*Art is not mine*
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After gathering all the princesses in the war room, Adora introduced Scorpia to everyone. The other princesses were skeptical as to why there was yet another Horde member in the castle, but showed their upmost respect and kindness towards her. Which the hybrid appreciated greatly.
When Entrpta came into the room, however, it took everyone a moment to realize that she was actually there and they weren't seeing a ghost, they all ran over to wrap the engineer in a big group hug. Many tears were shed during the sweet moment as Entrapta explained what she had been doing in the Fright Zone while they were reminiscing her "death".
Adora was happy that the Rebellion was back together and all, but her mind kept drifting off to Catra and what she could possibly be going through as the minutes went by. She eagerly wanted to devise a plan together and put it in to action so that Catra can get away from that place, but she wanted everyone to have a moment with Entrapta. After all, they had spent many months thinking that the purple haired girl was dead.
The moment everyone was done catching up with the engineer, Adora immediately shared her plan to rescue Catra. It did take a bit of convincing though since they still didn't trust the brunette completely, which was to be expected from them as a reaction to being involved to save her. But they eventually came around and agreed to help Adora out.
Entrapta volunteered to go ahead and scout out where Hordak was keeping Catra, still affected by the fact that Hordak would do such a thing to the feline.
Scorpia refused to stay behind and insisted she came to help rescue Catra, Adora eventually agreed and came to the conclusion that Scorpia could help lead them to Catra. Especially since its been a while that Adora has actually set foot in the Fright Zone.
With everything set in place, they prepared themselves to save the magicat tomorrow. This was all too sudden to be acting out after just seeing the video, so they all decided to act on the plan later tomorrow.
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Later that night, after all the other princesses went back to there respective kingdoms and with the exception of Scorpia and Entrapta staying in Brightmoon, Adora couldn't sleep.
It was almost like a repeat from when she first slept in the castle, although Catra had only been in the castle for a few weeks, the blonde teen had immediately gotten used to having the feline sleeping in the same bed as her.
So here she was.
Laying in her cold, empty bed, staring up at the ceiling, while thoughts about Catra clouded her mind.
What could Hordak be doing to her right now? Was Catra okay in this moment in time? What was that on the tracker pad they had watched earlier?
She had so many running around in her head that she abruptly sat up and groaned out loud, she needed as much rest as she could get so she could properly focus on saving the brunette, but all this worrying wasn't doing her any good. Could you blame her though?
Swinging her legs to the side of the bed, Adora stood up and shivered as her bare feet met the cold, shiny floor of her bedroom.
Taking the blanket sheet with her, Adora walked out to her open balcony and looked out towards the whispering woods. A soft sigh escaped her lips as she shook her head.
I should have listened to my gut and went with her, at the very least she could have brought some back up with her just in case something like this happens.
Adora was the type of person to put others first and then herself, and because of this, sleep never came her that night.
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"....Adora... Adora? Adoooraaaa..... ADORA!"
"GAH!"
The blonde teen shot up abruptly in her bed, one hand balled up in a tight fist while the other held a small dagger. Her tired, bloodshot eyes scanned her room frantically before they landed on Glimmer.
The princess had an expression that held a mixture of surprise and slight fear as she stared at the blade that came uncomfortably close to stabbing her in the eye.
"Okay, the second we get back, I am confiscating this from you and you will not stop me." Glimmer said with a nervous laugh, carefully pressing her finger to the tip of the sharp blade and lowering it on to the mattress.
Adora tiredly rubbed her eyes and put the dagger back under her pillow, Glimmer, who quickly shook away her shock, examined Adora for a moment and sighed softly as she shook her head.
"Couldn't sleep?"
Adora, already knowing it was pointless to deny it, simply nodded in response as she yawned.
"Scorpia couldn't either, woke me and Bow up six times last night." Glimmer said as she sat beside the hero, a hand found its way to the middle of her back as the shorter of the two rubbed her hand in a relaxing, circular motion.
"I tried to sleep but... I was too worried about what Hordak could possibly be doing to Catra and what he is possibly planning to do." Adora admitted, resting her head on the future queen's shoulder, her eyes becoming heavier as the minutes went by.
Glimmer silently nodded her head in understanding, both were quiet for a little while until the sparkle throwing princess spoke once more, "Its still pretty early in the morning right now, you and Scorpia could use an hour or two of sleep. I'll come back later, okay?"
Adora yawned again and nodded her head, mumbling something incoherent before finally dozing off into a somewhat peaceful slumber.
Glimmer carefully tucked her back in to bed and sighed once more before quietly saying, "We're going to get her back, Adora. Don't worry."
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Later that day, both Adora and Scorpia held felt much more refreshed after getting a few more hours of some proper rest.
But although it had only been approximately thirty-two hours since Catra was captured, things quickly had gone to shit.
The Rebellion was about to disperse to save Catra until they spotted the huge clouds of smoke coming from the small villages just a few miles away from the border of the Whispering Woods, and another large cloud coming from the directing of where the Fright Zone was located.
So the problem here was, not only did they have to split up, but because they had zero clue of Hordak's intentions, they were now vulnerable with the little numbers they had.
Adora took Bow, Perfuma, and Scorpia, who was accompanied by Emily to the oncoming battle, and Glimmer took the others to see what was going on down by the villages. The sparkle throwing princess also confirming that they would meet up with Adora's group as soon as they had everything in control by the villages.
Although it took a while to get there on foot, they eventually made it to the Fright Zone. But something didn't seem right.
Didn't feel right.
Hell, didn't sound right.
The closer they got to entering the Fright Zone, the louder the horror filled screams and cries grew. The sound of a few buildings collapsing, the hurried and frightened orders to restrain something and kill it.
Bow, whose facial expression held a mixture of fear and confusion, looked over at Adora, "What is happening?"
Adora shook her head and sucked in a shaky breath, "No clue, stay sharp and keep a vigilant eye at all times."
The closer the small group got to the action, the more they could see how chaotic the Fright Zone was at the moment.
While the others were in shock by what they were seeing, something caught Perfuma's attention and her eyes widened in horror, repeatedly tapping Adora until the blonde finally got annoyed and peered over Perfuma's shoulder.
Swiftly running around the Fright Zone on all fours, brutally killing soldiers left and right, and looking oddly familiar, a large feline like creature was terrorizing the Horde soldiers.
The group couldn't see the creatures face, let alone get a moment or two to analyze the creature because of how fast its movements were. By the time the swarm of soldiers finally stopped mindlessly running towards the clearly deadly creature, said beast finally stopped moving for a few moments as it stood in the middle of the stomach twisting scene.
Adora shook her head and quietly signaled for everyone to silently leave the scene as quickly as possible. But on a last minute whim, she decided to turn in to She-Ra in case the beast attacked. The light from her transformation did catch the large creatures attention and at the sight of the bright light.
Slowly stalking towards the small group with fangs bared, fur bristled, and claws extended and ready to easily slice open what it latched onto. The trio glared at She-ra as she sheepishly muttered and apologetic oops.
Looking back at the slowly approaching creature, She-Ra's bright blue eyes shrunk to pinpricks. The creature had similar markings on the arms and back like Catra, the color and hair on the creature was the exact same as well, but what really confirmed her suspicion was the same trademark mask that Catra always wore until she finally gave it away. The mask that was currently covering the creatures eyes.
That creature, that slowly approaching, blood drenched, intimidating and horrifying beast that could pounce at any minute was Catra.
Letting the fact sink in, she finally noticed the orange colored stone in her side, it looked much smaller when she was in this form. This mission definitely went left real quick.
"Don't hurt her, just tire her out so we can knock her out and then we'll come up with a new plan when the others get here!" She-Ra ordered.
When everyone charged however, Catra made no attempt to harm them, if anything, she just dodged each and every attack that came her her way. It was only then did she realize she was Catra's target when she was started charging at She-Ra full speed, a heart stopping growl emitting from her gut sounded around them.
"Adora RUN!" Bow shouted, aiming an arrow at Catra to slow her down and give the hero enough time to sprint away, because quite literally, her life depended on it. Bow's arrow exploded and a net jumped out, enclosing around Catra and trapping her in place for just a moment. But it wasn't enough to hold her.
She-ra had found sometime to take coverage behind the one of many toppled over equipment crates in one of the completely destroyed buildings that was most likely caused by Catra. She-Ra took this time to finally allow herself to breathe and collect her thoughts.
"What in the actual hell just happened? And most importantly, what happened to Catra and why was she not just attacking, but killing the other soldiers?" She thought. There were so many questions that needed answering.
She-Ra didn't have much time to reflect and answer her own questions as she slapped a hand over her mouth and slowed her breathing. Low snarls and claws meeting metal could be heard too close her comfort. Carefully peaking over her hiding spot, She-Ra took another long glance at the beast, crimson liquid, that belong to the now deceased soldiers that were brutally killed, was dripping from her muzzle, her paws were equally bloody and left a trail of blody paw prints behind her.
This wasn't Catra, hell, she didn't even know if Catra was still there. She-Ra shook her head and hid back in her hiding spot as she strained her ears to hear where Catra was, she just wanted to find the solution quickly and get her best friend back, this creature that was hunting her was not the Catra she knew.
This was almost like a game of 'Cat and Mouse' right now, She-Ra silently prayed that her friends would hurry up and find a smart and harmless way to capture Catra so they could figure out what was wrong with her. Although the answer was now somewhat clear to her.
Breaking out of her train of thought, she started to panic.
She couldn't hear Catra moving around anymore, or the low snarls that were coming from her either.
"Maybe she left?"
It was a slim but hopeful chance, one that She-Ra was admittedly mentally afraid to take, but she couldn't hide here forever.
Hesitantly peaking from her hiding spot once more, she didn't see Catra. Peaking over on the other side, she still didn't see Catra. Letting out a long sigh of relief, she closed her eyes and lowered her head for a moment before something told her to look up and bolt for the nearest and closest exit to her.
When she did look up, she let out a horrified scream and just in time before her head was nearly decapitated by large, bloody jaws.
Catra was silently just standing in front of her, only a few feet apart. Waiting for the right moment to pounce and make the kill.
A game of 'Cat and Mouse'.
This time She-Ra didn't have time to run, her friends were no where to be seen and she silently prayed that they hadn't been captured by any other Horde Soldiers.
All she could do was block Catra's violent attacks and pray for a miracle to happen. She didn't want to hurt Catra, she didn't want to when they were fighting each other months ago, now wasn't any different.
"Catra! Catra, stop please! It's me, Adora! Don't you see? Do still recognize me?!" She-Ra shouted, deflecting another blow with the flat, non-lethal side of her sword. She knew she couldn't keep this up forever and simply blocking and talking to Catra wasn't working nor tiring her out like she had originally planned.
Catra's blows were strong, quick, and swift. Each blow and strike she made sent She-Ra stumbling back a bit and nearly tripping over her own feet. When She-Ra made another move to block Catra's attack, the feline reared up on her hind legs and her large paws against the flat surface of her sword and pushed the tall hero on her back. Catra then took this opportunity to try and bite She-Ra's throat, hard enough to cut off her windpipe and snap her neck. Finally ending the war and the hero all together.
Or at least she would have been able to had She-Ra not throw her sword last minute and hold Catra's jaw open and away from her jugular.
"Catra, snap out of it! This is the old you that wanted me gone and out of the way, the you I know is nothing like this!" She-Ra tried once more, straining her arms to hold Catra back.
But by the grace of the gods, that miracle she wished for came.
A strong gust of wind hit Catra and sent her flying in the once neatly towered crates that toppled over her. The large feline wobbled a bit as she stood up and looked back at She-Ra again, snarling and baring her fangs once more as she pounced, but before the beast could even reach Adora, a large net trapped her mid-air.
While Catra violently thrashed about to free herself from the net, She-Ra looked back to see the entire alliance standing behind her, with the acceptance of Bow and Sea Hawk. Netossa had her arms and hands outstretched as she contained Catra in her net. The other that weren't with Adora all had the similar looks that Adora's group wore. Terrified and confused.
"That's Catra?" Glimmer asked in disbelief. Her jaw slacked and hung freely in the air.
"Believe it or not." She-Ra replied as she exhaled a shaky breath and laid there on the ground for a moment. Bow and Glimmer running over to check for injuries, which luckily for her, there wasn't any.
"We aren't bringing her to the castle like... well like that are we? What if she hurts the people in the castle?" Glimmer asked cautiously.
"No, no, I know Catra is still in there. I just need to find her and pull her out..." She-Ra said as she sat up with a grunt.
Now getting back on her feet, She-Ra tried to slowly approach the agitated and hostile beast before her, but the second Catra looked over at her, she was immediately back to swiping her extended, sharp claws at her and snapping her jaws.
"Catra..." She-Ra said softly, but kept her distance. If talking didn't work then she had no other clue on what to do to figure out that she still had the Catra she knew somewhere in there.
With a defeated sigh, She-Ra transformed into Adora back and all of a sudden, it was quiet.
With a confused expression, she looked back at Catra and raised a brow. She wasn't snarling or growling anymore, her fur wasn't bristled and her claws had taken shelter back in her paws. Catra almost looked harmless, if it wasn't for the drying blood on her snout and paws.
Adora looked back at all her friends, who each had and equally if not super confused expression on their own faces. Looking back at Catra, the now large feline was licking away the blood on both her snout and paws.
Running a palm over her face and resting it on her mouth for a moment before removing it and looking back at the group with wide eyes, "I have a crazy idea."
"Uhh how crazy are we talking here?" Mermista said with a quirked brow.
"Uhm, how crazy does letting Catra free from this net right now sound?" Adora replied as she nervously rubbed the back of her neck.
"UHHH super crazy! We are not letting that thing out!" Mermista answered as she looked at Adora as though she was crazy, in which this case she currently is , raising her voice and waving her arms around.
"I just need to try something! Plus if something bad does happen you guys are right here behind me." Adora said in a low tone.
She signaled for Netossa to release Catra and she braced herself as she tightly squeezed her eyes. But the expected blow never came. Opening her eyes slowly, she was met with Catra simply staring down at her. Cautiously, Adora raised her hands to take the mask off her eyes, but when Catra made no movement, she started to gain a bit more confidence with every slow reach towards the mask.
Placing her hands on either side of the mask, Adora removed it and looked back at Catra. She still had the same mismatched colored eyes that she was all too familiar with, along with the notch near the tip on her left ear.
What caught Adora off guard, however, was how incredibly dilated her pupils were. Recalling her conversation with Bow, she smiled to herself and put Catra's trademark mask down on the floor beside her foot and looked at the newly transformed beast before her. She wanted to reach out and touch Catra, but she held back and placed her hands by her side.
"Catra? You still there? Do you recognize me?" The blonde said slowly, waiting for some sort of sign or action to indicate that Catra was somewhere inside this Horde terrorizing beast. Adora nearly fell on her back in joyous laughter when the large feline nuzzled her furry head in to the side of her own.
"KITTY!!"
Two blurs sped past Adora and ran up to Catra, both Scorpia and Bow took a quick liking to the feline's soft fur and started to pet her. Catra seemed annoyed but let it happen anyways, just for the sake of Bow and Scorpia's excitement.
"Well, she definitely recognizes us that's for sure." Perfuma said.
"Aww man! I was super excited to come down here and punch a huge beast!" Frosta whined, crossing her arms over her chest in anger.
"Oooh!!! Emily start recording! I need to analyze Catra for a moment, this could make an incredible robot!" Entrapta piped up, already racing over to the feline and using her prehensile hair to open up Catra's now freshly cleaned jaws and examined her mouth for a moment, pulling out her recorder as she hurriedly spoke into it.
Adora blinked a few times and looked at the feline, who looked just about ready to burst and scare everyone off. So Adora saved her the trouble by whistling to get everybody's attention and made a hand motion for the trio to give Catra some space.
The transformed brunette seemed grateful as she shook her newly acquired pelt and looked at the blonde with the same dilated pupils. This time Adora didn't hold back as she ran up to the large feline and buried her face in her soft fur, gently grabbing fistfuls as she tightly hugged the beast.
"I was really worried about you." She mumbled in the thick mane.
Catra, who seemed to sense Adora's relief, placed a large paw on the middle of the blonde teens back and left it there until Adora finally pulled away.
"So... how are we gonna do with her once we get to brightmoon?" Glimmer asked, internally feeling bad about disrupting the tender moment, but did remember they were still in the Fright Zone.
"I can hide in my room until we can figure out how to get her to change back." Adora offered.
"We can think of a better plan on the way there." Glimmer said as she shook her head.
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The walk back to Brightmoon was long and tiring, but they eventually made it back by the time night had fell and stars were littered and scattered across the sky.
All the other princesses had parted off to head back to their respective kingdoms while Glimmer, Bow, Adora, Scorpia, Entrapta and Catra headed back to Brightmoon. They were near the border of the whispering woods when the large feline stopped walking, Glimmer and Scorpia, who were both walking beside her, looked up at her in slight worry.
"Catra? You okay?"
Adora, Entrapta, who of which was still riding on top of Emily, and Bow, who were all walking ahead just a yard or two away, stopped and looked back at Catra as well.
The feline glanced up at the large tree beside her and with a mighty leap, jumped incredibly onto a a thick tree branch near the top of the tree. Catra let her powerful hind legs hang loosely from the branch and crossed her forelegs in front of her and laid down.
Adora, Bow, Scorpia, Entrapta and Glimmer all glanced at each other before the short princess used her magic to teleport herself on the branch beside Catra.
"Hey, what's up? We have a secluded and safe room for you to stay in so that the soldiers won't freak out and make a mistake if they see you." Glimmer reassured the feline, but Catra simply turned her head away from her with a huff.
With a huff of her own, Glimmer teleported back to the small group and looked at Adora, "She won't come down, I don't know what's up with her."
Scorpia walked up to the tree and looked up at where Catra was, thankfully the bright, glowing bugs around them provided enough light to see where everyone was, "Wild Cat? What's the matter?"
Everyone herd a small bit of rustling from the leaves and then Catra landed gracefully on all fours on the grass. The feline lowered herself to sit on her haunches and lowered her ears as she sat in front of Scorpia.
With Catra being in this new form, she wasn't able to talk nor express her facial features as clearly as she would have when she was in her normal state, so Scorpia did her best to figure out what was bothering the feline.
"I got nothing." She said in defeat as she looked back at the group, simultaneously petting Catra's head.
Adora thought for a moment before and idea came to her and she whistled loudly.
A moment later, Swift Wind, literally, fell from the sky and landed right in front of Adora, which caused her and everyone else to jump back in surprise, including Catra.
"Hi Adora! It's late but you called me for a reason right? So what are we- ACK!"
Catra had pounced on the poor magical horse, that was completely oblivious to her presence, and was now face to face with the sharp fangs that was too close for comfort.
"Catra no! Get off of him!" Adora yelled, frantically trying her best to get the feline of him.
The large feline narrowed her eyes at Adora, but reluctantly got off the magical horse, who was now hyperventilating.
The blonde hero hurried to his side and held his head in her lap, "Swift, relax I promise she won't hurt you."
"No, she won't, she'll kill me instead! Who and what even is that?!" Swift Wind said as she glared at the large feline, who in return, glared daggers at him.
"That's Catra, remember?"
"... OH! You mean the person we were follow- mph?!" Adora quickly slapped a hand over the magical horses mouth and chuckled nervously as everyone gave her a confused look.
"Yep, Catra! Haha, anyways... are you able to communicate with other animals?" Adora asked.
Swift Wind actually took a moment to think before he replied, "Before it was only with other horses, now that I'm a magical flying horse, I'm not sure but I could try."
"Well then, could you try seeing what's up with Catra?" Adora asked as the horse shook his colorful mane and wings.
"You are so lucky its you, had it been anyone else I would have flown away." He said with an annoyed huff and trotted over to the large feline.
A serious of meows, nickers, neighs, meows, growls, and other various sounds filled the groups ears as they watched the rather odd interaction.
When they were done talking, they both huffed at each other and Swift Wind looked back at Adora with a slightly fearful look, "You guys used to eat horses in the Fright Zone...??"
Adora was taken aback, "What? You can eat horses? They only gave us old ration bars to eat."
"Oh by the First Ones that is a major relief to hear." Swift Wind said as he let out a breath to further prove his relief.
"Sooo.... what did she say?" Adora asked.
"Hm? Oh right! She said, 'I'm afraid I'll lose control of myself in this form, I don't know how to turn back and I don't to risk anyone's safety with me being in the castle, so I'll just sleep out here in this tree.'" Swift Wind quoted.
Adora looked over him and back at Catra, who now had her gazed lowered to the ground. The blonde teen walked over to her and ran the flat of her palm along Catra's head.
"I know this all new to you and I can't promise that you won't lose control... but I know that you're strong enough to overcome it and take back control if you do. I know you would never hurt anyone on purpose Catra." Adora's voice was soft and reassuring as the feline nuzzled into the soft touch.
"Do you want to come back to the castle now?" She then asked, but soon regretted it as Catra moved away from her and jumped back up in the tree. Adora groaned and placed her faced on both her palms.
"Maybe she'll, somehow, come inside later tonight, Adora. We need to get some rest." Glimmer said, placing her hand on Adora's shoulder to get her attention. The blonde teen, however, ignored the princess as she put her sword against the trunk of the tree and took a seat, leaning back again the trunk herself and getting comfy.
"I'll wait for her." The blonde hero said simply.
Bow, Glimmer, Scorpia, and Entrapta glanced at each other before leaving the duo. Adora's crossed her legs as she looked up at the starry sky through a small opening in the tangled and twisted together branches and leaves.
"Catra... I'm not going to leave you, I'll wait all night if I have to until you come down. We made that promise a long time ago remember? I wanna make sure I hold up my end of it." Adora called up in to the feline. Not long after that, Catra landed right in front of her, she backed up further against the the tree trunk in surprise but it soon washed over.
Catra stared at Adora for a long moment, her pupils yet again dilated. Then, almost hesitantly, the large feline made her way over and rested her head on Adora's lap.
The blue eyed teen let her lips form a bright smile, patting down Catra's fluffy mane of hair and then laying down. She stroked Catra's hair for a few moments until sleep finally took over.
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First off, sorry for the long wait, lol.
Secondly, 3 years went by so quick and the last season had me laughing, crying and screaming.
If you for some reason haven't already, make sure you give Noelle and the rest of the She-Ra crew a huge ass thanks for this incredible and totally worth it journey!
If any of y'all wanna talk about season 5 or questions about my story so far just hmu.
Also, bonus pic I found somewhere on tumblr. I love it.