Catra's POV

We march for a while through the snow, and I really feel like I'm going to collapse from how cold I am. My feet are numb from trekking through the thick snow, as the storm carries on. And my encounter with the feral She-Ra really did a number on my leg. But it doesn't take too long for Scorpia, Adora, and I to make it back to the complex entrance. I enter the door code, and step inside, lifting the sword up so I don't drag the blade across the floor. Scorpia follows besides me. She's still carrying Adora.

Lonnie and Entrapta are talking in the main room. "She nearly killed everyone out there, what do you mean you know about this?"

"I think it's just a virus, she'll be fine if they can manage to not let her kill everyone."

"And how do you expect them to stop She-Ra?"

"Oh, it wasn't a big deal," I say, as Scorpia and I walk into the main room.

"Catra? Scorpia? Adora! She's okay?" Lonnie sounds surprised. Kyle looks up from the chair he's sitting in, Rogelio with a hand on his shoulder.

"Probably." I tell her. "We didn't wake her. We got her to drop the sword." I hold said sword up, then drop it. It's not a priority to me, Adora is.

"Fascinating, I definitely need to figure out how that happened," Entrapta says, looking closely at Adora. She goes to poke her, picking up the sword with her hair.

"Back off," I move her hand away. "She needs rest. Kyle, up." I say. He stands up instantly, moving the chair forward. Scorpia sets her down.

"What do we do now?" Scorpia asks me.

"We need to pack up and get out of here."

"Ooh, but we're so close! I know the bots are offline, but-"

"No buts! We're done here," I tell her.

"But Hordak-"

"I don't care about what Hordak wants! Adora was compromised, I am not letting the rebels take advantage of that."

Entrapta looks a little dejected. Whatever time she's been spending with Hordak clearly has her priorities shifted, but I can't be bothered right now.

"Do we try to wake her?" Scorpia asks.

"I don't know," I tell her, raising my voice. "Let's just wait and see if she's okay."

"She isn't going to try and kill us again, right" Kyle asks, practically chewing his nails from his nerves.

"Kyle, she didn't go near you and no one got hurt," I snap, he leans back at my words and I notice a glare from Lonnie. "What?"

"She got your leg," Scorpia whispers.

I hiss slightly, "not helping!"

"Look, Catra, you said it yourself, no one got hurt- seriously- so maybe let's just take a minute to breathe and-"

"Yeah, great idea Lonnie. Let's breathe while the rebels are at our throats and we're failing the mission, again."

"Wildcat…"

"Technically-" Entrapta starts to say, but is cut off.

Lonnie steps closer. "I get it. You're ticked that Adora was compromised, you don't need to turn around and lash out at everyone else." Rogelio, a few feet behind her, nods in agreement.

"I- I am not-! Enough! Everyone, start packing. Entrapta, shut down the systems and load our tech back up. Only the essentials, we're getting off this rock before the rebels-" There's a loud bang somewhere outside the facility, causing the internal alarm system to start blaring. I turn to see if it's any immediate threat, but it isn't. "Oh for the love of Etheria! I'll go deal with the rebels." I turn back around towards the others. "Scorpia, watch Ad-" Adora isn't there.

Everyone turns to look at the hair, too, except Entrapta, who points off down the hall. "She went that way."

"Ugh! I am going to kill someone today," I groan, facing Scorpia. "Find out what that was," I say, before marching off down in the direction Adora took off in.

"Yes, boss," Scorpia mumbles as I walk off.

I see she opened the door into the hall of the outpost, so I walk across into the opened supply room on the other end.

"Adora? Are you in here? Come on out, dummy, this isn't time to play games-" I hear a step on my left, my ear twitches as I turn and see a mop swinging for my head. I turn instantly, pushing it aside. The attacker is thrown off balance, and I use the opportunity to push her against the wall. "Seriously? Now is not the time, Adora!"

She's gazing off to the side, before she turns her head to look at me. Her eyes are half lidded, and she seems distant. "Catra?" She looks down at my hand on her shirt, and I can see her brows furrow. Her eyes open a little bit more, and she seems confused. "What are we doing?

"Duh, who else would it be? And what do you mean, you tried to-"

She suddenly leans forwards and hugs me. She doesn't even bother to stand, and I nearly lose my balance keeping us upright.

"Hey, what's the big idea?"

"I was cold…" she mumbles into my shoulder.

"Very funny. Look, the rebels are still here, you can't run off like this."

"I'm not running," she keeps mumbling, almost slurring her words together.

"Great, this time you really do have brain damage. I'm going to kill sparkles for this."

Adora picks her head up, standing normally again. "You seem… stressed."

"Duh! I'm stressed because our team leader went off and gave herself brain damage!"

"Oh… who are we talking about here?"

I groan, pulling her slightly off of me. "Entrapta. Now."

"M'kay!" She says cheerfully, in a way that gives me pause. I haven't seen Adora this unbothered in months. She's loose, instead of pent up. Cheerful, instead of stern and focused. No longer hypervigilant.

Still, I grab her wrist and start walking towards the hall. I put in the code to open the door, slapping Adora's hand away as she goes to press the buttons, and the door opens.

Adora leans forward. "Huh. Wasn't there a hallway here?"

I stare in shock as the way the hall was torn through, I can see the edges towards the door on the other side. Adora steps forward, out into the snow. She holds out a hand, watching the snow fall onto her palm in curiosity. I look around. The construction of this place was fast, but it shouldn't have been bad enough for a random hallway to have blown away with the wind. I get a bad feeling in my guy, my eyes scanning over the snow but seeing nothing. The storm picked up badly recently. I can barely see the outpost lights.

I'm not about to start marching through this with an unreliable Adora. If she slips away, I'll lose her. I reach out, grabbing her and pulling her back into the closet. "Okay, change of plan, I'm not letting you get killed out there."

Adora makes a sound that's half a scoff and half a laugh, "actually, I'm supposed to protect you." She places her pointer finger to my chest, trying to look smug in her loopy state.

"I- are you- ugh! Stop being weird!"

"You're being weird." She crosses her arms and turns to the side.

"You're acting like a child."

"You're being a brat!"

"I'm trying to keep you alive!"

"That's s'posed to be my job," she mutters, looking down. Her expression falls again, as if she can't hold herself to one mood.

I groan again. I rub the bridge of my nose. "Adora, for the last time, you don't- no, we're not doing this again. Come on, I'm freezing in here. Help me find a blanket." I say, walking past her.

"How? You're always so warm." She says as if it's a normal thing to say. Once again, she's instantly up-beat and swoony.

I stop in my tracks, turning back to face her. "What?"

"What do you mean, 'what?'" She stares ahead at me, expressionless.

"I mean, what did you say?" I step closer to her, trying to gauge what she's feeling. But her eyes don't seem to match any emotion or expression.

"Did you not hear me? I thought you have great ears." She says, her eyes drifting up to said ears. "Soft ears," she whispers.

I'm nearly taken aback by this. I stare at her for a moment, as she steps closer and moves her hand up to the side of my face. I grab it. "No."

She frowns slightly, putting her hand back down.

I watch for a second longer before I look away, "blanket, Adora."

She picks her head up, looking around. "Okay! Where are they?"

"I- that's what we're trying to find out, come on."

"Oh! Okay, I can help, I can be good at helping!" She says, looking around excitedly.

"... yes, Adora. You're good at helping," I say slowly, starting to head over to one of the shelves.

I don't see her reaction, but I can hear her scampering off a bit to the side. I look over to some boxes she immediately opens. Even now, she's burying herself in work… I turn back to the shelves. "How did Entrapta just bring nothing practical."

"Sh'brought mugs," Adora says, holding up and immediately dropping one of Entrapta's small cocoa mugs. "Oh no!" She shouts as it shatters inside the box.

"She'll be fine, she has dozens of them."

"Oh. Okay," she says, leaning back into the box.

I shake my head, moving to a different shelf. I'm going to have to talk to Entrapta about this stupid virus. I pull the disk out of my pocket, watching the red gleam under the green lighting in the room. This thing is a problem.

"Catra! There's no blankets here!"

"I figured, I can't find any either. Ugh, this sucks."

"Does it? I'm having fun." She closes the lid of the crate she's in, pinching her fingers, "ow." She puts the two pinched fingers into her mouth for a moment, and I look on with confusion.

"Yeah, good, fun." I mutter, walking over towards her. "Look, maybe just… sit down. I'll find the blanket."

"But… I wanna help." She says, wiping her hand on her pants and moving to another box.

"You are helping, but right now, you aren't yourself."

"What? I'm myself, who else would I be?"

"I- I mean you're you, but you're not acting like it."

Adora waves her hand dismissively. "You've been saying that for months."

I make my voice firm, because this is not a topic I want to get into with incoherent Adora. "I am not going to respond to that."

"Then I'm going to help," she says, staring at me with unfocused eyes. She turns to another crate, rummaging through it. "I need to be useful."

I feel a pit in my stomach, as her tone drops to one of a subtle desperation. "Adora, sit down. You are useful, but you aren't in the right state of mind."

"I said I'm fine, I can do this!"

I step forward, placing a hand on her shoulder. I almost pull her out from looking in this crate, and turn her to face me. "Adora," I say, much more sternly. "Sit down."

She pouts, but the stern tone works. She sighs, and… sits. Right where she is, directly on the floor in front of this crate. I groan, closing it. There isn't a single blanket in this room. I turn to the side and sit down as well, leaning back against the crate.

"Sorry…" Adora mumbles, slumping forward slightly.

"You have nothing to be sorry for. It's just a missing blanket, I'll manage."

"But you're cold…" she looks up at me, then her expression brightens. "I'll use She-Ra! Maybe she has some like, warm magic!" her twists up in thought.

"Yeah, no, your sword is back with the others, and probably still all red."

"Ooh, that's your favorite color!" She beams, sitting up straighter.

"Your mind is somehow doing nothing at all, and going a mile a minute," I remark, rolling my eyes.

Adora giggles a bit, leaning back against the crate, "you're mean." It catches me by surprise, despite how surprised I've been this whole time. When was the last time Adora giggled?

"Yeah, but you like it," I shrug, feeling a smile creep onto my face.

She leans over, resting her head on my shoulder. "I know," she mumbles, closing her eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"Keeping you warm," she whispers, sliding closer.

I look down at her face, and feel something in me freeze. This is different. Every hug and embrace we ever shared, always made me feel something. A flutter I don't feel around anyone else. But the way she looks, the way her face turns slightly red; I look down to the side, away from her.

"Um… thanks."

"Mhm…"

There's an uncomfortable silence as she moves her arm behind my back. After a moment, I move my arm over hers. I hold her closer, "Adora… you know you don't always have to push yourself."

"I know…"

"No, you don't know. You're killing yourself to try and finish off the rebels, to try and get closer to Hordak and-"

"Catra, stop… you're doing that… thing…"

"What thing?"

"Trying to… hold me back…" She mutters.

I feel something drop in my stomach. "You said I didn't… that I… push you forward…"

"I lied…" She whispers, holding me closer. And the admission almost makes my blood run as cold as the air around us. I don't say anything, just looking down at her. At how happy she seems. But she's still… lying? And I didn't see it?

"Adora… what do you mean?"

"I mean… Shadow Weaver was right, I need to be strong… But you're so warm, and always there, and I care about you… You make me weak."

I feel my hand curl up into a fist on my lap, my breathing picking up. Shadow Weaver got to her, and that's why we're out here? That's why she suddenly decided to stop avoiding the princesses? "Adora…"

She doesn't say anything else. She slides her head off my shoulder, her hand moving off my back as she curls up, resting her head on my lap. Not sleeping, but she might as well be.

Glimmer's POV

We're running through the storm in the reach. The frigid air is burning my lungs and throat as we sprint wildly through the snow, struggling over the deeper snow as Frosta is too concentrated on moving to clear a path. It's hard to see anything but the faint glow of lights from the outpost in the distance, hard to hear anything other than screaming and shifting snow behind us.

"What is that thing!?" Sea Hawk yells out to my left, in the lead as Bow keeps stopping to attempt to fire off anything to slow the monster down. I'm low on magic, and struggling to keep moving. Save it for emergencies, Glimmer.

"A monster, whatever it is?" Bow shouts. He turns around, since he has a lead, and fires an arrow quickly. I hear a small explosion, but the shifting behind us doesn't stop, and Bow is back to running. Frosta is keeping pace by using her powers to focus on condensing the snow and almost skating forward, keeping her safe. That puts Sea Hawk and I in the back, with the other two close in front.

"And it's clearly unhappy!" I move, straining. I'm not exactly used to running, and I've never run like this in snow. It's hard. My legs are already tired, but I don't stop moving because the others don't either. I can't stop now. The adrenaline keeps me moving.

Bow gains a few feet to fire off another quick, lazy arrow. It's desperate. It doesn't work. Bow nearly trips turning back around, and Sea Hawk pushes himself faster to go help him up. "Don't stop now, we're almost there!" He urges.

Bow gives the slightest nod, putting his bow away and puts on a face of determination. I hear a loud crash very close behind me, and make the mistake of turning as I run to see that it barely missed slamming its weight down on top of me. Bow sprints ahead, the outpost close now. He moves as fast as he can, as we finish closing the distance. There's another loud crash, this one close enough to knock me off my feet.

I fall into the snow, desperately turning to look back up. I crawl backwards, slowly starting to stand, but it's too close. The creature roars, positioning itself over me, and dives. Teleport! Teleport teleport- there's a rush, a mound of snow shifts to my left, half carrying half throwing me to the right. The creature slams right where I was, and I see Frosta slightly panting. I stand quickly as the monster rears itself back from its impact and goes back to running.

I watch as Bow reaches a door at the edge of the outpost, moving so fast he slams into it with his shoulder instead of stopping. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't budge. He frantically looks around, seeing a keypad on the left. "Guys, problem!" He shouts.

Sea Hawk reaches him next. "Is there an open button?"

"It's a keypad, there isn't an open button!"

"Move," Frosta shouts, reaching them a little before I do. Bow nervously steps aside, immediately drawing his bow again and firing another stray arrow at the snow monster behind us. Frosta drives an ice wedge into the seam in the middle of the door, prying it apart. It takes a few seconds, a few seconds we don't have.

I pull them together, and focus. Anywhere, just inside. I pull together enough of an image of some room with a computer, and teleport us there. It hurts to do so with how depleted I am, and upon dropping the four of us off I almost collapse. Bow grabs my arm, keeping me up. "Are we alive?" I ask.

I don't get an answer. I pull back, Bow is staring off to the side, Sea Hawk brandishes his sword. I turn to Frosta, who is forming ice fists. Oh, well that means…

Next, I set my gaze on the open room. Most of Adora's team is here, except Adora and Catra themselves.

Lonnie and Scorpia are frantically discussing a plan. Lonnie seems frustrated as she says, "whatever those things are, they tore half the outpost apart already!"

Scorpia, behind her, leans to her right, seeing us. Lonnie watches Scorpia's expression fall, so she turns around.

Kyle and Rogelio were already staring. Entrapta is at a large computer, not paying attention at all. She has the Sword of Protection in front of her, I can't say for sure what she's doing but I'd guess she's just looking at the red stuff on it.

"Oh, you're all alive, I was actually worried there," Scorpia says, but she seems to be the only one relieved. I even throw her a confused look. Why would she be happy we're fine?

Bow actually puts his weapon away, unlike Sea Hawk and the half the Horde team that aren't Force Captains. He walks towards the computer, the only person moving in this pseudo stand-off that we have so often with the Horde.

"Entrapta."

Entrapta pulls her mask up, turning around. "Oh, hey Bow!" She greets him.

"Whatever is going on, shut it down."

"I can't shut it down, the amount of data I'm getting here about the First One's is unparalleled with anything other than that intact data crystal!" Entrapta argues. Half the people in this room are watching the conversation, except for Frosta and Lonnie, who are still watching the opposite sides. Sea Hawk is going back and forth.

"It can't be worth the damage you're doing! Whatever is out there, the eyes are red, it has to be connected to the virus infecting She-Ra."

"Well now you're just saying things, that can't be true because the virus only infects First One's tech." She looks away from Bow, back at her computer, then pauses. "Ooh! Unless the bugs are First One's tech!"

"Then we destroy the disk, like we did at Dryl," I propose. "Only issue is, I dropped it in the snow storm."

"Oh, actually," Scorpia calls to herself, "Catra has it."

"Scorpia!" Lonnie chastises her, with Rogelio shaking his head.

"Where'd Catra go?" Bow asks.

Scorpia and Lonnie share an uncertain look.

"Listen," I shout, "If we don't break that disk, those bugs won't stop until there's nothing left to destroy."

Scorpia looks worried, she rubs her pincers against the back of her head. "Uh… she went looking for Adora, who took off as soon as she woke up."

"Does that mean no She-Ra? Phew," Sea Hawk murmurs, rubbing the back of his hand against his forehead.

"Ugh, which way did they go?" I demand.

"That's the thing, the hallway is gone," Lonnie says.

Bow looks over, confused. "The hallway is gone?" He repeats, slowly.

"Bugs." Kyle says.

"It's fine, Bow and Glimmer are right," Entrapta says, turning around. "We're all going to die!"

"That is not what I said!" I shout.

"I know, I meant if we don't break the disk. So we need to break it."

Most of the room stares directly at Entrapta with varying reactions of shock, confusion, or begrudging acceptance.

"Why should we work with princesses?" Kyle asks, nervously. Which in turn causes nearly every princess in the room, including Scorpia and Entrapta, to look at him. "I mean… more princesses."

"You wanna be bug food?" Frosta asks, moving forward, "go ahead."

"No one is going to be food bug," Bow says, holding his arms out. "We'll smash that disk, and nobody's getting hurt."

"Against the giant robot bugs that are apparently trying to eat Catra for having Entrapta's disk-thingy on her?" Scorpia asks.

"Sounds like a daring adventure," Sea Hawk muses, looking down thoughtfully. Then he strikes a pose with his hands on his hips, carelessly swinging his rapier out to his side. "Let's do it!"

"Watch it!" Frosta says, jumping back.

Sea Hawk looks over at her. "Oops, sorry!"

Scorpia watches the exchange, then shrugs and turns to Lonnie. "What do we do? Won't they be mad if we don't try to, you know, stop the rebels?"

Lonnie looks up at Scorpia, an expression of bewilderment on her face. "Why are you asking me? You're the Force Captain here!"

"I know, but you'd probably know what they would want better than me."

Lonnie groans, "fine, we'll smash the stupid disk with the help of the rebels!"

The reptile, Rogelio, roars something to the other horde soldiers. I have no idea what he says, but Lonnie nods and Kyle perks up. Kyle clears his throat. "Great, great."

I sidestep over to Bow. I lean in and whisper in his ear, "how are we struggling so much against these people?"

Bow turns to me and whispers himself, "it's not really them, it's the other two."

I shake my head. I don't get it, because this team seems completely dysfunctional. I turn back to face most of the room. "Okay then, glad everyone here is in agreement!"

"I'm not," Frosta mutters, crossing her arms.

"I'm glad most of us are in agreement. Find Catra, tell her to break the disk!"

"Wonderful, good plan, um…" Scorpia raises her hand. "How do we get past the giant bugs?"

"I-"

"We punch them!" Frosta exclaims.

Kyle meanwhile, interrupts with, "we run really fast?"

"I second that guy," Sea Hawk says.

"Bow, we should-" I get interrupted again.

This time by Lonnie. "Fight them?"

"I like that idea," Frosta unsurprisingly agrees. "She's my least hated."

"What?" Lonnie asks, staring at Frosta.

"Okay, Glimmer, maybe we should-" Bow tries to regain control, only for Entrapta to cut him off.

"Give me a few hours and I may be able to build a jamming device- if I can find a power source strong enough that won't get infected."

"We don't have hours!" Scorpia tells her.

"No, we need to-" Bow tries again.

"What if we send some people out to try and distract the bugs while someone sneaks off to get to Catra?"

"Enough!" I shout, already annoyed with nearly everyone in this room. Everyone finally stops interrupting each other to look over at him. "Bow was trying to say something, so let's all stop bickering and listen to him."

"Thanks Glimmer," Bow whispers to me, before clearing his throat. "Okay, the bots are First One's tech and are trying to protect the murder virus. Entrapta and I dealt with it at Dryl. We thought it powered the tech in a different way, but it itself is a power source. We need to destroy it. Scorpia, you're the strongest one here, so that's up to you." Bow pauses. No one interrupts him, so he keeps talking. "If the bugs are after Catra and Adora, they won't be safe for long, so we need to move now. Focus on trying to pull the bugs away, we'll probably find out where the two are as soon as we step outside, and don't get eaten. Got it?"

Everyone makes a noise or motion of affirmation.

"Wonderful plan! Let's go!" Sea Hawk says, playfully slapping Frosta's shoulder. It earns him a glare, but Frosta doesn't respond.

I groan, "wait, Bow…"

"I guess I'll pack up the computer, the rest isn't important!" Entrapta said, turning back around immediately. I don't stop her.

"Let's go then," Bow says, motioning for the alliance to follow him as he starts walking forward to the one door.

I grab his arm though, "Bow, we can't work with them! Everything the Horde did to us, we're supposed to ignore that?"

Kyle and Scorpia seem more nervous than anything. Rogelio accepts it as is. Lonnie, however, mutters, "I can not believe this."

Bow looks between us both, and sighs. "Listen, I don't like this either. But one, we can't expect to just get out now when the storm is this bad. Two," Bow turns back to Lonnie, "we're not going to stand by and let your teammates get eaten."

Lonnie crosses her arms and looks down. "I can't say we'd do the same for you guys, so… thank you."

I groan, even now the Horde soldiers act like they're entitled to their hatred of us. Well, really only her, to be fair. Scorpia seems genuinely worried, and Kyle is scared out of his mind and hasn't stepped away from Rogelio. But Lonnie… I lost my dad to the Horde, what did these people lose? But I take a deep breath. Bow is right. We need to do this.

Bow looks at Lonnie and answers with, "I don't know, I think Adora would. Besides, it's the way we do things. And if we don't stop those bugs, none of us are making it through the snow storm."

"I know, I know."

Scorpia walks up to between Bow and Lonnie. "Look, it's a truce, just for today. We can punch each other next time."

Bow accepts, "we're still shutting down this operation afterwards."

"You can't just demand that-" Lonnie starts, but is interrupted by Kyle.

"That's fine, Catra said we were leaving."

"Oh, great, I guess… we win?" I say.

"I guess you do," Scorpia says, but she doesn't sound bummed about it.

I start walking towards the door myself, the Horde members now following after us. Most everyone here is nervous. I should be nervous, since I'm low on magic. But I surprise even myself, as I'm not scared. There are quite a few of us ready to get out there and find that disk.

Lonnie steps forward, past me. She walks up to a terminal next to a different door from the side I brought the alliance in through. She presses a button a few times, and the door opens. The storm has calmed down a little bit, thankfully, but there's going to be a lot more to go.

"Um… there was supposed to be a hallway here…" Scorpia murmurs, poking her head out next to me.

"Probably the bugs. Where are the other two?" I ask, scanning the horizon. There are a few more parts to the outpost, including a small dock set up by a river.

"Probably the one being attacked," Bow says, pointing to a room where a bug is slithering around.

"I'm coming, Catra!" Scorpia says, moving forward.

"Wait!" I shout, seeing a large mass to the side of the outpost we're in. I rush forward, into the snow, and reach out to get a hand on Scorpia as the roar of a second bug sounds out from the left of us. I see Scorpia turn in fear. I jump forward. I place a hand on her back, and desperately try to conjure up an image of a snow bank just a bit to the side. I feel myself move the two of us as the bug rolls through where we were, and nearly collapse into the snow.

I feel Scorpia's pincers move under my arm, keeping me up. "Woah, careful! Don't faint out here, now."

"You be careful!" I say back to her, steadying myself and pulling off the Force Captain. I look back behind at where the others are now trying to engage the second bug. "We need to break that disk, we don't have long." I turn around, and go back to walking towards the part of the outpost the first bug is currently trying to claw into.'

"Yeah. And… thanks." Scorpia says.

"Thanks." I repeat, but more so a whisper than a proper expression of gratitude. I march through the snow, despite how tired I'm ending up. I'm really just hoping to make it home, recharge, and never have to work with people from the Horde again. But we need to hurry, that other bug is already getting through the metal of that wall.

Catra's POV

For a few small moments, it's like Adora and I are living in a bubble. Disconnected from the rest of the world, just in each other's presence. She's still laying on my lap, certainly awake but too tired and lucid to be fully conscious. For a few minutes, there isn't a war. There isn't this word, or Shadow Weaver, or the rebels; it's just us.

I sigh, looking down at her. This is the only time I've seen her smiling while she's out in months. Even during the few times we shared a bed since she got her own room, like the night we touched the sword after Princess Prom, she slept as if she was burdened. Always thinking, always planning and worrying.

One day, I hope that the quiet moments like this keep happening. More moments like being up on the roof of the Fright Zone, and less worrying about getting through this war without problems from Hordak and Shadow Weaver. One day, Adora is going to be okay without needing to be all weird and loopy. One day, I'll help Adora be at peace.

Today, we still need to worry about surviving the storm. And of course, because of magic or First One's tech, something had to go wrong. One minute, Adora is in my lap, blissfully unaware of the world around us. The next, Adora is still blissfully unaware, except I can't pretend to relax with her. Something hits the exposed storage room we're in, something big. It's loud. Adora and I both startle out of our position against a crate.

"What was that!?" I shout, looking over to where there's now a large dent in the wall, cracks running out from that. Half the size of the wall big, way more firepower than anything one of the people in this wasteland can do, other than maybe She-Ra. My tail was already fluffed from the noise alone, but knowing there was something out there that could do that caused my fur to bristle in a way that few things did.

"Who's there?" Adora asks, slowly standing up next to me. She looks over at the wall, squinting a bit. "What did that?"

"Definitely nothing Arrow Boy can do," I glare at it, trying to assess the threat. I grab Adora's wrist, and pull. She stumbles a bit, but she's behind me now. Adora is in no position for combat.

Adora puts a hand on my left shoulder, resting her head on my right one. It eases me just as much as it distracts me.

"Not now," I say gently.

Adora steps back, I can almost feel her pouting. Suddenly, I feel her hand on my tail as she moves her hand down through it, "you're tense."

I turn and hiss at her, whipping my tail out of her grasp. "Of course I'm tense, I'm trying to keep us alive and you aren't-"

There's another loud bang, this time I watch as the hole splits open. The rustic green metal starts peeling away from itself as some large, blue monster with glowing red eyes barrels half a bug-like head into the room. I gulp, my ears turning flat slightly.

"That's gotta be the biggest bug I've ever seen…" Adora says next to me, as if in awe.

The creature rams against the hole again, widening it as metal splinters off like shrapnel. I back up, moving Adora behind me. "Adora… run."

I don't scare easily. I've never been afraid in battle before. Truth be told, I live off the adrenaline. But it's different right now. Adora isn't a partner, she's a liability. I need to protect her.

I can get away from this thing. I could maybe even fight it. But I'm not scared for myself, I'm scared for her.

The creature roars. It lunges once more, pushing its upper body through a gap wide enough that it's now an immediate threat. I turn to move, pulling Adora behind me.

I'm trying to run, but her feet are predictably not working. "Adora, move!"

"Slow down," she snorts at the end, as if I'm being ridiculous.

I groan, and pull hard. There isn't much room to run in this place, I need an actual plan. Well, Adrenaline only goes two ways, really. I pull Adora's arm. Hard. She falls forward, and I keep the momentum up to try and get her to roll or keep moving forward. She cries out from the surprise as she falls forward.

A part of me knows I'm going to feel awful for it- I already do- but I need to get her away. I turn around quickly, the monster is halfway to us as it barrels out of the wall.

I shift my stance, my right leg back. I flex my claws, narrow my eyes, and huff out air. The monster roars, closing the distance. But I'm not weak, and I'm going to get Adora out of this. I lunge, springing off from my back foot. The creature's eyes lack any definition, but the way the head of the body tracks me almost screams that I'm the focus.

I scream literally, as I move towards it. It isn't possible to change direction midair, but I twist enough so that I'm mostly sideways. My claws rake across the side, but the texture is wrong. My claws don't slice through flesh or shell, it's metal. I can feel how it slices apart under my nails, leaving five marks under its eye. I land past it. The creature roars as it turns to face me.

"What are you?" I ask, mostly to myself. I meant for that swipe to be a warning. But if this thing isn't life, I don't need to pretend it is. I lunge again, jamming my hand through the creature's eye. More predictably now, it shatters. But it isn't glass, it resisted too much. I feel like I dealt with something like this thing before…

I'm shaken from the train of thought as the bug lurches forward, and I'm slammed against a large supply crate. It leans back, and I let go of the eye as I feel like I can't breathe. The thing dented the crate, I was just hit hard. First She-Ra, now this, my body winding up battered and bruised is starting to look like the best case scenario. It charges towards me again, and I twist off to the side. It slams into the crate, moving several feet forward. I pant a little, already tired.

I move to follow up when I feel Adora's hand grab my shoulder. "Catra-"

"Adora, I said go!" I shout, turning to push her arm off of me. The look on her face is one of distress. A look I know well.

Adora pulls me closer to her, "it's gonna hurt you!"

I push her back slightly, "better than killing you!" I turn to face it as it charges for us again. Think, Catra. I get ready to attack it again when I'm pulled to the side by Adora. I lose my footing and fall on her, as the bug barrels past. We sprawl out, I lean my arm out to go behind her and cushion her head. It was quick thinking too, because the way Adora lands crushes my arm, and I land on one of her legs. Everything hurts.

Adora seems fine though, just worried. But when she turns to face me, I swear she gives me one of the dopiest smiles I've seen from her. "Hi." She greets me. A seemingly full greeting, as if she forgot I was here.

I groan, standing up quickly. "Adora, you seriously need to let me deal with this!" I help her up, trying to get her on her feet before the thing turns back around.

"Nah… I got this!" Adora says, overly confident.

I resist the urge to snarl in annoyance. I put my arm out again to try and block her, as the creature roars back towards us. And for some reason, I feel her grab my hand as she pulls my arm closer. I keep my attention on the machine. This thing can't be that strong, I already took out an eye. It lurches closer, closing the distance.

Act now. I go to push off my foot, but stumble as Adora is still holding onto my arm. Oh no. We fall forward, and I'm taken too off-balance to move. The creature moves to slam down above us, and I look down to cover Adora.

But there's no impact. The creature hits something, a grunt of excretion ringing out as metal clashes against something hard. I pick my head up, Adora just looks concerned. Turning up, I see Scorpia. She's standing over us, her pincers held out to push against the creature twice her size. Suddenly there are hands on my shoulders, picking me up. I hiss, turning to see Glimmer.

"What the-"

"Catra, where's the disk?"

I ignore her, the bug is still a threat. I turn to help Adora up. "Scorpia, what's going on?"

"The… disk!" Scorpia grits out, struggling against the strength of the creature.

"Another Bug!" Adora points, smiling.

I ignore Adora this time. Turning back to Glimmer, I ask, "what, wanna make She-Ra go nuts and finish what the creature is trying to do?"

"No, I don't want it, break it!"

"What is that supposed to do?"

"The bugs are First One tech, just let us break it?"

I pull it out, glancing down at the murder-virus thing that turned Adora into her current state. Is it really that simple? As I'm thinking, Glimmer snatches it out of my hand. "Hey!"

"Hi Glimmer," Adora says, but her expression is more guarded now.

Glimmer does a double take, but doesn't comment on it. She grabs the disk on both ends, trying and failing to snap it. "Scorpia!"

"Little busy here!" She calls back, the creature still pushing back and forth against her. But Scorpia is surprisingly strong, it's thanks to her I wasn't She-Ra's first casualty.

I groan in annoyance, swiping the disk back from Adora. "I am real sick of being underestimated." I grit out, re-brandishing my claws and swiping through the disk. It shatters, the pieces clamoring down to the floor.

The creature backs off Scorpia, the eyes fading from red to blue in a way similar to She-Ra's own not long ago. Scorpia sighs. She slumps forward a bit as she relaxes.

Adora similarly sways, and nearly falls. I reach out and grab her by the arms, keeping her up as she steadies herself. "Ugh… what happened?"

I turn to Glimmer, glaring. "Yeah, what's going on?"

Glimmer turns to look past Scorpia, and the creature slithers back out through the hole it bursted in through. "It was the virus. It's done now, we won."

"We? I scoff, turning to Scorpia. "We?" I repeat, because my mind hasn't really caught up.

Scorpia turns to face me, wrapping her arms around me. "Wildcat, you're okay, Adora too!" She backs off, rubbing some dust off my shoulder. "We needed Glimmer's help to get you two out of this closet and smash the disk."

I glare back at Glimmer, she glares back at me. Then, Glimmer looks over to Adora, and raises an eyebrow. "Is she done trying to kill everyone?"

Adora narrows her eyes back at her, "I could still be convinced to." She threatens, but her tone is still out of it and Adora wouldn't actually kill her anyway, probably. It's not who Adora is, and even Glimmer can see that for a moment because her lip curls up. It's as if Glimmer is suppressing an urge to laugh.

"Whatever," I sigh, turning away from the princess. "So it's done?"

"Probably. Just a guess, I mean. Because like, the big tech bug isn't trying to eat us anymore." Scorpia muses, looking back at the hole. "Good thing we're leaving. We are still leaving, right?"

"Yeah, we're leaving." I affirm.

"We're leaving? Why are we leaving, the princess is right here!" Adora says, waving both arms at Glimmer. "Where's my sword?"

"Not here," I tell her, grabbing her arm. "We are leaving."

"But Hordak-"

"We'll deal with Hordak."

"Trouble back home?" Glimmer asks with a slight smirk, but it falls a bit. "If anyone could call the Fright Zone home…"

"Shut up," I tell her. "Adora, stop talking in front of Sparkles." I think back to how the rebels were at Dryl. Am I the only one who knows how to keep my mouth shut?

"I can't keep letting them go!"

"We're not! You were compromised, we lost, get over it." I snap, a little unfairly, but I'm seriously tired of today. I turn to Scorpia. "Lets pack already." Then, I turn to Glimmer, "unless you have a problem with that idea?"

Glimmer crosses her arms. "No, no. Go ahead, we can pick this up again later."

Adora blinks at Glimmer, then looks at me with an almost pleading look. "Okay, that means she's dry, right? We can take her! Watch them break her out against She-Ra!"

"Uh, I'm right here."

"I'm not doing this Adora. We're going home."

Adora sighs, "fine, fine! Whatever." She mutters, looking away from me. I feel a lump form in my throat, maybe I was too harsh on loopy Adora. I puff out air and grab her arm. "Let's get to the boat," I say to Scorpia.

Scorpia waves at Glimmer as I pull Adora behind me, towards the door. Adora pulls my arm over her shoulder, stepping up to me. "You're hurt."

"How much do you remember?" I ask her, opening the door again.

"Not… much," Adora thinks back. "Just… the disk."

I sigh. She doesn't remember anything she said? Good. We all step out into the snow, Adora supporting my weight since my leg is messed up from She-Ra. Our team is out there, as are the other princess and the two rebel friends. The snow is still nearly painful on my worn feet. The storm is back to how it was earlier, visibility up. The creature's must have been kicking up a ton of snow, impacting the weather somehow. First One's tech seems like magic to me anyway, so I don't think about it.

"Alright, the team-up is over. Everyone go home." I say to our team mostly, walking up to them. There was clearly a fight out here, probably another creature. I don't ask about it.

Bow walks up to Adora and I. "You two okay?"

I hiss as he approaches, so he stops moving. "Don't pretend to care."

"Just want to make sure she's normal. And you're clearly beat up."

Adora pulls me a bit, she hasn't looked at him. But I can see her expression soften a little bit. I can see the familiar signs of conflict in her eyes.

I turn back to Bow, "just get out of here." I motion for the trio to follow me. Entrapta isn't out here, so we head back to the rest of the outpost. Scorpia moves ahead of us and opens the door for us, not that she had to.

Entrapta is packing up. She turns around when she hears us come in. "Oh, good, you're all back. The sword is normal again. I take it you won?"

"We did!" Scorpia boasts.

"So we're going home, right?" Kyle asks from beside Adora and I.

"Apparently. Catra is hurt, everyone's cold and tired, and all our mining tech is gone anyway."

I glance warrily at Adora. "My leg is fine, I'm just sore. Don't coddle me."

She looks at me, opening her mouth to protest. But then, Adora closes her mouth and just nods. "Okay."

I sigh. More progress. I don't know how many steps forward and back we've taken, her confession earlier is definitely going to complicate things. For now, though, I'll just focus on getting home and helping her deal with Hordak.

Glimmer's POV

Frosta makes an ice pillar and lifts all of us back up to the deck of the Dragon's Daughter V. As soon as we all hop from the ice to the deck, I end up nearly collapsing. Bow helps me back up and guides me over to a bench, where I promptly sprawl out on.

"Ugh… I'm done for the year." I groan out at him, closing my eyes and laying back.

"That's fine, Glimmer. Take all the rest you need."

Giving Bow a slight sigh, I turn onto my side. "Did I screw up out there?"

"You didn't know, Glimmer. And no one died." His voice is full of reassurance, as he stands back up and looks around the ship. "I'm going to go help Sea Hawk get ready for us to take off."

"Take care."

"You too." Bow says, before turning around.

I sigh into the bench. The trip back home doesn't take as long as it did getting up here, mostly because I'm barely conscious for most of it. Sometimes, Bow checks on me. He brought a blanket earlier. Sometimes, it's Frosta. She's still got a hint of guilt in her eyes from earlier, but she's doing a lot better now that we won. She sat next to me for a while, she's a good friend too despite how I was harsh on her obnoxiousness back when the woods were frozen over. But I can't blame her, really, after what she told me. Sea Hawk surprisingly doesn't come over to bother me, only stopping by once and handing me some water.

I keep thinking back to what I unleashed today, though. If She-Ra hadn't dropped the sword… It fills me with a sense of dread, knowing that Bow was right about Adora's character. This war is still going only because Adora isn't a horrible person. If Adora wanted it… we'd have all been slaughtered at Bright Moon.

Catra's POV

Being out over the sea is even worse than being behind thin metal walls. In the outpost, you couldn't feel the wind. I feel half numb at this point, shivering up on the edge.

Adora's down in the cabin, looking for something, so I'm up on deck making sure we're getting home. At least this time, we won't spend a long time floating on a raft.

"Hey, Catra?" Scorpia asks, walking up to me.

"Scorpia." I acknowledge her present, still looking out over the deck at where Lonnie and Kyle are talking.

"Can we talk?"

I tilt my head a bit, looking over at her. It seems she's ready to pick up where she left off before we went to the digsite. "Of course."

Scorpia sighs nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. "Look… I think we're both in limbo here and I just… I wanna know what's going on. I mean, it wouldn't be right of me to… well, I don't know. You… you and Adora are clearly close, and I don't want to step on anything."

"Scorpia, I don't think you need to worry about that. I didn't think you were." I say, trying to ease her concerns.

"Yeah, that just… kind of proves my point. You don't really know what I want, do you?"

I purse my lips a bit. "You want to know that we're cool, right?"

Scorpia gets a bit of a sad look in her eyes, and I feel a small pang of guilt. "No, Catra. I know we're friends. I mean like… I think you're really cool. You're confident, determined, as good a leader as Adora is when you need to be, and I just… you're cool."

I stare at her a bit distantly, trying to piece it together. I'm not really used to people saying things about me that seem to come from a place of genuine kindness outside of Adora. Even Lonnie still gives me trouble some days. "Scorpia…"

"Fine, I'll say it. I like you, Catra. But… I know you like Adora. I know you won't say, I just… kind of need to put it out there? I'm sorry if you're uncomfortable, I'd love for us to just keep being friends."

I blink at her a bit more, sighing. Yeah, the complicated part of this all. "Scorpia… I'm glad we're friends. I wouldn't give that up. You and Entrapta are good to me in a way that, honestly, those three never were." I say, pointing behind me with my thumb to the trio. "I tolerate them out of circumstance more than anything. They're Adora's friends, they weren't mine. We're better now than when we were kids, but… we are friends, Scorpia. I'm sorry you felt so… stuck about this." I say, trying to turn more of her hurt expression into relief.

"Yeah… I think you and Adora really are good for each other. I promise I won't get involved, okay?"

"You don't really need to worry. Adora… she wouldn't even know what we're talking about. I tried to explain some stuff to her a year ago, but she didn't seem to get it. Which is fair, I don't either. But… her focus is the war. One day, I'll tell her, I just… I mean, we practically do everything together, I don't want to confuse her more with labels when she spent her whole life being told that our friendship is barely tolerable."

"What do you mean, she wouldn't understand, though?"

"Adora's textbook innocent and gullible. She barely knows what a mom and dad are, let alone a partner in that context."

Scorpia looks concerned now, looking at me almost with pity. "You just… let things go as they are, knowing you can be happier? It doesn't hurt?"

I look down a bit. It does hurt, it hurts a lot knowing she doesn't seem to feel things the same way I feel. It's not that she doesn't, she just doesn't understand. And I can force her to understand. "It doesn't hurt." I lie to Scorpia. "I don't like change, I'm happy with how Adora and I are." I tell her, half true.

Scorpia's face doesn't change much, but she does nod. "Okay, Wildcat. Just… you can't hold that stuff in forever."

"It won't be forever. I'll probably get more time to sit down and explain it to her when we win the war. For now, I just need to make sure the Adora that comes out of this all is still her." I say, rubbing my arm a bit. I can't keep making Adora feel weak, we need this war to go well.

"I know, I know. Hey, um… I was thinking. Maybe in a day or two, when everyone is rested, wanna pull everyone together for bowling? Could be great for morale!"

I turn back up to Scorpia, and put on a small half smile. "Yeah, I'm sure I can pull Adora out of her work-addict slump for an hour or too."

Scorpia relaxes further. She smiles at me as she says, "alright then, great. Well, take care."

"You too," I say, as Scorpia heads further down the deck. I sigh, rubbing my arms more. The air is still too cold, and we still have a while to go before we're down to warmer waters.

The cabin door opens, and I turn to see Adora walking out holding a bunch of fabric. Did she find a blanket? Her eyes scan the deck. She smiles when she sees me, and walks over.

"Hey Catra, guess what? Turns out, Kyle left those blankets on the ship the whole time." She says, handing it to me.

My hand moves quickly to grab the blanket. In a second, I'm covered and mildly more protected from the wind. I turn to Kyle, rolling my eyes. "Of course he left them, he always forgets something when packing and unpacking."

Adora chuckles, leaning against the edge of the deck next to me. "I think we're going to be okay. There's a huge piece of First One's tech in the cabin Entrapta conveniently decided to not tell us about, so there's that."

Groaning, I look over at her. "Of course she'd have found some, it's Entrapta. With all that numbers stuff she was talking about, with the high readings, it made no sense as to why we were here so long."

"Wow, you almost sound like you understand what you're talking about."

I shrug, "I spend time in her workshop, you pick up a thing or two. Last thing I need is for us to get lost in the woods next time we're walking through a shifting landscape."

"True, but it may have been better if we didn't find that castle." She points out. She still hasn't told me everything the weird hologram lady said when I was out, but I know enough that I can tell she's probably right.

But the train of thought puts me back on just how much she hasn't told me. "Adora… are you sure you don't remember anything you did or said?"

She looks down a bit, I can see her thinking. Whether it's trying to remember or thinking of a lie, I can't tell. "Not really. I remember… it was warm for a bit."

I tilt my head. I guess of everything to remember, feeling warm would make more sense than a few words. I nod my head, looking forward. "You should've seen yourself. Your words were more slurred than Shadow Weaver's at her worst." I chuckle lightly, but the humor was dry.

Adora nods, actually relaxing a bit. "You are okay, right?"

"Yeah, Adora. I'm okay." My voice isn't as annoyed as it was earlier. Now, I'm mostly just tired.

Adora looks down for a bit, then back up at me. She reaches over, grabbing the edge of the blanket I'm now wearing and pulling it off my shoulder. She steps closer, her other hand on my arm. She pulls gently, moving to sit. So I follow.

We hunch together on the floor, under a blanket that's just a little too small to actually provide much warmth, but now there's a better source of it. "When we get back to the Fright Zone, I'm taking the jacket back." There's only so much Adora truly understands, but I know she understands what that means for me. Things are different now, she's been overly protective but something changed after Dryl.

Adora laughs, "I can't believe you like me."

"It is not-" the words come out on instinct, but I bite my tongue this time. I can let her win sometimes, right? "Yeah… me neither."

Her weight shifts. I can almost feel her looking up at me. Then she sits up a little straighter. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" I listen carefully for anything, but the only thing I can hear over the sound of the waves crashing against the boat, are the rest of the team talking further down the deck. "I don't hear anything unusual."

Adora's face betrays concern. "Something about… a voice. Ra-... Rad? I don't know, it's probably nothing." She rubs her temples. Her brows are furrowed for a moment, but then she calls down.

"You know, I really think that fall in the whispering woods hit you way harder than you're letting on if you're hearing voices." I say, bumping against her arm slightly. It masks my concern well, coming off as more ribbing.

Adora pushes back a bit, a flicker of challenge showing in her eyes. "Back off, Catra, or I won't give the jacket back."

"You wouldn't!" I pretend to be offended.

"Yeah, you're right." She says softer, leaning back in. She doesn't mention any voices again, so I slowly relax. I tell myself it was the wind, although this could easily be She-Ra related and I wouldn't be surprised.

I lean back against her. It's a lot less… loose, then earlier. She's rigid, aware. I'm nervous in a different way, now that I'm not worried she'll do something stupid. Then again, you never know with Adora when she may or may not be stupid.