Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Adora didn’t really know how to describe the event. The cliches of ‘it happened so fast’ and ‘it went in slow motion’ were battling inside her head as they mixed with momentary grief, though she was not currently aware of the ‘momentary’ part. 

Micah had gone to Mystacor for some magical scrolls that he and Glimmer were researching, and that left the Queen to stay in Brightmoon and call an Alliance meeting to check up on everyone and overall make sure everyone was keeping out of trouble, something that there had been hints of the past couple of months. It only took 2 years after the war had ended for trouble to stir up again, and everyone was still getting their bearings, really.

The princesses had just arrived and taken their seats when out of the peripheral of her eye, Catra saw a suspicious-looking guard standing too close to her for her comfort. She didn’t mention anything though, seeing as how there were still several people wary of her in the castle, and if a guard felt safer believing that they could stop whatever she wanted to do, she let them. 

It wasn’t until another disheveled guard burst into the room where the conversation was just starting that Catra realized how much of a mistake her silence was. The guard next to her quickly stepped up to the man who had just entered and knocked him out with the blunt side of the spear, alerting the other princesses to the danger now in the room. As they stood up, however, they weren’t quick enough to stop the impostor quickly spinning the spear and stabbing it right through Catra, whose eyes were now wide with surprise and mouth agape with blood spilling out. She had been the closest to him, and likely the target with how sure the fake guard was with the killing.

All the princesses in the room stood in momentary shock at the gruesome display before rage took over and soon the lonely murderer saw the entirety of the rebellion charging at him, She-ra leading the group and looking as murderous as ever. 

He didn't stand a chance and was doomed within the second. 

It was only after the murder was taken care of that the princesses and allies turned around to see a red-maned and gloomy-looking melog curled around Catra's collapsed and limp body. 

Adora shrunk from her She-ra form and brought a hand up to her mouth to stifle a heavy sob. Everyone in the room was crying, even Mermista had tears in her eyes, but it was clear that Adora was suffering the most. 

Her girlfriend, who she'd promised to protect and never abandon now that the war was over, was now lying with unseeing eyes on the floor because of a meager nuisance, someone who was a nobody that had simply managed to get lucky enough to sneak past the guards. 

She could hardly believe her eyes, and she was about to start backtracking into denial when a sudden inhale was heard throughout the room. Most importantly, Catra’s chest heaved when it happened. So quickly that Adora almost missed it, Catra’s previously unfocused eyes blinked and her head turned to face the entire group. 

Once again in shock, Adora turned to look at the rest of the princesses to make sure she wasn't going crazy, but the faces on the rest of them didn't make things any clearer for her. She looked back towards Catra to see an almost maniacal smile on Catra’s face while muttering a quiet “Fuck yeah,” as she started to sit up.

With the movement, the entire group was taken out of their stupor and they simultaneously made a move to help or comfort or question the catgirl who apparently was not dead.

Scorpia’s voice was the loudest of the clamor in the room, shouting an almost amused, “Again Catra? Really,” she still had tears in her eyes but a watery chuckle managed to escape.

Catra let out a weak snicker and Melog’s mane turned a light pinkish-orange out of delightment for seeing his friend alive again, “Sorry, I genuinely thought that was it,” she grimaced, recalling just how dreadful it had felt to remember that her nine lives had run out and she was about to die permanently, though it seems she was spared.

“Oh my stars, I completely forgot about that,” Adora finally spoke up, tears basically gone and an amazed smile on her face. The memory of her girlfriend’s first death popped up in her mind.

“Forgot about what? What the fuck is going on?” Glimmer was completely disoriented, seeing as how she knew nothing about why Catra was suddenly alive after seeing one of her best friends get speared.

“Yeah, this bitch literally just came back to life, resurrected, revived, resurged-” 

“We get it, Mermista,” Catra interrupted, though she didn’t really want to. It was fun seeing the usually calm and cool water princess be absolutely bewildered.

Scorpia and Adora looked at each other with knowing eyes. They had actually bonded over freaking out about Catra dying right in front of them and then waking up like nothing happened. It was their thing. 

“Er, so, actually-”

“Catra has- had nine lives so she can basically just die and wake up… it’s normal.”

Scorpia and Adora had both gradually made their way over to Catra’s side of the room, who was still lying under Melog on the floor and were left to watch the realization flood the Rebellion’s faces.

Out of everyone, it was Glimmer who spoke first, face morphed into one of minimal anger and annoyance, “Is that why you’re so damn hard to kill?! Unbelievable! It is so unfair that I pummeled your ass and you still didn’t stay down only because you came back to life!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Now I wouldn’t say pummeled- ”

“I DROPPED A WAREHOUSE ON YOUR ASS.”

“IT DOESN’T MEAN YOU KILLED ME THAT TIME.”

Catra was now sitting up vehemently, though her glare was less terrifying with a giant cat on her.

Glimmer narrowed her eyes, “I killed you that time… I just know it! SAY IT.”

“...” Catra was tempted to refuse, but she turned to Adora and saw her with her arms crossed and a lifted eyebrow, waiting. Damn she was whipped, “ugh, fine. Yes… I died there.”

“Oh I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard you very well. Can you repeat that?”

Bow stepped to Glimmer’s side, “Glim, are you sure-”

“YES BOW, I WANNA KNOW.”

Bow pursed his lips and silently nodded, backing away and retreating to the safety of the other princesses who were curiously awaiting an answer as well.

After a few moments, Catra broke, “YES! Fine! You killed me when you dropped the beam on me, it was a bit slower considering I had just been electrocuted, but I wasn’t lying when I said you tasted like glitter!”

“HA, I knew it! I won that battle-”

Catra was still grumbling about how it wasn’t fair that Glimmer her sparkle powers while the girl in mention continued to celebrate her belated victory, but the rest of the Rebellion looked at the pair in mild fear as they casually had an entire conversation about Catra dying and Glimmer was cheering because she killed her friend, although they hadn’t been friends in the moment so she assumed it was okay. (It was not okay, but whatever)

It wasn’t until Catra looked up again from her muttering that she registered the dried tear stains on the princess’s faces, “Wow, were you guys really that worried?”

Perfuma nearly had an aneurysm, “Of course we were! We thought our friend had died. I bet Frosta’s traumatized-”

“I’m not.”

“I think we’re ALL traumatized! We just saw our friend die!”

Bow nodded his assent, eyes wide with tears still in the corners, “We were so worried! You even made Entrapta go all angry!”

Entrapta called from the back of the group, “I am currently testing some new tech on this person,” proving Bow’s point.

“Yeah like, only I’m allowed to attack you like that... and Glimmer… and Frosta. We can’t do that if you’re dead,” Mermista was trying to keep it non-sappy but everybody knew she got on surprisingly well with Catra and her ‘cool vibes’.

Spinnerella and Netossa were nodding along with the rest of the group, “Yeah! I would’ve lost my sparring partner,” Netossa reminded Catra of their own little bonding with competitiveness.

Spinnerella decided to just state the plain truth, “We care about you dearly, Catra.”

Tears sprung into Catra’s eyes as she realized everyone in the room cared about her, she belonged and she wasn’t just there because they let her. She was there because they wanted her to be, “Gee guys, I.. care about you guys too, or whatever,” she turned her head down and let a small smile appear.

Scorpia lifted Catra up from the floor to Melog’s protests, and pulled her into a hug which was quickly followed by Adora, and then everyone else until Catra was thoroughly smooshed. For once, Catra didn’t complain. 

“Alright now we’re going to let the healers look you over to make sure you’re fine and then you’ll take a shower to wash off all that blood,” Adora still wanted to make sure Catra was 100% okay.

Catra was miffed but she reluctantly agreed and was coddled the whole day by not-so-subtle princesses checking up on her.

Chapter Text

“Adora, would you quit whining already? She’s gonna be fine! Pissed, but fine!”

“But what if-”

“NO. No ‘wHaT iFs. We’re doing this, and that’s final!”

Adora groaned. She and Glimmer had been planning to prank Catra for weeks now. She had been totally on board at the beginning, just as enthusiastic as Glimmer was right now, but she was starting to want to back out. The prank-planning haze was starting to clear out, and post-Bow’s explanation on why their prank was extremely dangerous the day prior, she was starting to see just how bad the machinery was.

They had recruited Entrapta for this, her expertise in bot-building a crucial part of the prank. It was a ten-foot-tall replica of the Horde’s bots. The only difference this time was that Glimmer was manning it from the safety of the castle walls with a remote control. No, they had not seen any problems with this before in their three weeks of planning. 

In fact, they had considered it relatively safe. The war had been over for two years already. Sure, trouble had been stirring up, but no one had seen a Horde bot in that entire time, and if the bot were to malfunction, it would shut down if it was out of the mile-radius surrounding the castle grounds, right before it would be entering the Whispering Woods. The bot didn’t even have the original disintegrating lasers! It would just shock Catra a bit! (No, Glimmer still saw no flaws in this plan) It was just enough to ruffle her fur, perfectly safe!

It was common knowledge that the Best Friend Squad shared a brain cell between the four of them. Sometimes more, sometimes less now that Catra was a part of it. Bow seemed to be the one with the brain cell that week. When Glimmer and Adora had come to try and get him to join in on the prank against Catra, he reluctantly agreed, not knowing what it was that was actually going on. When Adora further explained, however, he immediately backed out. As a member of the Etherian Makers Community, he instantly saw how many things could go wrong with the bot. There were too many variables to consider, and using it as a prank wasn’t a good idea. 

He recited all this to the pair. They ignored him. He sighed, realizing he was likely going to be scolding someone this week.

Adora had escaped Glimmer’s clutches. Sure, she had heard the echoes of “Adora get back here,” bouncing around the castle walls for the past half-hour, but she was sure that Glimmer wasn’t going to find her in this little spot. She and Catra had made a little nest of blankets inside a castle tower that had been built over. It was possible that even Glimmer didn’t know about this spot, seeing as it had been filled with cobwebs, spiders, and rats. (Of course, Catra had Adora clear out the rats. They got rid of the spiders together.)

“So, why’s Sparkles storming around the castle? The guards are getting scared.”

Adora jumped, “Stars, Catra! You scared me!”

Catra lifted a brow, Care to explain why? it said.

“I’m being hunted,” Adora whispered in a low voice.

“What?”

“Yeah, it’s Glimmer. She’s looking for me, that’s why she’s so mad.”

“What did you do?”

Adora was a bit reluctant to give up the prank information so easily. For all she knew, Glimmer had sent Catra out to find her, and she had fallen into a trap. She narrowed her eyes, “Prove it.”

Catra tilted her head to the side and her ear flopped a bit, “What? What do you mean ‘Prove it’?”

Awww, she looks so cute- Focus, Adora!, “Prove, that you don’t already know what’s going on. Prove that Glimmer didn’t send you here to capture me so she can torture me,” she put on a brave face and awaited Catra’s answer. 

Catra smiled at her and rolled her eyes, muttering a ‘dummy,’ before leaning in and capturing Adora’s lips in a soft kiss. “That enough proof for you?”

Adora melted and a goofy smile adorned her face, yeah, that’s good. “Mhmm, totally,” She giggled.

“So?”

“Uhh- right- Glimmer and I were gonna prank you with this giant fake bot so she could shock you a couple of times but then Bow told us no and then I used the brain cell for a little bit and then I backed out but Glimmer won’t let me,” she finished her ramble, “hehe.”

“Really?”

“I love you?”

“Sure.”

“I do!”

“Hmmm, okay.”

Almost right away, a devious smile grew on Catra’s face. Adora knew she was coming up with something amazing, and an impatient expression took over. 

“What is it,” Adora was buzzing in her seat. 

“I think I know of a way to get back at Sparkles,” she was brainstorming and a familiar glint appeared in her eyes. Adora absolutely loved it.

“Can I be a part of it?”

“You already are, princess.”

Everything was set up. Catra had Adora go back to Glimmer, her acting talent decent for once. Once they had Glimmer convinced that Adora was back on board and that Catra was clueless about the entire thing, they kept up the act until a couple of hours later, when the prank would take place.

Adora let Glimmer put everything in place on their side. The bot was placed in sleeping mode in the gardens where Catra would show up alone as everyone else in the castle was instructed to stay inside. Bow was in his and Glimmer’s room, not wanting to get even more dragged into the plan, but would be watching through the cameras perched on the roofs of the castle, just in case. The girls would be in another room where Glimmer would be looking through the same cameras, controlling the bots’ movements, and aiming the copper wires with electrodes attached to shoot at Catra. Everything was going to plan.

Bow was tinkering with a new little invention, something he didn’t get to do so often as Prince Consort of Glimmer.

He was worried about Glimmer’s little prank, but he figured nothing really bad could happen. Oh, how wrong he was.

His tracker pad vibrated, announcing a video call from Entrapta. Why would she be calling?

“Hey, Entrapta!”

“Hi, Bow! Is Glimmer there?”

“Er, no, she’s busy with that bot you made her. Why?”

“Well, I’ve been trying to reach her. I forgot to let her know that she can’t go over the 150 milliamps mark on the hand lever of the control if she's using it on a person! It goes up to 10 amps, and that will make a person go into cardiac arrest because of how high I made the power! She didn’t specify what the bot was for, but I figured it was important to inform her of that, just in case!” Entrapta had an unknowing smile on her face. Oh, how he wished he could do the same.

“Stars, thanks Entrapta gotta go bye,” Bow quickly hung up the call and ran out of the room. On the tracker pad, he could see the bot already standing. He slammed the door so hard on his way out that the guards startled, but he paid them no mind as he rushed to stop Catra from dying.

“Sparkles? Where are you? You asked me to come,” Catra was walking slowly around the gardens, calling out for Glimmer who was already giggling next to Adora.

Adora, however, was giggling for a different reason. She was glad she could, otherwise, she would have had a hard time keeping up an act, unlike Catra, who was pulling off ‘confused and curious’ pretty well.

Glimmer pushed the ‘on’ button on the hand remote, and they watched Catra back up a little as the giant bot pushed itself upon its four legs and a mound of dirt that was previously hiding it fell from the top.

“Woah,” Catra was not aware of how big the bot actually was, but she figured it wouldn’t be too bad… right?

Glimmer glanced at the remote. 4 levels. 50 mA, 150 mA, 4 amp, and 10 amp. She wasn’t sure what any of those meant, but she moved the lever to the first level and pushed the joystick forward to make the bot charge at Catra. They watched Catra jump into action immediately dodging the robot’s stomps. It was pretty slow, considering how big and bulky the machine was, “Ughh this is boring, I’m gonna aim the wires.”

“Ok, just- be careful alright, we don’t want to-” Adora cut off as the wires shot out of a small compartment on the bot and the electrodes made contact with Catra’s left arm.

Glimmer cackled as Catra’s fur stood up on end, and Adora snorted, “She looks so poofy!”

They shook with laughter as they watched Catra try and pat down the fur, only to have it extend outwards more.

“I’m going to put it up a couple of levels, see what it does,” Glimmer pushed up the lever to 150 mA.

It made Adora a little uneasy, “Glimmer, we don’t really know how the thing works, maybe we should just stick to what we know.”

“What we know is that so far the plan is going well, what’s a little more power,” she aimed the wires again, confirmed the target, and-

“GLIMMER WAIT,” Bow burst into the room, startling both of the girls.

Glimmer yelped and dropped the remote, pushing the lever to 10 amps and setting off the launch button.

Everyone’s eyes widened as they looked towards the camera only to see Catra get violently electrocuted and collapse on the ground, practically steaming.

“WHAT THE HELL BOW,” complained Glimmer.

He whined, “I came here to tell you exactly not to do that!”

“Well, you failed!”

Adora seemed to be the most concerned about her girlfriend, “Uh, guys? Maybe we should, oh, I don’t know, CHECK ON CATRA WHO ISN’T MOVING!” She urged everyone out of the monitor room and Glimmer teleported them to the garden, where the bot sat shut off next to a smoking Catra (Literally, we all know Catra is smoking hot but she is literally smoking here).

Adora kneeled down, hands hovering over the catgirls body, unsure of whether she should touch her or not, a few minutes passed “Catra? C’mon, wake up now… it isn’t funny anymore. Please?”

“Adora, Entrapta said she would go into cardiac arrest if we went above the 150 mA level, especially if the timing of the shocks was long. Maybe we just need to give her some time to revive?”

“No no she- we were going to prank Glimmer, she was going to pretend to die, and then she wouldn’t wake up when Glimmer went to check up on her. She should be getting up by now anyway, she has to!”

Standing off on the side, Glimmer wrung her hands around her wrists. Face bent with guilt and worry. She realized they never actually confirmed if Catra had gained all nine lives back, or if it was just a lucky miscalculation on the last one. She kneeled down next to Adora, “C’mon Horde scum, you got me pranked! Now wake up! That’s an order,” tears formed in everyone’s eyes again, it hadn’t taken this long last time, but Catra was still limp on the grass.

“If you wake up I’ll give you the next three spiders?”

“I’ll make sure Mermista doesn’t call you furball for at least a day?”

“I’ll- I’ll make you the- Adora what does she want to do,” Everyone attempted to bribe Catra back from her death, but Glimmer was desperate to find out what it was that she wanted.

Adora sniffled, “Um, she wants to be a cool guard person,” it put a smile on everyone’s faces. Of course Catra would find a way to make that sound cool.

“I’ll make you the Official Princess Alliance guard! Please? You’ll be super important and stuff,” she paused, “I’ll even pay you!” Glimmer kept blabbering on about how cool she would be and how everyone would have to follow her orders and how much stuff she could buy and how she could brag to Mermista and Netossa. Nothing worked. Adora’s previous sniffles turned into full-on sobs as the minutes passed by and there was no response.

“I told you to not put the level up,” Adora suddenly stood, towering above Glimmer, angry and red-faced.

“I’m so sorry, Adora. I- I didn’t mean it,” Glimmer didn’t feel the need to defend herself, this was her fault and she was going to take whatever Adora threw at her.

Suddenly, Adora’s eyes flashed blue and for a moment, Glimmer was terrified as the blonde turned into She-ra, but a frowning Adora turned to face Catra and was about to kneel down to try and heal Catra when the catgirl was heard muttering “Fight, fight, fight,” and she let out a weak chuckle as her eyes pried open.

“Catra!” Everyone cried out in relief.

“The one ‘n only,” she groaned as she sat up, “I thought I was supposed to pretend to die, and what the hell Sparkles? A bit much don’t you think? I know I’m hard to kill but it was a bit overkill,” she finished with a cocky smile.

Glimmer sobbed as she went to carefully hug Catra, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it I swear and I’ll do everything I said… if you heard it,”

Catra let out a small ‘oh’ as she felt Glimmer envelop her, “I totally heard everything Sparkles, I could hear everything, I just couldn't move… I think I was paralyzed. I get to be super cool and get paid too now huh?”

“Stars, yes, Horde Scum, you get to be the Official Princess Alliance guard, maybe you can put those lives to good use,” she smiled and let go of Catra, who was thankfully no longer steaming.

Adora spoke up, a bit shyly, “‘m sorry about getting all mad at you Glimmer. I really thought she was gone, but I know it was an accident. It wasn’t your fault.”

The reassurance put Glimmer at ease, but, “It’s okay. It was kind of my fault, and I get that you were upset.”

Bow, who was watching the entire ordeal, awwed, “Thank the stars! I thought I was going to have to stop you guys from punching out your feelings. Look at you! You guys are talking them out instead! I’m so proud!”

Everyone blushed a bit, he wasn’t wrong. 

"Ughh, okay now everybody help me up, I'm sore from dying," Catra flailed her arms, waiting for someone to grab them. "Where'd you guys even get that bot from?"

Adora sneered sheepishly, " Entrapta made it, actually. We didn't exactly tell her what it was for though."

Glimmer pondered, " I feel like I should be concerned that she made it so easily, without question."

"Eh, she's just enthusiastic, plus, she hasn't made a bot in years. I'm sure she had fun with it," Catra defended the purple-haired princess.

Adora, the ever worried girlfriend spoke up, "Speaking of Entrapta, we'll be taking you to Dryl so she can confirm that you have seven lives left, and to make sure that the electrocution didn't leave any permanent damages."

"Wow Adora, did you borrow the brain cell from Arrow boy for a second there," Catra and Glimmer snickered.

Adora knew what game Catra was playing, she didn't want to go to Dryl and was trying to tease her out of it, " Yes, actually, I did. So we're going to Dryl."

Catra groaned as Glimmer teleported right into Entrapta's lab.

The whole group was thankful that there was no imminent danger in the room, and also for the fact that Hordak wasn't present. They were sure Catra wouldn't appreciate him watching her heave in this state.

"Oh hi Bow! Did you get the message to Glimmer?"

"Not in time, we need you to check up on Catra, and make sure she's okay."

"Why!? Did something happen? Can I collect some data?" 

“Actually, Catra died again, we accidentally shot her with the 10 amp level and she was paralyzed for a bit after she came back. We just want to make sure she’s alright.”

“10 amp! No wonder she died! It makes sense that she was paralyzed! Set her down here!”

Entrapta pushed a chair on wheels towards the group, and once Catra stopped heaving, they sat her down and Entrapta took her vitals, “Well, your heart rate and respiration rate are a bit slow, but some time to rest should fix that. Your body temperature is a bit high,”

“Well, I was just fried to death.”

“No lasting burn scars, blood pressure is okay, and no long-term brain damage! It seems like any side-effects you might have had were healed when you came back to life, but I recommend not dying by cardiac arrest anymore, or by heart attack!”

“Wait, so that wasn’t a heart attack that she had? I thought cardiac arrest and heart attacks were the same thing because her heart stopped,” Glimmer was confused, didn’t Catra’s heart stop? She could have sworn that’s why she died.

“Nope! Cardiac arrest is an electrical problem in the body! Hence the electrocution! Heart attacks are a circulation problem, typically caused because of high blood pressure!”

“Ah yes, such a big difference,” Glimmer’s sarcasm covered up her confusion.

“It really is! And... I’m glad you’re okay Catra! I’m 90% sure that you gained back your nine lives when She-ra healed you, but we would need a third occasion in order to confirm it,” Entrapta hummed and used her hair to stroke her chin, “Can I collect some data the next time you die?”

“Sure ‘trapta. It might be a while though,” Catra felt like she owed Entrapta all the data in the world, and any she could give her would be good.

“Hopefully,” Adora reinforced the idea, as well as the rest of the best friend squad who was nodding along.

Entrapta added, “Before I forget! It would be best if you kept active and ate healthy foods for at least the rest of the week! I know that essentially, you are already healed, but just in case.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard. Thanks, Entrapta.”

Catra spent the rest of the week chasing the best friend squad around the castle, giving them little shocks every time they came into contact.

“Stop it! You’re making my hair stand!”

“NO, THAT’S WHAT YOU GET, SPARKLES.”

“I wasn’t even part of the prank!”

“DOESN’T MATTER ARROW BOY.”

“Catra! You’re making my hair look weird!”

“IT ALWAYS LOOKS WEIRD WITH YOUR STUPID POOF.”

Even Mermista suffered when she stopped by, “Get back here! I will DRENCH YOU.”

“You’re gonna have to catch me first, Fishy,” Catra called out, cackling the entire time as she ran on all fours, only serving to increase the friction between her fingertips.

When Scorpia and Perfuma came by, however, Scorpia was spared on the prospect that she would team up with Catra and chase people around the castle with her, sending little shocks as they went.

Soon enough, even the guards had no chance of escape, and when Entrapta joined in with a baby taser, the Super Pal Trio reigned over all, laughing as the entirety of Brightmoon was electrified. 

It was only until Micah came back that a stop was put to the chaos on the promise that they could have an entire stock of cake and that they didn’t have to share it with anyone. Of course, Catra shared with Adora, because the doofus kept whining that she was deliberately giving Catra the next three spiders already. Scorpia shared with Perfuma on the promise that she would get some catnip for Catra, and Entrapta shared with Wrong Hordak, who decided he wanted to bake more cake for everyone.

“Hey Sparkles, maybe you should electrocute me more often.”

“NO.”

Chapter Text

There was a scoreboard now, for the people who had killed Catra. Glimmer was in first place, obviously, as she insisted on counting the first time she had killed Catra in the war. The other princesses argued that then Adora would have to count all the times Catra had died because of her and the need to be dramatic, but Adora refused as she knew Catra was a dramatic little shit anyway. But least expected, Perfuma was in second place. One would have assumed that the holder of that position would have been someone like Frosta or Mermista, but the irony of it being the arguably most gentle princess was incredible.

Said princess insisted against it every time they saw each other, but no one could deny the fact that Perfuma had cost Catra a life, accident or not.

Even worse, Perfuma hadn’t even been fully aware when it happened, “I was not in the right of mind! I think that can be excused!”

Mermista was especially persistent on it, “Nobody cares how you did it Perfuma, what matters is that it happened. Maybe we could have, I don’t know, ignored it if she hadn’t actually died, but she did,” she flopped an arm over to Catra’s direction, “Unacceptable. She’s gonna run out of lives before I get to kill her at this point.”

The flower-princess looked towards her victim, “Catra? Please believe that anything I did to cause your death was unintentional. I can get you more catnip!”

Catra glanced at her from her lounging position in the alliance break room, “Oh I believe it, Petals. We all have the evidence. Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen though.” 

The group of relaxing princesses and plus all looked at Perfuma, who had a horrified and desperate look on her face. They all held in snorts and cackles, even Scorpia, though she managed to lean over and comfort the princess. They were never going to let this go.

Seahawk, on his part, was going to be singing shanties about the event for the rest of his life.

The Previous Weekend:

“Hey! Mermista just texted me that she’s not busy!” Glimmer had been taking a break from all the paperwork she had to deal with that day. All the requests and letters from delegations of the other towns and kingdoms had been tiring. Though, Catra didn’t seem to think so. Honestly, she was just as much of a workaholic as Adora. It was probably a Horde thing.

The girl in question looked up from her papers in mild surprise, “Really? Well, if she can get a break right now, the other princesses probably aren’t busy either.”

Glimmer shot up from her lying position on the floor, startling Catra, “Oh my stars, do you know what this means?!”

She eyed the princess warily. Almost three years with them and she still didn’t know what to expect half the time. She had been dead wrong when she had told Horde Prime that the princesses were so predictable. Glimmer was a menace when it came to spontaneous planning, “Uh, no?”

She braced for impact as she heard more than saw Glimmer teleport to her side in a shower of sparkles, “PRINCESS ALLIANCE SURPRISE SLEEPOVER!!!!!”

Catra groaned as she realized she wasn’t going to get any more work done today. Her climb up the ranks of Brightmoon military was cut short, as was her response streak for the request to a lobby for the mayor of another random-ass town. She saw Glimmer’s glow again, indicating that she was about to teleport and her eyes widened, “Wait N-”

Catra’s protests were drowned out in the sudden disappearance and reappearance of noise at the pair’s arrival to the small workshop where Bow did his tech work.  Luckily, Adora was also present, simply watching Bow work while she did some mapping of a new space route that Entrapta had found. They were planning on heading to their space trip within the year, so Entrapta’s course findings were great, and Adora’s new hobby of cartography definitely helped.

Catra heaved as Adora moved to her side, already rubbing circles on her back to help ease the nausea, “I really hate when you do that, Sparkles.”

Glimmer, on her side, looked indifferent, “Whatever. BOW. Guess what,” She didn’t give him a chance to guess, stars in her eyes, “Mermista’s not busy today! Which means NOBODY is busy today!”

Bow’s eyes mirrored Glimmer’s, stars growing in his eyes as well, “So we get a princess alliance sleepover?!”

“Yeah!”

Catra faked a gag. They were perfect for each other.

On her end, Perfuma was having a relaxing day. Sure, Scorpia wasn’t with her, currently preoccupied with some menial revisions of the Fright Zone’s- now the newly rebuilt Scorpioni Kingdom’s- old records. There wasn’t really much to do, considering Catra had already done everything needed with them during her time running the Horde. It was really just having something to do at this point.

To be honest, she was thankful. Even without Scorpia present to spend quality time together, Perfuma’s day had gone wonderfully. First, she did her scheduled meditation and drum circle with the other Plumerians. After, she had managed to teach a new group of citizens how to use the medicinal properties of certain herbs and they were fresh on their way to the next mentor, beginning in their journey to graduate and become professionals in the subject. Now evening, she was sitting in her meditation room, preparing a blunt with her dried out and ground cannabis, and tobacco, using only a damp brush to seal the thing and slowly began to rotate it as she put the end over the flame of her lighter. As soon as she was sure it was ready, she brought it up to her mouth and inhaled for about two seconds, feeling it enter her lungs before releasing again.

Before she knew it, a feeling of euphoria washed over her, unaware of exactly how much time had passed. She knew she was hungry though. She moved to stand up from her plush seats on the floor, but before she could reach her small stash of snacks, she got a call on her tracker pad from Glimmer.

Reaching over to answer, she fumbled a bit before sliding the answer button and greeting the Queen of Brightmoon with a giggly, “Glimmer!”

“Hey, Perfuma! We just wanted to let you know that the princess alliance is having a sleepover today! Are you coming?”

A pixelated Bow appeared in the corner of the screen, adding, “If you’re not too busy, it’ll be fun!”

“Of course! Want me to bring some snacks,” the eager flower-princess asked. She was likely to take some regardless of the answer.

“Sure! A- Hey!”

The screen showed a smirking Catra shoving Glimmer’s face away from the screen, “Hey, bring me some of that catnip stuff Scorpia told me about…,” she could be seen glancing at what was likely an Adora sporting an expectant eyebrow, “Please? And thanks if you do-” she hissed as her face was mushed by a Glimmer now shoving Catra’s face out of the screen as the brunette had done earlier.

“See you soon Perfuma,” Glimmer ended the call with an animated shout.

It seemed like nobody in the call had noticed Perfuma’s slightly red eyes and wobbly movements. Oh well, they would become very aware of them later.

“Hey, Perfuma!” 

Scorpia had been the first to see her walk into the princess sleepover room, simultaneously the spare room at the end of the hall where the library was found, but details, details. It was the only one big enough to fit such a large group, really, and it was furnished with only the fluffiest of bean bags and was full of games and alcohol, though typically only a small number of them drank, and only after Frosta had gone to bed. 

“Hello, Scorpia! May I come and sit next to you? I brought chocolates and gummies!”

“Sure!”

With Scorpia’s enthusiastic response, the rest of the group figured that Scorpia was not aware of Perfuma’s state, that state being so, so high. Simply watching a giggling Perfuma stumble across the room to her girlfriend was enough to let everyone else know that. 

The princess in question had reached her peak about half an hour ago, though it felt like longer with how hungry she felt.

“Oh! I brought your catnip, Catra,” Perfuma haphazardly threw a small pouch in Catra’s general direction, missing by a mile and landing a hit to Seahawks’ forehead, who squawked in shock. It seemed like that action is what made Scorpia’s head click, immediately realizing just how uncoordinated Perfuma was. She was about to throw the snacks she had brought as well, but she missed her chance with Scorpia’s claw gently grabbing them and pulling them aside.

“‘Fuma, did you come here alone?”

“No! Of course not!”

The group sighed in relief.

“I had the woods and plants to keep me company!”

The previous sigh had been inhaled again, had Perfuma really stumbled across the Whispering Woods, high and alone, all the way to Brightmoon?

Yes. Yes, she had.

“She’s got the munchies,” Mermista drawled.

“Munch munch,” Perfuma giggled. 

She was storming through the snacks while everyone else played Monopoly. Mermista and Seahawk paired up, though she insisted that he was useless in this game, she always chose him. Glimmer and Bow teamed up, Glimmer’s competitiveness usually being what ended the game with Bow trying to get her to rationalize her choices. Frosta and Entrapta played together, the tech princess being surprisingly good and therefore Frosta’s go-to. Scorpia and Perfuma were together as well, most of the time apologizing for every small inconvenience, costing them the game. And lastly were Adora and Catra, Catra doing most of the thinking while Adora tried and failed to do her part, only serving to be called ‘dummy’ once in a while and getting a kiss for her efforts. Although that only lasted until Glimmer and Catra started getting serious.

Mermista had stashed the catnip for later, wanting to experience ‘full high-Catra’

Now, it was almost midnight and Frosta had already gone to sleep, but the alcohol wasn’t pulled out. Perfuma was still a little out of it, but the effects of her smoking were wearing off quickly, especially with all the junk food she was eating. Mostly everyone in the room was relaxed, conversations and reminiscing the main activity in the room, up until Mermista pulled out the pouch of catnip that had hit Seahawk, the smell automatically causing Catra’s pupils to dilate and push herself off of a discontented Adora who had just lost her cuddling partner. 

Mermista smirked and made a ‘pspsps’ noise, causing Catra to launch over in her direction. She snatched the catnip from the water-princesses’ hand and dumped it all over the floor, rolling around in it once she found the bag empty.

Everyone watched with wide eyes and ‘awwws’ as the normally calm and cool magicat rolled around the floor and purred, tail lashing and specks of green sticking onto her fur. 

Adora found it especially endearing, “You having fun, kitty?”

The princesses found themselves absolutely melting with the quiet ‘mrrp?’ that made its way out of Catra.

“We have to record this,” Mermista, likely to want evidence for blackmail later on, called out to the rest of the group who didn’t have the heart to disagree.

Entrapta, surprisingly, was the one to prep the tracker pad and all the cameras in the room to record. When everyone turned to stare at her for it, she explained, “Catra said I was allowed to take any tests on her at any time if I wanted to as long as Adora approved! Since she hasn’t died in quite some time, I figure this is the next best thing! I haven’t been able to study the effects of catnip on any hybrid species before!”

Adora felt a rush of warmth inside her at hearing that Catra trusted her enough to let Entrapta handle her. The sensation was prolonged by the chittering Catra was making at the blonde, probably getting ready to throw herself at her.

Though none of the other princesses seemed to register the little pit patter of Catra’s feet getting ready to jump at a prey, or the tail lashing and rotating ears. Adora knew Catra’s wild side a bit better than everyone else. No matter how many times Catra went crazy some nights in the castle, chasing the moonlight in the middle of the dark, it would never compare to how Catra had let loose in her early years as kids. Especially the teething of her canines. 

Eventually, all the princesses turned to stare at Adora, who was currently being watched by a pair of cyan and gold eyes. Entrapta was the only one who seemed to predict what was going to happen, “Focused eyesight, predatory calming sounds, tensed legs-,” she mumbled and gasped right as Catra became a blur, one second in front of everyone and the next tumbling Adora off the bean bag they had been on together.

Everyone watched in concern at a giggling Adora who was wrestling her arm away from Catra, who was doing her best to gnaw on it like it was a damn stick.

“Uhhh, what is she doing,” Glimmer was the one to call out. It seemed like this type of response was not what anyone of them had expected, not even Scorpia.

“She’s eating you!” Bow recalled how it felt for his own arm to get chewed and scratched by the catgirl, not a pleasant experience.

“Don’t worry guys, she’s just like, teething, kind of.” Adora wasn’t really sure how to describe it.

“Hey, Catra! Want some chocolates instead? Maybe she’s hungry,” Perfuma, who had previously been hiding in a corner with all the food, waved a hand holding a box of chocolates in the air.

That got Catra’s attention, and Adora pouted as she once again lost her purring machine.

Humming, Catra made her way over to Perfuma and ripped into the box of dark chocolates. There were several choices, two layers filled with dozens of sweet treats. Within five minutes, they were all gone. Perfuma cheered her on as everyone else watched with mouths agape at the speed at which Catra ate. It was impressive. A bit gross. But impressive.

Scorpia was the one who chose to sacrifice herself and reached out to snag the chocolates away from the pair that seemed to be equally high. 

Adora had to drag Catra away from her “Munch Buddy”, Perfuma only serving to make it more difficult as she also wanted to keep Catra with her.

Catra’s pupils dilated to almost nothing, a sharp contrast from her eyes minutes before that had been nearly pitch black. She made herself jelly in Adora’s arms and slipped out of the hold. Hissing at everyone she leaped over the group, Adora’s fingertips brushing her legs before she was on all fours running around the room and bouncing off the walls. The rest of the princesses chased her around, only amusing the catgirl before she spotted a pillar that morphed into an arch. It was right smack in the center of the room, and it was a perfect perch to lounge on for an out of it Catra.

Her claws dug into the harsh material of the beam, the stone cracking as she made her own supports to scale the side of the room. Glimmer scoffed in annoyance as she realized it was a lost cause to tell Catra that she was going to be the one to file another report of a damaged pillar. 

Soon enough, Catra was swinging her legs off the side of the arch as she sat and watched a distressed group of princesses who were worried that she might fall off.

“Don’t cats always land on their feet?” Memista was the least worried of the group, other than Perfuma, considering she had never watched this idiot fall from anywhere.

Bow and Glimmer responded simultaneously, as did Scorpia, Entrapta, and Adora.

“We never got to test that theory,” and “Not this one,” could be heard from both groups.

“In fact, there is a 72 percent chance Catra will die instead of landing if she falls from that height!"

For the first time in years, the princesses realized just how high the ceilings of Brightmoon Castle were.

Almost an hour had passed. It was a little past midnight as the princesses spent their time calling for a bratty cat to come down. The first few minutes were spent ignoring them, Catra thoroughly enjoying her new relaxing spot, filled with the echoes of promises and bribery in the background. Then, she got bored of it and she started taunting them, lucid enough to mock getting down only to spend another fifteen minutes chittering at an owl outside. She eventually outgrew that as well, and without anything proper to chew, she settled for simply looking down at the princesses that had almost completely given up on getting her down. She was slightly more coherent now, really just doing it out of spite from when Glimmer said she would teleport and get her down. (She didn’t. She and the other princesses could all see just how long those damn claws were.)

It was then that she felt her limbs start to twitch. She felt like she was on the peak of the catnip rush, except worse. Suddenly, she couldn’t really tell what the hell she was doing, and she slumped over on the arch she had been sitting on and started to drool as she lost consciousness.

Entrapta, the one who had been recording every small movement that Catra made, yelled out her conclusion to the symptoms that Catra was exhibiting, “She’s having a seizure!”

“WHAT?!?” 

Everyone in the room looked up at the arch, watching as Catra kept spasming and slowly sliding off the narrow edge.

“Get her down, Glimmer,” Adora yelled, spurring everyone into action as Glimmer teleported up to the arch and quickly reappeared in the middle of the loose circle the group had formed. Only seconds after, Catra completely stopped moving. 

Entrapta pushed to the front of the group with her tools recently retrieved from the mini-lab she had stationed in Brightmoon. She felt for a pulse with her stethoscope and determined, “She’s dead!” She may have sounded a bit too excited, but to be fair, she now had tests to run and would be able to determine if Catra did in fact have six lives left.

“Wait, why?” Adora, again, seemed to be the only one concerned for her girlfriend's wellbeing. Though she was pretty sure she would come back to life. Probably. Maybe.

Distracted by her new data and the vitals being taken from Catra, Entrapta answered, “Well, It wasn’t the catnip! That should have had zero effects on her that would have caused a seizure. Perhaps it’s something she ate!”

Everyone could recall how Catra had stuffed her face with far too much chocolate.

“So it was the chocolate,” Bow came to an obvious conclusion.

“Yes! Usually it would have caused her a mild stomach ache at best, but it seems that she ate more than the desired amounts, causing her body to react this way,” she went back to her work, offhandedly listening for her name to be called.

Scorpia was the one who realized it first, “Perfuma! You gave Catra food poisoning!”

At the reveal, everyone turned to Perfuma, who was considerably less stoned but still not to her usual standards, “I did not,” she answered indignantly, “She decided to be my munch buddy! I only egged her on to eat more chocolate after we made a bet!”

Now this, this was news. It seemed like there had been more going on in the munchies corner than the princesses had initially thought. 

“Who won the bet?” 

“Not the time Seahawk,” Mermista was not accountable for her man not reading the room.

“I mean I dunno I kind of want to know,” of course, Adora would match his energy.

“I did, obviously,” Catra answered.

“CATRA!”

Cheers of relief filled the room as Catra wiped the drool from her mouth and sat up, feeling a bit fuzzy and nauseous but not disoriented enough to keep from standing.

“And you,” she yelled, pointing a claw at Perfuma, “I’m never going to be your munch buddy ever again!”

The declaration nearly brought Perfuma to tears, “No! Please,” she begged, collapsing into Scorpia’s waiting arms, “You won the bet! I’ll get you more catnip! I’ll ban chocolate in Plumeria,” the princesses gasped, “But please! You’re such a cool munch buddy!”

“No,” Catra refused from inside Adora’s hold. The princess watched the interaction, engrossed in the drama of it all.

“There seem to be feelings getting hurt,” Entrapta mumbled into her recorder before pointing it back out in the direction of Catra and Perfuma.

The group’s curiosity peaked as Perfuma changed tactics, “I will hunt you down to the end of your days! I don’t care if you won’t do it willingly you will have munchies with me again!”

Catra and Perfuma glared at each other, the silence agonizing as the princesses waited for the bubble of tension to burst. Moments passed until the pair busted to giggles in their girlfriends’ arms, laughing so much they started to wheeze and melt to the ground, dragging Adora and Scorpia with them.

Glimmer, deeply unsatisfied with the ending of the show, cut them off, “Alright, alright. It’s time for bed now, we all have to go back to doing stuff tomorrow.”

Everyone awwed as they reluctantly settled in and got ready for bed. As fun as the sleepovers were, it was always disappointing to be reminded that they had to go back to the work of a princess the next day. The upside to this time was that nobody would have a hangover. Well, except maybe Perfuma, and Entrapta said Catra would likely vomit within the next 24 hours, but it was whatever.

“Ugh, I feel like crap,” Catra leaned over the edge of the toilet bowl as she emptied out all the chocolate remnants of last night.

“I know, I’m sorry,” Adora was there, helping her hold up her hair and rubbing light circles on her back.

“I hope Petals gets a headache or something. I will avenge my stom-” Catra didn’t get to finish as she lurched again. Stupid chocolate. She was swearing off of it for at least the next year. She had eaten enough of it in one sitting to last more than that.

“Want to try the toothpaste again?”

She nodded, she felt empty enough that it was likely she wouldn’t puke again. Adora handed her the toothbrush stacked with a copious amount of minty toothpaste, and as she shoved it into her mouth she was relieved to find that the urge to gag and vomit was gone. She sighed and with wobbly knees stood up to rinse her mouth properly in the sink, Adora’s hands gently helping her the entire way. She was grateful for the doofus, always there for her without really coddling too much. It had taken them some time to get to that point, a lot of communication, but they were at a point now where reading each other seemed to be easier than it had even when they were in the Horde. 

As the couple finally emerged from their room, they were met with the gazes of five concerned princesses and Bow and Seahawk. 

“So, like, are you good, or whatever,” Mermista was the one to ask.

Catra nodded before narrowing her eyes at the bottle of water held in Perfuma’s hand, “Dry mouth much,” she snickered.

Perfuma sighed and silently nodded her head. 

Catra hummed, “Kay I’m going back to bed now.”

She swiftly turned, yanking Adora’s arm with her, and shut the door in everyone’s faces.

Glimmer seemed to be the most annoyed, “Did she just-”

“Yup,”

“And she-”

“Yup,”

She groaned with every one of Scorpia’s curt responses, “I can’t believe her!”

“I can,” Mermista smirked, “Oh, I’m also heading back to Salineas, have fun with her,” she similarly yanked Seahawk along with her out of the castle to the docks.

Perfuma, sensing it was also time for her to make her exit, spoke up with Scorpia, “I also believe it is time for us to retreat back to our respective kingdoms,” she chuckled nervously, “I’ll see you next weekend!” She much more gently but also hurriedly pulled Scorpia out of Brightmoon with her, the scorpioni waving her claw goodbye with a cheerful smile.

Entrapta came last, yelling out a quick, “It is probably best to let Catra rest! Oh that rhymed,” before scuttling away on the tendrils of her hair, back to Dryl for the month.

Before Bow could even finish his statement of, “Am I the only one that doesn’t get to escape?” Glimmer groaned and teleported away to her office, filing the damage reports to the pillar in the spare room herself, muttering ‘Stupid Horde Scum’ the entire time.

Present: 

Everyone chuckled at the memory, still fresh and ever-present as they kept rewatching the footage much to Catra’s dismay. 

“Wow, Furball, nearly three years after the defeat of Horde Prime and you’re already going soft,”

“Oh, I’ll show you soft, Fishy.”

Accustomed to Mermista and Catra’s banter, clutched her girlfriend closer to her and prevented a launch attack. At this point, Mermista owed her for how many times she stopped Catra from toppling her over, even if it was meant to be playful.

Suddenly, Seahawk stood up, posing on the coffee table and lifting his arm to indicate a start of a shanty, “OOOOHHHHH,”

Everyone groaned, and Catra called out, “Get your man, Mermista.”

“I’M TRYING,” she responded as she tugged on his boots to no avail.

With all the commotion in the room, Catra leaned over to Perfuma while everyone else was distracted by their misery, “I do want some more catnip by the way.”

Perfuma gasped and clapped her hands in glee, “Munch Buddies!”

Chapter Text

It was the three-year anniversary of the end of the war and Horde Prime’s defeat, and the Best Friend Squad was on their way to space again. Entrapta had finally perfected Darla, and they had a route set to be followed. An actual plan that Catra could agree with for once. Glimmer was set to leave as well, Micah having settled into the role of interim Ruler of Brightmoon and Catra had finally become the Official Princess Alliance Guard and the Official Royal Advisor. It was because of that reason that it was crucial that Entrapta’s light speed modifications to Darla’s ship were so important. If the group needed to suddenly return to Etheria, they could do it within the day, and Catra could help wherever she was needed. 

“Alright, first stop, Eevne, the Star Siblings’ planet, catalog it please, and after that, we head over to planet  XJ-23,” Adora called out from the command center where she was uploading her map to Darla’s system and making it digital. 

Everyone had said their goodbyes, the other alliance members getting slightly teary after their departure and Mermista trying to hide it by asking them to bring her something from space, and though Entrapta asked the same thing she was definitely not doing it to hide her slight sadness at seeing her friends leave.

Initially, Catra had been nervous, and everyone had known from Melog’s purple-ish mane and Catra’s own fluffy tail. Though in her defense, going back to the place where Horde Prime had held her hostage and used her body like a puppet was not her favorite, but she remembered that it was also where she met Melog, and where she could see the stars shimmering in all their glory, stars that Adora had brought them even under bad circumstances. She chose to focus on the good parts of it, rather than the bad, Perfuma’s advice. Now, she was sitting in the pilot’s chair waiting for Adora to return and hold her to gaze at the stars while Bow and Glimmer settled in.

“Hey, Adora? Do you think the Star Siblings are gonna like me? I mean, you did say I was complicated,” Catra feigned hurt as she pouted.

“Seems pretty accurate to me,” Glimmer popped out of the hallway followed by Bow, who was trying to hold back from mildly agreeing.

Adora snorted at Catra’s affronted expression, “Well at least I don’t kill people with pranks and then sob when they actually do die, Sparkles.”

Glimmer had no comment for the snarky reply, and moved onto pretending to be interested in whatever Adora was doing, “So, what’s planet XJ-23? Why did we choose that planet first?”

Adora, unperturbed from what was supposed to be Glimmer’s false attentiveness, dove into a fascinated rant about the planet, “Well, it’s actually one of the more slightly underdeveloped planets in the universe! It doesn’t really have sentient beings on it, based on Entrapta’s estimations, and it’s a bit similar to Etheria. Plus, it’s on the closer side of the universe and I figured we could start on an easy planet! Ya know, test the waters before diving in,” she gave an enthusiastic smile at the rest of the group, waiting for their response.

“So… a practice run,” Catra confirmed.

“Yup! The only problem we might have is a surprise, really, since we don’t know much more about it, and also a bunch of other potentially bad things that could happen…” Adora ended with a slight grimace this time.

“Great! So basically like everything else we’ve done,” Glimmer seemed decently excited at that point.

“I guess you got the brain cell on this one Adora, I’ll give you that,” Catra smiled at her while the rest of the group chuckled at Adora’s own goofy smile rising at the underhanded praise.

“This is Catra?! You made her seem so.. not this,” Jewelstar, the eldest of the three siblings commented.

“Yeah, she’s awesome!” Starla, the youngest, had especially been interested in Adora’s old ‘friend’.

Even their pet owl, Glory, had taken a liking to Melog, who was playfully chasing the bird around while Catra was basking in the attention as they strolled around a deserted area of the siblings’ home planet.

They had taken well to Catra, and now that they met, they bashed on Adora together, leaving her to splutter while Bow and Glimmer giggled. Traitors.

“Well when I told you about her things were-”

“Complicated?” all three Star Siblings said simultaneously, making Catra cackle as Adora simply shut her mouth and looked away.

“Stars, you three are way too cool for Adora to have handled. But, as much as I’d love to hang out with you guys another time, we do have to keep on schedule,” Catra had actually been sincere with her comment, making friends with the siblings had been easy and she felt they would get along well. However, the mission came first, and they needed to stay on track much to her dismay.

Tallstar, the brother of the three, took the lead as he chuckled, “Actually, we’re already at the standpoint, all we have to do is let ‘complicated’ here do her thing and you guys can teach us how to spread the magic ourselves.”

They stood in a barren, desert-like section of Eevne, where the Star Siblings had taken charge and had an alert ready to let anyone in the universe know that planets were gaining back their magic, they were becoming habitable again, all they needed was a kickstart from She-ra and anyone else who could wield even a minimal amount of magic, simply their presence was enough. Entrapta had said a minimum of five planets, and the dream could finally become a reality. The Star Siblings were meant to be the messengers of the delivery of hope amongst this universe.

“Okay, here goes nothing,” Adora summoned her sword, as easily as the first time she had kissed Catra, the feeling of warmth filling her inside a sharp contrast to the chaotic energy of the First-Ones’ She-ra. She walked over to the point that Tallstar had directed her to, and she muttered a quiet, ‘For the honor of Grayskull,” She-ra’s bright transformation stunning the star siblings as Catra looked at her with glazed eyes, unknowingly staring while Bow and Glimmer snickered behind her. The sound snapped Catra out of her daze, and she growled and blushed as She-ra stood in front of her.

“Woah, I guess you weren’t lying when you said you were stronger before…” Jewelstar murmured while she looked in awe at the beacon of energy in front of her.

“Well, she did say she was complicated,” even Tallstar was astonished while Starla herself was left speechless.

Adora sheepishly chuckled at the outright amazement before reminding herself to focus and taking a deep breath, tightening her grip on her sword. She closed her eyes and plunged the sharp weapon deep into the ground, causing cracks to run all the way to the group’s feet as orange plantlife spread around them while Adora concentrated all of her energy into renewing the magic of Eevne. When she finally opened her eyes again, purple and orange forest surrounded her, the trees a distinct difference from Etheria’s large trunked ones being that these seemed extremely thin, almost plank-like while also holding up a large amount of foliage. It made no sense to Adora, but as she watched the happiness burst into the Star-Siblings’ faces as they cheered, she figured it had been a successful magic renewal. The entire group smiled as Starla began to cheer and whoop while her two siblings walked up to Catra, Adora, Glimmer, and Bow, tears in their faces. The Star Siblings thanked them all thoroughly even as Glimmer taught them how to send intergalactic messages for when their ship made it to another planet in three months when four other planets had their magic. 

Goodbyes were said, and even as the best friend squad launched off of the planet, the shouts of joy reached their ears, and a feeling of accomplishment washed over them. This trip was going amazingly well, and the satisfaction of it was great for the team’s morale.

Already, they were nearing planet XJ-23, or better known as Zowet, as the Star-Siblings had told them through their new tracker-pad, not so much a tracker as a means of communication. 

Zowet didn’t have a civilization prior to Prime’s rule, so it had been essentially useless to him aside from the resources it provided. The team found that there were underground lakes of dimethyl sulfoxide, which, Prime definitely could have produced himself, but the rarity of this one was that it naturally replicated the genetics of an embryo if used in the formula for cryoprotectant, which is exactly what Prime had needed in his early stages of rule to build his clone army and his new ‘vessels. The clone embryos he produced became more constant, the DNA strands being exactly the same, and his own vessels were exact copies of himself as well, creating the image of a god exactly the way he had intended. Prime took almost all of it, using it for his clones before perfecting the formula himself and using it to both create new clones and preserve his old ones. It was the missing key to Hordak’s own failed clone attempts.

There was, however, a small problem. Throughout the two weeks that they had drifted through space towards Zowet, allowing She-ra time to rest while preserving their light speed jumps, they had maintained contact with their friends on Etheria. Even so far out into the galaxy, Hordak had given Entrapta tips on how to keep the signal going so far, and it paid off. Entrapta had warned them that in order for She-ra’s magic to be multiplied and spread throughout any planet, they had to be in a focal point of it. If not, the magic would not spread throughout the entirety of it, only causing more tiredness and resting time needed for Adora, and the magic itself might not even last. So for Zowet, they had to go underground into the planet, where Entrapta had given them coordinates for a designated place in which She-ra could spread her magic. 

An hour of searching, Glimmer and Bow together, Melog and Catra running around, and Adora covering distance as She-ra already. 

An hour until Bow had contacted the others through his tracker pad and told them he had found an opening near the coordinates. 

An hour for Catra to truly prepare to face something that Prime had so dearly wanted and used. An hour for her to shove down her emotions and put on a brave face while keeping her tail unfluffed and Melog’s mane a normal blue shade. 

An hour, and she was now staring down a dimly illuminated cave. 

She pushed through the rest of them, not allowing herself to even look at Melog, fearing their mane might be a slight purple already. “Let’s go,” she muttered, forcing herself to take one step in front of the other while looking down and letting everyone pass in front of her. She kept her gaze on the floor and let Bow lead the way as she tried to escape the images of electric-green pools and the feeling of being pushed by clawed hands. 

It worked.

There wasn’t enough correlation between the dimethyl sulfoxide in the cave and the one Horde Prime had used for her mind to really make the connection. It was almost as if it was a completely different thing as long as she was able to keep her mind off of it. She did so by looking at Adora, who was still in She-ra form and oblivious to Catra’s staring.

“We’re almost there, we just gotta get through this ledge, but we need to be careful,” Bow stared at her pointedly as he said it, we need you to be 100% present , it said.

She cracked a smile, subtle, but it got the message through. It was very Bow of him. She nodded and they all turned to move forward, Melog trailing last.

They slowly shuffled alongside the rough wall of the cave, making sure to watch their step as the ledge was cracked in certain spots. Small rocks tumbled down as they occasionally came across a weak spot. It was enough of a distraction that Catra could mostly keep her mind off of the clear liquid. Finally, they managed to make it all the way across and Bow’s tracker pad beeped loudly as they were marked to be in the coordinates for She-ra to renew Zowet’s magic.

She got into position much like in Eevne, stabbing the ground with her sword and summoning the magic within her to go to the planet, but this time, she seemed to struggle more. This planet, it had gone far longer without magic, not like in Eevne, which- although it had been decades of magic gone- was nothing compared to the centuries of dullness that possessed this place. It needed more, it asked for more, and Adora felt it as the land took and took until she felt as tired and worn out as the planet had previously looked. The group paid no mind to the renewed pools and now white and smooth rock of the cave. Their attention was all on Adora, who had collapsed during the magical transfer, and was shrunk out of her She-ra form as soon as the process was over. Bow, Melog, and Glimmer, who had been holding Catra back from running to Adora when she collapsed, finally let go of the concerned magicat who rushed to hold Adora’s slumped figure, “No no no no no, Adora? No- come on, wake up,” she cradled the blonde’s head, hoping that the idiot would open her eyes, “We need to get her to the ship, we- we have medicine and stuff there, right?”

Bow and Glimmer nodded, both kneeling next to their friends and getting up to carry Adora together. The couple was worried about Adora, but Catra? She was nearly hysterical even though they had already taken Adora’s pulse and it was likely that she had just passed out and was simply exhausted. Either way, they hefted Adora onto Melog’s morphing orange mane. Catra didn’t even notice as she turned around and glanced at the cave before them for the first time since the magic was restored. 

A bright green. 

Catra chuckled bitterly.

Entrapta said dimethyl sulfoxide was clear. 

This one was green now. 

Of course, it was. 

She shook her head in anger while Bow and Glimmer looked at her worriedly. They were obviously thinking the same thing, but she didn’t need their pity. She had honestly thought that this mission wasn’t going to cause any trouble at the start, but the universe just loved to fool her, didn’t it?

She was already nervous because of the acid greed pools surrounding her, and now Adora was passed out. It was all going wrong, and she couldn’t get a terrible gut feeling out of her. A knot twisted in her stomach as her anticipated thoughts reflected the sight in front of her. She had heard it before she even saw it. The squeak of a space suit-boot echoing throughout the cave had her watch Bow slip on a puddle of green as they walked the ledge they had come from. Dammit. The oozes of green on the white walls hadn’t been there before, and even though it was a sturdier surface now, it was smoother, and the leaking green liquid made it slippery. In a flash, Bow was falling and pulling Glimmer with him as she reached over to help pull him closer. The archer yelped as he fell into a large, cold lake of dimethyl sulfoxide with a splash, but Glimmer, Glimmer hit her head on a rock protruding from the surface of the liquid, knocking her out almost immediately. Catra stood frozen for a millisecond, not knowing what to do. Melog had rushed out of the ledge space with Adora on his back, but while he got Adora to safety Catra was left to decide what the hell to do. 

Bow was in the same spot he had splashed into, seemingly freezing as his teeth chattered and he slowly tried to swim over to a sinking Glimmer. He wasn’t going to be fast enough. Melog would have to leave Adora and come back, so he wouldn't be fast enough. But Catra? Catra could dive into the liquid and pull Glimmer up before she even got her head under, as she had been propped up on the rock just enough for her sinking to be slowed. 

But she hated the water.

Sure, dimethyl sulfoxide wasn’t water, it was a liquid, but it was basically water.

She didn’t know how deep the damn lake was but based on Bow’s struggle to stay afloat, it was deep.

It was green.

She was the Official Princess Alliance Guard.

She had no fucking idea how to swim.

She jumped.

She held her breath and closed her eyes for the imminent impact of her body against the water head-first, but being chipped and being in the water, in general, was honestly the last thing on her mind, the thought replaced by an urgent 'Save Glimmer' while she did her best to paddle over to the rock Glimmer had hit her head on, now covered in blood as the princess herself sank little by little. Sheer luck allowed Catra to reach Glimmer just as she was about to go under,  Bow's sigh of relief heard a couple of feet away from her where he was starting to improve on his swimming now that his limbs were warmer from the strain of treading. 

"Here, get her to the edge," Catra handed Glimmer to Bow, teeth chattering, knowing her lack of knowledge in swimming would prevent her from being able to reach land while carrying Glimmer or reach land at all. Catra held on tightly to the rock she had found Glimmer on, but the shock of watching her friends fall into a lake had passed, now it was just her, surrounded by almost the exact thing that Prime had used to 'purify' her. It was so, so cold and all she could feel was the way it felt so wrong on her fur.

Her face was reflected into the shimmery surface of the acidic green, only it wasn't her face, not exactly. It was her, with her hair cut off haphazardly, her mask still on miraculously, and she could make out other reflections of clones behind her. She panicked as she realized she was still with Horde Prime. Three years of constant nightmares, of good days and bad days and panic attacks, yet the memory had never been as clear as now. The incantation of 'All beings must suffer to become pure' filled her ears. She could feel the clawed hands digging into her shoulders as she struggled to resist, she could feel the burn of the electrified pool as she sunk deeper, arms flailing. The smell of chemicals only got stronger and she could see hundreds of clones in front of her.

She let go of the rock and started to thrash in the lake, "No, stop!" She begged this time. She didn't want this, she didn't want to give in as easily as she had last time.  And it hadn't been all that easy last time anyway. Was Prime still messing with her head? Has it all been an illusion? 

The pressure on her shoulders grew. Her body was tired of fighting back, it was getting harder to keep her head over the surface as the clones pushed more. She needed to get out, she tried so hard, but she couldn't swim and she cried for help though she knew it wouldn't come.  Adora couldn't come, she had to stay safe. It was the last thought in her mind as she caught a glance of Horde Prime's smirk and finally went under.

Bow had been so preoccupied with inspecting Glimmer’s head that he hadn’t even noticed Catra’s initial panic. He thought she seemed fine when she had jumped in to help Glimmer, so why should she be having problems now? He realized he couldn’t have been any more wrong as he saw Catra’s unfocused eyes darting around while she started to scream and flail around in the spot he had left her. He watched her let go of the rock and start to drown, her skin going slightly blue from what he could tell, and immediately he knew he was going to have to leave Glimmer for a bit. As Catra’s cries became more and more muffled from the liquid, Bow took off his spacesuit, leaving him in only his underclothes and he jumped into the lake. Catra had already started sinking, but the shore had been a good distance from where she was, and he was still a couple of yards away when he watched the bubbles popping up on the surface die out. He wasn’t the best swimmer, but Bow reached the spot eventually and he held his breath, diving under to search for Catra who continued to sink. How deep was this lake?

It took him four tries, each one only getting harder until his fingertips finally touched a furry arm, and he yanked on it, kicking his legs harder and harder, desperate to reach the surface as he felt that his lungs were about to pop out of his chest. 

His vision was getting fuzzy, both from the irritation of the dimethyl sulfoxide and from the lack of oxygen until he broke the surface of the lake. He pulled Catra up with him, taking heaving breaths and anchoring them both on a rock. He checked Catra’s pulse, “Oh no,” he couldn’t find one, and he wasn’t on a large enough surface to do CPR. Dejectedly, he wrapped an arm around Catra and swam them to the shore. 

He tried. He tried for almost half an hour before he decided his arms hurt too much and all he was doing was breaking Catra’s ribs. He left her there, not knowing what else to do as the entire team was out of commission, other than Melog of course, who had already brought Adora down and proceeded to sadly paw at a side-turned Catra. 

Bow sighed, pulling out a first-aid kit from his spacesuit and got to work on stitching up Glimmer, who still showed no signs of consciousness. 

This trip was going horribly. 

Catra was the first to wake up, surprisingly, eyes tightening up before proceeding to cough and vomit all the dimethyl sulfoxide in her lungs. Bow was on the third stitch on Glimmer’s head, and though he thought it couldn’t have been too long, Adora started to stir too. She asked a slurred, “What ‘appen’d,” just as Bow finished up the last stitch on Glimmer’s head. 

“I happened,” he sighed. If he had been more careful on the ledge, they wouldn’t be here right now.

“Nope, you don’t get to do that Arrow Boy,” Catra argued from her sitting position next to Adora, her chest still aching slightly and coughs wracking her body every so often. She was not going to allow Bow to blame himself when he never let them do the same.

He sighed. Catra was right, it would do no one any good if he sulked while they were still alone in the cave. He’d sulk later.

As if halting that train of thought, Glimmer started to move in his arms, gaining consciousness with a string of curses that had the corners of Catra’s mouth tilting slightly upwards. Glimmer finally opened her eyes and drifted her gaze across the room before she winced, bringing a hand up to her head, “So it wasn’t just a bad dream.”

That seemed to bring back the haunted look in Catra’s eyes, “No, it wasn’t.”

Adora seemed to be the most confused, righteously so as she had been unconscious for everything, from Bow falling in the lake and Catra dying, which he was definitely going to talk about with Catra later if she didn’t at least tell Adora.

He gently helped Glimmer up, as she still seemed to be a bit dizzy and was scrunching her eyes up in pain from a headache, “Alright, well, I think it’s time we get out of this cave.”

Catra seemed glad for the distraction, and she muttered a ‘good riddance’, hoisting herself up with help from Adora and Melog, though Adora still seemed to be struggling to stay awake.

Slowly, they took a safer path to the mouth of the cave, and they all sighed in relief when the light from outside shone in, a preferable sight to the still ominous green underground lakes casting dark shadows inside the cursed tunnel.

“Can I pleaseeee take a nap, Bow,” Glimmer was in the hallway, the echoes of her pleading heard all the way to Adore and Catra’s room, though Adora was still in the showers.

“No, Glim, I’m sorry but you have to stay awake for a few hours still. Then you can sleep all you want, okay?”

“Fine,” it seemed like there were occasions in which Bow could get Glimmer to listen, at least for a bit. It was progress.

Catra heard Bow’s footsteps approaching her in the entrance of the room, and she turned to face a concerned archer, though it was not an unusual sight nowadays, “Hey, what happened back there, I’m here for you, we all are. I know it must’ve been… intense, seeing all that again.”

Catra averted her gaze, he wasn’t wrong, but, “I’ll talk to Adora about it, and... Thank you, for getting me out.”

“Thank you , Catra. I know how hard it is for you to get near bodies of water like that, and you still did it to save Glimmer. We all owe you.”

She blushed, “Well- I mean- It’s my job ,” she rarely ever spluttered, but she was still ruffled from her flashbacks. It seemed her mind was still a bit elsewhere.

“I get it, but still, if you really don’t want me to tell Glimmer what you did, I won’t.”

Catra narrowed her eyes at Bow’s leaning form and hummed, “Well, if you promise not to blame yourself for anything that happened today, I’ll let you tell her after she takes her nap.”

“Deal,” he agreed a bit reluctantly, but he guessed it was hypocritical of him to blame himself for everything when he didn’t the rest of the group do the same.

She smiled and waved him off, “Go make sure Sparkles isn’t asleep.” 

He scrambled away, and Catra’s smile fell. She couldn’t get the sensation of being chipped out of her mind. Even when she had lasted extra time in the showers to make sure the dimethyl sulfoxide wouldn’t irritate her skin, she panicked the entire time, the water still scaring her, but it still felt like she couldn’t scrub any of it away. Her clothes felt too tight, and the room was too bright. Her hands trembled slightly, the memory of being with Prime was fresher than ever now, and though her chest still hurt from drowning, her breathing picked up. She was never going to escape him, was she?

Adora chose to enter the room at that moment, and she watched Catra seem to lose her grip on the present. 

Her hair was still dripping wet and making her pajamas feel hot, but she decided to forgo drying it and instead went to kneel in front of Catra, who was sitting on the edge of the bed and staring into space. A low, “No, no please,” could be heard, Catra’s muttering low enough that Adora barely recognized it.

“Catra? Hey, come on, you’re here, with me, in our room. We’re in Darla,” she avoided the words ‘ship’, ‘space’, and ‘Adora’ in general, knowing from the past that it could simply drag Catra further into her mind. 

“A- Adora?” Catra’s short breaths continued and the pain in her chest couldn’t bring her back.

Adora herself hesitated, this had gone wrong before, “Yeah, yeah it’s me, your girlfriend. Remember?”

Catra reacted just as Adora had thought she would. Suddenly her body shot into action, pushing Adora away and curling into herself in the bed, “No, no, you can’t be here. Prime- he’s- he’s going to hurt you! I-”

“We’re safe, Catra. He’s not here, he’s not going to hurt us anymore, I promise,” Adora now had tears in her eyes. It hurt, seeing Catra suffer like she had, thinking something was wrong while they were in the comfort of their own room. Her hand moved slowly to reach for Catra’s fingertips. It was one of the only places the clones hadn’t touched her at all, the restraints on her wrists sufficing to keep her claws out of the way when they shoved her around. She still flinched, she always did, but Catra allowed Adora to rub her trembling hands, What do you hear?” 

It was what Catra always preferred to start with, her long feline ears allowing her to identify any sounds better, “You, and D-Darla,” sobs still wracked Catra’s body, but she pushed through, wanting to get the image of Prime out of her, she wanted it to be over.

“Okay, what do you smell?”

“That n-new shampoo you got,” Catra’s breathing got a bit easier, and the pain in her chest became more present in her mind.

“Anything you feel?”

“The sheets, and your hand. ‘S soft.” 

Adora cracked a smile at that, “Taste?”

“Toothpaste.”

“Now, what do you see?”

Catra took a large breath and untucked her head from in between her knees, “You, with your hair down,” she smiled at the sight even though it was blurry from her tears.

Adora smiled a little, “Can I hold you?”

Catra nodded quietly, she felt her breathing regulate but her entire chest still ached. Both she and Adora were so tired, but she had told Bow that she would let Adora know what happened, and she figured now was as good a time as ever, “I…” she hesitated a bit. She didn’t know where to start, “I died. In the cave.”

She glanced at a now even more concerned Adora, but she knew the blonde would let her finish before commenting, it was how they always worked, “Bow and Glimmer fell from that ledge we used to get to the coordinates, but on our way back the cave was regenerated. The lakes turned green and it was all over the place. He slipped, and Glimmer went down with him. It wouldn’t have been too much of a problem, but- the lake- it was so cold and swimming was hard and Glimmer got knocked out and I was the only one who could help her,” she started to ramble, “so I jumped in even though I know I can’t fucking swim and I stopped her from sinking in just in time but I told Bow to take her away when he got there and then he- he was right there and the clones were pushing me under but I- I didn’t want to Adora- I promise I- I didn’t want to,” Catra had a desperate look in her eyes. She pleaded with Adora to believe her, to believe that Catra had tried her best, but-

“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay. I believe you, I know how much you hated that,” Adora did her best to reassure Catra. The magicat often panicked when asking her to believe that she had done her best to escape, for fear of being reprimanded for not managing to do it. Prime had always mocked her for it when she was connected to the hivemind, taunted her with illusions of freedom and escape and getting all she wanted only to go through the chipping process all over again. It always ignited Adora’s anger at Prime, even years later, but more so it made her heart ache. 

Catra herself sniffled a bit and nodded, remembering that she had drifted off on the story, “Anyway, I uh, I couldn’t swim and I drowned even though Bow got me out. I died and I woke up a little before you and Sparkles,” she finished it all with a sigh, it was going to setback her progress with Perfuma, both she and Adora knew it.

Adora hummed and nodded, taking it all in, “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you guys, maybe if I-”

“No, Adora,” Catra interrupted, “we don’t need anyone blaming themselves for this. I already told Arrow Boy, now I’m telling you. You don’t get to blame yourself. You passed out because you were exhausted , and you can’t control that. We all just need to be a little more careful next time.”

Adora accepted it, “Okay, I really am tired though.”

“Yeah, we can sleep all we want for the next two weeks, and after that, we’ll make Bow a cake or something.”

Adora nodded, already slumping into the bed, “Love you,” she cradled Catra in her arms as her eyes closed.

“Love you too, Adora,” Catra pressed her head closer to the nook in Adora’s shoulder and they fell asleep, tangled together in the comfort of each other’s arms.

Chapter Text

They were on their last planet. The entire trip had taken them about 2 months, with the resting times between planets being just enough for She-ra to recover thoroughly each time. Even with their initial mission to Zowet going horribly wrong, it seemed like all the bad luck had simply piled up at the start, and things were now running smoothly. The Star-Siblings were on standby now, part of the princess alliance and ready to technically become space diplomats. 

"We're about to enter Artik's atmosphere, so buckle in guys!”

The Best Friend Squad sat in the command center, each in their individual chairs after Entrapta’s additions to the ship. Adora was inputting the final landing coordinates and eagerly sitting in the pilot’s chair. Artik had a decent-sized population and based on some extended research from the Star-Siblings, the Artikans were quite peaceful. They had already been notified of the Etherians’ arrival and had a welcome group ready to escort them to the planet’s magic absorption site.

The ship rumbled slightly as they pushed through the planet’s atmosphere, and it was a smooth landing the rest of the way. They ended up in a large field of what seemed to be matted down grass, and as they exited the ship their helmets came off as well, Melog trotting alongside them. Their readings had said that the air here was breathable, and though they could never be sure, everything seemed fine when they took a small breath. Walking down the hatch of the ship, they were met with five blue-skinned and pointy-eared Artikans. The team tapped into their translators built into the suit and introduced themselves.

“Hello! We came from Etheria, and are here to restore the magic on this planet. We assume you made contact with the Star-Siblings,” Glimmer assumed the role of leader as usual. Having been the Queen of Brightmoon, diplomatic and formal necessities came easily to her.

The tallest Artikan spoke, and though it should have sounded like gibberish to the group, the translators interpreted every word perfectly, “Yes! The Star-Siblings said we had to lead you somewhere in order to restore the magic here. However, we are not sure exactly where this is located.”

Having been at a distance, Bow moved forward in an unthreatening manner, extending his arm to show his tracker pad with a beeping red dot on it. The Artikans took a glance at the screen, and their eyes lit up in recognition.

“Do you know where this is,” Bow asked hopefully.

“Yes! We can lead you there quite easily,” the Artikan responded eagerly.

Catra inspected the Artikans from the back of the group as they waved the team over to start walking. The previous planets they had visited had been underdeveloped, but Artik was highly evolved compared to them. They wore skin-tight suits, suitable for… combat? Catra furrowed her brows in confusion, wasn’t Artik civilization supposed to be peaceful and harmonious? Melog seemed to be thinking the same thing, their previously blue mane becoming a slight orange. Whatever, it was probably just a fashion choice.

Her thoughts were interrupted by one of the shorter Artikans that had fallen behind the rest of the group, now standing next to Catra, “Hey! I’m Miront, and you are?”

Catra debated her response. Their names hadn’t been shared much throughout their travels, and a name could hold power in this galaxy. On the other hand, they were supposed to be respectful, and this Artikan had already introduced themselves kindly, “My name’s Catra,” she gave with a somewhat stiff smile. She didn’t mean to seem unkind, but she still wasn’t used to doing this diplomatic stuff. She was kind of just the guard. Miront seemed unfazed by Catra’s expression anyway, so it couldn’t have been too bad.

“So, what exactly are you Etherians supposed to do? Magic has not been seen in centuries, though there have certainly been rumors these past couple of months,” they seemed curious, and Catra figured it couldn’t hurt to explain the process a bit. She had certainly never been asked about it before. Typically any civilization they encountered took the offer for restored magic without question, likely eager to gain back the world they had had before Prime’s invasion.

“Well my friend there is going to turn into a magical warrior, so don’t be surprised when that happens. Then she’ll basically just stab the floor and light the place up with magic,” she shrugged her shoulders, there really wasn’t much to it and Adora certainly knew how to explain it better.

The Artikan seemed fascinated anyway and kept asking questions that Catra did her best to respond to. They seemed a bit wary of Melog, which, it was understandable, but Miront looked at Melog with slight anger, something only the Krytan had noticed. Meanwhile, the magicat kept glancing at the group in front of her, listening to the quiet conversation that each of the Artikans had struck up with the rest of the quad. All slightly away from another pair, they asked so many questions, but they were all about another member of the Etherian group. Adora’s partner asked about Bow. Bow’s asked about Glimmer, Glimmer’s asked about Catra, and Catra’s asked about Adora, only the leader staying quiet at the head of the group.

Everything flowed easily with the help of the automatic translators, and the Artikans all looked very eager and interested, but something seemed off. Catra didn’t have time to investigate any further though because Bow called out a “We’re here!” and suddenly everyone was getting into position as Catra neared Glimmer and Bow’s sides. Her fur and ears stood up on end the moment the four Artikans stood behind them in a row and refused to budge. Melog, reacting to her emotions, grew in size and growled, their mane now spiky and red. Adora had already turned into She-ra, and she was lifting her sword off the ground before Catra got to call out a warning. In a flash, a light burst out of She-ra’s form as her sword plunged into the dirt and an Artikan was running towards her. Glimmer and Bow seemed confused for a second, but Catra was already throwing herself at one of the Artikans, specifically Miront, who was calling out orders to the Artikan next to her and pointing at Melog, “ Use the sedative!” Catra saw red. They were going to put Melog to sleep, but why?

She didn’t care. Catra leaped on Miront’s back and pushed, knocking the both of them in the dirt, but leaving Miront inept for the moment. She watched Glimmer and Bow fighting off the other two Artikans, leaving one to stand right next to Adora, lifting their arm and readying a giant needle with some sort of substance. She looked back towards Melog and was angered to see them already down and shrinking in size, the fifth Artikan standing over them. She ran over and swiftly knocked them down with a hit to the head. She couldn’t do much for Melog at the moment, no matter how much it upset her, so she turned around to see what the Artikan with Adora was doing. They had already prepped the syringe and were preparing to stab the needle into Adora. The blonde couldn’t do anything. She had to finish giving the planet magic or she wouldn’t be able to leave her She-ra form without collapsing into exhaustion anyway. She was of no use in the fight either way, and Catra was already tackling the leader of the Artikan group to the floor, the needle bouncing away. Where had they even hid that thing?

She didn’t have time to utter a word before she found herself cornered by Miront and two other Artikans, one of which had gained the upper hand on Bow in hand to hand combat and left Glimmer to deal with the fourth one. They all smirked, it was an easy three versus one, and they had the upper hand while in home territory. Their smirks fell as Catra unsheathed her claws all the way, cutting through the gloves on her suit. They had no weapons, and it seemed like they could only fight in close-quarters combat, an advantage for Catra.

She let them charge at her first, the bulkier of the three running up to her in an attempt to tackle. It was a crap move, predictable, and Catra easily jumped over their form and kicked them in the head while the other two got closer and pulled her to the floor by her legs. She let out an ‘oof’ and rolled to the side just as Miront’s fist came down on the floor where her face had been. They weren’t holding back, but she hesitated to use her claws, she didn’t know why they were doing this, and killing wasn’t something she liked doing. The hesitation cost her as she jumped up from the ground only to be kicked by Miront’s partner in the stomach, and as Catra folded slightly, the bulky Artikan she had kicked earlier hit her ribs in a side kick. She couldn’t lose this, Glimmer was still struggling to take down the one Artikan that had gotten ahold of a staff, and Glimmer, without her own staff or magic, was left on the defensive even as they shifted closer to Adora.

Adora. 

Why hadn’t the process finished? She should have transferred all the magic necessary now. As she took a glance to her left, she realized why. The planet was rejecting her. Unlike Zowet, it wasn’t searching for more magic it was trying to block it, but they all knew that not finishing the transfer could leave Adora in a coma as She-ra, and she couldn’t have that. 

Catra felt a bruise forming on her face and torso, but as Miront’s partner and the other Artikan gripped her forearms to restrain her, she thought of a plan. “Why are you doing this? We’re only trying to help,” the message was choppy because of her damaged translator, but as she received a response she knew Miront was the type to monologue. 

“Help? No. We cannot have magic running through the universe. It would only ruin Artik, we have the upper hand in this entire section of the galaxy. Magic will only allow the other planets to defy our power,” Miront finished, shaking their head.

Catra smirked internally, so it was power they wanted. She would only have to stall a little longer as they shuffled her closer to the syringe that she had relocated in the ground, “Power? I know a thing or two about that. But your plan won’t work, we can always go to another planet, and work our magic there,” she was trying to antagonize them, and it was working. Just a little more.

“Another planet? No, you and your friends are not leaving. You will be held captive here, but your friend,” Miront pointed their finger at Adora, who was still pushing through to the planet, “She will be executed. For insurance, of course.”

Miront’s smile grew at Catra’s obvious anger. They had already hurt Melog, Adora was off-limits. It was her only thought as her claws grew, her wrists twisting to scratch the arms of both of the Artikans holding her. Catra slammed her knee into Miront’s partner and twisted to kick the other Artikan. They were knocked back by her claws digging into their chests, and the magicat spun around to kick Miront’s chest in a similar manner, the claws on her feet digging into the Artikan’s chest as well with her boots having been knocked off at some point in the fight. With the three of them disoriented and bleeding green blood, she stomped her foot into the syringe. A clear substance spilled into the ground. 

Catra turned to hear a breathy voice yelling, “ Throw plan B! ” and saw Miront’s partner pulling a round metal device out of- ah, an invisible satchel. She was too far to reach the Artikan in time, so she decided to block the throw instead. It was headed for Adora, who was just finishing with the magical transfer, the glow of She-ra dying out. Catra ran on all fours to intercept the weapon, and it exploded on her shoulder. A red mist filled her nostrils and she collapsed on the floor. Her vision immediately became blurred, and long strands of now blue grass blocked her view but she was able to tell what must have been She-ra using the last of her energy to take down the Artikan assailants, concerned eyes meeting Catra’s closing ones.

"What did you do to her," Adora stood in her She-ra form in front of the Artikans who had been tied up with her sword-turned rope. She interrogated them as Glimmer and Bow sat in Darla a few feet away, trying to get Catra to wake up and helping a drowsy but conscious Melog calm down. 

Miront's smirk hadn't faded since the moment the bioweapon had caught Catra's shoulder, even knowing that the universe had regained its magic. It filled Adora with rage. She hadn't been able to cure Catra with She-ra's energy, both from the lack of magic in her and whatever it was that was inside Catra. She was barely managing to keep her She-ra form, after that, she knew she would have to rest. 

"I'm done playing games," she walked up to Miront and dragged her up to face level by the collar of her suit, "I'm only going to ask one. more. time. What did you do to Catra," she yelled.

Miront's partner chuckled, the one who had thrown the weapon at Catra, "She's been infected by a virus resistant to magic. Just as this planet is, or, was," the reminder of it tugged down on the Artikan's smile a bit.

Miront was the one to answer the silent question between them and Adora, "There is no cure. She will die,'' maniacal laughter filled the silence of the area, and Adora turned back to look at the rest of the squad. She saw Catra's limp and now pale body on the cold, metal floor of the ship. Turning her head around, she threw Miront in anger at the other Artikans and went to get more rope from the ship. 

She was going to leave them on this barren field and if she ever spotted their faces again she would kill them.

Glimmer, Bow, Adora, and Melog all sat around Catra, who was hooked up to many wires in order to keep track of her vitals. It looked bad, and the beeping of the machines only got slower or more frantic as Catra slowly died from whatever it was that she had inhaled into her body. Melog was in Adora’s lap, their mane a sickly yellow-green as they whimpered. The blonde herself could barely keep her head up, and her eyes were closing for extended periods of time, failing to fool the couple in front of her that she was energized even a little bit.

“Adora? Maybe you should go to bed, we can take care of Catra-” Glimmer started in an unusually soft voice only for Adora to cut her off.

“No- I- there’s nothing to ‘take care of’! She’s going to die! You- You heard what Entrapta said, we can’t fix this here!” Adora’s angry voice filled the room, but they couldn’t deny that what she had said was true. Bow had messaged Entrapta with all the information they could get on the virus inside Catra, almost a day later and the tech princess sadly reported that there was nothing she could do, at least not without being present in the ship and taking more samples. But she couldn’t be there. Even with their light-speed jumps, the team wouldn’t make it in time. The virus was meant to act fast, and it was certainly taking its toll on Catra, who had yet to wake up or show any signs of improvement, as expected. They had an estimated two hours before Catra’s body fully shut down. Two hours that Adora was determined to stay awake, even if she had already gone past the recommended twelve hours of wake time after restoring magic to a planet and no longer being in She-ra form. 

“Then we’ll stay here until she passes, and when she wakes back up-” 

Glimmer tried to counter the argument again, hoping to get Adora to rest as Bow had given up a few hours ago. But it was the wrong thing to do, and Adora exploded, still reeling from her anger at the Artikans that they couldn’t even take as prisoners, “Why am I the only one who seems to care that she’s going to die ?!,” tears formed in the corners of Adora’s eyes, “You’re both acting as if her deaths don’t matter, every time , but they do! She acts as if it doesn’t affect her but it does, she had nightmares now, from dying over and over-”

Glimmer stood in rage, up her eyes now filled with tears as well, “You’re not the only one who cares , Adora! Catra has saved my life so many times , but the one time I can still be there to help her- to stop her from dying- I can’t do anything , and it hurts. She’s my friend- she’s our friend- but- but there’s just nothing we can do- I- she-” the princess broke into sobs, finally letting out the emotions she had been hiding to spare Adora. 

Adora wasn’t the only one who cared about Catra now, though she seemed to forget it sometimes even years later. She immediately regretted yelling. She glanced at Bow and realized he too, had tears in his eyes. Catra was going to die again, and they couldn’t stop it. 

An hour and a half later, Catra had flatlined, and though the tears of everyone in the room had already dried out earlier, the only thing they could do now was wait for Catra to wake up again. 

Four lives left, they were less than the cautionary five Catra tried to keep all the time. The war was over, and yet, Catra had died almost as many times in three years as she had during the first half of the war. Her lives would now heal her faster, better; a peak before the downfall of the countdown to zero lives… again. She really hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Instead of sitting up with a groan like she had all the other times she revived, Catra’s eyes snapped open and she leaped from the bed, adrenaline running through her veins and her pupils dilated to slits. It shook Adora awake with a start while Glimmer and Bow ran up to hug her. 

Energized, Catra returned the hug with double the force, no longer afraid to let herself be vulnerable. It wasn’t like she could have hidden her happiness anyway, as Melog was literally glowing and making small trilling sounds. 

“So, Sparkles, does my job as the Official Princess Alliance Guard get me paid by salary or…”

Everyone chuckled at Catra’s little joke (she was genuinely asking though), and when Glimmer glanced at Adora, Catra turned her head to look as well. The blonde looked terrible. There was no other way to describe the state she was in. Her clothes were clean, but it was likely only because of the spacesuit she wore over them. Her face, on the other hand, was covered in grime and dirt, noticeably blue dirt, but it didn’t make things any better. She had dark circles under her eyes and her ponytail was hanging on by the thread, her poof long having fallen out. Form slumped over and legs shaking from standing, Adora managed to keep a smile on her face anyway, the relief of seeing Catra alive and healthy again overpowering her body’s urge to collapse. 

Bow and Glimmer shared a look, deciding to leave the room to the other couple and giving Adora a slightly pointed look herself, not that she noticed. They squeezed Catras shoulder and went to their own quarters, Catra’s only clue about the problem being Adora herself. Luckily, she was much more perceptive than her girlfriend.

“Hey, Adora,” the magicat murmured.

The blonde smiled, trudging over to where Catra was, a feat in itself, and hugged her as tightly as she could, which wasn’t much, “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you,” she said in a soft voice.

“Not your fault. End of conversation.” Normally Adora would have insisted, even just a little, but this time, she simply shoved her face in the crook of Catra’s neck and nodded. She felt calm again, now that Catra was here, and her body followed suit. Her knees buckled slightly, and Catra held her up by the waist with ease, “Let’s get you to bed, dummy.” 

Melog helped keep the both of them up the rest of the way out of the healing room and in the hallway to their room, Catra making eye contact with Glimmer and Bow on the way there and giving them a reassuring smile. 

Adora kept mumbling something about punching and kicking, but she was about as coherent as when she was sleep fighting- she probably already was. 

Catra smiled to herself at the thought as she dumped the dead-weight blonde onto the bed, not even flinching as Adora bonked her head on the beadboard. Even without her stupid poof, she had a thick enough skull to resist basically and damn hit to the head. Although, it could explain why she was such an idiot sometimes.

Catra wondered if that extra bonk would make her more of an idiot. Oh well. Melog scolded her a bit, but she didn’t think it really mattered. 

She debated between going to cuddle next to Adora or letting her zoomies take over but figured that Adora would likely still be asleep after her zoomies, and she could have both. 

It was decided, Glimmer and Bow would be hearing random thumps around the ship for the next few hours and there was nothing they could do to stop it.

“Are you finished with your running around, Horde Scum,” Glimmer had come out of her and Bow’s room, ready to tackle Catra down herself in order to get some sleep, “Not everybody can sleep like a damn rock right now.”

“Sounds like a you problem, Sparkles,” Catra taunted as she pointedly looked at Bow, who was sleeping rather lightly now that he had adjusted to the thumps.

Glimmer groaned, “Ugh I totally regret telling Adora that I care about you.”

“Oh?” Catra’s interest had peaked, Glimmer didn’t admit that too often.

Said princess blushed slightly, “I do ya know- care about you. You're my friend, whether you like it or not Horde Scum!”

Her aggressiveness made up for the sappiness, totally.

“Well, I’m also your guard and royal advisor, but potato potahto,” Catra cast her gaze slightly downwards, “And, I care about you too Sparkles. Bow included.”

The pair stood in comfortable silence until they were startled by a loud ‘AWWW’ coming from none other than Bow himself, “I’m so proud of you guys!” He ran up to give them both a hug, and Melog trotted by showing off a glowing blue mane. Traitor.

“Hey, Catra…” Glimmer remembered what Adora had said when they were waiting for Catra to get better. The catgirl flicked an ear to show that she was listening, “Adora mentioned that you have nightmares from your deaths….I don’t think she meant to but…”

Catra herself sighed in resignation, she wasn’t going to be able to keep covering it up, “Yeah, it’s okay I trust you guys. I do get nightmares, most of the time it’s from the times I died during the war but- that first time I died again and just a couple months ago- those, they kind of messed me up.”

Bow and Glimmer were visibly upset, but especially Glimmer, who recalled just how many times she herself had been the cause of Catra’s death, “Oh stars, Catra I’m so sorry, I didn’t know, and all the times I killed you-”

“Hey, no. I don’t really mind so much when I get killed by accident, or when one of you guys kills me, that’s- well it’s not fine but those aren’t the deaths that bother me so much. I mean sure, getting electrocuted reminded me a bit too much of Shadow Weaver- but that’s not the point! The point is that when I get killed by someone who actually wants me dead, like that guy who snuck into the meeting and actually planned on murdering me, it makes it all a little more real. And drowning in those stupid green lakes reminded me a lot of Prime, but I think it was worth it.”

Bow still showed much concern about the situation, even with Catra’s attempts at reassuring them, “Have you talked about this with Perfuma? I mean I don’t know how you died in the war most of the time but, we’re here to help you if you want. I don’t think dying is a very nice experience and no matter what, it shouldn’t have to come to that.”

Catra winced at the mention of Perfuma. Even with the amount of times they had held their sessions through the tracker pad in space, it didn’t feel right to discuss the reemergence of so many troubles with dying, “I haven’t mentioned it just yet, but I swear I will. I just kind of want to wait until we get back.”

Bow seemed a little more assured with the response, but still, “Okay, just remember that we’re all here for you. You, Adora, and Glimmer all have your ‘Dealing with Emotions’ certificates, verified by me, Perfuma, Scorpia, and surprisingly- Frosta,” a cheery and proud smile adorned his face.

“...So does this mean we have to get rid of the scoreboard, because Sparkles is winning and I know she’s a sore loser.”

“CATRA!”

Two weeks and a light-speed jump later, the best friend squad was a week from Etheria. Adora had woken up about two days after their incident in Artik, and had simply been recovering her magic the rest of the time.

In that timeframe, Adora, Glimmer, and Bow talked about their feelings on the situation that was Catra dying. In fact, it was Adora who had come up to them and apologized (unprompted, Bow was so proud, another three years and maybe he’d be able to get Glimmer to do the same). Catra was taking a nap in the command room, curled up in the windowsill facing the stars. Everyone had taken a moment to aw at the sight and then rushed to Bow and Glimmer’s room where hopefully neither Melog nor the magicat would be able to hear them.

“Okay, okay, I have a plan,” as expected, Adora pulled out a tiny bulletin board; some habits were just too hard to break out of. She pointed on the yellow paper that had a tiny drawing of Scorpia on it and was titled: Catra’s Revivals, a diary by Scorpia : ), “Scorpia told me that after Catra’s fourth life, she has the five left, and so her body is just like ‘WARNING’ and she starts to revive faster. So her injuries are just gone, poof, completely- and she gets an adrenaline rush because her body doesn’t want to shut down again” she pointed to a similar paper, this one with a drawing of Entrapta on it. “So, in order to stop her from wasting any more lives, we have to just put padding everywhere.”

Adora seemed so deeply satisfied with her idea, and Glimmer slapped her forehead, sighing, “Adora, we can’t just death-proof everything. Besides, there’s already more peace on Etheria than there has been in years- even though we have been getting signs of trouble- it shouldn’t be a big deal! Catra probably won’t die anymore. We just have to keep stupid things away from her-”

“-and space,”

“And space,” Glimmer finished with a smile, “what’s the worst that could happen?”

“What’s the worst that could happen? What’s tHE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN??” Oops, it was clear now that Adora had already thought of the worst things that could happen- all of them. Her rant was going to last hours, or at least until Catra woke up, and Glimmer knew that there was no escaping this. Even without She-ra, Adora was a menace when it came to two things: Catra and Planning. Combined, she was unstoppable.

“We’re almost home!” 

Glimmer bounced around the command center excitedly. As much as she wasn’t looking forward to her queenly duties, she missed the other princesses, and Brightmoon was her home. They were about to enter the atmosphere, and after a pointed look from Bow, she hurriedly buckled into her seat.

Hands intertwined, Adora and Catra took one last look at the stars up close. They closed their eyes as Darla rumbled, Melog’s purplish mane giving away some of Catra’s uneasiness. Either way, the couples readied themselves to finally tough home ground, the excitement filling the room.

A resounding thud and Darla’s announcement alerted them of their successful landing on Etheria, and as the hatch of the ship opened, smiles grew on the Best Friend Squad’s faces at the simultaneous calls of joy at their arrival.

“And then this bitch fell in and got herself knocked out so I had to JUMP IN.”

“NO, ”Scorpia had her claws raised to her face in a gasp while Mermista, Frosta, Perfuma, and Seahawk all looked very interested. 

“Yup,” Catra told everyone in the room the story of how she died in space (the first time), much to Glimmer’s annoyance. Even Bow was filling in for some parts, adding extra ‘flair to the story’ he had said. “‘Was about to leave her there too but then I was like ‘oh wait Sparkles is paying me for this’”

“Get that bag,” Mermista cut in enthusiastically as Catra nodded along.

“See she gets it. Thank you, Fishy.”

“Anytime, Furball.”

Glimmer groaned, she liked it better when she and Catra teamed up.

“So…” Perfuma cut in unexpectedly, “does this mean we add a point to Glimmer on the leaderboard, or…” she glanced around questioningly.

“Well let me finish the story and then get to the next one, Petals, then we can talk. You’re still not off the hook for killing me, so don’t get your hopes up,” Catra smirked as Perfuma looked thoroughly disappointed that she remembered that.

“WE ARE GETTING RID OF THE SCOREBOARD, CATRA, WE TALKED ABOUT THIS.”

Chapter Text

"Did you really believe that you could win? That you could be at peace? Such foolish thoughts, Little Sister. You will never escape my grasp and you shall forever be confined to the agony I rid you from in the first place," Prime laughed and laughed at the terror in Catra's eyes. She was back in his ship, but she was paralyzed. There were no witty remarks, no plan, no hope. She simply stood there, frozen and crying as she was led back into a pool of electric green. 

"NO, PLEASE," her voice came back to her in those final moments, remembering all the memories and illusions Prime had made her live out in her mind, only to have her realize that she had never lived those things, that she was never happy.

"Do not resist, Little Sister. Even you must know that your Adora will never come.  She never did. She never will," suddenly the memory morphed into the image of her and Adora after the war, only to fade away in a glitch as Prime taunted her, "A false memory, one you never had no matter how much you wish it to be true."

"Stop it! She- she came back, she saved me! It's been years, she-"

"Have you not suffered enough? Succumb to the light, and you shall find that not even those you imagined to care for you find you worth their efforts," Prime slipped away from her vision as she felt the pain of each of her most recent deaths, the piercing of a spear, the shock of a taser, the nausea of food poisoning, the filling of her lungs, the weakness of her limbs- "Why do you think this keeps occurring? Have you ever thought to wonder? You should not be alive, and yet, you have begun to sacrifice yourself for the sake of others, sacrificing your health. It is because you know your illusion was crumbling, and you are willing to give yourself over in order to keep this… pathetic sense of peace. Join me, in the light, and you will know true purity!"

After a moment of doubt, she started to really think. It was all too much, but she refused. It couldn't be true, could it? Prime sensed the indecisiveness in her and growled in disgust, snapping his fingers ordering the clones to keep pushing her into the pool. 

"No no no, please! Not again, STOP IT," she grunted and cried as she struggled to try and leave the clones' grasps, but she couldn't do anything, and she was tired, just like the first time. She froze in her struggles, however, when she caught sight of Adora in front of her. Glowing green eyes staring her down as she tried so desperately to keep herself from suffering again. 

Catra broke. "NO, not her! Please, not her! Let her go! Let her go!" She looked towards the blonde, whose face was blank except for the terrifying smile  that sent chills down Catra's spine, "Adora, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she begged as she cried for Adora, the love of her life who never got to be happy, "I love you, please, please!" 

Adora stayed the same, her only response being, "Join me in the light, Catra. We can be happy if you just join me."

Catra recoiled, she didn't want this, she didn't want any of this. She screamed in agony as she was finally thrown into the green liquid, screaming and screaming until she closed her eyes and tried to swim back up, her legs kicking and kicking, her arms thrashing over and over and over-

-again.

She opened her eyes again as she felt the weight of something crushing her, and not just the pressure of drowning, "-tra, Catra!”

Her throat still felt hoarse and she was still trying to wiggle out of the hold she was in, but through a flurry of blinks, she caught a glimpse of grey-blue eyes looking down at her, worried and a little sad. 

“Adora?” A raspy voice broke through the silence and Catra felt the buff blonde’s weight lay off a little.

“Yeah, we’re okay, we’re safe,” Adora had taken to telling Catra that they were both safe after Catra had confessed that more often she found Adora being the one in danger whenever she nightmares.

Adora saw Catra’s eyes water again, even with the tear stains already on her cheeks from her cries as they slept, “Can I hold you?”

Catra shook her head, she couldn’t help but feel that the dream wasn’t a dream, that it was a reality and she was only getting an illusion of peace right now, “I need to see you, tell me something only you know,” with her shaky voice she barely managed to say what she needed, but Catra knew it was important for the message to get through.

Adora took a moment to think. It always had to be something different when Catra asked this of her, if not it wouldn’t convince her of anything, “Uh, when we were little and my tooth got knocked out, I wanted to shove it back in my mouth but you said no and I gave the acting performance of a lifetime in the cafeteria.”

The story broke a watery chuckle out of Catra, now moving to press herself against Adora tightly after staring at her eyes while the blonde told the story, “You know, I think your wish did come true after all,”

Adora remembered her wish even years later, I know we already promised each other that we’d look out for each other and stick together, but I wished that we’d be together forever, just to make sure, you know? “Wow, I think I was in love with you even at seven huh?”

Catra smiled, “Heh, yeah. Who would’ve thought? A tooth wish keeps us together.”

“I would’ve thought. I did think. That. I was a genius,” Adora felt oddly proud of her kid self.

“No, you were and still are, a dummy. I had the brain cell that entire day, I still can’t figure out what went on in your dumb little head. Your poof takes up too much thinking space even now.”

The couple spent the rest of the night giggling and bickering just like they did back in the Horde, only this time their love could be unrestrained in the air and happiness filled the atmosphere.

Tired. Grumpy. Annoyed.

That was what Catra and Adora felt as they dragged themselves out of bed for the day, which was quite eventful. A properly matching couple trudged to the kitchens where they found Glimmer, who had heard their antics last night, with two bowls of coffee. Literal bowls. 

Catra had her Queen-approved sparring test with her platoon and she would rise a rank in the military this week. Adora was going to watch. Yes, watching Catra fight sixteen soldiers was just as important as the test itself. Adora had fought tooth and nail to get Glimmer to appoint her as a ‘supervisor’ and she would have the entire day free- well, not free, just supervising, of course. Thoroughly.

Waiting for the caffeine to kick in, Catra poked at the squishy countertop corner. It was memory foam, seemingly torn out of a mattress, as the size of the chunk itself indicated. Adora had been exposed months earlier, a little after their space trip, as having been taping a bunch of soft things all over the place. 

Nobody knew what was wrong with her, not even Catra until Bow and Glimmer explained the dummy’s actions and between her and the Queen, Catra had scolded her for wasting the padding. Bow couldn’t bring himself to be even slightly angry, he thought it was sweet, but Adora was told to stop nonetheless. And she had, for the most part.

Every now and then a random item or even an entire room could be found looking like a damn cloud. 

Catra kept poking at the squishy foam until it started to rip off the tape on the table. When it finally fell onto the floor with a small bounce in the silence of the room, Adora looked thoroughly upset, but she couldn’t say anything as Catra turned to face her and lifted a brow, daring her to comment on it. 

She didn’t.

She did give a small whine though when they finished their coffee bowls and Catra dragged her and Glimmer out of the kitchens to the training room. 

Training Training Training. It was the thing that took over Catra’s time nowadays. She was Glimmer’s Royal Advisor, though now that she had another two jobs a full board of members had been added, she was just Glimmer’s favorite (even if she wouldn’t admit it). Aside from her job as the Princess Alliance Official Guard, she was now a lieutenant in the Brightmoon Army. Obviously, with no war the position didn’t mean she was ordering around troops every day for battle with a real enemy, instead, she was kind of just- training them. The military was still there and people were still enlisting. It wasn’t too demanding and she got to use her muscles a bit. Aside from that, it was fun working with General Juliet and she was climbing the ranks quickly. With her previous experience in the Horde and having proven herself countless times to the Queen, Catra was set to become a general within the year and was speed-tracking her way to the personalized position of Tactician and Strategist General after that. 

Which is how she found herself here, standing in the training room with sixteen soldiers, her favorite platoon to work with. They had obviously passed all training to get to this point, but she liked to test their skills herself, both with and without weapons. So, she was going to spar with them to see if they could pass their ‘final’. It was something they all prepared for by the end of their training with her and if they could take her down in teams of two, then they were ready to advance in position along with her to a higher position. She had excitedly explained her concept to Glimmer and Juliet, and they both saw it as a fun way to let Catra loose in her first year as Lieutenant. They were both present in the sparring room to watch Catra fight and place bets (Adora was there too but that was mostly just to ‘supervise’ her girlfriend).

Sixteen soldiers, one crazy magicat, what could go wrong?

Catra readied her stance, crouched low and claws out but with caps on them. She could definitely bruise a soldier with them on, but they wouldn’t get scratched and she could use them to her advantage still. She looked like a rabbit being stalked by a giant lion, but everyone in the room knew it was the other way around. Glimmer, Juliet, and Adora watched intently as the first pair of soldiers charged. 

The girl, Lillie, immediately swung a fist while her partner, Taylor, fell to the ground and went for Catra’s legs. It was a decent move, but Catra predicated it easily, “You might be my best student Taylor but you fight too clean,” she thought. He reminded her of Adora. Catra ducked under Lillie’s punch to the face and jumped at the same time. Taylor was left to the side while Catra gave a sharp- but held back- punch to Lillie’s gut, letting the girl fold over before she aimed her elbow at the soldier’s neck and nearly kneed her in the face. She wasn’t going to actually hit her though… obviously. Lillie was deemed out of the fight while Taylor stood back up and called over another two soldiers. The kid had initiative, Catra could give him that.

“I bet they can all dogpile her and still lose,” Glimmer watched intently as she argued against Juliet on the bet.

“Now don’t have such a lack of faith in my soldiers, they’re decent fighters,” Juliet hadn’t trained them herself, but she had approved their advancement in training. They had to be somewhat good.

“Two of them were already deemed fatally injured in a real fight and another two had to tap out,” Glimmer pointed out as she watched four soldiers charge at Catra.

“Well, each time she takes one down another two are allowed to join the ones left standing-” Juliet winced as she saw Catra slam another soldier into the mats, this time one that she actually thought would last more than two seconds.

“Which is hardly any.”

“-and I might not have seen this girl fight before but she can’t be that good,” there were still ten soldiers left and five of them were charging at Catra, though less enthusiastically than the starting bunches.

Glimmer, meanwhile, recalled the many times they had fought Catra in the war while casually watching the girl in question knock two soldier’s heads together while another went for her throat in a punch, “Hmm, she did train with the She-ra in the Horde and was second in command to Hordak. You really think she can’t beat a group of kids in a supervised fight?”

“No, I don’t,” Juliet had heard the tales of the ex-Horde commander, but during the war itself, Catra hadn’t been seen too often on the field, taking a more tactical role as Hordak’s second in command. She was a bit more apprehensive though, after watching the catgirl dodge a punch to the throat as well as an elbow to the face, one soldier even tried to reach for her tail- wait, had she taught the soldiers to fight dirty? That wasn’t necessarily allowed but she realized that the ones fighting dirty were getting a few more hits on Catra. 

“Well, why don’t you ask the might She-ra then, who could never take her down,” because she was in love , Glimmer thought.

“Princess Adora? What do you think,” Juliet turned her head to look at Adora, who was nearly drooling at the sight of her sweaty girlfriend in gym clothes effortlessly fighting people.

“Uhm- yeah- so pretty,” the blonde hadn’t even heard the question and the other two women chuckled as they caught Adora staring at her girlfriends’ twisting limbs. She was so damn flexible, Adora recalled just how well that flexibility could be used in-

“‘Guess I can add Catra to Adora’s weaknesses,” Netossa walked into the room just as Catra pushed herself off of one soldiers’ back and twisted under another's legs, sending the both of them tumbling down while she was already on her feet again. 

“Netossa? I didn’t know you were coming to watch,” Glimmer looked at the princess in surprise, though she really shouldn’t have, considering just how competitive Netossa got, especially with Catra.

“Oh, I just came to take down some notes,” she innocently waved a leather notebook as she sat next to Juliet, but her smile said otherwise.

“Notes?” Juliet was intrigued. Notes on the soldiers? The test?

“Yeah, I take notes of the weaknesses in everyone at the castle, in the rebellion, and any potential enemies. I’ve done it for years, but I’m just confirming some stuff about Catra.”

Juliet looked thoroughly shocked. Why didn’t she think of that? It was such a good idea!

“I thought you already knew Catra’s weakness, water,” Glimmer tilted her head in confusion, “In fact, I distinctly remember you spraying her with a spray nozzle a couple of times after the war,” she laughed quietly while she remembered Catra’s face whenever that happened. It.. hadn’t happened for a long time though.

“Water? Really?” Juliet furrowed her brows in confusion as she finally admitted that Catra was good, really good. There were only a handful of soldiers left, and she had barely broken a sweat.

Netossa looked smug at the memory of Catra’s shrieks anytime a pink spray bottle appeared. She was convinced she could gain a reaction even after almost two years of it being gone, “Yeah, look what I’ve got,” she could barely contain the crazed sparkle in her eyes as she showed Glimmer the spray bottle from behind, out of the magicats’ line of sight. 

Glimmer’s eyes widened as she realized what Netossa was going to do, “Do you think she’ll recognize it?”

“I don’t know, but Spinny and I went to talk to Entrapta, and the princess said that Catra might just have some sort of pavlovian response, she’ll poof up and hiss like she did back then,” Netossa giggled, giggled , as she imagined the magicat doing that during a fight.

Juliet and Glimmer risked a glance at Adora, who was still drooling over Catra who was finishing up the fight, “Okay, but we have to get someone like Adora to spar with her. This test is actually kind of important,” Glimmer winced. This surely wouldn’t be as bad as her own prank on Catra all those years ago.

Meanwhile, Netossa nodded seriously and whipped her head over to the fight as Catra finally slammed the last soldier, Taylor (unsurprisingly), into the mats on the floor and declared herself the winner. 

At the statement, Juliet stood up from the bench, slightly disappointed that she wouldn't get to watch whatever experiment it was that Netossa was running as she had to lead the soldiers out to the healers and announce the top eight who were moving up and those who were staying under a new lieutenant.

“Taylor!” Catra called out the soldier’s name as he exited the sparring room with the rest of the platoon. 

Taylor’s head turned, “Yes, Lieutenant?”

Catra waved him over to a more isolated corner of the room, away from Glimmer and Adora’s prying eyes knowing they’d want to know later, “You did a good job today. You showed exceptional leadership skills, don’t think I didn’t notice that you kept being the one to call people in,” the boy preened at the praise, but, “Your strategy was a good one, don’t get me wrong but I took note of how you played the long game,” Catra raised her brow knowingly while the kid looked like he got caught dealing drugs, “Lesson number four, remember-”

“Don’t play the long game if you have the opportunity to do something else-” they finished the phrase together.

“Exactly,” Catra had taught five major lessons to the groups, and she deemed them crucial enough to make the soldiers memorize them. “You had a minimum of fourteen soldiers at your disposal after Lillie got taken down, and I know at least seven would listen to you if you came up with a plan. So, here’s my big question- I already know the answer- but I want to hear it from you. Why wait so long, even after you already had a guaranteed position in the top eight?” 

Catra watched as Taylor ducked his head and licked at his lower lip in doubt. She knew it, he knew it. He might be the best soldier in her favorite platoon, but he still made mistakes, just like any other being would.

He sighed as he got ready to say it. It was a stupid move, he did the one thing Catra had told them not to in the first week of instruction, “I was waiting for you to tire out-”

“You were waiting for me to tire out,” Catra nodded and held in a chuckle, “Hey Adora! Come ‘ere!”

Taylor groaned right as Adora shot up from her seat and ran to the call of her beloved girlfriend, “Yeah Cat?”

Now, Adora had no idea what was going on. She had been used as an example in Catra’s classes, sure, but she didn’t know why Taylor, out of everyone, would need-

“Adora, how long did training simulations in the Horde last?”

Ah, so this was what it was. Catra innocently asked the question as she gave an expectant smile at her girlfriend. Taylor was standing with his head tilted, curious though obviously waiting to cringe at his own actions after receiving an answer. He was sure Catra had mentioned this specific detail at some point, but he couldn’t remember the exact time.

Adora, already knowing how much this was going to crush the kid, answered casually, “A minimum of ten hours a day. That was just basic training since, ya know- we were kids- and we needed to eat and sleep and take some other classes and just have recreational time,” Adora was rambling, as she apparently still remembered the exact schedule times of the Horde, "but over time it got to fourteen hours since our recreational time was taken away and we were encouraged to wake up at 6:00, eat breakfast and be ready by 6:30, head to training and spend six hours there until 12:30, eat and interact until 1:00, go back to training for another six hours until 7:00, take classes until 9:00, have one hour of free activity, and be in bed by 10:30 max. -Of course, we had a free day to fix any training scores that we wanted, I think that was on Sundays- OH- we also had drills that could last the entire week sometimes! Those were actually kind of-”

“Adora!” Catra yelled and waved a hand in front of the blonde’s face.

“Oh, yeah?” Adora gazed unknowingly into Catra’s eyes, no longer registering the fact that she was supposed to be talking to Taylor.

Catra pursed her lips and nodded her head slowly in acceptance, “First of all, you’re a fucking nerd,” she meant that with full sincerity, “and second of all, you’re scaring Taylor,” she pointed at the soldier next to them.

Finally, Adora turned to look at the kid, and she noticed just how scared he seemed. His eyes wide and mouth slightly open with a- judgemental?- look. Obviously, Brightmoon’s military was not as intense as the Horde’s child soldier regiment. 

For the first time in a while, Adora thought about how the way she was raised was not as nice as she thought it was when she was a teen. It wasn’t normal here to have memorized the entire schedule of her life on the dot- though- Catra never did that either, so it was probably just a ‘her’ thing.

“Anyway,” Catra interrupted her thoughts, probably for the best, “this lunatic might have remembered all that crap exactly the way it was, but you get the gist of it. Right?”

Taylor nodded frantically, the kid had never actually seen live combat, and he looked downright terrified. 

Catra nodded, “Good. Remember, an enemy likely isn’t ever going to tire out before you, and they’ll take you out before you get the chance to wait it out. So, don’t underestimate your enemy, and please- don’t underestimate me,” she received an understanding and desperate nod in return, so she took pity on the kid, “Dismissed.” Taylor sloppily saluted her and nearly sprinted out of the room.

Glimmer and Netossa still sat patiently in the room. That in itself was suspicious, the fact that they were able to sit still for so long and do nothing when they had the opportunity to just leave , but Catra didn’t question it and neither did Adora. 

Before the pair on the bench even had to make a move to set off the prank, Catra made it for them.

“So, miss, ‘one hour of free activity’, wanna spar?” Catra asked the question already bouncing on her toes. She knew Adora wouldn’t refuse.

“Ugh, would you let it go,” the blonde chuckled, “I didn’t even realize I remembered that, let alone the entire Horde schedule.” Adora blushed as she remembered her ramble, in front of a kid no less.

“Nope, I’m going to tell Scorpia, see what she thinks because- trust me- no one ever memorized it as well as you did.” Catra laughed as she imagined Scorpia’s face when she found out Adora was that soldier.

Honestly, the more Adora thought about it the more she realized Catra wasn’t wrong, “Eh, you’re probably right,” she said nonchalantly.

Catra though- Catra’s eyebrows shot up to her forehead, “Wait wait wait, say that again.”

Adora rolled her eyes and sighed, “I said , you’re probably right-”

“WOOOO, did ya hear that Sparkles! I’m right! Did you record that down in your notebook Nessy?”

Adora faked annoyance at Catra’s antics, but on the inside, she was beaming, Catra looked so happy that Adora almost couldn’t bring herself to care at the exaggeration of her own ‘you think you have the brain cell 24/7’ moments, as Catra called them. A mouthful, but as accurate as Catra could name it. “Just for that, we’re using the spears this round,”

The magicat groaned, “Awwww. Can I at least use my claws then?”

“Fine, but not too deep because I have a meeting tomorrow.”

Glimmer and Netossa winced, they had no idea how Adora did it. She and Catra would show up with bruises and scratches (well, Adora would) and they seemed fine aside from the occasional bump on a bruise. Glimmer brought it down to simply assuming it was a Horde thing. Although, years had passed and Scorpia never really roughhoused as much as the pair in front of them did.

“Hey- so- I know you said you know the ultimate way to kill Catra, and- I kind of wanna know- but not- like- in a ‘I wanna know so that I can kill her' way, more of a ‘I wanna know how hard it is to kill this damn cat’ way…” Glimmer grimaced at her lousy explanation, but she figured Netossa was the one to actually think about it in the first place, so she was good. Right?

She put the thought aside as Netossa seemed to get very excited with her intricate plan of the perfect way to kill Catra, “SO, this girl, she’s afraid of water. Correct?” Glimmer nodded and made an ‘okay?? And?’ motion with her hand, “She also has nine lives, and we know she revives after each one. Correct?” Netossa kept pausing and Glimmer nodded again, making a ‘get on with it’ motion, “So, we have to spray water at her to spook her without actually triggering any fighting instinct, and then we have to electrocute her with enough power to kill her once. Then, we have about a five to ten-minute frame to get tie her hands and legs, cap her claws and teeth, or just gag her, carry her in a bag to a large body of water, tie a rock to the bag, and just drown her, so when she revives, she’ll still be drowning, but she won’t be able to swim or anything so she’ll just drown over and over and over- ”

“OKAY!” Glimmer’s expression was properly horrified, “I-that is so- so- so cruel! WHAT THE FUCK NETOSSA?!?”

Netossa nodded hurriedly in agreement, trying to hush the Queen desperately as Catra and Adora looked over in confusion, still picking out their weapons. “Okay, okay,” she raised her hands in a calming motion, “I know how it sounds but, but,” she interrupted Glimmer before the girl went on a tangent, “it’s realistic Glimmer. I’ve been thinking about this in sections for years. I’m bound to have a Catra proof plan.” Glimmer looked more skeptical when she said ‘years’, but, “Look, I know my hobby isn’t exactly normal , but that’s all it is, a hobby. A hobby that I will never actually take action on since it’s just planning . The same way Adora plans her weird charts with a full-on board and the same way Catra plays fake strategy games-”

“ Chess , Netossa. She plays chess ,” Glimmer stressed the use of the word Chess as Netossa seemed to fail to comprehend that that was an innocent board game.

“Yeah- whatever. The point  is that I’m never going to actually kill Catra- or anyone in this castle… but, you just never know what’s going to happen-”

“So you’re paranoid?”

“Competitively.”

Glimmer nodded in minimal understanding, “Okay, but you have to pinky promise that you won’t kill Catra.”

Netossa actually took a moment to contemplate, “Spinny would be mad, but she did just call me Nessy, and I already told her that it sounds too much like that one-”

“NETOSSA!”

“Alright, alright, but- just let it be known- that I could totally do it if I wanted to-”

“Yes Netossa, everybody knows you are competitively superior to Catra when it comes to killing each other, you don’t need to prove anything,” Glimmer said it all unenthusiastically, but Netossa seemed satisfied enough, and the Queen sighed in relief. “... I think maybe you should come to Bow’s weekly classes, maybe he can help us with our more… unorthodox… coping methods.”

Netossa blinked slowly and Glimmer blinked back, “Yeah probably.”

They both turned to watch Adora and Catra who had already started with a playful sparring session, though they all knew it would turn serious soon.

Bow really needed a bigger classroom than his tech office.

Catra heard the entire conversation.

It was like, everybody other than Adora forgot that she had these giant ass ears that could hear everything.

She didn’t even know why she bothered at this point.

Either way, she found it hilarious that Netossa thought her plan could ever work, and it was funny seeing how Glimmer recoiled at the reveal. She was totally telling Adora later, but right now, she was focusing on not scratching up her girlfriend’s face too much and not getting stabbed by a surprisingly short spear.

She should not have underestimated the power Netossa held.

She should not have insulted the spear. 

The older princess on the bench chose that moment to pull something from behind her. Naturally, it caught Catra’s eye even during her sparring with Adora that had now gotten intense.

As soon as she made out the shape of the pink spray bottle, Catra froze mid-dodge, her tail and fur rising as a hiss instinctually made itself out of her between her teeth. 

The only reason Catra realized what had happened was the widening of eyes from both Netossa and Glimmer. She had been staring straight at them and she looked down once she noticed that their gazes fell upon her chest. Which, normally, she would have been confused because I’m with Adora and I don’t even have boobs or a boob window anymore and-

Oh

“Really? Ag-” Catra yelped at the same time Adora did. Though the blonde had done it out of surprise and fear, while Catra had done it out of pain because, “You idiot you pulled it out?!?”

Adora’s eyes widened and her mouth was agape as she realized just what she had done. In her haste to get the spear away from Catra, she failed to realize that the tip had already gone through the magicat, and now she was going to die from blood loss or lack of oxygen from drowning in her own blood if the bloody coughs were any indication.

Glimmer and Netossa, who had been standing there in shock, now made eye contact with a desperate and worried Adora, “Get help, the healers, anyone!”

With a nod Glimmer teleported out of the room to who knows where, Netossa in tow.

Adora turned back just in time to catch her collapsing girlfriend, who was doing her best to put pressure on the wound, though it likely wouldn’t help much, “Crap- crap you’re going to die aren’t you,” she did her best to hold Catra up, trying to keep her collapsed lung from getting more damaged, “dammit, I knew I should have put padding on the spears too-”

Catra shook her head as best as she could, wheezing out a repeated, “It’s fine, it’s fine,” as she got paler and her chest started to burn. 

 Except it wasn’t fine because Catra was dying again and this time it was Adora’s fault.

The healers didn’t get there in time.

Glimmer had teleported about four doctors into the room the moment Catra passed out, and they didn’t prepare for surgery fast enough to keep her alive. Even with blood transfers, the collapsed lung and previous blood loss was enough to keep Catra dead long enough to make her naturally revive. 

For a moment, Adora hated Catra’s nine lives because maybe she wouldn’t have wasted one if the revival wasn’t automatic after five minutes. But then she remembered all the other times Catra had died.

She sighed as she waited for Catra to finish up her shower. This death had been messier than most times, so the magicat actually had to get clean this time. It had been a very reluctant decision on Catra’s side though, especially with the recent reintroduction of Netossa’s spray bottle and the memories that came with it. 

“Hey, Adora?”

“Oh- huh?” Catra was standing in front of Adora now, who had been caught staring into space perched on the edge of their bed. It was a position that normally didn’t mean something good for either of them. 

“You know it wasn’t your fault, right?”

Adora narrowed her eyes in confusion, “But- it literally was this time. I don’t-”

Catra sighed, moving to sit next to her girlfriend, “It was an accident. Like half of my other deaths have been.”

Adora looked at her, pained, “It doesn’t make it hurt any less though,” and Catra found that she had no rebuttal. The paused response made tears spring to Adora’s eyes. “I hurt you, again. I promised I wouldn't and I did,”

Catra’s head shot up, “Hey now, this is different.”

But Adora kept shaking her head and she stood up from the bed, backing away from Catra. The magicat tried reaching for her girlfriend’s trembling hands, but Adora flinched back. The moment she did Adora saw the hurt in Catra’s eyes, knowing it was a mistake, “I keep hurting you, I’m sorry Catra, I’m sorry.” Catra opened her mouth to respond, but Adora had already fled, sprinting out of the room and almost bumping into Bow in the hallway. “Hey guys-” the archer was interrupted by a distraught Catra, who looked ready to chase down the blonde who was already turning the corner. “What’s going on,” Bow asked, looking confusedly at Catra.

“She thinks she hurt me again, not like- physically but more… mentally. Because she was the one to kill me this time and she’s the one who’s been so careful,” she sighed, giving up on the hope of reaching Adora now. She was likely long gone now, especially with that horse of hers.

“Sounds like her,” Bow breathed out, ready to summon the magical powers that gave him the ability to give exceptional advice, “I think maybe she just needs some time. Your deaths have been bugging her for a while now, and it’s something that she can’t fix. Especially since it’s you. Maybe she ran away to talk to someone. Let’s wait a bit before you hunt her down, kay?”

Catra thought about it, Adora could just as likely go to a hiding spot and let her worries simmer in that pot of anxiety she had the audacity to call her brain- but if it was needed Catra could find her and get Melog to assist her in helping the dumb blonde. Finally, she nodded and accepted Bow’s request to meet him in the tech office with Glimmer and Netossa so that they could discuss the recent reveal of Netossa’s notebook.

Adora was gripping onto Swiftwind’s mane as they flew over the treetops of the Whispering Woods. She didn’t know where she was going, but Swiftwind had sensed her emotions through their bond and when she found him in the ‘free stables’ he was ready to try help however he could. She kept silent the entire way, and Swiftwind knew that trying to lighten the mood probably wasn’t a good idea.

Her thoughts were running through her mind, the many promises she had made to Catra through the years, and how she kept hurting her girlfriend anyway. The ideas of ‘maybe she’s better off without me’ and ‘All I do is make things worse’ drowned her. It was only until she caught the smoke rising from a small hut in the distance that her thinking stopped. 

Maybe Madame Razz would be able to help.

She directed Swiftwind over to the little house, and the smell of pie filled her nostrils as they swooped down to meet the lady that Adora had not seen in a long time.

“Razz? Are you here?”

“Adora dearie! I haven’t seen you in so long!” Razz’s excitement brought a smile to Adora’s face, as well as Swiftwind in the background, already munching on Razz’s bowl of apples that she kept around for him. “How have you been? Is that girlfriend of yours coming around soon?” Adora’s smile faded slightly as she remembered why she found herself here in the first place. She and Catra had come over a few times over the years, and Razz seemed to like her girlfriend especially now that Razz could differentiate between her and Mara but it was a little hard to make time to come on their free days as finding Razz could prove difficult. “Oh, nevermind that, you need to help Razz pick some more berries for pies. It’s blackberry season!”

Razz handed Adora a basket before she could protest, and Adora simply followed as they made their way out of the hut deeper into the woods.

“So, what is going on with you and Catra?”

Adora wasn’t even surprised anymore, Razz always knew what was going on, it seemed like one of the benefits of living several times all at once. Maybe the only benefit, but Adora slumped in her walk, “She’s been dying a lot in the past two years, and a lot of times it was kind of an accident, but… this time it was my fault. I’m supposed to protect her, I’m supposed to not hurt her and I killed her! And, a lot of times you’d think it’s not a big deal because she doesn’t die permanently, but she got a nightmare just yesterday because of how she died the.. the fourth time, I think. I can’t even keep track! I don’t know how to fix it, and… I feel like I’m not helping her as much as I could, as much as she helps me with stuff. I just- I don’t know what to do and I feel useless- more than useless, actually. I’m a burden. I- I keep hurting her and-”

“Alright dearie,” Razz interrupted already knowing that Adora would simply continue if she was not told to stop, “what did my Mara tell you?”

“What?”

“I said , what did Mara tell you?”

“Uh, she said I am worth more than what I can give to other people, but Catra’s my girlfriend- ” Adora didn’t understand what Razz meant, but the older woman kept pushing.

“Exactly, both you and Catra must help each other, and I know she would not have let you simply be upset. You are not a burden, Adora. The same way that Catra is not a burden to you. If she says that you have not hurt her, then you most likely did not!”

Adora thought about it, but, “I know, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t help her! It doesn’t mean I can just kill her ,” she was nearly yelling, more at herself than Razz but the witch whacked her with Broom anyway.

“That is not what I said. Here, get me berries from that bush over there,” she pushed Adora away with a basket, “I said , you are not a burden. You never have been. Sure, you cannot go around killing people, even if they do not stay dead, but you did not mean to kill Catra, right?”

“Well no, but-”

“And you mentioned that she had a nightmare. Did you help her then?”

“Yes, but-”

“Then you are doing the best that you can for her! That is all you can ask of each other. You are there for her when she needs it!” Razz took on a softer tone before continuing, “You comfort her, Adora. You keep her safe in ways that do not compare to anything else you could do. And you have told me before that Catra makes you feel safe as well. You cannot fix everything dearie, and you cannot always be the one to help, but as long as you stay by each other’s side, I think you are keeping your promises already,” Razz gave a small smile, and she moved to pat Adora’s shoulder. “Now, finish picking from that bush and we can go make some pie!” The old lady shuffled away, and Adora smiled through her sniffles and tears, making sure to pick the best blackberries for Razz’s pie.

“Thanks for everything Razz, I’ll make sure to come by soon again!”

“Of course Adora dearie, and make sure to bring Catra with you! Here Swiftwind, take some apples for the road,” Razz shoved more apples into the poor alicorn’s mouth.

Adora held a pie for Catra in her arms, knowing that Razz made too many again and Catra was going to want to know where she was after so long. After a long hug and making sure Swiftwind wasn’t too full to fly, she hopped up onto his back and waved goodbye to Razz and Broom, eager to see Catra again, and… maybe apologize for worrying her and also… for killing her. 

On the flight back to Brightmoon, Adora encouraged Swiftwind to chat about his ‘Free horses Rebellion’ and how he had met up with Melog recently, the both of them talking trash about their respective companions and also-

“Hold on- pause- ‘talking trash’? What- why??” Adora was appalled, why would they do that?

“You’re both messes, I mean- come on, how could we not?”

Adora simply sighed in acceptance and let him continue.

“Damn, so Adora was smooth even back then?” Glimmer was slightly impressed with seven-year-old Adora

“I mean, I wouldn’t say smooth- ” Catra argued.

“No, that was smooth,” Netossa had to agree with Glimmer on that one, “I mean, that ‘just to make sure’? I want Spinny to be that romantic with me.”

“It’s enough to make a girl fall in love for sure,” Glimmer gave Bow a pointed look, but he was too busy awwing at Catra’s retelling of the story Adora had reminded her of that morning.

She couldn’t even argue with Netossa, because Melog was curled up next to her, purring and their mane a cute and non-hostile pink. 

It was the scene Adora had walked in on, entering Bow’s tech room/classroom, “Hey, Catra,” she bit her lip and had her arms outstretched with a fresh pie.

“See! Smooth,” Netossa wrote it down in her notebook to use on Spinny herself and Glimmer made a mental note that wouldn’t resurface from the mess that was her mind until a few months later to use on Bow. She did teleport both Bow and Netossa out of the room and into Bow’s though, she knew the couple needed some time to talk.

“Hey, Adora,” Catra took the pie out of Adora’s arms and put it on the table beside her, “you okay?”

Adora nodded, “Yeah, I went to see Razz. Well, I didn’t go to see her but, I just ended up there, you know?”

Catra nodded, it was accurate, “Did she knock some sense into that poof of yours? Because if she didn’t, I will.”

“No, yeah, she totally did. We talked and I realized that maybe, even if I did kind of kill you, it was still an accident and it doesn’t mean I love you any less. And that maybe I can’t keep you from dying as much as I want to, but I’m always going to be here for you. Always,” she held Catra’s hands in her own, running her fingers over her girlfriend’s knuckles as she blushed, waiting for Catra’s response.

“You’re right, dummy. And I’m going to be here for you, so don’t ever think you can get away with shit again because I will hunt you down and prove it,” a sniffle escaped Catra, “dammit, four years with you dumb princesses and all of a sudden I cry for everything.”

Adora smiled at her, “Yeah, cuz you looovvvvveeee meeee,” she chuckled at Catra’s forced frown before it let up and a small smile appeared. Adora felt a rush of warmth run through her as she and Catra stared into each other's eyes.

“Yeah, I love you, idiot,” Catra had managed to turn the word ‘idiot’ into the nicest thing Adora had ever heard, and it made her feel amazing. She leaned in for a small kiss that made Catra purr with happiness and comfort, tail swishing lazily behind her. 

“Hey, Melog ate the ‘sorry for killing you’ pie!” Adora exclaimed and Catra turned to see Melog with a few crumbs on their face, a guilty ‘mrow’ escaping them. Before either Adora or Catra could do anything, they turned invisible and escaped the room leaving Catra with a quick sound of ‘sorry’ in her mind. She scoffed at their audacity and it only shocked her more when Adora said, “Swiftwind and Melog talk trash about us.”

“That little shit!”

“Wanna visit Razz later this week for more pie then,” Adora asked casually.

“Sure,” Catra responded, seemingly having forgotten about what had happened earlier, “wanna go to prank Netossa?”

“YES PLEASE.”

Netossa suffered at the hands of the chaotic couple for the rest of the week until Spinny kindly asked them to have mercy on her poor wife.

No one can refuse Spinny.

Chapter Text

They wished they could say it was unexpected. They wished they could say they hadn’t seen it coming. But they had. The problems had been looming over their head more than ever in recent months. 

Exactly on the Fifth Annual Celebration of the end of the war and Horde Prime’s defeat, the Kingdom of Snows was attacked. Within the week, two other Kingdoms had been ambushed as well, consisting of the Scorpioni Kingdom and the Crimson Waste. Thankfully, Scorpia and her people had fought back, having almost all ex-Horde Soldiers living there, it was a challenge, but Scorpia had kept some standard weaponry, even after five years unable to part with it. It made the fight a fair one, and they were able to stall. The Crimson waste, though full of renowned criminals, surprisingly sought to defend their land from the ‘outsiders’, persistent on the belief that Horde soldiers that had stayed Horde even after there was supposed to be a level of peace were pure scum. The people of the Crimson Waste wanted to keep their land running without rule, and the Horde had never offered that, so they hit the Horde faction with all they had but were taken down anyways.

Now, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the Kingdoms were hit as well. Unsurprisingly, Catra took the brunt of the workload. Just a week earlier she had officially gained her final job aside from Royal Advisor and Princess Alliance guard: Brightmoon Military Tactician and Strategist, her newest position. A mouthful, but she got to use her skills for good, and even better, she got paid. The position definitely went down a notch in grandness once she actually had to deal with a newly emerged wannabe Horde that had somehow gained more firepower than what a couple of princesses could handle. It was chaos as Catra ordered around the Brightmoon soldiers and spoke to the generals next to her that somehow believed they could push her around just because she was new to the rank.

She proved them wrong fairly quickly, “You! I need the lieutenants to move two squads to these placements as recon, we need to know exactly what we’re dealing with here,” she pushed her claw into two different areas on the map of Etheria; the locations were meant to be fortifications for Frosta’s kingdom that was currently being held as conquered territory. Frosta had done her best to remove her people from the land, but they had fled and the land was left defenseless as Frosta was forced to retreat to Brightmoon for reinforcements. With the soldiers on the towers that surrounded the frosty location, they would be able to observe what Catra believed to be the main platoon of this new Horde. She had gone over the plan with Juliet before meeting with the rest of the generals, the guard warning Catra that they would be overly confident in their sayings during wartime. 

“Why? It would be better to make an envelopment maneuver on the forces directly outside of Plumeria. Losing more territory is something we can’t afford,” a bulky man spoke with a deep, cocky voice, and Catra watched as the rest of the men in the room murmured their agreement.

She scowled, “There’s a reason I was named Tactician and Strategist, not just General, General ,” she mocked him, ready to point out all the flaws in his plan, “Not only is your plan stupid, it’s what the enemy expects.”

She watched the man’s brows furrow, face nearly going red at the insult, “What the hell do you mean? I-”

“ What I mean is that the platoon currently in the Kingdom of Snows is the head of the group. Frosta’s kingdom is the second-best protected kingdom in all of Etheria, these ex-Horde soldiers wouldn’t just send anybody to conquer it; they sent their strongest. Additionally,” she emphasized with a swift movement to the screen of her tracker pad showing the supposed group of soldiers sent to attack Plumeria, “this meager company of soldiers has little to no threat on Plumeria as Perfuma has already evacuated her people and set up with a separate battalion of Brightmoon soldiers to defend her Kingdom need be. Which, I believe there is no need, but General Juliet insisted on sending an abundant amount of soldiers, so you can thank her for that General Markson, those were your soldiers,” she finished with a smirk, “In fact, because of that you are dismissed from the meeting as you are no longer of use.”

Markson slammed his fist on the table, Catra standing statue-like through it all much to his displeasure, “This is not over,” he growled as he glared at Catra and stormed out of the room, Catra’s gaze burning into his back.

She raised a brow menacingly, “Would anyone else care to question my decisions?”

For generals, the men in the room shuffled quite nervously while shaking their heads, some looking at her with respect, and others with apprehensiveness. Catra wasn’t the biggest fan of it, but it allowed her to move on with her planning. She was totally going to tell Juliet about this when it was over.

While Catra was setting up all the foot-soldiers in Brightmoon to defend both her kingdom and the others, Glimmer and the rest of the princesses were scrambling to their own positions, also determined by Catra. Glimmer kind of loathed it, she was being bossed around by the brattiest magicat in all of Etheria, but at the same time, she was thankful. Over the past couple of months, Catra had proved to be a much better strategist than Adora, much to the blonde’s concurrent approval and slight jealousy, but she was very proud of Catra. She had grown so much over the past five years, and now, people were safer because of the early alerts that had been sent a week prior, courtesy of the Brightmoon Advisor who had convinced the rest of the advisory board to do it. Catra had been one of the first to truly identify what had seemed to be random criminals causing trouble over the past year, revealing them to be a defective Horde faction full of Hordak’s previously strongest Force Captains, Generals, and Commanding Officers who were simply not ready to let go of their powerful position now that there was supposed to be peace. 

Perhaps they should have been spotted sooner, seeing as how Scorpia had mentioned that a significant number of people hadn’t shown up in the Fright Zone’s databases, but they had all just assumed that the missing people had moved on with their lives and gone to live somewhere else. They couldn’t have been more wrong. The soldiers had gathered forces and weapons, with five years of prep time that the princesses didn’t get.

It was only because of the redeemed ex-Horde soldier that they had formulated a setup without it falling apart completely within a week of its start. Glimmer and Bow were stationed in Brightmoon, of course. Mermista was back in her own Kingdom with Seahawk, both ready to defend the place that had literally just been finished being built. The people were nowhere near ready to fight, so Catra had sent them with a small company of Brightmoon soldiers. After all, if there was one territory they couldn’t afford to lose, it was Salineas as it controlled the entirety of the sea. Scorpia was defending her own Kingdom, the ex-Horde soldiers still ready to fight even if rusty and therefore only received a shipment of weapons, as they were who likely knew how to use them most since most of Brightmoon's military hadn’t seen true battle. Entrapta went to Dryl and was locked up in her lab with Hordak, together churning out bots for all of the kingdoms as the location itself was already heavily unlikely to be attacked with all the traps and robots there. Mystacor was also gathering their best people to serve as reinforcements. They were likely the heaviest hitters besides the princesses themselves, and Catra wanted to keep them as the final puzzle piece, an unexpected back-up along with Spinnerall and Netossa. As far as she could tell, Brightmoon was the only kingdom with battle-ready people since General Juliet had kept most of them in training with Catra for situations like the one they were in now. Adora was meant to stand by, ready for whatever came their way when the Horde faction decided to strike. It was a disadvantage, being on the defensive while their enemy played heavy offense, but it was better than charging through their forces like maniacs expecting a retreat only to find themselves trapped, which is exactly what would have been done had Catra not had the brain cell that entire week.

“Report, Lieutenant,” Catra had been anticipating this for the entire week. The two squads had finally returned from their recon in the Kingdom of Snows and had promising information.

“You were right ma’am-”

“Ew, no. Don’t call me that. Just General is fine.”

“But, you’re not… exactly a General… General,” Taylor had obviously already heard the story of Catra’s deriding comments to General Markson, but he was right.

“I’m aware of that, Taylor, but do you really want to say Tactician and Strategist every single time? No. I’m basically just a general, but better- obviously. So, report.”

Taylor sighed, accepting the technicalities, “You were right, General, there are an estimated two full battalions stationed in the Kingdom of Snows. They’re coming after Brightmoon in five days. They have their tanks set up, and they all have hand-held weapons of some sort, seems to be lasers just like the old Horde bots, but smaller versions. Nothing like Princess Entrapta’s inventions, of course, but still lethal. They have staffs and swords as well, but those wielding them don’t have uniforms, they look more like pirates and other random criminals.”

“From the Wastes?” 

“I don’t believe so, they don’t run in gangs, rather they’re all just part of one large group like they’ve known each other forever,” Taylor was a bit confused about that part, as was Catra.

They had sent reinforcements to the Crimson Waste as a stealth team, going to a hideout where they knew Huntara was located with a few other people who had escaped the attack, but they were stationed there until further notice. Huntara had said that both she and Tung Lashor’s gangs fought back, so there was no full gang that had joined the other side. In fact, hardly anyone did. 

“Where the hell were these people hiding,” Catra muttered, face scrunched up in thought. Five years, no solid location yet all these gathered forces were not recent additions to the new Horde. They knew each other well, based on the report, so they had to have been living together for the entirety of the years. They couldn’t have just gathered up in a secret location every once in a while- no, they had to have been living together, but where? 

“General Catra? If I may, I think it would be best to consult the rest of the alliance on this matter. It’s obvious that this insurrection was somewhere on Etheria. They might have been hiding in a kingdom all along.”

“You’re right Taylor, thanks,” Catra gave their shoulder a small pat, earning her a poorly hidden smile from the young Lieutenant. 

It seemed like the Brightmoon Tactician and Strategist could be nice after all, though, he had known her for a year already.

“So you’re telling me that an entire division of Horde soldiers started and grew within what could possibly be any of our kingdoms, gathering resources while they manage to stay in one location?”

“Yes.”

Glimmer groaned. She sat in the war room with a tracker pad in front of her and Catra, Adora, and Bow next to her, all staring at the split screens showing the rest of the alliance.

She was about to respond when a bang was heard outside. Before anyone could even turn around, Taylor was skidding into the room, “It’s the Horde Faction! They’re here,” he yelled out before running back out 

“Shit,” they hadn’t been expecting them until the end of the week, and now they were here five days early, Catra immediately started giving orders, she had the best plans anyway, “Guys, head out, I want you three in the front lines, ready to fight. Be careful, we have a catalog of their weapons but we don’t know if they have any more surprises up their sleeves.”

As Catra ran to the communications room to pass out the comms to any soldier left in the castle she caught a glance of Taylor giving out orders to his own battalion. She indulged in a proud smile for just a moment. Just like her, he was climbing the ranks quickly and was fit for the position of leader. It would do him some good to see a little battle, even if she had wished no one would have to go through that again.

She continued to the comms room only to find a small group of Horde soldiers already in there, or she assumed they were. They didn’t have uniforms, but their clothes certainly weren’t from Brightmoon or any neighboring town, and the weapons at their sides paired with the scowls in their faces immediately gave them away. The guard knocked out at the entrance was a nice hint too. Four on one, Catra could take them even if she had lost the element of surprise. 

“Aww, you guys left me a little warning,” the two fighters that hadn’t seen her whipped their heads around, and the entire group growled, “how nice of you,” Catra leaped off the group and went for the chest of the lizardman, he reminded her of Tung Lashor, an age-old enemy and it only fueled her more. She kept her claws fully extended this time, with no hesitation. The taunts and sarcastic comments came to her naturally, and as much as she hated to admit it, she found herself having a bit of fun with the fighting. The adrenaline as she kicked one lizardman in the face, and the rush as she finally escaped the grip of a snake-man only to turn around and claw them in the face. It was a different kind of power, and Catra found herself smirking as she looked down at four fighters on the floor while she remained triumphant. 

Her smirk faded, however, as she finally placed a comm piece in her ear only to hear the panicked shouts of the people fighting outside. Soldiers were calling out for help, crying after their fallen comrades. Glimmer was ordering people as well as She-Ra, but they couldn’t fight and come up with a good, long-term plan at the same time. Catra remembered why winning wasn’t fun, and she rushed out of the castle along with a dozen other soldiers, who were shaking in their boots as the fact that they were going into combat finally fell upon them. 

She decided now was the best time to give some orders, “Soldiers,” she went to stand in front of the group and realized it contained some of her best weapons handlers as she got a good peek under their helmets, “I don’t have a clear idea of the action outside, but from what I can tell, it’s best that you do an employ guile strategy. You’re a small group, but we can take out twice as many soldiers on their side if we do this. Stick together, but switch tactics. You’re a small army right now so await further orders,” a chorus of ‘yes General’ sounded in response, and Catra nodded in dismissal. She knew they were in home territory, but based on the sounds outside, the weapons of the Horde Faction were pretty high-tech, and there were only so many bots that Entrapta could make. Backup was starting to arrive though, she saw Scorpia and Mermista out on the field now as they were sure their kingdoms were protected just in case. Catra ran past dozens of lizard-people, snake-people, frog-people, and even some cat people. She quickly took many of them out with her claws, slashing at the back of their legs when they were busy fighting someone else. It worked until many of the Horde soldiers realized what she was doing, and they started to gang up on her. An elbow to the face, a kick to the jaw, a punch to the gut, a scratch to the tail, and the shredding of limbs all happened when Catra fought. She could feel a slight soreness in her knuckles and her legs were thrumming with energy every time they stretched for a kick.

She tried to hold back sometimes, she really did. But her claws could cut through steel and as much of a great fighter that she was, her claws were a weapon that was practically screaming to be used. She didn’t want to gut people, but sometimes she remembered that these wannabe Horde soldiers kept their scheming up for years when there was supposed to be peace, and if even the lowlife criminals of the Crimson Waste thought they sucked, how could she not be angry? 

She was taking them out with a speed unmatched, but she was still a strategist and tactician, the only one available at the moment, so she found an isolated section of the woods that would give her an overview of the battlefield. “Sparkles, I see their leader,” She was a lean sea elf, unexpected, but the glimmering crown of polished metal caught anyone’s attention, it just so happened that Catra was the one who was able to stop long enough to notice. The woman was overlooking everything, but it was clear that the group of fighters surrounding her was meant to protect her, no matter how subtle it was meant to be. 

Immediately, Catra started forming a plan, “Spinny, do you copy?”

A scratchy, “Yeah!” grunt gave Catra the confirmation she needed.

“Lieutenant Colonel Taylor, I need you to get your soldiers to retreat from whatever they are doing and make them head to princess Spinnerella’s position,” she received no response, but after a few seconds she saw a bulk of soldiers make their way closer to the wind princess, and she knew the kid had gotten her message. 

The fight was looking good, they were winning for now, and not by much, but the number of casualties on their side was far less than anything she would have expected with such a sudden attack from an unknown enemy. 

As well as the Horde faction fought together, they weren’t properly trained and it seemed like they didn’t know their enemy better than Catra knew hers. 

Catra gave Spinny the order to lead the soldiers through a subtle penetration maneuver against the soldiers surrounding the sea elf woman, and the surrounding Brightmoon soldier followed. Still isolated, Catra continued to give more orders, going from rank to rank in order to get the most direct guidance, and soon she was able to join the fight as the Horde faction was decreasing in numbers. Their weapons hadn’t even been largely distributed. The hand batons with the lasers that had been claimed to be Brightmoon soldier’s greatest challenge to get through were only present in the hands of the soldiers protecting their leader. They had their strongest in that little circle and the rest were spread out. Sure, they had been hundreds, but Entrapta’s bots were harder to take out than they had been during wartime, and they got rid of the mass groups. 

It was easy… almost too easy, but Catra didn’t have any time to question it because only seconds later she was darting over to Scorpia and Forsta’s sides on all four legs, a growl rumbling in her throat as she watched the Scorpioni princess protect Frosta from a bunch of snakemen ganging up on the pair. It was at least a dozen of them, but their weapons looked like electrified swords. Frosta was doing her best to fight from behind a hunched-over Scorpia, who was immune to the electricity, but her exoskeleton could only do so much to protect her from the sharp blades of the barrage of swords. 

Catra gave one last glance to the battlefield, Glimmer and Bow were doing great together, fending off a small group of Horde soldiers and seemingly having it taken care of, Netossa had joined her wife in the maneuver against the Horde leader (Catra thought she was a better Horde Lord, the crown was too tacky), and she saw Juliet herself working with some of the other Brightmoon soldiers to take down the masses. Melog was working with King Micah to create a barrier and keep the citizens safe while trapping the Horde people. Finally, Seahawk was having a little too much fun singing shanties while fighting pirates as Mermista groaned at having to hear his songs while fighting. Lastly, there was Adora, who was shaking the ground with every takedown she made. 

Finally settling down back to the present, Catra joined the defense fight for Scorpia, who was slowly tiring of being used as a shield, and Frosta who was desperately shooting out ice shards to the enemy. 

Catra frantically clawed her way through the first three soldiers, but it was a bit of a struggle to get past the rest. She was getting a little tired, to be honest, training the Brightmoon soldiers wasn’t quite as tiring as the Horde’s training, and she didn’t need to be constantly on alert nowadays, not like she had in space or during the war. 

It was probably why the soldiers got the upper hand on her. At least, that was what she would tell anybody who asked. In her defense, she was distracted with protecting Scorpia and Frosta, it was her job after all. 

She had taken out about half of the Horde soldiers, but Scorpia had already managed to collapse under the attacks after giving out one last burst of electricity, leaving Frosta to fend for herself.

It made sense now, the Horde soldiers were simply ganging up on the princesses, knowing they were the ones with the most power, it was just bad luck that these soldiers had enhanced weapons. 

One moment Catra was clawing the life out of a soldier, and the next she was on the ground, curled up in a ball and trying to shield her head and ribs from the kicks she was receiving. Through the haze of it all, she could make out some cackles and commentary about how they finally got to take down the ex-Horde leader. She wasn’t keen on calling for help, but Catra knew that if she did at least Adora would drop everything and rush to her side. 

It wasn’t Adora that blasted the Horde soldiers out of the way though, Scorpia and Frosta were the ones who had recovered and got her some space to breathe. 

When she finally stood back up, Catra watched a soldier go for Scorpia’s lower back, an unfortunate weak spot, and even more unfortunately, Catra was short enough that it aligned with her own chest.

Both Scorpia and Frosta would forever bug her about that.

Scorpia wasn’t paying attention to the sword at her back and Frosta was too busy defending herself, so with a resigned sigh, almost bored, Catra knew she had no chance of stopping the sword and simply jumped in front of it, and even better, it went directly through her heart. 

She died instantly, and much to the assailant’s surprise immediately came back to life and pulled the broadsword out of herself with no reaction other than the feel of an adrenaline rush going through her body.

The snake-man was in shock, so much so that he just stood there, utterly confused.

“Try again, fucker,” Catra growled out before turning the sword around and stabbing its owner.

Admittedly, she had not realized how much of an impact her supposed death had on the soldiers around her. All of the Horde soldiers and even some fighters from Brightmoon who had never seen her die before had turned to look at her. 

She was the center of attention and it seemed like the world had stopped around her.

“What?” her casual reaction was the only thing heard for hundreds of feet across the battlefield. 

Before anyone could react, a singular Horde warrior yelled, “SHE’S IMMORTAL” and it set off perhaps the largest stampede of Horde soldiers anyone had ever seen, with comments of “WE’RE DOOMED” and “I DIDN’T SIGN UP FOR THIS” being the only thing heard while Brightmoon’s fighters simply stood there. 

Catra was slightly confused herself, but she took it as an overall victory as the Horde side scattered to the edge of the forcefield being held up by Melog and Micah, leaving them to desperately claw at it while the Sea Elf leader watched in disappointment. 

The Alliance took it as their chance to finally subdue the Horde, and they did it much more easily at this point, what with the desperate fighters trapped and unable to fight properly, and the princesses working together, a bright glow of rainbow colors appearing on each of them and simply capturing them all in a ball of energy, “because we don’t have a cell big enough,” Glimmer had said, later to be put in a column of a magical barrier that Micah was already conjuring up. 

Scorpia was smirking? , wow, Catra looked around at all the other princesses once they were done handling the Horde faction to find that they were all smirking and hiding a couple of laughs.

All of them ran up to her at once, and she felt a little terrified up until the moment Adora, still She-ra, scooped her up and placed a loud kiss on her cheek, “I can’t believe you did that!”

Mermista smiled as she watched Catra be hoisted up onto She-ra’s shoulders, “I can, that shit was amazing.”

“You scared the crap out of them!” Glimmer was high on delight at watching the entire situation play out. 

“I mean, I’m just special like that,” Catra was bathing in the attention, and she knew the cockiness would last her at least the rest of the day. Someone (Adora or Glimmer) was going to have to help her deflate her ego because it was a thousand times bigger now.

Her ears perked up as she remembered something, patting her hand on Glimmer’s shoulder, “Hey, hey, wanna watch me make fun of wannabe Hordak?”

Glimmer gasped in excitement, “YES, PLEASE,” her eyes sparkled at the prospect of it. 

“Okay, okay,” she felt herself get excited, but first, “Adora, love of my life and the person I adore,” Adora tipped her head up to look at Catra suspiciously.

“Yes?”

“Soooo, remember how you said you loved me? Do you remember that? Do you remember how I love you, like- a lot, enough that I’m saying this in front of everyone? Remember?”

“Yeah, why? What do you need,” Adora was beginning to get more and more suspicious with each word that fell out of Catra’s mouth.

Catra took one last glance at the remnants of the battle and she watched Micah begin to heal many of the fallen soldiers, surely She-ra wasn’t needed at this moment. She clasped her hands together and clicked her tongue before saying what the entire rebellion was eager to know now, “Could you maybe… give me… permission to…. completely roast this bitch until she cries? Because like- she killed A LOT of people and it’s going to take forever to get permission to revive them because they died during unofficial wartime and we have to consult the mages and shit at Mystacor and I have to go through that-”

Adora sighed before interrupting her girlfriend, “Yes, Catra, you have my full permission to roast her, and I promise I will not ‘subtly judge from a distance but not say anything either because it was not a good thing that happened but it also isn’t bad enough to talk about seriously’ as you put it. In fact, I encourage it.”

“Really?!” A surprised look appeared on Catra’s face, as did on the other princess alliance members.

“Yeah? I mean, we were supposed to be at peace on Etheria and she comes out trying to be all cool when all she did was annoy us, really.” Adora looked almost offended that they would think otherwise. 

“YAY,” Catra leaped off of her girlfriends’ shoulders and ran towards the magical column holding the Sea Elf leader, Glimmer, Mermista, and Frosta the closest behind her, as they were arguably the most excited. 

Though, neither Bow nor Scorpia could deny that they were interested, and Perfuma made no move to stop the magicat either. Surprisingly, it was Seahawk that looked the most unsettled, but he dealt with Mermista every day, surely he could take this.

                                                                 (You can skip this if you want lol)

Nearing the Sea Elf, who looked more like a spoiled princess than any of the other real princesses did, Catra wiped the eager look on her face and instead took on a cool, indifferent expression meant to unsettle the girl.

The ex-Horde commander strolled up to the column casually, eyeing the ‘new’ Horde commander. 

“So, what should I call you, ya know, for formalities and shit,” Catra stared at the girl, who she noticed was about the same age as her, blue skin and pointed ears. In fact, the Sea Elf reminded her a bit of the Artikans, simply shorter, and skin unmarred as she came from the Sea Elf Village near Salineas.

Just as the girl was about to answer, Catra cut in, “I’m gonna call you Kyle,” earning her a snort from Adora behind her, and even a slight huff of breath from Scorpia.

Oh, if Lonnie could see this.

The girl in the magical prison scoffed and recoiled in disgust, “What kind of name is-”

“It’s your name, now. Because you fucked up big time and now that we have somebody to blame, we’re going to pin it on Kyle. As per usual,”

“ Excuse me? ”

“You’re not excused.”

“I am a leader of the Horde, I should be shown respect ”

“Uh, first of all, there is no Horde anymore. Second of all, you’re not a leader of the Horde, if anything, I am. Third of all, no self-respecting leader would wear a crown that fucking ugly. Do you see all of these princesses around me? None of them wears a crown to a battle unless it’s part of their gear. That’s just stupid. Although I am curious, why did you do this? I won’t interrupt unless you start getting annoying,” Catra waited for the girl but she kept her mouth shut, “Go on Kyle, I have all day.”

“My name is EMMA,” Catra snorted but let the girl continue, “And I led this AMAZING war,” Catra snorted again, Glimmer joining her this time but Emma continued, “because I wanted to see how good the last Horde commander actually was, and I wanted to take down Etheria because it can’t be that hard with you princesses running around and-”

“Okay, that’s enough, Kyle,” Catra raised her hand and shook her head, disappointed. “These princesses , sure, they aren’t awesome like me, so maybe you could have taken them down,” Mermista tilted her head and ‘eh’d in mild agreement, “but you’re talking to Commander Catra of the Horde right now, and if you thought you could do a better job than Hordak, you’re delusional.”

“Really? Because last time I checked, you didn’t run the Horde anymore, therefore, I’m the leader,”

“Oh. My fucking. Stars. what part of ‘There is no more Horde’ do you not understand? Are you that fucking dense? Oh wait, I think I just don’t speak idiot? Do you need that repeated to you in your own language?”

“Are- are you insulting me?”

“No, I’m just describing you, it’s literally impossible to underestimate you because you fucked up in leading a battle more than the original Kyle would have, hell I think Goat Kyle would have done a better job than you!”

“I can attest to that!” Scorpia raised a claw in support.

“Wait how many Kyles are there?” Frosta seemed a little confused.

“More than enough. See, Kyle here, you thought you could just gather up a couple of common criminals as if they aren’t cowards. You would have had more luck if you hired people from the Crimson Waste, but even they are decent enough to know that you’re just plain stupid. I should know, the Kyle there is much better than you. She can at least be useful. All you did was be a thorn in my side and you’d have to go miles to be mediocre in my enemy book.”

“Okay, well, I still have people in the Kingdom of Snows, and that Crimson Waste you talk so highly about. So maybe you should be worrying about what’s going to happen when-”

“No, you need to worry about your eyebrows is what it is.”

“UGH, you’re such a BITCH”

“Yeah, it’s a tough job but someone has to do it. Whoever told you to be yourself gave you really bad advice. I think maybe you should just rest your little pea-sized brain and let the adults handle the mess you made because-”

“I’M 29!” Emma cried out and looked like she wanted to strangle Catra.

“So you’re older than most of us here? There’s like- no excuse anymore, you aren’t a kid making a mistake. You need to grow up.”

“But you were awesome when you were leading the Horde-”

“So you finally admit it?”

“You’ve changed! What did they do to you!?”

“I grew up, you should try it sometime. Maybe then you won’t be so hard to imagine with a personality,” Catra paused for a second before going all in, “Now that I remember, people like you, is the reason I decided to not take the sea elf village when I was in the Horde, it would have wasted my time.”

Catra turned on her heel and walked away as the rest of the princesses followed into Brightmoon castle, leaving a dumbstruck Emma alone in her magical cell.

                                                    (oKay you’re relatively safer now)

“You did not have to go that hard, Furball,” Mermista spoke as soon as they entered the lounge room.

“Hey! Adora gave me permission, in fact, she encouraged it, as she said. Plus, I didn’t even make her cry!”

“I would’ve,” Netossa gave her input and Catra narrowed her eyes.

“Then do it,” Catra challenged.

Netossa though, cast a glance at Spinnerella who was giving her a disapproving look, and Netossa sighed, “Spinny says I can’t,”

Catra though-  she knew Spinnerella could be just as competitive as her wife, and she laid out the bait, sighing in false acceptance, “I guess my girlfriend’s just cooler than yours, then.”

All of the princesses’ eyes went wide and their jaws fell, Adora looking almost scared that she had been dragged into it. Catra smirked as she watched Spinny’s usually calm and kind demeanor shift, “Challenge accepted. Go ahead, darling.”

Turns out, Netossa could make Emma cry after a good half hour, and though Catra considered it a win-win, she couldn’t help but defend herself, “I warmed her up for you, and you took way too long.”

“But that wasn’t the challenge, was it? I made her cry in the end, that’s what counts.”

“Whatever, it was entertaining anyway.”

“Yeah, that’s how a loser thinks,”

“Okay, you know what-”

Adora wrapped her arms around Catra’s waist, though no longer She-ra, still restraining her from attacking Netossa. However, with that smug smile on the older couples’ face, she was tempted to let go. 

Mermista flipped her hair and made her way to the front of the group in the hallway, “We get it, you’re both cool, but we all know that I, the only person that gets to call Catra Furball, am the coolest of all,”

“Can it, Fishy,”

“Mermista, No!”

It might as well have been a whole other battle. Netossa and Spinnerella teamed up, of course, trapping people and making them spin in a circle in the air. Adora had no other choice but to defend her girlfriend from the oncoming wave of water that Mermista heaved above them as SeaHawk scrambled around, trying to stop his ‘dearest’. Frosta desperately wanted to join but Glimmer held her back because ‘Catra’s gonna claw you when Mermista gets her wet,’ and Scorpia, Bow, and Perfuma all looked on at the group who might have been mistaken for actually attacking each other.

Or maybe they were?

“We have to let them do this every once in a while, right?” Bow questioned Perfuma, who had the most official experience with people dealing with their emotions.

“Of course… they show more competitive sides and I think it’s best that they can let their energy loose in a more physical way from time to time.”

Scorpia suddenly remembered, “Oh yeah! I remember when Catra would go all crazy at night and run around the halls in the Horde! I’m not sure what she was doing but she always seemed fine the next day!”

“SCORPIA, that was confidential!”

“oops”

Catra was now soaking wet, trapped in a net by Netossa, and being spun around in the air like a damn potato while Mermista did her best to keep Adora occupied.

“Adora! Help me!”

“I can’t”

“What do you mean you can’t?!”

“I mean Mermista’s like-” she spluttered and spit water out of her mouth, “ this close to drowning me,” it all came out like gurgles and Mermista cackled as she didn’t even know where the water came from exactly.

In that moment, with Catra still spinning in the air and Mermista drowning Adora while six other alliance members looked on, one of the platoons walked in to see the heroes of Etheria looking like they got caught doing something ridiculous- which they did.

Catra was getting dizzy, but she managed to catch a glimpse of hair, specifically Taylor’s, and her eyes widened as she realized it was her favorite platoon, the one she acted all cool in front of to the point Adora made fun of her for it.

“Nessy, put- put me down,” Catra nearly vomited from the sickness, but Netossa kept her trapped at the use of the name ‘Nessy’.

“Would you stop calling me that! It sounds like I’m the fucking Loch Ness Monster or something!”

The platoon was still frozen in their spot, but Catra pushed through, “Okay, fine- Netossa put me down… please?”

Spinny immediately stopped spinning Catra in the air, but she fell with a thud as Adora, who had managed to escape Mermista’s attempted murder, cushioned the blow. Finally, Netossa took away the nets and Catra sprawled on top of Adora, the both of them with soaked clothing and dripping hair. 

The magicat simply lifted her middle finger in the silence of the room and gave a loud, “Fuck you,” to anyone and everyone. She patted Adora’s thigh and simply requested, “To the room!” 

Adora sat up with a groan and hefted Catra up onto a shoulder, where Catra was left to glare at everyone, specifically Netossa, as they exited.

When the couple finally left and was out of hearing range, Glimmer gave a tired ‘Dismissed’ order to everyone, though it was directed mostly to the platoon that had walked in on the mess and was still standing there shocked while Glimmer grabbed Bow to teleport them to bed in a shower of sparkles.

Catra was drying herself to the best of her abilities after Adora made her take a shower since "That water tasted funny" and they didn't know where it came from. 

Now, they were both laying in their bed, going through the thoughts of all that had happened today and everything they would have to do tomorrow.

"So, I died again."

"Yup."

"But it drove away the people we were fighting."

"Yup."

Catra shifted and turned to look at Adora who was staring at the ceiling, "I feel like people need to be more creative when they kill me." That made Adora turn her head to face her girlfriend.

"What?"

"Yeah, I mean, I've been Impaled three times already. That's a third of my deaths."

Adora hummed, "Speaking of, you only have two lives left. You really need to stop dying. Soon it'll be permanent, and I don't know if I'll be able to revive you again."

For the first time in a while, Catra remembered that she wasn't immortal, she could still die and maybe she wouldn't come back. Adora herself looked worried, but, "That's a problem for future Adora and Catra," Adora gave her a bit of a stern look, but eventually let it go, "right now, I just want to sleep till Sparkles barges in tomorrow to figure out what we're doing."

Adora couldn't help but agree, and for the millionth time, they fell asleep together leaving the worries of tomorrow in the future.

Chapter Text

It was now tomorrow. 

Well, it was a week past the ‘Battle of Kyle’ as Glimmer had deemed it, but the problems of the Horde faction in the Crimson Waste and the Kingdom of Snows were still very much present.

Rumors were floating around Brightmoon and all of Etheria that entire week, about how the former commander of the Horde, Catra, was immortal and that was why whenever she was fought against, she couldn’t lose. Those were the more tame rumors, of course. But there were always ridiculous rumors that Catra could turn into a giant cat (Melog) and she took down the entire Horde Faction by eating them. Another that Catra was a professional assassin, and she had taken out the soldiers in stealth mode, slitting everyone’s throats. Catra’s favorite was that she was a magicat deity that had finally appeared once peace came and she only came out when needed. Adora’s favorite was that Catra had tried to turn herself into She-ra and accidentally gave herself powers of immortality instead. Glimmer particularly enjoyed the one where Catra was supposedly killed so many times that she was immune to it, she felt like it was the most accurate one. The most popular one amongst the Alliance at the moment was that Catra was a synthetic being created by Entrapta and she was basically a robot. They rotated favorites daily, but today was Entrapa’s turn.

This had been expected by the public, but it reached the point that when Catra met with the other Generals to prepare for taking back the Crimson Waste, one of them asked her if she was immortal.

“That’s classified, General Avery,” was all she said before moving on. The looks on their faces fueled her for days, and when she showed the camera footage to Juliet, the older woman wheezed.

It reached the tipping point when Double Trouble came around to visit, their escape from the Crimson Waste only possible because of their need to, ”See my cash kitten myself,” leading to Catra and Glimmer calling a Princess Alliance meeting.

“Well that’s great and all, DT but we actually kind of need your help,” Scorpia was the one who raised a claw during the meeting. 

“As much as you might hate to hear it, I have a plan but it would go much, much better if Double Trouble helped,” Catra directed the statement to everyone in the room, and Glimmer groaned.

“Oh,” Double Trouble’s interest peaked, “and what is this plan of yours, Kitten? I see you’ve changed over the years, and I’m interested in seeing how I would have to adapt to this… new character.”

“It’s called getting older, DT, and my plan needs me to be in two places at once. We don’t know any other shapeshifters and we can’t just cast a spell for it,” Catra leaned onto the table with her hip in front of the shapeshifter, “And I can’t say that anyone else would be able to play myself as… authentically as you,” she smirked as Double Trouble took the bait.

“...I know you’re being a kiss-up, but fine! If you insist!”

“Free of charge, of course,” Glimmer commented.

“Excuse me? My work is top of the line as Kitten here said, I don’t do free gigs,” Double Trouble looked offended and ready to burst out of the room before Catra spoke again.

“Are you sure? I mean, how often do you get to play such a ‘complex character’ after so many years? Like you said, where in the Crimson Waste are you going to find work this relevant? Just because it’s war doesn’t mean it can’t be fun,” and some of the princesses winced a little at the statement, but they knew Catra was just egging Double Trouble on for the sake of getting help.

Double Trouble lingered in their spot for a moment before turning on their heel and sighing, “I suppose, it will be good practice to see realistic character development,” they said rolling their eyes.

“Aww, come on, it’ll be fun! You can even pick if you want to be a goddess, a robot, a giant cat-” Scorpia tried to lighten up the mood.

“I never agreed to that.”

“Too late, Kitten,” Double Trouble smirked as they finally took a seat in the spare chairs surrounding the holo table.

Catra inwardly groaned but continued with her explanation of the plan, “Okay, so I was thinking, what if we head down to the Crimson Wastes and take out the Horde Faction there first,” she held a clawed hand up to stop Frosta’s protests, “I know, the Kingdom of Snows is still being held, but we already did recon there, we know what to expect and we severely overestimated the power of this wannabe Horde. This is where Double Trouble comes in. They’re going to lead a charge of Mystacor’s magic people there, but they’re going to shapeshift into me so that it can hopefully scare away the platoon there now that we know Emma brought her best to Brightmoon, and frankly, her best sucked.”

“And what are we going to do in the Crimson Waste,” questioned Adora, and it made all the other princesses’ heads nod in agreement.

“I’m going to pay Tung Lashor a visit, Adora can meet up with Huntara, and if we can get the gangs to come up with an agreement and hold it without alerting the Horde soldiers, we might just be able to take them out, easy. We can discuss strategy if we get to that point.”

Everyone in the room sort of just.... accepted the plan.

They were tired, and it was a decent plan. So far, Catra proved to be more trustworthy in these things than Adora or Glimmer, and it hadn’t failed them to follow the plans at least vaguely. Sometimes that would mean their lives were in Catra’s hands, and sure, that brought her a lot of pressure, but she was confident in her abilities. She did catch Double Trouble staring at her with a raised brow from across the table though.

Now in the Crimson Waste with Perfuma, Scorpia, Glimmer, Bow, Adora, and Taylor’s platoon for backup, Catra found herself unsure.

She wasn’t 100% sure of her reputation here anymore. She had started off as an outsider the first time, and left as the strongest in the Waste’s, but she didn’t know what she was anymore, at least not here. Was she an outsider again? Back to square one? Or was she still a big name? Had the immortality rumors reached this far?

This was the downside of not doing any recon and just going head-on into the fight. She had no idea how Adora did it for so long.

Oh wait, she did. It was that stupid hair poof. It was the root of all her problems.

Speaking of the poof, Adora had contacted Huntara in secret earlier that day and set up a meeting with all of them along with Tung Lashor in the hidden bar that the gang leaders kept.

Catra was at the front of the group with Glimmer and Adora, walking in to see Tung Lashor isolated in a corner with his goons, giving Huntara a side-eye while the purple-skinned woman sat cool as a cucumber, isolated as well with her own goons at her side.

It was obvious the two leaders didn’t get along, and if they ever did it was for desperate measures. Catra sighed as she realized she was the one most likely to fix that.

“Arm wrestling match?” Adora eagerly knocked her elbow and held her hand open.

“Adora, he’s not Seahawk,” Glimmer facepalmed and groaned.

“She’s right babe, that’s TuNg lAsHoR,” Catra cackled as the lizardman himself went red in the face.

Things… weren’t going well. Even with the Brightmoon soldiers stationed outside and on watch, Catra was basically about to start a fight and Scorpia was backing her up, Adora was acting like a dumb jock with Huntara, Glimmer was groaning like she did on their first missions together, and Bow teamed up with Perfuma to try and diffuse the situation. 

The politics and planning of it all had been forgotten, and it was likely Double Trouble was having more progress acting like a godly Catra in the Kingdom of Snows with Frosta, Mermista, and the Mystacor mages.

Hell, even Micah and Seahawk were probably doing a better job questioning the Horde soldiers. 

“HEY!” It was Taylor who had yelled, coming into the bar after hearing the commotion and it caught everyone off guard, “I have a proposition,” everyone’s heads turned, and the attention was all on the kid- well, not a kid , but the youngest, “What if Tung Lashor’s gang and Huntara’s gangs both competed for who got to subdue the most Horde soldiers? They don’t have to work together , just kind of play a game.”

Catra grimaced slightly, ready to tell Taylor that that wasn’t how these Crimson Waste people worked, but to her surprise and Adora’s delight, Huntara and Tung Lashor yelled out a ‘Deal!’ simultaneously and both she and Glimmer groaned.

The two gang leaders discreetly led the most members of their gangs that could be found in another inconspicuous area, and Catra took charge with the planning after both leaders had respectively explained the ‘game’.

She, Scorpia, Adora, and Glimmer were all sitting at a circular table facing the gangs. Glimmer looked a little bored, but Scorpia kept her and Adora entertained as they looked for Crimson Waste Kyle. 

“Lashor’s gang, you’re going to take the front charge and take out as many soldiers as you can, Horde soldiers , not Huntara’s gang, am I clear?” Catra felt like a mother making sure her kid didn’t touch any glass at the store, but her children, of course, were defiant as ever.

One reptilian hybrid, in particular, chose to represent all of Tung Lashor’s gang, “And why should we listen to you, huh? Last time I checked you were an outsider!” She laughed and had all of the gang laughing along with her.

Catra raised a brow and smiled, oh, this was too good, “Well maybe you should check again because I’m the strongest in the Crimson Waste ,” the magicat watched the faces on some of the gang members flash with recognition, and some of the whispers could be heard, 

‘That’s boss Catra,’ 

‘Wasn’t she Horde?’ 

‘It’s the immortal boss Catra,’ 

‘Was she immortal back then?’

“Yeah it’s been a while, hasn’t it, Kyle?” She turned towards Huntara’s gang where the goat lady could be seen spluttering, “Now. You take out the Horde soldiers, or you face me? What’ll it be?”

Nobody took their chances with the catgirl who had a gleam in her eye and a fang sticking out of her smirk.

Double Trouble was having the time of their life.

They stood next to Frosta, already shifted into Catra but with glowing eyes and a tiara tacky enough that Catra herself would swipe it off their head.

It was perfect.

They charged into the kingdom only to find a terrified platoon surrounded by two others, though many of them took off the moment they caught sight of ‘Catra’s’ glowing eyes. 

Frosta was mildly upset at the fact that she never got to properly punch anyone, but the disappointment was overshadowed by the fact that her Kingdom was now free and the fact that Mermista won the bet on whether or not the rumors of immortal Catra had spread so far.

Losing that bet was something Catra would deeply regret.

“We’ve been tracking her for months, sir.”

“We have no proof.”

“We have a spoken account from the Artikans, their virus should have killed her! And yet, she is still there.”

“A coincidence.”

“Fine! We have visible footage of her being killed by sword, and she simply pulled it out without so much as a grimace!”

The leader pursed his lips and turned away, they had to be sure , and the Artikans were known for twisting situations to their advantage.

Sensing the hesitation, the man’s apprentice finally snapped, “Who else, would be running around carelessly with the almighty She-ra? If you are so morally worried about killing the wrong being, we wait for another instance, but after, I will be consulting the council, with or without you.”

Another member burst into the room in that exact moment; there was another sighting- a being on Etheria with glowing eyes who had driven away hundreds with their mere appearance.

The apprentice smirked the moment they saw the footage, it was the girl they had been tracking for so long, proving herself a god, and by extension- immortal.

A day after the Kingdom of Snows was successfully reclaimed, the Crimson Waste had gone back to its normal state of moderate criminal activity instead of full-on war crimes. 

Catra and Glimmer got to have a little fun punching things, as did Adora and Scorpia. Perfuma once again impressed Huntara with her massive root attacks, causing Scorpia to slightly assert her position as Perfuma’s girlfriend, much to Catra’s amusement.

Bow had bonded with Goat Kyle, and he was starting to think that maybe he had some sort of way to draw the Kyles toward him. (Adora called him the Kyle whisperer)

Catra got to watch with pride as Taylor ordered around his group of soldiers, and she even allowed him to catch a glimpse of her approving smile once the Horde soldiers were defeated and left to the Crimson Waste ‘citizens’. She was going to put in a request for Juliet to move him up a rank, perhaps to a full Colonel or even Major General if she gave him a few more lessons.

The group spent some time in the bar with Huntara at the end, savoring the casual banter and laughter before deciding to go home after this mess that Kyle Emma dared to call a war.

Glimmer teleported the large group back to Brightmoon, and while Catra didn’t heave as she would have in previous years, she did feel a wave of nausea come over her. It was a bit odd, as she had become more accustomed to Glimmer’s powers long ago, but she chalked it up to being the size of the group, they were carrying about half of the Alliance plus an entire platoon- that’s a good amount of people.

Catra would never dismiss a gut feeling ever again.

Adora felt her girlfriend steady herself on her shoulder and as usual asked a quiet, “You okay?” A quick peck to the lips reassured her that everything was fine, but she would later learn to ask twice, just to make Catra rethink things for a bit.

The platoon soldiers. All going their own way. More than 60 soldiers split off. Dozens of paths inside the castle.

It was only a matter of finding one alone, and offering.

“You can be immortal. Speak to no one. Do as we ask, and you can have all your heart desires.”

A whisper in the shadows. Risky. Many were loyal to Brightmoon. They would immediately report an intruder.

But curiosity killed the cat.

Alone for the night.

She would never again be able to go for a nightly walk without someone there with her

A tilted ear pointed to the night guards.

Someone she could trust

A splash

Damn Netossa’s files

A blow to the head before she could even hiss

Trust

A leather notebook left in their haste. Stolen from the drawers and left opened in the moonlight, only to be seen in the morning.

Never again.

Catra let out a low groan, her head pulsing and making her wince before she realized what was going on. Letting her eyes flicker open, she made out the rough cloth of a bag she was tied up in, her arms behind her tied up with rope as well as her legs and ankles. She couldn’t hear anyone with her, wherever she was, but craning her neck over to cut through the rope, she realized her claws had those stupid claw caps on. Great, so it was a guard that had kidnapped her because they were the only ones who had access to the sparring room. She considered chewing her way through the rope, but before she could twist her arms in front of her, a door squeaked open. She kept quiet but the fabric was too thick for her to see through. It wouldn’t matter anyway, because the moment she was dumped out of the bag, her heart plummeted into her stomach.

“Taylor?” She whispered it in disbelief, her head crooking to the side and her brows furrowing as she took in the image that was her favorite student preparing more rope to tie her arms- a smart idea.

“Hey General, surprised?” He had a smile on his face, but it gave Catra chills. She had never seen Taylor as unsettling as he looked now. No bright and fancy clothes, no perfectly combed hair, and no sheepish smile to tie it all together.

He looked like an enemy, and the moment he stepped forward to tie up Catra’s forearms, the catgirl knew he was no longer someone she knew. She thought that maybe she never did know him in the first place.

She probably wouldn’t escape him. Her flexibility was limited with all of her limbs pressed together and no space to move. She couldn’t cut her way out like she normally would and she had no idea where they were. She gave up on finding any kind of faltering in Taylor, he knew her a little too well and she could tell that this was something he wanted.

Her eyes finally straying, she noticed the bare, dusty room they were in. Likely not Brightmoon, but also not the Fright Zone. So Taylor was likely alone in this, “What are you doing, Taylor,” she sounded tired, not even angry or disappointed, just tired. 

“I’m turning you over. You're lucky it was me, you know?” He said it like he was some sort of benevolent person. “I wanted to do this a long time ago, I was waiting for the perfect time, but it just never happened,” he laughed and Catra was terrified, “but then this- this thing came out of nowhere. A message. It could have gone to anyone, but lucky for them they chose the one who wanted the same thing they did.”

“What?” Catra had no idea what he was talking about, he sounded like he was talking in little clues and it was frustrating her, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“The god obliterators! I think the name’s a bit dramatic, but who am I to question when they’re going to do exactly what I need them to!”

Catra stuttered around for a moment, he was crazy, “I’m not a god, you dimwit!”

“But you think you are, don’t you? Gods pick and choose who lives and who dies. Gods can’t be killed. Gods play with people as if they’re nothing all the while thinking they’re better than us! That’s exactly what you do, so excuse me for thinking you fit the role perfectly,” he had gone from calm to angry within a second, and Catra wondered if he had hidden all that anger for the entire year she had known him.

“Taylor, I’m not a god, I don’t know what you’re talking about-” she tried reasoning with him. He wasn’t thinking straight. She wanted to believe it, but he kept going on and on.

“Emma was incompetent, of course. She was a fake. If you want something done you have to do it yourself. I took charge of the Horde faction for a year before that stuck-up bitch came in, and just because she was pretty all the dumb men let her. But not me. The effects of the war were still fresh. People still wanted revenge- I still wanted revenge. You could gather a small mob in a matter of hours, with just the phrase. The one, simple phrase. Take out Catra. Everybody knew your name. Everybody! But what about my sister’s name, huh? What about her!” Taylor cried out and Catra could do nothing but sit there, waves of guilt rolling inside her and making her feel as sick as the first time she saw Salineas after the war. “And then- and then, that stupid water princess forgave you! They all forgave you, and you just took it! All because you got She-ra as your girlfriend? Your little Adora?”

“Get her name out of your disgusting mouth,” Catra growled before looking down again in shame, “They ran me for trial.”

Taylor’s brows furrowed in confusion. Now, that was something he didn’t know, ”What? A trial? And I’m sure the jury was just full of the princesses! They’re corrupt , they call themselves leaders when they don’t have the guts to make the hard call in the end.”

“I know that better than anyone, trust me, that’s what I’m here for. But the jury was just a group of random Etherians. And before you say anything, some of them had lost their entire families in the war, and they were outraged when they finally realized who the defendant was and just the entire case. But when asked, they gave that anonymous person their freedom, and it was me.” Catra looked sad, remembering the faces of anger and absolute disgust at themselves as the Etherians realized who they deemed not guilty. But the decision had to remain unbiased, and there was no one on Etheria who had an unbiased opinion about her, it was the only way to make the trial work.

“Anonymous!? Anonymous?” Taylor laughed bitterly and shook his head, “You should be dead in a ditch right now or worse, that trial was absolute bullshit!” 

He yelled in Catra’s face, and all she could come up with was a whisper of, “I know.”

There was nothing else she could say. She knew Glimmer and Bow had set up every word of the case to make it seem like she was just another Force Captain of the Horde. 

The phrase ‘child soldier’ and ‘manipulated’ came up a lot, as well as many other things scripted to appeal to the jury. Even if every word on the documents of Catra’s life was true, she also knew she deserved more punishment than she got.

Community service is what the nineteen Etherians had deemed appropriate punishment. She remembered Michah serving as the judge, he also had not been informed of who it was that was receiving his judgment. 

The thing that stuck with her though, after half a decade, was the woman who had collapsed when she walked into the courtroom, only to see Catra sitting at the table. She had sobbed once she realized that she had let a monster roam free, and Catra could only avert her eyes in shame like a coward, her ears pinned back and wincing every time a sob filled the room.

Turns out she had killed the woman’s daughter in the invasion of Alwyn. 

Catra remembered the sensation of her still short hair brushing against her ears every time they twitched.

She remembers how the woman’s nails dug into her upper arm while her own sharp claws never even appeared.

She remembers the cold look Mermista gave her as the princess stood in the corner of the room, letting the woman do it.

She remembers how her ears rang because even if all she could make out from the woman’s words were,” You killed her!”, the woman had screamed directly into her ears.

She remembers just sitting there.

Once the woman had finally been dragged out of the room by Micah and Mermista, Catra remembers letting a horrified exhale and shiver run through her body, a single tear running down her cheek before she quickly wiped it away and went into a catatonic state. Her posture had stayed tense and she had simply stared at the wall across from her for hours, trying to pinpoint the exact moment she had killed the woman’s daughter only to find that she couldn’t.

Because she hadn’t even been at the invasion of Alwyn.

It took her 4 hours, 17 minutes, and 35 seconds to finally realize it.

The next week, she had gone to Scorpia for records and found that Force Captain Grizzlor had led the assault, but he had been under her orders.

She snapped back to the present when she heard Taylor speak again, “I had given up hope, you know?” He was once again securing the ropes around her wrists and ensuring the claw caps were on her, but he sounded numb, empty, “Emma had failed and she took the army down with her. Then you revealed that you couldn’t die,” he chuckled bitterly, “I watched you from across the field, pulling that bloody sword out of yourself like it was nothing, and I was terrified because I realized I wouldn’t be able to take you down like I wanted. I wouldn’t be able to gather up enough force, but then- these people- they came up to me and when I realized what they were, I knew it wasn’t over yet. Not for me, not for you, and not for Alex.”

He whispered the last part out like it was a prayer, and to him it was, a prayer of nearly six years of age starting when he was 14 and ending today at 20. 

“For what it’s worth, and I know it’s nothing, I’m sorry, Taylor.”

She didn’t struggle for the half-hour that they sat there. She didn’t try to leave. Because she thought she was getting better. She thought that after five years that maybe she’d be able to actually help people.

It was foolish of her to think that she could ever help anyone, and she simply gave up.

When a tall, Etherian-looking man strolled into the room, Catra didn’t even care to look up. Taylor was speaking with the man, but all she could make out were mumbled words and the shaking of hands. 

The taller man looked at Catra and seemed to approve, moving only to hoist her up and lead Taylor to his… ship?

Catra groaned internally, almost expecting Prime himself to be there, but Prime looked nothing like the hundreds and hundreds of people inside the ship. There was the familiarity of clones, except the only thing keeping these people looking the same was the maroon cloaks they wore around their shoulders, and they just stood there .

It took a moment for Catra to realize that there was a reason she could see everything- a reason she was being allowed to see everything. They were going to kill her, so it wouldn’t matter if she knew what these people were. Still hoisted in the man’s arms, Catra noticed the badges pinned on the cloaks of each person. Some badges depicted a small hammer-like symbol, another a sword, and even fewer that had a rune symbol. She figured they were symbols for each person’s designation, and she was beginning to think this was more of a cult than Prime’s because at least these people seemed to have joined of their own volition. Then she remembered. She remembered exactly where she had seen those stupid cloaks before, but it was too late to figure anything out. When Catra felt the tall man stop, she craned her head over only to be dumped on a marble table in front of everybody. The last thing she heard before Taylor was led away to one of the rows with a cloak in hand was, “You want to act like a god? You’ll be treated like one.”

It brought tears to her eyes, to hear the kid she had grown so fond of sneer at her. It made her question everything she thought she had done for good, and there was nothing she could do as another member started reciting lines. She was stuck with these people that hated her very existence and she realized just how bad things had gotten when she felt the rumble of the ship start, announcing its departure from Etheria, with her on it surrounded by a cult that thought she was a god.

“We stand here today, to rid this universe of its greatest threat- an immortal being who has been searched for and finally found after Horde Prime was proven to not be a god. The prophecy will be prevented, I swear it, my brothers and sisters!”

Ugh, not again with this brother and sister bullshit.

Adora woke up in the dead of night. 

It wasn’t rare for Catra’s side of the bed to be empty at this time, but Adora had woken up from a nightmare- another one about Catra dying- and she needed to see that her girlfriend was okay for herself. 

She roamed the halls of Brightmoon with a blanket wrapped around her, her gaze shifting to every dark corner, knowing Catra would always choose it over the full moon’s light if she could. Her bare feet padded on the polished floors with a small pit patter, she could never be as quiet as her girlfriend, especially not barefoot- even with the Horde’s training.

So far, almost every little detail reminded her of her girlfriend, who she still couldn’t find. It was odd. The blanket on her shoulders didn’t quite feel as soft as Catra’s fur, and she was starting to miss her. Miss the warmth.

“Catra? Catra where are you?” She whispered it over and over in the dark, but all she got in response were the hoots of owls and the sway of trees outside near the Whispering Woods.

Half an hour later, and she was starting to get worried. She had checked all their usual spots, some more uncommon ones, and every other nook and cranny in the castle, running around like a ghost and likely scaring the guards because of her blanket. She had even gone back to the room to try her tracker pad. Nothing.

By that point, she had screamed Catra’s name a thousand times and had ditched the blanket. Catra wasn’t in the castle. It was Adora’s first thought and she started to overthink. What if there was something wrong? Had Catra been upset at all that week? That day? Where was Melog? She asked the guards, but none of them had seen anything. Desperate, Adora ran to Glimmer’s room and pounded on the doors, a bleary-eyed Glimmer and concerned Bow standing in front of her. When they finally realized that Adora was crying, they rushed to question, “Adora? What’s wrong?”

“It’s- She’s not here- I can’t find her-”

“Adora, Adora, what do you mean ‘she’?” Glimmer already had an idea of who it was, but she needed Adora to calm down.

“Catra! She’s not in the castle- I looked everywhere I swear!”

That snapped them all into action. Catra hadn’t gone missing in years, once she and Adora had gotten better at communicating, Adora made her promise to stay as well, and she did. 

“Okay Adora, calm down, Glimmer will call the other princesses, see if maybe she’s with Scorpia or something, but you need to breathe for me, okay?”

“She would’ve told me- I don’t know why-”

“Adora,” Bow placed his hands on her shoulders, trying to steady the trembling blonde, but all it did was make her knees give and fall. She needed Catra, that nightmare was too real for her liking and-

“Bow, what if something happened to her- what if she’s…”

She didn’t dare say it. Those deaths had become far too frequent for her liking, and Catra could be reckless. She forgot she wasn’t immortal. Those lives were counting down and Catra always forgot until the last moment. It’s what worried Adora most. She only had two left.

Adora had finally stopped crying, but her thoughts were still going a million miles an hour trying to make out what had happened. 

She had woken up with a terrified gasp, as always, sweat forming on her forehead from sleep fighting. Her arm had reached over to feel Catra and her head turned but her hand fell to empty sheets and her line of sight was clear of any twitching ears.

She would kill to see those ears right now.

When she realized Catra was probably walking around (or running around), she got up, but the branches swaying outside let her know she should probably take a blanket, yet even with that logic she ditched her slippers. 

Funny, how living with Catra did that to her.

She stood up and readied herself for a game of look for my girlfriend, knowing that after seeing Catra die at her hands for the millionth time at night, she wouldn’t be able to relax until she found her.

She still hadn’t relaxed by the time all of the Alliance had arrived. 

She hadn’t relaxed when Scorpia had returned with a soggy notebook in hand.

She hadn’t relaxed when she realized it was Netossa’s notebook.

She hadn’t relaxed, and so she stood up from the floor, eyes glowing with anger as she stared down at the older princess and yelled “What did you do?”

Her sword was flickering in her palms and Netossa looked pale for a second. Glimmer and Bow attempted to hold her back, but even as Adora, she pushed through them with ease, and the alliance realized just how strong Adora- just Adora- could be.

“Adora wait, let her explain!”

“Adora stop it!”

“Adora!”

“Adora what would Catra think,” Perfuma had been the one to say it.

Blue and gold energy was flowing all around her, lighting up the room, and her knuckles were almost white with how hard she was gripping her sword, but Adora paused right in front of Netossa, who looked ready to run and take Spinerella with her. “Explain,” Adora growled out, mentally giving her a minute to do it. But she wasn’t going to tell everyone else that.

“I don’t- that’s not supposed to be there- I didn’t do anything-” the words were rushed out and Netossa, normally calm and composed even in competition, was paralyzed in fear. 

Adora huffed a low chuckle at the flimsy excuse, she flexed her hands and readied her sword, ready to strike when-

“Melog!” 

The glowing cat had bounded from a corner with a guard chasing behind them, their mane shifting an orange and red color. Adora stopped at the commotion, even her prominent glow beginning to fade when Melog came around. She still had them, they were a link to Catra.

When they finally got close enough to the group, they turned on the guard, grew in size, and growled so loudly Catra would have been proud. At that moment, the armored man realized who was in front of him and was face to face with the entire princess Alliance. 

Adora, now fully She-ra, walked up to the man rather calmly, but the scowl on her face and the fiery glow in her eyes said otherwise. He stood trapped between an angry cat and an angry catgirl’s girlfriend, knowing he was dead after this.

“What. Did. You. Do.” She-Ra was gripping him by the collar, backed by the rest of the alliance who looked ready to do whatever it took to get him talking.

“He- I was paid- He said not to tell anyone,” he yelped as Adora pulled him off the ground and he clawed at the strong grip on his clothes.

Glimmer stepped up, “See, we already know you’re an accomplice, so it doesn’t matter what you were told, does it? Tell us what you saw, and maybe you’ll be let off on community service instead of going to prison for treason against Brightmoon.” Glimmer made sure to put a lot of emphasis on the treason part, Catra was a part of the royal guards and her advisor, after all.

He sighed in acceptance, “It was Taylor- the- the Lieutenant dude, he paid me to leave my post for five minutes, but when I looked to see what he was doing he was holding a bucket of water and a sack. We heard some footsteps but he turned around- and- I looked again- but he was gone!”

“Well, what about this?” Scorpia held up the notebook and the guard’s eyes lit up with recognition.

“Yeah! I saw that- he dropped it but I left it there, I don’t know what it’s for! Promise!”

Only slightly satisfied, Adora huffed and let the soldier fall, his armor clanking against the floor. “We have to find Taylor.” She left no room for argument, and Glimmer fully agreed but there was something off.

“Taylor? That kid that Catra was always teaching? It doesn’t make any sense, why would he do that?” Mermista was having a bit of the time of her life with all this mysterious drama, and with the Mer-mysteries series all rolling around her brains she was asking all the right questions.

Surprisingly, it was one of the guards stationed along the walls that spoke up, “Queen Glimmer? If I may- I saw Lieutenant Taylor speaking with an unknown man yesterday. I didn’t recognize him but I assumed Taylor knew who he was. Forgive me for not following protocol.” She ended with her head bowed down in both respect and shame, likely expecting a reprimand.

“That’s alright Foer, did he seem at all hostile?” Glimmer knew the protocols had been strict when her mother ruled, but Glimmer had put a lot of trust in her guards. She guessed it was more misplaced than she initially thought.

“He was wearing a long red cloak, about 5 feet, and 9 inches, but he didn’t look like he was from around here. He was a non-hybrid, but there was a sort of- smell, I guess you could say- like how the halls of Mystacor smell but- darker? Bitter? I’m not sure how to describe it.”

Immediately with the mention of cloaks, magic, and bitter smells, an image came to Bow’s mind. “Glimmer, what was that fourth planet we visited, the one after Artik?”

Glimmer and Adora’s eyes widened with realization while the rest of the princess alliance looked on in confusion.

2 years ago...

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Adora was standing in front of a tall, wooden (?) door and was waiting to knock.

“I’m not sure. But we have to try, right?” Glimmer had been wary of the terrain from the start, it gave her creepy vibes, but she had been proved wrong in Krytis, surely this could be a repeat.

“I say we go back to the ship and go to the next planet. We’ll go from there” Catra had a bad feeling about this planet as well, but the feeling was different from the one she had one Krytis, there she had been apprehensive and alert, mostly. Here, she only felt dread. Even worse, Melog had stayed behind this time, something about this civilization not being very fond of the Krytans. The entire walk she had been trying to warn the crew, but Bow remained optimistic and Adora was determined, leading to half an hour of useless pleas. Now, they were at the entrance of what seemed to be an old, lonely city. The description of this civilization had been vague, more so than the Artikan’s, but all they needed to know was that they were peaceful and had received the message of their arrival. Though there had been no welcoming group, Catra honestly preferred it to the group they had to deal with prior to arriving on this new planet, Wopron. 

Adora finally knocked on the door and patiently waited, the door finally opening with complete silence and allowing the group to step in. Behind the door peeked a small civilian, looking quite similar to the average Etherian. 

It brought slight comfort to the group, the familiarity of it, but it also unsettled them. After such a visibly distinct species like the Artikans, a humanoid civilization was not expected. 

They stepped onto a smoother dirt floor and faced an organized but run-down city with a small market, rows of houses, and only a slight amount of other random structures. There were whispers everywhere, that was new, and it overwhelmed Catra’s mind, so used to being able to listen to the smallest of scuffles, there was only silence beneath the voices of every quietly uttered word. It explained the lack of noise the door made when it opened. Even the feet dragging on the ground were hushed, and it brought chills to the Etherians.

Desperate for some noise, Adora cleared her throat before asking a random passerby, “Who can we see, for the um- the magic restoration?”

Their face covered by a cloak with a hood, the civilian wordlessly pointed left to a small building that looked more or less abandoned. 

Before they could be questioned, they walked away and continued to do whatever it was they had been doing, and the crew was left unable to do anything else but go towards the building. 

Turning back to the person, Catra realized it had been a woman who gave them directions, but she was now whispering to another cloaked member, and Catra’s eyes narrowed when she caught the woman smirking. Even more alert than before, Catra kept a close eye on both the group and everyone surrounding them. The cloaks covered everyone’s faces, but Catra would spot any sudden movements. 

Finally entering the building, the group was met with a stairway, and their only option was to go up. 

Catra hated it. The lack of options, the lack of choices. There was always a choice, but they had to get this done. They were only given one clear path to do that, and it felt too much like following a path of breadcrumbs. It felt too much like a trap.

One by one, they faced another singular door, and Adora knocked again before a low ‘Come in’ could be heard from inside. Turning the rusty knob, Adora pushed the door, again met with silence. 

Peering from the back, Catra saw an old, haggardly dressed man sitting at a metal-looking desk. Unlike the rest of the people here, he had a warm smile and was dressed in a hole-filled cloak with the hood off. 

“Welcome,” his raspy voice was a stark contrast to the whispers outside, “I assume you are the Etherians?”

“Yes, we would be happy to restore magic to your planet, if you would allow it?” After their conflict with the Artikans, Glimmer made sure to ask the people if they wanted the magic, without revealing that they would receive it anyway if they did leave.

Thankfully, the old man nodded and directed that they follow him out of the room. Catra remained at the back, but she paid more attention to the front of the group and made sure to keep tabs with Bow. They stepped back outside into the silence and were quickly led to a bare spot of dirt. There were still a large number of people walking by, and it set Catra on edge, but Bow deemed it correct and the old man smiled when Adora got into place. The entire ordeal was creepy, but Adora turned into She-ra and the man finally turned away when she plunged her sword into the dirt. With nothing else to do but wait, Glimmer struck up a conversation with the man, leaving Catra and Bow to take care of Adora.

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, how long has it been since you last had magic?” She was tentative with the question, but she was curious.

The old man laughed in amusement, “Oh! We were one of the first planets who lost their magic, but our ancestors relied on it far too much, and we were stripped of all of it. It is the reason why we have no sounds other than from vocal cords. Horde Prime had deemed us far too much of a threat, though I was not born when it happened.” He seemed undisturbed by the fact, but it made sense. He knew no other way to live than the current one, after all.

“Too much of a threat? Why would Prime think that?” How powerful had these people been?

“Ah, you see, our ancestors practiced a certain type of magic, and they despised the unnatural. Horde Prime and his supposed immortality, to them, was more than unnatural, and the magic they possessed was used focused entirely on trying to rid of Horde Prime. As you can see, however, they lost the battle, and here we are now.”

There was underlying disgust in his statement, but it seemed Catra and Bow were the only ones to notice it, as Glimmer opened her mouth to ask another question before Catra interrupted her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Why don’t you let me ask some questions too, Sparkles?” It was more a statement than a question, and Catra lightly shoved a confused Glimmer towards Bow, who also held her hand to keep her from protesting.

Much more quietly than Glimmer had, Catra asked her question a few yards away from the group, shuffling away more and more from them. “So, what exactly was this… type of magic that your ancestors practiced? I’m just so curious about it.”

“We can all sense it on you, Catra,” the old man spoke with narrowed eyes now, and without even flicking her eyes around, Catra could feel the gazes of everyone burning into her. “The dark magic, it feeds us, and we all know you are not supposed to be here.” His eyes lingered on Catra’s right arm, and all the magicat could think about was the fact that that stupid arm was her ‘unlucky arm’, as she had always called it in her mind. It had been the arm where Shadow Weaver’s lightning would first strike, and her shadows would wrap around it. It was the arm that had been corrupted by the portal when she opened it, sometimes it would still go numb for just a second and she would be taken back to the days when she and Adora were enemies. It was the arm that had paralyzed first even when Glimmer had electrocuted her left arm in her stupid prank.

That little fact had always confused her, because- shouldn’t have it been her left arm that got paralyzed?

The point was, that Catra- as stupid as it was- didn’t particularly like her right arm, and that was why she wrote with her left hand. Sure, she still punched with her right arm, but that had been taught by the Horde, and she could punch just as well with her left arm. 

Now though, she wondered if maybe Shadow Weaver had done something to that arm. Maybe it was a little far-fetched, but the longer she stood there, rolling the words ‘dark magic’ in her mind, the more she wondered if perhaps that had been why that stupid arm seemed to draw negative things. She had only mentioned it once to Adora, but when she tried to help Catra deflected.

Her train of thought was disturbed (again. She hated when people did that) when the old man spoke quietly again, Bow and Glimmer watching warily in the distance, “I do not know what you have done in order to keep yourself alive, but everyone knows. You have already used your lives, that much is clear, for there is an emptiness in your energy, but it has been replaced. That should not be allowed. You should not be alive.”

That last sentence rang in her ears. It had always been something she wondered about. However, it had been for different reasons, and right now all the old man was doing was angering her. “Listen, we came here to do one thing, and one thing only. I don’t know what your problem with me is, but we’ll be out of your hair soon enough.” She raised her hands in slight attempts to keep the peace, but also as a signal to Bow and Glimmer, she made a slight waving motion with her hand and flicked her ears, ‘ keep your cover but stay alert .’

The old man gave in, slightly rolling his eyes in acceptance and he abruptly turned back to the group with a warm, deceiving smile. Catra took a moment to look around again, but the eyes of everyone were no longer focused on her. She finally went back to Adora’s side just as she finished up the transition of magic. She kept her eyes on the old man, but her ears twitched as several clanks and soft footsteps could be heard throughout the city. It was odd, after having almost an hour of simple emptiness, but she was getting more and more eager to leave this odd planet. 

Adora stood, no longer She-ra but oblivious to the interactions going on around her. She gave a wobbly smile to the old man, who returned it, but overall the crew made haste and said quick goodbye before rushing out. Along the way, Adora made a slurred comment of, “Smells like Shadow Weaver,” and it made Catra realize just how similar the new smell was to the sorceress’s old sanctum when they were kids. It made the scars she had feel more… present, but Catra turned to Glimmer and found a similar, reminiscent-like expression on her face, likely remembering the time she had spent with the old lady. Finally, Catra realized what it smelled like. 

Dark magic.

It only made her walk to the ship faster, now terrified and not even bothering to look back and see what the city looked like now.

Present:

“No, it can’t be. If they wanted to hurt us- they- we were right there!” Glimmer protested at the idea of the people from Wopron coming to Etheria and taking Catra, it was too far-fetched.

“She never told us what the old man said to her, Glim.” Bow regretted not pushing the magicat more on that, but Catra had actually hissed at him the fifth time he had asked.

“Wait, what? The old man? What did he say to Catra? When did they talk?” Adora was firing off questions like crazy, she hadn’t been entirely present while she was transferring the magic, though Catra had been slightly off for the rest of that week.

Glimmer sighed, “I was asking him questions, and when he said that Horde Prime was unnatural and stuff, Catra sort of pulled him aside. His attitude had changed and I guess she sensed it too, but when she asked him about their magic, his voice got low. We never got to hear what he said, but… she looked scared, Adora. Catra said something back and gave us a signal that something was wrong, but she seemed out of it. She rushed to get us out of there and I also noticed something in the air. Even you said something about it.”

Adora narrowed her eyes, “What exactly did I say?”

Bow glanced at Glimmer, “You said it smelled like ‘Shadow Weaver’, and then later Glimmer told me it smelled like a type of magic, but it was wrong. She figured out it was dark magic.”

Behind them, the alliance listened to every detail, and put the pieces together at the same time Adora did, “It’s them. We have to find them now .”

“I’ll find my dad and get him to trace any signs of dark magic,” Glimmer poofed out of view and Bow spoke up.

“If they came from another planet, I’ll see the records of any unidentified ships that entered the atmosphere with Entrapta.” The purple-haired princess followed him to the data room, and Adora was left to face the rest of the Alliance.

“We’ll split up, I’ll go overhead on Swift Wind and look for the ship, the rest of you look for people in maroon cloaks, probably with their hood on and non-hybrids. That, or look for Taylor, you can find his picture in the records room.” She kept a firm voice the entire time, and the princesses all nodded in agreement with their roles. 

Before Adora left though, Scorpia spoke up, “Adora, we’ll find her, okay?”

The blonde nodded, but that wasn’t what she was worried about. She knew they would find Catra, the question was whether or not they would find her alive and okay.

Catra was not okay. 

She had been strapped down onto the table and above her, she could see the old man that had sent chills down her spine when he reminded her that she was not supposed to be alive. He looked older, but he still smiled just as he had when they first met. As if he was happy to see Catra about to die from this twisted ritual. Because that’s what it was. She had caught sight of the multiple runes and the incantation phrase that would likely be the last thing she heard as dark magic filled the room and the sorcerers began to draw their runes.

She found it ironic, how she had been tortured by such power for a good chunk of her life, and just when she thought she was free of it, it was what would finally kill her. 

“Rid us of this abnormal creature, turn it natural by spreading its potential, and reward those who participate in the ritual of righteousness!”

The old man had started the statement, and row by row it grew in booming noise as more and more cult members said it until Catra turned her head to the side only to see Taylor chanting it at the top of his lungs. 

At that moment, Catra knew she was done for.

“Adora! A ship just left Etheria, we can catch up to it if we get onto Darla and follow it!” Entrapta’s voice rang out through the comms, and Adora quickly directed Swift Wind to turn around and head to Mara’s ship. When she landed, only Entrapta, Scorpia, and Mermista were there, but it would have to do because she was leaving within the minute.

“Darla, lock onto the nearest airborne ship and follow it.”

The other three princesses had barely gotten to their seats when Darla took off, and Glimmer’s voice could be heard in the comms.

“Adora! What are you doing?” The sparkly princess stood on the Brightmoon laws with Micah next to her, staring at the departing ship.

“Getting Catra back, there’s no time to waste,” Adora responded with no hesitation and no room for argument. 

“You need to clear your mind, Adora, you won’t be able to help Catra if you mess this up.” Glimmer sounded a little like Bow, but she knew she was right. Adora could be as reckless as they came.

“It’s fine, I have Mermista, Scorpia, and Entrapta with me,” Adora replied, believing everything was fine with her plan.

The princesses in Darla murmured their agreement over comms, and Glimmer sighed in acceptance.

Quiet for the rest of the trip to the ship they were pursuing, Entrapta only managed to quietly whisper, “I like Catra’s plans better.”

Adora sighed quietly, realizing that if Catra was here she would scold her for rushing into a battle like always. She took a deep breath and focused before turning around and relaying their infiltration plan to the three princesses. 

They had no idea of the layout of the ship, but they would do their best to remain quiet and stealthily enter and most likely destroy something at some point.

Everyone had to agree with Entrapta by the end of it. Catra’s plans were better.

Darla was nearing the ship now, and Entrapta was ready to cut an opening into the side of it. The princesses were decked out in space suits, Entrapta also having modified them for Mermista and Scorpia on the way there. Adora was already in her She-ra form, and she looked more determined than she had when facing off Horde Prime. The cargo hold opened and the team stepped out wordlessly. Everyone felt the tension, and this makeshift team wasn’t as accustomed to working with each other. They floated over to the side of the ship, She-ra’s energy holding them together without the ropes keeping them attached to the ship. They waited for Entrapta to pull out a device and start cutting into the dark metal. 

Finally, the piece was pushed away and a few cult members from inside were sucked out into the vortex of space while the Etherians made their way inside. Adora couldn’t bring herself to care for the people who were floating outside now that Entrapta had covered the hole again. 

There was one goal, and one goal only. Save Catra. 

Anything that got in her way would be taken care of.

Catra was screaming now.

After what felt like an eternity of the phrase being repeated over and over again, the old man had muttered something that didn’t sound like their language, and it must’ve activated something because now all Catra could feel was a searing pain in her body and the sensation that her claws were being ripped out.

She didn’t want to scream at first, she didn’t want to give these people that satisfaction, but the pain got to be too much, and when she felt like something was pushing into her eyes, she broke. 

She couldn’t see anymore, she couldn’t feel her hands, her ears, or her tail, and she could barely hear her own screams, but her body still writhed in pain as the cult made another rune all in sync and the new agony of what felt like a thousand needles piercing her skin struck.

When Adora heard the screams, she was ready to storm into the first room she saw and kill everyone there, but Scorpia, who had tears in her eyes at the realization that those screams were Catra’s, pushed and pushed on Adora until the blonde stopped and clenched her jaw.

“We need to do this right Adora,” Scorpia kept herself in front of her.

“We need  to go and stop whatever the hell they’re doing and help Catra.”

“We still have the element of surprise, if we can get Entrapta to shut down the ship functions and I go with her, you and Scorpia can go to the room we direct you to, and you can get her out while we ready the ship. They won’t be able to follow us.” Mermista took on the role of planning, seeing as how Scorpia and Entrapta weren’t great at it, and Adora was too distracted.

“Wait- follow us? They’re not leaving here after this.”

“Adora…” Scorpia wasn’t too eager with Adora’s mindset, and a glance at Entrapta showed that even she had understood what the blonde had meant with the statement.

“No. I’m finishing them off. I’m done with this bullshit. And if you think I’m going to let them live while I can still hear my girlfriend’s screams somewhere in this damn ship, you're out of your mind.”

Mermista sighed. They didn’t have any time to argue, and Adora was right, Catra was hurting at this exact moment because of these people. Anyone who practiced dark magic probably wasn’t good for this universe anyway. “Fine, but you follow the plan.” She turned to follow Entrapta, who had already found the ships’ main tech room.

Turning back to Scorpia, Adora saw the upset expression on Scorpia’s face, “Scorpia-”

“This isn’t like Hore Prime’s bots Adora, these are people.”

“I know, but these people are too dangerous and they intend to hurt others. I don’t think this cult plans on stopping anytime soon. This isn’t personal Scorpia, it’s logical.” 

Before anything else could be said, Mermista’s voice sounded in the comms, giving them directions, and Adora started walking, leaving Scorpia to catch up while she had a moral debate in her head.

Catra’s ongoing hoarse screams made it hard to be unbiased, and Scorpia found herself slightly agreeing with Adora the closer they got. 

After a few small encounters with random cult members who had been thrown aside by either Adora or Scorpia, the pair reached the largest room in the ship. Catra’s screams couldn’t be heard anymore, but they weren’t sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Bursting into the room, Scorpia immediately, wholeheartedly agreed with Adora.

Catra was strapped down to a table, a man in a cloak stood over her and casually kept muttering as the catgirl tried to get free, her eyes scrunched closed and her mouth opened in a silent scream. All the while, hundreds of rows of cult members watched while casting the same rune over and over again.

The fact that nobody cared about the person they were killing slowly and in pain was what tipped Scorpia and Adora over the edge. 

She-ra let out a roar and she kicked down a row of the members before anyone could react. 

At the same time, Scorpia let out lightning that electrocuted the nearest group of people. 

The old man panicked, but continued his mutterings while his assistant called out, “Do not stop the runes! We can still finish the ritual!”

This only angered Adora more. She was swinging her sword around without any true purpose other than to hurt these people, these people who had taken Catra from her. She grabbed people by their cloaks and threw them, disrupting their runes and sending them tumbling into others. Her eyes were glowing and she felt more buzzing energy than ever.

Meanwhile, Scorpia was tackling people and electrifying the entire room. She yelled as Catra started to scream again. She guessed the ritual was almost over, and there were still a couple of dozen people drawing their runes to finish it. 

She-Ra was barreling through people, as was Scorpia, but a few seconds, a singular pair of cult members left, and Catra slumped down onto the table, a sort of energy leaking out of her while the old man laughed in success.

Adora was absolutely devastated, and Scorpia simply couldn’t believe it. Many of the cult members were dead, their bodies littering the floor of the ship and making it hard to step on the actual metal, but the old man kept laughing. He laughed and laughed. 

She had failed.

Catra was dead and now this maniac was standing, alive and well in her place.

Adora could only charge at him, knocking him down before she kneeled over him and stabbed her sword through him. 

He died immediately, she had assumed the ritual made him immortal as he thought it would, but with Catra not actually being immortal, it likely hadn’t worked.

At least not how he had expected it to.

The old man woke up with a sword in his torso, just how Catra would have with her nine lives, but Adora killed him again.

She knocked his head in.

She cut into him.

She ripped him apart.

She made him scream just like he had made Catra scream.

Scorpia had to look away, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop Adora either.

The blonde had the pleasure of killing the old man nine times before he stopped waking up. She snapped her gaze over to the pair of sorcerers who had just stood there, paralyzed in fear, but before they could run, Scorpia electrocuted them enough to get rid of a life.

Covered in blood, Adora stood and walked over to the table where Catra lay, the straps on her wrists and legs cut off by Scorpia already. She gingerly lifted her off and sat down, cradling Catra in her arms. Adora shut her eyes to concentrate, letting She-ra’s healing magic flow through her into Catra, but unlike the feeling of having Catra suck the magic in and use it like before, Adora felt the magic sort of… pour in and simply disappear. “Please,” she begged it to work, “Please!” She held Catra closer and cried, it wasn’t working. Catra wasn’t waking up and Scorpia started to cry as well.

It was only until Entrapta’s voice crackled in the comms that Adora paused for a moment, “Adora! The ritual can be reversed!”

Mermista and Entrapta were on their way to the room, but they had found records in the one next to the main control room. Records and records of runes and rituals. They had held one of the cult members captive, one who didn’t know how to use magic, and she had shown them exactly which ritual was being done that day. Sifting through more and more scripts, Mermista had found a spell to reverse the effects of any ritual. There was no exception to the spell, not even the most powerful rituals would reject the power of this spell. 

Finally entering the largest room of the ship, Mermista’s eyes widened in shock at the mess of bodies on the floor that surrounded an ashamed-looking Scorpia and a numb She-ra. The water princess had to pause at the scene, and nothing in her life would ever compare to the horrifying image in front of her. Even Entrapta had gulped when she saw it, stopping in place next to the door for only a moment before moving cautiously towards a blood-covered Adora. “Adora, we can bring Catra back… we just need someone who can do the dark magic…” Entrapta spoke tentatively, and stepped back when She-ra stood abruptly to go shake one of the cult members up. 

The trio watched in fear as the blonde grabbed the one who was stirring awake by the arm and dragged him in front of Catra, grabbing the script and shoving it in her face.

“Do this, or I’ll kill you as I did to him,” she tilted her head towards the old man, who lay in a puddle of his blood with unseeing eyes.

The sorceress nodded with wide eyes and immediately started drawing the runes and muttering the spell. 

Adora decided she would spare her. 

Soon enough, a light filled the room and energy started slipping back into Catra as the girl finished off the reversal spell. 

As soon as Catra sucked in a breath and groaned, Adora let the girl go, and any of the other cult members who might have been alive as she was too distracted with making sure Catra was okay.

Cracking her eyes open, the catgirl looked around the room, and whispered a horrified, “Adora, what did you do?”

The relief and tension Adora had in her body all left her, and with horror, she looked around the room and down at her now trembling and bloody hands.

She hadn’t been thinking straight before, but now with Catra back her head was clearer and she realized what she had done. She let out a terrified scream, looking around her only to find more people that she had slaughtered. She crawled away from everyone and could do nothing but rock back and forth, still staring at her red hands. They were dripping with blood just like the rest of the room was. 

It took a few minutes for the other princesses to help Catra settle down, she was panicking because of her death, her revival, the bodies everywhere, and Adora’s state. There was just so much, but she sat up anyway and looked towards Adora.

She moved to stand up, ignoring the “Hey, take it slow, Wildcat.” and “Catra you still need to recover.”

She ached all over, and her limbs were weak, but she stumbled over to Adora anyway, falling to her knees in front of her with tears in her eyes, “Adora, Adora, c’mon, look at me dummy.”

The old name made Adora raise her gaze from her hands and look at Catra, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I wasn’t- they all- they were just there and-” she choked off with a sob, looking around at all the blood in the room. Stars, it painted the walls, it was all so much blood.

Either way, Catra only nodded her head in understanding. Honestly, she had done the same when she lost Adora. She killed so many people, and though it had been more gradual and over time, she had likely spilled just as much blood as Adora had in this room. It wasn’t exactly the same, but she could relate to some level. “It’s okay, we’ll get through this together, okay?” She felt Adora nod into her shoulder as she kept crying, “Thank you, Adora, you saved me, we’re okay. We’re gonna have to talk to Perfuma though,” she chuckled a little as she said it, but it soon turned into sobs. Everything came crashing down on her and she and Adora cried in each other’s arms. 

Standing next to Entrapta and Mermista, Scorpia started to cry as well. She never wanted this, but a part of her had just gotten so angry and it scared her. She couldn’t stop it. Entrapta did her best to comfort her, wrapping her tendrils of hair around the scorpioni princess, and Mermista held her as well, whispering words of comfort as she ripped her gaze away from the rest of the room.

This wasn’t something they would just be able to forget.

Back on Etheria, the crew was welcomed with relieved and happy smiles, but they quickly disappeared the moment they took in the state of everyone. Adora and Catra looked terrible, and Scorpia, Entrapta, and Mermista looked like they had seen a ghost. 

Everyone was left to go to their rooms, Entrapta only stopping to let Glimmer know that they had brought a large shipment of scripts on dark magic and that she and Micah should go through them and maybe dispose of some. 

“Scorpia, what’s wrong?” Perfuma had stopped her girlfriend with a hand on her claw, and a look and a nod later from Catra, Scorpia broke down again. Quietly, Perfuma led her to their room in Plumeria, and Scorpia let the dam break. She told Perfuma everything, and by the end of it, the flower princess was reassuring Scorpia and deeply worried about everyone else that had been on the trip.

In their own room, Adora and Catra were still holding each other, but not really present. They were both remembering everything, and they couldn’t get either of their experiences out of their mind.

Adora, the feeling of unbridled rage and a blurry mess of just hurting people.

Catra, the feeling of her entire being and soul burning and burning until she couldn’t feel anymore.

It haunted them both.

Months later, Glimmer and Micah were still going through the scrolls of dark magic, burning most of them and sending others to Mystacor for evaluation. 

Adora and Catra were both having lengthy sessions with Perfuma about what had happened, Adora receiving advice that she needed to make herself feel more in control with all her emotions, not only her positive ones. She was triggered by the simple sight of blood now, not a good trait for a soldier, but Perfuma especially reminded her that she was no longer a soldier. She wasn’t supposed to fight anymore. She focused on that a lot.

And Catra getting told that she needed to keep herself grounded, and as much as she didn’t want to, she needed to trust people. Taylor’s actions had made Catra paranoid again, as she had been just when the war ended. Her progress had been set back heavily when it came to trusting and letting people in, though she still had the entire alliance that she trusted. It was the strangers, the soldiers, the other generals, and especially the guards who set her off. She hated it, and she hated it when she would growl and hiss and her fur would stand up on end whenever a stranger moved too quickly. She was colder to those that did not know her.

Mermista and Entrapta had gone to Perfuma for help with their nightmares, the both of them getting flashes of the blood-covered room and so, so many bodies. One would have thought that they would be used to it, what with growing up with a war surrounding them and fighting in it, but the problem was especially that they weren’t supposed to be in a war anymore. They were supposed to be at peace.

Perfuma helped Scorpia as well, comforting her when she would wake up from nightmares and helping her get over her fear of She-ra. It was something that she had discussed with the blonde already. Scorpia was not afraid of Adora, and her fear of She-ra was not personal, but Adora understood that her actions had happened right in front of Scorpia, and she herself was terrified of them. 

The five of them were always offering Perfuma the fact that they could always go to another therapist, but Perfuma always refused. The events disturbed her, but she had not been there, and she wanted to help them all closely. She had dealt with similar problems from others, and overall the group was not overwhelming when they went to her for help. They were doing better now, but it was still a slow process.

This next event though, would likely help all of them, it was good news, and everyone needed that.

“We can open a portal to save my mom,” Glimmer spoke happily at the Princess Alliance meeting. Micah stood next to her, holding a set of records that likely told them how to use dark magic to open a portal.

Everyone cheered, and Catra looked amazed, maybe she could fix this mistake. She could help Glimmer. 

She could do something good.

Chapter Text

Glimmer had just finished explaining the magic behind how the portal worked and was leading up to the most important part, “We need someone to go inside, find my mom, and get her out, I think-”

Immediately, Catra stood up from her chair, “I’ll do it.”

“Catra-” Adora opened her mouth to protest. But Catra wouldn’t let her.

“No, I’m doing this,” suddenly realizing that this was Glimmer’s decision, she said in a calmer voice, “if Sparkles will let me.” 

Glimmer sighed, she knew how determined this damn cat could be, “We need to be careful with this, this isn’t tech like Hordak’s portal had been. This is pure dark magic.”

“I feel like I’m already more resistant to that than anyone else, considering… ya know…”, Catra gestured to her entire body. Two dark magic rituals had been performed on her and she had been tortured by it in her youth. Surely she could handle a controlled portal of it. “Plus, I still got that extra life. I might as well use it for something important.”

That was all it took. Glimmer really wanted this, and though Adora was only slightly reassured by Catra’s points, she figured this was something her girlfriend needed to do, for herself. They discussed this several times already. Angella’s sacrifice and Catra’s guilt in playing a part in it. It was in the top three of Catra’s list of mistakes, as Perfuma asked her to make. 

1. Hurting Adora
2. Taking Angella away from Glimmer (and the Alliance)
3. Laying siege on Salineas

Catra would sometimes talk about it with Adora in the middle of the night, or she would just need to let the guilt bubble for a little before she broke down, but it was heavy on Catra’s shoulders even after all this time. Adora would support Catra in this if it meant she would sleep better at night.

With the meeting concluded, Catra stayed back to talk with Glimmer, Micah, and Adora about how they would find where and Angella was and convince her to come back. There were so many potential variables, and as much as Entrapta wanted to help, there were no sure possibilities with her lack of knowledge in pure magic, and this could always backfire.

Catra kept assuring them that if she died, it would be okay, she still had that one life left. She wanted- no- she needed to do this. After seeing how little good she was actually doing after Taylor’s revelation, she knew she needed to fix something, for good this time. 

Adora stood next to Catra as Glimmer explained the general overview of what Catra was going to have to do, “You won’t be needing a spacesuit since we already know the portal is probably just a copy of Etheria. The trick is jumping into the right dimension. Entrapta is going to have to time it just right and you’ll have to jump exactly then. If you miss the right dimension, we might not be able to pull you back.”

Micah nodded, encouraging the seriousness of the situation, “There will be a rope tied to you, just in case, but if something happens and it gets cut, we won’t be able to bring you back. You need to keep the rope intact, Catra. It’s the tether between the portal dimension and our own. Break the connection, and the dimensions will be moving too quickly for you to get back here.”

Adora gulped in slight fear, fear that she’ll lose Catra again to this portal, but a glance to her right let her know that Catra was fully ready to do this. She gripped her hand tighter and Catra asked, “How will I be able to find her?”

Glimmer gritted her teeth, “That’s the hard part. We don’t know. Entrapta might be able to cook some tracker up, but with how similar our Etheria is to the one in the portal, the vibrational difference between the terrain and my mom won’t be much. I honestly think she’ll just be… walking around. I don’t think there’s much to do there, but-”

“I think she’ll be in the castle,” Micah interrupted, “Entrapta said the portal likely produces false illusions as it did before, she’ll be there, thinking she’s with me and Glimmer.”

“Wait,” Adora waved her hands and furrowed her brows, “won’t that mean Catra will be affected too? By the illusions, I mean?”

Catra sucked in a breath at that, it wasn’t something she had planned for, and by the looks of it, Glimmer hadn’t either as she hesitated to come up with a straight answer, “Honestly, I don’t know. The last portal had sort of just exploded and took over everything, but Catra’s just going to jump into this one. My dad said that there could be any type of illusions because the portal isn’t meant to be so isolated, so it’ll fill the space in with its own ‘avatars’ based on the memories of whoever is there. Then again, it might not do anything to her.”

“Might.” Catra thought this was starting to sound more like one of Adora’s plans.

“Might,” Glimmer confirmed with a slight grimace.

Either way, Catra nodded in acceptance, hyping herself up for the mission, even if it was a week away. 

With the confirmation, Glimmer and Micah split away to work on perfecting the spell and Adora made to pull Catra with her to their room before Entrapta stopped in front of them, “Hello! I wanted to know if I could speak to you Catra,” she glanced at Adora, “alone, if that is possible. No offense Adora!”

“It’s okay Entrapta. See you in the room, Catra?”

Catra nodded and pressed a quick kiss to Adora’s lips, Entrapta letting the blonde close the door behind her before she turned to face Catra.

“So, I ran some calculations and did some studying on magicat species a few years back when we first got to Brightmoon,” Entrapta started slowly but quickly got excited and Catra had to remind her to stay on track.

“Yeah, you told me about that,” Catra had a feeling she knew where this was going, and dread started to fill her.

“Yes! I read somewhere that Magicats have their nine lives, as confirmed by your multiple deaths during the war,” the tech princess cut herself off before she got too excited, reminding herself that this time this was important, “and I know you lied in the meeting Catra.”

Catra’s stomach dropped. See, everyone thought nine lives meant nine revivals, but she knew she only had eight. Her ninth life was her last, and when she said last, she meant last as in she would die permanently if she was killed after her eighth revival. She was on her last life, and though she hoped everyone would buy the little lie that she would come back if killed, it seemed she couldn’t fool Entrapta and her calculations, “‘Trapta, I know what it sounds like-”

“It sounds like you were going to go against my previous data and make the ultimate sacrifice, however, I can’t seem to decipher why.”

Catra sighed, knowing there was no escape, “Please, you can’t tell anyone. I- helping Glimmer get her mom back will finally mean that I fixed one of my biggest mistakes. One I thought I’d never be able to fix. I don’t plan on dying, but… if it comes down to it I think it’ll be for the best. These past five years, yeah I was happy, but lately, I realized I never actually helped anyone. I can do that now.”

“But Catra! I have tons of data showing your non-linear path towards becoming a better person! And I cataloged your major actions of help and-”

“‘Trapta, I love you, I love your data, but... It’s just not enough for me… I don’t feel like enough.”

A minute of silence passed. Catra standing there letting her thoughts rumble around in her brain while Entrapta likely came to some sort of conclusion, and she did- “You’ve been spending an increased amount of time with Adora upon these last five years, perhaps too much. Could it be possible that your thoughts have melded together and caused your mentality towards your place in society to become more similar to hers?”

Entrapta actually seemed curious about it, as if the idea of thoughts melding together could be possible from simply living with someone, but a soft smile formed on Catra’s face as she realized just how much of an influence Adora had on her in their time after the war. Both the good and bad, it seemed. “You know what, maybe it is possible, but I’m doing this because I want to help… and I’ll do my best to get back home. You’ve changed my mind on that, at least. I’ll fight my damn hardest to come back.”

“Yay! I’m going to go calculate exactly how much of an influence I had on your final decision!” Entrapta scuttled away on the tendrils of her hair, already doing something on her tracker pad that seemingly came out of nowhere, and Catra chuckled.

Walking down the hallway to her and Adora’s room, it finally hit Catra that she might die on this mission. She had definitely considered it a high possibility before, but now that she knew she wanted to come back, it hit her more in the heart rather than her head. She looked around the castle and after so many years spent living here, realized she was going to miss this if she didn’t come back. More importantly, she was going to miss Adora, and even Sparkles, and Bow, and all the other princesses. 

She got it stuck in her head. She was going to come back even if it was the last thing she did, which it very well might be.

Back in their room, Catra was curled around Adora, kneading on her stomach with a purr filling the room. She didn’t let her softer cat instincts come out around the rest of the alliance, the rest of their friends. No, this was reserved for Adora, who got the privilege of seeing a completely vulnerable Catra and got to softly run her fingers through her hair, sometimes scratching gently at the base of her girlfriend’s ears. It only made Catra’s purr rumble more through the bed, and Adora giggled. Catra would purr like that forever if it meant she could hear Adora’s giggle, so she kept it up, making Adora hum happily, almost in tune with the purring. Stars, how Catra got this idiot to love her, she would never know. 

A few days later, another princess sleepover was planned, and while chocolate was no longer allowed to be brought in large amounts, they still had fun just talking and having little play fights. Catra found herself thinking of the mission on occasion, and she would go up to one of the other princesses and plan something. Everything she planned was taking place after the mission was over and done. Because she was coming back.

She was coming back to have a double date with Adora and Scorpia and Perfuma. 

She was coming back to play pranks on Seahawk with Mermista.

She was coming back to help Seahawk light another boat on fire.

She was coming back to let Frosta join her in her next lesson with the soldiers so she could learn some stuff.

She was coming back to help Entrapta make Emily a new sister.

She was coming back to help Glimmer run Brightmoon while the princess got some time to spend with her mom.

She was coming back to help Bow propose to Glimmer when Angella was back.

She was coming back.

And when she did, she would propose to Adora because apparently, the best friend squad had planned to have their weddings in the same week since Bow and Adora wanted it that way, and Glimmer and Catra would do anything for those two. 

It was finally time. Glimmer and Micah had both perfected the spell needed to open a portal of dark magic, with Castaspella having it known as well, for backup. Entrapta had quadruple checked her calculations and had a timer set for Catra to jump. Catra herself had a rope clipped to the back of her shirt, and another tied around her waist. The Alliance stood behind it all, anxious about the entire thing, though no more than Catra was. She held Adora’s hands and leaned in for a long, love-filled kiss. Pressing their foreheads together and squeezing her hands tight, Adora asked for one last thing, “Promise me you’ll come back.” Catra sucked in a shaky breath, and she nodded, but it wasn’t enough for Adora, “Promise me you’ll come back safe, Catra. Promise me,” she begged.

Finally, Catra relented, “I promise. I’m coming back to you Adora, I promise, okay?”

With tears in her eyes, Adora nodded. She had a terrible gut feeling, but Entrapta had already called out the start of the timer, and Catra had to let go of Adora’s hands.

Taking a deep breath, Catra’s ears twitched as she waited.

“You’re going to jump in five,”

Catra settled her nerves and looked into the warbling orange portal.

“four,”

She briefly wondered what she would do if she got trapped in an illusion, but she had to keep her head clear.

“three,”

Her legs bent slightly as she got into position to lunge, her tail waving anxiously behind her.

“two,”

She wished Melog could come with her, but their allergies with dark magic would kill them, so she had to go unaccompanied, alone.

“one!”

She heard Adora suck in a breath behind her, but Catra exhaled, and in a blur, she was jumping through the portal, Entrapta’s voice fading into the background.

Catra woke up to a pale arm curled around her midsection, the sun’s rays gently covering the entire room, and distantly, she recalled that that was exactly how she liked it. A knock at the door made her sit up instantly though. A glance at the spot next to her and Catra realized Adora was still asleep, drooling a little and her legs kicking slightly, probably sleep fighting. Catra chuckled lightly, but the knock at the door again shook her out of her staring, and as she made her way to the door, she had a vague thought about the fact that knocking was not normal, at least not for her.

Huh.

With a shake of her head, the magicat opened the door to find Glimmer standing there, Bow next to her with a blinding smile. ‘Uh, hey Glimmer,” the name felt foreign on her tongue, she knew it was right but it wasn’t… right . 

“Hey! We just came over to see if you and Adora were coming to breakfast!” Glimmer said it all cheerily, and with a smile almost as wide as Bows. 

It was odd, it was too early to be this happy, but she decided to just go with it, “Uh, well this dummy’s still asleep so, maybe later?” The couple in front of her tilted her head at the use of the word ‘dummy’. Suddenly, Catra felt someone press against her back, and she turned her head to find an equally confused Adora. “...Did I say something?”

“Why did you call Adora a dummy?” It was Bow who asked, and Catra had the realization that she didn’t know why she did it, she just did.

Quickly, Catra changed the subject, “Well now we can all go get breakfast, haha…” she chuckled nervously. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was but something felt wrong. Either way, everyone seemed pleased with her statement, and everything was forgotten as they made their way to the dining room.

When they got there, the doors opened to reveal a room full of people who were chatting and laughing as they ate. It was the presence of a singular person there that had made Catra’s head feel like it had been knocked with a bat.

Queen Angella sat at the end of the table with King Micah next to her, the both of them smiling warmly. 

“Your Majesty?” Catra tilted her pounding head to the side. None of this made sense, Angella wasn’t supposed to be here, and it seemed like Angella had the same thought about Catra.

“Who are you?” The Queen abandoned her conversation with Micah and locked her eyes onto Catra’s both equally confused. 

All around them, the conversations kept going, Adora no longer paying attention to anything. It was like Catra and Angella hadn’t even been there. The longer Catra stared at Angella, the more she began to remember.

She finally realized this reality was not hers. It was why everyone had been acting so weird. These illusions were not from her own mind, but rather Angella’s, she had simply been incorporated into them by her own mind’s tricks up until the two met. Catra looked down to find two ropes attached to her, and she was no longer in her pajamas, rather her normal clothing. She looked back up again to find Angella still staring at her, “Queen Angella, you’ve been stuck in the portal, remember? I’m here to get you out, but you need to remember.”

“...Remember?” 

The Queen blinked rapidly and looked around at the dining room. She saw Adora, Bow, and Glimmer, letting a soft smile form on her face, but the moment she turned to see Micah, the smile fell.

“Your Majesty, remember Glimmer, the princess alliance. I’ll tell you some news after, but you have to remember,” Catra spoke softly but pleadingly. She knew how much of a shock this entire situation must have been for the Queen, after years stuck here, but she didn’t want to spook her by telling her about Micah. She took smaller steps forward until she was face to face with Angella, “Your Majesty, please, I know it might be difficult to believe, but… none of this is real. I’m sorry,” she paused, remembering she was the reason Angella was stuck her in the first place, “but I’m going to take you back home, with Glimmer and-”

Catra stopped at the sight of Angella closing her eyes, a tear flowing out as the false reality crumbled around them. Slowly, Catra and Angella were left in a barren field, with no people and no rooms, simply empty land all around them. Finally, Angella’s eyes opened again, a solemn expression on her face as she faced Catra. “So, you say you are going to take me home. Where exactly would that be, Catra?”

“Wha- how do you know my name?” Catra was shocked. She had never met the Queen aside from Horde propaganda before she had been trapped in the portal.

Angella smiled knowingly, “I saw you once, Micah as well. I do not know how long ago it was, but I was in here more recently, and… you were both crying. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I believe it was the same night. You were apologizing, and Micah wanted me to be with him, oh my poor Micah.” She looked sad, but at the same time, Catra could tell she was excited to see her family again as they started following Catra’s rope. “The illusions stopped for perhaps a day, and all I could see the entire time was the hallway in Brightmoon where Micah and I’s mural stood. Micah came by first, most likely in the morning as everything was bright but there wasn’t quite yet the shuffling of everyone up in the morning. He spoke to me for some time, simply telling how much he missed me, and of course, I missed him dearly, though I could do nothing to tell him.”

Catra’s interest piqued, she had no idea how this could be possible, and she considered that maybe this was another illusion Angella had suffered, but she figured it couldn’t hurt to listen as they kept walking, the rope seemingly never-ending.

As if reading her mind, Angella chuckled softly, “I know that this doesn’t sound at all believable, but I think you’ll be able to recognize the day once I tell you.” Catra huffed but kept her ears perked and listening. “It was the same day that Micah had visited, but now it was the middle of the night. You were in similar clothing to the one you had in my illusion, and your hair was fairly shorter as well. I had already seen you wandering around in the hallways next to the mural, but at some point, you stopped. And you apologized to me, or well… the mural.”

Slightly embarrassed, Catra turned her head away. There were several times she had done that, talked to the mural in the wall in hopes that maybe her guilt would lessen if she apologized, but it never quite worked.

“Yeah, I mean- it’s my fault you were in here for so long. That’s why I came to get you back. To do something good. Something good that was as big as the bad I did. It- I know it doesn’t make sense but Perfuma said something similar, at some point.” Catra felt herself rambling and blushing slightly. Here she was, walking next to the Queen and acting like Adora because Catra still felt much shame, but it was different with Angella acting so casually about the portal and the fact that Catra was the one who had put her there in the first place.

Catra blushed even more when Angella chuckled again, her ears tilted back in embarrassment. “Yes, I am aware of who set off the portal, you made it very clear that night. However, you also made it very clear that you recognize that what you did was very wrong, and I believe that was one of your first steps into becoming a better person. I do hope you are taking care of yourself more, Catra. I saw you fall asleep in the hallway after nearly having a panic attack,” Angella looked down to Catra in concern, even if the event had taken place years prior.

It made Catra feel a pit in her stomach. The woman who she had condemned to almost seven years of illusions and loneliness in this portal world was standing next to her, making sure that she was taking care of herself. “Yeah, I’m not sure if I’ve become the good person you think I am, though.” Tears welled in Catra’s eyes as she thought of Taylor, and the countless other people that she had failed to help because she wasn’t doing the good she thought she was. 

“What do you mean,” Angella’s brows furrowed as she looked down at the magicat who made herself small even while walking.

Hesitant, Catra started telling Angella about everything. She felt like she owed the Queen at least that much. “Sparkles- Glimmer, I mean, she gave me a position in the Brightmoon military so I could train the soldiers. There was this kid…”

Angella listened intently the entire time, walking next to Catra as she told a story that only left Angella more and more upset the closer they got to the ending. It seemed that even after the war was supposed to be over, her kids were not done suffering. 

“We’re doing better now, but I still feel like I haven’t actually helped anyone. I’ve been useless this entire time without knowing it, and now I don’t know what to do. I thought that maybe if I did this, if I got you back, I would feel better, but I don’t know what I’ll do after this.”

Angella looked at Catra a bit helplessly. She knew Catra a bit from her story and the time she had seen her in the portal, but she didn’t know her as well as she would have known Glimmer, or Bow, or even Adora. “Well, I can’t speak for everyone else, or even for Glimmer, but I think that you have done more good than you realize Catra. You’ve told me everything, and from your perspective, I can tell that you are trying to minimize everything that you have done lately. Though it does not come as a surprise to me that you and Adora are together,” that one confused Catra. How could Angella have known? The look on Catra’s face made Angella chuckle, “Oh, you were all she ever talked about in the short time I knew her. ‘Oh, Catra this, Catra that, Catra would have, I remember when Catra and I,’ my, it was hilarious watching Glimmer be bored of you as Adora went on and on.”

Catra blushed harder the more Angella talked, she was sure she had never blushed so much in her entire life, but Angella’s stories were just too much for her. Angella sighed, and looked at Catra again, placing a tentative hand on her shoulder that Catra leaned into a little, “Anway, helping Adora through this more recent event, I think that is a sign of being a good person,”

“But-”

“And you seem to have helped Glimmer the entire time these past years, thank you for that,”

“But I’m the reason she needed help in the first place! She wouldn’t have become Queen if I hadn’t made you get stuck in here!” Catra protested against all of Angella’s reasons. She hadn’t done anything good, she hadn’t even atoned for her mistakes if she was asked.

Angella wasn’t having it though, she stopped walking and turned to Catra, stopping her as well. She placed both hands on her shoulders and knelt down slightly, “Catra, you are being awfully repetitive with your supposed reasoning as to why you are no longer a good person, but do you realize that all those mistakes, all the bad you did, it happened years ago? Because you seem to still be clinging to that. Why won’t you let yourself let go? Why do you insist on torturing yourself?”

She stared at Catra with such worry, such concern. It was a little odd to Catra. She didn’t have many older figures worrying about her like this, much less one she hardly even knew especially now that she was older herself. In fact, many of the people older than her hated her because of what she had done years ago. But Angella, Angella made her feel safe, and Catra finally broke down, “Because I’m happy! I’m happy and that was fine for a couple of years until Taylor reminded me that there are people out there who aren’t happy and it’s because of me! My actions, my mistakes have been brushed off at this point and I’m happy but there are still people suffering from what I did, so while I’m out here playing princess with Adora, they’re still crying about their families that I killed! It’s been five years and people like you are still hurting because of me while I’m getting better!” Crying, Catra pulled away from Angella’s hold, pushing the Queen away who had been slightly shocked at the revelation that it had been five years since the war had ended. She had thought that perhaps it had been two, three at most, but five years? And added upon that, how many had she been here before the war had ended?

She was pulled out of her thoughts though, when she realized there was an illusion glitching around Catra, who knelt a few paces away, gripping her head. No. The portal had never registered Catra’s illusions, only Angella’s. It had gone too long being empty, and now whatever was going on in Catra’s mind was going to appear.

First, it was Taylor, Angella recognized him from the description Catra had given her, but he was holding a spear, and he looked angry.

Next, was simply an angry-looking woman with tears streaking down her face. She kept yelling something about her daughter being killed.

Then it was another form of Catra, but this one had glowing green eyes and was clothed in white. Angella didn’t recognize her either as she stared in horror. 

The second form of Catra, however, scared her even more. She was wearing clothes she had recognized from a drawing Adora had provided of her during the war. But half of her face and her right arm was pitch black and a blinding white line with glowing purple separated the normal features. The pitch-black eye and white pupil is what scared Angella the most though, the crazed look on Catra’s face. 

To top it all off was a sight that made Angella’s breath stutter. It was Salineas, but all around them were people screaming as Hordak’s laser set everything ablaze, Catra standing at his side. 

Catra, the real one, looked up to find everything she had conjured up with her mind, and Angella realized that this is how Catra saw herself, this is what she thought was what she was. 

Everyone was screaming at Catra, and all she could do was sit there, as they approached her.

“You don’t get to pick and choose who dies and who lives!” Taylor pointed his spear, and he stalked forward.

“You should be rotting in a cell or worse! You killed too many people to be free! You killed my daughter!” The woman had clenched fists and stomped her way forward as well.

Right next to Taylor and the woman was the Catra with glowing green eyes, “Horde Prime was right, you should have stayed with him in the light, you wouldn’t have suffered,” she slinked around Catra and chuckled bitterly, “did you really think you could escape what you’ve done? Look around you. This was your fault and you thought you could be happy? That was foolish and you know it.”

Finally, the most unhinged Catra ran up to the one Angella had grown fond of, “You let Adora win, didn’t you?! You thought you could be happy with her, but there’s always that part, you know it’s inside of you, you know I’m still here.”

“No…” Catra stumbled back with her corrupted self pushing her over and over.

“You’re weak. You let yourself frolic around in that sparkly castle as if you couldn’t snap at any moment. You won’t get away from me. Especially not now. Everything you did after the war, it was for nothing because as long as I’m here, you won’t be safe to be around-”

“No.”

“You’ll hurt everyone again!”

“No!”

“You’ll hurt Adora, you’ll drag her down with you!”

“NO!”

Catra planted her feet into the burning ground of Salineas and pushed against corrupted Catra. It sent everyone off, all the anger that Catra held for herself was turned against her as all the illusions charged.

It sent Angella into action as well, flying over and tackling the angry woman and the Catra with glowing eyes. She held them off as best as she could, but it still left a corrupted Catra and Taylor attacking the one who had pushed back.

Taylor attacked first, yelling as he raised his spear and charged at Catra. Struggling, Angella could see the corrupted one cackling as she watched Catra try to fend off Taylor. It was a mess. Catra’s illusions only knew as much as Catra imagined them to know, and she had known Taylor’s fighting style in great detail. He swung his spear around and jabbed at Catra, she could only fend off so much without her own weapon, her claws better used for close-quarters combat while Taylor’s spear stretched, allowing him to fight from a distance. 

Angella didn’t know if one could feel pain from these illusions, her own never having been as aggressive as these, but the way chipped Catra’s claws dug into her arm, she knew this pain was plenty real. 

The angry woman went down quickly, and though it saddened Angella to attack her, she remembered that simply because the pain could be felt, didn’t mean that these illusions were real. It was the top thought on her mind when she gripped chipped Catra by the arms and flew up into the smoke-filled skies, a glitchy cackle coming from the girl before finally, Angella got high enough and let go. Later, Catra would tell her she found it funny how both the real and fake chipped versions of her had died from falling, but at the moment, Angella felt only slight remorse as she took in the fact that this was not Catra.

Once Angella was done with both of Catra’s illusions, she looked down to find Catra dealing with Taylor, struggling to bring herself to kill him while a distorted Catra watched the fight like it was entertainment. Swooping down, Angella kicked the distracted and cackling Catra out of the way, leaving the real one alone in the distance. With a grunt, Catra got up, her half-covered face twisting in slight pain from the rough landing. Huh, so it seemed these illusions could get just as hurt as Angella and Catra themselves could. The magic behind the illusions interested her, but her attention went back to the corrupted Catra when she stood up, no longer taunting or laughing.

“What? Have you nothing to say?” Angella asked it half curiously and half tauntingly.

Either way, Catra growled and narrowed her eyes before charging at the Queen.

Catra jumped over the spear aimed at her feet. Taylor wasn’t yelling anymore, he was too focused on his fighting, which Catra hated herself for teaching him. At the same time though, she was grateful. She felt sapped of energy, and he was keeping her on his toes, if it was easier to defeat him she didn’t know if she would have been able to kill. She knew the real Taylor was dead on a ship in space, surrounded by strangers that had tried to kill her, but the illusion of him felt like her second chance. She thought that maybe she could apologize to this one, but deep down she knew this version of him that she had created wouldn’t stop. He wouldn’t care about anything Catra said because he wasn’t real . Catra finally got that into her head. She remembered all the times she had taught him something new, and he mastered it only to use the move on her the next week. She remembered how she would tell him she was proud of all his progress, something she did so that she wouldn’t feel like she was acting like Shadow Weaver. She remembered how every time she brought Adora to the class, he would get excited because his fighting style matched hers the most and they could spar. She cried one last time for the kid she had taken so much time to mentor before whispering a quiet “I’m sorry,” and letting her illusion of him crumble and glitch away.

Catra let herself grieve again for just a moment and then turned in the direction she had seen Angella go to. She wondered if maybe her corrupted version had faded away with Taylor, but she doubted it as she heard Angella’s struggle a few feet yards away. Running past all the cracked and burning buildings of Salineas, Catra found the two in an uneven match. As far as Catra knew, Angella was not trained in combat, and even if she was, she had not fought for years. The corrupted Catra, however, was as fresh in fighting as she had gotten during the war, and her uncontained rage made it so she didn’t hold back at all. Just looking at her corrupted self made Catra’s arm go a little numb, and she hated it. All of this was her fault. If she hadn’t been so stupid as to believe that she could do something good, someone else, someone like Glimmer could be here, getting her mom out of the portal safely. If Catra had the guts to move on and make herself believe that she was a good person, her brain wouldn’t be making these illusions. She tried to make the corrupted version glitch away like she had Taylor, but the idea was still stuck inside of her. Some small part of her still believed that she was evil and the Catra swiping away with her claws at Angella’s face wasn’t making things any easier. 

“Catra!” Angella called out to her, still struggling with her portal self but apparently having spotted her. “Catra, this is not who you are! You were a child, and you were horribly manipulated and no, that does not excuse your actions but it also-” the corrupted Catra managed a swipe at Angella’s arm, but the Queen continued with a grunt, “it also goes to show how amazing it is that you’ve gotten this far. Even I can tell that from the little you have told me,” Angella shoved and punched the false Catra away, her head hitting the side of a building and knocking her out. No longer busy, the Queen walked to Catra, who hadn’t quite managed to join the fight, and held her shoulders much like earlier. “Your past does not define you, Catra. You did not grow into the person you are today solely because of all the bad things you did. You are who you are because of how you worked to change yourself, and change your ways. Tell me, do you still fight with Adora? At least physically? In a way that is meant to hurt her?”

Angella stared at Catra, waiting for an answer she already knew, but Catra confirmed it anyway, “No, I wouldn’t hurt her like that, not anymore.”

“Ah, and that, my dear, are the keywords. Not anymore. You may have hurt Adora like that in the past, but you now realize that was not okay. You’ve apologized, and now you help Adora. That is exactly what you have done for everyone else, simply on a major scale.”

Catra still stood there, unconvinced, “But what about everyone else. The people like Taylor and the lady from my trial? What about them, I haven’t helped them.” 

Damn this stubborn cat, Angella thought, “You will never be able to help every single person that got hurt Catra, you are thinking far too much like Adora would. You’ve done the best you can. You helped rebuild these homes,” she gestured towards the chaos around them, chaos Catra had caused but at the same time helped fix. Catra could even recognize one of the buildings she had helped put back together, the memory of falling off the scaffolding and twisting her ankle resurfacing. “Think of it like this,” Angella continued, “you will never be able to get rid of Adora’s scars from the war. You’ve told me that is something you regret deeply, but you help her when she has nightmares and such, correct?” Catra nodded, “People are always going to have their scars, Catra, but by taking on so many jobs and doing your best to help the larger public, you are helping them without even knowing it. You mentioned you stopped an entire battle, which in itself helped many people. Your past, your mistakes, they do not make you who you are,” Angella pulled Catra in for a hug, slow enough that Catra could pull away if she wanted to, but the magicat sunk into it, crying on Angella’s shoulder as the Queen’s wings wrapped around them. Catra succumbed to the feeling of it, it was so warm and caring, she felt safe in the embrace. She found herself wishing she had gotten a hug like this sooner. 

It all broke the moment Catra peered her eyes open. Standing there was a corrupted Catra. She was crumbling away, but it was slow, slower than Taylor had faded away or Angella’s illusions and she swiped her claws at Angella. Holding tight onto the Queen, Catra spun them around so her own back would take the impact. The claws cut through her rope and left Catra gasping as she felt them cut deep into her lower back. Desperately, the Queen was left to grasp at the rope that had loosely wrapped around them, knowing that Catra said it needed to stay attached to one of them at all times. The magicat groaned as she let go of Angella, wounded and turning to face the version of her that was slowly fading away.

The rope started to tug away and everything in the portal glitched slightly. The connection had been broken for just a moment, but it was enough to give Angella trouble while she tried to keep the rope in her hold.

Meanwhile, Catra fought her altered self. She was hurt, but she knew that if she held off long enough, maybe the other Catra would crumble away. 

Catra should have followed her own lesson in fighting. She was on the defensive, doing her best to block every one of the corrupted Catra’s punches, and kick, and slashing claws, but she got hit and cut more and more frequently. Her back hurt like hell and she couldn’t be very flexible. The blood loss was making her head a little fuzzy as well, and she couldn’t tell if the blurriness was her enemy fading away with Salineas, or if it was just her. Glancing back at Angella, who was struggling more and more with the rope, she knew what she had to do. 

If she made herself feel enough pain, her mind would be focused on that, and maybe her illusion would fade away completely. It was a long shot, but Catra had a feeling it would work. She didn't dodge the next swipe of claws aimed at her face, and she heard Angella gasp in horror behind her as blood dripped from her scratched up head and face, the claw marks running so deep Catra felt like her skull had been cut. Maybe it was. Her face felt all wrong, and she could only imagine what she looked like, but portal Catra wasn't done with her just yet. She glitched and crumbled slightly more but managed to tear her claws right across the real Catra's stomach, as if she wasn't already bleeding out enough, now it felt like her guts would spill out if someone punched her there.  Finally knocked down to the ground, Catra groaned and could barely keep her eyes open when the corrupted Catra stomped her foot on her knee, making Catra scream before she crumbled away.

"Catra!" The Queen yelled helplessly from afar. It seemed like Catra had wandered far in her fight with her old self. Angella couldn't reach her, even stretching her arm as far as it could go, the rope was still tugging and she couldn’t let it go. 

Catra mustered up all the strength she could, one of them had to make it out of here, “You n-need to go.”

“No!” Angella was crying now, and it made Catra wonder if she had ever cried in front of anyone as much as she had here. “I’m not leaving you! What of your other lives! I know you have more!” She lifted off the ground and flew against the pull of the rope, but it wouldn’t budge.

Catra chuckled weakly, “They’re all gone, wasted,” she inhaled raspily and looked at Angella with tears in her eyes, “Please, t-tell Entrapta I really did t-try,” she was going to die soon, she knew it. And she wasn’t going to come back this time. “Tell Adora I’m s-sorry.” 

“No! You’re going to tell her yourself, you are not making me leave alone!” Angella tried her best to ignore what Catra was asking of her, but the last thing she said made her stop struggling and finally look the magicat in the eyes.

“Tell Glimmer- tell her i-it was worth it,” a faint smile rose on Catra’s teary face, and she felt herself crumble away as she had in the first portal, like another illusion.

For a second, Angella wondered if maybe the entire thing had been an illusion of her own and that she had finally gone insane, but she was still holding the rope. The only sign that Catra had been here to rescue her before she was gone.

She kept walking with the rope slowly, hoping that maybe Catra would fall from the sky or appear in front of her, but after walking for so long, she reached the unmistakable warbling of a portal, and she knew she couldn’t wait any longer.

She still had no idea what she would say to Adora, and she hated to be the one who would break her heart. It was her last thought before she stepped into the portal and felt herself be pushed into the other side.

 The entire Alliance had waited for hours in front of the portal. Nobody had left the room since Catra had gone inside, only Castaspella leaving every once in a while to make sure everyone was fed. 

There was no way to tell what was going on inside, and Adora hated having to just sit there. She paced for a couple of hours before Glimmer told her to sit down because she was making her more nervous than she already was. 

“If something goes wrong, we won’t be able to tell. We should have sent her in there with a camera or something- a tracker pad-”

“We already told you, Adora. Bow said a tracker pad would have lost signal the moment. That would have only made you worry more,” Glimmer tried to ease Adora’s mind, but her own was going crazy with all the possibilities of what could go wrong. 

In a corner, Scorpia was clicking her claws in worry, and Perfuma was just as uneasy as everyone else. 

Mermista did her best to make everyone feel better by saying how much of a badass Catra was, “She’s crazy, she can take on anything in that stupid portal with those scary claws, right Seahawk?” She elbowed him softly and he immediately agreed.

“Yes, yes! Of course! You know, she even promised to help me set another boat on fire! A keeper, that’s for sure,” he chuckled a bit nervously. He didn’t quite believe his own words, but Bow seemed to agree.

“Yeah! Catra has gone through way too much to let a little portal take her down. Plus, she still has that extra life!”

That gained Entrapta’s attention. She had been hiding the truth from everyone the entire week, but only because Catra had asked her to. She didn’t know what she would do if something happened to Catra. She had an uneasy feeling this entire time, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to keep it a secret any longer. In the end, though, she decided she would wait, and if Catra came back safe and sound she wouldn’t need to say anything.

It was then that the rope started to tense up, and everyone shot up to their feet. There was still plenty of rope left itself, but the section that went through the portal had floated slightly and started tugging.

“What’s going on?” Adora asked Micah, who had started inspecting the portal.

“I think the rope was cut, but Catra managed to keep ahold of it. The portal doesn’t want to stay open anymore though, it’s sucking the rope out of itself.” Micah explained it to everyone, but there wasn’t much to do. They couldn’t pull the rope out because it seemed like Catra wasn’t ready to come back yet, and they couldn’t go against the force of the portal to feed it more rope. All they could do was wait, but now they were more nervous than ever. What was going on in there?

About an hour later, their question was finally answered. Angella walked through the portal, and everyone’s faces lit up before they realized Catra wasn’t behind her.

“Where’s Catra,” Adora asked with little hope.

At first, Angella said nothing, only looked down from Adora’s gaze.

“Mom?” 

“I’m so sorry, she didn’t make it.” Angella looked at everyone in the room with remorse.

Adora only laughed slightly, “It’s a joke right? I mean- she still had that extra life,” she kept forcing a laugh until her voice cracked when she asked again, “right?”

Adora looked around the room, as if asking everyone else to confirm it, but Entrapta couldn’t take it any longer.

“No, she didn’t.” Everyone faced the tech princess, confused and in denial.

“What are you talking about,” Glimmer protested, “she had nine lives and only died eight times, she should’ve had one left!”

Entrapta fiddled with a piece of tech in her hands, “When she took the mission, after the meeting I told her about the calculations I had done. Having nine lives does not mean reviving eight times. On that ninth life, if you die it becomes permanent,” Entrapta had tears in her eyes now,” She told me she knew that and that she was ready, but I made her change her mind. I told her that she had to come back and she said she would try her hardest but-”

“It’s true,” Angella interrupted, remembering Catra’s words before she died, “She told me to tell you that she really did try her best, and- and she did, but it wasn’t enough,” Angella turned to Adora, who looked heartbroken, “Adora, she said she was sorry, and I am too, dear.”

Immediately, Adora fell onto the chair she had been sitting on. You could hear Scorpia crying, as were Perfuma and Mermista, but Adora was muttering to herself, “I shouldn’t have let her go, I should’ve gone, stars, why did I let her go?”

“Glimmer,” Angella turned to her crying daughter and a crying Bow, “she said it was worth it,” and she moved to hug them, but it didn’t feel right.

Catra was missing, and everyone felt the gap she left. 

Adora seemed to be in shock for the moment, but nobody knew how to console her. She simply sat in the chair while nobody knew exactly what was going on inside her head.

Adora though was thinking about everything she and Catra had gone through together, the good and the bad. Catra had been the one constant in her life, even during the war, and now she was just… gone. Adora couldn’t bring herself to believe it yet. She was half expecting her to walk through the portal and say something so Catra like “Hey, Adora.” But she didn’t. Adora spent almost the entire day there, waiting until finally Angella had come by and made her eat something. She refused, but the moment Angella pulled her into a hug, she broke down and finally realized that Catra wasn’t coming back this time. 

“I’m so sorry, Adora. I wish I could have brought her back, but- there were a lot of things happening in there that stopped me from it. She saved me. I wish I could have done the same for her.”

Together, the both of them cried for Catra up until Adora gasped, finally remembering, “I- I never got to marry her- Angella I never got to marry her! She promised me! She promised she would come back-” Adora was clawing desperately at Angella, keeping herself from falling as she stood and tried to make her way to the portal. Adora kept crying and crying until she finally went limp in Angella’s arms, only left whispering Catra’s name as she gave up.

When Catra woke up, it was a shock to her. She had never been particularly believing in the idea that death was the beginning of a journey up into the sky to become a light, even when the stars did appear. Especially because every time she did die, she never went anywhere, only remembering pitch-black unconsciousness and later waking up to the dark again of her closed eyelids. So, opening her eyes to see pure white walls surrounding her was not what she had been expecting, in fact, she hadn’t been expecting anything. But here she was anyway.

After nothing happened, Catra thought that maybe she had gone to a bad place instead, where she would be tortured for eternity by being trapped in an isolated room. And she accepted it. Finding nothing more to do, Catra simply sat down, waiting until curiosity got the best of her to start wandering. To where? She didn’t know, but she would wait to find out.

After what felt like an hour of waiting but just as easily could have been ten minutes, Catra stood up and sighed, “Is anyone here?” She waited for a response, but even with the twitching of her ears, Catra didn’t hear anything, so she started walking. Every once in a while, she would call out “Hello?”, but there would be nothing. She felt like she was walking in place, honestly, but at one point, she hit a wall. Or, at least the impact had felt like a wall. Confused, she placed a hand in front of her until her palm could touch the surface of something invisible. She tried clawing at it, but nothing happened and Catra huffed. There was nothing to do here, no one to talk to. If she wasn’t dead she might as well be. She pushed against the wall, but nothing happened other than Catra getting more frustrated. She backed up a few paces and ran into it, but all she received for her struggles was an aching arm. Growling, she lifted a fist to try and punch into it but again, nothing. 

“Hey, whatcha doin?”

Catra yelped and turned to face whoever had spoken, but there was no one there. She looked around more, her stance ready to fight but she couldn’t spot anything. “Maybe I’m going crazy,” she muttered to herself.

“Why would you think that?”

Again, Catra jumped in place and squeaked, “What the hell, who are you?” Her head twisted this way and that trying to see if maybe she had missed something, but the voice answered her before she could find something.

“Not who, what ,” it corrected.

Catra decided to play along, “Fine, what are you?”

“ I am the great, and all-powerful-"

"Am I dead or not?" Catra felt that she didn't have the patience to deal with another melodramatic type of 'thing'.

"Ah- no, you are not- but may I continue?" The voice seemed a bit upset that they hadn't gotten to finish their introduction, so Catra gave the go-ahead. "Great, as I was saying, I am the great, and all-powerful wall! I was the one blocking you from exiting this dimension!"

"Oh, well that's nice and all, but now that I know I'm not dead for some reason, can you let me out?" Catra still didn't know why she was alive, but she wasn't going to question it too much. She needed to get back to Adora.

“Hmm, I fear you won’t be able to survive it if I do let you out,” the wall actually sounded a bit concerned for a person they had just met.

“What do you mean?” 

“Well, when you crumbled away from the last dimension, you appeared in this one, but to leave this dimension now, you would have to crumble away again.”

Great, Catra didn’t know if she had any more lives left. This was all so confusing, but Catra needed to get back to Etheria. “Is there any other way?”

“Well… yes but you would get the same results. I can let you out, but there are endless dimensions and you would need to push through the correct ones to get wherever you want to go,” the voice paused for a moment, “Where do you need to go anyway? Why can’t I just leave you here and keep the company?”

Catra did her best to convince the wall, “I need to get back home. My friends, my family, they need to know I’m alive, I need to get back to them.”

“Hmmm, but… you’re going to die anyway. Then you won’t stay with me but you won’t see your family either.”

Catra groaned. She didn’t want to be left stuck talking to a wall for the rest of her life, “I’ll survive, I have nine lives. If I can get to the right dimension, I’ll make it.”

The wall took a moment to consider it, “I suppose, if you are telling the truth you could potentially reach the dimension you want. Perhaps less than a one percent chance, but a chance nonetheless. And I assume that if I keep you here that’s all you will complain about, correct?” Catra nodded vigorously, “Well, that doesn’t make for very good company. I guess I wish you the best in your journey. You need to forge your own connection with the dimension you want. Think of something important there, and push past the layers because you cannot stop between dimensions. Some of them might not let you out at all, so you must only skim the idea of it and break the layers. Good luck, this might sting a little,” and a door appeared for Catra to step into.

A week had passed and a funeral for Catra was being prepared. What was supposed to be a time of happiness and reunion with the return of Angella, was spent grieving a lost friend. Adora could barely keep herself alive. She didn’t eat, in fact, she hardly got out of bed. Her limbs felt heavy and she couldn’t find the energy to do anything other than stay in her bed and cry into Catra’s pillow. She kept Melog with her, but they couldn’t seem to speak with Catra either, just like they couldn’t when Catra had been in the portal. It was the dark magic blocking them off, but now it was simply assumed that Catra was dead, for good this time. They spent their time curled up with Adora, their mane a sickly grey color as they mourned their companion. Every once in a while, someone was sent into the room to make sure Adora ate, but the blonde never did, she simply gave it to Melog who also resisted. 

Everyone else spent their time planning the funeral. They had waited three days to confirm the magicat’s death before Micah suggested it. Every time it was mentioned, Adora felt sick to her stomach, so she wasn’t particularly allowed to do anything. Not that she would have anyway. Glimmer spent a lot of time holding Bow. The thought of ever losing him made her cry as it reminded her of Catra. She had been one of her best friends, and everyone was hit hard by her death.

The worst part, to Adora, was that there wasn’t even a body. Angella had explained that she couldn’t have even brought her if she wanted to, for she had crumbled away into the nothingness. Even then, the Queen wasn’t sure if she would have wanted anyone to see the state Catra had gone in. 

Holed up in her room, Adora had all the sheets and Catra’s clothes piled up onto the bed. They still smelled like Catra, and she clung to them the most that she could. At some point though, Melog had sneezed, and it made Adora cry again. She thought she would have run out of tears by now, especially with how dehydrated she was, but they came from somewhere. “I miss her, I miss her so much, Melog,” she sobbed into their fur and held onto them tightly. 

That was how Scorpia found Adora, there to let her know the funeral was in a couple of hours. The two had already cried together, but Scorpia still found herself sniffling more often than not. “Adora? The- the things going to be happening at about noon,” her voice cracked a little, “do you want me to-”

“No, it’s okay, I’ll be there,” Adora answered in a voice raspy from sobbing and misuse. She felt a little bad for pushing Scorpia away, but she didn’t want people here. She wanted Catra. But she knew that wasn’t going to happen. 

The wall hadn’t been lying when they said it was going to sting. Catra was currently pushing aside the feeling of being burned and electrocuted and drowned all the same time in favor of trying to find the right dimension. 

As soon as the wall had said to think of something important, Catra knew her thoughts would be focused completely on Adora. She thought of her girlfriend, with her dumb hair poof and her cute laugh and the feeling of waking up in the middle of the night because of Adora’s sleep fighting. After what felt like an eternity, Catra finally heard something- crying. Her heart tugged at the realization that it was Adora’s crying, but she needed to focus on that, as much as she hated it. She took a heavy step forward, and it felt like she died for a moment. Her eyes were squeezed shut but she could still hear Adora’s crying somewhere, now accompanied by the sound of other people crying quietly.  She took another step forward towards the sound, and this time she was very sure that she had died. It hurt so damn much but Catra kept pushing through layers and layers of dimensions. If she had nine lives before, now she only had about four when she finally recognized Angella’s voice calling Adora up to… to say any last words? No no no no. Catra realized it had been far too long since she had gotten Angella out if they were already having her damn funeral. She pushed faster but with the same precision. Getting closer and closer every time until at last, she could hear the sound get the loudest it was until it faded completely. She was sure she only had maybe two lives when she finally popped out of the last dimension and stumbled onto a solid floor. “I’m not dead!” was the last thing she yelled before collapsing onto the grass, unconscious.

When Adora got to the funeral outside, she nearly broke into tears again. Everyone from the Alliance was standing there, looking varying degrees of upset, but Adora could barely keep herself up, only with the help of Melog did she make it to the area where everyone else was. It was a small funeral, the big one meant for the Brightmoon military and any other citizens to be done later in the month when Catra’s friends and family felt slightly better. Adora didn’t think she would ever get better. Everyone took turns saying something, even if small, about Catra.

Glimmer went first, “I owe a lot to Catra, maybe even everything. She saved my life countless times- and I don’t know how she thought she owed me or anyone anything more.” Glimmer’s speech only lasted so long before she started to cry and was unable to continue. 

Bow went up after her, mentioning their first space mission on Krytis, “Catra might’ve not known it then, but she officially became a part of the Best Friend Squad the moment she pushed me and Glimmer out of the way to protect everyone from who we now know was Melog,” he smiled at them and continued with his speech.

Scorpia went up next, “Y’know, Catra was always helping me with stuff after the war. I think she felt bad for a lot of things that had happened before, but I could tell it made her uncomfortable to help rebuild the Fright Zone, even if she never said anything. It meant a lot to me that she pushed through the most she could, but at one point I had to tell her to take it easy,” she chuckled and wiped away a tear with her claw, “that stubborn Wildcat.”

It went on like that for the rest of the funeral, all the other princesses and Alliance members going up to say something fond about Catra. They all wanted to remember something good she had done with them. Because Catra hadn’t been a bad person in years, and it wasn’t what she should be remembered by. 

Almost an hour later, one filled with water laughs and even more tears, Angella looked to Adora and called the blonde up. She was going to be the last to say something about Catra, but there were just so many things, so much amazingness that had come with her, that Adora wasn’t quite sure what to say. How could she bring down all of Catra’s life, all of their experiences together, into one speech?

She was in the middle of walking up beside Angella that something started to shift in the spot she had been in previously. Reality itself seemed to be pushed against as if something was trying to get out. Everyone watched with anticipation until a furry arm finally tore the reality and opened up a larger section, making Adora back away but simultaneously look at the space with hope. 

Finally, after what looked like a huge struggle, Catra stumbled out of whatever she had been in, and with the last of her strength, could be heard yelling out to no one in particular, “I’m not dead!” before her body fell to the grass.

Everyone stared in shock. Here she was, the person they were having a funeral for having appeared out of nowhere. No one could believe it. No one except Adora. 

The blonde kneeled immediately and started hoisting Catra up onto Melog, who had grown slightly in size.

“Glimmer! We need to make sure she’s okay-” before Adora could even finish the sentence, Glimmer had teleported them to the healers, where the doctors had previously been sitting patiently they now jumped into action, taking all of Catra’s vitals to make sure that yes, this was Catra and she was alive, simply weak and tired.

Oh, how Catra would hate to hear that. Either way, Adora was laughing and laughing. While it worried many of the alliance members who were now waiting outside the healers’ room, Glimmer and Angella found themselves chuckling slightly too, all until it became full-blown wheezing and they were rolling on the floor.

While some others started to laugh as well, the giggles and tears contagious, many still didn’t understand what was so funny. 

It wasn’t until Catra walked out of the room fine and well a couple of minutes later, that they understood. Catra stood in front of Adora who gripped her shoulders and kissed her hard before saying, “You, are the most dramatic person I have ever met, and I have no idea how I haven’t had a heart attack yet, but I love you, I love you so much,” the laughter had turned into tears at that point, and Adora was now crying into Catra’s shoulder, hugging her tight for fear that if she let go Catra might disappear again and she would have to realize none of this was real because it certainly felt that way.

Glimmer basically tackled Catra with a hug, whispering, “I’m glad you’re here, Horde Scum,” into the magicat’s ears only for her to hear. Bow went up next, sobbing his eyes out and clinging onto the rest of the Best Friend Squad. All the other princesses went in for a hug as well, leaving Angella and Micah to hold all of them in one big hug, Angella’s wings coming up to envelope them all. 

Catra herself cried too, she had been so scared, scared that she wouldn’t be able to have any of this again, but she was here, and she found that she didn’t care how it happened.

Entrapta though, cared very much about how it was possible, grateful as she was, “How are you alive? We thought you were gone!”

Angella nodded her head along as the hug was over, all of them curious as to what Catra had done to get her. 

Catra shrugged, not entirely sure herself, but Glimmer had a sort of idea, “The ritual. The one we used to bring you back, maybe that was what restored your lives! Mermista said it was meant to reverse another spell. It could be possible that that was what brought them back!”

Catra winced a little, clearing her throat, “Maybe, but I sort of… burned through them again to get back here. I talked to a wall and it said I had to die getting across dimensions and it took me a few tries before I got here. I’m not sure if I have any left.”

The wall part seemed to confuse everyone, but they made Angella and Catra promise that they would tell the story later as everyone was tired, “I’m just glad you’re alive, dear. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you earlier,” Angella had stayed behind with Catra and Adora once everyone had celebrated and gone to bed.

“It’s okay, you did the best that you could, and it was my decision. It worked out in the end though, and now you just have to be happy with Glimmer, and Micah, and everyone else. You have to,” Catra let a smirk fall into place, and Adora beside her knew that she was going to have to apologize for something, “In fact, technically, I have a higher position than you in Brightmoon because Glimmer is still officially Queen, and I have three jobs here. So you have to be happy.”

Well, neither Angella nor Adora had been expecting that, but Adora especially looked up to see the Queen’s reaction.

Surprisingly, Angella only smiled, “Alright, but you have to be happy as well, remember what I told you. Now off to bed you go. I’m still older than you by many, many years. And Adora,” Angella looked at the blonde now, stopping the couple from leaving to their room, “remember to take care of yourself now. Spend time together. I don’t want to see you doing anything work-like in the next two weeks.”

She shooed them away but smiled at Catra with a knowing look as the brunette looked back in shock. She had remembered.

A few weeks later, everything had gone back to relatively normal. There wasn’t much to deal with now that the Horde faction had been fully taken care of and nothing was pressing. Angella decided to not take the position of Queen back, simply there to advise Glimmer in everything she could, which Catra had semi-complained that she was taking her job, but she was also grateful for it. 

Catra had spent the time doing everything she had planned with everyone before she had gone into the portal, and she was nearly done, she was simply helping Bow with his proposal plan. In her free time, she was coddling Adora, making sure the dummy ate because Catra had learned of what Adora had gone through the week she had been believed to be dead. Catra felt slightly guilty for it, but Adora assured her that it wasn’t anyone’s fault. Catra had kept her promise in the end and it was all that mattered. 

Now, Bow was in his and Glimmer’s room with everything ready while Catra waited for Adora in their own room. It was funny, proposals and weddings were something the Best Friend Squad had discussed together, the four of them coming up with exactly what they wanted together, but in the end, both couples wanted a private proposal, no matter who it was that got around to doing it first. 

Shaking out of her thoughts, Catra heard Adora open the door to their room. She was wearing a simple red dress that Catra had given to her for a date night, and she looked much healthier than she had the week prior, her cheeks now rosy and her eyes a bright blue again. Adora looked up to see Catra in a matching suit, and a crown in her hand.

She gasped as she entered the room and walked in front of Catra, the magicat gathering both hands into her own.

“Adora, we have been through so much together and made so many promises. It took me way too long to realize just how in love I am with you, but we’re here now, and time has made me realize that I don’t want to spend another day without knowing, Adora, will you marry me?”

Catra, even knowing that Adora loved her more than anything, had her tail swishing behind her nervously until Adora started to take off the winged belt buckle she had pinned on her dress. Nodding and saying a watery “yes”, Adora placed the buckle in Catra’s hands while Catra handed her the crown Glimmer had given her as a joke when Catra first got to Brightmoon. Secretly, Catra took good care of the little crown for years, joking that it was so one day she would steal Glimmer’s throne from under her, but in reality, having it as the first real thing anyone had gifted her. 

Adora giggled, and kissed Catra slowly before pulling back, “We’re getting married,” she sounded amazed and Catra felt the same.

The magicat held Adora’s hand in hers and surprised her even more, “And the same week as Bow and Glimmer, just like you wanted it,” she chuckled as Adora’s eyes lit up as she gasped. “Anything for you, princess,” Catra gingerly fixed the crown onto Adora’s head and smiled, falling in love with the blonde more and more each second. 

A few weeks later, Angella and Micah walked both of the couples down the aisle, and Catra got to call Adora her wife.

Chapter Text

Bow went first. 

He was the most normal out of them, it was bound to happen. He had been surrounded by his family, and he was smiling the entire time.. both his and Glimmer's kids had been there, as had Catra's and Adora's after having moved out years ago. A good chunk of the princesses was gone as well, but their kids visited their uncle Bow one last time before he said goodbye. 

Meanwhile, Glimmer had found out she was, in fact, immortal, and while it broke her heart when she learned, she felt like nothing could ever lessen her pain the day that her husband died. 

She still had her mom, her dad had died years ago, but now she knew what it was that her mother had felt. 

Adora and Catra pushed through, but only a little. Adora had magic and the power of She-ra flowing through her, and Catra's body lasted as though she still had her nine lives. 

But they weren't immortal. 

Adora's thinly pale hair and Catra's cracking joints made it clear. 

They would have to leave Glimmer as well, only slightly comforted by the thought that at least Angella was still with her, and would be for all of eternity. 

It was a lonely image for the both of them to think about, to see their friend so alone. But Glimmer had finally accepted it. She thanked Adora and Catra especially. For having brought back her mother to help her. 

Help her deal with the loss of her friends- her family. 

Today was the day, Adora and Catra could both feel it. Tears welled up in Glimmer's eyes the moment they told her. 

They just knew. 

The rush of energy they got the day before in their now brittle bones was the sign. They hadn't felt like that in ages and there was no other reason. 

"I'm going to miss you two so much." 

"We will too," and Catra meant it with everything she had.

"Hey, Glimmer? Don't stay sad forever, please?" Adora couldn’t bear the thought that Glimmer would spend so much time mourning the people she’s lost.

"Yeah Sparkles, go out and visit your kids, meet the other princesses, have tea with your mom. And remember- I'm leaving Melog with you, they can help too." Catra would miss Melog as well, but she knew they were in good hands with Glimmer. She wondered if they would bond with anyone else. Hopefully, they did.

"Take your time, don't let the days blend together for too long, okay?" Adora, Catra, they all knew what it felt like to lose friends and family, but they were Glimmer’s last.

Glimmer nodded as she held a sob in her throat, tears spilling from her eyes. 

"You promise?" Both Adora and Catra had to make sure.

"I promise." 

They had one last hug, one that Glimmer would remember and cherish forever as they teleported to the Fright Zone. 

When they let go, Adora and Catra gave her one last smile before turning away and going to their spot. It was the high perch where they had spent their childhood talking and laughing in the Horde. They felt it was right, coming around full circle to where it all started, and it held happy memories for them now. When Scorpia had finally finished rebuilding they had come back and reclaimed it as a comfortable space, putting small pillows and boxes of snacks there among the foliage. They couldn't climb up anymore, not like they used to, but Melog carried them like kittens all the way up whenever they asked. 

It wasn't much, but it was theirs. 

They sat down, Catra leaning on Adora's shoulder as the couple took in the view in front of them. Trees spread out for miles and the kingdom was mostly empty right now. It was quiet but if they focused enough, they could make out the comforting hum of machinery in the walls. 

So much had changed, but this still felt familiar. 

"Adora?" 

"Yeah, love?" 

"I'm a little scared" 

"That's okay, we're staying together, for all of it." 

"Okay...I love you so much, Adora." Catra whispered it, only for the two of them to hear, tears in her eyes as she looked at Adora one last time.

"I love you too Catra, so much... I'll meet you up in the stars," Adora whispered back

"You promise?" 

"I promise." 

Smiling, Catra finally let her eyes slip closed, her head still on Adora's shoulder as she took her final breath, her last life all used up. 

A tear slipped out of Adora's eye as she smiled down at her, "I'm coming with you, love." 

The last of her energy left her, and Adora was comforted by the fact that with her gone, She-ra was going as well. No one would have to deal with the burden any longer. 

She closed her eyes and felt herself fade, dozing off into the stars. 

Finally, she opened her eyes to find Catra smiling softly in front of her. 

"Hey, Adora."