Chapter 9
Hordack waited impatiently for the large, decrepit space cruiser to land. The clearance had been given hours ago. The bounty hunter, DT was aboard and he waited impatiently for her to land, his ire growing each minute she delayed.
The engines gave a loud squealing roar as the antigrav kicked in and the ship landed with a loud metallic thud. A door, the same steel shade as the rest of the ship opened and a walkway poured out of the gaping, metal maw with slow, unwieldy grace. A moment later a warrior appeared in the entrance, strutting easily to the ground, standing before Hordack, arms lazily resting at her sides, legs spread in a defiant pose, her chin tilted at an imperious angle.
She stood almost as tall as he, her bodysuit appeared to be a shimmering jade satin, clinging to her like a wet and glistening second skin, devious in the softness it gave her. The material was impenetrable, no weapon could cut the fabric, it absorbed energy bolts like harmless rays of light. It was a gift from Horde Prime. A gift extremely lavish in its rarity.
The material was silk, spun by Shambalan worms. The species was native to Horde world, the hermaphrodites, like the silk they spun were invulnerable to any weapon. They spun the silk only once after breeding and then they died. Their life cycles lasted fifty years, the breeding season came twice once at ten and again at twenty, they spun silk for fifteen years before entering a deep slumber culminating in death. They grew to be larger than a small ship and only had litters of one or two young. Because the species was only found on Horde world the material was highly prized and sought after by the most powerful warlords in the Universe. Not even Hordack owned any of the precious and coveted fabric.
The woman wore a helmet of steel; pulled through a hole in the top was a long swirling mane of golden hair. Her face was a perfect oval, with lightly defined cheekbones giving her a plump but pleasant look. She hardly had any upper lip at all but her lower lip was a full red velvety rose petal of ripe luscious sensuality. She had pale green eyes, like chips of jade glass, hard and worn with time. They seemed too old to appear in her face. The cleft in her chin gave her a distinctive and stubborn aura. On her face she wore a look of bored tolerance as she gazed around the fright zone.
"Greetings DT. I had expected you much sooner." His voice revealed his displeasure at the unexplained wait. She ignored it, eyeing Hordack as if he were a repulsive little bug she ought to be squishing, her lip curling slightly.
"My name is Double Trouble to you," her voice was deep and husky with a faint accent lending it a musical quality, "I came when I could. I do not relish returning to this-" and here her voice sneered in disgust, "this backwater planet. It holds many unpleasant memories for me." Hordack refused to acknowledge the reference to their last meeting.
He was new to Etheria and was making his presence known doing what he did best. Bringing war to the peaceful planet. DT had just been a child when he stole her from her parents, burning their farm to the ground and selling the father into slavery. He was sent to the mines, he was forced to kill the mother when she attempted to flee with her child. Even then DT had shown the promise of the beauty she would one day become. Being a beautiful girl child, there was a large market for them in the galaxy. She was shipped off planet and sent to Horde world where she was sold to a bounty hunter with a taste for young flesh. Apparently when he died she simply took over the family business, quickly making a name for herself and earning the favor of the galaxy's leading warlord.
It was that favor which brought her here. Hordack knew if Horde Prime appreciated her talents she was no amateur fool like the minions under him. He agreed to pay her exorbitant amount in Etherium in exchange for the disposal of the seeress, Peekablu.
"Do you have an image of this woman," she sneered with snide sarcasm, "this mighty heroine of life and light that the evil horde can't handle?"
Hordack snorted angrily, squinting his eyes in rage at her impertinence. In a mean voice he answered, hurling a holopad at her chest. She caught it with swift ease never batting an eye.
"I could handle her easily. She is weak, simple, it is her potential which must be eliminated. I am busy in the north and cannot take the time to dispose of the bird woman. I can't leave it to my underlings either. They're all fools. My most trusted General, however, has ties that I am not willing to test. just yet." Double Trouble didn't look at him once as he spoke, he had a feeling she was ignoring him, finding him unworthy of her attention. That rankled. She pressed the small gray button on the base of the pad and a three dimensional image of Peekablu appeared in her hand. She let out a low whistle of appreciation.
"Pretty birdie." She turned her pale jade eyes to Hordack's black pits. "What threat does she pose?"
"I drove her people from their homeland and sealed up their sacred temple, the Ivory Citadel over twenty years ago. Its been dormant since I had their holy woman enslaved and shipped off world. It's recently shown signs of stirring. Rumors have reached me claiming the Peacock woman's powers are growing. I cannot allow her people to gain control of that tower or I could lose my hold on this continent."
"Do you want her dead or merely removed." The woman asked arching one graceful falcon-brow.
"Both. They are the same. If she is the Holy woman of her people and the change has already occurred the second she leaves the planets atmosphere she will die, just as her predecessor did. You choose, kill her now or later, at your pleasure."
"I need a land cruiser."
"Done."
"What of payment?"
"I'll see that its loaded while your gone." She nodded. Then before he could react she grasped him by the throat and slammed him to the ground. Hordack gazed in stunned disbelief at the woman looming over him with so feral a look of hatred in her eyes, her lips curled in a vicious sneer.
"Don't disappoint me Hordack. I only agreed to aid you at the behest of your brother. He did warn me though. You are scum. If you try to double- cross me I will lay waste to the fright zone and see all your efforts toward world domination come to ruin. I remember what you did to my family. I'd thank you- but the sight of you sickens me unto death. Thanks to you I didn't become some farmers wife, I got to see the galaxy and become a woman to be feared through several star systems. But I know you Hordack. I see your cruel pleasure in death and torment every time I close my eyes. Don't betray me. You will regret it if you do." Hordack stood, his face reflecting his displeasure.
"You have my brothers favour. Not mine. You just do your job and get off world. Quickly. If I see you again you will not survive the meeting." His voice shook with his rage, but she merely smiled.
"We understand each other then?"
"Quite."
Catra and her battalion stood guard at the tower's gate. Her orders were to kill all who approached on sight until Commanding General Onyx took the tower. She was Not to go inside for any reason. That order rankled. She itched for a fight, unfortunately for her, her guards recognized the restless pacing and the tight way she held her shoulders together as she waited. Onyx was being assigned to take command of Rendwoll at the height of the siege of Brightmoon. For some reason Hordack felt this stupid tower was more worthy of his pet general than the capital city of the rebellion. She grinned in wicked delight. Perhaps he didn't quite trust Adora to take up arms against her former comrades. Catra didn't fully believe the tower was so important. Still, there was something different, something unusually intense about it. When she first arrived a month ago it had seemed like just another structure. However, daily it grew on her mind. As if it were awakening and watching her.
Her curiosity was intense. The structure was unlike anything she had ever seen before. It was smooth as glass and seemed to glow under the moonlight. It was a golden ivory, Catra couldn't settle on just one color, for it changed and shifted between the two, as if lit from within.
The massive Jade doors seemed to call to her, beckoning her closer, willing her to enter and plunder the secrets which lay within. This was the reason for her turmoil. Fear of reprisal warred with the voices in her head calling her forward. They were making her see things. Images. Strange. Erratic.
Flames. People dancing in flame. She hissed into the night. There was no reply. Then again she hadn't expected any. With a low growl she pulled down her mask, felt the liquid heat, pull and pulsate throughout her body as the change took place. She flowed forward toward the earth. Her soles thickening, her claws lengthened, fur bloomed like spring over her skin and her hair disappeared and her sense of smell sharpened. She inhaled the earth. The scents of wood and stone and dirt and leaves filled her nostrils. She smelled the arachnid spinning its web hurriedly in the evening dew, smelled the pulse of life in the city, now under martial law, smelled decay from the sewers and sex from the downtown district and she smelled power.
Growling deep in her throat she turned her gaze back to the tower. It called to her. Even in this form it tempted her forward. Her dark eyes gleamed in the darkness and she leapt into a run.
Blood pounding in her ears, muscles straining and pulling, her heart throbbed in her chest. Stores of frustrated energy burst through her limbs as she raced a circuit round the town. She passed houses full of people, some cowering in fear, some sleeping innocently, some plotting. She passed the market place with its boarded up shops and empty vendors stands and rubbish piles and midden heaps. Her legs devoured the earth with effortless ease and grace; in one magnificent leap of pure feline beauty she jumped the wall encircling the town and found herself racing through fields of corn, wheat and barley. She could feel the mice scurrying for cover and sense the serpents freezing in wariness as she sped through the night. She passed the forcefield generator and the eight newly constructed guard towers without a glance. The battletanks hidden strategically around the perimeter of the town were also neglected by her heightened senses as she raced. She knew the security was tight; only She-Ra could get through the towns defenses to the tower if she wanted to and she was gone.
Catra did a complete circuit of Rendwoll and then leapt into the branches of a towering orbora. Settling into one of its long overhanging salmon shaded boughs she lay her head on her paws and gazed broodingly at what lay before her.
The tower.
The tower and the voices invading her mind. They called to her. Should she answer? Did she dare?
Hordack waited impatiently for the large, decrepit space cruiser to land. The clearance had been given hours ago. The bounty hunter, DT was aboard and he waited impatiently for her to land, his ire growing each minute she delayed.
The engines gave a loud squealing roar as the antigrav kicked in and the ship landed with a loud metallic thud. A door, the same steel shade as the rest of the ship opened and a walkway poured out of the gaping, metal maw with slow, unwieldy grace. A moment later a warrior appeared in the entrance, strutting easily to the ground, standing before Hordack, arms lazily resting at her sides, legs spread in a defiant pose, her chin tilted at an imperious angle.
She stood almost as tall as he, her bodysuit appeared to be a shimmering jade satin, clinging to her like a wet and glistening second skin, devious in the softness it gave her. The material was impenetrable, no weapon could cut the fabric, it absorbed energy bolts like harmless rays of light. It was a gift from Horde Prime. A gift extremely lavish in its rarity.
The material was silk, spun by Shambalan worms. The species was native to Horde world, the hermaphrodites, like the silk they spun were invulnerable to any weapon. They spun the silk only once after breeding and then they died. Their life cycles lasted fifty years, the breeding season came twice once at ten and again at twenty, they spun silk for fifteen years before entering a deep slumber culminating in death. They grew to be larger than a small ship and only had litters of one or two young. Because the species was only found on Horde world the material was highly prized and sought after by the most powerful warlords in the Universe. Not even Hordack owned any of the precious and coveted fabric.
The woman wore a helmet of steel; pulled through a hole in the top was a long swirling mane of golden hair. Her face was a perfect oval, with lightly defined cheekbones giving her a plump but pleasant look. She hardly had any upper lip at all but her lower lip was a full red velvety rose petal of ripe luscious sensuality. She had pale green eyes, like chips of jade glass, hard and worn with time. They seemed too old to appear in her face. The cleft in her chin gave her a distinctive and stubborn aura. On her face she wore a look of bored tolerance as she gazed around the fright zone.
"Greetings DT. I had expected you much sooner." His voice revealed his displeasure at the unexplained wait. She ignored it, eyeing Hordack as if he were a repulsive little bug she ought to be squishing, her lip curling slightly.
"My name is Double Trouble to you," her voice was deep and husky with a faint accent lending it a musical quality, "I came when I could. I do not relish returning to this-" and here her voice sneered in disgust, "this backwater planet. It holds many unpleasant memories for me." Hordack refused to acknowledge the reference to their last meeting.
He was new to Etheria and was making his presence known doing what he did best. Bringing war to the peaceful planet. DT had just been a child when he stole her from her parents, burning their farm to the ground and selling the father into slavery. He was sent to the mines, he was forced to kill the mother when she attempted to flee with her child. Even then DT had shown the promise of the beauty she would one day become. Being a beautiful girl child, there was a large market for them in the galaxy. She was shipped off planet and sent to Horde world where she was sold to a bounty hunter with a taste for young flesh. Apparently when he died she simply took over the family business, quickly making a name for herself and earning the favor of the galaxy's leading warlord.
It was that favor which brought her here. Hordack knew if Horde Prime appreciated her talents she was no amateur fool like the minions under him. He agreed to pay her exorbitant amount in Etherium in exchange for the disposal of the seeress, Peekablu.
"Do you have an image of this woman," she sneered with snide sarcasm, "this mighty heroine of life and light that the evil horde can't handle?"
Hordack snorted angrily, squinting his eyes in rage at her impertinence. In a mean voice he answered, hurling a holopad at her chest. She caught it with swift ease never batting an eye.
"I could handle her easily. She is weak, simple, it is her potential which must be eliminated. I am busy in the north and cannot take the time to dispose of the bird woman. I can't leave it to my underlings either. They're all fools. My most trusted General, however, has ties that I am not willing to test. just yet." Double Trouble didn't look at him once as he spoke, he had a feeling she was ignoring him, finding him unworthy of her attention. That rankled. She pressed the small gray button on the base of the pad and a three dimensional image of Peekablu appeared in her hand. She let out a low whistle of appreciation.
"Pretty birdie." She turned her pale jade eyes to Hordack's black pits. "What threat does she pose?"
"I drove her people from their homeland and sealed up their sacred temple, the Ivory Citadel over twenty years ago. Its been dormant since I had their holy woman enslaved and shipped off world. It's recently shown signs of stirring. Rumors have reached me claiming the Peacock woman's powers are growing. I cannot allow her people to gain control of that tower or I could lose my hold on this continent."
"Do you want her dead or merely removed." The woman asked arching one graceful falcon-brow.
"Both. They are the same. If she is the Holy woman of her people and the change has already occurred the second she leaves the planets atmosphere she will die, just as her predecessor did. You choose, kill her now or later, at your pleasure."
"I need a land cruiser."
"Done."
"What of payment?"
"I'll see that its loaded while your gone." She nodded. Then before he could react she grasped him by the throat and slammed him to the ground. Hordack gazed in stunned disbelief at the woman looming over him with so feral a look of hatred in her eyes, her lips curled in a vicious sneer.
"Don't disappoint me Hordack. I only agreed to aid you at the behest of your brother. He did warn me though. You are scum. If you try to double- cross me I will lay waste to the fright zone and see all your efforts toward world domination come to ruin. I remember what you did to my family. I'd thank you- but the sight of you sickens me unto death. Thanks to you I didn't become some farmers wife, I got to see the galaxy and become a woman to be feared through several star systems. But I know you Hordack. I see your cruel pleasure in death and torment every time I close my eyes. Don't betray me. You will regret it if you do." Hordack stood, his face reflecting his displeasure.
"You have my brothers favour. Not mine. You just do your job and get off world. Quickly. If I see you again you will not survive the meeting." His voice shook with his rage, but she merely smiled.
"We understand each other then?"
"Quite."
Catra and her battalion stood guard at the tower's gate. Her orders were to kill all who approached on sight until Commanding General Onyx took the tower. She was Not to go inside for any reason. That order rankled. She itched for a fight, unfortunately for her, her guards recognized the restless pacing and the tight way she held her shoulders together as she waited. Onyx was being assigned to take command of Rendwoll at the height of the siege of Brightmoon. For some reason Hordack felt this stupid tower was more worthy of his pet general than the capital city of the rebellion. She grinned in wicked delight. Perhaps he didn't quite trust Adora to take up arms against her former comrades. Catra didn't fully believe the tower was so important. Still, there was something different, something unusually intense about it. When she first arrived a month ago it had seemed like just another structure. However, daily it grew on her mind. As if it were awakening and watching her.
Her curiosity was intense. The structure was unlike anything she had ever seen before. It was smooth as glass and seemed to glow under the moonlight. It was a golden ivory, Catra couldn't settle on just one color, for it changed and shifted between the two, as if lit from within.
The massive Jade doors seemed to call to her, beckoning her closer, willing her to enter and plunder the secrets which lay within. This was the reason for her turmoil. Fear of reprisal warred with the voices in her head calling her forward. They were making her see things. Images. Strange. Erratic.
Flames. People dancing in flame. She hissed into the night. There was no reply. Then again she hadn't expected any. With a low growl she pulled down her mask, felt the liquid heat, pull and pulsate throughout her body as the change took place. She flowed forward toward the earth. Her soles thickening, her claws lengthened, fur bloomed like spring over her skin and her hair disappeared and her sense of smell sharpened. She inhaled the earth. The scents of wood and stone and dirt and leaves filled her nostrils. She smelled the arachnid spinning its web hurriedly in the evening dew, smelled the pulse of life in the city, now under martial law, smelled decay from the sewers and sex from the downtown district and she smelled power.
Growling deep in her throat she turned her gaze back to the tower. It called to her. Even in this form it tempted her forward. Her dark eyes gleamed in the darkness and she leapt into a run.
Blood pounding in her ears, muscles straining and pulling, her heart throbbed in her chest. Stores of frustrated energy burst through her limbs as she raced a circuit round the town. She passed houses full of people, some cowering in fear, some sleeping innocently, some plotting. She passed the market place with its boarded up shops and empty vendors stands and rubbish piles and midden heaps. Her legs devoured the earth with effortless ease and grace; in one magnificent leap of pure feline beauty she jumped the wall encircling the town and found herself racing through fields of corn, wheat and barley. She could feel the mice scurrying for cover and sense the serpents freezing in wariness as she sped through the night. She passed the forcefield generator and the eight newly constructed guard towers without a glance. The battletanks hidden strategically around the perimeter of the town were also neglected by her heightened senses as she raced. She knew the security was tight; only She-Ra could get through the towns defenses to the tower if she wanted to and she was gone.
Catra did a complete circuit of Rendwoll and then leapt into the branches of a towering orbora. Settling into one of its long overhanging salmon shaded boughs she lay her head on her paws and gazed broodingly at what lay before her.
The tower.
The tower and the voices invading her mind. They called to her. Should she answer? Did she dare?