Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Glimmer tightens her hold on the tracker pad and glares.

The sunlight over head is glinting off the screen and making it hard for her to discern what’s on it. She growls as she tries to block the light with her hand, bringing it so close to her face her annoyed huffs fog up the screen. Figures, of course she’d get lost in the one forest on Etheria where everything changes constantly. If this wasn’t Bow’s tracker pad that he so graciously lent her, Glimmer would have spiked it into the ground by now and tried her luck teleporting.

Her first official mission as commander and she’s already screwed it up, and she hasn’t even left Bright Moon yet! And at this rate, I never will, she thinks to herself. Groaning, Glimmer takes in the woods surrounding her.

The soft floating lights illuminate the mysterious Whispering Woods, the dark brown barks of the trees appearing almost purple in the shade of the canopy. Glimmer lowers the tracker pad and conjures a small sparkling ball of light in her free hand, holding it ahead of her. The pink light of her own magic glows softly in contrast to the puffs of yellow dotting the air around her, and she feels more at peace than she ever has within these trees.

As the situation with the Horde grows ever dire, the Rebellion’s capabilities are being tested like never before; after all, there’s only so much an immortal queen and two non-elemental princesses can do. After resisting for years, Angella finally conceded to her daughter’s wishes and, on Glimmer’s past birthday, officially promoted her to commander. And here she was, with the perfect opportunity to prove to her mom that promoting her was a great idea, actually, the best idea she ever had, in fact, if only she could find her way through these damn woods.

She knows she should’ve brought Bow with her; she’s useless with technology. Sighing, Glimmer focuses her attention on the tracker pad and, after pivoting in place a bit to get out of the sunlight- there! She can see the map again! “Yes!” she shouts, shaking her glowing fist in the air excitedly before swinging it back down and holding it before her like a lamp, doubling her efforts as she returns to winding between the trees, her eyes never straying from the small blinking pixels in front of her.

Glimmer is so focused on the screen that she doesn’t even notice the silhouette that has begun to follow her. It moves swiftly and quickly, leaping from one branch to the next above the distracted princess. The rustling of leaves claims Glimmer’s attention for just a second before she shrugs it off and continues on.

Trodding deeper into the woods, the natural sunlight that’s been filtering through the leaves disappears, leaving only the glow of the floating lights to illuminate the darkening surroundings. Relieved that she made sure to charge all the way up before heading out, Glimmer allows her fist to glow just a bit brighter. In the light of her magic, the Whispering Woods seems almost....homely, somehow. She suddenly remembers all the times Bow has excitedly rambled on about the magical properties of the woods, and as Glimmer takes a deep breath, magic heavy on the air that fills her lungs, she believes it.

Holding her hand loosely in front of her, Glimmer snaps her fingers. Soft pink sparkles trail from her fingertips as yellow lights twirl between her fingers and she grins, getting ready to cast something brighter, something bigger, when-

“Hey, Sparkles.”

Glimmer screams and fires into the canopy.

A squeaky laugh fills the clearing and Glimmer feels her face grow warm despite the cool shade. She spins on her heel and quickly shoves her hand behind her back as she glares at the source of her fright.

“Catra,” spits out Glimmer.

Catra lounges lazily on a large branch behind her, her back against the trunk as her tail and leg dangle carefree over the side. She smirks toothily down at Glimmer, the muted gold of her headpiece and shoulder plating glinting softly in the light of the other girl’s sparkles. The dark greens and purples of Catra’s uniform hid her well amongst the leaves, and while Glimmer was embarrassed she was snuck up on so easily, it definitely wasn’t the first time Catra’s nearly given her a heart attack. But never before has Glimmer felt so...flustered.

Glimmer can’t help it: she stares. The lights are highlighting Catra’s face in the most ethereal way, and her eyes are shining like jewels, captivating Glimmer and rooting her to the spot. It’s hard to stay mad at a girl when...well, when she looks like that.

“It’s nice to see you too, Commander,” Catra quips at the girl below her.

Glimmer blinks quickly and clears her throat. “There you are! Thank Stones I don’t have to use this stupid thing anymore,” she says, waving the tracker pad around in exasperation.

Catra snorts and drops deftly from the branch, coming up to Glimmer and taking the pad from her hands. Glimmer tries to control the flush of her cheeks when she feels Catra’s fingertips against her own, and she hopes the other girl is too invested in literally anything else to pay attention to how she’s pretty sure her fingers are shaking.

“Just because you don’t know how to use something doesn’t mean it’s stupid,” Catra teases as she drags her finger across the touch screen, bringing up the official mission report from Queen Angella. Glimmer sticks her tongue out at the other girl as she crosses her arms, making sure to keep her ball of light glowing. “Also, you do know Mount Candila is that way, right?” Catra says smugly as she reads, absentmindedly pointing in the opposite direction Glimmer had been heading in. She fixes a piercing gaze on Glimmer and adds, “Were you even trying to meet me at the rendezvous point?”

“Not if I knew you were going to be this annoying,” Glimmer snipes back as she blushes harder, stomping off in the direction Catra had pointed in as the magicat stays rooted in place, not even trying to smother her snickers.

Catra easily catches up, though, because of course she does, and continues her teasing. “It’s a good thing you’re so loud, otherwise I wouldn’t have found you. Should I be worried you’re this bad at being stealthy?” she smirks, her tail curling mischievously behind her as she leans in close. “S-Should I be worried you’re so insufferable?” Glimmer stammers weakly in response as she leans back. Catra grins wickedly before refocusing on the tracker pad.

“Hmm, looks like it’s another day and a half from here. I vote we make our way as far west into the woods as possible and make camp once night hits,” Catra offers after looking over the files carefully, her mismatched eyes greedily taking in everything on the screen in her hands.

“Sounds good to me. Oh, before I forget! Auntie Casta sent some snacks,” Glimmer exclaims as she reaches for the pack on her back, pulling it onto her chest as she starts digging inside. “Ohhhh, did she make what I think she made?” Catra asks, pupils dilating almost impossibly wide as she watches Glimmer root around. Glimmer giggles at the other girl as her fingers finally brush against warm cloth. “Please, like Auntie would ever make you anything else. You know she’s, like, obsessed with you, right? I have to practically beg her to make these for me,” she replies as she hands Catra the lovingly wrapped coffee buns. Catra excitedly snatches the buns from Glimmer’s hand, a loud purr starting up in her chest as she holds them up to her face, inhaling deeply and sighing happily.

“Have I told you how much I love your Aunt?”

“First Bow, now you? I’m starting to get jealous.”

Catra snickers again, her tail wrapping absentmindedly around the other girl’s ankle. As Glimmer’s face warms yet again, she silently sends out a thanks to her Aunt’s baking for keeping Catra’s attention off of her and her newfound incessant blushing.

“Now come on, Sparkles, we should try and hit the edge of the woods by nightfall; your terrible sense of direction wasted a lot of time.”

“Terrible?”

The doors to the Black Garnet chamber slide open with a hiss.

Shadow Weaver, gnarled hands wrapped around the bowl in front of her, straightens her back. The dull red glow of the Black Garnet casts the chamber in a menacing light, and she revels in the relative darkness the gem offers compared to the harsh neon green lighting of the rest of the Fright Zone. She releases her grip on the bowl and turns her head to the side.

“Status report,” she commands.

“The squadron just completed the training exercises, Ma’am - in record time, of course,” a voice from the doorway offers obediently.

“Excellent,” Shadow Weaver responds cooly, finally turning around.

In the doorway to the Black Garnet chamber stand two girls. The blonde one stands at attention, eyes staring straight ahead as she waits for her commanding officer to issue further orders; everything about this girl, from her cleanly shaved undercut to her wrinkle free uniform, is in perfect regulation. Standing behind her and a bit off to the side is a hulking figure trying to cower behind her own pincers. Shadow Weaver turns to address her.

“And you?” she asks derisively.

Scorpia flinches and straightens up, keeping her eyes trained solely on the floor.

“I’m, uh, real hard at work on connecting with Mom’s old diadem now that you’ve, ahh….fixed it….Ma’am, so here’s to hoping sometime soon! Hopefully,” Scorpia rambles, worrying the tips of her pincers together behind the small of her back.

Shadow Weaver scoffs.

“Typical. Why I expected anything more out of a two rate princess, I’ll never know,” the sorceress spits out, the shadows in the room quickly pooling at her feet in another unnecessary -yet terrifying- show of power. “You are to double your time in the chamber, and if you do not make headway with the runestone soon, Princess, there will be dire consequences, am I understood?”

Scorpia audibly gulps and nods her head vigorously. “Y-Yes, Shadow Weaver,” she replies, bringing a pincer up in a sloppy salute.

“Very well,” Shadow Weaver says. She releases her control on the shadows and allows them to retreat before refocusing her attention on the other girl in front of her.

“Dismissed.”

Scorpia doesn’t need to be told that twice - as soon as the word is past Shadow Weaver’s lips, the girl bolts out of the doorway, the tip of her stinger banging against the frame with a reverberating clang in her haste to leave.

“Adora,” Shadow Weaver croons, “come here.”

Adora dutifully steps into the chamber, allowing the doors to finally slide shut. She stands in front of the sorceress, hands clasped behind her back, silent.

Shadow Weaver places her hands on either side of Adora’s face. The sorceress’ palms glow softly against Adora’s skin, and while she wouldn’t say it’s a pleasant feeling, it’s not an entirely unpleasant one either.

Just as the light begins to flood Adora’s eyes painfully, Shadow Weaver removes her hands.

“You have done well, Cadet,” Shadow Weaver says, patting Adora’s cheek affectionately. “I see big things in your future, but only if you keep this up. If you were to slip…”

“Don’t worry, Shadow Weaver, I won’t,” Adora promises vehemently.

Shadow Weaver glances down at the girl in front of her and Adora swears the slits in her mask narrow for just a second, before she chuckles darkly. “No, you won’t,” she agrees.

And as Shadow Weaver reaches for her again, everything goes black.

Chapter Text

The sun is already shining softly through the leaves when Catra starts to wake up the following morning. Like a wave, she rises slowly, and then all at once. She stretches her arms, legs and tail as far out as they’ll go and then releases them with a satisfied little sigh before blinking her eyes open. And biting down a scream.

Sometime during the night, her and Glimmer’s very much separate bed rolls had been dragged together and Catra is awarded with an eyeful (and mouthful) of the still sleeping princess. She tries to spit the pink and purple hair out from between her lips as quietly as possible, so as not to disturb the slumbering girl in front of her. When Glimmer’s breath catches for just a second, she freezes, sure she’s been caught. But Glimmer simply rolls over instead, and she sighs, relieved. She wasn’t particularly in the mood to be blinded by sparkles this early in the morning. Again.

She scurries out of bed and stands up, huffing softly as she smooths down her sleep tussled fur. It’s not that she and Glimmer haven’t slept near each other before - the countless sleepovers Glimmer has hosted for her and Bow over the years proved otherwise, in fact - she just wasn’t used to being that close to the princess.

At least that's what Catra keeps telling herself as she heads over to the nearby lake she had spotted the night before. As she goes about collecting enough water for the both of them, she allows her mind to wander.

The two of them were currently near the western edge of the Whispering Woods. She knows once they leave the boundaries of the woods they’ll have to move quickly; the protections afforded by the magic brewing between the trees would only last them so long once they wandered past its borders. She carves a small fire rune into the dirt with the tip of her claw and sets the water to boil. We’ll probably hit the treeline by late afternoon, which should give us plenty of time to scout and set up camp safely in the Fire Ruins, she thinks to herself as the water begins to steam. Hopefully one of the runners was able to restock the stash nearby, having some potions on hand would be nice.

Bright Moon isn’t the only kingdom to lay claim to the Whispering Woods. Half Moon, the secret hidden kingdom of the Magicats, also called the woods their own. Catra’s people have lived underneath the woods since before the First Ones settled the planet, since before even princesses were commonplace on Etheria. And the only good thing about listening to C’yra drone on and on about the woods, Catra muses, is that now I know where all the royal emergency supplies are.

It’s as Catra is filling up the last of their canteens that Glimmer finally gets up.

“Morning, Princess.”

“Mmphff.”

Glimmer plops herself down next to Catra, immediately burrowing into the other girl’s side. “Nuh uh, Sparkles, don’t start, we have a long day ahead of us,” Catra says as she leans back, her body betraying her words as she angles herself towards the smaller girl beside her. “Mmmhhh, but you’re so warmmm,” Glimmer coos sleepily, her nose dangerously close to Catra’s jaw. “And so soffft,” she says, punctuating her sentiments with a yawn.

Catra tries to ignore how the puffs of breath against her neck make her feel like thousands of ants are crawling under her skin.

“I always knew you were using me for my body,” she throws back unsteadily.

Glimmer giggles softly into her side.

Catra grabs the nearest canteen and takes a swig. Get a hold of yourself! She clears her throat. “What would her highness like for breakfast today?” she asks.

“What’s on the menu?” Glimmer mumbles into her neck.

“We still have some of Casta’s coffee buns, we’ve got rations, or if you want something fresh, I can catch us something,” Catra replies, the tip of her tail thrashing erratically behind them.

Glimmer wrinkles her nose in distaste. “Eww, fish this early? Gross. I’ll have one of the buns.”

“Don’t knock it ‘till you try it, Princess,” Catra quips as she reaches for the pack she left by the canteens. She finds the buns and grabs them, handing one to Glimmer before snagging one for herself.

The two eat their breakfast in silence by the lake. It’s a beautiful morning. The lake sits still in front of them and Catra can’t tell what’s bluer, that or the sky. The sun is shining brightly above them, warming her to her very core, and the breeze is ruffling her fur so nicely. And Glimmer’s steady presence against her is electrifying in a way she’s never felt before. If she isn’t careful she might start-

“Are you purring?”

“What?! N-no!” Catra squeaks loudly, “That was just my stomach, obviously.”

“Obviously,” Glimmer replies, giggling softly under her breath.

She promptly gets a wind rune to the face for that.

“Catra!”

But Catra’s fast, and she deftly dances out of the other girl’s reach as she heads to pack up their sleeping area.

Well, two can play at that game, Glimmer thinks as she smirks and disappears into a cloud of sparkles.

Catra’s ears swivel at the sound of the other girl’s magic, and she quickly throws a glance over her shoulder. Where did she go? She suddenly feels a warm weight materialize behind her and her eyes widen comically before face planting into the forest floor.

“Hah! Gotcha!” Glimmer shouts from where she's perched on Catra’s back.

Catra twitches, and before she can blink, Glimmer can feel her back being pressed into the cool dirt.

“You sure about that?” Catra replies from above, pupils dilated and tail thrashing, a lone fang peeking out from behind a devilish smirk.

Glimmer’s sure she’s stopped breathing. How can she, with Catra staring down at her like that? Blue and yellow eyes meet pink. Did she always have sparkles in her eyes? Catra thinks as she inches her face closer and closer, until she’s all Glimmer can see. Is this what having a heart attack feels like? Glimmer muses as her heart pounds painfully in her chest. Catra moves in, and Glimmer’s breath catches, and her eyes fall shut, and her heart stops, and, and-

Rough. Coarse. Wet.

Catra’s cackling on her stomach by the time Glimmer’s brain decides to work again.

“DID YOU JUST LICK ME?”

Scorpia stares into the mirror.

Is she supposed to recognize what she sees?

Realistically, she knows it’s her -the fact that the image in front of her is literally mirroring her should be all the proof she needs- but she still can’t help but feel like she’s staring at a stranger, even after all these years.

Her blood red dress falls to the ground, her skirts flowing elegantly next to the ends of her wide sleeves, and Scorpia hates how the extra fabric flares out and pools on the floor by her feet, hates it so much, because she looks like-

Breathe, Scorpia.

The matching veil covering the bottom half of her face doesn’t help either, but she insisted, and-

Breathe.

Scorpia clutches the basin between her pincers and inhales greedily, holding her breath until she can feel her heartbeat slow.

Good job, Scorpia. Okay. You can do this.

Scorpia looks up.

In the Horde, one isn’t considered a Cadet until they are deemed old enough to handle the responsibilities of training, which is around ten years old. But unlike all the other orphans the Horde so graciously took in, Scorpia wasn’t to be made a Cadet. Since Scorpia’s family were the original rulers of this land, Hordak decided to entrust the upbringing of the Scorpion princess to his second in command, Shadow Weaver. When the time came for Scorpia to begin her training, Shadow Weaver -unwillingly- began to teach the girl sorcery in an effort to get her to harness the powers of the Black Garnet that would remain forever elusive to sorceress.

Scorpia will never forget the day she was issued her new uniform. At first, she had been so excited; she got a cool new outfit! And she looked so pretty! But that pride quickly turned to shame. All of the other Cadets ignore her now -why would they want to talk to someone who was proud to be a princess?- all of them except Adora. Adora, Shadow Weaver’s other ward, and Scorpia’s only true friend in the Fright Zone. She remembers fondly how Adora's eyes had widened at Scorpia’s new look before excitedly jumping into a bunch of questions about the functionality of her new armor.

Scorpia cracks a small smile at the thought of her best friend, and as she stares at herself in the mirror, she searches for the silver lining that she’s otherwise always insisting exists.

Okay, what’s one good thing? Well, the chest plating is pretty cool. It- it looks like Mama’s.

She smiles sadly.

And I guess- I guess with the diadem, now I’ll have something from Mom too, huh?

With that, Scorpia takes one last deep breath, and puts on the diadem.

It’s hard to pin into place with a) such short hair and b) pincers but after a while she’s able to get it fairly secured on her head. The shiny red scale-like charms that Scorpia remembers hanging so beautifully against the stark white of her mom’s hair are gone. In their place, Shadow Weaver fastened two gem pieces on each side. Scorpia narrows her eyes and leans in closer and- is that-

Scorpia’s eyes widened.

Oh, Stones.

She raises her pincer and gently taps one of the small crystals on the side of her head. She feels a tiny zap! and her suspicions are confirmed; they’re pieces of the Black Garnet.

She knows she shouldn’t be freaking out -princesses are always gifted with pieces of their runestones as jewelry, it helps strengthen the bond to the runestone- but Scorpia knows Shadow Weaver. And she knows a threat when she sees one. In this case, it’s pretty clear: get your shit together or I’ll fry your fucking brain.

Scorpia takes another deep breath, and another, and another, until the thundering in her chest somewhat starts to quiet down. Looks like it’s time to get to work.