The last thing Glimmer really remembered was storming off down the back hallway of the club after watching Adora and Catra kiss. There was no real logic to the decision, she was just very upset and she needed to get away from the situation. That was when she passed by that Entrapta girl that Bow recognized, and... everything went black from there.
Her eyes fluttered open on a strange room. There was very little in the way of items or decorations. Glimmer's vision was still pretty blurry, but it was hard to mistake the appearance of Scorpia or the way she filled a room. Mostly on impulse, she attempted to move from where she was and quickly found it impossible. Her arms were bound behind her to whatever she was sitting on, as were her legs. "Shit..."
Scorpia turned around with a small gasp, looking legitimately concerned for her well-being. "Oh, well hey there. Really sorry about all of that rough stuff. You've kinda just been caught in the middle of this whole thing. Not to worry, of course. Your lady will be here soon enough and we'll be able to trade you off and you can head home safe and sound."
She said all that as if it was meant to be comforting, but it mostly just made Glimmer feel more worried. Adora would absolutely, definitely be the kind of person to come after her. And she would definitely, absolutely be the kind of person to offer herself in exchange for Glimmer's freedom and safety. Augh, and the last time they'd seen each other, Glimmer had freaked out about a stupid little kiss! How in the hell was she supposed to go home 'safe and sound' knowing Adora was putting herself in a horrible place like this? "Oh, good! So I can leave and then, what, Catra can kill her? Forget it. I'm not going to let that happen."
"No need for the dramatics. Nobody's going to die. We're just gonna organize a little meeting between Adora and some of the folks from the Horde who aren't to happy about her just taking off like that." She opened up a bottle of water and brought it over. Naturally, Glimmer refused to drink.
"I have zero love or sympathy for the people who killed my father. Your entire little club can kiss my ass." She grumbled and looked away from her. Scorpia continued to offer her the water silently for a few seconds longer before giving up and leaving the room. Now that she had some time, Glimmer began quietly working on the knots at her wrists. It was actually kind of an insult that they weren't more secure. These were the same people who had terrified her all of her life? And now she was maybe thirty seconds from freeing herself. That anger turned to a kind of pity.
Her nails felt a little bit sore, but the knot had loosened just enough that she was able to start wriggling free of the ropes. Scrambling, she reached down and started freeing her ankles as well. Her hands trembled with fear and excitement. All she could think about was getting out of this place and making it home to Adora and the others. She would apologize a million times if she had to. "Yes yes!" she cheered in her soft little stage whisper. But her mood was quickly shot when she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. "Crap!"
Her patch job was crappy, but she figured she wouldn't need too long. Whoever walked through that door probably wouldn't be paying too much attention to whether she was suddenly released. And as soon as they were close, she could attack. Glimmer had never attacked anybody in her life, but here and now she was willing to give it a shot.
Go figure, Catra was the one to walk in. "Scorpia tells me you were very rude. I'll ignore it this time, but you better check your attitude or people really will start getting hurt. You feel me?"
"Yeah, I feel you..." she muttered angrily. Catra was walking the room with that same swagger that was so quickly becoming insufferable. She looked forward to this next part. Glimmer let her limbs slip free again and she launched herself at the other girl, growling as she knocked her to the floor.
"What the fuck?" Catra sputtered as she tumbled back onto her ass with a painful grunt. She seemed to be too shocked to really react properly.
Knowing this was probably the only chance she was going to get before someone came running to the rescue, she delivered a punch directly to her face. Unfortunately, to repeat the issue, Glimmer wasn't familiar with how to enact violence on another person. First and foremost, she had managed to injure her hand in the process. Second, Catra wasn't hit unconscious like she had been hoping. Instead, she had basically just managed to give her a bruise and draw a bit of blood. Which didn't do much to help her mood, that was for sure.
"You idiot, what were you trying to accomplish here?" Actually, she seemed almost more stunned and confused than purely enraged.
"Wh-! I was trying to... to knock you out or whatever!"
"Do you get all of your world knowledge from movies? It's basically impossible to knock someone out with a single punch. Ah, fuck, that hurt..."
She sat back, pathetically shaking her hand with a little whimper. "Didn't exactly do wonders for me either, quite frankly."
"Yeah, cuz you curled your fingers around your thumb like an idiot. Fuck." Catra gingerly touched a fingertip to her wound and hissed in response to the pain. "And what was the plan? After you got out? Just run past everyone else? Go charging into the city with no money and no transportation and no phone? Jesus, this was supposed to be a perfect plan..."
"Serves you right for being such a bitch about it and kissing my girlfriend..." she grumbled back.
"Oh fuck off with that. How many other people does she kiss and you don't say a goddamn thing. You're just jealous because we have A History. And you can't stand that you'll never be as close to her as I am."
"No!" she fired back angrily. "No, I hate you because you choose to stay in a gang that does so many horrible things and think you're worthy of even a fraction of the love she wants to give you!"
"Woah, getting a little bit too honest there. If I were you I wouldn't have admitted that Adora clearly still has feelings for me. The last thing you want to do is give your nemesis hope."
Glimmer huffed as she continued to nurse her aching hand. "You wish you could be my nemesis. You're nothing. Not even a blip on my radar. Fuck you."
"Fuck you," Catra repeated before suddenly launching herself at Glimmer without warning.
The next thing she knew, the two of them were kissing with a kind of righteous fury that she didn't even know herself capable of.
Glimmer wasn't entirely positive how she had ended up here. Well, sure, she knew the general steps. But she was having difficulty understanding how she had let herself do this. Somewhere along the way, they had moved into Catra's room, and neither of them was wearing clothes anymore. She was turned away from Catra, cocooned in her blankets and brooding about just how much of a hypocrite she was. "Well this is a goddamn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation..."
"I dunno, you seemed pretty satisfied there a few minutes ago." Adora hadn't been lying. Catra could literally purr.
"Sorry about that, by the way. Not warning you about... my body."
"Don't apologize for that shit. It's fine. Besides, Entrapta is trans too. I know this is kind of a shitty thing to say, but I'm used to it or whatever." She could feel her shrug, even if she wasn't looking at her. "Not like I don't know I'm just waffling on this so I don't have to think about what we're actually going to do. Hm, guess we could just go another round instead."
"Yeah, no, I'm pretty sure that wouldn't make me feel any better," she muttered softly.
Catra huffed and threw herself off the bed, beginning to rummage around for something to wear. "Well fuck, I don't know then. I'm sure any moment now, your girlfriend is going to come kicking the door in to rescue you. You can always just lie to her and we can all carry on with the plan as it stands."
Groaning, Glimmer followed suit and began hunting down her own clothing. "What, just take me back in the other room and tie me to the chair again? Keep up appearances?"
"You into that kinda thing? Dirty girl..."
She could hardly believe this, how had she let herself do something like this? Especially considering the very complicated relationship between her girlfriend and this girl. And she'd just slept with her! Catra was right, at any moment, Adora would show up, and her poker face was atrocious. And here was Catra, making gross jokes! It was infuriating, and all over again she was struck once more by the dual desires to punch her and climb back into bed. "Look, let's be real about this. Ignoring every single pesky detail about this, you trade me off for Adora, you take her back to these awful people, what do you think is gonna happen to her? I mean really, actually, truly. They're not going to let her stay like she is. They're either going to hurt her, kill her, or make her do awful things. And as soon as that happens, she's not Adora anymore, is she? This isn't a situation anybody wins exce-"
"I know that! You think I don't know that?" Catra whirled around on her, cutting her off from expressing any further depressing thoughts. She obviously had some of her own. "I'm not like her. I can't walk away from it all. She gets picked up by a cadre of beautiful people and gets to work on her GED and get a normal job and be a good person. I don't have that kind of luck. I leave, I probably end up dead in a gutter in a week's time. The universe has a tendency to shit on me, but as long as I run with the Horde, it shits on me a little less. If I play the game, I can survive. The minute I stop, at the expense of sounding like a jackass, it's game over."
"You're right, I don't understand. The Horde doesn't represent some kind of survival or freedom to me. All I see is the gang that killed my dad." She hesitated, trying to find the words that were itching at the back of her mind. "Why are we even doing all this? You guys are clearly resourceful and clever. Do your own thing, live your own lives. I-I mean... we're helping Adora, we could help you too..." The moment the words left her mouth, she knew that hadn't been the right thing to blurt out.
"Oh, you'd use your vast fortune to support our crime? Yeah, that sounds plausible." She grunted softly as she tugged on her shirt. "I'm not hearing it. I'm trading you for her and this is still happening. Nothing has changed." Glimmer could only watch, stunned where she stood, as Catra reached for a gun. "It's been fun and all, but I have a job to do."
As if to solidify this entire insane scenario, she could hear Scorpia calling to them from elsewhere in this weird place. "Hey! We got incoming, look alive!"