Catra was still sitting in the willow tree, eyes and ears scanning the surroundings for any sort of threat when she heard the first whimper. Despite it having been months since she had heard it, she still found herself silently dropping to the ground and crawling towards its source. Adora was tossing and turning in her sleeping bag, her brow pinched as a soft mewl of distress passed her lips. Glancing over to see Sparkles and Crop Top sleeping soundly, Catra sighed to herself and sat down at Adora's head, reaching underneath her shoulders and pulling her up to rest against Catra's chest. Leaning back against the trunk of the tree, Catra started purring, wrapping her tail around Adora's waist and carding her fingers through soft, golden hair.

"I miss this," she muttered. "There was a time I would have burned down the world to see you smile." She sighed. "Then you left, and it all flipped on its head. Suddenly I wanted to burn everything just so you and everyone else could feel a fraction of what I was. Now we're back together and I don't know what to do. I'm a monster, and I've made my peace with that. The world needs a few of us to kick the rest of you good guys into gear, but I'm... afraid. Something is going to happen, the flames are going to die down, and I'm terrified that I'll be the only one left."

Adora grumbled and pushed herself harder into Catra's chest and she smiled. She glanced over to where Adora's were sprawled out before leaning her head back and closing her eyes, her other senses still on alert for any hidden threats. "Maybe they do care about you, and maybe they are better than me. Maybe you have some sorta bullshit magical destiny. That bitch made you believe you have to give up everything to be worth something, but she never touched that annoyingly good heart of yours. Bright side of being a bad person, though, is that I don't care about any of that. You can hate me, you can fight me, I don't care anymore. I'm not gonna let anything - not this war, not your annoying new friends, and not some ancient, magical alien bullshit - take you where I can't get you back."

Catra was tired. She didn't care about the war anymore. The only reason she had tried so hard to beat the Rebels was because they had taken Adora from her. Hordak and Shadow Weaver didn't know that she had willingly let Adora escape back then, but, sometime during her punishment for her failure, she found herself realising that she would do it again, even knowing what awaited her afterward. Hating Adora was exhausting. She was still angry, and jealous, and hurt over her leaving, but, with blood pouring down the side of her head from her torn ear, and her body spasming from pain, Catra just didn't have the energy to hate anymore.

And it was as she was ripping bots to shreds in the training room that Catra thought about Scorpia, who had never left her side, and the rest of her squad. She didn't have it in her to loathe Adora anymore, but she wanted to prove both her and Shadow Weaver wrong, so she devoted everything she had to being the best Force Captain she could be, barely even losing any bots on her subsequent missions. She had tried looking out for others: keeping her men safe and mitigating as much of the risks as she could. After Rogelio had been injured, however, as she hung by the throat in Hordak's grip with his fist buried in her gut, her spiteful ambitions were knocked loose. Adora wanted to run away and play hero, fine. Catra still wasn't happy, but knowing that this was what awaited her beautiful idiot the first time she stood up for her squad had she stayed and risen through the ranks, she couldn't blame her for leaving. When Catra regained consciousness in Entrapta's lab, with Scorpia sitting over her, she had finally given up.

If the world was insistent on punishing her for thinking of others, than she was going to selfish. She was going to get herself out of the Fright Zone before it got her killed, even if it meant swallowing her pride and being a hypocrite. She'd be alone - the one thing she had dreaded since she was a kitten and she had first met Adora - but she would be alive, and Catra was, above all else, a survivor. That was why she had been so devoted to Scorpia and the others who joined her in deserting. She had been horrible to them all at one point or another, but they still chose to accompany her in leaving everything they knew. She kept her distance as they carved something of life out for themselves in that little clearing, not wanting the destruction she caused to affect them, but that didn't stop her from directing her considerable talent for killing towards the Beasts and bandits in the surrounding woods. If she happened to save some old lady, or a family of refugees, then fine, civilians were bound to have skills that could be useful to a group of ex-soldiers trying to make a life for themselves, so she sent them Lonnie's way.

She hadn't been... happy, necessarily, but she had made her peace with that during Shadow Weaver's punishment for not bringing Adora back after Thaymor. Happiness for her just wasn't a default. Life was still better than it had ever been in the Fright Zone: nobody was punishing her for breathing, she still to got to experience the thrill of battle whenever a Beast or group of bandits strayed too close to the clearing, and, in the moments where she listened to Scorpia and Entrapta chatter to one another, or sat on the roof of Old Lady Lena's hut as she taught the handful of children in the village basket weaving or some other boring arts and crafts, she would allow herself to feel something that was almost as good as what she felt now, sitting against a tree, fingers combing through her Adora's hair, purring openly and freely.

But that was in the past. She had woken up to some weird tug in her gut pulling her towards the burnt wasteland East of the Whispering Woods, the world telling her that her brief respite was over, and now she found herself back here: fighting a war she didn't care about for people that didn't matter alongside the only woman who did. These new powers of hers made her feel closer to Shadow Weaver than ever, and the thought of that alone nearly made her sick. Her self-control was strained more than ever, but when Adora shivered for a moment, and the fire that had been burning in her chest ever since she had touched that stupid rock flared throughout her body, warming them both against the early-morning chill, she figured she could live with it all so long as she got more moments like these. As long as she could continue being granted these stolen moments, where she could just hold Adora close and let all the pain and rage fade away as she pretended that she could protect them both from the world, then she would have no problem fighting for the war.

She had no real respect for the Rebels or their precious Princess Alliance, but if it kept Adora from throwing her life away for them, she would take their crappy army, and she would burn every trace of the Horde from Etheria. She had let go of her hate, so, even if she had to rack up so many kills that she lost count, as long as, at the end, when the list of victims was read back to her, Adora's name was not among them, she would accept it. She would be the monster she had been raised to be, she would conquer and destroy whatever she had to, survive until it was time for the heroes to turn on her, too.

*(OoO)*

Adora woke up well before dawn. She was curled up against the warmest, most comfortable pillow she had ever felt, and there were fingers stroking her hair, nails softlty scratching her scalp along the way. Throw in the soft rumbling under her cheek, and she couldn't find the willpower to open her eyes. Slowly, she became aware of where she was and what was happening, but that just made her more determined to feign unconsciousness. For so long, she had ecpected to never wake up like this ever again. Catra may have spent most nights at the foot of her bed in the Horde, but every once in a while, she would wake up with her best friend holding her, protecting her from whatever nightmares she had been having the night before. Hope flickered in her heart, even as Catra sighed, her hand stilling in Adora's hair.

"I know you're awake, dummy," she murmured. "You need to get up."

Adora groaned, and squeezed her eyes shut, before opening them to see pools of sapphire and gold looking down at her with enough intensity to take her breath away.

"Hi," she whispered, terrified of ruining the moment and losing this glimpse past the walls that had surrounded Catra for so long.

The eyes crinkled with a soft smile. "Hey, Adora. Are you going to get up, or do I have to throw you?"

Adora shot to her feet, knowing Catra would gladly follow through on her threat, and realised that the sky was only just starting to brighten. A quick glance revealed Glimmer to still be curled up in her sleeping bag while Bow was sprawled halfway out of it, drool slowly leaking down the corner of his mouth.

"Why are we up so early?"

"Training," Catra grunted, walking by her.

"Wait, what?" Adora croaked, following after Catra away from her sleeping friends.

Catra came to a stop and turned to face her, rolling her eyes. Adora didn't even have a second before a clawed foot was swinging towards her face. Yelping, she threw herself backwards, landing on her butt with a thud.

"Seriously?" Catra drawled. "Have you trained, like, at all since you ditched the Horde?"

"I train at the Crystal Castle all the time!" Adora retorted, her indignation taking a backseat to avoiding Catra's foot as it came flying towards her ribs. "But I don't even have the Sword on me! How do you expect me to fight back?!"

Catra growled, and Adora felt like she had failed some sort of test. "I couldn't care less about She-ra. If I'm forced to fight for you and your group of self-righteous do-gooders, then I'm going to beat Adora black and blue until you start giving me a real challenge."

Adora rolled to her feet and caught Catra's follow up right cross, a scowl now on her face. "What is wrong with you?" she snarled, throwing her own punch, only for Catra to duck and sweep Adora over her shoulders.

"You've gotten sloppy, cadet," Catra hissed, her claws just missing Adora's face as she rolled to the side and threw Catra away with her legs.

"Don't call me that!" Adora yelled. She jumped to her feet and the two started exchanging blows.

Catra wiped the floor with her. There was no other way to describe it. Already, she was the toughest opponent She-ra had ever fought, but without the Sword of Protection, Adora was left flailing helplessly. Catra was faster, had better reflexes, sharp claws, and where Adora used to keep up with strength and superior technique, now she didn't even have that. It ended when Catra's tail - which Adora had completely forgotten was much stronger than a regular cat's, to the point it might as well have been a fifth limb - wrapped around Adora's ankle and yanked her to the ground. Before Adora knew what was happening, Catra was crouched over her, a clawed hand around her throat. Adora's chest was heaving, but Catra looked infuriatingly unruffled. Her breathing was steady, but she was looking at Adora with her normally slitted pupils blown wide, her fangs showing behind her curled lip. Something about the way Catra looked at her prevented Adora from catching her breath. She felt heat all throughout her body, and her fingers were tingling while her gut felt like it was twisting.

"You can train all you want with that sword of yours during the day," she growled lowly, and Adora blushed at the fact that she actually whimpered. "But every morning, you are mine. I will find you, you will leave that sword behind and fight me. I don't care if you grow powerful enough to level the entire Horde with a single magical swipe, or whatever, we're going to train until not even Hordak himself could stand up to you. Understand?"

Adora found herself nodding without even realising it, the sound of her racing heart was thundering in her ears, and she felt hot and jittery. It only got worse when she finally parsed through what she had heard, and a swell of affection mixed with the swirling emotions in her gut. Catra, in her own violent way, was making sure Adora could protect herself even if she did lose the Sword of Protection at any point. Catra calmed down and smirked, a mishievous glint in her eyes that Adora had ached for before her ears twitched and she dove the side, grabbing an arrow out of midair.

"Get away from her!" Glimmer yelled, tossing magic willy-nilly.

"Glimmer, stop!" Adora shouted, scrambling to her feet.

"Are you kidding?" Glimmer snapped. "She was seconds away from tearing your throat out!"

"No, she wasn't!" Adora yelled, trying not to be impressed by the way Catra seemed to be able to predict Bow's trick arrows. "We were sparring!"

"Sparring?" Bow parroted, lowering his weapon.

"You know, practicing?" Adora clarified.

"Why would the two of you be training before the sun had even risen?" Glimmer demanded, her expression skeptical.

"Because she needs it," Catra explained, the walls back up again. She was now regarding the three of them with cool disinterest, and Adora almost wished they could go back to hating each other, just so she could see that spark in Catra's eyes.

"Oh, yeah," Glimmer scoffed. "Because she's so out of practice from all those times she beat you."

"Glimmer," Adora snapped. "That's enough. I'm used to waking up early, you know that, and Catra just wanted to test my skills in case I ever lost the Sword."

Glimmer looked unhappy, but nodded with a reluctant huff. Bow, on the other hand, grinned sheepishly and turned to Catra. "So, I guess you must be pretty good to take on Adora, right? Even without the Sword of Protection."

Adora cringed. Catra was constantly compared to her, always coming second, and she feared that - especially after quite easily beating Adora - she was about to snap. Instead, Catra merely leveled him with a steady look that made him flinch and take a step back.

"Sure."

Without another word, Catra left the two of them, and Adora breathed a sigh of relief. Bow, meanwhile, simply looked confused.

"Was it something I said?"

"Catra's..." Adora searched for the right word. "Complicated."

"I meant what I said, though," Bow replied. "None of my arrows even got close to her. It was like she knew which kind I was going to use before I did."

The two of them followed after Catra. Ten minutes later, they had packed up their little camp and were on their way to the Rebel outpost.

"Crop Top," Catra called, slowing down as she turned around to pin Bow with a stare. "You've got a map of the area, right?"

"Yeah?" Bow replied, pulling out his tablet. "Why?"

"You expect us to get lost that easily?" Glimmer challenged.

Catra rolled her eyes and snatched the device out of his hands. "Adora, what is the first thing you need for pre-mission recon?"

Adora's spine straightened by reflex, and she found herself reciting lessons she was sure she had forgotten. "Proper reconnaissance requires accurate intel on mission location, perameters, and potential obstacles."

Catra looked up, her expression softening momentarily, and Adora hated the little thrill she felt for answering correctly. It made her feel like she was a child once more, sitting through one of Shadow Weaver's little tests.

"Is this how things are normally done in the Horde?" Glimmer asked as Catra went back to ignoring them, studying the map on Bow's tablet.

"It's what we were taught as kids," Adora replied with a shrug.

"It sounds complicated," Bow added.

"Don't we do the same?"

"I guess?" Bow conceded. "You'd have to ask the Queen or General Juliet. They're in charge of the regular troops."

Adora frowned. Now that she thought about it, most of their missions involved a lot more thinking on their feet and improvising than she had been taught to expect. But maybe that was just the realities of war? Her teachers back at the Horde did mention something about most plans not lasting very long in battle. Maybe the Queen already knew that, and trusted them to be able to handle whatever they went up against.

The four of them arrived at the outpost just shy of noon, just as Bow had predicted. It was built around a small village, with walls of thick trunks around the outside and towers of scaffolding at each corner. Inside, the houses and other buildings were made of sturdy stone and brick. As they walked toward the largest building, in the middle of town, Adora watched the villagers going about their day. It made her happy to see people living their lives, but there was a distinct tension in the air. People hurried from place to place, avoiding looking any of the soldiers stationed around the village in the eye as they spoke in hushed voices.

A greeting shouted from the large central building nearly distracted Adora enough to not notice the brush of fur against her wrist, but when she turned, Catra had already somehow disappeared. She narrowed her eyes and tried to scan the crowd of villagers watching them, but they all hurried along as soon as they noticed her looking. Swallowing a groan and reassuring herself that Catra would be back eventually, Adora turned to see Glimmer speaking with a large, portly man with beady eyes and a bushy red ears. The man easily towered over them all, and once more Adora felt like she was being judged as he looked down at the three of them.

"When I sent the report to Brightmoon, I didn't think the Queen would send you, Princess," the man rumbled.

"The Rebellion cares about all its people, Captain Leon," Glimmer replied. "Now why don't you tell us what's going on here?"

The Captain stared at them all for a long moment before nodding and waving them to follow. He led them to large hut behind the central building where two guards were standing, practically asleep on their feet. The door to the hut was missing, and Adora could see the mess of broken boxes and food strewn about before they even got passed the threshold.

"At first we thought it was just an animal, or something," Captain Leon explained as they all stepped inside. "We changed the locks, and it seemed like it was problem solved, but when it came time to do the monthly inventory, we found that not only had food been stolen, but someone had broken into the treasury underneath and made off with more than half the taxes we collected." He led them to a trapdoor near the back of the room and down a flight of rickety stairs where several bulging bags of coins lay piled up against the wall. Adora didn't really have any need for money before or after her defection, so she didn't really have a metric for how much the shiny disks were worth, but it looked like a lot.

"How did they get in?" Bow asked.

"No clue," the Captain shook his head. "Normally, we only have to worry about raids when we're transporting supplies to and from the city, but somehow these guys managed to get in and out without anyone noticing. We've instituted a curfew to try and catch them, but haven't had any luck so far." He sighed, his hands on his waist. "If we can't get that money back, we won't be able to afford supplies to hold off the Horde."

"Don't worry, Captain," Glimmer reassured him, a bright smile on her face. "We'll find your money and make sure these criminals pay!"

Captain Leon thanked them before leaving them to return to his duties and the three of them made their way to what looked like the only tavern in the village to see about some rooms and go over their next steps. The tavern - whimsically named The Dancing Dove - was the only place in the village that seemed to have any sort of life to it. Adora could already hear music playing from outside the door, and the sound of shouting and laughter washed over them as Bow opened the door and led them to a counter where a slim man stood, an apron thrown over the typical brown shirt and pants that most civillians seemed to wear, and a gold earing glinting in the soft light as he cleaned a mug while speaking to a familiar hooded figure.

"Catra!" Adora yelled as the three of them joined her at the counter where she was nursing a tall mug of beer. "You did not run off just so you could get drunk!"

Catra sighed and dropped her head before looking up at the bartender. "See what I have to deal with, Max?"

The bartender, Max, laughed, his voice soft and tinkling. "If anyone can handle 'em, I'm willing to bet it's you, sugar. Now, why don't you take your friends to that booth over there and I'll bring you all some grub while Simon prepares your rooms."

Catra groaned and hopped off stool, dragging Adora behind her as she led them to a booth near the back of the room.

"What are you doing here?" Glimmer demanded. "We're on a mission, remember? You can't just run off!"

"Cool it, Sparkles," Catra growled. "I was getting us a pair of rooms for the night."

"Usually, we let Glimmer handle the sleeping arrangements," Bow said. "Most places are pretty happy to house the Princess of Brightmoon, especially if She-ra's there with too."

Catra's eye twitched, and Adora could have sworn the room got hotter before she took a deep breath to calm herself. "Odds are, the guy who took a shot at us yesterday is with whoever's stealing from the Rebels."

"Speaking of," Bow interrupted. "Why was it that guy seemed to recognise you?"

Catra gave Bow a deadpan stare before pointing to her mismatched eyes while her ears twitched beneath her hood. "In case you haven't noticed, Crop Top, I'm kind of hard to forget."

"He called you the Wild Woman," Adora added. "Did you run into him after you left the Horde?"

Catra shrugged. "Keeping people away from Lonnie's little town involved running into bandits now and then. Word probably got around." She took a big gulp of her beer, and hunched over in her seat. "Once word gets out that Adora and I are here, the thieves will probably back off until we leave or they're sure they can capture or kill Sparkles."

"Why me?" Glimmer squeaked, her eyes wide. Catra was unimpressed.

"You don't know how this war works, do you?" She asked, continuing before any of them could open their mouths. "There's a standing bounty for any of the Princesses, dead or alive. Adora's the only one without one, and that's because I argued against it."

"Aww," Adora cooed. "You do care!"

"Shut up," Catra grunted. "I wanted to be the one to kill you, no one else. Besides, assassins are superstitious, they won't attack She-ra because she's some kind of goddess or whatever."

"If that's the case, why haven't we heard about more attempts on the princesses lives?" Bow asked.

"Maybe because not a lot of people are willing to go toe-to-toe with magical princesses that could kill them without blinking?" Catra replied.

"You did," Adora pointed out.

Catra grunted, but said no more on the subject. Max the bartender approached their table with four steaming bowls of stew placed them down.

"Rooms are ready whenever you want 'em, Sugar. We don' got much to work with, but hopefully you'll like it."

"Thanks, Max," Catra mumbled, already digging in. Max smiled at her, before fixing Adora, Bow, and Glimmer in particular with a hard look before drifting back over to the bar.

"How is Catra the likeable one?" Glimmer hissed.

"This place is weird," Bow mumbled.

A/N: I thought it would be interesting to have it where once Catra started committing herself for a reason other than surpassing Adora, she did. Many of her negative feelings towards Adora haven't gone away, but Catra is at a point where she's not going to keep fueling them in order to deny the more positive ones. Now, she's trying to adapt to the situation the best she can without giving up more of her independence than she has to.

Also, in case you haven't noticed, Top/Dom!Catra is definitely a thing in this fic ;)

Anyway, this is the last of the pre-written chapters, so updates are going to slow down, probably. I saw someone guessed that the Five Words were "I will never love you", and while that's deliciously angsty and melodramatic, it is unfortunately incorrect.

Hope you all are doing well, and don't forget to review and tell me what you think! :)

TTFN