Escaping Corruption (Seasons 1-3)

S3 - Prologue

A thick, shiny red liquid oozes down her arm.

Blood.

Catra offers herself a small chuckle as she dabs the growing crimson stain with an old rag.

She didn't recall the guard nicking her with his sword.

Strange, wasn't it?

The Empress smiled slightly, and continued her way undetected through the slums of Hell.

Her cloak billows out behind her in a dark trail of moss green. Her face is stained with soot and grime from her entrance, which had included shimmying down an absolutely filthy chimney.

But in the end, she got where she wanted. So it was not something she needed to whine about.

She stepped stealthily over a mischief of rats that skittered away when they noticed her shadow looming over them.

Even after six months of sneaking between the realms of the dead and the living, Catra still didn't understand why exactly Hell was a kingdom of creaky wooden buildings and long, dark streets.

She brings a halt to her step when she reaches the jutting cliff overlooking the grand Palace below.

It's more of a fortress than anything.

Her eyes glance up at the dome that builds out from the sides of the cavern cliff and borders around the palace grounds, sealing it into an eternal starless night.

She is once again glad for the pretty skies that are cast over Halfmoon at all hours, whether it be night or day.

She sticks her hand into her bag, and pulled out the falcon cloak she had received all those months ago. She fastens it around her collar.

She takes a step forward, then launches herself off of the cliff's edge. She glides gracefully onto the empty battlements.

Once she has landed, she repockets the second cloak, and takes a moment to stare into the distance, at the tall shadow of Mount Ruination.

It teetering just within the domes borders, and horded only the most confidential information of Hell.

Catra snapped back out of her thoughts when the sound of something stone cracking got her attention.

She stumbled and her breath hitched as the ground beneath her feet shook and lightening crackled brightly in the dark smog that hid the domes roof.

She caught herself on the steel railing as the whole land trembled, she heard distant screams from the maidservants within the palace.

Her eyes squint as she cringes, and shifts along the shaking battlements.

She makes it inside the west tower just in time to see Rhys vanishing down a steel staircase.

She doesn't follow.

Instead, she makes her way down a cramped corridor cluttered with random bits and pieces.

She clambers up a shelf and snatches what she had come for.

A diamond necklace laid in with gleaming sapphires, and a drawstring pouch of an strange emerald green powder.

She lept down again, and was about to flash back to Halfmoon when she noticed an odd vermillion camelia flower.

She crept towards it, noticing the mess of black vines snaking out from behind it, covered in rot and blight.

She pulls away quickly, not wanting to drag herself into something so gross.

She gets to her feet, and shoots the flower a dirty look, then, in a flash of yellow, snapped back to Halfmoon.