"Maybe my plan won't work but, then again…maybe it already has…" Catra's coy smile made Adora sick. And Catra had just dipped her during the dance. It was humiliating – not to mention kind of hot.
Safe to say the evening had not gone as planned. Adora had managed to antagonize Princess Frosta no less than three times. Glimmer and Bow were fighting and Catra was here. Even worse, Catra was teasing her, provoking her to do something she would regret.
As Catra pulled Adora back up, she opened her mouth to say something else, but Adora shut her up by yanking her hand away and yelling:
"That's enough! Just stop it, Catra!" With that, Adora stomped off. Catra stared at her incredulously.
As the dance continued, Adora made her way back to the buffet. Tears filled her eyes. It was all too much. The dance with Catra had pushed her over the edge. She had had to leave before she started a fight with her.
As Adora caught her breath and tried to think about where Bow could be, she suddenly felt the familiar brush of Catra's tail on her hand. Adora turned to see Catra standing next to her, looking rather sheepish.
"You know, it's fun watching you get angry. Especially when it's over your new friends. But, that wasn't what that was…right?" Adora raised her eyebrow. Was Catra actually being nice? Like she used to be? Adora sighed and lowered her eyes, too tired to fight anymore:
"No. I mean, yes. Bow's missing, Glimmer just had a fight with him, Princess Frosta doesn't like me and you're…just…" Adora looked like she was about to cry. While not sympathetic regarding the reasons for her distress, Catra had never enjoyed seeing Adora upset. She finished Adora's sentence for her:
"…smokin' hot? Well, gee thanks Princess!" Adora could not help but laugh. Even though it was not that funny, her emotional state was too unbalanced for her to care. Catra gave a small smile and continued:
"Hey, it doesn't matter what they do to us…right?" Adora looked at Catra in astonishment before almost yelling:
"What do you mean? We're not there for each other anymore - of course it matters!" Catra, who had been surprised at herself for even trying to console Adora, instantly got mad:
"And whose fault is that? You left, Adora! You chose your new friends over me!"
"You could've come with me! You still can! You-" Adora was interrupted by a series of explosions. As she looked up, the ceiling began to collapse. A large chunk of ice fell on the buffet and would have crushed Adora had Catra not pushed her out of the way.
As she got back to her feet, Adora realized that Catra had disappeared. Before she could make any effort to find her in the sea of terrified guests, someone grabbed her arm and began pulling her towards the exit: Glimmer.
"Come on! We have to get out of here!" Adora, who still could not see Catra, reluctantly agreed.
"Let's go and get my sword. I can fix this!" Glimmer nodded and the pair of them ran for the door.
Catra ran to the rendezvous point. Scorpia's ship should already be waiting for her, along with their rebel prisoner. If this would not get Adora to give herself up, nothing would.
Catra cursed her continued affection for Adora. The evening had been a lot of fun – almost too much fun. Nothing had ever amused her more than toying with Adora. But of course Adora had had to ruin it by spiralling, just like she used to when things got bad back in the Horde. And of course Catra had had to try and help her, just like she always did.
Catra wondered whether that had been the first time Adora had been overwhelmed since leaving the Fright Zone. If not, who had been there to help her? Sparkles? Catra's face went red at the thought.
Narrowly avoiding another falling icicle, Catra literally slid out of the palace – stopping herself just next to Scorpia's ship. Scorpia was standing next to it, holding She-Ra's sword.
"Hey Catra! That was such a cool exit – wow!" Catra frowned, growling:
"You set all the explosives off at once! That was not supposed to happen, Scorpia! I could've gotten hurt!"
"You'll be hurt by the time we're through with you!" Catra instinctively dodged out of the way as a storm of sparkles hit the side of Scorpia's ship. Glimmer and Adora had materialized behind her, and they were intent on getting their friend back.
Scorpia ran onto the ship, yelling at Kyle to fire up the engines. Glimmer teleported onto the ship after her, leaving Adora to charge angrily at Catra.
Catra was very familiar with Adora's fighting style and knew that, without She-Ra's strength, Catra had the advantage. She put her hands in her suit pockets, successfully evading each of Adora's punches without using her claws.
This dance continued for several minutes. The fact that Glimmer did not re-emerge seemingly confirmed that she had been successfully defeated by Scorpia.
Catra gave a snarky grin, finally pulling her hands out of her pockets and almost effortlessly pinning Adora to the ground. Adora did not resist, meaning she was more out of it than Catra realized. She was still pissed though.
"What have you done with Bow? Tell me now!" Catra groaned. This had stopped being fun.
"Nothing permanent. Look, Adora, you're embarrassing yourself. Just admit it – I won and you lost. I got your friends and your sword. Hordak's bound to be impressed..." With that, Adora roared angrily and pushed Catra off her. She had always been stronger, even if she was not nearly as fast and flexible.
Catra quickly gathered herself, preparing for round two. She could see the palace reassembling itself, meaning the ice princess had finally got around to fixing it.
As ice began floating around them, Catra sighed dramatically:
"Adora, come on! I don't want to fight you! I never did! And you're...having a panic attack..." Catra's eyes went wide with concern. Even though Adora had been poised to attack for several seconds, she had not moved. She now began to whimper and collapsed to the ground, holding her head in her hands.
Catra gasped. She had seen Adora spiral before but never like this. It was almost as if she had been holding it in for weeks. Maybe she had. It then occurred to Catra that if she had been successful in getting Adora to attack her in the ballroom, this might not have happened.
Punching things had always been Adora's way of dealing with impending panic attacks. This fight was too little too late.
That was when Catra made a decision which would change the course of Etherian history.
"Adora...I'm sorry." With that, Catra picked up what she assumed was Kyle's discarded stun baton, knocking out Adora.
When Adora woke up, she did not even need to open her eyes to know where she was. The tell-tale stink of burning sulfur told her that she was in the Black Garnet chamber.
It was empty with the exception of someone else magically restrained in the corner. Adora herself was tied down to a table, and, try as she might, she was unable to see who the other prisoner was. It turned out she did not need to, however.
"Adora? Are you awake?" Adora gasped, eyes filling with tears:
"Glimmer? Is that you?" She heard Glimmer give a weak laugh, followed by an even weaker cough. Adora began to furiously pull at her restraints, crying:
"It's okay, I can get us out of this! Just hang tight, I promise-"
"Really Adora? Making promises already? You have a nasty habit of breaking them." The door had opened to reveal Catra. She looked exceptionally grumpy. Adora almost yelled at her:
"How. Dare. You. You're the one who betrayed me, Catra! You zapped me in the back with a stun baton – twice!" Catra raised her eyebrow before simply sighing and walking over to Glimmer. Adora craned her neck but was unable to see what was happening.
"Catra, if you hurt her, I swear-" She was interrupted by Catra saying:
"Here, drink this. It helps after Shadow Weaver's...treatments..." Adora heard Glimmer drink something, and then, after another minute, she heard Catra approach her. Adora then felt the table electronically rise to a vertical position, granting her a full view of the whole room – including Glimmer hunched over in the corner. Before Adora could say anything, however, Catra spoke:
"You're right, Adora. I'm a bad person. I'm not good enough for you. I never was. The only way I could get you to come back with me was with a stun baton." Adora gasped:
"That's not true, Catra!" Catra snarled:
"Really? Because Shadow Weaver just took credit for what I did! She demoted me! I'm a cadet once again, and it's just so you can have your promotion back! I mean, what does that say about me, Adora? You'll always be better than me – nothing I do will ever come close!" Having run out of breath, Catra paused to catch it again.
Adora was speechless. She did not know what to say. How could she convey to her oldest friend that she was good enough, that she was deserving of praise for what she had accomplished (at least by Horde standards), and that Shadow Weaver was a monster neither of them needed to listen to anymore. Then the door opened again, and the woman herself appeared.
Catra's hair stood on end the way it always did when Shadow Weaver was near.
"Catra! You should be cleaning out your room! Leave this instant!" Catra slowly moved towards the door, refusing to look back at Adora as she did so. Once she got there, however, she could not help but steal a glance.
Adora looked sad. Not angry – sad. Had that been the desired reaction? Catra could not tell anymore. When it came to Adora, nothing made sense anymore.
As the door closed, Catra turned away and headed for to the Force Captain quarters. In doing so, she passed Shadow Weaver's room.
Catra stopped and took a peek inside. She saw She-Ra's sword, still leaning precariously against the wall where Shadow Weaver had discarded it. It was too tempting an opportunity to miss - Catra went in and stole it. After all, if Shadow Weaver was going to rob her of her future, she may as well rob Shadow Weaver of hers too.
Catra ran to Scorpia's room. She could hardly stash the weapon in the locker-room, and her own Force Captain room was forfeit. When she arrived, she knocked and waited for Scorpia to open the door.
"Wildcat! It's so great to see you again!" Catra raised her eyebrow.
"You saw me fifteen minutes ago." Scorpia nodded:
"Yep, but even that's too long to be separated from my best friend!" Catra scoffed:
"Yeah sure, whatever. Just hide this under your bed or something, okay?" Catra handed Scorpia the sword, to which she gasped nervously:
"Um, Catra? That's Shadow Weaver's property. She said so herself! I could get fired for hiding it!" Catra groaned:
"Well, just say I made you. Or say I hid it without you knowing. Or, even better, hide it so well that no one ever asks!" Scorpia gulped. Catra just realized she had yelled at her. That had not been smart – the corridors echoed and Hordak's little pet was always listening.
Before Catra could say anything else, however, Scorpia silently took the sword and went back in her room. The alarm then sounded – rebels were attacking the Fright Zone.
Adora screamed. Shadow Weaver's magic hurt like it had never hurt before. Memories of the last few days were being forcefully ripped out of head and she was beginning to black out from the pain. Then Glimmer screamed and Shadow Weaver fell to the floor.
As Adora opened her eyes, she saw Glimmer and smiled.
"Do you know who I am?"
"Glimmer."
Catra, along with Scorpia, the squad and a significant number of Horde soldiers, were outside the Fright Zone fighting the rebels.
Catra was amused that, without Adora, they really had no idea how to plan an attack - especially an infiltration of the Fright Zone.
Despite the impressive power of the princesses (the water and plant ones in particular), they never stood a chance against the sheer numbers of the Horde.
Catra took command and led her troops to victory, successfully driving the rebels back into the forest.
Catra smirked. There was no way Shadow Weaver could take credit for this. Just as she was about to order her soldiers to fall back, Lonnie ran up to her:
"Catra, we have a prisoner!" Catra turned to see Rogelio holding a young woman dressed in white and purple with sentient hair. The woman's face lit up when she saw Catra:
"Hey, I know you! You were at Princess Prom!" Catra grinned:
"Yep. And then I blew it up. You're...Entrapta, right?" Entrapta nodded enthusiastically. Catra smiled:
"Welcome to the Horde." She then turned to the squad and ordered:
"Lock her up with Arrow Boy! I don't want Shadow Weaver hearing we have another princess in custody."
"It's not here! Where is it?" Adora and Glimmer had ransacked Shadow Weaver's room to no avail. She-Ra's sword was nowhere to be found. Glimmer tentatively asked:
"Could it be in Catra's room?" Adora shook her head, knee-deep in the contents of Shadow Weaver's desk.
"Catra said Shadow Weaver demoted her and took credit for the whole operation. Confiscating the sword would've been the first thing she did!" Glimmer rubbed the back of her neck:
"Well, maybe we should just go? The sword's useless unless you're attached to it-" Adora interrupted Glimmer exasperatingly:
"Do you know what that alarm means? Rebels! And it's not a drill! Our friends are out there and they need our help! They need She-Ra!"
"Well, too bad they'll never get her!" Adora and Glimmer turned to see Shadow Weaver standing in the doorway. She continued:
"Really, Adora, I expected so much more from you."
As Catra headed back to Shadow Weaver's room, a giant smile shaped her face. It had been a couple of hours since she had left this room with She-Ra's sword. Catra had not only had her promotion restored, but Hordak had been so impressed that he had ordered her to take Shadow Weaver's place as his second-in-command.
Catra now had the pleasure of breaking the news to her former mentor.
When she opened the door, Catra was surprised to find the room empty. After her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she suddenly noticed a whole lot of golden hair on the floor, right next to the wall where the sword had been.
Catra gasped. She knew what Shadow Weaver was capable of, but...
Catra ran to the Black Garnet chamber and opened on the door. She did not care if Shadow Weaver electrocuted her – she needed to know where Adora was. Imagine her surprise, then, when Adora herself opened the door.
Adora's hair was cut short and her face was completely expressionless. Her eyes were distant and her voice was robotic when it said:
"Hello, Catra."
"Adora?" Catra was terrified. To be honest, Catra was frequently terrified but had learned long ago to hide it. At this moment, however, she struggled to do so. She gasped:
"What happened-" A familiar voice interrupted her:
"Leave us, Catra! I did not give you permission to enter!" Catra growled at Shadow Weaver and bravely pushed Adora out of the way:
"I no longer need your permission, Shadow Weaver. Hordak just gave me your job! Now, tell me, what have you done to Adora?" Shadow Weaver, who was standing by the Black Garnet, stared at Catra in amazement before laughing:
"Well, not only are you an insubordinate wretch, but you're also delusional! I clearly wasted my time raising you." Shadow Weaver then looked at Adora and pointed to Catra:
"Adora! Remove her from my sight!" Catra felt Adora's strong hands wrap around both of her arms, but years of training with Adora had taught Catra how to escape this hold. Using her catlike flexibility, Catra did a backflip, pushing Adora to the ground.
As soon as Catra was free, she charged at Shadow Weaver. Shadow Weaver wasted no time in firing some of her electricity at her former protégé. Catra easily jumped out of the way, landing on one of the many machines hooked up to the runestone. Shadow Weaver screamed:
"Insolent child! You're nothing more than an animal - you'll never win against me!" Catra raised an eyebrow and snarled:
"Wanna bet?" With that, Catra leapt on Shadow Weaver, easily avoiding the bolts of electricity she knew so well. Catra then sliced her former mentor's mask in two, causing both Shadow Weaver and Adora to fall to floor screaming in pain.
Catra stood over the witch, out of breath and grinning her face off. She had done it – she had beaten Shadow Weaver. She had finally got revenge for all the years of abuse and neglect. Then her attention turned to Adora, and her face went white.
While Shadow Weaver had simply collapsed, screaming in pain after her connection to the Black Garnet was severed, Adora was lying on the floor convulsing and crying out in pain after her link to Shadow Weaver was cut.
Catra soon forgot about her victory over Shadow Weaver and ran over to her friend. She knelt down and lifted Adora's head onto her lap, quietly mourning the loss of her beautiful hair and trying to figure out what she could do to help her.
After a few seconds, Catra began to purr. This had worked to calm Adora down when they were kids, before she had discovered the merits of using violence as therapy. Catra hoped it would help Adora now. It did.
Adora suddenly sprang to her feet, turned to face Catra and glared at her with barely concealed fear in her eyes. She looked like she was ready to attack Catra. Catra quickly stood back up and raised her hands defensively, saying:
"Adora, I don't want to fight you. Stay back." This made Adora stop.
Adora raised her eyebrow in confusion, as if she could not understand why Catra thought Adora wanted to hurt her. Before Catra could process Adora's reaction, the screens all turned on, displaying Hordak's angry face:
"Catra! What is going on? I have received reports of a disturbance in the Black Garnet chamber. Have you informed Shadow Weaver of her demotion?" Catra, who was still focusing on Adora, slowly turned to face Hordak, saying:
"Yes, I did. She didn't take it very well. I'm…handling…the situation." Before Hordak could respond, Adora did something totally unexpected. She began to whimper.
Catra turned to see Adora pointing at Hordak's face in front of her, close to tears and wordlessly pleading with Catra to do something.
Catra was beyond confused. She had only met Hordak a couple of times, and, while she was intimidated by him, she was not so scared of him that she wanted to cry. What was even more confusing, however, was that Adora was scared.
Adora had always been the rock that held Catra together…what had happened to her? And what did Adora want Catra to do? Turn the screens off? Catra's confusion was interrupted by Hordak's yell:
"What is Force Captain Adora doing out of chains?!" Catra took a deep breath and, turning back to Hordak, quickly explained:
"Shadow Weaver did something to her. I'll stay and find out what it was." Hordak growled:
"Don't let her out of your sight. If she escapes, I will hold you personally responsible." Catra nodded hesitantly. Hordak continued:
"I'll send a squad to retrieve Shadow Weaver – I see her body behind you. Did you kill her?" Catra turned to look at her former mentor, now lying unconscious on the floor.
"No, she's still alive." Hordak grunted:
"Fine. You have until the squad's arrival to secure Adora and ascertain what happened to her." As Catra nodded again, the screens turned off and Hordak's face was finally gone.
Catra turned once more to face Adora. She had stopped whimpering and was now hugging herself rather pathetically. Catra slowly moved towards her. She reached out her hand and gently pressed Adora's forehead against hers:
"It's okay, it's just me. No one's going to hurt you." This seemed to calm Adora, who stopped shaking long enough to ask:
"Who…who are you?"
Glimmer gasped in pain as she ran down the corridors of the Fright Zone. She could not teleport, had no idea where she was running to, and was barely holding it together after Adora's sacrifice.
"Glimmer, move!" Adora had flung herself at Shadow Weaver, pushing her to the ground. Shadow Weaver had then zapped Adora with such intensity that she had collapsed, pale and smoking from all the electricity coursing through her body.
Glimmer, who had been too weak to intervene sooner, finally summoned enough strength to run forward, punch Shadow Weaver to the ground, and pull Adora towards her. She then checked Adora's pulse - it was not there.
Adora was not breathing. Glimmer screamed:
"You monster! You killed her!" Shadow Weaver laughed evilly from the floor:
"It was more than she deserved. All traitors to the Horde must suffer punishment before their execution." Glimmer roared in anger, kicking the witch where she lay. Glimmer then started to run.
Glimmer was too weak to actually fight Shadow Weaver, and she would be no good to anyone dead. As she ran, Glimmer yelled:
"I'll be back! The entire Rebellion will come and burn this place to the ground! You'll pay for what you've done! You, Catra, Hordak…you're all gonna pay!"
Glimmer had meant what she said. As she turned another corner, she was surprised to see a seemingly unguarded exit out of the Fright Zone (it had helpfully been left open due to the number of robots running about cleaning up after the battle).
As Glimmer stared at the Whispering Woods in the distance, her eyes filled with tears. This had been the worst Princess Prom ever.