Chapter Text
In the weeks following the Battle of Bright Moon and the promotion of Catra to Hoard Commander, the troops of the Hoard had lived in terror. Catra was a slave driver with a chip on her shoulder, and it was an open secret that she had suffered a few chips to her sanity as well. She would lash out at anyone for even the slightest provocation, such as breathing too loudly, or not breathing loudly enough as Kyle had found out several times. Her punishments ranged from intensive training drills, imprisonment, or more likely just a good beating right there on the spot. These usually came when Scorpia wasn’t around to remind her that she needed her troops fighting fit, so whenever anyone saw Catra brooding down the hallways alone, they turned the other way as quickly and quietly as they could.
But after the Second March on Bright Moon, something strange happened. Catra had gone missing for nearly six hours after the battle, and everyone had prayed that she stayed that way for fear of what new methods of mass torture they would face if she returned. But instead of burning with rage at their failure, Catra had returned looking tired, regretful, and considerably calmer. She immediately put all nonessential personnel on a mandatory forty eight hours of down time for rest and recovery, and for a week afterward kept the entire Hoard on light duty.
During the following weeks, she toured through all the Hoard facilities she was responsible for with Scorpia, Entrapta, and sometimes even Emily at her side. Entrapta helped by taking notes, explain some of the more complicated machinery and computers, and offering ideas on how to improve productivity and workplace safety and conditions. Scorpia’s job was to try to assure everyone they interviewed that Catra wasn’t going to tear out their eyes if she heard something she didn’t like, and Emily… beeped supportively.
Catra stayed mostly silent during these tours, often only speaking too or through Scorpia or Entrapta. When she did speak directly to anyone, it was to awkwardly thank them for their work, or congratulate an individual on a specific contribution they had made. It was a new leadership tactic called “positive reinforcement” that Scorpia had suggested she try in order to help show that she had turned over a new leaf.
Unfortunately, this overnight change in leadership tactics somehow made her troops even more terrified of her. Rumors whispered through the hoard that this new “nice” Catra was simply a ploy she was borrowing from her old mentor Shadow Weaver, and that she was looking for promising new cadets to take on as her personal proteges and abuse just as Shadow Weaver had done to her. No amount of coaxing, reassurance, or “for crying out loud would you all just lighten up a little!?” would prevent anyone from sweating bullets every time they caught sight of her.
Eventually, Catra and the rest finished their tour and the hoard resumed its usual work. Fighting the rebellion.
“So how are we doing?” Catra asked uninterestedly from her perch atop the commander’s tank.
“Hmmm, could go either way,” Scorpia said, scanning over the battlefield with a pair of new prototype ‘macro-binoculars’ Entrapta had asked them to field test. She passed them to Catra who took them without a word and perused the battle herself.
They were fighting to take back a small outpost the rebellion had liberated during the hoards week long vacation. It wasn’t anything special, just a minor vantage point, but as neither side had done any fighting for nearly a month, they were giving it their all and putting on quite a show. Stun beams and trick arrows flew past each other as steal clashed and bones rattled.
And Catra was left watching the fun from nearly a mile away.
“You know, I bet I could finish this up real quick if I just-“
“Stayed here and supervised the battle like a good commander,” Scorpia finished for her.
Catra pouted and slumped over the tank, grumbling.
“Hey, you asked me to help you be a good commander, right?” Scorpia said. Catra grumbled in response. “And that’s what commander’s do. They command. Come on, wasn’t that like lesson one of Force Commander Orientation?”
“Wouldn’t know,” Catra said, flicking a bit of debris off the tank. “I was too busy being insane to go.”
Scorpia frowned.
“Well, look on the bright side,” she said, clapping Catra on the back and nearly sending her tumbling off the tank. “You started off crazy and then went sane. Most commanders do it the other way around! Plus, new brain, new you! And I think you’re doing great so far!”
“Thanks,” Catra mumbled, rubbing her back and giving Scorpia a sidelong glare. Scorpia failed to notice. She was distracted by a golden glow on the edge of the battlefield.
“Hey, isn’t that what’s her face?”
“Huh?”
Catra followed Scorpia’s pointing claw and saw a flash of white and the glint of a sword. She nearly slammed the binoculars onto her face and saw the mighty She-Ra turning the tide of battle in all her glowing, gag inducing glory.
“Well, looks like that’s the end of this skirmish,” Scorpia said, reaching down to start up the tank again. “Still, I think it was a nice little warm up after the break. Everybody looked like they were having fun and… Catra?”
Scorpia looked around her now solitary transport. When she looked back at the battle, she saw the shrinking form of Catra racing towards it. She sighed.
“There goes the war.”
Catra smiled as she leapt and pounced her way across the battlefield. This was her element. Not stuck reviewing propositions and plans at a desk, or telling other people what to do from the safety of a fortified position. It was only in the midst of battle that she felt at home now. The rush as she spotted a rebellion soldier about to best one of her troops just moments before she used him as a springboard to push herself forward. The look of terror on the face of anyone who spotted her approaching, no matter which side she was on. The wide birth she was given as she made her way to her target. It was exhilarating, it was breathtaking, it was…
…Not really that much fun anymore actually.
As she came closer to Adora, she realized that the smile on her face was forced. Her old love of terrorizing and flaunting her power and authority was still there, but there was something else now too. An annoyingly nagging feeling that felt suspiciously like when Adora would frown at her for doing something against the rules back when they were cadets. What was that feeling called again? Oh yeah, guilt.
Catra pushed those negative feelings aside as she deftly landed on a large boulder above She-Ra as she tossed aside a handful of hoard troopers. Now wasn’t the time to dwell on her newly awakened conscience, she had a role to play.
“Hey Adora,” she purred down from her perch.
She-Ra’s tiara clad face whipped around to glare up at her.
“Catra!”
She-Ra’s eyes burned with accusation, and Catra couldn’t help but glance down at the new scars on her hands. She felt her ears flatten of their own accord before she could stop herself.
Okay, maybe that conscience thing wasn’t going to quiet down as easily as she thought.
“You’re looking… better,” Catra began, trying to keep herself from giving away any further signs of weakness. “Looks like your grip is as- HEY!”
Catra yelled as a beam of pure energy came flying at her. Pure feline instinct saved her skin as she leapt away into a nearby tree while the rock under her was blasted away into gravel. She crouched low in the leaves, trying to hide her position as she felt her heart pounding in her throat. If she hadn’t been looking directly at Adora’s hands she would have missed the subtle tell of the attack.
“What did you do to her?” Adora growled, pointing her sword at the tree, her eyes searching for Catra.
“Huh?” Catra asked.
“What did you do to her!?” Adora repeated, and the sword began to glow again.
“Woah woah woah! I haven’t done anything to anyone!” Catra insisted, ducking low and mentally adding, ‘…lately.’
She-Ra’s glare deepened, and the sword glowed a little brighter. Catra groaned. Why did Adora always have to be such a pain in the neck.
“Look Princess Property Damage,” Catra said carefully as she crept around to the far side of the tree. “I have no idea what or who you’re talking about. So how about we put down the death ray and-”
“Tell me what you did to Glimmer!” She-Ra snapped thrusting the still glowing sword forward.
“…Oh, that.” Catra said, rolling her eyes. “I didn’t do anything to your precious new girlfriend. Wait, where is Sparkles anyway?” she added, looking around at the battlefield beneath her. It was conspicuously absent of glittery magic.
“You’re lying.” Adora said, her voice still low and dangerous.
“Am not!” Catra snapped back.
“Are too!”
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“Bweeeeeeeeeep!”
The sound of the hoard’s retreat horn blared over the battlefield. Catra gave a grateful sigh.
“Saved by the bell,” she whispered to herself. Then she called back to She-Ra, “Guess we’ll have to save it for next time. Later, Princess!” And with that she leapt out of her hiding place and made a mad dash for a group of retreating hoard bots.
“Hey, get back here! Catra!”
As she passed one of the robots Catra reached up and slapped it on the side, causing it to turn and take note of the hoard’s “primary threat.” As the hoard bots opened fire on She-Ra, Catra continued to race back to the commanders tank. Despite the fact that her little prance across the battlefield had been barely a warmup, she felt a cold sweat trickle down the back of her neck.
Something had happened to Glimmer. And whatever it was, it seemed that something was bad enough that it had finally pushed Adora over the edge.
But why blame her? The last time Catra had seen Sparkles was when they had parted ways in the Whispering Woods. She had been pretty tired after their adventure in the First One’s temple, but Catra had let her rest enough to walk back on her own, hadn’t she? Glimmer had to have made it back to Brightmoon, right?
Right?
“Hey, there’s my favorite hoard commander!” Scorpia said brightly as Catra dropped back into the commander’s tank. She noticed the scowl on Catra’s face and rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. “I, ah, hope you don’t mind me giving the evacuation order.”
Catra just grunted in response and flopped down into a seat.
“Good…” Scorpia said uncertainly, turning her eyes back to the road. “So, I know this could seem like a loss. Since, you know, we lost and all. But how about we look at this as just shaking the rust off the tanks and warming up those fightin’ bones.”
Catra sighed and closed her eyes. This was going to be a long day.
And long it was. Scorpia had them begin taking inventory of their losses as soon as they got back. Then reports had to be written, then verified, then finally approved so that Entrapta and Emily could begin evaluations for what needed to be scrapped, what could be repaired, and what needed to be flagged for upgrading. And for some reason all of this had to be overseen personally by Catra.
She was 100% positive that her predecessor had never waisted time on mundane bullshit like this. Then again, under Shadow Weaver’s “leadership” about a third of their equipment always either malfunctioned, misfired, or just flat out broke down either enroot, during, or returning from field operations.
The entire process was made even longer due to Catra’s thoughts constantly drifting back to her last moments with Glimmer. She had to keep telling herself that she wasn’t worried. Which she wasn’t, because why would she be? Just because Glimmer had saved her life and her sanity, that didn’t mean anything. She’d saved Catra sure, but then she’d saved Glimmer back, then Glimmer had saved her, she’d saved Glimmer again, then she’d let Glimmer go, and Glimmer had given her a favor. They were square now. All debts paid.
Of course, Catra reasoned that evening as she made her way down to the docking bay to check out a skiff for some “field testing,” if something had happened to Glimmer that would change things. Catra had let Glimmer go, but in exchange Glimmer had promised not to tell Adora anything about their little adventure. If Glimmer hadn’t made it back to Bright Moon… well, technically she still wouldn’t have told Adora anything, but Catra couldn’t just let her get away on a technicality could she?
No, Catra decided as she hopped aboard the skiff and sped off at a brisk, but certainly not panicked speed towards the Whispering Woods. No, she certainly couldn’t let her get off on a technicality.