Me on chapter 1: Uploads will come out quickly.
*Chapter 2 takes ages to come out*
Me now: Yea I'm just going to hold my breath and not make anymore promises, especially since progress for this an a03 has been halted in favor of other fics.
Ugh why is this so hard?"
It had been a few weeks since Glimmer had been appointed as queen of Brightmoon, and she was already feeling the pressure of the role. It felt so easy to fail and let everyone down. There had been a dispute between two towns on how to divy up the latest batch of supplies. Despite her best efforts, there were some people thinking she could be handling it much better than she was.
"Hey it can't be all that bad. You've handled other challenges really well. You can do this."
Glimmer peered down from her new throne to look at Scorpia. A few days after the portal incident she had shown up in Brightmoon wanting to join the rebellion. She explained that Catra had too far down a path she couldn't follow. She had sent Entrapta to Beast Island. At first, no-one was sure about her, so they decided to have her locked up in the spare room. However, as time went on, everyone began to warm up to her. Seahawk had even vouched for her, which surprised everyone. Glimmer eventually let her become one of her personal advisors.
Since then, one of her main tasks had been attempting to locate Beast Island. Adora had explained that Beast Island was worse than death. Both Adora and Scorpia had heard stories about it. How it was an island filled with various carnivorous beasts. Scorpia, and even Adora had been looking for information about the island. However, all the efforts were turning up with blanks.
Shadow Weaver attempted to stop this excursion. Saying that it was a useless endeavor. That by the time they would even be able to locate Beast Island, their friend would likely be long dead, and the journey would all be for nothing.
"Doesn't mean they would be pleased with it. Everyone just expects me to be my mom when I'm not." Glimmer stated rather angrily. "No-one seems to think that I have what it takes. Even Shadow Weaver won't teach me the more powerful spells because she thinks I'm not ready.
Glimmer had begun taking lessons with Shadow Weaver to help her get stronger. These lessons featured a mix of using her powers with Shadow Weaver's help, as well as using her powers on her own. Glimmer had grown much stronger with her current powers. She could now teleport objects or people without needing to be in physical contact with them, but Shadow Weaver had refused to teach her any more powerful abilities. Your not ready, she would keep saying.
She had even taken to helping out Adora with training from time to time when a moment with Light Hope had not gone rather successfully. While Adora was not quite as comfortable about taking lessons from her, she would be lying if she said they were not helpful. She got more control over her swords magical blasts, and even learned how to tame different animals.
"Don't worry about all of them. You've handled the horde really well. I'm sure you can handle this no problem." Scorpia said, trying to offer up some kind words of encouragement.
"Easy for you to say. Your not the one with a lot of pressure resting on you." Glimmer sighed. "I'm surprised the Horde has made any moves. The damage from the portal must have really set them back."
"Yea, I noticed they started up a bunch of repair projects when I left. It must have really did a number on them if they have done nothing yet. But hey, that means less pressure to get things done right?"
Just as Scorpia had finished her sentence, a guard came running into the throne room.
"Your majesty." The guard said. "We have just received word of a Horde convoy moving on a supply cache in a town in the Whispering Woods."
"Call Shadow Weaver in. I'm going to call the other princesses. We move on this ASAP."
Catra felt happy to finally be back out on the field. For so long, the Horde had been managing repairs from the portal incident, with her managing issues within a section assigned to her. She felt extremely cooped up. The lack of activity continually caused her thoughts on recent events to fester. This caused her to take out her anger on those who were performing less than adequate. When some of her bandit crew members from the waste began to voice some concerns about working with the Horde, she had them kicked out. Needless to say, she was happy when Hordak ordered an attack. It felt like the perfect opportunity for her to blow off some steam.
The only real qualms she had were about Adora. This was likely the first time that they would see each other since Shera closed the portal, and for once, she felt unsure of how an encounter might turn out.
As the Battalion approached the supply camp. Catra split her forces into two groups in order to attack. The idea was to split up the rebellion's forces making them easier to take down. Catra directed one section, while Lonnie directed the other. Each side would attack the town from two different directions.
Catra instantly sees rebellion troops as her faction approaches. She has the bots engage first, which brings a good chunk of units out to engage in hand to hand combat. A group of archers stayed back in the town stayed back in the town to provide support. On Catra's side, a rear tank unit cleaned up any Rebels that caused any problems with the bots.
Catra felt things going successfully from her perch on top of a rear tank. With how the battle was progressing it would only be a matter of time until the village was theirs. Then all of a sudden, a giant purple flash of light shot up from the center of the town. Catra pulled out a set of binoculars from the inside of the tank, only to see a seen that infuriated her more. All of the princesses, along with Shadow Weaver, were now in the center of the town.
Well shit, Catra thought. She pulled out a communicator. "Lonnie, we got company, be ready. Rogelio get the skiff team ready. I have a few princesses to deal with." And with that she took off into the town, carving a path through some straggling rebellion troops in the process.
It wasn't long before she came across Scorpia fighting off Horde bots, and her mind flashed back to a few weeks ago. That moment that showed that Catra was not even good for Scorpia to be her friend. It caused her anger to simmer once more.
"You fucking traitor!" She yelled out. Scorpia turned her head up to face her. Anger painted on her own face as well.
"You know exactly why I left Catra." Scorpia responded rather bitterly. A part of Catra was surprised to hear such a tone coming from her, but her anger quickly overpowered that shock. She growled and charged at her. Taking out her whip and throwing a few lashes out her. Scorpia blocks them easily with her claws. When Catra is close enough, she wraps her whip around one of Scorpia's claws and use pulls hard, using the momentum to deliver a swift kick to the face, causing her to stumble backwards.
Catra kept up the assault. She puts up her whip and extends her claws and runs up to Scorpia and gets a few good swipes at her chest before one final swipe to her face makes her fall over backward. Catra leaps off the ground for one final blow, but a blast of magic sends her karreening of to the side. When she recovers, she looks up towards the source of the blast, only to be met by the form of Shera. Her eyes glaring at Catra with pure hatred. It makes Catra feel the same fear she had back when Shera closed the portal.
"Hey Adora" Catra says putting on a smirk. How she manages to say it without breaking her cool facade, even Catra doesn't know.
"This ends now Catra. Your not winning this." Shera says rather bitterly at her. It was a new level of hate that Catra had never heard coming from Adora.
At the mention of her losing, Catra's anger only flared up again. "This isn't over until the Rebellion falls." She said, practically growling at her.
"If your so determined then bring it." Shera responded. "Or is the big old bad force too scared."
Now Catra was practically seething. She screamed and charged her. As she got close, Shera swung her sword at her. Catra doged underneath and gave a swift punch to Shera's stomach, causing her to stumble backwards slightly. Catra jumped for another attack, but Shera transformed her sword into a shield just in time to deflect it, pushing Catra over to the side.
Shera shifted her shield into a mace and now charged Catra. Catra almost instantly began a series of dodges as Shera swung at her wildly. Catra kept moving backwards avoiding Shera's swings, but eventually Shera's mace managed to get a good wack in on her side. Shera jumped at her, but Catra used her whip to pull herself out of the way. Shera slammed into the ground where Catra originally was, leaving a small crater behind.
Catra took out her whip once more and swung it at Shera. Shera raised her arm and let the whip wrap around it. Then she yanked on it hard, and Catra flown in toward her. When she was close enough, Shera smacked her in her cheek with her mace, causing Catra to fly into the side of a building. Shera immediately followed that up by charging her. She smashed into Catra, and took her through the front and back walls of the building, as well as an outer stone wall along the outskirts of the town. Shera stopped after smashing the wall, but Catra flew across the ground an extra couple of feet. She stopped a few inches short of a nearby cliffside overseeing a lake.
Catra clutched her side as she rose up off the ground, wiping blood from her head as she did. Her body ached all over. In all the times she fought Adora when she was Shera, she had never known her to go all out like this. Looking up at Shera again, her look of absolute anger and bitterness was enough for realization to slap Catra in the face. Adora wasn't holding back anymore. After everything that had happened, she was now willing to win by any means necessary. A part of Catra had wanted Adora to actually fight like her like she meant it, but it felt different seeing it in person. Catra was starting to get nervous again. Adora wouldn't actually try to kill her, would she?
"Catra" The sound of Lonnie's voice came through her communicator. "We managed to take a supply cache, but we're having trouble holding it." Catra continued standing up, spitting up some blood onto the ground as she looked up at Shera. If Adora wanted to win by any means necessary than so could Catra. She began talking into her communicator. "Take what you can get out. Then destroy the rest."
The order made Shera's look of distancing turn into pure bitterness. "Catra?" Lonnie responded.
"You have your orders Lonnie. Now do it." She said as she put away from her communicator.
Shera untangled Catra's whip from her arm and gripped the handle. She then turned her mace into a whip of its own. She began lashing both whips at Catra. She was just able to move out of the way in time before one came down. Catra began dodging again as she made her way to Shera. Catra dodged under the bulky princess and gave her a kick to her shin. Shera fell to one knee as Catra latched herself on her shoulders. She sinks a claw into Shera's right arm, causing her to drop Catra's whip, drawing blood in the process. Before she can do the same to her other arm, Shera manages to take her now free hand to toss Catra off. While she is in the air, Shera uses her own whip to snag Catra by her foot, and pulling her back toward her. Catra slammed up against a tree behind Shera.
Shera turns her whip back into a sword and charged the tree. Catra just barely has enough time to duck under the attack, as the sword causes the tree to fall over. Catra leaps up over Shera on her arm and shoulders. Unfortunately, Catra is not quite fast enough, as Shera manages to grab her by the tail, and slam her into the ground. Catra has to take a second to have her senses come back to her, and she is barely able to roll out of the way from Shera's boot coming down on top of her. She is just able to recover her own whip before another another swing from Shera's sword comes down on top of her.
Catra turned quickly, throwing her own whip at the sword, and snagging it by the hilt. From there, the fight turned into a tug of war. Both sides were pulling with all their might to get an advantage. While Shera needed no help, Catra had to plant her feet on a stray root so that she did not loose her footing. Eventually, Shera gives a hard tug, causing Catra to fall foward. Shera then untangled Catra's whip and charged forward and jumped for another attack. Catra just managed to jump backward to avoid a fatal hit, but Shera managed to swipe a cut across her abdomen. Luckily for Catra , it wasn't too deep. She stood up and brought an arm across it to try and stem some of the bleeding.
With how the fight is going, and how much she was now hurting, Catra's fear began to spike again. She begins to back up slowly, her eyes trained on Shera the entire time. Eventually she back into another tree, which caused her to turn around for a brief second. Unfortunately, she was met by Shera charging her when she turned back. She crumpled over, and Shera picked her up and threw her. Catra went tumbling over the cliff and was just able to plant her claws in the cliff side. She began to climb back up, but as soon as her hand reached the safety of the top, it was immediately met by one of Shera's boots.
Catra let out a yelp of pain. She looked up into the eyes of Shera. What used to seem so familiar to her now seemed so foreign. They were filled to the brim with anger and disgust. It reminded Catra of what happened back in the northern reach, when Shera had been infected by the data crystal virus. Only this time, there was no difference in eye color to signify something was wrong. It felt so much more scarier to look into those eyes and see that they were the same light blue color they always were. They were so familiar, yet so foreign at the same time.
In an effort to save her own hide, Catra did the only thing she could think of doing.
"What are you waiting for?" She asked, not quite able to keep the nervousness out of her own voice. "Everyone knows what's going to happen. You're just going to pull me up because you can't even bring yourself to-"
"Shut the fuck up!"
Catra was beginning to sweat now, but she kept at it. "What? Don't believe me?" She began to raise her free hand to climb up. "Your probably worried I'm going to fall and just waiting to-". She never finished her sentence as Shera's other boot promptly came down on top of it.
"Why should I after what you did?" Catra looked up, fear now showing in her eyes. "I'm not falling for it anymore Catra. You tried to destroy Etheria, you sent Entrapta to her death, and you hurt me and my friends time and time again. You wanted me to fight you as an enemy, while here I am. You made it clear what you wanted when you pulled the switch. If I ever see you on the battlefield again, I won't hesitate to kill you!" And with that she began to push off Catra's arms so that she could fall.
"Adora, wait!" Catra cried out after one of her arms was pushed off. Adora just ignored her however, and she pushed off Catra's other arm, causing Catra to fall. Everything after that went in slow motion. She saw Shera look at her with eyes of pure disdain, doing something she never thought she would ever be able to do. Catra wasn't sure how long it took to hit the water, but it felt like an eternity. As soon as she did, she almost immediately swam up, and grabbed onto a nearby rock formation for support. She peered up the cliff, now seeing Shera walk away. She hears commotion over her communicator about her forces being forced back but she couldn't bring herself to care at the moment. Adora, her best, well, ex-best friend actually wants to kill her. After taking a moment, she gives the retreat order. A skiff picks her up and she joins the retreat.
Shera fades back into Adora as she walks away from the cliff. A single tear falls down her face. The horde was now in full retreat, and most of the town's supplies were safe and still in tact. Adora met up with Glimmer and Bow when she got back into town.
"We did it." She heard glimmer say to Bow. "Told ya they don't stand a chance against us." She noticed Adora walking towards them. "Adora there you are." She seemed to notice the mood that Adora was in. "You alright? I saw you fighting Catra. I swear if she so much as layed a finger on you I'm gonna-"
"Don't worry, she didn't." Adora responded. "I'm good. Just.. tired as all." Her friends shared a look of concern, but did not press her any further.
There was a part of Adora that was glad that she was able to do what was necessary to protect everyone. To show Catra that she wouldn't be messing around anymore. There was another part that hurt to do what she just did, but she forced that part down. She knew that whatever part of Catra that was her friends was not there anymore. Catra would hurt her without so much as a second thought.
The princesses took some time to survey the scene. The horde had managed to snag some supplies and burn some that they could not get, but most of the supplies remained in tact. Other than some damage to a few houses, it had been a relatively successful mission. The damage could easily be fixed given time.
Adora looked on at the aftermath. The houses each had varying amounts of damage on them that would need to be repaired. It still felt like a defeat that people were hurt. Adora would have to get even stronger to prevent further harm from being done, especially from Catra. She made her choice, and now Adora made hers. She would do whatever it takes to make sure Catra and the Horde would never hurt anyone again. No matter what the costs were.
Thank's for reading. I hope you all enjoyed. I'll try not to take too long to get a future update posted for this.