Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Somewhere in Europe, around 15 years ago

It was cold, as you would expect it in December. But to make it worse, the first snow of the year started to fall. It has been quite warm for a long time, even after the summer ended but this time was over at least for this year. Katrina sighed and tried to wrap herself even more in the blanket, but it was simply too small and too thin to actually spend warmth. She didn’t know how long she actually sat there, usually she could tell by looking at the sun’s position but in midwinter with this bad weather it was simply impossible. She looked up to the clock on the tower, which didn’t help either since she never learned how to read it. That was something that didn’t hold much value in her family. Katrina heard once, that on that round clock the small bar has to make it all the way around twice to make it a day. Judging from that, the day was soon over and she could go home. Her eyes got slowly but surely heavy, she didn’t have much sleep that night, the cold wasn’t really a helpful factor to stay awake. Katrina heard something metallic falling in the bowl in front of her, the man next to her growled something and she felt him bowing. Not even a second later she got hit by his elbow, startled her, but it was enough to open her eyes and mumble her catchphrase:

“Thank you, Danke schön, merci beaucoup, grazie mille!”

She couldn’t even make out who threw the coins. Her “partner” reached for the bowl, took out the coins to count them and put the money into his pocket. He turned his head, as if he was searching for something or someone, looked down at her and said:

“Let’s go, I think it’s enough for today”.

Finally, the day was over. Katrina stood up, or at least she tried. Since she sat for several hours in the cold, her limbs didn’t want to listen to her at first. After her legs gave in, her partner grabbed her arm and yanked her into the air only to let her fall down on her feet again. This time, she stayed upright. Grizzlor, her partner, let a grunt, turned around and started to walk towards the metro station. Katrina hurried to pick up her blanket and the rest of her belongings and tried not to lose him in the crowd. It was hard to actually lose sight of him, since he was taller than most of the people rushing over the wide plaza. In combination with his beard and his deep voice you could easily confuse him with a bear on two legs. Now that Katrina thought about it, she may have found a reason why he only wore a light jacket and seemed to be okay with these freezing temperatures. Thinking about that, she followed Grizzlor to next train heading “home”.

Katrina knew the meaning of the word “home”, but she couldn’t remember a place to come true to this meaning. She had no actual memories of her parents, didn’t know if she had siblings. Real ones, not the other children who traveled with her. Katrina rarely saw them during the day, since everyone had their own adult partner with their own route and places to be. In the night everyone was too tired to talk or play, Katrina had no idea what play or talk about anyways even if she had the strength to do it. She often thought about what was so different from other families when she sat in pedestrian zones and waited for some cash to fill her bowl. Judging the people coming and going, couples, families, sometimes groups of children her age, wondering what could’ve happened if she would’ve been born under different circumstances. Why was Katrina stuck with people who didn’t even like her?

Well, she knew the answer, or some parts of it. That mean woman, Octavia told her. Her parents were poor, like everyone in that part of the continent, and got into hot waters with the wrong people. Having a child, intended or not, was something only the families with land could afford. Her parents were not that wealthy. So, The Boss gave them a choice, Katrina or them. A choice was made. She couldn’t remember, Katrina was too young then.

After a 1-hour trip in the suburbs, Grizzlor and Katrina finally reached “home”. Katrina dozed off during the ride, which nearly caused her missing the station. Their home was an apartment in a tall, ugly building in the 17th floor. Climbing the stairs, Katrina thought the meanest words she knew towards the elevator, who felt like not working. Again. For 2 weeks.

Finally arriving, Grizzlor opened the door and was immediately greeted by the other adults in the apartment. Katrina could make out the voices of Octavia, someone she absolutely did not want to meet right now. Somehow, she managed to slip past her, hiding behind Grizzlor’s broad stature, heading straight towards to room where she slept. Even though the apartment had 6 Rooms, the children had to share one room together, which only had 3 bunkbeds and a wardrobe. At the moment, only 4 children lived in the apartment, Katrina, Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle. Even though they were all about the same age Katrina knew nearly nothing about the other 3 children, only that Kyle was last one to join the group. She didn’t know what to think of Kyle, he was a thin, pale boy with blonde hair, always a fearful look on his face. As if the next butterfly flying through the window would give him a jump scare. Rogelio on the other side was the exact opposite. Tall for his age, calm, rarely speaking (it took a while until Katrina heard him speak for first time, until then she just assumed he was mute). Last, but not least, Lonnie. Lonnie and Katrina joined the group at about the same time, but never clicked. Katrina didn’t know why, but also didn’t care enough to actually give it a second thought.

Since the others 3 weren’t home yet, Katrina used her time to get to the bathroom and wash up. The warm water from the faucet was pure bliss. After warming her cold hands in the sink, she finally looked up facing the mirror. The same face as always was looking back. Slightly darker skin than the others (maybe not Lonnie), brown wild hair, a decent number of freckles on her nose and under her eye bags, and … wait, eye bags? Katrina was pretty sure that she hasn’t reached that age yet where eye bags were normal, but in the other side, she didn’t get much sleep the last days. Her glance moved a bit up, to her eyes. Two eyes, two different colors. One blue, the other yellowish, she heard someone call it amber once. Everyone person she has met so far had shown a reaction after noticing that her eyes were different colors. Some were just taken aback, some were fascinated. Only children her age were scared of her. Katrina never understood why. They are eyes, like, everyone has them, no? She still remembered Grizzlor’s roaring laughter after she told him that, Octavia’s reaction on the other hand was more work oriented. She tried to teach Katrina something called “puppy eyes”, which Katrina refused to do on spot, alone for the name. Why was everyone so obsessed with puppies? Katrina didn’t even like dogs.

Katrina let out a sigh and left the bathroom, just to walk right into Octavia. Just a look at Octavia’s face was enough for Katrina to realize that something was wrong and she was going to pay for it.

“Ha”, she thought “pay with what?”

“Finally, out, huh?”, Octavia began. “What do you think you are doing…” and so on.

Katrina noticed after nearly 1 years, that Octavia didn’t seem to know many words since every time Katrina got shouted at, it was about the same stuff. Every single time. Not enough money, she had to proof she was useful, Octavia never liked her anyways, yada yada. Katrina allowed her mind to drift away, back to the things she saw today. The snow, the people, the lights. She remembered the kitten she saw in a back alley. She smiled as she thought of that little furball but the smile was strong enough to escape her mind and show up on her face. Octavia noticed it and as Katrina came back from her thoughts and saw Octavia’s red face, she knew a storm was coming. The last time she couldn’t sit for 2 days. Even though Octavia raised her arm, Katrina knew she wouldn’t hit her. At least not in the face. Bruised faces don’t earn money. As Katrina prepared herself, she was literally saved by the bell, as someone was at the door. Octavia cursed and said “We are not done, you little shit!”, while opening the door.

Enter Rogelio and Lonnie, both obviously in a bad mood. Enter Kyle, who came nearly flying through the door. Even Octavia had a surprised look at her face as the last adult ,Cobalt, came through the door. Obviously furious, he turned to Octavia and told her to follow him into the kitchen, the same for Grizzlor. As the door closed with a loud bang, Katrina turned to Lonnie and Rogelio.

“What happened?”

“Kyle lost all the money from today!”

Katrina shook her head, knowing what to expect next. If one screwed up, everyone was done for. Kyle messing up is nothing new, but judging from the angry voice from the kitchen it was probably a lot of money. Kyle was already on the floor, crying his eyes out and judging from experience the other 3 will follow soon. Either that, or no food for the next days. Katrina just had 2 questions in her head.

“How did Kyle lose that money and why did someone give Kyle money at all?”, she asked Lonnie.

Lonnie rolled her eyes. “It was Kyle’s turn to ask at the hotdog stand for the change. When he came back, he had neither the coins nor the bills!”. Katrina smacked her hand into her face and let a groan. One of the last things to do on a day before going home was to bring the money to one of the food parlors and ask them to change the coins to bills. The simple reason for that was the sheer weight of the coins. Since the vendors were usually glad about someone bringing change, there never were problems. Sometimes the children even got some food for free.

Katrina turned to Kyle. “How did you do that? How could you possibly lose money?”.

He looked up, showing his red face and swollen eyes. “I didn’t want to, I got the money, put it in my jacket and when I wanted to hand it over, it was gone! There is a hole in my pocket!”

He put his head down again to continue his sobbing. Katrina didn’t really feel sorry for him, only to remember what consequences were waiting for her. The little bit of pity for Kyle vanished to make room for a hot feeling in her belly, the same she felt when Octavia was shouting at her. God, she hated Octavia.
The shouting in the kitchen stopped, which was good news and bad news at once. The bad news usually is, that there is no good news. Not here. Katrina tried to herself calm down and embrace whatever will come through that door.

No food for 2 days. Thank you, Kyle. God, Katrina hated everyone here.

The first foodless day was not as bad as Katrina expected it to be. If you are busy shivering all day, you get distracted from feeling hungry. Grizzlor and Katrina went to a different place than yesterday, but nothing really changed. It was cold, it even rained for a bit but luckily, they both found a dry place under an awning of a closed store. It was a lazy day, and thanks to bad weather there weren’t that many people passing them. From time-to-time Katrina dozed off, only to wake up again when her head tilted too much and she nearly fell sideways, even though she was already sitting. When she opened her eyes again, Grizzlor was nowhere to be seen which wasn’t unusual. The adults often vanished around noon without saying anything. Katrina looked around, only a handful of people hurrying over the market place. She turned her head, looked down at the bowl that stood in front of her as always, only to find it empty. But-. Katrina blinked, just to be sure. But right next to it, there was banknote. A small, red one. With a big line and a circle on it. A ten, as Katrina remembered.

“Should I…?”, she looked around, Grizzlor still not to be seen. “Should I take it?”, she asked herself.

With a quick movement, she grabbed the banknote and put it into her pocket. Not a second too late, suddenly Grizzlor appeared around the next corner, walking quite fast. Gesturing Katrina to stand up, grab her stuff and get moving. She didn’t ask but she could the nervous look on his face as they hurried towards the next subway station. She turned around once and saw two persons, probably men, wearing the same clothes (even hats), standing at the same spot where Katrina sat just 2 minutes ago.

When they reached the trains, Katrina dared to ask where they were going. “Home” was Grizzlor’s short answer. If an uninvolved observer watched Katrina’s face right in that moment, he may have seen a small smile. There was no way Katrina expected not one, but two good things happen to her today.

Since it was only in the early afternoon as they returned, Katrina still cursing the broken elevator, no one else was in the apartment. She went to her bed, sat down and started to think for a place to hide the money she found today. It wasn’t quite easy, the room she slept in didn’t have many hiding spots and since she had to share the room with Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio, she also had to be careful that no one saw her secret. She didn’t want to know what kind of punishment would wait for her if the adults found out she was keeping money. To be fair, Katrina didn’t steal it. Grizzlor always emptied the bowl, but since the bill wasn’t IN the bowl, there shouldn’t be a problem, right? Well, better safe than sorry.

Katrina looked around, still searching for a place to hide the 10€-Bill, setting her sight on the ugly walls which were painted in a color that probably was white once. Following the cracks in the paint up to the ceiling to the single light bulb that hang down from said ceiling, being the only source of light in this room. The room had 2 windows, but one was destroyed since before Katrina set her foot in this apartment for the first time, so there just were some cardboard boxes taped against it to keep the cold out. The other window was fine itself, but the blinds on the outside broke some time ago as someone yanked the strap to hard, causing it to snap and the blinds shutting down. You could argue that at least the floor was clean, with no toys laying around. The downside of this was, that nobody owned toys or something that actually could lay on the floor.

Katrina let out a sigh, climbed up to her bed and tried to sleep a bit, hopeful to ignore the rumbling in her stomach caused by the missing food. “Still one day to go”, she said to herself. She closed her eyes, only to open them 10 seconds later. Grizzlor turned on the tv, an old broken thing even by the standards of this apartment. It had no remote, one speaker was broken and sometimes the screen went off while the other speaker was blaring the sounds at the doubled volume. Moments like these let Katrina think about what actually was happening with money they earned. The children obviously never got anything, which made Katrina value her first “self-earned” money even higher. But the adults? She heard Cobalt talking about sending money to The Boss back home, but they probably don’t send everything, right? There was no other way Katrina could explain how the food appeared in the kitchen. She had her doubts about the adults stealing things, since both Cobalt and Grizzlor couldn’t be described as inconspicuous and Octavia simply being too loud. Octavia had fast hands though, she could make coins appear and disappear in her hands, faster than Katrina could follow her. Katrina didn’t believe in superpowers, but something was fishy about that, as if Octavia had more than just 2 hands.

Katrina could still hear the tv next room, apparently a news-show was on. She could only make out parts of it.

“The police ... missing for 30 years … held captive … four children … own daughter … … … doctor … Lower Austria … police … hint … anonymous. The police are looking for witnesses.”

Since she didn’t know a few of these words, she couldn’t figure out what the news actually were about. Letting out another sigh, Katrina sat up and scanned the room again. Judging from the fading light through the blinds evening was setting in, which means the others will return soon. Speaking of which, she still hadn’t found a hiding spot. In exact the same moment she heard a click at the door, followed by the creaking hinges. Katrina froze, cursing herself about drifting off so much. “Hiding spot, hiding spot, come on come on come on…” she murmured to herself as she went full-panic-mode. She heard someone’s steps walking towards her room’s door, panicked even more, bolted towards her boots, stuffed the bill in one of them and put the boots back on. The door opened, Lonnie standing in the frame.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing”, Katrina blurted out, maybe a bit too fast.

Lonnie’s brows furrowed, but she just said “Get off my bed”.

Kyle and Rogelio followed shortly after. Katrina was relieved that no one said anything. No news is good news today. Nobody lost anything, nobody gets punished. So far, so good. Since there was no dinner, everyone just went to bed. Even though Katrina’s work day was rather short today, she fell asleep quite fast.

When Katrina woke up, it was still dark. Her left foot was quite uncomfortable, then it hit her. She still wore her boots. She took them off slowly, trying to make as less noise as possible. Slowly she reached into her boot to grab the 10€-bill, took a short look at it and put it in her pillowcase. Sniffing, she picked up the smell from the adults’ dinner, noodles probably. The smell made her belly rumble again, making her to climb down and head towards the bathroom to get some water. She passed other rooms, suddenly hearing whispers coming from the tv room. Making no noise, she walked towards the door and pressed her ear against it.

“… got spotted today! I had to pick up the girl and run! I saw the police at the spot, when we got to the subway.” Katrina was surprised about the worry in Grizzlor’s voice

“How? Did they recognize you? Or do you think someone snitched?”, Octavia snarled.

“I don’t know, I don’t think Katrina told anyone. But we got a problem now. We weren’t followed today, but if they take a look at the CCTV records of the train stations, they will find us sooner or later!”

“That messes up everything. We are already behind in payments since that other idiot lost the money”, Cobalt threw in. “But we have no choice, we have to leave!”

“Yeah, the sooner the better”

Katrina heard a chair getting pushed back, which meant for her to hurry up and tip-toeing back to her bed. She didn’t get her water, but some food for thought. She tried to get the things she just heard in order. Leaving the city wasn’t new to her. Since she got to join this group, she had been to at least 8 different cities in 4 countries. Travelling through countries messed up her already bad situation even more. Katrina couldn’t read or write, only count up to 10 and since she crossed borders regularly, learning a language properly was close to impossible. She could say only basics in German, French, English and Italian. Her native language wasn’t helping either, since it was rarely used in this part of the continent and she could use it to speak with Lonnie, Kyle, Rogelio and the adults.

But Octavia being worried about Katrina telling someone about her situation was interesting. Katrina saw enough people in the pedestrian zones she sat in to know that the life she is living isn’t a normal one. Additional to that she had suspicions that the people in the identical clothes today were police officers. Katrina herself wasn’t aware of doing something forbidden since she just sat around and was waiting for people to throw money in her bowl. But something manages to make Grizzlor nervous, the calm, quiet Grizzlor. If Katrina had to pick a favorite adult, it would’ve been him. He rarely talked, never punished her and the other children and also wasn’t pushy when it came to work. On the other hand, he never stepped in, when Octavia hurt the Katrina or the others. Whatever. But Grizzlor being nervous, Octavia suspecting Katrina telling someone, in combination with something else she heard today, was extremely interesting.

Something shifted in her mind. A spark went off, a spark deep in the back of her brain. Something you could compare with an idea. An idea that could change everything for her. Katrina just had to be patient. Smiling, Katrina turned around her bed, rubbed her cheek on her pillow and had the first happy dream in nearly 2 years, ever since she got sold out by only people she had loved once.

***

The dream shouldn’t last long, Cobalt opened the door early in the morning, let out a loud “WAKE UP”, which caused Kyle to fall out of his bed. Katrina rubbed her eyes, as Cobalt told them to gather their stuff and hurry up. As everyone got dressed, Katrina remembered the 10€-Bill in her pillow and climbed back up the bed to get it. When she came back down, she noticed Rogelio looking at her. Katrina stared back, waiting for him to say anything while cold sweat started to appear on her back. But he just turned around, picked up his bag and left the room. Katrina didn’t notice she held her breath, started breathing again and followed Rogelio. She never had problems with Rogelio, so he won’t rat her out, right?
Katrina left the apartment that has been her home for the last 5 months for the last time and saw Rogelio and Lonnie waiting for the elevator. Hold on, the elevator worked? NOW? OH, COME ON! Now Katrina will miss this wreck of a house even less. When they left the elevator, they saw Grizzlor waiting for them in front of a white delivery truck. They had to sit in the cargo space between all the other stuff from the apartment, while Grizzlor sat down behind the steering wheel, Cobalt and Octavia joining him in front.

“Where are we going?”, Lonnie asked.

“You will see soon enough”, barked Octavia.

“Wow, thanks for nothing”, Katrina mumbled quiet enough only for the other 3 to hear. She earned a scoff from Lonnie.

At least the heater in the car was working, maybe a bit too good. The warmth and the humidity in the back made Katrina sleepy, and soon she dozed off…

“… hey… Katrina… HEY!” The last ‘Hey’ was loud enough to wake Katrina up, she found herself laying on the floor of the car. Sitting up, she looked at her living alarm Lonnie who then pointed out that they finally reached their goal. They left the car, and took a look around them. Snow, now everywhere. So much snow it went up to Katrina’s waist. She turned around to see their new home. A five-story tall building, painted in yellow. Katrina was kind of relieved that she didn’t have to walk that much stairs anymore. But, looking around, the town seemed to be much smaller than the city they have just left this morning. Also looking at the houses around them, only 1 of 5 windows had lights in them. It didn’t seem like there are living many people here. What is the reason for staying here?
When they arrived at their new apartment in the second floor, Grizzlor told them to drop their bags in their room. As Lonnie opened the door and turned on the light, Katrina felt a knot in her throat and tears in her eyes. The room was empty. Literally. No windows, no beds, no wardrobe. Nothing. As she stepped into the room, she noticed something in the corner of her eye. A pile of sleeping bags and mats. This had to be a joke.

Nothing to eat for 3 days now, a sudden change of place and now this? Katrina looked around and saw a similar expression on the others’ faces. Katrina turned on her heel, and stormed out of the room, trying to push Kyle and Rogelio to the side. It worked on Kyle, not on Rogelio, so Katrina stumbled towards Octavia and Grizzlor. They saw Katrina’s face and probably guessed what was coming.
Katrina nearly shouted at them:

”What is this? We have had nothing to eat for 3 days now, sit out in the cold all the time, and now we don’t even have a bed?”

Octavia’s got red in less than a second. “HOW DARE – “

“She is right”, Grizzlor intervened. Katrina will never forget Octavia’s face in that moment. Grizzlor earned some points there. “She is right, we forgot to feed them.”
Hold it, feed them? Like animals? The points are in the negative now.

“We barely have food here, and the shops are closed now. We have to get takeout.”

“Oh really, and who is going to pay for them?”

“I will, if you are too stingy for it”. Grizzlor stepping in was apparently the last thing Octavia expected. She let out a scoff and left the room. “Do what you want.”

Grizzlor looked down at Katrina.” Go to your room, I’ll get you something to eat”. Katrina nodded and left the room to join her fellow sufferers.

“I am surprised you are still alive”, Lonnie said.” Octavia looked like she wanted to rip you in half.” An agreeing nod from Rogelio.

“Grizzlor left to get us some food”, Katrina mentioned and earned surprised looks.” Let’s make ourselves “comfortable” here, while we are waiting.”

Grizzlor soon returned with 5 white cardboard boxes, smelling like sin itself, and some water bottles. He handed out one box for each kid and kept the 5th for himself, same for the water. Katrina opened the box and felt like she met God as she saw the pizza.

“Eat slowly, otherwise you won’t keep it for long”, Grizzlor said as turned to leave the room. Katrina heard herself saying something she never thought she would say towards one of the adults and actually mean it. “Thank you”.

Grizzlor stopped for a second, nodded and left the room. After, as advised, taking their time with eating the pizza, all 4 of them just laid down and slept on the spot.

The next day everyone woke up, but to their surprise nobody had come to wake them up. The 4 came to the conclusion, that not be woken up and getting send out in the cold was suspicious. So, they decided in a 3-1 vote to send out Kyle to check out what was going on. Not even a minute passed after he came back, head still attached, and told them to follow him. They left the room and to their surprise no one was there. They were alone in the apartment. Puzzled looks on every face.

Some hours had gone by until the adults returned from their trip, a shopping trip as it turned out. Mostly groceries, but also new jackets for Katrina and Kyle, new pants for Rogelio and new boots for Lonnie. As Cobalt noticed the looks at the incredible number of groceries, he said:
“We won’t leave the apartment for about 2 or 3 weeks.”

Wait! We? All of us? Katrina barely suppressed a surprised yelp, looking around showed her similar expressions on the other’s faces.

“Is there a problem with something?”

They shook their heads in unison and hurried back to their room. As Rogelio closed the door, Lonnie turned around and asked the question that was hovering over all of them. “Did you hear that too? We won’t leave the building for 2 or 3 weeks?”

Since everyone nodded in silent agreement, Katrina didn’t know what to say and just sat down in disbelief. 3 weeks at best not sitting in the cold and looking pitiful, hoping for someone to give them spare change. She felt euphoric thinking about it.

For the first time what felt like ages, she heard Rogelio speak up. “Don’t you think it’s strange? I mean, they seem nice? First, Grizzlor buying us take-out? Now we get new clothes AND Octavia didn’t even shout at us?”

For a moment no one said anything.

Lonnie answered first. “Yeah, it sure is kind of fishy. Katrina, do you remember the last time it was like that?”

Katrina actually did. “Yes. When that boy disappeared. What even was his name? Can’t remember it. After he went missing, everyone was in a hurry and we left the city. That was shortly before Rogelio and Octavia joined us.”

Lonnie hummed in agreement.

Katrina tried to continue that thought. “Do you think something happened? But we are all he- “Then it hit her as she remembered the conversation from 2 nights ago.
She sat up, and turned to the others with wide eyes. “I think I know what’s up! But you have to promise, that you won’t tell anyone!”

She regretted saying it the moment she finished the sentence. She reminded herself that she knew nothing about the 3 children that shared the same fate since over year now. Nearly 2, in Lonnie’s case. But it slipped out and now she had their full attention.

Katrina let out a defeated sigh:” Promise it!”

The replies came instantly. She took a deep breath and told them what she overheard. She told them about the day before, too, including the people that could’ve been police officers.
After she finished, everyone stayed silent for a while. Kyle was the first one to say something:
“They are afraid that Katrina would tell someone about this? Why?”

Lonnie rolled her eyes. "Kyle, seriously? Think about it, did you ever see other kids like sitting around and begging? No! Even if you see someone, it is always an adult, never someone like us! Grizzlor being nervous is proof that whatever they make us do is probably not allowed! God, I can’t believe you didn’t think about it the moment your parents sold you!”

Wait, what? Katrina glanced over to Kyle, whose face turned red.

Silence.

“And what now? Rogelio asked.

Again silence.

Katrina spoke up again: “For now, nothing. We are here for at least two weeks. We can’t just leave, we have nowhere to go, and no money. I don’t even know where we are.”

Silence, a third time.

“A-Actually, I have money”, Kyle stuttered.

Katrina was pretty sure at the point that this whole situation has to be a dream.

“You have what?”

Lonnie was faster. Kyle jumped a bit at her aggressive tone.

“That’s better not the missing money and the reason why we didn’t get anything to eat for 3 damn days!”

“N-No, someone gave it to me. Like, directly to me. He didn’t put it in the bowl, he held it into my face. I just took it and hid it from Cobalt”.

That got Katrina thinking. Kyle trusted them enough to tell them a secret like that. He knew he would be done for if someone told Octavia that Kyle was hiding money.

“Prove it”

Kyle thought for a moment, then he stood up and walked to his pile of clothes. Katrina couldn’t believe her eyes as he put his hand into his shoe and pulled out a banknote. Blue, not red like hers. 20, not 10.

Katrina heard a chuckle behind her. As she turned her head to Rogelio, she saw him also reaching for his boots and – she felt like her eyes will fall soon – suddenly presented 3 bills. 1 red one, and 2 greys. When she looked him in the face, he winked at her. An invitation. She took a deep breath, reached for her own stuff and presented her own 10€-banknote. A grin appeared on both Rogelio’s and Kyle’s face, Lonnie’s only showed surprise. As the other 3 looked expecting at her, she lost any tension in her body.

“I- I don’t have anything. Octavia never leaves my side!”

As Kyle and Rogelio tried to calm Lonnie down, Katrina just laid down and thought about what she just witnessed. Maybe it was time to learn something about her roommates. Kyle at least lost his family the same way Katrina did. Maybe. But since they were stuck together for 2 weeks with no breaks, she had all time in the world.

The euphoria about not leaving the house disappeared soon, since there was nothing to do. They found a few books, but since they didn’t have any pictures and no one knew how to read, the books were worthless. Having nothing better in mind, Katrina tried to talk with Kyle about his family. Lonnie and Rogelio soon joined them, also telling stories about them. Lonnie’s family lives not that far away from Katrina’s. All 4 of them got sold to The Boss, even though no one knew who The Boss actually was.

Talking to the others helped passing the time a lot. The effect wasn’t permanent, there aren’t much story to tell if you are together for a bigger amount of time.
December was slowly but surely coming to an end; it was snowing all the time. Cars disappeared under a white blanket, the big cars with shovels in front passed their window multiple times a day.
One day, Octavia just left the house, Kyle got up and asked Grizzlor if they can go outside. Lonnie and Katrina lifted their heads in surprise, Grizzlor gave Cobalt an asking look who just shrugged in response. For the first time in a week, they went outside. Katrina never saw that much snow at once. They literally had to shovel a path to the street. She was just enjoying the snowflakes as something cold hit her. Someone threw snow! Why? She hated it. Last year, she got attacked twice by a group of children her age, who just bathed her in snow. It was 5 on 1, she had to run away. At the end of the day, Octavia even shouted at her because she left her post. It was the worst.

But looking around there was no one. Kyle and Rogelio were standing with their backs towards Katrina, talking to each other. As she looked down to get the snow off her jacket, a second snowball hit her, but this time Rogelio wasn’t fast enough to turn around again. Glaring at him, Katrina picked up snow, tried to form a ball and threw it at Rogelio. She hit Kyle. She heard Lonnie laugh out loud at her weak attempt to get revenge. She felt her face heating up as she tried to stalk through the snow to close the distance to Rogelio, who just showered her in snow. Eventually she gave up, but it soon was her time laughing as she saw Lonnie sneaking up on Rogelio, dunking him in the snow face first. This went on for what felt like hours. Hours of fun. Katrina once glanced over to Grizzlor, who just stood at the entrance of the house watching them. Maybe it was the distance between them, but Katrina was pretty sure she saw a little smile on his face.
The days passed, and one night they woke up because they heard a loud bang on the outside. Then another one. And another one. And more and more, until it sounded like a staccato of drums. She saw the confusion the faces of her roommates. She got up, opened the door and walked into the kitchen to climb up the window sill and look outside. She couldn’t believe what she saw. After staring for a bit, she jumped down and ran back to her room.

“You won’t believe it, you have to see that”, she more or less whispered to Lonnie and Co. as she ran back into the kitchen. The others followed her and tried to look out of window.

“Ooooh, today must be New Year’s Eve!”, said Kyle.

“What’s that?”

“A party, to celebrate the new year. Today is the last day of the year, and tomorrow is January 1st, the first day of the new year!”

“Why are people celebrating it?”

“Uh, I don’t know, maybe to wish for good things to happen?”

Silence.

Katrina heard herself saying:” I wish, good things would happen to us…”

No one answered. No one had to. It was clear, what the others were thinking about.

One after another went to bed again, only Katrina stayed, sitting on the window sill and watching the fireworks rise up, explode in all possible colors and fade again. Some took longer to disappear, some vanished faster. Katrina stayed as long as she could see fireworks, and when the last went out Katrina just stared at the window, staring at her own reflection. Her bed hair, her freckles, her tired eyes with the split colors.

“I wish, something good would happen to us”

***

There was a reason why dreams were called dreams. Because, well…, they are dreams. The first day of the new year passed fast, but Katrina lost count how many days they spend in the apartment. She soon came to realize that their free time was coming to an end. The days weren’t wasted though, Lonnie taught Kyle and Katrina how to count to 20 in English and German, Rogelio was the French teacher. Katrina had a hard time to remember it, since the 3 languages didn’t seem to follow the same pattern. In the end she managed, and, according to the others, with an acceptable pronunciation.
In the end the day came when they had to get up early, collect their stuff and head to their new post. Katrina never figured out why it took so long, but it wasn’t an unwelcome thing to happen so she paid no mind to it. The days had the same schedule as at their last place. Get up early, take the train to the city, search a spot in a crowded area to settle down and then wait for people to fill their bowls while looking miserable. There were two major differences though. The train wasn’t going underground at first, so Katrina and the others could look outside the windows and watch wide snow-covered field pass their view, sometimes a lake or a small forest. They even saw a small group of animals, brown with thin legs, the biggest one had something like horns on its head.

The second major difference was being alone nearly the whole day. Grizzlor only visited Katrina 3 times to pick up the money she collected until. She wasn’t sure, but it seemed like a way bigger amount than they got in the other cities. While expressing her thanks after someone left money in her bowl, she took a good look at the environment. It was somehow cleaner, the buildings seemed to be somehow older. In the middle of the plaza, she chose as her spot, she saw a pillar with a golden man on top of it. The man wore long coat, in his hands a book and a feather, wings on his back and a circle on his head. Katrina cocked her head and asked herself about the reason. The sun disappeared behind the roofs and it got colder very fast. The blanket didn’t help much, it go so cold Katrina could watch the puddle next to her freeze over. Luckily, Grizzlor came soon to pick her up and they were on their way home soon.

The next days brought nothing new except her “workplace” was somewhere else in the city. The temperature didn’t change much too, it was still cold with occasionally snow coming down from time to time. Katrina tried to sit down in a spot where she got as much sunlight as possible, it made the whole thing easier to survive. One time she found a place with a view at an electronics store window, so she could watch tv all day long. Even though that day was one of the best, if not THE best day outdoors, the following night was one of the worst. Katrina woke up in the middle of night having a nightmare, drenched in cold sweat. She couldn’t even remember what the dream was about, but it still kept her awake all night long. She didn’t get one ounce of sleep until Cobalt came to wake them up.

The way to the city was horrible too. There weren’t any free seats to sit down, so Katrina fell down twice as the train hit the brakes. Lonnie helped her to get back up with a worried expression on her face. Katrina didn’t tell the adults, since Octavia’s response probably would be something like: “the more pitiful you look, the more money you get”, which wasn’t really helpful in first place. For some reason, the adults gave them sign to put in front of them. The signs were made of cardboard and something was written on one side of the sign, but Katrina couldn’t decipher what.

She found a nice spot, surrounded by a few food stands. The smell of grilled fish filled the air, making Katrina’s stomach rumble already. Sweets, bread and other scents appeared too. She got sad she couldn’t imagine getting to taste some of the food. Then she remembered her little secret in her left boot. Katrina’s mood got better instantly. Now she just had to wait for Grizzlor to collect the money for the first time of the day, after that she had enough time to buy something.

She had to wait a bit longer than usual, but to her surprise Grizzlor brought a meal with him. Even though it was a pleasant surprise, it destroyed her plans. Well, there are other days, right? The afternoon went slowly, and the sleepless night began to take its toll. Katrina’s eyelids got heavier and heavier, and finally she dozed off.

“…hej…. Saluton?...Hej!... Ĉu vi mortis?... Saluton?... Iu tie?”

Katrina came back to her senses and opened her eyes to look for the troublemaker. She closed her eyes immediately. The sun had already wandered that far, its light hit Katrina right in the face. Katrina groaned, as she lifted a hand to protect her eyes.

“Saluton, vi ankoraŭ vivas. Ĉu vi malsatas?“

What?

“ĈUVIMALSATAS?”

“Woah slowly, I don’t speak well” was the only sentence Katrina got out. This wasn’t a lie, the language in these parts was moonish or something, she had tried to learn the words the adults had told her, without much success. But Katrina had noticed, that this language was a mix of other languages she had already learned, so she could derive some words like that.

She finally could open her eyes again. She saw a girl her age squatting in front of her, curios look at that girl’s face.

“Are…you…hungry?”, the girl said again, but slowly.

Katrina shook her head in response.

“But your sign says so?!”

Katrina took a look at it in surprise, but shrugged. “I didn’t know that, I can’t read!”

Now it was the strange girl’s time to look surprised. “Really? You can’t read? Don’t you have to go to school?”

It took awfully long for Katrina to make sense out of what that girl was saying, but she could give her a shaking head as an answer.

The girl was quiet for a bit, which gave Katrina the time to actually take a look at the girl. She was wearing a red jacket, grey pants and boots that probably were white once. While Katrina’s eyes wandered upwards, she sees a round face with a thoughtful look, topped with blonde hair tied together to a ponytail. She spotted a tooth gap in a row of otherwise white teeth as the girl began to speak again.

“Why not?”

Katrina didn’t really know an answer to that question, the girl earned another shrug.

“I’m Adora, by the way! Adora Greyskull. What’s your name?”

“Katrina”

“And?”

“What?”

“What’s your surname?”

“I don’t know what that is.”

Adora paused and made a grimace, maybe that was her expression when she thought, like, really hard. After looking at Katrina’s pants and boots, another question came up.

“Are you poor? Why are you poor?”

Slowly, but surely Katrina got annoyed by that Adora girl. While trying to find a comfortable cross-legged position to hide her dirty boots under her thighs in embarrassment, Katrina tried to think of a way to get rid of that girl. Suddenly, Adora’s face lit up and she told Katrina to stay here.

Where else was Katrina supposed to go? To be fair, Adora couldn’t know that but Katrina came to the conclusion that either Adora’s mouth was way faster than her brain, or that girl was plain stupid. For a second Katrina lost sight of Adora. When she spotted her again, Adora was speaking to an older, no, old woman. They were too far away for Katrina to what they were saying, but she could see it was a heated discussion, Adora pointed a few times in her direction, even stomped her foot once and crossed her arms with a sulking expression on her face. The old woman let out a visible sigh and started rummaging in her handbag. After a while she gave something to Adora, Katrina could see Adora’s eyes lighting up, even at that distance.
Adora turned around and sprinted back to Katrina. She nearly slipped but got her balance back in time. When she stopped, she took a breather, looked at Katrina with a big smile on her face and held out her fist to her.

“Open your hand!”

Not knowing what to expect, Katrina just followed. Adora opened her fist and dropped something in Katrina’s hand. Katrina first thought it was paper, but after unfolding it Katrina suddenly held a 50€-bill in her hand.

Katrina was speechless.

She looked at Adora, swallowed and asked: “Why? Why do you give this to me?”

“You know, today is my birthday. Razz promised to buy me something but I think you have better use for it”, Adora smiled. “Sorry, but I have to go now. It was nice to meet you, Katrina! Bye!”
Katrina continued to stare at Adora as she left, suddenly Adora turned around and shouted: “By the way, I like your eyes!”

That last sentence made something move inside Katrina, a completely new feeling to her. She noticed Adora still being there waving a good bye, so she pulled herself together to wave back. A last smile from Adora, and she was gone.

After some time, Katrina noticed her mouth still being open in awe, and the 50€-bill in her hand. She hurried to put the money away, before someone else came to take it from her. After she emptied the bowl in front of her (she didn’t even realize how full it was) she leaned against the wall behind her and tried to process what just happened. A smile snuck on her face as she imagined the reactions of Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle later when she gets home. For now, she just had to be patient and wait for Grizzlor to pick her up.

Some hours later, she got another surprise as Rogelio showed up instead of Grizzlor. Grizzlor was waiting 3 blocks down, but for some reason he didn’t want to show up and sent Rogelio instead. Katrina gave some of the coins she collected over the day to Rogelio so they could get the money changed faster. After being done, Katrina asked Rogelio if he was hungry. Laconically as always, he just nodded. Katrina smirked, pulled out Adora’s gift and said:

“It’s on me!”

It was fun to see Rogelio trying to keep his eyes in his head.
They walked around a bit and decided to get some of the grilled fish. The vendor recognized Katrina, and as he saw she actually planned to pay for the fish, he searched for a big one. Katrina trusted with the change since math still was something she nearly knew about. She put her (emphasis on her) money back in her pocket, and split the fish between Rogelio and her.

It was not the first time she ate fish, but buying it on her own, with her own money gave it a special flavor. After they were done Katrina was literally drooling for more, but they had to leave to meet with Grizzlor. They found him sitting near the train, wearing a hooded jacket as if he wanted to hide in plain sight. Not very subtle for someone his size. After handing him the income for the day, they went for the train. The trip home was nothing special, even boring since it was dark outside already. It didn’t matter to Katrina, noting could kill her good mood today. She even hummed a melody she heard from a radio at one of the parlors. But as Katrina soon will learn, there are always 2 sides of a coin.

When they finally made it to the apartment, Rogelio entered first, Katrina on his heels. They were greeted by Octavia with a “Hey dipshits!”. Rogelio just walked straight ahead; Katrina couldn’t suppress rolling her eyes. In Octavia’s eyes it was the wrong reaction, she placed her foot in Katrina’s path so Katrina tripped over it. As she hit the floor, Katrina’s good mood was gone. Obviously, Octavia managed to ruin everything. Katrina rolled over and glared at Octavia.

“What? What did I do now?”

Octavia didn’t answer, didn’t even look Katrina in the eyes. Her stare locked on something a bit lower. Katrina looked down on herself and instantly got cold. Some of the change she got earlier from the fish vendor was about to fall out of her pocket. She looked back at Octavia, whose face got a dangerous deep red color now.

“You little piece of shit! What is this?”

Octavia made 3 fast steps, too fast for Katrina to escape, and reached for Katrina’s jacket, but Katrina pushed Octavia’s arm away to keep her on distance. In Octavia’s eyes another mistake. She moved closer, got Katrina in a tight grip and lifted her off her feet.

“LET ME GO”, Katrina was in panic now.

“Oooooh, you wish…! It seems like you forgot about Doran, didn’t you?”

Right, Doran was the boy that was already in this group when Katrina and Lonnie joined. How could she forget his name? He vanished without saying goodbye, and soon after Rogelio and Octavia joined.
Octavia got caught up in her rage. “He was a little thief, he tried to steal The Boss’ money and he got punished for it. I thought you learned a lesson from?”

“I DIDN’T STEAL IT; SHE GAVE IT TO ME! TO ME!!!”

Meanwhile, Grizzlor entered the apartment. He stopped at the door, when he saw what was going on.

“Octavia, what ar- ““Shut up, Grizzlor! You went too soft on that split-eyed freak, and now she tried to steal our money!”

“I DIDN’T STE- “

“SHUT UP! NO ONE CARES! Not even your parents did, otherwise they wouldn’t have sold you!”

Something inside Katrina broke at that moment, and she lost all the tension in her body.

“Now give me the money!”

Katrina thought back to earlier, as Adora asked her stupid, yet innocent question.

“Why?”

Yeah, why?

What did Katrina do to deserve this?

She always obeyed, never asked questions and did what she was told. So, what did she do wrong? Starting with getting sold, living on the street and now getting bullied for whatever reason?

“NOW GIVE ME THE MONEY!”, Octavia screamed as she reached for the pocket, while keeping Katrina in the air with her other.

NO

Katrina bent her neck and buried her teeth as deep as possible into Octavia’s arm. Screaming, both from surprise and pain, Octavia dropped Katrina.
While trying to stand up, Katrina saw Octavia moving, but she couldn’t imagine a reality where Katrina was to escape that punch.

Katrina got hit, lifted of her feet and flew against the wall head first.

Everything went black.

Chapter Text

January, nearly 15 years ago, somewhere in Europe

Katrina woke up and wished be asleep again at once. The right side of her head hurt, as if someone drilled a hole into it. It was night, the only source of light was a bit of moonlight coming through the window. She tried turn her head to the left, but couldn’t move, a big white pillow was in the way. The moment her left cheek touched said pillow, intense pain flared up. Katrina tried to lift her hand, only to slow down the motion since her left hand hurt too. The only region of her body she didn’t feel pain were her legs. Katrina managed to take a glance at her left hand and saw tubes coming out of it. She couldn’t arch her neck enough to see where these tubes were coming from.

Wait, how did that white pillow get here? And why am I in a bed? Where am I?

Katrina tried to sit up, but let herself sink back in to the bed, groaning loud as her head exploded in pain.

“Katrina?”

She got scared at first but recognized the voice as Lonnie’s, even though she couldn’t see her.

“Guys, wake up! Katrina is back!”

Katrina heard muffled sounds of fabric moving, but couldn’t see where the sounds actually came. She lifted her painless right hand in front of her face but only could make out some fingers, but no arm. As she so Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle appearing in her sight, she realized what was wrong. She couldn’t see on her right eye!

“Calm down, we are safe”, Kyle said with Rogelio nodding behind him.

Something clenched in Katrina’s chest, pushing all air out of her. She tried to breath in, but it felt like there wasn’t any air around her. Her head started to throb; the pumping sound drove her crazy. As she reached up to the origin of the throbbing, she felt something soft at her head that for sure wasn’t her hair. Katrina tried to rip it off, but Lonnie grabbed her wrist and pulled her arm down.

“Stop it, you can’t do that”

Katrina tried to push her away, but she got no strength at all.

“Rogelio, go get a doctor!”

Panic started to heat up Katrina’s face, as she still had no clue what was going on. She tried to shake off Lonnie, while Rogelio came back with a woman in a white long coat. The woman hurried to Katrina’s bed after she realized what was happening. She left Katrina’s view, something beeped and suddenly something started to cool down Katrina’s left hand and her limbs got heavier with every heartbeat. She lost all tension in her body and started to topple over, but the woman caught her and put her head back on the pillow, as everything went dark again.

Katrina opened her eyes, or at least tried to since she still had no vision on her right side. She took her time to check out her new room. It was white. Literally everything was white. The walls, the doors, the window frames, the bed, its bedding, the wardrobe, even the doorknobs. The only colored things were a painting on the wall and a pile in the corner of the room. Katrina recognized the pile as their sleeping bags and mats from the apartment. No Lonnie, Kyle or Rogelio though. She tried to sit up, which was already so exhausting she had to take a deep breath when she finally reached an upward position.
For the first time, Katrina looked down on herself to find two surprises. She wasn’t wearing her clothes, just something that looked like a white trash with holes for legs, arms and head. The second surprise was 3 tapes on her chest, 2 left and 1 on the right side. A wire each were went from the tapes to a screen next to her bed, an ever-changing number and a jumping line on it.

As she wanted to leave the bed, she got pulled back by the wires. With hunger and the need to pee growing, she yanked the wires of the tapes and left. A bit wobbly at first, she thought about removing the tube from her left hand. But that probably would hurt more than it would be worth it, so she just left it in. The other end of said tube went to a transparent bag with a transparent fluid in it. She noticed that the bar, that was holding the bag, was on wheels so she tried to grab the bar and move it, which, to her surprise, it did without any resistance.

“Now, to the toilet”, she thought and started walking towards one the doors. As she tried to open it, the other door burst open with the woman from the night before standing in the doorframe. The woman had a panicked look her face, looking to the bed then noticing Katrina standing in front of the other door with the hand on the doorknob. With her hand on her chest, she let out a huge sigh, turned around and shouted: “False alarm, folks!”

To Katrina, “Now young lady, where do you think are you going?”

Still with the doorknob in hand, hoping to find a toilet in there, Katrina couldn’t stop herself from answering:

“What does it look like?”

The woman threw her head back in laughter.

“Spinny, you have to check out that girl!”

She stepped towards Katrina to open the door for her, which – hallelujah - hid indeed a toilet.

“If you need help, just press the red button in there and I’ll come in.”

The bathroom was way bigger than she expected and everything was lower than usual, as if it was built for children. After she was done, Katrina looked in the mirror and got startled be her own reflection. Her left cheek was swollen and had a purple color, her hair and right side of her face, including her eye were wrapped in bandages. She just stood in front of the mirror, unable to do anything else until someone knocked on the door.

“Are you ok in there?”

Katrina opened the door, and the woman saw the look on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“What happened to me?”

With some help, Katrina made it back to the bed.

“What do you mean ‘What happened’? You don’t remember?”

Katrina thought for a while, but in the end, she shook her head carefully. The woman just stood in front of the bed, probably thinking about something. She then went to the nightstand to pick up the phone Katrina didn’t even notice until now, dialed a number and told someone to join her in Katrina’s room. While they were waiting, Katrina had time to watch the woman who stayed with her all the time.

Black Skin, white hair with shaved sides, a white shirt under her white coat and a blue bracelet on each of her wrists. In her mid-30s probably.

The woman now entering was kind of her opposite. Purple hair, her clothes colored in variations to match her hair. She wore the same white coat as the other woman.

The two women grabbed chairs and sat down in front of Katrina.

“My name is Dr. Vivian Netossa”, the white-haired woman started. “This is Dr. Cynthia Spinnerella, my colleague. We are both doctors. I specialized in trauma surgery, Spinnerella in psychotherapy. Would you mind to tell her, what you just told me?”

Katrina looked at Spinnerella and told her that she can’t remember anything. Spinnerella had a book in her lap and took notes.

“Nothing? Do you know where we are?”

Katrina shook her head.

“We are at the Half-Moon Hospital, in the pediatric department to be precise. You arrived here 2 days ago, someone called Grizzlor brought you.” She noticed Katrina’s reaction. “Do you know him? Is he part of your family? Because he surely isn’t your father.”

Katrina stayed quiet.

“Anyway, when Netossa got her hands on you, she could make out a huge bruise on your left cheek and a fracture on the right side of your head. We don’t exactly know what happened, but we think someone hit you very hard and then you fell and hit your head. Any memories on that?”

Katrina stayed silent, but this time because the dizziness she felt all the time got stronger. Netossa, who was just watching Katrina, lifted a hand to stop Spinnerella.

“That’s enough for now. You feel dizzy, right? That’s an aftereffect from your head injury. It will take a few days for it to stop completely, but it will stop for sure. I bandaged your eye because it may have been hurt a bit, too. Just to be safe, it has to rest a bit. When we take off the bandage, you will be able to see like before.”, Netossa said with a reassuring smile. “Try to sleep a bit, we will come back later and bring you something to eat.”

Both left, Spinnerella turned around to wave at Katrina for a last time and finally she alone again. When Katrina put her head back on the pillow, she realized how tired she actually was. Falling asleep was no problem this time.

She woke up again as she heard someone moving near her. She opened her eye to see Spinnerella putting down a food tray at the nightstand. Spinnerella noticed her waking.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up. Are you hungry? Do you need help?”

Katrina nodded thankfully, as Spinnerella helped her to sit up and put the food tray closer to her.

“I’m sorry, this is nothing special. Just some soup and yoghurt, we can’t give you solid food yet.”

Katrina wasn’t complaining, especially after tasting the soup.

“This is the best soup I’ve ever had!”

After being done with the soup, she inhaled the yoghurt and got sad when it was empty. She looked at Spinnerella, asking for more.

“Sorry, you have to wait a bit for dinner.” Spinnerella paused. “Do you remember anything now? About how you got here?”

Katrina actually did, but there were only fragments. Cobalt kneeling above her; Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle sitting in a corner, eyes wide in terror; Grizzlor driving; Herself puking on a doctor’s coat.

And Octavia, her arm ready to strike. Katrina shudders at that sight. She took a deep breath and began telling everything to Spinnerella, who just sat there and took notes. She said nothing, except for a thing or two to clarify. Katrina told her everything. About her parents and how she joined the group, about her journey through Europe, her “vacation” over the last 3 weeks and then about the last 2 days. Spinnerella kept writing, turning pages several pages but never had a surprised or disgusted look on her face.

When Katrina came to an end, Spinnerella thought for a while and asked her last question.

“Who gave you the money? You know, the 50€-bill?”

“A girl my age, I think. Her name was … Her name… was….” Katrina coughed as she tried to remember that girl’s name. “I can’t … I can’t remember… Why can’t I remember her name?”.
She felt tears coming up. “That was only 2 days ago! How can I not remember her name?”

“Sssssshhhhh, calm down. That’s totally fine. I’m sure you will remember her name, but give it some time, ok?”

Katrina swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded.

“I’m leaving for now, but later Netossa and I will come back, ok? See you then!”

A last goodbye and Katrina was alone with her thoughts, again. What will happen to her if she left the hospital? Does she have to go to the streets again? Her last thought before falling asleep was Spinnerella saying, that it’s going to take a while for her injury to heal.

When Netossa and Spinnerella entered Katrina’s room, she was already awake and looking outside. Before Katrina could eat dinner, Netossa changed the bandages around her head. Netossa let out a pleased hum as she checked the wound. After she was done, Katrina ate dinner in highspeed, the two women watching her with an amused look (thank God, Spinnerella brought seconds for Katrina).

When Katrina was done, Netossa and Spinnerella sat closer to her bed.

“Listen, we already knew what happened when you were brought to us. We talked with your frien-“

“They are here?”, Katrina asked excitedly.

“Yes, they were here.”, Spinnerella answered. “They even insisted on sleeping here with you, but we didn’t know that you would react that way when you woke up, so they are in a different room now. You can see them tomorrow.”

“Anyways,” Netossa continued. “As this Grizzlor brought you, we called the police immediately. Even if he would’ve been your father, treating his own child in a way so it would end up like you did, is an offense. To my surprise he did not even resist, he even waited for the police to get him and told them where to find the others. The police found an insane amount of cash in that apartment and 4 of these.”

She handed Katrina a card made of paper. Katrina saw a picture of her, an older one, but it for sure was her.

“What’s that?”

“That’s a so-called ID-Card, everyone is supposed to have one. Your name, birthday and residence are usually written on these. Mine looks a bit difference because it’s a from a different country.”

“What’s written on mine?”

“Oh, sorry I forgot about that reading and writing problem. I have to warn you, judging from the looks, your ID-card has been tampered with. That means that the things written on it are not necessarily true.”

Katrina shrugs. “It’s better than nothing.”

“It says: Katrina Driluth, born on October 28^th in Mačjigrad. To be honest, Mačjigrad sounds like it was made up!“

Katrina said nothing. She finally knew her full name and even her birthday. Something inside her felt like it melted, a knot of self-doubt vanished and she felt freer.

“Wait, how old am I?”

Netossa and Spinnerella exchanged a quick glance.

“October 28^th 2 months ago was your 7^th birthday.”

It took a moment for Katrina to process that. She didn’t care about her birthplace, she agreed with Netossa here. It probably was made up. But she had a surname now, she coul-

“Greyskull!”, Katrina shouted.

Spinnerella and Netossa jumped, Spinnerella even dropped her notebook.

“Excuse me, what?”, Netossa asked as she watched Spinnerella pick up the book.

“Greyskull! That was the girl’s surname. You know, the girl that gave me the money! I just remembered!”

Katrina was flooded with euphoria. She didn’t exactly know why, since she just remembered a name, she only heard once before. It still made her … happy.
Netossa pulled herself together first. “Wait, Greyskull? As in-“
She got interrupted by Spinnerella coughing very loud. As she turned her head, she saw Spinnerella giving her a look.

“Never mind”, Netossa started again. “Do you want to know anything else? If not, we are leaving for today.”

Katrina thought about it.

“What is going to happen to me, to us now? You said that Grizzlor talked with the police.”

Again, the two doctors looked at each other for a longer time.

Spinnerella began: “You know, what Grizzlor and the other adults did to you was not okay, so the police put them in a prison for now. In a few days they will have to answer to a judge about their wrongdoing. The judge then decides what will happen to them, and also what will happen to you 4. Tomorrow, or the day after, a police office will visit you and ask you few questions, probably similar to those I asked you today. I will be there too, so I can check if it’s too much for you.”

“Nothing bad will happen to you”, Netossa assured.” The police will ask Rogelio and the others too and compare your answers. Everything else will in the coming days.”

That didn’t really comfort Katrina, but she couldn’t change anything about it anyways, so she just played it cool. After making sure that Katrina got everything, the two women left. Katrina saw Spinnerella reaching for Netossa’s hand, but Netossa pulled hers away, leaving Spinnerella with a sour expression on her face. After Netossa closed the door, Katrina looked out of the window and saw only darkness, as the sun already went down while ago. She ate the yoghurt left-overs, turned off the light and went to sleep. Again, falling asleep was a piece of cake.

The next day she was woken up by a man in green clothes she hadn’t seen before, who brought breakfast and informed her, that “Dr. Netossa is waiting next door”. After breakfast, Katrina left the bed and walked slowly, but steady, still leaning on that bar with the fluid bag, to the next room where indeed Netossa was waiting for her.
After asking Katrina about how she slept and how she was feeling, she changed her bandages again. Very slow and careful, also reminding Katrina to keep her eyes closed while she was working on the bandages. Netossa let out a pleased hum, as she took a look at the wound. Katrina shivered, as the colder air hit the bandage-free spot.

“Looks great! Since you have been so brave the last days, I think we can let some visitors to you!”

Katrina couldn’t suppress a smile.
She went back to her room and came back to freshly ventilated room, with freshly made bed and… her friends. Yeah, they grew on her over the last weeks. Katrina could call them her friends. Their faces lit about as they spotted her, approaching her slowly as they saw her leaning on the IV pole (Netossa just taught her that word). They let her reach the bed before bombarding her with questions. They even brought her self-bought snacks (emphasis on self). Lonnie told her, that all 3 of them were already questioned by a police officer. It wasn’t that much of a stretch to expect said police officer to come for Katrina. 30 minutes later, they got interrupted by Spinnerella who brought indeed the police officer with her. It was a young man with a friendly face, who introduced himself as Michael. He shortly explained why he was here, and that he needed to record everything Katrina was saying.
Katrina looked at Spinnerella who gave her an encouraging smile. Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle had to leave the room and wait outside, which made Katrina a bit sad.
After Michael finished setting up the camera, he grabbed a chair and sat down in with the camera in his back, facing Katrina. As Spinnerella suspected earlier, he asked her about her life so far, where she came from, when she joined the group, how her days usually went. It took quite long, Spinnerella intervened once and ordered a break.
As they were done, Katrina asked Michael about what was going to happen next. He paused a moment and said, that the court hearing will be next week and that the 4 children are supposed to stay in the hospital until then. It may also be possible that they had to join the court hearing as important witnesses. After he took his leave, Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio came back in and brought a game called “UNO” with them. They got Spinnerella to stay and teach them how to play, but she soon left when they got the hand of it. They played and played and played, until Katrina got dizzy again and they had to take a break. Being reminded of her situation made her ask a question she was kind of afraid to ask.

“What exactly happened? You know, before I got here.”

Everyone stayed quiet for a while.

“I thought you were dead after Octavia hit you”, Kyle said with watery eyes. “She punched you, you hit the wall and just stopped moving.”

Lonnie continued: “I never saw Grizzlor this angry. He literally did the same to Octavia, what she did to you. We just hid in our room. I’m … sorry for not stepping in. I just couldn’t. But as soon as Grizzlor got Octavia out of the way, Cobalt put his finger on your wrist and opened your eyes. I don’t know why he did it. But he said that you are alive but we need to hurry. Grizzlor picked you up and just left. A few hours later the door got kicked in, and the police was everywhere. They handcuffed Octavia and Cobalt and brought us here. We are actually sleeping 2 rooms down the hall.”

Rogelio, unsurprisingly, said nothing. Katrina needed a few moments to digest what she just heard.

“Grizzlor… stepped in for me?”

“Yea, Octavia didn’t expect this. Neither did one of us, to be honest. I feared you would just disappear like Doran did. But then the police showed up and here we are.”

 “Did Michael tell you about the court hearing?”

“Michael? Oh, the police guy. Yes, he did. To be honest we can’t wait for it. I don’t know what expect in the future, when you can leave the hospital again. I’m afraid.”

Rogelio cleared his throat. “I think we all are. But seriously, can it get worse than it was before? I don’t think we have to go begging again.”

Katrina didn’t like the sound of it, but could do nothing but agree with him. Someone knocked and Netossa opened the door.

“Bedtime, folks! Move it. You’ll see each other tomorrow again.”

The 4 said their goodbyes and goodnights and then Katrina was all alone again. She reached to the nightstand and grabbed her ID-Card. God, that picture really was old. How old was she, when that picture was taken? 4? She thought about what changed since then. Sure, she got taller, but the eyes, the hair, the freckles stayed the same. Well, due to the surgery her hair looked a bit different now. She was so far away from her birthplace, she shared Lonnie’s fear. Katrina didn’t know what to expect in the future, but she sure didn’t want to go back. Maybe the court hearing will show chances to changes something in her life. With that in mind, she put her ID under her pillow, turned off the light and went to sleep.

The following days passed quite fast, nothing special happened. The 4 of them kept playing cards, with occasionally Spinnerella and/or Netossa joining them. Katrina got better and better, the bruise on her left cheek disappeared without a trace, and the occasional dizziness also stopped coming back. After 3 days, Netossa darkened Katrina’s room and removed the bandages from her eye. Since her eye didn’t see light since over a week now, it was extra sensitive to light, so Katrina had to wear a special eyepatch for 2 days. Netossa said, it was to help her eye getting used to light again. Katrina liked it; it made her look like one of the pirates she saw on a poster once.
The next day, as Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio entered her room, they were followed by Spinnerella and an older woman in a suit. The woman introduced herself as “Chief prosecutor Mayflower” and came to talk about the court hearing, that was about to take place tomorrow. She explained the protocol of the court hearing, everyone’s role in it and what to expect in general. When she came to an end, she looked at the 4 children.

“I know this won’t be easy for you, but it would be a great help if you would join the hearing tomorrow. We already have your statements on tape, so you probably won’t have to do anything. But if a question comes up that had not been answered until now, it would be great if you were there to help us. Dr. Spinnerella will always be with you of course.”

The 4 looked at each other and agreed in unison to join the hearing. Mayflower had relieved look on her face as she thanked them and left.

The court room looked exactly like the one Katrina saw on tv once. Split in left side and right side, facing the elevated desk of the judge and his assistants. As the children and Spinnerella settled down at the front row on the right side, the doors swung open and Cobalt, Grizzlor and Octavia entered the room. All wearing the same dark blue shirts and pants with numbers on them, cuffs on hands and legs and everyone was followed by a police officer in armor. Katrina noticed an eyepatch covering Octavia’s left eye, maybe Grizzlor did that to her. Cobalt was wearing no expression, nothing new at all, but Grizzlor…Grizzlor was looking miserable. Drooping shoulders, his head hanging down. It seemed like he shrunk by 50 cm since the last time Katrina saw him. They sat down in front of the left side of the court.
The judge entered and the hearing began. As Mayflower explained the day before, she began with a summary about what happened. About what they were doing, how the children here and what happened last week. They watched the videos of Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio answering the questions asked by Michael. You could hear a scoff now and then coming from Octavia, but everyone else stayed quiet. When they came to Katrina’s video, she heard a few gasps from behind her, she glanced over to Grizzlor and saw him getting even smaller. Octavia’s face was beet red.
When the videos were over, a man in a suit from the left side stood up (Katrina remembered Mayflower calling him a lawyer) and began talking about the 3 prisoners as if they were the victims. At some point Katrina wanted to stand up and say something, but she felt Spinnerella’s hand on her shoulder and so she stayed put.
The lawyer finished, and the police began to show photos and evidence they found in the apartment. They even got papers from a bank that said how much money they send to The Boss over the years. Going back and forth, the judge called for a short break. As he reentered the court room everything went quiet at once.

He stood, reading from a paper in his hand:

“After thorough review of all evidence, statements and fact, the civil court of Half-Moon came to a verdict. As for the suspect Cobalt, there are accusations of human trafficking, child labor, and organized begging. The suspect is found guilty in all charges and is condemned to 12 years in prison.

As for the suspect Grizzlor, there are accusations of human trafficking, child labor, and organized begging. The suspect is found guilty in all charges, but in consideration of his help in clearing up this case, his sentence will be reduced to 10 years in prison and can be reduced even further, for example on grounds of good conduct.

As for the suspect Octavia, there are accusations of human trafficking, child labor, organized begging, physical and mental child abuse and the mistreatment of a protected. The suspect is found guilty in all charges and is condemned to the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Considering the highly aggressive behavior towards the prison staff and other inmates, the sentence will be raised to 18 years, without parole.

The verdicts take effects immediately.

As for the care of the children, the civil court of Half-Moon transfers all 4 of them to the Half-Moon Orphanage, as soon as their physical and mental health allows them to.”

He swings down his wooden hammer, and murmuring starts rising in the court room. Katrina heard Octavia screaming, but Spinnerella put her hands over Katrina’s ears and nodded towards the door. With their hands still on their ears, the 5 of them left the court room.
Mayflower waited for them on the outside, thanking them for help and wishing them the best. After Spinnerella and Mayflower exchanged a few words and after Mayflower left, Kyle spoke out the same thing Katrina had in mind.

“So, we have to leave! When?”, he asked while looking at Spinnerella.

“I don’t know. Probably as soon as Katrina can be discharged from the hospital, which won’t be before next week.”

Katrina, still wearing her eyepatch, thought about their future on the drive back to the hospital. She didn’t get that far, since she didn’t know what to expect from an orphanage. She wouldn’t be too sad if her stay at the hospital would take a bit longer.

The following day, Netossa came to check on her eye. She took off the eyepatch and waited for Katrina to adjust to having two working eyes. Katrina looked around and blinked a few tears out. She saw the apple Netossa brought with her and stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

Katrina closed her right eye, opened it again, closed the left eye and paused. She repeated that for a bit until Netossa spoke up again.

“Katrina, you have to talk to me. What’s wrong?”

“I- When I close my left eye, the apple isn’t red! It only is with my left eye open. What’s happening?”

After trying her best to calm Katrina down, Netossa grabbed the phone, talked to someone and after she was done, she picked Katrina up and went to the elevator. With Katrina still in her arm, she left the elevator and went straight into another doctor’s office. The old man sitting in there was already waiting for them. He introduced himself as Dr. Glass, and made a joke about having the perfect name for his profession. Netossa rolled her eyes behind his back. She filled him in about Katrina’s situation and after Netossa finished, he took a look at her eyes.

“Did someone tell already you that you have beautiful eyes?”

“Yes, once.” Katrina blushed a bit.

“You know, having 2 different or even mixed eye colors isn’t that rare, but your eyes are truly special. In all my years working as an ophthalmologist I’ve never seen others like yours.”

Katrina didn’t know what that word meant, probably eye doctor, but it didn’t stop her to blush a bit more.

“Barry, can you please stop your sweet talk and get to the point?”, Netossa’s voice came from the off.

“You said she had a concussion?”

“Still has, but yes.”

“Then my guess is that the hit that caused the concussion also damaged the cones responsible for receiving red light. The only thing we can do here is to wait. Sadly, fixing delicate things like cones and rods is not in our reach yet.”

Katrina didn’t like the sound of that.

“Don’t worry. Time can heal a lot of wounds. Just promise me to not to close your eye for a longer time, just because it bothers you, ok? It will take a while for you to get used to it, but it won’t stop you from doing anything you like.”

Katrina felt relieved to hear that, but it still left a sour taste in her mouth. Netossa and Katrina left, Netossa tried to encourage Katrina while they were walking down the hall, saying something about Katrina being strong considering her last 2 years and the eye problem being a piece of cake. It didn’t really do it for her.

The following days passed quite fast. The first time in 2 weeks Katrina woke up without getting dizzy immediately. Netossa removed the bandages around Katrina’s one final time Katrina could take a look at her scar, which already began to disappear under her hair. Nobody will ever see that scar again, except Katrina decided to shave that spot.

It came the day when Katrina had to say goodbye to Netossa and Spinnerella. Katrina started to feel a lump in her throat as she saw the van from the orphanage waiting in front of the hospital. She turned around to Netossa and Spinnerella who came to see them off. Katrina buried her face in Netossa’s coat as her lips began to tremble and she couldn’t hold back her tears anymore. Spinnerella chuckled, Netossa was less happy but not mad about that.

“Girl, you already puked on me once. There is no reason to ruin another coat!”, Netossa said with a smile in eyes. It took a while for Katrina to calm down, but in the end, she had to let go of Netossa, since Kyle, Rogelio and Lonnie were waiting for her at the car.

“Don’t worry, you get to see at least Spinnerella next week, no?”, Netossa asked.

True, each of the 4 kids had a weekly appointment with Spinnerella for the coming weeks. To talk about what happened, or something like that. As Katrina entered the car, she turned around to wave at Netossa and Spinnerella a last time, and tried to not lose sight of them as the car started its motor and drove them to their new home. It took a while for Katrina to realize, why she missed the hospital so much. A hospital is supposed to be a place of the hurt and the sick, in some cases people don’t leave hospitals anymore. But for Katrina it was the first time she stayed at a place that felt safe and secure.

***

February, 14 years ago, Half-Moon

They arrived at the Half-Moon orphanage and the orphanage was by far less scary than they expected it to be. It was a three-story building, white walls, a red tile roof, small balconies on the upper stories. That alone exceeded their expectations, which was not that hard since they had no expectations at all. They were welcomed by a middle-aged woman, who introduced herself as the head of the orphanage. There wasn’t a welcome party. First of all, children joining an orphanage usually isn’t a reason to celebrate. Second, even if the Orphanage got room for 30 Children, but, including the 4 newcomers, there are only living 12 children there at the moment. The youngest resident was 2 years old, the oldest 17. The lady explained that in Half-Moon you came of age with 18 years, that usually was the time where the residents left the home for good. Leaving earlier was possible too, through adoption. She didn’t mention how often that actually happened, and since nobody bothered to ask, they got a tour of the house.
The house had 6 sleeping rooms, 3 for boys and 3 for girls, with 5 beds each. They could pick a room of their choice, they decided to go in pairs. After they left their belongings at the future beds, they got introduced to a young woman named Sarah, who was one of 3 people working in the orphanage, taking care of the laundry, cooking and the usual chores. Children over 14 years had to help doing the chores, but in return they got more pocket money than the rest. They closed out the tour with walking through the backdoor into a big garden. “Big” didn’t do the garden justice, it was nearly a park. Several trees and bushes and even a small pond finished that image.

It wasn’t over for that day, in the afternoon two men from the “ministry of health, culture and education” paid them a visit. They sat down at a table and asked the questions about math, languages, common knowledge and history, hoping to get an idea of their education. After not even one hour they were done, Katrina felt humiliated. They barely could answer any questions, but the men just continued to ask more and more. She knew that education didn’t play a big role in her life so far, but she didn’t expect it to be that bad. In the end, the men thanked them for their patience and told them, that they will hear soon from them again.

It took some time for Katrina, Kyle, Lonnie and Rogelio to adjust to their new home, Kyle got lost on regular basis. It was peaceful, also because of the low number of residents. Dinnertime was the busiest part of the day; it was also the only time of the day where Katrina got to see the other children in the house. Some of them were younger, some older. Katrina and the other 3 were right in the middle. No one spoke to them for a while, it took some time to talk to someone else except from the staff. Katrina didn’t expect anything to go smooth, but it still was a letdown.

A day later, news from the ministry came in. Since the school year was already advanced that far, the 4 of them were supposed to receive remedial classes until august, to catch up what they missed so far, to join regular classes in September. It was mid-February, so still a lot of time to pass. With the first lessons, Katrina’s new life finally began. She couldn’t decide if the classes were going great or not, she struggled with everything related to math, on the other hand she was quick with Half-Moon’s language called Lunarian and grammar, and exceled in art. The teachers were actually impressed with her progress, but not only Katrina but Lonnie’s, Rogelio’s and Kyle’s too.

The months passed by, the snow melted as spring came, it got warmer and the days got longer as summer took over. The orphanage often went on trips, to museums, to forests, even to concerts. Katrina was fascinated by everything she saw and got to learn. She enjoyed the weekly meeting with Spinnerella, telling her what she did and saw. The only thing Katrina was actually sad about, was the fact she still couldn’t remember that girl’s name or even her face. Spinnerella listened carefully, always with a smile on her face. She was happy about the progress Katrina and the others made. She often asked about Katrina’s eye and her scar, but Katrina didn’t know anything new to tell. Her eye didn’t get better, but also not worse, which was a small victory. Her scar on the other hand only hurt, when she hurt herself. For example, she stubbed her toe last week. Or the week before, when she touched the hot kettle in the kitchen. Spinnerella put on a concerned face as she heard that, but didn’t say anything.

August came, and the weather got hot, like really hot. For the first time Katrina saw a swimming pool, but stayed close to the shallow part of the pool. Katrina couldn’t swim, and she had no trust in these ridiculous looking arm floats.

The month was over faster than Katrina would’ve preferred, she got more nervous with everyday September was coming closer. Katrina didn’t even know why she felt this way, but Spinnerella assuring her, that it is normal to be like this, she managed to find some peace with it.

***

September 1^st, 14 years ago, Half-Moon

Katrina couldn’t sleep the night before; she was too excited for her first day of school. Looking at Lonnie’s face in the morning, she felt the same way. Sarah drove them to school, wished them a nice day and suddenly the 4 of them were waiting with hundreds of other children for the school gates in front of them to open up. They entered the grounds and found some lists to search their names on, only to find out that none of them got put in the same class.

Katrina found her classroom quite fast. She entered the room and the teacher greeted her immediately.

“Ok class, listen up! From today on, we have a new face in our group. This is Katrina, Katrina Driluth! I’m sure she will fit right into our class. Please welcome her and help her if she needs something.”

To Katrina: “You want to introduce yourself?”

Katrina took a deep breath, and nodded. She told the class her name, her age, things she liked and disliked. As she finished, the teacher thanked her and told her to choose a desk. Looking through the room, Katrina counted 25 desks in rows of 5, only a few were empty. The pupils sitting at the taken desk were watching her, some curious, some bored.
One girl didn’t look at her at all, not even once in the last 10 minute when Katrina was telling the class about herself. The girl was too busy watching the rising sun, which made her blonde hair look brighter than it probably was. As Katrina walked through the class room to choose a desk, the girl turned her head. Katrina looked into blue eye which grew wider in surprise then a smile showing up, revealing white teeth with a tooth gap but this time in the lower row.

And Katrina remembered.

The girl waking her, talking to her, running to the old woman and arguing with her, returning, nearly slipping, handing her 50€ and telling her that she likes Katrina’s eyes.

Katrina didn’t even think twice as she sat down at the empty desk right next to her. Next to the girl, who, just because she felt like it, changed everything for Katrina.

Katrina turned to her, looking at a smile as bright as the sun behind it, unable to hide her own.

“Hey Adora”

Chapter Text

Half-Moon, September 1st, 14 years ago

Adora exhaled through her nose slowly. September 1^st. She was pretty sure, that this day was going to be her enemy for life. After just 6 weeks of vacation, she got dragged back to school. It didn’t mean Adora didn’t like school, she just preferred to play with Swifty all day, or playing pranks on her neighbors. September also meant, that the weather is going to get colder soon. She continued to stare out of the window as she first heard the new teacher say something then a tender voice rang out. That reminded Adora to focus, she turned her head to look at the blackboard in front. She noticed the girl walking down between the desk, she looked Adora right in the eyes. Adora needed a second to realize what was different about the girl. The eyes! Two different colors, Adora could see it even over that distance. One blue, one yellow. That remembered her of that gir- NO WAY! Adora, fully awake now, searched her memories for this girl. Eyes: Check; Hair: different haircut but same color, check; Freckles: Check. Adora became more and more certain, that this was the girl she met on her birthday 7 months ago. Adora’s face lit up at the thought that something good happened to the girl, allowing her to go to school now. She sat down and smiled at Adora.

“Hey, Adora!”

Adora got exited, the girl remembered her. The good mood instantly disappeared as Adora realized she didn’t pay attention a minute ago and didn’t hear the girl’s name. Adora gathered up all courage she could find in herself on that short notice, and asked something that will embarrass her even years later.

“I’m sorry, what was your name again?”

The girl’s smile disappeared, and disappointment shadowed her face.

Way to go, Adora, good job.

“Katrina…”

Adora wanted to smack her face on the desk, but the last time it hurt pretty bad, so she refrained from doing that. She was saved by the bell, whose sound reminded the teacher to start the lesson.

The first lessons passed fast, since it was only about what to expect this school year and forms the parents had to sign. Adora’s backpack was quite full, even though actual school didn’t even start yet. Maybe she should’ve emptied it during summer break. From time to time, Adora glanced over to Katrina just to watch her. She never seemed to take her eyes off the teacher. Adora got lost in her thoughts again, still looking at Katrina, when suddenly Katrina turned her head to look at Adora. Adora noticed that everyone was watching at her and looking at the teacher showed her, that said teacher was talking to her.

Adora got the feeling that this day couldn’t get worse.

“Adora, would you please show Katrina around? Be a dear, please.”

Well, it seems the day could get worse. Great. This is going to be awkward.

Adora didn’t have much choice except to nod, she didn’t want to hurt Katrina even more. She gestured towards Katrina to follow her and gave her a tour of the school yard. The playground, the gym, the nearest toilets, the cafeteria, the nurse’s office. Katrina followed her all the time without saying a word. After Adora ran out of places to show, she turned around to Katrina and looked at her hands while kneading them.

“Listen, I’m … I’m sorry that I asked you about your name. That was embarrassing. I remember you, we met in downtown in January. I just … wasn’t sure about your name and I didn’t listen to your introduction and so I didn’t hear yournameandi’msorryaboutthat.” Adora ran out of air, she breathed in and wanted to continue, but got interrupted by Katrina.

“I remember telling you, that you shouldn’t talk that fast,” Katrina said with a faint smile. “And it’s fine. Don’t worry. I remember you, because … because shortly after you visited me, I got out!”

That made sense to Adora, but she felt like there was more to it. But Katrina didn’t continue. Razz told Adora once, that for some people talking is easier when they get to decide to talk, not when being pushed all the time. Adora had the feeling that Katrina was that kind of person.

“We have 10 minutes of the break left; do you want to try the climbing frame?”

Katrina’s mood lit up. “Sure.”

“Ok, first on top wins!”

As both stood at the base, Adora counted down and gave the start signal, but she never had a chance. She was only halfway-up when she saw Katrina look down on her with a smug grin on her face.

“That. Was. Awesome! How did you do that?”

“Duh, I climbed up?!”

Adora rolled her eyes, but couldn’t hide her own grin.

“That was really fast.”

“Oh, was it? I don’t know, I didn’t do this before.”

What?

Katrina cackled. “Just kidding! You should see your face!”

Ok, maybe this day isn’t going to end that bad.

Break was over, lessons continued. When the second break started, Adora found some kids playing tag, so Katrina and her joined them. Every time Adora got caught, she immediately went for Katrina. Katrina tried to give ‘it’ back to Adora, but she stood no chance. Katrina came to the conclusion that Adora ran more often than her, which wasn’t that much of an achievement since Katrina couldn’t even remember the last time she ran for real.

The last hours of school passed quite fast; it was time to go home. Adora waited for Katrina to squeeze her stuff in her backpack and follow her outside.

Adora asked: “How do you get home?”

“I get picked up, with my friends from the orphanage.”

“You live in an orphanage now? How come?”

Adora noticed Katrina tensing, hurried to say: “You don’t need to tell me, if you don’t want to!”

Katrina relaxed, even though Adora was a bit disappointed since she was curious about what happened in the last 7 months.

“My house isn’t that far from here, I’m walking home”, Adora answered Katrina’s unasked question. “Maybe if you are free on Friday, you could visit me.”

As they walked towards the exit, through the big gate, Adora heard an “Eep-“ from Katrina. As she turned around, she saw her standing still, eyes wide, and her face going pale.

“What’s wrong?”

Katrina just pointed straight ahead. “There is a … dog, a giant dog!”

Adora went on the tip of her toes and stretched her neck, spotted said dog and turned back to Katrina.

“Oh, that’s just Swiftwind. He is my dog!”

“What? You have a dog?”

Did Adora hear something like fear in Katrina’s voice?

“No need to be scared, Swifty is quite a dear one. Let me show you!”

“Adora, wait! N-“

Too late, Adora put 2 fingers in her mouth and let out a loud whistle.

“Swifty, come here!” Adora could see him lift his head, look in her direction and started sprinting towards them. He hit the brakes just in time and started to lick Adora’s face.

“Stop it, Swifty!”, Adora giggled. “I said Stop! STOP! Sit! Siiiiiiit!”. A few more licks and Swiftwind finally sat down.

“I want you to meet a new friend, Swifty! This is Katrina!”

As Adora turned around, she noticed that Katrina was gone. She saw Katrina peeking from behind the next tree.

“Sorry, but I’m … I’m not good with dogs. I think I will wait here until you and the dog are gone. Sorry.”

It wasn’t the first time people had respect for Swiftwind, he indeed was a big dog, Adora used to ride him not long ago. But it was the first time someone actually feared him. It also somehow hurt to hear Katrina say that, even though Adora know how it was meant.

“Ok then, see you tomorrow!”

Katrina waved a goodbye from behind the tree, and so Adora went home. It really wasn’t that far away. Swiftwind came every day to wait for her in front of the gate. He sure was a smart dog. He never chased anything, except Adora was the one who threw it. He looked left and right and waiting for cars to stop before crossing the street. Even though he was 5 years old now he never got hurt badly. He was Adora’s playmate since she could think. Adora talked to him now and then, and he always knew when to let out a woof. He was the best friend Adora ever had. She hoped that she could take Katrina’s fear from her and show her that Swiftwind indeed is harmless. He only bit someone once, and that was well deserved since that man tried to steal Razz’ bag. Adora chuckled on that memory, Swifty’s teeth in the thief’s butt.

When Adora and Swiftwind arrived at home, they went through the backdoor in the garden. The house itself was quite small, basement, ground and first floor. Adora’s room was in the first floor and the only room there since the roof forced everything that was supposed to be up there either be small or triangle shaped. In summer it could get quite hot up there, but there was a giant window with a size of a door to guarantee ventilation. In Winter it was great too, since the warmth from the ground floor heated up the floor of Adora’s room, so Swifty and Adora could spent hours cuddling on the warm ground while watching snowfall through the door/window. The ground floor had the living room, the bathroom, the kitchen/dining room mix-up and Razz’ room. The basement was just used for stocks and the laundry. The house was old, it was built when Razz moved in when she was young, and she was around 70 years old now, it also was the house where Adora’s mother grew up.

Her mother, Mara, was something Adora didn’t know how to feel about. She never met her, talked to her, played with her, or anything mothers usually did with their children. There exists only one photo from Adora and Mara together. Razz took it soon after Adora’s birth, Mara sat in the kitchen with Adora in her arms, looking tired but happy about her daughter. Adora had it framed on her nightstand and sometimes, if she couldn’t sleep, she looked at that photograph and imagined to see sadness in Mara’s eyes. Sometimes despair. That was the most recent picture of Mara in her possession, the only other pictures of Mara were older, from high school or even earlier. Razz told Adora, that she hadn’t seen Mara in a while, since she had been overseas, and then suddenly, after years, Mara stood at her door, 8 months pregnant. Of course, she welcomed her daughter, and took care of her. When the birth was due, Mara refused to go to the hospital. She said, they couldn’t help her and she didn’t trust them. But Razz had to get help, she couldn’t help Mara with this alone. Luckily, 2 young doctors moved in a house not far away, Razz managed to get them to help, even if it wasn’t their field of expertise. There were no complications and a healthy Adora found her way into the world. A few days later, Mara vanished. Razz said, she didn’t hear her leaving and she didn’t know where Mara went, but Adora somehow never bought that. Only when Adora asked for her father and Razz said that she didn’t know, Adora believed her.

***

2 weeks after Adora’s 5^th birthday, a letter came. An expensive looking white envelope addressed to Adora Greyskull, written in light blue ink. It was in fact a birthday card, with a letter from Mara. When Razz saw that letter, she hurried into her room and pulled out a chest from under her bed. Adora heard her digging around in that chest, cursing someone called Loki or something like that. When Razz returned, she held 4 envelopes in hand, each the same as the one Adora got that day, with the same blue ink. Every envelope had a postmark from the Whispering Woods, dated on January 19^th of the respective year. Every year she got a letter from Mara on her birthday, Razz kept the first ones until Adora learned how to read. The letter for her first birthday was already opened, Razz apologized as she had to check what’s in there, but the others were still sealed. Adora picked up the oldest letter and read:

Dear Adora,

I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I left you with Razz and I’m sorry that we won’t meet soon. When this letter finds you, I can’t tell you the reasons, at least not yet. I know this letter can’t comfort you for being alone and not growing up with a proper family that I wished for you. Be nice to your grandma, as she will always be there for you, since I cannot. I hope you can forgive me when we meet. Please remember at any time of the day, week, month, year that I love you, and that will never stop. I’ll try my best to come back to you.

Happy Birthday.

Mara

Adora didn’t even open the other letters, she just couldn’t. She knew what was waiting for her, since Mara still didn’t return to her now 4 years later. She just sat on the couch; her head buried in a pillow while bawling her eyes out. Razz could do nothing except to sit next to her and try to comfort Adora. Adora was a wreck for long enough to get Razz actually worried. Usually, Adora was quite easily to distract, especially with food. But learning that her mother won’t come back anytime soon will take a great toll on anybody. Friends are usually a good distraction, but even though there was an elementary school not far from her house, there weren’t any children her age living near her.

Adora was distressed for about 2 weeks, until one morning she was woken up by something wet in her face and hot, damp breath. When she opened her eyes, she saw a small golden retriever sitting in her bed, wearing a rainbow collar with a wing pendant attached to it. She wasn’t sure how to react, since she didn’t want to startle the dog. Adora climbed out of the bed carefully, the dog watching her every move. She walked down, searching for Razz. She found her in the kitchen.

“Razz, there is a dog in my bed!”

“Oh, I know dearie.”

 “Uhm, where does he come from, and why is he in my bed.”

“Oh, I think your bed is just more comfortable. And do you remember my friend down the street? Her dog had puppies a few weeks ago, but there were too many, so she gave them away. I took one of them.” Razz got more serious. “Adora, I know that Mara is trying her best to come back, but I don’t know when and how. I hope that that doggy can help you with waiting for her. But only if you want to. If you don’t, I can bring him back.”

Adora thought about it for a while and in the end, she decided to keep him. It took a while to find a name, but since he was quite fast and ran all the time, even if it just were circles around Adora, she decided to name him Swiftwind. He was tame, but protective. He had a feeling about Adora’s feelings. When she cried, he curled around her and tried to figure out what made her cry. When she laughed, he started to wag his tail, which sure was funny in their cramped house entrance since the tail would hit the door left and right to shake the whole house in its foundation. Adora only saw him being aggressive once. Some people in blue pants and light blue shirts were at the door and wanted to talk about something. Usually, Razz would get her broom to sweep the unwanted visitors away, but Swiftwind was faster. He ran down the stairs and walked growling with his teeth showing towards the two men, who turned on their heels and fled the scene.

Swiftwind indeed became her best friend. He slept in her bed, sometimes Adora slept in his. He followed her everywhere, even on the toilet which was inconvenient at most times. When she got to elementary school, which was in walking distance, he waited for her outside the gate to pick her up. Since he didn’t come with her before the lessons started, Adora was wondering about how Swiftwind found the way. Razz just shrugged and said something about how Swiftwind appeared and disappeared, just like the air he was made of. Adora never understood what Razz wanted to say with this, but Swifty never got hurt and everything was fine.

***

While Adora stood in the backyard thinking about the day she had, she decided to lay down in the grass and let herself getting warmed up by the sun. Swiftwind, with nothing better in mind, followed her soon. Her thoughts jumped between arguing with herself about the funniest looking cloud and how to approach Katrina. In both cases she didn’t get an useful answer. Since noon was long over, Adora got up again and searched for Razz. As she opened the backdoor, she was greeted by her grandma.

“Ah Mara, you are back! How was your first day back in school?”

Adora let out a sigh.

“I’m not Mara, Razz. You should know that by now!”

“Oh sure I do, dearie. You want some pancakes?”

That lifted Adora’s mood again, so she sat down at the table and ate the food Razz brought her. Obviously not forgetting Swiftwind who was now sitting under table, she slipped him a pancake.

“Raff? Doo woo wem-“

“Adora, what did I tell you about talking and eating?”

“Sowwy!”

After Adora finished eating, she said:

“Razz, do you remember the girl we met in the city on my birthday?”

“Oh sure, how can I forget that. I remember the fit you threw to give that girl your money. Why?”

“She is in my class now. I want to be friends with her, but I don’t know how. She is scared of Swifty. She also told me that something happened, so she can go to school now. But she didn’t say what happened. She seems sad.”

“Maybe it’s just because the school is a new place for her. Just stick around her for a bit, maybe bring her a welcome gift. If she is willing to find friends, she will open up soon enough. Do want to help me make muffins? You can have some to share with that girl tomorrow!”

Now that was something Adora could work with. She was good at making muffins, and even better at eating them. She searched for an apron, dragged a chair to the kitchen counter to stand on it and did her part. When Razz asked her if Adora wanted to put something like berries or cherries in, Adora preferred the berries but found out that they had none. For that, Razz got 2 baskets and went with Adora and Swiftwind to the next forest to find some. On one hand, it didn’t take that long for them to return, since Razz knew where to look for berries. On the other hand it took longer than necessary though, since Adora tended to eat half of her berries.

When the muffins were finally in the oven, Adora remembered that she actually had schoolwork to do, so she got her stuff and sat down in front of the oven. Swiftwind was used as a bookend. On the clock, Adora finished her homework the same time the oven beeped. She just got the muffins out as she heard Razz’ keys rattling.

“Adora dearie I got a costumer now. It will take a while. Dinner is in the fridge and don’t forget to feed Swifty.”

Once or twice a week, Razz went out to earn some money besides her pension. It was always in the evening, but she never was out for longer than 3 hours. It was something about a coven and cards. The only thing Adora knew about a coven was connected to witches. Razz may be old and may own a broom, but Adora knew that magic wasn’t real, so she didn’t know what Razz was doing exactly. Razz once told her, that doing this pays everything Adora and Razz owned, and even more. Adora didn’t really complain. When she was younger, Razz asked their doctor neighbors about babysitting, but now Adora was old enough to stay alone at some. Usually she just watched tv, until Razz came back. Today, she did the same, but this time she ate muffins too. She remembered to put some muffins away from tomorrow, and when Razz came back, it was time for bed. She tried to imagine Katrina’s reaction and fell asleep at the thought.

The next day, Katrina joined Adora waiting in front of the gate, but only after making sure that Swiftwind wasn’t around. Katrina greeted Adora first.

“Good morning”

“Good morning”

“Hey, I- I just wanted to apologize for yesterday. I didn’t expect a dog, and I’m just not good with dogs. I got bitten once while just sitting around without doing anything and since then I just avoid them.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry. Swiftwind is a good boy though. Maybe you can get used to him. Oh, by the way…” Adora dug in her backpack for the box with muffins. “I got something for you. You know. As a welcome gift.”

Katrina’s eyes went wide. “Just for me?”

Adora wanted some for herself, but it probably would earn her some points if she just said yes.

“Sure!”

Katrina’s eyes were sparkling and she swallowed hard. She took a muffin out of the box, hold it to her nose and took a deep breath.

“Adora, they smell … amazing. Did you make them all by yourself?”

“Yes.” Adora tried to lie, but she was bad liar. “Ok, no. Razz helped me.”

Katrina let out a laugh, while she took a bite. Her eyes went wide

“They even taste amazing. How did you do that?”

Adora couldn’t stop herself feeling proud. Katrina’s admiration fed something in her.

“I can make more if you want. When is your birthday? Anytime soon?”

“Yes, October 28^th. Why?”

“Uh, are you going to celebrate? When? Can I come too?”

Adora noticed from Katrina’s reaction, that she didn’t like the question. On second thought, Adora probably shouldn’t have asked for an invitation herself, too.

“I never … celebrated my birthday before, I don’t know how or what to do….”

Adora smacked herself in the face, second day in a row with a bad start.

“Wait no sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.”

“It’s ok, don’t worry. Thanks for the muffins. You want one?”

Adora wasn’t really in the mood anymore, but she still took one just to be safe. They ate their muffins in silence while waiting for the gate to open. Adora watched Katrina put the box in her backpack. She wanted to say something but got distracted by the now opening gate. When Adora turned back to Katrina, she was already gone. Adora reached the classroom and saw Katrina sitting at her desk already. Adora’s mood dropped even more. Katrina obviously wasn’t fine with what Adora said earlier, otherwise she wouldn’t have left without her. But since she wasn’t looking at Adora at all, Katrina probably didn’t want to talk to her either. So Adora just sat down and let the day pass. When school was over, Katrina just left without saying a word, not even ‘goodbye’. Not even Swiftwind could lift her mood as he licked Adora’s face.

Adora arrived at home and instantly began to lament about her awkwardness. Razz just laughed and said, that Adora shouldn’t worry about it. In her opinion Adora usually was talking too much for anyone to remember everything she said. Adora was happy when she heard that until she noticed that it wasn’t just a compliment. Razz’ advice often helped Adora in the past, so she just had to trust on that.

As always, Razz was right. The next day, Katrina was the one who approached Adora.

“Hey, sorry about yesterday. I guess I overreacted.” She handed Adora the box and pointed out that she even cleaned it. “I talked to Sarah yesterday and she said that I could celebrate my birthday, not on 28^th, but on the following Friday, the 31^st.”

“Wait, October 31^st? Like, Halloween? We can go trick-or-treating! I mean, if that is fine with you, since it’s your birthday and all. And who is Sarah?”

Katrina sighed. “I never have been trick-or-treating, so either way it’s a first time for me. Can I talk about Sarah later, when we take the break? It is a longer story.”

That actually peaked Adora’s interest.

As promised, Katrina told Adora about what happened to her. About how she faked an injury when she heard a similar story in the news, how she told the doctors about her situation and how the police came to arrest everyone and about finally about the trial. Adora was fascinated about the story, since she actually remembered parts of it. It was all over every newspaper in Half-Moon and even on tv. She obviously never made the connection to Katrina. Adora saw Katrina tensing up when she told her. Katrina then continued about the orphanage and said Sarah, who was a worker there. Katrina still had no chance to contact her parents, but she also didn’t seem too sad about that. When Katrina finished, it was time for Adora to tell her story. About Razz, Mara and Swiftwind, and how she also grew up without parents even though Razz did her best. She liked Katrina’s puzzled face, since Katrina obviously didn’t expect Adora’s situation to be that similar to her own, except that Adora still had a living relative who cared for her.

After school, Adora gathered her courage and asked Katrina about hanging out after school, maybe doing homework together and then see what the day brings. Katrina had to refuse, since she had to return to the orphanage after school, but she promised to ask Sarah about it. Adora gave her phone number and address, so Katrina could call her later. Katrina just stared at the paper with a blank expression, as if she didn’t know what to do with it, but put it in her pocket anyways. Adora watched Katrina leaving through the gates to the parking spots, trying to hold as much distance to the waiting Swiftwind as possible. That reminded Adora of another problem. She would like to have Katrina as a friend, but since Swiftwind was always with Adora, Katrina probably won’t walk together with her as long as she was scared of Adora’s dog. Then Adora remembered someone who maybe could help her with that problem. Halloween is over a month away, that should be enough time for it, no?

Adora was right, asking someone else was indeed helpful. She put everything she needed in her backpack; the two main participants would come to her anyways. The next day was quite uneventful, school opened its gates at 7.45am, everyone took their seat and lessons began at 8am. In the break between the lessons, Adora told Katrina about the “surprise” she had in mind for her. At first Katrina had an excited look on her face, but that quickly vanished as Adora told her that Swiftwind played a part in it. When school was over, Adora took Katrina by her hand and dragged her to the gate. Before exiting, Adora told Katrina to wait there. Adora left to look for Swiftwind. When she found him, she grabbed the leash she put in her backpack the day before, and tied Swiftwind to a lamppost. She went back to Katrina, grabbed her hand again and walked with her to the gate. The closer they got to the gate; the slower Katrina was walking. When she saw Swiftwind, she stopped completely. When Adora got yanked back by her now still standing classmate, she turned around to a very pale Katrina.

“Hey, don’t worry, I have a plan.” Adora pulled a bag from her backpack. “As you can see, I tied Swifty to that lamppost. Now, my plan is to get you used to Swifty. I got here some snacks for him.” Adora lifted that bag. “You can take some and give them to him. The only thing you actually need to do is to stay calm. And you can trust me on this!”

Katrina’s face turned from pale to a more greenish color. She hesitated, but took some of the snacks out of the bag. Adora just stood there and watched Katrina as she slowly took step after step towards Swiftwind. She got his attention now, he tried to walk to Katrina but was stopped by the leash on his collar. Smelling the snacks, his tail started wagging. The sudden motion seemed to startle Katrina; she took a step back. Adora wanted to say something but after a short pause Katrina made a step towards Swiftwind again. Katrina closed her eyes, stretched out her arm and opened her hand. Adora knew, that this was big for Katrina but looking at these two was too funny. Katrina with stretched out arm, turning her head away from Swiftwind, with open hand. And in two meters distance Swiftwind, nearly choking himself in desperation for the snacks. Adora couldn’t contain her laughter, which made Katrina open her eyes again and look at Adora.

“You need to get a bit closer to him.”

Katrina nodded, swallowed hard and closed the distance. Finally, the snacks in reach, Swiftwind covered Katrina’s hand in saliva. Her face went from greenish-pale to a healthier color, but utter disgust began to show. She shook her hand to get rid of spit, which didn’t really work.

“And? How was it?” Adora couldn’t hold back.

Katrina thought about it. “It was … ok. Disgusting but ok. But that’s enough for today.” She got some distance to Swiftwind again.

“Want to do it again tomorrow?”

“I’ll think about it. You can bring the leash again, Swiftwind will be here anyways.”

Counting this as a victory, Adora waved Katrina goodbye until she didn’t see her anymore. She then released Swiftwind again, but not without asking him if he knew who the best boy was. It was him, obviously, and Swiftwind knew that. They walked home, so Adora could Razz and the neighbor how could their ideas worked.

Adora and Katrina continued the “Get-Katrina-used-to-Swifty”-training for the next two weeks. Every day except Tuesday, since Katrina had an appointment on regular basis on that day. On day 3, Adora got to meet Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio, since they were waiting for Katrina at the bus, which brought them back to the orphanage. She found out that they knew Katrina a bit longer and actually visited they same school as them, but were placed in different classes. After Katrina and Adora were pleased with Katrina’s progress, they decided that it was time for Katrina’s first visit at Adora’s home. September was coming to an end, but it was still warm on the outside, and it didn’t rain. Perfect opportunity for Adora to show Katrina her way home. Since it only did take 20 minutes, it was nothing special for Adora. She noticed Katrina getting slower from time to time as she took a closer look at the surroundings.

“Everything ok?”

“Yes, I was just wondering about the size of the houses. They got tiny so fast. The houses in the streets near the orphanage are way taller. Just like that one. But I’ve never seen one like this. What even is this?”

Katrina pointed in the direction they were walking right now. Adora saw the tower, which was sticking out of the ground like a needle.

“To be honest, I only know it’s a church.” Adora answered. “Razz told me to never go in there, but not why.”

As they passed the building, Adora heard Katrina trying to read the inscription above the door on the base of the needle

“Pre- … Preĝejo de la unuaj.”

“See, a church. But I don’t anything about it. Except that the people that go in there sometimes go from house to house to find more people for their church. Now and then they also are at our door, but Razz and Swiftwind chase them away.”

Katrina frowned. It seemed like she also didn’t know what to think of it.

Two blocks farther down, Adora remembered that she wanted to do a small detour. That way she could introduce Katrina to the person that helped her fixing the Katrina-Swiftwind-problem and say thank you again. They reached a house that was quite similar to Razz’. Just different colors, and the flower beds were placed in a different pattern. As they walked to the door, they passed a sculpture that looked like a fishing net, but made of metal and turning around itself in the wind. Adora walked up the stairs and rang the bell. They heard footsteps and a whitehaired woman with dark skin opened the door.

“Hey Netossa, is Spinnerella here? I wanted to introduce my new friend Katrina and say thank you again for the idea with the leash.”

Adora didn’t notice the short pause Netossa needed to answer.

“Hey Adora, hey Katrina. Yeah, Spinny is here. Wait a minute, I will get her.”

Adora turned around to Katrina to smile at her, but Katrina looked like she just saw a ghost.

“Ehm Katrina, are you ok?”

Katrina didn’t answer, but managed to nod. Adora wanted to ask something else, but in that moment, she heard Netossa talking and she and Spinnerella appeared in the door. Spinnerella said Hello to Adora and Katrina, and Adora repeating her introduction of Katrina and her thank you to Spinnerella as it was her idea how to accustom Katrina to Swiftwind. Spinnerella listened to her and waved at Katrina, who still made a face like she just got spooked. Spinnerella snapped her fingers, as if she remembered something.

“Netossa, darling, we still have that cake tin and that plate from Razz, no? Why don’t show Adora where we keep it and give it to her?”

 “Ehm sure thing, Spinny, but I just can get it-“

“Why don’t take Adora with you and show her?”, Spinnerella repeated as she turned her head to Netossa and gave her a look.

“Oooooh sure. Adora, come on, let’s get that stuff.” Netossa said as she waved Adora to her.

As Adora followed Netossa, she saw Spinnerella crouching down to speak to Katrina, but the door fell shut and Adora couldn’t hear what they were talking about. When she returned with the borrowed stuff, the two were waiting for them. Katrina was looking way better than before, Adora wondered what Spinnerella actually said to Katrina. But neither of them brought it up, so Katrina and Adora just said goodbye and finally made their way to Adora’s house. They didn’t say a word until they reached the front, then Katrina broke the silence.

“Did you mean it?”

“Huh, what?” Smart, Adora, smart as always.

“When you said, I’m your friend. Did you mean it?”

“Of course, why not? Why? Do you not want to be my friend?”

“yesyesyes of course I want to. It’s just- “Katrina sighed. “It’s just that … that you would be my first friend. I’m glad it’s you.”

Adora wasn’t sure, but she swore that she saw Katrina blush a bit. Then a sound came from Katrina’s stomach which also reminded Adora that she was quite hungry. They finally went in the house to get some of Razz’ spaghetti.

The spaghetti was, as always, delicious. In the afternoon, Adora gave Katrina a tour of the house and they settled in Adora’s room to do homework. It was only Friday, so they could’ve done the work over the next two days, but they found out it was quite fun when doing them together. Later, they took the next step in the Katrina-Swiftwind-Bonding, as they got some toys and headed for the fields behind the backyard, so Katrina could throw some balls for Swiftwind. Razz reminded her to wear a shirt, but Adora just rolled her eyes, answering that it was September and not warm enough to wear anything less than a shirt. She felt Katrina’s at her, but tried to ignore it, there was no need for an explanation about that right now. Soon they found out that neither Adora nor Katrina could throw quite far, but that didn’t stop Swiftwind to go full speed, only to somersault when he hit the brakes and tried to pick up the ball at the same time. Again, Adora had to find out that time flies, especially if you have fun. At dawn, someone from the orphanage called that the send someone to pick up Katrina. Adora led Katrina to the door and said goodbye, then hurried to the couch to look outside. She saw Katrina hop into the car, turning around waving at her. Adora waved back and her eyes followed the car until it was gone.

“You surely found someone, hm?”

Adora jumped, she didn’t hear Razz enter the room.

“Yes, I guess.”

Adora sat on the couch for a while.

“Razz, can I ask you for something? For Halloween?”

“Oh sure.”

Adora told Razz, what she had in mind and hoped that it would work the way she imagined. She let out a cheer, as Razz told her it was fine and wouldn’t even take that long. She just needed a few numbers.

The following days passed without anything special happening. The next Monday, Adora brought a measurement tape with her and hugged Katrina a few times to get her measures. It weirded Katrina out for sure, especially since Adora didn’t tell her why she did that.

Katrina’s Birthday came around, but Adora couldn’t make a big deal out of it. It fell on a Tuesday and so Katrina had to leave right after school. But Adora kept her promise, as she brought cake with her. They sadly had to share it with everyone in class, but it Adora’s heart jump to see Katrina’s eyes sparkle as she ate her piece. Bringing the cake was the only reason for Swiftwind to accompany Adora for the first time in the morning. The sheer amount of cake was too heavy for Adora, and so she tied a backpack on Swiftwind’s back to let him carry it. Swiftwind nearly got suffocated in affection as everyone who waited in front of the school gate wanted to pet him.

3 days later, Adora literally jumped out of the bed and got ready for THE day. Adora was excited for Halloween since Katrina got the permission to not only go trick-and-treating but even to stay overnight. Adora got more and more fidgety over the day, it peaked as the doorbell rang and when she opened the door, she heard a “Hey, Adora!” which signaled that Katrina, indeed, had arrived. Adora was a hyperactive mess by now, she brought Katrina’s stuff into her room while Razz was welcoming Katrina. Adora picked up the present she got for Katrina and ran down the stairs again to come to a screeching halt and hand it over. Katrina was clearly speechless, mouth agape and watery eyes.

“Well, I remembered that you said you don’t have a costume, but it’s Halloween and you need a costume for that. Last week I got your measures, and Razz sewed it. We actually have lots of fabric in our basement.”

Adora watched Katrina opening her present and pull a black and grey dress, a black pointy hat, and a black cape. Then she remembered something else she wanted to gift Katrina. She went to her room to grab it, while Razz helped Katrina to get into her new costume. Adora came back to a now properly dressed Katrina, trying to fit her hair under the hat.

“Every real witch needs a familiar, and you said that you don’t like dogs, so I figured this one will fit you better.”

Adora handed her a plush cat she found in a drawer a while and let out a surprised yelp as Katrina jumped at Adora and hugged her. Adora hugged her back, and even harder when she heard Katrina whisper a hoarse “Thank you” in her ear. Adora let her go as Razz came back to call them for dinner. She looked at Katrina again, who just stared at the cat, a big smile on her face but tears in her eyes. Adora was proud of her idea and now even prouder seeing how much Katrina liked it, but she didn’t expect such a strong reaction.

After dinner, Adora went back in her room to get her own costume. A white bodysuit with a golden flower on its chest, golden shoulder plates and 3 golden lines around both thighs. A cape, red on the inside, attached to the waist. Adora redid her hair and out on the golden headpiece. As she went back down to finally get going, she was greeted by a staring Katrina.

“And what are you supposed to be? A princess?”

“Yes! I mean, NO! I’m a-“ She had to get back to her room again, since Adora forgot something there AGAIN. What was wrong with her today?

“I am a warrior princess”, she exclaimed, raising the sword she got from her room.

“Aren’t princesses usually sitting around and getting saved by knights?”

“Well, yeah, but that’s why I’m a warrior princess. I’m the one saving people.”

“You sure do.”

Adora barely heard that last whisper by Katrina.

They grabbed their bags and finally went out to hunt candy. The evening was quite warm for that time of the year, and there was no rain to expect. The perfect conditions for being out in the dark. Adora had to tell Katrina what to do first, since it was her first time trick-or-treating. They went from house to house, rang the bell, and presented their catchphrase. Adora told Katrina to remember the houses that didn’t open the door despite having lights on, to figure out the “trick” part of trick-or-treating later on. They even visited Netossa and Spinnerella. Netossa opened the door with a bowl of candy in her arm and started to laugh very loud before the two visitors even had a chance to say anything. That was enough to bring out Spinnerella too, who instantly turned around to get a camera. After she took some pictures, Adora and Katrina stayed a while since there weren’t any other children around and it was their last stop anyways. They asked Katrina a few things about her costume, since they already knew Adora’s. When Katrina told them that Adora gave her the costume as a late birthday present, Netossa and Spinnerella exchanged a look.

“You two really found each other, huh?”

Adora didn’t understand what Netossa was trying to say there, but since Katrina was nodding furiously Adora was fine with it, too. Before the two of them left, Katrina turned back around.

“Are you married?”

Adora saw Netossa’s face go sour instantly, Spinnerella at least managed to keep a half-baked smile.

“No. No we aren’t. We are not allowed to.”

“Why not?”

Spinnerella shrugged. “These are the rules. We are fighting for changes, but for now … we just live together.”

On their way home, Katrina and Adora talked about their costumes and when Katrina asked about the origin of Adora’s, Adora gave her the only answer she had

“Honestly, I don’t know. Razz asked me, if I wanted anything special and I said, that I wanted to be a princess, but not a princess. So, Razz made me this. I even thought about a special name, but Adora of Grayskull sounds already pretty cool, no?”

Katrina nodded in agreement, as Adora put her left foot on a boulder that laid next to the sidewalk.

“For Adora of Grayskull will always save the people in need!” Adora exclaimed, pointing her sword to the dark sky.

“Even witches?”

Adora got caught by surprise.

“Uhm yes? Sure, why not.”

Katrina didn’t respond to this. When Adora was finished posing, they continued their way home, and Katrina spoke up again.

“If you would pick a nickname for me, what it would be? I can’t think of any. Do you have any ideas?”

Adora paused, walked around Katrina. She looked from the black boots, over the black leggings to the black-grey dress, up to the freckles, the mismatched eyes, the plush cat on her shoulder, her brown hair looking like a mane in the moonlight and the pointy hat.

“How about …  Catra?”

Yes, Catra seemed to be a good name for a witch with a cat.

Chapter Text

Spring, 7 years ago, Half-Moon

Catra smiled at the memory of her first Halloween together with Adora. And how the nickname she got at that day stuck with her over the years. It has been a while since then. Somehow, a lot and nothing at all changed since then. Adora and Catra have been inseparable since about 6 years now. Razz’ house had become Catra’s second home. Netossa and Spinnerella became close friends, even though Adora still wasn’t aware what role these both actually played in Catra’s life. Just right now, Catra was sitting on a couch in the waiting room of the psychiatric department of Half-Moon hospital, waiting for Spinnerella. She chose to keep her as her therapist, even after it became clear that they will see each other aside from just their meetings in the hospital, as Catra still had fears of commitment and she liked having people around she knew. And Spinnerella was great at separating work from free time. Working at the same place with her girlfriend over 10 years probably helped developing that skill.

That brought Catra back to the day she visited Adora’s house the first time and the unplanned pause at Catra’s doctors’ house. She still could remember the feeling of her blood leaving her face and how Spinnerella’s gears worked faster than the rest’s, when she told Netossa to take Adora inside so she could talk to Catra without the others listening. Spinnerella asked her that moment, if Adora knew what happened, and if not, if Catra wanted her to know. Catra decided not to tell Adora the truth. At that point she didn’t want to strain the fresh relationship to Adora, as Catra figured telling a person, that to some extent she was responsible that Catra’s skull got cracked and she partially lost vision on one eye, probably wasn’t a factor that would boost a friendship. Until this point neither Spinnerella nor Netossa spilled the true story. Catra stuck with the story, that she got out by faking an injury and telling the doctors to call the police. Only Spinnerella knew that Catra actually planned to get out this way, but Octavia was faster in more than one way, so there was no need for Catra to fake an injury. Catra’s thoughts drifted to their ex-tormentors. Grizzlor probably had half his sentence done by now, Octavia at least 12 years to go. Lost in thought, Catra caressed the right sight of her head, feeling the scar. Her head hasn’t hurt in a long time, not really. She could feel it throbbing when she got worked up emotionally, which happened more often than Catra would like. Especially in the last 6 months, but Catra had no explanations for it.

Nothing actually changed. Catra and Adora were in the 8^th grade now, in middle school. Adora was already 14 years old, as always Catra will follow in October. Adora didn’t change at all. Blonde, bubbly, every teacher’s favorite. She picked up football, the real one, and seemed to be quite good at it. She was playing … midfield? Catra wasn’t so sure about it, since she couldn’t understand the hype around it. But it was the most popular sport in Europe and even a microstate like Half-Moon couldn’t avoid being caught up in that hype. It wasn’t like she never watched football matches; she often watched the school team play. But the reason for that was Adora, not the sport. Obviously, golden girl Adora was a starter and never got subbed out, so Catra got reasons to pay attention.

Catra on the other hand wasn’t a team player. She was no player at all, since the only kind of sport she did was the sprint to the bus in the morning, when she had slept in. Over the years, Catra had developed preferences for art and languages. She especially enjoyed charcoal drawings, she loved it to rub her thumb over the drawing and smear the graphite to create different effects. Catra didn’t know where the love for languages came from, maybe from the fact that it was easier for her to learn. She was fluent in Lunarian and English, the C2 exam for German is going to be held in 4 weeks. She picked French over Chemistry for the upcoming school year, so she had another language on her list. On the other side, Catra was quite sure she was going to lose the ability to speak her native language. She wasn’t too sad about it, she only used it to talk with Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle, and it was a trigger for memories of darker times.

At Adora’s pleading, Catra went to soccer practice a few times, but when she found out they will train outside even in the rain or snow, Catra decided to look for something else.  She also tried dance, but dance would require to interact with someone else in most cases, so that was a miss too. The only thing Catra ever did for longer than one week was gymnastics. Longer than one week meant in this case 4 weeks, but Catra simply lacked the discipline to go to practice. The strange thing here is, she didn’t actually stop doing it. She just did her own way. Just the stretching to stay flexible. Lonnie would probably kill her if Catra started to somersault in their room.

Speaking of Lonnie, the orphanage had changed, even if only a bit. Since their last new resident came in 3 years ago, the board decided to make some changes since the space wasn’t needed. Instead of 3 bunkbeds, there were just 3 normal beds in each room, which meant that Catra and Lonnie still had to share the room, but the empty space was filled with shelves, parallel to the beds and curtains acting as partitions gave them some privacy now. Kyle got picked up by foster parents 2 years ago, which affected Rogelio quite a bit, since he now was all alone in his room. They still went to the same school and did see each other every day, but it took some time to get used to it.

Catra’s trip down the memory lane was interrupted by the sound of a door creaking, she saw Spinnerella gesturing her to come in.

“What were you thinking about?”

“Oh, just the good old times, the first Halloween I spend together with Adora.”

Spinnerella smiled at that memory.

“You two looked so cute together, the witch and her knight in shimmering armor.”

For some reason, Catra felt her face heating up.

“No need to call me cute.”

They continued to with their usual procedure. Spinnerella asked Catra about her last 4 weeks, since Catra only had monthly appointments for a while now. Catra had a few reasons besides her fear of commitment to keep Spinnerella as a therapist, and as long insurance was compensating the costs, there was no reason for Catra to stop coming here.

“I will ask this again, even if I’m afraid I know the answer. Did you tell Adora the truth?”

Catra expected the question, and she was afraid of it, even though she knew Spinnerella wouldn’t judge her for this.

“No. … I didn’t. I can’t even explain. Maybe I’m just waiting for the right moment. But I have no idea what this moment is supposed to look like. Probably because I’m afraid that I won’t have the opportunity to explain everything to Adora, why I lied to her for 6 years now.”

“Are you afraid to lose her if you do?”

Catra closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

“No.”

Spinnerella stayed quiet as Catra took in another breath and rubbed her eyes

“Fuck! Yes, I’m scared. And I just lied to you and I don’t even know why.”

“Calm down, that’s ok. You know that I have no reason to be mad at you. But do you really think that Adora will push you away?”

“That’s the point! I don’t know. I would be mad if someone would do that to me.”

“You would be mad. But would you push Adora away?”

“NO!” Catra was close to shouting. “No, of course not. How could I? She is my best friend…”

“Do you think, that Adora does not feel that way?”

Catra thought about it for a while, but she didn’t get any new revelations.

“No, she probably thinks the same.”

“It seems, there is no reason to be afraid. But it’s up to you to decide, if and how you tell her. Do you have a headache?”

The question caught Catra off-guard.

“Yes. How do you know?”

“You closed your right eye, are rubbing your scar and your breathing is irregular for 10 minutes now.”

Catra was visibly impressed.

“I would be very bad at my job if I wouldn’t notice that, especially since we are talking about a topic you value very high.” Spinnerella added.

“That’s scary.”

“Oh, you should ask Netossa about that.”

Catra chuckled, but wasn’t sure if this was a joke.

They talked a while about Catra’s headache, how and how strong it came. Catra got homework from Spinnerella, she was supposed to write time, day and activity down, when her headache came back. It sounded boring but Catra figured it probably would help. When the session was over, Catra said Goodbye and left to sit down at the bus station in front of the hospital. She sat there and thought about the session. It scared her, how easy she was to read. Catra thought, that she had become quite good at hiding emotions, but either she wasn’t nearly as good as she thought or it was useless against Spinnerella and Adora. Especially Adora. That girl was able to smell if something was wrong with Catra. She shook her head at that thought. The bus finally arrived and Catra was heading to her favorite place.

Catra entered Razz’ garden from the backside and was greeted by an excited Swiftwind. Despite being 9 years old, the golden retriever was still going strong and was living up to his name.

“Hey Swifty! How you doin’? Can you tell me who the good boy is?”

Swiftwind went nuts at this, still being aware of the fact that he was the good boy. Catra played with him for a bit, until she decided to head inside. The door was open, but she neither heard nor saw someone. As she shouted a loud Hello into house, she heard someone coming up the stairs. It was Razz, coming from the basement with a basket full of laundry.

“Catra dearie, how are you doing? What are you doing here? Adora isn’t home yet!”

“I’m all good. I know, Adora still is at practice, but I had an appointment and decided to come over after, instead of going back to school.”

“Hm hm. So how is it going between Adora and you? Adora won’t tell me anything.”

It is unusual that people caught Catra off-guard, but this was already the second time today.

“What do you mean? What’s supposed to be going between Adora and me?”

Razz gave her a strange look, humming.

“Oh don’t worry, just an old woman’s crazy talk.”

That made it even more strange to Catra, but Razz gave her no chance to think about it.

“I have a costumer later; I have to leave you alone but I’m sure that Adora will come soon!”

Oh right, Razz was still ‘working’.

“You want to leave me alone? Me, a total stranger?”

Razz laughed. “Dearie, you are not a stranger, you basically live here.”

That was true. Catra spend a lot of time in this house. She basically only returned to the orphanage to sleep there. That will change soon, since she had to do part of the chores in the house when she got 14 years old. That’s why Lonnie already had to do some. But as long as this wasn’t the case, Catra wasn’t going to waste any chance to be somewhere else.

When she saw Razz gathering her stuff and getting ready to leave, Catra just had to ask.

“How is your ‘work’ and your ‘coven’ going at the moment?” Catra drew the hyphens with flexing her index and middle fingers. “See anything strange lately?”

Like nearly every other person in this millennium, Catra did not believe in magic. For what reason? She knew a card trick, but that’s just a sleight-of-hand. The only magic she found in this were the stupid faces of the spectators. Razz narrowed her eyes.

“Tsk tsk, Catra. A non-believer, huh? Sit down young lady, I’m going to tell you your future”

That did not go as expected, but Catra had nothing to lose and maybe there was even something entertaining to see. At first, Razz explained that she will use 22 cards, numbered from 0 to 21, each with their own name and picture. Catra was supposed to shuffle the cards and draw 10 cards upside down, and Razz will put them down in a pattern called the Celtic Cross. She even handed pen and paper to Catra for her to write down what Razz told her. Razz claimed, that she never remembered what kind of future she prophesized, not even the one she told Adora on her 6^th birthday.

Razz began with laying down the first card, the Hanged Man.

“This was you, wrongly convicted, waiting for your redemption.”

She flipped over the next card and put it on the first.

“Justice. That’s kind of self-explanatory, no?”

Catra went pale. Razz flipped over the 3^rd card and placed it above the others on the table

“The hierophant. You carry a secret that you will have to reveal at some point.”

Catra felt her mouth dry out.

“That much for your past, now the present.” She flipped over the next card and put it left to the first two.

“Temperance. You will face temptation or corruption you will have to resist or this will change everything for you!”

The next, placed on the right of the first 2 cards.

“Now the future. The Wheel of Fortune. You will have to make a decision, that will have an impact on the rest of your life”

Another one, this time placed on the bottom side of the first cards.

“The lovers. A person dear to you will make a decision, that you will not agree with.”

Catra remembered to close her mouth again and swallowe. Razz placed the 7th card, starting a new pattern.

“The Hermit. This is you now.”

The 8th card above the 7th.

“The Fool. Not everyone will agree with you or be on your side, but there is always light in the dark.

The 9th above the 8th.

“The Tower. You will have to face something that blocks your path. And you have to pass it for the end.”

The last card.

“The world. Everything you did or didn’t do will have impact on whether you are able to save your world or not.”

Catra didn’t even realize, that Razz was finished. She came back to reality as Razz stood up to get her jacket. Awake again, she hurried write down the cards, their position and what Razz said about them. She just brought out a faint goodbye when Razz left the house. Before closing the door, Razz said something about not telling anyone about the prophecy.

Catra managed to drag herself to the couch and lay down. She heard her pulse going crazy, but her head didn’t hurt so it wasn’t that bad.

How is this possible? How could Razz now about her past on the street, the court hearing, the secret she will have to tell someday? Even if Razz knew, it was Catra who shuffled the deck and drew 10 cards. What are the odds that the cards will appear that way? She hated math, but she was eager to find out the probability for this.

Obviously, the parts about the future were probably garbage. It’s impossible to see the future, otherwise there wouldn’t be any tests in school and the lottery wouldn’t exist either. Lost in thought, she didn’t notice Adora entering the house until she stood in front of the couch and looked down to Catra.

“Earth to Catra, someone there? Everything good? You look quite similar to the wall.”

“Uhm, I guess? Razz told me my future, and it was kind of shocking.”

Understatement of the year. The first card felt like getting stabbed in stomach, the second like the knife turning and the third like the knife getting pulled out and put back in her body.

Catra took a look at Adora, who wore her thinking face.

“I never did see Razz telling someone their future, I can barely remember mine. But hell, you look like you just got stabbed.”

Catra rolled her eyes.

“Thanks for nothing, smartass!”

Adora put a hand on her backside with a shocked expression. Catra would’ve rolled her eyes even harder but that was physically not possible.

“Do you ever think about what Razz had told you?”

Adora blurted out a No and turned around. Catra was surprised about that reaction, but she saw Adora’s ears getting red; it was clear that Adora’s prophecy was either embarrassing or straight up nasty for her. Catra was about to tease Adora to spill more details, but remembered Razz’ words about not telling anyone anything specific. Knowing Adora, she probably held true to these words as if she was under oath. After a moment of silence, Adora was the first one to speak up again.

“Want to play Mario Kart?”

“Loser has to prepare dinner?”

“You know it!”

“Deal.”

Back in the orphanage, Catra did her stretching exercises while thinking about the day. It bothered her, that Razz left such an impression on her. Catra didn’t believe in magic, never did, but the things Razz had said were plain creepy. She knew that this kind of fortune telling also depends on the receiver’s interpretation, but for most of the cards, Catra didn’t see much room to interpret something else. At least she had the whole weekend to think about it since Adora had away games.

The following weeks passed, but it was a drag. Nothing happened. What was supposed to happen, anyway? It was school. It’s usually not like something special happen out of nowhere. No fights, no one got thrown out of a window and nobody set the school on fire either. Just plain boring lessons. Catra turned her head to the left, looking at Adora. The sun was just above the horizon and gave Adora an warm-colored aura, making her hair look golden. Catra had to close her right eye to take in the picture in its true colors. Her gaze wandered up to the hair poof Adora wore since a year now. Catra also changed her hair, shorter on the sides but not short enough to reveal the scar. She now wore a ponytail too, but her hair was way stronger than Adora’s, her own ponytail looked more like a brush. Catra liked it, she imagined the brush would point out her artistic side. But she never understood why Adora went with that poof. It just made no sense to her. There was one time when Adora reached for her poof during lessons and pulled out a small piece of candy. It was obviously to mess with Catra, who was sent to detention for laughing for 10 minutes straight. But it was worth it, in both their eyes.

During lunch, Adora sat down in front of Catra and, while putting down her tray, blurted out:

“Heterochromia!”

“Hey, Adora! I hope you enjoy your meal, too.”

Adora looked confused, until she was on the same page.

“Oh yeah, sorry. Enjoy your meal. I just wanted to say that I looked up your eye-condition …”

“Did you also want to say that Heterochromia isn’t actually that rare, only my combination of color?”

Adora dropped her shoulders, obviously disappointed.

“Yeah… Anyways!” She looked at Catra again. “Do you want to check out that new ice cream parlor down the street? They have specials for the opening day!”

That was a quick change of topics, even for Adora. Catra shrugged in response. Sure, why not.

After PE, Catra waited in front of the gym for Adora. What took the girl so long? They left for the changing room at the same time. Catra went back inside, opened the door to the changing room to see Adora standing there in her gym clothes – and looking? At what – or whom? Catra filled her lungs with air.

“ADORA, QUIT STARING AT HER AND GET MOVING, I WANT TO LEAVE!”

Catra closed the door with a kick, looked at her watch and 20 seconds later, a dressed Adora with an unhealthy red face opened the door and nearly sprinted to the exit, chased by Catra’s cackle echoing through the room. When Catra followed her outside, still laughing, Adora turned around with anger on her face.

“That. Was. Not. Necessary!”, she pressed through her teeth.

Catra chuckled. “Come on, who cares. Except you planned to do that more often, than I probably destroyed your plans.”

Adora’s face got even more red, but Catra couldn’t decide if it was anger or embarrassment. Interesting. Adora and Catra turned around when they heard someone call for Adora.

“Oh shoot, I totally forgot about that. Sorry Catra but I have to cancel our plans today. I have something else to do today. For -uh- the soccer team. Maybe tomorrow.”

Wait, did - did Adora just turn down Catra?

Catra stood there in shock, when she came to that conclusion. She watched the two girls grab their bikes, laughing about something Catra couldn’t hear over that distance. Adora turned around to wave goodbye to Catra, but Catra’s eye were locked on the other girl.

“That’s a nice bike you got there.”, Catra thought with a burning feeling in her chest. “It would be a shame if something happened to it.”

Catra’s plan was simple. Find the bike. Find something heavy. Smash the bike with it. So far, so good. The parking lot for bikes was hidden behind the gym, with tall trees covering the other side. No one will see her. She even managed to steal a metal bar from the construction site across the street. Catra just had to wait for the timeframe when she usually had to be in the art room. Lucky her, the teacher was sick and the lesson got canceled. Sweet, free time. It didn’t take long to find the bike. Legs apart to get a stable footing, lifting the bar with both hands about her head, and activating every muscle cell she could to let the bar fly down – to miss the bike and hit the concrete. Catra just stood there, the bar vibrating in her hand from the impact.

What am I doing? What is wrong with me?

She was just about to destroy property from a person she didn’t even know. A person she had no reason to hold a grudge against. The bar fell out of her numb hands. She dropped on her knees; a passerby could think that she was about to pray. She let her head tilt down and felt tears gathering in her eyes, while her breaths got shorter and her chest began to hurt.

Think of the breathing exercises Spinnerella taught you. Remember the beat of that EDM track. In … Pause … out … Pause … in … Pause … Out.

Catra sat there and just breathed for 5 minutes, which felt like an eternity.

What am I supposed to do now?

Her breathing was going regular again, her tears dried and her head didn’t even start to hurt. So far, so good. Catra stood up again, and began to walk to the main house again, hopefully nobody will see her, but her next lesson is going to start in 10 minutes. Her hopes to not been seen were crushed immediately as a familiar voice called her name. Catra turned her head and saw Adora walking towards her. Adora’s smile disappeared quite fast and got replaced by pure worry.

“What happened? Are you ok? Are you getting sick?” Adora let out a barrage of questions while she cupped Catra’s cheek with one hand and put the backside of her other hand on Catra’s forehead to see if Catra is feverish. Catra wanted to melt into that touch.

Don’t do that, I don’t deserve this.

Catra didn’t notice the other girl coming closer, the owner of the bike Catra nearly destroyed.

“Oh, by the way, that’s Svenia. She is the future vice-captain of the soccer team; I will be the captain next school year. We had to figure out how and when we want to hold the tryouts.”

Catra felt something shattering in her chest.

It was a team colleague! My god, I risked my friendship with Adora for this. And just because I got … jealous … for no reason.

Of course, Adora didn’t hear Catra’s inner dialogue.

“I’m sorry I canceled our plans yesterday, even though was my idea. We can go today, if you want. I’m paying!”

Catra finally got back her voice, hoarse.

“No. I’m sorry, but I … don’t feel so good. I think I better go home.”

Adora nodded in agreement, just wishing Catra the best. Of course, Adora would never say anything bad here, just encouraging Catra to take care of herself.

You don’t know what I was just about to do. I don’t deserve you.

Adora said her goodbye, before Catra left for the office to announce her leave for today. The responsible lady didn’t even doubt it, Catra probably looked as shitty as she felt. Catra took the next bus to the orphanage, dragged herself in her room, dropped on the bed and fell asleep on spot.

When she woke up, it was 10 pm. Lonnie said, that Sarah decided to let her sleep since Catra had looked like shit. Someone, probably Lonnie, even thought of her and brought leftovers from dinner in her room. It was pizza, so Catra didn’t bother to warm it up and just ate it. When she was done, Catra brought the plate back to the kitchen to clean it. After putting the plate back in the correct shelf, she passed a mirror and agreed with Sarah. Catra really looked like shit. She went back into her room to gather her pajamas and hopped under the shower. Even if she won’t be able to get rid of the emotional dirt, there was no need to let the physical dirt stay on her. The shower made her feel lighter, at least a bit. Being dried up again, she laid on the bed and thought about what happened the last two days, and a massive wave of guilt hit her. She tried to talk herself out of it, since Catra didn’t actually do anything, there will be no consequences. It actually calmed her down, but it left a bitter taste. It was enough to let Catra doze off again.

It was horrible. Catra roused, drenched in sweat, with a pounding headache in the middle of the night. Usually, even nightmares fade after waking up, but this one stays. The message was clear. Catra messed up and Adora pushed her away for that. She just couldn’t bear that thought. Even worse, Catra didn’t understand where this all came from. She was well aware of what happened earlier that day, but couldn’t comprehend why it affected her so much. Catra was sure that she made her peace with it, even if only a bit. And she already managed to sleep today, meaning it can’t be that bad, no? But her head … her headache got worse with every breath. At this point Catra was kneeling in her bed, her head between her knees and her hands grabbing the sides of her head, begging the pain to go away. Catra curled up even more, losing her balance and rolling out of the bed. She didn’t even feel the pain in her back when she hit the floor, her head seems to be the center of her universe. She tried to think of anything soothing Spinnerella taught her, but her head felt like a Coke-Bottle with a Mentos in it. Catra couldn’t stop herself from screaming, hitting the floor with her fists, an endless circle of frustration and pain. It nearly drover her mad. As the floor began to feel wet, someone turned on the ceiling lights. The light fried Catra’s brain and she lost consciousness. Temperance, Catra.

When Catra woke up again, she felt as light as feather. She opened the eyes and just saw white. Her eyes focused and she recognized the room, even though she hasn’t been in it for about 6 years.

I’m at the hospital. Great.

She looked around and compared her situation with her last stay here. Similar room, again 3 tapes on her chest connected to an ECG (she will not rip them off this time), but no needle in her hand. She was wearing that stupid white gown, that made her body feel itchy everywhere. When Catra reached out for the red glowing button to call a nurse, she noticed not only her left but also her right hand was covered in bandages. And she felt pain coming from both hands’ sides. The door opened and a nurse came in to check on her, telling Catra that Spinnerella’s shift will start soon, and she come for her as soon as possible. It surprised Catra, that it was Spinnerella coming for her first, and not an internist. An answer for this was given, when Spinnerella arrived, a second doctor entered the room with her. He was the missing internist. After a short introduction, he gave Catra a rundown of her current situation. Emergency services were called at 2am for a case of a fainted girl with roughed up, bleeding hands, reasons unknown. Tranquilizers were given to her, X-rays of her head and hands were made. The result: nothing. Her hands were fine, no broken bones, just bleeding due to repeated contact with a rough surface. Her head was fine too. At least on the physical side. Netossa had done a great job on the surgery 6 years ago, no bone fragment appeared to be in a place it wasn’t supposed to be, and everything healed up seamlessly, except the scar on the outside. Catra figured, that whatever was wrong her, it was in her brain, not around it. The internist left, and let Catra and Spinnerella alone.

Silence fell over them. Spinnerella said nothing, just sat there, waiting, while Catra tried her best to not look at her therapist. During the rundown the internist gave them, Catra remembered why she was here. And she didn’t like it, not at all. After 15 minutes of silence, Catra drew a deep breath and needed to use all her willpower to face Spinnerella. Spinnerella still just sat there, with her notebook on her lap.

“Did Razz ever read the cards for you?”

Judging from her reaction, Spinnerella did not expect that.

“Yes, after Adora’s birth.”

“Did it come true?”

Spinnerella thought for a moment. “It will, soon. Catra, what happened? Why did you ask me that?”

Catra needed a moment to gather her thoughts. Then she turned to Spinnerella again, and told her what happened over the last 2 days, but without the details regarding Razz. Catra finished and waited for Spinnerella to stop scribbling. She put away her pen and looked at Catra with a stern gaze.

“First of all, I don’t know what Razz told you exactly and I don’t want to know. It is obvious that you are reading something into this, and I highly advise you not to do that. Razz is good at reading people, she can easily figure out what you want her to say, even if she acts like she is senile from time to time. Whatever she told you can probably be interpret in a way you wish things to happen. I know that, trust me. It is great to have dreams and ambitions, but it is not healthy to reach for them with self-destructive behavior. You have to keep that in mind.”

She paused a moment for Catra to catch up and process the things she just said.

“For the next point I want you let me finish first, because I know you will object at least some of the things I’m about to say.”

Spinnerella paused again until she got a nod from Catra.

“I am well aware of what Adora did for you, and what she is to you. But you are clearly showing obsession-like behavior, and if you continue like this, I can promise you that situations like the one two days ago while occur more and more often, and there will be a time where you can’t or won’t stop yourself. I don’t think I have to point out the possible aftermaths. You are so driven by the fear of losing Adora to someone or something else, that if this continues now, it will end with you being the lone loser in this story.”

Catra tried to ignore her burning face and the lump in her throat. She knew Spinnerella was right, but refused to accept it.

“This brings me to the last thing I want to talk about. Did you write the diary, as I told you?”

Catra shook her head. “No need to. This was the first time since you told me to!”

Spinnerella didn’t answer, just scrolling through her notebook.

“To be honest, I’m glad that it was the first time since then.” Spinnerella said after a while. “It shows that my guess probably is correct. Catra, I think your headache has psychosomatic origins. Psychosomatic means ‘How our mind influences our body’, the opposite would be Somatic Psychology, ‘how our body influences our mind’. In your case, you are so focused on Adora, that if anything happens that is somehow connected to her, it triggers your headache. The intensity most likely depends on the impact said event has on you and Adora. Remember what I said about self-destructive behavior? Of course, there are medications for this, but my advice would be to shift the focus on something else.”

She pulled out a file with Catra’s full name (Blergh!) on it.

“You are an excellent artist. You started gymnastics once, left the practice but continue to do it out of sheer boredom. You don’t like football because they even practice outside when it’s raining or snowing.” Spinnerella chuckled when she read that out loud. “Understandable.” She closed the file, and thought about something, only to focus Catra again.

“I have an idea. But you are going to stay here for at least 2 more days, so we talk about it when you get to leave. Anyway, I have to go now. Please think about what we talked about today.”

As soon as Spinnerella closed the door behind her, Catra let her emotions run free. She hated her therapist for saying something like that, even though Catra knew she was right. It hurt so bad to admit it. She tried to look through her tears at her bandaged hands, knew it was time to change something, since Catra didn’t plan to end up in this hospital on a regular basis.

It actually took a full week for Catra’s hands to heal completely. She called Spinnerella and met her one afternoon in front of the Bright Moon Central Station. When asking Spinnerella why they met there, she just shrugged and said something about taking a stroll through the city. Their goal wasn’t that far from the train station anyways. They stopped in front of a tall building, the store windows had dark, reflective foil on them. Above the door, there was a sign saying:

 HUNT | ING
           ARA   | GROUNDS

Catra could read the sign, but didn’t understand it. Hunting Ara grounds? Why would Spinnerella want her to hunt birds? Spinnerella never made fun of her nickname or anything similar, so probably Catra figured, that she was missing some information here. Spinnerella opened the door and gestured Catra to go inside. Stepping through the door, Catra realized that the foils on the windows were actually see-through from the inside, but “inside” just contained a reception desk with a young, bored-looking woman behind it, and a staircase going underground. Spinnerella waved at the woman, who Catra decided to name ‘Kyle’ for now, and went down the stairs. Catra followed.

Reaching the end of the stairs, Catra just had to stop and look at her surroundings in surprise. There was a big gym in front of her. The ceiling was about 4 meters high, which explained the long staircase, and at least 50 meters long and wide. Big, blue mattresses everywhere, a few wall bars and ladders attached to the walls, a boxing ring in the corner and an octagon, surrounded by a chain-link fence.

Catra didn’t know what to expect when Spinnerella told her to meet at the Central Station, but it for sure was not this.

The gym was empty, except for 5 people at the boxing ring, 2 fighting, 3 watching. One of the spectators was the biggest woman Catra has ever seen in her life. At least 2 Meters tall, wearing a tank top that gave her biceps the room they needed. Sweatpants, sneakers and her long white hair tied to a ponytail finished the picture. Catra and Spinnerella took off their shoes and walked over the mattresses on the floor to the boxing ring. Before they reached them, the giant turned around and smiled at Spinnerella.

“Spinny, how is my favorite brain doctor doing? And how is Netossa? Haven’t seen her in a while!”

Spinnerella returned the greeting while Catra looked around and noticed, that two men had entered the octagon through climbing over the fence. She looked back at Spinnerella, who was still talking to the other woman, and decided to move close to the cage to watch these two. Both of them didn’t wear shoes and were naked except for pants reaching from the waist to above the knees. They were wearing gloves, but the gloves left the fingers free and had pads placed on the knuckles. Catra watched them fight for a while, tensing up with every blow that was traded. It was somehow … mesmerizing to watch. A sudden movement, and both were laying on the floor, one behind the other guy, forming a lock with his arms around the others neck, he did the same thing with his legs around the other man’s waist. The man, restricted in his movability, tried to break free but without success. He tapped his opponent’s elbow twice and got released. As soon as they stood up, they laughed about something Catra was too far away to understand.

“Catra?”

Catra jumped, she didn’t hear Spinnerella coming closer, behind her the other woman.

“Catra, this is Huntara. It’s her gym. She was once a professional fighter, but had to retire due to some … injuries.”

“Ha, injuries. Well said. Nice to meet you, Catra.” Catra was sure she felt the mattress beneath her feet vibrating while Huntara was talking. She reached for Huntara’s hand to shake it, only to watch own hand to disappear in a paw a bear probably would be envious for. Catra couldn’t hide her relief as she got her hand back in one piece.

“Catra, I brought you here because I thought that is something different than the things you did before, and it can be a great opportunity to distract yourself and blow off some steam. In the end it’s up to you, if you like it or not, but I would like you to at least try it a bit. Huntara will show you around for a bit, I’ll be back in an hour.”

With this, Spinnerella left Catra and Huntara. Catra turned around to Huntara. She wasn’t scared of her, but it probably would be smart to show some respect to people whose thighs are as wide as your own shoulders are broad.

But the next hour was quite nice and passed faster than expected. Huntara talked about her career, how she got the idea of opening her own gym and what kind fighting styles were taught in her gym. In fact only kickboxing, because that was Huntara’s style, but often other high-level fighters were using the gym, so Huntara made a deal with them to teach if needed.

In return, Huntara asked Catra about what she did so far, if she had any experience with fighting sports and if she did any kind of sport right now. Huntara didn’t even seem to be disappointed when Catra’s answer were Nothing and two times No.

They finished the tour in the studio right on time, just when Spinnerella came back to pick up Catra.

“And? What do you think?”

Catra liked it, like, really liked it. But for some reason she didn’t want to show it.

“Hm yeah, I think I will give it a try!”

A quick glance at Spinnerella made Catra realize that she didn’t buy it. Huntara just warned her that the coming weeks will just be stamina and basic strength training before she actually got to the part with fighting. Catra wouldn’t get a real fight before she reached the age of 16 anyways. Before that, only sparring and dry-runs. For some reasons, Catra didn’t even mind. She was just eager to do something. They came to an agreement for Catra coming twice a week starting next week. Huntara even agreed to waive the fees, because that is something to talk about “if Catra decides to stay”.

Catra will overthink her decision to join Huntara several times in the coming weeks, only to decide to stay. On the first day, Huntara decided to check what Catra was able to do at that point. As expected, Catra’s stamina and strength were close to non-existent. She gave up after 2 minutes on the treadmill and had to stop after 3 push-ups. Huntara said nothing, but Catra was dying inside. More of embarrassment than exhaustion, since she once saw Adora do 40 pushups without a pause. And she was playing Football, she doesn’t even need her arms! But not everything went bad. Huntara was actually impressed by Catra’s flexibility and sense of balance. The ex-fighter had also mentioned right at the start that they won’t use extra weights, just the weight of Catra’s own body. Catra was quite glad about that. Catra soon came to learn that training didn’t stop at the physical part. Huntara did more than just to tell Catra what to do. Also, how and how much of it, when to take a break and how much she was supposed to drink. Even what to eat, but Huntara emphasized on the “if possible”, given Catra’s living situation.

Catra found out that two hours actually isn’t that much time, if you actually did something during that time. When Huntara told her to stop, her pants and shirt were half fabric, half sweat. She tossed them the moment she managed to slip out of them, then remembered that it was her only set of sports clothes so she had to pick them out of the trash can again. She managed to find her way, into the shower, out of the shower, flopped on the bed and just fell asleep.

The next day, Catra cursed her existence. Everything hurt. Literally. Everything. Her muscles ached in places she didn’t even know she had muscles there in first place. Her entire day was dominated by pain. Sitting. Standing. Walking was the hell, especially stairs. Catra managed to find a comfortable pose to sit during the lessons. But when the break came and she wanted leave, she had no strength to stand up and had to whisper a faint Help, hoping that Adora will hear it and help her up. She did. But now Catra had to explain, why she was in that state. But Catra decided to say the truth for once. And of course, Adora was happy for Catra.

“Finally, you found something for you! But, wait- … was that the reason why you were missing two weeks ago? Lonnie said you were fine, but didn’t want to tell me anything else. She just said I should ask you when you come back!”

Catra got hot and cold at the same time. She had to find a way to thank Lonnie for her quick thinking and not getting caught up in this mess. So much to saying to the truth.

“No, uh- I just fell down the stairs, because I uh- I tripped over my own feet, and roughed up my hands. Lonnie probably thought I was embarrassed about this, so she let me decide if I want to tell you or not.”

“Ooooh, yeah makes sense! No need to be embarrassed about that. Well, you can be a bit embarrassed. No need to flush thought”. Adora laughing was music in Catra’s ears as they walked (slowly, in Catra’s case) outside.

At least you have the decency to flush when you are lying. But seriously, this will backfire sooner or later.

When she got back to the orphanage, she found Lonnie in their shared room and thanked her for thinking so far. Lonnie waved off, but mentioned that Catra was free to do the chores in her stead. Catra accepted, but insisted on doing that somewhen else, since she tried to avoid every unnecessary movement.

Oh god, and the day after tomorrow the same thing will happen again.

But Catra wasn’t too sad about it. Actually, she was looking forward to returning to the gym.

As expected, training was exhausting. But in a good way. Rope skipping, the treadmill, running zigzag following marks on the floor and so on. This time it was more focused on movement and running instead of strength. Huntara explained it as a necessary variety, since doing always the same on the same intensity won’t bring progress. Catra had to trust on Huntara anyways in that field, since she had absolutely no idea about what she was doing and why.

It didn’t change the fact that Catra was a wreck on the following day. Not really something unexpected. But there was something to look forward that day. It was Friday, and for the first time in nearly 3 weeks, she went to Adora’s house. Catra was happy to see Razz and Swiftwind again, and of course Adora. But it was better than the last times. Since both Adora and Catra had now practice session in the afternoon, they only got to meet on Friday. But that also meant they had more things to actually talk about and not just repeating things for Razz. it was both relaxing and fun. When Catra was about to leave, Razz chimed in and reminded Catra to avoid the church they passed so often already. She promised to be careful, but when she closed the front gate behind her, Catra already forgot what Razz was talking about. It came, that Catra did not cross the street and walked past the entrance of the church. Suddenly a man in a light blue jacket and pants appeared out of nowhere.

“Good evening young lady, may I interest you in the teachings of our Light?”

“Uhm, no thank you. I’m not a very religious person.”

That was a mistake. He raised his efforts.

“Then you came to the right place. Join us and we will show you true freedom.”

Catra got seriously creeped out. Stranger Danger. She tried to increase her pace; she felt her legs protesting against the sudden strain.

“Dude, I’m obviously underage. If you don’t back off, I’ll scream for help!”

“But young lady, there is no need for that. Remember, our doors will always be open to lost souls. May Hope be with you.”

Catra kept walking and turned around several times to check if someone followed. She got her bus and calmed down after she noticed she was the only person that entered the bus at this station. She had to talk with Adora about that, it was an experience Catra wasn’t eager to repeat.

On the following Monday, Catra told Adora about her way home. Adora seemed surprised, she never had that experience. On the other hand, she never forgot to cross the street, especially if Razz points it out (Well, duh!). The mentioning of Razz reminded Adora of Halloween, which was coming soon. She asked Catra if her costume still fit. Both Catra and Adora were still sticking with Warriorprincess and Cat-Witch. If needed, Razz could make them new costumes. Catra never asked how Razz got all the materials, and she wasn’t sure if she even wanted to know. She was just grateful that there was someone who cared enough to go that far and make a costume for her. In 6 years, Razz made 4 for her. For this year, the costume she had was enough, but she recently read a manga featuring a Cat-Witch (Witchcat?) called Blair, so maybe she could ask Razz for some changes next year. For the first time the orphanage threw a Halloween party and since there many empty beds, every resident could invite a friend to stay overnight. Catra’s choice was obvious, Rogelio picked Kyle and Lonnie a girl from her class. Sarah and one of the cooks even went an extra mile, prepared Halloween-themed food and placed decorations everywhere. The trick-or-treating didn’t live up to the expectations, at least not Adora’s and Catra’s. On contrary to the low-density area Adora lives in, the orphanage was surrounded by residential towers. So, they just could go from door to door in a seemingly endless staircase. They got candy and stuff, but it wasn’t the same thing. When they returned, they searched their loot for things they didn’t like and looked for someone who was willing to trade. They settled for a few movies in basement after this, and while the crowd got thinned out due to people falling asleep, the rest also moved to their beds. Catra and Adora sat in Catra’s bed and just talked about the evening. The differences to past Halloweens, the movies they watched, what they thought about Lonnie’s new friend (which was risky since Lonnie slept in the same room) and so on. As sunrise came closer, their eyelids got heavier by every heartbeat and they eventually fell asleep.

When Catra woke up, it was way past noon, but no one had disturbed her until then. Rubbing her eyes, she wanted to leave the bed to look for Adora, but something heavy stopped her. Catra looked at foot end of her bed and found a curled up Adora sleeping there. She then climbed slowly out of the bed, and tip-toed direction kitchen, to get breakf- no, lunch (or brunch?). When Catra came back, Adora was awake and they shared the brunch in Catra’s bed.

6 weeks later, Catra had her last session with Spinnerella for this year. Catra managed to be late. She was welcomed by a waiting Spinnerella.

“Sorry for the delay. I didn’t watch the time, and Huntara didn’t pay attention either.”

Spinnerella didn’t seem mad, but the mention of Huntara earned Catra an approving nod.

Same thing as always. How are you doing, how is school, how was your week, and so on, while Spinnerella was taking notes. But Spinnerella had two questions Catra was more than happy to answer.

“When did your head hurt the last time?”

“When I was admitted to the hospital around 3 months ago.”

“So, you are now training under Huntara for around 3 months now, you reduced your contact to Adora to once a week. You told me that you are happier to see her now on that day, since you two can use this day in a now more ‘fulfilling’ way. How do you feel, now that you go yourself used to that situation? I don’t want you to badmouth your friendship to Adora, I just want you to describe how you feel since you began to face the – let’s say problems?”

Catra thought about it for a while, searching for the right words.

She looked back at Spinnerella.

“Honestly? Free.”                                                                             

Chapter Text

Half-Moon, Early February, 3 years ago

Her alarm went wild since she pressed snooze for the 5^th time 10 minutes ago. Adora usually was an early riser, not on weekends, but this weekend was an exception though. Today was the first final-round tournament for Catra and Adora ‘was allowed’ to watch. ‘Allowed’, because the qualifications rounds were out of state and the few sparring matches Catra had, were over before Adora got to know about them. At some point it became clear, that Catra actually didn’t want Adora to watch her fights, without giving her a specific reason.

Because of that, Adora had been pleasantly surprised when she got a message from Catra, saying that she qualified for the final rounds and would like Adora to come too, since the finals were held in the Half-Moon Sports Center. The boys’ bracket was already over, apparently the favorite from Paris had won, but the girls’ bracket was held this weekend, 64 participants – 1 champion. Obviously, Adora was rooting for Catra. It was also the first time in 3 weeks they saw each other, since Catra had left for a trainings camp and the qualification tournament somewhere near Geneva in Switzerland, which was the reason she had missed Adora’s 18^th birthday. That sucked, but Catra didn’t forget it and showered Adora with congratulation messages and pics from the trainings camp. Mostly selfies of Catra pulling faces, but Adora was happy about them anyways.

When Adora finally brought up the willpower to leave the bed, every joint in her body popped back into its designated place and she went downstairs to find Razz preparing breakfast. She hugged Razz when she wished her a good morning. Razz surely had gotten old, her face was entirely made of wrinkles now and her glasses were so thick, Adora sometimes was surprised that Razz didn’t get sunburned when she left the house.

“A letter came for you, dearie!”

Adora thought for a bit, she didn’t expect anything and since she still lived with Razz, insurance and everything went on Razz’ name. Oh!

“Is it from the Whispering Woods?” Razz nodded. “Then I don’t care.”

Adora took the letter and put it under her seat cushion. Razz said nothing, but shook her head disapprovingly. Probably because they had a discussion every year when a letter from Mara came, and every year Adora was less motivated to read it since the letters were filled with empty words and excuses.

Adora was just here for the pancakes, before she had to leave. When she got up, Razz signaled her to stay for a moment and the old woman began to search something in one of the kitchen drawers. She found what she was looking for and handed it to Adora. Adora identified it as a self-knitted white scarf, but when she opened it, she read the word CATRA in blue and yellow, CA blue, RA yellow, the T was split. Adora was baffled.

“You know, I saw Catra with a scarf of your football team once, so I figured she would be happy if you showed up with a scarf for her.”

Oh, for sure.

Adora kissed Razz on the cheek as a ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’, and left the house, She tapped Swiftwind’s tombstone twice for good luck, and thought about how she missed him, even after that time. It had broken her when he got sick and eventually died, even Catra had mourned his death. She never really got over her fear of dogs, but Swiftwind held a special place in Catra’s heart.

With that in mind, Adora was on the way to the sports center.

The Half-Moon sports center got finished last year and was now the home of all bigger events in Half-Moon since its opening. Basketball, Ice hockey, normal hockey, dressage riding, you name it. Rarely with a lunarian participation, since Half-Moon didn’t have that many residents which made it close to impossible to compete successfully on international levels. Of course, there were individuals who make it big on the international stage, just not on home soil. But not today. Today, there is was Europe-wide tournament going to held here, with a lunarian representative in Catra, even if it’s ‘only’ a high school tournament.

Catra’s way to the tournament was a strange one. You needed to be a member in a school’s sports club to participate. At the start, there was no MMA-club at their high school, and following the decisions of the principal (Mrs. Weaver, the old hag) there will never going to be one, since ‘the school has no room for this kind of brutish activity’. That and maybe the fact that Catra had had a heated argument with Mrs. Weaver on their first day in high school, when Mrs. Weaver tried to send Catra to detention for wearing shoes in the wrong color which apparently ‘disturbed the image of the schools’ uniform’. Catra flipping off her principal didn’t help either. It ended in detention and an enemy for the rest of Catra’s high school career. Now the funny part of the story: Every decision Weaver made, had to pass the school board. They usually just passed everything Weaver had decided except for rare occasions. Entrance of the vice-principal. An older, small man, the living definition of inconspicuous. But with a burning passion for MMA. A passion that began to burn even brighter, when he heard that Huntara was Catra’s coach. He personally managed to convince the school board to allow the founding of an MMA-Club. Nobody exactly knew the reasons, but a rumor went around that school funds are getting raised if the school manages to produce results. And if Catra wins the whole thing, it would prestigious for the school to have a champion in their rows. There were no costs for the school anyways, Catra trained in Huntara’s gym and the school didn’t need to buy equipment. That was the origin story of the Half-Moon High School MMA Club, and its only member, Catra.

When Adora arrived at the sports center, she was surprised by the sheer mass of people. She knew, that the sports center could take up to 10.000 people, but she didn’t expect that many spectators for an all-female high school tournament. Adora was glad that Catra did put tickets aside, so she just had to find Lonnie to get hers. The event was admission free, but the seats were numbered, so Catra got them seats closer to the ring. Adora found Rogelio in the crowd, he was hard to ignore since he usually was 3 inches taller than the rest of the people and figured, that Lonnie probably was with him. She was. After the usual greetings and delayed birthday wishes, they went inside.

Adora didn’t know what she was expecting, but it clearly wasn’t that. The field had an octagon in the center, probably the main stage, and two additional octagons halfway down the long sides of the hall, the empty spaces filled with chairs. They managed to find a timetable, only to find out that Catra’s first fight was set to begin in one hour. That actually gave Adora the time to remember everything she had learned about MMA. ‘Everything’ and ‘learned’ didn’t do this justice, since she spend a few hours yesterday just reading Wikipedia entries. The mainly used fighting styles are Boxing, Kickboxing, Karate, Taekwondo and something call Muay Thai. A fight went over 3 rounds of 5 minutes each and a fight was over if one of the fighter surrenders, loses consciousness or the referee stops the fight. There were also judges sitting on the side of the octagon to choose a winner if the match went over the full 3 rounds. Catra told Adora once that she was a Kickboxer, since Huntara had been a pro in that field.

She turned to the others to ask them what to do until the first fight was on, but someone whispered a “Hey, Adora!” into her ear.

Adora leaped forward and put her hand on her ear.

“Gah, Catra! Was that really necessary? Can I get a normal “Hello” from you once?” Adora huffed, while Catra’s cackle made the others turn around. She wasn’t actually mad, it kind of became a ritual a few years ago. After a big hello from Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle, Adora showed off the scarf Razz made for today. Catra’s eyes were sparkling.

“Girl, that old woman sure is something, huh?”

“She wanted to make sure that everyone knows I’m your Nr.1 fan!”

“Oh, you better be! Speaking of it, I can see my fan Nr. 2 coming.”

Adora got on her toes to see who Catra was talking about, and spotted their school’s vice-principal approaching them.

“Miss Driluth, Miss Greyskull, good to see you two. Miss Driluth, I can assure you that the school is proud of your achievements and of course, will root for you.”

Catra rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure that ‘the school’ excludes our dear Mrs. Weaver!”

He didn’t respond to that, but his face was enough. He looked past Catra and suddenly he had a more excited look on his face. Adora followed his eyes and saw Catra’s coach – Huntara – coming their way. The picture Adora had found on the internet, when she looked up her name, didn’t do her justice. That woman was huge - and my, would you look at those biceps.

Adora had to hold her laughter as Catra introduced them. The difference between the vice-principal and Huntara was comical, Huntara was twice as tall and probably had the quadruple of his mass. Catra seemed to have a similar thought, Adora watched her covering her mouth to hide her grin. After Huntara shook everyone’s hands, she told Catra to get moving. The fight was starting soon and Catra needed to warm up. They left and the rest decided to look for their seats. The vice-principal also left, but not without complaining, that he forgot to ask Huntara for an autograph. When he finally was out of sight, Lonnie said what everyone else thought.

“I really like this guy, but that for sure was weird.”

They heard feedback from the speakers, and the announcer revealed the coming fight in the center cage, which made them hurry for their seats. Their seats were in the 3^rd row from the front, Adora just hoped nobody tall would sit down in front of her, and she was lucky. Someone entered the ring, a mic in his hand, and announced the two fighters. Katrina Driluth (it was weird to hear her full name) representing the Half-Moon High School (cheers from Adora and Co.) and a girl from Barcelona, Spain. Adora was about to boo her, but she got drowned out by a louder crowd cheering for the Spanish girl.

“There are probably more people from Spain competing here, they just cheer for each other! No need to worry.”

“Wha- Pff I’m not worried” Adora huffed, and looked at Lonnie.

“Hmhm, if you say so”

“I’m not worried.” Adora mumbled to herself at that point.

She watched Catra entering the cage, wearing a white, long robe and scanning the crowd for her friends. Adora stood up to hold up her scarf, which earned her a bright smile and a wink from Catra. Huntara saw it too and said something to Catra, Catra’s face went sour for a second and she punched Huntara, but Huntara didn’t flinch at all and just laughed, which brought a grin back on Catra’s face. The referee entered the cage and signaled the start of the match. Catra put on her gloves and took off her robe, revealing her gear. It made Adora hold her breath. In short, Catra wore a sport bra and tight pants reaching from the waist to halfway down her tights. Her sport bra had black straps with a flowing transition to wine-red down her chest, the pants followed the same color pattern. CATRA was written on the chest in white letters, and as Catra turned around, Adora saw the same thing on the backside of the pants. Adora realized how slim Catra actually was. She usually hid it by wearing hoodies and wide fit pants, like she did earlier. Far from anorexic, but slimer than Adora remembered. Maybe toned is the right word here. Catra got last instructions from Huntara, put in her mouthpiece and went to face her opponent.

Kyle had managed to get a booklet with profiles from all fighters in it. They found out that Catra’s opponent was the same age, but it was already her second time in a finals round. Her main style was, like Catra, kickboxing. Since no one actually had experience in that field, they couldn’t say if that was a good thing or not.

The referee made the fighter bump fists, and return to their starting spots. Catra shifted her left foot in front, resting it on the toes and lifted her left arm in front of her body. The Spanish girl mirrored Catra’s movement. The referee threw his arms down, and the fight began. It was a slow start, at the beginning they just walked circles around each, the Spanish girl threw some punches, but pulled back before she hit Catra (maybe these were feints?). The opponent then initiated a high kick, Catra blocked it with her right arm and, in one flowing motion, she gave her opponent a straight left in the face. That made the Spanish girl lose her balance and she tumbled backwards, but got back up before Catra could use it to her advantage. They continued to trade some blows until a bell rang and signaled that the first round was over. Both of the fighters went back in their respective corners to recover and think about strategies for the next round.

Huntara apparently didn’t have much to say, on contrary to the Spanish coach. The bell rang again and Catra went back to the starting spot, with the same posture as before. Again, mirrored motion from the opponent, but this time, the start was more intense. The Spanish girl charged at Catra and maybe tried to grab her, but Catra was way too fast, she had no problems to dodge this attempt, but got kicked in the face when she turned her torso. Catra fell, Adora let out a loud gasp, and the other girl rolled over Catra, put her legs around Catra’s neck and crossed her feet on Catra’s back. Like forming a knot, they rolled around on the floor as Catra apparently tried to get rid of the lock her opponent had put on her. They stopped with the Spanish girl on her back and Catra on her knees, still stuck in the lock, backside facing Adora. Huntara shouted something from outside. The ref was ready to step in, but after a short pause, Catra began to move again. First, she got on her left foot. Short pause. She raised her right foot. Slowly shifting her legs apart. The Spanish coach began shouting, it seemed like he figured out what Catra was trying to do, but it apparently didn’t reach the girl in the ring. Adora couldn’t believe what she watching as Catra began to lift the girl, who still had Catra’s arms and head in a leglock. Since Adora was looking at Catra’s backside, she could see the muscles in Catra’s back tensing up as she slowly lifted the girl to a nearly standing posture and smashed her back into the ground before her opponent could lift the lock and escape. Adora imagined it like that one time, when she had run full speed into a goalpost once and remembered how every air molecule got pressed out of her lungs. But Catra wasted no time, did a similar rolling movement as her opponent earlier and wrapped her arms around the opponent’s neck from behind, a chokehold. Catra didn’t even stay like that for one second as the other girl tapped out with a faint motion and the referee ended the match.

 Catra advanced to the second round.

Before Adora got up to cheer, she needed to take a deep breath first. Apparently, she had stopped breathing when Catra got pinned down. When Adora’s strength finally returned, she got up but saw Catra still laying on the floor. Huntara entered the cage and crouched down, but Catra managed to lift a hand and gave a thumbs up. Huntara grinned, picked Catra up as if she weighs nothing and carried her out of the cage.

“I thought you weren’t worried?”

Adora turned her head to look at Lonnie, but she saw the smug grin on Lonnie’s face and rolled her eyes. She decided to leave to look for Catra. She followed the signs leading to the fighters’ area, but got denied entry by a security guard. After arguing with him for a bit, Adora heard Catra shout from inside to let her in. Adora entered the room and nearly left right in spot, after she saw Catra laying on the floor, topless, but her backside up. Huntara kneeled right next to her, giving her a back massage. Adora just stood there and watched, until she noticed that Catra was looking at her, eyebrows raised.  

“Uh- I just wanted to gratulate you to your first win. The way you ended the fight was…” Hot. Adora blinked. “Impressive.”

“Why, thank you. Although, I probably won’t do that again. I think I pulled a muscle while lifting.”

Oh, that’s what the massage is for.

“Anyway, I wanted to ask you about the stance you took when the fight started. Isn’t that from Muay Thai? But I thought, you were kickboxing!”

Catra blinked, and tilted her head. “Did you read that on Wikipedia?”

“Wha- Pff, no. Why would you think that?” Adora imagined to hear Huntara snort faintly.

Catra laughed. “Because that’s SO you! Oh, by the way!” Catra looked at the clock on the wall. “Can you meet me in 30 minutes at the center stage. The winner of that match will be my opponent next round.”

Adora agreed and was about to leave, but then turned to Catra again.

“Nice gear by the way. It suits you.”

Catra grinned. “Oh yeah, you like my ass in that?”, she said, as she wiggled her butt.

Adora turned around on the heel, bright-red face, stormed outside and smashed the door shut to drown out Catra’s cackling.

Stupid Catra.

…

But she is not wrong. She does look good in these pants.

Adora stopped and blinked.

Stop it.

As agreed, they met at the center cage 30 minutes later, Catra wearing her hoodie and sweatpants again.

“Why are we here again?

Catra gave Adora a puzzled look. “I told you. To watch my opponent’s match. Gather some intel. I hope Dr. Wiki can help me there.”

Adora rolled her eyes. “Or maybe you just wanted to spent some time with me?”

She didn’t expect Catra to actually admit it, but there is a first time for everything. Catra shrugged.

“Pff, yea sure, it’s not like I like you or anything.” Catra laughed “But yeah, that probably too. It’s been a while we did something together; I even missed your birthday.”

Now that was something new, but Adora didn’t mind. They spend the rest of their time just talking about things that happened during the last few weeks, but soon got interrupted by the referee opening the match.

“Dr. Wiki”, Catra turned to Adora, holding a pen like a microphone. “What is your opinion on the match happening right now?”

Adora couldn’t believe Catra actually kept on doing this, but decided to play along. She watched the fighters moving and tried to analyze them.

“So, one fighter started with a wide-armed low stance, the other standing one leg, the other leg and her arms raised in front of her, so one grappler and one Muay Thai. But to be honest, just my opinion as a newbie here, this fight looks quite one-sided.”

Catra said nothing, and watched with an empty face. Adora took this as agreement, since even as someone with no experience on that field, she could see that whatever was happening in the cage wasn’t a fight. It was more like a game of tag. The grappler tried to get a hold on any of her opponent’s limbs, but the other girl was just barely evading every attempt. She just seemed scared. The first round ended with literally nothing happening.

The second round didn’t get any better, Adora even made out some Boos from the spectators. The Muay Thai girl ran out of stamina, her evades got sloppier and one time her opponent barely managed to get a grip of her left ankle after blocking a high kick, just to let it slip right away. The Muay Thai girl got saved by the bell, heavily panting. During the second break, Catra’s face turned sour and she said:

“10€ that the fight is over in the first 20 seconds of the next round.”

Adora had a similar feeling about it, but Catra probably even knew how the fight will end. And it came, as Catra predicted. Right after the start, the grappler charged forward and got hold of the other girls left leg, swept her of her feet, rolled over her and got her into a chokehold. Both stopped moving, Adora saw the Muay Thai girl losing all tension in her body and in the same moment, the referee jumped in and ended the match. Some people in medic uniforms hurried into the cage, while the winner just left

Catra turned to Adora, raising her eyebrows to say ‘What did I tell you?’. They just witnessed, how the match went, Catra even predicted the outcome, but she didn’t seem worried. When Adora asked her about a plan, Catra just shrugged.

“I’ll figure something out, but I can already tell you that getting caught into a hold or choke is probably a bad idea.”

Adora didn’t even try to hide her confusion. That’s the lesson Catra got from this? She figured that it either Catra was just playing with her, or she was actually worried and didn’t want to show that to Adora.

“By the way, she is the reigning champion. It’s her second tournament. In her first finals rounds, she won all matches in the first 2 round, either with a knock-out or the ref stopping the match.”

Catra wanted to say something else, but suddenly the grappler appeared in front of Catra and said something to her. In French. And Catra responded. In French. Without batting an eye. God, how many languages does Catra even speak right now? It was a short, but heated debate which ended in Catra flipping the other girl off. The girl responded with a similar obscene gesture and left. Catra just kept staring at her until she was out of sight. Catra answered before Adora could even ask.

“Just something about ‘nice to meet you again’ and good luck next fight.”

Adora cocked her eyebrows in disbelief.

“What, you don’t believe me? Didn’t you just see we became best friends during the training camp?”

That actually brought out a smile from Adora, which also made Catra laugh. Adora looked at her watch and saw, that they still had an hour left until Catra had to start warmups again. So they went for some food, Adora got hotdogs – emphasis on the s – and Catra just bananas and protein bars. After eating, they decided to stroll through the sports center. They found Rogelio, Kyle and Lonnie in the food corner, the vice-principal buying merchandise, and Huntara was surrounded by people asking for autographs or selfie. Even though Huntara did her best to hide it, she made a lost impression. She had left the pro scene around 10 years ago – Bless you, Wikipedia – and probably wasn’t used to that kind of attention anymore. The hour soon was over and Catra had to start her warm-ups, but Adora had a question before that.

“You never told me why you started MMA in first place. I don’t think, it was just about beating up people without Mrs. Weaver ripping your head off. Bother to tell me now?”

Catra really never told Adora, every time she had manage to evade the question and in the following talk, Adora usually had forgotten about it. But not this time. Catra didn’t answer at first and looked really uncomfortable. It took her some time to answer.

“Are you free tomorrow evening? You know, after my victory celebration?” A smug grin on her face.

“Wait what? Your next opponent is the reigning champion, and you talk about your victory?”

“Aaaaw, Adora has no confidence in Catra, how mean. Where is Catra’s Nr. 1 fan, if she needs her?” Catra had the audacity to pout now.

“God, you know what I mean. Aren’t you nervous?”

“At first, I was, but then we watched the fight and I don’t think she is in top form, so … NO!”

“You didn’t answer my question!”

“Neither did you! So, you free tomorrow? I know a place; we can talk about everything there. And I finally give you my delayed present.”

Adora was surprised, she didn’t think it would need that much preparation, but she agreed.

“Great!” Catra actually looked relieved. “But I got to go now! See you later Ms. Nr 1 fan!”

And she was off. Adora walked back to her seat, meeting Kyle on the way, still in thought about why Catra was so evasive about telling her about the reason. Adora was about to interrogate Kyle, since she figured he would be the easiest target, but then Lonnie and Rogelio joined them and Adora had to postpone her plan.

Adora saw Catra and Huntara walking towards the centerstage, still discussing something, then she heard the fence rattling and saw Catra’s opponent entering the cage. The audience began to applaud at that moment, Adora looked around and noticed that way more people came to watch than at Catra’s first fight. Probably, because they wanted to see the tournaments favorite to beat up a newcomer, since the first fight had been so boring.

Catra entered the ring, wearing the same gear as earlier. The referee talked to both of, made them shake hands, and told them to take their stance. Following her earlier match, the French girl took a stance with a low center of gravity, legs apart, one slightly in front of the other. Arms in front, the palms of her hands facing Catra.

In the coming years, Adora will watch a countless number of Catra’s fights, but this will always be her favorite.

Catra did nothing, she even turned around to look at Huntara first. Adora saw Huntara shrugging, Catra then faced her opponent again – and dropped to her knees. Well, she didn’t stop at that, but to make it even more weird she placed her hands in front of her, raised her hips and put her feet, also one in front of other, on the floor. It now looked like she was going to run a 100m sprint. The referee and the opponent were clearly confused, but the referee didn’t complain, and so she opened the match. The same as in her earlier match, the grappler charged her opponent, but Catra was as fast as lighting. After her ‘start’ she made two quick steps, used the second step to push herself off the ground, and smashed her knee right into the other girl’s face. Knocked back by Catra’s momentum, the girl hit the floor and stayed there. The referee jumped in to hold back Catra, and kneeled down to check on the other girl. Adora just watched Catra at that point, who was walking circles in the ring, staring at the floored opponent with no emotion showing in her face. Adora had to think of a tiger in a zoo, a predator who couldn’t reach his prey. Adora bit her lower lip, while the sight sent a shiver down her spine.

The referee finally called a K.O. and declared Catra as the winner. Catra, still with an emotionless face, raised her arms like Gerald Butler in Gladiator – Are you not entertained? Nice one, Catra – and slowly turned around herself to drink in the dead, silent crowd. You could easily hear a pin getting dropped, until a faint voice to Adora’s right tried to shout “Catra, Catra”. That caused Adora to wake up again, she turned her to see Kyle standing, trying to start a chant. Adora didn’t think twice to join him, Lonnie and even Rogelio followed soon.

“Catra, Catra”

Catra faced them, now unable to hide the biggest grin Adora had seen in a long time for her. She began to jump around a bit, clearly celebrating herself but then stopped and making a painful face.

“Catra, Catra”

Even though they were just four people chanting in a regular sized hall, Adora believed to hear a faint echo of themselves, the rest of the spectators were just leaving, probably sulking about their favorite fighter being defeated.

Sore losers. Sporting spirit, my ass.

But Adora couldn’t help herself but to feel a bit smug about it. Catra did it, she did the seemingly impossible and beat the reigning champion.

Catra advances to the third round.

Adora didn’t see Catra and Huntara leaving, they probably went back in the fighters’ area, but Adora decided not to follow them. She stayed with Lonnie and the others to discuss the matches they saw today. They showed their recordings and photos to each other, Rogelio even recorded both of Catra’s fights in the full length. Adora begged him to send them to her, but the sports center barely had any reception, so Adora had to wait until the day was over. After some time, Catra joined them, limping a bit as apparently her knee took some minor damage, an ice pack was attached to it. After a big Hello and gratulations from her friends, Catra sat down next to Adora and they decided to stay for the upcoming match, as the winner would be Catra’s next opponent.

The fight was brutal. At first, it was a lot of missed grapples, followed by some taunting of the evading fighter, but in the second round, the taunted girl snapped and kicked the other repeatedly in head, even though she was lying on the floor. The referee tackled her when she set for a stomp on the downed girl’s face. It was chaos from now on, the coaches entered the cage to stop the one fighter, and the medics entered to tend to other one on the floor. The referee stopped the match and declared the knocked-out girl the winner by disqualification.

“Oooookay,” Adora turned to Catra. “Now that’s a good thing, right? I mean, the winner is probably not in the right to fight you, no?”

Catra agreed with her. 10 minutes later, the announcer the brought the news that there will be no opponent for Catra in the 3^rd round, as the winner forfeited for medical reasons. Catra just took it in and shrugged, but Adora was, for whatever reason, disappointed since she couldn’t see Catra fight again. But now Catra one of the top 8 fighters in this year’s Europe-wide tournament. And that’s already something, right?

Catra advances to the 4^th round, top 8.

Catra went to find out, if she could leave already since there were no more fights for her today, but met Huntara on her way out. They exchanged a few words, Catra left, Huntara spotted Adora and walked towards her. Adora was actually excited to talk the coach, it’s the first time she actually met her, since there hadn’t been an opportunity earlier.

“Hey, you are Adora, right? Catra’s childhood friend? She talks a lot about you.”

Oh, she does?

Adora laughed. “Only good things, I hope.”

“Oh, you can say that.”

Uh, ok? Now, I want to know more.

Before Adora could ask, Huntara’s gaze went over to the centerstage.

“I don’t know, why they changed the rules.”

“Sorry, what?” Adora was confused.

“The rules. This is an amateur tournament, but they are applying the standard UFC rules here. Rounds, time, allowed strikes and kicks. It favored Catra in her last fight, a knee kick in the face is a foul at minimum in amateur fights. But there is a reason for stronger rules, to prevent something like what we just saw. In my opinion, the ref stepped in too late.”

Adora thought about it, something like worry began to rise in her chest again.

Huntara noticed it. “Don’t worry, Catra is one of the best her age I have ever seen. Just because it’s her first official tournament, it doesn’t mean Catra is without any chance. It’s honestly impressive that she got so far at her first try. She came here without any major injuries”

“Was that knee kick your thing?”

Huntara laughed. “Hell no, I never was fast or flexible enough to pull off something like that. As I said, the rules were in Catra’s favor here. She came up with it, she just checked with me if that move was legal. And I can tell you something. Catra’s strength are her kicks, and she barely used any today.”

Adora realized, that Huntara wasn’t just talking. She was actually impressed. Ah, maybe…

“Did Catra tell you why she picked up MMA, and how she got you, a retired pro, as a coach? She always was cryptic about that.”

“She didn’t yet?” Adora shook her head, wondering about Huntara being surprised. “Then I won’t tell you either”

What?

“Catra made me promise to her to not tell you! She said, she will talk to you after the tournament. So, I guess you have to wait a bit.”

Damn it. This is getting annoying. Why is everyone so secretive about that?

In that moment, Catra came back. “Ok, we can leave, except any of you want to stay.” No one said, anything. “Great. I’ll get my stuff and then we head for dinner. I could eat a horse right now.”

When they left the sports center, Adora’s phone buzzed a few times as the videos and photos came in from the others, but she decided to check them later. They said their goodbyes, Kyle was leaving for his foster home, Huntara left too, and Rogelio and Lonnie went back to the orphanage. Only Catra and Adora were left. They decided to go for a steak house, even if it didn’t serve the horse Catra craved.

While they just sat there and waited for the food, they talked about the day. Well, Adora talked, Catra listened. Just telling Catra about a day they shared, but from a different perspective, made Adora just … happy. Seeing Catra smiling after Adora told her about her impressions of the second fight was the cherry on top. The food arrived and they ate in silence, but Adora wasn’t sure if whatever Catra did could be considered eating.

After finishing, Catra broke the silence.

“I’m glad you came! It means a lot to me.”

Adora snorted. “I would’ve watched all of your fights, if you would’ve told me when. Same as you watching all of my home games.”

Catra made big eyes. “You saw me?”

Adora couldn’t stop laughing. “Seriously? Watching a football match in summer while wearing a hoodie and sunglasses isn’t the definition of being incognito!”

That brought the smile back. “True. I only missed 1 game, and that’s because I was sick that day.”

Catra paused. “By the way, it felt incredible hearing you four chanting my name.”

“Uh yeah, Kyle started it. We just went with it.”

Catra made big eyes again. “Kyle? That scrawny guy we know? Wouldn’t have guessed that!”

They just sat there and talked for a while and soon went home, in Catra’s case back to the orphanage. When Adora got home, she noticed that Razz already went to bed, even though it wasn’t past 9pm. To be honest, Adora was worried but Spinnerella told her it is quite normal for older people to go to be early. She accepted it, but her worries didn’t disappear. Before Adora went to bed, she checked her phone last time and remembered the messages she got earlier. Two from Rogelio, probably the fights … and one from Lonnie? Adora watched the fights first, the second several times since essentially the fight was over after 5 seconds. It didn’t stop her to watch Catra walking in circles though. She opened Lonnie’s message and found a picture … of Adora? It was probably taken during the second fight, but something about this was strange. Wide blue eye, a red face, and her bit lower lip. Ah, I remember that. Lonnie’s message: Like what you see?

Adora was just staring at the text.

What? What the-?

Lonnie was right, Adora enjoyed watching Catra fight. But she was implying something else, and Adora somehow didn’t like that. She decided to just let it be, and go to bed. They would meet tomorrow anyway.

Adora woke up early without hearing the alarm, even though it was Sunday. She slept longer than Razz anyways, who was already working in the kitchen. She helped her for a bit and filled her in about what happened yesterday. An hour later, Adora’s phone rang and it was … Netossa? She called to ask if Adora needed a ride to the sport center. Huntara apparently had send them tickets to ‘watch the prodigy she was coaching’. It seems like Huntara held on to Catra more than you would think. Adora agreed and one hour later she sat at the backseat of Netossa’s car and was on the way to the octagon.

When they arrived, they had difficulties to find an empty parking slot. It was way more crowded than the day before. They entered the stadium and to Adora’s surprise it looked different compared to yesterday. Only the centerstage was left, the rows of seats formed two half circles, separated by a red carpet on both sides of the octagon. Netossa let out a whistle, as she turned around herself in a try to look at everything.

“Would you look at that, they even got cameras here. I thought this is supposed to be a high school tournament?”

Adora asked herself the same question as she spotted a desk with a man and a woman sitting in front of another camera, both of them wearing headsets. Maybe this whole got way more attention than Adora thought it would. Judging from the chattering around her, there were people from all over Europe in here, not only Lunarians or the friends and family of the remaining fighters. Catra probably could’ve told Adora what language she was hearing here, but Adora was a lost case on this topic. Another observation Adora made, was the audience itself. According to Catra, one of the main problems for female MMA was that the audience “usually was made of old men who wanted to see a soapy bikini fight” but that didn’t seem to be an issue here. Every gender and age were represented. Adora guessed around 3.000 spectators.

The 3 of them went to look for their seats, and met Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle there. Adora was about to introduce them, but they just waved, as if they have already met before. Half-Moon was not a big city, so it probably shouldn’t be that much of a surprising. Adora spotted Huntara (which wasn’t that hard, regarding the height of that woman) and waved her over. She wanted to greet her, but Netossa was faster.

“Huntara!”, Netossa shouted. “How is my favorite shooting victim doing?”

Excuse me?

Netossa turned around: “You know, funny story, we met as Huntara landed on my table about 8 years ago. She got hit by – was it 4? -  4 bullets after a failed robbery. I still remember the face of my colleague then, who had his shift as anesthetist with me. He had to get a second load of narcotics, because the first one had no effect on that absolute unit here. He later said, that the dose should’ve killed a horse. But well, here we are!”

Netossa and Huntara shared a laugh, while Adora was still waiting for the funny part of the story. Someone got shot, in what world is that funny?

Huntara turned to Adora and told her, that Catra asked for her. Happy to oblige, Adora made her way to the fighters’ area. This time she didn’t get stopped; the security guard recognized her. She opened the door and saw Catra on the floor, doing perfect splits, her back facing Adora. Catra put her hands on the floor in front of her and shifted her weight onto her arms. She lifted her butt and hips, still doing splits, to do a handstand. With eyes closed! Catra closed her legs to finish the handstand, curled up to open up like a spring and landed on her feet. Catra turned around to see Adora still standing in the door frame. Adora noticed that Catra said something but she was still busy processing what she just witnessed. In terms of raw strength, Adora was probably ahead of Catra, regarding the amount of time she had spent in the gym lifting weights over the last years. But in terms of body control and sense of balance, there were galaxies between them.

“Earth to Adora?”

Adora came back to reality, noticed that her mouth dried out and tried to cover that up with a cough.

“Huntara said, you wanted to see me?”

Catra cocked her head. “No, I didn’t? I mean, I’m glad you are here, feel free to stay! I’m actually nervous!”

Adora raised an eyebrow. “Then I’m pretty sure that the world of gymnastics is mourning the loss of a loved one right now. Because if you are able to pull that off while being nervous, then you probably should switch fields.”

Catra shrugged. “That’s what I do when I’m nervous.”

Wait, that wasn’t a fluke?

“But the best thing I can do,” Catra made 3 quicks steps to Adora, which made Adora step back and hit the wall behind her. “Is this without any real effort.” Despite Adora being the taller one, Catra lifted her left foot and placed it above Adora’s shoulder, pinning Adora to the wall.

Suddenly the door opened and a girl in fighting gear entered. Neither Catra, who was still holding the pose, nor Adora moved. Well, Adora couldn’t move at all because of a very close Catra.

The 3 of them were staring at each other, while the intruder was slowly retreating. When the door fell close again, Catra and Adora looked at each other, Catra with a beet-red face. There was no mirror in that room, but Adora felt that her face probably had a similar color. Catra made three quick steps back again, and coughed.

“Sorry, I- I wanted to show off.”

“Can’t say I wasn’t impressed”, Adora murmured more to herself than to Catra. “Anyways, I got to go, the show is starting soon. Oh, your Fanclub grew, Spinny and Tossa are here too. Mess them up!”

Adora closed the door and saw the girl that just, uhm – interrupted them, waiting. They just stared at each other for a second, then Adora hurried to get to her seat. When she arrived, she shot Huntara a look, that probably would’ve killed Kyle if he would’ve been the target. Huntara made an innocent face.

“What? Catra said she was nervous and I figured that you would be the best in calming her down, no? Did it work?”, Huntara said while earning looks from Netossa, Spinnerella and Lonnie, gesturing them a What? back.

“NoIdon’tthinkitworkedanddon’tyouhaveplacestobe?” Adora couldn’t bring out an understandable sentence, but she didn’t care about that as she was walking to her seat, sat down and hoped for the earth to open up and swallow her up. She sensed Spinnerella sitting down, who began rub Adora’s back. Well, to a therapist, it’s probably quite easy to see that Adora was upset. But the hand on her back did what it was supposed to do, and Adora’s earth swallowing fantasy soon perished. The lights went dark to signal that the show as starting. Adora didn’t notice that the hall’s blinds were down, blocking every ray of light from outside.

A few lights on the ceiling came back on and focused the octagon in the middle of the stadium. In the ring, a blonde woman in a black smoking, sporting a black bow tie, appeared in the cage, a camera man following her every move right next to her.

“Ladies, Gentlemen, and everyone! Welcome! Welcome to the finals round of the 23^rd annual female MMA High School Tournament. My name is Monica Buffer and I will be your host for this day. Today we will we crown a new European champion. At the start, there were 1164 participants and for the first time in its existence, every European state send at least one fighter to the bracket of the final 64, with Half-Moon being the newcomer this weekend.”

Adora out her hands over her ears, as the woman’s voice was roaring through the stadium, she probably didn’t even need that microphone.

“Also, for the first time this tournament will be broadcasted live on every nation in Europe. We thank the UFC and the Department for Young Talents’ Promotion of the European Union for this opportunity. As a reminder, this tournament will be held under the standard UFC rule, meaning there are 3 rounds with 5 minutes each per fight, the final will be 5 rounds with 5 minutes each. The fights will follow a fixed schedule, so if a fight ends earlier than the estimated time, then there will be a break until the next scheduled fight. For our live spectators, a booklet with a more detailed lists of rules is placed under your seat. For our viewers at home, look out for additional information on your screen.”

She paused for a short moment.

“But now, let’s start with our first fight of the day. On the blue side” A row of spotlights lit up the red carpet farther away from Adora. “Please welcome from the Gaudi High School in Barcelona, Spain, Veronica ‘La Abeja’ Silva! It’s her second tournament, but her first appearance as one of the final 8.”

The announcement got Adora worked up, even though she didn’t even know the fighter or the school. Monica obviously was a pro at her job, her way of speech in combination with the lightwork and even an Intro song did their work to hype up the crowd. Monica dropped some additional facts on the fighter clad in her yellow-black robe as she entered the ring.

The same procedure for the fighter from Latvia, but obviously a different intro song.

Monica stepped out of the octagon to let the referee do her work. Greetings and handshakes were exchanged and the fight began. Adora knew it was unfair to the fighters on stage, but she wished this was over soon, just for the sake of seeing Catra again.

Adora had to wait a bit, since they were bound to a fixed schedule. The first fight ended in the second round with a hail of punches and a finishing roundhouse kick from Veronica. It took Adora a while to realize that the Spanish girl is Catra’s possible opponent in the semi-final.

Monica appeared again in the octagon to announce the next fight. Catra’s fight. Adora looked at her friends to see that they were on a similar level of excitement like her.

“Spectators, now that was a great start, huh? But now, fight number 2! On the blue side, from the High School at the Spree in Berlin, Germany, Sabrina “Hammer” Schreiner!”

As the blonde girl from earlier walked in – God, they even had smoke machines – blasting Rammstein from speakers – how original – Adora realized that the middle part of the names was in fact nicknames, because there was no way that this girl’s name actually was Hummer (Hammer?).

As the lights went out and the music stopped, Monica turned to the audience, which was already giddy without her saying anything.

“Now, let’s introduce our only newcomer today! She surprised many with that one-hit K.O. against the reigning champion in the second round, and this being her first official tournament isn’t the only debut for her today. She is the first Lunarian fighter making it to a finals round in the history of the UFC, and since we are in the Half-Moon Sports Center, this is her home turf. Let her hear your voice! Please welcome:

KATRINA

‘CATRA’

DRILUTH

Monica had to scream the name, because the crowd went wild as the spotlight showered the red carpet on Adora’s side in light and the smoke machines filled Catra’s entrance with fog, while Eye of the Tiger by Survivor started playing.

Really Catra? Rocky? And she chose Catra as stage name? Hm…

Catra entered the arena and Adora’s heart jumped a bit. She wore a sand-colored robe with some stripes in her skin color on her back, arms and hood. Catra had a fast pace while walking to the octagon, which made the smoke roll off her like water. Huntara followed in some distance. Adora’s view went up to Catra’s hood and she spotted – cat ears. Adora hoped that someone took a picture, because she was going to frame this for 100%.

Catra went full cat girl.

Full cat girl – with a clear intent to kill

Adora had seen Catra this angry just once, in an early middle school year when some guys from a high school tried to get her lunch money. Catra bit one of them and they beat her up, until Swiftwind came to ‘step in’. ‘Step in’ as in ‘not only one guy had bite wounds. The look on Catra’s face straight-up scared Adora. She thought about what could have happened after she left Catra, then she saw the grin on the other girl’s face and it was clear that she probably said something to Catra, that had ticked her off.

The audience calmed down a bit as Catra reached the ring. She took off the robe and got in. The referee, as always, explained something and gestured them to shake hands. The German reached out, but Catra just looked at the hand with utter disgust written all over her face. The grin on her opponent’s face got wider. Catra just turned around to get to her corner to start the fight, looking at Huntara, who Adora saw gesturing a Calm down to Catra.

Catra took a classic kickbox stance, arms raised in front of her, legs apart, one foot in front of the other. The ref threw down her arms to signal the start of the fight and Catra buried her left foot in her opponent’s sides. While the German girl tried to recover, Catra almost instantly switched her mainstay and went for a middle kick with her now opposite leg, aiming at the other side. The other girl got her guard up just in time, but Catra changed the trajectory in last second to strike the neck. Even though the kick lost momentum through the change in direction, it was strong enough to knock Sabrina off her feet. While she was lying on the floor, Catra raised to same leg again, performing standing splits – perfect sense of balance – and dropped her foot in a guillotine-like motion on her enemy’s stomach.

Adora heard the scream of pain and remembered Huntara saying something about kicks being Catra’s strong side. She had no doubts that if that kick would hit a neck, the motion wouldn’t be the only thing resembling a guillotine. 

Catra wasted no second and pounced the floored girl. Catra dropped down on Sabrina’s hips to pin her to the floor and began hit her head. Again, the German girl got guard back up in time, blocking any possible damage from Catra’s punches. Catra changed strategy, raised both her arms and hit the block with both fists at once like a hammer. She repeated that motion until Sabrina’s arms dropped to the side and switched to single punches again. At this moment, every spectator, even Adora, realized that Catra was out for blood. After the 4^th or 5^th punch, Adora saw small red dots appearing on Catra’s face, and then on upper body. Something white flew into the ring and the referee immediately pulled Catra off her now probably unconscious victim. In her blood rush, Catra tried to get to Sabrina again, but got yanked back by a visibly angry Huntara who then gave Catra an echoing slap in the face. Catra shook her head, blinked a few times and looked at Huntara as if she just woke up. Huntara scolded Catra through her teeth, while Catra looked at her bloody gloves.

Even though Catra probably lost some sympathies through her behavior but still was declared the winner through forfeiture. She left the ring with a lowered head, but it didn’t change the fact, that…

Catra advanced to the semi-final.

Since the fight ended with the first round and a break coming anyways, Adora decided to get some fresh air and something to eat. No one else followed, so Adora could take her time and think about what she just witnessed. She wasn’t worried, just confused. Catra got caught in a brawl at school at least once a year, but she always defending herself. It was the first time Adora witnessed Catra being the aggressor. Of course, in a fighting sport you had to accept people getting hurt, but in Adora’s eyes, there was a difference between the intention to win and just to be there to inflict damage on the other party.

Adora went back inside to check on Catra, but when she approached the fighters’ area, she saw Huntara standing in front of the door, talking to the security. She spotted Adora and shook her head. Adora’s mood dropped, but she went back to her seat without complaining.

2 hours later, it was time for the semifinals.

Monica Buffer, the announcer, did her part to hype up the crowd again. She could’ve skipped it, if she would’ve announced Catra alone. The messy ending of her last fight apparently didn’t impact Catra’s home advantage as much as Adora had feared, but a second thought occurred to Adora. Catra hated crowds. During her first fight, her anger probably drowned out everything. But now? How will she take the attention?

Catra proved again, that Adora’s worries were in vain. The lights went on, but sadly this time on the other side. Survivor started playing again, and Catra entered the arena smiling, all giddy and jumpy. She barely managed to do two normal steps in a row. Catra clearly loved the attention the audience gave her. Adora could even make out the one or other ‘Catra’ chant.

Catra finally reached the cage, and her opponent, La Abeja, (‘the bee’ in Spanish, as Adora had found out) got introduced. Now her black-yellow gear made more sense.

Everyone got ready, the fighters shook hands and the referee opened the match. It went downhill for Catra almost instantly. Her opponent, Veronica, closed the distance fast and showered Catra in a hail of jabs. Catra blocked most of them, but took a few to her chin, forcing her to retreat. Her opponent didn’t let go and followed up. Catra managed to dodge a strike and hit a counter right into the Abeja’s face. It gave Catra the room she needed to gain some distance and take a breath.

Adora thought about what she was watching and tried to analyze it, she was eager to keep the ‘Dr. Wiki’ title. She actually noticed that the Spanish girl was a bit smaller, but broader than Catra. She probably sticked closer to Catra to not give the room for kicks, while the Abeja herself solely relied on punches. Catra was just guarding at this point and literally got saved by the bell, signaling the end of the first round.

Catra got a better start this time, she managed to keep her opponent on distance with some front kicks, but it didn’t show an effect on Veronica. She managed to dodge one of the kicks and closed the distance immediately. Catra’s situation looked dire again, she took blow after blow with no chance to get away from her opponent. Her only movement was retreating backwards, and suddenly Catra slipped or stumbled and fell on her back. With the Abeja coming for her, Catra just crawled backwards hastily. She hit her back on the wire fence of the cage, dodged one strike aimed at her face and collapsed when she heard the bell.

Even at this distance and through the fence, Adora could see that Catra was pissed while the fighter pulled up herself on the fence. The whole break Catra just stood there, panting, while Huntara talked to her.

The bell rang again, Catra smacked herself on the cheeks with both hands, turned around and pushed herself from the ground, her apex over 1 meter (ca. 4 ft) and slamming both her feet on the ground. The landing was already loud, but Catra let out a roar, aimed at no one and everyone at once, to let out her frustration and doubts.

Adora heard Spinnerella and Netossa laughing and cheering next to her, but Catra’s outburst for sure had an effect on everyone in the ring. The referee looked spooked; her opponent even took a step back. And Catra … Catra just was ready, as she lifted her right leg in front of her, knee bend, aligning her arms, just like Adora pointed out after Catra’s first fight the day before. Maybe for the last time, the referee opened the match.

The Spanish girl tried to step forward but had to step back immediately to dodge Catra’s high kick. This round in general was slower than the first two, both fighters tried to turn it down a notch in anticipation of a possible, 5 rounds finals match.

Catra fell back into defending again, while Veronica tried to find an opening.

The following scene had two points of view. Catra’s, who said, it went all according to her plan.  And everyone else, who said, that Catra just slipped because of the sweat on the floor and the turning point in this fight was just a fluke.

La Abeja attacked again, Catra did (tried to do) lunges (slipped?), her sudden movement let Veronica pass Catra on her right side. Catra managed to get her right arm around Veronica’s neck, and, combining Catra’s weight with La Abeja’s momentum, smashed her face into the ground.

Adora hold her breath at that moment, when she watched both fighters stand up again. Veronica took too long, Catra closed the distance and made a swift motion with her right leg, hitting her opponent one last time on the head, as Veronica dropped to her knees and collapsed on the floor.

After a short moment of silence, the audience woke up again and celebrated their first finalist for this day. Adora allowed herself to breathe again, Catra just sat down and watched Veronica waking up again. When Veronica sat up, Catra reached out to her and helped her getting up and walk to her coach. They talked a bit and then Catra left to get officially announced as the winner of the fight. She waved to the audience a bit, winked into Adora’s general direction and exited on her team’s side where Huntara was waiting for her. Adora lost sight of them, as many spectators in front of her got up.

They now had to wait 2 hours for the finals, a gap filled with the other semi-final fight, some raffles, a few demonstrations in slow motion of how to perform a chokehold and escape from it and other techniques. Adora spent the time mostly chatting with the others, until she saw a golden ring on Spinnerella’s finger.

Oh shoot, is that today?

Adora checked the date on her phone, and congratulated Spinnerella and Netossa to their 2^nd anniversary as a married couple. 3 years prior, there was a referendum about allowing same-sex marriage and lifting said couples on the same level as heterosexual couples. It was a landslide win for the initiators, as 98% of the votes were in favor. Netossa didn’t hesitate at all and proposed right away, but they had to wait for the actual wedding for February of the following year. Both Catra and Adora were invited and it was simply beautiful. Even the cool, calm, collected, I’m-too-cool-for-emotions Catra had tears in her eyes on several occasions.

And now, 2 years later, they were sitting in a sports center, watching a friend of them beating the shit out of some random people.

Netossa laughed, when Adora told her that. “I’m actually glad that Huntara reached out to me, because I literally had no idea what to do. This for sure is not something any couple is doing on their anniversary!”

Spinnerella laughed too, then went on to kiss her wife. “To be honest, I love it. I didn’t know that watching MMA could be that fun, but I guess having a fighter to root for sure helps.”

Adora couldn’t do anything but agree here.

The two hours passed fast; Kyle won a shirt from the raffle, But it was too big, so he gave it to Rogelio who was quite happy about it.

The lights got dimmed and turned off, the spotlights focused the octagon. In the center, a waiting Monica and Adora had to cover her ears again. Being on the mic for over 6 hours didn’t do a damn thing to Monica’s voice, as she began to welcome everyone back, thanking the sponsors and participants, pointing out the value of this tournament. And finally, the introduction of the final two fighters. Starting with the guest, a Scottish girl called Shona MacKenzie, Adora didn’t understand her stage name, probably something Gaelic. The audience showed enough courtesy to applaud, only to go absolutely nuts 1 minute later.

The announcer didn’t even begin the introduction, as Catra’s intro began to play. Monica had to drown out the music to list some facts about Catra’s short fighting career, when one of the spotlights focused Catra’s entrance. Like earlier today, she broke out of the shadows and smoke, but this time not with murder written all over her face. Just a stern, focused look, locked on the octagon. She didn’t wave or look to her side once, she crossed the distance in long steps, again with Huntara in her tow. She threw off her robe, and entered the cage without any further ado.

The spectators calmed down, as Adora watched the referee set some rules for last time on this evening, or even in this year, and opened the fight.

Shona pushed herself off the ground, going for a strike. Catra barely managed to dodge, trying to regain her balance as her opponent pressed on. Maybe Adora was biased, but the fight looked in favor of Catra. Her opponent used manly kicks until now, and Adora trusted Huntara on her judgement, calling Catra a prodigy, so Adora figured that this match should be manageable at least to Catra.

The following minutes reminded Adora, that she actually didn’t know jack shit about MMA. Catra got pushed back again, since Shona apparently wasn’t stupid enough to settle this fight with kicks alone. If she felt superior in striking, she better should use it. And she did. Catra took some heavy blows before the round was ending, barely any chance to strike back.

The second round didn’t get much better, one of the highlights of this round was a double knock-down, as both fighters punched each other in the face at the same time, resulting in both losing balance and falling down.

The 3^rd round was awesome for the audience, but probably hell for the main actors in this play. Shona decided to go for grappling, she managed to catch Catra’s left leg after evading a front kick, but Catra pulled herself in. Using her caught leg as a lever, Catra grabbed Shona’s head, pushed herself off the ground with her free leg, putting her entire weight on Shona now and smashed her right knee into Shona’s face. Catra wanted to follow up, but Shona was back up very fast, tackling Catra and knocking her on floor. Catra got pinned to the floor by Shona sitting atop of her, who started to pummel Catra. Adora had a deja-vu seeing them like this, but with reversed roles as now Catra was at the receiving end. Catra raised her arms to guard, but soon the Gaelic girl switched to hammering down both of her fists to break the block.

While blocking, Catra managed to raise her legs and got the timing right to slip her feet under her opponent’s armpits and pull her off.

Adora yelped when she saw that, she remembered a trainings exercise that required doing this, but Adora’s abs began to hurt by just thinking about it.

The bell rang to end the 3^rd round. Both fighters looked like shit. Multiple bruises, both sporting a black eye on the same side from earlier, but for whatever reason, no one was bleeding.

To Adora’s surprise, no one was talking in Catra’s corner, Catra just sat down and took the break as an actual break.

The bell rang for round 4. Catra made a cutthroat gesture to Huntara, whatever that was supposed to mean.

The round began, and at first nobody moved, not even the referee. The two fighters began circling each other, like two cats fighting over their turf. Maybe they just wanted to preserve energy, or they were waiting for the other to move first. Catra lunged forward, but pulled back immediately. She began a middle kick, but again, pulled back instantly as if she was scared for her opponent to counter her.

Shona got impatient and just stormed forward, Catra was expecting this as her right fist was about to meet Shona’s face. Shona dropped herself to the floor, dodging Catra’s strike, and swept Catra of her legs. But Catra was up before her opponent could do anything dangerous.

It was clear to everyone that the match began to take its toll, not only on the outside, also stamina-wise. Both heavily breathing, just standing 2 meters (~ 6.5 ft) apart from each. One last dance.

Again, Shona initiated. She went for a feint grapple, but instead used her leg at maximum range to make Catra lose her balance. The sweep actually kicked Catra’s feet in the air, Catra now hanging in the air sideways.

Adora thanked the god, who was responsible for the cameras in here. She refused to believe what happened there until she saw the recording.

Catra hung in the air sideways, but somehow – this simply didn’t make any sense - managed to use the left momentum of the sweep in addition to her own strength in her trunk to turn this rotation into a somersault sideways, barely landing on one foot.

Catra had the word ‘surprise’ written all over her face, as Shona took a swing.

Catra arched her back to dodge the incoming strike, raising one leg to hold the balance while still standing on the tip of her toes of her standing leg, and sucker punched Shona.

Adora jumped from her seat, refusing to believe what she just witnessed, as Catra still held that pose and Shona dropped on her knees to collapse to the side.

“WE HAVE A WINNER!”

Chapter Text

February, 3 years ago, Half-Moon

Adora literally danced on her seat, hugging and shaking Lonnie – poor Lonnie – in euphoria as Monica Buffer announced the end of the match and thus the end of the tournament, crowning Catra the champion. Catra broke her pose to sit down, but got picked by Huntara again, who gave her a probably rib-crushing hug. Adora knew that Catra hated hugs, but she didn’t fight back in this moment and Adora figured, that Catra had simply no strength to fight against Huntara, if that even was possible to begin with.

But Catra proved Adora wrong, using Huntara as a stepladder to climb atop of the fence, of course without swaying even a bit, flexing every muscle available; making her abs, biceps and thigh muscles stand out. Catra let out a war cry, similar to the one she brought out in the semi-finals, but this time it was filled with joy and euphoria. The audience cheered at her, but the cheering turned into gasps as Catra went limp and fell backwards, only to do a backflip and prove to everyone, that cats indeed always land on their feet.

Everyone around her was cheering again, but Adora just smacked her hand on her face.

What a show-off!

And it got even worse. They actually interviewed Catra. At first, just some questions about what she thought about the tournament and her opponents, what went great, what did not, and what she will work on from now. And then…:

“After reaching the quarterfinals, each of you got to choose a stage name. You chose ‘Catra’. Is there a reason or deeper meaning to it?”

Catra thought for a second and when she looked at the interviewer again, her face went serious.

“Yes and no. No, because it is my nickname for over 10 years now. Yes, because a special person gave it to me. You could say, it is a name for my friends to call me, and for my foes to fear me.”

Wait, wha-? Oh god.

The interviewer chuckled at the last statement, but went back to the topic. “That special person, is she or he here today?”

God, if you are there, please let her say No!

A grin, from ear to ear, appeared on Catra’s face. “Oh, she is here!”

Are you really that busy? Fuck you!

“Where is she?”

“Right over there!” Catra pointed at her. Adora wanted to hide under her chair, but one of the spotlights focused her almost instantly, so she had no choice but to stand up and hoping that the blood rushing to her head wouldn’t let her faint on spot. Or maybe fainting would be better, then this whole thing would be over for her.

But Adora didn’t faint. She just stood there, all attention on her. Adora got covered in a flurry of flashlights when she raised her scarf and she could hear Catra laughing, even without a microphone in her hand. Adora didn’t even know why Catra was laughing, probably about Adora’s badly hidden embarrassment.

Please kill me.

But there was an end to all of this. The spotlight went away and left Adora alone in her suffering. ‘Alone’, with her friends and neighbors around her, and getting broadcasted on tv.

I’ll get you back for this, Catra.

Probably an empty threat, but you never know.

They had to wait for Catra anyways, since Huntara gave word that she will treat everyone for dinner. Adora managed to calm down, but Lonnie and Netossa made it difficult for Adora to forget a certain moment of this evening, since they showered her with pictures from every possible angle.

Catra managed to sneak up on Adora again, getting her “Hey, Adora!” whispered in Adora’s ear. That made Adora jump and drop all her stuff. She didn’t get to take revenge for earlier, since everyone else came to congratulate Catra. When everyone had their turn, Catra turned to Adora, opening her arms.

Adora tried to sulk, but in the end couldn’t refuse to fling her arms around her best friend. It didn’t stop Adora from punching Catra’s shoulder, but that only earned her a stuck-out tongue from Catra.

They settled for an Italian restaurant in the older part of Half-Moon, pizza and pasta for everyone. The highlight of dinner was a very excited waiter, who not only recognized Huntara but Catra too, since he had watched part of the tournament on his phone. He even made them pose with Catra’s trophy, the picture was supposed to go to the restaurant’s ‘wall of fame’. Huntara just laughed about it, but Catra’s face was a mix of surprise and embarrassment. They even got a round of drinks for free, but had to return a few of them since every one of the ‘kids group’ was underage, except Adora.

At least some justice.

It was a nice evening, and when everyone got up to take their leave, Catra turned to Adora and said, that both of them still had a place to go. Adora heard Netossa whistling, followed by a grunt as she got her wife’s elbow in her side.

Adora slowly but surely got impatient, it bothered her how everyone apparently knew something she didn’t, and made a big secret out of it.

“Can someone tell me what is going? Adora snarled. “Why is everyone so mysterious and why am I the only one being left out?”

Everyone turned to Catra, which didn’t make it better. But Catra got up, grabbed her bag and signaled Adora to follow her. They just walked 4 blocks down, to enter another bar. Adora didn’t mind, it was cold and raining, but it increased Adora’s confusion. They sat down at a table next to a window, Catra told her to order something to drink because they will be here for a while. Catra didn’t say a word until their drinks arrived, again non-alcoholic for Catra, even though she looked like she needed something stronger.

For the first time since they entered the bar, Catra looked at Adora.

“I’m sorry.” Catra began.

What?

“I’m sorry for dragging ou this whole thing until now, but I didn’t know how and when to say it.”

This is how break-up scenes in movies start. Is she dumping me? Wait, we aren’t even together….

“Do you know where we are?”

“In a bar?”

Catra rolled her eyes, now gesturing to the window. “No shit Sherlock. Do you know where we are?”

Adora thought for a moment. “Prime Plaza?” Oh!

Catra nodded. “That’s the guy who founded the preĝejo near to your house, by the way. Do you have any specific memories of this place?”

OH!

“Of course. We met here, 10 years ago, for the first time. I was shopping with Razz, but then I saw you sitting there, looking all miserable.” Adora didn’t expect their conversation to head in this direction, and was curious about what’s going to happen.

“Correct. And you gave me 50€, your whole birthday present budget, while saying that I would need it more than you.”

Adora now remembered everything. The sleeping girl in dirty clothes, sitting in the cold with a sign in front of her saying ‘I’m hungry, please help’. She remembered Catra (or Katrina at this time) opening her eyes, one blue, one yellow, and looking at her somehow annoyed.

“Of course, I remember. How could I forget that?”, Adora said softly.

Catra stayed quiet for a bit, watching the bubbles in her coke rise. She locked eyes with Adora again.

“I will tell you a story now, a story about myself. You know parts of the story, duh, we know each other for 10 years now, but you will notice that some parts will differ from your memory. The reason for this is, that you have been lied to. Not only from me, but also others.”

Ok, I for sure didn’t expect that.

Catra took a deep breath. “Please, let me finish first…” and let out a sigh, “and then you can decide what to do next…”

Adora noticed worry, and even fear in Catra’s voice, but nodded. Catra swallowed, and began.

“I was probably born on 28^th October in Mačjigrad. Probably, because that's what my first ID-card said, but the police think it's fake. The authorities in Mačjigrad weren't that much of a help either. Anyways, my parents had sold me to pay off their debt, when I was about 4 or 5 years old, I don't remember it, and honestly, I don’t want to. The group I was sold to send out children to ‘richer’ countries to let them beg there, hoping for people to show pity and giving them money. Obviously, the children never got to see anything from the money. Everything gets send back to the group’s head. When I got to join the group, I met Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio.”

Wait, what? You knew each other?

Catra talked about the group travelling through Europe, making its last move to the outskirts of Half-Moon, and the day she met Adora. And then about Catra hiding the money Adora gave her and how her abusers reacted.

Adora felt sick while listening to Catra, how she met Netossa and Spinnerella, about the court hearing and their transfer to the orphanage. And how the head injury affected Catra in the past years. How she nearly destroyed Svenia’s bike out of misled jealousy and had a seizure the following night, trying to distance herself from Adora and finally how Spinnerella introduced Catra to Huntara.

Catra talked nearly for one hours, choked and paused a few times, but Adora never interrupted her. She didn’t have a reason to. Catra was painfully concise. When she finished, neither of them said anything for a moment. Catra clearly was waiting for a response, but Adora needed some time to process what she just heard.

It’s my fault

Everything is my fault.

Adora buried her face in her hands, feeling her eyes getting wet. Taking a deep breath, she put her hands back down and face Catra again who now was close to panicking.

“Why? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Adora’s voice was hoarse and she needed two attempts to say that.

“Because I thought that it would push you away. I was so … happy, when I came into the class and saw you sitting there. I hoped that we could become friends, you were my first reference person in the real world. And I was afraid that you would leave me alone if you found out.”

It hard to tell 10 years later, especially when you were a child back then, but now? If that would’ve happened today, Adora would try to do anything to make up for that.

“I’m sorry.” Adora’s voice still hoarse. Catra’s left eye twitched.

“What? What are you sorry for? Didn’t you listen to me?” Catra sounded angry. “Adora, you saved me! I don’t know where I would be now if you didn’t give me the money then. Yes, I had a ‘plan’ to get away from them, but God knows if that plan had actually worked. Maybe I would be the one grooming other children now. Who knows? I don’t, and I’m glad that you came into my life and prevented me from finding that out.

Catra was quite worked up right now, giving in to her rant.

“This is exactly what I was afraid of, and what made me lie to you for nearly 10 years. That you take it the wrong way and think that everything is your fault and it would’ve been better if you weren’t there. That’s bullshit and I want you to realize that.”

Adora was just staring at her hands in that moment. Giving Catra the money had changed the life of four people, seven, if Adora added the jailed abusers. Catra probably was right, Adora shouldn’t apologize. But neither should Catra. Adora didn’t know if she would’ve acted the same way, but it probably is somewhat understandable, if you don’t want to scare people, you want to know better, away. But Catra wanted – no, needed – an answer and she was actually afraid that Adora didn’t want her as her friend anymore.

Adora got up from her seat, noticing the rising panic in Catra’s eyes, and walked around the table to sit right next to Catra, facing her.

This probably won’t be enough, but it’s a start.

Adora leaned towards Catra and put her arms around Catra’s neck. Catra twitched at touch, but leaned into, burying her face in Adora’s neck. Adora just held her, when Catra started shaking. At first Adora thought Catra was freezing, but when her neck got wet, Adora figured that Catra was crying.

“I’ll never leave you, don’t forget that!”

That made Catra lift her head, puffy eyes.

“Promise?”

“Promise!”

“You better remember that. I don’t want to think back to the last time you forgot something important. Like my name…”

That made Adora laugh. “Oh god, don’t remind me. I still have nightmares about this.”

This lifted the mood. Catra laughed too, it was a clear, honest laugh, not her usual cackling that often resembled her favorite character to dress up on Halloween. Adora moved to sit up straight, which caused Catra to fall forward into Adora’s lap. Both froze, but nobody even tried to move, until Adora asked Catra if she could see the scar. Catra hesitated at first, but turned her head, now facing Adora’s abdomen. Adora let her fingers run through Catra’s hair, but Catra twitched.

“Oh god, sorry. Does it hurt?” Adora felt her face heating up, but Catra just chuckled.

“No, you have cold fingers.”

Adora rolled her eyes, but rubbed her hands before going through Catra’s hair again. She found the scar fast, it surprised her how she never had noticed it. It was a nearly straight line, around 3 cm long, above her ear.

“When did it hurt the last time?”

“The scar? Around 10 years ago. My head? In our last year in middle school, when I got admitted to the hospital the last time. You know, right before I started MMA.”

“That’s a good thing, no? It means that Spinnerella was right.”

Catra nodded. “I stopped going to therapy a year after that. MMA did a lot for me. On one side, we didn’t see each other that often anymore, but on the other side, it made our now weekly meetings way more enjoyable, don’t you think so?”

Adora agreed, she has had the same thought. Still caressing Catra’s scar, Adora thought about what Catra told her, and what Adora had on her chest to tell Catra. When Catra mentioned the impact Razz’ prophecy had on her, it made Adora think about her own and which parts of it came true already.

Maybe she should tell her? Adora knew, that she couldn’t make any progress if she just hid it. She had to start with someone and it’s Catra, what was the worst that could happen? It’s not like Adora was going to introduce her to her partner. And Catra told Adora something big for her. If she could manage, so could Adora.

Adora felt something moving in her lap and her hand froze, realizing what she was doing at that moment. She looked down, Catra’s head still in her lap, but Catra’s eyes were closed.

Is she asleep?

Adora looked at her watch, it was past 11pm and after the last two days Catra had, it wasn’t really surprising. There will come a time, where your body just shuts down. Adora took a closer look at her best friend’s face. It hadn’t changed much over the years, it just got a bit slimmer. Freckles, eyes, nose, the lips … still the same. Adora rubbed her thumb softly over the dark blue bruise under Catra’s right eye, but apparently not softly enough, as Catra woke up. It took her awhile to realize where she was, enough time for Adora to remove her hand. Catra hastily sat up, looking around with a now flushed face.

“What happened? Did I fall asleep? For how long? What time is it?”

Adora chuckled. “Don’t worry, not only 10 minutes. I’m not surprised, to be honest, after that day you had. But it’s past 11pm, I think we have to leave soon.”

Catra stared at Adora for a moment. “Oh yeah, uhm, sure. Let me just get the bill.”

Adora waited on the outside, enjoying the cold clear air. At least the rain stopped. Adora heard the door behind her and Catra appeared at her side, maybe too tired to pull off the usual “Hey, Adora” shenanigans. They slowly made their way to the subway station, passing the golden statue at the center of the plaza. Catra stopped to read the sign at the base of it.

“Glory to Prime, founder of the one and only church, and uniter of Half-Moon”.

Catra scoffed. “Do you think, he would be happy about the state of his church? So desperate for followers that they need to pressure underage girls into this?”

Adora thought back about the encounter Catra once had with a member of the preĝejo, and shrugged. “Maybe that’s the way how they got big in first hand? Isn’t that how unification and religion work in general?”

Catra didn’t answer, but probably had a similar thought.

They continued their walk, until they reached the train station where they had to part ways. Adora was about to say goodbye, but Catra stopped her while searching for something in her bag. She pulled out a book sized, wrapped present and handed it to Adora.

“Happy Birthday! Sorry, but I wanted to give to you in person, and there wasn’t a better him for this.”

Adora opened it, and it was – surprise – not a book. It was a framed picture of Catra and Adora, taken at their first Halloween. Adora in her favorite warrior princess outfit and Catra dressed up as a witch, the plush cat Adora gave her that day on her shoulder. In the top right corner, a dedication, written with a silver pen:

Thank you for everything, always!

Love, Catra

Adora tried to swallow the lump in her throat. “Where did you get this?”

“Spinnerella! She took it when we went trick-or-treating at their house. She kept it all that time, I just had to ask.”

“It’s beautiful. Thank you!” Adora’s voice cracked and her eyes got watery. She didn’t even know why. It was just a picture. But her own reaction showed Adora, how high she valued her friendship with Catra, same as the last hours had shown how Catra valued it.

They were about to part ways, but this time Adora stopped Catra.

Get over with it. They are just 3 words.

“Today you told me a big secret of yours, now I want to tell you a big secret of mine. I have never told anyone before.”

Catra raised her eyebrows.

Ok, now you have her attention. Like a band-aid. Off with it and it doesn’t hurt that bad.

“Catra, I’m gay.”

Catra said nothing, her face was something between surprised and confused. Then she thew her head back and guffawed, so loud, it echoed through the whole train station. Then she smacked a hand on her mouth, eyes wide in shock.

“Adora I’m so sorry. You said it’s something big for you and I fucked it up. I’m a bad friend, sorry.”

Adora managed to get past her shock and tried to form a complete sentence. This was definitely not the reaction she was expecting.

“Why are you laughing?” Adora did her best to not sound hurt, but that didn’t really work.

Catra, now looking everywhere but at Adora, responded with a low voice.

“It’s not a surprise. At least not for me. It … wasn’t a revelation or anything. Just … I mean, look at you. Half of our male student body is jealous of your biceps. You haven’t played a game of football in the school breaks since middle school, because you trashed everyone and they were pussies about that. That one may be a stretch, but in all the time we know each other, you haven’t even once talked about a guy. I just remember you raving about that girl you met at an away game, but that was … 2 years ago?”

Adora felt down. Not because of Catra’s reaction. Well, actually a bit. But mostly because she had buried this part of her identity deep in herself. She realized being lesbian when she was 14, but when the girls in her class began to talk about their crushes, she didn’t have the courage to step up and talk about the girl she liked. Adora feared misunderstandings and thus had said nothing. Even after the referendum legalizing same-sex marriage and Netossa’s and Spinnerella’s wedding, she just couldn’t come out of the closet. There was no reason to stay in there, but somehow Adora didn’t have the strength for breaking out of it.

And now, … Catra just told her that it’s obvious and Adora didn’t want to believe it. It would mean that she hurt herself over years for nothing and nothing at all.

“Hey…” Adora felt Catra’s hand on her cheek. “I can feel and see that my reaction isn’t the one you wished for. But let me tell you that I’m happy for you and I feel honored that I’m the first person you are coming out to. And I can assure you that no one will judge you for just being you. But if they do …” Catra winked. “Give me their address.” She went serious again. “It’s up to you how you move on from now. I won’t tell a single soul except you wish me to.”

For the second time this evening Adora hugged Catra, but this time Catra answered it instantly.

“I’m so glad, I have you.” Not that Adora ever had doubts about that, but it’s a good thing to word it out once in a while, for both of them.

Catra snorted. “I’m glad that we are on the same page. I didn’t want to bring out the incident with the changing room.”

Adora groaned into Catra’s jacket. “Honestly, that is the one thing I will never forgive you.”

“Aw, you don’t mean it that way. It was …  quite entertaining.”

“Yes, if you are the one watching, and not the one who got called out.”

In middle school Catra had to wait for Adora getting dressed after PE. In Catra’s opinion, Adora took too long so Catra came back to get her and caught her “staring” at one of their classmates. Catra called her out for that right on spot, but everyone was looking at Catra the moment she barged in. Since nobody actually saw Adora looking, everyone thought it was just Catra being weird again.

Back in the present, Catra broke the hug. Adora saw the smug grin in her face and suspected that whatever she had in mind, Adora wouldn’t like it.

“If it helps, I know at least one girl who has the hots for you.”

What?

WHAT?

“Who?”

Catra made a thinking face. “Hmmmm, I don’t think I will tell you.”

Screw you!

“Catra, you can’t do this to me.”

“I can and I will. But I can assure you that said person will come for you, if she thinks the time is right.”

With that sentence on her lips, Catra walked backwards to her train, not breaking eye contact with Adora. She found her way into train and waved goodbye with a fat grin on her face, as the train left the station.

Adora let out a loud Fuck after making sure that nobody was around to her swear, and headed for her train.

The next day, Adora searched for Catra with the intent to strangle her, but she couldn’t find her. Either she wasn’t at school or was hiding very good. One disadvantage of high school was the varying schedule of each student. Adora and Catra only shared one course since Adora had her focus on sports and science, Catra’s on languages and art. After a fruitless search for Catra, Adora went home, but with a detour in mind.

Spinnerella opened the door, surprise on her face.

“Hey Spinnerella, is Netossa there too? I wanted to ask you something and it’s a quite … delicate question, so I thought it’s better to ask you both at once.”

“Hi! Uh, no, she isn’t, but she should be back in around 30. You can wait if you want.”

Adora decided to wait, getting more and more nervous every minute. When she heard Netossa entering the house, her heartrate felt like it was at 240 bpm. Spinnerella filled Netossa in, they sat down in the living room and waited for Adora to start. Adora took a deep breath.

“I need help to figure something out and I am sure that you are the ones who can best help. If you don’t want to answer, that’s fine too.” Adora took another deep breath. The two women in front of her watched Adora with growing curiosity.

Calm down, Adora. They are friends. They will help you.

“I’m lesbian, and I wanted to ask you how you managed your coming-out.”

***

July 31^st, 3 years ago, Half-Moon

31^st July. Last day of high school. Finally. Just this evening and then they were free. This feeling will be only a temporary one, since most of the students weren’t done with their educational career. Adora had managed to get accepted into Half-Moon University. She never doubted it, but it took a gigantic load of her chest when the acceptance letter had arrived. To Adora’s dismay, she had to take the usual tests for the admission procedure, a disastrous season with her football team had destroyed her hopes to get a scholarship. Not getting the scholarship didn’t mean the end of the world, but Adora could’ve made good use of the extra money that would’ve come with it.

But whatever. The plan is to get over with this evening, getting wasted and then two months of doing whatever they wanted, until the start of University in October.

But for now, focus on today’s prom. The school rented a location to fit the 180 students with their families in it. The first act of the evening was the dinner, provided by a caterer. Followed by the official diploma awarding ceremony by the school board. Some highlights from the last 3 years and the presentation of the mock-up prom queen and king. The intention was an actual election, but the students decided that there was no need for it and ‘manipulate the election’. It still was a secret election, meaning the voters didn’t tell who got their vote, but it was to expect that the ‘winners’ weren’t part of the students’ body. And around 10.30pm, the event ends, the parents would leave and the real event would begin. Open end.

For unknown reasons, the school board had decided to enforce a dress code for this evening. Meaning suits for men, dresses for the women. It probably was Mrs. Weavers doing, so the first thing Catra did, was to look at the rental contract to check for loop holes. Adora didn’t get to know if Catra had found anything, but Catra’s good mood gave her a hint.

Adora was in her room, in front of her mirror, wearing the dress Razz made for her. Red, shoulders free, a wine-red stripe going all the way from top to bottom on both of her sides and an apricot-colored belt. It was marvelous. And Razz made it all by herself. Adora will never understand how someone can be so good at sewing with a bare minimum of technical aids.

Adora sent a picture of herself to Catra, but she only got a black bow tie as response. Obviously, Catra was going to wear a suit, but didn’t give any more hints of its looks. Adora looked at her watch. 2 hours to go.

Razz and Adora took a taxi to the location, since Razz didn’t touch a car in the past 3 years now and Adora wanted to stay past Razz’ bedtime. They arrived, showed their tickets and entered the hall. In fact, it was nothing special. A stage, 6 rows of tables in front of it, a banner saying ‘graduation class 2018’. A few balloons and garlands here and there. Most of the tables were already occupied by families, celebrating the graduation of their children. Seeing the families of her classmates, parents and siblings, even grandparents, left a bitter taste in Adora’s mouth. Razz noticed it and took Adora’s hand, stroking its back with her thumb.

“I’m proud of you. And Mara would be too.”

Adora knew Razz’ intention behind this, just trying to comfort her, but it didn’t help. Not here. Maybe just getting wasted later would help to forget that, even if it was just for a while. While Razz sat down and ordered something to drink, Adora decided to walk around and greet some people. She met Peter, who organized the whole evening, Svenia, her football teams’ co-captain, and eventually a guy she never really had talked to. His name was Mathieu, and they only had shared one class over the last 3 years. He introduced another boy to her, and told her that he is his boyfriend. Adora was surprised, but returned the greetings.

“Adora, I just wanted to thank you. I heard about your coming-out and the overwhelming positive reception. So, I gathered every ounce of courage and decided to follow you. And here I am, with him.” Mathieu shared a look with his partner, while Adora tried to understand what she just heard. Someone was thanking her for coming out? That was something new. But Adora could sure get used to the warm feeling that spread in her chest. Adora thanked him for telling her this as the couple made their way back to their table.

It made Adora remember her coming-out. In retrospect, it was not a big thing. At this point, she already had come out to the person most important to her, she didn’t really care about what the rest would think. But it bothered Adora enough to actually get advice from Netossa and Spinnerella. When she visited them, both were happy for her and willingly answered all her questions, even the inconvenient ones. Spinnerella didn’t have negative stories to tell, everyone had been supportive from the beginning, Netossa on the other hand…. Netossa on the other hand told Adora about her parents’ reaction and it was not a fun story to listen to. With visible pain in her eyes, she talked about growing up in a conservative household, the catholic church and it’s teaching nearly omnipresent in Netossa’s life. It broke Netossa, when she told her parents and they expelled her from her family. Only her brother is still in contact with her, but only years after this incident, realizing his reaction at that time had been wrong.

Well, Adora didn’t need to fear that. Razz is her only family and there is no way she will ever deny Adora something that makes her happy. Catra said something similar.

Netossa and Spinnerella helped her to find a right time and place. They reminded Adora, that a coming-out isn’t in fact necessary, but Adora was past that point already. They told her, that sometimes people choose public places to come out, so in case of negative reactions strangers could step in. Maybe Adora doesn’t want to specifically tell someone, and just settle for more subtle signs, like wearing pride-colored clothes or visiting LGBTQIA+-event. But Adora had settled her mind on actively telling, and one day she stood in front of her class and came out. The reception was overwhelmingly positive and supportive. But to Adora’s surprise, everyone was – well - surprised. It was the exact opposite reaction to what Adora expected, regarding the things Catra told her. Adora expected a ‘Meh’ or ‘Finally!’, but not this big Hello and ‘happy for you’ and all. Either Catra lied about Adora being obvious about this, or Catra could read Adora way better than she (or both of them) knew.

Enter Catra. Adora spotted her at the entrance, wearing a black suit with Bordeaux-colored lines following the seams, the black bow tie she had sent picture of earlier and a red, buttoned shirt. Black pants. And a face brimming with confidence. Every James Bond villain would’ve killed said agent to get this outfit. Adora closed her dry mouth (when did she even open it?), when she saw Mrs. Weaver making her way over to Catra. They began arguing, obviously about Catra’s suit, since the dress code said something else. Catra reached for her big bag and pulled out a pile of paper. Unflappable as always, Catra went through the pile while Mrs. Weaver berated her. Catra found what she was looking for and showed it to her principal. Stopping for a moment, Mrs. Weaver read it and started to say something again. Which caused Catra to flip a few pages and present something else. Mrs. Weaver was fuming at this point and made a last attempt, but Catra waved Peter, the organizer (poor guy), to her side. He said something and Mrs. Weaver turned around and left, fury written in her face. Catra high-fived Peter, spotted Adora and moved to her.

“Nice dress there, princess.”

“You look …  nice, too.”

Damnit Adora, you can do better than this.

“Oh, I am well aware of that!” Catra said as she slowly turned around herself, presenting her backside to Adora. “I have the feeling, that this is going to be a great evening!”

Hearing Catra saying this was somehow unsettling for Adora. Catra hated events like this, her looking forward to this evening was spelling trouble. But before Adora could respond to that, Catra already head over to her table. Whoever made the seating arrangements placed Rogelio, Lonnie and Catra on a single table, Kyle was sitting with his foster parents. Adora had the suspicion that it was just Mrs. Weaver being an ass towards Catra, but she saw the three of them putting their heads together as soon as Catra arrived and that somehow made Adora worry that Catra was about to do something stupid. The sudden appearance of waiters distracted Adora from her thoughts and she hurried back to Razz and her seat to order food.

The food alone was worth the 10€ ticket fee. It was unusual to pay admission for your prom, but apparently the costs were far above the funds, so they had to charge everyone extra, in exchange for food, drinks and later, an open bar.

The dinner went smoothly and soon the diploma awarding ceremony began. At first, there were some speeches from the principals and the school board. Adora could tell by glancing around that nobody actually was listening, everyone’s boredom was gone, when the actual ceremony started. Every student was called up the stage to shake hands with Mrs. Weaver and the vice-principal to get their diploma. Before this evening, every student had been free to choose a song to be played during their moment on stage. Adora had chosen “Dumb Blonde” by Dolly Parton. It was an old song, not even her favorite artist, but it was more like a joke on her own expense (and definitely not a dare she had to do because of a lost bet with Catra).

The students were called in alphabetical order, and since Driluth comes before Greyskull in the alphabet, Catra was the first of them to enter the stage. The music started playing as Catra left her table and walked up the stairs. Adora groaned when she recognized the lyrics.

Fuck you, and your mom, and your sister, and your job…

There wasn’t much fantasy needed to guess at who this was directed at.

Mrs. Weaver, arms crossed, ignored Catra as the girl walked past her to get her diploma from the vice-principal. That feeling was, of course, mutual. Before she left the stage, Catra stopped for a short moment to drink in the laughter of the crowd, before she jump off with a quick look over the shoulder.

When it was Adora’s turn, people laughed about the song she had chosen, but she earned a wink from Catra, which made her forget the embarrassment. Climbing the stairs carefully not to stumble over her dress, Mrs. Weaver handed her the diploma, saying something about being the pride of the school in grades and sports. Adora smiled and thanked her, but was wondering what that woman was talking about. Her grades were above average, but she wasn’t even close to being the best, and her achievements in football were close to nonexistent.

The show went on and on and Adora was glad they put a limit of 45 secs per student, otherwise they would’ve sat there for days. Done with the awarding ceremony, a few speeches were held, followed by the “coronation” of Prom “King” and “Queen”. To their surprise, the janitor and his wife got called up the stage. Even though everyone knew that the election was ‘rigged’, crowning these two wasn’t wrong. The janitor was a well-respected person and his wife was responsible for the great food they got every day, so why not?

And last but not least, the highlights. A screen showed pictures and videos about the highlighted club, one of the supervisors or teachers held a laudation about them. Mrs. Weaver hold the laudation about Adora’s football club and their ‘remarkable’ success. Adora looked over to Svenia, who was just as confused as she was. They didn’t even make it to the playoffs this year, this season was had been a disaster. Why was that woman so obsessed with this? Mrs. Weaver said a few words to mark the end of this event, wished everyone good luck in their future and reminded everyone that if someone was going to fail, that it wasn’t the high school’s fault.

While everyone was wondering about what the hell that was supposed to mean, Adora tried to find Catra on the crowd. She found Lonnie and Rogelio, but no Catra. While wondering about that, the vice-principal entered the stage again, announcing one last highlight.

Music started playing again, it was Eye of the Tiger, but a remix, not the original by Survivor. Adora thought, that she knew what was coming, but she didn’t expect a highlight montage from Catra’s tournament. Judging from the reactions in the crowd, not everyone knew about this, Adora again was fascinated about the enthusiasm. Whoever made this video, clearly had earned a pay raise. It was magnificent. Shots from both days were used, every punch and strike from Catra was accompanied by a beat of the track. Even the highlight from her first fight, lifting the opponent and smashing her on the floor got a fitting build-up and beat drop. The montage ended with Monica Buffer screaming Catra’s name and Catra appeared on the stage.

Seeing Catra standing there, in her suit, smiling, lifting her trophy, was … something.

“Why don’t you tell her?”

Huh? Adora looked at Razz, question marks in her face.

“Why don’t you tell her that you like her?”

“What do you mean, tell her I like her? She is my best friend, if course I like her, she knows that.”

“Oh dearie…” Razz shook her head, but didn’t anything more, leaving Adora confused.

Meanwhile on stage, the screen showed some pictures from the tournament, of course the one with Adora holding up her scarf was in there too

With Catra leaving the stage, shaking hands here and there, the official part of the evening was over. Adora accompanied Razz to the door, called a taxi for her and saw her off with Razz wishing her a nice evening and dared her not to return before breakfast. Adora laughed, murmuring something about trying her best and head back inside to look for the bar. She found it, hard to miss since everyone was gathering around it, but Catra saved her some time, handing Adora a bottle of beer while holding a glass, filled with a red liquid, in her other hand. Adora narrowed her eyes, and looked around.

“Who gave this kid over here alcohol?” Adora said with raised voice, smiling at Catra.

“This kid,” Catra pointed at herself. “Read the rental contract and the Half-Moon laws about gastronomy, found out that the host can decide about things like dress code and serving of alcohol. Business as usual, the owner of this location gave the host-position to the renter, the school. But, to makes things easier – or because wanted to stay out of legal trouble – the school transferred this right to our organizer, Peter. Since Peter has a brain, he allowed the serving of beer and wine to minors. Since everything of this was written down on legally binding documents, Weaver can literally do nothing about it. In conclusion, cheers.”

They clinked glasses, but Adora couldn’t hide that she actually was impressed. “I’m pretty sure that you don’t care about the booze. You just wanted to spit in Weaver’s face.”

The smirk on Catra’s face proved her right, but of course Catra denied it, with tone of voice that made it, again, quite hard to believe.

“Screw her. I’m sure that this evening won’t be the last time I will see her, but hey, I take what I get.”

With this, Catra chugged her wine in one go and head over to the bar to get a new glass.

Oh, this evening is going to be fun.

…

And it was. At least the parts Adora could remember. Playing drinking games with her classmates, comforting the younger teacher who volunteered as a supervisor but was utterly drunk before everyone else, hitting the dancefloor, just enjoying herself.

But next morning wasn’t that fun. Adora woke up and instantly wished to die. Her head was already working on it. She opened her eyes slowly, trying to get used to get used to the sunlight coming through the window-door in her room. It must be way past noon, the heat gathering in the room made her head feel even worse. She realized her feet tingling, but couldn’t move them. Adora sat up slowly to see Catra being the reason for the blockage. Adora chuckled, looking at Catra’s posture. As if she was kneeling in front of Adora’s bed and just flopped over, her torso and arms were across Adora’s feet, the rest was on the floor. That probably was less comfortable than Catra made it look like. Adora tried to free herself from Catra’s weight, but woke her up instead. Catra opened her eyes slowly. Suddenly her eyes went wide and her head shot upwards. A motion Catra instantly regretted as she let head sink down again, groaning.

“I also feel like shit, if that helps.”

Catra just looked at Adora and barely was able to blink. “Grmpf…” was everything she managed to say. They heard Razz calling for them, the smell coming to Adora’s room promised pancakes.

“Catra, you need to move. I’m hungry and I need to pee. I’m way too old to do that in bed.”

Catra narrowed her eyes, as if she was actually considering staying there, but the angel on her shoulder won the battle and she got up. Just wearing her shirt, unbuttoned to the point Adora could see her bra, Catra turned around and bend over to pick up her pants, granting Adora an excellent view on her ass. Adora lifted her blanket to see if she was dressed like she remembered (she was!) and hurried down to the bathroom.

When she was done, Catra was already sitting at the table (now properly dressed), brooding over a pile of pancakes and a cup of coffee. Adora joined her and they began telling Razz about the evening they had. Adora’s phone chimed, announcing a message. She looked at it, from Lonnie, a picture of Catra and Adora dancing, but classic? Adora was leaning back, resting on Catra’s arm in Adora’s back, while Catra was leaning over Adora, both obviously having fun in that moment. She asked Catra about that.

“Uhm, yeah. At one point you came to me and said, you want to dance. Like, as if that’s not what you did the last hours already. But you wanted to waltz for some reason.” Catra turned her head to Razz. “And who am I to deny this princess the dance of the evening.” Razz laughed about the way Catra said this.

“Wait that was my idea?” Adora refused to believe that. Not that she hated dancing classic, but she was awfully bad at it.

“Yeah, and it was awful.” Catra lifted her left foot on the table and removed the sock. “I mean, look at my toes. It’s ok to step at your partner’s feet now and then, but your accuracy let it seem like it was 100% intentional.”

Adora saw the bruises on Catra’s foot, and couldn’t help but feel guilty there. She showed the picture to Catra, who chewed slower now to get a better look at it.

“It couldn’t be too bad, judging our smiles right there.”

Catra snorted. “No, it was actually fun. Can you send me this? I want to keep that one.”

Adora did and told Catra to check her phone too, maybe Lonnie sends something to her, too. Catra reached for her phone as it chimed, probably announcing Adora’s message, and looked through it. Adora watched her, Catra did not move a muscle but her face clearly got a deeper color.

“No nothing. I’ll ask her later. And thanks.”

Catra’s phone rang, someone was calling. She picked up.

“Hey, s’me. Uh-uh. Yep, at Adora’s. Oh really? And now the police are looking for me? Funny thing, I wonder why. No, I’ll head right over there. Still hungover, so in 2 hours? Great, see you. Oh, I will kill you for the other thing.”

Adora and Razz, wide eyed, waiting for Catra to put down the phone and fill them in. It didn’t help that Catra started laughing.

“Someone trashed Weaver’s car tonight, and she told the police that it was probably me.” Catra had her head on the table, wheezing. “Oh, this is too good, can’t wait to see that ghoul again.”

Adora and Razz shared a worried look. “Uhm, don’t get me wrong, but isn’t that a bad thing?”

“Usually yes, but I have an alibi for the entire night. First, everyone at the prom. Second, you.”

“Wait me? What did we do?” Something like panic began rising in Adora. “Catra? What did WE DO?”

Catra shot her a confused look, maybe startled by Adora raising her voice against her.

“Nothing. We went home. To here. You were so drunk that no taxi wanted to pick us up, so we had to take the subway and I had to drag you all the way to your bed.”

If that was true, Adora had a reason more to be impressed.  “You managed to drag me here? How?”

Catra shot her a hurt look. “Woman, you have seen what these guns – “, she pointed at her biceps. “Are able to do, more than once, and you still doubt me? Scandalous!”  The exaggerated gasp and Catra placing her hand over her heart made all 3 of them laugh.

“But on a serious note: it was quite exhausting. Apparently, you know no restraint when you are drunk. You are loud, can’t keep your hands to yourself and you seem to forget the meaning of the word ‘body tension’. I had to start a fight with your neighbor because you were whining at your front door about not finding your keys, while holding them in your hand. You were literally shifting your entire weight on me, because you wanted to look at the moon, but couldn’t hold your balance. You, Ms. Greyskull, are a mess when you are drunk.”

Adora felt ashamed, but only a bit. It didn’t sound like Catra was actually mad at her. Looking at the clock, Catra went upstairs to get her stuff. She had an appointment with the police.

Adora gave her worried look when she left and let out a sigh, when Catra closed the door. She saw Razz looking at Adora, and just when Adora was about to ask “What?”, she earned disappointed head-shaking. Razz refused to explain her gesture and got up to do the dishes.

Adora went back to her room to get finally out of her dress and take a shower, while letting the last evening pass in revue. Thinking about the photo Lonnie sent. And what exactly did Catra mean when she said, Adora doesn’t know where to keep her hands when being drunk. Hopefully nothing indecent.

Chapter Text

March 2021, present day, Half-Moon

Catra looked at her watch and was about to pull out her phone to mark this day as the first one in ages, on that Adora Greyskull was late. Time to celebrate. She emptied her glass and waved it at the barkeeper for another one. Being the regular she was now; she didn’t have to wait long. She heard the door open in her back, a pause, and a faint click as the door fell back into its lock. Steps, faint, but getting closer. Catra couldn’t stop herself from smiling into her glass while she was taking a sip. Something rustled behind her and a voice whispered in her ear.

“Hey Catra!”

At first not moving at all, Catra couldn’t resist to groan as she finally turned around to look in the blue-grey eyes of her best friend.

“Adora, do you know what’s the biggest difference between us? The amount of noise we produce! This thing you just tried is something you can’t pull of, because you are way too loud. Sneaking is something a football player is unable to learn.”

Adora pouted. “I didn’t know that kicking people in the face teaches you that.”

Catra actually had to laugh at that. “Well yes, but actually no! I’m just good at it. As silent as the night.”

Adora furrowed her brows. “Didn’t know your name is Bruce Wayne. Uh no, even better-“

“Selina Kyle, Catwoman. Bla bla bla. Really? That’s the best thing you came up with? Is this still payback for calling you adora-ble once? Just once?”

Adora just stuck her tongue out. Both tried to keep up their stoic faces, but it didn’t take long for them to burst out into laughter.

“Good to see you again”, Adora said as she hugged Catra. “And again, congrats to your win.”

Of course, Adora has watched it. She was eager to keep the title of Catra’s Nr. 1 fan, she had come to watch every fight that was held close to Half-Moon and watched the others on livestream. 2 years ago, Catra entered the pro-scene as a featherweight, after taking a year off after high school to find her way for the future (and gain in mass). Up to now, her record was 7 wins 0 losses. Huntara said, that low ranked fighters are usually bound to fight more often than the high-ranking ones, but Catra didn’t really care about the ranks. She discovered that she enjoyed fighting for the fight itself, and let Huntara manage her schedule, since Catra had to do her classes in the main time. Catra studied physical therapy in the 4^th semester now, following a path that she enjoyed and could combine with her hobby quite easily. She even worked parttime in Huntara’s gym as a coach for children up to 14 years. Catra’s victory brought quite the attention to Huntara’s place and more and more people came to try MMA. Of course, not everyone stayed as many figured that MMA isn’t as glorious as it may look on tv. At first, Catra didn’t want to, but Huntara pressured her to obtain a coaching license, and Catra came to find out, that coaching actually is fun.

A lot of things changed for Catra since their prom. She moved out of the orphanage and got a cheap apartment close to the city center, went to university, has a parttime job she likes.

One thing didn’t change. Her relationship to Adora. And that was Catra’s biggest happiness as well as her biggest regret. The reason for happiness is obvious. Catra likes Adora. Since they met. And that won’t change. Adora has always been a beacon in Catra’s life.

The reason for regret was … that Catra realized, that ‘just’ being Adora’s best friend isn’t enough for her, at least not anymore. Catra easily could blame Lonnie for this realization, but she knew deep down that this wasn’t a new thing, Catra just lived in denial until then. Lonnie just was … the trigger. Apparently, she knew what was up, but neither Catra nor Adora did see it. After their prom, Lonnie sent each of them a picture she took. Adora got the one of them dancing. Catra just had to agree that it was a great pic. The picture Catra got was … way more explicit. It was taken after their dance. Their bodies pressed together, Adora tilting her head and leaning down to Catra. Catra remembered herself jolt, when she felt Adora’s hand on her ass. But Catra didn’t resist. Catra realized that she wanted this. Wanted this to happen since long ago. Catra will never forget Adora’s eyes closing slowly as she felt Adora’s hot breath coat her face, her mouth coming closer, while Catra leaned into the kiss … But then, as if a switch got flipped in Adora, Adora broke away from Catra and suddenly there was a version of her, Catra had never seen before. Drunk Adora. Not the Adora Catra knew, and for sure not the Adora she just experienced. It was a shock for Catra. She just stood there. Frozen. Trying to process what just happened and what it meant to her, while Adora stumbled around her, oblivious to what just was about to happen.

And the worst part of it: Adora remembers nothing about this. The only memory Adora had, was the picture Lonnie sent her. And Catra moved heaven and earth to prevent Lonnie to send Adora the other picture too. But Adora not remembering anything was the core of Catra’s dilemma. It would be way easier to start a conversation about it, if both parties are aware of the ‘problem’. What if Catra tells her about what really happened, what it meant to her and Adora will say that it was the booze speaking out of her, and everything was probably just for shits and giggles? What will happen? Catra never heard of friendships surviving a rejected confession. Actually, she never heard anything like this before. It sounded like it came from these trashy love novels you could buy for a quarter at a train station. And there was no way in hell that Catra would pick something like that as reference material.

So Catra, the coward she was, decided to torture herself. She kept business as usual with Adora, never speaking of this in forever, except Adora brought this up to talk about ‘the good old times’. Catra didn’t explicitly told Lonnie about that, but that woman wasn’t an idiot. Adora’s carefreeness and Catra’s guilty looks gave away enough for Lonnie to figure it out, and it really hurt Catra to see how disappointed Lonnie actually was.

And now Catra was here, chatting with her best friend on their bi-weekly evening of just them two together. Oh, how Catra hated herself for this, she even bragged to Adora about knowing a girl that was attracted to her, but not giving her a name. Catra’s name. Catra didn’t even know why she even said that. It was right after Adora came out to her. Maybe it was just joy, about having a chance with Adora. Catra never cared about her own sexuality. Why would she? The prom night made Catra clear, that she actually never thought about anyone or anything else but Adora. From the beginning.

Catra had so many chances to tell Adora what she felt like, what she felt about them. But never found the courage to say it. Now she was just living alongside of Adora, bound to the hope that there will come a time like prom night again, and that Catra will find a way to open up to Adora.

But not for now. For now, Catra decided to keep up this farce for whatever reason. The only good thing here, if you even could call it a good thing in first place, was Catra getting used to it quite quickly. Barely sleepless nights, no self-harm, no unnecessary violence.

As if Adora read Catra’s mind and saw the phrase ‘unnecessary violence’, she asked Catra about her last interrogation. Catra snorted. That bitch Weaver was still trying to frame her for trashing her car, even though that was 3 years ago, the insurance got her a new car, and Catra actually had several alibis to prove her innocence. Not that she didn’t think about doing it, but someone was faster. If Catra ever found who did this, she will kiss their feet. It was a mystery to Catra why the police were still bothering her with this, the case had been closed soon after the incident.

Catra decided to push this topic aside and focus on Adora again, asking her about her last weeks, how Razz was doing and if there was something new in general. Adora’s face darkened at the mentioning of her grandmother. Not good, apparently. Adora was deeply worried.

“Honestly, I don’t know. She just sleeps all day and when she wakes up, everything tires her immediately. The doctors say its normal for her age, and it’s not like she is senile or anything. At least not worse than usual.”

That brought a smile on Catra’s face. True, Razz has always been a bit … off, but not in a way you would worry about her mental health.

“But…” Adora continued. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. I mean, I’m not stupid. Razz is old and everyone dies at one point. But I don’t think I’m prepared for that.”

Hearing Adora saying this brought Catra to the conclusion that things are not looking as good as Adora tried to tell her. Catra placed her hand on the table, reaching out to Adora.

“Tell me if you need anything. You know I am always there for you.”

It was moments like this Catra couldn’t believe herself. Of course, she meant it. How could she not? But her growing self-doubts ate Catra from inside out, making her question every action she took regarding Adora. If Catra meant it the way she said or did it, or if it just was an excuse to get closer to Adora again.

Adora interrupted Catra’s dark thoughts, putting her hand into Catra’s, circling her thumb over the back of Catra’s hand, a small smile appearing on Adora’s face.

“I know. Thank you!”

The waitress brought a new round of drinks, and unintentionally a change of topic, because neither of them actually ordered anything. When noticing their questioning looks, she pointed to a couple a few tables over.

“They bought it for you.” She pulled out a small piece of paper and read it aloud. “For Catra and her partner, as thanks and congratulations on her winning streak.”

Catra cringed at the wording, but hearing Adora’s bright and clear laughter let her forget it.

“Catra, you are finally famous. People are buying drinks for you!”

Now that was something new. People came to Huntara’s gym after Catra’s appearance in newspapers and livestreams, but it hadn’t reached the point for Catra to get recognized on the street. While Adora was still laughing, Catra turned around, raising her glass signaling ‘Thanks’ to the donors.

“What do they mean with ‘thanks for winning?”

Adora shrugged in response. “They did probably bet on you.”

“What do you mean ‘they bet on me’? You can bet on my fights?”

A nod. “Yeah, and your odds are still pretty good, for whatever reason. You should think, winning 6 times in a row should lower them, but it didn’t.

Catra wasn’t sure if her ears were still working correctly. There was a young woman sitting in front of her, telling her that people are betting money on the outcome of her matches, and apparently large sums. These cocktails are 20€ each.

“How do you even know about that?” Catra still couldn’t believe that she never heard about it herself. Adora hummed and hawed.

“I may or may not have searched for newspaper articles featuring you, and one of those I may or may not have found had maybe advertisement for a betting website beneath it?”

Adora was squirming on her seat, but started grinning soon again. Apparently, the disbelief showing on Catra’s face was amusing to her. Catra was actually speechless. But …

“You collect newspaper articles about me? Why?”

Adora shrugged again, but it was a shy, small motion. “I’m your Nr. 1 fan, no?”

Of course, you are. It’s not even close. There are probably galaxies between you and whoever is Nr. 2.

“That’s the first time you told me about this? Since when are you doing this?”

Adora began squirming again. “Since I saw the highlight montage at the prom. I even have the video. I … pestered Mr. Norwyn until he sent it to me.”

Catra hid her face in hands.

I have seen this video just once, at the prom. Adora even has a copy of it. Oh god, what am I supposed to do? I’m already bad with feelings, but Adora makes it even worse with sending barrages of mixed ones.

She left her hiding spot again, now facing an obviously worried Adora.

“All good, don’t worry.” Catra tried to play it down. “In the last 5 minutes, it was revealed to me that I’m apparently famous and I already have a stalker collecting paper-cutouts from me.”

It was meant as a joke, and luckily Adora took it as one. It took a huge load of Catra’s chest seeing the smile coming back. But thinking of the highlight montage made Catra remember the stories she wanted to tell. About her trainees, mostly.

They were motivated at first, but useless in general. Most of the boys wanted to learn MMA to be like their heroes from tv or videogames. Catra showed them quickly that it won’t be that easy. Most of them left soon after the shock, but the few coming back were eager to learn. Out of the 6 children Catra was coaching at the moment, 5 of them were girls and all of them did a bit of gymnastics. This was playing into Catra’s cards, with this she could do her usual routine (adjusted for kids), and when the kids were gone, she did the rest of it, saved a big amount of time and even got money for it.

Catra didn’t notice how many stories she actually had to tell, they ordered a 4^th and even then Catra wasn’t finished, but that just meant she will tell them the next time. In the meantime, Adora didn’t say a word, she just sat there, resting her head on her hand, laughing at the funny parts of the story and watching Catra trying to prove her points using wild gestures. The longer the evening went, the more Catra relaxed, wondering why she had been so tense in first hand. When Catra finished her last story for the evening, she looked back at Adora … and a for short moment she saw something in her eyes, that reminded Catra of a certain moment at their prom. It disappeared, when Adora turned her head to call the waitress for the bill.

Catra accompanied Adora to the train station, they said their goodbyes and Catra turned around to walk to her apartment. One big advantage of living in the older part of a city: the bars are really close to your bed.

She entered her apartment and without any further ado, Catra went to bed. Even though it was 1am already, sleep made itself scarce. Usually, Catra would’ve gone for a run now. She hated running, but it was a brainless act that helped to clear her mind, which definitely was in need right now. But it was freezing right now, and Catra wasn’t in need of a broken nose, so she just did crunches and push-ups in her apartment. Being done, she stayed on the floor, imitating a starfish and remembering the rollercoaster of emotions this evening has been.

Catra knew the easiest way out of this, but that was the one she was most afraid of. Adora sending mixed signals isn’t helping either, and was that at the end? Catra was sure that Adora had the same look at her face as at the prom, before Drunk Adora appeared. But they didn’t drink that much, did they? Not even close! So that wasn’t alcohol induced back then? Catra let out a tired groan. Again, thinking about things that happened and trying to find solutions she didn’t want to hear anyways didn’t get anything done. Same shit as always.

But Catra had to figure this out, as soon as possible. It couldn’t backfire, like the big lie about Catra’s life, but this situation will drive Catra mad if it continues for too long. It was surprising that Catra wasn’t gone for good already, considering that this was going on for 3 years already.

How can someone be 20 years old already and still be this immature?

***

The following days past quietly, no one bothered Catra on the weekend, she just got a selfie from Adora featuring Razz making their famous raspberry pie. Catra thought about Razz, seeing her in this picture. She did look tired, at least compared to the last time Catra met her in person. And that was how long ago? Maybe she should pay them a visit, just for Razz’ sake. Catra immediately wrote back, that she will come around on Monday, just for the pie obviously.

Razz was happy to see her again, but Catra was barely able to contain her face. Razz looked even way worse than the selfie made seem. Adora saw it. She didn’t say anything, but Catra saw the fear in Adora’s face. Catra sat down at the table, to keep Razz company, but Adora excused herself mumbling something about studying. Catra’s eyes followed her walking upstairs, and turned back to Razz, when Adora closed the door. Razz’ face showed, that she exactly knew what was up. But she just let out a sigh and asked Catra about her day. Catra was more than happy to provide the answers.

Again, Catra lost herself in telling her stories. She just came to a stop when she tried to look at her phone and needed to turn on the ceiling lights to find it. Blinking a few times, she noticed Razz nearly being asleep. Being embarrassed about getting lost in her flood of words, she helped Razz getting to bed and after wishing her a good night, Catra went upstairs to look after Adora.

She knocked on the door, but there was no response. Catra slowly opened the door, spotting Adora sitting at the desk, wearing headphones. Usually, Catra would use this to give Adora a jump scare, but even Catra knew that now isn’t the time for that, so she sent Adora a message to inform her about her presence. Adora waved her in, taking off her headphones.

Adora looked like shit. Not in the usual matters, she was always stunning, but the dark rings under her eyes and her ruffled hair showed, that something was not okay. The reason was obvious. But Catra had a bad feeling about this. Neither Adora nor Catra knew how it was to lose a close relative. Razz was the only relative Adora had, since she didn’t consider Mara as one. And Catra didn’t even remember the name of her parents, and she stopped caring a long time ago. But it would be unfair to Razz if Catra would just not miss her. She may not be blood-related, but Razz treated Catra like her own daughter, starting with sewing a costume for Halloween for a kid she barely knew at that time. Now that Catra thought about it, maybe Razz was a reason for Adora and Catra being close friends.

Catra entered the room, looking around for a bit. It’s been quite a while that she’s been here. She immediately saw a framed newspaper cutout on the wall, the picture in it showing Catra, lifting her first and only trophy. ‘High schooler wins tournament for first time in lunarian history!’ Above it, the scarf Razz made, saying ‘CATRA’ in her eye colors.

She actually wasn’t joking about that.

On Adora’s nightstand more frames. One showing Mara in her light-blue clothes, holding Adora soon after her birth. The other one was the one Catra gave her as a present for Adora’s 18^th birthday. Catra stepped to the desk, looking at Adora’s document. They all were either empty, or closed.

“I- I just sat here, while you were spending time with Razz. That’s my job. And I ran away from it. There wasn’t even music on, I just sat here and stared.”

Catra said nothing, she just rubbed Adora’s shoulder, causing Adora to lean her head against Catra’s waist.

“I’m actually scared, Catra! I don’t know what to do.”

“There is no need to. Even if something happens, we have the best doctors in Half-Moon. And Netossa and Spinnerella are living close by. And if someone blocks traffic, you can call me and whoever is responsible for this, will regret obtaining the driver’s permit.”

The last sentence made Adora snort into Catra’s shirt.

“Would you?”

Ah yes, good ol’ threats of violence. Works like a charm.

“Everything for you! But it’s insulting that you are asking this.” Catra gasped theatrically, crossing her hands over her heart.

It didn’t lift Adora‘s mood completely, of course not, only a bit. But Catra was limited in her options. For the moment, she just could ask if she could help with anything, look for Razz one more time and then go home.

The following days were … exhausting. Waking up, doing the usual shit for university, may it be theoretical or practical, coming home, cook, heading to the gym and either doing her own routine or showing others how to do theirs. Thursday evening, Catra entered her apartment, throwing her keys on her couch, dropping her bag on the floor and heading straight for the bed. Sprawled across the bed, sleepy eyes, trying to repeat the things the professors told her today. It didn’t do much, Catra had to redo her learning schedule and maybe cancel one of the coaching sessions. It may lower her income, but there was just no other way.

Her phone rang. Catra looked at her alarm clock. 11.23pm.

Who the fuck calls at this time?

Only moving her arm, she tried to find the phone by the noise it made. Catra found it and squinted her eyes to read the display.

Adora? Wha- OH FUCK!

Catra was awake again.

“Yes?”

“Catra, I- I just... I….” Even through the phone, Catra could hear Adora choking on her tears.

“Adora, please. Take a breath and tell me what’s going in!”

She heard the breath.

“I just- I just found Razz in the kitchen lying on the floor.”

OH FUCK.

“Ok, did you call 911? Where are you right now?”

“Yes, I did. They were already here. They took Razz to the HMH. What am I supposed to do now?”

Calling Adora a mess right now wouldn’t be wrong, but would be highly inappropriate.

“Ok, again, where are you right now? At home?”

Catra could make out a confirming hum.

“Ok, stay where you are, I’m coming for you!”

Why the fuck do I have neither a car nor a driver’s permit?

Catra called for a taxi and got dressed in records time, grabbed the necessary stuff and sprinted downstairs, jumped into the taxi and nearly threatened the driver to break every law ever written about speed limits to get to Adora’s house. Arriving there, Catra told the driver to wait for her. She ran through the (still?) open door to find a hysterical Adora sitting on the couch.

Seeing Catra, Adora hurried to her and flung her arms around Catra. “Oh God, Catra…. I don’t know what to do. I’m so scared….”

For Catra ‘s taste, she heard that sentence too often recently. She looked around, grabbed one of the pillows on the couch and a blanket and told Adora to get her phone, jacket and wallet and go to the waiting taxi. Adora looked confused.

“Where are we going?”

Wait, seriously?

“Uh, to the hospital? What do you expect at-,” Catra looked at her watch “ -midnight? Disneyland?”

Oh, turn it down a notch, Catra!

Adora didn’t respond, just got her stuff and head outside. Catra found the keys, locked the door behind her, and followed her. After telling the taxi driver where to go, Adora leaned over and rested her head on Catra’s shoulder. To Catra’s own surprise, she didn’t flinch at the touch. She waited for Adora to say something, but they both stayed quiet for the whole trip.

They arrived at the hospital, Catra paid the driver who wished them well and then followed Adora into the ER. She found her talking to the nurse at the reception desk, but the conversation didn’t seem to go the way Adora wished it to go. She turned around, telling Catra with audible anger in her voice, that the woman refuses to give any information because apparently no one had confirmed Razz’ identity yet. Just as Catra was about to hop over the counter to strangle the nurse, one of these double doors leading to an operating room swung open and a voice calling for them stopped Catra from committing her first murder. They turned around to see Netossa. Catra mentally hit herself.

Should’ve thought of that and called one of them immediately!

Netossa was understandably surprised, there was no reason for her to expect these two here on that day at this time. She asked them, what they were doing here, which brought Adora to tears immediately. She sat down on of the benches, as Catra filled Netossa in. Her eyes growing wider, Netossa flipped her head over to the nurse at the desk. She walked over to the desk and was presented a clipboard with some sheets of paper attached to it. Catra could hear a dangerously low ‘Why thank you’ from Netossa, before the doctor turned around again. Netossa flipped through the pages, her faces petrified. She walked over to Adora, crouching in front of her and placing a hand on Adora’s shoulder.

“When and how did you find her?”

“I just came home from the university, around 10.30pm. I didn’t even want go into the kitchen, I head for my room, but came back to bring dishes I left there. And then I found her. This is way past her usual bedtime, who knows how long she was there?”

Netossa shot Catra a look, but Catra would’ve known without that, that this is a bad sign. Not that Adora herself would’ve changed anything, whatever has happened would’ve happened either way. But if it’s a stroke anything similar, seconds can matter. Catra didn’t say it out loud, but if Razz would’ve been in her bed at that time, Adora would’ve found Razz way too late. Netossa was probably thinking the same.

Netossa stopped a passing nurse and asked her to lead Catra and Adora to a room, probably Razz’. But she impressed on both of them to not enter the room under any circumstances except the responsible doctor said anything else. An incoming stretcher reminded Netossa that she was on duty and sent Adora and Catra off. They followed the nurse in the 4^th floor and stopped in front of a room. The nurse reminded them about what Netossa told them, so they settled down on the bench right in front of the room.

They watched doctors and nurses walking in and out, but no one stopped to tell them what was going on. Catra noticed Adora swaying back and forth, fighting her urge to sleep. Catra gave her the blanket and the pillow she took from Adora’s house. At first Adora refused, saying that she won’t be able to sleep anyways. Catra insisted on it, and finally Adora gave in. It didn’t even take one minute.

Catra didn’t. She was way too nervous to sleep, but it didn’t surprise her that Adora could. She didn’t sleep properly for days, and there will always be a time when your body just gives up. Catra used the moment to look up some things about strokes, but closed the browser on her phone again after a short time. It wasn’t something Catra actually wanted to read right now. She checked her watch. 2am.

Catra was about to get a coffee from that cheap vending machine down the hall, when the door of Razz’ room opened again. A doctor left the room, looked around and walked over to Catra, asking her if she was the next relative. Catra shook her head and woke up Adora. It took a while to get Adora back online, but the doctor didn’t rush her. He told them about Razz’ condition, about the stroke and how the blood clot got removed via thrombolysis. Razz was stable for now, but the doctor warned Adora that this situation is still not over for Razz. He paused for moment, thinking about what to say next.

“We may have managed to stabilize her, but we did everything we could. She will stay here for a few days for observation, and then we will see.”

The door opened again, a nurse exiting, saying that Razz is responsive now. The doctor looked at Adora again.

“If you want to talk to her, now would be a good time.”

Adora swallowed hard and looked at Catra. Catra tried a reassuring smile.

“If you need me, I’ll wait here.”

Adora nodded and entered the room. Catra sat down again, looking at her phone until Netossa appeared to ask about Razz. Catra told her as good as possible. Netossa made a sour face when Catra finished.

“It doesn’t look good, right?”

Netossa just looked at Catra, but that was enough for an answer. After 20 minutes, the door opened again with a jittery Adora in its frame.

“She wants to speak with you, Catra.”

Wait, me? Catra tried to hide her surprise as good as possible when she passed Adora and closed the door slowly behind her.

Catra hated being in this room the moment she closed the door. Not because of Razz, but because of the memories that resurfaced. The smell of disinfectants and ointments made her nauseous. Razz was laying in the bed, waiting for Catra. Weak, but her eyes were livelier than ever.

 “Hi Razz.”

Razz let out a weak huff. “Come here already.”

Catra sat down on a chair next to the bed, judging from the wet spots on the bed in front of her, Adora sat here too. Crying.

“You wanted to see me?”

“Of course, I have a few things to tell you. We knew each other long enough; don’t you think so?”

Catra nodded in agreement.

“Good. But now listen closely. I don’t have much time left. Adora thinks I don’t know that, but I’m well aware that she already said goodbye to me.”

Catra got shivers from hearing Razz saying something like that with such a finality.

“I have to apologize to you first. It was quite some time ago when I did your ‘prophecy’,” Razz managed to pronounce the hyphens. “But I originally did it as a prank. I’m supposed to be good at reading people, but I messed it up with you. I didn’t expect you to react like this. The first time Adora brought you home, I recognized you. Your picture was all over the news. I later took that to let it be your origin story, when I read the cards for. I should’ve stopped when I saw your face.”

Catra got hot and cold at the same time. She could remember this day as if it was yesterday. It got even creepier when she thought that she found more parts of the prophecy fulfilled, even though Catra was told multiple times not to pay too much attention to it.

“So, you really are a quack?”

Razz laughed, what quickly turned into coughing.

“You can say so, but it doesn’t seem nice, does it? Anyways. You probably remember it better than me, but I always try to give it a twist, so people think about it and act like they think it is supposed to work. Something like ‘refusing corruption’ can be read in several ways, but the essence is ‘Don’t be an arse’.”

That actually made Catra laugh, but Razz’ gaze showed worry.

“I can see that you have self-doubts. I don’t know where they are coming from, I’m not Spinnerella, but it’s obvious to me that they are eating you from the inside out. There is no need for that. You have a good heart. Remember that.”

Catra felt tears coming up, something made it difficult for her to swallow.

“And don’t get me started on Adora. I know you like her; I noticed it on first the day I saw you two together. And she likes you. More than she even realizes. She can be … quite oblivious sometimes. But I need you to promise me something. Hard times will come, both for you and Adora. She will need someone to rely on. Promise me to look out for her. Promise me to take care of each other, ok?”

Catra was unable to hold back her tears now, as she took Razz hand into her own. Catra couldn’t remember such tears. The only ones she cried were from frustration and pain, but these were … honest, maybe even pure.

Catra wanted to say something, but needed several tries.

“I don’t want you to leave. You are the closest thing to a parent I ever had.”

Razz brought up a smile, something like pride shimmering through it.

“I’m happy to hear that. But I remembered another thing. Listen, this is important. If you get to our house, go into my room. In the nightstand, you will find a letter in an envelope. It’s for Adora. Give it to her when the time is right!”

Catra was surprised about the sudden seriousness in Razz’ voice, but she agreed.

“How will I know when the time is right?”

“I didn’t seal it. You have my full trust on this.”

Catra said nothing, realizing the gravity of Razz’ words. She also noticed Razz getting tired, so Catra got up to give Razz the rest she needed.

Razz raised her hand a last time. “Please send Adora in again, and take her home after that, ok?”

Catra nodded.

“Goodbye, Razz. Thank you for everything!”

“Goodbye Catra.”

Catra left the room to see Netossa and Adora still waiting in front of it. She passed the message to Adora and sat down next to Netossa to wait for Adora.

“Did you say goodbye to her?”

Netossa only got a nod in response.

Adora left the room 15 minutes later, looking not as rattled as earlier. She gestured Netossa to go inside. Netossa got up, squeezed Catra’s hand for a goodbye and went to Adora to hug her. After they broke the hug, Netossa entered the room, leaving Catra and Adora alone. Adora just stood there, motionless. Catra was about to tell her that they should head home, but Adora was faster.

“Razz said, we should go home. But I … I don’t want to. Not home at least. Can we go to your place?”

Catra stopped for a second, but there was no reason to.

“Sure, let’s go!”

They arrived at Catra’s apartment at 4am. Adora was about to lay down on the couch, but Catra pushed her off and ushered her into her room instead. Only weak protests came from Adora, when she sunk down on the pillow and fell asleep faster than Catra could count to 2. Catra grabbed a spare blanket and settled down on the couch in the other room. She quickly sent an email to her professors, telling them she will not be in today, and another message to Huntara to cancel her coaching session due to family problems. After she had been awake for nearly 24 hours, Catra finally got to sleep.

She woke up at 10am, disturbed by a ray of light shining through the closed blinders. Catra sat up, staying like this for a moment to relive the night.

Oh crap, Adora!

Remembering her friend in her bed – Catra’s bed – made Catra walk on toes to the door and peek into the room. Adora was still there, sound asleep. Catra didn’t knew Adora as an impulsive person, but hard times can cause strange reactions. A rumbling in her stomach made Catra realize that her last meal was way too long ago. Slowly closing the door, Catra head over to her small kitchen unit and opened the fridge to check on her stocks. Only finding bacon, eggs, cheese and tomatoes, Catra decided to throw everything together and make something. Calling this an omelet would be an insult for the dish in general, but Catra wasn’t picky in that direction. Knowing her guest, she wasn’t either.

Catra put on her headphone while cooking. Adora never understood why Catra liked Death Metal, but it was the same thing for Catra thinking about Adora’s obsession with Taylor Swift. While the blast beats rattled Catra’s mind in the rhythm of the grease sizzling in the pan, Catra noticed the floor shifting. This wasn’t an insult to Adora, the floor was just old, same as the door. The door usually creaks, but Catra was wearing headphones so she wouldn’t have heard it always. She turned around to see Adora standing in the doorframe, only wearing shirt and underpants, while Adora rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

“Good morning! How do you feel?”

Adora took a moment to respond, she raised her arms to stretch, revealing her abs for a short moment. Catra had no opportunity to drink in the view, because Adora hit the cupboard over the door, making her break her posture with a wince while rubbing her wrists.

“Except that right now, good. This was the best sleep I had in a while. Must have been the change of place.”

Noted.

“You up for some breakfast? I bet you didn’t eat something decent in the last days.”

Adora didn’t respond to that, but she sat down, which most likely meant a yes to both questions. Catra split the result in the pan in two halves, and put it on the plates. Adora eyed her plate with a raised eyebrow.

“You know that calling this an omelet wou- “

“Yesyesyes, an insult to the dish in general. Yada yada.”

Adora laughed, when Catra completed her sentence. “Great minds think alike, huh?”

At least Adora could laugh a bit. Catra was afraid of the coming times. The glass was always half empty to her, if there was something in it to begin with. The talk she had with Netossa last night had shown her, that Catra was not alone with her fears. And, thinking back to the conversation with Razz, Razz expected Adora to have a breakdown or something in that direction. It’s probably normal, but it’s not an experience Catra has made until now. And it’s not something she was after.

When they finished, Catra got up and washed the dishes. Adora went back to the room to get dressed, but also reached for her boots and jacket.

“Where are you going? Please don’t tell me you actually plan to go your lessons.”

Adora stopped in front of the door.

“What do you suggest instead?”

Catra shrugged.

“Stay here. I canceled everything for today. Let’s just binge something. Do you really think that you could get anything done today?”

Adora dropped her jacket again, turned around and flopped on the couch. Catra heard her rummaging around while looking for the remote, a few tics and taks as Adora went through the menu looking for something and the click when she found what she was looking for. Catra needed only 3 seconds to recognize the first episode of Scrubs. This series wasn’t new, but the two of them had watched it more often than they could count. Catra head over to the couch, while J.D. was doing dumb shit in front of a mirror on screen. Adora scooted over to let Catra sit down, and laid down again to place her head on Catra’s thigh. They didn’t say a word to each other through the first 3 episode. The 4^th episode told the story of J.D. facing a patience near death, to his disbelief she even wants to die.

Adora reached up to get grabbed one of Catra’s hands. Catra was surprised, but let Adora have her way. Adora traced the lines of Catra’s hand with her index finger, not revealing her thoughts. She finally intertwined their fingers and pressed their hands on her cheek.

“I’m scared.” It was barely a whisper. Catra waited for Adora to say anything else, but nothing came.

“I know, I am too.”

They just sat there for hours, just watching Scrubs. It dawned Catra, knowing how many prices this series got for its authenticity, that Adora maybe picked this, a comedy where death is omnipresent, to prepare herself.

They were nearly done with the first season, it was late afternoon now, when Adora’s phone on the table in front of them began to ring. Netossa’s name on the display. Adora saw it, and definitely heard the phone, but didn’t move an inch. After the 5^th or 6^th ring, Catra picked up.

“Hey Netossa.”

“Hey, - wait, Catra? Is Adora with you?”

“Yeah, I picked up the phone for her.”

“Ok please tell her…” Catra heard Netossa taking a deep breath. “Please tell her that Razz died. She just fell asleep and the responsible doctor decided against a reanimation. If you ask me, it was the right thing. Razz even told me about that last night. But please, please, come see her a last time. It will help not only Adora, but both of you.”

Catra tried to answer, but it got stuck in her throat. Tears started running down her face. Adora, who had watched her the whole time from her lap, turned away.

“Yeah, I will tell her. Thanks for the call.”

“Don’t thank me for that, just call us when you need something, ok?”

“We will. See you around.”

Catra looked at Adora, trying to get rid of her shaking voice.

“Razz died. Netossa said she just fell asleep.”

Chapter Text

The call broke the spell. Adora just let go. Catra obviously was not unaffected by that message, but seeing and hearing Adora like this made it so, so, so much worse. The dam was broken, both were laying on the couch, in each other’s arms, bawling their eyes out. Catra didn’t know how long they actually sat there, but it got dark already. It would be unfair to say that Razz’ death barely had affected Catra, but Catra was the first one of them two who managed to – well – manage. She got up and got something to drink for them, she crouched a long time in front of the couch until Adora finally took the glass, and ordered pizza. She was not in the mood to cook, so that was the easy way out. But ordering was more of a ‘What if …’. The pizza came in boxes and also stayed in there. The ‘What if I want to eat something’ didn’t come true. Neither of them wanted to or could eat something.

They just sat in Catra’s apartment, apathetic, Adora didn’t move from the couch at all. Her wailing stopped after some time, but Adora just had cried herself to sleep. Catra watched Adora snoring, while scratching her own scalp.

God what the fuck am I supposed to do?

With no intention to wake up Adora, Catra put a blanket over Adora and went to her own bedroom. Not that she wanted to sleep, it was just way more comfortable than sitting on the floor, now that Adora occupied the whole couch. Catra laid down, just staring at the ceiling. She realized that not even 24 hours had passed since they spoke to Razz the last time. And now she is gone. Something like dread filled Catra’s chest. Adora wasn’t the only one scared. Catra was scared, too.

As expected, Catra barely slept. She heard something moving in the other room, so she got up to look after Adora. Adora was up too. Catra greeted her, but earned just a stare from bloodshot eyes. Now actually feeling hungry, Catra grabbed the pizza from the fridge. Cold pizza from the evening the day before had been their hangover cure for years. They didn’t drink, but both felt shitty enough to eat the cold pizza. After they were done, Catra finally faced Adora.

“Do you have anything in mind for today?”

Adora shook her head

“Do you want to go home?”

Again, Adora shook her head.

“Do you want to stay here?”

A nod.

“You know that we have to go to your place anyways? Just to get new clothes?”

A weak nod.

“Good. I would recommend you to get dressed and all, because we are going to do that now.”

Not that there was much to do, since Adora still wore the clothes from 2 days ago, but Adora needed ages to tie her boots. Catra decided to walk. It may take half an hour, but they probably both could use some fresh air.

It was the right decision. Catra felt better, and Adora’s face wasn’t that pale anymore. But the upcoming easiness disappeared instantly in the moment they stopped in front of the site. Catra could hear Adora swallowing hard as they stepped in front of the house. Catra reached into her pocket to get the key, unlocked the door and entered. She walked through the living room, turned around to say something and didn’t see Adora. Catra walked back to the door to find Adora still standing outside, with trembling lips.

Unsure what to do, Catra stretched out her hand as an invitation for Adora to take it and enter the house together with her. At first Adora just stared at the hand, but after a deep breath she took it and stepped through the doorway. They went upstairs and Adora let go of Catra’s hand the moment they entered her room to pack her stuff. With the reminder to call her if Adora was in need of help, Catra went downstairs again to check the fridge if there was something perishable in it. She found some cheese and cold meats, as well as some yoghurt. Catra figured that Adora would stay for a bit at her place, so it would be a waste to let everything in here go bad. She heard a door falling shut and the shower starting – God bless, that was necessary – so Catra even went into the basement to check for the laundry. She was in luck, there was nothing to do.

Seeing Razz’ sewing kit made Catra remember the letter Razz told her about. She tip-toed back and sneaked into Razz’ room. It was the first time for Catra going inside, she had no other reason until then. It was a room that definitely belonged to an old person, Catra couldn’t even pinpoint why, it just felt like it. She went to the nightstand and opened the only drawer. She found the letter, unsealed, and – a picture. Of Razz and Adora, taken shortly after Adora’s birth. In the background, Catra could see Mara looking at them, with only sadness in her face.

Catra heard a door opening. She quickly put both letter and picture in her jacket and left the room as quiet as possible. Just as she closed the door and went to the couch, Adora came down the stairs, just looking - fresh. Her long blonde hair had its silky shimmer back and the hair poof was back too.

“You ok?”

Adora nodded.

“As okay as possible under these circumstances.”

Better than nothing.

“Got my stuff. We can go.”

Catra grabbed her own bag and they went back to Catra’s apartment.

It was early afternoon, when Adora pulled out her phone and dialed a number. Apparently, no one picked up, because she began to dial another number, and this time she was lucky.

“Hey Spinnerella. … . Yeah, thank you. … . No, I will stay at Catra’s for few days, until she kicks me out. … . Listen, I would like to see Razz one last time. Where do I have to go?”

That was a surprise. Catra expected that it would need some work to get Adora to the hospital, but she did it own her. Catra nodded, when Adora mouthed at her, if she wanted to come too. Adora set a time for later, and ended the call.

Two hours later, they met Spinnerella at the main entrance. She led them in the basement to the morgue. Spinnerella shortly talked to the responsible person there (Catra wasn’t sure if he was a doctor too) and he led them inside.

It was an experience Catra will never forget, and thinking of her own age, she hoped her next visit would here would be herself lying in there. It was just … creepy. Catra got the shivers the moment they entered the hall, it was cold in there. Adora visibly felt the same. Just like the rest of the hospital, everything was clad in white, except the metal, window-sized flaps in the wall. They passed a few and came to a sudden halt. The man checked the name on the door and on his clipboard several times, and turned to Adora to ask her if she was ready. She nodded, and he opened the flap and pulled out a stretcher.

Catra closed her eyes, but a weight on her shoulder made her look anyways. It was Adora’s head, her eyes closed. Again, unsure what to do, Catra put her hand on Adora’s upper back and made a slow up-and-down motion. They stayed like this for several minutes until Adora lifted her head again and signaled that she had enough and wanted to leave. They called for the man again, and left.

Someone waited for them in front of the morgue. A man, maybe close to 50, smaller than Catra, wild black-blue hair and a maybe mischievous grin on his face. He introduced himself as Loki, but stressed the vowels in a strange way (like Loo-Kee?). Adora’s face showed something like recognition. He expressed his condolences and assured that if Adora needed help, that ‘they’ will be there for her. That caused Catra to step in.

“I’m sorry, I don’t want to be rude, but what was your connection to Razz again?”

Loki (Loki?), still the grin in his face, turned to Catra.

“Madame Razz was … something like my mentor. In fact, we spend several years working together in our coven.”

Oh god, not this again

“Coven? You mean the scam Razz took part in?”

“Oh, scam is such a hard word. More like ‘giving the people something to believe in’.

“Oh sure, and that for free?” Catra’s voice got ice in it.

“I don’t, but Madame Razz did. She never charged something, but her customers always paid her anyway. She was the best at her job.”

Oh, no need to remind me.

“Anyways, Ms. Greyskull, hm, Adora. I wanted to tell you, that there is no need for you to bother with the funeral. We already arranged everything. We just waited for your visit here.”

That surprised not only Catra, but also Adora. Adora stepped to Loki and gave him a hug.

“Thank you. And sorry that I kicked you the last time we met.”

He laughed. “Ah don’t worry, that was a long time ago. I just need a phone number or something so I can contact you for the date and time.” He gave Adora his phone, but Adora hesitated.

“Catra, is this your phone?”

“What do you mean?”

Adora showed the phone and it made Catra check every pocket she had, but her phone was gone. It was in Adora’s hands.

How the fuck did he do that?

It made Adora giggle as Loki handed her his real phone. Adora thanked him for everything and when they left, Catra, still fuming, turned around one last time to send a glare to Loki, but she just earned a playful wink in return.

“Adora, how the fuck did he do that?”

Adora just shrugged, but had a smile on her face.

Loki even called this day, to announce time and place for the funeral. He, again, ensured that Adora doesn’t need to anything except to be there. Adora told Netossa and Spinnerella about the funeral and made the wise but slightly embarrassing decision to ask them if they could be their ride, since neither Catra nor Adora had a car.

3 days later, they got picked up by Netossa and Spinnerella and went to the funeral. Adora didn’t have a breakdown in that time, she didn’t show anything at all, and that was way more worrisome in Catra’s opinion.

They arrived at the graveyard. Catra was surprised that there was no church or any religious building around the cemetery, she also couldn’t spot a priest. They arrived earlier than necessary, so Catra had time to ask Loki about that. After making sure that Catra wasn’t here to beat him because of the thing with her phone, he said that this was a public cemetery. Public meaning that the one getting buried wasn’t a member of the bigger religions. No religion meant no priest, meaning that they had to speeches and all by themselves.

A few more mourners came, faces unknown to Catra, but she spotted someone else hiding outside of the cemetery. Someone wearing an unpleasantly well-known light-blue jacket and pants. Catra told Loki about that, and about her own experience a few years ago. He turned around to one of the guests and aid to him. Said guest walked towards the persona non grate, but the man fled the scene before anything could happen.

The ‘ceremony’ began, but in fact it was just people telling stories about how they got to know Razz and what things they experienced together. Netossa and Spinnerella told their story, about how they moved to Half-Moon and one day Razz standing at their door, looking for help for Mara. Adora cringed at that moment, but Catra had the suspicion that it wasn’t about the story, rather than the mentioning of Mara.

Catra and Adora were the last ones, but no one expected something from Adora, as Loki was just looking at Catra.

Funny, I have no problem with pummeling someone in front of thousands of people, but I’m struggling with a story in front of a few.

Well, here goes nothing.

“Hi, uhm, I’m Catra. I’m not a relative of Razz and apparently also am the person who knew Razz over the shortest span of time. I’m not from here, but when I came to Half-Moon, I got to meet her grandchild.”

Catra made a gesture towards Adora and essentially said the things she already said to Razz when they spoke for the last time. About Razz always welcoming her and being the closest person to a parent for her, about the costumes she made for her. Catra heard a choked sound from Adora while mentioning the costumes.

“She gave me a scare once or twice, but these obviously don’t counter the good things she did, intentionally or not. I will do my best to honor this, even if I can’t repay her directly.” Catra’s eyes flicked for a very short moment to Adora. “I will figure out a way to do this.”

She signaled Loki with a small nod that she was done. He then signaled the gravedigger to do his job. They watched the coffin getting lowered into the hole followed by dirt to fill it up. It was strange to watch. Usually there is music playing, no? Or is that an American thing? But at some point Adora and the others turned away and head for the exit, so Catra just followed them. Her gaze met Netossa for a short moment who had a smirk on her face Catra didn’t know how to interpret. Before Catra could think about it, she got distracted by a movement in front. The guy from earlier in his light-blue clothes was back. He was walking straight towards Adora and said something to her, but Catra was too far away to understand it. Catra was about to walk faster, but Adora took a swing and punched him.

While the man was falling down, Catra hurried to get to Adora’s side. Adora was about to plunge her heel into the downed man’s stomach but Loki stopped her, telling her to go. Catra linked arms with Adora and nearly dragged her to the car. She just turned around once and saw Loki crouching in front of the man, the big guy from earlier right behind him.

Not my problem.

On their way home, Catra watched Adora. Not that Catra wished for it, but she didn’t see Adora shed a single tear. It could be a good thing, maybe she found a way to cope with it. But Catra knew Adora. Just a few weeks ago, Adora was upset for 4 days over the loss of an eraser she spent 1€ on. If she could get worked up over such a small thing, coming to terms with Razz’ death probably wasn’t over yet.

Netossa and Spinnerella dropped them off at Catra’s apartment, and wished them the best. Catra and Adora entered the apartment, Adora just dropped her bag, headed straight for the fridge and pulled out 2 beers. She opened one and downed it in one go. She burped, grabbed the other beer and sit down on the couch, turning on the tv. All that while still wearing the clothes from the funeral.

It’s 2pm on a Thursday. I have a bad feeling about this.

 But for now, Catra had no choice but to watch. Her life had been on a halt since a week now and she also had to get things in order. Back to the gym, back to university. Adora on the other hand had none of these obligations. Her exams for this semester were already over and so was her job as university assistant. The only obligation she had was going to the gym, but Catra had a feeling that she wouldn’t be in the mood for that.

Catra was right. When she came home on the first evening, there were 4 empty bottles on the table and Adora was already in bed. On the next day – a Friday in the afternoon – it was 4 again, but Adora was nowhere to be found. She came back 1 hour later, with a bag full of beer and her backpack made a suspiciously deep noise.

“Did you bring groceries, too?”

“Nah, had no space for that…”

Catra took a deep breath while pinching her nose. She put on her boots again to go shopping.

This will soon be over, don’t worry.

It wasn’t. On Saturday, Adora disappeared around noon and came back in the evening, utterly drunk.

“Mind telling where you’ve been?”

“Nope, mom.” For the first time in ever, Catra had to suppress something like anger.

“Can you at least toss the empty bottles?”

“Yeah whatvrs…”

Catra had to leave early on Sunday because she had to help Huntara preparing the gym for an event being held there. When she finally got home in the evening, she found two unknown people sitting on her couch, watching tv.

It took a while for Catra to believe what she was seeing. The two on the couch were equally stunned.

“Who are you?”

“Uhm my name- “

“I don’t care, where is Adora?”

“Who? Oh, the blonde? Oh, she went in the other room a while ago to get something.”

“Get. Out. Now.”

“Ok ok chill, no need to be so- “

“One more word and you take the fast way down through the window.”

Hearing that accelerated their efforts to get out. When they were gone, Catra smashed the door shut, and went to the other side of the room. When she wanted to open the door, she noticed a smell she couldn’t figure out. Catra opened the door and got knocked back by the stench. She saw Adora laying in the bed, an empty bottle of vodka in her hand and her face, her chest and parts of the bed covered in vomit. At least Catra had an explanation for the smell.

“Adora. … Adora …. ADORA!” Catra underlined the last shout with a slap in Adora’s face. That brought her back

“Ow… oh hey Catra. You are back.”

“Yes, I’m back. Mind telling me,” Catra gestured at the living mess in front of her. “What you were doing?

Adora looked at her chest and then around her. “I … I think, I think I made an oopsie.” She lolled her head back and snorted.

“Is there the possibility that are you drunk.”

Adora put her index finger on her chin to mock a thinking face, Catra was surprised she was able to pull that off.

“Maaaaaaybe, I have been a bad girl. Do I get punished now?”

Adora said that in a maybe seductive voice, but Catra was way too angry to react to that.

“Oh no, no punishment.” Adora frowned. “I think, it’s better we play a game, no?” Adora threw her hands in the air, letting the bottle crash in a bookshelf. “Oops.”

“Well, hands up is a good start. If you stand up now, we are good to go.” Adora managed (with Catra’s help) to stand up.

“Atta girl, now let’s head for the bathroom.”

Adora actually followed, wondering what game they were about to play.

“Ok, we play Truth or Dare, ok? I start. I dare you to sit down in the bathtub, facing the faucets.”

“Pfff that’s easy. Look? Already done. Ohohoh it’s my turn now. I dare you to- “

Adora couldn’t finish the sentence, because Catra turned on the tap on full straight away, lowest temperature. Adora gurgled in surprise.

“Ms. Greyskull, I advise you to stay in the bathtub until you sobered up and got that filth off me. Do you understand me?”

Adora was about to say something that was not a ‘Yes’, so Catra grabbed Adora’s jaw and forced her to look her into her eyes.

“Did. You. Understand. Me?”

Catra saw Adora collapse and mumble a ‘Yes’.

“Good. Because I now go to clean up the mess you left in MY bed. Got it?”

A nod.

“Great. I will bring you new clothes later.”

Another nod. Catra grabbed her cleaning kit and went into her bedroom. She quickly realized, that Adora did not drink the whole bottle, she passed out way before that and the biggest part went into the rug. Catra put a mountain of soda on the stain, she did the same thing with her pillow and the mattress after removing the sheets. She went back to her idiot in the bathtub to check if she was still alive. She was, now just wearing her underwear. Her pants and the shirt clogged the drain. For once in a while Catra could prevent herself from staring, she had more important things to do.

“How do you feel?”

“Shit.”

“Wunderbar. Now tell me your big plan behind this.”

“There wasn’t one.”

“Oh really? Because it seemed liked you watched a YouTube tutorial about ‘how to become a nonfunctioning alcoholic in 7 days. Honestly. Look at you.” Catra tried to put as much disgust as possible into her voice. “What would Razz say if she could see you?”

Adora shrugged, her voice hoarse. “Razz is dead. Who cares? Why would you care?”

Catra was left speechless. She needed a few tries to get out a full sentence.

“Are you even listening to yourself? Was there ever, EVER? A MOMENT WHERE IT SEEMED LIKE I DIDN’T CARE ABOUT YOU?” She was screaming at that point, Adora collapsed even more. “I thought better of you. For sure I am not going to watch you self-destruct.”

Catra was about to continue her rant, but a sob, coming from Adora’s chest, stopped her.

“Catra, I miss her so much!”

Catra made a grimace. “Of course, you do, dork.”

She raised the temperature of the water and climbed in the bathtub to sit down next to the sobbing pile of misery. Catra pecked a kiss on Adora’s hair.

“I do, too. …. Look, I’m not telling you to move on like nothing has happened. It’s totally normal to grief. But not like this.”

It was a familiar scenario. They sat huddled up, but this time in a bathtub, not on a couch and everything was wet, but Adora was not the single cause for that. Catra looked down and noticed that the water had risen to her waist. She took that as a sign to leave Adora alone again. Catra removed Adora’s clothes from the drain and tossed them in the sink. She left the bathtub and quickly removed her own shirt and pants to do the same thing. Sitting in a bathtub while having a faucet turned on wasn’t a way to stay dry.

Catra went back to her bedroom to get new clothes and to clean up the rest, checking for the smell, but for now it was enough. She went through Adora’s bag to get fresh clothes for her, and then Catra turned her apartment upside down to find every ounce of alcohol and toss it, except the cleaning stuff of course. It’s not like Catra didn’t trust Adora, but a little bit of extra caution doesn’t harm anyone.

A hairdryer was turned on, meaning Adora managed to leave the bathtub without hurting herself or the inventory. Catra threw the clothes on the stool close to the bathroom door and closed it again. A few minutes later, the door opened again and Adora came out. Catra was about to say something but Adora didn’t manage to put on her tank top correctly so Catra got distracted by Adora’s exposed midriff. But Adora didn’t catch her staring at her abs, she just mumbled a ‘g’night’ and went to the now freshly made bed.

 Catra looked at her watch. 11pm.

I have to think of something to distract her…

Her gaze fell on the tv, the standby icon of the streaming service flickering over the screen. Just staring at it, Catra got an idea, but she needed to make a call for that and go back to Adora’s house one more time. It had to wait until tomorrow.

Catra was again the first one to wake up on the following morning. She checked on Adora, who was still snoring into the pillow. She used the time to clean the bathtub from the stuff Adora left in there and did the laundry too. An hour later she emptied her fridge to make the same omelet again, she made the morning after spending their night in the hospital. But now with even more grease, because there was a certain someone who needed to get alcohol out of her system. Obviously, it wasn’t the grease that cured the hangover, it just made it …  more bearable.

As if the smell woke her up, Adora opened the door of ‘her’ room, guilt written all over her face. Neither of them said a word, when Catra put the hazard from the pan on a plate, placed it on the table and sat down on the other side of it. Adora showed no intention of moving.

“What are just you waiting for?”

“Listen, I- “

“Shut up and sit down.”

Adora walked to the table like an abused dog who got fed for the first time in a while. She sat down and stared at the food, picked up a fork and began to eat. Slowly first, but faster with every following bite.

“Slow down, I don’t want to clean up another mess.”

Catra regretted it the moment she said it, but she didn’t apologize. Adora stopped eating for a moment to continue with a slower pace. Catra just stared at her, which was quite easy because Adora was looking everywhere except at Catra. When Adora was done, it was silent in the apartment except for the humming fridge.

“I’m sorry.”

“For?”

“My behavior over the last few days.”

“And?”

“Making that disgusting mess in your bed.”

“And?”

“I’m sorry for … for doubting you. Of course, you care, I would do the same.”

Catra grunted.

“And thank you.”

“What for?”

“The shower and the rant. It hurt, but I guess it was somewhat necessary.”

“Does that mean I can leave you alone without having to expect unknown people on my couch?”

Adora made a painful face. “Oh right….”

“What were you even thinking?”

Adora didn’t answer, just staring at her toes.

“Who knows what would’ve happened if I came back even 10 minutes later. And do you know that drunks regularly choke on their own vomit?”

Adora’s face took a slightly green color.

“I’m glad, that we came to an understanding. Now if you would excuse me, I have things to do and places to be. In the meanwhile,” Catra made a vague gesture at the apartment. “You can clean up a bit.”

Having said that, Catra left her apartment and Adora behind, and tried to do things and be in places.

When Catra came back, she thought she opened the wrong door. Everything was brighter and shinier than she was used to. She also saw some cleaning supplies that definitely weren’t hers. The door to the bathroom opened, a wave of ammonia hit Catra. Exit Adora, wearing gloves and a facemask.

“Oh, hey Catra. I’m done with cleaning.”

“Adora, when I said ‘Clean this up’ I expected you to do the dishes.”

Adora’s lips formed a small ‘o’. She shrugged.

“Well, I saved you some time.”

Catra thanked her for going the extra mile and tried to remember if she ever had cleaned the whole apartment in the 2 years she lived here now. Adora mentioned, that she had been shopping for groceries, hence the new cleaning supplies, and that she bought ingredients for a lasagna.

“Is it enough for 4? We get visitors today.”

That made Adora perk up.

“Who?”

“Secret. But we know them.” Catra ignored Adora’s sour face and brought her backpack with the goods from Adora’s house into her bedroom.

In the evening, Adora prepared the lasagna while Catra moved the couch to fit 4 people around the table in front of it. Just as Adora put the lasagna in the oven, someone was at the door. The guests, Netossa and Spinnerella had arrived. Catra booked it as a small victory that Adora was truly happy to see them.

“Hey girls, how you doin’? We haven’t had a double-d- OW… what was that for, Spinny?” Netossa held her left side, after her wife rammed her elbow into it. “Anyways, we brought soda and snacks. Catra said, no alcohol.”

Catra made a grimace while Adora looked at her feet again, a mix of guilt and embarrassment in her face.

How can an emergency surgeon in her late 40ies with a therapist as her long-time wife be so bad at reading the room?

Spinnerella apparently read Catra’s mind, shooting a Sorry into her direction. She switched the topic by asking Catra about her day, about university and so on, things you talk about when you have to cover up a moment of awkwardness. Catra indeed had things to tell, like Huntara and the gym, enough things to pass the time for the lasagna to be done.

The lasagna was awesome. Catra never made one at home, and she suspected Adora didn’t either. But it was great. Netossa and Spinnerella shared the same opinion, which put a smug grin on Adora’s face.

But with dinner being done, it was time for business. Catra went to the bedroom to get the photo albums she got earlier this day from Adora’s house, while Netossa put an old camcorder on the table. Catra wanted to prepare a little speech, but as so often, she had to improvise.

“Listen Adora, I thought about a way to help you dealing with Razz’ death. To be honest, it was not my idea, I got inspired by a certain tv series and maybe by Loki too. I asked Spinnerella about it, and she thought it was a great idea. So, here we are.” Catra put the photo albums on the table. “You know these, obviously, they are yours, but maybe we could go through these albums and you could tell us the stories behind the pictures, if you know any. And Netossa” Catra pointed at the camcorder on the table. “Netossa remembered that Razz gave them the old camcorder years. They went through the tapes and found some stuff featuring you. What do you say?”

Adora was visibly taken aback by this, but agreed. She opened the first album, and it began with the picture Adora had on her nightstand, Mara holding baby Adora soon after her birth. They didn’t turn the page for 20 minutes, because Netossa and Spinnerella knew a story to tell about that day. They were there. They were the young doctors that moved in down the street, who opened their door to a panicking Razz and in the end helped Mara deliver her daughter. It had been in fact Spinnerella who took the picture.

This album followed Adora through the years until elementary school. Her first steps, her first birthdays, her first friends in kindergarten. The last few pages featured a very small Swiftwind, way smaller than Catra remembered. There was one constant through the whole album. Adora, with her growing blonde hair, her grey-blue eyes and in every picture just beaming at the camera.

The second album went from elementary school to middle school, and at some time, Catra started to appear on the pictures too. This was the part where the most stories were told, since either Adora or Catra remembered a story to the picture. The pictures mostly showed just them being themselves. Eating cake, goofing around with Swiftwind or crafting something no identifiable.

The smartphone left its mark on the last album. Most of the pictures were selfies, showing Adora with Razz or Catra, many had all 3 in them. There were even some pictures just featuring Catra, probably taken from Adora’s perspective. The last picture was a portrait made at their prom. Adora in her red dress, crossing her arms. Catra right next to her, her elbow on Adora’s shoulder, resting her head on the lifted hand. It was a magnificent photograph. It’s the first time for Catra to see this picture, she couldn’t even remember when this was taken.

“Oh, this reminds me of something!” Adora said to Catra. “Do you remember the day after prom?”

Catra thought about it for a moment and nodded.

“Why weren’t you wearing any pants in the morning?”

That made Netossa spit out her drink, but at least she missed the table. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Hold on, hold on.” Catra made a dismissive gesture. “Adora, you have to tell the whole story for that. Which means I have to, because you don’t remember anything from that evening.”

Catra quickly told them, how utterly wasted Adora had been on that evening. Of course, she skipped the indecent part of Adora feeling Catra up, but when she talked about dragging Adora all the way to the house, everyone, including Adora, was wheezing.

“It was a miracle I even made it that far. I mean, look at Adora. No ounce of fat, but she is heavy as fuck, especially if she has no sense of balance anymore. She literally stood in front of the door, looking for her key with right hand and nearly crying because she couldn’t find it. It was in her left hand. Adora made such a racket at 4am, she made the neighbor come out and yelled at us. When I finally managed to get her to bed, I was fucking drenched. Mind you, I wasn’t sober at all, just way less drunk than Ms. Greyskull over there. You know, sleeping in sweaty pants is just disgusting, so I just threw pants and jacket on the floor and flopped on the bed. And that’s it.”

Netossa booed at them. “I expected some smut. What’s wrong with you?” Spinnerella hid her face in her hands.

“Well excuse me, but I was not in the mood then.” Catra managed to keep a steady voice, but she felt her face heating up, but the other 3 were still laughing, so Catra just hoped that no one noticed.

The prom pic was placed in the middle of the book, the following pages were empty and Adora closed the album, but Catra was sure that there were some pictures left at the back of the album. For some reason, Adora seemed to be concerned to not show them.

They checked the camcorder and found some footage of Adora’s football games, even one with a cheering Catra in the stands who went absolute nuts when Adora scored. Catra didn’t like it to get called ‘cute’, but here she just had to agree. Seeing the camcorder made Adora ask the question, why Netossa and Spinnerella had it in first place. Both were suspiciously awkward about it and didn’t give a clear answer.

In the end, the evening did what Catra hoped for. It made Adora open up again, and brought back the Adora everyone knew – and Catra loved. Of course, you could say grieving for over a week isn’t much. But it’s wrong to deem someone weak for grieving. It’s only natural to do that. And it’s never a good thing to just leave people alone with this. Who knows what would’ve happened if Catra never stepped in and let Adora have her way?

Eventually, it was way past midnight when the guests left. Catra wanted to go through the photo albums one more time, because something had bothered her and she couldn’t put her finger on it. But thinking of the albums made Catra remember something else.

Nearly forgot the photograph from – OH SHIT, the letter!

Catra stumbled towards her jacket to find both things where she left them – in her pocket. Good thing she rarely puts things away the instance she gets home. She left the letter in the jacket and looked at the photograph. No wrinkles or anything – lucky me – so she turned to Adora who was watching Catra since she nearly fell over a stool to get to her jacket.

“Here, one last thing. I … uh … found it when I emptied your fridge.”

Adora took it and stayed silent for a long time, looking at it. Her gaze shot up to Catra – there is it again, the same expression like back then – and she patted on the couch, signaling Catra to sit down next to her. Catra obeyed and as soon she sat down, Adora flopped over and placed her head on Catra’s lap.

“Sorry.” It was a faint whisper coming from Adora. “And thank you.”

“What for?”

“Sorry for the past days, and thank you for today. It helped to bring back many good memories.”

“M’Glad, I’m good for something.”

A long pause.

“I think I will go home tomorrow. To be honest, I’m not sure if I am ready for it. But I think it’s time.”

Catra frowned. “Well, you know where to go if not.”

Adora hummed wordlessly.

When Adora had went to bed, Catra pulled out the letter and read it. Her eyes went wider and wider with every line she read, and Catra felt the need to read it a second, a third and a fourth time. She needed to sit down on the couch and stared at the letter she had placed on the table in front of her.

Screw you, Razz. 'When the time is right', my ass. There will never be a right time to tell Adora this.

Adora made her threat come true. She went back home for the first time in nearly 2 weeks and there were a lot of things to do. For example, talking to the executor, and going through Razz’ stuff. Even though Catra again offered her to help, Adora never came back to it. They didn’t see each other for a while, only texting back and forth, since both had to return to their normal schedule. That made the surprise even bigger for Catra, when one evening Adora appeared in Huntara’s gym. Adora had dropped football after high school and just went to pump iron since then. But usually, she went to a different gym.

Catra would never admit that Adora’s presence made her nervous, but Adora’s presence made her nervous. It’s not like she unintentionally started to hit her students, but Adora watching her left a strange feeling in Catra’s stomach. Why? It’s not the first time Adora had watched her doing MMA. This … uneasiness left with Adora going to the weight room. Catra smacked her cheeks to get it together and focus for the next 30 minutes to finish her coaching session.

She sent the kids off and focused on her own routine. During a break she decided to look for Adora, and found her doing squats. Catra couldn’t read the markings on the weights, but guessed around 100kg. Only wearing a sports bra and bodycon shorts, which allowed Catra to get an excellent view on, well, everything. She turned her head when she heard a whisper on the other side of the room. 2 guys, Catra knew only one of them, obviously talking about Adora.

Well, not on my watch.

Catra passed the distance as quickly and quietly as possible. It was a good start seeing both guys jumping when she hit them with a “What ’cha doing?” from the side. Judging from their faces, one guys recognized her, but the other didn’t.

“What’s your problem?”

“Ehm, you. And what you are doing.”

“And? What are you going to do about it?”

This gonna be good.

“Well, you know, we have 2 options. The first: You leave. The second: I’m going to beat you up.”

The quiet guy got agitated, but the other didn’t notice. He just laughed in Catra’s face, and turned to his friend to see if he was seeing the same thing. It should’ve been a red flag for him to be the only one laughing in this room, but apparently, he was one of the denser kinds. He let his gaze wander from Catra’s head to feet and back, pausing a moment on her chest and hips.

Oh, you are so dead.

“Well, I’m in. Last chance to chicken out.”

“Same goes to you. Hey, Adora!” Catra heard some weights falling on the floor.

“God, Catra. Don’t scare me like that with weights in my hands.”

She didn’t hear us? Even better!

“Adora, I found this bigmouth who volunteered to get beaten up. I got a combo I want to try.”

Adora’s started sparkling when she heard that. “Uh, great. Looking forward to it.”

Catra turned back to the young men in front of her, showing her teeth. “Let’s get this done.”

They went back to the main hall; luckily, the octagon was free at the moment. Huntara watched them entering the cage and came over to ask what’s up. Catra shortly explained the situation, obviously leaving Adora out of this. Huntara just rolled her eyes and told to not cause more damage than necessary, which caused Catra to roll her eyes now.

The gym was about to close up anyways, so the people who were still in there got attracted by the tumult and joined to watch. Everyone laughed when Catra tossed a helmet to her opponent. Misreading this as a provocation, he threw it away. Catra shrugged.

I tried.

They took their stances, Catra classic kickboxing, her opponent something that looked like grappling, but it seemed like he did it for the first time.

That’s a bummer. But whatever, just doing it on a puppet won’t do the thing.

Huntara gave the sign, and they began. The guy just charged forward, Catra didn’t even need to hurry to make a step to the side and trip him. He landed face first on the floor. When he got back up, Catra saw that he lost all reason and she probably won’t get to try it, but here goes nothing.

Catra’s left hook drove his head into the course of her right high kick. She evaded his wild punch to place an uppercut into his stomach, grabbing his head to smash her knee into his face (Catra aimed for the forehead, no need for a broken nose here). Her opponent got upright again, tumbling backwards. Catra made two quick steps to bury a charged front kick into his chest, which made him fall backwards.

At this point, Catra would’ve usually mounted to opponent to strike him/her until this fight was over, but that wasn’t the point of this exercise. She got what she wanted. It probably won’t be useful in an official fight, but it’s always useful to have an ace in your sleeve. Catra was about leave the cage, but saw Adora’s warning look and heard the steps behind her. She bowed down a bit, intertwined her hands and stretch out her elbow like a spearhead to let the man run right into it. The force made Catra to take a step back, but the damage was done, her opponent on the floor.

Huntara rushed in to check the downed man.

“I think, I hit the celiac plexus. He will be fine in a few minutes.”

Huntara shot her a look that screamed ‘consequences’, but Catra didn’t care. She made her point. And he was the one not knowing when to stop. On her way out, she stopped to whisper the other something in his ear.

“Tell him, she is off-limits. And if someone hands him a helmet, he better should take it. Got it.”

Quick nodding.

“Good boy.”

Catra strolled to Adora, who was giddy for some reason.

“Was that it? What you wanted to try?”

Catra shook her head. “Nah, I guess I have to ask Huntara to let me try it on her. It’s not like I can actually hurt her.”

They laughed about it, remembering the story Netossa told about Huntara getting shot.

“Uh by the way, what about dinner?” Adora asked. “Want to get something? I’m paying.”

As if Catra would refuse 1. Adora 2. a meal 3. said meal being paid by someone else, even if it was Adora. They went to an Asian restaurant close to the gym, and Adora told her about her conversation with the executor.

“So essentially, the only will Razz had ever written is over 30 years old. To be honest, I don’t know why Razz even bothered back then, but whatever. Anyways, she left everything to Mara, and since Mara is nowhere to be found, as her sole heir, everything for me.”

“Is that why you are buying me dinner? To show off?” Catra cackled, and Adora also laughed.

“To be honest, the paperwork was a nightmare, but yay, I’m a homeowner now. …. But living alone in there is kind of strange, and since there is a free room anyways, I thought about looking for a roommate. Or housemate in this case.”

“So far, so good. And?”

“How about it? Want to move in?”

What? Of course. But I have to play it cool

“’Rent’ will be probably quite lower than whatever you are paying right now.” Adora drew the hyphens with her fingers in the air. “And if you don’t say yes right know, I’ll have to ask Svenia instead.”

Svenia? Who the fuck is-… Waaaaaait. Adora was covering her mouth, but Catra could see the smile in her eyes.

“Bitch, did you just threaten me with the girl whose bike I nearly trashed?” Catra pulled off an aggressive tone, making Adora drop the smile. But she wasn’t actually mad. She made her peace with her … escapade, and hearing Adora using it as a joke showed, that she did too, if she was affected by it in first place anyway.

So much for ‘playing it cool’. Well done, Catra.

But again, Catra couldn’t remember one thing Adora had ever proposed and Catra had refused. No, wait, that’s not true. Adora told Catra to apologize to Weaver after their …  quarrel on their first day on high school, but that was only going to happen over her dead body. That bitch could suffocate on it. And for now, Catra stuck true to her oath.

Catra moved in. Like, literally. Living under the same roof with Adora. Not just having Adora crash on her bed for a few days, but really living together. As roommates obviously, nothing more. The move itself wasn’t a big hassle. 95% of her apartment’s inventory was owned by the landlord and so they just had to borrow the car of their favorite doctors for a few trips and from one moment to the other, Catra had a new home. She got Adora’s old room, since Adora moved down into Razz’ old room. But it was not the only thing that Adora changed. Nearly the whole interior was different. Something to get used to, but nothing bad.

The following days, weeks, months were … peaceful. Adora went back to university to get her bachelor’s degree done, and Catra had to do an internship at a hospital to get practical experience. Not that Catra thought she needed it, but she was often reminded that not everyone could move the way she could, so Catra bowed to it and spent the 2 months in the hospital.

Even though Catra and Adora were living together now, they only saw each other in the evening. Adora had always been an early riser, opposite to Catra, and because of Catra’s training or her coaching sessions, she often returned late. That didn’t stop Adora to wait for Catra to come home before going to bed. It was in fact a small but sweet gesture, but Catra was pretty sure that this wasn’t normal ‘roommate’ behavior. Catra didn’t like it. She absolutely fucking loved it. It even made her to wake up earlier on weekends to have breakfast with Adora, which on the other hand seemed to make Adora happy. But Catra imagined, that Adora, being the goody-two-shoes she was, would’ve waited for everyone else too, out of pure courtesy. Catra wouldn’t. She just made the exception for Adora.

The evenings and weekends were filled with delight and happiness. For some reason they never told each other how bad they were in cooking. Well, Adora has had Razz, that was an excuse. But Catra has lived of noodles and rice for nearly 3 years now and anything more complex than these things were a lost cause.

Since getting takeout every evening was an expensive thing over a bigger period of time, they had to figure out cooking. In the best case yesterday. It’s not like there was a lack of possibilities. They were living in Europe after all. In less than a 3 hours ride in whatever direction you would pass 3 borders, 4 languages and at least the same number of cultures. Of course, every recipe had his pros and cons, especially in the amount of time you would need for it. Neither Catra nor Adora had the patience to leave some meat for 5 hours in the oven. In one of the discussions about using butter or margarine, Catra remembered her German teacher telling her, that before fighting about using butter or margarine, Germans tend to fight about which article you use for the word ‘butter’ since apparently that’s is a thing the Germans were thinking about for centuries now. But since there were no Germans around them, they just used the gender-neutral butter.

And it didn’t stop with just regular food. Like in the good old times, Catra accompanied Adora to the little forest close to her house to get some berries for some pie. Catra liked the pie, but she saw some tears rolling down Adora’s cheeks. Adora’s reason was the pie being unable to reach the one Razz made, even though they were following the recipe from the same book. Catra didn’t believe it for 100%, but she didn’t push any further.

Summer came, Catra’s training was over and Adora got handed her bachelor’s degree of science. To celebrate that, they went on vacation together for the first in what felt like ages. With Catra having no scheduled fight and summer break, and Adora just being free, they went for a week to the Lake Garda. One week just swimming, tanning, and eating. Bliss.

It should have made Catra suspicious that everything was going so well, with no minor or major accident or whatever happening. That had never been the case in her life, and sooner or later, when she was walking down a metaphorical street minding Catra-business, that bitch called ‘Life’ was waiting around a corner swinging a baseball bat.

They came home from Italy, finding a letter taped to the front door, addressed to Adora.

Dear Miss Greyskull,

We have learned, that Regina Fancy Razz had died recently and left everything in her possession to Mara Greyskull. You have our condolences for your loss. But we have to bring the news, that the appointed executor had made the mistake to nominate you as the sole heir of Mara Greyskull, as the Preĝejo de la unuaj has a will of Mara Greyskull in its possession. In this will Mara Greyskull forfeits every possession, owned now and in the future, to the Preĝejo de la unuaj.

In conclusion, everything left by Regina Fancy Razz to you is in fact property of the Preĝejo de la unuaj.

Consider this an eviction notice. You have until August 31^st to leave the house, otherwise we see ourselves obliged to get the authorities involved.

Kind regards.

The Head of the Preĝejo de la unuaj

Branch Half-Moon.

Chapter Text

Mid-september 2021, somewhere in Germany.

Adora stared through the window, watching forests and fields pass. She felt the vibrations of the train through her head leaning against the glass. Adora glanced over to Catra, who wore a similar bored face. She didn’t know what god she had to sacrifice her firstborn to in exchange to have Catra by her side.

***

End of August 2021, Half-Moon

Right after reading the letter on her door and getting free from the state of shock it left her in, she immediately called Loki for help. Catra was quite … angry about it, but he was a lawyer, so asking him for advice is a given.

“He is a pickpocket and a lawyer? Playing the law from both sides? Who does he think he is? Harvey Dent?”

Usually, Adora would’ve laughed until tomorrow about this, she liked the reference because it was true to some kind, but the situation was by far no laughing matter. Loki even came around to check on the situation. He read the letter with a stone-cold face and told them to stay calm for now, he will ask for some favors. Neither Adora nor Catra liked the sound of it, they both felt some criminal energy in the way he said it.

2 Days later, he called Adora to join him meeting the opposite side’s lawyer. It was a greasy old man in a black suit, wearing a light-blue tie and a golden pin on his revers. The only thing even greasier than his personality was his hair. Adora was sure that she had seen the pin somewhere else already, but couldn’t put her finger on it. Of course, Adora had no idea about laws or anything, but following the back and forth of the conversation, and Loki’s face going darker with every second gave a good read on the situation. Documents were swapped, presented and for whatever reason they had a fucking photograph of Mara signing the ceding. Everything was legally correct.

Adora was going to be homeless in 2 weeks.

And not only Adora. Catra had given up her apartment to live with Adora and now she has to look for a new home too. Loki dropped her off, but Adora just stood in front of the entrance. This house. The house she grew up in and spent her whole life in. It will be gone. Just like this. Just because of … Mara.

Mara.

The only good thing that woman did was to bring Adora in this world, but except for that she only had brought disappointment and dread. At least to Adora. A letter, once a year. That’s everything Adora ever got, for 21 years now. And now, she took everything from Adora without being here. She had stopped caring about her mother since she was about 10, and even before that Adora didn’t really have strong feelings for her. But now, the only thing Adora felt about Mara was unbridled fury. And Adora hated it, that she could do absolutely nothing against it.

Catra opened the door to find Adora freeing Swiftwind’s tombstone from weed. It wasn’t necessary for her to ask how the conversation with the lawyer went, Adora didn’t try to hide her emotions. She even had punched the tombstone, but that was a bad decision. They sat at the kitchen table, Adora an icepack on her wrist as Catra cleaned the wounds and bandaged Adora’s hand. Adora drummed on the table with the fingers of her unhurt hand, thinking about a way out of this. There wasn’t a revelation that she hoped for, but she remembered the shoebox under her bed. Now that Adora thought about it, she didn’t know why she kept it, and hadn’t burnt every letter in there. But they may give answers for once.

Catra fetched her the box and emptied it on the table. 22 letters, one per birthday and another one Mara left her after Adora’s birth. Only 6 of them were opened. After her 5^th birthday Adora refused to read them, as the first 6 letters were essentially the same. To be fair, Adora didn’t read them at all. Razz read them to her. When Razz read her the 6^th letter, she shut her ears, drowning out Razz’ efforts to read it to her.

Catra watched Adora opening and reading the letters, sorted by the date. But it was disappointing. As expected, the letters didn’t tell her anything. Just birthday wishes and empty excuses why Mara couldn’t make it this year, but promising that next year will be different. Catra read the letters after Adora put them away.

“Are you sure that they are handwritten?” Catra said, holding 2 letters next to each other, comparing them. “They look pretty much identical.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at them. ‘Dear Adora’. Same headline, but also the same lines, up to that squiggle at the capital A. Who does that? I can’t even make two L’s look identical. Not without a ruler.”

Adora took two different letters and checked them. Catra was right. Not only the form of address, but also the signature. She shuffled through the other letters. The same thing everywhere. No, wait – the same writing on every letter except the ones she got for her 4^th birthday and before then. Adora pulled out the copy of the will Mara left, but it was the only sample she had, she couldn't jump in conclusions just because of that. Except…

“Catra, I need to get something from the basement, I’ll need your help.”

They went downstairs to face a mountain of stacked boxes, some of them just a few months old, filled with memories of Razz Adora didn’t want to throw away. She made Catra pull out a few boxes and went through them, Catra watching her. Going through folders with Razz’ birth certificate printed in a font used 100 years ago, old invitations, some newspapers…

There it is.

Adora had found what she was looking for. It was a birthday card to Razz’s 60^th birthday, written by Mara. Adora had seen it by coincidence and wanted to throw it away, just because the name Mara was on it, but now she was glad that she didn’t.

Reading the card alone set Adora’s rage aflame again.

“Who writes her own mother a card like this? This is something you would give your coworker!”

Catra shifted uncomfortably next to her. They went back upstairs and compared the letters and the will to the birthday card. Adora was sure of it. The first five letters, the will and the birthday card were written by Mara. The other letters weren’t. Catra wasn’t sold.

“Handwriting can change over time, even from adults. This can mean anything.”

“You just pointed it out yourself. The writing of the newer letters is too identical, and also clearly different from 3 other sources. 3. That’s a bit much for only coincidence, no?”

“And what if? What does this change? You will lose this house anyways, no?”

Adora knew, Catra was right, but she didn’t want to hear this. At first, Adora wanted a reason to be mad at Mara, that part was easy. But now there was a chance that there was someone impersonating Mara? That was messed up. Adora didn’t even know what she hoping to gain from this insight. She noticed Catra’s worried look.

“Everything ok?”

“Hm, let’s think about it. I found out today that I will be homeless soon, because my grandma is dead and my good-for-nothing mother not only abandoned me, but also did everything so that I have nothing left in live. That’s far from ok, isn't it?” Adora’s voice got way too aggressive to the end and she apologized immediately. Catra just made a dismissive gesture.

“Don’t worry about. It’s pretty fucked up. But- “Catra offered her hand to Adora. “We are in this shit together. That’s something.”

Catra was right. It was not the first time one of them messed up and both of them got caught in the consequences. But the consequences haven’t been an eviction yet, that was new. They had to think of something, and that fast if they didn’t want to sleep on the streets. Just sitting through detention wouldn’t do the trick here. Adora gratefully took the hand, but didn’t miss the worry flash over Catra’s face.

We have to find a place to stay soon. Except …

That’s a thought that needed planning, and Adora didn’t have much time to for that. And she will need help. It’s obvious who she is going to ask first. But for the first time in ever, Adora isn’t sure of her answer. She decided to sleep a night about it and ask Catra tomorrow. When she went to bed, Adora heard Catra on the floor above her … walking in circles? Oh, and cussing. Several times. Something heavy fell on the floor. And then springs were squeaking and finally silence.

Sleeping also didn’t bring the revelation Adora hoped for. The day began strange anyways. Catra was awake and in the kitchen. Before Adora even woke up. That hadn’t been the case since Catra moved in. The last time Adora could remember was when Adora stayed at Catra’s place, but these were … different circumstances. Catra was on her phone, scrolling through advertisements for apartments, but a glance showed, that everything was way above her (or their) paygrade. That at least explained her bad mood. And Adora was about to make it worse.

“Um, Catra? I’m thinking about doing something and I’m going to need your help for that.”

Catra’s full attention was on Adora now. “Uh, are we killing someone? Just one rule, I don’t kill kids. But that rule is negotiable if that kid’s an ass. You know what? Screw that. I would kill a kid.”

Adora gave eher best not to laugh at that, Catra citing Adrian Pimento just showed that she spent too much time in front of her tv. But she needed to focus on her plan.

“No, but … wait, you would kill a kid?”

Catra shrugged. Adora slammed her hand on the table to focus on her request, wincing immediately because she used the hand she had smashed against a rock yesterday.

“Listen, I thought about yesterday. About this whole mess and how Mara fucked up everything. And about the letter she sent, or didn’t send. I want to visit the Whispering Woods and find her.”

Silence. Catra just stared at Adora, for what felt like an eternity. Finally, Catra moved, hiding her face in her hands, her following scream muffled by her hands. Catra dropped her hands back on the table, shooting a wild look at Adora.

“I always thought that this would be a question you would be asking me, and not the other way around. Adora. Are. You. Insane?”

Adora just sat there dumbfounded. For some reason she didn’t consider Catra reacting like that.

“Do you even know where the Whispering Woods are? They are literally on the other side of the globe. Where do you even want to look for Mara? Did you take a look on the letters? Did you see that there isn’t a sender on it? No address to look for? You don’t even have proof that the letters are from the Whispering Woods. The stamp and the postmark are just saying that the post office there dealt with them.”

Adora knew that Catra was right. There were many uncertainties. And Adora for sure couldn’t go there alone. But if Catra doesn’t want to, Adora didn’t know who else to ask.

“Listen, if you want to stay, that’s fi- “

“OH FUCK NO. Do you really think I let you travel across the world all alone? You probably get kidnapped and sold to some warlord before even reaching the airport.”

Ouch.

“I’m not that stupid. And why would that happen to me?”

“I’m not calling you stupid, but you are a dork. More often than it’s good for you. Even Razz thought so, and you know it. ‘Why would that happen to me’ is the logic of the folks that invest every cent they have into lottery tickets because ‘You’ll never know’ and then don’t wear a seatbelt because ‘1 in 4 drivers get involved in accidents? Bah, won’t be me’.”

Catra needed a moment to catch a breath.

“This world is a messed-up place, and abductions also happen to people who are way, WAY less attractive than you.”

“Thank you for worr- “

“Hush. Shut it. I promised to Razz that I would take care of you in case of you doing something stupid. And do you think I would just shrug it off when you leave and I never hear something from you again? I will probably have two options at that point. Either looking for you or listening to the melody a train plays on its tracks.”

Adora didn’t understand what Catra meant with the second choice, but even though Catra was ranting at the moment, she will accompany her. They just have to figure out the HOW. Adora did already check for available flights to anywhere in the United States and noticed the biggest hole in her plan. She barely had money. And Catra probably didn’t have that much either. Adora couldn’t bring it up right now, because Catra was about to ‘pay someone at the university a visit and threaten them’ and talk to Huntara later.

Did she say that I’m attractive?

Catra was not amused when she heard of their financial problems. She had some savings, but according to Catra it would barely be enough for a flight for both of them. Then there still would be the problem with food and hospitality, and moving through the country if they couldn’t find what they are looking for immediately.

Ok, how can you move from place to place if planes aren’t a choice? Car and train aren’t possible either, because duh, the Atlantic Ocean. So, there was just one way left. Ships.

***

Adora perked up as the conductor’s voice came through the speakers. Not that she actually understood what the man was saying, Adora didn’t speak German. She just knew some insults Catra had taught her. Adora looked over to her friend, lifting her eyebrows to wait for the translation. Catra listened and groaned, cursing the german rail company for its incompetence. The train ride from Half-Moon to Hamburg was supposed to be 14 hours, but they already announced a 2 hours delay. Construction works or whatever.

Their journey did already have a bad start. Adora tried to sell the furniture she bought before Catra moved in, but only got a fraction of the original price for it. They essentially slept on the floor the last few days until they had to leave the house. The bastards even brought the police to ensure that they were leaving. As if Catra and Adora were going to show resistance in any way. Adora didn’t shed a tear leaving the house for the last time, probably because it’s easier to get over something if you can expect to lose it. That’s at least what she told Catra, but Catra wasn’t stupid or insensitive enough to believe it.

Adora looked at the seats next to them in their compartment. Everything important possession of her was now in one of these 2 backpacks. The same thing went for Catra. Adora found herself once again thanking a higher being for giving such great friends. Not only Catra, but also Netossa and Spinnerella who took the stuff Adora and Catra couldn’t sell, throw away or take with them, and put it in their basement.

She watched Catra chewing on a sandwich, one of the farewell gifts Netossa and Spinnerella gave them. They actually gave them a ton of food, so much, that they needed a 5^th bag for it. Most of it was durable over a longer period of time, so if the situation would go dire for whatever reason, Adora and Catra had at least something left. If everything went according to Adora’s plan, they would earn money on their way to the USA. They had an appointment with an agency, who was looking for staff for a cruise. The only negative aspect of this: Catra and Adora had to travel to Hamburg for this. Just for the interview. Adora had her fingers crossed that they got accepted, because a setback at this time already would be, like, really bad.

They reached Hamburg in the early evening, Catra already angry as hell. Not at Adora (that’s at least what she said) but at the rail company. Adora didn’t listen to her venting as they went to the bus station to get a ride to the harbor. They were lucky enough that the office of the agency was open 24/7. It was a hassle to move the 5 bags through the bus, earning more than just glares from the other passengers, one said something to Adora after she bumped into him and judging Catra’s reaction, it wasn’t something nice.

At least they found the office quite fast and immediately were asked to come in. Adora got lucky that the interview was done in English, so she didn’t look completely helpless without Catra, but even though he was impressed by Catra’s ability to speak 5 languages, his mood dropped while talking to Adora. She couldn’t bring up any special talents. She couldn’t sing or play an instrument, only spoke 1 and a half languages, and didn’t have any actual experience in the kitchen. For some reason they didn’t look for cleaning staff which Adora would’ve accepted gladly.

In the end, they wanted to employ Catra, but not Adora. Catra refused the offer faster than Adora could say anything. The interviewer sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking around while doing this. He pulled a business card from his pocket, gave it to Catra and told them, they would find someone who would employ them, if they absolutely needed a way across the ocean.

But the setback was there and Adora already felt miserable. Everything in this was her idea, and everything was her fault that they didn’t get one step forward. Catra tried her best to cheer Adora up, as they made their way to the address written on the business card. Adora’s doubts began grow even more when they reached the house. A bar, an old one, the definition of shabby. She shot Catra a worried look and noticed that Catra wasn’t that excited about being here either. But what could go wrong with 2 young women entering a shabby bar at 10 pm in a german harbor?

When Adora closed the door, the barmaid shouted something at them and Catra answered. Catra went to the bar to continue the conversation in a lower voice, and at one point the barmaid’s eyes went wide and she talked faster. Catra blinked, knocked twice on the bar and hurried to Adora.

“Let’s get out of here.”

They scrambled outside, but ran right into 2 men waiting there. Catra immediately dropped her bags and got ready, Adora just panicked, not knowing what to do.

“There you are, my Ladies!”

A cheerful voice came the side, making all 4 of them turn their heads. Adora saw a man a bit older than her, but 25 at max, coming closer. Wearing thigh high boots, black pants and a blue jacket showing the white shirt underneath it, he looked like a pirate that got lost in an H&M. Earrings and a red bandana around his neck completed the image. And, oh god, his moustache. Why did he have a moustache?

“Anne and Mary, you nearly got me worried. Was looking everywhere for you. Thanks for keeping an eye on them, lads.” He winked at the 2 men, who rolled their eyes and pushed Adora to the side to enter the bar.

The wannabe pirate was now close enough to whisper at them. “What are you doing here, are you crazy? This is no place for beauties like you!”

Catra was about to bite back, but they heard a woman calling for someone.

“Sebastian?”

“Ah, do you hear that? The light of my life is calling for me?

“Sebastian?”

“Yes dearest, fear not for I am here!”

A woman, probably also slightly older than Adora, at first glance probably indain, came around the corner.

“SEAHAWK! Oh, there you are. What are you doing here? We are supposed to leave in 3 hours, you are needed at the ship. And what’s up with them?

The man called Sebastian/Seahawk explained in a weird way how he found and rescued Adora and Catra, dubbing them “damsels in distress”. A glance to Catra showed Adora that her friend was about to rip his head off, so she decided to step in for once. Adora introduced herself and Catra, and told them they were here to find a job to get across the Atlantic. The woman was horrified.

“You came to here to look for a job? Are you crazy?”

“I know, darling. And this is where I, the mighty Seahawk stepped in, and got them out of the DANGER!”

Sebastian/Seahawk shouted the last word while throwing his arms in the air. The woman groaned, and looked at Catra and Adora again.

“You want to go the US? Where exactly?”

“The Whispering Woods.”

“Why? There is like, one city. Everything else is no man’s land. If you want to go hiking, go for the Grand Canyon, Zion or Bryce National parks. On the other hand, you aren’t German, no? You probably don’t want to go hiking.”

Adora looked at Catra, but she was just staring back.

“We … have to something to do there, I don’t know how to say it. But we can’t afford plane tickets and I figured if we can get a job on a cruise ship, we can get to the United States and earn some money. But we got rejected – or better, I got rejected. She –“ Adora pointed at Catra “would’ve gotten a job.”

“I can read from the overly motivated way you tell this story, that you feel guilty about that.” The woman turned to Catra. “What’s the deal with you. What job did they give you?”

“They wanted me to man the service desk, because I speak 5 languages on a high level.”

“You don’t look like someone who would enjoy that.”

“I would’ve killed the 3^rd costumer on a good day.”

The dark-skinned woman snorted. “What else?”

Catra shrugged. “I am – I was a fighter.”

Adora felt guilt pierce her chest when Catra said ‘was’, in the same moment Sebastian/Seahawk was back in the conversation. “A fighter? How lovely. Show me what you’ve got.”

He started to hop around in front of Catra, circling fist in front of him like a circus boxer in the early 1800’s. Catra cocked her head, now obviously being annoyed by the man. The still unnamed woman groaned again.

“You know what? If you can make him shut up for a few secs, I’ll tell you how to get to the US.”

Adora’s went wide, seeing Catra baring her teeth in a wicked grin. “Catra, no!”

“Catra yes!” In a single, fast, flowing motion Catra’s left fist passed Sebastian’s/Seahawk’s raised arms and hit his nose. He stumbled back, holding his nose in surprise. He checked for bleeding, while the woman threw her head back and laughed at him. The man looked hurt, but not physically.

“Ok, that was great. Follow me. Seahawk, help the ladies with their bags!” The man saluted and went on to lift the bigger backpacks from Catra and Adora. Catra, with a smug grin on her face, winked at Adora.

“Catra, are you crazy? You could’ve seriously hurt him!”

Catra rolled her eyes. “Oh, please I know what I’m doing. That was just a flicker jab. It’s supposed to confuse your opponent, not hurt them.”

“I let you hit me, by the way!” Seahawk chimed in, but now he was more baggage than man, so Catra just ignored him. They followed their guide through the harbor, mist slowly rising around them. Adora walked a bit faster to catch up with the woman in front of her.

“Hey, sorry what was your name again. I didn’t catch it earlier.”

“No, you couldn’t. I didn’t tell you. But wait until we get to the ship, I hate to say things twice.”

Surprised by the curt answer, Adora fell back to Catra again. “Why do we even follow her? She didn’t even tell us where we are going.”

Catra shrugged. “She said, she will show us a way to get to the States. And to be honest, her lover over there really did save us earlier. It’s not like we can trust them, but we don’t have much choice, no?”

They didn’t. They walked in silence, the ship in front of them getting bigger and bigger until the woman stopped in front of a ramp leading to the deck of the ship. The hull of the ship was dark green, the word ‘Salineas’ written in big white letters on it, two crossed tridents in the background, ‘Dragon’s Daughter III’ written on the bow. Their guide finally turned around to Adora & Catra.

“My name is Mermista Merperson. No, not Mer-person. It’s Merper-son. Everyone who makes a joke about my name in combination with the fact that I live on a ship gets thrown overboard by myself. Got it?”

Fast nods from Adora and Catra.

“The watercarrier behind you is called Sebastian Hawkins, or Seahawk as he calls himself. He is the captain of this ship. As you can see it’s a container ship, the usual route is Port Everglades, Florida – Piraeus, Greece – Hamburg, Germany. I won’t tell you facts about the ship, they are irrelevant but if you are bored and crazy enough, Seahawk will tell you tons of fun stories. Now come.”

Mermista stepped on the ramp and walked up to the deck.

“Nonono hold on.” Catra put her hand on Adora’s shoulder stop her from following Mermista. “That’s it? I punched your boyfriend and you let us enter your ship? No negotiations about what we are willing to do for you in return?”

“Uhm, yes?” Adora was fascinated by Mermista sounding apathic in apparently every situation. “It’s my ship, I can do what I want?”

That was … not expected. Mermista said she was living on it, but that didn’t mean it’s actually hers. Several questions arose from that statement, but Mermista was faster.

“Listen, I don’t care. I made you an offer you are free absolutely refuse. You didn’t tell me the real reason why you want to go to the US, but that’s another thing I don’t care about. I got room for 2 more people, and if that just means that Seahawk has 2 more people to bother and leave the rest alone for this, it’s already a win for me.” She paused to look at her watch. “We leave in 2 hours, make up your mind, you will find me on the bridge.”

She signaled Seahawk to put down the backpacks and follow her. He walked up the ramp, but not without turning around once to wink and shoot finger guns at them.

“What are we supposed to do?”

“Pfff, don’t look at me, I’m just acting as your bodyguard here.”

Adora rolled her eye. “Great. But come on. I can’t believe, that this guy is the captain. He is an idiot!”

“Yes, but it doesn’t mean he isn’t good at something. I mean, look at you. You are the perfect example that being an idiot and being smart at the same time is indeed possible.”

“Your ability to both compliment and insult me in one breath warms my heart.”

“Meh, I do what I can.”

Adora tried to give this conversation a serious note again. “Obviously, I don’t trust them. But was it true what Seahawk said? Did he really save us?”

Catra looked at her boots, clearly being uncomfortable. “I don’t know for sure, but most likely. The girl at the bar said, that if we don’t want to end up as sex workers, we should get out of there. Maybe the guys in front of the door were there through pure coincidence, but in the end, the seagull is right. I’m sorry. I’ve never should’ve thought of going there in first place.”

Adora patted Catra’s shoulder to comfort her, but also to hide her own horror. They weren’t even gone for 24 hours and everything nearly went south twice already. Catra looked at Adora again.

“I already told you. I will follow you, where ever you go.”

“Then let’s go.”

Mermista didn’t seem surprised when they entered the bridge. “Took you longer than I thought.”

Catra snarled back. “My mom always told me not to enter a stranger’s ship.”

Seahawk raised an eyebrow. “Did she?”

“I’m an orphan, so no, that was a lie.”

Even though Catra clearly wasn’t here to make friends, Adora imagined to see a faint smile on Mermista’s face.

“Lovely conversation, now come with me, I’ll show you your berth. I guess you two don’t have a problem with sleeping in the same room? Not that you have much of a choice, because we only have one left.”

The corridors were way narrower than Adora expected, one time her backpack got stuck in a door frame and she yelped out of surprised, while getting pulled back. Catra’s cackled echoed through the ship, but Adora was glad to hear at least something similar to cheerfulness from her best friend after the last few days.

Mermista stopped in front a door and unlocked it. She went in, flipped the light switch and presented Adora and Catra their home for the next … wait, how long did this journey even go? Mermista explained some basic rules about safety during bad weather and the resulting rough swell. Adora didn’t even think about that. Every chair and table were screwed into the floor, there weren’t any open cupboards or wardrobes, everything had a heavy lock on the door. The room had only one round window, a porthole, which had 3 handles to lock it.

“Seahawk or me will give you a tour through the ship tomorrow. Maybe you saw it, there are markings in the corridors telling you were to find the mess or the galley.” Adora had no idea what that was, she hoped Catra did. Mermista checked her watch again. “We will leave the port in 45 minutes. It’s night, so you won’t see anything special, but we usually stay on deck when we leave the harbor. Feel free to join us. If not, I will call you at 8am- “She pointed at the phone on the wall. “To wake you for the first breakfast.”

Mermista was about to close the door, but turned around one last time. “Oh, you noticed that nearly everything here is made of metal. Metal is an excellent conductor for sound, and it’s both hard and expensive to soundproof a ship. So, if you do something that is usually loud, either do it quiet or use a gag. We work in shifts and it’s very rude to wake people.”

Mermista slammed the door shut and left Catra and Adora alone. It didn’t take 2 seconds for Catra to start laughing again, and another 2 seconds to stop since Mermista was right, there was a massive echo. Adora just stood there and tried to process what Mermista just said.

Was there really the need to imply that? As if that would happen.

Catra was the first one to get her shit together again, and started to unpack a few of her things into a wardrobe and managed to shove her backpacks in there too. Adora followed Catra suit, she wanted to accept Mermista’s offer to join the crew watching the ship leaving Hamburg.

They left their cabin when the vibrations in the floor and walls got stronger, signaling the engines coming to live. They found their way back to deck quite easily, just following the markings on the walls. Mermista greeted them with a nod, standing at the rail with 5 other people. Adora looked out for Seahawk and found him, to her surprise, on the bridge with a RT unit in this hand.

“He is actually the captain!” Catra sounded equally surprised, as they joined Mermista.

She snorted. “I know, hard to believe right? But he knows this stuff.”

Adora wasn’t sure, but there was something in Mermista’s voice that made it sound like Seahawk was more than just her employee. But to follow Razz’ advice: If they tell you, great, if not, you shouldn’t know about it in first hand. Adora looked around to look for Catra, she found her standing a few meters down the rail, watching the houses pass by.

“Hey, you good?”

Catra took a deep breath. “I don’t know. I can’t believe, we are actually doing this. In a few hours we have left Europe. I didn’t want to go full Samwise here, but If I take one more step, it will be the furthest away from home I’ve ever been.” Catra leaned over to Adora and nudged her. “But hey, we did it.”

Adora chuckled shortly at the Lord of the Rings reference, but fell silent soon after.

“You did it.”

Catra cocked her head. “What do you mean?”

“You did everything. The whole thing was my idea, but I only weigh us down.”

Catra grinded her teeth. “Why do you always do that? Underselling yourself, I mean? I never understood that.”

Adora just huffed, she didn’t know what kind of answer Catra expected here.

“Look.” Catra stepped closer, cupping Adora’s face with her hands. “You are the kindest, most cheerful person I’ve ever met. This is not the first time and for sure will not be the last time I tell you this. And I’m sure that we will need you, just being you, at some point on this adventure.”

Adora closed her eyes, breathing in, just savoring this moment. “I- “

“Did I hear adVENTURerererer.” Adora jumped and made a step backwards, leaving Catra’s warm embrace. She turned around to see Mermista grabbing Seahawk at his shoulders, shaking him. They were clearly listening, but Adora didn’t know for how long. She looked back at Catra, whose eyes were screaming ‘murder’ now.

Mermista cleared her throat. “Sorry. If it makes you feel better, we only heard the part after you got handsy.”

Catra’s expression got even more furious, she stormed past Seahawk, not without bumping into him. “I’m going to bed.”

Mermista shot Adora an apologizing look, when she followed Catra. Of course, Adora managed to get lost, even though she was just following the markings again. When she finally found their cabin, Adora knocked until she heard Catra saying something that sounded like a ‘come in’. Adora opened the door to find Catra already sitting on the upper bunk bed.

“Adora, this is our room. I don’t think you need to knock.”

“Better safe than sorry, and old habits die hard. I mean, look at you. Still owning the top bunk bed.”

Catra snorted and laid down on the mattress. Adora quickly put on her pajama and climbed under the blanket of the lower bunk bed. She turned of the light and laid back with crossed hands under her head, listening to the sonorous humming of the engines.

“Catra?”

“Hrmpf?”

“Thank you.”

Shuffling above her, Catra turning around in her bed. “What for?”

“You being you and telling me to be me.”

Catra barked a laugh. “Do you remember my reaction the last time you told me to be friendly and just be myself?”

Adora laughed, she actually remembered that. “Yes, you said that’s impossible because you can’t be two different things at once.”

They felt silent again, trying to fall asleep and when Adora felt her eyes growing heavy, she wished Catra a good night with a final effort.

Her answer was muffled. “G’night, Ad..a. … you.”

After a dreamless night, the alarm went off. Adora reached out with closed eyes to turn it off, but her hand couldn’t find anything, not even her nightstand. She opened her eyes to stare at a metal wall in front of her. Adora turned to the other side and remembered that she wasn’t in her house anymore. She couldn’t find an alarm, because there was none, and the noise came from the telephone on the wall. Something rustled and groaned above her – right, Catra - and Adora hurried to stand up to pick up the phone. Tiptoeing over the cold floor, said floor suddenly moved. Adora’s knees gave in and she hit the wall in front of her face first.

Right, I am on a ship. A ship is in the water, where is water, there are waves too.

Adora picked up the phone while rubbing her nose.

“Greyskull?”

“…What?”

“What?”

“Who is this?”

“Ehm, Adora? You called me, isn’t it your part to know who you are calling?”

“What the fuck is Greyskull?”

“My surname?”

Resounding laughter from Mermista on the other side of the line.

“Oh, because Ms. Mer-person has the right to speak here.” Mermista laughter stopped immediately after Adora mispronounced her name intentionally. Adora inhaled sharply, remembering that this might not have been a good idea. She wasn’t interested in finding out if Mermista would actually throw her overboard for this, so she whispered a small “Sorry”.

“Whatever, breakfast’s ready. Come and get it or starve.”

The clicking signaled that Mermista hanged up. Adora turned around to look at Catra, who sat in her bed frowning.

“We may get thrown overboard.”

As it turned out, Mermista showed mercy on them as they entered the galley, the ship’s kitchen. Maybe as an apology for the interruption the day before. Apparently, your diet doesn’t change when you live on a ship. Tons of cereals, jams, chocolate creams and honey filled the cabinets and a huge amount of ice cream blocked 2 shelves in the refrigerator. Mermista’s property, as the sign in front of the ice cream promised a death sentence.

They were told that they could take whatever they wanted. Since Adora’s and Catra’s last proper meal had been a few days ago, only sandwiches and junk food since then, they nearly emptied the fridge to make their favorite omelet. Adora was actually proud at the progress her cooking has made over the last months. She wouldn’t refuse Catra’s ‘creation’ to counter a hangover, but maybe it be omelets, just spreads or waffles, breakfast became Adora’s domain. Catra liked it so much, she even got out of bed before 11am on weekends.

Adora diced the tomatoes, onions and cheese, cracked the eggs and mixed the ingredients, while Catra fried the bacon. Nothing special today, Adora didn’t want to overdo it on the first day. She put the scrambled eggs on the plates and brought them to a nearly drooling Catra in the mess. They weren’t alone when they sat down. Mermista and 3 more men were already there, all of them eating cereal. Their chewing got slower when they saw the food Adora brought with her, unspoken envy in their faces, when their gaze went back to their cereal bowls.

Mermista sat down next to Catra, placed her elbows on the table and looked at Adora over her crossed hands. “You were looking for a job, right? Now, here’s the deal…”

After their ‘negotiations’, Mermista gave them a short tour through the ship. Most of it was a no-go zone anyways, it was either a fuel tank or machinery. But there was a ‘fun-zone’, as Mermista called it. A bigger room with a table tennis table, a pool table, 2 TVs, several gaming systems and bookshelves. The bookshelves nearly covered the entire wall, all with glass doors to prevent the books to fall out, and everything was owned by Mermista. Adora walked along the shelves, spotting some classics in the enormous collection. J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, N. Stevenson, H.P. Lovecraft …, and 50 volumes of a series called ‘MerMysteries’, Mermista’s absolute favorite. Adora never heard of it, but did her best to hold her tongue.

They continued the tour to visit the gym, which both Adora and Catra were delighted about. They didn’t plan to hold true to their training routine, but if they got the opportunity, why not stick to it. Catra was especially happy about the punching bag hanging in the corner.

They finished their tour at their room, and Mermista left them alone. Adora and Catra had some spare time until their ‘shift’ began.

“What do you think? About the ship and all?”

Catra thought about it for a moment. “Honestly? It couldn’t be better. Cooking 3 times a day for 10 people in total over 2 weeks is ok, and we get 3 grand for it. Nothing really to complain about, no? And it’s not like we actually had a say in this.”

That was true. Mermista had sat down and straight-up told them that they were the cooks now. They had to leave the last one in Piraeus and didn’t manage to find a new one in time. That made the culinary aspect of the last 10 days something that won’t be missed by the crew. Adora and Catra just had to think of something.

Spending time in the galley got them to know the crew. As Mermista told them earlier, there were 10 people in total on board. Adora, Catra and Mermista served no deeper purpose, but Seahawk was the captain, 2 of the engineers were serving as his substitutes.  There was one loadmaster, apparently enough for a ship this size, the rest were a mixture of mechanics and seaman (yes, that’s still the official title), some even held more than just one position, working in 2 shifts à 4 hours each every day.

It destroyed Adora’s illusion about ships in general, the crew was way smaller than she expected and even though the ship had a crow’s nest between the antennas, no one was up there. The bridge was plastered with monitors and keyboards, and the big steering wheel was missing. Catra laughed at Adora when she complained about it. When Catra asked her if she wanted to swing from mast to mast holding onto a rope, Adora turned red from embarrassment, but she was sure that Seahawk probably would be so down for it.

Out of pure curiosity she asked one of the mechanics about Mermista and Seahawk and their relationship. Apparently, it wasn’t that easy to explain even though the woman has been in service for the longest span of time in the crew. Mermista and Seahawk got to know each other over 10 years ago. At some time, Seahawk had studied nautical sciences in Miami, and Mermista had inherited the small shipping company from her father. One thing led to another, and Seahawk became captain of the Dragon’s Daughter III. For the question why the ship was named Dragon’s Daughter III, and what happened to number I and II, the mechanic coughed nervously and told Adora to ask Mermista herself.

Adora and Catra started their job as chefs with something simple, spaghetti carbonara, but the great reception made Adora puff up her chest, and even though Catra didn’t say anything, she was moved too. While cleaning up the kitchen, Seahawk visited them to challenge Catra to get revenge ‘for the ignominious defeat that brought shame onto him in front of his sea goddess’. Catra accepted, what would be the worst thing that could happen. Seahawk left and Catra looked at Adora to cross her eyes and stick out her tongue to show what she thought of Seahawk. Adora rolled her eyes.

“Be nice, we need him.”

Catra muttered something like ‘You need him’ as she turned her attention back to the wet cutlery.

Aside from working, there wasn’t anything to do them at all. They were on their way through the English Channel, the most exciting thing they could do on deck was to watch the French and English coasts pass by. Which was as entertaining as watching paint dry. So, not at all. Adora and Catra entered the fun dungeon to find 2 crew members playing table tennis. They greeted them without interrupting their match, Adora placed herself on the couch in front of the TV, Catra searched for something in the bookshelves and sat down on the other couch. Adora figured that the most of their free time in the next 2 weeks will be like this.

There was nothing on tv, just a child’s show from the 90ies, Adora didn’t even know what language they were speaking. She finally realized that the scratching sounds Adora had heard all the time, were actually coming from Catra. Sitting cross-legged, a sketch pad on her leg, Catra was doodling something and judging from the short glances Adora got, she was Catra’s target.

Adora played along, sprawling across the couch and she heard herself say: “Draw me like one of your French girls.”

Catra stared at her, clearly confused. “But I don’t know any-… oooooh. You know I hate that movie. And I’m totally not superstitious, but let’s not talk about it while sitting on a ship. But whatever, one nude drawing of Adora coming up.”

Wait what? She’s actually going to do it?

Catra closed her eyes, smiling at whatever she just imagined, opened her eyes again, a quick glance at Adora and she started to scribble. Adora didn’t break her pose, but somehow, she began to feel uncomfortable. It’s not like they never saw each other in underwear or bikinis, and Adora obviously never ever under all aspects and possibilities at no time ever imagined, hallucinated or dreamt about a naked Catra. Ok, that was a lie, but Catra drawing Adora nude would give the whole thing something real.

Catra added some last touches to her drawing, held it up to compare it with the reality and closed the sketch pad with a pleased expression on her face. Adora imagined to feel a drop of sweat running down her neck, as Catra left the room to head for the galley. Acting as inconspicuous as possible, she waited until she didn’t hear Catra’s steps anymore and hurled herself to the sketch pad.

Adora opened the sketch pad with a slightly shaking hand to find … a caricature … of herself … with an absolutely exaggerated depiction of her forehead and hair poof. She saw a ‘Hey, Adora’ scribbled in the top right corner, underneath it ‘Look to the door’. Adora didn’t need to turn around, Catra’s cackling was loud enough.

Chapter Text

On the following day, Adora had to do the work all alone. During noon, they had reached the Azores, the most western part of Europe with the islands being part of Portugal. Mermista apparently didn’t feel the need to tell them that they made a short stop there, delivering a single container. The ship entered the port of Ponta Delgada on the main island São Miguel, and Catra and the loadmaster left the ship to oversee the unloading process. Mermista had send Catra off the ship to act as a translator in the case, that English would not be enough. Catra didn’t know an ounce of Portuguese except some insults, but they needed to get some supplies anyways, so Catra got the unthankful task to go and buy them.

After watching the container getting lift off the ship and placed on a trailer, Adora went to the kitchen to make pancakes. It’s something easy to make for a bigger number of people when you are alone, and since no one complained about it, so Adora just stuck with it.

A few hours later, Adora was standing at the rail on deck, enjoying the warm sunlight hitting her face, when she heard one of the smaller cranes moving again and saw an angry Catra stomping up the ramp.

“I hate them, I hate them so much.” Adora and Catra had agreed to only speak lunarian when they were alone, but Catra didn’t care about that right now. “The container was for the Preĝejo. For the fucking Preĝejo. They have a different name here, ‘Igreja dos primeiros’. I recognized the mark on the container, and when i saw the truck driver in his light-blue boiler suit, i nearly jumped him. When he signed the papers, he fucking bowed to us, saying shit like ‘Que a luz esteja com você’, same shit with something about Light in lunarian. Yeah, sure. Smile about it like nothing happened.”

Adora could understand her rage, but the driver himself wasn’t the one to blame. Mara was. Why would someone sell their entire possession to a church? She looked up to watch the small wooden box getting placed on the deck of the ship.

Catra, now switching to English, told her, that their supplies for the next 10 days are in there. Fresh fish, vegetables, fruits, some meat and so on. A lot to do, but they had asked the crew about their preferred meals, so the blame was kind of on Adora and Catra themselves. They began to unload the box with the help of the loadmaster, and when the supplies were stored, Seahawk – poor Seahawk – crossed their way. Catra pushed him and reminded him of his challenge. He gladly agreed on stick true to his oath today after dinner. Speaking of dinner, it was already time to start preparing it.

Adora put away the last cleaned plates, when Mermista entered the galley, asking her for Seahawk.

“I guess he is in the gym?”

“Ugh … wait, Seahawk? Why would he be in the gym?” Mermista managed to show actual facial emotions for once, in this case, surprise.

Adora told her about the proposal Seahawk had made, which made Mermista turn around on her heel and nearly sprint towards the gym, stating that there is no way she is going to miss the show. It took Adora ten minutes to get everything done and she went to the gym, too.

She heard the sounds of something getting hit very fast through the open door. Adora entered the room to see Seahawk holding the punching back that got abused by Catra. Mermista sat on the floor next to the door, leaning on the wall, a disappointed look on her face.

“I was hoping for some ass whooping, but just watching a bag getting punched is boring.”

Adora sat down next to her, pulling out her phone from her back pocket while watching Catra bring down a hail of jabs onto the punching bag.

“I got a nice video I can show you.” Adora saw Catra’s head flip around, but she managed to press play before Catra could throw in her veto.

It was the montage video from the graduation ceremony. Eye of the tiger started playing and a worked-up Catra entered the screen through a wall of smoke. After Mermista saw Catra lifting up her opponent and smashing her back into the floor, she was both surprised and worried. Surprised, because lifting someone from that posture was an insane amount of work, and worried because even if Catra went with just 50% against Seahawk, Mermista probably needed to look for a new captain.

Adora watched Catra doing her stretching exercises while the video was still running, turning to background noise for her. Suddenly, Mermista cooed, a sound which Adora was surprised to hear from her. Mermista turned to screen to Adora, revealing the picture of herself, red-faced, lifting up the Catra-scarf.  

Right, I forgot about that.

Adora wasn’t embarrassed about the picture, it just was something special to her. Ok, that may sound a little bit egocentric, since she was the only one on the picture. But it was the context that made it something special.

Adora tried to switch topics when she asked Mermista about the relationship between Seahawk and her. Mermista refused to answer it.

“Let’s make a deal. You tell me, why you are actually going to the Whispering Woods and I will tell you about me.”

Adora thought about it, quite long actually. Why would she tell her story to someone she met two days ago? On the other side, said person had been kind enough to take them with her, at first for free, and now she was even paying them.

Adora took a deep breath, gathering her thoughts. “In fact, we are looking my mother.”

She gave Mermista a run down about herself, her friendship with Catra and Razz’ death and the aftermath. Adora left out a lot of details, but it was enough to tell the story. After she finished, Mermista stared at her with raised eyebrows.

“Oooookay, that was not something I expected. In case you ever write a book about this, do I get mentioned?”

“I doubt I will do that. There are already so many uncertainties. I don’t even know the cheapest way to get to the Whispering Woods. I… I don’t know what I would’ve done without Catra.” It’s not the first time Adora thought about this, but actually saying it was something entirely different. “In the end is she the reason we are here, no? Even if that nearly got us in trouble.”

Mermista said nothing, thinking about something. “How long are you two together?”

“Catra and me? Oh, we know each since over 12 years now. But if you want to know how we met, that’s Catra’s story to tell… Wait, what do you mean ‘together’?”

“Uhm, you two? Couple? How long?”

“Wha-? We aren’t? We are best friends, nothing more!”

Mermista raised her eyebrows. “Are you sure about that? I mean, you know each other for a long time, ok, I get that. But you literally do everything together, you declare yourself as her Nr. 1 fan, she followed you on a journey that will, in my opinion, be a waste of time, and you two clearly need to watch yourself when you are in the galley. Any more sugar between you two and you both get a diabetes diagnosis....” Adora stopped listening after this, for some reason she didn’t want to hear this. As Mermista’s list went on, Adora thought about something Catra told her years ago, when Adora came out to her.

I know a girl that has the hots for you.

Adora had never asked her after this evening who she had been talking about, in all honesty, because she had forgotten about it. But Adora had noticed that Catra often was about to say or do something, stopping herself just in the moment before. As if she wasn’t sure, if it was the right thing….

“Oh, and you lived together!”

Adora quickly shook her head. What did Mermista know about them? Nothing. It’s not like Adora never …. She shook her head again to get rid of the thoughts. She looked over to Catra and Seahawk. He was lying on his stomach, Catra sat on his back, performing a choke on him.

“I wish that would be me….” Mermista sighed, Adora hummed in agreement. That made Mermista turn her head, narrowing her eyes.

“I don’t think you know Seahawk long enough to have a wish to strangle him. Or do you think about getting choked by your not-girlfriend?”

Adora spat the water she wanted to drink back into her bottle and murmured the lowest ‘fuck you’ she could, hoping Catra wouldn’t hear it. Adora rarely cussed, so Catra made an event out of it every time she heard it and that wasn’t something Adora needed at the moment.

They were interrupted by Seahawk screaming. Catra was literally swinging him around, her hands on one of his ankles. After 2 or 3 rotation she let go and Seahawk flew around 4 meters. Catra clapped her hands to wipe off the imaginary dust and left the gym to take a shower.

Seahawk made a wrinkled face when he walked over to Mermista and Adora. He had even wrinkles in his moustache. He sat down next to Mermista, placed his head on her shoulder and let out a big sigh. Neither Adora nor Mermista said a word. Another sigh. Still no reaction. It took Mermista 5 minutes to feel something like pity for her captain. She groaned when she saw the puppy eyes Seahawk tried to use on her and shooed him away, only to follow him a few seconds later.

With nothing better in mind and in no mood to work out, Adora went back to her cabin. On the way she passed the fun zone and saw 3 of the crew members beating the shit out of each other virtually. Usually, she would’ve asked if she could join them, but the conversation with Mermista clouded her mind. So much, that she walked past her cabin. When she noticed that she missed it, she turned around and missed it again. 3^rd time’s a charm.

Catra was leaving the shower, when Adora finally found the right door. She talked to her, but Adora was too occupied to actually listen. She just sat down on the bed and stared at the wall on the other side of the cabin. Catra crouched down in front of her, forcing Adora to break her trance.

“You ok?”

“Yeah … just thinking about something Mermista told me.”

“Oh? You found out something interesting? Like, why she is engaged to Seahawk?”

“Hm no … wait what?”

“Yeah, Seahawk told me. He proposed like 5 times over the course of 2 years. At some point Mermista said yes. He said, she was happy. But honestly, Mermista doesn’t seem like someone who shows her happiness to other people, no?”

“Hm.”

“Oh, and he told me that their 10-year anniversary is the day after tomorrow.”

“They are together for 10 years?”

“Hmyesno. They know each other for 10 years now. And that’s the thing they are celebrating. Seahawk dropped something like they broke up a few times. I don’t know, to be honest. He was talking a lot. Didn’t listen to all of it.”

“I’m surprised you managed to remember anything at all.”

Catra shrugged. “My powers are a blessing and a curse.”

What? Adora sometimes had serious doubts that Catra actually thought about what she was saying. Either that, or Catra just didn’t care at all.

“Whatever. You think we should prepare something special for the anniversary? As thanks?”

Catra narrowed her eyes. “Do you have something specific in mind? I have the bad feeling that I’m not going to like this.”

Adora couldn’t hold back the maybe evil grin. “Do you think we will find a suit in this ship for you?”

They didn’t find one, but a black vest, Catra had a white long sleeve shirt and long black pants in her backpack. She made an excellent waitress. In style, at least. Not in manners. But with a lot of grumbling and griping from Catra’s side, Adora managed to convince her to pull off this act for just 2 hours.

Mermista was actually pissed off, when she came to get dinner with the rest of the crew, but got denied by Adora, who told her to wait for the surprise in her cabin. They decided to go for a 3-course meal, Gazpacho as the hors d’oeuvre, gratineed fish with vegetables and potatoes as a main course, and crème brûlée with marinated berries as the dessert. It was an insane amount of work and Adora feared more than once that she may have bragged to much about it, but in the end, it worked out fine. Even the dessert was a success, even though they didn’t have a catering blowlamp, only a wielding blowtorch. Catra was very excited about the blowtorch, but fearing a biochemical hazard, Adora intervened. Google brought an alternative, heating up a spoon over an open flame and let the radiating heat melt the sugar. If the idea wouldn’t have come in combination with a burning blister, Adora would’ve been delighted.

Every time Catra returned with empty platters, she was even grumpier than before.

“If I have to watch these lovebirds make out one more time, I going to vomit.”

Adora rolled her eyes while she filled 2 plates with their own dinner. It made Catra light up again, Adora could hear the rumbling of Catra’s stomach even over this distance. She rarely felt pride over things she did, but that dinner was a masterwork. Catra didn’t say anything, but the moans coming from her with every bite told Adora everything she wanted to know.

They cleaned the dishes and Adora went to get the last things from Mermista’s cabin. The door was left slightly open, and music was coming out of the room. Adora peeked into the room and saw Mermista and Seahawk … dancing. They moved through the room slowly with one’s arms tightly around another, in a circling motion. The smaller Mermista, eyes closed, had her face buried in Seahawk’s neck, just following his movements to the slow tune. Half a turn later, Adora saw Seahawk’s face, a soft expression on it. His eyes wandered to the door and apparently, he spotted her, otherwise the wink he threw into this direction wouldn’t have made any sense.

Adora decided to leave again and head back to the galley, where Catra was waiting for her.

"Believe it or not, they are actually dancing together!”

“Is that what took you so long? You were watching them? Didn’t know you were into voyeurism.”

“You have to ruin everything, don’t you?”

Catra just winked and left the galley to head over to the fun zone. Adora followed her in a bit and noticed Catra slowing down in front of Mermista’s room to get a peek at the things happening there. She sped up again when she (probably) heard Adora coming closer.

The following days were nothing special, they hadn’t seen land since they left the Azores 5 days ago, there were still 4 days to go until their arrival in Florida. One evening they sat in the fun zone, listening to Seahawk telling stories he experienced while crossing the seven seas. Some of them were believable, some were not. Adora especially had her doubts about Seahawk fighting an octopus with 16 limbs, 4 beaks and towering 6 meters high. At first Adora thought that you could use Mermista as a lie detector, the louder her groan or the stronger her eye roll, the less truth was in the story. But she did that through every story at least once, so either everything was a lie or he had told the story so often, that it annoyed Mermista. Nonetheless they were entertaining stories, especially about some burning ships, Adora heard Catra laugh several times, though she didn’t know if Catra was laughing about the stories or Seahawk himself. Or it was the wine speaking out of her.

Adora and Catra were drinking the red wine that was left over from the goulash they had made for dinner. Catra came to the conclusion that it would be a waste to leave the half empty wine bottle in the fridge, so she took it with her and nearly emptied it alone, leaving Adora only half a glass. Catra noticed her unintentional rudeness, and went to get a second bottle. Since everyone else still had a shift to do, and Mermista not liking wine, Adora and Catra shared the bottle in between the both of them.

When the bottle was empty and Adora noticed the well-known feeling of the alcohol doing its work, she decided to go to bed, Catra in her tracks. Someone shouted something at their backs, Adora just could make out the word ‘storm’, but they were out of the door already.

 Catra was actually tipsy. Tipsy enough for her famous sense of balance clocking out early this evening, so Adora threw one of Catra’s arms around her neck to prevent Catra from kissing the wall or the floor.

Back to their cabin, Catra walked to the table and rested her hands on the table, trailing the grain with one finger. Suddenly, she turned Adora, a shy smile on her face.

“Hey, Adora.” Catra closed the distance between them with slow, careful step. “Anything in your mind for this evening?”

Adora didn’t know what to make from this question. She wildly gestured around the room. “It’s evening, we already had dinner, and something to drink. We are on a ship; what do you think I have in mind?” She turned the last sentence into a laugh, but it was an insecure one. She had no idea what Catra was up to.

“Oh, I don’t know, I felt like doing something we haven’t done in a while. For years, to be precise. And maybe I got an inspiration a few days ago.”

Catra pulled out her phone and searched for something. When she put the phone on the table, Adora heard a violin playing a single note. Catra faced her again and extended her hand.

“May I ask you for a dance?”

Adora did absolutely not expect that. Catra? Asking Adora for a dance? What did she mean with ‘haven’t done that in years’?

“You know, I can’t dance.” This was not a lie. In regards of dancing, Adora had two left feet.

“Don’t worry, dork. I’ll lead.”

Ignoring the insult that clearly wasn’t meant as one, Adora placed her hand into Catra’s and Catra pulled her close. She placed her other hand on Adora’s shoulder blade, gesturing Adora to place hers on Catra’s shoulder. To Adora’s delight, Catra started with a waltz. Adora knew how to waltz, at least in theory, and she didn’t disappoint, neither herself nor Catra.

The track ended, and Catra managed to guide Adora into something that you could describe as a finishing pose. Adora didn’t look at the clock to see how long they were already dancing, but it felt like an eternity. A good one.

Catra didn’t let Adora take a breather, the next track immediately started. Catra changed her posture, now moving her hand from Adora’s shoulder blade to her hip and pulling Adora even closer, both mirroring each other now.

Adora closed her eyes as Catra began to move again, just trying to react to every push, pull and shift from Catra. She heard a voice singing, it was a song. A second voice joined in, right in front of her. Adora opened her eyes again to see Catra moving her lips. She never heard Catra sing before, only if she wanted to mock the song. Catra’s low, raspy voice gave Adora goosebumps nearly immediately. Not missing a beat, Catra nailed every syllable.

The book of love is long and boring

No one can lift the damn thing

It’s full of charts and facts and figures

And instructions for dancing

Adora was just staring at Catra now. Her different eyes with their dilated pupils, her freckles, her lips. The wrinkles on her nose…. Did Catra always look like that?

But I…

I love it when you read to me

And you…

You can read me anything

What had changed, that Adora saw Catra in that different light now? Nothing really, but maybe Adora wasn’t just looking hard enough for it.

The book of love has music in it

In fact, that’s where music comes from

Some of it’s just transcendental

Some of it’s just really dumb.

Catra broke the flow to whisper a ‘just like you’, but it summoned a smile on Adora’s face. But Catra didn’t specify what exactly was like her, didn’t she?

But I…

I love it when you sing to me

And you…

You can sing me anything

Adora was drunk. Not on the wine, the alcohol was long gone. She was drunk on something else but it was a new feeling for her. She even felt the floor move under her feet.

Her mind went blank, every fiber of her focused on the bi-colored eyes in front of her. Catra had always been the smaller one of them two, both in frame and size. But there were moments, like when she was fighting in the cage, or moments like this, where Catra was radiating a power so attracting to Adora, that she was close to melting in Catra’s presence. The lyrics had stopped a while ago, since she heard neither Catra’s voice nor the voice from the phone. The string instruments continued playing a calm, slow melody, working together towards the ending when Catra placed her hand on Adora’s back again and pulled her while leaning over her to finish the song in a perfectly timed dip.

I know a girl that has the hots for you.

Who, Catra? You?

Please tell me it is you.

Adora, lost in Catra’s eyes, had difficulties breathing because of her ridiculously fast beating heart, when Catra’s face came closer and closer – and the floor moved again, causing Catra to lose her balance. Both of them fell to the side, Adora just hit the floor. Catra didn’t have that much luck as she stood closer to the bed and hit the ladder of the bunk bed.

Catra’s painful shout broke the spell, and Adora was back into reality. The floor moved again – no, the ship moved again and Catra’s phone slipped from the table. Adora checked the clock, it was way past midnight.

We danced for nearly 2 hours.

She wanted to go to the phone and call the bridge to ask what was going on, but a flash and deafening thunder answered the question.

A storm! That’s what they were talking about earlier.

A groan made Adora turn around again. Catra pressed her hands against her nose, Adora saw a red fluid running through the fingers. Catra was bleeding. Adora went full panic mode and tried to find something to stop the bleeding. After running around like a headless chicken for a few seconds, Catra’s muffled yell stopped her and she saw Catra getting up to head for the bathroom.

Adora sat down on her bed, trying not to jump at every flash of lightning or the following thunder. As she took some breaths, she noticed how fast her heart was beating, even after the time that has passed since they stopped dancing.

Please tell me it’s you.

Was that what Adora was hoping for? That Catra was attracted to her? Was Catra even attracted to women? How is it possible for Adora to not have an answer for this?

Catra wasn’t helpful either when she came out of the bathroom just wearing her underwear, toilet paper in her nostrils acting as plugs. She put her soaked clothes over the chairs to let them dry. The clothes were way redder than before.

“Ib you a’e don sta’ng, I’m gowing do sleep”

Adora stared at her, trying to figure out what Catra just said, but it took to much focus to look in Catra’s face and not. At some point Catra rolled her eyes, made a gesture to shoo Adora away from the ladder and climbed up into her bed.

“G’night Ado’a.”

“Goodnight, Catra.”

Adora thought she was too worked up to sleep, but the swaying of ship lulled her to sleep quite fast. The dream she had that night was a strange one. They were back in Half-Moon, up at the monastery that gave the city its name. Adora wore a white, long dress, holding a bouquet of flowers in her right hand. In her left hand was Catra’s. Catra was wearing a suit, and she looked absolutely beautiful. Shorter hair than usual, but whatever, it’s a dream. Catra opened her mouth to say something.

“Adora…” A faint whisper.

“Oh … Adora.” Now more like a moan, but if she had a clogged nose or something.

“ADORA!”

Adora woke up, blinking, trying to make out where and when she was. Back at the ship. Door open. Mermista in its frame. So far so good.

“Adora? Pretty sure you noticed the storm last night. You forgot to lock one of the cupboards in the galley and now there is a gigantic mess. Someone needs to clean that up, and since you are the chefs, it’s going to be one of you.” Mermista paused to inhale through the nose, smelling something.

“Gosh, what’s that smell? Did you two fuck?” Her eyes went wide and she lifted her hands in a defensive gesture. “Ok, I’m not the one who should kink shame anybody, but that- “She now pointed at a place above Adora, probably at Catra. “That is not healthy. You need to get that checked, Catra.”

Adora left the bed to look at Catra, and holy – Mermista was right. Catra’s nose really looked bad. As if she got hit in the face. That didn’t explain the statement Mermista made about kink shame, and the simple reason for that was, that Adora didn’t know the word. She planned to look it up later, since Catra probably would laugh at her for not knowing that. Adora took a breather and noticed the smell Mermista was talking about. She checked her pajamas, but the smell didn’t come from her. Catra probably couldn’t smell anything right now because of her busted nose, so asking her wouldn’t help much.

Adora get dressed and left to clean up the galley. Catra didn’t follow her immediately, which gave Adora the opportunity to look up a few words. She was really glad she didn’t ask Catra. Adora wouldn’t call herself a prude, but her … missing experience on that topic often made her get flustered over the smallest things. Why would people … get off to this?

She quickly shook her head to get rid of the thoughts as Catra entered the galley, heading straight to the refrigerator to pull out an icepack. Catra dropped herself on one of the chairs and held the icepack to her nose, groaning the whole time.  Adora looked around to finally get a grasp of the mess that happened overnight. It wasn’t as bad as Mermista depicted it, just a few packs of flour and sugar fell out of a shelf and burst after hitting the floor. She decided to clean it up by herself to give Catra the time with the icepack her nose clearly needed. Time for some forced Smalltalk.

“Catra?”

“Hm?”

“How did you learn to dance like that? Never knew you had it in you.”

“Oh, I’m just a jill of all trades. You liked it?”

Sure did. “Kind of, I guess. Wish I could do that.”

That was usually the point where Catra would jump in and encourage Adora, talking about something Adora could do well, but Catra was just looking out of the porthole.

“Including today, we have 3 days left until we reach Florida. Did you think of anything how we can go on from there? It’s nice of Mermista to pay for cooking, but the tax-free 3000$ won’t help us. Did you ever look up the prices? Amtrak is a scam; the bus lines are a wreck and where do we sleep? I’ll tell you what, I will absolutely refuse to sleep out in the open. It’s October now, and it’s getting cold.”

Adora didn’t answer, Catra’s rambling brought her back to the fact that she didn’t think about it at all. She heard Catra scoff after staying silent for too long. It stung.

How did it come, that Catra did a full 180 compared to yesterday evening? Did Adora do anything to insult her? But now that Adora thought about it, Catra had been frosty from time to time over the last days, without any specific trigger from Adora’s side. What was going on?

Her train of thoughts got interrupted by a part of the crew entering the galley, and the noises of disappointment when Adora told them that there was only cereal for today’s breakfast. Adora hurried to clean up the remaining sugar/flour mix on the floor, to get some free time to look up the best ways to get to the Whispering Woods.

Catra, again, was right. The rail company would’ve charged 500$ per person, the bus network was a bad joke and flights were booked out for the next 3 weeks. It was a disaster. Adora checked some car rental websites, but both Catra and Adora were under 25 years old, so they needed to pay double the regular price. She read the fine print to find some loopholes for this, but got stuck at a different line.

“All foreign renters have to present a valid visa.”

Visa? OH FUCK. I DON’T HAVE ONE.

It was the first time for Adora to make a longer journey with a ship, and also the port of destination not being part of the European Union, but she was sure that usually you have to go through checkpoints before departing. At an airport she would’ve noticed it, because she would’ve been denied entry at the passport control. Maybe Mermista brought them through a side entrance. Adora was about to search for Catra, but something made her stop in her tracks and she went to look for Mermista instead.

Mermista just raised an eyebrow on Adora’s question, just answering ‘waiver’ and ‘google’. Of course, didn’t Adora just think about googling about the US visa for European citizen. The ESTA-program was an easy access visa for citizen of all EU member states and even more, and as Mermista had pointed out, you could apply for it online with no need to visit an embassy or something similar in person. Adora filled out the application and sent it, reading that it may take 72 hours to get an answer. She hoped for a faster reply, and not even 8 hours later, she could print out the acceptance letter.

Finally, the last day on the Dragon’s Daughter. The coast came into view in the morning, but they had to wait outside of the harbor for clearing. Both Catra and Adora were standing on the bridge, watching Seahawk steering the ship into the docks. Adora was fascinated how Seahawk’s personality got switched out the moment he sat down on the chair.

It was a big goodbye. Everyone from the crew came to see them off, telling them how they will miss the food, which reminded Mermista to look for a new chef. Mermista said goodbye too while handing out thick envelopes to Adora and Catra, their wages for the last 14 days. It was even a bit more than they agreed on, she even gave Adora a business card with her contact info, in case they would need something and the Dragon’s Daughter would be around for whatever reason.

Adora and Catra managed to getting away from the crew and left the ship in the early afternoon. They hitched a ride on one of the trucks driving through the harbor and got dropped off at the exit, in front of it the passport control. Adora rummaged through her backpack to find her passport and the printout for the visa, when it came to her that Catra didn’t have one. She panicked, wanted to talk to Catra about it and saw Catra talking to the officer, handing the man her passport and a printout. They talked for a bit and Adora saw the man slam a stamp on the passport. The gates opened and Catra left the harbor.

She knew it! She knew about the ESTA and didn’t tell me.

Adora hurried to the officer and prayed to any higher being that sending the appliance from the ship actually worked and she didn’t get scammed. Same procedure as with Catra, the officer asked her about her stay (Adora said ‘visiting relatives’, which wasn’t really a lie) how long they plan to stay and so on. In the end, Adora’s passport got a stamp too and she was free to exit the harbor.

Catra turned to Adora, spreading out her arms.

“Welcome, Adora! Welcome to the United States of America.”

It was a bit dramatic, but Adora didn’t even see a hint of a smile in Catra’s face. And Adora realized that Catra was right. Just a month ago, they returned from their vacation at Lake Garda to find an evection notice at the door of Adora’s home, no, their home. And now after 2 weeks of cruising across the Atlantic Ocean, with a few ups and down in it, they reached the United States. But they still had a long way ago. The Whispering Woods were still on the other side of the country.

“Now, Adora. What’s our plan?”

Adora dreaded the question, knowing that Catra probably would hate the plan. And it had a major flaw. Catra didn’t know how to drive. She took a deep breath and looked Catra in the eyes.

“We are going to buy a car.”

Catra didn’t yell or anything, she just sighed and dropped her shoulders. She looked disappointed, and it hurt Adora.

“Ok, and where? What? How much do you plan to spend?”

“Down the road are multiple car dealerships, a car, I don’t know.” Adora tried to answer all questions at once. “We for sure will find something there.”

Catra said nothing, she just picked up her backpacks and walked in the direction Adora just pointed. Thank God, Adora actually looked that up the night before, 3 blocks down they found the first dealership. But this one just sold factory-new SUV’s, a look at the price tags showed a number that looked like their budget – if you would triple the budget and add a zero to it.

They had to walk 5 more blocks to find something in their price class. Entering the sales area already showed Adora that this was what she was looking for, but the cars were in a bad state. She didn’t know what she was expecting. One of the salespersons left the building and immediately talked to them. It was a redheaded woman roughly in their age, maybe a little bit older. Wearing a fitting red suit, she shook their hands, revealing blinding white teeth while smiling at Adora.

Adora gave the woman a summary about what they were looking for and what their budget was. The saleswoman immediately guided them to a four-door model, the price was exactly the budget Adora told her. She glanced at Catra and noticed that she already was fed up of all of this.

Adora tried to convince the saleswoman that this was not what she was looking for, but the other cars presented to them didn’t make anything better. Adora noticed at one point that Catra wasn’t with them anymore. She found her a few rows down in front of a Toyota who for sure had seen better days. Catra joined them again, while the saleswoman was still talking about the advantages of having a car compared to the disadvantage of not having a car.

At some point Catra interrupted her, asking about the Toyota she just had inspected. The saleswoman made a dismissive gesture, saying something about that the car ‘isn’t something an attractive young woman would want to have’, while winking at Adora. Catra now wore a smile, but not the cocky grin she usually used, but a You-have-something-I want-and-I’m-going-to-get-it-grin.

“Adora, would you please cover your ears? I want to try something.” Catra was speaking lunarian again, which surprised Adora, but she followed the instruction.

She watched Catra slowly walking around the saleswoman, a bored look on her face, but the redheaded woman froze up and went pale as Catra was talking to her in a probably similar bored sing-song. Catra walked 2 more circles until she stopped in front of the woman, cocking her head and pointing at Adora with a thumb. The woman leaned to the side, a shy smile now on her face, waving at Adora. Adora smiled back, but was trying to figure out what the hell Catra was talking about. She saw the saleswoman shake hands with Catra and handing Catra a business card before returning to the store building.

Catra strolled back to Adora, showing her teeth with a victorious smile. The smile had something predatory, so Adora wasn’t sure what to think of it. Before she could say anything, Catra had more instructions for her as Catra handed her the business card.

“I need you to call this number and when someone picks up, you wave at that window- “Catra pointed behind her. “And say ‘hi’, and then you end the call. Got it? I’ll tell you everything later.”

Adora did as she was told, she had no reason to not trust Catra here. After a few rings, a woman picked up. Adora said ‘hi’, waved at the window and ended the call. A minute later, the woman came back out again, a few papers under her arm. Catra gestured Adora to come closer, sign a few papers and present her passport (Adora noticed that Catra didn’t). Catra handed the woman 500$, got some keys in return and shook the saleswoman’s hand again. Adora followed, but got flustered when the saleswoman said “See you soon, … Adora.”

They put their backpacks in the Toyota, Catra placed herself on the front passenger seat while Adora sat down behind the steering wheel.

“Catra, would you please tell me- “

“Shhhhh, not now. Let’s get out of here first.”

Adora couldn’t believe it. Catra bought a car. Without checking back with her first. What does she think she was doing?

Swallowing down her anger, Adora started the car, put it into drive and left the parking lot. After a few seconds, Catra started to laugh. Loudly. But not happy. Like a movie villain who finally caught the hero. They just drove the street, until Catra told Adora to enter a gas station. Adora had already noticed that they were low on gas, so that was self-explanatory. They both left the car, Catra placed her arms on the car’s roof and watched Adora pumping gas. Adora stared at her, trying an intimidating look.

“Would you please tell me why we have a car now and why I had to call an unknown number?”

“Geez, calm down.” Catra rolled her eyes. “Did you see the woman ogling you? You were totally her type. I just used that to our advantage. Oh, and I may have threatened her to report her to the police for illegal price-fixing agreements.”

“WHAT?”

“Do you read signs? Like, actually read them? Not just realizing what’s written on there, but actually reading them?”

There is it again, that arrogant tone. A I-can’t-believe-you’re-that-dumb voice.

“Can you cut the crap and just tell me?”

“No need to yell, princess. People are already looking.” Catra pointed at an old white man, who was staring at them. Catra made a thinking face. “Or is it, because we are not speaking English and I’m not Caucasian white white.”

“Catra…”

“Ok, chill.” Catra took a deep breath. “When we looked for the dealerships, we passed a few others. I noticed, that a few of them had owners with the same surname. Could be coincidence, but I think ‘Astraia’ isn’t a common name, not even in the US. Since it was only the surname that matched but not the first names, I think they are either siblings, or parents and children. A few weeks ago, I read an article about price fixing in the United States between married or related distilleries and what stir this created.”

Catra made a short pause. “I mean look at this car. No sane person would pay 1500$ for this. The threat itself was a shot in the dark, but her reaction showed that I hit a nerve. Are you really going to say no to a 66% discount?”

Adora couldn’t really believe what she was hearing, but Catra was right about the 1000$ discount. But wait… “Why did I need to call that number.”

Catra was looking everywhere but at Adora now, it was her way to express discomfort. “I may or may not have sold your phone number to the saleswoman to get a coupon for free gas. So, if an unknown number from the US is calling, I wouldn’t pick up.”

Adora torn apart. On one side she had to applaud Catra for her imaginativeness. On the other side, Adora was at 180, what the fuck was Catra thinking, just giving her phone number away. She managed to not scream at her friend, but it was a weight on the ‘Catra did bad’ side of the scale, which looked like it was growing a lot lately.

Adora decided to say nothing for now, she reached for the coupon Catra held out, and went to the booth to pay up.

With a full tank, Adora was ready to hit the road across a country that made up a big part of the continent, but Catra had other plans. She made them stop in front of a shop that read AT&T on the store windows, a telephone service. Again, Adora was angry at herself that she didn’t think of that. Since they left Hamburg, the only reception she had, had been the ship’s WIFI. When she checked it the last time, she could make a call, probably for horrendous fees, but no internet.

They each got a new sim card with an unlimited highspeed data plan. It was pricy, but Adora again had to agree with Catra, that they will need the fast connection, especially since they needed to use their smartphones to navigate through the states. They even bought an USB adapter for the cigarette lighter, since the car was too old to have an USB-port and they needed something to charge their phones on the road.

They left the store and Adora noticed that it already was evening. They decided to eat some of the leftovers they took from the galley on the ‘Dragon’s Daughter’ and finally, Adora started the engine and followed a street called the State Highway 95 direction north. The navigation app told them that the ride from Port Everglades to the Whispering Woods would take them 48 hours, but since Catra had no driver’s license, they couldn’t switch and Adora doubted that she could sit behind the wheel for more than 6 hours straight.

Adora followed the highway for around 4 hours, until they agreed to call it a day and look for a place to stay. Catra googled a bit and found out, that since they were going to sleep in the car, the safest place to stay would be an illuminated parking lot of one of the bigger stores like Walmart or Costco.

They quickly found one, and Adora parked the Car right in the middle of the parking lot. Lucky for them, Florida was still quite warm for this time of the year and they didn’t have to fear freezing to death in the night. They covered the windows, folded back their seats and tried to sleep a bit.

Of course, Adora was the first one to wake up. She stretched and felt a few joints pop back into their rightful place. Smacking her lips, she pulled down the shirt that blocked the driver’s seat window and saw an alligator casually strolling past their car. Adora couldn’t bring up the same disinterest said alligator had for her, but tried to wake up Catra as calmly as possible.

“Catracatracatracatra…”

“Uggghhh…. What?”

“There … there is an alligator.”

“What?”

“There is an alligator right beside me…”

“Why, did you open the door and let him in?”

“What? No! Can you please be more serious about this?”

Catra sat up, barely able to open her eyes. “Adora, we are in Florida, of course there are alligators. I’m surprised we didn’t spot one yesterday. Listen, Florida is made of alligators, swamps and retirement homes. As long as no one points a gun at us for blocking his parking space, we are fine.”

That didn’t calm down Adora at all. “That actually happens?”

“We are in the USA, of course you get shot here. But if you ever get held at gunpoint, just make your famous puppy eyes and they will forfeit all their possessions to you.”

That didn’t help either, but since Adora couldn’t see anyone else on the parking lot, she didn’t make out any other possible dangers.

“I know dental hygiene is important and all, but can we do that at the next rest area at the highway? With possibly no alligators around?”

Another groan from Catra. “If you give me ten minutes, yes.”

Saying this, she turned around to curl up and close her eyes again.

Chapter Text

Catra even got 15 minutes until she got back up again. They removed the clothes covering the windows, and Adora started the car again to drive back onto the highway. They needed another 15 minutes to find Adora’s desired rest area and stopped there to quickly change their clothes, brush their teeth and get rid of the morning hair. This rest area didn’t have showers and it dawned Catra, that it was another thing she didn’t think of. She couldn’t remember a single rest area in Europe that didn’t have showers, but different countries, different customs, even for basic things like this. Maybe they couldn’t avoid to stay a night now and then in a hotel. It had been just one night, but Catra didn’t want to sleep every night in the car, her back already hurt after the first time.

There are so many uncertainties. And Adora either doesn’t see it or doesn’t care.

Catra threw her washbag back into her backpack with more force than necessary, but Adora didn’t react to it, so, whatever. She sat down in the front row of the car, watching Adora doing the same to start the engine and heading for the highway again.

They didn’t talk much, close to nothing for the next hours. Adora tried to start a game about spotting strange license plates or cars, but Catra was in no mood for that. She glanced over to Adora once in a while to watch her lip-syncing the songs from the radio. Usually, it filled Catra with a warm feeling watching Adora doing this, especially because of the wide, overexaggerated movements she did. Of course, it wasn’t smart to do these while sitting behind steering wheel, but this was not the reason why the feeling in Catra’s chest refused to show up.

Catra wasn’t stupid. She noticed Adora being more and more curt to her over the last days. In the 12 years they knew each other, they never had a fight. Not a real one. Of course, fights about pancakes being better with jam or chocolate cream happened, when Catra’s preferred choice was none of them (it was applesauce).

But in all seriousness, Catra felt a storm coming, and she feared, that it was going to get ugly.  

She looked out of the window, and watched trees and occasionally houses pass by. They didn’t see bigger cities since they had left Miami and passed Orlando yesterday already, and at one time Catra saw a sign showing, that the state borders to Georgia weren’t that far anymore. In fact, they passed the borders at noon, and drove a bit farther to find a rest area for their lunch. Adora noticed that their supplies were coming to an end, and some grocery shopping would be in order.

Catra agreed on that, but made the proposition to leave the road a bit earlier in the evening and look for a hostel to get things in order and get a normal bed and shower for once at least.

But for whatever fucking reason, Adora furrowed her brows at that. She didn’t even think that it was necessary to explain her reaction and bring up something more fitting for her tastes, and that nearly made Catra’s blood boil. As vocal as ever, Catra said nothing, curled up on the front seat and turned off the radio, since she couldn’t stand that sappy shit that was running on that frequency up and down only to be interrupted by ridiculously bad advertisement. They drove the next 5 hours in deafening silence, only once interrupted by a toilet break.

Catra’s mind went blank after some time, she woke up after she noticed that Adora left the highway, following a sign to hostel with vacant beds. It wasn’t too far from the highway and luckily, a bigger grocery store was right next it.

Catra felt and heard her stomach rumbling when Adora pulled into the hostel’s parking lot, she was glad that they finally arrived, looking forwards to a normal bed and a shower soon. They left their luggage in the car and entered the hostel to check out the situation first. Catra noticed, that ‘hostel’ probably wouldn’t describe the building right. Even though the building wasn’t anything special from the outside, just like you knew a hostel from the movies. A main building, 3 stories tall, and a second building with the same height, a staircase and a gallery in front of it, probably leading to the rooms.

But when they entered the main building, it was as if you went through a portal that dragged you back to the wild west. It was literally a saloon. Everything made of wood, several small round desks with theme-fitting tables around them, an old piano in the corner and even a horned skull from whatever cattle on the wall.

The receptionist/barkeeper even had sideburns and was smoking a cigar while he was waiting for Adora and Catra to say or do anything. Adora stepped closer to him to ask him for a room, while Catra took a closer look at the framed photographs at the wall. At first, she thought that the black-and-white and sepia-colored pictures were authentic, but if you paid attention to some details, you could see that some things were out of order, like watches, smartphones, plastic bottles. Why would someone put up fake, staged pictures of a fight club of some sort in a somehow wild-west-styled hostel/saloon mix? Something didn’t add up.

Catra’s train of thought got interrupted by a grumpy Adora with keys in her hand.

“They only had vacant beds in the dormitories, but maybe we are lucky and there no one else in this room.”

They had to find out, that of course they weren’t lucky, but there only were 2 other women, Italians as Catra could make out, in the dormitory. Catra and Adora walked back down to the car to get some money and head over to the grocery store to get some supplies. Apparently, there were some hiking trails close to their hostel, the grocery store seemed to be equipped for it. Lots of durable foods, tents, hiking boots and sticks. Even guns. Why would a grocery store sell guns? An itsy-bitsy, tiny part of Catra was tempted to check out the guns, but her ego told her that she could be destructive without any weapons.

They got everything they were looking for, Adora went for a whole box of protein bars for whatever reason, like if she was going to exercise while they were in the States. But whatever, as if Adora was going to listen to Catra right now.

Catra was glad that they found a warm meal the store, since the hostel only provided breakfast, and she was in no mood to cook something. They brought the groceries to the car and went to the main building to sit down at one of the tables. Again, they ate their meal in silence. The only sound came from Catra, after Adora spilled her cup and the sauce went all over her lap. It was just a silent snort, because spilling things was usually Catra would do, but Adora was all about to take it the wrong way. After a murderous stare at Catra, she cleaned up the mess, got up to slam everything in the trashcan at the door and stormed out of the building.

After finishing her meal in peace, Catra went to their dormitory to find a visible angry Adora sitting at her bed. Catra took a deep breath and tried to ignore it, she dug for her pajamas and underwear in her backpack and went for a shower. When she left, she noticed that Adora still wore her stained pants from earlier. Catra made an attempt to ease up the mood, when she made a slight bow and pointed at the shower.

“All yours, princess.”

Bad choice. Adora stood up, face red, nearly hitting the upper bunk bed with her head.

“Can. You. Fucking. STOP THAT?” Catra twitched, and that was not an act, she was actually surprised by Adora’s voice, full of … rage?

“Stop what?”

“Acting like that. Belittling me any time I do or say anything. And don’t dare to act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

Catra was with her back against a wall here, because she actually didn’t know what Adora was talking about. Adora realized that and flipped.

“You can’t be serious.” Adora pinched her nose while taking a deep breath. “For some reason, I have the feeling that you mock me for everything I do. Can you follow me?”

Catra decided to play along for now, because she wanted to know what was going along.

“Ever since we got to leave my house, everything I do is wrong in your eyes. Can you tell me one thing I did that you didn’t cry about?”

That’s what this is about? Ok, let’s dance.

“Honestly. No. I’m the only reason why we are even here, and you know that. When you said you were going to travel to the United States, I expected you to have some kind of plan. But apparently, the only thing you planned was, that you are going to improvise at every possibility. Good job on that. I knew from the beginning that coming here was a bad idea.”

“Good to know. Then why did you even bother coming here?”

“Because I was worried about you and I promised Razz to-“

“Don’t you dare to bring my grandmother into this.”

“SHE WASN’T EVEN YOUR GRANDMOTHER.”

FUCK. Fuckfuckfuck. That was a biiiiiig mistake.

But the damage was done. Adora narrowed her eyes.

“What. Are. You. Talking. About?”

Catra grinded her teeth while thinking about the right things to say, but there weren’t any ‘right’ things to say here.

“Before Razz died, she told me that she wrote a letter to you. She instructed me to give the letter to you when the time is right. Obviously, I had to read it, to know ‘when the right time is’.”

“Oh, and the right time is now? Sure thing. Prove it.”

“What? I can’t proof that. Why would I take that letter with me? It’s in one of the boxes in Spinnerella’s and Netossa’s basements.”

Adora thought about it and shook her head.

“You are lying. You have to. Razz would’ve told me.”

“Listen, Adora. Maybe she just-“

“Shut up. Just … shut up, Catra. Why are you lying about that? That’s low, even for you.”

Catra scoffed, as loud as possible. If Adora wanted to burn the bridge, Catra could at least help by removing the pillars.

“What would I gain from lying to you?”

“I don’t know, maybe you are just envious. About something you never had.”

Catra couldn’t believe what she heard Adora say. “Why would I be envious about you having a grandmother? I literally told you at her funeral what Razz meant to me!”

Adora continued to shake her head, Catra suspected that nothing was reaching her at that point.

“Were you always like this?” Adora voice sound hoarse now. “Is that one of the reason your parents sold you?”

It hurt, but only because Adora said it. Catra was long over the fact, that her parents had given her away, because even if it wasn’t officially documented, Razz had been her parent for a long time, and since Catra had the chance to tell to her before she left, Catra was fine with everything.

“Adora, I don’t know what you are talking about, and I think you don’t know either. But if you want me to play the ‘bad parent’ card, here we go. Remind me about the reason why we are in the United States? Was it because your mother sold everything to a fucking cult and you couldn’t take it? Pretty sure that was it.”

Adora’s breathing got faster and she choked out a ‘I need fresh air’ while literally running from Catra. Catra’s eyes followed Adora leaving, her stomach felt like a gigantic knot. She noticed the two Italian women staring at them.

“Hai un problema con me? Ou due?”

They quickly went back to mind their own business.

But Catra had no clue what to do with Adora. Her best hope was that this had been something Adora needed to get of her chest, but it wasn’t like Catra didn’t pour oil into the fire. She had no intention to follow Adora, she wanted to wait for her to come back to talk about what just happened. Catra climbed up to lay down on her bed. And then she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

At some pointed Catra dozed off, because she neither heard the door open nor the rustling under her bed nor the door closing nor the car on the parking lot.

Catra woke up, sunshine shining through the curtains and realized that she slept through. She got up and checked the bed beneath her for Adora, but it was empty. And it looked freshly made, as if Adora never sat on it. In fact, it was empty, except for the white plastic bag on it. Catra jumped down to the check the bag, and found half of the groceries they bought yesterday in it.

Why half? Wait…

Catra looked around and spotted her big backpack. Why was it here? They left the big ones in the car…. She looked at the lockers and saw that the one that Adora had chosen yesterday was empty.

No fucking way….

Catra left the dormitory and sprinted to the parking lot, scanning the lot for their Toyota. It wasn’t there. Now, panic was rising in her chest, Catra went for the reception only to find out that Adora had checked out at 2am this morning.

Now it was Catra’s turn to get some fresh air. She left the main building and sat down at one of the benches in front of the building. Catra just sat there and stared into nothing. Her breath was slow and steady, but she had to clench her hands to fists, to stop them shaking.

Adora left. She just left. And not just on impulse, she was calm enough to leave my stuff.

Catra breaths got faster und irregular, she had to force herself to think about the breathing exercises Spinnerella had taught her years ago. It usually began with thinking about a place Catra would feel peaceful, but in the past Adora always had been in those places, so that wasn’t helpful at the moment. She managed to remember a dream, in where she stood at the peak of one of the mountains surrounding Half-Moon, gazing down to the city, following the course of the old walls that gave the city its name.

Just remembering home helped.

But it was too soon to think about going there. Catra had not given up yet, she hoped that Adora would return to her. Not that she had much choice but to wait here, since she neither had a car nor could she even drive. She didn’t spot a bus stop either, so Catra had to figure things out.

Unsure about what to do exactly, she decided to stay for 2 more nights. According the woman behind the reception desk, it wasn’t a problem to extend Catra’s stay, she just warned her about a monthly event that took place tomorrow evening. Not that Catra actually gave a shit about it, she wasn’t in the mood for line dancing or whatever the local rednecks were doing in their free time.

Catra then realized that she was an adult and had a fucking phone, so she called Adora, like, 10 times. But every time ‘the user was temporarily not available’, which meant that either Adora had no reception or she had turned off her phone. Catra had her doubts about the last option since Adora always had her phone in reach. But maybe Catra just had to accept the fact that Adora didn’t want to talk to her right now.

But what to do now? Catra was sitting in the middle of nowhere, no city in sight, just a grocery store and a hostel called – Catra squinted her eyes to read the sign for the first time – ‘The Crimson Waste’. Who the fuck names their hostel ‘Crimson Waste’? There was neither a waste nor something crimson around here. A waste of space perhaps, but nothing more.

Again, sitting on the bench in front of the main building, Catra watched cars enter and leave the parking lot, people coming and going, but none of these were either an old, silver Toyota nor a tall blonde with a hair poof in a red jacket. Sitting for hours on an old, wooden bench makes your butt hurt, regardless how well trained your gluteus maximus is. At some point, Catra had to stretch her legs and strolled to the grocery store to go for some cheap Asian-style noodles. The young man behind the counter tried to build up some small talk, but Catra soon made him understand that her urge to leave this place as soon as possible was as big as his, which was about everything in this conversation.

Catra returned to the hostel while stuffing the noodles into her face and choked on them when she spotted a silver Toyota in the parking lot. She made the experience, that having your airpipe clogged while having the heartbeat of a mouse is a awful feeling. The following disappointment hurt even more when she found out that the car, she saw wasn’t the one she was looking for.

For the third time of the day, she sat down on a bench. The left-over noodles were cold now, but Catra wasn’t feeling hungry anymore anyways. The only thing she felt right now, was the hole in her chest. Catra was pretty sure that it hadn’t been there earlier, but the disappointment over spotting the wrong car showed her, that Adora leaving hurt Catra more than she was ready to admit. Between the two of them, even though Catra was the one doing the planning, Adora always had been the voice of reason. Compassion incarnate. And doing her best that everyone in a group had their fair share.

And now she is gone. Just gone. … What am I supposed to do?

Catra didn’t even realize that she bowed down so far, that she placed her forehead on her knees when she felt her eyes getting watery and she started to shiver, but not because of the chill temperature on an evening in October.

Her head yanked back up again, as she heard a car slamming its brakes. She saw a man leaving the car and throw a box to the dumpster that stood next to the parking lot entrance. Next to the dumpster. Not in it. Asshole.

She was about to stand up and throw the box into the dumpster, when she heard a door banging behind her. 2 older men exited the main building and judging from the way they were walking, they were drunk. At 7pm. How fucked up does your life have to be to not only drinking, but being drunk at 7pm on a normal weekday? The situation got even worse, when one of the men spotted Catra.

“Heeeey sweetie. What’s doing a beauty like you here all alone?”

Catra ignored them and turned around to walk to the dumpster.

“Oy bitch. I’m talking to you.” The tone was more aggressive now, his buddy laughed. Catra sighed, turned around and gave him the 5 seconds of attention he was worth.

“What the fuck do you want?”

“Hmm, what about … you.” Catra rolled her eyes. Of course, what else. “What can I do that you accompany me and my friend over here?”

Catra was already feeling shit, and the fat bastard didn’t make it better. She put her index finger on her chin and made a pout to mock a thinking face.

“Let me think. You are drunk, heavily obese, got an IQ of molded bread and the way you look like, your family tree is a circle. I don’t think that you can give me anything that would me even make consider it.”

His friend stopped laughing immediately, as the first man narrowed his eyes. “What did you say?”

Catra groaned, and that wasn’t even an act. “Listen, I would’ve written it down, but I don’t expect you to know how to read. Apparently, your ears are fucked up too, so this whole thing is a waste of time.”

To be fair, Catra intentionally provoked them. Maybe she could’ve avoided the whole situation if she just would’ve ignored them and walked towards the dumpster, but she was too churned up to just let it go.

As expected, they resorted to violence. Or at least, they tried. The first man made a big swing, but it was a motion so slow, Catra dodged it with her hands still in her pockets. She didn’t do anything else, the man lost his balance and stumbled forward, only to fall down face first and make a dent in one of the parked cars, activating its alarm.

The second one tripped over the empty beer bottle the first man had dropped, landing on his back. He stayed on the ground. Out of pure caution, Catra checked their breathing. Both still breathed, so Catra left them there for other people to care for them.  She now headed for the dumpster, finally focusing on her mission to throw the box in it.

Catra picked up the cardboard, but felt the weight inside shift and heard a sound when said weight hit one of the walls. She was quite sure that she wasn’t hallucinating at that point, because it sounded like whatever was in there, was alive. The box wasn’t sealed, easy for her to open it and look inside. And she found – a kitten, greeting her with an indignant mewl.

Frankly, she was perplexed. Who the fuck would dump a kitten in the trash? Many people are doing this, as Catra will find out later. If you have ever done this, fuck you, your parents, and everyone else responsible for your existence.

She held her index finger to the kitten’s snoot, who, after a cautious sniff, began to lick her finger. The rough tongue tickled, Catra wondered about what was so great about her finger that it got that much attention, but she figured that it probably the noodle sauce from earlier. Hoping that the kitten won’t bite, Catra carefully lifted it out of the box. When she tried to place it on one arm, she noticed that the kitten had its difficulties to find its balance. Catra felt that something was off, she moved closer to a street light to find out that the kitten was missing one of its front paws. She couldn’t see blood or anything, the kitten didn’t seem to be in pain either, so maybe it’s a birth defect.

Since Catra knew a lot about cats, but nothing about what it takes to have one, she sat down on one of the benches again, placed the kitten on her lap and stroked its fur while googling a few things. Her face got longer with every entry she read, apparently keeping a cat is a lot of work, but it didn’t scare Catra off. According to Wikipedia, the kitten was around 4-6 weeks old, old enough to be separated from its mother. Catra scoffed.

The asshole did at least something right.

The cute little fellow in her lap began to shiver, which made Catra look around and notice how cold it got. Catra placed the kitten into her hood, hiding it between her clothes and her ponytail, and went to the grocery store for the 4^th or 5^th time this day, hoping to find some food for the kitten. The face of the cashier was the only funny thing that day, when Catra opened a bag of treats and tossed a few into her hood. The hasty chewing in her neck made Catra laugh, but for outsiders it probably looked like she had gone insane. She even thought of cat litter and dug out a carton box for it, but it wasn’t a permanent solution, Catra needed to find something better.

Catra went back to the dormitory to find out that she was finally all alone, the other 2 women apparently also had left today, and no one new had checked in. She placed her new friend onto her bed, changed into her pajamas and climbed up too. It was 1 am now. It made Catra realize two things. 6 hours had passed since she found the kitten, and Adora still didn’t return. In that order. That cat occupied her so much that she pushed her focus off Adora, and Catra felt guilty for that.

As if the cat read Catra’s feelings, it limped up Catra’s chest, struggling a bit. But when it reached the place it wanted, it curled up right on front of her face and laid down its head. The view undid the knot in her chest a bit.

Guess we aren’t alone anymore, buddy

The following day was the strangest day in her journey so far. Catra woke up with a stench in her nose that required a new pajama and an immediate shower. Not that she actually blamed her companion for it, it’s something she should’ve thought of. Like many other things. She went over to the main building to grab her breakfast and when she came back, she prepared something for her furry ward.

They spent most of the time on the outside, on the parking lot or the small balcony, Catra even decided to walk the first bit of the hiking trail she found close to the hostel.

The mission of the day hadn’t changed from the day before. Waiting for Adora to come back. Again, Catra tried to call her, but the user was still temporarily not available. Her head flopped back when she heard the message for the 5^th this day now. A protesting mewl made her had snap forward again, she reached for her hood for a few apologizing scratching.

“What should I do, what should I do?”

Catra wasn’t insane enough, at least for now, to expect an answer, but it felt good to say things out loud, even if a possible answer consisted either a playful nibble on her finger, or an mewl for more pets.

Finding the cat had one big advantage and one small disadvantage. The advantage was preventing spiraling thoughts. It’s been years for Catra to experience something similar to anxiety or panic attacks, but Catra nearly expected something to happen. For now, it didn’t, maybe because Catra still had hope and the cat worked as a cushion.

The disadvantage was literally the same thing as the advantage. The cat was a distraction from more important things, and the fact that Catra thought about it this way showed her, that the cat indeed acted as a cushion from something eating her from the inside out.

Evening came, and with it the cold. Nonetheless Catra went in the fresh air, she found out that she could climb on the roof of the building quite easily. She found a grill area on the roof, probably for social activity in warm summer nights, but there was no one up here. Catra wasn’t surprised. She rarely had seen someone today, and who in their right mind would come up here anyway?

She slowly sat down in one of the chairs on the roof, trying not to disturb the guest in her hood, and pulled out her phone to call Adora again, but still no success. Catra let out a big sigh, and slowly leaned back to stare at the ceiling. Right, no ceiling, she was ON the roof, so Catra just stared in the dark sky. And she saw stars. Lots of stars. More than she ever had seen at once. Was that the milky way? National Geographic often had photos like this in its magazines, but Catra had thought that they were edited. Fascinating… Adora probably would’ve loved this ….

A loud honk threw Catra off, she stood up to look over the low wall to see what’s going on. The parking lot was full. From now to then. Why? Oh right, the event the receptionist was talking about is today. But Catra didn’t hear any music, so apparently it wasn’t line dancing. Her phone still in her hand, she put one foot on the wall to scan the parking lot and the people leaving from the cars. Both genders equally represented, but mainly white folks. No one was dressed up, so no theme party.

“Please don’t jump, this probably won’t even kill you.”

“What the- “. Catra jumped back, but lost her phone in that motion. Before she could leap forward again to catch it, it fell down 3 stories and Catra could even hear it scattering. She twirled around.

“FUCK YOU!”

There was a person standing at the staircase, but since when? Catra didn’t hear anybody. And they even wore stilettos, they were bound to make noise on metal stairs.

“Oh darling, calm down. I just feel obliged to make sure of my guests wellbeing. And someone intending to jump doesn’t really indicate wellbeing.”

“I was not-, Ugh whatever. Who the fuck are you and what do you want?”

“You don’t seem to listen, I just told you. The Crimson Waste is my establishment. And for who I am … the people call me DT, and it would wise for you to do that too.”

Ok, what the fuck is going on here?

“And what I want… Well, I also told you that already. Don’t jump. It scares the guests and I don’t want any police here.” A short chuckle. “Not that they would come anyways, I pay them way too much for them to ignore my orders.”

Did they just admit they are bribing the police?

Catra wasn’t scared, the situation was too absurd for it, but she saw 2 possibilities. Either she was about to get stabbed in the back, or she is going to work for a cartel soon.

DT wasn’t finished yet. They clapped their hands.

“Oh and congratulations to your victory over the two drunkards yesterday. It was a great show to watch you strike them down even without touching them. And for the comedic effect, the only thing you wanted to do was to rescue a stray. Hilarious.”

“Great, you saw 2 idiots knocking out themselves and me picking up a cat. Good job. And now?”

“Oh, just wait for it. I had some spare time, so I watched you. That was easy because you were just hanging around on the parking lot. Lonely much? I know the way you move. The way you walk, the way you stand. You probably don’t even notice, but you are oozing fighting spirit. That piqued my interest. So, I googled your name. No results in English, but thanks for translation programs, no?”

I’m not sure if I like where this is going.

“Now, you have an impressive history if I might say. And I might have a job for you.”

Well, guess I’m working for the mob now.

“I won’t kill anyone for you.”

DT laughed. “Oh, you don’t have to, not if you don’t want to. But I can see that you are distressed and need … some distractions, no?”

Catra didn’t answer, what made DT step closer and finally light fell on them, so Catra could see for the first time who she was talking too. DT wore a black-green suit, probably silk, with a black vest beneath the jacket and a bilious green tie. The whole person gave the impression of a viper, the devilish grin didn’t make it better. The long platinum blond hair was tied to a ponytail and glowed in the light of the lamps on the roof. It for sure was someone Catra would flee from the moment she had the chance to. But a small persistent part of her was curious about what DT had to say.

Catra took a deep breath. “Ok, can you finally tell me what you want?”

DT’s smirk got wider. “Good choice. Follow me.”

Getting straight answers is impossible, huh?

Catra followed them, but made a quick stop in the dormitory to put the cat into her bed, no need for it to witness whatever Catra just signed up for. She followed DT to the main building, but when they opened the door, the room was empty.

Where are the guests? The parking lot is full.

DT laughed; the confusion was apparently quite visible on Catra’s face. They passed the barkeeper and the two older guests on the bar, walking towards the only other guy in the room, guarding a walk-in wardrobe. The man saw DT and immediately opened the doors. Catra’s surprise got even bigger when she saw stairs leading underground in the supposed wardrobe. DT walked downstairs, but Catra hesitated.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to murder you.”

“That’s exactly what someone would say who is about to murder me.”

DT just shrugged and went ahead. Catra pulled herself together and followed them. It was a Deja-vu, Catra experienced something similar when she entered Huntara’s gym the first time all these years ago. When they reached the end of the stairs, a cave opened in front of Catra. Judging from its form, it was man-made. A nearly perfect circle, maybe 60 meters in diameter, something like a bar close to the entrance and another booth next besides it, flanked by 2 guys who had quite some similarities with gorillas.

Huddled up in the middle of the cave, Catra spotted the missing guests, 50 at max. They were all standing in a ring-like formation and were groaning and shouting now and then. Combined with what DT implied earlier, it dawned Catra what happening here.

An underground fight club. Really?

They got closer, and the people scooted to the side the side when DT announced themselves. Catra couldn’t see if it was respect or fear the people felt for DT, but she for sure didn’t like it. She peeked down the pit that opened up in front of her and got her assumption confirmed. A fight club, not in an open are like in the movie, but in a pit with floor made of sand and the wall were massive wood. Catra didn’t see a literal entrance, but spotted a coiled-up rope ladder on the other side of the pit.

There was a fight going on right now, 2 men in usual sportswear punching the shit out of each other. Catra saw at the first glance that probably the only experience they had, was fighting here. It was the same as watching 2 toddlers fight, just with more strength. Her attention got drawn to something shimmering on one man’s fist.

Are these … brass knuckles?

Apparently, DT noticed it and answered Catra’s unasked question.

“No rules here, just the request to not kill your opponent. But that’s optional. And there isn’t a fixed schedule or whatever, just announce that you want a go and hop down. The loser announces the end.”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“Because I can see that under your tough, but brittle, armor, there is something cooking. I don’t know what yet, but you saw how these men fight. Should be child’s play for you. And …” DT guided her to the booth next to the bar. “You can bet on the fights. Obviously, this isn’t some online website, just the people who are in here. Split pot. The sum is split on the winners of the bets, minus some fee I keep for running this whole thing. This is the fun thing for me here. It doesn’t matter who wins, I’m the one who makes the profit.”

Cheering and groaning behind them signaled the end of the fight in the pit, and the winners came to the booth to claim their prize. DT pointed to a man sitting alone on a table.

“This is the next fighter; his record is 3 fights 3 losses. And he has no opponent until now. Want to give it a try?”

The evil smirk appeared on DT’s face again, while Catra was still looking at the man at the table.

I can’t believe, that I’m actually thinking about that. This is madness. But this guy looks like Ron Weasley ordered on Wish. This should really be child’s play.

She thought about it for a minute, then turned to DT. “Fine, I’ll do it. But I need 10 minutes.”

“Great.” DT clapped their hands. “Everyone, listen up. The next fight is set. Number 1 is Mr. Sunshine over there, and Number 2 is Kitten here. The bell rings in 15 minutes, place your bets everyone.”

Catra felt everyone looking at her, and for some reason her chest got tight. Why? This isn’t something she hadn’t done before. She closed her eyes to find a place of peace for the moment and thought of the kitten waiting for her in her bed. That was enough for now. When she opened her eyes again, her opponent was standing right in front of her. He looked … angry.

“I know I’m not the best one, but this is an insult. Don’t expect me to go easy on you just because you are a girl.”

Catra just rolled her eyes and turned around to place the 100$ she found in the pocket of her sweatpants on herself. What she could make out from the conversation around her, no one placed a bet on her.

Whatever, more for myself.

The only problem here was her equipment. She had none. No gloves, only her boots, sweatpants and the hoodie. She never fought on sand before either. Catra decided to only leave her leather jacket at the booth, and tried to warm up a bit without showing off too much.

Before she hopped into the pit, DT joined her again.

“Give your best, got a lot of money riding on that.”

Catra groaned and climbed into the pit using the rope ladder. When she sat foot onto the sand, she noticed the murmuring of the spectators growing again, laughter here and there.

“This gotta be a joke.”

“Whatever, a safe bet.”

“Hey, ginger, don’t fuck up this up.”

“Oh, come on, she is a girl. Give her a free hit.”

“Trueeee, give her a freebie.”

For some reason, more and more joined the chants. DT was one of them.

“Don’t forget, no rules, Kitten.”

Her opponent got drawn into doing something stupid by the spectators, he just stood there, wide open.

“Go on, one free hit.”

This can’t be true … Idiots, all of them.

Catra sighed as she walked closer, trying to shoot a sheepish smile. Her opponent fell for it, and smiled back as Catra took a swing and kicked him in the balls. The men in the audience whined in unison, and again, when Catra kicked the now floored man for a second time.

“No rules, bitch. You done?”

Her opponent, curled up in the sand, nodded and managed to whimper a “Yes”. His voice was at least an octave higher than earlier, but Catra couldn’t care less. She turned around to stare at DT, throwing her arms in the air to signal a ‘What now?’, but just DT made a smug face and signaled someone to throw down the rope ladder again. She climbed up, feeling the stares of the audience in her back.

“What’s their problem?” Catra asked DT. “No rules, right?”

DT snickered. “All good, we rarely have female fighters and up to now no one ever thought of that. Or didn’t want to do it, whatever. Maybe some kind of codex? ‘Never kick someone in the groin’ sounds kind of stupid, but the people coming here aren’t the smartest either, so maybe that’s the reason. Anyway!” They clapped their hands. “I know a wonderful partnership when I see one. How about … you stay for a few days? There something coming up not far from here, and I would be absolutely delighted if you would accompany me there.”

“Do I have a choice?”

“But of course. You can leave whenever you want. You can have one of the single bedrooms, you even can bring the cat! You can even tell the cook what you want to eat. And everything for free.”

Catra didn’t believe a word, at least not the part with ‘leaving whenever she wants’. The moment Adora came back, she was out of here. But for now, she was in.

“Deal.”

“Great choice. You can go up, If you want, and tell Michelle to prepare a room for you. See ya tomorrow.”

They dismissed Catra with a wave, and she definitely wasn’t fleeing from the cave. Catra found the receptionist called Michelle and told her what to do. Not moving at first, Michelle hurried up when Catra dropped DT’s name. She snickered, watching the older woman stumble up the stairs, and then made her way back to the dormitory to get her stuff. The cat was asleep on the bed and also didn’t wake up when Catra picked up her backpacks and moved them to her new room. She came back to pick up the cat and got a protesting hiss when Catra woke it up, but a few pats calmed it down again.

Catra entered the room with the cat in her arms, placing it on the bed and hopped into the shower first before going to sleep. Not that she was tired, but having a purring, sleeping cat lying right next to you can have some hypnotic effects.

What mess did I get myself into here?

The following day began for Catra at 1pm, the only reason for that was a deafening meowing in her ears. The little fleabag was hungry and demanded Catra’s attention. ‘Fleabag’ was a metaphor here, Catra didn’t actually know if the cat had fleas and figured it probably was time to visit a vet. That’s something she probably could pester DT about.

Catra went downstairs. Arriving at the ground floor, she could see a gigantic caravan leaving the parking lot.

Who the fuck drives abominations like this?

To her surprise, she found DT behind the reception counter, looking … spooked? Scared? Shook? Catra couldn’t put her finger on it. It’s not like Catra actually knew DT, but given their attitude they presented yesterday, Catra couldn’t imagine that there were many things in this world that could rattle them.

“What’s … wrong?”

DT’s eyes snapped to her, being the same person again, they were yesterday. “Oh, hey Kitten. Finally awake.”

Catra hated the nickname already, but it wasn’t worth the hassle to correct DT and they probably would ignore it anyways.

“Nothing, nothing. Nothing to worry about. Just some pensioners asking for the way. Couldn’t think about buying a GPS, I guess.”

That sounded believable. Only pensioners would sleep in a bed with half a meter distance to the toilet.

Catra asked DT about a vet. She was lucky, one of his staff members (underlings?) was about to leave for the next town and Catra could accompany them.

“Oh, by the way.” DT reached under the counter to pull out a thick envelope. “You forgot that yesterday. That’s your cut. I heard that vets are expensive.”

Catra placed the cat on her shoulder to open the envelope and it pressed all the air out of her lungs. It was a shit ton of money.

“How much is this?”

“Hm, around 5k. No one believed in you. Except me, of course.” The smirk was back in DT’s face. “Yesterday was a great evening. And now shoo, before you miss your ride.”

Catra hurried outside, careful to not drop the kitten off her shoulders, but nearly slipped when she stepped on something smooth. She looked on the floor to see … her phone.

Fuck, why did I forget about that? Where is the rest of it?

She looked around and found at least the part where the sim cards and the SD card were attached to. All 3 looked undamaged, but Catra was no expert on that topic. She knew enough to see that the phone itself was something for the dumpster. But Catra was sure that she could buy a new one in the town she was heading for. It wasn’t like money would be the problem now.

The visit at the vet was a relief. The cat was healthy, except for the missing limp, but the vet agreed on Catra’s hypothesis that it’s a birth defect and not an injury. No fleas or anything like that, but the cat got some shots the vet recommended. Who was she to refuse that?

The unfun part was, that this goddamn bum ass joke of a town didn’t have an electronics store.

Land of progress my ass. Why do I have to drive 2 hours to get a fucking phone?

Of course, the grocery store next to the Crimson Waste didn’t sell phones either. Catra would’ve accepted a bunker buster like the Nokia 3310 at this point, but everyone just knew how to disappoint her.

Back at the Crimson Waste, Catra had to play the waiting game again. Waiting for Adora.

And she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

But even after 4 days since her disappearance, Adora didn’t return.

And Catra let go of the last bit of hope she still had until this point.

Chapter Text

The night, in which Adora left

Adora was running on autopilot. Since how long was she on the road again? Adora’s dry eyes shifted to the clock on the dashboard. 4.32am. Since about 2 and a half hours. 2 and a half hours since she had left Catra. Adora couldn’t believe she actually had done this. She left Catra. And what now?

The Whispering Woods. The only reason why they – why she – did come to the United States anyways. To find her mother. And get her answers.

Catra didn’t believe in this? Then Adora won’t need her. She even had asked her if she wanted to accompany her and Catra said yes. Adora just couldn’t wrap her head around the sudden swing of opinion.

Razz wasn’t even your grandmother.

Catra’s voice echoed in her head. Why did she say this? Catra had no reason to, and yet she had said it. Adora didn’t believe it. Of course, it’s a lie. Catra even made something up about a letter. What a bullshit. Even if it was true and there was such a letter…

Why would…

Razz…

Give it to…

Catra and…

Not … her….

A blaring siren shook Adora and woke her up again. Oh fuck, she nearly had an accident. And just because … of … Catra and … not … because….

Adora pinched herself in her arm to stay awake but it didn’t work. She was long over the edge and she needed to get off the road as soon as possible. A sign passed her, saying the next rest area was 30 miles away, but that was too far. Adora just slowed down and parked the car offside the road in the field right next to it.

There were barely any cars passing her, not surprising for this time of the night, but it will change soon when the rush-hour starts. Adora double-checked if she was blocking anything, locked the car from the inside and was gone in a matter of seconds.

She didn’t get much sleep; a noise woke her up, but it wasn’t the traffic. Adora rubbed her eyes, groaning, because her head felt like it was made of needles. The situation got even worse when she read the word ‘police’ on the car that parked in front of her, and the noise came from one of the police officers knocking on a window.

Adora wasn’t really awake when she rolled down the window and tried to smile at the officer, but she gave her best to not look as shit as she felt.

“Good morning, Miss. Are you alright? We got a call that there is a car standing offside the road and came to check this out.”

Adora nodded and tried to craft a sentence in English that would not make her look like a drunk. Or worse, an idiot.

Apparently, it didn’t work, since they still wanted to check Adora’s papers. As one officer talked into the radio and the other stared into her phone, Adora used the time to look for something that contained any form of caffeine, but she only found disappointment in her backpack. She left everything with caffeine in the Crimson Waste.

The officers returned to hand back the ID and the driver’s license, and apologized for the wait since they had to look up first if Half-Moon wasn’t made up. They wished her a nice day and left. Adora just sat there, dumbfounded. She shook her head to get back to reality and regretted it immediately, since it still hurt for some reason. Probably dehydration, so she emptied one of the water bottles, but she still felt miserable. The only difference was the gurgling of her stomach.

The protein bars didn’t change anything either, but Adora needed to get back on the road to at least make it to the next rest area since she just got 4 hours of sleep and she already felt her eyes getting heavier. She managed to reach the rest area without any further ado and again, she fell asleep as soon as she parked the car.

It was nearly evening when Adora woke up again. Her headache was gone, but she figured that her sleep cycle was in shambles now. For the first time since she left the hostel, Adora checked her phone, but except for some junk mail there were no notifications. Not a single message or call from Catra. Adora didn’t know what she was expecting, but she still was disappointed.

I will not be the one to call first. She is the one who has to apologize.

Adora tried to sound determined, but she couldn’t even convince herself. A little, quiet voice in her head told her to turn around and talk to Catra, but Adora was strong enough to ignore that, at least for now. She checked her phone’s battery, 79%, that’s enough. Adora turned the GPS on her phone back on, and after a meal that would even the Spartans would describe as scarce, she started the car and accelerated to follow the highway again.

Adora had no eyes for the state Tennessee, she had crossed the state border a while ago, now heading towards a city called Nashville. Thank God there wasn’t much traffic now, rush-hour was over. Adora had to sneeze once after smelling something irritating. During the sneeze, Adora’s phone went black. Adora stared, her focus jumping between the phone and the road. Without aim, she tapped on her phone to get it back online, but nothing happened. She even sneezed again, hoping for a miracle, but the phone stayed silent.

Adora couldn’t even find the charger right now, she had to find an exit or something similar to turn the phone back on, but the phone was only the first part in a sequence of things going downhill. A series of sneezes nearly made her crash into the guardrail, and she slowed down a bit until she had herself under control again. But suddenly she had to cough, her eyes got watery and the vision darkened. Adora blinked fast to get rid of the tears, she realized that there was black smoke coming from under the hood.

Adora hit the brakes, she forgot the check the mirrors while doing that but luckily no one was behind her. She steered the car to the guard rail, turned off the engine and grabbed her jacket to dive out of the car and get some distance.

The tank had barely gas left, so if this thing would blow up, it probably wouldn’t do that much damage, but it stood next to a highway, that wasn’t a good thing in any way. Even in 20 Meters distance, Adora could hear the sizzling. How could she not have heard this when she sat in the car? She waited for about an hour until she was brave enough to get closer to the car again. It was dark now and freezing. It showed that she wasn’t in Florida anymore, and Adora figured that the only reason she didn’t freeze to death this night, was the remaining warmth from the heater. She grabbed her phone to call for help and nearly threw it into the bushes when she remembered that it had died on her.

In a matter of minutes, everything had fallen apart. She was in the middle of nowhere, no car, no phone, it was freaking cold and …

Catra wasn’t here.

Adora was all alone.

Alone on a motherfucking highway. Why is it called a highway, if there is nobody using it?

Adora screamed out her frustration and in the affect, she kicked the car. A decision she immediately regretted since metal tends to not give in to boots. While hopping around on one leg, holding the other foot, she heard cars coming closer. Adora limped to the other side of the car and waved at the incoming traffic, but they just ignored her. The reflectors on both her jacket as on the car should make it impossible to overlook her, but the cars just passed her. No one even slowed down a bit.

Adora was on the verge of tears. She had to figure out something quickly, but she had no idea where she even was. At the horizon, she could see the lights of Nashville illuminating the clouds above the city, but the last sign she saw said, that the city was at least 30 miles away. Not even on a sunny day Adora would’ve walked this distance.

The wind turned and got stronger, forcing Adora to get her beanie and her scarf from the car. She imagined to hear something howling in the distance, she looked around to look for its origin, but it was still fucking dark. Adora cursed her situation and then herself. She opened the front door of the car again, hoping that it’s warmer on the inside, when she spotted a faint light across the field. It was flickering and of an orange color. Fire maybe?

Fire meant people, and Adora was looking for people.

Blessing in disguise, the sky cleared up a bit and the moon revealed the surroundings at least a bit. Adora now could discern the field in front of her, slowly turning into a small forest. The light apparently came from within the forest.

She thought about what to take with her and decided to leave everything in the car except the smaller backpack containing all the important documents. Adora even wrote a note and put it behind the windshield, explaining the situation and promising to return soon.

She braced herself and slowly walked over the field with careful steps. Running on a field can already be dangerous in broad daylight, but if she would sprain her ankle and fall down in a hole, Adora figured that she would be done for. It took her longer than she expected, nearly half an hour, but when she came closer, she smelt the burning wood – and she heard voices.

Thank God, now let’s just hope there is someone that can help me

It was a campfire with 2 people, 1 male and 1 female, judging from the voices, sitting on logs close to it while roasting something above the open fire.

Adora now had a problem. How was she supposed to approach 2 people who had their back turned to her, while sneaking up on them at 10pm in a forest. She peaked around the small house that placed beside the small path to get a closer look on the two.

The woman had short pink hair, wearing a coat in a similar color and white pants. The man she was snuggled into, had dark skin and even darker hair, and wore wide, white coat.

Adora made a step back again to think about the approach again, but she stepped on a branch on the ground, which scattered with a loud crack.

Please, please tell me they didn’t hear that.

“Did you hear that?”. The woman’s voice sounded shrill.

Fuck.

“No, what?”

“I’m pretty sure that I heard something. Hello? Is there someone?”

“Calm down. It probably just was the wind or something.”

“Just the wind? You heard the howling earlier, and that was for sure not the fucking wind.”

Adora, still hiding behind the metal house, decided to reveal herself. “Uhm, actually I am here.”

The couple screamed, and Adora couldn’t prevent herself to jump too. She heard the sound of fabric rubbing over fabric, then the woman’s voice sound again, now dripping with confidence.

“Come out, hands up. I have to warn you, I’m armed.”

“Glim, that’s your Swiss Army Knife, no one is scared of that.”

“Hush, you are ruining everything. BITCH, COME OUT, I’LL CUT YOU.”

“Hush yourself, they will see anyways.”

They traded a few hushes back and forth until Adora lost her patience.

“I’m coming out, hands up.”

Adora stepped forward, hands raised as promised, now facing the couple for the first time. The woman even wore a pink hoodie, and for whatever fucking reason, the man wore a crop top. How could he not be cold in these temperatures? He actually had said the truth, the woman pointed a Swiss Army Knife at Adora. If that was the most dangerous thing they had, Adora probably was safe with them.

“Who are you and what do you want?”

Adora introduced herself and gave a short summary about what happened in the last hour. The nightmare in pink didn’t look like she believed an ounce of what Adora just told her, but a soft smile appeared on her partner’s face.

“I’m Kyle Reccula, but everyone calls me Bow, don’t ask for the reason, this is a longer story. This- “He pointed at the woman next to him. “Is my girlfriend Glimmer.”

Glimmer sucked in air sharply when she heard her name. “Could you please stop giving out information about us to random people?”

“Oh, come on, she told us her name and all. It would be rude to not return that.”

“This is exactly what my mother warned us about!”

“This would be literally the first time since I met you that you listen to anything your mother said.”

Glimmer just groaned in response, and even if the situation didn’t call for that, Adora let out a snort, which brought Bow’s attention back to Adora.

“You don’t sound like English is your first language. Where are you from?”

“Half-Moon.”

Bow looked surprised. “It’s been a while I’ve been there. I’m French, by the way, I grew up in Lyon. Glimmer is from London.”

Bow asked Adora a bit about Half-Moon, it was a pleasant surprise since Half-Moon wasn’t that big and if you are a tourist, you could probably check out every important location in one day. She winced when he asked about the reason she was in the US, but quickly told her why the both of them were here. Bow was about to start mechanical engineering at Seattle University and Glimmer apparently went for a medical degree at the same university. Now they are travelling the USA together, to get to know the country they will spend the minimum 4 years in. Adora found it a major flaw doing it while winter was coming, but considering her own situation she probably should keep that to herself.

“Now, you came to look for help, right? How can we help you?”

Adora explained the situation while waving her dead phone around, gesticulating towards the highway where her similar dead car was parked.

“I mean you can make a call using my phone, but honestly, I doubt that anyone will come before tomorrow morning. Do you have a place to stay?”

Adora shook her head, but added that her plan was to sleep in her wrecked car. Bow immediately shook his head, and invited her to sleep in their car. She heard a gasp from Glimmer who started to pester Bow that he should stop being too nice to people he didn’t know.

“Glimmer, where is the problem? We have 2 beds left and not even 3 hours ago you complained about the car being too big for just 2 people. And it’s not like Adora is going to stay for longer span of time.”

Adora felt uncomfortable about sleeping in a car with 2 strangers. She wanted to refuse the offer, pointing out that she didn’t want to steal space, but Glimmer intervened.

“You don’t, don’t worry. Bow is right, I actually complained about it. But my mom said we should take it because we would save on rent and whatever. You can have one of the remaining beds.”

Glimmer pointed at Adora’s right, while she was adding wood to the campfire and while Adora was still wondering what kind of car can fit 4 beds in it, she turned her head to see that it wasn’t a house she was standing next to the whole time, it was a caravan. A literal house on wheels. That wasn’t even an exaggeration. This thing was gigantic.

Adora hid her hands under her armpits to warm them up, it got cold enough to see her own breath as a cloud now. Glimmer noticed it and rolled her eyes.

“Listen, … Adora, right? There is a literal campfire in front of you, if you are cold, get closer. I think that we are past the point where we think that you are going to rob us.”

Adora scoffed. “How am I supposed to get past you, when you have your knife?”

She said it with a low voice, but Glimmer heard it, judging from the small smile appearing on her face. Bow returned and asked if Adora needed anything from her car, but she already had everything with her. She just hoped that the car would still be there on the next day.

Adora watched Glimmer putting some sausages and tofu on the small grill hanging over the fire. Glimmer also noticed that and asked Adora if she wanted something. The blonde refused, saying that she already had eaten, but in truth she didn’t want to overdo it. The couple already has been quite generous to her, allowing her to stay the night and offering help at all. Her stomach gave the lie away, rumbling quite loud when Adora smelled the sausages.

“Holy fuck, do you always lie that much? If you want something, say something. It’s not like we would eat that and force you to watch!”

Adora mumbled something about courtesy, but Glimmer handed her half of everything. If Glimmer expected Adora to take something of the plate and hand back the rest, it showed, that Glimmer didn’t know Adora. Adora just ate the whole serving. Glimmer checked the box to make sure that she didn’t misread the instructions, because she was sure, that it said ‘serving for 6’. And Adora just ate half of it in not even 5 minutes.

Bow brought some wine from the caravan and offered Adora some, but she wasn’t in the mood for it. Even though the fire went out already, the 3 of them sat around the pit and watched the ember glow. Glimmer broke the silence, asking Adora why she was in the US, so far from home, since she dodged Bow’s question earlier.

Adora figured that it would be unfair to say nothing at all, considering what Glimmer and Bow did for her and were going to do.

So, she told them a story about her, Razz and Mara and how she lost Mara’s house. And about a friend, who was willing about to help her finding Mara. Bow and Glimmer stayed silent the whole time, but when Adora finished, Bow asked the unavoidable question Adora was dreading.

“Where is your friend?”

“We … had a fight. … She said some really mean things … and I just couldn’t take it. I left. I took the car and just left.” Adora hid her face behind her hand, out of embarrassment and shame. “Without saying anything.”

Bow and Glimmer shot each other a look.

“I left the room, just to get away from her, and sat on the outside for hours. But she didn’t even come once to say anything. At one point I went back and she just went to bed. As if nothing would’ve happened. I was just so done.” Adora nearly started crying. “So, I grabbed my stuff and left. I just drove through the night. At some point I nearly had an accident because I dozed off and I needed to take a break. I got woken up by the police, went back on the road again, my phone died, my car died and now I’m here.”

Adora talked faster and faster, trying to distract herself from the lump forming in her throat. Before Adora could start to blabber an excuse about why she thought she was in the right and Catra wasn’t, Bow raised his hand.

“You don’t need to tell us everything, if you don’t want to. And you don’t have to justify yourself for anything, we won’t judge you.” Glimmer nodded in agreement. “You came to us seeking help, and we will help you. Don’t worry about that.”

Adora nodded slowly, somehow glad about this, but on the other side she felt the need to tell it to somebody. Usually, she would go to Catra for things like this, but Catra wasn’t there and she was part of the problem. Adora probably tested the patience of her hosts enough for this evening, so she decided to shut up and keep the rest of the story for herself.

Glimmer started to yawn, and since they had emptied their glasses and the ember nearly lost its glow, it was time for bed. Bow gestured Adora to step into the caravan, and when he switched on the light, Adora thought she was dreaming. Calling this house would not only describe the outside, but also the interior. Bathroom with shower, table for 4, kitchen unit including sink and cupboards. If it weren’t for the front seats, the steering wheel and the dashboard, it would’ve been – well - a house. Before Adora could asked, how much this thing did cost, Glimmer waved her hand to stop.

“Yes whatever, my parents are rich, big deal. Lookie here, 2 beds for 2 people each. Bow and me were sleeping in the lower one all the time, so you get to take the upper bed. Good night, sleep tight and whatever.”

Adora looked over to Bow, surprised about the sudden mood swing, but he just shrugged.

“She gets cranky when she is tired. You should see here when she is drunk. Now that’s a different level of entertainment.”

Before Adora could ask about that, Glimmer stepped out of the bathroom, wearing her pajamas, and climbed in her bed. Bow followed her soon, and Adora climbed up to her bed too. While just laying there, she thought about something important she forgot to ask the other two, but she dozed off before she could remember it.

Adora woke up as first, as always. She now had two choices. Staying in bed to wait until Glimmer and Bow woke up, or make herself useful, even if she just had to find out in what way. Adora left the bed and put on the clothes from yesterday, since she forgot to pack some new ones, she didn’t expect to sleep somewhere else. She turned around, scanning the caravan. It was clean, so Adora couldn’t tidy up anything, there weren’t any pets she could play with either. Again, her own stomach reminded her of a thing she was good at.

When Glimmer left their bed, she could watch Adora slicing and dicing things she found in the fridge. Glimmer’s cough made Adora jump, she didn’t hear her over the sizzling coming from the pans.

“What are you doing?”

Adora wasn’t sure if that was a trick question, because she thought that it was quite obvious in her eyes.

“Cooking?”

“No shit, sherlock. I can see that. But why and what.”

“Uh, I wanted to make myself useful and omelets. Since I found vegan stuff and only plant-based margarine in the fridge, I figured that one of you lives a vegan lifestyle, so I fried some tofu too.”

 That earned her a surprised look from Glimmer. Bow, who now has emerged from the bedding, didn’t ask any questions at all, grabbed some plates and began to set the table. If Adora had to guess, Bow probably liked her more than Glimmer did. But that quickly changed when Glimmer ate her serving and asked Bow in whispers, if they could keep Adora.

Hearing that brought a genuine smile on Adora’s face, the first one in what felt like ages. It was a nice feeling getting appreciated. It would be a lie to say that Catra never had said something like that. But it felt different hearing someone else say it. Even it was only because of her cooking.

Adora shook her head to get rid of these thoughts. Why does every good one come in pairs with a bad thought?

Glimmer saved her from spiraling when she asked her, what she was planning to about her car. Adora’s plan originally was to call a tow truck and bring the car to the next garage, but Bow interrupted her and called it a bad idea. Since nearly everything was privatized in the States, service providers often charged fees in the triples or quadruples compared to the ones back home. It would be smarter and cheaper to do it yourself.

Adora didn’t know what he was talking about, until she realized that she was literally standing in a car that probably could do this. She appreciated getting help, but don’t have they better things to do? Glimmer and Bow both shook their heads, when Adora asked them this.

“The only plan we have needs us to be at my aunt’s spa in 2 days. Until then, we can do what we want.”

Adora didn’t know what to say. Why were these two so generous to someone they barely knew? In the meanwhile, Bow called a few garages to ask if they got time to look at Adora’s car. Only at the 5^th try, he found someone who agreed. But the garage was an hour away, under normal circumstances. The caravan was probably slower anyways, and with a car in tow it would probably be even slower. Adora looked at her watch and suspected that they won’t be at the garage before noon. With the inspection and the repair itself, she probably couldn’t hit the road before evening, meaning that Adora probably should think about how she could manage the cold at night.

After helping Bow and Glimmer to clean up the fireplace, she placed herself on one of the front seats of the caravan and tried to navigate Bow to the place where she left her car. At first, she was relieved when she saw that the car was still there where she left it, but when they found an opportunity to turn around and get on the right side of the road, she saw she smashed-in windows. And not only that, her backpack with all her clothes in it was ripped open, the clothes spread out all over the car seats.

Adora let her head slump against one of the intact windows in desperation. The damage around one of the backrow doorknobs showed, that this wasn’t a case of coyotes feeling the need of getting a second winter coat. Just some assholes decided, that he needed to damage an already broken car and ruffle through someone’s underwear. She felt a sympathizing pat on her shoulder, Glimmer, as they looked at the mess in front of them.

Bow grabbed the rope to tow the car to the backside of the caravan, while Adora and Glimmer collected Adora’s clothes. She wasn’t sure, but Adora felt like one of her sport bras was missing. The used one. It sent a shudder down her spine; she wasn’t keen on thinking about why someone would steal a woman’s used underwear.

Bow and Glimmer sat down in the caravan again, Adora sat down behind her car’s steering wheel, feeling the light tug when Bow slowly accelerated. It felt like an eternity until they reached the garage, Adora didn’t want to take the risk to turn on radio, fearing a possible explosion.

They were greeted by a younger man, introducing himself as Gale, the same man that talked to Bow on the phone. He promised them to hurry up, but told them to expect 2 hours waiting. He gave them directions to a diner close to the place, so they decided to go there for a longer break and get something to eat. Adora snatched the tab right out of the waiter’s hand to make sure that she would give back at least something. After nearly 2 hours, Bow’s phone rang. He picked up and murmured a few affirmative words. Bow ended the call and looked at Adora.

“It was the mechanic. He is done, but it didn’t sound good. He said, he tried to call you, but he couldn’t reach you.”

Adora called herself an idiot. Her phone was still dead and she couldn’t find her charger. That should’ve been her top priority, but she got ’distracted’ by Glimmer and Bow. Not that she actually blamed them, it was her own fault.

They went back to the garage. The mechanic was waiting for them, Adora’s car still dismantled on the hydraulic lift. The man had distressing news for her. He summed it up with ‘It’s trash’. But he walked her through every damaged part of the engine, showing her how the individual parts should look like, and how they actually looked in the car. Even with no knowledge about cars, Adora could see how fucked up it was.

“How much for the repair?”

“Around 4 grand. And I don’t even have some of the spare parts. To be honest I don’t even know if some of these are still made, this car is already 25 years old.” Adora nearly didn’t believe her ears. Sure, the car looked old, but not that old, right? But maybe that was the reason, why it still had a tape deck. “Even if I find the parts, it can take weeks to get them. Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend it, it’s just not worth it. The only thing I can do, is to give you 100$ for it. I’m sure I will get a few parts out of it to use them as spares, but that’s it.”

Adora thanked him for the summary and told him that she needed a moment to think about it. She turned to Glimmer and Bow, who were standing a bit offside now, heads together to discuss something. They apparently heard Adora walking on the gravel, because they turned around when she got closer. Bow was about to ask something, but Adora’s face spoke volumes. She told them what she just heard, and asked them if they could give her a ride to the next train station.

Both Glimmer and Bow had visible confusion on their face until they made the connection between Adora and the train station.

“Listen.” Glimmer stepped closer. “A few bad things happened to you in a short time, and you are clearly not in the condition to be left alone right now. Are you in such a hurry to reach the Whispering Woods?”

Not that it actually matters… “No, not anymore.”

“Great. As you know, in the end our destination is Seattle. That’s not that far from the Whispering Woods. Now, Bow and I talked about it and agreed to ask you, if you want to accompany us. Our plan is 3 weeks, but if we don’t find anything interesting, we will go to Seattle sooner. How about it?”

For the second time in 15 minutes, Adora wasn’t sure if she heard right.

“Why would you offer me this? What do you gain from this?”

Now Glimmer looked offended. “What we gain? Well at first, we lose nothing. Except maybe the content of our fridge if you eat that much every meal. What we gain? Except the warm feeling in our chest that we helped a damsel in distress, also nothing, really. But it’s not like we are making a detour for you. You are following us, not the other way around. And if you do the cooking, we are more than even. Noodles every second day is disgusting over a longer span of time.”

Adora said nothing and threw herself around Glimmer’s neck. That made Glimmer stumble back, both in surprise and unable to sustain Adora’s additional weight. Adora just managed to whisper a hoarse ‘Thank you’.

“Yeah, no problem at all, but could you- “

“WOOOOHH, GROUP HUG.” Bow joined them.

“NO! BOW! STOP! You … are making it … worse.”

Glimmer sounded like she ran out of air. She did, Adora may have overdone it with her ‘Thank you’-hug. She let go of Glimmer when she heard something metallic hit the floor behind her, which reminded her of the mechanic, who was still waiting for Adora’s response. Slightly embarrassed she told him that she will take the 100$, and half an hour later, she had sold her first own car that she didn’t even own for a whole week.

Bow and Glimmer helped to clear the car, looking in every spot if there was something that was Adora’s. Neither her sport bra nor her charger made an appearance. Adora didn’t care about the bra, but for fucks sake, she needed a charger since neither Glimmer’s nor Bow’s fit.

After a short stop at an electronics store, Adora sat down at the table in the caravan and watched the phone charging. Once again, she was uncertain what to expect, but a now very big part of was hoping that Catra tried to reach out to her.

Adora sat down next to Glimmer in the front row again, while she set a place called ‘Mystacore’ as destination and Bow started the caravan to head for the highway again. Glimmer told her, that if they drove for a longer period of time, they usually stopped around 6pm to look for a comfy spot and prepare dinner, which now kind of was Adora’s job. Not that she minded, but she had to look up a few things about vegan meals before starting, and that was another reason why she needed her goddamn phone.

Something buzzing behind her made her literally jump of her seat, nearly chocking herself on the seatbelt. After now carefully unbuckling herself, she walked in the back and grabbed her phone, her heartrate rising when she spotted the symbol for new notifications. For some reason her hand started shaking so much she needed 3 tries to draw the right pattern to unlock her phone.

Adora dropped her head on the table, the sound was loud enough to make Bow ask, if everything was alright. She lifted her head again to read the message aloud, frustration in voice.

“Dear User, AT&T thanks you for your choice and welcomes you blablabla. Why do I get that now, I bought that 4 days ago?”

“Nothing else?”

Adora shook her head. “No, just this.” Why did I hope for anything else?

Glimmer turned around at her seat. “Did you wait for something?”

“I somehow waited for Catra to call me, but I didn’t expect her to it. So, I’m only half-disappointed, I guess.”

“Who is Catra? Oh, your friend!” Glimmer voice turned into a whisper. “I’m sorry.”

Adora leaned back and took a deep breath. “What for? It’s not like you possibly fucked up the whole thing, no?”

Glimmer just shrugged. Of course, she didn’t. At this point, Adora had tried to avoid the true story that much that she actually forgot what bits she had told Glimmer and Bow. She even only referred to Catra as a friend, Adora didn’t mention her name once. Maybe she will tell them the whole story at one time, but that moment probably won’t come that soon.

Leaving her phone at the table, she joined the others at the front row again, Glimmer browsing her social media, while Bow sang along the songs coming from the radio. Adora was impressed, he rarely missed a cue and knew literally every song they played. Sometimes, Glimmer joined in and they swayed left and right in sync with the rhythm. Adora, watching them from the side, found it cute, and it was contagious enough for her to join in at some point. It made the whole ride somewhat bearable. Not that accompanying Glimmer and Bow was a drag, but Adora was grateful for the distraction.

Evening came and they could watch the sun go down, coloring the clouded sky orange, transitioning into purple before the sun was gone completely. It was fascinating to watch, since the land they could see was just a plain, so Adora could watch the orb of light disappear at the horizon until the end. She couldn’t remember when she saw that the last time, if she had witnessed it at all. Since Half-Moon was surrounded by higher mountain, the sun often just vanished behind a peak without any magic in it.

It made Adora think of home. What was happening there right now? Well, it’s night right now, time difference and everything, but what was everyone else up to these days. It’s been not even 3 weeks since she had left Half-Moon, but she already missed it. Not like she actually had a place to return to. Just a few cardboard boxes in the basement of her ex-neighbors. But thinking of them, how were Netossa and Spinnerella doing? Did Loki find out anything? What were her ex-classmates doing now?

The sound of tires running over gravel stopped Adora’s daydream, she looked outside to see a fireplace, similar to the one they left today in the morning. She heard Bow pulling the handbrake, signaling that this is indeed the place where they were staying for the night.

While Glimmer and Bow were preparing the fireplace, Adora sautéed the chicken and the rest of the tofu she found in the fridge. She reminded Bow and Glimmer that they needed to get groceries tomorrow, while they sat down in front of the fire and ate their dinner. Adora never had done something like this, sitting in the cold, wrapped in blankets in front of an open fire. But it had something calming, just sitting there … staring in the fire … watching the wood getting eaten by ember and flames.

She blinked to wet her dry eyes again. Bow was talking, but she didn’t know if he talked to her, or what he was talking about in general. Of course, he was talking to her, she had to ask him to repeat.

“You said earlier, that you got a message from AT&T, right? Why? Don’t you have a European sim-card?”

“Oh sure, but we bought new ones, because it’s probably cheaper than the oversea fees. Not even talking about the internet…”

“Oh okay, is it activated? The European sim-card, I mean?”

Adora pulled out her phone and looked it up. “No, it’s deactivated. Why?”

Bow leaned forward. “Now, the American sim-card is new, so even if you told everyone you got a new number, not everyone will think about it, especially if you have the old number saved in your contacts. I don’t want to imply that you or your friends are stupid, but if you forgot that activate it, maybe others forgot about the new number.”

Adora finished the thought. “Then they would call the old number.”

Bow nodded, as Adora tried to find the option in her phone to activate the original sim-card again. She found it and turned it on. It took a little while, but suddenly Adora’s phone started to go wild. She held her breath, when she turned on her screen to look at the notifications.

Missed calls (27)

New Messages (3)

She opened the call history first. 1 from Spinnerella, 1 from Loki, and 25 from Catra.

The messages:

Spinnerella:    Hey Adora, haven’t heard from you two in a while. We hope that everything is alright, maybe you can give us a call. Cya, or better Hya. 😊

Loki:                Hello Adora, just wanted to give you an update on the house. It’s still empty. But a colleague told me something about the Preĝejo and their habit of collecting personal property. I’m going to check this out and call you another time.

Catra:                   I’m sorry. Please call me.

Adora read Catra’s message again and again and again. Something like relief flooded her.

She called me.

“Good news or bad news?” Glimmer had a cautious tone in her voice. “Your phone and your tears only tell that there is news.”

Adora wiped her cheeks and noticed that Glimmer was right, she didn’t even notice the tears.

“Catra called me, but I missed the calls because I’m stupid.”

“Well, in fact she was stupid because she called the wrong number” Glimmer objected. “I mean, she even was the one who had the idea, right? But why don’t you call her back?”

Adora immediately hit the button, but nearly in the same moment a recorded voice told her that the dialed number is not available at the moment. Adora searched the contact list of her new sim-card and called the only registered entry, Catra’s other number. But it produced the same result.

Adora scratched her head in frustration. “Of course, the phone is turned off.”

Embarrassed silence.

“What …” Bow was the first one to say something again. “What do you plan to do now?”

Adora shrugged. “Try again later I guess.”

“You are glad, right?” Bow smiled at Adora. “You are happy, that she called you. You miss her”

“Of course.” Adora didn’t even need to think about it. "I fucked up. I somehow didn't actually expect her to call, even though I wanted her to. Does that make sense?"

"Ok, now i'm somehow curious about what happend."

"That's a sad story."

“Then let's start somewhere else. How did you two meet each other?”

Adora thought about it. “It’s a long story. And also a sad one.”

“How can meeting a friend be a sad story?” There was no harm in Glimmer’s voice, but somehow it bothered Adora. “Ok never mind, Bow and I met in the child care of a convention center. THAT is a sad story.”

Both Bow and Adora laughed, it really sounded sad.

“Oh god yes, do you remember the old PlayStation there? They just had one game, what was it again?”

“Hm.” Bow thought about it. “Was it Drivers? I just remember that it was a racing game”

“And I trashed you. Every. Single. Round!”

Bow raised his hands in defeat. He told Adora, that they met in Den Haag when they were 10. His fathers, historians, held a conference in the convention center and at the same time, in another hall, a conference about the distribution of medical equipment in Africa was held, where Glimmer’s mother was a speaker. The convention center had just one daycare, and that’s how they met. The language barrier made it a bit difficult, but gaming is a universal language, even back then.

A year later, just as if it was fate, they met again in London, but this time they exchanged contact info. When he was 15, Bow, together with his dads, moved to London and that sealed the deal. They have been inseparable since then.

Adora was moved. “That’s not sad at all. That’s actually a nice story to tell.”

Glimmer shot Bow a look that was brimming with affection. “Yes, it is.”

“And what about you? How did you meet Catra?”

“Catra … Catra was a stray.” Adora hated the word, but it was something Razz said to Adora 15 years ago, and it was somehow a perfect fit. “She got sold into a group, that used children as a bait for begging, to get the waterworks of the people passing them going. And, one day, the group moved to Half-Moon…”

As first, Adora just wanted to give only parts of the story. But the words were just gushing out of her. She somehow lost herself in reliving the memories Catra and her made together as she told them to Glimmer and Bow. Adora left out Catra’s seizures, no need for them to know. When she told them about Catra starting MMA, they wanted proof, and Adora was more than happy to present them the highlight video.

She didn’t watch it together with them, Adora had seen it often enough to connect every beat of the background music to the clips. She watched the faces of Glimmer and Bow, and it was interesting to see the differences in their faces. While Glimmer was expressing pure glee and excitement, Bow’s face was filled with worry and pain. At one point both shared a surprised look, and Adora knew it was a picture of herself with the scarf, but neither of them said anything.

Adora continued to tell the story, until she reached Razz’ death. It made her realize that just over half a year had passed since then.

Adora told Glimmer and Bow how Catra was there for Adora when Razz was admitted to the hospital. How Razz died and Adora acted like a douche when she crashed at Catra’s place, but Catra jad managed to pull her out this hole. How Catra made Adora’s life a brighter place when she moved in. And how Catra gave up everything to follow Adora on this odyssey.

And I forgot all of this. Just because Catra was rightfully pissed about me fucking up. And I was not mature enough to accept it.

Glimmer broke the silence, since Adora was lost in her thoughts. “What are you thinking about?”

That I’m an idiot.

“I fucked up, and now, 2 days later, I have the revelation that I should apologize.”

“You really like her, do you?” Bow’s question came unexpected. Adora didn’t know what to say.

“What do you mean?”

“Aw, come on. You just talked- “Bow looked at his watch with a smile on his face. “2 hours about someone who is ‘just your friend’, childhood friend or not. You still have that sparkle in your eyes.”

Adora looked to Glimmer, who watched her with a similar smirk. “Do you have a picture of the two of you together?”

Oh, more than just one. A whole gallery.

“Would you mind showing us your favorite? But please only a decent one.”

Adora went through her phone and picked one, a selfie from last New Year’s Eve. She gave the phone to Glimmer, who gave the picture a critical look.

“Sweet, but that was not what I was looking for.” Glimmer stood up, and began to flip through Adora’s phone. Adora felt panic rising and stood up to snatch her phone out of Glimmer’s hand, but she tripped over the blanket she was wrapped into. Adora falling down gave Glimmer enough time to find something that was suiting her tastes.

She asked Bow, if he did think the same as she was, which he answered with a Yes. She gave the phone back to a glaring Adora, and asked for the story behind the picture. Glimmer found the pic Lonnie took at their prom, 3 years ago. How did Glimmer find that so fast?

Adora sighed. “I can’t tell you much, I was so drunk at this point, I only know the things Catra told me. Apparently, I was the one asking her for a dance and she agreed.”

“You asked?”

“As I said, I don’t know for sure. Why?”

“Because she looks like she going to mount you in a few seconds.” Adora felt her face heating up, but Glimmer wasn’t done yet. “She clearly has the hots for you.”

That made Adora freeze up. “That … That’s what she said.”

“Wait what?”

“Catra once said to me, that she knew a girl that has the hots for me. But she never told me who she was talking about.”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this.” Glimmer pinched the back of her nose, when she closed her eyes for a moment. “Did you just tell us, that a girl that got, in a twisted way, rescued by you, decided to stick around and become your best friend for over 12 years, helped you to overcome the death of your only relative and gave up everything to travel through the United States of fucking America to help you search your mother, told you years ago that she knew a girl that likes you more than maybe just as a friend? And you didn’t even consider once, that she may be talking about herself?”

Adora shook her head slowly. She thought back that one evening at Mermista’s ship, when Catra, a bit tipsy, asked Adora for a dance.

“I recently did once. … But why didn’t she just tell me?”

“Oh Adora….” Bow’s low voice brought a change of pace, calm compared to the now shrieking Glimmer. “You said that Catra lied to you about how things really went down when you met her, because she feared that the truth would push you away. What if it’s the same here? Maybe she is waiting for you to open up and give the whole thing a push in the right direction. The only important question now is: Are these feelings mutual?”

Adora stayed silent. It was the first time someone said these things to her in such a clear way, and it was a lot of fodder for her thoughts. How did she feel about Catra? Deep down she knew that she always wanted to be closer to Catra, but put it to a more platonic way of a relationship. Like the fact that they seemed to be able to read each other minds, something that other longtime friends weren’t able to pull off, and it had made their bond something Adora was proud of. But it was somehow a lot to process and she needed time for that.

Not like that there was a chance now, after what Adora had done.

But it didn’t change the fact, that she needed to talk to Catra.

Adora tried to call Catra again, but even though some time passed since she tried it the last time, the recorded voice told her to try later again. She threw her head back in frustration, but to be fair, it was late and maybe Catra was already sleeping and turned off her phone.

“You want to see her, hm?” Adora was pretty sure that point that Bow was a psychic.

“Yeah. I think I will leave you two tomorrow. Could you please drop me off at the next train station or bus depot? I’ll figure a way out to get back to her.”

Both Glimmer and Bow started laughing, it wasn’t exactly the reaction Adora expected.

“What’s with your obsession with train stations? Just tell us where you want to go! As if we would just abandon you now.”

Without knowing how to react to it, she told them the name of the name of the hostel she left Catra in, and Bow found, that going to the Crimson Waste would only make a detour of 80 miles. Before Adora could say anything, Glimmer and Bow decided that they will head for the hostel tomorrow.

Adora just stood there, staggered, asking herself what bad things were going to happen soon to balance out the luck she had in meeting Bow and Glimmer. She had to think about a way to repay them, the amount of support they gave her, both logistical and emotional, wasn’t something where a bunch of flowers and a ‘Thank You’ would be enough.

Lost in her thoughts, Adora checked her pockets, as if she could find something to start with, and to her own disbelief, she found the gas station coupon. She handed it to Bow, who needed a moment to understand what’s it for.

“Where did you get that?”

“Apparently, the woman that sold us the car thought I was attractive and Catra figured it out, so she traded my phone number for 200$ worth of gas.”

Glimmer let out a snort, as both of them stared at Adora in disbelief. “I get the ‘attractive’ part, but I refuse to believe that someone gave you 200$ for this. Nonetheless, that was a stroke of genius.”

Adora had to admit, that she was right. When Catra told it, she was actually mad about it, because she gave it away without Adora’s consent. But considering their financial situation is really was a smart move. And since the woman hadn’t called her yet, Adora didn’t need to feel bad about scamming someone.

Adora stayed a little bit longer on the outside, flipping through her ‘Catra’-gallery on the phone. A smile now and then, triggered by the memories connected to the pictures.

And I was about to throw that away…

She turned around and wanted to step into the caravan, but she saw Glimmer and Bow cuddled up in the kitchen, holding a long kiss. Adora couldn’t turn her gaze away from them. It was a kiss, it’s not like she hadn’t seen one before, but for some reason the view pulled her in. She didn’t know the reason immediately, but when Glimmer broke the kiss and whispered something to Bow with a smile on her face, Adora realized that it was the intimacy.

Seeing this made Adora think of something else, something that included Catra in her prom suit. It felt like a memory but it was too hazy for Adora to grasp it. As if Adora was about to …

Glimmer and Bow broke their embrace and Adora made 2 quick steps to the side, hoping that they didn’t see her staring at them.

The closer they got to the Crimson Waste, the more nervous Adora became. What was she supposed to say to Catra? Long time no see? Sorry, I behaved like an idiot?

Glimmer smacked Adora on the arm, telling her to stop bobbing her leg up and down. It was harder for her with every minute to stay quiet. It was a painfully long ride. At around 12.30pm Bow pulled into the parking lot of the Crimson Waste, Adora gave her best to not leap out of the window and waited until Bow turned off the motor.

She opened the door and walked with a fast pace to the staircase that leads to the gallery. Adora counted to the 3^rd door, the dormitory she slept in 2 days ago, and nearly kicked in the door. She saw two heads twirling around, but neither of them was Catra. Adora looked over into the corner, to the bunk bed Catra and Adora had shared. But there was no Catra. On her old bed she found the charger she had been looking for all the time.

Her look fell on the lockers. The one Catra had chosen was empty.

No need to panic, maybe she just switched rooms. … The reception!

Not caring about the confused looks she got from the other women in the room, Adora left the room again and hurried over to the main building for the reception. The blonde nearly fell down when she wanted to enter the building, she looked down to see something like ice or glass reflecting the sunlight.

She pushed the door and slammed her hands on the counter. The old woman behind looked at her with a bored gaze.

“Where is Katrina Driluth?”

“Good morning to you too. How can I help you?”

Adora mumbled an embarrassed ‘Hello’ back, and said that she was looking for the person she came in with 2 days ago, but the receptionist wasn’t really cooperative. She blabbered something about data protection and refused to tell Adora anything.

While trying to murder the woman with her gaze, Adora heard the door behind her open and close again, and Glimmer appeared next to her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Catra is not in the dormitory anymore and this woman refuses to tell me, where she is.”

Glimmer didn’t hesitate, rolled up her sleeves and stepped closer to the counter. “Now listen here, you little shi- “

“Do the ladies require my help?” A voice behind them let them twirl around. Out of nowhere, a person with blond hair in a green tracksuit, wearing a smile like a shark, appeared behind them. Glimmer was the first one to catch herself again.

“And who the fuck are you?”

The person clasped their hands. “Oh, don’t mind me. I’m just the owner of this … modest establishment. How can I help you two?”

“I checked in 3 days ago, together with another woman called ‘Katrina Driluth’. Adora tried to hide her impatience. “I left, but she stayed. I’m now looking for her and your staff refuses to give me any information.”

“Hm… “The owner made a playful pout. “That’s our right. We are very careful to ensure that the privacy of our customers is protected. But … Katrina Driluth… that name rings a bell.” They signaled the woman behind the counter to move and tipped something into the keyboard. “Driluth … Driluth … oh right, I remember her. Your girlfriend?”

Adora blushed, but Glimmer stepped in. “Why the fuck does that matter. Does that change anything?”

The blonde behind the counter thought for a moment. “No. Not for me, at least. But poor Katrina on the other hand … She looked pretty devastated when she left.”

Adora froze up. “What do you mean, she left?”

“What I said. Ah, you are Adora Greyskull, right? She left at the same day as you, but at noon.”

Adora just stared at them. “Did she say where she was planning to go?”

“Hm, I think she wanted to go home.”

“That’s impossible. You are lying.”

They shrugged. “That’s what I can tell you, nothing more. Why don’t just call her?”

Adora turned around and stormed out of the building. She heard Glimmer biting at the owner. “What are you grinning about?”

“Oh nothing, I just love … drama.”

Adora walked in circles in front of the building, thinking about what she just heard.

Catra going home? That’s impossible. We have nowhere to go. That has to be a lie. But she isn’t here. I saw that. Oh god, Catra, where are you?

Her breathing went faster and faster.

This is all my fault!

Her knees gave in and suddenly Adora was crouching above the gravel in the parking lot.

I don’t know where she is and I can’t reach her.

She felt like her fast heartbeat was blocking her windpipe.

“Adora?”

Catra…

A pair of boots appeared in her field of view, and Glimmer crouched down to look Adora in her eyes.

“Adora? Everything alright? I’m going to touch you now, ok?”

Why does she want to touch me? What is happening?

“Adora. Listen to my voice. I’m going to touch you now, ok?”

Adora managed to nod, and Glimmer placed her hands on Adora’s shoulder, and started to massage them in circles.

“Adora, I know you think that you can’t breathe. But you can, you just forgot how to do it. Listen to my voice.”

How do you know that?

“In … and out. Listen to my voice, Adora.” She took Adora’s hand and placed it on her chest. “Follow me! In … and out. In … and out.”

Adora imagined to feel the air going in and out of Glimmer’s lungs, and finally she felt something cool in her own chest. Air.

Glimmer smiled at her. “Good, keep it going. Just like this. Can you stand up now? Let’s sit down on that bench over there, ok?”

Adora closed her eyes and put every ounce of strength in her legs. When she opened her eyes, she was standing upright again, looking at a beaming Glimmer. “Well done. Sit down, I’ll get you some water.”

Glimmer returned with 2 bottles, one water and one Gatorade, and a worried Bow. Adora emptied the water bottle in one go, and opened the Gatorade, but only to take some sips. She looked at Glimmer.

“What happened to me?”

Glimmer thought about it for a moment. “When you heard, that Catra was gone, you hold it against yourself, right? You think that everything is your fault. And suddenly, you can’t breathe anymore. Your heartrate goes wild and you start to sweat.”

“How … how do you know that?”

“You probably had a panic attack. Was that your first one?”

Adora nodded.

“That’s at least something. Panic attacks are often chronic, triggers could be high stress, even if it’s emotional like in your case. Let’s hope that it just was this time.”

They sat there in silence.

“Tell us, how can we help you?”

Adora looked around, unable to think clearly.

“I’m hungry. Can we get something to eat?”

Glimmer squeezed her hand. “Of course. We passed a diner on the way to here. Let’s go there and make plans about what to do next, ok?”

Adora looked one last time at the ugly building, as Bow turned the steering wheel to enter the street again, heading east.

Chapter Text

4 days after Adora had left Catra

“Do you like it?”

Catra scratched the back of her head, missing her brush-like ponytail. “I don’t know. I need time to get used to it, I guess.”

“Whatever you say, Kitten.” Catra felt her eye twitch, when DT said it. “You’ll need it, trust me. Oh, by the way, here is the gear you wanted. I don’t understand what you need the gloves for.”

“Do I really have to tell you what gloves are for?”

DT rolled their eyes. “No need to bite. Why would you want to cushion your punches, the others don’t wear gloves either?”

“You never did this yourself?”

DT shook their head. “I’m more into some spanking. Obviously, I am on the giving end and usually get paid for it.”

Catra cringed, that was too much information. “The gloves don’t cushion punches at all. If you get hit like a truck, it hits you like a truck. It’s knuckle protection.” Catra searched the bag DT had given her and pulled out the gloves. “Wait, what the fuck is this? I wanted black ones; these are white. And why are ankhs printed on the backside? And what do I need a facemask for? And why the fuck does it have whiskers printed on it?”

“You know, the show biz thrives from costumes and drama. This is your costume; the drama takes place in the ring. I’m pretty sure that this is going to be entertaining.”

Catra knew that she could leave in 3 days. She didn’t know where to go, but Catra wanted to get away as far as possible from here. The first fight was lucky, because the other guy was an idiot, but today evening or the evening in 3 days probably won’t be this easy. So, the only thing Catra needed to do is to win today, and survive until next Thursday and then she would beat it.

Catra emptied the bag, she didn’t try on the rest of the gear, she knew it would fit, but she was searching for something else.

“Where is the phone I asked for?

“Oh, sorry. You know, my … staff is mainly made of idiots. They probably forgot about it. I’ll give them a slap on the wrist.”

This fucker wants to keep me here. I know how much money they got from 3 days ago. But that doesn’t really explain why they keep a phone from me. But I have not much choice but play along for now.

DT may have told her that she was free to go, but that was a lie. Catra was far from being paranoid, but she felt being watched, everywhere except in her room. Which was in fact a room owned by DT too, so she wouldn’t really be surprised if she would find a camera somewhere.

“Oh, and about later. We leave at 6, so be ready until then.”

Catra looked at the clock and nodded, and finally DT left. She waited until she didn’t hear any steps to turn around and gave her whole attention to the cat laying on her bed, all 4 limbs up in the air. Catra gave them the belly scratches they asked for and obviously deserved for the being the most adorable ball of fluff in the world.

“We are going to run soon, gotta be prepared for that. You coming with me?”

The cat just looked at her, maybe outraged about the sudden lack of belly rubs.

“I have treats.”

Catra took the following meow as a ‘Yes’. Pleased with the response, she lifted the cat to lay down on the bed herself and put the cat down on her chest. Watching it cleaning itself, Catra’s mind drifted to Adora and her not coming back.

Thinking back to their ‘fight’, Catra regretted nearly everything she said. Her conflicted feelings towards Adora didn’t really help to clear things up, not even for herself. Catra cursed herself for not knowing Adora’s phone number by heart, so she could’ve at least called her from another phone. But on the other side, it’s been a few days now since Adora left, and she hadn’t come back.

Which left two options. First option, Adora focused on finding Mara now and had left for the Whispering Woods. Second option, something bad happened to Adora and Catra had no way to find out what.

Of course, the second one was the worse option, but Catra didn’t like the first one either. Catra had said it more than once to Adora, even as a pair, looking for a person with sketchy connections to a church could be dangerous. Not that something has happened until now, but Catra didn’t really want to jinx it.

The cat started to lick Catra’s hand, the rough tongue tickled her a bit. The pats in return brought out a purr. Catra was really, really glad she found the cat.

3 hours later, she walked into the parking lot and entered the waiting SUV. The driver gave her a strange look when he saw the cat resting on Catra’s shoulder.

“What? For emotional support.”

He shrugged, started the engine and brought Catra to the address DT gave her. It was an empty warehouse is the middle of literal nowhere, being placed even more remotely than the Crimson Waste. The field in front of it was already packed with cars of all sizes, Catra even spotted a purple-colored truck with a trailer in the same color, with a white writing on it. These events apparently attracted every kind of spectators. How do people even know about these? Tyler Durden would be disappointed.

Catra entered the warehouse and was immediately greeted by DT. Wearing a long green dress and high stilettos, they looked like someone who was about to hold a laudatory speech to announce a prize winner.

“What do you think? Great location, right?”

“Not really, I prefer your place.”

“Glad to hear that, Kitten.” Eye twitch. “Michelle darling, can you please do our housecat’s make-up? Thank you.”

“What the fuck do I need make-up for?”

“What do you think is the most important thing for people on a stage to draw the audience in?”

Catra shrugged. “Please enlighten me.”

They threw their arms in the air. “Presentation! For each costume some fitting paint.”

She couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes. “Whatever, just got over with it.”

Catra let Michelle do her job, but she didn’t do much except drawing something under Catra’s right eye and on her back. Why did DT even make such a big deal about this? She looked down on herself. Catra had to admit that the white clothes, white gloves and white bandages around her feet indeed did look good, a nice contrast to her tan skin.

She felt something touching her ankle, she looked down and saw the cat scratching over the bandages. Catra picked up the cat and gave it a good-luck-kiss on its head, she earned a few licks on her cheek in return. She slowly handed the cat to Michelle with a subtle threat to better keep it in her arms until Catra’s return.

Since Catra planned to escape this evening, she had everything important in her smaller backpack, but had to leave the big backpack with her clothes in the Crimson Waste. Since Catra had now nearly 5000$, buying new clothes wouldn’t be a problem, it was just a pity about some shirts and hoodies Adora either bought her, or had a matching piece. And since there are like 100 cars parked in front of the warehouse, she surely will find one that will bring her to the next city.

She made her way to the betting booth and her eyes went wide when she saw the odds. 1:50. This can’t be true. Of course, no one knew her and she didn’t use her real name, but these numbers couldn't be right. Either someone had bet a ridiculously high sum on her opponent, or her opponent was the clear favorite of the audience. Not that Catra had doubts about her own chances, but she had a bad feeling about this. She placed a bet about 1000$ on herself, when she heard the audience behind her cheer, probably signaling the end of the last fight.

For the first time, Catra stepped closer to the ring. Just like in the Crimson Waste, it was in fact a hole in the ground, walls made of concrete instead of wood, and sand covering the ground. A man was lying in the sand, face covered in blood, probably unconscious. She watched the blood dripping into the sand, giving it a crimson shade. Catra realized that the name of the hostel she stayed in probably came from exactly this. Bloody sand. How poetic. How dramatic. Clearly DT’s idea.

After the loser from last round got removed from the pit, Catra spotted DT on a small stage. She put on her facemask, dropped her jacket and kicked off her boots, climbing on the wall to jump down into the pit.

Showtime.

For the first time in forever, Catra felt something like stage fright. She barely heard DT introducing her as ‘Bastet’, which explained the ankhs on her gloves and the whiskers on her facemask. Her feet moved on their own and Catra watched her toes disappear under the sand. DT was still talking and yelled a name, probably the name of her opponent, but it sounded made-up.

She forced herself to look up again, and immediately regretted it. A man stood on other side of the ring, around 6 ½ foot tall and heavily obese. He just wore jeans and boots, and presented his fully tattooed torso and arms to the audience. Across his collarbone, Catra could read the words 'Tung Lashor'. The man easily tripled Catra’s weight. Catra spotted something on his belt, she first thought that it was a rope, but the handle on one end told her that it was a whip. He slowly turned around, greeting the chanting audiences. He clearly was the public’s favorite and there probably was a reason for it

“Now, now, dear spectators. The cat versus the reptile, a battle fit for the gods. Let’s see how it ends.”

If I get out of here, I swear I will strangle DT.

Catra moved back to the wall, trying to find a weakness in her opponent, but she didn’t find any, at least not immediately. In all probability Catra was faster than him, but she couldn’t hold a match to him in terms of strength. That was the obvious part.

It was all David vs. Goliath, but the David in this story was missing both sling and stones.

As the hillbilly came closer, Catra ran out of space and – just stood up straight and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Her opponent seemed irritated about it, he stopped and cocked his head. They just stood there, staring at each other in silence.

The audience was waiting a bloodbath, but this wish was yet to be fulfilled. Some boos could be heard and someone threw a baseball bat into the pit. Both fighters turned their head to the origin of the noise, when the metal hit the sand, but neither of them moved. Tung Lashor raised his hand and the crowd fell silent again.

“I know you. I heard what you did to that other idiot. No need to try, I won’t run away from pain.”

Trashtalk? Fine, whatever.

Catra put on a smile, but in fact she only bared her teeth. “I’m surprised you can form sentences with this complexity. Do you need a break now? I know that thinking too hard can be exhausting.”

She slowly raised her hand, knowing that everyone, obviously including Lashor, was watching her every movement. She placed her hand on one of his arms – and pinched him. Maybe out of pain, maybe out of surprise, he pushed away Catra’s hand and shook his arm.

Catra, feigning surprise, put her hand over her mouth and cooed as loud as possible. “Oh, did you just … run away from pain?” and whispered: “Let’s dance, fatass.”

She could hear laughter from the audience, and it had the effect she wanted. If she couldn't overpower him in pure strength, she had to lead him into self-destruction. Lashor’s face turned red, and Catra saw his right hook coming from miles away. She ducked to dodge the fist and dashed through the opening the punch left, gaining some distance again. Lashor grunted and shook his hand, but Catra didn’t see if he actually punched into the concrete.

Catra took that as a prove, that she was far superior in speed and probably in stamina, too. But just running away probably wasn’t the way to end this.

"What can I do?" quoth Zeus, the Gods are drunk and throwing up all over Olympus!

They were playing cat and mouse for a while, Catra being unhappy for more than one reason to be the mouse here. Both Lashor and the audience grew impatient. If this would be a videogame, Lashor would’ve picked up boulders at this point and threw them at her, but Catra didn’t really want to wait until someone from the audience actually had the idea. As if on command, someone threw a folding chair in the pit.

I hate this place.

To try out some things, Catra quickly closed the distance again and threw a few punches. She quickly had noticed, that displaying martial arts to Lashor was a waste of time. His only selling point was his brute strength and probably his body fat acting as his biological armor. Her punches literally did nothing, and it was kind of depressing for Catra. She went for a front kick, which turned out to be a big mistake. Lashor managed to grab her ankle and literally threw her against the concrete wall.

The impact pressed her the air out of lungs, and made her see stars. For a very short moment and the first time in her life, Catra was scared to and of death. She blinked to get rid of the stars, her lungs resumed their service first.

“Katrina…” DT’s voice dangerously low. “I have high hopes for you. Don’t disappoint me.”

“Fuck … you.”

“Oh Kitten, no need to be so vulgar.” They chuckled. “Let’s make a deal. Win this, and I’ll tell you where your lover went.”

“Lover? What the fuck are you talking about?” But the moment Catra said it, she realized it.

Adora! But how …? She came back! Adora came back for me, but she couldn’t find me. And DT did their best to send Adora away.

DT’s voice cut through her thoughts. “Remember how you won the first fights. No rules. You just have to let go. Let go of yourself.”

Catra groaned and tried to stand up. She did it on the first try, but her wobbling legs robbed her some of her confidence. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and when her gaze followed the arm attached to said hand, the tattoos on the chest, and the ugly face on top, she realized that her brain wasn’t working the way it should.

A second hand grabbed her by her waist and before Catra could blink, she was laying in the sand again, but on the other side of the pit. The good thing was, that her landing on the sand rattled her brain again, but in the right way. Catra was back.

“Hey, what are you doing there?”

Judging from the voice, it was a woman, but the ceiling lights made it impossible for Catra to see anyone from the audience.

“What does it look like?”

“You are laying around?”

Smartass.

Catra looked at Lashor, but he was still on the other side of pit, celebrating himself with the crowd. She let her head flop back into the sand, looking back at the ceiling, trying to make out the female voice again.

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Do you want my advice?”

Catra snorted. “Sure, go on… whatever”

“Well, you may have noticed that he is overweight. I mean, massively overweight. Overweight can induce massive stress on joints, especially on the joints of the lower body like knees, or ankles. Too much impact on these can easily cause fractures or causing the tendons to snap. And did you notice, that he lifts his right arm higher than his left? Maybe caused by a recent injury, but I’m sure his shoulder is quite vulnerable right now.”

Catra got back up, and watched Lashor. It was hard to overlook that he was fat, Catra had already noticed that earlier, but the lady was right about the arms. Catra got enough knowledge in anatomy thanks to her education as physical therapist to know, that the statements about the fragility of the joints was true too.

She was about to look up again, but she heard a swoosh and something painfully wrapped itself around her leg. Catra lost her balance because that something tugged very hard at her leg and dragged her towards Tung Lashor. She managed to sit up for a second, before she got yanked forward again and lost her balance again. Catra saw the Lashor’s whip wrapped around her ankle. The fucking whip. Of course, the redneck knew how to use a whip. What a cliché.

Catra tried to grab something, but there was nothing but sand in her reach. Panic started to rise in her chest, as she felt two hands grab her legs and she got lifted up, upside down. With one last effort she filled her hands with bloody sand – yuck – and when Lashor opened his mouth to say something probably stupid, she threw all the sand in the direction of his face.

Apparently Catra hit, she got dropped and she could hear Lashor cough. She managed to get rid of the whip around her ankle and looked around in the hope to find an inspiration. Her eyes fell on the baseball bat and DT’s voice echoed through her head.

No rules. You just have to let go of yourself.

She watched her hand picking up the bat, it was heavier than she expected, than turned around to Tung Lashor, who was still rubbing his eyes. A part of her heard the audience getting louder, but Catra was totally focused on her opponent. He looked at her, saw the bat in her hands and lifted his arms to block it, but Catra was aiming somewhere else. Flexing every muscle in her upper body, she took a swing and destroyed Lashor’s left kneecap.

He screamed in agony as he collapsed on his other knee, trying to lessen the pain in the damaged area. His wailing was deafening, but for a certain part of Catra, the part that was in charge at this moment, it sounded like a symphony. And it got even worse, when Catra spotted a certain tattoo on Lashor’s chest, formed like a fucked-up heart drawn by someone who got hold of a set square for the first time.

For reasons unknown, Lashor tried to stand up and revealed his healthy knee during that motion. Catra didn’t hesitate for long and destroyed the other kneecap, too. Choking on his screams, Lashor dropped on his knees again, his torso fell in front, but he stopped the fall with his arms. He must’ve been under immense pain right know, but Catra couldn’t care less. She put the bat under Lashor’s chin and forced him to look at her.

“Do you surrender?”

As a response he tried to grab her, but Catra dropped the bat, caught the arm which had barely any strength in it and used her own weight as counterweight to climb at Lashor’s back with his arm now in a joint lock.

“Wrong response. Now. I have a few questions to you, and if I don’t like the answers, I’ll rip your arm off. What’s up with that tattoo on your chest?”

He grunted. “Heart”

She pulled on his arm a bit, and that motivated him to give a clearer answer. “It literally means ‘Heart’, written in the script of our saviors.”

“Saviors, my ass. Nothing but thieves. Now, if I wanted to file a complaint to, let’s say, the highest-ranked in your club of sociopaths, where would I have to go?”

He refused to answer, so Catra increased the strength in her pull again. “Stopstopstop, I’ll tell you. The Whispering Woods. Everything is in the Whispering Woods.”

“What a lucky coincidence. Now, do you surrender?”

“No, never. The Light is with me and will protect me.”

“Well, then you better pray.” Catra put her foot into Lashor’s back to get a firm foothold, mobilized every ounce of strength and pulled. She pulled stronger and stronger, until she felt a shift in Lashor’s arm. The screaming started again, signaling that the arm had popped out of its socket.

Completely untouched by the pain she just had caused, Catra hopped on the ground again and looked her humiliated opponent in his eyes.

“Last chance, do you surrender?”

He spit at her. “Fuck you, you will burn in hell for this.”

Catra made a pout. “Hm, maybe. But be assured that I will beat your ass down there again.”

He actually had the strength to force a smile on his face. “No. Salvation is near. Only one piece is missing, and then all believers will be saved.”

“Yeah, fat chance.”

Catra needed to end this act, but how. She needed to find a way to knock him out without killing him, so the bat was not an option. She looked around and found something that for sure will be kept as a souvenir.

When Catra left the pit, the audience avoided her. She couldn’t tell if it was fear or disgust, but Catra couldn’t care less. She headed straight for DT, who welcomed her with the same sharkish smile as always.

“Kitten, I knew you had it in you. You just needed the right motivation. And it was marvelous to watch.”

Catra had no patience for that shit and pressed the surprisingly bloody tip of the baseball bat into DT’s chest. “Cut the crap. Where is Adora?”

“Who? Oh, your girlfriend? I don’t know. She was at the Crimson Waste 3 days ago and wanted to see you, but I figured that she would be your reason to leave, and I’m not stupid enough to let go of my goose with the golden eggs.”

Catra was still high on adrenaline and what not else, but she realized that she was in a bad spot right now, too many bodyguards, otherwise she would’ve smashed their head in, right now.

“You chased Adora away, just for your own greed.” Catra was fuming, she literally saw red. “Listen here, bitch. I’m leaving, but I left some of my stuff at the Crimson Waste. I’ll come someday to pick it up, so better take care of it. Oh, and when I’m there, you better be hiding. Because if I see you again… I. Will. Massacre. You.”

DT was clearly taken aback, but after a second the smirk was back on their face. “Whatever you say, Kitten. See you around. Have fun with whatever you plan to do.”

Catra snarled at them and searched for Michelle, who was still in charge of Catra’s belongings, including the cat. She found her quite fast, put on her clothes and boots, and was ready to leave for the car to get her backpack, when she saw a big envelope in Michelle’s extended hand.

“What’s that?”

“Uh, I cashed in your ticket. These are your winnings.”

Catra opened the envelope to take a look, and immediately closed it again. Without looking, she pulled out a few bills and gave them to Michelle as a ‘Thank you’. That was one more reason to disappear from here. She placed the cat into the hood of her jacket again, and walked as fast as possible to the exit. Catra turned around one last time to see Michelle waving and a few meters further away, DT glaring at her.

Yep, I have to get out of here. Quickly.

Catra ran over the parking lot and looked for the car she had arrived in. She found it and kicked it when she found out that the doors were locked. Of course, Catra didn’t have the keys. But she had a baseball bat.

A few shards of glass later, her backpack was back in her possession and she could finally leave this place. Catra left the parking lot and spotted someone entering their car on the other side of the road. Without thinking twice, she crossed the road and suddenly heard a loud horn and stared into 2 quickly approaching headlights. Panic overtook Catra’s motor activity and she tried a quick sprint away from the lights, but she slipped, stumbled for a few meters and fell down, the cat mewed pitifully when it fell out of the hood. Catra didn’t hesitate and threw herself over the cat to protect it at least a bit, and closed her eyes to brace herself for the impact.

At first, Catra didn’t hear anything, she just saw the bright lights, even through her closed eyelids. She slowly opened her eyes again, trying to adjust them to the light, and saw the truck standing in a meter’s distance, making absolutely no sound. The left door of the truck opened, and Catra heard someone jumping down and quickly walking around the truck to look for her. Judging from the voice, a woman, but her frame told something else.

“Oh gosh, I’m so sorry. Are you alright? Wait, are you bleeding? Oh god, you are bleeding. Don’t run, I’ll call an ambulance. Oh god, I’m so screwed”

“Wait, wait.” Catra’s voice was weak, but it made the other woman stop in her tracks. “I’m fine, that’s not my blood.”

“Oh, that’s a relief. Wait, is it? Why do you have other people’s blood on you?

Catra waived. “Long story, but I’m fine. See? I’m standing, and everything.” It was more show than anything else, her legs were definitely still shaking and she barely stopped herself from peeing her pants. “All good.”

Two near-death experiences in one day are definitely two too much.

Catra’s raised thumb didn’t do its job to convince the other woman, but she got distracted by something else on the ground.

“Oh, a kitty.”

Catra followed her gaze and looked into the eyes of her companion, whose tail was swaying back and forth. She bowed down to pick them up while making sure that nothing has happened to them

“Yeah, I found them last week. Someone abandoned them and I took them in.”

The other woman cooed at the sight of the cat in Catra’s arms, but a car passed the three of them, honking aggressively, which reminded them that they were still standing in the middle of a road. The trucker rubber the back of her head.

“Uh, so I guess I should get going now. Is there anything I can do for you right now?”

Catra looked at the truck in front of her. “Where are you heading to?”

The person opposite to Catra shrugged. “Anywhere. This is a … prototype, and I get orders sometimes where to go, but otherwise I just follow the roads. Why do you ask? “

“I don’t have a place to stay right now, but I need to get out of here as soon as possible. Can you take me with you for a bit? ‘Me’ includes the cat, obviously.”

The woman’s face lit up. “I would love that. I mean, I hope you don’t plan to rob me, but I could use some company. Not that I’m lonely or anything, no, but talking to Darla can be … repetitive over time. Sure, hop on.”

Catra didn’t understand why she was in fear of getting robbed, that woman looked like she was strong enough to tie a knot into a barrel. She somehow reminded Catra of Huntara, but a bit smaller and short white hair with shaved sides instead of a long ponytail. And obviously, Huntara was much older, Catra’s new chauffeur was 25 at best.

“Oh, by the way, my name is Lydia. Lydia D. Reams. But everyone calls me Scorpia.”

Catra shook the outstretched hand and introduced herself as Catra (Of course, how else?) and the cat as … cat. Scorpia gave her a weird look, but Catra actually didn’t name the cat yet. Not even intentionally, she just forgot about it. But Scorpia surely could help her to find a good name.

Her new companion led her to the door on the passenger side of the truck and showed her how to open the door. Catra was glad about it, since the handle was somehow hidden and she never would’ve found it on her own.

While Scorpia was walking around to her seat’s side, Catra shot a short look over the truck and remembered it, she saw it earlier in the parking lot of the warehouse. She didn’t expect Scorpia to attend to such events, but on the other side didn’t Catra expect from herself either, until a few things changed a week ago.

The truck was long, for sure 25m, and if Catra wasn’t mistaken, it was higher than the usual trucks you would see on the streets. It was entirely painted in purple, except the white letters reading ‘Dryl Corp.’. Catra had never heard of this, but it’s not like she knew much about companies in the US, so she decided to ask Scorpia about it. Another thing Catra noticed, that the truck was connected to the trailer with a bellow, just like a modern-day train.

Catra had to climb up 3 steps to get into the driver’s cab, careful to not lose her friend in her hood, and when she reached it, her chin fell down. She was pretty sure that she just entered a truck, not a spaceship, but the interior of the cab told her something else. It just could be defined as ‘smooth’. No edges, no corners, in fact just a small dashboard in front of the seats. Of course, the manual stick and the steering wheel on Scorpia’s side, but nothing else on the cab except a giant screen in the middle.

Scorpia just tapped around on the screen as Catra closed her door, and sat down, unable to hide her awe.

“Looks great, right?” Catra nodded in agreement. “Yeah, Darla surely is a pretty girl.”

Catra perked up. “Wait, the truck is called Darla? The conversation partner you have mentioned earlier, is a truck?”

 Scorpia raised a finger with a knowing smile on her face. She leaned forward and said “Hello, Darla.” And the freaking truck answered.

“Hello, Scorpia!”

“Can you tell me what Entrapta is doing right now?”

“I do not know, but she returned half an hour ago and her blowtorch is running since then.”

“Good, please tell her that we are leaving.”

“Message delivered. … She has turned off the blowtorch now.”

“Great.” Scorpia winked at Catra. “Safety first.”

Catra had no idea what the hell was going on, as she watched Scorpia pressing a few buttons. She felt a light tug and looking outside showed that they were moving, but the truck didn’t make a sound. Catra was no expert on that topic but she had the feeling that this truck was technologically far more advanced than its siblings on the road.

“So, uh, who is Entrapta? And is that her real name?”

Scorpia thought about it for a moment. “No, it’s not her real name, I think it’s her gamertag, but I don’t know her real name. She is, what you could call my boss. In fact, everything you can see here was built by her. Including Darla.”

Catra didn’t need to act like she was impressed, she actually was. She had tried to use the virtual assistant of her own smartphone several times, but the results were usually disappointing. Darla on the other hand seemed to be way more intelligent.

Catra soon found out, that Scorpia was more of the talkative kind. So talkative, that Catra soon understood why Scorpia was happy to have another human being in the cap, since Darla probably didn’t know how to small-talk. Scorpia told her a few things: she was born and raised in a small town in Arizona, and started to work for Entrapta after high school, and that 5 years had passed since then. Catra did the math and came to the conclusion, that Scorpia was indeed around 25 years old.

“Why are you called Scorpia? Please don’t tell me it is because of your zodiac sign.”

Scorpia laughed, but it sounded a bit embarrassed. “Hm no, I’m a Cancer, but actually that’s quite close to a scorpion, now that I think about it. When you were in elementary school, did you also have these bring-your-pets-to-school-days?”

Catra shook her head, they only had these days where parents came to school to talk about their jobs, but she didn’t need an explanation about what Scorpia was going to talk about.

“So, in my defense, the teacher didn’t clarify what pets you were allowed to bring. You see, my mothers had a small collection of scorpions, different kinds and what not.” Catra tried her best not to smack her hand on her forehead, she had a hunch about what was coming now. “So, at that day, I reached in one of the terrariums and picked a random scorpion, put it in my lunchbox, and went to school. When it was my turn, I opened the box, and the scorpion came out. My teacher, God bless her soul, nearly had a heart attack and after she was done yelling at me, I tried to catch the scorpion again. And then I got stung. What I found out later, was, that the venom of the scorpion was harmless to adults, but still strong enough to cause a child to faint. So, I collapsed in the classroom, hell broke loose and I was suspended for 2 weeks. That’s why I’m Scorpia.”

Catra was actually laughing now, this was really a great story. And it made her even more curious about the name ‘Entrapta’.

Scorpia turned to her. “What about you, why are you ‘Catra’? I mean, I doubt that that’s your real name.”

Catra looked out of the window and thought about the question for a moment. The sun disappeared hours ago, but she could see that they have entered the highway now. Down in her lap, the cat was asleep, letting out a soft purr with every breath. Catra turned back to Scorpia, who now had turned her entire seat to Catra, patiently waiting for an answer. It took Catra a while to see what was wrong in this picture.

“Sorry, I’m … not good with talking about myself to people I don’t really know, but I’ll try my – wait a minute, shouldn’t you be looking out front?”

Scorpia shot an awkward gaze through the windshield and shot a sheepish smile at Catra. “Look Mom, no hands?!”

Catra was horrified, and it didn’t get better when the steering wheel turned on its own to start a passing maneuver. The truck ran on autopilot. She breathed out and tried to relax again.

“Sorry, I forgot to tell you about this ...” Again, Scorpia was slightly embarrassed, but tried to get back to the topic. “You were saying, that you are not good with talking about yourself. That’s fine, really. You tell me what you want, and I’ll listen to it.”

After a short pause, Catra gave her an even shorter summary about Adora and herself, why they were in the USA. When she reached the part of the loss of Razz’ house, Catra realized that she was always talking about the Preĝejo, but she had learned that there were different names for it, like in Germany or Portugal. How come she didn't look that up until now? She asked Scorpia, if she could look something up for her since Catra still hadn’t had a chance to get a new phone, but Scorpia just told her to ask Darla.

Catra hesitated for a second. “Uhm, hello, Darla?”

“Hello, unknown passenger.”

Scorpia signaled her to wait for a moment, while she tapped around on the screen in the middle on the dashboard. After a while, Scorpia found what she was looking for, and waved Catra to start again.

“Hello, Darla.”

“Hello, Catra.”

Catra shot a look at the now totally not smug Scorpia.

“Hi, uhm, I need a translation. Lunarian to English. Preĝejo de la unnaj.”

“Preĝejo de la unnaj. Lunarian for ‘Church of the First Ones’. Do you want me to summarize the Wikipedia entry?”

Catra looked at Scorpia, who just shrugged. “Sure, do it.”

“The exact time of Church of the First Ones’ foundation is unknown, the first written scripts appeared in the middle of the 17^th century in Europe. First mainly active in Europe, its influence quickly spread all over the north American continent during the 19^th century. The way of praying and holding a service doesn’t differ much from the average Christian service, but there are rumors about a secret organization in the higher ranks of the First Ones. There are not many things known about these practices of the Church, unlike for example about the Freemasonry, because of the lower numbers and the actual ability of the members to keep quiet. The youngest manuscripts about the practices were released by the Church in 1914, which described the Church as free and peaceful community, open to all people. But the open antisemitism and racism shown by the known members raised doubts about that even 100 years ago.”

“A shady church with a shady past. What a surprise.” Catra said it out loud, but it was nothing she expected a reaction for.

“In the last 20 years, there have been only 4 known dropouts of higher ranks, 3 of them died within a week after they announced their leave. The whereabouts of the 4^th dropout is unknown. In 1980, a dropout released a script about the goals of the Church, but the Church filed an injunction suit and prevented the full release. The only known details are common knowledge about the belief of the First Ones, the awaiting of the return of their founder Prime, caused by the sacrifices of the three messiahs, the Aspects of Honor, Power and Family. The return of Prime shall cleanse the world of all nonbelievers, only leaving those who are worthy in the eyes of Prime. Excessive predatory behavior during the recruitment of new members and the following lawsuits caused the Church to lose its beneficial status as a religious community in several European countries, like France, Great Britain and Germany. In the USA approximately 5 million people follow the beliefs of the Church and there are approximately 1000 needles spread across the USA. A needle is the equivalent of a roman-catholic parish. The term ‘needle’ derives from the needlelike tower that accompanies nearly every building that was built by the Church of the First Ones.”

Darla finished its presentation, and Catra needed some time to process the things she just heard. So, Mara was a member of a doomsday cult, whose missions was to kill at least 3 people and then set the world on fire. Yay, religion. Combined with that what she heard earlier from Tung Lashor, the central of the Church was located in the Whispering Woods, which also was the place where Mara’s letters came from. And it ultimately was the goal of their journey.

Catra agreed on the statement referring to the needles. The one close to Adora’s house had one of those, Catra also had spotted one in Hamburg near the central station and the one on the Azores had originally been an older roman-catholic monastery, but they built the needle just right next to it. And she was sure that she also saw one in Miami.

“Uh, Catra, are you ok? You have quite a menacing look right now.” Scorpia actually sounded worried.

Catra shook her head to focus on Scorpia again. “No. Yes.” A sigh. “I don’t know. Where was I before Darla read the entry?”

Scorpia told her and Catra finished the story, trying to include the things she just learned.

“So, uh, just that I get this right. You moved in to your childhood friend, got evicted because her mother gifted the house to the Church, we just heard many bad things about, and now you are looking for said mother to get an explanation for that?”

Catra nodded. “That’s a way to sum it up.”

“But … that’s bad right? And especially, since you most-likely aren’t magically gifted and can turn humans into cats, where is your friend?”

Catra avoided Scorpia’s eyes. “I … No … No, I can’t tell you that right now. Maybe … Maybe later.”

“Ah, don’t worry. I’m sure you will find a way. I mean, you already made it to this place, didn’t you?”

Catra nodded, she knew Scorpia was right about that, but she didn’t say anything.

“Anyways…” Scorpia clapped her hands. “In ten minutes, we have to make a stop and recharge the battery. Then, I can introduce you to Entrapta and we can talk about coming times, ok?”

Catra nodded again and slowly picked up the cat from her lap to carefully place it on her jacket on the seat next to hear. She even managed to do that without waking them up.

They reached the car station in the estimated time, and Darla parked the truck all by itself right next to the charging station. Scorpia left the cab for a moment to plug the charger and came back to tell Catra that they will stay until the next morning, because it will take a while to charge everything. Scorpia then told Catra to follow her, leading her between the seats in the backside of the truck. Catra saw a door she hadn't noticed before, but it explained the bellow on the outside. When the truck was built, the engineers clearly didn’t expect someone like Scorpia to use this door, she had to duck and walk sideways to fit through. The door hid a passage, probably leading into the trailer, Catra spotted a small kitchen unit with fridge and everything on one side, and a triple bunk bed on the other, followed by 2 doors on each side. All in all, the passage was about 6 or 7 meters long. Scorpia stopped in front the door sealing the other end of the corridor, a red light above it, and turned around to Catra.

“Listen, this is important.” Scorpia’s voice was 100% serious now. ”Never, literally never ever go through that door, when there is a red light.”

“Just like in traffic.” Catra tried to make a joke, but the seriousness in Scorpia’s face didn’t disappear.

“This is a safety measure. If you want to go in, ring this bell… “She pressed a button right next to the door, and Catra heard a faint horn coming from the other side. “and then you wait until the light turns green.”

“Uhm, ok. What’s the story behind this?”

“Behind this door is Entrapta’s laboratory. The horn signals, that someone wants to come in and Entrapta turns off everything. When she is done, she lets the signal turn green. Since we started using this system, no one got hurt.”

“That sounds pretty dangerous. How much do you get paid for this?”

“Oh, I don’t get paid. Entrapta gave me this.” She showed Catra an all-black credit card, the golden chip reflecting in the light. “And she told me to buy everything I want.”

“Everything?”

“Yeah. You know, I got this job because I needed to save money for my girlfriend’s surgery, because insurance didn’t cover it. I then saw an ad saying something like ‘Need lab partner. You get paid for it.’. I was the only showing up, and that’s how I met Entrapta. She gave me this card, and I paid the full 25000$ for the surgery with it. Entrapta never even mentioned it.”

Catra wasn’t sure if she heard that right, but she didn’t have the chance to ask, because the light turned green and Scorpia opened the door.

Given the size of the room they entered, they were clearly in the trailer now, but for a short moment Catra thought they were in Tony Stark’s playground. Screws, wires, tools everywhere, the walls were covered with either screens or pinboards, filled with sketches. In Catra’s eyes, 90% of this was scrap, but given what Entrapta apparently had built until now, Catra could be quite wrong.

Scorpia called for Entrapta once, and Catra saw someone in the middle of the trailer sitting with their back to them. Catra and Scorpia stepped over some crates standing around on the floor, moving towards a table covered in blue paper. A woman, sporting purple hair tied in two pigtails and using safety goggles as a hairband, was leaning above the table.

“Entrapta, come on. It’s soon midnight and you should go to bed soon. Did you at least eat something today?”

Entrapta, looking at the papers in front of her, made a gesture to a box of mini pizzas.

“Good. Now, we have a guest. Would you mind to turn around and say hello?”

Entrapta lifted a finger to signal ‘one moment’, then she put her pen into a box and finally turned around.

“Oh hello.” She waved at Catra, and cocked her head in visible confusion.

Scorpia started the introduction. “Entrapta, this is…”, but Entrapta snipped her fingers.

“I know.” She looked at Catra. “Hello Bastet.”

Catra immediately went into defense, mentally, not physically. This name has only been used once to refer to her and that was not even 4 hours ago. It made clear that not Scorpia visited the fights, but Entrapta, but she didn’t look the usual crowd Catra had seen on the events. But something was familiar about her… ah, right.

“You were me the one who told me what to do, right?”

Entrapta quickly nodded. “Indeed. I wanted to see what you would do with the given information and you produced interesting results. I did not foresee the use of the whip. And I did not expect you kill him.”

Catra jolted. “I DID NOT …  Sorry, I did not kill him. I just strangled him long enough for him to faint. It was … the only way for me to leave as the winner without actually killing him.”

“Ok, hold on.” Scorpia waved her. “I just I’m missing a few things here. Entrapta, why did call Catra a basalt, and Catra, who did you kill?”

Catra did her best not to yell at Scorpia when she gave her a short rundown, now extending the story a bit, that she told her earlier. When she was done, and Scorpia thought about what she just heard, Catra heard a clicking sound coming from Entrapta.

“Apparently, the offer for information on the whereabout of an unknown person as a prize gave the subject a boost of strength, resulting in a drop of morals and increase of efficiency. The reason is yet unknown.”

Catra slowly turned to Entrapta, who was still blabbering into the recorder. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m just recording data. That’s the only reason why I go to these events. I gather data for a contract.”

“What kind of contract?”

“I’m not allowed to tell you that. NDA. No need to ask Scorpia, she doesn’t know either.” Scorpia shrugged, shooting a ‘Sorry’ to Catra. “I wanted to see how humans act when they fight free from rules. Especially if there is such a difference in physique. Considering Lashor’s body count, I expected you to lose.”

Catra got cold. “He has a body count?”

“Yeah, he killed at least 3 people. You didn’t know that? Interesting.”

Before Entrapta could say anything else, Scorpia stepped in.

“Catra’s phone is broken, do you have a spare you can give to her?”

At first, Entrapta stared blanky at Catra. Then she lit up, rummaged around in a drawer, and held out a phone to Catra she found. Again, before one of them could say anything, Scorpia stepped in.

“Is it bugged?”

Entrapta squirmed a bit. “No.”

“Entrapta….” Scorpia’s voice a soft, but warning tone now. “Is it bugged?”

Entrapta looked at the phone. “Yes….”

“How long do you need to remove it? Tomorrow evening?”

Entrapta nodded and Scorpia clapped her hands. “Great, now let’s go to bed.”

Entrapta looked like she was about to throw a tantrum, but she put the phone on the table and left the trailer, heading for the beds.

Catra looked at Scorpia. “Is she … you know, dangerous?”

Scorpia laughed, but it was honest. “Well yes, but actually no. Entrapta is the smartest person I’ve ever met and that probably will never change. But you will notice that if you haven’t already, she … lacks empathy. She does everything to bring out the best results from her research, but it sometimes isn’t the right thing to do.” Scorpia pointed at the phone on the table. “I don’t know how she did it, but one time she managed to work her way into the phone calls of a senator. Not to blackmail him or anything, just for her research. So, he was talking to a company, which paid him to do something contradicting to his election promises. Entrapta called him to ask him about that, and when he denied it, she played him the recording.”

Catra clearly needed to visit an otologist.

“Again, Entrapta only wanted to know the reason for it, but obviously the senator thought this was blackmail, so he called the Secret Service and long story short, we are running from the Feds.”

Chapter Text

Adora took in the view of the resort that sprawled out in front of her. Mystacor. Bow had parked the caravan in the parking lot right in front of the main entrance and joined Glimmer and Adora on the small hill, from where you could see the entire facility. Adora saw 15 smaller cabins, countless pools, 2 basketball and tennis courts, 4 bigger buildings and, of course, the main building right next to them. She also could make out the smell of salt, but she was sure that the ocean was still hundreds of miles away.

Glimmer waved her to follow them, when they entered the main building. Bow and Adora sat down in armchairs next to the entrance, while Glimmer talked to the man at the reception.

“How are you feeling?”

Adora shrugged. She knew what Bow was talking about, but she couldn’t give him an honest answer. She simply didn’t have one. The news that Catra left and went home, followed by a (according to Glimmer) panic attack, just left an empty feeling in Adora. She just was … done. So done with everything without being even close to her original goal.

The echo of Glimmer’s hard soles hitting the marble tiles made them both turn their heads and she sat down in between of them, but not without giving Adora a pat on her shoulder.

Glimmer’s aunt was either the owner or the director of the place, Adora couldn’t remember, but Glimmer said that for sure it wouldn’t be a problem for Adora to join them on such a short notice. ‘Short notice’ as in ‘we decided it 2 hours ago’. Both Bow and Glimmer did swear on their lives, that a stay at the spa would take things of Adora’s mind, and if not, she would at least feel better physically. And if everything didn’t help at all, Glimmer had another idea but she didn’t want to tell it. Judging Bow’s face, he knew what she was talking about but clearly didn’t like it.

“Glimmer, there you are! Finally, you are here again. It’s been too long.”

A woman with black hair, tied in a bun and 2 long strands, wearing a long purple/blue dress, crossed the distance with quick steps, arms wide, apparently waiting for a hug. Glimmer stood up and gave the woman what she wanted.

“Aunt Casta, it’s been only 5 years since I’ve been here. And our last meeting was only 2 years ago.”

“5 years are such a long time, wouldn’t you say? Oh, you must be Bow. Glad to see that you actually exist.”

She shook hands with a clearly embarrassed Bow, while Glimmer stared holes into her aunt’s back.

“You know, when she first told me about you, I just thought she wanted to prove that she is a grown-up now, but well, I’m glad it worked out for you two.” Casta turned around to her niece again. “But Glimmer, I see you don’t wear the sweater I made you, don’t you like it?”

Glimmer groaned in response. “I have it with me, I like it, it’s in my suitcase, I didn’t know it was mandatory for today.”

“I’m wearing the socks you made me!” Bow exclaimed, holding one of his shoes in hand while presenting his sock. “They are very fluffy.”

Casta elbowed Glimmer with big smile on her face. “I like this guy.”

Glimmer mumbled something unintelligible as she walked over to Adora to introduce her to Casta.

“Auntie, this is Adora. She is a friend we met on our way here and she is clearly needs to unwind a bit. Can she stay, too?”

“Oh sure, sure. Mi casa su casa or something like that.” She quickly walked over to the reception desk and exchanged a few things with the woman behind the counter. “Now, who wants a tour through the spa? Dinner is in an hour.”

Bow’s hand immediately shot up, Adora was fine with it too, just Glimmer made a grimace. But, 2v1 overruled, so she just had to bear it.

The tour itself was nothing special. Swimming pools, jacuzzi, saunas, massage parlors, a gym, meditation rooms. Things would expect from a place with the slogan ‘A place to reset body and mind’. And it looked freaking expensive, Adora didn’t know how she was supposed to afford this. While Casta was talking to Bow about having no guests, because the first big wave of costumers in winter usually came after Thanksgiving, because people were ashamed of committing all 7 deadly sins on just one evening, Adora whispered her doubts to Glimmer. Glimmer just rolled her eyes and raised her voice.

“Aunt Casta, how much would a week for 3 persons usually cost?”

“Uhm, let me see. All-inclusive, all-access, 3 persons, hm, around 2500$”

Adora winced, but Glimmer signaled her to be silent.

“And how much do we have to pay?”

“You three? Nothing. Why?”

Glimmer just shrugged and shot a Adora a ‘told ya’. Adora was just glad that they reached the dining room. Casta spoke a few words with the waiter, and the man brought them to a table. Casta disappeared for a short moment and came back with keycards, one for each of them, with the reminder to call her if they need anything.

They were just sitting at the table in silence and were waiting for better times to come. At one point, Glimmer just had left for the buffet, while Bow was still staring at the ceiling thinking about something. Adora left too, to at least take a look at the buffet, ready to be disappointed with the kitchen only preparing special diets, but no, they literally served everything.

When Adora returned to the table, she watched Glimmer giving Bow a clap on his arm, bringing him back to reality.

“And what’s up with you?”

“I’m still trying to figure out, how the 7 deadly sins fit into Thanksgiving. Gluttony and Sloth are obvious, and I guess Pride, Wrath and Envy aren’t that much of a stretch either. But Lust? How does Lust fit in there?”

“Maybe someone thinking about nailing his brother’s hot wife, what do I know?” Glimmer sounded impatient. “Now go get something to eat, before the Glutton on our table gets everything.”

Adora looked at her plate. Ok, maybe, but just maybe, the size of her helping was more than double of Glimmer’s, but it looked so good and Adora didn’t really think twice about it.

“On a serious note, where do you hide all that stuff?”

Still busy chewing, Adora flexed her arm to make her point and Glimmer raised her eyebrows.

“Makes … sense. Casta asked for game night later, want to hit the gym before that? Pretty sure that they are selling gym clothes.”

True, Adora had no gym clothes, they were all stolen from her car. In retrospect, why did she even bring them with her? It’s not like she was in the US for vacation. And yet her she was. In a spa. In the middle of nowhere.

Just like Glimmer had told her, Adora went to the reception desk to ask for the clothes and indeed could get some. The only downside of this: she now was the not-so-proud owner of a pink sports bra and matching gym shorts with the word ‘Mystacor’ written over the chest and the backside of the shorts.

Adora nearly felt ridiculous enough to stay at her room, only Glimmer’s nagging made her get up and go to the gym. Since her training schedule was fucked up anyways, she just went for the treadmill and ran and ran and ran until she nearly tripped. Adora then shifted her focus to the punching bag and worked on it instead. Again, she didn’t follow an actual plan, she just hammered her fists on the bag. At some point she saw red smears on the punching bad and Adora noticed, that she had busted the skin on her knuckles. She nearly could hear Catra scolding her for this. The blonde looked around for some wipes and noticed Glimmer watching her.

“That was … impressive to watch.”

Adora snorted. “Of course, I learned it from the best. She would be mad about this though.” She shook her hand to show what she meant. Glimmer handed her some tissues and showed her a first aid kit.

“Ah, Catra was a coach, right?”

Adora nodded. “She just taught me the basics, like how to punch and stuff like this. It actually isn’t that easy. Catra probably could do that for an hour and would walk away unscathed. Last time she did this, she grabbed a guy at his ankles and threw him across the room.”

Glimmer narrowed her eyes, probably thinking that it was a joke. Now totally spent, Adora laid down on the mattress beneath the punching bag and stared into the ceiling lights until she began to see these weird dots.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Glimmer made her blink and try to get her normal eye sight back.

“About what?”

“What happened at the hostel.”

“What is there to talk about? You were right. I panicked.”

“Would you mind telling me, why you were panicking? What were you thinking about?”

“Catra is gone, I am alone, I have neither the resources nor the ideas to continue whatever the fuck I’m doing right and that everything is my fault.”

Glimmer stayed silent for a few minutes.

“What did Catra say to you, on the evening you left her?”

“I was the one who started the whole thing. I called her out for being arrogant towards me, but she then pointed out literally everything that went wrong since we left our home. And in the end, she coined it all on me, because it was my idea to come here, and how I barely had contributed anything to this. What brought the barrel to overflowing, was that she said that the person that raised me, wasn’t related to me at all. Catra said she had proof for it, but couldn’t present it, so I called her a liar and laughed at her for being envious, because she grew up as an orphan.”

Glimmer made a grimace.

“She already was the better person there, when she just laughed about it. In retrospect, it was the stupidest thing I ever said. My grandmother treated her as if she was my sister from the moment, I brought her home for the first time. And Catra is well aware of that.”

Another pause, Glimmer carefully picked her words now.

“Would it actually matter that much? That your grandmother is, well, not your grandmother? The woman loved you and treated not only you, but also your best friend as her own. Is it really important that you are related by blood?”

Adora hadn’t thought about it in this way. “No, probably not. Catra grew up as an orphan and at one point she just shrugged the existence of her biological parents off. She … just stopped caring at some point. And I …  I just had Razz and when Razz died, the world stopped moving for me. Catra made it move again, but then my vile excuse of a mother destroyed everything again.” She barked a laugh. “I mean, look at me. I’m on a floor in a spa I never ever could afford by myself, because I ran away and got picked up by 2 strangers off the streets because they took pity on me. And all that, because I was too weak to see my own flaws.”

Glimmer smacked her hands together, right in front of Adora’s face. “Ok, enough moping for. Listen here, I’m only going to say this once, and I won’t tell you where I got this from. ‘Being weak isn’t something to be ashamed of, but staying weak is.’ You at least already realized what your flaws are. That’s something. Now if you are willing to get rid of these flaws, you will have no reason to call yourself ‘weak’.”

“Honestly, I’m going to google this.”

Glimmer rolled her eyes. “Whatever. But be ready for a second one. ‘The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of womb’. Who gives a fuck if Razz was related by blood? She treated you as her grandchild all the time, so you better call her your grandmother. Blood doesn’t have to mean jack shit. The people you chose to have around you, they are the important ones.”

“But wouldn’t that make things worse? The way I treated Catra?”

“I can’t believe I actually have to spell it out to you. She literally called you 25 times in less than 10 hours when she realized that you weren’t coming back. She is worried about you. If she didn’t care, she either wouldn’t have called at all, or sent a message with ‘Bye, Bitch’ or whatever. But she wants you to call her back.”

“But why did she go home and why can’t I contact her?”

“I don’t know about her phone, maybe she, just like you, lost her charger or whatever. But do you really think, she went home? Because in my opinion, the person in the hostel was sketchy as fuck.”

Adora shook her head. “No. I don’t. At least I don’t want to believe it. But where is she now?”

Glimmer shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m sure you’ll find out. For now, just try to call her.”

Adora crossed her hands behind her head. “I’m scared.”

“Of what?”

“Of what Catra is going to say.”

Glimmer scoffed. “You better be.” She didn’t care much about Adora’s shocked look. “What? There are always two parties needed for a fight. And a fight always impacts both sides. Don’t be so naïve to believe that this whole thing only hurt you. She may have laughed it off, but you told us that she is bad with sharing emotions.” Her voice grew softer again. “You are right, we don’t know each other very well and I haven’t met Catra at all, but it’s obvious that the bond you two share is something special, and that it’s very important to you. But, for the sake of you two, you need to face whatever she throws at you.”

Adora understood what she was saying, but Glimmer brought something up what Adora didn’t want to hear. That she hurt Catra when she left. And Adora hated herself for this.

Adora looked at Glimmer. “Thanks, I guess. You are good at this stuff, you know.”

She shrugged in response. “I do what I can.” She stretched out her hand to help Adora get up. “But let’s go now, Casta probably is on pins and needles for the game night.”

Glimmer was right, Bow and Casta were waiting for them while Bow was performing card tricks to pass the time. The evening was a nice distraction, even though Casta was talking all the time, making it for hard for Adora to even lay down her own name in Scrabble. Not that she really was listening, something else occupied her mind, and at some point, Adora just got up and left the room to call Catra. When she returned, her face told Bow and Glimmer that, again, she couldn’t get a hold of her friend. It damped her mood, but Adora gave her best to not let it get to the others.

They listened to Casta talking about the things she had planned to them, and Adora already knew that this was going to be a waste of time. The only massages she ever had, had a medical purpose but since this was a spa and Casta said something about hot rocks being placed on one’s spine, these massages were probably going to be a joke.

Adora was right. It was a waste of time, but she didn’t want to destroy it for Bow and Glimmer, who clearly enjoyed the whole thing, so Adora just endured it. The next checkpoint would’ve been a mud bath, but there was absolutely no way that Adora would climb into a mud pit, so she just straight-up went to the indoor beach.

It was literally a beach under a roof. Sand, salt water, palm tree and beach chairs and hot, humid air. Adora was the only one in the small hall at the moment, which wasn’t really a surprise since they also barely saw other guests during the meals.

Adora threw her stuff on one of the chairs and slowly walked down the slope of the room into the pool, which also had sand covering its ground. She sat down at a place that was deep enough for the water to reach her neck. The warm water let goosebumps run down her body, as she leaned back and closed her eyes. The gentle waves and the gurgling water in the drain, combined with the high temperature of both water and air, made her think of her vacation in Italy together with Catra.

Catra handing her an ice-cream cone, Catra shouting at some now clearly scared boys in Italian, Catra in her new, black-red bustier bikini with that freaking boob-window, Catra laughing at Adora’s attempt to throw a frisbee in a straight line…

“Pst, Adora. You need to wake up.”

“I don’t wanna, 5 more- “The rest of the sentence literally got drowned out. Thinking that she was in her bed, Adora turned around, but that movement caused her to slip on the sand and dunked her head under water. When Adora resurfaced and managed to blink the salt water out of her eyes, she saw Glimmer now standing behind her, looking surprised.

“Sorry, I didn’t know you actually were asleep. But judging from the smile on your face, you had happy dreams.”

Adora just groaned something unintelligible and noticed that it was already dark outside. She asked Glimmer for the time, and found out that she had been in the pool for 6 hours now. Since Adora didn’t remember anything, she apparently just slept through.

“Bow checked on you a few hours ago, but he decided to let you stay in there. But since you skipped lunch and since it’s dinner time now, I decided to get you.”

Adora just waved in response, telling her it was fine. She actually was hungry, although she nearly slept through the entire day. She climbed out of the pool and heard a gasp behind her.

“Oh sorry. Just saw your back.” Glimmer stepped closer carefully ran her fingers across. Adora shivered at the unexpected touch. “What happened?”

“Oh, that. Nothing. It’s something I have since birth. One of the doctors called it vitiligo once. It’s nothing bad, I just have to be careful in the open sun.”

Glimmer hummed, but said nothing else, so Adora headed to the showers.

Adora waved Bow a ‘Hello’ when they got to the dining room and she apologized to them, but they just shrugged in response, saying that they regretted the mud bath.

When Adora asked them what was the plan for tomorrow, a devilish smile appeared on Glimmer’s face.

“Oh, we are visiting a range.”

Bow winced. “Do we really have to? You know what Angella would say.”

“Well, my mother isn’t here and can’t tell me what to do. If you don’t want to come, fine. I bet Adora is coming with me.”

Adora didn’t see the problem, she gladly would see some horses, so she agreed.

“Adora, you don’t know what you signed up for.”

“Hush, don’t ruin. It’s just a 10-minute ride, you can drop us off there and come back later to get us.”

Bow sighed in defeat. “Whatever, I’ll just stand next to you and watch you getting hurt.”

“Oooh.” Glimmer cooed. “Look at Bow being a supportive boyfriend.”

“I don’t get it.” Adora was actually wondering about Bow’s behavior. “What’s so bad about visiting a range?”

“You’ll see it. Don’t worry.”

On the next day, Adora was actually glad Catra wasn’t here to see this, because she would be rolling on the floor, laughing. When they reached the place Glimmer wanted to go, Adora noticed, that something was off. She spotted a few hay bales, but also some targets between them. A concrete wall sealed off the area behind the targets and the hay.

“Wait, where are the horses?”

Both Glimmer and Bow shot her a confused look. “What horses?”

“You said, we are going on a range, right? And that’s where horses and cows live, no?”

She saw Glimmer biting her lip to stifle a laugh, Bow doing the same with his hand over his mouth, and knew that there was something that had gotten lost in translation.

Bow gave his best to keep his voice steady when he spoke to Adora. “The place where horse live, is called a ranch. We are on a shooting range. Ranch, range. Fine, but big difference. But now I can see why you wanted to come here. Or not here, you know what I mean.”

“Then why are we here?”

“Because a certain someone” Bow nodded towards Glimmer. “Has an unhealthy need for violence.”

“That” She pushed her index finger into his chest with every syllable. “Is not true.”

“Of course, it is. The last time you babysat your neighbor, your mother literally had to tell you: ‘No violence’.”

“That kid was a dick anyways.”

“Or when we were in Santa Monica last month. A seagull stole a fry, and instead of just eating the rest, you chased the seagull and when it started to fly, you threw rocks at it. You didn’t even hit it, but for sure someone on the ground.”

“Why didn’t it just go through the trash, like every other normal seagull?”

“Or that time, when- “Bow apparently had many stories to tell, but Glimmer cut him off.

“That’s enough for now, story boy. Let’s just agree on the fact, that it never was unnecessary.”

Bow clearly didn’t agree on that, but Glimmer was already on her way to the small building on site. She came back out with an old woman in tow, who was wielding 2 pistols and 2 rifles. The woman went back to the house once again and came back out carrying 3 crates.

The woman introduced herself as the instructor but that everything Adora could understand. Apparently, she was the only one with that problem, since both Bow and Glimmer were nodding now and then, Glimmer even asked some questions. The woman clearly was speaking English, but Adora just was lost. She had to think back to school, when they had to do listening tests, but the quality of the recording was so poor that no one understood anything. Of course, Catra never had problems with these tests, but since she couldn’t really help Adora, she told her to bring a dice. So, Adora started to throw a dice for every question she didn’t know the answer for, and to both her joy and disappointment, her grades went up.

The woman handed out earmuffs and Adora had to watch Glimmer to see when the appropriate time to put them on came. Everyone had to wear a bulletproof vest and then Glimmer was ready to start. Adora really couldn’t see the pros in this activity, but when Glimmer switched weapons, she could see danger sparkling in Glimmer’s eyes.

The only … entertaining thing that happened finished Glimmer’s power trip. She had picked up the last rifle and, judging from the sparks on the targets, Glimmer actually hit something. But suddenly she threw down the rifle on the table in front of her and started a weird dance. Glimmer’s expression made Adora and Bow take off their muffs but the moment they reached her; they heard a metallic sound. Adora looked to the ground and spotted a shell that dropped out of Glimmer’s jacket.

Adora was about to pick it up, but Glimmer stopped her, saving Adora from burning her fingers. They got out of the vests again, while the old lady looked after Glimmer. For some reason, the shell jumped into Glimmer’s neck and got sandwiched between Glimmer and her clothes.

On their way back to the spa, Adora inspected Glimmer’s back for burnings or something similar, but she didn’t find anything serious. At least Glimmer got a souvenir, she was allowed to keep the shell. Glimmer was talking about crafting it into a necklace, when Bow asked Adora if she got news from Catra.

Adora knew that he just wanted to be polite, but they should know that the moment she heard something from her best friend, she wouldn’t be able to hide it. But neither today nor the day before she could reach Catra, and it slowly drove her mad.

Back at the spa, they noticed that they had missed lunch. Not that Adora was in the mood for food, but Glimmer turned grumpy now, even though it technically was her fault. The constant nagging even annoyed Bow at some point, so much that he told her off. Of course, she got the wrong idea and ran off in a huff. Adora wanted to follow her, but Bow told her to stay.

“Leave her, she will come back soon.”

She didn’t, but since Bow had the only keys for the caravan, they didn’t have to fear Glimmer’s sudden departure. Glimmer didn’t return until dinner, but when she sat down at the table, she had a strange light in her eyes.

“Uhm, Adora?”

“Hm?” Adora wasn’t able to give a proper answer, she was busy chewing. “Wha?”

“How did Catra get her nickname again?”

“Uhm, it was my idea. Why?”

Glimmer ignored her question. “In what context?”

“Our first Halloween together. We were 8, I think. I was the warrior princess like always, and Catra as a witch with a cat. She wanted me to give her a nickname, and I found it fitting.”

“Does Catra have a liking for mythology? Egyptian maybe?”

“Not that I know. Would you tell me the reason now?”

Glimmer stared at her food, and said nothing. Adora waited for an answer, but Glimmer acted like she was mute. Suddenly, Glimmer stood up and walked to a table, where an older couple was just about to sit down. Adora looked to Bow, who had the same surprised look on his face.

They watched Glimmer talking to the couple with a big smile on her face, acting like politeness incarnate, small bows and nods to everything the couple said. The man reached into his pocket to pull out his phone and Glimmer turned around and gestured Adora to come over. Bow looked even more confused now, as he watched Adora leaving.

Glimmer’s eyes were brimming with excitement. “Adora, I met this nice couple earlier in the gym, when I … blew off some steam in the gym. They came in when I punched the bag, and they watched me for a bit. Andrea over here.” She pointed at the woman. “told me how to punch more efficient. Steve” Apparently the husband. “told me, they watched a fight yesterday. A girl my age versus a giant. And both are here, because they won a large sum from the fight and decided to celebrate.”

“Oh, we were so lucky. You know, we aren’t regulars there. We just got there and you know, we like to gamble a bit.” The woman let out a strange giggle. “And then we saw the name ‘Bastet’ and thought ‘this is it’. And we were right.”

Glimmer jumped in. “’Bastet’ is a name from the Egyptian mythology. Daughter of the sun god Re and next to her jobs as Goddess of Love and Fertility, she also is a warrior. And” Glimmer made a dramatic pause. “she is depicted as a cat.”

Adora finally understood what Glimmer wanted to tell her, but she was skeptical. “That could be anyone.”

“That may be true.” Glimmer nodded to Steve. “But Steve over here likes record things, and lucky us, he recorded the fight.”

“Oh, that was a mess. But it was awesome to watch.” Steve paused for a moment. “But … if this really is a friend of yours, I’m not sure if you actually want to watch this.”

Adora just shrugged. “I’ve seen fights before.”

“Believe me, girl. None like this.”

He pressed ‘Play’ and Glimmer and Adora immediately recognized the blonde person in the suit.

“Told you. Shady as fuck.” Glimmer looked at the couple. “Who is this?”

“Sorry, don’t know. But we saw them before, so I guess they are important.”

The blonde was talking to the audience, dramatically gesturing around. Adora understood the word ‘Bastet’ and the camera panned to the pit, now focusing the fighters down in the pit. Bastet, wearing white gear and gloves, short hair and a facemask, clearly had Catra’s frame, but again, a part inside of Adora didn’t want to buy it. And her opponent … oh God. If the situation wouldn’t that fucked up, it would’ve been funny to look at. Bastet looked like a malnourished dwarf compared to the other guy in the ring.

They started off with some trash talk, Adora couldn’t understand it, because everything else got drowned out by the laughter of the audience. Glimmer and Adora watched Bastet running away for nearly 5 minutes, until her opponent caught her and threw her against the wall, as if she weights nothing.

Adora heard herself sucking in air sharply and felt Glimmer’s hand on her shoulder. The same thing happened a second time, after Bastet got up and just stood there, as if she was thinking about something and forgot about her surroundings. Since her opponent didn’t pursue her, Bastet had all the time she wanted to get back up again, and looked up as if she was talking to someone. She suddenly fell down and got dragged towards the big guy.

Adora and Glimmer watched Bastet grabbing for something to hold on, but there was nothing but sand. And in a matter of seconds the whole situation changed. Adora thought that she blinked only once, but suddenly Bastet sat on her opponent’s back, holding his arm in a joint lock, while he was on his knees, squealing with pain.

They were talking, judging from the movements of the big guy’s mouth, but the camera didn’t pick it up. And then Bastet pulled.

“Oh god, did she just…” Glimmer did neither look nor sound quite happy about the development.

“Yep, she dislocated the shoulder and probably shattered his kneecaps. But wait, it’s gets even worse.” Adora did not like the casual tone of Steve here.

Bastet picked up a rope and with a flick of her wrist, she wrapped it around her opponent’s neck and pulled on both ends.

Adora began to feel sick, as she watched the big guy finally collapse and Bastet casually gather some stuff and leave the pit like nothing just happened.

“Did she … kill him?”

“Ah no, just choked him out. Oh boy, that sure was a mess. I mean, he couldn’t walk anymore and …”

Adora just thanked them and left, she didn’t want to hear whatever the couple still had to say. She passed their table and ignored Bow, who was still sitting there and waiting for them to come back, and headed straight to her room.

Half an hour later, Adora heard a knock on her door. It was Glimmer, greeting her with a faint ‘Hey’.

“I’m sorry.” Adora didn’t understand the apologizing tone in Glimmer’s voice.

“What for?”

“The video. I … thought you would be happy about news from Catra, but I didn’t expect that.”

“No. No, it’s fine. You were right. The hostel was ‘shady as fuck’” Adora drew the hyphens in the air with her fingers. “and it showed that Catra is still in the States. That’s a good thing.”

“You don’t really sound happy. And to be honest, the video was hard to watch.”

Adora shrugged. “It’s not like it was the first time Catra did something like this. At her first tournament, I’m pretty sure that she would’ve caused serious, if not lethal damage to her opponent if the ref and her coach didn’t step in. The other matched were no problem, just calm and collected.”

“Did she ever tell you, why?”

“Nope.” Adora let the P pop.

“What’s the deal with MMA anyways?”

“Pfff, what do I know? Never did it. I don’t even like it.”

“What do you mean? You know an awful lot about it.”

“Of course, I do. Catra picked it up and when she invited me to her first match, I did everything to not embarrass myself. Catra knows everything about football despite absolutely hating it.”

“It sure did look different on the pics and videos you showed to us.”

“I like …” Adora couldn’t believe herself for saying this. “I like to watch Catra fighting. It has … something attractive. Is that weird?”

Glimmer shook her head. “I think it’s sweet. I mean, you could pick a more pacifistic sport than MMA for that, but if that’s what you are into, why not?”

“Catra always acted like she never wanted to come to my matches, or didn’t have the time for it. But in the end, I always spotted her in the stand.” Adora couldn’t stop her smile, when she thought back at these times. “More than once she nearly ran on the field to beat up the player that tackled me.  She usually got stopped in time.”

 Glimmer’s high, clear laugh widened the Adora’s smile even more. “Good to know that someone has your back, huh?”

“Honestly, I was scared when I saw the video. Catra’s coach once said that she easily could go pro if she wanted to, but Catra is doing MMA because she likes it, not because of the ranks. But whatever we watched didn’t have a thing to with MMA. It was just … I don’t know.”

“Barbaric?”, Glimmer suggested. “I mean, they are ok with murder. I don’t think there is another way to describe it.”

“What do mean ‘they are ok with murder’?”

Glimmer made a face as if she would regret what she did say. “Catra’s opponent, the announcer called him ‘The crocodile’ or whatever … Andrea said, that this guy killed 4 people during the fights.”

Adora went pale. “How can this be legal?”

“Adora, it’s not legal. And in the video, you even could see a police officer in the crowd, which probably means that the police, at least in this county, turns a blind eye to it.”

“But why do people go there? What’s so fun with watching people getting murdered?”

“Pecunia et potentia.” Glimmer shrugged. “Bloodsports have accompanied mankind since our species learned how to walk. It’s been always about money and power. Did you look at the couple that showed us the video? The husband is a carpenter. And he made a year’s wage because he bet on a tick winning over a giant. But…” Glimmer lifted her hand before Adora could say anything. “Andrea swore on their earnings from that evening that she did see Bastet leaving right after the fight. She remembers it, because she saw – wait for it – a cat on her shoulder.”

Adora indeed was relieved, if only a bit, and cocked her head in confusion. “Where did she get a cat? I mean, Catra totally would get one, but now? Here?”

Glimmer shrugged. “Hey, she got away. That’s something, no?”

Indeed, it was something, but it didn’t help Adora to figure out where Catra was right now. The video just proved that Catra was alive and still in the USA, but not how Catra’s attitude had shifted towards her. The thought made Adora shiver, but she instantly reminded herself of the big number of missed calls and Catra’s message to call her.

“You ok?” Glimmer made a worried face. “You drifted off for a moment.”

“All good.” Adora let out a sigh. “Stupid brain doing stupid things.”

Glimmer shot her a look Adora was unable to interpret, but she said nothing and sat down in the armchair next to Adora’s bed and began to scratch her fingers over the fabric. “What’s your plan for now?”

“I’m not sure, but I think that I want to go to the Whispering Woods. I can’t get a hold of Catra for now and that makes it impossible for me to find her, but if it’s true what you said and she made some money, she can easily follow me, no? How long do I need to get there?”

“Adora, I swear to God, if you really just said ‘I’ instead of ‘we’, I’m going to tie you up and throw you in the trunk. As if we would let you go there alone. Ok, I haven’t talked to Bow about this, but it was the plan from the beginning, so he’ll be fine with it.”

Adora didn’t know what to say for a moment, but quickly caught herself again. “I feel like I have asked this already, but why are you doing this? What do you gain from this?”

Glimmer put her hands on her hips, glaring at Adora. “Now I will say the same thing I said a few days ago. We gain nothing. We are going there anyways, and honestly, I want to get out of here. I like my aunt, but since I’m going to stay in the US for a while, I’m going to see her more often in coming times. And … maybe I’m a bit envious.”

Adora didn’t know what to make out of this, when Glimmer winked at her and left to talk to Bow and Casta about their early departure.

Bow agreed with Glimmer to leave in 2 days and guessed that, depending on the traffic, it will take 3 days at max to get to the Whispering Woods. Casta was … not that excited about letting her favorite (and only) niece go so early. For that reason, the resort director booked them every possible thing they offered at the spa and the 3 of them had no choice but to endure it.

A day before their departure, while sitting through massage, Adora’s phone rang and Adora nearly fell from the massage bed while trying to reach it. She checked the number and immediately was disappointed that it wasn’t Catra, and it got even worse when she picked up and the caller introduced herself as the saleswoman from the car dealership. It was an awkward conversation, Adora tried to be as nice as possible, and couldn’t be honest enough to just tell the woman off. She promised to call her again when ‘she was back in the area’.

It was not the only call Adora got this day, she got three more, from 3 different numbers. When the first call came in, the display showed a number starting with +55, but Adora had no clue what kind of country code it was. She showed it to Bow and Glimmer, and Bow immediately told her to not take it.

“That’s Brazil. That’s 100% a scam. Had this half a year ago. They are just dialing a random number and when you pick up the call, you give away that the number is in use and they will spam you.”

Sounded reasonable, but the two following calls showed a different country code, still both from South America. As advised, Adora didn’t pick up, but before she went to bed, her curiosity got the better of her and she called the last number back, the country calling code said ‘Nicaragua’.

After waiting for a bit, a deep, clearly male voice coughed a ‘Hola?’ into the other end. Adora tried to form a sentence with an excuse at its beginning, but after a few words, the man on the other end of the line interrupted her. Adora didn’t know anything in Spanish except how to order a beer, but even she could tell, that he wasn’t saying nice things. She dropped a ‘Scusi’ and ended the call.

It was weird. Usually scammer want something from you, meaning that they at least could speak English. But the man didn’t really bother with doing that, so maybe he just got the wrong number. To test this theory, she also called back the number from Brazil, but it showed the same result, only with now a woman rambling something in Portuguese.

Adora just shrugged it off, apparently it was just a strange coincidence.

On the day of their departure, Casta accompanied them to the caravan to see them off, of course not without forcing a promise out of Glimmer to call her aunt more often. She gave them some lunchboxes, saving Adora from picking up her promise to cook for the 3 of them, and promised Adora to make her a sweater too. Adora gave her best to refuse this offer, but she had the feeling that Casta would make one anyways. They left the spa, just to make a short stop at a gas station and a grocery store, and when they finally reached the highway, Adora began to feel nervous.

For whatever reason, Glimmer could read Adora like a book, and she asked her, what she was thinking about. The problem here was, Adora didn’t know that either.

“I had to leave my home around 4 weeks ago, crossed the ocean on a container ship, bought a car, trashed a car, met you two, spent a few days in a 5-star hotel. Now I’m finally on my way to the Whispering Woods, and I don’t even know where to expect there.”

“Like, literally or do you not know what to do when you are there?”

“To be honest, both. I just know that the Whispering Woods are a nature reserve, a giant forest. There is a single town in the forest, and I guess that’s where I should start looking for my mother. But the only thing I have is a picture of her from 20 years ago, and a letter from January this year as a last sign of life.”

“That’s not much.” Bow pointed out the obvious, while Glimmer typed something into her phone.

“Okay, listen.” Glimmer read something aloud from her phone. “The Whispering Woods are a nature reserve located in the United States of America, reaching from the Canadian border in Washington state in the north, to the North Cascades National Park in the West, the Kaniksu National Forest in the east and Brightmoon in the south. – Wait, Brightmoon? Bow, did you know that?”

“Nope.” Bow shook his head from the driver’s seat.

“My parents live there, my mother works in a hospital and my father has his office there, he is a lawyer who is specialized into cases of malpractice. They met in court, very romantic.” Glimmer coughed. “Anyways. The only city in the Whispering Woods is called ‘Alwyn’ and was founded as a municipality in 1897 by a group of religious refugees. At first, it was exclusively for members of the ‘Church of the First Ones’, but during the 1980ies, other religious groups started to settle down. Estimated population, 100.000.”

The things about the forest itself were nothing new, but Alwyn sounded interesting. Founded by members of the ‘First Ones’. Mara gave her everything to them, so if someone is sending letters from an unknown location, only with an addressee and a stamp that says ‘Whispering Woods’, it could be a smart move to start with the only amassing of civilization there.

“100.000 people…. I mean, that’s not London, but it will still be hard to find someone specific. Where do you even start?”

Adora had already thought about this, but how so often, the metaphorical lightbulb didn’t appear. “How about asking the police? The post office? Maybe they still have these old phonebooks with name and addresses in it? Or, we could ask if we get a look into the register of residents.”

Glimmer and Bow agreed, and Adora was glad to have something that sounded like a plan now. She pulled out her phone to write a message to Catra, to both her numbers. Adora didn’t want to repeat that mistake.

Since she didn’t have the opportunity to apologize to Catra in person yet, Adora sent her a sorry excuse of an … excuse, describing her plans, that she had found company and where she is heading to.

Adora hit ‘send’ and stared at the screen for 10 minutes to wait for the second checkmark to appear, but she was let down yet again.

She stared out of the window, thinking about things to come and what to make for dinner.

Chapter Text

49.381$. Catra stared at the pile of paper bills in front of her. Scorpia, who sat right next to her, let out a whistle.

“I mean, I have seen larger sums as numbers on account statements, but seeing this in front of me sure is something else.”

Catra agreed with her. Well, not on the larger-sums-part. But it sure was impressive to see this laying in front of her. She put the money back into the bag and tossed the bag back into the safe. Catra figured that it would be safe there, hidden in the back of the truck. Not exactly hidden, but when Catra asked Scorpia about a hiding place, she remembered the safe. It was hard to spot, even you knew where it was, since Entrapta just put a few crates in front of it and forgot about it. Scorpia only remembered it, because she found a key on her keychain and was asking herself what it was for.

Scorpia wasn’t the type for stealing the money, and Entrapta simply didn’t care enough about a sum that was probably pocket money for her, given the fact that she paid a large sum to help Scorpia’s girlfriend and didn’t even bat an eye.

She sat down back at the table, where Scorpia ate her lunch. They just had returned from a small shopping trip to get new clothes for Catra, while Entrapta was busy working on the truck. They did a bit of small talk, until Catra couldn’t hold back the question about Entrapta being hunted by the Feds.

“No, it’s true. That’s one of the reasons why we are moving nearly all the time. I don’t know the exact details, but Entrapta assured me that she took extra countermeasures, so that we can’t get tracked. And since this happened 2 years ago, I don’t think she is lying.”

“And you are okay with that?”

“Driving all the time? Sure, and I see Perfuma often enough, I can work out here.” She pointed at the training bench with the stored weights above it. “And the ‘pay’ is great too.”

“No, I meant running from the authorities.”

Scorpia shook her head. “It’s not like Entrapta was in the wrong. If you plan to take money from the coal industry, you shouldn’t make campaign promises about clean energies.”

They heard a bang on the trailer door, and Entrapta opened one of the doors from the outside. She threw some tools on the floor and climbed in.

“Scorpia, I rewired the solar cells, I would need you to climb on the roof and check for sparks or whatever when I restart them.”

Scorpia saluted and stood up to get her jacket, the cold air coming through the open door showed the necessity. Entrapta sat down in front of a keyboard on of the desks and started the computer attached to it. Catra could hear steps above her, Scorpia has entered the roof. Entrapta typed some things into the computer, Catra just saw white lines running across the screen, but apparently everything was going like it was supposed to.

“Uh, Bastet, could you please pull the lever over there.”

“My name is Catra, but sure.”

“Oh sorry, and WAIT.” Entrapta tossed her a rubber glove. “Put this on first. SCORPIA, ARE YOU READY?”

Two knocks coming from the ceiling apparently meant a ‘Yes’, because Entrapta nodded at Catra to fulfill her role as lever-puller. She did as she was told, and, at least to Catra, it appeared that nothing happened.

“Was it the wrong lever?”

“No.” Entrapta furrowed her brows. “It’s the only one.”

Catra sighed. “No, I … I just wanted to make a joke.” She was sure, that Kronk would’ve proud of her. But on the other side it would be mean to picture Entrapta as Yzma, and that … wasn’t really fair.

Everything seemed to work like intended, since Scorpia came down from the roof, Catra didn’t get an electric shock and Entrapta was humming a dissonant melody while looking at some charts on the screen in front of her. Scorpia closed the door behind here and Catra scooted closer to the small radiator, regretting that she didn’t go to get her jacket too.

Entrapta talked to Scorpia about the solar cells on the roof, but Catra could see on Scorpia’s face that she had no idea what Entrapta was talking about.

“Sorry to interrupt…” Catra immediately had their attention. “Thank you for picking me up yesterday.”

“Ah, no problem.” Scorpia stopped Catra with a wave of her hand. “I mean, we nearly ran over you.”

“Did we?” Entrapta perked up.

“Nope, nearly. Darla stepped in. The brakes are working wonderful, by the way.”

It made Entrapta pat the floor. “Good girl.”

Entrapta’s voice was dripping with pride and … affection? and it kind of irritated Catra, but Scorpia seemed to be used to it. Entrapta started to talk to the floor, as if she holding a conversation with Darla, but Darla didn’t answer. Catra was surprised that she didn’t know what was stranger to her. Entrapta talking to Darla, or Darla not actually answering.

Scorpia clapped her hands, which also brought Entrapta’s attention back to her. “Catra, you said yesterday you had a reason to come to the USA, with a friend. But the friend isn’t here and you also didn’t say where you want to go. Can … you tell us where you want to go.”

Catra looked at one of the turned-off screens at the walls. “We originally came here … to find my friends mother. But… things happened and we went separate ways.” She forced herself to look at Scorpia again. “I think, that in the end I want to go to the Whispering Woods.”

Scorpia and Entrapta shared a surprised look. “What do you want there? There is just a smaller city, nothing more. I expected New York City, or LA, or whatever metropole you wanted visit.”

Catra decided to tell them about the letters Mara had sent Adora, and Entrapta’s eyes lit up. “Uh, do you have them with you? Can I use them as exercise material for Emily?”

“Emily can do that? By the way, where is she?” Scorpia looked around, as if there was someone else hiding in the trailer.

“She needed a rest to process things, so I let her.” Entrapta turned to Catra. “I’ll introduce you later.”

Catra slowly started to wonder in what kind of circus she got into, but continued to talk about the plan she and Adora originally had.

“I’m impressed, that you even made it that far.” Entrapta was kind of hard to read for Catra, but she decided that the tinkerer meant what she was saying. “But why didn’t you just call her.”

“Because I trashed my phone and I have the suspicion that DT actively prevented me from getting a new one, because I am too valuable as a fighter.”

Entrapta thought about it. “Sounds plausible. I don’t know exact numbers, but if you take your winnings and your bet sum in consideration, in combination with the odds I saw, the pot must have been around 2m$. Since no one did bet on you, someone can get a big amount of money even with only a little sum as wager.”

“That actually explains the face DT made when I left.” Catra remembered something from yesterday. “Scorpia said, you can give me a phone. Was that true? Now, I actually can pay for it.”

Entrapta waved her hand. “You can have it; I don’t need the money. But if you want accompany us for a bit, I could use a lab partner. Sadly, because of some stupid laws, Scorpia has to sit behind the steering wheel, even if she doesn’t need to.”

Catra thought about it. She couldn’t get a hold of Adora, she didn’t even answer her yet. Ok, maybe she did, but Catra didn’t have a chance to check it. Catra also had no idea where Adora was right now. She didn’t trust a word DT was saying, but if … if it was true, and Adora came for Catra to pick her up and couldn’t find her, Adora probably was far away right now. But even if Adora was on the other side of the country now, it shouldn’t pose a problem for Catra to follow her, since money stopped being a problem.

And Catra couldn’t shake of the feeling that Entrapta and Scorpia will be helpful in the future.

“Where are you going anyways?”

Entrapta looked at Scorpia, who pulled out her phone. “Uh, the only place we actually HAVE to go is New Jersey, until tomorrow 9pm. To pick up the … “Scorpia squinted. “the platinum-based capacitor you ordered.”

Entrapta snapped her fingers. “Oh true, Emily will be happy about that.”

Scorpia looked at Catra. “So, New Jersey it is. What about you? You in?”

New Jersey it was.

Scorpia sat down in the cab again to get Darla running again, while Catra was in the back in the sleeping area, entertaining her cat. It had its legs up in the air, and purred while enjoying the belly rubs Catra gave it.

Catra heard the door to the trailer open, and Entrapta appeared in its frame.

“Oh, hey Catra, are you free? I could need some – uh, is that a cat?” Entrapta stepped closer and stood on tiptoes to get a look on the cat. “Is it broken?”

Catra didn’t know what Entrapta was talking about, but then Entrapta began to run her fingers over the cat’s deformed leg. She wanted to stop her, but the cat just watched Entrapta and didn’t seem to be in pain, so Catra let Entrapta do her … whatever she was doing.

At some point, Entrapta cocked her head and stared holes into the air. She then turned around and walked back into the trailer, gesturing for Catra to follow her. She led her to a desk with a machine on it, Catra recognized it as a 3D-printer. Entrapta pressed a few buttons and the noise coming from the printer signaled its starting warming-up phase.

“Emily, would you please look up some blueprints for me?” Entrapta seemed to speak to the printer, but the printer didn’t respond. “Emily?”

Catra looked around, but the mysterious Emily yet failed to make her appearance. Entrapta hit herself on the forehead.

“Dang, she is still not back. Forgot about that.” Entrapta made a remorseful face. “Sorry, that has to wait.”

Catra wasn’t disappointed, she didn’t even know what to expect. As if nothing has happened, which kind of was what happened, Entrapta walked to the table where she was sitting yesterday, sat down and started to work at the circuit board that was laying there. Catra was waiting for Entrapta to say something else, but Entrapta forgot about Catra’s presence.

The moment Entrapta pulled out a welding torch and put on her goggles, Catra felt the need to remember Entrapta that she was in here too, it was unhealthy to look into the flame of a welding torch without any protection.

Entrapta flung around when she heard the cough behind her. Her face displayed honest surprise, as if she actually forgot about Catra. She dove into a crate and pulled out a second set of protection gear, and gave it to Catra.

She stepped to the table and put down the googles to follow Entrapta’s instructions. Catra didn’t know what she was doing, she just held things, turned things around and got things from drawers and crates. The trailer looked like a mess, but Entrapta knew the position of every single screw and nut. She didn’t even look at Catra when she told her to put that one screw back and take the other one right next to it. They looked exactly the same to Catra, but what did she know.

It was interesting to watch Entrapta working, especially since Catra had a part in all this. Her face changed every minute between concentration, being lost in contemplation and pure glee.

The last thing they finished looked like a Mercedes-star, only in purple and clearly made out of … well, circuits. Catra couldn’t make out its use, and Entrapta didn’t answer when she asked her. Catra was just about to sit down for the first time in hours, when nearly all screens on the walls came to life.

Catra didn’t see Entrapta do anything that would have caused that, her confusion grew even more when the screens showed a purple color, a bit lighter than the paint on the truck itself. A pulsing triangle appeared on a screen that could be seen as the center, the pulse spread out to the surrounding screens, just like a heartbeat.

“Emily!” Entrapta threw her arms in the air. “You are back!”

“Hello Entrapta.” The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, probably from hidden speakers in the wall. “I have installed your update and removed the obsolete data. The first tests have shown an increase in the data flow by 11,98%.”

“Excellent.” Entrapta clapped her hands. “So, everything is fine?”

“Was there something else to expect?”

“Hm, no.” Entrapta stared at the ceiling. “Oh, wait. You triggered the detonators of the Trinitrotoluol I kept in one of the drawers once. And since that blew up Darla 1.0, you could say it would be normal to expect … complications.”

Catra didn’t like what she heard. “Are you telling me that you have TNT in here?”

The slight panic in Catra’s voice made Entrapta turn around. “Had. It was too unstable. I have only Semtex without detonators now. It’s in that crate over there.”

That didn’t make Catra feel better as she glanced across the room to the corner Entrapta had pointed, but the lights of the screen suddenly flared up.

“Entrapta, do we have a guest?”

“Oh right! Emily, this is Catra, my new lab partner. Catra, this is Emily.” Entrapta made a wide-ranged motion with her arm, pointing at the screens on the wall while literally oozing pride. “My Opus Magnum.”

“Nice to meet you, Catra.”

“Nice to … meet you too, I guess.”

Entrapta and Emily began a conversation, where Catra had no part in. Since Entrapta seemed to be done for the day, Catra decided to join Scorpia in the cab. She needed a few seconds to get used to the sunlight again, and she noticed that the sun was already disappearing at the horizon again. Scorpia told her that they will reach their final stop for the day soon for the day soon, and asked Catra what they have been doing all day. Catra shrugged, it was just some wielding and since she nearly had no idea what she had put her hands on this day, she couldn’t give Scorpia a honest answer. Scorpia wasn’t really surprised, she knew Entrapta for quite a bit longer than Catra, so she was able to relate to that.

Scorpia turned her attention back to the book she was reading, it made question Catra how many tickets they already got for driver distraction. She went back into the resting area to look after her cat again. She found it sleeping on her bed and remembered Entrapta’s examination from earlier. Catra should come back to it later, when she saw Entrapta again.

But Entrapta didn’t leave the trailer, not even when Scorpia called for her over the intercom. Scorpia asked Catra to look for Entrapta. She went through the still green lit door and found Entrapta sleeping on the desk where Catra left her. Judging from the lights on the screens, Emily was still there.

“Uh Emily, is Entrapta ok?”

“I’m quite sure of it. She is aware of the word ‘sleep schedule’, but I think she doesn’t know the meaning of it. If Scorpia wouldn’t remind her of eating on a regular basis, she probably would starve to death.”

“I probably should tell Scorpia about that.”

“Please do. And, Catra?” Emily directly speaking to Catra surprised her. “I would love to talk to you, if that is ok for you. You are the first guest in years.”

Catra didn’t give her – it? – an answer, Emily’s question had crept her out for some reason. Emily’s way of speech was leagues above Darla’s, Darla was a classic GPS voice with extended internet access, but Emily nearly seemed human. Catra had actually doubts that Emily was an AI at all, even though Entrapta had titled Emily as her masterwork earlier.

She went back in front to tell Scorpia about the sleeping Entrapta, which caused the trucker to let out a gentle laugh. Scorpia told her that she will take care of her employee when they arrived at their stop, and suggested that Catra could take a look into the fridge to pick something for dinner.

Said, done, and Catra watched Scorpia carrying Entrapta to her bed without waking her up. It was 8pm now, which could be considered a bit early to go to bed. But Emily’s statement from earlier about Entrapta not having a sleep schedule seemed to be true. Catra asked Scorpia about it, and she told her that the inventor often stayed awake for over 24 hours and then, when the flesh got weak, she just flopped over whatever she was working on and slept right there.

Since Catra had found some pizza dough and enough ingredients to decorate it, she decided to go for it, which Scorpia was actually happy about. They stopped at a gas station again, to recharge Darla and fill up the water tank. Since they were heading north and it was mid-October now, they sat down in the trailer to eat dinner there since it was too cold on the outside.

They were immediately greeted by Emily. Scorpia said ‘Hi’, but began to gobble the pizza the moment she sat down.  Catra didn’t know why, but for some reason she felt watched. Like, literally. And as if the one watching read her thoughts, Emily asked Catra if something was wrong with the pizza. Catra shoot a look over to Scorpia and saw a grin hidden behind a piece of her dinner. They haven’t talked about the pizza since they left the cab.

“How do you know about the pizza?”

“My visual sensors picked something up, what I for 89% am sure about, that looks likes self-made pizza. Self-made, because its typical circular form is missing.”

“Visual sensors? You mean cameras?”

“Indeed. 4 in this room. One above the desk, one beneath the center screen, one above the 3D-printer and one in the right corner above the door to the sleeping area.” Catra turned around to look at the described places. “Congratulations, you found them all.” Entrapta didn’t manage to give Entrapta an individual voice, it was just the default female voice stolen from Google or whatever, so Catra couldn’t make out if Emily was being sarcastic. Not that Catra was too disappointed about that, if she learned one thing from movies and games, emotional machines always led to humanity’s downfall.

“What are you?”

“Realistically speaking, I am a so called ‘Strong AI’, created by Entrapta to help her with her work. Philosophically speaking, I am Entrapta’s first friend.”

Catra for sure didn’t expect that response. “Please explain.”

“Entrapta is, what common people describe as a genius. Gifted people often have problems with social interactions, but not always with themselves as the source of said problems. Children in the same age can have problems following the other party through the lack of development, and adults often are scared or deterred by children who are on the same level as them or even above. In short, Entrapta is a loner.”

Catra looked at Scorpia, and saw on her face that it was true.

“And that’s why she made you?”

“I don’t know. My first version went live in 2008, Entrapta’s original plan was just to get something like an AI running, but something made her continue her work. You have to ask herself about that.”

 “Why do you not know that?”

“You seem to forget that I am a machine, I have yet to pass the Turing-Test and I’m even farther away from reaching the point of technological singularity. I can only work with the data someone gives to me. In comparison to human intelligence, I may be superior in cognitive abilities, but I don’t have limbs, and close to none emotional and social capabilities. I may use the words ‘I’ and ‘think’, but I neither have an Ego nor do I actually think per biological and philosophical definitions. I just use these for grammatical purposes.”

Catra’s head began to hurt. Is it self-awareness if someone is aware of not being self-aware? Talking to Emily was strange, but also intriguing. She should indeed talk to Entrapta about it. But thinking about Entrapta made Catra remember the phone they were talking about. Since she didn’t see one laying around, Catra asked Emily about it, but apparently fixing a phone is such a boring task for Entrapta that it made her fall asleep. Catra wasn’t pleased about hearing this, slowly but steady she was getting impatient. She should’ve beat up DT and take their phone, but on the other hand, Adora had the car, what would be the worst thing that could happen?

Catra ended her conversation with Emily at that point, and left the trailer without further ado. She was angry, angry at herself. Entrapta and Emily had her distracted so much, that Catra actually forgot about the whole situation. The cat did same thing days ago, when Adora left her, but she just couldn’t bring up the willpower to be angry at that cute little ball of fur in her bed.

Tomorrow, they will arrive in New Jersey, and Catra realized that this didn’t bring her even a tad bit closer to Adora’s original goal. She cursed, but they were quiet curses, she didn’t want to wake up Entrapta or scare the cat, that was now cuddled up to her side. But it was loud enough that the passing Scorpia heard it. She turned around to ask Catra what was wrong, but Catra just put her off until tomorrow.

The following day wasn’t starting like Catra wanted to, she slept in. It was a horrible night, she just carefully tossed around to not wake up her sleeping buddy, and when she finally fell asleep, a nightmare woke her up soon after. The last time she looked at her watch, it was 5am. Now, 5 hours later, she felt like shit for whatever reason. Catra just wanted to turn around and close her eyes again, but a protesting mew right in front of her made Catra fully awake instantly. Someone was hungry and they did their best to show it.

Feeling her own stomach protesting too, Catra pulled together every ounce of willpower she could find to leave the bed, shouting a ‘Good morning’ in direction cab to receive a cheerful answer from Scorpia and a quite less cheerful one from Darla. She grabbed the little bowl she bought for the cat food, and watched the stray tripping over itself to get to the food.

The red light over the door behind her signaled, that Entrapta was already back at work. Catra made herself a sandwich and watched the cat finishing their meal. She picked up the cat and put it, like always, on her shoulder. Catra rang the bell to the lab and entered it, when Entrapta changed the door light to guarantee a safe entrée.

Entrapta leans over the desk, looking through a magnifying glass on what Catra hopes is her new phone. The tinkerer lifts her gaze for a second to look at Catra and then on Catra’s shoulder. Her eyes went wide as if she just remembered something.

“Emily, focus on the desk please.” Entrapta gestured Catra to come closer, while she cleaned the desk. “Put it here.”

Catra didn’t know what she meant at first, but then realized, that Entrapta was talking about the cat. She did as she was told, the cat didn’t make a sound, it was watching it surroundings.

“A person named Catra has a cat.” The screens on the wall turned purple, when Emily ‘appeared’. “How original.”

“A sassy robot. Entrapta has doomed humanity.” Catra couldn’t believe she was actually quarreling with a machine. “Who is your shining example? Cortana? GLaDos?”

“I’m older than 8, and it’s impossible for me to turn into a potato, I think I am already superior to them.”

For someone with apparently no ego, Emily’s was pretty big. Catra looked at Entrapta and noticed that she watching them with great interest. A mewl from the table made them look down. Entrapta asked Catra a few things about the cat, like breed, age, gender, but Catra only knew the answer to the age-question.

“Emily, please do a reverse image search for this cat.”

It didn’t take 5 seconds for Emily to get a result, she found out, that the cat was a Chartreux, judging from its eye- and fur color. Entrapta then ordered Emily to find out data about growth speed and leg length of this breed, which also was only a matter of seconds. Entrapta pulled out a ruler and repeated the soft kneading motions on the deformed leg she already did the day before. Again, the cat didn’t make a sound, it just watched Entrapta doing her examination.

Entrapta had some more orders for Emily, and looked at something on the screen. Meanwhile, Catra was showering the cat in belly rubs who let out a pleased mbrt now and then. She looked up again, when Entrapta clapped her hands and ordered Emily to ‘Do it’. The 3D-printer in the corner came to life and started its work. Catra looked at the screen for the first time, and saw a blueprint of … a leg? No, a prothesis.

“Wait, are you making a prothesis for my fucking cat just out of nowhere?”

Entrapta turned to her and thought about the question, as if there could be some hidden meanings in it. “Yes? And the best thing is, it is adaptable to the growth. Now I don’t know about wear and tear, but I can always make a new one if needed. And I can’t simulate the exact weight of the leg, the cat probably won’t be able to run, but it’s good enough to walk and with some training, to jump.”

The printer stopped working, it had done its job, and Catra took a look on the polymer-parts laying on the plate. The parts were all black and had some similarities with Lego. After a bit of waiting for the parts to cool down, Entrapta took all of them and put them together, starting with paw. She stopped once to search in one of her drawers for something and returned with 2 springs, a Velcro fastener and a bandage roll.

She attached the springs at the joints and told Catra to lift the cat up. Entrapta rolled a thin veil of bandages around the stump and slowly slid the leg into the prothesis. Since there was no protest from the owner of said leg, Entrapta made a harness out of the Velcro fastener and fixed the prothesis to the cat’s torso. When she was done, Catra carefully placed the cat back on the desk and held her breath.

The cat just … stood there. On all fours. As surprised as Catra. Probably. The mimic of a cat is hard to read. Catra sprints back to the resting area to get some treats and held them in front of the cat, in just such distance that just stretching the neck wouldn’t be enough to reach the treats. The desire to get the treat was stronger than the caution and so the cat two quick steps forwards, putting weight on the prothesis. A bit wobbly at first, but a safe standing. Catra did her best not to squeal and hug Entrapta out of pure delight. They watched the cat doing some careful steps on the desk.

“The operation … ‘Leg’ was a success.” Entrapta had pulled out her recorder out of nowhere. “But the subject moves like a robot. Probably needs some time to adjust to the prothesis.” She looked at Catra. “What’s its name anyways?”

Catra shrugged. “It doesn’t have one. I mean, it’s not a dog, they won’t come running when you call them, only if you open a can of food.”

“Hm.” Entrapta put her head back to look at the ceiling. “How about … ‘Robot’?”

“I will not call my cat ‘Robot’.”

“It’s alive, isn’t it?” Emily stepped in. “So ‘Golem’ would be more fitting.”

Entrapta let out an agreeing hum, but Catra didn’t get it. “Where is the difference?”

“The word ‘Robot’ derogates from the Slavic languages, meaning work or worker, depending on the language. It also describes synthetic entities from a Czech play who are made to work for humans in a master-slave relationship. Since they are organic, the word ‘Android’ from today’s terminology would be more fitting.” Emily started to give a summary before Catra even could finish her sentence. “The most famous golem was made from the rabbi Loew ben Bezalel in late 16^th century in Prague. There are many stories about what exactly happened, but all are telling that he made the golem from clay of the riverbanks of the Vltava River and placed a Shem, a piece of paper with his will on it, in the golem to give life to it. Some say, that the rabbi wrote the Shem not with ink, but with his blood, which made the golem go insane in the end.”

Catra thought about it, she liked the golem-story, she was sure she already heard of it. But not ‘Golem’. She tried to some to find anagrams, but she only could find ‘Mogle’, and if she had to take a character from ‘The Jungle Book’, then ‘Bagheera’ or ‘Shere Khan’ just would make more sense.

Melog. Just … Golem backwards.

That was good enough.

Melog.

Catra leaned down to the cat. “Are you Melog?”

Melog looked up, gave the tip of Catra’s nose a lick and meowed. Could be ‘Yes’, could be ‘No’, could be ‘More treats’, but it was good enough for Catra. She looked at Entrapta again. “How can I thank you for that?”

“Actually, 2 things. First, talk to Emily for a bit. Second, could you please accompany Scorpia later to pick up my order? I will finish your phone in the meanwhile.”

Catra shrugged. “Sure, no problem.”

She picked up Melog and joined Scorpia in the cab again. Even though she knew that Scorpia wasn’t actually driving, it still made her nervous when the trucker left her seat to get a closer look to a now standing Melog. Scorpia cooed about everything she saw in that moment, about the new leg, the new name, even about the breed. Catra couldn’t hide her snicker in that moment, she never had heard of this breed before, and something told her that it was the same case for Scorpia.

Darla chimed and informed them, that they will reach their destination in a about an hour. It made Catra tell Scorpia about Entrapta’s request, and Scorpia’s eyes lit up when she heard that.

“Oh, thank God. Don’t want to say that I’m scared, but last time I got scammed and it costed Entrapta a few thousand dollars. She wasn’t mad or anything, it was just embarrassing for me.”

Catra narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean, ‘scammed’? Can’t you just, like file a complaint?” Scorpia avoiding her gaze told Catra, that she probably was missing something. Oh. “We don’t go to an electronics store, do we?”

Scorpia shook her head. “Most high-quality parts are getting tracked and if you buy them from the manufacturer, they usually want information about you. And since Entrapta doesn’t want that, she looked for someone who would sell that stuff without asking about the who and why, only about the how much.”

“How do you find someone like that, I doubt that they are putting ads in newspapers or phonebooks. And where even does Entrapta get her money from?”

Not for the first time, Catra could tell that Scorpia knew the answer but wasn’t willing to share it. “That’s something you should better ask Entrapta about.”

Catra hated it, when she was left in the dark but it’s not like she had told them everything about her, and since Entrapta still had something Catra wanted, Catra decided to play along.

As always, Darla had calculated their time of arrival to the second, not really a surprise, since Darla was also the one doing the driving. Before they left the truck, Entrapta handed Scorpia a phone and a device to Catra, which had purpose unknown to her. Scorpia apparently knew what to do with the phone, but Catra was in need of an explanation. Entrapta quickly showed her that it was a testing device to check on the things they were about to pick up.

“Do you have a weapon?”

Entrapta’s question threw Catra off a bit. “A bat and a whip. Why do you ask? Am I in risk of getting shot?”

“Uh, you have a whip? Isn’t it difficult to use it?”

Catra shrugged. “No, but it can’t be that hard, since the guy I took it from had figured it out. But can we go back to my ‘Am I getting shot’-question?”

Entrapta blew out some air. “Nah. Hasn’t happened until now.”

It didn’t really calm Catra down, she decided to take the bat with her, even though Catra knew, that her last name wasn’t Luke Skywalker and it won’t hold a candle to an actual gun.

Scorpia was leading the way, it wasn’t that far from their parking spot, but it gave Catra enough time to again think about what the fuck she actually was doing right now. It was already strange that she scammed someone to get a car way cheaper just over a week ago, but now she was going to meet someone who resells stolen goods. What a way to spend your time.

She followed Scorpia and they entered an alley with a dead end. They weren’t alone, a car was already parked there, and when they got closer, a man and a woman left the car. Scorpia apparently knew the man, they greeted each other, but without addressing each other with their names. While they were talking, Catra inspected the car. An insult on 4 wheels. Brand, model, color. She couldn’t think of one reason why someone would allow this abomination to go on the roads. And the plate: 5cUr5Y. You were allowed to write literally everything in the plates and what the fuck was that supposed to be? Scursy? Oh, no. 5 = V. Scurvy.

And Catra realized, who the man did remind her of. Seahawk. Same way of talking, same behavior. Scurvy probably was his nickname, or even his real name. When he asked Scorpia, if her companion (Catra) was the client, Catra figured that this guy wasn’t the smartest.

“Do you really think that the client would appear here in person? As if you would send your boss.”

His baffled look told her that he was the head of their little group and clearly did not think of that. This couldn’t be true. It remembered Catra of her first time meeting a drug dealer. She expected a biker, tall as he was wide, and didn’t believe her eyes, when she saw the scrawny kid in his father’s car. How are people like this still running around free?

Catra was already bored at this point, she couldn’t believe that she felt something like fear before coming here. She urged Scorpia to hurry up, but when Scorpia wanted to pay, Catra stepped in to check on the wares. She did as Entrapta told her, and since she got a green light from the device on every part in the suitcase, she nodded at Scorpia to seal the deal, but stopped herself when she realized that Scorpia didn’t have any money with her.

“Wait, how are you going to pay for this?”

“Uh, bitcoin. Why?”

“Did you recalculate the number of coins considering the changed exchange rate?”

The blush on Scorpia’s face showed, that she didn’t think of it, and a look on her person opposite told her, that he actually hoped for this. Not that she couldn’t understand it. Crypto exchange rates were as fickle as the sea, but Catra didn’t gain anything from Entrapta or Scorpia losing money, so she stepped in.

“Calm down, Scurvy.” Catra was both surprised and pleased by his reaction. Apparently, she hit the nail on the head. “You don’t scam us; we don’t scam you. It’s that easy.”

“How… do you know my name? I never told you.”

Really? Oh, come on. But Catra was willing to play for a bit. “Oh, the boss knows the one or other thing. Was nice meeting you. See you around.” She turned to Scorpia. “Are we done?” A nod. “Great. Let’s go.”

Catra turned around one more time and saw Scurvy discussing something with his partner. When she and Scorpia were around the corner, Catra dropped her façade, feeling her pulse being at 180 bpm.

“Does Entrapta really know things about this guy?”

Catra wasn’t sure if she heard right. “How am I supposed to know? His license plate had his name on it. And if he is scared of us knowing more than just where to find him, he probably won’t follow us.”

Knowing this didn’t stop Catra from walking a bit faster, she wanted to get out of here as fast as possible. They reached the truck with any problems, and Catra flew up the ladder to the cab. She put the suitcase on the dashboard and sat down on the passenger seat to take a few deep breaths. Catra nearly had a heart attack when she heard a meow right next to her, she turned her head to Melog sitting right next to her. She noticed that this wasn’t the place where she left them, Melog was on the bed, which only meant that they already adapted to the prothesis enough to jump up from the bed, and up to the seat. Catra was happy about it, but too far over the moon to actually show it, so Melog had to be satisfied with some ear scratches. Catra only calmed down when Scorpia was done talking to Darla and the truck was moving again.

She was about to go to Entrapta in the back again, but Melog stopped her, meowling loudly. She wasn’t sure what they wanted until she looked at the clock on Darla’s and noticed, that it was way past feeding time. As if they could read the clock. But they probably were just hungry and went to the person that would most likely feed them. Smelling the cat food made Catra’s own stomach growl too – what the fuck? – and she made some sandwiches to eat them in the back.

When she entered the trailer, Catra could hear Scorpia giving Entrapta a rundown about what happened. Entrapta was somewhat impressed, but Catra instantly told her that she won’t do that again. She loved an adrenalin boost now and then, but not like this. When she joined the other two at the table, Entrapta presented something to Catra that looked like a phone, but sturdier than she was used to. Entrapta noted, that the phone was untraceable and indestructible. Catra wasn’t tempted to test the indestructible part, she instantly stood up to sprint to her backpack and get her sim- and SD-cards.

She put the cards into the phone, booted it and held back her urge to throw it at the wall, when it asked to put in information like language, time and whatnot. After Catra was done, she placed the phone in front of her on the table and stared at it. At some point, she noticed Scorpia and Entrapta, and possibly Emily, staring at her.

“Everything ok?” Scorpia didn’t look worried or anything, just surprised. “That isn’t the usual reaction of someone who isn’t, I don’t know, social-media addicted? At least you didn’t strike me like you were one.”

Catra sighed. “No. I broke my phone […] days ago, and was waiting for a call. An important one. And now I finally have a working phone again, and I want to call someone.” The phone in front of her chimed, but it only displayed 1 new message from Spinnerella and – God bless – 16 missed calls from Adora. Catra left for the cab again to have a quiet place and hit the redial button.

She heard the ringing tone … but that was it. Adora didn’t pick up. It was way in the afternoon, no way that she was sleeping right now. Ok, maybe she was driving and just couldn’t pick up. No need to get worked up. Catra forced herself to take a few deep breaths. Something tugging at her leg made her look down, and it was Melog shooting big, round eyes at her. She sighed again, and bowed to pick them up. Catra gave them a peck on their forehead and headed back into the trailer to face her fellow passengers.

“Ok, Wildcat, now you don’t look ok at all. What happened?”

Catra thought about it, she already told Scorpia a part of the story. Scorpia took her in and told her the truth about them being fugitives. Entrapta helped Melog and got her a phone. They ‘earned’ the truth.

“First of all, ‘Wildcat’? Where did that come from? And I would like to tell you a story, about why I am here.”

“Uh, uh. Can I use that as exercise for Emily?”

“Uhm sure, whatever”

Entrapta let out a ‘Yay’ and told Emily to pay attention. Catra was kneading her hands, thinking about where to start. Her name would be a good one.

At first it looked like they were listening out of pure courtesy, but that soon changed when Catra showed them her scar. Slowly but surely, Entrapta’s face turned to stone, while Scorpia let out a gasp or a ‘Oh boy’ now and then. Entrapta twitched when Catra mentioned the ‘Church of the First Ones’, but she didn’t say anything.

When Catra was done, Scorpia had tears in her eyes, Entrapta stared at the desk and Emily was the first one to say something.

“Your name is Katrina Driluth, born on October 28^th 2000, and entered the United States on October 14^th at 2.57pm?”

“Uhm yes?! Wait, I didn’t tell you that, did I?”

Emily ignored it. “And your friend is Adora Greyskull, born on January 19^th 2000, who entered the United States on the same day at 3.03pm?”

“Yes.” Catra wasn’t sure about the exact time, but she remembered that she was the first one to leave the port. “How the fuck do you know this?”

A proud grin appeared on Entrapta’s face when she praised Emily for this. “Well done. Please extend the search on these two.”

Emily then presented a report about Catra, about how she won her first tournament, graduated from Half-Moon High and started as a semi-pro in the lower ranks. Adora’s report was much shorter; graduation from High School, and receiving her diploma 3 months ago.

Entrapta looked at Catra. “Is Emily right?”

“Yes… how does she know that?”

Entrapta ordered Emily to tell her. In short, Emily searched the Internet using a few keywords, like the names, birthdays, last known domicile. Catra didn’t know it, but apparently both the High School and the university had a website with pictures and the names of the graduates. It was kind of fascinating and scary at the same time what you can find out about someone with just a name. But this didn’t explain how Emily knew even the time of their arrival in Miami.

“Oh, that one is easy. Emily has access to the network of the DHS.”

“And that means?”

“United States Department of Homeland Security.”

“WHAT?” Catra looked at Scorpia. “She is kidding, right?”

“Nope.” Entrapta answered in Scorpia’s stead. “But don’t worry, it’s not hacking.”

“What do you mean, ‘it’s not hacking’? I doubt that Emily should have access to that network, no?”

Entrapta thought about it. “Is it a break-in, if you have the key to the backdoor? I mean, they paid me to write the code, but I thought that the data way more interesting. So, I left a spot open for me to return later.”

Catra was pretty sure that this was illegal nonetheless. It at least explained partly where Entrapta got all the money from. For a short moment, a thought began to form in her head, an idea about how she could use that access, but Scorpia distracted her with her exclamation that they were on the road since an hour, and Darla was all alone in front. The trucker jumped from her seat and asked Entrapta where to go next.  She mumbled something about ‘Point B’ in return and it was something Scorpia could work with. She left the trailer and Catra saw Melog toddle through Scorpia’s legs, in the moment she opened the door.

It wasn’t even close to dinner time, so maybe they just wanted to see Catra. When Catra crouched to pick them up, Emily posed a question.

“Catra, I have found your friend Adora’s Instagram account. A quick screening of the photographs showed, that you have a high presence in these pictures, even though it is not your account. Can you explain your relationship to Adora?”

“I just told you, didn’t I? Did you not listen?”

“I did. But I tried to calculate the benefits you get from coming here, and the result is, that you don’t benefit at all. You, in fact, threw away your career to follow her. Why would you do that?”

“I’m not answering that. You are missing the social skills for that.”

“Interesting. Is the reason love? An analysis of the pictures, no matter what period they are from, show- “

Catra just left the trailer.

Chapter Text

Catra sat down on the passenger seat, slammed her feet on the dashboard and placed Melog on her lap. From the corner of her eye, she could see Scorpia looking at her, but she didn’t care about that. To be honest, Catra couldn’t understand her own reactions. It was a harmless question asked by a machine, she could’ve said what she wanted and Emily would’ve just accepted it, she – it – didn’t know any better. But maybe she overreacted, because she wasn’t sure about that answer anymore. Catra didn’t have an ounce of doubt-

“Please remove your feet from the dashboard. This is for your own safety.”

“Shut up.” Catra was not in the mood for Darla. “Focus on driving.” As if that would change anything.

“I repeat. Please remove your feet from the dashboard. This is for your own safety.”

Catra ignored it and looked through the window, watching the scenery. She missed the sounds coming from the speakers, and when the tenth ping passed, the truck hit the brakes. They didn’t completely stop, but the sudden loss of momentum caused Catra to slip from her seat down into the footwell.

“You have been warned.”

“FUCK YOU!”

Catra screamed from the top of her lungs, making Entrapta to come out from the trailer. She spotted Catra on the floor and immediately had figured out, what happened. She said something to Scorpia, but Catra was too busy getting out of the footwell to listen to them. Entrapta disappeared in the back again, and Catra had Scorpia’s attention.

She asked Catra, if everything was alright, but the only thing that got hurt was Catra’s pride. Why would someone make an AI that thinks something like that would be necessary? Then she remembered that the creator of said AI made herself a loophole in the firewall of a top-level authority. That made the whole thing less surprising. Catra was wondering if the surprises in this mess will ever stop. She asked Scorpia about their next stop, and found out that the surprises indeed won’t stop anytime soon, since Scorpia was a bit mysterious about it. She just told her that they needed to get there until this evening.

Catra had no idea where they actually were, the cities written on the signs next to the road didn’t ring a bell. Only the sun right in front of them told Catra, that they were moving east. She used the time Scorpia didn’t talk to her, to call Adora again. But both tries ended in the same result as earlier this day. Just the ringing tone and nothing else.

“You are worried, right?” Scorpia’s tone was … careful.

“Of course, I am. How could I be not worried?” Catra tried her best to not verbally bite Scorpia. “Imagine getting a sign of life from someone every day since over 12 years. And now you are both stuck in a country you don’t know, and went split ways because … I don’t know, maybe both suck at communicating. Or don’t know each other as well as you thought.”

“From personal experience, I can tell you that sometimes it can help to talk about it. Not necessarily to me, I know that some people are writing online diaries. Everyone can read them, but barely anyone responds to them. That’s not the point anyways, it’s the act of opening up. If you want to talk about it right now, I can just sit here and shut up.” Scorpia paused for a moment. “I can also give you a hug, if you want. I’m a great hugger.

Catra didn’t doubt it for a second, but her ribs still hurt, she didn’t want to risk it. And why not talk about her feelings for Adora with a trucker, who picked her up a few days ago and was on the run from the feds. Not that she actually talked with someone about anything like this at all. With who? Adora was the wrong one for this, since she was the topic. Lonnie? Nah, their shared past somehow made it difficult for Catra to open up about anything, that wasn’t about exactly that. Spinnerella, even though she was more of a friend now, had been Catra’s therapist for too long for this. Huntara sensed sometimes that there was something wrong with Catra, but she never struck Catra as someone who gave a fuck about feelings. And she didn’t really know anyone from university.

Counting the people she knew made her realize, she barely had friends. Her probably understandable trust issues made it difficult to open up to anyone. But considering that, she already made progress. She was considering, even if it only was considering, talking to Scorpia. And that was already more than the most people get from Catra. She didn’t know the exact reason for this, maybe because Scorpia was oversharing.

Catra chuckled to herself. When this went bad, she still could jump out of the window. Melog would pose a problem, but she could figure that out while she was airborne.

“I’m a coward.”

“What do you mean?” Catra glared at Scorpia. “Oh right, silence. Sorry.”

“From the moment I met her, Adora was special to me. I never told her what truly happened to me and what in the end got me a normal life, because I feared that she will run away, because of guilt or whatever. In the end, I told her, 10 years later. And I was right, the only thing she did at first, was apologizing. I didn’t understand why, I still don’t. If that hadn’t happened to me, I would’ve never got away from that mob. Not only me, but 3 more children.”

Catra looked out of the window, preparing to talk about ‘darker times’ in correlation with Adora.

“When we were about 14, I was so obsessed with Adora, I actually developed mental health issues. They were the reason I picked up MMA in first place. But even when I told her about that, she was the one crying and apologizing, as if that was her fault. What a dork.”

She made another pause, looking down in her lap, where Melog was nibbling on her index finger.

“When she asked me to move in with her, I was … just happy. These 4 months were the happiest time of my life, I can’t even remember when I didn’t wish for something like this. Maybe not literally this, but in a way.”

She let out a silent laugh and snuffled.

“I probably had a crush on her since the beginning. Adora was always a light to me, and that never changed. She … came out to me as a lesbian, and fucked up as I am, I laughed about it. Not because it was funny or anything. Because I was happy. Happy, that there now was a chance that Adora could reciprocate these feelings I have for her. And do you know what I said?”

Catra looked at Scorpia, who, with her face empty of her usual carefreeness, shook her head. “No, Wildcat. I don’t.”

“I know a girl who has the hots for you. That was everything I could get out. I told you, I’m a coward. That was 3 years ago. I had enough time to grow metaphorical balls and tell her, but I didn’t. If I did, we probably wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“What do you mean?”

“Either we would be mature enough to talk this out, or I wouldn’t be here at all.”

“I don’t even think, that you believe that yourself.”

“I don’t know.” Catra blinked and ignored the drop that ran down her cheek. “No, you are right. I would probably follow her anyway.”

“I know I am supposed to the listening part … But it’s obvious how you torment yourself with this. I don’t want to tell you ‘Don’t worry, be happy’, but Monty Python were right when they sang that you always should look on the bright side of life, even you are getting nailed to a cross.” Scorpia made a grimace. “To be honest, that whole scene was really fucked up. Who wrote that and thought, this is what I want to be remembered for?”

The sudden jump in topics brought out a laugh from Catra, and it was an honest one. Scorpia smiled for a short moment, but quickly went back to serious mode.

“I don’t know that Adora at all, but even if you made up half of the things you just told me, I don’t think you have to worry at all. She called you, no? Get in contact with her, and meet her. If you get there, everything else probably will be a piece of cake.”

Catra looked at Melog in her lap, because the sun was low enough now to hit her right in the face. She played with their paws for a bit. It was somehow fascinating how lifelike the prothesis actually was. It literally was able to imitate every motion Melog could do with their healthy leg. Only jumping was a bit difficult, because of the lack of muscles, but Melog surely would figure that out.

“Thank you.” Catra barely could hear her own voice. “For listening.”

Scorpia didn’t answer, but the light nod showed Catra, that she heard it.

Melog apparently had reached the end of their patience, they left Catra’s embrace and climbed down from the seat to walk in sleeping area. Catra had no idea what they wanted to do there, but if they wanted something, they would call for Catra.

A few hours later, they arrived at an old, rundown warehouse in the middle of nowhere. It reminded Catra of the warehouse-made fighting pit, where Scorpia picked up from. She relaxed when she noticed that this indeed was just a warehouse, no parking lot in front of it. On the field next to it, Catra imagined to see a solar farm, but the moon was partly hidden behind clouds, it made it difficult to see in the dark.

She followed Scorpia and Entrapta to the warehouse, the cold wind made her shiver, it surely was below 0°C now. They passed a small car Catra had missed at first, a newer Skoda which kind of looked like it was out of the place.

They entered the warehouse, Entrapta flipped a switch and the lights went on to reveal – nothing. The warehouse was empty, except for 2 containers right in the middle. Graffiti and smashed-in windows proved, that the local youth came here now and then. But Entrapta walked towards the containers with determination, and since Scorpia didn’t seem surprised at all, Catra decided to just follow them.

She was and wasn’t surprised, when Scorpia and Entrapta pulled out keys, put them in locks Catra didn’t see at the first moment and counted down to turn the keys in the same moment. Catra heard something big moving in or behind the container doors, and she heard Scorpia grunt when she pulled one of the doors open. It revealed that the two containers were in fact one, it was hollow, but Catra saw a staircase leading into the ground. This whole thing got more absurd with every minute.

They walked down the stairs, and Catra found herself standing in a hall beneath the warehouse. Not really a hall, it reminded her of Huntara’s gym, maybe 5 meters high and 30 meters long and wide. And filled with servers. They heard steps and a blue-haired man appeared between the servers, armed to his teeth.

“Eeeeey, Soda! What’s poppin’?” Scorpia began to laugh about her own … joke?, which made the man roll his eyes in return.

“Hello, Entrapta. Didn’t expect you this soon. Thought you would come tomorrow. Who is that?”

He pointed with his rifle at Catra for a short moment, but Entrapta took the introduction into her own hands. The man shrugged in response, and he walked over to a terminal, Entrapta in his tow.

“Who is this?” Catra looked at Scorpia. “And why is he armed?”

“Oh, that’s Soda. Ex-Navy Seal, I think. He is one of the guards for this place.”

“Does he need to be that armed?”

“I don’t know, but it somehow makes sense. This is in fact a part of Dryl Corp.”

Catra needed a moment to understand what Scorpia was saying. This hall was part of Entrapta’s company? And it was important enough to have a Navy Seal protect it, even though it was in the middle of nowhere and even underground. As if Scorpia could read her mind, she told her to join Entrapta and see for herself.

She did as Scorpia suggested, but it came to her before she could ask Entrapta about.

“This is Emily, right?”

Entrapta thought about it. “Yes and no. Yes, because these servers are part of Emily’s network. No, because you can’t really point at something and say, that this is you.”

Catra’s face made Entrapta go more into detail.

“Imagine, I would perform an autopsy on you. Right here, right now. I would open your chest and would find your heart, your lungs, maybe some muscles. Now you are in two places at once, right? But does that mean, that something has lost the ‘You’-value? Or if I take your brain out, does that mean that I’m holding you in my hands, and the rest is not you anymore. And what about that thing that some teachings call the ‘Soul’?”

“Did you study philosophy?”

Entrapta snorted. “Not officially. I didn’t even finish High School.”

That was unexpected. “Then how did you build all this? Where did you get all the money from?”

“Emily, I’m shutting down a tower one at a time to change the parts. Please tell Catra about the name ‘Entrapta’.”

Emily’s voice came from the terminal, confirming that she heard what Entrapta just told her and started talk about the winner of some online tournaments called ‘Entrapta’, when said person wiped the floor with their opponents and won several Starcraft, SC2 and Quake tournaments, gathering around 100k$ in prize money. Since the winner used the then barely known PayPal to collect the prize money, their true identity never got revealed.

“That’s it? 100k is a lot, but that’s not enough”. Catra made a vague gesture through the room, until she remembered that Emily had no eyes. “for all of this.”

“That’s true, and a lot of things are trade secrets, but if you want to know how Entrapta increased her seed money, ask her if there is a single casino in Las Vegas where she isn’t banned.”

“Not a single one.” Entrapta’s head popped up, her voice had something like pride in it. “Counting cards isn’t illegal, but apparently the Casinos would lose money if everyone would do this.  So, they threw me out.”

“Is there anything you aren’t wanted for?”

“Murder.” A short pause. “I’m for 99% sure of that. That one guy, who was hit by Darla survived. So, yeah. Probably murder. By the way, could you help me a bit?”

Entrapta showed Catra, what she wanted her to do. It was quite easy. Turn off the device, remove a cover, switch out a part, restart the device and see if every light was green again. But with around 40 of these devices, it would take a while if you would do it alone, and Catra slowly but surely got tired, so she helped to get this whole thing done quicker.

It still nearly took 2 hours, since Entrapta said that each of them only should turn off one tower at a time and restarting the devices took quite a while. Catra was the first one to finish her part since Entrapta got distracted by something else, so she sat down in front of Emily’s terminal and stared at it.

The machine in front of her had access to the network of THE Homeland Security. Catra had no idea what exactly was the jurisdictions of this department, probably border patrol and immigration offices, which would explain why Emily got the information about Catra’s and Adora’s entry into the USA so easily. But what else?

She thought about it, because it bothered her that she couldn’t reach Adora and had no idea about her whereabouts. How could she get something on this? Oh wait…

“Emily, do you have access to traffic CCTV or something like that?”

“No.”

Damn. What else?

“Access to the vehicle registration office?”

“No. But it is worth mentioning, that the registration of vehicles is done by each state on its own. In some states you can even do that online. What is the reason for your questions?”

“I want to find out where Adora is right now, but I can’t reach her. I thought, that if she had an accident or whatever, the police probably would’ve noticed that and her name would appear in some files, right? If we could look that up, I could at least have a guess and probably could sleep better.”

It wasn’t really a lie, but maybe a bit exaggerating.

“We can find that out.” Entrapta chimed in again. “But since it’s night now, you won’t get an answer before tomorrow. And since we have to contact a public official, they won’t answer until noon. You want to try it anyway?”

Catra nodded, and Entrapta gave Emily instructions what to do, and notify them when the answer came back. Catra was tempted to call Adora again, but it was close to midnight now, so she refrained from doing it.

She looked up when she heard Entrapta gathering her stuff, and followed her back to the stairs. Scorpia was still talking to that guard, who had nothing but relief on his face when Entrapta said that they were done and going to leave.

The following day brought news Catra didn’t want to hear. The contact Entrapta mentioned said, that the license plate wasn’t active anymore, Adora apparently had sold the car only 3 days after they had bought it to a mechanic somewhere in Tennessee. This was not helpful at all. Catra looked up the phone number of the mechanic and called him to ask if he remembered anything from that day. He couldn’t tell her where Adora went after that, but he remembered that she was accompanied by a couple in a caravan, who waited with her until he was done with the inspection. The mechanic even could give Catra a description of the couple, since a black man wearing a crop top in mid-October and a living nightmare in pink were quite easy to remember.

On the good side, Adora apparently had found people that took her with them. On the bad side, Catra still had no information about Adora’s whereabouts. At least she had a place to stay, if the couple with the caravan …

The caravan.

The fucking caravan.

Catra yelled out her frustration, startling Melog and making Scorpia drop her book.

“Uh, are you ok?”

“I saw it. I saw the fucking caravan leaving the parking lot. I swear to whatever god you want. If I ever see DT again, I will murder them.”

“Uhm, ok. But I guess I’m missing some information there.”

Catra wasn’t in the mood for explanations, she wanted to punch something. Or better, a certain someone. But that someone was not in reach at the moment. Catra had a few more curses in her mind, but she did her best to hold them back.

Again, Darla was heading east but this time they had no destination. Scorpia told her, that if Entrapta doesn’t have a place to go, they just drive through the country. The trucker told her about the beautiful tour they made along the east coast in the last 6 months. Scorpia had many stories to tell about that, even though she rarely left the truck to go sightseeing or something like that. But she just talked about the cars she saw, or the sunrises over the Atlantic Ocean, or the pack of coyotes with all the little puppies they saw near a resting area.

It was strange. Catra hated it, when people talked about more than just the necessary information. Well, that wasn’t for everyone. Of course, there had been an exception since the day Catra met her. But Scorpia fell into a similar category. The enthusiasm she put into every syllable, regardless of how banal the thing was, was … captivating.

It distracted Catra. She was somehow envious of Scorpia. Of course, Scorpia was born and raised in the USA, and it was somehow natural that she would be able to travel this country way easier than for Catra for example. On the other side, Scorpia probably never had been to Europe and for example visited the Colosseum in Rome. The longer Catra thought about it, the more she realized that it was a bad example since she hadn’t been there either. Growing up in an orphanage usually didn’t bring much money with it.

But being able to travel without being bound to anything had a nice ring to it. Scorpia even got paid for it, and had enough time to visit her girlfriend. Ok, having a technically wanted criminal mastermind in her backpack was maybe one of the downsides to it, but being Entrapta’s henchwoman didn’t sound too bad either.

Scorpia talked about places Catra had heard about before, not only cities but also places like national parks and other natural attractions she always wanted to visit. It made her wonder if she ever would have the chance to visit them. Not alone, of course. Catra stopped listening to Scorpia, her thoughts drifted to the august this year and their stay in Italy. Her first vacation alone with Adora.

She chuckled at the memories. Good ones, obviously. Mostly Adora in her white-golden bikini, but also great food, a wonderful cottage, awesome weather and applying the lotion to Adora’s back…

“What are you thinking about?”

Scorpia interrupted Catra’s train of thought. How long was she gone? It was dark on the outside already.

“Better times. And better times to come.”

“Hm… we all could need that.”

“What’s your girlfriend’s name again? When did you see her the last time?”

“Perfuma. A month ago. We visited her; it looks quite funny when a truck like Darla parks in front of a house that rivals a botanical garden.”

Scorpia pulled out her phone and showed her a picture of herself and a slim woman with long blonde hair, wearing a long red dress. She was the polar opposite to Scorpia, but they looked beautiful together. The following pictures showed a small house, from the inside and the outside. Plants everywhere. Not only flowers, but also plants Catra didn’t recognize. Which wasn’t a surprise, Catra knew as much about plants as about archery. She would hit a target now and then, but would be very surprised about it.

Catra’s phone chimed several times and her hand was faster than lightning. She unlocked it and saw the name she was waiting for. Adora.

Hey Catra
The person in the hostel said, that you went home.
Refused to believe that.
I can’t reach you.
Found people that bring me to Alwyn, will look there for Mara.
Hope, that I will meet you there.
I can’t tell you how much I regret leaving.

Catra read the messages several times and she could feel her blood pressure rising when she realized that DT told Adora, that she wasn’t even in the US anymore. This fucker was SO dead. But the messages had something good in them. Adora was safe and on her way to the Whispering Woods. Catra asked Darla, how long they would need to get to Alwyn right now. Approximately 14 hours, but a stop to recharge would in order in between, and if Entrapta wanted to do repairs or whatever, it would take even longer.

She read the messages again and noticed, that something was off. She asked Darla for the date, and the truck immediately gave her date, time and weather forecast.

The messages were from yesterday. Why did she get them now? And not the moment Adora sent them? Catra remembered Entrapta’s words about the phone being untraceable, but it shouldn’t block the messenger service, no? Well, the proof that it didn’t was already there, otherwise she wouldn’t have received the messages at all.

She decided to ask Entrapta about that, but the door to the trailer was locked, and didn’t open up even after ringing the doorbell. Usually, Catra would’ve resorted to violence now and kick the door open, but Adora’s messages took away a part of the tension that had been built up in Catra over the last weeks. Catra leaned forward and rested her head against the door. Breathe in, breathe out. Something grazed her leg. It probably was the main reason, why Catra hadn’t snapped in first place, Adora’s messages just widened the stream. A whining sound came from that spot. That reason needed some attention. Attention Catra was willing to give.

Entrapta didn’t leave her lab this evening, but judging from the sounds coming from in there, she was busy. Scorpia told Darla to stop at the next rest area and joined Catra raiding the fridge. Sadly, there wasn’t a restaurant at the rest area, Catra would actually love her some burgers and since Entrapta had put a ban on anything that uses your location, they couldn’t order anything either. They had to settle for the last eggs and left some for Entrapta. Catra knew, that it was pure courtesy, since Entrapta probably won’t leave the trailer until the next morning to sleep on the desk again. Hopefully, Emily considered turning up the heater.

Her hunch turned out to be right on spot. She picked up Entrapta from the desk in the trailer, shoved her under the shower and then squeezed the inventor into her bed. The shower was necessary, since whatever Entrapta used yesterday left a nauseating stench on her. Scorpia took the chance of Entrapta being out of the equation and left the highway to look for a retail store. She soon found one, luckily right next to a fast-food restaurant. They entered the retail store first to get some groceries, Catra was in dire need of a shampoo, and then head for the restaurant since it was noon already again and they were starving.

Catra was paying, for the first time in what felt like ages, and they were stuffing the burgers in their face, Catra saw some men circling Darla. She elbowed Scorpia, since her mouth was full, and Scorpia rummaged in her pockets to search for the key. She found it and pressed a button, causing the turning lights and head lights to flash up for a second. Still chewing, Catra watched one of the men lifting a metal baseball bat and taking a swing. She was about to stand up, but Scorpia held her down. The bat hit Darla and nothing happened. The man stood still, bat in hand and touched Darla.

Scorpia again pressed the key, the lights flashed again and the man just collapsed to the side. This caused hectic on the parking lot, and Catra remembered that there was still food in her mouth, she started to chew again to finally get things going again. She swallowed and finally turned to Scorpia.

“What the fuck just happened?”

Scorpia just mumbled something about business secrets. Catra put two and teo together and figured, that it probably was something like an anti-theft mechanism, even though she never saw someone collapsing from one. While Scorpia ordered quite an amount of the smallest burger the restaurant served, and asked the cook to cut them in quarters, Catra came to the conclusion that she probably wouldn’t be surprised if Darla had an automatic firing system. The cook refused to do the extra work, but when Scorpia mentioned that the burgers were for Entrapta, Catra just pulled out 2 twenties and waved them around, which gave the chef some new motivation.

Scorpia carried the bag with the burgers to Darla and shouted at Catra, when she wanted to touch Darla to look for dents. Catra froze up, while Scorpia again looked for the keys. She pressed a button, but since nothing happened, she allowed Catra to put her hand on the metal. Suddenly, Catra wasn’t that eager to check for dents anymore, she waited until she heard Scorpia opening the door on the driver’s side to open her own.

Catra didn’t faint on touch, so she deemed it safe to let her palm run over the surface, where she guessed the place of the impact, but she didn’t find a dent. Whatever the truck was made of, it apparently was very sturdy.

She climbed up the ladder and was welcomed by a hungry Melog. It wasn’t a surprise, but seeing the cat sitting on her seat made her think about how Melog was caged in the truck. They may not be the most mobile of their species, but maybe Catra should look for a way to get them space to move about it. Of course, room was something scarce in a truck and the trailer was a hazard zone, Catra didn’t want Melog to run around in there. Maybe she should get a leash and play with them on the outside when they made a stop.

The door to the trailer was open, and Catra spotted Entrapta in the back again. Dark circles under her eyes, but she seemed quite energetic while eating the mini burgers. Not for the first time in the last days, Catra somehow was fascinated by Entrapta. She still didn’t know her age, and Entrapta probably never will tell her, Catra guessed her at her end-20s though. It’s not like that your life is over when you are over 25 years old, but Catra was only 20 and when she didn’t get at least her 8 hours of sleep, she was a wreck on the following day. Entrapta slept way less than 8 hours per day and still had the energy to move. Either Entrapta was on drugs, had some secret to stay awake longer or would collapse once a week to catch up the missed rest. Catra wouldn’t really be surprised if it was all 3 reasons at once.

While Entrapta was eating, she wrote a shopping list with things Catra couldn’t think of a reason what she would need that stuff for. Somethings like baking soda and vinegar made Catra think of chemistry lessons in school, but what did Entrapta need 50 meters of insulated wire for?

Catra volunteered to get these things, since they were still parked in front of the retail store. She wanted to use the chance and find something to get Melog more room to run around. The things from Entrapta’s list were found quite fast, and so Catra had more time to spend in the pets-aisle.

The store sold leashes for cats, but now that Catra thought about it, she didn’t even know if Melog was an outside-cat at all. Google brought her mixed results, so she decided to buy the leash anyways, together with some toys she though Melog would like. If they didn’t like the plush mouse, Catra decided, that she will keep it for herself.

Melog liked the plush mouse. The moment Catra got it out of the bag, they hopped towards it and sank their teeth in it. Catra didn’t notice that it was a squeaky toy, but Melog went nuts the moment it made a sound.

Since Entrapta had some things to fix on Darla, they stayed at the parking lot for a bit, giving Catra and Scorpia the time to let Melog test their new toys. Apparently, they loved them all, but Catra was a bit sceptic about it. She wanted to wait how fast Melog got tired of them. But for now, the toys served their purpose.

At one point, Scorpia and Catra heard a loud bang coming from the front of the truck, black smoke started to rise and the lights on the inside flickered. They dropped everything and jumped out of the cab to look for the origin of the smoke. They found Entrapta laying on the ground, slightly cross-eyed and all limbs limp. Her hair was something Sonic The Hedgehog would be proud of, all spikey, it looked like she licked a power outlet.

She did.

Well, not intentionally. Entrapta sat back up, shook her head and let out a whistle. Her companions just stood there and stared at the inventor, who stared back in return and asked them what they were looking at.

Scorpia shortly explained the situation, but Entrapta didn’t believe her. Whatever just had happened had wiped Entrapta’s short term memory. Her eyes lit up when she remembered the part why she was on the outside in first place. She stood up, trudged a few meters, and faced Darla again. Entrapta put her fingers into her mouth and let out a long whistle.

Behind Catra, Darla’s front lights flared up and Catra had to jump a meter to the side to not get run over by the truck, which started to move without anyone in the cab. Well, Melog sat in there, but it was more likely that Entrapta programmed Darla to react to her whistling, rather than Melog growing so rapidly, that they now could reach steering wheel and the pedals at the same time.

Darla stopped right in front of Entrapta, who looked very pleased with herself.

“So, you turned Darla into a dog, fascinating.” Catra’s voice was dripping of sarcasm, but that went right over Entrapta’s head. “But why?”

Entrapta turned her head to look at Catra, blinked, and shrugged. “Because I could?”

Catra didn’t know what she was expecting. Entrapta was literally radiating a ‘Can we fix it?’-attitude like Bob the Builder, the only difference was, that Entrapta didn’t stop at ‘fixing things’ and thought ‘how can I make it evolve?’. The thing she just did to Darla was the best example for it.

Catra started to shiver, they left their jackets in the cab in all that hurry to help Entrapta, but since October was eager to show why it was one of the last months in a year, Catra hurried back in the warmer cab, leaving the still lightly smoking problem to Entrapta and climbed back up into the cab, welcomed by some squeaks of a certain mouse getting abused.

Not even an hour later they were on the road again, now heading southwest, following the US Highway 14. Catra spent most of the time back in trailer, assisting Entrapta and Emily. She was sure that Emily could’ve done that too, but since the AI had no physical body, Catra had to do it. It was better than sitting with Scorpia in front (nothing against Scorpia, but just counting cars or listening to Scorpia reading jokes from a book that was printed in 1985 could be dull over a longer span of time), and it killed time, even though Catra had no idea what she actually was doing, but that was also something she already got used to. When Entrapta ensembled the last parts, Catra could make out something like a claw and it dawned her that her assistance probably wasn’t needed anymore. At least in near future.

After a few hours of work done, Catra hopped under the shower and sat down in front of the truck again. She pulled out her phone, of course there weren’t any new messages or calls. Not that she would’ve missed them anyways. She looked for Adora’s contact and hit dial. After a few rings…

… someone picked up. But the voice definitely did not belong to Adora, it was way too deep for hers.

“Hello?”

Great, Catra reached someone, but now she was speechless.

“Helloho?

Catra coughed and her voice was back. “Who the fuck are you? And where is Adora?”

“Uhm, my name is Bow. Who are you?”

“Answer my fucking question. Where is Adora, and why do you have her phone?”

“Wait, are you Catra? You look nicer than you sound right now.”

“Well, fuck you too. I swear to whatever you want, if you don’t tell me, where Adora is right now, I will search for you and haunt you.”

“Uhm, yeah… that’s the problem. We don’t know.”

Catra was fuming at this point. “Is it possible to get a clear answer from you?”

“Listen, we arrived in Alwyn, in the Whispering Woods, yesterday and walked through the city because we wanted to make plans on how to look for Adora’s mother. At one point, Adora sprinted away to follow someone, she was way too fast for us. They went around a corner and just vanished.”

What?

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Girl, do you know any words besides ‘fuck’?”

“I can insult you in 5 languages with a high level of creativity!”

“Ah bon, prouve-le-moi si tu peux?“

“Ta mère est si grosse que je la prends pour un homme poilu anglophone, et alors je l'ai appelée rosbif et potat grasse!“

“Ouch! Only B+ for creativity, but I’m still glad, that I don’t have a mother. But that proves, that you are Catra. Foul mouth and quite versed in languages.”

“Then we are back to the ‘fuck you’. Where are you right now?”

“Still in Alwyn, we have the car parked in the same spot so Adora can find us if she returns. But we haven’t heard a sound from her since now nearly 24 hours.”

“So, you want to tell me, Adora decided to run off without her phone, just vanishing into thin air, and you picked up, because you were annoyed by the sound of the ringtone. Why didn’t she pick up earlier?”

“Because the caller ID says that you are in … wait a second …  in Haiti. The number changes each time, we thought this is spam.”

Catra made a grimace while she tried to understand what this Bow-person was blabbering about, until it hit her. Entrapta. She said this phone was untraceable. Was it possible to imitate someone’s else phone number? Well, Entrapta created Emily, so faking caller IDs was probably a piece of cake for her. But Catra surely needed to have a word with the tinkerer in the back.

She told Bow to wait a minute and gave the phone to a surprised Scorpia. Catra sprinted the few meters through the sleeping area to get to the door leading to the trailer. She rang the bell and slammed her fist against the door several times, startling a snoozing Melog. The door got unlocked and Catra stormed past crates and other junk, stopping in front of Entrapta who gave her a surprised look. Catra didn’t even let her speak up.

“Entrapta, I’m thankful for the phone and everything, but didn’t you think it would necessary to tell me that it’s imitates someone else’s caller ID? Or that the go-to messenger services don’t work correctly?”

Entrapta cocked her head, as if she actually had to think about what Catra just said. “No, I didn’t. Should I? Your reaction kind of says yes. Emily, write a note about that and save it as ‘Instructions for phone repair’.” Emily confirmed that she wrote the note. “Can I do something else for you?”

Catra did her best to keep her tone calm, even though she was too riled up for that. “I need to get to Alwyn in the Whispering Woods as soon as possible. Either you drop me off at the next bigger train station or you drive there, I would pay you for that.” She was well aware that Entrapta probably didn’t care about the money, but it was worth a try.

Entrapta looked at the table and then turned to Emily. “How far are we away from that place and when were we there the last time?”

“Without a break, we can reach Alwyn in around 12 hours, depending on the traffic. In fact, you have never been there, Unit 03 was there 3 months ago, but only stayed for 2 hours.”

Entrapta looked at the wrench in her hands and nodded. “Ok, tell Darla to change the route. Is there a reason for the sudden change of mind?”

“You remember Adora? My friend I told you about?” Entrapta stared at the ceiling for a moment and nodded. “She is there, but something happened and now she disappeared. I have to find her.”

“Interesting.” Entrapta tapped her chin for a moment and opened her mouth to say something else, but changed her mind. “That Adora is dear to you, right?”

Catra nodded. “Pretty much, yeah. Why?”

“What is the best and worst thing you would do for her?”

That question came out of nowhere and Catra didn’t have an honest answer to that. Ok, one time she beat someone up because he looked funny at Adora, but aside from that?

“No idea. I’ll tell you when I know.”

“That’s enough.” Entrapta clapped her hands, displaying a gleeful smile, that somehow felt like out of place. “You can actually help me with something. I would like to monitor you.”

“Monitor me? What for? If you want to watch me shower, just ask. Not that I’m allowing that.”

Entrapta frowned. “Why would I want to watch you … Oooooh. Oh no, don’t worry. Not about that. More like gathering data about social interaction. I have a feeling that you will be an interesting specimen.”

The way Entrapta said this was slightly worrisome, but Catra agreed anyways. She doubted that Entrapta would do anything dangerous with whatever she would record. Entrapta’s now slightly maniacal grin got even wider, and she promised to get the necessary equipment ready in time. With this, Catra was excused and she headed back into the cab, she got what she wanted. She saw Scorpia talking on the phone and snapped her fingers to get the phone back.

“Sorry, technical difficulties. Where are you parking right now? In the city or on the edge? Is there enough space for an overlong truck?”

“Uh, in the city.” Bow’s voice got quieter a bit; he was probably looking around. “No, you can’t fit a truck in here, we were extremely lucky that we found a spot for the caravan.”

The freaking caravan.

“Where you at the Crimson Waste a few days ago? When?”

“Yeah, on the… .“ He talked to someone else, a woman, judging from the voice in the background. “on the 22^nd. We came to look for you, but the person at the reception said, that you went home. Adora had a panic attack, when she heard that.”

Hearing that made Catra retake her vow to fuck DT up when she saw them again. Adora and Catra literally missed each other in a matter of minutes. Catra told Bow to wait for a second, and told Darla to change course. Darla calculated the new route and Catra could read from the map, that they were going to enter Alwyn from the east.

“I’m now on the way to Alwyn. There is a diner called ‘Thaymor’ in the east of the city. Let’s meet there tomorrow at 9am.”

Bow agreed and told her his own phone number, so that they didn’t have to use Adora’s phone as their only means of communication. He ended the call and Catra slumped back into her seat, her pulse going full speed. Her left leg was jumping up and down, she just couldn’t sit still.

Bow probably said the truth, at least the schedule fit, them leaving the Crimson Waste and Catra barely missing them. And Adora’s message, dated to 2 days ago, the other group leaving for the Whispering Woods.

A mewl from the side made her shot a look at Melog, they cocked their head from left to right, probably asking themselves what was wrong. Catra lifted the cat on her lap and exchanged some calm whispers with them. They licked her nose; the rough tongue tickled a bit and Catra pecked a kiss between Melog’s ears. While petting the cat in front of her, Catra tried to process the things she just heard.

What the fuck was going on? This was even worse than just Adora leaving her. She probably really managed to get abducted.

***

Pain. Just pain in the back of her head. That was everything Adora felt in the moment. She rolled over and couldn’t suppress a groan when the pain got more intense. Her eyes fluttered open, the strong light coming from the ceiling didn’t really help. Adora needed to use an awful lot of strength when she raised her hands to cover her eyes from the light, but at least she now was able to open them. She scanned her environment, but didn’t know where she was. A room. She couldn’t remember entering one. What even was she lying on?

Sitting up nearly was impossible, her head was killing her, when she tried to get into an upright position. Her hair felt like it was glued to something, but it got free when Adora sat up. She now finally got the opportunity to look around. The room she was in, had no windows and the walls were solely made of hewn stones, even the ceiling as far as she could see. As if she was imprisoned in a dungeon.

Adora realized, that she held a blanket in her hands. It belonged to the bed she was now sitting in. She still wore her normal clothes, but she spotted her jacket and her boots in front of the bed. Adora slowly turned around to take a look behind her, but there was only a wall. Her gaze fell on the pillow and she saw the big, dark red stain right in the middle of it. Her hand shot up to back of her head and she instantly regretted the quick movement, as for a moment the pain got more intense again.

Carefully, Adora stroked the hair on the spot where the pain came from and when she looked at her hand again, she could see some crumbs in the same color as the stain on the pillow. Dried blood. The realization made her scan the room again, but it was empty, except for the bed. Adora finally discovered the door on the other side of the room, but ignored it for now. She was way too dizzy to stand up for now.

Instead, she slowly sank back down on the mattress and tried to remember where she was, or how she got in here. She arrived at Alwyn, together with Glimmer and Bow in the caravan. She remembered the police station and the officer she talked too. And the slight change in his demeanor when she dropped the name of the Church. From then the memories got blurry. A letter, just like the ones she got from Mara over the years. But the more she tried to remember anything connected to the letter, the more confused she became.

Adora tried to stand up, ignoring her throbbing head as good as possible, and made wobbly steps towards the door. Something tugged on her right ankle, she tripped and fell down. She had no strength to break her fall by any means, she hit the stone tiles and passed out again.

Chapter Text

Catra felt absolutely exhausted when she walked towards the diner. She didn’t sleep for a second. It somehow surprised her. The situation didn’t really change, they were in the bum fuck nowhere in the USA and Catra had no idea where Adora was. But maybe it was the certainty that something was wrong. A short glance on her watch told her that she was 5 minutes early, she headed inside nonetheless since she was in dire need of caffeine.

A bell rang when she pushed the door open, she stepped into the diner and took a look around. It looked the ones you know from movies, booths with 4 seats, red leather seat bolsters, a bar with some stools in front of it.  You could watch the cook doing his work through a glassless window and the woman behind the bar looked like there was only one reason she wasn’t smoking right now, and that was that the insane amount of liquor in her system would set her ablaze immediately. Ah yes, the good ol’ 50s. Just without the not-so-good racism and homophobia. On the other hand, Catra was still in the United States, so, you’ll never know.

The only other costumers in the diner were 2 men in boilersuits and … a young couple. Catra remembered the description the mechanic gave her. A young black man wearing a crop top and a nightmare in pink. Catra send up a quick prayer to whoever was listening right now, she hoped that the … fashion sense of the woman didn’t reflect on her manners.

She stepped to the table and let the bat in her hand hit the floor, announcing her presence with a metallic clunk. Catra didn’t know why she brought both the bat and the whip with her, the passenger in her hood was the usual extra, but she liked the look of the two in front of her when they slowly looked from the bat up to her face.

“Hey, you must be Catra.” The man stood up and reached out to Catra. “I’m Bow, and this is Glimmer.”

Catra didn’t believe for one second that these were their real names, but she didn’t want to screw up everything right at the start. She shook Bow’s hand and nodded at Glimmer, who was still staring at the whip on Catra’s hip. Before Catra could drop something snarky, the waitress asked her what she wanted to drink and she ordered 2 cups of coffee and one cup of milk.

Glimmer and Bow raised one eyebrow each when they heard the milk, but when Catra reached into her hood to pull out Melog, unasked questions were answered.

“You really have a cat.” Bow gasped when he saw Melog’s artificial leg. “Even better, a cyborg cat. What’s its name, General Catvious?”

Glimmer groaned and Catra wanted to do the same, but she swallowed it down and told him calm and collected Melog’s actual name. That even increased the coos coming from Bow. The waitress brought the ordered beverages, took a short look at Melog and told Catra that if the cat was going to shit somewhere, she had to clean up that mess. Catra shrugged, she was the one drinking the coffee and not Melog.

She downed one cup, and instantly regretted it. It was hot as fuck and tasted like pigswill. Catra tried to play it cool, only the tears appearing in her eyes were telling that not everything was as fine as she wanted to tell everybody.

“5 Questions. Who are you, where are you from, how did you meet Adora, why are you here at all and how do you know that I have a cat? Not even Adora knows this.”

Glimmer and Bow exchanged a short look, and then told Catra about their nice little journey through the USA and how Adora suddenly appeared behind them one evening, asking for help because she trashed her car. About how they towed it to get to the next mechanic and Adora selling the now trash heap. What they got to know about Adora and Catra, apparently Adora had talked a lot even though she didn’t get any alcohol, how they stopped at the Crimson Waste to pick up Catra, Catra’s ‘unexpected disappearance’ causing Adora to have a panic attack. Catra flinched, but didn’t interrupt them once, she checked the things she got told with that little bit of information she had herself. So far, it didn’t seem like they were lying.

“… and about Melog, let’s say we know your other name ‘Bastet’ and how you got the bat and the whip.”

Catra felt her right eye twitch, but she wasn’t actually surprised. Even though DT said, that they bribed the police, there was no way that in the age of smartphones and social media, no one was actually recording it.

She emptied her second cup, while Melog squeezed their head into their own cup to reach the milk in it.

“Ok, so far, I think you are telling the truth.” Catra had focused Bow again. “What did you do when you arrived here?”

“Wait, you think we are telling the truth?” Glimmer huffed. “Do you think we are the one responsible for this?”

Catra shrugged. “I don’t have all the facts; I’m open for everything. And are you a banshee or why are you shrieking like this?”

Glimmer’s face color began to match her hair, but before she could say anything else, Bow stepped in and gave Catra a rundown about what had happened 2 days ago.

They had arrived in the afternoon, parked their caravan where it still was standing right now, and visited the townhall and a police station. The townhall, because they tried to get insight into the residents’ register, but since they had no proof that Adora was actually Mara’s offspring and so, because of privacy protection, they were refused of an answer.

The police station served a similar cause, Adora showed the only picture of Mara she had, even though it was over 20 years old. But what were the biggest changes 20 years could do to one person? Maybe grey hair and some wrinkles, but except that? They had to wait for a while, the police made a copy of the picture and apparently had let it run through the databases, but there were no results.

Bow paused for a moment, and then mentioned the evening, when the 3 of them walked down a street and discussed other methods to find Mara. Adora had stopped at one point, and started to talk to a man that had passed them. Both Bow and Glimmer were too far away to understand what they were talking about, but they watched the man waving his hands, as if he wanted to keep Adora away from him and suddenly started running away. Adora stood there for a moment, clearly baffled, and started to follow him, going full sprint.

Bow and Glimmer had given their best to keep up, but the lead Adora had was too great, and when she turned around a corner, she vanished. The moment Bow and Glimmer reached the corner, they looked down a long, straight road, but it had been literally empty. No cars, no people and of course, no Adora.

Catra watched Melog lick their snoot and whiskers, and thought about what Bow had told her. Adora was fast, obviously, even if you stop playing a sport you did for years, you will keep your stamina and physical abilities for a while, especially if you keep hitting the gym. No wonder that Bow and Glimmer couldn’t keep up, they didn’t look like they ran bigger distances than to the next bus station when the bus just had stopped there.

But Adora was not a goddess, she couldn’t snap her fingers and turn into thin air. Something was fishy here. And Catra was going to find out what.

She asked them if that place where they lost Adora was close, and when Glimmer said that it wasn’t far, Catra asked them to lead her there. She paid the bill and the waitress gave the table an extra look to check for cat feces, while Catra lifted Melog back into the hood of her jacket.

Even though the sun was out, Catra could see her breath as fog in the air. When they started to walk towards the inner part of the city, Catra saw the needle, the belfry of the First One’s place of worship, and suddenly she had a bad feeling about all of this.

As they walked down the road, Catra noticed how empty the streets were. Of course, it’s early on a weekday, people are probably at work in the moment, but in the 20 minutes they needed to get to that specific place, they didn’t meet a single soul.

At some point, Bow and Glimmer stopped and Catra turned around herself to get an impression of the new surroundings. Just as she was told earlier, on the one side just the ugliest building Catra had ever laid her eyes on, on the other side of the road a row of houses, a few stores, but mostly accommodation units. Nothing special so far.

They followed the road again, just walking besides that ugly concrete dice on their left. After around 100 meters, they reached the next crossroad and stopped at the corner. The building continued to spread out its grey mass along the road, it apparently nearly was square, and Catra didn’t see a single window on the whole building. A prison, maybe? Pretty big for just such a small town.

Catra turned around and looked back to the place where they had stopped first. 100 meters were quite a distance to cross. And then another 100 meters to disappear around the next corner. If Bow and Glimmer weren’t lying and they really did their best to follow Adora, there was no way that Adora and the one she was chasing got to the other end of the road before the couple reached the first corner. Since on the other side of the road was just an empty field, there wasn’t a place to hide. And next to that big concrete block were just some bushes before the sidewalk began. No place to hide either. Something was missing here…

Catra gestured Bow and Glimmer to follow her, she walked down the road to the next crossroad, again following the concrete building. They turned around the corner and stopped. A marketplace spread out in front of them, and in its center a golden statue, one that Catra already had seen more than once. At home, in Half-Moon, right in front of the city hall. Prime, the founder of the Preĝejo – the Church of the First ones. And since they looked at the statue’s back right now, that meant that…

Catra quickly crossed the street and turned around. In front of her, the belfry reached for the sky. Same as in Half-Moon, the big letters over the doors at the foot of the needle told everyone who could read, what was in front of them.

Church of the First Ones

Crystal Castle

The ‘Crystal Castle’-part was new, Catra thought about asking Emily about it later. The big ugly concrete brick they walked around for 10 minutes wasn’t a prison, it was a church. Not a big difference in Catra’s opinion, but who was she to judge. Even though the rest of the building was bare, the front was a whole different story. Just like the name announced, the front was carved to imitate crystals, even the belfry, but this was the first time Catra had seen it like this. The other needles were built way more minimalistic than this one. Apparently, this was a special place.

Some kind of uneasiness spread out in Catra. Adora disappearing close to a place of the First Ones? This couldn't be coincidence.

Even though this would explain the Where, it didn’t say anything about the How and Why. Catra probably had missed something. Bow and Glimmer right next to her were still starting up the belfry, Catra woke them up from their trance and told them to go back to the start.

The couple was discussing something on the way back, but Catra didn’t listen. She just stared at the bushes and the lawn next to the church, lost in her thoughts. The whole situation was a nightmare. How was Catra supposed to find Adora here? How did Adora expect to find Mara? Just like Catra had told Adora a few weeks ago, they never should’ve come to the US in first place, but for now Catra would be happy enough to see Adora again, she even would’ve skipped the ‘Told ya’.

Catra blinked and found herself at the first crossroad again. She turned around and realized, that Glimmer and Bow were looking at her, as if they were waiting for further instructions.

“We told you everything we know. What now?” Glimmer asked, Bow looking similarly clueless. But Catra had no eyes for them, she rather looked past them, at a blue object made of metal. A mailbox. Nothing special, Catra had seen tons of them during the last weeks. But, what if…

“Do you remember, where exactly Adora and … that man were standing, before they ran off?”

Glimmer followed Catra’s gaze. “Yeah, about where the mailbox is. Now that I think about it, the man carried some letters when we passed him. But I’m pretty sure that his hands were empty when he ran off.”

“Duh, it’s a mailbox.” Bow pointed out the obvious. “He probably threw them in.”

Catra walked towards the mailbox and inspected the sign on it. Collection at 12pm. She looked at her watch. 11.30am. She looked around, nobody to be seen except Glimmer and Bow, and since most of the blinds of the houses on the other side were closed, Catra stepped back, lifted her bat and took a swing at the mailbox. The impact instantly dented the alloy or whatever the mailbox was made of, and a second strike trashed the lock of the mailbox completely. Bow and Glimmer had shock written on their face, as Catra ploughed through the pile of letters.

“What are you doing?” Glimmer was shrieking again; it was nearly to laugh about.

“What did Adora tell you about Mara?” Catra ignored the two staring at her, while she made an extra pile for letters she already had looked at.

“Um, that she is Adora’s mother, but she never met her, and that she gets only a…. oooooh. The letters.”

“Bingo.” Catra winked at Bow while she lifted a few letters she picked from the pile. “Letters like these.”

“Isn’t that illegal?” Glimmer apparently tried to be a voice of reason, but there was only one person that actively could hold Catra back from doing anything stupid, and this person was not here right now.

But Catra had found, what she was looking for. 4 Letters, written with light-blue ink and with the same handwriting, and most important, no sender on the envelope. 3 of the letters were supposed to be send to Europe, and the last one to Mexico.

Catra turned to the others. “Let’s scram!”

And they ran as if they were chased by the devil himself, Catra a bit slower than usual because of the extra weight she carried (bat, whip, cat), but still with the same speed than the others. They finally stopped 3 blocks down, Melog patted Catra’s back of her head with their healthy paw in protest. Catra apologized to her passenger and opened the letters. One was in Spanish, she couldn’t speak the language, so she put this one away. But the others were written in German, English and French, and that was something they could work with.

“Why … the fuck … did you do that?” Glimmer sounded as if she was about to have a heart attack.

“When was the last time you did cardio?”

Glimmer’s extended middle finger answered Catra’s question. She scoffed and handed the French and the English letter to Bow.

“Read them and tell me something about them.”

It took him a while, but his brows furrowed as he read them a second and a third time.

“They are the same.” He looked at Catra, somehow surprised. “’Sorry, I can’t make it’ … ‘I’m trying’ … ‘maybe next year’. They are literally the same. And it even looks like they were written by the same person.”

“Adora got the same letters, year by year, since her birth. Damn, if we had one of these, we could check if they were written by the same person.”

Catra shortly thought about calling Netossa or Spinnerella to ask them to rummage through the cardboard boxes of Catra’s and Adora’s stuff they kept in their basement. But it wasn’t really important who exactly wrote the letters, was it?

So, Adora probably saw the light-blue ink on one of the envelopes and asked the guy about it. The guy got scared and ran away, Adora just chased him, being the dork she was sometimes. That was the answer to the Why, but what was about the How? How did Adora and that man vanish in thin air? There had to be a trick to it. They probably had missed something. But what? There literally weren’t any doors or windows, Catra didn’t even spot air holes or anything. The building, except for its, was just a massive block of concrete. Whoever lived in there probably was depressed.

Glimmer had caught her breath again and was asking exactly that, what Catra was just thinking about. Bow looked lost in thought, but he provided a suggestion.

“As you know, my dads are historians…”

“No, I didn’t, but now I know why you said you are glad you don’t have a mom.”

Catra’s intervention threw Bow off for a short moment, but he quickly caught himself again. “Anyways, my dads are historians and got somewhat famous through a discovery. They proved that the guy in prison was indeed the leader of the rebellion, because there was a door in the wall of his cell and he could leave whenever he wanted.”

Glimmer groaned. “Tell the whole story, not just the good part. They only found the door because they mistranslated the extract from the text.”

Bow rolled his eyes. “However, I know from this that often castles and churches had hidden exits in case of attacks or whatever.”

Catra snapped her fingers. “True, I recently saw a surveillance video from a mosque or whatever, when a girl opened a hidden door to save her classmates from an active shooter. You think that there are hidden doors?”

Bow shrugged. “How else would you explain the disappearance? Without anything supernatural?”

It was worth a thought, but a bad trait of hidden doors was, that they were hidden. They walked back to the church, but this time they were taking a detour to avoid the broken mailbox. They passed the big statue of Prime again, which was now surrounded by onlookers for whatever reason.

When they reached the eastern side of the building again, Catra just saw the grey wall with around 2 meters of lawn and a few bushes in front of it, and that over the full 200 meters length. She didn’t even know what she was supposed to look for, Glimmer looked as clueless as Catra felt, but Bow looked like a Sherlock Holmes impersonator when he kneeled down, cocking his head to stare at the grass in front of him.

He stood up, and turned to Catra and Glimmer. “Question: What is the difference between here” He pointed at a spot on the lawn. “And here.” He pointed on another spot.

“Uh, grass?”

“I asked for the difference.”

“Cut the crap.” Catra did her best not to yell at him. “I’m not in the mood for puzzles.”

“Ok. If you look here, the grass is green, as it is supposed to be. But…” He pointed at another spot, and now Catra saw it too. “Here, the grass is not only more brownish, but also shorter and less thick. Which means…”

“That there are people walking over it.” Catra realized what he was implying and followed the thin brownish line of grass which led directly to the wall. It was easier to spot when you knew what you were looking for. She stepped over the little fence and went to the wall to get a closer look at the wall. There was nothing, but when she looked to the left, she jumped a bit when she noticed a camera aiming in her general direction, hidden in the bush. And right beneath it, a numpad on the wall.

Bow was actually right. There is a secret passage hidden in the wall. Catra called the others to her, trying her best to ignore the smug grin on Bow’s face. Of course, they didn’t have the code for the lock, but at least Catra now had an answer to the How.

Adora chased the guy, who opened the door and fled inside, and Adora most likely followed him in. Catra shook her head. Could this girl think just once about consequences?

“And what now?” Glimmer looked at Catra. “We know a way where how she got in there. Wait, why do we even think, that she is still in there?

“Because the Church is the only lead to Mara’s whereabouts. Now, if there wouldn’t be any hints for Mara, Adora would’ve returned until now, because I don’t think that asking someone takes 2 days. You still have Adora’s stuff, including her phone, right? Even if she got a lead, Adora never would’ve left without her phone, especially since your caravan is still on the same spot since your arrival.”

“Hm, makes sense.” Bow looked slightly concerned now. “But why would she still be in there? Do you think, she got … kidnapped?”

Catra did, but she didn’t want to tell them. “Ah no, I’m sure that this is just a misunderstanding. Let’s just ask someone, if he got recently chased by a blonde, blue-eyed foreigner.”

“No need to be sarcastic.” Glimmer narrowed her eyes. “But how are you going to do this? We can’t enter from here.”

“Through the front doors, of course.” Catra couldn’t stop the grin from creeping on her face, while she shouldered her bat. “Knock, knock, motherfuckers.”

She opened her eyes again, and noticed that it was dark on the outside now. Catra looked at her watch, it was 10pm, and after a second, she realized that she still had her watch. It was her first visit in a detention cell, and she thought that you would get robbed by your fellow inmates when you fall asleep. Catra shrugged internally, she was always open for surprises. She heard steps coming from the corridor that led to the cells, and turned her head to see a police officer unlocking the door, a troubled Scorpia in tow.

“Sorry girls, that one’s for me.” Catra stood and waved sarcastically at the 2 other women. “Was nice to meet you.”

She left the cell, and got her stuff back from an officer in front, including a receipt for her bail.

“Are you ok? Did anything happen to you?” Apparently, Scorpia was really as worried as she looked.

“Pfff, no worries. I even had the offer for rough, but intense lovemaking.”

“Uh, was it the bodybuilder or the crackhead?”

“The crackhead.”

“Ew!”

“Yep…” Catra let the P pop. “That’s why nothing happened.”

The whole thing was a joke anyways, but didn’t really surprise Catra, that she had to spent a few hours in the detention cell. Barging into a church while metaphorical screaming murder had the consequence of getting the police called on her ass. Running wasn’t an option because she instantly had been swarmed by churchgoers of all sizes and ages, and so she only could get off the floor, because she got handcuffed by the police. Catra knew that she somehow got off with a slap on her wrists, when the judge set the bail to 5000$. She saw the necklace the woman wore, the heart, this fucked-up symbol of the First Ones, which meant that the judge had a personal connection to the church. Catra had heard stories about the draconic sentences people got when they messed with objects of interests, mostly with a religious background.

They left the police station, and Catra stopped in her tracks when she saw the caravan parked right in front of her. Ok, that clearly was the one she had seen in the parking lot of the Crimson Waste, but what the hell was this monstrosity? Who would even buy something like that? It didn’t get better when the door on the side opened, spitting out Glimmer.

“Well, lookie here. Who set the criminal loose?”

“The one who got Scorpia and told her to pay my bail. So, in fact, you.”

“Yeah … I was quite surprised about that.” Scorpia scratched her head. “Sorry, that it took that long. I had to find your money first.”

Catra didn’t believe her ears. “It was in the safe. The literally only place in Darla where you should hide a bigger amount of money.”

Scorpia shrugged. “Yeah, I had to find the safe first.”

Catra wanted to say something, but decided that it was not worth it. She just thanked them for getting her out and asked Scorpia, if it was ok to let Bow and Glimmer into Darla. The trucker had already talked with Entrapta about it and apparently, her boss was ok with it.

Catra actually was glad, since it seemed like she had to fight a church now, and for that she needed every help she got. The drive back to Darla was a quiet one, Catra thought about the tasks she was going to give Emily, even if that meant to pull an all-nighter. In the exact moment she thought it, a gigantic yawn escaped from here and she remembered that she still had quite a sleep deficit and that her name wasn’t Entrapta.

Back at Darla, she was welcomed by a very excited Entrapta, who bombarded her with questions about the detention cell. Everything for data, Catra was even close to being able to imagine what the hell Entrapta was going to do with a diary about a few hours in a police station, but whatever.

She introduced Entrapta to Bow and Glimmer, Bow even knew the name Entrapta for some reasons, and got all excited about it. While he was fanboying over some ‘Protoss-plays, which she used to wipe the floor with DRG’, Catra climbed into the trailer and called for Emily. The screens immediately flared to life in the known purple pattern, and Catra got greeted by the AI.

“Hello Catra, what can I do for you?”

“Search for a person called Mara Greyskull, there can’t be many women with that name, I want to know where she lives and what she is doing right now. Also, find out, what’s up with the ‘Crystal Castle’ in Alwyn, and get me every piece of dirt related to the ‘Church of the First Ones’ in the, let’s say, past 20 years.”

“Anything else?”

“No, not for now. As fast as possible … please.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Thinking about if she had forgotten anything, Catra left the trailer again and joined the group that had, thanks to Bow and Glimmer, doubled in size. Entrapta was holding a lecture to them, while waving with some … bracelets she held in her hand. She handed them out to Glimmer and Bow, and hugged them when they promised to wear it all the time. Glimmer and Bow clearly were surprised from the hug, and judging Scorpia’s face, this really wasn’t typical behavior for Entrapta.

“Oh sorry, I thought people do that when they want to express gratitude.” Entrapta exclaimed. “I’m not really good with social interactions.”

Hm, ok, that was an explanation. Entrapta trying new stuff. Glimmer just muttered something like ‘no problem’, while Bow just had surprise written over his face.

A yawn from Glimmer’s side made Catra realize how late it was. Bow and Glimmer excused themselves, and Catra and her part of the group moved back into the trailer. Emily greeted them when Scorpia closed the door behind her, congratulating Entrapta to the success of her task. Catra raised her eyebrow, she suspected that Emily was talking about the bracelets, but that was kind of fishy.

“What’s up with the bracelets?”

Entrapta wore a guilty face. “They are tracking devices.”

Knew it. Something was wrong with them. “Why?”

“They are unknown factors. Our location is too valuable too just get leaked. If Emily notices a change in their pattern, we have to think about some actions.”

That actually sounds dangerous. “And why didn’t I get a bracelet? I’m an unknown factor too, aren’t I?”

Entrapta thought about it. “True, but you gain too much from having access to Emily. I’ve calculated a 2.546% chance that you will tell on us. It will drop to 0% if you find your friend. And the bracelets aren’t the tracking devices, they are just the bait.”

Don’t tell me she smuggled something in their jackets while hugging them.

Entrapta probably will never stop to baffle Catra to some extent.

Scorpia said Good Night soon, too, but not without yanking the energy drink out of Entrapta’s hand and dragging her towards the sleeping area to tuck her in. She didn’t protest one second and was out the moment she hit the mattress. Catra on the other hand decided to stay in the trailer, waiting for Emily to get the results she asked for, but also soon fell asleep on the chair she did sit down in.

***

Adora sat on the bed and rubbed her ankle as good as possible. She earlier woke up on the literally stone-cold floor and while turning around she remembered, that she fell down because she tripped, but in truth, she was chained to the wall. The anklet was actually heavy, she wondered how she didn’t notice it earlier. So, in short, the chain ran out, Adora lost her balance and passed out when she hit the floor again. The chain was around 2 meters long, long enough to lay on the bed more or less comfortable, but not long enough to reach the door.

Adora totally had lost the track of time now, she didn’t know where her watch was and she had left her phone in the caravan. Through the lack of windows, she couldn’t even tell if it was night or day. One thing told her that a lot of time had passed: she needed to pee. Like, really hard. But there was not toilet in here, and the chain stopped her from leaving the room. She already tried, but Adora neither could break the anklet nor pull out the metal ring, that attached the chain to the wall. There was only one way: yell for help. And so, she did.

She yelled and yelled, but no one came. At one point, Adora just screamed out of frustration and cursed at whoever was responsible for this. When she screamed that she needed to use the toilet, she heard a sound coming from the door, it opened and someone threw a bucket with a lid into the room. The door was shut instantly, and Adora stared at the bucket which was still rolling around. This had to be a joke, right? This has to be a prank or something like that. What the fuck was going on?

But no one revealed themselves, the walls didn’t fall down to show that this was just a prank. Adora also didn’t spot any cameras, not that there was a place to hide some, since the room contained nothing except the bed.

This was so humiliating, but Adora didn’t have much of a choice right now and got up to reach for the bucket. They could’ve at least given her some wipes.

After a while, what felt like an hour, the door opened again and a woman entered. At least Adora guessed that it was a woman, the broad shoulders compared to ridiculously thin waist and the sheer height gave the person an androgynous appearance. She was white, but not Caucasian, actually white-white. A look in her red eyes gave the clue, that the skin color probably resulted from albinism. Her white dress with a hood and a cape made her look like a ghost. The door behind the woman closed again, and the woman just stood in front of the door and watched Adora. Adora just stared back, unsure what to do now. The woman surely had an intimidating aura.

“Who are you?” The voice had something robotic, no pronunciation or any emotion in it. “What do you want?”

“What I want?” Adora wasn’t sure if she heard right. “I don’t even know where I am!”

The woman blinked. “Two evenings ago, you broke into our sacred grounds, yelling some demands. To our own safety, we had to subdue you.”

“Subdue?” Adora’s hand shot up to the back of her head. “You nearly broke my skull, I’m pretty sure that I have concussion.”

“It was necessary. Now, answer my questions.”

Adora crossed her arms in front of her chest and lowered her head, signaling that she won’t say a thing. It was a stare-down between the two women, but Adora lost when she was the first to blink.

“I’m looking for Mara Greyskull.”

“I don’t know a Mara Greyskull. Why are you searching for her?”

“Because she is my mother and I’ve never seen her since my birth. I’m even homeless because her stupid decisions. I want to know why.”

Surprise appeared on the other woman’s face. “You are Mara’s daughter?”

“You actually know her! Where is she? I got letters from her, from this place. I want to speak with her.”

“Interesting.” The woman ignored Adora’s demands. “How old are you? 21, 22?”

Adora nodded, and the woman turned around on her heels, knocked in the door and when got opened from the other side, she left the room without another word.

Adora was left speechless, but something like hope blossomed in her chest. The woman clearly knew Mara, and Adora was going to get her answers here. The unsettling part was the chain on her ankle and the fact that she clearly sat in a prison cell. Now that the woman had mentioned it, Adora remembered how she got here. She, together with Glimmer and Bow, was walking down that one street and discussed what to do next, since the visit to the police didn’t bear any fruits. She remembered the man looking at the letters in his hands and when they passed him, Adora recognized the light-blue ink on the letters. She asked him about it, and when she mentioned that she got several of these to her birthdays, his face changed and he started to flee. Adora immediately had followed him, through that door in the wall and found herself surrounded by people in light-blue robes. And then she woke up in here, with a headache that made it feel like her head was about to split.

The door opened again, entering 2 figures carrying a table and another one carrying a chair. Adora was creeped out be their appearance, all of them wore long, light-blue robes with their hoods up, and all of them wore white masks with no features except slits for the eyes. They were followed by a girl, pink hair tied in 2 buns and about 10 years old at max, carrying a tablet with silverware and a plate covered by a cloche. The table and the chair were placed close to the bed and the girl put the tablet on the table. All 4 bowed in towards Adora and left the room without saying a single word. Shortly after, the girl returned once more to bring a plain goblet and a decanter filled with water. She bowed again and left.

Adora just sat on the bed the whole time, staring at … her visitors and wondered what the fuck was going on. The white lady had already been scary, but faceless people in a cult-like uniform were just creepy. A shudder ran down her spine. The little girl didn’t really make it better. And why did they bow to her? What did Adora get into here?

Her rumbling stomach reminded her, that a lot of time had passed since her last meal, and so, Adora glanced at the table to the tablet. She probably shouldn’t eat anything made by these people, no? She lifted the cloche and saw mashed potatoes with some vegetables and sauce. It smelt mouth-watering and Adora’s stomach rumbled again, but now even louder. Eating this probably was a big mistake, but she felt like she was starving, which wasn’t even exaggerating, considering that the last time she ate something had been nearly 3 days ago. Adora winced, but picked up the spoon and began to eat. And it was delicious. A bit salty maybe, but absolutely delicious.

‘A bit salty’ was an understatement, soon it felt like Adora was dried out and she didn’t think twice when she grabbed the decanter and emptied it in one go, disregarding the goblet completely. Adora let out a burp, when she put down the empty decanter and began to feel dizzy.

The water was a mistake.

She tried to stand up, but her arms refused their service and she flopped over in front, face first into the plate. Luckily, the fork was laying somewhere else. Adora’s eyelids began to flutter and she drifted into a dreamless sleep.

***

Catra woke up in her bunk. She was pretty sure that this was not the place where she fell asleep, but there was a warm bundle called Melog curled up on her stomach, so Catra didn’t really feel like complaining. After a while, she felt nature calling and she had to wake up her cat, who wasn’t really happy about that.

After showering and plundering the fridge, Catra joined the others in the trailer. She found Entrapta and Bow putting their heads together, talking about a blueprint spread out on the desk between them, and Glimmer spotting Scorpia, which was actually a weird sight. Glimmer probably weighted less than what Scorpia was bench-pressing right now. They all turned their heads when Catra closed the door behind her.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Bow shrugged and looked around. “You gave Emily a few tasks, so we thought that you have a plan”

“I don’t.” That was the truth. “But gathering intel is important. Emily, tell me what you found out.”

“Very well. First of all, I only found one person called Mara Grey, but she is 10 years old and lives in Kansas. Since she is supposed to be the mother of your friend, I looked for woman called Mara between 30 and 50 years, which narrowed the original 15.204 down to 305. I have found pictures of all of them.”

“Hold it.” Glimmer spoke up. “How do you know that? Isn’t that supposed to be protected data or anything? Are you working for the police?”

Catra sneered. “Let’s just say, that the secret ingredient is crime. Emily, please continue.”

“If you would have a picture of her, the search would go a lot faster.”

Catra didn’t have one, why would she, but Adora would have one. She asked Bow to bring her Adora’s phone, but when she tried to unlock it, she had to enter a PIN. Catra groaned, she had 3 tries for it. Adora’s birthday? Nope. Razz’ birthday? Nope. Emily wanted to provide a list of the most common passwords, but Catra was sure that it was a date with sentimental value to Adora. She tried another one, and it was correct.

“Got it.”

“Uh great, what was it?”

“January 19^th 2009. The day we met for the first time.”

Catra didn’t see the look Glimmer shot at Bow, when she looked through Adora’s galleries and found one name ‘Catra’, she ignored it to look for the picture of Mara. She found it after 5 minutes and sent it to Emily. While Emily started a new search in the background, she summarized the other results.

“The Crystal Castle is older than the State of Washington. The first one was built in 1867, on the ruins of an old fort. It quickly became the center of the communities of the First Ones on the north American continent, comparable to Mecca for Muslims. People started to go to on a pilgrimage, viewing the Crystal Castle as the center of their belief. It burnt down in 1920, and was rebuilt soon after, this time made of pure concrete to lower the danger of fire.”

“So, we are standing in Vatican City right now? Do they have something like a pope?”

“They do, but it is unknown who it is or how the leaders are elected. The Crystal Castle is not only a church, it also is a school and a kindergarten, the houses around it are inhabited by the families that make use of that offer. As many religiously supported schools, the curriculum centers around the belief itself. It is believed that the higher ranks can only be reached if you were part of the church from the beginning.”

“Indoctrination, huh?” Glimmer’s voice was full of disdain. “What a surprise. What do they believe in anyways?”

“Since it’s not a worldwide leading religion, you could quickly jump to the conclusion, that the ‘Church of the First Ones’ is a doomsday cult. The few information that are known to outsiders show, that they await both the appearance and the rapture of their Trinity. It is made of 3 so called Aspects. These Aspects wield the names Family, Honor and Power. They are the impersonations of the values the First Ones are supposed to carry in our world. It may be worth mentioning, that one of the few dropouts said, that the Aspect of the Family had already ascended and the Aspect of Power had revealed itself. But this information is already 10 years old.”

“Sounds like Christianity with some extra steps.” 

“This is true, but it would be wrong to say that there is a true religion.”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you know that the first signs of religions in the history of humanity are over 200.000 years old. In this span of time, which is enormous for living beings but nothing for planets, the concept of religion has changed often. Alone in the last 1400 years, even the major religions have changed their face and even split up in different branches more than just once.”

“And?” Catra had no idea what Emily wanted to tell them.

“Do you think, that after 200.000 years of thinking about gods and how things came into their existence, that now humanity has figured out the ‘right’ thing? If you take a look at the top 4 of worldwide beliefs, the atheists are taking 3^rd place.”

“God, get to the point, we are so off-topic right now.” Glimmer sounded indignant, but Catra noticed the sparkle in Entrapta’s eyes.

“If humanity would be wiped out immediately, and there would be a new dominant species, they would come up with different gods and beliefs. But they also will find out, that F=G*(m1*m2/r^2). They will not say it in that way obviously, but they will find it out, and they will realize that this the truth. Because you can’t change the laws of physics. Oh, by the way, I think I found the Mara you are looking for, Catra.”

Catra blinked, surprised by the sudden change of topics.

“Already? Great, how did you find her?”

“I made the mistake to only to look for living persons. I scrapped the age and used possible birthyears as parameters.”

“That means she is dead?” It was a blow, but it wasn’t really a surprise. Catra remembered that Adora was actually the one bringing up the theory, since she thought that the handwriting and style of writing of the letters she received had changed.

“Yes. Do you wish to see a summary?”

“Yes. Please.”

A picture of a woman appeared on one of the screens. It was Mara. It was a passport photograph, she didn’t look as tired as on the only picture Catra knew of her, which wasn’t a surprise since it wasn’t taken a few hours after giving birth, but it was definitely Mara.

“Mara Fazal, born on June 24^th 1976 in Half-Moon, Lunaria. Finished High School there and moved to Seattle to continue her educational career at the local university. Moved to Alwyn soon after. Died on April 3^rd 2004 near Alwyn. Police report mentions a car crash. Family: Adam Fazal.”

Chapter Text

Adam Fazal? Who the fuck is that? Adora’s brother?

That was the biggest surprise so far. Catra was quite sure that Adora didn’t know about that Adam either, she would have mentioned him at least once.

“Show me what you can find about him.”

Emily was silent for a short moment, and then pulled up a picture of a young man with ruffled, blonde hair and blue eyes. He could be Adora’s twin, but according to Emily, he was 3 years older and – he is dead. Catra did some quick calculations and found out, that he died exactly on his 18^th birthday, 6 years ago. And just like Mara, in a car crash. Drunk driving.

Catra’s phone rang, and it made at least 2 people jump, since the sound cut through the deafening silence Emily’s results had left. It was an unknown number from the United States, but Catra learned from past mistakes and took the call, instead of just putting it down.

“Yes?”

“Miss Driluth? Good morning. I’m Brother Hordak, I’m part of the Church of the First Ones, and I heard about … the incident happening yesterday at the Crystal Castle.”

“How did you get this number?”

“I asked one of the police officers, a valued member of our community, for it.”

“Isn’t that like, a massive breach of data protection?”

“Don’t worry, I will just use it for this call, I won’t bother you after that. I called to invite you to today’s mass, starting at 6pm, as a sign of reconciliation.”

Catra wanted to refuse, but on the other side, it would give her a chance to get a look around on the inside without getting dragged out by the police.

“Oh, I would love to.” Catra nearly puked by the sound of her own voice. “Do I have to come alone or can I bring friends with me?”

“Feel free to bring whoever you want. Talk to someone at the main door, and they will lead you inside.”

They exchanged a few set phrases and when Catra ended the call, she looked around and asked, who wanted to step into the lion’s den with her. There weren’t any volunteers, Catra was a bit disappointed, but when she asked Bow, he agreed.

Bow was the best choice, since Glimmer appeared to be similarly hotheaded like Catra, Scorpia was too easily to get distracted and Entrapta wouldn’t want to go anyway.

So far, so good. But now back to business.

Both Adora’s mother and someone who probably was Adora’s brother died in a car crash at nearly the same place. Catra wasn’t much of a conspiracy theorist, but that sounded too good to be coincidence. The others weren’t sold to that idea.

“Aren’t you pulling straws here? Ok, it’s strange that your best friend’s mom is dead, someone is sending letters in her name instead, and the brother she didn’t know of died under the same circumstances in a place not far from each other.” Glimmer paused for a moment. “Now that I said these things out loud, that’s actually sounds like a conspiracy.”

“Wait, are you sure?” For the first time today, Scorpia looked up from the notebook. “Wildcat, don’t you just want these people to be the baddies?”

“Maybe, getting thrown out of your home because of some fucked-up will and then getting your friend abducted does this to you.” Catra stopped, she remembered something else. “Emily, in what year did Mara die again?”

“2004”

Something bothered Catra. It was not the year, it fit perfectly with the letters. No, it was something else. Of course, the will. She pulled out Adora’s phone, went through her messages (Catra was sure that Adora will forgive her this disregard of privacy) and found Adora’s chat with Loki. She wrote him a short message, asking him to look something up for her.

“Mind filling us in?”

Catra looked up and found everyone looking at her again. “No. … Just a hunch. Nothing really important for this.”

“Ok, then what are we going to do now?”

Catra shrugged. “We wait for today evening, and let’s see what they are going to show us. Maybe we find something, we decide everything else after this.”

Melog started to headbutt her ankle, they sat down and slowly blinked, looking at Catra. She picked up the cat and hold it in front of her face, and Melog started to lick her nose. The following mewl showed the reason they were showing affection, they were hungry. So was Catra, and she and Glimmer head to the next restaurant to pick something up for everyone.

***

I will never eat something again.

Adora felt like shit. Everything hurt and she was unable to think a clear thought. The light pierced through her eyelids and made everything worse. She couldn’t even bury her face in the pillow, Adora was simply lacking the strength to turn around. Why were her arms so heavy?

A faint voice close to her made Adora open her eyes. After her eyelids stopped fluttering, Adora could make out the young girl with pink hair.

“Milady, are you alright?”

Why does she call me that?

Adora barely could shake her head. Where even was she? That few things in the room she could see weren’t there the last time. Was that a bookshelf? And the girl sat in an armchair. What happened?

Her voice came out as a croak. “Who … are you?”

“Oh, my name is Flutterina. I’ve have been assigned as your caretaker during your stay. Do you need anything?”

“Water.”

The girl slid down from the chair and moved out of Adora’s field of view. Adora could hear water running, maybe from a faucet, and Flutterina came back with a goblet in her hands. She helped Adora to raise her head and drink a bit. A few drops were spilled, but the girl already held a cloth in her hand and dried off the water. Even swallowing the water was exhausting.

“Where …  am I?”

“You are now in your rightful quarters. Her Excellency will visit you later and explain everything.”

Adora had no idea what the girl was talking about? Rightful quarters? What was that about? She stared at the ceiling and realized that it wasn’t a ceiling light, that blinded her. It was daylight coming from a window in the ceiling.

“What day is it?”

Flutterina thought for a second and then told Adora, that it was October 25^th. The moment Adora heard this, she felt sick. She was here for 3 days already. And slowly but surely, she had the feeling that she wouldn’t get out of here in one piece. She had already been drugged once. Or so Adora thought. She didn’t know anything natural that would cause fall asleep over her lunch. She should check, if she still had all her organs, because Adora felt like something was missing.

With high effort and Flutterina’s help she managed to sit up. It nearly was too much, it made her see stars. Adora instantly noticed 3 things. First of all, she had pressure bandages on her wrists. Secondly, her ankles were chained together now, the chain connecting these was long enough to walk, but running probably was impossible. And third, she wasn’t wearing her clothes. Instead, she wore a long, stainless white robe. And nothing beneath it. No wonder her skin felt so rough. The fabric was already itchy, not wearing underwear…

Wait, who undressed me?

The implications brought Adora to the edge of puking. Flutterina realized that something was wrong and began to panic while trying to calm Adora down. Adora managed to ask the girl if she knew anything about it, and when Flutterina explained that it was her, because she had to bath Adora, Adora didn’t know what was worse about that. Getting undressed without her consent or being bathed by a 10-year-old with twigs as arms while being knocked out without her consent. Both options were fucked up in their own way.

The door opened and the woman in white stepped in. Flutterina jumped and made a curtsy, the woman signaled her to get up and leave the room. Adora was on defense almost immediately, she tried, somehow her brain was slow at the moment. The door closed behind the pink haired girl, and Adora was left alone with that living ghost.

They stared at each for a whole minute, before the woman began to shuffle closer to Adora. Adora subconsciously slid further away, as fast and far as possible.

“Are your new quarters to your liking?”

The hasty movements had Adora tired out already.

“What … did you … do to me?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.

Adora pointed at her robe, the chains, her wrists. “What do you think I am talking about?”

The woman’s face stayed emotionless. “We did, what we had to do. We want to keep your stay in this realm as short as possible.”

“Staying? In this realm? I don’t even want to be here.”

“I know, and that’s why we are helping you.”

“If you want to help me, uncuff me.”

“I’m afraid, I can’t do that. Your vessel is still too strong, it may delay the progress.”

Adora realized at this point, that there was something wrong with that woman. Mentally. She didn’t know what that woman was talking about, and she didn’t actually want to know.

“You seem to know who I am; you could at least introduce yourself.”

“Of course, I am sorry. I am known by the name Light Hope, representative of Prime in this world and master of ceremonies of the Church of the First Ones.”

That was for sure not her real name, but Adora didn’t care about that. She needed to get out of here, and that as soon as possible. The light coming from the window in the ceiling had taken an orange color now, dusk was coming, meaning that Adora soon will be 4 days being imprisoned.

“Is there anything you wish to have for dinner, She-Ra?”

What did she just call me?

“I won’t eat anything that is brought by you. You are going to poison me again.”

Light Hope turned around without saying anything, and left the room.  The door fell in its lock and Adora sank back into the pillow. She couldn’t stop the sob coming from her chest, tears started to run down her cheeks.

Someone, help me.

***

Bow and Catra arrived a few minutes too early at Crystal Castle, they watched a surprisingly big amount of people stream inside the building. Bow decided to give the statue of Prime a closer look, Catra joined him soon. It seemed to be exactly the same as in Half-Moon, except that it was triple the size. But it was the same robe, the same wings, the same quill and stone tablet in its hands, and the same halo. But something about the face was strange. Maybe faulty material or the artist messed up, but it looked like the statue had a second brow about its right eye and a big mole beneath it.

The sound of a bell echoed over the plaza, probably the signal that the mass soon was starting. Catra talked to one of the monks – was ‘monks’ the right word here? – who held open the main doors and they got guided inside.

Catra did see the amount of people going inside earlier, but she didn’t guess that they were that many. They entered an arena, there was no better word for it, it literally looked like the Colosseum. The audience was sorted in a circle around a pit, in the middle of the pit there was a table made of stone, possibly an altar, formed like a cross. There weren’t any seats for the common people on the other side of the main entrance, just stairs leading up to – Catra squinted to make sure she was seeing right – thrones. 3 of them. There was something written above them, but they were too far away to decipher it.

Their guide led Catra and Bow to seats in the upper ranks, there were even name plates for ‘Miss Driluth and guests’. The guide told them, that Brother Hordak will join them as soon as he had finished the mass.

“He must be quite someone here if he is allowed to hold the main event.” Bow just whispered, but the guide heard him anyways.

“Oh, indeed. Brother Hordak is so to say the second-in-command, right behind Her Excellency.”

“And who is that? Do we meet ‘Her Excellency’ today too?”

Catra must struck a nerve with that question, the guide was visibly taken aback from it. He stumbled over his own words, murmured an excuse and literally fled from them. Catra shot a look at Bow, who looked just as surprised as Catra felt. The whole thing got just a lot weirder.

The ceiling lights got dimmed and a spotlight focused on the table/altar/cross, which now had a big scroll spread out on top of it. A tall man in his late 50s appeared next to the altar, he looked familiar to Catra. His clothes definitely were top-quality, the ornaments on his robe showed his high rank. This man probably was the caller, Brother Hordak.

He began the sermon, his rough voice had something hypnotic. A short look around showed, that every single person in the audience hang on his every word. Catra guessed, that around 2000 people were in here, but you could hear a pin drop right now. She didn’t listen to the service, Catra let Bow do that, she rather looked across the audience, but there was nothing special about it. Now and then, Catra could make out the light-blue robes of the more invested members, but that was maybe one in 100. It was way less than she expected.

Catra closed her eyes, and tried to lock out Hordak’s voice. Being here didn’t help at all. For now, everything seemed as normal as a prayer service could be. The members looked like normal people, the grandma right next to Catra probably wouldn’t be able to harm a fly, yet alone agreeing on kidnapping. On the other side, Catra had seen enough movies where old people would exactly do that.

Time flew, and the mass was over before Catra realized it. Hordak said something, and the audience answered in unison, it sent shivers down Catra’s spine. The lights came back on, and the people got out and slowly left the hall. Bow and Catra waited at their seats, and after a few minutes they saw Hordak coming up the stairs.

“Miss Driluth.” He reached out his hand and Catra shook it. “Welcome. I’m Brother Hordak. Did you like the service?”

“Thanks for the invitation, but it was not exactly my cup of tea.” Catra did her best to sound friendly, she was here to get information. Getting on someone’s wrong side won’t help here.

“I loved it.” Their heads shot around and looked at Bow.

“And you are…?”

“Oh. Reccula. Mr. Kyle Reccula. I’m Miss Driluth’s guest. Did I recognize a mixture of Roman-catholic and Jewish influences, maybe with a hint of old Germanic mysticism?”

Hordak’s eyebrows shot up. “If you just look on the service, you may be right. But, you know, the messages…”

Bow and Hordak got entangled in a discussion about the pros and cons of Abrahamitic religions, while they walked down the stairs to the center of the arena. Catra was actually surprised, that Bow had such a knowledge on that topic – wasn’t he an engineer or something? – but with historians as fathers, you probably catch on the one or other thing.

Catra walked around the altar, it was made of white marble, the top was a smooth plane, but the sides had some carvings on the side. She crouched down to get a closer look on the carvings, it was a weird mixture of ancient languages. Latin, Hebrew, even cuneiform script. Catra recognized some of the Latin words. Familia, gloria, potentia. Family, Honor, Power. Other things made no sense, like She-Ra, Truth of the Sun, He-Man. Maybe Egyptian. But why writing this in roman letters and not in hieroglyphs?

The inspection didn’t bring anything new, Catra stood up and walked around the altar. Stairs appeared in front of her, and she looked up to see the 3 thrones. Hordak and Bow were still talking, so Catra sneaked as quiet as possible up the stairs.

The thrones were plain, made of marble, the backs were around 3 meters high and part of the wall. Catra had to arch back her neck to read the writings above the thrones. From left to right, Honor, Family, and Power. Again, these words. They were literally everywhere. Lost in her thoughts, Catra dragged her fingertips over the armrests of the right chair, and saw the trails she left into the dust.

A chair for an VIP left in the dirt? The VIP would be very sad about that.

The chair in the middle was in the same condition, but the chair on the left… was clean, as if someone recently sat on it. Catra looked down at Hordak and Bow, they were discussing the carvings of the altar, so she turned around and sat down on the throne. It was the Throne of Honor, but Catra didn’t feel more honorable or anything. The chair wasn’t really comfortable, not even the armrests were. Maybe a pillow or something would make things better.

“Would you please stand up? This seat is not for you!” Hordak’s voice had an actual angry tone in it.

“Whoops. Sorry.” Catra quickly stood up again and went down the stairs to join Bow and Hordak again. “Who else is supposed to sit there?”

“The Aspects, and them alone.”

“Oh, by the way.” Bow seemed to remember something. “I wanted to ask you something about the Aspects, if you don’t mind.”

“You are free to ask, but maybe you won’t like the answers you get.”

“That’s ok.” Bow winked at Catra. “I’m used to that. Anyways, I heard that one the Aspects had revealed themselves. How did that happen, did they perform miracles?”

“Two Aspects actually. The Aspects of Family and Power had revealed themselves and have left this realm to join Prime and fulfill their destiny. We helped them to leave their vessels.”

“How?”

“I’m afraid, I can’t tell you that. That is a secret kept by the higher ranked members.”

“Oh, pity. What is their destiny?”

“In short, invoke the Last Judgement.”

“Sounds scary. Last question, when did the Aspects … ascend?”

“Uhm, one was about 5 years ago, the other… let me think about it … about 17 years? I’m sorry, but I have to go. There are matters I have to take care of.”

Hordak led them to the main entrance, thanked them for coming and was about to head inside again, but Bow stopped him one last time to ask him about a light in a few hundred meters. Hordak told that it was the graveyard of their more important members. Bow asked Hordak if they could visit it. Hordak nodded and told them to mention him, if someone should stop them from entering. They thanked him and Hordak left them alone.

Catra was about to walk back to Darla, but Bow had other plans. He headed straight for the graveyard, Catra followed him, but she didn’t know what his plan was.

“What are you doing?”

“Hm, I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but what happened about 5 years ago and about 17 years ago, that you recently learned about?”

Catra apparently didn’t see the obvious, but Bow didn’t spill it and walked through the gates of the cemetery. She followed him, only reluctantly, she hated graveyards. Bow stopped for a short moment in front of a map of the graveyard, and then quickly walked into a specific direction. Catra soon could see what Bow was looking for, the bright spotlights made it hard to miss.

Two statues, made of black marble, right in the center of the graveyard. Bow stopped in front of them, and pointed at the rostrums the statues stood on. There were 3 rostrums but only 2 of them had golden writing on them. ‘Family’ in the middle, ‘Power’ on the right. The left was empty.

“Do you mind telling me, why we are here?”

Bow looked at the ground, as if he needed to think carefully about what he going to say. He looked at the statues again, and took a deep breath.

“I’m probably overthinking things, but do these statues remember you of anyone?”

Catra looked at the statues, but they look like straight from a videogame. The one in the middle wore a tiara and a long cape, the one on the right a cuirass and a sword. She shrugged.

“Focus on the face and the hair.”

Catra looked closer, but still didn’t see it. “Could you please just tell me?”

“Hordak said, that the Aspects left 17 years and 5 years ago, right? I think he lied about that. The rough direction may be right, but he intentionally said the wrong years. One year prior to this, Mara and Adam died. Don’t you think that these statues look like them, at least a bit?”

Catra was speechless. That was a daring accusation. But now that she looked at the middle statue with that in mind, she somehow saw Mara in it. The braided hair did really look like hers.

“Ok, maybe there is a resemblance. And? The police reports say, that they died in car crashes, no?”

“When I asked him about how they helped the Aspects to leave Earth, he said, that this is only for members only. Why did he say that? If he said something about meditation or any something, I would’ve just believed it. But saying it like this makes you wonder if there isn’t more behind it.”

“You think, that the First Ones have something to do with their death?”

“I’m sure you noticed that their whole belief system is just a mix of other religions. If you see it that way, Jesus only went to heaven because the romans killed him. If they would’ve just let him live, nothing would’ve happened and Christianity would’ve never come to existence, not as we know it today. What if … they made their own messiahs? What if, at some point in history, someone from the First Ones decided that they had to give their religion a small speed-up?”

“Ok, whatever.” Slowly, but surely, Catra was worried if Bow didn’t read a bit too much into it. “But why Mara? What made her so special to take the role of a Messiah?”

Bow shrugged. “I don’t know. But consider this: Mara is the Aspect of Family, and what would make the story even better …”

“… than to crown her own children. … and Adam is already dead.” Catra grabbed Bow by his shoulders. “Don’t tell me you think that Adora is next.”

His face was enough for an answer. “Bow, do you really think that they are going to kill Adora?”

 “I … I don’t know. This is just something I made up right now. But it somehow fits, and it explains why we still have heard nothing from her.”

For a moment, Catra forgot how to breath. She was about to rush back to the Crystal Castle and unleash hellfire upon them, but Bow grabbed her before she could make 2 steps.

“Catra, please. Don’t rush it. Let’s go back to the truck for now. Let’s ask the others first. Glimmer and me will help you, I promise. Even if I don’t know your friends very well, I’m sure they will help too. If you have Entrapta and that AI on your side, you will find a way to help her.”

Catra wanted to scream at him, tear herself from him and escape, but she knew he was right. She blinked away the tears gathering in her eyes and nodded. Bow gave her a pat on the back, and this made her unclench her fists. Catra didn’t realize that she clenched them in first place, her left hand hurt when she stretched her fingers. Blood. On her palm and fingernails. Bow winced, when he saw it and dug out a tissue. When Catra reached for it, he grabbed her by her elbow.

“Are you hurt?”

“Duh, my palm is bleeding”

“No, not that.” Bow rolled up the sleeve of her parka, and Catra saw the red stain on the sleeve of her hoodie. “Where did you get that?”

Catra had no idea, she wore her jacket the entire day. No, that’s not right. Not during the mass and the little tour ‘Brother Hordak’ gave them. And the seats were clean. Except…

Catra’s gaze drifted back to the statues, to the empty spot. ‘Family’ and ‘Power’ were dusted, but the throne for ‘Honor’ had been clean. And Catra had sat down on it. And put her arms on the armrests.

She remembered Hordak’s reaction, when he spotted her on the throne.

Only the Aspects, and only them.

If Mara is the Aspect of Family

And Adam the Aspect of Power

It means that the Aspect of Honor is Adora

Which means that the throne Catra sat on is ‘hers’

And so is the blood on Catra’s sleeve.

***

After her tears had dried, maybe because there was just no water left inside her, Adora managed to sit up on her own and looked around her. Speaking of water, she spotted a metal sink, from which Flutterina got the water earlier. Adora had to put up every ounce of strength into her calves to stand, the pain from her wrists made it impossible to put any weight on her hands. Standing itself was already a drag, but she made it to the sink and placed her entire weight on her left elbow while scooping water with her right hand.

Adora dried her face with the cloth she wore and finally lifted her eyes to look through the room she now was in. It was definintly bigger than the other one, but still a prison cell. Alone the metal sink and – to Adora’s surprise – the metal toilet were proof enough for this. on the backside of the room, there stood a small bookshelf. What actually worried Adora, was the carving in the wall above the shelf.

HONOR

Like, in Blood & Honor? The White-Supremacy group?

Adora had reached a point, where she shouldn’t be surprised about anything anymore, but she didn’t expect that. Wasn’t she supposed to fit into their preference of appearance? But then why would they all do this to Adora?

A look at the bookshelf didn’t bring any hints either. Adora either didn’t know the words on the books or couldn’t make any sense of them. Her eyes stopped at one particular book with the title She-Ra. Didn’t Light Hope call her something like that?

Adora dragged herself to the shelf and tried to pull out the book, the chains on her ankles made it nearly impossible. She managed to pull it out, but it was heavier than it looked and it slipped through her fingers. It landed on the floor with a loud bang, even though Adora saw the book falling, it made her jump. Only in a metaphorical way, because she just wasn’t capable doing it physically.

For a short moment, Adora considered just turning around and go to bed again, but her curiosity got the better of her and she crouched down to pick it up. She was sure that the groan she pressed out, could be heard on the outside. But there wasn’t a quiet option to pick it up. Adora probably could’ve asked that girl, Flutterina, to get it for her and she probably would even read it to Adora. But Adora didn’t want to rely on anyone in here.

She made it back to the bed more or less unscathed, but needed a breather before doing anything else. Adora stared at the dark ceiling window, it was night now. Her guts told her, that she soon had to expect visitors, in case that they had a schedule, but Adora just hoped that she was wrong. She was neither in the mood nor in the condition for visitors.

Her hopes were ignored, literally 2 minutes after she had had that thought, the door opened. Entering a person clad in a light-blue robe carrying a tablet with food. They placed it on a table, bowed to Adora and left without saying a word. Staying true to her word, Adora ignored the food, she didn’t even lift the cloche to look under it. She won’t take anything to her, except the water from the tab, since it didn’t have any negative effect on her until now.

Adora picked up the book and looked for a synopsis, but she didn’t find one, neither on the back nor on the inside. She also couldn’t find an author, so this probably wasn’t a novel. Adora turned to the first page, and noticed, how old the book was. The paper was yellow and the letters looked like the whole thing was written on a typewriter. But if this book was that old, what does connect this She-Ra to Adora?

She blinked and tried to decipher the first lines.

Prime, in his Light and Hope, was restless. For he needed to find a way to lead his disciples into his embrace, for all eternity and everything that comes after it. Through studying the universe and himself, he found a way to ascend into near-godhood. But how to spread these teachings? …

Adora needed way too long for just the first page, but in fact, it didn’t bring anything that she didn’t already knew. It still left some things open, for example where Prime did originally come from, or how he managed to get this influential in such a short span of time. Sometimes, after specific mentions or sentences, someone wrote a set of numbers, separated by a colon, with a pencil. Maybe cross-references, but for what? She remembered that citations from the bible are usually depicted in a similar way, but the chapters were missing, so it probably was something else. Adora looked at the bookshelf again, but just from the look of it, there wasn’t a book that looked important enough to be referenced to.

She continued reading, but it got harder with every page. Adora just got that tired, that she needed to use a finger to stay in the line she was just reading. At one point, she just placed the book next to her pillow and laid down, hoping that she was able to sleep. The ceiling lights were still on, Adora couldn’t find a switch or anything, but they didn’t stop Adora from dozing off.

A loud bang nearly gave Adora a heart attack. The quick movements she did, to locate the origin of the noise, made her remember why she actually shouldn’t move at all. Adora blinked and looked at the open door, 2 cloaked persons standing in its frame. They stared at her, probably, the masks made it impossible to tell, and then at the still untouched plate of food.

“Eat it!”

Adora shook her head. “I won’t eat anything you give to me. You’ll have to force me.”

“That can be arranged.”

The door was slammed shut, but Adora figured that this wasn’t the end. Panic started to rise inside of her, Adora’s gaze flickered through the room to find a way to get out of here. She couldn’t walk through walls, she heard the lock of the door earlier and even if she could climb on the table to reach the window in the ceiling, she would stand on the roof of the building. If it was the building she remembered, it was at least 3 stories tall, so the window wasn’t a way to escape either. Adora ran out of ideas, and when the door opened again, Adora pressed herself against the wall behind her bed.

Light Hope entered the room, flanked by the two people that came to the room earlier.

“I’ve been told that you refuse to eat.”

Adora didn’t respond, it wasn’t a question anyways, she just stared at the open door behind her visitors.

“You have no reason to do that, it is nec-“

“Yeah, no reason.” Adora’s voice was barely a whisper. “Except that, whatever I touch since I am here knocks me out.”

“Skipping meals will render you weak, and you will need every ounce of strength for coming days.”

Adora scoffed. “What for? Why do you do this to me? And why don’t you let me talk to Mara?”

Light Hope stood still, no a single muscle moving until she raised a hand and waved, which caused her companions to leave the room and close the door behind them.

“Mara…” Light Hope made a pause, choosing her words. “Mara has left us. A long time ago.”

“You are lying. I got letters from her, not even a year ago.”

Light Hope’s eyes lost the focus and stared holes into the air. “Mara … hurt me. She hurt the First Ones. She had a role to play and she disappointed us all.”

“What the hell are you talking about? What do I have to do with this?”

“Oh, everything. You are the missing Aspect. You are She-Ra.”

Again, that name.

“I don’t even know what this is.”

“Don’t worry. You soon will understand everything.”

A knock on the door interrupted her. It opened and a man, unmasked, but wearing lots of ornaments on his robe, came in. He was towering Light Hope and needed to bow down to whisper something into her ear. As always, Light Hope’s face was impossible to read. When the man was finished, she nodded and whispered something back. He bowed even deeper, and left the room again.

“It appears, that you are being chased. There are creatures on your trail, who are eager to stop you from fulfill your destiny.”

“What destiny? The only thing you do to me, is torturing me! I did nothing wrong!”

“We are doing to help you. We are helping you to leave this world and save us all.”

“But I don’t want to do this.”

“There is no ‘Want’ for you. This is your destiny. You were born for this.”

Adora was tired of this conversation, both physically and mentally. Whatever had happened to Light Hope in her past, it had made her lose her sanity.

“But why did Mara leave me?”

For the first time, Light Hope showed emotions. Rage.

“Oh, Mara’s intervention threw us back for years. But in the end, she fulfilled her role, your brother did and so will you.”

“What brother? I don’t have a brother! I was alone all the time.”

“I’m tired of this, She-Ra. You don’t seem to understand the seriousness of this whole situation. Soon, this whole thing will end, and I will have served my purpose as Light Hope, as did my predecessors.”

Adora closed her eyes shut, this was too much. She was locked in a cell together with a lunatic and she finally had reached the point where she feared for her life.

Someone, Light Hope, grabbed Adora by her wrists, making her see stars and wince from the pain. When Adora had a clear view again, she looked right into Light Hope’s eyes. The insanity in them was hard to miss.

“I ask you one last time, She-Ra.” Light Hope’s voice was back to the monotone standard. “Will you cooperate?”

“My name is Adora.” Adora gathered every bit of saliva she could bring up and spit into Light Hope’s face. “And only over my dead body.”

The woman in white stood up again, and, without caring about the spit in her face, opened the door to let her hench(wo)men in again.

“As you wish.”

She left the room and the helpers grabbed Adora and forced her to lay down on her back. Adora did her best to fight back, but this was not a brawl she could win. While the one pinned her down, the other forcingly opened her mouth, and force-fed her a liquid that tasted disgustingly sweet. Before Adora could spit it out again, hands were put over her mouth and nose to restrict her breathing, The hands only disappeared when Adora visibly had swallowed the liquid, even though it nearly made her barf. She nearly immediately felt the effect, Adora got all drowsy, but she before was gone entirely, she saw how she got lifted of the bed.

What Adora was about to experience, will always be remembered by her as the worst sleep paralysis one could ever experience. The big difference: it actually happened. Maybe not exactly like this, but it was close to the truth.

Adora flew through countless corridors and down countless stairs. Flying was the only explanation here, since Adora did not do one single step on her own. And she didn’t even know the way, but she still managed to find the hall.

It was a big hall, and it was filled with ghosts. Strange ghosts though. They were blue, not white. No wait, there was a white ghost, but only one. And it seemed like that everyone was waiting for Adora. Hopefully she was not that late.

One of the ghosts pulled a white blanket of her, had she been a ghost too? Was that the reason why she flew through the building? But she didn’t walk through walls, did she?

She laid down on that stone in the middle of the hall, and funnily enough, the stone wasn’t cold at all. It had even armrests, so she could stretch out her arms, even though she was laying on her back.  All around her, the ghosts started to sing. Was it for Adora? She couldn’t understand a single word, but since everyone was looking at her, Adora decided they were singing for her.

A pain on her arm let her head lull around, and she saw something shiny sliding down her forearm. A part of the fog clouding Adora’s mind got cleared up the moment she realized it was a knife. And White Hope was holding it, her red eyes glowing under her hood.

Adora wanted to scream and pull her arm away, but she couldn’t press out a single tone, and leather straps prevented her from moving her arms. She couldn’t even raise her head; something was restricting her movement at her neck.

She had no choice but to watch the red stream pulsing out of her. That’s it. That’s the feeling that kept her down over the last 2 days. And got worse when Adora blacked out for the first time this day.

Her consciousness flickered back for a moment, Adora being upright, sitting, the arena spreading out in front of her. The ghosts were back, no, not ghosts, people, kneeling, everyone looking in her direction. She heard Light Hope saying something next to her, Adora wasn’t able to understand a single word, but the tone didn’t promise good things.

She felt the last bit of strength, that she had to bring up to keep her eyes open, leaving her and finally, darkness embraced her.

I can’t do this anymore

Please let this end.

…

Catra!

***

Judging from Bow’s face, he came to a similar conclusion as Catra. His jaw visibly clenched, while he stared at Catra’s sleeve. Catra began to shiver, but it was not because of the temperature, her insides got cold. They needed to get back to Darla, as fast as possible. Catra turned around to get to exit, but Bow’s hand on her shoulder stopped her. She whirled back to him to tell him off, but his raised hand silenced her, for now.

“Even though you probably feel way worse than I do…” He was speaking through his teeth now. “But please, PLEASE, act like nothing happened. Let’s leave the graveyard, but calm and collected.”

Catra wasn’t up for discussions, Bow probably had his reason to say this, so she did her best to act like everything was normal, when they made their way to the exit. Bow walked in front of Catra, he was first to leave the area and turned left. Catra wanted to call him back, since Darla definitely was parked in the opposite direction, but Bow was walking so fast, she had to do a short jog to catch up with him again. When she asked him, what he was doing, Bow just responded with ‘safety measures’. Not immediately connecting the dots, Catra followed him only reluctantly, she wanted to get back to Scorpia and the other as fast as possible.

After turning left and right several times, Catra saw the belfry of the Crystal Castle again. They were walking in circles. But before she could say anything, Bow asked her if she was ready to beat someone up. Catra scoffed in response, as if there had been one moment in the last 8 years where this hadn’t been the case.

“Great, because we are getting followed and I think we are going need you.”

Catra’s head shot around, but she didn’t see anyone behind them. “Are you sure?”

Bow nodded. “Follow me.”

He entered a small alley, Catra on his heels, and hid behind some dumpsters. The smell was disgusting, and Catra held her breath when she crouched down next to Bow, holding as much distance to the dumpster as possible.

“Do we have to this?” Catra hissed at Bow. “Had it to be a dumpster?”

“Calm down, if no one comes during the next minute, I’m going to clean your jacket.”

Catra was about to bark a response, but she began to hear quick steps coming closer, so she shut up and stayed still. After a short moment, a person wearing clothes in the light-blue colors of the First Ones passed. Catra ignored the unspoken ‘Told ya’ in Bow’s eyes and got up to follow their stalker. The person had reached the end of the alley and looked left and right, visibly panicking when they couldn’t see the persons they were following.

Catra kicked an empty can to draw the person’s attention to her, the sound made their follower whirl around. It was a black woman with shoulder long hair, around Catra’s size. The jacket and pants she was wearing were hiding her feature, but judging from the signs of wrinkles in her face and the one or other gray strand let Catra guess her age around 50 years.

“We really were followed.” Catra looked at Bow. “How did you notice that?”

“When we were in the graveyard, she was standing a row behind us, and left the same time we did. It was a fluke.”

Catra turned her attention back to the woman in front of her, who now put on a face that probably should signal something like confusion, but Catra was having none of it. She cut her off, before the woman could make any excuses.

“Listen, I’m in a bad mood right now. Who are you, and who told you to follow us?”

“No one. I’m here because I want to.”

“Fat chance. I don’t know you, and that guy behind me doesn’t either. So why would you follow us? You have no chance to make us join your fucked-up club, I can tell you that.”

“No, no, no, wait. I saw Hordak talking to you. It’s rare to see him talking to outsiders. And then I saw you standing at Mara’s statue.”

A knot got tied in Catra’s stomach, while Bow breathed in sharply. “It’s really Mara?”

The eyes of the woman began to glow. “You know Mara? Are you friends of her?”

“What? No. Look at us, we are far too young for that. Honestly, I don’t give a shit about her. I only care about Adora.”

“Adora is here?” Honest confusion on that woman’s face soon changed into surprise. “Oh Prime, why. Why would she come all the way from Half-Moon?” Her eyes jumped between Bow and Catra. “And … why are you here?”

“You know Adora?”

“Please, tell me, why are you here?”

“We are looking for Adora, she went missing around here, and we suspect that she is in the Crystal Castle.”

“This is bad.” Tears started to run down the woman’s cheeks, that was not something Catra had been expecting. “When did Adora disappear?”

“4 days ago.” Catra looked at Bow for confirmation, but he just nodded.

“This is horrible.” The woman’s knees gave in and she fell to the floor. “All this was for nothing.”

It dawned Catra, that she clearly was missing something. Bow apparently felt the same, he kneeled down to comfort the woman. He introduced himself and Catra to the woman, who then told them, that her name was Serenia.

“What do you mean ‘It was all for nothing’?”

“Mara … did the best and worst thing a mother could do!”

Catra didn’t even try to hide her contempt. “She abandoned her child! She even left Adora with someone that had absolutely no connection to her! How can this be the best thing she could do?”

“It was to protect her. She wanted to get away from the First Ones, and get the unborn to safety.”

“How do you know this?”

“It was me, who helped her escape. A few days before the due date, I managed to smuggle her out of the Crystal Castle and get her to the next airport. I begged her to not tell anyone where she was going, and she didn’t, otherwise your friend would be found much earlier.”

“We know, that Mara did in a car crash. Why? Was she such a bad driver?”

“She didn’t die in a car crash.”

Bow’s brows furrowed. “But the police reports say…”

Serenia made a disparagingly gesture. “They are forged, all of them. It helps when the sheriff doesn’t want to bite the hand that feeds him.”

“The First Ones killed her, right?” Bow said Catra’s thought out loud. “That’s their whole schtick about ascension and everything. It’s a human sacrifice, just like the Aztecs did it.”

Serenia looked at the ground. “I wasn’t allowed to be there, but yes, they did.”

“You weren’t allowed.” Catra lost the bit of respect, she kept for every human being, when she heard that. “Did you wish to be there? Or are you high-ranked enough to expect watching a woman getting slaughtered on regular basis.”

“I was, but helping Mara let me go out of favor with the First Ones.”

“Boo-hoo. Sorry, I don’t have enough pity for that left. And now? Are you going to be useful and help us find Adora?”

“I don’t … sorry, I don’t know. Light Hope nearly casted me out for helping Mara. The only thing I do right now is cleaning.”

Catra scoffed, straightened her jacket and looked at Bow. “Let’s go. We are wasting our time. I have something better to do than to listen to the whining of someone who gave up years ago.”

“No. NO!” Serenia’s voice was full of despair. “Please let me help you. Mara was the only friend I ever had. I didn’t only fail her, but also her son. I don’t want to be responsible for her daughter too.”

“Well, I have big news for you. You already are. Why did you write the letters? To have a purpose, even though you are just an impostor? I can’t even express how much you disgust me.”

“Catra, what are you talking about?”

“She knew Adora, but didn’t know about her being here. She also wasn’t surprised, that Mara had a girl, and she knew we were coming from Half-Moon. Since I didn’t tell her, there are 2 options. Either she met Adora and talked to her, or she knew about the letters Mara sent to Adora and decided to continue writing them, for whatever fucking reason.” Catra glared at Serenia. “Am I right?”

Serenia didn’t answer, but Catra didn’t need one. “I’m leaving.” She nodded at Bow. “See you.”

Catra turned around and walked away. She had enough of this. Adora was in danger, and Catra was running out of time. If she didn’t get help from the inside, she would need brute force again. And this time Catra didn’t let herself getting stopped by some lunatics in dresses. Maybe she should steal the Semtex Entrapta was storing in one of her crates. Oh, Catra will find a way inside.

She made a wrong turn once, and needed longer to get back to Darla than she planned. She climbed into the cab, dropped herself on the passenger seat and breathed. Just breathed. In and out. In and out. Suddenly, the air stayed out of her lungs. It was impossible. Just impossible.

Catra just…

couldn’t…

breath.

“Wildcat! I knew I heard the door.” Scorpia’s voice broke the spell and Catra gasped for air. “Are you alright?”

Catra looked at the trucker, the woman, that picked her up a few days and helped her to get across the States without expecting anything in return. She made 2 quick steps, flung her arms around Scorpia and buried her face into Scorpia’s leather jacket.

“Uh, uhm. Heh. Didn’t expect that.” Scorpia sounded unsure. “Can I … Can I hug you back? I’ll be careful, I promise!”

Catra nodded, a motion so small, she wasn’t sure herself if she actually did it, but she felt Scorpia’s arms closing around her and that broke the dam in Catra. It unraveled the knot Catra was carrying in her stomach since the realization with the statues and the blood on her sleeve. Luckily, Scorpia’s leather jacket was water-repellent, otherwise she would’ve needed a new set of clothes.

For the first time in a long time, Catra bawled her eyes out. For the first time in years, but this time not out of guilt, but out of frustration and fear. Frustration, because this whole mess was her fault. It felt good for a moment to have Serenia as a scape-goat, but deep down, Catra knew that she could’ve prevented all of this. She just could’ve said ‘No’, when Adora asked her to follow her to the States. She just could’ve turned back to Half-Moon, when the interview for the jobs on the cruise failed. And she just could’ve shut up about Razz and the letter she gave to Catra. Nothing would’ve happened, if Catra just would’ve stood up for herself just one time. Fear, because Adora was about to get killed, and Catra had no idea how to prevent that. And the possibility to lose Adora forever brought up some ugly thoughts Catra had locked deep inside of her.

But this was not the time for self-indulged misery.

Adora needed her help, and Catra would move heaven and earth to get to her.

Chapter Text

Catra had spent a longer amount of time with Scorpia in the cab, just sitting there and saying nothing. Scorpia did her best at sitting at Catra’s side and listening to the nothing Catra told her. Catra eventually walked into the back, only after giving Melog a few scratches on their head, to look for Entrapta and Glimmer, but when she entered the trailer, Entrapta was all alone. Well, not entirely, she was talking to Emily. The tinkerer welcomed her back, and told her that Glimmer and Bow already went to bed.

A little bit of guilt stung Catra, Bow had already returned, but decided not to talk to her. There was the possibility, that he didn’t know that she sat in the cab, but since Catra had left him with Serenia, he probably was mad about it, and Catra didn’t want to hold it against him.

Entrapta congratulated and thanked Catra for the amount of data she had gathered during the evening. It took her a moment to understand what Entrapta was talking about, until she remembered the small camera she wore as a necklace to hold her part of the deal she made with Entrapta.

But before Entrapta could hold a lecture about the analysis Emily pulled from the recordings, Catra interrupted her and asked her about sleeping pills or anything like that. She figured, that if Entrapta had stuff to stay awake, she probably some stuff hidden somewhere that would do the exact opposite.

Doing a sport, that required a perfect control over her senses, for years, made her develop a reluctance to anything that would dull her senses, which also was the reason why she rarely drank alcohol. And even if, she always maintained a status where she still was well aware of what she was doing. That bottle of wine she drank on the Dragon’s Daughter was a big exception, and only, because she needed some extra courage.

Of course, Entrapta had something stashed away, and since it had was unopened und not expired, she just read the package insert and took the recommend dose. She just wanted to sleep, not kill herself, but since she barely had slept the night before and since Catra had learned some disturbing things today, she probably won’t get any sleep tonight either, at least not without some help.

The pills did their job, and before tucking herself and Melog in, Catra had thanked Scorpia earlier for feeding and entertaining them, Catra fell into a dreamless slumber.

Was it possible to be rested and still feel like shit? Apparently it was, since that’s how Catra felt, when she woke up again. Melog, of course, was already awake and kneading Catra’s side. The prothesis made it weird somehow, thinking of which, she should ask Entrapta about how to change the size of it. Was it possible for a cat to outgrow a prothesis in a matter of a few days?

Catra checked the cab, it was empty except for Darla obviously, but Darla wasn’t the one she wanted to talk to. Judging from the sounds, Entrapta was working on something in the trailer. After placing Melog on the seat in front and fixing them their breakfast, Catra headed into the back. She opened the door and began to shiver, the backdoors were open and judging from the temperature, since a longer time already. She saw Scorpia and Entrapta standing together, Entrapta wielding a saw, both of them wearing protection goggles. The inventor let the saw roar to life again, and sparks began to fly across the room. Catra had to cover her ears, the noise was deafening, and it made her thank whoever installed both the sound and the heat insulation in the sleeping area. She stepped closer to the two and she slightly tapped Scorpia’s foot with her own to get herself noticed. The white-haired woman looked down first and then turned around, when she saw Catra’s foot.

“Hey Wildcat, how you doing?”

Catra shrugged. “I’m just doing, doesn’t get better for now. How long do you need to finish … whatever you are doing?”

“Need to cut these plates and get them in the right form.” Entrapta pointed at the steel plates in the corner, while Scorpia had picked up the one they had just cut, and bend it to a U with brute strength.

“Ok, I’ll need to talk to you all later. See you then. Did you see the others already?”

“They came by earlier, I guess they are in the caravan.” Scorpia pointed to the doors. “Is it important?”

“Thanks. Yes, but it can wait an hour. I have to talk to the others first.”

Catra hopped out of the backdoors, and walked to the caravan, which was parked a few meters behind Darla. She knocked on the side door, and Glimmer opened. They stared at each other for a short moment, before Glimmer broke the silence.

“You’re still alive.” That wasn’t a question, it was more like an ascertainment.

“I’m always happy to disappoint. Is Bow here?”

“Of course, he is. Where else would he be?”

“I don’t know, running through the forest to get away from you?”

“Fuck you too.”

Glimmer slammed the door shut, Catra could hear her steps thumping through the caravan to a windowless spot. Steps came back and the door opened again, but this time, Bow stood in its frame.

“Hey.”

“… Hey.”

Again silence, but Catra felt more awkward right now.

“Je suis désolé.”

Bow’s eyebrows shot up. “Pourquoi ?”

“Parce que j'ai quitté.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I totally get you. Serenia really was a mess.”

“Did she say anything useful, after I left?”

“Yes. Two things. First, the Crystal Castle basically is deserted after the evening mass we went to. There are not many people actually living in it, Light Hope apparently does. Do you remember when Serenia asked about when Adora disappeared.” Catra nodded, and Bow took a deep breath. “According to Serenia, the ritual for Mara took 7 days.”

“And since Adora went missing 5 days ago, that means …” Catra choked. “We have 2 days left.”

“We need to figure out something. And that quickly.”

“Come into the trailer. Emergency meeting. Bring Glimmer.”

Catra jumped back into the trailer, covering her ears again. When Entrapta finished the plate she had on the workbench, Catra drew her attention to her and brought the working duo to a stop. She told them to hear her now, since the matter had reached a new level of urgency. Noise behind her announced the arrival of the other two from the caravan, and when Bow had closed the trailer doors, they gathered around the desk in the middle.

Catra didn’t prepare a speech of anything, she quickly presented the facts to Scorpia and Entrapta, and in fact, Emily. She didn’t know what Glimmer knew, but probably more than the Darla-group.

“As you know, the reason I came to USA was to accompany my best friend to search for her mother.” Glimmer snorted, when she heard the second part of the sentence, but Catra just ignored her. “Now, we had a … small argument, one that I regretted the moment I parted in. We split up, Adora … was lucky to meet Bow and Glimmer, and I met Entrapta and Scorpia … under dubious circumstances.” Catra dropped pauses intentionally for rhetorical purposes. “Adora got kidnapped, and is now in the hands of a group of lunatics, who for whatever fucked up reason is going to kill her in the next 3 days.” Scorpia gasped so loud, she had to cough. “I plan to get her out of there, but I’m going to need help.” Scorpia raised her arm like a kid in school, but Catra had two more things to say. “Whatever we will do, is going to be illegal. The minimum I am to do, is damaging ecclesial property. And, I will do it anyway, regardless if you help me or not.”

Catra looked at the others, she was especially watching Glimmer, because she looked like she would call the police if she watches someone jaywalking, on the other hand does her vocabulary indicate something else.

Scorpia was the first one to say something, but Catra actually expected her to help. And when Scorpia was going to stay, so were Entrapta and Emily. But just to be safe, she asked about the reason. Scorpia’s answer was … unremarkable, but somehow expectable.

“Because it sounds like an exciting group activity.”

Catra rolled her eyes. “Scorpia, we are going to break into a church to save someone from getting murdered. This is not the definition of ‘exciting’.”

“Uh, uhm. Yeah. A terrifying group activity. Excitingly terrifying. Is excitifying a word?”

“No, excitifying isn’t a word, Scorpia. Entrapta? What about you?”

“Data!”

How unexpected.

“And what about you?” Catra looked at Bow and Glimmer.

Bow immediately nodded, but Glimmer stayed silent.

“I don’t force you to be here.”

Glimmer’s gaze shot up to Catra. “Oh, you won’t get rid of me that easily.”

“Great! Welcome on board.”

“You know that this is all your fault!”

“Yes, I do.”

“Oh you do? Great, then everything is fine.”

“If you have a problem, say it, Sparkles.”

“You are an insufferable prick, has anyone ever said that to you?”

“Not in my face, no. For some reason people rarely have the balls to do this.”

“Maybe because they are afraid, that you are going to kill them the moment they do?”

Catra shrugged. “Who knows?”

“Adora trusted you, she trusted you to help her and you disappointed her.”

“I don’t know what Adora told you, but Adora is such a bad liar that even a person who didn’t know her at all, would notice that. I’m the reason, why we are here at all.”

“Uuuh, good job. Did you ever think she left you to test you, to see if you believed in her and you failed? You are just here because you have a queasy conscience. Now that I think about it, maybe she left you because she was sick of you.”

Catra pounced her, but somehow Scorpia was fast enough to scoop her out of the air. Bow stepped to Glimmer and talked to her quietly, but he was visibly irritated. Entrapta whispered something about ‘Feelings getting hurt’ in to her recorder. Melog was attracted by the shouting and began to hiss at Glimmer.

Don’t worry, buddy. This feeling is mutual.

Bow and Glimmer had left the trailer, the rest stayed around the desk and discussed important matters. How to get inside of the Crystal Castle.

Catra didn’t need to be a genius on Entrapta’s level to know, that it was impossible to get in from the main entrance. Serenia’s hint, that the Crystal Castle was deserted at night, lead to the conclusion that the doors in front were locked at night. The doors themselves were cast iron, around 3 meters high. One of them alone probably weighs one ton. And since Catra didn’t know how to pick locks, which would be a dumb act anyways, since the plaza in front of Crystal Castle was under surveillance for 100%, they needed to find a different way to get in.

They couldn’t get in through windows either, since the Crystal Castle had no windows at all. The building had a near plane roof, but it was around 15 meters high, and Catra had no idea how to get on the roof. Even though she would believe that Entrapta was capable of organizing a helicopter, this option would draw too much attention on them. Climbing the walls wasn’t an option either, hence the missing windows and balconies. Even if Catra could get up there, and she didn’t really have any doubts about it, she probably wouldn’t be the only one going in, but she doubted that Scorpia or Glimmer could climb up a rope or something similar.

For a short moment, Catra thought about dressing up and mix herself under the followers, but since her … forceful entrance two days ago, there were probably some people who remembered her face. Brother Hordak for sure does. And even if, they still had to think about a way to get Adora out.

With this, the front was out, the top and the sides too. What about the hidden doors? They knew about at least one. Catra asked Entrapta about them. In theory, Entrapta could get past them, but the door they knew about also had a surveillance camera right above the numpad. They would get noticed the moment they walked towards the door.

Someone knocked on the trailer door, Scorpia pushed it open and Glimmer and Bow climbed back in. Catra didn’t know how to read Bow’s face, and Glimmer looked everywhere but at Catra.

“Entrapta…” For the time in long, Emily said something. “I may have found something. I managed to get into the database of the United States Department of Housing and Development. Actually, it was Catra’s idea to look for the blueprints. I came to the conclusion, that it might be useful to obtain these. It didn’t take long. Just a call and an e-mail address.”

“Great job, Emily.” Entrapta was ecstatic. “Show it.”

Four of the bigger screens flared up and the blueprints appeared. Catra had no idea about architecture and hoped, that Emily will bring an explanation with them. And luckily, she did.

“The Crystal Castle was built in 1919, after the first one burnt down 3 years earlier, the reasons for this are unknown, arson was suspected, but considering the wooden stalls and the number of open fires in a dense area led to the possibility of an accident. The new Crystal Castle was built using mainly concrete to avoid a repetition of these events. As you can see, the building has 4 floors. Basement, 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd floor.” The screens lit up individually with Emily counting up. “The 1^st and 2^nd floor are identical and symmetrical. The middle of the floors are occupied by a hemisphere called ‘Mass Hall’.”

“That’s where we watched the mass.” Bow stepped in. “Around 2000 people were in there. Less than the mass churches I heard about, but it’s still a lot.”

“This is correct, the average is about the double. 4000 visitors. With nearly 2000 people on a weekday’s evening, you can expect around 700.000 visitors in a year.” Emily continued analyzing the blueprints. “The rest of the rooms in the 1^st floor are either offices for the management, or classrooms for the school founded by the First Ones. The same for the second floor. Either offices or classrooms. The basement is split into 5 areas. The biggest area is occupied by the central heating, it is oil-fired. It was installed in the 1930s, and took nearly a year, since they had to install every pipe first. One of the other rooms is marked as ‘storage room’ and another one as the ‘supply depot’. The last two rooms are way smaller, both only around 20 square meters, and both rooms are unmarked. Judging from the information you gave me, you are looking for rooms for containing people. These may be the ones you are looking for.”

Now that was something new. “Good job, Emily. Thanks.”

“I’m not done yet. There is still a third floor. This floor is somehow different, since the ‘Mass Hall’ doesn’t reach up to it. It seems to be made up entirely of rooms designed for living in them, judging from the amounts of lavatories. Each room is identical, but mirrored to the room next it. But there are 4 exceptions. These 3…” Markings appeared on the last blueprint. “and this one. The last one is the biggest of all and, since the lavatories are stored separately only accessible from inside the room, a VIP.”

“Great. Now we have 6 rooms to check. Is there a possibility to shorten this?” The question was also directed to Bow, but he just shook his head.

“Not with any more information.”

“We can think later about it. How about getting in. Does anyone have an idea?”

Silence fell, they had ruled out every way to get in they did think of.

“What about … the canalization?” Everyone looked at Glimmer. “What? It’s a big building, isn’t it? Don’t they usually have direct access to the canalization? Can…” She made a vague gesture at the screens on the wall. “Can Emily find a map or something?

A few seconds later, the screens were plastered with new maps. “This task was quite easy. The longest part of it was the loading of the files, since their server speed is rather disappointing.”

“And how am I supposed to read this?”

“I’m trying to triangulate our current position, but it seems like we are off the grid. The closest entry to the accessible canalization is 700 meters down the street.”

This was bad. It meant that they couldn’t check out if the maps were correct right now, since they couldn’t just park Darla right next to it, open up the manhole and climb down. Catra had the suspicion, that getting down into the canalization wouldn’t be the only problem. It made her remember the one time she visited a sewage-treatment facility with her class and she hadn’t gotten the stench out of her hair for days. Two of the students even left to puke behind the next bushes, but they were drama queens anyways, it hadn’t been that bad.

“Can we just enter the sewers, or do we need special keys for that?”

“I have found mentioning about keys, but there weren’t any specifications about their kind.”

“I’m going to check this out. I’m back in 20. Try to find any different ways to enter buildings without catching attention.”

Catra left the trailer and walked down the road, just as Emily had described to her. After a small bit, she heard quick steps behind her, she turned around to see Glimmer jogging towards her. Catra didn’t stop, she continued walking towards her goal, Glimmer slowing down when she reached her.

“Hey.”

Catra looked at her for a short moment, but didn’t answer. For what reason? She didn’t feel like she was the one owning someone an apology.

“Listen, and listen well, because I’m only saying it once. I’m sorry for saying the things I did. I don’t know why, maybe because you easily manage to irritate me, and I hate that. Truth be told, before we arrived at the hostel to look for you, Adora told us about the history you two have together, and how it hurt her what you said.”

Catra acknowledged the apology, but didn’t take the bait for the rest of what Glimmer was babbling. “If you are done, shut it. I’m here to work.”

They reached the manhole, and Catra noticed, that it was different from the ones she knew from home. In Half-Moon they were just covered by a lid made of concrete or metal, followed by a tray, which was supposed to catch things falling through the fencing. Catra knew this, because at one New Years’ Eve, they put every firecracker they had into one of these, just for shits and giggles. The lid broke and so did the tray, leaving an open hole on the road. Every person involved ran for good, but someone still had called the police, who then came to put warning signs around it. It never came out, who actually called them, but since Adora always started whistling when they talked about that, she somehow was the main suspect.

This manhole was around 1,5 meters wide, and had some art engraved in the metal lid. A hexagon was cut in it, and since one of the pieces had a ring on it, Catra suspected that you could pull it and the cover would open up like a flower. This actually was a real entrance to the sewers, but Glimmer pulled on the handle and nothing moved. Since it was cast iron, it was heavy, but it still didn’t move when the two of the pulled together. Glimmer then pointed on a spot next to the handle and Catra saw a hole in the shape of a three-pointed star. A keyhole.

Catra cussed and told Glimmer, that they should look for more to check if it’s the same with them. It took a while to find the next one, the other access points were just drains and it was impossible for Catra to fit through it, let alone someone else. But this manhole cover had both the same pattern and the same keyhole as the one before.

No chance. At least not a discreet one.

“Let’s go back. Maybe the others have found something else.”

They turned around and walked back in silence until Glimmer cut through it.

“Can I ask you something?”

“You just did.”

“Smartass. How can you be that calm?”

Catra raised her hand, clearly shaking. She made a fist and when she opened it again, her fingers remained calm.

“I’m not. I’m at 180 since Adora left, and since Bow told me that you lost her, it’s over 240. But kicking and screaming isn’t helping anyone, not even myself. I’m at such a high, that I know Adora is in danger, but I haven’t actually realized it.”

Glimmer pulled a face. “God, can you stop talking. It makes me feel even more guilty.”

Catra snorted. “Better get used to it, I have many sob stories to tell.”

“Ugh, no need. Adora told us some. That was sad enough.”

They arrived at Darla and immediately climbed into the trailer. Entrapta, as usual, sat on the desk, a soldering iron in her hand, leaning over something Catra was too far away to see. Scorpia and Bow were playing tic-tac-toe. Emily … was there. Scorpia and Bow looked at the newcomers, Entrapta lifted her eyes for at least a short moment.

“Anything new?” Bow quickly came to the point.

“No, the sewers are a dead end. Literally.”

“I’m not too sad, the sewers aren’t a place I’m going to miss. Entrapta, you can stop making these masks.”

Entrapta looked up. “Why? We don’t need them anymore? You know what? I’m finishing them and then sell them to the Navy.”

Glimmer raised her eyebrows. “Is she actually going to do that?”

Scorpia answered with a shrug. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Catra looked at Bow. “Have you found anything else?”

“No. Entrapta actually would be able to organize a helicopter, but we stopped her since we already said that we can’t make use of it.”

Catra sighed and pinched her nose. “Any other ideas?”

“I told Emily to search for documents about the construction of the sewers, maybe we are able to find something. But she hasn’t said anything yet, so I guess she hasn’t found anything yet.”

Catra looked at her watch, they had wasted over an hour to look for an entrance to the sewers. It was noon. They were running out of time.

As if someone called for her, in fact Bow did, Emily’s voice sounded from the speakers.

“I may have found something. I went through the archives of the press, but the digitalization of the printed press only reaches back to 1910. I can’t go back any further than that.”

“Get to the point!”

“Of course. The sewers were constructed in the 1930s, a good 10 years after the rebuilding of the Crystal Castle. As you may have noticed, the maps aren’t exactly precise, the sewers maybe didn’t even have an actual way into the Crystal Castle. Geological examinations have shown, that the soil is mostly made of clay and limestone. It is poor on resources; this land’s only use was agriculture, mainly wheat-growing and livestock. Until the 1920s.”

Emily made a pause, as if she was waiting for someone to continue the report. Catra looked at Bow and Glimmer, both looking equally clueless.

“Enlighten us.”

“Gladly. On November 18^th 1918, the US Congress ratified the Wartime Prohibition Act, banning the sale of alcoholic beverages having an alcoholic content greater than 1.28%. It took effect on July 1^st 1919. The entire country went dry in the following January. Since the Prohibition was revoked in 1933, 13 years later, the people of the lower and middle class had to find a way to bypass that law. For obvious reasons, the upper class never had that problem, these people just went into their wine cellars. Moonshine and so-called bathtub gin were on the rise, alcohol made by the common people themselves, since producing liquor is far easier than brewing beer. The other option was smuggling alcoholic beverages from other countries. Now, the north American continent isn’t a rag rug like Europe, so the contact to other nations was limited. Mexico in the south, Canada in its earlier form in the north. Just like in the rest of the world, religious institutions had high interests in both making and distributing alcohol. As you may know, both beer and wine have their roots in religious purposes. Now, the police had a hard time enforcing these new laws, especially if literally everyone had something against it. Alwyn was a smaller town back then, and the police was rather understaffed, which made it easier to get alcohol into your possession, especially since the Canadian border isn’t that far from here. There was just one problem, looking at beer and wine. The cooling. But what is better than a cellar, made of stone, to store alcohol? And how can you access a cellar, and bring forbidden things in and out, without stepping into the sun?”

Everyone now looked into each other’s faces, until Scorpia found out the obvious. “Uhm, tunnels?”

“Correct. In 1930, following the bootlegger George Cassiday, a woman called Ashe McCree revealed that four tunnels were made to bring the booze into and out of the city, without being seen. 3 of them had been found in the 1970s and 1980s and been destroyed, for safety reasons. The 4^th one had never been found.”

“And you think it still exists?”

“As I earlier mentioned, the soil is mostly made out of clay, but few meters deeper it changes into limestone. This mineral isn’t the sturdiest, but it should be enough to survive over the 100 years since its last use.”

“Ok, now that’s great for now. But you said it never was discovered. How should we know where it is?”

The city map appeared again, now three red X on it. “I have marked the places, where the exits of the discovered tunnels had been. The northern and western tunnel lead to an evangelical chapel in the western part of Alwyn, that was closed in the early 1960s. The southern lead to the cellar of the Crystal Castle.”

“So, you are suggesting that the last tunnel is leading west?”

“Indeed. Considering the size of the city during the 1920, and the topography of this area, there is a chance of 97.938%, that the entrance of the tunnel is in this area.” Emily pulled up a picture from Google Maps and put a thin red stripe on it. “We are here, by the way.” Another X appeared on the satellite picture.

“Wait, that isn’t far from here. How long is that area?”

“It’s the slope of the hill we are standing right now. Around 3 kilometers.”

Bow looked at Catra. “So, we have to jump over a meadow and look for a hole in the wall? Nothing easier than that. Let’s just wait for Scorpia to finish writing and then let’s go.”

Catra looked at Scorpia, who was indeed holding a notepad and scribbling something on it. The trucker looked around when she noticed that no one was talking anymore and stared at her instead.

“Oh sorry, did I miss something? Emily lost me when she started about the Prohibition.”

“Then … what are you writing down?”

“I’m not writing, I’m drawing us.” She turned around the notepad to reveal drawings, that could be described best as scribble. “Entrapta, me, Bow, Catra, Glimmer. And this …” She pointed at something that could only be a potato. “This is obviously Melog. I mean, that’s quite self-explanatory.”

Awkward silence spread through the room, until Glimmer clapped her hands together. “Ok, let’s look for a secret tunnel.”

Bow threw his arms in the air. “SECRET TUNNEL!”

It was raining. Of course. The one time they actually had to be out in the fresh air and walk over grass, it started to rain. Catra wasn’t really a superstitious person … no, that’s not true for 100%, a certain card game she played with Razz years ago had proved her wrong. Catra may be a little bit superstitious, and that’s why she took the rain as a bad omen. But just a little bit.

Bow, Glimmer, Scorpia and Catra followed the map Emily sent them, it really wasn’t that far from Darla’s parking spot. They stood on the road on the foot of the hill, and looked at the meadows and forests that spread out in front of them. 3 kilometers of greenery they had to check. They decided to split up, each one them to searching through a specific area of the landscape, and then double-check the area next to them and vice-versa.

Everyone gave Catra a pat on the back, when she stated the obvious, that finding the tunnel is Adora’s last chance, and how they were running out of time. Scorpia reminded her, that Emily hadn’t been actually wrong at all and she highly believes, that there is a tunnel just waiting to be found. For a short moment, Catra forced a weak smile on her face, but it disappeared the moment everyone turned around to get moving.

Glimmer and Catra took the first half, Bow and Scorpia split up the second half. Glimmer made a face when she sank into the mud, her boots making a nasty sound every time she made a step. To be honest, they didn’t even know what they were looking for, one of the reasons why Catra’s pessimism grew with every minute. Emily just showed them pictures of the found tunnels’ exits, they were in fact just wooden doors placed in the middle of nowhere, and since both the topography and the usage of the land in the west of Alwyn hadn’t changed at all during the last 100 years, the door probably still was there. If it existed in first place at all.

They looked across the slope of the hill, it was fairly steep, so hiding a door there would actually make sense. Catra climbed up a bit, while Glimmer checked the lower part. They checked under the bushes growing there, the ivy, bigger grasses, and so on. The rain got stronger, lowering the temperature even more and making this whole thing even more unpleasant. The two of them had reached the end of their part, a tree in the middle of the field had marked it. Since they hadn’t found anything, not even the hint of They decided to walk back one more time, and go all over it again, but someone shouting behind them made them stop in their tracks.

It was Bow, he was jumping and waving, signaling them to come over. He obviously was quite worked up, but judging from his face, he wasn’t happy. It took them a while, Bow was again shouting something, but the rain was too loud to actually understand anything.

“It’s Scorpia. She is gone!”

“What? She just left?” Catra couldn’t really imagine Scorpia leaving with saying a few words.

“She literally disappeared.”

“In thin air? Just like Adora?”

That brought Bow to a stop. “You think something happened to her?”

“Well, I doubt that she got kidnapped. I mean, I would love to see someone try. But do you really think she leaves …” Catra snapped her fingers. “Just like this?”

Bow shook his head. “No.”

“Good. Let’s look for her.”

 Easier said than done, since Scorpia’s area was mainly made of forest, maybe she tripped and knocked herself out. The ground really was difficult to move on, roots and moss often tricked Catra into thinking that she a safe stand. They shouted Scorpia’s name over and over, making pauses to make out a response, but for now, their efforts were fruitless.

“Shh.” Glimmer raised her hand. “Do you hear that?”

Catra listened into the silence, but she heard nothing but the rain. Bow shook his head; he didn’t hear anything either. Glimmer made slow steps into the direction she heard the noise coming from, and started to call for Scorpia again. But this time, Catra heard it too. She concentrated on that sound, on Scorpia, on walked into its general direction. Since Glimmer followed her, she probably was walking into the right direction.

Now, she clearly could identify the noise as Scorpia’s voice, but it sounded somehow muffled, as if she was shouting through a wall or something. Trying to locate the origin of Scorpia’s voice, Catra closed her eyes to cut out any visual noises, but she made the mistake to step forward with closed eyes. Her foot got entangled in a root, that was showing through the soil and so, Catra tripped over it. She raised her arms to break her fall, but while opening her eyes, she saw no ground, just a hole. And in it, Scorpia.

Scorpia was the one giving Catra a soft landing. That actually depended on the definition of the word ‘soft’. Scorpia for sure was softer than the ground, but since her body fat percentage probably was negative 3, the landing wasn’t that soft.

Catra groaned, when Scorpia helped her getting up again, and looked around. She fell through a hole with roughly 2 meters in diameter and around 4 meters down. That would equal a jump from the second floor, with Catra’s usual luck, she would’ve landed face first, and that would’ve hurt. Scorpia seemed fine, even though her pants were an absolute mess.

“Are you ok?”

“Oh, sure. I was looking at a tree while walking, and then I tripped, and then I was here.”

“Hey, Catra are you ok?” Glimmer’s voice rang from above.

“Yeah, Scorpia caught me. I found Scorpia, by the way.”

“Hi Glimmer!”

Glimmer greeted her back, and asked if everything was fine. In the meanwhile, Catra stared at the wall of dirt in front of her, but when she turned around, she saw the tunnel. She shouted a question up to Glimmer, about their position towards Alwyn. Glimmer pointed in the same direction the tunnel went, which was proof enough. They found the tunnel towards the Crystal Castle.

The only problem for now was the missing exit. Since Scorpia and Catra were only surrounded by dirt, Catra suspected that the tunnel indeed had collapsed at some point. That meant, the only way to leave the tunnel was Scorpia boosting her, but that meant Scorpia staying down here, since they had not the tools to get her out of here. But Catra had another idea.

“Guys, go back to Darla and look if there is a ladder somewhere. If not, go to the next store that sells building supplies and get one. We will need one later anyways. In the meanwhile, Scorpia and me will check out the tunnel.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes, we need to do that sooner or later anyways, so why waste time?”

“Roger that, be careful. See you later.”

Cracking wood signaled Bow and Glimmer leaving, and Scorpia looked at her.

“Do you think this is a good idea? We don’t have any flashlights.”

Catra wasn’t sure if she just was scared and tried to get herself out of this, but without saying a word, Catra pulled out her phone, activated the light and illuminated the ‘Oh’, that had appeared on Scorpia’s face.

“Let’s go.”

The two of them slowly walked into the darkness, only cut through by the light of Catra’s phone. Soon after they started following the tunnel, Catra noticed that the color of the wall had changed from brown to white. That probably meant that the composition of the soil had changed, it was now the limestone Emily had mentioned earlier. She had that this was a good sign, and that this mineral was more stable.

The tunnel wasn’t a straight line, it apparently was slightly curved since Catra couldn’t see the light coming from the hole they fell through. The tunnel itself was well-made, as far as Catra could judge, plain floor and a near round form. She spotted marks on the ground now and then, probably from dragging something heavy over it.

Catra had no idea how long they were walking, but she had noticed, that they were walking downhill for quite a time now. Not very steep, but still noticeable. They hadn’t passed any place that showed signs of collapsing yet, even though Scorpia had pointed out a spot with a fat crack once. Catra had just brushed it off, it held the last 100 years, how likely would it be that it would collapse right now?

Then, they saw it. A ladder, made of metal, screwed into the white stone. The beam of light of Catra’s phone wandered up the ladder, but it was not bright enough to reach the top. They stepped closer, but still couldn’t see the end of it.

“Uh, we found the ladder. And now?”

Catra looked at Scorpia and then back at the ladder. “Depends on. When did you get your last tetanus shot?”

Before Scorpia could think of an answer, Catra removed her scarf from her neck and wrapped it around her hands. With her phone sandwiched between her jaws, she placed her hands on the bar in front of her and began to climb up. From the corner of her eye, she saw the light from Scorpia’s phone follow her, but it was the same thing with her own, it was too weak to reveal anything.

Catra nearly slipped when she reached the end of the ladder, she didn’t actually look up and hit her head when she pulled herself up on the last step. She caught herself just in time and wrapped one arm around the last step, to take the phone with her other hand out of her mouth to get a better look at whatever was in her way.

It was a lid, just a plain, circular lid made of metal. Catra pressed her arm against, hoping that she was able to lift it while keeping her balance, and indeed, on her 2^nd try she managed to lift it and push it to the side. She placed her phone next to the exit first, and pulled herself up. Catra tried to be as quiet as possible, since she didn’t actually know where she was. Darkness engulfed her, when she slowly stood up and let the light of her phone wander through the room. Apparently, she was in a kind of storage room, she could see food, tools, stationary, all kind of things.

A door opened and Catra threw herself on the floor. The ceiling lights were turned on and judging from the voices, two men entered the room. Catra hold her breath and tried to get anything useful from the conversation. It was unintelligible babbling, but a name she knew got dropped. Hordak.

Hordak.

She was in the Crystal Castle. She did it.

The two men left the room again, the lights went out and Catra allowed herself to breathe again. She grabbed her phone, and went back into the tunnel after checking the clock. 3pm. At least 4 hours to go.

She hurried down the ladder, but not without dragging the lid back into its place. Scorpia waited at the foot of the ladder for her. She wanted to say something, but Catra skipped the lasts steps to jump down, grabbed Scorpia at her shoulders to shake her. Discovering a way into the Crystal Castle, finally a silver lining, made Catra feel euphoric for the first time in days.

“Good news?”

“Good news! Let’s get back to the others and get ready.”

Running in the tunnel wasn’t an option, at least not for two people, the tunnel was too narrow for that, but they walked a faster pace than before. It was more exhausting though, since they had to walk up-hill now. Finally, Catra could see the light coming down from the hole in the ceiling. A look at her phone showed, that they needed around 20 minutes to get from the ladder to the exit.

Bow was already waiting for them, a ladder he bought lead out of the tunnel, with Glimmer on the surface. Obviously, they wanted to know what Catra and Scorpia had found, but Catra put them off until later, she didn’t want to tell the same story five-fold.

They decided to leave their ladder, where it was, Glimmer tied her glittery pink scarf around a tree to make it easier to find the tunnel later.

They hurried back to Darla to finally make a plan how to get Adora out of the Crystal Castle.

***

Adora had no idea, where and when she was. Her consciousness was just flickering now and then. In the short moments it was there, Adora was able to hear the voice of a child reading something to her. The voice was familiar, but she had forgotten both the name and the face belonging to it.

In a hall, Adora was laying on her back and she saw a someone pale beyond comparison, Light Hope, leaning over her. At first, she was holding something like a brush, but she soon switched it for a knife, which disappeared in Adora’s chest. With no strength, and now also no will to fight back, Adora tried to get ready for the unavoidable.

This is it.

It’s over.

Finally.

With her last bit of strength, Adora managed to open her eyes one last time and she saw eyes, blue and gold, staring at her through glass.

Catra…?

Chapter Text

They sat in front of Emily’s screens and Catra explained the situation, how they found the ladder and the storage room the ladder lead into. Thinking about it now, Catra actually had no proof, that she actually had been in the Crystal Castle, she just deduced it from Hordak’s name getting dropped and the room she landed in had been a storage room, and she knew that the Crystal Castle had its storage room in the basement, Emily had said that when they went through the blueprints.

Emily had calculated, that the tunnel must be around 2 kilometers long, since it took Scorpia and Catra 30 minutes from entrance to exit up-hill. Entrapta said something about light baggage, Catra wasn’t sure what she meant with that, since Catra’s plan would’ve been In – grab Adora – get out.

Bow brought something up about how many of them should go into the Crystal Castle. Since Entrapta was going to stay back anyways, they could be 4 people at max, but Catra agreed with Bow that 4 people were probably too much, especially that they were going to be 5 when they had managed to find Adora.

And then everyone turned to Catra, waiting for her decision. If they were going in a team of 3, Catra obviously was number 1, she wanted Scorpia to be number 2. Since she didn’t know what Entrapta had planned, it would probably be a smart move to take someone with her, that was used to Entrapta’s shenanigans. And number 3 …, tough decision. Glimmer or Bow. In point of motivation, it probably was a head-to-head race, but Bow was the more level-headed.

Glimmer didn’t seem disappointed when Catra said it out loud, Scorpia even beamed when her name was mentioned, and Bow nodded in agreement. Catra had something else in mind for Glimmer. It may sound a little bit paranoid, but it probably wasn’t such a bad idea, if someone would watch the main entrance, to check for unusual activity. While saying that, Catra noticed another flaw in that plan. They actually didn’t have any proof that the Crystal Castle was empty in the night. They just had Serenia’s word for this.

They discussed about the time they wanted to pull this off, Emily provided some statistics from Google regarding the traffic in the surrounding restaurants and bars. Considering that, they agreed on starting the operation at 11 pm. Bow chuckled at the word ‘operation’ because it made it sound like they were robbing a casino in the style of Ocean’s 11. Glimmer reminded him, that they were literally going doing that. Just not a casino, but a church and not money, but a living person. Bow’s grin disappeared nearly instantly after that.

Catra proposed placing Glimmer in front of the Crystal Castle, they found a restaurant at the side of the Plaza and Glimmer agreed to look for a place outside with view on the Crystal Castle.

“How are we staying connected? I’m not sure if you have reception in that ugly brick.”

Entrapta stood up so fast, she knocked over the chair she was sitting on. “That’s my part, I guess. But I think, we have to go shopping, since we are going to need some tools. And I need some parts anyway. Better now than later.”

Everyone agreed, Bow, Scorpia and Glimmer left the trailer to hop into the caravan to get the things Entrapta wrote on a shopping list, Catra hesitated for a moment, since there was something, she wanted to ask Entrapta about, when the others weren’t listening.

“Entrapta, I need your help. I want you to build something for me…”

She quickly told the inventor, what she was thinking about, and Entrapta looked at the ceiling, thinking about what she just heard. She asked Catra, what exactly she had in mind, and when she told her, Entrapta walked to one of her drawers and rummaged through it.

“Ok. In theory I can do it, but I need you to buy another part for it. You can get it in any electronics store, but that DIY store the others are heading should sell it too. What do you need it for?

“I don’t know. Yet. But it’s not bad to have it.”

Entrapta thought about it and shrugged, and Catra left the trailer to join the others in the caravan.

The drive to the store was a quiet one, everyone was alone with their own thoughts. Catra checked the list Entrapta gave them. Protection gloves, high quality LEDs, a bolt cutter, a glass cutter, materials for wielding, paddings …. The list went on with things Catra couldn’t even imagine, what Entrapta could need these things for, but since she wanted to have it today, it was probably relevant for later. Catra smuggled her extra into the cart, and Scorpia paid everything with her black credit card. Catra noticed Bow’s look when he spotted the item, but he didn’t say anything. Glimmer made a desperate joke about how their shopping looked like they were going to break into something. If looks could kill, Catra would’ve earned herself a place in the death row, but at least the cashier laughed about it.

They ordered some take-out from the Asian restaurant next to the store, but Catra just poked around in her food, while Scorpia ordered several servings of egg rolls for Entrapta, since that was the tiniest thing that restaurant was selling. In the end, Catra forced down her food, since she knew she had to eat something. She didn’t have the luxury to make mistakes this evening, an empty stomach shouldn’t be the thing that would destroy everything.

Back at Darla, Catra watched Entrapta inhaling the egg rolls, only to get thrown out shortly after, since Entrapta had to work with something harmful and she didn’t have enough masks for everyone. Only Scorpia stayed inside Darla, the other 3 sat down at the table in the caravan. Staying outside was a no-no, the rain was still going strong.

Catra could see on their faces, that Bow and Glimmer wanted to talk about something, but something held them back. Maybe it was Catra’s face. Maybe.

After they sat in silence in a while, Bow pulled out a card game, UNO, and started to deal the cards. They played, still silent except the ‘UNO’-calls, for nearly an hour, when Catra spoke up.

“Why are you still here? We are going to do something highly illegal and Adora is someone you knew for not even a week.”

Bow and Glimmer looked at each other. “Adora asked us the same thing. Ok, we were taking her to Alwyn then and not going to break in somewhere.”

“And, why did you take Adora with you?”

“Because she was a wreck, when we met her. Literally everything went wrong for her in that moment, and we have both the time and the means to take her with us. Especially … after how she was, after she found out you weren’t there anymore.”

“I was there. I was waiting for her. But a certain someone had different plans with me, and lied to Adora.” Catra threw her cards on the table. “And if I see them ever again, something bad will happen to them.” Judging from the surprised looks on the faces of her opposites, she hadn’t told Glimmer and Bow this. Catra was pretty sure, that she had mentioned it once, but whatever. “But you didn’t answer my question. Why are you still here?”

Glimmer looked at Bow and shrugged. “Maybe guilt, maybe because what happened is fucked beyond a level of comprehension. I mean, we can’t even go to the police. They literally told us, that they won’t do anything.” She paused for a second. “Wouldn’t you stay too?”

Catra thought about it. Probably not really. Or at least, there were some people in her life she could toss away and sleep like a baby afterwards. But with a high certainty, she would stay.

“Why do you stay?”

Catra looked up because she wasn’t sure if she heard right. “What do you mean?”

“Why are you still here?”

“I heard what you said, I just thought that I had a stroke, because that question was so stupid.”

“It’s simple question, isn’t it?”

Catra leaned forward, her voice was just a growl, when she spoke through her teeth. “You have. No idea. What Adora means to me.”

“You are right, I don’t. But….”

Glimmer couldn’t finish her sentence, the doors of the trailer flew open, revealing a slightly sooty Entrapta. “Good news, everyone. I have finished the works.”

Back inside of Darla, Entrapta presented her creations. One earphone for everyone. Entrapta explained, that it was both transmitter and receiver in one, since it used the conductivity of the jaw bones to get a clear signal to the ears. The battery was strong enough for 10 hours, which should be enough for this evening.

Entrapta handed Scorpia something that looked like a backpack, but an antenna was looking out of it. It was an amplifier for their earphones, a countermeasure for a possible dead zone beneath or in the Crystal Castle. Glimmer got one too, but hers was small enough to fit in her pocket.

Bow got a backpack containing the bolt cutter and the glass cutter, as well as a set of screwdrivers. Just as a precaution, since they didn’t know what kind of hindrances they will face.

And as a last thing, Bow, Scorpia and Catra received something, that looked like a diver’s mask. Entrapta told them, that these things were the masks she originally designed for their planed walk through the sewers, so they were equipped with air filters. They may have scrapped these plans, but that didn’t stop Entrapta to finish the masks. The masks were fitted around their faces, so well, that Catra asked herself where Entrapta got the measures from. They had a glass front, technically going from the hairline to the chin, but on the eyes were visible, since the part from the nose in downwards was covered from the filters. The masks could be fastened thanks to a rubber band attached to its back, and for the first time, Catra was thankful for her short hair. Wearing that mask would be a nightmare with a ponytail.

Bow was the first one to put on his mask, and Entrapta attached something to the side of his head. A camera. Catra wanted to ask about that, but before she had the chance to, one of Emily’s screens flickered and Catra appeared on it, from Bow’s perspective.

Entrapta urged Scorpia to put on her mask too, so she could attach the camera. It caused a second screen flicker, and Entrapta appeared on it. She told Scorpia and Bow to look at each other, and while Catra was looking at the screen, she saw Bow’s face. Or in fact, she didn’t see it. It was just a white area. Entrapta somehow managed to build a mirror, that was see-through for normal eyes. But for what? If they want to stay incognito, they just could wear normal face mask, just like doctors.

“What do we need the cameras for? The hidden face is nice and everything, but we could just skip that if we don’t have cameras at all.”

“It was my proposal.” It was the first time today that Catra heard Emily say something today. “Given the information we have gathered over the last days, the Church of the First Ones has quite a history of illegal activity. The only reason why there hasn’t been consequences, is the influence of the First Ones on the local authorities. My research has shown, that this isn’t limited to this State, or even the United States. The influence had been strong enough to cover up most of the things to avoid direct legal consequences, but forums for dropouts or self-help groups are full of accusations against the First Ones. The information shared there is either too detailed, or too diverse to be made up entirely.”

“You want to broadcast this, don’t you?”

“Indeed. But not live. This would be too dangerous for the operation. The biggest public outrages in the last few years have been incited by whistleblowing. While this is not exactly whistleblowing, I hope that this will bring a similar effect.”

“And if not?”

“It will. But the range of the effects are not predictable. The maximum effect will the dismantling of the Church of the First Ones itself, the minimum will be a loss of members.”

Catra wasn’t entirely sold, but she had tried on the mask in the meanwhile, and it didn’t really make things different. She could breathe normally, the paddings of the mask and the rubber band on the back of her head didn’t really make her uncomfortable. If Bow and Scorpia were okay with it, Catra won’t be in the way.

When the others were busy with complementing themselves on the masks, Entrapta handed Catra a bag. When Catra raised her eyebrows to ask what this was about, Entrapta just said, that the manuals were on the inside. She even handed Catra a fanny pack that Catra could wear across her chest. Catra swallowed, considering the content, but did it anyways, since she had no better way. Their preparations were done, and now the only thing they had to do, was to wait.

A few hours later, it was time. Before Glimmer was going to leave, they checked the earphones one last time. Her question, if they are able was understand her, was kind of unnecessary, since everyone was standing right next to her. But Emily was able to pick up the signal, so everything was fine. Bow dropped Glimmer off close to the restaurant she was going to, and when he returned, Catra was a nervous wreck. She just couldn’t sit still, looked at her watch every minute and walked circles around the desk in the middle of the trailer.

Melog felt that something was wrong, they came trotting towards Catra at one time and always stopped right in her path to lay down, as if they wanted to stop Catra and stand still for a moment. It worked. At least, for a bit. That’s what Melog did since the day Catra found them, distracting her and preventing her to snap. Maybe the cat was just needy and loved the attention, but all the cuddling and scratches did their job, and Catra calmed down.

She heard Bow talking, but no one answered. He just continued talking and so Catra looked up and saw him facing the wall, just talking. She figured, that he was wearing his earphone and was talking to Glimmer. She was just hoping, that everything was rated E, since Emily probably was already recording everything. Catra decided to join in, and when she put in her earphone, she could hear Glimmer complaining about the smoker next to her.

“Hey Sparkles, did he already complain about you being too shiny?”

“Screw you. By the way, this meal goes on your tab. I’m sitting on the outside. It’s dry and I’m sitting next to a heater, but it’s still annoyingly windy.”

“I hope, you choke on it.”

“Barely possible.”

For a moment, Glimmer stayed silent and when she spoke up again, she sounded slightly concerned.

“Guys? Didn’t we say that the Crystal Castle was empty after the evening mass?”

“That’s what we know. Why?”

“Because people are leaving it right now. I counted 15 until now, but it’s a steady stream.”

Catra checked her watch. 9.58pm. A good thing that they decided to go in not before 11, otherwise they would’ve had run into the unexpected visitors.

“Are they doing anything special?”

“I’m too far away to hear them, but most of them are walking alone. Only 3 of them stayed for a short time, until they broke up.”

“If they don’t do anything else, except calmly walking away, it is nothing to worry about.”

Catra agreed with Emily here, as long as people were leaving and not coming back, it was working in their favor.

“I propose, that we stick to the plan.”

Catra heard Glimmer snorting. Plan. In. Dodge People. Grab Adora. Dodge People again. Out. So much for a plan. She heard the sound of tableware in her ear, Glimmer had gotten her food, and took out the earpiece again.

Half an hour later, it was time.

Entrapta told Darla to park closer to the entrance to the tunnel, but they still had to walk the 2 kilometers across country to get to the entrance itself. At least they found it quickly, since Glimmer’s pink scarf was a beacon in the beam of their flashlights. They checked one last time if they had everything they were probably going to need, told the others that they were going underground now, and climbed down the ladder.

In the tunnel, they put on the masks, because Emily wanted to record everything from the start and also because the cameras had their own flashlights and there meant one thing less to carry. The 3 of them needed the estimated 25 minutes to reach the ladder. Bow pulled out the protection gloves they had bought earlier this day, and they sent Scorpia up first, because she most likely had the least problems to lift up the lid covering the entrance of the tunnel. Catra held her breath, until she heard Scorpia’s voice in her ear, that the lights in the room above them were out, and everything was clear. Catra then hurried to follow Scorpia, Bow bringing up the rear.

Catra helped him getting up, and Scorpia closed the lid behind him. They looked around, the beams of their lights revealing what Catra had seen earlier this day, the storage room. She climbed over a few crates, walked towards the door of the room and, after warning the others, flipped the switch she found next to said door, to turn on the ceiling lights. They needed a few seconds to get used to the light, but immediately went back to business.

“Ok, what now?” Scorpia was whispering, even though Entrapta had ensured them that this was not necessary, since the filters in the mask did not only filter the air, they also muffled breathing sounds and the voice.

“We need to assure, that the maps are right. Leave the room and turn to your right. The next door has to lead to the boiler room.”

Catra put her free ear on the door to listen for anyone talking, but she only heard a soft rumbling. She told Bow and Scorpia to turn their lights off, then turned off the ceiling lights again and slowly opened the door. The doorknob itself squeaked a little bit, but the door itself went open quietly. Catra panicked a bit when she saw the light falling in, but when she stuck her head out, there was no one in sight, just the lights were on, on the entire floor as far as Catra could see.

She gestured Scorpia and Bow to come out too and follow her, Bow closed the door behind him, and they quickly sneaked to the next door. Easier said than done, Catra underestimated the distance they had to overcome. But they didn’t meet anyone they didn’t want to meet, and they quickly disappeared into the next room. It indeed was the boiler room, and Catra realized, that the rumbling she had heard earlier, came from the central heating.

“We found the boiler room, just as you said. Where to go now?”

“You have 2 rooms to check on this level. The good thing is, the rooms are next to each other, the bad thing is, they are on the other side of the building. If you leave the boiler room and turn right again, follow the hall. When it turns left, you will pass one of the main staircases. According to the blueprints, there are no rooms there, so most likely no spots to hide. You have to hurry.”

This wasn’t something Catra wanted to hear, but she had no choice. She checked on the other two to see if they were ready, and left the room again.

Catra was a prodigy when it came to sneaking, it didn’t matter what boots she wore, or if she even wore boots at all. But Bow and especially Scorpia were loud as hell compared to her. She sent a quick prayer, that no one will hear them.

They reached the corner of the hall, and Catra saw the wide staircase. She told the others two wait here and quickly jumped up the stairs to see where they were leading. Catra stuck her head around the corner at the end of the stairs and recognized the main hall with its big cast iron doors leading to the outside. Like in the basement, there wasn’t a single soul to be seen.

She went back downstairs, a little less tense now, since they could allow themselves a breather now. They followed Emily’s instructions to the rooms with no names on the blueprints, and quickly found them. Catra remembered Emily saying, that the rooms had the same size, so she expected them to be the literal same, but she already could from the outside, that this was not the case. While one door was just plain wood, the other had metal stripes and bolts on it, making it heavier and sturdier than its counterpart. If Catra had to guess, she would’ve guessed that whatever was behind the heavier door, was something important.

Bow opened the first door, and tried to turn on the lights, but he couldn’t find the switch. Scorpia found it, placed on the outside of the room. Weird. The ceiling lights revealed a prison cell. Or at least, it looked like one. With just a bed in it, whoever lives in there, probably wasn’t very happy.

The room next it had its switch also on the outside, but Bow again opened the door before turning on the lights. This room at least had a chair and a table next to the bed, and for some reason a bucket in the corner, but Bow had spotted something and walked around the table. He crouched down and picked up a chain with a leg iron attached to one end. This was definitely a prison cell. But an empty room meant no Adora in it, and that was not what they were looking for. They asked Entrapta and Emily for further instructions, but Catra remembered that they were done with the basement and now had to go 3 levels up. They left the rooms like they found them and walked back to the staircase again.

Catra being the vanguard, she jumped up the stairs again and peeked around the corner to look for anyone being there, but again she was alone. She told the others to come up, but when Bow and Scorpia were halfway there, she heard someone whistling. And it was neither of her friends. The others froze up, telling Catra that they heard it too and she whispered them to get back slowly. While following them, Catra took out her earpiece to locate the source of the whistling better. It came from right above them, Catra even heard slow steps, but eventually the whistling went away from them.

She didn’t realize that she had held her breath for that time being, Catra allowed herself to get some air again, put her earpiece back in, and slowly walked up the stairs for now the 3^rd time. She saw someone wearing a uniform disappearing around the next corner, and signaled Bow and Scorpia to come up, this time for sure. They informed the others watching and listening about the suspected security guard, Entrapta didn’t seem surprised. In hindsight, Catra shouldn’t have been that surprised either, the Crystal Castle was an important building and as the 3 of them were the best example, locked doors don’t necessarily keep away everyone.

They flew up the stairs to the third floor, didn’t meet anyone on the way up there and waited for instructions again. For the 3 smaller rooms they had to turn right, for the VIP room to the left. Owing to the weird obsession of the First Ones with the number 3, Catra decided that they were going to look at the three smaller rooms first. They were quickly found, three doors on the outward side of the building and again, the light switches were on the outside of the rooms.

Catra, slowly as ever, opened the door carefully and turned on the lights. It was a prison cell, but a better one compared to these, they had found in the basements. A metal sink and toilet, a table, the bed, and a bookshelf. And above the shelf, the word POWER screamed at them, carved into the wall opposite to the door.

Adam’s room, before he died.

Entrapta came to the same conclusion, extending this to what will be in the other rooms. Catra didn’t listen to the end, throwing all cautiousness to the side. She left the room and ran down the hall, skipping the next and sprinting to the one behind it. Catra figured, that following the pattern of the statues, if Adam’s room was the one on the right, Adora’s had to be the one on the right. The locked door proved her right, but she didn’t want this fucking door to exist right now. She wanted to get inside. Right now.

Before she could swing a frustrated kick against the door, Scorpia’s voice in her ear brought her back to her senses. Catra turned her head to see both Bow and Scorpia standing in front of the open door to Mara’s room, gesturing her to follow them. She shot a last hateful look at the door in front of her and followed the others.

Catra’s hunch had been right, the word FAMILY on the wall in front of her proved, that Mara had lived here once. And judging from the dust and dirt everywhere, it had been a long time since anyone sat a foot into this room. Catra even could see footprints Scorpia and Bow had left.

“What are you doing?”

Catra was not in the mood for getting criticized. “What do you think? The door is locked, Adora definitely is in there.”

“Yes, and it’s great we are so close to getting her back. But if you stop being cautious, this will all be for nothing.”

Catra swallowed down her response, it would not be helpful right now. She knew, Bow was right, but she didn’t want him to be.

“Ok, and what are we supposed to do now?”

“Did you see that stool in front of the door?”

“What stool?”

“Oh true, there was a stool.”

Catra’s eyes shot to Scorpia. “And?”

Bow swallowed. “Well, stools are usually used to sit on them. We know that Adora is important to them. They probably detailed a guard to keep an eye on the room, and judging from the stool, the guard stays for a longer span of time. We just have to wait for the guard, overpower them and hope that the guard has a key.”

She thought about it. “Fine. 10 minutes. Otherwise, I’m going to rip this door out by myself.”

Bow chuckled. “How are you going to do this?”

“Don’t try me.”

Scorpia just stood there and had watched their exchange, when it was clear that they were staying for a short moment, she headed over to the bookshelf and looked at the books. She was reading the titles to herself, but thanks to the earpieces, Catra could understand every word. Most of the books were about the First Ones, about the theology, rites and whatever, one book even was named ‘Mara’. Catra wanted to ask about that, but suddenly Scorpia gasped and pulled out a book. When she turned around to show it, Catra saw, that it wasn’t a book, it was a VHS-tape. And on its back, someone wrote down Adora’s name with a little heart next to it.

What is that about? Must be there since ages, who still uses VHS today?

Catra asked Bow, if he still had room in his backpack to take the tape with them. Bow made some room and put it away.

The 10 minutes were over and Catra slowly opened the door, only to quickly close it again. The guard was back, just as Bow had predicted.

“Is there a guard now? What are they doing?”

“Just looking at their phone. Nothing else.”

“How are we going to do this?”

“There is just one way, pounce them and knock them out.”

“No, Catra. There has to be another way…”

“This isn’t a fucking video game; we don’t have cloaks or anything that turn us invisible. Stealth isn’t optional here, but it is stealthy as long as there isn’t someone else to see it.”

“But …”

Bow couldn’t finish his sentence, suddenly the lights went off and the door opened. In its frame, the clearly baffled guard. The four of them stared at each other, Catra was the first one to recover from the shock and she crossed the distance to the door faster than the guard could blink. She threw her entire weight against the young man, who got thrown off balance and hit the wall on the other side with the back of his head. Catra felt the tension in his body disappearing before they hit the floor. She quickly checked for his pulse, and when she found it, she jumped back onto her feet and dragged him into Mara’s room.

Catra ignored the horrified looks on her partners’ faces and began to search the guy on the floor for the keys. She found them on a chain around his neck, three in in total.

“We have to hurry. I doubt, that they have only one shift in a night and we don’t know when the next one is coming.”

There was no protest coming from the others, and when they had left the room, Catra locked the door behind them. The guard will be found in the morning, that was enough.

Catra now had a 50/50 chance to find the right key, and of course, she failed. The second key was a fit, she threw open the door and turned on the light. The room was built like the others, except for the word HONOR at the wall, and someone was occupying the bed. That neither the noise nor the light had woken up Adora, should’ve made Catra suspicious immediately. Catra quickly stepped to the bed, pulled back the blanket and immediately froze up.

It was Adora, but she looked like a corpse.

Sallow skin, sunken eyes, dirty, ruffled hair and cold. Adora was so cold.

Catra’s gaze followed the red markings, looking someone had drawn something on the skin and followed it down to Adora’s chest, where she saw it.

The Heart.

The fucking sigil of the First Ones.

Engraved into Adora’s flesh.

Catra began to feel dizzy, she heard Bow stepping next to her and making gagging sounds when he turned away, Scorpia making similar sounds.

The wound on Adora’s chest was fresh, the scab hasn’t dried out completely yet. Catra’s eyes followed the lines running down on Adora’s bare body, until she saw her bandaged wrists.

And everything came in line. The blood on the armrest on the throne, why the signs on Adora’s body were also on the altar, and why the altar itself had reminded Catra of a slaughtering block, Glimmer telling them about the people leaving the Crystal Castle about an hour ago.

They actually wanted to sacrifice Adora.

And Catra came just in time.

Adora moved her head, and her eyelids fluttered, revealing the blue eyes Catra has missed so much, just for a short moment.

“Adora…” Catra barely could hear her own voice. “I’m here. Everything is going to be fine.”

Adora let out a whimper, and something inside of Catra broke.

“Just one moment.” Catra caressed Adora’s cheek. “I’ll be right back.”

She stood up and was about to leave the room, but she got yanked back by Scorpia.

“Where are you going?”

“Somewhere.”

“Whatever you were going to do to the guard, this won’t help right now.”

“He knew it. He knew what has happened. You can’t tell me, that the First Ones would let someone guard this room without knowing what was going. HE IS GUILTY OF THIS, JUST AS THE NEXT ONE.”

Catra’s screaming was loud enough to get through the mask’s muffler, but since there was no one around anymore who could have heard that, she didn’t care. Scorpia rubbed her neck, when she processed, what Catra was saying.

“I don’t know, maybe he was just following orders…”

Catra was about to spit something unwise back, but Bow stepped in just in time.

“Ok girls. Focus.” Bow clapped his hands and forced Catra to focus him. “We need to get out of here, and that as soon as possible. And especially, we have to think of a way getting Adora out of here.” He pulled off the blanket, trying to look everywhere but at naked Adora, and pointed at the cuffs on her ankles. “She literally has no clothes and we need to get rid the anklets.”

The look of the anklets finally brought Catra back to the moment. “We brought a bolt cutter with us, try it. I’ll go get the blankets from the other rooms.”

“Oh no, you don’t, Wildcat.” Again, Scorpia stepped in front of her. “I do. You stay here and get rid of these cuffs.”

Catra yanked the bolt cutter out of Bow’s hands and tried her luck. It was impossible to remove the anklets themselves without hurting Adora, but the links were thin enough for the cutter. Four quick snips and the chain was off. While Bow put the cutter back in his bag, Scorpia returned with the blankets. Bow stepped to the door to peek outside while Catra and Scorpia did their best to wrap Adora in the blankets. This made Catra think of something they haven’t talked about yet.

“What are we going to do, if we get out of here? We need to get her to a hospital!”

“Then we go there, Alwyn surely has at least one.”

“We can’t. What, if someone there recognizes this and rats us out?”

Bow thought about it. “Glimmer? Glimmer!”

“God, finally someone talks to me! What’s happening? Judging from Catra’s yelling, you have found Adora!”

“First of all, how are things over at your side?”

“Nothing. Silence since the last time I said something.”

“Good. Leave! Return to the truck and call your mom. We need her help!”

“Wait, really? Do we have to?”

“You wouldn’t ask this if you could see Adora.”

After a bit of silence, Glimmer agreed and wished them the best. Catra, Bow and Scorpia looked at each other and then at Adora. It wouldn’t be too hard to get Adora down in the basement but everything after this is going to pose a problem. They decided to get her down first, and then see how they would continue this.

They had to split up their baggage, Catra now carried everything that had been in Scorpia’s care earlier, since Scorpia had to carry Adora now. At first, Bow and Catra agreed on how to split the weight equally, but then Scorpia just dropped her stuff, stepped to the bed and carefully picked up Adora, as if the young woman wrapped in blankets would weight nothing.

Actually, getting back into the basement was easy, now that they knew where to go. They also managed to dodge the security guard in the 1^st floor and got without any problems back to the storage room with the entrance to the tunnel. Scorpia carefully put down Adora and sat down next to her to catch a breather. Catra used her scarf as a pillow, put it under Adora’s head to protect her from the hard ground and carefully brushed a few strands of hair out of Adora’s face. She could see Adora’s breath getting unsteady, Catra imagined Adora’s pulse getting weaker too.

They had to hurry.

She turned around, when she heard Bow rummaging through something, and saw him lifting a cable drum and a wire drum.

“We could use something to tie Adora to Scorpia’s back. What do you think is better, cable or wire?”

They went with the cable, because it was thicker and probably won’t hurt that much, for both Adora and Scorpia. They strapped Adora to Scorpia’s back, the cable forming an X across Scorpia’s chest, one last round went around her waist like a belt. When the trucker signaled that everything was tight and comfortable, Bow removed the lid and climbed down first, Scorpia immediately followed, Bow also served as a pillow, in case anything went wrong during the descent. Catra followed last and put the lid back to its place.

She skipped the last step, and the moment she touched the floor, a weight around her chest came back into her mind. The thing she asked Entrapta for. Cold sweat appeared. If she had remembered it earlier, she wouldn’t have charged the guard like she did.

“Are you ok?”

Catra nodded.

“Great. Let’s go.”

“No.”

Bow and Scorpia looked at her. “What do you mean, ‘No’?”

Catra took a deep breath, and looked at Adora, still unconscious, strapped to Scorpia’s back.

“No. I forgot my gloves. Go without me. Get Adora to Darla.” Catra felt her own pulse rising just with talking. “If I don’t arrive at Darla 1 hour after you, go without me and get Adora to a hospital.”

“Wha-? No!” Bow sounded infuriated. “We are not leaving without you.”

“Bow, this is not up for discussion. If someone finds them, they will find us.”

Bow said nothing, and after a while, he turned around and walked away without saying a word. Scorpia was about to follow him, but Catra held her back. Catra pulled up her mask, knowing that she was in the blind spot of both Bow’s and Scorpia’s cameras, and got closer to Adora.

“Stay strong. I’ll be back soon.”

Adora squirmed weakly, as if she had heard this, and the movement tightened the knot in Catra’s chest. She put her mask back on, and patted Scorpia on the shoulder.

“Thanks for doing this.”

“Ah, don’t worry. You help us, we help you.”

“Be careful with her.” Catra nodded at Adora on Scorpia’s back.

“Be careful too.” Scorpia’s voice got a sad tone. “Don’t be too hard to that guard.”

Catra didn’t expect that and nearly had to stifle a laugh. “But Scorpia, I’m not going for the guard. I guess, you were right about that. And it’s not like I’m in danger”

That seemed to calm her down. “Phew. But hurry up.”

Catra nodded, and watched the lights of Scorpia and Bow disappear in the tunnel. When they were gone, Catra put down the baggage she had taken from Scorpia earlier, removed her earphone and the camera from her mask. She stored everything at the wall close to the ladder, put on her protective gloves and climbed it up one last time.

I am the danger.

***

Exactly 50 minutes later, Catra climbed up the ladder into the fresh air. She pulled off the mask one last time and sprinted towards the road. Not at her max speed obviously, running through an open field at night can cause serious injuries. She reached the road, where Darla had parked earlier, but she didn’t see the truck.

Lights flared up, up the hill, and the sound of an engine announced the arrival of a vehicle that was not electric powered. It was the caravan, Bow sitting behind the steering wheel.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Where are the others?”

“They went ahead, Glimmer nearly barfed when she saw Adora. But Adora was getting weaker, we had to get her away.”

“Where to?”

“Brightmoon. It’s a city not that far from here, Glimmer’s mom is the board director of the biggest hospital there. Glimmer made a call earlier and Angella promised that they will take care of Adora.”

“Great. … Thanks for waiting.”

“Don’t sit down, get a shower first. What did you do? Did you search in the toilet?”

She left that uncommented and looked at the clock on the dashboard. 0.40am. Interesting, Catra could’ve sworn it took longer. She looked at her slightly shaking hands, feeling the adrenaline leaving her body, but went to get a shower and stole some of Glimmer’s clothes. Even though she told herself, that she wasn’t tired, she let her head fall back onto the headrest and dozed off quite fast.

***

Sunlight hit Adora’s face and caused her to wake up. She didn’t know if it was the warmth or the light itself, but since she somehow was numb all over her body, it probably was the unexpected brightness. A glance around presented her a room she didn’t know; everything was white and it smelled like disinfectant.

Adora lifted her arms and saw the pressure bandages around her wrists, nothing had changed so far, but she saw the little red tube stuck in her hand. Her gaze followed the tube and found an empty blood bag hanging over a heart monitor. It took her a while to put two and two together, and figure out that she in fact had not died.

A hospital. I’m in a hospital. I’m free.

The door to this room opened, entering a doctor in a white lab coat and a clipboard in her hand, eyes going wide when she saw that Adora was awake.

“Hello there. Welcome back, Ms. Grey. How do you feel?”

“Ok, I guess.”

Talking made Adora realize how dry her throat was. She looked around for some water, and saw a glass on the side table. The doctor helped her sitting up and hold the glass for her. Adora hesitated for a reason she didn’t understand at first, but she remembered it when the doctor ensured her, that the water was not poisoned.

“What happened?”

The doctor’s brows furrowed. “You don’t remember? Do you know where you are?

Adora shook her head, and the doctor slowly explained to her, that she was in the Brightmoon Hospital. She was brought here by friends 3 nights ago. Adora choked when she heard that.

“3 nights? I was gone that long?”

“Yes … we ran some tests and found traces of narcotics in your system. But the reason you were out for that long, was the heavy loss of blood. Do you remember anything about it?”

Adora tried, but had to shake her head. “Only parts, … and everything is … hazy.”

“Don’t worry. The memories will come back, may they be good or bad. For now, I can just tell you to rest, and get better. As far as we can see, there won’t be permanent damage, but some things take time to heal. Not every wound is visible. I would advise you not to play around with the bandages, especially not with this one.”

Adora followed the doctor’s finger pointed to her chest, where she spotted the big patch. She pulled the collar of the gown she was wearing to get a better look at it, but this alone made her feel woozy. The doctor helped her to lay down again.

“Get some rest. I’ll come back later.”

The woman got up and left the room, she closed the door behind her and chaos broke out. Yelling came from the other side of the door, and Adora tried her best to understand what was going on. One of the voices was especially familiar.

“She is awake, isn’t she? You took way longer than you usually do!”

“Yes, she is…” The voice of the doctor sounded closer; she probably was standing right in front of the door. “No. No, stop! You can’t just go in there.”

“I swear to whatever you believe in, if you don’t let me in there right now, I’ll start breaking things. It may be objects, it may be your fingers, it may be the Geneva Conventions. Let. Me. See her.”

A third voice joined. “Come on, Mom. Just for 5 minutes.”

The people arguing apparently came to an agreement, the door opened and Catra – Catra! – came in. She slowly closed the door, but didn’t let go of the door knob for a while. Adora watched Catra resting her forehead on the door for a short moment, taking a deep breath, but when she turned around, she was beaming at her.

“Hey, Adora.”

Chapter Text

Catra stepped next to Adora’s bed, slowly bowed down to her and carefully wrapped her arms around Adora. Adora on the other hand had already used every strength she had just to sit up, and just nuzzled up against Catra’s neck.

She was here.

Catra was really here.

Adora couldn’t believe, but everything felt so real. It even smelt like her. Catra broke the hug, carefully let Adora sink back into the pillow and set down on the edge of the bed.

“Catra, I’m so sorry. I never-“

“Shhhh. Hush, Adora. If someone has to be sorry, it should be me, but we can talk about this another time. We have all time of the world. Not now though, I only have 5 minutes until the evil lady doctor chases me away.”

“Do you stay around?” Adora was unable hide the panic rising in her voice. “Where do you go?”

Catra put her hand on Adora’s. “Relax, no need to worry. I’ll wait right in front of the door.” She winked. “And it’s not like you are going to run anywhere this time.”

Adora knew, that Catra was joking, but a cold feeling spread out in her. It must have shown on her face, because Catra immediately apologized for it. Adora just shook her head and asked Catra if she could tell her, how she got here. Catra’s eyes went wide.

“You … don’t remember anything? Nothing at all?”

“No … just that I came to … to …. Alwyn! That was the name. With Glimmer and Bow.” Adora gasped when she remembered them. “Glimmer and Bow! Have you seen them? No wait, you don’t know them…”

“Adora, relax. I met them, a few days ago. They are here too. The doctor, that was here earlier, is actually Glimmer’s mom, apparently a bigshot in this hospital.”

That brought up even more questions for Adora. “But … How…?”

The door opened and the doctor came back. “Ok ladies, that’s it for now. Adora needs some rest, and Catra’s presence doesn’t help. At least not now.”

Catra stood up, but Adora weakly fished for Catra’s hand. “No … please don’t go. Stay … please stay.”

Catra looked at the doctor, who shook her head. “I’ll get something for Catra, but for now, try to sleep a bit. Don’t worry about anything. Catra … painted a colorful picture about what she will do to everything here, if anything happens to you.”

Adora managed to get a look at Catra’s face, if she would’ve had fangs she would bare them right now, her eyes were cold as ice. They instantly warmed up again when Catra turned her head to look at Adora again. She squeezed Adora’s hand as a goodbye and with a last glance through the room, Catra closed the door behind her. Adora leaned back and stared at the ceiling. The doctor was right, maybe a nap would be a good idea. She couldn’t even count to 3.

A cold feeling on her wrist woke Adora up again. She needed a bit to get to hold her eyes open for more than just a second, and saw the doctor hang a bag with a clear fluid in it to the IV pole next to her bed.

“Oh, Adora. I’m sorry, I didn’t want to wake you up. How do you feel?”

Adora licked her lips. “Dry.”

That brought out a smile on the doctor’s face. “Good thing I gave you this.” She pointed at the bag. “Do you want to drink something?”

After the woman held the glass for her, Adora remembered something Catra had said.

“Catra said earlier, that Glimmer is your daughter, is that true?”

“Earlier? Catra was here today? I told her not to, until I give the OK.”

That confused Adora. “Yes, but with you. You were there too.”

The doctor chuckled. “That was yesterday. You nearly slept for 24 hours, but that’s totally fine. Your body needs time to get back on its old normal. But she is right, I’m Angella, Glimmer’s mother.”

After stumbling over her words at first, Adora managed to bring out a ‘Nice to meet you’, she had figured that the caravan probably belonged to Angella. The doctor proceeded to do some quick tests on Adora, checking blood pressure, ears and eyes, when the door slightly opened and Catra peeked through the slit.

“5 minutes, Catra.”

Angella’s voice had an annoyed undertone, as if she had already told her this today. Catra groaned, but she left and closed the door without another word.

“She sure is a piece a work, huh? You know, she refused to leave you the moment you were brought here. Sadly, we don’t have empty beds we can give up for visitors, so Catra slept on the bench in front of the room. At first, I called the security guards to remove her, but Glimmer told me that she would overpower them anyways, so I decided to let her stay.” Adora snorted. That truly sounded like Catra. “Listen. Yesterday you told me that you don’t remember anything about the last days. You don’t have to force yourself to get anything back, but if you do, please tell me. Neither Catra, nor Bow, nor Glimmer want to tell me anything. But these wounds” Angella pointed at Adora’s wrists and chest. “nearly killed you. Can you promise me that?”

Adora nodded, and again, that cold feeling spread out in her stomach. She really didn’t remember anything, and it was paradoxical. On one side, she was glad she was here, but on the other side, Adora didn’t know why. And Catra refusing to say anything to someone who was in charge of this place, in fact wasn’t something new, but if it could help Adora, she would say something, wouldn’t she?

Angella was done with whatever she was doing and got up to leave the room, but she had to jump to the side when she opened the door, since Catra made her way through, carrying a chair.

“Hold it. I know this chair, where did you get that?”

“Uh, from the waiting room of your office. Glimmer told me I could take one.”

“That’s not for her...” Angella interrupted herself. “I’ll get someone to bring you a chair later, please put this one back, if you get the new one.”

Catra nodded, but rolled her eyes at Adora. Angella apparently did say the truth, Catra really did sleep on a bench, but judging from the dark circles under her eyes, not very well. The yawn Catra was trying to stifle was another proof for that. And …

“What happened to your hair? I liked your brush.”

Catra slowly ran her hand over the back of her head. “The situation … required some changes. But I thought you saw the video? I already had the short hair back then.”

Adora thought about it really hard, but she had no idea what Catra was talking about. For a split second, rage flashed over Catra’s face, but it soon transformed into worry and she leaned forward.

“Adora, please tell me everything you remember, from the day we split up.”

“The car broke down, I met Bow and Glimmer, they wanted to help me and then we went into a spa.” The mentioning of the spa brought back a few things. “That’s where we saw the video. Right. Right. I was so glad to see that you were still here, after the person in the hostel told me, that you went home.” Catra stiffened, when Adora mentioned the hostel, and her face darkened. “I couldn’t reach you, I tried I swear! And then I thought … I thought we could meet up in the Whispering Woods, since you knew that I originally wanted to go there. And then … and then …” Adora pressed her hands against her temple. “Catra, I don’t know. I can’t remember anything since then.”

“Shhh.” Catra tried to comfort her. “All good, don’t worry. It’s fine, Angella told us that it’s normal, and everything will come back at some point.”

“Do you know anything?” Catra was avoiding Adora’s eyes from then, and that told her, that Catra indeed knew something. “Please, Catra. Tell me.” Adora raised her wrists towards. “Tell me how I got these.”

“No.” Catra shook her head. “I won’t. At least not now. I promise you, I will. But let’s get you out of here first.”

“But…”

“Terrible things have happened, and I don’t even know if I am ready to talk about them.”

“And what about Mara? Did I find her? Did you?”

Catra’s painful face showed, that it was the wrong question. “Adora, Mara died. 18 years ago. You were right, someone else had written the letters since then. I’m sorry.” Adora blinked away the tears, she couldn’t understand why she was crying anyways, as if Mara had played a significant role in her life. “And Adam did too.”

“Who is Adam?”

Catra swallowed. “Are you sure you want to continue talking? It’s just gets uglier from here on. To be honest, let’s stop here. For now, I can’t do this.”

If Adora would’ve been honest, she was ok with it, it had been too much already. She slumped back into the pillow and stared at the ceiling. Catra on the other hand looked like she would fall asleep.

“I heard, that you were about to fight the security.”

Catra scoffed. “They wouldn’t have had a chance.”

“When was the last time you slept?”

“For more than 2 hours? Dunno, 4 days ago?”

Adora scooted to the left and patted on the free space. Catra gave her a confused look, but then, after taking off her shoes, she laid down next to Adora and let out a groan.

“God, this is so much better than the bench. Why is my back such a wreck after sleeping on a bench for a few days? I’m only 21, and in the prime of my life. Why does always happen to the good people?”

Adora was about to say something about switching bodies, but it came to her, that Catra said she was 21.

“Catra?” A mumbling showed, that Catra still was awake. “What day is it?”

“October 31^st. Halloween. Why?”

Didn’t Adora arrive in the Whispering Woods on the 24^th? What happened in the 7 days in between?”

“Oh nothing, just noticed we missed your birthday.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it. I got you back. That’s worth more than anything else in the world.”

A soft snoring signaled, that Catra too was out in a matter of seconds. Adora rearranged the blanket, so that it covered Catra too and made herself comfortable again. She looked one last time at her childhood friend, who followed her all the way across the world and went through something that had taken a toll on her. A toll so big, she didn’t want to talk about it. Adora shifted a bit a closer, and closed her eyes.

I missed you too.

***

Again, it was rustling what woke Adora up, but this time, it was Glimmer and Bow doing the rustling. Bow, to be precise. Glimmer stood in front of the bed and took a picture with her phone, when she was done, she put it down, waved at Adora and pointed on a spot next to her. Adora turned her head and noticed, that Catra was still there, full asleep. She must’ve moved in her sleep, since Adora was sure they hadn’t been that close in the beginning. Not that she did mind, but Catra’s mouth was open and she drooled on Adora’s shoulder, and that made the whole thing less enjoyable.

Bow and Glimmer snickered when Adora managed to move away her shoulder from Catra, but now Catra was drooling on the pillow. Adora sighed, but she probably should just ask a nurse for a new pillow. Glimmer and Bow put down their bags and left once again, to come back with chairs. Bow went a second time, he took Catra’s chair with him, and brought another one instead. They sat down close to the bed, so Adora could easy on her voice and Catra would not wake up.

“How do you feel?”

Adora shrugged. “Hard to say. Good, I guess?”

It made Bow and Glimmer raise their eyebrows. “What do you mean, ‘I guess’?”

“I can’t remember. The last memory I have, is us three parking the caravan in Alwyn.”

Bow leaned back and blew out some air. “That’s somehow good and somehow bad.”

Adora looked Catra. “She refused to tell me what she knew, she said it was too hard for her. She just mentioned, that Mara is dead. And then someone called Adam.” Adora didn’t like the look Bow and Glimmer shared, it couldn’t mean something good. “What?”

Glimmer coughed. “Listen, we are sorry for Mara. We know you came here for her, and now knowing that she died years ago must be hard.”

“I don’t know. I was somehow expecting it, but it still kind of hurts. And Adam?”

“Adam … is … or was … your biological brother.”

Adora wasn’t sure if she had heard right, but somehow it felt like she already had heard it before. She asked the couple to tell her everything, but there wasn’t much to say. According to the police records, they died because of car crashes, but apparently, there were reasons to doubt them. When Adora pressed for more information, both Glimmer and Bow started to hum and haw, but before Adora could try anything else, a phone started to ring. It for sure wasn’t hers, the sound came from Catra’s jacket. The three of them looked at each other, and Adora nearly fell out of the bed, when Catra suddenly woke up with a start and started yelling.

“I’m ok, everything’s fine, everyone calm down, I’m awake.” Catra blinked and noticed the presence of Bow and Glimmer. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Always happy to see you too. How about you get your fucking phone and release us from this cacophony you picked as your ringtone.”

Muttering something clearly insulting towards Glimmer, Catra left the bed, popped every joint possible and got to her jacket to grab her phone. She picked up without looking at the screen first.

“What? Oh, hey Scorps. Yeah, all good. Same old, same old. Where are you right now? Eh, was worth the try. … Wait, seriously? 2 hours? Pff, what do I know? If Entrapta deems it the best moments, why not? She is smarter than us all combined. Ok, thanks for the heads up. See ya.”

Catra turned back to the other 3 in the room. “Sooooooo…. A party completely unrelated to us has decided to release a video, in which creation obviously none of us had a say in. They are sending it to every major tv station in the country in about an hour and will release it on Youtube, Twitch and Pornhub in about 2 hours.”

Bow snorted. “Why Pornhub?”

“I don’t know, but if Entrapta thinks it’s a good idea, it probably is.”

Adora coughed. “I’m clearly missing something. Nothing in that statement made sense, and you only talk about the Pornhub-part?”

Glimmer stepped in. “Catra, we just told her about Adam and the car crashes. Shit is about to go down anyways. If you plan to tell everything, now would be a good moment.”

Catra pinched her nose, she clearly was in two minds about this, but in the end, she sighed and sat down in the last chair. “Fine, you are right. But I’m the one talking, and you stay silent.”

After both Bow and Glimmer had rolled their eyes in agreement, Catra started to talk. About how she met Scorpia and Entrapta, coming into contact with Bow, arriving in Alwyn, meeting up with Bow and Glimmer and then checking out the Crystal Castle, Catra demolishing the mailbox and adding 2 and 2. The mentioning of the letters sparked a memory in back of Adora’s head, but she wasn’t able to grasp it.

Catra’s rampage at the First Ones and the following arrest made Adora laugh for some reason. That never has happened before, but Adora had counted the days until this would happen. She could see the corners of Catra’s mouth twitch, but that was it. After a short pause, Catra’s voice got a darker tone and she talked about the things someone called Emily had found out, about Mara and Adam. How she and Bow were invited to the mass, and how Catra sat down on the throne.

The throne.

There was something about the throne.

But Catra didn’t notice the face Adora made, and continued to talk about how they made the connection between the Aspects of the First Ones and the deaths of Mara and Adam. And the missing piece of the puzzle. Adora.

“Stop.” Adora barely brought out that single word. “Stop.”

The others watched Adora carefully as she lifted her hands to her temples. Everything was coming back, but only in pieces. Adora remembered, that Angella had said something about narcotics in her blood, so that would be an explanation. But something was still missing. Something … important. She noticed Catra’s worried look and tried to play things down. The worried look didn’t disappear, but Catra continued her story.

That Emily had found another entrance, a tunnel for smugglers, and they used this tunnel to break into the Crystal Castle.

Catra stopped there, the story was over. Adora knew something was missing, for example how they found her and how they got out. Adora had absolutely no memories of that. She had made her peace with 3 full days missing, since she had slept through them. But hearing all of this, she had to ask herself if she actually wanted to know what happened back then. How she got these wounds.

“We should be careful about one thing.” Bow spoke slowly, carefully choosing his words. “After we left, something has happened at the Crystal Castle. I don’t know the details, but I heard something about a fire. The news is full of it. Whatever the video contains, it will stir up the whole thing even more.”

Bow looked around, but Adora felt like he was looking at Catra longer than at Glimmer or her.

“Anyways… the video goes live in 30 minutes. Do we have a laptop or anything?” Catra looked around. “I don’t want to watch it on my phone.”

Glimmer offered to get her tablet from the caravan, but before she could leave, Catra asked if Bow couldn’t go get it, and bring ‘someone’ with him. Adora didn’t know what she was talking about, and apparently neither did Bow, until his face showed realization and he got up and left. Catra apologized to Glimmer, but Glimmer just waved. Bow soon returned with the tablet, and – a moving bag. He handed the bag to Catra, who placed it on the bed and pulled out a cat. A cat with a mechanical limb. The cat looked around, quite annoyed, and Catra started shower it with affection.

The cat was already a surprise, but seeing Catra being so …, yeah, affectionate, was also something else. The cat had flopped in its back, the limbs in the air, Catra giving them belly scratches.

“Adora.” Catra was beaming at her. “This is Melog. I adopted them after I found them at the Crimson Waste. They were a … great comforter.”

Adora’s chest stung at the word ‘comforter’, she knew what Catra wanted to say with this, and it made Adora feel bad. Really bad. But Catra had said, that this was a topic for another time, when Adora was able to leave the bed, and get out of here. And Adora had agreed on it.

“Hey folks, it’s nearly time.” Glimmer pointed on her watch. “The video soon will be online. Did Entrapta say how we can find it.”

“Just look into the Trends. Scorpia said that Entrapta will manipulate the algorithm.”

Adora shot a confused look at Catra. “How is she able to do all these things? Who is she?”

But Catra just winked back, an amused grin on her face. “Let’s just say, the secret ingredient is crime.”

Glimmer groaned. “Yeah, they sure are a handful. Honestly, you don’t actually want to know. But now that I know Catra, I’m not surprised that they found and kept her. They literally are as thick as thieves.” Catra stuck out her tongue, but Glimmer focused Adora again. “You are in command. If you say stop, we stop. Got it?”

Adora nodded, and when the clock passed 6pm, Bow instantly found the video as #1 in the YoutubeTrends, and clicked it. He placed the tablet at the end of the bed, and while Catra sat down on the bed again, Glimmer and Bow moved her chairs to get a better on the screen.

***

Catra nervously glanced at Adora from the corner of her eyes. Scorpia’s call had caught her unawares, she didn’t expect Entrapta being ready that fast. But why was she surprised? With Emily on her side, it probably had been a piece of cake for them. But Catra didn’t know if it was smart to watch that video, she didn’t lie when she said she had no say in the making of the video. She had no idea about what was in it, and considering Adora’s apparent amnesia, Catra had no idea either about how Adora will take it. The best she had hoped for was some closure, but that is not possible if Adora remember anything.

The video started with a history of the First Ones, a slideshow of historical drawings and documents, Catra even imagined to see the monastery of Half-Moon at one point. The voice leading through the presentation sounded familiar, but it was not Emily’s default, but changing it was probably as easy as changing the gender of the GPS’ announcer.

They reached a part about the influences the First Ones took through the history of the USA, and it was something you couldn’t just ignore. On one hand it wasn’t that much of a surprise, considering the foundation of the United States rooted in the settling of people, who fled because of religious oppression in Europe, but the First Ones weren’t a widespread religion, they weren’t even a top contender. Still being that influential, was both impressive and scary.

The voice got darker, taking a more ominous tone. And started to present the myths and beliefs of the First Ones. The more vanilla one made the beginning, things you could also could find in the Abrahamitic beliefs. But with more and more going on, it got darker with every example and finally, the voice started to talk about the Aspects. Catra subconsciously leaned closer to Adora and took her hand, showing her that she is there for Adora.

Catra noticed, that Adora’s hand was calm. Cold, but calm. Her own, not so much. Adora didn’t seem to notice it, her eyes were glued to the screen, but Catra’s hands got even more shaky, when the voice talked about the first Aspect and a picture of Mara appeared. This was the only time Catra actually cursed Entrapta, for using a photograph that probably was taken during Mara’s autopsy. Seeing that picture had an effect on Adora, her hand noticeable tensed up. It didn’t get better during Adam’s part, but maybe because being related by blood isn’t worth much if you had no part in each other’s life. Catra had her own experience on that topic.

Adora was the last one, and again, Catra had to ask herself where the picture came from, but then she remembered Adora’s Instagram, and everything made at least up to a certain part a bit of sense. With Adora as the transition, the picture got switched to a video feed, and Catra noticed it began with Scorpia entering the Crystal Castle. They did a speed run through the Crystal Castle, and quickly arrived in the 3^rd floor. They scanned the rooms; the video emphasized the words FAMILY and HONOR on the walls on the prison cells.

And then, the last room. Catra was glad, that Entrapta had skipped the part where she knocked out the guard. She saw herself entering the room, and stumbling to the bed. The perspective switched to Catra’s, meaning that Entrapta thought about censoring the naked Adora, and just focusing on the carving in Adora’s skin and the symbols drawn on her. It was hard to watch, even for Catra, but it must be much harder for Adora. The video continued to analyze the markings on Adora and compared them to the carvings on the altar, in the center of the Crystal Castle. This was the second time where Catra asked herself about the origins of this picture. They had looked for some pictures in the internet already, but every single one of them was unusable. But this one looked just like … somebody kneeled right in front of it and took the pictures.

Catra had a suspicion, and she didn’t like it. Not at all. And the worst thing was, it got proven in the next minutes, when the video went on about looking for the responsible personalities behind all of this. And at one point, a picture of Light Hope appeared. Catra’s suspicion got fulfilled, but in the same moment, Adora had a breakdown, and that was way worse.

At first, Adora managed to mash Catra’s hand, which already hurt, but the shrieking was a nightmare. It was wild, animalic screeching, it scared Melog off the bed, and Bow nearly fell from his chair. Only Glimmer caught herself fast enough, and closed the tablet to get rid of the trigger. Catra pressed Adora to her chest, trying to whisper soothing words to calm Adora down. It took long, too long, to get Adora back to standard, but everything got worse again, when the nurse came in to look for the reason for the heart monitor going nuts. She asked if Adora needed something to calm down, but the mentioning of this triggered something else. Catra chased the nurse off, and Glimmer disappeared to get Angella. When they returned, Adora was a shaking pile of misery in Catra’s arms.

“It was her.” Adora’s voice was so low, only Catra could hear it. “It was her.”

“Who? What’s up with her?”

“She did it. She told me, that Mara was dead. And she did everything to me. She….”

Adora stopped talking and started sobbing instead. It was dry at first, but at one point, the well broke and Adora cried out all the pain and sorrow she had stored up until now. And Catra was bound to be able to do nothing but just be there for Adora.

In the corner, Angella and Glimmer quietly discussed what has happened here, and Catra could see Glimmer squirming around, unsure about what she is supposed to tell her mother. She probably had realized at some point, that it didn’t make sense to hide things any longer, since Entrapta literally made the cat jump out of the bag. And Catra suspected that the video had ended with a bang, she probably should finish watching the video another time.

Another nurse entered the room, carrying a tablet and clearly being confused about the scenery in front of her, especially since the director was part of it. She had brought dinner, but Angella just told her to place it on the table and released her with a wave of her hand.

Even though Adora stopped wailing, she was still a trembling mess in Catra’s arms. They just sat there, breathing, and after a while, Catra noticed that Adora had, unconsciously or not, synchronized her breathing to pattern to Catra’s. It was good sign, at least Catra thought so, she arched back and signaled Bow to give her the tablet on the table. He placed it in front of Adora on the bed, and lifted the lid to reveal some sandwiches and a yoghurt for dessert. Catra took one of the sandwiches and held it in front of Adora, but Adora moved her head away from it. Now that was worrisome.

“Are you not hungry?”

Adora nodded, Catra interpreted this as ‘Yes, I am hungry’.

“Do you want to it this?”

Headshaking.

“Why not? It’s just…” Catra opened the sandwich take a look in it. “Lettuce, Ham, Tomatoes.”

“It’s poisoned.”

“No, it’s not.” Adora had switched to Lunarian, and so did Catra. “We are in a hospital.”

Adora snorted, her shivering got stronger again. “I was in a church the last days. Look at what it got me.”

Catra bit her lip. “The First Ones can’t harm you anymore.”

“How do you know that?”

“Trust me on that. Do you trust me?”

Adora nodded. “Of course, how could I not.”

“Great. Let’s make a deal. I take a bite, and then you do. Ok?”

Adora made big eyes, but nodded. Catra took a bite from the first sandwich and Adora watched her chewing, only to nearly stuff the whole sandwich in her face after Catra had swallowed. It was a sight to behold, but it made a smile creep over Catra’s face. She wanted to ask Angella if they could have more of these, but noticed that 4 pairs of eyes were watching them. To be fair, Melog was watching the sandwiches and not the two sitting on the bed, but they were looking in their general direction.

They took Catra’s look as an invitation to leave, Angella announced that she will come back later, but Bow and Glimmer said their Goodbye and said that they will come back tomorrow. They left Melog there of course, on a second thought it was weird that Angella hadn’t said anything about it, but Catra wasn’t complaining. A few minutes later, a nurse brought some more sandwiches, which were devoured by Adora in a matter of seconds.

After getting the crumbs out of the bed, Adora flopped back against Catra, who was more than happy about that.

“Catra?”

“Hm?”

“Did you mean it?”

“What?”

“When you said, that getting me back is worth more than anything else in the world.”

Say it. Now is the chance.

“Of course.”

Coward.

Adora scooted closer to Catra. “You broke several laws to get me out of here. How can I ever make this up to you?”

SAY IT.

“We are even now, actually.” Catra felt Adora’s confusion rising, so she hurried to explain. “You saved me years ago, and I got your back now.”

“You can’t compare that…”

“Why not? No one of us would be here without the other. Sounds even to me.”

Adora mumbled something, but she didn’t elaborate, so Catra took it as if she had agreed on that. Her phone disturbed that tiny amount of peace they had found. A short glance on the screen showed, it was a foreign number, but Catra knew who was hiding behind it.

“Sorry, Adora. I have to take this call, there is someone I need to rip a second one. Play with Melog in the meantime, they will act like they are touch-starved, but they are lying, don’t fall for it.”

Catra quickly caught Melog and placed them on Adora’s lap, and left the room to take the call.

“Entrapta!”

“Uh no. Scorpia here. Again. Hi Wildcat. How you doin’?”

“Could be better. Adora had a breakdown, but I guess you already know that.” The awkward silence proved Catra right. “Get me Entrapta.”

“Hi Catra.” Of course, Catra already was on speakers.

“Hi Entrapta. Watch this.” Catra removed the choker Entrapta gave her days ago, threw it on the floor and stomped on it, until it broke apart. She put one part in her pocket and threw the rest into the next trashcan. “We are done, I guess.”

“That was unnecessary. You just could’ve sent it back to me. No, wait. You don’t know where we are. Ok, never mind.”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“With what?”

“You know very well, what I am talking about.”

“Oh that. Nothing. You gave me data. It was interesting to watch. But, as a Thank You, I’m going to send you something that will be helpful in a conflict with the authorities.”

“And what?”

Entrapta snickered. “You will see. This is going to be fun. It’ll be at the hospital tomorrow, on Adora’s name. Oh, and I will put a phone number in it, exclusively for you to call. And trust me. This was the best way. See you around, Catra.”

With this, the phone call ended and Catra did her best to not throw her phone through the hall. Starting a ruckus in a hospital, that didn’t include the security guards, wasn’t a wise choice. At least not as long as Adora needed to stay here.

Catra returned to Adora’s room, but found her sound asleep, Melog cuddled right next to her. When Catra lifted up the cat, Melog mewled in protest, but Catra was having none of it. They were going to sleep close to their toilet, and that was not in the hospital.

As quiet as possible, Catra, with Melog in her hood, left the room and the hospital to cross the street and climb into the caravan parked there. Thankfully, Bow and Glimmer were still awake and not doing anything naughty, so Catra could feed Melog in peace and leave them there. After playing with Melog a bit, Catra got back up to go back to Adora again, but Glimmer and Bow were waiting for something.

“It’s fascinating.” As always Glimmer was unable to speak in clear sentences.

“A lot of things about me are fascinating, you have to be more specific.”

“The difference between you now and 5 days ago.”

“Well, I had to plan a crusade against a doomsday cult. That can be quite stressful.”

“You know I don’t mean that.”

“Aw, do you feel neglected, because both Melog and me hiss at you, but not at Adora?”

Bow suppressed a laugh, while Glimmer’s face turned sour. “My mom asked me if you are a couple.”

Catra snorted, but the surprise had taken away some of its strength. “And, are we?”

“Apparently, there are indicators on both the medical and psychological side. Adora’s dilating pupils and rising heartbeat every time she sees you, the immediate seeking for and providing shelter from harm, and, my personal favorite, the acceptance of food from unknown sources through sharing with someone you trust. Ethologists would have a fucking fieldtrip with you two.”

Fuck.

“Anything else?”

“Oh yes, but this is so much fun already, I’m keeping this for another time.” Glimmer threw her head back and laughed loudly.

FUCK.

“I have to go.”

“Catra, one last thing.” Bow stood up, but he followed her to the outside. “Do you know anything about the fire in Alwyn?”

“Nope.”

“Sure about that?”

“Pretty much, yeah. What happened?”

“Apparently, a fire started in the boiler room of an important building in Alwyn, reason for this was an explosion of the, admittedly very old, oil-lit heater.”

“Oh? No, sorry, doesn’t ring a bell.”

Bow watched Catra’s face, but he didn’t say anything about this. But he mentioned, that the two of them had finished the video from earlier. He said, that they didn’t miss much, the video had ended with some intel about famous members of the First Ones, like senators, actors, athletes and so on, known faces, and had pointed out the engagements of said individuals.

After saying ‘Goodnight’ to Bow, Catra head back to Adora’s room and sat down on her chair. Catra’s gaze wandered over the sleeping blonde’s features. Adora looked better, way better than in the night they found her. Bow had told her, that Glimmer had disappeared in the ‘bathroom’ for a bit, after she saw Adora for the first time. He didn’t tell her why, but Catra suspected a detailed conversation with the toilet.

Not that she couldn’t understand it, Catra had felt like she lost all of her reason when she saw Adora like that. And maybe she did, just a little bit.

The chair became uncomfortable quite fast, Catra looked for another spot to lie down. She didn’t want get to that bench again, but Adora was already asleep and Catra couldn’t bring it over her to wake Adora up again to move over. But with Adora’s current posture, another spot on the bed was free, and Catra wasn’t picky enough to search for something else.

***

Adora originally had planned to rest her eyes for a short moment, but her body had betrayed her. Sunlight came through the windows again, announcing the next day, and a tablet with possibly breakfast in it was on the table next to the bed. She looked around to find the cat – Melog – but found someone else, all huddled up, sleeping at the end of her bed.

Catra.

Seeing this brought back memories, happy ones. It often happened in the early years of their friendship, especially in the summer. When they had a sleepover at Adora’s house, Catra often just straight up refused to sleep in the sleeping bag on the floor, and since it took years for Adora to grow tall enough to use the whole bed, there always had been room for Catra. The last time had been quite a while ago though, the last time must’ve been at their prom, and both had been quite wasted.

Adora did her best to leave the bed quietly to not wake up Catra, and made her way to bathroom. Wobbly steps at first, but she made to the toilet without falling down. When she washed her hands, her look fell through the reflection of the mirror on the patch on her chest. Images from the video she saw the day before flashed before her eyes, a picture of the wound beneath the patch. She raised her shaking hand to the patch, something told her that she had to see it for herself. Adora slowly peeled off the patch, and when she saw the red-green goo sticking to her skin, her knees gave and, unable to sustain herself on the sink, Adora hit the floor.

No 3 seconds later, the door burst open and Catra stood in its frame. Adora could see her eyes dart through the bathroom and putting 2 and 2 together when she saw the patch laying on the floor. Catra disappeared for a second, but was back almost immediately. She helped Adora sitting up, threw away the dirty patch, and pulled a face when she saw Adora’s wound. Adora felt something like embarrassment for it and attempted to cover it, but Catra caught her arm before she could do it, whispering a soft ‘Don’t’. A noise signaled that someone had entered the room, and Catra shouted to get their attention. A nurse came into the bathroom and helped Catra to get Adora back to the bed. The nurse made a new patch after cleaning up, and while she was at it, she removed the pressure bandages from Adora’s wrists and used just normal bandages. Relief flooded Adora, when she saw that the green goo had only been a rash cream or something like that. The nurse even allowed Adora to get rid of the gown and wear normal clothes again, just no bra and a wide shirt for obvious reasons. Catra got up, promising to get the things from the caravan and left.

When the door opened again, it wasn’t Catra. In her stead, Angella, followed by a woman and two men in black suits Adora didn’t know, entered the room. The unknown woman introduced herself as Agent Juliet from the FBI, and Adora smelled trouble. Not for herself, but for Catra.

Juliet told her about a certain video that was keeping the media busy at the moment, and since the video had presented some serious accusations, she had been ordered to find things out about the origins of the video. A search for hospitals which had received patients with injuries in this form only had brought out one result – Adora. The agent asked Adora, if she could see the wound, but Angella interrupted her quickly and denied that. Since it had been herself, who had treated the wound in first place, she could guarantee that it was there.

Juliet shrugged, and asked Adora when she had arrived here. Angella answered in her stead, Adora still wasn’t sure what day it even was today and she hadn’t seen her phone in a while. She should ask Catra about it.

The agent looked through her own phone, apparently, she some questions written there, since she asked Adora about specific things, like her reason to be in the USA at first place, where she had been, and in the end if she knew something about the Crystal Castle burning down.

Adora knew, what the Crystal Castle was, and for that she hated its existence in its core, but she didn’t know anything about it burning down. She wasn’t too sad about it, but couldn’t give any information about it. Angella must’ve watched Adora closely, because she stepped in when Juliet started about ask about Light Hope. The only thing that Adora got out, was the confirmation that Light Hope was responsible for everything.

The door opened once again, and this time it was Catra, Melog sitting on her shoulder, Bow and Glimmer in her tow. If she was surprised, she didn’t show it. Bow and Glimmer on the hand didn’t have a poker face that good. When Juliet introduced herself, you didn’t need to be good at reading people to see that Bow and Glimmer were nervous.

It was so obvious that Juliet started to shift her focus on the three new arrivals, posing similar questions like Adora already had answered, up to the question about the fire. Maybe it was the sudden disappearance of the nervousness, that gave it away. All 3 of them shrugged and said, that they heard about it, but had no idea about the how and why.

One of the men handed Juliet a sheet of paper, judging from the shadow, pictures were printed on it. She focused Bow and Catra, looked down on the papers again and asked for their names. Both of them told her their names, and the woman looked at the two men behind her, gesturing at Bow and Catra.

“Mr. Reccula, Ms. Driluth. You are under arrest.”

“What?” Adora couldn’t believe what she just heard “Why?”

“For the suspicion of arson, one count of aggravated assault and two counts of homicide. Everything under the aspect of a religiously motivated hate crime.”

Bow went pale, but Catra – Catra just looked as if someone had told her that she had two differently colored eyes. Not surprised at all. Just slightly annoyed.

Chapter Text

A splash of water woke Her up. No, not water, the liquid tastes like it came from the depths of hell. Something was wrong, She could feel. She barely was able to lift her head, it hurt too much. But when She finally could look around and noticed that She wasn’t in her bed anymore. It was still Her suite, but She sat in one of the armchairs, even though She had gone to bed right after the ceremony for the Aspect of Honor. A metallic screech made Her turn her head quickly, regret filled her instantly, when the movement was too harsh and pain flooded Her.

She heard steps and someone – or something – sat down in front of Her.

“Hello.”

A voice, rough, but booming, filled the silent room, a voice that only could belong to a being not from this realm.

“Who are you?” Her own voice left her after the first word, but the being understood her with ease.

It answered with a cackling laughter, its cruelty sent shivers down her spine. “It doesn’t matter who I am. More importantly, who are you? And who do you think you are?”

She was confused. Was this a riddle? A test? It had to be. “I am Light Hope, the master of ceremonies, and the High Priestess of the First Ones. Prime has chosen me to fulfill his will on Earth.”

“Interesting.” The being spoke slowly, as if it had to think about what it just had heard. “Were you successful?”

“How does this-“

The being stormed forward and smashed its claws on Her arms. “I am asking the questions. And you answer!”

“Yes. Yes, of course. Please forgive me. But-.“ She couldn’t finish her sentence, something silvern whirred through the moonlight, and nailed her left hand to the armrest beneath it. The pain, when one of the ceremonial knives pierced her hand made Her scream and nearly lose consciousness, but She managed to pull Herself together. “Forgive me. Forgive me. What can I do for you?”

The demon, She now was sure it was a demon, sat down again and watched Her through its eyes filled with madness. “Tell me everything. From the start. How did you find out about the Aspects? Why Mara?”

“I don’t understand, why-“

She noticed her mistake too late, and this time She didn’t even see it coming. And when the blade pierced through the back of her other hand, She passed out, but a hefty clip round Her ear brought Her back.

The demon growled. “I’m at the end of my patience. Give me what I want and this will end.”

“I met Mara at university. She was curious about the teachings of First Ones, and I was more than happy to teach her. She was a kindred soul.”

The demon stayed silent, so She continued. If She managed to please it, She got set free and could leave this nightmare. She will include this lesson in the mass.

“During the studies of the scripts, we were delighted to find out that, that the Elders had foretold her arrival. It was her birthright, even her name told the story. The lady of the truth. After so many of my predecessors had failed, Mara joined us and we were at the verge of greatness; we were so close. I got called, so I shed off my old body and life, and took my role as Light Hope. After we followed the rites, Mara got blessed by Prime and gave birth to the Aspect of Power. We were so happy. We welcomed him in our community and raised him as our own. We all were aware of our destiny, but I noticed too late, that Mara had left the right path. She left us, with the help of a traitor, and hid the Aspect of Honor.”

“Who was the father?” The demon’s voice was low, dangerously low.

“There is none. The Aspects are incarnations of Prime himself, as was Mara.”

“You said, your predecessors had failed. Failed with what?”

“They did not help all Aspects to ascend in time, they had taken new vessels in the meantime.”

She heard the breath of the demon going faster and louder, its time in this realm soon was up and She was free again. And just in this moment, the belfry announced midnight. She could see the demon’s head turning, looking for the origin of the noise. It stayed for a moment, motionless, and then threw its head back in maniacal laughter.

After it had calmed down again, it moved towards Her again. It sat down and played with a flame, appearing and disappearing at the palm of its hand.

“Do you regret anything you ever did?”

Full of ardor, She said no. Everything She had done, happened according to the will of Prime, and even if it had caused Mara to leave Her behind so early, She would do everything again, the same way.

The demon thanked Her for Her honesty, but it seemed disappointed. Now, it told Her a story, about an angel it met, a long time ago. About how the angel had saved it, and how they stayed together since then. But it somehow made no sense, when the demon was here right now, where was the angel?

The demon continued its story, about an anniversary and pastries for its honor. The flame appeared and disappeared in its hand again.

“And today for the first time, there is none. Because she got imprisoned. By you. No cake for me.” The demon cackled again; the flame appeared. “Nothing for me, but a candle to burn.”

The flame fell to the ground, and set the puddle of gasoline ablaze.

***

Catra shot up, drenched in sweat. Her breathing went fast, way too fast. She stood up and went to the sink, to splash some water in her face and wash her hands. And wash her hands again. And again. Until she noticed that there was nothing to wash away. There probably hadn’t been anything from the beginning, but Catra had still the feeling that there was something, so she washed her hands again.

It was the middle of the night. Catra returned to the plank bed and stared at the ceiling, focusing the small glowing red dot in the corner. She blew out some air. Catra had been in this cell since the FBI had brought her here yesterday, Bow was a few doors down. Entrapta had been right, the authorities were quite fast in tracking them down. Maybe it would have been a smart move, if Catra had told Bow about this in before, but when they had entered Adora’s room, it was already too late and she didn’t have the chance to talk to him since they arrived here. Since Catra knew Bow only a few days, it was awfully hard to get a clear picture of him. He followed her without hesitation into the Crystal Castle, but now that they had to take the consequences, would he sell her out? Especially, since in fact he hadn’t done anything illegal except the break-in itself. All the fucked-up stuff had happened when Catra had returned to the Crystal Castle alone.

A few hours later, the sun was already up, Catra heard coming to her cell and one of the agents, that had brought her here yesterday, stopped in front of the door, 2 men in suits in his tow. The agent stayed on the outside; the 2 men entered the cell. One of them, black hair and beard on shoulder-length, reached out to shake her hand and introduced.

“Hello Catra.” She took it as a good sign that he said ‘Catra’ and not ‘Ms. Driluth’. “I’m Micah. I’m Angella’s husband and Glimmer’s father. Sorry, I couldn’t come earlier. This…” He pointed at the man beside him. “Is Marcus O’Reilly. We worked together for a long time but unlike me, he is a criminal defense lawyer.” Catra shook their hands. “First of all, how do you feel? Bow is quite a wreck.”

Catra snorted. “Thought so. No, I’m fine. Surprisingly calm, to be honest.”

“Good. Glad to hear that. Did anyone talk to you, since you are here?”

Catra shook her head. “Nope. They just asked me what I want for dinner, but that was it.”

“Great, same thing for Bow. Your first court hearing is in 2 hours, we are going to plead for ‘not guilty’ anyways. To be blunt, this case is going to be huge. The FBI is actually picking the video about the First Ones into pieces, they even got an order of a federal judge. If the things stated in the video are even only roughly true, this will take months, if not years, to clear up everything.”

Catra winced. “Do I have to stay here all the time?”

O’Reilly shook his head. “I doubt it. Since you and your friend are already here, it probably will not take that long. We will hear the exact charges later in the hearing, and then we will talk about everything else.”

With that, both of them took their leave and Catra was alone again. As they had told her, someone came to pick her up for the court hearing. She met Bow in the car that brought them to the court.

“Hey, how is it going?”

“Eh, a bit jittery. The last time I was cuffed up in the back of a vehicle, Glimmer was there.”

Catra tried to kick him in the shins. “Shut the fuck up, I don’t want to imagine this.”

The judge was an old woman, who read the charges against them with a bored voice. One count of aggravated assault, one count of arson and one count of homicide. That made more sense, Catra could explain one murder, but the second one had confused her. If the guard had died, there wouldn’t be the charge of the assault. When asked about it, they both pleaded for not guilty and got sent back.

Back in the cell, Catra thought about her way of thinking about this whole situation. Between the two of them, Catra always had been more messed up than Adora, but how casually Catra was thinking about a murder she had committed, even disturbed herself. It didn’t leave her unaffected, hence the nightmare, but it still was worrisome. Maybe she should consider going back to therapy.

Catra’s thoughts drifted to Adora and the face she made, when the agents arrested Bow and Catra. Plain fear. But Catra wasn’t sure about its reason. About Catra getting taken away or the possibility of Catra murdering someone. If it was the latter, this whole mess was over for Catra anyways and the only thing left to do was to limit the damage.

She had managed to say a few things to Adora before they had to go, and the only reason for that was Angella, since she reminded the agents that this was a hospital and they better show some restraint. Hopefully, Adora remembered what to do when Entrapta’s packages arrived.

The next time someone visited her, it was Juliet to take her to an interrogation room. Bow and O’Reilly were already there, Catra sat down next to them, while Juliet took the seat on the opposite side of the table. The agent opened a folder flipped through a few pages.

“On October 28^th at 0.52am, the fire department of Alwyn received a call about a fire at the Crystal Castle. The caller said something about an explosion which set the street on fire. Upon arrival, the firefighter needed 8 hours to get the fire under control. A closer inspection brought the result, that the central engine of the oil-lit heating got damaged and caused the explosion, but traces on the hull of the engine prove, that the explosion got triggered from the outside and then set the oil, gasoline and other inflammable materials stored in that room, on fire.” She stopped to take a look at Bow and Catra. “So much for that. Does that ring a bell?”

Catra knew, that you never should compare the things you see on tv with reality, but even CSI: Miami had a better script than this shitshow. Juliet just told them about a fire and expected them to tell her that they started it. This was so thin, even Scorpia would’ve seen through this (No offence to Scorpia here).

A look to the side showed, that Bow and O’Reilly were thinking the same. O’Reilly announced, that if the FBI didn’t have anything better, they were going to leave right now. Juliet raised her hand and put 2 pictures on the table. Bow and Catra recognized one of them, and at least Catra had a bad feeling about the second one.

“When the members of the First Ones had searched the building, they had found 2 corpses. Do you recognize them.”

“Yes.” Bow pointed at the first picture. “Serenia. We met her a few days ago. What happened to her.”

“The examination is still going on, but for now it looks like suicide through self-strangulation. And the second one?”

The picture showed a scorched corpse. Catra suspected that it was Light Hope’s, but she for sure will not be the one giving this away. Bow and Catra shook their heads again, much to Juliet’s disappointment.

“Listen. We know, that you managed to get into the Crystal Castle. The proof for it is alive and well in the Brightmoon Hospital. It won’t take too long to find something that will connect you and both the explosion and the deaths of these two people. It doesn’t matter who they are or what they did. It is still murder.”

O’Reilly lifted his hand. “Even if you can proof that these two broke into this … abomination of a temple, you will find no jury that will condemn a rescue operation, especially since its proven that the local police were willingly looking away. I mean, you can try, but that is going to be embarrassing for the Bureau. And as long you don’t have anything about these deaths, especially since it seems to be suicide in one case, I believe we are done.”

Juliet stared at him, chewing her lip and when she finally waved her hand, O’Reilly got up and signaled the others to follow him. Juliet kept the last word, when she ordered them to stay around.

They didn’t anything, until they had left the fencing of the building, they had nearly spent 24 hours in. Bow was about to ask Catra about all of this, but O’Reilly interrupted him and told him to wait until they were back at the hospital.

When they got back, Catra got jumped by Adora, tears on her face. Catra did her best to comfort her, but couldn’t deny her own relief about Adora being worried about her. Micah and Glimmer were also there, and O’Reilly gave them a rundown about the situation.

They needed a room to talk in peace, Adora’s room wasn’t the place for it, so they called Angella and she gave them a small chamber with a table and chairs. Bow, Catra and O’Reilly sat around the table and O’Reilly asked them to tell him everything they knew. Bow straight-up admitted that he had no idea what the fuck was going on, so the attention shifted to Catra.

It’s not like she had much of a choice. The boiler room had been too much, if she would’ve just left, no one would’ve actually cared. The First Ones probably never would’ve told anyone about Light Hope’s death. But the past was the past and Catra had to look forward for a way out of this mess.

“I did it. I killed Light Hope and glued a pack of Semtex to the heater.”

Bow looked like he would faint every moment, while O’Reilly’s face had turned to stone.

“Now you have to tell me everything.”

Catra did in fact tell him not everything, she did her best to leave Scorpia and Entrapta out of this, but soon realized, that this was nearly impossible. The roles both of them had played were too big to just ignore them, especially when it came to finding the tunnel or where Catra got the explosives from or who made the video and how they got all the information in it. O’Reilly rubbed his face, when Catra was done.

“Are you seriously expecting me to believe this?”

“To be honest, I don’t care. But you are my way out, and lying to you isn’t going to help me.”

“Ok, then how about something simpler? That Light Hope person. How and why.”

The How was easy, the Why was something Catra was that sure about either. It wasn’t the first time that she had done something out of pure lust of revenge, but there was a big difference between beating someone to a pulp or paying someone to trash principle Weaver’s car, and murder.

Maybe the fear, that if it didn’t end right there, it wouldn’t end at all.

“I walked back in the storage room, and … I don’t know.” Catra closed her eyes. “We knew that there was a VIP room in the 3^rd floor, but since we found Adora somewhere else, I figured that someone else would use it. I thought it was Hordak, but when I got there, I found someone else in there.”

“Light Hope.”

“Right, but at that point I didn’t know who she was. And now comes the weird part. She was tied to chair, and out cold, a lighter and a canister of gasoline next to her. I actually found her like that. Without going too much into the details what I did exactly, we talked a bit and she essentially confessed, that every 20 years the First Ones kill at least 1 person to look for their Messiah. She had killed Adam and Mara, and would’ve done that to Adora too, but then we came in and got Adora out. She was so proud of everything she did and didn’t even have one ounce of regret. She was only sad about ‘sending Mara up’ so early, because they loved each other I guess.”

“And why?”

Catra shrugged. “I guess I lost it when we found Adora. You should’ve seen her; she was already dead. That and how smug Light Hope was about everything gave it the last push. I just wanted to see that bitch burn. And so, I dropped the match.”

She felt like collapsing. Reliving this in her dreams was one thing, but telling this to someone was a whole other story. She was so tired.

A knock on the door forced her staying awake, O’Reilly opened the door and found Adora standing in front of him. Wearing a shy smile, she carried a package in her hands and looked at Catra.

“Hey, uhm, I think this is the package you were waiting for.”

“Oh thanks.” Catra couldn’t offer more than a weak smile back.

“Are you ok? You look tired.”

“I am. This whole thing takes a toll on me, and I don’t know how to get through that.”

“You know, that you always can ask me? It’s the least thing I can do.”

“I’ll talk to you later, I promise.”

Adora waved goodbye and Catra closed the door. She put the package on the table and noticed the two men staring at her. “That was lunarian. Barely spoken, even in the EU.”

She asked looked for something sharp to open the package, used O’Reilly’s pen for it, and looked into the box to find a letter, a business card and – two hard drives.

Catra looked at the business card, it was the phone number Entrapta had told her about, and put it into her back pocket. She then opened the letter.

Hello C
as promised, here is something for the Feds. I’m sure you remember DT. I was on more than one of their events and managed to gather a gigantic amount of data. It took a while to get all of this cataloged, but it is down now. The blue hard drive is the test. You can give it to the Feds as prove that you have something, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. The big fishes are on the green hard drive. With big fish, we are talking about 2 senators, 6 congressmen and at least 3 CEOs of F500 companies. Bribery, human trafficking, gunrunning, drug trafficking, domestic terrorism, you name it. And it’s not even everything. But it should be enough to get you out of whatever mess you are in right now.

See you around.

E, S & E

P.S.: S wrote this.

Catra read the letter a second and a third time, just to be sure that she got that right. She then handed it to O’Reilly who took awfully long to read it. Bow did too. All of them sat there and stared at the hard drives.

“Who is this ... E? They should work for the government!”

“Oh, they do. Now and then. Do you think this will help us?”

O’Reilly looked at her. “If this is true, and the hard drive really contains that, then we are talking about money going in the 100 million, and the FBI won’t be dumb enough to let this chance go. They will literally kiss your ass if you want that.”

“Ew, no thanks.” Catra felt her will to live coming back. “And now?”

“Now we wait for the Feds to come back. They will probably find something that will lead them to you. If they do, call me.” He handed Catra a business card, and left Bow and Catra alone in the room.

With the door falling in its lock, the rest of her strength left Catra. She dropped herself over the table and just stayed there.

“Are you ok?”

It surprised her that Bow was still willing to talk to her.

“Yeah sure. That happens every time when I have to face my arch enemy.”

“And that would be?”

“The consequences to my own actions.”

Bow hummed something nonspecific. “What are you going to do now?”

“Back to Adora?”

“You know what I mean. Are you going to tell her?”

“I will tell her. I don’t know how and when, but I have to. And prepare for the worst.” Bow didn’t say anything on that, he left Catra the choice to tell him more. “When I saw Adora laying there, I felt like a part of me died. And it’s not something that you can wrap in nice paper and call it something romantic. It’s just … just ... I don’t know, neither dread nor despair actually serves it right. It was awful.” Catra had reached a point where she couldn’t stop the words flowing out of her. “You know, I started MMA, because I had a developed a morbid obsession with Adora, I even went to therapy. I didn’t hurt her, but myself if things went wrong and used MMA as a vent for it. Which doesn’t seem like a big difference, but it was, at least for me. It made me realize, what Adora means to me. She is, in many ways, my reason to live. I don’t know what I would do without her.”

“Have you ever told her that?”

Catra laughed, but there was no joy in it, just sadness. “If I did, we wouldn’t be here. I could’ve … I could’ve stopped her from coming here, if I had done that. Everything here is my fault. And what am I supposed to do now? Saying ‘Hey, I killed the woman that tortured you. Oh, and by the way, you are the light of my life. How about it?’.”

“I wouldn’t say it that way, but it would be a good start.”

“Fuck you.”

“Be honest, what would be the worst thing that she could say?”

“Are you stupid? ‘No’! What’s wrong with you, you and Glimmer? Stories don’t always have a happy end, and this one won’t have one for sure. Not anymore.”

“As a fighter you should know that you always win and lose some. But you can’t advance without fighting at all.

“Smartass.”

Bow was about to stand up and leave, but Catra held him back. “Don’t tell them. None of them. Not even Glimmer. Not before everything is over. Let me decide over it. Promise me.”

He nodded, and Catra let go of him.

This is just another lie I’m telling her.

***

Melog was indeed needy, Adora could see that now. But on contrary to Glimmer, Melog liked her. Every time, when Glimmer stepped closer than 1 meter to Melog, they arched their back and hissed at Glimmer. It made Adora ask, how Glimmer had managed to bring the cat with her in first place, but then she saw the scratches on Glimmer’s hand. Melog never hadn’t scratched her, at least until now, they only nibbled at her fingers. Adora had just to be careful that Melog’s claws didn’t get tangled up in her bandages.

When Catra and Bow finally came back, the atmosphere turned somber. Melog shifted their attention immediately to Catra, but she only played with them halfheartedly, so Melog decided to go back to Adora. Glimmer tried to start a conversation about their day and if Micah’s friend had been useful, but the answers were either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, which wasnothing Glimmer could work with.

Both Catra and Bow made a tired impression, but Catra actually looked sick. When Adora asked, if everything was ok, she just earned a shake of Catra’s head. Even Adora was the one admitted to the hospital, Catra worried her. But knowing her, getting something out of her was as impossible as getting a pearl from on shut clam. You would need an absurd amount of force, but Adora didn’t have the strength for that right now.

From the corner of her eye, Adora saw Catra watching her playing with Melog. That’s what Adora suspected, since Catra just stared in her general direction without blinking even once. At one point, Catra stood up and looked at Glimmer, asking them to go somewhere else. Glimmer was having none of it, facing Catra and asking her, what all of this was about. When Catra answered, that she was trying to fight, Glimmer was visibly confused. Adora didn’t know what this was supposed to mean, but Bow apparently got it.

“Catra, that’s an excellent idea. Glimmer, let’s go to that ice-cream parlor down the street, their mint-chocolate chip is supposed to be legendary.”

“Bow, it’s November.”

“Did that ever stop you from getting ice-cream?”

“Uhm, no. Ok, let’s go. But Catra doesn’t get anything.”

Catra just rolled her eyes in response, and pushed them out of the room. She then took her chair and moved it closer to the bed. Adora was glad that Glimmer had brought her sweatpants yesterday, otherwise sitting cross-legged would be embarrassing on a different level. Catra had something in her mind, but for now she was just sitting there, hiding her face in her hands.

Adora then leaned forward and slowly ran her fingers through Catra’s short hair. Catra then nearly jumped up on touch, and when she realized what had happened, she broke down in tears.

Adora was overtaxed. The last time she had seen a reaction like this from Catra out of nowhere, had been, what, 3 years ago? When Catra had confessed to her about her ‘true’ past, her head injury and the resulting therapy. It had been a big step for her, but it didn’t change anything between them.

“Catra, what’s wrong? You know you can tell me. It’s been always like this, no?”

“It’s different this time. I did bad things, Adora. Fucked up things. And this time it came out.”

“Is it about the FBI? What’s going on anyway? Nobody had told us anything, Angella just said not to worry

Catra leaned back and ruffled her hair. It took her a minute and a few deep breaths until she answered. “I’ve been charged with arson, assault and murder.”

Adora’s mouth went dry, she hoped that Catra would say anything else, but she stayed silent. “And now?”

Looking at her hands, Catra again took her time to answer. She then, for the first time since she had come back with Bow, looked into Adora’s eyes. “Promise me one thing. We are you going to talk about things that can be uncomfortable for us. If it’s too much, and one of us says ‘stop’, we stop. Ok?”

Adora nodded, and Catra leaned back again. “Then tell me, Adora. What is your biggest fear right now?”

The wound on the chest began throbbing before Catra had finished her sentence, and Adora’s hand shot up to the patch covering it, while she did her best to fight down her tears, but it didn’t work. This alone was enough for an answer, but she wanted to say it. The therapist of the hospital had paid her a visit this morning and had encourage Adora to give her worries a voice.

“I’m afraid that this will never end. That … that …” It took Adora a lot of effort to say the name. “That Light Hope will find me again. That this whole thing will start again, over and over. I don’t know where I’m supposed to go. The First Ones are everywhere, even at home.”

“You don’t have to worry about Light Hope. Or the First Ones.”

Adora scoffed. “What makes you say that? The needles are everywhere. Even when you leave the hospital, you can see one.”

“Right now, the FBI is dismantling the First Ones and searching for the Higher-Ups. They aren’t the local hillbilly police that can be swayed with the promise of getting mentioned in the evening prayer. The First Ones already stand on shaky grounds in Europe, maybe this whole thing will let them collapse. And … you don’t need to worry about Light Hope. She is dead. I killed her. Light Hope is just a title, there probably will others follow her, but…”

“You did what?” Adora thought it was some kind of sick joke, fitting for Catra’s sometimes dubious humor, but the despair in Catra’s face told her everything. “Why? H-How?”

“When we found you, half-dead, I just lost it. Something broke inside of me and I swore to myself that someone will pay for this. After Scorpia and Bow were on their way out with you, I went back into the Crystal Castle and looked for someone responsible. I found her in her room, strapped to a chair for some reason. She was so smug about everything, about what she did to Mara and Adam … and you. At some point I was so fed up with everything, I picked up one of the matches, lit it, dropped it and burned her like a witch on the stake.”

Adora dropped to the side on her pillow, she didn’t faint, but everything was just too much. She started to feel cold sweat on her back, and somehow, she managed to feel good and sick at the same time. Good because of the relief, that Light Hope won’t come after her anymore. Sick, because Catra, the one she was being thankful for getting her out of there, sat here and talked about killing someone with full intent.

“You murdered Light Hope.”

Catra nodded.

 “And now?”

“They can’t pin Light Hope’s death on me for now, but they probably soon will. Then we will ask for a deal and try to get the sentence down.”

“What would the worst case?”

“Let’s not talk about that.”

Catra slumped back into her chair and Adora understood that sign to not push any further. The sickly feeling in her guts slowly vanished, and she felt empty thinking about the consequences coming at them. She had a rough idea about the worst-case scenario, but she hoped that whatever Catra had in mind would work out.

Catra’s face had taken a greenish color over the last minutes, and before Adora could, Catra excused herself, picked up Melog and left the room without saying another word.

Adora laid back down and stared to the ceiling. Not that she had another choice, there was nothing else to do in here. No tv, not that she was in the mood to turn it on anyways, and she still didn’t know where her phone was. The situation didn’t give her the chance to ask Catra for it, understandably, something else clouded Catra’s mind.

Adora left the bed again, Bow and Glimmer didn’t come back yet, to look out of the window. Her room was in the 4^th floor, it gave her a good look over the surrounding neighborhood. The view was nice, the surrounding houses weren’t that high, so you could see quite far and Adora even could make out the rim of the Whispering Woods. Thinking of the forest made her wound throb again, even though she knew that it always was healed up.

She was staying in this hospital for 4 days now, physically she was fine, not for 100%, but going there. Maybe some muscle mass had been lost, but that was nothing that would stay that way. Mentally, on the other side …. Adora rubbed her chest while thinking about it. Feeling pain while thinking about something. It remembered her of Catra’s problem years ago. Catra had picked up a sport to balance it out. Adora hoped that this was not necessary for her. But it was strange …

Adora stared out of the window, looking at nothing specific, when something white crossed her field of view and when she followed it, she saw a snowflake. Snow? At this time of the day? In this latitude during this time of the year? It was November, and Brightmoon was quite up in the north, but it still surprised her. Her eyes followed the falling snowflakes from up to down, and then shot up again to focus a new one. The snowfall turned into a brisk snowstorm, and Adora now just stared on the streets beneath her. The hospital had a small park in front of its main entrance, Adora didn’t know of it until now, since she hadn’t left the hospital at all. It had a few park benches placed around a small fountain. And on one of the benches, she spotted someone wearing familiar clothes – Catra. On her lap, a black dot, Melog. She moved her head a bit, maybe she was talking to someone, but since Catra sat all alone, she was probably talking to Melog. That itself wasn’t something unusual. Adora often had talked to Swiftwind, and he had given a bark as a response, which made Adora continue the conversation.

But then Catra leaned forwards and hid her face in her hands. And stayed like this. Too long for comfort. Adora looked for her boots and jacket, but she remembered, that she still had none. So, she left her room in her sweats and the hospital slippers.

The moment she stepped out of the hospital, Adora’s teeth started chattering. Snow was falling, of course it was cold, what was she expecting? She looked around and tried to remember the path she saw from her window. Then Adora spotted a sign displaying a fountain and followed it. And stopped when she heard Catra crying. Adora peeked around the bush and spotted Catra sitting on the bench, facing her backside, and thanks to the wind blowing in her direction, Adora could understand every single word Catra said.

“… I’m fucked. Melog, I’m so fucked. I don’t know what to do. How am I supposed to survive this? Even if I get out of here, I will have nowhere to go. And I’ll be all alone. I can’t even look Adora in the eyes anymore, and … Adora is just here because she can’t run away right now. What am I supposed to do without her? I can’t … I can’t even imagine that … I wish I could be you. Just being a cat, waiting for my food and not giving a fuck about everything. … Or just disappear, that would be great too.”

Adora pulled herself together, left her hiding spot and walked to the bench to sit down next to Catra Her friend didn’t even look up.

“Hey.”

“What are you doing here? Where is your jacket?”

“I have no idea. About the jacket. I’m here because I saw you and I felt like being alone wouldn’t be the right thing for you right now.”

“Why would you want to be with me right now?”

“Why not? We’ve always went through everything together, why would it be different this time?”

Catra scoffed. “Adora, you know what I did. This is not like ‘We climbed into Netossa’s garden and stole some apples’. I fucking killed someone. Do you want to tell me, you’re fine hanging out with a murderer?”

Adora had a feeling that this question was coming, but she didn’t really have a clear answer for this. “No. No I’m not. But let’s be honest, I won’t shed a single tear for Light Hope. And you did, what you did, and there will be consequences you will have to carry.”

“And what will you do?”

Adora shrugged. “Seattle is supposed to be a nice city. I have a degree after all. Should be useful for something.”

“Are you trying to tell me that you would wait for me? Are you stupid? If I can’t get a deal, we are talking about 30 years minimum.”

This maybe wasn’t the best time for a joke, but Adora tried it anyways. “I decided to travel across the world to find someone I didn’t really know, without a plan or money, only to chase someone into a place like 5-year-old getting promised some candy if it enters the van, which brought me nothing but scars, a near-death experience, and possibly something that will turn into PTSD later, all that because I was unwilling to listen to someone who knows me best. And now I sit on the outside, trying to comfort said someone, in slippers and sweats while it’s freezing out here. Does anything I do look smart to you?”

“No, not really. And look where this had brought us.”

“What can I do except being sorry now?”

“They always say ‘communication is key’, but we know each other for so long and still suck at it. Will that ever change?”

“True. Who knows? We will never find out if we don’t try.”

“Would you really do it? Stay, if I have to?”

“It’s not like there is anything left for me in Half-Moon. I guess, Spinnerella would have to send me some documents, but except that and the visa, there is nothing that would hold me back. But why don’t we wait for this to end, and then decide about the future?”

For the first time since Adora had sat down, Catra looked her in the eyes. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

“Come here.” Adora leaned over and pulled Catra towards her. She resisted at first, but then came closer. Adora put her head on Catra’s shoulder and could feel her tremble through the jacket. “I’m sure we will manage this somehow.”

They stayed like that for a bit, until Catra broke away from Adora.

“Say, can you still feel your toes?”

“No, not at all.”

“Want to go back inside?”

“Yes, please.”

Now that Catra had mentioned it, it really was fucking cold. Adora even needed Catra’s help to stand up, her legs had failed her, and she shivered even harder when they walked through the door into the warmth. Catra just looked at her, shook her head and mumbled something like ‘dork’ when she pressed the button to call the elevator.

It was in some way strange and messed up, and Adora probably only imagined it, but after Catra had told her that Light Hope can’t come after her, Adora felt lighter somehow. Catra nonetheless worried her, even if she told her that she better should worry about herself. It wasn’t something physical, it was mental. Catra had locked herself up in her inside, Adora could both see and feel it. While Adora’s nights could more peaceful over the days, she still woke up from Catra tossing around and mumbling in her sleep. Sometimes loudly and once even screaming, Catra got up and washed her hands for ten minutes after that. Catra has had enough from sleeping in a chair all the time, so she went to store selling camping gear and bought a sleeping bag and a mattress. They even put Melog’s litter tray in the bathroom, which finally had turned the room of the hospital into some kind of small apartment. Angella knew about the tray, but hadn’t said anything against it, Adora hoped that it was because of the mitigating circumstances.

One night, Adora got woken up by a sound of a closing door. She turned around, but only found Melog laying on Catra’s sleeping bag. Without thinking twice, Adora slipped into her new boots and jacket, and followed her. While closing the door to her room, she could get a glimpse on Catra entering the elevator. She missed it but could see on the display, that the elevator was moving up. 8 … 9 … 10 … 11 … 12. Adora didn’t know what Catra was doing up there, all the vending machines were in the 1^st floor. And since Catra for sure had no cancer and wasn’t in need of visiting an oncologist, Adora had no idea what Catra wanted up there.

When she arrived on the 12^th floor, she couldn’t see Catra, but heard a door closing down the hall. It led to the roof, which left Adora even more puzzled. Not only why Catra went there, but also why that door was unlocked. She quickly climbed up the stairs and found herself in the cold soon. Adora left the stairwell and looked over the flat roof spreading out in front of her, only a few ventilation pipes her and there. And Catra – standing on the rim of the roof.

Ice in her veins, Adora stopped herself from shouting, it may startle Catra and she could fall off. Instead, she slowly walked up to Catra.

“Hey, Adora.”

Adora blinked. Catra didn’t turn around once, she was still staring off the roof. “How … did you know it’s me?”

“For one, I recognize your step pattern. Secondly, every other person would shout to get attention, but you thought ahead, because it might startle me and I could fall off. And third, it’s 3am. The hospital is empty and the only person who might come up here, would be you, because I woke you up and you are curious where I am going in the night.”

Adora was baffled.

“And now you think, how does she know that? Well, the answer is easy. I can read minds.”

Adora couldn’t hide a chuckle.

“And now you are thinking ‘Thank God, Catra can’t actually read minds, because that would mean trouble for me’.”

Adora felt her face heating up. How did she actually do that? “What are you doing here?”

Catra’s eyes were still glued into the abyss, she only turned her head slightly. “Did you ever had the feeling, when you are driving, just … to turn the wheel and go right into the oncoming traffic?”

Adora thought about it. “Maybe once, why?”

“It’s called ‘Call of the Void’. You don’t even think about turning the wheel or jumping, and yet you get scared of doing something you didn’t even plan to do. It’s something about the connection between our conscious and unconscious mind, Spinnerella explained it to me some time ago.”

“And?” It slowly got too much for Adora. “Geez, can you please get down from there? It makes me nervous!”

“Aw.” Finally, Catra turned around and looked at Adora. “Are you worrying about me?”

“Yes!” Adora snapped. “In more way than one!”

Catra blinked, maybe out of surprise and finally stepped down. As soon as her feet touched the roof, Catra threw her head back, and sucked in air through her nose and let out a pleased groan.

“That’s why you do this? For adrenaline?”

“It clears my mind, yes. And I’m trying to savor it as long as I can.”

Adora had to say a lot of things about that, but the last statement made her reconsider. It was in fact a confirmation about something Catra was in denial about. She was scared of the future, because she didn’t know what it will bring. In fact, the next few days will decide about their next decades.

Adora blinked.

Yes.

Their. 

Chapter Text

It took the FBI 3 days to come back. Adora's wounds were healed up now, and she was ready to leave the hospital, which made Catra think about getting her stuff and leave the country. She didn’t tell anyone about it, since she had her doubt about being able to leave the country on a legal way, Catra feared that she was about to get detained the moment she stepped into an airport.

Adora did become somewhat clingy over the days, circumstances Catra usually would have enjoyed way more than she did right now, but the metaphorical sword swinging over Catra’s head made it difficult to focus on something like that. In fact, Adora made everything worse. Catra knew what she wanted to do; she knew that Adora had figured out what went through her head. Which was the reason why Adora behaved like, staying around Catra as close as possible.

When Juliet came back, she brought a surprise. She left Bow behind, saying that the charges against him had been dropped, since they actually had no proof about him being in the Crystal Castle at all and considering the fact that they had freed a possible murder victim, the district attorney decided to drop it. For Catra, it didn’t look that good. She was the one that had to follow the agents, and this time they weren’t going to play around and handcuffed her.

Welp, there went the plan to jump out of the window.

Juliet again read Catra her rights, she wasn’t sure if that was the treatment everyone got and if it was the same for everyone. Catra someone could image that those rights could not equal rights for tourists or whatever she was right now. Sitting in the back of the van, Catra inspected the cuffs out of curiosity, they seemed to be sturdier than those she had already seen.

“Don’t even think about it.” Juliet, who sat next to her, had watched her the entire time.

“About what?”

“Breaking these.”

“Psh, don’t worry. I’m allergic to 6 warning shots in my back.”

“We are the Bureau, not your average hillbilly backcountry police.”

“Oh right. Sorry. Then I get 2 shots in the back of my head, and you tell my loved ones that it was suicide? Or is that more like the CIA’s schtick?”

Juliet’s red face told Catra to better shut up, before the agent could get some stupid ideas. In fact, Catra managed to shut up until she was brought to a judge again, for the initial hearing. The only thing she said was, that she was pleading for not guilty. Catra couldn’t stop herself from making a face, when the judge set the bail to $100.000, which was apparently a normal sum for a murder charge in combination with a missing domicile in the United States. They didn’t want Catra to run off.

Now, here she was, in a cell, waiting for O’Reilly, her lawyer, to come. Catra didn’t had to wait that long until her appeared with Micah in tow. Before she opened her mouth, she remembered that Micah did not know the whole story. O’Reilly asked her about how everything was, if she was treated correctly and if she had said anything to anyone. He then assured her, that he will contact Juliet about what has been new since the last time, because there had to be a reason why she let Bow go, but not Catra.

Enlightenment came, when Catra got picked up and brought into an interrogation room. Juliet and O’Reilly were already waiting for her, Juliet again holding a folder. Catra took the seat next to O’Reilly, and waited for Juliet to start whatever she had called them in for. The first thing she presented, was a photo of a dead Serenia.

“The last time you were here, I asked you if you know this woman. Both of you said, that you knew her. Would you mind repeating, what you said back then?”

“I have no idea what I said back then. We met her once, after we visited a mass at the Crystal Castle. She followed us, because she was curious who we were and why we had the honor to meet Brother Hordak.”

Juliet wrote something down. “And after that? Did you see her again?”

“No, we didn’t.”

“Interesting. Well, as you may know, your charges of homicide have been reduced, because one of the dead people, that had been found in the Crystal Castle” She pointed at the photograph. “had killed herself.”

Ok, that was something new, but nothing that would give Catra bad dreams. She couldn’t care less about Serenia. She was one of the reasons why they had got into this mess at all. “And?”

“Well, she left a farewell letter to someone called Adora, your friend in the hospital if my memory serves me right” Juliet placed a copy of a letter in front of Catra. “and you.”

Now that caught Catra off-guard. The only thing Catra had thrown at Serenia had been insults, and she even had left before Serenia had said anything useful. She read the letter. It was in fact an apology to Adora and Catra, how Serenia had been the beginning of everything and that everything would’ve been better, if she never had been there in first place. That was a statement Catra would’ve signed off immediately. But the last lines were strange, something about ending it all and taking Light Hope with her.

And then it hit Catra, and she did her best to hide her revelation. She slid the letter to O’Reilly, so he could read it too and think about it. Serenia’s letter had brought an answer Catra was asking herself since the night at the Crystal Castle. Who had tied up Light Hope and brought the gasoline there? Apparently, it had been Serenia. Everything after that didn’t add up, but Catra saw only two ways. First, Serenia had knocked out and tied up Light Hope, and left to write the letter. In the meantime, Catra had found Light Hope and set her aflame, and when Serenia had returned to see Light Hope’s dead body, she went back to the room to end herself. The other is that Serenia wrote the letter, went to Light Hope, but couldn’t finish her, so she just went to kill herself.

One way or the other, this may be Catra’s way out of here, and O’Reilly saw it the same way.

“You are telling me, that you literally found a written claim of responsibility and we are still here talking about Ms. Driluth’s part in this? You have your answer, I can’t see the problem.”

“The problem is, that we found 4 kinds of hair on the bed in the room, where the body was found. One is presumably from the victim, one from one of the servants working there, and one of Serenia. But the 4^th kind” Catra didn’t even need to look at the picture Juliet showed her. “is from someone we don’t know yet. Same goes for fingerprints on the doorknobs. Now, we could clear you from everything, if you are willing to give your fingerprints and a hair sample.”

O’Reilly intercepted and wanted to discuss with Catra in private. Juliet waited for short moment and then left the room with a smug face. He waited until the door shut close and then turned to Catra.

“That’s your hair most likely, no?” Catra nodded. Her lawyer opened his briefcase and pulled out the hard drive with the bait. “Are you ok with using this?”

“Will they even accept it? I mean, I technically obtained it illegally.”

“One of the first thing you learn in university, is that rules are never for those, who enforce them. The Feds may act like they are saints, but they steal candy from babies all the time. They will take this. But you are right, maybe Juliet won’t go for it.” O’Reilly thought about something for a moment. “There is something I can try but this can take a few days. In the meanwhile, you will have to stay in prison. Are you fine with that?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Of course, but this one would mean that Juliet has the last word here.”

“That’s not good, huh?”

O’Reilly shook his head, and Catra eventually gave her approval. Juliet returned and when O’Reilly had told her, that Catra was refusing a confession and also not giving a hair sample, as long as Juliet wasn’t able to present a court order, Juliet just shrugged in response, and told Catra that she was just dragging out the inevitable.

***

It will take 5 days for Adora to see Catra again, but she actually had to go to the Brightmoon Prison for that. Catra’s lawyer had been quite cryptic about what was going on, and since Catra wasn’t allowed to have a phone in there, Adora had to show up in person. The prison looked like the ones in movies. A waste area, surrounded by wire-netting fence with barbed wire on top, manned towers all over the place. Glimmer mentioned that this was quite a dire place to contain someone who wasn’t even convicted yet, and Adora had to agree. But it wasn’t that much of a surprise in a country that allowed prisons to be run as private companies.

They went to the reception and said, why they were here. They were led into a room full of small, cheap tables with likely screwed-on stools around them. It looked like a school cafeteria, if it weren’t for the bars in front of the windows and the guards. Rattling made Adora look up, and she saw Catra walking towards them, orange one-piece, ruffled hair, cuffs around wrists and ankles – and when Catra stood in front of the door to the visitor’s room, Adora saw the black eye and the bruised lip.

“Hey, Adora.” As if everything was normal, Catra slumped down on the seat on the other side of the table. “How’s it hanging? You brought Sparkles I see.”

Adora quickly glanced at Glimmer. “Sparkles?” That was new. “What’s up with your eye?”

“Got assaulted during lunch. I smacked the tray in her face as a countermeasure. Not that I was sorry for the food. Do you remember what my omelets look like, but how it tastes awesome? The food here tastes like my omelets look.”

“You aren’t here for even a week and you already got into a fight? How do you do that?”

“I guess I have a certain aura around me.”

“You know that it’s rude to speak in language others in this room can’t understand?”

Catra stared at Glimmer. “Oh, poor brit. There are countries in this world that hadn’t been colonized by you, so there are still languages besides English. Anyways” Catra focused Adora again. “How are you? Still in hospital?”

Adora sighed and told her that she was living in a hostel now, but still had a weekly appointment for therapy and the check-ups. It had been hard to find a hostel that was okay with having a cat around, but slowly but surely, Adora ran out of money. Catra sighed too, when she asked Adora, if she knew about Catra’s pile of money she had hidden under the fridge in the caravan and if she found it, Adora could take whatever she needs. Adora took a mental note.

“Melog misses you, you know? And I do too.”

Catra stared at her hands for a moment. “I miss you too. Both of you, obviously.” Catra reached over the table to grab Adora’s right hand, and played with the bandages on the wrist for moment. “Listen … I …” But she then shook her head. “Never mind. Forget it.”

There was it again. It was not the first time, that Catra was about to open up, but something pulled herself back again. She never had been the type to talk about her feelings or anything, and if, it came out in a huge wave, that made it difficult to process everything and find a way through it. Not that Adora actually did mind, but in her opinion, little bits often were easier to manage. That’s why Adora usually came to Catra almost immediately when something was wrong.

“Did you bring my phone?”

“Oh, yeah.” Adora reached into her pocket and gave it to Catra.

“Thanks. Oh, by the way, you should change your passcode. I had to go through your phone, because we needed a picture of Mara, and I figured you had one, so I guessed a bit. The day we met; I feel honored. But you should change it.”

Adora felt her ears getting warm, when she looked for the options to change it.  While thinking of a new one, she watched Catra going through her phone with narrowed eyes. At one point, Catra looked up again.

“Do you have your birth certificate with you?”

Now, that was a specific question. “No, why would I?”

“Then message the doctors, if they could search for it, since it’s probably in their basement. They need to get a certified copy.”

“What do we need that for?”

A cheeky grin appeared on Catra’s face. “That, my dear Adora, is a secret. But for your happily ever after, we need it.”

That was mysterious as ever, but also it made Adora think of a new passcode. With a little smile, she switched one of the vowels with a number and locked her phone again. She slid it to Catra and dared her to try again. Catra was obviously up for it, but asked for a hint. Adora gave one, it contained two names. But this time, Catra didn’t manage to unlock it.

“Girls, I don’t want to interrupt you, but in case you forgot, we are in a prison right now, and there is a limited time for visitors.”

“She is quite annoying.”

Adora shrugged. “Bah, you don’t mean it. And I haven’t met your friends, so I can’t judge about them.”

Catra threw her head back and laughed. “Sparkles and Arrow don’t hold a candle to Scorpia and Entrapta.” The laughter soon died, as if Catra had remembered something serious and she leaned closer. “If everything works like I hope, I may be gone for a few days. I don’t know if I get the chance to call you, since it might happen on a short notice. Please, PLEASE wait here. Either I will contact Micah or Angella to get to you, ok?”

Adora nodded. “What’s going to happen?”

Catra thought about it and made a face. “I … can’t and don’t want to tell you, because it’s not certain to happen yet. It’s nothing to worry about, but it may be my way out.”

“Can we stop that? Having such secrets? We used to tell us everything, especially the big things.”

“I know.” Catra chewed on her lip. “I swear to whatever you want, if we get home, I’ll tell you my biggest secret. Deal?”

“Deal. Is it something good, at least?”

“For me, yes. For you, I hope.”

Catra turned around when the guard behind her told them, that the time was up. She stood up, winked at Adora, said some means things to Glimmer who gave her the bird in response and presented her hands to the guards. Cuffs clicked and Catra disappeared in the hall behind the bars again. Adora stayed at the table, staring at the door for a moment, until Glimmer woke her from her trance and they left the prison.

Bow was waiting in the car in front of the entrance, he didn’t want to go with them for a reason he didn’t tell them, Glimmer also was surprised about that. When they returned, he asked them about anything new, and Glimmer started to laugh.

“You should’ve seen Adora’s face when Catra came in. Hilarious. I thought she was about to faint.”

Adora sputtered something while Bow raised his eyebrows on her. “How come?”

“To be honest, Catra looks hot in orange, if it weren’t for the prison one-piece. And the tension between them two was so thick, you could cut it. Not that I understood a single word.” Glimmer turned to Adora. “You two need to figure that out, whatever it is.”

It wasn’t the first time that Glimmer had said something like that, and slowly and surely it annoyed Adora. “Then help me. Help me figuring that whole mess out given my situation. What am I supposed to do now?”

Glimmer was visibly taken back by the aggressive tone of Adora’s voice, she glanced over to Bow for a second. Adora crossed her arms. “I’m waiting. Because if you didn’t notice, Catra has to take responsibility for something, which, in its root, is my fault. The worst case would be that I will never see her again, the best is in 30 years. So please. Tell me. How am I supposed to handle this? And don’t you dare to say ‘you just have to move on’.”

Glimmer looked at her feet. “I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

“I know I’m indebted to you both for helping me to get that far, and I probably never can repay that. But now, I feel like I’m back to square one again, Catra is somewhere I can’t reach her and I can’t do anything about it.”

“To be honest” Bow waited for Adora to sit down and started the car. “I don’t think that you actually have to do anything. You know Catra better than we do, but I’m sure that she will find a way to get herself out of this. Even if she has to go full Andy Dufresne for that.”

Adora had to chuckle at this. Considering that Catra had already thought once about getting through the sewers, imagining her crawling through a smaller pipe somehow wasn’t that hard. She looked back through the rear window at the gates of the prison, while Bow drove down the road back to Brightmoon, and asked herself if she ever had to come back to this place.

***

Back in her cell, Catra laid on her bed and stared at the ceiling. Again. As if she could do anything else. The library was trash, and since her brawl in the canteen she was in solitary confinement ‘for her own security’. The woman who had assaulted her had been her cellmate. The weird part about this all was, that her cellmate was a member of the First Ones and when asked, why she did that, she said ‘you know why’. Weird, because Catra had no idea. Well, she had one, but that was impossible, since literally no one except Bow, Glimmer and Adora actually knew, that Light Hope’s compulsory demise was her doing. The FBI suspected it and had at least some proof for it, but they wouldn’t say it around, would they? She should ask O’Reilly about that…

As if on cue, her cell door opened again, and she was brought into an interrogation room with O’Reilly and Micah already waiting for her. Micah was just there to check if everything was okay, because apparently, Angella was worried about it. Catra couldn’t understand why, since she could count the times they talked to each other with one hand. Micah soon left them alone, and O’Reilly told Catra, that they were waiting for someone. After some minutes, a man in his early 60s, brown hair and full beard, in the black suit that Catra had figured is the uniform of the Bureau, entered the room. His serious face lit up when he spotted O’Reilly, and they greeted each other like old friends. They shared some stories, O’Reilly asked for someone named Teela and then he introduced the man as Duncan, the supervisor of Juliet’s unit. Catra waved at him, she wasn’t that sure what to think about all of this. Duncan sat down in front of them, and asked why O’Reilly had called him. He gave him a quick rundown about the whole situation, Duncan never interrupted him, his eyes only shot to Catra once in a while. When O’Reilly was done, Duncan stayed silent for a moment.

“What do you want?”

O’Reilly looked at Catra. “Total immunity from criminal prosecution.”

Duncan leaned back. “We both know that in the moment this case goes into the hearing, this is impossible.”

“Then drop the charges. This and let her leave the country.”

“Marcus, we know each other for too long, you know I can’t just do it like that. This is murder we are talking about, not stealing candy from a baby.”

“Now that you mention it.” If Catra ever had seen a mischievous grin, O’Reilly was wearing one as he opened his briefcase and pulled out Entrapta’s hard drive with the bait. “I’m sure that the FBI is interested in this.”

“What’s that?”

O’Reilly looked at Catra and signaled her to tell him. “In Tennessee, and probably even some states around it, there is an underground fighting club held by someone called DT. I know this, because I took part in it, even if only for a short time. But apparently not only that, they also ship drugs, weapons, even human lives. The local police know about this, but they get paid off. On that hard drive, you will find a part of the people being involved in this, even some big shots.”

“A part.”

“Yes. I have more, but you only get it, if I get something in return.”

“And that would be?”

“Total immunity from criminal prosecution, 2 tickets to Munich, Germany with a free date to choose, and …” She explained what else she had in mind. Duncan then took the hard drive to let someone look through this, who actually know what they have to do with it. Catra looked at O’Reilly.

“Was that ok?”

“The $50.000 were a bit over the top, but let’s wait for them, maybe they feel generous. Do you want anything to eat?”

Since Catra wasn’t allowed to leave the room without a companion in uniform, she told him what she was up for and he left to get them something. Even though it were only a few hotdogs from the canteen, it was way better than the shit that got served in the other side of this building.

It took Duncan nearly two hours to return to them, Catra had borrowed some paper and a pencil to doodle around. She wasn’t pleased with the results; her skills had gotten rusty over the last 2 months. Duncan returned with Juliet in tow, who made a face like a seagull had just stolen a sandwich straight out of her hands. Duncan sat down, while Juliet stayed behind him standing with crossed arms.

“We are interested. Bring us the full thing and we will drop the charges, get you the tickets, but not $50000. Considering the sums that will be going to be seized through all of this, $10000 will have to suffice.”

Catra’s heart fluttered, but she turned her head, when she heard O’Reilly snort. “Duncan, really? She is supposed to give you everything without any guarantee that you hold your end of the deal? And $10.000? The estimated sum in this small thing here already is a middle two-digit million sum. I mean, come on.”

“Take it or leave it. This is already a hell of an offer.”

“How about…” Catra just had an idea. “How about you grant me the immunity, I bring you DT, and then I get the rest?”

“You know, where he is?”

“What date is today?”

“December 8th”

“Then I know where they will be in 5 days.” Now, she had everyone’s attention. “I’ll just need to make a call.”

The promised 5 days later, Catra sat in a plane on the way to Nashville. She was quite giddy, even though it just took 3 hours. Adora wasn’t there, which lowered the mood a bit and the fact that she sat there in cuffs damped the mood even more. The plan was easy. Get to the Crimson Waste, confirm DT was there, and notify the FBI. So far so good. The plan just had one major flaw. She didn’t actually get in touch with DT, just with someone from the reception desk, but that was a detail she didn’t tell Juliet, who sat next to her right now. Catra had feared that they would cancel the whole thing, and that would not work in Catra’s favor. She hoped that DT would get hooked from the message she left for them.

They got welcomed by agents of the local branch in Nashville, and were brought to the gathering point 5 miles away from the Crimson Waste. The drive was even worse than the flight, Catra sat in the back, squeezed in between Juliet and an agent with the double of Catra’s mass, and that for 3 hours. It was early afternoon, when they arrived at the gathering point, and Catra was baffled about the sight in front of her. Around 15 vans in black with a white SWAT print made her once again wonder in what kind of mess she got into. If there was a way to meet herself from 3 months ago to tell her about this, she would probably laugh about herself.

This was the point where it actually became hard to keep her cool posture, the amount of heavily armed people around her, that probably could invade and conquer Half-Moon with ease if they wanted to, was unsettling. And that Juliet was the one in command, wasn’t that great either.

Juliet gave the troops a rundown about the plan and the situation, while one of the tech experts wired Catra with a microphone, but not an earpiece. When asking about it, she was told that the agent accompanying her would wear one, and will give orders to her. That was another flaw in the plan, as if DT would stay if someone in a black suit was whispering something into her ear. When Catra wanted to talk about that with Juliet, she just cut her off, reminding her that Juliet was the professional here, and not Catra.

Catra hadn’t liked Juliet since the moment they met. Ok, getting arrested may be a factor here, but it didn’t get better later. And when it became clear, that Catra actually had a chance to walk free, Juliet was actually raging about it.

Nonetheless, Duncan had ordered Juliet to take command over this operation, but slowly and surely, Catra had her doubts about the chances of success here. But since Catra and the not-yet-named agent were the vanguard, and the rest only following if DT was there, there may be some room for improvisation. They had decided to wait for the evening, since the ‘event’ a.k.a. the fights won’t start before 8, and when everything was running, if they filter through the spectators, they will probably find one or the other person from the list on the hard drive.

When it was time, Catra tried to prepare herself mentally, but that was easier said than done. She was a nervous wreck at that point. After one last tech check, she climbed into the car, which brought her to the Crimson Waste. The closer she got to the Crimson Waste, the more she realized that she was nothing but living bait, and DT the fish they were hoping for. Catra thought about how stupid this whole thing was, but even if she didn’t get to see DT, she would at least get her backpack back, that she left there an eternity ago. It for sure felt like one, even if it only was one month.

They passed the Crimson Waste one time; the parking lot had no more room for cars. The agent parked next to the road a few meters further down. Catra left the car, looked around, and found the dumpster where she found Melog. A few meters down, the spot where she saw Darla the first time. It was strange to think about, since this place was the beginning of everything bad that happened in the last weeks, but it also had some good sides. For a short moment, Catra weighted the good things against the bad thing. Scorpia, Melog, Entrapta versus everything that happened to Adora.

Heart against feather.

Catra didn’t need Anubis to find out what was heavier. She chuckled when she thought about that metaphor. Anubis, god of death. Brother of Bastet, defender of the sun god.

Time to avenge my sun.

She had a small argument with the agent in the car, who in the end saw, that it made no sense for him to follow her, it would blow their cover. Judging from his facial expression, and what he said, he had a discussion with Juliet, and was not pleased with it. It was weird, when she only had one side of the conversation. In the end he let Catra go, alone.

She crossed the parking place, stopped in front of the door to take one last deep breath, and entered the main building.

She was welcomed by an empty bar contrasting the full parking lot, just like last time, since everyone was in a basement that doesn’t exist. And same as the last time, the gorilla-like guard in front of the wardrobe doors hiding the stairs. How could someone think that this was inconspicuous? DT must pay an immense amount of money to the police, for them to overlook that.

Someone coughed and made Catra look at the reception desk. It was Michelle, the old woman that was acting as Catra’s personal aid during the last two days of Catra’s stay.

“Michelle! How are you?”

“Catra? You actually came?”

“Why so surprised?”

She shrugged. “Just didn’t think you would actually come. I mean, it’s just clothes. You could’ve bought new ones.”

Catra laughed, she tried to not make it sound too fake. “True. But there are a few mementos in there, I would like to have them back. Is DT here?”

Michelle chuckled. “Of course, they are. As if they could resist the drama the return of the warrior cat would stir. They are in the back.”

“Of course, they are here in the basement – I mean back.” Catra hoped that this was clear enough for Juliet to understand that.

Catra made her way in the back to the doors, the guard stepped to the side and opened the doors for her. She only had been one time down there, but it felt like it had been yesterday. Of course, the cave hadn’t changed it all. The pit was still in the middle, both the bar and the betting booth on the other side from the entrance.

Nearly every one of the spectators was gathered around the pit, cheering and booing at whatever was happening down the pit. Catra made her way through the audience to the rim of the ring and looked down. The ongoing fight was maybe the opener of the evening, the fighters both were men with smaller frame, both little to no experience in fighting. It was pathetic. Catra let her gaze wander over the audience, looking for DT. If Juliet gave the ‘Go’ the moment Catra had said that DT was there, she hadn’t much time left.

She looked twice and thrice over the crowd, but didn’t spot them. Slowly but surely, Catra got nervous. She had no eyes for the pit, when the crowd went wild, signaling the end of the fight. One of the fighters climbed up the ladder, while two other men jumped down to get the downed loser out of the pit.

“Ladies, Gentlemen and everyone sexy in-between!”

There they were. Probably standing on a small rostrum, in a spotlight, DT was standing above the crowd, their long platinum hair glowing in the light. After taunting the loser of the fight, they announced the next one in 15 minutes. Catra had no time to listen to them, she left the crowd and walked a big circle around the spectators to get to DT. Whispering some confirmations into the mic, that she had found DT, Catra tried to appear out of nowhere behind them and yell something dumb like ‘Surprise’, but DT seemed to smell her.

“Kitten!” They turned around, revealing a sharp smile. “Welcome back.” They raised their arms and turned to the crowd. “Would you look here? The greatest fighter is back! Bastet, the defeater of Tung Lashor is back.”

The crowd started to cheer again, DT clearly enjoying the whole act.

“Are you that happy to see me?”

“Actually…” DT’s face turned serious. “I’m not.”

Uh oh

“Your appearance is … strange. If I remember that right, you said that if you would return, I would have a problem.”

Did I? Curse my big mouth.

“Now, Kitten. Catra. Bastet. What can I do for you?”

“Uh, actually, I’m just here because I wanted to pick up my stuff.”

“Oh, are you? And you called here to make a big announcement that ‘Bastet makes her last return before leaving the States’, only to pick up your trash. That’s fishy, even for small minded being like you.”

Catra felt her tension fade the moment she heard the insult. Small minded, my ass.

“Ah, that’s the face I wanted to see. The face of imagined superiority. I definitely can recall telling you, that I’m good at reading people.”

Something clicked next to her, Catra turned her head to see Michelle pointing a gun at her.

Fuck.

Catra did her best to look calm, but she was scared shitless.

“Now that’s the face I wanted see. It’s beautiful. Almost as beautiful as applause. Almost.” DT turned to Michelle. “Search her.”

Michelle handed the gun to the guy next to her, Catra recognized him as the guy who was guarding the door, and began to frisk Catra for whatever, probably weapons. The only thing she found was the transmitter with the mic connected to it. She handed it DT, who threw it on the floor and stomped on it, destroying it. For the first time, Catra saw something besides amusement on DT’s face, and it clearly something dangerous. Catra had no watch to look at, but how long could the fucking FBI need to cross 5 miles?

“Now Kitten, I think we have a few things to talk about…”

“Oh, I don’t really think we do.” Catra felt a bead of sweat running down her neck, she quickly needed to think of something to buy some time.

“How about your last words?”

FUCK.

“Uh, how about a game? 2 truths, 1 lie? I tell you two truth and one lie, and you have to figure out what’s the lie.”

“You can’t lie to me, are you too dumb to even realize that?”

“First, I killed a cult leader, burnt down the church and got away with it.”

That shut DT up. Thank God, that DT just had destroyed the mic.

“Second, you keeping me separated from the woman I love made me actually realize my feelings for her and how far I would go for her.”

DT narrowed their eyes.

“Third.” Catra made a dramatic pause to take a deep breath. “I sold your pathetic little copy of the Fight Club to the Feds.”

The man pointing the gun at Catra expressed his concerns to DT, that he didn’t like the game, when Catra saw a few small objects flying through the air, coming from the only entrance of this cave. Before she could thank any higher being for that, it came to her mind, that she had no idea what these objects were, and that they were in a closed and covered space.

Before anyone could say anything, Catra threw herself on the ground, covered her ears and opened her mouth.

And Hell broke loose.

The small thrown objects had been both flashbangs and smoke grenades, Catra could hear, feel, and see it even though she held her ears and eyes shut all the time. She could hear shots close to her, and suddenly felt intense pain in her left calf. Out of reflex, she reached for the spot where the pain came from, but uncovered her ears in the process. Another detonation close to her eventually fucked up her hearing.

Disoriented and unable to move, Catra had no choice but to stay in the spot where she was. Trying to get a picture from the situation became impossible the moment the white smoke reached her, irritating her lungs and forcing her to cough, making everything worse in the process. At one point, somebody grabbed Catra and forced her on her back, pressing a gasmask on her face. Catra was lifted up and carried outside, she was on the verge of losing consciousness more than once on the short way out. She could remember Juliet staring down on her, and when she got lifted into an ambulance, the only thing Catra was thinking about was Adora – and that she probably should call an Uber, since the ambulance was going to financially ruin her.

When Catra woke up the next time, she was laying in a bed. But not back in prison, in a hospital bed instead. She realized that her left leg was in bandages, and resting in a sling hanging from the pole above her bed. As good as everything looked, this wasn’t Brightmoon, the inventory didn’t fit. While trying to remember what happened, her senses came back, and with the memory that something was wrong with her ears. A beep made Catra realize, that only the right ear was fucked, the left appeared to be fine for now.

Just lying there, unable to do anything, brought back memories of her last stay in hospital, unpleasant ones. But the reasons for being here were different, which was at least a small improvement, but she still hoped that someone would come in and explain the situation to her.

A whole nap later, she caught a nurse checking the IV bags next to the bed, who then brought a doctor to her. The doctor was standing on her left side the whole time, telling her about her damaged eardrum, and the bullet wound in her leg.

A fucking bullet wound.

Of course, Catra got shot while being in the USA. Why not.

The doctor did his best to keep Catra calm and told her, that in the best case her ear would be back in a week, and since the wound in her calf wasn’t a grave, it will heal soon, but Catra will need crutches for uncertain amount of time. She groaned at the mention of the crutches, but it’s not that Catra could just try to live without them.

It will take two days for Catra to make any actual progress in this whole mess. Finally, Duncan had graced Catra with his presence, Juliet in his tow. It surprised her, since she was still in Nashville, and Brightmoon wasn’t around the corner, but the FBI had apparently no problem spending money for sending their higher-ups across the country for a hospital visit.

He broadly explained the success of the whole operation, but Catra cut him off since she didn’t give a fuck about all of this. She had held her end of the bargain and wanted to know, if the FBI would hold theirs. As a response, he reached into his jacket to pull out three envelopes and Catra saw Juliet’s face turn sour again.

The thickest of them actually contained $10.000, it will never stop surprising her how thin a stack of $100-bills could be for that kind of sum. The second envelope contained two blank plane tickets to Munich, Germany, in First Class. Catra was actually impressed that the Bureau paid for that, since technically it wasn’t what they agreed on. Her hands were shaking a bit, when she opened the last envelope. She pulled out the letter and read it once, twice, thrice. It wasn’t a pardon, since Catra hasn’t been convicted. But it could be read like one. All charges were dropped, but there was a condition hidden in the bottom part of the letter. A life-long refusal of entry and the demand to leave the USA during the next 14 days.

The refusal of entry left Catra sad for a bit, it essentially meant that she never would see Scorpia and Entrapta again. Even if she knew them only for a short time, and it in fact weren’t good times, Catra knew she was going to miss them. And there went the dream to travel the States with Adora. Not that it would’ve happened any time soon, but still ….

“How about a ‘Thank You’?”

Juliet’s voice interrupted Catra’s train of thoughts and she looked at the agent. “Thank you, for not killing me.”

Juliet’s voice got cold as ice. “You will never be able to prove who shot that bullet.”

“True, and honestly, I don’t really care about it. I live, and made it literally out of everything with a minimum of sacrifices.” Catra looked at Duncan. “To you, thanks for remembering what a deal is.”

Duncan nodded, while Juliet was visibly fuming. The female agent had something against Catra, that was clear for now, but what? Catra being snarky had already bring up people against her, but someone from the Feds should being able being to stand above this. She mentally shrugged, she was done, this was over and soon she could leave everything behind her and focus on getting her old life back. Thinking of leaving everything behind…

“What’s going to happen to DT? I hope you managed to catch them.”

Juliet rolled her eyes. “Of course, we did. They will get behind bars for a long time, since they won’t have something to talk their way out, unlike someone else.”

Catra heard that jab, and realized what Juliet’s problem with her was. “You are mad, that I get away.”

“What you did, was nothing but vigilantism. Punishing people for what they have done is our job, not yours. And you don’t even have to bear the consequences for it.”

“And here you are, having the power to decide whether I live or die. You probably would’ve left me behind in that cave, but someone in your team was a better person. If that isn’t vigilantism hiding itself behind your badge, then I don’t know. If you would be able to train the people you take under oath correctly, vigilantism wouldn’t be a problem.”

It’s not like Catra was proud of what she had done, but they had figured out days ago, that if none of this would’ve happened, the people named in Entrapta’s video would’ve just declared it a fake, and there would have been no consequences at all. She stopped herself from saying that out loud, it would not been helpful right now. Duncan and Juliet soon left Catra, Juliet without saying a word, Duncan said goodbye at least. He also left his business card, in case there was something wrong on leaving the country.

When the agents finally left Catra alone again, she fell back to staring at the ceiling, and her mind drifted to Adora. What was she doing right now? Then it came to Catra, that Adora probably didn’t even know where she was, and so, Catra slightly began to panic. Strong enough to alert the nurse watching the heart monitors, and when she came to look for Catra, she made the nurse call Brightmoon Hospital and notify Angella, where she was.

Not even 2 hours later, the phone on the nightstand rang, a very hysteric Adora on the other end of the line. Maybe it was the morphine in Catra’s system, because she was very chill about the whole situation, while Adora sounded like she was going to have a heart attack. Noises came from the speaker, someone probably was wrangling the phone out of Adora’s grip, and a few moments later, Catra heard Glimmer talking.

“So, you are still alive?”

“You make it really hard for me to like you.”

“Eh, I do what I can. When do you come back?”

“Tell Adora not to worry, I will be back in 4 days. I just need the address of the place you are staying.”

Glimmer gave it to her, and after a few minutes, much to Catra’s amusement, gave the phone back Adora, who had calmed down again. She promised Catra to call every day from day, and after making sure more than once, that everything was fine, Adora remembered that Spinnerella had send her the birth certificate. Catra then told Adora to go to the next state health department and ask for a copy of Mara’s death certificate, she would need the birth certificate as proof for their relationship. Adora promised that she will do that, even though Catra refused to tell her.

When they had ended the call, Catra felt a bit smug about everything coming together in one or the other way, just like she had planned it.

4 days later, just as promised, Catra rang the doorbell to Adora’s room in the hotel. After she had left the hospital, she took a taxi to the airport and got the next flight to Brightmoon, only to take another taxi to the hotel.

Adora opened the door, squeaked when she saw Catra, and threw herself around Catra’s next, sniffling again. Catra had to remind Adora about her leg, which was put under quite some pressure with Adora’s additional weight. The blonde immediately pulled back, being sorry about everything, put one arm on Catra’s back, the other into the back of Catra’s knees and lifted her up, as if Catra would weight nothing, to carry her bridal-style to the couch in the room. Catra was holding on dear life, but also quite enjoyed being carried.

Glimmer and Bow stared at Adora, when she carefully placed Catra on the couch. “Now that … was something.”

Adora gave them a confused look, while Catra saw Melog trotting towards her. It’s been 10 days since she had seen her cat, and judging from all the cuddling they gave her, they missed them too.

“Is it over?”

Catra looked up into Adora’s blue eyes and reached into her jacket to pull out the written proof, that she was free to go. “Yes, Adora. It’s over.”

Something wet hit Catra’s face, a tear falling from Adora’s face on Catra’s. “I want to go home.”

With the biggest shit-eating grin she had ever shown, Catra pull out the second envelope containing the plane tickets. “Whenever you are ready, princess.”

Chapter Text

Adora broke the hug with Glimmer and Bow the last time. “I may have said this too often now, but thank you for everything.”

Glimmer rolled her eyes. “Yes, you did. We already talked about that. Meeting you was also a pleasure for us. Not so sure about meeting Catra, that’s debatable, but I’m not the one who spends my life with her.”

Adora looked at Catra, who sat a few meters away, her injured leg resting on the seat next to her, talking into her phone. She quickly had said goodbye to Bow and Glimmer, and sat down to call Entrapta and Scorpia. Adora was a bit bummed out that she never got to meet these two. Not only their abilities, but also their personalities had to be somethings special, if Catra, who rarely cared about people at all, was going to miss them.

“You know…” Adora looked at Glimmer again. “I still have to apologize to you. About how I lashed out when you said I have to figure out what to do with Catra. I know that you didn’t mean it in a bad way.”

“Ah, that’s fine. It’s not like it was a fitting moment for that. But promise me, that you actually at least settle things between you. Just sitting on things that you want to say often doesn’t lead to a good ending.”

Adora nodded. “I’ll give my best. Do you want to stay in contact?”

“Of course, we do.” Bow made it sound as if there never had been a doubt about it. “The Best Friends Squad doesn’t get stopped by distance or a stupid ocean.”

Adora raised her eyebrows. “Best Friends Squad? Seriously?”

Glimmer chimed in. “I wanted to call it the Glimmer group.”

“We for sure will not use that.” Glimmer’s sense for aesthetics was even worse than Bow’s. “Are we that though? Are we best friends?”

“Don’t you want us to be?” Glimmer sounded deeply concerned.

“It would be nice to have more friends.” Adora hurried to clarify. “But we don’t know us since a long time…”

“Honestly, I don’t think that this is a criterion. It’s true, we know each other for, like, 4 weeks now, but we experienced a few things together, more than others will ever in their live. And we don’t hate each other, that’s a big plus too.”

The three of them shared the laughter, and when they calmed down again, Adora said that she would love to be a part of this, and, without asking her, Catra would be too. Glimmer didn’t that buy that fully, but didn’t say anything.

The time for their parting came, when someone from the airport staff brought the wheelchair they had ordered for Catra. Even though the brat in disguise of Adora’s childhood friend said, that she could walk the distance, both of them knew that carrying 3 backpacks and Melog’s cage, while Catra was bound to crutches, was impossible.

When Catra ended her call and placed herself in the wheelchair, pulling Melog on her lap, Adora hugged Glimmer and Bow the last time, telling them to send Micah and Angella their regards. She took one backpack herself, hanged the others on the wheelchair, and finally pushed Catra towards the security check. It was a bit of a hassle because of Melog throwing a tantrum when they were placed on the conveyer belt, but except that everything went fine.

They still had a little bit of time, before the boarding started, they decided to get something to eat and then move to the big window, enjoying the view of the maneuvering area and the runway. Catra then started a monologue about how mankind had managed to conquer the skies, even though evolution hadn’t given it the abilities to do so, but the airlines did their best to make the experience as uncomfortable as possible.

Adora just listened to her, this was going to be her first flight, so she had no experience in that field. Not that Catra had that much more, with flying to Nashville and back during the last days. Thinking of Nashville, it made Adora ask Catra something that had bothered her for a bit

“Why did you want to get your clothes back? It’s not like you don’t have the money for new ones now.”

Catra chewed slower while about an answer, and before taking another bite of her sandwich, she said, that there are some things in there she didn’t want to give away. And that it wasn’t an actual risk, since she was at the Crimson Waste anyways, so why not get her stuff back. Impeccable logic, as always.

Their flight was called, and Adora mushed the rest of her sandwich to a ball and shoved it into her mouth. She noticed Catra’s horrified face, and felt her own blush. It got worse when the lady at the gate checked their tickets and wished them a good flight, Adora only could bring out a ‘mhpf’ because she didn’t manage to get her mouth empty until it was their turn. Catra just made a snarky comment about Adora being a glutton, the lady laughed, and Adora was even more embarrassed. It wasnt even possible to tell Catra that she was about to push her down a hill. She did her best to ignore Catra’s shit-eating grin, when she had to get out of the wheel-chair to get into the plane.

The plane wasn’t sold out, apparently nobody wanted to go to Germany, but the upside of this was that they had a free middle seat, with Adora looking out of the window, Melog in the middle and Catra at the aisle, to stretch out her leg.

While Adora was all hyped up about finally taking off, Catra already had put her sleeping mask on and was ready to pass out. She didn’t move for quite a while, but Adora didn’t buy it. The rising pressure in the airs and that loopy feeling in her stomach while leaving the ground made her doubt that Catra was sleeping already.

According to the tv in the seat in front of her, they had 14 hours to go and since it was noon in Brightmoon and they were moving towards the sun, they will arrive at noon in Munich, a day later. After a few hours, Adora could see the Atlantic Ocean spreading out beneath them, according to the map on the screen, that grey dot over there was New York City.

Adora felt a small sting thinking about being so close to all of this, and not having the strength to see it. Not physically. Mentally. And she knew that Catra felt the same, even if it came from a different reason. They recently had talked about that, and agreed that they needed to get away from the States. And heal up a bit.

Glimmer and Bow had announced that they will return to Europe after finishing their degrees, even though Glimmer had with Angella and Micah someone who probably easily could get her a job, but she said, that she was free to go and to do what she wanted, and for now, staying in the United States wasn’t one of these things. Adora was glad about it, since it gave her a chance to see them again, if only per video for the coming months, maybe in person again in a year.

She also knew, that Catra wasn’t that lucky, she couldn’t go to the USA anymore to visit her friends, and what she had told Adora about them, them leaving the States was highly unlikely.

Adora imagined to make out small dots on the shimmering water, thinking about ships travelling back and forth between the continents. It made her think about Mermista and Seahawk, who should be on their way back to Greece right now. What they were about to do now? Did Mermista stop being so playfully neglecting of Seahawk? Did the captain have new stories to tell? Adora remembered that Mermista gave them her number, maybe she should call her to chat about a few things, maybe if they found a new chef, and if they were better than Adora and Catra.

Just on cue, the stewards brought food, which made Catra wake up from her slumber. Even though she earlier had griped over the low quality of airline food, she ate it without a word, but ruffled her nose when she saw, that the dessert was only a small bag of crackers.

They took turns in feeding Melog, who had been quiet the whole time. At first, Adora had been worried, that flying was too stressful for them, but apparently, they just weren’t in the mood for being too active right now. Neither was Catra, who fell right back to sleep after the steward had come to collect the trash.

After spending some time playing some round of Connect Four on the screen against someone else on the plane, Adora had noticed the sky going dark and decided to take a nap too.

Catra woke her up when breakfast got served, the sun was up again, as far as you can say that, and the map showed, that they were above Spain right now. About 3 hours until they had European soil under their feet. Finally.

Their stop in Munich wasn’t a long one, they headed straight to the gate as fast as possible. Which wasn’t that fast, since the service staff bringing the wheelchair for Catra was an elderly man, who insisted on pushing Catra. He even wanted to carry the backpacks, but Catra managed to convince him, that Adora was a big girl and able to carry them herself. Catra held an apparently pleasant conversation with the man, Adora only being able to fish out a word or two, and so she followed them in silence.

The flight to Half-Moon itself didn’t even take an hour, but Adora took the time to drink in the view of the Alps from the window. Seeing the mountains, mountains she knew, made her realize how big her homesickness actually got. Catra had something similar in mind, when she leaned over to look out of the window too.

Adora received the finisher, when they got to the passport control. The officer behind the desk took the passport, compared picture and real-life Adora, flicked to a random page and pressed a stamp in it. “Welcome home.”

Adora stared at the hand of the officer, who was holding the passport for Adora to take. She blinked a few times before finally taking it.

“Yeah, I’m home.”

While Catra was waiting for the baggage to arrive, Adora grabbed one of the trolleys.

“Do you think they are already here?”

Catra snorted. “Of course, they are. Spinnerella probably would be here 2 hours earlier.”

Adora laughed. “True, and Netossa would do anything to be fashionable late.”

Catra laughed too, but it soon died. “Listen, when I wrote them to pick us up, I didn’t tell them anything about what we did. Like, nothing. They don’t even know about my leg. Did you say anything?”

Adora shook her head. “No. What are we supposed to do?”

“I honestly doubt that they will push us to tell anything. But since we haven’t sorted things out ourselves, we should take it slow. We just should tell them about Mara, that will come out soon anyways.”

“Is that why I had to order a death certificate?”

“Yes and no, but that was cheap trying to get something out of me about it.”

“It was worth the try.

“Just trust me. Did I ever disappoint you?”

“No. You never did.”

“There you go. Now let’s get our stuff and get out of here.”

The conveyer belt had started to move, and Adora quickly had found all of their stuff. Catra just had to manage a small thing with costumes, regarding the insane amount of cash in her back, and then, they finally left for the exit.

As expected, they got welcomed by Netossa and Spinnerella cheering, which quickly died down, when they saw the crutches Catra needed to walk. Adora was glad that she chose to wear a turtleneck this day, since it fully covered the scars on her arms and chest. Catra quickly managed to divert Spinnerella and Netossa from the crutches, when she introduced Melog to them. The two doctors broke into coos and awes, when Catra pulled out the slightly grumpy cat from the box, but Melog didn’t hiss at anyone, which Adora took as a good sign.

“Catra’s message came unexpected, we haven’t heard of any of you in such a long time. But since you it’s only you to, I guess Mara couldn’t come with you.”

Adora saw the look Catra was shooting at her, and she looked at her feet. “Let’s go home first, this isn’t the place to talk about that.”

Both Netossa and Spinnerella looked surprised, but didn’t say anything. They took a part of their baggage, and helped them getting to the car. Spinnerella sat in the back with Adora, while Catra rode shotgun, having her leg as excuse. Adora felt Spinnerella’s gaze lingering on her more than once, but she didn’t say anything during the 30-minutes ride. None of them did, until Netossa broke the silence with a question Adora actually hadn’t thought about.

“Where are you going to stay? Do you have found a new place?”

Before Adora could stammer out an answer, Catra already had one. “We are staying at the Hotel Cyra close to the central station, until the things are sorted out.”

“There are things to sort out?”

“Yeah, should be done until Christmas.”

It probably had to do with the thing Catra wouldn’t discuss with Adora, and so she didn’t say anything.

“We would love to let you stay, but we simply don’t have the room for it, since your boxes are still in our basement. Oh, by the way, what did you need the birth certificate for?”

Adora saw Catra turning her head for a bit, as she was trying to find an answer that wouldn’t bring up any more questions. “I … needed it to proof my relationship with Mara. We will explain everything later.” Catra nodded slightly and turned her head again to look on the road again.

Netossa was obviously not pleased with the answer, but again, she didn’t push for more. They soon had entered the city of Half-Moon, and Adora was struck. She didn’t know with what, it wasn’t nostalgia, but something similar to this.

“I missed this. I’m glad to be back home.”

Adora hummed in agreement with Catra, but Netossa laughed. “Has your visit been that bad, or were you just homesick?” The absence of an answer confused her, but neither Adora nor Catra did know what to say here.

They finally pulled into the street where Adora did grow up, and where Catra had spent a big part of her childhood. They didn’t drive far enough to pass Razz’ old house and Adora was glad about that. That wasn’t a view she could need right now. Netossa parked right in front of their small house and left the car to help Catra getting out of it. They left their baggage in the car, since, according to Catra, they will stay in a hotel for a while and she just hoped that Netossa or Spinnerella will bring them there later.

In the house, Catra sat down on the couch in living room, and opened the cage to get Melog out of there. The cat immediately rolled across Catra’s lap to stretch their legs, Catra paused to inspect the prothesis, but everything seemed to be alright. When Netossa and Spinnerella both were in the kitchen, Catra waved Adora to come closer.

“I will say nothing. Everything is up to you to tell. I’m sure that the things with the Preĝejo also appeared here in the news, so a few things won’t be new to them. But please, don’t tell them anything about me. This is nothing anyone here should know.”

Adora didn’t really need to think about that, she squeezed Catra’s hand to show that she had understood. They were interrupted by the doctors coming back with some sandwiches and a pot of tea. Netossa placed the plate on the table, and sat down opposite to them.

“Now, tell us. What was the best thing about the trip? Did you see anything cool, or anyone famous?”

Netossa couldn’t know what actually happened, Adora knew that, but Spinnerella didn’t share that optimism about the supposed sight-seeing tour.

“What happened?” It was the first time since the airport, that Spinnerella had said something. “You look tired, both of you. And I’m not talking about sleep-deprived. Or maybe a bit. But that isn’t the main reason.”

Adora checked a last time with Catra before she answered.

“What were the biggest news coming from the US in the recent times?”

Netossa thought for a moment. “Except for sports, uhh… Oh right! That thing about that murder spree in the Preĝejo. Spinny, what was that about?”

“Something about a human sacrifice. Really messed up things. I haven’t seen any pictures, but they wrote something about a heart carved into someone.”

“Oh right, that was fucked up. Did you see anything about that?”

Adora needed 2 tries to get out a coherent sentence. “N-No, we didn’t. But we found out, that … that Mara died a long time ago.”

“Oh Adora, I’m so, so sorry to hear that. How did you find out?”

“We … we met someone in Alwyn, and found out that the letters were fake all along. She actually died 18 years ago.”

“Oh girl, that’s messed up. Why would anyone fake that?”

Adora looked at Catra, hoping that she had answer for that. “No idea, sorry.”

She noticed Spinnerella looking at her and realized it.

She knows it, somehow, she has figured it out.

“Adora!”

Catra called for her.

“Are you okay?”

She did her best to fight down the panic rising in her chest. “Yes, yes, sure. Just… just a bit tired.”

“I think, that’s our cue. Thanks for picking us up from the airport, but I guess jetlag is kicking harder than we expected. We should go get our beds.”

Netossa stood up to wrap the leftovers for them to take them with them, and then reached for the car keys, but Spinnerella stopped her and said, that she will drive them to the hotel. Netossa was protesting at first, but Spinnerella calmy addressed her with her full name (Dr. Vivian Netossa), which was a sign that it would be better for domestic peace, if she would just let Spinnerella go.

They climbed into the car without saying a word, the drive itself was quiet too. They reached the hotel without any problems, and a bellboy came out to help them with their baggage. Catra and Adora wanted to say goodbye to Spinnerella, but the therapist just looked at them. Adora wanted to say something in defense for her behavior from earlier, but Spinnerella just raised her hand to stop her in her tracks.

“Netossa may not have got it, but I can add 2 and 2. If that’s a story you don’t want to share, that’s fine, I won’t ask. But we know each other since a very long time now, and I can see that there is something, that deeply disturbs both of you. If you want my advice, talk to a third party about it, someone new who doesn’t know hasn’t seen what you have seen. I can get you the numbers from colleagues specializing on traumatic events, if you want.”

Both of them nodded, saying that they were thinking about it and turned around to follow the bellboy to the reception desk. Catra got them checked-in while Adora took a look around, but Hotel Cyra was nothing special. A hotel next to a train station, used by these staying for just one night, because they were here for business, only to leave the next day.

The room they got had spartan interiors, but at least two beds and a bathroom. No meals included, so they had to cook for themselves. For today there was no need, since they still had the leftovers from Netossa and Spinnerella, but tomorrow it will fall to Adora to buy stuff, since Catra couldn’t be an actual help.

The following days were horrible. They were stuck in their room, only Melog bringing some kind of entertainment since the Wi-Fi sucked and TV was trash nowadays. It dragged down their mood, until one day Adora’s phone chimed, announcing a new e-mail. It came from the Washington State Health Department and contained Mara’s death certificate. Catra’s eyes went wide when she heard that, and as if life itself had decided to give Catra a second chance, she became a ball of energy when she dug out her phone to call someone, someone Adora hadn’t expected in the last.

“Hey Loki, how’s my favorite thief slash lawyer doing? Listen, we just got it. Yep. We are staying at Hotel Cyra right now. 305. Nice. See you later.”

Catra threw her phone on the bed and whirled as fast as possible around to Adora, announcing that they were expecting a visitor. Not even an hour later, someone knocked on the door. Adora opened, and Razz’ old friend was standing there, wearing his always mischievous grin. He brought a form with him, but Catra tried to step in and said that Adora just should sign it, without reading what it said. Adora was quite opposed to it, signing something a lawyer hands you without reading it was on a level of stupidity that was even out of Adora’s reach. But Catra’s pleading did its work, and Adora signed it without reading.

Loki promised to be as fast as possible with whatever he and Catra were planning, which made Catra ask, if Adora ever had to go there in person. ‘There’ probably implied a court, which Loki shortly thought about, and said no. Catra looked relieved, but her good mood was back shortly after. Adora tried to out the puzzle together, but some pieces were still missing. Mara’s death certificate and Loki played an important part in it, but the only one having all the pieces was Catra, and being the brat she was, she didn’t spill a thing.

It will take Loki another 5 days to call Catra – Catra, not Adora – which brought Catra visibly to a new high and things got weird when Loki appeared again, a little box in his hand. Before Adora could reach for it, Catra snatched it out of his hand. Adora already wasn’t used to Catra’s speed anymore. She didn’t need her crutches anymore and only had a light bandage around the spot where the bullet had hit her, but Adora could see Catra making a face sometimes when moving too fast. She watched Catra and Loki having a short dispute about driving them somewhere, but when Catra promised him two crates of beer and a box of wine, he announced that their chariot was ready. Catra grabbed her jacket and threw Adora’s at her, promised Melog to be back soon, and grabbed Adora by her hand to drag her out of their room.

Adora managed to shot a short look at Loki, who had nothing but amusement on his face, so Adora figured that whatever Catra was planning, it was nothing dangerous. They went into the lobby and Catra dragged them to the parking lot, where Loki had parked his car. They entered an older BMW, and when Loki got behind the wheel to start the car, Catra took off her scarf and asked Adora, if she was okay with a blindfold.

Adora actually wasn’t, but she said ‘Yes’ nonetheless, not wanting to destroy whatever Catra was having, so Catra put her scarf around Adora’s head to blind her. It was an uncomfortable feeling, not the scarf, but the darkness, while everything else being light around her.

She tried to listen to her surroundings to figure out where they were going, but nothing gave anything away. At one point, Adora heard Catra humming to the tune coming from the radio, she even joined to sing the lyrics. Adora didn’t know the song, but it filled her with joy just hearing Catra sing again. The last time had been that evening on the Dragon’s Daughter, she actually couldn’t remember a time before that, where Catra was openly singing, not just for herself when she thought nobody was listening.

The last months had been dark times for both of them, whatever was going to happen was enough for Catra to cut out all of that, and just be happy about that.

Not soon after that song had ended, Adora felt the car getting slower until it stopped completely, engine still running. A door opened, and judging from the sounds, Catra had left the car. A moment later, the door on Adora’s side opened too and she felt a warm hand on hers, leading her outside in the cold. Loki wished them well, and told Catra to remember her end of the deal. She just laughed and told him to not worry.

Adora heard the car leaving, and soon, judging from the noises, the two of them were apparently alone, but the blindfold got unbearable.

“Catra, can I take it off now? I just … can’t…”

“10 seconds, Adora. Follow me. Careful, step. There we are. One moment.”

Adora felt Catra warm breath on her face for a second, as she probably leaned forward to untie the knot on Adora’s back of the head. When the scarf became undone, Adora needed a moment to adjust to the sunlight again.

“Now, Adora. Where are we?”

Adora noticed, that all joy was gone from Catra’s face, it was full of tension now, Catra even gnawed on her bottom lip. She looked around, and didn’t even need a second to recognize this neighborhood, Adora had spent her whole life here. She turned around to see the gate leading to that house that had been once Razz’ and then, for a short time, Adora’s property.

“Catra? Why are we here?”

No answer came, so Adora had to break her gaze from the house to look at Catra again, and saw her holding the box that she had stolen from Loki earlier. It was a plain, black box, like these where you keep cuff links, but a bit wider.

Not knowing what to expect, Adora opened it with shaking fingers and found in it – a key. And not just any key – it was her key. The key she had owned for over 15 years. Adora even recognized the small chip on the keychain, she tried to cut it with a scissor once, but just had damaged the scissor in that process.

“Welcome home, Adora.”

Adora stared at Catra again, who had watched her the whole time, with her mismatched eyes.

“What do you mean ‘Welcome home’?”

Catra nodded at the gate. “Why don’t you try to see if it fits?”

At a loss of words, Adora put the key into the lock and turned it, opening the gate. She stood there and watched the gate swinging open, until Catra gave her a verbal push.

“There is another door, you know.”

With slow steps, Adora walked over slightly snow-covered tiles to the front door, put the key in the lock, and unlocked it, revealing the empty house the left a few months ago.

“Catra, I … I don’t understand. Why do you have the key? How?”

She heard Catra’s voice shaking, but Catra tried to play it cool. “I don’t have the key. You do. Because you are its rightful owner.”

Adora was lost, just lost. “But, Mara … Mara gave everything away. To the Preĝejo. I’m not the owner. They are.”

Catra shook her head, a small but proud smile appearing on her face. “They never have been. Mara’s will was a fake.” Her voice turned bitter. “They faked it and ruined everything.”

“That means … this is mine, again? All of this?”

“Not again. Still. This is still yours.”

Adora got dizzy and choked on her words. She needed to sit down somewhere, so she sat down right in the snow. Catra was next to her almost immediately. She pulled Catra even closer, buried her face in the collar of Catra’s jacket and the tears flow free.

Somehow, somehow Catra, beautiful, smart, strong Catra had managed to spit at the Preĝejo for more than once and Adora had no idea how. Catra had done it. They really could return home now.

Adora didn’t know how long they sat there, but she noticed Catra getting up and stretching her leg, since she had been crouching all the time. And her own butt was freezing right now, so she got up to face the house once more. This had to be a dream, but when Adora pinched herself, it felt very real.

“How? How did you do that?”

“To be fair, Loki did the dirty work, I was just the mastermind behind of all of this.” The big grin soon disappeared from Catra’s face. “When … you were gone, and we did research about Mara to find anything about that whole mess, we learned that she already had died long time ago. It’s not like that this was a surprise, since that was something you were already suspecting. But something had bothered me about that, and so, on a whim, I asked Loki to check the will again, and he found out, that Mara had died long before the will was written. I don’t know the exact reason, and honestly, I don’t care about it. But they did, and they did it with low effort.”

“You managed … to do all of this at once?”

“Why so surprised?” Catra let out a soft chuckle. “Me smart.”

“I … I don’t know what to say.”

“Then don’t. Be baffled by my brilliance.”

“Fat chance. Was that the reason why I had to get the death certificate?”

“Get that woman a cigar! Yes, that was the needed proof to get that will overruled.”

Adora still couldn’t believe it, when she stepped through the door to take a look around. Everything looked like when they left in September, just about 2 months ago, literally no one had been in here. They even left footprints in the dust on the stairs when going upstairs.

Catra spoke out Adora’s thoughts. “What a waste, the house was empty all the time. Like, they didn’t even use it. What did they even want it for?”

They made a tour into basement, Adora spotted some mold there that should be taken care of, but except that, everything was fine. When they left the house again and Adora had locked the door, Catra asked her if she already had thought about moving in again.

Adora shot Catra a confused look. “What do you mean ‘You’? You don’t want to?”

Catra looked like she didn’t expect that question. “Uh, sure. I guess.”

“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to. I mean, you are kind of wealthy now, shouldn’t be a problem to get an apartment for you.” Adora did her best to not sound hurt about Catra not wanting to move in again.

“I … just didn’t think that you wanted to have me back with you.”

“Catra, is everything okay with you? Why wouldn’t I want to have back with me? Now more than ever!”

Catra narrowed her eyes. “Is that what it is? Payback? Do you think you owe me something?”

Once again, Adora just didn’t get it. “What? No! Of course not. I mean, yes, I do, in some way. But we were already living together before all that. Why should that be different now?”

Catra was about say something, but then decided not to and turned around to leave the property. Adora threw her arms in the air, unable to think of anything that she had done wrong to cause such a reaction. Since she still could see Catra’s head over the garden wall, Adora checked the lock one more time, and followed her.

“Mind explaining what this was about?”

Catra moved her head, probably trying to find a fitting answer, but she didn’t. “I don’t know. I was so glad that everything did go the way I wanted, for the first time in … I don’t know, a long time. But suddenly, something snapped. I don’t get it either. As if a switch was flipped. Sorry. … . Of course, I would love to move in again, but I don’t want you to feel like you have to do anything out of debt or guilt.”

Adora hesitated for a short moment, but then pulled Catra in and placed a long kiss on Catra’s cheek. “Dummy. You will always be welcome on my door step.”

She broke the hug, Catra placing her hand her cheek, looking somehow dreamy, and then  pulled Adora down the street. Adora asked her, where she was going and Catra answered that she wasn’t planning to sleep on the floor. Obviously, they had sold all their furniture before leaving for the United States, Catra was right. And they needed a car for that. That’s why Catra was dragging her to Spinnerella’s and Netossa’s place, they will need a car to get to the store and to get the furniture back.

It was a big Hello for the unexpected visitors and an even bigger Hello when Adora proudly told them about what Catra had managed. The hero of the story, on the other end, was very quiet. And it worried Adora. Catra never skipped chances to boast about her awesomeness, but she didn’t say a word. Just an obviously fake smile.

A few days later, they had bought new furniture for both of them and some for Melog, the house looked like Adora had known it, just a bit more … modern. Not having furniture that probably had been already old when your grandma was born, helped a lot getting a new look. Catra even constructed a parkour for Melog, over the shelves and under the ceiling, and they freaking loved it. Adora probably will never be not surprised about how well Melog had adapted to their prothesis, the way they jumped up and down from everything definitely rivaled the behavior of a healthy cat.

When Adora woke up one night, again, it had become something regular, she heard a few thumps above her, coming from Catra’s room. She decided to leave the bed when she heard a last noise, and then just silence.

Adora left her room on tip-toes, trying to make out things in the dark, hopefully not stepping on Melog. She knew that cats were nocturnal, but better safe than sorry. She managed to get up the stairs quietly and saw moonlight shimmering through the space between the slightly open door and the frame. Adora knocked carefully, quiet enough to not wake a sleeping Catra, but when she heard a faint voice, she decided to push the door open.

Catra sat in front of the big window on the floor, looking outside in the night, right now she had her head turned to look at Adora.

“Can’t sleep?”

Catra shook her head.

“Bad dreams?”

A nod.

“Me too. Can I sit with you?”

Catra scooted a bit to the right, and patted on the floor next to her. Adora sat down, partly feeling the warmth Catra just had left there, while Catra was handing her a part of her blanket.

They sat there in silence, Adora enjoying Catra’s warmth. At one point, they heard some tip-taps behind them, and Melog graced them with their presence. The ball of fur walked over Adora’s lap and squeezed themselves in between Catra and Adora. Adora saw a light smile appear on Catra’s face when their hands touched, trying to scratch Melog’s head at the same time.

“I-“ Catra cleared her throat. “I think, I will take Spinny’s offer. About the therapist I mean. I think that would help me a lot.”

Adora nodded, she has had the same thought already, but Catra being ready somehow gave her the feeling, that this really was the right thing to do. She promised to text Spinnerella first in the morning.

Feeling a bit tired again, Adora casually rested her head on Catra’s shoulder. It wasn’t actually comfortable, due to the height difference, but Adora didn’t mind. And when Catra let her head slump against Adora’s, her world was intact again.

Watching the first snow of the year fall through the moonlight shining through the window let first Catra, and not long after Adora too, fall asleep.

***

The weeks were flying past them, and soon, the first real blizzard announced Christmas being close. It snowed so much that one of them had to leave the house more than just once a day to clear the path to the gate from the snow. When Catra opened the front door for the first time, Melog peeked outside, probably their first time actually experiencing snow, but they quickly decided that the weather wasn’t for them, the cat just left a single paw print right in front of the door.

The holiday mood wasn’t coming, too much happened this year and it was their first Christmas without Razz. Both Catra and Adora gave their best to balance that out, spending more time in the kitchen, or putting up the decorations. Adora even found a tiny hat for Melog, but they hated it, so Adora used it as a Christmas-themed egg cosy.

Spinnerella and Netossa had promised to visit now and then, they even had been up to spend Christmas together with Adora and Catra, but they already were planned out this year, so they came the days before.

Bow and Glimmer called a few times via video, and they shared a few stories about their moving to Seattle and exploring the city. It showed, that it was actually hard for them to find a time where all of them were awake and available, thanks to the time zones, but eventually, they managed. Even Catra swallowed her pride and joined the conversation, but leaving them soon, when Glimmer – or Sparkles – annoyed her too much.

But Adora wasn’t the only having friends in overseas. Catra managed to get Scorpia and Entrapta on the phone, and for the first time, Adora saw the two women that helped Catra getting through everything. It surprised her that Entrapta appeared on a live-feed, but remembered, that a new phone was some of the first things Catra had bought, to use the somehow untraceable one only for calls with these two. Entrapta promised to send some spare parts for Melog’s prothesis, since the cat will outgrow it soon.

Even though they had agreed on not gifting each other this year, when they watched a movie on Christmas Eve, Catra got up and went to her room to get something. Adora saw the small box in her hand, when she sat down on the couch again, but Catra didn’t say or do anything, so Adora didn’t either. She peeked to Catra now and then, to see her jaw muscles working even though she wasn’t eating, so Catra probably was thinking about something very hard.

When the movie was over, and Catra hadn’t said anything until then, Adora wanted to get up, say goodnight and go to bed, but Catra grabbed her hand to pulled to make Adora sit down again.

“Adora, I know … we said we don’t gift each other this year … well, technically it isn’t a gift. Or no, it is, but it depends on how you react on it.” Catra rubbed her face with both her hands. “Gods, I’m not ready for this.” Before Adora could say anything, Catra straightened her posture and locked eyes with Adora. “No, I’m carrying this with me for too long. Here.”

She handed Adora the small box, that had contained the key for this house weeks ago, but Adora opened it, it just contained a neatly folded piece of paper. When she unfolded it, it revealed a list, counting from 1 to 10. Adora shot a questioning look at Catra.

“It’s the prophecy Razz made for me years ago.”

Adora remembered vividly how sick Catra looked on that afternoon. “But … you shouldn’t show it around, before it’s fulfilled, no?”

“It is. At least the way I read this. Actually, I forgot about it, until I found the original paper in one of the boxes when we moved back in, and found a way where I could make everything fit. I wrote down the things Razz told me back then, and will tell you how I interpreted everything.”

Adora didn’t expect that she will get to see Catra’s at all, especially since Catra always had mocked Adora for believing in this while saying that she is not giving two shits about that, but she looked at the paper again and read every number out aloud.

1. The Hanged Man.

“That was me, forced to be part of a group I didn’t want to be part of, without having done anything wrong and no chance of leaving.”

2. Justice.

“Thanks to you, I got the chance to break out of the cycle, and the people holding me hostage got punished.”

3. The Hierophant.

“I lied to you for over a decade, because I feared that you will cast me away or drown yourself in guilt for something you literally had no influence in. And if you are honest, I was right.”

4. Temperance.

Catra hid her face in her hands. “If you recall, I was 14ish at that point. Razz had said that I was being tempted soon, and then the disaster with Svenia’s bike happened. Or didn’t happen, because I was getting eaten up by that prophecy so much, that I let it control my actions. On the bright side, Svenia’s bike survived that day. On the bad side, I had my seizure the night after.”

5. The Wheel of Fortune.

“You know, that I hate being on unknown grounds, and yet I had a decision to make, when you ask me if I follow you on your search for Mara. And I overcame … my fear for it and followed you.”

6. The lovers.

Catra coughed. “Razz said back then, that a person dear to me will make a decision, I will not agree with. There are a few things that could be meant here, but I’m sure that you are the person dear to me here.”

7. The Hermit.

“After you left, I was alone. Stuck with DT, no safe way to get out, until I bit my way through it.”

8. The Fool.

“I’m citing Razz here: ’Not everyone will agree with you or be on your side, but there is always light in the dark’. I met Entrapta and Scorpia, and later Bow and Glimmer. Glimmer surely is the one not agreeing with me here, but the light in the dark probably was, that all of them stayed to help me.”

9. The Tower.

“I will have to face something that blocks your path. That was extremely vague. Could be DT, the Preĝejo or … Light Hope herself. But I managed to pass, whatever it was.”

10. The World.

“In the end, everything had led me to the choice to either save my World, or turn away to not see it crumble to dust. It wasn’t something I actually had to think about, I moved heaven and earth to save my World.” Catra looked up, her eyes filled with both peace and fear. Peace with herself, but the fear for what? The tears rolling down Catra’s cheeks unsettled Adora. “You are my World, Adora. I can’t imagine a place without you. I love you. I always have.”

Chapter Text

“Jesus, Catra, I want to get there alive.” Glimmer yelled from the back of the car. “If I wouldn’t care about that, we could have placed Melog behind the wheel, that would’ve looked funny at least.”

“Du dummer Hurensohn!” Catra yelled even louder while smashing the horn. “I don’t get it! Why would the Germans have no speed limit if they can’t drive for shit?” She passed the white Mercedes that just had cut her off, and showed the driver her middle finger.

“Maybe because they didn’t reckon with you.” Glimmer groaned. “Can you stop honking all the time? My headache is getting worse again.”

“Sucks to be you! Don’t drink that much then!”

“Maybe Catra is just feeling horn-y today.” Adora laughed about her own joke.

“Adora, we all know that your English sucks, but you can at least show some effort when making puns?”

“Okay girls, can we all calm down just a bit? It’s nice that Catra’s blood is already pumping, but I don’t think that she needs that 4 hours too early!” As always, Bow tried to be the voice of reason on this group, but as always, his efforts

“Oh, I know something else to get her blood pumping.” Now, Catra shot an angry look at her girlfriend, who wiggled her eyebrows at her.

“LOOK AT THE FUCKING ROAD WHEN YOU ARE ALREADY GOING 150!” Glimmer’s voice grew shrill, but she was right.

Catra ignored the other 3 in her car and focused on the road to get them the last 150 kilometers to Cologne. If she was honest, Catra had no idea why Bow and Glimmer were even here. Ok, she knew that, because it was August and it was summer break. They had visited Bow’s fathers first and then unexpectedly turned up at Adora’s and Catra’s door step. Or not that unexpected, Adora had known about that, but for some reason didn’t tell Catra. She wasn’t really mad about it, she was fine with Bow, but Sparkles grinded on her nerve way too often. And then they even insisted to come to see the fight. Why? Glimmer wasn’t the surprise, she was always out for blood even if she always lied about that, but why was Bow so eager about it?

They were on their way to Cologne, for Catra’s biggest fight in her life against Valentina Shevchenko, the reigning flyweight champion. She didn’t follow social media, Adora did that for her, but Catra knew that the only reason why Shevchenko even thought about that, was because of Huntara’s name. The only woman to fight in the men’s group and absolutely dominating her weight class. And since Catra was the only ‘student’ of her that ever went professional, accepting a challenge like Catra’s was the only way to get something similar to Huntara.

Catra was no fool to believe that her 23-1-win ratio was something special. It was good, yes, but there were fighters like Shevchenko who was 57-2. And that was impressive. The challenge itself was a joke for Catra, she had talked about it in a smaller Italian magazine, who decided to make it the headline, and thanks to the internet, it made it around the world faster than Catra could change her pajamas.

And now she was here. In her car. With Adora and two other quagmires. On her way to get her ass handed to her.

Huntara couldn’t stop laughing when she heard about it, but she encouraged Catra to stand to her word and ‘beat that shit out of that dumb blonde bitch’ as she had phrased it during the interview. Maybe something got lost in translation, but you could never know.

Catra felt a hand on hers while holding the gearstick, she didn’t need to look at it to know that it was Adora’s. Her girlfriend.

***

December, 4 years, 8 months ago.

I said it, I finally said it.

Feeling fear rising in her, Catra watched Adora in hope to get something like a reaction, but the blonde just stared from the paper at Catra and then back at the paper in her hand. Nothing.

Oh god, I got it all wrong. She doesn’t want me. Not like I want her.

“Sorry, I- I got to go.”

Catra jumped of the couch and hurried the clothing-rack at the entrance. She needed to get out of here, quickly. No idea where to, but just out of here.

“Catra…”

She hurried to get into her boots, and wrang her scarf around her neck.

“Catra!”

Jacket zipped up and hand on the door knob.

“Katrina Driluth!”

Catra froze up against her will. The last time Adora had said her full name had been a decade ago, and she had been really mad at that time. She slowly turned around, trying to hide the tears in her eyes, and saw Adora patting on a spot right next to her.

“Please come back, don’t leave me.”

She hesitated, she was so close to throw everything out of the window and leave to never come back.

“Do you want to leave Melog too?”

“Of course not, I don’t want to leave.”

Adora again patted on the pillow, looking like patience itself, only causing Melog to jump up to see why there was such a ruckus on the couch. As if they felt the distress, they quickly turned their head between the two of them to see what was up.

In the end, it was Melog sitting down next to Adora and just meowing at Catra. She dragged herself to the couch and tried to sit down as graceful as possible. Adora reached out, waiting for something, and Catra took her hands. They sat like this for about 10 mins

“I’m sorry, Catra” Adora’s voice was a whisper, but it cut through the silence like a scissor through yarn. “I’m sorry for being so … oblivious.” Catra inhaled to say something, but Adora stopped her right there. "Let me finish.”

Catra was not in the mood for getting a lecture, not right now, but she swallowed down and listened.

“When I met Bow and Glimmer, I told them about us, both to pass time and describing the whole situation. And one of the first things they said about the pictures I showed them and the stories I told them, was, that we look and act like more than just friends.” Adora paused for a short moment. “I didn’t want it to be true, I don’t know why. Maybe because I didn’t want to destroy what we had. But getting to know Glimmer and Bow somehow showed me, that what we are having wasn’t something normal for friends, no matter how long they know each other. The way we take care for each other, the way we touch, we even lived together and changed our habits to spend more time with each other. That’s not what friends do. I don’t know why I didn’t realize that earlier, maybe because I didn’t have someone to compare us to.”

Adora swallowed and Catra waited for her to continue.

“Catra, you know that you are the most special for me. Nothing ever will change that. I wasn’t exaggerating when I said you will always find an open door here. I knew that it was unfair asking you to follow me to the Whispering Woods, and I actually gambled on this, trusting on you coming with me. And I can’t describe how happy I was when you said you will come with me on that … suicide mission. I used you, and I can’t make this up to you. You were right when you said that this whole thing was a bad idea, and I didn’t listen to you.”

She made a vague gesture through the room.

“All of this is because you never left my side, even when I left you and vanished, all ways blocked, you forced yourself through to find me.”

Adora rubbed her chest, her Heart-scar hidden underneath her reindeer-sweater.

“If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be here, neither in here nor me here at all.”

She shook her head.

“It was like ‘Ha, Catra and me, just gals being pals’, but what pal pushes their own border so often and so hard, just for another pal.”

For the first time since Catra had sat down, Adora looked her in the eyes, Catra almost drowning in these dark, grey-blue jewels.

“You have fascinated me since the day we met. Always fighting, being beaten down and getting up stronger every time. Always finding the strength for this. Years ago, now and forever on. This was what had me attracted to you, and that will never change. You say, you love me and I say, I love you too.”

Catra was sure she had a stroke when she heard that, but Adora’s tears made everything worse.

“Catra, please listen to me. I would love to be more than just your friend, but I can’t do that. Not right now. Too much has happened, and even when I try, I won’t be able to live up to both my and your expectations. Give me – no, give us time to heal, I know you need it too. I know, we can manage, but we need this.”

Adora reached for Catra’s face and pulled her close, touching Catra’s forehead with her own. She was so close, so close Catra just needed to jolt a bit to…

“Again, I’m expecting something from you without having something in return. Please don’t leave. I need you.”

***

And they managed. It will take 4 months to their first official date, after both of them had processed the last year, or at least up to some point. They say that time heals all wounds, but Catra had made the experience that this only applied for physical wounds. Some wounds tend to never heal. She had heard someone say once, Catra couldn’t remember who exactly, that everyone has their inner demons to fight. Not every fight is fair and can be won. But it can help to have someone around to support you in these fights. And Adora clearly was that one for her, as Catra was for Adora.

Catra had made the mistake once to describe herself as ‘damaged good’, what made Adora step in and say, that this should apply to her too. She didn’t like that, and after she protested against that, Adora went to the cupboard and took out two random cups. She then took a marker and wrote their names on the cups, each on one. Before Catra could react, Adora smashed both cups on the floor, only to collect the pieces. One week later, Adora presented her the cups, fixed, but not in their original state. She had switched out some pieces and put them into the other cup, so they looked fully functional, but also like a rag rug with the form of a mug.

“We are both broken, but we make each other whole again.”

Catra had been speechless, the first time in years. It had been so … cheesy. But Adora was about to be proved right about this. They did. And they will do this until the end of time. Maybe the things going to happen will be not as cursed as this specific year, but life wouldn’t be life without any hardships.

They had their first ‘date’ in early April. Through someone she knew from university, Adora had managed to rent a small cabin for a weekend in the Alps on the Swiss border. Catra first was skeptical about this, since it was just a cabin in the middle of nowhere on a mountain with nothing but snow and meadows around them. But it truly was peaceful and Catra never had seen the stars like this. It became somehow absurd, when Adora leaned over and said ‘I love you. I love you so much, I pulled down the stars for you’. Catra has laughed so loud that she was sure to hear the echo coming back from the valley. The laughter got stuck in her throat when she realized that the stars were actually falling down and Adora leaned in to kiss her.

Catra’s brain got fried in the moment by the overload of How, Why, and Adora. It came back online, when Adora broke the kiss and smiled at her … partner. ‘I love you too’ had been Catra’s very original reaction, but since Adora had only a ‘I know’ in her chambers, that was enough.

***

“Have I already told you today, that I love you?”

Catra made a pout. “No, I don’t think so.”

“I love you.”

“You sure about that, princess?”

“Sure am. I mean, I’m sitting in a car, that brings me to an arena in 400 km distance to watch my … girlfriend beating someone to mush, only to then let that adrenaline-filled mess do things to me in shower. There has to be a reason for that.”

“Eh, could be everyone.” Catra grinned. “I know you love it.”

“That…” Adora smacked her shoulder. “was not what we are talking about.”

They shared a laugh, and when Catra checked the mirrors, she saw Bow’s red face. Apparently, he had understood some parts of their conversation. She vaguely remembered Adora telling her, that Bow had picked up his Lunarian textbooks again, but Catra didn’t care about that. His mistake, if he hears something he didn’t want to hear, he shouldn’t have listened in the first place.

***

Around a month after they have had their first date, Catra went to Huntara’s gym to ask her if she could have her job back. Not that she was in need of one, the fights she fought in the US had given her enough reserves for another year at minimum, but honestly, she missed it. Both coaching and fighting, and Huntara seemed more than happy to help her.

Fighting itself still had its therapeutic effect for her, both when she was fighting, as well as teaching others how to. Adora joining the gym as a ‘paying’ member did its part too. It was weird seeing her as an active member there, but it was not an unwelcome sight. Not that Adora actually did fight, she just was there for training, but she had said, that she wanted to get more first-hand experiences. Huntara had stepped in immediately and assigned Adora to someone else, since she had figured, that if Catra was going to do the coaching, they probably wouldn’t make any progress at all.

Catra didn’t miss, that Adora never used the showers in the gym, always wore a shirt over the sports bra and also never changed her t-shirt before she got home. And Catra was well aware of the reason. But it was not her topic to talk about, it was something Adora had to discuss with her therapist.

Catra own therapy sessions were … quite a ride. It took actually three tries to find someone willingly to accept her as a patient, and now she had to drive to France for that. The fact what she was needing therapy for, did scare the first two away, one even reported her to the police, even though the murder hadn’t taken place in the European Union and she had presented the letter of the FBI to him. The proceedings were still going on.

***

Catra pulled into the parking lot of the LANXESS Arena, after looking too long for the reserved spots for the participant. Huntara was already waiting for them and smiled, when she heard Bow and Glimmer praising a higher being for arriving safely. Obviously, they were exaggerating, the ride hadn’t been that bad. They checked with someone from the organizers, Catra got her badge, and the others theirs. When they got into the Arena, the view made Catra hold her breath. The octagon was right in the center, chairs filled the rest of the ground floor, except for corridors in between of some of the rows. Maximum capacity: 20.000. This was quite a change compared to her first tournament back in Half-Moon, 8 years ago. But this was how the world worked. Talk some shit and they will give a stage to prove it.

“Back in my days, things weren’t even half this size.” Huntara’s voice was filled with both yearning and disbelief. “Got stage fright already?”

“Thanks for reminding me that you are old already.” Catra laughed. As if anyone would believe that Huntara was in her mid 50ies. “No. Okay, maybe a little bit.”

She felt Adora’s head on her shoulder. The touch calmed Catra down again, and she turned her head to peck a kiss on her girlfriend’s hair. They still had 3 hours until the event would begin, one hour before the press conference would start and 5 hours in total until her fight would start. Now, how to spend the time? Catra actually had some things in mind, things that would raise her testosterone, but none of these things are fit for general audience, and both Sparkles and Arrow Boy would complain about being left alone, and so, she needed to find something else.

***

They never found out, why Mara went to Razz to give birth to Adora birth. They must have known each other, otherwise Razz probably never would’ve just taken Adora in as her own. Since even Loki had been surprised about the fact, that Adora wasn’t related to Razz by blood, their last hope to ever find that out, was gone. They only had found out part of the, in hindsight, obvious reason, why Mara hadn’t taken Adora with her back to the United States. Entrapta had sent them a digitalized copy of the VHS tape Scorpia had found in the Crystal Castle. Watching the video was hard, it was a 10-minute long recording of Mara, and the date in the corner of the screen had told them, that it had been recorded a few days before her death.

Again, it was an apology, but seeing Mara this weak and vulnerable, crying nearly over the span of the whole video, was gut-wrenching. But it had brought nothing they either didn’t know already, or at least had suspected. The moment Adam had been born, he had been taken away from Mara and raised somewhere out of her reach. When she realized, that she was pregnant again, it had broken her. Mara didn’t want to bring another child into this cursed world, but when she had noticed being pregnant with Adora, it had been too late.

Even though Mara assured more than once, that she will always love Adora, her daughter was devasted at the end of the video. This video was the only thing that will Adora ever remind of her mother, and it had to be something like this. The reason why Mara had left her behind, was to protect her from Light Hope, so that Adora would not end up like her brother. She did not exactly state it, but Catra had the suspicion, that Mara had known what was going to happen with her children and herself. Mara already had to give up Adam, but wanted to Adora to not face the same fate. She escaped with the help of Serenia and even took the plane to the wrong airport to give possible pursuers a false lead. And in the end, she returned to Alwyn to not make the First Ones search for her.

Listening to this story was like reading a bad book, but neither Adora nor Catra had difficulties believing this.

***

The press conference actually had been fun. It didn’t happen often, that Catra got interviewed, and since the last interview had been the reason why this whole mess actually was happening, she tried to turn down the expectations a bit. The laughter was on her side, when Catra tried to explain, that everything had been a big misunderstanding and actually she wanted to compliment her opponent. But when asked if she wanted to step out of the fight in before, Catra obviously said no. That would be a bit too much, even for her. And especially since she had something else in mind, and for that to be perfect, Catra was in need of a victory today. She wasn’t kidding herself, Catra was well aware that she was the underdog here. And her opponent wasn’t someone that would give her a free hit or disrespect her enough to give her actually a chance. But this wouldn’t be the first time, that the cat would bite her way through.

***

It took the FBI two years to finish the investigation about the First Ones and connected to that, DT’s little empire. As a result, the Church of the First Ones lost their status as a church in the United States of America, and the trials about the law makers doing favors for the church were still going on. Several congressmen and -women had resigned over this affair, but the Bureau hadn’t let go of this and brought everyone to court. One senator even fled the country.

Adora had to appear in court for a testimony, but given the fact that she lived across the globe, she didn’t have to fly to the US again, but to Bern, since there was the closest US embassy. Since embassies are legal ground of the countries they are representing, Catra was denied entry and had to wait outside the embassy for Adora to get out again.

The hearing was held in public and even was streamed, which meant that Catra was able to watch it. But it also meant, that everyone else who took interest in this, could watch and this had left a sour taste in Catra’s mouth. This had been something that neither Adora nor Catra had thought off, and the moment the attorney asked Adora to show them the scar on her chest, Catra knew it was over. She had to watch her girlfriend open her buttoned-up shirt, all pain of the world in Adora’s face, and present every one the memento Adora was unable to hide from herself.

This scar had been a curse, for both of them. When they were supposed to have their first time together, Adora first had refused to undress, even though she had been the one initiating it. Catra had done her best to stare at something else, which should’ve been easy with what Adora was presenting, but Catra’s eyes were bound to been drawn up to the scar in the end. It had become too much for Adora and she had hidden herself in the bathroom, crying. Catra literally had kicked in the door at one point, because Adora refused to come out and Catra was unsure what Adora was planning to do.

And now, the whole world saw it. Data protection wise, this hearing had been a disaster. The following day, the news was full with pictures and videos of the hearing and it had triggered a massive backstep in Adora’s healing progress. Catra also fell into old patterns, but in her case, it had meant getting defensively aggressive, jumping everyone who dared to look the wrong way, with some exceptions of course.

Catra never understood it, but it took Adora another 6 months to get the scar surgically removed. If you knew where to look, you still could see it, but now, it was easier to focus on different things on Adora’s chest.

The only scary thing in the hearing’s aftermath had been a postcard, that arrived two months later, from the Florence ADMAX, a high security prison in Colorado. DT had sent it, congratulating Catra and Adora to their victory over the First Ones, with best wishes and the warning to take care of themselves. For a short moment, Catra had been unsettled, but gladly, she knew someone who could keep eyes on persons that don’t want to be seen. Entrapta was happy about the idea, and Catra was sure, that this was like a field trip for her. DT wasn’t able to pick their nose without Entrapta and Emily knowing about it.

***

Adora broke the kiss and gave her girlfriend one last reassuring squeeze. Catra winced, she would’ve given a lot for this to last longer. Adora leaving meant, that it was time. Time to fight. Catra closed her hands to fists to stop the trembling, but she soon realized that it wasn’t stage fright. It was fear, but the question was, what she was afraid of. Either the fight or…. She shook her head. There was no need to be afraid, neither of the fight nor the other thing she was planning to do. Absolutely no reason to.

Her girlfriend left to the stands through the door held open by Catra’s coach, Huntara. The goliath winked at her and left her alone for Catra’s last rituals before every fight. The fighter put in her earbuds and started. The ritual contained only a few gymnastic exercises and Catra needed exactly 4 minutes and 12 seconds for this, the duration of a specific EDM track she had picked years ago. Split, push-up into handstand, finishing with a front flip. There was no specific reason why Catra was doing this, it was just the habit she started over a decade ago. At first, she only did that out of boredom, later she found out, that it was relaxing for her too.

On the second Catra landed on her feet, the track stopped and the door in front of her opened again, Huntara came to pick her up.

“Are you ready?”

“You know I was born ready. Ah, by the way…” Catra rummaged through her bag and pulled out a small box. “Here. You know what to do.”

The coach took it and put in her pocket. “Finally, huh? Took you long enough.”

Catra said nothing, just rolled her eyes and walked past Huntara to get to the main hall. You could hear the audience even from in here and it got nearly deafening when she got the entrance.

“You alright?”

Catra felt Huntara’s hand on her shoulder and nodded. She hesitated for a moment, but then turned around to her coach and bowed deep.

“Thank you, Huntara. For everything. You gave me a safe space, even if I made it unsafe for others.”

Huntara laughed. “What is that? Are you saying goodbye? Anyway, we are even since the moment you started to pay me.”

Despite being this nervous, Catra chuckled. “Probably not. But good to know that it’s the money motivating you.”

“I’m not saying ‘No’ to the appointments either.”

“If you would stop hitting on my secretary, my work would be much easier.”

“You could just give me her number, that would make things easier.”

Catra snorted and wanted to say something snarky, but music coming from the speakers stopped her. It was time. She listened to the announcer introducing her opponent for the day, a song started playing and following the protocol, Shevchenko was on her way to the octagon. The track either ended or was drowned out by the crowd, the announcer said another few words and now it was her time. When her name got called out, Catra stepped past the curtains into the spotlight of the arena, the shouting of several thousand people nearly drove her into deafness. But it was fucking addicting.

She strutted towards the center of the arena and imagined to hear Adora’s voice sounded over all that noise. Catra tried to make a serious face, but the thought of her girlfriend going nuts in the crowd, together with her friends, was too funny to not smile about it.

The way to the octagon seemed longer than she remembered and for some reason, it got even longer with every step.

***

Catra walked from the kitchen in the backyard to throw the trash out and while wondering what Adora was doing, she found her sitting at the in the garden, in front of her an open laptop with an empty document on its screen.

“Good morning. How long have you been out here?”

“Hey.” Adora leaned over to receive a kiss on the cheek. “Quite a while. It’s been warm out here since sunrise.”

“Aaaaaand what are you doing? Don’t tell me you are working, it’s Sunday after all.”

“No, I was thinking …. You remember the headlines from last week?”

“About the ship that blocked the Panama Canal? Yes, why?”

“I found out, that the ship belongs to the Salineas Corp.”

“Wait really? Don’t tell me that this – what was his name again, Seagull? – was responsible for that?”

“No idea, but it made me think about a conversation I had with Mermista. She was saying, that if I ever write a book- “

“Oh god, you are writing a book. Please don’t tell me that it’s about a horse.”

“No. Why would- “

“Actually, I have a great idea. About a dead horse getting revived by the jockey, to win the great prize on the coming weekend.”

“What?”

“The Necroprancer. You can’t beat that dead horse.”

“Can you shut up?”

“You don’t like it? I’m pretty that this one is going to be a bestseller!”

“CATRA!”

“… sorry.”

Adora sank back and let out a deep breath. “Mermista said back then, that if I ever write a book about our trip to the States, she wants a part in it.”

“Do you want to do this? Where do you even start?”

“I probably won’t release it or anything, just want to write it for myself for now. At first, I wanted to begin with Razz’ death, but I feel like I should start way before that. With you.”

“Me?”

“Yes, how we met and everything. Otherwise, you never would’ve accompanied me there.”

 “I’m in. Scoot over.”

***

Catra jumped over the fence, matching the announcement of her name echoing through the hall, and turned around in the spotlight to greet the crowd once more. The guy with the microphone was still reading something from his cards, when she finally turned to her opponent waiting for her. One last formal greeting was exchanged, the referee said thing Catra had heard so often now and opened the ring.

At first the fighters did nothing but circle each other, throwing the one or other punch at the opponent, but those were nothing but feints to test the waters. Catra could hear the crowd get louder for a second, every time anything looking like a kick or a punch was thrown. Alone the fact that she still noticed that, showed her how distracted she was. And just in that moment, Shevchenko pulled off a front kick, this time a real one, and Catra managed just in time to tense her abdominals to lessen the impact. It worked, but the pain was immense. That bitch could kick like a horse.

Catra knew that she had to be the one initiating, the moment she let her opponent lead this dance, this was over for her. She threw two punches, the left at the face was blocked, the right into the stomach got through, at least some points for her, but Shevchenko used the short span of time that Catra needed to pull back to execute a high kick. Catra managed to block it, but again, the impact was enough to make her stumble. Her opponent didn’t let her rest for even one second, she closed the distance and forced Catra to retreat to the fence. When her back hit the fence, she barley managed to dodge the incoming strike aimed at her face, and brought out two strikes on her own, but only to the chest. But it was enough to get some space again. Just before they could clash again, the bell rang for the end of the first round.

Catra quickly returned to her corner, where Huntara was waiting for her already. She quickly removed the mouthpiece to gulp down some water, while her coach gave her further instructions.

“Did you see it?”

“I’m pretty sure that I’m paying you to tell me about it.”

“She has a tell for this double flicker jab thing. She throws her arms down for a short moment, maybe to stretch or whatever, but she doesn’t do it perfectly at the same time. It has to be intentional though, because if she follows it up with a punch from the side, she has thrown down first.”

Catra tried to remember a situation where Shevchenko had done this, but couldn’t. “Anything else?”

“No. Nothing new. Try closer combat, to be honest I don’t think you can match her with kicks. Maybe trade light blows at the beginning to show her the ropes again before you go all-in.”

With this, the bell rang again, the break was over and Catra stepped to the center of the octagon again. The ref opened the ring again and Catra gave her opponent a sucker punch that had no equal up to now. Hitting this made Shevchenko stumble back and the roar of the crowd gave Catra’s spirit quite some boost. She followed up and managed to place a low kick against her opponent’s left ankle. Knowing that this hurts, Catra decided to pick up the pace and let a barrage of strikes hail down on Shevchenko, but the fighter still managed to break free again and get some distance between them. She was getting ready, but Catra noticed, when she made that move Huntara had told her about. Left first, then right. Blocked with her own right, then left, followed by counter straight into a high kick. Finally, being confident about all of this, Catra was now dictating the way the fight went. Shevchenko was only defending now, and when Catra managed to take a peek at the clock, she decided to end this. Her opponent apparently had the same thing in mind, because again, she stretched her arms as if she was cocking a gun, this time her right first, and when Catra raised her left to block the incoming strike, and an unexpected straight left hit her without any possibility for Catra to block it. She stumbled to the side, trying to regain her balance, when she walked right into the right high kick.

Ah shit.

***

Catra’s eyes fluttered and when they finally stayed open, she could make out Huntara. Judging from the lights behind her coach, Catra was laying on the floor and Huntara leaned over her, but she couldn’t remember laying down in first place.

“Finally awake again, huh? How do you feel?”

It took Catra a moment to answer. “As if I was a deer prancing over a highway.”

“…what?”

“As if I got hit by a truck.”

“Okay, she is clearly delirious. Get her to a hospital.”

“What are you talking about? I have a fight to win.”

“Oh god.” Huntara helped Catra to sit up, so that she could see Shevchenko giving an interview. “Does this look like there is a fight going on?”

“I lost?”

“Sorry, she got us good with that stunt.”

Catra carefully slumped back on the floor. “I lost.”

She actually lost. Not that it was unexpected, but now that it happened, it hurt so much. Catra felt her bottom lip shake, usually it would crumble, but it was swollen too much to show any wrinkles. It didn’t stop the tears from running down her cheeks, when Huntara helped her up to shake hands with her opponent one more time. Catra watched Shevchenko lift the belt once more and was finally free to go. When she left the octagon, Huntara let go of her and Catra was able to take the walk of shame alone.

The fighter walked past the bouncer and entered her cabin. Ignoring the shower, Catra hit one of the lockers with her back and glided down until she hit the floor. Cowering as a pile of misery in the corner, she ignored the door opening, expecting Huntara to come in, but the shoes stepping in her view through her drawn-up knees were big, but still too small for her coach. The blonde hair appearing, when the figure knelt down, let Catra identify the intruder as her girlfriend.

Adora stepped even closer and pulled Catra into her embrace, not caring about the sweat and blood stuck on her.

“I’m so sorry.”

Catra snorted. “What for? It’s not like you fucked up in the ring.”

“Of course not.” Adora’s voice was so incredibly soft. “But I know that you were excited about the match, even if you said that you didn’t really care about it.”

“Oh, really? What gave it away?”

“We are 26, we know each other for over 18 years now. One thing that never changed is you thinking you are too cool to be somewhat emotional about things. I know what this meant to you.”

“Who would have guessed that? You actually know me.”

“You thought about quitting, didn’t you?”

Catra froze up. “Okay, that’s actually scary.”

“So, you did?”

“… Yes.” She scratched her head. “If I would’ve won, it would’ve been perfect. Punch that dumb bitch her teeth out, win, leave, and refuse to elaborate. That would’ve been epic.”

“And now?”

“Well, I’m not the world champion yet. Still got people to punch.”

Adora sat down next to Catra and stared at the door. “And now?”

“I have absolutely no idea. Back to work, I guess. What about you?”

“No idea either.” Catra felt Adora’s head slump against hers. “18 years now, huh? Who would’ve thought?”

“Had my doubts now and then.”

“How come?”

“Oh … things and stuff happened.”

“Ah … things and stuff. Hate it when that happens.”

“Yeah same.” Catra felt Adora’s next to her, trying to get a more comfortable position.

“Especially if one of us has to face that alone. I don’t want to let that happen again. If we do messed-up things, we should to it together, now and forever. Catra … do you want to be my wife?”

Adora had pulled out a small box containing a ring with two differently colored gems out of nowhere, and Catra had no other reaction than just to stare at her.

She couldn’t hold that stare for long, because memories of Adora’s coming-out came back, and how badly Catra had handled it back then. Adora’s confusion grew visibly with every second, since Catra again was not able to show a fitting reaction. The brunette groaned and turned to the door.

“HUNTARA. COME IN. I KNOW THAT YOU ARE LISTENING.”

It actually didn’t take too long for the door to open, and Catra’s coach stuck her head in, trying to look as innocent as possible.

“Is it-?”

“Shut it and give it to me.”

Huntara grinned and reached to her back pocket, to get out the box that Catra had given her hours before. She threw it and Catra caught it, signaled Huntara to get out and turned to Adora again.

“I agree with you, but I wish that I won today, to make this whole thing more … glamorous. You know, getting a belt, getting a wife, getting absolutely shitfaced and embarrass Sparkles the worst way possible.” Catra opened the box and looked at the ring made of normal gold, a small turquoise stone in the center of the flower made of white gold. “I wanted to ask you first, but it seems like nothing really works for me today.”

Adora squealed of joy. “So that’s a ‘Yes’?”

“Of course, it is, dork. What else-.” Catra couldn’t finish her sentence, because Adora threw herself at Catra and pressed a kiss on her lips. “OW! Take care.”

“Oh god, I’m so sorry, what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong? My face is mashed in, kiss me somewhere else.”

“Oh … that.” A smirk appeared on Adora’s face again. “That can be arranged.”

Catra rolled her eyes. “Go fuck yourself.”

“How about you go fuck me yourself?”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk … what would Razz say about this?”

“She would be proud, I’m sure of that.”

The END.

Chapter Text

The screens in the trailer of Darla flared up and showed a triangle in the center, signaling that Emily was there.

“Entrapta! 25 minutes ago, the FBI has released the files of the adventure with the Church of the First One.”

The purple-haired inventor turned off the saw in her hand and pushed up the wielding goggles.

“That’s great. Did you analyze it?”

“Indeed. It took 24 minutes and 34.562 seconds to analyze 25 terabytes of data.”

“Did you find anything intriguing?”

“I am not sure about this, which is why I would like to discuss the results with you.”

That was suprising. Emily had grown enough to be able to decide this on her own, which was why Entrapta was even more curious about what was coming.

“Tell me.”

“Most of the things in the files became known to public during the hearings. While there are a few things that were left out, they are not in any way interesting. By analyzing the autopsy reports from the people called Serenia and Light Hope, I have some irregularities which made me search for medical records of Adora and Adam Greyskull. While the report of Serenia was nothing special about, it was the report about Light Hope showing some irregularities. While the body’s outer layers were difficult to examine, thanks to the incineration, the autopsy focused more on the inner part. According to the results for lungs, kidneys and liver, Light Hope did neither smoke nor drink and most likely was vegan, but was missing primary female sexual organs.”

Entrapta looked up. “What?”

“You heard correctly. No uterus, no ovaries, no fallopian tubes and vagina. Now, there are four major possible reasons for this. Birth defect, removal after sickness, an accident or a transition. Since there are no actual medical record for Light Hope, it was not possible to say this with 100% certainty.”

One of the screens flickered and showed a video from the night of Light Hope’s death, recorded with the small camera that had been hidden in the choker Entrapta had given Catra the days before.

Who was the father … there is none … I shed off my old body and my life to take the role of Light Hope … Who was the father … there is none … I shed off my old body and my life to take the role of Light Hope … Who was the father … there is none … I shed off my old body and my life to take the role of Light Hope … Who was the father … there is none … I shed off my old body and my life to take the role of Light Hope … Who was the father … there is none … I shed off my old body and my life to take…

Entrapta stared on the screen playing the video in a loop and tried to put the pieces Emily had brought, together. It was clear what she wanted to say with this, but how was this relevant, 6 years after this event?

“You said, you need my help. For what?”

“As we know from both Adora Greyskull and Katrina Driluth, as well as from the video, Light Hope was described to suffer from the congenital condition known as Albinism. Essentially, Albinism is passed on through genetically recessive alleles from both parents, which makes it already rare to appear, and even rarer if the person affected has a child with someone without those genes. But it is possible. There is a possible variation of albinism, which results in only a local or partial lack of melanin. While there is nothing like that mentioned in Adam’s records, the Brightmoon hospital has noted, that Adora has a large spot on her back that seems to lack melanin. This has been diagnosed as Vitiligo, Catra had confirmed this to her best knowledge. But what if this has been misdiagnosed? Sadly, while the hospital had been taken blood samples from Adora, the coroner had been unable to take some from Light Hope’s body, citing the burns having destroyed any possible samples, which means that an DNA test via blood samples is impossible. The FBI had hair listed as evidence, but judging from the video, Light Hope was bald, so this might be a so-called duck. Gathering all the facts, the possible transition and a possible misdiagnose regarding Adora’s skin disease, as well as the interpretation of Light Hope’s statements to Catra, brings up a possible genetical relation between Adora and Light Hope. Now since that happening is extremely unlikely but still possible, I wanted to ask you about your opinion to this. Sadly, we are lacking any means to actually prove this. Do you want me to inform Adora about it nonetheless?”

For the time for years, Entrapta was speechless.