Chapter Text
The dark corridors of the Fright Zone were illuminated with an awful green light that always forced Catra’s eyes. She had great night vision but having to use it constantly for so many years gave her a headache from time to time.
Catra was returning to her quarters, she had a long day and wanted to sleep for the rest of the day. When she opened the door, Shadow Weaver was there with an expression of disappointment.
“I don’t have time for this, go away.” Catra growled.
Suddenly, the feline girl was suspended in the air by Shadow Weaver’s magic, tiny lighting waves shocking her from time to time. It didn’t hurt – Catra had taken even worst shocks from her magic – but the insisting electricity was slowly burning her fur.
“You let Adora and the Bright Moon princess escape.”
Catra barely could hear Shadow Weaver’s words, she didn’t care anymore. Her plan had work at the beginning, capturing Adora’s new friends attracting her to the Fright Zone to rescue them.
But Catra didn’t feel good with her success. Well, she did, until she saw Shadow Weaver torture the princess of Bright Moon with her magic and treated to erased Adora’s memories of her time with the Rebellion. She wanted Adora back – to things go back to how they used to be – but not like this. Catra wanted to be Adora’s choice to be back to The Horde. To her.
So, in the end, she gave Adora her sword back. She let her and the princess go, knowing well that if she got caught, Catra would be in trouble. But who cares? Adora hates her, the person who was supposed to take care of her prefer to torture her on a practically daily basis and her squad mates couldn’t care less about her.
She was alone, like she always had been. Even with Adora by her side, she only could laugh and experiment a little of happiness until Shadow Weaver appeared and Adora made her feel like how she treated Catra was her own fault.
Sure, she has Scorpia, but Catra thinks she just put up with her because no one else gives a shit about Scorpia and Catra is the only one who tolerated her.
“This mistake won’t go unnoticed by Lord Hordak. You can’t escape this one.” Shadow Weaver says. Catra couldn’t see her face thru her mask, but she could guess but her tone that she was smiling. “You know, the punishment for treason is death or exile. It doesn’t matter which you will be getting, I would finally be free of you. Although, I would be praying to be death, and ask to execute you myself.”
And with those last words, Shadow Weaver snapped her fingers and two soldiers took her away from her room. She was dragged into one of the reinforced cells, where just hours ago Adora’s archer friend was being held too.
This wasn’t the first time Catra was in the Horde’s prison, Shadow Weaver liked to through her there when she was little and ‘misbehaving’. This reinforced cell was actually made specifically after younger Catra had broken free with her claws from the cell she was in.
Shadow Weaver also treated to take Catra’s claws forever after that incident. Adora had cried so much for her not to do it.
She passed what looked like hours in there. Some random older cadets went and go, just to look at her locked up and mock of her misery. Lots of people hated Catra with or without reason, and they found funny to finally see her in chains like the animal all though she was.
She didn’t saw Scorpia on all her time in there.
Maybe she had enough of Catra and didn’t bare to spare even a look to her now. Maybe she was repulsed because Catra had had let some rebels escape. Even Scorpia would have her tolerance limits.
At some point, someone came to take her to Hordak.
The throne room appeared before her eyes. It was made in the same green metal than the rest of the Fright Zone and illuminated in the same disgusting green light. The place was spacious but right now, it was full of people. All there to see Catra’s sentence.
They were shouting at her, throwing her things like broken stun batons and brown ration bars. You shouldn’t be wasting resources like this, idiots Catra thought.
She could see Scorpia there between the people. She didn’t look like she hated Catra. Actually, she looked surprise to see her there but then, realization showed all over her face and Scorpia looked sad and desperate. Catra tried to calm her with a small smile, but she couldn’t get to fake a smile right now.
The guards who took her from her prison left her in front of Hordak and forced her to kneel and keep her head down, grabbing her from her hair. The room went silent.
“I had been noticed of a traitor between our quarters. This disloyal animal, someone who was named Force Captain even when she didn’t deserve it. She betrayed my trust and our cause.” He said with venom in his voice.
Hordak made a dramatic pause in his monologue so he could give a few seconds to his soldiers to assimilate every word and made them angrier. Having someone to punish once in a while normally improves their blind loyalty to him.
“She not only let the princesses enter our home, also let them go unscratched. She let go of the Princess of Bright Moon and She-Ra, who were held capture by our Second in Command.”
Catra didn’t thought people could hate her more than they already did. Some of the hybrids were low growling, unable to contain their fury.
“Also, I heard you knew the real identity of She-Ra – an ex-Force Captain named Adora – and didn’t tell anything to your Commander Officer.” When Hordak said that, Catra forced her head up to looked Shadow Weaver in the eyes. Or well, her mask. She knew Adora was She-Ra. She knew and decided to throw Catra to the wolfs, an extra reason for Hordak to kill her “She let them go, let them be free to continue and try to stop the noble mission of the Horde to free Etheria.”
Hordak’s voice resonated through the throne room. Catra could feel the hate radiating from the people behind her. It didn’t matter what she had accomplish in the past, it never mattered. The Horde only cared about her mistakes.
“This traitor before me is no better that any of the Rebellion sympathizers and because of this, she will be punished.”
The people growled at her back, asking for an execution or torture. Catra lowered her ears, felling so small before so much hate. She didn’t want to see the people shouting for her death, but she risks a glance to look for Scorpia.
Scorpia looked furious but fortunately, it wasn’t directed to her. Catra never saw the big gal angry and it was terrifying. She was always so sweet and careful with everything and everyone that it was infuriating.
In a corner behind Hordak, Shadow Weaver was looking at her. She looked… ecstatic. It was a weird feeling in the witch. She had dream of this moment, probably would have kill Catra the moment Adora deserted if Hordak didn’t had given her the position of Force Captain. But now, nothing was stopping her to finally exterminate her. Nor Adora, nor Hordak.
Catra was screwed.
With a gesture of his hand, Hordak calm down the angry crowd to predict his judgement.
“I sentence the traitor to death.” The multitude cheered and something in Catra’s stomach dropped. “Tomorrow at sunrise, ex Force Captain Catra will be executed. Take her to her cell.” The soldiers cheered louder.
Catra contained her tears. She was going to die. She was going to die. Well, at least she did one good thing. Gosh, she wished she had gone with Adora when she asked her to. What did she accomplish anyway? She wanted to prove herself, to show everyone that she could do things without Adora, that she was good enough.
But she was never going to be good enough.
Back in her prison cell, Catra made herself a ball in the farthest corner and tried to fell asleep. She knew nobody would be bringing her food or water, she wasn’t worth the waste of resources.
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Adora went to the Whispering Woods, looking for the weird structure she found the first time she met Bow and Glimmer to look for some answers. Something weird was happening with Glimmer and she needed to learn how to heal her using She-Ra’s powers.
They tried to help Glimmer before but Adora couldn’t do it. She felt so bad and frustrated, what’s the point in turning into a giant glowing warrior princess if she can’t use her powers when she needed them?
Also, she wasn’t training as much as she used to do. She wasn’t training enough, she wasn’t strong enough to save them all and now Entrapta was…
She needed to find the person that appeared in her dream when she found the sword and fix things. She was supposed to be She-Ra, the legendary warrior that would save the Rebellion and Etheria from the Horde. Adora felt so useless.
“Okay, I think I’m going the right way… I guess.”
The woods were silent today, that was unusual. This forest was magical, one of the main reasons the Horde had had trouble attacking Bright Moon in the past. They changed frequently and could make someone crazy and disappear forever.
Adora had turned into She-Ra in case some monster appeared and so she could move faster but it wasn’t helping her a lot right now.
She got lost in the Whispering Woods, she didn’t know how to find the big creepy building and she was running out of patience. Adora had a lot going on in her head: Entrapta, Glimmer, the Princess Alliance, training…. Catra.
Catra gave Adora her sword back and let her and Glimmer escape the Fright Zone. After taking the effort of kidnaping Bow and Glimmer she just let them go. Adora didn’t understand why.
Maybe this was a signal that Catra still care for Adora. She wanted to win but not make people suffered. Maybe she didn’t want me back and let me go so Shadow Weaver couldn’t erased my memories Adora sadly thought.
After a couple of minutes, Adora appeared in a clearing. But, this looked familiar…
“Is that the same rock I saw before?” And with that, Adora reached her limit and started to shell. “Why? I’ve been going on a straight line! Aagghh.” She took her sword and broke the bolder in half. “Just let me fix this. Please, I- I can’t let anyone else get hurt.”
She waited for someone, something, in the woods to answer her. She was alone, lost, and desperate.
“Fine. You win.” Adora turned back from her regular form. “You want me to be weak?” She threw the sword to the side. “Well, I am. And I’m afraid.” Adora sat on the grass with her knees pressed against her chest. “Because I’m not good at any of this.”
A few seconds pass in complete silence. Adora was about to start crying when a shinning blue glow appeared on the other side of some bushes.
Adora picked up her Sword and went directly to it. Behind those bushes, in front of her, was the structure she had entered with Bow and Glimmer all those months ago, shinning like a big beacon.
Once she was over her surprise, Adora started to run towards the big building hoping she will finally find some answers. Maybe healing Glimmer wasn’t hard and she could return to Bright Moon not feeling like a failure.
The whole room was illuminated with a soft white light this time and she could see all around. The place felt strange, there was a crystal platform in the middle and in the rest of the room were pointy crystals like decoration. The room was unnecessary big too.
She slowly went to the platform, unsure of her surroundings and suddenly remembering the big spiders that appeared when the system identified someone in here. Adora was too tired for a fight right now, she just wanted to heal her friend.
“Hello?” She shouted, but nothing happened. She took out the Sword like showing it to the empty space around her. “I carry the sword of She-Ra, and I’ve come here for help. Is anyone there?”
Suddenly, the image of a tall blue lady with long hair appeared in front of her, startling Adora. She noticed it wasn’t a real person because she could pass her hand thru her. And because she appeared out of thin air without making a sound. Probably a hologram, Adora thought.
“Greetings, administrator. What is your query?” the hologram’s robotic and emotionless voice sounded all around the room.
“Oh, I need your help to heal my friend. She’s been cursed. I don’t know how to save her.” After the lack of answer from the woman, Adora was less confident about her plan “The legends say that She-Ra could heal people using this sword. How do I do that?”
“What is your query?” The hologram repeated.
Adora sighted. “Not this again.” She raised up her sword and transformed into She-Ra. “How about now?”
“Administrator detected. Welcome, She-Ra”
“One more time. What can you tell me about this sword?”
This time, the answer came fast. Adora was happy with this small improvement, she could go somewhere now.
“Subject: the Sword of Protection. Classification: portable Runestone keyed exclusively to administrator She-Ra, Princess of Power.”
“How could I use this sword to heal my friend?”
“Query not recognized.”
Adora let out a tired groan and the sighted. “Legends say the sword has healing powers. Is that true?”
“One of the Sword of Protection’s many intended functions is to heal and restore balance.”
Adora was getting tired of this lady already.
“But how do I do that?”
“Query not recognized.”
“How can I use the sword to heal people?” Adora started to shout and speak slower, hoping that way she could finally stop going in circles and just have a useful answer already.
“One of the Sword of Protection’s many intended functions is to heal and restore balance.”
Adora was losing her mind. This was it, this was the end of her mental sanity. She took a deep breath and tried a different angle.
“Okay, is there someone else I can talk to?”
“Query not recognized.”
Adora was giving up now, she wasn’t going to get any answers and she was losing hope. They could find another way to heal Glimmer’s powers, no biggie. This whole trip to the woods was totally useless, that’s okay (it wasn’t).
When Adora turned around to exit the place, she had a vision: the night sky illuminated with tiny glowing lights, a planet, and a blue woman. The same woman that had guided her to the Sword of Protection. This time, a name also appeared.
Adora turned around again to face the hologram and try one more time.
“Let me talk to Light Hope.”
“Light Hope.”
“That’s her name, isn’t it? The woman I saw when I touched the sword for the first time. Where is she?”
“Yes, Light Hope is here. She has been waiting for you.”
“Can I talk to her?”
The hologram in front of her started to glitch until it disappeared. The lights had turned off and it was dark and silent enough time to worry Adora. Great, I broke her when I was finally getting some answers Adora scolded herself.
Another hologram appeared in front of her. This one looked more human than the first one and shined more, illuminating the room again with a soft blue light. Adora saw her clearly and she knew it: this was Light Hope.
“Adora, I’ve been waiting for you. We must start training immediately so you could restore balance to Etheria.”
“Yes! Light Hope, finally.” Adora said relived. “I need to learn how to heal my friend Princess Glimmer, her connection with her Runestone was severed with dark magic.”
“To use She-Ra’s true potential, you need to let go.” Light Hope replied.
“Let go? Let go of what?” Adora asked confused.
“You need to let go, Adora.”
“But I need to heal her now! I can’t save Etheria from the Horde by myself, we need Glimmer.” Adora was getting hopeless again. Why can’t this be easy? Why did everyone in this damn place needed to speak in riddles?
“You are not ready. You need start training in here, at the Crystal Castle.”
“Then train me so I could understand and save my friends!” Adora let go her She-Ra form and dropped to the floor. “I can’t fail them again.”
She had failed Glimmer by getting distracted at Princess Prom and let Catra kidnapped her and Bow, she failed Entrapta for letting the door close and get her incinerated. And she had failed Catra.
She failed Catra every time she didn’t defend her from Shadow Weaver, every time she didn’t get to take her to Bright Moon – she failed her at Thaymor when she decided to leave the Horde without even thinking to go back for her.
Adora failed all the people she cared about, she was a failure.
Her intrusive thoughts were stopped when Light Hope talked to her again.
“Very well. Let’s start training.”
Light Hope opened gates on the walls and spiders came out of them. They weren’t normal spiders, they were huge and their steps and movements sounded metallic. Their red eyes had a soft glow of their own.
Adora lifted her sword up and transformed into She-Ra for the fourth time in the day. “For the honor of Grayskull!”
She wasn’t going to let more of her friends get hurt, not anymore.
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Catra woke up after hearing a loud sound, like a body falling to the floor. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times to force her eyes to make them get used to the light faster. Her cell had been open, was already the sunrise?
“I’m sorry, but I won’t get my bestie kill.”
“Scorpia?”
“Hi Wildcat.” Scorpia said with a smile. At her feet, the bodies of the two guards posted beside Catra’s cell lied unconscious.
“Scorpia, what are you doing? Are those two dead?”
“I’m rescuing you! And of course not, I just pricked them a little.” She said, moving her tail for emphasis.
“Are you crazy? If someone sees you, you would be jailed and die like me. Is that what you want?”
“Of course not, that’s why we are running away!” Catra wanted to protest again, say that she didn’t matter that much, but Scorpia continue speaking before she could. “You’re my best friend; I don’t want to see my best friend die just because she decided to do something that saved a person’s life. I know that Adora still means something for you.” They were silent for a few seconds after that, Scorpia’s face looked a little sad saying those words, but then she continued talking. “I can’t replace her, but I can save you now. We could go to Bright Moon, Plumeria or anywhere else you want. We could join the Rebellion or not. I’m always gonna stay by your side, no matter what you choose, okay?”
Catra didn’t know how to respond to that. She was felling a lot right now, so she did something she didn’t do since Adora left the Horde to fight against it: she cried.
Scorpia picked her up from the place she was curled on and with her claws, broke the metal chain that was keeping her lock to the floor. She hided Catra’s sobbing head in her chest, trying to stifle her noises and get moving. They didn’t have time for Catra to finish crying but Scorpia wasn’t going to tell her to stop. Catra didn’t release her emotions often, she needed this.
It was the middle of the night, so most of the active soldiers and cadets were sleeping in the barracks. They just have to hide from the patrolling guards and steal a skiff, easy.
“Scorpia. Scorpia, wait.” Scorpia stop moving in the middle of a corridor, giving Catra a quizzical look. She had stop crying a while ago but felt too tired to start running, so she let Scorpia carry her. “Turn around.”
There was a bot following them. The moment Scorpia stopped moving, the bot stopped too and acted like it wasn’t following them. Weird, Catra thought. That’s when Catra also started to smell something weird.
She hoped down from Scorpia’s arms and followed the smell through the wall and the ventilation system until she found the source of the smell. Catra opened the grating and a purple hair girl felt from there.
“Hiiii.” She waved. Her voice trembled a little, probably worried for being discovered.
“A princess…”
“That’s Entrapta.” Scorpia whispered Catra.
“I know her name!” Catra whispered yelled back. With a groan, she directed her conversation to Entrapta. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I was just waiting for my friends to get back. They had trouble finding me before, so I figure it make it easier for them if I just stay right here.”
Catra stared at her until she realized something, and with a sad smile and worried eyes, she told it to Entrapta.
“They left you.”
“No, no, they are my friends. They’ll be back.” Entrapta said carefree. Then she got distracted with Scorpia’s tail “Say, your tail secrets some kind of paralyzing agent, right? Do you think I could have a sample, to study?” She grabbed her tail at that moment.
“Hey, you can’t touch another woman’s tail without asking!” Scorpia yell.
“Your friends aren’t coming back.” Catra insisted, a little angrier this time. What was Adora’s problem? She just always lefts behind the friends she didn’t like? Catra asked herself.
She met Entrapta at Princess Prom, didn’t interacted too much with her – Catra was occupied distracting Adora. But still, even if she didn’t know her, she wasn’t going to left her here alone.
Catra decided to take Entrapta with them. “We are escaping. Would you want to come with us? Maybe your friends left you, but we won’t. You could come with us wherever we go or get back with the Rebellion, but not here.”
A tear fell from Entrapta’s eye – realization visible all over her face – and Catra whipped the tear away with a soft smile. Catra continued with a quieter voice.
“For the record, you wouldn’t need to pretend to be someone who you’re not with us. We misfits stick together.”
They went silent while Entrapta thought for an answer. Catra was getting anxious (they didn’t have much time), but she didn’t want to leave the princess behind. She wasn’t like Adora.
“Okay, I’ll go with you. We could go to Dryl once we are out of here, then decide where we want to go next. But we must take Emily with us.”
“Who’s Emily?”
Both Catra and Scorpia had forgotten of the bot and were reminded of its existence when it made a loud noise.
“This is Emily!”
“Okay, okay! We take it but make it had to stop making that noise!” Catra shout with two hands over her sensitive ears.
“She is not a thing.” Entrapta said a little offended.
“Okay, we take her with us.”
“Guys, we should get going. That sound was loud enough to start the alarm.” Scorpia picked Catra up again and took Entrapta’s hand. With Emily following them, she started to run.
The silent alarm was on, Catra could see the round light turn on an off. They found a couple of guards but between Emily’s laser and Scorpia’s poison, they didn’t give too much trouble.
The three of them made it to the skiff hangar and hop on one of the skiffs. Scorpia left Catra on the floor while Entrapta tried to start it without the keys – she didn’t have any trouble. Then, Scorpia took the wheel and drove the skiff out at max speed, leaving the Fright Zone behind.
Catra looked back to see the Fright Zone – her home – one last time. She had a lot of bad memories in there. Shadow Weaver, the food, the insistent bullying of the other soldiers just because she was different.
And Adora. Adora was the only good thing in that place, but she left Catra behind and alone. She left Catra for a fancy sword and new friends. Well, no, Catra knew those weren’t the reasons, but it was better that the truth: Catra was not good enough for Adora.
While the skiff fled even more far away, Catra was filled with a sensation of relief. She started to giggle. That giggle turned into a full laugh. She was free. Free to do whatever she wanted.
Scorpia started to laugh too, followed by Entrapta. She didn’t know what they were laughing about, but her newfound friend’s laugh was contagious.
“What are we laughing at?”
Catra stopped laughing, cleaned a few tears and answered. “I lived my whole life in that hole. The person that was supposed to take care of me tortured me and hate me. Everyone gave me a hard time for being different, the only one that didn’t do it was Adora and she left me to join the Rebellion.” Catra took a deep breath and continued in a quieter voice. “I tried to prove myself to them, show them that I wasn’t useless without Adora, but now I don’t need to. I’m free.” She took another deep breath and shout. “I’m fucking free!”
The skiff went silent while they entered the Whispering Woods. The rush of emotions from the last 24 hours finally caught up with Catra and she started to close her eyes. She drifted to the first calm sleep she got since Adora left.