Chapter Text
The kiss had been actually fucking magic. Catra was sure of it. She had felt it flow through her and Adora as the world caved in and back out again with a rush of power.
Adora, her Adora.
Fucking finally.
The kiss had been short, but enough to bring Adora back to the land of the living and fully conscious. With power literally sparking off of them, Adora had lain Catra down gently and turned to face the outside, ripping a hole in the wall to get there. At some point Adora had turned into She-Ra and obviously saved the day, Catra could hear the whoops and cheers from outside, and the glow of She-Ra illuminated the otherwise dark chamber.
They had done it. Horde Prime was no more. Catra could finally fucking breathe.
She went to stand, and found herself unsteady on her feet, like her entire body had been reshaped. ‘Fair,’ she thought ‘no shit I’m exhausted’. With fighting off a giant vine monster, then seeing the closest thing to a mother figure literally die in front of her eyes, Catra reserved the right to feel a little off.
With a few surprisingly powerful but cautious jumps up the reactor which had, up until a few moments ago, been on all sorts of fire, Catra was through the hole Adora had created in the side of the wall.
For the first time, Catra stood up fully and stretched (cat-like enough to elicit endless teasing later she was sure). She felt so powerful, unstoppable. Magic.
Still a little far out from the crowd, Catra watched as everyone rushed to greet each other. Lots of tears and hugging and apologies for heinous actions committed while under the influence of Horde Prime. She looked over just in time to see Adora, still in She-Ra form, greeted by Glimmer and Bow, and then the rest of the crowd.
Catra’s head hurt. Like, a lot. Enough to be distracting. Testing for blood, she reached a hand up to feel around her skull through her hair. Nothing. Catra was still getting used to the cropped cut, which was weirdly yet to grow out, but she didn’t miss the weight and tedious brushing of her mane before. She dismissed the pain with a ‘tsk’, a habit she had actually picked up from Sparkles during the months spent with Horde Prime. Catra let out a little shudder at the thought. The fucker was dead now, but damn did her head hurt.
‘Woman up,’ she grumbled ‘your head is the least of everyone’s problems at this point’.
But as she walked over to where the group stood, huddled around She-Ra, Catra realized something was wrong. It wasn’t just her head, her entire body ached like she had been shoved into a mold and re-shaped. The world looked different too, much smaller and further away than normal. Something was really fucking wrong, and Catra had an idea of what it was.
Catra’s eyes widened as she began to connect the dots in her head. Her fears were only confirmed as Adora (still in She-Ra form), no longer a towering giant but matched in size, turned to greet her with a smile that quickly jolted into shock and confusion.
‘Catra?’
Catra had been turned into fucking She-Ra.
The world began to spin as Catra panicked. She didn’t want to be She-Ra. Her body wasn’t meant to be She-Ra and it was screaming at her to fix it. What if it killed her? Holy shit what if it killed her? Just when things were looking up, what if she died because she was an 8-foot glowing warrior woman? Adora managed to catch her just as Catra hit the floor, hyperventilating hard and fast. Catra didn’t want to die.
‘Catra, oh god, Catra please breathe. You have to breathe’ but Adora’s words fell on empty ears. She could only watch as Catra’s mis-matched eyes glazed wide into the ground, her pupils’ tiny slits in the middle of her eyes, her chest heaving hard. Adora took a deep breath, calmed herself first, then gently lifted Catra’s head to look at her, and as soon as their eyes locked Adora signaled for Catra to breathe with her, taking long and forceful breaths. Once Catra was breathing by herself, Adora lifted her hand in front of her face, and tapped her index finger to her thumb in big movements, insinuating for Catra to do the same. Catra let out a shaky nod, and brought her hands into her lap to repeat the gesture.
Even before Adora had left the Horde, both girls knew how to curb a panic attack. Adora couldn’t count the times either girl had cried in the others arms. Shadow Weaver’s methods of division had ceased their effectiveness as soon as Catra and Adora realized that they were both suffering. The techniques had come in handy following Catra’s rescue from Horde Prime. Some nights Adora would just lay with her so that when she woke up shaking and crying she could be there with an ice cube and a hug.
But now it was Adora who was beginning to freak the fuck out. She did a quick check over Catra to make sure she wasn’t hurt physically, and also to just look at her. To her knowledge, She-Ra had never been replicated like this before, and the reflected features felt uncanny and unnatural. Catra’s face was relatively the same, same stark eyes and sharp jaw, but her teeth, which had before been small but sharp, were now huge, thick fangs that hung over her bottom lip. Her hands were much bigger now too, with longer and sharper nails. Her outfit seemed to match Adora’s own, but minus the added miniskirt, and with shorts instead of longer pants, the golden star-like design on Adora’s chest replaced by the symbol of the heart in the language of the First Ones. Her boots were big, heavy, and riddled with industrial buckles. And her hair. Whereas Adora’s hair got longer and lighter as She-Ra, Catra’s had grown darker, more purple, but was still the same cropped style, this time choppier though.
Holy shit. Catra was She-Ra.
At this point, Glimmer and Bow were at Adora’s side, followed by a fretful Melog. Glimmer was the first to say something.
‘Give her the sword, see if that does anything?’ Glimmers voice was scratchy and breaking. She was exhausted, but cared too much about Catra to allow herself to falter now. Nodding quickly, Adora grabbed the gauntlet on her left arm with her right hand, and transformed it back into the sword, which she thrust into Catra’s lap.
Catra began to glow. Alarmed by her own luminescence, Catra quickly stood and backed away from the trio, holding the sword like a teddy rather than a lethal weapon of mass destruction.
‘Try turning out of She-Ra, maybe it’s triggered by you,’ Bow shot to Adora. Desperate to try anything, Adora focused her energy, and felt herself shrink back into her own skin. She would never admit it, but being She-Ra never felt as natural as being Adora.
To their relief, Catra’s body shrunk too, the sword now comically large in her slender arms. Catra had just enough time to lock shaking eyes with the trio, and whisper ‘Adora?’ before her eyes rolled back and she collapsed on the floor.
Adora had not turned into She-Ra for a month. Following Catra’s collapse, they had tried to transform once more the following day, to the same result. Adora transforms, Catra follows, Adora returns to regular form, and Catra passes out. Adora had tried to use the sword to ‘heal’ Catra, but it seemed that the sword hadn’t recognized ‘She-Ra’ as a disease. All the energy passing through Catra’s non-magical body had almost killed her. They hadn’t tried again.
If she was honest, the lack of the eight-foot woman was hampering the clean up process. Large rocks and debris that would have been cleared in seconds now took hours to move, and people were missing their symbol of morale and freedom. But every time Adora thought about transforming, Catra’s horrified face, full of fear and confusion as she clutched the sword, reminded Adora it would be better if she didn’t. She couldn’t see that again.
Now, they were stationed in Salineas, repairing the Sea Gate. The Horde had been thorough in their destruction, but the pieces of the gate were still in the ocean just beneath the openeing. So the Princess Alliance were all in the sea kingdom, making repairs and helping refugees. She-Ra had defeated the Horde, but many still lived in fear, with even more displaced from their homes.
Currently, they were inland, at the town hall equivalent in the closest village to the gate. Catra and Adora had been basically attached at the hip since they left bright moon, and both women found stability and patience in the other’s presence.
Adora watched Catra across the room as she handed out blankets and food. She was so proud of her. Catra’s hair had always been quick to grow, and Adora noted that the messy pixie cut from before had grown out into a messy bob, which Catra kept tucked constantly behind her floppy ears, or half tied up with a piece of twine.
After everyone was freed, Entrapta had done some looking into the chips, and found something close to immortalization power. In Entrapta’s words: ‘The chips were able to stop the body from aging at all, with the side effect of essentially ‘freezing’ the body in time.’ You could only heal while under the chip’s influence because of your connection to Horde Prime and the ‘magic soup’ as Glimmer had called it. Even now, Scorpia’s hair was still cropped short without the need for a razor to keep it that way. But Catra’s growing hair seemed to signify the ease felt by the other Princesses. Life was returning to normal.
Despite her growing hair, the She-Ra incident had shaken the fuck out of Catra. Normally so sure of herself and confident, she acted like she no longer trusted herself. Catra would struggle to admit it, but Adora was right. The unsettling and looming threat of the responsibility of She-Ra had hung over Catra. She knew Adora wasn’t turning into She-Ra because of her. She was holding back the recovery. Once again, Catra was holding Adora back.
Adora was about to start her own handouts of food on her side of the hall when she felt the ground shake. Immediately she looked over to Catra, who’s ears were focused and attentive, one pointing to the door, the other to the back wall. They made eye contact, and both bolted for the door.
It was the Horde. Or, it was almost the Horde, people in Horde uniforms that appeared to have been painted red with the words ‘Prime’ scrawled across the chest leaped out of the woods and into the courtyard. Immediately the pair jumped into battle, Adora summoning her sword and parrying with the closest goon, while Catra pounced on a poor man with a swift kick to the head. Advantages of growing up in the Horde, you realize that the uniforms are mostly for show and are super ineffective at protecting you. Perks of having robots do the dirty work.
But there were lots of them, they just kept pouring out of the woods behind the hall. The Princesses were holding them off, but were exhausted from the weeks of repair work. They needed She-Ra.
But Catra. Adora couldn’t bring herself to transform if she knew Catra was going to suffer for it. But before she could move Catra was in front of her.
‘Adora you have to do it. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. We need She-Ra’. Adora opened her mouth to protest, but Catra interrupted again ‘I’ll be able to fight too’. And she was right. The sheer number of the new horde was alarming, and both would be more capable fighters in She-Ra form.
Adora took a gamble, frowning at herself and hating her forced hand, she yelled ‘For the honour of Grayskull!’
With the strength she could only harness as She-Ra, Adora leapt into the enemy lines, quickly followed by Catra, who had also transformed, holding a metallic rod she had stolen from a Horde goon. As they plowed through the soldiers, Adora could see where they were coming from, a large truck sitting just behind the tree line. Spotting a bolder to the right, Adora made to end the battle. Leaping over heads, she arrived at the large rock, and went to lift it.
It wouldn’t move.
Adora frowned in confusion, and tried again, still wouldn’t budge.
Adora felt Catra land beside her and with a nod of her head communicated her plan. Catra darted around the other side of the rock, now even faster than before, and counted down. Together they lifted the boulder up off the ground, and hurled it at the truck. It landed perfectly. The truck exploded in a cloud of metal shards and smoke. As if in sync, the enemy line turned to flee back into the forest, leaving only an arrow wrapped in paper, shot into the middle of the open space in front of the hall.
Adora looked over to check on Catra, only to find her back to regular size, facing away from her and being violently ill. Quickly transforming back, herself, Adora rushed over to catch her. She hadn’t passed out this time. But she looked like shit. Drenched in sweat and breathing shallow raspy breathes, Catra looked up at Adora.
‘Please, make it stop’
When they opened the note attached to the arrow later, its message had been short.
‘Down with She-Ra, rebirth to the Horde’