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Should... should Adora know where she is?
There's the quiet noise of a waterfall, somewhere, but Adora can't see it, so it must be outside those beautiful arched windows. The glass is stained and frosted; all it lets in is light, although this hallway feels more dead and empty than airy.
There's nowhere to go but up the staircase in front of her - and, when Adora starts walking, she notices she's in a long dress. Looks down, and her hair, loose, tumbles over her shoulders: the dress is white and gossamer-delicate, and perhaps a little too low-cut for Adora's liking.
But there's not much she can do about that. So she starts climbing the stairs. The walls are frescoed in a style she feels she ought to recognise, showing figures: one short, wearing a cape and holding a staff; one tall beside the first, wielding a bow; and maybe ten others, but Adora loses interest in favour of what's waiting at the top of the stairs.
A cavernous, oddly dark room given the light that should be spilling in from the hallway. It's Horde, clearly, but not a part of the Fright Zone Adora's familiar with. Most is scattered with tools and parts and scrap metal - but there's a completely empty space in the middle, and that registers as wrong. Very wrong. So Adora goes closer-
- a blinding flash of light appears as her sandal hits the top step, and then the floor's crumbling underneath her, and she's falling; she looks down but she can't see where she's going -
- she drops back into the hallway again. Wait - no; a different room; architecture much the same, though. No doors, and there's no waterfall sound here. No indication, actually, that there's anything at all outside the windows, except for the light coming through them.
A pretty tea-table, in the middle of the room - two chairs, and set out with little sandwiches and cupcakes. For lack of anything better to do, Adora goes and sits down. Her appetite, for once, fails her, though.
After a few minutes' decision-making, she tears a strip of fabric from her hem to tie her hair in a ponytail: it's a shame to ruin such a nice dress, she thinks, but worth it for the familiarity. No, wait - practicality, is what she'd meant to say.
There's no mirror, but she can check her reflection in a spoon. She looks tired.
"Hey, Adora."
Adora jumps. And then relaxes, because she knows that voice. She likes that voice.
As casual as if she's been here forever, Catra strolls around from behind Adora. She's wearing a red shirt, pinned with a golden wing - Adora doesn't recognise it, but it makes a blush rise in her cheeks anyway - and, over that, a white-and-gold jacket worn draped over one shoulder, and black trousers with a stripe of gold down each side. Her mask is missing.
"Aw, were you really waiting for me? You've gotta stop doing things like that. I might start thinking you like me."
She sits in the other chair, and puts a little blue cupcake on Adora's plate.
"What... where... are we?"
Adora brings a hand to the side of her face, to take off the glasses - this is probably a combat sim gone horribly wrong. But there's nothing there.
"Uh - y'know, Catra, uh - when I said I wasn't brain-damaged? Yeah, um..."
"Tch. Don't be stupid. Everything's perfect."
And Catra, herself, picks out a jam sandwich triangle, and starts to eat. Points against the this-isn't-real theory, then.
But it's always better to test these things thoroughly.
"Um, Catra, can you also see the pretty tea set? And the big windows? And th- Catra, there aren't any doors. Catra, I'm scared. I don't know how I got here. I don't know where I am."
Looking a mix of amused and irritated, Catra raises an eyebrow, and slowly finishes her sandwich while Adora keeps going. The amusement is morphing into fear, though.
"- I – I - Catra, are we - is this a Princess trick? Did we get captured? I don't - why aren't you freaking out? Why can't we see outside? - Catra, why aren't you scared? Are you real? Ca-"
Catra reaches across the table suddenly and slaps Adora.
"Ow!", Adora exclaims. "What was that for?"
"You were going crazy! I didn't know what to do!"
A quiet purr starts up, and Adora knows it's an apology.
"Look - everything's perfect. It's alright. Just stay with me, Adora, okay? I - I get that you're scared. But... everything's fine."
"Okay."
Adora takes a deep breath. She can't remember who taught her that, but it works. Calms her fluttering heart.
With one claw, Catra nudges the blue cupcake a bit closer to Adora.
"If you won't eat, I'll have no choice but to start a food fight, y'know."
But Adora's not hungry. She stands up, instead, and starts over to one of the windows.
"No.", Catra snaps. "What are you doing? Sit down. Stay here."
"I'm just going to see if I can -"
The blinding light from the stairs is back for just a millisecond, and when it clears, Adora's standing right in front of one of the windows, hand lifted up to touch it.
"- see outside."
Catra hisses. She's standing next to the tea-table, now, glowering at Adora - but her voice just sounds sad.
"Adora. Why can't you ever-"
The rest of what she's about to say is cut off when Adora touches the window - it's a little cooler than she'd expected - and the light returns.
Catra doesn't, to be perfectly honest, expect to open her eyes again. But she does.
Oh, and she's back here - the entryway, she supposes, to whatever afterlife this is? Her claw marks from the first time are gone, though. Hm. Maybe she's double-dead, or something. Typical, of course. That she ends up in double-hell. (Where Adora exists, obviously, and Adora will never choose her, obviously.)
The stupid boots are back, too, with their stupid little heels, but this time she manages not to fall over taking them off, and kicks them into the same corner she did last time. Scratches deep into the stone walls for good measure. That continues as she goes up the stairs: trailing her claws along, to ruin the faces on either side, because she's certain whoever these people are, she hates them.
At the top seems to be a shadowy forest. The Whispering Woods? Catra's heard bad stories about it. They almost feel like bad memories, but -
- as soon as she sets foot in the Woods, she's in the weird tearoom again. It's like being... teleported? Why? Catra's never been teleported.
Naturally, Adora's pacing already. Her hair's down. Pretty.
As Catra watches, the world flickers again, and Adora goes from one end of the room to the other instantly, still pacing. She seems confused for a moment, and then shakes her head. She doesn't seem to have noticed Catra, yet.
So Catra goes and sits down at the tea table, and picks out a dainty slice of red velvet and a daintier little fork, because she may be in hell but at least the catering's good.
A few rounds of pacing later, Adora finally stops and stares at Catra. She bites her lip.
"... Are you... real?"
"No fucking idea, Princess, but let's assume as to we're both real enough, or this is going to get very boring very fast."
(Princess? Where did that come from? Although it makes sense, Catra reasons, if Adora's going to dress like that. Yeah. That must be it.)
"Okay."
Adora starts pacing again.
"Okay, yeah, true. There's no way I can think of right now to actually verify reality, so we're just going to have to trust each others' judgment, and do you think I'm correct in assuming that, wherever we are, it's not real?"
"No fucking idea.", Catra repeats. "But, sure. Not real."
The little smile that says she has a plan appears on Adora's face.
"Okay! So that means we have to try and escape. So far we know that the windows cause problems. Any other ideas?"
"... Stop and chill for a moment? We've got eternity."
Under the table, Catra kicks the other chair's leg, so it scoots out invitingly. She puts a blue cupcake on Adora's plate - the same one she did before. Huh. This room must be resetting too, then, somehow.
"You don't know that, though."
Another flicker of the room - and Adora's suddenly leaning close to a window, squinting at it very hard, and half of Catra's cake is gone.
"Maybe if I punched it? I could break the glass?"
Catra rolls her eyes, and mutters, "Could break your hand."
"Worth it.", Adora decides, and draws her fist back, and-
She's pretty sure she did break her hand. Did, in the past tense, because she remembers the pain shooting through her little finger to her wrist, but it's barely an echo now.
Well, this, at least, puts her onto plan B - deliberately get sent back to the anteroom, and then see if there's a way out from here. She tears the same strip of fabric off her dress and puts up her hair again.
Turning around, now, she finally recognises the oddity here. Windows all around, and these are also impossible to see out of; no door; staircase in front, and the bit of floor she starts on is no bigger than a stair-landing. Real rooms don't get built like this.
She tries punching one of the windows here, just to see what happens, and it's the same - light, and she's at the beginning again. Ties her hair up again.
The next-most-interesting thing is the people on the walls, then. Adora goes up the stairs very slowly, examining each of the people for somebody - something, at least - that she knows.
It turns out mostly fruitless. There're a couple - the staff girl and the bow boy - that make her smile, for some reason, and a few - one tall figure with huge wings, another one holding the same staff as the girl but he's large with a beard, and one with ridiculously long pigtails - that make her instinctively nervous. She can't think why.
Perhaps she ought to punch the people: although, as soon as she raises an arm to test the hypothesis, the light flashes again, depositing her near the top of the staircase. She tries to step down, and it puts her back.
Might as well have a proper look at what she thinks might've been the Whispering Woods, then - although it turns out the scene's changed again. Its architecture actually matches that of the anteroom, this time: a huge throne room, completely empty, and clearly Princess-made, because the two thrones and the steps up to them are floating in mid-air, seemingly outdoor whatever building this is.
A way out!, Adora thinks, and sets to sprint forward and jump out of the missing wall - but she lands in the tearoom again.
Catra's here already. Adora hadn't known that was possible. It's definitely evidence towards her being real. She's at the table, tipping her chair back, building a stack out of miniature brownies.
"Don't do that. You'll fall.", Adora says automatically.
Catra flicks the tower of brownies, letting them tumble all over the table, and tips her chair back a little further in challenge.
It boils Adora's blood for a second, but - she doesn't know quite why, because that's how her best friend's always acted. Sure, she's as oppositional as they come, but Adora admired her for it, in a way. Admired? No, admires. Darn place is messing with her head.
"Okay. I've tried breaking the windows, in here and in the staircase room - d'you have a staircase room? Actually, how does this work for you? Break it down step by step."
The room flashes. Adora's sitting in the other chair, now. Singular blue cupcake on her plate.
Catra yawns, because apparently she left her sense of urgency back in the real world.
"Yeah, staircase room. It's got windows and shit. Painted people. And th-"
"Painted people? Who?"
"I dunno. Princesses, I think.", Catra shrugs. "There's one of 'em looks kinda like the pictures of the Queen of Bright Moon - big wings and so on."
A squeak escapes Adora.
"Okay! You've got the same people as me, then! I, uh - don't know what that means, but, uh - I mean, it's got to be good, right? And whatever’s at the top of the stairs, it -"
"- changes every time? Yep."
Catra counts off on her fingers.
"Weird Fright Zone room first time, Whispering Woods second time, Princessy room third time?"
"Yes!", Adora exclaims. "Okay, that's good! That has to be good. Okay. Okay - I definitely believe you're real. Right, now we just have to-"
Again, the room flashes - this time, it seems like nothing changes, but then Catra's chair falls backwards, with a yell of "Fuck!"
Adora hurries around the table to help Catra up.
"Well, see, that's why you don't tip your chair. Are you okay?"
"Yeah - ow, fuck - sure."
Catra bats Adora's hand away and sits up, rubbing her right arm.
"Any ideas as to why this place keeps glitching, or whatever it is?"
"Um - no, not especially."
It's a good question, though. And, as she wonders on it, it happens again - suddenly they're back sitting at the table. Adora just so happens to land up staring at the wing pin holding Catra's shirt closed. She looks away quickly, face burning for no discernible reason.
"But that'll, uh, it'll - yeah - probably explain itself while we try to escape?"
Catra's silent for a while. Musing, Adora thinks. She pulls up one of her knees and hugs it, and stares off into the middle distance when she finally talks.
"What if... we didn't. Try to escape. C'mon, Princess, don't try and tell me the Horde's better than this. We could just - we could just muck around forever in here."
Her ears flatten.
"Maybe we can try to escape when - when we're bored? But - you're not bored yet, are you?"
Adora wants to say no, of course not, why didn't I think of that, let's just stay – she wants Catra to be happy, she does - but something's stopping her.
"I... feel like something's wrong. In real life. Like, I - left something unfinished? Hey, you know I hate having homework not done."
"Nothing's wrong.", Catra insists. "Everything's perfect, Adora."
"It's not."
Adora has no idea where this conviction came from, but suddenly, she knows what she's saying is absolutely right.
"This world isn't real. I - I - I have to - there's people depending on me. I have to fix this."
Another flash of light. They're both standing up. Facing off, it seems more like.
"You have to? It's always the same with you, isn't it? You 'have to' do this, you 'have to' do that, you 'have to' do the right thing."
"Yeah, because I can't keep hurting people!"
Adora sidesteps a half-hearted claw swipe.
"The Horde is destroying Etheria, Catra! Wrecking kingdoms and cities and lives! Why can't you choose the right thing for once?"
"Why can't you choose for yourself for once?"
An elbow from Catra this time, and it knocks Adora into the wall, and the light comes back again.
Catra rips her stupid boots off. Tears the faces of the stupid painted Alliance. Sees a familiar cantina at the top of the stairs, but before she can reach it -
- the loop resets. Adora's not going to bother tying up her hair this time, but - when did the sound of the waterfall disappear? - the light comes through the windows first this time, bright pink and making a noise Adora can't describe, and in one flash she's halfway up the stairs with her hair done, and in another, she's at the top of them, staring for a moment at Catra's Northern Reach outpost before -
- the floor falls away underneath her, and she's back in the tearoom; Adora on the other side.
The tea table's gone - the floor's an inch deep in saltwater, and fuck, this really is hell, isn't it?
Tears spring to Catra's eyes, but she screams to drown them out.
"Why do you leave me? Every time?!"
"I never meant to leave you!", Adora yells back - glitches closer, only feet away, too close, still yelling because the air is screaming too now - "I - Catra, I-"
It strobes across the room, pink and bright and unyielding, but -
Adora hits the ground running. There's pieces of the walls missing, and a crack in the stairs she has to jump, but at the top of them is the Crystal Castle, and she tumbles through the floor to land in the control chair of Mara's ship, quickly pinned in place by Catra.
"It's because you hate me.", Catra snarls. "I 'had to' defect with you - I didn't. I 'had to' help you up - I let you fall. I 'had to' choose the right thing - I attacked you, I took Entrapta, I hurt your friends, I broke your planet. I 'had to' stop - I pulled the switch."
She grabs Adora's ponytail and pulls her head to face the side, seemingly just for the fun of it. Or because her voice has gone teary.
"I'm always the selfish one, and you're always the sacrifice."
Adora finally gathers the strength of will to push Catra away - and the world flashes again.
No walls; no windows; just pink light stretching upwards to infinity, and a bare white floor.
"I never hated you, either! I..."
There's a wind, now, in this not-real place, and it's sending her ponytail and dress and Catra's cape flapping around them.
"Please, Catra, I'm -" she hiccups - "I have to fix this. And I'm not asking you to come with me. But I just - I just want you to know that-"
Suddenly Catra's right there, holding both Adora's arms - not attacking, though.
"Please. Please, Adora, d- please don't. Don't be the one who has to fix everything. Please - can you - just this once, please, stay."
And... well - what can Adora do? She's got no instructions; no obstacle course; nobody to fight; nobody to heal.
No Sword - no She-Ra.
She messed up. If she hadn't got herself captured, the Horde couldn't've opened the portal. Heck, they couldn't if she hadn't found the Sword in the first place. If - if Light Hope hadn't brought her to Etheria at all... it might still be standing.
(She and Catra might still be together.)
Adora collapses into Catra's arms, and, while the portal closes in around them, they hold each other, shaking with sobs.
The colour of the light bleeding through Catra's eyelids changes: the pulsing pink is replaced with steady gold. Is that how death looks? It's nice enough, she thinks. Probably better than she deserves.
Then there's the - what? No, that's – that’s the feeling of Adora's sword, pressing against her back? But the Sword's in the portal; that's -
- impossible.
And somehow, there it is. Adora knows the Sword of Protection in her hand by now: the weight of it, and the feel of its magic, and the power that moves through her when she's about to transform.
So she lifts her hand and her impossible Sword to the sky, and whispers, "For the honour of Grayskull."
She-Ra flickers out instantly - too quick for Adora to know if she really was wearing something different, or she's just imagining things. The real Sword clatters to the ground a moment later. Adora follows it.
Catra seems caught staring at Adora in shock.
Not far away, Glimmer and Bow disentangle themselves from clinging onto each other and hurry over to Adora; Bow puts the Sword in his quiver, and each of them pull one of Adora's arms over their shoulders and help her to her feet.
She's stuck staring, too, though, as Hordak grabs Catra by the elbow and pulls her out of the sanctum. Catra doesn't put up any fight to it.
Then Perfuma and Mermista and Frosta are piling into the group hug; and Shadow Weaver says something, and Glimmer gives Adora the responsibility of her own bodyweight back, but Adora feels her knees give out.