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Chapter Text

It was a beautiful morning in Brightmoon and the Best Friend Squad was busy eating breakfast. Adora was shoveling the food into her mouth like some sort of wild beast to the mix of shock awe and disgust that Bow and Glimmer had gotten used to feeling when watching the ex-horde soldier devour her morning nurishment.

“The Horde hasn't made a move in a while..” Adora stares while swallowing a pancake without chewing. “They must be planning something big.”

“All the more reason to strike soon” Glimmer exclaimed. “Who knows what evil scheme that heartless Hordak is planning? We need to go on the offensive before they get the chance to-”

“Enough both of you!” Shouted an exasperated Bow. “You both are still recovering from the rescue and Glimmer you are still glitching! No more plans of attack, let's just eat and go to the meeting Queen Angela scheduled us to attend after this.”

The three teenagers finished their breakfast in peace before making their way to the war room. Angela was sitting in her chair with a serene smile on her face the likes of which Glimmer had only seen a handful of times in her life. Angela began the meeting her voice filled with joy.

“Today I have received wonderful news. The Kingdom of Halfmoon's missing princess has been found and brought home.”

Glimmer gasped. “ No way for real they found Cy-Ty!?”

“There was a missing princess?!” Shouted a bewildered Adora.

“Yes” Angela nodded “Over a decade ago Halfmoon was under siege by the Horde. While they were successful in repelling the assault, in the chaos the princess was separated from the royal family and presumed dead..”

The queen sighed remembering the brutal battle. “After the loss of their princess, Halfmoon withdrew from the princess alliance and closed its gates to all outsiders”

“But with the princess having found here way back home we may be able to have them join the alliance again!” Glimmer explained in glee right before her glitching acted up.

Angela looked to Glimmer with a pained expression but quickly alters to a more authoritative one. “In addition to the announcement of the princesses return, Queen Cyra II has requested our aid in acclimating her daughter in how to interact with other princesses. I wish to send the three of you to help in this matter.”

"Absolutely!" Glimmer shouted. "I would be honored to help Little Cyra!" She was bouncing in excitement.

"You can count me in!" Added Bow. "I am always up for making new friends! Oh should we bring a welcoming gift?"

Both Glimmer and Bow we're ecstatic to aid this princess. There was clearly some connection between Brightmoon and Halfmoon but right now Adora was too busy panicking to really contemplate on it.

“You..you want me involved in teaching someone how to be a princess!?" Adora yelped in shock. "No offence your majesty but I am TERRIBLE at etiquette! I still don't understand why you have so many spoons and forks or why I can't use that spoon for soup but I AM allowed to use it for cereal and-”

As Adora continued to spiral into a self deprecating mess the queen simply let out a small chuckle. “Worry not Adora I simply believe that it would not hurt for her to have someone to learn alongside, for her to see she is not alone in needing to learn what to do.”

Adora blushed mid rant “O-oh right yeah that totally makes sense “ she grinned fooling absolutely no one of her embarrassment.

“We can also use it as an opportunity to show the princess She-Ra that will DEFINITELY get them to consider rejoining” Bow explained.

Adora nodded at the explanation. It did make sense she WAS after all the strongest weapon in the Rebellion's arsenal; it was a smart tactic to provide a show of power to a potential ally. And if nothing else she was curious about this kingdom what did it look like? What were the people like? And one of her most important questions was how did the food taste?

“However there is another caveat to this mission.” Angela stated. “Halfmoon is the most advanced kingdom in the use of healing magic. If anyone can help Glimmah with her glitching it would be Halfmoon's sorcerers.”

Adora saw Glimmer's eyes brightened. Ever since the rescue she had tried all manner of things to repair the connection to the Moonstone but nothing had worked. Adora had even traveled to the First One's ruins to see if there were any clues on if She-ra could heal her but all Adora had found was a busted useless hologram. Now there was a chance to fix what was broken and the three began the trek to Halfmoon immediately after the meeting.

The Best Friend Squad marched through the Whispering Woods using an old map to guide them to the hidden kingdoms entrance. The journey had taken roughly 6 hours slowly moving through rocky and overgrown terrain on the path.

“So you're telling me there was a kingdom in the middle of the woods all this time and only NOW we are trying to recruit them?” Adora groaned as they continued the walk.

“It would not have mattered” Glimmer responded as she looked at the map to get them all situated. “ The people of Halfmoon were devastated by the loss of Cyra III. Can you really blame them for wanting to make sure no other children were lost to the war?"

"You knew her." Said Adora. It was not a question but a statement.

"Yeah…." Glimmer sighed and smiled, remembering a gentle memory as they continued to walk. "Back before I had met Bow she was my only friend. We did everything together, we would play dress up, go running around the woods looking for monsters to fight, and would have sleepovers. Heh we even had stupid nicknames for eachother."

"But then…" Glimmer continued her face becoming more somber. " She just disappeared… she is the reason I'm so possessive of my friends, I-I don't want to lose you guys like I lost her!"

Bow out his hand on Glimmer's shoulder. "It's okay Glimmer, you won't lose us." He then looked to Adora. " Right?"

"Right!" Adora confirmed as she went in to give her friend a hug. "Soooo why 'Cy-Ty?"

"Her first name was Cyra and her middle name was Tygra so four year old me thought to combine them." Glimmer answered with a laugh. "I know it sounds stupid but it was our thing."

After a few more minutes of pestering Glimmer about Cyra the trio found themselves at a large stone structure in the shape of a Lion's head guarded by two feline humanoids.

“Halt! Who goes there and what is your business?” One of the guards bellowed.

Adora was frozen in shock looking at the cat people. They look just like Catra. She thought to herself completely forgetting her words when questioned by the guard but she was saved from looking too much like an idiot by Glimmer.

“I am princess Glimmer of Brightmoon with me are master archer Bow and She-ra princess of power. My mother asked us to come and speak with Queen Cyra in regards to her daughter.” Glimmer explains.

The guards stood aside and tapped their weapons on the ground. Magic permeated the area as the stone lion head let out a roar revealing a large stone staircase downwards. From this staircase emerged another cat hybrid this one wearing heavy armor that was highly decorated.

“I am general Pumgatha, you will follow me to the Queen.” The man stated not so much a request or order simply spoken as a fact.

The stone stairs went down further and further only the light emanating off the mounted torches on the stone walls allowed the three to see anything at all on their way down. The stairs gave way to the opening of a tunnel revealing on the other side a sprawling city swarmed with cat people as far as the eye could see.

“This is her homeland.. these are her people.” Adora muttered to no one as thoughts of her former best friend rushed to her mind. All Adora could think about was how Catra would feel knowing about this place.

“Well obviously.” Bow answered not realizing Adora was talking to herself. “I mean Halfmoon is the Magicat kingdom where else would a Magicat like her come from?”

“Magicat..” Adora smiled at the word. Catras species now had a name and it was beautiful.

The three were brought to the front of the palace where a regal magicat woman awaited them. Her fur was a bright yellow and her hair was dark brown held in place by her crown. Pumgatha bowed his head

“My queen the three envoys of Brightmoon have arrived to meet with you.”

Cyra looked over the three and gave a gentle smile. “I Cyra D'rilluth II, queen of Halfmoon, welcome you to our kingdom.”

Glimmer gave the ruler a big familier grin and curtsy “ it's nice to see you again Auntie Cy mom sent me to talk to you about Cy-"

Before the Brightmoon princess could finish her thought she was tackled to the ground by a golden ball of fluff resulting in a snort of laughter from her friends and the queen.

“New people! They smell funny! “ The ball of fluff shouted revealing itself to be a young Magicat girl no more than 12 years old at the most her fur a bright blonde with an unruly mane of golden locks cascading down her head . The sound of large foot falls and panting echoed out of the castle interior

“ I'm sorry Cy “ A gruff yet jovial voice called. “ She smelt new folks and well you know how she is.” A large portly Magicat man exited the castle out of breath from most likely trying to chase down the energetic kitten, He was a large bulky man, his fur a dark tan and his gold hair slicked back.

Cyra simply laughed it off. “Sorry about that Glimmer, she is not used to new people entering our lands. Now Kiata, is this that anyway for a princess to act?” She gave the kit a mildly stern look.

Kiata puffed her cheeks and jumped off of the sparkly girl returning to her mother's side. “And what do you say?” The queen urged her daughter.

“I'm sorry for pouncing on you.” Kiata grumbled annoyed.

“Its okay Its my fault for not remembering how pouncey magikittens can be." Glimmer .Smiled as she dusted herself off.

Adora looked at the adorable kitten with surprise. She reminded her so much of Catra when she was younger. It almost broke her heart to know that Catra could have been as happy as this child looked if not for the Horde.

"Aunt Cyra, it is great to see you again but we are actually here on business as you are aware.

Cyra nodded. "Yes of course right this way, oh she will be so thrilled and surprised to see you Glimmer I haven't even told her about sending for you."

"Would she even remember me?" Glimmer asked looking down. " It has been 12 years"

"She remembers," Cyra stated. "She didn't at first but in the weeks she has been here her memory has started to recover. She did not have an easy time these missing years."

"Then we will have to make up for all the lost time." Glimmer replied before looking at Adora and Bow. "Guys you are going to love her. She was so sweet and playful."

None of the three noticed the subtle wince from The royals at Glimmer's words as they continued into the castle.

The Best Friend Squad was led through the immaculate castle by the royal family. The three humans gushing at the mesmerising artwork furnishing each room they were guided through until they reached a large antichamber were stood five statues of craftsmanship that would have put the rest of the Magicat artwork to shame if said art did not complement the statues in the way they did. The five statues each depicted a magicat as formed in varying degrees of armor and weapons.

Leondus gazed upon the statues with pride. “ Behold the five founding tribes. All magicats can trace their ancestry back to one or more of the five.” He stated as he walked over to each statue. The first had a well kemp wreath like mane and looked to be the most regal of the five. “The first king Lion-o of the Leios tribe, the bravest of all Magicats“.

He moved onto the 2nd one. “Panthero the mighty of the Pantherex clan” this one had minimal features. The statue was bald but the muscles sculpted were bigger than the head. “ He was the strongest of the five as well as the greatest inventor, a master of brains and brawn.”

The next statue depicted a lean striped Magicat holding a whip. “Tygra the shadow founder of the Tigreni tribe and the mentor of the hunters and spies.”

The 4th Magicat statue was of a spotted woman. “Cheetara the swift. Speediest Magicat of all time founder of the Cheetanna tribe as well as the regulator of our sports and competitions”

The final statue was of two identical magicats . “And lastly the wiley twins Kit and Kat, their bloodline is known as the Wilders; they were the most innovative of the tribes finding creative solutions to the problems facing our kingdom.”

Before the king could speak anymore on the subject Kiata let out a groan on the levels of Mermista and Glimmer. “Daaaaaad don't bore them to death with the history lesson! Besides do you REALLY want to keep sis waiting? She isn't exactly patient…” the young girl warned.

Leondus gulped at the realization and his fur went on end. “Um.. right we should probably just head on in sorry about the info dump history major and all.” He just continued forward.

Adora and Glimmer took in a sigh of relief while Bow looked disappointed at the sudden end. He would be sure to have the king follow up on this.

Now in the throne room the envoys bowed their heads. And waited for the announcement. The royal family took their seats and guards began the fanfare.”Announcing Princess Cyra Tygra D’rilluth III.”

“Greetings Princess Cyra III, I Glimmer of Brightmoon along with Bow master archer and She-Ra Princess of Power are happy to hear of your safe return. You may not fully remember me but we used to be close friends, because of this my mother has asked us to assist you in acclimating to royal life. I hope we will become good friends once more.” With introductions and reintroductions finished the three rose their heads to the princess.

With one look at the princess Adora was frozen in place. Nothing she had planned for could have prepared her for the VERY familiar sky blue and regal gold eyes gazing back at her with an odd mix of smugness and shock. Then the princess spoke two words

“Heeey Adora….”

Chapter Text

“Heeey Adora…”

Adora was frozen in shock. There on the throne sat her childhood best friend turned worst enemy. “C-Catra…” It took all of Adora's will to speak that one word. How was she here? Did she leave the Horde? Oh no what if this is a trap!? Adora could not dwell on these thoughts for long as her attention was diverted by a shrill scream.

“Aaaaaaaggggghhhhhh! What are YOU doing here Horde Scum!?” Glimmer shrieked pointing a shaking finger at Catra. To his credit Bow was only having an internal scream but still had his namesake drawn ready for a fight.

Before Catra could respond with any snarky comeback there was the sound of loud stomps as a door was slammed open revealing the tall sweet and strong Fright Zone princess Scorpia. “Wildcat are you alright? I heard screaming!” Scorpia yelled in worry. The Best Friend Squad turned to the new arrival and this time all three screamed. “Oooh you’re busy. I'll.. I'll just come back later.”

Then to top off this series of chaotic events an overhead air duct broke open and Entrapta fell to the ground.

“Halfmoon log day 15.. 16? No definitely 15; air ducts over the throne room do not have the structural integrity for human weight perhaps this is due to the lighter bone and muscular structure of magicats? In any case work will need to be done.” The tech princess then took in her surroundings and looked over at the three envoys who all looked like they had seen a ghost. “Oh hey guys I haven't seen you since we raided the Fright Zone, How are you doing?”

This was met with the appropriate and not at all over the top reaction of the three Brightmoon envoys screaming at the top of their lungs and pointing at Entrapta.

“Mom are all humans this screamy?” Kaita asked the queen, plugging her ear to all the loud noise.

“Not since I last visited outside the kingdom. Unless this is a new trend that has become popular in that time I would say these parties have a history together” Cyra responded, her own ears also plugged.

Catra pinched the bridge of her nose letting out an exasperated sigh. “Scorp would you please escort ‘Trapta back to her lab.. I'm kinda in the middle of something here.”

The bug girl nodded."Yes ma'am princess wildcat! Hehe princess that is so weird considering you always hated-”

“Scorpia out! Now!” Catra shouted blush creeping to her cheeks and her tail slightly bristled.

“Oh uh yes ma'am!” Scorpia saluted dragging Entrapta away by her hair. “Oh and it was nice seeing you guys again! Sorry about the kidnapping, and almost tossing the bow boy into that turbine it was just a job. Horde Force Captain duties you know.” And with one last awkward claw wave the two left the room.

After a brief moment of silence Adora decided to be the one to cut the tension. “Catra… seriously what are you doing here?” the blond asked.

Catra smirked and slouched back onto the throne “ I live here now. Found my mom and she turned out to be a queen so yeah..here I am.”

“Bullshit." Glimmer glared daggers at Catra. "How dare you.. how fucking dare you!"

Catra looked to her as if to study the intensity of Glimmer's rage. "How dare I what Sparkles?

"How dare you impersonate Cyra!" Glimmer shouted marching her way to the throne. "Not only did you play with her parents' and sister's emotions but you desecrate her memory by sitting on what would be her throne! I. knew you were low Catra but this….this is just wrong."

"Glimmer do not speak to her like that!" Cyra growled.

"Relax mom I'll handle this" Catra stated not letting her eyes leave her accuser.

"Don't call here that!" Glimmer yelled in viseral fury. "You are not her daughter! You are NOT Cyra III!"

"Really Sparkles? Got any proof of that?" Catra smirked, not even phased by the outburst. "I mean heterochromia is not exactly common and it would be really really hard to find a magicat who had the same hair color and fur style to match the princess, explain how I am a perfect match."

"I don't need to explain it! Glimmer said through gritted teeth her hands shaking in rage at the mockery of her lost friend. " I-It does not matter if you have her eyes, or her fur, or her hair. You..you aren't-"

"I thought Adora was the moron of your little brigade 'Glim-Glim'." Catra interrupted.

Glimmer gasped putting her hands over her mouth in stunned silence. All of her building rage disappeared in an instant only to be replaced by the icy chill of creeping dread. There was no possible way Catra would know that nickname, Cyra would only ever call her that when they were alone. She never told her parents about it. The only was for Catra to have knowledge of that name would be for her to be-.

"It really is you…" Glimmer said in shock.

"Give the girl a prize." Catra smirked.

Glimmer took a large gulp of air after putting the proverbial foot in her mouth. “M-my apologise Queen Cyra, King Leondus. I was out of line.” The monarchs looked over her sternly “ it is not us who you should be apologizing to.” Leondus states.

Glimmer set her eyes back on the smug as hell Catra and was caught between gritted teeth and crying from the sheer amazement of her childhood friend being alive. “I am sorry princess Catra, I was out of line questioning tour legitimacy..”

Catra let out a long hmmmm as if to torture the Brightmoon heir as long as she could before Cyra glanced her a dirty look

“Very well Princess Glimmer in the name of peace civility I shall forgive your transgression.” Catra said in a terrible cringy as heck royal accent. The tone comes off way to overbearing and condescending that It made even Bow shudder.

“Okay yeah you were not wrong if that's what she thinks a royal tone is she DOES need lessons.” Bow states still reeling from the awful display. “That was almost as bad as Adora's lying voice.''

"Hey I sound more convincing than that!" Adora grumbles indignantly at the criticism of her acting having managed to suppress all of her questions about Catra being both a princess and apparently an old friend of Glimmer's.

“No you don't…” Bow Glimmer and even Catra respond in unison.

Adora's face grew red with embarrassment but shook it off to ask the really important question. “Catra..what happened? Why are you here and not in the Fright Zone?”

Catra studied Adora for a moment deciding how much to tell her ex-best friend. “Well Adora.” The Magicat princess began. “The quick answer is after I let you and Sparkles escape with the sword...I defected."

Chapter Text

Catra was pacing around her Force Captain's quarters in absolute distress. “Why did I let them leave.. or better yet WHY The FUCK did I let them leave with Adora's Hordak damned magic best friend-stealing life-destroying bullshit sword!?” She slammed her face on her firm mattress and let out a mighty groan. Oh you know damn well why~ the voice on her head teased Catra with flashes of Adora.

The reasons didn't matter now Catra told herself. The damage was already done, Shadow Weaver had eyes and ears everywhere in the Fright Zone even unconscious Shadow Weaver would know what she did. The Magicat had only one option left for her continued survival; she needed to run.

Catra quickly packed up what little items she owned or stolen over the years and all the ration bars she had on her sadly they were the brown ones. But hey crap food is better than no food when you are running away from the only home you have even known. Once all packed up Catra sprinted out the door only to immediately crash into Scorpia who was about to knock on said door.

“Oh you headed somewhere Wildcat?” The ripped Scorpion asked innocently. “Didn't hear about any missions today most of us are stuck on clean up after that invasion yesterday. I can't believe those no good rebels had the audacity to impersonate an Inspector!”

Catra groaned both from charging head first into the sentient brick wall of muscle known as Scorpia as well as the migraine she was getting by hearing said girl drone on about falling for some idiotic distraction. “Look Scorpia I'm busy so if you don't mind I need to-” “ You are defecting” Scorpia bluntly stated. Catra blinked and readied her claws scowling. “And what if I am?” That Magicat questioned not lowering her guard incense this got ugly. “Then we should probably head to Skiff Bay D the cadets there just went on break so we got about an hour before anyone would show up and take inventory.“ The Scorpioni Horde Princess replied.

“Wait what?” Catras jaw nearly hit the floor. Scorpia lovable sweet innocent bumbling Scorpia had thought up a well conceived plan of escape. “How did you do that and what do you mean we?” Scorpia patted Catra's shoulder “I'm not letting you leave alone if you are leaving then I'm leaving with you.” Catra was taken aback by the girls loyalty all Catra had ever done was either push her away or use her yet here she was willing to give up everything for her friend that even though would not say so out loud needed her, Catra felt a very disturbing sense of deja vu.

“Thank you Scorp.” The cat girl being the one initiating a hug for once, “you are a great friend, better than I deserve…” “Oh wildcat..” Scorpia blubbered and tightened the hug. The tender moment was interrupted by an invasive voice. “Fright Zone log it appears that the angry feline person and the tall scorpion person are friends and that hugging is a thing in the Fright Zone contrary to popular belief”

The Force Captains ended their hug abruptly at the intervention of this new voice. “Who the hell are you!?” Catra shouted at the short woman with purple hair, her claws out and ready to gouge if Catra deemed appropriate. “Hello I'm Entrapta.” The woman replied “Don't mind me I'm just doing some research while waiting for my friends to find me. They had a hard time finding me last time when. I ran off so I decided to stay here and wait for them..”

Catra blinked and remembered where she had seen this girl before. “ You were at the Princess Prom… they left you behind when they rescued Sparkles and Arrow boy.” The cat girl felt some empathy for the abandoned princess. “What no, I'm sure they will be back.” Entrapta brushed off the remark “Fright Zone log hour 40..41 that's too many hours.. it appears the cat person is right. They aren't coming back for me.” In a surprisingly display Catra patted the princess on the back her own feelings of abandonment. “Come with us we are getting out of here, might as well drop you off on the way it will give us a direction to go.”

“Hmm okay I accept let me just go get Emily.” The mad scientist smiled. “Um who is Emily? “ Scorpia asked, causing Entrapta to gasp. “Oh how rude of me! Here let me introduce you! Oh Emily here girl!” Entrapta whistled and a hordebot with purple accents made its way to the princess. “I reprogrammed her, gave her some upgrades, and named her Emily.” Scorpia daaawwwed at the bot acting like a pet whiles Catra’s eyes only twitched before she shook herself out of the stupor. “ Uh-huh right okay time to go. “

The three girls and the bot made thier way to the understaffed skiff bay. The area was quite large and filled with all manner of skiffs ranging from small scout models to large cargo skiffs. “Okay let's grab one of those cargo skiffs might as well weaken the Horde a bit as a final fuck you by takeing one of the best.” Catra smirked and the three girls began to load thier gear and Emily onto the cargo skiffs. Suddenly the room began to drop on temperature as the light started to fade. “ And where do you think you are going?” a condescending voice echoed out from behind the three. Catra and Scorpia turned to face the voice both holding on their terror. Shadow Weaver was awake, had found them, and she was pissed.

“ Do not make me repeat myself child” the witch glared at the cat girl. Catra stood her ground and sneered. “ I'm obviously leaving, what gives? thought you would be happy not having to deal with my 'flippency’ anymore.” “Oh child.” Shadow Weaver smirked. “Had you gone alone I would have no issue, infact I would both condone and applaud your actions. Finally seeing yourself as the waste of resources you are and removing yourself from our ranks. I would be nothing short of proud.” Catra flinched at the blunt disregard for her life.

“However…” the sorceress continued. “That is not the case now is it? Not only are you stealing both a horde bot and a skiff but dragging Force Captain Scorpia and who I believe to be the princess of Dryl.. I cannot have you wasting such valuable assets and resources now can I?.” “Y-you Shut you UGLY mouth!!!” Scorpia shouted, surprising both Catra and Shadow Weaver for she never shouted especially not with such anger. “How dare you talk.about Catra like that! She is an amazing person and a great leader, I am choosing to follow her of my own choice! So don't ever call her a waste! “

Catra couldn't believe the faith Scorpia had in her. She was in awe, but that awe quickly turned to fear as Scorpia fell to the ground red lightning coursing through her body. “ You insolent fool!” Shadow Weaver shouted.“ How dare you raise your voice to me! “ The witch turned her attention to Catra who was running. “Yes, run away. It's the only thing you have ever been good at.” Lighting chased after Catra who narrowly avoided getting hit by the onslaught of magic bolts which hit the skiffs behind the cat. “You have always been a disappointment. You've learned nothing from me!” Shadow Weaver let out another burst of lightning only for Catra to jump into the air and corkscrew to both avoid the attack and face her.

“Oh, no I learned everything from you.” Catra started smugly as she charged back at her poor excuse of a mother figure. “How to predict when you will attack.” Shadow Weaver struck again now infuriated only for Catra to leap onto a support beam causing the sorceress to miss. “How to dodge, how to resist.” Catra taunted. “ You thought you were punishing me all these years? Wrong.” Catra leaped forward catching her abuser by surprise. “You were training me for this day!”

With the fury of over a decade of torment Catra sliced Shadow Weavers mask and shattered the shard of the Runestone embedded in it. The magic binding Scorpia dissipates as Shadow Weaver panics at the loss of her magic. “ No! Come back to me!” The witch desperately trying in vain to fix the broken shard.

Catra stood over the fallen sorceress is a victorious smile. “It would be so easy to kill you now for all you have done to me but I gotta go.” The cat hybrid then looked around. “Besides I'm sure Hordak won't be too quick to forgive you letting 2 force captains and a princess escape under your watch. Not to mention all the property damage you caused~.” Only now did Shadow Weaver see what had become of the skiff bay dozens of skiffs had been rendered useless by her attacks at Catra and tens more were in desperate need of repair. Catra had played her.

Without looking back Catra sauntered over to the cargo skiff and the three girls headed off towards the Whispering Woods. Catra looked ahead, brimming with confidence. She had done it, She had defeated Shadow Weaver, She defected, and most importantly she did it by her own merits and not with the help of a certain blonde idiot and her best friend-stealing sword.

Chapter Text

They had done it. Catra Scorpia and their new compatriot Princess Entrapta had succeeded in escaping the Fright Zone and were on route towards the Whispering Woods. While Catra was still riding the high of kicking Shadow Weaver's ass the reality of what she had done started to settle in. “We turned against the Horde!” Catra exclaimed then the implications of that smacked her in the face. “We turned against the Horde..” she repeated. “Where are we going to go?!”

Scorpia winced at the outburst. “Hey now it's okay Wildcat, as long as we are together we will be fine.. and Entrapta! Entrapta you must know of some place we could stay until we figure out what to do right?” The Scorpioni grinned.

“Hmm?” Entrapta muttered being pulled from her thoughts. “Oh yes you would require a temporary dwelling as you adjust to lime outside of the Fright Zone..hmmmm well there is always Brightmoon”

“No” Catra cut the scientist off. “ I am not going to bow down to Adora and the loser brigade! We are staying away from the alliance besides they would probably try to charge us for war crimes.”

Entrapta thought about Catra's explanation for a moment. “ I suppose the is a high probability especially since you are both in Horde uniforms and have those badges. Even after factoring in myself vouching for you there is an 85.93% chance of you both being incarcerated.” Entrapta stated matter of factly.

“Yeah I'd rather not be thrown in a dungeon.” Scorpia responded as she tossed her Force Captain badge into the wind with Catra following suit. “Can you think of any other places that would take a couple of ex-horde soldiers?”

Entrapta gasped “Oh why don't you come stay with me in Dryl! The castle as a few traps set up but we have tiny foods and fizzy beverages!”

“Wait.there are TINY foods!?” Scorpia's eyes sparkled. “that sounds so cute!” The two princesses gushed over tiny foods as catra continued to drive the skiff. Honestly she didn't really care for food sizes but food is good she supposed.

“Won't the other princesses get mad that you are harboring us?” Catra questioned Entrapta as she dodged trees with the skiff.

“Like you said they left me behind, by my data analysis that would indicate they do not see me as a friend, you brought me with you which indicates you DO see me as a friend. Following my data this means that I should be helping you. That is the logical conclusion!”

“You want to be my friend?” Scorpia beamed and lifted the petite purplenete princess into one of her trademark hugs. “Oh I would just love to be your friend Entrapta!”

Entrapta pulled it her recorded with a locke of her hair as other tendeles of the hair reciprocated the hug. “Whispering Woods log 1; It appears that making friends with former Horde soldiers is easier than previously indicated, side note The one called Scorpia has exceptionally strong hugging capabilities.”

Catra noticed the sun starting to set and landed the skiff in a small clearing. Her night vision was exceptional to say the least but even she wouldn't risk flying the shoddy horde machine in the dark of the night. “We will make camp here for the night and continue on in the morning. Scorpia use your claws to snap up some branches for firewood.” Scorpia nodded and began chopping away. “I will get the fire pit ready.” Catra continued and looked at the large leafed trees surrounding them. “I made sure to bring 3 sleeping bags with the supplies as for lodging… Entrapta do you think you could make a shelter out of those large leaves?”

Entrapta clapped her hands giddie “ Oh what fun this will be just like a camping sleepover!. And yes with Emily’s assistance I can make a big enough lean-to for the four of us.” And with that the geek princess and the bot got to work on construction, leaving Catra to her own thoughts as she began to lay down the stones for the fire pit.

Sleepover huh, Catra thought to herself her mind beginning to race with memories of her sleepovers with Adora. She remembered how they used to pick on Kyle and stay up late talking about…. stuff. Catra shook her head clear before she could spyral too far down into those memories. Adora betrayed me, left me! she reminded herself as if needing to try to keep that rage alive. The Magicat was snapped out of her inner thoughts by the loud sound of large objects being tossed on the ground in front of her causing the girl to yelp.

“Oh sorry Wildcat didn't mean to startle you.” Scorpia apologized, putting a claw behind her head. “Was just putting the kindling in the fire pit like you asked.” She pointed down with her free claw.

“It's fine Scorpia.” Catra sighed as she came back to reality. “Was just lost in thought.”

“What were you thinking about?” Scorpia asked as she locked down a tree for the three of them to use as a seat for the fire.

“N-nothing important!.” The former soldier stammered. “now get out of the way I need to make the fire.” Catra ushered the scorpioni girl out of the way and began to work at the kindling with some flint.

Catra felt a strong yet gentle claw rest on the back. “It's okay to miss her.” Scorpia replied with a soft smile easily cutting through Catra's defenses and addressing the root of the issue. “She was your best friend for all of your childhood, it's only normal to want her back. You can miss someone without needing to forgive them for what they have done.”

“The shelter is done!” Entrapta shouted as the popped up between the two girls. “Ooo what were you talking about?”

Catra jumped back letting out a small yelp in surprise at Entrapta's sudden appearance but she was a little bit thankful for the distraction from. Scorpia's words. She was not ready to deal with THOSE emotions yet. And sadly she got the feeling she couldn't punch them away like normal anymore. “Fire is set up as well now is as good a time as any to eat.” She stated hoping that the bitter taste of ration bars would keep her mind off her current thoughts.

The three retrieved ration bars from the supplies they had time to grab as they made thier escape from the Fright Zone, sadly for Catra all they had at the time were the brown ones. Catra groaned a bit but choked down the nutrient bar. Scorpia didn't seem to mind the bar and just ate it with no outward signs of disgust,and Entrapta was more so studying the matriea rather than eating it.

“Fascinating!” The scientist awed. “These bars appear to be so vitamin and mineral dense that they can replace an entire days worth of food. How brilliant.” She then took a bite after having snapped the bar given to her into smaller pieces for tiny foods reasons. “Side note said bar has a strong aftertaste of black licorice and tar. Will need to experiment to remedy that.”

Night soon fell upon the defectors and they all retired to the lean-to for some sleep. Or they would if Catra actually COULD sleep. All the events of the day and her emotions regarding them hit Catra full force as she laid on the leafy floor. She was a defectors now, she could never go back home not that the Fright Zone was every really a home for her. She then thought of Scorpia and Entrapta and how they saw her as a friend. That word… it just meant so much to her.

For as long as she could remember Adora was here everything, all of the other cadets saw her as a freak. be it because of her cat like features, Shadow Weaver's hatred of her seeping into the behavior of the other kids, or just her overly sarcastic blunt and standoffish personality Catra never had anyone who saw her as a friend. No one except Adora, and she betrayed her and left her alone to deal with the fallout of Adora's defection. Catra thought of her two allies as she drifted off into the void of slumber making a mental plea that this time things would be different, that this time her friends would not leave her behind.

Chapter Text

Catra awoke to the familiar sounds of clanging metals and the smokey scent of welding. For a moment she feared the events of last night were just a fever dream and she would find herself back in her room in the Fright Zone. That was until a snoring Scorpia rolled over pinning Catra to the ground with one of her claws.

So it wasn't a dream. Catra thought to herself as she wiggled her way out from under the sleeping princess and made her way out of the lean-to, keen to discover the source of the noise that woke her up.

Outside Entrapta was hard at work doing something to their skiff with Emily acting as her guard and scanning the perimeter. Catra’s ears winced at the loud bangs of a hammer and her tail flicked in agitation at her disturbed rest.

“Um what are you doing to the skiff?” Catra called out to the purple haired scientist. Entrapta looked up from her work looking giddie.

“You're up great!” Entrapta replied.”After seeing this elegant machine in action last night I couldn't help myself. So any ideas on how to upgrade the speed, the handling, the fire power! So I MAY have done some tweeks. Is that bad?” She asked looking back at the catgirl.

Catra stared blankly at Entrapta. It is way too early to deal with this shit. She sighed. “So what you are saying is that you decided to mess with our only ride in the early hours of the morning with no regard for waking us up?”

Entrapta took out her recorder and started a log. “Whispering Woods log 1, the one known as Catra gets very grumpy when woken up in the morning by the sound of tinkering.”

Catra's eye twitched and she pinched the bridge of her nose taking in a deep breath. “ Look, you like messing with machines and upgrading them. I can respect that. But seriously we can't risk the skiff right now it's our only mode of transport and I do NOT want to be walking in these woods for days it was dangerous enough just sleeping for the night. So can you hold off on the “tweaking” until we are out of here?”

“Oh sure.” Entrapta replied with friendliness. “I will start packing up. You go wake the spikey one and we can head off.” Entrapta then patted Catra on the head with one of her hair tendrils and used the others to fix up the skiff and put her tools away. After a few minutes of waking up Scorpia,beating breakfast and packing up the remaining supplies the three girls were ready to continue their trek.

“Now remember I added a bit more kick to the engines so be ready for a much higher max speed.” Entrapta warned as Catra got ready to fly the skiff.

“Yeah yeah I'm sure I can handle it.” Catra rolled her eyes and put the skiff into high gear.

What followed was a blur. Entraptas tinkering had indeed boosted the skiffs top speed...by a factor of 5. Catra shrieked doing her best to try and pilot the out of control deathtrap of a skiff.

“Slow down Wildcat!” Pleaded a terrified Scorpia clasping onto the skiff for dear life while Entrapta was laughing and having a blast, her hair flowing in the wind.

Catra used her reflexes as best she could given the unbelievable speeds the skiff was flying at. She managed to dodge and weave most of the undergrowth when she realized they were headed straight for a large tree. Catra could not swerve out of the way of the giant obstacle she applied the brakes and..

SMASH!

That was the last sound any of the three heard before they plummeted to the ground and all their visions went to black.

“Did you hear that?” An unfamiliar sharp feminine voice spoke. Catra's ears twitched at the sound but she was too sore from the crash to move.

“Hear it? I FELT that!” Another deeper more male sounding voice retorted. The two voices got closer and closer until they were but a few mere feet away from the downed defectors.

“Isn't this the Dryl princess?” The first voice spoke while lifting up something Catra assumed to be Entrapta's body.

“I think it is!” The second responded. “And over here! It's a Scorpioni!”the sound of struggling grunts filled the air as the owner of the second voice began to drag Scorpia somewhere. Catra cursed her weakened state she needed to get up and she would not allow her friends to be in danger. She began to stir when the voices turned their attention to her.

“Hey kid you okay? Which hunting squad are you a part of?” The first spoke to her and got closer.

Catra opened her eyes in confusion. “Kid? Squad? What the hell are you-” Catra's voice died in her mouth as she got a look at the two who had found them. They had her ears, her tail,her fur. “You look like me..” the shock sent Catra's mind for a loop and she promptly passed out.

As she fell back to unconsciousness she heard the male speak once more. “We better get the general….”

When she awoke Catra found herself laying on a table her body bandaged up with the smell of numerous herbs plaguing her nose. She began to move when another foreign voice called to her.

“Oh you are up! Don't move, you will reopen your wounds.” The voice of an aged man warned. Catra looked around and saw another person who looked like her. He was over 6 feet tall with short ashen fur turning to grays. “You took quite the fall child,” he continued. “Now if you can please tell me your name and tribe.”

Catra looked at the man studying his every feature. Now she knew she wasn't hallucinating there truly were others like her. As amazing as it felt to know she wasn't the only one of her kind being raised in the Horde did make her cautious of whom to speak to.

“Isn't it rude to ask someone's name before giving your own?” Catra snarked and winced a little. Okay it hurts to laugh good to know. The older Cat cocked his head in confusion.

“The injury report said nothing of head trauma.” the male muttered. “Are you feeling alright cub? Do you truly not recognize Marluth the Master Healer when you see him?”

“Besides the obvious cuts and bruises I'm just peachy.” Catra scoffed. “And why would I know who you are “Marluth” where the hell am I and where are my friends!”.

“Ah the Scorpioni and the Princess of Dryl.” Marluth stated. “They are in the recovery ward luckily their wounds were not as severe as your own.” Catra sighed in relief. Her friends were okay.

“As for where you are in my clinic.” Marluth continued. “And as for why you should know me I am the top healer in all of Halfmoon.”

“And what is Halfmoon?” Catra rolled her eyes in annoyances. Marluth gasped at the question but before he could answer an even larger cat person clad In armor entered the room.

“Do not waste sir Marluth time with playing the fool child.” The armored man spoke in annoyances. “You are not a part of any of my hunting squads. What in Panthro's name were you thinking going above ground!”

“General Pumgatha..” Marluth chastised. “I believe she may have suffered some brain damage from her fall. Her tail confirms her words. She is simply confused and irritated by her current location.”

“I am not brain damaged!” Catra shouted at the two. “Look I'm not from here! My name is Catra and I am a defector from the Horde.”

Both looked at her in bewilderment. “You say you are of the Horde?” Pumgatha asked. Catra nodded and let the general speak. “ How many other magicats did you see in that place..?”

“Magicat? Is..is that what you are? Is that what I AM?” Catra asked. She always wondered what he species was called. Honestly she was just happy there were others like her, that she wasn't a freak. “None.. maybe if there were then I wouldn't have been treated like an animal..” Catra looked up to see the two older magicats wince at her words. “ Erm I mean really I don't wish it on anyone the place really sucked, just you know would have liked knowing I wasn't the only cat person in the world.”

Pumgatha stroked his beard at her words and for the first time took a good look at the young defector's face. He looked to Marluth as if to silently ask the healer a silent question and was greeted with a nod. “Rest for now Catra, once our queen has finished with her duties for today, I believe that she would like to meet with you.”

Catra's ears flattened at the word 'queen’ “Royalty huh.” She scoffed looking to the side. “Well that's just greaaat.” she may not be a part of the Horde anymore but Catra still didn't trust royals. And if this queen was anywhere near as powerful as Angela was rumored to be she did not wish to meet her.

Catra felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked behind her to see Marluth giving her a small peaceful smile as if to calm her. “Worry not young one.” The elder Magicat smiled. “the return of one of our own is a blessing. Queen Cyra will simply wish to see you with her own eyes.”

Pumgatha stayed for a few more minutes asking Catra questions about the Horde and her childhood. She would not go into much detail but once the general felt sated with his questions he left the girl in peace.

Over the next few hours boredom was at the forefront of Catra's mind. She was not well enough to move off of the bed she was placed on and was getting more and more restless by the second, the fact that this Marluth person continued to inspect her injuries did not help that matter.

“I'm fine.” Catra groaned as the healer continued to apply foul smelling herbs to her cuts and wounds “I'm not gonna die you don't need to waste your medicines on me.”

“You are still in pain, there is no waste in ensuring the comfort of my patients.” Marluth said with a gentleness Catra had.never heard before. “I can see the Horde did not instill such values in you. But understand this Catra, anyone who is under my care shall not be made to suffer.”

Catra could not believe her ears. This complete stranger who knew nothing about her or her friends was showing her more compassion then she had received from anyone. (Well all but two people.) “Why do you care?” She asked. “ I was a Horde soldier, shouldn't you hate me on principle?”

Marluth sighed and shook his head as he redressed the wounds. “We do hate the Horde.” He answered. “We do not however hate the victims of it's abusive nature. It saddens me greatly to know that each and every soldier deployed from that callous regime is but a kidnapped child forced into a position they had no choice but to fall into.” Marluth finished up the redressing of Catra bandages and gave her a soft smile. “Everyone is worthy of feeling safe and protected Catra I hope that your time here will help you believe this.”

Catra was glad that the older healer could not see her face right now. She choked down a sob as tears flowed from her eyes. When did I get so weak? She chastised herself unable to comprehend how this man's words could affect her so easily.

Catra's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. “Is she presentable Marluth?” A voice of stern authority called out from behind the door. Catra jolted up when she heard it, somehow that the voice.. sounded familiar.

“Yes Queen Cyra she is decent please come in.” Marluth confirmed.

The door opened to reveal a Magicat with a good half foot on Catra with gold-yellow fur, brown hair that matched Catra's own shade, and her eyes were a striking cyan like her own left eye. Said eyes opened wide looking at her. The supposed queen took one look at Catra, cusped her hand over her mouth and gasped fresh tears rolling down her cheeks . “My baby girl.. you still live.”

And for the second time this day Catra's world abruptly faded to black.

Chapter Text

Catra stirred from her sleep to the strange calming sensation of a clawed hand gliding through her unruly mane hair. Despite the peculiar situation she found herself in she didn't have any urge to move, In fact she had never felt so relaxed. It wasn't until she caught herself purring from the act that she forced her eyes open to see what in the name of Etheria was going on.

When Catra opened her eyes she found the Magicat queen standing over her running her hand through her mane with a soft smile.

“What happened?” Catra murmured, still not really wanting to move. She couldn't believe she could ever feel so relaxed by someone who wasn't Adora.

“You fainted.” Cyra explained not stopping the strokes of her hand. “My apologies, I was just so shocked to see you that I...didn't stop to think how you would react my Cyra III.”

At this Catra did get up and put her guard back on. “Yeah no sorry you got the wrong cat girl, my name is Catra not Siera or whatever you said.”

“Catra? Really?” The queen reiterated with a deadpan expression. “By the founders who in their right mind named you so blatantly.

“HEY I happen to LIKE my name.” Catra hissed deflecting the actual question. “And it's no less on the nose then the princesses and archer boy.”

“Fair enough..” Cyra relented to the sad truth of Etherian naming practices. “But you ARE my daughter Catra..a mother never forgets her kitten's scent.”

In truth the woman's scent was familiar to Catra but she couldn't place it. There was no way this Cyra could be her mom if she was the. That would make her a… Catra shuddered and willed herself not to go any further on that train of thought. “I get it.... You lost your kid, and you are tricking yourself Into thinking that by some miracle she came back home. Sorry to disappoint but I'm not the girl you are looking for.”

Cyra did not buy this deflection for a moment, “come now Catra try to remember. Remember your life before the Horde.”

“I CAN'T!” Catra snarled, getting more defensive with each passing moment. “The earliest thing I remember is being named. So drop it.”

Cyra looked ready to prod again but was stopped by Marluth. “ She is still recovering, Queen Cyra.” the healer interjected. “And I sense a lot of dark magic tangled up inside her..

“They used dark magic on you..” Cyra clenched her fists in rage at the implications of such practices.”

Catra was still trying to comprehend what exactly was going on with all this strange care the queen kept showing her. She had explained she isn't this woman's daughter why would she still be so protective.

“Give her some time to heal then she will be set to see the castle.” Marluth stated. This seemed to appease the queen who took some calming breaths before setting off. Catra yawned and layed down to once again sleep the ordeal of meeting the queen having exhausted her greatly.

Catra found herself as a child again being held against someone's chest a muffled but familiar song emanating around her. She felt a gentle warmth. That feeling is abruptly turned to a cruel coldness as she next found herself standing in a war scarred wooded area. The sounds of battle ringing in the distance and the smell of soot and ash assaulted her nose. She was running trying to escape something or someone. She ran and clawed her way through the wooded area, the crackling roar and heat of flames now overtaking the sounds of combat.

She could feel her heartbeat pulsing on her head as she ran. She looked back to see if whatever she was trying to escape from had caught up to her. Not looking at her footing the young magicat tripped over a root and fell forward and tumbled into a roll leaving her prone on the ground. She had to get up; she needed to get away. These thoughts were shouting in her head but her body would not respond. All Catra could do was stare as the dark silhouette of a towering creature grabbed at her.

Catra awoke with a scream sitting up in a rigid motion and breathing heavily taking in her surroundings. She was still in the clinic on her bedroll, “Another nightmare.” she sighed and gripped tightly onto the sheets.

Nightmares were not uncommon for Catra. Growing up under Shadow Weaver's “care” had left the girl with a vast number of night terrors from the cruel tortures inflicted upon her. But this one was different.

This nightmare was one that had haunted Catra for years. All through her childhood she had gotten this nightmare at least once or twice a month,and it had become more and more frequent ever since Adora had abandoned her. This was the first time however the nightmare began pleasantly before devolving back into the usual chase scene. Catra did not get anytime to dwell on the meaning of the alteration as a loud knock on the door drew her attention.

“Catra!” Suddenly the door slammed open and a worried Scorpia barged her way into the room wrapping her pincers around the startled Magicat.“ I heard you scream is everything alright!?” Scorpia did not look too bad. To Catra's relief only a few cuts here and there, a bandage or two, and some chipped chitin was all the damage the Scorpioni princess had suffered

“I'm fine, I'm fine.” Catra replied through shallow breaths. She was blushing, annoyed by the breach of personal space l, however though she would not admit it, on the inside she was grateful to have someone so caring here for her.

“Have you gone MAD!?” The voice of Marluth shouted at them. “Put her down this instant!”

Scorpia begrudgingly let go of Catra letting her plop down back onto the bedroll. Marluth rushed over to reexamine Catra's bandages. “Okay nothing looks to have reopened..” Marluth sighed the panic in his voice fading.” Ms.Scorpia I can understand your desire to comfort your friend but she is still recovering, you must be gentler with your hugging.”

Scorpia nodded and shuffled back a bit giving Catra some space. “Well if you are feeling okay Wildcat I'll just go make sure Entrapta is doing okay. “ And with a nod from Catra Scorpia left the room leaving Catra alone with the healer once again.

“Now that you are up I do have a few questions for you if you would be so kind.” Marluth said as he started to write in a notebook.

“Didn't I already give what I knew about the Horde to the general guy?” Catra asked. She rolled her eyes not really being one who liked having to repeat herself.

“Oh no, this is not about the Horde's military strength and weaknesses.” Marluth answered.” I simply wish to make an assessment of how you are feeling at the moment.”

Marluth began questioning Catra about where she felt pain, and if any movements were either difficult or caused discomfort. After some poking and prodding of certain joints Marluth finished his notes and clicked his pen shut.

“You are a remarkably quick healer Catra.” Marluth stated as he poured over his note. “After a crash like that most magicats would be out for a week at minimum. Yet somehow you have managed to recover quick enough that I would predict a full recovery by the end of the day. Catra can you think of anything that could have stimulated your body to heal with such efficiency and speed?”

Catra grew silent at the healers diagnosis. It was great that she would be on her feet again and soon she hated being confined. On the other hand she knew full well why her body recovered like it did….Shadow Weaver.

It was no secret that Shadow Weaver hated her, Catra knew the witch despised her from as early as she could remember. Any time she would mess up, talk back,or do anything the parasite considered insubordinate Shadow Weaver would take here away from seeing eyes and torture her.

While the bitch delighted in causing Catra misery and pain, she was also under orders from Hordak not to waste resources, and that was all Shadow Weaver saw Catra as, A resource to be exploited. To that end the hag developed some elixir and forced it down Catra's throat. The elixir allowed Catra's body to rapidly heal from any injury inflicted upon her at an alarming rate allowed Shadow Weaver to punish her more frequently and for no one to suspect to what extremes of pain Catra was forced to endure.

“Any information you have regarding why your healing factor is so high would be very beneficial to understanding the best way to treat you.” Marluth explained trying to get Catra to feel that she could speak. It took some coexing but not much as Catra began to divulge everything, Marluth began to look I'll as the girl recounted all the ways she was abused throughout her childhood.

“By the founders…..” the healer looked about ready to throw up. “How could a being bring themselves to inflict such atrocities..”

“My working theory is she was a soulless husk who needs misery to sustain her existence.” Catra snarked to deflect some of the pain. After a few more tests Marluth gave Catra his approval to leave the clinic and would call for someone to escort her and her friends to the castle.

Catra left the clinic and her jaw dropped. Before her was a large city the likes of which she had never seen before. The buildings all looked to be made of worked stone and lumber, and all of the streets were illuminated by the glow of prismatic crystals.

“It's an amazing sight isn't it?” Catra heard Scorpia ask from behind. The Scorpioni walked up to a railguard and looked over the city.” No crashing metal, no fluorescent lights, this place feels so peaceful.”

“Super peaceful.” Catra looked to her other side to see Entrapta walking around on her hair looking uninjured save for a small bandage on her forehead. “Personally I LOVE the sound and smell of machine building stuff. The serene silence here is quaint.”

Catra smiled, taking in the sounds and smells too quiet and precise for her friends to hear. She could swear she had felt this way before but could not place it, the closest feeling to this was how she felt when sleeping and the foot of Adora's bunk focusing on her heartbeat and breathing until she herself would be lulled to sleep. It just felt right.

It wasn't long until Catra's ears picked up on the sound of someone running towards them. “Guessing you are our guide?” She asked, turning to the new arrival.

The magicat was a girl with bright orange fur with black stripes on her arms and back, her hair was black and cut right below the cheeks. “Yep, the names Tiegan.” The girl replied in a familiar voice and with a salute. “Welcome to Halfmoon. I have been instructed to bring you to our king and queen.” Catra gestured for Tiegan to lead on and followed her with Scorpia and Entrapta in tow.

The walk to the castle was a lot more eventful the Catra had hoped it would be. With every building they passed her friends would get captivated by the sights thus making a scene. Which attracted attention from the locals, which caused them to see Catra, which caused them all to whisper ABOUT her, which annoyed Catra greatly. After about the 4th time it happened Catra was ready to lose it when the castle came into sight.

“And here we are.” Tiegan stated the obvious. “The royal family will be with you shortly”. And with that the tiger girl ran off as the castle doors opened.

A tall lion-like Magicat with brown fur and bright blonde hair and striking gold eyes looked upon the three. “Welcome I am King Leondus D'rilluth of Halfmoon please come in my wife and I would like to treat you all to a nice traditional Halfmoon dinner.” The man said with a smile addressing the three.

As if to answer him Catra's belly decided right then would be the perfect time to growl earning her a smoker from Scorpia and a hearty laugh from the king. The three were quickly ushered into the castle and shown to the banquet hall. On the way Catra noticed the looks Leondus was giving her, he was subtle but it was clear that he was suffering the same delusion as Cyra.

When they sat down the Cyra was already there as was a small yellow ball of fluff looking right at Catra with the same cyan eyes as the queen. Before Catra could question the child the food was brought in and the aroma alone shut off all of Catra functions except eating. What followed was the royal family staring in awe and terror as Catra and Scorpia are like mad animals stuffing their faces with as much of the delicious fish vegetables and rolls as possible.

“Um, I take it the food in the Horde was not pleasant? Cyra asked as the kitten giggled in amusement.

Catra looked up from the nirvana that was fish and shook her head. “ Lady we lived off of grey and brown protein bars they tasted like garbage “. Catra informed the queen as she stuffed her face with more of this delicious non bar shaped food.

Cyra blushes slightly taken aback by Catra's bluntness. Meanwhile Leondus and the kitten were suppressing laughs. “Well um.. could you tell us how it is you that two Force Captains and the Dryl princess managed to find their way to Halfmoon?” The queen asked, trying to save face.

Catra began to spin the tale of her and Scorpia's defection. She told of Shadow Weaver and how evil she was though she was tactful enough not to go into detail with a child present instead just hamming her up into a caricature of evil. “So after I tricked that B- I mean WITCH.” Catra corrected herself after feeling a powerful glare from Cyra. “Into blowing up her boss's stuff I punched her in the face then we stole a skiff and after that one over charged the thrusters…. Smashed into a tree in front of the gate I guess..” Catra petered off.

“That sounded AWESOME!” The kitten shouted before her mother or father could talk to Catra. “You must be super strong to take down a monster like that all by yourself!” The girl's eyes were sparkling in admiration.

“Inside voice Kaita…” Cyra said wincing at the kittens outburst. “But you did indeed sound awesome.” The queen said with a smirk causing Catra's face to heat up in slightly embarrassment.

“She really was amazing!!” Scorpia added only furthering Catra's brightening blush. “She had this whole speech she was saying while fighting Shadow Weaver It STILL gives me chills.“

“Ugh Scorp could you not..” Catra's ears flattened really not used to all this praise. She should love it but right now it just kept making her feel weird.

“And what of you Entrapta? Do you need any help returning to Dryl?” Leondus asked as if sensing Catra's embarrassment and throwing her a lifeline.

“Actually I am quite happy here.” Entrapta smiled. “I am super curious about Magicat history and tech, And this city is located next to a First One's ruins! I can't wait to start experimenting!” Entrapta had already started doing calculations and was lost to the world.

Leondus steached and arose from his seat. “Thank you for accepting my invitation.” He said, giving a polite bow. “But I must return to the throne room no doubt I have another squabble to break up.” The king rolled his eyes and was ready to return to work. “And you are free to stay here tonight the staff will direct you to your rooms.” He added as though he had forgotten to bring it up.

Cyra smiled and got up from her seat as well. “This was wonderful but I must get this kitten to bed. She has had a long day” Cyra picked up a squirming Kaita in both of her arms and leaned the child over her shoulder.

“What moooom I'm not *yawn* sleepy!” Kaita weakly argued her eyelids starting to droop after the filling meal. Catra wouldn't say it but she found the young princess to be adorable when trying to lie.

“Now now missy.” The queen chuckled. “You need your sleep.” Cyra then began to sing a soft melody to the child as she carried Kaita to her room, a soft song that could never have been heard in the Horde.

“You are my Sunshine, my little Sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know dear how much I love you, please don't take my Sunshine away.~”

Instantly Catra froze. She knew that song. She had heard it somewhere before. Her mind brought her back to the nightmare, but this time everything was crystal clear.

She saw her 4 year old self cuddle into Cyra's arms as she began that melody once more. The warmth Catra felt now was far greater than before, and she knew the truth, the truth she wouldn't accept. She was indeed Cyra's daughter. She was a princess.

The nightmare no…. Memory had changed once again. Catra was playing outside the city when there was a loud explosion. The smell of smoke and sounds of battle and screaming rang throughout the land the Horde had attacked Halfmoon. She remembered Magicats clad in armor ordering her to run as they held off the invaders, she remembered running as fast as she could but getting lost on the way back home. But above all else.. she remembered being hunted.

Catra could see herself running trying to avoid a creature made of darkness that hounded her unwilling to give up it's pursuit. The creature got closer and closer until Catra saw her past self trip and tumbled to the ground only to look up and see the monster grab her. The dark beast form altered to something more horrifying and grotesque. What had captured Catra was none other than Shadow Weaver.

“Your people put up a good resistance child, far too good.” The Memory spoke. “I may not be able to claim the kingdom but you shall make do as a consolation prize little princess. With you gone their hearts will shatter, and no longer pose a threat to the Horde. Not that you will know any of this.” The witch then put her hand on the screaming and fighting Catra's face and the hand began to glow with dark insidious magic.

In an instant Catra was back in the present doing her damnedest not to throw up from the emotional whiplash she had just gone through. Shadow Weaver lied.. she thought and began to hyperventilate. She wasn't abandoned, she was stolen. She wasn't an animal, she was a magicat. And she wasn't a pet.. She was a princess. Shadow Weaver had taken her away from her family, her home, and took away her memories for petty revenge.

“Wildcat? Wildcat stay with us!” Catra heard Scorpia's voice but she was too shocked from the life changing memories to move.

“It appears she is having a panic attack! “ Entrapta shouted. “Catra, focus on us okay? I need you to try and steady your breathing.”

Catra did her best to follow Entrapta's instructions but the breathing was still difficult.

“Okay Catra now think of 5 you can see.” Entrapta said using her hair to mat down Catra's risen fur.

Catra looked around trying to focus. “The..floor..the table..the chairs.. you..and Scorpia.” Her breathing got a little easier.

“Now 4 things you can feel.” The princess of Dryl continued.

Catra focused on her sense of touch and forgetting about other ones momentarily. “The ground.. my fur. Your hair, and my heartbeat.” The panic again began to loosen its grip on Catra's body whatever magic Entrapta was doing with her she was all for it.

“We are halfway there Catra you are doing fine” Entrapta consoled her. “This time 3 things you can hear.”

Okay this was an easy one for her. “ Your voice, Scorpia's voice. And my voice..” Catra could feel herself calming down even more but her urge to cry was still persisting.

“Second to last Catra we are almost done..” Entrapta did not like seeing her new friend in a state and smiled seeing her calm down more. “Okay Catra 2 things you can smell.”

Catra took a sniff. “The fish.. and the vegetables” she replied her heartbeat was far less restricted now and Catra felt like she could stand once again.

“Last one Catra 1 thing you can taste.”

“The delicious food..” Catra said with a smile, feeling far better and breathed in deeply to catch her breath. “Thanks Entrapta..I really needed that.” Catra hugged both the scientist and Scorpioni.

“How did you know what to do?” Scorpia asked Entrapta. Hugging them tightly afraid to let go.

*I read books on mental illness and a lot of them can result in panic attacks so I took the liberty to learn how to help in case anyone I'm around suffers from them.” Entrapta states.

“Damn, well we were lucky with that.. thanks Trapta. “ Catra smiled.

After a few minutes the hug was broken and the girls got themselves back to their normal selves.

“Catra if I may ask what brought that attack on you “ Scorpia questioned though afraid of crossing a line.

“I remembered..” Catra said, still coming to terms with the information. “I remembered now I need to go talk to my mom..”

Scorpia gasped. “Wait, you mean you really are a.”

“Yep.” Catra sighed knowing Scorpia would absolutely be making a big deal about this. She followed the queen's scent. But not before hearing the loud squee from the Scorpion girl.

Cyra had just finished putting Kaita to bed when she spotted Catra coming towards her. “Cy-Catra? She caught herself not wanting to risk causing her eldest kitten to freak out over the name. She did not know what it was the Horde had done to her baby but she was sure that's if she had the power she would make it damn impossible for them to ever harm her or another child ever again “You really shouldn't be wandering the castle like this, the guards must be in a frenzy looking for you.” She then noticed the redness in the young magicat's eyes. “Are you okay?”

Catra sobbed for a split second once again being overwhelmed by emotions but she wasn't a coward she would not run away from this, no matter how awkward it would become. And just like that she began a song.

“Th-the other night dear when I lay sleeping I dreamed I held you in my arms.. When I awoke dear I was mistaken so I hung my head and cried..~”

Catra released her raspy voice, small sobs could be heard from the bellowing tune but to Cyra it was nothing short of divine.

“My kitten. You remember! Queen Cyra gasped, wrapping her hands around Catra's own.

Catra nodded with a tearstained smile. Then both mother and daughter continued the song in tandem.

“You are my Sunshine my little Sunshine you make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know dear how much I love you, please don't take my Sunshine away.~”

The song faded leaving the two to just gaze at each other, the nervous tension was thick enough to be cut with a knife . “Mom…” it was all Catra could say before she suddenly hugged Cyra with all of her strength and Cyra reciprocated. Both magicats hugged tight, not daring to let go and wept tears of loss, sorrow and joy all at once. For Princess Catra Cyra D'rilluth III had found her way home.

Chapter Text

The two magicats held onto each other tightly tears of joy flowing from their eyes. Catra just stood there in a rare moment of allowed vulnerability taking in the affection of her mother not willing to let her go. She had a mom, she had a dad, she even had a little sister. She was home. Oh and she was also a princess…. Yeah that was going to have to be addressed at some point but right now all Catra and Cyra needed was to hug each other.

“My Cyra III.” The queen smiled wiping the tears away from her face. “Let us allow your sister her rest and go find your father. He will be as overjoyed as I to have you back.” Cyra ushered her kitten down a corridor and guided her through a myriad of hallways until they arrived at the grand entrance of the throne room.

The throne room was easily the grandest room Catra had ever seen. Even Hordak’s Sanctum which she had only seen on the rare occasions she as a Force Captain had been granted an audience with him paled in comparison. The stone carved walls were adorned with rubies and inlaid with ornate gold filigree depicting large cats standing vigil over the rubies as though to defend it from something. In the center of the room Leondus sat upon his throne reading over a scroll deep in thought.

“Behold ” Cyra snarked in a way eerily similar to Catra's own brand of snarkiness that she had not known the queen possessed. “The fearsome roar of Leondus the Stalwart.” Cyra gave a mock bow for the presentation earning a chuckle from Catra. At least I know where I get my killer sense of humor from. Catra thought to herself.

Leondus rolled his eyes and laughed as he put the scroll down. “I suppose the scout reports are a bit redundant considering we talked with the survivors first hand. Now then, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” He asked, smiling at Catra.

“I remember.” Those two words were all Catra spoke, for that was all it took for the king to have sped across the room and hold Catra in a strong loving embrace.

“I dreamed of this day for so long.” Leondus sobbed. “But never did I imagine that my dreams would become a reality. Come there is so much of our history for you to learn.” Leondus hoisted Catra over his shoulder and began walking her towards that hall of the founders with a groaning Cyra shaking her head and followed.

As it turns out History was not Catra's subject. She could pay attention to the history of wars and battles, sure, she was fully invested when Leondus was explaining the fall of Purrrrsia and the sealing of The Malevolent One. But once he started droning on and on about the founders, the tribes, and the importance of respecting them. She had long since tuned out everything he said.

“I'll give you the abridged version later.” Cyra whispered. “Just smile and nod to make him think you are listening.” The queen winked at her daughter and Catra had to prevent herself from smirking less she let her dad in on the rise.

That was another thing the Magicat had to get used to, she had parents. If she was honest with herself it felt like a dream, but here they were in the flesh.These people actually cared about her or at least that's what she assumed from all the hugging and crying. She felt warm inside when she looked at them. Leondus continuing his historical bluster and Cyra pretending to listen. She could not explain why but she just felt like this really was where she belonged.

“And that concludes the story of Halfmoon's founding.” Leondus stated snapping Catra out of her thoughts.

“Um.. quite informative.” Catra grinned trying to pretend like she heard anything the king had said. Her lie looked to work as her father smiled.

“There is so much we need to teach you …” the king lamented. “Where to even begin.”

Cyra shook her head patting Leondus on the back.”That should be obvious.” She said as if it was the simplest thing in the world. “We will start by showing Catra and her friends Halfmoon.”

Catra yawned loudly interrupting her mother's thoughts. "Can it wait till morning? Learning I'm a freaking princess AND that I have parents AND that my entire childhood was stolen by an evil witch kiiinda exhausted me." She did not dare add that the history lesson doubled said fatigue. Or that she was standing on will power alone at the moment.

"Right…. first sleep, then we will show the girls Halfmoon." Cyra laughed and grabbed Catra by the hand. "Come we will go get your friends and I will show you to your rooms".

Returning to the dining hall Catra noticed Scorpia had already started chatting up the guards and friends m her expression they were having a nice time. Meanwhile Entrapta had apparently been badgering anything that moved with invasive questions.

"Please give the guards a break and follow me to your rooms." Cyra laughed and rounded the girls up.

Cyra led the three to an offshoot of where Catra had found Kaita's room and opened the door to a large chamber with many beds, fountains , vanities and so on. The room was large, larger than anything Catra had in the Fright Zone. It put the force captain chambers to shame.

"I do hope you don't mind the cramped space." Cyra winced. "It's been so long since we had guests, many of our Envoy suits were repurposed so you three will need to share at least until we get your room ready my kitten."

Catra's cheeks flushed red at being called that so nonchalantly in front of her friends. "Um..sure yeah this is great.* She said awkwardly. Catra still was not sure how to process everything that had happened today but she had Scorpia and for as silly and naive as her friend could be Catra knew Scorpia was very emotionally intelligent and a perfect person to help her unpack everything.

Scorpia looked at the room and put her claws to her mouth as she let out a squeal. "Princess slumber party!!! Oh this is going to be the best! We can stay up braiding each other's hair, telling true stories and sharing our secret crushes!" The Scorpioni rambled on about all the party games the three could play.

"Ooooh I have never been to a slumber party before." Entrapta interrupted. " This will be a fascinating social experiment!"

The girls all entered the room scouting out where each of them would want to sleep. The princess each grabbed a bed and got comfortable in their new room. Catra found a bed with a mountain of pillows on it, she jumped right in and curled up purring in happiness. Entrapta took the bed closest to the air vents for quick access to the tunnels. And Scorpia found the biggest softest and fluffiest bed imaginable and flopped right onto it.

"The first Super Princess Trio slumber party has now begun." Scorpia started giggling.

"The Super what now?" Catra asked, having been blindsided by the name.

"The Super Princess Trio. " Scorpia reiterated. " You know there are three of us, we are all princesses, and I think we are all super Soo Super Princess Trio." Scorpia smiled proud of her naming.

"Oh what a cute name! I approve." Entrapta started already writing down Super Princess Trio into her datapad.

Catra was at a loss. The only reference to sleepovers that she had were the ones she had with Adora, Adora her best friend, Adora the one who left, Adora the one who chose a bunch of strangers over her, Adora the one she Lo-.

With a shake of her head Catra banished those thoughts away and focused on her current predicament. What the hell was she in for stuck in a slumber party with these two

"Okay let's start with the games." Scorpia clapped and grabbed a pillow. "First up is a….. pillow fight!" And with that Scorpia thwacked the pillow and Catra with no warning.

Catra let out a raspy yelp and dodged under the fluffy projectile."Oh is that how you want to play it Scorp? Well then I'll have you know I was the undisputed pillow fight champion in my barracks!" Catra smirked, grabbing a pillow and leaping at the Scorpioni girl.

Catra began a flurry of hits on Scorpia as her prey clawed desperately at a pillow to use as a shield. Catra was really getting into a battle frenzy, her Magicat instincts urging her to keep up the attack until she felt a chill go up her spine as if that same force was also warning her of danger. At the last moment Catra leaped up to see four pillows wrapped in purple prehensile hair sweep at her former location.

"Oh magicats instincts give them a sixth sense to avoid danger." The purplenete remarked retracting the pillows for another strike. "Let us see if multiple attacks can overload it.*

Well shit…. Catra thought as she backed further away from her roommates. Both Scorpia and Entrapta decided to tag team her and began their assault on the lone Magicat. Catra put up a good fight and got a fair number of hits in on the other two princess but in the end there was no winner the three were on the ground out of breath and laughing surrounded by the feather remains of pillows lost to the war.

"That is the most fun I have had in MONTHS!" Catra exclaimed while she tried to catch her breath.

"More than the Princess Prom?" Asked Scorpia who had just managed to get back on her feet."That was a fun party.. until we wrecked it..but until then I was having a lot of fun and the tiny foods were amazing!"

"Oh that was you guys who caused Snows Castle to explode. Entrapta stated in epiphany. "That was a dangerous thing to do, If not for Princess Frosta's ice magic a lot of people would have gotten hurt."

Catra winced. She knew full well what she was doing but at the time she didn't really care. She was a Horde soldier. What did the lives of some princesses mean in her moment of glory? But now, now Catra could remember, she could remember bits and pieces of her life before she was taken. No names stuck out to her but she could see faces of regular people, and she began to wonder how many of these faces were erased when the horde attacked, and more sobering how many could here action and have taken if not for the princesses stopping by her?

"Can we not talk about the Prom…" Catra asked but her tone made it seem like more of a plea.

Catching Catra's discomfort about their past actions Scorpia nodded. "Yeah it's time for the next game anyway."

The three princesses spent the rest of the night telling jokes (although the ex-horde soldiers could only pretend to understand Entrapta's jokes), sharing funny stories, and playing truth or dare. Eventually the girls had passed out on the beds falling into a calming sleep.

The next morning Catra was awakens by a weight being thrusted onto her chest. She was instantly snapped awake and gave out a startled nya before she cod catch herself. Sitting on her chest was the little blonde Magicat from the previous night. Kaita, her little sister.

Right I have a little sister now.. Catra thought to herself. " Um hello?" The confused Magicat said as she glanced around and saw both of her friends had also received the wake up call.

"Mom wanted me to make sure you three were up early for the tour." Kaita explained. Though Catra could tell through the kid's body language something was making her apprehensive. Before Catra could speak the kitten had leaped off of her and scurried down the hall out of sight.

"Well that was strange…" Catra said aloud to herself more than the other two. The door to their room was suddenly opened again this time revealing the king and queen. "I guess it's time for the tour then huh."

In just a few moments the three princesses found themselves flanked by the king and queen as they began the tour of the city. As they exited the castle Catra for the first time truly took in the sight. The kingdom was sprawling with immaculate stonework, the carved districts all seamlessly melding together making one unified whole. Above it all floated a large orange Crystal with 8 lengths protruding out in the 8 compass directions.

“ooooh is that the Runestone? Entrapta asked, as she laid her inquisitive eyes on the rock.

“Ah yes The Catseye Sunstone.” Leondus stated with pride. “The Catseye Sunstone not only provides the royal line with our magic but it also both lights and heats our kingdom with the illusion of the surface.”

Leondus continued to explain more of Halfmoon's history with the stone to an ecstatic Entrapta but Catra was too focused on the stone to listen. She felt as though the rock was reaching for her wanting to make a connection, and if Catra was honest with herself she felt the same way. Catra was a little relieved when her parents belrook her out of her trance and began to show them Halfmoon in its entirety.

The first stop on the tour was the central square. The streets were lined with store fronts and bustling with Magicat buying, selling, and trading goods. Scorpia was the first to be swayed by the large assortment of baubles, trinkets, and everyday items never seen in the Fright Zone. Next was Entrapta who slipped away and was questioning any pedestrian and shopkeeper she could about the economic trade status of the self isolated kingdom though Catra had stopped listening once it was clear the girls babbling was going over her head. What Catra herself was far more interested in were her parents.

Leondus and Cyra were chatting up the locals as though they were all from the same barracks. Granted Catra knew she didn't have a clue of how the world outside of the Fright Zone but she knew enough that Royals were typically at the same rank as Hordak, yet here they were talking to what she would categorize as junior cadets or senior cadets at best as though it were nothing.

After chatting up the locals and giving the girls enough time to browse the wears, Cyra rounded up the three girls. “Okay onto our next spot.” the magicat queen exclaimed, clasping her hands together and leading the three onward.

As the lighting of Halfmoon brightened from a deep orange of dawn to a bright blue of morning. Catra found herself being led to a corner of the city where the stone walkways turned to a soft dirt. she smelt the familiar fragrance of fish as they continued down the path. After a few minutes of walking the group a collection of rivers where magicats were hard at work hauling up nets full of deliciously smelling fish. A little ways away looked to be stalls filled to the brim with the freshest catches being cut up and ready to be served.

“Welcome to the fishery.” Cyra began. “Here on these underground rivers and floodplains is where we get most of Halfmoon's fish and grains.”

Catra would have liked to tell you she had restraint. She would like to have told you that but reality was not so kind to the girl. The moment Catra had seen the fish she found herself on all fours sprinting to the nets and leaping onto the piscan bounty.

What came next were shouts of surprise and annoyance mixed in with laughter. Catra popped her head out of the fish with a bass caught squarely in her mouth only to see her father laughing at her antics, her mother apologizing to the fishermen,and her friends looking at her as though she was the cutest thing ever. Catra couldn't tell which reaction humiliated her the most.

"I have never seen a grown Magicat give into instincts so fast." Cyra shook her head as she plucked Catra out of the fish by the scruff of her neck rendering the teen immobile. "At this rate I fear what you will do in the military and magic districts…."

"Military District? Is that where the weapons are!?." Catra purred and her eyes dilated and sparkled at the thought of what weaponry lay hidden from her.

"And you are not helping your case." Cyra deadpanned at the overgrown magikitten's excitement.

"Now now dear so long as you keep a good grip on her what harm could she do?" Leondus said comforting his queen. " Besides she needs to know of all the districts of Halfmoon and their people if she is to be the puuurrrrfect princess."

Both mother and daughter groaned loudly at the pun

"Please tell me that isn't normal." Catra groaned, still unable to move in the hold.

*Sadly that was restrained for him.." Cyra sighed

"Oh! purr as in a cat purring!" Scorpia explained and laughed. "Wow that's just...awful."

"Queen Cyra I would also like to see the military district." Entrapta added. "Since arriving here I have been getting powerful readings of first ones tech if you managed to incorporate it into your weaponry I need to see it." The Dryl princess then began to go off on all the possibilities such a union of ancient and modern tech could produce.

"Okay! Okay we will go to the military district next but be on your best behavior!" Cyra relented and began the walk still holding Catra by the scruff earning some looks and snickers from other magicats they passed by.

"So what do you think?* Asked a smiling Cyra. Taking in the expressions of the three. Entrapta was salivating at the mouth ready to tinker with what she could find, Scorpia looked ready to introduce herself to some of the soldiers, and Catra...well she was alertly picking up every bit of information she could use on this place.

The military district was not what Catra was expecting. Compared to what she was used to seeing in the Fright Zone this place was laughable. The barracks looked far too relaxing that she mistook them for a relaxation center, the weapons were rudimentary at best and the most advanced thing looked to be some sort of prototype blaster cannon. Then there was the feel of the place, all of the soldiers were friendly to each other. Catra did a double take at that last part in particular.

In the Fright Zone such blatant companionship with your fellow soldier was looked down upon if not outright quashed by a superior officer. But here, here it seemed normal like you expected to know the person next to you by name. It felt bizarre to look at but felt right.

"I think we have a long way to go before I consider this a real military district…" Catra answered. "The culture is better than I would have imagined but the weaponry, the training it looks like kids stuff. Like the drills those guys are doing over there is something we did as a warm up as kids in the horde just not as big and flashy. I am seriously going to need to revamp this if that is the best you got."

Leondus winced at the tear down of Halfmoons military system by the young girl and gulped knowing what was to happen as he looked to Cyra. Cyra looked more insulted than anything and Leondus knew best then to reason with his mate when she got like this and just hoped it would not end up being too brutal. Cyra put Catra down allowing the princess to move once more. The queen then motioned to a training hall separate from the others that was being guarded by two armored magicats armed with poleaxes.

"Tell ya what cub." Cyra said in a tone Catra was not accustomed with, all the flowery royal speak had vanished leaving someone Catra could very easily see herself being related to. "You and I will spar and if you can beat me I'll admit our army's need touching up and I'll even let you oversee the transition."

By this point most of the soldiers were making their way over to the pointed out training hall to grab seats for what was about to happen.

"And I'm gonna assume there is a catch if I lose?" Catra rebudled. She was still a little sore from The crash but her enhanced healing had revitalized her enough for a simple sparring match. After all, how hard could it be to defeat a queen?

"Well WHEN you lose you will be signed up for training until I deem you properly trained." Cyra answered.

Catra glared and nearly snarled at the insinuation. "Oh you think I'll be an easy win huh? Well then bring it on!"

The two women marched into the training hall to begin the sparring match with the growing entourage of soldiers following them.

"What just happened?" Asked a confused and somewhat worried Scorpia who was racing to the hall with the king and Entrapta.

"Catra insulted the military training…" Leondus sighed pinching the bridge of his nose. "Cyra crafts the training regimes personally, and tests the highest ranking soldiers in combat. Catra just called her work child's play."

"Oh.. that is not good.. how strong is she? Is Wildcat going to be okay?" Scorpia shook Leondus for answers.

Leondus laughed. "She will be fine, we just got our girl back. The only thing that Cyra will bruse of Catra is her ego."

In the training hall the two magicats got into their respective corners and sized each other up. Cyra started to remove her royal cloak revealing that under her royal garb she was very well toned and muscular she was not bulky by any stretch of the imagination but her lean figure was all muscle. The sight was enough to make the young Magicat gawk not expecting a magical queen to have any physical might.

"You may make the first move kitten." Cyra stated as she folded up her cloak not even looking at her daughter.

This riled Catra up even more then she already was and lunged at Cyra starting off with a flurry of quick slashes with her claws. Cyra casually sidestepped and hopped out of the range of Catra's assault deftly avoiding the younger girl's strikes without dropping the folded cloak.

Catra couldn't believe what was happening, growing up she was always the quickest, she was the most nimble and had the best balance. But here she couldn't land a solid hit no not even a graze on the queen. It infuriated her to no end so much so that she started striking more wildly for any attempt to get an attack to connect.

This wild flurry proved to be to Catra's detriment as Cyra had no issue weaving in and out of the attack range and landing a few weak jabs whenever Catra left herself open.

"Let me guess." Cyra smirked as she dodged the punches and kicks with great ease. "You were the fastest cadet in the Horde, no one could beat you in terms of speed mobility and flexibility."

The attacks continued to get more erratic as Catra's frustration was building. "But here's the thing kitten, we magicats are the fastest and most nimble race on Etheria. and if I were to rate your performance right now you are about as slow as and clumsy in your attacks as a kid." Cyra then flipped over Catra and kicked her square in the butt knocking her down and keeping a foot on Catra"s back to keep her pinned.

The crowd cheered at their Queen's victory as Catra grumbled in humiliation at her defeat. "How the heck are you so strong!?" She asked

"Well seeing as I am the final test before any soldiers are allowed to go to active duty or be royal guards and that I am the one who designed the combat and training drills I would say it came with the territory." Cyra answered as she picked Catra up off the ground and dusted her off. "My apologies if I went too rough on you I get a little heated when someone questions my training." The queen scratched the back of her head.

Catra was too embarrassed to know what to say. She had inadvertently mocked her mother's training program for her soldiers and had been publicly humiliated for her troubles. "I didn't mean to disrespect your training." She grumbled tail lashing back and forth and cheeks a bright crimson. "It just looked so basic like really why are adults doing a simple wall climb?"

Cyra sighed "The training may look basic but it is not what you do it's how you do it. If you look closely at that wall you should see what I am talking about."

Catra followed her mother's orders and properly looked at the climbing wall and gasped. On closer inspection She noticed the wall was drenched in some sort of viscous oil, the soldiers weren't climbing at all, they were using their claws to remain latched on at different heights. Catra looked at her own claws and shuddered at the thought of putting them through such a rigorous test of endurance.

"You are correct on the weaponry however." Cyra said giving Catra at least some semblance of victory after that sad excuse of a battle. "If you have any ideas on weapon upgrades I'm sure we can find the time to hear them out."

"Oh have already thought of a bunch of ways to improve the weaponry!!" Entrapta shouted as she fiddled with one of the bladed staves.

"You may take that with you.we still have some more districts to show you. " Leondus hurried the princesses along to the next part of the kingdom.

"Now for one of the most wonderous districts we have." Leondus boasted. "Welcome to the Magic District."

Mystical energies covered the buildings as far as the eye could see. Spells of illusion and lights filled the lanes and animated the signs of storefronts. The streets were bustling with magicats old and young alike practicing spells and enchantments.

Where the military district filled Catra with a somewhat pleasant familiarity of her time in the Horde the next district did the opposite. From the exact moment they entered the new area's threshold all of Catra's fur was on end, she was as vigilant as she had ever been looking in all directions for possible threats. She may be a princess now but Catra remained the same in at least one regard; She hated magic.

Scorpia was already mesmerised by the lights and sounds of the aspiring mages just standing there watching them practice. Entrapta was cataloging every spell she had seen cast and was comparing and contrasting the differences in magic application between the magic study of Halfmoon and Mysticore. Catra just sulked her ears as flat as they could go and her tail wrapped around her leg for a slight comfort in her wary state.

"Is something wrong Catra?" Leondus asked as he noticed Catra's body language of apprehension.

"Let's just say magic and I have a long history of pain together and leave it at that." Grumbled Catra in response. "Can we skip this one?"

Leondus and Cyra gave each other somber looks as they tried to parse what the Horde had done to cause such trepidation in their eldest daughter. "No" Leondus broke the silence. "You are a Magicat. Magic is in the name, it is a part of you."

The king waved his hand and performed a spell creating a small glowing orb. The act of spellcasting caused Catra to leap back defensively, all of her fur going on end and to hiss.the memories of all the times Shadow Weaver had used magic to punish her were brought to the forefront of her mind.

"Keep that thing away from me!" Catra shouted in a panic, her voice drawing curious bystanders over forming a crowd.

"You are safe my dear." The king spoke in a soothing voice in an attempt to quell the girl's fears. "Magic can be dangerous this is true, but it is but a tool of a sorcerer, and like any tool it is the wielder who chooses how that power is to be used."

Leondus then touched the ball of mystical energy. Catra looked at it cautiously waiting for it to spark or explode or something but it did not.

"Here see for yourself." Leondus smiled and gently swatted the ball of light at Catra.

Catra yelped as the orb got closer and closer to her. She attempted to flee but she found herself frozen in both apprehension and awe as the ball drifted closer to her.the ball stopped only a few inches away from Catra, the traumatized Magikitten took a deep breath, closed her eyes and grabbed onto the glowing sphere.

The magic felt strange in Catra's hands. It felt warm, soft, and almost alive in a way. For the first time in her life Catra did not feel the pain she had often associated with all manors of magic. Catra was broken from her trance by the sounds of a giggle, she flicked her ears around to locate the source only to find herself surrounded by the curious subjects of Halfmoon.

"Is that her?" "Wow a Scorpioni too." "Hey isn't that Entrapta?" The raising wave of voices started to wane on Catra. As much as she liked being recognized , Catra did not want all this attention

Thankfully Cyra quickly noticed and had the crowds disperse. "Get going about your business leave these three alone there will be a royal degree later tonight to explain everything." There were noticeable signs and grumbles of disappointment but Catra didn't care, she was just happy not to be crowded and looked back to the flickering ball of light.

"It's a simple light construct." Explained her father. "It's a very basic level magic spell, I could teach you if you would like."

Catra blinked and held in a laugh at the thought. Never in her life did she ever even dream about learning magic. Catra looked at the delicate shining orb just taking in the beautiful glow. If there was more magic like this, magic that didn't hurt her she was interested in learning it. Catra nodded and gave her dad a soft smile before quickly returning to her brooding to save face but it was too late as Scorpia saw the smile and gave Catra one of her powerful hugs.

"Argh Scorpia cut it out!* Catra shouted and flailed in the grip.

"Sorry Wildcat" Scorpia apologized and dropped her. "It is SO rare to see you smile I couldn't resist!"

Catra dusted herself off and turned to the king and queen still holding onto the small orb of light. "I want to learn this.. it was nice…" said Catra trying not to sound too excited or pleading.

"I would be delighted." Leondus stroked a hand gently through Catra's Mane. *We will see if you have the aptitude to be a Claw-some sorceress."

And just like that the moment was over and Catra pushed him away with a groan. Then noticed for the first time someone was missing.

"Hey wait a sec… where's the kitten? Why didn't she come with you guys?' Catra questioned.

"Oh Kaita she decided to stay home." Cyra answered. "I would have imagined this tour would have bored her to tears."

Catra nodded and started to look around the strange district for a non scary magical trinket to entertain herself with. It only took a few minutes to find something and Catra walked away with a small floating orb that changed color.

"We are almost finished onto the next are!" Leondus exclaimed. The girls followed the king to see a sort of industrial zone. All over the place citizens were crafting all master of items armor and weapons.

"Wow it's so busy, what is this place?" Scorpia asked, enthralled by all the different things going on at once.

Cyra smiled. "This is the Crafters sanctum. In here is housed every business that does hands on work in their crafts of creation. No matter how many times I come here I always find some fun new contraption built.

They make it through the sanctum only needing to stop Entrapta 47 times from touching, modifying, and destroying something. Sometimes all three at once.

"And now we saved the most Important district for last to round out our tour.* Leondus revealed once they had all exited the Carter's Sanctum. That surprised Catra after every area they had gone through she could not think of any other notable structures that would stand out to signal importance. It must be hidden by magic or deeper underground. Catra thought to herself.

"And here we are." Leondus announced motioning over an isolated walled up area of buildings.

All of the buildings looked somewhat similar to each other with slight differences. The area looked to be the most strategically defended spot of the entire kingdom. Catra could even since some magic wards that made her fur stand on end.

"I don't see it." Catra said, confused. "What makes this place so important? Why does it have so many protective measures?"

"Catra this district houses the most vital and important thing in all of Halfmoon." Cyra answered the Ex-Force Captain.

"But what IS that?!" Catra grumbled, still unable to see the answer.

"The people." Answered both Cyra and Leondus.

Catra blinked as she took in the answer.

"The most important thing to any kingdom is its people Catra." Leondus continued sounding far more serious than he ever had before. "This is the residential district, the living quarters for all the citizens of Halfmoon as such we made sure it was as protected as possible."

Catra looked closer over the buildings and finally started to see the civilians and more so young children playing without a care in the world. It made here feel sheepish to not have noticed them before having it pointed out. But either way this district had her attention

"Any building can be rebuilt and weapon reforged but no life can be replaced." Cyra said causing Catra to jolt up. The queen simply looked at her daughter giving a small laugh. "Do you see their importance now Catra?"

Catra nodded quietly. Each child she saw was another mirror to her past few in the horde. She could see each of them forced to do drills and fight their squadmates all the while never knowing love. Catra hated the Horde, she despised what it took from her but she was also in a way thankful for it. She understood what the outcome would be if Halfmoon ever fell, she knew what fate would await these kids and it was one Catra would fight fang and claw to prevent.

Catra took one last look over the residential district and made a promise. "I promise.." she spoke steadfastly. "I will never let the Horde ruin another child of Halfmoon, so long as I draw breath I will protect them." Catra felt both a claw and a tendral on her shoulders. She didn't need to look back to know she did not stand alone in her promise.

Chapter Text

Traveling back to the castle was uneventful. Catra still felt a little strange how people would turn and watch them as they continued to walk but she was traveling with the king and queen. It was natural to expect little annoyances like this. Besides she would have to get used to strange treatment anyway considering her new position.

Catra supposed it was time to digest that information. She was a fucking princess. If it was not for the traumatic memories of being abducted that still burned in her skull she would not have believed such a ridiculous notion. But lo and behold it was true. She was a princess, and now she had to learn how to act like one. …. How in the fucking name of hell was she going to do that!?

Scorpia knew she was not the brightest stun baton in the armory. Despite what everyone in the Horde thought of her, and her sunny outlook she was not blind to how the people around her felt. All it took was a glance to see the dread and nervousness plaguing her bestie. Wanting nothing more than to ease the girl's fears, Scorpia without any warning scooped Catra up into one of her mighty hugs.

"Ack Scorpia what the heck!" Catra shrieked in shock at the sudden public display of affection. "Put me down! People are watching!"

"It's okay Wildcat." Scorpia smiled. She knew deep down Catra needed the hugs as much as she hated to admit to it. It was also obvious that the Magicat's heart was already taken, and the Scorpioni already had a good guess by who. "This isn't the Horde and I could tell you needed it, don't worry you will make an amazing princess."

Catra stopped fighting stunned by how easily Scorpia of all people was able to read her emotions. "How did you even-"

"I'm a good judge of emotions." Scorpia cut off the thought and let Catra down. " And you are already a good leader, just act like a Force Captain but with more smiles and less yelling! That should work right?"

Catra had to laugh. This girl, Scorpia who Catra had shunned and treated like both of more than a nuisance was exactly what she needed in this emotionally harrowing time.

"Hey Scorpia?" Catra looked over to the spiky woman. "You're a good friend."

The beaming in Scorpia's eyes was enough to let Catra know she had said the right thing.

"I do not know if I can agree." Entrapta added in unintentionally ruining the moment.

Catra winced at being called out so bluntly at not being princess material. It kinda hurt but Entrapta was the only one of the three who had any clue what it meant to be a princess so she was the expert here.

"What do you mean?!" Scorpia semi-yelled. "Catra is too good enough to be a princess!"

"Yeah she should be fine I do not know why you are yelling?" Entrapta started confusing the two.

"Um you just said you didn't think I would be good at it…." Catra said Thinking the geek princess needed a refresher.

"Hmm I don't recall saying that.." Entrapta replied thinking back on her conversation before realization hit her face. "Ooooooh you thought it meant her qualifications when I disagreed.. no she will make a fine princess. I was referring to the less shouting, from what I could gather from my social experience with the other princesses of etheira is that they get into shouting matches a lot."

This put the ex-horde women at ease. Entrapta wasn't doubting Catra's abilities to lead . On the contrary the purplenette thought she would fit right in that alone was surprising for Catra to even consider.

"She's not wrong." Cyra interjected reminding Catra that there was an audience to their little talk. "When I was in the allience things would ALWAYS devolve Into petty squabbles until someone knocked our heads together." The queen laughed as though she remembered the days of great fondness despite everything apparently going crazy whenever they met up.

As they entered the castle perimeter Catra notices the sway of a small yellow tail on one of the buttresses. She smiled remembering how she herself would find a nice secluded high up space to relax on when she was a kid… Actually as she thought about it she realized she would still do that. Catra looked up at her and waved only for the ball of yellow fluff to scurry away from the motion.

Catra's ears flattened at scaring the kid away. She shrugged and supposed it made sense, if she were that young and thinking she was stealthy she would have probably hid in embarrassment at being noticed as well.

"So what's up with Kaita?" Catra asked as she looked to Cyra and Leondus for advice. "She seemed really energetic at dinner but since then she has kinda been l.. I don't know...distant? Is that normal for her?"

"No she is normally very eager to play with anyone who visits the castle." Cyra replied. " Perhaps she's not used to people staying or more likely she is acclimating to having a big sister. Give her some time and I'm sure everything will turn out just fine."

Catra took Cyra's advice and waited. The wait was quite tedious and was not looking to show any results. Any time Catra would spot the little cub and either approach her or just acknowledge her in any way, Kaita would once again just run off.

After the 5th attempt to get Kaita to speak with her Catra had had enough. As Kaita went to run Catra chased after her. And the older magicat was forced to admit her kid sister was incredible. Kaita was sprinting on all fours and dodging between corridors and objects to throw off her pursuer. Had it been anyone but a determined Catra the elder princess would easily believe the girl to be nearly uncatchable.

The chase seemed to last almost an hour with neither hunter or prey giving any slack until a twist of fate (or a lazy maid) had left some of the floor still wet and slippery. This causes the two kittens to skid into each other and end up in a pile of somewhat interlocked limbs. After the initial shock at what had transpired had faded from either of the children's minds both princesses began to cackle at the stupidity of it all.

"You are not a bad runner kid." Catra laughed, still trying to break the ice. She then looked over at the little girl who was still looking at Catra as though she was going to attack her.

Catra did not like that look one bit. For whatever reason her sister was terrified of her and she could not understand why. And what was worse, all she could see while looking at the little kitten was the child version of herself looking up in fear. Which made Catra look to be Shadow Weaver in her own eyes and that was not something she wanted to be seen as by anybody.

"Hey uh Kaita right?" Catra asked and watched the scared kitten nod and swish her tail. "Look whatever I did to make you so afraid of me wasn't intentional so.. yeah l...you can stop being spooked."

Kaita looked at her stunned and confused. ""What you did?" You mean you don't hate me?"

Catra understandably blinked at the question that seemed to have come out of nowhere. "What the- why would I hate you? We just met kid."

Kaita looked down and trembled In a way Catra knew from experience was her trying to hold back tears and sobs. "B-because it's my fault… I'm the reason you were kidnaped…"

Catra's world stopped. What the hell did she mean? This kid, her baby sister, she was somehow the reason she was forced to grow up in the abyssal dredge that was the Horde? Catra took one look at her and banished such thoughts from her mind. Kaita was only 12 years old, she would not have even been born by the time. No there had to be something else going on for the kitten to think she was responsible for this.

Catra looked at her and spoke In a soft yet serious tone. "How exactly did you figure that my disappearance was because of you?

"B-because momma was pregnant with me…". Kaita explained her voice already hoarse trying to hold back her whimpering. " I-if not for me mom would have been there with you, the horde wouldn't have been able to capture you! There is no way mom would have lost to them!"

Kaita's nose then picked up a familiar sour scent. She looked to her sister's hands and gulped. Catra had clenched her hands so hard with her claws extended that blood was dripping from her palms. Kaita could feel Catra shaking in rage. She closed her eyes, and prepared herself for the worst.

"Kaita.." Catra spoke nearly monotone with a hint of seething anger. The taller Magicat stepped forward getting really close to Kaita. " I never! EVER!.."

Here it comes… Kaita thought to herself prepared to be pummeled.

"...Want to hear you say that AGAIN!" Kaita felt a tight warmness envelop her. She opened her eyes to see Catra had wrapped her up in a big tight hug.

"The only people who are to blame for what happened are the Horde, damn it Kaiia how could you ever think that it was your fault!" Catra let the tears roll down her face as she comforted her baby sis.

That damnable witch.. Catra thought. Her fucking poison spread even to those she had never met.. Catra continued to hold the crying child and did something Adora would always do for her whenever she was really sad and began to softly scratch Kaita behind the right ear. The effect was almost instantaneous nas Catra felt the little princess purr and nuzzle into pets still sniveling.

"Please Kaita listen to me when I tell you this.. you are a gift okay?" Catra began while tightening the hug. "I got captured and it sucked. But without you mom and dad would have had no one."

Kaita looked up at Catra with misty eyes. She never thought to think of herself that way, that she was what kept her parents from falling apart, it felt strange to think about but it made a lot of sense the way her sister said it.

"Promise me you will talk to me if you ever feel like this again okay?" Catra asked.

"I promise.." Kaita nodded and curled up deeper into her sister's arms. Soon the magikitten had fallen asleep to her older siblings' purrs.

Catra was enraged by how much pain the Horde had caused her family but KAITA?! The poor girl lived her life convinced that she was somehow the reason her big sister was stolen and that sickened Catra to her core.

Catra was under no illusion that she was a good person. She felt she had a lot to make up for, but even so even if she was not good she was going to do everything in her power to make certain Kaita would never feel so weak ever again. She had already felt that once growing up and she was going to make sure the kitten was never subjugated to such feelings if she could save her from them.

Catra then lifted the sleeping kit into her arms and walked with her back to Kaita's room where she deposited the young Magicat onto the bed and proceeded to rub Kaita's belly until Catra was convinced the child was having pleasant dreams

As Catra went to pull her hand away Kaita in her sleep latched on and refused to let go. Catra could only stop And smile at the adorable display of affection. Normally she would have never allowed such a cuteness attack to affect her. However with Kaita she just couldn't resist and began to pet her sister's belly once again earning a smile and purr from the sleeping Magicat. Catra smiled down at her sister and began to softly sing.

"Through heat of Summer, through chill of Winter, through Autumn's wind Spring's rain as well. I'll always love you my little Sunshine you are a gift. A sweet angel. You are my Sunshine my little Sunshine you make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know dear how much I love you, please don't take my Sunshine away."

As the song closed Catra could feel the soft purrs and breathing of her little sister her face plastered with a gentle smile. Catra kept up the belly rubs deciding her arm was forfeit until the magikitten awoke once more. Giving up on moving Catra decided she would stand vigil to make sure the young girl's rest was not interrupted.

Unbeknownst to the princess she was not alone. Outside the door were Cyra and Scorpia silently awwing at the adorable display. Both keen to let the sisters bond in peace.

"Sleep well my sister." Catra smiled using her free hand to brush the bangs out of Kaita's face. "Sleep well."

Chapter Text

Catra must have sat there for an hour or so watching over the sleeping cub. It still astound her that this little yellow fluff ball was her baby sister. She was both excited and afraid at the same time. She had already promised herself that she would watch out for the kid but a part of her was afriad of being a bad influence, she didn't want to drag Kaita down.

Before Catra could roominate too much on that thought the door to Kaita's room creaked open to reveal Scorpia and Cyra standing in the threshold.

"Wow Catra I never knew you'd had such a good singing voice." Scorpia praised causing Catra's face to go red.

"I'm glad you managed to talk to Kaita. Did you find out why she was being distant?" Cyra asked.

"Yes but I'd rather not say anything while she has my arm hostage." Catra answered.

Only now did the two see that Kaita was clinging onto Catra's arm as she napped. The sight cause Scorpia to almost squee at the cuteness only being stopped by the "make a sound and wake her, and I will end you!" Look Catra was giving her. It was so cute and Scorpia was so proud that Catra was able to open up to the girl.

"As cute as Kaita sleeping can be we really should wake her or she will be missing lunch." Said the queen before she shouted the magic words. "Is that a mouse!?"

"What where!?" The Magicat princesses yelled in tandem Kaita having detached herself from Catra's arm getting into a hunting stance as both searched the room for the prey.

"In the dining room actually." Cyra answered coyly. "We will be having split roasted salted mouse kabobs with a side of corn and peas."

"My favorite really!?" Kaita squeaked her eyes sparkling like Catra's would when 'needing to blow something up'. The queen gave a small nod and the next thing Catra knew Kaita was running down the hall in full all fours sprint.

"Wait wait wait wait.." Catra said trying to wrap her head around what she just heard and saw happen. "Mouse kabobs? Like Magicat really eat mice, and it's not considered wierd?"

"Oh not at all." Cyra answered. "Mice, birds, and fish are all Halfmoon delicacies. You will find them prepared in a multitude of ways each of which is delicious might add."

That was all Catra needed to hear. Her mouth was already watering thinking about the flavors and she made her way to dining hall for lunch.

The six sat down and began thier meal. Biting into the mouse kabob Catra had to surpress a squeal of delight. The taste, the texture, the juiciness, and the seasoning were perfection. With no hesitation she began to tear into the meat like a starving beast. When Catra managed to calm herself down from the flavor nervana she looked around the table just to see her mother and father looking at her in concern while Kaita had her mouth open gawking at her.

To Catra's reprieve her friends did not seem all to enamoured by her display. Scorpia was eating In much the same way she was (though a bit more tactful due to having to eat with claws Catra suspected). And Entrapta was far to busy cataloging the differences she could observe in the prepared food from her last visit prior to the isolation.

"I um.. I have no words for what I just saw.." Leondus managed to say pulling himself from a speechless stupor.

"Table manners will have to be on the list then.." Cyra said to herself still just looking at her eldest daughter in a mix of shock and horror at what she had just witnessed.

"A list of what exactly?" Catra asked her eyes narrowing. Though she felt safer here then she ever had (at least without Adora nearby she thought to herself) Catra did not like the idea of information being hidden from her at least if it involved her in some way.

"A list of aspects we will need to have worked on." Cyra answered. "You are a princess Catra, you will need to learn how to act like one."

Catra scoffed at this. "Yeah I might be a princess or whatever but I'm not gonna change who am. I'm Catra I'm snarky, crass, and a pain in the ass. And proud of it.*

Cyra gave her daughter a coy smirk. "So clearly you took after me then." The queen got up from her place at the table and walked over to her eldest child. "Oh I can tell just by the glint in your eyes you love to cause trouble."

What happened next caused Catra to yelp as she felt Cyra grab at the back of her neck and lift her up. She tried to lash out against the grip but found herself unable to move.

"What the heck did you do!" Catra shouted in a slight panic. "Urf...I I can't move!"

"Oh that is so cool!". Entrapta squealed breaking any tension rising from the display of power. "Like actual cats a Magicat scruff causes paralysis when gripped and lifted from."

"Now then Catra." Cyra smirked. "I believe it is time to get you cleaned up before we present you to the public."

*Present me?" Catra questioned. "And what's wrong with how I look?!"

"Well for starters, your mane is a mess you are covered in soot and sweat, and youblook like you have been in those clothes for a week minimum." Cyra answered. "So before we announce your return we need to make you looked presentable. Starting with a bath…"

Cyra did not know what she expected when proclaiming to give Catra a bath. Granteed some magicats took to water better than others, herself and Kaita for example found bathing in water quite pleasant. While Leondus took bathing as a required sacrafice and was always grouchy about it. Therefore Cyra kept her mind open for however Catra would respond.

What the queen had not prepared for was the colatoral damage of trying to put Catra in a tub.

Water had been splashed everywhere, vials filled with assortens of shampoos conditioners and soaps laid smashed and mixed on the floor, and the three guards Cyra had called in to assist her in the princess's first royal bath when the first signs of difficulty had shown themselves were all on the ground groaning in pain with scratch marks painting thier bodies. But the most surreal thing was the sight of the naked soaked magicat princess perched on the vanity hissing at the tub and her.

*All of this over a bath!?" The queen said to herself still coming to terms with the events of the last minute.

"Water is evil!" Catra hissed back at Cyra digging her claws into her perch. "And I don't need to use it anyway I can just bathe like I normally do with my tongue!"

"Fine…" Cyra stated starring directly at Catra. "You do not need to use the bathtub. Now get down from there!"

Feeling like she had just won a major battle Catra leaped off the vanity onto the floor only to immediately be pinned by her mother in the process. Catra lashed out and snarled but unlike the guards she was having no luck getting out of her mothers hold.

"What gives? Let me up!" The former force captain ordered only to recive a snort from her mother.

"Oh no you are getting a bath my child…" Cyra warned her. "But since you are being such a baby about the water il just do it myself." Suddenly the queen was bathed in a bright light her form getting heavier and bigger ontop of Catra.

When the light faded what remained in the queen's place was a large 9ft tall brown cat with orange stripes and glowing cyan eyes.

"What in the…. " Catra began stunned by the transformation. "How did you-"

"It is know as beast mode." Her mother inturupted shocking Catra that she was able to speak at all on this new form. "All Magicat with proper training can call upon this form. But enough about this, you still need your bath"

Before Catra could do anything Cyra ran he large beast tongue down her face causing Catra to squeak in surprise.

"No!I can bathe myself!" Catra shouted and struggles in vain as Cyra continued to lick and clean her like a little kitten.

"Tough.." Cyra replied can continued the bath.

It had taken a few minutes with Catra groaning and attempting to escape the emberassing catbath but soon all of her fur was mated down and Cyra got off of her daughter and returned to her magicat form.

"Now was that so bad?" Cyra smirked and received a glare from Catra as a response. "Right now then we simply need to get you something more apropriot to wear and we will be able to announce your return to the public.

Catra let out an exasperated sigh as her family and friends took turns trying to find her something out of a large closets worth of royal clothing. Truth be told she had never seen this amount of clothing In her life and none of it so fancy however the frillyness of most of the options made her want to gag.

"What about this?" Leondus asked pulling out a beautiful purple dress bathed in small diamonds.

"That so pretty! Scorpia smile as Catra let out another groan and eye roll.

"Ugh looks like something Sparkles yacked up." Catra grimiced at the sight of the bedazzled dress.

"This one then?" Asked Cyra holding up a bright pink dress that screamed princess in every way. Catra just walked over and slowly took the garment out of her mother's hands and placed it back in the pile not even giving the offensive piece the time of day.

"Come on Catra you need to pick SOMETHING!" Cyra said her patience having been exhausted. "We have been going through these clothes for almost an hour."

"I won't wear anything that looks too princessy!" Catra growled. "It's bad enough I need to wear a dress in the first place but every last thing you have shown me looks so darn gaudy! I am a princess I get it but all of these fancy dresses just don't feel like I'm being me."

"Oh Catra…" Cyra sighed and pet her eldest's mane who failed to surpress a purr from the contact. " There is nothing wrong with looking like a princess. But you are right, you should be comfortable with whatever you choose to wear." The queen absentmindedly sifts through the dresses looking for anything that would suit her child's style whilst still looking regal enough for a princess to wear. "I understand that this is a lot to take in all at once but you our my daughter, this is your kingdom. I do not want you forced to wear anything that you would hate. We just really needed to get you out of that Horde uniform and this will only be for special occasions."

"Fine.." Catra grumbled. "but it still needs to look good on me and all these ones just look wrong, I mean just look at that one it's pokadot who made a dress that was POKADOT!?"

"FOUND IT!" Kaita's voice rang out inturupting the two. "This will look great on you big sis." Kaita smiled and shows the garment in question to Catra.

As far as the dresses go it was simple. No frills no poofs or capes nor any accessories. It was sleek and form fitting like the dress Adora had worn to the prom. But what drew Catra to the dress even more were the colors. The dress was a light muted cyan trimmed with vibrant gold with a red sigil on the chest.

Catra worlessly took the dress and exited into another room to change. The dress was a snug fit but not in an unpleasant way, it felt as though she was in the warm embrace of a close friend but unlike with Scorpia she could still move and breath. Catra looked in the mirror and was surprised how well the colors blended together on her and complimented her mismatched eyes. She would dare say she looked pretty good.

When Catra slowly walked back into the room everyone's heads turned to her and stopped. Only for her to be bombarded with complements.

"Wildcat you look so good!"

"My little girl is beautiful"

"Yes yes yes I knew that would look great!"

"It appeared despite Catra's reluctance to where dresses they actually look quite good on her."

"See you make a beutifu princess sunshine."

Catra didn't know how to feel. She wanted to run away, get mad at being called a princess, smile, and blush all at once. Her mind and body decided the best course of action was to stand thier frozen in place and take in all the complements at once.

"Thank you…" Catra utered look at the floor sheepishly her cheeks tinted red and smiling.

"Now come along we only have a few minutes to get you ready for your speech." Cyra said as she gently grabbed Catra by the hand and began to briskly walk to a balcony of the castle.

"Speech? What speech?." Catra asked stunned this being the first time such a thing had been mentioned. Cyra blinked then for the first time since she had arrive Catra saw her mother's fur bristle.

"Oh founders I forgot to tell you about the speech…" Cyra groaned then took a few breaths. " It's fine, it's fine. Catra after we announce your presence you will be asked to say a few words to address the people.of Halfmoon. Will you be able to do this?"

"So I just need to talk?" Catra asked. "Um yeah I can manage that.*

"Oh one more thing!' Cyra added as they aproched thier destination. "I will need your headpiece for a moment."

Catra reluctantly removed her crimson helmet and tentatively handed it over to the queen. She had found that headwear in a box of junk headed for the scrapyard in the Horde and had saved it from iminant destruction. She charished it as one of the few things in the Horde she had been able to make her own in spite of Shadow Weaver's distian for her happiness. Therefore when Catra heared a loud crack and saw on of the faceguard's sides bent the wrong way she was understandably concerned.

"What the fuck are you doing!?" Catra shouted just a little too loud seeing the heads of guards workes and her family poke thier heads out of doors and around corners.

"Do not use that language with me young lady!" Cyra grunted as she snapped the other side out of place. "By the 5 when was the last time you oiled this thing?"

"Oiled? Why would I oil my faceguard? And stop breakeing it!" Catra whined.

"I am not breaking it." Cyra replied shifting and bending parts of the headgear. "And this is not a faceguard sunshine."

Cyra handed the altered headwear back to Catra who started at it in shock. For as long as she could remember she had always worn that faceguard. So much so it has become synomonys with her. Anybody who saw that red piece of metal knew Catra was not too far away.

And here it was in its true form. All this time Catra had been wearing...a red fucking tiara.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me.." Catra groaned and rolled her eyes. "Are you telling me that I have been wearing a damn TIARA all this time?!"

"I'm just happy you were able to keep it all these years." Cyra smiled at Catra and fixed up the princess's hair before heading out onto the balcony to address the populace.

Catra watched from the doorway as her mother got poised to speak getting nervous by proxy.

"Citizens of Halfmoon, I queen Cyra Cheetara D'rilluth II have joyous news for you all. 12 years ago we were invaded by the monsterous war machine known as the Horde, and in that violent battle many Magicats lost thier lives and my eldest daughter was lost. In our grid we closed off our kingdom the the outside world but that ends today!" The crowd began to muemer in both shock and eagerness at this statement the kittens most of all. "For you see my people, after 12 long years my child has returned to us!"

Catra let out an audible squeak as all the eyes of Halfmoon gazed upon her as she stepped slowly onto the balcony her tail swishing rapidly as though to distract them all.

"H-hello my my name is Catra but I guess you would all know me as Cyra III." Catra spoke to her people. "Well I was apparently supposed to give a speech but my mom kinda you know, forgot to tell me untill about 10 minutes ago so yeah thanks mom." The crowd began to chuckle and snicker with Catra's mother just shaking her head stifling a laugh.

"Anyway." Catra continued after breaking the ice. " What actually happened to me on that faithful day 12 years ago was that the Horde managed to kidnap me. The monster who lead the assult took me as a consolation because she couldn't take Halfmoon. And worse she locked away memories so until very recently I wasn't even aware of Halfmoon's existence let alone being a princess of it."

Catra looked over the crowd and sighed but knew withholding the truth would not be a smart Idea if she was going to rule this place someday.

"I would rather not get into the details let's just say the Fright Zone is an awful place to be stuck growing up in, even more so for a Magicat. And while this next part will probably not endear me to you I would be remiss not to inform you all of what I became. In the Fright Zone I was trained to be a soldier of their war front and was given the rank of Force Captain. I have participated in sieges against the kingdoms of these lands and have made enemies of the princess...But regardless of all that I am here now and ready to learn how to a princess worthy of you all if you would have me.., thank you.."

Catra takes a bow as applause rings out through the courtyard. Words started to giant traction in the crowed and soon the entire precession was shouting at the top of thier lungs. "All Hail Princess Catra!" Repeatedly.

The force captain turned princess left with as much poise as she could muster before she collapsed into a ball of nerves and took deep breathes to calm herself.

"Why did you have to put me on the spot like that!" Catra shouted her face red in embarrassment at having pulled that speech out of her ass and subsequent cheers for it."

"I'm sorry dear." Cyra apologized " I seriously just forgot I was still just amazed that my little girl made ir back home. If it is of any comfort you did an amazing job."

"Tch no I didn't." Catra argued. "I was tripping over my words left and right!"

"Yes but you should have seen me give a spontaneous speech at your age. I was a far bigger wreak." The queen countered and laughed. "But now that you are finished with your introduction we can see what aspects of royal life you will need the most help with."

The rest of the day involved Catra going throughcountles boring and monotonous tasks such as being instructed how to curtsie, learning the family history and failing at fine dining.

"I can honestly say I have never seen so much mahem caused with a teaspoon." Cy'ra said looking over the torn apart room. " I don't know wether I am more terrorfied or impressed.."

"I may have gotten Abit frustrated…" Catra admitted "but I think I figured it out."

Leondus sighed and informed the maids of the newest mess. "The last lesson we will have for today will be music."

Catra stretched and followed her parants secretly having fun trying all of these different things but would never admit it.

"Oh sis you are gonna love music lessons there are so many fun instruments to play!" Kaita exclaimed riding on Catra's shoulders.

Music practice was something. Catra had tried over a dozen different instruments Frome flutes to drums to a damn tuba (she still wassnt sure what she was thinking with that last one) but none clicked. None until The Magicat looked into a coenor of the room and saw it. A magestic sleek string.instrment the neck a striking magenta and the sides a soft baby blue.

"What. Is. That!?" Catra slowly questioned her eyes not leaving the instrument.

"That is an enchanted guitar…" Leondus answered. "Do you want to try it?"

Catra immediately picked the object up and strummed it experimentally. The music was both loud yet soft, gentle yet strong. She loved it. Catra began to play this "guitar" thing moving her fingers across the strings and using her ears to pick out what sounds felt right to play in sequence and before long had manged to strum a few chords by ear. Her eyes were closed and she allowed her ears to twitch and tail to sway with the music she was playing, through all of this Catra was oblivious to the smile that had stretched itself upon her face.

"Whoa.." was all Scorpia could say watching her friend play. "That sounds amazing Wildcat."

"She appears to be a natural." Entrapta added. "Not many musicians can learn by ear alone."

The D'rilluths stated silent simply listening to the performance. Kaita swaying to the notes like her sister.

As she brought her session to a close putting the guitar down Catra found herself tackled to the ground by a giggleing ball of fluff.

"Sis that was amazing it sounded so pretty!!" Kaita praised and cuddled into the older magicat still excited she HAD a big sister to begin with.

Catra smiled down at the kitten and wrapped her up in a hug. She would normally feel wrong desplaying such a weakness but for some reason the little furball lowered all of her defenses against such things.

"Well it looks like we found what your instrument pretence is." Cyra said with a soft smile. "As for the rest of your training I will be sending for the princess of our sister kingdom to aid you."

"A kingdom can have a sister?" Catra looked at her mother quizzically.

"No not like that…" the queen blanched while her mate gave a harty chuckle reminding herself to choose words carefully. "It simply means it is a kingdom that holds a rich history with ours. Our sister kingdom is Brightmoon Angela was instrumental in helping the founders build our kingdom and establish trade routes before the isolation. Oh she will be so exstaticed to hear from me and I'm sure Glimmer will be thrilled to see you again." Cyra walked off to begin the letter.

Memories flashed in Catra's head about her past. She saw a kitten version on herself chasing a tiny but just as cotton candy colored Sparkles around.

"Imma get you Glim-Glim!" The younger Catra hollered and laughed chasing the Brightmoon princess.

"Nuhuh!" The young Glimmer yelled back running away from the chasing magikitten.

They ran incirclea for a few minutes before the child Catra pounced and pinned the child Glimmer.

"Ha told ya I'd get ya Glim-Glim! I'm the bestest pouncer ever!" The magikittens tail was swishing rapidly in glee at a rate Catra could only remember feeling when playing with Adora as children. The two kids hugged before Catra was brought back to the present.

Catra looked to Scorpia while still hugging her baby sis. The Scorpioni was just smiling her claws clasped together.

"Isn't that great Catra we get to meet your old friend!"

In this moment Catra was both envious and furious and Scorpia's forgetfulness.

"Scorpia.. Glimmer is Sparkles…" Catra said through gritted teeth the only thing calming her was running her fingers through Kaita's hair and purrs the petting produced.

And like that Scorpia's eyes got wide. "Ooooooh… huh small world.. do you think they are still mad about the Prom?"

Catra groaned and had only one thought.

'This is going to suuuuuuck….'

The reply was not as immediate as Catra had inticipated. It had actually taken a few weeks before they were informed of queen Angela's decision to send not just Sparkles but Arrow-boy and Adora aswell. In that time the "Super Princess Trio" as Scorpia had coined them had aclemted to life in Halfmoon. Scorpia was trying her luck as a lot of arts and crafts and the resident magikittens took to.her like Imp to caffeine. Entrapta used her time in Halfmoon to study First One's tech and used it to gradually upgrade the weapons and everyday equipment in the kingdom, Catra felt lucky to have found her before the escape who knows how much damage her mind could have caused if she ended up Hordak's prisoner.

As for Catra herself. She spent most of her time either training or playing her guitar having written a few songs in the mean time. But all good thing must come to an end at some point and the day of the Brightmoon gang's arrive had come.

Hearing the echos down the hall of her Kaita urgeing her father to finish up the history lesson Catra got onto her throne and waited with a smirk.

When the Brightmoon envoys entered the throne room they all bowed and Glimmer started giving some kind of speech to join the allience or something Catra was not really paying attention her sights were locked on Adora who had unknowingly bowed to her and Catra was going to make sure the princess never forgot it.

Catra was snapped out of her museing by a confused about of her name. She looked into the eyes of her shocked former best friend and smirked speaking only two words.

"Heeeey Adoraaaa~.*

Chapter Text

Adora's eyes were wide at Catra's words. "You..defected? When, and how, and why!?"

"A few weeks ago, stole a skiff, and because I knew I couldn't stay there after giving you the sword Shadow Weaver would have killed me if she found out...which she did" Catra replied.

"Oh.." Adora looked a little saddened. She had hoped Catra would have seen the Horde was evil and choose to fight beside her not just run away because of-. " Wait Shadow Weaver tried to kill you?!" Adora shouted her mind finally catching up to what Catra had said.

"...Duh, That's nothing new Adora she has always hated me, she was just looking for a reason to do so without having to explain a dead soldier to Hordak." Catra said casually. "I told you the day you left that if I didn't bring you back Shadow Weaver would have had my head, You had to have seen this coming Adora!"

Adora trembled and looked down in shame unable to look into the eyes of her former best friend. She had always thought Catra was exaggerating having never been on the receiving end of Shadow Weaver's discipline herself. But after the events of Mysticore and the raid on the Fright Zone Adora began to see the witch for what she truly was; a manipulative sociopath, and a monster who fed on the misery of others.

And she had left Catra alone with her…..

Adora felt sick just thinking about the fact. Her mind spiraling on anyway she could have tried harder or anything she could have said or done to convince Catra to come with her.

"Of course you didn't" Catra rolled her eyes looking down at the blonde."She literally stole me from my family just so she would have a magicat to be her punching bag Adora."

"She's the reason you went missing!?" Glimmer butted in both shock and rage directed at Shadow Weaver. Not only had that woman tortured her and tried to brainwash Adora, but now she is the reason Catra was taken and molded into a Horde soldier? Oh Glimmer was pissed!

Where Glimmer was livid Adora was horrified her hands clasped over her mouth. How long had she blindly followed the witches order? How long had she basked in the praise the monster had placed upon all the while making her once best friend's life a living hell and never once saw the signs? The fact that she didn't even know the answer shook Adora to her core.

Catra could see the horror etched in Adora's face and while it was somewhat cathartic to see her finally grasp the situation the terror Catra saw in her former friends eyes was something she felt all too familiar with and did not want Adora to suffer with.

The Halfmoon princess got up and walked towards Adora resting a hand on her shoulder. "She chose to be a witch, you were just a dumbass Adora.."

This caused Adora to begin snorting and laughing. "Heeeey rude!" She got up and looked at Catra with a smile and smirk. "You know I don't think I have EVER heard a princess say that word Princess Catra~."

Catra's face got super red from Adora calling her by the title. "Sh-shut up idiot!" She shoved Adora back with one of her hands and sat back down on the throne.

"Wait...Adora? Sis is she THAT Adora?!" Asked Kaita. "The one you wrote that song about?"

"You wrote a song about me?" Adora arched an eyebrow her smug smile in full effect.

"Don't flatter yourself. Catra huffed "I was just told to sing about what I was feeling. I didn't know I was being recorded!"

"Aww you care about me how embarrassing for you~!" Adora shot back with a grin only to then feel the sharp but familiar pain of magicat toe claws impale her shin. Adora winced in pain and looked down to see the gold furred culprit.

"That for hurting my sister you butt!" Kaita hissed.

"Kaita Clawdeen D'rilluth! We do not kick our guests in the shins!" Cyra growled at her youngest. "My apologies She-ra she sometimes doesn't think before acting."

"It's fine.." Adora laughed off the minor stinging sensation in her leg. "I am used to magicat scratches. I got them a lot considering Catra and I shared a bed since we were 6."

"I'm sorry what?" Cyra blinked. "You both shared a bed?"

"Yeah I slept curled up at the foot of her bed." Catra answered.

"It helped us both sleep easier and would prevent the other cadets from trying to prank us at night." Adora added.

"Adora...did it ever occur to you that maybe the alliance should have known that the most effective horde soldier we had ever faced was bunking with you for over a decade!?, Glimmer shouted. "No offence Catra"

"Why would I be offended by the compliment?" Questioned Catra.

"So as cute as this is.." Bow interrupted. " And it IS adorable and I love everything about it. We were sent here with a task, your majesties. I think we should get started on the training immediately."

"Ah yes, a very good idea," Leondus said, handing the three a detailed list of royal aspects that needed dramatic improvement. The list was long but issued in orders of severity with Fine Dining and Royal Linguistics at the top of the list.

"Fine dining huh.." Glimmer looked over the list. "Yeah I could see it considering how bad this one is at wolfing down her food." The princess pointed to Adora.

"I'll have some of the servants set up the dining hall for practice." Queen Cyra stated. "Catra could you please show our guests to their quarters while it is being set up? I'm sure you have things you wish to discuss."

"Yes my queen." Catra got up and turned to her mother with a bow causing Adora's jaw to drop. Turning back to the three Catra suppressed a smirk. " Your rooms are this way follow me."

Catra led the Brightmoon trio out of the throne room and through the palace to the guest chambers trying to ignore the quips oohs and aahs the three were constantly blurting out. Catra was still very much annoyed that her mother called on BRIGHTMOON of all places to assist In her training, and worse they sent ADORA with them who thanks to Kaita knew she wrote a damn SONG about her. The tutoring hadn't even started yet and Catra already wished it was over.

"And here is where you will be staying." Catra said all formal pretense having been dropped now that she was no longer on her throne. "Try not to get glitter everywhere okay?"

"Aaaaaand there's the Catra we know…" Glimmer crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "I'm honestly surprised you kept your composure that long."

"My mom and dad drilled that into me on my first week here." The Magicat crossed her arms back. "And the answer is no in case you are wondering."

"No?" Adora questioned. "No to what exactly.."

"To your stupid little princess club!" Catra answered. "No I won't join it."

"Like we would even want you!" Glimmer huffed.

"Well seeing as your opening line of greeting me was an invitation I'd say yeah ya do." Catra taunted smugly.

Glimmer let out a long frustrated groan."How are you and little Cy the same person!?"

"Eh about 12 years of Horde propaganda after getting my mind wiped." Catra snarked. "if the Horde tries to attack Halfmoon I'll kick their ass back to the Fright Zone, but I will not let myself be made to take orders from you Sparkles."

"But seriously Glimmer." The use of the Brightmoon princesses really name causing the three to pay full attention. "Do you really think the rest of your little alliance would be okay with having the girl who bombed the prom in their ranks?"

The Best Friend Squad all winced at varying degrees with Adora looking the worst of the bunch. Her best friend for all of her life was right here but the schism between them felt just as large as ever.

"Besides." Catra continued. "Your group doesn't have a good record with people who are different. Scorpia has told me how even before the Horde took over her kingdom none of the other princesses liked her family, and with Entrapta…you fucking abandoned her in the Fright Zone!"

"We did not mean to!" Bow shouted startling the three girls who all forgot he HAD a shouting voice.

"Didn't mean to what?" Asked Entrapta who had snuck up on them from behind.

The Best Friend Squad all yelped and tumbled onto one of the guest beds in surprise. Catra gave a small laugh having gotten used to Entrapta's spontaneous appearances.

At that moment Catra heard the familiar sound of footfalls charging down the hallway. Scorpia was running towards them at max speed and Catra knew the only outcome to this. She signed and braced herself for what was to come.

The Magicat was suddenly scooped up into the Scorpioni's arms in a protective hug. "Wildcat I heard screaming! Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"

"I'm fine Scorp," Catra rolled her eyes with a small smile. "Entrapta just starteled the guests is all."

Adora felt a strange angry but also not angry? feeling seeing Scorpia pick up Catra like that, and it intensified seeing Catra be okay with it. Catra always hated being picked up even she was barely ever allowed to do so. But the strange feeling had to wait. Right now she needed to focus on the fact Entrapta was here, alive,and they left her behind.

"Entrapta.." Bow began the distraction wallowing Adora to push down the unwelcome feeling. "We thought you were...how are you alive?"

"Why wouldn't she be alive?" Catra narrowed here eyes. * Did you send her off on a suicide mission or something.."

"What? No!" Gimmer gasped in disgust at possibility.

"She got caught in the purging chambers during the lockdown…" Adora answered sternly.

The Magicat's eyes widened at the new information...right before the shock hit Scorpia causing the older princess to drop her.

"The PURGING CHAMBERS!?". Catra ears were up and her tail was flicking wildly. " How the fuck did you survive Entrapta."

"Oh, well just before the flames came out I jumped inside Emily's storage compartment that combined with my hair being fireproof made it simple why?" Entrapta answered.

"Entrapta. l, we thought you perished…" Glimmer responded. "We were all devistated by the loss and the Alliance fell to shambles in grief.."

Entrapta put her mask down as she processed this new information. "You didn't abandon me.."

"We did though." Bow whimpered. " We didn't mean to but we did! Entrapta were so sorry!"

Entrapta lifted up her mask and hair walked over to Bow and gave him a pat on the head "I forgive you."

The Best Friend Squad started to hug Entrapta before the entire group including a reluctant Catra were all wrapped up in a Scorpia hug.

"Yay everyone is friends!" The princess cheered. Catra and Adora glanced at each other until the former looked away causing the latter to pout.

"Um excuse me.." a new voice interrupted the group.

Standing in the doorway of the guest room was a Magicat maid with light fur that grew darker around the ears, tail, and face.

"What's up Saiya?" Catra asked squirming out of the hug.

"Misae is just about finished setting up please come down to the dining hall for the training." The girl bowed and walked away to perform other duties.

"Let's just get this over with….." Catra sighed and began the walk to the dining hall with The B.F.S and S.P.T in tow.

Adora and Catra both sat down at the table in front of the various foods Adora finding out hard not to drool with the smells alone.

"Well.. let's see what we are working with you two." Glimmer got ready to judge them both on performance.

What followed could only be described as an affront to civilized eating. It wasn't something as simple as using the sales fork for the entries or using a stake knife for a butter knife. No as far as Glimmer was concerned she was dealing with 3 year olds eating with their hands. Well maybe not that bad Catra at least ATTEMPTED to memorize the silverware before giving up and using her claws to cut the foods which while a bit on the savage side the Brightmoon princess had to be impressed by the finesse of a magicat's claws. Adora on the other hand was having a melt down and just grabbed every last fork spoon or knife just to be certain she picked up the right one and when that failed did indeed just used her hands.

"That… was..an attempt?" Bow said with a nervous smile.

"It was disgusting…" Glimmer stated flatly.

"Glimmer!" Bow gasped.

"It was!" Glimmer countered. "I mean seriously" she pointed at Catra "you messed up once and gave up even trying to learn! And you!" She turned and pointed at Adora. " You picked up every piece of silverware at once! How Did you think that would work?!"

"I figured if I picked all of them one would be right?' Adora answered looking down bemoaning the failure.

"And I just don't see what the big deal is. What's the difference between this knife and that knife they both cut, don't they?" Catra questioned holding up a steak and butter knife.

"That smoothen knife is meant for cutting butter and other loose solids. The shape keeps the food from getting ripped apart and makes it easier to spread. The other one with it's jagged blade is meant to cut into thick meats…" Glimmer explained and rubbed her temples.

Catra thought about it for a second and snapped her fingers on realization. "Oh now I get it! We need to treat each utensils as a specialized combat unit!"

The statement caused everyone to give Catra a very confused look.

"What do you mean?" Adora asked, still not seeing whatever Catra managed to figure out.

"Try seeing all of the silverware as soldiers, each on specialized to take out a certain food. Like Sparkles said with the different knives one was ment for soft stuff the other for thick meats. The soup spoon has a long handle and deep indent to perfect transfer soup, and the sales fork is designed to stick and hold the leaves more effectively then a generic fork." Catra continued to go into detail on various different utensils and how they would interact with thier perfered food type.

Bow and Glimmer we left speachless at how easily she linked the silverware to soldiers whole Adora just soaked the analogy in. Once Catra had started to explain all the different forks spoons and knives in such a way something in her brain clicked and she understood. She wanted to smile at the fact that what the alliance couldn't teach her in months Catra could in only a few sentences.

"Wow that is super smart Catra I never would have thought about it like that!" Scorpia beamed.

"Eh it was nothing just had to put it in combat terms." Catra shrugged.

And just like that the strange feeling was back in Adora's gut. Just something about the way that they were able to talk to eachother made her mad. She couldn't tell why but it just did and it made her furrow her brow at the display.

"You got a problem?" Catra's voice knocked her out of the trance.

Her former best friend was looking at her with narrowed eyes.

"Um no? Uh why would I?* Adora blushed and looked away emberassed she was caught glaring.

"Well I think thats enough with the fine dining." Glimmer began. "Let's move on to Aaaarrrgghhh!!!!" Glimmer collapsed in pain her body glowing red and glitching.

"Glimmer!!" Both Adora and Bow rush to her aid.

"What the heck was that!?" Catra backed up still not very used to all the crazy magic.

"It's been happening ever since we escaped the Fright Zone." Adora explained. "Whatever Shadow Weaver did cursed her."

"And you didn't think to bring this up before now!?" Questioned Catra. The magicat princess grumbled."Scorpia you mind carrying her to the infermery? I'll go explain the situation to the queen, Entrapta this might be runestone related do you think any of your research could help?"

"I have never seen anything like it but a disruption to a runestone connection could be the cause…." The Dryl princess theoriesed. "I'll need to run some tests to be sure"

Scorpia gave a salute with her pincer and hoisted up the injured half angel and carried her to the castle infermery.

An hour goes by and Halfmoon's best healers, sorcerers and Entrapta herself were all pouring over what data they had managed to collect.

"Okay we managed to isolate the problem" Entrapta stated to Glimmer and the rest of the squad whomwas staying by her bed after going over her notes a few more times. "Whatever happened in the Fright Zone interfered with your connection to the Moonstone."

"Can you fix it?" Glimmer said asking the all important question.

"Yes. With the information we have gathered realiging your magic to the Moonstone's frequency can be done." The tech princess answered.

A sigh of relief washed over the room.

"How long will it take for her to recover?" Bow question.

Entrapta looked over to him and shrugged. " I dunno. This has never been documented it's possible this is the first time this has ever been attempted! It could take days weeks or even months!" Entrapta was getting too excited about the prospect of new scientific descovery was haveing trouble reading the room.

"Months?!" The Best Friend Squad shouted simultaneously.

Glimmer started to look distressed. "We are in a war I can't be sidelined for months!"

"Wait..Remember that legend from Plumeria? She-Ra was able to heal people!"

"You can heal people?" Catra looked at Adora skepticaly.

"Well mean I haven't really tried so far but.. If She-Ra can heal I will figure out how." Adora reaffirmed herself.

What followed was a very unsafe display of Adora waving her sword around yelling at it to "Heeeaaaaalllll Glimmeeeeer" but to no avail only ending up with her kicked out of the room after putting the sword of protection through a wall. So she ended up sitting on the castle steps sulking.

Adora was miserable. She was supposed to be the hero everyone could rely on. If she couldn't even heal her friend when she needed her what good was she? Adora looked down at the sword and agian wondered if it made mistake in choosing her.

It was at that moment Adora remembered something. That temple she Bow and Glimmer ran into to escape that beast. I'd had a depiction of She-Ra in it.. if anywhere on Etheria had the answers to how her powers worked that would be the place. Without wasting any time Adora sprinted for the exit of the city she had a mission to do and nothing would stop her.

Unbeknownst to the raceing teen she was not unseen. Catra had been perched up on on of the castle walls and had seen her run off. Knowing how recklass Adora coould be Catra first went to her parents to explain the situation before running of after her.

Adora wandered the Whispering Woods for what seamed like nearly an hour before she stumbled upon the First One's Ruins.

"Eternia!" She spoke with conviction and watched as the entrance opened for her and let of a gigantic bean of energy into the sky. The young hero walked inside determined to find a way to help her friend.

Catra had caught up to Adora by following her scent and watched as the light poured into the sky and winced at the brightness. She saw the entrance begin to close behind her former best riend and lept her way inside as the door slammed shut behind her. Whatever Adora was planning it looked like they would be dealing with it together.

Chapter Text

Adora walked through these unfamilier halls of the ruins unsheathing the Sword of Protection from her back as she navigated the place.

"Hello?" She called out in hopes of something. "I carry the sword of She-Ra I've come here for help, is anyone here?"

As Adora approached the main chamber of the ruins the same hologram she had seen before materialized right infront of her.

"Greetings!" the hologram greeted causing Adora to shriek and jump back. "What is your query?"

This caused Catra who had been observing her from the shadows to smirk at her sherik.

"Oh" Adora breathed and recomposed herself from the sudden shock. "I need your help to heal my friend. She's been cursed, and I-I don't know how to save her. The legends say that She-Ra could heal people using this sword….How do I do that?" Adora asked getting a bit nasally and whiny towards the end of her question.

The hologram seemed to pause for a moment as if processing her request.

".....What is your query?" The hologram repeated.

"Oh not this again.." Adora scoffed. "For the honor of Grayskull!!"

Adora transformed into her She-Ra form in a blinding lights that caused Catra to need to look away or be dazzled.

"How about now?" Adora asked the hologram.

The hologram's color changed. "Administrator detected. welcome She-Ra."

"One more time. What can you tell me about this sword?" Adora asked.

"Subject: The Sword of Protection." The hologram began. "Classification: portable Runestone keyed exclusively to Administrator: She-Ra, Princess of Power."

"How can I use the sword to heal my friend?" Adora asked, happy to have made some headway.

"Query not recognized." The hologram replied

Adora groaned and ran a hand down her face looking irritated. "The legends say the sword has healing powers. Is that true?"

"One of the Sword of Protection's many intended functions is to heal and restore balance." The hologram answered.

"But how do I do that?" Adora asked with an annoyed smile.

"Query not recognized." The hologram repeated.

"How do I use the sword to heal people!" Adora shouted.

The hologram be an to repeat the same phrase causing Adora to slump over and made sound that was a mix of a groan and cry.

Suddenly she was struck by inspiration rembering a name from her first time holding the sword.

"I need to speak with Light Hope." Adora demanded.

"Light Hope?" The hologram said nearly sounding like a question.

"Light Hope. That's her name isn't it?" Adora pushed. "The woman I saw when I touched the sword for the first time? Where is she?"

"Yes, Light Hope is here." The hologram confirmed. "She has been waiting for you."

"Can I talk to her?" Adora asked hoping she would finally get some useful information.

"You will meet her soon enough." Stated the hologram. "But first, you must let go."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Adora scratched her head in confusion.

"You are not ready yet." The hologram responded."You must let go."

"Let go of what?" Adora asked getting anxious.

"Query not recognized." The hologram responded back to its unhelpful self.

Adora just groaned in irritation.

"Wow this place sucks!" Catra laughed. Starling Adora.

"Who's there!?" Adora shouted and accidently fired a beam from her sword in Catra's direction.

Catra ducked out of the way as the blast put a hole in the wall behind her.

"Hey watch it!" Catra shrieked her tail frizzled.

"Catra? What are you doing here?" The blond asked.

But before Catra could answer the entire room turned to a redened hue and hummed with energy.

"Unauthorized presence detected. Security protocol activated." The hologram stated as it disappeared the room staying red.

"Oh no no no not again" Adora said in panic looking around the room.

"Uh what the fuck was that?!" Catra yelled.

"This is bad you're not supposed to be here Catra." Adora spoke.

The multiple doors in the room began to slam shut on the two. In a moment of desperation and panic Adora grabbed Catra's hand and began to run to on of the closing exits only to be met by a swarm of large bug-like robots similar to the first creature she had seen when she had transformed into She-Ra for the first time.

"What are those!?" Catra gasped in terror at the creepy spiderbots.

"Also not good!" Adora replied turning and running on the opposite direction still pulling Catra with her.

The final door slammed shit right as the two girls were about to make it through. Adora mustered all the strength she could and lifted the sealed door up over her head reopening their escape.

"Come on we need to get out of here!" Adora grunted at Catra as she strained to keep the door open.

Catra jumped through and Adora dropped the door only for one of the creatures to started to rip through it. The ex-horde soldiers ran down the hallway to escape, panting.

Suddenly all the lights overhead start to flicker off one by one. From the darkness appear the glowing red eyes of the spiders. Adora and Catra look to eachother and at the same time shrieked and ran in the opposite direction.

"What the hell is going on Adora?!" Catra yelled while running. "Why are those things trying to kill us!?"

"They are trying to kill YOU!" Adora corrected keeping pace with the magicat. "This place sees you as an invader."

"Well can you tell them to STOP?!" Catra shouted and glared.

"No, I can't tell them to STOP!" Adora shouted back on clear frustration. "Clearly nothing in here is listening to me!"

The two raced around a coenor only to find themselves at a dead end. Adora halts as the monstrous spider turn the corner after them.

"Adora what are you-"

"Stand back" Adora inturupted as she sliced the wall and ceiling raining large chunks of debris down on the spiders and themselves.

The spiders screeched as they were buried alive. But before the same could happen to them Adora grabbed Catra close and put the sword over thier heads before transforming it into a shield to protect them.

Both girls coughed as the dust settled and Adora detransfeomed back to her normal state.

"You shouldn't be here Catra." Adora looked at her former friend with concern. "Those things aren't going to stop until they get you, and as long as I'm protecting you, they'll see me as a threat, too."

"The it's a good thing I didn't ASK you to protect me." Catra scoffed annoyed.

Adora stammer incredulously from Catra's rebuttals. "Why are you here anyway and how did you even find this place?"

"I'm here because a certain blond idiot rushed off into the Whispering Woods without a Magicat Ranger, OR bothering to tell anyone where the hell she was going." Catra shot Adora a very annoyed look. "As for how I was following you, and even if I wasn't the temple shot out a bright glowing light into the sky visible for miles… it wasn't that hard to track down."

Adora blushed meekly at the answer feeling like a fool. She soon shook it of remembering they were not out of danger yet. "Come on we need to keep moving those things could be back any minute."

Catra looked around seeing only one way they could go. "Lead the way princess hairpoof." She bowed and mocked Adora.

Adora rolled her eyes but couldn't help but give a small smile as she took the lead.

The two walked through the ruins in silence neither haveing the will to initiate idle talk at the momant. Waterfalls rushed on either side of them as they made thier way to another alcove.

"Great another dead end." The magicat sighed starting to turn back.

Adora however noticed the wall looked weirly similar to the first door on these ruins she opened.

"No wait it's not." The blond inturjected and placed her hand on the wall. "Eternia!" She spoke the the wall opened up revealing a path.

Catra looked at Adora with a cocked eyebrow clearly wanting an answer.

"Long story." Adora said looking to Catra and proceeded into the room.

The room was pitch black as far as the eye could see. Adora pulled the Sword of Protection using the runestone as a light in hopes of seeing anything tono avail.

"Woooow you found the infinite darkness room." Catra mocked. " Let's get out of here and find another-"

As Catra turned around to leave she noticed the door was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh come on why is the deal with this stupid place!?" Catra shouted out in rage.

"I think I see something." Adora called out to Catra and pointed to a light in the distance and began to walk to it. "Hello?, Light Hope?"

The girls approached the light and study it before a blinding flash over takes them and suddenly they see themselves back in the Fright Zone.

"What is going on?" Adora looked to Catra for an answer.

"Why would I know?" The Halfmoon princess defended herself. "There is no way that we could be back in the Fright Zone and even it we could be why the hell would I want to be back in this hell pit?"

"Let me go!" Young yet familiar voice shouted out.

Adora and Catra turned to the direction of the sound only to see Shadow Weaver holding onto a young version of Catra.

Catra lunged at Shadow Weaver in an attempt to save her younger self from.whatever the witch had planned only to glitch through the image.

"Silence beast." Shadow Weaver spoke. "It is time you forget your past life, from now on you shall be nothing more then a pet to my ward."

The teens both looked on in horror as the witch casted she spell on the young princess leaving the child in a daze before setting her up in a discarded box labeled as applesauce.

The visage of Shadow Weaver melted into the ground and the running of small feet echoed down the hall. A curious young Adora raced by noticing the box and opened it to investigate.

When the box popped open the child was met with the face of a kitty girl hissing at the bright light.

"Kitty!" The young Adora shouted and hugged the Magicat. "My name's Adora what's yours!"

"I I don't know.." the magikitten flattened her ears.

"You don't know your own name?" Child Adora gasped. "That's no good you gotta have a name.. hmmm well you look like a kitty soooo how about Catra!"

"Catra.."The image of young Catra blinked testing the name out before smiling. "I am Catra!"

The child Adora the jumped into the box to laugh and play with her new best friend.

The world faded back to the temple with Catra and Adora in the place of thier younger selves Adora pinning Catra to the ground in a hug.

"Argh get off of me!" Carra shouted and kicked Adora off at full force.

The teens looked away from eachother both of them blushing too emberassed by the hug.

"I..I didn't know she planted you like that." Adora hugged her legs to her chest. "And she called you a-" Adora shuddered unwilling to attempt to finish the dehumanizing thought.

"A Pet" Catra finished with a scoff a little humoured by Adora's flinching at the words utterance. "It's not like she was the only one who saw me like that... Just the little cat following her master around."

"I never saw you like that!" Adora shouted panicked that Catra would ever think she was capable of thinking about something to vulgur.

"Uh huh.." Catra rolled her eyes and got up and walked to continue looking to a way out.

"I'm serious Catra!" Adora yelled racing after her. "Please don't think I ever did!"

"What even was that crap anyway?" Catra asked completely blowing off Adora's plead.

"I think it was some kind of simulation." Adora theorized. " It was tapping into our memories. Why, I have no idea…"

"This place is so fucking weird!" Catra groaned. "How can you deal with all of this magic stuff?"

"I'm only dealing with it because I need to figure out how to heal Glimmer!" Adora glare and proceed to get right upmin Catra's face."After SOMEONE got her cursed!"

"What do you want? An apology?" Catra asked as she pushed Adora out of her space. "'Cause you're not getting one. Besides Entrapta's already got a way to fix Sparkles. YOU just don't want to wait."

The girls continued down the path in silence for a whole let untill Adora work up the nerve to ask a question

"Can I ask you something?" Asked Adora sounding concerned and serious.

"Can I stop you?" Catra asked back rolling her eyes not bothering to look back.

Both of the girls fell back gasping as they both almost fell down a large hole opened up infront of them. Looking a round they noticed the only way to proceed was over a fallen piller.

"..Why did you help me escape after Shadow Weaver captured us?" Adora questioned

"Seriously?." Catra grunted as she started to walk across the piller. "That's what you decided to ask?"

"It's the one thing I can't figure out." Adora clarified. "You didn't have to do that. You could've gotten caught. Infactyou KNEW you would be caught! N-not that I have any issues with the results you got outnyou found your family Uwaah!!!"

As Adora rambled trying very hard not to sound like a moron. And failing ended misstepped at the end of the piller losing her footing and began to fall backwards down the pit.

Adora thought she was doomed untill she felt something grasp onto her arm and pull her back from the brink. She looked up to see Catra having saved her

"So I need to ask.." Adora continued once she was back to safety. "Why did you do it knowing what would happen?"

"Did you really think I would just let Shadow Weaver erase your memory?" Catra asked with a stern look.

Adora thought for a second about all the times in the Fright Zone Catra had her back. Despite everyone calling her lazy and useless Adora always knew the real Catra. The Catra who would pretend to sleep just to keep Adora with her longer, the Catra who would always helpmger hide whenever she got sick, The Catra who no matter what would always be there for her when she needed someone. To Adora the answer was clear

"Absolutely not." The blonde said with a soft smile.

Catra gave a small smile back pulling her further from the pit. "So you did have faith in me." She mused out loud.

"Always." Adora stated with finality as if it were a truth of the universe.

Catra's tail instinctually brushes against Adora's hand as they continued walking.

"It wasn't all bad growing up in the Fright Zone, was it?" Catra asked nonchalantly. "I mean, you still have some good memories, right?"

"Of course I do." Adora said 'and all of them with you.' she want to add. "But that doesn't change the fact the Horde was evil...I couldn't stay there after seeing what I saw."

Catra gave a small grunt to aknowledge hearing Adora and continued walking.

"Hey. Missed you too.." Adora continued.

"Wha- I didn't miss you!" Catra scoffed as her face tinged red. "Get over yourself!" Catra kicked at her former bestie causing a yelp from her.

"Not until you admit you like me!" Adora laughed as she got Catra in a choak hold and began to noogie her.

"I don't like you.." Catra grumbled sternly as she broke the hold and pushed her snorting assailant away

Adora kept laughing as she backed up to a wall only to phase through it. She yelled as she hit the ground only to find it did not look right.she heard a familier buzz and looked down to see the blue hexagonal tile floor of the horde training hall.

"Oh come on!" Catra groaned knowing exactly which memory this was.

A preteen Catra phased through the two of them charging at a preteen Adora with a training staff and shouting a battle cry. The two girls clashed, electricity sparklng of thier weapons, and they appeared on even footing. The young Catra poked a clawed on the young Adora's forehead. The young Adora struggled her eyes upwards to see it while the young Catra laughed.

The Adora goes for a swipe only for the Catra to easily dodge the attack kicking the staff out of the Adora's hands. The Catra goes for a strike only for the Adora to grab the staff and fling Catra to the ground a solid 10 feet away.

"Owww." The Catra groaned feigning injury.

"Are you okay?" The Adora asked in concern.

At that moment the young Catra uses the opening to sweep the young Adora's feet. Both girls were now on the ground and trying to pin one another with the young Catra managing to get ontop. At that moment she was rushed by the remainder of the squad and was forced to 3v1 Kyle Lonnie and Rogelio as Adora rolled away.

The young Catra started with the weakest link Kyle kicking him in the chest causing his chestplate to buzz signifying his elimination. Next she grabbed Kyle's staff using it to block both Rogelio's and Lonnie's strikes. The young Magicat then used her opponents weight agianst them sliding to the side and kicking both of their ankles causing the two to buckle. At that moment she struck the staff at thier chests eliminatiing them both. But as The Catra tried to catch her breath the Adora lunged at her and without the energy to defend after the gang up the Catra fell to the ground eliminated by the Adora. The young Catra got up and marched over to her three other squadmates.

"What the heck was that!?" The young Catra snarled. "Way to gang up on me!"

"It was Lonnie's idea!" The Kyle squeaked pointing at Lonnie intimidated by the Magicat.

"Watch your tongue freak!" The visage of Lonnie glared. "We were just makeing sure the pet didn't hurt her owner."

The child Catra balled her fists doing all she could to hold back tears. She would not let herself be seen weak at this moment.

"Hey you did amazing!" The Adora called over to the Catra. "You took out 3 cadets at once! I didn't hurt you did I?"

"Psht no way." The Catra put her bravado back on. "You're just lucky I let you win."

"Riiiight.." The child Adora smirked unconvinced.

"I'm serious!" The Magicat said feigning confidence. "If I came in first, people might expect me to actually start doing stuff around here. Trust me, second place suits me just fine."

"Yeah okay," the Adora said smiling at her friend. "Let's go cool off."

"Eh go on I'll catch up." The Catra replied shooing her in the direction. Of the others l.

The Catra then made her way to the locker room sink and began to let the tears out gritting her teeth. When she looked in the mirror Catra saw herself at her current age having agian taken the position of her younger self.

The mirror suddenly shifted as the room fell away, inside the glass were the glowing red eyes of the spiders.

"Unauthorized presence detected." The hologram's voice echoed around her. "Security protocol activated."

The spider then came through the mirror shooting a sticky green webbing at her causing the Magicat Princess to scream.

Having heard Catra's scream Adora ran through the temple just in time to see Catra being wrapped up and dragged through the mirror. Adora pulled as hard as she could trying to save Catra but it was ultimately fruitless as the spider's pull was too strong and the grip broke.

Catra struggled in panic calling out for Adora but as soon as she saw the mirror quickly dissipate she knew she was on her own, she couldn't rely on Adora to come to her rescue. Once again she would need to save herself. Catra took a breath and steeled herself. She unsheathed her claws ripping the thick goo apart before setting her sights on the spider.

The spider chitted and spat more of the green goo at Catra who dodged it and linger herself onto the spider's head. With her claws out Catra ripped into the mechanical red eysles of the spider and starts tearing it apart. Cables wires and oil spewed out our the creature.

Catra was proud of herself. She had managed to slay one of these monstocities all on her own. As she crept forward to land the killing blow Adora leaped up from behind it impailing the beast and it killing it.

"Are you okay?" Adora asked looking relived she found Catra.

"I had it! Catra shouted fuming at having her kill stolen.

'sure you did.' was the response on the tip of Adora's tongue but decided against saying it. One look at Catra told her a joke would not have been appreciated at that moment.

"In know you did." Adora nodes. " Your Catra there was no way a dumb thing like this would take you out."

"Then why did you take my kill!?" Catra asked still agitated.

"Well.. just because I know you can do something doesn't mean I'm going to sit back and watch." Adora tried to explain but could see Catra did not fully understand her sentiment. " I'm not doubting your ability, but if I see my friends being attacked I'm going to help them. I can't just do nothing."

"That didn't stop you in the Horde." Catra looked away.

"I'm sorry Catra." Adora lamented. "I I didn't know our friends were saying such awful things to you."

Catra responded with a shril laugh. "Oh wow you really-, pft I knew you were an idiot Adora but this? "

"W-whats so funny?" Adora asked unsettled by the wrong sounding laugh.

Catra composed herself and crossed her arms over her chest eyes looking straight into Adora's own. "They were YOUR friends Adora not OURS." Catra answered. "I thought that was fucking obvious."

"Then why didn't you tell me?!" Adora blurted out. "I am a moron I won't defend that, but you never came to me about this! How was I supposed to help you if I don't know what the problem is!?"

Catra snarled and turned away in a huff. " I hate this stupid place! Let's just get out of here and get back to Halfmoon!. " The princess said, walking on trying to ignore Adora's rebuttal, and jumped over a few holes in the ruin's floor.

Before long the ruins started to glitch again signifying another memory was about to play.

"Let's just get this over with…" Catra sighed awaiting another awful memory.

The girls found themselves back in their horde barracks, the adjacent locker rooms sounding full.

"I’m telling you. This new princess is no joke. She wiped the floor with our whole recon squad. Twelve feet tall at least! Took out every one of our machines with nothing but a sword!" The two heard a vision of Lonnie say from inside the barracks. "We were lucky to get out of there alive."

As the two entered they could see the past Catra licking her wounds as Lonnie regaled the other senior cadets with the tail of Adora's first battle.

"Oh, please." The past Catra scoffed. "She’s like every other princess: all sparkle, no substance. She caught us off-guard. That is all."

" Hmph You were the only one who saw her up close, and you didn’t even land a hit on her." Lonnie chided. "What? Did you freeze up?"

You think I’m scared of some princess? Past Catra growled. "I could take her out whenever I want. I know her secret."

"You didn't tell anyone…"Adora's eyes widened at the revelation.

"And what’s that?" Lonnie challenged the Magicat.

Instead of getting mad the past Catra simply smirked feeling like she held all the cards. "Hmm. Like I’d tell you."

"Easy, pet." Lonnie both warned and demeaned Catra. "Adora’s not here to protect you anymore. So tread lightly or Shadow Weaver might turn you into a pillowcase."

Catra clawed through Lonnie's skull growling as the images just phased through the attack with no harm taken. "It just HAD to be this one."

The vision did not end there. The past Catra made her way to the bunk bed she and Adora would sleep in and began to rip the bedding apart. Past Catra wept tears of loss and she tore and beat the fabric until it was nothing but shreds.

Adora wanted to comfort Catra but the latter shrugged off any attempt to touch her.

"Catra!" They heard the sickening voice of Shadow Weaver call out and both the past Catra and the two viewers jumped.

"You insolent worthless beast!" The witch smeared. "You failed to retrieve Adora. I should have known better than to let an animal track her down. "

"I did exactly what you told me to! You didn't warn us of the princess being there!" Past Catra countered.

"I gave you a simple task: bring back Adora. " The witch sneared condescendingly. "Instead, your squadron is ravaged, your war machines destroyed, and Adora is still missing….what a waste of resources trying to teach a mongrel to be a soldier."

"Newsflash hag!" Past Catra glared. "if Adora wanted to come home, she'd be here right now. Adora's gone. She defected. And I’m starting to think she had the right idea!"

Adora's jaw dropped. Catra actually HAD thought of leaving the Horde … the soldier
Minds raced trying to see if there was any way she would have worked better or tried harder that could.have resulted in Catra defecting earlier.

She was interrupted by the image of Shadow Weaver cloaking the room in darkness. "You impudent whelp!, You dare threaten defection?!, you pet, I have let you live for far too long, Lord Hordak will decide how best to get rid of you!"

The room faded to black and both girls were back in the temple and Adora felt sick to her stomach.

"She tried to kill you.." Adora whimpered trying to banish the thought of Catra dieing out of her mind.

"DUH!" Catra yelled at her. " Of course she did! What did you think would happen when I didn't bring you back?!"

"I'm sorry Catra I should have let you come with me.." Adora weeped. "I left… I left and left you covering for me.."

Catra smirked In triumph before her expression quickly fell to a wince. seeing tears fall from Adora's face hurt. She should feel happy, a dark part of her thought. After all the agony she put you through, after years of living in her shadow now it was Adora's turn to feel that inadequacy and fear.

Catra shook her head. She knew thoughts like that were not right. But she felt them. She had actually even if only for a moment felt Adora deserved that pain and that fact made her want to vomit.

All of the negative things screamed at Catra all through her life boarded her at once.at this moment the Magicat did what she did best… Ran.

Adora screamed out for Catra but as the ex-horde soldier ran out of sight more of the spider monsters swarmed her. Adora tried to activate her sword but one of the spiders spit their green goo out at the blade and fling it out of Adora's hands forcing the girl to fight them unarmed.

As she ran Catra heard a cacophony of voices from the visions and her own past shouting at her and putting her down. Shadow Weaver would call her an insolent beast, from Lonnie she would hear the hated word "pet". And from Adora she would get the scream she had let out when Catra had stuck her in the back with the stun baton.

Catra's ears perked up when from behind her she heard the sound of soft crying. She turned around to see a young version of herself curled up in blankets with her face hidden.

"Catra?" A young Adora peared in from the doorway and walked in in search of her missing friend.

The Adora went into the crying Catra and pulled the blankets down earning a hiss from the younger Magicat.

"Catra it's okay, it's just me." The young Adora said smiling as she sat down next to the young Catra as the latter wiped away her tears.

Catra had to admit to herself that this was something she did truly miss. When just the presence of Adora was enough to dry tears.

"It doesn't matter what they do to us, you know?" The young Adora stated with both Catras listening intently. "You look out for me, and I look out for you. Nothing really bad can happen as long as we have each other."

"You promise?" Both the young and present Catras ask.

"I promise." The Adora smiled and hugged her Catra while her Catra clinged to her affectionately.

"Now come on." The young Adora giggled. "Let's go back out."

As the two kids started heading off to leave the young Catra stopped and stared directly at Catra for a long moment before catching up with her Adora.

As the room began to fade away back to an unsimulated part of the temple Catra's eyes were filled with determination. She knew exactly what she needed to do.

Back with the spiders Adora was having a difficult time fighting them all off. After shattering a spider's eye with a few punches she ran to her gunked up sword that had been overlooking a chasm and struggled to rip it out of the binding.

She screamed as she was struck in the back by some of the goo and a spider lifted her over the edge of the chasm.

"Stop it, I'm not your enemy!" Adora shouted and struggled. "Just let me talk to Light Hope!"

Adora shoved the spider's leg with her feet which caused her to fall over the edge of the chasm but as she fell Adora quickly uses the goo to hold herself onto the ledge.

Adora then heard the sound of rending metal mixed with sparks and familier grunts. The sounds of the spiders quickly died.

"Hey Adora~, how's it hanging?" Catra smirked looking over the ledge.

"Catra!" Adora smiled filled with an overflowing joy.

"You know what I was right.." Catra said looking directly into the blondes striking blue eyes. "You really do look stupid down there~"

In one solid motion of true trust Catra extended her arm down and Adora without even thinking immediately grasped onto Catra's hand.

Catra pulled Adora up away from the pit and both girls laid on the ground to rest .

"You came back.." Adora stated with the deepest smile.

"Of course I did." Catra smiled back, brushing her tail over Adora's eyes. "You look out for me and I'll look out for you. I made that promise and I intended to keep it."

Adora didn't need to hear anymore. She hugged onto Catra and softly cried tears of joy. There was still a lot the two needed to discuss and more they both needed to apologize for. But rigt now looking at Catra Adora felt she was given another chance at her promise and was now even more dead set on keeping it. She refused to lose Catra again.

Chapter Text

The hug felt amazing. Both parties could silently agree on that. Neither girl wanted the moment to end but they were still inside the bowels of a malfunctioning First One's Ruins and they needed to get to safety.

"Come on." Catra said as she broke the silent hug and stood up. "We need to leave before those crazy spiders call me back."

"But I still haven't found Light Hope…" Adora argued. "I still don't know how to heal Glimmer!"

"Adora, Glim-Glim will be fine.." Catra assured her not realizing the use of her old nickname for the Brightmoon heir. "Entrapta's the smartest person I know, there is nothing this crazy temple can teach you about that sword she couldn't tell you within an hour of studying the thing."

"But what if she breaks it!" Adora whined adorably as she hugged the sword to her chest possessively afraid to let it go.

"She's not going to break it Adora." Catra rolled her eyes. "She's a little… much yeah, but she DOES understand to be careful with things that don't belong to her. Stars mom and dad trusted her to enhance the defence system of Halfmoon. There wasn't a single explosion or power failure during the whole process."

"Fine." Adora relented and got up as well. "She can study it but I want constant supervision! I know you trust her but I can't risk losing She-ra… I'm nothing without her…"

She muttered the last part but Catra's keen ears picked it up.

"Nothing without.., Adora tell me you're joking!" Catra groaned and rubbed her head as if trying to stave off a migraine. "You can't seriously believe that."

"Well it's true!" Adora grunted and trudged forward keeping pace with the magicat. "If I wasn't She-ra the alliance never would have let me join! One of the guards almost cut my head off on sight!"

"Wait what!? When did this happen!?" Catra demanded to know after a double take.

"Ugh.. the first day I was in Brightmoon.." Adora answered. " It was awful. First Bow and Glimmer failed to tell me I would need to hide in Glimmer's room while they talked things over with Queen Angella, Then they made me scale one of the towers to get INTO Glimmer's room, after that I spent who knows how long trying to get the dumb sword to actually work and let me transform, only to be found by the guards when I went outside to see if the air would help… it didn't and I managed to turn a horsey white give it orange hair rainbow wings and a horn! If I didn't meet Razz who showed me how to focus on transforming I think I would have been tossed in a cell or worse.."

"What the actual fuck…." Catra's jaw dropped trying to process all of the mind breaking information. "And you STILL fought for them after that!? Stars Adora I would have bare minimum ranted about how the staff treated guests of the princess or something!"

"It didn't matter." Adora sighed. "The Alliance wants to protect the planet from the Horde. So it didn't matter how I felt about my first day besides once they knew I was She-ra they all started cheering."

"So what? It's okay they tried to kill you on sight?!" Catra shouted.

"Well I mean I WAS technically flailing around the sword when they caught me in my Horde shirt." Adora mumbled.

"....You.. you didn't even change clothes?" Catra's blue eye twitched before it dawned on her that Adora was wearing her old uniform even now.

"Can we drop the subject please!" Adora yelled flustered. Her hands having been clenched tightly and sharking a bit from the strain.

"Fine.." Catra nodded. "For now." She was not going to let Adora off easy on this but she would need Sparkles and Arrow-boy to fill her in with what Adora was trying to hide.

Both girls continued to walk in silence still wary of spiders and the possibility of more visions. Although ever since the cliff the temple had seemed to stop trying. The ruins floor started to tilt up which the pair took to mean they would soon be out of here.

"Um..Are we good now?" Adora meekly hoped as they neared what looked to be an exit.

Catra winced and sighed. "No..Adora. You really hurt me by leaving..I know you didn't understand what you were doing and you thought you were doing what's right but. This is going to take time."

Adora looked down and sighed as well. "Yeah I get it.. you hurt me to.." Adora began to list off each thing Catra had done "you shocked me in the back..twice, you tried to distract and beat me up at Salinas.." Adora touched her face where Catra had scratched her deeply.the wound had healed thanks to She-ra's healing bit thinking about the wound gave a phantom pain.

"And then there was the prom…." Adora sulked as she spoke, the event still far too fresh in her mind.

"Okay yeah I was a bit of an ass at the prom I'll admit that." Catra nervously laughed trying to lighten the mood but it was clearly not working.

"You tricked me, humiliated me, put me in very uncomfortable positions, got me banned from Snows, blew up the castle, kidnapped my friends, and left me hanging over a wall of ice holding on only to a hair pin after I had saved your life…" Adora said bluntly.

"Like I said..I was an ass.." Catra looked away. A few weeks ago she would have been proud to have messed with Adora so thoroughly and to have caused such a blow to the alliance. But now she could only look away in shame.

"Yeah you were.." Adora replied with a somewhat endearing tone. It took a few seconds but soon both girls were laughing at the sheer unbelievability of their past.

"We really are messed up huh?" Catra chuckled in mirth.

" We really are…" Adora snorted back. "But Catra, we can fix this, us, can't we?" Adora asked the Magicat her question being asked like a prayer awaiting an answer.

Catra looked into Adora's pleading eyes. She still felt the pain of being abandoned and the first reaction would have been to say no but not only did she no longer believe that but it did not compare to the pain she knew she would feel denying Adora something they both needed to hear.

"Yeah Adora, it might take a while but we can." Catra answered.

Adora's face brightened with a grin she had not seen her..friend?...ex-bestie?..Adora her Adora make since before she left the Horde. The action alone not only made Catra feel she definitely said the right thing but also made her realise just how much Adora truly missed her.

As if a haze had been lifted from them the way out of the temple was clear and then two made their way through the exit escaping the existential nightmare that was the First ones temple.

"I still can't believe you wanted me back so much." Catra smiled as she led Adora back to Halfmoon.

"What are you talking about? I missed you more than anything!" Adora clammered.

"Adora we both know I never mattered in the Horde, I was just your shadow and ...well you know what they all called me.".

"You Matter to ME!" Adora shouted as she grabbed onto Catra's shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes. "And not just me!, You..you have a family you have an entire kingdom how could you ever think you don't mean the world to m-us!?"

Catra's ears were pulled back as the princess tried to make herself look smaller in shame. "W-well you know Shadow Weaver always said.."

"FUCK SHADOW WEAVER!" Adora shouted, interrupting whatever Catra was going to say before gasping and clasping her hands over her mouth, her cheeks tinted red.

Catra was speechless, her mouth agape yet silent in shock. Adora, the prodigal child, the one chosen to be She-ra, the girl who learned every curse word for the sole purpose of never accidentally saying one. Had just cursed Shadow Weaver's name in defence of her. While she was still reeling from the surprise the Magicat could not suppress the purr that broke her silence.

"Um…sorry I uh lost control there for a moment.." Adora said sheepishly still glowing red at her verbal slip up. "B-but the point still stands. You're smarter than me Catra you knew from the start Shadow Weaver was a monster, you are too bright for her manipulations so please don't let her worthless words get to you.' She then pressed her forehead to Catra's own and the two were calmed down and continued the trek back to civilization.

With Catra leading them the journey back was much quicker than when Adora set off alone. She made a mental note to ask Catra how she was so good at navigating the woods, but that could wait As Halfmoon came into.view Adora's belly rumbled loudly for Catra to hear.

"I guess we WERE in there for a while huh." Catra teased poking Adora's tummy. " Surprised you can still want food after that dinner training earlier."

"She-ra takes a lot of energy;" Adora tried to defend herself. "It's only natural for me to have a big appetite!"

"You know I would believe that.if you weren't always this ravenous in the horde." Catra contered laughing.

"Why you-." Adora grinned and lunged at Catra wrestling her towards the Halfmoon gates laughing the entire time. The guards rolled their eyes at the childish display of the two and let them proceed.

One back at the Castle Adora had only a moment to get her bearings before she was assaulted by the bodies and barrage of questions yelled by her friends and fellow princesses.

"Oh my stars what happened you are filthy!"

"Where have you been? We were worried sick!"

"Why didn't you tell us where you were going, you moron!"

Adora just made a small cross between a meep and whine when she and Catra were forced into a deathly tight group hug by Scorpia.

Kaita then leaped onto Catra hugging her while simultaneously hissing at Adora. "Are you okay sis? What happened? Did that jerk hurt you again!?"

"No, Adora and I just had to fight our way through an evil temple while being forced to live through moments of out past and chased by robot spiders." Catra answered noogieing the younger princess.

"Adora you went back to that temple that tried to kill us? Why?!" Bow squeaked.

Adora looked down. "Sorry to worry you guys I just.. I thought I could find something there to help me figure out how to use She-ra's full power."

"That was still dumb not to tell us!" Glimmer groaned, folding her arms. " Seriously if Catra didn't see you wander out we would have been panicking trying to find you!... Nope, still weird saying Catra and doing something helpful."

"Still trying to get over that myself Sparkles." Catra laughed. "But as much fun as it is picking on Adora's lack of brain cells."

"Hey!" Adora interrupted playfully elbowing Catra in the side.

"I'm sure the Queen and King would like to know we are fine." Catra Continued.

And with that she walked through the crowd gripping onto Adora and marched her way to the throne room. Upon entering the throne room Catra saw her mother, but more interestingly she was a small creature conversing with her.

This being was no more than 6 inches tall,it looked nearly identical to humans, however it had a mouse like ears and a furry white tail.

Catra's eyes were locked onto the tiny mouse person as her instincts once again took over. Before anyone could react she was already on all fours running at them. Catra pounced at the tiny being intent on having here for lunch.

The mouse person, I am without even looking on Catra's direction, flicked her wrist and out of the ground arose a thick slab of stone right in front of Catra causing the Magicat to smack headfirst into it.

"Ah this is Catra presume?" The mouse person questioned Cyra. "I was convinced your statement of her lack of instinct control was blown out of proportion, I can see now that they were not."

"Catra allow me to introduce you to a friend of mine." Queen Cyra cracked a smile as she watched her daughter get up from her abrupt stop. "This is Yin Whitetail, Elemental Princess of Ground and princess of the Whitetail Crag Mouselings."

Catra groaned and rubbed her head getting up and getting a better look at the now dubbed Mouseling. She was wearing a bright teal dress, she had crimson red hair draped down her back to the small, vivid green eyes, lightish skin,and her tail and ears were a silken white as her last name would imply.

"Nice to meet you Yin." Adora piped up with an earnest smile and extended a finger for the small princess to shake while Catra grumbled and rubbed her head. "I am-"

"She-Ra Princess of Power." Yin answered for her "I am well informed of who you are, my people have communication networks all over the planet." The mouseling snickers and shook the finger.

Both princesses were caught off guard by Yin knowledge and connection. " All over the planet?" Catra questioned. " If that's true why haven't either of have ever seen let alone heard about your people?"

"To put it simply because we did not want you to." Yin replied. "Being caught outside of the burrows rarely ended well for the captured mouseling, our history is rife with our kind being captured or sold as pets. We felt it best to allow Etheria to forget our existence and record information in the shadows."

"Then why show yourself to us now?" Adora asked. " Doesn't this go against your whole plan to well… you know...stay hidden?"

Yin just smiled and chuckled. " Yes that is indeed true however both Queen Cyra and Queen Angella have earned my trust, they have helped guard our existence for years, so it is only fitting I aid them in a time of need."

"Meaning…?" Both girls urged her on.

Yin gave a soft smile and answered. "I believe I can aid you in the quick restoration of Princess Glimmer powers."

Chapter Text

Adora and Catra were silent. This princess they had never met, from a species they had never heard of, apparently knew a way to fix Glimmer's teleporting problems. It was understandable that after everything they had endured in the first one's ruins only to come up empty, to then have an answer to their problem just show up out of nowhere was quite a lot to take in.

"Come again?" Catra asked, her head tilted to the side as if not having understood the mouseling woman.

"I said..I.Can.Help.Your.Friend.Glimmer." the small woman reiterated slowly annunciating every syllable as if to annoy them.

"Yin don't troll my daughter please." Cyra shook her head and sighed.

"Oh very well.." Yin smirked. "Anyway for my plan to work Glimmer will need to be adjacent to her runestone. Once she is I can repair the damage."

*What are we waiting for, let's go!" Adora shouted and turned to go get her friends.

"Adora…" Catra groaned. "It is evening, the Whispering Woods are far more active at night, and I doubt the queen of Brightmoon will want us barging into the castle at midnight I think Glitter can wait one night to get her powers back"

"I have already given Glimmer a necklace that will nullify the "glitches'' as she put it." Yin continued. "She still will be unable to teleport but her pain has been so you may relax She-ra. Besides it will take until morning for me to have the ritual necessary to heal her ready so you are in no rush."

"Not to mention we already have important plans for this particular night." Cyra added with a smirk. "After all it is the first full moon since your arrival my daughter."

Catra's eyes lit up in recognition of what her mother ment. " Wait seriously we're doing that tonight?!" Once more the princess could not contain her excited purrs.

"Oh has she not gone through that yet Cyra? The horde did not teach her?" Yin asked, eyeing the instinct controlled Magicat.

"From what she has told me she was unaware of her species name until she returned.. so I would have to believe no." Cyra replied. "Go gather your sister and friends Catra this is an event that should be witnessed by loved ones."

Catra did not need to be asked twice, she was already scampering down the halls on all fours to go collect everyone leaving Adora as stunned in the throne room over what she just saw. The blonde turned to the queen and saw her cyan eyes boarring right into her soul.

"Now while she is busy we can discuss what you pulled tonight.." Cyra glared sternly. "What were you thinking running off into the Whispering Woods like that? If Catra had not noticed you leaving you would have caused a panic."

"I uh I was just.." Adora kept tripping over her words trying to find some way to excuse her clearly reckless behavior. "I needed to check on something to see if I could find a way to heal Glimmer.."

Cyra sighed in irritation. "And your reasoning for not telling us where you were going? Adora you are literally one of the first delegates to come to Halfmoon in over a decade, do you have any idea how much trouble it would have caused both my kingdom and Brightmoon if you just disappeared and no one knew what happened to you?!"

"I'm She-ra if someone is hurt I need to help them!" Adora shouted. "If I can't, what good am I…?" The ex-horde soldier looked down as if asking such a thing was worthy of punishment.

"Adora…" The queen's voice softened. "From what my daughter has told me of you, you are strong willed and will always do your best, however it is obvious you have trouble letting people help you. It may not be my place to scold you but rest assured, I WILL be informing Angela of your foolish endeavor tonight.

Adora let out a small whine in a mix of frustration and guilt. She knew full well Angela would not be pleased.

"What exactly is Cat so excited about for tonight anyway?" Adora asked, hoping to both sate her curiosity and change the subject. "You said something about a full moon?"

Cyra just smiled in a sweet moment of nostalgia and looked contently out into the distance.

"I believe it would be better for you to wait and see." Cyra snickered as Adora groaned and huffed. At that moment Cyra could easily see why her eldest had been so fond of this girl all through her life, she was a precious dork. "Now come with I am certain Catra has corralled everyone by the gate, we should not keep her waiting."

With that decree Queen Cyra walked out of the castle towards the city gate with Adora in tow. As they crossed into view of the gate Adora did indeed notice a fairly substantial party gathered around waiting for them. Unsurprisingly Adora saw Leondus Scorpia Entrapta, and Kaita all directly next to Catra. She was somewhat surprised to see Bow and Glimmer, but she figured that made enough sense Bow could be anyone's friend in a moment as for Glimmer she supposed learning they used to be friends before the Horde might have been a factor otherwise whatever this was Catra just wanted to rub it in Glimmer's face. Adora stifled a small laugh at the thought and continued to look over the crowd.

Among the crowd were a handful of magicats. A few of them Adora recognized but most she did not. There were the two attendant twins Misae and Saiya she guessed were her personal maids (she remembered Glimmer having some of those and it weirded her out for the first few days in Brightmoon that someone's job was to basically to do stuff for you). Next to them was a big Magicat in robes she had no recollection of seeing in the castle, and next to him was General Pumgatha and another Magicat her age with many features similar to the General.

"There you are!" Catra's voice yelled out over the crowd and it demanded Adora's full attention. "Guessing mom talked your ear off about being an idiot?" Catra laughed and approached Adora.

" Why is SHE invited…" Kaita hissed glaring (super cutely) at Adora. " This is only supposed to be people you can trust sis. And she-"

"Enough Kaita..!" Cyra. Interrupted the kit by grabbing her by the scruff. "Sorry about this She-ra I swear she normally is not this prickly."

"Moooom she hurt big sis!!" The kitten whined paralyzed by the hold.

"Kaita." Catra put her hand on her little sister's head and began to softly pet her mane earning a small purr from the younger princess. " Both Adora and I hurt each other a lot, she hurt me by leaving and I hurt her by choosing not to go with her."

Adora got closer to the kitten and raised out a hand to scratch under her ear. Kaita was ready to hiss or bite but the moment Adora's fingers began scratching all hostility immediately melted away.

"Really we are both at fault for what happened." Adora continued. "Talking out your feelings wasn't a thing in The Horde, we both ended up saying and doing things because we assumed we knew how the other felt. But we are trying to make up for it."

"And let's not forget Shadow Weaver's mind crap pitting us against each other." Catra added.

"She must have feared how powerful you two would be," Cyra said as she realized Kaita who had since calmed down. "I'd wager if the two of you were able grasp what she was doing she would have had no power over you and she knew you would defeat her."

"Honestly that sounds right.." Adora groaned. "Ugh how did you put up with me being such a moron?!" She looked at Catra for an answer.

"Woah finally admitted it on your own?" Catra laughed earning a playful shove. "Really it's because you were my friend." And because I love you Catra's mind shouted.

"..Fiiiiine she is allowed to join us." Kaita announced.

"Not really your call to make Kai." Catra stuck her tongue out and ruffled Kaitast hair, the latter letting out an adorable huff "But thanks for the vote of confidence."

Adora smiles and knelt down to be at eye level with the magikitten princess. " Thank you for giving me this chance, princess Kaita. I won't disappoint you."

"...Your welcome… so um.. more ear scratches?" Kaita asked meekly and the crowd stifled their laughter.

"Okay everyone settle down.." Leondus decreed with a loud tap of his sword on the ground. "The full moon rises , it is time to go topside." Murmurs of acknowledgement riand out and the party begin to march to the surface with an ecstatic Catra leading them all.

They were all led into a large open grove of the Whispering Woods. The full moon's light shone down across the vale and with the surrounding trees giving of the appearance of a circle it created a natural spotlight. Cyra pulled Catra aside and the queen began to mark the girl in tribal runes of a silver paint.

"I had long since accepted I would never get to do this with you Catra." Cyra smiled. " It is many years late but I am so happy I have the chance now.." Once Cyra was happy with her work and gave the princess a nod and allowed her to walk into the lunar spotlight her eyes brimming with pride.

Leondus took the stage and began to speak. " We are all blessed to witness this moment that not too long ago we believed would never come. Our eldest princess has returned and we join her today in her belated coming of age ceremony!"

Roars and cheers resounded through the onlookers as Catra was now directly in the center of the moonlight. The dazzling display was causing Adora to blush and her brain to stop working as Catra bathing in the pale moonlight was all she could manage to think about.

"Now Princess Catra. "Leondus shouted out. "Allow the moon's power to flow through you, take it in let it guide you and allow it to release the power you hold deep inside!"

Catra closed her eyes and focused. She felt it, this powerful primal energy flowing into her through the silver runes. It felt wild, free, happy, everything she was stripped of growing up. This power was raising and begging to be released. Catra took a moment to center herself and willed the power on.

Catra felt urges she had learned to repress start to bubble to the surface. Urges Shadow Weaver tried to beat out of her, but now there was no Shadow Weaver and she allowed the instincts to take hold.

The Magicat's body began to glow and morph hands changed to paws, the face elongated, and she grew in size to that of a mighty beast. She now resembled a large tan big cat, her stripes reminded visible and hugged her form in their proper places, and her fangs and claws felt stronger than ever.

In an instant Catra felt all her fears and inhibitions dissolve leaving only joyous wonder and freedom. She had never felt so alive in her entire life. She took in a deep breath and let out a mighty roar.

As if the roar was a signal all of the Magicat's began to shift as well rangeimg from cubs no bigger than house cats to large cats upwards of 9 feet tall. They all circled around thier newly shifted princess as if to fully welcome her into the pride.

The 5 non-magicats on the other hand were stunned in varying degrees of awe and shock. Entrapta just looked excited to see all the new data she could collect on the Magicat species. Bow and Scorpia we just gushing in unison over how magestic the scene was. Glimmer floored and was actually a little shake. By the roar but smiled with tears that her lost friend got to experience this. As for Adora her minds was lost long ago and was just gapeing in awe at Catra on her wild new form.

As the energy built up inside of Catra she felt instincts stronger then ever before and knew only one thing. She needed to run around. She rushed forward in a full sprint already understanding how to manuver in this new bulkier body. As she looked to.her sides she noticed she was flanked by the beast modes of her friends and family, not trying to stop her, no, all of them were running with her, urgeing her to see the run through to the end.

She lept, pounced ran and spun all over the clearing until every last bit of her energy was expended. Once she was truly exhausted Catra found herself reverting back to normal with the biggest smile on her face and began to laugh. At that point Catra found herself being tackled into a hug.

"You were amazing! Why didn't you tell me you could do that!" Adora laughed holding her tightly.

"Eh only learned about it last week and your face was too good to as up." Catra teased.

It was not soon after before some one yelled catpile and Catra was pinned and hugged by everyone in attendence. It was wired, it was emberassing, but she had to admit it made her happy.

Chapter Text

The night waned on and soon it was time for everyone to return to their homes. Kaita was barely able to keep her eyes open and ended up being carried back to the castle in her big sisters arms. Adora looked at how protective and gentle Catra was with the kit, and it made her feel a soft fluttering in her stomach.

"Scorp you mind getting everyone back to their rooms?" Catra asked her friend whilst petting the blond kitten's mane. "I think Kaita and I are having a sleepover." Kaita cuddled closer to her big sister as she drifted In and out of sleep to the coos and daaaws of all present company.

"No problem wildcat " Scorpia saluted and gushed at the sleepy magikitten.

Adora mused at the thought of a sleepover remembering one of the good memories from her time in the horde with Catra. They would stay up all night playing pranks, telling secrets, talking about….stuff. it was something she missed greatly, Bow and Glimmer had tried their best to facilitate this desire of hers while she enjoyed sleepovers with her friends it wasn't the same.

The six began the walk back to their rooms for the night When Scorpia began to speak. "Hey I hope you guys don't mind, The Scorpioni began." But Entrapta kinda smoked out our room earlier today, And Queen Cyra told us to bunk with you tonight. "

"It turns out that trying to cook tiny Fish stakes in a makeshift toaster oven is a fire hazard." Entrapta preemptively answered the question she knew was coming. "But now we get a social experiment out of the failure so the test had benefits!'

Catra was about to vere off to her own room when Adora rushed ahead of her the new information about sleeping arrangements having given her an idea.

"W-wait Catra." The blonde sputtered trying and failing to look composed. "since Entrapta and Scorpia are already going to be joining us ..why don't you and Kaita come too? That way we all have one big sleepover!

Catra stopped and turned her gaze over to the blond idiot. "If I am understanding you correctly Adora." Catra said coyly. "You're asking me to instead of taking my baby sister to my own lavish room to sleep I should instead follow all of you to an overpopulated guest room filled with annoying people?"

"...Yes?" Adora hesitantly responded giving her friend a sheepish smile.

"Yeah alright." The princess shrugged.

Catra's stern face broke into a smile and progressed into laughter. She was soon joined in her impromptu laugh by Adora, then Scorpia until soon the full group was chuckling not really understanding why as they walked to the guest room.

The group got into the room and began working on the sleeping arrangements. Scorpia had managed to salvage the mattresses from her and Entrapta's room and had pushed them together on the floor making a long soft square that fit the two of them. Glimmer and Bow decided to take one of the two remaining beds and bunk together. Adora swore she saw a wink from the two as it left the other bed for her and Catra. (and Kaita who was still snugly attached to her big sister.)

"Want the left side or right?" Adora asked trying her best not to sound awkward.. and failed.

"With how you sleep fight?" Catra shook her head and curled up at the foot of the bed cradling Kaita her own body surrounding and protecting the sleeping magikitten.

"Just put a blanket over us and we will be fine." Catra yawned as all of the day's exhaustion hit her at once and she was out.

Adora was silent for a moment taking in the familiar weight of Catra on her legs not having fully realized until that moment how much she missed the feeling. She would then move one of the blankets over the sleeping princesses and was rewarded with the sound of soft purring.

Adora smiled and soon dozed off herself into the most relaxed slumber she had since joining the rebellion.

"Come on you two wake up!" The shrill voice of Glimmer hollard rousing the once again best friends from their slumber.

The morning came quicker than either Catra or Adora would have liked. Both were still fairly tired after their day in the temple and staying up for the Ritual. However they were both quickly reminded of Glimmer's impatience as both were smacked in the face with pillows. A move Glimmer would soon regret.

"Oh...so that's how you want to play Glim Glim?" Catra said ominously grabbing a pillow in her claws.

"The Horde didn't teach us much in the way of fun but pillow fights were a brand of late night combat training." Adora added as she grabbed he own pillow with a competitive spark in her eyes

By the time the pillow war had come to a close the guest room was litres with feathers from the casualties. No pillow survived the onslaught of strikes each combatant used in their attempts to win the fight and be proclaimed champion. In the end however only one remained standing over the pile of exhausted warriors.

Bow was the first to yield. He may have had experience in pillow wars with Glimmer; he was not prepared for the roughness that the Horde had instilled into Scorpia Adora and Catra. All it took was a few hits from each of them to break his resolve and the Archer put up his hands in defeat.

Entrapta fell soon after Bow had given up. While she was formidable, being armed with a pillow in each pigtail and holding a third on her hands she looked primed to place high if not win. However her lack of social interactions showed when it was clear she did not understand the concept of a pillow fight and just swung the pillows around herself in a mini tornado of hair and feathers far away from anyone else. She toppled herself over and claimed the social experiment enjoyable before wandering off to do her own thing leaving the rest of the combatants somewhat confused.

The third to be taken out was Glimmer. She put up a good fight but it quickly became obvious that her normal tactic for pillow fighting was to use her teleports to evade and sneak attack her opponents. There were many points in the battle she had attempted to do so on reflex only to glitch and be smacked with her defenses down. After she took a particularly nasty hit from Scorpia which led to her being smacked off out of jump attack into a wall due to the glitching Glimmer quit right there.

Scorpia for her part apologized profusely and quit as well leaving Catra and Adora facing each other. The revelations in the crystal castle had helped the two start to reforge their bond but both still had a lot of hurt feelings and aggression to work out, and what better way than to beat each other up with pillows.

Both girls swang the pillows at each other..
They each let out a warcry with whatever energy they had left at this early hour inadvertently waking most of the castle staff in the process.

Catra hit first but her successive attacks did little against Adora who retaliated with a heavy sweep. This was well telegraphed and Catra managed to dodge out of the way enough to avoid the brunt of the swing. By the end both girls were out of breath and looking ready to drop when a hidden fighter decided to make herself known, smacking both of them in the back of the heads causing them both to topple in exhaustion.

"I am the pillow fight champion!" Kaita giggled sitting atop the heaving pile of Catra and Adora. The little sneak had pretended to be asleep the whole fight and waited for the perfect opportunity to seize victory.

"I can't believe you conned us.." Catra said with shock before grappling the little magikitten in a hug. "I'm so proud of you!"

"Only you would be proud of a kid cheating to win" Adora scoffed and shook her head, but she could not help but smile at how Catra congratulated her baby sister.

"Use anything at your disposal to achieve victory." Catra countered. " The Horde was awful but it did teach us practical battle strategies…. I guess Brightmoon made you soft~." The Magicat Princess smirked.

"HEY!" Glimmer shouted indignantly at the comment.

"Now now no need to throw shade at Brightmoons battle tactics.." Cyra replied from the doorway having come to collect everyone for the journey.

"Thank you queen Cyra." Glimmer sighed.

"There will be enough time for that once we see Angela." Cyra continued causing a groan from Glimmer and a laugh from both Catra and Kaitah with Adora eventually joining in.

Once everyone settled down and ate a quick breakfast it was time. In ten years no magicat had left the territory of Halfmoon. Had it not been for the return of Catra they would still be in seclusion. many magicats were at the gate to see the group off, for It was time for the journey to Brightmoon to begin.

Chapter Text

"How long of a walk was it for you guys?" Scorpia asked as she fiddled with her backpack of supplies.

"Um about 6 hours… why? Bow questioned only to be met with knowing smiles.

"You kids are in for a treat then." Cyra smirked.

The Magicat Queen then ran forward before leaping into a front flip and landing in her beast mode. The majesty of last night's ceramony had not worn off on the three and they were once again mesmerized by the grace power and beauty of the form.

"So regal!" Bow gushed his eyes sparkling. The Archer barely managed to contain himself from petting the queens fur.

"I better look regal." The big cat snarked causing Bow Adora and Glimmer all to jump back in surprise having not heared a Magicat speak in their beast modes beforehand.

Adora could hear Catra's unique laugh grow behind her. She turned to see her friend dressed in surprising casual clothing. She still wore her tiara mask, a golden yellow shirt, her typical burgndy tights mixed with a new belt with a circle shaped buckle that had the image of the head of a black beast mode Magicat roaring infront of a red background, and tying the look together was a black leather jacket with then word "Wildcat" Embroidered on the back in gold font. Adora could do nothing but stare her mouth agape at the sight.

"Can always count on you to look like a dummy ey Adora?" Catra laughed as she sauntered over to the group. "Now let's get moving." Catra closed her eyes and focused on transforming. She recalled how it felt to do so last night and began to shape shift.

When she opened her eyes again Catra had expected to see the stunned faces of her friends, that was not the case. Instead she only saw ankles.

"What in the-" Catra began before Bow squealed.

"She's a tiny kitten that's so cute!!" Bow squaled and shook his hands in excitement.

Catra did her best to get a look at herself and indeed something went wrong. Catra had turned herself into a small tabby cat.

"What the F-reak happened!" Catra shouted but caught herself from swearing infront of her mother. "Why am I so small? Did I mess it up?"

"No you did not mess up your transformation." Cyra chuckled. "You are just stunted."

Catra gave her mother a confused look not understanding what she meant. "Stunted?" She asked.

"I'm sure you noticed someone as young as Kaita was able to shift." Cyra explained. "You have 6 years worth of training that you have missed out on and from what I could gather the Horde didn't even try to have you tap into your magic reserve.

Catra nodded. She hadn't even considered trying to do magic in the Horde, hell it probably would have gotten her exiled. Which in retrospect probably would have had her find her people sooner..go figure.

"So right now it is like you are using a muscle you have neglected to use and train all your life, it's going to start out weak untill you get more practice with your magic pool." The Magicat Queen concluded.

Catra winced and her little kitten ears fell flat hearing how much the horde screwed her over. She could have been an awesome caster right now but due to Shadow Weaver's A+ Parenting she was as inept as a toddler in that regard.

'Now then." Cyra looked to the envoys and motion to her back. " You three take my kitten and climb onto my back."

Not having to be told twice Adora pickled up Catra under her from legs and hopped onto the queens back. Glimmer and Bow laughed at how ever she was but soon joined her.

" Wait a minute what about them?" Glimmer asked motioning two Scorpia and Entrapta.

"Hmm?, Oh we have our own transportation." Entrapta answered before whistling.

Glimmer then heared the sound of metal smashing into the land and the famillier sight of a horde bot.

"Friends meet Emily I took her from the Fright Zone." Entrapta smiled and pet the machine.

In the time since arriving in Halfmoon Emily had gone under some modifications. The Horde bot now sported cat ears, a mechanical tail, and looked to have been painted to look like a Magicat with the artistic abilities of children.

"Emily transpot mode please" Entrapta called out to the bot who's lights blinked in confermation.

Emily began to transform and ended up looking something like a Magicat styled speeder with booster engines. The Best Friend Squad was left speachless at the sight, unable to do more then gawk at the incredible piece of tech that was Emily.

"Enough gawking." Catra grumble still pissed off at being a kitten. "You three hop onto my mother's back and let's get going".

The three got themselves situated on Cyra's back. Catra started to walk to the other transport, but before she could make her way over to Emily Adora picked her up and held her kitten form like a little baby.

"Hey what gives?!" Catra struggled in Adora's arms.

"You think I'm going to miss a chance like this?" Adora scoffed and cradled the fighting kitten close.

Glimmer stifled a laugh while Bow beamed at the adorable display. Both had tried on many occasions to help Adora relax but it was to little or no success, Mysticore was a lesson in futility, and the Princess Prom lead to Adora at the most defeated they had ever seen her. In all of Adora's time in Brightmoon the princess and master archer had never seen thier friend as happy and relaxed as she was at this moment holding Catra.

Once Emily was loaded up with everyones luggage and everyone had boarded thier modes of transportation it was time to go. Cyra went off into a dash startling her unaccustomed passengers with a Magicat's full speed. Bow screamed and squeezed his eyes shut afraid of how fast they were going. Glimmer was the complete opposite having cheered and screamed in excitement treating the whole thing like some sort of ride from her childhood she had forgotten the thrill of.

Adora was nearly oblivious to the speed as she was focusing on Catra in her arms. After her defection she feared she would never be able to hold Catra in her arms again. Even after thier heart to heart in the temple and the rekindling of thier friendship Adora still feared she could end up loosing her again and held onto the transformed kitten tight as if at any moment Catra would be gone.

As for Catra all she could see was Adora's smiling face and her ponytail blowing in the wind. Catra's face went flush looking at her and right now the Magicat was thankful she could blame any blush on the emberasment of being held. If she were to be honest she wouldn't.be able to say she disliked the feeling of Adora holding her close like she was special, though she would never admit it to anyone and deny any accusations.

Cyra raced across the Whispering Woods with insurmountable grace and agility. Magicats knew the woods well and we're not easily made lost by the twists and turns of the underbrush. What took the best friend squad six hours to accomplish Cyra was able to do so in under one (As could Emily following her movements). Before the party now we're the gates of Brightmoon.

"Okay last stop everybody off the queen." Cyra said tilting to the side dropping the best friend squad on thier butts. "And sunspot are you going to stay in your beast mode the entire trip?"

"I'm getting Adora to ferry me around instead of walking? Sounds like a good deal to me." Catra replied still in Adora's arms.

"Wow sis you can be so lazy~." Taunted a voice coming from Queen Cyra's mane. The mane rattled a bit and out poped Kaita with the proudest smile on her face. "So this is what Brightmoon looks like."

"Kaita!?" Both Cyra and Catra exclaimed in shock.

"Present!" The young magikitten giggled.

"What are you doing here young lady!" Cyra fumed. The queen was furious her youngest would dare stow herself away and sneak on this outing.

"Moooom I have been cooped up in Halfmoon my entire life." Kaita whined. "And you were bringing big sis on an adventure outside the city… it's not fair only she can go.."

"She is 16 you are 12!" Cyra yelled somewhat loudly and ended up drawing the attention of the near by guards who were away from thier post.

"Halt.. who.. goes… there?..." One of the guards questioned slowly as the words fell out of thier mouth slower and less defined by the second as Cyra reverted to her regular state causing the other guard to elbow the first on the side.

"Do you know nothing? That is Cyra II Queen of Halfmoon!" The second spoke in a loud whisper causing a small smirk to appear on the Magicat Queen's face. "Apologise your highness, we have not seen you or any of your people that on a decade, some of the newer recruits seem to have been slacking on their reading. Please forgive my associate's impertinence."

"And apparently we also need to reeducate our guards in what thier PRINCESS and She-Ra look like!" Glimmer huffed and glared at the two who shrank back under the Brightmoon scion's gaze.

"Sorry princess Glimmer!" The first guard stood at attention and started sputtering out excuses. "I was too focused on The Queen and did not n-notice you with her ma'am!"

"Hey now this has to be a crazy event for everyday guards." Scorpia chimed in with a smile. "You guys are doing great! Keep up the guarding!"

The Guard looked to eachother both certain this was Force Captain Scorpia of the Horde and also that they thought they had seen the beloved to be deceased princess Entrapta riding on the strange cat vehicle with her, but with everything else going on at the.moment the two just shrugged it off and thanked the scorpioni for her kind words.

"Now if you would not mind opening the gates?" Cyra asked coyly. "I have a meeting with Angella and I would rather not keep her waiting.

Catra just watched with amusement in her kitten form as these two guards got incredibly panicked and flustered by her friends and mother. In all her plans of conquering Brightmoon never would she have expected the main gates to open for her willingly, yet her she was entering the heart of the allience not as a subjugator but as a guest. All Catra could think right now were four words...

"How in the fuck.."

Chapter Text

What in the fuck was right. Brightmoon, the Crown Jewel and Capital of the Alliance. Catra had always known she would find herself here but she always thought it would be as it's conqueror. Never did she imagine she would be entering the city in the form of a kitten, held by her former-former best friend, surrounded by friends and family, on a diplomatic mission as a Princess. Granted up until a few weeks ago Catra wouldn't have even considered herself having friends let alone a family, and most of all would have simultaneously both laughed and clawed the eyes out of the person who dared to compare her to a princess, but here she was.

"Life is so weird." The princess turned kitten grumbled to herself in Adora's hold.

Brightmoon itself was bright….Catra had expected as much with the name but due to growing up in the Fright Zone she couldn't have fathomed the quantity of lights and sheen emanating from the city.

"I guess it's called Brightmoon for a reason." Catra winced, as the overload of pastels and shine began to hurt her eyes.

"Yes, quite a sight to behold." Cyra smiled fondly at the city as if seeing an old friend for the first time in ages. "Now come, we mustn't keep Angie waiting. She may be immortal but the woman can be so impatient."

The Brightmoon crown princess froze In place and turned to Cyra. "Come again?" Glimmer asked. "Did you just say my mother was... impatient?"

"Oh yes, she was such a hothead growing up." Cyra laughed. "We used to get into all sorts of trouble, I think I'm still banned from the Mysticore library after the rune incident." The queen gave a mirthful sigh reminiscing of her childhood.

Glimmer on the other hand looked ready to have an aneurysm from the inability to conceive of her mother ever being like her. All of her life her mother had been nothing less than a prim and proper ruler. Angela was always trying to get her to act more like a typical princess and 'to set a good example for the people.' and her Queen Cyra was talking like Angela was a troublemaker. The princess shook her head and led the way to the castle but was determined to get all the dirt she could on her mother from Cyra's stories.

As they all walked through the streets and markets of Brightmoon it became a challenge to keep Scorpia from gushing over every little thing. Every stall was filled with many vibrantly colored items. Scorpioni princess was quickly enraptured by how pretty everything was and started to go stall to stall checking out all the goods accidentally intimidating the shopkeepers with her presence and excitable personality. It took Bow.and Glimmer calmed the merchants down enough for Scorpia to start purchasing trinkets all the while Catra slumped in Adora's arms looking distastefully over all the light and gaudy colors of the trinkets Scorpia had bought.

"You can shop later guys." Glimmer exagsterbated. "I understand the urge to experience the city and I will be dragging you around all the sights later but we really need to go!"

No one could really blame the girl for wanting to hasten the trip. She had been unable to use her powers for weeks without painful glitches and she felt she was just moments away from having that rectified. With a little more coaxing the party marched onwards to the heart of the rebellion, Castle Brightmoon.

"Okay now before we go in." Glimmer warned. " I think it would be best for Entrapta and Scorpia to wait outside for the moment."

"What? Why!?" Catra gasped. She agreed to meet with Queen Angela, but she had assumed she would have Scorpia and Entrapta at her back. This felt as though her shields were being forcibly ripped away from her leaving the Magicat vulnerable and alone under the gaze of the high monarch.

"Look" Glimmer continued to explain her reasoning for this. "This whole thing is crazy enough with just you alone Catra, so we may want to ease my mom in with everything. Bow would you please stay back with them you know to make sure no one gets into trouble?"

The archer nodded and with Glimmer's command the doors to the palace swung open and everyone was greater with the pinks and golds of the castle's interior. The colors alone were causing Catra anxiety. Everything was so bright and pastel a far cry from the industrial looks of the Fright Zone or the muted yet warm colors of Halfmoon she was familiar with. All of this was was too much for her right now she could tell her heart racing in her chest.

"Ah home, sweet home." Glimmer sighed, taking in a deep breath completely oblivious to Catra's plight. Glimmer brought the party to the throne room; she opened the doors only to reveal Spinnerella waiting for them drinking tea.

"Ah there you are." The calm soothing voice of Spinnarella spoke from inside . "Welcome back"

"Princess Spinnarella is that you?" Cyra smiled. "Oh I haven't seen you since the wedding! look how much you have grown!"

"Queen Cyra." Spinnarella politely gave a quick bow. " I heard you would be coming. It is so nice to see you again."

"And I take it you are Cyra III?" The wind princess said with a gentle smile looking over to the small tabby wrapped in Adora's arms.

Catra quietly nodded, feeling a little anxious with this princess she had never met being up on her face.

"Big sis isn't too good at beast mode yet" Kaita said, popping out of the Magicat Queen's mane. Which caused the party to all shout her name in shock, Adora dropping Catra in surprise.

"What are you doing here young lady!' Cyra groaned.

"I wanted to see Brightmoon too!'' Kaita answered not moving from.her mane nest. "It's not fair, everyone else got to leave the city!"

"Kaita.. I get wanting to see the world, trust me I do..." Glimmer started. "But you're 12."

"And there is a war going on." Bow continued. "And after what happened with your sister, your mom just wanted to keep you safe."

"Spinny meet my youngest...Kaita" Cyra pinched her nose introducing the little ball of energy.

Spinnarella let out a small chuckle at the magikitten and proceeded to pet her ears. "It's nice to meet you Kaita but I must agree with your mother it is quite dangerous outside of the kingdoms the horde while withdrawn at the moment is a vicious foe."

"As for your audience with Queen Angela, " Spinnarella turned to Glimmer." You will need to wait a little while longer. Princess Yin arrived earlier this day and needed both Angela and Netossa to help with whatever ritual she needed to set up. It has taken a few hours but I was told they were almost done. I would wager 10-20 more minutes."

The time dragged on at a slow crawl each second feeling like an eternity for the bored and apprehensive group. After a good 45 minutes of waiting the two princesses and queen arrived in the throne room in a flash of light.

"Okay the ritual sight Is all set for you Princess Glimmer." Yin announced to the half-celestial whilst sat a top Angela's shoulder. "And thank you so much for your assistance Netossa."

"Just glad to help." Netossa chimed in with a stretch and pecked Spinnarella on the cheek. Adora and Kaita both quickly looked away at the mushiness.

Angela then stood tall gazing over at Cyra. "Queen Cyra Cheetara D'rilluth II, it is so wonderful to see you again."

"Likewise Queen Angela Celestia Brightmoon." Cyra replied.

Both stared at each other for a long few seconds, the tension so thick Adora's sword wouldn't be able to cut it. The silence continued until Adora and Glimmer both feared something was wrong. Suddenly both rulers bursted into laughter and hugged one another.

"I missed you so much my old friend!" Angella laughed before noticing the golden fluff that was Kaita. "And who is this kitten?"

"Hi I'm Kaita. I hid In mom's mane to see Brightmoon! " Kaita giggled and jumped out of her mother's hair and on to Angela where she nuzzled herself against the angel.

"Ah she's a D'rilluth alright. Already getting into trouble and looking adorable doing so." Angela smirked.

"What you call trouble we call adventure," Cyra barbed back. " But your correct, she IS in trouble for disobeying both mine and Leo's rules~." The magikitten wilted a bit at the promise of punishment.

"But without further adieu it's time for you to see my first born back where she belon- adora where is she?" Cyra asked, noticing the lack of tabby catra on Adora's person.

"I um I don't know she was here before I let her go." Adora panicked, looking around to see Catra was indeed nowhere to be seen.

"Did, did she DITCH the meeting?!" Glimmer fumed in outrage at the rudeness and nerve it would take to stand up a queen let alone her mother.

As everyone began their search for the once again missing Magicat princes a guard ran into the room out of breath.

"My queen!" The messenger panted. " C-confermed Force Captain spotted In the training grounds! We believe it to be the Prom Bomber!"

"I'm sorry...the what?" Asked the Magicat Queen. Adora and Glimmer both winced. As Cyra looked at them clearly waiting for some withheld information.

______

Catra sighed in relief as she jumped along the roofs of Brightmoon having reverted to her normal form. She agreed to help bring Glim-Glim back home to recharge but she could not bring herself to face Angela right now.

"Gotta remember to thank Kaita later for the distraction." She said to herself as she basked in the sun's warm glow looking down on the etherians going about their days.

Catra had to admit that she did see a lot of Halfmoon on how Brightmoon operated. At Least when it came to how commerce worked. A smile crept onto the Princess's face as she remembered how bad she was at bartering when she first arrived. Images of herself getting frustrated at trying to make change after somehow getting a good deal and just throwing the bag of coins in the merchant's face and just ran off with the items she wanted.

She then turned her head over to the other side of Brightmoon to see the army barracks, and in the barracks courtyard the soldiers of Brightmoon were running drills. Curiosity got the better of the Magicat and she gracefully leaped her way closer to the training grounds to get a look at how Brightmoon prepared it's soldiers for war.

After watching the sets for a few minutes Catra was perturbed to say the least. The armies of the rebellion were being trained like junior horde cadets. Even with her mother having begun to train her by Magicat standards which to be fair did help her understand that what the horde had put it's recruits through was considered torturous to the rest of the world. Unlike the Magicat training which was deceptively potent in its simplicity, what these Etherians were practicing would have been considered a light warm up for the Horde. The Magicat princess sighed taking in the display, the gap in combat prowess between the two warring factions was astronomical.

Catra felt a deep pit sink into her stomach as she realized the sad truth of the rebellion. If it was not for the Princesses and their magic, as well as Adora being She-Ra the Horde would have wiped the Alliance out ages ago. If the rebellion was going to have any hope of winning this way the first thing she would need to address to the queen would be the training regimes.

"Alright men good job today!" A voice called from below addressing the training soldier pulled Catra from her thoughts. This soldier's armor was more decorated then the other Catra assumed she was the equivalent to a Force Captain, and if the information the horde had was correct her name was Juliet. "Keep up like this and we will have the Horde running back to the Fright Zone!"

Catra could not tell if she was serious or just trying to boost morale but either way that was Catra's breaking point on the subject.

"Are you serious!?" Catra shouted at the Captain giving herself away earnings gasps from the training soldiers but she was not thinking about that at the moment. The horrendous display she had witnessed had forced her to confront the instructor. "If that is what you call good then just surrender the capital to the horde and stop wasting everyone's time fighting."

"I mean really." Catra continued her rant unabated. "What your practicing is child's play to the Horde even Kyle could defeat you if this is the extent of your training, and he's KYLE!!!" It was only now Catra realized her hood flown back during her rant allowing the soldiers yo see her very distinct face

"I recognize you!" A soldier waved their spear in her direction. "Your the force captain who bombed the princess prom!"

'well shit..' Catra thought to herself.knowing all too well where this was heading.

All of the soldiers started clamoring at the revelation and readied their weapons to attack.

"A Horde soldier?"'

"In Brightmoon?!"

"Don't let her get away!'

Catra was charged by eight of the well armed and armored Brightmoon soldiers at once. Each of them were fighting fit and spurned by the thought of making Catra pay for her war crimes. Meanwhile Catra was unarmed, had no back up and wasn't even wearing her basic combat uniform, It truly was a one sided battle… the soldiers never stood a chance.

The skirmish began with the first four lunging at Catra in a standard converging line charge. Using her superior flexibility and agility Catra tilted back allowing the spears to pass over her and snap as they all hit each other. The Magicat didn't give her attackers any room to breathe and performed a well timed leg sweep coupled with their broken momentum to topple the four soldiers and left back ready for the next wave.

The other four after seeing their comrades bested in a matter of seconds took a ranged stance and launched their spears like javelins at the force captain. Catra smirked and weaved her way around the oncoming spears raven catching one mid launch. Not to be dissuaded, the remaining four grabbed their bows and let loose a string of arrows. Catra readied herself and using the spear as a makeshift training staff deflected all the arrows.

"Not a bad warm-up." Catra snarked. "Now it's my turn." The ex-horde soldier lunged at the Brightmoon guards as if it were an old training simulation and quite handedly knocked each one out cold with only a few hits of the spear.

Catra took a moment to pay herself on the back fort her performance when with a swivel of an ear she heard the next attack coming. Juliet charged at the Magicat with her blade going for the head. Catra ducked in time to avoid the slash; her spear was rendered useless from the cut.

"You will not be escaping me Horde filth!" Juliet spat and went in for a flurry of strikes.

Unlike with the rest of the warriors Brightmoon had to offer, Catra found Juliet was actually a decent fighter. The Magicat found herself needing to actually try against the captain. There were many close calls but Catra managed to dodge long enough to wind Juliet, and seeing the opportunity present itself Catra unsheathed nher claws and sundered the blade.

"Had enough?" Catra gloated while panting out of breath from the legitimate work out Juliet gave her. " If the rest of these mooks were half as skilled as you maybe you wouldn't be getting your asses handed to you by the Horde."

Juliet glared at the gloating Magicat but before either of them could continue with the fight the large cat form of Cyra landed behind Catra snarling. Catra winced and slowly turned to the big cat knowing she was in for an earful. Juliet seeing an opening kept at Catra from behind. The Magicat had no time to dodge in her tired state and was pinned under the Brightmoon captain.

"I got you now Horde scum." Juliet said, holding Catra down. "You will pay for crimes against Etheria."

"Wait a moment.." Cyra spoke, giving Juliet a momentary bout of surprise. "Juliet is that you? It's' me Cyra!'

Juliet's confusion turned to shock as she took in the Magicat Queen's beast mode.

"Queen Cyra!' Juliet gasped. " How can this be? I haven't seen you in over a decade.'

"How do you think I feel?" The queen laughed. "The last time I saw you you were a fresh faced ensign with dreams of making sergeant. And from the look of things you achieved your goal."

"Surpassed it actually." Juliet answered. "You are looking at Brightmoon's Captain of the army." Said captain was beaming with pride at that statement.

"Well congratulations on that." Cyra smiles.

"Thank you Queen Cyra." Juliet bowed her head whilst still keeping Catra detained.``but how are you here? I thought the Magicats went into seclusion after what happened to your daughter."

"I am happy to say my child has been found." Cyra stated. "And I.brought her here to be reintroduced to Angela." she subtly looked at the pinned Catra who turned her head in embarrassment.

"Little Cy is in the city!?" Said the Captain letting out an excited squeak that Bow would have been proud of. "Oh you must let me see her she was so small the last time you brought her to Brightmoon, she was still latching onto you at the time."

"Well Seeing as you have her pinned at the moment…" the queen snarked coyly causing Juliet's eyes to widen. "Are you done harassing the guards dear?" Cyra moved her attention to her daughter.

"Please they had it coming." Catra rolled her eyes. "The training here sucks. And they thought they could beat the Horde with it! It was dumb." Catra looked away as Cyra shook her head.

"I can take care of this from here Captain." Cyra said to Juliet and approached the two.

Juliet relented and unpinned Catra and sighed. "I can't believe the Prom Bomber Is your daughter."

Catra's ears perked up at the name, clearly impressed that she got a title from her plan. The ears quickly flattened however when she got a disappointed look from her mother.

"Now then Catra." Cyra spoke ominously with a furrowed brow of annoyance . "It is time for your audience with Angela…'

Catra let out a small mewl as her mother closed in on her.

_____

Back at the castle the ritual to heal Glimmer was ready to begin. Glimmer was flown up to the Moonstone Chamber and placed on her recharging platform. Around her Glimmer noticed a large circle of connected runes made out of Netossa's Binding Energy magic.

"Okay Glimmer." She heard Yin say as she approached the magic circle. "Just lay down, close your eyes, and relax. Once you are ready I will begin with the ritual."

Glimmer nodded and proceeded to lay down on the platform. She took a deep breath to calm herself as she tried to prepare herself for whatever Yin was going to do.

"Okay we are ready to begin." The mousling princess confirmed. "Once I start you will start to feel drained and tired. This is normal, you are used to having the magic of the Moonstone sustaining your vitality and it is natural to feel exhausted while I temporarily remove the connection."

Glimmer's eyes shot open at that. " Woah woah woah woah woah remove the connection?!" The princess looked somewhat frightened. " I thought you were going to fix my powers, not remove them entirely!"

"Did you not even hear the word temporarily…" The mousling shook her head and continued to prep the runic circle.

"How would be best to explain this.." Yin murmured to herself before snapping her fingers, having decided on how to proceed with the explanation. "Think of yourself as a battery and the Moonstone as your charger." Yin began. "When you overextended your powers to free yourself from Shadow Weaver it was like jostling the charging port so the battery was no longer aligned but was still trying to charge up. The only way to fix this problem is to-"

"Remove the battery and place it back in!" Glimmer finished for her having realized where Yin was going with the analogy. Yin nodded and finished all the preparations as Glimmer got back into place.The mousling princess put her hands out in front of the magic circle and began her incantation.

"Break the bond of Princess and Rune. Tear the fabric of the Arcane Weave. Cleave the Stone from her Chosen Bloodline. Be Unattuned and Stop the Magic!"

Both the magic circle and the Moonstone began to glow as Yin uttered the spell. The glow also enveloped Glimmer who sparked red with the glitches once more.

The process was indeed draining as Yin warned her. As the ritual went on Glimmer felt all of her magic seeping out of her back to her stone leaving her feeling weaker and more tired by the second. On top of that her glitch started to go off again in response to the magic draining. It hurt but the pain was filling as more and more magic left her.

Yin continued to chant the spell picking up speed with each repetition. The room erupted in a bright surge of light and then, nothing. The spell was completed, the runes faded away, the Moonstone's glow dulled, and Glimmer laid there severed from her connection.

Glimmer groaned and struggled to open her eyes. The ritual left her absolutely drained and for the first time in years was too exhausted to even move. "I think it worked.." she croaked, slipping in and out of consciousness.

"Rest now Glimmer." Yin said, climbing up to the resting girl's forehead. "I will be back shortly with your mother to reattune you to the stone." With nothing more to say Yin left the princess to sleep and made her way back to the throne room where a quite adorable sight awaited her.

Catra felt humiliated. She wasn't new to the feeling, growing up in the Fright Zone she could easily list multiple times she felt her face burn in abject embarrassment. But all of them put together could not beat the humiliation she felt of being marched through the streets of Brightmoon to the castle with her scruff firmly grasped in the jaw of her transformed mother.

"Mom seriously I'm not going to run, this isn't necessary!" She groaned. The worst part of all of this was that being scruffed prevented her from moving anything below her neck so she was unable to even put her hands over her face to shield herself from the onlookers.

The march while only a few minutes felt like an eternity to the Magicat princess as her mother brought her back up to the throne room where everyone was waiting including Bow Scorpia and Entrapta who she assumed were introduced to the queen in her absence. The first person Catra saw was none other than the rebellion queen herself Angela. Catra could not deny that she was intimidated by her tall commanding appearance and had she not already been scruffed Catra was certain she may have been paralyzed on the spot.

"Ah so this the infamous force captain who bombed the princess inaugural ball..Catra was it?" The queen stated, causing Catra to wince. "I must say I was not expecting one so young when I first heard of your exploits but after seeing you up close I can safely say it makes sense.." the queen gave a small smirk that by the look on Adora and Bow's faces it was not normal. "Not an hour in my city and already causing a mass panic..she is definitely your child Cyra."

At that the Magicat Queen let go of Catra's scruff causing the ex-force captain to faceplant on the ground, and then she transformed back into her magicat form. " That's just the D'rilluth charm at work Angie." Cyra snarked.

"Well that was cute." Yin chuckled and made her presence known. "Anyways, Angela Glimmer is ready to be reattuned. I believe it would be best that you handle that part." The immortal queen nodded and thanked the mousling before flying off to the Moonstone.

With the introductions over everyone waiting for Glimmer to be back to full power Kaita did what any magikitten would do in this situation m. Annoy her big sister.

"Wow mom scruffed ya?" Kaita giggled and pounced onto her prone sister's back. "She must have been super mad you ran off to do that."

Instead of a verbal response the elder Magicat simply rolled into her back pinning the younger in place. This quickly devolved into the two sisters biting and pawing at each other whilst laughing. It wasn't long after that when Cyra decided to enter the fray and pounced onto her children.

Spinnarella and Netossa were both laughing and reminiscing of past times seeing magicats navy like this. Adora however just stood by and watched the scene unfold. She was unsure exactly what to do in this situation. She felt the urge to jump in herself and play fight alongside the D'rilluths but stopped herself not sure if she would be considered intruding on a family game.

If she was being honest with herself Adora was also somewhat envious that Catra had found her family, it wasn't that she wasn't happy for her gods no. It was just that she wished to have something similar herself. In the Horde they would both like to imagine what their families were like before they were taken, the two of them had thought up all manner of fantasies of their parents coming for them and taking them home and what home would look like. Adora felt somewhat guilty of wanting what Catra

Before Adora could think anymore on either subject there was a bright shimmer by the thrones and in a sparkling flash there stood Angela alongside a grinning Glimmer.

"It worked!" The Brightmoon Princess exclaimed in joy. "Oh man I will never take teleporting for granted ever again! How do you all manage walking everywhere?"

"That's great Glim!" Adora smiled. She felt as if a large weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

Bow then scoop both girls up into a celebratory best friend squad hug.

"Oh yay hugging I love hugs!" Scorpia blurted out wrapping everyone Including the queens, into one large group hug.

"Scorpia…" Catra grunted. "Remember that talk about personal space?"

"Oh right sorry wildcat." The Scorpioni said sheepishly and dropped everyone out of the hug.

Once everyone had settled down Angela insisted on a feast for the arrival time of the Magicat and recovery of the lost Princess. The food was much different from what Catra and Scorpia had encountered in Halfmoon, it was far more sweet and pastry based but the two along with Kaita were enraptured by the sweetness in the first bites.

"Slow down Catra." Adora laughed. "The food is not going to go anywhere."

"Oh you're one to talk Princess." Catra swallowed her meal and snarked." You are like a black hole when you eat.

"Catra that nickname doesn't really work anymore." Glimmer chided and rolled her eyes while enjoying the food.

"Nickname?" Both girls looked at her confused.

"You know, like sparkles or arrow boy." Glimmer responded. "Princess doesn't work anymore cause you know.. you are a Princess too~!"

"I know what a nickname is Sparkles." Catra narrowed her eyes. "I just wasn't using o- you didn't tell them?' the Magicat looked at Adora accusingly.

"It never came up!" Adora looked away as if to defend herself.

"Your NAME never came up?!" Catra yelled in shock.

"Her name?" Both Bow and Glimmer repeated bewildered.

"Yeah her full name is…" Catra smirked as she drew out the reveal, taking immense satisfaction in how red Adora was getting. "..Adora Hairpoof Princess-Bane."

"Hairpoof?" Bow stuttered out In shock.

"Princess-Bane?!" Glimmer shrieked out, unable to cope with the absurdity.

The table erupted in laughter after the initial shock died down. Adora was cheery red and slumped her face into her arms and moped.

"Who gave her such a dumb name!" Kaita cackled.

"You can blame Catra." Adora grumbled, still feeling humiliated. Then a spark of.an idea formed in her mind and she gave a sly smile. "And just like me she also has a middle and last name from the Horde."

Catra's eye widened and her pupils went pinprick, her tail lashed wildly and ears pulled back in a mix of dread and warning. "Adora don't you dare!" She warned but the smug face gave her no mercy.

"You made your choice." Adora said with a somehow sinister smirk on her face. "Now live with it... Catra Applesauce Meowmeow~."

The dining room was silent. Even Entrapta had given pause to process the new information. All around Catra everyone was slack jawed at the mention of her Horde name.

"Catra…" Scorpia started.

"Applause.." Cyra continued.

"Meowmeow?!" Both Glimmer and Kaita shouted in a mix of laughter and horror.

Catra slumped down in her chair as the waves of laughter permitted the room. She hissed and glared at everyone but it was all for naught. The name was too funny for anyone to care for her hisses and growls. Then Catra's eyes fell upon Adora, the one who dared speak her full name, the one who was laughing so hard she was snorting. All of Catra's annoyance was quelled at once when she heard the beautiful sound of her laugh and she purred in response.

"Catra Applesauce Meowmeow.." Glimmer cackled. "Oh wait till the rest of the princesses here about THAT"

"Ahem" Angela uttered to regain composure. "Glimmah Twinkle Shining Shimmer Brightmoon, it is unwise to make fun of another's names."

"Wow didn't realize how close i got with Sparkles Glim-Glim.~" Catra teased lightly giving off her signature laugh. Glimmers own laugher was immodestly quenched with the reveal of her own full name and  just shrunk under the table.  

"Although i must agree that Adora's name may need to be adjusted all things considered." The Brightmoon Queen Added.

"Yeah.. Princess-Bane doesn't really work since you know...I'm kind of a Princess at least part time." Adora stated. "But Adora Hairpoof Princess still sounds well.." she blushed at her own name.

Feeling a bit guilty for putting her friend in this situation in the first place Catra thought of an out for her. "How about Grayskull?" She suggested getting a surprised stare from the dumb blonde. " if your going to keep shouting that every time you turn into,,,her, you might as well be fighting for your own honor."

"Adora Hairpoof Princess Grayskull" Adora tested out the name on her lips and smiled appreciative of the gift of a name Catra once again bestowed upon her. "Now what are we gonna do about your names?" She asked.

"Oh that's simple,'' Cyra smirked. "From this day forward My Daughter shall be known as; Princess Catra Cyra Tigra Applesauce Meowmeow D'rilluth III!"

Catra tried to look aghast but couldn't. After all in reality she did like her names, each one was a gift given to her by someone who cared about her deeply. More so from what she had been reading up on Magicat culture the more she came to understand the significance of names in the society. Having many names and titles was seen as a blessing to be proud of; it signified great deeds and trust to carry on the legacy of the names gifted to you.

Granted she would assume Applesauce and Meowmeow would get some weird looks she knew those names symbolized Adora's caring of her. No matter how much she tricked herself in the past to believe Adora only ever saw her as a pet or a tool, the fact Adora gave her names would always prove otherwise.

"If that is all settled then." Queen Angela spoke. "I believe we must discuss how we will be coming about your coronation princess Catra."

The Magicat princess sighed and nodded, preparing to take on the next big problem… hosting a princess party, and with her track record.. What could possibly go wrong?

Chapter Text

The Coronation, Catra knew it would need to be addressed eventually but even so she was still apprehensive about the whole thing. After all, up until a few weeks ago she had been fighting against all of the other princesses and attacking their kingdoms. Not to mention invading a once a decade event, trashing the place and abducting both Arrows and Glim-Glim to be used as bargaining chips for Angela's surrender. And now she was going to have to invite everyone she had hurt to her home and hope that they didn't decide to ruin her day. So yes Catra was very apprehensive about the event.

"So uh how exactly does a coronation work?" Adora asked. "The Horde never really gives us any information about how Princesses were made, just you know that they exist."

"Of course.." Glimmer sighed all too familiar with the lack of common knowledge the Horde seemed dead set on imbuing their soldiers with. " A coronation is a celebratory event where a princess attunes to their runestone for the first time. It is where they embrace their new powers, and their duty to protect the people of their kingdom and Etheria as a whole."

"Well the first part at least." Cyra added. "A princess typically attunes at the age of 10 and trains under their parents for a few years before ever being allowed to fight."

"For example." The Magicat Queen held up Kaita and continued. "Kai here attuned 2 years ago but I would.never let her join the war until she was at least 18. Honestly I'm hesitant on allowing Catra to fight, but given her military training and absolute disdain for a certain witch in Hordak's ranks she would take vanguard the moment she got her powers…"

"Hel- Heck yeah I would!" Catra chimed in, censoring herself under her mother's glare with Kaita present. The Magicat princess could only pray the kitten didn't hear her cussing earlier otherwise she knew she would be in for it once she was back in her mother's domain.

"Wait a minute." Scorpia butted in. "If wildkitten is attuned to the Halfmoon runestone why haven't we seen her use any powers?"

"It's bad form." A chorus of Angela, Cyra, Glimmer, Yin, Spinnarella, Netossa, Bow and even Entrapta answered at once startling the Scorpioni as well as Adora and Catra.

"I mean it would be really lame of me to flaunt my magic or use it in our battles before big sis got a chance to use it." Kaita explained. "It wouldn't be fair and I would look like a jerk." The Magikitten nodded as if her statement was a fact. She then yawned and proceeded to jump back into her mother's mane for a Magicatnap.

"So what exactly am I going to have to do for this?" Catra rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Touch the stone and give a speech about the rainbow powers of friendship or something equally as gag worthy?"

"While all you would physically need to do is touch the runestone and let the power connect to you, each kingdom has their own traditions involving the event." Yin answered, leaping from Angela to Catra's tail. "Some of them get really crazy, if I remember right the Salinias princesses needed to fight a shark in a gladiatorial arena."

"Careful you don't want to fall" Adora panicked and cupped her hands under the mouseling on Catra's tail. "you could get seriously hurt if you fell from that height..."

Yin looked at Adora for a moment as if she was inspecting her for brain damage then laughed as realization struck her. " you don't know about mouseling regeneration do you!" she giggles more and began climbing Catra like a jungle gym,

"We mouseling can recover form nearly any type of injury that could prove fatal to other species. " Yin explained as she reached the magicats mane to rest in. "if we were to be crushed or maimed our bodies would simply reform... though we would be acting loopy for a little while afterwards/" she blushed recalling such events  where she acted like a fool after a reformation.

"Back on the subject of coronation.." Glimmer mutter loudly to get everyone to focus. "I needed to recite an ancient oath to protect my people." 

"Well that doesn't sound too difficult." Adora chimed in.

"In ancient Etherian.." Glimmer explained, causing Adora to wince. She had seen a few ancient texts in the Brightmoon library and from what she saw the language was not intuitive to figure out.

"So what's Halfmoon's? Oh do I get to hunt something in the words?!" Catra asked excitedly about her own idea.

"A song." Cyra answered. Catra was silent for a few moments as all her anticipation drained away.

"I need to sing…" questioned a now much less eager Catra. She knew she had a good voice, and liked to sing, but that was typically reserved for just her friends or when she was alone.

"Yes." Confirmed Cyra. "Once you have bonded with the stone you are to perform a song of your own making to everyone who has come to witness your coronation."

"You can sing?" Adora asked, raising an eyebrow at Catra. Growing up in the Fright Zone all displays of creativity were grounds for punishment, Adora could easily remember getting disciplined herself for drawing a picture in her youth as such she was skeptical about this revelation.

"Oh you bet she can!" Scorpia zealously answered.

"Catra has taken the role of our lead singer and guitarist in our band." Entrapta explained. "That would be very difficult to do if she was unable to sing."

"Guys cut it out." Catra groaned, really not appreciating the hype former voice that her friends were causing.

Catra was however spared anyone prodding on the subject as the throne room doors were slammed open.

"My Queen!" An out of breath guard panted. "The bright moon gates have been compromised!' Before Angela could question the messenger a loud sound echoed out from the floors below them. from below them.

In the Brightmoon courtyard stood a warrior standing only a little more than 5 feet tall clad from head to toe in black armor. The armor itself looked to be composed of the chitin of one of those large Beetle Like monsters that Adora had fought the day she picked up the sword only worked and blackened. This warrior had many of Brightmoon's guards draped over them though the efforts appear to do little to stop the warriors progress, and embedded in the ground in front of said warrior was a large one handed axe that was most likely the perpetrator of the noise.

"She-Ra princess of power! I have come to challenge you." The soldier shouted in a loud booming voice. It was clear whatever was in the armor's helmet could project and strengthen sound waves. My name is Raizera and I am the mightiest in all of my clan. I have traveled around etheria finding the most worthy of battles and my long search has led me to you. Now come down here and face me unless you are more cowardly then the legends are to be believed.``

Adora liked to believe she was level headed, calm, and easily able to withstand and ignore the goading and heckling of her opposition. She would like to believe that.

"For the Honor of Grayskull!!!"

But Adora was in reality a very emotional girl and being called weak or cowardly, or Etheria forbid soft? That was asking for her wrath. That was what had led her to this moment of jumping out a 2 story window to combat the jeering warrior.

She-Ra landed on her feet in front of Raizera, the Sword of Protection drawn and ready to fight.

"So you think I'm a coward huh?" She-Ra glared at her opponent who would dare to besmirch her honor by daring to call her soft and weak. "You wanted a fight? Well here I am!"

"Excellent!" The one called Raizera grinned from under their helmet and lifted their large axe out of the ground ready to do battle."This battle shall be spoken of by my clan for generations to come! Now come at me She-Ra, show me what you can do!"

The two fighters positioned into their battle stances the Brightmoon guards who had been hanging off of Raizera in a pitiful attempt to subdue the armored berserker wisely ran as far as they could as the two combatants circled each other preparing to strike. In a moment both lunged forward weapons primed and with a resounding clang the weapons met. The strike sent a powerful shockwave throughout all of Brightmoon, the ground quaked, the winds knocked people over, and the sheer raw power made a large circular indent around the two.

She-Ra grit her teeth as she attempted to force Raizera back but Raizera would not budge. She felt as if she was trying to fore back antank single handedly only unlike with an actual tank this small being would not yield, the more And more she attempted to push the less effective it became.

"Stop holding back…" the stern distorted voice of Raizera grunted, sounding insulted. "I know that the She-Ra is capable of, do not take me for a fool!" Raizera pulled back the Axe they were using and now adding thier second hand to the haft swing the weapon down at the princess of power.

She-Ra let out a yelp and leapt out of the way just in time to see the massive crater the axe had made. It was clear to her now that whoever this Raizera was, they were not normal.

Above everyone watched in mixes of terror interest or in Yin's case pinched her eyebrows waiting for this display of muscle headedness to end.

"Did they just do that?" Glimmer paled seeing the large dent on the ground Raizera's Axe made. "How can someone match She-Ra's level of strength?!"

"Because Rai.' Yin answered. "Rai was born with the strength of a hundred Etherians and has only grown stronger with time and training. I'm sorry to say but your friend doesn't stand a chance."

Catra was torn at this. On one hand she was seeing She-Ra being forced onto the defensive and that was funny to witness. On the other hand she dreaded that Adora could be in serious danger. The Halfmoon princess prepared to leap out the window to her friends aid only to be stopped by a slab of stone clasping around her feet

"Don't interfere." Yin warned. "This will be over soon ."

After seeing the damage that Raizera was able to inflict She-Ra was put on the defensive. It felt wrong for Adora to be forced back like this while transformed. Up until now She-Ras brute strength was enough to see her through any straight up fight she was involved in. Against the monster strength of this chitin armored foe she couldn't afford to be hit and would have to call on her horde military training to find a weakness in her enemy.

So that's what she did. Adora weaved around Raizera's attacks staying just out of range and studied the movements of her enemy. Eventually she noticed a pattern in the attacks. Raizera did sweep, Adora jumped up, Raizera followed up with a downward chop, and Adora saw her opportunity. The princess of power kicked off the top of the axe simultaneously disarming Raizera and giving herself more height.

Adora used her momentum and as she fell back to the ground she swung her sword with all her might ready to deliver a decisive blow on the armor. Raizera calmly lifted one arm and caught the blade mid swing in their hand.

The warrior didn't flinch, it looked as if Raizera wasn't even attacked and was simply lifting She-Ra up by the sword. Then with a single punch to the gut the form of She-Ra dispersed leaving only the horrified ex-Horde soldier blade in her red jacket to face down this bastion of might.

"Adora got the She-Ra punched out of her.." Catra gawked, unable to process what just transpired. She was so out of it she didn't even notice the sparkly flash nor register the nausea of Glimmer teleporting everyone down to the battlefield.

The warrior let Adora drop to the ground taken aback at this turn of events. "Wait what? your so young.. " The warrior said in surprise. "I thought She-Ra was a mighty god...but shes..just a girl did i seriously just beat up a child soldier!?"

"Your the She-ra I've heard legends about?? I was told you could lift mountains, tame the fiercest beasts, and defeat two whole platoons of soldiers with nothing more than a toothbrush." The petit armored juggernaut of strength known as Rai sighed in disappointment not catching the side eye glare Adora shot Bow. " Looks like it WAS just stories.. how annoying I was all set for an epic battle but this is just...uuuuugh this is so dumb!!" Raizera stomped their foot in indignation throwing a little tantrum over events. 

"Enough cousin…." Yin sighed leaping off of Catra's head growing to a little over 5 feet herself stunning Catra and Adora. "This is why I told you not to bother her, Adora has only gotten these powers a month or so ago she has not trained with them enough to.be a challenge you."

"You don't need to say it like that.." Adora pouted sullenly at being bested in a single punch.

"We will get back on that in a moment.' Glimmer stated motioning to Adora. "Now then..COUSIN?!"

Rai looked at them and removed thier helmet. Her raven hair flowed down like a waterfall, her face soft and fair though marked with a few scars of battles long passed. Her deep brown eyes and soft eyelashes made her look adorable, Mouse ears unfolded from her head and a metal wrapped tail that was mistaken for a belt uncoiled from her waist.

"Sorry  YIn I heard 8 foot Warrior Goddess and well..." Rai said sheepishly the distortion was gone, revealing her soft somewhat squeaky voice. 

"You're a Mousling?!" Catra shouted in shock

"You're a girl?!" Bow said with an equal amount of shock

"You're OUR age?!" Glimmer gawked, adding to the pile.

"Guys why do Yin and Raizera look so similar, are they related?" Asked Adora. "That's not racist Is it? B-because I'm not talking about the tails and ears and stuff I.. I just mean you have similar looking faces and I'm gonna shut up now.."

The last statement shattered all the shock and tension in the courtyard as everyone's heads slowly turned to the blonde idiot.

"Adora.." Angella cleared her throat. "If Glimmah's Aunt Castaspella were to have children, they would be her cousins…" the immortal queen made a note on giving the child a run down on extended family.

"Yes I am her cousin.." Rai answered, noticing the flash of understanding in Adora's eyes. " Forgive me, I got too ahead of myself. My full name Is Princess Raizera Helmsmasher Blacktail; princess of Blacktail Crag."

"YOUR a princess?!" Both Adora and Catra yelled in surprise.

Rai rolled her eyes and nodded. "Yeah I'm a princess don't make a big deal about it."

"Ooooh yay another princess!" Scorpia clapped her pincers together.

"So monster strength is your magic power." Catra concluded by looking at the Blacktail. "Not bad, not too flashy, unassuming, and practical."

"No kitten." Rai let out a small laugh. "That's my natural strength, my clan does not have a runestone."

"Yeah, because you broke it…" Yin snarked at her cousin not letting the now bristled Catra to even begin yelling about being called a kitten.

"She broke a runestone?!" Entrapta squealed and got up into Rai's face."How did you do that? What were the ramifications? Tell me everything!!'"

"When my ancestors created the runestones, we gifted one of them to the blacktails." Yin explained nonchalantly. "But then the leader said and I quote " we don't need no pussy ass magic!' then took that barbaric axe and shattered it to pieces!" The normally calm 19 year old huffed and fumed a little retelling the story, it was clear that there was some level of animosity over the stones destruction boiling under the surface

"Ah yes the origin of The Runecleaver." Rai sighed in fondness. " And to answer your question Princess Entrapta, there were no ramifications, as no one had ever bonded to the stone it wasn't connected to the rest of them so it's destruction did not cause any shockwave to the rest of the princesses or their powers."

"But why would you turn the level of power down? Questioned Bow. From what I've read about Blacktail history you guys pride yourselves on your strength wouldn't the runestone have made you all the more powerful?

"We pride ourselves on our natural strength." Rai said politely yet sternly. "We do not require magic as a crutch it promotes reliance and physical laziness, just look at her" Rai said motioning to Glimmer" she is so out of shape that without her stones magic she wouldn't be able to run more than a few yards without collapsing in exhaustion. Not to mention how weak her arm strength must be.."

"What!?" Glimmer shouted insulted at the copious amounts of shade thrown at her by the Blacktail princess. She then with no fanfare teleported behind the mousling, transported them Both 1000 feet in the air, immediately let go of her, and transported to the ground for safety as the armor plated berserker plummeted to the ground with a resounding boom.

"First rule of Brightmoon." Glimmer huffed and dusted off her hands. "Don't mock the princess."

"Woah Glim-Glim." Catra whistle impressed by the savagery. "Remind me never to piss you off.."

"Is she gonna be okay?" Adora asked, peeking into the Rai shaped hole.

"Wow Nice Job!" Rai laughed as if to answer Adora and stood up out of the imprint she made looking completely unphased by the drop after a few cracks to relocate a few bones that got a little lost on the reformation process. "I didn't even see that coming looks like Brightmoon's princess has some teeth."

"If everyone finished destroying my front yard." Angella sighed, having had quite enough of the stupidity and recklessness on display. Princess Raizera, is there any other reason you have come here asides from battling She-Ra?"

"Just wanted to see where I stood compared to the legend." Rai shrugged and holstered Runecleaver on her back. "But Yin is right, this warrior needs way more training and experience before I get the fight I desire."

Adora winced a little on the inside. All her life she had been raised to achieve perfection, and that if she failed to meet what was expected of her that everyone she ever cared about would suffer the consequences. After becoming She-Ra Adora felt an even greater need to live up to the expectations of everyone, after all now that she had the powers of a princess how could she not be better suited for the tasks asked to be completed. and next to not convincing Catra to defect from the Horde with her when she left, this fight felt like the biggest failure in her life.

As her self doubt began to rise up and threaten to consume her, Adora felt Catra placed a hand on her shoulder to ground her and let her know she was going to be ok, that she had someone there who understood her, REALLY understood her...

While the people of Brightmoon were unbelievably kind hearted, open, and gentle that also made them a bit naive and in some cases blind to how she hid her emotions. Adora guessed this was in part to them just assuming everyone would be upfront about how they felt or if they were trying to hide their true feelings about something lt would be very obvious, and while lying was something Adora was unequivocally awful at hiding and repressing emotions and wants were things all Horde cadets were taught early into their training. So having someone now who could read how she really felt for the most part made her feel safe and warm Inside. The fact said person was Catra just made her feel safer and warmer with an occasional strange fluttery feeling in her stomach, not bad per say but definitely strange.

"On that note." Rai continued pulling Adora out of her own thoughts. "I think it would be hard for me to get that battle if she ends up merced by some Horde Scum.

"So I think I'll stick around and keep an eye on her and the oversized Magikitten." Rai finished. "Also a lot of the Blacktail clan are itching for a fight so why not crack some horde helmets!!"

"That's Rai speak for She's joining the Rebellion." Yin '"translated" with an eye roll.

"Oh wow.. didn't need to save a kingdom this time.." Adora gave a small nervous laugh. "Guess we are getting better at recruiting."

"I'm not a kitten and I'm not part of the rebellion!" Catra shouted but no one took her seriously."

"Kid your tail is wagging, eyes are following my tail when I talk and you have your fangs out." Rai smirked. "You obviously are resisting the urge to latch onto my tail with your teeth."

"Sh-shut up.." Catra blushed at being called out like that.

"Actually dear you're still only 16 so yes you are in fact still considered a kitten." Cyra teased. "And while it is true you have not sworn yourself to the rebellion, I get the feeling you were planning on making a big show about that during your coronation~."

"Moooom!" Catra groaned, her tail poofing up. "Cut it out!!"

"Sis is such a drama queen" Kaita giggled having awoken from. her nap for the sole reason of teasing Catra. She then noticed Rai and Yin at their enlarged sizes. " Oooo big mousies!"

Kaita pounced out of the mane and began wrestling with Rai's armored tail. To everyone's surprise the petite brute was very gentle with the little kit. She allowed Kaita to chase and chew at the chitin with nothing more than a soft smile.

Adora found herself laughing but also kind of sad watching Catra interact with her family. She was ecstatic for her friend, she was, but Inside she could not help but feel an ache of jealousy. No matter how hard Adora pushed the feeling down it would always rise back up whenever she saw the D'rilluths or even just seeing Glimmer talking with her mother. Adora desperately wanted to have a connection like that.

Eventually Rai decided to head back to her kingdom, returning to her natural size and leaping into a tunnel system that Yin stated was connected to a large network of travel tunnels that stand the entire planet. And with her departure talks got back to Catra's coronation

Queen Angella thought for a little while before making a decree. "As we are sister kingdoms it is only fitting that we assist in the long overdue coronation of your eldest daughter as a princess. To this end I shall have Princess Glimmer Master Archer Bow and Adora not only continue to assist in Princess Catra's royal studies but to also assist you in the preparation for this momentous occasion to mark the end of your long isolation and return to Etheria as a bright beacon of hope in these dark times."

"I Queen Cyra Cheetara D'rilluth II humbly and graciously accept your assistance in my child's coronation and hope to rebuild the mighty friendship between our kingdoms." Cyra bowed her head lightly and smiled at her old friend.

With the coronation assistance mandated and Glimmer's glitching undone the Halfmoon Royal family, the BFS and SPT began the trip back to Halfmoon.

"Angella we have something to discuss." Yin said seriously once the party had departed. "It's about Adora, and what she truly needs."

"Ah yes I am quite aware of the issue." Angella gave a sad smile. "The girl is so strong and so brave that I sometimes forget she is but a little under a year older than Glimmah…"

"And thanks to the Horde the poor child had to grow up without any good role models or support.'' The queen sighed. "And as long as the Horde continues to exist more and more children will be forced into the same situation."

"So what are you planning exactly?" Yin asked somewhat Intrigued at Angella's sudden burst of resolve. In the small time the young mousling had been on the throne she had always known Angella to be a pensive Queen of inaction. Ever since the death of her husband King Micha fell in battle she had been incredibly protective of Glimmer and far less daring in the war.

"The plan, young one." Angella smiled gently "Will be to first have Adora understand what a family really is supposed to be. After that I plan to ask her to be my child. I already see her as a daughter. I just need to make it official."

"After that…we go on the offense" The Queen continued speaking with more conviction than anyone had seen from her in a decade. "I spent so long trying to protect my own child I turned a blind eye to the pain and suffering the Horde inflicted on all the children they have stolen brainwashed and sent out to continue the cycle."

"I was a coward..but that's over now…" the immortal being turned her gaze towards the direction of the Fight Zone, her heart and soul filled with determination. "No one else will be taken, this I swear. For once the coronation is finished. we shall bring the war to the Hordak's doorstep and break the door down."

The Angel Queen hid no more.

Chapter Text

Catra was stumped. Catra; The best tactician in her former squad, the girl who could always go toe to toe with Adora using wit and agility alone, the mind behind the infiltration of Snows and the bombing of the princess prom was Stumped.

Upon returning to Halfmoon the princesses were hard at work coming up with the plans for Catra's coronation. If the guest list, royal traditions, and catering weren't already annoying enough to drive the impatient Magicat mad there was the issue about the song.

This wasn't like the few times she had written and performed songs with her friends. From what she understood after reading through a few scrolls about what was expected above the event she came to the conclusion that she was completely and utterly screwed.

They expect me to write a song from my heart? The Magicat thought to herself. What kind of backwards ass touchy feely BS is THAT?!

...atra?

Catra?

"CATRA!!!!" A shrill voice shouted forcing Catra out of her head and back to reality.

"huh?" Catra grunted as she was pulled from her thoughts, clearly not paying attention to anything that was said. Around her were her 5 friends each scouring over decades worth of traditions for a Halfmoon coronation.

"Ugh I was asking you about the guest list !" Glimmer groaned. "We need to get all the scrolls sent out soon and we were debating on which princess would be invited."

"We uh we already got half of the Alliance invited.." Adora mentioned. " Scorpia entrapta Glimmer and I are already going to be there, and Perfuma shouldn't be too much trouble. You didn't really do anything to her personally...the issues we are having are well.. Mermista and Frosta…'

"Oh right, them." Catra winced. She knew that this was something she would need to face at some point, as a force captain of the horde she had attacked both of these princesses kingdoms, honestly the fact Glim-Glim and Arrow boy didn't kick her ass after the kidnapping amazed her.

"Don't worry Cy-Ty." Glimmer put a hand on Catra's shoulder to assure her. "I am going to make sure this goes perfectly I just got my old friend back and I'm sure as hell not going to let her crowning day be anything less than spectacular!"

"Well I don't know much about being a princess but is water lady and the icy kid are going to make Wildcat uncomfortable then shouldn't.we just not invite them?" Scorpia asked, scratching her head.

"Well normally that could be an issue." Bow answered. "Not inviting your allies to an event like this would be seen as disrespecting them and the alliance you formed and well it's hard to keep an Alliance without respect and trust."

"This however is a special case." Added Glimmer. "Since Halfmoon went isolationist your kingdom isn't allied or trading with anyone, well except for Brightmoon hopefully. So you really don't need to invite anyone on pretenses."

"Okay so we actually get to avoid the issue for now." Adora sighed in relief. She was happy her friend wouldn't need to feel anymore awkward about this coronation thing then she was already. After so many years growing up with the girl Adora could easily read her body language and could tell for the most part how she was feeling unless Catra was going out of her way to hide it, and right now Catra's nervousness was almost palpable to her so anything that could alleviate any of fose feelings she felt would be a godsend to her friend.

"Let them come." Catra stated with a sigh earning a double take from everyone.

"Are you sure about this Cy?" Questioned Glimmer. "You really don't need to if it's gonna cause you to stress out any more than you already are."

"No it's fine I kinda owe them." Catra explained. "I tried to wreck the Seagate so yeah Fishtail's gonna be pissed, I mean I can sort of blame that one on the job wasn't anything personal just got stuck with the freaking naval mission."

"Yeah, not to mention how seasick the boat was making you." Scorpia replied roughly patting Catra on the back.

"If you tell her about that and who knows she might.go easy on you?" Adora said half heartedly trying to look hopeful but clearly doubted her own advice.

"As for Icecube." Catra continued ignoring Adora's rambles. "Well, I really messed up with the prom.."

The more Catra thought about her plan there the more disgusted she became with herself. Not.only did she end up kidnapping her unknown at the time childhood best friend, and Bow but had also left Adora clinging from a wall of ice by a hairpin, but she also blew the castle up and ruined the kids party. Looking back when thinking.about the Snows princess all Catra could see now was a child as old as Kaita trying to run this super complex as stupid ball then having everything the tried to achieve destroyed by a petty bitch trying to hurt her ex friend. Catra could. Feel nothing but shame now.

"I ruined the kids party, it's only right I give her the chance to enjoy one."

Adora beamed at Catra, her chest burgeoning with a soft warmth hearing The words come out of the Magicats mouth. She had always known Catra was nice under all of her hissing and scathing snark but to actually hear her speak about having remorse or atleast wanting to make things right made imposible for Adora not to smile.

"Please wait on the nicknames until after the party.." Bow begged. "Tensions are going to be tenuous as is, best not to accidentally provoke anyone."

"Awww but nicknames are my thing~." Catra snarked with a teasing fanged smile.

"Catra..." Adora said with a warning tone.

"Oh my gods I'm fucking with you!" Groaned Catra." Do I look like a dumbass who's going to do something that stupid in a tense formal setting? Come on!"

"Look, our only other reference for adjusting defected Horde soldiers is Adora soooo" Bow began to explain before being cut off.

"ADORA!?" Catra looked insulted at the comparison. "You compared my ability to read the room with ADORA?! She's the most oblivious person I've ever met! She once walked into the showers in the Fright Zone and spent 36 minutes butt naked fighting with the nozzle without noticing the "Out of Order" signs plastered around it!"

"Hey, Rude!" Adora huffed but did not deny the event took place.

"Oh yeah I remember hearing about that!' Scorpia laughed recalling the story from Horde. "That was you?"

At that moment the doors to the chamber swung open saving Adora from having to speak anymore on the embarrassing matter. On the other side of the room was the Halfmoon queen holding a large number of boxes followed by Kaita who was holding a smaller amount of boxes looking giddy.

"Ah good you are all still here, is the guest list finalized?" Cyra asked, looking over to her eldest child.

"More or less?" Catra answered, her eyes scanning over the multitude of boxes. "What's all of that stuff?"

"Oh these?" Cyra motioned to the boxes as she subtly nodded in Glimmer's direction. "They are requirements for the next part of the preparations."

Glimmer understood the signal and teleported. The next thing anybody knew the Brightmoon princess was at the rooms threshold. She quickly slammed the doors closed and locked them, closing off the only exit of the room.

"What's going on…?" Catra asked wary of the current events. what didn't helped keep her calm was that everyone else was getting up and moving to back Glimmer up by the doors.

"Apologies for the precautions but we can't have you escaping before we are finished with this next part." Cyra said as she and everyone asides from Glimmer opened the boxes revealing what was inside

"No, you you have to be joking!" Catra shouted in a mix of fear and rage and embarrassment. There were many things Catra found revolting that were so horrendously awful that just thinking about them filled her with dread, rage,or just the unquenchable desire to destroy them. sometimes it was all three at once. Originally she thought that feeling all three reactions was only the case when dealing with Shadow Weaver. It had become apparent however that her friends and family managed to replicate that feeling. inside those boxes were an assortment of frilly princess dresses.

"Catra.." Cyra sighed knowing full well her eldest was going to be a stubborn pain in the ass about this. "It's a Magicat tradition that the princess is to wear a dress to her coronation. We can do this the easy way or the hard way."

Catra stared at everyone, then the sparkly dresses, and then the door. She cursed how clever they had been on getting into position to block her. It was clear to Catra that she would not be making it through the door anytime soon with all of them guarding the exit. Seeing no other alternatives besides accepting the fate of being dressed up for the event and made to look "princessy" Catra did the only sensible, rational, reasonable thing that an ex-Horde soldier turned crown princess of an entire species that looked like her after growing up feeling like an outcast could do in such a situation. She committed Autodefenestration.

Catra smirked and felt quite proud of herself. Sure she may have taken the coward's choice of running away from her issues but at least she escaped being put into one of those shiny gaudy embarrassing outfits. As she strategically fell she planned to soon kick off the castle wall and run across the rooftops of other nearby buildings to her freedom. Suddenly her vision was assaulted by a large flash of bright sparkly light.

Glimmer appeared in front of the falling Magicat looking extremely unamused by her old friend's antics complete with a nonplussed resting bitch face. She rolled her eyes and wordlessly grabbed onto Catra and in a dazzling flash of motion sickness inducing magic the two were back in the room with Catra on the ground resisting the urge to lose her lunch.

"The window? Seriously Catra?" Cyra sighed in disappointment. "Look this is going to happen, you only need to wear it for one day so work with us or I swear to the founders I will let Glimmer choose the pinkest glitter infused thing we can find and you will be stuck wearing that."

With the threat of being forced to rely on Glimmer's fashion sense if she would not cooperate administered Catra was suddenly a lot more invested in what dress she would be wearing.

The process was long, arduous, and some parties would proclaim torturous. The coronation committee (blame Bow for the name) had gone through countless dresses and each and everyone of them was rejected by Catra.

"That one's too poofy in the shoulder, that's way WAY too sparkly, why of that one lime green?" It had been going on like this for a while and everyone was getting really annoyed with how inconsolable Catra was being about this.

"Catra when you say you're going to cooperate that implies that you're actually going to pick something!" Glimmer growled, gritting her teeth as her eye twitched in annoyance.

"Show me something I would actually wear and we can work on that Sparkles." Said an equally frustrated Catra who at this point had been trapped in this room for over 3 hours working on all the Coronation stuff and she was just about ready to try the window again if it was not for her mother's knowing gaze bearing down on her.

"Siiiiis come ooooon.." whined a yawning Kaita who was clearly missing a catnap to be here helping. "There gotta be SOMETHING here you like!"

"Oh here's an idea!" Scorpia grinned. "Wildcat, why don't you tell us about the things you like and we find a dress based on that."

"Whatever." Catra sighed and rolled her eyes. This sounded stupid but at this point she was willing to try anything to end this.

Scorpia began asking a plethora of random innocuous questions like her favorite color, food, what her favorite type of music was. Honestly Catra didn't really see the point in it and the dresses presented to her after stating her answers weren't much better.

"This isn't working." Cyra lamented. "Catra please what's wrong with the dresses?" The door was scattered with dozens of dresses and. Not one of them even remotely appeased the princess.

"I dunno," Catra shrugged. " They're all.. ugggh…" the Magicat made a groan and her ears flicked back. No one could really understand what she meant by that, no one but Adora.

After seeing Catra's display Adora took another look over all the rejected outfits to see if her suspension was accurate. Every dress looked stunning, they were big lavish and would be the center of attention at any party. And that was the issue. Adora smiled in understanding.

"Excuse me for a moment." Adora said, standing up at attention to the queen. "I think I have something that will work, Glim quick teleport to our room?" In a flash the two were gone only to reappear half a minute later with Adora holding a dress.

"When we first got here Glimmer insisted on making me shop for "culturally exotic clothing" pretty sure she was just mad I kept wearing the same style of clothes every day." Adora explained.

"Considering you made the Brightmoon royal tailor make replicas of your HORDE uniform…" Glimmer muttered under her breath.

Adora ignored the outburst and continued. " Well anyway while being stuck on a mandatory shopping spree I saw this." She said motioning to the dress. "It just called to me, and well I think something like this would be more to Catra's liking…'

The dress in question was a sleek slender design with a light orange color. It looked about the same size as Adora's dress that she wore to the princess prom though a bit more form fitting, and the bottom of the dress was asymmetrical with a waist high slit on the left side.

"In the Horde we never really wore anything fancy, we valued function over form." Adora said as if to explain the choice in the dress. " I noticed all of these dresses, while they look nice, are big. Like these all have the poofy shoulders, those ones have really bold colors, and those ones over there are just,,,frivolous. I mean just look at all the gemstones on that thing."

Adora was bringing up all the overly designed dresses in her little tirade and was reminded of all the uncomfortable dresses Glimmer had her try on at the prom before allowing her the far more plain formal wear. Adora also knew that Catra, while liking attention, didn't want an entire room to stop and stare at her because of what she was wearing. No she enjoyed it far more when she stuck out to certain people, people like her. The suit at the prom was a perfect example of this, not many of the attendants batted an eye at the Magicat but Adora? The moment she saw Catra that was all she could see. The maroon tuxedo, the undone tie, and of course her choice to STILL not wear shoes set off all her organizing functions in her brain and Catra had made them all blow the whistle all at once and make her brain stop.

Adora shook herself out of her reminiscing and continued her explanation. "See we didn't really want anything that screams look at me, so I thought something like this would be more comfortable for her. Well Catra, what do you think?" Adora asked, holding her breath on her best friend's response.

From the moment she saw Adora reappear holding that beautiful orange dress Catra was speechless. What she was unable to put into words as the issue Adora was able to decipher what she meant and help her. As for the dress, it needed to be customized for sure, but it was exactly the style she was looking for. It was slender, a nice shade that looked good with her crown, and most importantly of all, it was something Adora wanted her to have.

"I like it." Catra lightly purred as she took the dress from Adora's hands before putting her snark back up. "I mean I'm gonna need to get this thing more stylized for me but it's a good start, much better than the rest of these options."

"Now if we're done with all of this." Catra said as she tossed the dress to her mother knowing she would send it on to the tailor."we've been here for three hours. I'm gonna go get some air."

"Actually we DO have one or two more things to discuss.." Bow said his voice cracking as he delivered the bad news to an exhausted Catra.

"Are you serious what!?" Catra shouted.

"What name are we putting on the invitations?" Bow asked sheepishly.

Oh, that was actually an important question. Catra thought to herself. It made sense why they were being cautious about that considering her notoriety among the princesses, but she already had her answer.

"Let them know who I am." Catra answered. "It's better they know who they are dealing with going in then to have a brawl start in the middle of the party when they find out."

"That's true." Adora nodded. "Besides I'll be keeping ntabs on everyone and make sure no one tries anything." Adora punched her hand with a smirk.

"Right…" Glimmer drawled watching Adora make a fool of herself. "But really no one would be dumb enough to ruin this for you Cy-Ty, a princess prom is once every few years, a corination is once in a life time. The willful sabotage of one can be grounds for execution in some kingdoms."

"Wait really?" Both Adora and Catra asked simultaneously shocked by the revelation.

"Glimmer is correct." Cyra confirmed. "It is one of the highest offences one can give to a kingdom. While execution of foreign royals would most assuredly not happen the consequences would still be dire. Wars have started over such things. And if not that then said princess would be banished from the host kingdom, and all treaties and negotiations with the perpetrators kingdom would be immediately revoked. So rest assured no princess would dare to ruin this day for you."

Catra looked relived while Adora felt blessed it was only the prom she had looked like a fool in instead of that being Frosta's corination. And to be honest she is not exactly sure if she's still banned from Snows, that's something she will have to ask about.

"Alright cool." Catra sighed. " And the other topic?"

"What song are ya gonna sing!?" Kaita questioned whilst pouncing at her big sister. " It's gonna be something amazing right, right?"

"I uh I'm actually still working on it Kai." Catra pet the Magikittens ears. "But don't you worry your big sis is gonna put on the best performance Halfmoon has ever seen."

"I'll be counting non on it!" The Placated Kaita smiled as she bounced off of Catra."

With everything taken care off, everyone in charge of the corination began writing and sending out the invitations to the event. Cyra in the mean time worked with the tailors and was given note from Catra on what alterations were needed for the dresses design.

Meanwhile Catra had secluded herself in the music room to try out song ideas...nothing was working. She had been at it for hours with little to no success. She was about the seconds away from screaming when she heard two knocks on the door.

"Who's there?" She asked looking at the door.

"I'm Lion.." said the family voice of Leondus.

Oh gods no.. Catra winced realizing she entered on of her father's awful jokes. "I'm lion who.." she groaned.

"I'm Lion outside the door, Open up kitten." Leondus finished laughing at his own joke.

Catra sighed and opened the door. On the ground was the king of Halfmoon sprawled out with no sign of dignity in sight. "That was awful and you know it…" she looked at him with a deadpanned expression.

"Don't you mean.. PAWful?" He chuckled.

"Stop." Catra sighed. "What do you want Dad I'm busy trying to write the stupid song for the corination. "

"Well considering it's the two hour mark I can only assume you were stuck and ready to start screaming." The king got up off the floor and smiled at his daughter. "I figured you would want a hint in the right direction."

Catra was stunned. "How did you-"

"Oh I was the same way when I had to do it for marrying your mother." He smiles fondly. " And yes anyone marrying into the D'rilluth family must perform aswell."

"What helped you figure out what to write and sing?" Catra asked focused on her father's words.

"What helped me was to focus my song on one person." He answered. "While my song was for the entirety of Halfmoon, first and foremost it was for my Cyra. I wrote my song form her at the center i let it sprawl put into something that could invigorate everyone, bit at is heart I was singing for her. So my advice kitten, is to think of someone or something precious to you and write something with them as your only audience." With the advice given the king of Halfmoon walked away leaving Catra to her writing.

Catra's eyes widened as she thought about her father's words. Someone precious to her? Well that was easy. As for the song, Catra realized she no longer needed to write, for her song had been written months ago, a song she had been wanting to sing but without the intend recipient able to hear it, there was never a reason to. But now… now was the perfect time. The perfect time to let Adora hear how she truly felt.

Chapter Text

Greetings Your Majesty,

You are cordially invited to the Coronation of the Found Princess of Halfmoon her majesty Princess Catra Cyra Tigra Applesauce Meowmeow D'rilluth III. It is at Princess Catra's request that all princesses of the Alliance are to be invited to both renew relations with our neighbors and the possibility of joining forces in the fight against the evil Horde. We await your response.

Sincerely,

Queen Cyra D'rilluth II & King Leondus D'rilluth of the Halfmoon Royal Family.

A week had passed since the invitations had been sent out. The revelation of Halfmoon not only returning from it's isolation, but also the return of it's lost princess, and celebrating both with said princesses' coronation was sending shock waves throughout all of Etheria. From across the planet the princesses of the alliance were arriving ready to take part in the momentous day.

"Oh wow look at all the Princess who showed up!" Scorpia gasped watching the guests arrive form her spot next to the thrones. Both she and Adora were flanking the royals as self assigned body guards much to.the annoying and humor of the actual royal guards who decided to take the opportunity to go grab some food while the two princesses took vigil.

"Plumeria, The two Mousling Kingdoms, wow even Selenias and Snows! Man I was sure they would still be mad from the attacks." The Scorpioni continued.

"Oh they most likely are." Cyra answered whilst sitting on her throne with Leondus both of them acknowledging the guests as they announced themselves in a way smiler to the princess prom. "But ignoring an invitation to a princess coronation would be unwise for future trade deals and diplomatic relations, even if they do not like Catra they can't simply not show up without good reason."

"Speaking of Catra where is she?" Scorpia asked looking at the vacant thrones on either sides of the monarchs. "I know Kaita is probably running around taking in all the new scents and playing with some of the other kits, but shouldn't Catra you know be greeting the guests herself? I mean that's what that icy princess was doing at the prom.

"No, this is a little different." Leondus explained. " Durring this celebration there will be a moment where we officially announce her to the guest and she will descend from the ballroom stairs and give a small speech before officially joining the party.

"Although…." The king stroked his beard in thought. "Glimmer and Bow were helping her get ready and I have not heard back from them in a while could you two go check on the progress?"

"You can count on us your majesties" Adora saluted the king and queen. "Should, should we bring Entrapta with us?"

"I was thinking of that but she asked us not to interrupt her.. social experiment." Cyra replied motioning over to Entrapta who was bobbing in and out of conversations before being grabbed into a hug by a sobbing Perfuma. "Besides it looks like she has some catching up to do with the Alliance."

Adora gave a soft sad smile at the display. She was elated to find out Entrapta survived the raid on the Fright Zone, but that also meant they left her behind. SHE had left her behind just like she had left Catra behind. Before Adora could start her incoming spiral of self doubt and anxiety about failure Scorpia lock her and Adora's elbows and started briskly walking to Catra's bedroom to see just what was causing the delay.

"Just let me brush it!" Glimmer yelled Chasing a fully dressed Catra around the room.

The Halfmoon princess was wear the orange dress Adora had picked up,. small bit of red and yellow trim has been added to make it look a little more complete. As for her hair Cara was now sporting a spiky ponytail and her Crown was adjusted over her bangs with only a few locks on her face. Upon seeing Adora Catra leapt behind her for protection from the accursed hairbrush

"Don't let her touch me, she'll torture me!" Catra laughed as she used Adora as a blockade against the pinkette

"Why do you have to be so dramatic!?" Glimmer groaned chasing the Magicat around Adora who had frozen in place upon seeing Catra in her dress trying to process the image.

"Hey guys!" Scorpia exclaim still as chipper as ever. " Queen Cyra wanted us to come see what was keeping wildcat, it's almost time for the announcement."

*Adora, Scorpia sorry for the delay, they have been at it for a while now." Bow shook his head at Catra and Glimmer's antics. "Come on you guys you know it's a bad sign if Cyra needed to send someone to check on you."

"Fiiiiiiine." Glimmer sighed and relented. "You're off the hook, FOR NOW." Glimmer pointed the hairbrush at Catra in a mock menacing way, and Cara simply stuck out her tongue as she smirked in victory. With the hairbrush debacle put on hold everyone moved past the stunned Adora heading to the party downstairs.

"You coming?" Catra asked Adora her hand outstretched for her best friend.

Adora looked at the hand for a moment and then to Catra's smiling face. "Always." She said and smiled back as she grabbed the hand, and the two best friends walked to the party together.

Fanfare began in the ballroom as the king and queen rose from their respective thrones. A caster conjured a light spell to act as a spotlight over the monarchs.

"Our humble guests." Leondus spoke with Authority. "I am pleased to announce to you all my daughter Princess Catra Cyra Tigra Applesauce Meowmeow D'rilluth III!"

The spotlight moved to the top of the steps shining itself down upon Catra. The Magicat princess stared out over the sea of people all looking at her. Some looked at her with bewilderment as if they were having difficulty with connecting her to the title her full name or both. Some were scowling at her coldly which she felt was justifiable all things considered, she WAS a former force captain after all. Most however just looked at her, waiting to hear what she had to say.

Catra looked back at her friends for a moment, each was hlgiving her a big goofy smile of endearment and motion for her to continue. Catra took a deep breath and began her speech.

"Greetings, I am Princess Cyra III lost princess of Halfmoon, well I guess I’m found now so that works too, or whatever, though as I'm sure most of you are aware I go by Catra, and I'd like to thank you all for attending my Coronation. I'm sure considering our….history this came as a shock to everyone, and might I just say you guys are handling better than I did, not seeing anyone faint so far."

The audience let out a soft chuckle at that as Catra began to descend the steps to her throne, the spotlight following her every move.

"Some of you may find this hard to believe, have issues trusting me, and that's fair I wasn't exactly at my best when I was in the horde." Catra continued. "But my time spent in Halfmoon, it taught me things, helped me remember things I had forgotten. I have a family here, and I don't just mean the royal one. As princess I've come to see all of Halfmoon, all of the Magicats as part of it. And I swear, I swear to the memory of the 5 founders as princess I will do everything I can to protect every last one of them, and anyone who would do the same for them."

Catra sat down in her throne as she speech ended to give everyone enough time to digest what she had said only to be met with a resounding applause.

"Wow, when did she get good at public speaking?' Adora wondered aloud having never heard Catra talk in such a way and enamored by how articulate she was.

"I'm not too sure." Scorpia replied whilst clapping with her pincers. "But she made one the first day we came here where she had no preparation for and did amazing there too so she probably always has been." Scorpia shrugged not really knowing the answer.

"You did a wonderful job Catra." Cyra smiled and lightly scratched her daughter's ear. "and you look so beautiful."

"Mooom not in front of everyone.." Catra blushed but still leaned into the scratches.

"Alright alright." The queen laughed and relented." why don't you go rejoin your friends and mingle with the other princesses."

"Yeah, probably a good idea." Catra got up and stretched . Catra knew she would have to face the Alliance at some point. might as well be at a place she knows that can't hurt her she figured and walked off back to her friends to get this started.

The first princess that Catra managed to find herself talking with was Perfuma of Plumeria. Catra was not entirely certain what events in quick succession had led to her being infront of the flower princess. One moment she had been walking through the ballroom giving small greeting to anyone she came across with her friends staying a moderate distance away to be called in as social back up when needed. To in a few short moments seeing a lot of purple and being face to face with Perfuma.

"Princess Catra what a joyous day." The flower princess smiled at her. "I am Perfuma and it is wonderful to make your acquaintance." There was no malice, no apprehension beneath the surface, it appeared as If this princess was truly happy to see her.

"I um, likewise.." Catra stuttered a bit too unprepared for the gentle yet unending positivity that emanated off of this woman.

"I cannot thank you enough for getting Entrapta out of the Fright Zone." Perfuma gave Catra a gentle hug. "We thought she died in the escape the Allience was crumbling from the grief, and then you showed up and returned her to us from the void, Your actions have reignited the rebellions flame of hope."

Catra stiffened for a moment at the surprise contact but she was getting better at accepting hugs out of nowhere living with her parents who hugged her at nearly any chance they got, telling Catra they had twelve years worth of hugs to make up for, and Scorpia,,, was Scorpia a self proclaimed hugger.

"I um, r-really It was just luck.." Catra stammered looking away from Perfuma'd kind eyes not feeling worthy of the gratitude she was being given. "She just sort of fell out of an air duct where and when Scorpia and I decided to leave, besides it was my fault you were all there in the first place.. If I didn't capture Sparkles and Crop Top at the prom none of you would have been on that mission. So yeah… I don't really deserve the thanks for cleaning up my own mess."

Perfuma gave the Magicat a soft smile but had a sad look in her eyes. "The universe works in mysterious ways Catra." Perfuma said gently. "While yes you have made some poor choices in the past, they do not lessen the worth of the good choices you make now."

Catra felt like laughing a bit as she felt tears begin to well up in her eyes. Only a few minutes talking with this Perfuma person and she was already starting to let her defenses drop. "Anyone tell you that you're good at getting into people's heads?" She said wiping away the tears

"And you may call it luck but the universe can only put choices in front of you," Perfuma continued. You were the one who chose to leave, you were the one who decided to bring Entrapta home. Nobody made you do that Catra, you decided to do that on your own."

"Catra there you are!" Scorpia called out to Catra pulling her into another strong hug before the Magicat could lose anymore of her composure from the impromptu therapy session. "Oh I am so sorry, I went to go talk to Entrapta and she must've thought You wanted to talk to the Allience and well-

"I'm okay Scorpia." Catra stated calmly trying to quell Scorpia's wories. "Petals here was just talking to me about...stuff she's not bad.* Catra looked away as if to appear aloof to the whole thing though her still damp eyes betrayed the attempt.

"Oh well that's a relief." Scorpia sighed releasing the Halfmoon princess from the hug and turned to the one Catra designated as 'Petals'. "Hello there, my name is Scorpia. Nice to meet you." The Scorpioni smiled and extended her claw out to shake hands with the princess.

"I am Perfuma, and the pleasure is all mine." Perfuma smiled back and shook the claw. The flower princess blushed holding the claw of the strong woman.

It was at this point Scorpia had gotten a good look at the princess Catra was talking to and she was stunned by how delicate the woman was, and yet under the surface she could sense a great amount of power within her. It wasn't malicious and overbearing with fear like the horde and Shadow Weaver. It was different like a gigantic tree compressed into this Perfuma's thin scrawny frame; it was enough to make the woman need to gasp, although the fact she looked so elegant as well didn't help in that regard.

Catra only needed to take one look at the two to understand what was going on and got an idea.

"Hey Scorpia." The Magicat smirked. "I really need to go and talk to the rest of the people who probably hate my guts, you mind keeping Petals company for me?"

"I oh um sure you can count on me!" Scorpia saluted with a stammer. And Catra walked off leaving the two allowing the new relationship to bloom.

Mermista had to do a double take when she read the invitation. Not only was Halfmoon open, but they found thier lost Princess, and that princess was apparently Catra. Like Horde Catra. She had played with the idea that it was some OTHER Catra but just like in her Mermystery book "Mystery of the Returned Royal at Red Tide" it turned out the big villain was the magically amnesiac lost princess the entire time.

The Water princess caught a glimpse of the Host and snuck up behind her. "So you're like a princess.. huh." Mermista droned in an impressive monotone earning a quick Yelp and frazzled tail from Catra. "That's gotta be like SOOO weird considering you tried to blow up two kingdoms. One being mine, Which was like really annoying by the way."

"Oh trust me that skirmish at the Seagate was worse for me." Catra shot back whilst smoothing her tail out. "I'd ask who puts a seasick Magicat on a boat for her first mission as a Force Captain but the answer to that is shadow bitch. Like seriously she didn't even tell me there WAS a Seagate."

"You get seasick?" Memista. cocked an eyebrow at the girl somewhat bewildered by the revelation.

"Yeah I was nauseous the entire trip, why?" Catra answered..

"Shit….if you got that close to taking out the gate while almost heaving you might have actually taken it if you were focused. Mermista said punctuating with an elongated sigh.

"Memista!" A voice shouted from behind the two. They turned only to see a pirate standing atop a table in a dramatic pose. "I have scoured every corner of this Suarez to find where you ran off to, and might I say you are looking positively beautiful today!"

"Oh my god, why do you have to ruin everything!" Mermista groaned.

"Is he with you?" Catra asked, looking upon the sad display of an idiot far too full of himself. "Just gonna assume the pirate is with you."

"He's my ride…. And JUST my ride." Mermista responded by poking Catra on the forehead as she explained making sure to get the message across.

"Oh my dear, there is no need to put on the act here." The pirate boasted.``For I am the one and only Sea Hawk swashbuckler extraordinaire and dashing rogue of ADVENCHA!"

"Wait a minute I remember you!" Catra spoke suddenly as a light went off in her head. "You're that asshole who crashed the flaming boat in to my ship!"

"Ah so you do remember me!' The pirate was nonplussed about the accusations and looked more cheerful than anything. "Ah yes what a glorious battle that was! And allow me to regal you the tale, in shanty!!! Oooohh! mmph?!"

As the flamboyant pyromaniac pirate began his shanty he quickly found the claw extended hand of the to-be coronated princess over his mouth silencing any sound that would come out.

"Yeah no, this is MY party I pick the soundtrack." Catra growled earning a smirk from Mermista.

"Sea Hawk, I want some punch. Go get me a glass" Mermista ordered the pyromaniac with an annoyed growl.

"Oh of course my lady I shall percure your beverage posthaste!" Sea Hawk exclaimed and ran off towards the refreshments dodging around the other guests.

"I gotta hand it to you." Catra laughed seeing Sea Hawk run off like that. "That was one smooth way to distract him."

"And Knowing him he'll get distracted telling another one of his lame stories." Mermista shook her head. "So yeah your free of him for now. Your welcome."

"Look sorry for the whole firing cannons at your Sea Gate thing. Catra began still not to get used to those two words on her tongue being genuine but it helps easier to say each time. "it was nothing personal just the stupid orders i got stuck with. Every second on that ship was misery."

"Eh you got Geek princess out of the Fright Zone and shut Sea Hawk up." Mermista shrugged. "I'd say we're even. Also your cool and I think She-Ra would be annoying me to forgive you if I don't."

"Pft yeah that sounds like Adora." Catra replied with a chortle. " And your cool yourself Riptide."

Catra talked with Mermista for a while and discovered the Selenias princess was the most chill person ever with an incredible sense of dry comedy. It stunned her for a bit that the WATER princess was so easy to talk to and get along with, just another way the world liked to fuck with her Catra though to herself.

After leaving Mermista's company Catra greeted a few more of her subjects before her nose caught the near intoxicating aroma of mouse. She discreetly sniffed out her quarry only to find the two Mousling princesses Yin Whitetail and Raizera Blacktail engaging in what could only be discibed as hostile politeness. It was as if a mother saw her kits getting too heated with each other and forced them to hold hands, neither one seemed happy to be in close proximity to each other but were being what could count for cordial under duress.

"Ah, Princess D'rilluth, a pleasure to see you again." Yin smiled and gave a polite bow to the Halfmoon Scion.

"The same to you…." Catra replied slowly, her eyes dilated and her tail was flicking but with every ounce of self control the Magicat could muster she resisted her instincts to pounce at the Mousling knowing full well it would not only make her look like a fool but sully relations with the Mousling kingdoms and get her another stone wall to the face.

"Huh, well now this ones got better control than you led me to believe Whitetail." Raizera smirked. "Raizera Blacktail a pleasure to officially make your acquaintance." The Mousling bowed in respect.

At first Catra could hardly recognize the small woman in the sleek black gown but the voice was unmistakable. Her reaction to just how small Raizera was without her armor was eye opening.as she bored Catra also noticed the form of Kaita biting into the tail of the blacktail princess

"doesn't that hurt?" Catra winced at the mere sight of her sister's fangs lodged into the Mouslings tail.

"What the impromptu Magicat weight stone?" Raizera questioned with a laugh and curled her tail up and down using the younger princess as a makeshift training weight. "Look If I got pissy everytime my tails been bitten by a magikitten I'd have been kicked out of this place months ago, and besides its normally for kits to do stuff like this, I’m just the one strong enough to make it into a game for ‘em."

“It's true,for as big of a brute she can be Raizera has always been amazing with children.” Yin added.

“I’m not a brute, the rest of you princesses are just too stuffy.” Raizera huffed in indignation. “ come to this party and not one of the other guests gives me the time of day that sounds liek hte more brutish behavior to me!”

“Well MAYBE thats because SOMEBODY punched out their champion in an unprovoked fight,,,,” Yin Gritted her teeth tryign to keep her annoyance quelled. “No Duh they aren't your biggest fan you dumbass!

As the cousins nickered Catra looked around the ballroom.and saw Adora tiptoeing around guests who appeared to be trying to follow Frosta like she had attempted to follow Catra herself at the prom, so in a word; horribly.

"Please excuse me." Catra rolled her eyes and twitched her ears in annoyance "I need to prevent my blonde idiot best friend from causing an international incident.... You know, if feels weird that I need to specify by hair color now.." The Magicat sauntered off after Adora but not before enlisting some help to keep the peace. Yet ANOTHER thing she was not used to doing.

"Hey Kai?" Catra asked her baby sister as she plucked her off of Raizera’s tail. "Does that little blue haired girl over there look lonely to you?"

Kaita’s eye locked on to the girl in question and she froze for a moment as a small rumble emanated from her throat.

"Why don't you go and talk to h-"

Before Catra could even finish she noticed the only trace of her little sister that was still in front of her was only a dust cloud in her image. Catra had to admit that it was impressive.

"You know when you are going to spy on someone try being less obvious.." Frosta sighed at Adora with an annoyed and disappointed look on her face similar to her cold and stark personality from the prom.

" Wha. Pssh I'm not spying." Adora said with a not very convincing voice mixed with a nervous laugh.

"Adora you have been trailing me since after the speech, it's sad." Frosta rolled her eyes.

Before she could lay into Adora anymore the 12 year old princess of Snows found herself tackled to the ground by an incredibly fast blonde magikitten.

"HiI'mKaitaYou'reCuteWhatsYourName!?" Kaita exclaimed at rapid speed her eyes the size of dinner plates. The kitten was sitting on Frosta's chest staring right into her eyes as she purred and swayed her tail.

Adora gushed at the sheer adorableness of her own eyes sparkling. The display reminded her of all the times she and Catra would pounce and wrestle each other growing up and remembering those times made her chest feel warm and fluttery, there were times she would wonder about the strange feeling but she never asked anyone as she decided it wasn't dangerous and she did not want to worry anyone and not at all because she kind of secretly liked the feeling.

"I uh.. I'm Frosta.." the ice princess said blinking. still stunned about being blindsided by the girl. It took a few seconds for the shock to subside but once she was able to process what happens Frosta got a little mad "Hey wait a minute. What did you tackle me for!?" The ice princess glared trying to look mad but couldn't really commit as well as she could with another certain magicat but she couldn't let herself look weak here, she had to keep up her cold appearance.

"Cause you're cute!" Kaita answered, swaying her tail and giving the downed Frosta a cat smile causing the girl to blush."

"Kai when I said to go talk to her I didn't mean bowl the girl over." Catra sighed and shook her head. "My apologies Princess Frosta I didn't expect her to be so forward." Catra pulled her sister off of Frosta and extended her hand in a gesture to help the Snows princess up but the latter refused to take it and stood up on her own "

"I am fine princess D'rilluth…" Frosta said in a cold, direct manner. "Although a pounce by one of your subjects is hardly the biggest thing you need to apologize for, and having Adora keep an eye on me was extremely distrustful and petty. I was hoping you would have more tact then that.”

"Okay I'll admit you're right on needing to apologize." Catra agreed, surprising Frosta Adora and Kaita all at once with how easy it was for her to admit her fault. "I'm sorry about the Princess Prom, I was only seeing it as an opportunity to mess with Adora and further my plans in the Horde. It took until I met Kaita for me to really get what that experience must have been like for you with how I ruined your party… At the time I only saw you as the enemy, not as a kid hosting her first big party and I'm sorry about that, but that was my doing, my screw up. Please don't blame Halfmoon for my stupidity and thoughtlessness. I hope you can at least enjoy your time here as a way of me making up for it.”

“You have a lot to make up for, and don’t think I won't be paying you back for that!” Frosta glared at Catra. “But here is not the right time, and like you said my grudge is with you not Halfmoon. Besides, I'm not stupied enough to do anything during a coronation that's just asking to start a war.”

“Yeah, that's about what I figured snowflake.” Catra responded. “But just for the record I didn't ask Adora to keep tabs on you. That was her own doing.The Magicat rolled her eyes at the thought of the blonde attempting to sneak around in a room filled with magicats who all had sensitive hearing, she just came off as looking like an idiot. “I’m not even sure what your plan was Princess, were you going to tackle her into a wall like you did to me?” everyone but Adora had to laugh a bit at the ridiculous thought.

“I was just trying to make sure nothing was up!” Adora whined trying to defend herself. “I didn't want anything to ruin the special day for you.” The princess of power huffed a little in embarrassment as oldest friend was laughing at her expense but she was also relieved no one was planning sabotage and that Catra was safe to enjoy the day, and really just being able to see Catra benign happy was more than Adora ever thought possible a few short weeks ago.

Before Catra could say anything in response to the dork, trumpets blared through the Ballroom directing everyone's attention to the thrones where the King and Queen had risen.

“Honored Guests,” Leondus spoke in a loud booming regal tone that one would not expect from the jovial man. “It is with great honor that I announce that it is time for the main event of coronation!” the king motions for Catra to come to the middle of the room. Catra steeled herself and approached the rooms center directly below an image of the Catseye Sunstone that was located on the ceiling.

“Princess Catra Cyra Tigra Applesauce Meowmeow D’rilluth III, Princess of Halfmoon. Do you agree to take on the mantle of Elemental Princess and the responsibility it power bears?” Leondus Questioned.

“I do,” Catra Responded with a nod.

“And do you promise to defend your kingdom and its people from all who may threaten their freedom and way of life?” Asked the king.

“I do.” Catra affirmed, resolute in her conviction.

“Then it is with Great Pride that I bestow upon you the title of Elemental Princess of Halfmoon, now you need only attune to your birthright.” The king smiled and nodded to Cyra.

Leondus lifted his ancient blade and pointed it at the image of the runestone As Cyra Wlak over to him and gripped onto the hilt as well. The two channeled their energy into the blade, and the sword began to pulse, and double in length looking more like a proper longsword than a dagger. The crimson gem embedded in the guard began to glow and looked as if a cat's eye was opening within the gem. Mere moments later a beam launched from the tip of the sword hitting the image of the runestone dead on and the ceilling was engulfed in a bright light.

The Bright light of the ceiling twisted and shifted into the shape of a long spiral before fading away. All the visiting princesses, the Best Friend Squad, and Catra herself looked up in awe. The entire ceiling of the ballroom was gone, in its place was a large spiral tower of a staircase leading up to the the real Catseye Sunstone. Catra took another deep breath and began to ascend the steps, all eyes were on her.

As she continued to climb the magicat princess began to notice a slight raise in the temperature. She remembered hearing from her mother and father how the stone granted light and warmth to the denizens of Halfmoon but the closer she got to the runestone the brighter and hotter the area became.

Catra got herself all the way to the top of these stair into the sanctum of the runestone. The air was unbearably hot, the sweat on her brow immediately evaporated the presence of the incredible heat and near blinding light. For a moment Catra was worried this might be a mistake, that the stone wouldn't accept her and that all she would just end up as a failure and ridiculed, but only for a moment. Catra walked forward, placed her hands on the stone and let the magic flow into her.

Hot… Hot was the only word Catra could use to describe the attunement process. When the magic went into her body it felt as if every last muscle bone nerve and organ had super heated at once. Every cell of The magicates benign was getting unbelievably toasty in ways she never thought possible to feel, it was as though she was being cooked alive. But Catra did not scream. She did not attempt to stop the attunement, because despite this hot feeling, Catra felt no pain from it. It was as if the heat and her heartbeat were one in the same, that this warm feeling was a part of her, a part that was always there but also separated.

Catra breathed In and out alimenting to the feeling before the hot surge dwindled down to constant relaxing warmth. She looked down at her hand and began to concentrate. she willed this new power, this heat to her hand, and with it her palm formed a small orb of flames. Catra smiled at the orb and began to descend the steps back to the party. As the Newly Crowned Princess of Halfmoon; The Princess of Flames.

Chapter Text

Catra descended the magical staircase tower eachstep she took dissipated the way behind her the stairs reforming back into the ballroom ceiling. As she walked down the steps the Halfmoon princess decided it would be a good idea to flex her new ability for those who were unable to see her at the top of the tower and let her magic ignite. Catra was soon cloaked in a wreath of orange flames causing a mix of gasps and cheers to erupt from the crowd at once.

As for the royal family, they each smiled and let out a content sigh simultaneously. The King Queen and younger princess each allowed their magic to flow once again. Leondus's fur now looked as though small embers of fire were sprinkles across his body the warm orange brightening his chestnut fur and mixing well to color his blonde hair. Queen Cyra's Mane flecked with embers and her eyes burned a brighter gold and she gave of a warm aura. As for Kaita her hair stuck up more on the Image of a flickering flame and the tip of her tail ignited into a warm orange room temperature flame looking like a lion tail tuft. It Was as if all three three were all sucking in their gut since Catra's arrival and now that she had attuned they no longer needed to be restrained.

"Your tail's on fire!" Frosta shouted and got ready to blast Kaita's tail with ice.

"Yeah I know! isn't it pretty?" Kaita smiled and nuzzled closer to the Ice Princess. "It felt so boring keeping the flame off till sis attuned but now I can use my fire again!"

"Wait a minute, sis?" Frosta questioned. The wheels spun in the girls head until she blurted out a shock. "Catra's your sister!? That means your-"

"Princess Kaita D'rilluth!' the young magikitten princess smiled and bowed. "Now shush it's time for the next part!'

"Now that Princess Catra has successfully attuned to the sunstone, it is time for the second part of the coronation to begin." Cyra announced to the crowd. The queen looked to her daughter beaming with joy and pride. "Are you ready?" Catra nodded and approached the stage that was set up for her.

"Hey everyone." Catra spoke into the microphone, behind her Scorpia and Entrapta were already setting up their instruments ready for what was to come. " So as I stated earlier I am Princess Catra D'rilluth III, though most of you may know me better as Force Captain Catra, the leader of the Seagate attack, or most notably,,,the Prom Bomber… I know the things I did at those times were wrong and I'm sorry. But that is in the past now, as part of the coronation a princess of Halfmoon is to put on a performance to inspire her people. Let this serve as my promise to protect Etheria, and that together we will bring Hordak to his knees and dismantle the Horde!"

Cheers and applause rang out from the speech. Catra took the time for the cheering to settle down and took a breath letting the fire inside her grow and prepared herself. The soft notes of the keyboard began to play as the lights dimmed. Now with her determination flaring as well as her magic, the Magicat Princess began her song.

"We're warriors.. Unstoppable… hmmm~".

The somber notes melded with the fading lights giving off a palpable aura.

"We feel the evil comin',"

Catra sang out.

"And shadows all around."

Catra looked to her sides as if to gaze at the encroaching darkness.

"Danger surrounds us, but won't bring us doooown."

The lights had completely faded at this point leaving only the echo of Catra's music to fill the void.

"We're on the edge of greatness…. Turning darkness to liiiight."

Catra snapped her fingers producing a small candle flame that rested on the tip of her pointer finger granting the audience a point to fixate on.

"We're right beside you, ready to fiiiight."

The flame danced around the room as Catra sang lighting strategically placed torches throughout the room.

"We must be strong!"

Catra bellowed out and the torches started flaring up in response echoing her last word.

"And we must be brave!"

The torches once again flared and echoed.

"We gotta find every bit of strength that we have and never let it gooo!"

Catra reached out into the audience as she sang, her arm right in front of Adora. The blonde blushed but took the cue and grabbed on and pulled herself onto the stage.

"We're Bound to This Struggle."

Catra pulled Adora up next to her and subtly tapped on her arm guard.

"With Mighty Sword and Flame."

Having taken the hint Adora brought out the sword of protection and Catra timed the release perfectly with a ball of fire of her own.

"We'll never fail you when you call our naaaame."

The fire quickly wrapped itself around the blade giving the sword of protection a majestic mix of orange blue and gold color for the audience to see. Adora herself was transfixed on the beauty of the sword until the even more beautiful trills of Catra's song broke the spell.

"Together we'll be heroes. Joining forces as one.."

Catra laced her fingers with Adora's and the two spun in a slow single rotation ending with Catra letting go and placing her other hand on the hilt of Adora's sword holding the weapon alongside her friend.

"Strong as the steel we carry, we rise like a suuuuun!'

Catra then rose the blade up guiding Adora in the movement, at which point the fire arose from the sword forming onto a small glowing orb in the air illuminating everything in the room in a warm glow. At that point Catra flip the sword blade down and impaled it into the floor.

"We must be strong! And we must be brave!"

Catra sang louder than ever. She stepped forward bathed in the light of the miniature sun. She felt her emotions rise and bubble to the surface and just let them all loose into her voice.

"We gotta find every bit of strength that we have and never let it go!!!"

The music went into a low guitar rift and Catra turned to Adora her hand up in the starring position for a dance.

Just like that Adora felt herself back at Princess Prom, not this time there was no taunt, no games, Catra smiles at her softly in a way Adora would almost mistake for love.

She loved Catra so much but she has accepted that even if those feelings were once returned, after all the hurt they had put each other through she would be content just having Catra as her friend once more. She would not risk jeopardizing that for her own longing. But even still her crush was offering her a dance in the middle of a wondrous song, how could Adora ever refuse?

The two danced flawlessly to the beat of the song, and as the lyrics returned Catra sang just as impressively while looking only at Adora.

"'Cause we're warriors, we are unstoppable, nothing's gonna get in our way."

Catra continued the dance gazing at Adora's face in the sun's light. Were it not for the Magicat's steely resolve she would have tripped and tumbled from. her gay panic looking at and being this close to the woman of her dreams. And that sexy red dress that matched her own crimson and orange tux perfectly did not help in that matter.

Next came the dip, Catra executed the move on Adora with the utmost grace and splendor but she was finished with just a dip. No she would not back down, it was now or never so might as well be now. She thought to herself.

"We're gonna win in the end~..."

Catra sang much softer and went in for the kiss..

Sparks were definitely flying when the lips of Adora and Catra locked. The two were basked in a prismatic aura of magic Adora had transformed into She-ra without the sword. Then the lights had faded. The girls were nearly deffened by the cheers, screams and applause of the crowd. (As well as "I Freaking Knew It!" From Frosta.)

They both looked so into each other eyes filled with love. Yes love they could finally, truly accept reality.. They loved each other and they always have.

Still high in the afterglow of their kiss Catra looked over the crowd and sang once more.

"We must be strong!"

"And we must be brave!"

But it was not Catra but Adora who sang the line grinning. The lovers nodded and continued. the song in tandem.

"We gotta find every bit of strength that we have and never let it go!"

"We must be strong!"

"And we must be brave!"

This time the girls swapped verses still holding onto each other like they were The last two people on the planet.

"We gotta search inside, stand together and fight and never let it gooooo!"

Catra sang going as high as she could on the last note before lowering to her natural voice for the ending.

" We must be stroooong…"

Catra looked over at the love of her life and smiled lovingly.

"Hey Adora…"

"Hey Catra..." Adora smiled back the She-ra form fading. "You love me, how embarrassing for you."

"You're such an idiot." Catra laughed, smiling at the love of her life. "But yeah I love you Adora, I always have."

"I love you too," Adora replied, her eyes glistening with tears of joy.

And in that moment nothing else mattered, not the war, not the princess,not titles, or duty just each other.

Chapter Text

The music faded to silence as the two held each other in their arms neither one wanting the moment to end, but alas time moves forward. And the two quickly found themselves assaulted by a glittery pink flash and tackled into a hug.

"That was amazing!" Glimmer cheered as she hugged the two. "Where did you learn to sing like that!?"

"Pshh it was nothing." Catra scoffed. "It's just a normal singing voice."

"No she's right Catra." Adora smiled. "I never knew you could sing so well."

"I must agree with Adora, you sang so brilliantly." Angella smiled, shocking everyone with her sudden presence.

"Mom, when did you get here?!" Glimmer squeaked out having teleported a bit in surprise by her mother being in Halfmoon with no fanfare or announcement.

"Did you truly think I would miss my own goddaughter's coronation?" Angella asked coyly with a smirk, something almost legendarily absent from her known expressions.

"What's a goddaughter?" Adora asked. Her head tilted in confusion.

"Goddaughter simply means that if anything were to happen to Cyra and Leondus I promised to be the one to take care of Catra and raise her as my own." Angella answered with a gentle smile. "Just as Cyra agreed to do the same for Glimmah."

"But to get back on topic." The immortal angel turned to Catra whose ears were folded back like a kitten trying to make herself look smaller under all the attention she was receiving. " You did a wonderful job princess Catra, and I wish you and Adora the best."

If Catra wasn't already blushing like an idiot In love those comments would have made her do so. As she looked out over the crowd of people she was enamored by all the claps and cheers from Magicat and Etherian alike.Catra was having a hard time believing the praise was real. For so long she had been denied such a thing yet here it was in spades. And not only that, but the once force captain now princess had a family that cared for her, a kingdom that respected her, and most importantly Adora as her girlfriend who loved her with the same white hot intensity of a thousand Suns that she herself felt for her blonde idiot best friend.

"Etheria to Catra? Hey you still there, come on!" Catra was broken out of her daydream by a small hand gripping onto her own. She looked down to see her baby sister trying to pull her to a table.

"Come on sis we still gotta do cake and presents!" The little magikitten shouted while continuing to pull on Catra and guiding her to the table where all of the royal guests were sitting with a large assortment of gifts resting on the table next to them.

"All of these are for me?" Catra gasped looking over the table.

Presents were a concept Catra was still trying to wrap her mind around. In this Horde it was not unheard of for those growing up in the Horde to give each other small handcrafted trinkets forged out of whatever scraps the cadets could find lying around, but to be given large quantities of wrapped boxes filled with gifts for what felt like no earned reason? That was ridiculous yet here she was looking over a proverbial mountain of gift boxes all labeled for her.

"Of course they are." Kaita nodded as she dragged her big sister to the head of the table and into her designated seat. "Every princess gets cake and presents on their special day;" the little magikitten's smile and swaying tail (still sporting that tuft of flame Catra observed) was warm enough to melt anyone's heart.

Catra sat down and looked around at the seating arrangements. To her left was her mother with Angella next to her, then followed by Glimmer Bow and Adora which made obvious sense as they were envoys and well who else would dare sit next to the queen of Brightmoon other than Glim-Glim.

Rounding out the left side were Entrapta Scorpia and Perfuma. Scorpia in particular looked quite happy at the arrangement, chatting it up with both girls, and Catra could swear by the way the scorpioni's tail was moving and the subtle yet rapid shifts of her carapace that she had some feelings for the flower girl. Catra wondered for a moment if her mother had picked up on the two and placed them together in the seating on that principle.

To her right was her father, next to him was Kaita who managed to get Frosta to sit next to her. Catra smirked internally at setting those two up. Next to the ice princess was Rai followed by Yin, the two cousins clearly annoyed by the arrangement which honestly made Catra want to laugh a little but she managed to keep her decorum. Next were Spinnarella and Netossa, and if she was being honest she didn't really have an opinion on the two. The last two sat at the table were Mermista and Sea Hawk who were sitting across from each other opposed to being adjacent.

"So um..now exactly does this work?" Catra asked, looking to her mother for guidance.

"Well would you like to start with? The cake or the presents?" The queen responded with a question of her own.

"Cake I guess?" The Magicat princess replied. She was still having her mind blown by the amount of gifts she was about to receive and wanted to take a little time to collect herself and the cake would provide a much needed time buffer.

Cyra spoke to the head chef and soon the catering staff wheeled in the largest cake Catra had ever seen. It stood a good 3 feet tall made of an egregious amount of layers, decorated in artisan level craftsmanship of icing design the top of Which featured a small marzipan sculpture of Catra herself with a candied Sunstone atop that. As for the drinks all but the two youngest members were given glasses of Halfmoons best wine. The children and Adora at both Glimmer and Angella 's request were given sparkling juice.

The cake was delicious and worked as a good distraction to help her settle down after seeing all of the gifts, letting her not end up being an emotional mess. But what really helped her was seeing Adora scarf down the cake like no tomorrow. Just seeing her idiot do anything endearing had a whole new light to it now and filled her stomach with a nice butterfly feeling.
After the cake was done it was finally time for the presents. As tradition dictated her immediate family would give her the first gift.
From her parents she received a beautifully sewn cloak emblazoned with the Halfmoon Royal crest on the back of it. It was something she knew she would be wearing a lot when on dignitary mission.

From Kaita she got a dead rabbit stuffed and tied up in a bow. This one got a fair amount of yelps out of the guests save for Adora who found it heartwarming. Apparently Cyra had allowed Kaita to go to the surface under her supervision and the kitten had actually hunted and stuffed the little trophy herself. That only made Catra cherish it even more.

Glimmer and Angella gave her a black whip that was made of some sort of hide that while could be set on fire, would resist the heat effectively giving the girl a nice mid ranged weapon to practice with.

After that she got a handcrafted figured of herself from Bow, A sparkly silver ball of thread that Spinnarella and Netossa made by combining their powers it took a lot of willpower for Catra not to get lost on playing with it right then and there, Yin gifted her an ornate ring carved out of aquamarine with the Halfmoon sigil engraved on it. From Rai she received a battleaxe. From Seahawk and Mermista, but mostly Seahawk she got a supply of fireworks.And for Frosta gift to her the snows princess redacted her banning from the ice kingdom. And lastly there was Adora's gift.

"The next one is from me." Adora said sheepishly. "I um I hope you like it."

Catra rolled her eyes and smiled as she looked at the haphazard wrapping job laid in front of her. No matter what Adora decided to give her she knew for a fact she would already love it and began to shred into the paper.

The paper peeled away to reveal a fairly sizable velvet box, soft and warm to the touch. The material peaked Catra's curiosity even further and was now quite intrigued on what Adora found that would merit such packaging. Her mind was swimming with all sorts of possibilities. Though knowing Adora she anticipated some kind of weapon, or strategy book, or maybe something silly like a handmade coffee mug. Catra opened the box and just stared. Nothing she had thought of could have prepared her for the correct answer.

As Catra slowly lifted the object into view revealing A gold, aquamarine and ruby emblazoned collar.

The gift was met by a myriad of reactions. Spinnarella and Netossa both just gasped and put hands over their mouths at the sight. Mermista gave out a while as the sheer brazenness of the gift. Kaita squealed, shaking Frosta who looked lost at what the heck was going on, while the mouselings seemed nonplussed by the gift instead just watching all the reactions. As for her own mother and father, they reeled back in shock for a good few moments at the sheer absurdity and breach of edicate of the situation before their faces shifted to wide smirks aimed at Catra.

However the grandest reaction of all was that of Brightmoon's own princess and queen respectively. Both royals had just begun sipping their drinks as Catra opened Adoras gift. At the sight of what Adora had actually chosen to give her now girlfriend, both of them lost any semblance of control and performed a synchronized spit take, reducing the glasses in their hands to dust by the sheer force of the action.

"By the first ones Adora, it only took one song and dance and you're ready to propose?!" Glimmer coughed having regained her ability to speak after her spit take at the collar.

"No wait a minute!" Bow chimed in." It didn't even take that! Adora had that gift wrapped days ago! She was ready to pop the question BEFORE Catra's performance!"

"Dang girl that was smooth." Mermista smirked. "Didn't think you had it in you to make a move."

"I believe that means I am the one who won the bet darling." Spinnarella smiled coyly at Netossa.

"Seriously? I was so certain Catra would be the one to propose first." The gambling princess of binding grumbled and handed over some money to the wind princess.

"Propose? Question? Smooth?" Adora wondered aloud not understanding anything about this. " Okay, can someone explain what's going on!"

"Ahem what is 'going on' Adora," Angella began wiping her mouth from the morifying spit take. "Is that you have gifted Princess Catra with a Halfmoon engagement collar…"

"I-is that bad?" Adora stuttered, shrinking in her seat a bit as all the eyes were on her.

"Is that ba-" Glimmer began before shaking her head and groaning at the question.

"Adora..are you aware of what engagement is?" Angella asked with a gentle, non-judgemental smile.

"No, not really." Adora shrugged. "But considering how expensive it was, I can tell it's a good brand."

Everyone was stunned. Speechless at the revelation of the depths Adora's naivety could reach.

"I mean I just told the shopkeeper I wanted to get an amazing gift to my oldest friend…" Adora continued, the awkwardness she felt from the silence signified Roger that she needed to further explain her reasonings for said collar. " You know, that I wanted to make sure she knew how important she was to me and how much I cared about her. And well that's what was suggested, and then moment I accidentally said it was for Catra the lady than refused to let me pick anything but the "zenith of her stock" as she put it.``

The table was still silent with many of the alliance members having slacked jaws from Adora's confession including Glimmer.

From the head of the table Catra let out her trademark cackle unable to stop herself from laughing at the absurdity of the situation. The love of her life whom she had just confessed her undying love to through.a song and dance number punctuated with a in her own clearly unbiased and always correct opinion hell of a damn good kiss had managed to accidentally one up her by being her dumbass self.

Honestly the Magicat princess was a little disappointed that Adora clearly didn't mean her actions. But really something.like this was something Catra could easily see her idiot do, and that just made her smile and laugh harder to a point where her laughing was starting to unnerve the guests.

"Uh Cat? You okay?" Bow asked, concerned that Catra may be losing it from the false proposal.

"Wow Adora, engagement before the first date? Do I really look that easy?" Catra cackled and the rest of the table erupted into laughter.

Adora had no idea what was going on, only that it was clear she was being made fun of for some alien to her reason. "What's engagement and what does it have to do with tiny fruits?!" Adora yelled out her cheeks going red from the laughter. However her response only served to strengthen the laughing.

"Adora," Angella stifled her own amusement and began to answer. "Engagement is when people promise to be married to each other."

"What's marriage?" Adora tilted her head in confusion at the word.

"Yeah, I saw that one coming." Glimmer sighed with an eye roll grabbing a new glass to replace her partially vaporized one from the earlier spit take. "Marriage is a vow that people who care deeply for each other make to say that they wish to be together forever and be there for each other no matter what." Glimmer finished and poured herself a glass of wine and began to drink wholeheartedly, her mother not even getting on her case considering the event and Adora's...Adoraness being on full display.

"Ah okay." Adora nodded, processing the new information and coming to a new conclusion. "So does that mean Catra and I are married?"

Glimmer's second wine glass was not vaporized, instead it was atomized from the speed of the Brightmoon princess spit out her wine and produced a rainbow effect. "What?! No! No you what?!" Glimmer sputtered out in her coughing fit.

"Catra...did you get married to Adora and not tell us?" Cyra asked using mom vision to detect any lies. but this would not be necessary

Catra for her part was silent. He cackling ceased at Adora's query about marriage causing her brain to forcibly reboot after being overloaded by images of Adora in a wedding dress flashed through her mind. While this was happening the Halfmoon princess could do little more than stare, her cheeks red,and her mane erupting into flames startling everyone present.

"Well that's a new one…" Leondus stated as he brushed down his eldest daughter's main until she was calm enough for the hair to return to normal.

"Why'd ya think you and sis were married Adora?" Kaita asked still cuddling up to Frosta with absolutely no shame to the severe awkwardness it was causing the Snows princess."'Cause that's silly."

"Well because we promised to always be there for each other." Adora looked down and blushed both from the sweet memory and from the unintendedly pandemonium her questions had caused. "Back in the Horde we really only had each other so we promised to always look out for one another no matter what. That nothing really bad could happen to us so long as we were together."

The table was filled with a multitude of coos and awws at her answer as the guests couldn't contain their thoughts on how sweet that was.

"Adora, we were five!" Catra blushed.

"That is so sweet!" Bow gushed his eyes sparkling.

"Indeed sir Bow!" Seahawk said, putting a foot up on the table as he made over the top mannerisms. The two maidens' love for each other was fostered in flames of hardship. It is only natural for the two of them to have a love as bright as a mighty flame!"

"Ugh look what you did…" Mermista groaned. "He's going to be like that their entire trip back.. but like yeah you two are a cute couple or whatever."

"Data collected on the personality traits between Catra and Adora correlate to a very high compatibility." Entrapta nodded.

"I knew I sensed a deep unbreakable bond between the two of you!" Scorpia smiled wiping away some tears of joy from her eyes.

After this display everybody pitched in to help Adora get a better grip on what marriage and engagement was. And Catra would be lying if the look of mortification that etched itself on Adora's face as the full implications of what she had accidentally done didn't make her chuckle a little.

"So to clarify, no Adora you are not married to Catra." Glimmer exasperated.

Adora, whose face was now as red as Catra's was a moment ago slowly nodded in humiliation at her blunder. "S-sorry Cat I didn't realize what I was suggesting. '' Adora apologized but alsomwelf a twinge of sadness of learning she was not Catra's person. "I i can get you a different gift if you wa-"

"Who said I didn't like it?!" Catra interjected. "It's beautiful Adora there's no way I'm giving this back!"

Adora's heart did flips in her chest seeing just how much Catra liked her gift despite the mistakes she had made and smiles warmly at the woman she loved.

As for Catra she was failing to hold back a purr, well not fail as she would need to try to fail at something more like didn't attempt and that in of itself was still relatively new for her. However the smile that lit up Adora's face made her want to stop trying indefinitely just for the chance it may keep that smile going. As for the gift while she was a little sad Adora didn't know what it mean, not that she did know Catra was more than happy to keep it, not only was it beautiful but, if Adora ever asked her for real, she wouldn't hesitate to put that coller on for all to see.

____

After an event like that the rest of the party went much more smoothly as the main party died down and transitioned to the after party. Catra with Adora by her side had a meet and greet with a bunch of people from all around Halfmoon wanting to congratulate her. She also met up with the two historian friends of her father, and in doing so learned of their relation to Bow, and that Bow had been keeping his time in the rebellion a secret from the two. Many words were said ending with the three of them hugging and better understanding each other. In her opinion it was a really nice scene.

"I still can't believe arrow boy was able to lyw for so long." Catra laughed, burying her head in her girlfriend's neck. "Didn't think he had it in him."

"I know right, I didn't think he has the capacity not lie." Adora giggles and pet Catra's tail. "Bit it did make me think a little. You know, about families. And it really makes me think about how happy I am you found yours."

"Hey." Catra smiled and wrapped her tail around Adora's wrist. "You're my family too, but I know what you mean. And I'm certain you will find yours too."

Adora saw how Catra's smile didn't waver at all when speaking, it was as if to the cat girl finding her family was an inevitability. Adora wished she could be that confident.and looking into her best friend now girlfriend's eyes she felt she could be.

"I do hope I'm not interrupting anything." A voice spoke up next to them causing the girls to back away from each other in surprise. They both knew that this wasn't the Horde but some habits still die hard.

The voice as it turned out belonged to Angella who had a knowing smile plastered on her face. "Princess Catra, may I please borrow Adora for a moment. I have an important matter to Brightmoon I need to discuss with her."

"Sure auntie Angie" Catra nodded Not wanting to invoke the ire of an immortal angel, and also knowing she could trust her self appointed aunt. "just bring her back in one piece I just got my girlfriend and I'd rather not have her broken day one"

Angella laughed and gave her word ushering Adora to a more private spot of the party.

As soon as Angella had whisked Adora away Catra was approached by Mermista and Frosta both holding full glasses of water. The fire princess rolled her eyes with a sigh already fairly certain what was coming and braced herself.

"Don't tell me you are here cause the coronation is officially over." Catra deadpanned.

"Yep" Frosta said with a massive smirk with a snickering Kaita behind her to watch the oncoming revenge.

"Going to get payback back for the Seagate and Prom?" Catra question.with the same no shits given look in her eyes.

"Most likely." Mermista shrugged almost as nonplussed.

Catra looked at the two with a neutral face for a good 10 seconds without an ounce of worry or care. She had been waiting for this moment and knew her only response…

"Bring it on..."

Mermista began the payback by taking the liquid from both her and Frostas drinks and using her water magic made a large blob of water float over Catra's head. And it all deluge down on the Magicat soaking her through and causing Catra to let out a shriek at the wetness and chill of the water.

Catra used her fire powers to dry herself.off.almost.instantly but as she was not all that accustomed to her powers yet ended up accidentally flooding her fur getting a laugh out of the three.

"Alright that's it for me." Mermista shrugged and walked off. "Consider us even."

"My turn." Frosta grinned and cracked her knuckles in anticipation.

Catra readied herself expecting to be frozen in a block of ice but that did not come. Instead she did feel.the cold bitter sting of ice..but it was centralized to her bra and underwear.

"You froze my underwear?! Are you serious?!" Catra shouted unable to concentrate enough in the moment through the frigid chill to.that herself.

"Dead serious Prom Bomber!" Frosta grinned at her work and laughed a bit.

"Wow Frosta, that's really mean." Kiata laughed, cuddling the Snows princess. "Funny but mean."

"Hmm well I was planning on making her sleep with them chilled buuut…." Frosta explained to the magikitten. "I think this might be funnier.."

With a snap of the snow princesses fingers Catra heard a loud shatter. The chill of the frozen undergarments was gone, but so too were the undergarments themselves. Frosta had shattered the frozen bra and panties into tiny frozen flakes leaving Catra commando.

"Woooow" Kaita laughed rolling on the ground "That IS funny!"

"Yup I knew that would be a good way to get payback." Frosta boasted and rubbed a finger over the bottom of her nose and puffed out her chest neither preteen realizing Catra had gotten over the shock of having her clothes shattered and was now very VERY pissed.

"Yeah.. really funny.." Catra seethes as her flames ignited. In a swift fluid motion the angered Fire Princes grabbed the unsuspecting magikitten by the tail. And effortlessly swung her around it.

"But I think you forgot one important thing. you can't destroy property when getting even..." and with a single motion Catra whipped her little sister around like a flail and smacked Frosta dead center on the forehead with Kaita's own forehead leaving a very noticeable bump on each girl's head.

"Next time you wanna do something like that, have the common sense not to be in kitten flail range." Catra huffed.

"Noted…" Frosta gave a thumbs up with her eyes still swirling. "We're even...and that was cool."

And with that Catra walked off to wait for Adora.

____

Angella and Adora walk to a private area of the ball room and the avatar of She-Ra was a little apprehensive about the whole thing.

"What is it that you needed to discuss with me, your majesty, is Brightmoon okay? Did the Horde attack while we were away?!" Adora questioned and stammered

"Relax, Adora Brightmoon is fine." Angella smiled and gently put her hand on Adora's shoulder in an attempt to keep her grounded. "I simply needed to ask you some questions and I believed you would feel more comfortable answering in private."

"Okay..?" Adora looked at the Queen quizzically. "What are your questions?"

"It was not merely to assist in the coronation planning that I wished for you to embark on this mission Adora." The queen admitted. "I also wished for you to become more acquainted with the family structures of Halfmoon. And now that you have been here for so long and observed how families in general function, what are your thoughts on them?"

Adora was taken aback.by the question. She didn't know what to expect, but she definitely was not expecting that. "Well to be honest I'm kinda jealous of it." Adora looked away feeling a bit ashamed at the admittance of her feelings. "And also kind of sad… the way Catra's parents care for her, and from what I saw around the city how parents were always there to be supportive, nurturing, helping them grow… it made me realize how much worse Shadow Weaver was then I thought… and after the temple that was an impressive accomplishment to say the least." The ex-horde soldier sniffled a bit, starting to be overcome with emotions. "Why couldn't we have parents like that? Why did we have to get stuck with HER!?"

The next thing Adora knew she found herself wrapped in a hug of translucent angel wings with Angella looking at her softly. "What happened to you and Catra was terrible." The queen of Brightmoon wiped a tear away from Adora's eye and continued. "And while Catra has found her home once more, you are still looking for yours. And to that end Adora I wish to offer mine to you."

"Wh-what are you saying your majesty?" Adora stuttered, not able to fully grasp Angella's intent.

"From the moment you pledged yourself to the alliance I have watched you take on more than your fair share of hardships in the name of duty." The immortal being put her hands on Adora's shoulders and looked her in the eyes as she spoke. Furthermore whilst I was originally suspicious of your motivation I have learned how much of a strong, kind, brave,and honest young woman you truly are. I have seen you as my child for a long time now, but with your approval I would like to make it official."

"Adora Princess Hairpoof Greyskull." Angella gave Adora a loving smile as she finished her announcement. "I wish to adopt you princess of Brightmoon, and more importantly as my daughter."

Chapter Text

"Y-you want me to be your daughter?" Adora repeated Angella's words, still not being able to fully grasp what she was being offered. The queen of Brightmoon wanted her. "You don't need to do this Queen Angella I don't deserve-"

"No. None of that Adora…" Angella cut her of sounding both stern yet soft at the same time and placed her hands on Adora's shoulders. "Love is not something you earn. Everyone deserves to feel loved, to feel as though they belong."

The angelic being wrapped her wings around Adora to give her a light hug. "You deserve love too, Adora, you are worth so much more than what you can do for others." Angela smiled softly, kneeling down to be at eye level with the young woman."You are so brave, so kind, and so determined to help anyone in any way you can. It would be my honor to welcome you into the Brightmoon family."

"Y-you want me…" Adora gasped out like a whisper. Her eyes watering from the overwhelming emotions she was feeling "You really want me."

"I do Adora." The Brightmoon Queen smiled. "But that choice is yours to make. Whether you chose to be my daughter or not, I shall respect your decision."

The blonde warrior was still having trouble believing those words. It was something she never knew she wanted so badly until it was offered to her, but she still couldn't believe it was real. Queen Angella wanted to be her mother. She would get to feel the love and joy she had gotten to see Catra and Glimmer experience. And what made it feel extra incredible was the fact that the choice was fully her's to make.

No duty.

No destiny

Just her.

"I have one question." Adora said as looked down and tightened up her shoulders to make herself seem smaller as she felt a bit of apprehension.

"Yes Adora?" The queen asked.

Adora looked up, meeting her eyes. She looked afraid of her question being rejected. "Will I be allowed to call you mom?"

Angela looked stunned for a moment but then gave a soft smiled and brought Adora into a hug. "Of course you may Adora. Call me whatever you wish." Adora nods and smiled returning the hug to her mother.
--

The hugging went on for a few more minutes before Adora felt composed enough to return to the party and more importantly her girlfriend. The blonde warrior did not get far in her search however before she was showered in the pink sparkles of Glimmer's teleporting.

"I can't believe You and Catra actually KISSED during that!" Glimmer gleefully laughed as Adora blushed. "Your weirdness about her makes Soooooo much sense now! You were in love!"

"Glimmeeer!!" Adora groaned her face going flush being reminded of Catra's amazing song and subsequent confession of love via kissing.

"I mean wow, she must be good considering she made you turn into She-Ra and you then tried to give her an engagement collar." Glimmer continued unabated with the biggest smirk she could produce.

At this point Adora was tomato red and letting out whines of embarrassment. She was hoping for anything to shut Glimmer up

"Glimmah Twinkle Shining Shimmer Brightmoon!" Angela said sternly, her wings flairing up as she switched from gentle mother mode into strict mother mode as easily as breathing. "Whilest I'm sure you are having fun do refrain from antagonizing your sister any further, and could you be a dear and fetch Queen Cyra, and King Leondus for me? I have a matter I wish to discuss with them."

"Fiiiiine" Glimmer groaned somewhat loudly and teleported of leaving Angela and Adora alone once more...for about five seconds.

"Wait WHAT?!" The pinkette yealed in shock reappearing in shining pink light. "She said yes?!"

"Yes, she did." The Brightmoon Queen smiled fondly looking directly at Adora.

"He he… hey there sis…" Adora waved sheepishly at Glimmer.

The next thing Adora knew she was once again wrapped in a surprising hug with a tightly hugging crown princess of Brightmoon being the culprit. "Finally! I-I always wanted a sister!!" Glimmer was ecstatic about the news and hugs her new sister as tight as she could.

"Oh you actually got Adora to agree to the adoption?" Said Catra who had snuck up on the Brightmoon royal family and startling them all with her presence.

"Catra!" Adora shouted giddily. "Angela is my Mom and I'm Glimmer's sister now! Can you believe it?!"

"Heh took you long enough princess" Catra chuckled and swayed her tail in a way that it brushed against Adora's arm teasing her with the softness of her tails fur.

"Hey wait a minute.."Adora furrowed her brow."you knew about this and didn't warn me about it!" She huffed looking at both Catra and Glimmer.

"Well I didn't want to scare you off." Glimmer said and scratched the back of her head laughing a little

"As for me I kinda just overheard it." Catra said as she stretched a bit. "But honestly. I'm really just happy that they managed to convince your stubborn ass to let them give you a family… you really deserve one Adora." The Magicat princess said purring loudly as she approached Adora.

The soft moment was not to last however as the king and queen of Halfmoon were soon approaching the girls and the queen of Brightmoon.

"Oh Angela it has been ages since we last talked" Cyra smiled as she hugged her old dear friend "What do we owe this pleasant surprise."

"As if I would miss your daughter's coronation Cyra." The Angel smirked with upmost confidence. "However I also came across an old document that we had with written up and I believe it is something we should address."

Angella handed the document in question over to Leondus who promptly read its contents.

"Oh yes that old betrothal document." The magicat king said bemused. why I remember when they first asked us to draft this." Both Leondus and Cyra laughed with a smile fondly recalling the memories of that day.

"Wait what?!" Both Glimmer and Catra said in unison. Looking somewhat panicked as a results

"What does betrothal mean?'' Adora said blankly tilting her head hoping for a response.

"To put it in the easiest terms for you Adora," Angela began to explain to her new daughter. "A betrothal is basically the formal declaration fot an arranged marriage."

At the moment of that revelation both Catra and Glimmer went silent at first, ther faces went red in emberesment at the implication. Then becato panick and scream that they did not want to marry the other.

"I don't care what we said when we were four I am not marrying Sparkles!" Catra shouted her tail frazzling and her make igniting into flame from the high levels of emotion she was experiencing.

"Yeah no way am I marrying Bratra!" Glimmer added. "Besides the fact that she kidnapped me and had been the biggest pain in the ass of the alliance since Adora joined, did you see that kiss?! I value my life too much to get between her and Adora!!"

"Are you seriously still on my case about nthe kidnapping?" Catra shot Glimmer a quizzical glare. "I already apologized for that sheesh. And Bratra? Seriously?!"

"Oh oh that's a good one!" Frosta exclaimed having been brought to the loud bickering by Kaita who thought all the freaking out looked funny. "I'm absolutely calling her that now!"

"Aww that kinda mean Snowflake." Kaita said while simultaneously nuzzling the princess of Snows and trying her best not to laugh at the name. "Even if big sis can be a total butt lots of the time."

Catra gave the little gremlins a side eye and scoffed looking at the matching bumps on the head the girls sported from her kitten flail attack. "You girls know you kiss with your lips not foreheads right?"

Before Kaita could do more then hiss Cyra cleared her throat. That action alone froze the Magicat princesses in place neither one willing to invite thier mother's ire.

"Now then" Cyra smirked looking over to Angella after effortlessly cowing her daughters. "Angella could you please remind me how exactly the betrothal was worded?"

"Why of course" Angela stated in the same mischief as tone.
"it says that the eldest princess of Brightmoon and the eldest princess of Halfmoon where to be wed to each other when they came of age."

There was a moment of silence as almost everyone started to take in the true meaning of the words. Many eyes want wide with understanding followed y a few smiles and gasps untill.eveyone came to stare at Adora who looked deep in thought.

"Hey wait a minute!" Adora said with the gasp "I'm a Princess of Brightmoon now! And I'm older than Glimmer. That means I'm the eldest princess, which means..". Adora then looked over to Catra and gave a big goofy excited smile as if she had just figured out a puzzle.

At this point Leondus, Cyra and even the normally stoic Angella we're laughing wholeheartedly at their little prank.

"Ugh not funny mom!' Glimmer hrmphed crossing her arms.

"Yeah, Don't scare me like that when I've just gotten the girl my dreams." Catra said and latches heself onto Adora purring loudly as the blonde blushed.

"Hey mom? if Catra gets to marry Adora does that mean get to marry Frosta? "Kaita asked looking up at her mother with big pleading kitten eyes.

"Wait what?" Frosta broke from the laughter makeing sure she heard the magikitten correctly.

"Let's focus on one marriage at a time kit." Cyra said hesitantly as everyone else laughed even harder now.

In this moment surrounded by her friends, her family, and those she loved, Adora was truly honestly happy. But like all the other moments of happiness in her life it was to be cut short.

"Your majesties!" Shouted the Whitetail Mouseling princess as she scurried up to Angella and the Halfmoon royal family. "I Have dire news!"

Cyra put a hand on Yin's shoulder. "Breath Yin, what has happened?"

"It's the Horde!" Yin explained."I'm just got word from my spy, The entire Horde is mobilizing an all out attack!"

" The entire- where are the targeting?!" Adora shouted.

Yin grimaced and answered.

"Brightmoon."

Chapter Text

Several Hours Earlier In The Fight Zone

The clanging of machinery and roars of the forge rang out through the Fright Zone, The months following Catra's defection had been hectic. Shadow Weaver's folly of her absolute disdain and abuse of Catra had not only lost the horde 2 force captains (3 if Adora was being counted.) And the now newly dubbed Force Captain Lonnie found herself hammering away at some newly molten steel.

Something about working in the forge put her mind at ease, or rather allowed her to focus instead of getting anxious over her new responsibility. The rhythmic sound of metal shaping metal, the heat and scent of roaring flames, and even just the feeling of sparks and ash breaking against her skin with each strike made her feel more alert yet also relaxed her.

If Lonnie was being honest with herself, this was not how she pictured getting promoted. She was well aware that Adora was going to be the squad's Force Captain; she wasn't a fool by any means and knew full well the coddling and special treatment Shadow Weaver's favorite was given was all in place to make certain of that. However she figured that after a few missions and effectively conquering a few towns under the Rebellion's control she would be noticed for her efforts and be promoted the natural way.

Then Adora ditched them.

That act had sent shockwaves through the Horde. Shadow Weaver's golden child had defected out of nowhere and joined the enemy turned into a fucking PRINCESS and became the biggest pain in the ass that Horde troops ever needed to deal with. Then to top off this cavalcade of bullshit and fuckey, Catra; Adora's PET was chosen to replace the lost Force Captain.

Needless to say Lonnie did not take to that revelation well. And having to listen to the bitchy cat girl felt as if the squads was being punished for the defection and set up to fail.

Lonnie struck the hot metal harder as she thought about being forced under Catra's command. It was a humiliating couple of weeks to be certain, as it turned out holding grudges was a specialty of Catra's, a specialty Lonnie had found out the hard way after getting assigned to bathroom cleaning almost immediately after Catra showed off her Force Captain badge. Rogelio and Kyle also got lorded over by her though they more so just got stuck with the jobs she didn't feel like doing.

Growing up as the Shadow Weaver's wards the group of 5 cadets was trained much differently then the rest of their peers. Training missions were harder, tasks far more demanding,and most of all punishments far more severe if you failed. Well for everyone except Adora but the rest grew to understand that, after all she was the favorite.

Another aspect that became apparent during training was the pecking order and everyone's place in it. Adora was first in line for everything: rations, showers, equipment,and the rest of the squad was more or less tasked with pushing her scores up, opposed to doing the best yourself, and if you had somehow beaten her in any way… Shadow Weaver made it very clear it was not to happen again.

On the opposite side of this was Catra. Whereas Adora could do no wrong, Catra could do no right. She was the scapegoat, the pariah, the whipping girl, the pet. She was to always be defeated and demeaned whenever possible. Even in mixed drills with other squads it was clear how low Weaver's opinion of the cat was.

Lonnie recalled many instances where the opposing teams would cheat and bring full powered stun batons instead of the regulated training batons to the skirmish sims. Normally if that was found out your whole squad would be doing laps the entire day even through the mealtimes. But when this was done against her squad none of the strikes Catra had received would be counted against the cheaters. Incidents like this sent a clear message of Catra's place in the Horde.

Bullying Catra wasn't just the norm, it was also heavily incentivised. If you were caught ganging up on her and fights, or pulling her scores down with foul play, you would find your own ranks slightly improved and some extra rations on your plate.

On the other hand, being caught being nice to Catra was almost a death sentence. Unless your name was Adora, showing any amount of kindness to the kitten would put you on Shadow Weaver's bad side quicker then accidentally knocking over and destroying a case of her wine. Lonnie knew that one first hand. And while at first she thought it was pretty unfair to single the girl out like that and make her a lightning rod for torment just because she was different, after gaining 4 deep claw scars on her right shoulder for daring to talk to her and Adora Lonnie found she really didn't care about that anymore and was just happy that it wasn't her.

She remembered counting the days for the pet to fuck up. She awaited Hordak to realize he chose the wrong cadet to promote, pick someone else (herself obviously) and toss Catra back down to cadet where she belonged. There was one slight error in that thinking however; Catra didn't fail.

The moment Catra had taken it upon herself to come up with a mission, she executed it flawlessly. In a frozen castle, full of magical princesses, unarmed, and having all eyes on her. Force Captain Catra had managed to distract Adora long enough for Scorpia to set the bombs, kidnap a princesss, her obvious boyfriend, and let her and Kyle manage to infiltrate the weapons storage area and steal the magic princess sword. Then admittedly like a total badass trust fell into the ship leaving Adora dangling over a ledge by a hair pin.

In Lonnie's eyes Catra had proven herself far beyond just Adora's pet. She was capable, and for a moment the soldier had felt pride being under the catgirl's command.

And then SHE deserted as well.

Lonnie hammered away at the metal even harder. Sparks were flying off of molten slab blasting her in the face. It was enough to make any other horde soldier recoil back in pain as the burning flakes of metal splashed onto their skin. But Lonnie had no reaction, and she couldn't tell if it was due to her natural residence, or the unforgiving rage. Most likely a bit of both.

"Hey um Lonnie you got a minute?" A voice called out from behind Lonnie causing her to be broken from her thoughts and blacksmithing.

"That Force Captain Lonnie to y-" Lonnie started to say before turning around and seeing it was in fact Kyle behind her. "Oh hey Kyle what do you need?"

"Oh u-um Sh-Shadow Weaver order me to bring you to her." Kyle squeaked and stammered as if just mentioning the name of the dark witch was enough to curse him. "S-something about battle plans?

"I see…" Lonnie mused as she swung the hammer back down on the anvil rhythmically. "Then I guess it's finally time to get this underway."

Lonnie then removed the metal she had been working on from the anvil and quickly quenched it. As she rose the metal out of the cooling trough she grined in pride at her newly forged weapon.

What Lonnie had spent the last few hours forging appear to be long metal staff like the ones used in the intersquad sparring matches but adorned on either end of the staff were two large flat metal rectangles that both balanced and added much needed destructive capabilities to the staff. It still needed some work to truly be ready but Lonnie looked over her double ended maul with pride at her creation and left the forge to speak with Shadow Weaver, the dualmaul equipped on her back.

As she walked through the Fright Zone corridors she went by the skiff bay from where Catra had decided to turn traitor. The walls were still showing scars from the battle Catra had with Shadow Weaver with the burn marks of the lightning being quite difficult to repair.

The newly appointed Force Captain continued her walk to the war room and she kept being reminded of Catra's betrayal. And while she was still livid about her squad losing another leader she couldn't say that she was that surprised. Catra had always been treated like shit so really In hindsight it made perfect sense. She was still annoyed but she got her badge so Lonnie couldn't really complain about the results.

Catra's defection had more ramifications to the Horde then the woman probably ever planned it to. First was the massive amount of property damage her little battle on the skiff bay racked up. The lightning shocks that she had dodged had ended frying and destroying two thirds of machinery in that bay. That alone forced squads to work around the clock to repair or replace everything that was damaged which took weeks and exhausted many platoons from the sheer amount of double shifts it took. The second was the fate of Shadow Weaver after that fight.

"Force Captain Lonnie," the snide condescending voice of Shadow Weaver crept into Lonnie like a worm. "So nice of you to finally join us."

The war room was packed with other force captains and a few guardsmen. Lonnie could pick out Grizzlor Cobalt and even Octavia among the crowd but seeing all the senior.officers in one place didn't really phase her, she was on the same level as them now so they held no power over her.

"If you wanted me to be punctual you wouldn't have trusted time critical information with Kyle, Force Captain Weaver." Lonnie sneered back, not giving a damn what the woman thought.

Shadow Weaver glared at the wording.knowing full well it's true intent. Once Hordak had seen the footage of Shadow Weaver not only failing to secure the defecting cadet but also causing egregious damages to the Horde's Transport and armed vehicles he was the angriest anyone in the Fright Zone could remember seeing him. The moment the witch was conscious she had been brought before Hordak to explain herself. This failure coupled with bringing the wrath of the princess to their front door by taking the sword and the crown princess of Brightmoon hostage (that was really Catra's fault but Shadow Weaver stole the credit so she also get the blame) gave Hordak enough proof to feel Shadow Weaver was no longer fit to be is second in command and has demoted her to a mere force captain and forbidden from using the black garnets power save move a small shard Hordak bequeathed to her.

"Now that you have finally decided to show up we can get this meeting under way." Shadow Weaver continued ignoring Lonnie's retort. "Fortune has smiled on the Horde this day as Brightmoon was left undefended. If we are to capitalize on this we must act fast.

The witch proceeded to peer through the shadow spies she sent to the kingdom to show not only were the princesses nowhere to be seen but Angella herself was looking to be leaving the safety of the castle as well. "As you can see for whatever reason She-Ra and the Brightmoon princess are not within the castle. Hordak has ordered us to take this opportunity to take the capital of the rebellion and crush it's resistance once and for all."

Stunned murmurs washed over the other captains as they heard this unprecedented command.

“Attack Brightmoon “ Grizzlor “Are you insane?”

The dark sorceress sneard at the accusation but the yeti force Captain did not relent in his tirade.

"Even if the capital IS undefended, which I highly doubt is true." Grizzlor continued. "We would still need to get through those damned woods to begin the siege."

" Not to mention the size of that army we would need!" Lonnie exclaimed. "For a task like this even as undefended as you claim, we would need to deploy at least two-thirds of our available soldiers all armed with our best weapons and vehicles and well..you destroyed a large chunk of those tanks and skiffs In your fight with the traitor."

"SILENCE!" the former second in command shouted. Shadows writhed out from her being blanketing the counsel room in tendrils of dark icor the threatened to wrap around the necks of the force captains and drain the life out of them at a moments notice. "Hordak has place ME in charge of this mission and my orders are to be followed, Is that clear!?"

Thoroughly shaken and reminded of the mystical powers the witch still possessed the force captains bit their tongues at any objections they had of Shadow Weaver's orders and begaj making preparations for the oncoming invasion. Lonnie walked out of the room filled with rage at her own cowardice. She knew Weaver no longer had any authority over her anymore yet seeing her get angry made her freeze up just like when she was a child and it infuriated her.

"I need to go check on my side project…" Lonnie muttered to herself whilst sighing. "That should help me refocus myself…"

Lonnie marched her way over to Skiff bay B somewhat excited to see the progress of her new weapon. As she walked she made sure to take note of what vehicles the platoons under her command would have available and what she herself would need to work on, and what work she could delagate to Kyle and Rogelio…well mostly Ro as she had come to find Kyle to be just as useless at building and repairing weapons Tanks, and Skiffs as he was at combat drills. Honestly if it wasn't form having grown up with the guy she would have fired him so fast.

Lonnie kept on her path until she came across the beautiful work of machinery she had designed personally with Rogelio working on it diligently, and Kyle..tied up in a bunch of cables and wires.

"Rogelio, Kyle front and center!" Lonnie rolled her eyes as she barked the command.

To thier credit both boys stopped what they were doing and stood at attention.

"How did the meeting go Lon?" Kyle asked meekly and with a friendly smile.

"Weaver's forceing an assult on Brightmoon later today. We need to get ready to move out." Lonnie sighed as she passed on the orders.

"Today?!" Kyle yelped out so high and startled i.he sounded like her was squeaking from the shock.

"Yeah I know," nodded Lonnie. "But apparently the runestone was left undefended so we are striking while Adora and her buddies are absent." While annoyed at the situation Lonnie was pragmatic enough to make the best out of the situation. "Ro is IT ready for a feild test?" She question the lizard with eyes on her project.

Rogelio confirmed through sign.

"Well then let's get this underway." Lonnie smirked as she went up to the machine and got a full look at her creation. "Those rebels won't know what hit them…"

Chapter Text

The Horde is attacking Brightmoon?! How is that even possible?" Glimmer stammered as she shook Yin. "Brightmoon is protected by the Whispering Woods, its magic has always kept the Horde at bay. What changed?"

"And even if they COULD attack Brightmoon that seems like an awful idea." Bow quickly added.

"He's right, " nodded Adora. "It's the capital city of the rebellion, has a fairly large number of princesses living there, and is fortified against siege attacks. It's not worth the risk to go after Brightmoon."

"I fear Yin speaks the truth." a voice from behind Glimmer spoke out.

Glimmer in shock dropped Yin and quickly turned around with a sparklefist ready to assault the intruder. She was however met with sharp calculating eyes of a Mouseling garbed in lightweight dark clothes with a black tail.

"How did you-"

"Sneak up on you?" The Mouseling interrupted Glimmer. "Apologies your majesties, but it is my job to do so.'" The mousing gave a curt bow in the direction of the multiple royals.

"At ease Glimmer.." Yin commanded. "This is Kaz, my master of information and espionage"

"And what my princess says is true." Kazuo nodded dutifully. " As we speak the horde begin their assault on the Whispering Woods with the aim to cut a path straight to Brightmoon.

The best friend squad went back and forth on how or why the horde forces would even consider trying to launch such an attack and Catra had to be in agreement with them. It WAS far too risky, Hordak would never have approved of such a large commitment of resources unless there was some large advantage for the Horde to exploit.

Catra's eyes then widened in realization. "They know it's undefended…" she whispered out in dread.

"What?!" Glimmer gasped.

"Are you saying the Horde has spies in Brightmoon?" Added a panicking Bow. "Am I a spy!?". Everyone just gave Bow a deadpan stare for his outburst.

"No Bow you are not a spy…" Catra sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "But I think I know what is going on. Shadow Weaver has these weird shadow monster things, and I've seen here use them to track Adora."

"Like that weird stuff that happened on Mysticore!" Adora exclaimed.

"Exactly." Catra confirmed. "So using those she would see you guys aren't in the kingdom."

Yin took a deep breath. "Here is all we know so far from our spies. We know that this looks to be an all out push with every force captain our spy had seen in their time as an infiltrator in attendance for this assault."

The Mouseling raised a slab of rock out of the ground and proceeded to shift the surface to resemble the whispering woods, and the immediate kingdoms and townships that surround it. She then created miniature stone figures of horde soldiers and handed them over to Kaz who proceeded to place them all in key areas of her now battle map.

"Octavia and Grizzlor were put in charge of the east and west flanks respectively, and Vultak was put in charge of the rearguards as well as resupplying the frontal attacks force." Kaz moved the troops around the map as he spoke. " The vanguard is being commanded by a newly appointed force captain, Lonnie if my spies information is accurate."

"LONNIE?!" Adora and Catra yelled in sudden surprise.

"Sheesh really scraping the bottom of the barrel huh." Catra joked with an awkward laugh. " I mean it makes SOME sense considering I did leave them with two vacant spots on short notice.. but Lonnie though?"

"Hey at least it wasn't force captain Kyle." Adora teased causing Catra to almost double over laughing and shoves Adora back telling the cat girl to stop with the bad jokes.

"If you are quite finished…" Kaz spoke over the girls and continued. "Moreover It appears the one spearheading this operation and the one in command of the main forces is none other than the dark witch herself, Shadow Weaver."

The mention of the abusive witch's name shut the two up and caused a wave of emotions throughout the alliance members. A bit of fear but mostly rage as many of the princesses and their friends had scores to settle with Shadow Weaver. One princess's response was far different. Catra started to cackle. A dark deep sinister cackle.

"Cat? Buddy? You doing okay?" Adora asked worriedly. She had heard this type of cackle from Catra before and it was usually right before a breakdown or a rage induced lashing out. She still remembered how bad she scratched up the horde squad the last time she cackled like this and was subconsciously on guard. Meanwhile Kaita had managed to take her eyes off Frosta long enough to hug onto her big sister's leg.

"OH I Am just PEACHY!" Catra chortled. "So the Horde decided to attack,,, on the same day that I had my Coronation, and f-screw The best day of my life up!" The Magicat princess let out a growl of annoyance but still managed to catch herself from swearing in the presence of Kaita and walked into the stage once more to address all the visitors and magicats alike.

"Princesses of Etheria! Magicats of Halfmoon, may I have your attention please!" Catra announced over the crowd, getting the entire room to look upon her as she spoke.

"It appears that whilst we were all having a good time with all the Alliance princesses in attendance..The Horde decided right now would be the perfect time to go on the offensive and assault Brightmoon. And I for one think we should show them just how stupid of an idea this was."

Since arriving in Halfmoon Catra's ability to command a room with her words alone had been made quite apparent. With the attunement of her runestone however, that presence has been multiplied. As she spoke her emotions and resolve could be felt in the room as the air itself now heated up with her passion.

"Magicats, our people are a strong warrior race. In the short time I have been here I have seen first hand how devastating our properly trained are to face in combat. I know that for almost two decades we have been in seclusion because of what the Horde did to me. But now I am back and as a princess of Halfmoon I believe those idiots just gave us a perfect opportunity to show the world that we are back in action and moreover what happens to those who attack our friends!"

"And to the Princesses of the Great Rebellion!" Catra continued still building her fervor. "Let this be a declaration of Halfmoon's allegiance to the Alliance, and testament of our resolve to defend our allies to those who would do them harm. Let us strike now and show the Horde they picked the wrong day to start a fight. Who's with me!"

The crowd erupted into a fervorous cacophony of cheers, rallied by the princess's words.

"Okay so what are we working with here?" Catra asked the group as she looked over the battle that Yin had conjured from the ground.

"Our usable forces for this battle consist of ten princesses, some three thousand troops in Brightmoon proper, Of Halfmoon approximately five hundred warriors , two hundred fifty mages, and ninety healers. The two Queens, one augmented horde bot, a Legendary She-Ra, plus one pyromaniac sailor and a Bow." Kaz stated matter of factly ignoring the incredulous stares of the rest of the alliance. "Again I am a spy master, it is my job to know these things."

"Okay then.." Catra replied, blinking in response. "Do you happen to know how big of an assault force we are going to be dealing with for the fight as well?"

"I do.''Confirmed Kaz. "Each of the five divisions looks to be composed of approximately thirty platoons. From what I have gathered a platoons consistent of twenty squads and with each squad being about five or so members in addition to that there are approximately one thousand troops stationed as the rear guard that brings the total to-"

"Sixteen thousand…." Catra muttered, interrupting the mouseling."They outnumber the Brightmoon forces more than five to one and that's not even taking into consideration all the high grade weapons at their disposal, we need to move fast."

"Kaz how long do we have until The Horde reaches Brightmoon?" Angela asked in a stern voice trying to mask her worry.

"By my calculation at the rate the witch is burning down the woods I would say we have approximately half an hour before they reach the gates of Brightmoon if luck is on our side." The Mouseling answered the Celestial. "We need to formulate a battle plan and quickly."

The princesses all took in the information and started throwing out plans ranging from nearly feasible to down right inane. One such example was Frosta's plan which consisted of making ice fists and using said ice fists to "punch Shadow Weaver." Which admittedly was a goal a majority of the Alliance could get behind if not for the battle plan lacking….
everything else.

As everyone was arguing with each other Catra looked over the battle map one more time. She could not shake the feeling that she was missing something and it was just nagging at her. She took a good look at all of the horde pieces, at each of the force captains and where they were placed within the ranks.

"Grizzlor on the west and Octavia on the east…. But why?" Catra muttered to herself. Something about this was not adding up.

Grizzlor was fine at doing his job but was often lazy when it came to formations. That is unless he was in command of a vanguard deployment unit. Under those circumstances he excelled at commanding brute force initial strikes to lower the opposition's Frontline force as well as their morale before dispersing his troops and opening the way for the main force to advance. Having someone like him on a more defensive western flank went against his combat style.

Then there was Octavia, and biases about her factually (to Catra) dumb face aside was far more suited to vehicular combat. Primarily naval forces obviously but in the horde if you were excellent in one type of siege engine you were at least proficient in others due to the universal layout of most of the machines. It would make far more sense to have her in command of the artillery units but from what the intel suggested her force was primarily infantry.

And then there was Vultak… Aside from Shadow Weaver he was the one Force Captain the Magicat would avoid at all costs. He was conniving, ruthless and worst of all would treat her like an exhibit. Most force Captains disliked her on the principle of her being an unruly bitch that would constantly challenge their authority, which granted she was a total bitch to anyone in command but once she herself had been made a force captain they did treat her as an equal albeit still disliking her.

Vultak saw her as an animal as he did most non-humans in the horde, he would constantly berate her for "speaking against her betters" and was well known for his discriminatory tactics against the horde hybrids. To the point that Catra was sure Shadow Weaver had something to do with his promotion.

Asides from that the Vulture-Man was more of a scientist then a battlefield commander, and Catra was finding it hard to believe that he would be brought out of his lab for this. That was unless there were some experimental tech that was being deployed.

As for Lonnie, while it felt like a surprise to Catra that she was made force captain somehow it was even more surprising to see that she was given command of the vanguard. In all scenarios she had memorized during her war game studies, force captain shortages or not Catra had never heard of a newly promoted untested officer being put incharge of such an important and vital position. That is except for one scenario in particular.

Then it hit her, it hit with such clarity. The obvious looking formation, strange choice of commanders, it all immediately made sense to her. While most everyone in the Horde always thought Catra was unmotivated and lazy in her studies, that couldn't be farther from the truth. She was in fact a prodigy when it came to strategic planning and battle tactics. And for the horde, that oversight would now cost them dearly.

"Adora look!" Catra shouted and pointed at the map. "This assault formation! It's a 19-85!"

Adora did a double take at the map, analyzed it for a moment then another looking over all the pieces then gasped. "First ones… Catra you're right! How didn't I see that!?"

"Oh yeah I heard about that one in Force Captain orientation." Scorpia added as she snapped a claw in realization. I've never actually seen one used in the field though, good eyes wildcat!"

"A 19whatsitnow?" Frosta asked, tilting her head at the two as Kaita clung onto her purring up a storm.

"Formation 19-85." Adora corrected. "A very infamous battle formation used in the Horde created by Battle Tactics Officer DiTillo Straczynski first used in the 4th battle of Greenglade during the time of the first Alliance."

Adora started to reposition the stone figures as she explained the stratagem talking as though she answering an instructor that had posed a question to her. "During this maneuver your opponent sees a standard horde battalions arranged and what would be assumed to be a typical full frontal assault."

"However…" Adora swapped around a lot of the pieces as she continued. "This is just a ruse, and when the other army falls for it and either rushes forward to break the frontlines or focus on their defenses and consolidate their troops against the artillery… they are instead faced with this."

Adora pulled back and revealed the horde forces in a far more spread out web like design have surrounded the facsimile of Brightmoon and encircled the Brightmoon vanguard units. To add to the intricacies to this stratagem with none of the captains still with their starting army positions, all of them had swapped regimental positions. "When pulled off correctly a 19-85 is almost impossible to counter and the opposing force is slaughtered."

"My word…" Angela spoke both impressed and worried of such a tactic being employed by the Horde. "I have to admit..it's an insidiously effective technique. And yes I have no records of this strategy used in Horde altercations."

"There are a few reasons for that." Catra explained to the queen of Brightmoon. "The first being when you have a stratagem this powerful, it's not one you would use ubiquitously. Historically it only sees use in taking over extremely valuable territory."

"What's the second?" Glimmer asked though she could tell she was not.going to like the answer.

Catra then closed her eyes. " The second reason is that part of the use of a 19-85 is the absolute eradication of witnesses. That way no one could warn or inform the hordes many enemies of the existence of the stratagem let alone find out the weaknesses."

"It has weaknesses?" Mermista raised an eyebrow. "You made it sound like that attack formation was invincible or something."

"Not exactly." Catra clarified "Adora said that if done properly aswell as having the element of surprise its pretty much unbeatable. And honestly the Horde was is right for the most part.. but if you know its coming or you can at least see it as a possibility of happening there are key weaknesses you can exploit."

Catra started to mess with battle map repositioning the Horde and Alliance forces to help show her point.

"Firstly one of the big issues is the required army size." Catra continued as she brought attention to the Horde formation on the map. "This maneuver requires *a lot* of bodies to be properly performed. Like Yin's spy master confirmed most if not all of the Fright Zone's standing army is being mobilized for this offensive, that's not just for intimidation factor it is because it requires 5 large sized battalions to make this work, and that actually brings up the next weakness of this plan. It had 5 force captains each controlling one of these battalions and as you can imagine if the captains were to be incapacitated the troops would be thrown into disarray, panic and break rank."

Catra flicked over a few of the horde pieces to Exemplify her point in the matter. Record reset into my new position to show her next issue with the so-called impervious attack of the Horde.

"And lastly, the 19-85's is a formation that relies on the opponent getting surrounded." Catra had the Horde pieces once again encircle the Rebellion. "But when you know that is coming you can prepare and instead of your units being surrounded by them…" Catra took a bunch more pieces for the Rebellion and encircled the 19-85. "THEY are surrounded by YOU."

Catra looked over at the princesses and queens who all looked very impressed by her actions. The Magicat's eyes locked onto her beautiful blonde idiot of an amazing girlfriend who was looking at her with stormy eyes gray-blue filled with unparalleled endearment, as well as the biggest dorky smile plastered on her face. Catra was unable to look away and could only.blush and purr seeing Adora.look so lovingly at her, she still could not believe she had managed to confess her undying love for her best friend and even more so that the love was reciprocated.

The two just smiled and stared at each other until a few quick flame igniting snaps from Cyra directly in front of.her face broke Catra out of the trance.

"Sorry, what was that?" Catra shook her head awake and drooped her ears back in embarrassment.

"We simply wished to know what you suggest we should use for a battle plan." Cyra answered her eldest kitten.

"You clearly know how the Horde would think better then all of us." Netossa added.

"Yeah Cy-Ty, how can we best kick their butts?!" Glimmer egged her on even more.

"Well for that I think the best strategy would be to divide and conquer." Answered the princess of flames.

"This will require us to split in to three teams." Catra continued and started dividing the units into three. "First group will need to be a small strike team. we need a frontline to get to Brightmoon to help command and bolster the troops."

Catra looked over at Glimmer. "Sparkles, how many can you teleport over there?"

"With moms help and including her maybe another 2 or 3?" Glimmer shrugged, not really sure herself, she hadn't teleported entire groups frequently due to how taxing it was on her. "But I'd require a recharge after that."

Catra nodded in acknowledgement. "Okay teleport your mom arrow boy and Adora to lead the charge. It will be close but yeah you should have the time to prepare and recharge before they arrive… and if we are lucky the other two teams shouldn't be long to back you up."

"Add me to that list!" A voice yelled out. Everyone turned to see Raizera fully clad in her armor and axe stepping forward to join with group 1. "You are going to need to hold back a tide of sixteen thousand troops and if you need someone to be an unstoppable juggernaut to hold.back an advance.. well I'm your Mouseling…. Also I owe queen Angella for making a mess of the garden last time I was there."

Catra blinked for a few seconds and looked to the best friend squad and the Brightmoon queen for any objections. She found none. "Alright then Angella Glimmer, Adora Bow and Raizera will be group 1. For group 2 Mermista and Sea Hawk I need you to take Nets Spinny and Frosta on your ship. You will provide naval support and give us a flank on the west side of Brightmoon and deny their forces any chance of using the waters."

"Kay whatever." Mermista said in a monotone voice and grabbed Sea Hawk to begin preparing the boat and stopping the exuberant sailor from breaking out into song.

"As for the rest of us." Catra continued. "Yin, I am going to need you to build us a big tunnel from here to Brightmoon, one big enough to move Halfmoon's army we are going to travel under the Horde and come at them from.below. Can you manage something of that caliber?"

"No problem whatsoever." The mousing smiled and started to shape a wall to begin the work.

"Okay every let movie time is against us, we gotta make every second count!" Leondus shouted in a rare show of punlessness as he began to rally the troops to the newly forming tunnel.

Adora looked at everyone getting prepared to fight then looked to Catra and sighed. "Had to split us up huh…"

"Yeah it sucks but you are the face of the rebellion if you weren't on the front lines they would know something was up and change up their plan" Catra explained.

"Yeah I get it." Adora replied. "But I still wish we had more time together now that well... you know. "

"Yeah I know " Catra sighed. "But i need to help lead the Magicats and i also will be able to use the time to practice a bit" Catra proceeded to make some flame appear to dance around.her fingers thougj she could still see Adora pouting. "And besides it's only gonna be for an hour topsthen we will show the Horde how much they screwed up day."

That got a smile out of the blonde. But Catra went further and kisses her on the cheek as a promise to see her soon. Adora was left a blushing mess as group 1 was ready to depart. then in a flash they were gone.

Catra took a deep breath and steeled herself as she walked to join her.family and the warriors of Halfmoon and the alliance at the tunnel. They all had a job to do and she had to make sure the plan worked. Because now The Battle of Brightmoon had begun.

Chapter Text

In a flash Glimmer, Angela, Adora, Bow, and Raizera had arrived right outside Brightmoon Castle. Moving so many people however put a lot of43u strain on the young princess she soon collapsed and exhaustion falling into her mother's arms

"I shall bring her to the Moonstone to recharge." Angela said as she caught her daughter. "And I shall leave the battle preparations in your hands." and with that she spread her wings and began her ascent to the Moonstone above them.

"I'll rally the guards for battle." Raizera stated. "The two of you spend this time getting your shit in order and figuring out our plan of attack, we got a fight to win!" and with a grin and massive war axe in hand she charged off excited at the prospect of facing the entirety of the Horde's Standing Army.

Next to leave was Bow. He had said something about making more trick arrows to help with the oncoming battle but Adora was not really paying all that much attention to his words. Instead her mind was consumed by anxiety and thoughts of being away from Catra. And somehow it now felt even worse than when they were on opposite sides of the war.

The avatar of She-Ra's hands gripped tightly onto the Sword of Protection as she felt the worry set in. She knew she and Catra needed to be separated for this gambit to work, but even so, after being stuck on opposite sides of the war and only recently being able to become reunited, and only just merely an hour or so ago become "engaged" as her new mother and sister called it ( that was another thing she knew she would need to process but one life altering event at a time was all her brain would let her think about) she couldn't help but feel dreadful anticipation mount up on her as the minutes slowed to a crawl whilst she waited out this feeling of the calm before the storm wishing that time would speed the heck up so she could not stop feeling all of this inner turmoil.

"Adora?" a voice called out pulling Adora out of her stupor. Adora looked up to see the tall imposing figure of Angela looking down at her looking concerned. "Is something wrong my dear?"

"I don't know.." Adora sulked. " I just.. I have been wanting Catra back for so long and I finally did and the last few weeks with her have been amazing and we are dating now which is also amazing but now.." Adora curled up with her head in her knees. "Now it hurts even more not being with her.."

Angela smiled and wrapped her wings around Adora with a gentle hug. “You are worried for the one you love, that feeling is normal my dear.”

“Well I hate it..” Adora sighed, her words muffled as she let herself be fully immersed in the first form of positive parental affection she had received in her life. “I just wanna punch stuff n’ not think l’bout it.”

Angela chuckled to herself, fully able to hear Adora's pouting as she spoke. With how strong and brave Adora was, and how responsible she was for taking on the mantle of The She-Ra it was easy for people to forget that under it all was still a young girl as Etherian as anyone else who was deprived of a childhood as well as the nurturing and love a child required. Something Angela was more than willing to provide to her new daughter.

“I understand exactly how you feel.” Angella said with a fond smile, reminiscing as she embraced Adora. “I felt the same way every time my husband would run off into battle.”

Adora looked up from the hug. This was the first time she had ever heard the queen mention her late husband since the time she had accidentally sat in his chair at her first Alliance meeting. “What was he like?” Adora asked. Wanting To know more about The late king. She knew it was weird but in some way she felt like she should know the man who were he still around would now have technically been her father.

“Oh he was reckless, kind, brave to a fault.“ Angella laughed thinking back to her love. “And above all he was stubborn. Once my love got an idea in his head he would see it through no matter the obstacles in his way.”

“So that's where Glimmer gets it from…” Adora smiled, beginning to remove herself from her curled up position. Angella had to laugh at that but could not deny how alike Glimmer was to her father. She was happy to see Adora was starting to pull herself out of her moping and continued to hug her new child.

Adora did not know how long Angella stood there and hugged her but she knew it must have been a while when a pink glittering flash over took her vision as Glimmer teleported into the room. “Alright I am fully fucking charged and ready to kick the shit out of the Horde's ass!” Glimmer cheered, rallying herself for the looming battle.

“Glimmah language!” Angella tersly chastised the pinkette before turning her head to Adora. “I do hope you are more polite when speaking than your sister is..” Angella softly muttered and prayed.

“I um..well…”

“We don't have time for this!” Glimmer yelled before Adora could even articulate a response, and yanked her out of the hug into a teleport.

When her eyes no longer saw spots and pink glitter Adora took In the new surroundings with a gasp. “Welcome to the Brightmoon secret armory!” Glimmer gestured to the area. “Well not really but this is where I store all the stuff that I scavenge from the battlefields.“

The room in question was covered wall to wall with more weapons and armor then Adora had ever seen in a single area save the Horde's Forge but this was still impressive. Bow had already made his way into the room and was fiddling with different arrow types while Glimmer was looking over various bludgeoning weapons and dawned silver battle armor. Adora herself wasn't sure if anything here would compliment her swordplay but gave a look around all the same.

“Glimmah…” The Best Friend Squad slowly turned around to the steely gaze and crossed arms of the unimpressed looking Angella.

“Mom um how did you find this place?” Glimmer asked with a nervous grin teleporting close trying to block the view of the hidden arsenal.

Angella raised an eyebrow keeping her gaze directly on Glimmer. “Did you really think I would not notice you were hoarding weapons in my own castle?”

“Yeeees?” Glimmer gave a sheepish smile looking a little more nervous. “Okay I know it looks bad but we needed to be armed incase of an invasion! I KNOW you are probably mad at me and I KNOW you want to keep me safe, but if my home is in danger i'm going to be out there defending it…”

“All this time I have been trying to mold you into a ruler like me, when it was him you took after..” Angella gave a small sigh and a soft smile as she teleported a runed silver staff into her hands holding it out to Glimmer. “This was your father's staff, use it well.”

Glimmer could nearly hold back her tears as she took hold of the family heirloom. It radiated strong magic and she could already feel a connection as if the staff was always meant for her. “I will.” Glimmer nodded and held the staff close.

For the next while the rebels steeled themselves for the Hordes approach. Adora knew by now that Shadow Weavers Umbral Spies would have relayed their return to Brightmoon to their master but she was hoping the Horde would think they were the only defense.

“Are you ready for this?” Bow asked, putting a hand on the shoulder of She-Ra's avatar.

Adora took a deep breath and nodded solemnly, gripping the sword of protection in her hand. “Yeah..Yeah I'm ready.” She confirmed looking out over the approaching sea of Horde soldiers, Tanks and sniper skiffs. Against a wartide of this magnitude the alliance was woefully outgunned, and outnumbered, but if all else worked the Horde would be the ones outplayed.

Angela flew up to the Moonstone erecting the barrier shielding the city from the oncoming attack. Leaving only small arrow slit sized lines equidistant intervals around her barrier that she could fire moonbeams out of if the enemies drew into close.

In the distance the army of horse soldiers battled skiffs and tanks rolled over the hills in a unified approach like a tide of darkness and disease spreading across the land.

“Thaaaats a lot of soldiers..” Bow gulped looking over the approaching wartide from the castle gates.

“Why are you surprised?” Adora questioned. “We knew how big the army was going into this.”

“Hearing a number is one thing, it's a lot different seeing Sixteen Thousand Horde Soldiers in person!” Glimmer shouted a little intimidated seeing how large the enemy force truly was.

Adora, if she was honest with herself, was also a bit shaken seeing that many troops at once, but she couldn't let that get to her. She was The She-Ra everyone looked to her for hope she couldn't afford the luxury of being afraid.

“Remember guys we aren't alone in this.” Adora spoke, putting on her commander's voice in an effort to raise morale. “Our Job is to hold out until our reinforcements arrive. We need to make the Horde think their plan worked, but we can still make them hurt while we pull this off. We fight like normal and hold them back.”

With the speech finished Adora looked to See the effect of a wave resolution wash over her friends and the Brightmoon soldiers.

“Nice Princess Speech..sis.” Glimmer smiled trying to add a bit of levity. “Mom will be proud once we get your Coronation underway.

“Wait, she said yes?!” Bow gasped. “I'm so happy for you Adora! Awww that means I'm the only one who's not a princess again.” He pouted a little but was happy nonetheless.

“I-is that really the time guys? we are about to head to battle!” Adora groaned, getting flustered, this having the effect of causing a bit of laughter to infect the army, lightening the tension a bit. “As for the princess bit, just let Catra crash a skiff with you on it. It worked wonders for us to become princesses.”

Bow didn't really want to explain that wasn't how being a princess worked so.r he just smiled and shook his head l.

As the BFS and Brightmoon Army readied themselves to engage the Horde's approaching infantry Raizera screamed launched herself forward at incredible speed bullrushing her way through the approaching wall of soldiers effectively splitting the vanguard in half as she tumbled into a roll and stood back up unscashed from them tens of troops she sent flying and bellowed to the heavens.

"My name is Raizera The Helmsmasher Blacktail. and I.." She swung her mighty axe cleaving through three soldiers approaching soldiers.

"..Hate.." She then uppercut one trying to grapple her from behind and simultaneous toppled over two more lines with a two foot kick before grabbing the unlucky son of a bitch who got uppercut by the legs and used them to sweep away a large swath of the forces before she caber tossed them atop a tank with the enough force to damage the treads locking that artillery in place. "Horde Scum!”

Raizera’s charge broke the building tension as the bulk of the armies on both sides shouted battlecries and charged forward into the fray. Adora looked to her sides, flanked by Glimmer and Bow who both smiled at her confidently before Glimmer teleported into the fight and Bow used a grapple arrow to launch himself upwards to a sniping position. Adora took a breath and nodded. She and her friends had a job to do if the counter stratagem had any hope of working and she needed to do her’s.

Adora steeled her nerve and rushed forward into the densest section of the Horde army, ready to fight. The Battle of Brightmoon had begun.

Chapter Text

Adora had come to realize the worst part about using a counter trap was that in order to make it work it meant she and her troops had to run headlong into the enemies trap knowing full well what was about to happen. As she swung her sword at the countless troops in her way launching them back into the masses, toppling even more troops, Adora had to mark her surroundings and make sure everything was in place so the Horde would believe their plan had gone perfectly.

It only took a few more minutes of combat before the frontline began to fallback while the auxiliary platoons closed in from the east and west encircling the Alliance Forces. Adora sighed and braced herself knowing that Stratagem 19-85 was about to commence.

With the 19-85 underway the Hordesman fought with far more reckless tactics in an attempt to overrun the severely outnumbered Brightmoon soldiers. They charged in with a fervor clashing thier batons agisnt the shields of ther defenders and firing if vollies of laser fire into the mass of encircled troops.

Glimmer was having to use teleport after teleport to keep from being pinned down by the waves of the Horde barely able to keep most away with her staff and light blasts. As for Bow, he had used up a fair amount of arrows, having used many of his sonic and net arrows to slow down the Horde's advancement.

Raizera on the other hand looked to be enjoying herself quite a bit slamming her body and axe into any thing that came near her. While she look to be pinned down she was keeping a fair amount of the western troops at bay and was preventing a full scale encirclement.

Adora was in a similar boat to Raizera. As the figurehead of the Alliance's military might many of the troops were focusing on her trying desperately to kill her, Adora however was not going to be defeated so easily. She channeled the might of Shera into the sword of protection and stabbed it into the ground letting out a ripple of magical energy knocking many of the opposing army off balance and leaving the soldiers open to her counter attacks which swept most away in a few swings.

Okay good we just need to keep their attention for a bit longer. Adora thought to herself as she parried a few more soldiers. While she could easily cut them down as She-Ra Adora would regularly hold herself back, opting to take her enemies out with the shockwaves of her swings, the flat of the blade, or simply just punching them out. Even though she had severed any and all ties of allegiance to the Horde, Adora didn't have it in here to actively try and kill any of the ground troops.

Force Captains and the like? She had no problem there as most of them clearly either enjoyed what they did or had angered Adora in some way when she was a cadet. But the rank and file freshly promoted recruits? In her eyes each one of them could be like her just confused and brainwashed by Hordak's propaganda never knowing an alternative. As such she did what she could to minimize casualties when she fought.

It was for reasons like that when Rogelio made his presence known on the battlefield with a roar that roughly translated to Traitor And and lunged at the princess of power, Adora did not strangle him when she grabbed him by the throat. She instead tossed him towards another approaching group to knock at least 5 out at once using her former squadmate as a makeshift bowling ball. And just by happen chance one of those 4 soldiers bowled over by the projectile lizard man was Kyle who In true Kyle fashion even while knocked out manged to fuck over his allies by virtue of his unholstered stun batting shorting out when hit electrocuting himself, Rogellio, and the three others unfortunate enough to be within Kyle's jynx radius.

As Adora took a moment to catch her breath, then out of the corner of her eye she noticed another figure charging towards her on the warpath. The figure struck at her and with barely any time to think Adora braced herself and transformed the sword of protection into a shield to block the oncoming attack. The resulting strike on the shield rang out like a gong blowing up dust onto the battle field as the force dissipated reverberating in a large area. When the dust settled Adora noticed a large double sided hammer had stuck the shield and the one wielding it was none other than the last of her former squadmates, The now Force Captain Lonnie.

“Been a while hasn't it Adora havent seen you since your little raid.” Lonnie glowered at her former ally and now enemy. “Or should I be calling you She-Ra now?” The newly appointed Force Captain spat and pushed herself off of the shield and prepared for another blow.

“Lonnie..they promoted you to Force Captain?" Adora steeled herself but couldn't resist making a jab at her foe.

Lonnie's eye twitched and she slammed her hammerstaff down on the shield. “What's got you so surprised? Someone had to pick up the slack for traitors like you, traitors like Catra! You turncoats have no idea how much your little stunts took a shit on the squad's reputation?” Lonnie was fuming and tried to push Adora back with each of her repeated heavy blows of her hammer strikes.”Everyone looks at Me Ro and Kyle like we are just waiting to defect all because of you!”

Adora gritted her teeth and kept blocking the strikes. She knew Lonnie would still be upset about the defection. But she had never seen the girl this pissed before, and never this determined to fight her. Honestly Adora felt it was giving credence to the notion that she was set up to succeed by Shadow Weaver and had never truly spared seriously with any of her squadmates save for Catra.

“Lonnie, listen, about what I said on the rescue mission…” Adora grimaced while barricading herself against the powerful hits of Lonnie's weapon remembering how she had also put her foot in her mouth when she last conversed with Lonnie similar to how she had with Catra looked, and was starting to think she just sucked at explaining things in the moment. “I know I said I needed to save my friends and I did, but you were right too. You, Catra, Rogellio, and Kyle were also my friends and I should have done more to try and get you out of there and to come with me…I'm sorry I didn't do more..”

The hits slowed down against the shield before slowly stopping. Adora looked up hopeful that her words reached her former squadmate only to hear her laughing wildly at Adora's words.

“Are you serious!?” Lonnie shouted in disbelief at the sheer audacity of the traitor's words. “You think an apology makes up for betraying us?!” The Force Captain swong harder and harder at Adora's shield letting her rage fuel her actions she pulled on her hammer staff and the weapon split into a pair of twin hammers.

“And then you have the gall to even think we would betray the Horde?” Lonnie hit again. “You have the arrogance and self-righteousness to think we would follow you?” The strikes of the hammers got more and more rapid as Lonnies anger grew.

“You were Shadow Weaver's precious golden child.” Another powerful strike from the hammer. “Did you ever even wonder why you always won everything? It's because we always LET you win.”

Adora buckled.back a bit from the shock of the words and the force of the strikes. “You let me win? I.. I didn't I wasn't the best by my own skill?”

Lonnie smirked and walked forward spinning her hammers reapproching Adora. “Oh please the Boys and I had to make sure Weavers little special snowflake always looked good.” She launched forward continuing the attack Adora bearly ablento block the onslaught. “But now I'll show you exactly what I can do. I'm done holdung myself back for your sake Ill make you regret ever throwing your Hordesman honor away! Both you and and your fleabag pet!”

Adora felt on the back foot, the revelation of the extent of the favoritism had her doubting herself and her powers wavered a moment. That was untill.she heard that last little words..and she saw red.

“Don't….CALL HER THAT!!!!” Adora shouted ther mystic aura reignighteng as her rage pushed Lonnie back granting the princess of power to reform The sword of protection back into its blade form and she began pushing Lonnie.back while nthe stand troops formed an ring around them as the two girls fought.

Meanwhile Glimmer was dealing witha very annoying and regretful agile flying force Captain in the form of an unpleasant vulture like hybrid known as Vultak. She would try to either telport up in the air and strike him or fires any light magic she could spare channeld through the staff Vultak only to cures under her breath while her enemy would easily deflect or dodge her assult.

“Ah so this is what Angela's spawn can muster.” Vultak muted both cold and cruely. “I must say I am not impressed. Though am still disappointed in how far the apple fell from the tree of angelic might .” He sighed then gave the grin of a predator having found its prey. “Oh but it is of no consequence i shall still gain much information once I have dissected the abomination.”

Glimmer needed to steady herself not shudder of vomit at the Avian's callous and disturbing remarks. Though she did feel a little vindictlated when a few of the soldiers she was fighting stopped and looked up at Vultak like he was insane. She let those ones go down with only a slight concussion from her staff while she continued to keep the flank at bay.

On the opposite side of the battlefield Bow was firing arrow after arrow incapacitating all the Horde soldiersl's he could see. He was doing well but Ammo was getting sparse and he as staring to resort to using his Namesake as a melee weapon striking the enemies upside ther head. Suddenly a large brown furred yetilike Hybrid leaped at Bow with a meancing smirk. Force Captain Grizzlor had entered the fray.

“So your the Moonstone princess's confident. The Marksman Bow.” The large beastial man smiled a big toothy grin with his razor-sharp teeth. “One of the big commanders of ther Alliance you shall make a good opponent. “

Bow had almost no time to dodge as a large beastman struck a powerful blow right where he was standing cratering the ground with his immense strength. At the moment, the Archer could only dodge the attacks. He had to keep moving He could not allow anything to prevent the trap the Rebellion had so carefullyplaced and entrusted he Glimmer and Adora and Raizera. They needed just alittle more time.

Shadow Weaver looked down from.her commanded tank at the battle below taking a sip of wine as her maneuver appeared to be functioning perfectly. Sure she had not expected her shadow spies to fail to inform her of the return of The queen the princess and her lost Adora but all were well within her scope of the battle. With the 19-85 in full effect ot was only a mater of time before Brightmoon fell.

The fight between Adora and Lonnie continued with great fury. The Sword and Hammers clashed off of eachother sending waves of force across the battlefield, pushing away many of the horde and the alliance soldiers alike. leaving the two alone in an open desolate terrain of rocks to continue the bout.

As Adora went in for a wide sweep Lonnie tilted back bending under the swing then hit Adora in the stomach hard with one ofthe hammer finally knocking The princess to the ground.

Lonnie water no time pinning Adora down and planting a foot on her chest with a hammer at her head. “Ha looks like you Lose She-Ra! “ Lonnie taunted. “Just look around your entire force in surrounded you and the fools that call you a friend are all separated and I have you pinned.
But honestly what were you even thinking trying this? Once the 19-85 was activated you should have surrendered . What do you even call that shameful display of tactics?

Adora looked up at ther moon ti very the time and smirked a Lonnie. “I call it a pretty an Good distraction…”

At that moment the land began to quake and tremble as large fissures, opened up around the battlefield as many horde sildi6 suddenly lost their footing falling into the deep chasem as Octavia's forces were suddenly swept up in large tidal waves. Wally, another ship of roads from the ocean. I'm carrying the p the princesses of water, wind and nets.
Also one very very flamboyant pirate.

The horde was in disarray as out of newlyformed tunnels came and Army of magicats all armored up and equipped for battle. As Lonnie herself looked around her in absolute shock she was suddenly hit in the chest by a double foot kick and Thrown back into a now raise slab of stone from the impromptu terraforming. Both she and Adora look to see who had struck her only to see a very familiar magicat who had only one thing to say.

“Hey Adora..”