Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"I can leave whenever I want. I can leave whenever I want," Catra whispers, curled up on her top bunk, waiting to fall asleep.

It's a mantra she repeats to herself almost every night, ever since she outgrew 'soon I'll be big enough to get out of here.' She hasn't left, though. And now she has less reason to than ever. Tonight, the words should be nothing but a meaningless mantra, repeated only out of habit. Because earlier today, Catra didn't just complete her training course in record time – she was also made Force Captain!

It's the first step on her climb up the hierarchy. She's getting there. At last, she's managed to prove herself to Shadow Weaver… well, prove herself enough to get a chance at proving herself in the field.

Active duty! She's finally getting out of this dump. Once she's sat through whatever 'Force Captain Orientation' is, that is. It sounds dumb. But if the higher ups want Catra to take part in it, then she will. (When she's the one calling the shots, there will be no Force Captain Orientations, that's for sure.) Anyway, she'll get to lead a squadron in the invasion of the rebel Fortress of Thaymor! She'll finally get to see what's outside the Fright Zone! With so much excitement in her life, it's no wonder she can't sleep. 

No, that's hogwash. When things go her way, Catra usually sleeps like a kitten. Besides, the knot in her chest doesn't really feel like excitement, and the way her tail keeps twitching doesn't either. She rolls over on her back, stares up at the familiar crack in the ceiling. She won't be looking at that for much longer. One of the privileges of her new position is getting a room of her own. Force Captain's Quarters. There she won't have to listen to the glub-glub-glub of the pipes anymore. 

Maybe she can blame her sleeplessness on the noise? Catra curls up on her side, and pulls her pillow over her head. As if to mock her attempt at getting some peace and quiet, Kyle starts snoring loudly over on the bunk opposite. Darn it, Kyle! Catra won't be crying any tears over leaving him behind in her rise to the top. Him, and Lonnie, and Rogelio, and Tentacla. Good riddance. They didn't beat the training course record. They're not even coming along to Thaymor. They won't get to see the world.

"One day I'm gonna rule the world," Catra changes it up, to her alternate bedtime mantra. Her whisper is louder this time, almost a mumble, to try to drown out the pipes and her useless former team member.

Sleep still eludes her. And without really knowing it, Catra makes a decision. She quietly sits up, absentmindedly tapping a claw on the shiny new badge pinned to her chest. It's still there. Then she jumps down from her top bunk, landing soundlessly on the floor.

She just needs to prove to herself that she could leave if she wanted. That's what she's doing. It'll be like a… celebration of her promotion. She'll check out the world outside, and then she'll get on with her life and enjoy being a Force Captain. That's what's going on here.

She sneaks out of the dormitory. No one notices her leave.

The Whispering Woods really do whisper. It's creepy.

Catra didn't hear it at first, over the motor sounds from her stolen/borrowed skiff. But now, face down in the moss, in the silence after the skiff has crashed into a tree, the whispers are there, all around her. She can't hear any specific words, exactly, but it's definitely more than just the wind. There's a sense of hostility in the sound. Or vigilance, at the very least. Catra isn't precisely welcome here, is the feeling she gets.

She gets up from her face plant and looks around. The first thing she sees are the trees, still and majestic now than she can take them in as more than just obstacles for her to steer around with her skiff. And a lot of other… vegetation. Catra's head is spinning with mushrooms and grass and flowers and leaves and moss and berries when her attention is caught by a small ball of light floating by, minding its own business. Catra stares after it. It's beautiful. The whole place is beautiful, really.

Beautiful and creepy. A chilly night breeze swirls past Catra's neck, and it's impossible not to think about all the tales she has heard about this place. It's full of monsters and magic, with trees moving when you look the other way. Whenever a Horde squadron goes further in than the outskirts, they're lost forever. Then one of the windy whispers turn into more of a wail, and for a moment Catra is dead certain that it heralds the approach of the Weeping Princess from one of Shadow Weaver's ghost stories.

Catra shudders. What is she even doing out here? This is crazy. She should just go back home – somehow – and forget about all this.

But then Catra sniffs the air and the fragrance of the forest fills her nostrils, ripe and dewy, and it's intoxicating. It smells… alive. Much more so than anything she's ever smelled in the Fright Zone. The tree trunks surrounding her twist organically towards the sky, nothing like the straight metal beams in the Arena where they train for forest missions. Catra suddenly longs to climb them. So she does, leaving behind the twisted metal of her crashed skiff with barely a look.

Catra is on all fours, sniffing at some purple berries, when she hears rustling, and then something that might be a voice. Like lightning she's eleven feet up in a tree, tail swishing silently as she glares down towards the direction of the sound. She should have brought a stun baton.

Soon enough someone appears below. Someone with long, pink hair that shines in the moonlight, who wears a purple romper and a flowy, sky blue cape, and who smells flowery and electric at the same time. Catra has never seen a real princess before, but she immediately knows that the girl below her is one.

"Hey, Princess!" she yells, on impulse. "Do all princesses look as dumb as you?"

The girl starts, and looks up at Catra. She has a round face with large pink eyes, purple eyebrows and a button nose. She's cute – until her face twists into a mask of fear and disgust.

"Horde soldier!" the princess spits out, and then, in a sparkling pink cloud that somehow even sounds like glitter, she disappears –

– and reappears right next to Catra on the branch. Magic!

Catra almost falls out of the tree from the shock, but the girl grabs on to one of her flailing arms. Then there's that chiming sound again, and suddenly they're on the ground.

"Gah, what did you just do to me!?" Catra yells. Her voice comes out frustratingly scared.

It's disconcerting, being in one place and then in another. And the electric smell, which seems to come from the princess' magic teleportation sparkles, doesn't help. Catra feels sick. With a full body shudder she keels over, dragging the girl down with her. It's a night for lying in moss, apparently.

Taking advantage of Catra's disorientation, the princess positions herself so she's straddling Catra's torso, pinning Catra's arms with her own knees. One hand grips Catra's shoulder, the other is raised into a fist, aiming at Catra's head. It pulses with bright, sparkly magic.

Catra extends her claws, but she doesn't use them. Yet. Better to bide her time, find her bearings a little, before she starts fighting back.

"Horde scum," the princess snarls. "How did you make it this far into the Whispering Woods?"

"That's none of your business," Catra answers airily. Then, with a mocking laugh, she adds, "But it wasn't hard."

The magic around the princess' hand buzzes menacingly.

"Okay, okay," Catra says. "Honestly, I'm just here to check the place out. I wanted to see what's outside the Fright Zone."

"You're here to spy, more like," the princess shoots back. "Horde soldiers don't usually come traipsing through Rebellion territory just to sightsee. You're heartless destroyers!"

Catra can't help laughing again. "I'm a spy? What kind of spy calls attention to themselves by yelling at dumb-looking princesses?"

"I didn't say you were a good spy. But go on, keep telling me your cover story."

The princess' hair falls down around her face as she looks down on Catra. Her underhair is darker, purple rather than pink, but somehow even shinier than the rest. It's very striking. And long enough to tickle Catra's face when the princess angrily tosses her head. As for the princess' face, it's still set in a stubbornly adorable mien, one purple eyebrow quirked. Catra can't help being charmed. It doesn't help that she's been taught that a princess' charm is just one of her many weapons.

Catra's queasy feeling from when they teleported is almost gone now. If she wanted to break free she'd have the element of surprise on her side. Everyone knows princesses are awful at hand-to-hand combat where they can't rely on their fancy magic tricks. But without knowing why, Catra holds back. And says the first thing that comes into her head.

"I'm leaving the Horde," she mumbles.

The princess doesn't believe her. It's clear from the way her left eye twitches, and from the tone of her voice when she says, "Good! Then you won't mind me bringing you back to Bright Moon… where you can be interrogated properly!"

Bright Moon. Yeah, why not? If Catra doesn't like it there, she can just escape and return to the Horde with inside intel about the Rebellion's home base.

Catra opens her mouth to capitulate, but then she feels the princess freeze above her. The princess' fist opens and clasps down over Catra's mouth, so fast that it makes Catra's lips tingle with the magic that hasn't fully disappeared from it. And then Catra hears it too. Voices.

"– this way, I'm sure!" comes a girl's voice through the vegetation. She sounds kinda bossy.

"The tracker pad says otherwise, Arrow," a hectored male voice replies. "Arrow! Hey! Wait up!"

"We're almost there! Can't you sense it, Bow? Just let me lead the –"

Then comes the sound of a slight scuffle. Catra and the princess look at each other wordlessly. The princess' hand is still pressed over Catra's mouth.

The boy is the first to speak again. "Arrow, uh… your eyes are, um, glowing? It's kinda freaking me out."

"Oh shut up, Bow, don't go all soft on me now. You're the one who wanted to go look for this First Ones artifact! And we're so close. Are you sure you can't feel it? Or… hear it, maybe?"

"No. No, I can't do either of those things, but I can see that your eyes are glowing, and it's weird. Let's go back tomorrow, during the day. And bring our dads, okay? Arrow? Arrow!"

The voices grow fainter, together with the rustling as the strangers move further away through the forest. Catra wants to follow them, see what all their fuss is about. What's a 'First Ones artifact' anyway?

Catra needs to act fast. She bucks upwards, unbalancing the still distracted princess on top of her. When she gets her hands free she slashes with her claws, and when the princess recoils in pain she breaks fully free, pushing away from the ground so she can jump into standing upright.

Then she gets a face full of magic glitter.

It's so bright, Catra's sensitive eyes feel like they're burning. She stumbles blindly backwards, wiping at her eyes with the back of one hand, groping behind her with the other. When she gets at a tree trunk, she climbs it more on instinct than anything else, blinking wildly and shaking her head like a wet kitten.

When she can see well enough to get moving, Catra starts chasing after the disappearing voices, jumping from tree to tree as quietly as she can (which is pretty darn quiet if she gets to say so herself). Below her, the princess is also trying to follow the voices – or Catra? – but she's falling behind from having to fight through the foliage on foot. Pity for her that her magic makes so much noise.

Not that either of them necessarily needs to keep as quiet as they do. Sound doesn't seem to travel far in the forest. In fact, even with her keen hearing, Catra soon starts to fear that she's lost track of the strangers. But then another sense comes to the rescue; bright blue light is beaming out from between the trees up ahead. Catra climbs down and sneaks forwards towards the clearing. 

Right as Catra pushes a large leaf aside to get visuals on the scene, she hears the boy say, "Wait, Arrow, don't touch it!"

Then everything goes very bright, bright enough that for a moment Catra thinks that the princess has caught up with her and attacked her again. There's a loud bang, too, and a shockwave that almost knocks Catra over. Afterwards, the blue light is gone. When her eyes adapt to the darkness, this is what she sees:

In the middle of the clearing a sword stands upright, held up by a mess of ancient-looking roots. Right next to the sword lies a pale girl with a dirty blonde braid. She seems to have passed out. Some feet away, a darker-skinned boy is getting up from the ground, looking disoriented. As Catra watches, he rushes over to the girl and tries to shake her awake.

Catra's eyes are drawn back to the sword. It's a magnificent old weapon, with an intricately wrought hilt that looks to be made out of pure gold. And that gemstone right in the middle of the handle is nothing to sneeze at either. Maybe if she is very, very quiet, Catra can sneak past the distracted boy and get her paws on it?

That's when the princess twinkle-ports into the middle of the clearing. And grabs Catra's sword.

"Hey!" Catra yells, jumping into the clearing on all fours and racing towards the girl with the sword.

She doesn't stand a chance. The princess just teleports away, of course. Skidding in the dewy grass, Catra changes direction to lunge at the princess' new location. She doesn't notice that the boy, who's now behind her, has gotten his hands on a weapon of his own. So she has no idea what's happening when she's suddenly falling to the ground, caught in some kind of net.

"Thanks!" the princess pants, from yet another point in the clearing.

"Who are you?" the boy shoots back. "And why did you take our sword?"

"I am Commander Glimmer of Bright Moon," the princess replies. Now that she isn't snarling at Catra about being a spy, even her voice is somehow princessy. Soft and sparkly and sounding a bit like the whistling that some of the Horde guards do when none of their superiors are around. Melodic? "And as the Whispering Woods is under the Rebellion's protec- oof!"

Focused on each other, neither the princess nor the boy had noticed Catra clawing her way out from her net. And now she's tackled the princess and gotten the sword. It's lighter than it looks, the blade made of some kind of bluish metal that Catra's never seen before. She doesn't get to inspect it for long, though. The princess and the boy both throw themselves towards her, and for a while everything is a pandemonium of claws, sparkle bombs and trick arrows.

Then a commanding voice tells them to "Stand down!"

And somehow, they do. They break apart, all three of them on their knees in the grass, and turn towards the voice. The girl has woken up from her faint, and now she's standing in the middle of the clearing, her burgundy and beige tunic billowing in a much stronger wind than what's actually blowing. And her eyes really are glowing, with an unnerving, ghostly blue sheen.

"Give me the sword," she demands, disconcertingly calm.

The princess happens to be the one clutching the sword at the moment. In response to the demand, she doesn't break out into another spiel about the Rebellion. She just gets up from the ground, walks slowly over to the girl and even gives a stupid little bow as she holds out the sword to her.

When the girl takes the sword, it's like reality shivers. And something even weirder happens when she raises it in the air and calls out, "For the honor of Grayskull!"

Now it's not just the girl's eyes that glow – all of her is shining silver bright. It's impossible to look away. Somehow her braid unbraids itself, and the cropped hair on the sides of her head grows out into a mane even more impressive than Catra's own. Then she grows taller, the sword grows longer, and as she swings the sword around, Catra gets an impression of infinite space, cleansing fire, and spinning light in all the colors of the rainbow.

The girl's transformation simultaneously seems to take an eternity and no time at all. When it's over, she is wearing a frilly white and gold uniform, a short red cape and a tiara. And there's nothing 'dirty' about her hair color anymore; now it shines like spun gold. 

Oh. So the girl is another princess. Figures. The woods really are teeming with them, just like Catra's always been told.

"A-arrow?" the boy whimpers, on the ground next to Catra.

The tall, shiny princess turns towards him. "Bow," she says. Her voice is still the same, at least.

"Okay, so you still know who I am, that's… good…" the boy – Bow – replies.

With Sword Princess distracted, Catra sees her chance to get the heck out of here. She starts edging towards the treeline, almost one toe at a time. When she gets there, she takes the risk of getting up from the ground to start running. Big mistake.

"Oh no, you don't!" Sword Princess yells. 

She slashes her sword through the air, and some kind of shockwave explodes out of it and into Catra's back. 

As Catra hits the ground she hears Bow yell, "Adora! What did you do that for!?"

Weird, Catra thinks as she starts to black out. I thought Sword Princess' name was 'Arrow'…

Chapter Text

Shadow Weaver is there when Catra wakes up. She's sitting next to Catra's bed in the Fright Zone Infirmary, looking at Catra through that unreadable mask of hers. Catra freezes up. You never know what you're gonna get with Shadow Weaver, but this can't be good.

"Cadet," Shadow Weaver says, and Catra's heart sinks. Isn't she a Force Captain anymore? "You better have something good for me."

Lying down somehow feels too vulnerable with Shadow Weaver in the room, so Catra struggles to sit up on her cot. And struggles to think of 'something good' to tell Shadow Weaver, but it's like her head is full of brown ration bar sludge. Maybe she got brain damage from Sword Princess' magic shockwave?

Hey, wait! Sword Princess! She should count as 'something good,' right? Well, with Shadow Weaver's arbitrary standards there's no telling, but it's worth a shot.

"There's a new princess. I think…" Catra forces out, trying to remember.

Shadow Weaver leans a little closer, her white mask eyes narrowing. "You 'think' there is a 'new' princess. Whatever do you mean?"

Usually Catra has to force herself not to giggle at the way Shadow Weaver pronounces it 'princess', but she's never been further from a giggle attack. The longer she's awake, the more everything hurts. And she usually bounces back like nothing.

"Well, uh," she stalls, running through the scene in the clearing. "She wasn't a princess at first, and her friend didn't seem to know she was a princess. And the other princess didn't seem to recognize her. But then the sword… turned her into a princess?"

Shadow Weaver makes an impatient gesture, and Catra falls silent on instinct.

"What sword? You better start from the beginning, cadet."

So Catra does, glossing over the whole 'sneaking out and crashing a skiff' thing as much as possible. No matter. By the end of her story, Shadow Weaver looks like Invasion Day arrived early.

"She-Ra," Shadow Weaver breathes, her hair flaring up in excited tendrils.

"What's a She-Ra?" Catra dares to ask. She's half expecting to get snarled at for the insolence of daring to voice a question, but Shadow Weaver just keeps staring into the middle distance.

"Oh, I thought she was just an old legend. Children's tales! But what you're describing… yes! This 'Sword Princess', as you so childishly call her, could be the key to our success. With the power of She-Ra under our command, we could crush the Bright Moon Rebellion once and for all, and take Etheria as our own! But first, I'll need to do some… research. And you –"

Catra freezes up again. This is when her punishment will come.

"– you should pack up your things and report to the Force Captain barracks. No need for you to take up a bed in the Infirmary anymore."

Shadow Weaver gets up from her chair, but before leaving he turns back and nails Catra with that blank white stare of hers.

"Oh, yes" she adds. "And you won't tell anyone about any of this. It'll be our little secret."

As she swoops out of the room, Catra lets herself fall back on the bed, just for a moment. Okay, so she's still Force Captain, and still in Shadow Weaver's good graces. For now. Plan 'One day I'll rule the world' is still on.

"Shadow Weaver. You wanted to see me," Catra says, a week-and-a-half after Bow-the-Archer and Arrow/Adora-the-Sword Princess dumped her at the edge of the Fright Zone like a mouse on somebody's doorstep.

The Black Garnet Chamber buzzes with energy as Catra enters, willing her tail to keep still. She nervously glances over at the tall, twisted stone that is the source of the room's energy. (She has never dared ask why it's called the 'Black' Garnet when it's clearly red.) Ugh, this place gives her the creeps. But when Shadow Weaver summons you, you go.

Shadow Weaver is leaning over the metal basin that she uses for her spellwork, illuminated in the light that shines up from it. "Ah. Force Captain Catra. How kind of you to join me."

"I came as soon as I–"

"Silence! Do not test my patience right now, cade–… Force Captain. Not after I let you keep your badge, even though you missed both Force Captain Orientation and the invasion of Thaymor. Well. Now I'm giving you a new chance to prove yourself to me."

Catra nods eagerly.

"I sent my Shadow Spies to all the known First Ones ruins around Etheria, and now the girl you described has shown up by one of them."

Shadow Weaver raises a crooked finger and beckons Catra closer. In the depth of the magic basin, Catra sees the boy and girl from her sojourn in the woods. They're walking around a huge tower that looks nothing like any other building Catra's ever seen, all straight lines and smooth grey sheen. They seem to be trying to find a way into the place, but they're not having much success. The girl – Arrow? Adora? – is back in her non-princess outfit, but now the sword hangs from her belt.

Shadow Weaver hands Catra a stun baton and a tracker pad.

"The coordinates for the ruin are in here. You will go there immediately and do whatever it takes to neutralize the girl, and then you are going to bring her here, to me! There's a skiff waiting for you by the docks. Don't crash it this time."

The tracker pad is completely useless. As soon as Catra gets into the Whispering Woods it starts acting up, all wobbly purple static and a noise that makes Catra's ears hurt. Not that the wood's creepy whispering is much better. Ugh, she hates this place. It's impossible to maneuver the skiff in here, so she's stumbling around on foot, catching on vines and stepping in soggy mushroom goo.

"Aaaaargh!" she roars, throwing the tracker pad at a particularly smug-looking tree. She slumps down on the ground, hiding her face in her arms. Then, the unmistakable twang of magic makes her ears twitch. When she looks up, white light is shining through the trees to her left.

Catra follows the light, and once again finds herself spying on Bow and Arrow-dora from the edge of a clearing. This time they're staring up at the sky, which is full of little bright spots, like a million miniature moons.

"Stars…" Ad-orrow mumbles, almost too quiet for even Catra's sensitive ears to pick up.

"Stars?" Bow echoes. "Like in that ancient First Ones text from the library that only you can read?"

The girl doesn't seem to hear him. "I-I've seen them before! It's like I know all of this somehow."

This is Catra's moment. Her quarry is distracted and unprepared. If she rushes in now, she should be able to stun the girl before she has time to do her magical transformation thing. The boy is more difficult, but she's sure she'll come up with a way to take him out without getting shot. She just needs to get a liiiiittle more to the left, and then –

– and then, the girl's eyes start glowing again, and she draws her sword from her belt and yells that stupid catchphrase of hers. What even is a 'grayskull'?

Darn it. Catra could handle Arrow-dora, but she's not about to rush headlong into a fight with – She-Ra, was it? So she hangs back, and watches as She-Ra walks towards the tower with her sword held out, and then keeps walking down into a square hole that opens up in the ground in front of her.

"Arrow?" Bow cries out. "Are we… are we going down there?"

"Yeah," She-Ra says with Adorarrow's voice. "Wasn't that the whole point of going here? Now come on!"

Bow comes on. The moment the two of them disappear into the hole, it starts to close up. So Catra ends up rushing into the clearing anyway, and slinks down the hole just as it shuts completely. She finds herself in a triangular corridor with strange runes written on the walls. There's a vague bluish-purple light in here that doesn't seem to come from anywhere in particular. 

Bow and She-Ra are not far ahead, so Catra hangs back, trying to come up with a plan of attack. Is knocking the sword out of She-Ra's hand enough to get her to un-transform? Or will she have to wrestle a supercharged giantess into the Fright Zone?

Right when Bow and She-Ra disappear around a corner, Catra hears a familiar sound. A ~*~shwing~*~ like throwing glitter in the air, unforgettable for anyone who's ever been involuntarily teleported. She swirls around, eyes narrowing. And indeed, there she is. The pink-haired princess of Bright Moon. 

"You again," Catra snarls. "Sparkles, was it?"

"It's Glimmer," Glimmer shoots back, voice shrill. "And –"

"Shhh!" Catra puts a hand over Glimmer's mouth and holds her breath. Glimmer's lips are soft against her palm, but Catra forces herself to focus on listening for signs that Bow or She-Ra has heard them.

When no She-Ra comes rushing at them, sword raised, Catra slides her hand down to Glimmer's throat and hisses, "What are you doing here?"

Glimmer swats her hand away, but she does keep her voice low as she replies, "I'm investigating the mile high beam of light that suddenly shot up in the middle of our woods."

"Oh."

"What are you doing here? And why are we whispering? What's going on?"

Catra groans as quietly as she possibly can. Why does this mission have to get more complicated by the moment? If she tries to take Glimmer out here and now, she'll definitely draw She-Ra's attention.

"Ugh. There's no way I can get you to just leave, right?" she sighs.

Glimmer just glares at her in reply.

"Right," Catra goes on. "Then shut up and follow me, okay?"

Glimmer looks ready to protest, but as she has no idea why Catra is so insistent that she keep quiet and apparently doesn't want to risk it, she doesn't have much choice. So Catra leads the way, and together they tip-toe through the weird corridor, stopping at every corner before Catra waves them on.

After a few more turns, the corridor opens into a high-ceilinged chamber, full of broken pillars and doorways into other corridors. In the middle of the room there's some kind of podium, and on the podium stands a… tall, glowing semi-transparent woman with impossibly broad shoulders. She's standing completely still, holding some kind of notepad. What the heck?

"What is this place?" Glimmer whispers behind Catra.

Rather than answer, Catra crouches down and runs over to hide behind the nearest broken pillar. If she can just get to the other doors undetected, she should be able to smell which one She-Ra went through. She glances over to the podium, but the tall ghost lady doesn't seem to have noticed her. Good. Then she turns to check on Glimmer – but Glimmer isn't where she left her. Ugh.

Catra swirls around, and sees Glimmer calmly walking up the ramp to the ghost lady's podium. What is she doing!? Catra should have knocked her out when she had the chance.

"I am Princess Glimmer of Bright Moon, a Commander of the Rebellion," Glimmer announces. "I come in peace. I'm here to investigate the beam of light that you sent out. Was it a distress beacon?"

The ghost lady doesn't react at all, and Catra snickers at the affronted face Glimmer makes when her self-important spiel isn't acknowledged.

"Hey! I'm talking to you," Glimmer says. By now she's all the way up on the podium, jumping up and down and waving her hand in front of the ghost lady's face. The ghost lady just keeps staring straight ahead, until a frustrated Glimmer sticks her hand into her midsection. Then the ghost lady… glitches, and there's a horrible sound like a bot malfunctioning.

The ghost lady – or hologram lady, as it turns out – flashes from blue to red. Then she finally speaks,  in a creepy computer voice. "Unauthorized presence detected. Security protocol activated," she says. And then she disappears.

With the hologram lady gone, the whole room turns red and corridor doors start slamming down, one after the other. No point hiding now. Catra jumps out from behind her pillar and sprints towards one of the doors that are still open. As she runs, she yells, "What the heck, princess?"

"Sorry," Glimmer yells back, surprisingly sheepish. "I thought she looked nice."

"Nice!?" Catra skids to a halt as her approach to the doorway is met with an inhuman screech and gleaming red eyes. She reverses course, pursued by several giant spiders. "This is not nice!"

"I said I'm sorry! Waaaargh!" Suddenly, Glimmer is right next to Catra, throwing glitter bombs at the approaching spiders. She grabs Catra's arm, and with a chiming ~*~shwing~*~, they're gone.

Teleporting feels just as bad this time as it did the last. Catra falls to her knees, swallowing down the bile rising in her throat. Yuck.

"Are you okay?" Glimmer asks, looking down at Catra with what seems like genuine concern in her eyes. She's still holding Catra's wrist.

"I'm fine." Catra pulls herself free, and looks around as she stands back up. They seem to be in another corridor, visually indistinguishable from the one they arrived through – unless the weird runes on the walls say something different, but it's not like Catra can read them.

When she looks back at Glimmer, Glimmer's eyes have narrowed. "How about a 'Thank you, Princess Glimmer, for saving me from the scary spiders'?"

"Aw, Sparkles, you want me to call you 'Princess Glimmer'?" Catra laughs. "That's cute. But… why did you save me?"

Glimmer snorts, and sticks her nose in the air. "I couldn't just leave you there. I'm not an evil Horde soldier."

Catra rolls her eyes. "Besides, it was your fault that they attacked."

As if on cue, a new scary spider screech comes from around a bend in the corridor. Catra and Glimmer share a look, then they start running in the other direction. As they run, the corridor lights flicker out behind them. And then they run into a dead end.

The corridor just suddenly ends in a wall, and the spiders are closing in. Glimmer holds out her hand, a steely look in her eye. Catra can't see any other way out, so she takes it.

~*~shwing~*~

This time, Catra leans against a wall instead of falling to the ground, but she still feels queasy.

"Why don't you glitter poof us all the way out of here?" she asks weakly.

"It only works short distances," Glimmer glumly admits. "Plus, I don't know which way is out. This place is a labyrinth. And in any case my mission here is still incomplete, as I still haven't found out why it lit up like a signal flare. So if you want me to help you out of this place, you better start explaining what exactly is going on here."

"I don't need your help," Catra scoffs.

Glimmer gives her a look like she's being willfully obtuse. "Okay, so what are you gonna do the next time you run into a dead end?"

"Ugh, fine. What do you want to know?"

"Well, first, what is this place?"

Catra quickly runs through all her intel to decide what to divulge, but it's not like she knows much anyway. Shadow Weaver had called the building a 'First Ones ruin', but Catra has no idea what that means. She settles on, "I was following the boy and the girl from last time we met, and they went in here."

"She-Ra is here?" Glimmer blurts.

Oh, so she knows about She-Ra too. And now Catra knows that she knows. Doesn't the Rebellion teach its soldiers about strategically withholding information?

"Is that her name?" Catra asks innocently. "I thought it was Arrow. Or Adora. It's a bit unclear."

"No, She-Ra is the Cape Lady, you know, the one the girl turned into when she waved her sword around. She's a legendary warrior from the time of the Firs–" Glimmer stops herself mid word, finally wising up to the fact that it might be inadvisable to babble about these things to 'an evil Horde soldier'. "Nevermind. You're saying she's in here somewhere?"

"Yeah. I was tracking her when you sicced a bunch of giant spiders on me."

"I didn't sic them on you! Ugh! You're so annoying," Glimmer groans. She's hilarious when she's frustrated. She even stomps her foot. 

"It's fun winding you up, Sparkles," Catra chuckles.

"Ugh. Let's just go."

Glimmer takes the lead, and Catra lets her. They start walking down another identical corridor. And then they walk. And they walk. And they walk. For a long time, the only thing that changes is the color scheme of the corridors. Blue. Purple. Magenta. Red. After a while, yellow is added into the mix.

As they walk, Catra gets distracted by Glimmer's hair. It's just so shimmery. And looks so soft, not at all Catra's coarse mane with its discolored tufts. Catra wonders what Glimmer puts in it to get it so sleek. It's like a pink waterfall cascading down her back.

Then they walk by some real waterfalls. This place really is weird. But at least there aren't any more spiders.

"Hey, by the way," Glimmer suddenly says into the awkward silence. Judging by the tone of her voice, she's going for small talk. Why. "What's, uh… what's your name?"

Catra doesn't reply.

"Oh, okay, let me guess, then! Is it… Cat…erina?"

Catra doesn't reply.

"Hm… Catista?"

Catra doesn't reply.

"Oh, I know! It's gotta be Catronella!"

This is getting dumb. "It's Catra," Catra replies. Tersely.

"Catra! Close enough!" Glimmer shoots Catra a sparkling smile that Catra just barely has self-control enough not to return. "So, where are you from? I've never met another cat person…"

"I don't know. I've never met anyone else like me either. The Horde found me in a box when I was like, two."

"In a box?" Glimmer sounds taken aback.

"Yeah. You know, a cardboard box?"

"But… who put you there?"

That's a question Catra doesn't like to spend too much time contemplating. It doesn't lead anywhere good.

Thankfully, she's saved from answering by another dead end. This one looks really fancy, too. Lots of geometric patterns and different colors, and more of that weird, line-y writing. Maybe it's some kind of fancy door that they have no way of opening? Well, no way of opening, but still a way to get through.

This time, Catra is the first to hold out her hand, steeling herself for what's to come. "Do your thing, Sparkles."

At first, Catra thinks she's blacked out from her teleportation sickness. But no. Wherever they've ended up, it really is pitch black in here. Until Glimmer lights a sparkle ball; then they see each other, but everything else is still black.

"Cool. We found the infinite darkness room," Catra pants, still feeling ill. "Let's find some other way around. Just… let me catch my breath first."

"No," Glimmer says. "Look over there, I think I see something."

She points over to a small red light, far away. Catra's first thought is 'Spider!', but when they approach it it's just – a small red light. It's not even far away, it just looked that way because it's so small. Together, Glimmer and Catra lean down to get a closer look, and then leap back in alarm when the light explodes into a flash of green light that… scans them?

Three loud 'beeps' ring out into the infinite darkness, and then it lights up into another huge chamber. With a color scheme of blues and pinks, waterfalls falling from the ceiling to the floor, and weird runes written on the walls, Catra assumes it's just a new, annoying room to keep walking through on their hunt for She-Ra and/or an exit. But then she sees the way Glimmer has frozen up. And then, she hears footsteps. 

Catra swirls around towards the sound, and sees a tall woman with huge, pearly, transparent wings and Glimmer's exact haircut, down to the color. The woman walks slowly towards Catra, perfectly unconcerned. She doesn't alter her pace when Catra gets into a fighting stance, doesn't even spare her a glance.

Catra gulps. She knows who this is, has seen her on a thousand posters, fought her in hundreds of training simulations. Her wings are way less bat-like than in the Horde's propaganda, but this must be Queen Angella of Bright Moon, the leader of the Rebellion. Glimmer's mother.

No no no no no. What is the Queen doing here!? Catra's always been told that Queen Angella never leaves the safety of her castle, that she cowardly sends her underlings out to die while she hides at home (just like Lord Hordak – but no one ever mentions that). Is she here to get Glimmer?

Catra extends her claws, and slashes at the approaching Queen. And her hand goes right through her, with a glitch-y noise and a tingly sensation, exactly like how Glimmer's hand went right through the hologram lady before.

"This is a simulation," Catra says, as the realization hits.

"No, it's not," Glimmer says, all the jangle gone out of her voice. "It's a memory."

Glimmer turns and follows the projection of Queen Angella up a ramp on the opposite end of the hall. Catra runs after her, and sees the queen bowing deeply to a dark-skinned, blue-haired man in a ridiculous outfit that is only out-ridiculoused by the monstrosity that is the throne he's seated on. It's a ginormous, ostentatious mess of wavy blue folds, and what looks to Catra like whitened tree branches.

"Revered Host," Queen Angella says. "We come into your hall under the ancient rules of hospitality, bringing greetings from Bright Moon."

"Queen Angella," the man on the throne says. "You are welcome in the kingdom of Salineas under the ancient rules of hospitality. Leave conflict at the door, and please enjoy the ball. My friend."

"Thank you, King Mercia," Queen Angella replies. "It is good to see you again. Allow me to introduce my daughter to you." She lifts a wing, revealing a small child with a wild tuft of pink hair on top of her head.

As Catra gasps, the child takes a step forward and bows in a perfect imitation of Queen Angella.

"Revered Host," she says. "Thank you for welcoming us. I am Princess Glimmer of Bright Moon."

"Uh, S-sparkles?" Catra stammers. "That's… you?"

"Yeah," Catra's Glimmer breathes. "Yeah, that's me. From ten years ago."

Catra looks wildly back and forth between the two Glimmers, while Glimmer stares intently at her child self, a hand over her mouth. Then Catra notices that the room is full of people in fancy clothes chatting and laughing. Were they there before? And was that music playing softly in the background? Catra feels dizzy, and when she looks back at where Glimmer was standing a moment ago, the princess is gone, along with her mother and her child self.

Panic rises in Catra's throat, but then she catches sight of Queen Angella, standing stiffly by a long table full of food that Catra wishes she could taste. Both Glimmers are with her. She holds Little Glimmer's hand tightly as they watch more and more people file into the hall and greet the king with deep bows.

Catra goes up to them. "So, uh…" she begins.

Current Glimmer hushes her, pointing towards a little girl with flowers in her blonde hair who's right then skidding to a halt in front of Little Glimmer.

"Hi I'm Perfuma!" the new kid says. "You are Princess Glimmer aren't you? I am also a princess. I'm from Plumeria!"

"Hi," Glimmer timidly replies. She sounds nothing like the self-important Glimmer of today.

Perfuma is not discouraged. "I found some other kids!" she goes on. "Do you want to come play with us?"

She points over to a small troop of differently sized youngsters. A girl with butterfly wings waves back at them from between a light blue kid and an older girl who looks a lot like King Mercia. Little Glimmer waves back, face lighting up. But before she has a chance to run off with the older girl, Queen Angella puts a protective hand on her shoulder. 

"I want you to stay where I can see you, babygirl," she says, voice catching on the last word. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

Little Glimmer's face falls. "Dad would have let me play with Perfuma," she says, petulant.

Queen Angella grimaces and Catra tenses up, expecting some kind of punishment. Little Glimmer must as well, because she breaks free of her mother's grip and runs away. The queen runs after her, yelling for her to stop. After sharing a look, current Glimmer and Catra follow, but when they round a corner in the hall, they find themselves back in one of the triangular corridors from before.

They stop running, and when Catra looks over at current Glimmer, she catches her wiping away tears. When Glimmer sees Catra looking, she turns her back to her. Without thinking, Catra puts a hand on the other girl's shoulder, but Glimmer shakes it off.

"Don't touch me, Horde scum! Let's just keep going."

The corridor ends in an open doorway – and when they walk through it, they're suddenly in the Fright Zone. In the Orphan Barracks, more specifically.

"Where are we now?" Glimmer asks, making a disgusted face at a grimy wall. "Is this your memory?"

"Probably," Catra admits.

And sure enough, there's a five-year-old-ish Tentacla running past them, turning her head back to yell "Catch me if you can!"

Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle follow in hot pursuit (well, in Kyle's case it's more like lukewarm pursuit), laughing as they run. And then, out of nowhere, Little Catra pounces on Tentacla from the ceiling, slamming her to the ground and – accidentally, Current Catra remembers – scratching her across the face, drawing dark blue blood.

"Got you!" Little Catra yells.

But Tentacla doesn't concede the win. She just squirms out from under Little Catra and runs over to Kyle, crying. As Kyle hugs her and Rogelio gets out a napkin to wipe at her cuts, Lonnie steps forward.

"Catra!" she barks out in a tone wildly at odds with her childish cadence, making Glimmer giggle. "I told you you can't play with us! Go away!"

Little Catra does, but only because she doesn't want Lonnie to see the tears welling up in her eyes. She runs, and Glimmer runs after her, so Current Catra has no choice but to follow. This time they get to turn five different corners without the place having the decency to morph back into a labyrinth corridor. And then Little Catra runs into Shadow Weaver.

Current Catra isn't thrilled to be reliving this memory, but Little Catra is just relieved that Shadow Weaver seems to be in a good mood.

"Oh, hello there, little one," Shadow Weaver murmurs. "Your name is Catra, is it not? I have been keeping track of your achievements. I hear that you got good marks on the latest agility test."

Little Catra stands up straighter, nodding eagerly. Shadow Weaver bends down, wiping a tear from Little Catra's cheek. "Have you been crying, little one?" she asks, her voice softer than Catra has ever heard it since. "What happened to you?"

Little Catra sniffs. "We were playing a game but the others don't like that I'm better than them, so they ganged up on me and beat me," she easily lies. "They say I can't play with them anymore because I always win. I think they're…" Her voice falters. "I think they're scared of me."

Shadow Weaver tut-tuts over her. "Oh, little one. Their opinions are unimportant. You should listen to me instead. I say that it is better to be feared than to be loved. But you need to be able to defend yourself, of course. Hold out your hand!"

Little Catra does, as Shadow Weavers takes something out of the folds of her robes. It's a tiny bottle of blackish purple powder, and Little Catra's eyes grow huge with 'oh shiny!'-ness before she even gets to touch it.

"Now listen carefully, little one," Shadow Weaver says as she hands the bottle over. "If you need to get back at someone, you rub a tiny bit of this powder into something that is theirs – a piece of clothing, maybe, or a pillow case they've been using, or even better a lock of their hair. And then you think about something bad that you want to happen to them. And then you just… wait."

Little Catra's eyes somehow manage to grow even bigger. Her entire tiny little body is vibrating with excitement. 

With a condescending chuckle, Shadow Weaver adds, "But you have to promise me something, little one, because this is magic, understand?"

Little Catra's mouth falls open. She only knows 'magic' as 'that thing the bad guys do.'

"So you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone," Shadow Weaver insists. "It will be our little secret."

Once again Little Catra nods eagerly up at her.

Shadow Weaver pats her on the head. "Now run along, little one. I will be keeping an eye on you."

Reality flickers, and they're in a labyrinth corridor again. Catra is getting real tired of corridors.

"Was that your… mother?" Glimmer asks hesitantly.

"Ew, no!" Catra spits out. "I don't have a mother. I told you the Horde found me in a box!"

"Okay, yeah, but I mean… Was she the one who took care of you when you were small?"

Catra randomly picks a direction and starts walking. "Not really. Shadow Weaver is the Horde's second in command. She kept tabs on all of us kids, but she never got involved much. Well, she did for me, for a bit there, but then…"

"Then what?"

Catra shrugs, cursing at herself for spilling her secrets so easily. "Stick around and maybe this place will show you," she says. "Ugh, I hate it here. How can you deal with all this magic stuff?"

"You seemed pretty keen on magic back there," Glimmer teases. "But yeah, this place kinda sucks. But most of the time, magic is great!"

"Yeah, sure."

They fall silent, and just walk for a while. Until Glimmer asks another one of her nosy questions.

"Did you mean to scratch that girl on her face?" She sounds genuinely concerned.

Catra scoffs. "Yeah, of course I did. I'm Horde scum, remember. I'm a 'ruthless destroyer' or whatever it was you said when we first met."

"And you said you were gonna leave the Horde," Glimmer reminds her.

Catra shrugs again. She's about to say something about how she might have, if Glimmer hadn't gotten them captured by a crazy sword lady, but then she smells grass and promptly forgets about everything else. She sets off towards the smell, and catapults through a triangular doorway out into freedom.

There's grass, indeed, and fresh air, and a wide blue sky above! …and well-trimmed bushes… and a low purple wall… and some kind of domed glass building… Okay, so it's clear that this isn't the Whispering Woods, but for a moment Catra still lets herself believe that they've really found a way out from that nightmare of a place. Then she notices the little pink-haired kid rolling around in the grass a few steps away, and she can't lie to herself anymore. This is another memory.

That's when Glimmer tele-appears next to her, and looks around. "Oh," she says. "Well. Welcome to Bright Moon! This is the main castle garden." She twirls around, indicating something behind Catra. "And this! Is the castle!"

Catra turns too, and whoa. Holy moly.

As Catra stands gaping at the huge building, trying to take in all its gold and white and purple, Little Glimmer runs past her. Catra follows the child with her eyes, until she sees who she's running towards: Queen Angella is landing on the grass at the far side of the garden, pale as death.

Catra turns her head to look at Current Glimmer. She's just as pale as her mother. And then she pounces, slamming into Catra in a full-body tackle, already halfway into teleporting. But when they crash into the ground, they don't seem to have moved at all. They're still in the sunny castle garden. The only difference is that Little Glimmer is back in the corner of the garden, rolling around in the grass.

"What the!?" Glimmer yelps.

Catra pushes her off and scrambles to her feet. "I could say the same," she snarls. "What was that about?"

"I realized which memory it was," Glimmer replies. "And I really don't want to relive it."

And yeah, Catra gets that. She, too, has some memories she'd do anything to get out of having to watch like this. So she takes the hand that Glimmer holds out to her, and resigns herself to more tingly nausea. And with another ~*~shwing~*~, they're… back in exactly the same place again.

"I don't think this place will let you leave," Catra points out.

But Glimmer is not discouraged yet. "Just –"

~*~shwing~*~

"– let –"

~*~shwing~*~

"– me –"

~*~shwing~*~

"– try –"

~*~shwing~*~

"– one –"

~*~shwing~*~

"– more –"

~*~shwing~*~

"– time!"

Catra falls to her knees in the grass, and this time Glimmer follows her down with a frustrated roar. The princess falls onto her back and throws an arm across her face. Her other hand is still holding Catra's. Catra lets her.

Again, Little Glimmer rolls around in the grass. Again she runs across the yard, her small cape flowing out behind her. Again Queen Angella lands on the grass after a hurried flight, face grey and eyes bloodshot. She scoops Little Glimmer into her arms and holds her tight.

"Darling," she says. "I – I have to tell you something. You remember when I told you about the bad people who are attacking us?"

"The Evil Horde," Glimmer says into her mother's embrace.

"Yes. And how your fa… your father and I are doing everything we can to protect you and everyone else from them."

"Yes."

Queen Angella makes a sound as if she's about to speak, but instead she starts crying. After gulping for air, she forces out, "King Micah… the Horde got him. I just got the message from Lord Hordak. Your father is… dead."

Catra goes cold.

"What happened?" both Glimmers ask in unison.

Catra doesn't want to know, doesn't want to hear. Little Glimmer is shaking and crying in her mother's arms, Current Glimmer is crying too, and Catra can't stand it, can't stay here. She doesn't even notice Current Glimmer reaching for her before she bolts. She runs blindly, doesn't know where she's going, doesn't notice the scenery changing.

When Catra has to stop for breath, she's back in the Fright Zone. Or, in a memory of the Fright Zone, rather – and it doesn't take her long to realize which memory. She is standing outside of the Black Garnet Chamber; the door is open. And sure enough, there's Little Catra, sneaking around the corner.

"Don't go in there," Current Catra tells her younger self, but of course Little Catra can't hear her. So Catra follows herself through the doorway.

In the Chamber, she watches as Little Catra sniffs around, looking for some kind of hiding place. She remembers that she went in here because she'd run out of her magic revenge powder, and didn't dare ask Shadow Weaver for more. Stealing had, for some reason, seemed like the safer option. Or maybe she'd really just been curious, and made up an excuse to act on her curiosity? The way Little Catra lets herself get majorly distracted by the huge runestone in the middle of the room sure makes it seem like the latter. 

"Woow…" Little Catra sighs, circling the giant, twisted stone. Then she clicks a claw against its surface, and gets jolted by something like a stun baton shock.

She'll get much worse before long. Because yes, there's Shadow Weavers jagged breathing from outside, and soon she'll stumble into the room, supporting herself against the doorway.

Little Catra gasps and jumps behind the Black Garnet, and Current Catra gets an impulse to hide as well. She doesn't. She just stands and watches as Shadow Weaver draws some kind of power from the runestone, and then goes over to her metal basin. By the basin she takes her mask off with a sickening clicking sound, and bends down to splash magical water on her face.

That's when Little Catra makes a run for it. Shadow Weaver has her back against the door, so Little Catra tip-toes backwards away from her. But then, just as she is about to turn and run through the doorway, the whole room turns dark in an instant. And then Little Catra is frozen in place by the same electric power from before, but – Current Catra remembers – ten times as painful.

The surging power lifts Little Catra from the ground as Shadow Weaver swirls around to look at her. And then, in the faint red glow of the Black Garnet, both Catras get a glimpse of Shadow Weaver's true face. It's just as terrifying as Current Catra remembers it, covered in scars and veins. Around the eyes the skin has been burned off completely. But the eyes themselves are the worst part, bloodshot and with pupils that are just wrong.

Then Shadow Weaver puts her mask back on, and asks, in a deceptively soft voice, "What do you think you're doing in here?"

"I was just playing!" Little Catra blurts out, fear present in each syllable.

Shadow Weaver leans down over her as she vibrates with anguish and anxiety. "Insolent child! I should have known to expect such disgraceful behaviour from you! I see now that you're just as useless as your supervisors have always told me that you are; too lazy to really apply yourself, unable to control your violent instincts, making enemies wherever you go. But you should have thought twice before you made an enemy of me! I once forsaw a great future for you, thought I could guide you there despite your faults. But now I take my hand from you! If you ever do anything like this again, I will dispose of you myself! Now get out!"

With a movement of Shadow Weaver's hand, a wave of force pushes Little Catra out of the room. Outside, she falls to her knees as the electricity releases her, but she immediately scrambles up and starts running towards the dormitories.

Current Catra runs after her, but she's too big now to take the shortcut through the loose wall-plate by the turret storage, so she falls behind. When she makes it to the dormitory, she hears a… voice? It's her own childhood voice, and that is deeply unsettling. Because Catra didn't talk to anyone after the Black Garnet Chamber incident.

And then another voice answers, and 'unsettling' becomes 'alarming'. Because it's Glimmer's voice. What!?

"Shadow Weaver is not gonna kill you," Glimmer says. "I promise."

Catra creeps closer, back against the wall next to the dormitory doorway. She chances a glance through the opening, and sees herself right where she'd expect, half-hidden under a blanket up on her top bunk. But then, on the top bunk opposite, giving Little Catra her space but still close by, sits Glimmer. The real, current, grown-up Glimmer who Catra ran away from.

"You can't know that," Little Catra says, defiance in her voice and in her bared teeth.

"Yes I can," Glimmer says. "And I'll tell you how I know, but first you have to promise that you'll believe me."

Little Catra hesitates, but then curiosity gets the best of her. "Okay… I promise."

"Okay. I know that Shadow Weaver won't kill you… because I've met you when you're all grown up, and you're very alive then. So nothing really bad can happen to you before that."

"That's impossible!" Little Catra says, but she's peeking out a little more from under her blanket, one ear breaking free.

"I know it sounds impossible, but it's not. And do you know what she told me the first time we met?"

"What?"

"You told me that you were gonna leave the Horde."

Little Catra thinks for a while, her tiny forehead all scrunched up. Then she says "But then I didn't?"

Current Catra is halfway into the dormitory by now, and hasn't even noticed herself moving, pulled in as if by some invisible force. She opens her mouth, not sure what she's about to say, still unnoticed by Glimmer and her past self –

– and right then, a sword slices through the door on the opposite end of the dormitory, and She-Ra rushes in, Bow in tow. "Princess Glimmer!" she yells. "We're here to join the Rebellion!"

Both Catras hiss, jumping into fighting stances. Glimmer swirls around as well, and then she swirls right back when she notices Current Catra.

She-Ra has noticed her as well. "You!" she shouts, and behind her, Bow already has an arrow aimed at Catra.

Glimmer, almost toppling over from all the swirling up on her top bunk, teleports down to the floor, where Bow and She-Ra rush up to her.

"Teleport us out!" Bow says, grabbing on to Glimmer's bicep.

Glimmer hesitates, looking between the two Catras even as the teleportation sparkles start shimmering across her skin, and that's enough time for Current Catra to pounce at her, claws first. Glimmer dodges, and Catras hand misses her shoulder to tangle into her hair instead. She grabs on, and Glimmer yelps in pain. And then, with a swish, She-Ra's sword slashes through the air, and through Glimmer's hair like it's air. With a ~*~ shwing~*~, Glimmer, She-Ra and Bow disappear, and Catra is left standing alone in the middle of the dormitory with a handful of shimmering pink hair.

"Where did the nice pink lady go?" Little Catra asks, eyes huge, from up on her bed. And then, barely without pause, "You're the grown-up me, aren't you? Is it true that you're gonna leave the Horde?"

Catra looks at her past self for a second, but she doesn't find the words to answer her. She just turns silently and walks out the dormitory door, as the world glitches back into one of those darned corridors.

And then she fights her way out. The spiders are just robots, it turns out, and Catra knows nothing as well as she knows how to fight robots.

And then she returns to the Horde, empty handed except for her fistful of hair. At least she didn't crash the skiff.

Chapter Text

Back in the Fright Zone, Catra braids the princess hair into a shimmering battle trophy and hides it in the back of her locker. It seems worth hanging on to. Shadow Weaver could probably use it for some sort of spell, for example.

So why hasn't Catra given the hair to Shadow Weaver? She doesn't think too hard about that. She's learned to play things close to her chest, is all. Maybe she can use the hair as a bargaining chip if Shadow Weaver ever decides to make real on her threat to take Catra's Force Captain's badge back?

Still, when Catra gets an unexpected summons to the Black Garnet Chamber – she's not in Shadow Weaver's good graces for the moment – she considers running by her locker to grab the lock of hair. But it's not wise to keep Shadow Weaver waiting. So Catra takes a shortcut instead, and arrives at the Black Garnet Chamber in record time.

"Force Captain Catra," Shadow Weaver greets her from over by her magic bowl, turned away from the door. "I keep getting remarkably good reports on your work. Then again, I also keep getting reports of a twelve feet tall super-princess wrecking havoc across Etheria, taking out war machines with nothing but a sword."

"She's not twelve feet tall," Catra mutters, unable to stop herself.

"Silence! After your pathetic failure, I was going to use my magic to go after the She-Ra myself," Shadow Weaver says, leaning closer to the basin's surface. Then, stretching up again, she adds, "But now, an unexpected opportunity has arisen…"

Shadow Weaver falls silent, and the only sound in the chamber is the ominous buzzing of the Black Garnet, tall and menacing as always. At last, Catra dares to ask, "What does that mean?"

Shadow Weaver finally turns around to face Catra, as tall and foreboding as the runestone beside her, hair pulsating with power. "It means that I'm giving you one last chance to bring me the She-Ra."

Catra thrills with excitement. "Thank you, Shadow Weaver!" I'll bring her here this time, I promise. You can trust me. When do I leave?"

"Not so faaast!" Shadow Weaver sing-songs. "You won't be going alone. You'll be joining Force Captain Scorpia."

Catra barely has time to wonder Who? before heavy steps approach her from behind and someone yells, "Kitty!"

"Huh?" Catra says, swirling around. She's met by an absolute unit of a woman, with a white pixie undercut and humongous scorpion claws for hands. Scorpion claws that grab Catra and hoist her six feet off the ground.

"Just so you know, I'm a hugger!" the stranger announces, with Catra wiggling around in her grasp.

Finally freeing herself, Catra jumps down to the ground, tail flailing wildly. "Is this some kind of joke?" she shrieks, voice breaking. 

"It is not 'some kind of joke'," Shadow Weaver calmly declares, but there's a clearly amused undertone to her words. "Scorpia here is your ticket in."

"Ticket in to where?"

The All Princess Ball – Winter Wonderland lives up to its name. It sure is winter here, and Catra sure wonders why anyone would want to live in this land. The Kingdom of Snows is cold as all heck. Catra had never encountered snow before today, but she already hates it. And ice. She hates ice too.

It's bad enough to almost make her wish she was wearing shoes – and Catra hates shoes. But it might be worth it not to shudder every step she takes as she and Scorpia walk together up a huge, slippery ice bridge that snakes its way from the base of the mountain to the ice castle at its top. It's a pity they couldn't ride Scorpia's not-entirely-inconspicuous scorpion ship all the way to the front door.

At least Catra is not wearing a skin-baring dress, like Scorpia and half the other guests shivering their way up the mountain. She and Scorpia got to raid the Fright Zone loot collections, so Catra's freezing her tail off in a fancy magenta suit that only needed a tail hole and a little ripping at the knees to make it presentable.

Scorpia doesn't look too shabby either, all sleek black silk and red gemstones that match her claws and tail. In this getup, she actually looks like the princess she apparently is.

"I still can't believe you're a princess," Catra repeats, for maybe the eleventh time since she first learned it.

"Well, as I said, it is covered in Force Captain Orientation," Scorpia points out once again, still with that friendly smile of hers.

Catra hisses at her.

"What I can't believe," Scorpia goes on, "is that I'm going to Princess Prom. Me! My family hasn't gone to the All Princess Ball in ages, even before we joined the Hor-"

"Shhh!" Catra looks around, trying to make sure no one around them heard anything. "Maybe don't mention that around here."

"Sorry."

When they finally make it to the palace gates, Scorpia is jabbering about something less objectionable, and Catra has long since stopped listening. As they have no weapons to declare – Lonnie, Kyle, Rogelio and Tentacla are 'holding' those for them – they get to take the fast lane into the feast hall. It's very big, and very full of people, just like the one from Glimmer's memory of the last Princess Prom. Just a lot colder. And at the end of the hall, just as in the memory, there's a huge, ridiculous throne. This one is, of course, made out of ice. And decorated with giant ornamental snowflakes.

Catra and Scorpia make their way past people and ice to ascend the stairs in the way prescribed by the invitation, and bow to the blue-haired pipsqueak on the throne.

"Revered Hostess," Scorpia begins. But before she can go on, she's interrupted by a ~*~shwing~*~, as Glimmer appears next to them in a floofy purple dress and a floofy new hairstyle.

"Hey, princess," Catra says. "I like what you've done with your hair."

Glimmer ignores her. "Revered Hostess," she reels off with a hasty bow. "I know that Princess Scorpia is, uh, a princess, but she's from the Horde!"

Catra turns back to Her Pipsqueak-ness, Princess Frosta. "Revered Hostess," she says, filling her voice with faux consternation, "Princess Scorpia may be from the Horde, but she was still invited to this ball, as per the rules – which I personally have the utmost respect for."

"She's lying!" Glimmer yells, voice growing shrill.

Her Pipsqueak-ness sticks her nose in the air. "Princess Glimmer. The rules state clearly that all princesses, and their chosen guests, are welcome."

Catra sticks her tongue out at Glimmer.

Glimmer swallows. "Yes, Revered Hostess, I understand that. But in this case, the princess' guest has repeatedly attacked me and –"

"That's enough!" Princess Frosta says, voice stern. "For centuries, the All Princess Ball has been neutral ground. I will not dishonor that legacy. The rules clearly say to 'leave conflict at the door.' If you cannot abide by the rules, you are free to leave this ballroom."

Glimmer visibly deflates, hanging her newly-floofy head. "No, Revered Hostess," she says. And then she walks away, without observing the proper stair descending etiquette. Amateur. She almost makes this too easy.

"Really, Princess," Catra says once she reaches the bottom of the stairs the correct way, "I'm shocked at your flouting of the rules. Didn't you read the invite?"

Glimmer growls at her. "You're plotting something, I can feel it. And I'm gonna prove it! For the rest of the ball, I'll keep my eyes on you."

Catra laughs. "Oh, princess. You do that."

She winks at Scorpia, and then the two of them go their separate ways. As Catra walks off in a random direction, she hears Glimmer yell, "Bow! You follow Scorpia. Bow? Where are you?" behind her, and then the tell-tale ~*~shwing~*~ and flowery-metally smell of the princess teleporting. To go look for Bow, presumably. So much for keeping her eyes on Catra.

Catra is by one of the buffet tables when Lonnie's voice crackles into her hidden earpiece. "Okay, we've found a place to hide the ship. Rogelio and Tentacla are guarding it, they'd stick out like a sore thumb among all this fancy folk. But Kyle and I are making our way up the mountain as we speak. We have the bombs with us."

"Good," Catra whispers, hiding her speech in a large chunk of non-ration bar food. "Report back when you've taken out the guards."

Apparently Catra wasn't as discreet as she thought, because someone behind her asks, "Ooooh, who were you talking to?"

Catra jumps, and swirls around to see a strange person with her arms and legs around one of the ice pillars, which she apparently just slid down. The stranger has a welding mask in front of her face, and long, lilac hair. She is dressed in a more utilitarian fashion than any of the other guests: a white tank top and purple work overalls. Catra can't help being a little charmed.

"Do you have a recorder? I have a recorder," the person says, and then she uses her hair(!?) to pull out an audio recorder from one of her practical pockets.

"Uh… yes." Catra improvises. "I was recording myself talking. For reasons."

The stranger just nods, as if Catra had said something at all sensible. "Oooh, you have tiny food, can I have some?" she then asks, but she doesn't wait for an answer before she once again uses her hair(!!) to grab some hors d'oeuvres from Catra's plate and stick them in her back pocket.

"Um, who are you?" Catra asks, flabbergasted. No one has ever dared to steal food from her before.

The stranger pulls up her welding mask, revealing a perfectly normal face. "I am Entrapta, Non-Elemental Princess of the Kingdom of Dryl. Are you a princess or a plus one?"

"Do I look like a princess?" Catra asks, offended.

Entrapta just looks at her in silence for a moment. "I don't know," she says at last. "Different princesses look different."

"True," Catra concedes. "You don't really look like a princess either, I guess."

She starts walking away, but Entrapta follows her. "I told you my name. What is your name?" she asks around one of Catra's hors d'oeuvres.

"Catra."

"Catra. Are you here to watch the social experiment too? Is that why you were recording?"

Thinking fast, Catra says, "Yes. I am. But I haven't gotten very far yet. Maybe we could exchange notes?" It's always a good idea to gather as much intel as possible.

"A fellow scientist!" Entrapta exclaims with a happy flail. "Let's find a better vantage point and I'll point out my observations to you."

And then she streeeeetches out her hair to grab onto the railing on the ice balcony above, and pulls herself up. Catra stares in awe for a second, before extending her claws to climb up after her. The rules probably prohibit scratching the ice ornaments, but who cares?

Up on the balcony, Entrapta makes an expansive gesture to encompass the entire room. "Ahahaha! Look at it!" she announces. "Different groups, thrown together and forced to mingle! We get to watch in real time as hierarchies form – and break! This is the perfect place to observe behaviour, wouldn't you say?"

Catra looks down on the ballroom floor, and sees loads of guests in formal attire, many of them meandering haphazardly. "I mostly just see people walking around in circles," she admits.

"Exactly! Isn't it fascinating? This is the best social experiment I've ever been to!" 

Entrapta climbs up on the railing, leaning dangerously far out to watch the crowd below. She pulls out her recorder again and starts speaking into it. "Princess Prom, hour one, fifty-four minutes. People are just walking around in circles. Dancing has yet to begin…"

An all-too-familiar shimmer of glitter down on the floor catches Catra's eye, as Glimmer teleports around the huge room, popping up in different places to look around and stomp her feet in frustration, before disappearing again. Still looking for Catra, it seems.

Catra snickers, and then tries to feign dispassionate, scientific interest as she points Glimmer out to Entrapta and asks, "How about that purple one, have you made any observations about her?"

"Oh, yes, she's very interesting! She's Princess Glimmer of Bright Moon. She is trying to get the old Princess Alliance back in action, so she's here to recruit Princess Frosta, but she's not doing a very good job of it. According to my analysis, she wanted to be the one to present Princess Adora – or is she Princess She-Ra, it's a little confusing? – to the Revered Hostess, but then Princess Adora decided to go to the ball with Princess Perfuma – they're the ones in red and pink over there – and Princess Glimmer got jealous. So she went with Princess Adora's brother – who weirdly is not a Prince, I don't know what's up with that yet… But wait! I have a chart here somewhere…"

As Entrapta rummages through her pockets, pulling out everything from a bottle of Princess Pop to a power drill (really pushing the 'no weapons' rule, there!), Lonnie crackles back into Catra's ear with, "Okay, we've taken out the guards and put on their uniforms. Force Captain Scorpia, you can come get the heat bombs now."

Catra leans against the railing and watches Arrow/Adora laugh with her date, who Catra recognizes as the kid who wanted to play with Little Glimmer at the last Princess Prom. The two of them make a matchy couple, with red and pink flowers in their blonde hair. Princess Perfuma touches Adora's arm as she laughs, and Catra wonders what it would be like to go to the ball with a real date. Of course, her date would have to be a princess, or she wouldn't get in… 

And that's when Glimmer spots Catra from across the room, and half a moment later she appears next to her on the landing, yelling, "There you are!"

"Hey, princess," Catra drawls back.

Glimmer doesn't respond, she just bends over panting, out of breath from all her teleporting. And when she does, Catra notices something on her back, next to the straps on her dress. Two somethings, rather. Two somethings that are tiny, and pink, and transparent.

"Aw cute, you have wings?" Catra mocks. "Aren't you the specialest little princess in all the land?"

Glimmer pulls up straight, blushing wildly. "Yeah, so what?" she says, clearly stung. "Why are you even surprised? You saw my mom."

"Yeah, but her wings are huge. Yours are itty-bitty. Let me look at them again, they're adorable."

Catra pushes away from the ice railing and tries to dodge around Glimmer to get a glimpse of the wings again. In response, Glimmer lights up her sparkle fists and gets into a fighting stance.

Catra tut-tuts her. "Neutral ground, princess. Remember the rules."

And that's when Entrapta makes herself known. "Fascinating," she announces into her little recorder. "Apparently Catra and Princess Glimmer already know each other. But they do not seem like each other. Is the Princess Prom about to get its first breach of the 'no fighting rules' in 439 years?"

Glimmer jumps at Entrapta's voice. "Princess Entrapta?" she blurts.

"Hi!" Entrapta says.

"Oh, so you know my new friend?" Catra asks. "She stole my food and invited me to spy on people with her. I think I'm in love."

Glimmer doesn't respond, she just pulls Entrapta away and starts explaining to her that Catra is from the Horde and that Entrapta shouldn't trust her. For all her cleverness, Entrapta seems a little slow on the uptake, which goes hilariously with Glimmer's easily frustrated nature. And once Glimmer is sufficiently distracted by Entrapta's Entrapta-ness, Catra sneaks away.

Catra spends the next half-hour waltzing around the ballroom, leading Glimmer on a wild-goose chase. She explores every nook and cranny of the hall, gorges herself on scrumptious confections, and mingles with Etheria's unsuspecting crème-de-la-crème. At one point she shakes Glimmer off for long enough to have time to draw a little portrait of the princess, complete with tiny wings. When Glimmer catches up with her again, Catra elaborately hides the note in a waste bin (made of ice, obviously), and gets to watch Glimmer rummaging through the trash like a lunatic.

Every now and then Lonnie and Scorpia fill her in on the progression of the plan, every piece clicking into place perfectly. Scorpia easily takes Bow out when he tries to tail her and instead gets, one could say, 'tailed' by her. Kyle somehow manages to get his hands on the She-Ra sword, and Tentacla is hovering the 'Scorpion' just out of sight from the castle, ready to park the ship on the landing with a moment's notice.

Catra should be cackling with glee, but instead she feels strangely empty. It's a relief when the lights suddenly turn down low, and Princess Frosta uses her unnervingly commanding kid-voice to announce the first dance of the ball.

Catra turns to Glimmer and holds out her hand. "Shall we, princess? If you're to keep an eye on me and all that…"

Glimmer rolls her eyes, but she takes Catra's hand. As they get into dancing position, Catra notices Lonnie, disguised in a guard uniform, stealing into the hall. Out of the corner of her eye, she watches as Lonnie walks up to Adora and Perfuma, who have paired up on the other side of the dancefloor. They're too far away for Catra to hear what they're saying, but she knows that Lonnie is telling them some fabrication about the She-Ra sword acting up somehow. Catra sees Adora clasp her hands over her mouth, and then rush out with a dorky little wave back at Perfuma. It's almost a little sad that the two of them won't get to dance with each other tonight.

Catra gets to dance, though. At first, holding Glimmer's hand gives her flashbacks to the labyrinth, and for the first few measures of the song she's on high alert, expecting every moment to be taken over by the creepy-crawlies of teleportation. Then she gradually relaxes and gets into the swaying movement. Glimmer's hand is warm in hers, and her shimmering pink eyes are intent on Catra's face as they circle each other. They move well together. Much better than Catra did with Scorpia, when the scorpion princess taught Catra the steps to the dance. Maybe it's because there's actual music here?

When the dance demands that they rotate partners, Catra feels a pinprick of regret to let Glimmer go, and a pinprick of joy when she gets to twirl back to her main partner's stubborn frown and sparkling hair. With her new haircut, Glimmer's purple underlayers are much more visible, catching the dancefloor spotlights. Catra gets an insane urge to run her claws through the floof of it all, but she holds back. Obviously.

Catra has Glimmer up in a lift when the heat bombs start going off. She unceremoniously dumps the princess on her butt, and in the ensuing chaos she runs out to her waiting ship and crew.

Out on the landing, Catra takes stock of the situation. Adora and her sword are already safely in the Scorpion's cockpit, but Kyle is still trying to wrestle an unconscious Bow aboard. With an internal 'come on, Kyle', Catra runs over to help him. But she's only just reached him when Glimmer materializes in the air above them, feet first. Kyle yelps and lets go of Bow, but Catra takes the kick and hangs on as Glimmer grabs Bow and gets her teleport glitter going again.

When they materialize, up on the castle's roof, Catra isn't the only one to fall to the ground. Bow, being unconscious, unsurprisingly flops down, but Glimmer does too, with a grunt of pain. Maybe teleporting three people at once is too much for her? She did it back in the labyrinth, but Catra doesn't know what shape she was in afterwards.

Right now, she's not in a good shape at all. Catra shakes off her teleportation sickness and jumps to her feet, ready for a fight, but Glimmer doesn't give her one, doesn't even manage to get up from the ground. Something twinges at Catra's heart as she looks down at her, but she's too close to winning now.

"Where'd you go?" Lonnie barks in Catra's ear.

"I'm up on the roof," Catra replies. "Come get me." Then she grabs Bow's unconscious body, and drags him to the edge of the flat ice roof. 

Glimmer looks at her in horror and struggles to her feet, legs wobbling terribly. "Get away from him!" she yells, but she doesn't advance.

"Here's what's gonna happen, princess," Catra says, standing with one foot on Bow's back. "When my ship arrives, I'm gonna push your date here off this roof. You can't both save him and follow me, so unless you're okay with a little collateral damage…"

Using her foot, Catra pushes Bow closer to the edge.

"Don't!" Glimmer shrieks, sheer panic in her voice. "I can't teleport anymore!"

Catra narrows her eyes. Her first thought is that the princess is bluffing, but if this is a feint, it's a really convincing one. "So you've, what… run out of glitter?"

"Yeah! I have to recharge my powers, okay!" Glimmer blushes again, stark pink against her otherwise pale cheeks.

Catra snerks. "Good to know!"

"I'm serious!" Glimmer sobs, glitter flickering in and out of existence around her raised fists. "If you let him go, he'll die!"

Catra glances down at the unconscious boy at her feet. She doesn't truly want to damage this collateral. So when Lonnie says, "We're right below you." Catra doesn't push. She jumps down herself, instead, landing on the Scorpion's roof.

When she glances up, she sees Glimmer pulling Bow away from the ledge. She doesn't make any attempt at following Catra.

Catra laughs, body coursing with victory adrenaline. As the ship speeds away, she yells, "See you later, princess!" 

Chapter Text

Back in the Fright Zone, Catra is the hero of the hour. She, and Scorpia, and to a lesser extent Lonnie, Tentacla, Rogelio and even Kyle. Wherever they go, soldiers stop to salute, or even applaud, them. When Catra bumps into a huge soldier guy on her way to the mess hall, he's the one to beg her pardon, and with a subservient bow at that. In the mess hall Catra and Scorpia get pride of place, and they're served grey ration bars for every meal.

Even Shadow Weaver respects Catra now; that old undertone of spite is gone from her voice when she addresses Catra. Indeed, when Catra presented her with She-Ra and the sword in one fell swoop, she even sounded proud, even went on and on about how promising Catra was.

All in all, Catra is closer to achieving her goals than she'd ever really, truly believed she would get. So why doesn't she feel like she's on top of the world? Scorpia basks in all their newfound attention, but Catra doesn't. Back at the Princess Prom, when Catra's plan was clicking into place, she had felt strangely empty. Now, when she's on her way to getting everything she's ever wanted, that emptiness has become a swirling void. It's eating her up from the inside.

There are only two things that help: hearing Shadow Weaver's praise, and watching their prisoner squirm. So Catra sneaks away to the Black Garnet Chamber, in the hopes of getting to do one or both of those things.

Catra stops dead when she hears Lord Hordak's voice coming out of the Black Garnet Chamber.

"I command you on the capture of the Princess of Power, and the Sword of Protection," he says. "I admit that it's proving to be a most interesting artefact."

Oh darn, is he in there…? Catra inches over to the Chamber door and peers in. The first thing she sees is Shadow Weaver's back as she bends over in a slight bow. 

"Thank you, Lord Hordak," Shadow Weaver says, addressing one of the Chamber's communication screens, out of view from Catra. "I take it your experiments with the sword are going well?"

"They are. I think it might even… well. No need to get ahead of ourselves. But yes. It has a number of very intriguing properties. You did well to find and deliver it to me."

"I thought you would be pleased with my work," Shadow Weavers simpers.

Outside the doorway, Catra jerks. Did Shadow Weaver just take full credit for capturing Adora and stealing the sword? Sure, the original idea was hers, but it was Catra who came up with the real plan, and her team that realized it.

Inside the Chamber, Lord Hordak says, "You have proven your worth to me… today." Then comes the static noise of a communication screen shutting off.

Catra, still stunned, tries to shake off her unease at Shadow Weaver's neglecting to acknowledge her contributions to the leader of the Horde. She pushes away from the wall, and prepares to enter the Chamber.

Then she halts again when Shadow Weaver practically purrs, "She-Ra." 

"I told you, my name's Adora," Adora's resentful voice returns, from the weird stretcher in the middle of the room that she's been tied to. "But if you wanna meet She-Ra, you could always give me back my sword…"

Shadow Weaver laughs. "Ah, yes, your sword. As you heard, Lord Hordak has taken a surprising shine to it, but I am sure you'll get it back in time. Once you've… acclimatized to your new surroundings. Then, you and I will do great things together."

"I will never work with you!" Adora yells.

Shadow Weaver tuts at her, reaching down towards the stretcher. It looks like she's stroking Adora's cheek. "Oh, but you will," she croons. "You have such power in you. Even Lord Hordak will be taken aback once you release all that potential… with my help, of course. I will mold you into a true leader. It'll take some work, but once I am done, the Rebellion won't stand a chance, Princess Alliance or no Princess Alliance. Not with you at the forefront, as the Force Captain who will lead the Horde to victory, once and for all!"

Shadow Weaver's last words hit Catra like a punch to the gut, a thousand times worse than when she took credit for Catra's work. Because last night, when Catra returned with her bounty, Shadow Weaver said almost exactly the same thing to her. Was that all lies?

"You're delusional," Adora spits out.

"Oh, but I am not. You will do all of these willingly – happily! I just need to… adjust your memories, first. Then everything will be perfect!" Shadow Weaver's hand's flash with energy as she reaches out towards the stretcher, black shadow tendrils shooting out around her. The stretcher starts to shake as Adora tries to get away, but her struggle is futile.

"What are you gonna do to me!?" Adora squeals.

"Don't worry," Shadow Weaver sooths. "This is gonna hurt, I'm afraid, but afterwards you won't remember a thing."

Catra looks away as Adora's frantic yelps turn to screams of pain, and then to weeping moans, and then to silence.

Catra is on the floor with her hands over her ears when the sounds from within the Chamber stop. She barely has time to scramble up to a standing position before Shadow Weaver swoops out of the room. Catra tries to look like she was only just arriving, but she highly doubts that the act's at all convincing. 

And indeed; Shadow Weaver's blank white eyes narrow when she sees her, but she just says, "Force Captain Catra. How convenient."

Convenient, apparently, because she needs someone to babysit a brainwashed Adora who believes that she's grown up with the Horde. Someone who is Catra. Which is just – great. Amazing. Absolutely perfect. Ideal.

But there's no saying no to Shadow Weaver, so Catra carries an unconscious Adora to the Infirmary, and sits down by her bedside. This forced wake gives Catra time to ruminate on what she heard from the Black Garnet Chamber. 

Catra had let herself believe that she was back in Shadow Weaver's good graces. But after everything Catra's done for her, after years and years of trying to prove herself to her, to prove her wrong… after all that, a princess with 'potential' can just show up and pull the rug out from under Catra's feet.

The Horde are the bad guys, Catra figured that out years ago, but clearly she didn't see through the propaganda as well as she thought she did. Because she still bought that the Horde is a meritocracy. 'The Princesses only care about bloodlines and inborn gifts, but in the Horde, it's your hard work and your loyalty that matters.' 

Lies. Hard work is nothing. Loyalty is nothing. There's no proving herself to Shadow Weaver, because Shadow Weaver doesn't care about Catra. And there's no proving herself to Lord Hordak, because he will never even know what Catra's done. Catra has been playing the game her whole life, without knowing that it was rigged. She's never gonna win. Not as long as she plays by the rules.

Catra's spinning thoughts are interrupted by Adora waking up, and a glance up at the clock tells her that hours have passed.

"Where am I? How did I get here?" Adora blurts, pressing a hand against her head, like it hurts. And then, in a disturbingly delighted voice, "Catra!"

"You got concussed in our latest raid," Catra says, playing along with Shadow Weaver's cover story. Then, with a nasty little embellishment of her own, she adds, "I think you got brain damaged."

Weirdly, Adora just laughs and shoves at Catra from her sick bed.

"I'm not brain damaged," she giggles. "So, did we win? The raid?"

"Yeah," Catra says. "Of course we did. We always win."

Adora insists that she's well enough to leave the Infirmary, and won't take no for an answer. So Catra hands her the horde jacket that Shadow Weaver picked out for her. It has a Force Captain's badge fastened by the collar, a mockery of all the hard work Catra went through to gain hers. What kind of game is Shadow Weaver playing? Slapping a red jacket on a princess does not a Horde Force Captain make.

They go to the training barracks, again on Adora's insistence. Fine by Catra. If this joke of a Force Captain is to 'lead the Horde to victory,' she'll need a lot of practise. Catra isn't even sure the girl can fight without her magic sword.

When they arrive in the sparring room, three cadets that Catra doesn't know are circling each other with violent intent in their eyes. They look up when Catra and Adora enter, and all three of them freeze up like they've seen the ghost of the Headless Princess. Then they drop all their gear right on the floor, and clear out through a side door.

"Huh. Weird," Adora says. Then she shrugs. "Oh well, all the more space for us!"

It's uncanny how familiarly Adora moves through rooms she's never actually been in before. She hangs her jacket on the knob rack by the door, chalks her hands, measures out a sparring area by triggering the interactive floor tiles. Catra stares at her, feeling uncomfortable, until Adora says, "Come on, slowpoke!"

Then the two of them go a few rounds with the combat staffs, because Catra is not about to let a mind-scrambled novice try out the stun batons, or mess around with robots or simulations. Adora turns out to be a more capable fighter than Catra would have thought, but Catra still wins easily, every time.

"I'm just rusty because of my concussion," Adora pants, after hitting the floor for the fifth time.

"Your brain damage, you mean?" Catra mocks, holding out a hand to help the other girl up. "Maybe I should have let you win that last one, to not utterly destroy your confidence…"

Adora refuses her help and gets up on her own. "Ugh, you're so mean," she says, rolling her eyes. "I don't get what Glimmer sees in you."

Now it's Catra's turn to freeze up like she's seen the ghost of the Headless Princess, all of her hair standing on end. "What?" she exclaims, head spinning. Her first impulse is to ask 'Glimmer likes me?' but instead she forces herself to say, "I mean, what did you just say?"

Adora looks completely blank, jaw working. Then her eyes spark red like the charge from the Black Garnet. "I said, 'I don't get why I'm best friends with you,'" she says, shaking herself. "But hey, I was just kidding! No need to look so horrified!" She darts over to ruffle Catra's hair, and it's all Catra can do to not get her claws out and bury them in Adora's throat.

Adora doesn't notice. She just pulls Catra along towards the changing rooms with a, "Come on, let's cool down!"

The locker next to Catra's has always been Tentacla's, and covered in Tentacla's stickers. Now the stickers are all scraped off the door, and Adora walks right up to it and unlocks it like she's done the same every day for years and years. Catra tampers down her unease and opens her own locker. Big mistake.

No one has ever cared to peer into Catra's only few square feet of private space, but Adora thinks they're best friends, so she does. And sees the braid of Glimmer's hair, hanging at the back. And darts in to pull it out.

"Ooooh, what is this?" she asks, holding the shimmering hair up to the light.

Catra curses under her breath. "It's nothing," she says, lunging at Adora.

Adora, surprisingly nimble, dances out of the way. She laughs when she sees Catra's dismayed face, and waves the hair around some more. "You always tell me my braid looks dumb, and then you hide this in your locker?" she asks, affecting outrage. Then she starts waggling her eyebrows. "Wait, is this a… lover's token?"

"Pffft, no!" Catra shoots back, sounding less convincing than she would have preferred.

"Hmmmm, who do we know with pink hair…?" Adora mockingly muses, dodging another one of Catra's pounces. Then she goes blank again, just like when she accidentally mentioned Glimmer before.

This time, Catra takes advantage of the pause to get the jump on her. She pulls on the dumb-looking braid attached to Adora's head, and yanks the pretty-looking braid out of her hands. 

And that's when the Invasion Alarm goes off.

Catra has only heard the Invasion Alarm once before in her life. Then, she hid in a cupboard with three other cadets, and when she came out, there were no signs of fighting in the parts of the Fright Zone that she frequented.

"Princesses sighted. Everybody to their stations. Await further orders, but engage on sight."

Adora grabs a combat staff and turns to Catra with a creepily blood thirsty grin. "Come on, Catra. Let's kick some princess butt!"

"Nope!" Catra grabs Adora by the arm and drags her with her in the opposite direction than Adora wants to go, pushing Glimmer's braid down into a pocket.

"Why not?" Adora asks, arms flailing. "I wanna fight!"

"Uuuh – your concussion!" Catra improvises.

"Oh. Yeah. That." Adora deflates, and lets herself be led.

Catra's plan is to get the two of them to the Black Garnet Chamber, where she can dump the Adora-responsibility back on Shadow Weaver. But they're not even halfway there when they get interrupted by a ~*~shwing~*~ and a shimmer of glitter in the air. 

Then Bow and Glimmer are there in the corridor, dressed for war. Glimmer has armor on over her regular romper, and wields some kind of bizarre staff. It's not a combat staff like the one in Adora's hand, but something decidedly more princess-y; purple and flimsy-looking, with some kind of pink carving at one end. Bow has also gotten himself some new gear. He's in golden armor plates that cover most of his chest – except, for some unfathomable reason, his abdomen. He has a new bow too, a fancy golden one. They both look extremely out of place in a Fright Zone corridor, even more so than Adora. 

"Arrow!" Bow yells, running over to Adora.

Adora punches him right in the face. Shock in his eyes, he tumbles to the floor, clutching at his bleeding nose. Adora yells for backup, and within seconds a squadron of soldiers skid around the corner, stun batons at the ready.

Catra watches as Glimmer considers her options. The princess looks from Bow, to Adora, to Catra, to the arriving soldiers. Then her face changes. Catra can see from the set of her jaw that she's decided to cut her losses. Just as she starts to shimmer at the edges, Catra leaps towards her, grabbing on to her disappearing cape.

They end up in a cupboard, very similar to the one Catra hid in the last time the Rebellion breached the Fright Zone. Catra immediately puts her hand over Glimmer's mouth, just like she did back in the spider temple. This time Glimmer bites her.

"Ow!" Catra yelps, and then, quiter, "Hey, I'm trying to help you!"

Glimmer's eyes narrow with deep suspicion, and she raises her staff in a threatening fashion. "This is some kind of trick," she hisses. It isn't a question.

"It's not," Catra whispers back. She backs off. "Look, you're free to glitter poof away if you want. But if I were you, I'd listen to what I have to say. Adora's been brainwashed, she's not gonna leave with you even if you find her again."

"Brainwashed?"

"Yeah, Shadow Weaver did some magic thing to her mind, swapping out all her memories. She thinks she grew up in the Fright Zone. And that we're best friends or something, ugh."

Glimmer bites her lip. "So that's why she hit Bow…" she says slowly.

"Yup." 

Glimmer starts pacing back and forth in the small space. "Why are you telling me this? Or 'trying to help me.' What's in it for you?"

"I want to get rid of Adora," Catra lies. "Shadow Weaver wants to turn her into some kind of Horde leader. I should be the next Horde leader. She thinks she can just replace me with a princess? Yuck."

Glimmer looks convinced, which is good. She would never have believed the truth, but this is a plausible tale, backed up with real emotions. 

"Okay, so what's your plan, then?" Glimmer asks.

"Shadow Weaver says Adora can't see her woo-woo sword or it might trigger her real memory. And she's already had some slip ups, so I think giving her the sword might turn her back to normal."

Glimmer stops pacing and looks at Catra. "What do you mean, slip ups?"

Catra feels herself blush, the braid of Glimmer's hair burning through her pocket. "Uh, you know, saying things to do with her real life. Anyway, we better hurry up. I know where the sword is, and getting to it is not gonna be easy, especially during an Invasion Lockdown."

"Oh, yeah, it's in that reinforced room right in the heart of the Fright Zone," Glimmer says. "That's why we went for Ado…" She catches sight of Catra's face. "What?" 

"How do you know that?"

Glimmer deliberates for a moment, probably deciding how much information to trust Catra with. "We have a tracker pad that tracks First Ones tech signatures, and we also, uh, hacked into the Fright Zone floor plan. That's how we found Adora too. She is apparently also First Ones tech, partly."

"Ew," Catra says.

"Yeah, it's a little weird. Anyway, how do we get to –"

"– Lord Hordak's Sanctum," Catra finishes for her. "Didn't you say you had a tracker pad?"

"Um, Bow was carrying that," Glimmer admits, looking sheepish.

Catra rolls her eyes. "Okay, maybe you should have had two of those. But whatever. Getting there isn't the problem. The problem is whether we can get the sword out without blowing my cover. We can't just teleport in and start shooting glitter."

Glimmer makes a face at Catra for that last thing, but then she brightens.

"Maybe we could use my staff," she says.

"Lord Hordak!" Catra yells, banging on a huge door with a red Horde insignia on it, that she would never have dared touch before today. "Open up!"

She has to bang for a while longer, but finally the door intercom whirrs to life and an impatient voice comes through, asking "Who are you?"

Catra salutes. She can't see a camera, but she is sure there must be one. And if there is, it should show her saluting, with singed hair and blood on her cheek, holding a flimsy princess staff. She'd had Glimmer burn her with her glitter bombs to make this look convincing.

"Lord Hordak!" she exclaims, trying to strike the right note of deference and alarm. "I am so sorry to bother you, but I have obtained a magic weapon from the enemy and I don't know what to do with it! The princess can come back any moment – she can teleport – and I didn't know where to go!"

"Who are you?" the voice repeats, icy. The effect is amplified by the crackling static of the intercom.

"Force Captain Catra, my Lord."

"Force Captain…? I can't keep track of all of you. Are you new?"

His words are not quite the punch in the gut as it was to listen to Shadow Weaver cooing about Adora, but they still hurt. The leader of the Horde doesn't even know who Catra is. She captured a powerful princess and brought him a First Ones artefact to experiment on, and he doesn't even know who she is.

"Pretty new, yes, my Lord," she forces herself to say. "Please, let me come in. The princess –"

The door opens with a beep. The first thing Catra sees on the other side is Lord Hordak's throne, at the top of a steep staircase, with its shining green backdrop. She hesitates.

"Hurry!" the intercom voice barks, but now Catra can hear it from two directions: the intercom, and beyond the door.

Catra crosses the threshold, and the door squeaks shut behind her. She feels small in this huge space, the ceiling high up above her. She clutches Glimmer's stupid staff harder. "Uh, hello? Lord Hordak?" she yells out.

Another step, and another. Some instinct makes her look to the left, and she's face to face with a little… demonic blue toddler, with a pointy tail and glowing eyes. It hisses at her. Catra's about to hiss back when a voice from behind her back makes her jump instead.

"Force Captain Catra," Lord Hordak says.

Once, Catra would have rejoiced at hearing those words out of that mouth, but the only thing she can feel now is a rush of adrenaline. She turns around, and looks upon the tall, imposing figure of the leader of the Horde. He's off in a smaller side room, and the dim lighting in there makes his eyes shine red. 

Catra swallows, and bows. "My lord. Thank you for letting me in. I got into a scuffle with one of the invaders and managed to wrestle this staff from her hands, and then I didn't know what to do with it."

"You could have gone to Shadow Weaver. Magical artefacts are more her area."

Except that you do have a magical artefact in here somewhere, Catra thinks, glancing around surreptitiously. Aloud she says, "I was on my way to Shadow Weaver when the princess ambushed me. It didn't feel safe."

This inner 'Sanctum' is a mix of regular Fright Zone stuff (metal pillars, pipes anywhere and everywhere, screens) and more out there equipment (machines that Catra has no idea what they're for, loads and loads of cables, huge pods filled with greenish liquid). In a show of how unwelcome Catra's presence is, Lord Hordak turns his back to her to tinker with something over by one of the screens.

"Fine," he mutters. "Leave the staff in here and then get out."

There! The sword lies on a table, connected to one of the machines with cables and crocodile clips and looking profoundly out of place. Catra hears her own blood thundering in her ears as she leisurely makes her way over to it. She reaches out, and –

"Don't touch that!"

From nowhere, the demon baby jumps down on the table, teeth bared. Catra bites her tongue, and forces nonchalance into her tone as she says, "Why not? I've touched it before. Didn't you know that I'm the one who brought it here?"

Lord Hordak's eyes widen in surprise over by his machine as Catra, laughing a would-be carefree laugh, picks up the sword. She turns it so her face is reflected in the polished metal – she looks freaked out – and she does, she deliberately tilts Glimmer's staff down, so the pink bits point at the ground.

"I can sense where the staff is," Glimmer had explained, back in their little cupboard. "I have a magical link to it, which I can use to teleport it to me. But it should work the other way around too. If you just move it a certain way, that could be the signal."

"What are you doing?" Hordak barks, starting to move towards Catra. "I said GET–"

~*~shwing~*~ 

Catra has never been so happy to see Glimmer's beautiful, lovely face. And she has certainly never been so happy to teleport.

Soon after, Glimmer and Catra intercept Adora as she drags an unconscious Bow into a prison cell. They pull her into the cell with them, so they won't be seen from the control tower. As soon as they're all in there, Glimmer falls to her knees to check on Bow. What a bleeding heart.

Adora, for her part, flails around, grabbing for her combat staff. "Hey, what's – Catra? Why are you with a princess?"

"Never mind that. I have something for you." Catra holds out the sword to Adora, dearly hoping that this will jog her memory, that they haven't just given her a weapon to fight them with. "Take it."

"Cool!" Adora says, but when she touches the sword there's no blinding flash of light, and no realization dawning on Adora's face either.

From the floor, Glimmer gasps. Adora looks down at her for a long moment, jaw working. Then, just when something seems to click behind that overly-large forehead of hers, her eyes spark red again. She looks back up at Catra, face blank. Darn it.

Time for the heavy artillery.

"Okay," Catra says. "This is gonna sound really dumb. But I want you to raise the sword in the air. And then I want you to say, uh…"

"For the honor of Grayskull," Glimmer supplements.

Adora quirks her eyebrows at them. "You're messing with me."

"Just do it!" Glimmer says, with a threatening shake of her staff up into Adora's face.

Adora shrugs. "Okay, sure."

On the first try, she only gets to "For the ho–" before the sword knocks into the low ceiling of the cell. But on the second… yup. There's that stupid flashing rainbow light and all the twirling around. From outside it must look like one of the prisoners has gotten hold of a multicolored flashlight. And then She-Ra stands before them in all her white and golden glory.

Glimmer gets up from the floor and puts a hand on She-Ra's arm. "Do you know who I am?" she asks, lower lip wobbling.

She-Ra turns to her, and gives her a beatific smile. "Glimmer," she says.

At that, Glimmer throws her arms around her, and She-Ra swings her around and around in the tiny cell. Catra dodges, something black and ugly clawing at her heart.

"We better go," she says curtly. "Someone wake up sleepyhead over there."

Leaving the Horde doesn't look like Catra thought it would. It's not her sneaking out in the night, but it also isn't a big showdown where she somehow gets the upper hand on Shadow Weaver and leaves in a blaze of glory. Instead, it looks like this:

Out in the vehicle bay, Glimmer, Catra, Bow and Adora meet up with the rest of the rescue team. There's Adora's prom date Perfuma, some blue-haired girl who's carrying a guy who looks like a pirate, and – Entrapta. Who's riding a Horde robot with a purple rather than red eye. They all – including the robot – look a little worse for wear, but intact.

Catra blinks. "How many of you are there?"

"We needed a distraction," Bow explains.

"I've been punching people with flowers!" Perfuma exclaims, overflowing with joy.

"Hi, Catra!" Entrapta says, from her perch on top of – "This is Emily! I reprogrammed her. She's no longer with the Horde." Then Entrapta looks sad. "But you are with the Horde, and I've joined the Rebellion now, so I don't think we can be friends…"

"Yeah, about that…" Catra begins. She turns to Glimmer, who is helping Bow climb up onto one of the skiffs. When Glimmer notices Catra, she turns to her, and her sparkly pink eyes look into Catra's for a long moment.

Then Catra clears her throat and says, "Take me with you."

Chapter Text

The Bright Moon holding cell is ridiculous. It's a huge room, full of cushions and pretty knick-knacks, like those glass… thingies hanging from the ceiling. There's a waterfall in here, and even living plants. Vegetation inside!? The Rebellion truly is mad.

One wall is covered in a geometric mural, another in gigantic windows that look out on moons and fluffy clouds, purple in the night's darkness. There's probably more to see outside, but Catra can't go near enough to the windows to look down, because the actual 'cell' part of the room is much smaller than the room itself.

Catra is imprisoned within a circle of shining white symbols on the floor. If she tries to cross the edge of the circle, or even just nudge a toe outside, the air turns into a solid barrier. Magic. Obviously. Blergh. Inside the circle there is nothing but a large, round, overly soft bed, impossible to get into a comfortable sleeping position on. Especially for someone who's just thrown their whole life away, and faces an uncertain future. The 'One day I'll rule the world' plan is definitely off, now.

Catra keeps tossing and turning until something falls out of her pocket. Something pink, purple and shimmery: the braid of Glimmer's hair. As Catra holds the braid up into the moonlight, something prickles in the corner of her eye.

"– Glimmer likes you," Adora's voice echoes through Catra's mind. Why had she said that? What had she known, deep in that brainwashed mind of hers? Catra should have forced her to explain herself, should have picked apart her mind herself to find out what she based that absurd judgement on. Then she'd know what to say to Glimmer the next time she sees her. Know what to say to get out of this miserable room.

Clutching the braid to her chest, Catra tries lying on her left side. Again. And somehow, the braid makes it easier for her to relax. She almost – almost! – falls asleep holding it. But then –

~*~shwing~*~ 

Just like that, Glimmer is in the locked room, pointing her magic staff at Catra.

"Hey, Catra," she says, capturing Catra's mocking tone perfectly. She's heard it a lot by now.

Catra bolts upright. "Hey, princess!" she yawns.

"My name is Glimmer," Glimmer replies. She has dark bags under her eyes.

"Hey, Glimmer," Catra says then. A peace offering. "What are you doing here?"

At first, Glimmer doesn't answer, she just paces back and forth along the perimeter of the magic barrier. Then she stops, and looks straight at Catra. "I couldn't sleep," she says. "I've been thinking it over. Why you let me capture you."

"I didn't –" Catra starts to protest. She'd never let anyone capture her, that was not what happened.

Glimmer ignores her. "How stupid do you think I am? It's a ploy, right? You're here to spy on us."

Catra sighs, and lets herself fall back on her mushy cushions. "This again."

"You're from the Horde," Glimmer snaps. "The Evil Horde. And evil people don't change! I don't care what Adora thinks. You're not like Emily, you can't just be reprogrammed to be good."

"Well, apparently Shadow Weaver can reprogram people," Catra points out.

Glimmer glares at her over the edge of the cushion. "Yeah, but it didn't work! Adora is back to her real self already."

"Thanks to me! So how about a 'thank you'?"

"Thank you!" Glimmer spits out. She looks ready to teleport away again.

Catra forces herself to sit up, takes a deep breath. "I never stood a chance in the Horde," she says, not even trying to hide the bitterness in her voice. "I did everything right. I thought I could prove myself, but it doesn't matter what I do. I don't get to win. So I decided to stop playing."

Glimmer takes a step closer. She's right at the edge of the magic boundary now. She opens her mouth to say something, but then she stops dead, eyebrows flying up to her hairline as she blurts, "What's that in your hand?"

Confused, Catra looks down at her own hand. Oh. The braid. It's no wonder that Glimmer didn't see it at first, because it blends in perfectly in the room's color scheme. But there it is, all sparkly and pretty. On reflex, Catra hides it behind her back.

"Nothing!" she says, unconvincingly.

With a sparkle of white and pink, Glimmer is inside the magic perimeter, up on Catra's bed, which ripples nauseatingly with the added weight. And just like that, Glimmer is closer to Catra than they've ever been when they weren't fighting… or dancing. This feels more like the latter, with Glimmer's eyes locked on Catra's. Then she dives behind Catra's back, and snatches the braid out of her hand.

When she holds it up, it again catches the light of the moons shining in through the windows, just like the hair still on her head does. "This is…" she begins, awestruck. "Is Adora ri–… Why did you keep this?"

Catra doesn't know what to say. The lie she told herself, that she was going to give it to Shadow Weaver to do magic on, probably won't go over well. And the truth is even worse. So Catra just scrambles to the edge of the bed, as far from Glimmer as she can get. If she could, she'd run away.

Glimmer doesn't try to follow her, she just sits back among the cushions and stares at Catra with wide eyes. The moment stretches out as they look at each other across the bed. As Catra rests in that pink gaze, her lashing tail and her heart rate slowly settle down.

"Sorry," Glimmer says at last, though it isn't clear what she's apologizing for. 

'Sorry.' Yeah, that's a good word. A word Catra perhaps could stand to use more often.

"Yeah," Catra says. "Yeah, me too. I'm sorry for…" She falters, as her mind jumbles through everything bad she's ever done to this brave, beautiful, reckless idiot temporarily sharing her magic cage. Glimmer just keeps watching her, patient for once.

"…for getting your hair cut off," Catra finishes, hiding her sincerity in a dumb joke.

From the way Glimmer's face softens, she seems to get the genuine intent anyway. But instead of making a big deal of it, she giggles, flicking her hair with her hand. "I actually like it better like this. Don't you?"

The question takes Catra aback. She'd complimented Glimmer on the hair back at the Princess Prom, but that had been a mean joke. Now, Glimmer seems to be asking for her earnest opinion.

So Catra considers the fluffy cloud of pink and purple around Glimmer's sweet face, feeling a blush creep onto her cheeks. She has to look away, with an, "It's fine."

Glimmer giggles again, and the bed starts to wobble as she knees closer to Catra. Her eyes are still so very wide, and she's left her staff on the other side of the bed. She advances slowly, and Catra doesn't stop her, doesn't try to get further away from her. She allows Glimmer to enter her space, and she's close enough for Catra to feel her body heat radiating off her, Glimmer grins a mischievous grin.

"Welcome to Bright Moon," she says, echoing herself back in the spider labyrinth. "But for real this time."

Then she darts in and – kisses Catra on the cheek!?

The sudden movement makes Catra's claws pop out unbidden, her body ready for an attack. Glimmer backs off, her twinkling eyes a question. Catra doesn't really know the answer to that question. But this late at night, after a day of action and affliction, after many sleepless hours, the impossible feels less impossible.

Catra forces her claws back in, and reaches out towards Glimmer, tentative. Glimmer lets her, just like Catra let her come close before. When Catra finally touches her, her cheek is warm and smooth. And when Catra starts pulling her towards her, she follows willingly, her enchanting eyes never leaving Catra's.

This time, they kiss for real. Glimmer's lips are as soft as they look, and her long eyelashes flutter against Catra's cheek when she closes her eyes. Then her tongue is in Catra's mouth, and Catra has never kissed anyone else before. It feels weird, and good. All of Catra's fur stands on end as Glimmer's hand slides into her mane, pushing through the tangles.

When the kiss ends, Catra blurts, "You even taste like sparkles."

"You should let me brush your hair," Glimmer replies, voice impossibly soft.

Catra is about to give a sharp retort, but to her utter humiliation, she instead starts purring. Purring! She thought she'd grown out of purring years ago. But maybe she just hasn't had anything to purr about.

Glimmer pets her scalp, and Catra automatically pushes into her hand.

They kiss some more, and then they fall back on the bed to talk, nose to nose.

"I overheard you talking to kid me," Catra admits, as they go over their experiences in the spider-inth.

Glimmer winces. "Ugh, how much did you hear? That was so awkward, I'm so bad with kids…"

"What? I thought you were great. Kid me really liked you…"

Glimmer smirks, eyes gleaming in the moonlight. "I like you, too," she says.

"Wha, no, bwuh, that's not –" Catra blurts, before catching herself. "Okay, yeah. I like you."

Glimmer laughs, and boops Catra on the nose. No one has ever booped Catra on the nose before. She boops Glimmer back, feeling childish but… happy. What a strange feeling, all warm and tingly. Like teleporting, but nice instead of horrific.

Then, Glimmer tells Catra that Adora had suspected that the two of them might have feelings for each other.

"Ugh, she's gonna be so smug about it," Glimmer groans adorably.

Catra sniggers. With Glimmer on her side, she can handle a smug Adora. She hopes. Oh, darn, she'll have to learn how to hang out with princesses. Yuck.

"You'll help me face the princesses, right?" Catra asks, looking up at the ceiling.

"I am a princess," Glimmer points out.

"Ugh, I know," Catra teases. "But I get that you can't help it, so it's okay."

Glimmer shoves at her, and they end up kissing again. Catra finally gets to run her fingers through Glimmer's hair, and it's just as soft and fluffy as it looks. No tangles there.

It's so late that it's early when Glimmer finally gets up to leave. She grabs her staff from where it's fallen on the floor, and starts to shimmer around the edges. The magical cage fills with the sweetly metallic teleportation smell.

"One last question," Catra says, and Glimmer solidifies again.

"How is this your prison?" Catra asks.

Glimmer laughs. "It's technically the spare room… What? We don't generally take prisoners. Now good night, Catra."

"Good night, Sparkles."

And then, there's just glitter in the air where Glimmer stood. But even with Glimmer gone, the too-soft bed still smells like her magic and her… her. Catra snuggles down into the scent.

"I can leave whenever I want, I can leave whenever I want," she whispers to herself. It isn't true, not when she's magically locked up at the Rebellion Headquarters. But it doesn't have to be. The words are just a meaningless mantra, repeated only out of habit. And soon, Catra's voice tails off, as another sound picks up.

Catra purrs herself to sleep, and dreams of Glimmer chasing her with a hairbrush.