Trigger Warnings: Fantasy violence, physical harm of a child, references to child abuse, emotional/verbal abuse, Depictions of Asphyxiation
(PLEASE NOTE that there is a sequence in this chapter that briefly involves depictions of asphyxiation. This chapter was first written months ago using narrative elements seen in the She-Ra (2018) reboot and is in no way inspired by or meant to purposely invoke parallels to current events. The section will be marked with 'xxx' at its beginning and end for those who, understandably, do not wish to engage with it right now. Thank you and please enjoy.) - Homer
"By the Power of Grayskull!"
The boy huffed and puffed as he waited for the Other One to emerge. A hot sandy feeling scoured his throat.
Again!
"Nnnah!" he snapped at the Other One. He was so tired. The inside of his hood was a muffled nest of sweaty hair. He whipped it back and gulped down a breath of air that only fanned the burning in his throat. "By the Power of-eeeek!"
He jumped backwards as the cat-eared lady came tumbling to the ground in front of him. She cracked her golden eye open and looked him over.
"You're still little," she groaned, "why are you still little?!" In a display of grace and flexibility that left him stunned, she spun herself to her feet and raced to intercept the bear-man she'd been fighting for the last ten minutes. She roll-kicked off his broad chest and lunged on him when he fell prone, air rushing from his lungs.
"By…by the Power of Grayskull!" He shook the sword in frustration, watching the red-eyes overhead glaring at him from the reflective metal. Tendrils were beginning to snake away from the black cloud, circling like hawks about to dive.
"Any minute now, kid," the cat-eared lady called to him, springing away from the ape-man's huge fists. He slapped the ground twice and charged her again.
"By the Power of Grayskull!"
Run.
"Ah?" He blinked at the order as he realized that the brawling mob had moved like a tornado around the empty square and his back was suddenly to a huge, empty doorway.
Go now!
He looked back at the cat-eared lady. She was fighting for her life. She needed him to help her.
She is not our concern. Run! The shadow thing hissed and drew a dozen more of the black-armored soldiers from the thick of the crowd, struggling like flies on a spider's strings. You will not have another chance!
The boy lifted the sword and began to back away, eyes never straying far from the cat-eared lady. She was strong, and scary. He'd seen it for himself. She'd be alright, wouldn't she?
Run!
The cat-eared lady laughed wickedly as she clawed free of the ape-man's arms. The boy felt his heart race and it was like a solid fist began pressing down his fears. She didn't have the Other One and she was doing fine. She was winning!
She was so brave. The boy scowled at the sword. One more time. He could try once more and if it didn't work then...he'd…
He glanced at the cat-eared lady.
You must run!
He squeezed his eyes shut, demanding the sword work with all his might, and thinking constantly about the white lightning that he'd seen in the old gray castle, arcing towards him to bring out the Other One. It had to be here somewhere! Something had to be here!
A gold thread pulsed in the darkness. He felt the tug of something like a warm stream of energy. It reminded him of the lightning.
"By the Power," he screamed, voice cracking, "of Grayskull!"
Adora lurched out a nightmare of shadows and red lights, lank hair flying around her face as thunder shook the walls of the Crypto Castle. The room was lit by blue light. She glanced at the far corner from her bed and grimaced.
Sword of Protection, read the old runes along the blade. The runestone was burned like a sapphire star in the golden crossguard. The fingers of her right hand twitched and curled into the comforter.
"It's your sword," she whispered to herself, "you were destined for it!"
But the night had been so bleak and difficult.
After a fashion, they had won the allegiance of the brilliant and singular Princess Entrapta of Dryl. The strange power that had been making life impossible for Adora had dissipated, much to Glimmer's despair and Bow's relief, and she could finally put her own socks on again.
But…the sword. When I used it…
Her mind raced with images from the harrowing night trapped in the Crypto Castle. Red. Red veins spreading up her forearms like bloody ivy. A part of herself slipping free from the gestalt entity that was She-Ra, getting shoved into a tiny space, unable to move as outside a hurricane of rage roared around her. The heat of an unquenchable thirst for battle.
The sword stabbing down through the carcass of a mighty robot, mighty no more, laid to waste by the power of She-Ra. By her glory and might. Eyes in the reflection. Red-eyes! Red-eyes in a face with a vicious grin.
Adora blinked and a second image swam through the first.
Red-eyes in the heart of a shadowy cloud that reached out to take her, whispering at her and trying to make her afraid. 'Time to go home, Adora!'
"No, I'm not going back. This is my sword," Adora said, pulling herself into the present, "it was made for me!" The room was silent as her destiny glowed softly from the corner, but in her mind, a sudden flood of feelings was threatening to wash her away. Dread and courage and hope siphoned in like they were coming from somewhere else, along with a strong urge. She had to take up the sword. She had to transform.
If she didn't, she sensed that someone somewhere would die. She tried to tell herself it was, as Bow had explained to her, a trick of anxiety but something in her urged her to act. To be She-Ra.
The room was frigid and the floor was rough but Adora noticed neither of these things as she advanced. She took up the blade and held it aloft.
"For the Honor," she shouted, "of Grayskull!"
Fire encircled her and dragged glittering sparks around her body as she changed and became something far more ancient and legendary than Adora. The tugging sensation tightened in her mind and a small fraction of her power blinked away along a thread that vanished into the dark. She-Ra considered her reflection in the sword, smiling fondly at the blue eyes she saw staring back.
She was in control again and that was an immeasurable relief.
She-Ra smiled as Glimmer and Bow burst into the room, the Bright-Moon princess shoved a sleep-mask off her face and took in the room with wide, pink eyes. They narrowed a moment later.
"Why?" She said, grumpy and frumpled from lack of sleep and magic.
"Adora?" Bow asked carefully.
"I," the warrior answered, almost in a dream, "am She-Ra!" She was announcing herself to someone… but who?
"We know," Glimmer snapped, "now for the love of 'Grayskull' can we please all just go to sleep? Ugh. How is this night not over yet?" She-Ra embraced her friends in huge, dangerously muscled arms that she had full control over. She was not the powerhouse she'd been when the red-veins had come or the moons aligned. But she was content.
Power was only as worthwhile as the reason you wielded it. She-Ra vanished in a soft illumination and Adora carefully hugged them, mindful of the sword.
"Thanks, guys," Adora sighed, "I just had a…a dark dream, that's all."
"A what?" Bow said. Then his eyes went puppy-dog weepy and he squeezed her tight. "You mean a nightmare? Oh, Adora, it's okay! Want us to stay with you?" Adora felt a cold chill race down her spine as the feeling of peace vanished.
"Yeah," she mumbled, "a nightmare." That was what she had meant.
Red-eyes. Red-eyes filled with hate. They were set into the shadows and, more horribly, into the face of She-Ra.
She-Ra uncontrolled, and Adora powerless as her own body betrayed her, sent off to attack innocent people. Like Light Hope told her Mara had. A nightmare indeed.
She hugged Glimmer and Bow tightly. The energy that had split from her when she transformed was still fresh and warm in her mind, fading to cold absence a moment later. More of the excess power, she reasoned, venting itself from her in a way that, like most things related to She-Ra, she didn't fully understand.
"A nightmare. Just a nightmare. Yeah."
Catra felt something in her shoulder shift that she imagined wasn't meant to. She raked her free hand along the back of Grizzlor's head, ripping a huge ball of greasy fur free. She slipped away when he grabbed at his scalp. The shifting in her shoulder happened again.
Back where it's supposed to be I guess. Gotta knock this guy down before…
An armored figure slammed her side at a dead-run and carried her forward a yard before tackling her to the ground. The tentacles drawn on the helmet marked one of Octavia's veterans. She caught a glimpse of wide eyes, mostly whites around shrunken pupils, through the toxic green visor.
The shadow-thing had brought more friends to play. The kid was squeezing his eyes shut and hefting the sword above his head.
"Now," she shouted at a muffle, there was a pauldron jammed against her cheek, "would be a GREAT time to-"
She paused and looked at him again. He was hefting the sword above his head! That huge, ridiculous sword!
"Are…are you-yikes!" Above the kid, a white pinprick of light punched down through the foggy mass of the shadow-thing and it did not like that one bit. Catra's brains were scrambled for an instance at the sheer noise the creature made, coupled with what sounded like a clap of thunder at close range. With a bright flash, she lost sight of the kid altogether.
Around her, half of the Horde soldiers cried out and the tendrils trapping them disintegrated. Her hopes of reinforcements dashed as they all, one after another, fainted dead away, their armored bodies sounding like a drum roll as they tumbled to the ground.
The soldier above her slumped forward, nearly smashing his helmet into her sternum. A large foot wrapped in hide armor nudged him away. A huge shadow of muscle blotted out the floodlights of Horde Square.
"Welcome back, meathead," she said, grinning to cover her overwhelming relief. The warrior gave her a calculating glance and then held out a hand. Catra scowled and got to her own feet, shakily. "Don't push it."
A mass of brown fur tackled the warrior from behind and brought him down with a grunt of pain. Catra's heart clenched. Not everyone had been freed of the creature's spell.
"Whats wrong now? You don't know how to fight if you're not invincible?" She complained. The warrior shot her a glare as he rolled around with the massive Force Captain. A hairy fist slammed him in the stomach and the warrior wheezed indignantly. He swung his sword in an awkward circle, his strength too matched by Gizzlor's to turn the tables. "Oh, come on, you're not even a little super strong?!" He opened his mouth to the reply and the fist in his stomach relocated to his teeth. Catra winced.
Ugh, would really suck if that kid could feel all this. There was a sound like someone taking the first bite of an apple and then Grizzlor was wailing in agony. Catra grimaced further at the impression on his bitten hand.
"Raaargh!" The warrior gave a wild, desperate roar and swept his sword in a wild arc. Grizzlor ducked clear and the blade whispered through the black tendril, which had anchored itself in the back of the ape-man's neck. The shadowy appendage evaporated and the puppeteer above screamed horridly inside her brain again.
"What?" Grizzlor said, the warrior flipped them over so he straddled the man's stomach, free hand digging into the front of Grizzlor's stained tank-top to yank his shoulders off the floor. "What!" The warrior, hands occupied, gave his answer with his forehead, which was the relative density of a seaside cliff.
There was a 'thok' noise like someone bangning two rocks together and Grizzlor's eyes rolled up. The unconscious Force Captain's mouth hung open in shock.
The warrior's head came crashing towards Catra's feet, flowing blonde hair slapping around his bare shoulders. His bottom lip was swelling to an angry red. A bruise was forming on his stomach in the shape of a fist.
"Ok," Catra said, "I- I can still work with this. Let's start by-hey!" The warrior shoved her in the stomach and sent her sprawling. A red flash in the space between them drew her eyes to the right. "Oh, for-Scorpia!"
Her eyes were enormous with fear and darted between Catra and the warrior like they'd crawled out of her psyche's darkest corner. The warrior crouched and drew back. Catra blinked at him in shock.
"Are you…scared?" There was a brief flash of pink beneath the red tattoos on his cheeks.
"NO!" He shouted back, far too quickly. He was undercut by his own startled gasp as the stinger of Scorpia's tail pinged off his sword. He brought the weapon up in a guard and circled her carefully. Catra ran up to him and grabbed at his shoulder, her hand comically small against the bronze muscle.
"Don't hurt her!" The look she got for that would've curdled milk. "Hey. You owe me one! So don't give me any attitude. You can handle it. You're a She-Ra!" The warrior's jaw tightened for the barest second, just enough for Catra to catch it. That name meant something to him.
"Move!" He growled, dodging to the right as Scorpia advanced, her friendly face contorted with terror. Whatever she was seeing, Catra couldn't imagine. She'd seen Scorpia scared but never scared into silence. Catra darted forward wary of her pincers and recalled how she'd seen the woman fight. If she could keep clear of the arms the tail wouldn't be quite so dangerous. She measured the full reach of the sting and stood an inch outside of it.
Scorpia's fear-addled mind must've been clouding her senses completely, as she didn't hesitate to strike. Catra snatched the last segment before the stinger and pulled with all her strength. The effort aggravated her many injuries but Scorpia wasn't expecting someone to grab her tail, she spun in place too stunned to react.
"Cut the tendril thingy," Catra said, "it'll free her, then she can help us!" The warrior backed away, free hand brushing over his shoulder idly. "Hey! Coward!" Blue eyes turned to a glare again. "Just do it! What? Are you too weak?"
The warrior stomped forward, a snarl bursting from between his teeth, and raised his sword high in both hands. Catra had the horrible thought that he wouldn't bother listening.
"Hey-Ah!" Scorpia's powerful tail curled and yanked her onto the floor, stinger hovering a few centimeters from her nose. The warrior's shadow fell over her and the sword whipped through the air, swinging like a pendulum by her rapidly twitching ear. No sounds of violence so he'd either listened to her, or he'd missed.
"My tail!" Scorpia cried out, Catra curled her fingers hard against her palms as the appendage whipped free of her hands. Pincers smoothed over the segment she'd been holding. "Catra, please, I have to ask you to respect my bubble and stop doing that. Always feels so weird when somebody touches it."
"You're welcome," Catra struggled to her elbows. A hand yanked her up by the waistband of her pants. "Hey!" She dropped to her feet, glaring at the warrior's smug grin. A red pincer smashed him in the face. The sword clattered to the floor and he clutched at his nose, eyes watering. "Ha! Sucks right? Now-noooooo!" The other pincer had grabbed her injured shoulder and yanked her against Scorpia's chest.
"How'd he come back?" Scorpia said. "Where'd that little boy go?"
"That's him," Catra yowled as she tried to break free, "Scorpia, you're breaking my bones! That's the kid in She-Ra form so just let me go!"
Scorpia gasped suddenly and pure disgust curdled her face. Catra's eyes zipped up at the writhing, agonized shadow to search vainly for another tendril. Nothing. Yet Scorpia still seemed overawed by terror.
"I…I just," she raised her shaking pincer to cover her mouth, "I just punched a little boy in the face!" Her voice fell to a harsh whisper. "I stung a little boy with my venom!" She stumbled forward to the pained warrior. "Are you ok, little guy? If you're tasting colors, that's perfectly normal!" The warrior unveiled a nose with twin waterfalls of blood spilling from both nostrils, and raccoon-like bruising purpling around hateful eyes.
"Catra, I'm a monster!" Scorpia wailed, burying her face into Catra's mane. The warrior raised both fists. Catra struggled free and planted both palms on his chest, framing the red cross painted over his heart with her hands.
"Enough! Cool it! Nobody," she glared at Scorpia, "punches anybody else unless I say so!" A deep, bellowing roar turned them all to a towering figure with four lashing tentacles and one watery-yellow eye. "Her. Punch her. Go wild."
The warrior eyed Octavia and then his sword, with a huff he juked forward and tried to swing for the black tendril rising like a fifth tentacle from her back. All four of his limbs were ensnared in the pure muscle of her tentacles, which left him no defenses as Octavia's fists worked him over.
"What'd you do to me! You blinded me! You! You!" Octavia's strained voice descended into horrified repetition. 'you-you-you'. Each cry coming as another heavy strike landed on the unprotected stomach, chest, and face of her enemy. Catra elbowed Scorpia in the side, wincing as she hit the chitin under the soft clothing.
"Help him," she said.
"What?" Scorpia balked. "Octavia's kinda going hard but…Catra that'd be treason!" Catra pointed directly up and Scorpia followed her finger. A strange, placid look passed over her face as she stared overhead. Then she snorted and laughed.
"I see! This is all a nightmare! A bad dream... Boy. That is a relief. Ok, waking up now." She closed her eyes. Sweat began to trickle down her forehead. "Waking up...now. Now. Now! Waking up now!"
Catra reached past her pincers and pinched the soft skin by her elbow sharply. Scorpia frowned.
"Yeah," she said, "that's kinda what I was afraid of." She peeked slowly back out at the monster. "So...was that thing…"
"Inside your brain and inside their brains, controlling them," Catra groaned at the horror creeping across Scorpia's face, "have a breakdown later!" The monster's tendrils had all tightened like fishing lines. The trapped soldiers were being dragged, kicking and screaming, towards them to join in the fight. Catra grinned as she realized it was having difficulty controlling them all at once. If it could make mistakes, they it could be beaten.
"Ok," Scorpia's voice quavered somewhere between nervous and paralyzed-with-terror, "so could we maybe consider that Octavia and the others aren't really in control of their actions? I mean we're all Horde here and-"
No time for this! Catra thought. The warrior was still in trouble and if he got too hurt and the kid came back...the kid! She fought back a sly smile and adopted a serious expression, then cupped Scorpia's strong, noble jawline in her hands and stared into her face.
"Scorpia that is a child getting beat up over there," Catra cheered internally as concern flashed in Scorpia's eyes, "he's got big, sad blue eyes and he's really small. And he's got a little voice that goes like this: 'ah-ah'." Scorpia's lip quivered. "And right now he's getting the stuffing punched out of him." Scorpia hesitated and Catra went in for the kill. She jabbed a claw skyward "And that thing is trying to take him and it will if we don't help right now!"
There was a brief silence and then Scorpia stood resolutely to her full, powerful height. She shot a less than confident glare up at the shadow.
"Listen up...cloud...you got one chance to let everybody go or else!" she waited ten seconds. "Nerts." With a battle-cry she rushed into the fight.
"Stand down, Octavia," she said, wrapping the other Force Captain in a bear hug from behind, "stand down!" She bobbed her head away from a big, green elbow. "I do not want to sting you! Do not make me do that!" Two of the tentacles trapping the warrior slithered backwards to smack Scorpia around the head.
"Just do it," Catra yelled. Someone spun her around by her bad shoulder. "Ahhhh, I'm gonna kill you all!" She ducked a haymaker and sprang onto her attacker's chest, slamming them to the ground and leaving them open for a clawing. Her fingers froze at the terrified hazel eyes looking up through them. Her hesitation to harm Lonnie distracted her from Rogelio.
His foot glanced off her shoulder and he turned with the momentum to swing his tail at her head. Not quickly enough, she sank downwards, and it slapped the sensitive tip of one of her ears. Her vision went blurry with reflexive tears and she lashed out purely on instinct.
She caught empty air and had to stumble backwards as Lonnie shoved her away. She could hardly see and one of her ears was pressed stubbornly to her head to avoid further injury. Still she could pick out some sounds.
A rubbery thudding sound began to keep a stilted rhythm in her ringing ears and resolved itself as sustained punching. The warrior's jacked-up face was contorted in fury and he was venting it all on Octavia, who was finally too distracted to fight back.
Rogelio was leaping at her, body angled in a martial arts stance, with Lonnie coming in behind, both fists raised like a boxer. She moved fluidly around her first squadmate and vaulted over the second, throwing a wild backwards kick at the back of her head. She connected and sent Lonnie barreling into Rogelio.
"Ok," she huffed, "nowhere near as tough as you should be. Still," she grinned at the tangle of the two troopers, "I'll call this 'the time I beat you both single-handed' anyway."
Catra spared a glance back at the warrior.
"Y-you," Octavia burbled around swollen lips, "you…" a final right hook knocked her out and her tentacles unwound from Scorpia and the warrior. That must have been holding him up, he tumbled onto his back with a wheezing sound.
It looked like a map of the world had been inked on his torso in purple, yellow, and black. He shuddered a few croaking breaths and retrieved his sword before climbing back to his feet. He glared at the unconscious Octavia, still held up by Scorpia's stunned bear-hug. His sword glinted eagerly in the light.
"Hold it. Forget about her," Catra snarled, "take out the shadow!" The warrior glared at being order. Catra looked expectantly at Scopria. "And you can let go of her now, Scopria?"
"Right," Scorpia said with a nervous smile. Gingerly, because she just insisted on making Catra's life harder, she laid the Force Captain on the ground. She was bent double when five of the shadow's puppet-troopers threw themselves at her and dragged her to the ground.
The warrior turned in time to get dogpiled by a dozen more of them.
"I should've just had the kid back me up," Catra said, loud enough for the warrior to hear, "he might have done something useful! Don't go dying, you idiots, I'll be there in a second."
She'd forgotten all about the danger overhead. A presence wrapped itself around her mind. She had time to see the red-eyes overhead flash with glee before the tendril anchoring itself in her neck blocked them.
No, you won't. You can't save him.
"Get out! Get out of my head!" She gripped two handfuls of her mane and tugged hard as if it might evict the shadow's voice.
"Guys, it's me Scorpia! I...don't know any of you actually...but I'm sure deep down you know this is-kidneys! Those are my kidneys you just punched!" Scorpia writhed against the soldiers kneeling on her legs, pinning her arms to the ground. The warrior vanished under the pile of Horde troopers.
You can't save anyone.
Hands gripped her shoulders, squeezing harshly, and forcing her to her stomach. Catra was too disoriented to do more than struggle against Rogelio and Lonnie. They weren't at their best but their respective strengths had not diminished at all.
You can't even save yourself. Weak. Too weak. Too alone.
"Get away!" Catra snarled. "I'm your Force Captain, you idiots, and I'm ten times scarier than whatever that thing is!"
Nothing. Nothing without her. Adora left and took away everything that made you special, Catra. You are nothing without her.
"Let me go!"
NOTHING
Before her, the troopers attacking the warrior began to fumble their stun batons off their belts. Catra's heart stopped. If he went down now and she couldn't get free she'd be…
Alone. The shadow whispered in her ear, hungry and eager. All alone with me.
She felt the tremble of power as the shadow ordered its other victims to strike.
"No!" Catra howled. "Get away from him, he's mine!" One of her squadmates smashed their palm into the back of her head and her vision went blurry. She saw dim orbs of green light.
She felt the crackle of electricity near her and became hyperaware of how she simply couldn't move. It made her mind reel back in time for a moment, to the Black Garnet Chamber when she was nine, no bigger than the boy. She struggled harder and filled with an odd, protective rage. For a moment she forgot the warrior and could only think about the boy.
The shadow in her mind shuddered with greed, pawing through her traumatic memories.
"I will get rid of you." Shadow Weaver's eyes looked red, red like the monster's, through the haze of her magic. She couldn't move. She couldn't even yell. Adora. It was Adora's idea!
"Leave him alone," she growled, "don't you touch him!"
The warrior was screaming in pain. Short staccato barks that grew in noise and intensity.
You shouldn't have gone where you are not wanted, Catra. This is your punishment. This is...what,,,what is this?! What are you doing?!
The shadow relented, Catra's squadmates shivered as the connection became weaker, and she took the chance to drive her elbows in their stomachs and, when they curled forwards, the bottom of their chins. They fell to the floor in perfect sync.
The warrior's screaming was strange. It almost sounded like laughter.
"Wait," Catra gasped, wrestling her face up to see, "are…are you laughing?"
More. The shadow snarled, Catra fought the impulse to obey. Subdue him. More!
"Yes," the warrior's deep voice rang out triumphantly, "more!" A dozen voices quailed in surprise and the shapes before her moved like figures on a waterlogged painting. The black blurs trembled around one with a halo of gold around its head.
The haloed shape shook like a dog and the black smudges flew in every direction, screaming in shock. Then the haloed shape advanced and Catra felt her arms freed. The presence in her mind hissed at her like burning fat on a fire. Her body was yanked clear off the ground and her mind went blank.
This…what is…this is your fault! You! Catra felt the whole weight of the shadow squeeze her mind like it would strangle her.
"What's a matter," Catra mumbled sleepily, "are you scared?"
Metal sang through the air and something snapped above her head with a fading shriek. She was falling and then she was caught against warm skin, humming with power.
"Catra!" Scorpia said. "Is she ok?"
"Alive," the warrior's voice rumbled. Catra thought how different he sounded when he wasn't mocking or angry or scared. He sounded exhausted. The world sharpened and she wriggled free of the warrior's arms with a high-pitched noise of embarrassment.
"Get your paws off me," she snapped, "who asked you for help anyway?" The warrior grunted, giving her a look that said 'you're welcome' in the most sarcastic way.
"Catra," Scorpia gasped, "you should've seen it! They started shocking him and he…he…actually I have no idea what he did but look at him!" The warrior was furrowing his brow at the shadow monster and the monster was looking back with murderous intent. He pointed his sword at it and then growled in frustration.
Catra felt a grin coiling onto her face as he waved his sword around. She outright laughed when one of the shadow's puppets thrust a spear into his arm and the tip bent. The warrior socked him in the helmet and the sturdy visor shattered like a cheap, clay mug.
"They shocked him," Catra thought, she unclipped a stun baton from someone who wouldn't need it for a long while, "and now he's back to being a Princess, huh? Could it be that simple?"
"Yes," Scorpia said, smirking nervously, "so simple. So simple that you should explain it and we'll both laugh at how easy to understand it is." She was fussing over Lonnie and Rogelio. "Could you ask him to free these two? They're just stunned."
"Hey, big guy," she called out, waving the baton at him, "come here." The warrior bristled again at being commanded but Catra was pleased to see him respond anyway. He flicked his sword casually and freed the two troopers. They rose, rubbing at their injuries, and Lonnie opened her mouth to voice a question. The warrior promptly bopped them both on the head with either fist.
"Hey!" Scorpia and Catra cried in unison as Rogelio and Lonnie crashed to the ground. He arched one golden eyebrow at them and shrugged. There was a weak slapping sound behind him and he turned to regard Kyle, near catatonic with fear, batting at him with his bare hands. The warrior rolled his eyes, freed the boy, and hesitated with a look at Catra.
"Yes," she sighed, "don't knock him out." Kyle blinked away his confusion, took in the scene, looked up at the monster, and fainted. The warrior grunted in fury and Catra realized, while they'd been distracted, that the shadow had tried to slip a tendril into his mind. The thing howled and wrenched its appendage back, shimmering with anguish. Catra laughed as the remaining victims answered with their own cries and fell to the floor. They were the last three standing.
"That's pretty much everything you got, huh?" Catra said to the shadow creature.
….mock…me…at…your…peril... The voice was like a slow, lazy rumble of thunder outside her head. Scorpia shivered next to her and the warrior bared his teeth.
"Those were some really crummy last words," Catra said, manic glee touching her smile, she turned to the warrior, "so I think I know how you work now." She twirled the baton in her hand. "How bout another booster shot?"
"Ooooh," Scorpia said, "I get it." She winked. The warrior swiped the baton from her and jabbed against his stomach several times, frowning when it didn't work. "You gotta use the button. There's a button on the-"
"Here," Catra reached out and activated the weapon, "eat up." Green bolts blasted over the rippling abdominals and brought a grim smile to the warrior's stoic face. "Plenty more where that came from, I can get you all the juice you want. Think about that, huh? But for now." She nodded up. "Handle that thing."
"Stop," the warrior grumbled.
"Oh, don't play coy," Catra winked, "you want payback. I can see it in your face." The baton blabbed as the battery was drained completely. "So do I. Funny how we can help each other, right?" The warrior drew his thumb along the flat of his blade and grinned at the shadow.
It was not a pleasant sight.
"Dark Dream," he said, eyes locking with the shadow's. Catra snorted.
"What is that name?" Dark Dream shifted and became a long snake of shadow, slithering a few feet closer to the ground. Catra resisted the urge to puff-up her fur at it.
…I…read you…as…well…creature…
"What's it doing?" Scorpia whispered. Catra shushed her sharply, ears pricking.
…I…know…your…fear…
The warrior raised his sword, pointing it accusingly at the monster.
…the boy…will…abandon you... too…like always...
Hello, Catra thought, does that mean what I think it does?
"Goodbye," the warrior growled. White lightning arced through the air from the sword-tip, like an extension of the blade itself. The fog-like form was severed and the thin dark pupils in its red eyes darted around frantically. The shadow body evaporated into nothing, unveiling the black sky and the moons of the Etheria. The 'face' floated weakly about them like a red-eyed bat.
…How…how…how...it shrieked. The warrior watched his enemy panic and Catra turned a harsh glare on him.
"Quit playing around," Catra snapped, "I said to finish it off!" He pointed his sword up and drew it back with a frustrated growl. Not enough power left, she realized, for another blast.
Dark Dream hissed and fled, a scrap of shadow shrinking into the upper darkness of the Fright Zone skyline. The warrior spat after it, sheathing his broad blade in the loop on his back. Then, with a heavy sigh, he sat cross-legged on the ground, closed his eyes and seemed to meditate for a moment.
"We'll learn you," Catra said, glaring after the monster, "name's Catra. What's yours?" She bit back a curse when she got no answer. "Hey! Don't pull the quiet act again, weirdo, what's your name?" She paused. "What's the kid's name?"
Sapphire eyes opened and scorched at her. Catra snickered.
"So…that's how it works, huh?" She circled the warrior, tapping her chin. "He hides and you come out. How'd he manage it this time?" No answer, as she suspected. "You'll tell me eventually. Turn back into him."
"No."
"He speaks," Catra rolled her eyes, "that wasn't a request. Do it or-"
"Or?" he rumbled, glancing at her cautiously as his hands curled into fists atop his thighs. She hesitated a second, eyes searching the square and landing on a dead stun-baton.
She did what she did best. She bluffed.
"Don't get cute," she said, affecting boredom, "I bet stun-batons are tasty but they're probably not very nutritious. Magic is what you need and, unlucky you, this is about the only place on Etheria that doesn't have magic coming out the yin-yang."
"Etheria?" The warrior asked, almost seeming shocked. Catra arched an eyebrow.
"Yeah," she said, "as in, like, our world. Etheria? That venom do something to your brain?"
"Nothing permanent, usually," Scorpia said, finally joining them with a few cautious steps, "but if there's anything that lasts longer than twenty-four hours you should consult a medic. So, by the way, Hi? I'm Scopria."
"Etheria?" the warrior's eyes were growing huge, "Etheria?!" He looked around with a strange, dawning expression of terror. He focused on the night sky and his pupils shrank. "No..."
"What's with you?" Catra asked. "You were practically as chatty as Scorpia before you transformed but now…"
The warrior leapt to his feet and unsheathed his sword in one fluid movement. He shook off his episode and became laser-focused on the door to Hordak's inner sanctum.
"Back up," Catra said to Scorpia, "don't crowd him. Hey, big guy, whatever you're thinking about? Bad idea. If its anything other than listening to me it's a bad idea. There's a whole lot more trouble mustering out there right now and it'll be here soon."
She pressed the button on her badge and watched him cock his head at a sudden influx of voices. Orders, answers, and the tactical maneuverings of the entire Fright Zone babbled at him for a few seconds before Catra cut them off with a twitch of her finger.
"You can't stay invincible for ever," she said, "you're already out of juice, huh?"
The warrior's body was trembling with rage, his angry face upturned at the night sky as if it was somehow responsible for everything.
"Rule number one," she said, satisfaction soothing all of her injuries, "I'm your boss."
The warrior looked at her for a long moment and then burst out into great guffaws of laughter. Each one buffeted her ears like a punch of wind.
"Never," the warrior said. He tensed and jumped high in the air towards the steps. Catra raced after him, leaving Scorpia protesting weakly behind them. She took the stairs five steps at a time and summited as a reedy voice hurled threats.
"I have powers the likes of which," Mantenna cried out, "you cannot begin to fathom!" There was grunt and a shoving noise, Catra sidestepped a flailing, four-legged figure as it bounced on every step down toward the square.
"Dead-end," she said as she found the warrior levering the doors open with his blade. He froze and considered her; she shrugged and made herself comfortable against the wall next to him. "I know you're doomed, why should I get hurt fighting you again? I'm just waiting for you to do the smart thing and listen to me." She inspected her claws, hiding her amazement when the heavy doors groaned open.
She sidled through easily after the big body, glancing around the empty throne room.
"Hey, Lord Hordak!" She called out to the empty doorway of the lab beyond. The warrior stopped and stalked up to her.
"Leaving," he growled.
"No, you're not," Catra scoffed, "you're trapped, pal, even if you don't know it. Now come on. I'm being pretty nice all things considered. How bout you just take a deep breath and I-"
"Eyes," the warrior snapped. Catra blinked.
"What about them?"
"See," he said, crossing his arms. Catra folded hers and leaned back to look at his face.
"Very good," she chuckled, "eyes do see. Can you tell me what these do?" She wiggled her ears. The warrior grunted and scratched at his hair, face twisting with effort.
"See…you," he managed, "eyes. Your eyes!" He lurched forward pointing at her eyes. "See you." He pointed at his own. "See. You."
"Okay. And what do you see?" Catra's tail flicked.
"Evil." The warrior turned and marched onward.
"Great. Another hero, huh?" Catra followed after him, shivering at little now that his back was turned. He was intense and no less dangerous than ever. "You're in the Fright Zone, meathead. Heroes don't last long here. They're coming for you."
The warrior paused by the throne of Hordak, barely acknowledging it. Catra found that odd, it was the first thing she looked at when she came into the chamber, even then. The warrior pounded his chest twice with his empty fist and turned away.
"And if you can't," Catra said, voice echoing through the empty space, "what happens to the little boy?" The warrior turned and pointed the sword at her, eyes flashing with their power. Catra fought the urge to jump away and stared back into his eyes. "Don't be mad just because I'm thinking about him and you're not." Her eyes narrowed. "I bet you think you're doing what's best for him, right? Did he want to come here? Or did you make him come here?"
She cast an eye around the wrecked laboratory and found it empty. Pfft. Some leader of the Horde. Where even is he?
There was a furious roar from beyond the wreckage and Catra laughed when she found the warrior shaking a tall metal circle like it was a temperamental vending machine.
"Did you-snrk-did you try calling somebody from Maintenance? File a request? Get comfy, they never come down after-hours."
The warrior's balled fist made the metal ring as he thumped the strange device.
"Go on, kick it. Kick it, like, right at the base I hear," she giggled, "I hear that works!"
The warrior let loose a scream of pure frustration. Catra cackled.
"Wait-wait. One more! One more! Turn it off and turn it back on again. Hahaha!" She covered her mouth and peered through the slits of her eyes, giggling. She cleared her throat. "Ready to make a deal? Or do you want to do this some more? I can wait."
His anger didn't frighten her anymore, now that she could smell the fear in it. Time for her to go to work. She sauntered up to him, glancing fearlessly into his eyes.
"On!" He roared, jabbing a finger at the machine.
Too easy, she thought.
"Turn back into the kid," she said casually, "right now. I'll turn the machine on then."
"On!" The warrior, hefting his sword under her chin. Catra made a show of using her reflection in the blade to clean her teeth. The warrior struggled to threaten her. "On! On! Now! Or.."
"Or?" She said languidly, relishing the way his face tensed. All that power, all that strength. Hers to manipulate.
I can't wait, Adora, she thought, to see the look on your face when you see I've got my own pet She-Ra now. Oh, I just can't wait.
"On," the warrior said through his teeth, "please."
"I'm done talking to you," she whispered, "you know how this works. The kid. Now."
"ON!" He roared, more desperate than angry.
"She can't do that," a voice startled them both into defensive stances, Lord Hordak stood, arms folded behind his back, in the doorway of the lab. In the dark green lights, only his red eyes showed any definition to his silhouette. "No one on this planet can."
The warrior balled up his fist and crushed a metal table with a single punch.
"Yes," Hordak hissed, "Infuriating, isn't it? Force Captain, leave now."
"Wait," Catra said, "my lord, I can control him!" She looked at the warrior. "Hey, quit throwing a tantrum and get in line, meathead, your life depends on it." He growled at her and cracked a concrete pillar with a furious kick.
"Catra," Hordak's voice grew tenser, "I have given you an order. Leave my lab." Catra grit her teeth, seeing her opportunity slipping through her grasp like crushed flower petals.
"Just…just wait a second!" Catra said, "I mean… my lord, please, wait. He can be useful. Valuable. The Horde could benefit-"
"The Horde is about to benefit from this creature's death," Hordak said, the warrior turned and snarled, bear-like, at him, "it would be most unfortunate if you died with him. Get out. There will be no other warnings."
"Hey," Catra turned to the warrior, talking under her breath, "last chance. Last chance to make the right decision. The kid dies if you die, huh? Kill this guy and you're three-hundred kinds of dead."
The warrior glared at her petulantly.
"I'll look after the kid," she found herself saying, "and you'll repay me by fighting when I want you to fight. Deal?" The hilt groaned in the warrior's tightening grip. "Oh, boo-hoo, you're not happy with that? Welcome to the Fright Zone. No-one gets what they want and nobody loses sleep over it. You came here. You got him into this. Get him out of it!"
"You!" Foam geysers shot from between his clenched teeth.
"Me," Catra said, "I'm his only chance. Swallow your stupid pride and make the smart choice here." The warrior slumped his shoulders, he looked on the verge of tears, and he began to lower his weapon. "Smart choice."
That was a mistake. A blast furnace of suicidal ego lit a blue fire behind his pupils, he twirled the sword in his grip and spun. The sword spun from his grip in a rotation of deadly blue steel.
"You idiot!" She snarled, reaching out as if to stop the attack. Lord Hordak didn't move and Catra watched in awe as the sword spiraled through the air and it passed through Hordak to rebound off the metal doors with a sad, anti-climatic twang. Hordak shimmered and vanished.
The warrior and Catra looked at it, dumbfounded. A speaker came to life in a burst of static.
"Up close, the image would've been an obvious lie," Hordak said, calm and dangerous, "we work within the limits we have, of course. Force Captain Catra, thank you for your service, but I did try to warn you. Take solace in watching our enemy die along with you."
xxx
There was a dangerous electric snap from overhead and Catra realized she was standing in a triangle of three tall pillars topped with metal spheres. A red haze descended on the room as Catra and the warrior watched in awe.
Then Catra realized she couldn't catch her breath, as if it was being drained out of her. She took a gulp of the vanishing oxygen, instincts pushing her to survive past her confusion.
Stop! Stop! What are you doing? She screamed it in her head because she couldn't speak the words without letting more air out. The warrior grasped at his throat and fell like a crumbling mountain. She glared at him around her watering eyes. This is your fault! This is all your fault! Oh, just wait! I'll kill you! You big dumb meatheaded idiot! I was trying to help you! I wanted…I…
"Help.."she heard the warrior croak, "Him! Help...him. Deal!"
She felt herself beginning to fade and crumpled to the floor. She was dying. This was it. All the pain and misery. Shadow Weaver's cruelty. The Horde's cruelty. The years of training, of suffering. It was all ending with a scheme gone wrong. She'd made one little mistake, and it cost her everything.
I…want…I…want…
How many times had she escaped death that very night to end here, drifting away silently on the floor of Hordak's lab. Alone. Always alone. She reached out for someone who wasn't there.
I want Adora! I want to kiss her and punch her and tell her to leave and beg her to stay and I want her! I don't know what I want from her but I WANT HER! I WANT ADORA BACK!
But Adora was gone and never coming back.
There was a flash of light in front of her. The warrior was gone and a tiny body glanced around and wriggled in panic. A hood fell back and a face looked up at her with eyes that were a painfully familiar shade of blue.
The boy reached out to her with a trembling hand. She was becoming delirious now, she reasoned, and it was all too funny. Asking for Adora and getting this little boy who looked so much like her. Maybe it was a fitting end to a life of being second-best.
Tiny little thing. Small. Like she'd been.
When she promised. Before things were complicated. Before she could ever hurt her.
Catra felt something burst in her chest.
He didn't deserve this. He wasn't the warrior. He wasn't the one who'd led them here.
Sure, she thought, why not, right?
Lifting her hand now was nearly impossible. Her insides were on fire and the fire was growing so hot it was searing away everything else. Her hand found his and squeezed it tight. The look of wonder in the boy's fading eyes was so like Adora's that Catra couldn't help it.
Catra wasted the breath of air still in her mouth on a wry laugh. It was all a joke anyway. But she resolved to have the punchline.
The darkness pushed in on her until all that the world was gone and the only thing left in it was the hand she clutched tightly in hers.
"Hey… Adora…" she said with a weak smile and the last of her strength, voice shrinking and vision gone. The rest she thought in her head before everything went dark.
I thought I hid too well for you. But you found me. Good job.
Didn't…
…you…
…want…
…to tell me…
…something?
xxx
Hordak pressed his shoulder to the panic-room door, burning with indignation. The door resisted, caught on some debris thrown about the lab. He shoved, nearly toppling as he did so. His body was broken and on the brink of full collapse.
The Imp squeezed past him and took wing into the shadows.
The door groaned outwards and a machine crashed to the floor, letting him stumble into his ruined sanctum. The portal remained where it was, undamaged, a final mockery.
His organs briefly stopped working and his body seized against a concrete pillar.
"Not now," he hissed, "at least let me see that he's dead. If I have to perish here at least let me see!" He heard Force Captain Catra whispering something around the corner. She lived. But the other one…
"For Horde Prime's sake, just let him be dead," he hissed, seeing the light play off the sword where it lay at the door of his lab. He groped towards it, wrenching it from the floor with more strength than was responsible. Using it like a crutch, he cursed himself for weakness with every centimeter he needed it as he limped to the lifeless bodies in the middle of the floor. Catra, and next to her, a child.
What is this? Hordak's mind reeled. A child. A child was the death of Lord Hordak? No. That could not be.
Force Captain Catra lurched up, eyes watering from near suffocation, and took a few deep breaths of precious air. She coughed loudly and tried to rise up. Twice she made it to all fours before dropping back down to her stomach.
"Oh, I'm… still… oh thank you," she sobbed breathlessly to herself, "Thank you, thank you!" She noticed him after a minute and her heterochromatic eyes filled with a fire that, in any other instance, would've earned her a swift execution. "You...you could've killed me!"
"You made your choice to disobey me," Hordak said, willing himself to look stronger than he was. "Perhaps for the last time, Force Captain. Now, the child...check his pulse."
Catra leaned forward, blocking his view of the frail creature, and he heard her whisper distantly. The words were too quiet to make out, but it didn't matter. The boy was dead.
He heard her gasp in shock. Hordak felt the emotions in him emptying outwards. Almost like it had been when he could cleanse himself in the love and light of Horde Prime. The lights flickered and burst overhead, falling victim to the same power outage that killed his atmospheric manipulation machine.
"He lives," he mumbled in disbelief. He dragged himself closer. "Move!"
"It's faint but-"
"Silence," he growled. Hordak loomed over the unconscious body, smaller than him in comparison by a galaxy. His right-hand gripped the great sword's hilt with twitching, vengeful fingers that quivered to the thought of killing the waif.
It would take a single, sloppy chop to have his revenge and end any threat to his empire the boy might pose. It would be the most natural thing in the world to do, flavored with the irony of the victim's death by his very own sword.
But that sword was also the sole thing holding the Leader of the Horde on his feet. There was no certainty he could even lift the thing overhead without tumbling to the floor and perishing from the sheer exertion of the last few hours. He was simply too weak to exact his toll.
"Get rid of him," Hordak growled as fury overwhelmed him. Catra looked between them both rapidly.
"Like, k-kill him?" Hordak felt rage seeping into him, the greatest of his emotional failures returning to him first. He did not deserve freedom yet, Horde Prime did not let rage cloud his judgements. Horde Prime would've killed the boy at once, with no fear of dying. He was not worthy of rejoining Horde Prime. He found his shaking, snarling voice at last.
"Kill him, do not kill him. I do not care. But if you fail to take that thing out of my lab this instant, both of you will die! Now! Get! Out!" The young woman scooped him up in weak arms, a look of bewilderment stuck on her face.
Catra limped forward, adjusting her grip on the boy's body. He could do nothing. Nothing. If he tried he would collapse and wither away, thus ending the tale of Hordak. The Failure.
Failure. He glanced at the portal machine.
Failure. His eyes slid to the dead pillars of the Atmosphere Manipulation Device.
"Failure," he whispered, watching the boy's hands curl slowly into the fabric of Catra's uniform before he and the Force Captain vanished into his throne room. He gestured and the great doors sealed shut. He collapsed to the ground, nearly slicing himself in half with the boy's weapon.
The Imp settled near him, lantern-eyes watching with concern. Hordak realized with an icy chill how weak he'd looked to Force Captain Catra. That one needed watching, no doubt. And leverage. She was a potent soldier to fight the warrior and live. And she seemed to have a lucky streak in survival. A useful danger if he could find some way of controlling her whims.
"What…did she say to the boy…just now? Did you hear?"
The spy opened his mouth.
"What a waste," Catra's voice whispered out. Lord Hordak pondered this as he lay in the dark of his lab, surrounded by destruction.
Author and Editor's Note: A very Happy and safe Pride to everyone out there. And continuing well-wishes to the brave demonstrators standing-up for racial justice. And to anyone, in general, feeling lost and afraid right now, thanks for spending any of your free time reading our little work, and please know that you aren't alone right now.