Behold, mama Net and Spin!
Driluth's Legacy Chapter 2: Hospitality of the Princesses
Netossa groaned as she left the meeting room, rubbing her temples.
"Fuck, I need a drink." She sighed.
"Careful, darling, we're in Brightmoon, we need to remember to act according to our status." Her wife smiled as she followed just behind the dark-skinned princess.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." She sighed. "Just wish we could write up a report at home instead of having to report to the queen in person. Bad enough we risk life and limb but now we have to relive that madness?"
"Princess Glimmer seems to enjoy those reports." Spinnerella smiled.
"Whoo-hoo, the feral child likes to listen to our suffering." Netossa complained.
"Come now, she's not that bad." Spinnerella chided. "Look, once we get home, we can sit down and have a nice evening together. Queen Angella won't be making us go on any other assignments for at least a week so I say we make the most of it."
"Yeah, bed's looking pretty good right now." Netossa nodded, then blushed at the smirk that her wife sent her.
"Is that so?" Spinnerella arched a brow. Netossa pouted as her blush grew. "Oh, I'm kidding, love. Unless you meant it that way." The wind user added with a coquettish smile. Netossa merely sighed. "Understood, massage and snuggling when we get home?"
"Gods, yes." The thread mage groaned.
"Princesses." One guard said as she passed by. Netossa waved and then scratched her temple.
"Still feels weird to hear people call me that." She remarked. "Used to be just some mage who made magic threads, now I'm an actual princess."
"It's something you get used to. And hey, even if you weren't a princess you're well respected as is, Mrs War Hero."
"Sure, respected." Netossa huffed. Spinnerella's expression became as down as her wife's. Neither of them were particularly fond of the war. They aligned with the Rebellion forces because the towns near their borders were being threatened. They excelled more than most did in warfare, taking on the Horde in a fierce bid to defend their homes. Such was the sheer ferocity of their battles against the Horde that the queen herself noticed and invited them to work alongside Brightmoon.
'Alongside' wasn't really the true way to put it. Spinnerella was a minor member of royalty. She was more a duchess than a princess, being in charge of a minor province that honestly worked well enough without her overseeing everything. Her family had served Angella the Shining for centuries. Spinnerella had no immediate plans to break that tradition and despite everything that has happened, she followed the queen's will as well as her daughter, Princess Glimmer.
Speaking of said daughter, the two passed by one of the training rooms and heard grunting from within, along with blasts of magic and the clatter of the sentient armour constructs used for training.
"She's hard at work again." Netossa remarked.
"Is that pride I sense?" Spinnerella smirked.
"Hey now, I'm not her official teacher or anything. I just dropped a few pointers." Netossa raised her hands to indicate how little she had to do with this.
"Darling, you drop by whenever you can to offer an hour's worth of 'pointers' alongside sparring matches and full body workouts. She's your student in all but name." Spinnerella pointed out. "And those lessons seem to have made her improve greatly."
"Now you're exaggerating. Girl was already damn good and capable before I even met her." Netossa snorted. Spinnerella shook her head at her wife's self-deprecation but had to admit she held a point about what she said about the queen's daughter. Glimmer of Brightmoon was what one would call a prodigy. She was trained in the arts of war and politics. She has learned magic at Mystacor and studied the magic of the Runestones, learning to harness the power of the Moonstone. All of this was done by Glimmer's request and her mother's desire to make Glimmer as capable as possible. Angella knew she would never be able to keep Glimmer away from the war, so instead she took a different approach and did everything in her power to prepare her daughter for it.
It worked, quite effectively. She had already made a name for herself and the Horde propaganda that circulated around the Fright Zone had quite a few things to say about Glimmer if the reports from captured soldiers were anything to go by.
"I hear she wants to restore the Etherian Alliance." Netossa said in hushed tones as they finally exited the palace.
"Is that so? Ambitious. Do you think she can manage?" Spinnerella wondered.
"The girl is the embodiment of willpower so I'd give it a maybe." Netossa shrugged. "And that's me being generous. Sure, it worked for a bit but after King Micah's death, well… it all fell to shit."
"Indeed." Spinnerella sighed. The two found their horses and began to set off at a slow trot towards their home in comfortable silence, broken by occasional bouts of conversation. Eventually their home came into view and the two saw something crawl through one of their windows. At that moment Netossa's magic intruder alarm went off, a gentle tingling of bells that only she and Spinnerella could hear. The two glanced at one another and then dismounted swiftly. The two ran over to the front door and opened it quietly.
"It was the bedroom window. I'll cover you." Spinnerella whispered. Netossa nodded and the two made their way upstairs. They avoided the steps, opting to use their powers to ascend. The stairs were creaky and they didn't risk alerting the intruder. Netossa had created a single thread of light and dashed across it while Spinnerella flew up on silent gusts of wind. The two stopped at the door and nodded to each other. Netossa flung the door open, a ball of threads ready to throw and imprison the intruder.
"Who the hell are… oh, Runes. Spinnerella, get in here fast!" she bellowed. The larger woman moved through and gasped softly at the sight.
A woman, someone in the first stages of adulthood was lying on the floor in a puddle of her own blood. Her breaths came in short and shallow gasps. Netossa gently rolled her over and grimaced at the wound. "Shit. Okay, whoever you are, I'm sorry." She raised a hand and the threads began to trail out. The intruder, some sort of feline human, started breathing heavily upon seeing the light blue trails of light. "This will sting but we need to close the wound quickly." Netossa told her. The girl tried to speak but only managed to cough out some blood before the threads of light dug into the flesh of her wound and began to form a stitch to close it. The girl moaned pitifully and thankfully fell unconscious.
"Will she survive?" Spinnerella asked.
"Not sure. Get the medical supplies. I'll check her for other injuries." Spinnerella nodded and left the room. Netossa turned back to the girl on the ground. She narrowed her eyes when she looked at the girl's clothes. They weren't red from her blood, they were made that shade of crimson. After the years spent at war with the horde, wearing anything red had become something of a taboo. For this girl to wear fully red clothes…
"You and I are going to have a very interesting chat when you wake up, little kitten." Netossa promised.
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It was dark. The beast's eyes struggled to pierce the gloom the shadowy interior of the sparse iron room it sat in. The only sound that was made was the beast's hissing breaths and the rumble of its stomach. It hadn't eaten in days, starved by its dark master to the point where all reason was gone. This isn't the first time it had happened either, so the beast knew what was to come and gathered its remaining strength in its malnourished form for the coming trial.
A claxon sounded, the beast's ears flicked up as the door it had been staring at rose open. It stepped into the light of a circular room where there were similar doors that also began to open, revealing other creatures that could barely be considered human by the witch.
Speaking of said witch, her voice echoed in all of their minds.
"You know the drill. The one who wins gets the reward." Every snarling animal turned their gaze to the centre of the room where there was a metallic block in the centre. Atop it was a tray filled with several bars of unappetizing, tasteless ration bars. They were chewy, hard to swallow and had the texture of sandpaper, but to the beast it was a feast worthy of salivation. The tray then slowly descended into the block, a lid closing over to prevent anyone getting to the feast that lay trapped within. The beast allowed a small whine as the precious morsel left its sight. It knew it would see the food one way or another, but it still ached to see the precious sustenance be stolen away from it. The beast shook its head, it needed to focus. To get its reward, it needed to get rid of the competition.
A gigantic wolf man was first, it had barely any time to react before the beast was on it, claws slashing through the canine's throat and ripping it out in a spray of gore. The beast turned to see a four armed lizard creature come at it, swinging its meaty fists wildly. The beast ducked under the first blow, sidestepped the second but got clipped by the third, causing it to stagger before being smashed across the room by the fourth attack. Most would have been down and out by then, but the beast was no normal creature and leapt to its feet with a snarl. It charged, so did the multi-armed lizard. This time the beast went high, vaulting over the lizard, hunger and adrenaline driving it to insane feats as the lizard tried its flailing attack again. The beast landed on its hand and plunged its clawed thumbs into the lizard's eyes, causing it to shriek in agony. The claws went deeper, eventually piercing brain matter and the reptile fell silent.
The beast looked up and saw that the first round was concluding as victors of their own skirmishes were rising. It had to strike now and get the advantage. It savaged a beast similar looking to itself, but with a great mane of hair, plunging it's claws into the giant feline's back and shredding whatever it could find. The beast must have found some vital organs as the great feline coughed up blood and began to topple over. A rabbit girl only a little smaller than the beast leapt over with a kick but the beast was faster and ducked, grabbing the foot and slamming the rabbit down hard on the ground. It grabbed the ears and used them to smash the rabbit's head into the floor again and again until it stopped moving. The beast considered devouring the corpse of they prey animal but knew from past experience that such actions would result in torture from the cruel mistress no doubt watching the carnage. The beast turned and surveyed the room which was now soaked in red.
There was one final opponent. This was a long limbed simian creature. It hooted at the beast, who answered with a snarl. The beast leapt forward but the monkey dodged out of the way. It lunged again, another dodge. The beast roared in fury. Even with its full faculties it didn't like to be toyed with, hunger made the problem worse and reddened its vision. The monkey creature gave a taunting hoot and prepared made a gesture to bring it. The beast halted, some measure of sanity returning to its maddened brain. This creature meant to goad it, taunt it into making a mistake. But the beast was wise to its tricks. It didn't leap this time, fighting less like a monster and more like a person of reason. It feinted left but struck right, catching the monkey on the jaw. Its strength, prodigious for a creature of its size, was sadly not able to harm the simian. It punched back but the beast ducked away and slashed low at the simian's legs. It shrieked in pain and tried to leap away but the beast had evidently caught a tendon. The monkey fell over, scrabbling to get away, all traces of mockery gone. The beast leapt up, bellowing in victory and bloodlust, landing atop the simian before slashing wildly at it. It shrieked and begged for mercy but the beast had none to give. It didn't stop until the voice returned.
"Well done. The victor is decided. For those watching, I hope you enjoyed."
Ah, so people watched again. The witch had taken to inviting those as cruel and dark as her to watch the beast slaughter other animals. The panel in the cube opened and the ration bars reappeared. The beast staggered up to the bounty and shoved a ration bar into its mouth. It was vile, coated in the blood that caked the beast's hands, but it was the first meal it had in days. The voice came back, this time it was a sneering tone that the beast knew all too well.
"You got lucky this time. Happy twelfth birthday you little monster."
The beast—
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—awoke with a start from the nightmare to a roof she didn't recognise. It was not metallic or made of harsh stone but was a soft creamy colour. Her eyes stung at the sudden light that assailed her senses and she was forced to close them, but opening them up again proved to be a challenge, and it was not due to excessive bloodloss. She knew the sort of difficulties waking up with injuries brought. This wasn't that. She had been drugged, somehow. She had been drugged with something that made her feel like she was lying on… something soft. Catra couldn't conjure the words for it, her vocabulary wasn't able to produce any such words that were synonymous with comfort. Whatever it was, Catra was entranced and irritated by this softness that was doing its utmost to lure her back into sleep, but Catra was made of sterner stuff than that. She could hear a gentle breeze outside. Was the window open? There was something else too… a soft tinkling noise. Catra felt her ears twitch in response to each sound that they registered.
"Hey, you waking up?" a gentle voice asked. Catra turned her head to see a woman sitting a few feet away. There was a book in her hands and she was wearing glasses. She took the glasses off and moved a bit closer. She was quite large, wide hipped and garbed in shades of purple. Her blue eyes were kind and her lavender hair fell in soft curls that would never have been seen in the Horde.
'I'm in a Rebellion house. Figures. Better than a Horde outpost.' Catra decided. She had to be careful here. The Horde bounced between saying the Rebellion consisted of horrific monstrous primitives who do blood sacrifices and naïve fools who shy away from so much as a drop of blood. Catra had little idea on which one it was, but she was leaning towards the latter given how this woman acted.
"I must say, coming home to look after an intruder wasn't really what I was expecting to do this morning." The woman said with a gentle smile. "How are you feeling? Can I get you anything?" for a long moment Catra was unsure how to respond. She couldn't remember the last time anybody had spoken to her like that. Not even Adora was this soft with her. Even as Catra tried to muster up some measure of scorn for this… this whatever it was, she felt herself relax against her will. She needed to distract herself.
"What's… that…?" she croaked. She turned her gaze outside to where the sounds were coming from.
"Oh, the wind chimes. Are they bothering you?" the woman asked. Catra shook her head. She rather liked them. Not that she would admit it to this stranger. "Alright, is there anything you'd like?"
"Water…" Catra murmured.
"Alright, I'll be back soon." The kindly woman nodded and moved gracefully out of the room. Now that she was alone, Catra looked around the place she was in. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before. The walls were painted in series of light blues and pinks. She knew colours other than black and red as shockingly enough the Horde's education system did teach how to identify colours.
Granted it was so to recognise the colours enemies wore to recognise who and what they were, but still, score one for basic education. Pictures lined the walls like the trophies various Force Captains liked to hang on display in their quarters. She sat up a bit, wincing slightly as she looked at a few of them. One was of the woman she just interacted with and a dark-skinned woman with white hair. Both were in formal attire, the former was in a dress and the latter wore a suit. They were smiling brightly in a way Catra had never seen from anyone else. Was this something important?
The next picture was of a place. A vast swathe of trees and a deluge of water falling off a cliff. What were those called? Catra heard mention of them. Waterdrops? No, that wasn't right. Another picture contained more people, all in bright colours and bits of brightly coloured vegetation, smiling and dancing around. They never had such things in the Horde. Catra felt a pang of jealousy at the people in the picture. Why did they get to enjoy life while she feared for her own day in and day out?
"That's the fall festival." Catra jumped as she heard the voice. The woman was back, holding some water and… were those ration bars? No, they were circular and looked strange, dotted with light brown lumps that Catra had never seen before. "We had a lot of fun during that day. Reminded us to cherish to moments where we could just be people and not soldiers, you know?"
Catra didn't know. She had been a soldier all her life.
"That there is the Dragon's Peak Waterfall." Ah, waterfall, that was the word. "Allegedly it was near a cave that was the lair of a mighty dragon hundreds of years ago." Catra had no idea what a dragon is. Probably something dumb and pathetic. "Now that… that was my and Nettie's wedding photo." The woman smiled. "Happiest day of my life." Catra really wanted to ask what the word 'wedding' meant, but had a feeling if she did she would be caught out. Catra took a bite from the weird ration bar, hearing a crunch and then… Catra nearly squealed. She had no idea what was inside this, but it tasted good. The woman grinned, "That nice, eh? Told Nettie you'd like my cookies. I went with caramel as opposed to chocolate. Cats don't like chocolate, I heard so best to be cautious, didn't want to poison our guest. Thank Nettie for reminding me about that."
"Who's thanking me?" the other woman, Nettie, appeared at the door. "Hey, sleepy kitten's awake, eh?" she smiled. "Hell of a wound you got there. But you seem to be alright."
"I'm fine. Thanks." Catra mumbled, feeling surprisingly awkward. These two have been kinder to her in a few minutes than all the doctors in the Horde infirmary have been throughout the years. Catra was not equipped to deal with this at all.
"Hey, I brought some fruit up, by the way." Nettie explained. She raised a hand which held a dish of… Catra had no idea what they were. It was food, presumably. A mix of green and orange. It didn't have a strong aroma or anything so she couldn't really identify it. "Let's see, carrots and celery sticks. We're a bit sparse for other things, sorry." Catra took the plate and chewed on the orange stick thing. It crunched between her teeth and flavours she couldn't put a name to starting dancing along her tongue. Before she knew it she was grabbing the celery sticks and carrots off the plate and eating with gusto.
"Someone was hungry for fruit!" Nettie grinned. Catra was too busy eating to note the emphasis on the word as well as the look passed between the two brightly coloured women.
"Yeah, that was… that was nice. Uh, thanks. You know, for the fruit." Catra said awkwardly. Gratitude was not something she had much reason to genuinely show before. The two smiled at her, though she noted there was a rigidity to their expressions now. Had she done something wrong? Then Spinny smiled, "Well, until that injury of yours is healed, consider yourself a guest at the house of Spinnerella and Netossa."
Catra went very still, her hair stood on end, "Can-can you repeated that, please? Who are you again?" she asked with a shaky voice.
"Princess Spinnerella and Netossa." Spinnerella explained. "I know it's a bit of surprise since we don't live in a palace. I used to have a small one but I got it converted into a shelter for war orphans and others who lost their homes to the Horde."
Catra felt a brief stab of guilt at the princess' explanation before it was overrun with panic at her current situation.
"Umm, sorry, but I'm a little tired." Catra lied. Spinnerella gave another smile while Netossa chuckled, "Of course, kiddo. Get some sleep. Bed rest helps with recovery." Catra nodded with as pleasant a smile she could manage and lied down, closing her eyes. She felt someone lift the blanket over her and tuck her in before the door eventually closed.
'Man, it's a good thing I managed to fool those two, otherwise I'd be so dead.' Catra thought as she lied still.
Meanwhile downstairs, Spinnerella and Netossa were bustling around the kitchen, getting dinner ready.
"So, she's definitely a Horde soldier, right?" Netossa asked.
"Oh, definitely, I mean she failed the fruit and veg test so she's not a spy. Not even Horde spies are that dumb." Spinnerella nodded.
"I don't know, remember the chocolate incident where that spy thought it was mud?" Netossa giggled.
"Oh, don't remind me…" Spinnerella rolled her eyes. "Also, this." She walked to a chair that had Catra's bag deposited on it and pulled out a wrinkled magazine. On it was a Horde soldier in a seductive pose, clearly a woman if the parts of her body exposed by her blown off armour were anything to go by. "Full Frontal Assault Titties. And here I thought the Horde was boring." She dropped the magazine down on the counter with a roll of her eyes. Netossa leaned over to get a look at the pages, snorting in amusement. "Whatever inspires the troops, I guess. No way a stick in the mud like Hordak authorised this." She shook her head. "So, who's going to keep an eye on our guest?" Spinnerella's eyes twinkled with mischievous glee at her wife's question.
"Well, I know a certain someone who's been aching to help out with the war effort. I'm pretty sure she'd try and stop our guest from doing something dumb."
"Oh, please, she's not going to try and leave with her injuries, is she?"
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'Of all the luck, of all the rotten luck I had to have, I had to have the misfortune to end up in the house of the Terrible Two!' Catra lamented. Spinnerella and Netossa, the two most infamous princesses on the Horde's hit list. The royals of Etheria often stuck to themselves, very rarely working together in a combat engagement. Alliances between them were few and far between, as infrequent as they were short lived.
Save for those two.
Netossa and Spinnerella were something of a dark legend, a duo who could take on entire armies and come out on top. Their actions had set the Horde's advance back for years to the point where Hordak himself would offer immediate captaincy to anyone who killed either of them as well as whatever the lucky devil who somehow did the deed the right to any weapon in the armoury. How many soldiers died for a shiny badge and a plasma pistol, Catra wondered to herself. It wasn't really their powers, but their unity that made them more dangerous than the average magic wielding blueblood. They watched each other's backs and operated like a single well-oiled machine. In some ways it reminded Catra of the times she and Adora were allowed to work together. There was a synergy between them, the same sort of synergy the Terrible Two possessed.
Catra had dreamed of the day where she and Adora would test their teamwork against those two, she never expected to meet them, nor did she expected the titanic threats to the Horde to be a pair of utter goofs who fell for the 'I'm kind of tired' trick.
But apparently the princesses were dumb enough to fall for such an act, however she doubted they'd be fooled forever. She opened an eye to find that the room was empty. She took a deep breath of relief and slowly peeled the blanket away, already missing how warm it felt.
Slowly and gingerly, Catra began to head for the window. She couldn't stay here. She knew a lot of the Horde's propaganda was bullshit, but she knew better than to take any risks. She had to leave and she had to leave now. What she did afterwards was a problem for future Catra to deal with.
Catra ignored that the relationship between current Catra and future Catra was a one-sided storm of hate from the latter to the former due to a lifetime of bad decisions and the consequences thereof. Despite the pain in her thigh she managed to get to the window, but when she opened it she ended up seeing a pair of eyes. They were a stormy grey, like some of the clouds that Catra saw hanging over the borders of the Fright Zone. They glimmered slightly with an unrestricted glee and happiness that Catra didn't usually see from anyone. Those eyes belonged to a person with skin that was a few shades lighter than Netossa's and a round, young face that belonged to someone around the age of twelve. Her light grey hair was the strangest feature, as it was floating around like it was underwater. Or maybe it was a cloud or something, Catra didn't know.
One would wonder why Catra could get this much detail and why she was all up in someone's face. Catra wasn't the sort of person to do that. The child staring at her definitely was. Catra snapped back with a yowl. The girl giggled.
"Hi." She greeted. "Your eyes are funny."
"Uh." Catra wasn't sure what to say. This was certainly a first.
Wait.
"This room's on the second floor." Catra said. "How are you…" the girl pointed down, Catra followed her finger and saw that she was sitting cross legged on a cloud. "Oh." Catra realised. Fucking magic. Of course. She took another look at the girl. She wore mainly blue clothes, save for her baggy trousers that had swirling grey markings around the ankles. Her thin arms were bare and she wore a magenta sash over her shirt. She didn't wear shoes but had foot wraps similar to Catra.
"I wasn't allowed to bother you while you slept." The girl explained. "So I watched through the window. Did you know your nose scrunches up when you sleep, like this," she made an exaggerated grumpy face. Catra sniffed.
"I don't look like that." She denied.
"Yes, you do!" the girl huffed. "You also stick your tongue out when you wake up. You magicats are really like normal cats, huh?"
"What's a magicat?" Catra asked. The girl gasped dramatically, flying closer to Catra.
"You don't know?" she asked.
"The fact that I'm asking should have made that clear." Catra deadpanned. The girl was about to launch into an explanation when Netossa stepped through the door.
"Aeola, for goodness' sake, don't wander off and don't bother the guest. And you…" Netossa turned her eyes to Catra. The former Horde cadet felt a shiver of fear run through her. This was a familiar situation. Shadow Weaver never liked it when she interacted with other cadets that didn't involve her getting beaten to a pulp. What if the Terrible Two were no different? Were they going to hurt her? Throw her out?
"I didn't… it wasn't my…" she tried to stammer.
"You're out of bed. You need rest before you should even consider walking around with that injury." The web using princess admonished. Catra felt her thoughts grind to a halt at what the princess said.
"You're not mad?" she asked on reflex.
"Mad with worry, maybe." Netossa shrugged before ushering Catra back into bed.
"Mama, mama! She doesn't know what magicats are!" Aeola cried, flying around the room while the thread mage fussed over Catra.
"Yes, yes, very strange, little cloudling." Netossa smiled at the girl.
'What does 'mama' mean?' Catra thought.
"And what did I tell you about flying in the house?" Netossa continued, crossing her arms. The cloud Aeola sat on dispersed and she stood, pouting.
"I didn't break anything this time!" she huffed. Netossa rolled her eyes and ruffled the girl's floating hair, "Yes, but at the speeds you go you'll end up crashing into a wall… again."
"Will not!" Aeola insisted. "I'm good at changing directions. That wall just ambushed me."
"You know what else will ambush you? Your teachers if they find out you forgot to do your homework again." Netossa said sternly, albeit with a cheeky twinkle in her eyes. Aeola's eyes went wide and she immediately went for the door.
"I forgot! It's due tomorrow! Bye, mama. Bye, magicat!" and she was gone. Netossa shook her head.
"Ah, kids." She grinned. "She can be a headache sometimes, but boy she's worth all of it. Parenthood's a hell of a thing, something to cherish and protect. Don't you agree?" Catra felt put on the spot, her tail puffing out.
"Uh, sure." She said awkwardly. "Is that why you fight? In the war, I mean." Why did she ask that?
"Basically. I've seen what the Horde does to its prisoners and to the children it takes."
'Lady, you don't know the half of it.' Catra thought.
"And I'll be damned if I let that happen to my family." Netossa turned to her. "It's not fun. I don't take pleasure out of killing people despite what the Horde says about me. I'm not a monster, neither is my wife. We do what we have to in order to protect our people. For all the preaching the Horde does about equality and freedom from the tyranny of the monarchy, I've seen too many villages burned to the ground and too many innocents killed to give them the benefit of a doubt."
On any other day Catra would dismiss this as meaningless rhetoric, but seeing the scowl on Netossa's face and the determination in her dark eyes made it impossible for her to make a quip.
"How many…?" she found herself asking. "How many people died?"
"Too many. Even with the institutions Queen Angela made to house those who lost their homes, it's never enough." Netossa growled. "But if I don't stand up against the Horde then that number will only increase." She turned to Catra, her mouth set in a thin line of determination. "And people will suffer because I do nothing to help them. I can't accept that. I will never accept that." Netossa took a deep breath, relaxing and getting her cheeky smile back. "Sorry, got a little intense there. Dinner will be ready soon, seeing that you can stand I guess you're good to come downstairs?"
"Uh, sure." Catra nodded, still a little unsteady from Netossa's earlier spiel. It kind of reminded her of Adora but it was so different at the same time. It seemed more… what was the word, mature than Adora's idealism. This woman had survived her trial by fire and came through with her ideals intact. Age had tempered her and experience had made her more certain in what she believed in.
"Great, I'll call you when we're ready and be there if you need help getting down the stairs. Or Aeola will give you a soft landing with her cloud. See you!" Netossa left the room, closing the door behind her. Catra's small smile faded away as she tried and failed to get Netossa's words out of her mind.
'If I hadn't have ended up here. If Shadow Weaver didn't threaten me… would I have done those things?' it was surprising how much the thought of attacking people's homes bothered her now. Once there was a time where she would have loved to blow up a house with a tank. Now the idea made her feel ill.
She didn't rest well for the next few hours.
And so the seeds are planted.
I'll be honest, I feel like my main issue with posting chapters is the little voice in my head saying that nobody will like it because I'm a compulsive perfectionist.