"Is this Catherine Applesauce?" Catra frowned at the phone. "Um, yes, but can I ask who's calling?" The voice on the other line shifted as if they were sitting in a chair. "My apologies. I'm First Sergeant Eternia. But you can call me Mara," Catra ignored the way her heart skipped a beat. "What can I do for you then, Mara?" She asked instead, oozing fake confidence. Mara cleared her throat softly. "I'm calling on behalf of Private Adora Greyskull,"

Catra swallowed thickly. "Yeah, I know Adora," She sat against the desk in her room. "Is-is she ok?" Catra asked softly. "She will be yes," Mara answered. "However, she has listed you as her next of kin," Catra frowned. "What does that mean?" She asked. Mara sighed slightly. "Generally, a next of kin makes medical and other decisions when the person cannot,"

Catra's heart thumped in her chest. "Adora was injured in service, and will likely need a new kidney. The hospital will try and fix it, but it's relatively likely that she'll need a new one within the year. We just need your permission, as her next of kin, to authorise it," Catra suddenly felt very angry. How dare Adora force her to make these decisions? She debated hissing into the mobile and throwing it against the wall. "Sure, whatever," She said instead. Mara audibly hesitated, even through the phone. "So, we have your permission to give her a new kidney? It is an operation, you understand?" Mara pressed. Catra scoffed bitterly. "Look, Macy-"

"Mara," She interrupted. "Whatever. Adora and I haven't spoken in over six months. So I don't know why she's put me as her king or whatever," Catra began to pick at her nails. "But I don't wanna be it. I don't wanna be responsible for fixing her fuck ups," She said. Mara shuffled over the line. "We can arrange for her next of kin to be defaulted to a commanding officer. In this case, it'll be Sergeant Major Hope Lite or myself," Catra shrugged before realising Mara couldn't see her. "Sure, whatever. I just don't wanna be it,"

She hung up the call before Mara could speak any further.

Adora loved fighting. A strange thing, sure. But when she was on the battlefield, she was just a soldier. Not a delicate woman, or a glass vase. She was a valued soldier who was protecting her country.

She was an equal.

The apparent 1st part of the war was fought when she was a baby. Both her parents were military fighters. Her dad, Randor, was a General in the Etherian army, and her mom, Marlena, was in the Air Force as a Captain fighter pilot. Adora and her twin brother were born on the Crimson base, making them army brats. Marlena and Randor sent them away to their grandmother's, Razz, back in the Whispering Woods precinct when they were only two months old; barely out of the hospital's ICU. Marlena and Randor died when Adora and Adam were three months old. Razz died shortly after when they were five months old. Adora was sent to Shiela Weaver's all-girls home, whereas Adam was sent to Orko's home for boys.

To cut a long story short, Adam joined the Air Force, just like their mom did, at sixteen. Adora refused, point blank.

At least until Adam was shot down somewhere over the Salinean Sea a few weeks before their seventeenth. Fueled by rage and grief, Adora joined the army. She was placed under Marabelle (Mara) Hope's battalion in the military. There, Adora quickly climbed the ranks, being ruthless in her training and attacks. When she was little, Sheila had let her watch a show called He-Man, and Adora discovered Adam did too. They wrote about being He-Man and She-Ra. Adam's call sign was He-Man. Adora's was She-Ra.

It took a while for her to garner respect within her troops. Many of them blamed her parent's reputations for her rapidly growing collection of titles. In one particular incident, they were training with arrows and climbing high and steep poles. She, along with two other women, and one guy, were the only ones who were able to reach the arrow at the top of the thirty-five-foot pole.

Somewhen around her twentieth birthday, they were out on a simple scouting mission. "They" being her, First Sergeant Mara and Sergeant Major Hope. Mara held control of seventy soldiers, Hope had two-fifty and Adora, as a Sergeant, had forty.

She walked at the back, keeping an eye on the rear. Mara was in the middle, while Hope took the helm. Adora kept to her own thoughts, sometimes chirping in when her troops asked her questions or involved her in their conversations, but otherwise was silent. They walked through the Arxian mountain range which Adora hated. The mountains were famous for traitorous weather and unpredictable avalanches.

It was also where Adam was shot down.

The battalion trudged through, as silently as possible. Adora listened to the mountains.

It was quiet.

Far... too quiet. She designated the rear to a nearby troop, Wesley Horde (or WH) and jogged on to meet Mara in the middle. "Hey, you ok?" She asked quietly. Adora shook her head, "Listen," She whispered. Mara stopped walking, waving for her troop to continue and listened to the mountains. "I don't hear anything," She frowned. Adora grimaced, "Exactly. It's way too quiet for mountains." She whispered. "You think it's an ambush?" She asked back. Adora sighed quietly. "Maybe? I don't know... it's just far too quiet... and I don't like it," She bit her lip. "Go let Hope know... see what she wants to do. I'll keep an eye out,"

She nodded briefly and jogged on ahead again, meeting Hope. "What are you doing here? You should be at the rear," She scolded. "If I may, Sarge, as I just said to Mara, it's way too quiet. Something's wrong. I think we're walking into an attack or ambush." She said quietly. Hope glanced around briefly before scoffing, "I know these mountains like the back of my hand. We're fine, go back to the rear, and don't move," She snapped. Adora bit back her scathing remark, bowed her head and dropped back to the rear.

She looked around, trying to find something out of the ordinary. Her skin itched and she turned in her stride. Someone was watching her. She stared at a rock in particular and focused on listening.

Distantly, almost silently, she heard a bow gun cock. Adora spun and flicked over the troops. Not one person had their gun out. She scanned the mountains again. Had she looked in a different direction, she'd have missed the moving rock.

Wait... moving rock?

Another gun cocked.

"Ambush!" She yelled. A sudden barrage of bullets shot from the sky. Hope yelled from the front. Mara darted to the left, while Adora darted to the right. She glanced around. "Anyone hurt?" She asked. The group checked themselves over and shook their heads. "No, we're ok,"

She looked across the green ground to where Mara was hiding. "We can't hide forever!" She yelled. "Wait for Hope's signal!" She yelled back. Whilst it was the correct decision to await the most senior person's call in an attack, Mara (and Adora for that matter) were well within their rights to command an attack of their own. Adora looked at Hope, who had hidden a little ways past her. "It doesn't look like a large army! We can take them! Who has the snipers!?"

Adora looked at the group behind. "Anybody?" She asked. Ten raised their hands. "I have ten!" She yelled. "I have the other five!" Mara yelled. "Take out their gunmen!" Hope yelled. Adora spun and faced them. "Are you ready? Aim at anything that moves up in the mountains, don't hesitate. Got it?" She said. The snipers nodded and crawled out of their hiding spot. Adora crouched to the side of the rock, out of sight from the enemy, but able to see what was going on. "On my mark!" She yelled. More guns were cocked and readied. "NOW!" She yelled.

A barrage of bullets shot from their hiding hole, followed quickly by Mara's snipers. They whizzed through the air, making their targets fall into the grass, or roll down the hillside.

"HOLD!" Hope shouted. Adora held her hand up and her snipers stopped.

Hope whistled and everyone jogged over. Like they did two years ago, and when Adora lost her kidney, the enemy appeared at the top of a hill. It was easily three enemies to a soldier. Adora cringed. Not everybody was going to come out of this alive. "If we die, we die with honour. Kill every enemy you see. No mercy," Hope locked eyes with everyone, including Adora. The blonde nodded, readying her gun and tapping the dagger she kept in her boot.

She exchanged a quick look with Mara.

"CHARGE!"

Despite probably running to her death, Adora felt a grin split her face as the wind rushed through her hair. There was a certain freedom to this: being able to fight for her country.

The enemy ran at them, shouting and shooting. She slid on her leg, ducking a swing from a dagger-wielding soldier. She rolled into a fighting stance, swinging at his ankle. He roared and dropped to the ground. The group shouted behind her and began slicing the enemy down, one by one. Three soldiers were behind her, daggers held up menacingly, already dripping with blood. "You are fighting pointlessly. You will fail," One of them sneered. Adora didn't answer. She readied her dagger and blew some hair out of her face. She twiddled it in her hands.

With a shout, Adora spun her dagger in a circle and sliced out at their hands. They jumped back with a shout. She swung it at the soldier to her left. He yelled loudly and dropped to the ground. She twisted it through his arm and slashed across his midsection. She yanked it out and flicked the blood off. The middle one charged at her, his dagger raised just as the other one on her right ran. She ducked into a roll and sliced at their ankles. They dropped down, shouting and swearing. She stabbed them in their stomachs, panting slightly. She scanned to see if anybody needed urgent help.

Mara's shout drew Adora's attention to her leader, Hope. She ran over and brandished her dagger, swinging at the largest soldier she'd seen. Seriously. She thought there was a weight limit when being in the army.

Apparently, that wasn't received on the opposing side.

The enemy crashed to the ground as her fist made contact with his skull. Hope scampered out, screaming commands to the remaining fighters of the Etherian army, leaving her battling with the giant. She glared into his green eyes. He pulled a sword from his belt. He swung at her small form. Adora groaned as she strained against his sword with her tiny dagger, but held. She kicked upwards and into his man area.

He dropped down, hissing. Adora rolled into a crouching stance. She spun at his feet, slicing them with her dagger. The enemy dropped to the ground, yelling, but swung at her head. She ducked and thrust it into his thigh. It dug into the ground behind him, pinning him. He roared and gave one final swing at her leg. Blinding pain erupted from it, freezing her brain and turning her spin cold. She screamed, grabbing the wound tightly. Blood leaked from between her fingers.

Adora yelled out in frustration, yanking out her dagger. She clambered onto his body and pushed it through his throat, killing him instantly. Adora knew she wouldn't get it back... not that she'd try. That was fine... she didn't really like the dagger anyway.

She slipped off of his body, panting on the ground and looked around. Hope was fighting strong, and Mara was winning against four enemies. The pain made itself known, staining the green ground a horrible red colour. Her leg felt cold, but also hot. Way too hot. Adora blinked the spots away from her vision, glancing down. All she could see was the blood slowly seeping out from the massive gash somewhere around her knee.

Her vision began to turn grey as everything around her faded.

Catra walked out of her final class of the day, groaning at the sun. Despite not having drunk in over twelve hours, she was still very much feeling the alcohol from the night before. She slid on her sunglasses and pulled out her phone. Scorpia had called her a few times and texted at least double, Leona (or Lonnie, as she was called) had texted her a few times as well, which was odd. Lonnie was a girl she and Adora had grown up with in Sheila's home for girls. Catra never really got along with Lonnie, but Adora did.

And what Adora wanted, Adora got.

Despite being an army brat, and being raised by a woman who loathed war, Adora was the favourite in the home. Her blonde hair, stuffed into wonky pigtails with her soft blue eyes and gap-toothed grin won everyone over. Catra shook the bitter thoughts away. She hadn't seen Adora since October 18th, 2118… over three years ago. Why, you may wonder?

Catra had begged Adora to not join the army, to run away with her and live a life away from Horde City. But no. Adora had to flex her hero complex and avenge her family's deaths or whatever. Catra had sworn to herself that if Adora joined, she'd never speak to her again.

And she hadn't.

It was now January 10th, 2121, and she hadn't exchanged a single word. Despite the blonde girl trying via phone calls, emails, letters, texts and even audio notes, Catra had remained stubborn. Adora finally got the idea around six months into her service… also around the time of her new kidney.

Vaguely, Catra wondered how she was doing with the kidney. But then she shook the thought away. Catra took a sip of her coffee and began to look through the messages.

Scorpia - 09:38: How are you, Wildcat? Last night was wild. Hope the hangover isn't too bad.
Scorpia - 09:40: Have you got art class today? Let me know, bc my break might start around yours.
Scorpia - 10:19: Did I upset you? Nah. If you find me, I owe you coffee.
Scorpia - 11:18: Wildcat, please answer me. There's something online, and you don't wanna see it.
Scorpia - 11:20: Catra, please don't look online. Find me.

Lonnie - 11:13: Hi bitch. Have u seen the news?
Lonnie - 11:24: Scorpia wants me to warn you bc ure not answering her.
Lonnie - 11:26: Srsly, Catra, it's about Adora. U rnt gonna wanna read it.

Catra blinked furiously at the pad, immediately doing what the two women had advised her against. Unaware of where she was walking, Catra bumped into someone. "Hey, watch where you're going, dipshit!" She spat, flicking coffee off of her hand. "I'm so sorry!" The voice said back. Catra gasped highly, yanking off her glasses. "Well, fuck me sideways," She paused. "Hi, Adora,"