Chapter Text
“Sorry Catra,” Scorpia presses her claws into the data disk despite the pleas of her dear friend. There's an awkward silence as she grunts and the disk stays in one piece.
“What’s this thing made of!?” She yells at the technology and shakes it in her grasp.
The disk is just flung around, even dropped by accident, but nothing happens. It was like a deadly frisbee ripping through the air with the potential to change this battle in an instant. The cries of the snow monsters echo from outside and cause a rumbling to erupt from the ground and up their spines like a shivering blossom of shock. Scorpia’s mouth goes to a thin line and a blink later, she turns her gaze to Catra.
“So that didn’t work out? Hmmm?” She snickers, holding it in her hand like a prized jewel. The ceiling crashes down as the creatures peak through, hissing at their newfound prey.
“I wonder what would happen if I just..” she nudged the intoxicated Adora, who immediately locked eyes with the sparkly bright sword, and she picked it up and admired the glow. Her eyes followed the red veins trail up her arm in awe, before feeling a jolt of pain strike down her spine. The pleas of her friends are drowned out by her own agony as her ears are filled with static.
“Loud..” She murmurs, the screeches of the monsters enraging her and before anyone could process it, the creatures were split in two. The whirring of the machines is the only sound in the room for a moment longer. She-Ra turns over her shoulder, her eyes a dismal gloom before quickly turning to blind aggression as she sprints towards them. A flash of crimson covers their sight as Glimmer's arm is quickly slit, enough to hurt, but not enough to kill from bleeding out. She lets out a yelp before firing sparkles directly at her opposer, but not quite landing them. Bow quickly tries to subdue his violent friend, holding one of his thick arrows against her neck, trying to pull her back. He’s quickly thrown off as he has to quickly dodge multiple strikes, his quiver slipping off his back. Sea Hawk tries to distract her, but her targets are set, after all, he’d dare to fight her? He gets knocked against a wall, as her sword presses against his neck as she growls and hisses as he struggles to keep it from getting any closer. The warm breath of his friend- enemy- inched closer as he felt the discomfort of the sword. A look of confliction shoots through Bow’s eyes before he looks up to Glimmer, just as she picks up his quiver.
“Glimmer, Shoot!”
Shock spreads in her expression, but as she watches the blade dig deep enough to draw blood, she quickly pulls the arrow back in the bow, and fires. It strikes into the base of She-Ra’s shoulder as she screeches, all too similar to those snow monsters, almost like a siren. An animalistic siren. As a crimson ichor drips from the feather of the arrow, her form suddenly shakes violently as she collapses. Behind her, Catra, holding the strongest looking taser they’d ever seen, with a smirk unlike any other.
“Today just keeps getting better.” Her smile drops when she sees She-Ra’s hand on her ankle. She is rapidly pulled to the ground alongside the shivering demi-god and her peering red eyes. With a yelp, Catra scratches her and quickly leaps to her feet, her ear twitching when she hears the tearing of fabric. Sea Hawk is tying a part of his coat onto Glimmer’s wound, to at least try and stop the bleeding. Then another sound fills her ear. Horde soldiers storm the room, as electricity is shot towards her direction as she hears a scream more impossible than the last, it was layered, like there were multiple people screaming at once, their throats drying from every second more.
Scorpia Snitched, echoed throughout her brain. Hordak would be furious that they didn’t get the tech they wanted AND called for back-up.
But, what they have here, would change the war, would turn the tides so far in their favor. Not just because she’s their hero, their protector. But because she was their friend. As the blonde was finally out of commission, multiple soldiers picked up her sword, and her unconscious dripping body as she transformed back to Adora. Adora, with red veins all up her arms and almost her neck. Catra plucked the arrow from her shoulder and threw it aside, not even looking back at the wound to cover it. It was a mild fascination, how fast would this heal? Would it even heal in time? Or would the rest of the life drain out of her old friend and solve all of her problems? In the back of her mind a slight flash of guilt makes its voice heard before being drowned out by interest. She jumps into the back of the van, ignoring the Rebellion’s concerns yelling towards their unconscious friend.
“Scorpia, make sure we aren’t followed,” Catra doesn’t even turn around to see if Scorpia heard her and continues forward. She hears an exhale of air behind her, almost a sigh, as heavy footsteps move the opposite direction. Catra only then turns around to see the Rebellion, completely swarmed, and a slight flinch from Scorpia after hearing Glimmer scream for the safety of her friend.
Adora’s a Horde soldier, she can handle it, princess. Her lips upturned as she sat by her knocked out, laying down, friend. The doors to the van slam shut and so do the cries of Adora’s inferior friends as the vehicle departs. Catra’s eyes looked down and brushed a strand of hair that was so close to her mouth, it was almost being breathed in. Speaking of breathing, hers hadn’t slowed down. Even in her sleep, Adora couldn’t catch a break, hmm?
“So you’re still saying I can’t dissect her, right?” Entrapta peaks over. Catra blinks. She completely forgot Entrapta was here, she was so lost in the moment, the adrenaline. But still, even after being Adora’s enemy, she wasn’t quite sure if she was okay with that. She disregarded the fact she had only moments earlier thought about watching her bleed out across the cold grey concrete. Their relationship is complicated okay?
“Ehh, see what Hordak says.” Catra murmurs, it’s not like Hordak would care enough to answer Entrapta about this, so that was a safe answer. Safer than getting defensive and seeming like there was any care in her brain. Besides, he’s not exactly a fan of her, he wouldn’t put the effort of studying a person who can transform an ancient, almost holy being of power. Nothing to worry about, not like she ever worried. Entrapta would probably forget what she said by the time they got there, she wasn’t the listening type. When the horde of vans (haha get it?) stopped at their base after a long while, she heard the doors release pressure and open, as she picked up Adora herself. It wasn’t out of concern, more like making sure Hordak would see what she brought, that it was absolutely worth his time and that nobody else tried to take the credit for her work. Scorpia grabs the sword and Entrapta grabs the disk as Catra shoos the soldiers off to their posts. Ignoring the hushed comments from those grunts, she stepped into his room, completely disregarding the fact that Scorpia and Entrapta followed close behind. They’re below her and didn’t have the strength to contribute to this new science project.The creepy imp baby peered down from the vents before mimicking “Catra,” in Adora’s voice.
Like a mockingbird, “Adora, Adora, Adora, Adora,” the name does not even sound like a real word after a while. Catra scoffs and continues, pushing past all the decades old machinery, messes scattering the ground, and a scent of doom, but continuing her stride straight to Hordak. He immediately turns around with a grimace, and it turns even darker when he sees Adora in her hands. Before he could scold her for disobeying his orders and doing what Shadow Weaver wanted,
“You wanted tech?” she quickly remarked,
“I have your tech, Hordie.”
Entrapta butts in, “Well, technically half since it’s the sword which allows all this to happen, and she's not exactly technology, I thought you knew this, Catra?”
Catra grumbles, “Yes Entrapta, we all know that already.”
“So you plan to let this traitor walk our halls again with the power to tear it all down, instead of just bringing the sword on its own?” Hordak's deep voice echoes through his makeshift office, his eyes squinting at her force captain who didn’t show nearly as much hesitation as she normally had when being lectured.
“I found a way to deal with our biggest problem, pitting it against the rebellion, dishing out exactly what they did to us, just more.. Berserk.” Catra's eyes turned towards the sleeping, still shaking slightly from the electricity, Adora.
“That’s the simplest way to put it I suppose.. But- but! The data disk basically infects both She-Ra and Adora, causing one to go crazy-angry and the other to be in a drunken state, but yes this logically would cause her to not be able to go to the other side in any way, shape, or form!” Entrapta says all in one breath, quickly heaving for air after her whole speech.
“You didn’t have to dumb it down, I think the big bad guy understanded it immediately.” Catra sighed through her sentence, rubbing her temples in annoyance. Without a word, Hordak grabs the sword and the data disk from their grasps and touches them together, watching the disk grow veins and attach itself to the blue opal looking stone in the middle of her weapon. It almost pulsated as it fused into the sword, wrapping tighter into its materials. Adora’s eyes blink open and sparkle as she looks at the glow of the sword, her expression being mesmerized.
“Woaah, is that mine?” She turns up to stare at her best friend with just as much joy she had when they were kids. Adora’s arm outstretches towards the tip of the blade with small hiccup giggles. Catra quickly pulls her back and states,
“We don’t have a way to control her crazed form, and I doubt you’d want to deal with her destroying everything in this room.”
Her doubt in the same soldiers that took Adora down a few minutes earlier didn’t reassure her.
“If this fails, anything that is done to your hero by me, will be done to you.” His voice booms directly through Catra’s concerned rambling, as one of the Hordes bots swipes Adora from her arms. A sudden coldness filled her body as she was ordered out of the room, her fate of her friend unknown. The steel door closed tight, as that faint concern in the back of her mind started to grow and take over her thoughts.
“Thought Adora was still the enemy.”
Lionne walks over with her arms crossed, beside Rogelio and Kyle.
“She is.” Catra lets out a hiss with no room for debate.
“But leaving her alone with Hordak?” Her eyes peer at the door and back at Catra, “Even we know that’s a bad idea, and you’re just okay with that?”
“It’s fine, haven’t you learned to trust your force captain by now?” Her heterochromic eyes sneered. Kyle opens his mouth, but keeps it shut after Rogelio lets out a small grunt.
“Even if we are enemies, you sure are okay with throwing her in death's way!” Lionne raises her voice, showing more concern then Catra allows herself to.
“You’re letting this new role get in your head, you can’t just do anything you want-” Lionne tries as Catra interrupts, “Shut up. You are below me, you’d never understand.”
“Guess not. But don’t come to us when this guilt tears you down below us.” The trio leaves, leaving the cat to ponder her own choices. As she stepped to her quarters, she buried any feelings, just like she was taught to as a kid, rolling up in her flat mattress. Her tail curled around her leg as she reminded herself.
Adora is my enemy. I don’t care about her, and she never cared about me. With a sigh, she lets the sleep take her, as her eyes shut. Even if that’s true, this way, we can spend our lives together, just as it was supposed to be.
Artwork by oamandapanda! Go follow them on tumblr!! https://www.tumblr.com/oamandapanda?source=share
