A/N Let's keep the momentum going.
The doors to the so called "dungeon" fling open as an ornate woman with dark hair waltzes in with a flourish. It catches Catra off guard since nothing much happens here. She was busy grooming herself a few moments before. It's too bad she finished, because she could've given this priss a show she doubts the older woman has ever witnessed before.
"Where is the trespasser!?" She announces to the heavens.
The guards look at each other with a snicker. Seconds later, Angella flies down onto the massive veranda and walks into the room. "Ah, Castaspella. Thank you for joining us," says the queen.
"Ah, yes and you're fashionably late as always," says Castaspella with a cheeky grin.
The queen bites her tongue as she enters further into the room. "As I relayed in my message, I have a prisoner here that we need to question." She waves her arm in the direction of Catra and the feline snarls.
Castaspella recoils at the rude gesture and moves closer to inspect the woman behind the shield of magic. The older woman steps closer reverently as she looks upon the interesting creature. She holds her hand out as though she could touch her.
"You have a staring problem," Catra unsheathes her claws, "I can fix that."
The older woman drops her hand, but she doesn't let it deter her forward movement. She knows she's protected by the shield after all. "Interesting, you're a chimera." Yes, Castaspella can tell even with the glowing tone of magic surrounding the other woman.
"A what?" Catra looks down at her own body self-consciously, like this woman somehow sees through her. Catra hasn't known much about herself or where she's come from, and this woman dissecting her with her eyes is making her extremely uncomfortable.
"A chimera," she smiles devilishly.
"What's a chimera," Angella interjects.
The dark-haired woman turns her attention to the queen and answers, "a chimera is form of extremely rare magic. It's where your genetic material is derived from two distinctly different individuals. It usually occurs early in gestation. There isn't a whole lot we know about it, but it is rare and can sometimes be the perfect formula for a unique form of magic."
Catra starts to get creepy experimental vibes from this woman and recoils.
"Castaspella, I do require your specific skill set for questioning her. We can discuss this later." Angella finds this all interesting, but unfortunately, she has more pressing matters.
"Right," Castaspella says with a flourish. She turns back to Catra. "Alright, now. Just hold still." She waves her arms and creates a myriad of symbols in midair.
Catra hasn't seen magic like this before. She tries to move or to say something to stop what's happening, but she freezes. Almost like it's her body's automatic response in a situation like this. She gets angry at her inability to act, and the magic is thrown and passes over her body. She braces for the pain, but nothing comes. She opens her eyes after flinching from the impact that never came and looks around confused. "What did you do to me?" Catra starts panting as her anxiety grows.
The queen responds, "It's a truth spell, don't try to resist it. You won't be able to."
Catra feels like a caged animal being poked a prodded for some sick fuck's pleasure. She growls, but it does nothing to scare Angella, although she gets a small quiver out of Castaspella once more.
"What does the Horde want? Why were you here?" Asks the queen.
Catra growls again straining her body as if she can fight the magic purely by will alone. She grunts, "I don't know, except that they want to end the rebellion for good. I was at Thaymore on a mission to capture the town."
Angella fires off the next question, "what are they planning?"
The feline grunts, but she can do nothing to hold it in. "Like they would tell me their plans? I'm just a cadet. They don't tell me shit, and even if they did, it was probably just to manipulate me." That hurt even coming from her own mouth, but she knew it was the truth. They've been manipulating all of them her whole life.
The queen isn't surprised by the response. She supposes there really isn't much else to ask especially for a low-ranking cadet. But suddenly something else comes to mind that she would like to know the truth about. "Why –" the queen begins, "Why did you save Glimmer?"
Well, that sure as fuck was not what Catra was expecting. "I –" Catra stumbles to find the words. She looks down indignantly at the floor. She can't control the truth from spilling over, "I already told you that no one deserves that from a pack of alphas."
The queen looks on not fully convinced. She can't wrap her mind around it. A Horde soldier that was raised and bred for war, doesn't just let the princess that's holding her hostage succumb to the wills of a group of alphas? "Bullshit," she says and Castaspella lets out a dramatic gasp. "You could've gotten away. You could've been free and back to your unit. You're smart enough, skilled enough. You could've survived the entire journey back. But you stayed, why?" Her voice grew harsher with each passing word.
Catra grits her teeth as she doesn't want the truth to spill. She can't reveal all her secrets to this woman she hardly knows. She clenches her claws into her thigh, and she winces at the pain. It usually helped with Shadow Weaver's dark magic, but this is too pure and simple. It isn't painful or invading, just open. "Because I have to find Adora, and Glimmer had the sword. I couldn't run off without it."
After that revelation, Angella's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Why? Who is Adora?"
Catra strains against the magic once more and holds her breath as she clenches her entire body, her blood roaring in her ears. "Because. I don't know why, but I'm having visions that –" she strains to hold in her words. She forces her hands from her thighs to scraping at her scalp. She drops to her knees, and she groans from the exertion, "Adora needs the sword. I don't know why. But every time I touch it, I see her. I have to get to her she's –"
The feline's words cut out again straining against the rushing rapids of her thoughts. They fall so effortlessly out of her mouth, like the metal clad walls she's spent her entire existence building had a gaping hole rupture through the center. A growl starts deep in her throat. Then, the words, that have crept in before during the darkest of nights, escape without her permission. "She's my mate" her voice is blown and gravely like she just let slip her deepest held secret. The words startle Catra as she looks around, specifically at the floor. She's uttered those words from deep within herself, but she doesn't even fully understand them or where they're coming from. She regains her breath as she pants to replace the depleted oxygen.
Angella looks on at this woman. At least she got her answer. It wasn't what she had hoped, but it has confirmed some of her suspicions about Catra's intentions. Her eyes turn downcast, and she sighs – thinking of her own mate. Angella clears her throat, "that's all for now." She turns to leave.
"I meant what I said before.," Catra pauses as the queen barely turns to acknowledge that she spoke. "No one deserves that. No one." She still pants to regain her breath. Today was turning out to be more exhausting than she thought possible.
The two women turn to leave Catra to her own devices and the guards escort them out.
Suddenly a burst of magic appears before Catra, and she audibly hisses.
Glimmer lands with Bow behind her back, her hands on her hips and a scowl to match her mother's. "Okay fess up, who is this Adora? Is she a gigantic blonde woman, ripped and muscly, smells like… sandalwood and sweat?"
Catra hisses at her words, this bile rises in her throat at Glimmer describing Adora like something she seeks after. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about, Sparkles. I think your heat has gotten to your head." She down right sneers at the woman.
"Ugh," Glimmer is just as fed up with this situation as the next guy. "Will you stop being insufferable for two seconds?" She walks closer to Catra and stands firm without an ounce of fear. She's seen this bitch run for her life just like she did back in that forest. There are cracks in those frustratingly high walls she has wrapped around her. "Look, I want to figure some things out just like you do. You were talking about the sword and how you've been having visions of this 'Adora.' I just need to know if she's the one I saw when we –"
Glimmer is cut off by Catra coming as close as she can to the magical barrier. The feline sniffs the air taking in the fullest capacity her lungs would allow. It is faint, and difficult to get past the smell of the electric magic surrounding her, but she can smell her. She can smell Adora, and her eyes dart towards the source. They narrow in a suspicious, an angry kind of way. "Why do you smell like her?" She is also picking up the faint, but still detectable traces of Glimmer's heat and a boulder feels like it drops into her stomach. She hisses an ugly sound. "You were with Adora!?" Her tone is very accusatory.
The sparkly princess throws her hands up immediately in self-defense. "Woah there, Horde scum. Adora attacked me." She pauses momentarily, "it isn't like that!" Her nose crinkles. She continues, "she jumped me after gaining the upper hand and before I knew it this giant alpha has me pinned to the ground. I think she could smell your scent on me. I mean, fuck at first I thought she was hot, but –"
"Shut up!" Catra feels somewhat feral – it had been a long day for her. She knows Adora's out there and the dummy found Catra because of her scent. She knew I was with Glitter.
Glimmer pulls Catra from her thoughts once more. "She didn't do anything! I didn't do anything, thank you very much. I don't jump on every hot alpha I see." Glimmer crosses her arms at the accusation and Catra growls at the way she flippantly describes Adora. Glimmer groans again. "We're getting off topic." She sighs and puts her fingers to her temples to focus. "You said you were trying to get the sword to Adora –"
"How do you know about that?" Catra asks feeling exposed.
"Oh. We were standing just outside. I heard everything."
Catra groans into her hands. This day is just bullshit.
"Anyways," Glimmer continues as she rolls her eyes. "I think, by your obvious reaction, that we must've run into her. Tell us what we need to know about her. She was huge and strong. If Bow hadn't blown her up, I probably would be –"
"He what!?" Catra leaped at the magical barrier, which gave a small jolt. But it's nothing compared to the anger that just welled in her chest.
Bow finally enters the conversation, although not willingly. He has his hands raised in defense, "woah! It wasn't that close." His voice squeaks, "she was on top of Glimmer I had to make sure –"
"Why was she on top of you?!" This conversation was not going well. Everything they were saying was further angering Catra and this bile kept rising in her chest at every mention of Adora and Glimmer. Glimmer who also happens to be in heat, and Catra knows what happens when omegas are in heat. They're like beacons of sex just trying to lure in an alpha to fuck. The idea of Adora being lured by Glimmer of all people makes her want to thrash her claws through anything she could get ahold of. She has only felt like that when Adora made new friends when they were younger. She hasn't felt the urge much since.
Glimmer nearly implodes, "Oh, my shit! This conversation is getting out of hand. She tackled me! I told you this. That's how she smelled you on me. Stop freaking out! I don't want your precious Adora." She blows the few hairs that somehow fell in her face from this trainwreck of a conversation and sighs in frustration.
Catra calms down at Glimmer's vehemence. She doesn't smell that much like Adora so what she's saying does seem plausible. She tries steadying her racing heart. She shakes out her mane and tries to get control of herself. This magic truth crap is doing weird things to me, she thinks. After a few more breaths she regains some of her control. "Adora is my," she cuts herself off and her eyes dart from side to side as longing and confusion flood her brain. "She's an alpha soldier, we knew each other in the Horde."
"Okay, that's good. We're getting somewhere." She looks at Bow and releases a heavy load of the exasperation that's been building.
Something said earlier is bugging Catra. "Why do you keep saying that Adora is so big?" As far as Catra remembered, Adora was modestly muscular, but definitely not as big as the pair are making her seem.
Glimmer looks at her stunned. "Uh, because she's huge!" She gestures widely with her arms, "like 8 feet tall and arms as thick as my head." Glimmer's rant cuts short when she remembers after the explosion that the woman shifted somehow becoming smaller. She thought the explosion was just giving her a concussion and causing some confusion, but maybe she did really see a burst of light after the woman fell to the ground.
"That doesn't make any sense." Catra's getting frustrated. Were they talking about her Adora, or not?! "Adora is a few inches taller than me and a bit thicker, but not much. Trust me, they barely feed us." She rolls her eyes at the memory of grey slop and ration bars.
"Okay well," Glimmer starts, "that's the one who tackled me and left that scent on me. I don't know what else to tell you. There was some magical light after she was hit by Bow's arrow and her body was smaller when that big Scorpioni woman grabbed her and ran off."
"Someone grabbed her?" Panic rises a fraction in Catra's voice.
"Yeah," Bow interjects, "it was someone from the Horde. She was giving the commander of the stronghold a hard time about not being ready for their advancement on Plumeria. She was kind of funny, actually." He chuckles as he remembers the banter.
"It was probably a Force Captain," Catra says absentmindedly as she tries to make sense of what they're telling her.
"A Force Captain? That's like a high rank, or something?" Glimmer asks.
Catra looks up quickly realizing she said that out loud. She shouldn't give away any more information about her forces. "Not really, but they have some responsibility." That was a half-truth, and Catra starts to feel the gaping hole in her mind beginning to close as the truth spell wears off. "This still doesn't make sense. You said she was tall?"
They both nod and Glimmer continues, "yeah. She had long flowing hair too and bright blue eyes. Actually, they were almost glowing."
Catra looks up abruptly as a memory comes back to her. After she was struck by Huntara, she had a vision of a big glowing woman that felt very similar to Adora and again in the woods when the sword helped save her and Glimmer. She shakes her head and tries to make sense of this.
"What?" Glimmer interjects, "what is it?"
The feline looks up with disdain. She doesn't trust them, and she can't give them everything, or they might see right through her. If Adora is already turning into this magical thing before having the sword, then what does it all mean? She somehow has this shapeshifting power, but she also… needs the sword? But why? What is the connection? Catra's eyes widen for a moment as her brain goes on a different tangent. If she's shifting in front of other people, then that means more people know about it… and that means. "Fuck." Her eyes shift from one tile on the floor to another as she begins to piece together a part of this unfortunate puzzle.
Glimmer grows in frustration as Catra seems to be having some epiphany without them. "What is it? Tell we can help."
It's an olive branch, Catra knows, but this is too sensitive. For all she knows, she'll tell them, and they'll just use the information against her, just like Shadow Weaver would. Speaking of Weaver, if more people know about Adora's new form, then obviously she knows. There's no way that hag hasn't been keeping tabs on Adora, her golden child, ever since she left. She probably watches her sleep for fucks sake. I can't trust anyone, she thinks. "I need to get to Adora. Take me with you on your next mission. She's connected to that sword for some reason. We can find out more when she's with us, and she'll be more reasonable if I'm with you. If she attacked you and was asking about me, just imagine how much simpler it can be if I'm already there." She's pleading and it makes her want to vomit, but it's her best chance.
Bow and Glimmer look at each other and speak silently through their eyes. It's really weird. Glimmer finally turns to her, "how do we know you won't just jump into her arms at the earliest convenience. We need some collateral, something to make sure you don't try anything sneaky."
Catra rolls her eyes. She supposes that's a fair point. It was her first plan of course, but they're smarter than they look. She'll have to try something else. Her goal here is to get the sword to Adora so she can complete this weird ass cosmic mission and return back to the Horde with the dummy. "Okay, fine. You can tie me up. I don't know how much she'll like seeing me bound, but maybe you can… hold that sword to my throat or something. She's not dumb." Well, not all the time anyways, she thinks, "she won't attack."Catra just likes to give Adora a hard time, but she's very capable in combat and a great decision maker.
The pair make lingering eye contact again and finally come to a conclusion. Glimmer nods her head once at Catra, "we'll think about it further. In the meantime, maybe we should do some more research on this chimera thing." Glimmer turns to Bow, "if she really does have magic, then maybe it can help us find She-Ra."
Bow looks nervous as he contemplates something, but ultimately smiles softly at Glimmer.
The princess sighs and takes a few steps closer to Bow so they can teleport out of there undetected. She turns back to Catra before they leave, "I'm sorry we hurt your friend. I'm sure she'll be alright."
Before Catra can retort something sarcastic, they're gone.
She's left alone once again after those tumultuous affairs.
First, the queen berates her about Adora and then she endures that nonsense just shortly after. Her body is screaming at her in pain from what she caused herself earlier. Normally, pain always helps keep her more in control of herself, but this time it failed her. She lightly rubs the pads of her fingertips over her aching scalp and doesn't even bother with her thighs. That's definitely going to bruise, she thinks. She applied too much pressure that time and nearly broke the skin.
She moves over to lay down on the cushion and does her best to not lay on her injuries. It proves to be challenging, but eventually she curls around herself just right. Her eyes close and she begins to think of Adora and about going back to the Horde together. Her 'barely-a-plan' could work she supposes. But then, she realizes something…
If she goes back, then who's to say they won't just get separated again. That bitch Shadow Weaver has done everything in her power to keep them apart, especially after she found out about Adora being an alpha – that sickening bile rises back up at the memory. Weaver hadn't even bothered trying to talk to Catra or see if her physical changes could be promising. It's always been about Adora. Sweet, cocky stupid Adora. She's always hated how Weaver would pit them against each other as though it would drive a wedge between them. But she failed at that too because it's only brought them closer.
If we go back… then we won't be together again. Not in the way that... she doesn't allow herself to finish that thought. They'll only separate us. The thoughts continue to reverberate through her skull. Even becoming a Force Captain doesn't ensure that they'll be stationed together again, and Catra isn't sure how much more she can go without her. She isn't sure what's happening, but Adora is pulling her into her orbit and she's so close to just letting it happen.
Being vulnerable and aware of feelings is not Catra's forte. She'd much rather claw her own eyes out, but it's almost like her emotions are becoming more forceful in nature. They're becoming increasingly difficult to ignore or nullify.
In the quiet solitude of her "prison" she lets herself feel. She lets herself want. She wants strong hands gripping her arms and pulling her close. She longs for the brief hint of Adora's scent from before. The scent that brings her a calming peace she's never known.
Suddenly, feeling is becoming entirely too much to handle and Catra shuts it down. She can't think straight when all she can sense is her need for Adora to be right here, right now.
She breathes out a long breath that chases away most of what's plaguing her mind and does her best to drift off to sleep. It had been a long day.
Glimmer and Bow poof back inside of Glimmer's bedroom and they move to sit down.
Bow's brow is pinched together in contemplation. "Do you really think finding out about her chimera magic could help us find She-Ra?" He looks at her with soft, worried eyes.
Glimmer senses his trepidation, "yeah. I do." She says and moves to hold his hands.
He looks down at their entwined fingers and gathers up the courage. "I think," he pauses, "I might know someone who can help us." His eyes never leave their hands.
The princess tilts her head in confusion as she waits for Bow to continue. But then she asks, "that's great bow, who is it?"
He sighs a hefty breath, resigning his tightly held secret. "There's a study that's not too far from here. It has tons of books and information that I bet would help us figure out about Catra."
"Great! We should go tomorrow. Get a jump start on figuring this out." She smiles enthusiastically.
Bow's face is still neutral. "There's just one more thing I should mention." He moves his hands slipping his fingers over Glimmer's to calm himself. "The people who own the study," he glances into her eyes before returning them to their hands. "They, um. They're my dads." He doesn't look up not even when Glimmer nearly inhales the entire rooms worth of air from her audible gasp.