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Entrapta's lab blew apart in a crash and a blinding white light like the world was ending. Catra flattened her ears and held up her arm against the blast, like that would do anything--
--and then it was gone. Catra sat on top of the Fright Zone, looking out over the metal, yellow, and smoke. Her spot. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been up here, not since...
... Footsteps clanked on the rungs of the emergency ladder. Catra whirled, her fur on end, ready to fight. She didn't know how she'd gotten up here, but if someone was coming to take her one-on-one, she had the advantage.
Adora's head poked over the edge, followed by the rest of Adora. Her Adora. She looked younger. She moved differently--looser, like she wasn't carrying boulders. Though she still had that Horde-perfect posture as she straightened up--she'd never lost that.
When she saw Catra all puffed up and ready to claw, she jumped.
"Look, I'll talk to Shadow Weaver, if Force Captain means that much to you," Adora said.
Force Captain. Force Captain. Catra had done it. She’d gone back. She whirled back to her usual perch, facing over the Horde so Adora couldn't see her face. Her fur lay flat and her ears perked up, though, the traitors. There, out in the clanging fug of the Fright Zone--the buildings were different. Hordak had ordered new perimeter defenses built after the princesses broke in, and he'd razed a couple warehouses. It was really the past.
Which meant that her idiot Adora really had just been promoted to Force Captain. She'd never been in the Whispering Woods. And she never had to.
Catra said. "It doesn't. Keep your stupid badge." It may have come off more giddy than sulky. That was ok. She'd only have to pretend for a little bit, and then everything could go back to normal, like it was supposed to.
Adora came and sat next to her on the edge. “Come on, Catra. I’ve been working for this my whole life. I thought you’d be happy for me.”
Her whole life, huh? Catra knew it, which made it hurt all the more. Adora had thrown “her whole life” away in a single day because a princess said jump.
But that didn’t have to happen again. Not now. Catra took in her friend’s hopeful, innocent face.
“I am happy for you, you goody two-shoes.”
Adora grinned, the grin she wore when she thought she was being particularly clever. “Would a goody two-shoes have…this?” she said, holding up a key to a skiff.
Catra had been so happy, the first time Adora did this. She could still remember the wind rushing through her fur and the way they’d laughed.
Here and now, she snorted. "No thanks. Don't want to get you demoted before your first real day." She wanted to push more, to call Adora a stiff that would never do it, but that would only encourage her. She'd get back to the usual banter tomorrow. It would all be fixed by then.
*
The rhythms of Adora's sleep were as familiar to Catra as her own tail. When Adora was deep asleep, Catra slunk off the edge of her bed and snuck down to the skiff bay.
Nobody stopped her. Why would they? Adora had made it out, and she was as stealthy as an avalanche. Catra flew over into the Whispering Woods, retracing their path as best she could with old memories. The woods loomed around her like they were judging her. Disapproving. Catra glared out at them. She'd blown up plenty of these trees in the other timeline–she refused to think of it as the real one. The trees were on borrowed time, here.
Eventually, though, zig-zagging through even more trees , Catra had to admit that she was lost. Every patch of this forest looked the same. She didn't know if she'd passed the same bent-over tree five times or if that was just how trees were around here. She pushed the skiff to its limit and rose towards the forest canopy. If nothing else, she could get home. Maybe she didn't need to destroy the sword. Maybe she could just ignore that it was out there, and Adora would never find it.
Fat chance of that. The stupid First Ones magic in the sword would probably hone in on Adora like sniffing out blood. Catra didn't know how the She-Ra magic worked, but she didn't plan to give it a chance.
Once she'd crested the tops of the trees, she saw it--a glow. Finally . She nudged the skiff forward, over the trees, until she hovered over the clearing. She kicked the skiff into descent towards her worst enemy, that awful sword.
Catra had never talked to Adora about that night--about what had happened when she grabbed the sword. They'd never had a chance. But even so, looking back, she should have expected what happened next.
A twang was all the warning she got before a net hit her and knocked her to the ground.
"Of COURSE," Catra said. "Of COURSE this is what happens."
She wiggled and kicked, all possibility of dignity gone. The rope shredded under her claws. Almost free---
"Freeze, Horde scum!" said a familiar voice. Catra rolled her eyes and didn't freeze. Sparkles was here too, then, of course. She and the arrow guy were joined at the hip.
A blast of glitter smacked Catra in the face.
"Ow! Geez, Sparkles, I'm on the ground here!" said Catra. She couldn't even rub her blinded eyes--her arms were still pinned. Hands grabbed her as she thrashed. She expected to knock them off easily, but she was weak. Her arms didn't move with the force she expected. What had they done to her?
It wasn't until they'd thoroughly trussed her arms in rope, with no wiggle room for her claws, that she realized this body was weaker. It wasn't magic at all. She just hadn't put in the effort to build her strength up until Adora had left her. This body didn't have the muscle.
"Talk. Are there more of you? What are you here for?" said Glimmer.
Catra rolled her eyes. "You do not know how to interrogate someone," she said.
"Talk! Or I'll..."
"What? Sparkle at me again?" Catra sneered.
"Let's take her back to the palace. Your mo--uh, Queen Angella will know what to do with her," Bo said. She assumed he was trying to look threatening. She couldn't think of any other reason someone would do whatever he was doing with his eyebrows.
*
"Queen Angella," Sparkles declaimed as she strode into the throne room. "We have captured...a Horde soldier."
Bo nudged Catra forward, so softly it could have been polite if she wasn't still tied up.
"You what? " said the queen. She stared at Catra. She looked at her daughter. She looked back at Catra. She rubbed her temple with one hand. Despite the captivity, and the fact that she was surrounded by the same people she'd been fighting for months, Catra couldn't help smirking. The queen shot Glimmer a "we-are-not-through-with-this-young-lady" look before sitting upright on her throne, radiating authority as effectively as Hordak ever did.
"Horde spy. Care to explain why you're here?" said the queen.
"No," said Catra.
The queen nodded. "I thought not." Turning to her courtiers, she said, "Take her to the dungeon."
Catra could sense the blank looks even under the helmets. This was glorious.
The queen sighed deeply. "The guest bedroom?" she prompted.
Catra laughed bitterly. She'd been losing to these people?
As she'd expected from a palace, the guest room was gorgeous, soft, and welcoming. They placed a seal on the doors and windows, but she had room to pace--certainly more room to herself than she'd ever had in the Horde.
Had Adora been here? She must have--they obviously didn't have anywhere else to put prisoners. Or guests.
Adora had slept in this room.
With nothing else to do, exhausted to the bone, Catra curled up at the foot of Adora's other bed.
*
After some sleep, Catra climbed the walls, clawed the doors, kicked the window, and tried everything else she could think of to escape. Nothing budged, though she did admire the scratches she left behind on their pristine door.
Adora would have noticed her missing by now. Shadow Weaver would have noticed—ha. Shadow Weaver wouldn’t come for her. Shadow Weaver wouldn’t let Adora come for her either. So when Adora didn’t come, and Catra was left in this opulent prison to rot, it would all be Shadow Weaver’s fault. Only Shadow Weaver’s. This Adora would have come for her, before she found her new friends. Before she left.
Catra cast her mind back to those first hours, first days, after Adora left. She’d been pissed at Adora when she didn’t come home. Begrudgingly proud of her for dancing off to the woods, worried… yes, worried, she could admit that to herself, ok? Worry was fine, worry didn’t mean anything. Because Adora was such a goody-goody that she would have shown back up if something hadn’t stopped her.
What did Adora think now?
No. Forget Adora for just a moment, one single moment. What was happening out there that might matter to these princesses?
So Catra wasn't surprised when the queen burst in, simmering with fury, flanked by helmeted guards.
"Thaymor has fallen. I hope you're happy, Horde, flexing your strength against a tiny town of civilians. Those were innocent villagers—they were having a festival."
Catra rolled her eyes. The guards moved like she'd threatened them—in a blink, they'd pinned her down to the ground with their crossed spear shafts. Catra didn't bother fighting it.
"What do you want me to do about it?" Catra said. She thought that was very restrained of her. She hadn't said, they're dead already, for example.
"I want you to tell us everything you know. I want to know where they're attacking next. I want to know about this Horde soldier that thinks she's being stealthy as she comes straight for Brightmoon."
Catra's ears pricked up. She tried to sit up, but the guards pinned her down harder. "The what?"
"The strike force on the way here. The soldier without a single one of your tanks. She seems to think that makes her stealthy."
"I don't know anything about that," Catra said, but dread crept down her spine. She hadn't known everything about the Horde, back then. It was possible that while she was attacking Thaymor, the Horde had sent out an assassin or spy she didn't know about. But she knew in her gut what must be happening.
Hoping she was wrong--hoping she was right--Catra shut her eyes and said, "Is she blonde?"
They didn't respond immediately. She opened her eyes just a slit, enough to see the queen looking at each of her guards in turn. One shrugged. One nodded.
"She's coming for me," she said, in wonder. "She's coming to get me back." She nearly purred, but she reminded herself that she was being interrogated at this exact moment. She grinned at the queen, her most unsettling, fang-filled grin. "Just let me go, and she'll leave you alone."
"Ha! Do you really think we can't handle a single Horde soldier? We have plenty of rooms to hold them," said the queen.
"She'll fight," Catra warned.
"And we will too. The dead of Thaymor were unarmed and helpless. A dead Horde soldier would be a small payment for their lives, but it would be a start."
Catra's heart hammered in her chest. Her fur puffed out all over and her ears flattened as she scrabbled at the spear shafts. "No, no, you have to leave her alive! You can't--"
"Tie her up," said the queen.
"Leave her alone, she's not a threat to you!"
"And Thaymor was no threat to you."
The ropes were tight. Catra shredded them as fast as she could, but not fast enough--the queen and her guards left, and the door sealed shut behind them.
*
Catra scratched the doors until her claws wore down to useless. She tested every inch of the wall again and hurled herself at the windows, trying to break out. She had to get out. She'd done it, she'd finally gone back to make things right, she had her Adora back, and she wasn't going to give her up. But her muscles had limits. By the time Bo and Glimmer brought her food and water, she lay sprawled on the floor, barely able to move. She struggled to her feet, as if that would give her some dignity back.
"We brought you your rations," Sparkles said, trying and failing to hold the gravitas of her mother.
Catra looked at the rations. Hot soup; dark, fluffy bread; a handful of fresh pink berries. The prisoner rations here were better than the best food in the Horde. She'd tried some of that same kind of bread from the black market trade among Horde soldiers, and even half-stale, it was decadence. What softhearted idiots. Maybe they didn't even know how to make bad food.
Maybe it would give her the energy she needed to finally break out. She took the tray. She saw pity in her enemies' eyes, and she wanted to lash out...but she had an idea. An awful idea, an idea she hated, but it might just work on these people.
She had to be honest.
"Thank you," she said. She sat back down on the floor. She'd destroyed the only furniture in trying to get out, and plus, the floor made her look more vulnerable. Adora had been helpless when Catra used her big eyes on her. Before these idiots had taken her away, anyway. She looked up at her two captors.
"Going to talk?" said Sparkles.
Catra swallowed a hiss. "I did talk. The soldier coming is no threat to you. She's harmless. Just ignore her. Turn her away if you have to. She'll probably just get lost, it's impossible to get around in this forest."
"Sure, we'll listen to the Horde soldier about battle plans," said Sparkles.
"Please. Please just...don't hurt her."
"Don't hurt her? She's a soldier of the evil Horde," said Sparkles. "Do you know what she did?"
Catra resisted rolling her eyes. Yeah, yeah, innocent Thaymor. But it mattered to these people, so it had to matter to her, as if anything was as important as Adora.
Adora was coming for her. Adora had chosen her over Shadow Weaver's orders--there was no way in Eternia that Shadow Weaver had approved this mission. Catra could beg, for that.
"She's my best friend," she whispered. Wholly inadequate. She tried again. "She's always been there for me. She promised we'd always be together." The words tasted bitter. But this Adora hadn't broken her promise. This Adora hadn't left her. Catra couldn't lose the chance to try again.
Bo and Glimmer exchanged glances. She was getting to them. She let the silence hang for long moments, holding herself utterly still. She didn't even touch her food, as delicious as the smells were wafting up to her nose.
"Let me go to her. Please. I know she'll turn back."
"We're not letting you go," said Glimmer. "But...I'll see. I'll see what Mom—the queen wants to do."
Catra nodded. She wasn't about to thank her—she couldn't swallow her pride that well. But that was probably the biggest concession she could get from Sparkles right now. As soon as Bo and Glimmer left, she ate ravenously. Even as hungry as she was, she had to stop at the end and savor the last few bites. Hunger temporarily staved off, she stretched, hopped to her feet, and began to pace once more. She tested the walls a few more times. It would have been nice to have a plan that didn't involve the princesses, but she had no luck finding a weak point.
The angle of the sun through the windows had barely changed when the queen strode back in with her retainers. They brought a thin silver chain this time.
"Where are you taking me?" Catra said.
"You say this Force Captain is coming for you. We'll test that. We don't want her trying to barge into Bright Moon if we can help it. Perhaps this captain will be open to some negotiations."
Catra offered up her hands, keeping them apart. The guard bound her hands and yanked them together, uninterested in giving her that range of motion. Oh well. Worth a try.
They led her through the forest blindfolded and silent. This was deeply annoying, given the number of sticks that poked into the exposed bits of her feet, the rocks that shhhrked against her claws, and the roots that tried to trip her up. But these idiots had forgotten she had ears and a nose.
Two guards and the queen had come into her room, but at least ten others traveled through the forest around them. This wasn't a negotiation. This was a trap.
Catra didn't know how far away Adora was. She had to balance this carefully. Too close to Bright Moon, and they'd call reinforcements. Too close to Adora, and she would hear the racket and come running right into the middle of a dozen guards, probably singlehanded, without even that stupid sword she'd had in the past life.
She waited as long as her racing heart would let her. Then, the next time a root tripped her up, she didn't correct--she fell hard. She yowled at the impact. Turned out that without her hands to take the fall, the ground hurt.
"Get up," a guard commanded, but the chain holding her went slack and she heard muffled cursing behind her. She'd tripped up the guard with her chain, as planned.
Her hands were right next to her face. In one fluid movement, she swiped the blindfold off her face, turned, and leaped for the sound of the stumbling guard. The guard raised his spear, but he was so slow. Humans! He tried to block his helmeted face, as if that had ever been Catra's goal. She landed on him, yanked the spear out of his hands, and kicked herself back off the armor. The guards shouted around her, and any second now, Angella would cast a spell. Catra spun the spear--it wasn't too different from their training staves at the Horde--and jammed it into the ground. She looped her arms over the spear, dropped to the ground, and yanked back.
The chain on her wrists cracked and creaked. Her wrists screamed with the jerk, but that was fine, that could wait. The chain had warped and opened enough that she shook her hands and slipped them free.
The guards were closing in, but they couldn't circle her properly, because she was right on top of those tripping roots...and right next to a gloriously tall tree trunk.
Catra raced up the tree trunk, climbing like she'd never climbed before. The forest canopy welcomed her, a whole network of roads her captors couldn't reach. Plus, plenty of cover from above if Angella took to the skies and actually risked her own neck in a battle for once.
Catra ran.
*
She ran as straight as she could, but it still felt like a miracle when she heard Adora's voice through the trees. She wanted to sob. Her lungs burned, her legs burned, her wrists burned.
With a wobbly shred of her usual grace, she dropped from the tree limbs and landed hard.
"Hey... Adora..." she gasped.
"Catra!"
In an instant, Adora enveloped her in a hug, clinging to her, nearly choking her. Catra buried her face in Adora's red jacket and breathed the familiar smell in deep. The force captain pin poked her above the eye, but that was fine. If she cried, she could blame it on that.
"Did they hurt you?" Adora demanded.
"No, no, I'm fine, I had to escape. We have to run, they're coming for you, they know where you are." Catra tried to stand up, but her legs wobbled beneath her and she crashed back down onto the leaves.
"They won't take you again," Adora declared.
"Not if we run."
"You can't run that fast, Catra! I'm not letting you get captured again, you hear? I'll fight them all."
"I know you will, you idiot, but don't, please don't, we can run. You run on the ground, I'll go above you in the trees."
"You can't even stand! If I hold them off, you can get away. I have a shock stick and some smoke bombs. They'll have to take me instead." Adora stood up and walked around Catra, putting herself at Catra's back, ready to guard her.
Catra saw the future crumbling before her like dried mud on a boot. Adora would fight, and the rebellion would subdue her, and she'd get taken right back to that castle and learn all over again about the rebellion, and the princesses, and her new friends. Or Adora would fight and she'd die. The rebellion was angry. The spears were sharp. Adora wasn't nearly as good a fighter as she thought she was, especially without that miserable magical sword that had made Catra's life hell.
Either way, she'd be gone. And Catra would be back at the Horde, alone, for...
...for what?
"I'm not leaving you! Don't you get it?" Catra pushed herself to her feet and staggered around Adora, facing her, placing one hand on her chest. "I'm net letting you go anywhere without me ever again!"
Adora looked down at her, puzzled. "I should be saying that to you," she said.
"And you're not. You're pushing me away."
"I'm saving you. "
"From what? They don't even have a dungeon, Adora!"
Adora lowered her shock stick, completely at a loss. "I don't understand. Why wouldn't they? They're the princesses!"
Catra stared at Adora. She really had been like this. So convinced that the Horde was right, and just, and good. But there was no way to get Adora back to the Horde now. Catra hadn’t outrun the soldiers by much. With Adora in the hands of the princesses, the Horde had nothing for Catra. It never had.
One little thread of a future hadn't crumbled away. One single possibility, and Catra grabbed it.
Adora had changed her mind in a single day before. Maybe she could change her mind even faster.
"They're the good guys, Adora! They fed me better food than I'd ever had in the Horde! They're fighting back because we are trying to take over their forest."
Adora staggered like Catra had hit her. She gaped, but Catra knew that look. Adora was going to believe it. Because she believed her. She believed in her.
The sounds of soldiers crashing through the trees caught up with them. Catra reached out for Adora's hand. "Please. Stay with me. I can explain. Just... don't fight. Don't leave me."
Adora grabbed Catra's hand tight with both her own. "Never," she said.
"Promise?"
The soldiers were very close now. Adora kept her eyes fixed on Catra, a tiny smile on her face despite everything. "I promise."