Stave One: A Shadow of Her Future Self
War had engulfed the world of Etheria for almost two decades, locked inside its own dimension of Despondos, separated from the rest of the universe. On one side was the Alliance of Etherian Princesses, a military defense pact between the kingdom of Brightmoon and the various other kingdoms of Etheria, each ruled by a magical princess. The other was Hordak's Evil Horde, an expansionist military dictatorship intent on conquering all the other kingdoms. For the past decade, fractious infighting between the Princess Kingdoms had allowed the Horde to steadily take control of its surrounding territories, overwhelming the Princess Alliance with their advanced technology and superior military engineering. All of this changed when a hero of myth and legend, She-Ra, the Princess of Power, returned from the veil of history to unite the princesses once again and bring balance back to the Heart of Etheria.
It was a particularly cold winter in Etheria that year, in no small part due to events regarding the Black Garnet, the magical runestone that resided in the Fright Zone, the capital city of the Horde. A Princess from the Kingdom of Dryl was allowed to experiment on this magical rock and discovered its connection to the planet itself, in particular its ability to control the planet's weather. This made possible the infamous Seige of Brightmoon, where Horde forces directly attacked the main castle fortress of the Princess Alliance in an attempt to destroy its runestone, threatening the source of their magical powers. They were only stopped by all of the Princesses in Etheria coming to Brightmoon's aid. The entire Whispering Woods that divided the Fright Zone from the Kingdom of Brightmoon had completely frozen over, but the incredibly harsh weather made it too hazardous to cross for both man and machine on either side. It had finally gotten so bad that both sides of the war, the Horde and the newly restored Princess Alliance, could do nothing else, but stay inside their borders for safety until the weather improved and make their own preparations for a return to hostilities.
Deep inside the Fright Zone, safe inside the harsh metal walls of the fortress city, a young feline Force Captain with brown fur and two hetero chromatic eyes, one blue, the other gold, prepared to debrief her subordinates, taking a moment to relish her brand new position as Hordak's new Second in Command. In front of her stood a stern looking young woman her hair done up in black dreadlocks, a lanky, nervous blonde boy with a worried expression and a large bipedal reptile in a Horde uniform that towered over his squadmates, his scaly green face betraying no emotion at all. The catgirl cleared her throat as she flipped through her notes on the clipboard she held in her claws.
"I'm actually impressed with how well you did in there," she scoffed, a sly smile drawing across her face, "It looks like Kyle finally managed to complete an entire simulation without dying for once."
"Thanks, Catra," the young blonde boy said with a smile, "I've been really trying to-"
"Don't talk, Kyle," Catra interrupted, giving the young cadet an annoyed look before returning to her clipboard, "As much as you've all improved, it's still not good enough. The Princesses will be coming after us any moment now and we'll have to be ready. So far we've only had to deal with She-Ra and one or two of her friends at once. Now we have to worry about all of them teaming up together. We're going to continue these training sessions all winter until we get it perfect. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Force Captain," the squad answered in unison, the lizard creature snarling something approximating the affirmative.
"Well, obviously not *all* winter, right?" Kyle spoke up, "I mean, we're still getting together for Christmas tomorrow, right?"
"Ex... cuse me?" Catra mouthed firmly as she slowly raised her eyes from her clipboard to meet Kyle's.
"Shuuut up, Kyyyle..." the woman in dreadlocks gritted through her teeth.
"I-it's just t-that..." Kyle stuttered, "It's what we do every year, right? I know it won't be the same without Adora this year, but-"
At the mention of their former teammate's name, both the other woman and the lizard creature slapped their left hand over their faces in embarrassment and took a step away from the doomed cadet as Catra dropped her clipboard and walked up to Kyle's face.
"Don't..." Catra hissed, grabbing Kyle by the collar, "Ever... Say that name to me again! I'm trying to win a war here and you all just want to waste time with some cutesy holiday nonsense!"
"Now, come on, Catra..." the woman with dreadlocks interjected, "We've been training everyday, nonstop since the Battle of Brightmoon! We all could use a break!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, Lonnie, is all this getting too hard for you?" Catra said mockingly, letting go of Kyle to face her new adversary, "Tell you what: You can do whatever you want *after* we take Brightmoon, when we don't have any magical princesses to worry about."
"But why not tomorrow?" Kyle argued, "It's not like we can do anything about the Princesses until the snow clears."
"Oh, really?!" Catra shouted, "Cause it sounds to me like you just don't wanna fight anymore!"
"I mean... kinda?" Kyle admitted.
"Great!" yelled Catra, throwing her hands in the air, "Thank you, Kyle!"
"You're welcome!" Kyle said proudly before nervously scratching the back of his head, "Erm... what for?"
"I had been having trouble finding someone willing to scrape the ice off the radio antennas outside," Catra explained, picking up her clipboard with a smug smile flashing across her face, "So thank you so much for volunteering!"
"You can't be serious, Catra!" Lonnie gasped, "Have you seen how bad it is out there? Just trying to get up to the antennae would be suicide!"
"It's not like we're running low on troops..." Catra snarked, looking over the other two soldiers, "Unless either of you wanted to take his place?"
Kyle's eyes frantically darted between Catra and Lonnie in uncomfortable silence.
"That's what I thought..." Catra growled, "In that case, I want Kyle up on that antennae with an entrenching tool by eighteen hundred hours! Got it?!"
"Yes, Force Captain!" Kyle answered wincing as he spoke.
"Then get out of my sight," Catra ordered, "You're all dismissed!"
The lizard creature put a caring claw on Kyle's shoulder as it led him out of the briefing room. Lonnie folded her arms and glared at Catra.
"Jeez, Catra," Lonnie pleaded, "Can't you give us just one day to relax in all this. It's supposed to be Christmas."
"Christmas is just a stupid made up excuse to waste my time!" Catra shot back, flipping through her clipboard as she turned to leave, "A stupid little humbug for stupid little kids!"
~*~
The Fright Zone was once the Scorpion Kingdom of Horror Hall, before it was surrendered to Hordak by its last king. Hordak took control of his Kingdom and its runestone, the Black Garnet, along with the King's granddaughter, who was raised by the Horde to become another of their military officers. In the main transit corridor between the training center and the barracks, a large muscular woman with short white hair, large red scorpion claws and a tail was getting down from a stool when the door from the briefing room hissed open and Catra walked out.
"Oh, hey, Catra!" the scorpion woman called out, waving her large claw as she ran up to her, "How did training go? I hear Kyle's been doing really well lately!"
"It's none of your concern, Scorpia," Catra sighed, not bothering to look up from her clipboard, "Why are you here?"
"Oh, I was just... doing... stuff..." Scorpia stumbled, kicking away the stool behind her in an attempt to hide it, "So, hey. Kyle was telling me about this thing you guys do for Christmas. I know I'm sorta new to this whole gang you have and all, but I was wondering if it was alright if I stopped over and we could, like, hang out and stuff?"
"I'm not going to that this year," Catra said flatly, stopping next to her.
"Oh, really?" Scorpia said, scratching the back of her head and scraping her tabi boot against the floor, "Well, in that case, did you want to hang out anyway? Like just the two of us? Maybe?"
"I'm going to be busy, Scorpia," Catra told her, "Unlike you, some of us still have a lot of work to do around here."
"But on Christmas?" Scorpia added, "I mean, it's not like the Princesses are gonna try anything with the weather being as it is."
"Doesn't mean we still don't have to be ready for when they finally do attack," Catra sighed brushing past her.
"I mean, sure, totally!" Scorpia said in agreement, "However, you wanna spend the holidays is fine by me. I just thought-"
"You? Thinking?" Catra interrupted, "Well, that's a first."
Scorpia stopped talking and averted her gaze as Catra continued silently flipping through her clipboard. Scorpia then looked up at the ceiling and pointed at it with her claw.
"Oh hey! Would you look at that?" Scorpia exclaimed, pointing at a small plant hanging from the ceiling, "Mistletoe! How do you suppose that got up there?"
Catra followed Scorpia's gaze up to the ceiling and sighed dejectedly.
"You know what that means, right?" Scorpia said, flashing her eyebrows up and down in a suggestive manner, "You, me and that thing?"
"Uggh, yes, Scorpia," Catra groaned, "I know what that means."
Scorpia closed her eyes and puckered her jet black lips as she leaned forward towards Catra. She felts Catra's claws grip her by the shoulders and she leaned closer and closer... only to yelp in surprise as Catra pulled herself up onto Scorpia's head and stood on her shoulders to reach the small decoration on the ceiling.
"Waagh!" exclaimed Scorpia in surprise as she tried to keep her balance.
"Hold still," ordered Catra as she batted at the small plant and tore it from it's perch, "I got it."
Catra held the mistletoe in her claws and leapt off of Scorpia, landing gracefully behind her. Scorpia turned herself around just in time to see Catra throw the plant on the ground to stomp on it with her foot.
"Ow!" yelped Catra as the sharp leaves of the mistletoe cut into her bare paw, drawing a small trickle of blood.
"What did you do that for?" Scorpia asked, "It was just a Christmas decoration."
"Bah... ow... humbug!" Catra grumbled as she continued her way down to hall, limping as she walked.
~*~
The Princess of Dryl was an engineering genius who had only recently joined the Princess Alliance to satisfy her scientific curiousity. When she was accidentally left behind during an attack on the Fright Zone by a number of Etherian Princesses, Catra was the one who found her. It did not take much convincing on her part to turn her mind into working for the Horde. It was her genius that allowed the Horde to besiege Brightmoon earlier that year and since she has been allowed free reign to experiment and improve upon their technology. The doors to her holding cell hissed open as Catra stepped inside, white bandages covering her right foot. She wandered nervously around the dark before stubbing her injured foot against a metal piece of junk laying on the floor.
"Yeowch!" Catra hissed, grabbing onto her foot with both hands.
"Oh, hello?" a nasally voice called out from the darkness, "Is someone there? One second..."
A tendril of purple hair reached out from the darkness towards the wall behind Catra and flicked a small switch next to the door and a small light turned on above them. Sitting at a workbench on the far sid of the room was a petite woman with rediculously long purple pigtails wearing a white shirt under purple overalls and a welding mask with blood red eyes. The woman turned around and another tendril of purple hair opened her facemask.
"Hi, Catra!" the woman greeted with the loud nasally voice, "What can I do for you?"
"Entrapta..." Catra groaned, gesturing towards all the metal parts and equipment that littered the room, "What is all this junk?"
"Oh, just bits I've taken from here and there to work on," the engineering princess explained, "Speaking of which..."
Entrapta's hair reached into a pile of mechanical refuse on the floor and pulled out three small boxes wrapped in colorful paper and tied with a bow.
"I wanted to thank you guys for letting me stay here and take a look at all your cool stuff," Entrapta explained, placing the gifts in Catra's arms, "Would you mind delivering these for me?"
Catra examined the boxes and opened their tags. A red box with brown stripes and tiny cat heads emblazoned on it read, "Merry Christmas To: Catra, From: Entrapta". A white box with red stripes and tiny crawling scorpions on it read, "A Very Special Winter Solstice To: Scorpia, From: Entrapta". And the red box with black stipes and tiny flapping bats read, "Happy Holidays To: Hordak, From: Entrapta".
"Look, Entrapta!" Catra growled angrily, dropping the gifts to the ground, "You're not here because we like you, and you're not here to 'play with all our cool stuff'! You are here because Hordak believes you're useful to us! And if you show him otherwise, like, say, by wasting our time and resources making useless trinkets, he's going to get rid of you, or worse! So if you want to thank us, then get back to work and make us something we can actually use to win this stupid war! Got it!"
"Oh... okay..." Entrapta balked, her hair deflating as she lowered her mask back over her face and turned back around to her workbench, "I'm sorry, Catra... I wasn't thinking... I'll get back to work..."
"Good..." Catra said, picking up the presents, "I'm going to go throw these things in the incinerator and we'll never have to speak of this again."
"Okay, Catra..." Entrapta sighed dejectedly, "Merry Christmas..."
"Bah, humbug..." Catra replied as she left the room.
~*~
Christmas had been a tradition long celebrated by all Etherians. No one knew exactly when it started or even why it was called Christmas. Some say it was a solstice celebration to help people remain hopeful through the rest of the winter. Some say it was a religious holiday celebrating the birth of their holy figure. Some say it had something to do with candles that wouldn't run out when they were supposed to. Whatever the cause, every year on the same day, people would present gifts to each other and hold a grand feast. It was a tradition even the soldiers of the Horde celebrated. Yes, all beings in Etheria liked Christmas a lot, but Hordak, who ruled the Horde from the Fright Zone, did not.
Hordak hated Christmas, the whole Christmas season. No one quite knew why or had dared ask the reason. It could be perhaps that he wore his armor too tight. It could be his bionic parts weren't screwed in just right. But perhaps, the most likely reason of all was that Hordak's black heart was two sizes too small. But for whatever the reason, his heart or his armor, he spent each Christmas alone and let his hatred grow darker. Sitting down on his throne, with a sour grey scowl, he read over his reports with low rumbling growl. For he knew every Princess was in Brightmoon tonight, enjoying their evening under bright Christmas tree lights. A small creature flew down from the rafters onto his lap, with solid yellow eyes and wings like a bat. Hordak looked over the imp as it laid down to nap, and stroked it contently on its head with a pat.
"They're probably hanging their stockings with cheer," Hordak snarled at the creature with a palpable sneer, "Tomorrow is Christmas, it's practically here..."
And then he twiddled his claws against the imp's head, strumming.
"If only I could stop this foul holiday from coming..."
Hordak was distracted from his thoughts by a door opening with a hiss, and his second in command walked in and knelt without remiss.
"Lord Hordak," Catra greeted, "I have prepared a report on our preparations for continuing operations against the Princess Alliance."
"Very well, Force Captain," Hordak sighed, unconsciously perturbed at Catra unintentionally breaking his rhyming scheme, "What is our current timetable towards renewing our attack on Brightmoon?"
"Our meteorological reports say that we can begin our new offensive within the next couple of months," Catra reported, "Fortunately, it would appear that the Princesses are just as immobilized as we are, so I've drawn back our defensive forces to focus on rearming and retraining our soldiers in the new upgraded equipment provided by the Dryl Princess Entrapta."
"Very good, Force Captain," Hordak grumbled, "I will look over your full report in my sanctum tonight, but I will say I am impressed by your dedication to efficiency. Do you have anything else for me?"
"No, sir," Catra replied, "Is there anything else I can get for you before tomorrow?"
Hordak's eyes narrowed at the young soldier groveling before him.
"An interesting choice of words, given this time of year..." Hordak noted, "Tell me, Force Captain, what is your opinion on this... Christmas... celebration?"
"Do you want my honest opinion, sir?" Catra asked.
Hordak simply stared silently at Catra until she answered.
"It's just a stupid lie sold to us as kids..." Catra answered, "Made up to make us buy stuff for people we can barely tolerate."
Hordak's lips curled into a small smile, flashing his blood red fangs at his second in command.
"And I take it yours is not a popular perspective amongst the troops," Hordak chuckled.
"No, sir," Catra admitted.
"This holiday has been an established event since long before my time here," Hordak noted, "My best efforts to quash this primitive superstition among the common soldiery have proved most fruitless. As far as I can tell it is little more than a heavily commercialized excuse for the wealthy and powerful to exercise their privilege over their subjects. Even now the Princesses are holding a feast in Brightmoon, no doubt to bribe the starving peasants under their leadership into subservience."
"I mean, yeah..." Catra snarked under her breath, "You weren't expecting me to argue that point, were you?"
"But I must admit some ignorance on my part of this holiday," Hordak continued, choosing to ignore her comments, "I am to understand there is a man associated with this holiday, a Saint of Klaus?"
"Do you mean Santa Claus?" Catra repeated, "What about him?"
"Santa Claus..." Hordak corrected himself, "What can you tell me about this man?"
"I mean, everyone knows about Santa Claus," Catra explained before listing of the important details, "Big fat man with a white beard, wears red, rides a flying sleigh, goes down people's chimneys to give toys to good kids and a lump of coal to the bad."
"And the Etherians just... let this man into their homes?" Hordak said with a twinge of confusion.
"Well... yeah..." answered Catra with a twinge of equal confusion.
"I see..." Hordak said, stroking his chin, "Thank you very much, Force Captain. You are dismissed."
Catra got up to bow at Hordak before turning around to leave, and the door hissed closed behind her with a clank and a heave. And Hordak sat back in his throne with his holiday pondering, convinced more than ever to stop the whole cursed thing.
"For far too long, I've put up with it now," he growled at his imp, "I must stop this Christmas from coming... but how?"
Then he got an idea, an awful idea. Hordak got a wonderful, awful idea. He took out his personnel files to look over one by one. He had flipped through them all before he was done.
"Someone large..." Hordak mumbled as he worked in his chair, "At least two hundred pounds... with the perfect white hair... I need the ideal candidate to handle this affair... And someone who can keep it secret and safe in my lair..."
And Hordak flipped through his soldiers, file after file, tossing each of his rejects in a great messy pile. And upon finding his target, he pushed a button on his throne and took in a deep breath before speaking to the microphone.
"Force Captain Scorpia," he announced with an air of refinement, "You are needed at once for a special assignment. I expect it to be completed obediently, so please report to my sanctum immediately."
And with that Hordak petted his imp as he ended the call.
"This night might be to our benefit, after all..."
~*~
Catra had one more stop for the night. She arrived at the canteen for the Fright Zone Prisons and picked up her usual meal. She carried the tray past the double doors into a vast multistory cellblock, built like a cylindrical panopticon around a central watchtower. Catra waited as hydraulic lifts raised the central tower from down below up to the top level where she was standing. She waved leisurely at the two uniformed guards in the watchtower. One of the guards waved back while the other pulled a lever, and the platform Catra was on slowly lowered deep into the complex. Catra waited patiently for the platform to stop moving and then she stepped off onto a circular balcony where row upon row of prison cells stood facing the central tower. Only one was occupied at the moment, and that was the one where Catra was headed. Catra placed a claw on the wall beside her and the forcefield that separated her from the prisoner fizzled out of existence.
"Dinner time, prisoner," Catra called out as she walked into the cell and casually dropped the tray of food on the ground, spilling brown sludge onto the metal floor.
The Prisoner looked up from their seated position on the floor. An old frail woman in the long red robes of a sorceress, wearing a black mask that covered her face, her arms held up over her long messy black hair by chains attached to the wall behind her. The white eyes of her mask squinted in the darkness at her visitor.
"Catra..." the sorceress greeted in a deep smooth voice, "I see Hordak hasn't banished you for incompetence yet."
"I think you're going to be waiting a long time before that happens, Shadow Weaver," Catra gloated, "Now I'm the one in charge and Hordak respects my abilities."
"I would have thought you'd been doomed for sure after your failure to defeat the princesses at Brightmoon," Shadow Weaver chided, "But then again... You always were very good at ducking the consequences of you actions."
"I did what I had to to survive," Catra shrugged, "No thanks to you."
"No thanks to me..?" Shadow Weaver gasped, "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even be here. Just a rabid beast scavenging in the wild."
"And what? Do you expect me to be grateful?" Catra gawked, "I was never anything more than your punching bag. Adora was always your favorite and even she got away the first chance she had."
Shadow Weaver's eyes fell down to the spilled tray in front of her.
"It's Christmas Eve..." Catra noted, "Tell me: has anyone else bothered to visit you for the holidays?"
Shadow Weaver remained silent, staring at the floor.
"You don't have to answer that," Catra continued, "If anyone else came to visit you, I would know, me being Hordak's Second-in-Command and all. Y'know? I think, at long last, you have finally completely alienated every last person who could have ever cared about you."
"Then why are *you* here?" Shadow Weaver shot back wearily.
"I just like to watch a horrible person brought low," Catra teased, "It just warms the cockles of my heart to know there's some justice in this cruel world."
"Justice?" Shadow Weaver repeated, "You are the reason I am in this position in the first place! You and that... princess you brought here!"
"You're in a cell because you attacked us against Hordak's orders," Catra explained, "You were so obsessed with stealing the power of that Black Garnet you betrayed the Horde. So now you have no power left at all. Every decision you've made led you here. Each link of that chain is one you made yourself. Don't blame me for all your bad choices."
"Why are you here, Catra?" Shadow Weaver asked again.
"I told you," Catra answered, "To remind me how much better I have it then you, now that I'm in charge."
"Oh, please..." Shadow Weaver groaned, her chains jingling as she leaned back against the wall, "If you had anywhere better to be, you would be there right now. We are more alike that you think, Catra. I know what the pressures of command does to the relationships between a commander and her subordinates. It won't be long before they all abandon you too. And sooner or later, your streak of good luck will finally run out and you will fail so spectacularly that even Hordak will realize your inadequacy. Hordak will betray you, just as he betrayed me, and you will find yourself alone, surrounded by enemies ready to destroy you and take your place and you will have no one else to blame but yourself."
"Yeah..." Catra scoffed sarcastically, turning to leave the cell, "I'll be sure to look out for that."
"Mark my words, Catra!" Shadow Weaver called out, banging against the metal walls and rattling her chains to make as much noise as possible, "You will be in chains of your own soon enough and it will be your own lust for power that will bind you to them!"
Catra simply turned the forcefield back on to the cell and walked away with a bored expression on her face.
"Bah, humbug..." she groaned.
~*~
Catra entered her new quarters and let the door hiss closed behind her. She pushed a button on the wall and the lights turned on. It was a barren room, but it was much larger than a prison cell, it had a much bigger bed than the bunk beds in the barracks and, most importantly, it was all hers. Catra didn't even bother unpacking her meager belongings stored in a small box at the foot of her bed. She simply took off the red headpiece that framed her face as well as the Force Captain's badge on her chest and placed them both on top of her new dresser, before quickly taking off her uniform and letting it drop onto the floor in a heap. Changing into an undershirt and long thermal underwear from one of her drawers and climbing into the large bed, Catra winced as her bandaged foot went under the covers. She reached over to her right and opened the drawer to her nightstand, taking a bottle of painkillers inside. She opened the bottle and carefully swallowed two pills before closing the bottle up and placing it atop her bedside table. Catra pushed a button on the wall behind her and the lights to the room all went out.
"I hate Christmas..." she said to the darkness, as she laid back in her bed and closed her eyes to sleep...