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Catra grumbled as she finally stirred from her slumber. She wasn't sure when she'd decided to take a nap, but she wasn't complaining. However, as she woke up, she felt a horrible pain in her head. As her vision slowly came into view, the reason for her migraine became clear. She was hanging upside down, so all the blood was rushing to her head. Even Catra wouldn't have knowingly chosen to sleep in such a position like this. She gently tried to move her arms, but they were bound by something... warm. It felt solid to the touch, yet it didn't feel like it was rope or anything metal.
Looking down, or up in this case, Catra saw coils of solidified green energy having wrapped around her whole body. Things finally clicked in her head and she at last remembered. She hadn't taken a nap... someone had knocked her out. She'd just left Plumeria with Melog after her meditation session with Perfuma when all of a sudden, she felt something hit her in the back of the head and knocked her off Melog's back.
Just then, one of her captors noticed she was awake. The white-garbed form of a Horde Clone walked over to her, as several more clones gazed at her. It was honestly hard to count how many there were. It didn't help that they all looked exactly the same. At least the clones living in Dryl had started to dye their hair and change their eye colours to help tell each other apart.
"She's awake," the clone walking towards her coldly said, in the same monotone voice all the clones spoke in. Catra mumbled under her breath. Clones. Of course it had to be clones. Couldn't she have been captured by someone more fun? At least going a few rounds with Tung Lashor would have been somewhat fun.
As she looked around at the makeshift camp she had been brought to, Catra saw that Melog was nowhere near by. She'd likely gone off to find help, meaning it would only be a matter of time before Catra was rescued, assuming she had been knocked out for a while.
"It pains me to do this to one who was once considered beloved in our lord's sight, one who was an honoured sister," the clone who walked over to Catra said. "But you have been judged and justice must be dealt swiftly. A great wrong must be righted."
"Where am I?" Catra groaned.
"Not far from where we captured you," the clone answered. "We were surprised when you were so easily knocked out. We thought you might have put up more of a fight."
"Sorry to be disappointing," Catra snarked. "So go on then, what's this about? You wanna kill me for some stupid glorious revenge? Ransom me off?"
"You are bait to lure your lover, She-Ra, here," the clone explained. "We know she will do anything to save you and we will kill you if she doesn't co-operate. In exchange for your life, we will demand She-Ra use her powers to revive Horde Prime, to restore his spirit so he may chose one of us as a new vessel and take his vengeance against this deviant little world for causing his fall from grace. Then, me and my brothers can all be united in his glorious light once more!"
Catra had to laugh at that. Stars, these clones cracked her up with their utter nonsense. "You seriously think Adora can do that?! Wow, you guys really are as dumb as you look. Then again, you needed big bad Horde Prime telling you what to do and he wasn't exactly the brightest either. I mean look at him, the bastard got killed by a big buff blonde in a tiara. How embarrassing for him!"
"You will watch your tongue!"
"Oooh, did I touch a nerve there?"
The clone then grabbed Catra's hair and yanked her forward. "You will pay dearly for blaspheming our lord's name!"
Wincing in pain, Catra glared at the clone. "You know, I almost feel sorry for you guys. Prime is dead, you don't have to be doing this. You can go to Dryl, with the rest of your brothers. Hordak and Entrapta can probably help you find something better to do with your lives."
Pushing Catra away, the clone marched back. "Do not speak that traitor's name! He claims to be a leader for our kind, but he is not our true lord and master! He was the one who cast Prime from his throne in the stellar heavens, before your She-Ra then finished the Great One off! He shall burn in the flames of oblivion just as you will!"
"And that level of stupid ignorance is why you're failing miserably at this! Your big plan is literally begging on your knees for She-Ra to bring Prime back! Then again, I'm hardly surprised, you guys are just yet more rejects from your already limited gene pool. You're so genetically inferior that you're all just destined to die off, which probably wouldn't be a bad thing, at least you'll be making room for the actually intelligent members of your species to better themselves, to move past lesser evolved trash like you!"
That felt very therapeutic for Catra, she wasn't going to lie. Perhaps she'd get something out of this yet.
Clearly enraged, the clone pointed his blaster at Catra's head, ready to squeeze the trigger. "I should kill you right now!"
"Go ahead, do us both a favour! At least then I won't have to hear any more of your deranged babbling!"
The clone let out a roar and squeezed the trigger, but one of his brothers grabbed his arm at the last moment, the laser blast only just missing the tree that Catra was hanging from. "Brother, calm yourself! You know this is how she acts. She is trying to provoke us into letting our guard down."
Pulling himself away from his brother, the clone leader sighed. "Fine... but the end will come for you, little sister. It's almost too bad your Krytisian pet managed to escape. We would have enjoyed making that disgusting creature suffer. But at least it will warn She-Ra of your whereabouts and bring your allies right to us. And as for you, I doubt even you could break through those energy chains."
Actually, Catra could break out at any time she wanted, but honestly, she was enjoying riling up these idiots. And the fun had only just begun, when she heard the sound of a horse neighing from the sky above. Catra looked to the air, as did the clones as Swift Wind soared above them with Adora riding on his back.
"The calvary has arrived, clone scum!" Swift Wind bellowed heroically.
Adora summoned her sword and raised it above her head, before leaping off her steed's back. "FOR THE HONOUR OF GRAYSKULL!" Her body was enveloped in golden, rainbow light, as she was transformed from her regular self into the white and gold armoured form of She-Ra, landing on the ground with a mighty shockwave that knocked a couple clones back. She stood up, sword in hand, Swift Wind landing at her side.
"She-Ra!" The clone leader exclaimed, pointing his weapon at her. All the clones similarly pointed their weapons at Adora, the white-faced aliens all circling her and her winged steed. "You are surrounded and outnumbered! If you value the life of your lover, you will surrender to us."
"You guys clearly got your poor math skills from Horde Prime," Adora remarked. "Because you just miscalculated." Just then, in a flash of sparkling light, Glimmer, Bow, Scorpia and Melog appeared to reinforce Adora.
Glimmer's hands ignited in sparkling magic, smirking. "Now we can either do this for the easy way or the hard way. I'd prefer the latter, it's more fun!"
"Well isn't this nostalgic!" Bow added.
"For my Wildcat!" Scorpia let out a battle cry.
"Get them!" The clone leader ordered.
Swinging in her restraints, Catra eagerly watched as her friends kicked butt. Adora leapt into the air, using her sword to slice through a clone's blaster, watching it explode. Glimmer leapt into another clone's face with a sparkling punch, blinding him before blasting him down with her magic. Bow fired his net arrows, tying several up in a net, pinning them to the three next to Catra.
"Not so funny when you're on the receiving end, is it?" Catra snarked at the imprisoned clones.
Scorpia tossed one of the clones into another tree before stinging another one with her tail. Adora and Glimmer rallied to her side, the blonde smirking as the rest of the clones charged at them. "Let's show these guys they messed with the wrong princesses!" Adora declared.
Holding out her sword, Adora's body glowed with her rainbow aura, as Glimmer and Scorpia's own princess aura's activated, Glimmer exploding with pink light while Scorpia radiated a bright crimson. Glimmer and Scorpia held out their hands, each concentrating an energy orb in their hands from their respective powers. Adora's magic flowed through her sword, creating a golden sphere too. With a furious battle cry, all three Princesses fired their magic in a combined triple beam of gold, pink and red light that utterly sent the remaining clones flying, taking them out for good.
"That was fun!" Glimmer panted as she fell to her knees, Bow rushing to her side to help her up.
With the battle over, Adora transformed back to her regular self and rushed over to Catra. "Catra, are you okay? Melog ran all the way back to Plumeria and Scorpia called us. We came as fast as we could."
"Did they hurt you, Wildcat?" Scorpia wondered.
Catra reassured the two of them by quickly and easily breaking free of the energy chains with ease, landing down on the ground. Melog quickly rushed over to Catra, licking her cheek. Catra giggled, petting Melog, mentally telling her alien companion she was indeed alright. "I'm alright, girls, thanks for asking."
Adora then blinked. "Wait hang on, you just broke out of those? Were you... ever actually in any real danger?"
"Oh Stars no!" Catra remarked smugly. "I could have broken out of that and kicked all those clones butts anytime I wanted. They're really not that tough when you know how to take them out. But I thought it would be much more fun if I just sat back and waited till you guys saved me. And honestly, it's hot when you beat people up trying to save me." She winked at Adora, making the blonde blush. "Especially that big stupid princessy finishing move! You just love showing off, don't you?"
Glimmer giggled. "You know you don't need to get captured just as an excuse to watch Adora fight, right?"
"But Adora being my princess in shining armour makes it all the more fun, Sparkles!" Catra teased, before she then leapt into Adora's arms. "Now, if she doesn't, would my beautiful girlfriend carry me home? I've had too much excitement for one day."
Giving Catra one of her dorky grins, Adora nodded. "Whatever my kitty wants!" She replied, before she gave Catra a deep loving kiss.