Chapter Text
Hordak couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe how swiftly and easily Catra had ambushed him right in his throne room; how quickly and viciously she had ripped out the power crystal from his collar and taken him down. Now, lying forwards on the floor, he was disabled, his deactivated armour crackling and weighing his body down, the empty slot in his collar frizzling from the violent loss of its crystal. This should not have been possible. He should not have been defeated like this. Yet here he was, little better than an injured dog – a dog who had been beaten by a cat. He looked up at the cat, his Second-in-Command, sporting a new outfit, standing above him triumphantly, his crystal in her grip.
“What do you want?” he muttered. Slowly, he pushed himself up onto all fours.
“We’re done with your little vanity projects,” Catra asserted as she took a seat on Hordak’s throne. “It’s time to crush the Rebellion for good.” She held up her fist and her lips rose cruelly. “And you’re going to help me do that.”
Her claws opened, dropping the precious possession that she had taken from him: Entrapta’s crystal. It clinked onto the floor and Hordak crawled forward immediately to reclaim it. As he reached for the crystal and hurriedly enclosed his hand around it, he forced down his humiliation and anger with a growl before glaring back up at Catra again.
“I think you and I are going to do great things together,” Catra stated coolly with a wicked smile, crossing her legs.
Hordak, teeth gritted, snatched his crystal back, but remained motionless. Unable to stand without the power crystal in his armour, he had been reduced to crawling before his Second-in-Command. He watched her smiling down at him in a self-assured manner. He loathed to admit it, but he had underestimated her. She was clever and dangerous, more so than he had cared to admit, and bold enough to have taken advantage of him when he was vulnerable. She had cut out the lights and taken him by surprise in order to expose his weakness, ripping Entrapta’s power crystal from his collar with such speed and ferocity that he had not had the chance to even react. And now, he was at her mercy.
“From now on, you’re going to listen to what I say,” she instructed smoothly, “you’re going to let me give orders to our soldiers as I see fit, and together we’re going to conquer the rest of Etheria and bring the Rebellion down for good.” She uncrossed her legs and stood up. Kneeling down on one leg in front of Hordak, she smiled confidently again. “You’ll thank me for this later.” With that, she rose again and proceeded to stroll past Hordak, leaving him helpless on the floor as she headed for the doors of his throne room.
He waited for the sound of the doors closing behind her before he dragged himself forward toward his throne. He threw himself backwards underneath an armrest in an upright sitting position, grunting with the effort. For a few moments, he remained still, breathing heavily, waiting to regain some strength.
He cursed himself silently. He should have seen this coming. He knew Catra was ambitious and daring. He should have anticipated a power play from her, been prepared for it. But he was not himself. He had been…distracted. His thoughts kept revolving around…her…Entrapta…how she had left him…betrayed him…Since the destruction of the portal, he had been unable to think about anything else. Even now, in his abject humiliation after being taken down by his Second-in-Command, crippled and struggling on the floor of his throne room, she still filled his thoughts, bringing him a pain as great as that he had known when Horde Prime had tossed him aside...He was emotionally compromised…He knew it…And he could not stop it...He could not stop himself from feeling…
Something had shifted…changed in him, something Entrapta had started, something tentative, fragile…But now that change, whatever it was, felt like it had been ripped away with her disappearance, and he was sinking backwards…
He dropped his head to the side and looked down at his hand, unfurling his fingers to reveal the precious crystal that had so nearly been taken from him. He gazed down at it, diamond-shaped, fuchsia-coloured, glowing softly in his palm, unknown First Ones’ symbols engraved on it…Entrapta’s last gift to him...
“I scrounged up a few more pieces of First Ones’ Tech and I can’t think of a better use for it than this!”
His expression softened. It was her, a piece of her, continuing to remind him, torment him. Even now, in her absence, she held onto him and he onto her through it. It was his power source, his reminder of her, his heart…
He cursed himself again. Entrapta had betrayed him, yet he still needed her armour, her crystal. He still needed…her…to feel her, to have her armour around him, protecting him, and her crystal giving him strength…simultaneously a treasured gift and a painful reminder of her betrayal that he wore at all times.
He brought the crystal up to his collar and, with his other hand, he located the delicate wires that had been snapped from the crystal when it had been ripped out by Catra. Carefully, he worked to reattach the crystal to the wires. As he slotted the crystal back into place, strength almost instantly returned to his body. He exhaled and dropped his head back onto his throne’s armrest. He was so tired, so numb, so spent. He had little desire for anything now. His spirit had been swallowed by a blackhole.
Entrapta was gone. He would have to work with Catra now. She knew his weaknesses. She knew where to strike him physically. She knew that he needed to return to Horde Prime victorious. Though she had amply demonstrated her ability to take him down, Catra had offered to help him with conquering the rest of Etheria before Prime’s arrival. For better or worse, she was his only ally now. She had given him no choice but to accept her assistance. He would have to trust her now. But perhaps she could yield results for him.
He shut his eyes. In the end, as long as he could prove his worth to Prime, none of this would matter. Entrapta’s betrayal, Catra’s humiliation, it would all have been worth it to re-join his brother by his side. That was all he had left now. When he offered Etheria up to him, Prime would finally see his value and accept him back. He would no longer have need of anything or anyone else ever again.
He would have his brother’s coveted approval. He would be welcomed home. He would no longer have to feel pain or hurt. He would finally be loved and at peace.