Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Adora fell face-down down onto her bed, exhausted. The days after Horde Prime’s erasure from existence had been anything but restful in so many ways. Though most of Bright Moon’s citizens had evacuated in time before the catastrophic attack, the city itself was in utter shambles, as were most of the surrounding towns and villages. Small groups of Prime’s clones and bots, scattered but still hostile even in the absence of their master, stubbornly held their positions around Etheria. The planet - hell, probably the entire universe - had been saved, but was still far from safe.

Adora had been helping in whatever way she could, mostly doing musclework almost around the clock, reveling in the grueling Hordesque working hours. When she worked she didn’t have to think. And boy did she have way too much to think about. It was only during these brief moments between wakefulness and sleep that those thoughts started to gain ground in her mind.

There’s so much rebuilding to do.

I can’t believe the fight against the Horde still isn’t over.

And after Etheria, there’s only the rest of the universe to go!

I’m going to be doing this till I’m all old and wrinkly, aren’t I?

“Knowing you, you’ll find some way to keep working even after you die of old age,” came Catra’s sardonic voice from the door.

Apparently Adora had said the last bit out loud. She shot up into a sitting position so fast her abdominals cramped. She grunted and ruefully rubbed her aching muscles.

“Hey, Adora,” Catra said, causing a small, involuntary pulse of chill to shoot up Adora’s spine. She must’ve heard that very greeting a hundred times in the past few years, but was still far from used to the total absence of razor-sharp thorns and blood-chilling malice in those two words. If anything, Catra’s signature greeting was getting warmer and warmer every time Adora heard it, and she couldn’t help being just a little bit freaked out about it.

“Hey, you!” Adora replied in a very high-pitched voice and tried to twist her lips into a mechanical semblance of a smile.

They hadn’t had much time to spend together in the past few days. While Adora had been working on rebuilding and taking out pockets of Horde remnants here and there, Catra had insisted on returning to what was left of the Fright Zone. “To tie loose ends,” she had said, and nothing more. Adora was immensely curious about what Catra was going to do in their dismal childhood home which she’d finally managed to escape, but decided against badgering her about it.

“Get off my back!”

She could imagine Catra’s angry reply vividly in her mind had she pressed on. The mere thought made her heart squeeze; she didn’t want to cause Catra any more grief given how much she had already suffered in that damned place. As all of the other princesses had also returned to their own kingdoms to help rebuild, and because the ever-cheerful Scorpia had wanted to accompany Catra and Entrapta on their “Super Pal Trio reunion trip,” Adora had pushed through the trepidation of parting and convinced herself that Catra wouldn’t just... disappear again. And to her immense relief - and apparently terror - here she was.

“Where’s Melog?” Adora asked to fill the almost three seconds of silence that had ballooned into a dizzying vortex in the pit of her stomach.

“Making friends with Speedy... Wait no, Quick... Breeze? Your, uh, horse? Turns out they both really love apples or something,” Catra said and yawned with her entire body.

“Tired? Me too. We should go to sleep. Early day tomorrow!” Adora babbled, growing sweatier by the second. She heard a weird, awkward laugh issue from somewhere around where her mouth was.

Catra cocked an eyebrow at her. “You alright? Did you hit your head again?” she asked.

“I’m fine! But reeeeeeaally tired!” Adora replied and faked a very theatrical yawn. “Talk in the morning!” she added, rolled back onto her bed and pulled the covers over her head, still fully clothed.

“Weirdo,” Catra snorted. Straining her ears, Adora could hear her feather-light footsteps retreating from the doorway, even through the rapid hammering of her own heart.

“What in the name of Eternia was that!?” Adora screamed inside her head and tried very hard to suffocate herself with her pillow. There had been several occasions in the past where talking with Catra had been awkward, but never like this before. She felt flushed and panicked, as if she was trying to keep some major secret from her ex-best-friend-turned-hopefully-best-friend-again. But that wasn’t it.

Best friends. Adora rewound the jumble of her thoughts. They had been through so much together. Growing up in the Fright Zone, facing all of the hardships of training and of being outcasts. Suffering in the iron grip of Shadow Weaver. Falling apart from one another. Becoming enemies. That thought alone was enough to bring Adora’s mind to a screeching halt and make water burn in her eyes. Now that the constant struggle of the war against the Horde was all but over, the full reality of the past few years of strife and suffering they’d had to endure came crashing down on her, as if carried along as extra luggage by Catra’s new, much much better version of “Hey, Adora.”

On more than one occasion the pair of them had tried to kill one another. More than once Catra had tried to seriously hurt or even kill Adora’s friends. Adora certainly wasn’t all devoid of blame either, she knew that much. She had probably hurt Catra in more ways than she’d ever realized. Why else would she have become so... twisted? Sure, Catra had always had that stubborn mean streak, but it had almost always been out of retribution when she had been bullied. Or when Adora had been bullied. Or when Shadow Weaver had been unreasonable with her. Shadow Weaver had been untouchable, so Catra’s outlet for her frustration had often been the next unfortunate soul to look at her sideways. That was reasonable, right?

In the end, Catra had pulled through when it had mattered. She had made the choice to save Glimmer’s life at the cost of her own. She had made the choice to rebel against Horde Prime, despite not having anything to gain and only having everything to lose. And in the weeks after their daring rescue mission, Catra had further saved all of their lives several times over. While that didn’t erase her past actions, it certainly did help.

Adora had forgiven her a long time ago, she found. Maybe she had never really even blamed Catra for her actions in the first place. Etheria knows Adora was good enough at blaming herself for most of everything that had happened in the past few years.

She shook her head violently under her covers and wrenched her train of thought back into movement. They weren’t enemies anymore, and that’s what mattered. Catra was already a part of the Best Friend Squad as far as anyone in it was concerned. Everyone who had ever tried to control them was gone. Horde Prime, Hordak... Shadow Weaver. Another knot of depressing thoughts Adora hadn’t even began to untangle. Shadow Weaver had also sacrificed herself for Adora and Catra in the end. But for some reason Adora found it so much more difficult to forgive her. She shook her head again and pushed past the memory of Shadow Weaver’s unmasked face smirking at them in the face of her own demise.

For better or for worse, they had reached the Heart of Etheria. The biggest mess currently occupying Adora’s head. The mere thought of it made heat shoot into her braincase and her heart jump up into her throat. All of the miserable thoughts and memories were mercilessly forced out by something completely different. Her memories from the Heart were hazy. Twisting and intermingling scenes of She-Ra, Horde Prime, Shadow Weaver and... and Catra swirled around in her mind. She’d had an impossible time figuring out what part of that was real and what had been a fever dream. But one fragmented memory stood out much clearer and more acute than all the others.

“Don’t you get it? I love you! I always have!”

Catra’s tear-stained face so close to hers. Catra’s claws digging into her back in desperation. Catra’s tail curling around her leg in a needy embrace. Catra’s begging voice, much more vulnerable than Adora had ever heard it.

“So please, just this once! Stay!”

“NYEAAAAGGH!!” Adora erupted, tumbling around on her bed, cocooned up within her covers, as if she could somehow entomb her memories within the blanket. She wanted to turn into She-Ra and punch herself unconscious just so that she wouldn’t have to deal with the onslaught of thoughts and emotions that her long years in the Horde had specifically taught her to suppress, never to handle.

Adora had just been so immensely relieved at the immediate aftermath of the battle. Her body had been pumped so full of adrenaline and magic that she hadn’t really had the capacity for processing complex thoughts. She was just so glad that it was all over. She was so glad to see her friends again. She was overjoyed to see Catra again. But it had taken an entire day for her to properly remember Catra’s words, and another one for them to really hit her.

Catra loved her. Loved her. Not “hated her.” Not even “mildly disliked her.” Not “considered her a good childhood buddy.” Loved her. Adora certainly wasn’t the most emotionally astute person she knew, but even she couldn’t be dense enough to not get it. Or could she? Was she thinking too highly of herself? It wouldn’t be the first time. More importantly, what did she think of Catra?

She most certainly didn’t hate her. Or dislike her. She definitely thought of her as a good childhood buddy. But...

I love you too.

Her own words resounded in her mind. And what came after those words...

Adora jumped up onto her knees in a massive bout of tizzy and banged her forehead against the headboard of the bed about as hard as she could. Her carefully styled hair poof absorbed some of the damage, but she saw stars regardless. The heat level in her head was nearing critical. Blissful unconsciousness overtook her.

A few days prior...

Catra felt an odd mixture of queasiness and thrill to be riding a skiff again. On the one hand, operating Horde machinery slammed her with a whole broadside of memories she’d rather forget. On the other hand, she was flying a freaking skiff. She had never really gotten over how exhilarating it was to speed across the scenery, and how good the wind felt in her hair, much shorter though it now was. And best of all, her present company didn’t seem to mind her preferred style of driving either.

“WOOHOO!” Scorpia hooted as they crested a low hill at top speed and flew over several hundred feet of the meadow below, before settling back into a stable hover with a small lurch. “We’re definitely going over the recommended speed limit in the Horde Soldier’s Guidebook, but boy almighty if this ain’t the most fun I’ve ever had!” she yelled against the wind and beamed at Catra.

“I bet I could make this thing go at least thrice as fast if I added a First One’s chip in the drive train system!” Entrapta said between shrieks of glee, more to herself than anyone else, as usual.

“Oh, you will definitely have to do that at some point,” Catra told her. “Make at least four skiffs like that, and then we’ll race!”

“Ooooh, that sounds like even more fun than what I’m currently having! Is it even possible to have more fun? Is there an upper limit to fun? Because I can’t imagine having any more fun than that,” Scorpia said.

Not a month ago, Catra would probably have told both of them to shut up and focus on the mission. Or told them to shut up just because. She hadn’t really liked anyone saying anything to her for any reason at that point in her life. The very lowest point. The point she was desperately trying to avoid thinking about by cranking the skiff’s speed up by another notch.

“May I just say though, a road trip like this is just the perfect reunion for the Super Pal Trio! Or wait, does Melog count as another Pal? Super Pal.... Fouro? What comes after Trio again?” Scorpia continued with her usual runaway train of thought.

Catra felt a sharp, sudden sting somewhere around her heart.

You’re a bad friend.

Scorpia’s last words to her before their reunion had never left Catra even for a moment. Now that she’d been reunited with Adora, and against all odds, accepted among the people of The Rebellion, Scorpia’s words cut her deeper than ever. She vividly remembered every single hurtful comment, every instance of lashing out she had inflicted on Scorpia, and on Entrapta. She really had been the worst friend imaginable. Much, much worse than Adora had ever been to her. She couldn’t fathom why Scorpia would ever forgive her for any of it.

Catra had to bite down hard on her lip to prevent herself from crying. Melog nudged her leg with their head and let out a quiet “Mrow?”, completely unfazed by the skiff’s less-than-smooth ride. The magical creature seemed to have some kind of an emotional connection with Catra that went well beyond their short time together. Maybe something like what Adora had with her weird bird-horse? Bow had said something about imprinting, but Melog was much more than a simple animal like that. It... They, Catra reminded herself, were as sentient as all the rest of them, but just didn’t share a common language. Catra understood Melog with some effort, though, and she understood that they were concerned for her. Which made her feel all the worse.

“Quartet!” Entrapta shrieked in response to Scorpia’s question and startled Catra out of her rut, much to her relief. “You wouldn’t believe these readings! The soil, the atmosphere... They’re all so...” Entrapta continued, her nose buried in her data pad, clutching onto the skiff’s railings with her prehensile hair.

“I don’t need to look at the readings. Just look around you,” Catra pointed out.

She’d finally had to ease up on the skiff’s accelerator as they had rolled from the vast, grassy plains that used to be a blasted wasteland into the dense jungle that once had been her miserable, metallic home. No-one seeing the Fright Zone now for the first time would understand where its name came from. No more acrid smoke issued from anywhere within the Zone. No more buzzing and clanking of foundries and machinery could be heard anywhere; instead the air was filled with the chirping of insects, birdsong and the rustling of leaves. The sky was blue. The steel spires reaching for the skies, now almost entirely covered in grass, trees and other flora, were the only visible reminder that the Fright Zone had ever existed at all. The Zone looked like it had been abandoned several hundred years ago, not last week.

“The Black Garnet’s power across the Horde grid is diffuse, but stable. In moving the Garnet from its original place, the Horde came closer to a complete disaster than anyone ever realized! The Garnet seems to be connected to Etheria only by the thinnest of threads! I can’t even IMAGINE what would’ve happened if that thread had been completely severed! The weakened connection must’ve been why Shadow Weaver managed to tap into its power despite not being a princess at all! It must’ve been why you had such a hard time connecting with it before, Scorpia!” Entrapta said, barely taking a breath.

“Huh,” Scorpia replied, for once at a loss for words.

“If we move the Garnet back to its original home and have She-Ra commune with it, it should properly reconnect with Etheria and stabilize back to its original power. And probably start regulating all of this floral growth, so that this place doesn’t become a completely overgrown jungly mess,” Entrapta continued and finally looked up from her data pad. “Well, more of an overgrown jungly mess than it already is anyway.”

Catra tried to scan for any landmarks or features of the Fright Zone that she could recognize. Pieces of metallic walkways and scaffolding were poking out of the thick underbrush here and there, but she found it impossible to place them. It felt like diving deep into the Whispering Woods for the first time with Adora all over again. The memory made Catra shudder. It felt like a million years ago.

“Look!” Scorpia said, grabbed Catra by the shoulder and pointed a pincer towards the skiff’s heading.

The unmistakable form of what used to be Hordak’s base of operations rose from amidst the sprawling vegetation like a forlorn mountain made of metal. Even ignoring the complete floral takeover, the building was in shambles. It had never really been properly repaired after Catra and Hordak’s fateful confrontation, and further fighting between ex-Horde soldiers and Horde Prime’s forces had blow off extra pieces here and there. The entire western sector had collapsed into a heap of steel beams and debris. Catra’s heart skipped a painful beat; that’s where the barracks used to be.

“Oh man, Hordak really wouldn’t want to see this,” Scorpia said, rubbing the back of her head with a grimace.

“I don’t think he would mind honestly, he seemed to be rather captivated by all the flowers and trees in Bright Moon,” Entrapta replied.

“Wait, Hordak isn’t locked up?” Catra asked, alarmed.

“Well he is, but... Apparently Bright Moon doesn’t really have any holding cells, so they’re just keeping him in the garden-side spare room under guard,” Entrapta explained.

Catra buried her face in her hand. “I swear I can not fathom how we lost to those people,” she muttered to herself.

“Look!” Scorpia said and pointed at something again. “HEEEEEEY! Guys!” she bellowed almost directly into Catra’s ear.

Catra spotted Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle standing in front of what used to be the main entrance to Hordak’s base, but was now a collapsed pile of rubble. Kyle visibly jumped at Scorpia’s shout, but his shocked expression quickly turned into a wide smile as the skiff pulled up next to them.

“Scorpia!” he shouted back and almost fell over with excitement. Then his eyes met Catra’s, and he immediately deflated and shrunk into the size of a pebble. “A-and... C-Catra. H-hey.”

Catra’s heart gave another painful squeeze. Ever since waking up in Bright Moon on the morning following Horde Prime’s defeat, hardly a full hour had gone by without something reminding her of how awful a person she’d been in the past. Part of why she had wanted to make this trip so soon after the utter exhaustion of the final fight was to get away from Bright Moon for a moment. To get away from the people who, for some inexplicable reason, were happily enjoying delicious breakfast with her at the same table, instead of having her executed, or at the very least exiled.

“Hey Scorpia,” Lonnie said with a friendly smile, which faded into an angry scowl at Catra. “What do you want?” she barked.

Catra’s ears pressed down against her skull on their own volition. She hated how they would sometimes betray her when she would’ve rather kept her emotions hidden.

“Now now, are we not all friends here? Ooooh, how about we have a small ex-Horde reunion celebration! We brought snacks!” Scorpia said and clapped her pincers together in excitement.

“Tiny snacks!” Entrapta added.

Rogelio and Kyle looked at each other, unsure as to what to make of this. Lonnie glanced at Scorpia, but immediately returned to scowling at Catra. “Yeah, I don’t think so. We’re just here to pick up whatever personal things we can find in this scrap heap, and then leave,” she said.

“Where will you go?” Catra asked before she could stop herself. A part of her very much wanted to make amends however she could, if it was even possible. She had never particularly liked the trio in the past, Lonnie least of all, but all of that seemed so far away now that it might’ve as well been in another life entirely.

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business,” Lonnie replied angrily and addressed Scorpia instead. “We’re living in Erelandia for now. We helped them kick some Prime bot ass a couple of days ago and they gave us a place to stay. They’ve been really kind to us,” she added and glared at Catra again.

Every passing second of the conversation was making Catra’s stomach twist harder, so she turned on her heel and started walking towards the ruins of Hordak’s barely standing sanctum without a word.

“Catra!” Scorpia hollered after her. “It was really nice seeing you guys, we’re definitely gonna visit! See you later!” she said to Catra’s ex-unit. Catra could hear Scorpia’s heavy footsteps catching up with her. She felt like running away from those footsteps, and from Scorpia’s stupid, sympathetic face that was no doubt full of worry for her right now. She wanted to dash out of sight, to disappear into the ruins of the Horde, never to be seen again. But she knew that Scorpia and Adora both would not stop looking for her until they had found her.

Even biting down on her lip hard enough to draw blood couldn’t stop a few insubordinate tears from rolling down her cheek.

Chapter Text

“You okay, wildcat?”

Catra stomped on towards the ruins without giving Scorpia the chance to catch up. She didn’t want anyone to look at her face right now, not even Melog who was gracefully gliding next to her.

“Don’t mind Lonnie, she’s just... you know,” Scorpia continued, obviously unable to come up with any excuses for Lonnie’s words. And how could she? There was no need for excuses. Lonnie’s anger was entirely justified. Hell, it’s a miracle she didn’t straight up punch Catra in the face.

“Catra, wait. Maybe we could...” Scorpia said and tried to grab Catra’s arm.

An ugly, primal reflex from the very dregs of Catra’s being swatted Scorpia’s pincer away without hesitation. This had always been her problem, but she was clueless as to how to completely rid herself of it. Even as she wished she could somehow magically swap herself with another, kinder, more patient and less belligerent Catra, the words bubbled out of her mouth without much of anything in the way to stop them.

“Leave me alone!” she shouted and started towards the front of Hordak’s base. Gritting her teeth in a massive endeavor of self-control, she managed to stop herself. “Please. Just... just give me a moment. I’ll meet you at the Garnet. Melog, please stay with them,” she spat out without looking at Scorpia, and bolted towards the main entrance of the base.

“Be careful!” Scorpia hollered after her, sounding worried. But she didn’t give chase, and neither did Melog, to Catra’s great relief. Despite having formed an odd bond with the magical creature, there were moments when Catra wished to be completely alone.

Instead of entering through the gap between two fallen support beams blocking the main entrance, Catra deftly leapt on top of them, pulled herself up onto the second floor guard balcony, and slinked through the automatic door that had jammed in a half-open state. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness inside. A few broken windows down the hallways to her left and right shed some more natural light into the base; not even the red emergency back-up lights were functional anymore. The depths of the base down the hallway directly in front of her would’ve been pitch dark for a regular person, but Catra had a natural advantage in low-light conditions.

She desperately wanted to get away from the blight of friendship for just a moment. During the long spaceflight back to Etheria, in the inescapable presence of the ‘Best Friend Squad’, she had come to terms with the fact that whether or not she deserved the friendship of others was not her call to make. Even Glimmer seemed to have forgiven Catra and accepted her, despite her being responsible for a sin as grave as Glimmer’s mother’s death. Sometimes the pressure of it all was just too much to bear. Shaking the miserable thoughts out of her head with a quiet, defiant sniff, she started sneaking further into the base, trying to switch to mission mode.

There was barely any reason for anyone to be in the ruins of Hordak’s seat of power in the first place, but caution had always come to Catra more naturally than the loud and boisterous style of ‘sneaking’ Adora tended to prefer. She stuck to the shadows and traversed the pipes and walkways up towards the ceiling whenever she could, barely making a sound even to her own sensitive ears. Soon enough, she reached what used to be Hordak’s laboratory. The slowly encroaching jungle outside hadn’t quite reached this far into the complex yet. The cavernous room was strewn with dismantled electronics, fallen metal walkways and crumbled support pillars. Apart from the scent of dust and oil, a hauntingly familiar one struck Catra’s senses. She peered at the vague form scrounging around one of the consoles, and her blood turned to ice.

It was one of Prime’s clones.

Catra clapped a hand to her mouth to try to quiet down her breathing. Her heart was hammering madly as if it were trying to escape her chest, and power drained from her muscles leaving her flushed and limp like she had just run a thousand miles. Her other hand had found its way to the back of her neck before she’d even noticed.

“.....little sister.”

Biting down on her finger was all she could do to prevent herself from screaming out loud. The sound of Horde Prime’s voice in her mind came almost as clear as it had done back when... Catra was startled back into reality by the searing pain at her neck. Her claws had dug so deep into her skin that she could smell the rivulets of her own blood trickling down her back. She picked herself up and staggered back into the hallway she’d come from, away from the ghostly white form of her worst nightmares.

Her mind felt fuzzy, but the pain at her neck and finger had brought reality back into sharper focus. She was okay. Horde Prime wasn’t in her head anymore. It was all in her imagination. Even though the Black Garnet chamber was less than a few minutes’ walk away from Hordak’s laboratory, it took Catra a quarter of an hour between attacks of vertigo and bouts of heaving. Even if Horde Prime was no longer in her head, it became more than apparent to her that she was not okay.

“Catra! What happened?!” Scorpia yelled as soon as Catra had peeked her head through the door. In a flash Scorpia and Melog were at her side, Scorpia propping her up by the arms and Melog bracing against her legs. “Are you alright?! You’re bleeding!” Scorpia continued with barely contained panic. Entrapta managed to wrench herself away from the Black Garnet as well, and joined Scorpia’s fussing, pulling out a somewhat clean handkerchief from her pack and dabbing Catra’s neck with it, slightly stiff from the shock and the sudden responsibility.

Whatever apprehension and disgust Catra had felt before towards the concept of friendship dissolved into pure relief that the three of them were there. Maybe it was the near constant companionship of the members of the Rebellion and Melog in the past few weeks, but the mere thought of having to endure something like this alone again made her feel sick to her stomach. In the distant past, Adora had always been there for her. In the more recent past, she had somehow managed to convince herself that she didn’t need Adora or anyone else. How well that had turned out.

“Prime’s clone. In the lab,” she said tersely.

“What did it do to you? I swear I’m going to-” Scorpia began, but Catra interrupted her.

“No, it’s... He didn’t do anything, I-I just remembered...” It occurred to Catra that she had never told Scorpia exactly what happened on Prime’s ship. When they’d returned to Etheria, Scorpia had already been chipped by Prime. With a pang of her heart, Catra realized that right here was someone who had gone through the same thing. Someone who understood.

Catra sat down against the wall of the chamber, Melog automatically curling up against her side like a giant hot water bottle. She beckoned for Scorpia to sit as well. “You can go fiddle with the Garnet, you already know all of this,” she said to Entrapta and took the bloody handkerchief from her. “And... thanks,” she added.

“You’re welcome!” Entrapta beamed and skipped over to the Garnet, giddy with pleasure. A chuckle escaped Catra’s lips on its own; Entrapta was so easy to understand, now that Catra was actually trying to. Her pure, innocent honesty was refreshing, really.

Scorpia was still staring at Catra’s bloody neck, almost transfixed and eerily quiet. Catra nudged her with her elbow. “Hey Scorpia?” she asked gingerly.

Scorpia started a little. “Uh, um. What?”

“You were chipped too, right? Do you remember anything about it?”

Scorpia looked surprised, then thoughtful. Here was another person who wore her emotions on her face as plain as day. Catra passingly wondered whether she herself was the only one who didn’t. Melog gave a quiet “Naa...” from her other side.

“Ummm, I mean... not much. It kind of feels like I was dreaming. Down to the part where I don’t really remember my dreams.” Scorpia put a pincer to her temple and scrunched her brow in an effort to remember. “I think... I think I remember you, and Adora, and Perfuma. I was... I was attacking you! But I REALLY didn’t want to, I swear!” she said and started to panic a little.

“It’s alright!” Catra said and looked up at Scorpia’s almost desperate face. “It’s alright. I know how that works. E-except for how it worked for me. Prime... Prime was... he was in my head.” Remembering his voice echo within her skull like an undeniable force made her compulsively shut her eyes and clutch herself in an effort to block the memory out. Scorpia’s arm was immediately wrapped around her shoulder like a bracing pillar.

“He made me do things. I-I remember everything he did and said with my body. What he tried to make me do to Adora. A-and what he made me do to myself.” Catra gasped.

“Oh Catra, I’m so-” Scorpia said but Catra cut her off again.

“Don’t say you’re sorry. It’s not your fault. And you attacking us wasn’t your fault either. It was all Prime. I’m glad he’s gone. Dead,” Catra spat, trying to convince herself that Prime’s voice in her mind was just a figment of her own imagination. “Right...?” she asked in spite of herself, seeking for confirmation that Scorpia couldn’t possibly have.

Scorpia scooped Catra up like a doll and engulfed her in a surprisingly gentle embrace, given the pincers. For possibly the first time ever, Catra didn’t fight against it. Scorpia’s hard but oddly yielding carapace wasn’t the most comfortable thing to be pressed against, but both the warmth of her body and that of the gesture itself did somewhat corroborate her self-titled status of a ‘great hug giver’.

“Oh wildcat...” she crooned and rocked Catra in her arms like a small child.

“Alright. Alright! That’s enough!” Catra said and pushed against Scorpia’s chest, freeing herself from the red giant’s firm grip. Despite her act of rejection, Catra did feel a bit better. The nausea and the mind fuzz had mostly subsided, though the pain in her neck was still sharp. Catra was thankful for that pain, since it helped her focus on the present.

“Let’s just do what we came here to do and get out of here. Entrapta? What’s going on with the Garnet?” Catra asked, failing to stop the blush rising to her cheeks and decidedly not looking at Scorpia who was no doubt grinning at her.

“I’m glad you asked, I wasn’t sure if I should interrupt your huggy moment!” Entrapta said, veritably hopping with excitement. “It’s exactly as I hypothesized: with both Scorpia and She-Ra’s powers we should be able to stabilize the Black Garnet again, given that it’s moved back to Scorpia’s family home where it belongs.” She looked up at the thirty-foot crystal towering ominously over all of them. “Which might be a bit tricky given its size.”

“So what you’re saying is, we return to Bright Moon and come up with a plan to move the crystal, and return when we have the right tools and... people for the project,” Catra summarized, a sudden, vivid image of Adora popping into her mind, accompanied by an aching desire to see her. “Where was the Garnet originally located anyway?” she asked Scorpia to distract herself from the dull squeezing of her heart.

Scorpia goggled at Catra. “But that was covered in Force Captain ori-... Oh, right.”

Catra slapped herself in the forehead.

“Ahem. The Garnet used to be in Horror Hall, the throne room of my family. It’s one of my favorite places in all of the Fright Zone!” Scorpia said, her chest swelling with pride. “It’s... it just requires some cleaning up, though,” she added. Catra knew this to mean it was just as wrecked as the crumbling Garnet chamber they were currently in, and sighed.

Entrapta had been fiddling with her data pad and lifted it into the air triumphantly. “A-haa! Seeing as most-if-not-all of the walkways around here are completely broken and/or overgrown, I think I can repurpose a skiff to function as a Garnet transportation device. We just need to get rid of... most of the stuff atop the skiff. And the door of this chamber," she said and glanced at the very solidly built metal door, one of the very few in the entirety of the Fright Zone that somehow remained somewhat undamaged.

“Sounds like a plan,” Catra said, already dreading the logistics nightmare. “Good work,” she added meekly under her breath.

Entrapta and Scorpia both beamed at her, and Melog gave a happy “Mrow!” at her side. This ‘honesty’ and ‘positive feedback’ stuff would take some serious getting used to.

As they made to leave, Scorpia turned back to the Garnet for a moment and touched it gingerly with her pincer. “See you soon, buddy. Next time we’re here, we’re gonna get you home,” she said.

Catra chuckled at the sentimental remark towards the inanimate object, but found she sort of understood.

Adora was brought out of her daydream by a small “plop” against her leg. A large dollop of jam had fallen from the piece of bread she’d been absent-mindedly dangling over the side of the table, and landed on her thigh. “Aw, man,” she muttered and wiped the jam away with a napkin. A large, sticky blotch remained on her freshly laundered pants.

“Something on your mind?” Bow asked with a concerned cringe at what he had just witnessed. Glimmer rolled her eyes next to him.

“Do you think Catra’s been... distracted lately?” Adora asked without pause.

“What a shocker, it’s about Catra,” Glimmer groaned.

But it was somewhat shocking. Catra had promised they’d eat breakfast together every morning, like they had used to way back in the past. But she hadn’t shown up. What was even more shocking was that a small something in the back of Adora’s mind was glad she hadn’t. Adora rubbed the small, aching bump on her forehead, trying hard not to blush in the presence of her friends.

“She’s right though, I thought the same thing,” Bow replied, glancing towards the entrance to their private dining hall, as if expecting Catra to be standing there to explain in person.

“Where is she, anyway?” Glimmer asked. “I thought we were supposed to have breakfast together.”

“I know!” Adora yelled, pushing away the bizarre trepidation in her stomach. “I’m gonna go find her,” she said and bounced up from her chair, knocking over her glass of orange juice. “Crap.”

“I’ll clean up, just go. Before you... soil something else,” Bow sighed, already wiping the spilled juice with a washcloth he had pulled out from who knows where. Somehow Bow was always eerily ready to clean whatever needed to be cleaned.

“Thanks,” Adora said and marched out of the hall. She went straight for Catra’s bedroom three doors over and opposite from her own, and knocked on the door. “Catra?” she called. No reply.

“If you’re looking for miss Catra, she left early in the morning, towards the east side garden,” one of castle Bright Moon's guards a bit further down the hall said.

“Thanks!” Adora replied and made for the opposite side of the castle. Why would Catra go there? That was where Hordak’s ‘prison’ was. A small shudder shook Adora’s core - what exactly had Catra found in the Fright Zone? Ugly regret at having waved away Catra's attempts to talk to her the previous evening reared its head in the pit of her stomach. She really needed to get over whatever the hell was ailing her mind in Catra’s presence.

She didn’t make it all the way to the staircase leading down to the garden before she found Catra. Her best friend was leaning against the sill of one of the large windows lining castle Bright Moon’s outer wall, staring at the empty garden beyond. Melog was resting next to her legs like a loyal watchdog, their eyes closed. They raised their head at Adora’s approach and gave a happy “Mow!” which Catra didn’t seem to register through her reverie.

“There you are,” Adora said, feeling her agitation shift gear from worry to whatever it was that she’d almost drowned in the day before.

Catra jumped a little in surprise. “Oh. Hey,” she said, returning Adora's hopeful smile with a small frown.

Adora's heart sank a little. Not exactly the reaction she'd hoped for.

“What’s up? You’re missing breakfast,” she said, bending down to give Melog a scratch behind their ear. They purred in contentment at her gesture. Adora had learned that Melog very much enjoyed similar affectionate touches as Swift Wind did, even though he sometimes proclaimed it was ‘demeaning’ to be scratched behind the ear like a common horse, directly after going “Aw yeah, that’s the good stuff.”

“I was just...” Catra began, but fell silent.

Adora had long since become good enough at reading Catra’s drooping ears and squirming tail to know that she was either stressed or afraid. Neither of these things were what she should be feeling this early in the morning, or at all. “Did... did something happen in the Fright Zone?” Adora asked carefully.

Another small jolt made Catra’s ears twitch. “I-... no. Yes. I don’t- I don’t know if I’m ready to talk about it,” she said. “With you,” Adora could imagine the unsaid words under Catra’s defiant look that didn’t quite meet her eyes. One she’d faced so many times before.

And so many of those times Adora had let her stupid, stubborn head dictate the course of action; either leaving it at that, or blowing up in Catra’s face for not trusting her. Leaving Catra to dwell with her own issues, anyhow. Not something a true friend would do, Adora had finally learned, even if Catra herself didn’t want to talk about it.

Adora took a bracing step forward and offered Catra her hand, like placating a small, scared animal. “I’m here,” she said, mentally urging her to meet her eyes. The fluttering in her stomach had compounded into a roaring maelstrom once more, but she willfully ignored it.

Catra stared at Adora’s hand for a moment, and then turned back to staring at the garden, but flicked her tail up to rest in Adora’s hand. Adora stroked it gently with her thumb, suppressing a chuckle at the absolute most furthest sign of connection Catra could’ve possibly given her. But it was a connection anyway.

“I... I saw Prime,” Catra said quietly, staring out of the window with glassy eyes.

The bottom fell from Adora’s stomach. Her head went blank. That was impossible. Adora had killed Prime.

Catra glanced at Adora and was visibly alarmed by her expression. “A clone, I mean! Not P-Prime himself,” she corrected herself.

Adora let out a breath of pure relief and let go of Catra’s tail, which she realized she’d just squeezed quite hard. Melog bumped gently into Adora’s legs and stared up at her with a concerned look.

The shock of Adora’s face seemed to have brought Catra somewhat back out of the Fright Zone and into Bright Moon. She didn’t make a movement to shirk away as Adora settled into leaning against the windowsill next to her, staring at the very empty, very unexciting garden below as well. Adora couldn’t find the right question to ask, but luckily Catra pre-empted her with the answer.

“It was horrible. Like Prime was in my head again for a moment,” she all but whispered.

“What did he do to you?” Adora asked more vigorously than she’d intended to, almost pushing herself into Catra’s personal space, but managing to stop herself just in time.

“Nothing! I-I just saw him and left. Scorpia and Entrapta were there for me.”

Adora’s heart gave a small but painful squeeze. “And you weren’t.” This time the implication wasn’t there, but Adora couldn’t help but think it anyway.

“I think I finally get it,” Catra said before Adora could apologize. “The friendship thing, I mean. What it really means to be friends,” she continued, finally meeting Adora's eyes, her expression almost unbearably sad. “And it’s no wonder you picked the Rebellion over me.”

Adora closed the gap between them before she could register the feeling of her heart threatening to shatter into a million pieces. She grabbed Catra around the middle and pulled her into a tight hug, trying to convey the entire mess of feelings in her head through physical contact alone. Catra immediately pushed her face into Adora’s neck and squeezed her back like her life depended on it.

“H-he’s gone, right?” said her muffled voice into Adora’s shoulder, audibly desperate for an answer, her surprisingly strong tail coiling around Adora’s leg like an anchor.

Adora didn’t even need to think to know who she meant. “He’s gone. Dead. Destroyed. I didn’t give him even the slightest chance of survival. Not after what he did to you,” she replied with an equal desperation to make Catra believe her once and for all.

Something between a sob and a sigh wracked Catra’s slight form. Adora was acutely reminded of their reunion following her rescue from Horde Prime’s ship, but instead of the catatonic rigor of their embrace back then, this time it felt more... real, somehow. They were both there, present, and feeling the same pain. Adora found herself joining in Catra’s quiet tears. It hadn’t even occurred to her that Catra hadn’t seen, or felt Prime destroyed in the same way Adora had as She-Ra. The mere presence of Prime’s clones still remaining on Etheria like pockets of plague must’ve been tearing Catra apart. Prime had had the ability to freely switch his consciousness between his cloned bodies, and chipped slaves, after all. Something Catra would probably never be able to forget.

After what must’ve been ten minutes, Catra’s frantic breathing and intermittent sobbing had calmed down. Her ears, which had been tightly pressed against her head, slowly relaxed and tickled Adora’s cheek. Adora suddenly became aware of every single part of Catra’s body pressing against hers at once. Her barely retracted claws pushing against her back through her tunic. The warmth of her breath against her neck. The softness of her breasts against her chest. Adora felt the heat starting to creep up towards her head, but she didn’t care. Catra needed this. Adora needed this.

Eventually Catra pushed herself away from their embrace with a surprising air of reluctance. She took half a step back and sniffed a few times, not dropping her gaze from Adora’s eyes, as if searching for any hint of uncertainty in Adora’s promise of Prime’s permanent demise. Adora had always loved Catra’s beautiful, bicolored eyes, but seeing them brimming with tears brought back a sudden, violent surge of anger for a dead tyrant whom she had killed with her own hands.

The small twitch of determined fury Adora couldn’t fully suppress seemed to be affirmation enough for Catra, as she finally broke the eye contact that felt like it lasted for a century and looked down at Melog quietly pacing around their legs. “I... I don’t say it enough, but thank you.”

Adora started at the sudden gratitude. She could probably count the times she’d heard Catra say those words with the fingers of one hand. “For- for what?” she stuttered.

Catra let out a soft chuckle. “Idiot. For everything. For being there. For me,” she said and glanced up at her with a fleeting but familiar glint of mischief. “Well, most of the time anyway.”

After the stomach-turning rollercoaster of emotions, joy and relief were by and far the topmost in Adora’s mind as she giggled quietly at Catra’s off-hand remark. She didn’t even care about the small sting of regret and guilt it brought with it, true as it was. They had all the time in the world to talk about things, hell, to nitpick every instance of letting each other down and bickering about whose fault it had been. It didn’t matter to Adora if she won that contest by a landslide, she would never ever let Catra go again. She would never let her experience the kind of pain she’d been forced to go through in the past. A world without Catra by her side was a place Adora had been through, and she would never end up there again, no matter what.

Catra joined in the tension-breaking moment with a small giggle of her own. A split second memory brought Adora back to their childhood, laughing together at something stupid after a big fight. Except this time they hadn’t fought. This time they had resolved something so much more important.

“Sooo... How about that breakfast? I don’t think they’ve put the food away yet,” Adora asked.

“I... yeah. Yeah. I’m down for breakfast. I did promise, didn’t I?” Catra said with a small smile, Melog purring happily at her side. “And friends keep their promises.”

Friends. The word threatened to bring back the onslaught of alien emotions to the forefront of Adora’s mind, but she mentally punched them down without mercy , and instead extended a hand to Catra. “ Come hell or high water,” she thought, echoing Sea Hawk’s odd saying about the unknowable future.

Catra stared at Adora’s hand for a second, and took it rather stiffly. “It’s been ages since we’ve done this, huh,” she said, unable to hide the small, ridiculously adorable blush rising atop her cheeks.

“Too long,” Adora replied, as they made for the dining hall, hand in hand.

Chapter Text

“King Micah would like to see all of you in the conference room,” a tall and imposing Bright Moon guard declared from the door of the dining room, bowing herself out as soon as her message had been acknowledged.

Catra let out a relieved mental exhale. The jolly chatter around the breakfast table had started squirming in her stomach; she was still far from used to this casual, relaxed sort of atmosphere of a friendly communion. She, Adora, Melog, Glimmer and Bow had been joined by Scorpia, Entrapta, Perfuma and Spinnerella as they stumbled into the dining room one by one and were promptly invited for breakfast. Such interruptions into a private space would’ve been punished with no rations for a day back in The Horde.

“I wonder what this is about,” Adora said, glancing at Glimmer.

Glimmer shrugged, looking slightly put off by the King’s request.

Scorpia lifted a pincer in the air and smiled sheepishly. “I think it’s me. I went to speak with His Kingshipness about... you know. The Black Garnet situation.”

“What’s wrong with the Black Garnet?” Adora asked.

“I imagine you’re about to get the full report soon enough,” Catra answered on Scorpia’s behalf and excused herself from the table. She wanted to get at least a short, less crowded moment in the hallways before stepping into another gathering with even more people.

Adora jogged after her only a few steps behind. “Everything alright?” she asked.

“Yeah. Just a bit... I’ll tell you later, OK?” Catra replied and attempted a reassuring smile in Adora’s general direction.

Adora stared at her for a moment, but thankfully left it at that. It seemed she had managed to learn some basic tact during her time in Bright Moon - old Adora would likely have pushed the issue, usually until old Catra snapped and said something she would immediately regret.

The breakfast group made its way through the halls of Bright Moon amidst happy chatter, and were soon joined by Netossa, Swift Wind and Sea Hawk who had been prowling the castle halls in search of one thing or another. Catra’s heart jolted when she saw Netossa and Spinnerella share a quick kiss and join hands as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Public displays of affection were another thing that would’ve earned one a prompt and severe punishment in the Fright Zone.

They passed the magnificent throne room of castle Bright Moon and entered an adjacent room, slightly smaller than Glimmer’s private dining hall. Giant carvings of what Catra presumed were Bright Moon’s previous kings and queens stared down at them from the walls. She scanned the forms and faces of past royalty until the one on the far side of the room made her stop dead in her tracks. A violent wave of nausea flushed across her stomach as she stared up into the face of Queen Angella, immortalized in stone.

“Not now... not now,” she thought to herself, wrenched her eyes away from Queen Angella’s serene expression and struggled to keep her breakfast down.

“Seriously... are you alright? You don’t look alright,” Adora whispered, concern now obvious upon her brow.

Catra only managed a quiet growl as a response, but found that Adora’s stupid face and Melog’s gentle nudge against her leg eased the nausea somewhat. She was halfway through wondering what affliction of the brain made her so unwilling to share her woes with someone so obviously willing to listen, until King Micah’s soft voice interrupted her train of thought.

“Glimmer! This must be a first - I only needed to summon you once!” the King grinned with a clear glint of mischief in the corner of his eye. He was leaning on the large, round table standing in the middle of the room, the flickering, magical map of the surrounding region upon it littered with small figurines and flags depicting the movements of Horde Prime’s derelict forces and the Rebellion’s reconstruction efforts.

Despite King Micah’s slightly wild and disheveled appearance, he exuded a quiet sort of confidence through his benign smile. The silvery crescent moon pendant hanging around his neck was the only outward implication that he was royalty, otherwise he might’ve passed for any regular member of the townsfolk in his simple lavender-hued attire. Catra hadn’t really had much contact with the former King of Bright Moon, but knew that this was a man she shouldn’t cross. Their brief clash with the Prime-chipped Micah during their struggle to reach the Heart of Etheria had been more than enough for Catra to know that he was one of the most powerful sorcerers she had ever come across. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she would’ve had a very hard time believing this decidedly vagrant-looking man had once been Shadow Weaver’s protégé and the inheritor to her twisted brand of shadow sorcery.

She had only heard Shadow Weaver speak of him in a few passing sentences, but ever with the same disgusting adoration she had usually reserved for speaking of Adora. Even though decades had passed since Shadow Weaver had been cast out of Mystacor, anyone listening to her speak about Micah would’ve thought he was still her star pupil.

Catra shook the thoughts of Shadow Weaver out of her mind. Whatever King Micah might have been to that vile woman in the distant past, he undoubtedly was no more. More importantly, he seemed to share Catra’s hobby of messing with Glimmer, which made him alright in her book.

“Daaaaaad...” Glimmer groaned to everyone’s immediate amusement. “What are you doing summoning anyone anyway, you’re not the King anymore! I’m supposed to be the one doing the summoning!” she complained.

King Micah gave her a very exaggerated shrug. “Old habits die hard, I suppose. I might not be the seated King anymore, but it seems people still look to me for counsel.” His eyes were twinkling in Scorpia’s direction.

“Though if you want to remain acting Queen in all areas of Queendom, I can certainly ask that the foot-high stack of paperwork be delivered to your room instead. Etheria knows I could use a break from signing papers,” he said, rubbing his wrist and cringing in obvious mock pain.

Glimmer grumbled something that sounded a lot like ‘stupid dad’ under her breath, and threw a look at Scorpia. “Why didn’t you ask me for advice on the Garnet? I’m the Queen, you know!”

Scorpia let out a nervous laugh, glancing at Glimmer. “I gotta be honest with you. I sort of kind of... forgot that you’re the Queen. His Kingitude is just so... kingly! You know?” she prattled with mounting panic upon seeing Glimmer’s brow furrow deeper and deeper in annoyance.

“Now now, I seem to remember someone not being all that happy about having to do all of that aforementioned queenly paperwork mere weeks ago,” Bow pointed out and patted Glimmer on the head. “You always wanted to be the Queen-in-action didn’t you? Is this not your big chance?”

Ignoring Glimmer’s further grumblings, King Micah turned his attention to Sea Hawk, who had been watching the discussion wearing his usual dim, vacant smile. “Well then, I see we have a visitor from afar in our midst! What news from Salineas, Sea Hawk?” he said, opening his arms in welcome.

Sea Hawk started upon hearing his name being called, but immediately broke into a toothy grin. “Only great news, King Micah! Prime’s clones scattered without resistance and the city is ours once again!” he said, initiating a swordfight with an imaginary opponent as if to enforce his point.

“My lovely Mermista has been hard at work rebuilding what needed to be rebuilt, aided by Frosta whose kingdom remains untouched by Horde Prime’s presence. I, naturally, pledged all of my considerable strength and wit to aid them but er... Mermista sent me away after I, um... accidentally set fire to a cargo crane.”

Sea Hawk deflated at the memory, letting his imaginary sword fall to his side. “Oh, and the Sea Gate remains... inoperable. But we shouldn’t be worrying about any more attacks from the sea anyway, should we?”

King Micah stared at Sea Hawk with an odd mixture of sympathy and incredulity. “No, I don’t believe so. But it might be pertinent to restore the Sea Gate back to functionality at some point, just in case. We don’t yet fully know what Horde Prime’s clones are capable of without their master,” he pondered, and turned her attention to Adora, Netossa and Spinnerella in turn.

“Putting the matter of the Sea Gate aside for now, and before we get to the matter of the Black Garnet... Adora, Netossa, Spinnerella, can you report on the status of the rebuilding of the areas surrounding Bright Moon?”

Catra couldn’t entirely suppress her snort as Adora straightened up rigid as a board upon hearing the word ‘report’, as if someone had bellowed “ATTENTION, CADET!” into her ear. A light pink crept up onto Adora’s cheeks as she cleared her throat and relaxed her posture.

“Rebuilding of Bright Moon and the surrounding towns is well underway. Everyone has been highly motivated since Prime’s defeat - I’d estimate work efficiency to be around a hundred and fifteen per cent,” Adora reported.

“We’re starting to run into a shortage of materials, though. Namely lumber and stone,” Netossa pointed out. “We sent a few scouts to the Whispering Woods to find out if the forest has chilled out at all, but they came back reporting all sorts’a new weird noises and sightings. They got barely half a mile in before they thought it better to skedaddle,” she continued.

“Whatever She-Ra’s power did to the nature of Etheria, it certainly didn’t make the Whispering Woods any less creepy,” Spinnerella added and shuddered.

“I honestly don’t think cutting down anything in the Whispering Woods is a good idea anyway,” Adora said grimly. “I’ve come to learn that place is so deeply connected to the First Ones that I wouldn’t be surprised if the trees started causing trouble even after being turned to lumber and built into houses.”

Netossa and Spinnerella nodded in agreement. Catra thought back to all of her forays into the Woods and seemed to remember nothing but getting lost, being attacked by some sort of enormous carnivorous creature within, or having a fight with Adora. She had a hard time thinking of reasons why the entire forest shouldn’t just be torched to the ground.

“Any proposals as to where to find more building materials then?” King Micah asked. “The reports from before Prime’s attack say all of the machinery from the quarry at Mount Verity were repurposed for the defense of Bright Moon, and... most of it didn’t survive the battles. So unless we find more stonecutters lying around somewhere, the quarry is non-operational,” he added, rubbing his bearded chin in thought.

“Oooooh, couldn’t they use wood and metal from the Fright Zone? It’ll be easier to travel between here and there if we cut a swath through the jungle,” Entrapta suggested.

Everyone except Catra and Scorpia stared at her blankly.

“What are you talking about? What jungle? Nothing grows in the Fright Zone, it’s all dead,” Adora said.

It occurred to Catra that she, Scorpia and Entrapta all had neglected to mention the enormous jungle having sprouted up virtually overnight to cover the entirety of the Fright Zone, while they’d been gathered at the breakfast table. Her head had been so full of various other things that it had completely slipped her mind.

“Oh but there is a jungle now - a very, very vast one. By my estimates it covers approximately two hundred square miles and engulfs the entirety of what used to be the Fright Zone. It seems to be growing in every direction at a rate of several square miles per day, outwards from a singular focal point which I assume is the original seat of the Black Garnet. We will need to somehow transport the Black Garnet from Hordak’s base back to Scorpia’s family’s palace and have She-Ra commune with it to restore balance, or who knows how far Etheria’s rampant life energy will make the jungle spread!” Entrapta explained, tracing a small circle on the floor of the meeting room with her nose buried in her datapad, barely drawing breath between sentences.

As everyone was still goggling at Entrapta with their mouths half-open, Catra thought it best to offer them a plan of action. “We figured the best way to transport the Garnet would be to strip a skiff or two of their topside parts and fly it back to Scorpia’s palace,” she suggested.

“Um... your Supreme Kingliness, may I uh, may I speak?” Scorpia squeaked, hovering behind Catra like a giant, red, awkward ghost.

“Relax, Princess Scorpia. As Glimmer ever so tactfully pointed out, my title is a mere formality. You can speak freely here,” King Micah said with a kind, fatherly smile.

“But- I, I, I’ve never spoken to a real King before and- and-” Scorpia stammered.

“That’s the opposite of relaxing, Scorpia,” Bow chuckled.

“Try mimicking Miss Stiffness over here and giving a report as if you were still a Force Captain,” Catra suggested, pointing her thumb at Adora and receiving a swift index finger jabbed between her ribs in return.

Scorpia nodded and drew herself up into a proper position of attention. “Well, your Kinghood, skiff or not, I don’t see how we’re gonna move the Garnet without dealing with the plants first. And I specifically mean the ones that have taken over about every square inch of the town. Er... or what used to be the town before, you know, Hordak came and chased everyone away and turned it into a weapons factory,” Scorpia explained. “Sir,” she added and gave a stiff Horde salute.

Micah chuckled at Scorpia’s gesture and reflected on her quandary for a moment. “Well, I’d say you’ve more than earned some help from Bright Moon, so we’ll send a group of foresters to clear away the growth as best we can. If they can collect some metal and lumber for rebuilding while they’re at it, all the better.”

Perfuma let out a small, disappointed “Ohhh...” from across the table.

Everyone’s eyes turned to her. She shrunk with embarrassment at having let her thoughts leak out. “I mean... I understand the need to cut the trees down for lumber, but couldn’t you just ask the other plants nicely to move out of the way instead?”

Everybody else around the table glanced at each other, puzzled, except for Scorpia, who seemed to be seriously considering Perfuma’s suggestion. “I can’t say that option crossed my mind. I’ll give it a try!” she said brightly.

“Er... maybe it would be best if Perfuma accompanied you to the Fright Zone, and helped you out with that part? I imagine not just everyone can... uh, ask plants to leave peacefully and be successful,” King Micah suggested.

Perfuma clapped her hands together and beamed at the King. “Yay! I love peace!” she trilled. Catra and Adora glanced at each other and had to try very hard to suppress their giggle fits.

“That’s settled, then. Any other concerns anyone would like to lift upon the proverbial table?” King Micah said, scanning the crowd before him.

“Finally we get to the truly important things!” Swift Wind proclaimed and ruffled his wings, almost knocking Sea Hawk over. “The Green Meadows Apple Orchard has been completely and utterly devastated by Horde Prime’s attack! How am I supposed to carry on carrying on the voices of my fellow unheard equines if I we are to be deprived of succulent Green Meadows fruit?” he demanded, stomping his hooves and throwing his magnificent mane.

“How about we start looking into modifying some skiffs, clearing some jungle and transporting a giant gemstone while His Highness hears Swift Wind’s heartfelt plea,” Glimmer suggested, turning on her heel and speeding out of the meeting room.

Catra was more than happy to be the first one to follow her out, if only to stop her insubordinate eyes from glancing up at Queen Angella’s stony countenance every five seconds. “Not so eager to assume your position as Supreme Queen now, are you, Sparkles,” she sniggered and deftly dodged the finger jab Glimmer aimed at the selfsame spot Adora had poked moments before.

As it turned out, jury-rigging advanced machinery to do something it was never meant for was not as easy as it sounded. Even with Entrapta’s considerable mechanical knowledge, they hadn’t yet found a way to detach the stabilizer sail atop a skiff and not have it tip over from the lightest touch. On top of that problem, she surmised that even with the combined lifting power of their two functional skiffs, the several ton gemstone would most likely crush them both into scrap.

After over an hour of brainstorming, everyone had come to the consensus that the Fright Zone would likely have no other transport vehicles in working condition after the battles of the past weeks, and that Mara’s ship was much too large to function as a suitable transport in such cramped quarters - thus they were effectively back to square one.

In the absence of further plans, Glimmer and Bow had volunteered to scout the sprawling jungle for building materials, as well as the best route to cut a swath through for future expeditions into the Fright Zone. Catra, Scorpia and Perfuma had watched Entrapta dive in and out of the guts of the two working skiffs they had available for about half an hour before deciding they might as well use their time in a more constructive manner. While Scorpia had offered to take Perfuma on a tour of the newly overgrown Fright Zone, Adora and Catra had left to scout the ruins of Hordak’s base for the Prime clone Catra had spotted the previous day. Having found neither hair nor hide of any Prime remnants to Catra’s visible relief, they instead decided to go and try to tackle the matter of the giant steel door of the Black Garnet chamber.

“So how the heck do we get the Garnet out even if we do manage to get the skiffs to work?” Adora asked Catra, staring up at the thirty-foot gate still stubbornly standing amidst the rubble, its once mechanical doors now stuck in a half-open position. “In fact, how the heck did they even get it in?”

Catra was sitting atop a toppled computing console, twirling a broken piece of wiring between her fingers. She’d been unusually quiet and taciturn ever since breakfast and Adora was burning to know why, but wasn’t sure how much she could pry before Catra lashed out and clammed up. Granted - this new and reformed version of Catra had been much less prone to doing so than the Catra of old, but her restless tail told Adora she was on edge about something.

“Hey... I know I’ve asked you a million times already, but are you alright?” Adora asked carefully, sidling next to Catra on top of the rubble. She was still very apprehensive about badgering Catra with the question, given how many times it had backfired on her in the past. The fact that Catra had told Melog to stay behind in case the others needed to send them a message didn’t help; their calming presence always seemed to ease Catra into being more honest.

Catra coiled and uncoiled the piece of wire for a good half a minute before saying anything. “I’ve just... I’ve just got a lot of things on my mind, s’all,” she replied, still not looking at Adora.

“Well, maybe I can help with some of them somehow?” Adora suggested. “Like this morning? It helped, didn’t it?”

Catra twirled her wire until it snapped from the stress. She sighed and flicked it away into a large pile of refuse behind her. “Yeah, it did. But it also hurt to force it out. And it feels like... just feels like stuff keeps piling up way faster than I can bring myself to talk about it. You know I’m not good at this sharing thing,” she said, pulling her legs against her chest and hugging her own knees.

“Yeah, I know,” Adora said, reaching out to rub Catra’s shoulder but ending up just patting it gently. “But we have plenty of time now, yeah? So there’s no need to rush. And you have a lot of people around you who know a lot of things now. So even if I can’t be of help I bet one of the others can.”

Catra finally turned to look at Adora, her expression miserable and her ears drooping. She seemed to be struggling for words as her eyes flickered between Adora and the pile of rubbish behind them.

“About that... the others. I... I still don’t understand how everyone can possibly be alright with me being here,” she said.

Adora’s heart gave an unpleasant lurch. Catra’s concerns certainly explained her restless body language, and then some. Adora knew at once that waving her worries away with a mollifying platitude or two wasn’t going to help, because those worries sounded so very familiar.

“You know, I thought the exact same thing for a long while back when I...” Adora’s insides squeezed with regret as phrases like ‘defected’ and ‘abandoned you’ flitted through her mind.

“Back when I left the Fright Zone. It was really weird how fast the people of Bright Moon accepted me after they learned I was She-Ra. Then again I did defend them from the Horde when...”

“When I tried to bring you back,” Catra finished Adora’s sentence for her, her somber expression mirroring Adora’s feelings.

“That’s the difference though isn’t it? You’re She-Ra, I’m not. What have I ever done for them?” she asked.

The weight in Adora's chest lightened somewhat and she managed a faint smile; this one was much easier to answer. “Saving the Queen of Bright Moon from being enslaved to an evil space overlord is a pretty good one. So is helping figure out how to remove said evil overlord’s horrible mind control chips without hurting people. Then there’s the part where the entire planet would’ve been destroyed if you hadn’t pulled my dumb ass away from the brink,” she recounted, her heart giving a massive jolt at the recollection of the last part. She felt heat starting creep up towards her cheeks and struggled to force it back down.

Thankfully Catra gone back to staring at the surrounding rubble for a long, quiet moment, her chin resting atop her knees. Adora noticed her ears perk up the slightest amount and knew she had gotten through to her.

“You’ve got a point,” Catra said after a solid minute of silence. As uncomfortable as she sometimes felt waiting for her replies, Adora wished she had even half of Catra’s patience for mulling things over before blurting them out.

“How did you do it? How did you go on being friends with Sparkles and Bow and the others, as if none of the bad stuff had ever happened?” Catra continued.

Adora shrugged. It occurred to her that she had never really given it much thought. She had been so consumed by the concept of being She-Ra and having the accompanying grand destiny thrust upon her that the matter of her previous affiliation had felt positively trivial.

Before she could put her thoughts into words, Catra snorted and started laughing into her lap. “Figures,” she said.

Adora’s heart leapt at Catra’s sudden mood shift, but a hint of disgruntlement pushed through. “Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” she huffed and poked Catra in the ribs.

Catra let out a delightful noise between a giggle and a hiss. “Will you stop doing that?!” she barked, but continued to shake with silent laughter right after. After a moment she gave Adora a much happier look, leaning her cheek against her knees. “I wonder if you even realize how much grief your brainless straightforwardness has saved you,” she said.

Adora grumbled. Not like she knew how to be any other way. And not like she hadn’t ever gotten into any trouble because of her ‘brainless straightforwardness’.

Catra swiveled around on the rubble, settling into a cross-legged position and staring right at Adora. “Hey, Adora?” she asked, once again sounding uncharacteristically meek.

“Yeah?” Adora replied, slightly startled.

“I... I’ve still got a bunch of things I wanna talk about. With you, I mean. But not here in this craphole.” She cast her eyes down and then back up again, her ears pressed against her head in a silent look that would’ve made Adora cleave the Moon in two for her if she so wished.

“Anytime,” Adora said, finding herself breathless. She was saved from having to try and hide her explosive blush once more when Catra pushed herself off the piece of machinery and turned her attention to the hulking metal doors.

“I’ve done nothing but whine all day, it’s about time I did something useful,” she said and strolled to the door with an air of purpose. She bent down to peer at the spot where the frame of the doorway met the bent floor panels and felt for something with her sharp claws. Evidently finding nothing, she repeated the action on the other side of the door.

“A-ha!” she exclaimed and gouged off a small panel in the doorframe, revealing a bundle of crisscrossing wires within. She pushed her fingers past the wires and groped around for something, until -

The jammed doorway let out a horrible high-pitched metallic screech as a red emergency light started flashing above the doors, which were now slowly and painfully prying themselves open. Adora clapped her hands over her ears and grit her teeth to try and block out the skull-rattling noise which reminded her unpleasantly of the screeching of the monstrous guardians of First Ones’ ruins. With a final wail and a dull clunk the doors set into place, now wide enough to easily fit the Garnet through, provided they could find a way to carry it.

“Nice going!” Adora said, an echo of the horrifying screeching still screaming inside her head.

“Ugh. Thanks. Wow that was loud,” Catra said with a pained grimace, her tail resembling a bottle brush. Adora couldn’t imagine how much more painful it must’ve been to Catra’s sensitive ears.

“How’d you know about that?” Adora asked, squatting down to peer through the hole the panel had covered. She could just faintly see a small switch behind several bundles of wiring.

“I overheard Hordak talking about a self-powered override to the emergency lockdown system in every doorframe a long time ago. Figured it had to be somewhere that’s easy enough to access in a hurry,” Catra said, turning her attention to the Garnet. “Though I’m sure it was all covered in freaking... stupid... Force Captain orientation,” she muttered to herself.

Adora just barely managed to turn her giggle into a cough. “By ‘overheard Hordak’ I assume you mean ‘spied on Hordak’, yeah?” she suggested.

Catra glanced at Adora and finally flashed that smug grin she’d been waiting for.

“So, any emergency override systems that could help us get the Garnet out of here?” Adora asked.

“Not that I know of. I thought the Garnet had always been here. Though it makes sense that it wasn’t, now that I’ve seen some of the other Runestones. All of them seem so... natural where they are. And this place is anything but natural,” Catra replied, glaring at the Garnet Chamber like it had offended her personally. It was odd seeing her display this much obvious dislike towards the Fright Zone. Even though she had all the reasons to do so, she had generally kept her antipathy to herself up until now.

Adora had absent-mindedly started moving various other pieces of rubble away from the Garnet’s path in preparation for when they figured out how to move it. She flung a large stone into the pile of rubble at the side of the room and found Catra staring at her with an odd expression.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to do that as She-Ra?” she asked.

Adora’s heart sank. She had known that someone would eventually ask her, but had hoped for a little bit more time to figure her She-Ra problems out. “I, uh... She-Ra isn’t... She isn’t listening to me. Again. Like the fifth damn time in the past few years,” she replied, grabbing another stone and flinging it into the pile with a bit more hostility than the previous one.

“What do you mean she? Aren’t you She-Ra?” Catra asked.

Adora realized she had never really discussed She-Ra with Catra. Mostly she’d just been beating her up as She-Ra. “Well... yes and no. Mostly no. But also... yes?” she said, wracking her brain on how to explain it. It surprised her a bit to realize that this was the first time anyone had really asked her about the specifics of how She-Ra worked.

“That was enlightening,” Catra scoffed.

“It’s really hard to explain, alright!” Adora exclaimed.

Catra settled into leaning against the Black Garnet like it was a background prop. “Well I’m interested, and we have time."

Adora crossed her arms and twisted her brow in deep thought.

“Whoa, don’t hurt yourself trying though,” Catra quipped.

Adora threw her a look. "Hush, goober. It’s like... like, I’m me, right?”

Catra cocked an eyebrow at the statement. “Woooow. Not sure I can wrap my head around that shocking concept.”

“Aren’t we feeling snarky today?” Adora grumbled and flicked a tiny pebble at Catra’s smirking face. “It really is hard to explain though. It’s like, whenever I become She-Ra, I’m... I’m sort of in the driver’s seat of someone else’s powers? As long as I keep my eyes on the road, it’s all good. But if something really shakes my concentration or blindsides me real bad, I lose control.”

She rubbed her Sword of Protection-turned-bracelet ruefully. “And when that happens it becomes really obvious to me that I don’t really become She-Ra whenever I transform. Even if I manage to somehow maintain the form of She-Ra after something shocking happens, the Sword of Protection usually stops working properly for me. And usually when that happens, soon after it feels like I get shunted out and become me again.”

“So... it’s like you’re putting on an eight-foot hero suit that might just hop off you and leave you naked whenever it feels like?” Catra suggested.

Adora blinked at her. “Well not literally naked... but yeah, that’s a pretty good way to put it.”

“Does She-Ra ever talk to you?” Catra asked.

Adora scrunched her brow and closed her eyes again. “I... I’m not sure. I’ve talked with Mara, the woman who was She-Ra before me a loooong time ago. Or at least I think I have. It might have been a fever dream, but it felt very real. And there have been times when I’ve thought I was talking with Mara, but in retrospect... Ugh, I really don’t know,” she concluded with a deflated sigh.

“Huh. Sounds like it’s all a huge pain in the ass,” Catra said.

“You have no idea,” Adora replied, a palpably profound sense of appreciation that someone understood being She-Ra wasn’t all rainbows and Princesses washing over her.

“Wait, haven’t you been helping the Bright Moon folks with all sorts of construction stuff the past week? Without She-Ra’s stupid strength?” Catra asked.

Adora shrugged, turned to the massive computing console they’d previously been sitting on, lifted it right way up with a grunt and shoved it into the pile of electronic junk.

“Oh yeaaah, right. You never did need She-Ra to be dumb strong to begin with, did you, musclehead?” Catra grinned.

“I’ll show you musclehead!” Adora said, stomped forward, grabbed Catra around her middle and started spinning her around on her shoulder.

Catra shrieked and squirmed hard enough to slip through Adora’s grip, deftly bounding off her shoulders, using the Garnet as an extra foothold and clambering up onto one of the half-collapsed walkways above. She slinked into the deep shadows unlit by the patches of sun shining from the hole-riddled ceiling and disappeared from Adora’s sight entirely.

Adora glanced around, making a quick mental map of the overhanging walkways. She closed her eyes and strained her ears for the smallest sounds of shuffling or footsteps. Catra was easily the most silent and stealthy creature she’d ever come across, but through years and years of training with her, she could almost read her thoughts in a mock-combat situation like this.

After a few seconds of only the sounds of a gentle wind whistling through the chamber, the hair on the back of Adora’s neck prickled up. She ducked and spun around just in time to dodge Catra’s lunge. A second later she had bounced after her, knocked her down and pinned her to the ground.

“Oof!” Catra grunted, landing onto the metallic floor a bit harder than Adora had intended. “Dang I’m out of practice, I usually nail your slow ass if I get the jump on you,” she snarled.

“My slow ass?” Adora pursed her lips and lifted an eyebrow in mock offense, and then sank her fingers deep into Catra’s sides under her tunic and launched an almighty tickle offensive.

“Ahahahadora, no, stop!” Catra screeched as she squirmed under Adora’s relentless onslaught. Her claws extended on their own volition and left a few shallow scratches on Adora’s arms, but she was long since used to those.

“How the heck is your fur so silky?” Adora asked, deftly dodging Catra’s attempts to grab her hands. Her fur really did feel amazingly soft under her fingertips, even slightly damp from the jungle humidity. “It’s so unfair, I have to use a gallon of Perfuma’s special coconut shampoo a week or my hair turns into strands of strAWCH!”

Adora’s tirade was interrupted by a resolute palm chop to the jaw. In a flash Catra had flipped her over and planted herself solidly atop her hips, flushed red in the face and wiggling her fingers like an army of inchworms ready to strike. “I can’t believe you would dare actually challenge me into a tickle fight,” she panted and jabbed all of her fingers between Adora’s ribs at once. Adora wasn’t particularly ticklish, but Catra’s barely-extended claws added that bit of additional oomph into her tickle attack that tipped Adora’s senses over.

“And! I! Use! Conditioner!” Catra yelled in between accurate jabs into all of Adora’s weak spots. Adora kicked and laughed under Catra’s attack, failing to push her off due to her amazing reflexes and unnaturally limber body. It was like trying to grapple jelly. Despite her tickle resistance, Adora had never actually managed to win this fight yet.

“And how dare you complain about your hair anyway, have you seen your hair as She-Ra?!” Catra said, finally letting Adora rest and catch her breath for a couple of seconds.

“I-I know!” Adora panted, wiping tears of mirth from her cheeks. “It’s so nice that I’m actually jealous of myself. How stupid is that?”

“Par for the course for you,” Catra grinned and poked Adora in the ribs one more time before rolling over onto her back next to her.

After panting heavily and catching her breath for a few minutes, Adora glanced at Catra and found her looking back. “I’ve... I’ve really missed this, you know?” she said.

“I know. Me too,” Catra replied. They stared at each other for a moment that felt like a week, until the deep, excited voice of Scorpia ambushed them from the doorway.

“And this is the Black Garnet, my oldest and best fr-... Oh, hey guys! Were you having a nap?” she said, staring at Adora and Catra who had bounced up from the ground and were now furiously attempting to outblush each other.

Chapter Text

Catra had had to endure the curious gaze of Perfuma drilling into the back of her head all the way to the skiffs, which were still in the process of being manhandled by Entrapta. Adora had, in her usual phenomenally unsubtle way, started babbling about the Black Garnet problem to try and make Scorpia and Perfuma forget what they’d seen in the Garnet Chamber, which had been enough to distract the ever dense Scorpia, but evidently not quite enough for Miss Love and Peace.

To Catra’s further disgruntlement, Glimmer and Bow had been all too happy to listen to Perfuma’s scandalous whisperings on the next skiff over, and to join the chorus of staring at her on the way back to Bright Moon. All the ogling and smirking was not quite enough to divert Catra away from her own thoughts, however. While Adora, Scorpia and Entrapta kept discussing the Garnet for the entire journey, Catra kept falling into memories both old and very recent, the gentle weight of Melog leaning against her back only barely anchoring her consciousness to reality.

The one memory that kept invading the forefront of her mind was from mere weeks ago, and involved a certain blonde moron right on the brink of death. Back in the Heart of Etheria, Catra had said something to Adora that she hadn’t said to anyone in her entire life, and done various things she’d never thought herself capable of doing. But unlike Adora, who seemed to start steaming at the gaskets at the mere mention of the Heart, Catra felt a yawning void open up in the pit of her stomach every single time.

What she had said within the Heart wasn’t a lie. What she had done in there had been some of the few actions in her life that had come straight from her heart without any of her myriad of barriers in the way. And that fact terrified her right down to her very core.

A word as paltry and mundane as ‘love’ was meaningless compared to what Adora meant to her. Adora wasn’t just important to Catra; she was her lifeline. Ever since they had been small children, Adora had been the only one who always stuck by her. No matter how much Catra had raged and hurt the people around her, Adora would be there, telling her the exact things she wanted to hear but didn’t have the capacity of accepting at the bottom of her dismal pit of self-loathing.

If there was one thing Catra had learned about herself, it was that she wasn’t fit for loving or being loved. Thinking back to the sheer rejection she had felt all those years ago when Adora had chosen She-Ra instead of her still made her blood burn like boiling acid in her veins. The fact that they had finally been reunited and no longer had any pressing reasons to fight each other was the most soothing salve she could’ve ever hoped for, but it scared her witless to be reminded of the depths of despair she’d sunk into whilst denying her own crushing regrets and her consuming, malformed affection for Adora.

If she was ready to hurt, ready to kill, ready to destroy even those she cared about most just because she couldn’t have what she wanted, how could she ever possibly be worthy of love?

Catra jumped when someone tapped on the shoulder and called her name.

“Etheria to Catra! We’re home,” Adora said, and Catra noticed it was true. They’d crossed dozens of miles in what seemed like a flash, and were parked in the inner courtyard of castle Bright Moon.

“You seemed unusually thoughtful, Catra, what’s on your mind?” Glimmer asked with an infuriating grin.

Catra grit her teeth in an effort to not bark something extremely hurtful back to Glimmer. “A lot,” she finally managed, turned on her heel and headed straight towards her bedroom, Melog gliding right behind her.

She had asked Adora to listen to more of her whinging at a later date, but didn’t feel like sharing anything with anyone right now. Every time she tried going back and looking at everything that had happened in the past few years calmly and objectively, all she walked away with was fear and anxiety. She had no idea how she was supposed to even begin dismantling it all, when every time she shared something with Adora, she felt like she was ripping open the bleeding wound slashed across her past.

“It just takes time, I’ll get there eventually,” some almost alarmingly alien part of her mind assuaged her, as Melog let out a soft ‘mrow...’ and brushed her leg with their tail.

Catra’s bedroom in Bright Moon was still much too spacious for her liking, but at least it didn’t feel like a giant cage anymore. For all that she disparaged her own abilities of settling in, Bright Moon had started feeling more like a home than Fright Zone ever did, not that that was a difficult accomplishment. In retrospect, Fright Zone had always been nothing but a prison for her. The only thing that had made it worth staying had always been Adora, and nothing else.

Catra sighed deep and threw herself onto her almost offensively soft bed. The twisting of her stomach had robbed her of her appetite even after the long excursion to the Fright Zone, but she knew Adora wouldn’t stop pestering her before she joined them at dinner later.

“How long is it gonna take to stop feeling like this?” she muttered to herself and stared at the strange, shimmering globes that lit up the room drawing circles against the ceiling. Melog gave a soft but oddly agitated growl next to her.

“Oh quite a while I would assume, knowing your alarming lack of emotional intellect,” came a drawling voice from the corner of the room.

Catra twisted around and leapt onto all fours so fast she ripped a long gash into her mattress with her fully extended claws.

Double Trouble was sitting in an armchair in the corner of the room, legs crossed and infuriatingly smug-looking as ever. They gave a smile and a casual wave as if Catra had personally invited them to stalk her bedroom.

“What are you doing here? What do you want?” Catra spat, not letting her guard down for even a second. She’d been startled enough to be as civil as to give Double Trouble a chance to explain themselves, but an instinctual, white-hot boiling rage was bubbling steadily from her core, making blood pound inside her skull and her vision blur. She wanted to attack Double Trouble and cause them as much pain as possible, to force them to share even a small part of the soul-shattering pain they had caused her.

Double Trouble pursed their lips and furrowed their brow in mock offense. “How rude! Then again, I suppose I was rather rude as well the last time we met, what with the betrayal and all... Sorry about that, by the way,” they said, stood up and gave Catra a theatrical bow. They started slightly as their eyes fell on her again.

Gritting her teeth so hard her jaw hurt was all Catra could do to not pounce on Double Trouble and shred them into pieces. They seemed to have noticed this since they straightened up and took a careful half-step towards the window that Catra only vaguely now noticed was cracked open.

“I-I swear I’m not here to cause any... trouble, this time. I’m here to settle a debt, or a part thereof, anyhow,” they said, much faster and more sober than usual.

“Then talk. And. Get. Out,” Catra growled, restraining herself with every ounce of her willpower.

Double Trouble blinked sideways at Catra and swallowed hard. “Horde Prime’s clones are gathering. I don’t know exactly where, but I’ve heard multiple people mention they’ve seen them traveling towards the same place, somewhere in the direction of the Crimson Waste. I know your folks are trying to get rid of them, so...” they said, pausing for a moment to see if Catra had any response to what they clearly considered was most valuable information.

“And... and I really do feel the tiniest bit of remorse as to-” they began, but Catra cut them off.

“Get out,” she hissed.

“I only-”

“GET. OOOOUUUT!” Catra roared, bounding off the bed and onto the floor, punching deep holes into the carpet with her claws that so thirsted to slash and mutilate every part of Double Trouble’s body they could reach.

“Al-alright alright, I’m going, I’m going!” Double Trouble stuttered and dashed for the window, giving Catra one last indignant look from the sill before jumping down into the deepening night.

“Catra? What’s wrong? I’m coming in!” came Adora’s voice from the door. She stumbled into the room and stopped dead in her tracks upon seeing Catra on the floor, still poised to kill.

“What... what’s going on?” she asked.

Catra had to breathe deep and hard through her teeth to regain control of herself. She could not remember ever feeling this magnitude of demented fury in her entire life.

“But I controlled myself, and I gave Double Trouble the benefit of the doubt,” that weirdly positive part of her mind chimed in out of nowhere. Melog, though still an angry hue of puce, paced around her, purring loudly.

“Catra, what happened?” Adora asked and knelt down next to her, alarm and worry etched into every inch of her face.

Feeling Adora’s touch on her shoulder made the balloon of anger threatening to burst in Catra’s head start to deflate. She retracted her claws and sat down onto the floor, suddenly aching from having tensed all of the muscles in her body for the past several minutes.

“Double Trouble. They were here,” Catra said, letting out a long, shaky sigh and pressing the palms of her hands into her eyes to try and ease the violent throbbing of her head.

“Oh, Catra,” Adora said and embraced her shoulders in an awkward sideways hug.

Catra grit her teeth again, this time to stop her eyes from watering. She would not shed a single tear for Double Trouble or anything they had wrought.

“They wanted to tell us that Prime’s clones are gathering somewhere in the direction of the Crimson Wastes,” she hissed after another long moment of self-control.

Adora opened her mouth but closed it again.

“I wanted to kill them. I really... I really wanted to kill them,” the words bubbled out of Catra’s mouth before she could stop them.

“But you didn’t,” Adora said, her voice shaking slightly.

“I didn’t. But if they show their face in front of me again, I’m not sure if I can control myself,” Catra spat.

Adora hobbled over to Catra’s front and sat down, waiting until Catra looked up at her. Catra started as she realized that Adora’s voice had been shaking from anger; she looked almost as livid as Catra had felt.

“I don’t blame you,” she growled.

Catra stared at her. From what she had heard, Double Trouble had certainly caused enough grief for Bright Moon and the Rebellion, but they hadn’t ever hurt Adora as deeply and as personally as they had hurt Catra through their betrayal.

“Why?” Catra asked.

Adora’s anger shifted into incredulity. “Why? How would you feel if someone had done something as... reprehensible as what Double Trouble did to someone you...” she stopped mid-sentence and turned to glare at the open window Double Trouble had jumped out of.

Catra found the last vestiges of her remaining anger dissolving into a jumble of thoughts. Once again the unconditional solidarity Adora showed her struck her completely dumb. ‘To someone you...’ someone she what? Though Catra was quite certain she knew how Adora had intended to finish that sentence deep down, it still felt incomprehensible to her. This had been back when they had been bitter enemies, when their relationship had been the absolute most inflamed it had ever been. Was it even possible that even during that desperate time Adora would still... An errant thought pointing out that Adora had used a word as complex as ‘reprehensible’ correctly left Catra with a bizarre, disjointed desire to laugh.

So she did.

“Wha- what’s funny?” Adora asked, now completely baffled.

Catra curled up and pounded the carpet with her fist, howling with mirth. She wondered if she’d finally gone insane from the avalanche of emotions her brain wasn’t wired to handle, but found that right now she didn’t care.

It took Catra several minutes to calm down. Her laughing fit was renewed every time she thought how absurd her problems were compared to any ordinary citizen of Etheria, and every time she glanced up at Adora’s thoroughly confused face. After she’d finally gathered herself, she looked up at Adora, who was now puffing her cheeks and staring resolutely out of the window, brow furrowed in annoyance.

“Adora?” she asked carefully.

“It’s rude to leave someone out of the joke, you know,” Adora grumbled and looked at Catra, brow still furrowed.

“I love you,” Catra thought.

“Say it.” She stared into Adora’s eyes, mesmerized as always by the depth of their blue.

“I love you.” She glanced up at Adora’s hair poof and barely managed to convert a renewed giggle fit into a single snort.

“Sorry. Inside joke,” Catra sniffed, brushed some of the wetness off from around her eyes and picked herself up from the floor. “And hey, thanks. Again,” she added.

Adora stood up with a grunt and dusted her backside off. “You’re welcome. What for?” she asked, the mild irritation in her voice now replaced by curiosity.

“Same old,” Catra replied and stared at her mangled bed and the deluge of downy feathers that had burst out of it as she had jumped off. “Glimmer’s not gonna like this,” she said happily.

“No, I don’t suppose she is,” Adora said, joining in on Catra’s amusement. The way her emotions shifted so quickly was something Catra had always sort of looked down on, but could now see the benefits of. She could certainly do with a lot less dwelling on the bad side of life herself.

“And... and Double Trouble? You think we’ll need to look out for them?” Adora asked.

Still wrapped in the positive flood from her personal moment of merriment, Catra was now the master of the small surge of fury that Double Trouble’s name cause within her.

“No. But how about we beat them up... like real, real fucking good, the next time we meet them,” she suggested.

“Deal,” Adora replied without pause. “Dinner?” she asked.

“Yeah. I’m starving,” Catra said, and realized her appetite had returned with a vengeance.

One day, she would say it again. One day, when she had gotten over her stupid issues and finally become good enough to stand next to her, she would tell Adora that she loved her more than anything in the world, and that life without her was meaningless. And hopefully, when that day came, neither of them would be in the process of dying.

Adora opened her eyes to pitch darkness. She was wide awake, even more so than usual, given that she’d always been a morning lark. She extended a hand in front of her face, but couldn’t see it. For one heart-stopping second she thought she’d gone blind, until a very, very faint glow of something in the distance drew her eyes to her left. She scrambled up onto her feet and found herself standing on very unyielding, slightly uneven ground. The dull echo of her shuffling footsteps indicated that she was probably in a cave of some sort. A passing thought somewhere in the furthest reaches of her mind wondered where the hell she was and why she was there, but the faint glow from what she presumed was the mouth of the cave seized her full attention.

After a few dozen yards of traversing the rocky tunnel, she emerged out of the cave and into a vast, featureless desert of dark stone. The faint starlight just barely illuminated miles and miles of empty space in every direction, including - another faint note of puzzlement in the back of her mind - the cave she had just emerged from, which was no longer there. She turned her gaze from the nothingness around to the skies above, and failed to recognize any of the star formations she’d spent hours upon hours discovering and naming with Glimmer, Bow and Catra.

The thought of Catra made her heart throb, and the distant, hazy part of her mind became clear for a fleeting moment. Where were Catra and the others anyway? Had they not just had dinner together and decided to have a girls’ sleepover in Glimmer’s room mere hours ago? As soon as she had finished the thought, her feet left the ground and she started gently rising up into the sky. A dry, warm wind ruffled her hair as she rose higher and higher, faster and faster, hardly wondering whether she would eventually plummet back down onto the rocky earth miles below.

After about a minute, she had risen so high that she could now see the entire planet below her, still as dark and featureless as it had been when she’d been standing on top of it. No sun shone anywhere near it; it seemed to have this lonely pocket of the universe all for itself. But something about the planet made something in the depths of Adora’s soul ache. She scanned the space around her, and found one particularly bright spot blinking at her off in the far, far distance. As if instructed by the light’s pulsing, she turned to scan the heavens on the opposite side of space, and finally found a star formation she recognized. A perfect square of stars she had wondered about with her friends back on Etheria.

Back on Etheria... She was no longer on Etheria. This was another, very distant world altogether, and someone or some thing wanted her to see it, to remember it. Something about the dark orb below her felt so very familiar, yet Adora knew that she had not ever seen this place, much less visited it. What was even there to visit? As far as she could tell, it was just an empty ball of rock in the depths of space.

Whatever was controlling her flight around the dark, lonely planet now made her shoot towards the bright, pulsing light on the opposite side from the square-shaped star formation. The dark planet she had left became smaller and smaller, until finally it disappeared from her vision, exactly where the center point of the square of stars would be. She traveled faster and faster through the universe, the pulsing light becoming brighter and brighter...

Adora woke up to a sharp pain in her elbow and a loud yowl.

“OW! Goddamn, what the hell!?” Catra yelped, curling sideways into a fetal position and clutching her forehead. Evidently Adora had smacked her in the head, rather hard if the pain in her elbow was anything to go by. Weird, she didn’t remember them having fallen asleep quite so close to each other.

“What’s uuuuppp...?” came Glimmer’s sleepy voice from the massive bowl-shaped bed hanging above them.

“Ungh... I do like to wake up early but this is ridiculous,” Perfuma mumbled from the large sofa next to the window.

A steady snoring from the corner of the room to Adora’s right indicated Scorpia was still sound asleep, which was impressive given the volume of Catra’s outcry.

Adora rubbed her elbow and blinked her drowsy eyes. Based on the surrounding dimness and the purplish hue washing over the forest outside the window, it wasn’t even daybreak yet. Combined with the fact that they had been chatting deep into the night meant that nobody had had nearly enough sleep yet.

But Adora just remembered what she had seen in her dream, and suddenly found herself wide awake. She almost never remembered her dreams, but this one was still vivid in her mind, like a moving picture reel full of meaning.

“For Hordak’s sake Adora, I know you’re a crappy sleeper but you’ve never actually punched me before... Bloody hell that hurt,” Catra swore, still rubbing her forehead with both hands. “I knew this... this... stupid sleepover business was a horrible idea,” she grumbled.

“You’ve slept together before?” Glimmer said, still somewhat sleepily but with much more excitement than before. The outline of her pink hair appeared over the side of her bed and stared down at them in the twilight.

“Yeah yeah, back in the Fright Zone I sometimes slept at the foot of her bed,” Catra explained, still muttering expletives under her breath.

Adora was still trying to focus all of her brain power on etching her dream into her memory before it disappeared like her dreams always did. A dark, rocky world... an odd, hidden cave... a square-shaped star formation... a sunless pocket of space...

“Adora?” Perfuma called, now sitting on her sofa-turned-bed and staring at her.

“Yeah... yeah sorry. I had a dream,” Adora replied and rubbed her eyes. She was confident she could now remember the main points of what she had seen. She had no idea why she felt they were so important, but the dream pressed on her mind like a Force Commander’s direct order. It had to be connected to She-Ra, somehow.

“A dream? You almost caved my head in because you had a dream?” Catra growled.

Adora finally realized that she’d forgotten to apologize for smacking Catra in the head. “I’m so sorry Catra! But... I almost never dream. And nowadays, whenever I do it’s usually something... something to do with She-Ra,” she said, deciding she might as well come out with it since she was responsible for waking everybody up.

“So... what did you see?” Glimmer said with decidedly less enthusiasm than when she was inquiring about Adora and Catra’s past.

“A dark, rocky world... Somewhere deep in space. Remember that perfect square of stars we saw in the night sky? Right in the middle of that. And there’s something really, really important there,” Adora recounted, still not knowing what made her think it was important.

“Important, like what?” Catra grumbled, still miffed and still rubbing her forehead.

“I... I have no idea. But I have a feeling that it’s... important,” Adora finished with much less gusto than she’d felt before.

“More important than Prime’s clones coming together somewhere and hatching plans to do who knows what?” Catra asked.

“Yes,” Adora replied simply and gave Catra a meaningful look. She hadn’t told anybody except her that She-Ra wasn’t listening to her again, and was almost sure that her dream and the dark world had something to do with it.

“Well, can we at least go back to sleep for just a little bit longer and figure it out in the actual mo-ooo-ooorning?” Glimmer yawned.

“Yeah... yeah, sleep away. I’m too worked up though, I think I’m gonna go for a walk,” Adora said, pushed the covers off herself and started collecting her overclothes that her dream thrashing had displaced from their neat pile and thrown all over the floor.

“I’ll join you, not like I can get back to sleep with an effing... broken skull,” Catra grumbled.

“...Sorry again,” Adora said meekly.

It took them a while to find a way atop the turret of castle Bright Moon in which Glimmer’s bedroom was located, but with some creative thinking and teamwork, Adora and Catra managed to make it up. Adora scanned the patches of the sky she could see from between the surrounding mountains, but could not find the square of stars they had spotted from their much better vantage point in the wide open meadows past the Whispering Woods.

“So what’s this about stars and She-Ra and whatnot?” Catra asked, staring at the gentle shimmering of the Moonstone atop its magnificent pedestal instead of the skies above.

“I know I’m right,” Adora said before she even started explaining what she’d seen. She knew if anyone were to believe her, it would be Catra. And having her support in convincing the others would be paramount.

“There’s a dark, sunless world far out in space, right in the middle of that star square, like I said before. And there’s something powerful there. I think it’ll help me reconnect with She-Ra, somehow,” she explained, though once again she could not explain why she knew this.

But Catra didn’t ask. “I’d say you’re out of your mind, but I’ve learned to know better than to doubt weird Princess juju,” she said instead.

“Glad to have your unwavering confidence,” Adora said and bumped Catra’s shoulder with her own. “I do think Prime’s clones warrant a good deal of attention, but I also... I hate it when I can’t reach She-Ra. It makes me feel so powerless.”

“Need I remind you that most of us can’t in fact turn into She-Ra and we get by just fine?” Catra sniffed, cocking an eyebrow at Adora and returning her shoulder bump.

“Fair enough. But the things I tend to face as She-Ra are kinda out of my league as Adora,” Adora said.

“Yeah, cause you suck at fighting without crazy Princess powers,” Catra sniggered.

“Oh yeah? I suppose that’s why I overpowered you so effortlessly yesterday,” Adora quipped back.

“Oh, you wanna have a go? I’ll take you down any day!” Catra said, bouncing up and assuming the standard Horde upright wrestling stance.

“Let’s go then!” Adora said and mirrored Catra’s pose. Then she glanced down at the two-hundred foot drop off the turret and remembered where they were. “Uh... maybe not here though. I did fly in my dream but I can’t seem to remember how to do it right now.”

“Wimp,” Catra said and dropped her stance. “You may have a point, though,” she added and sat back down next to her.

A gentle breeze rustled the Whispering Woods in the distance and brought the distinct chill of early autumn with it. Apart from the whispering of the forest and the quiet lapping of the waves against the shores of the lake surrounding Bright Moon, it was so peaceful that Adora couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious. She still wasn’t quite used to the serenity that had settled over Etheria following Prime’s destruction. Her entire life had been built upon fighting and strife, from the moment she’d started her training as a Horde soldier to the otherworldly struggles she had faced as She-Ra.

As long as they could eventually rout Prime’s remaining clones and whatever other remnant forces were out there in the universe, she would likely never have to wake up to cannonfire in the distance again. She would never have to set out not knowing whether she would return in one piece, or at all. She would never have to worry about the safety of her friends and the people she loved most. Maybe there would come a day when She-Ra would become entirely unnecessary aside from lifting heavy construction materials and reaching things in high places.

For the first time in her life, Adora thought that this sort of world was not only possible, but within an arm’s reach. The kind of world where she could wake up next to Catra every single day, preferably without having brutalized her in her sleep. And based on the past few days, she was beyond exhilarated that Catra didn’t at least seem obviously opposed to such a future either, enforced by the fact that she was right here right now, sitting atop a castle with her in the wee hours of the morning, staring up at the same stars she was.

What would that sort of a peaceful future mean for her, and what would it mean for She-Ra? Was it right to make a decision to settle down like that as Adora when there could be some great purpose out there for She-Ra to fulfill? Was it selfish of her to remain where she had finally found comfort in sitting still, or was it her destiny to ever charge forward into new unknowns and hope someone would still be there, charging with her, until the very end? Was it right to expect Catra would do that for her?

Adora was still not entirely certain what she wanted to be to Catra, and what she wanted Catra to be for her. The thought of becoming like Spinnerella and Netossa - so open and obvious about their intimate relationship - seemed almost as alien as asking Catra to become her surrogate mother. Yet the former option seemed to be where her heart was indomitably tugging her, inch by inch, every day.

Adora was still terrified of whatever infinitesimal chance remained that Catra would just get tired of her stupidity and disappear one day, but she would never forgive herself if she didn’t give it her all to make her perfect future come true. They had been through enough to deserve happiness, and for Adora, Catra was happiness. Whether Catra felt the same...

Catra stretched with her entire body and let out a long, toothy yawn. “I think that’s enough stars for me. I need breakfast,” she said, bounced up and extended a hand to Adora.

Adora stared at Catra’s hand for a moment, her heart swelling with something abstract and wonderful. Small gestures like this had marked only the moments in the distant past where Catra had been the happiest, the most content. In the Horde those moments had been few and far between. Ever since Catra’s rescue from Prime’s clutches, they had become more and more common. Catra hadn’t seemed to realize it herself, but Adora had noticed every single one.

Adora took Catra’s hand and pulled herself up. She was glad they were able to spend time in comfortable silence like this, because her voice would certainly have been choked up by the lump that had risen in her throat. The fact that Catra was healing and becoming better, day by day, touch by touch, meant so much more to Adora than getting She-Ra back ever would.

Yet in the absence of other immediate plans, Adora’s path was clear. The dark, rocky world at the edge of space was calling to her, and she would answer.

Chapter Text

For the second time in a mere few days, Adora found herself in the war room of castle Bright Moon with a crowd of other people. The denizens of Bright Moon usually called it the ‘conference room’, but it always brought Adora back to memories she’d rather begin trying to forget. She didn’t like being there - just stepping over the threshold and seeing the table with its tiny figurines representing battle positions, surrounded by people formerly allied against the Horde put her on edge. As if she were going to war again.

The mood in the room was slightly less jovial than it had been a few days prior, largely thanks to Sea Hawk having returned to Salineas after a tearful farewell scene with Swift Wind. Netossa and Spinnerella were off on a mission somewhere or other, while Scorpia, Perfuma and Entrapta had returned to the Fright Zone to oversee the deforestation efforts. In their place Bright Moon now played host to Princess Frosta, as well as a trio of probably the roughest, most unkempt people its halls had ever seen.

“I understand you need more eyes in the Crimson Waste, but you have to understand that there’s no such thing as ‘the people of the Crimson Waste,’” Huntara told King Micah. “The folks out there are as varied as the rest of the world put together, and all of them have their own shit to worry about. Not to mention they consider outsiders about as trustworthy as cactus juice. We’ll be lucky if we can scrape together a dozen people who’d be willing to brave the sands in search for the troops of the madman who tried to take over Etheria.”

The horned satyrian woman and the four-armed lizard woman whose names Adora still didn’t know nodded in agreement on either side of Huntara. Evidently Huntara had let bygones be bygones and accepted them back as her underlings. Adora passingly wondered how many different bosses they had played lackey for in their odd side-switching careers.

King Micah rubbed his bearded chin in thought. “I understand. I suppose venturing into the most inhospitable desert on the planet isn’t exactly a prospect even the most accomplished of Bright Moon’s soldiers would eagerly take on either, even with the hazard pay included,” he said.

“Hazard pay?” the satyrian woman asked and glanced at her four-armed companion with a glint in her eye.

“Why yes, anyone taking such a risk in such a hostile environment should be properly compensated, don’t you think?” Micah said and shot a roguish wink at the horned woman, who blushed. Glimmer gave a soft groan in her seat opposite from Adora.

Huntara leaned forward with a clear renewed interest in the negotiations. “Now you’re talking the language of the Waste. Be prepared to fork over some serious cash and commodities and we’ll easily triple the number of people we can muster.”

“Luckily as acting King I am able to squander as much of Bright Moon’s defense budget as required, especially now that the worst of our enemies have been dealt with,” Micah said and winked at Adora in turn.

Glimmer caught Adora’s eye, pointed at Micah and made a gagging expression at her. Adora barely managed to contain a bark of laughter. Bow rolled his eyes and sighed next to Glimmer.

“Then I reckon you’ll have yourself a very motivated group of Crimson Waste experts. I’ll gather up the ones I know we can trust first... Well, as much as you can trust anyone in the Waste,” Huntara said and nodded at Micah in appreciation. “The rest... ahh, just don’t expect each and every one of your mercs to actually stick around if things go south. There are still groups of hooligans out there, just organized and stupid enough to try to attack even large search parties.”

“I think I can help with that part,” came Catra’s voice from the doorway. She had slinked into the room at some point without Adora noticing. Catra never was much into large gatherings of people, but even then Adora had a feeling she’d been listening in on each and every one of them, even back in their Horde days. If Adora had to pick one thing Catra really excelled in, it would be spying on people. And then bullying them based on what she’d heard.

Huntara’s two lackeys started so violently that the lizard woman actually fell off her seat. Huntara slowly rose from hers and took an aggressive step towards Catra. “What’s she doing here?” she barked when Adora jumped up and stepped between them.

“Long story. I’ll fill you in later. Short version: she saved the world,” Adora said and stared up at Huntara’s scowling face towering over her. Largely fearless though she’d become through hundreds of battles, Adora couldn’t help the cold sweat threatening to break out on her skin under Huntara’s furious gaze.

After a long, tense moment, Huntara took a step back and sat back down. “I’ll take your word for it, Goldilocks. But what she did in the Crimson Waste... There are some... debts to be paid,” she said and glared at Catra.

“Name your price so we can move on,” Catra retorted, having now joined the table next to Adora.

“A duel. Tonight. I will represent the Waste and make you kneel for your outsider nerve and arrogance,” Huntara said. “And as for me personally, I’ll be satisfied when your face touches dirt,” she growled.

“Deal,” Catra replied before Adora had the time to interject. She met Huntara’s fierce gaze without blinking, until Huntara gave her a gruff nod.

Adora stared at the exchange with her mouth open. She and Catra had clashed in the Crimson Waste back when Huntara had helped them chase after Mara’s ship, but Adora had never really heard the full story of what Catra had gotten into. The horrified curiosity was threatening to burst out of her.

As if sensing this, Catra seemed to be willfully avoiding Adora’s eyes, and was staring at Huntara’s lackeys instead, her expression inscrutable. The pair of them had managed to pull themselves back together, but both of them were glancing from Catra to Huntara to each other, looking about ten times as nervous as Adora felt.

“Anyway, as I was saying, the bandit problem should be somewhat covered by the fact that I beat that weird lizard guy with the whip, and am still technically the leader of his entire group of nobodies,” Catra said, pulled out a long whip from her belt that Adora had failed to notice, and laid it on the table.

Huntara stared at the whip. “You beat Tung Lashor?” she asked.

Catra snorted. “Oh... oh yeah, that was his name, wasn’t it?” she said gleefully. “Yeah, I did. Didn’t put up much of a fight. And his entire posse just abandoned him when I won. Law of the Waste, right?” She leaned back in her chair and threw a mean, smug look greatly reminiscent of the Catra of old at Huntara. A look that made the hair at Adora’s neck stand up. A look that she didn’t much care to see again.

“I believe those two can confirm that I’m not bullshitting you,” Catra added and pointed at Huntara’s companions, who flinched visibly.

Huntara seemed to be struggling with something, as expressionless as she generally was. “That’ll explain why his group has behaved like a ragtag bunch of ruffians lately. I suppose they don’t have a proper leader now.”

“I suppose said proper leader should return to show them their place,” Catra smirked.

Huntara leaned forward again, this time without a hint of appreciation for where the conversation was going. “If you’re thinking about becoming a thorn in my side again...”

“Relax, beefcake,” Catra interjected. “I have zero interest in playing boss to a band of bandits in the middle of nowhere. I’ll tell them to join your group, or else. That should calm things down in the Waste a bit, right?”

This time Huntara’s shock was plain on her face. She considered Catra for a long moment before leaning back and crossing her arms. “As far as I’ve heard, you spent all of three days in the Waste, and fit there much better than you’ll ever fit here. Why not stay?” she asked.

Catra’s ears twitched and her superior look faltered. “I... That Lashor guy, or whatever... his group, the entire Waste was just a means to an end. That’s not who I am anymore. And besides, I’m... I’d rather go elsewhere,” she said and glanced at Adora.

Adora started slightly. They hadn’t talked about her dream at the ends of space past her describing it to Catra, but the implication was clear as day. Catra actually wanted to come with her. And still, the context of this discussion made Adora’s stomach turn. Catra was talking about yet another chapter of her life that Adora knew next to nothing about. How was she to take this implication? As Catra’s willingness to follow her to the unknown, or as her desire to run away from her past?

“Fine. Assuming Lashor’s old gang will still listen to you, I’ll accept your deal,” Huntara grunted. “But I am still going to beat your ass down tonight. There are some things that just require a more physical conclusion.”

King Micah clapped his hands, startling everybody’s attention back to him and breaking the taut atmosphere that had settled atop the conference table. “Fantastic! It seems like we can rely on our allies in the Crimson Waste for help for the time being. Undoubtedly Bright Moon will start offering more significant olive branches for further cooperation in the coming months. While our peoples might never be the best of friends, I believe that we can at least work out a very fruitful business relationship going forward. It just so happens that Bright Moon is in need of iron and copper, among other things, and I believe the Waste may well be a solution to that problem.”

Huntara narrowed her eyes at Micah, who merely smiled back. “Seems like you know more about the Waste than you let on.” She glanced at Adora, who was entirely nonplussed about Huntara and Micah’s exchange. “Though I’ve come to trust some select people in Bright Moon. I’ll accept your proposal, depending on how some of the other more influential folk down in The Valley of the Lost feel,” she concluded.

“Excellent. Adora and Catra, may I ask you to prepare for a round trip to the Waste as soon as possible? Seems like you two could tip some scales in our favor, if required,” Micah said with his usual fatherly smile.

Adora bounced up and saluted Micah out of pure habit. Catra snorted in laughter, jumped up from her seat and mimicked her salute, then dissolved into quiet giggles. Heat shot up Adora’s neck as everyone else around the table joined Catra in a chorus of chuckling, so she grabbed Catra by the collar of her shirt and started dragging her out of the room to very little resistance.

“Wait, we’ll come with!” Glimmer shouted after them.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to split up the Dream Team, Glimmer. I’ve got a mission for you, Bow and Entrapta up in the Kingdom of Snows. Princess Frosta, could you elaborate?” Micah said, but Adora didn’t stick around to find out what that mission would be. She gave her friends around the table a wave and hoisted the still giggling Catra onto her feet.

“You just can’t help making a fool out of me every chance you get, can you?” Adora huffed once they had made it out of the war room.

Catra grinned at her. “Oh Adora. You hardly need any help from me on that one,” she said, wiping a tear of mirth from under her eye.

Adora had a very hard time pretending to be annoyed at Catra, seeing how happy it made her to see Catra laugh. Even if it was at Adora’s own expense. Her mounting trepidation over still not having told anyone about She-Ra's lack of interest in cooperating - or any further details about her important vision quest - was promptly pushed out of her mind by Huntara's rough voice barking out from behind them.

“So. You owe me an explanation,” she demanded, arms crossed and as imposing as ever. Her two lackeys were half-hiding behind her, trying to avoid Catra's eyes.

Adora sighed. Where to even begin? She had no idea what exactly had transpired between Huntara and Catra and when. All that she knew was that Catra had rallied a large number of Crimson Waste denizens against her and Huntara, and tried to steal Mara’s ship away from them.

“I fucked up. I fucked up so many things,” Catra said in her stead, all traces of happiness now gone from her expression.

“That you did,” Huntara said. “I couldn’t care less about the why. All I care about is what you’re going to do about it.”

“Anything,” Catra said and once again met Huntara’s glare unflinching.

Huntara stared down at Catra for what felt like minutes. “Hmph,” she huffed. “Youare as ballsy as they said you were. Lucky for you, what you said back there was right. The Law of the Waste. Only the strong survive. You were strong, and you survived.”

She bent down to meet Catra almost nose to nose. “And tonight, I will show you what strength really looks like.”

“Bring it on,” Catra snarled.

Adora had always known Catra had guts, even when she was facing an unwinnable situation. People often said Adora was stubborn and hard-headed, but when it came to matters of pride, Catra had always had her beat by a margin as wide as the ocean. Even now, Adora had to struggle not to intervene and to try to explain everything away. But she knew Catra, and she knew Huntara well enough. The most she could do was make sure neither of them killed each other.

Huntara’s lackeys gave Catra a pair of frightened glances as the trio from the Waste retreated to their assigned guest rooms.

Adora and Catra let out a long exhale in unison. “What the actual heck did you do in the Waste?” Adora asked.

“Uhh. Well...” Catra muttered, her ears pressed against her skull. “I may have taken control of most of the gangs there. By force. And then used them as fodder to... well, to get to you.”

“Impressive,” Adora said, and meant it. As bad as she felt for the wild denizens of the Waste to have had this whirlwind of a catgirl pass through their lives and leave them in disarray, she had also never particularly gotten the impression that said denizens didn't deserve what they got in some way or another.

“You think so?” Catra asked, slightly taken aback by Adora’s reaction.

“I mean, I was there. Not like I couldn’t have taken any of them in a fight, but I definitely wanted to avoid having to fight all of them. I guess you found a way to hit them where it hurt, huh?” Adora suggested.

“Well, yeah. Those two with Huntara? I kinda roughed them up first. And I guess since people knew they used to be Huntara’s lackeys, they thought I had to be someone really strong to make them swap sides,” Catra explained and glanced at the doorway the trio had walked through. “For real though? They were like... so weak it was actually pretty funny,” she whispered.

Adora chuckled at the sheer audacity. “What are their names anyway?” she asked.

Catra shrugged. “I called the horned lady ‘Kyle’, but somehow I don’t think that’s her real name.”

This time Adora couldn’t help but laugh. “Kyle?”

“Y’know. Familiar things,” Catra said, sounding much more somber than Adora had expected.

“Catra... We’ll meet them again at some point. They’re good people, they’ll come around, eventually.”

“Will they? I treated them worse than shit. If there are any people whose forgiveness I don’t even deserve, it’s them,” Catra sniffed and dodged Adora’s attempt at a hug.

Adora let out a small growl and forcibly clutched Catra in a bear hug. “Listen. One step at a time, yeah? You’re strong and smart enough to make a real difference out there, to undo a lot of what you've done. Even Huntara acknowledged that. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get her approval? And this was after you had stolen her underlings from under her nose!”

Catra mumbled something indistinct against Adora’s shoulder, but Adora didn’t want to hear it. She eased up on her crushing embrace and looked Catra directly in the eye. As much as she wanted to give Catra all the time and space in the world to come to terms with her past, at this point she was also an expert on how little dwelling on it helped.

“You said it yourself. You’re willing to do anything to fix what you’ve broken. And I believe you. Most others might not be as simple and straightforward as me or the people of the Crimson Waste, but as long as you keep showing them your sincerity over and over again, they’ll learn to forgive. And I’ll be there every step of the way, for as long as you want me to be.”

Catra sighed and bonked her forehead against Adora’s. “Assuming I survive my little duel with Huntara,” she said.

Adora ruffled Catra’s hair, eliciting the smallest of purrs from her. “She’s probably the strongest non-Princess I’ve ever fought with. Think pre-Princess Scorpia except with...”

“Brains?” Catra suggested.

Adora snorted. “Hey, that’s not nice! ...But yeah, with quick analytical in-combat thinking. And she’s way faster than she looks too. I kinda doubt you’ll be able to overpower her, so you’ve gotta be even smarter, and even faster.”

“I feel like I’m out of practice on both counts,” Catra said, staring at the palms of her hands and curling them into fists.

“Well, we’ve got until tonight, haven’t we? Time to get your butt back in fighting form,” Adora said.

Catra groaned. “If I had any other choice...”

Adora gave her a swift poke in the ribs. In spite of herself, she figured Catra had next no chance against Huntara in a straight, fair fight. But she also knew that Huntara respected someone who fought and lost infinitely more than someone who made excuses and tried to worm their way out. As long as Catra could stand up to her with the same resolution she’d faced certain death several times before, her message would get through. Such was the way of the Waste, after all.

Catra lay on the ground, panting and sweating more than she’d done in years.

Adora stood over her, only slightly out of breath. “Up,” she said and brushed a few strands of hair out of her face. It was not a request.

“You know, forget about Huntara, you’re going to kill me before I even get there,” Catra huffed and pushed herself back up with a groan.

“Come now, you’re better trained than that. A good meal before tonight and you’ll be in perfect fighting form,” Adora said, and assumed her wrestling stance.

It pained Catra to admit it even to herself, but she really had fallen out of shape in the past half a year. She had never lost to Adora in terms of reflexes or mobility before, but leave it to the blonde musclehead to not give any quarter even during sparring. On top of that, it was now more than obvious to Catra that Adora was the strongest and the fastest she had ever been, even without relying on a shred of Princess power.

The fact that they had chosen to spar in lighter training clothes didn’t help. Adora’s well-defined abdominals and powerfully built legs drew Catra’s attention at the most inopportune moments, causing her to lose an important fraction of a second she would have rather used to dodge Adora’s grapple. Catra had to wonder whether the statuesque form of She-Ra had somehow made Adora magically buff up as well, or if Adora had just been working much harder in the past years than Catra had ever realized. In either case, she found herself more interested in Adora’s musculature than she’d been the last time they sparred. A revelation she definitely didn’t need in the middle of having her ass handed to her.

Catra snarled out loud, slapped herself on the cheeks and jumped back up onto her feet. She would need her brain and her muscles to work exactly as she pictured herself moving in her mind if she were to have a shadow of a chance against Huntara, who was almost as tall and about twice as broad as She-Ra without any magical help.

Without warning, Adora charged at her. Catra attempted a frog leap over Adora’s back, but Adora read her move perfectly, grabbed her around the waist and brought her back into the ground for the ninth time within half an hour.

Catra spat a few blades of grass out of her mouth. “Bleh. Ugh. I swear you’re just trying to make yourself look good now,” she said and threw a glare at Adora, who was already back up on her feet.

Adora glared right back. “Are you accusing me of not taking training seriously?” she growled.

Catra took a deep breath and pushed herself up again. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Damn straight,” Adora said. “I do know now where your problems lie, though, and how to help you.”

“Yeah? Do tell,” Catra replied, unable to keep a hint of a sneer out of her words.

Adora ignored this. “You think too hard about your feet. You’re still really fast, but you’re trying to muscle through, which isn’t your forte. I can tell where you’re going to move just by looking at your legs and tail.” Adora paced around Catra, staring at her with the intensity of a chef staring at a piece of sirloin she was about to fry. “You’re excellent at dropping down onto all fours and moving in an unexpected direction. Try using that to your advantage. It’ll make you harder to topple over, too. Your sense of balance is flawless, so utilize that freakish limberness you’ve got. Outmaneuver Huntara.”

“Nice way to put it,” Catra said, having finally caught her breath a bit. She instinctively knew everything Adora said was true. It had been a long while since she’d had to fight another person roughly her own size in a fair face-to-face fight; she had become so used to using weapons or underhanded tactics or just plain cheating that her core training had started to elude her.

Adora shrugged. “It’s dead useful is what it is. You’re almost impossible to grapple when you want to be, you know that? Remember our epic tickle fight from the other day? Try to get into that sort of mindset. Well, except instead of being tickled you’re trying not to be punched.”

Catra patted herself on the cheeks again and tried to remember with her entire body. Work the core, train the basics, evolve yourself. Work the core, train the basics, evolve yourself. A mantra she would never be able to forget even if she tried. “Alright. Once more,” she said.

Adora nodded and assumed her stance again. This time instead of lunging blindly, her gaze darted from Catra’s tail to her legs to her eyes.

Catra took a deep breath and exhaled it through her teeth. Adora was the easiest person in the world to read during combat, but the fact that she knew that very well herself and was still able to adapt accordingly made her an immensely tough opponent in a straight fight.

Adora lunged at Catra’s legs, but she was already on all fours and leapt sideways out of her reach. “Good!” Adora said and reached for her lower body again. Catra dodged again, but felt Adora’s hand just barely fail to grab her by the ankle. The next time she tried the same move, Adora would catch her for sure. She didn’t have the time to regret the actions she hadn’t taken yet, however, as Adora was already moving towards her.

Catra focused every ounce of her attention on Adora’s legs, twisted her body around and squeezed past them just as Adora was taking a long step forward. Catra was much faster in turning around than Adora was thanks to her ‘freakish limberness’, so by the time Adora could react, Catra had already jumped on her back and wrestled her into the ground, holding her head in a lock.

“Oof! Th-that’s more like it!” Adora whooped, unable to shake Catra off.

Catra flicked Adora’s nose with her finger in a petty gesture of sweet, sweet revenge, and sat next to her on the soft grass.

Adora rubbed her nose with a huge grin on her face. “Felt like the old days again for a second there. Fight like that and clumsy muscleheads like me and Huntara will have no chance.”

It occured to Catra that she didn’t really pull her punches when calling Adora names either, and that getting miffed about being called freakishly limber might have been rather hypocritical. “Thanks. I’m starting to remember core training a bit,” she said and wiped her face with her arm.

“Thing is though, Huntara is really strong. If you try to lock her she’ll just pick you up and toss you away. So it’d be better to take opportunities like that and try striking at her weak spots instead,” Adora pondered, staring at Catra’s hands.

“I’m thinking no claws,” Catra said, reading Adora’s mind.

Adora sighed and nodded. “Yeah. Huntara probably wouldn’t mind, but it’d also signal to her that drawing blood is allowed. I... I think we’d best make it clear that blood is to be avoided if at all possible.”

Catra shuddered. “I’m inclined to agree. I already know I’m gonna be beaten to a pulp, let’s not make that a bloody pulp.”

“Hey, you never know before the fight’s over. Huntara’s strong, but she isn’t unbeatable. I bet I could give her a run for her money even without She-Ra,” Adora said and clapped Catra on the back hard enough to drive half the air out of her lungs.

“Ugh... In case you failed to notice, you’re handing my ass to me pretty soundly here. It’s a little demoralizing, actually,” Catra said. “Why couldn’t I have been challenged by like... Sparkles instead.”

Adora goggled at her. “You think Spar... Glimmer’s weak? Outside of her Princess powers, that is?”

“She’s a softie little Princess, you know I could take her!” Catra said.

Adora laughed. “Go on then, try challenging her to a fair wrestling match. I promise I’ll have a ton of fun watching that.”

Catra stared at Adora. The implication here was that even Glimmer was somehow physically stronger than her. Then again, Catra hadn’t really ever tried to do away with her preconceptions on a whole slew of things, Princesses included. She had never really believed the Horde’s propaganda depictions of Princesses as giant, horrifying soulless monsters, but even after meeting all of them in person, she couldn’t think of them as being much of anything outside of their powers besides pampered royalty.

Then she thought of Adora and Scorpia. Both of them were Princesses, but both of them were also physically built like bulls. Even though the both of them had stumbled into their Princess powers later on in their lives, why should things be any different for any of the others?

“I... I think I’ve probably thought about Princesses all wrong this entire time,” Catra said.

“Yeah, I know that feeling. The Horde was so fucking full of shit about pretty much everything,” Adora spat with fierce bitterness.

It startled Catra a bit to hear Adora swear. As betrayed as Catra had felt by Adora for leaving her behind, she hadn’t really sacrificed much thought into how devastating it must have been for Adora when her idealized image of the Horde had turned out to be nothing but lies. Yet another example of Catra being so wrapped up in her own ego that she had completely ignored the suffering of those around her. The fact that she only now began to realize how little she had understood Adora for so long stabbed her like a hot poker through her heart.

“Aaaaahh, I’m so glad it’s all gone now, though. Good riddance,” Adora said and fell back to lie on the grass.

“Just like that?” Catra asked.

“Just like that,” Adora said and smiled at her sideways. “You know me, I charge on forward without thinking too much. I’ve had enough of dwelling on things I can’t change. Or well, most of them anyway. Not like I can always get all of it out of my head when I’m trying to sleep at night. I still have some regrets, even concerning the Fright Zone. But I fully intend on tackling all of those in time.”

Catra hummed in response. If only she could have even half of Adora’s guts. She had always been avoiding the things that mattered and focusing on the fights she didn’t even have any reason to start. But she felt like some of that blind courage that came to Adora so naturally had finally started infecting her too. Even just with this wild boxing date with Huntara - Catra found that she hadn’t even tried to come up with any other method of facing the impending beatdown besides head-on. Maybe she actually needed someone to beat her to a pulp. A way to make the pain strictly physical. A way to atone with her own flesh and blood.

But if she could help it, Catra wouldn’t give it to Huntara for free. She bounced up from the ground, brushed the grass out of her fur and settled into a mixed combat stance. “Let’s go again. Striking included.”

Adora pushed herself up from the grass. “You sure?”

“I’m sure,” Catra replied, staring at Adora’s wrapped fists. This would hurt. But there would be no point to it if it didn’t.

**

An enthusiastic crowd had gathered around the same patch of grass growing outside castle Bright Moon where Catra and Adora had sparred the same morning. Word about Huntara’s challenge to Catra had evidently spread throughout Bright Moon, as most of the crowd consisted of guards and other castle personnel, with several dozen people hanging out of the castle’s windows above them, shouting indistinct cheers at Catra and Huntara. Adora, Glimmer, Bow, and Huntara’s two lackeys were all seated along a table at the edge of the makeshift fighting ring, while Melog was curled underneath the table, watching Catra with mild interest.

“Err, is this working alright?” Bow’s voice said, magnified several times through a device he was holding.

The crowd cheered.

“Excellent!” Bow said and cleared his throat. “Welcome all to a special Bright Moon event! Our esteemed guest from the Crimson Waste, Huntara, has challenged the craftiest member of the Best Friend Squad, Catra, into one-on-one unarmed combat!”

The crowd cheered louder. Catra buried her face into her hands. “Seems like Bowboy needs a swift kick in the-” she grumbled, but was cut off by Bow’s booming voice.

“Huntara has graciously agreed to this duel being a moderated one, meaning that our four judges here-” Bow indicated Adora, Glimmer and the lackeys, “will assign round-by-round points to each fighter depending on their degree of success at shaking their opponent. A round will last two minutes, or until one of the combatants is deemed unable to defend themselves.”

“In the case of a tie, our special judge, King Micah himself, bears the final word,” Bow said and indicated the King standing in the crowd on the opposite side of the judges’ table. The crowd cheered almost as loudly as when he had introduced the fighters.

“No weapons - or claws, no breaking bones or joints, and minimal bloodshed. Grappling and striking allowed. Without further ado, let the fight begin!”

A bell sounded. The crowd roared, but Catra barely heard it. Huntara was already on the move, and like Adora had said, she was much, much faster than she looked. The look in her eyes alone would have been enough to paralyze most opponents, but Catra had stared down stronger foes before.

She dropped onto all fours and bounced under Huntara’s outstretched arm. The speed of Huntara’s advance was so fast that Catra was only able to graze her side with her knee, but instead of causing any damage, the impact threatened to toss Catra out of balance. Even from a glancing hit, Catra’s knee felt like it had hit solid stone.

She barely had any time to think after landing, as Huntara had thrown herself into an overhead punch without even bothering to turn around fully. Her knuckles swiped the air inches from Catra’s forehead, and the blast of wind accompanying the swing felt like a skiff had just zoomed by.

If Catra took a single hit from a punch like that, she’d be out like a light. She took two long hops away from Huntara’s range and remained crouched while the towering Wastelander regained her balance.

“I knew you were a swift kitten. Still, impressive,” Huntara said and cracked her neck menacingly.

“Good to see you’re as slow as you look,” Catra shot back, trying to still the slight shaking that was attempting to take hold of her left thigh.

The constant cheering of the crowd and Bow's commentary flitted in and out of Catra’s consciousness as she fought fiercely to focus on Huntara and Huntara only. This was very much a situation of a predator trying to catch her prey. Any hope of Catra actually winning this fight was gone. All she could do was try to go out with her pride.

She stood up, took a deep breath and beckoned Huntara to attack.

Huntara smirked, and advanced at Catra much slower this time. She kept her center of balance too low to allow her to slink by without risking getting caught. Huntara’s reach was so broad that any attempts to sidestep her would only result in Catra being grappled.

Huntara threw a fierce punch with her left fist. Catra twirled away from it, ready for the right hook that followed. She bounced up, used Huntara’s fist as a pivot, and brought both of her knees down to strike at Huntara’s upper back.

The hit was solid, but once again Catra felt like she took more damage from it. Huntara was pure muscle, raised by one of the most inhospitable places on Etheria, where anyone - or anything - could attack you from behind at any moment. Catra bounced off the brick wall that was Huntara’s back and landed several feet away, hissing at the pain in her knees. She had missed Huntara’s neck by inches, whether because of Huntara’s instincts telling her to take half a step forward, or simply because she was a superior fighter with years of more experience.

Huntara spun around and rubbed her neck for a second, but didn’t mince any more words. She took two quick but controlled steps forward and brought both of her fists down at Catra. All Catra could do was hop backwards to dodge, but Huntara followed too quickly for her to react. The bottom of Huntara’s boot contacted with Catra’s side, punting her a dozen feet backwards. Every nerve in Catra’s body screamed in pain, but she knew that if she didn’t move immediately, she’d be hit by whatever Huntara would throw at her next.

And she was right. Just as she managed to roll away from her landing spot, Huntara’s fist slammed into the grass with the force of a piledriver. Bow’s rule of “no broken bones” was about as pointless as Adora’s hair poof.

Catra yelled in desperate fury and seized her chance to throw a punch at Huntara as she took a split second to recuperate from her missed strike. Huntara couldn’t react in time to dodge Catra’s punch entirely, and it connected with the side of her cheek.

Once again it felt like Catra had punched a rock, immediately followed by Huntara’s fist slamming into Catra’s stomach. Her position was awkward and the punch was much weaker than the ones before, but it still knocked most of the breath out of Catra’s lungs.

Through the haze that threatened to envelop Catra’s consciousness, she heard the ringing of a bell from the general direction of the judges’ table.

“End of round one!” Bow’s voice echoed, just barely reaching Catra’s ears. Before she could fully digest the fact that she’d been saved by the end of the round, someone was propping her up and helping her hobble along towards the cheering crowd.

“How are you holding up?” Adora’s voice said in Catra’s ear.

Catra took several bracing breaths and pushed the palms of her hands to her eyes to try and clear her vision. “S-she... she’s s-serious, is she,” she managed to stutter between heaving breaths.

“Afraid so,” Adora said and dabbed Catra’s forehead with a cool tower. It felt very nice. “You’re still thinking too hard about your movement. Let it flow more naturally. You got a few good hits in that could’ve been great hits,” Adora said.

“It’s... i-it’s like hitting s-stone,” Catra stammered and looked at her fist. It didn’t feel like any bones were broken, but her knuckles and knees would definitely remain bruised for a good while.

“Listen. Catra. Look at me,” Adora said and forced Catra’s face towards hers. “Do you want me to throw in the towel?”

Catra shook her head violently in Adora’s grasp.

Adora smiled. “Thought so. It’s... I hate watching you getting hurt, but I know you’ve got this. Get your message through.”

Catra nodded and spat on the grass. She was glad she hadn’t taken any hits to the face at least.

Adora helped Catra up, patted her on the shoulder and gave her a gentle push towards the center of the ring. “Head held high,” she said, jogged back to the judges’ table and nodded at Bow.

“Judges, present your points!” Bow’s voice boomed into the cool evening air.

For the first time in a while Catra remembered there was a crowd around them, as they cheered harder than ever. She stepped into the middle of the ring with shaking legs, drew herself up, and beckoned for Huntara to come at her.