Chapter Text
CHAPTER 1
“Ready or not, here I comeee!”
Adora shouted as loud as she could, intending to help her friend hear her from basically anywhere at the Horde, but she knew that was kind of impossible since the place had always been an enormous mess with rooms even they didn’t know about. She then quickly uncovered her blue eyes and ran towards places a certain cat-like figure could probably think of hiding. Catra would always win these kind of games, but she was determined this time. The blonde searched all the dorms, under their beds, at the hall, but still she was nowhere to be seen and after ENTIRE 15 minutes of unsuccessful search (for her child mind, that was a lot of time) sat on the same place she started counting and let out a loud sigh.
"Catra is just too good at hiding” Adora thought to herself, but little did she know her friend was breaking the hide and seek rules they established, following her and hiding behind all the places the girl previously searched for, just like how she was doing at that right moment behind one of the pilars the corridor had and watching proudly as her friend waited for her, defeated once again.
Catra always cheated like that, but never intending for her friend to feel bad... just to think she was better than her on at least ONE thing. Convincing Adora was all that mattered to the feline, even if it was fake. She wasn’t quite sure she either wanted to impress Adora or convince herself she wasn’t always on second place near her and her whole perfection. Maybe both.
There was no time to figure this out right now though, as her friend’s frustrated sigh broke into Catra’s thoughts, making a little guilt take over and the girl immediately show up behind her, a little worried she got sad or something. “Giving up already?” words came on a teasing and a little too arrogant than what she meant way.
“It's impossible, i’ve searched EVERYWHERE for you!” the girl complained back on a whining tone, looking up to her friend’s satisfied expression.
“Wellll, guess you gotta accept you’re not good and everything all the time”
“It's not about that! It’s just… ugh, okay, maybe i missed a spot”
“Duh, of course you did! Otherwise you would’ve-
Suddenly, the tongue Adora was about to stick out to Catra in response didn't happen, as the girl looked up and her expression immediately changed to fear. Like that "Catra, be quiet and turn around" kind of expression her friend knew too well. The girl then did so and confirmed her theory about what it was. Shadow Weaver was standing behind her, face always unrecognizable because of that creepy mask, so they never knew what to expect, but it wasn't usually good.
From that, the words "S-Shadow Weav-?” decided to leave Catra’s mouth, but she couldn’t finish them, for a rispid, angry voice followed
“You're a disgusting little girl, did you know that?” and then her face turned to Adora, followed by a soft tone that, surprisingly, was from the same woman
“Adora dear, you should be hanging out with more respectable people… this creature you call “friend" is simply lying to your face. You don’t deserve that! She cheated the whole time, I was watching everything.”
Adora was too creeped out by the thought of Shadow Weaver following them around the halls as they played to even lecture her friend, and by the scared-to-death expression Catra had on her face, she knew that was not the right timing either. Shadow Weaver, then, proceeded “It's okay, I know you only wanna see the good in others, but there are some people that just can’t be fixed. Now go play while I speak to Catra, will you?”
Adora then looked back at Catra, tears falling down her cheeks on a desperate “please don’t" way, but her thoughts were interrupted by a louder “Will you?”, once again coming from Shadow Weaver. She was too scared to deny it. She had to leave, but Catra probably wouldn’t understand that later. She never did, but there wasn’t really much a child could do at that point, so she left.
When the old woman’s face returned to Catra, panic decided to invade the feline's whole body and her own words took over again
“I… I didn’t mean to cheat, i just-“
“Listen carefully, you’re not meant to be a winner, and that’s just how it is. But now, that doesn’t give you the right to make the real winner believe she’s not. I always knew you were low, Catra, but lying to a friend because of your twisted ego… that’s the lowest, most pathetic thing i’ve ever seen. It better not repeat itself, especially with Adora”
“It won’t! I promise!” Catra cried, now taken by total desperation and shame as Shadow Weaver got closer to her, words even more rispid and threatening. “I don’t trust you, but as you can see… I’m always watching you fail. So be careful, next time you do it, you will see me again and won’t get away so easily.”
The woman finished the sentence and left the corridor with Catra just… standing there. She was frozen by fear, the only things working were her heartbeat, that felt like jumping out of her chest and tears that wouldn’t stop falling. She was horrified. Absolutely horrified. That, until a strong hug held her from behind, warm arms wrapping up against her and a crying face leaned over her chest, soaking her fur with her blonde friend’s tears. “I'm so sorry” she whispered, as Catra’s body was getting less rigid, but still she couldn't actually react to that.
They just laid there, for as long as Catra needed until a white flash dissipated the scene slowly and a strong noise could be heard, making the girl honestly think she was gonna go deaf for a second.
-
“It's not really your fault” Catra then murmured, while waking up from that memory. She had been asleep and as the feline started to finally recover her consciousness and open her eyes, a dark and upside down forest was revealed, making her feel even more confused.
“What the-?” she asked herself, and as words left her mouth she realized she was not only the one who was upside down, but also tied to a goddamn tree. Her whole body ached from how tight it was and once she acknowledged that, the scream that left her mouth was almost inevitable. Last thing she knew, she was shouting for help as loud as she could in the middle of the night and on some sort of unknown goddamn forest.
After what felt like her hundredth scream, some leaves started shaking from some bushes near her tree, revealing what made the feline shiver like she doesn't usually does unless Shadow Weaver's the subject.
Three huge wolves came out of there and just as soon as they noticed her, started jumping to try and catch their prey, earning loud screams in return as it was the best thing she could do at the moment. Fear was taking over her once again. She was just as poweless as when she was a child.
Trying to not get consumed by it, one of her well-known thoughts came to help
"Don't bother screaming, stupid! You should know no one's coming for you! They never did, did they? So get your shit together and start thinking on a way to escape!"
Almost as fast as that thought came, the girl noticed knives flying from the woods and landing on every wolf's direction. She was shocked, definitively not expecting that.
One last knife came out, but towards her this time and too fast for thoughts of trying to escape from it, so all she could do was close her eyes tightly.
Next thing, both the ropes and Catra fell on the floor. Looks like she wasn't being murdered, at least not now.