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“I thought your folk were all gone, but it seems some fragment has skittered off into hiding.” Prime smirked down at her from his throne. “And you, their unwanted daughter, they left marooned in a shadow dimension.”
Catra crossed her arms and frowned. “Yeah – with their most powerful superweapon. So if we could get back to the part where I’m threatening to blow up your entire empire…”
“How hard it must have been, growing up the only one of your kind.” Prime smirked. “How precious even one friend must have been.”
Two clones entered behind Catra. Between them, walking with them as they went to the base of the stairs leading up to Prime’s throne, was a much shorter figure dressed in the same pale cloak with the same concealing hood drawn up.
Catra always wondered when Adora would change out of that stupid jacket.
“Hey, Adora,” Catra said. She meant it as a reassurance. It sounded more like a plea.
Adora stood there, silent, her face hidden in the hood of her cloak. Prime rose and held his arms out.
“Well, there you are. Your gambit has succeeded, and I yield to your threat, daring hero. Here is your Adora, safe and sound. You may leave here with her.” The clones stepped aside, and Adora, now by herself in front of Catra, reached up and pulled her hood down. “If, of course, that’s what she wants.”
Adora stared at Catra. Her face was blank. Her hair was cut short.
Her eyes were glowing green.
Instinct took over. Before the full gravity of the situation had dawned on her – before she asked herself how Prime had done this to her friend and whether it could be reversed, before she wondered what his plan was, before she thought of a way to get even herself out of here alive – she was charging forward with a roar. She had made a lot of progress on her anger, but sometimes, a sudden rush of violence was the most appropriate response – she would vault up the stairs, and before his guards could close in, she’d claw that smirk off Prime’s face and slash all the way down to his…
Adora reached behind her back and drew out a sturdy baton. She flicked her wrist, the tips extended, and she brought the end of what was now a staff screaming at Catra’s head. Catra snarled and ducked under the blow, keeping her focus on Prime. She heard Adora shifting her stance from behind her and leapt over the sweeping strike Adora aimed at her legs. Prime made no move to defend himself as Catra mounted the stairs, didn’t even flinch as she pounced into the air with claws outstretched toward his throat.
Adora had thrown perfectly. The staff struck Catra in the small of her back, the shock tip igniting and making every muscle in Catra’s body spasm and seize. Her momentum carried her forward, rolling her over until she landed face-up in a heap at Prime’s feet.
“Well, little sister? Why don’t you tell us what you want?”
Adora walked up the stairs and bent down over Catra. She did not make eye contact with Catra, merely picking up her staff and stood holding it at attention at her side.
“To do the will of Horde Prime,” she said.
“Adora…” Catra pushed herself off the ground. Again, she looked at Adora, trying to find some hint that this wasn’t what it looked like. Again, Adora did not meet her gaze. “What did you do to her?”
Prime walked behind Adora and laid a proud hand on her shoulder. “I have made her anew. I saw her mind: she has always wanted to serve, always wanted to dedicate herself to a higher cause. My light has guided the way for her – tell her what I’ve shown you, child.”
Catra got to her feet unsteadily. Adora moved her staff to a defensive position, the tip pointed at Catra.
“Prime has given me clarity,” she said, her face a blank slate. “He has freed me of doubt and pain. You left me with heavy burdens to carry, but he has lifted them from me and made my purpose clear. There is no higher cause than to serve him.”
Catra sank down a little, readying herself to spring forward if she got an opening. She crept slowly to the right, making a slow circle around Prime. Adora moved along with her, keeping herself between Catra and Prime, staff up and ready.
“I will make a deal with you,” Prime said. “I will give her to you, if you want her, but first you must do something for me. Give me She-Ra.”
“I’ve got She-Ra for you, all right!” Catra feinted left and swept in from the right. Adora flinched at the feint, but for all Catra’s speed, she was ready. She swung the staff at Catra’s head, sending Catra dancing backward to dodge it. Adora closed the gap between them, letting the staff’s momentum carry it around and behind her back. Again, Catra tried to get around her to Prime, but Adora planted the staff behind her and vaulted herself up on it, aiming a kick right at Catra’s temple. Catra caught her leg and tore her down, slamming Adora to the ground. She had her opening – she turned to Prime, now defenseless, and…
He snapped his fingers. The communicator in Catra’s ear shrieked and sparked, disorienting her enough that she staggered. It only took half a second to get it out of her ear and recover herself, but that was enough time for Adora to steal up on her again and take Catra’s legs out from under her. Adora was on top of her before she could get up, straddling her and pinning her down with the staff, Catra using all of her strength just to keep it off her windpipe.
“You miscalculated.” Prime crushed the communicator under his boot. He glowered down at Catra while Adora, her face still blank, held her down. “I see all. I know all. But – give me She-Ra, and you can still be the hero you think you are. You can still save the people you love.”
Prime twisted the words like a knife. Though Catra was sure it was meant to sting her – which, credit to the evil bastard, it did - Adora’s eyes went wide. Just for an instant, there was humanity there again, surprise and hurt and fear, but only an instant. Her grip remained strong.
Prime turned from them and began to leave, the clones following close behind. “Let me know when you’re ready to make a deal.”
And then they were alone.
“Adora, snap out of it!”
Nothing.
Catra tried to wriggle free, but Adora had a strong position over her, her hips straddling Catra’s waist and her staff coming closer, bit by bit, to pressing down on her neck.
“Adora, please! This isn’t you!”
“No, thank goodness. This is much better. I have worked so hard, Catra, but it has brought me nothing.” She leaned down harder on the staff, her face still a blank stone. “It has brought me no one.”
Catra pushed back, but Adora always had more muscle. Catra, on the other hand, had always been more limber. She swiveled her hips and bent her legs back, touching her toes to Adora’s back before pushing up with her hips. Her hind claws dug in, tearing the cloth and skin between Adora’s shoulders, and as Adora grunted in pain, her grip slackened just enough for Catra to throw her off to the side.
Both women got to their feet. Adora readied herself immediately, standing with her shoulder toward Catra and her staff held in a wide grip against her body, one end of it pointed at Catra’s head.
Catra got her arms up and kept herself ready to move. “You’re coming back with us. Whatever Prime did, whatever it takes, we’re going to get you out of here and we’re going to fix it!”
“There is nothing to fix. Finally, I am whole. You’ve caused me such confusion, Catra, but Horde Prime has freed me of all the burdens of self: all my responsibilities, my regrets, my wants. Don’t you see? The tensions of a lifetime, eased at last. Catra…” She gave a small, laughing sigh, seeming almost to relax as she turned her body and let the point of the staff hang behind her. For the first time – for the first time in a very long time – Adora smiled.
“Catra…it is ecstasy.”
Adora came at her. She brought the tip of the staff around her in a wide, powerful swing, stepping forward and turning her whole body into it. Catra stepped back once, then again as momentum carried the staff back over Adora’s head and she brought it back around for another swing. Catra looked for an opening to close the distance between them, but Adora was intent on keeping her at a distance. Usually, the superior speed of She-Ra or Adora’s capacity for distraction had worked for Catra in these situations, but the mask was broken, and Adora seemed totally, terrifyingly focused.
Adora switched her grip, keeping one end of the staff close to her as she jabbed the other crackling tip once, twice, three times, forcing Catra to dodge and backpedal. Catra would be driven off the edge of the platform at this rate, so she took a chance. She read Adora’s posture, and when she thrust forward next, aiming to hit her stomach and double her over, Catra sprang up, alighting in a crouch on the staff. She hopped from there onto Adora’s head and sprang off hard enough to send Adora stumbling backwards. She fell, her staff clattering away, and the back of her neck struck the edge of Prime’s dais with a small burst of sparks. Her head slumped forward, eyes closed.
Catra ran up to her and crouched beside her, taking her shoulders and shaking.
“Adora! Please! Snap out of it!”
Unless there’s nothing to snap out of. Unless Prime’s right. She thought of Adora’s increasingly brutal record with the Horde. Unless this is really her.
“I never wanted to hurt you,” Adora said. She still sat against the dais, her eyes still closed. “Every time we fought, I was terrified of losing you.”
Adora grabbed one of Catra’s hands and held it up to her face. Her green eyes opened. She smiled again, a genuine, relieved smile.
“And now I fear nothing.”
She punched Catra in the jaw with her other hand. Catra caught the second punch, and then both of them were getting to their feet, hand in hand, each trying to leverage weight and height against the other.
Catra, for her part, didn’t want to hurt Adora, but of the available options, “knock her out and bring her onto the ship to sort this mess out later” was looking pretty attractive. She felt only a minor pang of guilt as she brought her knee up into Adora’s stomach and tossed her off to the side, giving her just enough of an opening to grab Adora’s staff off the ground. She guessed it was similar to the stun rods they’d trained with in the Horde, and if she was going to bring this girl in without serious head trauma, it seemed like an ideal choice. She felt over the controls, ignited the stun elements at the tips, and turned.
Adora stood at the edge of the platform, looking down.
She smiled back at Catra over her shoulder. “You still care so much. You worry even as I try to kill you that I might die myself. And don’t I deserve it? Haven’t I wrought enough horror to earn that? But just look how simple it is to unbalance you.”
Adora turned fully, her back to the chasm behind her, and with arms spread wide, she began to tip backwards.
“Adora!” Catra called out. She let the staff fall, running forward with both hands out to grab anything she could before the other woman fell. She got there just in time, getting an arm around Adora’s waist just as her weight started to pull her down off the ledge. Catra pulled her into her arms and away from the ledge. Adora wrapped an arm around Catra in turn.
It was almost a moment of contentment. Amidst all the horror and crisis, she got to hug her friend again. But Adora laughed – and as she spoke, it was with Horde Prime’s voice.
“That is what is wrong with the universe, Catra. That is why it needs my stewardship. You come so close to perfection, but all these feelings, all these desires, they have rotted you away from the inside. I have seen it a hundred thousand times on a hundred thousand worlds.”
Catra gasped as something sharp stuck her in the side. She tried to pull away but Adora held her fast. She got a hand up just in time as Adora brought the knife she’d taken out up to Catra’s face. This moment – with Adora trying to fall back over the edge even as she threatened Catra with a knife, forcing Catra to pull her back with one arm while she pushed the knife back with the other – was the closest she’d come to real panic so far.
Adora laughed, still in Horde Prime’s voice, white pupils appearing in the bright green of her eyes. “This one is pure, at least. Her will is strong, but only when she has something to fight for, or someone. With no one left to turn to, she was remarkably easy to turn. But then, her allegiance was always to the Horde – my Horde, whether she knew it or not. This has always been her destiny.”
Catra cried out, shifting her grip on Adora’s back and falling back, letting Adora roll on top of her, then bringing her legs up against Adora’s stomach and launching her into the air behind her. Adora landed on her feet, knife still in hand, and they both lunged for the staff. Adora got a hold on it, grabbing one end tight.
Catra, however, had always been the quicker one. She had her hand around the middle of the staff. The controls.
“Sorry,” Catra said. She ignited the tip, and Adora yelped and flew backward with a loud thwap of electrical discharge, landing against the display panels arrayed behind Prime’s throne.
Catra got up, leaning on the staff for support and holding her punctured side. Hopefully, Adora hadn’t gotten her too bad, and hopefully they’d be able to patch it up back on the ship – time for some of that positive thinking Perfuma was always going on about.
“I’ll be honest – I’ve been wanting to carry you off to Bright Moon kicking and screaming for a while, but this is getting ridiculous,” Catra said. “You going to come, or you need another zap?”
Adora looked up at her. Again, her eyes were wide, human, terrified.
“Catra…” Even after all they’d been through, nothing scared Catra more than Adora looking scared.
An explosion rocked the air from far off in the station. Klaxons blared, and the displays behind Prime’s throne started to spark and whine. Adora cried out and grabbed the back of her neck, and Catra padded forward, getting an arm around Adora’s back and carrying her away, laying her down and shielding her just before the panels burst in a messy blast of heat and glass.
Adora opened her eyes. Whether this was because the others had succeeded or because the stun rod had messed with something, whether it was temporary or permanent, the green haze had vanished, and Catra recognized the real Adora looking up at her.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” Adora whimpered. “After all I’ve done, I don’t deserve any better than this, Catra.”
Catra smiled. A tear rolled down her face. “It’s not all about you, idiot. I’ve been good, Adora, like really, really good!” She scooped Adora up from the ground and held her. “I don’t deserve to lose you again. How about that?”
Adora leaned her head into Catra’s shoulder and let out a tiny sob. “But why? Why me? Why risk all this for me?”
Catra held her head to Adora’s. Their cheeks touched. “You’re such an idiot.”
“Yeah,” Adora laughed. She shook with laughter and grief. “Yeah, I know.”
Then Adora punched her right in the stab wound. Catra yowled as Adora tore her aside and stood. Her eyes glimmered green again, and she took a few quick steps toward the edge of the platform before she reached up again at her neck, grunting with pain as something shot out sparks.
Catra stood up, cradling her side. “Adora! I’ve never been able to make you do anything, and I doubt I’m going to start now. But some part of you wants to be good.” She held a hand out to Adora. “Some part of you wants to be happy for once. Don’t do this for me. Please, for just once in your life – do this for yourself!”
Adora took another step toward the edge. She seemed to be taking another, but she froze. The thing on her neck sparked, and she clapped a hand on it. She turned to Catra, her cheeks wet, her eyes bloodshot, her lip quivering.
“Adora.” Catra took a careful step forward, reaching out her hand. “What do you want?”
“I…I want to go home,” Adora whispered. “Catra…I want to go home.”
Catra took a step forward. “Then I’ll take you home. I promise.”
Adora reached out to her. But another spasm wrenched her body, and her eyes went green, again with white pupils. Prime spoke through her.
“What a disappointment. It seems your mentor was right, Catra – you ruin everything you touch.”
The thing on the back of her neck whined again, sparking so violently that Adora screamed, convulsed, and fell off the edge.
Again, instinct took over, her legs carrying her over the edge after Adora before concerns like grief and gravity could weigh in on her thoughts. The feline reflexes kicked in, arching her back and swing her limbs toward the ground, bracing to cushion the impact as much she could. The landing was still rough, especially with the rough condition of her side, but she wasn’t worried about herself. Adora wasn’t moving.
Catra tried to stand, but the pain in her side kept her down. No matter – she crawled over to her. She couldn’t tell what injuries Adora had, only that she wasn’t moving and her eyes were closed.
“Adora!”
She sat up and gently gathered Adora into her arms. Adora’s breaths were shallow and ragged, but she was still breathing.
“Adora. Come on.” Catra didn’t shake her, she knew better, but what else was there to do? She was injured herself, alone with an unconscious woman, and here came Prime’s clones now to surround them. What could she do? How could she get Adora out of here?
She held her gently, but close. “You never make it easy, do you, Adora?”
“I am honestly surprised,” one of the clones said. His pupils were white just as Adora’s had been, and he spoke with a more confident cadence than the clones who’d escorted her in. This was a whole thing with Prime, she took it. “I was certain you would summon She-Ra before you let this happen to your Adora. Clearly, I underestimated your willfulness. Ah well – a planetary superweapon would have been a welcome addition to my arsenal, but my conquests have…”
“Shut up.”
The Prime-clone pursed its lips. “If you are of no use to me, you can scarcely afford to talk to me like that. I shall cleanse you from my sight, and leave this whole mess behind us.”
He advanced. The other clones followed.
And exactly what happened next was kind of a blur, to be honest.
Maybe it was some instinct from being cornered. Maybe it was the thought of these alien freaks hurting Adora. Maybe it was good old fashioned spite. Why it happened was a great question, and probably an important one to address later.
Now, in the moment, she stood up, and found she was eight feet tall. She held Adora effortlessly in one giant arm. Long trusses of hair brushed against Catra’s back, waving in a breeze that touched nothing else in the room, and the clones shielded their eyes from a blinding light source she did not see…
Of course, as she looked down, at herself, she realized that she was the blinding light source.
Catra reached on top of her head and felt a mask that she hadn’t been wearing a minute ago sitting there, a mask very similar to the one she’d broken. Transforming into She-Ra shouldn’t have been possible anymore.
“Weird,” Catra said. She shrugged. “But hey – I’ll take it.”
Claws like spearheads extended from her free hand.
Then, instinct took over.
She grabbed one of the clones by the leg and hauled him up into the air, using him as a club to bowl over a row of clones behind her. She tossed him off to the side and elbowed another in the face. Claws, kicks, bites, throws, leaping tackles – truly, it was a blur. As ever, the She-Ra state seemed to know what it was doing plenty well without much input. It wasn’t until the clones were all on the ground that she felt a need to reassert herself. Adora was still breathing. It was time to get going.
She looked down at the clone who’d spoken, meeting his gaze as he struggled to stand. He still had those white pupils. What did Horde Prime think of all this?
She had to get back to the ship.
But first, she stuck her tongue out and gave him the finger.