open clam.
"I just wished there was something we could do to show our appreciation for just how amazing you are."
"And beautiful beyond words."
"I can only imagine how jealous all the other princesses must be of your beauty. Your flawless skin, your wonderful hair. It's making me jealous and I'm not even a princess."
"Yeah, yeah, what else is new?" Mermista opened her mouth knowingly as she accepted another luscious grape.
"Annnnd now I find her annoying again." Catra finally said as she decided to end this charade. "Hey, Mermista!"
At the tone of the familiar sounding voice, Mermista opened one of her eyes, growing mildly, or nearly nothing, surprised at the sight of her other friends as they approached. "Oh, hey. What's up?" She asked leaning up again.
"This is your "perfect world", Mermista?" Glimmer asked, staring at the slightly creepy Sea Hawks who continued to fawn over her as they kneeled. "Some place where everyone treasures you and... Wait, why am I even asking this?"
"Look, let's just get to the point," Catra insisted as she cut her off, "I know you don't know me, but we really need a way out of here and-"
"Uh, hello? Of course I know you, Catra." Mermista said with a bored yawn.
"You do?"
"Duhhh. You're Catra, that's Twinkles, and that's Arrowhead."
"Least its better than "Nerd"..." Bow muttered with a sigh.
"If you know who we are, then you're aware of where we are right now, right?"
"Hello? Of course I do. I'm not an idiot." She snapped her fingers as she had one of her other Sea Hawks kneel down in front of her, using him as a leg stool. "This is just a dream I'm having, and you're all figments of my imagination."
"I thought you said you weren't an idiot?"
*PSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH!*
"Ahhh!" Catra was blasted away as she was assaulted with a hundred gallons of pressurized water from the right, blasting her to the wall. Looking in the direction from whence it came, Bow and Glimmer saw several of the Sea Hawks giving a simple look to the duo as they held a fire hose attached to the wall behind them.
"Huh, I was wondering why I had that installed here."
"Mermista, this isn't some dream. You're in an alternate reality that's slowly falling apart." Bow tried to explain as Catra grumbled, shaking herself free of the water as she got back up.
"Uh, if this isn't a dream, then why are there, like, thirty Sea Hawks to answer my every call?" She shot back, accepting a refreshing glass of juice from one of the mentioned Sea Hawks.
"Because clearly you have some deep personal issues we don't have time to address right now!" Catra hissed.
*PSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!*
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Unable to learn from her previous lesson, the magicat insulted her, getting blasted back to the same wall with almost twice as much force as the previous blast. "Would you stop-"
*ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT*
It happened again. The white flash filled the room temporarily as Catra disappeared, without any sign or warning of its inevitable approach. Personally, Mermista was a little bit freaked out about the sudden disappearance on a more personal level than she was emotional.
"Uh, did I do that or-?"
"I-It's fine." Glimmer assured, trying to sound sure for herself and the mermaid princess as she waited for Catra's return. "It's happened before."
"Y-Yeah." Bow gulped, waiting frantically as Catra had passed the ten second mark that it took her last time. "I'm sure she'll be back any second now... Any second..." He started to subconsciously hold his breath out of fear as he waited for the girl's return, Catra hitting the 30 second mark as he considered recounting again, just to be safe. "Annnny-"
*ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT*
"-that!" Catra yelled. It was with the sign of her friends staring at her again, along with the rest of the Sea Hawks who watched in fascination, that Catra felt the need to examine herself again. As expected, feeling along her toes, she saw the dreaded sandals that slipped her up earlier were vanished, as another part of her had returned to her original state of being. "... It happened again, didn't it?" She didn't need to see Bow's nodding to confirm this, already knowing the truth.
"You know for people trying to convince me this isn't a dream, you're doing a really poor job of it.
"Mermista, please. We need to get out of here as soon as possible. If we don't fix everything, then the whole world is going to disappear!" Glimmer informed, trying to reach some sort of sense with the girl.
"Are there any doors or exits around here that look out of place?" Bow asked, catching a small look of the magicat as she grumbled her way over.
"Well..." The blue princess looked along her surroundings for a bit, taking in the sight of her loyal servants while also trying to look for a supposed exit. "I don't know about actual exits, but there's a trapdoor under my clam if you want to check it out. I never used it since I got here, not that I'd want to leave anyway."
"Really? That's perfect!" Glimmer exclaimed as Catra huffed.
"Yeah, perfect." She squeezed a bit of the irritating water out of her mane as Mermista stepped aside.
With the snap of her fingers, nearly a third of the thirty or so Sea Hawks dropped what they were doing as they went to work, knowing what she wanted. Setting aside the fruits, the leaves, and an assortment of other knick knacks, the small handful of them gathered around the giant pink clam, grabbing around the edges of the giant mass as they began to heave with all their might.
*Ka-Rumble!*
No sooner than they started, a familiar and unwelcoming tremor filled the land around them as everything started to shake. Bits of dust and debris from the seemingly-endless ceiling overhead dropped along the ground beside the heroes, with many of the Sea Hawks already franting about as they began to panic.
"Please tell me that's your Sea Hawks moving the clam?" Glimmer meeped, already knowing what the answer would be.
"We haven't even started moving it yet." One of the Sea Hawks said, looking to several of the other Sea Hawks who shrugged back to him.
Sure enough, without any hint of pausing, the familiar white cracks in reality started to burst through the room, light seeping in through the small openings penetrated through the distorting reality. Smaller physical cracks formed along the walls and the floor around them as more debris started to shake, the entire world becoming undone as a pillar burst through the ocean itself from the outside window.
"Caaatraaa~" A voice echoed as it resounded from the hallway. "This is starting to get annoying..."
"How is she keeping up with us?!" It left Catra in more shock that she was following them so fast than the fact she knew where to find them to begin with.
"You two," Mermista spoke as she pointed to two of the still-praising Sea Hawks, "figure out who that is and stop her!"
"Yes, your perfectness!" They replied obediently, running towards the hallway as Catra resisted the urge to hurl from all the cheap praising around her.
There was a brief silence for a few seconds following the Sea Hawks' exit until they heard the other Sea Hawks voice as they came upon the mysterious chaser. "Excuse me miss, but I'm afraid I'll have to force you to leave for your own-"
*Sheeem*
Whatever the Sea Hawk was going to say was cut off as the two Sea Hawks cried in horror. In merely two swipes with her appendages, Adora managed to easily erase the two Sea Hawks with the swipe of her arms, the others watching as a brief white flash went off in the pitch black hallway for only a second, followed by the sound of footsteps once more.
"Grrrr... All of you, stop her!" Mermista ordered. Nodding in return to their undersea goddess, the remaining Sea Hawks within the room rushed to the entrance, blocking the path of the Force Captain as she arrived a second after, any sign of her new appearance blocked off by the Sea Hawks barring her entry.
Unintentionally, the same Sea Hawks that were trying to move the giant clam also took this order as their own, dropping what they were doing as they charged for the doorway as well.
"Mermista!" Glimmer complained, reminding the oceanic princess of their predicament as she looked back.
"Oops." Seeing several white flashes going off as Adora swiped away at the dreamworld Sea Hawks with ease, the Princess of Salineas quickly rushed over to the giant clam with the rest of her friends as they began to heave, grunting and grumbling to one another as they slowly budged the clam an inch at a time.
"Come ooooon..." Catra grunted, sweating a little as the three continued to move it.
"It'd be easier if there were any handles to this thing..." Bow mentioned, trying his best not to think of the monstrous pursuer chasing them.
"It's a clam, what do you expect?!" Mermista growled, eyeing back to the mysterious intruder she was trying to recognize. By now, Adora had made short work of the last of the Sea Hawks as they slowly crumbled into a glittering pile of shards that dissolved into the air. With nothing standing in the girl's way, Adora chuckled creepily to herself as she made her way out of the pitch black shadows.
"And it was just getting fun too." She commented, her footsteps echoing throughout the room as the white cracks continued to spread around the decaying Throne Room.
"Gehhhhhh..." Mermista hissed as she finally stepped away from her enchanting throne, leaving the others to move the clam at an even slower pace.
"What are you doing?" Glimmer squeamishly asked, trying to push the stupidly oversized clam with all of her might.
"I'll try to buy you guys some time." Mermista offered as she gathered a small pool of water from the nearby drains and vents at the edges of her throne.
"OhHh, nOW You're gonna play with me?" Adora smirked as she continued to approach, her legs starting to be revealed as she stepped out of the darkness. "WHAt could you posSIBly do that FRosta cou-"
*PSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH!*
"Agh-!" There was a light yelp as Adora was blasted back a few feet by the strong torrent of water, dousing her with a wave of the enchanted waters.
"How about that, for instance?" Mermista smirked, gathering another pool water, almost twice in size. Hearing the deformed Horde soldier growling, the blonde beginning to rush to her, Mermista blasted her with an endless stream of her waters, attempting to push back the girl with as much water as she could collect.
While it succeeded to push the girl far out of the Throne Room and into the hallway, it failed to be anything more than a minor inconvenience at best. Already, Adora was grunting audibly to herself as she slowly pushed against the waterfall-like stream shooting straight at her, getting a single foot in length closer to the watery princess as Mermista pushed back with all her might.
"Any day now would be good!" Mermista yelled to the others as Adora managed to get the first foot into the room.
"Almost... got it..." Glimmer grunted, feeling like her stomach was about to explode if she tightened herself any further from the extraneous physical activity.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the three heroes gasped for breath as the giant clam was pushed off the five-by-five foot trapdoor, the clam sliding against the three steps leading up to it as it slid down behind Mermista.
"We got it!"
"Then go!" Mermista shouted, trying to gather another steam of water to blast at the girl. This did little to slow Adora down, only managing to push her back another three feet before renewing her efforts to approach. Luckily for the three heroes, there wasn't anything related to a lock or mechanic to the trapdoor as the hatch could be pulled open by the single silver ring at its base, giving off a puff of dust as Bow pulled it free.
"What do you think is down there?" Catra asked, looking down into the pitch blackness.
"It's gotta be better than here." Glimmer shrugged. Giving a nod to her two friends, the princess was the first to jump in, disappearing as soon as she entered, followed by the technological historian as he held his breath, just in case.
Before Catra could follow suit, she was cut off by the sound of Mermista's voice again. "Hey!" She yelled. "You better find a way to fix all this." She told her with a small grin. "Even though you'll never be as great as Sea-Ra, you're still more capable than you think." With the small joke in mind, Catra gave her a small grin back with a nod, joining her friends in the black abyss as she jumped.
Seeing the remaining friends having made their escape successfully, Mermista finally released her hold over the magical waters as she summoned her trident to her side. She didn't know what Adora had turned into, much less what she was at the moment, and she didn't care. All she cared about was buying as much time as she possibly could as she charged for Adora, the Force Captain doing the same in turn as she kept to the shadows, colliding her mysterious claw with the tip of the girl's trident.
As far as Mermista was concerned, she'd be fortunate enough to last any more than five minutes as the world crumbled around her.
...
...
*thud*
"Oof-!" Catra, Bow, and Glimmer yelped as they landed on the hard ground at long last. Despite the brief fall they all took, and the fact they took the plunge one at a time, they still ended up piled on top of one another as they finally reached the ground, one that didn't hurt as much as they expected from such a lengthy fall.
"Is everybody okay?" Bow asked as he shook his head, sitting up.
"No worse than the last several times we fell together." Catra shrugged, shaking off the dust from her mane.
"Where do you think we are now?" Glimmer asked, looking around as Catra and Bow examined their new surroundings.
"Hello." It was with the sound of the familiar voice that the trio knew exactly where they were before they had the chance to explore.
All around them, technology and machinery laid among them, with thousands of different wires connecting across the ceilings and cables running through the ground between circuitry and amplifiers alike. Not a single part of this room was untouched by the works of a mad genius as screws and tools littered every other step of this place, and whirring rang throughout the room.
Upon further inspection, the three were drawn to the far end of the room where the mysterious greeter found them.
There, at the head of the lab, they saw a familiar lock of hair as a certain scientist twiddled and toyed with the various machines in front of her as a handful of robots surrounded her in turn. Robots of all shapes and sizes littered the ground leading up to her, and filled the space bubble around her as the scientist doodled with her machines.
Following a small sparkle of electricity of whatever she was working on, the girl turned around, meeting the three mysterious guests' gaze as all the other robots looked back, too. All of them were curious, all of them were focused, as they examined the mysterious threesome, the individuals who she had never seen, and somehow always knew, since day one of her life.
And with her mask, Entrapta couldn't be any more curious about their arrival.
"Do I know you?"
...
...
...
A/N: Now do you see what i was getting at XP? Dear god writing Adora's distorted voice was a killer, my eye started physically twitching, no joke, as i had to go back and re-edit it all so it matched up. That took like 20+ minutes of extra editing T_T Buuuuuuut all the same, I think it made the voice deeply disturbing enough to the point where you can easily picture the distortion, can't yee ^^?
We're almost down to the wire folks, and I know what you're thinking- you want to see the amazing Aroda win in the end and get everything she could ever want, huh? Well me too. In fact, I feel like she's the most popular and amazing character within this show, so much so that I shouldn't even devote screen time to those other characters huh? But, *sigh* we have to put up with the *less awesome* characters for now. I know, i know i'm sorry P_P But, look at it this way- when I - I MEAN ARODA, finally wins, we'll all feel so much better about her, won't we ^^?
So with that said, hope you all enjoyed! Leave a like, fave, follow, and review if you enjoyed, and hope to see you soon! Next chapter wont be as long as it sticks more to the plot, but that just means we'll get to the amazing reveal of Adora's new look at the very end of it X)!