"Psst, Catra," Scorpia whispered. The two of them, along with Entrapta, were shackled together in a wagon, seperated from everyone else. The villagers hadn't put up much of a fight when the Rebels told them what was happening, but Lonnie had only just stopped shouting and spitting insults at the guards surrounding the wagon in which she, Rogelio, and Kyle were trapped. Catra had spent the entire time blotting everything out, taking deep breaths to calm the roaring urge to reduce everything around her to smoldering ash.
"What is it?" She murmured as the convoy came to a stop for the night.
"What are we gonna do?" Scorpia whispered. "Those princesses seemed, like, really mad. You don't think they'll hurt Lonnie and the others, do you?"
Catra shook her head. "Them? No. I can't say anything for the guards wherever they end up, but Lonnie and the others are tough. They'll be fine."
"What about us?" Entrapta asked. "Statistically, our odds of survival deminish the closer we get to Brightmoon."
"Could you use those cool new fire powers of yours?" Scorpia added. "Just - fwhoosh! - we're outta here."
"No," Catra replied, knowing full well they were being listened in on. She could hear the shuffling of boots and smell the stench of old sweat outside their wagon. "I've been having trouble controlling it since that battle." It wasn't untrue. Most of her time spent away from the village since returning from her strange trip to Mount Calinda was spent honing her control over these explosive powers. "I doubt I could make so much as a spark." Without burning down the entire camp, that is.
"So, what do we do?" Entrapta queried.
"They're going to want you for your smarts, Trap," Catra grunted. "As for me and Snaps, I'll have to figure something out. The entrance to where I found that rock is hidden, so if we can find some way out, we may be able to hide there." A muffled scrape told her that whoever was listening had straightened up at attention. "It might take a while, though. From what I saw that day at the front, neither side have very competent commanders."
The three of them were silent for a moment before Scorpia straightened with a grin on her face. "Oh! I know! What if you offer to win the war for them?"
"What are you talking about, Scorpia?" Catra asked, contingencies flying through her mind as she took into account their eavesdropper.
"Well, think about it. Entrapta's got her smarts, so she won't be thrown in jail. But, you're, like, the best commander the Horde has ever seen! You didn't even have a single casualty in your last eight assignments!"
"The Rebels aren't just going to trust me with their war efforts, Scorpia," Catra admonished. "Besides, I'm not leaving you."
"But you could be with Adora," Scorpia argued, and Catra physically flinched. "I know you don't like talking about her, but I saw the way you were looking at her."
"Adora doesn't want me," Catra muttered, allowing some of her pain to seep through, even as she provided whoever it was spying on her with more ammunition. "Look, we just need to wait and see. The queen obviously wants us for something, otherwise we'd be sent off with the other three. Until we know that, there's no point in wasting our energy."
The wagon carrying Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio left the next day, but, for the most part, the following three days consisted of Catra doing very little except sitting still and working to control the fire burning within her. She didn't bother telling Scorpia or Entrapta about the eavesdroppers that were always nearby. Neither one of them could act to quite literally save their lives, so she simply guided the conversations, dropping bits and pieces of information that she was sure would make their way directly to the queen's ears. She had overheard some of the Rebel soldiers talking about a trial, and struggled not to roll her eyes.
She may not like what she had done in the past - she kept an exact tally of all eighty-seven people she had personally killed - but a trial would be nothing more than theater. Was she guilty of ending and ruining lives? Absolutely. But so was every other soldier. She just so happened to be very good at destroying things. She was just glad that the guards around her wagon had prevented Adora from speaking to her, as whatever was going to happen would rely heavily on her keeping her cool.
Eventually, the wagon came to a stop, and she, Scorpia, and Entrapta were dragged out to the foot of the most obnoxiously sparkly castle Catra had ever seen. They were forced to walk inside by the guards at their backs, and marched through even more sparkly hallways until they came to a stop outside a large set of doors. A voice called for them to enter, and they were shoved through the door where a tall, willowy woman with hair like Sparkles and actual wings stood alongside Adora, her new best buddies, and the two women who had gotten the drop on Catra back at the village.
"Force Captain Catra," the winged woman - presumably the queen - began, staring her down with an imperious glare. Catra was unimpressed.
"Former Force Captain," Catra snarked. "Left that place months ago."
"And why would you do that?" The queen asked.
Catra shrugged, a smirk on her face. "Well it all started when I found this magic sword -"
"Catra!" Adora exclaimed. "This is no time for games."
Catra shrugged. "Fine by me. So, Your Majesty, do you wanna do the execution now, or later? I'm not going anywhere."
"Execution?!" Adora yelped. "Nobody said anything about an execution!"
"That's enough, Adora," Queenie ordered, and Catra felt a sudden swell of anger at the way Adora quailed at her expression. "You would do well to watch yourself, former Force Captain. You are not in any position to be trying my patience."
"Why, because you abducted me and my friends?" Catra growled.
"You and your accomplices are here to answer for the crimes you have committed against the Rebellion, and the Princess Alliance," Queenie replied.
"And what about the others?" Catra countered. "Do they not get a trial?"
"Once the Horde has been defeated, all prisoners will be given a fair -"
"So, you just plan on keeping them locked up forever, then?" Catra cut her off. "Because from where I'm standing, that's not going to be happening anytime soon."
"With She-ra on our side, it is only a matter of time -"
"I don't care," Catra sighed. "Look, we're obviously here for a reason. Entrapta will agree to help the Rebellion develop technology, Scorpia will be your political hostage and provide you with everything we know about the Horde, the Fright Zone, and the Black Garnet, and I'll go back to being Adora's vicious little pet so long as the other two are kept safe. Now, can we go?"
The queen and the two princesses that had captured her looked gobsmacked as she laid out exactly what they had been planning to propose. It wasn't hard to work out what the offer would be. She knew Adora would argue for some sort of leniency for her, and with the bits and pieces she had fed her eavesdroppers during the wagon ride over here, it wasn't too far of a leap to assume they would capitalize on her feelings towards Adora and her loyalty to Scorpia and Entrapta to turn her from potential enemy to ally.
"Very well," Queenie said after a minute. "You will fight for the rebellion, answering directly to She-ra and myself. Tread carefully, Force Captain. Set one toe out of line, and that execution you mentioned may wind up back on the table."
"Sure thing, Queenie," Catra replied as a guard reluctantly undid her shackles before moving on to Scorpia and Entrapta.
She wasn't happy with people playing with her life once more, but she had learned from the best (or worst, depending on the perspective) and these Rebels had nothing on the creature that had molded her. Adora dragged her out of the room and through several brightly lit hallways before ending up at a door that was similar to the rest. She threw it open and yanked Catra inside before whirling on her. In the moment Catra had, she quickly identified the windows and doors around the room, along with the small bed and... waterfall? She quickly shoved any questions aside as the familiar smell of magic, and two scents that seemed to accompany Adora everywhere she went nowadays suddenly appeared outside the not-quite-closed door.
"Are you out of your mind?!" Adora snapped.
"I mean, I'm willingly talking to you, aren't I?" Catra snarked.
"This isn't a game, Catra!" Adora shouted. "I dunno how you figured out what Queen Angella was going to propose, but now she's going to think you're up to something!"
"Weren't you the one who was wondering why I didn't come here when I left the Horde?" Catra asked.
"That was before I remembered how insuferable you are!" Adora growled. "I've only just gotten the queen to trust me, and I'm She-ra! How am I supposed to protect you if you keep doing things like this?"
Catra wanted to scream. She wanted to tear Adora apart and demand to know where she got the nerve to act like that, but a quiet snap-hiss from the waterfall she was pretending to examine, and a thin, almost invisble tendril of steam rising before her eyes reminded her why she couldn't. Visions of the wasteland around Mount Calinda returned to her mind's eye and she quickly took a deep breath, focusing on calming herself down. She wasn't about to break through Adora's stupid hero complex right now, so there was no reason to lose her cool over it. Eventually, the fire in chest died down, and she felt good enough to speak.
"If I was actually up to something," she said, loud enough for Sparkles and Crop Top to hear her from the other side of the door. "Then I would have acted like the perfect little Horde-defector, begging for a second chance to right my wrongs and all that other crap. You all might still be pretending you're these great saviours of Etheria, but I don't care. All I want is to make sure my friends are safe. If that means going back to looking after your dumb ass while they stay here, then fine, but I won't play your stupid game."
Adora looked like she wanted to reply, but a knock on the door, followed by Sparkles and Crop Top sticking their heads in prevented her.
"Adora, Catra?" Sparkles called, the hostility clear in her voice as she addressed the latter. "We're headed back out, Mom's orders."
*(OoO)*
Adora watched as Catra ignored Bow and Glimmer and walked through the woods with more confidence than any of them. Navigating the Whispering Woods was difficult at the best of times, but Catra was casually strolling through it like they were on an afternoon hike.
"I can't believe we're doing this," Glimmer hissed, glaring at Catra's back. "Any second now, she's gonna turn around and attack, or lead us into a Horde ambush."
"She wouldn't do that," Bow remarked. "Not while Scorpia and Entrapta are still in Brightmoon."
"You really think she cares about anyone but herself?" Glimmer challenged. "Because that's not something I'm willing to risk my life on."
"Don't worry," Adora reassured her. "If anything happens, I can hold her off long enough for you two to get help." What she was more concerned about was why Queen Angella hadn't mentioned anything about the magic stone that had supposedly given Catra those strange powers. The consensus was that whatever it was had been temporary, as Catra hadn't left so much as burn mark in days, but even so, being able to temporarily grant magic powers to someone seemed like something they could use.
Instead of demanding that Catra take them to wherever she had found it, though, Angella had ordered the four of them to a Rebel outpost that was dealing with frequent raids. It was confusing, and, not for the first time, Adora found herself secretly wishing literally anyone else had stumbled across the magic sword in the woods.
"So, what's this outpost for?" Catra called back, shaking Adora from her thoughts.
"For?" Adora parroted. "It's an outpost. We have soldiers stationed there to protect the villagers there from the Horde."
Even from behind, she could tell that Catra was rolling her eyes. She, Glimmer, and Bow exchanged confused looks before shrugging.
"So, Catra," Bow attempted. "That's quite the... spear? Where'd you get it?"
The weapon in question was one solid piece of something that looked like a cross between bone and thick wood. It was the length of Catra's arm, with some sort of leather wrapped around most of it before the last foot or so widened to a carved blade. Catra smoothly removed it from the strap on her animal-hide cloak.
"Stagger-tooth antler," Catra replied, running her hand over the weapon with an almost fond expression. "Would've died if I didn't manage to break it off when I did."
"You took on a stagger-tooth?!" Bow exclaimed. "I read that they're supposed to be one of the most dangerous Beasts in the Whispering Woods."
"Caught it off guard," Catra explained, shrugging. "This place is pretty much designed to kill you."
"We've never had too much of a problem," Glimmer comment, a hint of boasting in her tone.
"I mean, we get lost every now and then," Adora agreed. "And I've heard reports about the occasional party being attacked, but I don't think the three of us have really seen anything like that since we met each other."
"Except for that one that Scorpia and those others were fighting back there," Bow corrected.
Catra looked like she was about to say something, but froze, her ears swiveling as she sniffed the air. Before Adora could even think to ask what she was doing, Catra spun around and hurled her spear right past the side of Adora's head, making her yelp and jump to the side.
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" She screamed, but Catra ignored her and leapt into the bushes behind her, where her spear had disappeared. Adora chased after her, ignoring Glimmer's smug expression, and rounded the nearest tree to see Catra leaning over a man, his rugged brown jacket staining red from her spear buried in his gut.
"See?" Glimmer shouted. "It didn't even take a day for her to start attacking innocent civilians!"
"Talk," Catra growled, twisting the spear. The man groaned but chuckled, blood dribbling down his chin.
"Someone wants your friend gone," he muttered. "Didn't expect the Wild Woman to be here, though."
Catra growled and leaned in close to whisper something in the man's ear. Whatever she said made the man's eyes widened before his smile grew and he released a gurgled laugh. Adora watched, stunned as he and Catra gripped each other's forearms and locked eyes until, with one last rattling sigh, he stilled. Catra took a deep breath, grabbed her spear and yanked it out of his body before reaching around and picking up a blaster.
"Assassin," she grunted, tossing the blaster to Bow. "Not a civilian."
"That doesn't look like the standard Horde blaster," Adora noted, stepping over to get a closer look at the weapon.
"It's not," Catra replied. "Someone hired him."
"He was going to kill us for money?" Adora asked.
"Yup."
"What was it you told him?" Bow asked.
"Last respects."
"Didn't know you knew what respect meant," Glimmer snarked.
Catra stiffened, but took a deep breath, not responding for several seconds. "Think what you want. He and I were just doing our jobs."
"Your jobs?" Bow repeated. "That's what you see this as? All those times you tried to kill us? Is that all that was to you?"
"It was only ever personal with her," Catra rumbled jerking a thumb at Adora as she walked by them.
"And now?" Adora asked, afraid of the answer.
Catra paused, not turning to face her, but her tail snaked around to wrap around Adora's wrist. "Doesn't matter which side I'm on. The job is the same." She unwound her tail and kept walking.
"You don't care at all that the Horde is evil?" Glimmer demanded. "They've ruined countless lives!"
"I'm not about to explain to you how war works, Sparkles. If believing everyone in the Horde is a monster like me helps you sleep at night, then go ahead."
Adora's chest tightened at the resignation in Catra's tone, and she wanted to reach out to her, but couldn't find the words. Ever since she and Catra had reunited, she had been fumbling with how to talk to her. She wanted to deny the assertion that Catra was a monster, but, despite having left the Horde, she still only joined the Rebellion because there was no other option. She was just as ruthless with the assassin as she had been when she fought with the Horde, but she didn't seem to take joy in it anymore.
Then again... Catra had mentioned that her actions as their enemy were only ever personal when it came to Adora. Since Adora had left the Horde, Catra had harbored this unyielding hatred for her. Adora couldn't help but wonder if, when they weren't fighting each other, Catra didn't actually relish in being evil like she claimed to.
Catra didn't speak for the rest of the day, walking several steps ahead of them, her ears on a constant swivel. Eventually, they decided to camp for the night underneath a large willow tree. The light from their campfire casting dancing shadows on the leaves and vines hanging overhead.
"We should reach the outpost by noon tomorrow," Bow informed them, examining the map on his tablet.
"Do we have any information about these raids the outpost is sufffering from?" Adora asked, finishing the last of her rations.
"According to the outpost captain," Bow said, pulling up the report Queen Angella had given them, "bandits have been robbing their food supplies. The soldiers have tried to get the villagers there to help, but they're reluctant, to say the least."
"Why wouldn't they want to help?" Glimmer asked. "Not only are we protecting them from the Horde, but it's their food being stolen."
"Maybe they're like the Plumerians," Adora suggested. "We just need to show them that they can take care of themselves too."
A soft scoff caught her attention, and Adora looked up to see Catra sitting amongst the branches of the willow tree above them. In her hands was the bloody remains of what Adora thought was a rabbit, and, had she not grown used to the occasional sight of Catra devouring the vermin she caught in the Fright Zone, she would have been just as disgusted as Bow and Glimmer seemed to be.
"Something you want to add, Catra?" Adora challenged.
Catra looked like she might have. Her expression was the same as the one she would use when she had to explain something to Adora that she thought was obvious - but rather than say anything, she simply kept her mouth shut and backed further into the shadows with her rabbit until only the glow of her mismatched eyes could be discerned.
The three of them talked for a while longer, trying to ignore the dark figure looming over them. Eventually, they went to bed, and couldn't help but keep staring at those glowing eyes as they swept back and forth, watching for unseen threats. Just before sleep claimed her, Adora had one last thought that sent a chill of sadness through her heart.
She had never wanted to be called an idiot more in her life.
A/N: Particularly when it comes to Adora, I think it's important that she come to realize on her own that the Rebellion winning won't suddenly solve everything. Despite what she, Bow, and Glimmer would like to think, people don't tend to band together en masse in the name of a common good so much as in the interest of defeating a common enemy. I want to show that, while the Horde is a tyrannical dictatorship that allows people like Shadow Weaver to thrive, its main goal is enforcing order - or the appearance of it - whereas the Rebellion, while ostensibly the good guys, suffer from a degree of lawlessness. Also, monarchies are dumb and only really work in fiction, but given the fact that I'm not exactly writing a historical document, I haven't entirely decided where I want the theme of the story to go when it comes to that. I do have some plans involving Catra, but her parents aren't royalty.
Also, because nobody's mentioned it yet, I was wondering if any of you have figured out what the titular Five Words are. They will be revealed eventually, but I thought it would be fun to see what you guys think.
Anyway, thanks for the reviews. They're basically my life-blood when it comes to keeping my motivation up.
TTFN