BEAST ISLAND
May 17, 16:08 UCT
"Tiny sandwiches?"
'Wrong Hordak' winked amiably, proffering a platter of miniature filled breads to his young guests; the first guests he'd had since... ever, from what Miss Martian could tell. The white-haired Horde clone's resemblance to the holo-image of Horde Prime that M'gann had seen back on the Watchtower was uncanny. But any resemblance ended at the purely physiological. 'Wrong Hordak' radiated nothing but warm sincerity and a deep-rooted desire to make others happy. It was hard to believe he was the genetic duplicate of a vicious tyrant.
But then, Miss Martian's own husband was a partial clone of Lex Luthor of all people. M'gann couldn't imagine anyone more utterly unlike her dear sweet Conner than the criminal CEO of LexCorp. She shook thoughts of Conner from her head. "No thank you, uh… Wrong Hordak."
"As you wish, Bro- I'm mean Sister," the clone corrected himself. "Free Will is the most precious and sacred thing in the universe! Isn't that right, Brother?"
A second Horde clone - with dark, purple-dyed hair and clad in a robotic exoskeleton - glanced up from his console before grunting monosyllabically. He was another story, cold, aloof, closed off, yet with a certain awkward vulnerability he couldn't completely hide behind the stony veneer. He reminded M'gann of some of the students she counselled back at Happy Harbor High.
"Oh, don't mind Right Hordak," spoke Entrapta, a goggled Etherian woman in greasy overalls, swinging from the ceiling by her long prehensile pigtails. "He's still a teensy bit sore about the Princess Alliance exiling him here."
"Yeah, because of all the war crimes," muttered Glimmer, under her breath.
There was clearly a lot more history here than Miss Martian was privy too. She'd just have to trust the relevant parts would be explained as needed.
At least a dozen other Horde clones mulled about the makeshift lab, working to reclamate various hunks of corroded millennia old tech. Their outfits were a kaleidoscope of colours and styles. Bright green mohawks, electric blue thigh-high boots, and even the odd hot-pink miniskirt were all on full display. After what Green Lantern had told Bravo Squad about the horrors of the Horde hive-mind, it was endearing to see how Prime's clones had so readily embraced individuality. Frankly, Mars and Earth could both take lessons.
"Can we get back on topic?" Catra asked, tapping her bare foot irritably against the rocky floor as Melog tried to comfort her. Her anxiety was a high-pitched whine, like tinnitus. Catra had been on edge ever since the incident in the Whispering Woods. M'gann didn't need psychic powers to guess why; she'd be in the same state if Conner…
"How could I forget!? Adora's been kidnapped by evil space gods!?" Entrapta enthused gleefully, leaning uncomfortably close to Halo. "Tell me everything!"
"Everything? Oh, that might take a while…" Halo winced uncomfortably. "Well, it all started when the Old 'Gods' died..."
"Maybe we could focus on tracking these 'Boom-Tubes'," said Bow, offering Entrapta his tracker pad. "This is everything we know about 'Zeta particles'. If anyone can track Adora; you can, Entrapta!"
"Fascinating," cooed Entrapta, salivating over the new data. "Of course, I'll have to put off my study of the ship."
"Ship?" asked Terra, shoveling a fistful of tiny sandwiches into her mouth.
"You mean Darla?" added Bow, referring the ancient crystalline craft that had just carried them to Beast Island from halfway across Etheria.
"No, silly," snorted Entrapta. "I mean the ominous extra-therian spacecraft hiding behind the moon of Zin!" She tapped a control panel with a tendril of purple hair, summoning the looming holo-image of a cyclopean vessel crafted in the shape a titan's cranium. "I picked it up a couple of days ago while testing out the long-range sensors I salvaged from a Horde battlecruiser."
"WHAT!?" Glimmer blurted.
"Not that it was hard to find," continued Entrapta animatedly. "The energy signature of its weapon systems alone are off the chart!"
Catra grabbed the Tech Princess by the shoulders, practically shaking with fury. "There is an alien warship orbiting the planet and you DIDN'T TELL ANYONE!?"
"Don't be ridiculous," answered Entrapta obliviously. "I told the Hordaks!"
"And I told my brother!" Wrong Hordak chimed cheerily.
Right Hordak merely grunted his assent.
Miss Martian leaned forward, examining the holo. A cursory glance was enough to confirm her worst fears; an Apokoliptan warship. Sweet C'eridy'all, what had Mary gotten herself mixed up in? "Bow, is 'Darla' space worthy?"
Bow shrugged. "Uuuh, more or less."
[-]
DARLA
May 17, 20:34 UCT
Zin was the dimmest and most distant of Etheria's moons, named after the villain of some ancient legend. At least that's what Catra recalled Glimmer telling her once. Catra had only been half-listening at the time, never one for moongazing or fairy tales. The pale green orb dominated the main viewscreen as seven young heroes crowded about the bridges' main control console.
"Entering orbit of Zin now," said Entrapta, working at least three consoles simultaneously with her octopi-like hair. It was shocking how laser focused she could be when in her element. "Initiating sensor sweep."
Terra perched atop a small floating boulder. "Are you sure your... cat can keep the ship cloaked?"
"Melog isn't a cat! They're a being of pure magic, and they can keep us cloaked just fine, Rock Princess," snipped Catra indignantly, making a mental note to ask Adora what the heck a 'cat' was when this was all over.
"Sorry I asked," Terra muttered low.
Not nearly low enough to avoid Catra overhearing, though. Ears like hers didn't miss much. Whatever. Once she had Adora back, they could send these Earth jerks and their creepy space god friends on their way.
"Wait, I think I got something," Entrapta said.
The viewscreen quickly zoomed in on a pixel of grey so dark it barely stood out from the sea of black. It grew into a monolithic warship, hovering in the void like a great stone idol. Its prow was cast in the image of a cold cruel face, every line of its expressionless features tinged with ageless malice.
Bow repressed a shudder. "Who is that supposed to be?"
"Believe me, you'd rather not know," Halo answered somberly.
"Halo, can you boom us in?" Miss Martian asked.
Halo shook their head. "Not without alerting the entire crew. And that's assuming I don't accidently boom us into a wall or reactor core."
"Leave that to me," Glimmer said. "You guys all cool with holding hands for a sec?"
[-]
THE GODHEAD
May 17, 20:37 UCT
Miss Martian, Catra, Halo, Glimmer, Terra and Bow materialized in a burst of violet light, momentarily illuminating a dim yet oppressively hot cargo hold. The six young heroes formed a defensive ring as they swept the chamber for hostiles.
Clear! Miss Martian' voice echoed in their minds. I'm going to try locating Adora with a psychic sweep.
"Could have said that without poking in our brains," hissed Catra in the sweltering dark.
"Noted," whispered Miss Martian coolly, her eyes blazing green.
[-]
Trapped in a place without light or noise, the Lump slumbered shapelessly in an amniotic vat. The Lump had no need of sight or sound; its own senses could not fail to miss the constant whispering cacophony of minds that surrounded it. Most other minds were small blind things to the Lump, shedding their thoughts carelessly like lice, heedless of who or what might pick them up.
It surprised Lump then, when one of the other minds began casting their thoughts with clear direction and purpose, like a searchlight. Their thoughts grazed the Lump's consciousness. The Lump did not care for that. The Lump valued its solitude. Ultimately, solitude was the only thing the Lump had to value. So, the Lump did what it always did whenever another intruded on its private domain; it lashed out.
[-]
"Miss Martian!?" Terra cried. She and Halo caught the falling Martian before she hit the deck. "What's wrong?"
"An immense psychic presence... somewhere on the ship... incredibly hostile," Miss Martian grimaced, brow creased with pain. "Have to keep it engaged on the psychic plane... before it..." Miss Martian's mind went silent, body still, eyes still burning like emerald stars.
"Is she okay?" asked Glimmer worryingly.
"She's in a psychic trance," explained Halo. "She should be fine so long as no one-"
The cargo hold's doors ground open, allowing a Parademon to come lumbering in; a metal crate the size of a small car was casually balanced on its shoulder. The Apokoliptan cyber-beast froze in its tracks, head tilting like a bemused dog at the sight of the boarders.
"Finds her," sighed Halo.
The Parademon let loose a roar that shook the deck, hurling its crate at the interlopers like a cannonball. It was met by Terra's boulder, both projectiles splintering into jagged shrapnel.
"Go, find your friend!" Terra planted her feet in a battle stance. "I'll handle this!"
The Parademon pounced, fangs bared. Terra charged forward, the remains of her boulder forming around her into a jagged suit of rocky armor. Stone fists delivered an earth-shattering uppercut to Parademon's jaw, staggering the monstrosity.
"Go!" Terra stood between the Parademon and the physically helpless Miss Martian, only her copper-brown eyes showing behind the stone armor. "NOW!"
"Tara!?" Halo reached out to their friend, before Catra yanked their arm.
"You heard her! C'mon!" Carta dragged the Earthling down the open corridor, followed by a reluctant Glimmer and Bow.
The Parademon shrieked hatefully as it pounced again on Terra. Metallic talons glinted blood-red in the crimson light, sparks flashing as metal talons met stone.
[-]
Halo ran through the hellishly overheated corridors of the Apokoliptan warship, sweat pooling stickily under their costume. Catra's pin-prick claws dug into their arm. "Stop!" Halo dug in their heels, yanking Catra to a full stop. "We have to go back for them!"
"There's no time!" Catra snapped back. "The mission comes first!"
You mean your girlfriend comes first, Halo thought bitterly, disgusted by Catra's apparent willingness to trade Tara and M'gann's lives for Adora's.
"Halo might be right, Catra," Bow gently interposed himself between the two. "We might need Miss Martian's telepathy just to find Adora."
"Oh, I can help with that!" a high-pitched voice squealed through the Halo's earpiece.
"Entrapta?" Bow winced, picking up the signal on his own voice-bead.
"I got a little antsy waiting for all of you, so I decided to keep myself busy by tapping into the Apokoliptan vessel's internal sensor network!"
Bow blinked. "You hacked an alien warship?"
"I hacked an alien warship!" Entrapta squeed. "I'm pinpointing Adora's bio-sign now. Huh, that's weird. I'm detecting a major energy signature up ahead of you."
"What kind of energ-" Halo trailed off, catching the sting of ozone in her nostrils.
"Hoooly moley!"
Black Mary came hovering out of the darkness, briefly lit by the occasional bolt arcing between her and the bulkhead. "You brats really are gluttons for punishment, aintcha?"
Catra rounded on Halo. "Rainbow, we need an exit!"
Halo rechanneled their frustration; their aura turned a blistering yellow as they blasted a burning hole through the ceiling.
"You and Halo go!" Glimmer charged her mage staff with light as Bow nocked an arrow. "We'll handle her!"
Mary grinned wickedly, cracking her knuckles. "Oh, you'll 'handle me', will you, pinkie?"
Catra hesitated. "Glimmer?"
"GO!" The mage-queen commanded. "Save Adora!"
"Thanks, Sparkles," whispered Catra with a small smile, disappearing into the still smoldering hole with Halo hot on her bare heels.
"Well, kiddies," sneered Mary. "We gonna dance or what?"
Glimmer and Bow said nothing, keeping their weapons trained on the Fury.
"Fine, I'll go first," snipped Mary, before charging like a bullet.
[-]
Big Barda studied her security consol. "The felinoid and the aberrant Motherbox are in the maintenance tubes. Should I dispatch more Parademons to intercept?"
"Why bother? They'll come to us soon enough," scoffed Granny. She casted a backwards glance at a third figure, shrouded in shadow. "Isn't that right… dearie?"
[-]
Catra slinked silently through the labyrinthine maintenance tubes of the Apokoliptan warship. Her companion taking up the rear was somewhat less silently.
"Ow!" Halo gasped sharply, catching their knee. "Sorry."
"Don't worry," hissed Catra. "I'm sure they won't hear it over the sound of your eyes boring into the back of my head."
"Those are your friends back there too?" Halo whispered. "Don't you even care?"
"Of course, I care, but they would do the same for Adora. I don't expect you to understand what she means to m-, to us."
Halo's eyes softened, wondering what they'd do if it was Harper in Apokolips' clutches.
"Entrapta, can you get a read on Adora's position?" Catra asked.
"Yes! But also, no!" Entrapta's voice trilled through Catra and Halo's earpieces. "I think she's somewhere in the chamber below you, but her reading are-KZZZT!"
"Entrapta? Entrapta!?" Catra tapped her earpiece, glancing back at Halo as she tore an underlying panel loose. "Looks like we're on our own, Rainbow."
A fall from this height would probably have broken an ordinary human's leg, or at the very least, badly sprained their ankle. Yet Catra landed with almost casual grace upon the metallic grill plating. Halo followed, floating down on an orange aura, their warm light failing to reach the shadowed walls of the cavernous chamber.
"Another cargo hold?" Halo asked, touching down. "Or some kind of meeting hall?"
Catra bent down to touch what seemed deceptively like rust covering the flooring: dry, red with a faint metallic scent. It was not rust.
"It's an arena."
"Oh, what a clever little kitty," echoed an unseen voice, sweet as sugar and toxic as arsenic. Blinding light flooded the vast circular chamber. "But I prefer to think of it as Granny's School of Hard Knocks!" A silver-maned armored woman gazed down from a balcony overlooking the arena, a cruel leer playing upon her ruby-black lips.
"Granny Goodness..." Halo whispered fearfully.
"Oh look, Barda, the freak Motherbox made itself a freak friend," trilled Granny. "Isn't that just nauseatingly adorable?"
Halo felt their blood boil, aura flashing a hot yellow.
"Enough!" Catra bared her claws. "Where's Adora?!"
"Adora... Adora?" Granny tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I'm afraid there's no one by that name here, child."
Catra snarled as she pounced at the balcony, claws ready to rip that condescending smirk from the Apokoliptan's wrinkled face, only for searing agony to surge though her body as she was sent flying back by an invisible energy field.
"Catra?" Halo's aura shifted back into orange as they caught the felinoid in mid-air, easing her to the ground. "Are you okay?"
"I'll live," groaned Catra weakly, clutching her side.
"Careful, naughty kitty's get punished," drawled Goodness, reaching for a control console. "Speaking of, perhaps you'd like to meet Granny's newest pet?"
A heavy door on the far side of the arena rose, revealing nothing but inky darkness beyond. From the void stepped an eight-foot-tall warrior armor-clad head to toe in ebon and crimson, her face hidden behind a pale skull-like helm.
"Behold my latest Fury, a new Apostle to carry the Gospel of Anti-Life to the farthest corners of the universe!" Granny grinned in demoniacal exaltation. "Behold… Despara the Despoiler!"
"So, you got yourself a new flunky," snorted Catra. "Big whoop."
"This is why I'm a dog person," sneered Goodness. "Speaking of, Despara..."
The faceless Fury raised her hand, wordlessly summoning a blade of jagged crimson energy.
"Attack!"
The skull-helmed warrior surged forward with a silent snarl. Catra and Halo only Just managed to leap out of the way as Despara's energy sword cleaved the arena's metal walls. Halo peppered the attacking Fury with yellow bolts, before shifting their aura into orange and taking to the air.
Despara responded by reforming her energy sword into a spiked energy chain, whipping it about Halo's ankles before sending them crashing to the floor with a vicious yank.
A semi-dazed Halo managed to shift back to yellow, attempting to blast the crimson glowing chain loose as they were dragged across the metal grating towards the silently looming Fury.
"That's enough of that!" Catra snarled.
Despara turned from her prey to find Catra already in mid-pounce. Catra's claws flashed as they struck, sending the Fury reeling and fragments of her skull-helm flying across the arena.
Catra raced to Halo's side, helping them to their feet as the energy chain around their ankles momentarily flickered out of existence. "Come on, Rainbow. We gotta get outta here and find..."
Despara rose like a shade from the pits of Despondos. Shards of her skull-helm clattered to her feet like broken glass, revealing a pale ash-hued face: scalp shaved bare, eyes burning red yet cold and empty.
Catra's voice nearly died in her throat. "Adora?"
[-]
Miss Martian 'walked' through a landscape of oddly undulating hills. The ground beneath her 'feet' was a weird pinkish-grey sponge, laced with pulsing crimson veins. She kept her guard up, knowing someone or something was watching her even without eyes.
"M'gann..."
There was no flash of light, no puff of smoke, not even a ripple in the dim light. One moment the waste was empty and the next he was simply there, back turned, as though he had always been here, waiting here for her.
Conner.
M'gann braced herself for what was to come. No grinning gorgon or leering demon turned to face her. Only the gentle blue eyes and eternally boyish smile of the man she loved.
"Hi," spoke M'gann, creating the illusion of sound.
"Hi," the false Conner tried to choke back, only to buckle over in a coughing fit. Smoke billowed from his lips. He retched burning rivulets of molten magma that seared flesh and charred bone from within until all that was left was grey-white ash.
"No!? No no no!" M'gann whimpered, sifting desperately through the ashes. "Please, not again!"
Bitter, isn't it?
"Who's there?!" M'gann demanded angrily, sweeping the darkness.
The inevitability of loss... hanging over every moment like a pall...
"Who are you!?"
Images that were not images assaulted M'Gann's mind; the Flesh Pits of Apokolips, where endless horrors were bred; the pale leering face of Desaad, Darkseid's chief torturer and scientist; a briny vat in a lightless chamber containing a mass of engineered bio-matter, a prison of blind meat for a terrifyingly powerful mind, a shapeless unformed...
The word you're looking for is 'Lump'.
"GET OUT OF MY MIND!" M'gann cried. She tryied to lunge forward only to find herself already ankle deep in the sucking pinkish-grey sponge.
Your mind? The Lump tittered as M'gann began to sink to the psychic mire. Where do you think we are?
[-]
Catra stared in horror at the empty-eyed specter that was once the woman she loved. "What... What did you do to her?"
"Only what I do for all my lost little lambs," sneered Goodness. "I hollow out their hearts and minds until they're cold and empty, then fill their aching voids with Granny's love."
Despara charged forward with a cry of wordless fury. The brainwashed Princess of Power's burning blade morphed into a spiked mace as she raised it high, ready to come crashing down on a frozen Catra.
Halo leaped between the two Etherians, aura bright red as they summoned a scarlet energy shield to protect the stunned Catra. Despara's mace struck the shield like a thunderbolt, sending crimson sparks flying.
"Glorious, isn't she?" Goodness thrilled, watching Despara continue to hammer mercilessly upon Halo's shield. "Watch your back, Barda. This one might just take your job."
"Yes, Granny," replied Barda tonelessly.
Halo's bones shuddered as their shield shattered, recoiling from the feedback as they fell to the floor beside Catra. Despara stalked forward, expression utterly blank as she raised her mace for the final blow.
[-]
Shimmer, or whatever her stupid name was, cried defiantly as she unleashed a swirling circle of glowing violet glyphs. The cantrip dissipated against Mary's black clad form like a puff of mist. Pathetic.
"What was that supposed to do, turn me into a frog?" Mary slapped the pink-haired wannabe mage aside with a flick of her wrist. "I can't believe what passes for a sorceress on this glitter ball."
Arrow boy fired off a taser-arrow. Black Mary caught the pronged projectile in mid-air, mere inches from her chest. A million light-years from Earth and the galaxy was still infested by idiots who thought they could fight gods with a fucking bow and arrow. Before the archer had time to even register what had happened, Mary already had him pinned against the bulkhead.
"Too slow," she taunted.
"W-Why are you doing this?" Arrow-boy grunted.
"Why? You want to know why?" Mary snarled, the sheer audacity of this punk. "Because I need this power, because it's the only thing I have left, and I won't risk losing it!"
"You're doing all this for some stupid magic powers!?"
"You… you don't understand! How could you? You don't know what it's like to be a goddess, then have it all stripped away!" Mary's voice faltered. "I can't go back. I've already betrayed everything and everyone I've ever loved. I haven't reverted in almost a year because I'm afraid I'll never be able to look at my true self again without retching. I… I hate myself and…and…" She reeled under the onslaught of her emotional damn finally breaking. "Why am I even telling you all this unless…" The pink girl's cantrip; a truth spell!
The pink-haired mage bolted back to her feet. "Whatsthenameofthewizardwhogaveyouyourpowers?!"
[-]
The Lump watched with wicked glee as the Martian's astral form sank further down into the roiling psychic slurry, literally mired in her own fears and doubts. The interloper made one last desperate attempt to wrench herself free, only to be finally sucked down into the toxic abyss.
A triumphant psychic roar echoed across the astral plane. Once again, the Lump was supreme, supreme in its own mindscape. Out there, on the material plane, it was just a shapeless pile of neural tissue, engineered in the flesh-pits of Apokolips. But here… Here it was God!
My, don't we have quite the superiority complex?
The Lump roiled in shock. The Martian's astral avatar floated in the void behind it, serene and untouched. But how? How did she survive-
A psychic attack targeting my insecurities? Yeah, no one's ever tried that before. The Martian rolled her eyes. I should thank you though. The truth is I have been avoiding Conner lately, and until you came along, I didn't even realize why.
The Lump coiled for another attack, only to find itself sinking into the bog of psychic sludge.
When I get back to Earth, I promise I'm going to make it up to him. I'm going to make every second of our time together count, no matter how many or how few we have left.
The Lump loosed one last psychic howl before it was subsumed completely by its own despair and self-loathing.
The Martian smirked without lips. But it looks like you have your own issues to work through.
[-]
The glowing mace in Despara's grip flickered out of existence like a dying candle. It was followed by the Fury's eight-foot armor-clad form, leaving Adora to crumple to the floor a like a stringless marionette.
"Adora!" Catra raced to the fallen Princess' side, cradling her girlfriend's limp head. "It's going to be okay," sobbed Catra weakly. "We'll get you back to Bright Moon and Sparkles or Razz or whoever will fix you, and everything will be fine! You'll see..." Catra's fingers entwined Adora's. "Promise, remember?"
"Catra, watch out!" Halo yelled, before they and Catra were sent hurling across the arena by a crackling energy bolt.
"Hands off Granny's merchandise!" Goodness stalked across the arena, standing over the unconscious Adora like a lioness claiming her kill. She rose her still crackling Mega-Rod, taking aim at Catra and Halo once again. "Granny always has to do everything herself."
Before Goodness could pull the trigger, the arena's heavy door was blasted off its hinges. Mary Bromfield came hopping over the smoky threshold, mumbling through the tightly woven wrappings binding her limbs and jaw, before face planting on the arena floor. Glimmer, Bow and Terra leaped over the fallen Fury, weapons drawn, powers primed as Miss Martian's wraith-like from rose from the deck behind Goodness.
Miss Martian smirked. "You were saying something about doing everything yourself, Goodness?"
Glimmer's eyes widened at the figure lying at Goodness' feet "Bow, is that..."
"Adora?" he finished.
"Well, far be it from Granny to overstay her welcome," sneered Goodness. "Fatherbox, initiate extraction protocol!"
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
Three simultaneous Boom-Tubes opened beneath Goodness and her Furies, including Adora, swallowing the lot of them up in flash of hellish light before vanishing as abruptly as they had appeared.
"NOOOOO!" Catra cried, clawing frantically at the bare grating where Adora had just laid.
"Self-Destruct activated: you have ten seconds to appreciate Granny's love..." echoed Goodness' simulated voice.
"Glimmer, prep to 'port us out of here!" Miss Martian barked, taking charge of the situation. "Catra, we have to go!"
"Nine..."
"Nonono!" Catra muttered, still clawing futile at the metal grating. "We have to go after her!"
"Eight..."
"I'm sorry," whispered Miss Martian, morphing her arms into constricting tendrils that dragged the feline towards the teleport circle.
"Seven..."
"NOOOOO!" Catra wailed, trashing against the Martian's grip. "I HAVE TO GET HER BACK!"
"Six..."
In the depths of the ship, something rumbled as the bulkheads began to buckle and warp.
"Oops! Granny lied!"
[-]
ZIN
May 17, 20:59 UCT
Granny Goodness - flanked by Big Barda and Black Mary - watched as a new star flared to life in the heavens above, before being swallowed by the void just a quickly. The moon's dusty copper green surface was momentarily turned an electric-blue by the light of the Godhead's radion reactor core annihilating itself.
Mary smirked. "Pretty."
"My, Mary dear, aren't we blasé?" Goodness drawled. "Those were your former comrades, after all?"
"There's no love lost between me and Morse," Mary said defensively, perhaps a little too defensively. "And I'd never even met rock-girl and rainbow-brite before yesterday."
"Of course, child." Goodness chortled before turning her gaze downward, to the prize lying still at her feet. The loss of the Lump meant she'd have to resort to subtler means of control but that was an inconvenience at most. She kneeled to stroke the still unconscious Adora's cheek.
"Rest now, dearie," Granny cooed soothingly. "When you wake up, you're going to feel like a new woman."
[-]
DARLA
May 18, 00:16 UCT
The black void slowly filled with a bright violet haze. It took a few blinks for Catra to realize the 'haze' was Halo standing over her, aura aglow. She bolted upright, or at least tried to before her muscles started screaming.
"Easy," sighed Halo weakly as their aura dimmed. "You got hit pretty badly before Glimmer managed teleported us back. I healed you as best I could, but you might still be a little... tender."
"I'll live..." Catra rose herself more gingerly from the bed. Much of her skin was raw and tingly, as though newly regrown. A quick glance revealed she was back aboard Darla, in the First One space craft's small infirmary. Melog's head rested forlornly on her lap, purring soothingly. She ran her hand through the fey's shimmering mane.
"Melog hasn't left your side since we got back," said Halo. "They're really very sweet."
"Where's everyone?"
"On the bridge but you should,-" Halo spoke as Catra pushed herself off the bed with a grown, brushing past them.
[-]
The low murmurs ceased the moment Catra limped onto the bridge. She leaned on Melog, who had doubled their height via shapeshifting to more comfortable accommodate her. Glimmer, Miss Martian, Bow, Terra and Entrapta turned to her expectantly.
"Catra!" Glimmer dashed forward to offer a hug, stopping short when she noticed how precarious Catra's balance on her newly healed legs really was. "Are you okay?"
"Halo told us about..."' Bow's voice caught in his throat. "About Adora. I don't know what to say."
"I don't need sympathy, I need to find her," droned Catra. "Where do we go next?"
Glimmer and Miss Martian exchanged uneasy looks. "Catra, it's not that simple," spoke the Martian softly. "There's no way to trace a Boom-Tube and-"
"Well then track their tech or something!" Catra barked, rounding on Entrapta. "You did it before!"
"I... I tried but... I couldn't find any other Apokoliptan signatures in orbit." Entrapta winced, hiding behind a wall of tresses. Her voice barely a whisper. "I'm sorry."
"You're sorry!?" Catra snarled at the Tech Princess. "Adora's been brainwashed by some sadistic alien gargoyle and you're 'sorry'? How can you be this useless!?"
"That is enough, Catra!" Bow placed himself between the two. "We're all upset about Adora but that's no excuse to take it out on Entrapta!"
"Fine, I'll take it out on her!" Catra rounded on Miss Martian. "You're supposed to be psychic! Why didn't you just read Goodness' mind to figure out where they went!?"
"It doesn't work like that," Miss Martian said evenly. "I know Adora means a lot to you but-"
"You know nothing!" Catra snapped. Something still soft inside her squealed out in pain, making her nearly double over. Glimmer was the first to try and offer help, only to be frozen by a glare of pure venom from Catra. "Look at you, all of you! All your magic and tech and superpowers and you couldn't save one person!? You are all useless!"
Catra hobbled off the bridge with Melog at her side, brushing past the just arriving Halo. They watched as the automated door snapped close behind the feline Etherian.
"I take it that didn't go well?"
[-]
Useless... Worthless... I literally had her in my arms and I still couldn't save her!
Catra hobbled through the ship's corridors. She was almost halfway to her and Ador-, her cabin before her legs finally gave out, sending her stumbling to the deck. She landed on her hands and knees, sending a fresh jolt of pain through lower body.
"DAMMIT!" She swore, pounding the deck weakly with her fist as tears began to well-up behind her eyes. "Dammit..."
Melog whimpered softly as Catra threw her arms about the fey's neck, weeping wretchedly into their shimmering mane.
"I'm sorry, Adora," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry."