Chapter Text
It was another typical morning in the Fright Zone. Adora and the others made it to the combat simulator as usual…everyone except Catra, that is; she was always was the lazy one. As the simulation went on, Adora was managing to hold her own against the training bots well enough, but got so distracted she failed to notice one sneak up behind her. By the time she turned around to see it, it was about to bring its shock prod down on her.
Suddenly, something shot through the robot’s chest, leaving a massive hole, and it exploded. As it did, Adora felt a fast movement above her head and looked behind her to see a figure land on the ground. At first she thought it was Catra, and it certainly did look like her. However, she quickly realized it wasn’t Catra. He (it was a guy) did have similar features to Catra: the orange skin, brown tail, claws, catlike eyes, fangs, and wild hair, but that’s where the similarities ended. He was far more muscular and was dressed in the standard training outfit. His hair was jet black, and while Catra had one blue eye, his was green. To top it off, a massive scar ran down his green eye. This was Catra’s brother, Makuta.
Makuta looked back at Adora: “Let me guess, she hasn’t shown yet?” he said.
“Yeah, well what else is new?” Adora replied.
Before Makuta could say anything else, more robots bean approaching. Seeing them, Makuta cracked his knuckles: “Well, she’s missing out.” He said to himself, and, letting out a lion’s roar, charged the bots. He soon made quick work of them, his claws tearing effortlessly through the metal parts, and moving too fast for them to hit him, until a pile of scrap metal lay behind him.
Moments later, the simulator ended, and the trainees began to leave, but as Makuta went to join him, he was stopped and called aside by a Horde soldier, who led him into a private room where he was met by Shadow Weaver.
“Hordak is impressed with your abilities,” she said, “Your combat and stealth are exceptionally good in his opinion.”
“Well,” Makuta replied with a shrug, “I do try my best.”
“And it will now pay off,” Shadow Weaver continued, “He has an assignment for you.”
Makuta lit up, “Really? Like, an actual mission?”
“Not just any mission. Hordak needs one of our best stealth operatives to find certain weaknesses in our enemies in Etheria.”
“Where?”
“You will be dispatched to the kingdom of Brightmoon.”
Makuta’s eyes widened: “Isn’t that the most major kingdom in Etheria.”
“It certainly is one of them, at least,” Shadow Weaver replied, “You will go in to find as many weaknesses as you can in the kingdom, and report them to us. Once we have what we need, our forces will go in and raze the kingdom to the ground. So, do you accept?”
Makuta didn’t even need time to think: “Sign me up.” He said.
Later that day, he went to find Adora and Catra to tell them what had happened. He had changed into his normal outfit: a black armored tank top and pants with black boots that had holes in them to let the claws on his toes stick out, and silver arm gauntlets, on the way.
The three had grown up together, and Makuta treated Adora as a sister as much as he did Catra, even receiving a wound on his eye protecting them from Horde recruits who were taunting them when he was young. Since that day, he promised himself that he would protect them the best that he could, leading him to exercise and train a lot from a young age, significantly increasing his strength, along with the rest of his physical prowess. Eventually, the bullies were too scared to even go near the girls, but that didn’t stop Makuta from training and keeping to his promise.
Soon, he came to Adora’s room, where she and Catra were relaxing at the moment.
“Hey, brother.” Catra said, noticing his entrance, “What took you so long?”
“Okay, first of all, you’re one to talk, like, where were you during the simulators, AGAIN?” Makuta retorted, “and second, I got an assignment from Shadow Weaver.”
The girls shot up.
“What?!” Catra exclaimed.
“You got an actual mission?” Adora asked.
Makuta nodded: “I’m going to spy on the kingdom of Brightmoon, and figure out what weaknesses it has so our armies can attack it.”
Adora ran up and hugged Makuta: “That’s awesome!” she said.
Makuta felt himself blush as Adora hugged him; having her hug him always felt…different compared to others, though he wasn’t quite sure how to explain it.
Catra, thankfully, seemed to take no notice if this: “That is pretty cool,” she said, “When do you leave?”
“In a few hours, actually.” Makuta replied, “but I gotta pack right now, so I was just stopping by to say goodbye.”
“Well, see ya later!” Adora said.
Catra walked up to hug her brother, “Don’t do anything ridiculous, okay?” she said.
“How can I,” Makuta replied with a chuckle as he returned her embrace, “I’m leaving all the ridiculous with you two.”
“Excuse me?” Catra demanded, pulling away. Adora just giggled.
“Well, I gotta go pack now, so see you gals when I get back!” Makuta said, running out of the room and into his own room a few doors down. Once inside, he immediately began packing together any gadgets and clothes he might need, and then took off for the hangar, where a Horde skiff was waiting to transport him into Brightmoon airspace. Shadow Weaver was waiting by the entrance ramp.
“Good luck,” she said as Makuta walked up the ramp. Makuta turned around and gave a small salute before getting on the skiff. Once he was on, the skiff took off and headed for Brightmoon. Sleeping in the back since he had decided to take a catnap during the trip, Makuta was jolted awake, when the soldier yelled back, “Alright, this is as close as I can get you without being seen, so you’re going to have to jump out here. Brightmoon is only a few miles ahead, so you won’t need to walk far.”
“Just get me as close as you can,” Makuta replied, “I’ll be fine.”
A few minutes later, the skiff stopped. The soldier turned back to Makuta: “Good luck, pal.”
“Thanks, I’ll need it.” Makuta replied before jumping out of the skiff, landing perfectly on his feet on the ground below. Once the skiff turned around and zoomed away, Makuta turned and ran in the direction of Brightmoon, and after a few minutes, could see its glow from the distance. Soon, he got to the gates, and slipped through with a group of travelers entering the kingdom.
Once he was in, he made his way to Brightmoon’s castle; if he was going to find weaknesses, he might as well start at the biggest symbol of power in the kingdom. Reaching the wall of the castle, he brought out one of his gadgets, a teleporter, and threw it over the wall. Once it went over, he hit a button on his gauntlet, and immediately was teleported to where the device landed. Thankfully, no one was there to see him. Makuta grinned and cracked his knuckles, purring in glee; now the real fun could begin.