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Chapter Text

It had been lights-out for hours when Catra finally gave up on sleeping. She shook Adora until she groaned and smacked Catra's nose, then leaned in close and whispered, "C'mon, sleepyhead, wake up already! We had a plan, remember?" Might as well get going if she was just going to be sitting here for another hour otherwise.

To their right, Lonnie sniffled and shifted in her bed, and Catra froze. If she woke up, she'd either rat them out to Shadow Weaver or insist on coming along, and that was pretty much the worst case scenario. Lonnie was such a killjoy. Catra shook Adora again, crawling on top of her so she could perch and shake at the same time. "Come on, wake up," she hissed. "Don't tell me you're too tired."

"Mmmph," Adora mumbled. She turned her face to bury it in her pillow. "Is this about that sword thing? I thought we agreed that was just a dream."

"It's not like I fell asleep in the middle of the forest, Adora!" Catra kept her voice down to a hiss. "I saw something out there. Maybe it was rebel tech, maybe it was just a shiny rock, but I won't rest until we find out which it is. This could be huge!"

Adora blinked fuzzily up at her, and Catra booped her on the nose. Revenge. "You're sure?" her best friend asked, and Catra narrowed her eyes.

"I'm always sure. I've got heightened senses compared to you, don't I? I probably just noticed more than you did." For example, her ears were noticing that the patrolling guards were heading toward the dormitories. If they weren't gone by the time the guards got to them, they might as well give up now.

"Uuuugh." But Adora dragged herself out of bed anyway, tucking her covers back in over her pillow and tying her hair back from her face. She wiped her eyes and got up to pull on her uniform. "Where did you see this sword again? I don't know if I can get the skiff keys again..."

Catra dangled the keys in her face. "Not a problem, Force Captain," she said, pushing down the sharp spike of envy she felt at those words. "I never actually returned them."

"Catra!" Ha, she was scandalized. "Someone's going to notice they're gone!"

"It's not like they would've been there tonight anyway, if we're sneaking out again." Catra gave up on patience and grabbed Adora's hand to pull her out of the dormitory. "We can't stick around here dithering all night. Come on, let's go, okay?" 

They snuck past right before the guards on rotation rounded the corner and made their escape.

Or at least Catra made their escape. Adora didn't seem to wake up fully until they were already skimming across the ground to the Whispering Woods.

"We're here," Catra announced smugly. She hopped off the skiff and waited for Adora to stumble after her and collect herself. They were at the edge of the Whispering Woods, where every Horde incursion before them had failed. This was gonna be more dangerous than any training sim.

The Whispering Woods, in daylight, had been glimmering and eerie, a sharp contrast to the jagged lines and dark skies of the Fright Zone. They were organic in the worst way, like a guarantee of chaotic growth and danger-- a living monument to all the princesses' magical insurgence. In Catra's opinion, nothing trustworthy ever sparkled. Anything that drew that much attention to itself was like one of those poison frogs, brightly colored as a warning. Glitter? Was a bad freaking sign.

She would have chosen glittering Woods over shadowy, pitch-black woods any day, though. At night, the barrier between the Horde and victory over Bright Moon was thick enough to block most of the moonlight shining down from above them and filled with inky shadows. Rustling and dim shrieking came from within its depths. Even with her night vision, Catra wasn't sure she wanted to risk going in there.

But who knew when they'd get another chance to investigate whatever this was? Maybe the Woods would rearrange again, take it from their reach-- and imagine how impressed Shadow Weaver would be if they found something, if Catra found something, how she'd have to say she was proud of her for once?

Adora pressed her lips together and took out her bolas, wrapping its weights around her arm like a reassurance. "Well?" she said, smiling at Catra in the way that meant everything's okay, I've got your back. "Lead the way."

Catra took a deep breath and stepped into the forest.

*

Unsurprisingly, the Whispering Woods weren't any easier to navigate after dark. Catra and Adora trekked through the forest, keeping close in case some monster sneaked up to snatch one of them away, and tried to move in a straight line. Adora kept making them stop so she could study the scant pieces of sky they could see through the treetops and try to navigate by stars. Catra climbed trees to try to see if she could see any shiny sword-like objects from a distance and wondered how an evil forest could ever be so boring.

The hours dragged on.

When they finally noticed that they'd passed the same rock three times in the space of an hour, Catra shrieked and clawed a long score down its side. "Careful!" Adora hissed. "You could attract something!"

Catra snapped, "Maybe I want to attract something! We've been here for hours, and all we've found is a bunch of stupid rocks!" A vicious frustration rose up in her as a long, feline growl. She pinned her ears back and crossed her arms, turned away so Adora couldn't see her face. You never showed weakness in the Horde. She didn't want to show any more weakness to Adora. "This was supposed to be my big break. I was supposed to find something cool! I did find something cool, I just--" Her breath hitched. "I just can't find it again. Ugh, this is so stupid! It'll be daylight before we find this thing." And then Shadow Weaver would find out that they'd snuck out without even having anything to show for it and they'd be punished--

Catra didn't want to think about it.

She heard Adora make a concerned noise behind her and stiffened up when she felt arms around her, pulling her in for a hug. Some part of her ached to melt into her friend and be comforted. She wriggled until she could face Adora and hugged her back, instead, because she wasn't a useless burden. She could hold her own. She was a ferocious warrior--

She was purring. Catra scrambled out of the hug and glared halfheartedly. "We don't have time to dilly-dally right now."

"We have the rest of the night until morning routine," Adora pointed out. "But you're right. We don't have time. Because we're going to find your sword tonight, and we're going to bring it back to the Horde, and you're going to make Force Captain right beside me." 

Catra stared. "But Shadow Weaver hates me. She's not gonna make me Force Captain if she won't even let our team go out with you." And we both know she'd promote Kyle to active combat before she'd promote me.

Adora gave her a determined expression-- rallying the troops, Catra called it-- and said, "She will if we bring back tech that can defeat the Bright Moon rebellion once and for all. She will if we bring back intel! We can do this, Catra! You can do this. We're going to prove to Shadow Weaver that you deserve promotion just as much as I do."

"I..." Catra's mouth worked. But-- Adora was right, wasn't she? Catra had had the same time on the simulation as she had. Catra had trained beside her in everything since they were old enough to hold their weapons. They worked best together. They looked out for each other! If Catra brought this sword in, let the Horde scientists find a use for it, she could prove she was just as capable as Adora was. She could save Adora just as often as Adora saved her, and she could-- she could--

Catra imagined going into battle with Adora at her side, taking down rebel soldiers left and right, working seamlessly with each other like they'd always trained to do. Catra would use her superior agility to run circles around enemy soldiers as Adora cut them down where they stood, as she provided cover. They would fight hard enough to steal victory from under the rebels' noses-- enough that the rebels would see them as Hordak's best warriors, as their own greatest threats.

And...

She imagined Adora being taken down by a snarling, holier-than-thou princess, struggling to get up as the enemy beared down on her, weapon too far away to be of any help. It would be an important battle, something where they'd been fighting for hours, enough to wear even Adora down, enough to make her tired, make her reflexes a moment slower. Make her weak, for one fateful moment.

She imagined jumping in and blocking the enemy's blow, clawing the enemy across the face and drawing blood as she drove her off, then looking back down at Adora with triumph in her eyes. And then she would help Adora up, make sure she was okay, battle falling away as they looked into each other's eyes. And Adora would smile at her, because she'd always known Catra could be the hero, that she wasn't just a sidekick... She would be relieved, and grateful, and proud, and she and Catra would win the battle together, looking out for each other like they always had...

"Catra? Are you okay?" Catra was jolted out of her fantasy by Adora's bewildered concern. Her face felt like molten iron. Had she just zoned out in the middle of a mission? That was so embarrassing. "You're getting kind of red."

"I'm fine," Catra said. She tucked her hair behind her ear and looked away, cheeks still hot. "Yeah, we should-- we should get going. We've still got more forest to search." At least all the shadows around them weren't moving tentacle-things like Shadow Weaver's were. Maybe if Catra focused enough on the darkness of the Woods, she could forget that she'd just been caught fantasizing about battle when she should have been paying attention.

"Right," Adora said, nodding like she was taking orders from a superior officer, and ugh, Catra's face was still hot, why. "You think we should--"

Catra's ears caught an approaching sound before she did, and she swiveled just as Adora cut off and stiffened, just as she pulled out a knife. She'd brought a knife? Well, of course she had, it wasn't like she had claws, but still. A knife? What was she gonna do, stab a giant immortal monster to death? Maybe she could whittle firewood at it. Could do a soap carving. Or, hey, maybe she could even carve out a battle plan on some wood and say dude, monster, you're not following the mission parameters, see, this acorn is you and you go here--

The giant crystal beetle burst out of the undergrowth with a rattling shriek, and the snarky thoughts drained from Catra's mind like water. It was twice the size of a battle robot, looking like it had thicker armor, and it glittered in the dim moonlight. Of course it did! Every terrible thing had to sparkle. It was a rule.

The beetle charged. Catra sprang into the air just before it hit her and twisted around, landing on its back and digging in frantically with her claws. It reared and tried to throw her off, and Adora took advantage of the monster's distraction to slash it across the eyes, splattering blue blood across her jacket.

The beetle shrieked and punted her across the clearing, and Catra saw red. "Adora!" She snarled and clawed at another one of the bug's eyes. It slammed against a tree, scraping her off like a parasite and making her scream. She scrambled up the bark before the next slam and sprang down to run to Adora. Her back felt like it had splinters buried in it a thousand deep, but if Adora was hurt-- worse than hurt, what if she was bleeding out, what if she never woke up-- "Are you okay? Please be okay, if you're brain damaged Shadow Weaver will definitely kill me!" And Catra wouldn't even blame her.

Her friend stumbled to her feet and glared, offended. Her nose was bleeding. "What? I'm not brain damaged!" The beetle heard and rounded on them, half-blind and screaming with rage, and Adora grabbed Catra's hand and pulled. "We have to run, come on!"

Back through the forest. They ran on each other's heels, beetle crashing through the trees behind them and trailing blood all the while. Catra's back screamed at her; she nearly tripped, but Adora pulled her inexorably along. The beetle was going to catch up; Catra could hear it catching up. They had to find a way out of this forest, they had to, this must have been what happened to all the other squadrons--

Something caught Catra's eyes. A glow like artificial lights, but whiter and brighter than any she'd seen, what was that? She yanked Adora to the left and prayed that it was the end of the Woods, that it was their skiff, that it was something--

They burst into the clearing and froze. There was a sword sticking out of the ground at the other side of the clearing, just like Catra had seen it, and it was glowing incandescent like a flame, bathing the trees around in it in a soft glow. "What is that?" Adora breathed. Catra couldn't begin to answer. 

The sword was actually there. She'd been right.

The beetle shot into the clearing after them, neatly breaking their reverie, and Adora cursed and lunged for the sword. "Cover me, I'll get it!" Right. Catra climbed halfway up a tree, threw herself off it to land on the beetle's face. Go for the rest of the eyes and maybe it would be blinded for real, finally, maybe it would flee. She had to hope, right?

(The sword was real--)

She dug her hands into one of the bigger eyes and yanked out soft flesh, clawed deeper and snarled, "Die already!" The beetle tried to slam her against another tree, but Catra knew its tricks now; she leaped just as it moved to the side and landed on its other side, scrabbled for a hold--

The beetle turned on a hair and bucked her off. "Aagh!" The impact with the ground knocked Catra's breath away. She gasped, trying to get up, and the beetle rounded on her with a menacing shriek.

In the corner of her eye, she saw Adora pull the sword out of the ground and brandish it like a knight. "Leave her alone, you stupid bug!" She charged and sliced off a part of the beetle's mandible, face set fierce like she planned to cut it to pieces, and Catra wondered how it was that she was still breathless. Adora fought like a wild thing when she was cornered. 

Catra tried to get up and screeched in pain; her back felt like one long gash.

"Catra!" Adora called, eyes jerking up in fear, and the beetle took advantage of her distraction to knock the sword out of her hands. Adora hissed another curse and yelled, "The sword, get the sword!" 

Adora wouldn't last much longer like that. Catra went down on all fours and lunged at the glowing weapon, wrapped her hands around its hilt--

The world disappeared in a burst of light.

Chapter Text

“Catra...”

Where was she? There were so many colors, and that same soft glow was all around her like light through water, was everywhere...

“Catra...”

"Who are you?" Catra demanded, coming to her senses and springing to her feet. Glowing geometric shapes floated around her, like she was in a half-formed simulation, and everything smelled wrong-- too empty, too clean, like nothing had ever set foot in this space before her. The woman in front of her didn't have a scent, either. That was just weird. Even Shadow Weaver had a scent, even if the scent was, like, dark places and evil. "What the-- how did you bring me here? Where's Adora?" They'd been fighting a beetle monster when Catra had grabbed the sword-- hadn't Adora needed her help? What was she doing now, if Catra was here? Was she even really here?

If the Rebellion had found a way to put Horde soldiers in simulations while they killed all their friends, Catra was going to scream.

The woman regarded her with passionless eyes, like Catra wasn't even important enough to waste emotion on. "My name is Light Hope. I've been trying to contact you, but I wasn't able to speak with you until you forged your connection with this sword." What? Who the heck was named Light Hope? 

It sounded like a princess name. Catra's hackles rose.

"Forged my connection?" Catra demanded. She unsheathed her claws and stalked forward, but the woman didn't even flinch. "What's that supposed to mean? What did you do to me? Whatever you did, you'd better put me back right now before I make you!"

"I didn't do anything to you," Light Hope said placidly. "The sword is meant for you." A hologram of the sword appeared in front of her, and Catra swiped at it. Her hand passed right through. "Etheria has need of you. Will you answer its call? Will you fight for the honor of Grayskull?" The honor of who? 

Catra growled. "Look, lady, I don't know who Grayskull is, and also? I definitely don't care. Just let me get back to my friend and we'll be good, okay?" She didn't know what she'd do if Light Hope didn't let her go. Attack her? Run away and try to find a way out of this place? She didn't even know where she was.

Light Hope bowed her head. "Very well," she said, and the strange plane dissolved to nothing around them before Catra could say another word.

Catra jerked awake to a scraping pain in her side and yowled, trying to break the grip on her arms. What was going on, had she been captured, where was Adora?

"Catra!" Adora shushed her and pulled her to her feet, looking her over for injuries, and Catra relaxed. “You’re awake! What happened? Wait, don’t answer, we have to move.” Adora’s golden hair was mussed and falling out of her ponytail, and she was covered in leaves and flecks of blue blood. The sword was slung onto her back.

She looked like Catra had always imagined they'd look when they finally got out of the Fright Zone to see the world: resilient, brave, and a model soldier besides. She smelled like adrenaline and Catra's blood.

Catra glanced back at where they’d come from and saw a trail of broken twigs and scattered leaf litter. “You dragged me?”

Adora flushed. “I couldn’t fight the bug off by myself. And you were passed out, it’s not like I was going to leave you there.” She looked back with a worried pinch to her lips and said, “We have to go. I managed to get us away, but it might still come after us, and... are you in a good enough condition to fight? What happened, Catra?”

Catra matched her pace as she trudged through the forest, following Adora’s wordless indication that she should keep her ears pricked for signs of attackers. It was the least she could do, after fainting in the middle of a battle, geez. Talk about being a burden. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I just... I touched the sword, and I was somewhere else? And there was someone calling my name.” And talking to her, and making cryptic comments about some dude named Grayskull, but Catra thought she'd keep that to herself. The last thing she needed was for Adora to decide that she'd finally lost her mind.

Adora’s head jerked up. “It knew your name?” Catra nodded. “That’s not a good sign,” Adora said decisively. “That sounds like princess stuff— the Horde never has to deal with weapons that think for themselves.”

“Except for us,” Catra quipped, because, well, it was true. Adora rolled her eyes but didn't contradict her. Ha. “Can I see the sword? Maybe since it talked to me I can use it.”

“Are you sure?” Adora frowned, but pulled the sword from her back and passed it over to Catra regardless. "It could be dangerous."

"It's a sword, it's pointy, of course it's dangerous." Catra looked down at the sword. The gleaming gemstone in its center winked at her, and she stared, eyes widening. Adora tensed up beside her.

Nothing happened.

After a moment, she slung it over her own back and grinned. “Mission accomplished.”

“Except we still don’t know how to get back,” Adora pointed out. The beginnings of sunrise were starting to filter to the ground, lightening the shadows from black to gray. Catra wondered how long she’d been out. "Shadow Weaver has to have noticed we're gone by now."

“I can climb a tree to look for a way out,” Catra said, more confidently than she felt. “Here, lemme check.” She bounded up to the nearest tree and clawed her way up its surface until she reached the canopy, then scanned the treetops for an end to the forest.

The sun was just peeking over the edges of the leaves, bathing the skies pinkish-orange; but there was a brighter, closer light above the forest, haloing the trees around it in a soft, familiar glow. Catra felt her pupils dilate in obsessive interest. All thoughts of finding an exit left her mind.

The sword was one thing, but whatever that was? She wanted it. And they would already be in trouble, so better hung for a sheep than a lamb, right?

Catra almost fell out of the branches in her hurry to get to the ground. “Adora!” She sprang forward and tackled her friend to the ground.

Adora glared up at her. “What?” She looked like-- Catra snickered-- like she'd been blindsided by a battle bot. God, tackling Adora would never stop being hilarious. The faces she made!

Catra grabbed her shoulders, put her face in close so Adora couldn’t ignore her. “Guess what I found,” she said. “What I just saw!”

“A way out of the Woods?” Adora asked hopefully. Catra shook her head and grinned.

“Nope! Even better!” She stood up and resisted the urge to scamper around the clearing to burn off her excitement, wincing a little at the scrapes up and down her back. Whatever, they didn’t matter. Shadow Weaver totally wouldn’t deny her a trip to medical after this find. “There’s something else glowing just like the sword did,” she told Adora. “Something big! We might as well go check that out too while we’re here, right?”

“That sounds like a terrible idea,” Adora said, nonplussed, but she was straightening up and putting on her game face anyway. “You think it’s something the Horde could use?”

“Heck yeah,” Catra said. "Can you imagine the looks on the rebels' faces if we pull out magitech in the middle of a battle?"

That was all it took to make Adora to agree.

*

They had to climb down the side of a gorge just to reach the place: a triangular door, obviously manmade, with a series of geometric symbols and lines adorning it. "Welp," Adora said, looking at it. "We found it. Now what?" She walked up and kicked the door, to no avail. Brute Force: The Adora Way.

Catra poked around the edges of the door for any openings and came back empty-handed. That was subterfuge down, then. What was left? "No idea. Maybe we just..." She trailed off, squinting at the door. If she looked at them in the right light, all those lines and circles had a pattern to them. Like another kind of alphabet... "Use the password?"

Adora looked at her blankly. "What password? I don't see any password." Catra groaned and motioned at the door.

"Come on, Adora, I know you can read. It says--" Catra took a moment to sound out the syllables. "Eternia?" What a load of nonsense.

The lines on the door started glowing, and they both jerked back just as it rose into the air. A load of nonsense that worked. "Whoa," Adora breathed, voicing Catra's thoughts perfectly. "It's a whole building."

"What did I say? Rebel tech, and ours for the taking." Catra frowned at the door and glanced over at one of the big rocks to the side of it. "You wanna prop it open with something? For all we know, the password only works once."

"Good idea." Adora levered the rock out of its position, and they alternately dragged and rolled it until it was just under the door. "There! That should leave enough room for us to squeeze out if it won't open again."

Not enough room for homicidal giant bugs to get in, though. Catra approved. "Let's go," she said with a grin. "We've got a building to explore." 

The door opened to the entrance of a long, dark hallway, and they walked as quietly as they could, leaving tracks in the caked-on dust. If someone tried to track them here, they wouldn't have a very hard time of it. "Looks like no one's been here for a while," Adora observed. 

"Or they've been hiding their tracks really well." Catra nudged Adora out of the way of a boulder and looked up at the ceiling. "Hey, what kind of echo do you think I can get in here?"

Adora looked annoyed, which was exactly the result Catra had been looking for. Success. "The kind of echo that brings giant monsters down on our heads, probably. I don't really feel like tempting fate even more today." Tempting fate? Which one of them had it been who'd stolen the skiff in the first place? Hint: her name started with an A.

Catra gave an overblown sigh. "Always the spoilsport." The hallway widened into another room, and Catra's eyes widened just as Adora made a wondering sound. Whoa. That was-- that was one big mural. The Fright Zone didn't have anything like that. Catra wondered how much time these people had wasted decorating a wall when they could have been training or working on weapons instead. Talk about messed-up priorities.

"Is that a princess?" Adora asked. "It-- it looks like a princess. Maybe this place isn't as abandoned as we thought." She looked around the room like she was scanning for threats. 

"I dunno, princesses have been around for a while, right? Maybe it's just some dead one. This one could've been dead for thousands of years." Catra moved forward to have a closer look. The mural showed a woman all in white, with a winged crown and a sword in her hands. 

A very familiar sword, Catra might add. She pulled her sword off her back and compared the two. "They look exactly the same," Adora pointed out. Yes, thank you, Catra had noticed that. "You think it used to belong to her?"

Catra shrugged, then said uncertainly, "It says something. Maybe it's her name?"

"What does it say?" 

"She-Ra," Catra sounded out-- well that didn't sound like anything--and a woman appeared out of nowhere in front of her. Catra yelped and jumped back into Adora, nearly sending them both into the ground. Adora glared at her a little, and Catra stuck out her tongue. Like she would've done any better. 

"Administrator detected," the hologram said. "What is your query?" So it was like a weird bot thing?

"What is that," Adora whispered. She inched around Catra and moved closer. "What are you?"

"What is your query?" 

"Um," Catra tried, "What's this sword do?" She held it out for inspection. The hologram didn't move. 

"What is your query?"

Catra turned back to Adora and put the sword back onto her back, then crossed her arms. "Okay, it's broken." Just their luck, huh. Her ears wilted.

Adora frowned, then patted Catra's shoulder. "Well, it was worth a try, anyway. Do you want to keep exploring? We might still be able to find something."

"Sure, I guess," Catra said halfheartedly, but before she could say any more, her ears picked up the sound of distant voices. "Wait-- we should hide."

"What?" Ugh, don't question her now-- Catra grabbed Adora's hand and yanked her behind one of the big rock formations, out of sight of the doorway. Adora took the hint and went quiet. 

The voices got louder, and Catra started to be able to make out what they were saying. 

"-- a First Ones ruin! Bow, this is huge-- did anyone even know this was here? Did you know?"

"Why would I have known? I'm the one who brought you out here," a male voice said, sounding somewhere between friendly and baffled. Bow? Who named their kid Bow? 

"You're the one who said you'd basically grown up in these woods," the girl's voice retorted, and Adora stiffened, casting Catra a meaningful glance. Right. Anyone who had grown up in the Whispering Woods was almost certainly a rebel. This had just gone from a recon mission to keeping an advantage from the enemy. 

Didn't that make things a lot more interesting.

"My mom's gonna be so impressed!" the girl continued. "Imagine what the Rebellion could do with First Ones tech, if we found any of it working--" The girl cut off. "Hey, who's that up ahead? It looks like a hologram!"

"What? Where?" Footsteps clattered closer. Adora met Catra's eyes and raised three fingers. Three, two--

One. Adora came out of hiding, knife drawn, and Catra ranged around the side to cut off the exit. The two rebels froze, staring between them like they couldn't believe their eyes.

Catra unsheathed her claws and leaned against the doorway like she owned the place. If she got in close enough the archer wouldn't be able to get enough range, and the girl didn't look like she had any weapons at all. Was this the best the Rebellion had to offer? Puh-lease. "Hey, guys," she drawled. "Wanna tell us what you're doing in our ruin?"