Friend or foe? Adora x Catra.

Part 8

Adora heads through the Whispering Woods, ready to return to the Horde once more. A few tears roll down her cheeks as she glances back towards the direction where the castle is.
Her sword glows with passion, and she looks at it in sorrow as she heads towards the grove from where she first found it.
      She lifts up the sword so she can see her own reflection in it once more. Her reflection no longer seems to have a conscious of her own, and it relieves her. She carefully rubs her index finger against the metal blade, being careful not to scratch or dent it.
      Her mind trends back to Shadow Weaver with her manipulation and skin chilling voice. She thinks of the fear trapped in her own eyes when Shadow Weaver completely removed her memories.
     Her eyes glance downwards to the bright blue gem in the middle of it. She bites her lower lip as she watches the sword stare at her back.
      "I'm sorry," Adora sadly says to the sword with her voice full of sorrow. "But this is a mission She-Ra can't be a part of,"
      She heads towards the spot from where she pulled the sword from once before. Her body freezes when she points it towards the rock. Her arm shakes as more memories flow into her mind, causing a few small tears to flow from her cheeks before slamming the sword inside of the dirt.
"If Shadow Weever finds me with it, then I would be screwed before even entering," Adora sadly says to the sword before heading off.
      She doesn't know how long it takes her to return back to the Horde. Maybe hours, but no matter what, he body is drained from doing anything else. She keeps on walking until she sees the tall and metallic building where the Horde is.
      Her body freezes, and her mind starts to ponder. She wishes to return to Brightmoon and help fight from there, but she tells herself no. This is something that she must do.
      Adora quickly climbs up the building and heads inside of a small vent along the thorough wall. She grunts and groans while her body strains itself from all of her strength.
      She climbs inside, hoping no one would notice her. The vents are small and cramped, and her shoulders nearly touch each other. She's actually surprised to even fit in it from the start. Dust splatters in her face, causing her to sneeze and use her wrist to swipe off a bit of the dust.
      She continues to crawl through the vent, trying to ignore the voice in her head telling her to go back. Her body goes limp, sand she can hardly feel herself anymore.
        Adora finally makes it out and into the hall. Nobody seems to notice her, or if they did, they didn't care one bit. She looks down both sides of the hall, checking for any signs of any people. The silence of the halls slightly startled her, causing dark thoughts to seep in her mind.
        She heads back to her room, wondering if anyone noticed if she was even missing, but nothing seemed like it happened. The room is full of all of her ex-friends sleeping inside of their beds, recovering their strength.
          She climbs into bed, and her eyes linger towards Catra, whom is cuddled up like a little kitty. Adora smiles a little and she gets under her covers. She herself starts to drift to sleep, and she calmly waits for the next day as she blacks out. What she doesn't notice though, is Catra's left eye peeking over, watching Adora.
        Morning arises and Adora's eyes slowly open. Her head hurts a little, and she still wishes to go back to sleep. Her eyes nearly close a few more times before quickly getting up.
       The rest of the squad also gets up along schedule. Lonnie eyes Adora in a suspicious way, and a small frown appears on her face. The others seem to watch her as well. They seem to hide their faces from her though, and they quickly head to their lockers to get changed. (Or whatever they do, I don't live with the Horde)
"Another day at the Horde," Adora awkwardly says to Catra with a large fake smile on her face. "Just keeping the princesses from causing all harm upon Etheria,"
Catra only rolls her eyes, and sigh, causing Adora to gulp a little. Could all of her secrets already be exposed.
"I know you went out last night," Catra quietly sighs out to Adora with a betrayed and angry look on her face. "The only reason you weren't busted is because Shadow Weever would kill me if you left again,"
"I'm sorry Catra," Adora sadly says to her, trying to play as dumb as possible. "It's just that, I just want to find answers about what happened to me,"
"What more is there that happened?!" Catra nearly yells out to Adora in rage, making her actually lucky that the others aren't around. "Shadow Weever told you already! You were hypnotized by those princesses! They made you betray us! It's a good thing she found that out too, or else you would have been one of them, and I don't want to hurt you!"
Adora's eyes widen at Catra's words. Catra said it in such belief that Adora is convinced that Catra actually means it herself. She stays frozen, trying to find something else to say to her, but a frog is stuck in her throat. She just has to play along.
"Are you sure you didn't tell on me because of another reason," Adora playfully says to Catra, causing her to stare at Adora in disbelief. "Cause I think it's not because of Shadow Weever,"
"What do you know?" Catra asks Adora as she rolls her eyes. "Shadow Weever already has me on her hit list anyway. You going missing will definitely make it worse,"
"Sure it isn't because you like me?" Adora asks Catra with a large grin on her face. "I think it's because you like me,"
"This is not because I like you!" Catra says out loud to Adora with her arms flailing. "It's because of Shadow Weever!"
"I still don't thinks so," Adora says with a smile on her face before heading off, leaving Catra chasing after her in denial.
Training time has come right on schedule, and Adora quickly puts on her vest. Catra seems to have one on too, eyeing her the entire way. It's actually surprising to Adora that Catra is actually attending practice instead of doing Force Commander stuff. (I never took their course, so I don't know what they do)
She actually misses fighting along side their friends like this. It is always a lot of fun to run around, trying to beat the game.
Lonnie walks up to Adora, still giving that suspicious look form before. She nearly has tears in her eyes, and Rogelio just firmly watches behind her while leaning against the wall, watching both of them.
"So, I'm guessing you're well enough to take the course on," Lonnie says to Adora in a small cold voice.
"Even if I wasn't I would still take it," Adora informs Lonnie with the best answer she can come up with. "I have to prepare myself to fight the princesses somehow, and being brainwashed won't make a difference,"
Lonnie stares at this in shock before heading back to Rogelio. Catra also seems a bit shocked to hear Adora say that, but quickly moves on with her.
The training grounds seem the same as before. The room had no sense of smell and all they can hear are the shrieking princesses attacking them with their magic. The simulation has improved though, for things have seemed a lot more difficult to Adora, or she's just been getting weaker.
Adora, Catra, and the others enter the room with VR sets on their faces. (That's basically what it is) The figures of the princesses are mainly black though, making it hard to see them.
Three princess attacks them at the same time. They all try to dodge it. Lonnie ducks under one of the beams and crouches behind a large and hard rock. Rogelio and Catra quickly deflect their attacks while Adora gracefully dodges all three of them. Even Kyle almost misses all three before the last one hits him in chest.
"Classic Kyle," Catra sighs out to Adora. "Always being the first one to take the blow,"
"At least I tried," Kyle chirps out in an undetermined wimpy voice, making Catra smirk.
     They continue on through the VR Whispering Woods. Adora seems surprised to realize how fake it looks to the real one though, and how the princesses seem to look more menacing.
      Another group of princesses attack them one more time, and they all run through it this time, deflecting and dodging all of the attacks they can. Only Rogelio gets hit by them. It takes a while before they finally make it to the final boss, which is basically a giant robot.
     A large smirk occurs on Adora's face as she cautiously waits for its first move, while taking a few steps so she wouldn't fall to her death. Catra is even less enthusiastic than before, but yet at the same time, she hardly shows any excitement during practice unless when it comes to annoying her.
      Adora's patience gets the best of her and she charges towards the beast. She readies her pole (or whatever it is) to attack the robot with all of her might. The monster though, seems to be prepared.
     It swings one of its claws at her, causing her to bounce back onto the floor. She quickly gets up and groans a little, but not before the monster strikes at her once more.
     Lonnie though, is aware about what's happening and quickly grabs the claw, biding Adora some time to get away. The claw tries to blast Lonnie with its canon that rests on its shoulder, but Catra quickly jumps up there and scratches it off.
       Lonnie is shocked to even see what's happening, and so are the others. Kyle and Rogelio are just watching all of this, probably just taking notes in their heads and cheering them on. 
      "Wow! It looks like you're actually doing something," Lonnie grunts out as she finally let's go if the claw, letting it sink into the ground.
       "It's not like a thank you wouldn't hurt," Catra sarcastically says out to her as she rolls her eyes.
      The claw has another blaster in its claw though, and it quickly lifts it up to hit Lonnie and Adora. They both keep dodging its attacks, but the floor pieces are becoming more limited.
      Adora finally grunts our in stress and rage before charging the robot once more. She quickly lifts her poodle out and takes stabs the laser with the point of it, causing it to explode. Catra razor sharp claws the same side of the robot that had the laser, and its arm falls off and smashes against the ground.
       Adora charges towards the robot one last time, and it uses its other arm tries to attack her. She quickly dodged it though, and jumps towards the monster with her hands tightly clutching the pole.
     She stabs the monster in the head and drills it in even deeper. The monster groans in defeat before falling to its death. Its cries of pain strikes Adora in the heart though, but she quickly hides it before anyone else notices it.
      The rest of the day goes by in a sinch. Shadow Weever talks to Adora again, only to discover that she doesn't have the sword or knows anything about the Whispering Woods. The spot where Glimmer was seems to not have anyone there anymore, which is one disappointing factor to Adora.
      Everyone else seems to gain a bit of trust to Adora, besides Catra and Lonnie's occasional glare. She actually misses those days when she hung out with them, and a part of her actually wants to stay now, but should she?
      "I can't stay," Adora tells herself in vain. "I have to save the others no matter what it takes,"
       Nighttime falls and she's about to go to bed before encountering Lonnie on her way to her quarters. She seems silent though, which makes Adora sadly look away from her.
      "Lonnie," Adora says in guilt to her. "I need to tell you something,"
     "What is it?" Lonnie says with a distasteful voice. "Haven't you already done enough?"
     Adora goes silent and so does Lonnie. They both just stare at each other for a few seconds. A cold gust of wind gently flows by, and Adora nearly shivers right in front of Lonnie. Lonnie doesn't even notice the gust of wind though.
     "I'm sorry," Adora says to Lonnie. "About what happened. I didn't mean to hurt any of you at all. I never once though of how you would have felt all of this time. I knew you would feel betrayed, but I didn't do anything about it. I'm sorry,"
      Lonnie stays silent, and her head slightly turns towards Adora.her left eye raises itself by a tiny bit, but not enough for Adora to notice. She heads off without saying a word, leaving Adora alone.
       Adora quickly heads to bed and Catra already is sleeping against the bottom of her bed. Adora climbs in bed with her and falls asleep, ready for the day ahead of her.