A/N: Final Word Count: 7.3K Pre-A/N's. Hello all my delectable mortal- I mean Human friends ^^ Definitely Monokub here with a brand new post from yours truly~
We got a bit of a shorter chapter here, but that's just because the fun that's to come afterwards is going to be very, VERY, enjoyable for everyone (including me~). Also, I got a little surprise to mention after the end of this chapter. What is it? You'll just have to be patient and wait till the end. As such, I hope you enjoy the rest of the chapter, and look forward to the surprise~
Enjoy!
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The Kingdom of Dryl. Home to one of Etheria's greatest, if not THE greatest scientist, and former member of the Princess Alliance, Princess Entrapta. Within the kingdom surrounded by a current thunderstorm, there was no telling what technological devices and gadgets the princess was in the middle of making. And there was never usually a safe method to find out.
The twin-tailed princess made it a habit of making traps all across her castle, constructing it like a maze as she filled it with all matter of droids and devices. From simple ones that were capable of washing clothes, helping her with her hygiene, and preparing food for her, to massive ones capable of demolishing walls, digging through entire mountains, and blasting apart any form of matter with high-powered blasts, the princess was capable of making droids for all occasions.
Yet, the princess also lead a solitary life at the same time.
For the most part, anything she did in her daily life she did alone. While she had a few human servants here and there who also did their part to assist her, they mostly dealt with the chores and smaller services they could provide compared to the more mundane tasks the robots were constructed to do. It's not like she minded being around other people, far from it. She just wasn't used to interacting with them like she was with her robot friends.
So imagine her surprise of all things when three such individuals, one who happened to be part animal at that, decided to drop in to her lab out of the blue? She was ecstatic! To think, three individuals she was never expecting or anticipating could fall right into her lab out of thin air! To get past all her traps, all her defenses, why, there were so many things she wanted to ask them!
Trying to be the gracious host she could, with about as much studies as she could gather from her few minutes of reading, she welcomed the three individuals by providing as much hospitality as she possibly could. A place to sit, warm refreshing water, and a dozen droids ready to listen to any further requests they had.
She was their hostess, and they were her guests. And she was ready to hear what brought them here while developing her social interaction skills further.
"This is fascinating." She commented with a wide smile. She watched with excitement as she lied on her stomach against her own hair a few feet off the ground, kicking her legs in the air and enjoying her refreshing fruit drink as the others were poured their own drinks of water. "I've never had non-robots visit me before. Usually it's just me and all my friends." She continued to stare as she sipped through her straw.
"What friends?" Catra asked absentmindedly. It took a quick nudge from Glimmer's shoulder before she got the idea of it, looking around at the various robots that were staring at them. "Oh..."
It was a little disturbing to be watched by so many eyes staring at them, robots programmed for numerous tasks and responses that none of them knew of. Like the one Bow gave a small look at, for example. Staring at it for just three seconds activated some programmed response within it's systems to turn away as three pink lines glowed on each of its cheeks, acting like the typical preteen who would turn away embarrassed from one of their own crushes and the like.
There were too many disturbing issues behind why someone would make a robot such as this that none of them were brave enough to ask about.
"Aren't they amazing?" She jumped, rising to the air through her hair as another butler came with a concealed platter. "And if they break, I can just make new friends!" She bellowed out with laughter, flipping upside as she stared back at the trio. "Tiny snacks?" Her offer was met by three simultaneous shakes of the head as the friends saw the delicious snacks she had in store for them.
A couple pounds of loose bolts, robotic oil, roasted lug nuts, and over a dozen screws. All of it was topped off with a bit of oregano for added flavor. As "appealing" as it might've appeared to some, specifically on the robot side of things, it didn't appear the least bit appetizing to the young guests.
"Oh, sorry about that." She apologized, waving away the droid. "They're still getting the hang of people food... Unless this is what you eat." Could they be the first organic guests she had that ate inorganic matter, on TOP of being the first guests she ever had?! This was so exciting! "I have so many questions. Tell me everything." She nearly demanded, bringing a tape recorder up to Catra's face without a second thought.
"... Look, Entrapta, this is going to be really hard to explain-" Catra began as she pushed the recorder away.
"Is this about the unstable portal slowly consuming and warping our reality?"
"-but there's something destroying our realityyyyy..." The magicat blinked as she stalled, processing the shocking reveal she had yet to say to Entrapta that the scientist herself already stated for her. The surprise was shared between her two friends as they stared at the eager scientist. "Oooookay, how did you already know that?"
"Oh, I figured it out awhile ago." She casually replied, typing away in her consoles as the three friends rose to their feet. "An unstable portal is the only thing that would account for all the anomalies I've been picking up in my research. The portal exists somewhere in our world, and as long as it's still open, it's gonna keep destabilizing reality, making things disappear faster and faster, until, BAM, there's nothing left! Hahahaha!" Like the crazed scientist she is, she cackled madly with laughter as she yelled in front of the three, holding her sides as she stood suspended in the air.
"...Which is a bad thing."
"Well is there any way to turn it off?" Catra asked hopefully. She already had enough unease to go about her day as she saw the monitors displaying the world being slowly consumed by a white void.
First, there was the void itself that was erasing everything in its path. With the Fright Zone gone and the sword of the First Ones missing from where she originally found it, she had little to no means of finding the power source, the thing that could potentially stop the portal in the process and turn everything back to normal. That's what this entire trip was about, why it was so imperative that they found Entrapta.
Secondly, there was a certain ex-friend by the name of Adora, someone who hated Catra with an unnatural rage. After watching her friend being sucked into the void itself, the girl refusing to accept Catra back into her life and refusing to live in a world where she had such a terrible history, the girl had changed- which was putting it lightly.
She couldn't get a good look at the girl, and given everything she's done so far, she wasn't sure if she even wanted to. Something happened to Adora within the void itself, something that allowed her to open up these cracks of the world that was falling apart, opening points between the space of reality itself that allowed her to pop up out of anywhere at a given notice. It wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't somehow finding Catra throughout all of this, making her a nightmare to deal with.
More than usual.
It also, somehow, made her immune to anything associated with the dreamworld around her, allowing her to brush off the combined efforts of Frosta's fake parents with ease, and destroy them in a simple swipe. She easily dispatched of the two powerful ice casters, and the army of Sea Hawks that could do nothing more than to block her path for mere seconds. There was no telling what else she could be capable of.
And it still wasn't the most pressing matter hanging over her mind.
Catra was dying. To be accurate, she was disappearing. With the Horde erased, the events that brought the King and Queen to Beast Island never occurred, and Catra was never found and raised as their own daughter. With this change to the timeline in effect, the reason for Catra's existence were non-existent, living in a world where the timeline didn't allow her to survive. And with each disappearance she had thus far lasting longer than the previous, she knew it was only a matter of time before she disappeared for good.
"Portals are gateways," Entrapta began to explain, going back to her monitors, "wormholes that connect one area of space to another. The only way to turn it off is from the inside."
"Well that'll be easy, then." Glimmer smiled to the other two as the images on the screen continued to change. "We just need someone to close it and then we can all go home!"
"Uhhh..." That was the one sound from the genius scientist that none of them were ready to hear. "Yeah, about that..."
"We're not going to like this, are we?" Catra huffed knowingly as she crossed her arms.
"Whoever shuts the portal down can't leave." She revealed, watching as a site of a lone stick figure was trapped behind bars. "They'll be trapped between realities, possibly forever. Oooooh, imagine the data they could collect."
"Wait, so, whoever turns it off will be trapped inside of it... forever?" Glimmer's heart felt cold with fear as the three friends exchanged glances.
Trapped inside of this fake reality, one of nothingness inside of it, forever? That almost seemed worse than Catra disappearing in her entirety! At least when it came to that, she wasn't the least bit aware of it until she saw herself again. But living in a dimension, or even in between dimensions, where there was next to nothing inside of it? She wouldn't wish that on her most hated enemy by the sounds of it.
"Exactly." Entrapta casually replied, typing away into her computer again.
"T-There has to be another way." Catra refused to think that there couldn't be some other way. "I mean, if... Glimmer, what if you turned it off and teleported right before the portal closed?"
"Y-Yeah, that could work!" Glimmer nodded, trying to show as much enthusiasm as she could in this dreaded scenario.
"No it couldn't." Of course, their small traces of hope for a miracle had to be dashed away by Entrapta as the scientist continued with her analysis. "The portal has to be kept open for the entire process. Attempting to close the portal briefly before it fully closes could destabilize the gateway further and erase the rest of the world in a near-instant."
"W-Well... then..." Catra tried to think. There was always a way out of these things, she just needed to think about it first before she got reckless like she always did. "W-What about your robots, then? Couldn't you program one of them to close it for us?"
"And lose one of my babies in the process?! I couldn't live with myself if I did!" What kind of cold-hearted monster was Catra? How could she compare organic life to something that folded her socks on a daily basis?! "Besides, wouldn't do any good. The gateways generating a constant electrical pulse. Nothing that'll affect organic matter, but it'll short out the robots before they could even reach the gateway."
"W-Well... T-Then we can... We can..."
Is this really how it had to go? With one o the three, or anyone, sacrificing themselves? What kind of decision was that to make? How could any of them consider sending one of their friends out like this without the possibility of coming back? Sometimes it was moments like these when Catra wished she wasn't as friendly towards the two companions she's known since her adventure's started. Otherwise, she'd find multiple excuses to send out either of them to save herself.
Now, she wasn't so sure.
Bow was the tech genius of the Rebellion and a fellow soldier of the Rebellion. What he lacked in magical powers or super strength he made up for in his cunning and technology he provided for the Princess Alliance. Without him, there would've been a handful of times where Catra and Glimmer wouldn't make it out of a sticky situation, and a handful of times where Bow's knowledge of First Ones tech often lead to new discoveries.
There was also no way they could possibly get rid of Glimmer for almost a thousand more reasons than Bow, not that it made his contributions any less significant. She was the daughter of Queen Angella and heir to the throne, and was the commander of the Rebellion Army and Princess Alliance. Without her magical capabilities, her quick thinking, and her constant optimism, Catra wouldn't have developed nearly as much as a person as she was today.
And then Catra... There was Catra to... To...
Catra felt a twinge of silence over her ears as she worried. What did she have to contribute that required her to stick around? She was the legendary She-Ra, and she saved the Rebellion countless times, for sure. But over half those times wouldn't have even resulted in danger if it wasn't for her selfishness and recklessness. She's endangered herself, her friends, and the Princess Alliance on a handful of occasions.
Even now, looking back on it, none of this would've happened if she wasn't so obsessed with becoming a stronger She-Ra and warrior, thinking solely on obtaining all of She-Ra's power throughout the given months. She was driven by fear and emotion through all of her past mistakes. Mistakes that lead to her and the sword getting captured. Mistakes that lead to everyone winding up in a world where everyone was starting to disappear.
Mistakes that turned her best friend into her mortal enemy.
And while the dread of the situation continued to hang over her head, she refused to think they were out of options. "There's got to be something else we can do. We can't just-"
*ZZZZZZZZZZZZT*
"Ah-! Glimmer yelped from fright as Catra disappeared in another white flash.
"Oooooh, another temporal anomaly!" Entrapta oohed with bright colorful eyes. She has never seen a temporal displacement like this before! "Does that happen often?"
"N-Not exactly," Glimmer replied, backing up from where Catra disappeared for safety, "she's just altered the timeline in this world. Because the Horde's gone now, she doesn't exist in a timeline where my parents adopted her."
"OOOOOOHHHHH!" The squee of excitement couldn't have been pitched any higher even if Entrapta wanted it to. Her eyes glazed over with stars as her own twin tails were squeezing at each other with suspense. "A time distortion anomaly! This has been the greatest day ever for science!" She couldn't wait for herself as she pulled out a small notebook and a pencil from the pockets of her hair, already writing notes. "Has this been happening often? What does she experience? How long does it take?" There were so many questions, she didn't know where to begin!
"Not too long... usually..." Bow muttered, growing increasingly concerned by the amount of time it was taking for her to return. With each time she came back, her appearance changed further to match what she looked like before she came to this world, parts of her old outfit and style usually returning to her.
"Yeah, she'll be back... right about... Um..." Lowering their brow as the silence continued, Bow and Glimmer stared at the vacant expanse of air as the time for her reappearance grew distant. They didn't know what was taking so long, what was causing these disappearances to last longer than the last.
By now, a full minute had past between the three of them as Glimmer and Bow grew more and more worried. There wasn't any indication that she was coming back to reality any time soon. Fear started to spread between the two as they thought the worst. Did Catra have less time than they originally thought? Did she lose her chance to fix everything and return to normal? Was she... was she... dead?
The last thought alone made Glimmer and Bow's hearts tremble, the eye of uncertainty filling both their minds. Perhaps she had less than a handful of disappearances left before she disappeared in front of them for good.
For all they knew, she was never coming back.
"C-Catra-"
*ZZZZZZZZT*
"-sacrifice ourselves." Catra stared as she noticed the silence, looking at a relieved almost-teary eyed Glimmer who sighed deeply with relief, and Bow who was exhaling a long breath from the stress welling up. Momentarily confused by their sudden mood shift, Catra examined around herself, trying to look for some semblance that told her she disappeared again.
This time, her return came with the freshly sharpened claws she's always had, looking a bit longer and more rough like they usually were before her fantasy life within Bright Moon. "So my claws are back to normal." She stated, feeling around her forehead for the lack of tiara. "Guess this means I can disappear one more time safely, at least."
"EEEEEEEEP!" In a pitched voice that nearly made Catra shrivel from the high frequency ringing in her ears, the magicat found her face getting pressed against Entrapta's as the scientist gazed deeply into her eyes. "HOWMUCHTIMEPASSEDFORYOU? WEREYOUGONEFORMONTHSORYEARSONYOUREND? WEREYOUINAFEATURELESSVOID? DIDYOUSEEANAFTERLIFE? DIDYOU-" The list and list of potential questions never ended as Entrapta kept sputtering one line of words at her after the next, her voice becoming increasingly higher as she pressed deeper and deeper into Catra's eyes until the girl found herself bending backwards about 45 degrees.
"Entrapta, Entrapta!" Glimmer yelled, pulling the girl away from the clueless magicat with Bow. "She doesn't notice when she disappears. To her it all happens in an instant."
"... Oh..." Entrapta blinked to herself for a few seconds before giving a shrug, going back to the computers. "Well that's boring." How was she supposed to ask somebody the questions of the universe and the timestream when they weren't even aware of it? It's like being given a computer that had all the knowledge of the universe and she didn't have a keyboard or mouse to interact with it!
Rolling her eyes at the pouting scientist, the furry feline gave her immediate attention to the two individuals at her side. "How long was I gone for this time?"
"Almost two minutes." Bow frowned meeting her gaze. "Catra, you're disappearing longer and longer around here. We don't have much time."
"I know." She moaned, giving her attention back to the only one who could save them, and herself. "Look, Entrapta, there has to be something else we can do. You're the one who built the machine with Hordak, so you have to know something that can help us." The mention of the name alone was all it took as Entrapta froze.
"Remember..." Like dominos collapsing one after the other, so did the sudden shift of memories from the real world enter her mind. From the time she first met Hordak personally, the countless experiments and theories she discussed with him, and all the fun and exciting inventions she got to try out because of him! He was the best friend a fellow scientist could ask for. "I remember. I... remember." She smiled calmly to the three curious friends.
"I had a lab partner, Hordak." She felt silly for the first time that she could forget someone as important as her first lab assistant. "Mm... We were friends, and then, Adora..." For all the hopefulness she was beginning to feel, all the excitement rushing through her veins, she was surprised to find it slowly dwindling away at the mention of the name. When it finally dawned on her, she lowered her head, a little perplexed, a little discouraged, and completely disappointed. "Oh. I remember everything now."
Adora. One of her new best friends, and one of the few friends she had in general. She remembered everything about her. All the times she helped her improve her sociability with other people, everything she did to help her feel welcomed to the Horde. All the nice things she did when she was first taken prisoner, treating her like a guest and a real person instead of interrogating her like she should've been. She couldn't have asked for a better friend. And then... and then...
She betrayed her. Through some unknown reasoning, possibly by the disorder that Catra warned her about before the portal was activated, she betrayed her. She saw her as an enemy rather than a friend, the surge of electricity being the last thing Entrapta experienced, and the sight of anger and disgust in Adora's eyes being the last thing she saw.
All the data, all the statistics, that told her that Adora was a friend she could believe in till the end... was proven wrong.
"I'm not really here."
*Ka-Rumble!*
The lab shook violently as the world began to tear itself apart like the three had experienced several times before. Small bits of debris broke apart from the ceiling and cracks formed along the metallic ground, filling the dank lab with a white light.
"What? No!" Catra yelled, looking around the room. "This can't... This shouldn't be happening right now! We should have more time, a few minutes at least!"
"There's... no more time..." Entrapta pondered as she rubbed a fist against her chin. "It... It all makes sense now. It's your sword. That portal is centered on you. It's follow you."
"... What?" Her friends stared at her as Entrapta announced this revelation. The portal was following her? What sense did that make? How was the portal following her like an animal? Like-
"That must be how Adora keeps finding you." Bow exclaimed, much to the others surprise. "She doesn't know where you are, specifically, she just keeps following where the portal is going."
"Hey, now that you mention it," Glimmer mumbled, looking into her recent memories, "that would explain her surprise from earlier."
"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.
"She just knows where you're going to be, but not where you'll end up." It was the only logic that made sense in this non-logical world. Adora didn't have a complete grasp on where she was, she just followed wherever the portal was aiming at and assumed a location based on that.
*shhhhhmmmm*
Any questions the three had to ask were cut short as they heard a small shimmering noise coming from the head scientist. Lifting their eyes to the girl, all of them were shocked; Entrapta was smiling to them peacefully as she was fading out of existence.
"E-Entrapta..." Catra's ears dropped at the sight of the transparent girl, her existence disappearing further by the second.
"You need to remove the sword from the inside." Entrapta explained, giving a sweet smile to the magicat as she ran up to her. Catra didn't make any attempts to grab the girl as she continued staring, taking a precaution in the event that touching her somehow made her condition worse. It didn't make her feel any better by the sight, though. "It's powering the portal." Bow and Glimmer gasped as the ceiling cracked wide open above them, Catra turning to the sound of the crumbling behind her. "As soon as it's gone, everything will be right again."
Turning back, Catra gave her a small saddened frown as Entrapta teared up herself. "Entrapta..."
"Heh, I guess you get to get your revenge in the end after all, huh Catra?" Entrapta teared up as she made the light joke. "I still need to work on my humor I think... how was it to you?" Catra's heart took a stab of pain at the comment, further guilt wasting away inside of her.
Since finding out about her new allegiance, she wanted nothing more than revenge against Entrapta, to make her pay for all she did. For all the pain she brought the Princess Alliance, all the guilt that Catra felt thinking she was dead because of her, and all the time she wasted blaming herself for something that never happened, unlike everything she blamed herself for that did happen. She wanted revenge on her, revenge on all of it. And now, seeing her disappear like this? Knowing she was disappearing, dying, in a sense?
She didn't feel anything close to relief, joy, or a sense of justice for all her wrongdoings.
She just felt empty inside, almost... sad.
"It was nice being friends with you, Catra." Entrapta waved, as the last of her existence came to an end. "I hope we get to see each other again..."
"Wait-!" In that one second, for that one moment she didn't want her to disappear, Catra tried to reach for her.
But it was too late.
By the time the tip of her claws reached her, she was already gone, vanished. And the world crumbling around them would give them little time to mourn.
With the end of Entrapta's existence, the fabric of reality of all she touched started to come undone. The violent tremors were practically on a rampage as cracks formed along the walls and ceiling without pause, more streaks of light enveloping the laboratory, showing everyone that the end was near. The robots themselves began to float a little as they, too, were starting to cease to exist, the foundation of all of Entrapta's work becoming null and void.
And then, it flashed.
It flashed in front of all of them as the group found themselves somewhere else again, somewhere familiar. Surrounding them were blankets of trees and landscape, a direct path leading to a familiar construct that rang from Catra's past. With a clear sky above them, Catra realized they were in the Whispering Woods, and with the structure ahead of them, she knew exactly where they were.
"Where are we?" Glimmer asked, holding herself by her chest a little in fear.
"We're... We're at the Beacon..." Catra announced, walking ahead a little. There didn't seem to be any cracks or disturbances with this part of reality. Thus far, everything appeared to be as it was, for now. Staring at the sky, Catra could see the familiar moons and clouds over the Whispering Woods, still bright and pink as they always were. What she saw next came to her as a shock, letting out a startled gasp that alerted her friends.
In a white flash, Catra saw as thousands of tiny white specks started to light up the sky, filling the darkness with a small sense of light. "S... Stars?" She muttered, unable to take her trance-like gaze away from the skies above. It was with another flash that reality, this corrupted one, started to sink in with her.
Following another burst of light, the sky lit up with more of the tiny specks as they practically doubled in size between one another, sparkling and shining like the sun itself if it was far away from them. Thanks to the flash, the scenery changed around them as evening turned to solid night, illuminating all of the beautiful little miracles greatly, and leaving no room for darkness.
"Catra, what is happening?" Nothing was making sense to the pink princess! The more they came to understand what was going on, the more it was starting to confuse her!
"It's just like Entrapta said. Everything is falling apart, and it's getting worse. I-" She stuttered. The anxiety over her eyes was making everything harder to comprehend, the choices she had feeling much more limited. "We're not going to make it in time. We- Huh!" No way. There was no way. Catra's eyes had to be playing tricks on her again as she stared directly ahead.
Standing a short ways from the Beacon, staring right back at her, was her. The person she feared to become, the person she spent so much time trying to better herself as, and the last person Catra never thought she would see in front of her eyes.
Mara.
"M... Mara?" Catra was hallucinating. She knew she must be. Why else would Mara, of all people, be here staring back at her? It wasn't even a hologram or some recorded message, either. It was her. Really, really, her! The last She-Ra. The one who stranded everyone in Despondos. The last presumable First One to wield the sword, and the one who... supposedly gave in to her fears and doubts and tried to destroy the world during her time.
The girl looked just as surprised as she was as she stared at her, blinking, breathing, taking in Catra's appearance with a surprised look. Staring at one another was all the two could communicate back to each other in the amount of time they had. Right as Catra was about to take her first step towards the girl, when she thought about all the questions she could ask her about being She-Ra, it happened.
Without provocation or warning, a massive wall of light erupted before them as it separated Catra from the girl. Mara didn't seem the least bit fazed by the experience as Catra continued to gape at her, only giving a small smile before the blanket of light could disappear completely. When it had fully erupted, it lost all its opacity, and Mara was lost to Catra's sight.
All there was now was a blank wall of light.
Catra backed away to her friends as she watched the blanket erupting in front of her, the thing that was going to destroy Etheria for good. All around it, she watched in dismay as boulders of debris and fauna alike were being sucked into the void, erupting like a volcano as it displayed the fury of the temporal anomaly.
This would be the fate that would befall all of Etheria, all of her allies, and all of her friends, including... her best friends. She glanced back to the two with a solemn look, looking at them in fear. Not fear of them personally, but a fear for herself.
The people who meant a lot to Catra, who pulled her out of her shell and accepted her for who she was. They were the ones who always put up with Catra through thick and thin, convinced her that they cared more about her than the stupid sword she could never get to work. Without them, she might've been where Adora was today, if not somewhere worse. Because of them, she had a second chance at life, at everything.
Including her past mistake.
"It's... It's been following me this whole time... The world's coming to ruin all because of me..."
"Catra?" Bow called as the two noticed the strange look she was giving them.
"... Heh..." She gave a bit of a cheeky smile.
Then, she ran.
"Catra, no!" Glimmer shouted as they watched her.
Catra ran for the portal as quickly as she could, preferring to pull off one of her most dangerous and reckless ideas she has ever attempted to before. She didn't put any line of reasoning or care into the mix, opting to just go for it and making a break for the void. The one thing that would end her existence, the one thing that would end her journey throughout all of this.
The one thing that would keep her friends safe from further harm.
Unfortunately, for her, she would never get that chance.
*swish*
*Thud*
"Ahh!" Catra yelped as she was piled on from behind as the Princess of Bright Moon teleported above her, crashing down on her with all her force. "Get off of me!" Catra yelled, struggling to break out of Glimmer's grip on her arms as Bow reached the two to help her.
"Catra, stop!" Glimmer yelled over the void that continued to erupt. She struggled to maintain her grip over Catra's arms as she and Bow pulled her back, refusing to let Catra slip out of her grasp.
"Let go of me you idiots!" She shouted. "Don't you remember what Entrapta said? That thing is following me, I'm the reason everything is disappearing." She grumbled, shaking off her arms as she stared at the white wall. "All of this... all that's happening... is my fault..."
"I was the one who messed up some destiny and took the sword from Adora. I'm the one who left Entrapta behind and gave Hordak the help he needed to finish his portal. I'm the one who-" Catra paused, looking down at her right hand. Even without the blade in her grip, she could still feel as if she was holding it sometimes. "... I'm the idiot who dragged us to the Crimson Wastes when I wasn't prepared, when I still needed to complete my bond with She-Ra, and got captured by Adora instead. She wouldn't have the sword if it wasn't for me."
"Catra..." Glimmer's solemn look wasn't met with Catra's eyes as she saw all the expression she needed through her mournful ears.
"All I do is make things worse in the end. I know you keep saying not to "live in the past" and all, Pinky, and I'm not." Looking back, she gave something of a morbid, tragic, smile to her friends. "I finally have a chance to make things right. To make up for all the stuff I messed up. I'm not... I'm not gonna let you two suffer for my mistakes."
"Catra, stop!" Glimmer begged, pulling the girl's hand again as she attempted to walk away. "You said you knew us, right? Well, we know you too." That surefire of determination, that pleading look in her eye. It gave way to more guilt in Catra as she turned her head away, as the memories came back to her two fellow friends.
Since the day they met her, Catra had been a handful. She was snobbish, arrogant, always thought she knew better than everyone, and did whatever she pleased. She wanted things to be done her way, to be allowed her own freedom to do whatever she thought was right or wrong, and always wanted to rush into their troubles headon, with fists first and questions second.
Now, she was... exactly the same. But with more of an appeal to it.
They remembered her defending their lives in Mystacor when she was being possessed and nobody was with her. They remembered how she tried to appeal to Princess Frosta after their terrible introduction to her for the sake of cheering Glimmer up. They remember how she smiled happily to the point of tears for the first time when Bow was accepted by his fathers, how they all embraced together at the end of a heartfelt reunion.
And they remembered the day she cried. The day the Battle of Bright Moon was at an end, when she let all of her pent up feelings drain out of her. All the sadness she had bottled up since she was a child, all the guilt welling inside of her from her past mistakes that lead her to this life. It was the most painful day that Catra had ever experienced for herself. And it reminded them warmingly how she was no different than the rest of the Rebellion, or the Princess Alliance.
She was someone who was always trying to do the right thing in the end.
"You're the one who's ready to attack anyone who poses a threat to you." Bow reminded with a calming smile, holding her other hand in comfort. "You always let your instincts get the better of you, and you're the hardest person to ever talk to."
"You're stubborn, selfish, and never know when to stop, and you're our best friend." Glimmer added, squeezing her eyes as she teared up. Catra turned away as she teared up a little too, unable to look at the two with her sense of pride still in her, and unable to tell them how much they meant to her as she shriveled up.
"T-Then... What am I... What am I supposed to-" Catra stopped as she looked back, feeling her fingers slipping through both their hands. "Wait- No. No, no no. Please, not you guys!" She yelled, trying to throw an arm over either of them.
Her friends were fading from existence, her friends who smiled warmly at her, touched by the amount of care she truly had for them. No matter what she said, no matter how much she insisted, she loved these two like her own family. And they wouldn't trade their friendship up for anyone else in the world if it meant giving up her.
"NO!"
"You've got this, Catra." Glimmer said with a tearful smile as she faded. "We believe in you."
"If anybody can do this, it's you."
"NOOOO!" Catra's cries as she attempted to hug onto her friends, attempted to save them from fading away, was met with tragedy as she fell right through them as they finally disappeared. She caught herself from falling flat against the floor as she landed on her hands and knees.
She couldn't catch a single sound of them, a single scent, or hear the sound of their voices as their shadows disappeared from the ground next to her hands. They were utterly, and completely, wiped out from existence.
"AGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHHHHHHHHHHH!" With a bellowing roar, Catra sobbed, bitterly, as she squeezed her eyes shut. The worst fear she ever had in this new world of hers, the very thing she wanted to prevent since the day she cut her ties with her past, had finally happened.
Her two friends, one of the few people who meant anything in this world to her, were gone. Vanished. Scratched off the face of Etheria.
All this time, all she wanted was the power to keep something like this from happening, to keep her friends safe from what could possibly befall them. Instead, all she ended up doing, all she accomplished in her desire for power, regardless of motive, was exactly what she feared. Her friends were gone, the people who were always by her side, who were always there to support her, were no more. They were the ones she could rely on to always bail her out of her troubles, to help her when she was at her lowest.
Now, they were nothing. There was no pep talk to encourage her, there wasn't anybody that could help her. For the first time in Catra's life, she found herself completely and utterly alone.
... And yet... As her claws furled under the loose dirt, the sound of the forest being pulled away around her, she opened her still-teary eyes, seeing bits of wet dirt from her tears beneath her.
She was the last hope to save all of them, to save Etheria, and she couldn't let that go to waste. She couldn't sacrifice herself if it meant never seeing her friends again, she couldn't throw herself at the portal in the hopes they would come back. For once, she opted to stand up for a change, to do something right on her own. Her friends, all of her friends in the Princess Alliance, depended on her to make this world right.
Wiping the tears away from her eyes with her arms, she sighed. She needed to find a way to stop this, to stop everything, and save everyone before it was too late. And that started with her, taking the first step towards-
*WHAM!*
"AHHH!" Catra shouted in pain as she was knocked flat off her feet. Her face felt like it was slammed against a book as she slid against the hard ground beneath her, sliding her up to the edge of the white wall itself. She let out a little cough, rubbing the side of her dirtied face with her left wrist, as she spat a little. "Wh-Eckkk!" She couldn't get so much as the first word out before she was grabbed by the throat by an immense grip.
Slowly, steadily, against Catra's best efforts to pull the fingers away from her throat, she could break loose. It was hard enough to breathe as she winced, but as she opened her eyes, what she saw standing before her made her gasp all of the air out of her already deplenished lungs.
She's changed. Beyond changed. Everything that resembled the old person she knew was long gone, almost as if it never existed in this world. Looking into her eyes this close, as she raised her malformed arm, stretching and revealing the sharpened right claws of her transformation, she didn't see anything close to the old friend she used to know and care about. She didn't look like anyone she had met at all.
Everything from the right side of her chest, half her face, her arms, even her chest, was distorted beyond words while the left half of her body remained the same. Her right eye had been completely warped with a triangle-like pinpoint design in her right eye, the colors reversed and barely hers. Instead of a white eye with a black pupil and yellow iris, everything about it had been reversed. There was nothing but a darkness riddled black to her entire eye, with the yellow iris being the only other present color within her gaze. And there was almost a crack of white through the right corner of her right brow.
All along the edges of her deformation, the separation between the corrupted half of her to the normal left half, there was an array of light violet crystal-like patterns across her, from her center, to all the way along her waist. It almost looked like roots were growing along the borderline between her two halves as white crack-like lights stretched out to her regular side by just an inch.
The most terrifying part about her, aside from the menacing look of glee within her eyes, was the transformed portion itself. The entire right half of her that was malformed, covered in a lightness, was the lack of coloring, leaving a solid white case of color all over her transformed arm. Catra couldn't see any rough edges, any curves, anything. Save for the power that burned along her skin, all she could see was a pure whiteness that made up her terrifying transformation into the creature that had been stalking her all this time.
With all of this, with the sickening dark blue aura that appeared to be leeching off the girl's corrupted half without end, the girl presented herself to Catra like never before. As someone who took great stride and enjoyment from her new appearance, someone who had been hunting Catra down after all this time, and someone who was going to relish toying with their prey before ending them with their own claws.
Adora had never terrified Catra as much as she had now.
"Heeeeey, Catraaaaaa~"
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A/N: Ahhh, the girl of the hour finally arrives ^^! I'm so proud of her... er... As a writer, I mean. She's been through so much, she's done all she's can, and thanks to her, the intelligent and highly respected Aroda will get her victory at long last!
Speaking of which, you guys are probably wondering what that so-called "surprise" is? Well do I have news for you- the very commendable and highly respected Petie Doon on instagram is going to post a picture of adora's new look for your viewing pleasure (and because i partly suck at descriptions XP). On his instagram you'll find a bonafide and awesome look into Adora's transformed state, so you can picture it all for yourself and enjoy what's to come even more! No guaranteed time of posting, but it should be within the next day or 2 before its uploaded, but it might also take him a little longer- which isn't a problem either since he's doing these pics for free.
So, with that said, hope you all enjoyed! Leave a like, fave, follow, and review on all the reasons Aroda is the greatest person in the crumbling world, and hope to see you soon!