Chapter Text
Adora's phone blared another twenty minutes later, startling everyone. Melog disappeared into another room in a scrabble of claws, and Catra mumbled a string of curse words in what sounded like Latin. Adora fumbled for her phone, and groaned when she saw the caller ID.
“Hi Glimmer,” she said, injecting as much fake cheer and wakefulness into her voice.
“You two better be up and on your way or so help me,” Glimmer began.
“Yep,” Adora lied flawlessly. “Totally. Walking out the door as we speak.”
A pause.
“You’re both still in bed, aren’t you. Don’t try to lie to me, Adora.”
Adora made an indignant noise, but didn’t attempt further deception. “We’ll be there. Maybe a little late.”
She heard Glimmer’s scoff clear as day. “She tire you out last night?”
Adora nearly choked on nothing. “I- no! We- it was our first date!”
“See you soon!” Glimmer said in her most saccharine tone before hanging up. Catra gave a dirty chuckle.
“Your friend is a menace.”
Adora sighed. “Yeah. She’s not wrong though. This is one appointment we probably shouldn’t be late to.”
Only then did Catra begin to untangle herself from around Adora. “Guess so.
“You feeling okay about this?” Adora asked as gently as she could. “Hordak sounds… pretty nasty.”
Catra shrugged after rolling to her feet. “I’ve handled worse.”
Adora barely stopped the immediate question from leaping out of her mouth, because she’d only known Catra for a few weeks now but had figured out how little Catra wanted to talk about her past long before learning she was a demon. Still, Adora’s curiosity burned at the back of her tongue, because Catra also had an infuriating tendency to dangle statements like ‘I’ve handled worse’ regarding a rogue necromancer pretty much daily. How was Adora supposed to not ask?
Catra stretched her arms above her head, highlighting lines of muscle even as she let out a squeaky yawn. Adora didn’t notice she was staring until Catra caught her in the act. Adora blushed and yanked her eyes away.
“Sorry,” she said. “You’re just…” She trailed off, already feeling like a creep. But at Catra’s drooping ears and tense shoulders, she decided honesty might be in order. “You’re just really pretty.”
Catra glanced up, bi-colored eyes wide. “You- what?”
“Sorry! Was that weird?” Adora cringed. Catra didn’t look offended, though. She looked… bewildered. Like it was the first time she’d ever heard that. Maybe it was. So Adora took another chance. “You are. You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met.”
Catra turned away, and for a moment Adora was terrified she’d overstepped. But she caught the profile of a quiet smile.
“Thanks, Adora.”
Adora’s words were still swirling around in Catra’s mind after breakfast. It wasn’t that people hadn’t ever complimented her appearance. Lonnie had used the term ‘smokin’ more than once, and Entrapta had called her disguise ‘objectively attractive according to four different metrics’, to say nothing of the catcalls she sometimes got walking around Bright Moon. But none of those really counted.
Adora’s simple words apparently did. She could see Catra, see all of her, no magic to hide behind. And she still stuck around. Catra had confessed to planning a murder and Adora had still let her stay the night, just to keep her safe. It shouldn’t have surprised Catra that Adora wasn’t put off by a tail and some bigger ears than normal, but it did. Pretty much everything about Adora surprised Catra, and even she couldn’t lie to herself about that being a bad thing.
Okay, maybe not everything about Adora was a surprise. Catra had pegged her as oblivious as fuck from minute one, given the whole costume episode, and she’d certainly lived up to that. Somehow that was just one more thing that drew Catra closer, made fucking butterflies, of all things, tear up a storm in her belly every time she met Adora’s eyes. It felt dumb and trite, but Catra wasn’t equipped to describe it any other way.
Catra caught herself staring at Adora’s concentrated expression for way too long. She was just lucky Adora was too focused on the road to notice. Adora might have accepted Catra’s demonic features and tendencies for now, but that probably didn’t extend to creeping on her. Normal people didn’t just stare at side profiles in the car, Catra was pretty sure.
They were halfway out of the city proper when Adora’s phone rang again. Catra glared at it, but her ire faded when Adora saw the caller ID and went pale. Without a word, she pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway and grabbed her phone.
“Adora? You good?”
Adora just shook her head. “I um, I kinda have to answer this. Can you-” she inhaled sharply “can you stay in the car?”
Catra nodded slowly, wondering if this was all a long con to strand her out in the middle of nowhere for a ransom or something.
Adora flashed a quick, sickly smile at her and fled the car. The door thunked closed behind her, and Catra’s ears twitched as Adora answered the phone. Between the highway ambience and the car, Catra could only pick up Adora’s side of the conversation.
“Light Hope!” Adora said with fake cheer. “How uh, how are things?”
A pause.
“I’m uh, on my way to a friend’s place.”
Catra had to work not to claw up the upholstery. She felt awkward and annoyed and guilty all at once. She continued to eavesdrop anyway.
“I was at home all night yesterday. That couldn’t have been me.”
Oof. Even through a car door Catra could tell that was a lie.
“I know that. You say it enough, anyway.”
Catra caught the barest hint of a stern, female voice over the line after that one. Something about the cadence sent shivers down her spine. This whole thing felt a little too familiar.
“I’m sorry, Light Hope. I promise I’ll be more diligent. I have some extra time this week to train, even. Can I call you back, though? I’m sort of pulled over on the side of the road right now. Later today?”
Catra turned to stare vacantly out of the opposite window in the faint hope of pretending she hadn’t heard all of that.
“Thank you.”
The car door opened again, and a frazzled Adora slid back into the seat. “Sorry about that. One of my uh, clients. She’s very demanding.”
Catra gave her a level look. “Has anyone ever told you how bad of a liar you are?” Adora looked a little panicked at that. Catra rolled her eyes. “I really don’t care. I’m not expecting you to pour all your darkest secrets out to me just because we’re…”
What were they? Catra hadn’t really thought about it. Were they friends? Maybe. Catra hadn’t ever slept in someone else’s bed before though. They’d gone on two, well, one, date.
“Dating?” Adora supplied hopefully.
“Yeah,” Catra said, because she was coming up dry with on better names and it was all whatever anyway. Obviously. “It’s not like I didn’t hide something pretty big when we met.”
Adora let out a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, I guess so.” She started the car again.
Catra had a weird urge to say more words. Like, comforting words. Gross. But Adora’s hands were gripping the steering wheel so tight that Catra was worried she would crash the car and kill them both. That was the only reason she said anything. Definitely.
“Not trying to pry or anything,” Catra began. “But I’ve got some experience with uh, shitty clients.” She figured the euphemism might make it easier for Adora to not freak out. The quiet laugh confirmed her success. “They uh, they suck.” Catra knew she was supposed to say something else, something meaningful and heartfelt. “Like, a lot,” was all she managed to come up with. Somehow, it worked anyway. Adora seemed to relax, and dared a glance over at Catra with blue eyes that had somehow become deep enough to drown in.
“Thanks, Catra.”
“This is where Hordak lives?” Adora asked incredulously as the four of them crept up to the three-story suburban home with white siding and a perfectly kept lawn.
“Yeah, why?” Catra asked. “Did you expect him to have upturned gravestones in the front yard? Maybe a sign saying ‘I’m evil, Jehovah’s Witnesses welcome’?”
That got a snort from Sparkles and a blush from Adora.
“Well, no,” Adora said. “It just looks so normal.”
“‘Normal people’ are the scary ones,” Catra replied. “I thought you would have figured that out by now.”
Catra didn’t actually believe that Adora understood that particular foundational world principle, because she seemed to have mile-wide blind spots in great supply. She’d seen Catra’s ears and thought they were animatronic, for fuck’s sake.
“That says a lot about you,” Sparkles piped up. Catra growled at her on principle, but she couldn’t exactly say that Sparkles was wrong.
“Everyone’s clear on the plan?” Adora asked, probably hoping to derail the pair before they got any louder.
“Yep,” Bow said. He had an actual bow in his hands, a compact compound thing with gold highlights that was kind of an eyesore. At least it matched the quiver on his back.
Glimmer hefted her crescent-tipped staff. “Let’s kick this guy’s ass.”
Catra resisted the compulsion to check the pockets of her rune-inscribed leather jacket for her supplies. She knew they were there, and she didn’t want to betray her nerves to her audience. It didn’t matter how fast her heart was racing if she didn’t show it, right?
Melog thumped their head into her calf reassuringly, and she instinctively gave them a few scritches in response. It helped more than it should have. Still, her hands went to her pockets before she could stop them, surreptitiously cataloging each and every item she’d brought for this fight.
Two bottles of cleansed water for containment. Her last three vials of essence, which she was really hoping she wouldn’t have to use right next to her thin book of healing spells which she had the same hope for. The jacket was equipment all on its own, reinforced with layers of protective enchantments against everything from bullets to acid. And finally, a cheap plastic taser. Simple, effective, and easy to hide. All that combined with her claws and other gifts, and she felt as prepared as she would ever be. Most of their planning session had involved trying to predict the exact defenses, magical or otherwise, that Hordak’s lair might hide. They hadn’t come up with many hard facts, and not even because Catra was trying to hide her transitive association with Hordak. She truly didn’t know what level of paranoia they were dealing with.
She turned to Melog. “Alright dude, you’re up.”
For once, they didn’t give her any sass. They closed their eyes, focused, and disappeared in a burst of yellow-orange sparks.
“That is cool,” Sparkles breathed. “I wish I had a magic cat.”
Catra felt Adora shift uncomfortably beside her. Adora hadn’t said anything, but it was clear that she wasn’t thrilled about keeping Melog’s true nature a secret from her friends. Catra got it, sort of. She just wasn’t about to expose herself or Melog to anyone she didn’t need to. Yeah, Adora had accepted the truth easily enough, but she was… well, Adora. Bow and Sparkles were their whole own thing.
“Stay quiet,” Catra said. “Being invisible doesn’t mean shit if you yap the whole time.”
“You’re such a pleasant person to be around, Catra.”
Catra barely caught her annoyed hiss in time. Adora defused the situation by just getting started. Melog could only cover so much ground with their invisibility, which meant the whole group was forced into relatively close proximity as they began to creep across the aggressively green lawn. The garden gnome by the front steps stared into her soul.
Her hackles had just started to rise when Adora stopped. She pointed a blue-outlined ghost of her hand at the gnome and whispered on the barest edge of audibility “ward.”
Catra eyed the gnome, and sure enough her hackles stood up all the way. Whatever it was that let Adora see through Catra’s illusion magic must let her see other forms of magic as well. Handy if still unexplained. This definitely wasn’t the time to pry, though.
Adora seemed to assess the situation for another moment, then led the group around the gnome. The only sounds were the distant highway, the rustle of sharp-cut grass, and Catra’s hammering heart. Her hackles refused to relax even after they got around the side of the house and out of sight of its diminutive defender, and her body remained one loud noise away from bolting as Adora stepped up to the house’s basement door.
Catra moved up beside her, because she had laid claim to the task of breaking and entering at the very start of their planning session as long as no one got too close to see how she did it. Adora obviously knew about her claws, but even she might be surprised at just how effective they could be.
Catra knelt down by the latch and poked at it, painfully aware of the two goons looming behind her. Somehow reading her perfectly, Adora casually sidled over to block their view. Catra’s tail brushed her ankle in a way she hoped conveyed gratitude, because she sure as hell wouldn’t have said it out loud even if they weren’t twenty feet from an evil gnome.
Reasonably sure now that her secret would stay just that, she unsheathed her claws and cut into the siding surrounding the latch, moving slowly to keep the scraping noise down. It was kind of shitty siding and split easily under her Hell-borne tools. Seven seconds of careful cutting and the door swung open freely. A sudden hand on her shoulder made her jump, but she twisted and saw Adora’s encouraging smile. The simple expression gave Catra more calm than she would have believed, and the emotion was no less powerful for being borrowed.
With the door open, the five of them stalked into Hordak’s lair. The stairs were old and creaky, and Catra winced at the volume more than once. But the second door at the bottom of the stairs likely blocked the noise, and to her surprise turned out to be unlocked. She pushed it open the tiniest of cracks and peeked through, her eyes easily adjusting to the gloom.
The basement matched the house’s outward normalcy almost too well. Ugly linoleum, the occasional cobweb, laundry machines, and an over-sized freezer were the only objects in the immediate vicinity, and a quick sniff told Catra that if there were any skeletons in closets, they were very old or very well-sealed. It only made her more on edge. She eased the door fully open, but nothing screeched in alarm or tried to murder her.
“This is weird,” Sparkles whispered, and Catra was too busy mentally agreeing with her to tell her off for talking. They’d picked the middle of the day because any shades Hordak had summoned wouldn’t be able to affect the corporeal world in daylight, but Catra had still expected some kind of resistance by now, even just spooky decor. But so far, nothing.
The five of them collectively decided to head for the staircase on the opposite side of the space without saying a word. Apparently Catra wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to dig any deeper into a necromancer’s basement than she had to.
The stairs leading up into the house proper looked less rickety than the outdoor ones, but that wasn’t saying much. Losing the element of surprise because of shitty contractors would be pretty funny except for the part where they would all die. Catra tested her weight on the first step. It creaked, but the sound was barely audible even to her so it would probably be fine. She somehow doubted this was the worst risk she would end up taking today.
She held up a hand to keep the others from following her yet. More weight on the stairs or whatever. She eased up the stairs, and that was when she heard it. A faint thrum of active power in the air. Someone was working magic in the house at this very moment, and there was really only one ‘someone’ that might be.
She turned and waved to the others to follow her. Stealth was no longer as valuable as speed. Whatever Hordak was doing, even just summoning another shade, he had to be stopped. She still winced as the clumsy humans creaked their way up to join her in front of the closed door at the top of the stairs. Catra opened it cautiously, ready to leap back if something decided to explode in her face. More than usual, anyway. All she was greeted with instead was another normal room, this one a kitchen. The only thing mildly out of place were all the dirty dishes in the sink. The bone deep sensation of rising power continued to grow, and Catra abandoned the kitchen in favor of following her instincts towards the front of the house. She felt the others behind her, and she was surprised at how much reassurance their simple presence offered her. She wasn’t used to working with anyone but Melog, and even then only sometimes. But having backup, someone to watch her back… it was kind of nice.
Of course, every positive thought was immediately banished from her mind when she peeked around the corner into the living room. Hordak was there, pale and menacing even with his back turned. Far more menacing was the wide, complex circle filling most of the empty floorspace of the room. The summoning circle, Catra realized. And inside it, swirling shadows, darkness, and the rotten-meat stench of magic that was all too familiar to Catra.
It was odd, a detached part of Catra thought, that she would discover a way to stop time at the worst possible moment in her life. She stared at the looming darkness springing to life inside Hordak’s summoning circle, knowing she needed to do something, anything, and being physically incapable of moving. The others didn’t know what was going down yet, but Catra had figured out what was truly happening here the instant she felt that horribly familiar magic. Hordak hadn’t been summoning shades all this time to do his bidding. He’d been practicing.
With a final gesture, he closed the circle and the form within snapped into clarity. Long red robes with black detailing hung off of an improbably gaunt figure. Bony gray hands protruded from the sleeves, and waving tendrils of black hair framed a smooth mask painted in lines of red, black, and white that slowly shifted the longer you watched. Burning white eyes were sunken deep in the mask, and they narrowed in focus as Hordak’s summoning spell concluded.
Sulphur filled Catra’s nostrils. Crackling flames jabbed at her ears, and a wave of remembered heat washed over her, fetid and dry and scouring all at once. She knew she wasn’t there, wasn’t back in Hell, but as reality processed and Shadow Weaver’s eyes locked onto Catra’s invisible form, she wished that she was. At least back in Hell she’d been the only one in the line of fire.
Adora gasped beside her, a sudden and unwelcome reminder that she wasn’t alone. That she had dragged a bunch of unsuspecting humans here, and now they were all going to get splattered across the walls and it would be her fault. Just fucking perfect.
“You,” Shadow Weaver hissed, gaze boring straight into the empty spot where Catra would keep her soul, if she had one. Melog’s invisibility dropped as they shifted back into their truest form, an echoing growl shaking the floorboards as their mane flared red. Catra braced for the pain that would come next, like it always did when Shadow Weaver turned her attention on Catra. She couldn’t even process what the others were doing through the darkness at the edges of her vision.
But the pain didn’t come. No fire scorched her skin, no lightning transfixed her. Instead, Shadow Weaver’s eyes widened as they fell upon Adora.
“It’s over, Hordak,” Glimmer called. “Give it up, and this won’t hurt much.”
A nasty part of Catra wanted to laugh at just how pitiful Glimmer’s bravado was in the face of this particular paradigm shift in the local power dynamics. The rest of her was still too busy alternating between stunned silence and chanting obscenities in her head.
Shadow Weaver chuckled. “You’re quite right. It will not hurt much, for us.”
Glimmer bristled and readied her staff, but she wasn’t fast enough. A bolt of blinding red light zig-zagged through the air with a thunderclap and slammed into her chest, picking her up and tossing her into the distant dimness of the rest of the house. Bow let out a wordless cry and sprinted off after Glimmer, and Adora-
Adora began to glow.
Catra thought she was hallucinating at first, but the golden glow emanating from Adora’s skin began to cast lurid shadows through the living room, and judging from Hordak’s shock and Shadow Weaver’s wide eyes, they could see it too.
“For your sake,” Adora began slowly. “I hope that she’s alright. If she isn’t, I will make you regret being born. And after I’m done with you, Angella will make you wish I wasn’t.”
Something lodged in Catra’s throat, because in all her time in Hell she’d never heard a threat delivered with such single-minded intensity. She hadn’t expected it from Adora, all bubbly awkwardness and earnesty. Somehow, that only made it more powerful.
Hordak, for his part, looked unnerved, his gaze darting between Shadow Weaver’s back and Adora’s stony face. Catra hardly dared to breathe. Her fingers itched to move, to cast a spell, to tear ragged lines through Shadow Weaver’s smug fucking face, but she couldn’t. Something was rooting her in place, so all she could do was watch.
“Such power,” Shadow Weaver crooned. “And so little control. Why, if you’re not careful you could flatten this entire neighborhood. And to think that you stumbled in here.” She sighed, and it sounded joyful. “You and I are going to do great things together.”
The words I think the fuck not burned on the tip of Catra’s tongue, but she couldn’t force them past her lips. It felt like some outside force was freezing every muscle in her body.
“I don’t think so,” Adora said. “If you try anything, I won’t hesitate.”
“Oh, but you already have,” Shadow Weaver said, and Catra’s brain finally pieced it together. The final Link. Shadow Weaver was burning it here and now, using her last shred of control over Catra to stop her from fighting or warning Adora what the demonic sorceress was capable of until it was too late. Catra fought it, fought with all of her strength, and it wasn’t enough. All she managed to do was force silent tears to trickle down her face.
Adora saw them, and her resolve cracked. “Catra?”
“Too weak, as always,” Shadow Weaver said, addressing Catra now. “You care about this one, don’t you? You’ve never fought me this hard before. And she cares about you, doesn’t she?”
Adora must have figured something out, because she took a single step forward, fists clenched her sides. “Let her go.”
“Or what? I have total control over her body. With a single thought, I can stop her heart. You aren’t fast enough to stop me.”
Catra watched the blood drain from Adora’s face, and wanted to scream. Emotions flickered across Adora’s face, too fast to track, but finally she settled on the one Catra had been most dreading: furious, terrified resignation.
“What do you want?”
Mask or not, Catra could hear the smile in Shadow Weaver’s next words. “Nothing complicated. You will come with me. You will follow my every order to the letter, or Catra dies.”
Fury surged up through Catra’s chest, and she battered her will against the Link again and again, hard enough to make her whole body quiver, and still to no avail. She could feel it slowly burning away, candle wax melting under a blowtorch, but it wasn’t happening fast enough. It didn’t matter that Shadow Weaver’s hold over Catra wouldn’t last another minute, not if she took Adora away before Catra could show her the truth. Adora would be subjecting herself to pure evil for no reason at all.
“Give me your word,” Adora said. “Give me your word that if I do what you say, you won’t kill her.”
Shadow Weaver paused before replying, because even one of the top demonic sorceresses of Hell could not break her word frivolously. Only in this case, it wasn’t relevant in the slightest. “I give you my word.”
Catra was pretty sure she was the only one who heard the smug satisfaction in Shadow Weaver’s voice.
“Fine,” Adora said. Her glow began to fade. “I’ll- I’ll go with you.”
“Good,” Shadow Weaver crooned. “Hordak, start the car. We will be joining you shortly.” She turned back to Adora, ignoring Hordak’s hasty departure. “Don’t look so afraid. Together we will put your power to far greater use than you ever would have alone.”
Adora looked sick as she glanced back at Catra. Their eyes met. Catra was so close. Ten more seconds. If Adora could just stall for-
A bony hand landed on Adora’s shoulder and steered her out of the living room, leaving a ghost of glistening blue eyes in her wake. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, the last of the Link’s power surged through Catra, igniting every nerve in her body while she remained locked in place. Her vision went spotty, and the last thing she saw before white-hot agony claimed her conscious mind was Glimmer’s furious expression looming over her.
Wakefulness returned with the discomfort of an old acquaintance you never liked all that much showing up at your house and asking for money. Everything ached with half-remembered fire, and when she finally peeled her eyes open she found herself in darkness. Her eyes slowly focused, taking in the details of the small but clean and well-furnished bedroom at the same time as she fumbled with the thick blanket covering her. Catra needed to move. Adora was out there, taken because of her. Because she hadn’t been strong enough, because she’d lied. It was a hell of a thing to swallow, but she could wallow around in her guilt later. Right now, she needed to get out of… wherever she was and hunt down Shadow Weaver. A summoning like that would leave a magical trail, but not forever.
She finally defeated her first opponent and threw the blanket off of her. She swung her legs over the edge, noting that she was still dressed in her own clothes. She had no clue where she was, but given that she wasn’t in chains or, you know, dead, Shadow Weaver must not have taken her. That really only left one option. The quiet aura of magic permeating the air reinforced Catra’s theory and her resolve alike. She needed to get out of here, because there was no way she would survive a meeting with Sparkles’s supposed angelic mother. Catra didn’t understand why she wasn’t already in shackles and behind wards. She knew her illusion magic wouldn’t stand up to an actual being from Heaven, and worse, she deserved it. Adora was in Shadow Weaver’s clutches and it was Catra’s fault.
She wobbled a little as she came to her feet, already missing the soft warmth of the bed. Soft, warm beds were exactly what had gotten her into this mess, gotten Adora into this mess. Served Catra right for trusting her emotions.
The door beckoned, a simple thing of painted wood without a lock in sight. Even if it was locked, Catra’s claws would make short work of it. She gave the handle a try first, and the door swung open without a sound. She shielded her eyes against the glaring light in the hallway and almost tripped over the body leaning against the wall. She yelped and leapt away, her sleepy limbs almost betraying her. Her antics didn’t receive a response, and her heartrate doubled again in the span of a second. She recognized Bow’s unconscious form, and with the way he was slumped against the wall… was he dead?
Sternly telling her fingers to stop trembling, Catra reached out to poke him. Just before her fingers made contact, Bow let rip the loudest snore Catra had ever heard. She barely stopped her squeak in time, ears fluttering in a combination of surprise, embarrassment, and relief. She didn’t know why Bow had chosen this particular place to nap, but if he was trying to guard her room he was doing a terrible job. Satisfied that he wasn’t going to wake up and blow her cover, she crept away down the hallway, escape at the front of her mind. Judging from the distant sounds of the city, it was late at night. All the better.
Her luck lasted all the way down the ornate hardwood staircase leading to the entryway of the house. She was halfway to the front door when she caught movement to her right.
“Hello, Catra.”
Catra whipped around, zeroing in on the source of the calm, refined voice even as her claws came out. A tall, stately woman sat in a comfortable armchair in the living room, filmy wings betraying her nature even before Catra sensed the understated power emanating from her. Shit. This was the angel. And Catra was well and truly fucked.
“If you wish to leave, I won’t stop you.”
The words came with a small smile, and both them and the expression did their best to fry Catra’s already-questionable brain. Sure, there hadn’t been a lock on her room door and the guard on duty should probably have been fired, but there was no reason that an angel, a living embodiment of all of the good things Catra would never be, would let her go now. Especially after what Catra had let happen.
Because her body loved betraying her even without Shadow Weaver’s magic, she remained locked in place. Her instincts quailed at the power before her even as she did her best to stare it down, because she knew that defying people more powerful than her never did anything but hurt. She just never learned how to do anything else.
The angel sighed, closing the small paperback in her hands and setting it on the nearby coffee table. She turned a level gaze on Catra. “No one will hurt you here. If there’s something I can do to show that to you, please tell me.”
Catra said nothing. What was she supposed to say? ‘I’m a demon and you’re an angel, we’re born to hate each other?’ That seemed counterproductive at best, regardless of how true it was. ‘Why didn’t you lock me up?’ felt more immediately relevant, but Catra also didn’t want to give her ideas.
“I need to go,” Catra finally murmured. “This- this is my fault. I have to help her. Shadow Weaver-”
She broke off, because she felt tears welling up and this was so far from the right place to shed them it wasn’t even funny.
“So it was her,” the angel murmured. “Glimmer was correct about that at least.” Her focus returned to Catra. “You are acquainted with her.”
It wasn’t a question. Catra nodded anyway.
“My name is Angella. As you likely know, I am Glimmer’s mother. She informed me of her… questionable plan, as well as the unfortunate outcome of that plan.” She sucked in a breath. “However, there are a few gaps in her knowledge.” Angella raised one eyebrow, the question implied.
“I-” Catra’s breath caught, the reality crashing over her again. “I… I lost her. Shadow Weaver took her. And I couldn’t do anything.”
One more shuddering breath was all it took to break. Seeing Shadow Weaver again, being hurt by her again after thinking she was free, and losing Adora, getting Adora taken, was all too much to handle. All of Catra’s walls finally crumbled under the weight, and she shattered. Squeezing her eyes shut did nothing to stop the tears.
Without warning, thin, gentle arms encircled her, followed by the brush of wings. Catra’s heart and breath stuttered alike, but there was no sense of constriction, of control. Just the simple comfort of someone else’s presence telling her it was safe to let go. And so she did.
The moment passed, and Catra braced for the inevitable. Oil and water, after all. But it didn’t come. Angella just held her, gently stroking her back as she put herself back together. It might’ve been the kindest thing anyone had ever done for her. It should have felt wrong. Everything Catra knew about the world told her it was supposed to feel wrong, but like so many things that she’d felt over the past few weeks, it didn’t. As she clung to a woman she’d only just met like she was the last mast of a ship in a storm, clung to someone who by all rights should hate her, the only word that came to mind was peace.
They sat down across from one another in the living room, the angel and the demon. For a long time, the only sounds were those of distant cars and the faint creaking of the house under a midnight breeze. The demon shifted in her chair, tail tucked in, ears low. She didn’t know what to say. The angel watched, a hint of a smile tugging at her mouth, her eyes warm. And finally, the demon spoke.
“She raised me. Shadow Weaver. Down in Hell. She taught me magic, made me do her dirty work, but I was always just an afterthought. A pathetic weakling weighing her down in her pursuit of power.” Catra stared at the floor, hugging her knees to her chest. “I- I was never good enough for her. She told me herself that the only reason she kept me around was because she couldn’t be bothered to kill me.” She shuddered violently once, and her burning eyes flashed up to meet those of Angella. “I don’t even know why.” Catra looked away once more. “Finally I got fed up with it and ran. Escaped to here about a year ago, but she still had power over me. Four Links. I couldn’t get rid of them myself, so when she called and made me do her dirty work again that’s what I traded. I only had one left before…”
“Ah. That is what happened, isn’t it? She used that final Link to stop you,” Angella said.
Catra nodded. “There- there wasn’t anything I could do. Maybe if I’d told the truth earlier about what I am, or-”
“Stop,” Angella commanded. Catra stopped. “What happened today was not your fault. It was Shadow Weaver’s fault. It was Hordak’s fault. And, in a way, it was my fault.”
Catra looked up before she could stop herself. “What?” It sounded absurd, but one of the only things Catra knew for sure about angelic beings was that they were prohibited from lying. Catra didn’t know where they stood on being wrong, though.
Angella sighed. “I have been aware of Shadow Weaver for some time. I was unsure of her goals, but I suspected they involved this plane. She has broken immortal law by coming here. I suspect the only reason she survived the leap was because of this Hordak character. Someone that I or the Guild should have kept better track of.”
“The Guild?” Catra asked.
Angella blinked. “You have not heard of the Guild of Sorcerers?” Catra glared at her. “Well, it’s just that. A ruling body of mortal sorcerers on Etheria, governing and regulating the use of magic. Hordak’s summonings, both of shades and now of a greater demon, have broken numerous Guild laws. Micah and Castaspella are already assembling a task force to bring him to justice.”
Catra shouldn’t have been surprised that there was a whole magical organization Shadow Weaver had never told her about. It was certainly in line with all of the other lies she’d bombarded Catra with over the years.
“What about Adora?” Catra asked. “We have to get her back.”
“We will,” Angella assured her. “Even if she weren’t family, we cannot risk leaving such a powerful soul in Shadow Weaver’s hands.”
Catra paused to think that one over. On one hand, Adora was obviously human. Goofy, awkward, driven, and principled, but definitely human. But normal humans also didn’t randomly start glowing. There was clearly more going on here than Catra understood, but she wasn’t dumb enough to ask. She would get the answer from Adora herself when they saw each other again.
A sudden, terrifying realization hit Catra. “Where’s Melog?” she demanded. They were okay, right? They had to be. The confusion in Angella’s eyes made Catra’s heart leap into overdrive. “My cat. My friend.”
Angella shook her head slowly. “I’m sorry. Glimmer and Bow only returned with you.”
Desperation setting in, Catra sent a mental impulse out into the night and listened. She could still feel her bond with them, but it was so very faint. All it told her was that they were alive. In a rare moment of internal pragmatism, Catra decided to cling to that fact rather than continue to spiral about their safety. If they’d survived for however long she’d been unconscious, they weren’t in immediate danger. That would have to be enough for her.
Catra’s fear was interrupted by creaking stairs behind her. She twisted in her armchair to find Sparkles on the steps, bags under her eyes and a stunned look on her face.
“Oh, uh, hi mom,” she said. “I was just grabbing a snack.” Her gaze fell on Catra. A multitude of emotions flickered across her face, but the only one Catra could decipher was anger. She opened her mouth, probably to launch a stream of invective at Catra, but was stopped by Angella’s wry tone.
“Why don’t you get that snack, Glimmer. Catra and I were just talking.”
A spark of something that looked like, but could not have been, jealousy, flared to life in Sparkles’s expression. Catra felt an urge to make a snarky comment, but it was easy enough to douse given her internal turmoil. Picking fights with the people around her was an even worse idea than usual at the moment. Instead, something else snuck out.
“I’m sorry.”
Catra froze, not quite able to believe that she’d just said that out loud, and to Sparkles of all people. Apparently Sparkles was surprised too, judging from her gaping mouth. Catra knew she should say more, but couldn’t muster the words. She just sank back into her armchair, watching Sparkles with a mixture of wariness and guilt.
“I… okay. Thanks, but it wasn’t your fault.” Sparkles took a breath. “I- I should have called in backup. Or…” she stared down at the floor. “I don’t know.”
Catra opened her mouth to reject pretty much all of that, but froze. She darted a glance over at Angella with an unspoken question on her face, and received the barest shake of her head in response. Angella hadn’t told anyone. She’d seen through Catra’s illusion, hard not to given the whole ‘angel’ thing, and she had kept Catra’s demonic nature a secret. That didn’t make any sense, but at this point if Catra was going to pick at all of the things that didn’t make sense about what had happened to her in the past few days it would take her a year to catalog it all.
Sparkles left without another word, and Catra made the unspoken question spoken.
“Why?”
“It is not my place to tell,” Angella said simply. “I want you to feel safe here, Catra. After what I’ve learned about you from my daughter and her friends, and from you, you deserve that much. Adora is like family to me. I can’t imagine living without her.”
Catra got the double meaning there. Angella was thanking her for saving Adora’s life in the first place, but also making the stakes clear. If Catra fucked this up even further…
Nope. She was not going to think about that. She’d have plenty of time to worry about divine punishments after she failed. No sense in getting a headstart now.
“A plan,” Catra said. “We uh, need a plan. I can track Shadow Weaver for a few days, but…” she didn’t want to admit it, but it was the truth, and lying was what got her here. “She’s stronger than me. I- I can’t beat her.”
“Catra, look at me,” Angella said, a soft note of command in her voice. Catra met her eyes, and found nothing but empathy. “You already did. You survived her with your heart intact. That is a far greater victory than she could ever imagine.”
Catra’s chest seized up as Angella’s words burned a line of fire through her mind. A thousand jagged memories fought against those three sentences, and for once, the memories lost. Because if a being of pure good like Angella could believe that, then maybe, maybe, Catra could too.
She coughed and looked away, overwhelmed by earnesty.
“Yeah, uh, thanks,” she mumbled. “Plan?”
Angella smiled wryly, but didn’t press or mock her. “If Hordak and Shadow Weaver have separated, Micah and Castaspella can handle Hordak alone. They’ve already begun tracking attempts. As for Shadow Weaver. Once we locate her, I will banish her back to Hell.”
Catra sucked in a breath. “I thought angels couldn’t-”
“Not under normal circumstances. But she has broken immortal law. Etheria is not where her kind belongs, and I have every right to correct that error.” Angella paused. “And I have spent too long ‘playing it safe.’ Urging restraint only has value when both sides are willing to be rational, but Shadow Weaver has abandoned rationality. She will not stop. She must be stopped.”
“You know her, don’t you?” Catra ventured.
Angella nodded. “Yes. She has made many attempts at greater power, through whatever methods and means possible. This is not the first time she has attempted to use a strong mortal soul for her own gain, but it will be the last.”
Catra couldn’t deny feeling a rush of violent satisfaction at the iron certainty in Angella’s voice.
“You should try to rest,” Angella said. “The aftereffects of that kind of magic, of her magic, can be unpredictable. I will be sure to wake you if anything changes.”
“I- yeah,” Catra agreed. Between the late hour and wringing out her internal emotional sponge, she was ready for another nap. She rose, but before she left the living room she turned back. “Angella?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“Of course.”