A Catra Carol

by ChissHansen

It's Catra's first Christmas Eve without Adora and she's just done with the whole holiday season. A story I wrote last year, but couldn't finish in time for the holidays. Canon compliant and set between the Season 1 finale and the Season 2 premiere. Rated K Plus for violence, blood, disturbing and frightening imagery and major character death.

4. Stave 4: A Whining Wraith Wizard

Catra continued running deep into the dark, snowy foliage of the Whispering Woods. She thought she heard another splash behind her when she started running into the woods, but had long forgotten how long ago that was. She threw off her scarf and coat when they began to hinder her retreat through the dead trees, careless of the dangers of exposure. It didn't matter how cold it was. It didn't matter how tired she was. She just kept running as fast as she could go. She couldn't let herself think about what just happened. She couldn't let herself think about where she was going. She couldn't let herself think about anything. She was no longer Catra, Force Captain of the Fright Zone. She wasn't even a person anymore. She was just another wild animal in the forest running scared from a predator.

Catra ducked and weaved through the leafless branches not stopping until she crashed into a heavy body, hidden in the darkness by a dark purple cloak. The impact knocked the figure to the ground and Catra stumbled over top of it, sliding through the snow into a nearby tree trunk. The tree shook from the crash and dropped the collected snow from it's branches, burying Catra completely. She poked her head out of the snow, to see the cloaked figure slowly pick itself up off the ground, using a long staff topped with the skull of a horned creature to steady itself.

The phantom slowly, gravely, silently, approached. As it came near her, Catra recoiled in fear, for in the very air through which this spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery. It was shrouded in a deep purple hooded cloak, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save for the hand that clutched it's staff with blue skin and long black fingernails. But for this it would have been difficult to detach its figure from the night, and separate it from the darkness by which it was surrounded. The figure adjusted it's hood to better see out of it and Catra gasped in horror as she saw, not a face underneath, but a human skull, glistening with a sickly green glow.

"Gah!" the skeleton spoke, its lower jaw moving up and down to a harsh, nasally whine that echoed from where its mouth would be, "Why don't you watch where you're going, you bumbling boob?!"

"I'm sorry!" Catra apologized, backing away from the skeleton into the tree behind her, "I couldn't see you! Please don't kill me!"

The skeleton in the purple hooded cape slowly marched up to the catgirl cowering against a snowy tree trunk, using its staff as a walking stick. It knelt down in the snow and Catra felt the skeleton's eye sockets stare deeply into her soul.

"Are you going to kill me?" Catra asked.

"I am carefully considering it, Catra!" the skeleton threatened in annoyance, "You look different from our last encounter. Have you had work done?"

"What?" Catra exclaimed in confusion, "No! Wait... You know who I am? How do you know my name?"

"I doubt there's anyone in Etheria who *doesn't* know your name at this point, my felonous feline!" the skeleton chuckled, "Are you saying you don't know who I am?"

"No..." Catra answered nervously, turning her face away from the skeleton in fear, but afraid to break, for lack of a better word, eye contact with him.

"You look significantly younger, have no memory of me and you're running around in the Whispering Woods barely dressed..." the skeleton observed, "Did you break reality again, Catra?"

"I didn't do anything!" Catra denied, "I don't understand anything you're talking about."

"I'm only asking because you do have a history of this sort of thing," the skeleton explained, "Or rather will have..."

"W-W-What do you mean 'will' have?" Catra asked, stuttering from both fear and the cold, "Are you a g-g-ghost from my future?"

"Nyeh-heh-heh-ha!" the skeleton chuckled, standing up to walk away, "Yes, I suppose I am, aren't I? Well, I suppose you had better find someplace warm before you freeze to death, or we will never meet in the first place. Goodbye, Catra!"

"Wait, come back!" Catra called out, getting up to follow the skeleton, "There's so much I need to know! What happens to me in the future? Am I still Hordak's second in command? Do we win or lose the war against the princesses? Do I get to rule Etheria? Tell me!"

"What? Are you insane?!" the skeleton whined, not bothering to slow his stride, "Haven't you seen, read, or listened to *any* time travel stories? If I tell you anything about your future that I wasn't supposed to, it would create a time paradox that could very well destroy the entire universe... and that's where I keep all my stuff!"

"How do we know what you're not supposed to tell me?" Catra asked him, "You've already told me I'm alive in the future and we meet at some point. What's you name? Who are you? How do you know me?"

"Nope," the skeleton said, trying his best to ignore her, "I have already said too much and you are not getting any more out of me. Now go away and bother someone else, you annoying little pest!"

"Señor Skeletor!" a small voice called out from the forest behind them, "Donde estas?!"

"Grr..." the skeleton growled, stopping in the snow to shake his head, "Speaking of unwanted pests..."

Catra turned around to see two small children in full winter gear chasing after them, one was an older boy who must have been around twelve, the other an even younger girl holding a dog with blue fur and single antennae coming out the top of its head.

"Who are they?" asked Catra, "Are they your children or something?"

"They are Etheria's children!" the skeleton declared dramatically as he gestured at them with his staff, "The boy is Ignorance and the girl is Want! Keep an eye on both of them, but especially the boy!"

"'Ignorance' and 'Want'?" Catra repeated, "What even is that? Is this some sort of metaphor about having to take care of those unable to take care of themselves or something?"

"No," the skeleton answered flatly, "I just call them that because the boy won't stop asking questions about every single thing he sees and the girl hasn't stopped whining the entire time we've been walking! Every single moment in this forsaken forest has been nothing but a constant barrage of 'Señor Skeletor, what's this thing?!', 'Señor Skeletor, what's that thing?', 'Señor Skeletor, I'm cold and hungry!' or 'Señor Skeletor, can we stop? I'm tiiired!' THAT IS YOU! THAT IS WHAT YOU SOUND LIKE, YOU INSUFFERABLE LITTLE MISCREANTS!"

"Wait, you can understand them?" inquired Catra.

"Like... every tenth word or so?" Skeletor replied, "It is some kind of alien moonspeak nonsense that defies all comprehension!"

"Hola, Señora Gatita," the little girl greeted Catra, "Me llamo Alisha y este es mi hermano, Miguel."

The little girl gestured to herself and the boy beside her before the small dog began barking excitedly at Catra. The girl squeaked as she held onto the dog tightly to prevent it from jumping out of her hands.

"Y este es nuestro neuvo perro, Relay," the boy added, "¿Sabes dónde estamos? Estamos perdidos y tratando de ir a casa. Y el esqueleto es muy fuerte y malo para nosotros..."

"Cease you're endless prattling, you bothersome little buffoons!" Skeletor shouted at them, "Another word out of either of you and I will cast you into a ring of fire! That ought to warm both of you up quick enough!"

"So what are these kids even doing out here with you?" asked Catra, "You didn't... kidnap them, did you?"

"No! No more questions about the future!" Skeletor shrieked angrilly, "Just go back to the past where you belong before you find out something you weren't supposed to know yet and mess things up for everybody!"

"How can I do that if I don't even know how I got here in the first place?!" Catra demanded, slowly losing patience with the whiny skeleton wizard, "Can't you at least take me someplace warm? You said it yourself, if I die here, then won't time be destroyed anyway because I won't get to meet you in the future?"

Skeletor stood motionless before Catra for a few moments, staring silently at her without even a breath coming out of him. Catra glared firmly back into his cold black eye sockets, hesitating only a moment when she questioned whether the immobile skeleton was still alive.

"Graaah!" he finally screamed, spooking her, "Fine! There is a Etherian village not too far from here. We were on our way there before your clumsy butt ran into us. They should be able to take care of you until we can get you back to your proper time."

"Good!" Catra exclaimed confidently, trying her best to compensate for her earlier cowardice, "Lead the way, Señor Skeletor!"

~*~

"Where is the village?!" Skeletor screamed out at the crumbling ruins before him, "There is supposed to be a peaceful village ripe for the conquering right here! Where is it?! Nyaaa!"

Catra and the two children examined the clearing from behind a tree. What once was a primitive Etherian village was now burnt huts and collapsed structures overgrown with green vines and brown roots.

"So no village, huh?" Catra snarked, "Guess you didn't know as much as you thought, did you?"

"I may not know precisely what has transpired here!" Skeletor shouted, turning around to point his staff at Catra, "But I know enough to blame *you* for this travesty, Catra!"

"Me?!" said Catra, taken aback, "What did I do?!"

"Isn't it obvious?!" Skeletor declared, "You made me tell you something you weren't supposed to know yet! And you're going to use that knowledge to change the future, which is my present! This is all your fault, you present-changer!"

"Oh, come on!" Catra shouted back, "How is it my fault you couldn't keep your big fat mouth shut?! We're not even sure that's what really happened!"

"Okay, little miss smarty pants!" Skeletor teased, "What do you think happened?"

"Well, this place looks like its been destroyed a while ago," Catra theorized, "And I'm talking ages. Maybe whatever sent me to the future sent you to the future, too. Maybe it's millions of years in the future and we just don't know it."

"Of course we're not in the far future, you lame brain!" Skeletor cursed, pointing his staff at the night sky, "If we were that far in the future, then the stars would look... WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STARS?!"

"Stars?" Catra repeated, looking up at where Skeletor was pointing, "What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me, you stupid cat!" Skeletor exclaimed, "Where are all the stars? Why are there no stars in the sky?"

"What do you mean?" Catra asked in confusion, "There's *never* been stars in the sky. Not for as long as I've lived."

"Now you're just doing this on purpose!" Skeletor accused, "There's *always* been stars in the sky! What did you do to them?"

"For the last time, I didn't do anything!" Catra shouted loudly, falling to her knees and crying loudly, "All I've done tonight is get locked out of my bedroom and all I've wanted to do since is to go back home and go back to sleep! But no! Everyone in Etheria has decided tonight's the night to get back at me personally! I've had to answer a bunch of stupid trivia questions for some stupid computer ghost that was trying to kill and torture me! I've had to spend hours in the cold with some stupid annoying ghost pirate that wouldn't stop harassing me with his endless stupid singing! And now I have to deal with some stupid skeleton manchild who won't even take the most stupid basic responsibility for his own stupid actions! It's as if each step I take to go back to the Fright Zone just sends me deeper and deeper into this stupid dead forest I killed! I can't take it anymore! I just want to go ho-ho-hooome!"

Catra fell face down in the snow and wept loudly into the ground. She heard a small animal yelp and felt a rough tongue lick her cheek. Catra got up and sniffled to see the green dog standing next to her, panting its tongue, while the little girl placed a caring mitten on Catra's shoulder.

"No llore, Señora Gatita, por favor," the girl said in a tone of empathy, "No sé lo que está mal, pero todo irá bien. Es Navidad."

Catra picked up the tiny dog in her right arm and hugged the girl with her left.

"I don't know what you said," Catra admitted, squeezing both of them as tightly as she could, "But thanks..."

The girl hugged her back and Catra felt another small body press against her from behind. The warm embrace lasted for at least five minutes under the falling snowflakes. Catra was the first to break the hug as she picked herself up off the ground and took the girl by the hand, still holding onto the dog under her arm.

"Come on, Kids," said Catra, "Let's get out of here."

The young boy followed the catgirl closely as she led the little girl through the empty streets.

"Wait!" Skeletor called out, marching after them, "Where are you going with my prisoners?! I mean, the children..."

"I'm going to find the least dilapidated looking house on the block," Catra explained, "And then we're going to huddle together for warmth until the morning."

"What sappy nonsense is this?!" Skeletor sneered, "I didn't think you'd be one to resort to such disgusting antics, Catra."

"Nobody cares what you think, Bone Head!" Catra shot back, not even bothering to turn her head, "Go die in the cold, for all I care."

Skeletor grumbled something under his nonexistant breath as he slowly followed after them at a distance.

~*~

Catra wandered amongst the wreckage, carefully inspecting each house as they passed by.

"Come on..." Catra groaned with a pained tone, "I just need one of these huts to not have a big gaping hole in it... I'd settle for one with just a bunch of tiny holes..."

Catra's flicked her ears for a second and she starting running towards one of the buildings, dragging the little girl behind her with the boy following closely.

"Quickly!" she ordered with a hushed tone, "We need to hide! Someone's coming!"

Catra ran through the open door and crouched under the window sill, giving the dog back to the little girl beside her so she could peak through the corner of the window. She saw two humanoid figures in heavy armor stomping through the snow outside.

"Horde soldiers," Catra identified, "Stay quiet and don't move!"

The children huddled together closely, the little girl covering the dog's mouth to prevent it from barking.

"I'm going to go out there and ask what's going on," Catra whispered, "Stay here!"

"I wouldn't recommend it..." Skeletor cautioned, standing by the doorway, hidden under his cloak.

"What are you doing here?" Catra hissed, "Look, just stay out of sight while I talk to them! I'm a Force Captain. They'll do what I say."

"Are you so sure about that, Catra?" Skeletor slyly mused, "This isn't the Horde you once knew. Things may have changed since you've been gone."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Catra whispered, "You know what? Nevermind. I don't care. If there's Horde troops here than that means there's a camp nearby, or at least a transport or something. I'm going out there. Worse that can happen is they capture me... or shoot me on sight. But it's better than sitting in here waiting to freeze!"

Catra moved towards the doorway taking one look back before she opened it. The black eye sockets on Skeletor's skull looked like they had increased in size, drooping even. If Catra didn't know better, she would almost say the skeleton looked worried.

"Nyaaa..." cried Skeletor, his etherial voice wavering, "Maybe there's another something else we can do..."

"Such as?" inquired Catra.

"Stand back, you pompous peons!" ordered Skeletor, quickly regaining his confidence, "I am going to try something!"

The skeleton held out the goat-headed staff with both arms and his cloak opened, revealing his toned and athletic blue skinned body. He was wearing little more than a pair of purple leather straps crossed over his chest, a purple loincloth covering his crotch and a pair of purple leather boots. The wizard waved his staff in a circle and slammed it against the ground.

"Come to me, my great magical screen, to bend all light around me, red, blue and green!" Skeletor chanted, "From lowly peasant to mightiest queen, we walk amongst all, sight unseen!"

Purple sparks fired out the top of Skeletor's staff and the room was bathed in a flash of blinding light for a second before slowly fading.

"What did you just do?!" Catra exclaimed, not noticing anything different about them.

"Weren't you listening, you lame-brain loser?!" Skeletor shouted, "I turned us all invisible, you numbskulled nitwit!"

"Hey, I heard something!" Catra heard a loud voice from outside call out, "It came from in there!"

"But not inaudible, it would appear..." Skeletor hissed, "So keep quiet!"

"Yeah, right..." Catra whispered, sarcastically rolling her eyes, "*I'm* the one who needs to keep quiet."

"Shh!" hushed Skeletor as the door was kicked open by a large boot.

A soldier entered the room, scanning the room with his rifle out, aiming carefully down it's sights. Catra grew nervous as the barrel of the gun passed over her and took a step in front of the children cowering in the corner of the room. She held her breath until the soldier finally lowered their weapon, turning back to his much taller partner who was hunched over the doorway from the outside. Catra could see the soldier was wearing pressurized container on his back with tubes going into his helmet.

"It must have been-" the taller soldier began, her voice low and deep.

"Don't say, 'it must have been nothing'!" the smaller soldier interrupted, "I know I heard something in here!"

"Come on, man!" the taller soldier appealed, "This place has been abandoned for ages. Nothing can survive out here anymore. We did our job, now let's get back home."

Before the shorter soldier could answer, a loud beeping sound rang from both their helmets and the two soldiers touched a button on the side.

"Graveyard shift..." the shorter soldier greeted, "We've just finished putting the last one in the potter's field and are making our way back to the transport now."

The soldiers paused to listen in for a second.

"Yes, sir," the soldier acknowledged, "Like I said, we're on our way. Graveyard shift, out."

The soldier's released the buttons on their helmets and turned to look at each other.

"Sounded peeved," the tall soldier observed, "We'd better get back to base."

"The boss *always* sounds peeved these days," the other soldier argued, "I just want to take a look around first."

"You go do whatever, man," said the tall one, "I'm getting the transport warmed up. Just hanging around this place is starting to give me the jibbilies. If you're not back in five minutes, I'm leaving you behind."

As the soldiers broke apart, Catra moved between the two children and wrapped her arms around their shoulders, motioning for them to stand up. She led the children outside and began to trail after the tall soldier. Skeletor walked backwards behind them and began smacking the snow with his staff to hide their footprints.

~*~

The transport was a two tread tank with lots of empty cargo space in the back for Catra and her companions to hide in. She and the children huddled closely against the wall as Skeletor stood over them watchfully. None had dared make a sound while the tall soldier sat in the cockpit, flicking switches and pushing buttons. It wasn't long before the rear facing doors slowly groaned open and the smaller soldier marched inside, placing his rifle in a slot against the wall and closing the door behind him. The tall soldier flicked another switch and the engines began to roar to life as the smaller soldier climbed up to the cockpit to sit next to her.

"So did you find anything?" the tall soldier asked.

"Just shut up and drive," the smaller soldier grumbled.

"I told you, man," the tall soldier said smugly, "Nothing survives outside in Etheria anymore. Not since the war ended."

"Don't give me that crap!" the small soldier argued, "Do you know how big the planet is? There were billions of people living here at one point, not counting the plant and animals. We *can't* be the only ones left! It's just not mathematically possible."

"I don't know what to tell you, man," the tall woman replied, "We were talking about it in the mess hall a couple night ago. Everyone's got their own theories. This one chick thinks it's cause we killed She-Ra and all the other princesses, so now all their magical runestones are freaking out and making the planet go nuts."

"Magic isn't real, lunkhead," the smaller man cursed, "It never was."

"That's what I said!" the tall woman said defensively, "Me, I think it's just from all the bombs and junk we've been putting into the environment. All the soil's radioactive, the ice caps are melting, the seas are completely poisoned. We just got so good at killing, we killed the whole world. Nothing grows anymore, so there's nothing left to eat, except each other."

"Would you stop with all that doom and gloom talk?" the smaller man shouted, "You're making it almost sound like we're all gonna die."

"Well..." the taller woman said hesitantly, "Maybe we are... I mean, unless we can do something about it."

"We're not going to die!" the smaller man insisted, "People have been living in Etheria for thousands of years. It's not like we're just going to... disappear..."

"I hope you're right, man..." the taller woman said solemnly, "I hope you're right..."

The rest of the trip continued in uncomfortable silence as Catra continued hiding in the corner of the cargo bay, nervous of being caught, but happy to be finally warm. Unable to do anything else, Catra closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

~*~

Catra woke up to the sound of loud murmuring and shouting outside. The wall behind her vibrated with a loud clang, the children she was with made a frightened gasp and the dog let out a yelp in fear. At first Catra was worried they had been discovered, but it was obvious that the soldiers piloting the transport had other concerns.

"Great," the smaller man grumbled, "More protesters. You'd think those unruly thugs would be a little more appreciative of everything we've done for them."

"I mean, can you really blame them?" the taller woman asked, "They're starving out there."

"We're all starving!" the smaller man shouted, "They should at least have the basic dignity to die quietly! I'll get the riot gear out, in case we need to keep out any stragglers that get past our defenses."

The smaller soldier leapt down from the raised cockpit and opened an a secure lockbox on the wall, pulling out a plastic shield and a long stick with two prongs on the end that sparked with green electricity when he pulled on the handle.

"Alright..." the smaller man grunted, "Open the doors..."

The taller woman pushed a button on her control panel and the doors slowly groaned open again. The light outside was bright enough to blind Catra for a second and she could see a massive crowd of people begin to swarm the tank.

"Get back, you goons!" the soldier shouted as he marched forward and raised his shields, hitting anyone with his stick who got to close.

"It looks like it's going to get ugly here," Catra whispered, as she helped the children up on their feet, "We should go..."

"Aw..." groaned Skeletor, "But things were just finally about to get interesting!"

"I'm not putting the kids at risk!" Catra hissed, leading the kids out and around the tank, "We're getting out of here, now!"

"Uggh..." grumbled Skeletor, following after her, "Fine!"

Catra look around the room the tank was parked in and recognized the old motor pool from the Fright Zone. Skiffs and tanks were lined up against the walls of the large warehouse and robotic tripod drones were swarming in to beat back the intruders trying to push their way in from outside. Catra ignored them and led the kids towards an open doorway near the back of the room. When her group had all passed through she pushed a button on the wall and the door hissed shut behind her.

"Congratulations," teased Skeletor, "We're back in the Fright Zone! What's you're big plan now?"

"We need to find someone who knows what's going on," Catra explained, panting heavily from exhaustion, "And hopefully find a way to get us back where we came from."

"Don't you mean *when* we came from?" Skeletor chuckled.

"Don't start with me!" Catra shouted, "I have had a very trying evening and I swear to all who can hear this, I will shove that walking stick so far down your throat you will be walking funny for the rest of your life!"

"Jokes on you!" Skeletor laughed, pointing his finger at her, "I don't even have a throat anymore!"

Catra's eye twitched and she shook her head.

"Whatever..." Catra growled, "We'll head to the prisons. Maybe there's a captured sorcerer or scientist who can help us."

"What makes you think they'll even *want* to help us?" complained Skeletor.

"I don't know!" Catra grunted, "But I know for certain they're gonna be more help than you!"

"You've got a very smart mouth for someone I found freezing to death in the cold less than an hour ago," Skeletor grumbled.

~*~

*Content Warning: Anyone who's ever had to deal with a medical insurance claim or apply for government aid may want to skip to the next section break*

As Catra navigated the familiar corridors towards the prison, she couldn't help, but note how empty it felt, despite all the obvious activity everywhere. Machines grumbled and clanged at their various tasks and robotic drones clanked by them, but Catra couldn't find a single sentient being save for the crowd outside and the two soldiers she had already run into. Catra peeked around a corner and waved at her compatriots to stand back while she went on ahead.

There were no guards standing in front of the prison doors, so Catra simply pushed a button to open them, hiding behind the wall to avoid being seen by anyone on the other side. She poked her head through the open doorway to quickly scan the large room for anyone looking in her direction and she snuck into the darkened room before the doors hissed shut. Inside the normally empty prison cells were overflowing with captives, all muttering and moaning in an agonizing cacophany of noise. Instead of the elevating watchtower, the center of the room was occupied by a gigantic machine, circuits and wires climbing up a tower towards an impossibly huge glowing red camera that was looking down at a short frumpy woman with bubbly gray hair kneeling on the ground at the bottom of the room, flanked by two robotic drones.

"Please let me go!" the woman cried out, "Why am I here?! You haven't even told me what I did wrong!"

The red camera's iris dilated and a computerized voice came out of a loudspeaker at the base of the machine.

"Good morning... Mrs... Mendl..." the machine answered, it sentences jumbled together from what appeared to be a large number of pre recorded messages, "You are here to stand trial for... 'continuing your present existance'... As far as we are aware, you have committed... 'zero'... crimes against the Horde at this time."

"Why am I on trail if I haven't committed any crime?!" the woman demanded.

"You asked, 'Why am I on trail if I haven't committed any crime?!'" the computer responded, replaying the woman's voice back to her, "Due to resource restrictions, it has become necessary to audit all citizens for their value to the greater Horde. If there are no further questions we will begin this process immediately."

The woman stuttered and stumbled as she tried to think of something to say.

"Excellent," the machine interrupted, "Please state all relevant skills and or abilities for the record."

"M-my skills?!" the woman repeated in confusion, "I'm just a baker. I make tiny cakes for people."

"To clarify, you answered... 'baker'...," the machine asked, "This is defined as... 'someone who cooks nutritional suppliments using the properties of dry heat'. Does this sound accurate to you?"

"What?" the woman asked in confusion, "I mean, I guess. Maybe?"

"Congratulations! 'Nuritional'... 'Preperation'... is our most sought for skill and or talent and or ability, given the Horde's present economic situation!" the computer commented, "Can you please state the calorie and vitamin count of these... 'tiny'... 'cakes'... so we can properly calculate their proper nutritional value for the record?"

"Umm... They're just cakes." the baker replied cautiously, "You don't eat them for their 'nutritional value'. You eat them because they taste good."

"I'm sorry... 'taste good'... is not one of the criteria for which we are auditing for," the computer noted, "Do you have any other skills and or abilities that may provide benefit or value to the Horde at this time?"

"What do you mean 'other skills'?" the woman cried, her pleas becoming more and more desperate, "I spent my whole life learning and training how to make the perfect cakes. I had to go to culinary school for years and then had to spend many more years after that perfecting my craft until I was finally chosen to be the personal chef of one of the most particular princesses in all of Etheria! Are you saying all my life's hard work doesn't mean anything to you people?"

"I'm sorry... 'all my life's work'... is not one of the criteria for which we are auditing for," the computer repeated, "Do you have any other skills and or abilities that may provide benefit or value to the Horde at this time?"

"I can't believe this..." the baker cried, openly weeping as she fell to the floor crying, "Please, I can learn to do something else. Whatever it is you need, tell me!"

"I'm sorry, we are not accepting new applicants to our career training programs at this time," the computer answered, "If you have no other criteria for me to judge, we will now begin the auditing process."

"No, please!" the baker shouted, "I can draw and sculpt using baking materials! I can fix an oven with my bare hands! I've been writing a recipe book with stories about the history of cakes before each ingredient list! Surely there's something I can do that would be meaningful to you!"

"I'm sorry, none of these criteria are applicable to the Horde's current economic situation," the computer stated coldly, "We will now begin the auditing process. Please stand by."

The woman began screaming and struggling against her robotic guards until a loud 'bing' that sounded like a bell ringing was broadcast over the loudspeaker.

"We have completed you assessment," the computer answered, "Unfortunately, your application for... 'continuing your present existence'... has been rejected. Your life functions will now be ended and your biological matter will be repurposed for other uses. Thank you for your time... Mrs... Mendl..."

Catra could no longer look at the scene of the woman begin dragged kicking and screaming from the room by two robotic guards. She reopened the door back into the corridor, bent over next to a wall while holding her hands against her knees and began to heave over a drainage vent.

~*~

When Catra was finished with her panic attack, she got up and wiped her mouth with the back of her claw.

"That has got to be the most horrifying experience anyone ever had to see," Catra gagged, "No one could have possibly been more callous and cruel to that poor woman in there."

Catra winced as she felt a cold hand press against her shoulder. She turned around to see Skeletor standing behind her, with the two children and their dog standing behind them.

"To be fair, this is just the pragmatic reaction to a no-win situation of extreme resource scarcity," Skeletor explained, "Did you know some worlds just let people starve and die in the streets for no reason at all?! Even though they produce so much food that they literally have to throw most of it in the garbage before it spoils? And if someone tries to just give this food away to starving people before throwing it out, the people in charge punish them and take that person's livelihood away, leaving them to starve and die in those same streets with the people they were just trying to help not die in the first place? And let me tell you about this fantastic little drug called 'Insulin'! It costs a pittance to produce, but people are charged a fortune for it, for the sole reason that it is something they literally need to survive and the people in charge of selling it want to exploit them for as much money as they can make off of them!"

Catra stood dumbfounded and confused by Skeletor's sudden diatribe, while he turned around and knelt down in front of the two children.

"That's right, kids!" Skeletor whispered, "I try to invent the bleakest, most depraved and disturbing situation I can think of in an attempt to teach Catra the true meaning of Christmas... and even *my* darkest dreams imaginable can't compare to that of the actual real life universe we live in!"

"Wait..." said Catra, "What did you just say?"

"Nothing!" Skeletor shouted loudly, "So where do you want to go next, Catra?"

"I just want to get as far away from the prisons as possible," Catra sighed, "But I do know I need to find out how things got this bad so I can stop it when I get back."

"Isn't it obvious, you cognizantly-challenged little kitten?" Skeletor cackled, "The war against the Princesses escalated to such a degree that the entire world is now dying even after you quote unquote 'won'! What more is there to know apart from that?"

"This can't all just be because of the war," Catra countered, "Something had to have happened to make things this bad. Some kind of weapon or spell or poison or something that either we or the princesses used to wipe out the other side. Something practical that I can stop from being made in the first place!"

Their argument was interrupted by the sound of a loud explosion in the distance, followed by a high pitched nasally scream.

"That sounded like Entrapta!" Catra gasped, "It came from over there!"

Catra scurried down the hallway towards where she heard the sound come from.

~*~

Catra stood outside the door to one of the holding cells and pushed the button to open it.

"Entrapta?!" Catra called out into the dark room, "Are you okay?!"

"Hi, Catra!" a familiar voice called out from the darkness, "I'm fine! Just a small miscalculation! I'll clean it up and get back to work! Sorry to bother you! You look nice by the way. Did you do something different with your makeup or something?"

Catra turned on the light switch to see a familiar purple haired princess sprawled amongst a pile of debris in the middle of the room. Her hair was noticeably frayed and graying, and Catra could see many long lines across her face with heavy black bags under her eyes.

"You look terrible!" Catra cried out in shock, "When did you last take a break? Or sleep?"

"Oh, I haven't slept since you asked me to help solve the whole 'What are we all gonna do about food' problem," Entrapta replied, getting up from the ground and picking up the scattered parts with her hair, "I've been working non-stop on coming up with new ideas. Spending every agonizing moment inside this room has started to affect my perception of the passage of time, so I don't actually remember how long it's been since I started, to tell you the truth... "

"That's awful!" Catra bemoaned, "You really need to take better care of yourself!"

"It's okay!" Entrapta reassured her, sitting down at her workbench, "I'm fine! After all, you said I need to prove to everyone how useful I am so that you can keep me around!"

Catra crossed her arms and looked at the floor in shame as she heard those familiar words thown back at her. It felt like a lifetime ago since she first said those words, even though from her perspective it had only been a scant few hours. Did she really change so much in such a short little time?

"You don't have to do that anymore, Entrapta," Catra grumbled, "Just tell me what you've come up with so far and go back to sleep."

"Umm... okay..." Entrapta said nervously, turning around to look over her notes, "So my first idea was that, with all the animals and plants dead outside, I'd try to grow synthetic nutrients from algae and bacteria spores. Unfortunately, the process is so slow, I doubt we will be able to make it in any way sustainable. So next I've tried using various means to accelerate the process, so far with no success. This accident was the result of my latest attempt using tachyon crystals. By the way, I'm going to need more tachyon crystals."

"Okay," Catra said with a twinge of disappointment, "What can you tell me about the causes of our current situation?"

"Well, as far as I can tell, this problem has been the culmination of many years of neglect and collateral damage from all sorts of sources," Entrapta explained, "Our factories have been producing smog and chemical runoff for so long the seas and skies are more plastic than anything else. We've burned away our ozone layer and the planet's climate has been getting steadily warmer these past couple of years. And even our smallest munitions and explosives have been steadily irradiating the soil everywhere. And that was before we lost She-Ra..."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Catra asked bluntly.

"Well, from what I can tell the princesses had a symbiotic relationship with their runestones," Entrapta explained, "As each of them were... eliminated... by our forces, their runestones began to display various anomalies. I now think the princesses were some kind of mediating force over the runestones, and without them, their power has begun to spiral out of control."

"I see," Catra said, "What about Scorpia? She's the princess associated with the Black Garnet right? Where is she? Where is everyone? You're the first person I've actually talked to since I got back!"

"Oh, you didn't know..." Entrapta realized, pulling down her welding mask to hide her face, "Scorpia... well... she was never able to connect with the Black Garnet if you remember. And since we stopped needing so many soldiers after winning the war, we just weren't able to find any further use for her."

Catra stared down at Entrapta, expecting her to continue talking.

"And?" said Catra, "Where is she, Entrapta? Where is Scorpia?"

"She's gone, Catra," Entrapta said, "You know what happens to people we can no longer find a use for."

"What do you mean gone?" Catra shouted in frustration, "Gone where?"

Catra's mind was brought back to the woman in the prison, being dragged away by automated guards. Before she could think about it any further, an alert sounded on the wall next to her and a dispenser tube coming down from the ceiling began pouring green sludge into a tiny clear glass.

"Finally..." Entrapta said with relief, picking up the glass with her hair, "I don't remember how long it's been since I've last eaten."

Entrapta opened her mask and brought the cup up to her face, frowning at the smell. She quickly downed the glass with a single gulp and winced at the awful taste.

"Ew," Catra exclaimed, "What is that stuff?"

"Puréed soy beans and lentils from our ration stores mixed with... recycled material," Entrapta groaned, "I try not to think about it."

"So Scorpia is gone..." Catra quietly realized, "What about Lonnie? Kyle?"

"They're all gone..." Entrapta sighed, "Everyone is gone, Catra..."

"What about the other Force Captains?" Catra asked, her voice growing more and more paniced, "Octavia? Grizzlor? Leech?"

"The Force Captains are all gone, Catra," Entrapta said, more forcefully, "Everyone is gone, Catra."

"But what about all the support staff?" Catra tried again, "Our mechanics, tank commanders, our pilots?"

"Only the bare essential crew are exempt," Entrapta explained, "Apart from that, everyone. Everyone is gone. Everyone is gone, Catra..."

Catra simply stood there in stunned silence for a few moments when the loudspeaker above them began to crackle.

"Attention to all hands!" announce a gruff voice over the loudspeaker, "An Emergency Meeting has been scheduled in the main Throne Room. All Fright Zone personnel are expected to attend."

"I guess you have to go get ready, huh, Catra?" Entrapta commented, "I'll be there as soon as I've cleaned up all this mess."

"Don't worry about it, Entrapta," ordered Catra, "Just make sure you get some rest."

"Oh, okay..." Entrapta said weakly, spinning in her chair to return to her work, "I just to to get all this cleaned up first."

Catra turned around and opened the door to see a familiar Skeleton wizard hovering over her.

"Oh, hello!" greeted Skeletor, the two children standing behind him, "Tinyprincesshussynerdwhotriedtostealmyexfrommesayswhat?"

"What?" asked Entrapta, looking up from her workbench for a second.

"Ha!" laughed Skeletor loudly.

"Actually, Entrapta?" Catra began, turning away from the doorway.

"Yes, Catra?" answered Entrapta, not bothering to turn around to face her.

"I'd hate to ask any more from you," Catra groaned, pushing past Skeletor to grab both the children's hands and drag them inside, "But could you watch over a couple kids and their dog for me while I'm gone?"

"Oh!" Entrapta said, spinning back around, her usual bubbly energy returning in an instant, "Of course! I'd love to! I didn't even know you were a mother!"

"I'm not... but that doesn't matter..." Catra said, leading the children towards the Horde scientist, "So, guys? This is Entrapta. She'll be in charge of you until I get back, okay? Entrapta? These are... um... actually I don't know their names. I haven't been able to figure out their language in the short time I've met them."

"Ooo!" Entrapta cooed, her eyes aglow with interest, "That sounds like a fascinating project!"

The children simply stood still staring nervously at the old woman who was touching and examining them with her hair as she pulled a small electronic device out of her pocket.

"Princess Entrapta, Log Date..." Entrapta began, pausing for a second in thought, "I have forgotten how long it's been since my last recording, so I'm going to start over with Log Date, Day 1. I am beginning preliminary analysis in studying what I believe to be a brand new language..."

Catra and Skeletor stared awkwardly at the two children as Entrapta continued to poke and prod them with her hair.

"I'm sure they'll be fine..." Catra told Skeletor as she turned to leave the room.

"Why are you leaving them here, anyway?" asked Skeletor, following after her, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to see Hordak," Catra announced, seething with rage as she began stomping down the hallway, "And I don't want the kids to see what I'm about to do when I meet him."

~*~

"So you're just going to march into Hordak's throne room and do... what exactly?" asked Skeletor, catching up to walk beside her, "Leap on his head and scratch him with your claws?"

"I don't know for sure what I'm gonna do," Catra admitted, "I just know I need to be in that room... He needs to pay for what he's done."

"And what has he done, exactly?" Skeletor asked, "Sacrifice a few soldiers to save the Greater Horde. Not to be blunt, but isn't that what you do everyday? After all, there's always more where they came from..."

Catra turned her head to give Skeletor the dirtiest look she could muster, but she couldn't speak a word in defence of herself. She just continued walking.

"And, not that I particularly like to make a habit of defending Hordak," Skeletor continued, "But what makes you so sure all of this is even Hordak's fault? From what Princess Nerdlinger says, all of this was going to be inevitable if the war continued the way it was going."

"I don't care," Catra said with an air of tranquil fury, "They were my squad. My responsibility. Hordak got them killed. Whether it was deliberate, or if he was just incompetent enough to let all of this happen, all of this is on him. He's the one who was supposed to be in charge. The buck has to stop somewhere."

"And are you really sure Hordak is the one in charge of all this?" Skeletor teased, his tone more, "Have you noticed that no one except you has mentioned his name or even the pronouns of the person in charge?"

"Of course, it's Hordak..." Catra growled, "Who else could it be?"

"Who, indeed..." chuckled Skeletor as he kept pace with Catra down the corridor.

~*~

Catra entered the throne room, where less than a couple dozen Horde soldiers in full armored uniform were gathered beneath the steps leading up to Hordak's throne. No one had noticed Catra or Skeletor sneak quietly into the back corner. A tense atmosphere permeated the room as the assembled staff were murmuring and mumbling at each other in barely contained contempt.

"Is this it?" Catra whispered to Skeletor, "Is this all that is left of Hordak's Mighty Horde? We used to have thousands of soldiers under our command. Now it's just... this..."

The murmuring came to a lull at the sound of a door hissing open behind the throne, and a figure came out, limping on their right foot. The figure stood tall in a bulky suit of armor that covered their entire body, wires and tubes coming out of every orifice while a machine in the front was pumping gas and fluids throughout the entire suit and monitoring various life functions. The figure slowly walked over to the throne and sat down.

"Wow," Catra gasped, "Hordak just looks terrible. I could almost pity him, if he wasn't such a terrible person."

"My soldiers..." the figure announced, a voice modulator in its helmet echoing its voice throughout the room, "We stand upon the edge of greatness. We have achieved final victory over the Princess Alliance and restored order to Etheria. I have heard your concerns for the future of our world, but I must stress the importance of unity and strength in these difficult times. We have lost many brave warriors to this calamity, but the weak must be culled to make room for the strong. And we will be stronger for this hardship, but first we must all make sacrifices for the greater Horde."

"And what strength have you shown to us, beloved leader?" a uniformed officer called out from the crowd, "What sacrifices have you made?"

"You dare ask that of me, impudent cur!" the leader shot back, gesturing towards the life support system on their chest, "I sacrificed everything to protect our way of life, and I will not allow a last minute streak of disloyalty to corrupt all that I intend to build."

"I think it is you who are weak!" the agitator declared, "You who sit in that chair all high and mighty while the rest of us die to feed your insatiable appetite! How many here have died for your vision? How many more must die to complete it? Look how many of us are left! Will there be any left on this barren husk of a world when you are done? Perhaps we would do better with a new leader! One who is strong enough to protect their own!"

The figure promptly stood up and aimed its arm at the instigator. A beam of red light shot out of a barrel on their arm and the agitator disappeared, leaving behind smoking ashes.

"If there are any others who would challenge my authority, have them step forward and face me!" the leader declared, aiming its arm down at crowd below them, "Do any of you sniveling cowards know what it truly means to rule the Horde? The decisions one must make to save the many! Come on then!"

All of the remaining soldiers in the throne room were cowed, but only for a moment. They turned to look at one another and saw determination in their clenched fists and unholstered sidearms. It wasn't long before the nervous crowd turned to an unruly mob and began charging up the stairway towards the throne. The figure opened fire upon them, and one by one they disappeared in another flash of bright red light. But the mob still continued their charge to the top, ignoring the casualties they suffered as they began to close the distance.

But during the charge, Catra noticed one of the soldiers pull back from the crowd as they began charge up the stairs and reached for something in the corner of the room, a bow and arrow that was hidden behind a wall panel. The soldier tore off the middle of his uniform to expose his stomach and drew back the bowstring, taking careful aim at the armored figure at the top.

"Yippie-Ki-Yay, Mr. Falcon!" the bowman shouted as he let loose the arrow.

While the Horde leader was distracted by their mutinous subordinates, the arrow flew over the heads of the charging Horde soldiers and landed squarely in the life support machine on their chest. The arrow crackled with electricity and shocked it's target, shorting out the device. Despite being clearly injured by the attack, the leader remained firm continued to fire down at the usurpers until only one remained. The last soldier was too close to fire at and raised his weapon to strike, but the leader grabbed his arms and kicked him square in the chest, knocking him backwards. The man fell down the stairway, hitting step after step as he tumbled back to the ground, until finally he landed on the flat metal floor, not moving. The leader raised their arm cannon once more at the bowman who attacked them, but their strength soon failed them and they fell backwards back into their chair, exhausted.

"That was for Adora, you miserable creature..." the bowman whispered softly before dropping the bow on the ground and running off down the corridor.

The leader used the last of their strength to clutch their chest in pain as they struggled to breathe.

"This..." the leader gasped, "Was all Hordak's fault..."

And then they let their arm fall to their side and stopped moving.

"Wait..." Catra exclaimed, turning towards Skeletor, "What did he say? What did he mean by that? Is that *not* Hordak?"

"Oh, I'll tell you," Skeletor chuckled in response, "But first I need you pick up that phone?"

"What?" Catra said, looking around the room confused, "What phone?"

"BECAUSE I TOTALLY CALLED IT!" Skeletor laughed loudly, "NYEH-HA-HA-HA-HAAA!"

"Grr!" Catra grumbled as she stumbled away from him.

Catra looked back at the figure sitting upon the throne and began to slowly walk up the stairs towards it, Skeletor following carefully after her. Catra looked over the armored suit sitting on the throne and began pulling the tubes and wires off of it. Her claw reached for the helmet to take it off, but then she stopped herself.

"Skeletor?" Catra asked, turning once more to face the wizard, "Before I do this, I need to know something. Now that I've seen everything I've seen, is it fixed like this forever? Is this experience a vision of what must be, or only what could be?"

"I couldn't tell you, to be honest," Skeletor answered, "I'm not too familiar with the mechanics of Time Travel. That was always more Hordak's wheelhouse."

"Well, thanks for being as useless as ever," Catra grumbled, returning her attention to the suit of armor.

And when Catra pulled off the helmet, she recoiled in disgust at what she saw. The face underneath was that of an old woman, her furry face ravaged by time, as well as multiple burns and scars. The face was so badly damaged it was almost unrecognizable, save for the heterochromatic eyes staring back at Catra, one blue, the other gold.

"No," Catra gasped softly, launching herself backwards in shock, "That's not me... It can't be..."

"Why not, you royal boob?!" Skeletor teased, "Aren't you Hordak's number two cat? Who else would be in charge if not him?"

"But everything that's happened..." Catra argued, stepping backwards in revulsion, "I can't be responsible for this. It's not may fault."

"It looks to me like you just ran out of lives," Skeletor mocked, "And now that your luck has finally run out, you die here, alone, surrounded by the enemies who were ready to destroy you and take your place and you will have no one left to blame but yourself."

"No!" Catra repeated, continuing her backwards walk away from the throne, "It's not my fault! It can't be... it's not my fault..."

"Um... maybe you should watch your step there?" Skeletor cautioned, "You're about to-"

Catra stumbled backwards when her last step back did not find ground, but empty air. She tumbled backwards down the stairs and felt something sharp crack against her head as she rolled downwards, the sharp edges of each stair cutting into her as she fell. When she finally stopped rolling against the cold metal floor, all Catra could do what cry out in pain as loudly as she could as she lay broken on the bottom of the stairs, tears streaming from her eyes.

"Oh, snap!" Skeletor exclaimed in surprise, as Catra heard two heavy boots and a wooden stick clang quickly down metal steps.

Catra was in so much pain it was indescribable. Catra couldn't move a muscle, couldn't do anything but scream, and soon she found it very hard to breathe. Catra closed her eyes as tightly as she could, just wanting all of it to be over and her world went black.