Out of the Frying Pan

In the Shadows of Mystacor Part 3

"What do we do what do we do?" Bow is babbling, kneeling at Casta's shoulder as she clutches the ruin of her face.

They have to escape.

"It was like she was possessed!" Glimmer says, looking at the walls. "Are those shadow things still here?"

"We have to get out of here!" Adora shouts, grabbing at Catra. She tries to get Catra to her feet but it's like picking up mud, it's like Catra has finally given up. All Catra will do is scream and sob on the floor.

Then Glimmer's there as well, pulling Catra's other arm down over her shoulders. "Come on. Let's move her before something else happens."

And - and everyone gets out of their way. Like they didn't just see Catra tear into their head sorceress.

Or maybe like they did, she realizes as they reach the edge of Mystacor. Maybe no one here could stop them. In the end, they didn't have any magic that could protect them from Shadow Weaver. Casta couldn't defend herself against Catra's attack. The rest of them just stood there, helpless and useless.

She sets Catra down on the floating stone they rode up on. She's gone silent. As Adora watches, she digs her bloody fingers into the grass and dirt.

"What happened?" Glimmer says finally, as the stone drifts back down toward Etheria.

Catra shakes. "She wanted - Shadow Weaver wanted the Horde to take Mystacor." Then she claws gouges in the ground and howls, "It's not fair! She wants, she, they should have killed her why did they do this? What was I supposed to do?"

"It'll be okay," Bow says.

Fresh tears splatter onto the ground. "They didn't kill her. They sent her out and didn't even care where she went," Catra whispers. "But she wants Mystacor to fall."

"And you helped stop that," Glimmer says. "No matter what else happened, no matter what she made you do, you fought to save Mystacor."

Catra makes the most horrible choking laugh.

Adora wraps her arms around Catra. "It's not fair," she tells Catra. "They should have."

After a little while, Bow says, "I didn't want to ask, but... Was Shadow Weaver your mom, Catra?"

Catra actually laughs at this, long and hard. Then she bangs her head against Adora's shoulder. "No, She was Adora's."

"Oh," they say.

"She...she wasn't really," Adora says, and tries to sound like she hadn't wished she secretly was so many times, like she hadn't spent her whole life trying to be exactly what Shadow Weaver wanted. "She was in charge of us." And then she blurts out, "She taught me how to tie my boots," and finds herself blinking desperately from her suddenly wet eyes.

Catra says, "Adora taught the rest of us." She laughs again. "It's - it's so lucky for everybody that Adora was there, because she always learned stuff right the first time. If Shadow Weaver had to put up with teaching anybody else she'd have killed us all. Adora used to get up early to do Lonnie's shoes because she couldn't get the hang of it and Adora was the only one who could tie them well enough they'd last all day and Lonnie had been crying and crying over it..."

"I should've stood up for her." Adora could choke on the guilt of the memory now.

"You did!" Catra says. "It just didn't work. Shadow Weaver didn't listen to you. I was always so mad but what more could you have really done? You were the only one even trying! Why does it all have to be your fault? She joined the Horde, they let her do it, why should any of it be any of our fault?!"

It hurts to think of it like that.

Why does Adora have to be ashamed of growing up with Shadow Weaver when Shadow Weaver grew up on Mystacor? Even if she's every bit as terrible, if they hate who Catra and Adora are so much, then shouldn't they have done something to stop it from happening in the first place?

All the times Catra got hurt. All the times all of them got hurt. All the times they could've died. All because some other people had decided they'd send her off to do whatever she wanted.

Maybe that was a lie. Maybe they really couldn't have done anything to stop Shadow Weaver. But then they could've said that. Adora would understand not being able to stop Shadow Weaver. She wouldn't blame anyone for it.

But Casta had laughed about it. She'd thought it was funny that she didn't know where Shadow Weaver had went, didn't know what Shadow Weaver had done, that only children would be afraid.

Every day they'd been afraid.

Casta''d yelled at Catra for worrying about what they'd done. Even when Casta apologized, it wasn't really that she was sorry they were questioning Mystacor's defenses, as if what happened to everybody else in all of Etheria didn't matter. She'd talked like she was glad it'd happened because it made a fun story for her to tell.

Adora wonders why they really cast Shadow Weaver out, if they didn't care about her hurting people. Or maybe they only cared when it was people on Mystacor she hurt. Shadow Weaver said Adora was too ruthless for them to like but what's more ruthless than what they did?

She keeps her mouth shut and sticks tightly to Catra.

Because they're headed back to Bright Moon, and Glimmer's mom is a lot less trusting than Glimmer is.

"...and she's been okay since then but we don't know if it's really gone or just, ugh, biding its time or something," Glimmer finishes. "Or if she fought off the control but it's still spying, or anything else."

Adora's clutching the sword, waiting, but the queen just nods and seems to consider this seriously. "And this magic, it was done using a runestone?"

"She always used it," Adora says. "Always, for everything."

"Sorcerous magic is a complicated thing," the queen stays thoughtfully, "but power from a runestone is more easily discerned. Our own runestone will react to any other power, and perhaps it can will be able to remove traces that linger. Come with me."

Catra nods jerkily. When they reach the stone she takes a few breaths, untangles her fingers from Adora's, and slowly approaches the stone. She turns away, closes her eyes and flattens her ears as her hand reaches out, but there's no crackle as her fingertips brush the stone, no lightning climbing up her arm and no pain flashing over her face, and her face unscrunches slowly and she turns to look.

"It's gone, then," the queen says, and she sounds so - relieved? Adora glances at her and sees her wings are lower and out a bit, like the way they'd been before had been a matter of tension.

Catra pulls her hand away, then reaches out and touches it again. She's staring up at the stone. Suddenly she says, "Can you hurt these?"

"Uh," manages Glimmer.

"Our runestone is well-protected," the queen says.

"But can you hurt them?" Catra insists. "Would it be hurt if something happened, if you carved it up and gutted it, is it like, like how there's a woman in Adora's sword."

After a moment, the queen asks, "Do you mean, is the stone alive? Can it feel? No, no more than any machine does."

"Guess that other one was just always a nasty piece of work," Catra says, lowering her hand. "No wonder people didn't like them."