#theoriginaljock

The building was heaving with people.

The Handler had mentioned something about a party- that attending was definitely recommended and deserved after all the good work she’d been doing. Catra had taken some time to at least change into something more in-line with Shadow Weaver’s instructions. For what it was worth, the older sorcerer seemed to value appearances. A sleek, dark suit replaced Catra’s usual scruffy attire. It was the closest thing to compromise that she could manage. Wearing a dress was out of the question. A soft tut at the untamed mess of her hair was Shadow Weaver’s only criticism as Catra checked in before the party.

There was word that other members of the commission that she’d be attending missions with would be here. Some had only recently returned from their deployment, others Catra had already gotten to know a little in her time at the commission. They weren’t friends, however, merely acquaintances. Each of them came equipped with abilities of their own that rivalled those at The Academy. Catra found herself eager for the day that they were able to put such skills to use.

It was hard not to be overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the celebrations. Suddenly Catra understood why The Handler had seemed so blasé at the concept of inviting others with abilities along with potential enemies to the event- any enemy would be so greatly outnumbered that trying something was nowhere near worth the risk of the fallout that would follow. A tangle of scent had Catra wrinkling her nose as she wove through the throngs of well-dressed guests. Cigarettes, perfume, alcohol, cologne, food, magic; every scent had its marker, making it hard to seek out any of the few faces she knew that were familiar.

From the corner of her eye, Catra spotted someone with blond hair. If not for the familiar way in which it was styled, Catra would have swiftly dismissed the guest for a stranger. But it wasn’t. Without much effort Catra melted through the crowd, shoving a couple of guests along the way in order to reach Adora before she disappeared. Through the sea of people, Catra manifested a perfect likeness of herself to block Adora’s path.

“Hey Adora.” The vision wore the exact smile Catra was wearing from behind Adora.

“I wasn’t expecting you to show up.” The illusion spoke, inspecting her claws for a moment.

“You’re not planning something stupid, are you?” The real Catra spoke from Adora’s shoulder, weaving just close enough to murmur the words behind her ear. It was just as much of a dare as it was a warning. Suddenly the party seemed as though it was going to be remarkably less boring.

thank you!!! Don't worry I will write the fic to it's conclusion, even if it takes me another 3 years. I'm slow but Im...not even consistent honestly but I haven't given up yet.

continued from here || @theoriginaljock​

        It had been quiet around the castle, it was uncanny and weird. She hadn’t really gotten used to the peace that engulfed the planet as one couldn’t just bounce back after everything she went through. She was happy, yes... it was strange, but she was used to the chaos that came with battle and war. Now... there was nothing. Everyone went about their daily lives as if nothing ever happened and it just felt eery. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end at how eery it all was.        Nothing helped the fact that Adora wasn’t in the Castle. She had looked everywhere, behind every wall, door, in every room, the grounds, everywhere and there was no sign of her. Not even Sparkles or Arrowboy knew where she had gotten off to, and despite their insistant that she’d come back, the fear that she had left began to creep up on her. The feeling of dread, worry that she had gone off and left her again.... it was beginning to become unbarable.        Until she found the annoyance of a horse Adora kept with her. Turns out the Power Princess had when to read at the edge of the Whispering Woods, researching the Ancient Books that Arrowboy’s fathers brought. Right... she said she would be doing that... And her fear quelled if only slightly.         Fear... it still felt like a weakness to her... one she would learn to control one day.         She kept to the shadows as she headed in the direction the horse told her to go, keeping just in the tree line until that familiar bright red caught her sight. Her movements were quick and quiet, leaping from one tree branch to the next till she was over her, eyes glowing in the shade.         A half-smile formed, just watching the blonde frown and mumble to herself.. thinking about the words on the pages. Seemed like she was having difficulty understanding them, not that she blamed her. No way she would able to comprehend what that type of text would say, the fact that Adora somewhat did was impressive.           ❝ Hey, Adora... ❞ It was her usual teasing tone, enough to break the silence around them. Part of her wondered if she even realized she had been watched for a while.

‘…Just as you’ve done in training.’

That had been just about the only part of the waste-of-time briefing that Catra had bothered to catch wind of. She’d strolled in late, sticking to the shadows in an effort to avoid the scathing comment that was sure to come upon her discovery. Family meetings were always painfully dull. It had been the marked absence of her siblings that coaxed Catra out, rather than the promise of some stupid team meeting. Her lateness earned a few disapproving looks before everyone began to filter back into their own rooms and life resumed in whatever semblance of ‘normalcy’ it could.

-

The sound of multiple struggles echoed throughout the dusty building as each member of the Academy battled to follow the instructions they had been detailed; Infiltrate the Westside building, retrieve the stolen tech before it is used.

Catra found herself wishing she’d bothered to ask what exactly it was that they were doing. It didn’t matter much. Everyone else was always so driven to catch the bad guy or grab the required items from missions that Catra found herself never really needing to try or employ much of her abilities at all. But this time, she was head-to-head with Adora as they stormed the halls in search of…well, in search of something, presumably. Catra simply hadn’t cared about it until now. A smirk toyed at the corners of Catra’s lips as she kept up with Adora shoulder-to-shoulder. She’d have run ahead without hesitation had she known what they were searching for. It was a game- one that was only fun because of how seriously Adora seemed to take it all. It’d be worth all the effort when they reached what they were looking for only for Adora to see it snatched up by her fellow cadet.

In sight a couple of their targets were flushed from neighbouring rooms. One man clutched a briefcase to his chest as he ran.

It didn’t take a genius to figure it was important.

In a burst of speed, Catra tore ahead, shoving and clawing past those fleeing in suits to reach the man at the head of the retreat. It wasn’t a victory if the people they’d come after got away. With a snarl, Catra sprang, only to be greeted by a pulse of light. From over the threshold of a room that would have had him neatly cornered, the man snagged the latch of the case. A blinding light filled the room, pulling the man into it along with the few individuals in suits that had managed to get close enough to join him.

The energy was enough to drive Catra away, scrambling back into the hallway with her eyes widening in alarm towards Adora. Suddenly the case didn’t seem worth the risk of stealing anymore.

“Adora stop!” Catra called out, cringing away from the final dying light before the portal closed mid-air. There was no way of knowing what was on the other side or if it was a trap, let alone the struggle of working out how to get back if they’d have been pulled through.

Bristling, Catra padded further from the room, flicking a brief but somewhat deferential look to Adora.

“What was that?”

A thundering of hooves drowned out all other sound. Catra could feel the breath raking through her throat, falling in stunted gasps as her own steed charged as though the fear of every god had been struck into it. A cruel plot to frame the visiting Empress had been all it took for the niceties to dissolve. A poisoning, to which she had no part in, placed the blame on the Southern Express. It had been a Southern poison, no less. And now, as the plan so neatly sowed itself together, Emperor Prime settled into the comfortable throne of ally to the fallen party, declaring war on the South. Crying out for the blood of their vicious empress to soak the ground.

And what better place to attack her than his own kingdom? Her entourage was no match for the home armies of the city’s soldiers. There was no fighting such an accusation, not with a man who had such a frightening grasp over manipulating the thoughts of his people. One speech had been all it took for the city’s people to fall for the lie, spitting horror and venom towards the ruler they had welcomed to their lands so many times before. The people were always in search of blood, following whichever target their leader decided to point his finger at.

As humiliating as the spectacle was, running was the only option. Survival fast outweighed any semblance of pride she could keep in the wake of things crumbling so swiftly. The entire invitation to Prime’s sanctum had been little more than a trap, and the edges were slowly closing in.

She’d left so quickly, able only to snatch up her horse. A couple of servants and an advisor had attempted to follow but were soon struck down off their steeds. Catra swallowed thickly, trying to blot out the memory of their blood spilling from their dying bodies.

She was alone.

One horse could not outrun an army.

One woman could not fight an army.

Even if by some stroke of luck she returned to her own kingdom alive, the war would be led straight to them, with no word prior to come to arms to prepare. It was a fight they were doomed to lose, and Prime had planned it as such.

From ahead, a white horse stole across her path, blocking any continuation at speed. With a screech, Catra’s dark steed reared as it came to an abrupt halt, snorting and huffing heavily. The blood in Catra’s veins turned to ice at the face of the pursuer.

“Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to.”

A bittersweet chuff came from the Empress as she battled to act through her fear. From behind them the clamouring rumble of many charging horses could be heard. There wasn’t time.

“I could say the same.” Catra called back as her horse arched around the other, throwing its head impatiently.

“Go on then, Champion.” Cat-like eyes fixed the gladiator in a bold dare as she closed the distance between them.

The space pulsed in a thrumming echo of the turmoil tearing through Catra’s mind. The entire room encompassed the feeling of descending a staircase and missing the final step. Nowhere was home anymore. The Commission wasn’t quite as it had seemed at first, and with The Handler’s true colours beginning to show, the pressure had piled on tenfold.

Adora felt like a distant memory. The kinship they shared was damaged by the conflicting orders from each side and the need to strike favour. It boiled down to survival, except each side thought they knew how best to go about it. But a band of siblings was no match for one that had chosen to go alone.

Perhaps it was a gross miscalculation, but the longer Catra dwelled on it, the more it felt like The Handler had orchestrated the scenario to force a response from her project child. And so, Catra had withdrawn in the room that once harboured memories of a bizarre childhood. A room that now was far more reinforced that it looked from the inside. Those that opened the door would see a figure of their sister Catra sat on the bed, smirking as though no raw wound had been struck up by such a betrayal. Those familiar with her aptitude towards fabrication saw the tell-tale faults in the illusion. The glassy stare of the eyes, the wavering of details as the crying girl in the far corner of the room failed to grant the image the proper attention it needed for all degrees of accuracy.

Adora always saw past it.

“Do you really think bindings and bars will keep you safe?”

Anyone else would have made the words sound like a threat. But Adora could read the shifts before her. She knew what every sign of fear and stress meant even if the cause had never been fully divulged.

“I don’t think Dad put me here because he wants me to be ‘safe’.” Bitterness seeped through Catra’s words from behind the wavering illusion.

 The dim light offered the perfect cover.

Noiselessly, Catra leapt from beam to beam in the high-roofed building. Cat-like eyes caught the light in a ghostly sheen as she watched the familiar figures below.

Glimmer was there, flitting around like a fly hurling itself at a window pane. Bow was never too far behind her. Lonnie was nearby, barking out her orders. Approaching the group was the second wave with Kyle, Scorpia and Rogelio at the rear. Catra’s ear twitched with disinterest. The rest of the Academy was here, just at another point of the building. It was a sweep of the premises, just like she’d done alongside them countless times before. Except this time, they were going through the motions without her. Catra found herself wondering absently if they were present for the same reason that The Commission had sent her, or if they had even been given half as much information to work with.

Unperturbed, Catra elected to follow the single set of footsteps taking off to a different part of the building. Adora was always the one to run off alone. Smirking, Catra followed suit.

It had been at least a month since she’d left The Academy. Catra wanted nothing more than to share her successes with Adora. She’d wanted to talk about all of the things she’d been allowed to do, the places she’d seen, the unbelievable feats of magic that had happened before her eyes. It was only after dwelling on the thought that she felt certain the news would only be met with scepticism from Adora. Being the Academy’s favourite was sure to warp her perception of what was considered a victory to someone else.

Regardless of the faint sense of apprehension in her gut, Catra couldn’t help but feel a swell of happiness as Adora’s familiar face slipped into view. Neatly, Catra jumped down from her vantage point to land a short distance away.

“Hey Adora.” A sing-song lilt betrayed the warmth behind Catra’s greeting.

Even stood facing one another for the first time from opposing sides, Catra struggled to see Adora as anything remotely like a threat. It was hard to contain the wolfish grin that toyed along her lips as she stood, blocking Adora’s path in a gesture that demanded her attention.

“Found what you’re looking for yet?” The words wound about the pair of them, goading for a reaction as Catra padded over with little regard for maintaining much space between them. Only once the distance between them had withered down to something infinitesimal did Catra lean close to hum softly at Adora’s ear.

“Need some help?”

I sometimes wish book fandoms got big like tv/movie fandom do, but on the other hand it's kinda nice to have a small community. Everyone I've met who read GIX has been super sweet.