Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

1.

It was a couple weeks after the war ended, and the alliance were heading out to try and locate and/or destroy any remaining bots of prime’s. 

A scouting team consisting of Adora, Catra, Netossa and Spinnerella were up ahead of the main group in the Whispering Woods trying to assess how many bots were left in the Brightmoon area (the older couple just wanted to have another competition involving mass destruction).

The rest of the alliance were just hanging back waiting for a signal to come through on Bow’s tracker pad if they were needed as backup.

————

To Catra, this mission seemed like a huge waste of time. Not only was it put together without any thought and unnecessarily time consuming, but Entrapta definitely could have figured out some way of detecting the remaining bots without all of the rebels being involved. It just seemed stupid to her, as she had always meticulously prepared for every mission when she was the Horde’s second in command. Her stomach plummeted at the memories of her snapping at anyone that interrupted her planning in the Horde.

Ugh, I was so awful to everyone around me back then. Most of them were just trying to help me out, especially Scorpia…

Her guilt and shame about the decisions and past actions she made in the war still plagued her mind constantly, despite Adora’s sweet attempts to make her feel better.

Speaking of the girl, she brought Catra back into the present by squeezing her hand gently, giving her a look as if to say, “Stop thinking that way about yourself,”

She always knew what Catra was feeling. They had been able to read each other’s thoughts and emotions for years, even as cadets. It was like they were forever attuned to each other, and they often had silent conversations that had Glimmer growing increasingly frustrated at being left out, often leading to cry’s of, “Are you two doing this on purpose now?? Is it to spite me or something?!”

Catra squeezed her girlfriend’s hand back and gave her a reassuring smile, a fang poking out of her grin. Adora’s face lit up in response, splitting into a goofy smile of her own.

She is so beautiful.

Catra found herself lost in Adora’s eyes, her gaze softening further with each second she stared at the blondes face.

Maybe this mission wasn’t so bad after all.

The moment was ruined soon enough though, as Netossa called out to the young couple from behind them,

”Focus lovebirds. You can ogle at each other later when we get back. When we have actually completed this mission, that we are all on.”

She pointedly said the last sentence with a mildly amused tone that made the two ex-horde soldiers blush and finally look away from each other.

“Sorry!” Adora rushed out, slightly flustered and embarrassed at being caught.

”We haven’t even seen or heard any bots yet, what else are we supposed to do?” Catra glanced back at the older women with a bored expression, trying to casually deflect and move the conversation away from her and Adora.

Just as Spinnerella was about to reply with suggestions, a twig snapping nearby interrupted her.

The princesses -plus Catra- all went silent, trying to figure out where the sound came from. Adora dropped Catra’s hand and summoned her sword instantly, and the other three got into defensive stances of their own.

Catra crouched down low, using her superior sense of hearing to try and identify any possible threat from amongst the surrounding dense foliage. 

A rustling of leaves from behind Netossa and Spinny.

The sound of a weapon being charged up.

”Move!”

In one quick motion, Catra threw herself between the older women and the bot, just as it emerged from the undergrowth and fired.

Searing pain burst across Catra’s torso as the ball of energy made contact with the brunette’s body, and she couldn’t stop the cry that escaped her lips as she hit the ground on top of the fresh wound.

”Catra!” The girl heard the panic in Adora’s voice from far away, as if she were under water.

Despite the burning sensation taking over her left hand side, the adrenaline coursing through the feline’s veins was more than enough to get her up and moving again, and she jumped into the fight alongside the others.

”I’m ok Adora I swear!” Catra rushed to convince the blonde so that they could focus on the bot at hand.

“No you aren’t!”

”Look out!” The bot had shot again, barely missing the girl (now in She-ra’s form) in her agitated state.

Netossa and Spinny were taking charge in the fight, slamming the bot nonstop with different nets and wind patterns, dodging each blast as it came. Dropping the matter for now in favour of helping the others, Adora and Catra joined the fray, and soon the bot was hanging on by a thread.

Catra’s movements were starting to become more and more sluggish however, her adrenaline levels dropping steadily, and her body feeling heavier with each passing minute. Her head felt light from blood loss, and her side throbbed at each lunge and dodge.

She ignored the pain stubbornly, opting to continue jabbing at the bot.

Catra leapt from place to place, swiping once more at the robot, her unsheathed claws tearing through the metal with ease. But the cat-girl didn’t see the rouge arm swinging at her until it was too late.

Her eyes widened in genuine fear for a moment, before she was flung away from the fight, skidding across the forest floor, her vision blurred with tears of pain. The last thing she saw before blacking out was the bot finally collapsing, and a shiny tall figure running to her crumpled form.

————

“-tra!”

”Cat-“

”-ake up!”

As consciousness slowly creeped back to Catra, she tried to make out the voices above her. 

Ugh… Her head was pulsing with pain.

”Please wake up…”

Wait. Is that Adora? She sounds sad. I don’t want her to feel sad. 

A tear fell onto Catra’s face as she experimented with opening her eyes.

”Adora look! She’s waking up!”

Who’s that?

”Adora..?” Catra weakly asked.

“It’s me, I’m here.”

Strong and warm arms were wrapped around her, and she realised she was lying in someone’s lap. Finally getting her eyes to fully open, Catra looked up to see a very anxious and upset Adora above her, with tears rolling down her cheeks.

”Hey… why are you crying?” Catra asked confused, lifting a hand up to wipe away her girlfriend’s tears. The jab of pain that jolted through her at the action made her flinch, and she remembered what had happened. She looked down at the angry looking burn at her side, oozing thick dark blood and cringed, scrunching up her nose in disgust.

”Oh.” She said in a small voice.

”Yeah ‘oh’, what were you thinking??” Adora exclaimed angrily.

”I was thinking that I had to get in between that bot and my friends!” Catra shot back with an indignant expression on her face.

Adora looked lost for words, repeatedly opening and closing her mouth to argue, but eventually just settling on, “Just don’t scare me like that please?” She framed it like an uncertain question.

Catra’s eyes softened, “I’ll try.”

Now glancing around to see who was surrounding her, Catra was shocked to see the very couple she had rushed to protect with tears of their own in their eyes.

”Are you guys hurt too?” Catra asked in complete confusion.

”No, sweetheart, we’re fine.” Spinny replied to ease her worries.

”Then why are you crying?”

”I guess we’re just a bit surprised,” Netossa spoke up, “That you would do that for us Catra. I mean, I wasn’t even sure if you could stand to be around us, but now we find out you think of us as friends? And that you put your safety on the line for us?”

”I mean, you’re part of my group/family/squad now, right? Ugh that came out wrong.” She hid her face in her hands, embarrassed. “But I do hope we can be considered friends by now. I’m really trying to be a better person to everyone.” She peaked out from between her fingers, gauging whether she had revealed too much.

”Oh we definitely are friends sweetie,” Spinny reassured the girl, seeing her doubts appear.

Adora gave the feline a loving kiss on the top of her head, “I told you you’re making progress, silly. And I thought I was supposed to be the dummy.”

”Oh you still are,” Catra teased, leaning up to capture Adora’s lips fully, before wincing slightly. “Can you fix me up now, this kinda, really hurts.”

”Oh right sorry babe, but first-“ She turned to face the pink haired woman, “Spinnerella, can you contact the others? Tell them we took out a really large and powerful bot in the south east quadrant of the forest, and that we’re going to head back to Brightmoon because Catra got hurt.”

”You don’t need to include that part!”

Spinnerella got to typing away on the group’s tracker pad, and Adora started healing Catra’s wound, resting their forehead’s together tenderly.

As the pain was washed away by the magic of She-ra, Catra sighed contentedly, just happy that the girl she loved more than anything in the world was here, holding her in her arms as the rest of the rebellion appeared in a shimmering array of sparkles to take them home.

Chapter Text

2.

This time, Mermista, Sea Hawk and Catra were going on a mission to recover supplies from an old Horde base camp. The whole area had been under Horde control for years, so Catra (who had a very knowledgeable grasp of the surrounding region and it’s dangers from reports) had to go guide the other two to avoid, well you know, death.

So far they had: narrowly escaped falling off a cliff, skirted around a wolf pack’s territory, and stopped Sea Hawk setting fire to the dark forest they were currently trekking through. Several times.

“Uuuugghhhhhhh”

”Come on fish-face, this is not a fun time for me either, could you at least go 5 minutes without complaining or groaning dramatically!”

Unfortunately for Sea Hawk, the two girls had not stopped bickering since the start of the trip. They never seemed to get on. Maybe it was the fact that Catra’s invasion plan had destroyed the water-princess’s kingdom… Maybe it was that.

”Hypocrite.”

”What?!”

”You were literally like ‘oh no Adora doesn’t want to be in an evil corrupt empire with me! I must destroy Etheria in retaliation!’ That is the most dramatic-crazy-ex shit ever.” Mermista had stopped walking now, crossing her arms with a nonchalant look on her face that she knew would anger the feline further.

“I am very sorry for what I did in the war. You know that.”

Catra was trying desperately to remain calm, but Mermista always made it so hard. She clenched and unclenched her fists, taking a deep breath in hopes it would eradicate her foul mood.

Why did Adora have to stay at Brightmoon to rebuild houses? She knew logically it was the right thing to do, but it was still frustrating and distressing not having her there.

”Ladies, ladies. Are we all not a part of the mighty rebellion? Let’s all just calm down.”

”No Sea Hawk I will not ‘calm down’, I have a right to be angry with her! You should be too! She destroyed our home!” Mermista retorted angrily, glaring at Catra.

Catra’s ears drooped and her tail curled around her leg, but no emotion on her face betrayed her. “Look Mermista, it’s true that I made mistakes and acted out rashly when Adora left. But I only did because she was everything to me -and I’m not trying to defend my actions here, just trying to make you understand.” Mermista looked unimpressed. “Adora was the only good thing in my life, the only person that didn’t belittle me or try to make my life a living hell, so it hurt like fucking hell when she left. It broke me… If it makes you feel any better, doing all those stupid things in the Horde didn’t make anything feel better, it just made it all worse! And after the whole ambush-with-the-heart-of-etheria plan you guys pulled off, I tried to get Glimmer to kill me!” That got Mermista to look up, slightly surprised.

“She didn’t though, as you can see.” Catra finished awkwardly, regretting saying that in front of the couple.

“Ahem,” Sea Hawk cleared his throat, trying to break the tension and spare Catra from feeling worse. “We should carry on, it’ll be dark soon,”

”Um yeah, we should go,” Mermista said quietly, glancing at Catra as she passed her.

Sea Hawk put his hand on Catra’s shoulder as he too walked past, whispering, “For what it’s worth, I’m glad Glimmer didn’t… you know,” He gave her a kind smile, squeezing her shoulder once reassuringly before moving forward.

Catra realised that she had moved to hold herself in a tight grip, and retracted her claws from her upper arms, glad to see that she hadn’t broken the skin yet. She turned to follow the other two when she caught a strange whiff.

”Guys wait,”

Mermista turned, “What now Catra. I get that you were depressed and hurting, but you can’t just-“

”Shut up.” The cat-girl held up her hand, eyes unfocused as she sniffed at the air again - it seemed familiar, but she didn’t know why.

”You can’t tell me what to do!”

”Dearest, please.” Sea Hawk reached out to the princess, placing a placating hand on her arm. He was staring at Catra, and could tell something was wrong. Mermista didn’t seem to notice though.

”You too Sea Hawk? Are you serious?!”

Catra interrupted her again, “Mermista, something isn’t right. There’s this weird smell around here and I don’t like it.”

It was at that point that the girl realised that she couldn’t hear any animals nearby, not a single thing. “It’s too quiet,”

”Ugh you’re being paranoid, just get walking, we still need to get those supplies.” She moved to delve deeper into the forest.

”No!” Catra yelled as the scent suddenly clicked in her mind, “It’s knockout gas! We had it in the Horde, it’s nearly oderless, we need to leave now before we inhale too much,”

Even as she said the words she knew it was already too late, the world had started to sway as she swiftly ran over to the couple, half dragging them back away from the gas.

It was at that moment that a group of three people equipped with gas masks jumped out from the cover of the trees, brandishing Horde-issued stun batons and guns.

“Well well well, if it isn’t Force Captain Catra and her new princess crew.”

Catra did not have time for this, but she battled her body’s incessant call for sleep and managed to quip back,

”I do believe that title is outdated by now, have you not been kept up to date? The Horde is finished!”

The woman who had addressed her growled in anger, pointing her stun baton at the feline. 

“The Horde will rise again, with or without you, mutt. But I am enjoying seeing you struggle against the effects of sleeping gas, I have to admit.”

”Who are you?!” Catra tried to keep a threatening tone to her voice, ignoring how she couldn’t feel her legs anymore. Mermista and Sea Hawk were already passed out at her sides.

”Aww, you don’t remember me? It’s your old pal Grimace!”

Oh shit.

Grimace was one of the old force captains from the Horde, she had been a real bitch to Catra since childhood. She always pointed out to Shadow Weaver when she made mistakes in training, even suggesting punishments for the feline which were often executed sooner or later. When Catra was promoted, Grimace was furious, and protested against it. As a result, Catra had used her newfound powers as Second-in-command to demote her, sending her into battle as a foot soldier.

”Oh joy we meet again.” Catra laid the sarcasm on thick, trying to hide her increasing panic.

”I can’t wait to bring you to your knees, begging for mercy,” The glint in Grimace’s eyes screamed for Catra to run, but she couldn’t leave the others, she wasn’t the same girl that she had been 3 years ago.

”And I can’t wait to hug the ghost of Shadow Weaver when I get home! Oh sorry, I thought we were saying things that will never be true.”

With that, Catra punched Grimace hard and fast in the ribs, avoiding the stun baton in her hand with ease. She ducked, Grimace’s fist missing her face by inches, and whipped her legs around, taking the horde sympathiser’s knees out from under her. Catra kicked Grimace’s stun weapon into her own hands, electrocuting her for good measure and then spun around to swing it at the other two soldiers, who had only now started to charge at her.

They were no match for the ex-second-in-command, and she made quick work of knocking them down, zapping them and slashing her claws. She made sure to miss important blood vessels though, she didn’t want to add extra murders to the list of guilt.

When the two goons started to retreat, Grimace had no choice but to follow them. She did send a death glare back at Catra though.

“You will see me again Force Captain, and next time, you won’t get away unscathed.”

Catra didn’t really care too much about the threat at that moment, and as soon as they were out of sight, limping off into the trees to who-knows-where, she collapsed onto the floor.

Her vision was blurred and as she gave in to sleep after fighting it off for so long, she hoped that they would not come back before she woke up.

————

Mermista stirred slowly, rolling over in her bed to look at her clock, wondering what time it was. Her bed seemed really uncomfortable today, and when she opened her eyes she saw why.

She was on the forest floor, and had been knocked out by Horde sleeping gas. Right.

Bolting upright, she expected to have to fight some stupid Horde scum, but was shocked to see no one other than her boyfriend and Catra were there.

Wait, was that blood on the floor?

Is that blood on Catra’s claws??

What is going on?!

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like she was going to get answers soon, as both of her companions were snoring softly.

Mermista went to shake Sea Hawk awake, and he snorted, sitting up drearily.

”Good morning dearest-“

”Wake up Sea Hawk!” He jumped in surprise, looking at his surroundings cautiously.

”What happened?” 

“I don’t know ok? I woke up and saw you and Catra unconscious. The last thing I remember is some Horde shits jumping through the bushes,” They both looked over at Catra, and Meemista analysed her sleeping body.

Nothing seemed to be wrong with her, but there was definitely blood on her hands and claws. It wasn’t coming from her however.

”Do you think she fought those guys who jumped on us?”

The idea was crazy, Catra would never do that right? She would never protect Mermista and Sea Hawk. They hated each other. So why was that the only logical explanation?

————

Catra was finally waking on her own now, and blinked the sleep out of her eyes, rubbing them tiredly.

“Ugh why is it so dark now?”

It was true, night had fallen in the time it took them to come to their senses.

”Catra, what the fuck happened?” She turned to look at Mermista and Sea Hawk, and her eyes widened in remembrance.

”Oh,” She sat up, crossing her legs in preparation to tell them.

”So, it was basically an old Force Captain called Grimace who tried to take us out. She’s always hated me, but she probably hates me even more since I demoted her for insubordination. So I think she was probably just trying to get revenge on me. She said something like ‘I can’t wait to bring you your knees begging for mercy’, I can’t remember clearly.”

They looked shocked at this explanation, but Mermista shook her head in disbelief, “Ok, so you pissed off someone in the Horde, not a surprise. But why is there blood on the ground, and on your hands, and why are you still here?”

Catra looked confused then, tilting her head at Mermista. “Huh. What do you mean?”

”Why didn’t you leave us if we were unconscious, run away from this stupid Force Captain and her goons?”

Catra still appeared confused. She spoke hesitantly, not sure what was going to set Mermista off, “Because you’re part of my team. I wouldn’t leave you alone and defenceless, at least, not anymore.” She turned away, feeling guilty for letting others get hurt it the past.

”And there’s blood everywhere because I fought them, and used my claws.” She whipped around again, rushing to say, “But don’t worry, I made sure to not fatally wound any of them, I avoided the important arteries, so don’t think I murdered anyone, I didn’t I swear!”

Sea Hawk was the one to reach out to calm Catra down, pulling her into a side hug while he said, “We believe you Catra, thank you for looking out for us, we might not be here if you didn’t.”

Catra was trying to surreptitiously wipe away a few tears, when Mermista finally spoke.

”Thanks for not leaving us to die Fur-ball, that was pretty cool of you.” She proceeded to punch Catra’s shoulder, “But we are still not friends,” She was smiling a little bit though, so Catra wasn’t too concerned.

”Right,” Catra continued, “I think that since we are now aware that there are Horde soldiers in the area, it would be unsafe to continue trying to collect the supplies. And also I’m tired and I want to see Adora, so can we go home?” She sounded like a whiny child when she asked that question, and the other two chuckled.

”Yeah sure, let’s go home,”